Dr. Kristi Lemley

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

INTERVIEWD BY KIMBERLY MOSES

Interviewer: Thank you so much Dr. Kristi for accepting the invite. Tell us a bit of your salvation journey? When did you get saved and how was that day when you accepted Jesus into your heart.

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Well, I grew up in a Christian home, so I feel like I always knew the Lord, but I didn’t always serve Him. So, I rededicated my life to the Lord in 1997 and I remember being at a women’s conference and just hearing them talk and I felt like I was hearing the Word for the first time. Even when I was in high school, I would read and fall asleep with my Bible because I would be so afraid. It was like I knew the Lord, but it was like I really wasn’t living for Him. So, in October 1997, I rededicated my life to the Lord, and I was weeping and it was such a powerful experience. The next day I started telling everybody about Jesus. I rededicated my heart to Him. When I rededicated my life, I was on fire for the Lord and then He started changing things about me. Instead of Him just being my Savior, I made Him my Lord. I surrendered my life to Him and started saying “Yes” and allowed Him to get some really unhealthy things out of my life.

Interviewer: Amen. That is so powerful! Especially that transformation about the deliverance process. Many people say it takes years and for me, I had anxiety for five years. So it took me five years to actually get free. So, could you tell us about your deliverance process?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Yes, it was a process because after I rededicated my life, then it was just a process of different things like I still was the life of the party and I was still drinking. I was still doing that kind of thing, but slowly things like that started to decrease. Up until 2002 was the year that the Lord just took me through deliverance from shame and guilt. It was an enormous thing. I went through many things in my life. I was sexually abused and then my parents divorced. Then I moved away and then my oldest sister moved out. My middle sister stayed with my dad and I went to live with my mom, so my family broke up. So, the Lord had to deliver me from how I respond to pain. Instead of turning to God to deal with pain, I turned to boys and alcohol. There was a lot of fear there. So, I would actually come to face the time that the Lord actually began to put a stinger on things and He said that “That needs to go, and that needs to go.” Because I am very prophetic, He did it with pictures. I will never forget the day that the Lord showed me what I looked like to Him when I drank alcohol. I was mortified and said, “Okay, I am done with that.”

Every day for eight months, I prayed that the Lord would deliver me from guilt. I

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

forgave others who had harmed me, but I couldn’t forgive myself for how I responded to the pain. So one day, when I was counseling a lady who had been sexually abused, I went home angry. I said, “Lord, what is up with this anger? Why am I angry?” He revealed to me that I had a stronghold of shame and guilt. So for eight months every day, I prayed that the Lord would take it away. Then one day, I was listening to a song and the lyrics said, “Your sins are forgiven as far as the east is from the west.” Then the dam broke and it was like my sins were away from me. They were not attached to me anymore. I started weeping because I felt the shame just lifted off and broke off. Then I just started telling the Lord that I will tell anybody about His Saving Grace.

Interviewer: Amen. I love that. What would you tell someone dealing with the pain that is masking it up or running from it?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Yes, I think that I was masking it up. I was so good at wearing a mask. It was like if everything on the outside looked good, nobody would know the mess on the inside. I would say to them that nothing will get better until they face it and surrender it to the Lord. Because it attacks every area of their lives, I would say to them, look at your relationships and look at your own inner conflict. There might be insecurity or shame in you. Maybe there are feelings that you are not good enough. You are a bad person, or like there is something wrong with you. So there is always this inner conflict, so I would say look at your relationships and look at how you cope with things. I turned to alcohol to numb the conflict that was going on within me. I will tell them you are the only person you can not get away from. You can escape people and run from God, but you can’t ever get away from yourself, so it is easier to deal with it now and surrender it to the Lord and He will walk you through it.

Interviewer: Amen. So, how did your ministry “Living In the Light Ministries” come into fruition?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Well, in 2003, somebody was a no-show for a session, so I just started praising the Lord. I had given a donation to a radio program. They sent me the Prayer of Jabez Cd and the Lord was totally setting me up. I grew up in a very conservative denomination regarding the Holy Spirit where we “ So, I rededicated

never talked about the Holy Spirit. During this song, I had my arms raised and my eyes closed and really seeking the Lord. In 2002 the Lord was just changing how I saw everything and then He delivered me from shame and guilt. So in 2003, I was just worshiping the Lord and watching Christian television and really getting the Word. Because I was going to a church that the people are saved but don’t talk much about the Holy Spirit, I was standing with my arms raised. I heard the audible voice of God and there was only one other time in my life that I had heard His voice before. He said He was calling me into ministry and to the nations to preach.

At that moment, I saw my-

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

self standing on the edge of a cliff and I saw the brown mountain ahead of me. There was nothing green. It was brown. As I went forth in life, the green would follow me as I walked. Then God spoke Isaiah 61:1, which says, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me and He has anointed me to preach the Good News to heal the broken hearted and to set the captives free and open the doors of those that are in prison.” So, that is how He called me. I actually went to Israel in 2018. The day before we arrived, we were going to Jericho Road. The Lord said, “You are going to see the vision that I gave you now. Draw a line in the sand and step over it. You are now entering your promised land.”

Interviewer: Wow. That is powerful. I always wanted to go to Israel. Hopefully, one day soon after this pandemic.

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Yes, after that visit, I went back two years later on a prayer journey.

Interviewer: Wow, that is exciting. So I know that you have a heart for revival and you wrote a book. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Yes, I would love to tell you. I have gotten my doctorate of Ministry at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri. It happened to be my dissertation, and I asked the Lord what he wanted me to write about. I went back into my journals. I have been writing and praying for revival since 2007. I said, “Lord, why is the church not walking in Power? Why are we not living like the Book of Acts? In Acts, there were miracles, signs, and wonders? Why are we not seeing that everyday because I know the Lord is the same, So what is different?”

He took me to 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves. Pray and seek my face. Turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal the land.”

So, my whole dissertation centered on 2 Chronicles 7:14, the actual words that the Lord speaks to us in that verse which is humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from your wicked ways. I studied the Bible on that pattern of how we turn our hearts from the Lord and started having difficulties. In Judges, another country would come over and put them into captivity. Then they would cry out to the Lord and He would raise up a judge. Revival would hit and they would defeat their enemies. They would be on fire for the Lord and then slowly, their hearts would wane again.

So I studied the Bible of that pattern and the Lord’s best for us is to live as the church did in Acts. That is His best for us. His best is for us to live revived, but because of our humanness and our complacency at times, our passion and vibrantness just slowly wanes. Revival is needed to get the church back focused on Him.

Interviewer: Amen. What was the miracle that God has allowed you to see that just made you say, “Wow!”

Dr. Kristi Lemley: I was traveling in a healing and deliverance service in 2006.

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

I will never forget it because I was praying at the altar with a young girl and she had rheumatoid arthritis. Her hand was deformed and I remember the Spirit saying, “Put your hand on hers.” So, I laid my hand on top of her hand. I began to pray and then I heard the Spirit say, “Withdraw your hand,” and when I did, her hand was normal. I was like, “Wow,” because I have seen people healed of cancer. I was in a healing room praying for somebody and the guy came in and said, “I think maybe my unforgiveness with my dad is part of the reason that my cancer came back, and I feel like that the Lord revealed that to me.” So I helped him walk through the forgiveness process of forgiving his dad and then he went back to the doctor and then the tumor was gone.

Interviewer: Jesus!!

Dr. Kristi Lemley: You know that I saw many of those when I first got initially in ministry. My ministry is more prophetic with healing and deliverance. Somebody told me before I became ordained that you need to go to a different denomination because you already have three strikes against you. You are a woman, an Evangelist, didn’t grow up in our denomination, so you are going to have to prove yourself. Because of that comment, I allowed that to take root within me. I allowed the enemy to tell me that I had to prove my ministry, so I went through that for probably 5 or 6 years. The Lord still used me but not nearly as He had before. But thank God He revealed to me that I didn’t need man’s confirmation. So, I took the key back and gave it back to the Lord.

Interviewer: I appreciate your transparency and I feel like my ministry is similar to yours: the healing, deliverance, and prophetic ministry. I had to learn to like to get delivered from people because someone always has something to say. Seriously, people always have an opinion. You have a really powerful ministry.

Dr. Kristi Lemley: What was so powerful is when I went to Thailand to preach at a women’s conference. Some of the women were walking for two days from the country of Laos because it is communist. I thought to myself that God took a nobody from a little town in Illinois halfway around the world to tell these people that God loves them. How powerful and how much love God has that He would send somebody halfway around the world to tell somebody how loved they are. The night before the conference, the Lord gave me a word.

When I got there, I didn’t know that I would be the first to share 10 minutes with the church planters in Thailand. They are Thai people who have planted churches and the Lord gave me a Word and a Scripture for them. I gave it to them, then the Women’s Conference started. After that, we went outside and the church planters were raising money to plant the churches. The Scripture on the front of the church was the Scripture that the Lord had given me to preach to them. I was just like, “Wow, that is God and that is so cool.” “ I said, “Lord, why is the

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

Interviewer: Wow, that is amazing! That is exciting to be in sync with Him. That is awesome that people are traveling and walking that far like for a Word.

Dr. Kristi Lemley: And it was so humbling because we take for granted going to church. We sometimes say that we don’t feel like going this week, and we take so much for granted because of COVID 19 now. But back then, in 2016, it was like

desperation in those people. It was such a hunger in the people because pretty much without God, they know that they can not make it without Him. That is how dire their lives are and it has put such a passion in me to be all in with the Lord. I was all in before, but now it was like that since I gave the key back to God, now I am all in.

Interviewer: Amen. You mentioned the young man had cancer and he had unforgiveness. Then when he forgave, he got healed. How can unforgiveness and things that are in our souls cause disease and illnesses?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Oh, it totally does. There are many times that I am at the altar praying with people. They would want me to pray for this, but I feel a block and I feel like they can’t receive. Then I ask them if they have unforgiveness or shame in their hearts. But a lot of times, there is something that prevents us from receiving. When we allow unforgiveness in our hearts, God can’t forgive us. But there are times when there is a connection between physical illness and unforgiveness in our hearts. When we have unforgiveness, we retain anger, bitterness, and resentment. All of these negative emotions impact us physically. It impacts our ability to be at peace and rest and let our bodies heal. If we have a cold, unforgiveness decreases our immune systems. I don’t think that people realize that it impacts their physical being when they hold onto unforgiveness and other things. God has created us: spirit, soul, and body. So if we are not operating in purity at a spiritual level, it will impact us physically and emotionally.

Interviewer: Amen. You have a book called “Broken and Transformed.” You share how God delivered you from sexual trauma. Can you kind of talk about what has inspired your book? Any pointers for someone that went through what you have gone through?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Yes, I wrote a book “Broken and Transformed.” I am redoing the book. It will come out October 1st and will be called “Transformed Live God’s Best.” It does help people go through the process of recognizing a spirit of trauma and a spirit of rejection. There are different things that we go through. Because I am a counselor, I believe in Sociology which is the study of behavior and the world has kind of turned it into something else. There are spiritual wounds that only the truth of God’s

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

Word can heal. We all have an inner child within us. Jesus said that we have to believe like children. When we are wounded or hurt or even as adults, especially in children, it ceases our ability to grow and mature. It hinders our emotional development and our development of relationships, including our heavenly Father.

What is so important is that we get to the core of the lie that we had begun to believe when the trauma occurred. For me, it was during my parent’s divorce. What happened that bound me was that my mom couldn’t take me because I was on the dance line team. So she had asked my cousin to take me and my cousin forgot. She didn’t come to get me, so I missed that practice. I will never forget that I was standing in my kitchen and I was so angry. I made a vow that I would never depend on anyone else ever again.

I was 14 years old and because of the woundedness of things that I had gone through, I said that I would not need anybody. When you make that inner vow, God was hindered from working in my life to a certain extent because I put up a wall even to Him. So we need to recognize when we have made inner vows. I didn’t even remember being sexually abused until I went through my sociology classes in college because I had suppressed them so much. So it is so important that we are only as healthy as our worst sickness. What I mean by that is: If we have trauma, rejection, abandonment issues, anything that is left unhealed in our childhood is an open door for the enemy to come through to create a stronghold in our lives.

Interviewer: Wow, that is very revelatory!

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Yeah, so with things left unhealed, the enemy has an open door to wreak havoc, so it is so important that we find peace with God. We need to recognize that Jesus is Lord and our Savior. He is our Lord. So that innocence of being a child of God, we really have the power and the authority to declare healing to declare freedom over our lives. Then we have to recognize and look at any unforgiveness that we may carry. Then we have to heal the inner child and rage war until we are completely healed and free. Then we still need to continue to wage war against the enemy. Waging war isn’t just against the enemy. Waging war is to bring the Kingdom of heaven to earth. “ There are many times

Interviewer: Absolutely! I believe in counseling. When I was suicidal, I was going to a counselor and just talking to someone helped me not to take my life. Some people in the Body of Christ are against counseling. The scripture says that in a multitude of counselors, there is safety. So, how important is Christian counseling?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Christian Counseling is vital. I wrote the book “Broken and Transformed.” What I hear from so many people is that it is needed. As a church body, we do not hear good or talk very well about mental health issues with depression and anxiety.

Interviewer: That is so true!

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Especially now, I have six counselors and two assistants that work for me. We are almost maxed out. It is such a need because the church isn’t talking about it and we are not talking a lot about spiritual warfare. Sometimes chemical imbalances happen, especially when trauma is left unhealed. It rewires our brains, so Christian Counseling is vital because sometimes we get trapped in our own thoughts and our own minds. We can’t see beyond the voices of the enemy, our own voice, or the voices of those who have harmed us. Christian counseling helps us get out of our own minds and our own way. We let somebody else in that has the power of God, the wisdom of God, and sometimes has the words of knowledge to bring freedom.

Interviewer: So how can people connect with your ministry and your services?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: They can go to www.kristilemley. com and listen to my podcast, which is “Living In The Light. “ where I help people live out their purposes with passion and fire. Every week there is something different that I try to help the listeners with. One week maybe recognizing if there are strongholds in their lives. Another week we are talking about “Abiding in the Lord.” Then another week, we are talking about “Prayers and Spiritual Warfare.” Sometimes I have guests who just talk about their own journey and purpose and how they have persevered.

I am a firm believer about inviting other people along the journey with you so you will not walk it alone. That is so important and I think that that is another thing a counselor does that is really important. It allows us to become vulnerable and it invites somebody else in to walk the journey with us. When we are struggling, the enemy wants us to feel isolated and alone. The Father said, “That we are never alone.” So when you invite someone on that journey with us reminds us that we are never alone.

Interviewer: Amen. Do you have any last words for our readers?

Dr. Kristi Lemley: I would encourage them to be who God has created them to be and that it is okay to be them. In our society, sometimes we listen to the secular voices more than the voices of our Lord. The voice of our Lord says in Psalm 139:4, “Before I formed you, I knew you in your mother’s womb.” We are not an accident, and we are not an afterthought, but we are ordained and called. We are created. We are fashioned to reflect Him and it is okay to be us.

Interviewer: Amen. Thank you so much, Dr. Kristi, for your knowledge, expertise, and the things you have imparted to us today. It was an awesome interview.

Dr. Kristi Lemley: Thank You for the opportunity to do this also. I love to connect with likeminded people.

Interviewer: Yes. Me too.

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021

REJOICE ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE MAY 2021