Denise Jackson Boswell

Denise Jackson Boswell of Kalamazoo passed away Tuesday January 21,2020 at Ascension Borgess Hospital. Denise was born August 24, 1956 in Clinton, IA the daughter of James and Angelina (Palmisano) Jackson. She was employed as a dental technician and retired as the North Carolina State Director of the Christian Coalition. Denise was a first through eighth grade home school mom and she enjoyed Biblical studies. On July 31, 1983 in Indianapolis, IN Denise was united in marriage to Grady Evan Boswell who survives. Also surviving are three children, Josiah Boswell of Denver, CO, Jeremiah Boswell of Morrisville, NC, Abigail Boswell of Grand Rapids; sister, Deborah (Rick) Majors of Tampa, FL, Karen Gossett of Indianapolis, IN; several nieces & nephews. Friends will be received 10 – 11 am Tuesday January 28, 2020 at Redmond Funeral Home, Kalamazoo where services will follow at 11 am. Interment will be in Hill Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be directed to Open Doors USA. www.redmondfuneralhomes.net BY BLOOD AND TESTIOMY         An Epistle.  “For you are our epistle, written in our heart, known and read of all men.” -2 Corth. 3:2   Dedication To my beloved husband for his discipleship, support, and love, and for his being my “walking concordance.”  To the prophets, apostles, and disciples, whose lives are made transparent for our profit. To my children, Josiah, Jeremiah, and Abigail, who are destined to live up to the legacy of their names. To the Father Almighty and the Lord Yeshua, who without I could not have lived this life.   Foreword How often do we reflect on all the things that have happened in our life that have the fingerprint of God on them?     Table of Context Chapter 1 But God intervened Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7   The Testimony of Denise Jackson Boswell   I don’t like labels. They are limited and tend to call to mind, stereotypes that do not at all apply to the labeled person.  However, since I hope to show the connecting twists and turns that have brought me to this place in my walk with God, labels can help offer some context. Today, I identify the closest to the label “charismatic” among the Body of Christ. Yet I also identify with historical doctrine that is sometimes lacking among charismatics and is being increasingly abandoned by mainline denominations today also.   Most denominations were birthed during revivals which were characterized by repentance, salvation, and the healing, charis (grace) acts of the Holy Spirit. And just as the presence of Jesus provoked demons to reveal themselves (Matthew 8:29), this is also particularly evident during  revivals.  Not dealing with demonic activity is one reason why revivals fade away.  Another is when the later generations have no experiential knowledge of the Holy Spirit and alter doctrine to accommodate for this lack.   Fortunately, the continuing acts of the Holy Spirit are supported by rightly interpreted scriptures and by periodic revivals. So there remains in almost every denomination, a remnant of those who have experienced the charismatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit. While I object to the cessationist’s doctrine that rejects these acts, I have also personally benefited from the holiness and evangelical foundations of many denominations.  I object to the pagan mixtures so obvious and growing at an alarming rate in the Catholic denomination, yet I am grateful for my Catholic brethren. I regard them as Christian according to their basic Christian doctrine in contrast to the opinion of some.   The biblical criteria for the gospel and salvation, is the truth that Jesus came in the flesh and died for our sins and was raised from the grave.   Our believing this is what saves and reconciles us to God, accepting that sin separated us from God, repenting of our sins and accepting Christ’s sacrifice. John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have ever lasting life.” This is the good news.   My recollection is that my desire to know God began around 8 years of age, after I completed the “catechism” of doctrinal instruction via the Catholic Church. I was taught and believed in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection.  During my elementary school years, I had a romantic notion to become a nun when I grew up, and by my early twenties, I was very passionate about health and healing.     I came to realize that I knew very little about the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit, or what it really means to be a believer, or how I could be sure that I was “baptised” by the Spirit.  I didn’t attend church or read the bible very often and not surprisingly, I had few undeniably supernatural experiences where God suddenly became real.  But God intervened.   One certain encounter with the living God came during a relationship which would continue on-again-off-again for five years; it was one of those passionate, bad and good spiritual connections. I was to relive many times, the despair of falling back into the relationship, only to be quickly reminded of the reasons why we broke-up. He was tall, dark, handsome, with a personality void of conceit, and from an upstanding and wealthy family. There was nothing more to want by the world’s standards. But after he went to college, he started using drugs and he changed. He knew he could have almost anyone he desired and often did. He became corrupted and cruel. I didn’t know about evil soul ties or spiritual warfare, so I found it difficult to reconcile my feelings or resist his talk about our spiritual love connection. Fortunately, two experiences would bring me to a place of witnessing to him and walking away.  I have never forgotten the exhilaration of that moment. But an earlier experience, one before I was baptized with the Holy Spirit helped lay the ground work.   I was sobbing hot tears on my bed pillow on a beautiful summer day, heartbroken over how loving someone could hurt so much. I was questioning if I was ever going to find that one, perfect love of my life.    Then, a voice in my head turned my violent sobbing instantly into total stillness.   It was more than a voice, it was a revelation of truth; this profoundly important and simple truth: “The only perfect love is God’s Love.”   I instinctively knew that something supernatural had just happened, and from that day, I understood the unfairness and futility of expecting another human being to completely fill my heart.  Like most young women I continued to date, to dream of “falling” in love, marrying, maybe starting a family, but the reality that I needed the love of God, replaced the romantic fantasy and idol I had erected in my heart from fairy tales of knights in shining amour and Hollywood movies depicting the “perfect soul mate”.    It would be years further down my path before I would see other strivings as more ways that I pursued untruths, or what is transitory and passing away.  It would be years yet before I would balance my pursuit of advancement in my career, home ownership, and an insatiable drive to be a self-made “Renaissance” woman.  At the age of 21, I owned a sporty car, a home, and was running my own business.  I loved art and poetry and there was no project I wasn’t willing to work on until I figured it out to completion. I could tune up my car or replace the brakes Saturday morning and be dressed in an evening gown for a date by evening.  It took a dramatic supernatural experience to bring a true renaissance to my life and a practical observance of Yeshua’s words:   “He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that takes not his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me.” (Mat 10:37-38).     I had not yet put Christ first in my life; I continued to let the busyness of life dictate my priorities, but soon, this was all to change and for many years, looking to Christ first would become as natural as breathing.   Events leading up to my second significant God encounter began to take shape in 1981, shortly after my 25 birthday, and I reluctantly agreed to attend a church service.   It was during this home fellowship that I heard someone speak in a different language and then in English and without having any idea of what this meant, I noticed that tears had welled up in my eyes.   Soon unrelenting tears were falling down my face. This struck me as unusual because I didn’t feel particularly emotional; I really didn’t know what to think about what I had just witnessed and experienced.  So after the teaching, I asked one of the young men there if he could explain the meaning of the foreign language which was followed by English and seemed to be connected.  With the ease of having an obvious familiarity with the scriptures, he quickly opened his bible to the book of Acts and then 1st Corinthians.  I soon learned that what I had heard was the Holy Spirit speaking followed by an interpretation so that we could understand and be encouraged by what was spoken. I was curious to know more, but the demands of work and home maintenance left me little time to pursue it, or so I thought.   God had another plan.  This young man would soon become my mentor and in less than 2 years, my husband.  Soon, my priorities were to change dramatically.    Shortly after that home meeting, I completed a Bible study (which I had also reluctantly agreed to) and this lead to one of the most important encounters with God of my life—receiving the gift of his Holy Spirit. I asked for and spoke in tongues, a heavenly prayer language for the first time.  When this started it came with a warm, effervescent feeling up my throat and a smile that seemed to span from ear to ear.  I actually ran to a mirror to look at my face.   This supernatural, yet tangible experience proved to me that God is a personal God who knows me and hears my prayers.  It proved to me that the bible is reliable and that if I ask and believe, the things promised in it are still attainable.  After this experience, I was all in and life was never the same.     I couldn’t get enough of God’s word and read my bible for hours at a time. I wanted to learn all I could as fast as I could. I was convicted of sexual sin and certain temptations fell away with ease while others took much self-discipline. I experienced a growing dissatisfaction with the company that I was keeping and from whom I would soon drift away.  My five-year on-again-off-again relationship with “tall, dark, handsome, and rich” came to an end after I was baptized with the gift of the Holy Spirit as was evidenced by my speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4, 10:44-46 & 19:6).  Jesus referred to the gift of the Holy Spirit as the “power from on high”.  According to scripture, speaking in tongues makes the human spirit stronger, but more, tongues is also perfect prayer for the Spirit knows all and knows how to pray for a need when I don’t (Romans 8:26). I was able to resist temptation and walk in victory, but this was not without a fight.    It was not surprising that after initially receiving my prayer language, I was quickly introduced to the opposition of the Adversary, forces that attempted to impede my prayer language fluency.    Almost immediately, I encountered problems with keeping my analytical mind out of the way whenever I attempted to yield to the Holy Spirit in prayer.  I would attempt to speak in tongues and would hesitate, search for sounds I had heard before, and only intermittently were the inspired utterances of the Holy Spirit able to breakthrough in a stutter.  This soon became distressing.  But again, God took what Satan meant to steal, and turned this opposition to a good outcome.   This opposition brought me to a place of seeking through which I received the additional manifestation of “diversity of tongues”.    Fortunately, my discipleship mentor advised me to wait until I was nearly asleep and very relaxed, to ask the Holy Spirit to help me yield to His tongue. When I did this, I spoke in not only the language that I had initially, but at least 7 distinctly different languages!  Certain ones I recognized as French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and American Indian while others were likely the languages of angels as referenced in the scriptures.  It was glorious and I promised God that I would not hesitate to pray in tongues and I have retained tongue fluency ever since.     I speak in only 3 languages now and I attribute this to how strange it would be to speak in the clicks and pops that are part of the languages of certain tribes in remote places of the world.  To speak in one of these languages by the Spirit’s divine utterance would require that we allow our tongue to strike the roof of our mouth and to pop our lips and so probably, very few of us speak in these tongues because moving our mouth in this way just doesn’t come naturally to us.  I am convinced that some of the reason we lack diversity of tongues is, and is also the reason we should seek a diversity of tongues, is because we can easily develop a tendency to limit our prayer language to a few words or sentences. The Holy Spirit has much more to pray through us than this!     We have an Adversary against not only our prayer time, but our prayer language fluency.     A prayer language is supposed to be just that, an entire language made up at least hundreds if not thousands of words.  Yet, I rarely hear Christians who understand this and are fluent in even one prayer tongue.  We can choose to move our mouths in different ways to allow more fluency as the Holy Spirit simultaneously gives the utterance of what he wishes to say. We can choose to switch between one language and another. This is the same principle we see in the scripture that the “spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet” (I Corinthians 14:32) and the “workings” of miracles.  We have our part. The Holy Spirit showed me that he loves it when we cooperate and flow with his language resources and provision.   The Holy Spirit also taught me about intercessory prayer.  During these times of intense prayer, I could be happily praising God one minute, and be weeping with deep emotion the next.    This would last sometimes only minutes and other times for hours, and this travail would lift as rapidly as it came. I was left with a sense of satisfaction that a breakthrough had been accomplished for some great need. Sometimes words of knowledge about individuals or the needs of the nation or the Church would come during the intercession. There was an emphasis on the need for repentance and holiness.  Other times declarations of truth and spiritual warfare were clearly the objective.   At a time when the burden of intercession and revelation was particularly heavy, I cried out to God to bring to me a prayer partner to carry the load with me.   I wanted God to choose the prayer partner, and within the hour, a church friend was knocking on my door. She shared how God approached her 3 times about coming to see me. She was vacuuming her home at the time and so she inferred that she could wait to call to get together sometime, but by the third time that the Holy Spirit spoke to her, the sense of urgency had become a command to “go now!”  She left immediately without calling and was soon outside my door, listening to my intense cries to God.  After she made her presence known, we quickly related how God had put us together and ours became a beautifully long friendship that lasted decades, and a fruitful prayer partnership.  It is also noteworthy that we realized that demons must be able to foresee that our friendship would be harmful to their plans because early in our acquaintance, we had both entertained thoughts, that we didn’t like one another.  There was no rational reason for this; these assumptions were lies planted by the enemy. Praise to God, who had another purpose.   I saw once again that opposition (not to be confused with striving in the flesh), can often be a clue to what God was trying to steer me towards, not away from.     This brings me to another example of opposition prior to a key turning point in my walk with God. While attending a popular Christian resort, I happened upon a book in the bookstore about casting out demons. As I was reading the table of context, a woman nearby determined from the book title that she should warn me not to engage myself in deliverance.  Immediately, God quickened to me that this was a lie from the enemy and so I eagerly purchased the book.  It was not long before my husband and I were heavily involved in deliverance ministry, first to ourselves, and then among our friends and church acquaintances. My husband and I were so busy teaching and meeting with people who were seeking deliverance and/or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that our evenings were booked 6 out of 7 days a week for sometimes a month at a time. This again proved to me that the things spoken about in the bible as part of our inheritance are readily available to those who will risk believing for them.  There is a cost.    Prior to the bookstore encounter, I had been praying, along with the rest of our church for the wife of one of the founding members. She was a diabetic and once again, she was being threatened with amputation of her feet due to lack of circulation. During intercessory prayer, it occurred to me that because the church had been fasting and praying for years for this woman, perhaps a different approach than praying for healing was needed.    I decided to ask God for a specific word of knowledge, about what was blocking the healing.    That same day, I clearly heard the Holy Spirit speak that a demon was responsible.  In my excited naiveté’, I called my pastor to share the revelation and how it had come about. At this time, my husband and I were held in respect by the pastor who appreciated our involvement in missions, nursery, choir, and support of the church financially and any way that we could.  So, upon my sharing, he just paused and then thanked me.  I thought that the conversation was a bit abrupt, and little did I know that the Pentecostal denomination didn’t at this time believe that a Christian could be host to a demon.    It is true that Chrisitans cannot be possessed by demons because we belong to Christ, but our body and soul can be inhabited by demons much like unclean persons could enter the inner and outer courts of the tabernacle, without defiling the holy of holies, dwelling place of God.  This is analogous to God present temple, our bodies (I Corinthians 6:19).   As stated earlier, seeking the supernatural of God comes at a cost. Our involvement in deliverance led to many amazing experiences and blessings, but it also brought us persecution, by certain family members, friends, and authority figures. It was no different for Jesus, who was thought to be beside himself by his own mother and brothers, and was accused of casting out demons by the power of the Devil by the Pharisees. Likewise, my husband and I, were labeled as “wolves in sheep’s clothing” by our own pastor at that time.  We were merely sharing how Christians can have demons and friends were getting delivered and healed. Certain brave ones presented their testimonies to the pastor, but he felt threatened by what he regarded as a challenge to his authority. His pride got in the way as he insisted that if God had something for his church, it would come through him.  I reminded him that God has rebuked the likes of prophets through a lowly animal, a jackass, and so I was confident that he could use me to bring a message of deliverance to my friends and to him. His rejection was heart-rending. Not all have a love for the truth my friends; some people want to believe lies because it is easier for them to ignore their Christian responsibilities; for others, ignoring truth allows them to remain in their “comfort zone.”  I literally washed my pastor’s feet and continued to pray for him and I was later told that he did eventually come to accept deliverance for Christians, but not before we had both moved on.   Deliverance has been largely neglected for hundreds of years and so it is reasonable to assume that many demons have travel down family lines. Demons don’t necessarily leave when someone is born-again. Deliverance is rarely automatic by sovereign intervention. Deliverance, like all of God’s promises must, generally speaking, be appropriated.  Demons must be confronted with the authority that God gave us to cast them out by the name of Jesus.    Deliverance is called the Children’s bread for a reason. Only believers have access to the power from on high necessary to resist and overcome habitual sin which is a major way of opening gates to demonic habitation.     Scripture teaches that after a demon departs a person, it may return and bring seven more and enter in, causing the last state of the person to be worse than in the beginning. Jesus also voiced this principal to the (John 5:14) man when he told him to go and sin no more otherwise a worse thing could come upon him. Habitual sin is dangerous. Sometimes deliverance is the only means for a person to overcome a sin habit, but we must be aware that partaking of this miracle bread requires that we not give ground up by continuing to sin. It doesn’t appear that Jesus concerned himself with asking people if they believed on him before he cast out demons. In some deliverance passages we can infer that because the person seeking deliverance from Jesus often referred to him as Lord, master, or rabbi, that this is some indication of their recognition of his authority. We would also expect that after they received their miracle they would be more, not less, receptive to following the author of miracles, as is still true today.   Demonstrations of God’s power makes evangelism easy.    Never was this so vividly seen as in one experience involving the young and the old, the sweet and the not so much. My husband and I had just completed a deliverance workshop and we decided to share our experience with a family that lived in one of the states we would pass through on our way back home in NC. The closer we came to our destination in Indiana, the greater feeling of anticipation I felt. By the time we arrived, I was bubbling over with enthusiasm and wasted no time sharing with the older and younger couple present. The older woman stated that she wanted me to pray for any deliverance she might need. It was a sincere request, but the Holy Spirit quickened to me that another purpose was to impact this younger couple as well. (I opened with prayer, asking for the assistance of God Almighty’s angels, and I bound the evil strong man in the individuals present and forbade any reinforcements.  I lead the woman in a brief prayer of repentance and renunciations which might present legal grounds for the demons to persist.)  We were soon in the thick of things as a demon spoke through the woman in another voice while rocking her head back and forth lamenting.   I rebuked the demon and quickly, the woman was coughing up copious amounts of ectoplasm like something straight out of the Ghostbuster’s movie.  In was an eerie scene that was later described by one of those present, as causing his hair on the back of his neck to rise.    Without considering the neglect of deliverance over generations, no one would guess that this woman was host to a demon.  I knew her well and everyone, me included, could hardly recall a harsh word from her mouth.  I had no doubt that this woman was saved as the fruit of her life made this clearly self-evident. Afterwards, all those present knew that the open door to this demon was the wearing down of years of being called stupid by her husband, and her acceptance of this. Clearly shaken, the young couple present was anxious to get saved. Also, what I had shared earlier in the evening about cleansing our homes of anything that could invite demons, was implemented by this couple that same evening.  I lead them into a prayer of asking Christ into their hearts and we all retired to bed rejoicing and in awe of God’s plans and power.  Sometime later, the older man submitted to deliverance and although the manifestations were less dramatic, mainly numerous yawns and coughs, he noticed a distinct smell of sulfur which made the exiting of demons very real to him.   God was continuing to move. Satan intended to immediately steal our joy and rejoicing, but God was setting up our next divine deliverance appointment for his purposes.   Prior to arriving home, I had checked with the neighbor who had been walking and playing with our dog during our absence. All was well. Yet by the time we arrived home, this had quickly changed. We found the kitchen walls and cabinets covered with dog excrement, so high it seemed impossible to conceive how it got there. Our dog never before relieved himself in the house and he had been let out prior to our arrival.  As I took in the scene, I instinctively knew that it was the enemies plan to steal my joy and more. The dog was also trembling and all I could feel for him was compassion. I knelt down and petted him, and started praying against the spirit of fear. I was thinking in terms of a demon influencing him from the outside and yet suddenly, ectoplasm began to fall out of his mouth. I quickly grabbed paper towels and put them to his mouth and without further coaching, he gently bite onto the paper as I continued to rebuke all the demons I could think of that may have been cast out of us during the workshop.   The Holy Spirit somehow caused me to know instantaneously that the demons were using our dog as a storehouse, to wait it out and watch for opportunities to enter back into us!  This was an important lesson and whenever we conduct deliverance where there are house pets, we are sure to forbid such transfer.    It should not surprise us as there is an example of demons inhabiting animals in scripture. After Jesus cast a legion of demons out of the demoniac, they moved into a herd of pigs which then ran violently off a cliff.  Demons seek habitation in anything living rather than go into what is described in scripture as “the dry places”.  We should endeavor to remember to order them there, but I don’t stress about it if I forget as I have also seen that God’s grace covers when our intentions are pure.  As previously alluded to, I think that our dog was allowed to be inhabited as part of God’s plan for significant deliverance and healing for someone with a plethora of arguments against it.   While all the previous events were still very fresh in my mind, a couple came to visit us and during our sharing about what we had been learning and doing, the husband steadily refuted all of it.  He was a highly educated engineer who had explored various things including self-hypnosis. He summed up his arguments as deliverance being the result of the power of suggestion. It was then that I shared about the deliverance of the dog. The man’s argument totally evaporated and by that night, we all attended deliverance and healing meeting that was being hosted by a church about an hour away. Once he allowed me to pray for him, nothing much seemed to be happening, so I instructed him that sometimes a thought, a memory, a picture flashing in the mind’s eye, is the Holy Spirit giving a clue to a word of knowledge or discernment of spirits, and addressing this can cause deliverance to flow.  He shared that he was just thinking about how his Methodist friends would think that deliverance was not dignified.  I discerned to bind and rebuke the spirit of “Fear of Embarrassment” which I believe was the evil strong man of this man’s body-house because deliverance began to flow like popping the cork off of a Champagne bottle. He received significant deliverance and his hearing was restored in his ears! His wife also received deliverance and was healed of painful varicose veins and fibroids which disappeared from her breasts. If I had not had the testimony about our dog, I seriously doubt that my husband and I would have been able to convince this man of the validity of deliverance.  Not being shocked and riled by opposition that immediately follows a victory, can help us not miss what God intends to do.   The fragrance and prophecy of two witnesses.       Deliverance from depression and exits from all gates.         Deliverance reawakened my desire to heal people heal and soon I found myself fighting against breast cancer in a woman in our new church who I didn’t even know. The lessons were many. It may seem strange that I would pour myself into the fight as I did, when the Holy Spirit told me from the first that she would not receive her healing and would go on to be with the Lord.  Yet, in retrospect, I was to see the many things that I learned during this two year season.                -Lesson One:      Timing and Boldness; put the unbelieving out.                                              How is it that you are a leader in the church and yet you do not believe pastor                -Lesson Two:      Timing and the anointing                                              Laughing at the Enemy and the cloud of glory present to heal                -Lesson Three:   Timing and Fasting                                              Christ’s Victory is My Victory                                              Sparks of Visitation                -Lesson Four:      Timing and Discernment                                              Civic Involvement: Promotion or Distraction                -Lesson Five:       Timing and Endurance                                              Discouragement and not knowing what else to do.                -Lesson Six:         Timing and Change                                              Moving on with new wisdom.                -Lesson Seven:   Timing and God’s Purpose                                              Fighting cancer in myself.     Healing Teams and Bending bones.         Righteous Indignation and Deliverance.       Civic duty and falling into busyness     Prophecy in 1995 to change our future history in 2015. It was several years around 1996-1997 when I was given a dream about the Church as a “War Bride”.  On the heels of this, God gave me an opportunity to speak to a group of about 200 women at the Daughters of the King conference, and I chose to speak on this as “The Promise of God” because in the interim, God had also visited me in a dream in such a powerful way that his presence lingered for many minutes after I awoke.  As I laid there not wanting to awaken fully, but to continue to bask in his tangible love, I repeated His last words to me after what was a glorious dance: “We will run”.        The busyness of Family Life and Life’s Traumas.       The Failure of the Church and the Arm of the Flesh.                -Vacuums get filled with something.                -The New Age Movement or Latent Power                -Weariness and lack of Intimacy                -Prayer is the first to go.                -The Long Road back.                               Words of knowledge, prophecy, past and present.  Kevin and David.       God’s lessons come full circle; fighting cancer in myself.                -Overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony.     Prayer for only what is of God is a real protection.  God honors our intention even when we don’t have the doctrine right.       END So there you have it, the words of my testimony through which along with the Blood of the Lamb, I will overcome the Adversary of cancer. Stay tuned and stay resolved Beloved of God.  Determine to live at least part of the life God destined you for.  It won’t be easy, but it will not be dull!   Colossians 1:10 ESV So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.   Ephesians 4:1 ESV I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,