Journey From Grief to Forgiveness TRB #39 Billie Jean Bishop

What if the prayers you’ve been whispering for years are beginning to be answered—and the church needs to be ready for the homecoming? We sit down with Sis. Billie Jean Bishop, co-founder of Partners in Prayer, to trace a path from personal tragedy to a nationwide movement of intercession for prodigals. Her story carries a fierce tenderness: a miracle-filled conversion, a mother’s grief after losing her son Christopher, and the costly decision to forgive the man involved in the crash that took his life. Through it all runs a bright thread—God’s comfort is real, His sovereignty can be trusted, and He is calling exiled sons and daughters back.

Reports of returning backsliders now arrive almost daily: adult children, teens, even grandparents. But the call is bigger than celebration; it’s preparation. Restoration requires more than an altar moment. It needs discipleship, practical help, and a community that welcomes with robes and rings rather than suspicion. Billie Jean names the spiritual battle shaping families, the unique pressure on fathers, and the simple tools that build resilience—praying scripture, blessing instead of lecturing, and showing up in covenant agreement.

Tune in to listen to more of this amazing testimony!

For her full testimony of forgiveness and to hear the man she eventually would call son, click the link below. 

https://youtu.be/SXmRG4cmpSE?si=akaZ2mRRol-TZxHd

and be sure to visit her website at https://www/pipsministry.org

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Introduction
• 2:45 The Call To Intercession For Prodigals
• 5:20 Prophetic Words About Returning Prodigals
• 12:00 Building A Daily Prayer Movement
• 17:20 Elijah’s Altar And Day 90 Fire
• 21:45 Hard Cases And Honest Prayer Requests
• 28:00 Biblical Prodigals And Spiritual Warfare
• 35:20 Billie Jean’s Early Faith And Healing
• 43:00 Marriage, Rejection, And God’s Comfort
• 50:00 Christopher’s Story And Tragic Loss
• 1:00:30 Grief To Grace: Visions And Assurance
• 1:08:30 Radical Forgiveness And Meeting Reuben
• 1:18:00 How Forgiveness Heals A Community
• 1:24:30 Sustaining Faith Through Worship And Prayer
• 1:31:30 A Father’s House Ready To Restore
• 1:38:20 Trends In Prodigal Ministry And Men

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Great Team Backflier. With your host, Kathy Chustain, Christian-face psychotherapist, Rita Laird. This podcast is dedicated to those who have wandered but are ready to return to the life-changing power of great freedom.

SPEAKER_01: 0:22

Hi, welcome to Redeem Backslider. I'm your host, Kathy Chastain. I'm a Christian-based psychotherapist and a Redeemed Backslider. With me today is Sister Billie Jean Bishop, who is the founder of Partners in Prayer Ministry. I'm going to read a quick little bio and then we're going to just turn it over to her and get started. So Stephen and Billie Jean Bishop are both licensed United Pentecostal International Church ministers and founders and prayer leaders with Partners in Prayer or PIPS, P-I-P-S. PIPS began in 1996 following the death of Billie Jean's middle son Christopher and went nationwide as a prayer ministry following the Columbine School shooting. Fast forward to 2015, with apostolic friends, they have prayed nonstop on phone conference lines and Facebook lives and have seen God answer prayer and move mightily. The bishops have joined Hope Ministries in leading prayer on the 90 days of prayer for prodigals since 2016 with Don and Diane Long. Brother Stephen Bishop is a retired Army Chief Warrant Officer with 28 years in military service, followed by another 11 as a civilian contractor. He has been walking with the Lord for over 40 years and has served as Sunday school teacher and Sunday school superintendent, youth pastor, and now as an evangelist and prayer leader. Sister Bishop is a gifted saint of God that has been walking with God for nearly half of a century, serving as Sunday school teacher, prayer leader, and now as an evangelist. She has been called of God to be a prayer leader and intercessor. Both brother and sister Bishop love to travel and minister and have ministered in parts of the United States and the Philippines. God has called them into ministry of prayer and intercession. This is their passion and it's what drives them. They have five children and nine grandchildren and one great-grandson. They currently live in Leesville, Louisiana, and serve under Pastor Wesley Manning at Hope Springs UPC. Intercession is not just praying for someone else's needs. It is praying with real hope and real intent that God would step in and act with his love and action. It is trusting God even if it's not in the manner or timing that we expect. So with that, Sister Bishop, thank you so much for um being willing to be my guest today on The Redeemed Backslider.

SPEAKER_03: 3:20

I know God brought us together. I sense it, I sense it when uh in your messages, but now that I see your face, I know God has done this. And we will flow in the in the ministry of what God's called us each to do and pull together and see what God is going to do in this return of the massive army of prodigals. Yes, and they are bringing friends and family and loved ones and co-workers, and we're seeing it, and there's been the prophetic word has been released for at least 10 years that I've been involved in prodigal ministry, and everything that God has indicated and uh encouraged us is coming to pass. It's exciting times to live in, but it's also some very um hard battle, a hard battle time to step into the warfare for the souls of our families.

SPEAKER_01: 4:17

Yes, amen. Thank you. That just almost brought tears to my eyes. I I just resonate with every word you spoke, and I would really like to hear the prophetic word that was given um about prodigals and maybe tell me a little bit more, you know, who gave that, when did that come forth?

SPEAKER_03: 4:38

There have been several uh prophetic words given by Jason and and uh Alexander, very profound words, very timely. Um, also um from the Pentecostals of Alexandria, it seems like every time we gather together, there's a prophetic word released from Don and Diane Long. Um, one of the prayer intercessors, which is part of our partners in prayer team, his name is Reverend Blake Fletcher, and he is the uh cousin of Dustin Long, and very instrumental in bringing uh Dustin back to the Lord in his restoration journey. But one morning we're on the prayer conference line, and you know how the Lord we're an apostolic group, so we make we make room for the gifts. Our audience is Jesus, that's why we're gathered on the prayer line. So we we became quiet, and uh one of the prophetic words was that the prodigals are gonna return. This is three summers ago, like a slow drip, but the faucet's gonna be opened, and you're gonna see more and more backsliders as the God pours out strength. And we have seen that very thing. When we're doing prayer calls, we saw a few prodigals come and hear, and we'd get reports, but now it's like nearly every every prayer call we hear a report of someone's uh adult child, uh teenager, uh, even their grandparents. I get to hear those end of the story. I believe God's in the happily ever after business. I think God is working out, and he's writing their story, but as families, he's writing our story together. And so the prophetic word is being released. Dr. Jennifer Williams, uh, she was on our prayer call one morning, and the scripture that came and the prophetic word that came was see, I've I've hidden these things in my heart. Yeah, and God is speaking, and uh, she's used Isaiah about that he will contend with those who contend with us, and he will save our children. So the prophetic word was released that you know, God is fighting for us, God is fighting with us. Glory to God. Christ is wrestling down, he's wrestling down there. I believe in the wrestling of angels. I do too. That as we pray and we walk in the spirit, God is going to empower and encourage us. And then uh brother Bobby Wade is another prophet.

SPEAKER_01: 7:19

That uh I know of Brother Bobby Wade, I stumbled across him.

SPEAKER_03: 7:23

You you need to host in him. Yeah, um, the prophetic word was they were exiled kings, the bapsiders were priests and kings exiled, and uh he uh prophesied that they're returning, God is turning them, and then um I could go on because we've been doing this. We've prayed uh for over 4,320 hours because we do 90 days of prayer twice a year for uh 10 years almost now, and so partners in prayer's birthday is today. We're giving happy birthday, that's wonderful, and uh so we've been in ministry praying on a prayer line um since 2015, and we started out praying nonstop 30 days for an upcoming women's conference. I've been involved in many different areas of prayer, but nobody wanted to stop, Sister Kathy. Nobody wanted to stop praying together. So here we are, 10 years.

SPEAKER_02: 8:21

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_03: 8:22

People have come, people have gone, um, but we have built a family, we are family, and uh, but the there's just so many prophetic God spoke to me just recently. God spoke to me on a prayer, our prayer line. We have done uh 90 days, we're on day 76 of the journey home, and uh we were using a book by Dr. James Banks, uh Prayers for Prodigals, the Prayers for Your Child. Excellent, excellent book, Dr. James Banks. And uh we have done that for nine years, and this fall we usually start October 1st and go until uh uh December 29th. And this year the Lord began to bring to my mind all the prayer requests that I've received, such as, you know, my child's in jail, uh, he's in recovery, he's lot, he's missing, he's been drinking, uh, you know, his their marriage is broke up, their health is wasted. The prayer requests are hard ones, and I, you know, it's affected my family, it's affected my younger children. So I was thinking of these requests through the years, and I just started to write uh subjects, and we uh with I say we, the Holy Ghost helped me to write 90 days of prayer prompts uh from an apostolic perspective, just a little scripture, a devotion, and then include the return prodigal because we just have too many coming in and going back out. That's my heart, but was to include or prophesy because God's gonna bring them back to ministry. But as and that digital uh prayer guide is available, and they can message me, we'll make that available to them. You can start a 90-day prayer journey, but it's for the healing of the entire family. Because when someone backslides, uh, it affects everyone, especially when parents or grandparents backside, uh, it it it it interrupts what God has planned for the legacy of faith for generations, who will endure to generations, as for me and my house will serve the Lord. It is the will of God that we serve him as families. But what I'm saying in this last revival, and I believe we're in the last revival upon the earth, me too. I do sincerely, that's why he's pulling with his great mercy and his love and his compassion and his and his warning and his justice he is calling the backsider back. But when I finished this um 90-day journey every morning, we have um uh nearly 40 calls a week. The prayer host would do something, they would read the devotion, pray the prayer, and repeat the scripture, and then prophesy over their prodigal or just recently returned prodigal, and the Holy Ghost would show up. And God began to speak to me about Elijah and the altar that he built, and he went to Mount Carmel and built this altar. Then, of course, we know that he poured water all over the stones. There were 12 stones, and the Lord said, the names of the tribe of Israel, the names of these families that you're bringing to me as is as important as what Elijah did on Mount Carnal. Carmel, and he he showed me that when we pray every day, we're on day 76 now, we're gonna end on December 29th, and the Lord spoke to me and said, The fire is going to fall. Fall, praise God on day 90. But we've already seen God take and accept the sacrifice, but the fire licked up all of the water on the on the altar that Elijah had built, and uh, you know, the the tears, the tears, the impossible situation. So God spoke to me. So good daily, daily, if you will focus daily, and if you will bring to me the most difficult person and most difficult situation that you can possibly think of, I will work. And I'm like, well, Lord, I can think of a lot of difficulty and situations that seem impossible. People that seem hard, rebellious, broken, unchanged, uncaring. They seem to be asleep. There's been families that have been asleep, they've accepted their children walking away from God as if Lazarus went to the grave and nobody even approached. Jesus came to Lazarus, called him out of the grave, but he had the servants remove the grave clothes. Right, right. Things started to happen, and I'd get prayer requests. And Sister Bishop, uh, my my son has married a man. My my daughter is living with a woman. Uh, my son left his children. My my daughter left her her family. Uh she's still missing. Um, she went into rehab. We don't know where she is. She is she's on meth, she's on cocaine. Uh, they've disowned us. I myself had an experience years ago where my son, because of drug um effects, you know, said, My I don't have a mother. My mother is dead. I don't have a mom. Those are the kinds of prayer requests that we have been bringing to the Lord, and God is showing up and he's doing the work. And I am so excited. He has done, like the song says, too much for me to not believe. I'm looking at a return prodigal right now.

SPEAKER_01: 14:20

Right, yes. And my my mom said she she never thought ever I would live for God again.

SPEAKER_03: 14:27

Yeah, and not only that, God's restored the gifts that He gave to you, uh, most likely even as a child.

SPEAKER_01: 14:35

And yes, definitely as a child.

SPEAKER_03: 14:38

Yes, and I'm seeing uh some of these gifts being resurrected, but there's a journey, there's a journey back, there's a restoration process, the plans, the patterns, and I think Jesus said servants removed the grave clothes because they needed to be involved in his resurrection, his life coming from the grave. Um now he didn't die because of sin, but it was the resurrection power of Almighty God that called him by name and said, Come forth. Right. Um so there's lots of examples of prodigals in the Bible. Samson was a prodigal, and in his last days when he his eyes were um poked out and um and he couldn't see, he used the last of his strength to bring down the temple of the very enemy that had captured him. So the Lord has spoken to us so many times about the battering ram of prayer. They they would go to a fortress where the enemy was and to bring back the prisoners of war, and they would pull back this battering ram in ancient times, and it had a ram's head on that battering ram. And I I have associate that with the scripture: the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, the constant knocking that battering ram takes a lot of people to pull back and hammer the gates of hell, but Jesus He went to hell, He has the keys, and if we will ask His people, pray and pull back and pull together and encourage one another and to pray the prayers. Be and God in in 10 years of praying, these 90 days twice a year, I have been changed, and that seems to be a common thread.

SPEAKER_01: 16:36

God is preparing the church, right, for the exiled kings.

SPEAKER_03: 16:41

Yes, he's preparing for the wounded, he's preparing for the some of them are missing, if I could say it in the spirit, arms and legs, they've been impaired by the battle. Uh, the devil is a hard task, master. Right, yeah, right. Uh we can love them, but the testimonies uh that are coming out. I was so profoundly stirred by Ben Bland's testimony at the Pope prodigal. I'm watching him, I'm watching him, and his mama is sitting in the congregation. I'm hearing his story, and I can feel the battle. It was if I could feel and hear the sounds of swords that were fighting for this soul, and uh, but to see him standing there and testifying to the church, get ready, be ready for mercy, be ready to heal, be ready to receive. Uh, it was a beautiful experience, and I have so many experiences in the last 10 years that have again, he's done too much for me not believe that he's calling them. I have I have prodigals. I lost a prodigal in an accident, and um, that's what thrust me into this war. Sometimes there has to be casualties to be called to war.

SPEAKER_01: 18:05

We have had 10 prodigals come back in our church in just the last two years. So and and they are years and years. One was um probably 40 years out, the other one was 20 something years out. Um both parents, ministers. Um So there there's been a lot, you know, um we've had a lot of mirac I mean, I think every prodigal testimony is a is a miracle story of what God has done because there's no reason any of us should be here except just the mercy, love, and grace of God and the prayers, I believe, that have been prayed for us, you know, in times past.

SPEAKER_03: 18:48

Have have you noticed in the in the book Luke 15 that the mama's side of the story is not written? It's the story of the father. You know, the mother, she, her son took the inheritance, she saw the grief of the father, and there's some that believe it's an analogy and just a parable and not an actual family. But I believe God sees what's going on in families all around the world. I do too. And when he saw the son afar off, he ran to him, he ran to him, and it just you know, the Pharisees that were hearing this prodigal for the very first time in the book of Luke, they were angry because what father they would stone children for less than what the prodigal son had done. But there was two lost sons in that father's house, the son there every day that took for granted. And we hear all the stories. I I love to preach about Luke 15. Um, but notice when he came back that he threw his arms around him and he said, Go for The fatty calf. The fatted calf was being prepared. And he told him to bring the robe and the ring, but he called the servants to do that. So when the servants in our churches began to love those prodigals back into the father's house, then the full house is healed. All the family, all the servants. And I well, we know that that there was restoration uh of the the the two sons. I don't know why the Lord didn't finish the the the story of the law the elder brother's story. I think it's to keep keep us on our toes. To keep us we get very defensive of things that we fear. And right there there's been a fear too long that God can't can't save us and God can't keep us, and that's a lie. Right. That's a lie, or that the blood cannot cover us when we have made a mistake. Right. With blood, it can cover us. So the story of the two lost sons, the two the lost coin, the lost sheep is a is a visual demonstration of the mercy and love of God. But there has to be a restoration process.

SPEAKER_01: 21:18

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 21:20

A restorative, intentional purpose and plan for the for the pride.

SPEAKER_01: 21:27

Right. I was gonna make a little note. Sister Bishop, um, I I'd like to kind of backtrack a little bit and have you kind of just tell us about your upbringing or when you found the Lord. You know, when you came into church and found the Lord and what life was like for you when you had your children. I know uh we'll talk about your son, but you said I'm not sure if your other two boys are also prodigals, but I just want to hear a little backstory about your life.

SPEAKER_03: 22:03

I was born in Idaho and I knew nothing about apostolic churches, Pentecostal churches. I knew nothing about the born again. I had never even heard the term born, you must be born again. Um, I wasn't even sure if there was a God. Uh, it was during the late 70s. That seems like a long time ago, but it's a test it's a testimony of the keeping power of God.

SPEAKER_02: 22:32

Amen.

SPEAKER_03: 22:33

And I was in San Diego, California, young, married, 19 years old, had had a little three-year-old, cute little red-headed boy, one little boy on the way, and a neighbor uh came to me and invited me to a Pentecostal church. I had prior to that gone to a Mormon church where um at age 14 I was baptized. I never really stayed, I never really considered myself a Mormon, but I had a true at 14 years old, I had a true repentance experience. I knelt in that cold floor in that LDS church. I wept before the Lord. I did not want to live a life that was not pleasing to God. And in my repentance, I found him, how he kept me on the path towards truth. Believe it or not, it started with Christmas carols. Oh, come let us adore him. Feel the presence of the Lord. Silent night, and all the you know, uh, we all the beautiful Christmas songs as a child and then as a teenager. That was that was my connection to heaven, and I believed that God saw me, and he used those very things, those songs, to soften my heart, but I was still unsure there was a God and what I was to do about it. So I went to a church at the invitation of my neighbor, and they were jumping and running and hooping and hollering. I mean, I I went to church, to a Pentecostal church where my eyes were wide open, and but I knew that the God that I had experienced as a child in those Christmas carols, and I was also born as an epileptic. And when uh the Spirit of the Lord, I felt a familiar uh resemblance to what I felt when I was so lost in a seizure. I felt, I in fact, I thought I was gonna have a seizure because there was a familiar there was something there in my moment of vulnerability and the seizures that I had as a little child that I didn't understand. I didn't know who he was. I didn't know that God was there even when I was a little child. I can't say that my family, I'm the only Pentecostal apostolic Jesus believer way back. There's there's no one I had a praying. Your first generation. Yeah, for oh, first generation. Why the Lord chose me is I all I can say is mercy. Uh, but he he saw something, but somebody, let me take that back. There was a little Pentecostal church in my city, and they were praying for souls, they were praying for revival, and they didn't know that they were praying for me, yeah, because the spirit of the Lord and the angels of the Lord walked about that city and began to draw me. And but it was years later in California. But I was afraid to receive the Holy Ghost because of this seizure issue, right? But they just called me up, and my first miracle was they just said, We're gonna lay hands on you. They showed me a scripture and said, God is gonna miraculous.

SPEAKER_01: 26:00

So you got the Holy Ghost. Um you got the Holy Ghost at that Pentecostal church. You said they came, they called you down, they showed you a scripture, and they laid hands on you for healing of seizure disorder or to receive the Holy Ghost?

SPEAKER_03: 26:15

Um, both. They talked the young preacher talked to me about being baptized, and just a few weeks before I was baptized um and attended this church. Remember, I repented when I was Mormon and stayed with me. I wanted a different life for my children than the life I had chosen, even though I was young. I knew right from wrong, and I knew that I was not on a path that would be best for my children. So God used my children and continues to use my children to uh keep me close to him. Um but I uh the young preacher just opened up scripture and began to tell me it's the first time I ever heard repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said, God has healed you. You know, there's we got warm water in the baptism tank, my second time being to a Pentecostal church, and they baptized me in Jesus' name. But just prior to my going to California, I had a dream. I'm the oldest of four girls, and the dream, uh, I'm very visual, God speaks to me in dreams and parables. Um, I saw us four little girls dancing in a field of white daisies, spinning around, just free and joyful. That dream so impressed me because in the moment that I stepped down into the waters of baptism, I felt like that that white pure dress was being applied to my life, and I could start over. They brought me down out of the baptistry, and um the uh preacher ministered to me, and he says, You shall receive the Holy Ghost as next. And I believed him. I I was just so thankful first that there even was a God and that God knew me, God had healed me, I was in love with him from the moment, and then uh the next day before I received the Holy Ghost, I felt that I was gonna go into seizures again. It would that aura, I can't explain it. Some people say it's a a feeling that you're falling, but it came upon me and I realized instantly that it was the presence of God that was with me as a little girl. It was him that was there because he was there when I was so panicked. And um, so I went to church that Sunday morning, and they had the altar call, and I came up and my friend is with me, and um, almost instantly the Holy Ghost fell on me. And I got up from after speaking in tongues, I couldn't stay on my feet, and I got up and I began to spin down that hall like a little girl in a field of white daisies. I've danced in the spirit since I received the Holy Ghost 50 years ago. 50 years. I'm still dancing, I'm still worshiping the lover of my soul, and it took me on a journey of faith. God, God helped me through some very difficult moments, but he's always reminded me that he has his eye upon me. He sings over me. He loves me. So that's a little bit about my first few years of serving God. Did your husband come in with you after that? I was young, Mary, just had been married a few years, and he didn't want anything, anything to do. In fact, he told me that if he had known that I was going to be what he called a Jesus freak, he'd never married me. So that our marriage uh nine years in ended in a divorce, him choosing someone else, and the spirit of rejection, that's another story and another miracle. God delivered me from rejection. I think that's why I connect with backsliders, is because there's so much rejection, self-rejection, rejection from others, rejection from relationships, you know, one after the other, after looking for love in all the wrong places. I think that's why I connect because God healed me. And how He did that was a lady preacher came to me and she introduced herself, put her arm around me, never met me. And she was there teaching on the book of Psalms, which I love, and she said these words to me, you look like an easy person to love. Oh, that changed my entire perspective about myself. Yeah, yeah, I'm no I'm not rejected, right? I'm an easy person. So I've tried. I've tried to become an easy person to love. And it's this, but that's a little bit about the first part of my life. And I was a widow and and uh did by divorce for seven years, and met uh my husband, Dr. Gary Bauer. He was a physician in Louisiana, and that's how I made it from Idaho to Louisiana. Okay, okay. And we had a precious son together, and my sons came with us, and we become a new family, and what beautiful times that we had. Um, and uh I was so thankful after seven years. This happened to me twice. After seven years um of being a widow, the Lord has restored love and relationship back into my life. Um, I really do have a happily ever after ending coming. And um, he's writing, he's the author and finisher of my story. I have a love for people, a love for souls, especially the backslider. And um, I know they're coming.

SPEAKER_01: 32:14

I think though, Sister Bishop, just your personal journey with God, losing you know, we see this a lot when people come into church and change their life, the spouse leaves, and to know that God would give you another spouse that would love you and then you know, restore that for you, and then he passes away, and that God gave you another spouse to love you while you're on this worth earth. I think that's so beautiful and encouraging because there is a huge group of people that are in the church singles of all ages that really worry about that. I think that really wonder is there gonna be anyone for them? And I think what you said is very important because God doesn't reject us, we are not rejected. There is deep, tremendous love of him for us, and I think that because of that, he will send people to love those that need to be loved. And so I know that's not the reason that you're here today for um the podcast, but I just think it's such a beautiful example of God's grace to us and and the way he provides for our needs here in this earth. And um we don't get to hear that very much, you know, from people in the apostolic faith, anyways. I don't get to, anyways. Yeah. So I think I think that's beautiful. And then so uh you have three boys. Um tell tell us about your children and how they became prodigals and and the story of Christopher.

SPEAKER_03: 33:56

It's um it's been a journey. Um when I divorced my second son, uh Christopher, uh, was born on December the first. And our marriage was even at that time was a struggle. Uh he just could not see. He could not see through his unbelief. I still pray for him today. Um I don't understand it because uh God loved me and revealed himself to me, and it seemed so simple to fall in the arms of Jesus, you know, to become a believer. But for him, it was um foolishness and it hurt. I can't say it didn't hurt, but we had two beautiful sons together. My firstborn is named Jason, and because of the dysfunction in our family, he has never been filled with the Holy Ghost. I I contributed to that fatherly example and fatherly uh if I if I could say that. Um and he struggled in being a father himself, and he struggled in relationships, but there's coming a day because I'm praying, I'm praying my firstborn. What will the Lord require of me and in Malachi for the sin of my youth? He's he's he just walk wants us to love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly with our God. So my son is going to be all right. So I not only have prodigals, I have family members that are near and dear to me that are not yet have come and 50 years living for God. Um it's it's hard to see because I want them to know this life, right? Them to know the abundant life that the Lord can give. But we had both two sons together, and I'm gonna fast forward. Um when I married Dr. Gary, we moved to Louisiana, and for several years things were beautiful, honeymoon. But my my children were carrying the wounds of divorce. Yes. It's a death. It really is a death, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:16

And and very few children grieve it because they're so young, they do not know how.

SPEAKER_03: 36:21

They don't, and they yeah he I think my oldest felt like it was his fault, you know. I don't understand that, but but you know, and but anyway, uh my secondborn son was uh 14, and my firstborn was uh 18 when I met uh Dr. Gary Bauer. What a wonderful man he he was, my prayer partner. He taught me a lot about prayer, and he he'd been he'd come to the Lord about the same amount of time as I did, and um but Christopher um really wanted a father, and there was um my firstborn uh started drinking, his marriage broke up, and it affected his little brother. It always does, it affects the family, it sent rippling waves out, and and Christopher began to fall into the same path, the same rut. Um, and he began to drink. And I found out after his death that he had even uh been introduced to cocaine, and it changed him, it changed him. But prior to that, he was nine years old when he received the Holy Ghost. He was a worshiper, he would lay hands on children and pray, and God would fill them with the Holy Ghost. He just loved God, he was a runner and a dancer, but when he entered into college and was introduced to uh the hard drugs, it changed who he was. It the devil seeks whom he may devour, and he pursued my son. Um, and it was within weeks of of him being in college that it was it seemed like that he was swept away. And they decided, my firstborn and Christopher, that they're gonna go. He had just graduated from high school, been in college for just a few months, and they decided they're gonna take a road trip to California. They drove out to California, just the two of them. I remember hugging Christopher, made cookies for him and hugged them and said, Call me every day. And I didn't want them to go, but they're adults now, you know. And they ended up in California, and the time that they were there, they uh they were living in their car. And during that time, uh Jason, my older son, was uh partying somewhere. Christopher had got into a taxi, and they had uh driven through the streets of San Francisco. Meanwhile, a man, a young man who'd been troubled, his name is Ruben, was in another vehicle, and he was downtown, and there were gang members that were uh in an altercation and guns were drawn, and he grabbed his wife, got into a car, began to drive at 85 miles an hour, fleeing what he thought was the gunfire. The police that were by saw the fleeing vehicle and pursued him for 18 blocks up and down the streets of San Francisco. And as this taxi that my son was in and two other young men entered into the intersection, this car that Ruben was driving blew through the stoplight and crashed into the taxi. Uh, we got a call at four o'clock in the morning that our son had been killed. And um, that's a whole story in itself how God kept me together. Yeah, he would have to. He he would have to because I started speaking, shaking, and speaking in tongues almost immediately because I knew if I didn't allow God to touch me, I because I used to say to people, if anything happened to one of my kids, you just might as well bury me. You know, don't say that. But I did. That's just the way I felt about my children. I was very protective of them. They've been through a lot. And let him go to California and now hear that he's been killed. And um, he lived, we found out he lived 40 minutes uh from the accident to the hospital. Everything inside of him was broken, all his organs, his spleen, every everything. When they got him to the morgue, um, they found cocaine present. And so we're not sure how much he felt, but God through, and that's another story, another journey, but God gave me dreams and visions and scriptures about how he took Christopher in those last hours of his life to the father's house, and uh that he would keep him there. And God assured me, I know one thing about Christopher. When he was in trouble, he always prayed. He always prayed. Even when he was being rebellious, he always prayed, and our backsliders prayed. Yes, he'd only been away from church just less than a year, and he's killed in an accident, the wrong place at the wrong time. I asked Lord, why did you allow the angel of the Lord to step aside? But God had a purpose, and I believe it was for the saving of his soul. But we've dedicated an entire ministry since this time to praying for families. I prayed with a lot of weeping mothers whose sons are in jail, whose sons are uh bound by drugs, whose sons are in gay relationships, that their mama's hearts are just broken. What did I do? What where did I go wrong? How do I help them? What you know, they're going to self-destruct. I've been with mamas that um they went out to the garage and found their their son overdosed and gone, gone and just you know, just in a snuff, just gone. And the God of all comfort, the Lord showed me that he is the God of all comfort, like he's the God of salvation, the God of creation, the God of redemption. Jehovah Jirah, our provider, he is the God of all comfort. So God purposely chose people to come around me. And how I healed was praying for others. That's how I recovered. I would go to the prayer room, and God would begin to reveal. I spent a week um almost every day just going to the prayer room. And I opened up the book of Job and halfway through the because I said, Lord, why? Why? Why, my son, why now, you know? And uh God revealed to me that Job, when he was scraping the boils, and his wife said, curse God and die. She said that not because she was being rebellious, but because she was broken. That mama was broken. She'd lost all of her children, they lost their livelihood, their livestock, everything. But God showed me halfway through, there's a scripture that talks about that that Job, he said, Oh, that my words were written in a book graven in a rock. And he and it talks about uh the redeemer standing on the earth in the latter day. And God revealed to me that whatever pain we're going through, that the Redeemer is going to stand in the midst of our pain. But not only is he going to stand in the midst of our pain, he has a plan of redemption. Job saw a glimpse of the prophetic Jesus in his pain. And we know the rest of the story, right? He restored everything. Uh his wife, who said, curse God and die, they had daughters, beautiful daughters. And their daughters received inheritance. And so God began to reveal to me scriptures that comforted me and helped me and uh lifted me up. And um, oh, I grieved over my Christopher. I loved him. He was my comedian, he was always coming up behind me and hugging me. I needed him in my life, and now he's gone. But I discovered God in a manner that I had never seen him before as the comforter, yeah, as the comforter. And uh beautiful, beautiful experience of mercy. We met the man that was involved in my son's death. He was driving that vehicle. We met him in prison, he was incarcerated, he did 11 years for mans vehicular manslaughter. Yeah, he calls me mama, and we we talk and we write.

SPEAKER_01: 44:49

And I'm sorry, it's a long story. That's okay. I want to interrupt a little bit and ask some questions. Um, you know, um my cousin lost her daughter, um who was a prodigal, and I know Brother Mahaney lost his son, and Brother Mahaney's talked about that a little bit, and I I think there are many people out there who have lost people, whether you know, children, a lot of people that have lost children, grandchildren. And I I was hoping you could talk a little bit about that that place in between where the grief hits and the loss is so palatable that you don't think you can go on and and and you know, our mind we know that we have to trust God. We know that there is no other option but that um but what you said is is that we also know that God let the angel of the Lord step away. And and I think that Sister Bishop, so many people who have lost loved ones they wrestle with that idea that God you didn't have to allow this, but you did allow this. And you know, your faith I could tell just hearing you talk, you have such simple childlike faith. It sounds like you've always had that from the beginning. From the beginning that you found the Lord. You've always been able to maintain that childlike faith. I'm not sure if that's true, but it feels like that to me. That your childlike faith has just been a part of who you are. Did you ever did you wrestle with that idea about the fact that Oh yes, oh yes, and how did you how did you work on the right?

SPEAKER_03: 46:55

Do you remember there was a moment, do you remember when Dave King David struggled with Absalom's rebellion and his death? There's a scripture that says, Oh, Absalom, Absalom, my son, who Absalom became an enemy to Israel, an enemy to the king's throne, an enemy to the purpose of God, and for the purpose for God's people. And we know that he was he caught his hair, which is a sign of pride, in the trees, and the the warriors came and they cut him down. But how did David respond? He said, Oh, Absalom, Absalom, my son, Absalom, would I have gathered you like water up off the ground, off the earth? And so all that it that was a perfect way to describe how I felt at those those years. It was really a journey I call from grief to grace. I I'm trying to write the story. Um that journey has to be a constant conversation with the Lord. You can really lose your mind when there's a tragedy and a death, but God turned that tragedy into a triumph because he was backslidden. I questioned whether he was lost into a devil's hell.

SPEAKER_01: 48:13

But God of the I think that would I think that would be such a tormenting thought for any parent who's lost a prodigal.

SPEAKER_03: 48:22

I had a pastor tell me um that in California, her name is Marilyn Gazowski, and she actually actually took my firstborn son uh in because he had to go to the morgue and identify. Remember, I'm in Louisiana, they're in California. And when when I was on the phone with her, I was so broken. I uh and literally my husband would have to tell me, honey, it's time to put your shoes on, it's time to to pack your clothes, you know. I I want you to eat this. I I was just numb, numb. And but God's presence was so real. I cried a lot. Do you know how close the Lord has to be to you to capture his tears? Your tears, your tears in his bottle, and the Lord was that close.

SPEAKER_01: 49:12

That's such a good picture because we've read that scripture, and I've always known that he's held every tear I've ever cried. But I've never thought about how his proximity to be able to do that until just now when you said that.

SPEAKER_03: 49:29

Oh, I've I've had such grace experiences, and and then of course, visiting the man that was responsible for my son's death and the death of another young man, the third young man lived and couldn't remember what happened. Um, but I how'd I get through you were saying Sister Gazowski took any? She she said, Thank you for bringing me back. She said to me, Salvation is very, very personal. It's not something where you can do for another, even someone you love, like you did your son. And God immediately impressed me, and it was if I could hear my son praying, because see, uh, we thought he'd been killed instantly, but we found out through the medical report that he died in the hospital, not at the scene.

SPEAKER_01: 50:27

And God gave him time, he gave him time.

SPEAKER_03: 50:30

And what did my son do when he was in trouble? He would always pray, talk to the Lord, and um I know God was with him, and there's other dreams and visions in the scriptures, but when she told me that salvation is so personal, I believe the shepherd came and picked up my broken lamb and literally took him to his house, his the father's house, carried him broken. And um we we limit God, the God of salvation. He can save someone in at death's door, he can save someone who is in a hospice situation, in jail, in in on the battlefield. God knows how to communicate, and I believe he communicated with my son and carried him. The fact that I know God carried him comforted me because he was carrying me also, because I was broken, I was hurt, and we just kept on praying. We were already involved in prayer, but I never learned to pray like I did through seasons of grief. I looked for everything that could possibly heal the brokenness, and God began to bring people into my life that had lost uh a child. And then visiting Reuben in prison five years later, the man that was driving the vehicle that crashed. Um, the the the judge asked me to make a sent a statement, and I had stayed up all night writing. And the scripture that came to my mind is forgive as you, you know, as Christ Jesus hath forgiven you. I presented that to the judge. I said, I forgive Reuben, but I also shared what Christopher meant, his life meant to me. Um, I needed to share with them that this life that was lost was precious to me, and that Christopher will never be forgotten. And the the prisoner, Ruben, sat there weeping with his head hung. Prior to that, we wrote letters back and forth because the district attorney said, I've never seen anyone more remorseful than this young man. He was African American. Uh, he this was third strike, he had been involved in burglary, and and his mama, he had dis I said he had dysfunctional home. But we decided to, he was sentenced, we decided to go to the jail the next day. And between a glass between us and telephone sitting between us, Kathy, we we talked to him on a telephone. And my husband talked to him, and they brought him in in his orange jail clothing, and they took the chains off, and he could hardly look us in the eye.

SPEAKER_01: 53:25

Sister Bishop, um, before we go too far down that road with him, how how long after Christopher's passing did the Lord give you very did the Lord comfort you to know that he was with the Lord? Days in prayer. Okay, days in prayer because so that would have helped your healing quite a bit, or at least uh to allow you to keep going on.

SPEAKER_03: 53:59

Uh he he spoke to me through a message that we could ask God all the questions we want, but don't ever question his sovereignty or his love for us. That carried me. I don't question your sovereignty, your God, and I don't question that you love me and that you have a purpose in all of this, but I need healing in my heart, my spirit. I uh uh sister Kathy, I I had to go to a doctor and received intervenius uh vitamins and uh my B12, your body grieves. I needed it medical intervention. My mind was stayed. We still we we just did what we did, and that's go to the house of God. And this journey of meeting Ruben in prison was a five-year span where we're riding back and forth. I got to hear his side of the story, but um I'm still this Christmas, um, December the first was his birthday, and it's been years, but I struggled with the fact that I couldn't remember what his voice sounded like. Oh, you know, and I've lost you know, my husband, my mom, my dad, my son. You know, it just seemed like everyone that was close to me was was gone, and but they're with the Lord, and as long as I'm in the presence of God, I'm with them.

SPEAKER_01: 55:31

Yeah, does that make sense? Yes, yes, yes, it does.

SPEAKER_03: 55:35

As long as I'm in the presence of the Lord, it's it's um, you know, as the comforter because we're the hope of heaven helped me, but I needed a doctor. I never took antidepressants to go to sleep. I just needed vitamins and rest. Uh, my husband, who was a doctor, he would know, Billy Jean. I want you to go in, I want you to lay down. You know, just I want, um, let me take care of the kids. Our my little son was four years old when this all happened. And my oldest son, we flew him back, he was devastated. He he was just he went through guilt, still does. Yeah, I'm sure. And but it's important to me that I share what happened with Reuben because he was a lost sheep, he was a black sheep in my dream. That in the dream the Lord gave me, the sheep were playing too close to the edge. And that's what our prodigals do. They play in life too close to the edge, too close to danger. They're lost, and that's why the shepherd went for the one lost sheep, you know. And in my dream, the the sheep, which was Christopher, was knocked off the cliff's edge, but I saw the black sheep running off, and the Lord was watching him too. And so God began to prepare my heart of compassion. And through the scripture, because of the same forgiveness that God had given me, I wanted to give to this man.

SPEAKER_01: 57:05

The night that God was already calling you to be willing to forgive him.

SPEAKER_03: 57:11

My mom and dad, which were in Idaho, when they heard that my grandson or my son had been killed, his grandson, they got in a circle with my pastor and they prayed, Father, forgive this man that took the life of my grandson. So it said a key because I saw bitter broken women, I saw them. Their health was broken, relationships are broken, they refused to be comforted. And there's scripture in the Bible about those refusing the comfort of the Lord, and how it can impact a family and a kingdom can impact. So when we went to the jail the next day, and we're with that telephone, and my husband's talking to him, and finally he turned and handed me the phone, and I saw this young man, and I literally felt like I was this young man's mother. Compassion that I felt towards my son that had been taken now was transferred to this broken man sitting before me. I put my hand to the glass and he put his hand to mine, and I've experienced something that I'd never experienced prior to that time. I sensed the mercy from the heart of God being transferred to this man and releasing him from the guilt and the shame. And I said, I feel like your mama. Reuben, I forgive you. And he sobbed, and he came and um I've got a little video. We we brought him back into our lives year later, years later, and it's called The Fragrance of Forgiveness. God enables us to forgive ourselves, forgive God, to forgive everyone, to forgive my firstborn son for influencing his younger brother, to forgive even Christopher for being in that situation. There was a lot of forgiveness to forgive the police, because if they had not been pursuing so close that accident, I mean everyone involved. I needed to release it to God and not hold anybody accountable or put anyone in a position of punishment because they're there that was not my place. God is sovereign and He just loved on me.

SPEAKER_01: 59:30

There's a uh there's a uh I think people that struggle to forgive is because they're afraid that if they forgive, that they're somehow gonna let go and they're somehow gonna forget, and they're they're not going to hold that memory of that loved one as close as what they do if they grieve it every single day. And and that bridge, you know, when when you suffer loss, the people. People that come on the other side can say you'll never forget them, you'll never let it go, they're always gonna be there with you, you carry them where you go. But for the people who are still knee deep in it, they don't know that, and so I think they hold on to all of that because of fear. And so you had the Lord and the Holy Ghost that you were able to put your trust in him and walk through that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:29

I would have liked to have known you then, because I think the counseling would have helped me to see the bigger picture. But we, you know, we we I still keep in touch with Ruben. He calls me mom, and we still have he's troubled, he's bound, he's he's in drugs himself now after all these years, and it's sad, but you know, sin will take you farther than you intend and keep you longer than you ever, you know, even understood. I preached, well, I talked, I didn't, I wasn't preaching then, but after Christopher was killed, uh a youth leader that was close to my in my family um asked me to to share Chris's story, and I titled it Don't Make Your Mama Cry. Don't make your mama cry. But it wasn't a hard message, it was a gentle, tender message because your your mama and your daddy, they love you, God. You know, there's families that don't have a father's love, but we have a heavenly father that loves us, and um, the entire place was weeping. It healed me. You asked me moments. I mean, that's one of those moments. Yes, those young, those young men and women came up to me, threw their arms around. Some were knee. I was sitting down, and some of them were holding my feet and weeping. Yeah, that was the God of all comfort to use all those young people to come forward and you know, I to recommit their lives to the Lord and to know you can play too close to the edge, you know. Part of the prodigal's journey is to understand that God will keep you, protect you, but you know, you can get into a place where you're in grave danger. You could become a casualty. And but my story is so much more than that. You know, we we started praying and we started, we met Daryl Scott, whose daughter Rachel Scott was martyred at Columbine. We met her his son Craig, and through a series of events, we became a part of the Columbine Redemption as a prayer team. We went to school assemblies, and his story, his daughter's story is so profound. She received the Holy Ghost at 16 years old at a Louisiana camp meeting, and she was writing about the visions and things that God had done, but she died as a martyr at 16. And we joined the Scott family for several years, uh, praying and and and friends, and um they weren't even a part of the UPC. They were they were broken family that was trying to reach out to students around the world to stop the violence that was taking place. It's not the guns, it's the heart. Right. It's it's the sin, it's the rebellion. So that was another thing that brought healing to me was to be involved in something that I could help other people. But prayer is where I healed, prayer is where I remain, because prayer is it is being in the presence of the Lord. Um, I always find it challenging to do a podcast because my story is so long.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:53

But um But those are the de those are the details that are so beautiful because I I feel like we find God and we know God in the process. And so many people skip the process because it's scary and they you know it it takes us past the box that we place God in. Exactly what you said, you know, and so hearing someone the uh what you have gone through, what you're still going through, and what you walked through uh like in forgiveness, the the grief and the loss alone coming through that, but then the willingness to forgive somebody, that process I think is so needful to be unpacked and discussed because that takes a true death to self, I think, and true death to pride to be able to answer the call. You know that Jesus called you to do that, and I would imagine there is a wrestle that takes place um just in your humanity, and I know that God does uh empower us to do those things, but we have to lay down our life first to do that, and that's uh not an easy uh call to answer, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:21

You remember when I said I was when I received the Holy Ghost, I was a dancer, a worshiper. God restored that almost immediately to me. He was still worthy of my worship, yeah, and dancing and praying in the Holy Ghost. You build up your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. He ever liveth to make intercession for us, in us, through us, he's concerned about our grief and our journey. You know, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, and precious in the sight of the Lord was the death of my son. God revealed that to me. And you know, he will never leave me, he'll never forsake me. And then when my Dr. Gary passed away after just four months of being diagnosed with cancer, after spending his whole life alleviating pain and helping others, and he he gets cancer, and our young son is 16 years old, and he watched his daddy be swept into the arms of Jesus in just a few months. That's another story, but it caused a discouragement and a wounding. And why do bad things happen to good people? Why my daddy? And so my youngest son, who is a prodigal, is on his own journey, and that's why the intensity of prayer. I am really pulling back that battering ram and fighting and standing in authority and using God has taught me spiritual um uh weapons, my weaponry. You know, there's my some of my weapon and arsenal is peace, it's blessing, it's my testimony, it uh it's the word, the word of God, and enabling to encourage other families that God is going to work it all out. God is working all things together for good and everything, give thanks, but it's through everything. You know, it's it's in the journey, give thanks to the Lord that He loves you, that He cares about you, He's going to heal your brokenness. That's why He came. Jesus came for the brokenhearted, for the bruised. He came, He came to set the captive free, and the prodigals are captive, they're held captive by pride, rebellion, uh, lies, deception. Uh, you know, the son in the pig pan, he came to himself, he saw the deception, and so that's what we do when we pray together in the 90 days is that their eyes will be enlightened. God will bring all things to their remembrance. But a lot of our prodigals need an experience with Jesus. They go to church, but they don't have not everyone, because we've got ministers that backslid and that have come back. But, you know, many, I have found many of them, just especially in their teen years, they come to a place of decision where they choose the broad way instead of the narrow path. And we as families need to, in that interim time, prepare, prepare our children to know how to battle spiritually, those doubts and those fears and the rejection of their peers and the things they're tempted by. Lord, have mercy, what our public school system and our children and our grandchildren are going through now. Still redeemed. And he's saying, Come unto me, all that are weary, all that are heavy laden. I've never seen such brokenness as a family that are trying to bury a son and go through a funeral, trying to hold themselves together and understand why our family, Lord. But why the love, why the peace, why the joy, why the protection, why the blessings, why the provision? You know, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Yet God loves us, He demonstrates. And I think that the prodigal ministry is one of the greatest expressions and demonstration of the love and the power of God, the power of the blood, the power of blood. You know, bring me the most dysfunctional person you know is what God said. Bring me that broken person that just married a meth addict getting out of jail, going from the you know, from the fire into the furnace, and trying to warn them and trying to understand why this happened. This happened to me recently. So I'm in this journey with the Lord now, and I'm saying, Lord, and and the Lord said, Bring them to me and I will work. Bring them to me, pray the word of God over them, prophesy over them, speak life over them because their faith, their faith is dead. I'm sure you could share your their faith is dead.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:22

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:22

But they're still walking around. They're still alive.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:28

That's why prodigals live on the edge, is because they their faith is they don't believe that they could be loved or that they are lovable or that there could be hope. They believe that they've gone too far, you know, and and some many that I've interviewed had continued to pray and talk to God. You know, I did. I did. And then there was a point when I thought I'd you know when I first backslid, I thought that yeah, I was going straight to hell, and so if I was going, I might as well live it up. And that was the mentality I had. And then, you know, God God worked with me over the years, but but yeah, it's I mean the Lord is He is doing a work, I think, in the Prodigals, and I I totally believe that God is gonna have the last word. Um, Sister Bishop, I I I've noticed in my counseling practice um that the attack seems to be heavily focused on men, just in just in what I see with children and what I see in adults and um youth. What are you seeing in your prodigal uh ministry because you have so many people that come and seek help for prayer? Have you noticed any trends? Have you noticed any age groups? Have you noticed uh any uh patterns of what you're seeing in terms of the prodigals or the father they feel they have not only failed their family, their prodigal, their backslider, but they failed God because their children are in rebellion.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:12

Their their children are um have walked away from God too long. Men have allowed the women to be on the front lines fighting hell, and they're they're breadwinners, and men will um become addicted to work, they'll become numb. And what I'm seeing is God calling them into their priestly role. There's a thing. Yeah, we're seeing the men, we're getting more and more men on our prayer line. Um years it's mostly been women. Most of our age that pray are 40 and above, you know. The young families that are raising their babies, they don't see the devourer that's seeking whom he may devour, the accuser of the brethren. You know, he our young families need to be not fearful of the devil, but they need to be warned because we're not ignorant of his devices. Right. But you know, I I want to connect you with a preacher that his son was a pastor and he had fallen. His son had fallen and he took his own life, and it was such a devastating thing. But his this father's story uh as an evangelist and rising up and allowing God to heal him. Every time I read a post, I see the hand of the God of all comfort working in the entire family, not just him, but this prodigal, you know, that was in the pulpit preaching that had had fallen while he was pastoring. God is healing everyone connected to him. God is doing that. And we need each other. Um teaching men to put on the full armor of God. Don't go out that door, don't go out that door, get up, pray, call upon the Lord, learn to pray scriptures. I think that's a if I could write a prescription in any family, pray the word, pray the word of God, find an example of scripture that you can pray. You know, Jeremiah 31, you know, God's gonna save our children, He's gonna restore them. We've got to believe it, we've got to speak it, and we can share about what's going on in our families, but we need to remember God is sovereign, He's all knowing, He's all loving, He knows the pain, He's going to bring triumph out of our tra tragedy.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:50

And Sister Bishop, I I I want to just interject because I believe that I've seen the sovereignty of God, but I feel like there needs to be a revival of that belief because I feel like those of us who grew up in church and who've been around it all of our life, there was it feels like there was just a wilderness season across uh um the Christendom, you know, uh uh uh it seems like there was just a a long period of wilderness season, maybe not in every church, but but um you know, where prayers for the healing of the sick weren't answered, or people would lost loved ones that weren't healed, or just things that happened where they would pray and feel like God you didn't answer. And I felt like I felt like there was like this whole generation that they didn't lose their faith but they lost their faith at the same time because they weren't seeing God show up like I feel like we're really seeing him now, and he always was then too, but do you know what I'm saying? And so I absolutely we're told we are told that God is sovereign, and one of the Bible studies I did probably five years ago was on his sovereignty. I I looked up everything I could find because I needed desperately to really be able to grasp and hold on to the fact that God is sovereign. Not not my mistakes, not somebody else's inability to, you know, that God can actually open the eyes of the blind and set the captive free. I really needed to embrace that sovereignty in a way that I could hold on to it with faith because I knew it in my mind, but I couldn't integrate it in in the knowing that I knew that I knew. And I f I feel like maybe it's we know that after we walk through things. Um but I feel like at hearing you say that you you do say that with such a deep conviction. You know that you know that you know. We don't need to question his sovereignty, and I feel like that is a message that would be so encouraging to people because I also think that people really do question God's love for them. As a as a backslider, I don't question that again. I don't ever question that because I've experienced it in how what he's done in my life. But people that are sitting on the pew that didn't backslide, that have been going to church and and you know backsliders that haven't come home yet. I don't know that that they fully understand God's love because we're humans, right? And our human relationships fail us and and we're told God's not gonna fail us, that he never leaves us nor forsake us. But again, it comes down to an experiential place when we we really just don't question his love for us. But I think you know that because you've walked through that. I know that because I've walked through that. But for the people that haven't yet experienced that, I feel like that's such a needful message, and I don't know how we can give that to them.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:27

I feel like they do I I don't want to give the impression that I just spring back up on my feet. No, I know it's lots of time. Yeah, God gave me an assignment to pray for others, and that was my prescription for healing, it really was, amongst other things. Um, and I still have my moments. I still grieve. Grief is longing and missing someone you love. You'll always, because they go to heaven. My husband and I remarried, which is another story. God brought another widower into my life, and um, and we help have helped one another. I'd been a widow seven years, and he'd been a widow for less than seven weeks when we met, and God restored um and enlarged our hearts to love again. He can turn the water into wine, he can turn back the waters of the Red Sea. He is a God that turns our sorrow into joy, and so when he turned my sorrow into joy, he allowed me to love again and be loved. Yes, loved with all that I can do. You know, I'm bringing all this into another marriage, all of this, and he's bringing all he experienced, but we both had good marriages. I think that was a key element in our relationship, and I'd love to come back and talk about that at some time. But um knowing that all things Work together. God, Sister Thetis Tenny is famous for saying, if things haven't come together yet, God's still working. Yeah, it's not over. It's not over. And He's working it all together for our good. For good. For the kingdom purpose. Right. You know, loss, loss can bring kingdom purpose if we allow God. He's not a cruel God. He's not mad at us. If there's a backslider listening, God's not mad at you.

unknown: 1:20:32

No.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:33

God is reaching for you. And for the church, the elder brother, you know, uh when I hear somebody say, Well, we'll see how long they stay this time. It grieves me. Right.

SPEAKER_04: 1:20:49

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:49

I I just want to hug them and hold them and say, you know, I'm here for you. I'm celebrating what God is doing in your life because they've been out a long time. They haven't heard all the sermons that you heard.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:02

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:03

Teachings you've had. They they've been down, swept down a river, and it's taken them a long way away from the cross. And when they come back, they got to go through the path of the cross. And that path will bring about the new creature in Christ Jesus. They themselves have got to revisit. And when I'm feeling my lowest, I want to go back to Calvary and remember He shed blood for my He shed blood for my healing. He shed blood for my uh salvation. He did that for me. So I go back often and I will even teach on the prayer line the power of the the cross, the shed blood, because because nothing else makes sense. Right. In the world we live in. To revisit Calvary and what he has already done. If he has done all of that, how much more is he going to continue to work things in our lives? I I've not been perfect, but I do know where my help comes from. And God's people. Um I I love it when somebody has a prayer life and they're off with just them and Jesus for hours at a time. And we have intercessors that are like that. But I I'm one. Let's go into the throne room hand in hand. Let's go make a petition to the Lord. Let's go in faith and trust and and and let's go into his presence. Let's worship him. Let's just see what Jesus will do for us if we come together and the power of covenant agreement.

SPEAKER_01: 1:22:35

Yes. It's so powerful. Um, I was gonna say something as you were talking, and I forgot I I lost it because I was just so enthralled listening to you because you could definitely feel the anointing and Sister Bishop, you exude love. And I I imagine that comes uh as a result of the brokenness and how you've just you know allowed God to mold you through all of that. But it is it is very felt, it's very evident, and um it's it's different when you talk to somebody who lives what they believe. You know, y you really notice the difference and and uh your story and your testimony is beautiful, and the work that you're doing as a result of the loss of your son is is beautiful. And you said a minute ago that God enlarged your heart, and I I think that is such an encouraging thing because when people get to the end of themselves, they can't see anything in front of them because they know that in themselves they're done, they're empty, that's all they've got, they can't see beyond that. But when you said that God enlarged our heart, that is God doing for us what we can't do for ourselves, and he create He created capacity that you did not have otherwise, and that is hope, that instills hope you know, for somebody out there. We we hear these things, we're taught we're taught this, we're you know, we hear a preacher that teaches all that, but it's so different when you really apply it to a lived experience and you get to experience how Jesus changes you, you know, through the grief. And uh it's kind of bittersweet, nobody wants to go through it, but what we gain coming out the other side of it is something we wouldn't trade. At least I have felt that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:24:50

The father's house was prepared for the celebration of the return. My son was lost, but now it's not he was dead, but now he lives, he lives, and that celebration needs to be in our churches. I'm not saying that it isn't, but we could improve on that as Pentecostal people because we fear all of us fear not measuring up to the love of God. It's instant because of what we've been through, but to just accept the love of God and accept your journey and where you are. Return prodigals have so much to discover about new things they never dreamed, because a lot of prodigals leave under difficult situations and they didn't realize, and when they do realize that God was there all along, just waiting, just waiting, watching it. And you can look back and see his hand, yes, yes, and I see that in the lives of prodigals and the answers to prayer. But a prodigal coming back to the altar is just the beginning, right? They I believe that return prodigals need to be discipled, maybe not taught the basics of salvation, but discipled. What do I do with this financial mess I'm in? What do I do? I'm married, I'm living with a woman. What do I do? I'm living with a man, you know, how do I restore all the things that I've ruined and I've hurt my mom, I've hurt my dad, you know. What is the what is the process? And the answer is the word, it's teaching the word of God and it's counseling, you know, the in the multitude of counselors, there's safety, there's healing, and uh back to Lazarus, you know, he he died the second death, he still died his human body, and we're gonna see Lazarus on the resurrection day, the rapture of the church. But he's but you know, can you imagine they tried to to uh um destroy Lazarus after he was brought back out of the dead, you know, target because he was a miracle, and our families are targeted by hell because they do the enemy does not want us to declare, once I was lost, but now I'm found. Right, right. You know, and um I believe in the shed blood of the Lamb, I believe in restoration, I believe in the power of love. And the greatest way we can show to is pray for somebody. I mean, sincerely, sincerely pray for somebody. So I would love for anybody to join us on the partners in prayer. This week we're we're celebrating 10 years.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:38

Ten years. Can you talk a little bit about that for anyone listening? Um, if you're not familiar with partners in prayer, she has a fa Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:48

I have a we have a uh website, it's called www.pips, p-i-p-s ministry.org. And you can go there and meet us and give us your contact information. Uh there's a calendar there with the schedule. Um, and you can message me, Billie Jean Bishop. I'll send you the information. We're we're like I said, day 76, but join us, join us and until day 90 and see what the Lord will do. I'll I'll I'll send you the link to the to the devotion. They're short.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:22

Um powerful. The devotions that she's written are very powerful. And they are short, but they're they're full of meat, I think. Um, I think what you've done has been incredible. And on Facebook she posts those every day. So if every day anyone out there that has a prodigal that you need support, um what do you guys pray every day, Sister Bishop?

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:51

Yes, there's prayer calls um every every single day.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:55

Um what does that look like for those multiple people on it?

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:59

Different hosts. We're all um Jesus' name, spirit-filled believers, uh different ages, uh, different walks of life. We have a widow that leads a call, we we have a pastor that leads a call, and we're a public prayer line, so we open it up. Um, we're very different than some Zoom calls or prayer meetings because you know we have normally about 20 different states represented by individuals. Um we want to you guys take prayer requests? We take prayer requests, we let them share praise reports this Friday, as a climax of our week of celebration of 10 years on our prayer conference line. We're going to have 18 hours of non-stop prayer. Starting at 6 p.m. Central Time, there's a one number, and uh you can find that on my page. But you can dial in and join our host. There's going to be testimony, we're going to take prayer, we're going to bear the burdens of one another. We're going to pray again for backsliders. Uh we're going to to endeavor to point people to the comforter, to the God of all comfort. And um let me close with this thought. The woman with the issue of blood, she's thought, you know, the scripture says, if I could but touch the hem of his garment, I'll be healed. She was rejected like a leper. She had a flow of blood, and she was her whole family dynamics. She was isolated, she was discouraged, she spent all she had on Donald Trump. She she had gone through the source. But when she heard about Jesus, she pressed through the crowd. Jesus experienced the healing virtue. Who touched me? Who touched me? But Jesus turned to the woman that had just been healed of the issue of blood, and he's called her very personally, daughter, and said these words, daughter, be of good comfort. I believe the comfort of the Lord in a prayer session will lead you into the supernatural. Because this woman was not only healed with the healing virtue, she was restored and made whole. And when the Lord calls us by name personally, we'll never be the same. We may experience miracles and answers to prayer, but when the God of all comfort uh ministers to you and you realize that he loves me, you haven't figured out the rest of the mess, but you know that he loves you, then you will be on a journey because he personally called you daughter or son or by name. Right. And it's that intimacy that's gonna keep us until the trumpet sounds.

SPEAKER_01: 1:32:01

Amen. Sister Bishop, I always finish my podcast with two questions. Um, what would you say to the backslider who might be listening?

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:15

Find an altar. Find someone you trust to go to the altar with you. Make sure your altar is pointing towards Calvary. Um don't don't be concerned about what people think. It doesn't matter anymore. Old things, old things are passed away. All things become new. You're new in the eyes of the Lord. We apostolics teach this that he casts our sins from the as far as the east is to the west. He really does. He really does. He really does. Yeah, he he doesn't remember, but he knows us and he knows the journey that we take. And so day by day by day, just walk with the Lord, find uh scriptures, uh, join a prayer group, do something that helps keep that active relationship uh alive. Think of it as, and please don't think I'm being disrespectful, but think of it as dating Jesus until the wedding. You're his betrothed backslider, you are betrothed to the Lord. He's married to the backslider, he's engaged, he's come back for a bride that's made herself ready, not perfect, but ready. He's turned your sorrow to joy, he's given you a garment of praise for the heaviness, he's blotted out your transgressions. Just find a battle buddy, find somebody that believes in the power of cross, not preaching at you. The one thing that prayer for prodigals has done for me, I stopped lecturing. Yeah, I stopped, you know, look at this scripture and show up to this, you know, service.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:08

It isn't it isn't about works, it's about love. Right, it's about love.

SPEAKER_01: 1:34:14

And then what uh uh this is your ministry, so uh this one probably be easy. What would you say to the parent, such as yourself, who has a prodigal still out there?

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:27

You better build an altar, you better surrender. You need to surrender them, put them on the altar. God loves them most and knows them best. Don't stop praying every day. If you miss a day, they're gonna battle something without your covering, without the word. And so, mom, dad, forgive yourself, forgive yourself. Let any root of bitterness and disappointment, disappointment will kill your relationship with your body, will destroy and it will affect all your relationships. I thought my child was gonna be this, and I thought he was gonna be that, and to you know, now here she is. Love them like Jesus loved them, pray until you can remember holding that little child and looking into his eyes, and you really cannot do that without an altar without grace, without an altar, without grace, without mercy. Um, you know, we apostolics say stay in the word of God, but how many of us really pick up our Bibles while we're praying? While we're praying, pick up the word of God, and if you need a little love and support, message me.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:40

Yes, call me Billie Jean Bishop. You can find her on Facebook and and Partners in Prayer also. She's wonderful, and uh yeah, I'm so grateful that you took the time to tell us, you know, your story. I I think that we need more of these stories of redemption. Your redemption in a way, in terms of what you went through with the loss of your son and how God just loved you through all of that. I just think it's so beautiful and and what he revealed to you about his eternal destination, because I God is good like that to give us the answers that we need when we don't know. And and we just have to stay the course and stay in communion with him, and he will reveal it to us.

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:34

He's the lover of our souls, yes, he's the one that my soul longs for, he's the rose there, he's the bright morning star. Let this Christmas season, I don't know when this will air, but make this an intentional moment of just saying, Lord, here I am, starting again, just lead me, show me, walk beside me, and he will. He's been waiting for you, he's been waiting. He's he saw you a long way off. He saw you. It's been a delight.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:15

I don't know how you're gonna pull all this together, but but I trust you that you're yes, the the guys at the studio are great, Sister Bishop. Thank you so much, and God bless you, and a happy, happy anniversary. And uh I love what you're doing, it's so needful, and hopefully we will connect again soon.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:34

I would like that very much. I want to hear, I want to hear more of your story.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:39

Yes, yeah, it's it's a good one. God definitely rescued me for sure. So and gave me a ministry on top of that, which is a miracle. Like he writes the best stories because I would have never seen this.

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:55

He does. Can can I close in a prayer room?

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:58

Absolutely, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:00

Lord, you know who's going to listen to this podcast. And I pray, God, that mercy would be loosed and released, the God of all compassion and mercy, God, that we will open up and swing the windows of our soul open to receive the help that we need. You are that very present help in trouble. You know who's going to be involved in this podcast and who's going to listen. I pray that you will visit with ministering angels in that very moment where they realize and understand the love of God. How rich, how pure, how marvelous. How marvelous is your love, God. Just move and break the shackles, let the chains drop off of their minds, God. Release them from their prison, Lord, and lead them on a path of righteousness for your name's sake, oh God. I thank you for your compassion. I thank you, God, for your power, your strength, and for the shed blood of the Lamb, Lord, in Jesus' name. Bless Sister Kathy, bless her in her ministry. God, let her reach prodigals, let it be far-reaching, let it be global, let it be something, Lord, that people, God will call in, will listen, will be liberated and set free because you set came to set the captive free. Anoint her for this mission in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. God bless you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:25

God bless you, Sister Bishop. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:30

Bless you. Merry Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:32

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Okay. Bye.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:36

We are so glad you joined us. If you have a story of redemption or have worn the label of a backslider, we would love to hear from you. If you'd like to support our ministry, your donation will be tax deductible. Visit our website at the redeemedbackslider.org. We hope you will tune in for our next episode.