The Resurrection of Passion: Solving the “God Problem” in Your Life

By Michelle D. Rhett

YOU ARE NOT HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT!
Has the everyday hustle and bustle of life caused you ponder whether there is
something more out there waiting for you to explore in life?
Why do we stay on jobs that have no fulfillment, continue in abusive and toxic
relationships, and waste money and time trying to impress other people? Why have
so many wonderfully, intelligent, and creative beings chosen to live life according
to what is seen by the natural eye, settling instead for a meager replica of true life
fulfillment?
Its time to activate your internal barometer of Everlasting joy!
Its buried deep down inside of you! It has the power to transform your life as never
before. It will not stop calling your name until you respond.
My friends, you do not have a human problem; you have a GOD PROBLEM!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524576257

Michelle D. Rhett

I learned this craft from many writers, however, it was an interview I watched featuring world renowned author John Grisham (The Firm and so many other great reads), that I realized the goal of every fiction writer is to have a suspenseful beginning and ending, then find a way to entertain the reader through three hundred pages in between. Rest assured, we will not have to do that in this book, nor will you have to read anywhere near three-hundred pages!

Book preview

The Resurrection of Passion

Solving the God Problem in your life

Michelle D. Rhett

Copyright © 2017 by Michelle D. Rhett.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017900607

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-7624-0

                Softcover        978-1-5245-7623-3

                eBook              978-1-5245-7625-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Names and identifying details of the some of the people and corporations portrayed in this book have been changed.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. All rights reserved.

When indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Amplified Bible © 1954,1958,1962,1964,1965,1987 by the Lockman Foundation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Eden Promises Publishing Yard (EPPY Books)

Rev. date: 02/15/2017

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

548156

A SNEAK PEEK

The God Problem Explored

I. In Search of Something More

II. The Death of Happy

III. The Reason He came

The Garden of Gethsemane: Divine Passion Defined

1. Passion vs. Purpose

2. A Love that Lasts

3. A Unique Assignment

4. Heaven Sent

5. A Divine Plan

6. An Intimate Affair

7. Divine Vision

The Crucifixion: Passion Interrupted

8. Counterfeits

9. Distractions: Lust of the Eyes

10. Wrongful Desires: Lust of the Flesh

11. Sinful Natures: Pride of Life

12. Fear: A Murderer in the Midst

Resurrection Sunday: Passion Unleashed

13. Memories of What’s Left Behind

14. The Peace of a Painful Purpose

15. Prayer: The Answer to All Strongholds

16. Obedience: The Ultimate Release

The Afterthought: Blessings from Michelle

Other books by Michelle

Dedicated

To

Three Remarkable Men Who Revived My Passion:

Dr. Jay Carrington Chunn

President

National Center for Health Behavioral Change

&

Archbishop Alfred A. Owens, Jr.

Presiding Prelate

The Mount Calvary Holy Church of America

&

MSGT Gary Darnell Rhett

United States Serviceman &

Orthotics Technician, Walter Reed Army Hospital

Acknowledgements

T o my silent partner Jesus Christ: Here we are again; you lead and I follow…for I could do nothing without your Divine Influence, Order, Anointing, and Grace.

T o Pastor Susie C. Owens for 27 years of dynamic spiritual teaching that has guided and shaped my spiritual walk. Your influence is shared throughout this project and throughout my life.

T o Wise Word Ministries Founder, Elder Angela Thornton, for your many incredible spiritual gifts and knowledge of God’s word provided unselfishly during the editing of the original manuscript.

T o Pat Barnhart (Writing Down Pat) and Sally Stuart (Zondervan Publishing) for your assistance in reading, editing, and providing significant commentary to direct my path during this project.

T o my mentors throughout this journey who have selflessly guided me over the years. I owe you me-the very best me, as you believed I could one day become.

T o the enormous number of divinely talented human spirits who allowed or encouraged me to be myself during my lifestyle transition. You are the unsung heros and sheros that God planted around me so that I could learn to fly. I would have accomplished so little without your intervention in my life.

T o the entire Rhett, Edwards, Fields, Flowers, Creer, Morris, Ruffin, Williams (Hatchett) family: May the books the Lord allows me to write strengthen and encourage your souls. I love each of you so much!

Note from the author:

Throughout this book I have capitalized words that begin with Divine, i.e., Divine Passion, Divine Purpose, and Divine Vision. The use of capitalization is used for emphasis only, so that you, my intelligent readers, are able to recognize when the usage refers to the key spiritual concepts as opposed to natural or commonly used words with similar meanings.

Prelude

Have you ever purchased a book from a bookstore, the Internet, or directly out of the author’s hands and immediately gone home to read it? In the initial moments, you are filled with excitement. The title has hooked you in and you want to know the secrets that the author alleges you will discover inside. Instead, you read a few pages only to find yourself lost and sometimes confused.

You discover an awful joke has been played on you. In fact, the title, the reason you purchased the book so quickly in the first place, has nothing to do with the contents of the book! Been there, done that. LOL!

For more than thirty years, I have dibbled and dabbled trying to write something someone would find interesting enough to read until the last page. In my leisure, I had written more than ten books, all unpublished, deciding each time that I could not make it to the end, let alone convince a stranger to do so. After years of working on numerous writing projects, I published my first novel, The Prayer Circle, filled with five-hundred pages of clues and suspenseful occurrences strategically placed throughout the book to keep the reader guessing until the very end.

I learned this craft from many writers, however, it was an interview I watched featuring world renowned author John Grisham (The Firm and so many other great reads), that I realized the goal of every fiction writer is to have a suspenseful beginning and ending, then find a way to entertain the reader through three hundred pages in between. Rest assured, we will not have to do that in this book, nor will you have to read anywhere near three-hundred pages!

This book is inspired by God, which should be interpreted as I followed His orders from the beginning to the end. Well, almost. You see, there is a part of me that loves the element of suspense in any written work of art, be it fiction or nonfiction. This suspenseful side loves to keep my readers guessing until the very end. However, the other side, my nurturing-teaching side, loves to share the intimate details immediately, revealing key secrets up front.

In the end, both sides have (hopefully) prevailed. Divided into the three phases of Jesus’ sacrifice for mankind, the concept of Divine Passion and the significant role it plays in the life of every human being is introduced and explored.

In phase one, The Garden of Gethsemane, I introduce Divine Passion as the catalyst God uses to establish intimacy with believers and to set us on the right paths to identifying and completing our Earthly assignments. Here I distinguish Divine Passion, the supernatural ignition switch which must be activated so that we can live victorious lives on Earth, from Divine Purpose, the actual assignment God gives to humankind to fulfill His Master Plan.

In phase two, The Crucifixion, we explore the original sins (lust of the eyes, flesh, pride and fear) that destroy our ability to establish trust and intimacy with God, while further examining God’s plan for His people.

Finally, in the last phase of our journey, Resurrection Sunday, I show you, through my real life experiences, how to unleash the greatest power in your life and live in complete victory, the way God intended! That, I promise you, is an ending that will have you rising in praise. It is definitely worth working toward.

So dig in…Let’s solve your God problem one chapter at a time.

The God Problem Explored

I

In Search of Something More

"Why in the world have we never found what we are really looking for?

Because what we need is often the very thing we won’t accept."

Dr. Craig D. Lounsbrough, Counselor and Certified Life Coach.

Tell the truth. You are NOT happy and you know it!

In fact, if you are honest with yourself, you have not experienced that lasting feeling deep down on the inside of you, a bubbly heart-skip-a beat sensation that nothing or no one can penetrate, in a long time. Instead, your recollection of complete fulfillment is like two ships passing in the night, but never able to dock at the same time.

Like the majority of people who often struggle with feelings of discontentment, you find yourself on an endless obstacle course, always searching for something that seems unattainable. Searching, yet unable to define what it is or how to get it, all the while convincing yourself each day that something or someone is waiting out there and when it surfaces, your life will miraculously transform into pure joy.

Maybe you choose to live in a state of constant satisfaction where, despite all the signs to the contrary, you keep telling yourself that life is good. Or, if not as good as you envisioned it to be, it is simply, as good as it gets. But good according to whom? As good as it gets, according to what?

The average life is filled with many great memories. In fact, for most, our good days outweigh the bad. But just how long has it been since those feelings of overwhelming joy have paid you a visit and decided to take residence in your heart? And when they surface, are they enough to conquer the frustration you battle internally as you seek to discover something more in life?

Do they fulfill your longing questions, or do they resemble some blockbuster flops, where the trailer is simply a hyped up version of a bad movie designed to lure you further into the fantasy life that you, and mostly everyone around you, has been living?

Maybe the reason you cannot recall what it feels like to bubble over with complete joy is because your focus has not been on achieving something that is supernatural, divinely orchestrated, and everlasting. Instead, your focus has centered on achieving Happiness, an overused word representing a temporary and false sense of comfort and satisfaction created and defined by mere humans.

Sadly, every bit of happiness you have experienced has come at the hands or as a result of someone or something else. Some other living-breathing flawed human being who you have relied on to define the perimeters of internal joy and guide you through the complexities of life. It is from their life experiences that you determine the prerequisites for the events or actions that make you smile on the inside, become or feel agitated, or even measure your own sense of self-worth.

Without realizing that your internal barometer for complete joy has never been activated, you continue to focus on what appears to be right in front of you, as you watch other lifeless souls attempt to do the same. The painful truth is that most people never find internal joy and, of that huge number of unsatisfied seekers, many ultimately give up and stop looking for it all together.

Your sense of internal joy and peace seems so close, as if you were star gazing into the sky, but yet so far away. You can fix your eyes on it. In fact you know that it will transform your current existence, but you never seem to actually conquer what it takes to possess the entire feeling, seize it in your mind, and finally know that you have caught that which you have spent so long desperately searching to find.

In mimicking the actions of those around you, you have missed numerous opportunities to answer life-changing questions that will forever free you from the opinions of others and set you on the paths toward true abundant living. Ultimately you become dissatisfied with your life, your job, your relationships, and almost everything around you, because you are unaware that the keys to total and complete joy lie somewhere deep down on the inside of YOU. To discover them, you must answer a question that will automatically propel you to seek to live life not on man’s terms, but based upon those terms specifically tailor made by your Creator.

The defining question is:

If you could do ANYTHING, regardless of social status, education, finances, and the disagreeing opinions of everyone else, what would it be?

Before you answer, let me caution you that the actual implementation of your answer is not as easy as you may think. In fact, to do anything you desire in life, i.e., living in divine peace, free from the strongholds created by the opinions and judgments of others, takes more courage than the average person can muster on his or her own. Bottom line: This is not something you can accomplish as a solo act!

First, the question above is intentionally loaded with mental obstacle courses. Imbedded in each word are a myriad of other questions which require some deep soul searching to truly understand their meaning. You see, the trick to the question is the word ANYTHING. Though used loosely in this context, be careful for the word does not refer to those random thoughts you can just rattle off the top of your head in a few seconds.

If you think it does, then I must ask you the obvious second question:

Why aren’t you doing it? Or better yet, What is stopping you from truly enjoying life the way God intended?"

Ever wonder why we stay on jobs that give us absolutely no fulfillment or enjoyment; continue in abusive and toxic relationships; spend an enormous amount of time and effort trying to impress people who really do not care about us or our dreams? Or why we constantly measure our self-worth based on the successes of other people we often do not know; refuse to speak up or go against the systems in life when something is obviously morally and spiritually wrong, and finally, delay taking action steps that will improve our own health and life enjoyment?

Why