Epling writes book about time with God

Jul. 15—One night, as Diane Epling lay in bed, she whispered a prayer.

"That night I closed my eyes and said, 'Lord, I want to be with you. Take me with you tonight.'"

The answer to her request came with what she refers to as one of the most "powerful" dreams of her life.

"I truly felt, and this is the first time I ever felt this, but I said, 'God, you're here, you're here,'" she recalled. "I truly felt His presence in the dream."

It was a few weeks later, as she mulled over the title of her first book, that she remembered, in vivid detail, both the emotion of the dream as well as one other very specific detail.

"I saw myself with something in my hand," she said. "I turned it over and saw myself writing 'Time With God' over and over."

It's a fitting title for a book whose overarching theme, Epling said, is spending time with God.

"I talk about how important it is to be with him, spending time with him and getting to know how much he cares about us and loves us," she said. "(Learning) Of the hope that he has in the future and the blessings that will come to us just by listening to his voice."

Epling said it was her own experiences, as she navigated the end of one marriage and the beginning of a new one, that led her to write the book.

Faith, she said, has always been the driving force in her life. That's why she struggled with the idea of divorce.

Growing up, she said, she had been told that divorce was an unforgivable offense in the eyes of God.

"I had always been taught by the church and by my leaders that you stay in a marriage no matter what," she said. "I was taught that God's the punisher. I was never told about his love."

Although she was unhappy in her marriage, it was the fear of sinning, she said, that led her to remain.

But one day as the former hairdresser spoke with a client, she heard a voice.

"One of my clients asked how my husband and I were doing and I said, 'We're fine. Everything is fine.' But then I heard this voice that said, 'No, you're not. You're lying.'

"'You're lying to yourself and to everyone around you.'

"It was the Lord."

That was when Epling began to pray for guidance.

"So, I left (her ex-husband), and once I did, God just kept speaking to me. He said, 'Keep going forward. Don't look back. I'm with you.'"

In the aftermath of her separation and divorce, Epling stepped away from her church, taking what she calls a "sabbatical," during which she began her true "walk."

"The Lord told me to get up with him every Sunday morning, get in the word and he would lead me and guide me to what I needed," she recalled.

Her Sunday Bible study soon turned into an everyday occurrence, during which she said God would guide her through the Bible, answering questions and causing her to ask new ones.

"The very question I had of being afraid to leave a marriage, God answered for me," she said. "He showed me in his word. He showed me how much he loved me.

"He restored me and led me down the road, which was a six-year journey. And that's when I met Tim."

In time, Epling said God led her back into church.

And on Nov. 30, 2016, after sharing her testimony on the altar, she was approached by Tim Epling, manager of the West Virginia Miners baseball team.

"Tim came up to me and said he had a similar story of something God had done in his life," she recalled. "That's where it began."

Within three weeks Epling said she and Tim, who had lost his first wife just a short time earlier, had fallen in love.

They married in April 2017.

----In Tim, Epling said, she found the perfect partner.

Together, they run Destiny Ministries, an outreach she began following her divorce.

"The ministry was something he (God) had spoken to me about," Epling explained of the calling she said she received in 2014. "I just started taking little steps to learn and to get prepared for what that might entail and I just walked through the Lord. When Tim and I got married, we fully stepped into it."

In August 2020, they began delivering the message of the 501c3 non-profit ministry on Sunday mornings on WOAY and WVVA. Their show can also be heard on 105.9 WTNJ or seen on the NOW Television Network, a global network that streams online and on satellite.

"Tim and I interact with each other," she said. "We have messages that God has given us. It's all just guided by the Lord and very real. We go through the same things everybody else does."

Epling said it was the journey — her walk with God through divorce to remarriage and now the ministry — that led her to write "Time With God."

"I wrote the book sharing my story because it's truly a dream," she said. "It's like, 'Oh, my gosh! I can't believe this that God would walk with someone through this. He loves you that much.'

"That kind of love is unfathomable."

She said she believes the book is for everyone and said she hopes people find encouragement and hope in its pages.

"There are so many people out there who have questions about where they are," she said. "It's OK to question things, but sometimes you don't know the answer until you sit down with him (God) yourself.

"You'll get to know his voice once you start walking with him and letting him guide you."

----"A Time With God" is available for purchase at Tamarack and online at amazon.com.

Epling expects her second book to be released in the fall.