Reflections of the Heart

By Vivian L. Miller

This book is meant to give you real ways to defeat dark forces, written in story form to give you the tools to gain victory in every circumstance.

Melanie Singleton dealt with challenges few people ever face. As a young child she was drawn to make a difference in the world yet she was approaching thirty and still working at a job that was far from fulfilling.

The young woman was able to see beneath the carefully constructed façade of most of the people around her. Rather than be hurt, it was easier and less painful to keep a wall in place.

As she develops a friendship with the Spencers she discovers that although behavior often reflects the contents of a person’s heart, there are forces in the fifth dimension which will attempt to influence every individual.

What happens as Melanie begins to navigate around the obstacles set in place by the fifth dimension?

Is it possible to turn defeat into victory in spite of those forces?

Is every decision truly our own or are they reflections of the heart?

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Mar 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781489734426

Vivian L. Miller

From the time Vivian learned to read, she spent hours of leisure time losing herself in the lives of fictional characters. By the time she was nine, she had read many of the classics her mother had purchased for herself, but had never taken the time to read. At the age of ten, Vivian began writing short stories. When she became a wife and mother she read to her son often, but began telling impromptu bedtime stories rather than reading the stories other people had written. It wasn’t until Vivian’s husband gave her a voice activated tape recorder that it even occurred to her that perhaps she should keep a record of the story lines that came to her. These days the stories seem to write themselves. Vivian now knows that the characters and the plots come from the Spirit of the Living God. When she sits in front of her computer, the plot plays out in her imagination and she merely put words to the story that unfolds. All of us have faced difficult moments and challenges in our lives; some of us have had more than our share. It is Vivian’s hope that as you read the stories that she has been given you will be encouraged to look at your personal challenges as stepping stones to life at a higher level and recognize that with God, all things are possible. These days she is busy with her characters, her family and close friends.

Book preview

Prologue

Within hidden places in an instant a miracle took place. In that split second only a few were aware that any thing had changed. The few who knew of the event went into immediate action. One was assigned at that precise moment to the newest life; that emissary would remain in place until it was time to return home. This was not his first assignment nor would it be his last. He had been appointed many times over the countless eons of his existence. It was his calling; it was his duty; it was his purpose.

Micah had always remained invisible to those he accompanied. Some of the others like him had been visible at times according to the direction of the Holy One, but for him that had never been necessary.

The humans who had been in close contact with him had never been aware of his presence. It was not a subject he gave much thought to; he preferred to go about his duties in anonymity. Micah would be present throughout the life cycle of this new human protecting, defending and accompanying until the human returned home.

At this point neither of the parents chosen for this speaking spirit knew that they had produced offspring. The couple was very much in love and still learning about each other.

As the new life began to grow, it became obvious from the physical changes in the mother that a life had been conceived and was growing toward the moment when the child would be born into the world.

Those months of growth and development followed the expected course the woman had been pronounced healthy along with the child hidden within her womb. There were a number of beings within the fifth dimension who were watching the formation of the new life with anticipation.

As with every living thing the Most High had formed this little one within the cocoon of his mother’s womb watching over the speaking spirit as it grew. From the foundation of the world the Most High had formed a specific plan for this new life. He had meticulously selected gifts which would enable this child to complete His plan to perfection should this human choose to accept the calling.

The parents selected for this particular child were chosen because they would accept and love this child against all odds. Neither of the parents had a personal relationship with the Most High. Although they attended church together the assembly they visited never taught the concepts they would need to defeat the plans the Dark Master had placed ahead.

In the fullness of time the day of delivery arrived. The couple was standing in line at the grocery store when the water broke and with urgency the parents left everything behind to head to the hospital. Excited to see their child for the first time, they were unaware that life as they knew it was about to change forever.

Chapter 1

M elanie was up getting ready for work already anticipating the end of the day when she could return home. As she applied a light dusting of her mineral foundation to her fair complexion she was distracted thinking about the week ahead. By this time in her life she had hoped to be a wife and mother raising children of her own. Instead she was rapidly approaching thirty working a job she had thought she would like, but had soon just become another facet of her mundane existence.

The petite brunette was pretty much alone in the world. She had a couple of half siblings, but due to her family dynamics, she had never developed closeness with the other children. The others were older than she was and had been raised with their mother. Melanie’s parents had chosen to keep the existence of the others a secret hiding them from her until circumstances had forced them to acknowledge them.

Needless to say, those actions did nothing to inspire neither sisterly devotion on her part nor loyalty on theirs.

Finishing the final touches of her morning preparations for work she took one last critical look at her reflection and with a deep sigh of resignation she turned off the light and left her apartment. Like everything else in her life she drove to her job on autopilot following by habit the same route. Days became weeks which became months and eventually people were celebrating another New Year and nothing had changed.

Melanie arrived at her workplace early mainly to avoid the heavy rush hour traffic. Although diligence and thoroughness were evident in her work ethic she was often overlooked when it came time for promotion. There was always someone else considered for those positions; she had become accustomed to being overlooked and underestimated.

Even as a little girl she had sensed that she was supposed to be doing something that would make the world a better place, but she had no clue what that was. The stirring she had sensed deep within her being as a child had been crushed repeatedly growing up. As she grew to adulthood rejection and veiled mockery had occurred often enough to cause the brunette to respond by raising a protective shield around her heart. When her parents were alive they would tell her to just ignore the unintentional or sometimes overtly intentional attacks of other people.

Melanie knew that the attacks were based in the pettiness and smallness of character in others, but that didn’t make it any less painful. Her mother had tried to dominate every area of the young woman’s life trying in her own way to prepare her daughter for adult life in the real world.

The problem was that in spite of her intense efforts, Rita Singleton had no true understanding of the challenges her daughter faced on a daily basis. Now that she and Melanie’s father had both gone to heaven there was no one to steer the young woman in a direction different than the one chosen for her from the foundation of the world.

Micah had been with the female from the moment of conception, but had been given little leeway to minister on her behalf as he was called to do. The Singleton family had no training in the workings of the spirit so when the Adversary assigned his minions to complicate the birth process, the humans had been exposed and victimized by the plot which was carried out successfully.

A great deal of time and money was expended in an attempt to minimize the effects of the attack. Had the female’s parents known that they had authority in the spirit to stop the Enemy from doing harm, none of his plans would have succeeded. What they didn’t know had hurt not only them, but their newborn.

Melanie sat in front of her work computer and booted the system preparing to begin her day which would not officially start for another hour or so. Once the system was up she locked her computer and headed down the hall for a cup of coffee.

Most of the people she worked with on a daily basis accepted her as she was, but occasionally she was rudely jolted back to reality when someone new started working there or when she encountered someone who had never met her before.

For the most part she tried to keep to herself preferring not to encourage personal relationships with her coworkers. From experience, the brunette found it safer to keep her personal life separate from her business life.

Buried deeply within was a longing to fulfill her purpose; the specifics were still unknown, but Melanie instinctively knew that life had to consist of more than what she had seen thus far.

Returning to her desk, the petite brunette opened a book and began reading until it was time for her to clock in. With a deep involuntary sigh, she braced herself for the week ahead.

Chapter 2

A s the time passed and it became closer to the start of the shift, Melanie’s coworkers began to meander in and prepare for the day. Some of them sat down without a word, a couple of the others greeted the brunette as they made their way to their assigned work stations.

The shift started promptly at eight. Just prior to the official time, Sondra Black, the administrative assistant to the head of Human Resources entered the maze of cubicles with a stranger who most likely was the new hire the leadership had been speaking about.

Meeting new people was not particularly Melanie’s favorite thing to do. Although she developed friendships easily, each first contact was uncertain at best. Usually within the first moments the brunette had a window of opportunity to measure the substance of each individual’s character from a perspective unique to her. The complications resulting from a difficult birth had presented a number of challenges growing up. Those obstacles had been overcome with years of physical therapy, but there remained a couple of visible differences between Melanie’s body and the physical form of others.

Most of the time, Melanie never spoke of these things preferring to blend in with everyone else, but occasionally someone was curious and bold enough to ask questions of her. Sometimes the questions were tactful, other times they were just rude; there was no way to predict which scenario she would have to deal with and truth be told, she would have been perfectly content to never be forced to speak of it… ever.

There had been a vacant station in front of Melanie for months and Sondra showed the new employee to that spot. As soon as Sondra led the newest team member to her seat she left. Melanie had kept her eyes averted so she was surprised to hear a cheerful greeting over the top of the partition.

Good Morning! My name is Charity Spencer. I see you’re Melanie; that’s my little sister’s name. It’s a pleasure to meet you!

Melanie was silent taking measure of the perky blonde standing on the other side of the divide. The eyes looking into her semisweet chocolate ones were startling for two reasons; the intense aquamarine color was so vibrant that it occurred to the brunette that the unique shade might be enhanced by contact lenses. There was openness to her blue green gaze that was completely without guile. The brunette was taking quick inventory and hesitantly chose to take what she saw at face value hoping that there wouldn’t be disappointment ahead.

Nice to meet you, Charity. Deciding it was safe to do so, Melanie punctuated her greeting with a gentle smile.

Melanie saw that it was time for her shift to begin so she placed her earpiece over her ear and logged into the system. Charity did the same.

The slender blonde had transferred from an office north of this call center. When her sister’s needs became too difficult for her mother to handle alone, Charity had requested the transfer and moved back into the family home.

Charity was perceptive so she had recognized the wariness in her new coworker’s eyes. The blonde had seen that expression in her own mother’s eyes on more than one occasion. Although the new team member had not focused on the true reason for the look in the semisweet chocolate eyes, the wariness was familiar.

The Spencer family had a heritage of faith. Every challenge was approached as an opportunity for victory. No matter what they faced the whole family lived by the belief that the greater the attack, the greater the victory. Charity had been raised to feed on the Word of God daily. Although she was new to this call center and she was a stranger to the other employees, the blonde female was well known in the fifth dimension.

The moment the blonde stepped onto the property the balance of power had shifted. Even though the Prince over CellAir Phone had been warned that this warrior was coming, he had been unprepared for the vast number of angelic forces that had accompanied her. What had been hidden from the Dark Ones was the degree of intercession that had taken place in preparation for the blonde beauty to change locations. As expansive as the reach of darkness was, the Evil ones had no access unless it was granted either by consent or default.

Since the family of Spencer knew who they were in the realm of the spirit, they did what was necessary to prevent access to those emissaries of evil. The family prayed together daily; even when geographically separated they united in prayer spending time listening to the Spirit of the Living God and wielding the sword of the Spirit when necessary.

None of Charity’s new teammates knew her background so several of the other representatives were startled to hear the perky blonde answer the calls without the usual new hire hesitancy. The shift progressed business as usual with the added sound of the chipper blonde’s voice punctuating the airwaves. By the time each team member took his break, each of them recognized that the company’s procedures and products were familiar to the newest service representative.

Melanie was able to hear the lively blonde develop a rapport with each customer and refer many of them to the sales department for an upgrade in services. Encouraging current customers to expand the services they used was a part of the job and it became obvious to everyone on the team that the blonde was very good at that aspect of it.

As the petite brunette rose to take her break, she involuntarily breathed a deep sigh. The young woman had chosen not to compete with others early in life. When she was very young other children just accepted her as is, but beginning in fourth grade her peers seemed to suddenly notice the differences between them and Melanie. It was in the fall of the year when she returned to school for fourth grade that she was suddenly a pariah.

Now when the others chose teams for a sport in the playground, she was always chosen last; there were a few times when an argument would start over which team would have to be stuck with her. Where most young children look forward to recess, Melanie began to hate it. The brunette focused on her school work, not because she particularly enjoyed learning, but because academics was the one area which required brain rather than brawn. It wasn’t long before she was consistently on the honor roll and within the top ten percent of her class.

Even then, she preferred not to know which students received the highest marks. It was bad enough that she had to deal with taunts and isolation when there were no adults present to buffer her from the cruelty, but she chose not to open herself to feeling inadequate mentally as well.

Melanie had looked forward to becoming an adult. The brunette had mistakenly assumed that the mockery and rude remarks would cease once she was grown up and surrounded by other adults. Little did she realize that the cruelty she had experienced from other children was a learned behavior; they had learned to act inappropriately from their parents.

As the petite brunette passed Charity’s cubicle she heard the deep sigh. The lively blonde had just completed a call and was notating the customer account.

Silently, the newest team member asked the Lord for wisdom. The day before, while she was with her family at church, she had an inner witness that she was being put on assignment in Clearview. There was more than one reason she had returned home to the town where she grew up. Now that she had met Melanie, she sensed that there was something the Lord wanted to do through her. As she received a leading she would follow it.

While the team answered calls in the bustling atmosphere of the call center, those in the fifth dimension looked on. From the moment the blonde drove onto the property the placement of Dark emissaries began to shift. Although they had gathered information regarding this warrior ahead of the female’s appearance, the Evil ones were shocked by the sheer number of escorts this human had.

There were other Redeemed employees at the center, but most of those believers were like the brunette, they had little to no concept of their spiritual identity. It was to be expected that each human had a guardian with him, but since all of the others were spiritually clueless regarding their standing in the kingdom, the guardians were alone without any reinforcements. Most, if not all, the others were also without any revelation where the power of the spoken word was concerned. As a result, the Dark forces were able to act upon much of what was spoken by the Redeemed as well as those who worked there who had never pledged allegiance to the Lamb. To put it simply, Darkness had been able to control CellAir Phone and its employees unhindered for the past thirty years.

The status quo was about to change.

Chapter 3

B y lunch time Charity had become completely integrated into the team. Everyone had a different lunch time assigned, but usually there were a couple of people logged out of the phone system at the same time. As the blonde locked her computer she realized that Melanie was also scheduled to take her lunch break.

In spontaneous unison the two young women left their stations and walked towards the cafeteria. As they were together in the hallway, Charity asked, Do you mind if I join you for lunch?

Melanie had planned to sit alone as usual and read her book. It was rare that she chose to share her space with someone else on her breaks. Her instincts were to find an excuse to escape the closeness, but as she opened her mouth to respond, she heard her voice say, That would be nice, sure.

Immediately, the brunette braced herself for a barrage of questions. It was almost certain that once the two were seated together the inquisition would start. At this point it was unknown whether the underlying motive would be mere curiosity or something more insidious.

Once the two ladies were seated, each of them opened his lunch container and began to eat. With the physical remnants from the injuries at birth, it took Melanie longer to start eating. The brunette tried to concentrate on her task purposely averting her eyes away from her companion. Whether the blonde was staring at her or not, Melanie was not going to allow her eyes to notice Charity’s reaction; whatever expression the blonde had was unknown.

While still preparing to eat, Melanie heard soft words being spoken causing her to look over at the other woman. Charity had her aquamarine eyes closed and she was praying over her food.

The entire half hour allotted for lunch was spent in casual conversation as Charity gave Melanie a snippet of background regarding her time with the company. It wasn’t until it was time to return to the phones that Melanie realized that she had never been asked anything of a personal nature. More intriguing than that, the blonde had not exhibited a look of surprise, pity or revulsion the whole time they had been together. Charity had treated her as an equal; that