Grace for Unlocking Creative Destinies

By Susan Mitchell

As the strike by writers and actors in Hollywood and worldwide continues, the Lord is pouring outstanding grace over his creative people. Get ready! In solidarity, our blog has been frozen for a season, but we are moving forward now and seeing a dramatic shift in the destinies of our clients to regain birthrights stolen from their family lines, with a rise in prowess, favor, and access to divine tools, counsel, and encouragement.

“For, behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing [of birds] has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard [openly] in our land. The fig tree puts forth and ripens her green figs, and the vines are in blossom and give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!” Song of Solomon 2:11-13 (AMPC)

A rowboat bobs on the edge of a dock, with kingdom in sight across an expanse of water. We know where we long to go…

In particular, for all of you who long to use myth and fantasy to reveal timeless truths about God and heavenly journeys that can only be told by story and metaphor—we urge you authors, filmmakers, composers, lyricists, poets to tell the Lord right now that you want to claim your whole birthright. In addition to hurdles from the secular world, the church itself has resisted and offered its own stumbling blocks, judging and sanitizing the workers who have been called to this field. We don’t agree with their judgment.

Some of you have struggled to bring forth the quality in your creation that you yearn for but that remains elusive. Kudos to you for still trying because you have the vision for what you are trying to land. Others of you were told that your early pieces were outstanding, but their debut or sequels were received with lukewarm approval and compensation by gatekeepers or audiences. Or maybe you just aren’t sure how to stop relying on your own strength and invite God into your creative process. There are discernible spiritual reasons for all of these issues, and you may need to do some work to address them.

Your heavenly father longs to orchestrate the pieces of your life to bring your kingdom assignments to fruition. He wants to propel you into the marketplace and establish you in the Zone where you feel the Father’s great and sustained approval, pride, and love in your artistic endeavor—as you are working! Let him recover the treasure, clear the obstacles, and place you squarely in the oasis of what he designed you for.

The True Self part of your heart holds all of these hopes and dreams. If you feel thwarted in any large or small way in your career, and you want help to see what is holding you back from the promised “abundant life,” please ask the Lord if he wants you to book an appointment with us.

Guardians Raise Objections!

By Susan Mitchell

We gotta love the prickly Guardian parts of our soul/heart, but they can create strife when their protective objections conflict with our current goal or purpose. This often happens when my husband is chauffeuring me somewhere: I’m totally at ease playing on my iPhone, but my Guardian suddenly emerges to shriek, Watch out! about a “dangerous” shadow movement out of the corner of my eye. Then hubby’s Guardian comes out in response to being startled into, well, nearly wrecking the car. Or, on occasions when I have gone to meet with a group I know and love, some Guardian gets alerted and irritated for who knows what reason and simply won’t calm down. I might even get into an argument with someone if I don’t resolve the trigger, choose a non-reactive path, or remove myself. 

A few Sundays ago I was looking forward to peaceful time with my church. Worship for many of us is one place that is usually safe from triggers, so this is often easy since Guardians are often lulled into a sense of safety by music. The worship team began singing “How Great Is Our God,” a lovely anthem I’d heard many times. The word pictures (“wraps himself in light” and “time is in his hands”) ignited my imaginative awe and sparked actual conversation with the Lord (“my heart will sing”). The Function, Emotion, and True Self parts of my heart were wholly engaged in appreciating the Lord and allowing their joy capacity to expand.

At the moment my Guardian did not seem to be “up,” which is not surprising. They can go dormant for months or years. They do not sequence time, so they can be completely desynchronized from a person’s overall timeline, unaware of past encounters or experiences that occurred between their creation and their seemingly random awakening to take a guard shift.

But on this occasion, when we hit the line “the Lion and the Lamb,” my Guardian woke up to declare the equivalent of, “Danger! Untrue! Words found nowhere in Scripture! Misquote of Isaiah 11:6, 'And the wolf will dwell with the lamb….’”

Guardians can really wreck a party, but my Function considered the artifact of the song and the accusation carefully and came up with a logical narrative counterpoint: “This song is about the reach, span, and range of God: age to age, beginning to end, Lion apex predator to slaughtered Lamb. He is great in encompassing it all, and Jesus stands in these two faces of himself in Revelation 5:5-6. It’s legit.”

Guardian, appreciating the logic, bought it and relaxed, letting the gate swing wide open for the rest of my heart to re-engage in the adoration of our great and glorious God. Whew.

A few takeaways —  

• Music is a good way to keep Guardians at peace. I believe King Saul used David’s harp-playing to keep the scary, loud evil spirits that were attached to his Guardian at bay.

• If a Guardian shows up unexpectedly, take some time to reply kindly with facts and with logic to suggest another way to view things. 

• If they keep intruding (not all Guardians are as compliant as mine was), it’s often helpful to affirm them: “Guardian, you are an important part of me, and I appreciate your help. However, I, Susan, could really use this time to soak and relax from the stresses of the last week. Is it okay if we continue this conversation later?”

• Of course, if this is a Guardian that simply will not be mollified, it might be time to schedule an appointment to do look deeper at the cause, so Jesus can be brought in to resolve and heal the underlying issue: www.estuarycourts.com/book

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

By Susan Mitchell

This year, we at Estuary Courts (Susan, Dorothy, and Darla) have shut down for the holiday and will be celebrating together a little later than everyone else in order to accommodate the schedules of the members of our family coming together from multiple places.

Dorothy has a perspective on the Christmas holiday that she published here: https://theparacleteshammer.com/2022/12/14/no-room-in-the-christmas-inn-for-jesus-by-dorothy-mitchell/

The end of that post is especially amazing as points to ponder, so I’m quoting it here, along with some photos of our home decorations:

For my own family, when we have asked how we can best represent Jesus in this season, he has replied that since the purpose of Christmas these days is to show love to one another, we should decorate to the degree that decorations support that effort—to display just enough to make one another feel warm, welcome, and comfortable, and not to stand out with a lack of decoration.

Now ask the Lord for your own instructions. Or make him a proposal and ask for his approval. Your choice!

We are welcome to celebrate [Jesus] anytime, whether in June, or September, or May, or October. You may celebrate him on Sukkot (for he tabernacled with us). You may celebrate him on Hannukah (for he is the light of the world). Or do you want to celebrate him 5-6 days before or after Rosh Hashanah, in accordance with the medieval reasoning for the December 25th date? Go for it! You are welcome to celebrate his conception, or his trimesters, or his birth. You are welcome to consider his stays in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Egypt on a five- or three-year cycle. (How I long to know what challenging experiences Mary and Joseph went through while on Mission Savior’s Toddlerhood: Escape from Herod – Emergency Staycation in Egypt!) You can speculate when and where the journey of the magi began and ended and celebrate their progress over the course of the year. You may imagine when the angel appeared to Mary. You have the opportunity to consider Jesus’ birth at every census, at every quest for reunion and rediscovering homeland, at every farm, at every hotel and inn, or with every new baby. You may even confront or redeem a relevant holiday of your own problematic pagan heritage. You are free to play it safe and free to take risks.

God bless us all as we wind up this 2022 year and praise his name for all the good he has wrought, including the hugely consequential birth of his son, the Immanuel Jesus Christ.

On Judging Angels: Case Study

By Susan Mitchell

This week, I had the opportunity to judge the angels appointed to me. Here’s what happened.

The first week in December, my sister Darla (in Charlotte, NC) and I (in Los Angeles, CA) were comparing notes on our Christmas holiday plans. When I realized she had no plans, and no one to spend them with, I invited her out for a visit. She preferred to drive (over 2400 miles!), so we concocted a road trip and enlisted my sister Sherry (in Dallas, TX) to join us. What we didn’t know is that the “snow bomb” was about to hit the Midwest and camp out for a period of time!

On the appointed day, Sherry and I flew separately to Nashville, TN, then joined up to fly on together to Charlotte, NC. We spent a couple of days with Darla (and my parents) before heading cross-country. Before we left, we prayed for blessings, travel mercies, and the appointment of angels to see us through.

Darla was a superb driver in her sporty RAV 4. Sherry entertained us with stories, questions, insights. I was the extra navigator and leader in an impromptu courts of heaven session for an ongoing family matter. Along the way, we stayed overnight with our brother Eric, his wife, and two aunts, and we stopped for lunch with Darla’s friends. We left Sherry with her family, and proceeded home.

The trip home was flawless, delightful—a rare opportunity to be together as traveling adults, sharing and practicing our faith. We saw just a bit of rain, with none of the incoming snow or ice. We stayed ahead of the inclement weather and found relatively inexpensive gas along the way, even in California.

Upon our arrival at my home, we judged our angels worthy, earnest, and serious about their task. We praised the Lord and applauded our angels for a wonderful, joyful, effective trip. I could feel the atmosphere vibrate with delight at the affirmation, as though we were all applauding each other, an echo chamber of praise for all.

Later, we reflected on the events of the year and the prayers that we prayed and the courts of heaven that we held for our families. We have seen much progress in situations that seemed impossible to resolve by our own strength at the outset of the year. The Lord's good verdicts will surely come to pass, and so far, we can say he has been faithful to give us signs and dreams that call our attention to his answers in further developments as they happen. “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand” (Romans 13:11 ESV). Lord, come quickly!

Merry Christmas to all!

My Big Break: Surrender

By Susan Mitchell

God looks for every opportunity to break you out of stuckness. We can do a lot of things — therapy, prayer, journaling, talking with a friend — to give God that opportunity, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like much has shifted. If we keep chipping away at it, those small steps will pay off one day when the simplest thing breaks it all open. 

Control. Sometimes we get stuck because we are actually trying too hard without knowing how to unclench, attempting to wrest control over ourselves or our situation. That’s how it was for me, an irritable, self-described control freak.

My heart had already been softened and lightened through a few sozo sessions, in which I was led back to sad memories, saw God in the memories, and got his perspective on the situation. Although I felt more peace about that particular situation, my life in general wasn’t affected. Then a sequence of events built up to my culminating moment: (1) I received my first HeartSync as a demo in front of a “live studio audience.” Amazingly, I was able to release a lot of pain that I had been carrying and began climbing out of a negative mindset of painful irritability, reaching a more neutral zone. (2) I was blessed with a hopeful prophetic word from a friend. (3) I attended a conference of artists learning about human trafficking. I was relaxed, not expecting anything.

Surrender. At the end of the conference, we were invited forward to get a prayer to release us from a pattern of abuse. I seized the moment, and my life changed suddenly and permanently through the minister’s 2-minute prayer:

“Lord, I invite you to tear down the 'abuse me' sign over Susan, so that every word out of her mouth going forward is good and pure and wholesome, and every word directed toward her is truthful, clear, and loving. Sever the ungodly soul ties between her and all abusers, and retrieve all parts of her soul, washed clean in the blood of Jesus. Send back to her abusers all parts of their souls, washed clean in the blood of Jesus.” 

I am normally a pretty stoic person, but as she was speaking, I felt my spirit grieve, and my body reflected that grief with shuddering, crying, and deep exhalation. I could have shut it down, but I went with it — the first surrender. While the minister left me to continue the process on my own, I felt an invitation in my spirit to release and surrender more. Maybe that’s overstating it. It’s actually rather boring to just stand there crying. With my get ‘er done mentality, I decided to cooperate by going through a standard process I'd been taught since childhood: Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess, and Be Baptized.

So I heard the minister express the Lord’s desire to heal me. I believed my spirit wanted to receive his healing, as evidenced by the turmoil in my body. I verbally repented (did a U-turn) by ceding my control to heaven and declaring that I was surrendering each part of my body. I worked my way down from head to toe, pausing between each part to see if I the Holy Spirit wanted me to do anything else before moving on. I confessed all sins I could think of that I had committed related to that part of my body. I forgave people related to those sins and let go of the resulting bitterness I had held. I asked Jesus to sever all attachments to all spirits that were chaining me to sinful behavior patterns (spirits of anger, control, vengeance, grief, etc.). Over the course of about 20 minutes, I slowly yielded each body part (head/brain, eyes, ears, mouth, shoulders, abdomen, hips, knees, feet) and ended up face down and flat on the floor, until I felt the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which was the peace that comes from having nothing left to surrender. This is what it means to be washed clean in the blood of Jesus. 

That was the watershed moment jumping me past zero and into positive numbers. My family noticed positive effects immediately even though I don’t think I was behaving any differently or striving to be a better person. But the reality confirmed by many people’s external observations is that I have not been the same person since that moment, and abusive verbalizations toward me ceased. 

Love. That’s my personal story. Your story may be very different. But the common thread is that God loves you and longs for you to truly experience the “abundant life” that Jesus promised. Don’t wallow in the negative zone of pain. Don’t be satisfied with the neutral zone of meh. Go for it, and work out your “sozo,” your very own salvation path into the positively charged life you were designed for. 

How Can I Get On Track?

By Susan Mitchell

Even when you are at your stickiest impasse, here are some things you can do on your own to break through or at least survive. 

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Cultivate friendships. We all need people who give us time and attention, love and affirmation, a respite of fun and humor. Find those people and cherish them. Practice the art of appreciating them. Exercise or camp outdoors, eat and drink together, pray for each other, borrow things from each other, join a service group or small group together. 

Gratitude journal. Watch for and capture in two sentences the good that you find in every day. Focusing on these moments and verbalizing them has been shown to rewire your brain — in a better way! The Greater Good Sciences Center (link to https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/what_we_do/major_initiatives/expanding_gratitude) agrees, noting that "people who practice gratitude report fewer symptoms of illness, including depression, more optimism and happiness, stronger relationships, more generous behavior, and many other benefits.” This is not a new suggestion. 2000+ years ago, Paul told the church, “Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always” (Philippians 4:8 TPT). The nice thing is that when you appreciate God, you open yourself to hearing him speak back, such as in dreams.

Dream journal. As soon as you wake up, write down any dream or images you remember while sleeping or drowsing. Personally, I don’t believe in pizza dreams. Just about every dream I’ve interpreted had significant meanings attached. In fact, I get a lot of life direction from my dreams. I started practicing the decoding of my own dreams by using an amazing, Bible-based compilation of symbolic interpretations called The Divinity Code. (link to http://thedivinitycode.org/) This gave me a way to start tuning into God's voice, to learn the good plans he had in store for me. It’s also helpful to discuss solve these together with a friend and your helper, the Holy Spirit.

Music and art. We will talk more about the parts of our heart, but for now let me say that some of us need music or art to get past our own guarded walls that block out tenderness and intimacy and keep us numb and hard. Music and art somehow bypasses all that to speak directly to our emotions. So spend time at art museums, concerts, and lengthy worship experiences where you can just relax and soak. If you’re in worship and you sing all the time, let the functional/doer part of you take a break so God talk to you through the music and lyrics. You might hold a question for him in your heart or a problem you can’t solve. Just hold it and let him highlight truth or show you images as you wait on him. You can draw your feelings and questions and his answers, too. Listening, writing, drawing, painting are all modes of discovery and connection.

Life! What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

By Susan Mitchell

A friend of mine who is both a doctor and an engineer once told me, “It’s not a surprise that people are born deceased in utero or with defects. The miracle is that with all the complexity involved in the nine months of gestation that they ever arrive into the world with all their organs and appendages intact and able to kick, breathe, scream, eat, and poop!” 

And it shouldn’t be a surprise that we end up as tweens, teens, adults, and seniors with an ever-growing list of life-altering traumas. 

Even in the womb, some fetuses can absorb the trauma of hearing parents yell and believe they’re unwanted, or suffer from alcohol, drugs, or poor nutrition coming through the umbilical cord and feel the world is an unsafe place. If you resonate with that kind of rejection, abandonment, mistreatment that goes back even longer than you can remember, you might want to learn more from the https://cfreedomlife.com/freedom-quest.html psycho-theological videos on Conception, Intra Utero Development, Birth Part 1, and Birth Part 2. 

In infancy and toddlerhood, there can be all kinds of attachment issues. These may not even be what we consider abuse, that is, Trauma B for BAD things people do, like physical, sexual, or verbal abuse. They could be all the ways we simply didn't get what we should have gotten, that is, Trauma A for the ABSENCE of good things like hugs, affirmations, good nutrition, attention, and so on. Professionals believe Trauma A can be most confusing and damaging for our self-image because it’s harder to realize that the absence of good things is not normal, especially when people dismiss the pain: “Oh, that’s not so bad. Suck it up!"

As tweens and teens, life can feel so emotionally charged that we almost universally make some sort of vow of stoicism, and then as adults we wonder why we don’t feel anything. Then there’s the sense of FOMO fueling a brand of anxiety that is afflicting the current generation as never before, and leading to inwardly self-destructive behaviors or outwardly damaging attacks on their social spheres. 

Then adulthood brings on all sorts of responsibilities in various circles of influence. If we haven’t properly addressed the issues of the first 25 years, we may relive it and inflict it on others, or receive continued traumas that perpetuate the patterns we still see as normal. As adults, we have more power and resources to hurt each other, so betrayals and unfairness may be perpetrated on us if we don’t learn how to dismantle the structures that keep us in stuckness. 

Finally, retired seniors have time to kill, freedom to do whatever! But so often in the transition from the structure of work to the openness of home, our identity, purpose, health, resources, or connections get compromised, and we lose our way and our momentum. 

So, lots of things can go awry in life, and we have experience with tools, processes, and resources that address many of them. You can get unstuck. You can learn new ways of living in freedom. We can help.