Salutations from Heaven: Dear Lord . . . My Child . . .

By Evangelist Debra V. Harper

Are you one who has difficulty in expressing yourself? Has past hurts caused you to build up a wall of defense to protect you from feeling any future hurt, pain, or emotional anguish? Are you numbed to any feeling at all?

Do you desire to release those feelings and emotions that have been bottled up for so long and have held you captive, angry, confused, and in bondage? Then this is the book for you.

Read how God has blessed me to communicate and release unto him my innermost thoughts and fears by writing personal letters and poetry through the most difficult times in my life.

Salutations from Heaven: Dear Lord . . . My Child . . . contains healing conversations of a once broken and wounded spirit that will hopefully open your mind and heart to the delivering power of heaven’s throne, transforming your soul to finding God’s love, joy, peace, and forgiveness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796014464

Evangelist Debra V. Harper

The Ministry of Evangelist Debra V. Harper is well known in Hagerstown, Maryland in Washington County and through various other Faith-Based Outreach Ministries within her community. She is a United States Air Force veteran affiliated with Spiritual Warriors Outreach in Martinsburg, West Virginia catering to the spiritual needs of other veterans. She has been ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ since 1987 and is already an established author of poetry. You will find her work in The Best Poems & Poetry of 2005, and Timeless Voices-Poetry Anthology 2006. She possesses' a quiet strength, unwavering faith and believes, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms” – I Peter 4:10

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Copyright © 2019 by Evangelist Debra V. Harper.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019901355

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-7960-1439-6

             Softcover      978-1-7960-1440-2

             eBook           978-1-7960-1446-4

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE NEW OPEN BIBLE STUDY EDITION, King James Version. Copyright © 1990 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/07/2019

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DEDICATION

First to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ without whom I would not have been able to write these inspired words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and whose continued grace and faithfulness guided this work to its completion.

To my mother, father and grandmother, whose words of wisdom and guidance have made me what I am today, a writer, may they continue to rest in peace; and to my siblings, family and friends for their continued love and support.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks….

◆ To my spiritual mother and father, the late Bishop William C. Ingram and First Lady Armanda Ingram, who encouraged me to pursue my Evangelistic calling and whose spiritual insight saw in me my Divine Purpose and Destiny.

◆ To my spiritual mentor, the late Chief Apostle William Lee Bonner, who encouraged me to pursue my Prophetic Music Ministry as a Gospel Soloist.

◆ To Dr. Alan D. Young who encouraged me under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to write Dear Lord…My Child… back in 1993. He was the first to partake of some of the original writings and said that I needed to share them that they may be a blessing to every discouraged heart and broken spirit. I thank him for admonishing me to tell others the message in my writings that God mends together the broken pieces of one’s life and puts them back together again as He did one day for me through spiritual intimacy in healing conversations from heaven’s throne.

◆ To my intercessory prayer partner and closet and dearest friend of 36 years Regina Nixon. Your encouragement and prayers of intercession throughout the years also guided me in my spiritual journey. Words cannot express my gratitude for your prayers, support and faithfulness towards me.

◆ To my Full Circle Martial Arts Family who taught me the importance of investing in ones’ spirit and the fundamental principles of Tai Chi (step, breath, and root). Your tutelage has taught me to step through all of life’s challenges, breathe through all life’s stressors and adversity, and always root to find my purpose and destiny.

PREFACE

The material and much of the body of this book was originally written not for publication but as a way for me to release the silent frustrations and innermost turmoil within my mind and my heart when faced with life’s inevitable challenges, transitions, change, and loses that were so overwhelming.

I needed a way in which to release my pent-up emotions, repressed anger and frustrations as well as find answers to questions that often plagued and haunted me. I began to write my deepest and most intimate thoughts, feelings, prayers and poems during the most difficult times in my life in letters addressed to God as Dear Lord, along with what I felt the heart of God’s responses were to my inner searchings’ in His salutations of, My Child.

Many times, my answers would come from the still small voice of God that escorted me to a place of comfort. At other times, He would send a word of comfort through a song, a book, a poem, a quiet walk with the sounds of nature or an individual person to speak to me. I could not begin to share all the letters, poems and prayers in this one book. But I purpose to share with you a few and hope that my candor brings you the same comfort.

Healing conversations from heaven is what I call a time of intimacy through the secret rendezvous of the heart. These writings are from the tablet of my heart, documented and quietly awaited responses from God’s throne to my heart’s cry. A heart’s cry is not visible tears that can be seen with a naked eye and is only a cry that can be discerned by one who is in tune spiritually. The heart’s cry is a plethora of deep-seated questions of who, what, where, when, why and how. Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong? How do I get past this? Why doesn’t anybody love me? Does anybody care what’s happening to me? Why am I so angry? Why am I even here? How did I get here? What do I have to live for? How can I make it through another day? Where are you, Lord? When will you help me out of this mental and physical turmoil? What is my purpose for being? How do I find myself in all the roles I play? Where do I go from here? Does any of these questions sound familiar to you?

Who knows better how to answer these questions than the one who created you? God knows you better than you know yourself. He also knows what to say when others don’t. My letters in conversation to Him were like my emergency 911, first aid survivor kit, for those times when words of encouragement from others were hard to come by. I pray that the words within this book will help to guide you out of your darkest places and find peace and rest for your troubled heart and mind.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

~Debra V. Harper

FOREWORD

This book is about spiritual intimacy and enlightenment which does not come about as a result of ones’ religion but as a process of one’s relationship with the Spirit of the Living God. When you think of a salutation it is a greeting used in a letter or other written or non-written communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter is Dear followed by the recipient’s given name or title. In this particular case, the recipient’s given name would be Jesus and His title, Lord.

As you begin to read the different conversations and questions that I found myself asking of the Lord you may have some of the same thoughts or experiences noted throughout this book. These intimate conversations that I aim to open up to you are to help to guide you to grow spiritually as well as encourage you to get better acquainted with your heavenly Father, His Word, and His presence in your life. He desires your communication. Hopefully, your journey through the pages of my life will grant your soul rite of passage to a close encounter with healing conversations in the presence of God.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Preface

Foreword

Introduction

PART ONE

A Path To Healing!

Chapter 1   Crossroads

Chapter 2   Burn Out

Chapter 3   Unrequited Love

Chapter 4   The Spirit Of Jezebel

Chapter 5   Harsh Words

Chapter 6   Broken Trust

Chapter 7   Identity Crisis

Chapter 8   Elusive Highs

Chapter 9   From Fear To Faith

PART TWO

The Whole Truth …

Chapter 10   Forbidden Fruit

Chapter 11   Spirituality vs Religion

Chapter 12   Reprobates Concerning the Faith

Chapter 13   Letting Go

Chapter 14   Mindfulness Meditation (Journals)

Chapter 15   The Faithfulness Of God

Chapter 16   Reedeming The Time

Chapter 17   Waiting Patiently

Chapter 18   The God Of More Than Enough

PART THREE

Divine Revelation Through Brokenness!

Chapter 19   Life’s Simple Treasures

Chapter 20   Beauty For Ashes

Chapter 21   Roots Before Branches

Chapter 22   Spiritual Warfare

Chapter 23   Spiritual Integrity

Chapter 24   The Pursuit Of Change

Chapter 25   The Significance Of Life

Chapter 26   Y.O.U. (Your Own Uniqueness)

Chapter 27   Amended Heart

Additional Letters And Exhortations

A Final Note

Notes

INTRODUCTION

I was eight or nine years old when I made my first attempt towards a more personal relationship with God. I was having difficulty with reading and comprehension in grade school. It was thought that perhaps I had some type of reading problem that needed further outside investigation. Of course, my mother wouldn’t hear of it. She had her own way of investigating and dealing with hidden truths. It is something about a mother’s love that is able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of her child or children. At times, I felt Mom was hard on me and left no room for sympathy or accolades of praise. But I came to find out later in life that her tough love made me strong to facing life’s adversities. Where others may have found weakness, she saw strength. She also saw potential in me and was determined that I saw it as well.

My mother’s question to me later on that day when I was doing my math homework; I know you don’t like to read. Why? I couldn’t answer her because I didn’t really know. She then referred me to the Good News Bible and said you my dear will have to learn to love to read and confront your fear of reading. Stop comparing yourself to your classmates. Go at your own pace. I want you to go to your room and read by yourself for one hour. Ask God to help you to comprehend what you have read and when you are confident enough you then come back and tell me what you have read.

Imagine what was going through my mind at that time. Here I was a little kid barely making it to read on a fourth-grade level and my mother gives me a bible with even more difficult words to read. Talk about feeling fearful. But, I didn’t want to disappoint my mother and so then the letter writing to God and reading the Good News Bible began.

Writing from that time until now had become a catharsis for me. Each time I became angry, agitated, irritated, frustrated, and fearful as I journeyed from adolescence to young adult, middle adult, and older adult; I would reflect back on my experience in grade school. I wrote my first letter to God on April 6th, 1969 and told Him what my mother said to me. My letter went something like this:

"Dear Lord, my name is Debra. I think you know me. I learn about you in Sunday school. My mother said to ask you for help. I can’t remember what I read. She asked me why but I don’t know why. I am in the fourth grade and we are learning to read from the SRAs. I am on the color green. The kids in class call me slow and stupid. I’m not slow. I’m not stupid. I am smart. I just don’t like to read. Can you help me, please? I want to get to the highest color and it’s purple. I like purple. What colors do you like? Do you like to read? I got this other book Mommy gave me sitting here on my bed. Can you see it? Well, I have to read this too. I don’t like to read but my Mommy said that you will help me and she doesn’t lie. Where do I begin?

I remember the words that I wrote so clearly because this was my first encounter with an intimate conversation with God in my writing to Him. The letter I wrote to the Lord that day didn’t change instantly the difficulty that I had with reading and comprehending what I read. However, being able to write down what I was feeling did help to minimize my fear and anxiety about reading and believe it or not the extra hour and two hours I spent outside of class in the Good News Bible did increase my speed and comprehension. I then concluded that my mother knew what she was talking about and I remember how she often encouraged me to always write down those things that I had difficulty verbalizing to her in a letter to God. From that point on my voice became my pen expressed through words on a piece of paper. I kept a diary and/or journals and strived to the best of my ability to communicate through written verse what I could not express verbally.

To give you a little old school history in regards to the reading problem that lead me to my path of writing, SRAs back then were student reading placement levels. It was and probably still is today a Vocabulary and Comprehension program introduced inside the classroom (Grade K – Adult) by giving a short six-minute test that acted as a starting level guide to determine the color in which each student should start. I remember all too well not liking the fact that I was being timed to read and unable to get past the different levels of green so I could advance like my other classmates through the other various colors to get to purple which was the highest color level in that particular program I wanted to master at that time. The color indicated your grade level of reading.

Life is filled with setbacks. Even when we are children, we are often faced with obstacles that tend to discourage, block and hinder us from growing and advancing to the things that we desire and are destined for. However, these obstacles must be addressed. What remains hidden never heals. The obstacles of brokenness, low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, toxic relationships, and unconfessed sins of the past will keep you stagnate, devout of direction, confused and unable to trust yourself and others. You must learn to seek to find an outlet to your frustrations, mental anguish, and pain.

Be it through a paper and pen, laptop, iPad, notebook, personal computer or prayer; intimate conversations with the lover of my soul has been my rite of passage to healing through the most difficult times in my life. Even at a very young age, I found a cathartic way in which to purge and cleanse myself of mental and emotional anguish, stress and fear during the very challenging moments that I thought would consume me. My intimate conversation through personal letters, journals and poetry addressed to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ brought unto me a better understanding of myself and transferred my heart to finding liberty, forgiveness, joy and peace that resonated far beyond my pain and brokenness.

Salutations from heaven is a condensed version of my written expressions in intimate conversation with my Savior and the generosity of God’s heart in loving reply to the questions I asked during certain struggles encountered in my spiritual journey. Guided by His Holy Word I found out that at the end of tribulation it was not in religion but in a relationship and spiritual intimacy with my heavenly Father that delivered me through the most tumultuous times in my life.

THE AWAKENING

To the Broken and Contrite Spirit Seeking A Path to Deliverance

Down in the human heart

Crushed by grief and despair

Feelings of discouragement lie buried

That only the touch of grace could heal.

Touched