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A Story of Salvation: A Marketplace Mini Miracle

07 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by Sacred Ramblings in Christianity, Emotions, Fear, God, Gospel of Grace, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Keys to the Kingdom, Prayer, Salvation, the Spirit, Tracy Gatewood, Wisdom

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Christianity, faith, Marketplace, Marketplaceministry, Testimony, TracyGatewoodstory

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At the age of 51, my life started completely over in every conceivable way; new city, career seeker, little to no financial resources, no church home and no relationships. My 20 year marketing career had taken a vertical death spiral following a coup attempt by a disgruntled assistant who trashed me behind my back almost from the point of hiring. (FYI: The quiet ones, and the flatterers are always the most dangerous. ). After being terminated from a very public position, my career spun into a nose dive and stayed there from the ages of 48 – 50.   The Lord started closing every door, I believe, to “encourage” me to follow His leading of returning me to a place that I very much did not want to go.  At the age of 50, I relented, returning to my hometown confused, desperate, angry (very) hopeless, and near the point of nervous collapse.

A few years before this traumatic season, I had earned my real estate license but held it in inactive status considering to use it “one day”. Establishing a commercial real estate career can become an expensive proposition. That “one day” came when a family friend called 10 months after I had returned home, still unemployed, nor knowing where to turn.  This family friend, graciously and innocently threw a lifeline to a drowning person that was going under for the third time.  ” Tracy, this is Carl, don’t you have your real estate license?”  “Yes” I said neglecting to mention that I had never transacted one piece of property ever.  “Well, my #@%** restaurant tenant moved out in the middle of the night”, he explained “and I need someone to market my building and find me a new tenant as soon as possible.”  I agreed to meet with him then quickly placed a call to inquire of what was needed to activate my license. The same day, I gunned it over to a local broker’s office, I explained to the owner that I was in need of a desk, a phone and a place to hang my license asap. He gave me a private office, a laptop computer and paid for my first year of dues, nothing for which I had asked but glad to receive. I was so poor five hundred dollars was more than I had to spare.

Nine months later, Carl and his new premier tenant, executed my first lease transaction for his 5000 SF corner landmark downtown property. A divine grace door had opened for me through Carl providing a clear path for provision because God had placed me on Carl’s mind and connected all the necessary dots. The process of securing the tenant was not simple, and entailed hard work. The money did not fall from the sky but the opportunity presented itself, the door swung wide, and I was offered a choice to walk through its frame.

Billy'sExterior-1

Later in that same year, the Holy Spirit gave me a hot tip regarding a 5 AC corner parcel with an obsolete shopping center, strategically located 3 blocks from an SEC University stadium. Eighteen months later that property was under contract and closed for $5.1 million, at that time, the highest price paid per acre for any parcel in the city. That was my first sale. The broker that gave me the initial opportunity made $40,000 on that one deal for doing no more than investing in me.

It would be glorious to be able to say that every year has been just like these – and that year over year my production increased to such enormous heights that I would never have a financial concern for the rest of my life.  Seven years later after walking through the door of real estate – I have had highs and lows. My rags story is transforming into financial stability and prosperity while allowing me to give to non profit causes at higher and higher levels which brings me great joy. But the greatest highlight of this journey is what I am gaining in knowledge of the rich treasuries of the grace of God and of Jesus.  I am witnessing through my own personal experience the meaning of His salvation.

Salvation means “material and temporal deliverance from danger and apprehension, preservation, pardon, restoration, healing, wholeness and soundness“.  Coming out of trouble is part of the package guaranteed to us by being in God’s Kingdom and belonging to Him. He has delivered me from ‘material and temporal danger’ and accomplished everything else on this list. I can tell you with certainty it was Him and not me doing the delivering. If you have never had a need to be brought out of trouble, I feel sorry for you because it means you have never experienced the full power of His delivering hand of salvation. The great news is that we can all look at Him with expectancy for something good to come our way, even despite our mistakes. And I have made my share.

For a number of wasted years, I lived in a confused emotional stew, swirling in extreme levels of condemnation, fear, anger and unforgiveness that kept me bound and broken. I was so messed up and discouraged that I was working very little – if at all. This was a mistake. We are all to be working. God needs us to move out in a direction, and as we set out, He swings in as The Rudder, turning us in His direction but first we have to get in the water and set sail. We have to move.

No doubt, I missed a number of life preservers tossed out in my direction by having no confidence in the basic truth of TRUST. I continued to look inward finding more confidence in myself instead of outward or better still upward, without expecting that God was going to work all of this to my good.  Looking inward in prolonged introspection is self righteousness – a sinful action that dispossesses God from His rightful place in life and is based in pure pride. God loves our full dependence upon Him, where we are fully yielded and waiting expectantly for His best. This is the position of Abba and Heavenly Daddy – a Father God with arms wide open to heal and love us unconditionally.

It was only when I learned to focus on Jesus and His finished work and to stop allowing my thoughts to turn inward is when I began to claw my way out of the fog. When my outward confessions began to align with the truth of God’s word –  I am the righteousness of God by my faith in Christ Jesus and in His blood and seated in heavenly places with Christ at the Father’s right hand – did the fear and condemnation begin to break apart and dissipate and my mind become clear from the fog. I began to acknowledge and embrace that my provision would definitely come because I Am In JESUS and that every good thing flows from and by the hand of God.

When I lean in and focus on Jesus – He brings clients to me in supernatural ways, He opens doors of favor (which is another word for grace)  It is difficult to articulate but activity just begins to happen. At times there is nothing that I am doing, no striving, but an effortless flow that is coming straight from the throne of God.

It has been seven years since I walked through the career door of real estate brokerage. The Hebrew number of completion and perfection is seven. My craft, like me, is still being perfected but after completing my first seven years working for other brokerages, last week, I decided to set sail and work for my own. If you had asked me 10 years ago or even 7 if I believed restoration was possible I would have said probably not or possibly even given a resounding ‘no’! But yes it is – it most certainly is – through the merciful heart of a loving Father that loves to deliver His salvation.

My personal story may not mean anything to anyone but me but it is my hope that in reading or sharing it will encourage someone that needs to understand this same power of which He so freely gives.

“May He [God] grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the (Holy) Spirit [Himself ] – indwelling your innermost being and personality ….. that you may be filled (through all your being) unto all the fullness of God [that is] may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become wholly filled and flooded with God Himself.

Tracy Gatewood

Sacred Ramblings
All Rights Reserved  2019

#TracyGatewoodPrayer

Twitter:  Tracy L Gatewood
Facebook: Tracy Gatewood Sacred Ramblings
Author: Doorways of Grace: My Uncommon Journey to Healing, Wholeness and
Meeting Jesus
Instagram: tgatewood1

Ministry Matters: Why the Marketplace Should Incorporate Ministry Leaders into Their Sphere

14 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by Sacred Ramblings in Disasters, Fear, Leadership, Prayer, Purpose, Salvation, the Spirit, Tracy Gatewood, Tracy Gatewood Prayer, Wisdom

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#T.L.Lowery, Christianity, Church, Dr. Lowery and healing, faith, Kingdom Business, Kingdom Culture, Marketplace, Marketplaceministry

Dr. T.L. Lowery

From the beginning of opening business social media accounts, as a marketplace professional, I have been intentional about incorporating pastors and para church ministry leaders into my communities as “followers”. The Why is very simple. We need each other. The Marketplace needs and benefits from the influence and insights of mature spiritual leadership, ministry leaders depend on the skills and resources delivered from an innovative Marketplace to move their visions forward.

In the spring of 2011, I witnessed this relational need during a time of total devastation. In the transition back to my hometown of Tuscaloosa, AL, I watched, stunned, as meteorologists began frantically broadcasting during a “perfect storm” of atmospheric collisions resulting in an EF-4 tornadic holocaust that cut a 6 mile long swath of devastation killing 56 and taking out 12% of the physical buildings in the city. Immediately, church and lay and marketplace leaders moved into overdrive to save lives and rescue thousands of citizens. It took 3 years for the city to recover. Observing this concert of ministry and marketplace blending forces to create unified chords of hope, healing and restoration was a breathtaking, life altering event. (May 2011: Sacred Ramblings, Equip the Bride:  https://wp.me/p1zoxs-k )

I witnessed the church and para church ministries immediately respond to citywide trauma by creating individual “city halls” each with their own leadership structure, and systems of communication and distribution channels to serve the recovery efforts with speed and efficiency for each “embassy”.  Its Ambassadors; spiritual and marketplace leaders worked in different capacities;  the spiritual leadership moved quickly to provide an efficient platform of infrastructure from which to work providing staff, physical space, communication and distribution channels while marketplace (and then government) moved with speed and agility, providing vital resources of people, time and money through this stabilized infrastructure to create, innovate, and restore order as quickly as possible.

If you are a business person and feel that a church or para church ministry leader may not be a fit for your Linkedin account, I respectfully submit – this is misguided. Incorporating these leaders into your “sphere” is not just for the purposes of disaster prep. You need them and they need you. People in ministry have accepted the highest call. It’s far easier to become a University professor, a real estate practitioner, an attorney or a business owner, than walking out the vigorous testing journey required for accepting and walking out a ministry career call.

Most spiritual leaders are highly educated, but more importantly – they hear from God and have the ability to move and operate from a spirit driven perspective. This form of operating system is crucial for survival now and will be more so in the days ahead. If you had someone on your board that could accurately provide advice that could avert a really bad decision saving thousands would it not be worth it, even if it did not appear they possessed the technical experience to make those decisions?  You can have this.

Job 32:8 “But there is (a vital force) a spirit [ of intelligence ] in man, and the breadth of the Almighty gives men understanding. ”
Proverbs 2:8  “He hides away sound and godly Wisdom and stores it up for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him): He is a shield to those who walk uprightly and in integrity, That He may guard the paths of justice, yes, He preserves the way of His saints.”
Proverbs 24:5-6 “A wise man is strong and is better than a strong man and a man of knowledge increases and strengthens his power. For by wise counsel you can wage war, and in an abundance of counselors there is victory and safety.”

But this relationship model goes both ways. In 2013-2015, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. T.L. Lowery multiple times as well as attend his 70 years of Service Celebration at the T.L. Lowery Foundation in Cleveland. A stream of internationally known pastors stepped to the podium to praise and thank him for his many achievements. Dr. Lowery was a prolific healing evangelist in the 50’s and 60’s, using a “canvas cathedral” housing 10,000 people in every city that he reached during a 17 year period. ( Impartation video:  https://youtu.be/FsIXkxT578I  )

T.L. Lowery, Ph.D, held one earned doctorate, and was awarded two more.  He pastored two churches, one in his home town of Cleveland TN, the other in Washington DC. (The latter, the National Church of God, is currently led by his son, Stephen). Dr. Lowery built a Christian school, started a bible college and seminary, built homes for the elderly and established the T.L. Lowery Foundation. He authored 87 books, edited 3 magazines, wrote multitudes of teaching articles and traveled to over 100 nations.

A prolific Apostolic and prophetic teacher, he brought multitudes to Christ through his life’s work which was more than enough but not for him. In addition to pastoring, teaching and writing; T.L. Lowery was a leader in civic organizations, serving faithfully in his community and nationally –  an Ambassador to Project One for the United Nations, and in local leadership roles for the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the United Way and Rotary. Yes, the great T.L. Lowery was also a Rotarian! He died at the age of 87 on February 21, 2016.  Interestingly, this date was one year to the day Rev. Billy Graham died as well as Doug Coe, founder of the National Prayer Breakfast. Three American evangelical leaders died within a 12 month period on the same date.

Marketplace professionals with access to ministry leadership should ask themselves how they can incorporate these leaders into the business realm. Ministry leaders – how can you incorporate yourself into the business arena as well as become proactive in your efforts to build relationships within and outside of your current sphere of influence? How can you establish yourself as a community leader outside of your “embassy”?  The strength of the fabric in our community’s is dependent on the number of threads effectively sewn between ministry and marketplace leadership.

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Dr. T.L. Lowery and Tracy Gatewood following a fiery preaching session in 2013.  On that day, the devil didn’t have a prayer anywhere in Mississippi!

Tracy Gatewood
Sacred Ramblings  All Rights Reserved

Related Article: Equip the Bride: https://wp.me/p1zoxs-k&nbsp

This article appeared on Marketplace & Ministry  (WordPress)
Twitter:  @TracyLGatewood
Instagram:   tgatewood1
Facebook:    Tracy Gatewood Writer Teacher
Author: Doorways of Grace: My Uncommon Journey to Healing, Wholeness and Meeting Jesus  (Amazon 2015 )

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