Second Corinthians 3.17, April 28, 2024

It's time for the Champions in Christ broadcast with Rhonda Harrison on 1017, Bay FM.

Good morning and thank you for listening to Champions in Christ.

We're going to talk today, we're going to start off with the Scripture in its second

Corinthians 3.17.

And it says, now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there

is liberty.

Another word for that right there is freedom.

There is freedom in the Lord.

Praise God.

And today I have a special guest with me, a dear friend for many, many years, another

minister of the gospel.

And she's going to be shared a testimony with us.

So I want to introduce her and let her open up and talk to you a little bit.

And I think it's going to bless you.

So listen closely and tune in.

Her name is Donna, Donna Geiger.

Thank you.

I thank the Lord today for this opportunity to come and share with you the magnificent

testimony that he's done in my life.

I was in church for over 20 years and I went every day, every time the doors were open,

I would be there.

I had a hunger and thirst for God and I love God with my whole heart.

And I thank God for the teaching that was brought forth in that time.

But during that time, as I said, doing everything that the Word of God told me to do, everything

that I was taught in that church and the denomination, I found myself in a place of depression.

I found myself in a place of fear and one point in my life, it got so intense and so

hard because of the enemy just kept coming and absolutely tearing and tormenting my mind.

I couldn't do anything right.

I seems like nothing that I did was correct.

I remember the Word of God in John 10-10 that was taught to me that he came that I might

have life and have it more abundantly.

And I was not having it.

And I was questioning the Lord about it.

And I remember serving in my church, doing everything in the background.

I remember taking care of the ladies in the Sunday school, anything.

I love helping people and just wanted to serve the Lord with my whole heart.

And I got joy out of that.

But I remember ladies would come in and they would look at me and thought I had it all

together.

Everything was just perfect.

You can walk in the church and you can put that mask on.

And I tell you, you can be smiling on the outside, but you're dying on the inside.

And that's what happened to me.

I was dying on the inside.

And I found myself one day just coming home from the store.

And I heard this voice.

They just go ahead and take your car and just hit that big tree that's about five or six

feet wide and everything would be better.

Your kids would be better.

Your husband would be better.

You'll be out of pain.

And go ahead and do it.

But because of the grace of God, I tell you, it was like God intervened in such a way.

I never really heard the voice of the Lord.

And I remember going and just that thought came and all of a sudden I heard this voice

from heaven and it was like, no.

And I heard it three times.

And then I just turned my car, went home like nothing ever happened, got the groceries out

of the car, put it in.

And during that time, I started questioning the Lord.

And I thank the Lord for revival.

I thank the Lord for the opportunity.

And the Lord knows what we need in that time.

He says in his word, taste and see that the Lord is good.

I've read that before.

And in the denomination that I was in, the great buy and buy and we'll do this and we'll

do that.

And I had a lot of bondages because I felt like I was so restrained in the church.

I couldn't raise my hands.

I had to be quiet, timid, and I love God with my whole heart.

And I didn't want to do anything.

I didn't want to do anything that displeased him.

And so I found myself in that place.

And it was so wonderful that Lee and Rhonda had invited our family to church in those

revival meetings.

And the Lord knows exactly what we need, like I said.

And I remember walking in there and I could see a lot of things that were happening in

the spirit of God and the presence of God moving on so many wonderful people.

And I didn't understand the manifestations of the spirit of God during that time.

And I remember walking in and saying, Lord, you know, I love you.

I don't understand what is going on here, but I love you.

Help me.

And I stayed and was just to see the manifest presence of God moving on the hearts of people

were amazing.

I remember they would get up or they would testify and give God glory.

And I had at one point I just said, I've got to get my eyes off a man.

I've got to get my eyes on you, Lord.

And I just closed my eyes.

I started just lifting my hands and saw here I am.

Help me.

And I remember the Lord going to certain issues in my life.

As I said earlier about the fear of man being out of order and what I thought the religious

bondages that were wrapped up in me were just I was like so wrapped up.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't talk.

I didn't want to do anything to disgrace my Lord.

And I was like, Lord, I need help.

I need understanding.

And so in those meetings, when the people got off the floor, they were giving God glory.

And I remember I remember I remember how the presence just came over me.

You know, you say when the people got off the floor, explain that a little bit.

Yes.

I'm talking about the presence of the Lord.

It's the manifest presence, like the glory falls on you.

And I never experienced that before.

I mean, some they get laughter.

Some you'll feel a heat.

The falls on you.

Some is like you feel a weight, a weightiness to the word when it's preached and it just

comes over you.

It's like like you're having hot oil that goes from the top of your head down to your

bottom of your feet.

You can literally feel it in your in your presence.

Yeah, you know, sometimes I know we can feel stuck to the chair or some people, you know,

they get to laughing.

Some people cry because everyone responds to the Holy Spirit differently according to

what's happening in their life and the openness of their heart.

So it's never the same just like in the Word of God.

Excuse me when they came to get Jesus and they were looking for him and Judas kissed

him and he said, I am he and it says the men that were coming fell back because the power

of God sometimes when it hits you, you just yield and and that's God's operating table.

Right.

Absolutely.

Is this operating table and that's what happened to me.

And so when I I got to that point, I was like, okay, Lord, so I closed my eyes and I remember

being in the meeting and crying out to the out to the Lord and Lord helped me.

And I remember the weight of the glory of God coming on me and I remember my heavenly

father saying and talking to me, Donna, get up.

And that was so difficult for me.

I mean, yeah, because I was in my seat.

And it was like, I didn't want to be out of order and those bondages that kept me contained

and not, you know, be able to move freely and have a freedom in the spirit of God.

And so I remember him saying, okay, Donna, get up and in my heart and in my spirit, I

wanted to obey that command.

I really wanted to do it, but it was like so hard.

And I was like, I took a big deep breath and I remembered for the third time he said, Donna,

but he added Marie.

So that's my middle name.

And I was like, whoa, daddy's talking to me.

I was like, okay, it's like when your parents call you in from the dinner table, you better

obey or he's going to go right by you.

And so I knew so I took everything at this deep breath and I said, okay, Lord, in my

spirit.

And I said, Lord, just like you gave me a testimony of my salvation.

I said, you're going to give me a testimony of this, like the woman with the issue of

blood and Mark five.

She said when she pressed into the crowd and that she went to him, that she said within

herself, I just touch the hem of his garment.

I shall be made whole.

And I soon as I said that it was like this invisible thing.

I jumped up.

I was running, stepping over people that were already on the floor under the presence of

God.

The minister had his back toward me and I said, Lord, when I get to the man of God, you're

going to answer everything.

You don't put your eyes on a man or denomination or anything.

You put your eyes on the Lord.

And soon as I got to him, he turned around.

He laid hands on me.

I went down under the presence of the start laughing and laughing and laughing.

Then all of a sudden he goes, pick her up.

So he picked me back up.

I started laughing and laughing and laughing again.

And I went back down again.

He picked me back up for the third time.

So he called my name three times.

He picked me up off the floor three times.

And I remember being under the presence of the Lord.

It was like I was wrapped in a cocoon of love like I have never, ever felt in my entire

life.

And he started showing me a video of my life when I was a little girl all the way through

all different stages in my life.

And in that presence, it was like you're wrapped in this cocoon of love.

There is no pain.

There's no striving.

There's no grief.

There's no anxiety.

All it is is perfect peace and perfect love.

And in that moment, it was like I didn't want to leave that, leave that place.

And I love the hand of the Lord where he comes in and he, he sees your life from the beginning

to the end.

And in that video, in that time, different things that happened.

And one thing that happened was my son died in my arms in the bathroom when he was 11

months old.

And I felt the breath of God leave him.

He would have seizures out of the blue.

Don't know why you'd have a hundred six fever within minutes.

And I remember in that time holding him and I said, Lord, I trust you.

I don't understand this, but I trust you.

And by the grace of God, the breath of God went back into him and he brought him back

to life.

And I thank God for that.

It was a battle.

You know, that just shows how powerful God will minister to you and in your place of need.

So you can be in your home.

It doesn't have to be in a church.

It can be in your car, in your home.

If you're driving right now and you need a touch from God, you just call on his name.

But Don, I want to ask you a question in that cocoon of love in that place of peace under

the presence of God in the anointing, which the anointing is the power of God or the presence

of the Holy Spirit.

Tell us what God set you free from in that, in that time.

Yeah.

During that time, as I said about being wrapped in the cocoon of love, it was a place that

I never known before.

And in that, when you have perfect peace and you get and you touch the Prince of peace

and when you're in the presence of God, where is fullness of joy and at his hand, there's

pleasures forevermore.

In Psalm 1611, he will show us the pathway of life.

And in that moment, as I said before earlier about the tormenting spirit and the different

things that I was going through in a denomination, didn't have the power of God.

They love people.

They love God.

They were strong in salvation.

I thank God for that.

But didn't have the power of God to walk out the fullness of God's word in every area of

my life.

And so during that time, when I was on the floor and the Lord said, I was there, I was

there, I was there through this time, that time, and that security and that confidence

and that love that passes.

I mean, you can't even, there's not enough words in the English language to explain to

explain the glory and the love of God that flows out of that place.

And so that's what I was longing for.

And in that, all the tormenting spirits left, the depression left, suicide was broken off

of me.

Joy, I came, it was like fullness of joy.

It opened my mouth.

I was like, now I can stand and give God glory.

I'm not at fear anymore.

You know, I'm not afraid of what people think.

I have a boldness for the things of God.

I have a boldness for God's word.

You know, he's taken me and used me in different areas around different countries and in the

US.

And I could never see myself doing that because I was so timid and I didn't want to, I was

afraid to do or move anything.

So he unwrapped me.

So the fear of the world.

Yes.

The fear of the man.

Yes.

The fear of man.

The depression was broken off.

Suicide was broken off.

The joy of the Lord, which is our strength in the MIA 10.

And it was just, it was such a place I didn't want to come out of.

And I was on the floor for three hours.

I was like, I did not want to move.

I couldn't get up if I wanted to move.

But anyway, when you get in that place, it time just flies by.

You don't know.

I mean, it's just like it just flies by.

And the, the, the love of God just infused every area of me.

I mean, from my head, my mind, my body, my heart, all the way.

He just consumed me.

And it was like, it was just such a glorious place to be in, in the presence of the Lord.

Amen.

And the presence of the Lord, you can have it any moment.

You can enter into his presence just by calling on his name.

You don't need a minister.

There's many meetings that are out there, many anointed men and women of God that you

can enter into their meeting.

And it's a corporate anointing that comes in the presence that comes.

But you know what?

He's right there with you now.

He's right there.

God is everywhere.

God says nothing separates us from the love of God.

He loves you.

If you are the, if you feel like you are someone who cannot be forgiven.

That's not true.

God forgives.

God loves you so much that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever calls upon the

name of the Lord shall be saved.

You will be born again.

He can fill you with this Holy Spirit.

We're talking about that Holy Spirit is available to you right now.

I just want you to think about that.

I want you to think about, I want you to get hungry and thirsty because you know, there

is no fear in love.

So when you're in that place, Donna, when you were on that floor, did you feel fear

at all that fear that you had prior?

No, absolutely not.

I mean, in fear, the word of God, it talks about in first John 4 18.

There's no fear and love, but perfect love cast out fear because fear hath torment.

But he that fear is not made perfecting love.

He we love him because he first loved us and it says in 17 here is the love made perfect

that many will have boldness in the day of judgment because it is he and we are in this

world.

And I thank God for that.

And he's given me the boldness and that love that he has for me.

I have a confidence in that and an assurance and the Lord is so good and so gracious and

that love.

You know, it's not denomination is not religion.

You just have to have a relationship with your father and he loves us no matter what

we've done, no matter what we've been through, where we've been.

He sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for all those things.

You know, and everybody's every just like with your relationship with your children,

every time you come together with them and communion, in other words, you're in their

presence and you both are in a joyful way and a loving way.

God, everybody responds differently.

Everybody reacts differently to the presence of God.

And so there is not going to be, you're never going to have the same experience in the Lord

if you have that relationship.

That's what we're trying to get across to you is relationship.

It's all about relationship with Jesus.

And you go, well, I just don't have that.

I don't know how to start that.

Just talk to him.

Just like we're talking now, like Donna and I are talking, just talk to him.

If you begin to talk to him and begin that conversation and begin to get hungry, what

does that mean?

Like you want more of God, like Donna was wanting more, like the woman with the issue

of blood.

She was hungry.

She was thirsty.

She was wanting more and more and more.

And that hunger, that hunger, it built up and built up and built up.

And finally, you know, she was open enough to allow the Lord in.

And that's the key.

Don't you think?

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

The key is yielding and getting your mind off of everything that's going around and just

focusing on him.

And that was, that's what I had to do.

You know, we're going to go to a song right now and it talks about the spirit of the Lord.

And I just want you to enter in.

I want you to sit back, close your eyes and the presence of God's going to come right

where you're at.

And I want to meet your need and we'll come right back at you in just a moment.

And your days of bondage are over.

They come to a place tonight cause the Lord of everlasting life is touching you.

He's touching you.

He's touching you.

And the chains are breaking off right now.

Though you may not know how the depression is going.

The fear is going and it's by the hand of the Lord.

Yes, it's by the hand of the Lord.

And the chains are breaking off right now.

And the chains are breaking off right now.

I receive my freedom.

I receive my freedom.

I receive my freedom.

I receive my freedom.

I receive my freedom.

Come on, speak it forth prophesy.

I receive my freedom.

Come on, somebody's putting a gun down right now.

I receive my freedom.

Come on, sing it tonight.

I receive my freedom.

I receive my freedom.

Oh, yeah.

I receive my freedom.

Come on, reach way down and say it with all your might.

I receive my freedom.

A little louder.

I receive my freedom.

Say it again.

I receive my freedom.

Say it again.

I receive my freedom.

Say it with all of your heart.

I receive my freedom.

Say it like you know it's true.

I receive my freedom.

Prophecy to your generation.

The spirit of the Lord is this liberty.

Jesus came to set the captains free.

Lord, we believe it's true.

No one but you could break our chains.

I receive my freedom.

I receive my freedom.

Come on, make a joyful noise to the Lord tonight.

Praise Him like you know that you're free.

Come on, praise Him like you know that you're free.

Hallelujah.

Amen and amen.

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

And His presence is right there with you now.

And He's ministering to you.

And you just say thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

You don't have to explain it.

You may be feeling goosebumps.

You may be feeling that hot oil Donna talked about.

You may just be feeling the greatest peace you've ever known

and that cocoon of love she spoke about.

It's available to you.

God's no respecter of persons.

And so if you've never accepted the Lord,

if you need that peace in your life,

if you need that joy,

if you need to be overcome by His love,

or if you need to be set free,

I want you to pray this prayer after me.

Or maybe you know the Lord and you walked away from Him

and it's been a little while.

And God wants to hear from you.

Pray this prayer with me.

Say, Dear God,

I just come before you now ask you to forgive me.

Wash me.

Wash me that there be no separation between you and I.

Lord, I opened my heart to you.

I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

He is my Lord.

He is my Savior.

And I give my life to Him in Jesus name.

If you prayed that prayer today,

you've just been born again,

or you've been reconciled with the Lord.

You just reach out to Him.

Go to a good church that preaches the Bible

that allows the Holy Spirit to move.

And if you want to contact us,

we would be happy to send you a new Bible.

You can contact us at championsinchrist3.com.

We want you to go out and make it a great day today.

Live and love on the Lord.

Please know that God loves you.

We love you and you are a champion in Christ.

Amen.