Through the gate

Dear friends,

I have to share my joy with you today, even though it is immeasurable and unspeakable.

If you read my testimony, you may consider me a poor and broken woman who’s life got totally destroyed.
And that’s true in a way.
The enemy did destroy my entire life – the life I had, my life the way it was did he destroy.

But that’s when JESUS came into my life and HE is a CREATOR!

And HE made something out of it that I could have never, ever created.
I could have never, ever thought of it and without this dire calamity, I would have never “landed” where I am today.

Where I am today spiritually is beyond anything I could have imagined or even longed for, because I had no idea that a redeemed life even existed.

If you are a believer and saved and born again, you will completely understand what I am talking about.

If you don’t know THE LORD, you will most likely either think I am a lunatic or you will think I am arrogant and you know just as much as I do what PEACE truly means.

But when I speak of my career to explain what I mean by “unspeakable joy”, when I tell you what JESUS made of the attempts of the enemy to destroy me, you will understand no matter if you are a believer or not:

I used to be a lawyer, a therapist and had my own business, plus did I have a fairly happy marriage when the warlock who almost killed me and I crossed paths…

Everything I did and everything I had went down the drain. I went through an extremely dark phase and I also went many places, I left my home country and traveled around… looking for help, for my home, my place in this world…
My career was as dead as my spirit, I was desperate and hopeless and just floating around the world without orientation or any clue…

And what I found is JESUS CHRIST, is salvation, REDEMPTION, a home INSIDE of me no matter where I live, but the career I found is so amazing and I am not even going to work nowadays, I am going to worship, going into the world to share the Good News, going to fulfill my GOD given purpose and I even get payed for it, GOD put me in surroundings where I can even use my knowledge of violence and of perpetrators and of abuse to HIS glory! I have the honor to be allowed to help people every day, in a way I can only help them BECAUSE OF what I myself have been through!

I work with prisoners and help them overcome the obstacles to starting a new life – even though I am not allowed to proactively share my faith with them (and I don’t do it unless they ask me), it is still evangelism to me what I do, because I don’t have to SPEAK to share the GOOD NEWS! I can help them, accept them and love them and be the person they want to become, be the kind of friend they want to look for once they are outside and if they want to know more, I am actually allowed to tell them – but I also fully trust in GOD and I am positive that THE HOLY SPIRIT is working with every single person I work with.
On the outside, I help them find accommodation during their last weeks in prison and on the day of their release, I get to meet them at the gate outside and I am the privileged and chosen person who takes them to their new home and ushers them into a new life, hopefully a better life, hopefully a life full of hope, a better future!
But in the spirit realm, what I truly do (verbally or unspoken, it doesn’t really matter to their spirit) is I connect them to JESUS and help them “through the gate”.

Matthew 7:13-14
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

I mean this is the most metaphorical job title I have ever seen.

Did you ever think that there is a job which is called “Through The Gate Worker”?

Well, there is.

That’s me!

I am a Through The Gate Worker.

It is my DUTY to help prisoners get through the gates of captivity safely and have a place to go to, to help them start free and new lives… to find the “narrow gate” to freedom and to being a new creation… can you imagine?

Me?
I sometimes have to pinch myself…

Not only is this the most satisfying and highest purpose I can possibly think of, I also get to learn so much, to understand more and more each day… I get healed by finding all that is in them in myself… in every conversation I have with them, I discover that I am no different from them, that I am exactly like them, that we all are exactly like them, not one bit better, that we are ALL sinners… I get to (learn how to) have (more) compassion every day and thus get to heal my own old wounds every single day by LOVING these men who did to someone what my offender did to me  – they violated someone and I used to be the victim of violence, but now, I have the privilege to help them overcome what they did. And from what I have been seeing so far, I can clearly say that they, too, are victims, perhaps even more so than they are offenders.

By doing that, I can help to heal this world from violence and minister reconciliation.
And GOD is with me all the time. Of course, HE is, but I have never had a job where I could feel HIS presence so intensely and so uninterruptedly, it is just SO fantastic.

This is such an INGENIOUS plot, only GOD can write a story like this, this is actually how you can recognize the hand of GOD – HE takes what the enemy has planned for our evil and turns it around for our good AND for the good of others – there is so much goodness in HIM, that the outcome MUST be good, there can only be one possible outcome for everything HE does, nothing else is even possible!

PRAISE THE LORD!

No need to mention that the entire prison is being bombarded with prayer every day – not only by me, but also by all the other Christians who work in the prison (and I am sure by their churches as well) – we are literally an army for THE LORD in there!

HALLELUJAH!

That’s all I can say.

Please be happy with me.

And always remember, the greatest thing about this is that I am NOT special, only compared to those of you who don’t know HIM.
None of this is due to anything I can do or anything I know!
ALL the glory belongs to GOD!
If you trust and believe in HIM, HE can and HE will do the same things for you!
The same things and even more, because HE is able to do exceedingly and abundantly far above what you could ever think or imagine, and HE is a rewarder of those who diligently seek HIM!

And please, if you have a story about THE LORD OUR GOD, how and when HE made you so happy and took you from the deepest hell into a great place, please share it here in the comments or even under “your testimonies”. Thank you!

I hope and pray that this will bless and inspire you. And that THE LORD will bless you richly in all areas of your life, that HE will shine HIS face upon you, that HE will keep you and bring you peace. In JESUS’ name I pray. Amen.