Iron Rose Sister Ministries

Written by Rianna Elmshaeuser, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Colorado

Years ago, a friend of mine was in trouble. She was in mental anguish and deep emotional pain. One particular night in a text conversation, she was using words and phrases that were quite alarming. I stopped to pray for her, “Lord, I know it takes a whole lot of guardian angels to keep me alive every day, but if you will send some over to my friend to strengthen her right now, I will stay home and try not to do anything too stupid for a while.”

I never mentioned this prayer to my friend. Several weeks later, I overheard her talking about that night and she said, “I just felt like extra angels were surrounding me in that moment.” My prayer may not have been the most flowery or impressive, but the Holy Spirit knew what I meant and helped me communicate to God what was needed.

More recently, I found myself in a situation where I needed wisdom and didn’t have time to go to the scriptures for guidance. A young person under my care had disregarded my instructions and her behavior was putting her physical safety at risk. I had to go on a search for her and when I eventually found her, I was fuming mad. Speaking to her immediately would have resulted in humiliating her publicly, so I decided to wait for a more private setting.

As I waited for the event to end and for everyone else to leave, I prayed to God for wisdom. By the time I was able to speak to her, God had answered my call and my planned speech had completely changed from one of anger and admonishment to a much more needed conversation of self-care and self-worth. I know that had the Holy Spirit not been there to guide me, things would have turned out very differently and probably much worse. With God’s help, we both left the conversation feeling encouraged, closer to God, and closer to each other.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Rom. 8:26-27 ESV)

We are also promised wisdom through the Holy Spirit. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

In Matthew 10:19-20, Jesus is saying to His disciples,

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

There are many other times when the Spirit has helped me remain calm in a tense situation, comforted me when I felt lonely and alone, or prompted me to reach out to a stranger or friend in need. Jesus was right (as usual) when He said One greater than He was coming to help us.

I have often thought how wonderful it would be to have Jesus here in person. Wouldn’t it be amazing to sit at His feet and listen to Him teach? What a blessing it would be to ask Him what to do in a particular situation. Who should I vote for? What should I say to repair this relationship? Am I doing a good job?

In John 14, verses 15-19, Jesus promises not to leave us as orphans but that the Spirit of Truth, a Helper, will come to us and live with us and in us. In John 16:7, Jesus says, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”He also proclaims to His disciples in John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the spiritual gifts of healing, prophecy, speaking in and interpreting tongues, and miracles. But at the end of the chapter in verse 31 he says, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” Immediately following is “The Love Chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13. Healing people and prophesying would be amazing “powers” to have, but Paul says even more excellent than being able to perform miracles is love. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and helps us to love each other as Christ loved us. Through love and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can perform “greater works” than Jesus did while on earth. Are you in tune with the Holy Spirit living in you? Do you believe what Jesus said?

Written by Katie Forbess, President of Iron Rose Sister Ministries Board of Directors

Grace is defined as undeserved favor. “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV).

I wanted to tell you how saying and hearing, “I forgive you,” is an important part of the forgiveness process. But in the story I will tell, no one told us they were sorry, and we could not say, “I forgive you.” However, I can certainly tell you about the healing that can happen through forgiveness and the fulfillment of the ministry of reconciliation that Christ has called us to.

Grace is defined as undeserved favor, and it is very connected to forgiveness.

Last fall when someone did something unthinkable against my family, we sat at the dining room table and forgave them before we even knew who or what was going on. We knew the whole situation was based on a lie that God would have to bring to light. It was a serious “the truth will set you free” situation.

Why did we choose to forgive? We couldn’t have lived with the waiting and the stress and the unknown of what the following three weeks would bring if we hadn’t. We had been told every Sunday of our lives that Christ died for our sins and we are all sinners and no one is without sin and we must forgive others. Now we had to put it into practice, and we learned that like everything God does, He does it for the good of those who love Him.

The forgiveness we gave had nothing to do with who the offender was because we didn’t know who told the lie. We didn’t forgive because of how awesome we are, because we are not. The only way I can explain it is that the love we have for God and the desire we have to follow the example of Christ in our daily lives made forgiveness our first response. We felt the power of His forgiveness and knew that it was something that we were called to share.

Forgiveness doesn’t have anything to do with me or the other person. Forgiveness has everything to do with obedience and our true reconciliation with God.

Jesus is clear in the Lord’s Prayer regarding the connection between forgiving others and God forgiving us. We have to forgive others in order to be forgiven. I think this is because we can’t even start to fathom God’s forgiveness until we go through the process of forgiving others. The difference is that we are sinners just like the one we are forgiving, unlike God who is perfect and forgives us anyway, in the most complete way.

Can you remember the feeling of being forgiven of your sins when you came out of the waters of baptism? Can you remember the feeling of taking the Lord’s Supper for the first time as a member of the church?

Do you remember a time when you hurt someone and had to ask for forgiveness? Do you remember the worry of wondering whether they would forgive you or not? With God, we do not have to wonder. We are forgiven and we will be forgiven. What will we do with that within our other relationships?

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).

Written by Michelle J. Goff, Founder and Director of Iron Rose Sister Ministries

If someone were to ask me about my relationship with the Holy Spirit, I would take a long pause before answering. My head would tilt, then nod, as I began reflecting on how that relationship has changed over the years.

When I was young, the Holy Spirit was represented by a dove at Jesus’ baptism or by tongues of fire on the Day of Pentecost. While accurate in their respective biblical contexts, they form an incomplete picture of who He is and what He does.

Even the fact that I refer to the Holy Spirit now as “He,” rather than “It,” is noteworthy. It took time for me to learn to see God and trust God through His Spirit.

According to Acts 2:38, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, along with the washing away of our sins, when we are baptized. The Holy Spirit empowered the apostles to perform miracles throughout the book of Acts.

Turning back a few pages in our Bibles, the apostle John does the most thorough job of explaining Jesus’ promise that we would receive the Spirit as our Comforter, Guide, and Reminder of Truth (John 14, 16).

At the root of our relationship with the Holy Spirit is our faith.

I do not make that statement as a condemnation of those who do not believe in the workings of the Holy Spirit. Neither is it a declaration of weak faith upon those who are filled with doubts in this area.

My younger self was critical of those who spoke confidently about what the Holy Spirit had or had not done. I errantly thought the Spirit was dormant until Jesus brought Him into the picture. And I was skeptical of how He works today.

However, I have discovered that the strength of my relationship with the Holy Spirit is directly correlated to the depth and breadth of my faith in Him and in what God has promised through Him. I had to set aside my fears of the mysterious, indescribable, even other-worldly nature of the Spirit.

Many of you have heard this story, but indulge me with a brief synopsis: During my first trip to Venezuela, there was a woman who asked me a question in Spanish, and I had no idea how to answer her… not even in English. I sent up an arrow prayer, opened my mouth, and what came out was spiritually wise, biblically accurate, and eloquently stated in fluent Spanish. In other words, it was not me; it was the Holy Spirit through me. I believed He would use me as His instrument. And my confidence in that belief has grown through my prayers and study of the Word, not to mention more and more experiences like that one.

I encourage you to open your mind to what the Spirit’s role and relationship is in your life. You could do a word study on the Holy Spirit, finding the verses that refer to Him and what He does through others.

Because He is spirit, the Holy Spirit needs a vessel through which to do His work. In other words, the Holy Spirit is God’s conduit through which He reaches, teaches, guides, comforts, and directs us.

How can we grasp the air? Our life is like a vapor (James 4:14). We cannot see the wind, but we see the effects of it. We see evidence of the Spirit, but we may not recognize His hand until we are past the moment of greatest need for Him.

Did you know the Holy Spirit had a significant role throughout the Old Testament? After a deep dive on that study, I wrote a poem entitled, “Ruach,” the Hebrew word that best represents the Spirit. It is an onomatopoeia (the word describes itself by the sounds it makes when you say it, e.g., swoosh, buzz). Note: The poem appears in the last chapter of I already AM: Testimonies of Belief of the Great I AM.

When David prayed, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me!” (Ps. 51:11 ESV), he had witnessed the difference in his predecessor, Saul, when God’s Spirit was taken away. The Spirit spoke through many of the prophets, priests, and kings. The important distinction from then to now is that not everyone was offered the invitation to have the Spirit. Now, when we become one with Christ, we celebrate the joy of the resurrection and redemption from life without the Spirit.

If you do not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, I invite you to take the important step of faith by proclaiming your belief publicly, repenting from a Spirit-less way of life in darkness, confessing Jesus as Lord of your life, and being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

If you would like help on that part of your spiritual journey, we would love to help connect you with a local church that can walk alongside you.

Written by Francia Oviedo, Creative Assistant for Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Honduras

I remember sitting in a park with all my friends. It was common to sit there to chat, laugh and although it seemed innocent, sometimes laugh at others. We used to have conversations that were not very useful or profitable. But one day something different happened; I realized that, unlike my friends, I was already a Christian, I had given my life to God, and I was unequally yoked.

But what is a yoke? Imagine a piece of wood with an arch carved out on each end. The head of an animal--generally an ox—is fitted in each arch, and when they are prodded by the tiller of the plow, they will pull the yoke to plow the field and create furrows in which seed will be planted. These furrows must be consistent in depth and spacing because if they are not, the seed will not be able to grow properly. This is why it is important that the two animals that are yoked together are of equal size and strength because if not, the crop will not grow properly and, above all, the animals could hurt each other if one of them pulls the yoke with more force than the other. In the Old Testament we find this verse, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together” (Deut. 22:10 NASB).

So, then what do we call an unequally yoked relationship? A marriage relationship where one of the parties is not a Christian is commonly called an unequally yoked union, but I believe it goes much further than that. I think it is an issue that we must constantly pay attention to. Being unequally yoked can also apply when our lives are being influenced by worldly beliefs, cultures, ideas, ideologies, etc. where the will and holiness of God does not reign. Many times, we let these things guide our way of thinking and behaving and we end up unequally yoked, forgetting God's will for us.

Going back to my story, after giving my life to God and deciding to change my way of living and my way of speaking and expressing myself, I continued walking around with my friends who continued doing the same things that I no longer wanted to do. That day in the park while everyone was having a conversation and laughing at a boy who was passing by, saying things that had no purpose for me, I understood that that was no longer where I needed to be, and I decided to leave this environment and these companions. As 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “But don’t be so naïve—there’s another saying you know well—Bad company corrupts good habits" (The Voice). I really liked enjoying time with my friends, but it was no longer a place for me.

With this, I am not saying that we have to abandon friends, a partner, a job, or a project, but it is about understanding and respecting our purpose of keeping ourselves in the will of God. I believe that when we demonstrate this firmness, which of course we must do with a lot of love and respect for others who do not believe in God, we can show the light of Jesus and we can become references for them when they need God.

As for my friends, I can say that, although I distanced myself a little from them and that unhealthy environment, I continued to be in regular contact with them, since I also know that my purpose is to share the message of God, trying to be a light for them, while always guarding my heart.

And well, I already told you what I had to give up, and I assure you that there are things that I must be constantly evaluating in my life: what conversations do I have, what music do I listen to, what videos or series do I watch? I must constantly check my heart and analyze what I am unequally yoking myself to.

And you, what relationships, conversations, movies, books, ___________ (fill in the blank with your challenge) are you unequally yoking yourself to? I encourage you to put those things in God’s hands in prayer. May He always help you guard your heart and not be unequally yoked.