Cinderella Released…from ashes to beauty
You Prisoners of Hope
Destiny Released Conference
Marlene Baggs-Hoenig, 2-7-2009
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, [and] sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. Isaiah 52:1-3“As for you also,
Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you. For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, Against our sons, O Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man.” Zechariah 9: 11-13
A slave is described by Kevin Bales, author of
Ending Slavery as a person who:
"Is being controlled by violence or threat, working without payment, and being economically exploited. A slave can’t walk away from his/her life without making the choice he would rather starve than be a slave. Slavery only exists because of human greed."however
A Bondservant on the other hand: – agrees to be under the Master’s rule in exchange for provision, protection for the express purpose of fulfilling their destiny. It is who they are. It is their identity. He/she chooses to let the Master determine the course and events in their lives regardless of anyone else in their lives.
I was asked to speak today about prayer, purpose, power and release. Cinderella Released…A Prisoner of Hope.
There is a lot of hopelessness and despair in the world today, particularly now, with economic hard times and a Global Depression. Last year the Wall Street Journal reported the entire world had come under a great cloud of fear. People in all nations are now paralyzed by world events.
Satan is in the Identity Theft business! -
The world and the church is in an identity crisis. But, I’m here today to tell you that you are a woman of God, you have an identity. It’s is something genuine, not a copy. You are not a fake and no matter what the enemy or anyone tells you, you have a destiny and Jesus will hold your purpose in place until you arrive!
Family background are important to review and pray about. Individuals are born with slavery spirits trying to stop them from becoming the men and women God has called them to be.
Example:
My mother born in Alabama – heavy spirits of bondage and lived among slavery.. her entire childhood. She worked the fields along with those who were fighting thousands of years of oppression. She only went to the 8th grade but was extremely intelligent.
My daddy came from at least 12 generations of farmers, who owned slaves... Here again a strong spiritual climate of slavery and bondage hangs over my brothers, cousins and I.
I always thought my mom didn’t want to spend time with us, because she worked 16-17 hours a day sometimes. I didn't find out till speaking to my 87 year old father, the reason she worked 16-17 hours a day was so she could afford a housekeeper, nanny, etc. And so that my brothers and I could have a home and things she never had. Her perspective was wrapped up in having money to buy services and things for us kids. My perspective was wanting and desiring time together, like I saw other families having.
God chooses our families for very specific reasons, and so we must be thankful for our families even when they are more than dysfunctional!
Cinderella. She lost her mother at a young age. Her father remarried and she was displaced by a stepmother, and two stepsisters. We have a lot of families with step issues today.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick. I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
What is a waterless pit? An empty well…can you imagine walking for days, or weeks to get water and it is waterless?
Things like this happen from the time we are born, and born again to discourage and rob us of hope.
Imagine Cinderella, making her dress only to have it destroyed by the stepsisters…
Have you had something in your life destroyed, that you had no control over? God knows what this is, and he desires to give you hope.
Key issues that affect our identities of who we really are…
Immobilize the enemy instead of allowing the enemy to immobilize us. I started to think all I was good for was being barefoot, sweeping the floors, hiding in the corner, ugly and unattractive, physically, emotionally and mentally.
We are immovable, unstoppable and steadfast always abounding in the work of the Lord, NOT IMMOBILE…He told me I could IMMOBILIZE the enemy if I would just look back over my life and find the lies.
I was fearful – two years ago I moved back to my childhood home… I couldn’t rest in my bed. I felt the same emotions I had as a child now over 50 years later. I prayed and asked the Lord to help me. He said move your bed. I did and I’ve been fine ever since.
The next emotion I’ve battled with is Abuse & Co-Dependancy. As a child I spent the night with a relative and one of my cousins, taught me physically about sex. This started the lie about my identity.
Those of you with children, it is your responsibility to protect what goes into your children's eye and ear gates, and their physical wellbeing. Satan wants to rob them of their virginity and their purity.
Watch out for Doubt & Unbelief –
In 1991 my son’s and I moved to Tallahassee. God provided for protected and guided our steps…..we had a time where our electric bill never went over $6. A month for a year, the electric company couldn’t explain it. We lived on next to nothing income wise, God always provided, and my son’s and I have seen the mighty hand of God. The day the Lord delivered me from guilt, shame, doubt & unbelief. My ex husband was getting remarried, On February 29, 1996 I was driving to work and a conversation began between me and the Lord. This is when we would talk. He showed me that although my marriage had failed, and my husband had abandoned me and the kids, I was blessed to be in the Lord's hands and that HE would be my husband. He (the Lord) asked me what type of jewelry I wanted in exchange for promising to be my husband and provider. "Starting to think I was crazy, I answered Him and said a gold watch." This way when I raise my hands in worship, it will remind me of the time of this conversation. When I got to my office guess what was on my desk wrapped in a beautiful black velvet box? That is right! A gold bracelet, with angels as the band, the brand Ariel which means Lion of God.
We are in God's hands.
In His Hands
I climbed up into the great oak tree that loomed over our front yard.
“You can do it, you can do it,” he said. He pushed…then…my knee scraped, but I was up there, then it happened ….suddenly, now… so scared.
I cried, I tried to come down.
Just jump my brother said. I can’t I cried, I can’t, I didn’t dare.
Ok, ok he said, as he reached up his hands.Outstretched, they grabbed me, giving me support, they held me, silencing my plea.
His hands they were what I needed to climb down, to the ground.
His hands, were now holding me, loving me, gently caressing, my wounded knee.
We looked wide eyed and surprised that Christmas, Brand new Schwinn bikes underneath the tree. His was red and mine was a beautiful mixture of green and blue. “Let’s ride!” my brother said. We managed to get our shiny new bikes outside.
Doug my brother already off peddling hard. But me? No Way…it was too big. Then my daddy, my hero comes to my rescue. He steadied the bike as I got on.
His hands holding me, running, pushing me along as my feet tried to keep up with the peddles.
He said let go and I said, No! but he did, then WOW, I was riding.
All of a sudden faltering, falling, but his hands grabbed the seat of my bike, keeping me upright. There, ahh, Here I go again….riding into the wind. I’ll never forget his hands that morning, releasing me on my big new shiny Schwinn.
The boys ran and played at the park that day, running, sliding and finally to the swings. Two of them, jumped up to grab the ropes, kicking, laughing, squealing push me daddy, push me. I looked in awe as his hands so strong, pushed each son in unison.
Higher daddy, higher, faster daddy, faster. His hands, his hands, what a man, such laughter.
So much love, so much in store, little did he know he’d father two more.
His hands take mine that day. After years of wanting, waiting for the moment, the hour when I would say I do. He did. He took my hand, his hands outstretched, with my finger extended and placed the ring on my finger, his hands holding mine forever….
Nine months later a child is born, he’s soft and fragile, with long beautiful jet black hair, he looks like a precious Indian papoose, so tightly wrapped, so gentle.
I’ll never forget his hands that day, my husband placed this little bundle of love underneath my breasts. I looked underneath to count the fingers…one by one….his hands so little, so sweet, so safe beneath my heart, he cooed like a dove, what love!
I looked at my youngest one, peeking beneath the stoop, waiting on his little toad. Out, the toad jumps! My little one bends down holds out his hands and the toad hops up. He takes one finger gently strokes his pet. I wondered why this little toad, loved his hands so much. His hands held up to my face. Mom he said, look they’re warts. All over his hands, Remember, the little toad you had? Each one is a reminder of his hands, loving, caring, touching. Painting medicine on his hands, he looks up and cries, it hurts mom, bad, so bad. Brushing my own tears away, I took his hands, yes my son, it hurts, love hurts …sometimes as I held his hands.
ROBBERY - The Lord has continued to restore my identity. I left my job at the real estate company and started my own cleaning business. This was such a joy…God began to restore my physical body…. He then did something very special. A woman that I cleaned for was caring for her husband who was a famous sculptor Ralph Hurst. She had helped build the performing arts center at the community college where my son’s were going.
Put on the Mink Stole - It’s real she said and I know you will be wearing it one day to a very special occasion.
Three weeks ago the Lord spoke to me and told me I had an issue about feeling genuine….I was surprised at this word. Then I began asking him about it. He said, this is why you don’t want anything fake in your life, because you feel like a fake. The enemy has lied to you and told you your life is not worth anything and it is not valuable.
The Lord then began to show me pictures of my life growing up. I had long beautiful brunette hair, thick as thieves. It was beautiful, all one length, down to my waste and very time consuming to take care of, but nevertheless it was mine. I loved the show “Get Smart” especially Agent 99. As a young girl, I would read these crime magazines, Nancy Drew stories, and I wanted to be either a secret agent or a police detective. I wanted to solve the crimes. Agent 99 had this haircut. It was a bob…with bangs.
Anyway, you get the picture. The problem with my hair was, I had cowlicks, and freckles, so when the hairdresser turned me around after cutting off all my beautiful long hair, I was appalled. I was stricken, I was horrified and tears came rolling down my cheeks and my mom was there, trying to console me, but it was too late. All I could see were freckles and my hair parting in front with this huge cowlick. And did I mention the eyebrows? I had big, thick bushy eyebrows, the kind that Brooke Shields was born with…except, mine grew together in the middle. With my long dark hair, they weren’t that noticeable, but with bangs that parted in the middle I felt and looked like Alfalfa on Spanky and our gang. Do you know who he is? And did I forget to mention that I had taken a razor the night before and shaved in between my two eyebrows in anticipation of my wonderful hairdo, so now all I had were two uneven bushes over the top of each eye, with a big red spot in the middle….The hairdresser tried thinning it out to make it lie down and that didn’t work. She tried putting rollers and hairspray….nothing, absolutely nothing worked. I didn’t want to go to school for days. Eventually, I my hair grew back, my eyebrows are still a mess, and I gave up wanting to be a secret agent… My hopes and dreams were shattered because I thought I wasn’t pretty enough to be a secret agent. The Lord showed me I had taken on a root lie, and that when I tried to accentuate the attributes that I had, I was being a fake. Satan had planted a bitter root deep down in my spirit. You are too boyish, you have eyebrows like your father, You are a counterfeit woman.
The waterless pit….This was a lie from a lying spirit, the memory of opportunity lost the memory of getting to the well of the waterless pit.
Then the Lord began to show me events in my life….not the abuse, the trauma, the addictions, but things that were lovely, beautiful like the story of Anna in The King & I.
God has ordained who you are. You are beautiful.
I want to be beautiful and make you stand in awe, look inside my heart and be amazed. I want to hear you say who I am is quite enough.I just want to be worthy of love and beautiful. Bethany Dillon (Beautiful)
You are loved, He has more jewels – genuine jewels in store for you and me now and when I arrive in heaven… He shared with me a verse out of Isaiah 54. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, [and] not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, [and] sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Recovery is a process.
You have a testimony. You have a destiny. You have purpose you are a prisoner of hope!
I love you,
Cinderella Released...from ashes to beauty!
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