On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Personal Allegory

On Earth As It Is In

HEAVEN

A Personal Allegory

Julie Castro

On Earth as It Is in Heaven, A Personal Allegory

Copyright © 2015 by Julie Castro

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any written,

electronic, recording, or photocopying form without written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-9643613-7-9

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952993

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman

Foundation. Used with permission. (Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used with the permission of Tyndale House

Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV® are taken from the Holy Bible, New

International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ®. Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (GNT) are from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version- Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

The Trumpet and Small Straws in a Soft Wind prophetic quotations are taken from the Spirit of Prophecy Bulletin and used with the permission of Faith

Tabernacle.

The author has tried to recreate events, locales, and conversations from her

memories. In order to maintain anonymity in all instances, the names of all

individuals have been changed, with the exception of the author’s son.

Editing by: Laura Orsini, Write | Market | Design

Original Cover Artwork by: Lucy C. Flores

Interior and Cover Design by: InfiniteReach Agency

Fiesta Publishing

Phoenix, Arizona

Fiestapublishing.com

To Mac and Mick

Contents

Foreword

1. Introduction 3

2. My First Marriage 5

3. Counterfeits 13

4. Identity and Destiny 19

5. Prophetic Words 23

6. God Speaks to Me Directly 31

7. Following the Instructions 35

8. Confirmations 41

9. Prayer for the Pastor’s Wife 51

10.Waiting 55

11. Family and Friends 61

12. The Power of Place 67

13. Exposing Character Flaws 75

14. Hindrances and Deliverances 83

15. One Final Instruction 93

16. Lessons Learned – Great Messages 101

17. Correction and Conviction, but No Condemnation 107

18. Trials and Tribulations 113

19. Doubt 119

20. Reward 123

21. Ministry 127

22. Visions and Dreams 131

23. Season of Waiting 135

24. Symbolic Gestures 143

25. Enjoy This Time with Your Son 147

26. Healing – Stay in the Process 153

27. Personal Victories 161

28. It Was a Test 167

29. Tears 173

30. Trust God 177

31. My Setback Was a Setup 183

32. The Handshake – Betrayal to Promotion 187

33. Suddenly 193

34. Spiritual Reality 197

35. Understanding the Call to Ministry 201

36. God’s Will vs. Free Will 205

37. Forgiveness 211

38. The Personal Allegory 217

39. Reflection 219

40. Salvation 221

Acknowledgements

Foreword

This personal allegory is unlike any other book. It is not commercial or predictable by book publishing standards, but neither is God (also known as Yahweh in the Hebrew language). A price cannot be placed on His commercial viability and His unconventional ways. It is a testimony, a reality book, telling the story of a personal journey over a specific period of time. Yet each chapter stands alone, containing a message that is relevant to the bigger picture and overarching theme.

And looking at them Jesus said to them, With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Matthew 19:26

Chapter 1

Introduction

After graduating from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1982, I moved to Dallas without a job and only a temporary place to live. It was my first faith walk, though I didn’t know it at the time. While living in Dallas, I was led to the Lord by my formerly gay roommate in 1985. God raised me up quickly and my walk began at a nondenominational Bible church. Within six weeks, I moved to a Messianic congregation and ultimately landed at a Spirit-filled church. Having lost my job shortly after being saved, I remained at the Spirit-filled church until I moved to San Francisco in 1986. Before the move, I spent the next five months seeking God’s face all day long. I lived by Matthew 6:33:

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

In San Francisco, I attended an Assembly of God church until God moved me to Hawaii in 1989. While in Hawaii, I visited a few churches, but none of them felt right: the Holy Spirit was missing for me. Returning to Tucson in 1990, I sought God’s face, read the Word and prayed, but never attended church. Each city to which God sent me had a specific purpose, and I was in His will, with the exception of being married. Between the time I left Hawaii until I was invited to visit a church in Phoenix, twenty-two years passed; it was my wilderness.

Now living in Phoenix, it wasn’t until I attended a going away party for a colleague and friend that I met Mama. My friend introduced her to me, and she gave me a business card for a church. In that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. I knew this would be my new church home. I remember Mama telling me that her son was the pastor, and then asking me if I would like to attend that evening’s service with her. I graciously declined, but told her I would visit the following Tuesday.

The presence of the Lord filled the church during the service; it was like the church I had attended in Dallas. I knew this was the church that God wanted me to attend. After service, Mama introduced me to her son, the Pastor. Looking into his eyes, I thought to myself, Oh no, as something stirred within. In his eyes I saw, Not another woman my mom is introducing me to! It was early March and I spent the next five years attending the church faithfully, until God released me.

During the first few years, I went to church on Saturday night and occasionally on Tuesday, but never on Sunday. I loved worshipping the Lord, hearing the Word, and being united with others in God’s presence (corporately). I went to church, kept to myself, and left just as quietly. Very rarely did I even shake the pastor’s hand; in fact, I generally steered clear of him. But one Sunday morning, the chaplain spoke one prophetic word that changed my whole life and the direction God would take me. It had to do with a future husband. Having had the wrong husband once, I sure didn’t want to repeat that mistake again.

This is my testimony of the processes, instructions, lessons, revelations and confirmations that God used to bring me to my destiny.

Chapter 2

My First Marriage

In the early 1990s I met a man, a Mexican national from Nogales, Sonora, through mutual acquaintances, a husband and wife, who were believers in Christ. The woman shared a word about me marrying the man, and after three months of testing what she said, I told the Lord, I want to marry him. God answered my request. It wasn’t a prayer, as in asking in the name of Jesus; it was a statement that turned out to be a bad idea, but one that God answered nonetheless. Was the comment my free will? Did I put my will ahead of God’s? Was it God’s plan for me? Not one to ask questions of Him, I don’t have the answer to this day, except to know that it was part of the bigger picture and my destiny.

This was my first lesson about doing things God’s way, as opposed to my way. It was a difficult lesson that took twelve years to learn. Instead of trusting God and listening to the guidance He offered through others, I forged ahead and married a man who was never supposed to be my husband.

Three months after meeting him, he wanted to sleep with me. I said, No. You must marry me if you want to sleep with me. He had been aware that I was a Christian from our first meeting. He would ask about sex, but he never pressured me. He eventually said yes to marriage. I suppose that in my response to him, I had proposed, but in his mind he was only marrying me so he could sleep with me, as no more than a joke, really. Little did I know what I would learn and experience over the next twelve years of marriage. Trusting God in all situations! This was part of my wilderness time.

Before we were married, I asked God to show me this man’s heart, and it was pure gold. Seeing his heart in the Spirit, I wanted him as my husband. His compassion for others was incredible. As a medical doctor in Mexico, he worked helping his people with free medical care on a regular basis. He gave money to people who didn’t have it and offered to help whenever possible. Unfortunately, I would soon find that his compassion toward me was not the same as it was for others. In fact, I rarely experienced compassion or love from him.

After meeting in Nogales, Sonora, we spent weekends together in Tucson, where I lived and owned a home. I neither drank nor smoked, and although he drank beer and smoked cigarettes, I overlooked those nasty habits. I will never forget introducing him to my parents for the first time. He had a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. Needless to say, my medical doctor did not make a good impression. Not only did my parents dislike him, but once I announced that we were planning to marry, my sister and sister-in-law came to visit me to try to dissuade me from marrying him. Proverbs 12:15 states:

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

I didn’t listen.

We were married by a justice of the peace in Tucson, but no one knew. I got pregnant immediately, and we were married before the Lord by a local pastor a few months later. The first indication that I should have never married him was the day he tried to burn the marriage license. He was so angry with me for some reason that I don’t even remember, yet I ignored his anger. Red flags were everywhere, but I continued to ignore them. I brought to the marriage a house in Tucson, furniture, jewelry, and a sports car. When I met and married him, he was not working as a medical doctor, even though he had a medical degree which allowed him to work throughout the entire country of Mexico. Along with not working, he only owned the clothes on his back – a shirt, jeans, underwear, and flip-flops. He had been married before and, unfortunately, preferred not to pay child support for his son, so he chose not to work.

Before we were married, he had lived with his mother in a house without a bathroom. The only running water was the garden hose connected to the house. The toilet was a bucket behind the house, very primitive compared to U.S. standards. When I visited Mexico, he always took me to one of his friends’ homes to use the restroom and shower. This standard of living was far lower than I had ever experienced, but I never passed judgment. I never complained and I always loved his mom, his half-sister, and her children.

Shortly before I moved to Nogales, Sonora, to live with him, he got a job with Sonora’s social medicine system. He earned $635 a month as a doctor and worked in a pharmacy on the side to make ends meet. My husband worked ten-hour days while I raised our son, read the Word, prayed, and sang praises during the day.

He was a very well-known doctor because of his compassion and his connections, and everyone knew he had married a blondie, an American. He preferred the less fortunate as his friends, as he felt more comfortable with them than with the wealthy, although he spent time with other professionals – doctors, dentists, and attorneys – for business purposes. Those so-called friends who were less fortunate – the afflicted and addicted – had the mistaken impression that since he was a doctor who was married to an American, we had money. In their eyes, if they stole something, it didn’t matter because we could easily replace it. They stole everything we owned, at one point or another, within the first two years of our marriage.

Through it all, God was with me, proving Himself again and again. I was standing on the His Word, even though my husband was not a believer. Raised Catholic, he knew Jesus in his head, but not in his heart. He did not have the personal relationship with the Lord that I did.

They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. Acts 16:31

Over time, everything that was stolen was restored. Cases in point: my jewelry and convertible sports car were stolen within the first six months of my living in Mexico. It took a few years, but both the car and jewelry were restored after we moved to Tucson, better than those that were stolen. Zephaniah 3:20 states:

At that time I will bring you in, even at the time when I gather you together; Indeed, I will give you renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the LORD.

It was a testimony to show others that God is a God of restoration.

When the peso devalued, my husband decided he wanted to immigrate to the U.S. I applied to Immigration and Naturalization Services on his behalf, and ten months later he had his Green Card. We moved into my house and started our life in America. During the early years of our marriage, my husband continually told me he married me as a joke and that we needed to get divorced. I persevered, but after about two years of hearing that he had married me as a joke, I’d had enough. It was starting to take a toll on me. Proverbs 18:21 says:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

I was experiencing a slow death. When I finally agreed to the divorce, he changed his mind. He had become accustomed to the American life style – a house, two cars, travel, disposable income, and a lot of entertaining.

My husband felt that being Mexican meant he could be macho and stay out all night with his married male friends. I began to pray, and although it took two years, he eventually saw that he was about to lose the good life when he found a garbage bag outside the house filled with all of his belongings. It contained far more than he had brought to the marriage. This was a wakeup call, and over time he changed, but not without a lot of fervent prayer and speaking the Word of God to him.

There were good years, but overall it was a marriage that should have never taken place. What came out of it was an incredible son, Manuel, which means God with us. My husband chose the name, after the father he had never known. Known as Mac, our son was a huge blessing to both of us, and he was appropriately named!

Before Manuel was born, I prayed and asked the following: that the Spirit of the Lord would be with my child. When people came in contact with my baby, the presence of Jesus would be obvious and people were naturally drawn to the child. Little did I know the profound effect of the prayer for my child in utero; to this day, people are naturally drawn to Mac.

As my husband’s income increased, so did his beer and cocaine consumption. Our family’s needs were always met, but he felt entitled to spend his share of the disposable income that resulted from our modest lifestyle on his entertainment. Part of the family’s entertainment included dining out frequently, as I didn’t cook and that way everyone could eat what they wanted.

At year ten of the marriage, I was at the end of my rope. The drugs, alcohol, and verbal abuse were wearing me down. If I had not had Jesus, things would have been much worse. But thank the Lord, God sticks to you more closely than any friend. He was right by my side as I experienced daily life with my husband. I finally cried out to the Lord and asked to be released. I still remember, to this day, standing in the hallway holding on to the foosball table and crying out, Please God, let me out of this marriage! It was two more years before it happened.

The release came the day my husband greeted me at the door as I was leaving to drive Mac to school before work. He was all coked up, and began telling me in Spanish that he was going to rip my face apart. I looked at him, walked past him out the door, and got in the car. If the devil was trying to put fear in me, it didn’t work! As I started the engine, Mac said, Mom, that was scary. I thought you were going to get a divorce.

I looked at my son and answered him, Mac, he is your father, but I have stayed in this marriage far too long. Now that you have said this, I will file for divorce.

It is amazing how God works when you let Him. During the two years after crying out to the Lord, God gave my husband many chances to repent and get things right. Continually, God would give me prophetic words to speak to him, but each time, he refused to listen. Then, in one moment, God opened the door for my divorce, using my son’s words to release me from the marriage.

***

At that time, I was the director of a nonprofit agency that helped women with barriers to employment get back into the workforce. Since the program was housed within a university, an Advisory Board was in place, rather than a Board of Directors. The day my husband threatened me, I had an Advisory Board meeting. One look at my face, and my fellow board members knew something was wrong. I confided to them that I needed to get out of my marriage but was unable to afford an attorney. One of the board members, a retired Superior Court Judge, told me she would call in a favor.

That favor resulted in one of the most prominent divorce attorneys in Tucson taking my case, pro bono. It took about a month before we met face to face, but the paperwork was filed in June and my husband was served with divorce papers shortly thereafter. When the process server presented him with the papers, he tore the documents up in front of the woman. My husband didn’t want the divorce, but he didn’t have the money to hire an attorney to contest it, so my divorce was decreed sixty-nine days after the papers were filed.

I received full custody of our son. I didn’t ask for any alimony or child support, as I was certain I wouldn’t get it. I felt it was better not to make the request so that my son would never have to ask why his dad hadn’t helped me financially. He had never paid child support to his first wife for my step-son, so why would things change for our son. I did not want my son to have a deadbeat dad.

It was August when my divorce was finalized. I remember standing in the computer room and saying out loud, Lord, it is OK with me if I never marry again. He answered my spirit, and I knew that one