DIANE SLOAN & THE ANOINTING

BRADFORD, ENGLAND — This year has just been incredible for Diane Sloan. In January at the Brownsville Women’s Conference she destroyed the devil right in front of 3,000 women. Honey I Shrunk The Devil will always be remembered as a high watermark at the Brownsville Revival. It was women only at that great meeting in January but the anointing carried over for the next few weeks at the main revival. Many believe that particular conference set the mood for the entire year of revival in Pensacola.

She’s shocking and liable to say anything. Diane usually says what everyone else is thinking but wouldn’t say openly. The honesty of her message ministers to those who need a touch of reality in the church. She has a prophetic spirit and can nail a person with a direct word in a twinkling of an eye. Refreshing is the word for Diane Sloan. She is a part of this new river of life that is flowing through the church but the move that came through her came through the death of a very important person in her life. It was the death of Diane that made the river flow in her life. Called to preach, she sat and listened for years as her life became a sea of questions put toward God of, "Why did you call me and then put me on the shelf of life?"

Many do not know about her past but as she related her story in the tent at Bradford it took all she had inside of her to bring forth the message. After giving her message on that Tuesday she was absolutely drained of all emotion. God moved in a powerful way during that particular service. She is a woman of the Book and her message was powerful. "I married my husband and joined a church that didn’t believe in women preachers. That’s all right, I don’t believe in them either."

Diane Sloan’s heart was to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Since she was a small child she tugged on her daddy’s coat to take the platform to preach. "At age four I got up in Lansing, Michigan, to give my first sermon. I couldn’t read yet but I had a picture of Jesus with a lamb over His shoulder. I only went for five minutes and that kind of cured me for preaching for a few years; the next time I preached was when I was ten. God then called me to preach at age twelve and I accepted the call. By age fourteen people were calling on me to give messages."

During the next seven years Diane was used as an evangelist until she met her pastor-husband Johnny Sloan and married him. At age twenty-three she became a wife and the church which had accepted Johnny as pastor didn’t believe in women preachers. It was then Diane felt God had placed her by her husband’s side in that church and she accepted it as God’s will for her life not to preach during this time period. At the time it was the Lord’s will for Diane to come out of the pulpit but the need to preach was still inside because of the call that was placed upon her life. It was then she learned that God’s work had to be crucified before it would have a tremendous affect upon other people’s lives. It was the death of Diane that brought forth a rich anointing. She held her hands up with her tight fists showing and said, "this is how I used to serve God," but as she opened her hands and reached out with them she said, "this is how I serve Him now." Not my will but thine be done through your servant was what was coming forth, but it came forth after the vessel had been broken. The miracle of the broken vessel is that after it is broken it can hold more anointed oil without a leak than it could when it was whole. That was what came through loud and clear. It was a message of hope for the hopeless. You can’t minister hope to the hopeless unless you have walked in their shoes. Writers who can’t write and preachers who can’t preach are the people God chooses to use to confound the wise. God likes to use vessels that are used up and in Diane’s case she found herself in the battle for life.

"I told God if He wanted me He would have to come get me. I died to self and a few days later I was glad I died. Have you ever been glad when somebody died and you say a few days afterwards you were glad they died? The death of my preaching ministry was that way — I was glad it died, but the Lord would bring it back to me and I reminded Him it was dead. At first I would see an arm and then a leg as it slowly came back."

Sloan went on to speak about the time period of her death in ministry, "God has a way of tempering our lives. I learned far more when I had to shut up than when I tried to say something. God loved me simply because He chose to love me. Early in life I learned many lessons in a pastor’s home. I learned to keep my mouth shut. Sometimes if you expressed your feelings it might mean you would go hungry for the next week. People who live by faith in ministry have to depend on those around them. As a pastor’s daughter, I learned to internalize everything."

Pouring herself into organizing chores and singing she found a new life of service by the side of her husband. During this time two sons were born to her who would grow to be men of God but even the fulfillment of motherhood could not fill her life because she knew God had called her to deliver His word. It would take a tremendous storm to open the door once again to preach.

"I learned during this time of silence from the pulpit that God loved me simply because He chose to love me. God didn’t love me because of my ability to preach but He loved me for exactly who I was. He taught me about myself and He brought me to a humble place where I could hear His voice. It was a good time because I learned more in my silence than when I had something to say."

As we went to our new church a tremendous upheaval happened that really rocked our boat. Never before have I ever felt abandoned like I did when we had problems there. I wanted to leave. God broke my heart one day as I was kneeling at the altar praying. God gave me one of the most awesome revelations of His word that I have ever had. He said to me, " whoever the person or thing is that makes you fear is the thing that controls you. God broke me and I told Him I almost let people drive me out of the ministry."

"I had to find some out of the way place to go to church where I could get in touch with God again. I started going to the Friday night renewal meetings at Heritage Fellowship. Cleddie Keith was the pastor and he knew who I was but never would call me up or recognize me. I appreciated that because I was there to receive. I found my oldest dress and came after the services had begun. I sat at the back of the church where no one would recognize me. I started to go back to the house of God and pray at His altar. I was afraid to let anyone pray with me. I would not back off altar ministry. I began to see some of the members of my church coming to the Friday night meetings and it bothered my Spirit that they were there. I throught I had escaped and I was in a place where no one would know me. It was there that I rebuilt my relationship with God and during that time He strengthened me. Pastor Cleddie was very understanding and never brought attention to me. I believe he knew what was going on with me and that I had come to Heritage for renewal. One night he finally recognized me and asked me to come and preach. It was the right moment. My ministry began to open up and the message I learned though the whole ordeal was -- God wants you to deal with your fears. He wants to face your enemy and God does not love you for your ability but He loves you for exactly who you are. The message of the broken vessel is the one of humility and promotion. In Diane’s case she was promoted by the Lord and not by man. Today she understands more of what God wants and not what Diane wants. She opened her hands wide without defense in front of the Bradford group that listened to her story and said, "This is how I serve God now."

Jeremiah knew the lesson of the potter’s wheel and a vessel with blemish will never be accepted for deep ministry. On the wheel of life as it turns the Lord forms the vessel to remove every impurity in a person’s life. Diane knew a vessel of honor very often comes with time and with breaking. She learned the blemishes on her vessel were the things she feared. Now she looks at her audience with the revelation that sets a person free and says, "Just what is it that you fear in life?"