Art & Soul post # 31 part 2 of 2 by guest author Heather Pell–
(This is Part 2 of Heather Pell’s story which began last week in the Art & Soul column titled “Freedom Through Christ Because I Choose to Live!”)
I recently had a vivid dream of being dropped in the middle of a war zone with flying bullets and bombs going off all around me. I could hear my heart beating out of my chest as I was screaming on the inside, “Get me out! I don’t want to be here!” I was filled with confusion–I didn’t know who was with me or who was against me. I felt like a foreigner in my own body. I was holding an automatic rifle, but I could never kill anyone or anything and remain sane. A familiar voice deep inside me told me to run. I ran without hesitation at a fast pace for miles with ease. I ran with urgency and strength, but I also ran with a deep sadness in my soul for the war going on and the people I was leaving behind.
I managed to run to a rolling, grassy field that seemed a safe distance away. I could still hear the guns and bombs, but I felt peace, and I heard birds singing. I remember thinking, “I could die here in this peace I feel right now.” I sat with God awhile in this beautiful, grassy field far from my family and friends. I suddenly began to sob, realizing what I had left behind. I cried out to my God. I repented and apologized to Him for falling short of what I thought was my oath and duty as His soldier. I wept and said, “Lord, I am no warrior; I am a coward! Please forgive me, Father, for I can’t kill anyone, no matter the cost, even if it is to protect my own. Please, Lord, forgive me for not being brave. I live in crippling fear.”
He looked at me in my brokenness and then placed His seal on my heart. I felt His heartbeat and His overwhelming love for me. He smiled and spoke with the gentleness of a loving Father and said, “I never called you to be a warrior. You are called to be my peacekeeper.” It was then that I started to understand the true nature of the calling He has on my life…
I have felt this special calling over my life since I was a small child. I always knew I was different. My grandmother was from Poland and so I called her Busha which is Polish for “grandmother”. Like Busha, I had gifts of the Spirit and heard and saw both angels and demons in the spirit realm. When Busha was about 40 years old, she died after delivering my mom. Her soul left her body and went to heaven. The doctors thought they had lost her. She looked down from heaven and could see them trying to bring her back. She started yelling, “No, I don’t want to go back! Leave me alone!” Then her spirit left heaven and fell right back into her body, and she woke up to much pain and suffering. I loved Busha’s testimony of heaven. She would say in her broken English, “Oh, Heather, the colors, the music! There was no pain, no suffering. It was so beautiful and peaceful.” Her experiences are why I have known that heaven is real from a very young age. I would not be who I am today if it wasn’t for her sharing her testimony. The impact of her faith and story continue to live on through me. She helped me understand that God has a plan and a call on my life and on the lives of my children.
From my late teens through my early twenties, the devil and his demons tried to destroy the call on my life to be an artist by convincing me that I mentally could not do art without being drunk or high. But the devil started to lose his foothold when, at the age of twenty-five, I became pregnant with my first child, and I gave up everything for my precious baby girl! I gave up the alcohol, the drugs, and all forms of art other than photography. Over the next ten years, my husband and I were blessed with three more beautiful children, and I poured everything I had into being the best mother I could be. During this season, other than inspiring my children to create art, my only individual artistic outlet was my photography. I found God in the beauty of His creation and took thousands of photographs, many of which are featured here. I stayed sober for my family for those ten years, but, about three years ago, I slipped back into my old drug and alcohol abuse habits because I wanted to create other forms of art again. Once again, I bought into the devil’s lies that I couldn’t create art sober, and I was tormented by demons. It got so bad that I didn’t even know what sin was anymore. I was sleepwalking through my life and didn’t even know it.
All my life, suffering has come like a wave crashing against the shore. I’ve experienced so much crippling fear, illness, war on family and friendships, devastation, and heartbreaking loss. I have mourned the loss of four of my children due to miscarriage. In September of 2021, something inside me broke, and I cried out to God in my despair and desperation. He was there and heard my cry. He then sounded the alarm bells and let me know it was time to wake up! He said, “Enough! Do you want to live or die?” At that moment, I decided I wanted to LIVE! I repented with everything I had in me, and Jesus healed me and washed me white as snow! Later, He used Spirit-filled believers and prophets to free me from the torment that had claimed my life!
God asked me to walk away from everything I loved except for my family. He said, “Save your family first!” I leaned into God as I began to pour myself into praying and reading my Bible. Until eight years ago, I had never read the Bible because I had feared its content…the devil had convinced me that it was filled with only war and death, and I would experience greater attacks from him if I opened that Holy Book. Now, I fasted and listened, mourned and cried, read my Bible, prayed and cried. I was a hot mess! I was heartbroken that I had overslept, but even though I had chosen selfish desires and sin over Him, He never gave up on me. He was still calling me to my destiny and the special role I am to play for His Kingdom and His Glory!
My special calling became even more clear to me this June when I traveled with my two friends and oldest daughter, Clara, to Abby Farms in Louisville, Tennessee to attend the Arise Women’s Summit. There are absolutely NO WORDS to fully describe what I experienced. I thought I was going to a typical women’s Christian conference, but this was not a conference…it was a revival! While there, I had a vision where I sat with Jesus at His wedding table…my wedding table. There He told me I have joined a long line of Warring Women of Zion. Then He pointed to my left, and I saw all my grandmothers sitting there! They were all so proud of me. For the first time in my whole life, I felt complete and with purpose, and I knew who I was. God then led me to Psalm 125:
At the Arise Summit, all remaining strongholds and lies the deceiver still spoke to me about my identity were broken in Jesus’ Mighty Name. Prophetic words were also spoken over me for the first time in my life. These words were, “Cast your eyes on the Lord all your days, and you shall bring life and water to the deserts.”
In addition to adding more clarity to my identity and calling, this event was spiritually healing and transformative for me on so many levels. I was a witness to many miracles and supernatural breakthroughs. I thought I was alone with the way I experienced God through the gifts of the Spirit, but I was surrounded by so many sisters in Christ who experienced God in similar supernatural ways. We worshiped and praised God together in total surrender–it was truly BEAUTIFUL! Clara was given two prophetic gifts, a journal and a crown, and prophetic words were spoken over her as well. On the last day, we were given the opportunity to be baptized. I had already been sprinkled as a baby and fully submerged as an adult. I know that biblically I was not required to be baptized again, but when I asked God if I should do it, He said, “YES”! I find it amazing that this third baptism took place on the anniversary of my second!
Before this summit, I thought I could live life and walk around like a normal person, even though I knew I was far from normal, but while there God asked me to surrender myself to Him on a deeper level. This higher degree of commitment was not completely foreign to me…the moment I became a mother, the moment I saw that little plus sign on that urine test, I gave up EVERYTHING for my Clara! Life was not about me anymore. I DIED TO MYSELF FOR THAT LITTLE BLESSING! God was now asking me to do the same for HIM…to COMPLETELY EMPTY MYSELF, to pick up my cross and go ALL IN FOR HIM every day!
(Arise Summit photos credit to Audrey Turner)
God spoke into my spirit an urgent clarion call– a strong call to action, and I don’t believe this applies just to me. He started this word with the plural “artists”, so I believe it applies to all artists in the Body of Christ, His Ekklesia…and I don’t believe it even stops there. In this word, He stressed that we are ALL creators and artists because we are ALL made in His image. This is what He said:
“Artists, you shall create and you shall dance, and you shall praise the Lord with all your gifts and creative styles. I am the Creator and you are a creator because I live in you. We are all artists of the light. Speak through your creations and plant seeds in barren lands. Bring life to desert places. The land is mine. Everything beneath your feet is Holy. Anything that you come to love, I love too. You will heal nations, and they will call Me by name. Holy Artist, I am calling you to speak, to testify, and to create. This is your gift from your Heavenly Father. Your voice matters, and all who have eyes to see will rejoice in the name of the Lord. Look at the children and let them guide you. Create with the children and someday your children’s children. Generations will carry your God-given gift, and they will share the Good News and help build the Kingdom of God.
You will walk in third heaven authority. You will walk in My Glory through obedience. I shall guide and protect you all your days. You will join Me in the Heavens, and you will be a light in the darkness. You serve a great and powerful God. All things will now come into their prophetic timings–My timing. I see you, and I know your heart for Me. Your art will speak to the world. I will make your path straight, and you shall not stumble. You shall soar on the wings of eagles. You will bask in My goodness, and My light will overcome you and the world. Unbeknownst to you, you have always walked in signs and wonders, though you may not have looked for them before now. My child, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is the Advocate. He lives within you. Don’t you know who you are and the inheritance you have in the Lord? You were blind, and now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, your eyes and your ears will be healed. Child of God, you will walk in My favor. You will show them the LOVE I have for them while still standing firmly planted on this foundation, the Word of the Living God. You will show them grace and mercy and the love I have for them. I declare and decree that you will now have eyes to see and ears to hear. I decree that you will see Me in all things and heal this divided land.
There is hope in the Lord, your Redeemer. I decree that you will live and not die. For death has no hold on you as a child of the Living God. Do not fear the enemy’s snares– speak and create life over the world.”
He then took me to the artworks of my past and, for the first time, I had eyes to see how prophetic they truly are. He then led me to the artworks of my daughter, Clara. I saw the prophetic seeds of faith that He had planted in her through me.
The Lord then spoke to me again saying:
“The minds of My children are now coming into their heavenly timing to be released by My hand alone. Prophetic drawings you did twenty-plus years ago speak more today than ever before. Everything you created that is old and everything that you create new are mine. Your art will speak LIFE. It will be a blessing, not a curse to the world. In your sin, I was there. When you were high on drugs and calling on me, even in your sin, I gave you visions, and you heard the call and were moved to draw close to Me, even when you felt so unworthy. There was light in the darkest times of your life. In your suffering, you cried out to Me, and I heard your cries. I wept with you in your suffering. I stayed with you in that fiery place, and I have set you free from that season. You have been refined in your trials and tribulations, sweet Artist, for a time such as this. The creative light you see now in that art of the past was Me in you.”
Friend, have you felt His call on your own life? Do you know what your divine purpose is? As Christians, we are not only called to BE different, we are called to DO different. According to scripture, our days are written in His book:
“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16 (ESV)
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
I used to think that I wasn’t brave enough, strong enough, or had enough courage to fight the spiritual battles set before me. I was not a person who put myself out there. But now everything that I have seen throughout my life is beginning to come together, particularly with the help of my war dream and my recent experiences at the Arise Women’s Summit. I have recently learned several things that I would now like to share with you.
The first thing I’ve learned is that, yes, I am a soldier in God’s mighty army…I am a Warring Woman of Zion…but my weapons are LOVE and PEACE. God can and will use even me, but I must depend on His strength. I must fight on my knees in prayer and in total surrender. This is my prayer every morning: “Okay God, what today?” One of the things He recently asked me to do was to share my story here for you.
Secondly, we are ALL called by Him and have a destiny. We can’t let the devil squash or steal it. I speak wholeheartedly to you right now with this: The Lord calls you His, and you are so loved. Friend, I pray that you will begin to see Him in all things.
“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.”
-Deuteronomy 7:9 (NLT)
Sometimes the devil tries to convince us that we are not worthy, and our path becomes foggy as the pain of life begins to feel like too much. But God can free you from everything that the enemy means to use to harm you. It is our covenant right to walk in this Holy freedom. Release your struggles to Him, and I assure you He will turn them around and use them for His good. He will use your past hurts to help others and bring healing and glory to His Kingdom. Be bold, Artist. The defeated one and his demons have no power or authority over your life anymore. When you speak the name of Jesus, they know He is Lord of Lords. Ask for the mighty armor of God, read the Word, and gain your sword. This sword is the “sword of the Spirit” which scripture tells us in Ephesians 6:17 is the Word of God. Renew your mind with this knowledge that surpasses all human understanding.
Thirdly, God told me we are coming into a new season. There has been a shift in the atmosphere. Can you feel the tide changing? This is the time of acceleration, and I was told that there was extreme urgency in this new season. It will be the Greatest Harvest of Souls the world has ever known. He told me that the world shall have hope again. God told me that we are chosen and called to create and speak life into this world for a time such as this–and this time is NOW! He calls us to walk in heavenly signs, wonders, and miracles in the coming years. He told me that Christian artists will speak once more, and we will see so much prophetic art in the coming years that we will all be amazed.
I was chosen for a time such as this. But this is not just my call…it is yours as well. He is overjoyed by your gifts. He placed those gifts in you. He delights in you and is overjoyed when you walk out your destiny with your God-given gifts. We have all fallen, but do not fear the judgments of this world. Trust His plan over your life. The moment we realize we can trust His plan is the moment we begin truly living. Now walk in your calling, dear Artist, and I will walk in mine.
“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY: WHO WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO COME.”
Revelation 4:8
Heather Pell
I am a child of God. I come from a long line of Warring Women of Zion. I married the love of my life. We have eight beautiful children, four in heaven waiting on us and four here on earth. All were masterfully created by my God, and all are so loved! My trades are being a mother first and secondly an artist.
Can you hear the sound? Your Mountain is calling…
Don’t miss the 2nd Arise Women’s Summit coming to Colorado October 13th-15th!
Visit ChristaElisha.com to learn more, to read testimonials from the first Arise Summit, and to register.
3 thoughts on “Answering His Call”
Beautiful!!. Great is God’s faithfulness.
An awesome testimony and glory to God.
I rejoice with your blessings and the Word
That you share from God.
God bless you abundantly and your family.
Love and prayers 💜 🙏
Heather thank you so much for sharing your photography, testimony, and the words God gave you. They are all truly beautiful and powerful! As a Christian artist, the words God spoke to you speak so much to my heart. I can imagine your grandma, Busha, looking down from Heaven and saying, “Well done my dear sweet Heather.”
Please see words from a song we sing at the Salvation Army Cwmbran Corps.
Beautiful Lord, wonderful Saviour, I know for sure all of my days are held in your hand, crafted into your perfect plan. You gently call me into your presence, guiding me by your Holy Spirit. Teach me, dear Lord, to live all of my life through your eyes. I’m captured by your holy calling. Set me apart, I know you’re drawing me to yourself. Lead me, Lord, I pray. Take me, mould me, use me, fill me. I give my life to the potter’s hand. Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me. I give my life to the potter’s hand. (Salvation Army Song Book)
Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter, we are the clay. Mould me and make me after your will, while i am waiting yielded and still. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Hold o’er my being absolute sway. Fill with thy Spirit til all shall see Christ only always living in me.