Among our friends in ministry is one who literally died, appeared before Jesus in heaven and was sent back to Earth to complete his service to our Lord. Now he touches untold thousands for Christ.

In relating his death experience, he says that he found himself in heaven in a line of people who were standing on a moving path. One by one, each person in the line appeared before Jesus. All those on the path were dressed in white and were exceedingly happy.

On a parallel path moving toward the Lord were people who were exceedingly unhappy. These were clothed in that to which they had devoted their lives. Each was given the opportunity to look at Christ and He at them before the path turned downward.

When our friend appeared before Jesus, he was asked the one question that everyone in the line had been asked: “Did you learn to love?”

The Lord had not asked, “Did you ‘do’?” or even “Did you ‘go’?”–but “Did you love?” In other words, our friend was asked if, while he was on Earth, he had fulfilled the two greatest commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength'” and “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (Mark 12:30-31, NKJV).

Unable to Love
Until I heard the story of my friend’s experience, I did not realize that I was to seek to fulfill these commandments above all else–and the first one above all. However, I knew I was not able to correctly answer the “test” question put to all believers when they appeared before Christ.

Not only was I aware of my failure in this area, but I knew that I was incapable of loving God with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength. I confessed to my husband that I was unable to obey this most important commandment.

“Of course you can’t,” he answered calmly. “God must fulfill this through you.”

I sighed inwardly because I didn’t understand his answer. I saw that I couldn’t keep the first commandment, but I didn’t know how God would accomplish it through me either.

One day I stumbled upon the answer. Christianity is a way of life of supernaturally receiving that which we do not have and will never have in ourselves. Our Lord and Savior is to “be” and “do” everything within and through His disciples (see John 15:5; Rom. 15:18-19).

Only the Father can love the Son completely. Only the Son can return that love fully to the Father. Neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit has His own love. They love the Father and each other with the one, divine love issuing from the Father.

Only God can love God. His love has no limits. It was before all time and will be forever.

We ask that this eternal love of the Father for His Son be brought forth in us. We cannot originate it. But we experience it as if we did. Such is the mystery of God.

Obstacles to Love
The heart is the spiritual organ that may be flooded with the love of God or be cold and distant toward Him. That is the reason it is named first in the greatest commandment: “‘You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart‘” (Mark 12:30, emphasis added).

Ultimately, God’s love cannot be hindered. But we can slow the flow of it through us if we allow any of the three obstacles described below to prevent our hearts from being filled with love for Christ.

Unbelief. The beginning point of our falling in love with Jesus is to trust the Holy Spirit to put Christ’s own faith within our hearts to believe the Scripture. The primary word Jesus spoke concerning our falling in love with Him is John 17:26: “‘I [Jesus] have made You [Father] known to them [the disciples] and I will continue to do so, in order that the love You [Father] have for Me may be in them and so that I also may be in them'” (Good News Bible).

Faith must always be the first aspect in any spiritual advance. We cannot love Jesus until we trust Him to be in us what He requires of us (see 1 Cor. 1:30). Christianity is not a way of life in which we “do” more and more and therefore appear to be more Christlike. Christianity is a way of life in which we get out of the way more and more and allow Christ to manifest Himself through us (see 2 Cor. 4:10-11).

Faith and love are bound together in the Word. Faith works through love. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6, NKJV, emphasis added). Fortunately faith and love are gifts given to us because we are in Christ Jesus.

Therefore we ask the Holy Spirit to bring forth Christ’s faith in the Word concerning this divine love available to us, so “that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith; that [we], being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height [of ever-expanding divine love]–to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19).

Unforgiveness. A second hindrance to Christ’s love flowing through us is unforgiveness. We are always to remember the inestimable love of God in His forgiveness of our past sins through Christ Jesus.

For many Christians this mercy is the greatest motive for loving Jesus. The Lord said, “‘Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little'” (Luke 7:47).

Which of us has not been forgiven much–for our sins are many? If we deceive ourselves that we do not have our old sin nature in us, we are self-righteous (see 1 John 1:8).

Extending full forgiveness to others who may have wronged us is a key to keeping our hearts open to allow the love of Christ to flow through them. Paul said we must be committed to “forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Col. 3:13, emphasis added). Of ourselves, we are unable to forgive others as He forgave us–fully and forever. But Christ’s divine love through us for others includes His forgiveness of them.

Many of us have sought to love our neighbors as ourselves. But a hidden truth is revealed when we follow the order the Lord has given to us in His Word.

We find that if we pursue the Lord with our whole heart, love for others becomes a blessed actuality. Jesus declared this fact when He said, “‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word [summed up in His new commandment to love one another as He does]'” (John 14:23, emphasis added; see also 13:34 ).

Divided heart. The Bible tells us that another major impediment to our loving Jesus as His Father does is a divided heart. In order for divine love to be effective, one’s heart needs to be fully available for Christ to dwell there. We are to be strengthened with power through Jesus’ spirit in our inner person, “so that Christ may finally settle down and feel completely at home in [our] hearts” (Eph. 3:17, Wuest).

But what if part of our hearts loves the things of this world? The Scriptures ask us: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). God the Father cannot be satisfied with a heart that is only partially available to love His Son.

The apostle John warns us: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15, emphasis added). “The world” here is not the physical earth but a biblical term for Satan’s kingdom–his gaudy façade–on this planet. He rules over a pseudo-culture where human beings are exalted above God.

The warning continues, “For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world” (v. 16). The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are trinkets, hollow rewards dangled before us like jewels by Satan to entice us to turn our eyes and our hearts from Jesus. But if we refuse to be tricked or distracted by “the world,” the Holy Spirit can begin a work in our hearts.

When we are born again, we receive a new heart: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:26). But our bodily desires and unregenerated mind, will and emotions (together known as “the flesh”) can back up into this pristine heart, clogging it.

Therefore the Holy Spirit daily prepares for each disciple his “cross”–opportunities whereby he may choose God over his flesh (see Matt. 16:24). Each time we choose the Lord over gratification of our fallen nature, a chamber is cleansed within the heart. Into each cleansed chamber rushes the living God (see John 14:23).

Love like a torrent, like a swift cataract speeds to occupy every cleansed room. Love begets love until we can be satisfied with nothing but complete union with Christ. Only complete oneness satisfies our Father (see John 17:21-23). Therefore, only complete oneness will satisfy His children.

When we seek the Lord for His sake alone, longing to know Him as He knows us, we receive some surprising benefits. Without straining or trying, we find Him loving others through us. We begin seeing them as the Lord sees them: either helplessly lost without Christ or in various stages of growing up into Christ.

Another benefit is that we–in a sense–wake up. The world loses its allure. Nothing it has to offer–fame, fortune, power, position–can motivate or control us.

Why would we want any of these? We are in love with and loved by the most renowned, wealthy, powerful and loving person in existence. No mere human can be all that Jesus is. No mere human can do all that He does. No mere human can love as He loves.

There is a legend among the First Nations peoples about a beautiful Indian maiden who rejected every suitor. Her mother feared that she might ultimately overlook every eligible brave.

But one day, a handsome, shining admirer from a distant land visited her. He asked for her hand in marriage. She quickly accepted and left her home to live in that far-off country with him.

We are like that maiden. Our hearts hunger for One who is not like everyone else, who is more than merely human. No one can fill the longing we feel for Love Himself.

Like the maiden, we don’t want to settle for less than the best. We don’t want a passionless existence; we simply want to channel all our passion toward the right One. We were created to experience the best.

Mankind has searched this planet and beyond. We have followed every false god and every form of distraction and thrill. But there is only One who is eternal and who is a perpetual, ever-new delight: He is Jesus.

Therefore, set yourself to know Him–really know Him–and learn to love Him above all else. Do not let the enemy deceive you by telling you that there are equally glorious pursuits, equally great attainments. There are not. He is the Prize–and when you pursue Him, all things, all things, all things are added unto you (see Matt. 6:33; Rom. 8:32; 1 Cor. 3:21-23; Col. 2:10).  

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“Anna” Rountree is actually a husband-and-wife team who spent several years in pastoral ministry. They are the authors of The Heavens Opened and The Priestly Bride (Charisma House).

Have you ever thought God was saying something to you, but you weren’t sure it was really His voice you were hearing? Have you found yourself thinking, How do I know it was really God I heard and not my own imagination–or worse, the enemy?

God’s solution is simple: “‘If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him'” (James 1:5, NIV). When we need to know if we are hearing God’s voice, all we have to do is ask Him!

We can go to God, tell Him what we think we heard Him say, and then ask Him to confirm it or correct our hearing on the matter. God wants to give us an understanding of what He says to us because He wants to communicate with us. He is eager to teach us to correctly hear His voice.

What are some steps we can take to make sure we’re hearing God?

1. Put your faith in the right thing. When I was first learning to hear God’s voice, I went overboard in my need to double-check my hearing. I was so afraid I might hear God wrong that I tended to check and recheck my hearing on just about everything. I became very sluggish in obeying God because I spent so much time verifying everything I heard.

My problem was that I had placed my faith in the wrong thing. I was trusting in my ability to hear God–instead of in His ability and faithfulness to speak clearly and to correct and redirect me if I heard wrong.

I used to think that “correction” was the same as “punishment.” But God revamped my thinking by reminding me of my old ice skating coach.

I really liked him. He would watch me try to execute a move and then offer feedback, saying something such as: “Your weight is drifting to the left when you turn. You need to keep it balanced over your skating foot.”

I knew I had just been corrected, but I wasn’t put down or made to feel small or punished. The intent of the correction was to help me excel, and as I applied what he told me, my skating improved.

God told me that I should look to Him as my coach when it came to hearing His voice. He promised that He would let me know when I got something wrong and how to correct it so I could excel in following Him. Suddenly correction became something to be desired instead of something to be feared, and I found out just how faithful and committed God is to the process of teaching us to hear Him.

2. Look for scriptural precedents. It is wise to get into the habit of checking what God says to us against Scripture. God will not say something to us that contradicts what the Bible says. There will be certain “words” we can eliminate immediately as “not from God” when we line them up against what God has already said in the Bible.

At the same time, there are many areas that the Bible does not address explicitly. Still, God is often willing to give us a scriptural precedent for what He says to us. For instance, imagine that you are trying to decide which of two job offers God wants you to accept. You believe He is telling you to take job offer No. 2, one that will put you in contact with hurting people to whom you can minister. But job offer No. 2 is a much lower-paying job than job offer No. 1, so you want to be sure you are hearing God.

You ask Him for a confirmation, and as you’re considering your decision, God directs your attention to Matthew 9:12-13: “‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'” Those words come alive to you, and you realize that you have just received the confirmation you need to take the second job. God will often use such scriptural precedents to help confirm His communication to us.

3. Don’t fleece God. We must not give God an ultimatum about how He is to confirm His word to us. That’s called “putting a fleece before the Lord,” and it refers to the experience of Gideon found in Judges 6:36-40.

God wanted Gideon to lead Israel in battle against the Midianites, but Gideon was not feeling very confident in his calling–or in his hearing from God. So he laid a fleece (a sheepskin) on the floor and asked God to make the morning dew come only on the fleece, and not on the ground around the fleece. God did this for him, but poor Gideon was still unconvinced. The next night he asked God to reconfirm His word by covering the ground with dew but leaving the fleece dry. Once again, God did as Gideon requested.

Based on this passage, some people assume that they can tell God precisely how to confirm or correct what they believe they have heard Him say to them. In essence, they believe they can dictate the “supernatural hoops” through which God must jump to prove He really said what they believe they heard.

God allowed Gideon to fleece Him, but there is no indication that He was setting a precedent for the rest of us to follow. In fact, there is a strong scriptural precedent against telling God specifically what to do.

Jesus Himself refused Satan’s suggestion to put a fleece before God by casting Himself off the highest point of the temple. Instead, Jesus said, “‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test'” (Matt. 4:7).

When we go back to God for confirmation, we need to allow Him to choose how He will correct or confirm what we heard. It is not our place to dictate how He does this. Instead, we must trust that He will do it in a way that we can clearly recognize as being from Him.

4. Avoid making assumptions. When hearing God’s voice, we need to be very careful about making assumptions. God can speak to us very clearly, and we can hear Him accurately.

But we can still go wrong by making an assumption about what God means by what He says, only to discover later that we heard God but didn’t understand Him. We have to be very careful not to put words in God’s mouth.

Let me give you an example of how this can happen. A close friend of mine had been praying for some time about a deep and painful rift in her relationship with her sister. Then she received a prophetic word from a lady who seemed to really hear from God.

The word had to do with the restoration of a broken relationship in my friend’s life. However, the lady proceeded to assume that the relationship in question was between my friend and her husband, and she began to minister to my friend about her marriage (which was, in reality, rock solid).

The prophet had received a very keen word from God about my friend’s situation, but the power of that word was almost lost when she assumed the relationship involved was with a spouse. This is an example of how we can accurately hear from God and then make assumptions that mislead others and us. We want to be careful to avoid doing that!

5. Recognize areas of “hearing loss.” We need to remember that there are certain areas of our lives in which our hearing is likely to be less accurate. It is more difficult to hear God clearly in areas where we have “big stakes” in the answer, where our hearts are tremendously engaged or where we know we have a history of hearing wrong. We must double-check these areas and ask God to confirm what we’ve heard.

Here’s an example. A friend of mine who hears God pretty well in most areas of her life recently went through a divorce. After a “recovery period” of a few months, she met a single man who seemed to be everything she wanted in a husband. She thought she began to hear God speaking to her about this man, telling her that indeed he was the man He had for her.

I strongly suspected that this was her own heart speaking, not God, and I tried to find a gentle way to tell her this. But she thought God was saying more and more detailed things to her. She thought she heard Him tell her that her Christmas present from this man would be an engagement ring, with the wedding following shortly after that.

She was so sure she was hearing God’s voice! But December came and went, and she didn’t receive any Christmas present from this man–much less an engagement ring. Later he told her that he considered her no more than a casual friend.

She was devastated not only because the man was not interested in her but also because she had been so wrong in hearing God. She had failed to recognize her own heart imitating God’s voice to her. She didn’t double-check her hearing with God, because she so desperately wanted to hear what she thought she heard.

6. Be ready to obey. Once we hear God, it’s important that we obey what we hear. There are two kinds of obedience: cheap obedience, which is obeying when the stakes are not very high or when it doesn’t cost us much to obey; and expensive obedience, which is obeying when significant consequences are involved. The job decision mentioned earlier is an example of expensive obedience because it involved a choice between a low-paying job and a higher-paying one.

But money doesn’t have to be the issue. For example, if you believe God is telling you to terminate a relationship because it’s unhealthy, that is expensive obedience; if you’ve heard wrong, you put a relationship that is important to you at risk. You want to be sure you have heard from God before you do something that could require expensive obedience.

On the other hand, if the obedience required is low cost or low risk, then you should always and instantly obey. It may very well be God speaking to you, and you want to be in the habit of obeying God instantly rather than spending a great deal of time double-checking with Him first.

God understands that it can be frightening for us as we begin venturing out in hearing and obeying Him. He knows we need confirmation from Him to be sure we have really heard Him correctly. But God is not only willing–He is also eager to meet us and teach us to hear His voice. All we have to do is ask.

Read a companion devotional.

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Teresa Seputis is an ordained minister and founder and head of GodSpeak International, a nonprofit missions and equipping agency dedicated to making disciples.  She is the author of How to Hear the Voice of God in a Noisy World (Charisma House), from which this article was adapted.

The July 4 celebration in our quaint Texas town drew 50,000 visitors. I stood onstage at Granbury Live, the Branson-style theater where I work, and sang “Amazing Grace” to a sell-out crowd.

Before I sensed a call to ministry, I had dreamed of being a wife, mom and musical theater performer. But I thought those dreams and my calling couldn’t possibly co-exist.

By the time I entered Baylor University, I had my life all planned–college, marriage at 23, children by 26 and a successful singing career. But when my college years came and went without Mr. Right’s showing up, I questioned God. Obviously, I had missed the boat and was sure I was destined to be single forever.

I graduated with a vocal music degree and went on the road with a Christian musical theater group. It was a perfect blending of my talents and dreams.

During rehearsal camp I met my husband, Carey Dyer, a funny, godly guy with a great voice and a big heart. I knew instantly that he was “the one,” but he didn’t realize that I was to be his soul mate until 10 months later.

After we were married we started trying to have a baby almost immediately and didn’t have to wait long to conceive. But sadly, our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

I had never prepared myself for that possibility. People kept telling us, “Oh, you’ll get pregnant again within a couple months–everybody does.” But as time dragged on I began to wonder if we would ever have a child of our own.

I was still active in ministry, singing in our church and supporting Carey, who was a seminary student and youth pastor, but I fell into depression and doubted God. Had I done something to displease Him? One by one the questions came, but there were no answers.

Finally, we saw a specialist. Our tests all came back normal, and three weeks later, I realized I was pregnant. With that blessing came a flood of uneasiness, but God kept whispering, “Trust Me.”

He used those nine difficult months to teach me more about waiting and about Himself. Now we have a precious son, Jordan Ray, whose coming was that much sweeter because we had yearned and prayed for him.

Last year God opened a door for us to perform each weekend in a new Christian theater on our town’s historic square. God fulfilled seemingly unrelated desires in His perfect timing. So when I sing about our Savior’s grace, I believe every word. And, hopefully, the audience can tell.

You can trust God to bring it to pass–as long as you don’t settle for less than his best.

Many of us are pregnant with a word that God has spoken to us either directly or through someone else. But if we have been carrying the word for a season with no indication that it is about to be birthed, we can become discouraged.

What promise has God proclaimed to you personally? Is it the restoration of your family? A ministry that mends the brokenhearted? Or a business that prospers and produces?

I challenge you not to settle for anything less than what God has spoken to you in the seclusion of your soul. The Bible tells us that He is not a man that He should lie (see Num. 23:19); if He said it, He will bring it to pass.

The problem that most of us face is not the promise or the provision for it. It is the process we endure to procure the promise. This process often threatens to abort the word before it is brought to full fruition.

That’s what happened in my life. When I was 5 years old my father committed suicide. From the ages of 6 to 13 I was sexually and physically abused.

The devil tried hard to keep me from my destiny. But at age 18 I heard the gospel. The revelation that Jesus died on an old rugged cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, rose again on the third day and ascended to heaven so that I could be reconciled to my heavenly Father, God, revolutionized my life. Salvation was the starting point for all truth to be unveiled to me.

I began to realize I had a promise. That promise included protection, provision, safety, deliverance, wholeness, restoration and eternity in heaven.

I remind you that God is “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34, KJV). In other words, He “shows no partiality” (NKJV). What He did for me He will do for you.

God has a promise for you. You need to tell the devil that you have decided not to settle, not to compromise or give up on what God has proclaimed for you. That is what his tactics have always been designed to do–to convince you to forfeit the promise of God.

His plan for Joseph, the dreamer, is a perfect example–and he used Joseph’s brothers to carry it out. When they saw him coming, they said, “‘Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, “Some wild beast has devoured him.” We shall see what will become of his dreams!'” (Gen. 37:19). This is the way the enemy works to defeat us.

The first thing he desires to do is to “kill” us. He wants to immobilize us–to paralyze us with so much pain that we are “cast into a pit,” or place of bondage.

The comment, “We shall see what will become of his dreams!” reveals his motive. He wants to steal our dreams.

How does this work in your life? Your dream is your destiny. It is the thing God has promised you.

The devil wants to destroy the dream, the destiny inside you. He may have sent an assignment when you were 5 to keep you messed up when you were 50, but don’t receive it. The devil is a liar!

Allow God to turn what the enemy meant as a stumbling block into a stepping stone. He has the ability to take the negatives in our lives and turn them into positives. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Whatever God has begun in your life, He will finish (see Phil.1:6). What He has spoken, He will manifest. What He has promised, He will perform–as long as you can endure the process.

To endure means to stand firm under pressure. When you are under pressure you discover what is in you–and what is in you has already prepared you to prevail. “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

FROM PROMISE TO PROVISION
David is a person who learned how to endure while waiting for his promise. When he first received it, he was merely a shepherd boy. He had no royal background or impressive pedigree.

In fact, his own family apparently did not value him. When the prophet Samuel announced that he was coming to the home of David’s father, Jesse, to anoint one of his sons as the next king over Israel, Jesse didn’t even put David in the line-up.

David wasn’t concerned. He knew something we have to learn: As long as God has chosen you, it doesn’t matter how many people bypass you. His purposes will prevail.

Most theologians believe that David was approximately 13 to 17 years old when the prophet Samuel anointed him to be king. He was 30 years old when he actually began to reign over Israel (see 2 Sam. 5:4). That is a long time to be pregnant with a promise!

For approximately 17 years David was dwelling in caves, running from an army of men who were trying to kill him, eating whatever he could get his hands on and hanging out with a bunch of misfits who were discontented, distressed and in debt. How frustrating to know that you have a promise but to see no indicator in the natural realm that what you are believing for will be manifest!

But David held on. Ultimately he fulfilled all the will of the Lord and completed every assignment God had for him (see Acts 13:22). How did he do it?

Just before David died, he told an account that I believe will help us learn the secret to his victory (see 2 Sam. 23). He described a time when he was camped out with his mighty men and told them that he longed for a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem. When they heard the cry of their leader, three of the men risked their lives to break through the garrison of the Philistines, David’s longtime enemies, and get the water.

Considering the intensity of David’s desire, you would have thought he would be grateful for their commitment–and for the water they brought back. But instead, he took the cup of water and poured it onto the ground.

I believe David was making a statement about himself, his men and all those who would put their trust in God. His statement was simply: “not just a cup.” In other words, why settle for only a cup of water when God has promised you the entire well?

Today you must determine to be like David and refuse to settle for less than what God has promised you. Whatever you are pregnant with will be birthed if you endure the process with patience and trust God for the provision!

Read acompanion devotional.

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Paula White pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla. She also is a popular speaker and author.

The number of incercerated women in America is escalating. How can the church serve them and their families?

Society calls them “criminals,” “crackheads” and “losers,” but to those of us who find our pulpits inside prison walls, they are JoAnn, Mary and Tonya–sisters and friends. Frequently we who minister “behind the wall” find tender hearts that are open to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

During the first century when many Christians were being imprisoned for their faith, the writer of Hebrews stressed the need for believers to strengthen and comfort the body of Christ behind prison walls and to share their brethren’s suffering (see Heb. 13:1-3). It is for this reason that thousands of workers leave the comforts of home each week and travel for hours to the rural areas where most prisons are located.

They are there to minister to those in spiritual and emotional chains; this is their mission field. When you ask them why, you will probably hear, “I see the glory of the Father in each of these women” or “But for the grace of God, there go I.”

I was introduced to prison ministry early in the late 1950s. My mother, Marguerite Nash, was deputy sheriff and matron of the Summit County Jail in Akron, Ohio.

It was difficult to understand her interest in “her girls” until shortly after my conversion to Christ, when she asked me to minister to them. For the first time, I experienced the joy of giving hope to those who had suffered the wounds of abuse, discrimination, domestic violence, prostitution and rape along with the hopelessness of incarceration.

Fifteen years later, Prison Fellowship invited me to speak in the maximum-security unit of a women’s prison in Delaware. My first reaction was sheer terror.

I thought: What do I have to say to these women? I have never been to prison. To my surprise, the women were positive, upbeat and open to receive Christ.

My maiden voyage into prison ministry was life-changing. So significant was this event that for the next seven years I served as an in-prison seminar instructor in state and federal prisons throughout the nation.

Now I serve as the national chairperson of the Operation Starting Line Women’s Task Force. I find myself doing a “life sentence” on the installment plan.

PRISON TRENDS
Today, the primary function of penal institutions is retribution–vengeance and punishment–for those who threaten public safety. But from the late 1800s to the early 1900s prisons were places of rehabilitation.

Quaker and Mennonite ministers encouraged prisoners to reflect on their crimes and helped them with penitence. This is the term from which we derive the name “penitentiary.” Offenders were released and welcomed back into the community through forgiveness and reconciliation after paying their debt to society.

A trip to any prison today will confirm that we need to do something more than what we are doing now. Sadly, most people don’t care about prisons as long as neither they nor a family member has to spend time in one.

However, if current trends in the United States continue, in 20 years everyone will know someone in prison, and all citizens will be paying taxes to keep the offenders there.

The number of incarcerated females in America has exploded from 13,400 in 1980 to more than 200,000 today. At approximately 2 million, the total number of inmates represents as many as 1.5 million minor children with one or more parents in jail.

Incarcerated females were the principal caregivers for 75 percent of these children. Most go into foster care or some other form of state custody.

Clearly, women and men come to prison with very different issues–and for different reasons. It is a frightening place. Many women find themselves ill-equipped to handle the emotional roller coaster they must endure.

Because women make up a smaller percentage of the incarcerated population and their sentences are shorter, many falsely assume that programs designed for males work just as well for females. Consequently, women prisoners have not received the attention they deserve.

In spite of booming prison construction, most states have only one facility for women, which increases the possibility of a one-time offender’s being bunked with a career offender. While incarcerated, women also face more physical, verbal and emotional abuse than male inmates.

The profile of the typical female offender includes substance abuse, low self-esteem and sexual abuse. Typically, they are in their mid-20s and are serving time for drug-related or property crimes.

Ramah International, a post-abortion ministry, reports that 60 to 80 percent of incarcerated women today have had abortions. They hypothesize that abortion is a key factor in criminal behavior because many women view it as the unforgivable sin.

Reaching these women with the love of God isn’t easy. Their rehabilitation requires a loving approach that fosters healing in every aspect of their lives.

OPERATION STARTING LINE
And that’s just what Operation Starting Line (OSL) is equipped to provide. The organization was birthed in 1998 when Chuck Colson and Tom Pratt, founder and president, respectively, of Prison Fellowship, Reid Carpenter, president of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, and Franklin Graham embraced a mandate from God to lead an army of volunteers into one of the last frontiers of evangelism.

Operation Starting Line is a collaboration of several Christian ministries. The program is designed to take the gospel to every prison in America through the use of open-air meetings.

During these campaigns, hundreds of volunteers speak one-on-one to inmates. Those prisoners who are interested are invited to attend a six-week Bible study and to become involved with the inside church or enroll in Christian training and education. OSL seeks to empower and equip Christian inmates to minister behind the wall where real prison evangelism ministry takes place.

The OSL Women’s Task Force is comprised of 20 women–from an ex-offender to leaders of major Christian women’s organizations. Together we have developed a scriptural and holistic curriculum that will address the unique needs of incarcerated women.

As a way to deter recidivism–the return to criminal behavior following release–volunteers are trained to deal compassionately with the complex needs of women, many of whom have been wounded, traumatized and criminalized by abortion, guilt, shame, fear, suicide and prostitution.

Bringing scriptural understanding to issues of anger and forgiveness as they relate to homosexuality, abortion, drugs and alcohol requires skill and training. A 180-page syllabus prepares volunteers and churches to provide a support network for women returning to the community.

LIVES THAT WERE CHANGED
Operation Starting Line has proved that the lives of inmates can be turned around by the gospel. Here are a few examples of those who triumphed after being won to Christ while in prison.

Audrey was sexually molested at 13. When she was silenced by her mother, her life spiraled down until her grades made her almost ineligible to finish high school.

A series of illicit affairs with all types of men followed. One of the men turned her on to drugs.

By her mid-20s Audrey was addicted to cocaine and drinking heavily. To support her cocaine habit, she began shoplifting.

After years of doing drugs and committing crimes she was sentenced to prison, where she heard the gospel and accepted Jesus through a mentoring program. After her release, she earned a master’s degree and enrolled in a doctoral program while working as a counselor at drug-treatment facilities and halfway houses.

Saundra, addicted to cocaine and down to her last $10 in food stamps, went to a store to buy bananas and cereal for her children. On impulse, she robbed the attendant at gunpoint.

She was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison, and her children ended up in foster homes. But God used prison to set Saundra free through Christian inmates who kept inviting her to Bible studies.

After serving five years, Saundra started Inside-Outside Prison Ministry. She has traveled to churches within the United States and Africa, training women to care for their children.

Connie was depressed and attempting suicide when her car careened over the divider and hit another car head-on. The driver, a young mother, was killed.

When the husband and father of the victim visited Connie and offered her forgiveness, healing began in her life. She served five years and during that time became born again. Now she is a caregiver for children and the elderly.

Patricia was addicted to drugs and a practicing homosexual. She was also a burglar, prostitute and check forger who found Christ while serving 11 years in prison. Patricia now holds a responsible position with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Cassandra’s oppression by demonic forces led to a life of drugs and bizarre conduct. When she was convicted of armed robbery and a probation violation, she was sentenced to prison for five years.

Her destructive behavior caused her to be in the “hole” (prison within the prison), where she heard an inmate singing “Amazing Grace.” The inmate shared her faith with Cassandra, who was later nurtured by Fran Howard, a prison volunteer and founder of Freedom in the Son (FITS). Cassandra is now a community health worker in California.

IT TAKES THE FAMILY OF GOD
None of these women made it alone. Each one needed a mentor or volunteer to provide a support system along with spiritual and social resources.

Full restoration requires that an entire congregation become involved with the offender in a long-term continuum of aftercare. Help is initiated by the church but carried out by the inmate as she participates in her full recovery from a criminal lifestyle.

In his epistle to Philemon the apostle Paul encouraged him to receive Onesimus, the fugitive slave converted under Paul’s ministry, as a beloved brother–not a slave. Furthermore, Paul offered to pay Philemon for anything Onesimus had taken.

This story remarkably illustrates the character of Paul and the transfiguring power of the gospel. According to Ignatius, an early Christian historian, Onesimus later became a bishop in Ephesus.

The key here is that Paul looked at his converts and saw the glory of the Father in each face. We who desire to minister to inmates must do the same if we hope to penetrate prison walls.

Countless volunteer opportunities exist for mentors, Bible study leaders and workers for evangelistic events. Project Angel Tree reached nearly a half million children of inmates last year. Pen-pal volunteers can encourage women behind bars through their letters and cards.

Ultimately, ministry to prisoners and their families requires a genuine love for the lost and the understanding that Jesus saves from the uttermost to the uttermost. As we speak His truth, we will see God’s glory manifested in the transformed lives of incarcerated women.

Read a companion devotional.

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Lorraine Williams has beeb a national chairperson for Operation Starting Line Women’s Task Force. To volunteer for ministry to women in prison, you may aapply online at .

Larry Lea says he has made mistakes, but he insists that his calling from God was never revoked.

For Larry Lea, now remarried and living in Southern California, the future holds hope even though the last decade has seen the destruction of his ministry and first marriage. In an interview with Charisma, Lea says his life and ministry broke down because of a loss of prayer support after the PrimeTime Live exposé by ABC-TV in 1991.

The intercessors he had raised up through his TV ministry permitted the prayer protection around him to come down, he says. He also says that in the early 1990s prayer leader C. Peter Wagner publicly apologized to him for Christians’ failure to support him in prayer.

Lea told Charisma that although the Ethics and Financial Integrity Commission of the National Religious Broadcasters gave his ministry a “total clean bill of health,” his attempts to resume ministering were thwarted because most of his friends from the Church on the Rock movement had decided to no longer fellowship with his ministry.

The events triggered an episode of bipolar disorder similar to what he had suffered as a teen-ager. “The cumulative effect of the loss of church and ministry, [along] with real depression triggered by the IRS pounding,” led to a divorce, he says. For that, Lea, who remains president of Larry Lea Ministries, offers these words directly to fellow Christians.

“I haven’t known how to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ to all that I offended,” he says. “I sincerely pray that you will … forgive me as Jesus and Melva have. This marital failure has been a great offense to many of you in the ministry, [and] for this I deeply apologize.” Lea adds he doesn’t “know completely” what caused the failure and why years of counseling didn’t work.

He refuses to answer questions about the “divided heart” his former wife speaks of, and he cites their divorce contract, which states they would not discuss the details of the divorce for the sake of their children.

“I mentioned that Jesus and Melva have both forgiven me of all the things I’ve done wrong, and I rejoice and praise God,” he says. “Whatever my part, it has been openly confessed to God, and it has been forgiven.”

Lea has been remarried for close to three years and says he has preached almost weekly around the world for 10 years. For four years he has been what he calls the “apostolic overseer” to a church in Sherman, Texas, where he preaches once a month. Lea and his wife, Leah, live in Dana Point, California, because Lea says he “felt a strong sense that God would greatly use me in California.”

Throughout his interview with Charisma, Lea repeatedly emphasized Romans 11:29, which says the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. “I have an anointing to build, but I’d rather build through others now,” he says. “I now interpret my future ministry as a ladder holder, not a ladder climber.”

When asked what mistakes he made, Lea says he took on too much responsibility and didn’t live a balanced life. “In the late 1980s I had so much on my plate,” he says. “When I got hit I had no reserves left.”

He also says he delegated too much and should have been more detail-oriented with his ministry’s business affairs. Of his depression, he says he knew how to deal with it because he had gone through it as a teen-ager. He was on nonaddictive antidepressant medications until recently.

“I don’t think the church understands depression,” he says. “If you had diabetes, I wouldn’t consider you sinful for taking insulin. We now know conclusively that certain imbalances in the brain cannot be stabilized by all the prayer in the world. The brain is an organ in the body like your stomach or heart. I’ve gotten the best medicine there is, and the best prayer there is.”

He faced a different challenge in November 2000 when he was diagnosed with fast-moving cancer. He received prayer from Benny Hinn during a crusade, and doctors have said he is cancer-free.

Through it all Lea confesses optimism. “The best thing is, I’m at peace with God, myself and my future,” he says. “I sleep great at night and wake up doing what I’ve always done–go somewhere and pray every day. It’s a great time in my life. The sadness and sorrow are being taken out.”

The thing I miss most about being a pilot in the Marines is the Ready Room, where we gathered before and after our flights.

It smelled of sweaty flight suits, and occasionally, coarse humor blued the air while our inflated egos competed, but I loved it nonetheless.

Then came the day I had to let it all go. I hadn’t grown up in the church, so when I met Christ in a bunker in Vietnam, my life had to change.

Being a fighter pilot had been my dream since childhood, and here I was living it. But one morning as I sat reading the Bible, I struggled to understand what Paul was saying in Romans 8:15: “You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father'” (NIV).

Then it hit me like a wall–a wall of grace. I finally had a Father I could count on, One who would always be there for me and love me outrageously.

It is nearly impossible to describe the impact of that truth. When you enter the world as an illegitimate child, grow up with an alcoholic mom and succession of seven stepfathers, that is a transforming revelation!

But God wasn’t through shaking up my categories. The next thing I heard was the Lord firmly saying: Ted, if you ever fly again, you will fly without Me. I have called you to care for My people, especially those who don’t know they are mine.

My flying days were over, and I knew it. The question was, could I let go? It wouldn’t be easy, but I soon learned the hard way that God was serious about what He had said to me.

After I entered the ministry, I was talked into co-piloting a plane chartered by the church I served. When we lost one engine and couldn’t get the landing gear down, I told the young pilot just to land it “gear up.”

In combat flying that was nothing unusual. But when I saw all the blood drain from his face, I knew I had better find a way to get the gear down. We did and landed safely.

The pilot was muttering to himself about how he had never been on a flight with so many emergencies. Then I told him what God had said to me. That’s when he yelled, “Jonah!” and threw the flight manual at me.

It’s been a struggle learning to yield to God’s best for my life. A story in John 21 has helped me to learn to let go.

Peter and his friends have fished all night and caught nothing. Christ calls out to the men from the shore, “Friends, have you caught anything?”

Then came one of the greatest miracles of the New Testament–a group of fishermen told the truth! This is incredible because fishermen make golfers look honest.

Christ, whom the men haven’t yet recognized, tells them where to place their nets, and they start hauling in a truckload of fish. Peter claws away at pulling in this blessing, then suddenly freezes: “Wait a minute, it’s Jesus!”

At that moment he finds himself in the dilemma all strong-willed men will face at some point: Do I hold on to what I want, or do I leap off the boat and go for the One who gave it to me?

Peter jumped overboard. He let go. I am sure as he swam ashore he must have wrestled with his decision: I’m hungry. I’ve fished all night. It doesn’t make any sense to let go of the fish, but I am going for Jesus.

Once he pulled his sorry, soggy self ashore, he makes an amazing discovery. He was going to be enjoying fillet of sole prepared by the Savior of his soul.

Whenever we let go and wholeheartedly decide to obey Jesus, we discover that we get Jesus, and, in the process, find that He restores the years and things that have been taken from us through our addictions, our mistakes, the wounds and failures of others–you name it! But we have to let go.

You see, if we let go, we can have it all! I think the only thing I deeply fear now is coming to the end of my days and finding out that my fears, pride or just plain old stubbornness held me back from God’s best. Held me back to the place I might find myself saying, “I wonder what would have happened if I had…?”

In our church’s building expansion, they constructed a room for me to meet with the prayer and service teams, a band of committed people. They named it, “The Ready Room.” I smile every time I enter. I am so thankful I let go.

Ted Roberts is a retired Marine fighter pilot and co-founder with his wife, Diane, of Pure Desire Ministries International. He is the former pastor of East Hill Foursquare Church in Gresham, Ore., where he served for 22 years. He is the author of two books, Going Deeper and Pure Desire.