Manifestations (eBook)

Elaine Raglin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-9014-3 (ISBN)

Infos

The book is a memoir, but categorized as fiction based on the author's refusal to reveal true character names for real life characters and events taking place in the narrative. The main intention of the story is to educate the author's children on the history of their ancestry back in Mississippi, how she grew up, and to entertain other readers, who might already know the story and those who do not. The children need to know that they are experiencing a life of which even their parents are not aware. Yet, the parents paved the way for them to have the luxuries that they now enjoy. The author shares various experiences that she had from birth to retirement that were challenging, yet she was able to overcome the negative ones, despite the odds. The author attributes her success to dogged determination and faith in God. The author did not realize that in certain points along her journey that God was carrying her and molding her into the vessel that he wanted her to be. She is now more in tune to listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The author realizes that there is still room for growth and the need for nourishment. As the author develops, she sees and appreciates her God-given talents and gifts. She seeks avenues to share them in unselfish ways. After having closed doors on past experiences, the author looks forward to doors that may be opened where she might express her gifts and talents, contributing to the advancement of God's Kingdom here on earth. The writer now envisions herself as a trailblazer, who initiates pathways where others might tread and contribute to betterment of society.

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Many experiences occurred in my life where I was either too immature or unknowledgeable about why and how they happened to me. I now realize that I am not to see myself as just another person having little or no significance in the larger scheme of things. The fact that I exist is huge. Many times, situations took place in my earlier life that were designed to kill me. Some of those situations were spiritual. Others were physical. Some of the major ones were not even about me. Some of the situations were about power play. And I just happened to be connected to the players in the game. But through it all, I survived. I have come to realize that the inhabitants of this great planet are all interrelated in some way. I do not have the capacity to explain how what I do affects others connected to me. But I do realize that I need to be careful to keep myself clear of dangerous and unchartered waters as much as I possibly can. Yes, I have blindsided in several instances. Although I allowed myself to become tempted and engaged, I was already aware that what I was being drawn into was either unethical or immoral. I now attribute my behavior in those instances to being the result of having developed a bitterness based on unresolved anger and my refusal to forgive myself and others. Hopefully, my book will effectively help someone to see that life is not black and white. There is so much more in the grey area to contend with and figure out.

Textauszug

Honor Your Mother
and Your Father

Like most others, I was born not having any idea of my purpose. Nor had I spent a lot of time thinking about my purpose until I became much older. I say that I was older because most of us do not know our purpose because our parents, unlike the parents of Samson, whose parents told him that he was a Nazarite, nor like Jesus, whose parents knew that He was to be the Savior of the World and John the Baptist, whose parents knew that He was the forerunner of Jesus, the Christ, our parents had not told us that we had a divine purpose. Those parents who do not know are most likely preoccupied with their own situations and circumstances and childbirth was just another of those situations and circumstances blended into their current situations.

After reading the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible years later in life, it was revealed to me that all mankind is assigned a divine purpose when God decides to make Himself a man. That divine purpose is for man to act like God on this Earth, subduing the Earth and exercising dominion and exercising the Will of God on Earth. I now understand that we are to make the Earth a Garden of Eden. I have come to know that we are to put our God-given bodies, spirit, gifts and talents together and make good things happen in this earth. These good things range from natural to supernatural. The natural would incorporate all physical things and the supernatural all spiritual things. God being spirit, does not need a body. Therefore, when man communicates with God, he must communicate on a spiritual level.

I understand that God gave man dominion over the earth after Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden, God’s Paradise. Adam being given everything in Paradise, did not appreciate what God had done for him. Adam disobeyed God and was now to work in the earth and duplicate the Paradise that he had been evicted from.

Adam’s DNA, tarnished by the sin that he committed in the garden is now passed on to his offspring, who must work in the earth. Adam’s offspring, tarnished by the original sin committed in the Garden of Eden have the responsibility to assist in God’s Divine Plan as witnesses. Each offspring has his own assignment from God, the Father and man must be obedient to God’s instruction and live or face spiritual death and oftentimes physical death as the result of being disobedient. Bible Study has taught me that there is even a second death, the one that one should avoid, “by any means necessary.” This is the death that one experiences when his name is not in the ‘Lamb’s Book of Life, ’according to John in the Biblical Book, ‘The Revelation’.

I had to decide what I was willing to do to accomplish getting this novel published. I would fly high. I could not say it any better than the famous Pastor Dale Bronner, “Whenever you fly high, some crows will jump on your back. The eagle just flies higher until the crows cannot tolerate his altitude. The crow’s oxygen gets cut off. The crows then must jump off the eagle’s back to survive.”

Remember the words of the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 40, verse 31 “They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength.”, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV). This waiting is giving me confidence that I need to soar to a higher level. Biblical teaching has it that God will give you a Word, test you on that Word. You cannot fail the test if you want to go to another level. It is better said that God is bringing you to another level. While we are being tested, we abide under His wings.

One revelation that I have had is that my life has not changed merely by the passage of time. Rather, my life has been changed by decisions, which have changed my conduct, which changed my character, which obviously has changed my destiny. I am more inclined to choose life nowadays.

One of the Seven Principles of the Nguzo Saba, Swahili, is Kuumba (Creativity): to do all that we can in the way that we can in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. This Principle of Kuumba refers to man’s Godly purpose. Unfortunately, I have come to observe that man, without consulting his Spiritual Father, acts irrationally many times and does more harm than good in the Earth.

As I build my knowledge base, I have also come to know that the Principle of Kuumba is not restricted to the physical creation, but to the relationships of mankind as well. We are to be peacemakers, restoring good will among our brothers and sisters. We are to do good deeds toward our brethren and empower them to come up to the level where they can contribute to kingdom building.

We know that God is love and that as man has disobeyed many times over the years, God repeatedly extends his mercy toward man and allows him to continue to reside in the place that he was ordered to operate in, this Earth.

There are those who I have restrained displays of affection for because of fear that they would not return the love that I had for them. And as I mature, becoming more Christ-like, I am finding that I do them and myself harm because withholding love causes emotional strain and that emotional strain over time leads to depression. Then that depression can mutate and produce bitterness, which is something that nobody wants to experience. Bitterness is so damaging to the soul of man that man might never overcome the results of bitterness. Bitterness dislodges one’s ability to trust.

While I do not wish to cast pearls on swine, I now realize that it is worth the risk of loving those hard to love as sometimes I can win them over to Christ. Winning souls to Christ is one of the most significant things that a believer can do. Of course, I realize that I would have to commit to giving the unbeliever this service because the hard to love person is not readily open to my attempts. I wonder if I have this same effect on others who try to love me, and I reject them.

My conscious tells me that there is a strong connection between love and need. So, I must learn to learn to love in different ways. And sometimes love must be restrained or take on another hue than that of passion, which is red. Sometimes love finds itself needing to have the hue of blue. Sometimes those needing love cannot hear you because ‘your love hue’ is not lined up with their needs. One can easier share sacrificial love if she is willing to change her hue of love. I have come to know as well, that love is multifaceted, like the colors in a prism. There might be different hues of love intermingled simultaneously.

I have learned that there is a reward for promoting Jesus. One of the ways that we can get the reward is to model walking like Jesus walked on the Earth. We can go about doing good for one another, showing sacrificial love. This sacrificial love, known as Agape Love, elevates one to a higher level than that of physical passion. Agape Love involves physical passion and sacrificial acts to help others. I must believe and trust that Jesus is not going to be nor command that I love unless it is the thing to do. It is the Law. Jesus said, “Love ye one another.” John 13:34 NKJV.

Another way that we can model what our purpose is would be to carry out the command of the Resurrected Christ in the Great Commission, (Matthew 28:18-20 KJV), to go into all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do all things that He has commanded the believer to do. Believers share their testimony, which can become wings for others to become believers like themselves.

This works because, every living thing reproduces its own kind. For example, sheep reproduces sheep. Believers then reproduce believers. Disciples create disciples. Jesus was talking to the 11 disciples when he mandated the Great Commission.

I think that now the reader and I are on the same page about purpose. Jesus knows our purpose. Everything from Alpha to Omega is about Jesus. When the Universe and everything in it was created, it was about Jesus. When the Battle of Armageddon is fought, it is about Jesus. He gives me the victory. Therefore, I must pattern my life like unto that of Jesus. I am trying this spiritual journey and I really like its benefits: joy and peace among various others. I do not focus on the natural as much, now that I know that the supernatural is more important. God is not natural. God is Spirit. God is eternal and is my source, which is what I want to have abundant life now and eternal life when I leave this Earth.

I see my life purpose being slow to manifest, like that of Abram. Abram lived at his father’s house until he was 75. Abram saw no need to leave his father’s house until God called him out and changed his name to Abraham. God changed his name so that He could see himself no longer the codependent Abram, but rather Abraham, who God wanted him to grow into. In Hebrew Names the meaning of the name Abraham is Father of a great multitude. Whereas Abram just means father. There’s a big difference between the two names. When God changes your name, I believe that something big is about to happen.

I did not have a life as good as Abram, though. I had to leave my home at the age of 18. I was blessed to have some place to go, or I would have been a casualty. I do not believe that I would have survived. I did not have transportation; no job and I was a young female. I chose to go off to college as I was in a pre-college program already. By the time I went to college, my bread winner had been deceased at least...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.8.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-9014-8 / 1098390148
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-9014-3 / 9781098390143