Our most recent guest on the Everyday Faith podcast is Savanna Craig, a wife, mother, and lover of Jesus who is married to Gabe Craig, one of our former podcast guests. Savanna’s stories of her encounters with Jesus and her encounters with the lost will inspire you to share your faith as often as you get the chance!
Guardian Angels & Altar Calls
Growing up, Savanna didn’t know God on any level. As far as faith was concerned, it was grounded in one saying from her mom. Her mom said, “There is God and there are guardian angels.” So, Savanna took that as the truth. She would talk to God and talk to her guardian angels. Throughout the years, Savanna had several encounters with God and discovered that He was real. The catalyst for her salvation was at a Church camp in middle school. During an altar call, Savanna heard about Jesus and surrendered her life to him at the front of the room.
“It felt like a light switch went on inside of me, but never turned off.”
Though Savanna had given her heart to Jesus, she didn’t leave Church camp with any tools or strategy to move forward in the faith. She didn’t receive a Bible, wasn’t on track to discipleship, nor was she friends with anyone who was following Jesus. Despite all of this, she was full of zeal for God. During her first year of high school, she would lead people to Jesus all the time. But as we all know, not everyone says, “Yes!” to the Gospel. After several disappointments, Savanna found herself venturing back into the partying scene. But God was still pursuing her with His steadfast love.
No matter what your story is, you are not too far gone! Hear from Armin Assadi, a former crime boss whose life did a 180 when he met Jesus: It’s Never Too Late: A Real Story of God’s Redemption
God Dreams & God Encounters
After high school, Savanna found her way to the City of Angels: Los Angeles, California. As time went on, she discovered that she was filled with anxiety and fear. While experiencing intense anxiety on her bed, she said:
“I don’t know what Jesus died for, but He didn’t die for me to live like this.”
That’s when Savanna called her former Young Life leader from high school. This leader led her in the prayer of salvation and gave her actual tools on how to follow Jesus. This moment led her to drastically change her plans and attend a four-month discipleship school in Canada to pursue God wholeheartedly.
As time went on, Savanna continued in her pursuit of God and His ways. Shortly after, she met her husband, Gabe. Savanna describes the dream of being married and having children as a dream she didn’t even know was in her heart until it happened! Lies of unworthiness kept her from believing the truth that she was worthy to be loved by a Christian man.
Savanna also shared an encounter with us where the Lord showed her a comparison of her dreams to the Lord’s dreams. God’s dreams are far better and far more amazing than any dream we can drum up on our own. For example, Savanna thought that being a world-class actress, with a mansion, a pool, and lots of money would make her happy. But during this encounter with Jesus, He showed her that this would lead to a very hollow existence. However, Jesus then showed her the dreams of His heart for her! And today, she’s living in the reality of those dreams God revealed to her.
Read our interview with Savanna’s husband, Gabe Craig: From Addict to Evangelist: How a Near-Death Experience Changes Everything
Sharing Faith through MySpace.com & Interrupting Tarot Cards
One of Savanna’s earliest memories of sharing her faith was during high school on the social media platform called MySpace. Savanna posted on her page:
“I don’t need a boyfriend. I don’t need to party. I just need God!”
Her public proclamation of the goodness of God opened the door for conversation with many of her followers. People would comment: “Wait, what? You don’t want a boyfriend? You don’t want to party?” Savanna was able to explain to her curious followers how Jesus saved her from feeling hollow.
Even when Savanna wasn’t fully surrendered to Jesus, she was still bringing people to faith! One night in Los Angeles, a friend of hers began to explain how she would communicate with God. Her friends answer? Masonry, tarot cards, and drugs. Savanna felt a deep pit open up in her stomach as she listened and her friend proceeded to pull out a pack of tarot cards.
Savanna prayed to God, “I don’t know what to do here.” The Lord said, “We’re going to speak to her in her language.”As her friend began a self-reading with her tarot cards, Savanna watched and prayed.
At the very end of this experience, Savanna looked at the destiny the cards had described over her friend and asked her, “Do you want to know what I think?”
Her friend answered, “Sure.”
Savanna took a deep breath and said, “I’m noticing that every single person or thing in these cards is alone.” At the sound of Savanna’s words, her friend broke down and began crying.
She told Savanna, “That’s how I’m feeling all the time, every single day.”
Savanna told her about a relationship with Jesus and reminded her that if she chose Him, she’d never be alone again. Despite the presence of tarot cards, Jesus broke in and Savanna led her friend in a prayer of repentance. She received Jesus as Lord and became a follower of Jesus!
Hallelujah! God is such an incredible Father who knows just what we need. Learn more about how to reach others without fear being a part of the equation: How to Share Your Faith Without Fear
Alcoholics Anonymous & God’s Redemption
When Savanna wasn’t fully seeking the Lord, she went to Alcoholics Anonymous for help. Her relationship with alcohol was unhealthy at that time. While attending, God unraveled the pattern of drinking in her family.
A year into sobriety, Savanna was asked to lead an A.A. meeting. One of the rules in A.A. is to surrender your life to a “Higher Power”. Savanna did and was on fire with the love of Jesus. However, in her recovery group, people were surrendering their lives to a doorknob, a tree, or even to tarot cards.
While leading this A.A. meeting, Savanna began to share her testimony: “Tequila and wine used to be my jam. But now Jesus is my jam”.
She shared about her experience at Church camp, her internship in Canada, and how Jesus had healed her heart. The lack of reception in the room was intense. The room felt uncomfortable and quiet. At the end of the meeting, almost everyone left.
However, a few people stayed to give their thanks and to ask more questions. Within the small crowd was a gay married couple. One of the men said to Savanna, “You just broke every issue I’ve ever had with the Christian faith. You’re the first Christian that I’ve ever met that just loves me and loves Jesus.”
Never underestimate the power of sharing your story. Learn how to tell others about how you’ve met God in our blog: How to Share Your Faith Story
Facing the Fear of Sharing with Family
Sometimes sharing your faith with family members can feel like the hardest group to share with. Our families have seen us in the best times and the worst times. However, Savanna was able to share her faith with her step-brother in his process of healing from the sudden death of his mother.
Even though Savanna wasn’t very close with her step-brother, she couldn’t shake the feeling one day that she needed to call him. She even risked interrupting her son’s nap time to call her step-brother when the Lord asked!
Savanna shared with her step-brother that the only thing that could ever fully walk him through the intensity of grief is Jesus and that God is the only one who’s able to fully mend. Savanna asked her step-brother if he was ready to receive Jesus into his heart, to which he said, “Yep.” Savanna prayed with him, sent him a Bible, and was able to celebrate that God intervened with His love during such a trying time.
Learn more about healing from grief in our blog: How to Have Hope When You Are Grieving
Boldness in Praying for the Sick
Throughout the Bible, there are stories about how God heals! Savanna’s heart was struck with joy when she read about the healing nature of Jesus. Over the years, she began to pray that God would use her to heal the sick. Shortly after this, she had a dream that she was coming out of a Walmart and a man in a wheelchair was there. In the dream, she prayed for this man’s leg and it grew out!
Funnily enough, a week later Savanna was at a Walmart, in real life, and there was someone in a wheelchair who had an amputated leg. Savanna began sweating and had an internal crisis because she was afraid to pray for this man. Experiencing shame, she vulnerably shared with her husband Gabe about how she was feeling. He encouraged her to pray boldly the next time she saw someone in a wheelchair.
Within a week of this encounter, Savanna and Gabe were in Tampa, Florida for an open-air worship event. Savanna prayed, “God if you put another person in front of me who needs a limb, I will pray for them.”
Right on cue, a man appeared in a wheelchair. Savanna and her friend began walking towards this man to pray for him. Savanna said to the man, “I was wondering if I could pray for your leg. I learned in Bible school that people were healed and I have even seen a leg grow out! I’d love to pray for you if you’re comfortable with that.”
The man said yes and the two began to pray. Nothing was happening at first, but as the group continued in prayer, Savanna discerned the man needed to release forgiveness toward someone. The man agreed and began to mumble prayers of forgiveness under his breath.
As Savanna continued praying, his knee started shaking violently. Faith was rising in all who were praying, but the moment ended awkwardly. Mid prayer, mid miracle, the man paused, stopped the prayer, and said, “Okay, thank you!” He wheeled away as fast as humanly possible and Savanna never saw him again.
Even in mystery and unanswered questions, God is still the faithful One who loves to heal the sick. Learn more about Jesus the healer in our podcast with Rebeca Ribnick: Healing the Sick
Conclusion
As we finished our interview with Savanna, she encouraged all of our readers to keep their daily rhythms with God simple and intimate. For Savanna, that looks like shamelessly talking to her kids about Jesus and playing worship music in the home all the time. Gabe and Savanna are intentional about bringing their kids into everything they do and are always sharing about God whenever they get the chance. We also see our core values at the Everyday Faith podcast displayed all throughout Savanna’s life:
Belief: Savanna’s belief in God fuels her to share her faith with others. Her faith is fueled by reading the Bible, listening to worship music, and being honest with God!
Mission: As we’ve seen in all of Savanna’s awesome stories, living a life of mission with God was always meant to be fun and fruitful! Follow the Everyday Faith Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts to continue to bolster your faith with stories of evangelism!
Obedience: Fear is a liar that keeps us from living for God. As we’ve read in Savanna’s stories, not even tarot cards could keep her from sharing the love of Jesus with someone! We want to remind you to always ask God for help if you’re feeling fear.
Community: No one was ever meant to walk alone. Engaging in Christian community provides you the joy of walking with others who love God and the accountability to face your fears, share the Gospel, and live free from sin.
We can’t wait for you to hear from all of the upcoming guests on Season 3 of the Everyday Faith podcast. While you wait, download our free E-Book to learn more about how to share your faith with others!
