It’s Never Too Late: Tiffany Bell on Forgiveness, Hope, and Healing - Revival of Hope 2026

months and know your story and I feel like our souls are just connected and you're my sister and I just love you with all my heart and you are the perfect person to share about the subject it's not over and there is hope in Jesus and so would you share with them a time when you thought it was all over for you? Guys there just came a time in my life where I felt like I was just checking all the boxes you know I grew up in just poverty just flat out hopelessness and the only way to get out of where I was it seemed was to sell drugs and so my dad got involved in that when I was about two years old and I just grew up being known as the dope man's daughter and that was tough everywhere I went there was an expectation I didn't really get to be the soft hearted girl I wanted to be I got to be the identity he chose and some of you may feel like somebody else chose your path and when I was 13 years old I had one of those life-changing moments and many of you have had those the thing about those is you really don't get prepared no one really rings a bell and says hey this is about to get real but at 13 my dad got arrested but I wasn't worried my dad had taught me you throw enough money at something it'll go away and so I knew that's what we were going to do I wasn't worried at all and then come time for sentencing and I still wasn't worried it was his first time down and many of us here today and on tablets we grew up in in the ghetto in poverty and trailer parks where they told us things like first time down don't worry about it so I wasn't worried when that gavel went down in that courtroom they sentenced my father to 150 years I went from doing what I could to get out of the ghetto right everybody wants out okay and I thought well I don't want to sell drugs but I was smart God had blessed me I was smart right and I thought you know you got to use whatever's in your hand and that's what I had so I was offered a scholarship to a pretty prestigious university and I thought to myself this is my way out I had eyes on the prize I was halfway out and my dad gets sentenced and my mom and my sisters start to talk about things and there's a big difference when you don't have the things you want and when you don't have the things you need and I realized my mama was going sometimes without dinner and my sisters were going without clothes and so I passed on that scholarship so I could go to work and I begin to live that but there was an upswing there's always an upswing right I met the first person that ever told me they love me you know my dad was a pastor that had back slid if you want to meet a miserable man let me tell you somebody that has tasted the goodness of God and spit it out of his mouth that is a miserable man I used to call him Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because one drink turned his

whole personality one moment have you ever walked where you felt like you were on eggshells there's a tension in the entire house and so when my dad got sentenced I thought that's okay because here there's this boy told me he loved me and on my 17th birthday I found out I was pregnant by 22 that boy was long gone and it was just me and my little girl and I felt like I had checked every box raised in the ghetto dad in prison you know teenage pregnancy now divorce and I just thought man and then somebody gave me hope some little old gray-haired granny at the church it's some of y'all I know it is but there I actually call them gray-haired gangsters it could be that they're the prayer team at your church but that's what I call them and this woman was not worried about my countenance she didn't care that I was hard and unfeeling and numb now I to give my life to the Lord, and that was 27 years ago. My dad did 18 years of his 150-year service before he passed away, and I got to preach that funeral. And I will tell you that if it weren't for men, warden, that's a southern word. Warden means we're not, warden, yes, Lord, if it were not for men and women who had enough wherewithal, enough Jesus, enough Holy Ghost, can we still say that, that they went into the prison and talked to my dad, I'd have been a 13-year-old girl who'd have never saw her dad again. I would have been that 20-something-year-old lady who would have never had hope of seeing him again. But today I got eternity with him waiting on me, and I'm super, super excited to share that with somebody today. Thank you, Tiffany. I just, that was one of the parts I love the most about your story. However, I want to ask you to go in just a little bit deeper, and one of the parts of your story that touched me the most was right as your dad was in prison, at the end, and what God did for you. Oh, that's precious. So I asked God for something. I could tell by my dad's condition that he was more heaven-ready than earthly bound. And so I asked God for something, have you ever asked God for something, then you forgot

what we asked for? Because it's been so long. We've got to write it down. But I asked God, I said, I've never prayed with my daddy, and that's what I wanted. I wanted that little heart moment to get me through to eternity. But I got to that medical prison to see him for the last time, and I'll be honest with you, nerves got a hold of me, pain was gripping me. I just forgot what I'd asked God to do. And I was sitting down with my dad and his doctor who was gently breaking the news to me or trying to. And I said, Doc, I'm okay. It's all right. God had already told me. And I saw when the Holy Spirit quickened my Father, I'd never seen it before. Oh, I'd seen it on many other people, but I'd never seen it on my own DNA. I never saw it on the place I came from, and that changed me. And my dad said something so powerful, he said, hold on, Doc, I want my baby girl to pray for us. I dropped my knees in that medical facility. And that's in prison. In prison. In prison. I could hear guards crying along with me. I could hear the doctor sniffling. But the only thing I was aware of was the presence of Jehovah God. He had created a moment for me because he loved a little girl to me that still needed that daddy to stand up and do the right thing. And it's never too late to be the right thing and do the right thing. I love that part of your story. And even it reminds me of the thief on the cross, and as long as there's breath in somebody's

lungs, there is hope. There is still hope, and that's just a favorite of mine. And then God did something for you. There was something that you didn't ever think you would have in your life, and that something might be sitting over there. But that part of your story, I know I went there. I'm sorry. But I love that part of your story. Would you share it? I'll share it. So when you go through a divorce very early on, when you watch your dad not put you first, it hurts. And I said something that a lot of people may have said. I said, you know what, God, it's just going to be me and you. I'm a minister to the end, it's just me and you. And then the Lord had me looking at Facebook for something, and the wonderful man of God who's coming up next was looking for people to review his book, and God said, I want you to do that. I said, I want to do that. I'm busy. I don't want to do that. He said, no, I want you to do that. I said, I really don't want to. I got a lot going on. He said, I said, I said, okay, okay, okay. So I did the obligatory three days. Y'all know how we do that delayed obedience, which is just disobedience? I did that. So when I messaged Howard, I said, hey, listen, if you're looking for someone to review your book, I can help.

spoke and it was on Zoom and it was in the presence of 14 other ministers from around the world, missionaries and other countries. This man or God who has such a beautiful relationship with the Holy Spirit, we had never met before. He looked at me and he said, "Hey, have you ever thought that everything you want might come by the way of a husband?" I want y'all to know he has been as unprofessional since that day as he is today. But that man has taught me more about love and patience and loving people and I'll share with those who are single. Now he's inquiring of the Lord. The Lord told me he said, "A husband from God, mind you, from God," not from other applications, "from God, a husband from God will finish the work that a godly father started." Because he'll love you like the father. And so are we there, Julie? I don't see a timer, so we're there, okay? Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents Pia Box 2751 Greenville, North Carolina, 27836. To view Victorious Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge in bulk with or without staples. (upbeat music)