Ambassador In Christ
Am​bas​sador In Chr​ist​​​​​​
The call of God
Isaiah 61:4-8; They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. "For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them."
OUR STORY!
I hope our story encourages you to answer the call of God, stay in God's hand no matter what and to never give up!
The call of God in the Master's hands!
We had been ministering, evangelizing and ordaining ministers with the call of God on their lives around the world and throughout America when in 1991 God called us to the seven churchs in Asia (Turkey). We traveled ministering in churchs raising money for the mission God called us to, the seven churchs of Revelation.
We were with an organization at the time all the money we raised went into a missions fund with that organization. God was blessing and much money came into that fund. The organization sent some of their leaders to Turkey to see the seven churches. They reported back that these churches were just rubble and there was no churches. That there were no churches in Turkey. After a year and a half of traveling and raising funds. The funds were given to another mission. That did not stop us, we continued to share and minister in churches and home groups raising money for the mission it was not easy. Years later at a conference a lady walked up to our book table and said she was on a trip to Turkey and visited the 7 churches in Turkey. She told us that the Lord had her pour anointing oil on one of the rubble's of one of the 7 churches. After doing so she said she saw a vision of a lamb standing upon the rubble she asked her friend if she saw it also and the friend said that she saw the same thing. There is life even in the midst of the rubble. The church is very much alive. The Lord says to pick up your cross and follow Him. Our family came under attack from the enemy. We still pressed in to the call of God. So keep pressing, don't give up! Philippians 1:6; being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
In the Master's hands!
This first trip went through Bulgaria, where my husband went to minister. First at a Bulgarian church. This was a poor church and the Pastor had been praying for years for a suit to minister in. My husband took suits with him. The Lord told him to give this Pastor a suit. The Pastor hung it in his living room praising and thanking God. For God answered his prayers. This church wanted to help my husband get to Turkey. They raised the bus fare for my husband and the Pastor to go. This church was poor and only had tomato sandwiches to eat. So they packed their tomato sandwiches in a bag and went to Turkey by bus. In the meantime gypsies bumped up against my husband. My husband had only $100.00US with him and he had stuck it in his camera bag for safe keeping. When he went to find his money in his bag it was gone and his camera bag was slit. He did not know what to do other than to trust God. When they arrived in Turkey they met a christian who helped. My husband walked the streets of Turkey praying out loud. No one could understand him. This is when the Lord spoke and impressed even greater importance about the seven churches of Asia. God will provide no matter what! Philippians 4:19; And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Still in the Master's hands!
We began to raise funds again ministering the word of God and sharing the mission. We had all planed on going to Turkey this trip. It came close to the time when he thought we should go. The Lord told me I should not go on this trip. The money did not come in for us all to go, again. There was just enough for him to go. He went to Turkey and went to a city and accomplished what he went for. Then returned back to Istanbul. While waiting for his flight home, he called some people who he had met on the plane, who invited him for a holiday before he went home. These people did not know why he was there. Then he went down to the market place to buy us some gifts to bring home. He saw gun fire and got frightened and ran back to his hotel room. They caught him on cameras running in the streets. A political party at the time sent armed guards to his room and questioned him. They put him under armed guard and took his belongings and passports.
They then came and took him to a basement of a house in the city. They began to beat him in various places of his body. They shocked him in sensitive places of his body, which damaged him. They injected him with germ warefare. Then suddenly a man came running in with my husband's book shouting Holy man, Holy man. My husband had taken his book to Turkey to get it published in Turkey. They stopped the torture and returned him to his room. He was broken. They brought back some of his belongings but not his passports. He did not know if he would come home or not. They told him not to tell of this or they would kidnap his wife and small son. My husband was so frightened that when he came home in a wheel chair broken, crying and thankful to God for bringing him home. I remember him holding our son in the wheel chair crying and shaking while he hugged our son. God will make a way even though the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy! God will never leave you! God did come through and my late husband's book is printed in Turkish to benefit the church and help them with a deeper walk with God. All of the funds for that in Turkey are for the church there and I and our ministry have never received a dime from them.
Still in the Master's hands!
This has not been an easy assignment. After my husband went home to be with our Lord. Many leaders and friends told me to forget Turkey and the ministry. Then in the year 2000 in the fall some Pastor friends were coming to town to a camp meeting in Tampa. They invited me to attend. I said I did not feel like it. I had not been to a meeting since my husband passed on to the Lord at the end of 1999. They kept calling me and inviting me.
Finally I went to one night of the meeting. I saw my friends and sat with them. The Pastor saw a friend of his at the meeting sitting in the front row. He called to him and asked him what God had been speaking to him. This man answered and then the Pastor invited him up on the platform and asked him to minister to his people. This Prophet wanted to pray for people and asked everyone who wanted prayer to come forward and he was going to minister to each one, laying his hands on them.
My friend Donna and her husband said T.J. you should go up for prayer. I said no if God wants to speak to me He can speak to me right in this chair. Donna kept nudging me. The line was growing and went all the way back to the back of the church. Then Donna said T.J. don't miss what God might have for you. I sat there praying and she kept nudging me. Then finally I got up and walked to the back of the church. I stood up against the back wall out of the way away from the lights. I said God if you want this man to speak to me and pray for me then you bring him to me. I did not want to hear from man but God. So I leaned up against the back wall. When he finished praying for the last one. He headed toward me saying "I feel the presence of God,"he kept saying that as he walked toward me. He said MY God woman what is it that you do? I started crying and telling him of Turkey and how my husband went home to be with the Lord. How many are telling me that I can not continue in the call of God. He said who told you that? I said religious leaders and friends. He said the presence of God is all over you. He said that you are going to Turkey, teaching and not only Turkey but you are called to the nations of the world. He continued on speaking into my life. It was if time stood still in that church. Then the Pastor stood up and said I have a church in Turkey and the Pastors are here tonight. The Prophet said where are they? They stood up and the Prophet took me by my hand and pulled me to them. He told them to exchange information that I was going to Turkey and the nations of the world. The Pastors invited me to Turkey. Then the Prophet said I want to keep up with her and find our how the ministry is doing. He then exited toward the back door of the church. I had one of my books with me and I ran back to try and give it to him. The security took the book and said they would give it to him. This prophet had spoke what God had spoke to me many years before. After that everything got worse. I lost our home. I had knee surgery. I feel and did a lot of damage to my back, had surgery,recovery leaving me with a slight disability. This took seven years of set back. Our finances were hit hard and many of the people who supported our ministry did not any longer. Broken promises of funds and greater loss hit.
During this time I was doing a world radio broadcast which went to poor third world nations praying for people in the nations of the world. I had Pastors in Africa gather their congregations around the radio and pray with me. These dear ones did and could not even pay for a stamp to send a letter. I heard from some Pastors but they did not have money to give to keep the broadcasts going. I knew this and continued on for as long as I could. Until the funds dried up. Then I had a Pastor from Turkey call me and tell me that my testimony was on TV in Turkey through the 700 club and it went through out the middle east. I knew it went throughout the US but I did not know that it went throughout Turkey, the middle east and around the world. This was encouraging to me with all the loss and devastation. God said it would not be easy and I will not candy coat the call of God. God said we would be persecuted for His name sake. This is why He said to pick up your cross and follow Him. He said they tried to kill Him and they are going to try to kill us. I knew God was up to something but I was still in the Master's hand! Please stay in the Master's hand even though you are faced with difficulties and trials. God is with you and believe what God has said about you, not man. God is not finished with you! Stay in the word of God and in the Master's hand.
Still in the Master's hands!
For many years between ministry trips I would hold ministry outreaches in the drug infested, poor sections of my city and other cities. Along with teaching and training others to reach their city with the gospel and unconditional love of Jesus Christ, along with world radio broadcasts and Television programs. It seemed like God would allow me to minister at a few churches but then put me back in the Master's hand and draw me close to Him. During that time I had written more books and of all things messages of hope and poems from my own brokenness, betrayals, lies about me and loss. I was still in the Master's hand while He was molding me into His vessel of love and that is where I desired to be, close to His heart. Even though the tears fell from my eyes and heart I knew I was in the Master's hand and close to His heart. At times I felt inpatient and wondered why everything was the way it was with only being used a few times speaking in churches. God had a different plan for me. Not only did I write but I began to develop websites to give people hope and let them know that God loved them. Some of the messages in the form of poems went to the President of the United States, Her Majesty the Queen of England and the Prime Minister of Israel. In which I have received letters of gratitude for the writings. I attended another prohetic meeting at some Pastor friends of mine church a few years ago and again I quietly went to the meeting to see them and minding my own business when another Pastor siting at the table started to talk to me. I shared part of my story with her and she asked me what God had called me to. I remember telling her to bring people into the presence of God. There was a prophet there ministering and because I work a secular job to take care of my household I could not stay as long as I wanted. He was prophesying over the Pastor I had been talking to. I tried to quietly leave and not be noticed to disturb anyone or anything. When he turned to me and said where are you going. I said to work and turned to me and said he had noticed an open heaven over me from the time I came in to the meeting. He said how the ministry was going to grow and more. I did not tell him that I had been having dreams and visions of things of God and heaven or anything about me. However I still went to work and then only asked a few times that year to minister in churches even though God was moving in the meetings. I'm still in the Master's hand and I have learned no matter what to stay in the Master's hand and allow Him to mold me and form me into His vessel not mine. However long it takes for His glory to be seen in me and out to others.
Still in the Master's hands!
The true story of our mission to Turkey is being written in book form along with a Theseus for the Pastors and Christians in Turkey and poor third world nations. God is not through with me yet! God said He has prepared a banquet table before me in the presence of my enemies. 2 Corinthians 4:7-11; But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10; However,as it is written: "No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"-but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. God love you! Stay in the Master's hand and close to His heart and He will come through for you regardless of what you see or what people say!
copyrighted By Dr.T.J. Rodriguez
Ambassador In Christ
P.O. Box 2632
Tarpon Springs, Florida 34688 USA