A Heart for the City Ministries

Do you ever get tired of the devil trying to tell your story? I have. You see, when the accuser of the brethren tells your story, he always puts his slant on it, and makes sure people only know what he wants them to know. When the devil tells your story, he leaves out some important information, like what he did to set you up for failure, or he'll  add his twist to the details. When the devil tells your story, you can be sure it's not completely accurate . It's his job. Thats what he does: he lies. He spreads slander and leads people to believe things that never offer hope of redemption or a new future. He counts on others to make judgments and carry whatever offense he chooses to magnify, because then he can take others into captivity through their own sin of judgment, slander, accusation, or unforgiveness. That's what he does; it's his job. When the devil tells your story, it leaves a person feeling ashamed, unclean, condemned and guilty. That's when you've got to stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute! That's not the rest of the story!" When you tell your story, you get to tell what God has done to turn things around. You take every bit of power the enemy thinks he has over you and take it back. You get to give God glory for all the newness he's brought to your life. You get to say, "Those charges don't stick, because Jesus Christ paid the price for my sin. It's bought and paid for, and I've been declared "NOT GUILTY!"

           Sometimes the experiences in our life are painful. So painful, in fact, that we don't want to share them. But I've discovered one thing: the enemy will always try to use the fear of shame in an attempt to hinder us. If we allow the fear of accusation, slander or intimidation to hold us back, we will always be subject to Fear as a master.

             The work of God in my life is amazing. He took a broken individual and made me whole again.  I've known the pain and shame of being rebellious, an addict, unemployed, rejected and unwanted. I've experienced the inner pain and emotional conflict that led to eating disorders, cutting, and adulterous relationships. I've been betrayed and I've been the betrayer. I've been hurt and I've hurt others. I've made my share of mistakes, and some of them even while in ministry. I've had to live with the consequences. But I AM NOT A FAILURE. You see, although I don't choose to rehearse and live in the past, I am free from it. God even took away the regret from bad decisions because all those things have shaped me into the person that I am today. I don't have to live in fear of the voice of accusation, because Jesus didn't leave me in a place of defeat and failure.

                                                          Anyone that truly knows Christ knows the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness looses both the one who does the forgiving, and the one who needs to be forgiven. Many people are in bondage simply because they have chosen not to forgive. Matthew 18:21-35 gives the illustration of a servant that was forgiven a great debt by the king. Then a situation came about where the servant angrily refused to forgive someone else that was indebted to him an even smaller debt. He even wanted to throw the man in prison until he paid every cent of the debt that was owed. Fellow servants told the king of this situation and it greatly displeased him. He said, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' Because the servant was so harsh, he was delivered up to the torturers. There is great power in forgiveness. That is why the devil works so hard to keep people in bondage to their hurts, but it's a choice that each of us can make. The Holy Spirit can empower us to forgive by God's grace, we need simply to ask. If there is anyone out there reading this right now and I've hurt you at some point in my life, please know that it wasn't intentional, and I ask your forgiveness. When things are broken inside someone, or when people find themselves in hard situations, people don't always make the wisest decisions and sometimes others get hurt in the process. Sometimes people just do the best they can in a situation. Whether we've been the one to hurt someone else, or the hurt has been done to us, we all need grace. Many times we simply don't know all the details of what someone else is going through or how it's affecting them emotionally, and we haven't had to live their life. I only say this as a caution to everyone to please choose forgiveness above judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment, and judgments cause those very things that we have judged against others to boomerang back into our own life at some point. And, to those that have hurt or disappointed me at some point in time, please know that I forgave you long ago. I do not wish you harm, and I've prayed for you often. I have asked God to help me only remember the good, and He has done so. I pray that you too will find the same freedom. The power of forgiveness is the power of revival.

          Let me tell you what God has done with that woman. She no longer exists, because Jesus makes all things new. The woman that did all those things died a long time ago. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20) Jesus started by restoring my self-respect. He took the pain, the shame, and rejection and all my "stuff," and promised that I would never again have to live in condemnation. Yes, there's a promise right in the Bible that assures me this is so! (Romans 8:1). He also told me that He would work all things together for my good because I love Him and am called according to His purpose. That's in the Bible too! (Romans 8:28). As a matter of fact, Jesus told me that He loves me so much that nothing would ever separate me from Him and I didn't even have to fear what anyone else said, or what they thought about me. Then He told me that He had a good plan for my life that would put the devil to shame. (Jeremiah 29:11) Well, let me tell you, Jesus keeps His word!

            God set me free from all those self-destructive thoughts, behaviors and negative emotions. He brought deliverance to my life. He healed my heart and gave me a brand new life. Today I am married to a wonderful man of God and the Lord gave us two children – both that came by way of faith and the miraculous. My husband and I have both written books – something neither of us had ever done before. I even helped my former pastor write his first book. God has given us Holy Spirit anointed, inspired songs to encourage the body of Christ. My husband and I both had to go to the cross in order to be set free, cleansed and healed from many things. God has used all the misunderstanding, injustice, betrayal, pain and rejection to teach us about Him. Jesus is always about restoration, and He is kind even when we don't deserve it. His greatest goal is to get us to finish the race, and not throw in the towel prematurely. He's also shown us the nature of true authority, which is redemptive and restorative, and false authority, which is harsh, legalistic and refuses to restore. He's made us more discerning so that we can understand the devil's deception. One aspect of our calling and gifting is deliverance ministry, so now we can help others be set free from the devil's snares. If both of us hadn't experienced the devil's lies so intimately, we wouldn't be able to identify it in others. God wastes nothing. He brings victory out of our brokenness! He's given us a ministry to bring healing and reconciliation to the body of Christ but there's more, too. He launched our ministry off of a tuna casserole (only God could do that!), gave us favor with city officials and allowed us to hold two awesome crusades, which greatly impacted the city where we used to live (Pensacola). God has also given us strategies and powerful prayers and decrees to tear down satan's kingdom and release healing to entire communities and cities. Now who would have thought all that was included in God's plan of redemption? It certainly didn't occur to me when I was living in the pain, discouragement and brokenness. It was the farthest thing in my mind when the enemy was whispering in my ear that my future was beyond repair. Can I tell you something? The devil doesn't want you to discover those secrets, and he will use anyone and anything to be his voice of accusation to keep you from your calling. I say, give glory to God and let the devil say what he wants. God is my refuge and ever-present help in time of trouble. My reputation is in His hands. Jesus paid the price for my redemption, and yours, too. God said He would remember my sins no more. My sins are forgiven. Who can bring a charge against God's elect? Anyone who denies what the blood of Christ has done for me, you, or anyone else speaks out of an unforgiving heart and an anti-Christ spirit. Jesus did it all. It is finished.

          I, for one, refuse to be manipulated by someone or something that only wants to remind me of my moments of failure or brokenness. It shows the true nature of the one that does so, revealing a hard, judgmental, unforgiving heart, and a person that does not understand their own need for forgiveness and grace. The devil would like us to think that he holds the keys to our future as he tries to control us through intimidation, fear, and other manipulative things. (For an excellent explanation of witchcraft and how it works, I've added  link from Patricia King's website. It's time to wake up to the deception of the enemy! Click here:http://www.xpmedia.com/bQ2PPAzFY5vo.) Often times we don't realize we have the keys to freedom right in our own hand. It's the testimony of what God has done. The story of each of our lives is still being written.Everyone that has ever gone on to true success has had to experience failure.You have to know your areas of vulnerability and get them fixed before you come into a place of promotion or success.  I don't believe it is in anyone's best interest to judge them or try to predict their future based on a point of failure, especially when in the context of their entire life story, the bad decisions and the consequences of those decisions are merely a paragraph or perhaps a chapter in the whole book. Would you want someone judging you by your mistakes? Of course not, and thankfully, Jesus Christ offers each one of us a story of redemption. Aren't you glad that God in His great love, thought about you, looked down the corridor of time and saw every scheme of the devil, every person that would hurt and betray you, every wrong turn, every failure…and THEN wrote His plan for your life? It's amazing to think about, but God stands outside of time and sees the entire picture. He writes history and our life story from the end backwards. He loves us so much that he wrote a plan for our redemption before we were even created, before the world was even formed. A plan for our restoration, healing, success and victory are already in the book. And it's your story. Your story is awesome and really does have a live-on-the-edge-of-your-seat, slam-dunk ending. The crowd cheers and you hear the Lord say, "Welcome home, good and faithful servant." Isn't that great news? That is our magnificent, awesome, creator God. His love is beyond comparison, and beyond our imagination.