The Tear including Voting Rights
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (January 17, 2020)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” [Luke 4:18, King James Version (KJV)].
Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus Yahshua,
My sisters and brothers, the thoughts of wickedness in high places looms above us as much as our eyes cast out the truth of the masses, Whom among you standing out there will use your valuable time to vote—-to cast a ballot that speaks incredibly of your stamina to do so and God’s will to pull you through the growth of tension from the highways and byways to claim your own fortitude in the discipline of decision making. Will you vote? I do vote. I spoke to a man of God about leadership one very important day, a day of reckoning when I counted responses to questions that I needed to find out just how everyone’s thoughts created the new big picture of how leadership thinks colloquially speaking, in your neck of the woods, and familiarly speaking, in your neighborhoods, your communities, your towns, your municipalities, your cities, your states and most importantly in your households.[Ephesians 6:12, King James Version (KJV): “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”]
You see I needed more than a pigeoned-holed view of the thoughts of humanity. The man of God told me, “I do not like to work with anyone who lacks discipline.”(Ragan-Reid, 2008). Without fortitude in the belief that God will pick you up and plant your feet on solid ground at the ballot box, you walk without faith that you can be a good leader yourself and able to make good decisions. You are the star here, the most important person who will make a decision and cast your ballot to vote. How difficult is it to keep your eyes on the prize? [Philippians 3:14, King James Version (KJV), “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”].
Yes, we speak of Jesus because Jesus considered a radical leader of that time 2,000 years ago was caught between thieves and high priests, both groups of leadership created a dangerous rip-tide,fff had you been at that time called out to walk on water to get to Jesus, you would have struggled in leadership just like the ministry of Jesus. You had to singularly, spiritually and solely not take your eyes off of your job, to get to Jesus out on the water. Of course, for voters, you had to make the leap from your house representing your households to your precincts—-that place in your district where you stand to represent the decisions you made to cast a ballot; your vote. You know the tear of broken-heartedness easily tears you both ways, in heart and in mind especially when you know the wickedness in high places is most assuredly in your heart where the heaviness of heart is felt that forced you to deny truth before and will do it again until you draw to God to help you with your thinking and decision making; without help you cast your ballot and suffer the consequences of why did I vote that way when I do not believe there is wholeness that way because I am torn in my heart and in my mind every time I vote the person I voted for makes decisions I do not hold dear to my heart.
I think about the paper hearts that my children draw in class when they want to represent love—God’s love for one another. I think about what happens to my child in school in their heart and in their mind when someone picks up their paper heart and tears it into two pieces because it was not a good heart it was rather drawn with one side small and drawn with the other side large. Now, the child is broken-hearted and ashamed, for the year of performance in skill-building revealed the truth of his heart. Well, you must search your heart and you must not allow yourself to suffer the pain of bleeding out after the death of making a decision that you yourself failed to believe in, a decision that truly is not your heartfelt decision because the decision tore you into the two pieces of the paper heart and you felt your broken-heartedness.
Why did you do that to yourself when your privilege permitted you the privacy of voting alone all by yourself but you still behaved as a group? You are still a group and each member of the group must cast a ballot to vote. What hurts you most? Is it to think you know how your group felt when you voted? Or, is it to find out the majority of your group did not hold the spoken decision of the group in their heart and voted the other way leaving you speechless that you did not have the peace of mind to follow your heart like they did and your misery sets in to make you feel your broken-heartedness each day and each time you are left not loving the decisions made by your choice on voting day?
You must live with your decisions on that day for more than a day—-probably for years of broken-heartedness. You are bleeding as Jesus was whipped, hung and left to bleed out from the hole that the sword put in his side then to prove he was alive again, Jesus in-turn placed, who we now know as the doubting Thomas’ hand in that same hole to prove he resurrected from the dead back to life. Whether your decision for your vote becomes a resurrection experience for a year or not, I am sure the learning lesson is memorable and one lesson you will not forget—-the tear. Thank God for sending Jesus to heal the broken-hearted.
Thank God for giving you the fortitude to clearly see the masses of people who scream about voting one way or the other who must still face their oneness, their individuality in their spirituality to see the light of Jesus in their own decision making even when they are out there alone walking on water to get to Jesus. You are alone but you are not alone, Gods is with you. The feeling of the tear might get worst but the feeling of the tear also gets better as you grow in your faith to see the light of Jesus. I know that in that crowd of people not everyone is going to block vote. Those people are going to cast a ballot that their decision making helped them to resolve by using their research and their faith to see a brighter day in their decision, not an incredibly failed attempt to see the truth and even the clarity of vision in the redemption of Christ.
Apostle Paul saw his leadership. The tear was there in the Apostle Paul’s heart and mind. [ 2 Timothy 4: 10-22, King James Version (KJV), “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.”].
Apostle Paul knew he was a hard man to love for he killed many, accepting a commission from the wicked high priests who did not love the masses like Jesus. Yet, Jesus’ decision making saw in Paul his ministry and he blinded him on the road to Damascus and took him into his ministry, instead of leaving Paul to follow the wicked high priests.
Let us feel this thought in our hearts and in our minds about decision making because you might face the truth that not everyone is born a leader, not everyone can become ca leader but you do see those voters with ambition aspiring nonetheless to still become a leader. Do I vote a person in leadership just because they want it—-all the fame and God’s glory—all the wealth? Do I draw close to God and listen to my Holy Spirit to guide me? What happens when I face the fact that I am not drawing close to God and I do not hear my Holy Spirit.
The truth is many voters or those who want to vote do not have the patience to talk to God or to pray to God even to wait on God to guide them. For those that are rash and who feel a strong desire to act immediately without care many cares are lost. Does that make a voter bad? I think most voters want to live the abundant life that Jesus gives and do so in leadership yet there are some that know in their hearts that decision making for them is a struggle; they are not good in decision making. God will see each of the voters that lean on the LORD GOD YAHWEH for help through the broken-heartedness with Jesus for Jesus is a healer. [Luke 4:18, King James Version
(KJV), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”].
God bless
