When The Spirit of God rests upon us...

'Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you' Matthew 5:11-12

Summer is always such a busy time! For some people summer translate as vacation. For others, like my husband and I, it only means more work. In 'real estate days' summer is a time for moving. Lots of people coming and going. Some selling, some renting.  It's also a time for things to happen, like A/C's not working while it's 98 degrees outside or secretaries choosing to leave during the busiest time of the year, the month and the week.

After many years as a business owner I've come to learn a few things. One of them is that employees come and employees go. There's no partnership and no vested interest for them other than a paycheck at the end of the week. Yet, my husband and I know no other way to treat our employees but as family. And isn't that funny, that when offenses come they usually hurt more when is from our family than from a stranger? When an outsider hurts us is easy to say 'that person this or that person that' then turn our face on the other direction and move on. But when family hurts us we usually say 'I can't believe she or he did that' That's how it feels when you love someone, when you trust them, and when you least expect it they stab you in the back.

Our secretary left by her own choosing. She also chose to stay with us for as long as she did even though according to herself she hated it. She didn't like her job but never said a word to us about it. Instead she vented to her husband and the net, as in blogging about her unhappiness at work then posting it for the world to see. Fair enough, is a free country. Except that if you are going to call yourself a Christian you shouldn't go around insulting people behind their backs then turning to smile at them as if you really care about them.

But that's not the point. Her betrayal, though hurtful, is truly not the point. And I am so incredibly grateful to God for the experience! So grateful I had to share what God taught me through it all :) Because He is amazing! And because God uses even the worst times in our lives to show His love for us and His presence in our lives!

Yesterday I experienced God's word in my life like I haven't felt it in a very long time! Not that I didn't before, but rather it is about how God revealed to me his word through the things that happened with our secretary and how He showed Himself strong and faithful on my behalf! I know He's always there, I know that even if sometimes I can't 'sense' Him, I know He is not ever far away. I know He knows exactly what is going on in my life, carefully listening to me and taking care of every little thing even when I think nothing is happening. God is ALWAYS at work!

When we hired this last employee we did so under the same terms and with the same fairness we have hired anyone else that has ever worked for us. Not a single item for discrimination was ever considered. Whether or not the government says no one should be discriminated against on the basis of sex or sexual orientation,  handicap, ethnicity, age, race, political affiliation or religion, none of those things ever matter to us. If you qualify for the job based on skills, knowledge and experience we could care less if you are black, white, gay, atheist or on a wheel chair. We'll hire you! Just know one thing, from the moment you start with us until the day you leave and beyond that, one thing is for sure and you can count on that, I am going to pray for you.

So the new girl came, and with her she brought an agenda. First week on the job she was sitting at her desk and my husband was discussing some things with her, when both of them notice a couple of mormons walking past the office. She immediately asked if he would ever hire a mormon. Not having ever taken in consideration discriminating on the basis of religion, his immediate answer was 'sure, why not?' Then she said, well, because I am one. And he pretty much said, 'so?' 

It was obvious to him she was fishing for information. Maybe testing the waters to see how we felt about other religions or about her. Though she tried to get him involved in religious conversation it was obvious to her that was going no where fast. From then on her agenda book was opened and the proselytizing began. Thank God my husband is also saved and knows how to give the proper response when necessary. 

1 Peter 3:15 says, 'But sanctify The Lord in your hearts and ALWAYS be ready to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that is  in you with meekness and fear.'  (emphasis added)

I wasn't in the office that day, so that night when my husband came home and shared that with me  I remember telling him that it was obvious there was another reason for us to hire her, more than to get help.  I remember thinking and telling him that God brought her to us for a purpose other than to help us. And I remember how upset my husband was when I told him that :) We were so busy at the time and had not had any help in more than three years and were more than ready to unload some of the burden. All he could think of at the moment was 'if she's not here to help us, then what are we going to do?'

There was a lot to be done, no doubt about that. But nothing that could not be handled. We tend to advocate and practice teamwork at our company, but in order for that to work everyone has to be a team player. Unfortunately for some people just wearing the uniform and sitting it out is enough to call it a game.

Time went by and the workload increase. More accounts were being opened and more help was necessary, except we could't hire another employee and the one we had decided to 'shove it', to quote her own words. Yet I didn't complain, at least not to her. 

My prayer increased, and so did my burden. Not in work, but in my spirit. Something was not just right and I could feel it. I kicked in my prayer gear on high and started seeking The Lord more about our business. I prayed fervently about what was going on, but especially about our helper. It just didn't feel right and I felt guilty about that. I felt guilty feeling upset with her all the time. I hated that feeling. It just didn't feel good being around her and sensing a struggle within me, an oppression. I felt like my spirit was hurting and I could not figure out why I felt so much ugliness emanating from her even when she didn't speak a word. But it was there, and I could feel it as tangible and palpable as if it had flesh indeed.

I would turn on my radio and listen to gospel music. I would let it play when the pastors were preaching in the morning. It was comforting and refreshing to me to hear the Word of God through the day. And it lifted me up.

By years end I started having dreams, revealing dreams. And they all involved our secretary and they all took place at the office. They were ugly, frustrating dreams that made me wake up with anxiety and stress. I could see things happening and know that she was responsible. In each dream I could hear myself asking her 'why? why are you doing this to us?'

One day I got to work and just as I was ready to tell her that I had been having dreams involving her, like every time I would try to open my mouth, I could almost hear The Lord stopping me. I could hear Him say 'No', don't tell her. And I would walk away. 

I was upset, I could't understand the dreams and I hated the spirit of apathy I felt towards her. It was an ugly feeling and I prayed so much to God to please forgive me for feeling that way and help me get rid of that feeling and to help me love her and have compassion for her. I prayed for her and her salvation. That The Lord would reveal Himself to her and show Himself mighty before her. And I prayed that if she was to remain working for us to please give us the wisdom to be the people we were supposed to be with her and for her, but that if  she was to leave, then He would have to be the one to remove her Himself. If I would have fired her then it not would have been God's will, because I would have fired her based on my feelings and observations of her work, or lack thereof. But if God removed her then it was meant to be and He would be the one in control. All things must happen according to His will!

The year ended and a new one started and the dreams continued. Then one day in April, a Sunday, I woke up and told my husband about a dream I had the night before. In it I was walking down the hall from my office to the front lobby, and there, sitting in her usual place, was our secretary. The phone, the computer, the miscellaneous that always were at her desk were all there, in the same place, only they were suspended in the air. The desk had been taken from her. And as I once again asked her, 'why are you doing this to us?', she began to cry.

The next day when I got to work my husband entered my office with our secretary. And then he said something I was almost expecting. He said, 'she's leaving us, her last day will be May 8th.' I looked at her, nodded, told her we were sorry to hear that then wished her well. She then started bawling her eyes out to which I said, 'you know what? no need to cry, God knows the plans He has for you, that they are good plans, not of evil nor to hurt you, but to give you a hope and a future.'  Of course, that's from Jeremiah 29:11 ;)

When she left my office my husband shut the door, got really close to me and whispered with eyes wide opened, 'your dreams! you told me about them! and this is the answer to your prayer isn't it!' I smiled with great satisfaction and nodded once again, one because he was right, and two because God was in control :) And that, knowing He is in control and acted according to His will, made me feel good, no, it made me feel great!

It hasn't been easy since she left, not that she was indispensable or reliable, but because of the monumental mess she left behind. When she posted on her blog about working for us she said that 'the job is sucking life out of her and not a moment too soon she took that job and shoved it' And shoved she did. Countless documents that were never filed I now find myself working on Saturdays and Sundays to take care of them, information that was never updated on the computer, bills that were never paid because she made sure I never saw them and the list goes on and on. I found her blog, and read how proudly she posted silly comments and drawings she worked on during business hours, then referring to them as the things she was doing while I stood at the other side of her desk talking to her. Her emails showed a side of her I really was hoping wasn't true. She bashed us and insulted us and called us names and made fun of us and what we did and how we did it every single chance she had,  and then at the end of the week happily took our check to the bank and cashed it. And she did it all with a huge smile on her face and while trying to talk to me about God, honesty and integrity! And she always had plenty to say about that. BUT,

'A double minded man is unstable in all his ways!' James 1:8 (emphasis added)

And how has all this been a blessing and a great experience? Why am I so happy to share? Because we know that persecutions will come to those who follow Jesus. Because He made sure we knew that for His name we will suffer persecution. He made sure we knew that when men reviled us and used us and abused us it wasn't really us they were after, but Him. And how does that tie to this experience? One little thing that would have never crossed my mind until I read one of her emails...Gospel music!

Whew! Ok...if you've made it this far...first of all you are a trooper! ;) and second, you must have seen the part where I talked about finding comfort through the day by listening to music and hearing the Word of God.

See, this person is a mormon, and her idea of God and worship is definitely not what born again Christians have come to know and practice. Born again Christians are born of the spirit! And that birth brings about a revelation of God and of His Spirit that people in the world can not begin to imagine, let alone understand.

One day I was listening to The Brooklyn Tabernacle's rendition of 'How Great Thou Art'. Apparently it played loud enough to be heard in the front lobby. Girl wasted no time getting to her email and letting her husband know that in less than thirty minutes she had heard that song and that, among many other ugly things she said, it was 'less than reverent!

Now, I read plenty of her emails, enough to know how she truly felt about us and our business, and yes, I admit I was offended by some of them. But NOTHING she said hurt me as much as reading what she said about this song. Her 'less than reverent' comment left me speech less. 

NOTHING else she said, and she said plenty, moved me to tears the way this did. That one email about that song and how she couldn't stand it and what she thought of it, THAT hurt me deeply and made me cry. Why? Because is no longer about me but about God! And with that she took things to a whole other personal level! And all of a sudden it just made sense, why one day when I told her that those who are born again are indwelled by the Spirit of God, she laughed at me.

I prayed and asked God why, why would she say something like that? How could she talk so much about God, and The Bible and all kinds of religiously related things, and YET hate the words of that song and what they represent and mean! Religion without God is  nothing  more than an empty ritual, void of significance and sacrifice.

'LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD'!

 Psalm 150:6

I played worship music and she was offended by it, and that told me all I needed to know about her! And all of a sudden, all her insults, all her mockery, all her shoving just didn't matter anymore! Because God helped me to see and understand that it had nothing to do with me or us or the business.

When the Spirit of Lord rests upon us no other spirit can tolerate it! 

GREATER is He that is in me than he that is in the world!   (emphasis added)

                                                                      1 John 4:4

Thus the oppression I felt! The presence, the attacks! Every time she proselytized to me I answered her with the Word of God and she hated it! She would say something and I would answer her with scriptures and she would bite her bottom lip and walk away. I could tell she was upset. It was a no win situation for her. She tried to show me her ways but I pointed to His way! She quotes Thomas S. Monson, I quote Jesus. My spirit is comforted with gospel music, her spirit struggles within her when she hears it.  And thus the spiritual struggle began.

God made it clear to me in a matter of seconds, that it had nothing to do with me or us, and everything to do with Him! And in that short period of time between the time I felt my heart breaking and the time God revealed this to me, in those few minutes, I understood why

* the servant of The Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, able to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those who oppose themselves (2nd Timothy 2:24-25)

* if we are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are we, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon us; on their part it is evil spoken of but on our part He is glorified! (1 Peter 4:14)

* God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble

* this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully (1 Peter 2:19

* no weapon formed against us shall prosper! Isaiah 54:17

And thus peace returned to my soul :-D

After that wonderful and comforting time I spent with The Lord at the office, I literally skipped my way to the car.  Hearing God confirm to me that HIS Spirit rests upon me was enough to make me jump with excitement and exceeding joy! The kind that someone who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ is not able to understand!

'Rejoice in The Lord always! and again I say REJOICE! 

Philippians 4:4

She moved to the midwest hoping to find peace, happiness and a job. I remain in the East Coast peaceful and happy, working and praying ;) 

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The Spirit of The Lord is available at any time, and ready to take up residence in the heart of any individual who is ready to welcome Him into his or her life!

If you are not sure of your eternity, if you don't know where you are going when you die or what happens to our souls when our hearts no longer beat, then put your faith in Jesus, who made a way for you and for me to make sure that when we die we would not be lost forever! Trust Jesus with your salvation!

Ask Him to forgive you for your sins and invite Him into your heart! That His Spirit may also rest upon you! :)