Yahuah can use all things — including friendships — to carry out His perfect plan. I’d like to tell you how He used a friendship in my life in an extraordinary way.

I’m speaking of my beautiful friend and sister, Leaha. Truly one of a kind, knit so wonderfully by Yah to be a devoted daughter of His.

This is our story. Not mine alone, not hers alone — but the one Yah was writing for both of us, together, all along.

I met Leaha in 2019. She was quiet and friendly. As we became closer and closer friends, I began to witness her walk of faith. Our families began a small home fellowship during the pandemic, and we spent every Sabbath with Leaha and her family. We would all take turns sharing a message, worshipping, and sharing a meal together each Sabbath. Over the year we did this, our group grew and multiple families would gather each weekend.

When it was Leaha’s turn, she would always share about the Old Testament, and it was clear that she “still believed in it”. “Aww, how cute,” the rest of us thought. We all would remark that it was just Leaha being Leaha and we would just “let her be” because it was not hurting anybody. She spoke on the feasts, Sabbath, and other Torah-based messages throughout the year we did our home fellowship.

She shared that it was a blessing to her that each of us would choose to come and fellowship with her each weekend. She appreciated the time together while walking her own narrow path and modeling for all of us a walk of obedience (even though we had no clue what we were witnessing at the time). I used to call her my “anchor” friend because she was consistent and obedient like no one I had ever met.

I now realize that I was witnessing someone be “in” the world but not “conformed” by others in the world (Romans 12:2). Though she was the ONLY one walking in Torah at the time out of our home fellowship group (around 50 people at one point), she never waivered. And, she was always joyful and allowed us to share where we were at. I do remember a few times her encouraging me to study something out for myself instead of accepting someone else’s interpretation of Scripture. She would remind me that we are to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

When I First Heard the Name

One day, Leaha came to me to give me a heads up that I would start hearing her refer to God by “other names”. I assumed she meant incorporating titles like “Rapha” or “Jireh”, so I simply responded “oh, ok” and moved on. Now, I cannot recall when or how many times I heard her use the name, “Yahuah” after she shared her update with me.

Funny to think now, how gentle and gracious she was as always — she never tried to force things on people just because that is where Yah had HER. She allowed Yah to work in His timing for that individual person.

The reason I know that she used the name “Yahuah” is because I remember one day hearing a song that used that same name. It was a song sung by children. It was “Todah Rabah” by Yahuah Youth. To this day, I have no clue how or why it came across my YouTube feed, but it did. I thought, “hey, that’s the name that Leaha uses, she would like this song, especially with children singing it”. So, I sent it to her. I later learned that this was her introduction to the Assembly of Yahuah.

The Quiet Season

Not long after the song sharing, my family and I decided to stop going to Leaha’s house for Sabbaths. We couldn’t quite understand why, but we felt Yah (God at the time) was leading us into a season of quiet privacy. We told them of our decision and went on with our lives. In that year, Leaha’s and mine friendship grew a little distant in terms of not seeing one another but we remained friends and would send texts back and forth. We were just in different seasons of life and our walks.

Later realizing Yah needed me with HIM to do His good work in me — Leaha shared with me, she said:

About a year after we stopped going to her house, Leaha sent me a YouTube message. In all honesty, I was busy doing my own thing and I simply was not interested in checking out what she had sent. I do remember that the message was sent in February of 2022 because of how the later months unfolded.

Crying Out — Who Are You, What Is Your Name?

That year, 2022, I was on a new journey of fasting one day a week. It was something I had never done before and was inspired by events of 2021, which is a story for another time. I was praying to get closer to Yah (God at the time) and trying to understand who He was and how I could have a personal relationship with Him.

Well, towards the end of 2022 I found myself crying out to him:

Yah started me down the path of studying His name and I was reminded of a Cepher that Leaha had given me the year before (yes, I know the Cepher is not an accurate translation, but it is still a part of my story and it was used for good (Romans 8:28 — And we know that all things work together for good to them that love Elohim, to them who are called according to His purpose).

I had not done much with the Cepher when Leaha gave it to me. I glanced at a few pages and found the name she had started using, “Yahuah”. But now, at the end of 2022, I was hungry for understanding so I studied the front of the Cepher to try and understand about God’s name. From there, I was led to studying even more content about His name — from Jehovah, to yod-hey-vav-hey, and everything that had anything to do with God’s name. I was eager to study it all and eager to know HIM.

The Message Found — In His Perfect Timing

Seemingly random to me, I remembered the message that Leaha had sent me earlier that year. I didn’t know why, I just knew that I knew that I knew that I needed to listen to that. Oh, but when in the world did she send it. Remember, though we had not been seeing one another, we had been texting. So, I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled searching for it.

Well, I found it! It was the end of 2022 and I found it from February of that year. I clicked and listened and it was a message from our dear elder Rick. I started listening to messages and Q&A’s from Assembly of Yahuah. I was binge listening. I would listen on my runs, my drives, while I crafted, whenever I could fit a message in. In early 2023, I had heard enough and decided to consult with my husband. We decided to apply to interview with the assembly.

As Yah was allowing more and more scales to fall from our eyes and allowing my family and I to see and understand more and more of His truth, I was reminded of Leaha and how she was such a special part of my testimony. I wanted to thank her and share my updates of how Yah had been moving my family and I. I shared with her that Yah was opening our eyes and that we were interviewing with the Assembly of Yahuah.

I thanked her for being steadfastly faithful in her walk, for gifting me and my husband Cephers (that I later found out were very expensive), and for connecting me to AOY.

The Beautiful Reveal

She shared back with me that she had her own journey that led her to Truth and that she and another one of her friends in the walk had been praying for me because she knew I was “so close to the Truth”. She was grateful to hear of my updates and welled up with tears of joy. It was Yah’s perfect timing for encouragement in her own walk!

She continued on to share that I was the one who in fact introduced her to the assembly through the song I had sent her, over a year ago — “Todah Rabah”. She shared that the message she sent by elder Rick was one that Yah inspired her to share with me and was marveled at how it was used in Yah’s perfect timing to help me in my walk.

She gave all credit to Yah and the two of us reveled in His goodness and were in awe of Him together, now two friends who could share in His Truth.

Leaha & Deanna — sisters in Truth

Still Friends Today

Leaha and I remain good friends today. Even though we don’t agree on everything, we keep the main thing the main thing and trust one another to Yah, knowing that we each love Him with all our hearts, souls, and might (Deuteronomy 6:5) and knowing that our journeys are uniquely our own (Matthew 23:23 — the weightier matters of the Torah: the right-ruling and the compassion and the belief). This allows us to be blessed by ongoing encouragement and sharpening that our friendship brings.

We also get the blessing of reminiscing on how Yah worked in our lives and sharing this joint testimony. We don’t always get to see how Yah is working, or the fruit of the seeds we plant. The gratitude and praise for not only how Yah worked and is working in both of our lives each day, week, month, and year cannot be expressed in words.

The fact that He allowed us to share in this joint testimony and getting to see how He uses us together, uses all things for His good purpose, the power of prayer, and how He works in His perfect timing as we diligently seek Him, overwhelms me beyond comprehension.

A Word to You, Sister

So, sisters, I pray we always remember that He is working and can and does use all things as we are diligent in our walks. That we are each walking epistles being used for His Kingdom purposes (2 Corinthians 3:3 — making it obvious that you are a letter of Messiah, served by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living Elohim, not on tablets of stone but on fleshly tablets of the heart).

That He can and does use us if we are diligent to put ourselves aside and walk as He instructs us to (Micah 6:8 — He has declared to you, O man, what is good. And what does יהוה require of you but to do right, and to love loving-commitment, and to walk humbly with your Elohim). To remember that we can do nothing apart from Him, just as Yahusha modeled for us (John 15:5 — apart from Yahusha, we can do nothing) & (John 5:30 — Yahusha said, “I can do of my own self nothing; as I hear… not of my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me”).

So, it is our calling to let others see His light that shines through each of us (Matthew 5:18 — let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven). And as we walk humbly as living epistles and let His light shine through us, we release all expectations and judgement but instead pray for others to allow Him in, eyes opened to Torah all while being gracious and compassionate as we allow His and only His perfect timing (Isaiah 55:9 — For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts).

In Recap — How Yah Used Both Hearts Together