The Moment Everything Changed: How Lyubov Shalya's Desperate Prayer Transformed her Life in Seconds

What happens when you come to the end of yourself and cry out to God one last time? In this powerful episode, Luba Shalya shares her remarkable journey from underground churches in Soviet Ukraine to a life-changing encounter with God in Portland, Oregon.

Raised under religious control and later battling deep depression after divorce, Luba reached a breaking point that became her breakthrough. On January 31, 2006, she gave God an ultimatum—and experienced a supernatural transformation in just 15-20 seconds that completely changed her mind, heart, and spirit.

Through tears and triumph, Luba shares about breaking generational curses, learning to hear God's voice (even when it means giving $100 to a stranger), and the difference between religious obligation and falling deeply in love with Jesus. Her story will challenge you to move beyond spiritual milk to solid food, to hunger for more of God, and to trust Him through the painful process of transformation.

Whether you're struggling with depression, religious trauma, or simply want to go deeper with God, Luba's testimony reminds us that God sees our hearts and is always waiting for that final roar of desperation that leads to deliverance.

Guest: Luba Shalya - businesswoman, mother of 9, and passionate follower of Jesus whose name literally means "Love"

Connect with Luba:

• Instagram: @lubashalya
• Facebook Messenger: Lyubov Shalia
• Substack @lyubovshalya

Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/the-summit

License code: YEMOID7DEYZIE4N3

Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/luminbird/together-forever

License code: XIARHFTDFJ0FBKKT

Consider subscribing to this podcast, YouTube and Substack- all with the same name: Just Talkin' About Jesus!

https://www.youtube.com/@JustTalkinAboutJesus

https://jan-johnson.com/

https://justtalkingaboutjesus.com/

https://janjohnsonauthor.substack.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@JustTalkinAboutJesus

Thanks for listening!

If you have a story to tell, check out the form on my website- justtalkingaboutjesus.com.

I'd love to connect with you!

No, really.... hit me up!

Transcript

Jan: Welcome everyone to this episode of Just Talking About Jesus. So glad that you are joining us and especially if you're new here, we really appreciate having you pop in with us and hope this won't be the last time, but it'll be the start of a new thing for you. My guest today is Luba Shalia. Welcome, Luba.

Luba: Thank you. Thank you, Jen. My honor, she has been.

Jan: Citizen in the United States for 36 years. She came from Ukraine and she has a testimony for us that she's going to share that I think you are going to gain a lot from. So, Luba, first of all, tell our audience about your name.

Luba: First of all, I want to say hello and thank you, Jen, for having me here. It's my honor. My full name is Luboz. It's mean love. Same like faith. It's a Vera Hope, it's Nadezhda, and Lubov, it's love. So that's what it means. And people, when they can't say my name like Lubov, I say call me Love because this is my real name. And people will just like, really? I said, yeah. So that's what I love about my, my name. I love that.

Jan: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, I might like that name. Maybe I should change my name.

Luba: Having this name, I didn't really like it in the first place, you know, but by growing in my ears and getting younger and younger, I realized that this name represents me because I love people. I love what I do. I love minister to people, you know, and sometimes you just like remind yourself, okay, you love if you're upset or angry. Just like, okay, you have to introduce love. You have to represent love. So it's change your, your atmosphere around you and it changed you inside of you.

Jan: You know, it kind of centers you, doesn't it?

Luba: Yes.

Jan: You know, so you're off into something else and it's like, remember who you are. Yes. Yeah. Just like how God reminds you your identity. So it's, you know.

Luba: Yes. All the time. If I have anger, upset, and sometimes on the road, it's just like, why did you do this? And it's just always in my spirit. Okay. Yeah. You represent love. Yeah. You show that.

Jan: Tell me about your faith walk. Where did you begin to really have a connection and what brought you there?

Luba: I, I, I want to start from the beginning. I came from Soviet Union, a former Soviet Union, but there was Soviet Union before it was republic. So basically it was Ukraine, but it was Ukrainian Republic and it was Soviet Union, actually. And I was Born in Christian family, but my father, my grandfather was prosecuted by kgb. This is why we came here as a refugee. Right. And my grandmother always taught me about God. Always teach me that, who he is and everything. But my real time meet God was when I was 15, when I was in my college. And I was, you know, in a church where there was a very strong youth group. And I remember that day when all the youth, all my friends, came to the altar and gave them life to God. All of us. It was like 15 or 20 people. It was small church, underground church, you know, it was not the freedom that time. It was church that would not be registered with the state or city. But I remember that day. That was my life given to God.

Jan: And you said that was. You said it was an underground church?

Luba: Yes.

Jan: Yeah. So you had to do it in hiding? Basically, yes.

Luba: We were going from house to house. It was not one place where we will come and worship God and pray and fellowship. It was an underground church. A couple years later, they registered a church in the city. But that moment was underground church. Yes. So.

Jan: So when you're 15, and then how did. How did you begin to see things change in your life?

Luba: That was. That was a lot of ups and down, you know, because I can say religious obligation, religious control, you know, that was number one at that time. So I basically was raised and grow in the religious obligation. It was a lot of things that changed my life and in terms of looking who God is, because I didn't know that he's my father. Nobody taught me about it. I didn't know that I will come to him, like to my father and ask him to change my life or. But I prayed. I pray like I know I. I was. I was taught how to pray, right? And there was a lot of things. We married with my husband and. 1980. 19. Yes, 1980. It will be 46 years this year in September. And we had five children. When we came to America, there was a lot of things that was humiliation of the. I can say people in power in church, you know, so you can't cut your hair. You can have a ring. You have to ask them about everything you do. So basically you were under control, you know, and you can't have TV in your house. I mean, it was a lot of things that was just like. And I was calling us as, like, white crowd. Like, you were the. We were the people who. They watched them, us all the time and tried to humiliate, like, put under control, you know, and we are not those. Me and my Husband are not those people who can be under control.

Jan: It sounds more like a cult that you were under.

Luba: That was the Jewish. But it was. Like I said, it just. It was like controlling spirit, religious controlling spirit in the church. Like my friend wants to. Maybe wants me to be a witness at the wedding, right? So the higher position pastor, like elderly pastor, he said, nope, you can't be that. You can't do that. So it's. It's a lot of things. My next goal is to write a book about it so people will know. And we've been through with my husband a lot over there until we came to America and came to America and went to another religious church.

Jan: So.

Luba: But was different. It was different, of course, but it was a lot of things that we don't know about. Curses and blessing, generational curses. I had no idea that the generational curses can be destroying my life, can be affecting my life. We had no idea. But complete deliverance, you know, that people can be delivered from different things that you don't even know that it's there, you know, so I've learned this my latest years when I was 43, 44, 42 years old. But my really meeting with God was January 31, 2006. It was real meeting with God. But I was divorced with my husband for seven years. I was in depression because it was so much attack, demonical attack through my friends, you know, from my friends. And it was a lot of things. But I remember that every morning I will get up and I will say, I'm not gonna give up, devil. You're not gonna get me. Because I already knew about deliverance and other things. I read Rebecca Brown, I read Paula White, I read Joyce Meyer, you know, all those preachers, pastors, ministers who were just like teaching people. But I was under so deep depression that, like, even my kids said, mom, what's going on with you? Because I was so active in church, I was going to prayers and everything, but that was a moment when God wants me to bring close to him. So January 31, I went to the church. It was new beginning in Portland. Larry Huck was the pastor, and it was deliverance service. People will come from all states once a month, and Pastor Larry Hawk will pray for them. I was standing at the end of the church. I remember that moment like now. I was standing at the end of the church and I said, God was nobody around me. Everybody was in front next to the altar. I said, God, if you exist, this is the last moment. I am telling you, either you change me Right now or I will just leave the church and I will never come back to you. It was a very strong words. It was like words of the lost hope. If God exists, He will hear me and he will help me. And I can't. I can't even explain. I always cry when I talk about it. It's same moment that I said the words. There was like somebody was taking out the old things that was in me out and was putting in new stuff. Like new, completely new. Everything. Like my mind was changing. It was like 15, 20 seconds, but I was completely changed. Wow. So I believe when people saying God changed me in split second, split moments, I believe them because God sees your heart, he sees your spirit. He wants you to know that. Okay, I hear you. I was there all the time. And I need that last roar from your spirit, that God, I need you right now. I need you. If not, I'm leaving because why? It's hopeless for me, right? It's hopeless for everyone to know God and don't see anything. So you either have God in your life and you trust him and you see his movement and you see his actions in you, of course, accordion with his will and everything, or you just, you know, do your life. But I didn't want to go from him. I love him that moment, I already love God with all my heart, all my mind, all my spirit, all my soul, you know. And that moment my life changed. He started moving me forward. He connect me with people who helped me to understand what's wrong with me, what's the, you know. But before even that, I knew my generational curses on me. I already been praying against that. I already break the curses, you know, on my life and on my children's life. But I think once God was waiting for the deeper moment because people, very often I see people stop before they're going deeper and going higher and going into love, complete, like love with God. So that's what I was looking for. It was not enough for me to go to church, sit on the, you know, on a chair, listen to the preaching. I want more of him and I want all of him. And I want to be hungry and thirsty for him. But that moment I was a baby, right? I was a baby. And then after that, I found a book. It's called God Changed Me. Evelyn Christensen. Oh, that book completely turned me around. I said, God, I want you change me. And he said, do you really want that? It's going to be hurtful. It's going to be painful. Are you ready for that? It Says I do.

Jan: But life was going to be painful and hurtful anyway. So it wasn't like it's this.

Luba: God is going to be even more worse.

Jan: But you're going to know now that when you're going through those things, he's holding your hand.

Luba: Yes.

Jan: And he's right here with you.

Luba: Yes.

Jan: That's the difference.

Luba: I know for sure. Yes. So. And that book changed me a lot. I mean the process that started after that when I. When I say yes to God. So people think if they say yes, it's gonna be easy. Life, everything's gonna be just easy. Oh no, I'm telling you straight. No, but what is only holding you there and keeping you going and keeping you accomplish your promises and covenant with God? It's love that was holding me. And I wanna more. And I wanna more. And then I pray. I wanna all. Yeah, not just more. I want all of you. God, I wanna be hungry, thirsty for you. I don't wanna get out of that left or right. I wanna go straight. No matter what is gonna be ups or down or, you know, I wanna come from glory. Power to power, from glory to glory, faith to faith. And my faith was growing. I can't say it was easy. It was really hard. Sometimes I will put a sand my knee and I will just cry for hours. But I knew that God is listening to me. God loves me and he changing me for good. That's what we need to remember.

Jan: And it was that one defining moment when you cried out to him and you felt his presence at that point, it was so real to you that that wasn't ever going to go yes.

Luba: Regardless. I will never forget that moment, you.

Jan: Know, because that's your thing that you can always go back to yes. You know, to say no. But he was here. And that sustains me.

Luba: And that moment never leave me. It's inside, you know, that change, that spirit that came and filled me and pushed everything that was bad not belongs to God. I. I still have, I, I do have that. Not steal. I do have that. And I'm feeling more because I want more. So God is always downloading more and more and more. Because when you baby, all you have is a milk, right? And then it's going to. I have nine children. So I feed them all. I breastfeeding them and I feeding them. And you know, one my. My girl was. Was born. I can't breastfeed her. I was so afraid that she can be not developing right. So trust me, I was doing everything every month, every day. I was Counting. She was four months old. She was five months old. And I will, you know, give her eggs and. And, you know, all the food until it come to the solid food. Same thing with a spiritual life, you know, Know, I was the baby. I didn't understand, but I want God more and more. And God said, nope, stop it right here. I'm teaching you. You have to go this little, you know, path. I'm going to teach you one thing, and when you finish that, I'm going to teach you another thing. And it was a lot of teaching. I think I. I would say I'm adult, spiritual adult, but I'm still learning.

Jan: Because you're a lifelong learner.

Luba: Yes. And Evelyn Christensen, I remember her. It's a very good experience to read somebody who already went through. Right. She said, as soon as I thought that everything is good, I am like, perfect person. God will start showing me this and this. And I was just like God again. Same thing with me. I was just like yesterday, said, lord. I said, well, let me tell you something. I'm gonna be working on you. You have a strong spirit, but you sometimes have a fear to speak about it because you think you're not enough. I was just like, really? Oh, yes. And I'm gonna teach you to be furious. I want to teach you to be bold. So if you say so, you know who's speaking through you. I'm just like, God. I am. It's like, no, not all the time. It's like, I love to talk about my experience, and I'm not afraid, you know, because people. People keep that in their soul, in their spirit. They don't talk about it. They're afraid because, oh, what people will think about me. I don't really care what people will think about me. Yeah. I care what God is thinking about me. I'm just like, okay, God, if you want me to say that, I will say that.

Jan: But we also have an idea in our minds of what we think people are going to say. And it's not. It may not even be that at all. Yes, maybe. Because if God's telling me to say something.

Luba: Yes.

Jan: It's two way street. One, it's for you to say it out loud. Two, it's for who knows who's going to hear that and how they're going to be affected by it.

Luba: Yeah. I tell you one example. I went to my daughter's in Dallas, Texas, and we went to the restaurant, the Babe Chicken restaurant, this really good restaurant and very nice place. We sit down, and the young man was Serving us. And we ate everything. Kids are happy. I have to leave tomorrow. And then God starts talking to me. He said, I wanted to give a hundred dollars to this young man. And I was sitting just like, I know it was God. I know. And I had $100 in my, my wallet. And, and I said, God, what, what am I gonna do this. My, my grandkids. What are you gonna think about me? You know, it was just like I always, you know, gifted them. They, they, they, they, they know, grandma. But I was just like, how am I gonna give that hundred dollars? They will see that I can't just go to the corner and give. So. And God said, no, you have to do it. So I almost cried. Trust me, it was, was such a presence of God. But I knew God is doing something. So I called a guy, his name Douglas, I remember his name. And I said, I want to give this to you. God told me to give this to you. You should see his eyes. He started with tears in his eyes. He said, you would not believe it. I prayed this morning because we have not enough money to pay our bills. And I said, lord, can you send me a tips today that will fulfill my finances and we will pay our bills? I was shocked. I was just like, thank God I listened to you. What will happen? I started just thinking, what will happen if I will not listen to God? Yeah, he will be mad at me. He will be upset with me. But I want that to be happy with me.

Jan: You know, he would be disappointed because he gave, look, look at the, the opportunity he gave you.

Luba: Yes.

Jan: What?

Luba: Yes.

Jan: What does a hundred dollars mean to you? You know, it, it's not, it's $1 for me.

Luba: You know, I can say that for now, $1 for me. If I can say that in comparing to the guy who need it and.

Jan: You compare to that that God sees his need and asks you to do for you is really a little thing, you know, to give. But what was God doing? He not only gave that joy to that man, he gave the joy to you.

Luba: Yes, he gave me a big hug. But the most important thing, when my grandkids told me, they said, grandma, you just gave $100 to that guy? I said, yes. They hugged me. They said, that was very nice of you, Grandma. I was crying. I was crying. When we went outside, I was crying. I said, really? You think so? They said, yes. So God showed me I not only accomplish what God want me to do. Yeah, right. But I also taught my grandkids to be obedient to God first Of all. And to be cheerful or just like.

Jan: Willingly give a cheerful giver.

Luba: Yes. Talking all way home, they were just like, grandma, we're so proud of you, Paul. I said, no, it's God. You need to learn how to listen to God. Because it was God voice and said, really? You did listen to God. You hear God saying to you. I said, yes, otherwise it will give this hundred dollars to you guys. They didn't even say anything. Just like, why don't you give it to us? You know, that's what my flesh was saying. What is going to. Your grandkids will say, no. We need to be obedient to the Lord, because only he. Jeremiah 29:11. Only he knows what's the best for us, what's the good for us. Yeah, there was. That was the moment. There was God's moment in my life. It was a lot of them, but it was the. One of the moments that when you hear God saying, you have to obey. You have to obey.

Jan: Yeah. Because if you don't, I mean, I've had times when I've heard God tell me to do something and then I didn't, just because. Oh, really? That's not. You know, and then the whole time, it's like, I think I just missed a moment. And I did, you know, because I didn't do that thing to connect with that person that just like you. It's like, I don't even know that person. Why would I say, how do I know what you know, whatever. But even all of that, just by doing it, God has a purpose in it. Even if the guy said, oh, no, I don't want it, which he wouldn't have. But at any rate, you know, it's still. It's such a much bigger picture that one act of obedience, for me, it's.

Luba: Another lesson was accomplished because God gave us a moment that he's watching us. Are you gonna follow my instructions? Are you gonna follow my word, my voice? So I will give you a bigger instructions or bigger. So he is testing us through this lesson. He's testing us. And very often I've learned this from Rebecca Brown. She said, God will test me until I have a. Ooh, a plus. I remember that. And I know my moments when I did not pass that, when I fail, I said, lord, I fail again. Again. I don't want to fail again. So every time when I already know that is a test, even I'm talking to somebody. And plus, I am a businesswoman, I have 10 employees. And he will test me, you know, through Management through the instructions and directions, and how I talk to my employees, how you treat them. And sometimes I raise my voice. And he doesn't want me to raise my voice. He wants me to stay still and be, you know, the powerful in your calm voice. And I'm still learning that. But I'm doing better and better. I can say that I'm doing better and better because it just was like yesterday. Excuse me, One of my employees, my cook, the main cook, I just remind her about her. The. What's to say, your. Oh, my goodness, what she has to do, what she's responsible. Your responsibilities. Yeah. And I was just like, this is your responsibility. She look at me like. And said, don't look at me, because I'm gonna hit you now. And she's my friend.

Jan: You had your mom.

Luba: Look, friend. She's my best friend. But at work, she's my employee. And we were working so hard on that thing to separate that, you know, but we're doing pretty good now. And I said, like, this is your responsibility. You don't want me to come here and point you because I'm the boss and you're responsible for that. You have to do it. But God is doing really good things, and I'm so thankful to him because he's teaching me through that, you know, he's teaching me through every day, every day, every situation, you know, with employees, with the customers, you know, and how to not to be rude or not to be upset and be calm. The most important thing, stay still, in peace of God. God's peace, and talk to them. You know, this is like most hardest thing, you know, to stay in his peace and talk bold.

Jan: But he's building our character. That's why.

Luba: Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

Jan: So we're almost out of time, but I want to ask you, first of all, how could people get in touch with you or reach you if they wanted to follow you?

Luba: My Instagram. It's Lubashalya. It's L U B A S H a L Y A also FaceTime messenger. There I am. Lyubov. Shalia. It's like you said, lyubov. L Y U B O V. Okay. And then, Shaly, sometimes I do my life on FaceTime, but it's in Russian. I do sometimes in English. My kids tell mom you have to do sometimes in English. We love listening to you because, you know, I always send some messages and some testimonies to my kids and some blessing and everything. I love to do that and to other people, too. So. Yeah.

Jan: What's one last thing that you would like to leave with our audience?

Luba: Fell in love with God. That's my most important message. Fell in love with God. Because if you fell in love like you fell in love with your first love, your husband, or you fell in love with your first child when I was first born, you know, that's the first thing I will say. We need. We need to get and fell in love with God and Jesus and Holy Spirit and grow in that. Not just stay in the first level, just go in a mature love that will take you through trials, tribulations like Job and like other famous people in the Bible. You know, they, they my favorite. And I always look at them, they love God so much and that will help them to go through, you know, apostles. You know, they fell in love with God, with God, and they grow for three years with Jesus in love. And that's what I will say.

Jan: Thank you so much, Lilia. This has been delightful.

Luba: Thank you. Thank you.