God FAQ

What religion are you?

In short, I do not subscribe to any religion. I no longer subscribe to religious or denominational descriptions because I see God working in the whole world, albeit not in every house of worship (whether temple, church, synagogue, or monastery).

I am a follower of Yeshu, also known as the Anointed One (Messiach) to the Jews, the Son of God to the Catholics & Protestants, and the Word of God (Kalimat-Allah) to the Muslims. I would describe myself as a believer who experiences the spiritual realm working today much in the same way as it was described in the Torah, Bible, and Quran. See My God Story for details.

What church do you go to?

My husband and I no longer attend a brick-and-mortar church because there is no room for us there. We are in a season of walking out our spiritual lives with the very few, faithful friends who have shown a similar passion for our higher power and emotional maturity to promote freedom–not conformity–in the walks of others. These rare, special friends are our organic “church”, even though many of them do not know each other.

Which teachers do you follow?

It’s been a long time since I followed any human teacher because I believe that teachers are for a reason, or a season, not a lifetime. Most human teachers teach to the lowest common denominator, and I’ve found those lessons are no longer relevant to my life. However, I have been positively impacted by several teachers in my past; check out the God Resources page for websites, books, and events that have shaped me over the years.

I believe God can heal people, but does God want to heal me?

Yes! If you’re a Bible-believer, then I can remind you that the Bible clearly says God desires all people to be in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit (saved), set free from demons (delivered/exorcised), and made whole in their minds, hearts, and bodies (healed). Look up 1 Timothy 2:4 and explore the full meaning of the Greek word “sozo” from that scripture for yourself.

If you’re NOT a Bible-believer, but believe in a higher power(s) that created all life, then ask yourself if any benevolent creator would create something just to watch it destroy itself and not offer aid?

How did you heal me?

If you believe in a higher power, then I can tell you that I tapped into my higher power’s “reverse nuclear bomb“. In other words, I prayed for you in the name of Yeshu (Jesus) and the Kingdom of God came upon you. This is The Real Good News of God in action! Yeshu didn’t just hang on the cross 2,000 years ago so that we could go to Heaven after we die; he is still on the cross to this day to suck into his body every natural sickness, heart-wound, and demonization that plagues you in the form of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain. Click on my blog’s God category for more details.

If you don’t believe in a higher power, then I can tell you that I believe disease occurs where love is absent. I directed love into you, which filled a love-void and cast disease out of you.

How can I stay healed after God heals me?

This one is a doozie and confuses a lot of people. Just like you can get sick again after a doctor heals your physical ailments, or you can get sick again after a psychologist heals your mental/emotional ailments, so can you get sick again after God heals your spiritual ailments. You have to protect your healing through several means.

Check out my blog post, How to Stay Healed After Prayer for details and do the things that resonate with you from that list.

Can I learn to hear from God like you?

My personal belief is that everybody already hears God (and other spiritual beings). Where people usually need help is figuring out which of their thoughts/feelings/impulses are coming from God versus themselves or others.

Can I learn to pray like you?

Yes, better even! It starts with asking God for the desire to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. This is how Yeshu told us to demonstrate that the Kingdom of God is here. (Matthew 10:7-8).

Why do you refer to Jesus as Yeshu?

I believe his mother called him Yeshu, that’s why. Yeshua (a Hebrew name, and a shortened version of Yehoshua) became Eshu (the Aramaic version of Yeshua), which is the language he spoke when he lived on the Earth. Due to translations of translations, Yeshu (or Eshu) transliterated into Iesous (in Greek, where there is no “y” or “sh” sound.) Then, Iesous was transliterated into Jesus (in English, where the “i” became a “j” and the “sous” became a “sus”). It’s actually kind of wild how many times Yeshu’s name has changed, and this is the reason why going back to the original language texts where possible is so important! Calling Yeshu “Jesus” is like calling Tenay “Tina”—I guess you could call me that but that’s not my name! I often call him Jesus to help others know who I am referencing, but I call him Yeshu to him. Check out the Interlinear Bible to research these names for yourselves.

Why do you refer to God as “him/her”, sometimes “her”, or sometimes “they”? Isn’t God male?

I call God the way God has presented themselves to me in dialogue.

In the Greek Bible, God is presented as three persons: Father God, Son of God (Yeshu), and the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1:27 shows that God created male and female human beings in plural-God’s image/nature, meaning that the masculine and feminine natures we see in humankind are both necessarily a part of God’s nature, too.

The male-only pronouns used in English translations do not come from real Bible theology because in Biblical Hebrew and Greek, words for God are masculine, gender-neutral, and feminine! (Like in English, when we speak of a ship or a car by saying “She is a beauty,” we imbue a feminine nature to the object.) That’s why I try to illuminate this reality by using either both pronouns to refer to the Godhead (all three persons of God), or feminine pronouns to refer to the Holy Spirit (which is a gender-neutral word in the original Greek & a feminine word in the original Hebrew of the Bible). Similarly, I use masculine pronouns to refer to Father God and Yeshu the Son of God. Check out the Interlinear Bible to research these observations for yourselves.

For all related posts, check out the blog subcategory: God FAQ.

Health FAQ

Which trauma therapy is the most helpful?

I have undergone at least 20 different therapies and found all of them to be helpful in some way—but none of them are a silver bullet. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is complex because it affects many parts of our brains and bodies; so it takes therapies that address each part. Some of the most impactful for me were Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy, Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Inner Healing Prayer, and Attuned Myofascial Trauma Release. Check out the Health Resources subcategory for details.

How can I get healing from trauma?

It starts with desiring healing above anything else: above keeping your job, above keeping your reputation, above keeping your beliefs about life so far, above keeping your money, above keeping your marriage, above keeping your kids, above keeping your friends. It is possible that through the pursuit of healing, you will lose one or more of those things. Once you get that settled in your heart (and it may take time), you gotta be willing to try anything and everything to get well. After that, ask God to lead you and follow your intuition to the next step, and the next step after that, and the next step after that.

Check out the Health Resources subcategory for more information.

Can I get healing from trauma even if I’m not a Christian, or spiritual?

I believe God will give you as much healing as you desire and pursue within the constraints of your beliefs; God loves giving good gifts, even if God never gets the credit. This is why psychologists who aren’t believers can still help people get better.

However, I don’t know that you can get fully healed without experiencing the number one thing that heals our broken hearts: a superhuman act of sacrificial love. This act can look like someone voluntarily taking our trauma from us and into themselves, possibly even if it kills them, so that we might live and thrive. There is only one person who ever did that for you or me: that’s Jesus (Yeshu). If you want to experience his love, just receive it like a gift into your heart, and ask him to start doing his healing work in you.

If you don’t think you can do that, then I invite you to conceptualize what a superhuman act of sacrificial love could look like and imagine that act happening to you over and over again. (This is the premise that makes EMDR successful: our body experiences what we imagine, even if it “never really happened”.)

Do you believe in taking medication?

I agree with one psychiatrist who explained that medication is a bandaid, not a cure. Sometimes, people need bandaids–they help us temporarily cope with an acute pain and possibly stop it from getting worse in the short term. However, we are not meant to live with permanent bandaids. In fact, if kept on the wound too long, bandaids can impede our long-term healing.

If you’re unable to cope with the stressors of your life and feel afraid for your life or others, or can’t care for yourself or others, medication may be right for you in this season and there is no shame in it. However, if you’re not in that season, then I invite you to consider an even more important question: “Do you have a psychiatrist or primary care doctor who believes you can get well, and you can eventually wean off medication as you undergo effective healing therapies?” If the answer to that question is, “No”, then it may be time to find a new doctor, especially because overprescribing antidepressants is a major problem in the US.

You’ve been doing therapy a long time; are you fully healed?

Not yet. After ten years of pursuing healing no matter what it takes, I am more healthy than I have ever been in my life. However, I am still pursuing full integration with all my wounded child parts. I am still experiencing healing or growth of some sort every week in my brain, body, soul, and spirit. God told me that symptoms of my healing process would become less frequent and less stark as time went on until one day, I would look back and realize I haven’t had to do an integration for a loooong time. I look forward to that day and believe God when he/she says it will come.

For all related posts, check out the blog subcategory: Health FAQ.

Military FAQ

Have you ever killed anyone?

I get this question mostly from younger people when they hear that I am a combat Veteran. No, fortunately I have not. Also:

For all related posts, check out the blog subcategory: Military FAQ.

Family FAQ

How old were you when you finally got married?

37–it was a very good year.

Was it difficult to be single so long?

Yes. It was the most difficult thing in my life; however, it didn’t need to be. I realized it felt that difficult because I had some false beliefs that getting married would heal my past hurts. I think God wanted me to get over that, so the more healing I got (as I waited), the easier it got to wait because I was no longer banking on marriage being my only ticket to no-more-emotional-pain. That would have been a lot of pressure to put on my new husband, and I don’t know that a marriage can survive pressure like that.

Are you happy now that you’re married?

I am happier than I have ever been. Marrying my husband, Brett, turned my life from black-and-white to full-color. In that way, it has been amazing and I wouldn’t want to be married to anyone else! At the same time, we have had to spend the first four years of our marriage trying to overcome some of the dysfunctional dynamics (eh-hem…codependecy) that we brought in from our families of origin. Undoing codependent ways of relating to one another has been painful. Fortunately, it’s the kind of pain that heals, like healing from heart surgery is painful. We continue to feel happier every month we are married and I truly believe that marriage is designed to make us happier than we could have been alone. Getting to happy can take some work, though. 🙂

For all related posts, check out the blog subcategory: Family FAQ.

Community FAQ

What does your name mean?

Tenay (pronounced “ten-EYE”) is a Turkish name, meaning “skin-moon”, as in “her skin is white/bright like the moon”. However, I once asked God why he/she named me Tenay and I heard, “Just as the moon reflects the sun, so you reflect the Son (Yeshu).” (Tears!) I love God’s meaning more than the original!

For all related posts, check out the blog subcategory: Community FAQ.