"Collector" Or "Hoarder"?

Collector or hoarder????

Just want to share with you all an experience the Lord recently took me through.
Actually...it's been being shown to me for many, many years now.
It started with seeing my father in law "collect" things from auctions/sales and what have you.
The man had to have several buildings then to hold the things.
When he passed away we had an auction and were saddened that all these things he bought go for next to nothing.
Yet they had consumed his time...his money...
I then saw his daughter, my sister in law...doing the same thing.
It wasn't new to her...but I had just discovered it.
She got sick and needed to move in with her mother so her things had to be dealt with as well.
She considered herself to be a collector...
When she passed away my husband and I inherited all her belongings.
This month we had an estate sale.
We had no idea what things were even in these boxes! We unpacked them just before setting things out to sell.
I kept saying over and over to myself..."Why did she do this? Why?"
She had so many things she "collected." None of these things were kept organized or kept clean. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason it it.
It just made no sense at all.
She always thought one day she'd really have the money once she sold it all.
We sold much of it as had things marked really cheap...but did give a great percent of it away.
I had no idea the Lord was using my witnessing all of this plus my part in the sale...to show me my own "collecting" behaviors.
No, it was not to the extent of my sister or father in law...but I was doing my share.
I was keeping all these jeans so that one day I could make quilts of them.
I was keeping books I had already read, etc.
The Lord showed me the error of my ways.
I learned that this was not "collecting" but was actually "hoarding".
I am thinking now there is more revelation yet to come of this.
During the sale both my husband and I kept putting things back we thought we would keep.
When we came home and looked at those things...I was like, "What were we thinking?" And then, "The same thing that was on them is on US!"
Evil spirits of poverty, hoarding and who knows what else.
My husband had a prophetic dream then...revealing that after we got rid of all the access...that an evil spirit kept bringing things back in.
So Lord exposed to us evil spirits at work in our lives.
I saw that the enemy can keep us pretty busy with this or that.
In this case..."collecting" things and then having to make room for them. Moving these things here or there...talking about them, thinking about them, looking for more.
Where was time to pursue one's personal calling in Christ Jesus?
Just felt to share my experience and add...that I do know this...that whenever the Lord exposes things such as this in your life...then He also has a solution for it!
May you be blessed in your life today and all days...

In Jesus name! ~amen!

Jean

"Father, Please show me my gifts and teach me how to use them, in Jesus name I pray, amen!"

My family and I had recently moved to a small village. Although at first I was down in the dumps about the move due to being moved away from the fellowship where I had been attending it quickly was shown to me to be a move by the hand of God. I was being immersed in the Holy Spirit.
One day I was outside in the presence of the Lord working in the yard with my miniature schnauzer, Poochie. Just then a woman walked by, also with a miniature schnauzer. Poochie took off after them and I ran behind her. The woman and I struck up a conversation and I invited her to sit on our deck with me. As we talked we soon discovered many similarities between us. She just lived two blocks away! She was a Spirit filled Christian with similar beliefs! We were just years apart in age.
I shared with her how a woman had prophesied that I would have a women's ministry. My new friend then said, "Why don't we start one?" And so we did.
The women's ministry meetings started out with just she and I but yet the Holy Spirit met us there. We were receiving healing and restoration. My prayer then had been "Lord, heal me and then use me to help heal others."
Soon after this I began meeting other women through God's divine connections. One by one they began to attend these meetings and just as before the Holy Spirit met us each and every night.
There were no preparations ahead of time outside of me cleaning the modular home our family was living in at the time and yet each night was rich and full of the presence of the Lord.
On one such night a woman was crying and sharing personal problems she was having. I immediately knew by the Spirit of God what to do! I had her stand on her feet facing me and laid hands on her shoulders and called out what was ailing her. Another woman took my side and assisted me, also led by the Holy Spirit. I hadn't given it a second thought and just obeyed the commands of the Lord.
That night after the meeting ended and the women were filing out one of the other women in attendance privately came to me and asked if I would consider doing deliverance on her as well. I told her I was not trained in this and had always been taught it was dangerous to do this type of ministry without training. Yet in my thoughts I was thinking...hadn't I just done deliverance ministry on this other women earlier in the evening?
I told the woman I would pray about it.
Later that night when I was alone I prayed to God, "Father, please show me my gifts and teach me how to use them, in Jesus name I pray, amen."
It wasn't long after that when a poster appeared in the grocery store where I was working at that time. It was about a deliverance conference which was going to be held in a near by city. Actually my home town! I thought it looked like a hoax perhaps due to the high cost of the conference. I took the poster down and took it to one of my close friends to see what she discerned. We laughed about it and dismissed it.
Days go by and little by little the Lord is wooing me to attend this conference. I call my friend up and say, "What do you think, should we go and see if it is the Lord? If it isn't we can just go and have coffee."
She agreed. Neither of us had the money to attend and so we knew if we got in for no money then it had to be the Lord.
We go. The asian woman there lets us in for no money. We are handed materials free of charge. We are fasting and we are drunk in the Spirit. It was the Lord who led us there.
It quickly became revealed to us that this was the "Real Deal."

One of the first things the lead minister of the deliverance team does is to stir up our spiritual gifts. He did this by the laying on of hands. He had us each first decide which gifts we would like to ask the Lord for. I did not know what to ask for so when my time came I asked the Lord to give me whatever gifts it was I needed for what He planned to use me for. This minister told me then and there that I had many gifts and later he would tell this to others.
It was no joke...our gifts were stirred up. Soon I was experiencing seeing, hearing, any way fashionable, demons around me including within my own self. I even saw a face on the face of the lead minister and was told by one of his team members it was one they were having a hard time getting out. We all sat at the feet of this lead minister with the Holy Spirit revealing things to us left and right inbetween the lines.
I met a woman there who later became quite important in my stepping out in the gifts. She prophesied to me one day about the Lord wanting to separate me for a time to Himself. I received this word of the Lord and after the conference was over I went home and began to prepare for this time of separation.
One of the things I did to prepare was to shut down the women's ministry. The women involved thought I was nuts or flat out crazy...deceived...but I knew this was one of the things I was to do. I was also to get out of an organization and again came up against pressure to remain in it. Yet I persisted knowing full well who it was I was following. I was following the Lord!
I then spent my time sitting in my bedroom, waiting on the Lord. I think it was a week that went by with nothing before the Lord showed me what He wanted me to do. I was to play my guitar, sing and to journal. As I did these things spiritual revelations began to flow for hours and hours at a time. This went on day after day after day. The Lord took me places in the Spirit and showered me in His love. He then began to teach me on the subject of deliverance.
There was only one other person I could talk to during this time. It was the woman who had prophesied to me. Had it not been for the Lord using her to confirm what things I was seeing in the Spirit...I think I may have gone insane.
My time learning deliverance with the Lord lasted for a period of nine months. I began to think this was all that I was...a deliverance minister. I must admit...I didn't like that idea in the least.
After this season ended I learned how the Lord would teach me on one gift at a time. He showed me it was like a raw diamond and how the cuts are made one at a time.
The woman prophet shortly after this season received instruction to hold a deliverance conference. The Lord gave her exactly what to do and say. Following these teachings every one in attendance signed up for deliverance ministry. She and I were the deliverance team.