When you’re experiencing deep pain and trauma, the mere mention of ‘resurrection’ out of your pain seems nothing short of a cruel mockery.

For the person who’s hurting badly and whose emotions are raw, healing and resurrection seem completely out of reach, a fantasy, a dream, an utter impossibility.

But if you’re hurting badly, I want you to try to keep reading this article.

I want you to try to allow me to at least sow the seed in your heart and mind and spirit that, even in the worst trauma, personal resurrection IS possible.

It’s what the Lord wants for you.

And then I want to ask you this:

Whenever you feel up to it, would you consider letting me introduce you to a simple, but highly effective and guaranteed way to turn that possibility into a REALITY for you —gradually, bit by bit?

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A few weeks before starting to write my book  in 2006, I spent some time reflecting on the highlights of the story that would fill its pages.

As I did so, I suddenly remembered an event that had occurred nine years earlier during a period of fiercely challenging and traumatic times in my life.

Early on the morning of September 11, 1997, hurting badly, feeling acutely alone, betrayed and abandoned, I had heard these words very distinctly in my spirit:

‘Rise up from the ashes and greet Me’

The words had come from nowhere —right out of the blue.

They had startled me.

I knew that I was alone in my home, that there was no one else in my house at the time. But to be quite sure, I looked around to see if another person had entered the room.

There was no one there.

But the words I had heard had been spoken so authoritatively and definitively that they might just as well have come from the lips of a live, breathing, present human being.

As I pondered on the story that my book would tell, I quickly realized that these words—'Rise up from the ashes and greet Me’— captured its essence perfectly.

Then, as I continued to reflect on the preceding 23 years of my personal life experiences, two experiences in particular towered over all the others.

These were the two occasions in my life when Christ had taught me, gradually and bit by bit, how to rise up from the ashes of my pain and trauma —and greet Him!

In both cases, this had resulted in the transformation of my ashes into a quality of life and beauty that was profound and unassailable.

In each case, it was a quality of life and beauty that I had not known before.

 In each case, it was, effectively, a resurrection from my own profound, raw inner pain and trauma.

As I prepared to write my book, I decided to reflect a little longer on the countless, ongoing, amazing gifts contained in these two experiences of profoundly new life and beauty.

The more I reflected, the more overcome I was by the deep healing I’d experienced in each case.

Very soon, I found myself turning to poetry to express my profound gratitude to the Lord for my healing, my resurrection from the ashes.

Prose, I realized, would be simply nonsensical in this case.

As the poem took shape in my heart and thoughts, its title became obvious.

It would be the words that Christ himself had spoken to me nine years earlier:

‘Rise up from the ashes and greet Me.’

Exactly four years after God spoke these words to me, there would be another explosion of ashes.

This time the ashes would be physical ashes.

They would emerge from the destructions of the World Trade Towers in New York on the infamous day of September 11, 2001.

But, like mine, they would also be the ashes of measureless, raw, human pain.

On that day, the ashes that fell would not be those of a single, individual family, as had been the case with me.

Instead, they would be the ashes of thousands of innocent men and women, and —through them —of countless innocent families.

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You may have experienced your ashes in a different way from me or from those who were the victims of 9-11.

Nevertheless, the invitation of the Lord to YOU is exactly the same as it is for all of us who experience deep pain and evil.

The Lord invites YOU to rise up from YOUR ashes, and greet HIM!

Today, and every Resurrection/Easter Day, this is the invitation that the Lord extends to YOU.

‘Jan, How on Earth Can the Lord Expect Me to Rise Up from My Pain and Greet Him?’

‘But,’ you say to me: ‘Jan, how on earth does the Lord expect me to rise up from my pain and greet Him? That sounds like something from fantasy-land, not for someone like me in this unfair world.’

 I hear you clearly.

 Your question is entirely valid.

It’s one I, myself, asked the Lord 37 years ago when I was experiencing intense inner pain and trauma.

Here’s how the Lord answered me.

Using a holy Christian woman guide, He introduced me to a simple way of resting/praying in His presence. 

He taught me to pray without words or thoughts, with and from my heart alone.

You see, when you’re experiencing deep pain, your mind operates in overdrive.

You are constantly thinking, constantly trying to analyze, constantly trying to search for reasons for what has happened.

As a result, when you try to pray, you continue the continuous thinking process.

You get bombarded by thoughts.

In fact, you might even believe that the Lord cannot ‘hear’ you unless you speak to Him in thoughts and words!

I want you to know that nothing could be further from the truth.

When you enter into His presence, the Lord wants to communicate with your heart, not via your words or thoughts.

There is a simple, guaranteed way to allow the Lord to do this. It’s called prayer of the heart. 

But first, you need to understand what the Lord means by your ‘heart’. 

When you pray in this way, you do it without words and thoughts.

You practice letting go of them for a few minutes (5 - 10 - 15 -20 minutes, your choice) each day.

An interesting thing happens when you do.

Your mind starts to quiet down.

Your emotions are not quite as disturbing.

You are able to soak in God’s healing love and peace in a way that the usual way of praying does not enable you to do.

This is the answer to your question.

But you ask again:

‘Jan, how can you be so sure?

I can be completely sure because when you discover how to pray with your heart for a few minutes every day, the Lord himself becomes your Teacher.

It is the Lord himself who will guide YOU along the path to full resurrection.

Again, you say to me:

 ‘But, Jan, that requires trust in God that I don’t feel I have right now.’

Yes, it certainly does.

But here’s the good news.

One of the huge spin-offs of heart prayer is that it gradually develops DEEP AND LASTING TRUST between you and the Lord.

Genuine friendship develops between you and the Lord.

And as it does, mutual trust between you and God also builds.

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Scroll down now to get my poem

It tells of my own experience of deep pain and woundedness and the resurrection brought about by the daily few minutes I learned how to spend in the Lord’s presence.

It is in His presence that you and I experience and can soak in His healing love and His healing rest (peace).

Scroll down to get my poem

“Rise Up from the Ashes and Greet Me”