Surprising Your Audience

After posting The Time God Disagreed With My Pastor, I got to thinking about the other prophecy that was given to me that I know for a fact was straight from God.

When I was 11, in an evening church service, one of the elders asked me to stand up, and he gave me this

word:

“God says you are like a tree that has been planted by a great river. A storm, as powerful as a hurricane, will come and break you, and you will seem scattered, crushed, lifeless, splintered, devastated. The people will stand around you and say, ” The tree is dead. It could not survive the storm.” But I want you to know that your roots go very deep, and you are not at all dead, but will grow straight and tall, more beautiful and stronger than before. And those same people will marvel that you are alive, and not dead.”

I know this word was real because a year later, someone began to sexually abuse me, which lasted for years. In my desperation, I went to a pastor for help, who informed me that I had a demon of Jezebel, which I had inherited from my father, and the man who had done this to me had just given in to temptation, but that it was basically my fault….Horrible words to tell a young girl who is going through something like this. Also, not at all what the Bible says….Within a decade, my faith in mankind was all but ruined, and I found myself unable to trust any one..One person after another let me down, whether intentionally or not. There were times in my life that literally, I couldn’t trust another human being on earth. But I never quit trusting in God. He was my root.

I can’t imagine that had anyone met me at any given point from the ages of 12 to 30, that I would have looked like a healthy, thriving Christian human being. I’m sure I have a few people in my life now that would probably discount me as a real Christian.

I’ve been broken, scattered, crushed, devastated. But now, as I look back at my life, I see how God was, at that time in the evening service as a little girl, giving me hope that through all of this scarred life, I would still become straight and tall, beautiful to Him again. And those same people who thought that they knew I was dead would see me alive again…. and marvel…

There is no life any of us have led that can separate us from the love of God. Mine should be absolute proof of that.

— Bird