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| Excerpts from Control Unmasked |
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Chapter One - The Vision
It was the fall of 1997. Sarah was in her bedroom fasting and praying as usual seeking direction from the Lord. A newsflash crossed her eyes. It was like that of a ticker tape. Sarah saw what appeared to be a person crawling on their knees, weeping uncontrollably towards the presence of God. She heard a voice say, "Who are you to judge him, he is a soul that needs to be saved. When you were weary, wounded and sad, did I reject you? So, why are you rejecting him?"
Immediately, Sarah jumped off her knees and said, "God what is this?! I'm not fasting and praying about this! I am fasting and praying about something entirely different. You know I'll do anything you want me to do, but I can't do that! You ask a hard thing!"
Sarah tried to put the vision out of her mind, but it kept haunting her. Did this vision mean to remarry her ex-husband or what? She just did not know, and she certainly was not about to tell anyone about it.
The next time Sarah’s ex-husband called, she tried to be more pleasant to him, because she did not fully understand what the vision meant. Was Sarah convicted or was she condemned? Sarah listened to what he had to say this time. He still wanted to get back together with her. She told him she was still not interested in reconciling. He continued to ask if she would move to Louisiana to be with him. Sarah counter-offered by saying, “If you really want to be with me, you’ll have to get on an airplane and fly to Illinois.” To Sarah’s amazement, he said he would do just that. Of course, Sarah did not take him seriously. Would you? After all, Sarah and her ex-husband, John, had been divorced for nearly 14 years.
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Chapter Five - That Church Sarah and her mother, Louise, were both born and raised in the Baptist denomination although they attended other churches of faith. Only God knew why Louise was drawn to this particular Pentecostal church. When Louise first told Sarah about this church, Sarah did not get a good feeling about it. Sarah vehemently told Louise she would not be attending that church with her because she was very skeptical about it. The year was 1994.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation and wondered how you got there? I want to park here for a moment to demonstrate how easy it is for a person to do something they said they would never ever do. You thought Sarah had lost it when she reconciled with John without seeking proper counsel, right?
Reluctantly, Sarah started attending the Pentecostal church—again, the very church she said she would never attend. Please do not ever say what you will never do. You tend to end up doing it, don’t you?!
Sarah received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, September 23, 1994. That was a real big thing at the Pentecostal church. She was the first person they witnessed to be baptized in water in Jesus name and within a month to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit speaking with other tongues.
Sarah immediately became a committed woman of faith, prayer, fasting, and study of God’s Word. Literally, Sarah was attending her Baptist church one Sunday, and she was in the Pentecostal church the next Sunday. Sarah was wearing pants one day, and within no time at all, she threw away all of her pants and shorts and started to wear long dresses and skirts, no make-up, and no jewelry. Many people thought Sarah had joined a cult. She changed just that drastically and just that fast!
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Chapter Eight - Curses, Schemes, Tricks and Set-ups Formed & Materialized Sarah and John still did not see eye-to-eye and she just could not understand why. Their new place suddenly became too small. What Sarah did not realize was that the space had changed, but the problems were still the same.
She still nagged at John for not coming straight home after work to help her with Angel. Sarah may not have been the most pleasant person in the world to live with, but she was at least trying to make a change. Sadly, John did not fulfill his part of the agreement saying that he wanted to change prior to them reconciling for the second time. He was just as responsible as Sarah was to raise those children. If Sarah was surviving as a single parent all of those years they were divorced, John certainly would not have that much to do when they remarried. Wouldn’t you agree?
Back in the Day
Sarah did not know the love of God as profoundly in her life as a young girl growing up in Alabama as she knew Him when she had remarried John. The best Sarah knew was that life usually came at her with a problem. She would react either in a positive way or in a negative way, but usually in a negative way. Sarah learned the lesson or failed the lesson. Either way, she had to stop living haphazardly. Sarah needed to make plans for her life. Even if the plan did not work, she still needed a plan. The Word says "a man's heart deviseth (plans) his way, but Lord directeth His steps." [Proverbs 16:9]
Early in Sarah’s childhood, the enemy set-up camp in her mind. It was easier than you think. Sarah was terribly emotionally unbalanced. She really does not remember where it came from. What she did remember was that she had been hurt, deceived, rejected, taken advantage of and disappointed a lot back in the days. And because of that like most women, it was only natural for her not to trust people—especially men. Sarah was taught two major lessons growing up and they were very simple to remember: (1) keep Jesus first in your life and everything else will be alright; and (2) get a good education, if you get married and your husband walks off and leaves you, you will be able to take care of yourself and your children. That was a hell of a way to pursue life, but it was Sarah’s way of life. Read on, you will understand why.
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