When a woman is planning to be married, she generally spends months preparing for the wedding ceremony. She shops for a wedding dress, chooses outfits for her attendants, orders flowers, addresses and mails out invitations, secures a location for the reception, engages a photographer and musicians, schedules a church and a clergyman, and does scores of other related, time-consuming tasks, all to ensure that the service itself will be a memorable occasion and a fit beginning for her new life–a life she has yearned for and dreamed about for a long time.

What some of us don’t realize is that whether we have ever planned, or will ever plan, a wedding in the natural, we are preparing for a marriage in eternity with the Lamb of God.

God’s plan for us is that we become the bride of Christ. According to Anna Rountree, author of The Heavens Opened (Creation House), this plan is much like an arranged marriage. At the point of our new birth, our future spiritual marriage is set up in heaven somewhat as arranged marriages are here on Earth. It is essential that we keep this vision before us throughout our lives so that every decision we make will serve the end of preparing us for our destined role.

Just before the holiday season our family traveled out of state to attend an interdenominational charismatic conference. My 3-year-old grandson, Christian, accompanied us, and when he saw me the first morning dressed in a new winter outfit, he was wide-eyed with delight and especially impressed with my red shoes.

Looking down at them and then at me, Christian exclaimed the words that blessed this grandmother’s heart, “Oh Grammy, you look soooo pretty! You look just like a clown!”

High praise indeed from a 3-year-old!

–Cynthia Duerfeldt

A WOMAN OF GOD

The memory of a car with a flat tire in a seemingly deserted Southern area and a black woman singing and playing a tambourine in front of it is a scene Amy Stevens, presiding bishop of the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, will never forget. It was 1946, and the singing woman, Ida Robinson, soon had an audience of people.

As was her custom when she had an audience, Sister Robinson began to preach. She was convinced that the flat tire was allowed by God so these people could hear the gospel.

Few people today remember this fiery revivalist. But every time they go past a congregation affiliated with the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, they see the legacy of Bishop Ida Bell Robinson, the founder of the Pentecostal organization.

Millions of women around the world suffer fromthe pain of post-abortion syndrome. But God has the key to setting them free.

From the time I was a little girl, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up—a wife and a mommy. But my life took a turn that would prevent part of this desire from ever being fulfilled.

As a teenager, I rebelled against God and my family. I ran with a rough crowd, did all sorts of drugs, and married a man who beat and abused me.

I got pregnant for the first time several months before our planned wedding. My “Prince Charming” convinced me I should “get it taken care of” so that the ceremony wouldn’t be ruined. Afraid of the embarrassment—but more afraid of losing him—I had an abortion.

BECAUSE I HAD A BLACK MOTHER AND A WHITE FATHER, I WAS EJECTED AND CALLED A HALF-BREED BY BOTH RACES. NEVERTHELESS, GOD HAD A REMARKABLE PLAN.

Most of us have learned of many men and women throughout history who dared to go forward when all the odds were against them. They gave meaning to the phrase, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.”

The Scriptures tell us the story of one such man–blind Bartimaeus, who would not take “no” for an answer. Despite his being harshly rebuked by the people around him, Bartimaeus repeatedly cried out to Jesus until He received his healing (see Mark 10:46-52).

IN THE MID-1940S, DESPERATE SPIRITUAL HUNGER LAUNCHED AN INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT. WHAT WAS IT ABOUT, AND HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO CURRENT MOVES OF GOD?

During the mid-1940s renowned ministers such as Charles Price, Smith Wigglesworth and Aimee Semple McPherson individually stated that there was another major move of God’s Holy Spirit on the horizon but that they were not going to be alive to see it. They also stated that although some of the so-called “activity of the Spirit” up until that time had been born of the flesh and had the resemblance of Ishmael, those who earnestly tarried for the next move would witness Isaac being born.

These prophecies came forth at a critical time in the life of the church when, during a season of spiritual drought, the groundwork was laid for an outpouring of the Spirit. God’s visitation was perfectly orchestrated for the church at large, and it also came at a crucial time for me.

In the summer of 1948 I was diagnosed with polio. At 8 years old, with no strength in my arms or legs, I was placed in bed and told not to try to walk or move around.

Because polio was contagious, no friends were allowed to visit me. I would lie in bed, listening to the radio and wondering what had happened to me.

That year in school my teacher had told us about Jesus. She said that whenever we were lonely or afraid, we should talk to Him because He is always there.