Breaking Free
Why is it so hard to break free of our chains? As we learned from Moses, when you break free you are not just breaking your chains, you are breaking the chains of all who have come before you— who are still chained.
My Ordination
I was ordained in 2018 in our mother church— the African Methodist Episcopal Church, or AME— which is also the same church as Harriet Tubman, the conductor of the underground railroad— to help runaway slaves break free.
What they do when you get ordained, is they line up all the future pastors at the altar and we all have to kneel in front of an open bible. The bishops of the church place their hands on your head. They say this big prayer, “With the power and the authority…”
As they anoint you, they push your face into the pages of the bible.
Now, before they do this ceremony— they keep all of us up all night long so we don’t have any sleep. They wear us out with lectures and bible readings. The purpose of that is to break down any resistance you have inside— because when you are broken, you are open. You’re completely open to receiving the energy of the anointing.
It has to go right through you into every cell of your being— to give you the clarity of being unchained.
As soon as they line up all the pastors to be ordained, the bishops starting calling forth the power down from heaven to anoint us—
Souls of the Dead Passing Through The Aisles
Samantha feels a rolling thunder in the room. It gets deeply silent. In the aisles of the room, Samantha sees that there are several hundred dead souls lining up to go to the altar. Wave after wave of souls start coming out of the ground— crowding into the aisles— these were souls who had died long ago who were still chained in the darkness.
For some reason, perhaps they were so abused or violated they just could not break free and love themselves— even upon their death.
While we are being ordained— these souls come to use the portal that we have created by our hymns, our prayers, our collective energy and soul force— they are using our ordination ceremony as a portal to cross into the Light, for themselves— to at last, break free.
Portal to Light
Samantha and I were wondering how many other people sensed— that at this ordination ceremony there were hundreds of dead souls in attendance, besides the few thousand living people who are in the room?
There was certainly a power that was in the room. There is a rich history and tradition that is passed down from generation to generation in the African American church— that creates this portal— not just for those who are living, but also for those who died while they were still chained.
Breaking The Invisible Chains
The chains that you are breaking in your life may be ancient and still rooted in the graves of your parents, grandparents and ancestors. And if you don’t break this chain, it will be passed down to your children and their children. When you break your chains, you are breaking the chains of everyone.
That is why it is so scary.
The power to break the chain exceeds the power of the chain itself— and when the two come together— it’s scary, you feel the ground break open as the souls of past generations rise from their graves to break free and you feel the thunder roar as the sky creates a way for future generations to break free. It’s frightening.
When you finally look up from loosening your own chain— you see that you are breaking every chain— behind you and before you.
At my ordination, there were people in the room cheering and celebrating. But up above Samantha could see this heavenly light pouring down from the ceiling onto the altar where the souls of the dead were ascending up to heaven. And above that, were families and groups of people waiting to welcome them into the Light.
Whatever we do here in our lives— we are also helping souls in other realms. And you know what? They are helping us. They are imbuing whatever we are doing in our lives with their divinity and their power.
Benefit of Traditions
That is the benefit of being connected to tradition— such as African American soulfulness and Hawaiian spirituality— because we receive the blessings of thousands of years of love.
