Royalty not Peasantry

Triumphant Victorious Reminders

Inspired by the Holy Spirit
Written by: Teresa Criswell

"Never let loyalty and kindness get away from you! Wear them like a necklace; write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will gain a good reputation."
~ Proverbs 3:3-4 ~


(Photograph from Google Images)

The unsettling in my spirit and mind were fully apparent physically as the first five minutes of speaking to the ladies were horrendous. My mind and mouth were trying to do everything and the only result was tripping over my words and becoming more cotton mouthed the more I spoke. You could see the desperate eyes looking upon me, wanting to rescue me from me. They each knew something was going on as they know it is not like me to struggle when speaking.

In one moment, instead of continuing in pride and stupidity, believing that no one was noticing my struggle when it was fully apparent that they not only noticed, but even the atmosphere was turning cold. The compelling need to stop and ask the ladies to stretch their hands out in prayer towards me was incredible. It was as if I could hear the Holy Spirit say, "Teresa, humble yourself! No more pride...don't rob yourself or My daughters of what I want revealed Reveal My royalty, not your former peasantry."

Suddenly I heard my voice interrupt the atmosphere, "Okay, does everyone notice I'm struggling?" Hilariously, without saying a word, everyone nodded their heads as their eyes were open wide. I said, "I need all of you to please extend your hands towards me and pray." As they stretched out their hands, it was incredible...I couldn't believe the power of God's love shown through each of these daughters, the power of compassion as each of them loved me despite of me. I asked for a drink of water and then one of the dear ladies, my sweet friend spoke forth God's blessing and prayed that the unsettling in my spirit would be replaced with peace. It was incredible.

As everyone looked up at me, I began to cry, saying, "Every week, I pray, "God, I do not want to screw any of these women over. I don't want to 'jip' any of these ladies of what You want to do." Ladies, tonight, I almost robbed all of us of what God wants to do. Do you see what happens when we try to rely on our own strength and not His? I was revealing my former peasantry and not His royalty." After this happened, the exercise that God had revealed to me that morning began to unfold. Although earlier that day I had no idea how it was going to go down...my embarrassing moment became a classroom of lessons I will never forget.

It was astounding to see the 'word' I received that morning as I was taking the sheets off the bed to place in the wash. The motion in which my arm threw the comforter off the bed was in the same way someone would throw out a life preserver. I 'saw' the life preserver, then I 'saw' the word, "Lifesaver"...then what came together was remembering the story of Joseph and even Esther, 'seeing' the following words, "Favor is a tool that saves lives...Favor is a tool that saves nations." Further explaining that the nations can be the places where we work, frequent, and even our neighborhood, etc.

I picked up the 'Lifesaver' gummie candy package (On a side note, before the ladies arrived, I was led to cut up 8.5 x 11 paper four ways. I had no idea why...but I did. I placed a piece of paper on each seat provided and had extra ones just in case). Before passing out the 'Lifesaver' package, it started to come to me what the piece of paper was for. Looking at each beautiful daughter of the King I said, "Everyone of you should have a piece of paper that was placed on your seat. Please take that sheet of paper and place the names of those who have hurt you on that piece of paper. Whatever you write is not going to be exposed or shared with anyone." Then, I passed the package of lifesavers around and they were instructed to place the candy lifesaver on the list of names.

Before going any further, when I began to speak forth what the Holy Spirit wanted to teach us, passion was bubbling out of me and the words began to flow, "We are the ones who determine the IF and the THEN. We pray the Deuteronomy 28 blessing...but are we being obedient? We ask God why we aren't seeing the blessings, but He is saying, "The blessings are yours...but you determine whether you will receive or not...you determine the 'IF' and the "THEN'." Ladies, the Lord continually and lovingly teaches me, "Teresa, you can justifiably take your rights and be angry, mad, offended, and try to figure out how you can 'get back at those who have wronged you, try to devise a plan without taking it to me. Teresa! Go ahead...take your rights, but when you do, you forsake MY BLESSINGS!" We are daughters called to a royal standard. This gathering is not about placating situations...ganging up on those who have hurt us...this is not a gathering where it is a 'safe place' to gossip. It will not happen because when God deposited the name of this 'group' it was specifically revealed, "I will teach you how to reveal My Royalty so that you do not reveal your former peasantry."

In that moment, there was quietness and then this intertwining of events fit together like a beautiful symphonic melody. Joseph revealed with beautiful excellence what Jesus would urge each of us to do and that is to "Love our enemies, pray and bless those who spitefully use us, persecute us and hurt us (Luke 6:27-36)." We must learn to immediately pray to God when we hear of situations taking place, whether they are minor or horrific, take it to God immediately and ask Him for Wisdom as we reveal our trust in Him. Even moreso, we must do this together, not becoming isolated or alone. When we do this, we see with 'God vision' versus our mere 'eye sight'. As we do what Jesus commanded, it echoes Proverbs 3:3-6. Never (This is an absolute...not sometimes or most of the time, or saying, "It depends on the circumstance") Never let loyalty and kindness leave you. Bind it around your neck, wear it as a necklace and THEN you will find favor with both God and man. Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding (or our old way of doing things), but in ALL your ways ACKNOWLEDGE HIM and HE will direct your paths.

As the exercise continued, the revelation of God's favor was showing how God even wants to save the lives of those on that sheet of paper. If we don't accessorize our neck with loyalty and kindness, the continual cycle of hurting people hurt people who will hurt other people and hurt even more people. We must become a royal spectacle just as the scene in the movie, Princess Diaries 2. If you've seen it, do you remember the scene in which the princess stops the procession during the parade as she notices the orphans? One of the little girls, who was an orphan was being made fun of and bullied by another orphan. As the princess walked over to the little girl, she first addressed the bully with authority addressing what he had done as he runs off. She then looks to the little girl, bends down to her level, lovingly takes her hand and softly says, "Do you want to be a princess today?" And in a sweet, tiny voice the little girls says, "I can't, I'm too little." And the princess says, "I declare that anyone can be a princess..."

The tears flowed as you could see a shift in each of our hearts as we went from hurt to compassion as God was able to utilize each of us as a conduit toward those who had hurt us.

Wrapping up the moment, this is what was spoken, "Ladies, daughters of the King, we must remember that favor is not to hoard but to be extended to others. We must declare over the daughters that they too can rise up and be crowned as God's princess. We are crowned with favor to empower others. We are royalty; and true royalty steps down and picks others up."

I was honored to echo what God has revealed to me through my mentor as he has challenged me. I was able to challenge myself and the other ladies with the following: "When we leave this evening, let's not leave here, another Friday night with knowing we had a great time, but not remembering what we have learned. This week, give some examples of what we could do for others in our 'nation'. Let's see application, even if the person receiving doesn't show any appreciation, let's keep doing it.

The things that were mentioned amongst the ladies were simple yet amazing.
Some of the ideas:
* Making cookies for our neighbors with a note of encouragement.
* A smile.
* An embrace.
* Calling, texting or sending a letter to someone with encouragement (I received a letter in the mail from a dear friend I haven't seen in 5 years and O how it blessed my heart...thank you Ellen).
* Making dinner for someone.
* Letting someone have a better parking place.

The challenge is so that we come together next week, sharing, not bragging, but BRAGGING on God what He was able to do through us for someone else. The more we do this, the more it becomes like the air we breathe...we won't even have to 'think' about it, it will just happen, we will be conduits of God's beautiful royalty instead of our former peasantry.