Bitter Roots

Chapter 3

Jacob and Grace sat with Jonathan, Eternity, and Diana Heartwell, but their mother sat on the other side of the church.

Grace loved sitting with her friend in church even though she thought they were sometimes strange. They always talking about God, God, God. So weird.

Pointed to her friend's fingers, Eternity exclaimed, "Nikki, girl, I love your green nail polish." Most of the people outside of her family called her Nikki, which was her middle name. She preferred it that way.

"Thanks," Grace replied looking down at her nails as if she had forgotten they were painted.

Jacob sat next to Jonathan whose nickname was Warrior, whispering about video games. That was their favorite part of church, sitting together and having side conversations about their games.

Diana kept her eyes on the pulpit as if something supernatural had captured her attention. That was her normal disposition, always in tuned, and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Eternity and Warrior knew she most likely saw some monstrous demon in the Spirit, and had tapped into that realm to trample wickedness by the Blood of Jesus and declaring, "Satan, the Lord rebuke you. I bind up all the evil spirits that are lurking in this church! Go to the abyss in the mighty name of Jesus!"

The choir finished their song and the pastor stepped to the microphone.

"I hope the pastor don't preach all day, " Jacob whispered to Warrior. "For real. They take too long to get to the point. Seriously," Jacob added.

"It's long but we need it," Warrior replied. Because his eyes were opened. He knew there were two realms (spiritual and natural) that he needed to be taught in the Bible so he could live victoriously.

"I just wanna go home and play another game." Jacob finished saying when he noticed his mother looking in his direction. He quickly sealed his lips, not wanting to hear her yelling at him at home. So he sealed his lips, sat up, and started pretending he was listening to whatever noise was bouncing off the pulpit.

Jonathan looked over at LaToya and immediately saw what was wrong with her spiritually. The gift, the ability to see into the spiritual realm, ran in Prophetess's family, but no one knew. So it was only natural that Jonathan would see huge dragons breathing fire over LaToya. Oh my gosh, he thought quickly and snapped his head forward. Messy.

Grace updated Eternity about the latest status of her parents' drama, in between the passionate outbursts of the pastor. Prophetess had to ask them to be quiet a few times.

As if she had just tasted a sour piece of candy and making a sour face, Grace added, "You should see her, and her NAME'S JEZEBEL!"

"JEZEBEL...a witch. OMG."

The pastor began huffing and puffing about allowing God to break up the fallow grounds of your heart. He sounds like a raging lion, LaToya thought. Man, he's serious about delivering this message.

"The Holy Spirit is digging up your fallow, uncultivated, inexperienced ground, and He's going to make those areas of your life become fertilized. This will be UNCOMFORTABLE because it requires CHANGE. He will plant His purpose in you and you will GROW AND PROSPER as you remain in HIM."

LaToya felt her hope returning, dragging suite cases filled with her stolen strength, peace, joy, and other blessings. She wanted her life to be better again. She didn't want the knives to remain in her heart anymore. LaToya desperately needed a miraculous healing from God to plug up the holes in her heart so she wouldn't bleed to death.

LaToya imagined herself finally laying her heavy burdens at the feet of Jesus. No weights on her shoulders. No stress. No feelings of rejection and abandonment.
Yes, she needed God to break up her fallow ground.

"Amen, Pastor!" she heard herself saying. Grace and Jacob recognized her strong voice and turned to look over at their mother who seemed fired up and overly anxious like she had just hop off a rollercoaster. Wow, she's actually agreeing? Jacob mumbled to himself.

"He wants to use you to bring healing to many, to bring restoration to many, to bring salvation to many, to bring hope to many BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. AND GOD WILL GET ALL THE GLORY. BREAK UP THE FALLOW GROUND LORD, according to Hosea 10:12. IT'S PRODUCTION TIME. THE THINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T DO, THE HOLY GHOST WILL DO THROUGH YOU AS YOU SURRENDER TO HIM!"

The church burst into praises. Prophetess saw in the spiritual realm that the Holy Spirit was performing heart surgery on most of the people in the church. She saw Him removing broken hearts, putting the pieces back together with His supernatural healing power and releasing angels to project bright colorful lights into the souls of each person who sincerely cried out to God. And she heard the Holy Spirit whisper, "Those bright lights consist of creative blessings and miracles. I'm restoring the ones who are pursuing me with all of their hearts. " After receiving that revelation, Prophetess jumped to her feet and began dancing around the church.

Here we go, Eternity mumbled. She's getting ready to go in!

Before Prophetess could complete her fourth step, a few other radical saints were on their feet praising God and chanting "Hallelujah, Lord!" Warrior clapped his hands and Eternity stood to her feet to join her grandmother.

OMG, Grace and Jacob thought. They had never seem children their age praising God from a pure and honest place. They didn't even know what it was like to say hallelujah. Grace and Jacob simply attended church because their parents made them go.

Even LaToya was praising God. "Thank You Jesus!" she screamed. "Thank you for keeping me in my right mind." She had her eyes closed, pouring out her worship like someone pouring cold lemonade into a tall glass. LaToya even thought the breath of angels were breathing love all over her. And for the first time in years, she actually left church truly feeling like she had a personal encounter with the true and living Lord.

LaToya was ready for God to break up her fallow ground until she pulled up in front of her house and saw Michael and Jezebel leaning against their car, waiting for her.