Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

I wanted to share what GOD taught me about homelessness. My perspective leans more toward the spiritual aspect of homelessness instead of just the physical aspect of it.

First of all, I want to thank and praise JESUS for taking care of me, and blessing me to come through homelessness so beautifully. I never lacked anything, nothing was ever stolen from me, I always had a roof over my head, and even though I slept on cots that thousands of other people had slept on, I never shared my cot with bedbugs. Sure, I was called a few names that were not on my birth certificate, but JESUS allowed me to go through that to teach me to trust Him, to stand up for what is right, and to not be upset with another person's opinion of me.

Even though JESUS has blessed me to be in my own place for over a year now, He still talks to me about it. Just recently, He gave me the word "itinerary" relating to my former homelessness. Whenever He shares with me just a word, even though I generally know what it means, I still look it up in a dictionary to get man's definition first. I know that He will superimpose His spiritual definition of what that word means over man's definition. Then He will tell me why He shared that word with me. So here is the definition from the dictionary I have:

Itinerary- "a route or proposed route of a journey. 2. An account or record of a journey. 3. A travelers' guidebook --adj. 1. Of or pertaining to a journey or to a route. 2. Traveling from place to place; itinerant."

This definition certainly fits when I think of how an actual itinerary has been used in this world. The travel agent works out all the details once the travel dates are known--from the start to the completion of the journey so that the itinerary can be complete. I remember when I took a business trip many years ago and the travel agent gave me my travel itinerary. It was all typed up, and given to me well in advance of my scheduled trip. She had taken care of everything. All I had to do was show up at the airport at the appointed time with my identification.

Of course, GOD'S itinerary is not like that at all. His itinerary is not something I can see. From my viewpoint, His itinerary was totally incomplete. From moment to moment, I had no idea what was going to happen. GOD basically said to me, "you are going to be homeless now, so off you go." I had no idea where I was going to go or what to do.

Looking back at those months before my homelessness actually began; I remember that I had been praying constantly to not have to experience it. I had never prayed so much in my life. I was praying in english and in tongues, but mostly in tongues. I know the blessing of all that praying helped me to be prepared when it did happen. I have always been so fearful of so many things, so I am still amazed and thankful to GOD that He blessed me not to be afraid when that day actually came.

Along with praying, The HOLY SPIRIT had me reading the first chapter of the book of Joshua, and the third chapter of the book of Daniel continuously. Joshua and Daniel were so brave.

I had also asked a friend to pray diligently that homelessness would not happen to me. I had been notified that the marshals would be coming on a certain day that was approaching, but I stayed in my apartment on that day anyway. I just knew that GOD was going to deliver me at the last moment. Then the marshals knocked on my door and told me that I had to leave. Once that happened, I called my friend and told her she could stop praying because I had officially been given the boot. I then told her, 'let's go eat'. I was so surprised that I just accepted it. I was not angry with GOD at all, there were no tears.

Regarding GOD'S spiritual itinerary for me, He further stated to me deep within my Spirit, "I will let you know which way to go as you move forward. If you are going in the wrong direction, I will let you know by shutting doors, but if you are going in the right direction, I will bless you by opening some doors that you did not even know was available to you."

Man's itinerary is about totally believing and relying on the directions that is seen on paper, whereas GOD'S spiritual itinerary is about totally trusting only Him at every moment, even though the future cannot be seen. I know that His two main goals are to test each person's obedience, and in the process to teach each person how faith works. JESUS knows that each person will enjoy a true sense of peace and freedom from fear once he/she understands how faith operates, and learns how to walk in that faith every moment.

From GOD'S standpoint, my itinerary was complete. He had set everything up in the spiritual realm, and was waiting for me to activate it, to make it a reality here on His earth.

With Abram/Abraham, GOD gave him his itinerary, telling him to leave his country, his family, and his father's house, to go to a land that GOD would show him (Genesis 12:1). In the Bible, either directly or indirectly, GOD gave people an itinerary.

Lot- Genesis 13:8-12; 19:15-16
Isaac- Genesis 26:1-3
Jacob- 28:1-2; 5-7; 31:11-13; 35:1
Moses- Exodus 3:10
Joshua- 1:1-9
Israelites- Exodus 14:15; Deuteronomy 8:1-20
Elijah- 1 Kings 17:2-9
Elisha 1 Kings 19:15-16
JESUS- Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:1,18; John 18:11
JESUS gave His disciples an itinerary- Matthew 10:1-14, Luke 10:1-10; Luke 10:1-10; Acts 1:4-5
Rich young ruler- Matthew 19:16-24; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-24
Philip- Acts 8:26
Paul 9:6-15, 20; 13:1-2; 22:18-21

Just as GOD gave Abraham his specific itinerary, He wants each homeless person He created to leave the people, places, and the things that were known in order to embrace all that He created them to be. I believe every person is given a spiritual itinerary from The LORD, not just the homeless. Just like the rich young ruler, a person can reject GOD'S direction and purpose for them.

JESUS waits to see if each person will choose Him or continue to stay with what is known, even if what is known causes a lot of pain and suffering.

When I first left the campbellites, I felt spiritually homeless for a long time. Leaving a false religion is GOD'S way of moving people forward and releasing them from spiritual bondage. He shows them that it was not His plan for them spiritually.

JESUS wanted me to know what the spiritual meaning of 'itinerary' is so that I would know everything was planned for me from start to finish. From the people He would bring across my path for me to meet, to the places He would lead me to, even the length of my homelessness. He lovingly planned every detail. Nothing happened by chance. He set it all up to bring me out of bondage, just as He did with the Israelites (Deuteronomy 8:2). All of this was to show His deep love for me, to test me, and to teach me how to walk by faith.

Heavenly Father, I praise You and thank You so much for demonstrating Your love for me by bringing me closer to You through homelessness. I thank You for teaching me the spiritual meaning of an itinerary. Thank You for placing me on Your heavenly route, and not leaving me on my earthly route. I love and treasure all the deep and powerful lessons You continue to teach me. I love You!

You are a very inspiring person, seekingthetruth, thank you for sharing that! Please keep us posted on your itinerary!

Thank you for sharing.

Much meat here. Thank you for sharing. The Rich Young Ruler is interesting. Wealth will not save you. That is because a resurrected person has no wealth or standing unless Jesus gives it to you. He is your interface to God. You can approach the father through him. His sacrifice on the cross covers sin. Before animal sacrifices covered sin of the children of Israel.

What I am realizing as I talk to people that are homeless is that the one thing we all seem to need is avoided, which is going into a shelter. I totally understand wanting to pass on the whole shelter experience. It can be quite disconcerting, that's my ten dollar word for frightening!

What I am seeing is people stuck in homelessness for years because they refuse to go to a shelter. Some share with me that they had a bad experience or had heard some negative things about them. So I totally understand, but it does seem to stop many people from moving forward with their lives.

There are so many negative things that I had heard/read about shelters, such as bedbugs, people stealing, name calling, mistreatment by the staff, being cursed out, threats of possible violence, evil spirits, etc. That is just the short list.

Moogy, if you would like to share, I would love to hear what you have learned from helping those of us who were homeless.

Years ago, when I used to go into the shelter I knew of in my city to drop off donations, I would look in the sitting area, and some of the women looked like a deer in headlights. Some of the women had the look of confusion ("how did I end up here?") and/or despair ("this is so depressing, will I ever come out of it?") I remember thinking, "I hope they hurry up and take my donations so that I can get out of this depressing place!"

Not knowing that about 15 years later, I would be one of those women sitting in there. Now, I can imagine GOD speaking to JESUS back then and saying about me, "Bless her heart, she does not have a clue that she will be coming to this same place one day." Then The HOLY SPIRIT adding, "Yes, she also does not know that one day before that happens, I am going to have her praying in another language that she becomes homeless!"

One gut-wrenching statement that I overheard a lady say when I was homeless was, "JESUS said that you will always have the poor with you, but I never thought that I would be one of them." This lady sounded so hopeless. It was like she had connected the two, that being homeless meant a person is now hopeless, but that is not true at all. Naturally, the longer a person stays homeless, the more hopelessness can set in, but what I have learned is that there seems to be a spiritual part to homelessness that is often overlooked.

seekingthetruth wrote: ↑Mon Jan 18, 2021 4:54 pm Naturally, the longer a person stays homeless, the more hopelessness can set in, but what I have learned is that there seems to be a spiritual part to homelessness that is often overlooked.

Very insightful, seeking! Can you expand on this a little?

SolaDude, I am not ignoring you, I am waiting for The HOLY SPIRIT'S download. Sometimes that comes within a moment or weeks later. Any insight that I have is from Him. I know nothing, but He knows everything. I know only what He decides to tell me, and it is always powerful.

SolaDude! The HOLY SPIRIT just recently downloaded the response to your question. He also told me that He placed the question on your heart.

I think that I have shared before that I had been very fearful as long as I can remember. There were so many things that I was afraid of, but one of my biggest fears was being homeless, especially being a woman. I could not even imagine not having a safe place to go to at night.

One of the most loving things that JESUS did was to allow me to be homeless in order to release me from that fear forever. He taught me to learn how to trust Him completely with guiding my life. As a Christian, I needed to accept my homeless situation, and to place my total faith in JESUS. Going into a shelter was the moment that homelessness became real to me.

Before I went into the first shelter, I stayed with a family I knew for a few days. I slept in a nice, comfortable bed, it was quiet there, and I felt safe. It was not until I went into the first women's shelter JESUS sent me to that it became a reality to me. I would have never chosen to go into a shelter, but I knew that this was JESUS' plan for me, and that there was no need in resisting it.

Spiritually, homelessness is a "burning bush" moment. JESUS is looking to see if a person will stop and look just as Moses did (Exodus 3: 2-4). It is a (test), a spiritual tap on the shoulder in order to get each person's attention to come closer to Him, and to be taught how to hear from Him, and to learn how to walk in faith.

Of course, only JESUS knows what each person needs the most in order to help them. I am not saying that each and every homeless person would need to go into a shelter. There are probably many people who skipped the whole shelter experience altogether. But I do think that the majority of people need to go into a shelter because it is a full surrender of the current situation. Going there seems to be the first step in relinquishing control of the circumstances. Also, GOD uses it as a pride removal process. It was very humbling having to ask for something that I once took for granted.

Before I was homeless, I was talking to a man sitting a bus stop and he was going on and on about how horrible homeless people are. How they refuse to work and they just want to sponge off of those who were productive members of society. What floored me was that he was homeless at the time! He did not identify with those awful people because he was couch surfing and his situation was temporary.

When I was living in a shelter, I noticed there were women that came in there and refused to talk to anyone but staff members. They would leave very early in the morning and return one minute before or right at curfew. When other women would say hello to any of these women, they were completely ignored. Living in a shelter should teach a person to be kind and compassionate to other people in the same situation.

As I have previously shared, I had heard some of the negative things about staying in a shelter, but my faith in JESUS, and in His power, quickly ended those negative and fearful thoughts. I just knew deep within my spirit that He was going to protect me. I know that it had to do with all that praying The HOLY SPIRIT had me doing before it actually happened. "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost" (Jude 20). There is also a quote I read years ago that fits perfectly as well, "If GOD brings you to it; He will bring you through it."

Every person who believes in GOD should be asking Him specifically why he allowed them to be homeless.

Thanks for sharing seekingthetruth.