Spiritual Honey

Is it possible that these events wouldn’t change a person’s life? I don’t think so. I am not a trained preacher, or even a religious person. I am not into religious ritual at all. I am a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, cousin, aunt, employee, and friend. I get up every morning, intent on going to my job to do an excellent job for my employer, having lunch with my family or friends, and then coming home every evening to a house I call home. I grocery shop, and eat out more than I should. I pay my bills, and look forward to the day when I don’t have any more of them. I love my husband, my family, and my friends. I am just like you. The only difference we may have is that I have encountered the power of God directly in my life. Now you could reject what I say, and if you do then it really doesn’t matter to my life, but if you are open to hearing the truth of these encounters with God and what He has done for me, then read on.
Many people have heard and know that God is love. I have heard that for years . . . God is love, but unless you have actually seen that love in action, it doesn’t have that much of an effect on you personally, rather, it is just something memorized. Now, pay attention. When I took authority in my bedroom that night and I spoke out words that I’d been hearing occasionally over the years, the change came when I said,
“I am going to love you like I have never loved you before.” With my own voice, I was agreeing to love above and beyond anything that had been done to me. I have to tell you, I almost had to sit down after I said that because of the force with which it came forth from the very center of my heart. And it did change everything. There was a new peace, not only in the room, but in Ray and in me.
Was everything neatly put into order that night? No, there were many long hours of discussions, but within twenty-four hours of that night, Ray answered an altar call at our church. Teary eyed and exhausted, he raced down to the altar to give his life to Jesus. It was a true conversion of life right before my eyes. He was made completely new. You may laugh at that, but I am the person who should be most cautious after all the years of lies and deceit. You can choose to believe me or not, but I believe it because I am now the recipient of a brand-new husband. I guarantee you that most women in the world today would scoff at me and the decision I made to stay in my marriage, but their knowledge is limited by what the world says to do, and my knowledge has been expanded by the Word of God. If you don’t know what God’s Word says, you have a disadvantage already
That was the disadvantage that Ray and I lived with for most of our lives. We didn’t know that God’s Word/the Bible was actually a manual for how God intended us all to live together. There are very definite Scriptures outlining exactly how best to be married, have children, work at your job, and even to die. It is all in there, but the problem we had was the same one so many people have today—we weren’t told to read it, and so it had no influence in our lives. We were influenced by TV shows, movies, the Internet, and any other communication forms that are in most households today.
We all live in the age of more, more, and still more stuff which is supposed to make us happy. I was certainly able to obtain lots of stuff, but never real happiness. So what influences you today? Who or what do you believe? Our education system calls for twelve years of undergraduate study, and then another four to six years of college and advanced classes. All of the time is set aside in our lives just to prepare us to work a job, but we spend minimal or no time studying what we understand to be the Word of God. If you don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God, then you will probably just think this story was a figment of my imagination. It cost you some money, and the lady in the book needs to have her head examined for being such an idiot. Yes, I would expect many to reject the decisions I have made in my life, but the good news is that the decision I have made doesn’t just get me through this life.
I will take my last breath some day, and so will you. What race was I running all of my life? It was to find some purpose in being born, it was to be loved and to love, and it was to make a difference in the world. That’s exactly what I have found. There is purpose for my birth and my life. I was blessed to be loved by grandparents and parents who loved me and my siblings. They did everything they knew how to do to love us. Yes, I have described my mother as a woman who hurt me many times, but I don’t really know what her life was like. She grew up in a generation whose children didn’t talk (or write) about their lives. I haven’t always been a good daughter. I choose to say none of that past matters. I love my mother, and I believe my gifts of relentlessness and determination came from her. I thank my parents and grandparents for raising me with Jesus seeds that would take years before they would break the surface of the soil to produce my harvest.
I can only give witness to what I know. I know that I am a treasure to God. He has proved to me that I am worthy. His son, Jesus, actually did die for me, and would have if I was the only human being on earth. I must be worth a lot to God if his Son would give up his life for mine. No other person has ever done that for me. Just think about that for a few minutes. It makes a difference to remember it when you find yourself dwelling in darkness. No, it isn’t any fun to be in the dark. The light is where I choose to be, and I choose it every day.