This month I’m sending an early Christmas decoration to all of our friends and supporters. It’s a short film about a creature more beautiful than any ornament you’ll hang on your tree … and more elegantly designed than the high-tech electronic devices you’ll give or receive as presents. To unwrap this gift click above.
(First published in Moody Monthly, November, 1988; reprinted in Sing a New Song, Pulpit Helps, SPIRIT, God’s Chicken Soup for the Soul and as a tract for American Tract Society, 1990. Since discontinued.)
“And the angel of the LORD called to him out of heaven
and said, Abraham, Abraham–
and he said ‘Here I am!'”
“And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see,
God called to him out of the midst of the bush
and said, Moses, Moses—
and he said, ‘Here I am!'”
“And the LORD called Samuel
and he answered, ‘Here I am!”
“Then, when you loose the chains of injustice,
set the oppressed free,
break every yoke,
share your food with the hungry,
provide the wanderer with shelter,
see the naked to clothe them
and turn not away from your own flesh and blood
your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear,
then your righteousness will go before you
and the glory of the LORD will be your rearguard.
Then you will call–” Then you will call!–
and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help,
and He will say,
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Genesis 22:11; Exodus 4:10; I Samuel 3:4, 6, 8; I Samuel 58:6-9
Update on the green witch I saw covering Washington D.C. last month.*
But first–last Wednesday Jerry and I drove to Huntington Beach to have lunch with missionary friends from Arizona. On our way down the 405 freeway I felt a sense of confusion and disorientation, of inner disquiet and turmoil I could not account for. I tried to give Jerry directions to Huntington Beach (a place he has driven to many times) and I gave him bad advice, so that we overshot the restaurant and were running half an hour late. By this time we were barely speaking to each other, which is very, very rare for us.
As soon as we drove north into town along Pacific Coast Highway I noticed police cars all over the place. There were blinking lights at intersections with police officers re-directing traffic off of Pacific Coast Highway. There was a KTLA news van at the curb.
We circled around, crossed PCH, met our friends at the base of the pier and went into Duke’s for lunch. There I Googled “breaking news Huntington Beach” and found out Vice- President Mike Pence had landed at John Wayne Airport late that morning and was at that very moment attending a “Trump Victory” luncheon at another restaurant–in Huntington Beach. The Waterfront Hilton, just half a mile down the road from us (the half-mile that was off-limits). We had just missed the lengthy motorcade of police and government vehicles. ktla.com/2019/11/13/vice-president-pence-arrives-in-orange-county-wednesday-for-2-day-visit-to-california/
I realized the loathing, bitterness and malice I was feeling was not us. We were also objects of it because we are Christians and conservative but it was not coming from us. We were within the vortex of the rage, irascibility and vengeance aimed at everything Trump, now localized in Huntington Beach. It felt like we were being hated and ravaged by vicious wolves intent on nothing less than murder. I know there are real witches who are committed to really, actively cursing this administration and I realized this is what it must feel like to be Vice-President Pence–every minute of every day. It was incredibly intense and hostile.
Back to real time: On November 5, I participated in the Inaugural One Voice prayer teleconference for our nation and I had a vision of the same green witch.
As intercessor Cindy Jacobs was praying about taking jurisdiction in heaven and about unity leading to corporate breakthrough on earth, I again saw the witch covering Washington. But this time, as I watched, she went “poof”! That’s the only way I can describe it. All that remained was an explosion of soft particles like powder. A minute or so later I saw her again, intact but this time very small because she was far away—and moving farther away fast, looking back in disgust, shaking a fist and cursing.
I consider that very positive! I look forward to the difference this may make in our capital.
—–
*Backstory: On Oct. 24, in “Uganda Postscript: Re-entry, I wrote “When we returned to the United States I felt a deadening, smothering spiritual oppression and moral darkness in our country which I did not feel in Uganda. The nation itself was intact and good but a thick, dark blanket of smog had settled across the face of it.”
On Oct. 28, in my post, “More on moral darkness,” I shared details of what I saw:
In my spirit I saw a witch (stereotypical green skin, warts, pointed hat, nose, chin, nails) over Washington D.C. –as big as the city–carefully releasing a single drop of poison onto one Supreme Court Justice. When it landed it sizzled with the words “S-S-SEXUAL S-S-SCANDAL,” suddenly arousing a mass of people to go into a frenzy over a lie.
This vision would have been between September 10 and 14. Checking the dates, I see that the allegations of sexual scandal against Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh were lodged on September 15. In response to the allegations, there were immediate calls–not for a trial to determine guilt because of “presumed innocence”–but for his impeachment.
“For 70 years, my entire country has been one giant prison camp. Love, happiness, freedom, human rights–those words do not even exist.” Ji Hyeon-A, North Korean survivor
https://www.valuesvotersummit.org/archive
If this doesn’t come up, go to link and scroll down to video #9.
Today (Nov. 3) is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church around the world. Persecution is increasing sharply in India and China is tightening its control over millions of Muslims as well as Christians.
But for 18 years, through the tyrannical, maniacal grip of three generations of despots, North Korea has topped the Top Ten Watch List of persecuted countries. Ji Hyeon-A, a young woman desperate for freedom, escaped over the river into China four times over nine years–the first time (1998) splitting up as a family to avoid suspicion. Her father went first and they were supposed to meet up with him at a home in China. He wasn’t there.
Three times Hyeon-A was recaptured in China and forcibly repatriated to North Korea. She was separated from her family, beaten, tortured, and sold into trafficking (so were her mother and 16-year old sister, she found out later), enduring “things no one should ever have to go through.” She was sentenced to 8 months in a labor camp during a famine which killed 3.5 million people, who ate every living thing, even stripping all the bark off trees throughout the nation trying to survive. Emaciated people “like walking sticks” who were admitted to the camp died of dysentery within three days.
Pregnant, Hyeon-A was subjected to a forceps abortion without anesthesia.
Controlling her emotion, Hyeon-A told her story recently at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. –and that emotion found voice through her young male interpreter, at times choked with the shock and grief she held back.
Lying on a table in a security facility in excruciating pain, helplessly watching her 3-month fetus be “ripped to shreds,” an arm and leg at a time, Ji Hyeon-A cried out to God, Daniel and his 3 friends were saved even in the lion’s den and the raging furnace. Are our prayers too small and insignificant? We’ve had to suffer 7 years of torture and tragedy. Why weren’t our prayers answered? Why do we have to suffer and die like this?
“It felt so unfair,” she told her American audience. “I resented God so much at that moment.”
God spoke to her gently in her bitterness and devastation. Does it hurt? Does it hurt–a lot? I too lost My son that way. So go tell my people in North Korea about Me–
Hyeon-A said, “He saw His own son suffer and die but Jesus had to die on the cross– That is when I knew my Father’s heart.
“I summoned all my strength and crossed the cold river again, still bleeding profusely from the abortion. The river turned red with blood…”
This time, in China, she was reunited with her mother, sisters and brother (who had to fend for himself on the streets when the members of his family were seized). Hyeon-A has been a follower of Jesus Christ and an advocate for her people for 12 years. Her father has not been seen again.
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For all the talks from the Values Voter Summit, Oct. 11-13, go to https://www.valuesvotersummit.org/archive
Primary blog of Jessica Reynolds Shaver Renshaw
E-mail: hiddeninjesus@gmail.com
Jessica Renshaw