FROM CHICAGO.... TO FLORIDA.

THE MOVIE!  :-)

From this...                       






To this...

Many of you have been wanting to know what inspired the "sudden" move from Chicago to Florida.  I started writing this Palm Sunday, after my first week here.  Then, I provided an update today.  I believe this "story" will blow you away!  Make sure you let me know what you think.....



Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014

Thank you all for all the love and well wishes on my recent relocation to Florida.  I love and appreciate you all, so I want to answer all of your questions, which no doubt, emerge from a place of shock and "what the heck is she doing now?!"

It's been a whirlwind of Blessings so, as we enter into the week when, over 2000 years ago, my Savior, Jesus Christ, prepared, with great anguish and trepidation to enter into the last leg of his earthly journey (Easter), this seems like a good day to sit down and finally chronicle this, most recent leg of mine.

Ok.

So, it went something like this:

A few years ago, I had a burning desire to leave California and run back to Chicago to "save" my nephew.  Many of you already know that.  And, if you've read my earlier blogs, you also know how that went.  In short, I learned what my Pastor told me before leaving, "You're not the Savior".

But, I also wanted to conduct my Youth ministry there, and I had prayed extensively and gotten more than one confirmation that, even though God warned me it was going to be a difficult assignment in a very dark place, He promised He would send "Kings to the brightness of my shining" (Isaiah 60:3).  In short, It wasn't going to be fun or easy.  I'd encounter a lot of difficulties and opposition, but He would send me help.  My dear friend, Bill, who made his transition, on my front steps, on Valentine's Day, was one of those Kings.

Though I didn't know Bill yet, I left  sunny, Southern California with the knowledge, like Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, that I was heading into a cross carrying experience.  Jesus was praying fervently in a garden.  I was literally pooside at the Indian Wells Country Club the day before I left to drive across country with my three dogs.  And from almost the time I arrived in Chicago I was targeted over and over at almost every turn.

But, I was warned.  Like I said, God SHOWED me in a dream and described, in scripture, what I would go through.  People didn't like me on sight!  As soon as I'd walk IN, you could see the a cloud cover their faces.  Employers, family, churches, landlords, politicians....  One person even exclaimed, when I walked in for an interview, "You're like sunshine!"  Then, proceeded to have me apply twice and turn me down twice!  --for a volunteer media position that I've done PROFESSIONALLY for over a decade!  ("The Light has come into the world but the people loved the darkness more than the light because their deeds were evil"  -- John 3:19)

In the space of two years, I had four jobs of four months each.  I would always be the top producer, but in some cases, the companies would go out of business.  Along the way, I'd have managers that would just "not like me".  They'd complain that they "didn't like the way I bounced on my toes when I walked", or "didn't like the way I used my hands when I talked".  They commented that I was too thin and "If I'd known you were this skinny I wouldn't have hired you."  They complained about me always smiling and asking how people are doing.  "We're busy!" They'd bark.  "We don't have time for all that!"

When I was giving the bikes away in my ministry's bike drive, some of the adults in my neighborhood whispered that I must be a child molester.   My family made a complete mess of my nephew's life, blamed it on me, cursed me out and put me out.  My cousins assumed I must be like the cousin in "Soul Food" who came back and slept with somebody's husband, so they spread lies about me and all shut me out.  One guy, who I hadn't spoken to in 16 years, showed up and spread particularly vicious lies about me through my family-- which, ASTOUNDINGLY, since I have ALWAYS been BLINDLY AND TENACIOUSLY loyal to my family-- they believed!  That all but broke my heart.

The guy promptly, and literally dropped dead.  ("Touch not my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm."  --Psalm 105:15.  It wasn't Bill, by the way.  Bill was my friend.  This was someone else.)

I spent three years in Chicago, literally shut out of my family, estranged from friends I hadn't seen in years, kicked out by my first landlord after the Supreme Court upheld "Obama Care", citing that now they'd have to pay their employees insurance and give them raises, so rather than raising my rent $200, they were not going to renew my lease.  I was their only Black tenant.

Sweet home, Chicago.

But, God is the master orchestrator if you're yielded to Him.  He had brought me back to Chicago and placed me on the north side for a season.   I comforted myself with the admonition that, "a prophet is not without honor, except in his own hometown and among his own household."  (Mark 6:4).  I accepted what I could do as well as what I couldn't.

 While on the north side, I got to know, love and pray with my Yale educated neighbors and the smattering of Latin Kings around the neighborhood alike.  Kendra, across the hall, roasted garlic for me when I had a cold.  John, downstairs,  burst out of his apartment ready to fight for me when he heard me falling down the slippery stairs one night.  He thought I was being assaulted and ran out totally prepared to do battle.  Likewise, the local Latin Kings trusted and looked out for me, as well.    Maybe the Latin Kings were some of the "Kings" God promised to send!  :-)  If I came in at 2 in the morning, they'd be out and, as intimidating as a group of them walking toward you at 2 in the morning might be, it was all love and "how you doin?".    When one of them got shot and killed, I conducted a prayer circle with them on the sidewalk.  It wasn't the first prayer circle I'd conducted with them.   I rode my bike from group to group preaching and pleading they seek God's plan and reconsider retaliation.

Whether, in their grief. or at other times, stifling giggles through a blunt fogged high, they always listened to me with rapt attention.  One time I said, "I know you all are trying not laugh at me right now."  "They released the witheld chuckles.  "Yeah, cause you're funny!" they laughed.  But, quickly and seriously followed it with, "But, seriously.  We really appreciate you talking to us like this.  For real."  I sought out their teardrop tatooed faces before I moved and gave them hugs goodbye.  John called in contacts for me on my job hunt.  God's always provided angels.

Then, God landed me in Dixmoor, next to Harvey, IL where there were sooooooo many kids I was stunned.  Good Lord!  There's a lot of kids around here!, I thought.  I'D thought my ministry was supposed to be in Chicago proper.  I didn't anticipate taking new, white friends to church or having street corner prayers with Latin gangs, but then, that's God.  You can't put Him in a box.  Not by color or background, geography or anything!  And, opposition comes with the territory sometimes, but it should not be prolonged.


Though I was rejected by family, jobs, the local "power brokers" of Chicago and such, God brought the people to me who He sent me there for AND, He sent those instrumental to His assignment, to assist me.  Like I said, there was John, who set up an interview with one of his Yale buddies when I got dropkicked by the manager who "didn't like the way I bounced on my toes when I walked.".  There was Bill, who supported EVERYTHING I did with the kids of Dixmoor.  There was my girl Cindy, who I met on my first job back there.  She also rallied to find me another job after I got spit out of the first one.  Out of the blue, one of my cousins (the only one who stayed in touch), called and offerred to rent me a house in Dixmoor, right after the North side landlords punished me for Obama.

"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all else will be added unto you."  (Matt 6:33)


I went back to Chicago because I felt God told me to.  It was encumbent on Him to provide for me.  That's His WORD and His word NEVER returns void.

I wrote a sermon once on letting rejection POSITION you.  I was being POSITIONED.  And, I reminded myself often that all of the other rejection I was encountering was just God telling me not to get comfortable.  I was only passing through.

But, then there was Dixmoor.  I won't get into how much I sowed into the lives of the young people there.  Truth is, I got way more out of it.  I FELL IN LOVE WITH THOSE KIDS!  Our evening bike rides and later our Saturday night weekend winter pow wows became the highlight of my life!  They touched me.  With their sweetness, their little kid enthusiam, their teenaged burgeoning adulthood, their trust in me.  Their love.  If I had to stay in Chicago, there is no other community there I'd rather be than in that little neighborhood I became a part of.  In fact, on the day I left, the Village called me.  They said a teenaged girl had been put out of the house and needed a place to stay.  They already knew I'd helped another child out of a difficult home situtation and wanted to know if she could stay with me.

Too late.  The movers had just left my house.  My season there had ended and I was headed toward Florida.

But why Florida?  Why now?

Well...

Therein lies the next leg of the journey.

Ready?...


Ok.


A prophet came to visit this little church I attended in Hammond, IN.  He prophesied, among other things, that The Lord was going to relocate me to Florida.  I was stunned because I had no fond memories of Florida from my undergraduate years in Tallahassee, and never intended to go back.  But, he was right about everything else, so I had to consider it.  He said, the people in Chicago don't understand my anointing and are afraid of it.  I think, "same reason Jesus was only able to perform a few miracles in HIS hometown..."

Fast forward.  The last job takes the marketing territory I built, and kicks me out.  Their business drops in half, so they call me back, try to pick my brain, but doesn't rehire me.   The winter sets in and brutally shuts down the country.  I'm stuck.   Bill dies on my front steps.  Trememdous loss and trauma.  My kids rally around me but I'm truly ready to leave.  Even one of "my kids" tells me I need to look out for myself.  "There are no bunk beds in the coffin," this wise littl eleven year old says.  In other words, "If you let this place kill you, you're dying by yourself, so you better save yourself."  Money's short by now.  I'd developed symptoms that looked like Fibromyalgia.  I was in pain everywhere and so was one of my dogs, who I had to carry up and down icy, snowy stairs everyday... and fall sometimes.

Kept going to church.  John Hannah and his associate Pastors preach a sermon, "It's Time To Move!"  Stresses even if you think you don't have enough money or resources or whatever (which I didn't), trust God and do it anyway.  It's time to move!  They cite the Hebrews with the mountains on one side, the desert on the other, the enemy behind and the Red Sea ahead.  Trapped.

.... but then God parts the sea.

That's my daily reminder.

I'd also re-read, "The Prayer of Jabez" by Bruce Wilkinson and started praying the prayer before Bill died.  Things started happening in the extreme-- including Bill's death.  It becomes more clear to me that God is taking me to a new level in Him.  Bigger assignments.  I need to be tougher, thus, He allowed me to go through allllllllllllllll the difficulties, including Bill dyng in my presence.

It's clear that it's time for me to move but then I learn that my mother needs a double hip replacement, "my kids" want me to attend their 8th grade graduations in June and one of them has a particularly challenging situation that I've assisted.  Situations are changing again and they're wanting me nearby as well.

Two days cement God's will.  I try again to go back to the old job.  Even for less money so I can be there for everybody else.  God says no.  My mother callls and assures me she's got plenty of support and I should go.  My Godmother, calls from the Ft. Lauderdale area and says the dogs and I can land with her, and the very next day, Friday, a resume I sent out down here, callled for an interview.

I packed up a 4 bedroom house in two days.  I book a moving company with just three days notice.  We load the truck on Monday and prepare to hit the road right after.  

I go to the doctor about my pain but no time to follow up and limited resources anyway. While there, my friend, Donna texts me that she can send me a donation toward my move.

My friend, Perez, stops by.  He's been working on my BMW.  It starts, but it still won't stay on.  I decide to leave it, along with pretty much all of my furniture and drive my Ford instead.  He offers to drive with me THAT DAY!  He goes home, gets his brother to watch his dog, and DRIVES ME AND MY DOGS THE ENTIRE WAY TO FLORIDA!  TWENTY-FOUR HOURS!!!!  Thank GOD!  Because Im in so much pain there is NO WAY I would have made it.  Not AT ALL! We get to Ft. Lauderdale Wednesday afternoon, I book a flight for him from the car and take him directly to the airport back to Chicago, land at my Godmother's, get ready for the interview.  I'm still in pain and exhausted but I get up the next morning and make the interview ON TIME.  The woman I interview with couldn't be nicer.  She says I'm "an amazing woman"!  No mean-mugging.  No glares at how "skinny" I am or complaints about how I walk.  She calls me for a followup interview with the owner before I even get back to my Godmother's!

That was on a Thursday.  The next interview was Monday.  They made an offer Tuesday morning.

I saw a FAMU (my alma mater) license plate frame on a car and left a note.  Turned out it was a sweet, young girl, Class of 2013!  (A REAL baby.  :-)  She asked, "Do you have a church home?"  I visited her church today.  Met others.  They referred me to a good Chiropractor, a Day Spa, I took the offer letter and am "this close" to getting a nice apartment in a resort-type community complete with pools, spas, lakes, ducks, a fitness center and dog parks.  :-)

I've sat and chatted on the beach, ridden my bike, and on the way to Florida, I met a woman in a gas station, in Tennessee,  who opened her own assisted living facility.  I told her I had a business plan and idea to create a "Safe House" for young people who can't go home for whatever reason.  Maybe they're runaways, thrown-aways, or whatever.  I told her I was headed to Florida and didn't reallly know why but that God told me to.  She informed me that Florida was a top state for runaways!  Said, soooo many teenagers run away to Florida and they have a horrible, dangerous life.  She said, maybe THAT'S why God was sending me to Florida!  And she'd be happy to help me.

Oh!  And get this!  After I got the job offer, I was having trouble finding an apartment that would take all three of my dogs.  I called the owner of the company and told her I was having trouble finding a place at my price point.  She said she would HELP ME find a place!  She called a friend of her's that 's a realtor and said if they couldn't find something, then we'd talk about raising my salary.

Now, you know that is NO ONE BUT GOD!

I don't profess to alway obey God fully or all the time.  God KNOWS I screw up!  But, He also knows I try.  I really do.  And, I've become more willing to do the "illogical" at His direction.

God told Abraham to "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, go to a land that I will show you"  (Gen. 12:1)  

I did that when I left 17 years ago for California.  

Now, I'm doing it again.  And, once again, He's parting the sea.

Chicago really beat me up this last go round.  My body.  My Spirit.... the weather gave me arthritis in almost every joint...  got an extreme Vitamin D deficiency from the lack of sun, I shoveled so much I got pulled ligaments and pinched nerves, I fell down the stairs a bunch of times  trying to carry one of my dogs, who also got arthritis in that tundra... but I'm declaring COMPLETE restoration of EVERYTHING the devil thinks he stole from me!  Completely and SEVENFOLD!

I truly learned to let go of "things".   To get out of there, I left furniture, my classic BMW, fur coats, exercise equipment.....  thousands of dollars worth of "things", but I literally felt like my life was on the line.  It was!

But, I KNOW it can't compare to what's in store.  And, I don't just mean materially.

Goodness!
And Mercy!
And Joy!
And Peace!
And Perfect Health!
Strength!
Love!
And, every good thing will FOLLOW ME all of the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever!

UPDATE:  MAY 31, 2014

Ok!  So I got the beautiful place with the lakes and the ducks, pool and palm trees..... a friend GAVE me leather furniture here that fit my new place BETTER than the furniture I left.....  He also helped me get excellent medical attention to deal with my pinched nerve and all my "Chicago ailments" and I'm getting better and better.  In fact, God has not let me lack for anything!  Although I left Chicago with limited resources, God provided ALL of this within my FIRST TWO WEEKS HERE!... the job, the home, the therapists....  I keep thanking Him daily!

I've gotten to the place where I basically can't use a cellphone.  The radiation has had my fingers burning since January and having 15+ kids in my living room every Saturday ALL on their cellphones the whole time surely didn't help.  My home was a virtual homing device for every cellular signal from every carrier!  I have developed almost a complete intolerace to radiation... but now I know and am doing what I need to detox and restore my system.

Though I left deeply wounded by my family, I recognized that I was in good company... Jesus, Joseph, David.... and recognized it was part of the "Preparation" God was building in me, so, by faith, I consciously forgave and prayed for them everyday.  One of the fruits of my prayers is that  my mother had the hip replacement and STUNNED all her doctors and therapists with how quickly she recovered.  Within two weeks, the therapists shook their heads and said, "It's a miracle!  There's nothing else we can do for you.  You're fine!"  Last week, I called my mother and she had just gotten back from a party.  God never fails.

I met a Haitian minister here with a small, Haitian church who asked me to assist hm in starting an English speaking service.  Presently, I'm still getting myself together and unpacking but I already know ministry is a main reason God sent me here.  I'm listening and still being carried.

Since last October, I put a note and a prayer in my daily Calendar.  The note read, "This is my opportunity to step out on faith.  Without faith, it is impossible to please God!"

The prayer was the Prayer of Jabez as well as adapted prayers from the book, "Releasing The Prayer Anointing", by Larry Lea.

It reads:

"Oh Lord, that you would Bless me, indeed and enlarge my territory.  That your hand would be with me, and that you would kep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" -- 1 Chron. 4:9-10

"Lord, keep me safe from the pain and grief that sin brings.  For the dangers that I can't see, or the ones that I think I can risk because of my experience (pride and carelessness), put up a supernatural barrier around me.  Protect me, Father, by your Power!

I declare Your Kingdom to come and Your Will to be done in my life, my relationships, my works, and my ministry for,

I have your Wisdom.
I have the Discipline of a Disciple.
I Prophesy!
I Visualize the Life You want for Me.
I AM Well Taken Care Of.
I Relax in My Spirit.
I Trust You.
I Worship You in Spirit and In Truth.
I Let Go & I Let YOU.

YOUR WORD INSTRUCTED ME that "whatever things I ask when I pray, to BELIEVE that I RECEIVE them and I will HAVE THEM!" -- Matt 11:24

YOU also instructed me that when I stand praying TO FORGIVE ANYONE I have ANYTHING against. -- Matt 11:25

Therefore, In JESUS' name, I FORGIVE _________________ for they know not what they do.  And, I release them to their highest good.  I send the LOVE OF CHRIST to them and I BELIEVE I RECEIVE ALL THAT GOD HAS FOR ME!  In Jesus' name!  Amen!"


I invite you to take this on for yourselves.  I saw the movie, "Dauntless" when I got here.  There's a scene where the initiates are asked to jump off a building into a black abyss several stories down.  They don't know if there's a net or not to catch them.  If it's not, it's surely death, but they do it.  I thought to myself, "why would you put that kind of trust in man but not God?  If you've made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior and He is Calling you to do something... whatever it is...  Whether it's something broad like moving across the country or something "local" like, getting out of an unGodly relationship, why wouldn't you trust the Creator of the Universe?  The one who has every hair of your head numbered?  Who clothes the lillies of the field and who has ALWAYS brought you through?

The world is full of counterfeits and counterfeit allegiances, but only the devil would call for you to risk your life pointlessly like that.  That's why it's called, being a "daredevil"!

God would never ask that of you.  If you abide in Him and let him abide in you, He will never lead you to do something that will not be for your good and His Glory because "ALL things work together for the GOOD of those who LOVE Him and are CALLED according to HIS PURPOSE."  --Romans 8:28

Seek first the Kingdom of God AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, and ALL ELSE will be added to you."  --Matt 6:33

That doesn't mean that you won't go through tough times.  No great man or woman of God yields a testimony without a test... but if you keep your priorities straight, HE WILL ALWAYS provide a net!

I LOVE YOU and I BLESS YOU ALL... IN JESUS' MIGHTY NAME!


PEACE!  :-)
Rayel

Life's Little "Rayelity Checks": Shifting The World

Life's Little "Rayelity Checks": Shifting The World: We lost one of our lifetime's "World Shifters" this week:                                    Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.  T...

Shifting The World

We lost one of our lifetime's "World Shifters" this week:  
                                 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. 

Those of us who share this "Boomer" generation have witnessed the belly of the beast, and its evolution, through South African apartheid and American segregation.

The dismantling of each system marked, in part, by the ending of President Mandela's 27 year incarceration and The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Now, here we stand, at the close of 2013, presumably the "apex" of our lives, witnessing the passing of many of those who fought, and gave, so generously, so painfully, so sacrificially for freedoms we are now witnessing being taken away-- most notably, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which our Supreme Court stripped down significantly, just a few months ago on the grounds of being "unconstitutional".

What is important to realize, is that what kept segregation, slavery, and indeed, ALL of the "quasi-slave" systems intact, was the freedom given individual states to abide by Federal Law or not. Thus, the South, could debunk any challenges to its tyranny with immunity.

In June, when The Supreme Court, overturned Sections 4 & 5 of The Civil Rights Act, they gave 9 Southern States that right back. The right to re-write electoral laws without Federal approval-- a step so far backward as to almost undo the entire struggle... Destroy perhaps its most crucial gains.  A move akin to reversing the lynchpin that made apartheid illegal.

This weeks' death of Nelson Mandela, marks more than just the end of an era. It's the death of yet one more guard at the gate of justice.  And with each death... 

C. Delores Tucker, Civil Rights Leader and former Chair of The Black Caucus of The National Democratic Committee...

Constance Baker Motley, The first Black female Federal Judge...

Thurgood Marshall,  who served on The Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991, and who, as a lawyer won the pivotal Brown vs. The Board of Education case which integrated America's public schools...

August Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winning Playwright who chronicled important aspects of the American experience... 

John Tweedle, Pulitzer Prize winning Photographer, who cemented in our hearts and minds all of the iconic images of Dr. King and the  Civil Rights struggle...

Johnny Cochran, top Attorney who, beyond leading O.J's defense, was a prominent, early advocate of police brutality victims and was, at the time of his death, leading a legal charge  against the holocaust of Christians in the Sudan...

Lee Thompson Young (The Amazing Jet Jackson), who shared the distinction, with Raven Simone, as one of only two Black actors to carry a Disney television series, in the title role... 

John & Eunice Johnson, the founders of Johnson Publications, which for many years were the only magazines bringing the triumphs and rallying cries of Black America, and indeed, the world, into our living rooms...

 Hans Massaquoi, former Managing Editor of Ebony Magazine, who also penned his experience growing up in Nazi Germany, reminding us that world history is indeed ALL of our history...

 Don Cornelius, who helped validate our "groove"... 

And then there were Hadiya  Pendleton and Trayvon Martin, who represent the rivers of young, Black blood coursing the sidewalks of the world, calling out, like Abel, for vindication and all of our salvation.

These are just a tiny few of those gatekeepers and symbols we lost in recent years.  And, with each loss, if no one steps up to take their shift, the gate becomes more and more unprotected. Our gains, more and more vulnerable to raid.

The Civil Rights movement got us into "The Promise land".  It was a faith-based movement led by the REVEREND Dr. Martin Luther King, the REVEREND, Andrew Young, the REVEREND Ralph Abernathy... And so on and so on. Even the role of the Nation of Islam placed Spiritual principles at its core.

We cannot exclusively complete, in the flesh, what began in the Spirit.

God led the Hebrews out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into the Promise land.  And once there, they said, "We've got it from here, God!"  As a result, they got carted off to Babylon.

WE are being carted off to Babylon as we speak.  As we drive.  As we go about our day to day lives apart from God... thinking we're "in" now and  "we've got it from here".

The Hebrews had to fight to keep what was given to them, but they could not do it apart from The One who gave it.

We are living in very slippery times and the ONLY way to keep our footing is with regular time on our knees and teaching our children to.  Teaching our children the legacy of our history AND how God brought us through it, empowering us to be the best we could be and parting the sea when we reached the end of our abilities.  Being living examples of compassion and assistance to others, discipline, tenacity and prayer.

Does that mean no harm will ever come to them?  Sadly no. Every single person remembered here was somebody's child, including Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for trying to help others, in fact, a NATION!  And even God gave His only begotten Son so we might be redeemed.

But neither if them did it in their own strength-- but rather by complete reliance on God-- for their direction, endurance, and absolutely for their courage.  That is the key to the only lasting revolution.

If each of us do that, and look to God to direct our steps, we will be effectively led to do our part as a "World Shifter".  He will strengthen us to do our part to "Protect The Gate", because as evidenced by the virtual repeal of the Civil Rights movement, the devil never gives up.  We fought him with The Word, unity and tenacity in 1964, but just like he fled Jesus in the wilderness, he only "left until a more opportune time". (Luke 4:13)

One thing that is clear is the UNITY of the enemy's camp.  God's people need, once again, the UNITY that got us over... the UNITY of the Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and more.  If we get back on our watch with regular time with God,  teach our children to, and dismantle all these manmade church separations, we can gain direction on how to repair the many breaches our gates have sustained.

We've tried it "our way".  It's time for ALL of us, regardless of race, class, or geography to get back on our watch for the preservation of our Souls!  And injustice to ANYONE ANYWHERE, injures the SOUL of not only the victims, not only the perpetrators, but all of those who look away and say, "Oh well".

The world is suffering more than a financial collapse, more than a moral lapse, but a "soul sickness". It is time to get back on our post to get the strength and direction to fight.  To get off the defense and get AHEAD of the battle.

"If My People, who are Called by My name, would humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and forgive their sins, and heal their land." (2 Chron. 7:14)

What do YOU think?

                                           ...Be love... and love will follow.
                                                                               -Rayel

WHEN IT HITS HOME (or Why You Haven't Heard From Me)

It is possible, that a few of you wondered why I stopped blogging so abruptly, a couple of years ago.  In short, my "societal observations" became so up close and personal that I was not only too traumatized to comment, but doing so would have breached a delicate trust.  Well, it's still tender territory, but a couple of years distance, and witnessing the power of God, without any involvement on my part, whatsoever, kind of obligates me to "testify".

Why did I come "home"?  Why have I felt so much pain and worked so passionately on behalf of our youth?  What have I learned ultimately?  I wrote this back then when "it" happened, and maybe sharing it now, will help build your faith in your own prayers.

God IS.

He's always, "right now".  He didn't drop back and let you get ahead of Him.  He didn't speed up and leave you behind.  He didn't go away with plans to come back "one day".  He's right now.  He's right here.  God IS.

              ...........and don't you forget it!

Love you all!

                                  WHEN IT HITS HOME

Over the 14 years I was in California my stomach would get tight every time I saw my mother’s number pop up on my cell phone.  It was never good news and pretty much, that’s the only reason she’d ever call… to deliver bad news.  It was typically some terrible thing going on with one of the children in my family.  Young cousins, my nephew… and I’d only get cursed out if I tried to explain that the refusal to discipline or put time into them was “setting them up for the prison or the grave”.  My encouragement to pray was met with the bitter, “YOU pray!” or, “It don’t take all that! or “Don’t you go calling her trying to pray for them.  She aint into all that!”  And so, the situation became worse and worse.

Sometimes, I’d get so worked up and frightened, I’d hop on a plane, delaying paying my rent for a last minute flight to Chicago dropping everything to help in an “emergency” situation.  I’ve messed up jobs, blown opportunities, I even rejected a grant to conduct my Youth Program for an organization in Cali after getting one such phone call, determining instead, to pack up and move to ATLANTA, GA!… and another time, to BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA to get my then much younger nephew out of Chicago and out of their reach.  But only getting to Chicago, over and over again and then being told, “You stay out of it.  It’s fine now.  We don’t need you.  You think you’re so…” blah blah blah… you get the picture.

About six years ago, I even got a 13 page letter from my sister begging me to “come home” because I was badly needed and her son was out of control.  I packed up my place, gave notice, then when I asked her if she had done the three simple things I needed her to do to get the ball rolling on getting him into the awesome high school I went to, she went flip mode.  “We don’t need you.  He needs his mother!”  When I reminded her of the 13 page letter she wrote, she retorted, “I was emotional then.  And, emotions change.  Get over it!”

He eventually didn’t go to ANY high school and dropped out of school in the 8^th grade.  He’ll be 19 next month with only an 8^th grade diploma.

Now, I hear you.  That should have been the end of it.  I SHOULD have finally learned my lesson.  But I love her son.  And, because he was once reading at the 9^th grade level in THE SECOND GRADE, and was only given an eighth grade diploma because his national test scores were high enough to go straight to college, it was breaking my heart to see him lose all that potential and be even more solidly placed on track to become a statistic.  I just couldn’t give up.

So, I redirected my efforts to bringing him to Cali instead.

Two years later I did, but he’d been groomed by a lifetime of watching his mom and grandmom call me when they need me, then kick me in the teeth, that he cursed me AND my prayer partner out the first day he arrived.  Why not?  He’d watched THEM do it all his life?

I sent him back to Chi and things just got worse and worse.

So, six months ago, I came back home --to try “one more time” to pull him out of the fire, and also offer my Youth Program (born of this heart to give our kids emotional tools to create a better life), to the other at risk kids out here.  In my first blog, you read how that initially turned out.  Got cursed out royally and he got on a bus to Iowa.

But, needless to say, that didn’t last a good month.  He was determined to get back to Chicago and the life he knows.

But by then, I had backed off.  However, I got another call from my mom Saturday night.  Just two days ago.

He was in surgery.  Stabbed in the chest.

I thought about it.  Texted some close friends to pray and got down on my knees to join them.

Didn’t want to talk to anybody because if I started talking, I would cry and I just didn’t want to cry.  I wanted to think.  I wanted to hear from God.  I prayed in the Spirit.

Though it was raining and my windshield wipers had stopped working, I decided to drive the long distance to the hospital he was in after the surgery was over.  He was in ICU.

I walked in and he looked like he did in the emergency room at 4.  All hooked up to tubes and machines.  He’d spent a lot of time in emergency rooms as a child from neglect.  I took him then back with me to California but the lack of support (from my family, and the fact that I had just arrived in California and didn’t know anybody), pressed my hand to send him back once I got him well.  His life fell down the rabbit hole after that.  And that’s why I always felt such a huge pall of responsibility for him.  I KNEW his life would turn out tragically unless I kept him.

But, it was too hard, my faith wasn’t strong, and I sent him back.

That was when he was 5.  And now on this day, fourteen years later, he lays there unconscious at 19.  The doctor said his lung and the tip of his heart was punctured but he was young and would pull through.

I looked down on his unconscious, skinny little body.  I’d recently learned that over the years, he’d already been shot in the chest AND in the head.  But he kept on going and going like a ghetto Energizer Bunny, which would be funny except there he was with this tube down his throat now.

I asked for privacy so I could pray over him and I did.  I prayed and prayed.  I laid delicate hands on him, spoke life and God’s Calling for his life into his ear.  I finally wept and I sat at his bedside for a couple of hours until I decided to just go home.  But I still couldn’t sleep.  At home, I surfed the web til 5am, realizing now that’s what I do when I’m agitated and want to avoid my feelings.

The next day, yesterday, I went to church, then came home, changed, ate, walked the dogs and went BACK way up there, again in the rain, to see him.

I was stunned to see him sitting straight up in his bed, arguing with the security guard about his property which they were returning to him.  “I’m not signing this!” he was declaring.  “This says I can only regain my belongings between 8am and 5pm Monday through Saturday.  This isn’t Saturday!”

“But you already have your things,” the officer was trying to explain, referring to his money, cellphone and keys on his lap.  “No!  This says…”

The officer was exasperated.  I was almost speechless.  This child had his chest ripped open less than 24 hours earlier and he was sitting up here, inventorying his property and arguing with the guard like NOTHING had ever happened!  He turned to me.  “Ma!  Read this!  See if this is right!”  He thrust the bag toward me. Gently, I urged, “You’ve already got your things.  That is just to acknowledge that you’ve received them.  You can sign it.”  He read it again and signed it.  The frustrated guard walked out.

My nephew commenced to grilling me.  “Did you leave that stuff for me?”

You mean the scripture? (I’d written  out some scriptures and left them under his pillow the night before).  “Yeah”.

“How did you know I was here?” he demanded.  Apparently, I didn’t answer fast enough.  “How did you know I was here?!” he demanded more loudly.  I told him my mother told me.  He then commented about the person who stabbed him and commenced to recounting his money and checking his text messages like I wasn’t even there.  “Well,” I said, “apparently, I drove all the way up here, in the rain, without windshield wipers for nothing.”

He started yelling.  He stays amped up, but to be amped up RIGHT AFTER SURGERY ON YOUR LUNG AND HEART DEFIED MY IMAGINATION.  “You always takin stuff personal!  I just got stabbed in the chest! And I…”

 “That’s why I drove up here today AND yesterday,” I tried to cut him off but that’s pointless.

“I love you!” he suddenly barked from a totally stone face.  His intense dark eyes, staring directly into mine.

I put my purse back down and walked over to him, leaning over to kiss his face-- the face that looks so much like mine-- over and over.  “I love you too.”  He kissed me back.  I fought back the tears.

That tender moment was short lived.  “My phone isn’t on!  Let me use your phone!”  Everything he says comes out as a command.  He called my mother and basically ordered her to turn his phone back on.  “I ain’t gonna let nobody take my phone away.”   It was a quarter to four and he told her they close at 5.  In other words, get up and get over there NOW.  She asked about her other car (She has two).  He assured her that it was safe with one of his friends and wouldn’t entertain a conversation about giving her back her keys.  Over the years, I’d warned my mother that you have to train a Rottweiler when it is a PUPPY.  You can’t wait until it’s a 180 pound mass of muscle and teeth and THEN try to train it.  As usual, I got cursed out back then.  Now, she was running out the door to follow THIS Rottweiler’s orders.

After that call, he said, “let me make one more call.”  I took my phone back.  “Who you gonna call?” I asked.  He was gonna call the person who stabbed him (of course, most folk know the people they get shot or stabbed by).  “Nope.  I said.  Not with my phone.  I’m not getting in it.”

He had rung the nurse.  She walked in.  “Can I get something to drink?  I’m feeling really dehydrated.  My mouth is all dry…”  I noticed there was a cup of ice water beside him.  He didn’t want water.  He wanted what HE wanted.  The nurse tried to explain that though his MOUTH might want something to drink, his BODY might not handle it because he has fresh internal injuries.  She went to the lengthy trouble of EXPLAINING to him that he could aspirate, etc. and in his condition, throwing up would be extremely unpleasant and even dangerous.

He ignored her.  She wasn’t saying what he wanted to hear.  She asked if he’d been using his swabs to swab his mouth and walked over reaching for one of the swabs.  “I don’t want that!” he snapped.  She threw her hands up as if to say, “forget it then”.  I commiserated.  “I hear you,” I said.

“You know, you might want to be kinder and more courteous to the people who saved your life,” I said.  “I ain’t bout to die!” he snapped and kept scrolling his text.  And, true enough, this boy wasn’t even REMOTELY acting like he had just had major surgery.  He had all the strength, energy and focus and attitude he had BEFORE the whole incident!

Now, God has brought me a long way from my OWN temper so I resisted the urge to just walk out.  I sat there forcing myself to keep him company.  Then, he piped up, “You ain’t got to be all fake about your phone!”   Whaat?? I asked.  “Sayin you don’t want to be in it.  You just fake!”  “Look,” I forced myself, like the nurse, to give him an undeserved explanation.  “I am not trying to get in the middle of you guys’ mess.”

Astonishingly, he sat there in a hospital bed, hooked up to all manner of machines and tubes, chest all patched up, and asked, “What mess?”

Crazy makes crazy.  And for a second, I wondered if I was the one out of sync.  Then, I found some words.  “THIS mess,” I said, gesturing to the accoutrements around him. “You are sitting in a hospital bed after being stabbed in the lung and in the heart.  THIS mess.”  Was I really explaining this?

Well, that made no sense to him.  I was the one that was wrong.  He started balling me out.  Loudly.  The entire nurses station looked up with their mouths hanging open.  I walked out.  He kept yelling after me.  “You didn’t need to come here!  And you don’t need to come back!”

Maybe, what he was saying, in actuality, in his own, hurt, twisted way, was, “Please don’t leave.  I’m a f’d up mess that was raised this way and you should have never left me with them!” but at almost 19, he’s gonna need to learn to say just that.

I love that boy/man/mess.  Always will.  And I’ll always keep him in my prayers.  I still believe God has a great Calling on his life which is why God keeps preserving him over and over, and healing him, literally, supernaturally.  And, despite not being in school for the last five years, he STILL recently scored college level on one of the standardized tests.  But, I’m letting him go his path the way he needs to go it… no matter how rough.  He can handle it.  Like I said in my earlier blog, I’ve put in enough years trying to fight through the flames for not only HIS life, but his mother’s before him.  Now I see that God wouldn’t let me get in because the process He has for THEM isn’t the process He had for ME.  God knows I tried to bust down the door.  My love for them is extraordinary.  But God kept it locked for a reason.

But this one thing is clear: “the fervent, effective prayers of the righteous availeth much” (James 5:16).  Even when you need to detach from your family with love, place them in your FAITH IN GOD.  Don’t be like MY relatives.  “Humble yourselves and PRAY!”  (2 Chron. 7:14)  AND don’t let the enemy use them to piss you off so much that you stop praying for them!  Samuel told the Hebrews after they kept going against what God told them, that “far be it from me that I should sin against The Lord and cease praying for you.” (1 Samuel 12:23).

The enemy knows my gifting is intercession and people have sought my prayers from all over.  My prayers have sent supernatural healing to friends across the country!  Satan would like nothing better than to stick his hand up my nephew’s butt and work his mouth like a puppet to piss me off so much that I just say, “forget it!”  And, the enemy would like to do that in YOUR family too!  But don’t let him.  Jesus is LORD and God is sovereign.  “The blessing is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” (Deut. 30:14)

DON’T LET SATAN SNATCH THE BLESSINGS OF GOD OUT OF YOUR MOUTH or worse, OUT OF YOUR HEART!  The POWER of life and death lives in your tongue!  (Proverbs 3:1-12)  Not just over YOUR life, but those around you!  I am CONVINCED that my nephew is still here because I have had a battalion of Prayer warriors praying for him consistently over the years.  And, I am equally aware that there are strong demonic forces that have taken ground in his life because of his family’s rebellion.  I know it’s not even him talking which is why I don’t even feel particularly upset when he goes off.  He’s being used.  And, I know that.  But, GREATER is God in me than ANYTHING in this world.  NOTHING shall befall that child that is beyond the reach and will of my Heavenly Father!  NOTHING!

And, if you walk in holiness and commit your prayers to The Lord (because you can’t activate change in the world while still holding onto your sin), you can CONFIDENTLY bring your petitions before the throne of God.

 Where my nephew is concerned I didn’t always have COMPLETE confidence.  My HEART wouldn’t let me take my HANDS off the situation.  My HEART wouldn’t let me completely believe that my prayers, which sent healing to friends across the country, would be sufficient to uphold and deliver the person I love most in the world:  This knuckleheaded boy. I always felt I had to don my cape and literally fly across the country to help God out.

But, one of the scriptures I left under his pillow was this:

1 John 5:14-15

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

How about that?!  When I was in Cali I didn’t know that God had already delivered him from gunshot wounds, and all manner of mayhem.  Wisely, they never told me.  But now, SEEING how God brought this child through this critical surgery with basically full strength, literally overnight… like Thomas, I finally believe.

Don’t be a doubting Thomas.  How about all of us FINALLY having confidence in God and not in our own strength?  Finally BELIEVING in the Power of our Prayers?!  The Bible tells us “when we pray, we are to BELIEVE and not doubt because those who doubt are like waves of sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ” (James 1:6)  Do we really want our faith like a little dingy in the ocean or do we want it unmovable, on a rock?

And unlike what my nephew told me, I DON’T take everything personally.  If I did, I would have stopped praying for all of them years ago, and I SURE as heck wouldn’t have come back here.  But when the Hebrews went against Samuel, God assured him, “They’re not rejecting you, they’re rejecting Me…”  Nothing’s changed.

You stay on your watch!  Keep praying for those crazy people!  And don’t attach to outcomes… Because your prayers might not insure you get the results YOU want, but have CONFIDENCE that “if (you) ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL… (you)  have what (you) ask of Him.”

Jesus IS Lord!

Love you ALL!

What do you think?

*Oct. 12, 2013 P.S….  Not long after that, God used yet another tragedy to begin to line my nephew up in his will.  Ofcourse, I warned them all, but, as usual, my mother advised him to ignore anything I have to say.  Naturally, when the other shoe dropped, rather than looking at themselves, my mother directed them to all blame me.  My observation is this is the pervasive mindset and dynamic in Chicago which keeps it firmly established as the “dysfunctional family capital of America”, as one magazine put it, and the “homicide capital”, nine years running.

But this was a true blessing for me!  Not only did it mean they were not going to call me with their drama anymore (yippee!), but this was God’s way of FINALLY wrenching my hands off their lives so that He could finally get a “clear shot”.  They are still dealing with the consequences of their actions, but things are getting better, I hear.  My nephew is growing in the midst of it and the situation has given him a catalyst to exercise his true nature—a brave heart with a TON of love and determination.

And, as for me, it showed me in yet another tangible demonstration, that it’s ok to “Let go… and Let God.”

Jesus IS Lord.

Not me.

Love you all!

OCCUPY THIS! (Or "What Would Jesus Do?)

Earlier this year, I was asked to write an article for a magazine that never came into being.  In light of the current "Occupy Wall Street" movement, I thought it worth re-printing and sharing with all of you.

Let me know "what you think".

Love,

Rayel

Like Taking Candy From a Baby…

by Rayel

Copyright 2011.  Lisa Rayel Jeffrey.  All Rights Reserved.

As I write this, the news reports that the top executives of Goldman Sachs Investment firm just gave themselves 111 million dollars in bonuses.  Not salaries.

Bonuses.

The CEO and President received 24 million dollar bonuses each.  The CFO, 21 million dollars, and so on.

That’s just ONE investment firm of many on Wall Street.  The other investment firms have rewarded themselves similarly, meaning that the year end bonuses on Wall Street alone, will go way into the billions, if not trillions—NOT COUNTING the billions MORE in year end bonuses being given to top executives in Corporate America, as they lay off millions of workers.

THIS on the heels of the wealthy Republican politicians literally “holding hostage” the unemployed and poor children, refusing to extend both unemployment benefits OR subsidized school lunches until they got their extraordinary tax concessions—which include the ability to leave up to 20 million dollars to their children TAX FREE.  This will further extract trillions and trillions of dollars from the economy, further sinking all the public institutions and infrastructure these tax dollars would support.  As if our roads, schools, hospitals and social services weren’t suffering enough.

Why am I talking about such things in a Christian magazine?  Particularly, one devoted to evangelizing God’s mandate to “prosper”?

Well, I found myself in a Facebook “conversation”, over this, with a fellow Christian who felt that “the problem” was that the poor needed to stop expecting “free lunches” and get over their “outrageous sense of entitlement”.

Hmnn….  Let’s see.  So, we’ve got multimillionaires extracting more millions from a depleted economy, and LITERALLY taking food out of babies’ mouths to do it  (By the way, you should know that Governor Schwarzenegger has cut almost all Child Care funding here in California AFTER getting elected on a campaign pledging commitment to CHILDREN), BUT the POOR are the ones with the “outrageous sense of entitlement”?

Well, I couldn’t help but wonder what Jesus would say about all this—and how HE would define “prosperity”.

I turned to my trusty friend, The Bible, and was lead to Psalm 112.

Come along!  Read with me!

(vs, 1-5)  Praise the Lord!  Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.

          His descendants will be mighty on the earth, the generation of the upright will be blessed.

          Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.

          Unto the upright there arises light in darkness; he is gracious and full of compassion, and righteousness.

          A good man deals graciously and lends; he will guide his affairs with discretion.

(vs. 9)  He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be exalted with honor.

So, we see that yes.  It IS important to leave an inheritance for our children.  That’s the mark of the righteous.  That’s the reward of those who obey God – that his descendants will be blessed!  That he WILL prosper!  And, I’m gonna talk more about that in later articles.

BUT—

It ALSO says that he is to be COMPASSIONATE.  In fact, it says he should be FULL OF COMPASSION!  This “screw the poor”, “I’ve got mine, you get yours” attitude is decidedly ANTICHRISTIAN.  And, anyone who calls themselves a Christian and feels this way is fooling themselves.  Jesus Himself, dedicated His entire ministry to reaching out to the poor and the alienated who were excluded from the temple system.  They couldn’t worship in the temple.  They had to perform their ceremonial baths in a pool outside of the city.  If they were sick, they were considered not worthy of a blessing from the High Priest.  In fact, the temples were connected by an elaborate tunnel and bridge system so the Priests could leave their homes and go directly into the temple without even having to touch the “commoners”.  BUT, you’d better believe hefty taxes were still extracted from those very sick and poor.

Jesus was born “in the hood”.  “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” they asked.  (John 1:46)  Like, “What good thing can come out of Cabrini Green?  Or Nickerson Gardens?  Or The 5^th Ward?”  Jesus grew up seeing the oppression of these people – HIS people.  These poor people were HIS family and neighbors.  The folk that raised HIM!

He grew up seeing so many of their bodies dot the landscape, rotting on crosses, because, indeed, the Romans crucified over 2,000 Jews BEFORE Him.  It was their favorite way of punishing even the hint of insurrection.  Leaving decaying bodies hanging for weeks sent a message that was hard to confuse:  Don’t even THINK about dismantling this system.

But Jesus did.  He challenged the High Priests.  He confronted the moneychangers.  He warned of those who played religion, but whose hearts were actually far from Him.  Hearts cold and indifferent to the suffering of others.

And, He sought to INCLUDE the poor…AND the rich.  His disciple, Matthew was a wealthy tax collector.   Come onboard! Jesus said, Just stop stealing!  He called the Roman Centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant with just a word, a man of great faith.  The disciple, Luke was a wealthy physician, and indeed, Theophilus, to whom the books of Luke, and Acts were addressed, is speculated to be among the wealthiest members of society who perhaps underwrote publication of the books.  Jesus’ ministry was subsidized by many wealthy women and it was the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea who gave Jesus a proper burial.

Jesus had no problem with people prospering.

But do you think Jesus would think it’s ok to give the wealthy Roman rulers billions of dollars in bonuses and tax breaks while cutting off subsidized lunches and day care to children of the poor?

I don’t know.  What do you think?

As we go into this new year, in this new decade, be mindful that TRUE prosperity, in GOD’S eyes, is a two sided coin.

One side says,

“Give”

The other side says,

“…and it shall be given unto you.  Good measure.  Pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom. (Luke 6:38)

It’s not heads OR tails.  It’s heads AND tails.  Flip often!

Happy New Year y’all!

BE love…. and love will follow.

Rayel

Rayel is the founder and Executive Director of Rayelity Check Ministries, a faith based, non-profit organization dedicated to offering children and adults in crisis, assistance and tools for effective living (www.MySpace.com/RayelityCheck  and www.RayelityCheck.org ).