We Need To Do Better Church

We need to do better church!

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:13-16).”

At Publix today, I met a beautiful soul that our Heavenly Father created, Claudia. Now let me just say that the “normal” routine is to go to the grocery store after church on Sunday to get the produce for the upcoming week. However, this morning I felt the need to go now a few days early. I got there as soon as they opened at 7am and as I was selecting apples I felt someone walk across from me and looked up. We made eye contact, smiled and said good morning and she quickly walked by and about her shopping. I knew I was meant to pray for her and knew that God would bring her to me again to minister to her.

I was done shopping and hadn’t seen her again, and went to pay for my groceries then left the building and went to my car to load up the groceries. As I was loading the groceries into my car, she walked by me and was parked right next to me! Come on God!! When she walked past me, I noticed she had a bandage around her knee. So I walked up to her, said good morning and then said that I noticed she had a bandage and I asked her what was going on with her knee.

That opened the flood gates, as this woman and I stood in this parking lot and she began to tell me all the trama she has been through in her life. You see, she didn’t just tell me about her bandage, the Holy Spirit had her speak and reveal many traumatic events and bring them to light so that the darkness would flee.

She began telling me that in her knee she was having trouble with her meniscus, she said it was due to an autoimmune disease that she has had for many years. That it comes and goes and will attack her from time to time.

What I have learned in healing, deliverance, and ministry, is that most times autoimmune diseases are spiritual and brought on by an Open Door from traumatic events giving way to let the enemy attack.

I asked her her name, and she looked at me and smiled and said her name is Claudia, and I introduced myself to her as well. She looked at me as if she was thinking, this stranger is taking the time to not only ask me what is going on, but ask me who I am. I asked her if I can lay hands on her and pray for her to be healed. She gladly accepted. Then I said, you know I have my anointing oil with me if it's okay with you I'd like to use some oil as well.

Then I felt led to tell her how I make my oil, where I have learned to make it from, and what ingredients I use for it. Which, if anyone wants to know, when I first heard someone talk of anointing oil I had no idea how to make it. And then I thought, well it's biblical so it has to be in the Bible. Then I learned that in Exodus 30:22-25, the recipe is right there! So that is what I use to make my oil. And now for some reason I'm to share that with this woman!

So I start out by asking her if she does or has ever read the Bible. She said, yes, but I have been so hurt by people who follow God that I don't really read it anymore. Aha! THIS is why the Holy Spirit wanted me to share about the anointing oil recipe. It wasn’t about the oil, but it was the way to ask her if she reads his Word. Then the floodgates opened of her telling me all of the trauma and hurt that she has been through.

Claudia was raped almost every night by her stepfather who was a leader and preacher in the church she grew up in, in brazil. Her stepfather was wealthy, well known, and adored in the church. She watched him every Sunday get up there and preach, knowing that he would go home and rape her. She felt shame, she felt scared and alone, and she felt she couldn't tell anybody because they just would not believe her. So she went on many years dealing with this trauma and violation. When Claudia was 16, she became pregnant with her stepfather's baby due to the rape that was constantly ongoing. She was shunned from church for being pregnant young, and being pregnant without being married. Can you imagine how she must have felt?

Then Claudia moved to the United States as an adult. She visited a few churches and stopped going because she did not feel she belonged due to the way that she was treated. Claudia has very short hair and she has tattoos. She has had people tell her things like you can't be Christian and have tattoos, or because you are a female you have to have long hair, or that she had to wear clothing that fully covered her arms, etc. (Now, I will say there is a certain way a true woman of God should present herself, but we can’t expect the world or new believers to know this, it comes with time and consecration to the Father and His conviction to not dress provocatively, which by the way is different that simply wearing something sleeveless). So Claudia decided, I have been nothing but hurt from the church, and these people who claim to have the love of God certainly do not show love.

So this woman who had suffered so much hurt throughout her whole life. Suffered so much trauma throughout her whole life. Was crying out for Jesus, was still trusting in Him and still trying to find him. She still went to his house looking for him, yet was chased away by those who claim to love him. The word of the Lord says that the man looks at outward appearance, but that the Lord looks at the heart. Do we think this does not apply for the church? What is in your heart church? Is your heart filled with hypocritical judgment and condemnation? Or is your heart filled with love for people? There is not one person on this Earth that God did not create and that God does not love. Not one. God hates sin and he gives us free will to choose him or the enemy, and you can guarantee that it breaks his heart when we do not choose him. He does not force us to love him he lets us truly love him by deciding to love him. But if we are chasing people away that he created, due to religious beliefs or whatever that may be, remember God is looking at YOUR heart and YOU may need deliverance from the spirit of religion. This is where the hypocritical judgment comes in, when we are judging people who have not been fully consecrated to God yet in our new and their walk, yet we chastise and condemn them. What is that! What are you doing? The word of the Lord says, he who does not love his brother is not of God (1 John 3:10). Now this does not mean that we affirm sin. Because to affirm sin is to deny Christ. We do not love sin, but we love the sinner enough to tell them what the word of the Lord says is sin, and to help them overcome that, meet them in their brokenness, pull them out of the fire and help them to live for God. How are we to do that when somebody walks into a church and we condemn them for having short hair and tattoos? Or whatever the case may be. There is consecration that comes with being drawn to Christ. There are things of this world that need to be turned from in order to live for him. But we need to love people in their Brokenness we need to help them overcome their trauma, and we need to be the hands and feet of God and show them the true love of Jesus. If they are truly living for God, he will consecrate them and he will take away their worldly desires, they will leave the old man and rise up a new creature for God. But that is the working of the Holy spirit, not us, our job is to speak the truth in love and show people to God. We cannot do that if we are judging them when they are coming in looking for him in their brokenness and have not been consecrated to him yet. We expect God to have Grace for us, so why do we have have none for others?

So as Claudia was telling me all of her trauma that she had gone through, I prayed and I said Holy Spirit speak to me what does she need to hear from you. When she was done speaking I said, Claudia I am so sorry what you have gone through with your stepfather and with the church. There are broken people in the congregation and there is so much evil in this world. But those people who did that to you, that was not Jesus. Jesus does not want you hurt and abandoned. And in those moments when you experienced hurt, and evil, even though there were demons they're afflicting you, so were the Angels protecting you and holding you and shielding you from even more harm. I said, Claudia know that you are seen, you are heard, you are loved, and you are valued. As soon as she heard me say she was valued her eyes welled up with tears and she said, I truly need it to hear that I was valued. Nobody has ever told me that and I've never felt valued. I told her, those were not my words but the words of the Holy Spirit. He wanted her to feel the love of Jesus and know that he sees you and that he values you. Then we prayed in that parking lot until it started to rain. We prayed through so much trauma, I stood in the gap and asked for repentance and forgiveness for all of the people who claimed the name of Jesus but showed her the opposite. I'm believing that Claudia will start her journey of healing and drawing closer to God.

She thanked me, and said it was so unexpected that on a Friday morning and in a public parking lot somebody would stop and pray for her.

So this, is what I mean by we need to do better church…

This message is for believers in Jesus Christ. I am not asking you to start evangelizing in public places to everybody you come across, although trust me I would love for you to do that. But what I AM asking, is that every Sunday morning when you are in church, you don't leave it up to the greeters to talk to that new person that you have never seen before. But YOU go up to them and you talk to them and you let them feel the love of God that lives inside you. Get to know them, ask them how you can pray for them, let them know they are valued and loved. When you see somebody come into church who may not look like a Christian in your eyes, remember, all have fallen short, all are sinners, and there is a Consecration and a change that God will do with people's hearts. But that is not for us to decide and it is not for us to judge that person, but it is up to us to lead them to God. So if you see somebody come in who doesn't look like someone you would normally talk to, talk to them! Let them know they are welcome. Remember, they are the ones that feel like a fish out of water. They are walking into a place of Christ and it is taking all that they have to step out and do that. Do not chase them away. Embrace them and let the Holy Spirit draw them closer to God. May God Bless you all!