"A Paradigm Shift": In the Presence of the Lord!

A PARADIGM SHIFT

In the Presence of the Lord!

Yvette Bell

AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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© 2012 by Yvette Bell and In Spiritual Strength Ministries. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/27/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-3786-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-3785-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-3784-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011963724

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Contents

APPRECIATION

DEDICATION

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Declare ye among the nations, publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not.

Jeremiah 50:2

APPRECIATION

I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate all those who encouraged the ministry God placed inside me to grow and to flourish. These giants in the kingdom of God prayed effectually and fervently, warring for me in the spirit realm to aspire and obtain greater depths.

This ministry assignment was birthed due to your encouragement, financial provision, and support.

My eternal love and gratitude for your love and personal sacrifice to my:

Sovereign King and Ruler of All Kingdoms, My Lord Jesus Christ

Husband and Mighty Man of Valor, Daryl Bell

Beautiful Daughter and Young Woman of Excellence, Mercedes Bell

Spiritual Mother and Father, Bishop Charles and Mother Angie Green

Pastor and Wife (In-Laws), Superintendent Claude and Lady Mary Bell

Dear Sister, Mid-Wife, and Editor Extraordinaire, Evangelist Tewana Bell

Beautiful God-Daughter and Editor, Sister Kanisha Hundley

Numerous Family Members and Friends

Various Church and Community Leaders

DEDICATION

Those who know God is beckoning your relationship with him, your marriage, your career, your parenthood, your ministry, and/or your spiritual gifts to a higher level of excellence but have not found the courage to press past your current state of mind, circumstances, faulty religious doctrines, systematic hindrances and/or social norms, this book is dedicated to you. If you are finding life to be a challenge, and cannot quite understand or maintain a position in God that leads to ultimate victory then keep reading.

I pray that within the following pages your soul will find healing, assignment, and encouragement to take dominion and authority over every hindrance in Christ Jesus. May this impartation cause you to fervently pursue after the presence of God and subdue his eternal promises extended to us from the mother and father of all, Adam and Eve. Promises ordained before the foundations of the earth (Genesis 1:28). Every believer, when in divine alignment and right relationship with God, has been delegated the same authority released to Adam and Eve. Their mantle is imparted to all generations in the earth through the vehicle of prayer. While dwelling in the presence of our Lord ultimate fulfillment of purpose and destiny becomes clearer and more defined. It is here, in prayer and rightful relationship with God, where God releases his sustaining power and heavenly blessings needed to live out the fullness of true healing and restoration.

My prayer for the people of God is that we come into the full understanding of divine assignment imparted to us by our sovereign king, of which we are accountable to complete. In addition, I pray we find comfort in the presence of the Lord where there is fullness of joy (Psalms 16:11), denial of flesh (I Chronicles 1:29), spiritual growth/maturity, and strategy for kingdom assignment.

PROLOGUE

I remember the moment when the realization of my 35th birthday hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the year that many define as the mid-life crisis, also known as mid-life transition. Though the Lord had authored many great victories over what seemed to be the final chapters of defeat in my life, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was not really feeling fulfilled or accomplished. Have you ever been there? When in a single moment the realization of not completing all you’d hoped to or were assigned to accomplish for the advancement of the Lord’s kingdom, consumed every thought. It was at this cross road in my life that my prayers changed to the following:

Lord help me allow you to finish what you have begun in me, so that when this life is over, I know every God given mandate has been accomplished for your glory. Then I will be able to stand before you on judgment day with the assurance that I have completed the work of a wife, a mother, a career minded woman, and an evangelist and have finished the course you laid out for me before the foundations of the earth (II Timothy 4:5-7). God show me the path that I must take to press past all that has ever hindered or blocked the full manifestation of your love, your power, and your authority fully manifesting in my life.

Through the sincerity of my heart, the Lord strategically peeled away every layer of my life one by one. As a result, I began to take a deep look at who I had become and was becoming. Finally realizing that my past experiences and situations had contributed to the emptiness that was beginning to resurface. Unbeknownst to me, God was utilizing the hurts, rejections, fears, and disappointments of my past as tools to catapult me to a more fulfilling future.

The scars caused by life’s disappointments had only been suppressed with the years which had so quickly come and gone. Time had come for me to deal with: the abandonment of my mother and her family who rejected both me and my brother because of our African American descent; the emotional and physical neglect of a father struggling with a drug and alcohol addiction as well as a institutionalized mind set; being shuffled from one household to another which inevitably impacted my emotional development, also causing vulnerability for sexual molestation; experimenting with drugs and alcohol to numb the feelings of abuse and rejection; and being separated from my only sibling during my teenage years.

In addition to dealing with these uncontrollable circumstances, I later found myself in a quest for validation through love and acceptance of another human being. As a result, I unknowingly became a victim of my past and made immature decisions resulting in me becoming pregnant out of wedlock while aspiring to become a missionary. The emotional state I carried for years was one of isolation, bitterness, rejection, low self-esteem, low self-worth, and depression.

SURELY these and many other experiences would stay hidden behind the walls around my heart, the private fortress I personally erected. God forbid! It was time for the walls to fall.

In God’s presence an awakening occurred causing unexpected shifting to happen in my soul and mind. It was not just any shift (change), but it was "PARADIGM!" Something nobody else could have done but the Lord. No institution, no religious reformation, no theology, no cultural tradition, not even my own logical train of thought could heal nor transform the hidden hurts of my life. This change caused a total revitalization of my personal goals and aspirations. Eventually changing the course of the spiritual journey in which I was traveling. A different path, less traveled, was awaiting me.

God began to utilize his divine agents of change, the message of repentance, the power of the Holy Ghost (I John 2:27), the redeeming blood of Jesus, the word of God, and impartation from spiritual midwives to birth destiny. God placed each agent on kingdom assignment to transform my very life, thereby causing newness and refreshing from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3) to overflow in my heart. It was as if every area of my life experienced a rebirth. Even the hidden places that hurt too much to allow exposure, had to give total reverence and access to the light of Jesus Christ.

I pray that God’s divine transformation will cause Paradigm Shifting to occur in your soul and mind as you spend time in the presence of God while meditating on his word in the pages to come. Allow the Lord’s spirit and the word of God to become the agents of change we all so desperately need. All though difficult at times to do, allow the Lord to unfold the layers of your heart and mind. Give him access to tear down every wrongly erected wall built to keep out life’s disappointments. It is also important to remember it is only in God’s presence daily, that you will gain the personal courage and kingdom strategy needed to embark on this journey of deep self-reflection. Thereby, causing permanent paradigm shifting as you "Bare Down and PUSH into God’s Presence!"

CHAPTER ONE

THE PARADIGM SHIFT

Paradigm: A pattern or model, set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

(Free Dictionary, 2011)

The two most important messages of the kingdom of God are and have always been love and repentance. Many forerunners to Jesus Christ were sent to speak expressly of a coming Messiah who would, because of love, do away with the sinful effects of all other ungodly kingdoms on those who accept him as Lord in their hearts. In the Old Testament, prophets such as Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah foretold of a Savior who would one day sacrifice his life. The blood the Messiah was to shed would atone for the sins of mankind and shift us back into rightful kingdom position. It is through repentance and acceptance of the message of Jesus Christ relationship with our heavenly father is restored and we are placed back into divine alignment with him. One messenger in particular, John the Baptist, was so familiar with the message of repentance that he traveled the region preaching, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 3:2). Even Jesus Christ himself called souls to repentance with the main focus of his message being, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). The eternal fact remains that the Son of God was given. However, it is dependent upon whether we believe in his works if we are to be saved from destruction and gain eternal life.

Individuals who sincerely repent and accept the message of Jesus Christ, in its entirety, empowers him/herself against the tricks of the enemy. Otherwise