On February 3, 2020 while departing from New York City I received a vision from the Lord. As the plane ascended and I was looking over the skyline I began to journal about my thoughts and struggles during this particular season of my life. I remember how rapidly my pen was moving to keep up with what I was releasing from within – journaling has always been my favorite tool of release and reflection. Then I began to pen

We have never been called to such a time of knowing who you are and whose you are because there is a crushing. Even now I see a vision – a black boot coming over New York City to annihilate… to kill… to CRUSH. Someone has got to say something. Someone is me… you. How long will we be silent? Everyone is crying for the same thing
LIBERTY TO BE

JOURNAL ENTRY, ASHLEY SHUELL

I had no idea in that moment as my hand was divinely moved to pen what was to come and already beginning to infect our world. This same day COVID-19 would be declared a public health emergency and New York CIty would become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis within just days of my visit. There was indeed annihilation, death and crushing of lives, dreams, businesses, economies, families…. everything. Life as we knew it was gone in an instant. The streets I had just walked upon were completely empty. I write

Amazon is teaching us NOW… how to isolate. Everything in our culture – phones, headphones, TV, computers, games…. isolate / destroy. Celebrities, the few select… even they are being destroyed. I mean I’ve had to be quiet most of my life about my own injustices. All the stuff I hated about myself but I don’t have to now. It is braving the wilderness. It will piss off, bring criticism, mockery, all the things I’m well acquainted with because we are all too scared to SPEAK UP. We’ve got everything backwards. We idolize celebrities but have to fight for our teachers. Unless your number one in sports your not anything? Sports over academics? Winning over character? Horns beeping, people screaming, rushing in lines – hurry up because I’ve gotta get mine – because that’s what orphans do. New York City just highlights what is everywhere – a bunch of orphans surviving, hustling to get mine – because how could I rest if I’m going to make it. I don’t have time to discover me. I’ll leave that to the world. I’m waiting to be discovered, my next big break – take a picture, broadway, bus tours… and then that beautiful lady who takes care of the birds in the streets of New York City while people walk by kicking them. She takes the time to teach my boys how to break the bread in small pieces – to feed the birds so they don’t choke. Now that is beautiful – kindness, care all lost among screens, fame, SELF, celebrity. When did we learn to fit in instead of stand out?

Journal Entry, Ashley Shuell

Why am I even sharing all of this? Because the guilty verdict in the death of George Floyd was announced this week. The death of George Floyd occurred just a few months after my visit to New York City. It was then I received a prophetic symbolism of his struggle and inability to breathe in symmetry with the COVID-19 virus and its primary symptom of severe acute respiratory syndrome that causes difficulty breathing. In short, people all across our nation and this world are struggling to breathe. They are crying out and dying while ignorance, selfishness, lawlessness, abuse, trauma, neglect, hunger, depression, suicide, worldly pursuits, you name it are choking us out. George Floyd was filmed as he struggled to breathe yet all around us are those slowly dying, struggling to breathe we do not see, or choose not to see.

We all are crying out for justice. Yet there is no justice without TRUTH. Absolute truth that is only found in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is your IDENTITY. He is your VINDICATOR. He is your ADVOCATE. He is your SOURCE. He is your SECURITY. He is your PURPOSE. He is your EVERYTHING. Jesus Christ, alone. The orphan in us is crying out HELP me. SAVE me. FREE me. While on the earth, there will be times of both justice and injustices, the only way to breathe free is when you know the One Who breathes life into you.

I look back. I see it. Defend the defenseless, stand up for the oppressed, say something! I’ve always had a heart for justice because that orphan was me. The dance of life is fraudulent. Shame is literally killing us. Perfection is demanding the very uniqueness out of us. The world’s gravitational pull is strong – the waves are growing higher, more intense. It’s never enough.

Journal Entry, Ashley Shuell

Breath of God blow into the soul of our nation. Breathe Your life and love back into us…. into the orphans yearning to breathe free.

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.  Genesis 2:7

Ashley Shuell, Journalist for Jesus