I’m a servant and follower of Jesus Christ. Wife of 21 years to Keith Valentine. Mother to 5 beautiful children ages 10-19.

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I grew up as a preacher's kid...the oldest of 8 children and home-schooled. Scripture and missional mindset were instilled in me at a young age as we traveled around the US planting churches. As children we participated in fervent prayer meetings and door to door evangelism. There was a refreshing focus on living out the great commission and raising disciples. It was a rich spiritual heritage. 

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However, our church movement was cessationist....a belief that the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as tongues, prophecy, and healing ceased with the apostles and the finishing of the canon of Scripture.  As I read my Bible, I struggled to understand why God stopped these miraculous gifts. Weren't they needed even more today?

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Feeling restricted by religious tradition and burned out by religious works, my heart grew cold. In college I turned my back on God. I walked away. Those are years of deep regret. I became entangled in all sorts of sin. Looking back I can see that I had a warped view of God, a distorted identity, and a lack of personal intimacy with Jesus.  

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Fast forward to 2001, I began questioning everything. I realized that I didn't have the inner joy and peace that I was seeking. I made the decision to make a radical change. I wanted to figure out who God was for myself.  In my car trunk, I packed up what possessions I could fit. Then I drove across the country from Phoenix to Detroit.... leaving behind an ungodly relationship, friendships, and my hospital nursing position. 

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Over the next few years I began to find God as I sought Him.  Through a small group and a good church I began to see how my view of God had been warped. I committed my life to Jesus as my Lord. In 2003 I married Keith Valentine who had also fallen away from the faith and experienced the redemption of God.

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Year 2004 was a deep valley. During our first pregnancy our son was basically given a death sentence by doctors. He had a rare condition where his brain was growing outside of his head. Words can not express the surgery God did in my heart over those 4 months of bed rest. At a tiny local church we received weekly prayer for healing and strengthening prophetic words. I was exposed to tongues for the first time. I began to hunger for much more of God. I saw that there was something different about these people who spoke in tongues. They seemed to be able to sense and hear God in a way that I hadn't seen or experienced. They had an intimacy that I wanted. 

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Through that difficult time, I had two personal encounters with Jesus Christ that marked me for life. At one point when I was crying out to God from the depth of my soul, Jesus physically appeared to me and held my hand. God touched our son in a miraculous way. He is now a vibrant 14-years-old in 8th grade. 

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Over the following 8 years I began to learn and practice listening prayer. I would write down the words and Scripture I felt that the Lord was speaking to me.  With the Lord's leading, at 8 months pregnant with our 4th child, we moved by faith from Detroit to Orlando to help launch a seeker sensitive Kensington Church plant. 

 

Busy serving at our church, homeschooling, and leading a women's small group Bible study, I began to increase my fervency in asking God to give me the gift of speaking in tongues. I remembered those people who prayed for our son's healing. I felt that there had to be more than what I was experiencing in the Lord. I was hungry and desperate for more.

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In 2012 everything changed.  At a small charismatic church conference, I received the gift of tongues in a dramatic, tangible, fiery, undeniable way.  Suddenly the Holy Spirit was like a fire in the core of my being. All I wanted to do was fall on my face and worship the Lord. Deep repentance and conviction marked my life. I felt like I had a song in my heart at all times.  My listening prayer times went from hearing a few words to writing pages and pages of what I felt God was speaking to me.  I began to have visions and prophetic dreams. I knew something had changed. Something significant and lasting. Later I learned that some call this a baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire.

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Two years after the birth of our 5th child, in 2016, I was led by a series of God orchestrated events to an inner healing and freedom ministry called Oak's Rising. This became a season of deep wound healing, identity restoration, freedom from the past, and deliverance from strongholds. Heart motives were addressed.  God put His finger on ugly things in my heart like pride and desiring glory for myself.  Through this time of training- prophetic dreams, visions, and deep encounters with God increased. 

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Shortly after this, the Lord called my husband and I to step into leadership of the small prayer ministry at our church. A small band of women began gathering regularly for Spirit led Night Watches. Increasingly specific prayer assignments, strategy, and burdens were given by the Holy Spirit. He was even showing me some things that were to come. I was stretched way out of my comfort zone as God gave me assignments...such as picking someone up on the side of a road or approaching a stranger with a word from God and praying for them.

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In 2017 the Holy Spirit whispered to me, "I am taking you through the molting process." Here began a deeper time of testing and refining.  Fear, rejection, comparison, desire for titles, and seeking the approval from people were strongly addressed by the Lord. I felt like a plucked bird. Ouch! But God faithfully showed me that those feathers, that I had prided and gloried in, had to go. 

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As I sought the Lord, I felt a transition coming. I was being nudged to begin sharing some of the things I feel the Holy Spirit has been whispering to my heart as I have sat at Jesus' feet. This little blog was a step of faith and obedience to this prompting.  I also felt the release to begin training to become a Freedom Coach with Oaks Rising.

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Currently our family joyfully serves and ministers at Crossline Community Church in Orlando where God has placed us. We lead Crossline Recovery and Soul Care ministry. The Lord has been bringing His kids from around the region for Freedom Sessions for Inner Healing, Deliverance, and discipleship. At the beginning of 2024, I launched a Freedom Coach Equipping group where believers from various churches in the region are coming to be sharpened and trained. It is an honor to grow with these women.

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My prayer is that God would use this blog to encourage and challenge you to go deeper. I pray it will whet your desire to press into intimacy with Jesus.

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