 My mom~Maureen Cassidy Munroe~6/11/43-4/15/24 "Come and see the incredible things God has done. It will take your breath away! He multiplies miracles for his people!" Psalm 66:5 All throughout the day I was sensing the spirit of death. This got me wondering if this spirit was going to manifest with someone in my life. Later that day, my mom called me from Florida and gave me the horrific news that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I sought the Lord about this, He told me that He was going to use Mom’s illness for good in my family, and boy did He ever! God also told me that the spirit of death was released through a curse, so He sent me to Florida to break it. He specifically pointed out to me that my trip to warm, sunny Florida was not a vacation, but a mission trip. Mom was not going to leave this Earth when the devil said so! She would leave at God’s appointed time and His peace will be with her and all around her. I went off on my mission to visit my mom, whom I thought was saved, but later learned she was not. While on my visit, Mom and I spent time each evening reading the Word of God and praying together. What a wonderful gift from my Lord! For most of my life Mom did not speak of Jesus, nor did she like me to talk about Him. It had only been a few years that Mom was open to letting me pray with her on our regular phone calls. While on this “mission trip” my prayer partner and I prayed together periodically over the phone for Mom. We even prayed with Mom, including prayer that God would heal her. On the last evening of my visit, God gave me a dream in which He revealed that the curse of death had been broken off Mom. Alleluia! I believe that if this hadn’t been done, Mom’s life would’ve ended sooner than it did. Another wonderful thing that happened while at Mom’s was to see my sister and brother who had been estranged from Mom for decades, return and be reconciled. I stood in awe when I saw my sister give Mom a hug goodbye before leaving to go to her home 15 minutes away. I viewed this as a miracle because my sister voiced much disdain toward Mom as long as I could remember. I also came to see that Mom had released forgiveness to my siblings for being absent from her life and for being bitter and resentful toward her for so many years. My trip came to an end and I said my goodbyes to Mom, not knowing if I would see her again. But I was to travel to see her on 2 more occasions where God showed Himself in mighty and glorious ways! My second trip to see Mom was unexpected. I was in Florida, on the opposite coast of Mom’s home, to see my son graduate from college, when I learned that Mom’s cancer had returned. The cancer had now spread throughout her whole body and her doctor gave her 3 months to live. As I drove across the state to see Mom, God highlighted to me a verse in the book of James. “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick…and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”¹ I felt that God was telling me to anoint Mom with oil and ask Him to heal her, and to also talk to Mom about repenting of her sins to the Lord. The first night while sitting with Mom and one of my sisters, I asked Mom if I could pray over her and she agreed! I called my Christian niece, my sister’s daughter, on Facetime and to ask her to join us in prayer, and she did. I took my anointing oil and anointed Mom in various places on her body and then we laid our hands on her and prayed. Suddenly, my sister gasped because she discovered a large lump on the top of Mom’s head. This led me to place the oil on the lump, which caused Mom to flinch because it caused her pain. A half hour later, Mom declared excitedly, “My pain is gone! I’ve had a headache non-stop for a month and it’s gone!” The pain on the lump when touched was also gone. A few weeks later, Mom got results from a CT scan that revealed she had no brain cancer. Mom never did get another headache, and on my following trip, the lump on Mom’s head had disappeared and all that remained was a flat, round scab. That same evening after we prayed for Mom, I shared with her the importance of confessing our sins to God and she listened attentively. I later came to realize that Mom did do as I suggested, and this led to her salvation. Shortly after I returned home, I was sitting and praying alone, when I heard God say to me, “She’s ready.” Glory to God! God did what He said He was going to do. He said that He would use Mom’s illness to bring good to my family, and I’m here to testify to this fact and to tell all who will listen. After my second trip, I told God that if He wanted me to see Mom again, that He would have to provide the finances to do so. I had charged my last trip and would be paying my credit card off for months. I was grateful to God that I was able to see Mom twice and was not expecting to visit again any time soon. But within a matter of weeks, without solicitation, several different friends told me that they wanted to help by providing for me to visit Mom again. One couple paid for my flight and car rental and another friend paid for my hotel. My third and last trip to see Mom was paid in full, courtesy of my Daddy God, who moved on the hearts of my brother and sisters in Christ. During my third trip, I continued to disciple Mom as I had on my previous visits. This time felt different though, because I was not the only one sharing about God. Mom did too! She told me that she talked with Him every day, like friends would. She told me about a conversation that she had with Him. She told Him, “I am ready when You say it’s time.” This was a relief for me to hear because the one thing that was on my heart for this trip was to prepare her for her time to go, whenever that may be. I wanted her to be at peace about leaving us and to confirm to her that she was going to go straight to heaven. Not only did God tell me she was ready, but He also gave me a dream that revealed to me that she was saved. In the last part of the dream, I saw an angel take her by the hand and lead her from a hospital room to take her to heaven. While with Mom on this last visit, she told me that her neck and shoulder were sore, so I took my anointing oil, applied it to my hands and massaged these areas. Mom never told me that she had cancer in those areas; not until she received the CT scan results a few weeks later which revealed that the cancer in her shoulder and neck were gone! God once again manifested His love to Mom. Not long after, however, we learned that Mom now had bone cancer. This type of cancer is known to cause people excruciating pain, but the most tremendous sign of God’s love and mercy was that Mom felt little to no pain in the 3 years that she endured cancer, 3 rounds of chemotherapy treatment and 1 round of radiation. Mom was prescribed pain killers but never once used them. She occasionally took an aspirin if she was having a bad day. Every time Mom arrived for her treatments, the staff would ask her how much pain she was in and most times she would respond that she had none, and they would respond with disbelief. This could only have been possible by the grace of God! In addition to the miracles of healing, God did many other wonderful things during my final trip. I got the opportunity to share my testimony of meeting Jesus face to face with Mom and my 2 unsaved sisters. I also got to pray one-on-one with 1 sister for the very first time. As I prayed for God’s love to touch her, she began to weep, and afterwards confessed that she didn’t know why she was crying. I knew why, of course! God’s love was melting her heart. I also got to pray with my unsaved stepfather for the first time. When he voiced having severe pain in his knee, I offered to pray over it and ask Jesus to heal it and he replied with a yes. If I were counting, this just may have been miracle number 10 since Mom’s first diagnosis. Mom passed away 1 month after my last trip, 14 months past the doctor’s prediction. It was her time to go. I like to remember what God’s Word tells us regarding the number of our days. “In Your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”² I know that my family will be happily reunited with Mom in heaven, so I anxiously await that day. I have this confidence because God has shown me more than once that my entire family will be saved. One of my favorite visions from my Daddy God is of my family─all members of my family─dressed in white robes and holding hands in a circle, right before the Throne of God. This is the promise that God gave me to profess over my family members. “Now is the time of God's favor; now is the day of salvation.”³ I profess this promise over my unsaved father, who received a diagnosis of cancer 2 months before Mom’s passing. I have already begun “miracle mission” trips to visit Dad and my unsaved stepmother and have been grateful to witness God moving in their lives and using this awful disease of cancer for good in my family. I declare “My entire family will be saved!” Notes 1. James 5:14 2. Psalm 139:16 3. 2 Corinthians 6:2  Agnes Dei by Josefa Ayala, cc There is only 1 line in the Bible that states that Jesus is the Lion of Judah! This is surprising to me because of the number of times I hear this title of Jesus and the numerous paintings I see with this depiction. We learn of Jesus as the Lion of Judah in Revelation chapter 5: "Stop weeping; behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to able to open the scroll and its 7 seals."¹ It is very interesting to note that the title of Jesus the Lamb−the "slaughtered Lamb" is found throughout the entire Bible. In the book of Revelation, we see this title of Jesus 13 times from chapters 5 through 8 and a total of 29 times in the entire book.² In the Bible there is a large number of times Jesus is referred to as the Lamb and only 1 account of Jesus as a Lion. What does this tell the Bible-believing, Jesus-loving person? What does it tell me? As I spent time answering this question for myself, I came to the opinion that in God's Kingdom with its principles that are opposite of the world's principles, the lion is not the fierce, strong and overcoming one. It's the Lamb; the Lamb that lays its life down for others. In God's Kingdom the lamb is not weak and powerless. In chapter 17 we read "These will wage war against the Lamb and the Lamb will overcome them."³ I wonder why I hear Christians often say that Jesus is coming back as a lion. I never hear them say Jesus is coming back as a "slaughtered Lamb," a term found 3 times in chapter 5 alone, and yet the book of Revelation is a prophetic book about future events. Revelation chapter 6 says "Fall on us and hide from us the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!"⁴ This image of the Lamb carries with it a sense of strength, power and overcoming virtue; that which one typically attributes to an animal such as a lion. I feel that we Christians often choose to identify with the lion, the "king of the jungle" because its strength is the mightiest of all animals. I'd like to focus on a depiction of the lamb whose behavior is like that of the Christ. This lamb's strength is not in brute force, that which we see depicted in the image of a lion. The lion is powerful, dominating, loud when it roars, and strong in physical strength. It conquers by force and is able to devour prey with ease. The lamb is gentle, tame, non-aggressive and quiet. I believe the strength of Jesus the Lamb is found in humility, love and giving up its life for others. Going forward on my walk as a Christ-follower, I will choose to focus more on the Lamb and less on the Lion. My prayer is that God would help me to behave like Jesus, the Lamb. Notes
1. Revelation 5:5 2. These numbers may be off by 1 or 2. 3. Revelation 17:14 4. Revelation 6:16  While serving in ministry to people who have suffered immensely at the hands of others, I've come to see a pattern in the lives of many. I've observed that they are not clean because deep inside they see themselves as garbage. This belief causes them to dress themselves with clothing that one might find in the garbage can. They aren't bothered in the least when their clothing has holes, wrinkles or stains. Their personal space, such as their bedroom, apartment or vehicle typically looks like a giant garbage bin. Furniture may be broken, sofas may have giant tears and stains, and yet they don't see their surroundings as unpleasant or dissatisfactory. They may appear unkempt and possess odors because they don't enjoy grooming themselves, washing their clothing or cleaning their surroundings. It all has to do with how they see themselves. They came to believe a lie that began in their childhood years because they were treated as having little, to no value. This belief about themselves may have been birthed when they were sexually abused by their grandfather or neglected by their mother. Perhaps they were called names like "loser" and "idiot" by their father or maybe they were brought up in the foster care system. It became easy to agree with the lie that the devil fed them. "You are trash...You are a filthy rag...You are good for nothing...You shouldn't even have been born." This inward identity manifests outwardly. While ministering to these valuable ones, I have been filled with the desire to help them to see themselves and their daily habits differently, knowing that in practical terms, it would only help them to better succeed in this life. I have witnessed repeatedly how their appearance, unclean and disorganized behaviors have impacted every area of their lives in a negative way, including how people are repelled by them. I have sought God's Word to learn what He says about being clean vs. unclean, and desired to take what I learned and share it with the ones whom I serve in ministry. The word clean is found 318 times in the Bible and it is evident that being clean was important to God. The words "clean" and "unclean" are used synonymously with holy and unholy. As I continued my study, I determined that "clean" is a godly term and "unclean" is an ungodly term. The word unclean in the Bible is always referred to in a negative way. In the Old Testament, being unclean in the natural was undesirable to God, such as is stated in the book of Deuteronomy. "If there is among you any man who is unclean...then he must go outside the camp...he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp."¹ In the New Testament, the word unclean is frequently referred to as a wicked spirit, in which we observe that Jesus and the disciples cast out unclean spirits from people. We see an example of this in Luke chapter 4, where it states, "In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon...For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out."² Unclean people and places most often have a bad odor. I wondered what God thought about this. Throughout the Bible, pleasant smells are desirable and unpleasant smells or odors are undesirable. In the book of Second Corinthians, Paul states, "But thanks be to God, who...through us spreads and makes evident everywhere the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which ascends] to God, [discernible both] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the latter one an aroma from death to death [a fatal, offensive odor], but to the other an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]."³ In this verse we see fragrances as good and odors as bad. Fragrances such as a garden filled with flowers, perfume, or fresh cut grass are considered pleasant. In the book of Song of Solomon, we have the analogy of the love of Bridegroom Jesus for the Church, His Bride. In this book, both the bride and the groom speak of one another with descriptions of pleasant fragrances. She says to him, "Your oils have a pleasing fragrance,"⁴ and speaks these words about him, "My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms."⁵ You also find these lovers spending time in a garden where there is beauty and fragrant bouquets of flowers and freshly grown spices, such as cinnamon and myrrh. Odors are undesirable, such as the odor of dead fish on a shore, a dead body, dirty diapers or sweaty armpits. In the book of Luke, we read about the undesirable circumstance of the prodigal son who was living a life that was worse than the pigs.6 Pig pens are dirty and stinky because they are filled with old, rotten, and dead food−that of dead animals and vegetation; food that people threw away. Jesus used this analogy to show us that this circumstance was not what God the Father wants for His children. We see what God does desire in the following verse, "But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let’s eat and celebrate."⁷ The Father chose to give his son fresh meat! Not old, rotten meat. He desired to dress his son with things that were valuable, so to show him how much He valued him. I believe that it is God's will that His children have a clean and tidy appearance and carry a pleasant fragrance so that we would attract others to His Kingdom family. It is the devil's will that we repel others and isolate ourselves because then God can’t use us to reach others with the Gospel. Let me give you a depiction to help explain my point. You may be someone who is searching the housing market for a new home. One day your realtor brings you to a house that is exquisite in its architecture and design, and surrounded by rolling green hills and mature flower gardens, but then you walk in the door and your senses are violently assaulted by a putrid smell. You take a few steps and see dog feces all over the floor and there is garbage strewn about the living room. As you enter the kitchen, you see spills on the floor and mouse droppings on the counter. I would guess that you would do a quick about-face and run for the door. This house would be of little value and undesirable to buyers, not because of its structure and design, but because of the way that it was cared for or treated, or lack-thereof. If you, however, walked in through the door of the same house and smelled a fresh-baked apple pie, and saw shiny, clean floors and freshly painted walls, you would be drawn to explore more of the home. Throughout the Bible, we see stories of how God takes people who lack value in the eyes of culture and people who are filthy in the spiritual sense (because of their sin), and He washes away their dirt and then dresses them and treats them like royalty. In Ezekiel 16 we read about the sinful Israelite people and what God desired to do to them. "So I spread My garment over you and covered your nakedness...“Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you, and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with colorfully woven cloth and put sandals of fine leather on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with jewelry, put bracelets on your wrists, and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk, and colorfully woven cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Then your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord God."⁸ The story of Esther also portrays God's heart toward His children, including how He loves to transform us from "rags to riches." In the book of Esther, we see the story of a Jewish orphan girl, whose status was of little consequence. However, we see God orchestrate things behind the scenes and she ends up in the palace of the king. The first thing that she needed to do, was become prepared to meet the king in hopes that he would choose her as his wife. We read what the preparations entailed for the women in the king's harem in chapter 2, "For the days of their beauty treatment were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with balsam oil and the cosmetics for women."9 Esther was transformed because of the excellent care that was given her and she was so beautiful and desirable, that the king chose her as his wife. He was drawn to her and not repelled by her. God took Esther, an inconsequential orphan girl, and made her into a queen; a woman of dignity and prominence in her nation. This is God's desire for every one of His children that comes into His family. When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are no longer orphans, but adopted into His royal family. Psalm 27:10 says, "Even though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me." The problem that I see often is that many of those who come into God's family do not realize that they are believing lies about their identity and self-worth. After 27 years of being a Christ-follower, I heard a message at a conference about sonship and I thought to myself, "Yeah, yeah, I know this already." I learned that day that it was only head knowledge. God revealed to me that deep inside my heart, I felt that I had no value and this was because I was abused and neglected as a child. That day God set me free from a lie that I had believed my whole life up to that point−that I was unwanted and had no value on this earth. I walked away from the conference with a spring in my step and my head held higher than when I walked in...sort of like a queen. The person with the mentality of an orphan hangs out in the mud with the pigs, eating the rotten, stinky food that the pigs eat. The person with the mentality of an adopted son or daughter eats at the Father's table and has more than enough to eat. They are fed foods that are tasty and have a pleasing fragrance such as cake, steak, freshly grown fruits, and even bacon! It is my desire to help others to see their true spiritual identity as adopted sons and daughters of the Most High God. It is the reason why I am writing this piece. Please share it with others whom you think will benefit from it. My Prayer For You Lord, I pray that those who read this will seek You and ask You what they really think of themselves, deep inside their hearts. I pray that if they are believing a lie, like I had, that You will reveal the truth to them. I pray that they would come to see themselves the way that You see them, and not their earthly fathers and mothers who may have been unable to love them the way that You intended. Please take from them the spirit of an orphan and give to them the spirit of an adopted son or daughter; a spirit that cries out, "Abba (Daddy)."¹º "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also." Romans 8:14-17 Footnotes: 1. Deuteronomy 23:10-11 2. Luke 4:33, 36 3. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16AMP 4. Song of Solomon 1:3 5. Song of Solomon 1:14 6. Luke 15:15-16 7. Luke 15:22 8. Ezekiel 16:18-14 9. Esther 2:12 10. Romans 8:15 *Note: the word Abba is an intimate, endearing term for Father, such as the word Daddy. * All scripture is from the New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted. Are You Ready to Meet Jesus? |
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