Keys

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: 

and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: 

and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:19 

Keys
Driving away from Esther's village that first day was nothing short of frustrating.  I was fighting fear and discouragement in a big way as I came face to face with the realization that our best efforts still left us in such a powerless position. At this point it seemed the mom was still in control of Esther's future and if she decided to leave and not return with Esther there was not much in the natural we could do.
Before I left the strangest thing was happening. I was finding little brass keys everywhere.  On the floor beneath my seat in church as I worshipped.  In front of the podium I preach at on Monday nights, in my office and in my bedroom at home.  When I arrived in Thailand my roomie even found one on the floor of the hotel room.  When she picked it up the revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. There are keys that God has given me which will open the doors to freedom.  I knew that this trip was going to be about strategy and that if I would remember to seek God answers to the challenges I would face, I would receive heavenly strategy to open locked doors.
As we drove away that day, God reminded me of those keys.  My heart was encouraged to say a silent prayer that God would reveal the strategy and immediately he brought to mind the family of Esther's mom.  I knew that they would be a critical key in Esther's freedom.  Now the family situation is a complete puzzle in and of itself and would take more than an entire blog to explain but suffice it to say that Esther and her mom and the demon possessed aunt had all been banished from the family circle.Through a miraculous course of events a few months earlier the head of the family and Esther's older children had been found and they were in favor of Esther's freedom.  I immediately knew that their presence would be critical.  Later on as our team assembled over a cup of coffee, we prayed and discussed this first key to our puzzle.  We opened the word and God began to lead us in heavenly strategy. Every team member seemed to have a key to the solution and as we shared our hearts were once again encouraged and hope sprang forth.  I was reminded of a recent message that I gave on the book of Micah.  There was a passage from Micah 6:4, " "Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt And ransomed you from the house of slavery, And I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam."  As I shared this with the team we all knew in our heart of hearts that several people had to come together at one time, in one place to see this happen.  Moses, the representative of the nation of Israel and the law, Aaron, the representative of the priesthood and advocate of the people before God, and Miriam the representative of the prophetic voice.  We were certain that this meant, the government official that was responsible for the case, the head of the family who represented the priesthood, and us.  We represented the prophetic voice of Esther's life.  We immediately knew what had to be done. We contacted the government case worker and it just so happened that she would be available for whatever we needed. We picked her up, jumped in the truck and drove out to the family home one hour away in hope that they would see us and agree to join us in our effort.  God gave us favor and clear passage with both parties and we planned to meet up the next day and head out to Esther's village praying to God she would be there. On the drive out to the family home, I kept hearing God say that this woman, the government case worker was a strategic partnership here is Poipet and held keys to open the doors of freedom in so many areas.  On our drive out it just so happened that an opportunity popped up for us to partner with her on another project and God allowed us to sew into this relationship in a beautiful way.  But...that is another blog!  For now, we had strategy, we had hope, and we believed with all of our heart that God had given us the keys to secure Esther's freedom....more to follow....

Love from the road,
Julie