This week, Gretchen made an appointment to pray with me.  the
first time is often difficult because few Christians in the Body of
Christ have ever truly heard the voice of the Lord.  Oh, they hear
voices all right but they are often condescending, accusatory,
demeaning, belittling, and couched in inflammatory terminology which
creates doubt, fear, guilt, shame, or circular reasoning that always
leads no where.

     After a few minutes, we isolated an emotion which allowed us to
focus our prayers.  It was the emotion of shame.  As we prayed
together about this shame, two memories suddenly came to mind.  One
was when she was at the Christian school, wearing a pink dress, and in
kindergarten.  The second memory was when she was 15 and had run away
from home.  She was working at a Burger King, where we eventually
found her three months later, and she was pregnant with her first
child.  That's little Everett who is our oldest grandson.  He's almost
10 years old now.

     I started with the kindergarten memory.  The shame was there as a
result of a simple art project the class was working on.  Gretchen
said she apparently was doing something wrong because a little boy
next to her tried innocently to show her what was wrong.  suddenly,
and without warning, she felt exposed, embarrassed, and ashamed.  I
focused our prayer on the shame and these other feelings.  She said,
"I'm not as good as the rest of the class."  I recognized this as a
lie from the Enemy, of course, right away but she did not; to her it
felt genuine.

     As the Lord began to speak to her about different areas, she
said, "I feel like I am making all of this up."  This, too, is common
because, even as Born Again Believers, we really aren't used to
hearing the voice of the Lord speaking truth to us as much as we are
the Enemy's.

     As 45 minutes passed, the Lord began to speak His truth which in
turn brought healing into the memory.  Yes, there was a lying spirit
who had implanted the lies about herself into her little 5 year old
mind.  No, he didn't speak; he didn't need to.  The lies she believed
were evident.  Do you think the Enemy plays fair?  Of course not.  He
often preys on children who are unable to detect they are under
demonic influence.  The Lord did, on the other hand, show Gretchen
where he was, that is, the lying spirit in the memory, before he was
sent away, so she would understand she had not made these feelings up
on her own.

     When the first memory was healed, we went to the second one.  It
was already healed and the shame in that second memory was already
gone.  This, too, is quite common when a lie is thematic, or
repetitive, in nature.  Sometimes a thematic lie is embedded hundreds
of times over their life time.

     Gretchen felt, at first, that she could not be healed.  Why?  she
had too many things in her life for the Holy Spirit to address.  You
can see the lie in that reasoning.  Regardless, if she continues
meeting with the Lord in prayer, He will continue his healing process
in her life.

     Finally, after everything seemed renewed in her memory, she said
the Lord walked up to a seat and sat down next to her.  He had an art
project, too, which she saw Him working on.  He looked over and said
to her, "I am going to fix your art project so it is right.  If I can
fix your art project for you, I can fix the rest of your life as
well."

     Thanks for praying for Gretchen.

Phil.

Victory isn't something you have, it is something you are.
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