About this episode

Donna K Woolam shares her transformative experience of encountering the Great I Am during a life-threatening medical crisis.

"I discovered that the GREAT I AM is who He says He is... He became the God who says I am the One who sees you, the One who comforts you, and the One who delivers you." An episode of The Pursuit of God series on the ReNew Your Mind podcast, based on Donna K Woolam's book "His Hostage Heart | Encountering the Unrelenting Love of God." In this episode, Donna shares the harrowing yet transformative story of facing a fatal diagnosis of chickenpox pneumonia at age 27. While lying in the ICU and facing death three times, she encountered the "Great I Am"—not as a distant deity, but as a present Deliverer, Comforter, and Keeper of her soul. Donna bridges her personal crisis with the story of Moses in the desert, illustrating that even when we feel like "rescuers" who have failed or messed up our opportunities, God meets us in our airless, breathless situations. The core call to action is a total surrender to the hovering presence of the Holy Spirit, allowing the same breath that resurrected Christ to bring life and hope back into your current "barren space". At 27 years old, I found myself in a medical ICU, unable to breathe as chickenpox…

People in this episode

Host: Donna K Woolam

Topics covered

• faith
• personal crisis
• surrender
• God's presence
• healing
• transformation

Keywords

• Great I Am
• chickenpox pneumonia
• ICU
• surrender
• Holy Spirit
• Moses
• transformation
• faith

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: His Hostage Heart | Encountering the Unrelenting Love of God

More episodes of Renew Your Mind: Mindset & Purpose for Christian Women

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• Stop the Flight | Running away from God · July 8, 2026 · 15 min
• Believing the Lie | Breaking Shame · July 1, 2026 · 18 min
• Scars of Hope | Healing for Emotional Scars · June 17, 2026 · 17 min

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