In Because of My Purpose: I Shall Not, Cannot, and Will Not Be Destroyed, Prophetess Jeannette Johnson explains some of the unanswered questions that each of us ponder as we consider our lives with God. These questions are simple but straightforward: Why does God allow us to go through so much? Why do we have to be discussed by our neighbors? At a young age, Johnson discovered that the answers to these questions were not simple; even so, once the answers were discovered, they provided the path to understanding who we are in God's eyes. As we encounter life's challenges, God brings insight to our lives concerning our purpose. Because of My Purpose seeks to help everyone understand that there is a purpose for everything under the sun. When each of us understands our purpose individually, we can approach our lives with great expectations of knowing how to fulfill our destinies. Because of My Purpose: I Shall Not, Cannot, and Will Not Be Destroyed can help anyone with the will to do so discover who they are in God's eyes and make good the will of God for their lives and for those whose lives they touch.

Because of my Purpose

I Shall Not, Cannot, and Will Not Be DestroyedBy JEANNETTE JOHNSON

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Prophetess Jeannette Johnson
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-0723-0

Chapter One

POWER OF PRAYER

So now I begin my statement of purpose. My name is Jeannette Johnson-Haynes, which is my married name. I am a thirty-four-year-old black female whom God has called into the office of a prophet. I have learned in the book of Luke 12:28 that "to whom much is given, much is required." I really overlooked that passage until I begin to examine some things that have happened in my life. I also learned that salvation is free but the anointing costs.

I can look back and see God's purpose in my life from a very early age. I am the youngest of seven. I was raised by an awesome woman of God, who the Lord saw fit to birth me into this world. Her name is Lurena Lester. As early as I can remember, she was a woman of God. I had a God-fearing mother who was filled with the Holy Ghost and an unsaved father. As a young girl going to church every Sunday morning, to Bible study every Wednesday night, and to tarry service every Friday night and seeing my mother live a strict holy life, I could not understand how the God who my Mother told me was the Lord of Lords, King of Kings, the Great I Am, the Beginning and the End, could allow her to go through so much. She told me when I was a child that God holds the whole world in his hand. She told me that everyone is God's child. He created Heaven and Earth. And the earth was without form and void, and when God said, "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), there was light. She told me that He divided light from darkness. She even showed me in the book of Genesis how God had created man, which was in His own image—in the image of God.

So I asked my mom a question: If God did all of that, then how come you are saved and my father here on Earth is not? As I got old enough to know right from wrong, one of the first things I wanted to know was why, if God was the answer to everything and could do all things, my father wasn't saved and my mother was going through all that she was going through. I constantly asked the question because I always heard in church about the importance of the sanctity of wife and the sanctity of husband. So the big question in my mind was why my father wasn't sanctified.

I found out that God is a God of love and kindness, and He is not a forceful God. He said in His word that it is not His will for any man to be lost, but I learned that you have to want and desire to be saved. Then I began to understand that the Lord's arms are open to everyone. He waits with his arms open, asking anyone who will to let Him come in.

I went on as a young girl with a better understanding that, at that time, my mother was ready to go on with Christ in her life. She was not drawn by the lust of this world. I began to understand that her way of living was totally different from the way my father was living. Although my father was not living according to the will of God, my mother still was a good wife because of the commandments of the Lord. She always said to us kids, "That is still your father, and you all must obey and respect him no matter how late he stayed out." No matter how he treated her, she still made us respect him as our earthly father. She lived a life in front of us such that we girls in the family had no excuse for not knowing how to be a mother and a wife unconditionally. As the Lord teaches us in the Word, "Love thy husband and wife as Christ loves us." (Ephesians 5:25).

As a young girl, I had no excuse not to do the right thing because I had a front-seat view of an example of how to be a holy young lady. My mother always taught me that, in everything I did or said, I should put God first. I have learned that Christ is the answer to all questions in life. She taught me that, no matter what challenges life holds, as the book of Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." I realized then that God allowed all the trials that Momma was going through to fulfill His purpose in her life.

As a thirty-four-year-old, young prophet reflecting on all that my mother has gone through, I have learned that her trials not only served to make her strong; in addition, her life served as an example for my life. I told her that I would never go through the things that I have seen her go through that have made her cry. When I was younger, I even told my own mother that she was stupid for taking all that she took. I know that you're saying the same thing that I say to myself now: How can you say such a thing to your own mother? I still repent to myself, and I have asked her to forgive me many times for that. You will find out in the latter part of this book that I had to endure some of the same trials she "took"—some of those which I said she was stupid for taking—and then some.

This brings me to the book of Job 4:8, where we read, "Even as I seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same." Mother always told me to be careful for "what you sow, that shall you reap." She also told me that, when you sow in tears you reap in joy (Psalms 126:5).

I found out that what goes around comes back around. As a young lady, I learned a lot. I began to see some of the other things my mother was going through. For example, not only did I see her go through difficulties with my dad, but I also saw her endure hardships through her dealings with the so-called church folk. So-called church folk is what I call them. I've seen even people who called themselves pastors use my mother. I've seen mothers of the church take all they could from her, knowing she was in need herself.

Yet she kept on telling us that God is good and that we were blessed no matter what. Never once did she badmouth the church or the people in the church. She always said there was a reason for everything that God allows.

I asked my mother once again how she coped with an unsaved husband and all the difficulties she endured because of him.

She replied that it was all about trusting in the power of prayer.

She taught me what it meant to pray, first making it perfectly clear that the power of a praying wife is not the gaining of control over one's husband. (Don't get your hopes up!) In fact, quite the opposite is true. To trust in the power of prayer is to lay down all claims to power in and of yourself and rely on God's power to transform you, your husband, your circumstances, and your marriage. I learned that power is not given to wield like a weapon in order to beat back an unruly beast. It's a gentle tool of restoration, appropriated through the prayers of a wife who longs to do right rather than to be right and to give life more than to get even. I found out, through watching my mom, that faithful prayer is a way to invite God's power into your husband's life for his greatest blessing, which is ultimately yours too.

When I understood this, I had a better understanding of why my mom did what she did and why she took what she took. Through prayer, she knew that God had everything under control—all thanks to the power of prayer.

Speaking on the power of prayer, Luke 10:19 says, "Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions. And over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Through learning this passage, I now understand why Momma was not hurting. I believe we, as her children, were hurting more than she was. We did not know that the more she was praying, the more God was protecting her from hurt.

I also learned that a wife's prayers for her husband have a far greater effect on him than anyone else's prayers, even his mother's (sorry, Mom). A mother's prayers for her child are certainly fervent. But when a man marries, he leaves his father and mother and becomes one with his wife (Matthew 19:5). Now I know and understand why my mother took her marriage to heart. One thing I found out about my mom was that she wanted to set an example for her children!

Chapter Two

ABOUT MY PURPOSE

As a little girl coming up in church, I was always told that God had a calling for my life. One question I heard quite often was, "Did you know you are one of God's chosen ones?" People at church would also say things like, "You have a job to do for the Lord." I heard this all through my years of growing up. I never really took this message too seriously because I heard it so much that it became commonplace.

If I had known then what I know now, I would have taken everything that I was learning and experiencing more seriously. I recall the preacher at church talking about Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed thee in thy belly I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." I recall prophets telling me to read that verse. But even then I did not realize the seriousness of my life. I didn't understand that I had a purpose and that, because of my purpose, I could not be destroyed.

I kept hearing the word purpose over and over again. I looked up purpose in Webster's Dictionary, and the dictionary listed a couple of definitions. The first was plan. This took me back to that same passage in Jeremiah. Let's examine it again: "Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying, before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jeremiah 1:4-5). With that in mind, I realized that everything I was going through and would have to face in the future God had already figured out.

The second definition of purpose was aim. This led me to Colossians 1:9-10. These verses read, "For this cause we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." This passage taught me to aim toward the will of God, for my will is not His will, and my thoughts are not His thoughts. In other words, we need to pray for God's will and not our own.

As I read on, Colossians 1:11 told me, "Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness." The words "strengthened with all might according to his glorious power" really made me think. No matter what I was going through, right there the Word told me that the Lord would give me the strength to get through.

At the time that I was conducting these studies, I had been in an accident. For a year, I did not realize that I had internal bleeding in my abdominal area. I know my ability to survive this episode was God's strength carrying me on His glorious power. After a year, the doctor said I would never be able to bare children. But, God!

I returned to the end of verse eleven—"unto all patience and longsuffering, with joyfulness." The word longsuffering really stuck out; God had not just said suffering—he had said longsuffering. That let me know that I would continue to go through hardships. The good thing about this verse was that He had also said "with joyfulness."

That brings me to Psalm 149:2, which begins, "Let Israel rejoices in Him that made Him." In other words, God made us. He knows us and everything that we go through. We must praise him at all times. God does not put a bit more on us than we can bear, so we must simply rejoice in all.

The verse goes on to say, "Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King" (emphasis added). Know whom you serve. Know everything about God, because the Bible tells us that being in the presence of God brings the fullness of joy. As long as we are in Him, we can go on with Him in gladness and joy. The Word also tells me the joy of the Lord is my strength—meaning my power.

Chapter Three

AS A PROPHET

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. —Jeremiah 1:5

Before I tell you about the call according to my life as a prophetess, I will tell you that, when the Lord has chosen you, you are not your own. You may begin to experience things in life that will cause you to ask why. What did I do to deserve this? When an unthinkable tragedy happens, we often ask such questions. Why did this happen? In grief and shock, we want answers.

Many answers to that question exist, but the principal one is that we—the people who stand for the things of God—have an enemy. This enemy opposes all that God is and everything He does and anyone who believes in Him or tries to live His way. The Bible lets us know that God has known who we were from the beginning of time. So the enemy also knows who we are, and he tries to stop us.

Of course, the enemy is not omniscient and not omnipresent; he can't be everywhere and know our every thought. But if we don't fully realize that he is a limited and defeated foe, then he will continually harass us. We need to know that, when Jesus defeated the enemy on the Cross, He gave us authority over the enemy. According to Luke 10:19, "I give you authority over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by all means hurt you" (emphasis added). This passage really gives me the power to go on. Through it, I know that God allows everything that happens, including all our trials, to happen, and I know that He won't put a bit more on us than we can bear. When He said, "nothing shall by all means hurt you," He meant that a strike from the enemy may form, but it will not prosper.

I came to realize that we all are involved in a spiritual battle with an enemy who, by all means, will not let up. Even though it's people who do evil things to us, we have to keep in mind that our ultimate enemy, the devil, is behind all evildoings. Ephesians 6:12 tells us, "For we do not wrestle against the rulers of the darkness against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, of this age against spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places."

When I hear the word enemy, I think of myself. I know you may be asking, "Why?" Well, consider how closely the word ENEMY resembles IN ME put together. I say this because, often, we are our own worst enemy when it comes to walking in faith with God. We say we believe; we say we trust in God. But we allow our minds to play tricks with what we our mouths say.

Hebrew 11:1 tells us, "Now faith is being sure of what we do not see." In other words, if God has spoken something to us, even if we cannot see it at the time, we should still believe. Sometimes, however, we don't believe what we can't see. As I sit here writing, it comes to my mind that, when we go to the doctor and he or she gives us medicine for a headache, we take the medicine and, a few minutes later, we say our headache is gone. But we never see how the one little pill works. We have faith that what the doctor tells us will make us better will, in fact, make us better, even though we don't understand how the "cure" works. Thus, we follow the doctor's instructions. How often do we apply that same kind of faith to God's Word—to His instructions?

I really believe a lot of our problems are a result of lack of faith. A big part of standing against the enemy of our souls is taking control over our minds. As the Bible says, we must learn to bring every thought into captivity (2 Corinthians 10:5). This verse taught me that I don't have to entertain every thought that comes into my head. I learned that I have a choice about whether or not to listen to my thoughts.

If you follow news reports about serial killers, you'll discover that most serial killers talk about having heard voices in their heads telling them to kill and that they followed those voices. This is why the Bible tells us, "My sheep hear my voice and come running, but a stranger they will not." (John 10:5). When people are not raised to discern the voices in their head, they don't recognize the voice of the devil. He is a deceiver who will come to each one of us and try to speak lies into our minds. We have to be ready for him.

You must be aware, however, that one of the enemy's tactics is to try and steal God's Word from you. If God has called you to be a prophet, as you are growing up, your mind will be under constant attack; voices will whisper lies because you are the mouthpiece of God. The enemy will try to confuse you from the beginning, before you realize your gift. He will try and steal God's Word from you by getting you to question God's Word.

Remember Eve in the garden. She asked many questions: Did God really say that? Does He really mean that? Will God really mind if you do that? Does God really care about you? These types of questions will contradict God's Word when our minds provide answers such as, God didn't say that, God doesn't mind that. God doesn't think you're worth much. And God is withholding good things from you.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Because of my Purposeby JEANNETTE JOHNSON Copyright © 2012 by Prophetess Jeannette Johnson. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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