SIGNATURE NEWS [ 7F782F91
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Unknown to many people, leading US preacher, Joyce Meyer was
sexually abused about 200 times before she turned 18 by her biological father.
Meyer whose ministry has blessed many all over the world made the revelation in
her books, messages and her blog on the internet. She traces her fervor in the
ministry to the early abuse she suffered from her father saying that she prayed
and did everything possible to stop him but he did not.
She
said she had also reported the issue to her mother who also turned the other
side. “I reported to my mother and she
refused to confront my father, I reported to my relations and they acted as if
they could not do anything about it. I even went to the police and there was no
action. I prayed for my father to die, he did not die, I prayed that my mother
would leave him, she didn’t and I prayed that he would stop abusing me, but he
didn’t”
Meyer who was born to a father who enlisted to fight in the
Second World War said in one of her messages that she started facing abuse at
the age of thirteen. At that age her father decided to teach her to drive. He
didn’t do it for her, Meyer said. He never did anything for her.
He did
it because he wanted to get her out of the house and away from her mother.
Sometimes, they would drive to cemetery and park the car. He liked cemeteries,
she said. They were remote and private. “Things were a little better in the
winter time,” when she was in school, she said because her father worked night
and they were rarely home together. But I hated summers. He would go out and
get drunk and leave me with him. He’d feed me alcohol… get me dizzy. And he’d
do different things in the back of the car…”
Meyer,
who was born in 1943 and one of America’s wealthiest and most powerful TV
preachers, has repeated these stories often in recent years – in her books and
at her conferences. They are stories of a bullied and emotionally starved young
woman victimized by an abusive father, a weak mother and a manipulative first
husband.
In another of her
message she said,” although I appeared to function normally in the society, I
had multiple inward problems and complicated personality disorders. There were
several things going on in me at the time that prevented me from receiving and
experiencing the righteousness, peace and joy of God’s kingdom (see Romans 4:17). But Jesus came so that we could have and
enjoy kingdom living.
I was bitter about
my past and had a chip on my shoulder, which caused me to have the attitude
that everyone owed me preferential treatment. I was full of self –pity,
especially if things didn’t go my way. I was controlling, manipulative,
fearful, insecure and harsh. I was just plain hard to get along with and often
downright obnoxious. I was judgmental, suspicious and very negative. I
experienced a lot of guilt and condemnation. I had a shame- based nature;
therefore everything I attempted was poisoned. Since I didn’t like who I was, I
spent many years trying to be like someone else.
Now, what I am getting ready to say is important. I was born
again and actively involved in church life. We attended church regularly and
did church work. Our lives revolved round the church, but I was not getting
victory over my problems. In fact, the really sad part was that I didn’t even
understand that I had a problem. I thought everyone else had a problem and that
if they would change, I would be happy.
“In 1976 I received the baptism of the Holy-Spirit. Acts 1:8
speaks of receiving God’s power tom be His witness. Notice it does not say to
do witnessing but to be witnesses. The bible says we are to be living epistles and
read by all men (see 2 Corinthians 3:2), light in a dark world, and the salt of
the earth (see Matthew5:13, 14). Doing is a different thing from being. I had
my outside polished up, but my inner life was a wreck. Quite often the turmoil
exploded, and then everybody could see I wasn’t quite what I appeared to
be. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in
my life gave me a real love for God’s Word and an ability to understand it like
never before. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says looking into the word of god is like
looking into a mirror which transforms us into His image from glory to glory. I
have been changing ever since. I have changed and changed and changed, and I am
still changing! Most of those problems are completely gone, and the rest only
flare up occasionally. I even look different, younger, happier, and more
peaceful. 2Corinthians 5:17 says that if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature; old things have passes away; and all things are made new. But that
doesn’t really mean everything from the past just vanishes. The Amplified Bible
brings it out this way: Behold the fresh and new has come! In other words,
without Jesus there is no hope for the newness of life. The past always affects
the future without the power of God to
overcome it. But even with Jesus we are not automatically free from the past.
When the fresh and the new come, there is opportunity to be free. But we must
give the word of god an exalted place in our lives. We must face the truth as
it is revealed to us in his word and then the truth will set us free as it is
acted upon.
I want to encourage
you to keep pressing on! Philippians 1:16 says that He who has begun a good work
in you is able to bring it into completion. You will keep changing if you stay
in God’s word and keep looking to Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of
your faith(see Hebrew12:2). Now I am enjoying the kingdom living of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And no matter what you’ve
experienced in your past or how many problems you have, God will do a miracle
for you! He will change you into the image of Christ.
