FRIEND FRIDAY | CHRISTINA MACKENZIE
- Terra Wagner
- Aug 10, 2018
- 5 min read
Friends, this summer's #friendfriday series has sadly come to an end!!
What an amazing time I have had spending time with these 8 women this summer. I have enjoyed taking their pictures, reading their words, spending time in their presence and learning from their wisdom. Thank you for reading, encouraging, and being a friend to my friends!
Now without further ado.. Please give a warm welcome to my friend, Christina Mackenzie!
Christina and I have formed a wonderful friendship and I am so grateful for her! She is a godly woman with a passion for redemption. She is a mountain mover that is beautifully surrendered to God's voice. She has encouraged me this year so much! Please enjoy reading the words from my friend on this Friend Friday!
Fearless love. In 2007 these words repeated themselves over and over in my spirit. Every time I would open my bible and read about the lives of people like Esther, Ruth, Mary Magdalene, Paul, people with leprosy, those who were blind and those who were out casts by their race, social class or gender I would see everyday people living a life of risk.
Then I would look at my life and that was NOT how I was living. At the time I had a nice job where I loved my co-workers, there were regular on-site work celebrations with yummy food, an amazing workout facility to work off the yummy food and I rarely had to work past 2:30/3pm. My husband, Mark, and I were in our fifth year of marriage with no children at the time so we enjoyed coming and going as we pleased. We went to church every Sunday, volunteered within the church and apart of a community group yet I had a burning desire in my heart that I didn’t know what to do with. I wondered what risk God wanted me to take.
While I wanted to risk it all and follow hard after God’s own heart I had to deal with the reality that my identity was wrapped up in something other than my Creator. I feared what others thought of me over fearing God. In my co-dependency I found my identity in how others treated me. If they approved of me then I was good. If they didn’t then there was something wrong with me. This self serving way of thinking stayed with me throughout my life and damaged my relationships with others and distanced me from a God I desperately wanted to know and be known by.
Despite my struggles and even in the midst of them God had been pursing me all my life. I decided to take the risk and follow Jesus into the unknown. He led me to at-risk and exploited youth and women. He also led me to starting my non-profit, ALERT Ministries. I have met and shared the love of Jesus with girls being trafficked by a pimp. In these situations the pimp is constantly in control of the girl they are selling and they try to steal the girls’ identity and dignity. Telling her how to dress, who she is, that selling her body is the only thing she is good at and that she has no future apart from him. Pimps give the girls branding tattoos reading words like, “money maker”, “property of ___” with the pimps name filled in the blank. Another branding tattoo is a barcode like you see on products at the grocery store signifying that she is for sale. No longer her own person but owned by her trafficker.
I began to realize that in the same way Satan was doing the same thing to me that the pimp was doing to these girls. He was holding my identity captive with his lies. He told me that I didn’t belong anywhere. He convinced me that my voice was worthless, to keep quite about the pain inside of me and to not bother anyone with my problems. That my physical appearance was the only amount of worth I had and the enemy distorted that image in many ways. He told me I wasn’t smart and that I was completely unlovable. If there were a branding tattoo on me at the time it would have read the word “SHAME”.
In my marriage Satan was after the oneness between my husband and I. Trying to get us to see each other as enemies. It’s God’s supernatural gift that He makes a husband and wife one. Satan was trying to tear our oneness apart.
Satan had pimped me out long enough and I was ready for a change. There was only one person who could destroy these lies and give me back my identity.
That person was and still is Jesus Christ.
I had to follow Jesus wherever He took me to find that freedom. I ended up following Jesus to recovery in my church. In recovery I have learned that my Creator is the only One who was ever meant to tell me exactly who I am and what I was created for. I have learned to listen and be a hearer of the voice of my Father and listen to who He says I am.
John 10:27-29 says, “My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else, so no one can kidnap them from me.”
My heavenly Father is more powerful!! More powerful than any lie that had seeped in to the cracks of my broken heart.
One day I was struggling and in a situation where I once again had thoughts of, “I don’t belong.” This time was different though because in response to that thought the Holy Spirit clearly said. “Christina, not only do you belong but because you are following me you are wanted, you are invited and you belong because you are found in Me.”
Those words have stuck with me and I long to follow Jesus every minute of every day because I know that wherever He places me is exactly where I belong regardless of the people or circumstances that surround me.
Daily I ask God to mold me to be more like His Son. Jesus’ example is that He is the ultimate leader in serving others. He is the ultimate leader in showing humility. He spent as much time as He needed alone with His Father while on Earth so that He would be available and ready for His next round of instructions from His Heavenly Father.
Spending as much time as I can with God is crucial for me to be the wife, mother and servant-leader He created me to be. These moments are vulnerable and intimate time between Him and I. Where I am exposed and I stop trying to hide behind my pathetic fig leaves of self-preservation.
This sacred time with God gives me the strength and boldness to pray the seemingly impossible over my children, family, friends, work and community. Helps me to show love and grace to my husband as I watch the amazing plan unfold that God has in place for his life. It prepares me to step out into the unknown in worship and surrender where Holy Spirit often leads me. It also allows me to be in community with God’s people with Christ-like love and a softened heart to pray a genuine blessing over my enemies.
The lives of people in the bible who followed Jesus weren’t risking it all to gain riches or to make a name for themselves. They were risking it all over a person that had eternally changed their lives. My life has been eternally changed and I wake up expecting to witness His wonders! I have no doubt that there is someone reading this post with a burning desire that God has placed within you. My prayer for you is that you would no longer be a spectator of those taking a risk but choose take that first step yourself.
