Our Redeemer’s Legacy – Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving, 2021
Dear Friends,
We are just around the corner from Thanksgiving, and I wanted to write a special “Love Letter” from my heart to YOUR heart in this season of thankfulness. I am so grateful and thankful first for my Creator and Savior who has given me life and a life I get to share with you. I am thankful for each one that allows me to speak and share into their lives and by God’s grace deposit some of His glorious nuggets of truth and promises.
As sons and daughters of our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we have so many extraordinary gifts, legacies, and birthrights given to us. He holds nothing back and I want to remind us all of one in particular legacy that we can dwell in and abide in moment by moment from our Redeemer. This legacy from our Redeemer is something I believe we all need especially with our nation so divided and scattered on so many issues.
As I counsel and hear people’s hearts, this is something I hear repeatedly: What will happen to us, our nation, and our families because of all the divisiveness, the deception, and just plain denial of God’s existence? I will share with YOU what I share with them. My prayer is that you will be able to chew on it, digest it as a sweet treat, not just store it in the attic of your minds. Rather truly, sit in it, absorbing our Redeemer’s legacy to you and to me.
Our Redeemer’s legacy is called the PEACE OF CHRIST, which is given by Christ, produced, and perpetuated by His Spirit. Did you get that? Perpetuated by His Spirit! This my friends is essential! Please take hold of this marvelous revelation. Perpetuated means continued, propagated, and reproduced over and over and in every situation and circumstance.
I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous! (John 14:27 TPT)
This peace is secured in His blood as our Mediator, and He has the right to dispense it as the result of His reconciliation and atonement for YOU and for me. Our Redeemer did not just intend to have His peace just sit in our hearts BUT His heart intention and purpose for this peace is to “rule” in our hearts—to govern our emotions, our feelings, renewing our minds with His supreme command. It’s to have His peace that will be the umpire of our minds.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
since as members of one body you were called to peace. (Colossians 3:13 NIV)
The Greek word for rule means “to do the work of an umpire or referee.” A pastor once said it this way: “Think of a baseball game and as you slide into home base, you come up short. You know it, your team knows it, and the shouts from the crowd in the stands are calling you out. But the umpire shouts, SAFE! Statements like he’s blind, wasn’t he paying attention, and doesn’t he need glasses can be heard throughout the stands.
No, not at all. He made the call, not based on our performance, which obviously failed, but based on Christ Jesus’ grace and mercy. When it comes to our own behavior before God, many of us don’t deserve to be on His winning team. However, this is where our inheritance and legacy come from our Redeemer. In our place, He played the perfect game for us and not one error can call us “out.” He suffered and took our punishment to atone for our sins so that we can have life, peace, and the resurrected power on this side of eternity as well as in the life to come. At the same time as umpire, His peace umpires our minds, and His peace wants to referee our conscience so that we can remain in a perfect place of rest, trust, and harmony.
The Lord will give strength to His people.
The Lord will bless His people with peace (Psalm 29:11 NIV)
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you. (Isaiah 26:3 NIV)
Additionally, steadfast in the Hebrew means imagination which forms and frames up our imagination and thus becomes our reality. Dearest friends, our imagination must be set apart for God and continually be based on His character, His promise, and His truth NO matter what we see all around us. Our imaginations can run wild into every conceivable notion and dark alley of fear, worry, and ultimate destruction of doom. But if we allow our imaginations to be made holy as He is holy, this transformation will give us that blessed assurance that we can confidently trust in Him.
Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with you; they confidently trust in you. (Isaiah 26:3 – TPT)
When Jesus left this earth, He promised His disciples a peace unlike any other . . . “I leave the gift of peace with you – my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts – instead, be courageous! (John 14:27 TPT)
So, in the midst of turmoil, uncertainty, and life’s pressures and stresses, our Redeemer’s legacy is His overruling peace, His insurmountable peace, and His personal peace like no other. He knew we would be in a world filled with conditions of ambiguities and uncertainties, but He did not leave us stranded, unequipped, and uninformed. Rather, He left us with His own Peace SO THAT our hearts would not be troubled or be fearful no matter what is happening in this world. Remember: Take heart for our Redeemer has overcome the world.
I would say this is pretty good news for us, so we can confidently give thanks and enjoy this season of Thanksgiving. Why? Because our birthright is His Peace—His wonderful Peace that reigns supremely in our midst.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)
So, my prayer for YOU dear ones, is that the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Him, and His perfect peace will replace all and any anxieties, worries, or fears. May your mind and heart be ruled by His peace, not of this world’s peace but the world of our Redeemer’s peace who lives in us and all around us.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry
YOU CAN DONATE NOW:
OR:
Send a check made out to “Freedom House Ministry” to Freedom House Ministry, c/o The Andersens, 652 THUNDERBIRD TRL, CAROL STREAM IL 60188-9262
With My Burning Heart of Love & Thankfulness,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry
Wrap Your Heart Tightly Around His Hope
September/October 2021
So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us,
knowing that God always keeps his promises!
Hebrews 10:23 (TPT)
I want to encourage and inspire YOU to wrap your heart tightly around the gift of “HOPE” in and during these times. To hold fast, to not lose your grip, to remain standing and holding in His love of promises to you and for this nation. Wrap your heart tightly around God’s Hope for it will come to YOU and to our nation.
Without a doubt we are under siege of so many things in and around us whether it’s the “woke” movement, whether it’s the mandated vaccinations, whether it’s wearing the masks mandate, or whether it’s the CRT in our schools as well as the pandemic, economic collapse, and rioting in many cities, and so many other areas of concerns.
All the areas of the radical left’s agenda are spreading like wildfire. And my friends, it is an agenda—be certain of that much. It’s the agenda of the “Enemy – Satan” who is desperately attempting to rule and reign in America.
If ever there was a time to hold fast, to not surrender nor give in, it would be this time. People of faith, rise-up and hold fast to YOUR faith and to the promises of our Sovereign King—Jesus Christ. America is a land of many covenants and promises and we have so many deep wells, springs, and mines of revival. Our land is situated and centered in the palm of our Father’s Hand and Heart: The Hand of Justice, the Heart of Love, and the Hand of Promises.
As one of the heroes of the faith recently said, “God is rolling up His sleeves and He is fiercely warring to restore what America was before the poison of “wokeness” entered her veins.”
So many have gone before us, so many have their shed blood in fighting for our nation throughout America’s history, so many freedom fighters that crossed an ocean to step onto a land of “HOPE,” a land of “Freedom to worship the only true Savior—Jesus Christ—and to live in a “Land of Justice.”
Seemingly, the radical left is trying to stifle, muffle, and suffocate all that was given, promised, and fought for by the many heroes who shaped a nation out of a wasteland. This is a nation that was truly established, governed, and commissioned in Him and through Him. This is not a “perfect nation” by any stretch of the word nor any “perfect people” but a people who believed, who held fast to the only true Gospel—the Bible. So, with a perfect Book that guided and instructed our forefathers, we the “People” came into existence in this land of hope, freedom, and liberty.
I pray that each one of us in the faith will hold fast, unswervingly to our faith and hope in Jesus Christ and move in the places of courage, of digging into the wells of our heritage by intercession, and by moving in the places of valor by unmasking our mouths. By speaking out, speaking up, and speaking into the truth of who Jesus Christ is today, tomorrow, and forever – for He never changes. He is saying to the Body of Believers, “Don’t lose hope, don’t loose confidence in His Spirit and don’t lose trust in God’s promises of the New Covenant here, now, and in the life to come.”
Our Enemy has NO chance to prevail IF the Body of Christ rises up, shakes off the dust, clears the fog of confusion, fear, and apathy, so that, we the people can remember where we came from, who we are as sons and daughters of the Most High God and remember His promises of hope, freedom, and liberty for all who call upon Him.
David was a giant of the faith, a hero of the faith and a man of faith. David’s sling was not the first choice of weapons. David’s first choice of weapons was an unmasked mouth and a mind of remembrance of what God did in the past—how He kept His promises. That was really the first weapon of attack—his mouth to speak out truth of promises and remembrances of all God’s deeds.
David answered, “You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops, whom you curse and mock. … The whole earth will know that there’s an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn’t save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God—he’s handing you to us on a platter!” 1 Sam. 17:45-17 (MSG)
Unmask your mouth, unbridle your memory to the God of hope and to the God of all He has done in our past and will do in our present and future.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” Psalm 103:1
We as God’s people, as Americans, we cannot let our history, our past be banned, prohibited, and condemned because God spoke clearly “forget not all His benefits” and that is the past, present, and future. We need to remember where we came from and how we need to pass onto our next generation the truths of the one and only God, the same God of the United States of America. We need to reclaim our nation back from the depths of evil, from the grasps of the enemy’s tactics of withholding our rights as citizens of heaven and citizens of the United States.
Nehemiah 4:14 – And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”
Our confession of our hope is our weapon for today which in turn gives us trust in God’s promises and in that there is NO despair in “hope” even during difficulties, challenges, and trials. Maintain, my friends of the faith, what is true, what is right, and what is powerful—our King of kings and our Lord of lords AND the finished work of the cross.
The ground of our hope and confidence is God is true to His Word: He will never fail to keep all His promises and He never changes His mind after He promises something. Maintain full confidence in the relatability of God’s promises for they are Yes and Amen!! Every believer shares in this final victory. Mario Murillo states it this way so eloquently, “The end times are not happening to me. I am happening to the end times!”
Freedom House Updates
Summer Events:
- Staff Meetings: All went very well with our staff of 10 Small Group Leaders/Shadows Training. It was a time of refreshment, ministry for everyone, and of connecting once again as a Body of Christ, preparing for the FHM Schools.
- Ministry at a Church: Tommy & Mari Anne went down to Bloomington a few times to minister to a home church, including the pastor, his wife as well as the congregation. Actually, the pastor and his wife along with a couple of others are part of our school this year. What an honor to have them at the school.
- Two Guest Speakers on Zoom: First, Joe Amaral, a Hebrew teacher who unfolded Jesus’ teachings in the original context of Jesus’ time which was so refreshing. Also, Paul Young, who spoke at a previous FHM graduation, updated us on Jesus’ strong heart of love for God’s children to come out of shame and pain to live the life He designed and intended for each of us. God is still working through his life and his book, “The Shack.”
Fall Events:
- FHM Schools began in September with 21 students in Course 201. We have 4 sets of pastors and their spouses, just as the Lord revealed to Mari Anne, and we have 4 other couples – PTL. Now the outpouring of revival will be coming. We had a taste of it this last Saturday as we had a couple doing a sanctified rain dance, during a time of worship, a dance to rain upon hungry souls and eager saints to take the Gospel into all the world. Also, we have several young people – which is another answer to our prayers.
- Ask Me Anything with Mari Anne: These new Zoom teachings are an inspiration from many emails where MA is asked many questions about many topics in life. The Holy Spirit gave insight and wisdom to have live Zoom meetings without charge. The last one was on “Challenging & Difficult People in our Lives” with many questions about co-dependency, setting up boundaries, and dealing with projected feelings.
- A Testimony of the Healing Power of Jesus: Someone with the diagnosis of very late-stage cancer is now healed and in remission! Numbers are reversed. Thank You, Jesus, continue to restore, replenish, and revive more who are needing healing.
- Prayer Counseling for Men: Tommy has been getting a full schedule of counseling in the evenings and ministering to many men who desire to be set free to be the Man of Destiny for this hour. Also, he loves his job working at the Senior Living Assistance Center, releasing his wisdom, love and blessing to so many, especially those who are near to stepping into Eternity. Such a fabulous ministry opportunity!
Prayers Needed at Freedom House:
- Pray Against Cancer: Tommy was diagnosed with stage 2 prostate cancer, which thankfully has not spread. He will have surgery to remove his prostate and to also deal with some of his bladder issues. Doctors are very optimistic, and his chances for cancer in the future are very, very slim. We are thankful that doctors caught this early on. Pray that everything will go smoothly for Tommy, who has a long life here to proclaim the glories of the Lord. Also, my assistant Dorie’s husband, Ray also has prostate cancer and has a very good prognosis. Pray for them both.
- Losing & Grieving People, We Love: Dan Freke, who was supposed to join our Schools in September, has gone home to be with the Lord. Dan and Julia attended the second class of our Schools some 25+ years ago. We are all stunned and shocked, and it’s very difficult to process. Julia and Dan have been lifelong friends of Tommy, me, and our family for about 30 years. Please pray for Julia who is beginning to live a new normal life without her husband. She has been spending time with us which has been good. Rose Marie and Dan are now home sharing, worshipping, walking around in their new place of promotion. Next, as many may be aware, Loren Sandford is also home with the Lord enjoying seeing his mom and dad, John and Paula, and so many others who have gone before him. Please pray for Mark and Maureen Sandford and Beth Sandford, who are also so stunned at Loren’s passing. They are facing a new normal after losing Loren, Mark’s brother and Beth’s husband.
Remembering Rose Marie Borrelli, Founder of Freedom House:
It was 2 years this August that my mom, Rose Marie went to her new home in heaven. It still is a sting in my heart with the loss of my champion and hero. It has been an honor, privilege, and pleasure for me to continue the work my mother started in Freedom House. I surely know my mom is immensely proud of what is happening in Freedom House as well as all around the world in which I have the joy to counsel and minister.
I leave words that my mom wrote back in her journal on January 8, 1999:
“Father, good morning, River of Desire, help me to connect more intensely with you so that we become one ocean of desire, flowing together more passionately, making significant waves upon my world, to your honor and glory. Come now, let us dance together and walk together during this time in my life.” “Your Rose Marie”
We are eternally thankful for each one of you! Your donation of any amount at this ongoing COVID season means so much to us, and we do not take it for granted. Thank you for sharing hope with us, as this is what Freedom House is all about as we extend hope to the wounded, the lonely, the fearful, the perplexed, and along with the Holy Spirit walk with them during this especially confusing, hopeless, and uncertain time.
YOU CAN DONATE NOW:
OR:
Send a check made out to “Freedom House Ministry” to Freedom House Ministry, c/o The Andersens, 652 THUNDERBIRD TRL, CAROL STREAM IL 60188-9262
With My Burning Heart of Love & Thankfulness,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry
April & May 2021 Newsletter
Dear Friends,
Hear these words from your Savior…
. . . Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live . . .” (john 11:25)
What a powerful statement of truth, power, and glory as well as a bountiful and abundant life on this side of the resurrection as well as our eternal life on the other side! My loving challenge to each of YOU is not to just think about resurrection glory and power just during Easter but to ask the Holy Spirit to bring you into a “resurrection mentally.”
Living from the resurrection side of the cross here and now is to live out the call, purpose, and life God has destined for YOU before the foundations of the world, which is a life of hope, healing, freedom, peace, and a life of power all because of the Great I AM who gives resurrection life here and now.
Living from the resurrection side of the cross means: to live a life of honor to our Lord and Savior, to experience the places of true life in every area of our lives, and to experience real and lasting transformation here on this side of eternity.
Living from the resurrection side of the cross is stepping into our genuine and legitimate heritage as sons and daughters of the Most-High God.
Here at Freedom House, we believe inner healing involves both crucifixion and resurrection. On the crucifixion side of the cross, we call to death old structures and practices which dishonor—those bitter root judgments, foundational lies, and inner-vows that keep us stuck in wrong patterns of thinking and doing. Consequentially, on the resurrection and life side, we call to restoration and LIFE that which honors, such as your true personhood and the original design and joy that God created for you.
Once you have dealt with those old structures that dishonor God, your life, your heritage, along with your woundedness, you bring it all to death on the cross. Then, Christ Jesus is right there to release you into blessing, honor, and healing which means:
- He will call you and your personality into a place of honor and your natural bent of personality, identity, and destiny.
- He will tell you who YOU are in Him.
- He will restore both personal and generational blessings.
- He will give YOU real power through His Holy Spirit.
You will learn to walk out the resurrection side of healing and love and
“not return evil for evil but giving blessing instead; for YOU were called
for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9)
Living from the resurrection side of the cross here and now, in your lifetime, means Jesus Christ will enable YOU to become the person you were always meant to be.
In this newsletter, because of the cross and the resurrection, I wanted you to read some of our counselees’ testimonies in how they have begun living from the resurrection side of the cross and to see how transformation took place because of the Great, I AM – and His resurrection.
Bridget’s Testimony:
After a very difficult 2020, – the most difficult year of my life -, I knew we needed help that only God could give. We live in the Far East, and friends had expressed their desire for us to receive counselling …, but I couldn’t see a way for that. To find Freedom House’s website was a pure miracle. As we read through the materials found there, our hearts resounded with a deep and settled “Yes”. Through this online counselling, the Lord has been meeting us with His love. He has shown us connections between roots and fruit so much more clearly than before. We have felt great support as we continue to invite the Lord into our family to heal us deeply, and to cleanse and deliver our family lines. Thank you, Freedom House!
Emmanuel’s Testimony:
We have been blessed by the ministry of Freedom House. The change in our daughter has been pronounced. Much healing has taken place and is taking place in our lives. I get along much better with my wife now, and family/generational issues are being dealt with. As if to confirm the restoration that is taking place in our family, the Lord connected us with some nieces we have not been in contact with for a very long time and with another one we have never even met. And we have been talking. We praise God for that. Prayers offered for us in faith by Mari Anne have also helped us locate misplaced important documents in our home soon after the prayers were offered. We thank God for all these answers to prayer and the blessings we are experiencing under the ministry of Freedom House. A very satisfied client in the Far East!
S & L’s Testimony:
My wife and I have been married for 11 years. We have three boys who are 13, 10, and 8. Two years ago we experienced a trauma that was unimaginable and unforgettable. Through our trauma, we were both in brokenness and in what felt like unrepairable everlasting damage and pain with no escape in sight. We are both Christians, we both believe in grace, and we both believe in redemption; however, leaning into those beliefs and relying on Christ in the midst of darkness is difficult, for us. And the process of healing feels overwhelming.
Finding a place that is centered in Christ and in Biblical Truths has been a true lifeline. We needed someone who carried no bias to walk with us through our trauma and we knew it needed to be someone who would point us towards Christ. When I think of pointing someone towards Christ, I think of John the Baptist. He went to the wilderness and shouted for anyone who was listening, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make strait paths for Him!” (Matthew 3:3)
We truly believe that the hope and goal of Freedom House Ministries is to help us, as a couple seeking Christ together, make way for the Lord and to create strait paths for Him. Our story is not one of Jesus intervening and the Holy Spirit fixing everything at once and we are healed in an instant. We have been going to Freedom House for almost two years, and during that time, have been facing our individual and marital issues, which has been hard. We have cried, we have fought, we have sinned, we have loved, we forgiven. We are imperfect people who continue to miss the mark in new ways, and sometimes, in the same way. I guess you could say, we are exactly the helpless needy people we read stories about in the Bible whom Jesus came to save. We are thankful to have a place like Freedom House which stays beside us through our ups and downs and continues to point us towards Christ. We truly believe finding ourselves in Freedom House Ministries was orchestrated by God.
TR’s Testimony:
If I were to summarize the past year in one word, I would say “liberating. I had been in counselling with Freedom House Ministry years ago, and another life crisis brought me back to them, seeking some way to simply get through. When I called, I was crushed—my marriage was shattered, my mind filled with confusion and despair. Mari Anne spoke one sentence of freedom that carried me through to our first counselling session. I could not have foreseen the changes God brought about in me. We always start with prayer, setting the tone for fruitful discussion. While not at the end of my journey, I feel I am the healthiest (spiritually, emotionally, mentally) I have ever been. I thought I was going to address circumstances and issues, but God had something else in store.
Mari Anne keeps detailed notes of our sessions that provide fodder for future discussions. Through counseling with Mari Anne, I have reached a level of self-acceptance I wasn’t even aware I needed (which directly impacts my marriage and other relationships). She has shared a wealth of resources in the form of teachings, book suggestions, research, and connecting me with others who have walked in similar circumstances. Her counsel has always been biblically based, often with a specific scripture for what is being addressed. At the end of each session, I have direction (sometimes a word, sometimes an assignment), and each meeting builds on the previous. The meetings are not always easy but are always productive. What a blessing this has been. I am overcoming fear, self-loathing, anxiety, grief, and other battles. I look forward to the future, instead of dreading it.
Mari Anne has imparted stability, faith, hope, and bravery as she has graciously counselled me. This has dramatically impacted me, and I feel that the day is coming where I can join the woman Jesus addressed in Matthew 9:22 – “Courage, daughter. You took a risk of faith, and now you’re well.” (The Message) – TR
These are just a few examples of what God is doing in people’s lives, and He desires greatly to see areas of healing generated within you as well to live out your purpose and destiny on the resurrection side of the cross.
Updates & Praise Reports from Freedom House
- Tommy and I will be going to Bloomington, IL throughout the Summer, teaching/ministering to a house-church. Great people who are so hungry.
- Prayer/Intercessors Meetings are going great under our new Intercessory Team Leader.
- Course 201 & 202 Schools to begin in September 2021 going through May 2022. Application deadline is August 18. Go to the freedomhouseministry.com website and choose the Schools link to read about Course 201 and Course 202. You can find an application there for new, returning or auditing students. More to come soon about the Schools.
- Mari Anne’s meeting with Staff, Small Group Leaders over the summer to renew, recharge, and replenish before our Schools begin in September 2021.
- Mari Anne’s teaching opportunities are opening more to churches and home groups.
- Tommy’s counseling sessions are exploding and thriving with God’s healing touch.
- Mari Anne even has prayer counseling sessions in India now!
- Mari Anne started filming with her media managers, Noelle and Ali, and will soon be releasing weekly “Life-Lessons on the Road to Emmaus” on YouTube. Keep an eye out for the announcement.
- A new release of God’s anointing and favor is resting upon FHM.
- Tommy, I, and the family will be going on a vacation to Disneyland in May.
- We celebrated 39 years of marriage on April 3rd.
So many wonderful developments are taking place that we feel so blessed and so thrilled! The only words we can say are from our wedding song To God Be the Glory:
My Tribute by Andraé Crouch, Felix Roach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQmuSt7rSvs
How can I say thanks
For the things You have done for me?
Things so undeserved,
Yet You gave to prove Your love for me;The voices of a million angels
Could not express my gratitude.
All that I am and ever hope to be,
I owe it all to Thee.To God be the glory,
To God be the glory,
To God be the glory
For the things He has done.
Our Heartfelt Thanks to Each of You Who Support FHM
First, your prayers for us are being answered as we see God’s outpouring of blessings. We couldn’t do what we do without your prayers undergirding us. Secondly, your sacrificial and generous contributions to Freedom House make all that God is doing through our prayer counseling ministry, Zoom Events, YouTube teachings, and Schools possible. Like this song, it’s hard for us to express our thanks to you for your generosity!
You can donate today:
OR:
Send a check made out to “Freedom House Ministry” to Freedom House Ministry, c/o The Andersens, 652 THUNDERBIRD TRL, CAROL STREAM IL 60188-9262
With My Burning Heart of Love & Thankfulness,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry
We “The People” Shall Journey On the Road to Emmaus Part 2 – What God Has for YOU . . . in 2021
Luke 24:13-35
By Mari Anne Andersen
January 2021
Happy New Year!
On January 6, 2021, I sent out Part 1 of the Word I sensed the Lord gave me for this New Year and some of the unfolding areas in our nation. (Here is the link to “A Year for Our Pursuit of Truth as We Journey on the Road to Emmaus Part 1” so that you can review it or read it for the first time: http://www.freedomhouseministry.com/a-year-for-our-pursuit-of-truth-as-we-journey-on-the-road-to-emmaus/ This is now, Part 2 of the “Pursuit of Truth as we Journey on the Road to Emmaus.” I believe, in 2021 it will be to pursue truth from the inside out (Psalm 51:6) and to walk on the Road with Jesus to Emmaus (Luke 24).
The Road to Emmaus is a call, I believe, to pursue deeper truths, deeper insights, and deeper revelations in our walk with Jesus EVEN WHEN we cannot recognize Him as He is working behind the scenes, particularly when everything looks bleak, gloomy, and depressing. On this journey to Emmaus, Jesus, wants to open our eyes so that we can see the resurrected Savior and His promises of hope, life, and liberty and to open the eyes of our understanding to the greater good and greater glory of things to come in our lives, our family’s lives, and in our nation’s life.
The Emmaus Road really speaks about trusting Jesus, our Lord and Savior, our Redeemer, and the Lifter of Our Heads. It’s about trusting Him even when we don’t understand, don’t see things working (just yet). I believe we are all in a “Life Lesson” of trust and truth that God is at work and that He has a plan in ALL things for 2021, particularly when we don’t see the evidence of His promises (just yet). Please read Luke 24:13-35 (NIV) as I will just speak into some of these verses.
Luke 24:13-16
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
We see the two unknown disciples who did not recognize Jesus, who were in distress, pain, and confusion by what had just taken place regarding Jesus’ crucifixion. They were deeply perplexed and in pain because they thought there would be a different outcome. My question is: “Why were they kept from recognizing Jesus?” Why would Jesus do that? Currently in your present situations, be they spiritual, physical, emotional, familial, and/or political, we may not always understand what God is doing; we can’t recognize the signs God has given us because the outcomes look so different (for now).
So, it was the same way when the two disciples began to share with Jesus about Jesus—who He was: a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and to be crucified. But these disciples had hoped and even anticipated that He was the promised one who was going to redeem Israel. (Luke 24:20-21)
Sometimes, my friends, we don’t always recognize and understand the things God is doing behind the scenes because things are in disguise or in hiding (for a time). We are encountering difficult and challenging situations presently and our circumstances can cause us to feel painful, dreadful, and doubtful. PLEASE, PLEASE know God is at work because God’s plans, purposes, and promises are that He will make a way where there seems to be NO way, He will complete what He has started, He knows the beginning from the end, and He knows the plans and ways to prosper us and give us hope and a future.
Luke 24:25-26
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
What Jesus did with the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus was unfold and describe to them how the prophets and Scriptures had predicted what would happen. What the two disciples did was listen intently, earnestly, and honestly to Jesus, as truth from the Old Testament about the Messiah was being revealed and unsealed slowly once again. I believe they were being fed personally and intimately with faith and truth by The Truth Giver Himself. Yet, the full revelation of who they were talking to at that moment was not yet recognizable.
I believe wholeheartedly, God the Father is calling each of us to a deeper and more intimate relationship with The Truth Giver Himself in these days. We need to see His Word opening for us as sons and daughters and not just to rely on others but to walk with Jesus ourselves more closely than ever on our personal Road to Emmaus.
Luke 24:29-30
They urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. So, he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
To “urge,” is another word for to implore, plead, and beseech. They clearly wanted Jesus to stay and sup with them as it was late, as night was approaching, but also because they perhaps sensed something special about this mystery man. What powerful words spoken in this verse! This is what WE, The People should be doing—urging Jesus to stay with us in and during this dark time, so that we can have communion (unity and intimacy) with Him. That meal and that bread literally became the Bread of Life to these sad, disappointed, and discouraged disciples, turning their mourning into gladness and giving them joy for their sorrow and turning their grief into gladness. What a meal to partake of! We need to see Him—Jesus—and focus on His resurrection glory and power so our hearts, like these two disciples, will burn within us as revelation deepens into our spirit of the resurrected power and authority we have on this side of Eternity.
Ultimately it is not about our present uncertain situations, but who is redeemer, savior, deliverer overall. Who is ruling in our hearts and lives in times of disappointment and uncertainty and what does He want to reveal to us? It’s ultimately about Who walks with us every day on our unpredictable, uncertain roads of life and Who sups with us at our daily tables. This has always been and always will be—Jesus Christ, our Messiah—the one unchanging and dependable person we can count on.
Luke 24:31-32
Then their eyes were opened, and they RECOGNIZED him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (capitalization added)
We too must be looking into the “Scriptures” to hear from the Lord. In doing that, we will see Jesus in His glorious, wondrous, and hopeful resurrection. The more we understand God’s Word, the more our hearts will hunger and thirst for His Truth and Presence. We will see from Heaven’s perspective and not from our limited viewpoint that gives way to disunity, division, and doubt.
What a spectacular Life Lesson for each of us to hold near and dear in our hearts—a burning passionate heart for Jesus in the midst of loss, disappointment, and disillusionment. God comes suddenly in these times of great perplexity and great pain because He wants to walk, talk as well as remind us of His promises in His Word. He wants to sup with us at His table of Presence to have our hearts burn with great and deep truths of faith and trust.
When we journey on our Emmaus Road, we can expect Jesus to act in His perfect timing based on His revelation of who He is and what His resurrection represents here and now. Triumph and victory only come from having a resurrected mentality, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). As we are walking with Jesus in all of our life circumstances, our hearts will be burning with fresh revelation from His Word!
That is what happened on the Road to Emmaus, my friends.
My Friends, Here’s What’s Happening at Freedom House:
- Prayer Counseling: God is greatly blessing our prayer counseling of individuals, couples, and children from around the globe. Jesus is revealing Himself to these folks who have wounded hearts, meeting them on their Emmaus Roads of grief, losses, and disappointments.
- Teaching & Preaching: On January 31st, over Zoom Tommy and I will be teaching/ preaching on the Prophetic at a House Church in Bloomington, IL. Please pray for us.
- Upcoming Zoom Teaching: On February 28th, over Zoom Tommy and I will be teaching on: “Lord, Is that You?” Open to all. Look for details in your Inbox in early February.
- FHM Schools Resuming 2021: New Dates will soon be up on the FHM Website/Calendar for our Schools which will resume live September 2021 running through April 2022. As in previous years, we will meet at Kingsland Properties in Carol Stream, IL.
- YouTube Messages Coming: I am working on YouTube messages entitled: “The Emmaus Road with Mari Anne.” These will be a few minutes of sharing God’s wisdom, truth, and love, journeying together with the Holy Spirit.
- Staff Training: I’ll be preparing a Staff Training and Spiritual Refreshment time for FHM Staff and Small Group Leaders coming this Spring, also meeting at Kingsland Properties.
- New Head Intercessor: God has brought us our new Head Intercessor, who will be following in Rose Marie’s footsteps, retrieving prayer request phone messages and getting them out to the appropriate Intercessor to pray. She will also have brief but poignant teachings periodically on Zoom. More about this in our next article, but you or someone you know can call 708-656-3658 and leave a prayer request.
Thankful for Your Donation to FHM:
Your thoughtful and prayer-filled donation of any amount during this ongoing pandemic season means so much to us. We do not take it for granted, to say the least. We continue to proclaim His faithfulness to the perplexed, the fearful, and the wounded hearts that come to us for prayer ministry. Your financial support enables us to walk with so many on their own lonely, lost, deserted Emmaus Road. The Holy Spirit opens their eyes to Jesus so that their hearts burn within them, and they can depart rejoicing in resurrection life and victory. Without your support, we couldn’t do what God has called us to do.
YOU CAN DONATE NOW:
OR:
Send a check made out to “Freedom House Ministry” to Freedom House Ministry, c/o The Andersens, 652 THUNDERBIRD TRL, CAROL STREAM IL 60188-9262
With My Burning Heart of Love & Thankfulness,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry
A Year for Our Pursuit of Truth as We Journey on the Road to Emmaus
Each New Year I present to Freedom House’s Family and Friends what I hear and sense from the Lord for this New Year as it stretches before us. It’s a time in which I pray, read, and seek the Lord’s heart and listen to His small, still voice in my spirit. I saturate myself in His Presence to receive His thoughts, His directions, and instructions for the New Year. It is also a time when I DO NOT listen to other prophets in what they heard and received so I would not be swayed by their thoughts and voice.
In addition, this year is a bit different. Of course, I still have been seeking and searching for His heart for 2021, but, unlike other years, there has been a lot of intercessory prayers focused on our President and this recent election. I will attempt to share my heart as well as my sense from the Father’s Heart in these epoch and unprecedented times.
In reference to the Emmaus Road, it is one that the Father wants us to journey together with Him as it states in Luke 24. In 2021, He is calling us to pursue deeper truths so that grace mixed with faith and love, poured over us in 2021, can more greatly abound. This is just Part 1 of what I sense. I feel the need and urgency to get this out there first for your reading, and secondly especially for your praying into this situation that we find ourselves in.
There are two sides within my heart, a side that is in sorrow and grief over what is happening in our nation and then another side in which I get excited because we are on a cusp of a major reformation and revival.
I believe some of the things the Father is saying to each of us in the Body of Christ is . . .
This will be a year for our pursuit of truth—a declaration for truth and a declaration of independence once again. We cannot stand idly by and bury our heads in the sand and believe everything the “media” is broadcasting, which is a lot of baseless propaganda. There has been an agenda that has been playing out and more and more we see biblical Christianity under great attack and even under siege. We, “The People,” need to arise and shine to see from heaven’s perspective and to begin to war in the heavenlies for our nation. We are in a fight for this nation, for our families, and for the pursuit of truth and for God’s redemptive plan for the USA.
This is a call for us to stand tall and straight in the face of many great challenges and to not bow down to Baal. Take a stand for His truth and for His ways and separate yourself from the things of Baal worship. This is a time to stand on the Biblical principles of His truth, not the world’s. Also, don’t get caught up in the places of passivity, apathy, and indifference. This is a time for YOU to fight for the truth, but before you fight for the truth, YOU need to know the true truth, you need to research what is the truth in these times.
We are in a battle in which progressive liberalism is invading all the places and spaces of our beliefs in our churches, families, media and even our Constitution. Double standards are in play all around us and the progressives don’t even bat an eye at their double standards. There is such an arrogance and overconfidence as they strut their policies and lies.
We cannot just sit back and allow this time in history to be taken from us; America, our nation, our Constitution, and our freedom of speech are all under assault. Furthermore, the division that has emerged in our nation is truly a big, vast chasm. We the people NEED to shout out our voices for truth, and I, for one, will shout out!
“THIS ELECTION WAS RIGGED!” There has been fraud, crime, and underhandedness all in play, and I believe that the liberal media is part of the art of the steal, along with the BIG techs that had a part in this rigged election.
Please don’t simply take the liberal media’s word, and, even for that matter, don’t even take my word. I will give you some links below to search out the matter yourself. Get wise, lean into your discernment, and understand what the Father wants YOU to do in this pivotal time in our history.
“Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do? And with your wisdom, develop common sense and good judgment.” (Proverbs 4:7 TLB)
God the Father is asking you to journey with Him on the Road to Emmaus, and Emmaus represents revelatory insights, mysteries of His Spirit open up for understanding the things in His Kingdom which are NOT of this world.
The definition of wisdom: “wisdom is the ability to perceive the true nature of a situation and to implement the will of God in that situation. Wisdom is the practical application of God’s truth to a specific situation. Wisdom is knowing what God wants you to do and then doing it.”
The liberal media is totally ignoring credible, reliable, and trustworthy allegations that are given in sworn affidavits by hundreds and hundreds of witnesses, under penalty of a felony, who have evidence to back up their claims regarding this fraudulent election. There were so many anomalies that were ignored by the left, the media, and the “socialist” party that is coming into our ways and life in this nation. We need to get back to a nation UNDER GOD AND FOR GOD.
The integrity of our election impacts the future of the United States and even the entire world. Truthfully, this election is no longer about Trump and Biden. It is much bigger and greater than that. It’s about our democracy, our voice, and our vote. Thomas Paine put it this way. . .
“To Take Away (Voting) is to Reduce a Man to Slavery.”
Thomas Paine
God the Father is calling on me—and YOU—to have a voice in speaking out, praying out, and standing out regarding this election by find out how this election was stolen.
We are in a moment again—of 1776—to echo our forefathers’ voice for truth, for justice for our nation. Don’t hide your light but be a source for THE LIGHT—the Light of Christ.
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. This means that government gets all its power from the people. According to the Declaration of Independence, the government gets its power to govern from the people that it governs.
This is our time to rise up and take a bold stand, to move into our pursuit of truth, as we walk on the Road to Emmaus gaining deeper insight, wisdom, and discernment so we can discover God’s true heart in this time in 2021.
I will be sharing Part 2 in the days to come: In 2021, the Father wants us to have those “Encounters & Experiences” on the Emmaus Road so that our hearts will burn within as He walks and talks with us (Luke 24:32). Stay tuned!
Pray with me:
Father, I pray that “We the People” can walk with You on the Road to Emmaus, to have an encounter with You for truth, for renewal, and for Your Grace of love to burn within our hearts to find truth for our nation in this crucial and pivotal time.
Jesus, help us to be in the pursuit for truth and justice in our nation, in our lives, and in our daily walk with You.
Father, I pray for grace mixed with faith and love to be poured over us and all around in this time.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Here are a few websites to find out truth:
Flash Point News – Poignant, Objective, Stimulating
- How prophecy and current events are aligning to usher in the greatest awakening the world has ever known.
- https://www.govictory.com/FlashPoint
Mario Murillo Ministries – Living Proof
- Up to date practical and spiritual information in the political
- https://mariomurilloministries.wordpress.com
Breaking Christian News:
- Minister’s blasphemous prayer opening 117th Congress & Banning of Gender Terms such as “mother” “father” etc.
- https://www.breakingchristiannews.com/index.php
Liberty Counsel:
- Sworn Affidavits
- https://lc.org/voterfraud
PLEASE WATCH THIS – TOMMY TRIED TO PLACE IT ON FACEBOOK BUT THEY REMOVED IT:
- “2020 Election Investigative Documentary: Who’s Stealing America?”
- https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/2020-election-investigation-who-is-stealing-america_3617562.html
The Epoch Times app:
- “Get Real News Other Media Outlets Don’t Report”
OR:
Send a check made out to “Freedom House Ministry” to Freedom House Ministry, c/o The Andersens, 652 THUNDERBIRD TRL, CAROL STREAM IL 60188-9262
Jesus the Extravagant Dimensions of Christ’s Love “Christ in Me”
Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:19 (MSG)
My prayer for you and your family this Christmas and New Year is that you may experience the vastness, the extravagance, and the massiveness of God’s love and care for you. The Father longs and yearns for us to experience the greatness of who He is and how He desires to fulfill our lives on this side of Eternity.
Paul’s most joyous discovery in his own life was that God lived in him. The life of the godhead isn’t something far off away in heaven; it’s active within one’s very own life. One of his most favorite expressions was “Christ in me.” By this, he meant that we could experience everything eternally good and true and beautiful that God has prepared for those who love Him. Paul received an up close and personal revelation that Christ lived in him. (Colossians 1:27)
Dearest friends, please STOP! For a moment, savor this truth. May His Divine Spirit linger with the actual revelation “Christ in me – Christ in me!” Having that revelatory moment regarding that the life of the godhead is within your very own life, what would that do for YOU in your life, in the life of your loved ones, the life of your church, and the life of our nation? This would revolutionize our world as we would then walk in our Kingdom identity and in such Kingdom authority, living from a Kingdom perspective of Yes and Amen!
I would like to give you a Christmas challenge and ask you to meditate on and marinate in this truth—”Christ in me”—and see what will happen. I believe you will experience the breadth, the depth, and the height of His love exploding into your very existence and spilling out all around us. It gives a new meaning to “Emmanuel”—the God that is with us, the God that is for me and within me.
“Christ in me” truly means that all things are possible with Him and nothing is too difficult for Him. Remember the “Christ in me” closed the mouth of the lions for Daniel, the “Christ in me” parted the Red Sea, made the sun stand still for Joshua, put a baby in the arms of Sarah, raised Lazarus from the dead, and opened the prison cell for Peter. Remember, the “Christ in me” can do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20)
This, I believe, is the true Christmas story! I pray you continually ponder and declare this word—”Christ in me”—so you will shine so brightly in this season that any heaviness, sadness, any COVID-19, any post-election fraud, any family divisions, and any physical or financial situations can and will be dispelled because “Christ in me” can and will do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo, Glory to God in the Highest, echoing their joyous strains. Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? What the gladsome tiding be, which inspire your heavenly song? It’s the “Christ in Me” echoing our joyous strains, Gloria in excelsis Deo. Raise, raise a song on high, the virgin sings her lullaby: Joy, joy for, Christ is born, The Babe, the Son of Mary!
Personal Updates from the Andersens
- The biggest news of all is that after 30 years we have M O V E D from Berwyn to Carol Stream, which is close to two of our children and five grandchildren.
- Tommy has a new job working as an Activity Director in a senior assistance home in Wheaton, 5 minutes away. He holds chapel time, leads fun activities, while also sharing many wonderful FHM truths with them. He loves his new job and they love him! It’s a 9 to 5 job, so he is still able to counsel in the evenings. Thankfully we’ll be able to have insurance as a benefit! God is good!
- We are 5 minutes away from our church in Wheaton, Vineyard of DuPage, with Pastors Dave and Anita who we know from Oak Park some years back.
- Lastly, we are literally 5 minutes from Kingsland Properties, where we rent for all of FHM’s Schools, Events, and Seminars.
Counseling Updates and Prayer Needed:
Both Tommy and I continue to counsel over Skype and Zoom. I have a 15-year-old from China, whose parents are missionaries in a distant land. I continue to counsel folks from the US and from Europe. I also see a 10-year-old who is talking about taking his life. These COVID days have placed lots of pressure on our youth. In addition, I continue to work with many ongoing clients, who continue to thrive and grow.
I’d Love to Pray for You – marianne@freedomhouseministry.com:I would like to invite you to email me personally and let me know of the changes you are in, and I will be happy to stand with you in pray as you are journeying into unchartered waters.
End-of-Year Giving:
We can’t do what we do through our counseling, which is really booming right now, without your prayers and support. We are eternally grateful for your ongoing love and financial gifts over the years, especially during 2020 where all of us have experienced many strains. If you are looking to donate for the end-of-year giving, we would welcome your gift. Freedom House runs with the gifts and donations that come in. Thus, I pray, if God moves on your heart to give, then please give with great joy. See the information below to send a check to our new address OR give online.
With my heart of love, gratitude, prayers, and Christmas greetings, may His eternal Light shine upon you and may you personally walk with great knowledge, great revelation of the “Christ in me” this Christmas.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry
YOU CAN DONATE NOW:
OR:
Send a check made out to “Freedom House Ministry” to Freedom House Ministry, c/o The Andersens, 652 THUNDERBIRD TRL, CAROL STREAM IL 60188-9262
“Master, Don’t You Care if We Drown?” OR (Lose the Election?)
I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings at this time, as America finds herself in a great stormy squall that has overtaken our nation, our constitution, and our rights as voters (some voters). I totally realize that I will probably get many dislikes, many rebukes and many emails stating how wrong I am. However, this has been the beauty (thus far) of being able to have “Freedom of Speech,” but sadly this too is slowly eroding and corroding away. Please finish this whole article before you cast a stone, my friends. I felt the absolute need and urgency to send this out ASAP.
Here are some of the emails and phone calls I have been receiving regarding this election:
- What is going on?
- I’m so afraid – we are in jeopardy!
- The prophets spoke – what happened?
- What is God doing?
- Didn’t He hear our prayers?
- Why is this happening?
- We didn’t pray hard enough!
I can sum it up all in Mark 4:35-38 as the Lord gave me this a few weeks ago, and I would like to express and confess this to you at this time. Let’s read it:
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
There is so much here that represents what we are experiencing, what we are seeing, and what we are literally living through in real time. I know that God has called me to be a “Watchman on the Tower,” and I want to share with you what I see at this time as well as what I am watching.
We see in the preceding chapters of the Gospels—BEFORE the Calming of the Waters—Jesus, as the Messiah, Jesus, as the Teacher, Jesus as the Healer, and Jesus who demonstrates His authority and identity in a profound and real way where the disciples were up close and personal as first-hand witnesses.
Jesus Turns Water into Wine – John 2:1-11
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son at Capernaum – John 4:43
Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit from a Man – Mark 1:21, Luke 4:43
Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law – Mathew 8:14, Mark 1:29, Luke 4:
Jesus Heals Sick & Oppressed at Evening – Mathew 8:16, Mark 1:32, Luke 4:40
First Miraculous Catch of Fish – Luke 5:1-11
Jesus Cleanses a Man with Leprosy – Mathew 8:14, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-14
Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Paralyzed Servant – Mathew 8:15, Luke 7:10
Jesus Heals a Paralytic – Mathew 9:1-18, Mark 2:12, Luke 5:17-26
Jesus Heals a Man’s Withered Hand – Mathew 12:9-14, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:6-11
Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son from the Dead – Luke 7:11-17
Now, Jesus weary from a very long day of teaching, praying, healing, and mentoring told His disciples – “Let’s Go to the Other Side.” Please hear this because I believe Jesus is already given a promise for us in this nation of reaching the other side. He already gave clear instructions, directions, directives, and assurances in reaching the place of victory, of history making, and of seeing our nation under God once again through President Donald J. Trump. He already spoke the Word telling His disciples we will be over there shortly.
I see many of us screaming, crying, and in terror for Jesus to wake up as He is sleeping ever so soundly in the place of peace and blessed assurance that His Father has this, and nothing can thwart His divine purpose.
I love this picture of Jesus sleeping soundly, comfortably, and securely.
Remember, my Christians Saints, when God/Jesus states something you can be well-assured nothing, nor no one can and will thwart (prevent, stop, foil) the plan of the Lord’s (Job 42:2) in reaching the other side. The Lord’s purpose will always prevail reaching the other side NO matter what the eye sees in the natural, no matter what is being out-maneuvered (manipulated, schemed and plotted) because the Lord works out everything for His own end (Proverb 16:4) and that was to “Reach to the Other Side.”
Now it states in Mark 4: 35 – “a furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat.”
Let me explain what a furious squall literally means in the Greek: A whirlwind, tempestuous wind, earthquake, squall. It was not just a few high winds and waves BUT a cyclone of a storm that came out of NO-where. It was suddenly, shockingly, unexpectedly that harsh waves of the sea overcame them and engulfed their boat with water, putting them in grave jeopardy, peril, and danger. Surely this was something they did not expect to happen as they had just been a part of Jesus’ ministry of healing and calling people to life, liberty, and to pursue truth in Him.
Being expert and experienced fishermen, they have been in many of storms but had never been in or seen a storm such as this one. Rarely does a major storm happen at this time and particularly when they had Jesus their teacher, healer, and Savior in the boat with them when all should be well. They had not just the promises but the Promise Keeper with them.
Please envision this with me: Jesus deeply sleeping as this tempestuous squall is happening, the boat is severely and fiercely rocking to and fro, the water is soaking everyone and everything including Jesus, and the disciples. I’m sure, they are screaming, maybe some even crying, but surely yelling loudly in panic and fear. Feelings of all their hopes, miracles, and faith from that extraordinary day seem to slowly evaporate into clouds of watery and wet eyes of dread and terror. They were looking death right in the face. And yet, our Precious Lord is steadfast asleep from the day of victory, weariness, and triumph. Jesus is surely in a place of safety and comfort—in His Father’s Presence.
So many are in fear and dread of our situation and circumstance with Trump and the election. So many are engulfed with anxiety. I want to encourage you as a Watchmen on the Tower: Just wait and watch! Just wait and watch for Jesus will rise and rebuke the wind and say to the waves: “Quiet! Be Still!”
Then, He will turn toward YOU and ask you: “Why are you so fearful?” and “How is it that you have no or little faith?” The storm did not disturb or disrupt Jesus’ sleep. I believe Jesus wanted His disciples to exercise what they saw just a few hours beforehand—the proof, the evidence, and the reality of the One who did the impossible—the One who raised the widow’s son from the dead, the One who cleansed leprosy, and the One who even taught them to pray line-by-line.
What is the Father saying here in this time? Why do you think He is allowing these events to unfold this way since November 3, 2020 Election Day? Were all the prophets wrong? Did He not hear the righteous prayers that avail much in this time?
What I can say for sure: Jesus is still in the boat with us. He gave us specific orders and directives: Take the boat to the other side. No matter what you experience, see, and unfold in front of you, hold fast to God promise(s). I am doing just that because I believe President Donald J. Trump will be re-elected after everything is said and done. Also, the truth will prevail, things will be uncovered, discovered, and recovered because God is a God that will NOT be mocked. Everything has been such a fight for this President in these last 4 years. Did we really expect it to be an extremely easy and simple thing to “Drain the Swamp?” We need to come together in prayer and hold fast to the sounds of God’s Promises. It is not time to surrender the white flag. It is not time to dissolve into tears and despair. Instead, it is time to put your combat boots on and march into the War Room of Heaven and Hell to take back what the enemy has stolen. Do not give in nor give up because God is in the Boat with us and He said, “Let’s Go to the Other Side.” This is not about us—it’s all about HIM and what He has called YOU, ME and this Nation under God to do.
God is calling US—Christians—to put our fighting gloves on in the spirit as well as speaking out our support for our President, Donald J. Trump. I am so sure you will have family, Christian friends, and neighbors become really mad at you and even say and do some harmful things, but my people parish for a lack of knowledge.
Hosea 4:6 – My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge. Look to investigate the fraud, the stolen and misplaced ballots, the machines in the states that fix the votes and find witnesses. Don’t just swallow all that is being reported to you.
Proverbs 29:18 – Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint but blessed is he who keeps the law. God is calling us back to the basic truth of His Word.
John 8:32 – And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Freedom only comes with His truth and the truth is we are under a corporate stronghold of lies and a corporate stronghold of corrupt power from the media, the left, and Antifa. They have an agenda, and they want us to drink the Kool-Aid.
Whereas Jesus is calling us to life and life abundantly here in America. Then we can see true reformation and revival, His glorious favor resting upon us to be that beacon of light and hope for other nations.
In conclusion, after Jesus quietened the storm and stilled the waters, the disciples experienced another type of terror, and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
They were coming into realization and comprehension of this One by the question, “Who is this?” Yet they had much to learn from, to seek after, and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord, the Savior, and the Ruler of all. Having come through this very fearsome incident of the storm was the One that would write upon their hearts the majesty, the supremacy, and the sovereignty of their Messiah, of Jesus who took complete lordship over the realm of nature making His disciples very certain of His divinity.
I believe that is what He is writing upon our hearts in this “Storm of this Election:” that we will see Jesus in His divinity. The Good News here is we are having front-row seats to stand in the gap for our nation, for our President, and for what God has spoken to His Prophets. If we are to remain steadfast followers, steadfast to His promises, and steadfast to His Word, the Body of Christ needs to learn to fight the good fight because today our battle is NOT against flesh and blood, but against Satan and his evil plans. These are principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness, so Paul warned the believers we had better put on the whole armor of God to be able to withstand the tricks and deceptions of Satan. This is the fight we are in!
I would highly encourage you to listen to Lance Wallnau, November 6, 2020, YouTube titled—”Don’t be Intimidated”—a must see.
My Ears Are Filled with the Sound of Promise
Are your ears filled, packed, and stuffed with the sound of God’s promises for you, your family, and for us as a nation? If your ears are not packed or jammed with the sound of God’s promises for you, then my strong recommendation is to begin filling up your ears with His sound of promise(s). There are so many promises God has given to us BECAUSE His very nature and character is a Promise Giver and a Promise Keeper. God’s promises are always absolute, reliable, enduring, everlasting and without end, my friend.
Know that YOUR only hope rests upon His promises – not the government’s promises, not any political party’s promises, and not any race, color or creed’s promises. All of God’s promises were fulfilled in Christ, our Lord and Savior—in Him alone! Remember, God’s promises are a “sure-thing,” the “only sure thing,” and the “everlasting sure thing.” So again, my friend, fill and pack your ears with God’s sound of promises in this strategic time in our nation, in our church, in our family, and in our culture.
Life as we know it right now in America, seems chockfull with a great many setbacks, with lack of jobs, finances, families split, and our culture divided and burning. There are a great many disappointments and a great amount of upheaval in so many circumstances and situations.
This finds us depleted and scrambling for answers, for true truth and for assurances. Our world today, as we hear and see, is filled all around with a lot of “Words, Promises and Rhetoric” from politicians and theologians stating their guarantees and their slogans of their truth fulfilling narratives.
Thank God, for our God, who keeps His Word always, constantly, and continually because He never changes – Hebrews 10:23 tells us, “God who promised is faithful.” His promises keep us going, encourage our hope, feed our disappointments, and water our commitment to keep moving forward with great expectations and optimistic outlooks. The setbacks, the hindrances and the difficulties are giving ALL of us opportunities and openings to move into fervent prayer, into true repentance, and into true soul-searching of God’s narrative and of God’s promises. Our ears need to be filled with the sound of His promises ONLY!
He is calling YOU and ME to go deeper into His Presence, into His Power, and into His Peace. He is calling YOU and ME to receive His revelation of His Holy Presence, to recognize His promises, and to rely upon Him alone because He cannot lie, and He is a promise-keeping God.
These disturbing times and seasons we are in are not taking God unawares nor by surprise. He is very aware and very conscious of our nation and culture being in crises. He is looking to me and you to step into our place and station to intercede, to intervene, and to repent on behalf of all the injustices, sins, and crimes that have flooded our world at this time.
We all need to be promoted to the rank of warrior and soldier, as part of the Christian armed forces moving in the heavenly realms and below in this earthly realm. Join the battle for our nation, this generation and for this culture as it was founded under God, the only True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Without doubt, our nation was founded on the Declaration of Independence, the Paris Peace Treaty, and the Constitution. Henceforth, my friends, these documents are conclusive and full of proof that America was initiated, founded, and established as a Christian nation. We need to get back to our roots as Christian believers who hold these certain unalienable rights endowed by our Creator.
Our Declaration has many references to God throughout the document and here are some:
- Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God
- Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World
- With a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence
Did you know that from 1775 to 1784 the Congresses of the United States issued sixteen separate spiritual proclamations, calling Americans to humble themselves, fast, pray and give thanks to God? Congress issued spiritual proclamations in which they asked citizens to seek the Lord in one of the darkest moments of the nation’s history.
Imagine this if President Trump, Mitch McConnel, Mark Meadows, Lindsey Graham, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer to name a few would come on national TV on all stations of the local news and issue all Americans to pray, to humble themselves, fast, and seek the Lord for His enlightenment and truth for our nation and to use the Bible as our sure foundation once again!
He is looking to YOU and ME to enter His Holy of Holies with a passionate and ardent heart of prayer. How much are you seeking Him, how much prayer-time are you praying for our times in our nation and culture? How much “knee-time” have you been giving to Him? How much are you staying in His presence to hear and receive His truth of promises? Are your ears filled with the sound of God’s promises for our nation?
We are in the middle of a war on almost every front, whether it is with the high-pitched fever in the different political arenas, our war on black lives matter and a war on blue lives matter. The war on our spiritual heritage, on our constitutional heritage, and the war of our media (or lack thereof), the war on Academia and the war in the Body of Christ. I think we have hit every mountain that is at war and is being jeopardized with civil and spiritual unrest.
For many of us believers, we could be in danger by looking back, by standing still, by giving up, by falling short, and by listening to our own narrative and not God’s. That is why it is imperative to fill YOUR ears with the sounds of God’s promise(s), to know what we are called to do at this time as sons and daughters of the Most High God and to know what His high commands and demands are for us in this season. To know God’s promises and to meditate upon those promises, so we can have hope, comfort, and assurance in order for our spirits to be revived, restored, and replenished in these perilous times is our utmost spiritual and civic task.
May your ears be filled with just some of God’s Promises as I just quote a few for you here:
- Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. Psalm 23:6
- He guides the humble in what is right and teaches his way. Psalm 25:9
- In the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high on a rock. Psalm 27:5
- The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him. Psalm 28:7
- How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. Psalm 31:19
- I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. Psalm. 32:8
- The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. Psalm 34:19
- For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful one. They will be protected forever. Psalm 37:28
- Wait for the Lord and keep His way. He will exalt you to possess the land. Psalm 37:34
- I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. Psalm 73:23
- For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. Deuteronomy 20:4
- The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Deuteronomy 31:8
- He Himself is our peace. Ephesians 2:14
- Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. Hebrews 13:5
- The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Hebrews 13:6
- He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Hebrews 7:25
- You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9
- The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 1 Thessalonians 3:3
- I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters. 2 Corinthians 6:18
- He will deliver us. 2 Corinthians 1:10
- Praise be to God. . . of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
- You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3
My Prayer for America:
Thank you, Lord, that You love America, and we will bring forth precious fruit before You our Maker and Creator. America is filled with an abundance of wonderful potential and promise because we are a nation under You, our endowed Creator.
I decree and declare that my nation is turning back to You, our Savior and Risen Lord. All the branches of government and all the political parties shall embrace and hold fast to Your truths in Your Holy Word. I decree that all who serve You in government will call upon Your name, they will humble themselves and pray and seek Your face as they will turn from their wicked ways.
Each law maker, each representative, and each delegate will have an encounter with You the true Redeemer, the Great I AM, and the Holy One of Israel. Righteousness, truth, and justice will be activated and motivated to the fullness of Your wisdom in all that they will do and say. I also declare and decree that the Body of Christ is actively walking and serving the Lord being strong in His mighty power.
Each church, church leader, and member will put on the full armor of God so that they can stand against any of the schemes of the evil one. The full armor of God is clothed upon each son and daughter with the belt of truth buckled around the waist, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and the feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, they will take up the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, along with the sword of the Spirt which is the Word of God. (Ephesians 6)
Righteousness will thrive, prosper, and flourish in every home, every church, and in every family in Jesus’ Name because He is the exalted Lord over this nation!
In Jesus’ Name, Amen and Amen.
Thank you, dear partners, for filling your ears with God’s promises as this is what Freedom House is all about as we proclaim His promises of hope to the wounded, the lonely, the fearful, the perplexed. Along with the Holy Spirit, we walk with them during these especially confusing, desperate, and uncertain times, pointing them to Jesus. Your prayerful and generous donation of any amount during this difficult season means so much to us. We do not take it for granted given all the pressures that we all are under.
With My Heart of Love & Thanksgiving,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry
Bedazzled and Not Frazzled
Dear Eagle Saints,
I wanted to share with you the Word of the Lord as well as releasing and encouraging YOU with His loving kindness and His loving faithfulness. I pray as you read this word you would immediately feel His Presence, His Power, and His Peace that surpasses all understanding filling your heart and spirit with His Good News of promise. Though so much unrest, uncertainty, and unraveling are happening in our times, please know this: “God Does Not Change and He Will Always Keep His Promises.”
So, it is with this introduction I will release the Word of the Lord over you. . .
Bedazzled and Not Frazzled
Psalm 92:14 – My ears are filled with the sounds of promise: Good people will prosper like palm trees, grow tall like Lebanon cedars; transplanted to God’s courtyard. They’ll grow tall in the presence of God, lithe and green,
virile still in old age.
For I am releasing My canopy of love and promise – My covering will be hovering upon you. It is an open heaven in this season for YOU. Open Heaven to call upon Me – Open Heaven to see My glorious wonders of love rushing & cascading down upon you. The places of My perfect Kingdom will be ushered in and personally escorted into your life. Where there has been hurt, disappointment, discouragement, defeat, and dismissive truths – I – Your God will invade those places and spaces to dismantle, disassemble, and demolish. Yes, you have experienced intense pain, intense sadness, and intense disappointment. Your heart has been sick with a sense of hopelessness and grief that kept you in a state of deferment.
I AM NOW
taking the deferment—postponement, delay and suspension—away and giving YOU an excitement of hope in YOUR HEART for these changes. A great release of change is here. Keep your eyes and your heart open to hear and see the sight and sounds of Heaven roaring in. My trumpet sounds have started. My chorus of angels have been released to bring praises of celebration and jubilation. My rewards are divinely situated upon YOU – YOU are targeted for My Kingdom glory to rest upon YOU.
I am releasing My Sovereign Spirit in capsules, containers, and pods filled to the brim of love, blessings, and favor.
This is YOUR SEASON of wonder and awe. My glory train is ready for delivery. My Amazon Angels have a special delivery reaching to YOUR front door.
Utter amazement will be yours to see and feel.
So, REST ASSURED.
BEDAZZLED AND NOT FRAZZLED IS MY PROMISE TO YOU
Bedazzled is your word from Me, your God on high, for it means to be greatly impressed. My outstanding abilities will be personalized and customized to YOU. You will be dumbfounded, overwhelmed, stunned, astounded, and enchanted. Remember…
Bedazzled and NOT Frazzled
Psalm 89:15-18
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise, who shout on parade in the bright presence of God. Delighted, they dance all day long; they know who You are, what You do – they can’t keep it quiet! Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside of us – you’ve been so good to us! We’re walking on air! All we are and have, we owe to God, Holy God of Israel, our King! (MSG)
Heartfelt Thanks for Your Donations:
I want to thank you for how you have been faithful to us and Freedom House during this time when so many things around us are financially uncertain. Please continue to pray for Freedom House as God leads you and please continue to pray as God leads you to give financially. We continue this great work of reaching people’s hearts and seeing many lives changed by proclaiming liberty, releasing destiny, and harvesting humanity, our three pillars. God is at work in us, through us and by us. Great things are happening, and we are seeing many lives touched.
Please go on our website (www.freedomhouseministry.com) and choose Make a Donation where you can use PayPal or your own credit card.
Freedom House Schools are OPEN!
As you have probably read in our recent emails, Freedom House will be resuming our Schools after a year of rest following my mother’s homegoing to Glory. Both Course 201 and 202 will be taught on the same Saturdays, starting Saturday, September 19 at Kingsland Properties in Carol Stream. Applications are due by Wednesday, August 26.
Go on our website (www.freedomhouseministry.com) and click on the Schools to get an application, to be filled out as a fillable PDF and submitted to me by email or download a hardcopy, fill it in, and send it in by US mail. All the details are found online.
Thank you.
Blessings of love,
Mari Anne
What in the world?
What in the World is happening in our country, our world, and our times? We have had some turbulent, disturbing, and troubling times in the last several months to say the least. I’m sure like me many of you have been wondering, what in the world is happening to our world? Why is this all happening? How could this be happening? We are in a state of bewilderment and bafflement. It seems inconceivable all these riots, looting, killings and great disruptions of chaos and confusion which is camped all around us has followed right on the heels of a pandemic from which we have barely recovered. The senseless acts of hate, the criminal acts of violence and the abundance of injustices seems to be raining down on us daily. What in the world is happening? It seems we have more questions than answers today.
I’m not here to give you political perspectives, social injustice perspectives, and/or racial perspectives, as I feel very inadequate in doing so. However, I will attempt to give you some of God’s perspectives as I sense Him at this time.
Without doubt, we are all witnessing and experiencing firsthand a great and rapid decline in culture, a decline in law and order, a decline in social order, and a decline in God’s principles and ways. As well, there’s a clear and rapid decline in justice, righteousness, mercy, and truth. With all of these declines, which seem shocking and surprising, it really is nothing new. Conversely, what is new is the acceleration of these declines and the widespread rage, anger, lawlessness and great anarchy. Great harm has come to many lives, families, businesses and communities. Quite honestly, in my opinion, I believe, we have all fallen short in this time of great pain of injustices in individuals, families, churches, communities, the law, and the government to some degree.
Psalm 89:15 – Your throne is founded on two pillars – the one is Justice and the other Righteousness. Mercy and Truth walk before you as your attendants. Blessed are those who hear the joyful blast of the trumpet, for they shall walk in the light of your presence.
(TLB: Paraphrased)
These two pillars of justice and righteousness are essential and vital for ALL lives individually and corporately and throughout our world. Justice and righteousness play a huge role in God’s heart, and He desires for each one of us to live and abide in the place of justice and righteousness. These are His standards and His requirements – no ifs, ands or buts. Our God is a God of Justice for ALL mankind and He is a God of Righteousness for ALL mankind and they partner together and will always be side by side in God’s heart and ways. Righteousness is God’s moral standard to what He holds as right and wrong and will hold man accountable to those standards. Justice is equality and impartiality of God’s moral law in society and He wants BOTH – He wants to protect ALL LIVES with His Justice and Righteousness.
Spiritually speaking, we have ALL wandered away from God’s value system which has led us to this very tipping point of great calamity and tragedy.
Being in the inner-healing ministry and working with lives that are broken, shattered, and in pain, seeing hearts that are hardened because of injustice and unrighteousness, I can emphatically say, all of us as human beings are trapped in our patterns of hurt, pain, and brokenness. In our lives of brokenness, we walk out sinful behaviors and patterns, as well as unresolved issues within our hearts. Those unresolved issues of the heart, that inner core pain, will manifest one way or the other as we are viewing daily in the news.
John Sandford once said, “The strongholds of lawlessness, individualism and “rights” have eroded the conscience of mankind (especially corporate awareness and care) and sadly, the conscience of the Church as well. That has caused people to think that whatever they do is private and does not affect others. We are corporate, which is first and foremost a fact of our existence, not just an attitude. Everything we do either blesses or affects others. We have not understood that our sins provoke the God of justice. Every sin violates others, no matter how secretly done. That means no matter how much our Father wants to, and does forgive individually, forgiveness does not do away with the need for justice which is, by definition, not individual but corporate.”
“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
(Mark 7:21-23 NIV)“The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?”
(Jeremiah 17:9 NRS)
As human beings, every one of us carries the stain of sin that was handed down by Adam and Eve. Man is corrupt, evil, and depraved. The truth and reality of our hearts are deceitful and untrustworthy and left unchecked, or if given an opportunity to express itself, will bring devastation, pain, and ruin. The human heart knows no race, no gender, no color, and no creed. At the very essence of our heart lies selfishness which demands its own way. What we do and what we say is a product of our heart and all our actions, attitudes, and desires are conceived in our heart. I can say as I watch the news, I see mankind’s heart bleeding literally and figuratively in much pain and in much need of God’s healing love of justice and righteousness for ALL LIVES . . . There is not one person today that has gone unscathed in what is happening, the young, the old, white, black, Latino, Christian, and non-Christian.
Keep vigilant watch over your heart;that’s where life starts.Proverbs 4:23 (MSG)
Your heart is the common ground where God and you meet. It’s the place where forgiveness is cultivated, where faith first takes root, where love grows, where hope blossoms, where mercy reaches fruition. Your heart is God’s greatest gift to you. It’s also your most significant responsibility. My question is “How are you keeping watch over your heart in these days?”
With the swirl of COVID-19, racial tension, peace protests and anarchic riots, disagreeable politics, and economic uncertainty, it is so much to take in and digest. Structures are surely overloaded in our systems: government, police, communities, churches, schools, and families. Hence, this would be a perfect time to realize we need an intervention—an intervention of a God who is most willing and most able to come and heal our hearts, our lives, and our nation from these enormous difficulties. Only He has the true solution and resolution for our hearts, our families, our communities, our nation and our government.
This is a very strategic time; I believe the Father is giving us an opportunity to evaluate our heart condition so that we can take stock of our family’s, community’s, and nation’s condition. The question is not how to move past this time but how can we ALL move into a place of truth, honor, and healing?
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (AmKJV)
Our government, lawmakers, police, and protestors (peaceful ones and anarchist) are unable to resolve these issues without our Creator, without our Savior and Healer. A greater virus than COVID-19 is ravishing our lives and that virus is an unredeemed heart, a hardened heart and a heart in great rebellion both individually and corporately which demands its own way for power and control.
As I started out in this article, I said I was coming from God’s perceptive, so it is there that I will try to sum up how we can try to move forward in these places both individually and corporately.
First, we cannot leave God out of this picture at this time of history. We must start with God and first know our identity in Christ, not our class, our culture or our race, but know our identity in Him as a Christian, as a son or daughter of the most high and holy God. Tony Evans said, “God racially profiles us in Heaven – if we are white, black, brown we will be white, black and brown for all eternity.” Embrace who you are in Him and move from that perspective before any other perspective.
Next, understand what these social injustices are. Do some homework and dig deep into the complexities of racial matters and do not just take things at face value because many hide behind the “Right Wording of Organizations.” Black Lives do Matter, just as all other lives matter. Understand what the organization is all about. Do your due diligence. Be in conversations across the aisle so we can see through other’s eyes and step into empathy and compassion. Remember, Jesus stepped into the arena of our troubles—He cried with those who cried and rejoiced with those who rejoiced.
Billy Graham wrote:
It’s true that terrible social injustices need to be righted, but this is NOT the whole problem. We will never reverse or turn around the moral leanings without a Spiritual Awakening . . . We must realize that while the law should guarantee human rights and restrain those who violate those rights, whenever people lack sympathy for the law, they will not long respect it even when they cannot repeal it. When the center of our trouble is dealt with . . . then and only then will we live with each other as brothers with brothers.
Thirdly, we need to see our nation back under God. We cannot go forward and see change unless we come to Christ and see Him as our true source of healing in our nation.
Finally, understand personal and corporate strongholds which are automatic, practiced, habitual ways of ungodly thinking that all have a life of their own, seeping out and spilling over to others further harming ourselves and those around us. We see these corporate strongholds controlling groups, masses, and even nations. Even good-hearted Christians can be affected with personal and corporate strongholds. It robs rational thinking, robs free will, creates tunnel vision, and most tragically, blocks out the Word of God. We are fighting a spiritual battle against mental strongholds and the principalities that wield them.
Here is a protocol that we can follow: The way God intended to see social injustices working in all lives is first with ourselves, then the family, the church, and then our community. There is a beautiful system God has already designed and created and shows us how to live in this world with all our differences. Fathers need to come to the table and live out and role model what a father is and how to live righteously and proactively being the priest of their home in godly character. In addition, churches need to be proactive in being agents of healing and change. Do not let race overrule God’s law and order. The church needs to talk, walk, and service these places of pain and be expressions of love in motion with one voice.
We are all hurting at this time. Remember, “hurt people hurt people,” but healed people heal people. Be an agent of healing in your life and in the lives of others.
Dear Lord,
Reveal the presence of these strongholds of __________ (for example: racism, addictions, communism, Marxism, extremist “rights” movements, self-righteousness, abortion, etc.) for they are blocking my thinking and keeping me from knowing Your truth. Show me, Lord, how I have participated in these patterns of thinking and behaving. I confess I have _________ (describe participation of thought, word or action), and I ask Your forgiveness.
Lord, show me the destruction and the cost of the damage that I have caused to those You love or to those around You. Lord, open my eyes of understanding and to see what You see. Lord, I repent of the hurt I have caused You, myself, and others. Write on my heart the pain I have caused You and others, so I will
not repeat these thoughts or behaviors.
Father help me in processing and identifying the bitter roots which made me vulnerable to these streams of thought and behavior. I commit myself to doing all I can to restore relationships with You, those I love, and those in my community. Lord, I ask you to wash me, and keep me hidden in You so I am no longer seduced by these strongholds. I renounce these thought patterns; I renounce behaviors accompanying them. I choose to imitate Jesus Christ and submit my mind to the working of the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
These are uncertain and fearful times we are living in … until we get our eyes back on Jesus and God’s infallible Word. Then we know where our hope comes from. And we can more clearly see that people are like sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36) so desperately looking for a savior who will lead them to righteousness and justice in this lost world. More and more we grasp that everyone needs the Gospel—the good news that the Savior has already come into the world, bringing salvation, everlasting life, along with healing and renewal to every heart and mind. He is able to destroy the strongholds that control us, setting us free to be born anew. This is what Freedom House Ministries (FHM) is all about—bringing Christ’s healing to believers, and even non-believers, who share their hurt and pain with us.
Thank you for making that happen on an almost daily basis as we counsel. Your financial gifts and prayers humble us and keep us doing what God has called FHM to do over these many years. Please place a check made out to Freedom House Ministries in the mail to Freedom House, c/o The Andersens, 3217 Scoville Ave, Berwyn IL 60602-3546. Or you can give online through our website using PayPal or your own personal credit card at freedomhouseministry.com and choose “Make a Donation.” Also, on our website check out our Schools tab where you’ll see that we will resume Course 201 & 202 in September. We would love to save a seat at the table for you!
With an Overflowing Heart of Gratitude,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry