We All Have a Back-Story

This was something I wrote to a friend about a week or so ago. The Lord has prompted me to share this with you as well. I hope it will be a help to you:

Preaching to myself -- It takes a supernatural power to love those who seem to be unlovable and that ability only comes from God. It is instilled in us at the very moment the Holy Spirit indwells us. It is our responsibility to cultivate that love for others through studying the life of Christ and how He interacted with others, making a choice to forgive 70x7, but most importantly, always remembering where we came from and what we were when Jesus found us.

We all have a back-story. When we meet a person on the street and they act out a certain way we may never know what that person has been through to cause them to act like that. We think we know how we would handle their situation, but we really have no idea until we have walked a mile in their shoes.

When we witness to these people, who may not have a church background at all (like my whole family growing up) or a person who may have gone to church at one time and was hurt by people who professed to love God, we have to empty ourselves out along with all our preconceived notions and be filled with the Spirit of the God who IS love. While telling them there is a hell to shun we must do it through humility and our tear-filled eyes knowing that if it had not been for the grace of God we would have the same fate. There is NO righteousness in us apart from the blood of Christ.

When it comes down to it, Satan is the ultimate enemy, not each other. He is working overtime because He knows his time is drawing near and at times I get desperate for my child’s salvation knowing the Lord’s return may be soon.  Because I pray for her salvation often it makes me more mindful of hell and its awful realities. Since I pray for her daily it is on my mind daily. I don’t really tell anyone this, but I have a great desire to witness and I often go onto online forums to witness to atheists because of this mindfulness of hell. They are very hard-hearted and curse others who come at them in an angry tone and I can tell they have closed that person off, but they respond to me with respect when I show them respect and love and treat them like people. I have found that at some point in time these people were hurt by “the self-righteous religious” or they simply want to live their lives with no consequences and they have convinced themselves there is no one to answer to. They have traded the Truth for a lie. 

I banter with them using scientific facts, common sense, The Way of the Master technique, and of course God’s Word, but I do it with a heart of love and concern for their souls. They open their ears to me when I use these tools which in turn prepare the way for the Holy Spirit to plant a seed. To be honest I could probably teach a class on this and maybe through the prayers of God’s people, like you and others, I can get well and do just that one day. I may not know the reason God has allowed me to go through what I have, but I know that it has changed me and that was most likely His purpose all along. 

May God bless you today over and above what you are able to receive! 

Much Love, 

The Princess Warrior 

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All blog entries are copyright by Wanda Williamson on the date they are posted, unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.

The Purpose of The Princess Warrior Ministries

Women Helping Women! This is the purpose of The Princess Warrior Ministries. After all, we as Christians, are His princess warriors! Daughters of the king; warriors in His great army.

In this day and age Christian women need other Christian women. We need to stand together and love and pray for one another. And here is why: Time is closing in on us -- that time in history when Christians will be persecuted in America.

It is all too real -- God and Christianity are being pushed aside. They are considered archaic, old fashioned, out-of-date, intolerant, and narrow-minded. That which is good is considered evil and evil considered good. Morality is being thrown out the window. The more I see the more it weighs heavily on my heart.  

None of this should catch us (Christians) by surprise though. God, through His Holy Word, has warned us about the end times. Now, more than ever before, Christians have to make a stand in what they believe and in Whom they believe. I'm afraid that the soft cushion of the church pew is a symbol of the condition of our walk with Christ. We have become comfortable and complacent. 

Right now, we need to be digging deep into the Word of God, we should be found in our prayer closets daily -- crying out to God to give us wisdom, strength, a supernatural love for our husbands, children, and family, compassion for the lost, and a resolve like steel for what we believe.

Family life today has become too busy. We go from ballgame to ballgame, dance recitals, music lessons, meetings, and on and on and try to squeeze God in there somewhere and, oftentimes, having to leave Him off the schedule completely because there was just no time to spend with Him. Meanwhile, our children are being indoctrinated by the world and we think just because we have them in church every time the doors are open or even a Christian school that that is enough. Hear me please! It is NOT! I know!

Our children need to see in "us" that God is number one in our lives. That we make time for Him first and ALL else is second. We need to not only teach them about God, but to teach them about their enemy, Satan. We need to warn them about who he is, what he is, and what he is capable of. When we are in a war, and yes, we are in one, we don't just get orders from the Commanding Officer and carry them out -- we also study our enemy. We have to know what his tactics are so we don't fall into his trap. Once we are in his trap he will do his best to torture and kill us! Why? Because he hates God. He cannot destroy God so he does the next best thing -- he goes after His children.

Discouragement, depression, anxiety, isolation, loneliness, fear, anger, jealousy, etc. are his weapons and he knows how to use them. God has given us the armor to protect and defend ourselves from his attack and He has given us the best state-of-the-art weapon to fight back -- His Word -- but, they are useless if we leave them laying aside only to be used in times of fatal attacks. If we wait to use them only in dire situations we will have two problems: 1) We will not know how to use them because they haven't been practiced over and over. 2) We will be so weakened from the every day attacks that we will have little strength to even use the armor and Sword.

To disarm Satan we MUST stay close to the only One who can defeat him. We MUST make Him our priority. We must DAILY (and better, hourly) put into practice God's commands. We must talk to Him and most importantly...LISTEN. We must serve Him out of love and not for duty's sake. We must love people --- all people -- and love to tell others about Him. We must lock arm in arm with fellow Christians because we are so much stronger in numbers. And for our children to have hope they must see all these things in us. We ARE their role models of how life is to be lived for Jesus. To have a life that pleases Him. To have a life that is protected against the Devil and his antics.

While writing this God reminded me of a verse that contained the command to tell our children about Him, but after reading the chapter I was reminded that it contains so much more. So to draw this to a close I leave you with a prescription from the Great Physician Himself. A prescription that will bring about great spiritual health for us and our families. A "shot in the arm" so to speak of a potent substance that will keep us well during the most violent outbreaks of spiritual disease.

Here is the prescription for 1) Long life, 2) Our well-being, 3) Our increase, 4) God's provision, 5) God's protection from our enemies, 6) Our good, 7) Our preservation, 8) Our righteousness:

Deuteronomy 6:1-25 -- Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers. To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

We all need to examine our own hearts to see if we are doing our part as a Christian in this country, in our state, but most importantly, in our realm of existence. The place that God inserted us to live out our lives. As this world waxes worse and worse I don't want it to be said of me that I didn't go out fighting for what and Whom I believed in!

I pray that God will bless you over and above what you are able to receive!

In His Service,

The Princess Warrior 

Copyright Information 

All blog entries are copyright by The Princess Warrior Ministries on the date they are posted, unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.

Why Do I Keep Sinning?

"You can't stop birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair." ~Martin Luther 

I occasionally hear professing Christians ask (with a helpless sounding voice), "Why won't God take this desire away from me so I'll stop sinning?" These are people who say they truly desire to be free from their sexual sin, substance abuse, gluttony, materialism, love for the world, etc. Again they ask, "Why do I keep sinning?" According to Scripture, the answer is simple — because they keep choosing to disobey God. Jesus said, "If you love me you will obey my commandments."

We humans are really very smart creatures. We are also very predictable. Our actions show our priorities. We have a conscience to know right from wrong and while we attempt to do good, we also are willing do wrong in spite of the fact that we know better. We also have the pathetic ability to justify our sinful choices with excuses that make us feel sorry for ourselves. While some do have legitimate trauma to overcome, most of us know that our sin is simply a pathetic choice to give in to our fleshly desires for a moment or two of comfort and pleasure.

Who's the culprit?

Why do there remain those few pet sins — those few areas we just can't get a hold of? Here are some questions I've found helpful to identify the culprit of our sinful actions:

• With what and with whom do you surround yourself?
• Are your friends helping you or hurting you when it comes to living right for Jesus?
• How do you spend your free time?
• What do you find yourself thinking about when your mind is free to wander?
• Do you find yourself making excuses for your sinful actions and then feeling sorry for yourself?

Listen to what the Bible says: "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. For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions — is not from the Father but is from the world." (1 John 2:15-16). It's pretty clear: If you love the world and the things of the world, God's love is not in you.

Is your heart set on worldly things? Do you find yourself longing after things you see and don't have? Are you financially discontent? Do you notice yourself overly concerned about the way you look? Do you need to feel important in the eyes of all your friends and family? Are you preoccupied with a desire for pre-marital sex or adultery? If your thoughts often fall into one or more of these categories, you may have found your enemy. Jeremiah reveals, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9), and Jesus said, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person" (Matt. 15:19-20). Could the problem lie within your own heart? Only you know the answer to that question, but we all can be sure that an unredeemed heart will produce all these things in abundance.

I want to go out on a limb here and say that we all would do well at this point to put our pride in check and examine our hearts carefully. I was just reading a book called Alarm to the Unconverted by Joseph Alleine. I was up last night, pleading with the Lord to search and try my heart and bring to mind all the filth and grime that remains, that I might surrender myself still further to the mercy and transforming power of Jesus Christ. The self-deceived hypocrite is in the worst state of all. He thinks all is well between him and his God (so he sees no need to change or examine himself), when in fact, all is not well. Please, hear my earnest plea for your precious soul. Ask the Lord to do a thorough work of exposing the inner desires and intentions of your heart. Ask him to awaken your conscience and remind you of all the dominating loves and lusts within. This is the first and necessary step toward finding victory over your sin.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

This popular saying has helped me not worry about things that don't matter, like spilled milk. But when it comes to transgressing God's Law, we ought to sweat heavily.

When Jesus was in the garden He sweat great drops of blood. He was in agony, tormented by the choice he had to make between doing His own will or His father's will. He knew that to obey God would bring Him great difficulty — physically and emotionally. He said, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done... If by any means this cup can pass from me, let it be, BUT — not my will but Thy will be done." Jesus knew the great cost of obedience, and paid it. His only choice as the Son of God was to obey.

Falling vs. Diving

When someone says they have fallen into a serious sin like having an affair (adultery), they didn't just fall, they dove. They continually worked and nursed their sin until it became fully grown. Think about it. If you commit sexual sin (any sex outside of marriage), you have made dozens of intentional, wrong decisions to get yourself there. The first phone call. The lustful imaginations. The choice of how you dress, how you act, and what you say. With each one of these and following choices, you must actively deny your conscience (God's Law written on your heart), ignore God's Word, and insist on pursuing what you know is wrong. That is why the Bible says that we will all be "without excuse" on the Day we stand "before the eyes of Him with whom we must give account." The Bible says, "Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:15). This is why "adulterers ... shall [not] inherit the kingdom of God." The difference between a true believer and a false one is that a true convert falls into sin, while a false one dives. Do you ever plan to sin? Do you ever think of ways to get away with that which you know is wrong in God's eyes? If so, you should be concerned about the genuineness of your conversion.

Yes, the true Christian will occasionally fall into sin, but how pathetic is that fall! For the Christian to dive into sin is as wicked and disgraceful as a pardoned murderer allowing himself to be enticed back into his life of crime. Christ died for us. The call of the Christian life is to die to ourselves and crucify the flesh with its ungodly desires.

Jesus has broken the chains that once bound you to sin, but have you walked right back into your comfortable prison and put them back on because you like the way they make you feel? None of us have an excuse when we willingly give in to our favorite sins. Scripture describes the religious hypocrite as a "dog [that] returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire." So the unregenerate will return to his familiar sins and lie down to enjoy the pleasure of his transgressions.

The Antidote

God is not slack in providing a way out of your sins. He is not holding back the answer to you who are still enslaved to your old nature. God is willing if you are willing. He says, "Choose you this day whom you will serve." You must get desperately honest with yourself. I must get honest with myself. God has given us a mirror to see ourselves in truth and we must look into it. So look intently at the Commandments, and then confess and forsake your sin completely. Jesus said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Choose you this day whom you will serve. God is loving, forgiving, compassionate, redeeming, and all-powerful. But you must choose "whom" you will serve. No excuses, no self-pity parties: only surrender. We must once and for all let go of the deceptive pleasures of our sin and cling to the cross for mercy and a new heart that only God can give. God gives strength in abundance to those who repent and trust in him.

Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." If you want to stop sinning, YOU need to stop. God gives you the strength, but YOU do the stopping. If you struggle with alcohol, don't check out the specials at the liquor store. If you struggle with over-eating, don't drive into McDonald's for the "Big and Tasty." Replace your belly's lusts with a love for honoring God with your body. If pornography is your problem, stop your monthly subscription to the filthy publications and don't visit those Web sites. It sounds simple because it is. But before conversion, a man (or woman) is a slave to sin, unable to bridle the lust of the flesh, but after true conversion, he is not longer a slave to sin (because he has willingly crucified the flesh) and is a new creature, a servant of righteousness.

~by Kirk Cameron

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Hope this was a help to you and has answered questions you may have had on your mind. I always want to post information that is relevant and useful for to the body of Christ and convicting to the lost sinner.

In His Service, 

The Princess Warrior 

Copyright Information 

Copyright © 2009 The Princess Warrior Ministries. All articles are copyrighted on the date they are posted, unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. Permission granted for not-for-sale reproduction in exact form including copyright and web address. Other uses require written permission. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.

Another Christmas Without My Daughter

This will be the 7th Christmas without my daughter. No, she is not dead, but it seems like it because she is not in my life and she is no longer the person I used to know. I have mourned her loss like a death, but it's like a death that never ends...a death without closure.

I am a Christian mother. I raised my son and daughter in church. I prayed with them. I helped them learn scripture in AWANA club (which stands for Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed) , but one day Satan had victory. He had victory because I didn't tell them about their enemy. They knew a lot about God, but not about the one who despised them. He had subtly wormed his way into their hearts and minds and took over.

I'm not exactly sure which one lost their desire for God and church and fell prey to the devil first. I do know that my son's heart had already strayed far from God while he was still at home (he's the oldest). My daughter had started to become rebellious in how she dressed, talked, etc. She is a very gifted writer, but she was writing some very dark stuff. We tried to persuade her to put her talents to work for the Lord, but they fell on deaf ears. I know now that it was because she did not know God at all.

Then one day she was gone. She left to go visit her father for what I thought would be a 2 week vacation, but she never came back. A plan had been devised to whisk her away. Even though she was going through that rebellious stage that all teenagers go through I don't think she remembers how close we were.

When my daughter left, my son had been thinking about going out on his own, but stayed with me and his step-father for another year because he was so worried about me. I would lie on my bed and cry for days at a time. I even had to go to an outpatient clinic for severe depression during that time.

I finally told my son to go. I didn't want to hold him back. He was old enough to try it on his own, but he didn't realize, and I never told him, that I sank into an even deeper depression after he left. But, I want to stop right now and thank him. I want to thank him for trying his best to fill the gap. I love you for that, son. You are my heart and I couldn't ask for a better son!

Anyway, when my daughter left, my son held back his pain and helped me instead. He did break down one time and told me that he had already lost his family once when his dad and I divorced and now he had lost it all over again. We held each other and cried. How in the world could a father, in good conscience, think it best to separate his children like this.

When my son finally went out on his own he stopped going to church all together. He drank occasionally and played violent video games until the early hours of the morning. He continued to gain weight as he stuffed himself with comfort food to try and fill the void in his life. He didn't have God and He and his sister had once been very close…or so he thought.

My son and I kept in contact with each other though. We would talk on the phone and he and I would have lunch together and go to an occasional movie.

During this time I prayed for my children, clinging to God's Word, that if I trained my children in the way that is right that when they are older they will not depart from it. God never said they wouldn't stray. I would always tell my son that I was praying for him and I told him I missed him at church, but I knew, at the time, that it was falling on deaf ears as well.

One night I had a dream, actually a horrible nightmare. It was the most real dream I have ever experienced. I saw my son in a coffin. In my dream I could feel all the emotions a mother would feel knowing that death had taken their child. It happened by accident. He had bought a gun for protection and was showing a friend when it accidentally went off killing him instantly. In this dream I cried out to God…"WHY?! Why, did you take my son?!" and God answered, “Your son was never going to live for me. Your daughter is not mine and in order to save her I had to take your son to bring her to me.”

I awoke in a cold sweat. The immense sorrow I felt in the dream because of my son’s death still felt so real and it stayed with me all day. When I got out of bed I immediately called him to see if he was okay. I didn’t tell him about the dream.

A few days later we went to lunch together and I shared the dream with him. He looked startled and then said something that gave me goose bumps. He said, “Mom, I had just recently planned to buy a gun.”

It was shortly thereafter that my son started back to church. He heard our pastor talk about true and false conversion and about men putting away childish things (1 Cor. 13:11) (video games came to mind). That day he made his way to the altar during the invitation and gave his heart and life over to Christ and has been at church ever since. He gave up his video games, sold his system and games and even stopped working at a place that sold them. He was a “Game Manager” at a popular video store.

I thank God everyday that my son returned to the things he had been taught, but I still have another child out there, one that has completely turned against God and me. She is so bitter and angry even though she claims she is not.

Satan has had his victories, but he WILL lose the ultimate battle. My God is greater than he and I still cling to my Lord’s promises. He is not willing that any should perish. I keep asking in Jesus’ name, the name above all names, to save my daughter. I know He will…in His time. The greater His story...the greater His glory! In Him I have hope and in Him I have what I need to carry on.

I will not stop praying until my prodigal has come home...

Waiting on God,

The Princess Warrior

P.S. If you are a Christian mother or father, please, please, please:

1) Talk with your children (no matter how old) about their salvation. Don't just assume they are saved. Make sure you see evidence of God in their heart. Just because they said a prayer at the altar does not guarantee that they believed "on" the Lord Jesus Christ. Many believe "in" the Lord -- even satan and his unholy angels believe (James 2:19). A saving faith is when we believe "on" the Lord, putting our complete trust in Christ's finished work at the cross (plus nothing else) to gain access to God and His grace and mercy. A saving faith brings repentance. A saving faith produces fruit in any believer...young or old. Do you see any fruit? Is their character changing for the better? Are they reading their Bible and praying without having to be told. Do you see a real love for God, for God's ways, for God's house, the preaching of the Word, and for God's people. Would they still live for God if you were no longer in their lives?

And 2) While teaching them about God, also warn them about their enemy -- the one who wants to steal, kill, and destroy -- the one who will use many tactics to trip them up and cause them to fall -- the one who walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour (1 Peter 5:8). This enemy's name is satan (I don't even capitalize his name lest I give him any honor). Your children can have victory over him, but only through the power of God in their hearts and daily walking close to Him. They NEED your daily prayers! This world and the things of it are one giant lure for satan's kingdom.

If you are wondering what are some of the proofs of salvation in your children's lives, or even in your own life, please take a look at both of the following blog posts:

Put on the Parachute by The Princess Warrior

Proofs of Genuine Salvation Trisha Ramos Website (Fish with Trish)

Copyright Information 

Copyright © 2009 The Princess Warrior Ministries. All articles are copyrighted on the date they are posted, unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. Permission granted for not-for-sale reproduction in exact form including copyright and web address. Other uses require written permission. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.