By Michaela Gordoni
Chynna Phillips, singer and wife of William “Billy” Baldwin, shared her powerful testimony on the “Jesus Calling” podcast.
“I was introduced to prayer at a young age, but I never prayed myself. I feel like so many people are just astounded to hear that actually what I was surrounded by was watching people rolling joints and pouring martinis and parties going on,” the 57-year-old explained. “I was introduced to things that I never should have been introduced to.”
Her parents were separated, and she rarely saw her father, who was a severe drug abuser. On one occasion when she did see him, she saw blood, needles and her father go into cardiac arrest.
“I saw things that really were so impossible for a 7-year-old to process. I had to compartmentalize everything that I experienced as a child, and for that reason, I kind of felt like maybe I was crazy because I had so many different personalities,” she shared. “I had to be sort of a chameleon for whatever situation I was subjected to.”
Phillips had very little sense of her identity because of all that she was exposed to, including repeat sexual abuse.
She developed a relationship with Jesus when she was 12, thanks to some girls at her Baptist school. But a few years later, she went down a destructive path.
“I had a faith crisis,” Phillips admitted. “For the longest time, I didn’t believe that God loved me. I just didn’t believe it.”
“I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but I think it had to do with unanswered prayer because I wasn’t praying,” she said. “Then, once I started to pray and I started seeing all of this abundance of answered prayer pouring out onto my life, that validated for me that I am loved by God because He’s listening to me.”
She started praying relentlessly and started seeing miracles in her life.
“I knew it was God and it was so transformative for me because then I knew, Oh my goodness. God isn’t just God, He’s also listening and He’s a great physician and He is a wonderful counselor and He the Prince of Peace. I just thought to myself, Oh my goodness, I was missing out on such a huge part of what it means to be a Christian, and it changed my Christian life exponentially,” Phillips said.
Now, Phillips shares her faith publicly on her YouTube channel, California Healin’.
“One thing I’ve always known is that when people have the courage to be transparent with me and talk to me about what’s really going on in their lives, not only does it bless them because they get to confess with somebody and talk with somebody, but it blesses me because I know they trust me and I know that they are opening up to me and being vulnerable with me,” she said. “And I thought, Well, if that’s a recipe for helping people feel closer to one another, I think that might help people feel closer to God, it might help people to feel closer to Jesus.”
Though Phillips is passionate about her faith, her husband, Billy, is not a believer.
“JESUS IS MY WHOLE LIFE NOW,” she wrote in Gospel in Life previously. “Although my husband Billy has not yet surrendered his life to the Lord, I do believe he’s on his way. That just has to be enough for me right now.”
“Every single day, I wake up and ask God to help me navigate my marriage,” she previously told Kathie Lee Gifford. “Because it’s not a walk in the park. I have great days with Billy where we laugh and we’re best friends; we’re truly connected.”
“No one makes me laugh like him; nobody’s taught me more than him… I know he still gets excited when he sees me singing and writing songs; he happens to think I’m very unique and special,” she shared. “So there’s lots of wonderful things about our marriage, but we don’t stroll through our marriage. We have to work at it.”
Phillips is a strong woman who is courageous in her faith, constantly choosing hope, prayer, and perseverance as she follows her calling.
Read Next: Chynna Phillips, Billy Baldwin Revisit Where ‘Miracle’ Happened 33 Years Ago
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