#29 The Fastest One-Legged Runner, From a addict to an ordained minister-Part 2

When Julie Seals stepped into the courtroom, shackled and facing life imprisonment, she experienced a moment of surrender unto God that would redefine her entire existence. This episode journeys with Julie as she shares the presence of Jesus during her darkest hour, setting her soul free despite the physical bars around her. Our conversation doesn't just recount the miraculous reduction of her sentence, but it beats with the promise of hope she clung to, a hope that would eventually lead her to touch the lives of many from behind and beyond her former prison walls.

As we wrap up this transformative episode,  from inmate to international speaker and author of "All My Hope: A Prisoner No More" stands as a beacon to those still navigating their darkest times. We extend an invitation to our listeners to connect and share their own narratives of hardship and healing, reinforcing our belief in the strength found in collective testimonies.

You can connect with Julie at  Home - Julie Seals,  Julie Seals Ministries, you can purchase her book, "All my Hope, a prisoner No More. through her website New Book - Julie Seals or through Amazon as well. You can also give to the ministry Give - Julie Seals  and even purchase a book for a prisoner.  She is also on Facebook-, and Instagram @julie_seals

Music by:
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/ben-johnson/the-closer-we-feel
License code: 8UZEEOLKPDIOU0MX

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:07

Have you ever found yourself running? Running mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially and even running physically from things in this life. This is no More Running. The podcast for women. Hello, I'm your host, Crystal Lloyd, and I've been known to run and still find myself running from the things in this life. Running from God, His calling, His purpose for my life. Running from change that's within my control, that needs to be made, or any type of change. Running from hard or even good or even just simple little things in this life. And God said to me Crystal, if you will stop running and surrender, there are things that we can accomplish together. Maybe you find yourself running as I have. I want you to know that you're not alone. Let's go from running to no More Running together. Let's get started with prayer, Holy Spirit, we invite you to be a part of the podcast, the lessons, the life coaching and the sharing of our stories. Let it be known today that you are God. God, help us to go from running in this life, from whatever it may be that we're running from, from running to no More Running. In Jesus' name, Welcome runners.

Speaker 2: 1:35

This is part two of Julie Seals, the author of All my Hope A Prisoner no More Podcast part two of her story. Make sure to go back and listen to part one of Julie's story, because you don't want to miss not one second, not one minute of her story. It is life changing. So make sure to run back and listen to part one and then make sure to come back and listen to part two. Okay, Julie, so you're here, You're sitting in the jail cell. You have just now, you know God, you know everything before the Lord, and you said Lord, you know, I give you my heart, I give you my life, I need you as my savior. Now what?

Speaker 1: 2:40

Now, as I was praying at my prison bunk, I felt a physical weight. I felt something physically break off of my chest and I felt free, like my. I had tears that were just pouring out of my eyes like a hose and I felt this freedom and love and the presence of Jesus and I had never felt anything like that before in my life and all of a sudden Crystal. In that moment it didn't matter to me one bit that I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison because I had been arraigned at 17 years to life in the courtroom shortly after my arrest.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Wow.

Speaker 1: 3:26

So I'm in there, I'm doing life in prison and in that moment, after I gave my life to Jesus and he broke darkness off and forgave me, I literally didn't even care that I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison because for the very first time, I was free on the inside and I knew it.

Speaker 2: 3:51

A prisoner no more.

Speaker 1: 3:54

Yes.

Speaker 2: 3:55

I mean that can mean so many things. And we find ourselves I mean we may not be in jail, we may not be in prison, like Julie, you know, but we could still be a prisoner and a runner and a prisoner at the same time. And so here you are, you've experienced the freedom of being a prisoner. No more Continued, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 4:22

Yeah, no, that's okay. I know you were talking. It made me think even in prison I could have continued to run from God. Yes, so many people do.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Yes, yes, but even as a Christian, we can still run from God. And as a pastor's wife, because I did it, I did it, I was guilty. I mean I was, you know, being a Christian for a while and still found myself running, so yeah, yes. So true.

Speaker 1: 4:55

I have something to say to that, but we'll get there, Okay, Anyway. So, yes, the surrender of new life, new spirit, and the running stopped and I surrendered to God and by the time I got in front of a judge for my final sentencing day, he looked at me and he said Julie, I see something different in you, and what he saw was Jesus. And he said I'm going to give you a chance. And he was known as the toughest judge in San Diego and the.

Speaker 1: 5:36

US Marshals who escorted me into the courtroom for my final sentencing told me that they're like, you're done. You're never getting out. That judge ended up sentencing me to 30 months in federal prison and I only had to serve 22, because you get good time and you know if you're good in prison, yes, yeah cut down a little bit, and so I thought of what God told me at the border. Two years I ended up, crystal, walking out of federal prison two months short of two years Wow.

Speaker 2: 6:18

Oh my gosh, wow, that is awesome. That is great. That is a miracle in itself. Right there it is.

Speaker 1: 6:27

It is a miracle, and I think you know what I had told God that if he let me out of prison, I would spend the rest of my life going back in and telling people that society has cast off as worthless, hopeless, purposeless traps that Jesus Christ died for them and loves them and will make them a new person, give them a new life. Amen and yeah. So when I was in prison, before I got out, the very first miracle that God did is he healed my foot. I had this gaping hole, remember this big infected ulcer, and even the prison doctors said that my leg was going to be amputated. In the prison they said they were going to have to send me out for amputation. But I was reading my Bible with a new mind and unveiled mind and I read in Isaiah where it says that by Jesus stripes we were healed. And so I prayed with these other inmates and they laid their hands on my foot and God healed that ulcer and I still have my foot today 23.

Speaker 2: 7:37

And he also not to reveal too much about the book, but as I was reading the book, he also placed somebody in that room, in the same room that you were to help heal your foot. I want you to go into that and tell our runners about that, because I was just like wow at the time that you were placed in there and the time that she was placed in there. God placed both of you at the same time for not just spiritual healing, but also your physical healing as well.

Speaker 1: 8:11

Yes, so I was. I had a woman across on a bunk bed across from mine and she was in there and she was a physical therapist who had wound care training, which is really crazy when I think about it, because physical therapists, to the best of my knowledge, don't aren't trained in wound care.

Speaker 2: 8:36

So they're not usually in jail either, you know. I mean well, yeah, so they were.

Speaker 1: 8:43

You know well they can be. Yeah, true, yeah, she and her husband were in there for big time cocaine trafficking and so she was trained in wound care and she was the sweetest lady. She saw the the whole and she realized callus was building up around the outside of that big, gaping ulcer so it was preventing it from being able to close. Well, she looked at that and she said I can turn that callus off. And she took a razor, because in prison you get razors if you're a woman to shave your legs. I don't know if you do still, but then you did.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Okay, I broke this razor and pulled the blade out, but for a good purpose, not a bad purpose. Right, exactly, yes. And with expert medical ability she took that razor blade and she carefully shaved off the thick callus ridge that had grown, that was forming around the perimeter of the hole, and she did it every day because it grew back really fast, and every day she would trim the callus around, and every day I would watch that ulcer get smaller and smaller. She would do that, the physical thing. And then a group of us ladies who were doing a Bible study together, who had all given our life to Jesus and we just were all together in the same pod, you know, not by accident.

Speaker 2: 10:29

Right, exactly.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Lay their hands on my foot not on the hole and pray that God would heal me. So God was combining the practical medical treatment with the spiritual faith. And that also healed up and new skin grew over it and I told God that when he healed me I would go show the prison doctor and tell him that Jesus did it. So I got that opportunity.

Speaker 2: 11:07

I just love it. I love it, julie. It's like wait a minute, you know. But God, but God, yes, and I love it that God, when we give our life to God, he doesn't just heal us spiritually, he heals us physically if we need that. He heals us emotionally. I mean, just all of the healing comes. And I know that in my life the healing has just come in the last few years because, you know, I was putting a stop to my healing, but, oh how, god is just there and he's waiting and he. You know that first step is just the step, that of surrendering of our hearts. And then God says, okay, well, I need you to have that foot because I've got places for you to be running, new places that you need to be running and going. So I love it, julie, I'm so excited.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Oh, me too. So that was the first of many miracles that that God has done in my life. And I will say that right before I got out of prison, I had been talking to my mom on the phone and she was like you know, you can come live with me. Because I told her I'd never gone to college or gotten a degree and I'd always been a drug addict. And I said, mom, I'm going to go to college and you know, and and and I'm going to become the daughter that you always hoped I would become. And so she said okay, julie, you can live with me. And she started buying me clothes and she would send me, like a Christmas card or a birthday card while I was in prison, and inside the card she were cut up pictures of outfits that she bought me. And she would, I would call her on the prison phone and she would say, julie, these clothes are hanging in your closet, in your bedroom, in my apartment, and I can't wait for you to get out so I can watch you go to college and, you know, become the woman that me and your dad always knew you could become.

Speaker 1: 13:18

And I was so happy and I knew my mom was had forgiven me and I had gotten to tell her how sorry I was for all the years of lying and stealing and hurting her and my dad and I was called to the chaplain's office in the prison a couple months before I got out and I was told that my mom, who was anxiously awaiting my release, had just died in her sleep.

Speaker 1: 13:49

And I remember, as though it were yesterday, screaming no, and. And I just crumpled to the ground when the chaplain told me and it was like my worst nightmare, because I had asked God to keep my mom alive so that I could get out and be with her, and and then I asked him to reunite me with my son again. And you know, crystal, when things happen after we give our life to Jesus, and things happen that seem like the rug is getting pulled out from under us, it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to prove our faith is genuine. It's an opportunity to show you know what, god, this isn't the way I thought it would go, this isn't the way I prayed it would go, but I'm gonna trust you. I'm not gonna run from you. I'm not gonna give up and say you know, this whole Jesus thing doesn't work Right. I'm gonna continue on the path Right.

Speaker 2: 14:58

We have that choice every day or in every situation that you know, when something hard comes and I am the worst, you know, when something hard comes, I want to protect myself and I feel like God, you did this to me. You know why did you do this to me? And then we have a choice to make. What are you gonna do? You're gonna run away.

Speaker 2: 15:23

Fuck, you've always done like I've always done. You know, that's what I'm good at, that's what I've known, you know and, and you as well, I mean, we all have that choice to, to make each and every day or each and every situation that comes in our life, julie. And so what? What choice did you make? Let's talk about that.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Yeah. So I remember the night that my mom died. I was, I'm in my, in my room, I was in doing a drug program in prison and I was in a room with like four other ladies and they didn't know what to say to me. They weren't talking to me and I was crying and I remember getting down on my knees that evening and saying God, what am I gonna do now? And as clear as a bell, that same voice that said two years jewelry at the border, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I.

Speaker 2: 16:39

I.

Speaker 1: 16:40

I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 2: 16:50

I.

Speaker 1: 16:53

I, I, I, I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 2: 17:09

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 1: 17:40

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 2: 18:58

I I.

Speaker 1: 19:03

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 2: 19:39

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 1: 21:45

I I.

Speaker 2: 21:49

I I.

Speaker 1: 21:52

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 2: 22:10

I.

Speaker 1: 22:12

I, I, I, I, I I.

Speaker 2: 22:24

I.

Speaker 1: 22:26

I, I I.

Speaker 2: 22:33

I.

Speaker 1: 22:35

I I.

Speaker 2: 22:37

I, I I.

Speaker 1: 22:37

I, I, I. But I told him everything and he just looked at me and he was a fairly new believer. Also, he had recently given his life to Jesus, after his first wife of 20 years died of breast cancer. My husband is a retired Navy senior chief and he was a runner. He gave his life to Jesus when he was 17 and then joined the Navy a backslip and ran from God.

Speaker 2: 23:06

Wow.

Speaker 1: 23:08

I brought him back home.

Speaker 2: 23:09

And don't you love it when God puts two runners together? You know, I just love it.

Speaker 1: 23:15

And now we are loving for Jesus together. Yes, right.

Speaker 1: 23:18

Because, yeah, when we got married he looked at me and he goes, Julie, there has to be more to living for God than just going to church. And I said, there is. I make God a promise that I will go back into prison. So from the time me and my husband got married, we have been going into prison and doing ministry together, and now my husband's a Florida Department of Corrections chaplain. That's awesome. He spends prison and so, yeah, and God has just done so much. He ended up restoring my relationship with my sisters.

Speaker 2: 23:56

Wow.

Speaker 1: 23:57

And he ended up bringing my son, my little baby Tyler, back to my life. We found one another on social media. I actually found him first and the Holy Spirit told me do not reach out to him. Oh, wow, yeah, I got a Facebook page for the only purpose of my son being able to find me, and you got to get the book for the details. But anyway, we did find each other on social media and God reunited us. When my son was 20 years old, he flew to Florida. My husband and I were living in Florida. My son flew to Florida and got off a plane and came running to me with arms wide open, full forgiveness, full restoration. He's been in my life for 10 years and I got to walk him down the aisle at his wedding.

Speaker 2: 24:59

Our God is so good.

Speaker 1: 25:01

Yes, he is good. He is so good and when we trust him. In the years of waiting for the promise to come to fruition, I prayed for 16 years that God would bring my son back. And I'll be honest with you, crystal. So many times After year, after year, after year, it wasn't happening and I wanted to give up. I'm not going to tell you, oh, my faith was so perfect. I just. There were times I looked at my husband and I'm like God's not going to do it, I may as well just give up. And my husband would look at me and say don't you dare give up. You press in. God would send complete strangers to me to say God told me, to tell you not to give up. You're going to see your son again.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Wow, that is awesome. And how he restored I mean just not your life, but your relationship with your son. Yes, and moved to tears. Just thank you, yes.

Speaker 1: 26:06

And there's a scripture, jeremiah 31, 17. And God showed it to me when I was in prison, right after I gave my life to him. I remember saying God, what about Tyler? And I was crying at my prison bunk and he told me to open my Bible and I flipped it open and my eyes fell on Jeremiah, chapter 31. And verse 17 says there is hope for your future. Declare the Lord, your children will come again to their own land. And of course it's talking about Israel and all that. But it was also a rainbow living word for me. And God told me pray this over your situation. Julie and I've been praying that scripture for years and it came to pass. Wow, it came to pass.

Speaker 2: 26:56

Wow.

Speaker 1: 26:57

And along the way my husband and I became ordained ministers, I got a second college degree. When I got my second college degree I carried, because I had promised my mom I would get a bachelor's. And my first degree in San Diego was an associate's degree. So I wasn't done, but in Florida.

Speaker 2: 27:22

I love that. I wasn't done. I wasn't done Right.

Speaker 1: 27:26

When we moved to Florida 13 years ago, I went to the University of North Florida and when I crossed that stage, that platform, and got my bachelor's degree, I carried with me a little tiny picture of me and my mom, the last picture ever taken of us together when she was alive. And I carried that with me Because I was like that was the day I was keeping my promise to my mom and it was so precious and I dedicated my bachelor's degree to my mom.

Speaker 2: 28:01

That is awesome. Yeah, god is so good, our God is so good, oh, julie, and now I mean, and now you have Julie Seales Ministries and an evangelist and going back into prisons and just sharing your story. Oh, my goodness, julie, that is just. God is so good and I'm sorry, I'm just a mess over here.

Speaker 2: 28:33

I love every bit of your story and it just shows how much our God loves us. Yes, yes, he loves us, just to restore us spiritually and to restore our relationships, just to heal us from the inside, from starting with the inside out. Just love it, I love it, but I know that our time is coming to an end and I don't want to keep you, you know too too long, but you know so. You get your bachelor's degree, you have started your ministry, yes, and then I mean you're speaking around the world. I mean I'm ready for you to come to Tennessee. So, yes, that's right, we need to pray that, don't we? We need to land her in.

Speaker 2: 29:26

Tennessee somehow Another. So we can you know we talk about. We didn't really talk about it. I guess how we came together was Pam Fields, the mom next door. She has the podcast the Mom's Next Door Stories Stories of Faith. And the first time that we got together she came here in my area and we met at Cracker Barrel and we stayed hours at Cracker Barrel just talking and so hopefully God will bring you this way or bring me to Florida. No, you know, that's a better idea. Bring me to Florida, where it's warm. I like the warm weather, I want the warm weather. I'm over here, I'm freezing.

Speaker 1: 30:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:09

And so, yeah, I like that idea, and we'll find a Cracker Barrel.

Speaker 1: 30:14

Yes, yes, there is a Cracker Barrel like two miles from my house.

Speaker 2: 30:18

No, free advertisement there, cracker Barrel you know just for you, sure.

Speaker 1: 30:23

They should give us some Cracker Barrel boutique items for that.

Speaker 2: 30:26

Yeah buy exactly? I'll advertise for you, come on, but I want our guests to go and get your book, julie Seales, all my Hope A Prisoner no More. Please do not just stop what you're doing after you listen to this podcast and you like and you share and all that gets stuff, because this has to be shared and pick up her book, and you can pick that up, you can get it on her website and you can get that on Amazon as well. And I mean I have had this read in like a few days. It takes me forever to read. I'm not like my husband. He could just read so fast and all. And I have had this read within a few days and I'm ready to hand it over to my husband. But I'm still like there's so many good things in here and I mean I have underlined oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2: 31:24

Yes, I'm like this is so good, so you got to go get her book Again All my Hope, a Prisoner no More, by Julie Seales, and then, if you need her as your speaker, your keynote speaker, and so, with your women, with your youth, I mean, oh my goodness, this is so powerful, your story is so powerful. And then, yeah, so I want you to tell us truly, and tell all the runners out there that's listening. You know where they can find you again, what is your website, what is your email address, so that they want to reach out to you and hear more of your story or even have you on your you know you on their podcast.

Speaker 1: 32:12

Tell me so. My website is JulieSealescom, my name and my namecom, and you can connect with me on my website. My email is JulieSealesministriescom and on Facebook there is a Facebook page I have called. It's JulieSeales Ministries. I'm not that creative. All the names I thought of for the ministry, they were taken already and I'm like, well, nobody took my name.

Speaker 2: 32:45

So, anyway.

Speaker 1: 32:47

Yeah, and then on Instagram it's Julie underscore SEALS, so you can connect with me any of those ways, and I just recently launched a ministry because God gave me an assignment to get my book into every state prison, federal prison, county jail and team challenge addiction recovery center and juvenile facility in the nation and then around the world, and so far I have my book is in, I think, five different states in the United States so far just was published in October of 23. And it's in a Uganda prison and a prison in Ecuador, and so if there are churches out there with prison ministries I've got, this book is a great resource that you can get and take in. Just connect with me, reach out to me on any platform and I would love to partner with you and I'll come and share my story. Whatever you want, I'm here to partner with you.

Speaker 2: 33:55

Wow, I need to reach out to some people and I need to figure out how we can get that in my hometown of Newport. And also, you know, you just pray about this, because maybe I could reach out to someone here in severe of Tennessee and you know, say, hey, how can we get this in in the jails right here, right now, you know. So, yeah, we need to pray about that, Open that door, that opportunity, so we can get Julie's book, All my Hope A Prisoner no More out there, even more out there than it already is. So, Julie, we thank you so much. Thank you for sharing, you know, your hard story with us, your running story. What a blessing, what a friendship that you know we just connected and we just became, instantly became friends, and so I love it when the Holy Spirit brings you know people in your life and you connect through the Holy Spirit. It's such a beautiful thing and I hope we don't lose such. I hope that we continue just to reach out and anything that I could do for you.

Speaker 2: 35:14

Anytime you just let me know, because I'm here and I will share as many running stories as you would like, so not just the running stories, you know that's not why I really do this, you know, just for the running stories, the hard stories. I do it because of the transformation that Jesus has has done in my life, in your life, in others' lives. So you know, if you have a hard story listeners, runners and you want to connect with me and share your story, you can reach me at info at crystalloycom. So reach out. And then if I need to bridge that gap between you and Julie as well, reach out to me because I will be that bridge, I will be glad to be that bridge that connects you to Julie Seals. So, Julie, one last thing before we go, I want you to share the one thing that you want the runners to know about your story, about today's podcast.

Speaker 1: 36:20

I would say. The one thing that I want runners to know is that every day presents a new opportunity to run or to surrender, and there's a scripture in the Word of God where Jesus says that when we try to hang on to our life, we will lose it, but if we will give up our life for his sake, we will find it. I took my hands off my own life. That is when I found life, and it's not a one-time choice or a one-time decision. It's a daily decision and even as someone who's lived for God for 23 years now, every morning I have a choice to do life my way or surrender it to Jesus. And I just want to say that if you will surrender to God, he will do what Ephesians 3 and 20 says he will do, exceeding abundantly, above and beyond everything that you could think, that you could imagine or even dream up on your own yes, according to his spirit that is at work within you, and if you've never surrendered to Jesus, he's calling you.

Speaker 1: 37:39

That's why you're listening to this podcast. He's calling you, and let today be the day that you give him your life and you stop running, because he's got something special just for you.

Speaker 2: 37:53

Amen, amen. Thank you, julie, for just I mean I just feel like even today that just healing is even coming in my life, just from our connection, from the podcast, listening to your story, reading your story, and so I just thank you, thank you for being obedient to, and I thank God that he put a stop to your running. You know, for me, for my healing, for so many women and their healing I don't know if I can keep it together not just other women, not just me, not just the runners that are listening, but for Tyler as well in his healing and your relationship with Tyler as well. And I mean I love it, I just I love it and I pray many blessings on your relationship with your, with Tyler, and and, and, and you know the relationships that you form with the women in prison, and just healing and just blessings and and your ministry. You know God will just continue to use you and your ministry to reach women, men, you know, wherever.

Speaker 1: 39:20

Yes.

Speaker 2: 39:21

Over the place. Julie, Would you care to lead us in a word of prayer before we go?

Speaker 1: 39:29

I would be honored. I would be honored, god, I thank you so, so much. I thank you for Crystal and her obedience and her yes to you to step out in faith and do this amazing podcast no more running. And, god, I pray for every listener, everyone listening. I pray, god, that you would orchestrate situations and people to come into their life and into their path and into their journey, and that, as they surrender to you, god, that that you would provide resources that they need to take them from the situation they're in to a place of thriving and healing. And, god, I pray that you would impart courage to listeners who feel fear. I pray right now courage over them in the name of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 40:25

God for people who are listening, who feel like they are underneath their circumstances and they just feel overwhelmed. God, I pray that faith would rise up on the inside of them and that they would suddenly see that you are greater than every single thing that they face. God, I pray for physical healing, spiritual healing, mental health healing and deliverance in Jesus name, and relational healing. God, for listeners who are maybe separated from people that they love family members. God, I pray that even now, you would restore the years that the locusts have eaten and that you would knit relationships and lives and families back together again. God, we love you and we give you all the glory and all the praise for what you're doing Even now. And, god, I thank you right now because I am convinced and know that I'm going to get to hear testimonies of your goodness that came as a result of people listening, putting their faith in you and seeing you move in the miraculous. So I thank you for those testimonies coming even now, in Jesus name, amen.

Speaker 2: 41:46

Hey, don't forget, you can sign up for the no More Running email list at info at CrystalLoycom and make sure to like, share and follow. We would love for you to leave a review for the podcast. This helps us reach even more women who might find themselves running as well. God Run.