"Don't Wait Until It Hurts"

Don’t Wait Until It Hurts
Written and published by Evangelist Gladys M. Mullins
Copyright @ 1991 Library of Congress
Washington D.C.

This book was written for the purpose of educating and motivating both Christian and non-Christians, and to inspire people to understand the bondage and emotional pain that can hold them captive to many daily challenges in life.
          My main purpose in writing this book is to encourage and inspire those that have been hurt or scarred by the cruelty of heartbreak of loved ones, friends, employees or just insensitive people in general. From the infant stages of growth through senior maturing years there is still healing and deliverance available at any age.
          God provided freedom for all once and forever on the cross at Calvary. I have shared many painful and traumatic experiences from some periods of my own personal wounds, and have overcome every obstacle that the enemy has put in my pathway by the Grace of God and the wisdom found in the Bible as my guide for direction.
          It is my desire that this book will be as much of a help to those who read it, and will bring about freedom, and release them from the bondage and prison situations that the devil has kept the victim to in the past. That the teaching and testimony will uplift and encourage them to press their way to victory and excel in everything they set their goal to do.
          I pray that everyone will be blessed and prosper in every area of their being as the information and the Love of God release them from captivity and bondage spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally, past, present, and future as they grow and walk in victory.

“WE WIN”
The Author
Evangelist, Gladys M. Mullins
Don’t Wait Until It Hurts


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special tanks and appreciation is expressed to the following people for their assistance in the publication of this book.

To Joyce Tharp who type and edited the original outlines and material.

To Gail Cervantes who transcribed, type and did the illustrated art work for the Inner healing Seminar Tapes and chapter inserts.

To Gregory Mullins who condensed all the material into the computer for camera ready and print.

To Debra Cowan for the final typing and finishing the hard task of arranging this material and putting it all together for final publication.

And a most special expression of gratitude goes to the special churches, workshops, women’s Christian supporters who encourage me, inspired me, and invited me to hold meetings and seminars across the nation to teach these messages to all people. And to my pastor’s family and special friends, thanks for believing in me, encouraging me & praying for me. When I became weary, your faith stirred mine and boosted my strength.

To God be the Glory. Without His prompting and guidance, I would not have been motivated to share this information.

REFERENCES

THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS BOOK ARE FOUND IN THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE
THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE
THE LIVING BIBLE
AND
THE REVISED STANDARD VERSION BIBLE


TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWARD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES

Chapter One
DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT HURTS
THE BATTLE OF TE MIND
POEM – THE SILENT SUFFERER
THE STRUGGLE WITH GUILT
OVERCOMING EMOTINAL FEAR

Chapter Two
OUTLINE FOR INNER HEALING
SEMINAR
SESSION I – SET THE CAPTIVES FREE
SESSION II – STUDY OF SHEW THYSELF
APPROVED
SESSION III – THE PATH OF LIFE

Chapter Three
THE UNLIMITED LIFE OF CHRIST JESES
THROUGH THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF HIS NAME
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

Chapter Four
THE JOURNEY FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN EPILOGUE

CLOSING POEM


(ILLUSTRATION)

(ILLUSTRATION 2)

(PAGE 7) DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT HURTS

There are three keys to inner healing or what I call the ABC’s of deliverance. They are as follows:

1.          Locate the pain and acknowledge that it is there.
2.          Find out the prescription for the pain and follow it, don’t run form it.
3.          Learn to keep your healing by moving closer to God, i.e. prayer, praise, study of the word.

Locating the problems – To locate the pain we must find out the root of the problem. The root is like a tree – whatever is getting nurtured in our live is what will overcome us. For instance, if we have fear, it is usually the root problem of anxiety or stress.  

Hurt – We are all victims – some are victims to themselves and some are victims to others. A victim is someone who is wounded and experience pain at the hands of a relative, co-worker, etc. Anyone can be used to, cause, or inflict pain.

Oppression and Depression – Has to do with emotions caused by brokenness. Brokenness is a wound in the heart. This can cause problems in the physical body or problems in the mind. People with multiple personalities shield themselves from pain or to take away pain. This is living in a fantasy world. Most people believe these people have a lot of demons but that is not the case – they simply live in a fantasy world.

Schizophrenia – Means having two personalities or tow people living inside one person. These two people’s personalities manifest at different times. These are spirits and can be controlled by therapy or medicine.

Demons – Demonic creatures or familiar spirits are another problem. These are beings from the spiritual realm of darkness that influence us from the outside and cause certain behavior patterns.

The Prescription – In dealing with demonic forces, one must have deliverance which means something needs to be cast out of you.
          In dealing with mental problems involving created beings the person has fantasized, it will take inner healing because all you are doing is covering up reality by fantasizing. The person must learn to face reality.
          Another prescription for inner healing is breaking up the fallow ground which is the stony ground or walls we build around our hearts. The human being has built-in defense mechanisms to put up walls. We must search ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the walls and what caused the problem in the first place.
          One of the ways the Hold Spirit works is by revealing something to us before it happens and thereby we can prevent ourselves from receiving a hurt. He always gives us a sign or warning, because he said in the word that he never does anything without letting his children know in advance. We don’t always heed the signs and thus become victims.
          Dreams are another way the hold Spirit can warn us of what is to come. Dreams can be positive or negative. If the dream is negative we must intercede to pull down the strong-holds over the situation, either for ourselves or for another person. If the dream is positive, we must intercede and birth it through until in it manifests. People in certain situations are not strong enough or able to pray for themselves, so God may give the dream to someone else who can intercede for the other person. As you pray for others He will in turn bring someone along to pray for you.
          How to Keep Your Healing = the key to keeping your healing is walking close to god or “walking the Spirit”.  Learn to discern where the attacks are coming from. In dealing with dreams, learn to discern where the dream is coming from and what the dream means. Satan will also bring dreams = sometimes just before God gives you a dream. The purpose of this is to bring fear and to stop what God wants to do in you life. For instance, sometimes God will show you what ministry you going to have – sometimes years before it manifests.
          We must study the Word of God to keep our deliverance. That will teach us how to react when something happens. We can choose to be a victim or a victor. We can then learn how to deal with bitterness, hatred, rejection, attack of unkindness from others, feelings of being worthless. When you walk into a situation that is beyond your control, ask yourself the three questions given at the beginning of this message and then remember what God’s Word says that whatever He reveals He heals. Then we don’t need to fear any situation we come up against.

          When Does The Pain Go Away – This varies with each individual. Everyone has different abilities and grows at a different rate. It depends o you r ability to overcome adversity. It depends on how aggressive you are to strive to reach that higher goal. When you begin to grow and mature in self-confidence, then you will see results.
          You must also be willing to persevere until you see the victory. Remember, every time God is ready to raise us up, Satan wants to slow us down. He does this by getting us to keep our minds on ourselves and our problems. Everything becomes very vivid us and blown out of proportion. But don’t wait to begin to deal with it after it begins to hurt, don’t let it get to the stage.

Scripture reference – Isaiah 61


THE BATTLE OF THE MIND

We all face on a daily basis a constant battle that take place in our minds. The following scriptures address this problem:

Romans 8:7 – The Carnal Mind
II Corinthians 8:12 – The Willing Mind
Philippians 2:5 – The Mind of Christ
Philippians 4:7 – The Peace of God Keeps Us
II Timothy 1:7 – He has given us a Sound Mind, Not Fear

The Four Keys to Victory
1.          Remember God’s Word.
2.          Learn to move when God moves.
3.          Don’t give up.
4.          Let God heal all bitterness – don’t walk in past memories.

Free your mind by keeping your mind stayed on Him so He can heal the bitterness. When we have been hurt, it causes us to walk in unforgiveness and bitterness – which are two of the very things that hinder us from being free. These areas must be ministered to first. It causes us to develop a lack of trust, because we are afraid of being hurt again. We don’t trust ourselves and those that hurt us before, as well as those that are around us. We get into a pattern of running and going into seclusion and end up in more trouble than we started in. We become suspicious, always trying to find out the motive of people who reach out to us.
          In 1980, I rededicated my life to Christ. I grew up as a Baptist, the daughter of a Baptist minister. I learned a lot of traditional things. I had never been to a full gospel church before, but I attended a Vicki Jamison service in September 1998. There I experienced some things that were phenomenal and supernatural. God began to visit me in ways I didn’t understand, but I know it was Him. I went how that night and wrote a nine page testimony. The Lord began to minister some things to me that night, because I had grown up in a very sheltered lifestyle. I came from a very loving family and didn’t know there were evil people in the world. As a result, I was very naïve and confused about a lot of things. So God woke my up in the middle of the night and gave me a poem. This was the first part of my training for inner healing. I didn’t know anything about inner healing at that time. I didn’t ever know what it meant. But, as I was writing, I was getting released and set free from a lot of things I didn’t even know were there. On the following pages you will se how the poem reads.

THE SILENT SUFFERER

I’m a silent sufferer
But I have no pain
For on Calvary’s cross
My Jesus was slain.

But I live in confusion
And emotional frustrations
Trying to conquer
My dual imaginations.

Se sometimes I feel two emotions.
Seems like both at the same time
And I feel like it is driving me
Right out of my mind.

I try express it as best as I can
But only get harder
For people to understand
So I’ll try to explain it
As simple as I can.

Sometimes sad versus happy
While sorrow fights joy
Then I begin to praise God
My faith is released
As I patiently wait for a moment of peace.

But Satan refuses
To bow to defeat
He just turns
For a short retreat.

Then again he returns
Without expression
To destroy my cheer
As he attacks me with a bit of depression

As this battle continues
I begin my confession
This I cry out to Jesus
To make intercession

Then when I feel that
I’m at wit’s end
A gentle voice whispers
Be of good cheer, for you surely win.

So now I ask myself
If I’m crazy or not
For if something is cold
It cannot be hot.

I cannot explain
How tow thoughts at a time
Going opposite ways
Can stay in my mind.

This is only a sample
Of the turmoil in me
As I battle daily
Through prayer I’ll be free.

Up and down
High and Low
Two directions at once
I just cannot go.

Now I turn to my heart
Instead of my head
For this the place
Where my soul is fed.

So as the war inside me
Comes to an end
I need the prayers
Of my Christian friends.

Well, I guess this warfare
Somehow has to end
If I’ll put on God’s armor
And fight till I win.

Amen

As God began pouring out His Spirit, I began dealing with these secret thoughts, but I didn’t know how come to grips with them. I felt like a yo-yo. I was in a time of testing and didn’t know it at the time. I was just coming back into my relationship with Christ and learning some things about the body of Christ. At that time, everybody was encouraging you to study under certain ministers – all the “big name” ministers were having conventions, and for about a year I was running to lat of them. Then, they began fighting against each other, and I became confused. So I had to pull aside because my mind was fixed on all these men. And then they started fighting with one another, so where did that leave me? And whom could I trust? In such situations, the best thing to do is to go before God. Only listen to God, because man is deceiving. That’s why people fall into traps and put men on pedestals, and that’s why they fall when the leader falls. Stop following man.
What happens when something enters the mind is that the thoughts control the emotions and your body. Whatever goes into your thought pattern enters into your spirit, and you begin to start reacting to that. Somebody tells you its cold outside. The fist thing you do is put on your coat before you go out. It could be 100 degrees outside, but you mind immediately says it’s cold outside. Then you start to feel cold. Someone tells you they are cold and all of a sudden you begin to shiver. That is why you have to learn to renew your mind and have the mind of Christ. You need to think the way God thinks. That is why Isaiah says God will keep you in perfect peace if your mind is stayed Him. We need to learn to think about spiritual things. When we learn to think spiritually, then we will learn to react spiritually to natural things.
          We must learn to think in the spirit so we can begin to see the manifestation in the natural.
          Slavery – I’m talking about the slavery that started with Moses. Not the slavery that began in the United States 200 years ago. It started 2,000 years ago when the Egyptians had the Jews in slavery. And do you know what God did? The same thing he is doing today. Everything goes full circle. The Bible repeats itself, and if people just learn to understand it, it would make life much simpler. All these people with high IQ’s and intellect would be able to understand things on a normal, naturally simple level. They wouldn’t have to struggle and fight with things.
          I had a question asked of me the other. “Why are there so few white people coming to the black churches today?” I had never thought about it before, but just figured God sends people where he wants them to be. He is no respecter of persons, and they are just going where the Word is. Then the Lord began to give me revelation on this. When He sends a white person to an all-black church, He has a purpose and plan for them, and what he sends them there for is to learn what the purpose or plan is. It all goes back to Exodus. Now, Moses was born a Hebrew. But Moses was raised by Pharaoh. He was raised like a prince in the king’s home. He had everything. He served in their army and learned all their strategies. Then God sent him to his people to set them free from the things he learned how to set them free from. So you say, “What am I doing in this church?” Obviously you have a people you need to reach, and until you learn what it is to set them free, you will never be able to reach them.
          God began to reveal to me we have a lot of intellectual people in all races, but especially in the Caucasian race. Many cannot understand simple things. They can’t understand how the average black person can go through all kinds of persecutions and sufferings and still praise God joyfully. This is beyond them. As slaves in Egypt, that was all they were able to do is praise God, they didn’t have another choice. That was their only release, the only peace and comfort they had. So they would praise God in everything, through everything, not for everything. And they never told Him “Lord, do it tomorrow.” They just said, “Here we are, we are yours. We are depending on you.” It took 400 years, but He got them through.
          Today we have this intellectual mentality that says everything has to be done yesterday, right now. God is too slow. Then people get angry when it doesn’t happen and say God is not answering their prayer. But he does things for everybody else. Stop and think about that. How do you know what HE is doing for everybody else when you don’t live with everybody else? All you know is what you se on the surface. You see someone else walking down the street looking joyful, but you don’t really know what is going on in his or her life. They may be in excruciating pain. You say, “But they are not going through what I am right now.” How do you know that they haven’t already been through it or will have to go through it somewhere down the road? You can be sure that sometime in everyone’s life they will have to go through many trials.
          Now God has justified us and all He requires is two things= obedience and service. He didn’t ask us for anything else. And the ultimate requirement is to love Him and love one another.
          The problem with many intellectual persons is the attitude that they have it all together and that they are the only persons on earth. When you try to show them something simple, they fall apart because they can’t figure out why simple things are so simple. Everything has to be computerized in their minds before they can understand it. They have the attitude toward God “Why did you create me imperfect? I’m perfect and all the people in the world are idiots. How can I survive when everyone around me is so dumb?” But we must learn we are in a war, and the battle is in the mind. And we must stop trying to figure God out. He never told us to figure Him out, but to just love, trust and obey Him.
          We are all victims of something. When we realize we are not the only ones going through something, we will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. No matter what you are going through, someone else has already been through it, whether it is in you generation or another one. Study the people in the Bible. Get acquainted with them because they are all you relatives. They passed personality traits onto you. Be ready for the. Be ready to go through patience as Job did. Learn how to be in prison like Joseph. Be ready to go through a foreign land like Moses and Abraham. God puts some people in certain environments at an early age to train them and then sends them back to their own people. Others are sent at a later age. Moses was sent as a baby to Pharaoh. Abraham was grown when he was sent. And God never told Abraham where he was going just go. Many people with strong intellects can’t function this way. They have to know exactly where they are going and when. God never told us to question Him.
          If He opens a door, He knows why He is opening it. We have to stop trying to be God and trying to help God.
          Our biggest problem is trying to help God. Either h is not moving fast enough or He missed something along the way. Why do we have that attitude when God created us and knows exactly what is going to be happening to us and when. We grow old and weary more quickly by wondering about these things. It doesn’t change one thing. You can’t change God. You can only change you. We feel guilty as though we are in sin, and that is why He is not answering our prayer. But this is wrong thinking. When He went to Calvary he justified, sanctified, purified and made you whole. Therefore, you are guiltless before Him.
          Stop accusing yourself all the time, stop carrying the excess baggage of guilt around. God did not put us here without equipping us. He never puts you in a situation where He doesn’t have the answer. He never puts you in a job unless he has a reason or purpose or season for it. People say they don’t like their jobs. You asked Him for a job and he gave you one, but you hate it. He didn’t tell you that you have to like it. That is not what you are there for. You are there for His purpose = learn something to teach somebody something.
          Possibly to be an example – to let your light shine. When you put God first and start worshipping Him, you won’t worry about the job. He will give you peace. You say, “Well, I praise Him and get a high, but then I come down into the dumps again?” You are praising Him for the wrong reasons. He didn’t say to praise Him for a high, but to praise Him because you love Him.
          Victims of this dysfunctional situation, what I call intellectual handicapped or cripple, have to think everything through. There has to be a reason for everything and they have to try to figure that reason out. So they can’t just praise God. They have to praise Him because they need the rent paid or a husband, ect. When it doesn’t happen the way they want, they get mad at God. A lady told me she had been fasting for several things and didn’t get an answer. But, Isaiah tell the fast is for five things, to break the yoke of bondage, heal the brokenhearted, give sight to the blind, heal the bereaved, and look the bands of wickedness. That’s all it tells you about fasting and payer. So when we fast we don’t always know what it is for. Fasting is designed for three purposes. First to teach you discipline. When you learn to deny the flesh and push yourself away from the table and spend time in the presence of God, you learn discipline. Second, you learn how to mature and grow spiritually. When you spend time in God’s presence you will get the revelation, knowledge and wisdom He wants you to have. The third thing is for your promotion. When you learn to discipline yourself and grow in the spirit, God is going to promote you. We have the misconception that every time we want something we should go one fast. But first of all you don’t just jump up and start fasting. You will find yourself in physical trouble. You fast when God calls you to fast. Or when the burden of intercession or warfare come upon you to fast, not when you decide you to fast and pray and change your job, etc. You will come out the same way you went it, and then you will be mad at God when things don’t change. So, when will we learn to think the way God thinks?
          Jesus was the most intellectual person on earth. Yet He was simple. He could be anything anywhere. That’s why he created everybody in such variety. That’s why He didn’t create everyone with a 170 IQ. That’s why there is a balance in everything. It is because we all need each other. I couldn’t figure out why God was bringing so many intellectual cripples to me over the last two or three years. It was for balance. There has to be a key of balance between the two. Otherwise, they could never see things from a natural simple standpoint.
          Some in the body of Christ are emotional cripples. They have been so wounded and so hurt that they have stopped growing. They need a lot of encouragement, nursing and nurturing. They need to just learn how to sit down and slow down and turn some things around in the biological clock they have ticking away in their brain. They need to reprogram their computer because they are usually victims of their own selves. They bring on their own problems and accuse everybody else of attacking them. They are afraid of their own shadows. They always feel they are wrong about things or that someone is trying to make them feel they are wrong about things. When you try to talk to them and encourage them, they got on the defensive and think you are attacking them. They live in a fantasy world and think they are super special beings created above everyone else. Then you have the other side. The victims that are emotionally scarred and feel they can never accomplish anything; these are the victims with a low self-esteem.
          When we think wrong we respond wrong. That’s why the Bible says to guard you mind. Renew your mind, reprogram you computer. Everything you need has been made available to you. Years ago when I started into my ministry training I couldn’t figure out why God sent me to all white churches when I grew up in a pastor’s home. When the question was asked of me about black churches not having many white people, I realized why I was sent to white churches. The black people have so much faith in God they can walk by faith all the time no matter what because they were programmed to. Because of slavery they know who god is and trust Him and love him no matter what. So they have roots everybody needs. But the ting they are lacking is education. So the Lord sent me to white churches to learn all my information and education spiritually because that is where the high intellects are. Now my assignment is to go back to my own people and teach them. They know about preaching, gospel singing and praise. But they don’t know the Word. They need to know the Word. So I had to go to the other camp to learn and then bring it back to my people.
          That’s why you will find a few white people come into black churches, because God is trying to show them some things about emotions and how to trust God. Wherever God sends you is for your training for the people you are with. So don’t ever feel out of place.
          People tell me they feel out of place because they don’t understand a different culture. I’m getting ready to go to Puerto Rico, and I don’t know anything about Puerto Ricans. But I am no concerned, because I know God, and I know why I am going there. I’m going to do what He trained me to do to set the captive free. They have so much witchcraft and voodooism there. I found out before by going into the other camp how ever ministers will come against you with witchcraft. They will try to destroy you. They will backbite and cut you. I have developed a close relationship with a minister, but it fell apart due to witchcraft. I didn’t know why I had to go through it at first, but later I found out that it was because the Lord was teaching me some things.
          Pharaoh and Moses had a close relationship, but God had to separate them teach them to function the way they were to supposed to for their own people. We have to learn by experience. Most people don’t understand that when God is training you, you will have to go through every experience it takes to get you to the top. No doubt Joseph didn’t like at all what he had to go through. He was imprisoned for something he didn’t do, just because somebody didn’t like his dream and his clothes. But he stayed there until God set him free. And while he sat there he learned. When he came out of prison he went straight to the throne because he had his training. He didn’t have to come out and go back to school. He was trained in the circumstances.
          So we have to stop feeling guilty about the things we experience, and stop trying to figure God out, and get out of the way and let Him do what he wants to do. When we learn how to let go, we can overcome everything. There is nothing you can’t overcome when you know you are going to let God handle it. If you try to help Him, you will get in deeper and deeper and will be more hurt and wounded. Also, don’t be envious if you are still being trained and He is sending other out. Just praise Him because maybe you aren’t ready to do what He wants you to do. It will be easier if you wait until he is done molding and shaping you.
          When Moses went out, Joshua followed him and observed. He didn’t have to do anything but observe and be a servant. Moses had to do all the work and get all the persecution. Moses is the one they wanted to kill because he didn’t come back when they though he should. He went up to the mountain and deserted them they said. First of all they had too much of themselves hanging on Moses. He was their leader hut wasn’t their God. Moses did all the hard work to get them thorough the Red Sea. And then it was Joshua’s turn to get them to Canaan. So if somebody else seems to be moving up faster than you, you better be thanking God for it because that means they will be out there in the middle of that battle you won’t have to be in. When your turn comes to pick up the mantle, it will be a little easier to get your group through. So start training and getting ready for it and be patient and not jealous or envious.
          God has a certain plan for you. And remember everybody is different. Everybody has a different calling and a different ability to fulfill their calling. So don’t try to do what everybody else is doing anyway.
          Insecurity comes with guilt. Whenever we walk around with guilt, it causes a terrible insecurity, because we don’t have any confidence in ourselves and we mistrust everybody and have faith in nobody or God. And when this happens we are always victims of something or someone because everything that happens, we either blame ourselves or they blame us for it. Then we learn to become loners or introverts because we are afraid of being hurt, and we don’t want to be attacked or accused. But you must learn that if God is going to use, you must learn to be used, abused, or persecuted and whatever else it take because you will never be able to be used the Master’s table unless you go through what it takes to get there. Nobody is just going to skate through and end up on top on the throne without going through the battle. The first thing I do when I witness to anyone is tell them to go buy a Bible and a military manual they can study the strategy of the enemy, because they are now in the army of God, then enemy is going to throw everything he has at you. And you say will I’ve been going through it for years and nobody else is going through this but me. But everyone will have to go through the fire and theirs may be more devastating to them than yours is to you. We feel as though we have the worst trial. But the Bible says to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. And where did he go? Places where they threw stones at Him and pulled His beard and cursed Him.
          So what makes us think we will be free from persecution and trials? The only time that will change is when we get to heaven. So I will conclude by challenging you to build your relationship with God and not with man and with self. Most of your intellectual people build up their own ego and image by pushing themselves to that level. Then when they get up there they don’t know how to get down. It’s almost like climbing on top of a ladder and you don’t know what’s next. Miss-know-It-All doesn’t know how to get off the roof and it’s so simple she can’t figure it out. It’s not complicated enough. So the challenge is to learn to think like Christ and the only way you can do that is to get to know him and study His Word.
          As you learn about Him you will begin to learn to understand His character, His nature and personality which is what you have to learn to develop in you. So go ahead and start your journey from Egypt to Canaan by reading the scriptures and learn about your roots, because you will be stopping to see a lot of relatives along the way; they won’t all be good relatives. You will run across some Jezebels and some Sauls. Don’t think you are perfect, because you have some of both sides in you.
          These things will come out sooner or later, so you might as well start dealing with them now. Otherwise, you might get up on that high horse thinking you have arrived and that negative trait might show up then. So, in conclusion, to be set free from false guilt you need to come out of the world of make-believe and face the real world. Know there is going to be pain, suffering and persecutions. We have the advantage because we find out by reading the end of the book that we win. And you know that when you are in the army, you don’t have a choice whether you want to fight or not. Everything is total discipline. They strip you of everything, including your identity. You become a number. They cut your hair the way they want and give you a uniform you might not like. But when we come to God, He says the same thing. “I’m going to make you Me.” Then we fuss and holler, “I don’t want to do this and I don’t want to be like them.” Why is it that we will let man control us and tell us what to do, but we don’t want to let God do that? We want Him to do everything for us.
          We have to get down to learning how to think normal, simple and normal. If we can let a boss tell us what to do, why can’t we let God tell us these things? Why do we rebel against Him when he tries to get us to do simple things? All he says is be yourself. But we always want to more than ourselves. Why? If He wanted us to learn more ourselves, He would have made us more than ourselves. He made us the way he wants us, and he wants us to learn to be satisfied with ourselves. When we learn this, we can overcome our insecurities and this baggage of excess guilt we carry – and we start moving and growing and seeing what’s ahead for us. Start training for the position He is calling you into and then your will be able to overcome and have a victorious life.

THE STRUGGLE WITH GUILT

So many people are in bondage to so many things, and in prison, and most of them don’t even know they are victims or that they are in prison. The Lord opened up the year with me doing a revival. And in that revival I taught nine sessions on a journey from Egypt to Canaan. So we have been going along most of the year ministering on different areas of the journey, and we find that the more we uncover the more freedom we have and the more we learn about our true heritage in the spirit. We have to realize that not only does Moses take a journey representing us, but we have to take a journey for ourselves and for our loved ones. The only difference is the fact that Moses made the journey first, which was setting a basis for our lives and the things we need.
          We will begin by going over things I have covered already and tie them into today’s session. I taught last week on the “Battle of the Mind” and teaching on “Don’t Wait Until It Hurts,” where we talked about emotional traumas and scars, things that abused us and caused us to have what I like to call emotional and spiritual handicaps. We look at the world and see physically handicapped people. We feel sorry for them, but we don’t see that we ourselves and those around us are just as handicapped people. We feel sorry for them, but we don’t see that we ourselves and those around us are just as handicapping more ways sometimes that those physically handicapped people. The difference is that physically handicapped people don’t have control over their handicaps. It was put upon them without them being a willing participant or vessel. We have control over ours, especially those who have a little more education and information about the things of life. However, sometimes it is to our disadvantage to be intellectual. Some people have such a high IQ, they can’t think simply and don’t know how to use common sense. Everything has to be out of reach for them and way off in another realm. They then wind up in trouble because they are trying to things they are not qualified to do because they think they are overqualified for everything. And they don’t know how to reach out to God.
          In this session, I will deal with the problem of guilt, our excess baggage. We have trouble with guilt because we allow ourselves to fall victim to it. We are always trying to find some way or something to justify our actions or ourselves. This puts us into a realm of guilt that is false responsibility. We are not guilty of anything after we cross Calvary, because the Word says God took our guilt and shame on that tree.
          So the brethren get accused of everything and falls into a trap Satan has for them. The Word says Satan is the accuser of the brethren. But we don’t have to take it and run with it and pour it on ourselves. Victims are always trying to be made to them. “It’s your fault.” When in reality the victim is never guilty. I can prove this by bringing you back to Genesis when we started this journey in the winter of life when everything was cold and dark and terrible.
          The Israelites were in bondage and they didn’t put themselves in slavery. Slaves don’t have control over their lives. They are in bondage against their will. But they taught me something for this last decade that I really had to study, because I see something in the churches today and in life today.
          The only way we will be able to come out of bondage as Israel did is to do as they did. No matter what was put upon them they kept one thing, a love for God. They didn’t have to touch of feel Him or have Him standing there. They believed He was and trusted him. No matter what happened their hope was always in Him. Today we put our hope in man, circumstances, material things, money and position. When we hope in all these false things, we end up as victims.
          The scripture references for this text are as follows: Romans 8:14, Romans 8:27, Hebrew 4:12 and 16, Hebrews 2:15, and II Corinthians 10:4 & 5 (King James Version).
          The key scripture for freedom is “casting down vain imaginations.” Guilt comes from negative thoughts and most of these thoughts have come from something somebody has said or accused you of. First of all the Bible says that God has justified you and sanctified you so you have no reason to feel guilty. So every time a thought comes that is not in line with the Word and Will of God, then you have to cast it down. It didn’t say that He will cast it down, that is your job. So if you want to free yourself from guilt, then you will have to cast down those vain imaginations.
          Guilt can cause you to be dysfunctional. We have a lot of things we go through, and we don’t understand. The first thing we do is wonder why God is picking on us. Lord, why me? How come nobody else has to go through this? I don’t understand you, Lord. I asked you for this and that and you didn’t answer. I need it tomorrow. But we have to go back and look at what the word says. Your whole example, your whole pattern of freedom, is in your exodus in your journey from Egypt to Canaan.
          Struggles that go on in the battle of the mind. Struggles usually go on in the mind because we are not informed, educated or motivated. Without information we have no direction for our lives. We then become open targets to those who have manipulating, controlling spirits. The reason why we struggle with everything we want to do is because we can’t make up our minds. We are listening to too many voices. Then we get confused. The first sign of confusion makes us stop and think. God is not the author of confusion, so you better find out if it is coming from a different source other than God. When you determine where it is coming from, it is time for you to do something about it. One of the most important keys to deliverance is the discerning of spirits. God has the gifts and has imparted them to us. But we can only use them as he severally wills when we are in right standing with Him.
          Unless you are walking in a relationship with him in His presence and under the anointing, you won’t learn how to discern anything. Unless you have discernment, you will be deceived. To overcome deception you must be discerning (when you walk in the spirit to where you can learn to discern the things of the spirit, then you know ahead of time what is going on). For instance, the battle of the mind is between God and Satan, and we just happed to be in the middle, the one being walked on. And we have to make the decision. God is always trying to get us to think His thoughts, and Satan is always trying to get us to do his will. We have to decide which one we are going to do.
          When we get into a situation where someone says something bad about us, God says love and forge that person and keep on going. Satan says hate that person, gossip about that person and try to get ever. We get confused because we want our emotions to be released and want to be vindicated. God never told us to be back at that person. Psalm 26 says God will vindicate. If we stay out of the way and stop doing God’s job, we can be free a lot sooner. But we walk around in our emotions. We walk around feeling these things, and the more we feel them, the angrier we get. Anger is an emotion. You can’t be at peace when you are angry, because you are tormented.
So learn to think like God, so you can react like God. That is what is all about when you go to Calvary. When a baby is born into this world, they are born with all the characteristics and nature of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents on both side of the family, whether they know them or not. Soon or later these traits are going to manifest themselves. Sometimes traits will bypass one, two or ever three generations.
And people say, “I don’t understand why that child acts the way they do – nobody else in the family acts that way.” It’s because it’s a generational trait that came from somewhere in the past. What they don’t understand is that same characteristic is in all of them. It just never manifested in their generation.
For instance, you can have a teenager who is a straight ‘A’ honor student, very good in everything, and yet he can have a sister or brother that is almost an imbecile. Both come from the same home, get the same amount of love, and get the same treatment, but both have different personalities. One teenager may decide he is going to be the scholastic person in the family. His thoughts are “I can achieve.” The other one feels he can do anything he wants to do, and he decides he wants to be a rebel or a rocker or whatever. There is actually the same ability to make the same choice in both individuals that comes from somewhere in past generations. It is a matter of development and a battle of the mind. A lot of time the parents program them from when they are little. When the first born comes into the world, the family may be very proud of him and say this child is going to be a doctor or a lawyer.
They feed the child’s mind this thought. The next child comes along and the parents don’t care as much about it because they already have their doctor or lawyer and don’t spend as much time with this one as the other one. So the younger one is left on his own and begins to feel he can’t live up to the older one. So he begins to find his own self. And his own self is always just the opposite of what he has sitting before him. Somehow the opposite of what he is striving for is someplace in his past and is being developed in him in the negative realm.
Then people begin to wonder, what happened to my child. He was so good when he was little. Also, there are a lot of false responsibilities children take on themselves. If you do a study on sibling you will find that children that are only children are very strong-willed most of the time because they have been pampered, given everything and made to feel they are the only ones on the face of the earth and everything is theirs. They begin to start believing that and start wanting to see that come to pass. They start also becoming very confused, because they have a false sense of responsibility. Too much is put on them too soon and too much is expected of them. They are striving and don’t know who they are. They are trying to achieve somebody else’s goal. Mom and Dad want them to do this, and Grandma wants this, Grandpa wants that, and pretty soon they don’t know what they are supposed to do.
They try to please everybody and become emotional wrecks. So they have a battle of the mind. These examples have been from the human standpoint but there are also things that happen from the spiritual standpoint. We have things happen to us through cults, witchcraft, seducing spirits, etc. What’s happening in these days is that the Bible repeats itself. Everything that has happened from the beginning of it until the end of time goes full circle every so many hundreds of years. In our case, it is almost 2,000 years already. But you will have to remember, if you will learn from what I said in tape #1, go back to Genesis and start reading your Bible to where you can understand your heritage, you will find yourself reading the daily news. Everything happening in the world today is at some place in the Bible. Nothing happens today that hasn’t already happed in Bible history. Everything that is going on with AIDS and homosexuality is the same thing that went on in today’s’ paper comes right out of the book of Genesis. All the things going on with politics and the New Age movements were going on when Saul was trying to take over everything. And by reading the Bible we will know the outcome of different situations. If people don’t stop sinning, they will perish. Because God told them to repent and He would turn things around. They have a choice. You have people who will control your mind through spiritual witchcraft. They think their thoughts for you and decide to purpose and plan these things and draw you be manipulation and control of your spirit. They seduce you with all kinds of things. People don’t realize that voodooism and witchcraft are very powerful spirits. And that is something you need to be delivered of, you don’t need inner healing for this kind of problem. These spirits have to be cast out because they are transmitted and transferred to you through different means.
Points of contact can be from objects such as souvenirs from the Middle East. I suggest you pray over the object and anoint it and break every curse over it before you cross the border with it. Many hands have probably touched it and all those hands were under many gods. Then you bring into your home and you don’t know what you bringing in. All of a sudden certain things start happening in your home, and it is because of the spirits you brought in through the object.
Some of those countries do a lot of witchcraft over things they make so they can enter into America and oppose the spirit of God, particularly place like India.
A religious spirit is a very dangerous spirit because it is a cultural spirit which people have never broken in America today, because people have been deceived into believing it is a Christian spirit. They claim they talk to the Hold Spirit or holy god but it is a religious spirit. That is why you find so many people with Indian backgrounds are automatically usually a victim of certain types of controlling spirits. They will either become manipulators or become controlled by someone because that has been genetically transmitted though the cultural bloodlines and most of them don’t even know it. You will also find these families begin to use witchcraft on one another. They study and practice voodooism in their household to use to their advantage. If they don’t know how to cast a certain spell, they will call on the older members of the family who are more experienced in these matters. It is all mind control.
There are also territorial spirits in the United States where people of certain ethnic backgrounds feel they control territory, and no one else is allowed to invade their territory. Some are Hispanic territorial spirits or some are Oriental. To this day and ever since I have lived in this area, the Orientals will not sell their homes to anyone other than their own kind. But we must start having the mind of Christ and not let these spirits control us.
The reason we become victims is because we let our minds program our spirits and our bodies react to tit also. Realize that people are always going to want to keep you one step under them when they are manipulators and controllers. It is called the Absalom spirit. He wanted to take the throne from his father David and didn’t care who he killed, even his own father. Saul was the same way. He started out being a good king but pride rose up and he became like Lucifer. He decided he was going to be everything and became a madman because he wanted to be in control not just of the army but of everybody and everything. It was greed and pride. These are the things that put men in a position where they want to have control. And you will find from doing a study on these people that they have been rejected, so they want to prove they can be on top and have anything they want and do anything they want. They don’t care what it takes to get there because they have no self-worth. They are searching for a self-image that they like and can only see it when they are in control.
I did a message a few months ago called “Power or Popularity.” You can’t have both if you walk with God. If you are walking in the spirit on God’s path, you are not going to be popular you won’t have any power unless you walk in Satan’s ground. That‘s only place it goes hand in hand. But you must earn it by doing whatever he assigns you do. And you don’t need popularity there, because everyone is so willing to do what he says to do because they are under his control.
So, the thing we must remember in the battle of the mind is we’re all created for a purpose. God knew before he created us we’re all created for a purpose. God knew before He created us what we were going to be and what we were going to do. Until we learn what that purpose is and strive for its fulfillment, we have not accomplished the reason we are here. And unless we have accomplished what we are here for, we have wasted God’s time and our time. He didn’t put us here to fill up space. We go through pity parties and want to commit suicide, but there is no place in the Bible that tells us we have that right. He is the giver of life and He is the only one who can take it away. The devil came to steal, kill and destroy, but God came to give life and give it more abundantly.
          Ecclesiastics says there is a time and a season for everything. I said earlier in the beginning of this message that only God knows the time. People get upset with God because he does something a little faster for one person than he does for you. Or they get upset because he tells them something through a vision or a prophet, and it doesn’t happen tomorrow. When we start seeing God as a parent to little children like we are, we will understand God much better. Our problem is that we don’t understand God. We want him to be a push-button microwave God. That is not what he was created for.
Our children have to go through certain steps before they are ready to go out on their own and we have to realize we are the same way. We are his children and have to get things from him the same way our children get thins from us. First we must have respect for him and love and honor and worship him. That’s how kids get things from their parents. But we want to program God. “God you promised me this and that. And I don’t see anything happening.” But God knows when He is going to do it and it doesn’t matter whether you see anything happening or not! The fact that He promised it to you should be enough. We just need to thank him for it.
He pre-ordained everything for you before he put you here. He knows everything you are going to do and when you are going to do it.
So you can’t tell Him what to do and when to do it. Just walk in His plans and purposes, and He will do what he promised faster than you think because you won’t be thinking about it all the time. This brings us back to the battle of the mind. You think that everything works on your timetable. Oh Lord, I need this and that and I need it right now! First of all we should determine what our needs are. The Word tells us that we have need of food, clothing and shelter. We get our needs mixed up with our wants. He will give you your wants if you stop yelling at Him about your needs. We get confuse and mad at God for not giving us what we thought was a need. But God is already meeting your needs and he been for all of you life. He does that whether you belong to Him or not. Now your wants are a bonus. So you can ask Him for anything you want but if you meet the conditions that it takes to fulfill His promise, then He will meet your wants also. We must learn to think on the things of God and with the mind of Christ. When we learn to have the battle of the mind turned around to where we think God’s thoughts and think on the spiritual things, then we can see things manifested in the natural. Nothing will happen on this earth while you are her unless it is birthed into being by prayer, because everything starts in the spirit and has to come forth in the natural. It starts behind the scenes. Conception starts behind the scenes, but you have to birth it through. You have nine months to get ready to birth a baby. It is the same parallel with spiritual things. If you have a goal or vision or something you want God to do, put it before God and begin to fast and pray and worship God and you will see it manifest. You can’t just sit down and say I want to see this and that happen and go about your business and wait for God to knock on your door and say, “Okay Honey, here it is.” No, you must spend time birthing it through.
The problem with Christians today is they think that because they belong to God they don’t have to do anything. I’m on a gravy train, and God will do it all. But he tells you that you have an assignment (everyone has an assignment). Everything He promises has conditions. He will let you know what the conditions are that He requires. You say, “That’s not fair.” But the Word says He rains on the just and the unjust. He didn’t say He was going to be fair. When we expect God to do everything and don’t want to do our part, our faith begins to deplete. And without faith it is impossible to please God. The reason he gave us a condition is to build our faith. If we start striving to meet our part of the condition for the promise, then our faith grows and builds to a point where God can perform the promise.
So remember that first of all in order to have the hurts healed from the past, you need to deal with the battle of the mind. Get the thought in a neutral position because you have to remember Satan will always program you to negative things. He is always going to be tormenting, harassing and bringing up things to remind you of the pain. Each time He brings you a situation or circumstance that reminds you of pain, or trauma you have already been through, you are going to have to start dealing with the mind because the first thing you are going to think is how you are going to retaliate.
Evil thoughts rise up. Bitterness and anger creeps up: unforgiveness, strife, ect. So keep those thoughts from controlling you. When those thoughts rise up, begin to think like Christ. Lord, I forgive them. Lord, I love them. Then He will help you overcome and that’s the only way you will overcome. Only be the grace and mercy of God can you forget your past and move on. Everything you have been through was for a reason and a season. It was to help you grow whether you like it or not. It may not have been pleasant but you must remember there are two sides of everything. All life is parallel. If you are going through a spiritual walk it won’t be a bed of roses, because you are going to walk through the same life that Jesus walked through. It was not pleasant. He was born in pain and died in pain because He came to take your pain. He left us His Spirit, and those who choose are going to walk the same way he walked. We have one thing we should be thankful for, that we don’t have to hang on a cross. But we can’t escape the other things that are in the realm of growth. He went to the cross for us once and for all, and therefore we don’t have to carry that cross; and some of us are still carrying it with him on it and that makes it heavier. But He isn’t on the cross anymore. He is free and wants us to be free also.

OVERCOMING EMOTIONAL FEAR

Philippians 4:8 will help you to walk in your freedom. Most of our fears come from the realm of the spirit because God did not give us the spirit of fear. He gave us spirit of love, power, and a sound mind. He can only give you what He was, and what he wants to give you is His nature, His character and His ability.
I talked earlier about our false responsibility and different things we blame ourselves for, lack of this and that how we need to learn to grow in certain areas and overcome certain things. So we have to remember on thing, the whole object of this life is that God created us in His image, so when we talk about change, we’re not to change ourselves to be like other people or what other people want us to be, or to look like somebody else or function like somebody else, but what we must try to do is become like Him. So when He tells you to change, He wants you to substitute your old habits or ways for his ways. If he created us in His image then we are all supposed to be representing Him. We are to show his abilities and personality to those around us. We can’t show them to others until we have them. We can’t have them until we know them. So how do we find out? Philippians 4:8 – Think on good things.
We go around criticizing and judging. But the Lord is the judge, and He says he judges or justifies. He didn’t tell you that was your assignment or any part of your assignment. There are a lot of Christians that all they know how to do is pick apart and pull apart. Sound like a junkyard. Pick-a-part, go ahead and pick the part you need and build what you want. The Bible says when you criticize and judge, it comes back on you. Did you notice when you point a finger at someone you have two fingers pointing at the person, but you also have three fingers pointing back at you. So remember that the next time you start pointing. We can always find fault with others, but we’re perfect. And we always have to be perfect. Do you know why? Society! They tell us that we have to be this and that. We have to achieve. They program us so we push ourselves hard to attain and become accepted. I know people with four and five degrees and can’t get a simple job or any kind of job. All that education and years of studying and struggling and they can’t get a job. Then you have those who have never been to school getting the high positions. They can’t even speak English; they can’t speak intelligently at all. Why? Because God put them in a place where they humbled themselves to do what he wants done. And they are not concerned whether anyone likes the way they talk or whether they have been to school. If they can handle the word, they will get the job.
The Bible says that God will give it to you if he can get it through you. He called Moses. And Moses said, “I can’t talk.” God told him to go out anyway and that Aaron would do the talking for him. You have no excuses. God didn’t tell you that you had to be perfect. The only perfect person in the world is he. You are going to be perfect when you get to heaven, but you won’t be perfect on this side because he is perfecting you on this side so you will be perfect on that side. There are no imperfections in heaven. So when you make up your mind you are going to be perfect here, you are in emotional bondage, an intellectual cripple. You don’t leave room for error or failure. You only expect perfection. This cause you to always be miserable and also you begin to make others around you miserable because misery loves company. You find that people who are dysfunctional don’t want anyone else to function right. When they are around someone God is using, they begin to attack. “How can God use the, they don’t even do this and they don’t even do that.” First of all, that’s not your responsibility or your business. God knows what they do and don’t do. If He is still cleaning His fish while He’s using them, that’s His business. Your intellectual mind tells you they have to be perfect before God can use them. If He uses them before you think they are ready, then you get angry with God and the person He is using also.
God is just what you are. And He loves being everything, likes to be free and wants you be free. If it takes laughter or dancing or raising your hands or whatever, do whatever it takes to get free. And don’t put yourself in bondage because somebody else is getting free. We criticize and say, “Oh, she’s just doing that for attention.” If you really wanted to be free you wouldn’t be sitting there worrying about what the other person is doing to get free. You’ll do whatever it takes to get you free. Psalms 26 says “Dismiss all the charges against me Lord, for I have tried to keep your laws and have trusted you without wavering. Cross-examine me Lord and see that this is so; test my motives and affections too. For I have taken your loving-kindness and your truth as my ideals. I do not have fellowship with tricky, two-faced men; they are false and hypocritical. I hate the sinners’ hangouts and refuse to enter them. I wash hands to prove my innocence and come before your altar, singing a song of thanksgiving and telling about your miracles.”
See, God will vindicate us. It doesn’t matter what people say about you or to you. God says learn divine indifference to handle everything that comes your way because I’m taking it, I know the truth and it doesn’t matter what they say, I know it. Don’t let everything people say and do offend you because that’s when you become an emotional cripple. It is words of unkindness that puts us in an emotional trip where we revert to become bound by fear. Fear of being rejected. Fear of being persecuted, of being talked about, of being lied to. All of these come from the emotional realm due to thought Satan puts on us. Satan uses any vessel. Micah 6 & 7 gives us specifics on this. You can’t trust man, you can’t trust anyone. The world tells you that the one you love hurts you the most. This is a true cliché. They love you so much and they want the best for you and they don’t know how to bring it about so they will attack you when they see it coming and hey will attack you when they see it coming and they didn’t get it for you. They get envious because they feel it is their responsibility to see that you get it and when it comes from any other source they can’t handle it.
Satan is the author of fear and will try everything he can to keep you in bondage. Fear is how you get into slavery. It is how you become victims or crippled. So he sets everything in motion that is negative, oppressing, and depressing. And as soon as you open that door you’ve picked it up and it has become your warden a controlling force. Now the intellectual thinks he is so perfect and builds himself up to the point that I call them people with the “Lucifer spirit.” They get so prideful and arrogant that they can have no humility. They are walking on a cloud, a make believe cloud and they are on top of everything. But they are never in control. They are always frustrated, full of anxiety, tense and stressed out because they are trying to be in control of their lives and everybody else’s around them, and God is saying to them “Let go and let Me.” If you can’t handle your own circumstances, what makes you think you can handle other people’s? That’s why He is training you to learn to let go.
The Lord shared with me that a lot of people need to learn certain things about overcoming in all areas. And one is this. When a person has a high intellect, because they have been trained to think and reason everything out, they have no ability to have emotional feeling. They have no compassion and can’t relate to you when you are going through something and you tell them and you tell them you are having a problem. So they get angry with you. Their logic tells them you did something wrong. That’s where false guilt comes from.
If you had a brain you could do this and that and this wouldn’t have happened to you. They don’t have simple knowledge to understand that there are emotional feelings that come. They are not in touch with their emotions and don’t even understand they are in bondage to this. They are prisoners and don’t even know it. Most victims know they are prisoners. But intellectuals don’t even know or understand they have a problem. So they can’t deal with it. The first step to overcoming is to acknowledge you need help. If you walk into a doctor’s office and are in pain but you can’t tell him where it hurts, how will he be able to help you? The whole thing to inner healing is that you have to be able to diagnose, prescribe and treat. But all the intellectual knows is he has to be in control, they need to manipulate and control to make sure everything works the way they think it should. They are afraid they will be left out of things, so they begin to manipulate. That’s how they get attention.
Now the physically handicapped person doesn’t need to try to get attention. All they do is sit down and they have attention and they have no choice I the matter. But the emotional and intellectual cripples have to do something. They have to perform to be recognized and acknowledged. So most of the time they do just the opposite of what they should be doing. They are always creating havoc because they won’t be noticed any other way. They do this because they feel rejected and alone and that nobody cares for them. Their minds are too way out there to realize all they have to do is sit down and talk to people to establish a relationship. They have such low self-esteem and feel they are different and nobody wants to be around the. They are no different buy they just think they are different than others. It’s really a blinding spirit and we have to pray for them, because most of them don’t want to be victims like this but don’t know how to overcome it. They have to learn not to build a one-sided relationship where they control and plan everything. One of the most important personality traits of these people is they are very self-centered and selfish. It’s not because they want to be but somewhere in their past they have had a lot of rejection. They are threatened by everything that comes along in their relationships. They finally begin to socialize with the people in the congregation and feel they now have someone to talk to and be with and then someone else walks up to their new friend and says “Well hello, Sister,” and right away they begin to feel threatened. “You are taking my friend away from me.” I have a friend who calls me up and asks, “Why does God give me a friend and then takes them away from me?”
I can’t understand that because I’m a people person. I can talk to everybody. But these people think they have to have one sole possession and that’s you. But their sole possession usually begins to sense a feeling of being stifled and suffocated by this other person. The person who tries to possess you always wants to know where are you going and who are you going with and why are you going with and why are you seeing more of the other person than me?
This is what happens when you have the insecurity because you don’t have self confidence and always feel you will be on the losing end. If you do something wrong you will persecute yourself forever.
The scripture for overcoming fear is in the book of Romans chapter 6. It tells you about the old man and once you become renewed in your mind you can overcome fear and guilt. It tells you the old man dies once you have accepted the Lord. Other good scripture to read are Micah 6:6 and Micah 7, John 5:45, Mathew 19, Romans 4:25, 5:16 and 18, and Mathew 27:132. Remember the base scripture you will need to stand on is Philippians 4:8. Anything that has to with overcoming, you will use as your base scripture. Whatever you need to overcome, place those words in the scriptures as you read it.
When we get back to our journey we see that Moses was fearful. It’s interesting that God would use this type of person to do the job he had to do. We all will have to learn to overcome all types of fears. Emotional fear is the first one we encounter at birth. Birth itself is a fearful situation. They only have 6 or 7 seconds to get through there and out into this world. The can either suffocate or strangle themselves with the cord and come out stillborn because of the maneuvering they have to do in that small space. They have been in the womb for nine months where they have been protected, and now they are in a place where there is no help. Nobody can help them when they get into that canal but God. That’s why it’s called a miracle, because it’s a miracle that God deals with them when they are inside the womb to tell them how to turn to come out the right way. If they don’t turn their shoulders the right way they can break their neck. All kinds of things can happen. That is why a lot of babies are born fearful especially if they don’t have the support on the outside. If they are rejected when they come, they don’t have anyone to love them so they begin to develop in fear. They grow up their whole life in rejection and fear.
They then become an emotional cripple and/or intellectual cripple because they start feeling they have to be responsible for themselves and that they have to be responsible for everything. Nobody was there when they needed them. Then they began to distrust God because they distrust man. Then they strive to overcome and achieve but they go too far because they have no balance. So God has to bring someone to nurture them along.
Another problem with the highly intellectual person is that they cannot understand God’s timing for anything. Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything and a season. They don’t understand that. To them everything has to happen right now, today or tomorrow. If you go back to Exodus on this journey you will find that nothing happened overnight. Moses wandered in the desert for forty years before he even know where he was going to get trained. The shortest thing that went on during that that training time was Job’s patience. It took Job nine months to go through everything he went through to get trained in patience. But most everyone else had to wait years. Caleb was eighty years old when he finally got his mountain. That’s when h started his ministry. Most of us have a cane and rocking chair by that age. He was just getting up and getting ready to go. Joshua waited forty year to take the mantle from Moses to get the people from Jordan to Canaan. So you can’t expect god to do everything instantly because he is not a microwave God. Man invented the microwave, God didn’t. God created altars, and created pedestals. So when man gets on a pedestal he can’t expect God to keep him there. God said to come to the altar not to the pedestal. God is the only one that can be on a pedestal.
So to learn to overcome fear the first thing you must do is overcome your thinking. Think faith and think good positive thoughts. If you think negative, you will think fear, and when you think fear you will walk in fear. We are what we think and what and what we eat. We must learn the Word because it tells us exactly how to grow.
God has been dealing with me about nutrition and getting the body of Christ back into good health. He needs his end-time army alert. His people have gotten sluggish, slothful, lackadaisical and obese. If the war broke out now they wouldn’t know how to get back into the foxhole for protection. Most of it is lack of discipline. Eat anything you want, do anything you want and then lay down to a nap. So the Lord has taught me how to get the body back into his nutritional habits. We have to get back to that old saying my mother used to tell me when I was a kid.
She said “Whatever is good for you aint good to you, and if it’s good to you it aint good for you.” Things that we like are not usually good for us. We have to learn that and then we will start eating the things that are good for us.
The Bible has told us from the beginning how to eat the things that god created. Yet we eat things that have been tampered with and chemicalized. When we don’t feel good we can’t function. The trick to Satan is to get us in bondage because he knows if we don’t feel good we won’t do the things we are supposed to do. He takes advantage of the situation.
So God says to get in shape. The first thing you do in the military is get exercise and get up early in the morning. You have no choice but to obey. If God’s people would learn this, they would know what He want and understand Him.
Your life is a direct parallel to everything from Genesis to revelation. If you want to find out who you are and where you are and where you are going, study the scriptures, then you will find out how to overcome. Start doing what they did and you will be free. The Hebrew boys were put in the fiery furnace because they wouldn’t bow to the idols. You wonder why you are going through the fire, because you don’t know how to overcome the temptation. You are afraid you are going to feel a little pain. You’re afraid you will pass by the furnace and get burned. But when you think like the Hebrew boys, things will change. Their attitude was “I will not bow and I don’t care if I burn.” We must top struggling with God and trying to get him to change. Get the attitude that it doesn’t matter if it takes ninety years and you only have two cents in your pocket but you are going to obey god anyway. We want to tell God how to do things but he doesn’t need our help. And don’t just praise him to get him to move on your behalf. Just praise Him because you love Him and you will start seeing results. We must spend time with God to find out what He wants us to do. But you say “I take forty minutes with Him and pray and read my Bible.” Then you rush off to work and tell Him to hurry up because you have to get going. What kind of fellowship is that? When you are courting someone you don’t take them out to dinner for the first time one night and the next day get married. You date them for a while and spend time with them. But we don’t want to take time to get to know God. Our priorities are way out of line. Our perspective is distorted.
The Word says in Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” We seek everything else first: money, a job, a husband or wife. When do we say “Lord, I just want you?” The only way we will be free from fear and anything else is to develop that attitude.
Just draw near to Him and love Him. James 4:7 says when we draw near to God He drams near to us. Then when we resist the devil he will flee. We can spend time going to school and get all kinds of degrees but if we don’t get our B.A (Born Again) degree, and the D.D. (Drive out Devils) degree, we can forget all the other degrees. All they will be doing is hanging around your neck and on your wall.
The bottom line is you need to learn that you can always depend on god. My closing scripture is Micah 6. You have to learn to stop depending on people because they will disappoint you and discourage you. Overcome fear by defeating the devil. He’s the one who give us fear, not God. God doesn’t have any fear so he can’t give it to you. And learn “Divine Indifference.” No matter what others say or do, forgive them and love them. And you must be willing to make any changes God shows you stop struggling with this emotional battle, with this over-balanced mind. Get your mind on the things of God and think with the mind of Christ and He will bring you through to victory.

CHAPTER 2
OUTLINE FOR INNER HEALING SEMINAR
(Maintaining Your Healing and Freedom)
(The Three Step Manifestation)

SESSION I – SET THE CAPTIVES FREE

A.          Bars
B.          Scars
C.          Stars

SESSION II – STUDY TO SHEW THYSELF APPROVED

A.          Information
B.          Education
C.          Motivation

SESSION III – THOU WILL SHOW ME THE PATH OF LIFE

A.          Revelation
B.          Expectation
C.          Dedication


INNER HEALING SEMINAR
HEALING FOR THE SOUL, MIND, AND THE HEART

The following information is designed to minister healing to multiple needs, particularly in the areas of emotions, mental anxieties, and other stress related needs that will bring the total body, (spirit, soul, and physical) into complete inner healing and restoration.

The three major areas to be ministered to are:

(1)          Spiritual
(2)          Mental and Emotional
(3)          Physical

The topics to be covered represent a variety of common and complex needs including: stress, insecurities, traumas, rejection, fears. The ministry will cover personal tragedies, conflicts in relationships, bitterness, and the problems caused by the resulting emotions, attitudes both positive and negative. E will also minister one on one to deep hurts and scars caused by mental and verbal abuse and other areas of deliverance from oppressing forces. The nature of the healing in all areas will begin with a process of finding the root cause of the problem or illness and then using the proper methods, both spiritual and natural to bring about a complete and successful healing and deliverance to the whole person. Tapes and other material will be made available after the seminar to help aid you in maintaining your freedom and healing and how to minister effectively to others who may have similar problems or need. This material will include scriptural references, medical information, and even a portion of psychological information for mental therapy so that you may be well informed and apply the necessary process to your specific area of need, as well as be more effective in ministering healing to others. There will be areas also covered which pertain to coping with adolescent pressures, single life problems and solutions, and dealing with marriage encounters both adverse and favorable. The written material will be available to leaders and ministers, as well as to lay people, who interface with other on a regular basis or are involved in counseling service in a professional capacity or from a common courtesy position in behalf of one another. Please feel free to ask questions or make comments which will add or enhance the material or ministry in this session.
          Thank You.

LOVE COVERS MINISTRIES
SEMINAR ON INNER HEALING
FROM BARS TO SCARS TO STARS

(Let our victory endure Christ. Our Victor ever reigns supreme. Psalms 17:8)

The first session will cover areas of bondage called “The Bars.” It refers to being held captive or enslaved or a prisoner to controlling forces in our lives from birth to deliverance or until death sets us free. Such forces and sources are in all our triune being spiritual influences, physical influences, and mental or emotional influence. Many of us are victims or prisoners to one or more of these negative influences. Many of the sources began early in life. I will cover in detail how certain pressures from our daily surroundings influence our ability to function either positively or negatively in our personal world.
          The Bars
          Bondage begins in a sense from the time we are born due to many of the fears and insecurities and anxieties of the birth process in general. Medical science classifies birth as a “Miracle.” Mankind calls it a joyous occasion. The Bible calls it a reason to mourn.
          Let me explain these three accounts which are all correct, yet they project different aspects.
(1)          Medically speaking, the process of birth, from conception to delivery is a total puzzle and mystery. It is difficult to explain or fully understand how a tiny seed from an egg turns into a human being and enters from inside the womb to the outside world. It is a phenomenal happening.
(2)          Physically speaking, it is an exciting challenge to experience the changing process involved in pregnancy and delivery.
(3)          Spiritually speaking, it is a sad, mournful process of grief and pain because of the fall of man (Adam). The curse of pain in childbearing was decreed by God as punishment for mankind’s disobedience. Therefore, you may conclude that being born into this world system more of a curse than a blessing. According to the Bible, we are told to weep for the incoming and rejoice for the outgoing.
Man has always reversed this process and has regretted it ever since. We get
excited and joyful whenever a new baby is born, and that is when the pain begins. Due to the many fears and insecurities of providing for and being responsible for training and guidance, the added expense of raising a child, can cause emotional; and economical stress on new parents.
The door opens to the beginning of the bars experience. Things lead to
entrapment and enslaving influences that imprison us most of our lives. Fear is usually the root from which other branches stem: rejection which causes anger and rebellion, oppression, depression, poor self-image, to name a few. These weaknesses and insecurities are weapons in the hand of the enemy to keep you from maturing. He uses attitudes of being inferior, introverted, low self-esteem, fears of failure, lack of commitment and/or confidence, non-productivity, and non-fulfillment.
We asked the question at the onset of this session: Where does it hurt? The
answer to that question is: It hurt in your soul (the seat of your emotions) where you fall victim to the manipulation and control others. These others in your life, through fear and ignorance, become overbearing, overpowering, and overwhelming in their domination and superior demands becoming inexperienced self-appointed lords.
          When does the pain go away? It varies with each individual and his or her ability to grow and mature in adversities, and overcome tremendous pressures and odds. It could be short term or long term depending on his/her motivation and aggression in striving for hi/her own liberty and self-determined independence to excel and achieve or aspire to higher goals and self-confidence. This is accomplished with assistance from professional and spiritual influences to expose the root cause of the problems and properly administering necessary treatment, we need to locate the bars that are holding the person prisoner and then remove the bars. This process is usually complex in the sense of locating where it hurts and relieving the pain, also directly related to when will the pain stop? The bars and the scars are usually intertwined and have a strong similarity.
          The Scars – Now let me explain how these problems cause the scars. Whenever there is an area of control over our minds, it causes stress which lead to pain. Therefore when we experience fear, rejection, pressures, etc, we tend to respond negatively, usually resulting in attitude changes and reactions. These cause us to retaliate, rebel or act with resentment, bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness.
          This is where we get the scars that come from being another kind of victim. Victims to wounds, pain, unkindness, bitterness, hate, and feelings of not being wanted, being unloved and worthlessness have scars that are sometimes so deep and so traumatic that they tend to run away from very early in life. That is why the time varies as to when it stops hurting. Often we are not aware of the bars or the scars until very late in our walk of life. We unconsciously suppress and run away from thoughts of the past. Sometimes they become so deeply hidden and buried that we seem to be in control of our circumstances and situations, we think. That is only a deception which the enemy uses when we get to a stage in life were we think we have it all together. Then suddenly without notice we find ourselves battling and struggling with what seem to be spontaneous battling and struggling with what seem to be spontaneous stresses and crises that appear unexpectedly and drastically. In reality, they have only been suppressed and overlooked since our beginning years. Solution – When we begin to experience the stirring shaking, and uncomfortable, restless, ect, we need to begin our search for the root of the problem and for the help that we need to overcome and heal the scars.
          The Stars – this is when we have come through the prison bars, the abusing scars, and are on our way to restorating stars. This happens when we face the reality of the unforgiving attitudes associated with the bitterness pinned up inside of us from the mental and emotional battering and abuse which caused the scars along with the hidden resentments towards those we hold responsible for those hurts and pains which damaged or wounded our hearts in the past. The only way we can win the stars of liberty and freedom and keep the hurt from coming back is to take three important steps in our deliverance and healing process.
(1)          We must first face the reality that we have a problem.
(2)          We must be willing to tackle the problem head on honestly.
(3)          We must learn that love is the only key to maintaining our freedom, and we can only walk in love if we let Jesus, the healer, teach us the without forgiveness there is no way we can love or receive love. Walking in health and wealth only comes by obedience, which brings blessing. Anything else is disobedience, which brings curses.
          
Curses began with Adam’s sin which mankind inherited. Blessings were restored by Jesus Christ on Calvary which we have freedom to choose.

SESSION II

          This session will cover three areas on understanding, overcoming insecurities and anxieties, ect.

A.          Information – Learning to recognize your problems
B.          Education – Preparation and Training
C.          Motivation – Desire to Excel, Succeed, and Triumph

In any endeavor in life, it is very important that we be well informed. We must have access to vital and necessary information that will teach us and make us knowledgeable and aware or our surroundings and snare along our pathway. Thus, we may have the wisdom and training and proper education we may have the wisdom and training and proper education we may have the wisdom and training and proper education we need to help us mature and be abreast or on top of our daily encounters and challenges. Then we are better equipped to face and cope with things as they arise. Also information and education are beneficial assets in motivating us to aspire and acquire our highest potential and goals.
          In this session, I will quote statistics in certain situations, scripture references, and some medical and physiological information in order to help you understand cause and cures for the curses, bondages, and illnesses discussed in the previous sessions.
          
A.          Information

We are three part beings. We were created by God as spirit, soul and body. These are compacted into one human being, yet separate entities, or with separate functions, both natural and spiritual. The spirits is controlled and directed by the supernatural or miraculous power of the Spirit of God who created us. The soul is an inner part of our being which function and controls our mind, emotions, and intellect which simply means it is the center of our thoughts, feeling, and conscience. It has the ability to respond or react to the sense or directions that dictator direct matter of the mind, the heart, and the body functions and reflexes. In short, it controls how we think, what we feel, and the knowledge of conviction, the ability to know good from bad and right from wrong. The body, of course, we know as a physical, skeletal structure made up of flesh, bones, organs, tissues, muscles, skin, blood cells and many working limbs and parts which we sometimes call a covering or temple in which the soul and spirit dwell.
          The created being known as mankind or human is a very complex and fascinating subject but also complicated and perplexed. It is for this reason inner healing and deliverance were purposed and designed to create a curiosity and search for the unsolved and unique, mysterious answers that scientific procedure is unable to uncover.

B.          Education

It is only through the art of love, the act of faith, and the obedience to the Creator that we grow and mature progressively and bridge the gap in our relationship between God and mankind. Only thus will we ever hope to find understanding, comfort, healing and freedom in this world around us and peace in the world ahead.
          The usual process of teaching, or bringing forth information and matters of healing, initially begins with physical, then emotional and mental, and when all else fails we reach out for the spiritual answers. I firmly believe that if we would reach out for the spiritual help first, we could be set free a lot faster. The spirit is where the soul and body receive instruction and guidance. Seeking spiritual help first would open us up to revelation and information into hidden areas and help to expedite the process of locating and expressing the root of the problem. The healing process would be speeded up greatly.
          The next area to be explored should be the soul, because there is where whatever we think dictates how and/or what we fell. In other words if our mind thinks we have pain, our body feels the pain and responds. If our mind thinks depression, our body responds and acts sad or unpleasant. Therefore, our sicknesses and diseases are a possible result of our thoughts and feelings. It is important to remember that most of our bars, (bondage) and scars, (abuse) stem from the fears and abuses of our deceptive soul thoughts which trigger anger, rage, bitterness, and revenge. These attitudes and areas of bondage have been denied and pushed into the backs of our minds. We have escaped from the world of reality into a world of fantasy, thus causing a need for the ministry of deliverance and inner healing.

C.          Motivation

This results from our awareness of the foregoing processes in our live and our most earnest desires to come out into our worlds of reality. We must seek inner healing and deliverance sincerely and earnestly. Thus we will begin to see the answer to the question, “When will the pain go away?”

SESSION III

As we begin this last session we are going to cover area of how to maintain your freedom and healing through a three step process:

A.          Revelation
B.          Expectation
C.          Dedication

Healing can only manifest or occur when the three acts are followed. For instance, until a problem is diagnosed or reveled it cannot be dealt with; but once it is exposed or revealed it can be ministered to. Second, if we don’t expect a change to occur when the problem is identified and treated, then we won’t receive manifestation I the situation. So, be expectant with a positive or good attitude. Third, we must dedicate ourselves in discipline in following instructions on further care and treatment and bed determined to follow through until the total manifestation is fully complete.

Remember, what is revealed can be healed.
What you conceal, the enemy will steal.
What you expect, you get.
What you don’t look for, will creep past you door.

Maintaining will depend on your dedication, faithfulness, consistency, and determination to keep what you worked for coming through the bars, to the scars, and reaching liberty and victory with stars.

CHAPTER 3

THE UNLIMITED LIFE OF CHRIST JESUS
THROUGH THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF HIS NAMES

Some portions of this material come from a book by Robert Hobson titled: Life Revived, Joy Restored.

Scripture from the King James Version of the Bible. Text: Psalm 23.

The Lord Is My Shepard; I shall not want

          Let us look closely at several key words and sentences in this particular passage of verses, and we will begin to see the unlimited life of Christ in His many facets, as these scriptures begin to unfold. For instance we know that Jehovah Rohi is the Lord our Shepherd. In Psalms 100:3 it says, “Know ye that the Lord is God; it the he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are His people and the sheep of his pasture. How interesting that we are called the sheep of His pasture, because sheep are perhaps the most awkward and most dependent animal of all animals and they seem to be the most helpless. Yet we strive to be like lions. We expect to have power and victory and life full of energy from God, but we wonder why so many of our efforts falter in weakness and failure. In Jeremiah 17: 9-10 it says that… “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to His ways, and according to the fruit of this doings.” He promises that unlimited life of Christ. Let’s look at a few more scriptures to shed more light on this unlimited life. In Isaiah 64:6 it says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rage; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our (sins or iniquities) like the wind have taken us away.” So the best we can be ourselves is worthless in God’s sight, but we read in Psalms 39:5 “Behold, thus hast made my days as a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” However, we are God’s sheep; we are His beloved ones in whom He has taken up residence by the Holy Spirit. This is the other side of the principle of entering into the unlimited life of Christ Jesus. Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! On one hand, we recognize that we are nothing, and on the other hand, we recognize that He is everything.
          The way a person can have an intimate and effective relationship with the Lord Jesus is by “knowing Him in the power of His resurrection.” Philippians 3:10 (King James version) and Amplified says, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death.” The Amplified says, “(For my determined purpose is) that I may know Him – that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding (the wonders of His person) more strongly and more clearly. And that I may know the power outflowing from His resurrection (which it exerts over believers). “And that I may so share His sufferings to be continually transformed (in spirit into His likeness even) to His death.” In other words, by having Him enthroned as King in our lives (Amen). Just because Jesus “resides” in our lives it does not mean that He “presides” there, just as he does not force His way into our lives only when we yield to His Lordship. If you have come into a special knowledge of Jesus Christ and you are experiencing the inner relationship of a child of God through Him, then you shall be prepared to admit that you are utterly helpless against the world, the flesh, and the devil, unless you are ready to yield your life completely, to enthrone Him as Lord of all your being and affairs. Then you can launch out into the enjoyment of the provision of the twenty-third psalm in sharing the unlimited life in Christ Jesus. (The Lord is our Shepherd.) (Amen.)

Keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is speaking through this verse also about Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides God’s provision for our lives; it is not just talking about financial needs alone. Primarily, he is talking about spiritual needs because the spiritual quality of our lives largely determines the health of all other areas of our lives. Praise the Lord! I shall not want. This is because God our provider has promised to meet all of our needs. Usually we feel a need and we begin to beg God to do this or do that or we just say, “Help God.” Such an attitude only leads to worry, tension, and frustration. Begging God is not the answer. Do you remember the day you were saved? Do you remember the day you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Well, that day you were married to Him and at that moment of your conversion all the wealth of the throne of Almighty God became available to each of us as members of the Bride of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Praise God. Many Christians in principle and prayer continue to beg God for the resources that have already been made available to them.
          (How sad. What a tragedy.) Why should we beg God to do what he said He would do? That is not the way to experience the living reality of His promises. How can we claim these resources? We must submit totally to Jesus Christ as ruler over every detail of our lives, on the basis of knowing that God is a Man of His Word and His promises are a gift to His sheep. When someone gives you a gift, what do you say? Thank you, and in a most gracious way that you now you express gratitude by reaching out to receive it. God is no different. We should express our thanks to Him for His provisions, and thank Him for the way He is going to fulfill His promise to us. First of all, make sure you are totally committed to Christ – all that you are and have and ever hope to be, and then launch out by faith thanking the Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, for the fact that He is going to demonstrate the dynamics of His life through your life. (Amen. Hallelujah.) Not because we deserve it, but because he has the capacity and ability to keep His Word.
          He makes me to lie down in green pastures. (He) Jehovah Shalom, the God who is our Peace. Remember, we are just sheep. We can do nothing, but above all keep in mind that He can do everything in and through us because He is almighty god. This verse says that he make me lie down in green pastures. That sounds peaceful just reading it. Here we see two key words. One is position, lying down. The other is the place, green pastures where we take on the prone or prostrate position of lying down. It means we are in absolute submission. Green pastures is the place where God can feed your inner life with his fresh and nourishing Word. Do you get the picture of what God has in store for His sheep who are depending on their Shepherd totally, one who is in that submissive attitude? This should be a daily process in our lives. Amen. Praise God!
          The next verse says that He leads me beside the still waters. This is a promise we should desire very intensely, that is the leadership of God. But it cannot be acquired by our own efforts; it must be received as a promise of God which is a gift and a gift can never be earned. It is freely given. As we thank Him for his leadership, we can also thank Him for the place to which He is going to lead us. There are two types of still water – one is stagnant because it has not intake of fresh water and no outlet; the other is a body of fresh water pouring in and continually out. Still waters run very quietly, not demanding attention, but possessing tremendous power. The river that is wide and deep runs quietly down its course, but if it is harnessed, it possesses enough power to produce electricity for a vast area.
          So that is what God is trying to impress upon us; if we let the Lord Jesus Christ have complete control, he will lead us to a place of power and victory which is beyond our imagination. As we yield to the absolute Lordship of Jesus moment by moment, he promises to lead us beside still water, a place of breadth, and depth, and power. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Amen.
          He restoreth my soul. Jehovah Shammah, the God who is ever present. As we continue our lives as believers, sin often creeps in sometimes, and it cuts us off from fellowship with the Lord Jesus, but God has made provision for that also. In I John 1:9 He tells us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen. This is our responsibility, our response to His ability, our response is to confess and His response is forgiveness and cleansing.
          Forgiveness is not received as a result of begging God for it, but on the basis of confessing or calling the thing God call sin to be sin. Then He will forgive us, and what God forgives, He also forgets, and what He forgets, we have no right to remember. Forgiveness is part of God’s love gift to us, and we should thank Him from the depths of our hearts because this is how he restores my soul in terms of fellowship with Him. Amen. And when difficult circumstances develop, He alone refreshes my life. The Shepherd Himself promises that he will refresh my inner-most being by the Holy Spirit, and that is what we are looking for, a release from tension and pressure. He will not always necessarily take away or change the circumstances, but He will produce within us the peace which passes understanding. Thank you Lord. Praise you Jesus.
          The next verse says, He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name sake and that bring us to Jehovah Tsidkeenu which means the Lord is Righteous. We don’t have any righteousness other than His righteousness. We said the God’s leadership in our lives cannot be earned but must be accepted on the principle on receiving. God again has given us a divine equation here. In Proverbs 3:5-6, it says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct thy paths.” As long as we trust Him and not ourselves, as we continually acknowledge Him to be our Lord and Shepherd, He has promised to keep on directing our paths. This is His gift of righteousness to His sheep. We can actually experience His leadership in our everyday lives on the basis of the fact that we’re children of God.
          One of His sheep can step out by faith, and acknowledge Him as the Shepherd and Lord, and thank Him for the gift of His direction in every part of our lives. Rather than begging Him pray, “Lord, You guide, lead, and direct me today.” Thank Him in advance for His leadership because it is His gift to you all the days of your life. Amen. To be led in the path of righteousness, is to be a channel in which the incredible life of Jesus Christ, who is righteousness as the Holy Spirit, fulfills His life through our lives. Praise the Lord. Jesus leads us according to His plans. He arose on the third day in order to fulfill His life in us and all that He is waiting for is that we His sheep will allow Him to demonstrate it in us. Praise God.
          Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Here we have Jehovah Nissi – the Lord our Banner, the one who does battle for and comforts us in our daily trials. There are some people who would give us the illusion that the moment we give ourselves unreservedly to Jesus that our lives automatically become a bed or roses. That, my friends, is simply not true and we might as well face it. As a matter of fact, God promises us in this passage a walk through the valley of the shadow of death. This particular passage is most often used concerning physical death, and indeed it is a great comfort at such a time. But if that were the only occasion for which it is meant, then the phrase … “all the days of my life” would not apply. Amen. Life itself is a daily walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We do not know the day or the hour death will come to us, nor do we know how. There are many dangers in our daily paths and even when we sleep, we have no assurance of awakening the next morning. But ever though this life is the valley of the shadow of death, the psalmist goes on the complete God’s promise that says I will fear no evil. Fear shatters our peace and so many people live in its bondage afraid of what other people might think of them, etc. This feeling of fear if allowed to control our lives can lead to many illnesses and mental breakdowns, In II Timothy 1:7 it says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind. We have to have confidence in the Shepherd and we could say with assurance, “We need fear no evil for our security is not in our own strength but rather it is in God.
          Thou art with me means that we must count on the very presence of god with us which is the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus who took up His residence in us when we become born of the Spirit, Glory! Hallelujah. The most tremendous promise ever given is that the Lord Jesus is the person of the Holy Spirit who takes up residence within the life of the believer. Amen.
          Next it says, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. These are instruments used to guide the sheep. There is a tremendous need for correction in our live, and we received it from the rod of Jesus, Adonai (Ruler over all), who else would have the ability or capacity to correct justly? In Hebrews 12:11 it tells us that “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” God’s correction especially gives us reason to be thankful because it brings us to the point of understanding obedience to Him. This is the comfort of the rod. The staff was a protective instrument. It was designed to restrain the sheep gently from straying. When acting on our own impulses and appetites, we stray from His will. Then Jesus reaches out His staff to save us from disaster. Amen.
          Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thank God for El Shaddai, the Many Breasted One, the All Sufficient One and the lord who gives strength. Glory! Sheep have natural enemies and so do God’s people – as god’s sheep, regardless of who our enemies may be or how strong, he has provided for us all the resources of heaven with which to feed our inner life. We are prone to run to people for help when a crisis comes rather than taking time to sit at God’s table and be fed with the living bread, which is Jesus through the promises in the written Word of God, the Bible. How long have we ignored God’s promises and provisions? Yet these gifts are from His heart to our. Have you ever in the midst of pressure, seated yourself at God’s table and allowed Him to feed your soul by the Holy Spirit of God from His Word? Let me warn you. Do not expect to enter into the reality of God’s sustenance without having first come through the portals of the previous verses. Remember that the Lord is the Shepherd and we are the sheep. As sheep we feed on the pastures He provides, supplying our needs. God’s promises and provisions and possibilities are spread before us all the days of our lives and it is unlimited. Praise God. Amen.
          Thou anointed my head with oil – Preparation for service. David spoke of anointing for the refreshment of the Spirit in the inner man making him ready to be of effective service to the Shepherd who indwells him. But as for us, you and me, the anointing which we received from the Holy Spirit abides permanently in us.
          But just as this anointing teaches us concerning everything and is true, so we must abide and live never to depart rooted in Him and knitted to Him just as His anointing has taught us to do. I John 2:27 says, “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide I Him. Only his anointing assures his blessing.
          My cup runneth over – He is our abundance. If we know Jesus as our Shepherd in such intimacy, we too could experience the reality of life really running over with the characteristics and qualities of Jesus Christ. It is most common to talk to people who seem to be completely dominated by greed, envy, worry, tension, and the spirit of defeat and frustration. But we should expect more when we become a Christian. In Jesus, all of heaven’s resources become available to us and we were meant to share His victorious abundant power. Amen. Praise God.
          Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the day of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever – The Lord is good and His mercy endureth forever. Surely, absolutely, and most certainly, goodness and mercy shall follow me and we can be confident of this very thing. In Philippians 1:6 it says, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which heath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” The possibilities of sharing the live of the Son of God are not theoretical but real when you give Jesus His rightful place in you as Kind and Shepherd and allow him by the Holy Spirit to produce through you the divine quality of life defined in the these verses of the twenty third – Psalms. You then enter into the reality of sharing his unlimited life stepping out by faith and thinking Him that He lives in you and thanking Him for the way He is going to demonstrate his unlimited life through you now and forever. Then will the Lord truly become you Shepherd and you will not want. Amen. Give the Lord Praise.

CHAPTER 4

THE JOURNEY FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN

The article you are about to read is a personal testimony based on spiritual and personal travel through the seasons and wilderness paths of life.

The Setting: From the hot and dry desert to the beautiful promised land of Canaan.
The Time: The four seasons – Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall)
The Plot: The Exodus (or the escape)   from the bondage of slavery to the freedom of Canaan.
The Final: Crossing over to possess our “Land of Victory” and Peace.

          I would like to take you on a most challenging, interesting and victorious journey. It is a spiritual journey, but with parallels to the journeys of the natural life. As we begin, I shall attempt to guide you as nearly as possible on the same path (symbolically speaking), that Moses traveled when he made the same journey, not once, but twice. The first time, he was alone, the second time he was leading over three million prisoners from Egypt’s bondage to Canaan’s Land of Jubilee. This journey is going to take several interesting courses and life-changing processes from the time of the Exodus, to the arrival into victory. On this predetermined route, we will pass through several desert places. We will cross through seas, rivers, valleys and climb a few mountains. The path will cover all the four climatic seasons as well as the four physical stages and the comparable spiritual phases.
          These are the parallels:

          Winter ……………… Infancy through Childhood
          Spring……………….. Adulthood.
          Autumn (Fall) ……….Golden or Senior Years.

          All of this I will address in the ensuing articles as we consider each stage and season of life on this journey.
          Now, we will need a few special supplies to help us along the way. Fortunately, the most important of these supplies has already been bought and paid for at a very high cost. The appropriation of this supply was made possible through the blood of Jesus shed on Calvary’s cross. Prayer is another one of our primary supplies, and it is going to take several types of prayer to make it through each wilderness, valley, sea, river, and mountain.
          First, we start with the Prayer of Intercession, the prayer that allows someone to stand in the gap (in place of another person) and pray that person’s plea to God. Someone had to stand ahead of us, stand in the gap, and pray for us to be drawn by the Holy Spirit out of the world of sin (Egypt) into the family of God (the Kingdom). This is the prayer that goes before us all the way to Canaan. Other important prayers needed during the journey are: the Prayer of Praise, the Prayer of persistent faith, Prayer of Patience with fasting, the prayer of Listening and prayer of Patience with fasting, the prayer of Listening and Perseverance, and the Prayer of Spiritual Warfare. All of these are needed on order to possess the land and press on into victory.
          The season of winter, (time of infancy through childhood) in your spiritual life is a time of coldness, darkness, fear and confusion, dullness, drabness and the dreary forces of gloom. This is the first season (stage), and it take the Prayer of faith and lot of patience in prayer to bring us through tins season (desert and into the springtime.)
          Springtime is the time in our lives when we enter a new identity that brings with it all the crises, challenges and frustrations of adolescence and puberty (teen years). This is the most difficult and challenging season to go through, because it is a season of many changes. It is a time for digging, searching, plowing, planting, pruning, tilling and sowing seed in unstable and unpredictable soil. During the time of many changes, we face discouragements, disappointments, temptations, rejections and trials, but these help us to grow in, and grow through the springtime season with its change weather and winds, driving rains, fierce storms, and raging fires. Spiritually, this season requires the Prayer of Meditation and listening for guidance. It takes a lot of nurturing, watering and pruning to strengthen us as we enter into the Summer Season.
          When we are ready, we begin to move into the beauty of summer which represent the Adult time of life. Spiritually and physically, we begin experiencing the ripening of fruits from seeds sown in the spring. We begin to see the fruit blossoming into the fullness of maturity. BE ADVISED. This season demands more prayer, and much more intercession that the others. Patience and consistent perseverance through spiritual warfare and needed to excel and survive this season (stage).
          Physically speaking, this is the time of many profound changes and many decisions. So much responsibility and direction is needed. It is a stressful, confusing, frustrating time with great test, persecutions, and much self-discipline. It is the forerunner or guiding light through the rising pressures of the mid-life crisis or menopause, and through the physical attacks that weaken both mind and body. We are beginning to revert back physically to our second childhood; it’s a slow regression back to puberty. Tantrums (attention getting selfishness) and self-centeredness arise because we want to be in control. We want to dominate and dictate the course of our life and the lives of others. This season is uncomfortable because it is hot and unstable, and we are under pressure. At this stage we are being cooked to a gourmet perfection by the Son (Jesus), spiritually, and from the summer sun, physically. Spiritually, we are growing up through the stirring shaking, steaming, boiling, frying and baking process for the purpose of making and molding our humble, human vessels into instruments of beauty fit for service. We are expected to learn obedience through this time of testing. It depends on us whether we pass the test or fail it, whether we are promoted or demoted, and whether we complete the assignment or resist it. It took us three season of kicking against the pricks, three seasons of rebelling, putting, running, disobeying and wrestling with the Creator before we could see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
          When we have weathered the storms, withstood the winds, survived the first, and held on through the shaking earthquakes of circumstances, we begin to experience a refreshing, a renewing and a restoration that is preparing us for the final phase of the journey which is the season of autumn (fall). Autumn, or the senior years, is the time of reaping the harvest of seed sown. It is a time of expectancy, weariness, waiting, and raising up others to take up the rod and the mantle (or baton) that we will no longer need as we prepare to retire to the peace and joy of the reward awaiting us in our jubilee ahead.
          These are the golden, precious years, a season of much wisdom that is harvested through the knowledge and understanding developed in seasons past. There is much rest and looking ahead, and much remembrance of good, bad, happy and sad times that we are leaving behind. The prayer of spiritual warfare will advance us toward the prize of victory which is waiting ahead of us in the Land of Canaan.
          Now that I have charted the course of this challenging journey and painted a picture or vision of the full pathway, see if you can determine your place in this Exodus. Have you started on your journey? Are you mid-way, or are you in the final wilderness experience, battling the giants in the land that are trying to keep you from pressing forward to the miracles and promises awaiting you in Canaan? As I conclude with a quick review of the Exodus of escape, I challenge you to begin your journey now. Since the way has been paved and others have blazed a trail before us, it will be a better and more interesting trip. Remember, at the beginning I said Moses made the journey twice; that means we make the journey twice also. Let me explain how that works. The first time Moses left Egypt or, escaped from his prison, he was all alone, lost, frightened, confused, hopeless, ignorant, and learning while wandering through the desert. He came to the foot of Mt. Sinai (the site of the burning bush) and made the life-changing decision to obey God, who led him through the wilderness and taught him to go back and bring others through. The second time he made trip, he delivered over three million prisoners and slaves from the Pharaoh (Satan) and Egypt (the world and its deceptions and ensnaring system). We also must make the first trip alone, but we have a different guide to lead us through the wilderness and deserts from today’s Pharaoh to our Canaan Land. We do not need to look for a burning bush experience at Mt. Sinai, but we must begin our journey at the foot of another mountain, Mt. Calvary. Through the miraculous exchange of the shedding of blood on Calvary’s cross we are transformed into new beings. This is our salvation experience and our first journey through our season of life, so that we also can go back the second time to deliver lost souls from this world and bring them out of the dark Winter of slavery and bondage of modern day clutches of drugs, illicit sex, unforgiveness, pride, murder, spirits of fear, depression, suicide, and much more. Prayer is the key that unlocks the door to victory.
          So, I challenge you to get started on your journey early and do not detour along the way, or you may allow the Pharaohs of Winter to cut your journey short thus depriving you of the autumn or “Graduation” season where you will claim the miracle.
          If you are perchance wondering in what stage the author of this article finds herself, physically, I am in mid-summer, in the mid-life of the adult season. Spiritually, I have reached Autumn, the final season where the miracles are at hand. I am fighting “the good fight.” I am moving on to finish the race and I intend to keep “pressing on to the high calling which is in Christ Jesus.”

EPILOGUE

          Yes, I continue to strive to achieve growth and maturity in wisdom and knowledge as I overcome the challenges and struggles we face in our many complex and unexpected opportunities and encounters, both good and bad, on these walks of life, searching for our journey to freedom. I have been set free from the bondage of winter, the darkness of the battle of the mind versus the spirit by accepting the plan of salvation, which I call the escape or exodus. I have walked in the deserts of spring where I found the purpose of the wilderness experience of life. It is to lead us to the place where the healing fountain starts. Now I am in the beauty of my summer days (you can be in more than one season at one time), where I am learning how to give thanks and praise for the freedom from many sicknesses, both physical and emotional as well as spiritual attacks. I am also being continually healed and delivered during both my summer season and in my changing adult stages on my way to the fields of harvest as autumn approaches. I am gathering much fruit for the harvest that my fruit may abound. I am preparing as the apostle instructed us to do in the book of II Timothy 2:2, when he admonished us saying: “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” King James Version.
          In conclusion, remember the wilderness does not have to be a place of hopeless fear and utter despair. Despite the hard lessons learned, the taste of bitter water, the conflict with self, nature and desert enemies, it can be a place of tranquil beauty, perfect rest and warm fellowship with fellow pilgrims. To bypass the wilderness in our journey to the Promised Land is to bypass God. What is the use of occupying a land of promise unless the God who promised goes with us? The lesson of this journey is not to say we will survive because we are all of the same belief, nor because we all behave the same way, we will survive this journey when we are filled with the compassion and God’s Spirit of Love for our fellow man as we look upon their hearts as god sees them. We are to see them not with criticism, ridicule, judgment or division, but we are to see them with compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and unity in the bond of love. Then will our journey be fruitful and victorious and filled with peace.
          I want to share a poem with you as I leave you with this challenge. May it inspire and encourage you to locate the seasons and stages of your life on your journey to freedom. As you read this poem, I urge you to prayerfully count the cost of the cross, as you consider your commitment to overcome Pharaoh’s bondage and say no more delays or running, and surrender all to join the race to the jubilee. May God bless you with his abundant love, grace, mercy and protection as you set out on your search for the prize of the harvest that awaits as we enter the land of promise (Canaan). AMEN!

CLOSING POEM

          The following poem was written in 1984. It was birthed in my spirit in the middle of the night and inspired by a vision of an experience which came to pass some four years later. It has been a great instrument of encouragement during my times of despair, weariness, and insecurity. It has been a guide and forerunner to myself and others. It has been a light to the dark places of our daily travels both physically and spiritually.

          My prayer is that you may be inspired or motivated to use it as your set out on your journey through the pathways of life liberty.

          May the Peace of God be with you forever. AMEN.

THE WALKS OF LIFE
By Gladys M. Mullins

Walk in love, and walk in light
Walk by faith both day and night
Walk in health, and walk in peace
Walk in the love that will never cease
Walk in hope and count your blessings
Walk in the truth of Salvation’s message
Walk swiftly, or slowly, or at any pace
Walk in triumph and victory, and finish the race
Walk in the Word the keeps us free
Walk in that life more abundantly
Walk with the happy smile on your face
Walk in compassion and comforting grace
Walk in friendship and righteousness
Walk in holiness with confidence
Walk with assurance every hour
Walk in knowledge, wisdom, and power
Walk in the sun, the wind or the rain
Walk in patience, though the path seems long
Walk in endurance ‘til you begin to feel strong
Walk in victory, overcome defeat, ‘til you
Walk on the enemy with both of your feet
Walk in green pastures that have no end
Walk through the door that will free you from sin
Walk through the fire and the flood, then
Walk in forgiveness of Christ’s shed blood
Walk in the truth ‘til you come to this place
Walk in the life, of God’s saving grace
Walk in wealth, and prosperity and abundant supply
Walk over temptation that catches the eye
Walk in the gift of love, grace and mercy, this is the
Walk of life, eternally.

AMEN!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gladys M. Mullins
          
          Gladys Mullins is the youngest of eleven children born to Reverent Robert and Mrs. Maude Jordan. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended public schools in the city.

          She received much Christian educational training at a very early age. As a daughter of a Baptist minister, she attended Sunday School regularly and also participated in Junior Choir.

          In 1958 she came to Los Angeles with her husband after he had completed his military service. They joined and untied with the family of Metropolitan A.M.E.Z. Church under the leadership of Dr. Paul Marshall. All of her children were christened in that church.

          During the years of 1982 through 1987 she attended schools of ministry at Word of Freedom Training center, Overcomers Faith center Evangelism training, Liberty Tabernacle, Morris Cerullo School of Ministry. She has worked in the helps ministry for several churches and for the Vicki Jamison-Peterson Ministries. Gladys is an ordained minister of the Lord, ministering in the offices or prophetess, evangelist and teacher.

          In 1983 during a trip to Israel, Gladys received from the Lord a supernatural encounter which resulted in a greater understanding of the life-changing blood covenant. At the beginning of her new life, Satan physically attacked her with an arsenal of his deadly weapons. It was during that time the Lord ministered to her and began teaching her spiritual warfare. Shortly thereafter, he teaching began as the Holy Spirit moved upon her.

          A special anointing flows through Gladys as the Lord uses her to teach on the subject of prayer. Spiritual warfare and intercessory prayer are areas where God has given her special abilities. Gladys’ ministry is based in Southern California, but she carries the Word of God wherever she is called. Her teachings have been conducted among home groups, workshops, women’s advance group retreats, churches and camp meetings both nationally and internationally.

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