Jimmy Evans “Listen, when your mind begins to argue with the Word of God, you don’t sit there and argue with the Word of God, you cast down that argument and you accept the Word of God. That’s how you get set free. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind. So the only way you can deal with fear is to treat it as a separate entity. It’s not your fear. You weren’t born with any fear. You don’t have any fear, you’re fearless. Did you know that? All fear,…God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear. God doesn’t use fear. God didn’t create us with fear. So why am I saying this? Is because the same way you deal with fear is the way you deal with a mental stronghold. It’s not your thought, it’s the devil’s thought. Taking every thought captive. It’s not your friend, it’s not you, it’s the devil…There cannot be rogue thoughts,…you can’t have a rogue thought in your mind, you can’t. It’ll destroy your life. It’ll hold you in bongage”.
“[Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),”
Jimmy Evans “The biggest battle we fight in life is in our minds. The devil wants to use trauma and pain and turn us against God and each other. My prayer is that you have new knowledge on how to fight the enemy, and that the next time he whispers to you that you’re not good enough, or that God doesn’t love you that you’ll recognize that lie is coming from him and replace it with the truths that God says about you….Scripture is how we win the battle and finally become free. We have to change the devil’s thoughts with God’s thoughts. I want to challenge you to read God’s Word”.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
~~~Jeremiah 29:11-13 (KJV)~~~
“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”
“Every husband is God’s partner to bring his wife to her full potential. But in order for that to happen you have to believe she has potential. You have to believe that God made her in her mother’s womb to do something special, whatever that is. And as a husband my job is to be God’s partner to find out why God created Karen and to believe in that” Jimmy Evans.
“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.”
“Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
~~~1 Peter 3:1-7 (ESV)~~~
“Redemption means I’m doing the right thing for you when you’re doing the wrong thing for me,…Jesus paid a price for us that we could not pay,…” Jimmy Evans.
“…our first response always is anger,…frustrated,…the pity stuff,…I look at what God went through just to redeem me,…I mean I should at least give that to you,…You blamed me for everything. You would never take responsibility,…there’s two sides to every marriage,…You definitely have issues as much as your husband does, but what I did is I asked the Lord to change me,…and then I just started praying,…constantly in my prayer closet.,…I didn’t lose faith that God could change both of us,…” Karen Evans.
As I have proudly mentioned before, my amazing husband is a pilot, a top notch pilot. All I have learned about the exciting world of aviation is largely due to being married to my Flyboy. No, for the record he is not nor was he ever in the air force. Irrelevant!
I recall being at the Dreher Park (Palm Beach) Zoo with our then preschool age son the morning following the shocking reports of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane mysteriously disappearing during the prior evening. Amid all the speculations was the obvious concern that he, his wife and her sister had gone missing and were feared dead. Being married to a pilot, with a heavy heart I didn’t want to believe what my husband instinctively knew was the sad truth the rest of the world would soon learn; spatial disorientation was the cause of their deaths.
The more common term for spatial disorientation is vertigo or “Which way is up?“. Using my own definition, a variation of vertigo is when I get motion sickness and could care less which way is up, just please stop the motion! The concern though with a pilot at the controls is, they may very well not realize they are dealing with spatial disorientation due to losing their view of the horizon, thus their visual balance plays tricks with their minds. Fortunately I have never (hmm,…at least to my knowledge) been flying with my husband or any other pilots when spatial disorientation was even a remote concern. However, I have been a passenger in a plane while pilot friends practice flying “under the hood”.
There are two very important and basic terms in aviation which refer to the visual/weather conditions under which to safely fly; VFR and IFR. Not to bore my readers with information beyond my own personal expertise, but VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules and IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. Should the weather conditions be deemed unsafe (limited visibility) by the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration , hopefully the pilot is instrument rated because Instrument Flight Rules are enforced. To become instrument rated, pilots must practice flying while “under the hood” meaning their visibility is restricted, forcing them to rely on the instruments located on the instrument panel.
Just as pilots very quickly learn, they cannot go by what they see or feel, or will risk spatial disorientation, getting the leans, ultimately spinning the plane into the ground, but must rely on their instruments. So too for the Christian. Our faith in God is not based on what we think we see in the natural or how we think we feel emotionally, but by focusing on our instrument panel which is God’s Word. Especially when life seems too difficult to handle alone, trusting God’s IFR is the only way to keep flying high.
I like what Nick Vujicic says “attitude is altitude.
“…but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:31 (ESV).
I must also give inspirational credit for the development of this post to two ministers who just happen to be pilots: Kenneth Copeland and Jimmy Evans.
And just for the record; I am not a pilot, but have a great amount of respect for pilots, especially my Flyboy.
We each have a story to tell. Retelling our own story offers others hope as it gently reminds us of not just how far we’ve come, but of the grace of God for His gentle and continued guidance throughout our journey. And, as is often the case, our story is not just about us and us alone.
“From Pain to Paradise: The Story of How God Transformed My Life & Marriage from Brokenness to Blessing ” is Karen Evans’ story of healing, not just of her own identity but that of her marriage as well. Falling in love with the man of her dreams also meant she would be taking on his own well hidden identity issues. And so throughout her retelling, she weaves aspects of her husband’s own story of healing.
This is not a revengeful tell-all, but a story of redemption. And while Karen Evans spent time being very frustrated and angry she also knew just how deeply she loved her husband. But to love her husband as she desired, she would learn not only to first love God, but of His love for her.
I enjoy reading another person’s story of healing especially when it is told with complete transparency. Karen Evans does just this ever so naturally and honestly. It is not told from the perspective of a bitter wife as she intentionally exposes all her husband’s deep and dark secrets, but as a wife who dearly loves her husband.
While Karen doesn’t directly offer a list of do’s and don’t for a closer relationship with ones spouse, she so expertly offers wisdom applicable to any marriage. Her story is told from the perspective of a Christian woman who desires to find her true value in her relationship with God as she realizes this is also the key to her identity and marriage.
Karen has been married to Jimmy Evans for well over forty years. Together they are the founders of Marriage Today Ministries, where they not only offer help for marriages, but candidly share their struggles within their own marriage.
Photo Credit: Lisa Fotios
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