HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD IN DAYS OF CHAOS AND DECEIT

By Mary Lindow
Hello to all of you who are listening via podcast today or who are reading this message!
I just finished being a part of our weekly prayer gathering this evening, and I have to tell you, the presence of the Father was so absolutely strong and evident in our time together! I am literally to the point that I anticipate all day long on Thursday evenings, getting together with the group that we pray with. 
 
We have been blessed week after week, month after month with the sweet and strong presence of God as we intercede for our nation, for the globe, and for so many other things that the Lord lays on our hearts to pray about.
 
I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE PODCAST THAT I HAD TALKED ABOUT EARLIER. I am still trying to get it to compile and come together and I know that if I rush this, I will not share it in the light of how the Lord wants it to be presented properly.
 
BUT, I HAVE BEEN HAVING ANOTHER MESSAGE AND WORD FROM THE LORD STIRRING DEEP WITHIN MY SPIRIT, AND SO THAT IS WHAT I’M GOING TO SHARE WITH YOU TODAY.
Hearing God accurately in the mess and chaos that the world is in right now, is of huge importance!
 May the Lord continue to use you all to proclaim and speak truth, no matter what the cost. It is so worth being called a servant of the Lord during hard and challenging times.
 
TODAY, I’M GOING TO TALK WITH YOU ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE IN A PLACE OF SAFETY, A PLACE, OR A “HAVEN” OF BEING SHELTERED BY THE LORD. Especially during very, very difficult and hard times.
I’ll share how to discern and hear His voice in the chaos of the nonstop noise the dark world bombards us all with. It’s ratcheted up to crazy levels, and shouts loudly to attempt to distract us from discerning the times, and hopes to discourage us and knock us off balance with fear, and then rob our peace.
 
IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THE EARTH IS IN ONE MASSIVE UPHEAVAL, AND NO MATTER WHERE YOU TURN RIGHT NOW, THE CRISES CONTINUE TO MOUNT AND BOIL! And so, people begin to put aside spending time in the word of God, and certainly in his presence, to spend time with the love of the Internet and scrolling through their telephones through social network information and high charged doomsday podcasts and videos.
This can absolutely create stress and anxiety, and it also creates a terrible problem with comparing ourselves to other people and where we are at in life.
 
PRAYER IS NOT A BORING HARD THING WHEN YOU REALIZE 
THAT YOU ARE FACE-TO-FACE, OR LITERALLY, 
“PRESENCE TO PRESENCE” WITH THE FATHER.
 
A tremendous man who walked daily in the Presence of God, Andrew Murray, said in a book that he wrote, 
“It’s one of the terrible marks of the diseased state of the Christian life in these days that there are so many that are content, and remain passive and content, without the distinct occasion of having experienced answered prayer. They pray daily, but know very little of direct, definite answers to prayer as the rule of their daily life.” 
 
Psalm Thirty verse four says,
“I sought the Lord and he answered me.”
 
We must understand that it’s the Father’s will that WE SEEK HIM OUT to daily have dialogue with his will, and it’s his will to have his children to listen to him and then, he listens to his children and agrees to their requests.
It’s his will that we should come to him day by day, with specific requests, and he will every day, do for us great and wonderful things!
What we ask sometimes might be a case where the specific answer is that he refuses our request, but our Father lets us know when and why he can’t give us what we request. It’s like his Son Jesus, and so we will withdraw our petition or our request.
 
When did Jesus do that?
Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “If this cup could pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done.”  He said this to the Father.
 
WHETHER OUR REQUEST IS ACCORDING TO GOD’S WILL OR NOT, GOD WILL BY HIS WORD AND BY HIS SPIRIT, TEACH THOSE OF US WHO ARE TEACHABLE, and he will give us time to withdraw our requests if they’re not according to God‘s mind or purposes.
 
LET’S PRESS IN.
LET’S JUST STAND FIRM UNTIL THE ANSWER COMES! PRAYER IS GIVEN TO US TO OBTAIN AN ANSWER!
It’s in prayer and its answer, that the exchange of love between the Father and we his children takes place.
 
MY QUESTION IS, “ARE YOUR  PRAYERS BEING ANSWERED?”
During the last hours of the age that we’re in, there will be two opposing groups or alliances in the world. 
 
The First group are those whose hearts are absolutely overwrought with bitterness, resentment and hatred.
 
The Second group is those whose love has actually increased, and are experiencing the power of the Kingdom of God, now!
 
Jesus told us about this in Matthew in chapter 4:10-13.
He said, “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
And then in Matthew 24:14 he added,
“This gospel (good news) of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations and then the end shall come.”
 
SO, THE BIG QUESTION IS...
...“WHAT IS THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM?” 
It’s the whole truth Jesus came to bring, not only that part that saves us from our sins, but also that part which creates us in his image!
It’s the full message, the full good news with all its requirements and all of its rewards! 
It’s is the full price for the full power!
It’s the most glorious pearl that a person can possess. The presence of God in His glory, revealed, made known within and among us!
 
IF WE WANT TO GAIN THIS GREAT LOVE, WE WILL CONTINUALLY BE FORCED TO MAKE CHOICES TOWARD MERCY, OR, TOWARD UNFORGIVENESS, and if we don’t walk in a forgiving attitude, we will certainly become prey to an embittered spirit, if it’s in fact, God‘s plan to allow wickedness and holiness at the same time,  so they grow to full maturity.
 
We must guard our hearts ahead of time from reacting in bitterness or unforgiveness because the increasing anarchy will certainly give us occasions to lose love, with the attempt to make us hard so we can survive in this cruel world.
 
WE OFTEN WITHDRAW FROM THE GENUINENESS OF PURE LOVE!
We can’t choose cautious, selective love, and also walk in the power of God’s kingdom, my friends! To defy pain, we sometimes unconsciously shut down our love, because after all, its love that makes us vulnerable.
 
GOD WANTS US TO BE A PEOPLE WHOSE LOVE IS GROWING HOT, NOT COLD. Jesus didn’t say that we had to trust our enemies, but he did say that we had to love them anyhow. You might be asking why! 
One reason God allows difficulties is to test us!
( I know! I know! We don’t want to hear that! )
He wants to see if our Christianity is just an intellectual pursuit or just thoughts and feelings of the mind, or if following him is truly the highest passion of our hearts. So, he tells us in Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Wow! 
 
SOME OF YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH REJECTION AND BETRAYAL MOST LIKELY.
The Lord says to you today,
“You did not fail, you have continued to love, and although you went through great pain, yet you have forgiven, those who have hurt you.” 
My friends you have passed the test.
 
THERE ARE HOWEVER, SOME OF YOU LISTENING OR READING THAT STILL HAVE CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS IN YOUR LIVES THAT YOU HAVE NOT FORGIVEN, AND WHOM YOU DO NOT LOVE.  Maybe you’re right, they don’t deserve your forgiveness, but what you don’t realize is the consequence of your anger.
You see, as long as we refuse to forgive, a part of this is trapped in the past where you will always be reminded of your pain, and until we forgive, we will not be fully released to go on with our life.
Even the time of year in which you were hurt will bring depression.
 
THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY WE CAN HAVE TRUE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND THAT IS IN THE HERE AND NOW, RIGHT NOW, LIVING IN THE PRESENT. But if our mind is in conflict with others, we’re neither here nor in the present. When we live in the past, we are cut off from God! What people did to us to hurt us is over! It’s done; it doesn’t have any real existence or life of its own, except in your mind.
 
SO THERE WITHIN US, THE DEED CONTINUES TO LIVE AND FESTER AND AS LONG AS IT LIVES, WE’RE STILL BEING HURT BY IT. The person or the people who wounded you may have long since died. They can’t be blamed because it’s us who keeps our wounds alive. Not only is the quality of our spiritual life affected, but often our physical health pays a price as well!
 
As long as we keep holding onto the burden of what someone has done to us, every time we think about it or think about that person, the stomach acids start to churn and anxiety increases, and then of course our body is continually put under stress.
 
If we don’t forgive those who have hurt us, we lose a measure of our capacity to love and whether they deserve forgiveness or not, we deserve a better life!
God wants to give you a better life but you can’t enjoy abundant life and carry unforgiveness, because we’re shackled to something that was hurting us.
Did you know that our own unforgiveness tortures us?
 
SO HOW DO YOU GET OUT OF THAT PRISON? 
HOW DO YOU FIND THE PROTECTION OF GOD FOR YOUR SOUL? 
 
Well, God calls us to forgive. You have to see the hands of God reaching to you in the midst of your pain.
He wants to redeem that conflict using that specific crisis or hardship to develop and perfect character in you. It will be this experience that he will use to make you like Jesus. To become like Jesus is to dwell, to live, in the place of rest and the safety of God.
Every time we say, “Father, I choose to love. I choose to forgive. I choose to forget and not hold it against this person”, we are taking on the nature of Jesus. Friends, rejoice that Jesus is taking over your heart. You are entering into the strong, safe haven of God’s shelter.
 
I DO MANY THINGS THAT THE LORD HAS ASSIGNED ME TO DO IN LIFE NOT ONLY AS A MINISTER, BUT ALSO AS A PASTORAL COUNSELOR.
I also host and facilitate a group called “The international Prophetic Women’s Mentoring Council.” This is a group of women from all walks of life several cultural groups and different backgrounds. We meet through zoom video sessions and individually.
The thing that is “the glue that bonds us” is the fact that each of us have been called into ministry, and each of these women flows in a different expression of the prophetic gift.
This past week we had a zoom session and our conversation and subject matter was regarding, the power of intercession and what it takes to approach the Face of God, in a right attitude.
 
One of the things that stood out so strongly in our time of dialogue and accountability to one another was the fact that in order to hear clearly from the Spirit of God, we need to have the inward witness, or the “inside part of us that communicates with God”, clearly in a place of submission and humility before him, and, that we first come into a place where we have asked the Lord to cleanse us. That means cleanse our hearts before we try to come to Him in prayer.
 
MANY PEOPLE DON’T KNOW HOW TO HEAR THE VOICE OF GOD. They seek it through quick daily devotionals, or they seek the voice of God through other people every day, instead of seeking the Lord himself.
The scripture tells us clearly in John 10:4-5, “His sheep know his voice, and strange voices, they will not follow.”
 
SO WHAT ARE THE STRANGE VOICES?
The voices from the external world that are constantly pumping us full of data, fear, rhetoric and forced compliance to social conditioning. If we choose to listen to the voice of strangers, then we move further away from being sheep in the pasture of the Lord.
 
SO HOW DO WE KNOW HIS VOICE?
How do we discern that it’s him? The number one thing, is that God always speaks life. He always speaks truth. And when God speaks, it brings peace, even in the midst of hard difficulties or hard decisions. An absolute solid peace comes and says, “This is the way, and this is what you have to do!”
Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say,
"This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.
That’s Isaiah 30:21.
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT LIVES IN YOU.
God absolutely wants to direct your life through your decision-making. The Holy Spirit guides us in our spirits (not through our physical body). The Number One way The Holy Spirit leads and guides us is through what the Bible calls, the “Inward Witness.”
Proverbs 3:6 says,  “Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”
 
WHAT IS AN INNER OR INWARD WITNESS?
An inner witness is an impression, or a sense or perception on the inside of you.
Romans 8:16 tells us,
“For his Spirit joins with our spirit, to affirm, to confirm, that we are God’s children.”
Jeremiah 7:23-24 says this to us, 
“But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may go well for you.’ 
Yet, they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they went backward and not forward.
 
AS KINGDOM PEOPLE, WE’RE NOT LED BY OUR SENSES.
We’re not led by our ears or our eyes. We’re led by our spirit.
When we talk about hearing God, we’re not talking about hearing God with our physical ears. We’re talking about hearing Him in our spirit. 
Here’s a great example: 
The Apostle Paul had been arrested and he was headed to his trial. Before he took the journey he sensed something in his spirit. He wasn’t the captain of the ship, but he sensed something in his spirit. 
In Acts 27:10, Apostle Paul said,
"Men, I perceive we're going to face a disaster and heavy losses on this voyage. This disaster will cause damage to the cargo and the ship, and it will affect our lives."
It wasn’t long before the ship hit a cyclone, but an angel appeared and guaranteed Paul that everyone would make it, and they did!
What was it that what Paul said in the beginning? “I perceive".  
This is what we’re looking at right now.
We’re talking about being led by the Spirit of God, no matter what circumstance or difficulty we might encounter.
 
BEING A PERSON WHO IS CALLED TO A PROPHETIC MINISTRY, I AM CLEARLY AWARE OF THE FACT THAT 90% OF WHAT I DO, ALSO COMES FROM TEACHING PEOPLE FROM THE WORD OF GOD REGARDING HOW TO  “HEAR” THE VOICE OF GOD.
 
My job is not to be a telephone for people to connect to God with, nor simply through prophesying. This is not going to change lives long term if the word of God is not taught and also if people don’t act on it and obey it.
 
I HAVE HAD SOME STRANGE ENCOUNTERS WITH PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT I HAVE SOME KIND OF HOTLINE OR SATELLITE CONNECTION TO GOD TO HELP THEM GET ANSWERS. They need something or want to hear what the Lord has for them by asking me for a prophetic word. My friends this is not how the prophetic word of knowledge or word of wisdom works! 
I had a lady when we were Pastoring a local fellowship come up to me after the service and she asked me if I would please, “do whatever I do, do that thing that I do”, and see if God would show me where she had put her wedding ring. She had lost it.
I remember feeling very uncomfortable and a cold chill went through my body! My thought process was, “this woman wants me to be like a palm reader, or a magic eight ball! She wants me to use divination to find her wedding ring!“
Very kindly but firmly I told the woman, “You can ask the Lord to show you where it is yourself, or just simply go on looking for it. Pray that the Lord would lead you to it, but to ask me to ask the Holy Spirit to show me where it is, is basically trying to use another voice to speak to God for you when you can speak on your own to him.”
 
THERE ARE TIMES, WHEN GOD WILL SPEAK A WORD, AND IT IS DONE THROUGH A PROPHETIC UTTERANCE, and it gives us a word of knowledge about something or a word of wisdom about a specific event where we need to have insight, but it will always confirm with the Spirit of God what he has already put down on the inside of us that we can’t seem to quite untangle, until the prophetic word comes and brings a clarity to it.
 
SOMETIMES THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL HAVE SOMEONE BRING A PROPHETIC WORD THAT COMES IN THE FORM OF LOVING CORRECTION, BUT IT IS STILL CORRECTION, AND PEOPLE GET ANGRY AND SHOUT, “HOW DARE YOU JUDGE ME! Who are you to judge me?!”  
Of course what this is a reaction to being caught out in bad behavior or hidden sin, and the Lord gently, lovingly, brings a word of warning.
 
ALL OF US KNOW WHEN WE SLIP AWAY FROM SPENDING TIME IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. We know when we slack off from reading the scripture and from meditating on it, letting the Holy Spirit speak through the word to us. This is where the areas of bitterness and lack of purity in our walk with the Lord get all tangled up.
 
FRIENDS. 
ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO TEACH YOU HOW TO BE LED BY HIM.
(By the way, you might need a refreshing of your commitment to only follow his voice.)
You don’t need a prophet to hear from God for you, or have a constant prophetic word to make decisions.
Simply say these words.
“Holy Spirit, teach me how to be led by you.”
Then, before you make any major decisions, acknowledge God.
Say, “God, this is what the situation is,  >  insert your situation  <. 
What are your thoughts about this?” 
Or
“God, this is what is happening right now, and this is what I’m thinking about doing. What do you think?”
From this point, you begin to look on the inside. Practice looking on the inside.
 
DO YOU HAVE PEACE ON THE INSIDE?
Or do you have discomfort on the inside?
Proverbs 20:27 says,
“The spirit of man is the candle or lamp of the Lord.”
This verse lets us know that God guides us through our spirit.
 
MUCH TOO OFTEN, WE SEEK GUIDANCE IN OTHER WAYS.
We judge by our physical senses, but nowhere does God say He will guide us by our senses. Or we look at a situation from a mental standpoint. But God guides us through our spirit, or our inward man.
 
THE INWARD MAN HAS A “VOICE.”
We call it our conscience, intuition, or an inward witness. As born-again believers train and develop their spirit, this voice becomes clearer.
One thing that has held us back is that we are more body-conscious and mental-conscious than spirit-conscious. We have developed the body and soul but have so often, ignored our spirit.
 
WAITING ON GOD IS SO IMPORTANT
Sometimes people don’t want to take their part of responsibility to engage with the Lord. It’s easier to put it off on God and say, “Lord, if you want me to do something or do that, then open the door. If You don’t, then shut it.”
It takes patience to wait on God  until you know the answer on the inside. 
Sometimes it takes times of waiting, quietly, patiently, to hear this inward witness.
 
WE GET SO BUSY PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY THAT SPIRITUAL THINGS BECOME INDISTINCT TO US.
It’s easier to get quiet with your body than with your mind. Sometimes when you try to sleep, your body is relaxed, but your mind is still churning with the day’s activities, ideas and plans, or, with worries and anxieties.
 
HERE IS WHERE PRAYING IN TONGUES IS A GREAT ADVANTAGE.
Paul said,
“For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, 
but my understanding is unfruitful.” (1 Cor. 14:14).
 
I have found the best way to quiet my mind is to pray in tongues. When you pray in tongues, your mind grows quiet. Once it’s quiet, you become more conscious of your spirit and spiritual things.
 
WHEN CHRISTIANS SEEK TO KNOW GOD’S WILL FOR THEIR LIVES,
HE WILL MAKE HIS PERFECT WILL CLEAR TO THEM THROUGH AMAZING WAYS OF COMMUNICATING.
 
Whether it be through a calm, small voice speaking to their heart, or through a supernatural manifestation. God will guide those whose hearts are open to Him along the pathway of peace.
 
HERE IS A HELPFUL HEART PREPARATION
FOR LISTENING TO AND HEARING GOD
When Samuel was a very young child he went to live with Eli the priest, where he sleeps in the temple.   Samuel is sleeping when he is awakened by the Lord calling his name: "Samuel!" (He thinks Eli is calling him.) This happens twice. Finally, Eli realizes that God is calling the boy!
"So Eli told Samuel,
'Go and lie down, and if he calls to you, say, 
"Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."'
So Samuel went and lay down in his bed.
The LORD came and stood there, calling just like the
Other times, 'Samuel! Samuel!'
Then Samuel said,
'Speak, for your servant is listening.' (1 Samuel 3:9-10)
 
THIS IS THE HEART NEEDED FOR THOSE WHO TRULY WANT TO CLEARLY HEAR GOD:
"Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."
Humility is required.
 
GOD DOESN'T TALK TO US NON-STOP LIKE A 24-HOUR RADIO STATION. But he will speak to us or nudge us occasionally -even often, if we're listening for his voice.
God sees the whole picture, like a scouting pilot who watches the battle from a spotter plane high above the action, then radios down to others, the instructions for battle.
God speaks to us about this through David in Psalm 32:8-9
The LORD says,
“I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. 
I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”
 
GOD IS OUR INSTRUCTOR AND TEACHER ON WHAT DIRECTION OR PATH TO TAKE.
From his vantage point -seeing the past, present, and future, God sees what we can’t see, and "counsels us, directs us, shows us with his eye, focused upon us.”
 
IF WE WILL LISTEN, GOD IS OUR WISE COUNSELOR. 
God doesn't want to force us to obey like some animals that won't obey unless you put a bit and bridle or a leash on them. Instead, he seeks to speak to us in counsel.
 
AS WE HAVE GROWN AND LEARN TO HONESTLY TRUST IN HIM, WE BEGIN TO OBEY. He desires a more mature relationship based on trust rather than on being forced. If we fight him, we can't serve him.
Speak the same words that Samuel did.
“Lord! Here I am! Your servant is listening!”
Then, be still, and listen to what the Lord has to say to you!
He’s waiting to speak to you right now!
 
LET’S PRAY TOGETHER RIGHT NOW!
Whenever I lift my voice to pray for discernment and Your guidance Lord, I am reminded that You are a good shepherd. 
Forgive me for the times I have gone behind or ahead of Your plans. Forgive me for being demanding and trying to rush my time hearing from you. 
Father, I ask for Your Holy Spirit to lead me to Your perfect ways. I thank You that I don’t have to rely on my own wisdom, but I can depend on Your guidance. 
Thank You Holy Spirit. 
In the precious name of Jesus I say, “Here I am Lord. Speak to me. I am your servant and I am listening.
In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
 
Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed, as long as the complete message, Website, podcast link and information for Mary Lindow is included.
Thank You!
"THE MESSENGER"  - "THE ADVOCATE OF HOPE"
-Mary Lindow - “2025”
www.marylindow.com
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Finding Spiritual Truth In A Crazed World - When We Don't Like Difficult

 
(28:00 minutes in length)
(PROPHETIC EXHORTATION AND WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE ARE NOT INCLUDED IN WRITTEN MESSAGE BUT DO CONTINUE IN THE AUDIO MESSAGE FORMAT BEGINNING AT AUDIO PLAYER TIME MARKER 21:38)
 
By Mary Lindow
The words, “The Harsh Winds of Life”  have been playing themselves over and over in my mind.
As I have pondered them and have allowed the Voice of the Holy Spirit to instruct me as to why I have been impressed with this statement, I sense the Lord addressing many deeper issues that are well anchored and maintained within our souls as believers.
 
HARSH WINDS
These blustery currents in the natural can be devastating to property, trees, and all living-breathing creatures. We have all seen what the devastation of hurricanes and tornadoes can do in a very short amount of time.
Often when listening to the traumatic stories of those who have lived through a nightmarish storm, the realities of what they hold near and dear have been laid bear and brought to the surface. Many weep over the loss of family photographs or tender things like Grandma’s old chipped china and are unconcerned about larger material items, but are deeply thankful for the safety of family members after a traumatic event. Others, are shaking fists at the sky and are enraged that they have been infringed upon during a difficult time, and want somebody else to pay for it!
 
THE HARSH WINDS OF LIFE BLOW UPON THE GODLY AND THE UNGODLY.  NO ONE IS EXEMPT.
There are some of life's storms that threaten to blow away everything we've depended on as well.
Friendships are tested, relationships are strained, and the Lord uses these harsh winds blowing against our lives to remove the crusty chaff that can form and harden around the seed of our lives.
Those who are independent in nature find a bitterness creeping into their attitudes and heart. They feel infringed upon when things are not easily controlled or maneuvered in their favor. And so, the Holy Spirit allows the winds to blow until a conviction penetrates the self centered soul, and exposes the fleshy comfort zone of, ‘My Way, My World, My Rights”!
"No man has power over the wind to contain it; 
So no one has power over the day of his death. 
And no one is discharged in time of war, 
So wickedness will not release those who practice it."
-Ecclesiastes 8:8
 
HOW LONG WILL THE HARSH WINDS BLOW?
As long as we practice wicked behavior in the eyes of the Lord, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot stop it! He is winnowing us, allowing us to be caught up into the refining wind of the Holy Spirit's conviction so that the chaff and waste places in our souls are removed.
And trust me my friends, anything that you may be hiding or pretending wasn’t “that bad”, that harmed someone else, well God will allow it to come to the light to be either judged or to be cleansed and yes, there may be consequences that you don’t like.
 
WE CAN’T HARM OTHER PEOPLE, OR ABUSE THEM, SEXUALLY PREY UPON THEM, SPIRITUALLY ABUSE AND DOMINATE OR SLANDER, and then pretend that it wasn’t “that big of a deal”! It’s a huge deal to God and he will continue to pursue us in order to cleanse us if we will allow him access.
(Yes you can say "ouch" right about now!)
 
CHAFF MUST BE REMOVED.  BUT WHY?
Chaff is a waste material plowed into the soil or burned.
Chaff, as a waste product from grain processing, shows us a symbolic use of the idea that refers to something seen as worthless.
Now, this is where we read, "to separate the wheat from the chaff" from
Matthew 3. It means to separate things of value from things of no value.
Another example is in Psalm 1 which says: "Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away".
 
WE CHRISTIANS OFTEN PRESUME THAT BECAUSE WE ARE REDEEMED THROUGH THE BEAUTIFUL SACRIFICE OF CHRIST FOR OUR LIVES, THAT WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR AN EASIER AND MORE PRIVILEGED LIFE.
This is simply not so!
We are given a shield and a holy stamina to withstand the wiles of this world, but no free passes to a life of ease.
 
THE LORD LOVES ALL OF MANKIND.
He longs for ALL of mankind, (that includes you and I) to come to a place of trust in His way, not “our way”. Fully stripped of self-will, self-gratification, self- justification, and self-focus.
Matthew 5:45 says~
 “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good,
And sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
 
I KNOW! I KNOW! THIS STINGS!
"But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth." James 3:14
About now, I can hear a few righteous folks saying, "I would never boast about envy! "
Well! Selfish ambition is well hidden in our personal behaviors.
We offer gifts or opportunities for others to be blessed or helped as long as we are feeling in control and benevolent at the time of the offer or good intention.
But when the winds of life shift and the Lord allows the chaff of "waste materials" in our soul to be Tornadoed —bitterness and exclusive rights abound! Huffiness, abrupt harshness and passive aggression (which means getting even) will manifest and expose the soul's clinging nature, which does not want the hand of God striping away any safety veneer that we use to protect our approach to life.
 
A CHANGE IN THE SPIRITUAL CLIMATE HAS OCCURRED!
John 6:18 says, “A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.”
Jesus allowed the wind to be a teaching point for his disciples.
They had walked with Him, talked with Him and served alongside Him. But trusting Him when the Storms and Harsh winds blew revealed a weakness that we all must look at, and often.
We trust the Lord when things are going our way, but when the Harshness of a storm blows us off the course that we set, many times we run to our own devices or “Plan B”.
 
SO MANY AT THIS TIME IN THIS DIFFICULT AGE ARE SCREAMING,
“Lord! Don’t you care about me? The winds are blowing, and I am fearful for my life! If you Love me, why are you allowing this horrid event to occur?”
Even Peter in his zeal to get out of the boat and see if it was indeed Jesus calling to him to come, once he was out of the safety of his own control and the winds blew against him, he focused on the wind, and not upon Jesus, who was there the whole time. Peter cries out, "LORD I am perishing! SAVE ME!”
 
CONTROL IS A DEEP, DEEP NEED.
Perhaps THE deepest need people have, is for control.
When we feel out of control, we experience a powerful and uncomfortable tension between the need for control and the evidence of “inadequate control”.
Without the Presence of God in our lives, we will attempt to control everything, every event, and every person around us in order to attain the sense of order and “identity power” that we crave.
 
DRAWING NEAR TO GOD
It was James, the brother of Jesus, who wrote to the believers in Jerusalem, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double- minded people!" (James 4:8).
If we draw near to God, he will respond and draw near to us.
Drawing near to God is spending time with Him, worshiping Him, praying and talking to Him, inviting Him into every aspect of our lives.
EVERY.  PART.  OF.  OUR.  LIFE.
 
BRING YOUR HEART UNDER HIS LORDSHIP
James gives us the blueprint for drawing near or “right up close” to the Lord. 
If you've committed sin, confess it, get rid of it.
Next, ask the Lord to examine your heart, your motives, and the things that make you do what you do.
 
Bring your heart under His Lordship as well.
May our actions be manifestations of a clean heart and conscience.
Allow HIM to remove the Chaff, the wasted time controlling things, and TRUST Him to align your life.
Notice that when he writes about this he says,
"Purify your hearts, double-minded people."
 
WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY "DOUBLE-MINDED"?
Well, a person who is double-minded is drawn in two completely different directions. And so he or she will get nowhere fast because loyalty is divided.
They will vacillate between faith and unbelief.
And, a double-minded person is unstable in all his/her ways and his/her spiritual walk is inconsistent because he/she tries to serve God and his/her own interests, and gamble their life against the Harsh Winds.
We've all learned that this kind of living never works. 
 
YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS.
Friends again I say this under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the master that you serve whether it be hiding something that is a secret sin or offense to The Lord, or things that you are aware of that have dishonored others, they will be brought into the light one way or the other.
If you think you can hide it, if you think you can gloss it over, God will eventually bring it into the light and have you exposed for deception.
Or, you choose to get the help you need and you can humble yourself! Yes, there may be consequences you don’t like, because of your actions and choices.
But repentance and accountability will save your soul. It may not save your marriage, it may not save your ministry, and it may not save your job or your relationships. But it will save your soul, because humility enters, and God can re-create what has been destroyed and damaged.
 
GOD DOESN'T PLAY GAMES!
No one is going to get very far with God by playing spiritual games.
It will soon be discovered that the only people playing the game with you will be you, yourself, and again, YOU.  It's just like people thinking that they can "ride the fence" into the kingdom.
There is no riding the fence; there is no lukewarm support group.
You’re either in or out.
If we really want to know Him, we are going to have to get serious about our relationship with Him.
 
WE DON’T WANT DIFFICULT! 
I will tell you right now, that even as I write and speak these words, I can feel the resistance to pruning and more change in my gut!  
Are you in a pruning, shocking, "getting trimmed back" difficult season right now? 
Most everyone is! 
Feeling like your wings have been clipped?
Are you seeing a pattern of lethargy and a dullness of joy maybe in your daily life? 
Don’t waste those struggles friends! Know that God is very... VERY... intentional. And, He has a good plan for all of it. 
Every challenge is an opportunity to practice walking one day at a time, with really clear thinking and gratitude, and He is right there, inside you, to help you.
 
LIKE I SAID BEFORE! WE DON’T WANT DIFFICULT! 
But my oh my, I do want to be like Him!
So I’m in surrender-mode now, friends. 
I’m saying, “Cut away, Lord. Go deep.” 
WHY? Because I want ALL that He has for me. 
I want the fruit. 
I want all that abundance, and I know it’s waiting for me when this weird and awkward season changes.
 
THERE IS ANOTHER PHENOMENON I FIND THAT HAPPENS DURING THE PROCESS, WHEN THE HARSH WINDS OF LIFE ARE BEARING DOWN.
And, one that I find that is unhealthy to ignore.
The enemy of our soul is observing and is feverishly “taking notes” about this difficult process, and I believe he finds it quite enjoyable; he laughs and ridicules and flings missiles of insults that shout that, "only a loser needs this kind of difficult adjustment ”. 
This of course, is a lie but, one which we can tend to believed on a bad day! Listening to the wrong voice can tempt us to believe the blowing away of chaff in our lives is punishment, and comes from God being mad at us. 
It can cause us to pull back from deeper fellowship or social engagements (social distancing tools too, like Face Time, ZOOM, integral) these paralyze honesty, transparency and humility.
It can lead to self-hatred, self-protection, denial about how we hurt others with half-truths, and so on!
 
I AM TRULY BECOMING MORE AWARE IN MY SPIRIT THAT GOD CAN ONLY USE ME—OR “BEST USE ME”, THROUGH THE PARTNERSHIP OF HIS POWER AND MY WEAKNESS. 
 
A wise and well-tested man by the name of Alan Hood must have had a few pruning clippers dig into his life at time or two and learned this lesson. He stated, 
“To Be Pruned Is To Lose The Resources, Whether Monies or Physical Strengths Upon Which Everyone Around You Measures You As Successful.”
LET’S READ THAT AGAIN…     
…S  L  O  W  L  Y ! 
 
“To Be Pruned Is To Lose The Resources, Whether Monies or Physical Strengths Upon Which Everyone Around You Measures You As Successful.”
 
TRYING TO USE OLD THINGS WHEN GOD IS TRYING TO GIVE US NEW THINGS IS REALLY SUCH FOOLISHNESS! 
Psalm 85 talks about Restoration, Re-tooling and Revival.
Verse 8 says, 
“I will listen to what God the Lord says;
He promises peace to his people, His saints
—but let them not return to folly.”
 
I’M TRUSTING THE LORD’S GOOD AND GRACIOUS HAND IN THE PROCESS THAT THE WORLD IS EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW. 
I know God does not intend to leave even a healthy fruit-bearing branch how it is, but He is always after a more abundant harvest for His people.
I don’t get it, I don’t like or want difficult! 
But I also don’t want a puny little sick looking basket of bitter, green, unusable fruit out of life! 
He will “give the increase” when I reach the end of this seeming devastation of stymied ideas and “put on hold” plans, and let me tell you something crazy, I feel it coming!  The increase!
I’m learning to WALK in harmony, in tune with the truth that, “He is dwelling like healthy sap, in me, and will keep sin and despair from having dominion over my life”. (Romans 6:14) YOUR LIFE TOO! 
 
A MOMENT IN HIS ANGER - A LIFETIME IN HIS FAVOR.
God disciplines for a moment when He wishes to get our attention and our lives may indeed become painful for a period, but then comes His favor.
God doesn't delight in either our depression or our damage. 
And, when He begins to deal with the chaff in our lives, it is for our advantage, that we may be conformed to His likeness and reflect His holiness.
When we sense God’s disapproval, when it appears He has withdrawn from us, it is only so that we see our utter need of Him.
 
WHEN LIFE SEEMS TO BE SO SOUR, WHEN EVERYTHING CRUMBLES, then we must remember what we “say we believe”, that God’s favor is with us, because of Christ’s worthiness given to us, because we are adopted and are His - which means, that His favor always wins out over His disapproval.
 
THIS PICTURE IS PAINTED WELL BY THE WORDS "WEEPING REMAINS FOR A NIGHT." 
Weeping and sorrow are pictured as a traveler who comes to stay for a night. The pain and sorrow we feel may seem as though it has moved in with us like an unwelcome guest, who decides to stay for a very long time.
 
REJOICING THOUGH, COMES IN THE MORNING.
Your “mourning”, will dissipate in the morning”.
Your winter, will melt into summer.
God will replace your sighing, with singing.
Grief, will give way to gladness.
What was once bitter, will be made sweet.
And, what was once a desolate wilderness, will be transformed into a paradise.
 
LIKE THE FIRST RAYS OF THE SUNRISE WHICH DISPEL THE HARSH WINDS AND GLOOM OF NIGHT, 
GOD GIVES US JOY WHEN THE DARKNESS OF OUR PROBLEMS SEEM AS THOUGH THEY’LL NEVER LEAVE.
 
YOUR CROSS IS HIS GLORY
What is so crucial to understand is that as a Christian, your life will be filled with times of weakness and strength, with want and wealth, with disgrace and honor, with crosses and comforts, miseries and mercies, joys and sorrows, delight and mourning.
As this cycle of separating “Chaff” from our lives reoccurs many times in our lives, and it moves us from the cross to glory.
For your own health and so that you find all your satisfaction in Christ alone, God will send you times of great growth and other times of emptiness.
When the harsh winds blow, know that God desires that you find your hope and comfort by His own fire.
When the balmy breezes come, give Him praise and thanksgiving for the warmth He provides.
Psalm 57:1 says,
"Have mercy on me, O God,
Have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.”
 
(PROPHETIC EXHORTATION AND WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE NOT INCLUDED IN WRITTEN MESSAGE CONTINUE IN THE AUDIO MESSAGE FORMAT BEGINING AT AUDIO PLAYER TIME MARKER 21:38)
Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed 
provided that complete message, podcast link and website information for Mary Lindow is included.
Thank You!

Copyright 2025 " THE MESSENGER "  - "THE ADVOCATE OF HOPE"
~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
www.marylindow.podbean.com
Your Gracious Support and Donations Are So Very Helpful 
And Assist Mary In Publishing Her Teaching Podcasts 
and Audio Messages.
THANK YOU!
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Brokenness – Disillusionment, and Redemptive Growth – The Raw Truth About Loss - Grief – Betrayal, and Maturity

 
By Mary Lindow
As you settle in to listen to this podcast, maybe you’re facing difficult times and you wonder how God can still have a plan for your messy, hurting, perhaps disillusioned life. What about your loved ones, or those in the neighborhood around you? There’s so much brokenness that it can feel like anything you do to help is like a drop in the ocean.
I certainly have had several moments this past season, months, days even, of being broken, disillusioned, angry, all the emotions that can go with hearing terrible stories of betrayal, clergy abuse, child abuse, adult children being estranged from parents, parents being estranged from their adult children, walking many from sadness over deep wounds from past relationships, festering with anger, guilt and shame.
This service of working with broken people that God has called us to, (and me specifically these past couple of years as a Biblical pastoral Counselor), well, seeing and hearing the sadness, can wear you thin at times, and I go running to the feet of Christ over and over again, asking him to make sense of how humanity can be so vicious and destroy one another.
Of course Jesus came to die for all of us, and in fact was broken, beaten, bruised and yes, he wept. So He knows the anguish and grief that can tow us under! The Lord has always been close to those who are crushed and broken, right from the very start.
 
Brokenness Doesn’t Distract Or Hinder God.
He extends endless compassion and love to us, even when we are feeling absolutely crushed.
When we don’t want anyone to see our brokenness, our shame, He is always close, never with judgment but always with kindness. The kind of kindness that heals.
The question is:
“Does brokenness have any purpose?”
Or is it a hindrance to God’s plans and promises?
Can God Turn Our Brokenness Into Something Beautiful?
 
In Matthew 26, Jesus had His last meal with the disciples before He went to suffer on the cross.
Now, even though I’ve read this passage many times, something rich recently stood out.
“As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take and eat it; this is my body’. (Matthew 26:26).
First, Jesus took the bread,
Then He blessed it,
And then He broke it.
 
Now, I thought to myself … “Why would He not first take the bread, break it and then bless it?”
 
There’s A Purpose To Why Jesus Did It This Way.
The blessing comes before the breaking, because this was the theme of Jesus’ life:
Jesus was blessed by the Father and the Spirit during His baptism (Matthew 3:16-17).
Jesus endured the brokenness on the cross (Luke 23:26-39).
And, Jesus conquered death through His resurrection and then ascended to the right hand of the Father.
This is the greatest blessing for believers because we are united with Christ and fully restored to God!  (Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:4-6).
 
Blessed
Then Broken
Then Blessed again.
That's the pattern.
 
Maybe You’re In A Season Where You Feel More Broken Than Blessed.
I understand. But because God has blessed us with His Son, every ounce of brokenness we experience on this side of eternity is pointing us toward the blessing of heaven, where we will be reunited with Christ, if we trust in Him.
God also redeems our current brokenness as a means of blessing others who are also broken (2 Corinthians 1:4).
We Can Know With Confidence
That When We Endure Brokenness And Pain,
There Isn’t An Ounce Of Our Brokenness
That Is Not Under The Blessing Of God!
 
This Is A Hard Truth To Grasp. It may even be something we want to reject because it feels unfair or even cruel!
I agree that it can feel that way. Even Jesus Himself agrees. Just a few verses after the Last Supper, He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane and cried out, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38a, CSB).
We don’t have to dismiss our feelings when it comes to our brokenness. Even Jesus felt the full range of His emotions before His most broken moment.
We can come before God in humility with our raw, honest emotions. We can bring our brokenness to Him. We can trust that Jesus is with us, NOW. And, we can look to the cross and the empty tomb, knowing that though we experience brokenness, Jesus overcame it.
 
Brokenness Isn’t The End For Us.
Blessed, then broken, then blessed again.
Lord, give us the grace to endure this reality.
 
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus, who was blameless and pure, had scars that remained after his resurrection. Jesus’ scars were not a flaw. They’re a reminder that even the Savior of the world has experienced brokenness. They also give us a tangible answer to our doubts, like they did for Thomas. In a moment of faithlessness, doubt and brokenness, God meets Thomas with compassion and kindness.
Jesus’ Scars Are A Demonstration Of The Lengths He Went To For Us, a sacrifice given to restore hope in a broken world full of broken people.
And the same hands that were nail-scarred? They have our very names written on them as a promise that God will not ever forget or forsake us (Isaiah 49:16). Just like a scar, they’re permanently written as a reminder of God’s commitment to us, no matter how broken we feel.
 
Very Few See This Bleak Moment For What It Really Is.     
It's a chance to see their need for something that is beyond themselves. But my friend, this can be a moment where the soul can cross over from its own empty silence, into an expected quiet that is alive with His presence.
It silences the anguish, the anxious restlessness into a calm and still place of peace. It's as if the soul finds that in this dark place, there is a secret well of sweet water, and it springs up and overflows with light and life. 
 
LEARNING TO PASS INTO THIS
PLACE OF THE SPIRIT AND ALLOWING GOD
TO KEEP YOUR SOUL IN REFRESHING
SILENT TRANQUILITY IS A TRUE ACT
OF THE MATURING BELIEVER.
 
God Put You On Earth In Your Exact Place For His Specific Purpose, and you are living in that purpose, even when you don't know it.
Your soul may be grumbling and resisting, but you are living the story that God is ready to reveal to you. God is a lot bigger than you expect Him to be.
He's a lot bigger than your circumstances.
He is a God of detail.
He is deeply involved in the small details of your life, but He has a "bigger yes" for you.
Your true glory is the revelation of His splendor, his amazing ability to create redemptive “Resurrection moments” revealed in you day by day.
 
In 1 Peter 1:6. It says,  "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials."
 
As Jesus Is Revealed In You,
You Can Rejoice No Matter What.
 
The Display Of His Glory Often Comes Through Your Wounds.
Your dark nights and cries of longing are lovingly heard, and as His bright light dawns, your grief contrasts with His glorious joy.
In brokenness, God works in you something beautiful, deep, and solid to offer others. You are developing inner strength as you are being blessed, broken, and given as an offering in your trials. True strength comes from your desperate need of God. You are a joy to Him as you offer yourself as a representative of His sufficiency.
Paul said He wanted to know Christ and be conformed to the fellowship of sharing His sufferings, knowing there's a resurrection coming. (Phil. 3:10).
 
Know that your Father created you for this time, for these very circumstances. He knew exactly what would be happening in your life as you are living it right now. He knows the impact for which He is preparing you, that still awaits you.
Be Filled with his Grace and hope to lean into the purpose that you were create for, in spite of difficult people, through hard circumstances, and through tough challenges.
 
Your Purpose, My Purpose Is In The Process.
We won't get there overnight.
We won't mysteriously wake up with it one morning.
But today we are closer than yesterday, and tomorrow we will be closer than we are today.
Be at peace in Him to know these things, and rejoice in Him.
HE IS ALIVE! We Are Not Alone.
 
Let’s Pray Together,
Dear Lord,
Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by how painful earthly brokenness can feel. Please help us, help me remember that you Jesus are our greatest blessing.
You are with us now with me now, as we face hardship and grief and sadness and await a day when you will make all things new. Give me strength, give those that are listening strength as we long for this day, and we ask this in the name of the Resurrected King of Heaven, Jesus Christ, The Messiah.
Amen.
 
I Know That Many Of You Are Going Through Many Things In Your Own Lives and there is so much going on around us everywhere right now as the Lord is more than shaking his church. He is exposing so many uncomfortable things, but what he is really doing is bringing his people back to a place to where HE alone is enough, his word alone is light and life, strength and guidance, no matter how difficult or dark the times can be. His word will penetrate past all of that panic and bring us daily comfort.
I’d like to call it daily bread since we’re on the subject of talking about bread, and remember because Christ was the bread of life and he gave it to us, and since we’ve given our lives to him, we are now bread of life to others with whatever we speak out of our mouth in the name of Jesus.
It has to be in accuracy and mimicking the way he lived and walked. If it isn’t, then there’s going to be difficulty there’s going to be pain.
It’s going to cause pain.
It’s going to cause difficulty.
 
So I Encourage You, If You’re Running And Hiding or if you’re trying to protect yourself from something that you’ve done that you know needs to come out into the light,run to Jesus, then tell the truth and get the help that you need. It won’t be easy, but that clawing horrible feeling of waiting for the shoe to drop will end, and the enemy will no longer have a foothold in your mind.
For Those That Are Suffering Because Of The Behaviors Of Others and you know that there just doesn’t seem to be an answer or an end in sigth, and certainly no vindication. I encourage you to not back away and to stand where God has you, but don’t grow bitter and don’t look for revenge. This is when we take it back into our own power at our own strength.
I Bless You Today!
I encourage you to get before the Lord and ask him to show you “the way” that he has for you during these times where he is maturing you, maturing his bride, and it is all for the glory of the ONE who laid down that entire greatness so that we would have an access to return to heaven.
 
Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed, as long as the complete message, website, podcast link and information for Mary Lindow is included.
Thank You!
2025
"THE MESSENGER"  - Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
www.marylindow.podbean.com
 
If you would be so kind and assist Mary helping her to meet other administrative needs such as website and podcast costs, or desire to bless her service in ministry with Spirit-led Love gifts or regular support:
 
Please JOYFULLY send your gift in the form of: 
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 USA 
 
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THANK YOU!
 
 

"ChoosingThe Desert Of Trouble OR The Door Of Hope" - Prophetic Insights and Encouragement

Note: There is a time of prophetic ministry at the end of this message during the audio version of the podcast.  
Please Take A Moment to Listen
So That The Holy Spirit Might Speak Over Your Life! 
 
 "Choosing The Desert Of Trouble  Or The Door Of Hope" 
 Prophetic Insights and Encouragement
By Mary Lindow through the Holy Spirit 
 
TODAY’S PODCAST MESSAGE IS GOING TO ADDRESS 
ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT MOST CHRISTIANS 
ARE A LITTLE EMBARRASSED TO ADMIT. 
THEY DOUBT!
 
Sometimes it comes from being so absolutely crushed that you are afraid to trust or believe in anything.
Or, we create our own false narratives and wonder WHY things don’t happen, and then we doubt that God can get us out of our messes.
 
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THAT “DOUBT THING” THAT KEEPS BEATING AGAINST THE THIN MEMBRANE OF HOPE IN YOUR THINKING?
 
WE CAN CERTAINLY SEE TODAY THAT PEOPLE HAVE PUT THEIR HOPE IN SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS THAT ARE OFFERED, looking for a way out of confusion, wanting to know themselves better or to find someone to love or to validate them.
There's Enneagrams, horoscopes, overloads of self-help books/blogs, medications, politicians, gurus and more, and most all of these have failed those hope seekers, or maybe have caused them to flail even further.
 
BUT HONESTLY...
...MOST PEOPLE ARE SIMPLY SEARCHING FOR THE "REAL DEAL".
They want to see genuine people expressing living and radiant hope.
They want an anchor in Achor (troubled times).
They are attracted to that and yet, the soul does love intellectual reasoning more than humility and yielding to God, the Supreme Guide.
 
HOPE. 
It’s what nourishes life.
It’s the motivator to move us into action.
It’s the promise of tomorrow.
What each one of us needs more of is hope.
What our country and world needs is hope.
 
Discouragement. 
It’s what siphons the joy right out of you!
Discouragement leads to desperation, which leads to feelings of anxiety, dread and hopelessness, which can move people into depression and suicidal thoughts, and those thoughts lead down a path of complete and utter darkness.
Trouble looms large in every face, every place and every happy space.
 
SO… DEFINE… HOPE! 
We often use the word hope as a kind of wish.
“I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.”
“I hope the Broncos win their next game.”
But friends, hope in the Bible, has quite a different meaning.
 
RAW AND BIBLICAL HOPE IS A CONFIDENCE AND EXPECTATION THAT GOD HAS PROVIDED A WAY FOR A GOOD FUTURE FOR YOU. 
God wants to fill every person reading  or listening this with hope, that He has a wonderful future planned for you!
Ah…. Ummm......  Really? Does He? 
Can God REALLY create “good” out of the trouble you are passing through or that you got yourself "IN" to?
 
THE WORD ACHOR MEANS TROUBLE. 
So very aptly named, the valley spoken about here (Achor- from Hosea 2: 1-8) is the place where a man named Achan, brought trouble on Israel, by willfully going the opposite way and blew off the Lord's plan. So, God sees the sin, and brings it to them through Hosea’s warning.
 
THE SIN OF THEIR IDOLATRY, their mixtures of spiritual practices and beliefs and forgetting God and their sincere dedication to him, and his ways of doing things. (Read Hosea 2: 1-8 to fully see the raw details.)
 
YIKES! 
These folks were exploring and trusting in things much like many who are probing and immersing themselves into questionable spiritual practices and who distance themselves from the warnings of God today!
 
God in His grace, in the New Testament freedom of Christ, will put sin to death in your life and my life and also the trouble brought against us from the results of the sin of others.
He prepares the Valley of trouble - Achor, to become a door of hope.
 
God wants to show you the door…
...Right there, in the midst of this grief or very hard trouble that you are parched and exhausted by.
 
A door where you see HOPE written on it….
…And you move towards it.
Crawling is absolutely permitted! 
Just get moving, and get THERE!
 
JESUS SPOKE IT CLEARLY TO US WHEN HE SAID, "I AM THE DOOR. 
"To enter through me is to experience life, freedom, and satisfaction. 
A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. 
But I have come to give you everything in abundance, 
more than you expect life in its fullness until you overflow!"
-John 10:9-10
 
THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION, OF TROUBLE AND DEFEAT WILL BECOME THE FIRST POINT OF YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH THE DOOR OF HOPE.
You let go of the dragging baggage of woes and stop chewing on the dust.
You admit your secret idolatry of pessimism and stubborn defiance to yield to the probing of your heart, admitting that you account to no one but yourself.
You put down the whip of control and anger and take up the walking stick to lean upon while you humbly limp towards the door of Hope.
That's a valley of trouble my friend.
But, listen closely!
 
THIS DOOR OF HOPE THAT'S BEEN PROVIDED THERE STRATEGICALLY PLACED IN THE MESS, DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. 
WHY? Because it’s appointed by God Himself.
It opens up new opportunities for you; even those that were lost will be restored to you. It will cause a new song to rise again in your heart.
 
SO, YOU WEARY, RED -EYED AND CRIED OUT ONES, 
PREPARE TO LEAVE THE VALLEY OF TROUBLE (ACHOR) BEHIND,  
AND PASS THROUGH THE DOOR OF HOPE.
 
We Have To Wait With Hope For God!
“Wait with hope for the LORD. 
Be strong, and let your heart be courageous.
Yes, wait with hope for the LORD.”
-Psalm 27:14
 
WE HAVE TO BE COURAGEOUS AND STRONG IN OUR WAITING 
FOR THAT DOOR TO BE SHOWN TO US. 
The word “wait” is a very upsetting word for many!
We don’t like waiting!
We want things fixed. NOW! PRONTO!
Waiting can make us feel like we are doing something wrong, hesitating, lagging behind.
This isn’t why we have to wait sometimes.
 
WAITING HELPS US TO MATURE IN CHRIST. 
Waiting burns out impatience and defensiveness and impulsive reactions that decide to not deal with our deeply entrenched ruts!
Waiting is better then rushing into something without God’s wisdom and direction.
This door of Hope when there has been trouble, sin, loss pain, cycles of grief, is a sign of God’s tender mercy towards you.
“I will give back her vineyards to her and transform her Valley of Troubles (Achor) into a Door of Hope.
"She will respond to me there, singing with joy as in days long ago in her youth after I had freed her from captivity in Egypt.”
-Hosea 2:15
 
LET THIS PROMISE BRING REASSURANCE TO YOUR HEART. 
Let the past with all its sin and defeat be locked behind you, never to be reopened again.
Leave the Valley of Achor behind.
Let your eyes look ahead.
Walk through the door of hope that God has opened for you!
 
Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed provided that complete source, podcast and website information 
for Mary Lindow is included.
Thank You!
Copyright © 2025 - "THE MESSENGER " ~Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
www.marylindow.podbean.com
 
If you have been impressed by the Holy Spirit to assist and bless Mary to minister, helping her to meet needs such as web site and podcast and video teaching costs, or desire to bless her service with Spirit-led Love gifts or regular support:  
Please JOYFULLY send your gift in the form of: 
► Personal Checks ► Business Checks
► Money Orders ► Cashiers Checks 
To: His Beloved Ministries Inc. PO Box 1253Denver  Colorado 80614USA
Or feel free to use our send a tax deductible gift with 
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Under the name of - His Beloved Ministries Inc.
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"TRAUMATIC TIMES AND TRUTH TELLERS"

By Mary Lindow
 
Today’s podcast is going to be discussing a subject that a lot of people avoid because they honestly just don’t know how to approach it or, they are afraid to approach it.
Somehow people think that people like myself who have been serving in ministry to the Body of Christ for many, many years, and who are called by the Lord to operate or flow in a prophetic ministry as well, do this 40 hours a week. And, of course, people do expect you to be on call and ready to deliver a clear and concise word from the Lord, without considering the fact that you are not just simply a prophet or a teacher/minister, but you are also a human being who lives and breathes and moves and feels.
 
BEING IN MINISTRY ON ANY LEVEL IS NOT FOR THE WEAK OF HEART and truly should not be something to be considered or pursued by those who are looking for a platform for fame or to hold power over others. It is a call to hear the voice of the Lord, to study his word and to always be ready to give a good report of what he has promised or what he is requiring of his people.
So having said that, I am echoing the words and most likely also the thoughts of many disappointed and disillusioned believers right now.
I read a wonderful devotional last week from the Bible app. and it so resonated with where things are right now in our world.
It said, 
“If we are paying attention, we will see a lot of “off” around us. I bet you have noticed things that appeared unjust. Cracks in the façade that show injustice is real.
People hurt. Bullies winning.
The right action is left undone or the wrong action brings harm.
When we pay attention, we have to acknowledge this world is gut-wrenchingly broken.”
 
Many of us will read a description of mistreatment and nod along from experience, memories bringing a fire to our chest. Others hear words about injustice, and it all feels distant. The deep desire to downplay evil stirs, perhaps even subconsciously.
Reading Habakkuk beckons us to acknowledge a foundational principle God reveals through Old Testament prophets—you have to see the evil. We must look around at what is happening in the world and see it for what it is.”
 
THE BIBLE PAINTS THE PROPHETS AS THOSE WHO JOLT US AWAKE AND FORCE US TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT SUCH THINGS.
 
They are the watchmen signaling with waving arms, often to people wanting to look away.
“Look up and see the evil done against others”, the prophets said.
See the impact of your own choices on the vulnerable.
See the disobedience of God’s people.
 
GOD SEES THE WAYS WE’VE GOTTEN THINGS SUPER WRONG FRIENDS, and he’s coming to do something about it.
Get ready. We might not be paying attention, but he is.
 
It would be easy for some of us—and beneficial at times—to look away from the wrong done around us. We much prefer the aesthetics that way. Yet, there are consequences to indifference. We should not be surprised by discipline from the Lord if we choose not to pay attention to the discrepancy between our community’s actions and God’s righteous standard, just as the prophets warned in Israel.
 
FOR OVER 16 YEARS STEVE AND I HAVE ALSO BEEN INVOLVED AS PASTORAL COUNSELORS. Now, some individuals say that all pastors can give pastoral counseling to people. It’s a little different than that. Some people go to school and study psychology, which is the study of the mind, and how to understand the psyche of people and help them. This is a secular approach, and there have been good results and helping people resolve conflicts and often mental illness issues as well as addressing dementia and Alzheimer’s problems and more.
 
Pastoral counseling is where the Bible is the foundation, the Scriptures are the foundation of what you use as a basis to advise and counsel and hopefully help restore people. You also do have to take study courses and apply different techniques in counseling that assist you in being able to assess and discern, as well as understand some issues of mental health in order to be integral in your approach. Steve and I were supervised for over 15 years by a doctor of psychology, who was a strong believer, and we both took courses from different Christian counseling associations and college courses in order to broaden our ability to help people. We also had a brick-and-mortar counseling group with a dear friend, our friend who was the doctor of psychology and the practice supervisor for three years in our local area.
 
WE SAW THE LORD TRANSFORM, marriages, families, young people, and drug addicts, as well as dealing with many abused believers who had come out of almost cult-like, churches, or who were involved in environments and churches where they could not talk about abuse going on with the staff. Many in ministry callings came to us to share their hearts and gained helpful counsel as well.
 
LITERALLY A FEW WEEKS BEFORE COVID LOCKDOWNS BEGAN, our landlord who was also a believer let us know that he was going to sell his portion of the medical unit building that we were renting from him, and the Lord had begun to speak to Steve and I about the timing of where we were supposed to head into more private work as pastoral counselors and as mentors within that same timeframe. The state of Colorado had begun to dictate what licensed counselors were permitted to address, absolutely mandating that they were not permitted to talk about any kind of therapy, that assisted those with “different sexual lifestyles” if they wanted to be transformed or helped.
 
Steve and I strictly operate as Ordained ministers so we do not have to bow our knee to the dictates of a corrupt government licensure program.  We still have to follow confidentiality laws as well as report any kind of devastating child abuse that we may hear in our counseling sessions, but it is all done ethically and legally, and with grace. When the lockdowns began the majority of our work took place over the phone or occasional zoom sessions. With great sadness our dear sister and friend and Counseling Center Supervisor Dr. Muskie, passed into heaven, due to complications with WuhanCovid19.
 
When You Counsel People, The Number One Thing
That Needs To Be Absolutely Evident Is That You Are Willing
To NOT Look At Everyone From A Lens Of What YOU Know,
But Rather From The Lens Of God’s Compassion, As Well As
Leaning In To The Discernment Of The Holy Spirit.
 
The majority of the people I work with are women who have been in abusive environments with either husbands, abusive parents or/siblings and with people in ministry environments (and I’m telling you there are many sexual predators who prey upon women right in church buildings!) as well as working with professional women who are pressured by men and women in their work environments.
 
There are also a lot of women who are very sensual, who get attention by teasing men hoping to cause them to fall. It’s a real deal! And they don’t just go after pastors. They will go after any man in a local body or church or work environment to get the attention that they hunger for when they missed out on being parented properly, or if they feel that something sensual makes them get the attention they need to feel loved. This often happens when there has been sexual abuse in their lives.
 
Pastoral counseling is based on getting to the root of the problem according to what the word of God says, and for a believer the importance of it is that we are willing to face the root cause of what causes us to be traumatized, bitter, secretive, or lie.
 
ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS TO COUNSEL IS A PERSON WITH AN EXTREMELY HARD, WOUNDED HEART, OR WHO IS EMBITTERED. No matter how much you try to show them the way and soften the pathway for them with the grace of God, there is often a back lash that always has a reason to explain why they are hurt, why they are hard, and why they choose to stay stuck in a hard place.
In Matthew 13:15 Jesus says:
“For the heart of this people has become hard,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.”
 
It is a humbling thing to admit that you are stuck or that you are in a hard place, or that you are dominant and mean and cruel to people because you are bitter over tough life circumstances that have happened to you, and so you put up a wall to protect yourself.
 
I have met Christians who justify the fact that they can bully and name call and yes, often swear at other people when they think they are trying to help them or advise them. They often get angry when they are confronted about their bad bullying behavior towards their children. If you ever hear a believer say something like “my child is a jerk”, or “you’re a little brat”, or “stop whining and get up or I’m going to give you something to cry about”, you can tell that there’s verbal abuse going on in their home.
 
Verbal abuse isn’t just cussing at someone although it is verbal abuse for sure! Verbal abuse is considered shaming, humiliating, paralyzing, and dominating over someone else verbally to the point that they are caused to emotionally shut down in fear. Unfortunately, I hear in the confines and confidential pouring out of hearts in my counseling sessions many who have been yelled at with scripture verses and shamed over not being perfect and obedient to God.  This is called spiritual abuse.
 
Picking out specific Bible verses, and using them as a battering ram, or a knife that stabs into the heart of someone to get them to “obey" or to get them to “submit”, is absolutely vicious behavior and it is abusive. There’s no godly virtue in posturing to be a big shot, or to appear to be the person who can control a room with snarky snide remarks or a bunch of advice that everyone is forced to listen to.
 
This is called "insolent pride" in the Bible, and we always take that biblical view, but in the natural if you were studying a psychological viewpoint, this is called narcissism.
 
Proverbs 21:24 states
“Proud,” “Haughty,” “Scoffer,” are his names, 

He who acts with insolent pride
 
 
INSOLENT PRIDE CREATES A SCOFFING, ARROGANT “KNOW IT ALL” ENVIRONMENT, where there is no ability to ever address the deep-rooted issue of control and abuse in a human being and how they use it towards others to posture. The need for power and control becomes “out of control”! But underneath that simmering rage there is someone who needs to keep everything tightly organized and under their thumb in order that no one finds about out the secret part of them that is either weak, wounded, or has done something they should not do to harm others.
 
WHY AM I SHARING THIS?
Well, we are living in a time where narcissism is actually applauded and stroked as a point of near genius! Insolent pride and verbal domination have become the way of communication in most social media groups.  And, unfortunately it takes place in a lot of texting where people can say cruel or snarky things behind the protection of a telephone screen and slander others in one mass social media post or text! But to say it face-to-face and see the pain in someone’s face by the words they’ve spoken is a different thing isn’t it? And the other party suddenly being painted as a “rotten person” never gets a chance to tell the side of their story that may actually be the truth.
 
Every day we come across people who need to hear a kind word, who need to be lead to a place where they can get help or truth, or just simply be treated with a level of empathy.  And, every day we come across people who may be predators, verbal abusers, spiritual abusers, and have no conscience about how they treat people.
 
IT IS ABSOLUTELY TIME FOR THE BODY OF CHRIST AGAIN TO READDRESS THE ISSUE, FOR THE NEED FOR EXTREME DISCERNMENT. Everything that the enemy could throw at us and our children is on full display right now, and if we dumb down safety and sexuality, safety and what our children watch on television or other tech devices, safety and what WE as adults watch, we simply embrace the narrative of the world, and we move away from scriptural goodness into a place that pollutes the ability to have good discernment.
 
When we don’t allow accountability to come into our lives, whether it be with a good and wise counselor, or with a group of trusted friends who are not going to take your information and spread it far and wide, we leave ourselves open to a secretive fantasy world, or a secret world of torment.
 
What do you do when you’re anxious or sad or depressed or fearful over the way your husband treats you or the way your wife beats you down verbally?
 
What do you do when you are at a stalemate because a spouse refuses to forgive or move forward into hearing the truth about some of the things they have done to get locked into bad behavior and resentment?
 
What do you do when you have a child that suddenly has become addicted to video games and it’s moved up into their adult life and they have no friends because their world is all in front of a screen?
 
What do you do when you know that a minister or a member of a staff in a church or a CEO of your corporation is secretly sexually preying upon individuals in their offices, and you could lose your job, because you know?
 
THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO ADDRESS,
BUT MUST BE ADDRESSED!
 
The world is feeling a tremendous amount of being unsettled right now by the great upset of realizing how easy it is to be controlled by a few tyrants, and yet people will cower and go about in denial, instead of learning how to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
 
I have worked with many brave women, who have prayed and fasted and done everything they possibly can to help work on their marriages, but their spouses have chosen to hunker down and gaslight and punish. No matter what approach is taken they become more verbally violent and are determined to blame everyone else.
 
Is this easy to talk about? Absolutely not!
But when you are scripturally based not only as a minister, but also as a pastoral counselor, you must bring truth into the light and help people become free from abusive environments and often “self abusive” environments.  You must above all have confidentiality and trust level that they know will not be breached. Most pastoral counselors work on a sliding scale fee in order to keep their rates low for those who are working hard, sometimes two and three jobs, or a wife who has limited income because her husband tightly holds the reins of the finances.
 
WHEN YOU’RE A PASTORAL COUNSELOR, IT IS DONE OUT OF THE PASSION FOR CHRIST and therefore money and income are not the foremost driving purpose for your work. But, there must be an investment and a fee from those who are in counseling, or people tend to not take it seriously.
It needs to be considered per individual and what they are capable of handling. I often tell people their counseling is much more important than the two or three times weekly custom cup of coffee at their local coffee shop, or perhaps snacks in their afternoon candy bar routine. It really isn’t a sacrifice when you start doing the work to get yourself whole and healthy.
It becomes a lifetime investment.
 
Pastoral counseling is definitely a calling and not to be simply a moneymaker. However, many individuals still expect hours and hours of free counseling time, and rarely invest much into changing their lives if there isn’t some kind of financial accountability for them. Of course if you attend a local church and there is a counseling pastor on staff, that’s what they are there for! If you regularly go to that fellowship and support them, usually there is an option or opportunity for you to see a counselor on staff for no fee. But having experienced some of this in the past, I also know that people tend to jump from counselor to counselor or, Pastor to Pastor if they don’t want to deal with the root cause of their problems, and it can cause friction in a local body if there’s not respect for the position and the role the pastoral counselor is assigned to, by the Lord. Basically they want someone to justify what they are doing, and their bad behaviors.
 
I URGE YOU TO ASK THE LORD TO WALK THE CORRIDORS OF YOUR HEART. Are there things in your life that you dominate and hold over others as scriptural and “legalistic absolutes” and they have become nearly abusive because you refuse to listen to someone else’s heart on the matter?
 
One thing that I have often observed is that people become very hard and hardened because they want to win an argument, or something that has helped and changed them, becomes a law for them to use against others.
 
Now, before others think I’m going to lighten my approach to the Bible, understand this. The word of God is perfect and enlightens the soul. It brings truth to a matter and it does not waver.
 
Of course, there are absolutes in the Scriptures that God will not deviate from no matter how many people try to dilute or maneuver around them. But if we use a hammer and verbal abuse and shame and scripture to “scorch people” in order to prove a point, or to advise them then we are also biblically unsound and abusive.
 
FIRST CORINTHIANS INSTRUCTS US SO CLEARLY THAT LOVE IS WHAT?
It is patient.
It is kind.
It is not boastful, it is not arrogant, and it is not self-serving.
 
When the Lord said, come to me, all of you who are heavy, laden, weighed down and burdened, and I will give you rest, he meant that, because he knows we get heavy laden and burdened and weighed down, either by our own destructive behaviors and sins, or by the destructive behaviors and actions and sins of others.
 
There is also nothing more painful than when someone is in pain or sorrowful or going through a great loss or trauma, and another individual shouts, “get over it, move on”, or cracks jokes about the person in pain.
 
Yes, you will be around people who are chronically in pain or depressed, and it takes patience. It takes guidance, and it takes kindness to either help direct them to help, or gently tell them that you are not the person that is able to help them at this time, but that you will stop and pray for them right now. 
You see, it takes humility.
 
Although there is a lot of reading material produced that uses the term “tough love” and a lot of books about boundaries that we can study, remember, if you’re coming from a scriptural perspective the ultimate goal of God is a Redemptive moment or a restoration if possible.
 
BOUNDARIES ARE NOT TO BE HUGE CEMENT WALLS WITH BARBED WIRE AT THE TOP BLOCKING OUT EVEN THE SUN.
 
Boundaries as a believer are there for when there is a conflict or a disagreement or a different viewpoint with another person. It’s a  "time out" to go and think about it, to pray about it, check your own heart and see if there’s something that would bring about a form of reconciliation.  And then, you try to come together and discuss the issue.
You can agree to disagree and not banish people!
 
Imagine how much Jesus disagrees with a lot of how we behave and yet he doesn’t banish us! He continues to wait for us to come out of our corners of hiding or corners of denial, and meet him again in dialogue until light comes and hope and help, bring a different perspective on our pathway of life.
 
I have worked with people through phone counseling sessions from many different places in the United States, and I have seen them grieve and open up and trust me with the deepest of their painful sorrows and things that are unbelievably sometimes even unbearable to mention. Slowly, but surely, a foundation of nurture and truth combined begins to chip away at the lie that they have believed and feel viewed as something no longer valuable or useful, or that they are worthy of value and are not to be abused!
 
For instance, if a young girl has been used and trafficked by a parent for most of their childhood and up into their high school years, once they awaken to this later in life, there is no way that anyone can accuse them of “choosing” to not face it!
 
There comes a time where the light of God shines brightly on the pain and the sorrow, and they need to be led out into a place where they can express the grief, the anguish and the huge loss of childhood innocence, and yet be brought to a safe place before the face of God, through strategic dialog, planning, or behavioral changes. Gently addressing the people that they affiliate, with until they see the light and the kindness of God. Until they can see themselves as the original creation God had planned them to be.
 
NOW, DON’T GET ME WRONG.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE WHEN THE LORD OPENS DOORS FOR ME TO SPEAK AND MINISTER, and if so called to, I to do operate in the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom when I am involved in these environments.  It is hard work to study and prepare in prayer for when you are assigned these opportunities to speak and minister publicly. But, this behind-the-scenes work of mentoring and pastorally, biblically guide people with counsel, is one of the hardest things that I think I’ve ever done, and yet the most joyful and rewarding when you see the lights come on and the light enter and the chains of the enemy become literal paper and fall away. The person finds the joy and laughter and finds that God has a glorious plan for them.
 
Sometimes it can be a rather rapid process, but the majority of times it is a steady, consistent work, until they find their wings and fly. Every time I work with someone I think about how long it takes for Jesus to help us to find our way, and he often narrows the path of our relationships and friendships in order for us to not only be safe, but to also be on a pathway that is not crowded by those who choose to not do the work that God is asking them to do, in order to be transformed.
 
If we look at the parable where the seed falls on the ground, there are those who will stay stony hearted and will not take in water. They will not receive nourishment. They choose not to grow, and the sad thing is that their seed is pecked up on my other predators.
 
I CAN TELL YOU HONESTLY THAT ALL OF THE PROPHETIC WORDS SPOKEN OVER YOUR LIFE DO NOT CHANGE
THE HARD WORK IT TAKES TO GET YOUR LIFE ON A PATH WHERE THEY CAN COME TO PASS.
 
The Lord is so good to give us future promises, but with those there’s a requirement for action.
Don’t wait until things are so bad and you have a minefield of heartache and debris left in your wake that you have to now clean up.
Don’t be afraid to ask for the help that you need, and find someone whom you can work with and feel safe with, and get on with allowing God to create a new clean heart and renew a right spirit within you.
 
If you have addictions to pornography or addictions to drugs or any other thing that causes you to feel driven towards it, the Lord wants to offer you freedom and restore you to a place of peace and no longer walking in fear.
 
The greatest counselor that we can have is the Holy Spirit; the scripture says the Holy Spirit is a counselor.
Now, many people say, “Well!  I can hear from the Lord for myself, and I will let the Holy Spirit counsel me!”
The problem with that statement is that if we are already in trouble, or we are hiding something, or we have been abused and beat down, we can often dismiss the deep inner voice of the Lord telling us that we need to talk to others and be accountable and get help. Often the Holy Spirit will gently say to someone,  “Go talk to so-and-so or go talk to your pastor or go talk to a counselor or a close friend, who is wise”. Yet pride or fear keeps us paralyzed and afraid to move forward.
 
EVERYONE SOMEWHERE IN THEIR FAMILY OR IN THEIR LIFE EXPERIENCES HURT, AND PAIN AND TRAUMA. Unfortunately, this is the nature of fallen man and the Earth is riddled with devastation because of it. But in John 10:10, Jesus himself said, “I have come that you might have life to the fullest!” He said that you MIGHT have life to the fullest! And the first part of that verse is, “but Satan comes to rob to steal to kill and destroy”. This is what happens to people in life when they are abused and traumatized! 
 
Jesus offers a hand to us saying come to me all of you, who are very weary and heavy laden, heavy burdened, and I will give you rest so that you might have life to the fullest.
 
One of the simplest ways you can find help is to simply look in your area for a Christian counselor, and you can even ask for specifics and details. Those who are really dedicated to the call of God as pastoral counselors spend as much time in prayer and preparation before there counseling session, as they do IN the counseling session.
 
The word of God ultimately has the answers that we need, and the pathway that will guide us out of darkness into the light.
 
I AM IMPRESSED TO SHARE THIS PODCAST SPECIFICALLY
BECAUSE I KNOW THERE ARE THOSE OF YOU
THAT ARE LISTENING WHO ARE CRYING OUT FOR GOD
TO SHOW YOU WHERE TO GO OR WHAT TO DO ABOUT
SOME OF THE SITUATIONS YOU FIND YOURSELF IN.
 
He wants you to know it is not wrong to seek help and that counseling is not of the devil!
 
After all the scripture in Isaiah calls, Jesus, The Mighty Counselor! And again he speaks of the Holy Spirit as being our advocate, or one of our counselors, because they are in themselves three in one with the Father. But, the Lord gives the spirit of counsel and wisdom, and insight to those who are called to help others out of dark places.
 
Don’t hesitate!
Call someone, research someone in your area, or if you have a pastor or individual who is skilled in your church to help you deal with the specific kind of trauma upset you are dealing with, make an appointment and step forward. Not all pastors are skilled or qualified to help people who have been through traumatic sexual abuse issues, or who are dealing with parents who have dementia and Alzheimer’s. But, they can certainly pray with you and help also to direct you to the proper resource.
 
JESUS WANTS US TO FIND A PLACE OF PEACE AND REST IN HIM. His ultimate is to bring us peace and to draw us close to him.
 
If there’s anyone who has ever shamed you by telling you that, seeing a counselor is weak or shows that you don’t trust the Lord, just understand that that individual is also hiding something, or is extremely bound up in the fear of being led astray.
 
Some counselors are not a good fit and so you go to a different one! There have been times when I have worked with individuals and I have to lovingly let them know that I am not a good fit for their situation, or it becomes overlapped into situations where there needs to be another specialist who can better help them walk out an area where they’re stuck, and they need a Focused, Skilled individual to help them unpack, and unburden the deep pain that they are in.
 
THE SCRIPTURE SAYS HE WHOM THE SON SETS FREE IS FREE INDEED.
My prayer for those that are listening today is that you will open your heart to the Lord in prayer and ask him to help you to take the steps forward that you might need to deal with whatever it is that you are suffering over.
 
If you have been verbally abused by bullies in the church or those that may even say that they have some form of counseling skill, but they verbally abuse or shame or use harsh language in order to shock you, this was not the way God planned it. Try again!
 
Step forward one more time and ask the Lord to open the door for you to the right counselor. He will do it, and he will help you be free from pain, the hiding of abuse as a child, the difficulty of dealing with addicted or angry adult children, and those that are prodigal parents, or prodigal children.
 
Jesus has a plan and helping us to hand things over to him in his care when we’ve done all that we know we can possibly do, and we have apologized or repented for actions on our part.
 
Remember, nothing is impossible with God.
I have seen him turn situations around that seemed absolutely impossible! He can help us to stand firm in our faith and not hide in order to be people pleasers, or to cower under the pressure of abusive treatment.
 
OUR NATURAL HUMAN RESPONSE TO SHAME IS TO HIDE.
We hide from each other and hide from God.
This has been the case since Creation. The Bible describes how the first human beings responded to God when they had sinned and were ashamed:  “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
 
FRIENDS, HIDING KEEPS US FROM HEALING.
Let’s all aim to be a compassionate, courageous community of believers. A community in which we support each other as we choose healing over hiding.
Let’s support each other as we ask God to grow, to change and heal us.
 
Let Me Lift You Up To The Father In Prayer Right Now:
Father, I thank you for those that are listening to this podcast today. I know it’s not an easy one and certainly not as stimulating and supernatural or as exciting as some, but it IS a supernatural work that you do when you bring us to a place of releasing pain and telling the truth about what has happened to us, or where we have done something to harm someone else.
 
Lord, I know you’re doing a great cleansing work and that you are starting with the body of Christ, bringing your judgment and your truth, and your light.
 
Lord, you said the days are coming when we will worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, we can’t fully worship you when we’re not truthful with you, if we’re hiding and if we’re cloaking, so I pray that anyone listening today. Father anyone who is afraid. I pray that you tell them that fear is holding them back and that you would guide them literally by the hand and direct them to the proper counselor, to someone who has the wisdom to help unlock the pain, the history, the stories and the trauma that has happened to them, in war, in family, in abuse in school or a job. With an abusive Pastor, with an abusive Sunday school teacher.
 
The list goes on and on and you know every one of these events.
So Father I ask that those that are hearing this message will take courage. You will GIVE them the courage to step out and ask for help and I know you will do it.
 
You will help them if they will simply step out, and I thank you for hearing this prayer from my heart for them, in Jesus name.
 
 
Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed, as long as the complete message, Website, podcast link and information for Mary Lindow is included.
Thank You! 2024
"THE MESSENGER"  - Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
www.marylindow.podbean.com
 
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”UNDERSTANDING THE KINDNESS OF GOD DURING CHANGING TIMES”

 
By Mary Lindow through the Holy Spirit
 
This podcast message has been sitting strongly in my spirit and of course, not all of it will be easy to hear because our flesh doesn’t like to hear about change or where God must correct us. There is also a Prophetic Word from the Lord at the end of this message, which I feel holds so much insight and promise for those He loves.
 
THE TIMES ARE RAPIDLY CHANGING AND I KNOW THAT FOR ME, IT WILL REQUIRE A DIFFERENT STRATEGY TO HANDLE THEM 
AND
THAT I MUST BE WILLING AND ABLE TO WALK OUT THE DAYS AHEAD.
 
It seems as if I identify with the prophet Jeremiah more often now than ever before.  And so, I am CHOOSING to adjust the way of delivering my portion of what the Spirit of God would give me, as He leads me. Daily.
 
I AM IN WORDLESS, TEAR-STREAMING GRIEF over the rapid forms of meditation, eastern mysticism, competitive daily trendy “prophetic” articles/ words (advertisements!) — and outright fear mongering one moment and then “hysterical” any moment breakthrough messages, (both which, recycle over and over), that are sweeping into the Body of Christ. And. the devouring and public slandering has become unbearable.
 
YOU SEE, WHEN PEOPLE REFUSE TO LET GOD BE THE JUDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL, When they inject their own standards to oppose His, these people who are “usurping” assume a sovereignty or power that belongs only to God.
They choose to undermine God’s order, in order to demand their own, and in doing this, they hope to avoid the pinpricks of their conscience.  
After all, “if it’s legal” then it must be right! Right?”
No.
God’s law is not so easily escaped or fanned away as an old dusty list of metaphors.
 
CONCEIT AND PRIDE ARE THE GREATEST ENEMIES TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH!  Newly “acquired knowledge” or notoriety often leads to pride rather than wisdom.
There is no more certain way to fall into sin and self-deception than to allow pride to lead us into putting confidence in ourselves rather than God. This kind of pride always leads to destruction, because it robs us of God’s power to stand against temptation!
 
WHAT WE ACCOMPLISH AS MEMBERS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS DONE BY THE POWER OF GOD. 
 
Knowledge can be mistaken for maturity.  
True knowledge is designed to bring us TO maturity.
When we parade our so called freedom before others in an effort to reveal how much we know, we actually reveal our immaturity and are treading on dangerous ground!
 
KNOWLEDGE PUT ON PUBLIC DISPLAY
LEADS TO HEARTBREAK AND DIVISIVE SCATTERING.
 
THE WESTERN STYLE “FIRST WORLD CHURCH” IS CAUGHT UP IN SO MANY IDENTITY CRISES andwith pushing movements and meetings, that the voices crying out and weeping in the places of preparation (the wilderness) saying, “You! Yes YOU! Prepare the Way of the Lord! Straighten out those crooked, twisted paths!” – Well, they are suddenly being told to step back into a place of silence and travailing prayer, determined to lean in closer to THE Voice that is small, still, and sure.
 
FRIEND! ONLY TIME SPENT WITH THE LORD LIKE A DEAR FRIEND, will fill the gaping ache you have. He will speak, He will comfort, and He will show you what is true and what is false in the days ahead, if you will return to that “place of companionship with Him”, away from the opinions of men and the noise of this life.  
As you turn your heart and hopes towards him you will see compassion poured out upon you and you will then have his power of pure godly compassion and “wisdom driven grace” to pour out on others.
 
"SPEAK TO HIM WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART, YOUR LONGINGS,YOUR HEARTACHES, AND YOUR DREAMS.HE WILL BE THERE WITH ARMS OF STRENGTHTO RESCUE YOU FROM DESPAIR.”
 
“A Prophetic Word”
 
“Can you not hear my voice speaking to you clearly?
Has it become clouded with the cares of this life and the voices of men articulating what they “think” is my voice?
My time for you to hear the truth is never when man decides it.  
The world screams that all the chaos and change is turning and twisting men’s hearts away from me. But when I speak and when I move and I AM lifted up, men’s hearts ache for me!
 
There is a greater power in my silence then there is in the shouting of mankind saying that I do not exist!  It is folly and foolishness to think that man can try to silence or attempt to erase me!
 
I AM preparing for myself a Bride.  
Not a foolish, emotionally lovesick self-seeking Bride!
No I AM seeking and preparing for myself a mature godly gathering of those who will become one and unified with and in me.
I AM the one that is shaping and fashioning this Bride in the refining fires that are currently burning across the earth.
 
Men may try to redefine me, saying that I do not exist.
They may attempt to twist words that I have spoken in order to fit the base agenda in their own souls, but all the while I AM shaping and fashioning and preparing for myself an army and a Bride that will not be defeated in the days to come.
 
Adjust your thinking child!
I AM not a God to be dictated to or to be demanded of!  
I AM one to be approached with brokenness and humility!  
Those who have a contrite heart and a right spirit are the ones that I will answer.
 
There is a time coming when I will sweep away and clean up the false examples of prophetic ministry claiming and declaring things that have nothing to do but glorify the flesh.
If a person’s heart is not right with me, no matter what they declare, decree, or shout, it will fall upon ears of deafness in heaven.  
I desire truth in your inward parts.
 
Let me reduce you to love.
Stripping away title, presumption, and secret desires for notoriety.  
In order to be like me you have to live like I did in the earth.  
I served mankind and was spat upon.
I spoke truth and I was mocked.  
I challenged the proud and religious thinkers of the day and they desired to silence me and kill me.
 
I AM calling you my people, to become honest in heart, broken and humble before me, with a willing heart to serve me and those that I send to you. It is not their external condition that you are to judge nor categorize.  
Your job is to share my life, my light and my love with them.  
In your example of how you treat them is how I see you treating Me.
Show no favoritism but humble yourselves in my sight and do the work of my servant.
 
Yes, the days are changing and the mandates for your life are becoming more defined.
 Bow before me and reconnect your heart to truth and simplicity and the grace of knowing that you were purchased with a life poured out so that you might live life to the fullest.”
“It is necessary for him to increase and for me to decrease.”
-John 3:30
 
Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed, as long as the complete message, website, podcast link and information for Mary Lindow is included.
Thank You!  "2023"
"THE MESSENGER"  - Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
www.marylindow.podbean.com
 
If you would be so kind and assist Mary, helping her to meet other administrative needs such as website and podcast costs, or desire to bless her  ministry service with Spirit-led love gifts or regular support:
Please JOYFULLY send your gift in the form of: 
► Personal Checks ► Business Checks
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To: 
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Or feel free to use or send a tax-deductible gift with
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Under the name of - His Beloved Ministries Inc. 
 
ALL gifts are tax-deductible underHis Beloved Ministries  501(3)c non-profit status.
We are financially accountable and have been in full compliance since 
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THANK YOU!
 
 

FORERUNNERS, UNIFIERS AND THE ARMY OF GOD - A Prophetic Vision and Insight

 By Mary Lindow Through The Holy Spirit
 
TODAY’S PODCAST IS GOING TO BE AN INTERESTING ONE!
What I’m sharing on this specific podcast is about a vision that I had when my husband and I were first engaged. I was staying in his parent’s home and my husband had his own house about 10 miles away. We spent a lot of time talking together and praying and just contemplating what our future would look like in the Lord, and how he was going to use us, when Steve would come over to spend time with me after work.
One evening I had gone into the living room of my in-laws to play the piano and worship and sing to the Lord, and while I was worshiping Him and enjoying being in His presence, I had what would be described as a screen being dropped out in front of my eyes take place, and I had a very visual picture to watch or as the Bible would call it, a vision.
I SAW MYSELF RUNNING ACROSS SOME SEMI-ROCKY LAND and Steve was behind me. He was trying to direct a group of individuals to stay in line and be in unity together.
All of us had what looked to be like a stretchy headband wrapped around our heads and across our foreheads. Attached on the front of these were round lights like miner’s lamps. Some of lights on the people in the line where Steve was trying to get them to come into unity and walk together would flicker and not come on brightly. Others were very bright and consistently steady.
I was running ahead like a scout and the word “forerunner” came into my mind as I was running ahead. I turned around and looked at what Steve was doing and he was trying to stop these individuals from elbowing each other and fighting over whose theology was the most correct.
 
ABOVE THE HEADS OF THESE INDIVIDUALS I NOTED THAT THERE WERE DENOMINATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATIONAL NAMES AND ALSO NONDENOMINATIONAL TITLES.
I turned back around and continued my scouting and forerunning and was jogging at a relaxed pace, but I knew I was heading towards something in front of me that I needed to get to.
The path had embedded rocks and bumps that I had to avoid so I wouldn’t trip. The lamp or miner’s light strapped to my forehead kept a bright light steadily beaming in front of me.
Suddenly, in front of me, was a large chasm or a gap and I had to stop and pull back so I wouldn’t fall headlong into the huge gap.
There was no possible human way to run and jump over it and I was at a dead stop staring over the edge. Intuitively, I knew I needed to get to the other side and that there was something very important for me to engage in and be a part of.
But! I didn’t see a ladder or a bridge long enough or safe enough in any direction, to try to cross over with.
 
I Heard A Voice In The Vision Tell Me To Take A Step Of Faith, and that as I walked forward, not in my own strength, not in my own might or power, but in the spirit, that I would make it safely to the other side.
I remember feeling hesitant and thinking I needed to warn Steve.
I turned around and told him I’m going to take a leap of faith to get to the other side. He looked at me and seem to understand what I was doing and turned around and tried to tell the other individuals that they were going to have to lean upon God‘s power and might and supernatural ability, to get them all to the other side. I once again turned around and backed up and took a running leap across this wide chasm. I was immediately on the other side and waited for Steve.
 
I REALIZED THAT I HAD TO DO THIS ON MY OWN WITH THE LORD, and not depend upon Steve to get me to where the Lord wanted me to be. Nor could I get him there. We were each responsible to trust in the Lord with all of our heart.
It was as if I was lifted back over the chasm for a moment so I could observe what was taking place with Steve and the others.
Several of the individuals who were irritated that others were not listening to their great rhetoric and interpretation of things, began to break loose and run forward while telling everyone how they were going to make it across the gap/chasm. Several of them literally walked off the edge of the cliff into the chasm due to not paying attention, and fell completely to the bottom.
 
OTHERS WERE FIGHTING AND SEVERAL WERE IN FEAR AND WOULD NOT ATTEMPT A LEAP OF FAITH.
They wanted to build a structure or devise a plan to get them there. Their lights were flickering very low by this point.
Steve finally said, “I have to go”, and he too, took a running leap of faith and threw his arms upward, eyes closed, trusting in the Lord’s provision to get him over the chasm. He met me standing on the other side of this wide gap.
 
IMMEDIATELY WE BECAME MEMBERS OF A LARGE ARMY.
Everyone was dressed in a white robe and had different colors of sashes to indicate which battalion or team of army members they were marching with.
Everyone’s headband with the lamp on the front of it was brilliantly white and the lamps were shining intensely! Everyone was in order and marching in unison, with thousands of members.
 
OVERHEAD THERE WAS SOMETHING LIKE ARTILLERY FIRE TAKING PLACE IN THE SKY. 
It seemed as if there were missiles and different kinds of weaponry clashing above us, but we were all marching calmly and firmly in unity and we knew we were marching under the direction of our Leader, King, Jesus Christ.
 
Shortly after this surprising vision I “came to myself” again and sat there and pondered what I had seen, for a very long time.
Steve and I have often talked about this and have often shared the details with each other again as we l pray and ask the Lord why he would show it to us at that time, and what we were being prepared for.
 
CHRISTIAN ALLEGIANCES ARE  “STRANGE AND STRAINED AFFAIRS”
Many denominations and non-denominational groups as well as progressive and New Age influenced churches have chosen to embrace a corporate world structure and more eagerly, “hunker down” into a “murky version” of the word of God.
Many have embraced the cultural pressure to push away pure living, and interpret the word of God to fit the current day embracing of immoral sexuality and freethinking on many levels.
 
THE CURRENT BLATHERING INTELLECTUALS OF THE ERA mock and criticize those who choose to live a morally and biblically pure and truthful application of God’s word.
You know, It just not "cool or hip" right now to not be a little edgy and nasty!
 
I believe that in the vision that I had, those who were elbowing and arguing and posturing while on their way to what they felt was an event (that would be in fact an important moment in the collective body of Christ), these individuals had “dimmed” their approach to allowing their minds to be renewed and cleansed by the word of God. I believe the headbands that weakly flickered with the mining lights were symbols of what they fed their minds with, weakening their discernment.
 
THOSE WHO WERE FOCUSED ON HAVING THEIR MINDS RENEWED by the word of God, being illuminated by his word and having their minds renewed had no wavering or angst taking place.
Those that were fighting and pontificating the most, had the dimming lamps that flickered and seemed to short out, and they insisted that adaptations and adjustments could be made according to the way that they interpreted faith and how to walk with Christ.
THEY REFUSED TO LISTEN TO ANYONE ELSE AND THEY REFUSED TO HAVE ANY KIND OF UNITY, BUT NEEDED TO PUSH FORWARD TO PROVE THEIR POINT.
 
When Steve kept telling them in the vision that they had to be unified and that they had to be humble and to humbly care for one another as brothers in the Lord, they became all the more enraged, condescending, and began to rush ahead in arrogance and with great irritability.
 
ONE INDIVIDUAL WAS WALKING BACKWARDS lecturing everyone and literally fell over the cliff edge into the chasm, screaming all the way down.
 
SO WHERE ARE WE?
Anyone who is doing all they know to do to have a close walk with the Lord right now at this time, who desires to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the churches and us individually, is fully aware of the deceptive clouds of wickedness and filth hovering over the world.
 
LYING HAS BECOME AN HONORED AND CUNNING ATTRIBUTE in order to confuse, control, and break other human beings.
Sadly, many in the faith have chosen to become rabid political activists to the point that it’s all that they devour and think about day and night.
They shun anyone who will not listen to them and certainly have embraced on many levels, the message of a “one world unified socialist lifestyle”. This is where a great delusion has been allowed to deceive many. Second Thessalonians 2:11 warned us about this!
“Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.”
 
THERE IS GOING TO BE A LOT OF GODLESSNESS IN THE LAST DAYS
In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 we have quite the strong warning about how it was going to roll out and unfold. (I think that we are already there.)
“So! Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, but treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but they deny its power. Avoid such people.”
 
WOW! AVOID THESE PEOPLE?
These are strong and difficult words to hear aren’t they?
 
When I was forerunning ahead in the vision, I believe it was a indicator of a prophetic forerunner seeing the things to come as well as seeing what God was asking of his people, as the world became more corrupt and dark, and decisions that were difficult that were coming, were about to be made.
 
THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS RUNNING I WAS WATCHING AND LOOKING TO MAKE SURE THAT MY FEET WOULD NOT TRIP, and when I came to the edge of the chasm I knew that I had to completely abandon myself, to everything that I could possibly fashion or create in my mind, leaving behind the hopeful use of any personal skills to get to the other side of where God wanted me to be.
 
THERE WAS NO POSSIBILITY TO RUN AND JUMP AND MAKE IT ON MY OWN.
I had to abandon myself to the fact that God said to take a leap of faith. That I must trust Him spirit, soul, and body, to be moved into position in His kingdom where I would be in unity marching with His great army of servants.
Somehow in my spirit, in the vision, I knew that Steve was going to be okay and also knew that we had to individually make a choice to trust God completely with our lives, no matter what difficulties we were about to face.
There was great sadness on Steve’s face when he turned around and knew he had to now leave those who were rushing ahead and jumping or still arguing on the edge of the chasm, and that it was his time to risk everything and take a step of faith out into the unknown.
The minute Steve arrived on the other side of the chasm with me we were side-by-side marching to the sound of thousands of feet in unison and voices praising God. There was a look of determination and sobriety on every face that was in every battalion of people, but everyone knew why they were there, and what they were being assigned to.
The flashes of light and military type of war going on above us was constant but no one broke rank and everyone was marching in the battalion that they were a part of. Praise and powerful prayers were coming out of all of all of the people’s mouths as they raised their hands forward in honor of what was up ahead, which I believe was King Jesus himself.
 
In Joel 2:11 it says
“The Lord utters his voice before his army,
For his camp is exceedingly great;
He who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;
Who can endure it?”
 
NOW, I WILL NOT PRESUME TO TRY TO UNPACK ALL THAT IS GOING ON IN THE EARTH TODAY, nor will I say that I understand all of the applications of the book of Revelation or End Time thoughts.
What I will say is that the Lord has told us that the difficult days would come and that antichrists and deceivers would rise up from among us, even trying to deceive the very elect, God’s own precious, set apart children.
 
1 John 4:3 tells this clearly!
Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
 
You see, This is a time where God is already showing those who have ears to hear what He is saying and that we are being called to take great steps and leaps of trust and faith in Him, like we have never, EVER done before.
 
IT’S SCARY OUT THERE IN THE WORLD, and tyrants and wicked men and women defy and mock anything that interferes with their corruption and filth. They are absolutely not interested in the sound of the voice of the Lord or in his people challenging them. But this is where our faith and trust in God must exceed and excel.
 
It is a time where you and I must continually and constantly renew our minds by intentionally reading and listening to the word of God.
 
HOW MANY TIMES A DAY DO PEOPLE CHECK THE SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES and news feeds on their phones and I Pads? Is this where the light of Christ is found and minds are renewed?
No. It’s a place where distractions and debates and the opinions of man drown out truth and any trust in God.
 
RUN AWAY FROM THE PACK
Believers! Get a firm pace going in your pursuit of the truth!
Be aware of those snares and rocks placed there to intentionally get you to change course or quit and become part of the world’s narratives!
 
There’s no need to figure out what you are going to do
in tough times if you stay close to the word and voice of God!
 
He absolutely WILL guide you, and His word IS the lamp for your feet and the light that will keep your path lit up as you journey through dark days!
 
Psalm 119:105 
"Your word is a lamp to my feet
, AND a light to my path.
 
IN CLOSING, I ENCOURAGE YOU TO ALLOW THE LORD, TO DO A DEEP PURGING AND SEARCHING OF YOUR HEART.
Don’t push away where he is trying to get you to give up your own, personal opinions about how things are to be done in a time where recklessness and chaos are rewarded.
Get quiet and be still in his presence, and ask him to tell you exactly what to do.
 
HE WILL DIRECT YOU THROUGH HIS WORD!
He will bring people across your path who are either like-minded or who will point the way to absolute sustaining truth.
Stay away from those who are so full of themselves, and who love the sound of their own voices, so that there is no room for tenderness and dialogue for a soul that is hungering after God.
 
YOU AND I ARE RIGHT NOW, A PART OF THE GREAT ARMY OF GOD.
We are to march to the sound of His voice and have our voices raised in praise of who He is and in declaration that we are of another Kingdom.
Even if it seems as if nothing is changing or that God is at a distance, we are not to walk by how we feel, or how things look around us.
We are to be determined to be in union and in communication by the spirit with the Spirit of the living God.
 
Ask the Lord to draw you close to him.
Choose to run after him!
 
Don’t wait for others to lead you or guide you to answer the questions that you have in your heart right now. Jesus by the Holy Spirit is able to speak clearly to you and he is able to give you direction, because, He IS the great I AM.
He IS wisdom.
He IS light!
And, He has promised…
…To never leave us in the dark.
 
Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,
But will have the light of life.” - John 8:12
 
Duplication and sharing of this message is welcomed provided that complete message, Podcast and website information for Mary Lindow is included.
 
Thank you. Copyright © 2021 THE MESSENGER " ˜ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
www.marylindow.podbean.com
 
 
 
 
 
 

Prophetic Insights For The Year 2020 - THE “REIGN” OF GRACE - AND THE “RAIN” OF GRACE MERCY FOR THE MERCIFUL

Prophetic Insights For The Year 2020
THE “REIGN” OF GRACE - AND THE “RAIN” OF GRACE 
MERCY FOR THE MERCIFUL
By The Holy Spirit transcribed through Mary Lindow
 
In 2020 the conviction of God will be strong to cleanse the heart of falsity, 
fear of man and the passivity of half repentance for works of the flesh. 
 
We can get all the people that we know around the globe to pray for us and to pray over us, but we cannot force out the devil and the darkness of our own unforgiveness and intentional blame-shifting. We give the enemy consistent access to our churches and our lives as long as we “lord it over others”, hiding our own sin, pretending that God does not see.
In order to have the times of refreshing we are crying out for and are desperate for as believers, we must learn to rule and reign with grace.
Refreshing rains will not fall, and cannot fall in full glory, when we refuse to lay down judgments, manipulations, and self invented spiritual “rules” that do not run parallel with the King of grace who is the ULTIMATE Mercy bringer.
Mercy. It means to perform out of a desire to relieve suffering, and is motivated by compassion. The action of forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. Mercy shown prevents something unpleasant or provides relief from suffering.
In 2020 THE SPIRIT OF GOD DESIRES EVERY BELIEVER 
TO DO THEMSELVES AN ETERNAL FAVOR. 
TELL THE TRUTH.
God will protect you more for doing this than any self-invented cover-up ever could. And, you just might regain relationships with those you have used as stepping-stones to your own deviant self-empowerment.
THE HEAVENLY KING OF GLORY  IS ALWAYS AND FOREVER CREATING NEWNESS OF LIFE
If we are indeed man or a woman of prayer, the test will come of that deep prayer life when your enemies surround you, accuse you, and often attempt to execute and silence you. Some will manifest in this next year as false friends who use and abuse your friendships and contacts in order to gain access to notoriety and power, over all of the things you are supposed be repairing for yourself. They will exhaust and weaken you until you once and for all put upon the altar of surrender, any need for someone else to carry you or promote you.  
A man or a woman of prayer in these days, right now, will learn to sweep out iniquity, falseness, slander, and “hierarchical pecking orders” through goodness and humility.
This is a time to trust, to depend upon, to lean upon, the goodness of the Lord. 
This is a time to trust in His sovereignty more than ever. 
It is His right to define what grace is. It is not man’s right. 
 
Prophetic Exhortation for 2020
“And so says the Lord, the Spirit of Grace,
the Voice of Wisdom, and the only Almighty One. 
As you cry out for times of refreshing, for a change in the hearts of men, for a move of my Spirit across the lands of Earth, my command to you is that you begin to create an atmosphere where I may speak My plans according to My Word and according to My prerogatives.
I will lead you and guide you with enough light each day as you come to that narrow place with me. I will strengthen your weakened spiritual muscles as you dialogue in honesty with me and repent of foolish choices and foolish actions that have caused many to be shattered and shamed because you spoke out of a calling, rather than out of following my voice.
Begin to dig ditches in prayer. 
Become entrenched and immersed in it, never ceasing. Prepare places where my rain may fall and cause a fresh drinking place for those yet to taste of my goodness, as well as for those who are thirsty within my Body.
 
Begin to dig ditches in prayer in dry places, with humility and goodness. 
Lean upon me, trust in me, do not lean upon your own understanding, for you have well seen that having done this in the past you have missed many opportunities to prepare a way of salvation for others.
 
“I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10)
So comfort yourself, weary and tried believer with this thought.
Does not the word come like a soft shower, quieting the fury of the flame? 
Is it not a fireproof armor against the heat, which will then have no power? Whatever happens to you in this valley of weeping, know that I have chosen it for you.
 
If you still require an even greater comfort, remember that you have the Son of man with you in the valley. In that secret place with you.  
There He sits by your side, One whom you have not seen but whom you love, and whether you know it or not, this is the true friend who sticks closely by you.
I will never leave one whom I have chosen as my own.
 
Great grace. Great mercy. Great promise. 
All these are yours, extended from my hand, and for you to extend from your hand.
 
NOW IS THE TIME…
…to live out the heart and life of the servant as I lead you with the little light that you have at this time. 
It is all you need as long as it comes from me. 
It is a time to learn to march forward, to dig ditches, to prepare, so that others may also drink freely with no restraints.
When I come and speak to you and move among you, I express everything that is pure and lovely and has a good report, and sin and uncleanliness depart.
Peace also rains when I move with humble power.
Gentleness will be the result of my transforming power. 
Harmlessness will follow, for hearts that are touched by me are never exhibiting any feelings of superiority, self-assertiveness, or showiness.
 
My grace is sufficient for you, and you will find it if you will seek it, and above all if you will express it.
 
“Be strong in the grace that is in me.” (2 Timothy 2:1)
As a reservoir empties itself into pipes, so have I emptied out my grace for my people in this next wave of My Heart. 
Of my fullness you have received grace for Grace. Grace is always available from me without price.
“Keep yourselves from overconfident, arrogant sins.” (Psalm 19:13)
You will certainly stumble if you look away from the One who is able to keep you from falling. Be very cautious about pushing yourself to the forefront of public gatherings and among the more visible.
If you are to be used in higher visibility, let it be Me who promotes you there. Some who drive themselves to the forefront will also have greater scrutiny and unfortunate exposure of hidden agendas and unholy transactions in 2020 and sadly will be brought low again because of their self presumption of importance. 
 
If your love is fervent, your faith constant, and your hope bright, continue nonetheless to be on your guard and cry out, “Keep us from temptation!”
 
The  seasons revolve according to my Divine appointment and man cannot change their schedule. In the spiritual as in the natural realm, man’s power is limited.
I alone can remove the winter of spiritual death from an individual or from a church.
Let me hear you say, “Not my will but as you will oh Lord! 
As you yield to me my people, I will yield in return and bring the sweetness of my Holy Presence into your very homes, your gatherings, whether modest or larger numbers are attending. I look for honest, wisdom filled, and humble people to move among and to move through.  
Let it be, as I desire! As I will!  Allow me to determine  what is the best for you. 
Be content to leave your prayer and your petitions in my hands.
I know when to give, how to give, what to give, and what to withhold.
As you visit me in the secret place of repentance and brokenness, as the path becomes narrower, seeking me earnestly and often times pleading, with humility and resignation, you shall surely prevail.
I am the light on your pathway. And, I AM all you need.”
 
Duplication and sharing of this message is welcomed, provided that the complete message or article and website information for Mary Lindow is included.   Thank You!
Copyright © 2020 " THE MESSENGER "~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com   www.globalprayerrooms.com  http://marylindow.podbean.com/mobile/
 
 
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