Category Archives: Tuscaloosa

Keys to Freedom from Fear

27 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Transformational Leadership, Tuscaloosa

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Jesus by Martha Beadle

JESUS 
Artist Martha Beadle, Florence, AL

From October 2009 to early summer of 2012, I earned a PhD in FEAR during a remarkable season of transition. From the time that I made a commitment to move back to my hometown in July 2009 until 3 years later – I white knuckled my way through a lengthy list of peaks and (far and away mostly) valleys. If you have ever walked through a Job season, then you can clearly relate to what I am referring. My family and close friends watched in disbelief as a series of extreme circumstances came in wave after wave over several years, but in the fullness of His time, but by His grace, God redeemed my desperate and bleak situation, opening up new avenues of hope and restoration.

Joel 2:23-26 AMP Be then glad, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He gives you the former or early rain in just measure and in righteousness, and He causes to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain as before. And the (threshing) floors shall be full of grain and the vats shall overflow with juice (of the grape) and oil. And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten-the hopping locust; the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God. Who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame.

During this season I had well-meaning friends, say to me any number of things, “Tracy, where’s your faith?”, I had never struggled with my faith, actually I always believed that I had very strong faith but no amount of faith was turning around these problems or “Why don’t you just get a job!”, like I had not been looking under every rock for one for over a year, or telling me that I was going in the wrong direction in returning back to my home town – even after I had explained exhaustively that God had told me to move back. One couple whom I mistakenly trusted, successfully convinced me that I had waited too long to move after being called by God to do so and I was obviously being chastened. Unfortunately, I allowed this latter remark to seep into my soul, and this was one of 3 primary reasons that I slipped into a downward, even vertical spiral of total condemnation that almost destroyed my mind. Condemnation will kill you. Fear will kill you, too.

A Description of Fear
Fear is an evil spirit. That’s right, what most people associate with horror movies or witches, fear spirits are in the unseen realm that surround us. Just like Angels are in the unseen (Recommended: Angels: God’s Secret Agents; Billy Graham, author), a person cannot see an evil spirit. If you accept one you should accept the existence of the other. Fear is also an emotional response to a real and undesired situation however it is when fear is left to run rampant and unabated, continually flailing around in a person’s mind, is when this spirit has the ability to lodge into a soul and wreak havoc in the life of anyone. All people are made up of (3) things: Spirit, Soul and Body. If you have accepted Christ, then your spirit is connected to the Holy Spirit which is how you hear the will of God, your soul is comprised of (3) things: your mind, your will and your emotions.

Throughout this season of fear, I had the choice of either learning how to combat this spirit or allow it to kill me. I decided I wanted to fight and to live. After observing the effects of extreme fear at a very close range for a prolonged season, I concluded the following:

1) The enemy always enters a person’s mind or soul cloaked in a spirit of fear or cloaked in a spirit of condemnation. Even the slightest root of fear can open the door to a full-blown attack. Keep the fear door closed tightly.
2) Fear acts as a portal into a person’s soul through which every negative emotion can and will flow: confusion, depression, suicide, insecurity, greed, envy, jealousy, trauma, abuse, shame, and terror. Its always Fear (or condemnation) First before the associated negative emotion kicks in.
3) The immediate response to a spirit of fear must be trust in God (belief versus unbelief). Keep faith building scripture verses close at hand to combat fear, just as you would keep Vitamin C and Zinc close at hand if you have a cold. Faith is the antidote to fear. Speak these verses ALOUD.
4) Fear is the enemy’s heaven – fear is like oxygen to the demonic.
5) If the spirit of fear is not present, the enemy has nothing to convert to evil – he has nothing on which to “latch” himself to a person. This is an essential point to grasp in the understanding of the subject of fear and strategy of the enemy.

Jesus, Your Great High Priest
Hebrews 8: 6-7 “But as it is now, He (Christ) has acquired a (priestly) ministry which is as much superior and more excellent (than the old) as the covenant (the agreement) of which He is the Mediator (the Arbiter, Agent), is superior and more excellent, (because) it is enacted and rests upon more important promises. For if that first covenant had been without defect, there would have been no room for another one or an attempt to institute another one. “

This might be your first exposure to New Covenant terminology, and if so, I wish that I had the time to completely round out this wonderful topic in its entirety but this article is blog length. When Jesus was sacrificed on the cross, His resurrection served as ratification of a New Covenant (agreement) with all people that have accepted Him as their Savior. There are many, many things that shifted from the Old Testament over to the New following the crucifixion; Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Specifically, His blood, redeemed back from the enemy, our ability to walk in total freedom. You have been given the ability to self deliver – you have the ability to pray for healing for yourself and call on God’s power to answer your prayer. If you are struggling with any emotional issue in your mind -(1) picture yourself standing firmly rooted and grounded in the love of God – God’s perfect love will cast out fear. Drawing on God’s love for you will bring confidence.(2) Understand that Jesus has purchased your right of ownership to a sound mind (He is Jehovah Shalom-the Prince of Peace), and your mind can now be calibrated into rest and to the perfect mind of Christ. This was won for you at The Cross.

Binding and Loosing
Although rarely taught, the scriptural way to eradicate a spirit; fear, depression, suicide, confusion, condemnation or anything previously mentioned is a technique that is so simple, and it is how Jesus Himself instructs us to control things we choose to declare to be unlawful or improper. In fact, He states in Matthew 16:19 that He is giving us the ” keys to the kingdom “.

Matthew 16:19 AMP “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven: and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.”

When you bind, and rebuke a spirit – you send it packing. Binding it up, renders it null and void. Conversely, you can loose or release an opposite spirit (joy, hope, a sound mind), right back into yourself or another person for whom you are praying. It’s right there in the bible. Jesus Himself holds the Key of David:
Isaiah 22:22 “And the key of the house of David I will lay upon His shoulder: He shall open and no one shall shut, He shall shut and no one shall open.”
This is Jesus. Jesus is the literal Tree of Life.

The Gospel of Grace allows us to be transformed by Jesus from glory to glory and it also allows for some tactical “moves” that are administrated by the Holy Spirit. If you want to free yourself from fear – declare it aloud and speak to the fear like it was a person (actually it is a thing). Tell that spirit that you are binding and breaking it in the name of Jesus and by the blood of Jesus. Acknowledge the work of Jesus on the cross in Isaiah 53. Stand firmly planted in the love of God and believe that you are standing firm from a victorious stance, never fighting from a position of defeat. You are not your emotions, and these things cannot continue to remain if you identify them, carefully bind them, rebuke them and ask God to send them away. Although you are speaking the words, this is a work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus holds the keys to close the door on these offenders.

It is so simple – no process – and it is God’s Recipe for Success and Freedom From Fear and Condemnation.

Tracy Gatewood
Keys to Freedom from Fear
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Purify the Bride

24 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in Jesus, Tuscaloosa

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Revelation 19: 6 – 10 AMP
Let us rejoice and shout for joy (exulting and triumphant)!  Let us celebrate and ascribe to Him glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb (at last) has come, and His bride has prepared herself.
She has been permitted to dress in fine (radiant) linen, dazzling and white – for the linen is the righteousness (the upright, just and godly living, deeds, and conduct, and right standing with God) of the Saints (God’s holy people).
Then the angel said to me, Write this down: Blessed (happy, to be envied) are those who are summoned (invited, called) to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words (the genuine and exact declarations) of God.
Then I fell prostrate at his feet to worship (to pay divine honor) to him but he said,” Refrain! I am (only) another servant with you and your brethren who have the testimony borne by Jesus. Worship God! For the substance of the truth revealed by Jesus is the spirit of all prophecy.”

In a few days, Tuscaloosa will reach the 6 month anniversary of The Storm.  Questions have been answered, and much has been revealed but  spiritual questions remain in the wake of this undesired natural  renovation. Where will Tuscaloosa be spiritually in one year? 3 years? or beyond and has this experience moved Tuscaloosa Forward – spiritually? For now the city remains in the fires of purification and in a period of time that many esteemed pastors worldwide believe to be on the precipice of Christ’s return to retrieve His Bride, the Church.  Are we ready? A.W. Tozer writes in The Wisdom of God,  “Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means.”  Are we walking out from this perfect storm our perfect means to achieve the perfect end – for as many Tuscaloosa residents and churches as possible?

It would be derelict to allow to go unnoticed the degree of  neglect  exposed by this direct hit, acres of city and county blocks tormented by poverty and blight.  God would be  indignant if any city espousing to be spiritually tightly woven and “together” would tolerate this degree of poverty and neglect.  Has the city been purified to pay closer attention to these issues?  This question has certainly received  my attention. Purification is painful, and worse, ugly, it is difficult to have weaknesses  exposed by a loving God  (the scriptural term is “chastening”  experienced by King David which does not seem to adequately describe the term “being purified” ) but it is this  “gift”  that exposes the bad and enables us to be and receive His very best.  The New Covenant redemptive benefit correlation is Jehovah M’Kaddesh God Our Sanctifier. We are being sanctified to become more in the likeness of Jesus.  Sanctification is the gift no one wants but the gift everyone needs.  This storm, as method of purification, was an act of grace from a loving God, a divine awakening and an opportunity to leverage  tragedy to its highest and best use for His glory.

A sanctified and purified city is better positioned to be the true shining city on a hill that other cities yearn to emulate. We have the leadership in place at all levels and across city churches to come through this stronger and better prepared. Last week, city pastors met at the annual Pastor’s Prayer Summit to pray for Tuscaloosa, each other and God’s direction for their churches – unified, corporate prayers of agreement that are coveted by the Holy Spirit. These powerful threads of prayer are woven into a rich, unified brocade of denominations, races, and ages protecting the city walls from spiritual onslaughts of which most live unaware.  God, who is infinitely wise, all knowing and the Chief Strategist would not have allowed this storm without a higher and better purpose. He loves us and has an eternal covenant with us through His Son, our Mediator. We have the right municipal and pastoral framework in position to arrive on the other side like mighty warriors for His Glory.

Luke 14: 12 – 24 AMP
Jesus also said to the man who had invited Him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and so you are paid back. But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame and the blind.
Then you will be blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied), because they have no way of repaying you,  and you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (upright).
When one of those who reclined (at the table) with Him heard this, he said to Him, Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God! But Jesus said to him,  A man was once giving a great supper and invited many: And at the hour for the supper he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all is now ready.
But they all alike began to make excuses and to beg off. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of land, and I have to go out and see it; I beg you, have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine and put my approval on them: I beg you, have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife and because of this I am unable to come. So the servant came and reported these to his master. Then the master of the house said in wrath to his servant, Go quickly into the great streets and the small streets of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame.
And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you have commanded me to do has been done, and yet there is room”. Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and the hedges and urge and constrain (them) to yield and come in so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall taste my supper.

Are we ready?  We must not allow our attention to be distracted from  frequently and consistently teaching  faith, prayer and the meaning of Christ crucified.

Tracy Gatewood
Twitter  @TracyLGatewood
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Please continue to pray for Tuscaloosa

This is a follow up to the first article, Wisdom of God, May 2011.

Purpose Driven Bride

16 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by in Tuscaloosa

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 Tuscaloosa, Alabama – Over the last several months and particularly through the days immediately following the storm (we are now in day 50) I have met remarkable men and women, many of whom intentionally relocated to Tuscaloosa because they felt called by God to live here and care for this city of 100,000. It is interesting to hear the stories and watch what they are doing – there is a quiet yet powerful framework in place undergirding the city’s structure. If the walls of the city are covered with fabric woven from threads of prayer **, its beams are made of purpose – inspired titanium. Resilient, focused, relentlessly driven, and sacrificially honoring to the Son – determined to make a difference.

John 12: 27 – 33

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one that serves me. “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’! No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” 

In the difficult post storm days, filled with distractions and annoyance, a re-dedication to purpose is crucial. The practice of “spotting” comes to mind. When jumping and flipping on a trampoline one must fix their eyes on a precise spot to maintain equilibrium. The Body must keep their eyes singularly focused in the same way and on one exact spot. For the days ahead, focusing on the spot while maintaining momentum for each individual and corporate purpose will be crucial to achieve a successful result. When momentum subsides, confusion then apathy or anger starts so The Bride must continue moving forward in regenerating the city. God has an assignment and a purpose for each of us in prolonged seasons of difficulty but gives us the authority to investigate the combination that unlocks the answers for the lives of many. It is our responsibility to embrace difficulty and unmask it – on (and with) purpose. Stay focused on “the spot.”  Jesus knew all about purpose – His life had more purpose than anyone that ever lived. He died for His. You were His “spot”.

Hebrews 7-11

“The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with the forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord I will put my laws in their minds and write them on the tablet of their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord’ because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. By calling this covenant “new” He has made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

 It would seem counter-intuitive to God’s purpose for Jesus to leave prematurely but He had a better plan. He left us His Holy Spirit.

‘I will put my laws in their minds and write them on the tablet of their hearts’ – among many other things, the Holy Spirit is our internal friend that grants favor, wisdom,convicts and encourages our minds and is also the gateway to the Godhead. Each person that has a relationship with God through Jesus Christ has access to this person that counsels, guards, and guides, protects and comforts. Having this relationship will be important to everyone in the days ahead as we will all need wisdom and might –  might defined is the ability to walk out divinely imparted wisdom and purpose.

A counterintuitive process is almost always God’s Way. He wants His name glorified and for our lives to be completely built on the foundation of His Son. ( 1 Corinthians 3: 10-15).  God wants the credit –He created us in the first place so that is OK. In 1998, I owned a thriving business in Atlanta with a collection of blue chip accounts, a venture in which I was quite (honestly, too) proud. On February 3, 1998 I received some devastating news. I briefly turned the reins of my business over to my manager, enabling me to temporarily gear down and volunteer for my start up church at that time located in an office complex in Dunwoody, Georgia. Shortly after, I was offered a full time position. I considered this decision for several days as making this move was completely counterintuitive to everything I believed – to intentionally become a church ministry administrator making $38,000 and walk away from a hefty 6 figure salary defied all logic and in my mind could constitute grounds for being institutionalized (insanity!). Thankfully, God had a higher purpose and plan. My 2.5 year North Point Community Church experience in grace among many other things, forever re-prioritizing what was most important. It is always God’s counterintuitive way that achieves the highest purpose for the most number of people for the greatest good.

One of the redemptive covenant names of Jesus is Jehovah Nissi – Our Banner of Victory –  Redeemed means to be bought back, purchased or exchanged which is far more important than atoned or atonement which means to be “covered over”.  A covenant is an irrevocable bond or agreement. When Jesus (God) forms a covenant with you it is like a marriage covenant with Him, but unlike one with another person – it is irrevocable and cannot be taken back. When our purposes are built on the redemptive covenant foundation of God’s Son the gates of hell cannot prevail – and you will always be victorious (Nissi).  The Church, the Bride of Christ, is the strongest organization in each and every community if it is built on the redemptive covenant names of Jesus rather than the worship of one special man. The covenant “marital” benefits of Jesus are; healer, provider, protector, redeemer of righteousness, portal to God’s presence, provider of peace, victor over darkness. Find a church in your community that esteems these benefits over all else.

Please pray for the spiritual and governmental leadership of Tuscaloosa to find and focus on their purpose and maintain the momentum required to achieve the goals set before them.

Tracy Gatewood
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**See Wisdom of God
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Equip The Bride

23 Monday May 2011

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Christianity, Disasters, Emotions, Fear, God, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, peace, Prayer, Tracy Gatewood, Tracy Gatewood Alabama, TracyLGatewood, Tuscaloosa

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Tuscaloosa, Alabama – I have watched for weeks as churches put forth Herculean effort to resource and rescue thousands of Tuscaloosa citizens in the wake of one of the most devastating storms in our country’s history. Still The Body functions in excellence.  This week, a meeting of 40 Tuscaloosa pastors met for a time of unified, corporate prayer to seek God’s wisdom for each other, their congregations and the city. The wisdom of God will be a strong requirement to move forward with vision and fortitude in the months, and likely years, ahead.

Each day I observe the undeniable need for funding the local church as we become increasingly aware of these organizations as powerful centralized distribution hubs for stability, resource and counsel.  Churches, like mini City Halls, possess the infrastructure for financial disbursement and accountability, the ability to provide clothing, food and shelter, stability and healing as well as serving as points of access for connection to every conceivable vocation through its members. Churches are the finest “one stop shopping”  option for disaster relief.  In the days ahead, all churches will be utilized more frequently as access hubs for immediate stabilization, healing and disbursement of resources but first they themselves must be properly structured and resourced. This is serious, time -sensitive  business.

Genesis 41:38
“So Pharaoh asked them, ‘Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God?’ ”

Pharaoh of course was referring to Joseph. This is the hour for marketplace Joseph’s to stand in preparation and walk in action to equip, fund and structure the Church, the bride of Christ, in anticipation of His return and enable Her to stand uprightly and majestically within every community served. (Not merely have Her stand with the aid of a cane or a walker – but properly financially resourced to function in full capacity. )

The need for funding has never been greater for churches and ministries in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I am writing to simply sound the alarm because of what I see happening. The anointing is here, the people and hearts are here but it is time to move and equip these Brides. Do not let the Bride go hungry (food banks), dress shabbily (clothes closets) or be in ill health (health centers) or become in disrepair. Do not let the Bride become inadequately staffed and forced to turn from people who require healing and wise counsel – the type of counsel that is imparted from the wise and Godly as they hear from the Spirit of God.

Job 32:8
“But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty,
that gives Him understanding”

Equip the Bride and Her Children, para-church ministries that are not churches. Do not make them beg for discernment of their worth if you know they are set apart by God for His work and purposes. Tuscaloosa is no different from any other community – disaster will come to a city near you – each Bride in each community must be equipped and structured.

It is the responsibility of the Church through The Body to equip, educate and counsel people on El Shaddai (God Almighty, All Sufficient One, Genesis 17:1)and the meaning of the covenant, redemptive names purchased through the exchange at the cross and Jesus’ blood sacrifice which covers the scope of every human need:

Shammah (His Presence, Ezekial 48:35), Shalom (Peace, Judges 6:24), Ra-ah (Shepherd / Pastor, Psalm 23:1), Jireh (Provision, Genesis 22:14),  Nissi, ( Banner of Victory over principalities and darkness, Exodus 17:15),  Tsidkenu, (Righteousness Jeremiah 23:6), Rapha (Healer, Exodus 15:26), and Jehovah M’Kaddesh (Sanctifier, Leviticus 20:8).

A tremendous responsibility indeed but one in which The Church, the Bride of Christ is uniquely designed to deliver but must be adequately enabled to perform. Simply put, please give money to the churches, they will soon be serving entire cities, not just their own membership rolls.

The city lost 21 churches plus the Salvation Army buildings. Please pray for those people who have lost their places of worship, fellowship, resource and community. Thank you for your continued prayers that city and state government leadership and spiritual leadership hear from the spirit of God.

Tracy Gatewood
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The Wisdom of God

18 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by in #HolySpirit, Disasters, Emotions, Fear, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Tornado, Tracy Gatewood, Tracy Gatewood Alabama, TracyLGatewood, Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa Tornado

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“Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision. All God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom first for His own glory, and then for the highest good of the greatest number for the longest time. And all His acts are as pure as they are wise, and as good as they are wise and pure. Not only could His acts not be better done, a better way to do them could not be imagined. An infinitely wise God must work in a manner not to be improved upon by finite creatures.Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom thou hast made them all. The earth is full of thy riches!”
A.W. Tozer  Knowledge of the Holy

Job 38: 1-15
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
Who shut up the sea behind the doors when it burst forth  from the womb when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its door and bars in place, when I said, “This far you may come and no farther, here is where your proud waves halt.’
Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. The wicked are denied their light and their upraised arm is broken.”

As the waves of life have struck then rolled over, I have found that life first happens in the natural then secondly in the spiritual. With each wave of “natural” has come a tsunami of revelation. I believe that we could have the same experience in store for #Tuscaloosa.  A.W. Tozer states, “Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means“.  Might God have allowed this storm in Tuscaloosa as the perfect means to devise a better, more perfect end?   Life is becoming more challenging across the globe – the Japan earthquake even shifted the earth’s axis. Could it be that we are appointed to mentor, assist and counsel and bring to salvation many others and become a beacon of hope and light across the world after we have walked through “perfect means”? Tuscaloosa has the spiritual, city and state government leadership in place to successfully position itself as a city on a hill for this time in our history.

After returning to Tuscaloosa in the spring of 2010, leaving it at the ripe old age of 17, I have spent the last year observing people in spiritual leadership and have witnessed an undeniably rich, bold spiritual fabric woven across this city – this fabric is mature, it is humble, it is confident in what it knows and most importantly, it has developed from a foundation of decades of committed prayer – pastoral prayer threads now woven into a beautiful and strong mosaic. These threads act as a protective network of unity that will sustain it in the days ahead. There is extraordinary power in unity. I can see why Tuscaloosa, Alabama could be the recipient of one of the most destructive storms in the history of our country. Few cities of this size could withstand this level of trauma and tragedy but Tuscaloosa’s citizens are securely braced within fabric covered walls.

It is difficult,  if not appropriately impossible,  to look past the urgency of the needs of people living in the Tuscaloosa communities of Holt, Rosedale, Alberta City and Wood Manor. This recovery will be a long process of restoration requiring dedication, determination and a decision to stay the course toward achieving a perfect end. I am convinced that God would not have allowed this storm to occur without a greater purpose in mind, after all, He is infinitely wise. A God that can see the beginning to the end working with predestined goals makes Him very strategic and the Chief Strategist – there are no accidents in His economy. Although God did not cause this storm, He also makes no mistakes.

Now is the time for The Body to move in its true identity and in the authority they have through the Finished Work of Jesus also recognizing the Holy Spirit as their new best friend (John 14:15). After all it was the Holy Spirit that conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb (Matthew 1:20). It will be through His power that He raises up Tuscaloosa,  enabling men and women of this city with His spirit of wisdom and might. Pray for this city, its pastors, city and state leadership. Prayer is the single most powerful action available to each of us because by doing so, we access God.

Tracy Gatewood
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