Bloody Beauties
Simply put, we are an organization of women who pray. In the Kingdom Culture, prayer is not an annoying spiritual exercise, rather it is a lifestyle. We have been praying together as a hidden organization since 2014. Christmas day we made a covenant with the Lord that we would dedicate 5am as our time to assemble and give Him the first fruits of our day. Many years later we have seen many Goliaths fall at the feet of David (1 Samuel 17:51) in response to our prayers. When we asked “Father, what do you want us to pray?” He began to reveal the truth about the world we live in. Many of these truths are hidden because the level of darkness will make any sane person choose the bliss of ignorance. But we are the warriors that run towards Goliath like David did (1Samuel 17:41). We fight with greater intensity as we see the destruction that surrounds us by the wicked deeds of the unseen realm. Our reality is spiritual warfare.
The foundation of any quality relationship is communication. A quality relationship with our spiritual husband is communication through prayer. Isaiah 54 has become a foundational chapter in the story of our lives, individually and collectively. Each of us has indeed been that “barren woman” (vs.1) who is called to sing in the midst of her battles. In her most desolate seasons (vs.1) she has found the strength of the living God who has repeatedly been proven faithful. God is her husband (vs.5), and what was conceived in the season of desolation has manifested into a seven-fold increase for many others through her.
In verse 2, we see ourselves enlarging our tents through this project. Our prayers have been in secret but the benefits have been clearly seen in the open. Now we are attempting to tell each others’ stories through the outline of scripture and the testimony of our answered prayers. We are ‘stretching our tent curtains wide; not holding back and lengthening our cords.’ Our testimony woven into the Word is our strength against the enemy in this last and evil age (Rev 12:11).
We collectively connect with verses 4,5 & 6 in Isaiah 54 as we throw disgrace, humiliation and shame behind us and forget the pain of the rejection of our past. We embrace the privilege of being the honored wife of Christ as we shift into Warrior Bride mode. Verses 12, 13 &14 showers us with promises for our future as a direct result of our right standing as wife of the King. The final 3 verses solidifies our strength and authority as warriors who never lose. Absolutely NO WEAPON forged against us will prosper!!
We are the Bloody Beauties
OUR PERSONAL TESTIMONIES – How prayer became a lifestyle:
Rosalinda aka Cookie:
My personal prayer life started two decades ago while I was privileged to be mentored by a powerful servant of Yahuah in Brooklyn NY, Pastor Carlo Boekstaaf. It was through the example of his lifestyle that I was challenged to make a special covenant with the Lord. I vowed never to set an alarm clock again. Every evening before bed, I asked the Holy Spirit to wake me up when He wanted me to wake up and pray. Two decades later it has become the foundation of my personal lifestyle of prayer and of our daily organized prayer gatherings.
The simplicity of prayer jumpstarts a life of miracles. Inviting our heavenly Father to have full access to our lives opens the doors to new levels of spiritual reality. There is a saying in christian circles, “You have as much of God as you want.” Access to more of God’s presence is as simple as a daily invitation and simple obedience to His Word. In an intimate love relationship our minds stay focused on the beloved. In that same vein, a mind stayed on Him will be kept in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). The prayer line began through our wilderness experiences. Roz and I were kicked out of our respective churches for reasons we won’t go into here (another book another day LOL). But as another saying goes “ You can kick a girl out of the church but you can’t kick the church out of the girl” (lol). Outside of the four walls of organized christianity lies a remnant of hungry lionesses in the wilderness, looking to roar with passion, spiritual authority and confidence in the shed blood of Messiah. We created our own church in the wild¹, Beauty By the Blood.
When the roses met:
Cookie on Roz: Roz and I were original prayer partners starting in Brooklyn NY 20 years ago. Our lives took different paths and we relocated to various areas. It was the passing of a very dear sister in Christ that we prayed with years ago that reunited us. We remembered our times of prayer from the past and reinstated our ritual of prayer. It was together that we created a church in the wilderness. A prayer call at 5am, where we gather to pray, encourage and worship him in unity. This is where we rejoice with one another and weep with each other (Romans 12:15). This is where we became accountable to each other and strengthened each other’s faith in the midst of the storms of life. What was created through prayer became an underground railroad, an ark, and even a ‘juke joint at the foot of the cross’. An underground railroad as it is a secret place to find strength, hope and connection to spiritual family that helps you get to the next level on your spiritual journey toward freedom. An ark in that it is an enclosed structure that keeps us safe from the raging waters, winds and rain through consistency in the discipline of prayer. ‘A jukejoint² at the foot of the cross’ because this is where we can truly be ourselves in the presence of our King. This is where we can dance and sing and be merry with Him enjoying the pleasures of righteousness, grace, forgiveness and mercy.
When I first met Roz, she was a single mother of two beautiful boys. A hard working woman who loved God. Our home churches were sister churches in New York City. I was a member of the Brooklyn Tabernacle and she was a member of East Side Tabernacle. The restaurant we worked in was established by the churches. We met during the season of it’s ‘grand opening’ and one year later we departed in it’s ‘grand closing’. There’s no doubt in our minds that restaurant was created to bring the two roses together, Rosalind and Rosalinda. It was during the season of the closing that we developed a habit of praying together at 5am. Little did we know we would be engaging in this same discipline two decades later as the fulfillment of our calling in the Kingdom. We are called to pray!
Roz:
So here I found myself in a very difficult position I was the single mother of 2 of the most beautiful boys I had ever seen in my life. They were bright and full of joy. My relationship with God was fierce and I was fighting devils. Living in Harlem and working in Brooklyn getting up at 4:00 a.m. and riding the subway after midnight you had to be a baaadd beyotch’ (lol) and I was determined to make it out alive. God had given me the eyes of a seer and I saw a future that was much brighter then the place I was in. So I had a warrior spirit confined to a city of cement. I knew one day I would be set free I just didn’t know when and I just didn’t know how.
For now I found myself the sous chef in Brooklyn Tabernacle Churchills restaurant. My dear friend Vaughan was the head chef and he brought me along with him. The Brooklyn tabernacle was a Mega church and there was a kind of regal feeling about being there and being a part of this staff and this project. I felt very privileged and honored I knew it was the hand of God that took me into a new level. Everything I did at this point in my walk was saturated in prayer I couldn’t do it any other way. I had 2 babies depending on me and this mama bear was not gonna die in the midst of her march. This was just a season I had to walk through in order to make it to my destiny.
This part of my walk led me to Cookie. It was the 1st day that the restaurant front of the house staff was coming to the restaurant . The kitchen staff had already been working for some time. I looked at the sign-in sheet and saw someone had signed in with the name Rosalinda. That was when the two flowers growing through the concrete were connected