When we attempt to be made righteous before God by following laws, we lose our grip on grace, and Christ is of no benefit to us. Galatians 5:4
When we attempt to be made righteous before God by following laws, we lose our grip on grace, and Christ is of no benefit to us.
Galatians 5:4
Grace and Faith Awakening
In February 1974, David and Cathy Hildebrand met at age 19 while attending a church in Chico, California. As they worked together in ministry, they became good friends and later married in December 1975.
Both of them believed they were called to minister to the body of Christ and began to prepare to be licensed and then ordained. David graduated from Pleasant Valley School of the Ministry in Chico, California, and Cathy took coursework through Berean School of the Bible. They both became licensed ministers and were later ordained.
During this time, they became parents to three children and served together as Sunday School teachers, choir members, college pastors, managers of a Christian coffee house outreach, youth pastors, and eventually became home mission pastors.
In 1987, when their mission ended, and employment as full-time ministers was unavailable, they began to develop secular careers—David in business and Cathy as a bilingual teacher.
In 1987-88, something unexpected happened. For years, Cathy had been praying about how miserable she was as a Christian. She perceived a distance between herself and God. She felt as if He didn't love her. While admitting it had to be her fault, she felt powerless to "fix" it. Theologically, she knew what she was feeling wasn't true, but she daily felt an estrangement from God.
She asked God to help her find her way back to the relationship she had with Him previously. God would answer this prayer in a surprising way.
When changing to a secular career for which she was ill-prepared, she found herself needing to dedicate multiple hours of preparing to teach each day. She was required to attend the university three afternoons a week, resulting in more time plus homework. This was on top of being a mom to three school age children. This left her with no time to do her normal spiritual disciplines or serve in the local church.
So, she asked God for what she thought would be a temporary reprieve from her list of spiritual disciplines. To her amazement, this is when she began to once again enjoy His presence and be intensely aware of His love for her. Misery ceased. It was a wonderful yet troubling discovery, because she hadn't done anything to merit this glorious change in their relationship except believe that God would grant her request for temporary grace. It forced her to realize she had taken some wrong turns in her Christian beliefs, especially concerning prayer. (For her detailed testimony, see the "Do You Know How" video series, Lesson 7 “Twice Fallen from Grace.”)
During that time, David was going through a similar experience. His knowledge of God's love for Him was nearly extinguished, and he felt a constant sense of God's disapproval of him. But about a year after Cathy began to understand God's grace, David experienced a similar awakening. Feeling himself to be a failure for not having been “successful” in ministry, he wanted to give up—not on Jesus, but just on “being a Christian.”
Through the ministry of the Christian radio program, "People to People," by Bob George and his book Classic Christianity: Life’s Too Short to Miss the Real Thing, David began to hear once again the message of the good news of God’s love for him, apart from works.
At first the message seemed so simple that he could barely understand it. How could it be possible that being a Christian was as "easy" as simply believing in Jesus? What about all the spiritual disciplines he was taught he had to perform? As the weeks went by, David suddenly "saw" it, and the joy of his salvation returned. (For a more detailed account of David’s testimony, see the video series "So, Now What Do I Do?", Lesson One: “Reorientation.”)
At this time, Cathy and David both let their ordinations lapse because they could not find full-time employment as ministers. Life went on. They continued to raise their children while developing their careers. During that time, God gloriously continued to correct their theology as they began to relearn just about everything they thought they knew about being Christians. It was as if God was delicately doing surgery and removing false teaching from their lives. Every time an incorrect teaching was removed, the joy of the Lord was restored in that area. Just to be clear, they did not change their core foundational beliefs about God, but rather their understanding of how to live their lives as believers in Jesus Christ.
In 2007, the pastor of the church they were attending asked them to start a Bible school in the church, which they did. To their surprise, as they began to teach the truths God had shared with them over the years, many of the students had similar awakenings—a return to understanding how deeply they were loved and a renewed enthusiasm toward serving Him.
In 2009, the Lord spoke to Cathy asking, “Are you willing to preach the gospel to the saved?” She instantly understood what He meant and said, “Yes, Lord. I am willing.” David was in agreement with this calling on their lives. They resigned their positions with their church and sought the Lord as to what to do next.
In 2009, they established Grace and Faith Ministries and have been teaching believers about God’s amazing grace using multiple teachings called “Studies in Grace and Faith,” (also known as SGF). Those who listen have also come to realize God’s love for them and are returning to the joy of their salvation.
Unless otherwise noted, all of the teachings and creative media on this website is developed and maintained by the Hildebrands. Except for published books, all teachings are available free on this website.
May you be richly blessed and have your own grace and faith awakening. May you return to your first love, that of knowing how deeply your God loves you.
Grace and peace to you!
