Ladies’ Retreat 2010
A Tremendous Move of God
at the 2010 Wisconsin Ladies’ Retreat
The 28th Annual Wisconsin District Ladies’ Retreat was held at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton May 6-8. Over 900 ladies packed the conference center to hear two outstanding women of God: Donna Linville, international speaker, singer and musician and Janice Sjostrand, a career educator, guest lecturer at the University of Arkansas, and motivational speaker for various venues throughout the United States.
I will not be a Bitter Old Hag
Too often the hardships we encounter throughout life are securely hid in our heart and never surrendered to God. Maybe we are ignored by the pastor’s wife, or our child was not recognized, or we allowed a failure to take away our vision. Maybe the stress of cancer treatments caused a vacuum in our spirit from which we never recovered. God sent Sister Donna Linville Friday morning to talk to the ladies about why they must not let the trials of their faith, not for one moment, make them bitter, lest they end up lukewarm and sitting, as Sister Linville said, “in a pew like an egg shell without a yoke.” We must get it settled today in our spirit that we will not become a “bitter old hag.” Truly, the decisions we make today will lay the foundation for who we become tomorrow.
And there must be a fire burning inside that says, “I will not be intimidated by demonic activity.” There will be temptations. There will be “lions” waiting to attack when we are the most vulnerable. There will be storms and trials of our faith that may shake our foundation. But, she said, “There has to be something that settles in our spirit that we will live this until we die!” We know these battles make us strong and valiant. So it is best to praise the Lord rather than absorb oppressive emotions into our human spirit. If we want to end up exuberant, we have to develop the habit that we will not give any thought to the images planted in our mind by the devil to drag us down and steer us off course. We must settle our life’s journey at the altar. There, at the altar, the Spirit of God will energize and lift us above the cloud.
Say Yes to the Lord
In the last session Saturday morning, Sister Linville had the ladies in stitches. She wanted to make the ladies merry before she gave her short, but purposeful message before they departed. She related some hilarious moments in her life, like the time she and her brother hid from their father the culprit who damaged his new Buick. They had travailed at the altar so powerfully for God’s intervention that their mother could not get over how spiritual they had become. It was not until their father was in his 80’s that he discovered the truth and who covered up for them.
Then Sister Linville presented a short and powerful message on the beauty of obedience. More than “not sinning,” she said obedience is an overwhelming urge and desire to walk in the center of God’s will through surrender.
When we say yes to the Lord, He will take us out of our comfort zone and bring us to a place where we will need to replace our appetite in the things of the flesh with an appetite in the things of the Spirit. To do this will require a change in our lifestyle, and it will take discipline and hard work and boundaries to force us into a greater path.
Everything is divinely orchestrated by Jesus for those who say yes, and He will establish their coming and going. People who say yes to Jesus are people who give in to the guidance of the Spirit and divine order of God. They are people who have learned not to see their daily routine as mundane moments. They willingly yield to the desire to be directed and guided by Jesus in pursuit of the divine lessons and appointments that He has in store for them. They may not understand the divine order of God and are not always living happily, but they refuse to turn back.
You are So Wonderful!
Judging from the title, I imagine you are thinking this segment of the article is going to be about how wonderful our Lord is. But Sister Janice Sjostrand had another message as she ministered in music Friday night. In a spectacular demonstration of the Spirit, she ministered the love of God in a very special Mother’s Day message. Her message from the Lord: “You are so wonderful.”
She started out singing love songs from the Lord to the ladies, ushering in a most sweet presence of the Lord—“What a wonderful world”… “You are so beautiful to me” (as she whispered, “don’t be so hard on yourself”)…”You are so wonderful,”… singing “You go beyond His highest hopes and fondest dreams. You are everything He bled and died for. Everything He loved and hoped and cried for.” …“Somewhere over the Rainbow…” She spoke of Jesus Christ’s tenderness for us, and because we are complete in Him, we do not have to feel the absence of anything! She said a lot of women do not know how to accept love and find it hard to believe a Prince, so perfect, would want to put His arms around them. But He does. And He did.
Then came the beauty treatment, the beauty for ashes. The treatment only works if we lay down all our “I have to’s” in our relationship with Jesus—the feeling that we have to work—and let God do what He wants. And He wants to soothe some of the calloused places in our heart. She said the way we treat ourselves is a reflection of how we let Him treat us! He is not interested, she said, in our physical self nearly as much as He is interested in how we adorn our inner self; our attitudes, she said, reverberate back to Him.
But Sister Sjostrand did not come to preach, she said. Instead, she came to serve “a beautiful Bride who is getting ready for a wedding.” She was called to “reach the things we are not aware of,” to put on the “finishing touches” so that we might be adorned for the King. And so she asked, “Are you happy? Have you been robbed of the blessed and blissful state of ‘it is well between me and my Groom’ by circumstances in your life? If you are worn down by bitterness or anxiety over what your life has dealt you, then you have missed a love affair of a lifetime!”
She recalled Daniel who lived his entire life in captivity from the age of 17. Though he learned the culture and the language, and lived according to the laws of the land, three times every day, he bowed himself to an open window and let his soul go free. “And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own…” One day Daniel heard a voice say, “Oh, Daniel, greatly beloved.” Then she asked the ladies to say the same words that were spoken to Daniel, calling out their own name. As she sang the words, “Oh, how He loves you and me. He gave His life. What more could He give…,” she whispered, “Let Him hold you.” Suddenly, in the stillness of the moment, there was heard the sound of weeping, as tears are the agent for cleansing, and she softly asked, “Does He know where you are? I come to tell you, yes.” She asked the ladies to close their eyes, and like the angel said to Daniel, she asked them to whisper the words, “Be strong!” to themselves. To those who long to be the Bride Jesus sees in them, and for those who are weary and spent, she asked them to put their hands upon their heart and say, “Peace.” “Jesus, how I trust you. Precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust you more…”
As the volume of her delivery increased, corresponding to the heightened presence of the Lord that filled the banquet hall, Sister Sjostrand declared with passion and anointing, “Jehovah abides here.” It seemed there was a “rushing mighty wind” as it filled all the hall where we were sitting, like on the Day of Pentecost. She declared, “We are the temples. We are standing… adorned and waiting on holy ground. The angels cry holy to the Lord.” Then quickly, “Glory, glory Hallelujah…His truth is marching on.” And the drums burst into the quiet with the Army of the Lord shouting praises to their omnipotent, almighty King. Then there arose a crescendo of sound as the temples of the Holy Ghost, gathered there in one accord in one place, began to praise and worship their King. Spiritual pandemonium broke out as Sister Sjostrand shouted, “I present to you His Majesty, the Lord God Almighty!”
An awesome experience, one that I shall never forget.
By Carole J. Keller, Section 2 WDN Representative