About / Ministry
Who Are Zelma McKinney and Dissect My Soul Ministries
Zelma McKinney
Minister of God’s Word, Teacher, and Messenger of the Most High God
I am the founder of Dissect My Soul Ministries and the author of A Call From God for Change.
But to understand who I am today, you must understand that I did not begin here.
There was a time when I considered myself a Christian and believed I knew God.
Then I encountered Him.
And I discovered that knowing about God and truly knowing God were not the same thing.
That realization changed the direction of my life.
In A Call From God for Change, I explain that although I believed myself to be a Christian before my encounter with God, I learned that I was not pleasing to Him. What followed was a process through which God changed my heart and taught me how He required me to love Him.
God Had to Change Me Before He Could Use Me.
He confronted me.
He taught me.
He corrected me.
He required surrender.
And He drew me into a relationship with Him that changed how I understood Christianity, obedience, prayer, the spiritual world, the Holy Ghost, and what it means to love Him.
That relationship became the foundation of everything that followed.
Not a ministry first.
Not a book first.
Not a public assignment first.
First, God Changed Me.
“LORD, Dissect My Soul.”
Those words did not begin as the name of a ministry.
They began as a prayer.
During a period of my life that I did not understand, I found myself crying continually. My life seemed to be falling apart around me, and I could not explain what was happening.
I began praying:
“LORD, change me.”
That was all I could pray.
I continued praying those words through circumstances I could not understand.
Then my prayer changed.
“LORD, dissect my soul.”
At the time, I did not even understand what those words meant.
But I continued to pray them.
In A Call From God for Change, I explain that it seemed as though I had no choice about what to pray. When I attempted to pray other words, those simple words continued to come forth.
Eventually, I came to understand what God was doing.
God Was Changing Me.
What I had asked Him to do was much deeper than making adjustments to my circumstances.
I needed me to be changed.
I needed God to expose and remove what was not pleasing to Him.
I needed Him to teach me His ways rather than allowing me to continue assuming that my understanding of Christianity was sufficient.
In the book, I describe God as a Master Surgeon who “dissected my soul,” removing what was not pleasing in His sight. I connect that process with the regeneration of my spirit and with Jesus’ words to Nicodemus concerning being born again.
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
~ John 3:3 (KJV)
The prayer that began with:
“LORD, change me.”
became:
“LORD, dissect my soul.”
And what followed changed my life.
It Became More Than My Prayer
Those words eventually became the name of:
Dissect My Soul Ministries.
The name carries the principle God first required me to live.
Before examining everyone else –
Allow God to Examine You.
Before demanding change from someone else –
Ask God to Change You.
Before assuming that you are right with Him –
Allow Him to Show You the Truth.
That same principle is at the heart of the message I carry today.
When Jesus presents the four conditions, the question is not:
Which condition is everyone else?
It is:
Which Condition Am I?
And when God reveals something within us that is not pleasing to Him, the proper response is not resistance.
It is surrender.
LORD, change me.
LORD, dissect my soul.
Dissect My Soul Ministries
Dissect My Soul Ministries exists to help people develop and maintain a radical love relationship with God.
That purpose comes directly from what God first required of me.
He did not teach me simply to practice religion differently.
He taught me to know Him.
To seek Him.
To listen to Him.
To depend upon Him.
To obey Him.
To surrender my whole heart to Him.
And to live in relationship with Him.
What God taught me personally became the foundation of what He instructed me to teach others. In A Call From God for Change, I describe Dissect My Soul Ministries as a teaching ministry established by the LORD from the work He had already done in my life.
The Goal Is Relationship With God.
The ministry calls people beyond merely identifying themselves as Christians.
Beyond religious activity.
Beyond knowing Scripture intellectually while remaining distant from the One who gave it.
The goal is that we truly know God, surrender ourselves to His Perfect Will, learn to recognize His direction, and become willing to follow and obey Him.
And ultimately:
To Know Jesus Christ Intimately and Fall Radically in Love With Him.
The Ministry Begins With Examination
The name itself establishes the posture.
Dissect My Soul.
Not:
Dissect someone else’s soul.
Not:
Show me what is wrong with everyone around me.
But:
LORD, Begin With Me.
Search me.
Show me what is in my heart.
Expose what I cannot see.
Correct what is wrong.
Remove what is not pleasing to You.
Teach me Your ways.
Change me.
This is why examination is central to the ministry.
A person must be willing to stand honestly before God and allow Him to reveal what needs to change.
That is also why the question:
Which Condition Am I?
belongs so naturally within the work of Dissect My Soul Ministries.
The message does not give us permission to examine everyone else while exempting ourselves.
It calls each of us before God.
Teaching What God Taught Me
The ministry’s teachings arise from the lessons and revelations I know God gave me and instructed me to share.
They include teaching concerning repentance, surrender, obedience, spiritual discernment, prayer, the Holy Ghost, the spiritual world, God’s family order, the revelations documented in A Call From God for Change, and what it means to live in intimate relationship with God.
But information alone is never the goal.
A person can hear teaching and remain unchanged.
A person can study Scripture and remain distant from God.
A person can participate in religious activity and never surrender the whole heart.
So the purpose of teaching is always directed toward response:
What is God showing me?
What must change?
What must I surrender?
What is He telling me to do?
Will I obey Him?
The Assignment
Minister of God’s Word, Teacher, and Messenger of the Most High God
My assignment did not begin with a book.
It began with a message.
After the period in which God was changing me and teaching me in His Presence, I was given a message to deliver at my church.
I believed that completing that assignment would be the end of it.
It was not.
A few nights later, I found myself again in the Presence of the LORD. I then understood that although the original message had been delivered to my church, the assignment extended far beyond that congregation.
God charged me to carry His message to the Christian world and to all who were willing to listen.
Among the words I record God saying to me were:
“Say to the Christian world that my heart is broken at the state of the Christian world. ¾ of the Christian world is on its way to hell, and don’t know it.”
He also instructed me to tell them that they were practicing Christianity in their own way without asking Him what it means to be a Christian, and that He was “not going to wait much longer.”
I Said I Would Tell Them.
At the time, I thought the assignment would be simple.
I believed I was being sent among Christians -among people who loved God and would want to hear what He was saying.
I would eventually learn otherwise.
In A Call From God for Change, I describe accepting this assignment and telling God:
“God, I will tell them. I will make them understand.”
I believed that when people heard my story, they would understand that God was real.
Instead, the assignment would require perseverance through rejection, resistance, and circumstances I had never anticipated.
But the assignment remained.
Three Offices. One Assignment.
God has given me three offices in which to operate:
Minister.
Teacher.
Messenger.
These offices are related, but I do not understand them to function identically.
In my book, I explain that as a Minister and Teacher, I can exercise greater tolerance toward the perspectives of others concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I can listen.
I can continue learning.
I can take what I hear back to God in prayer.
But tolerance for another person’s perspective does not give me permission to abandon what God has instructed me to teach.
I Must Teach What He Gave Me.
I do not claim to know everything.
God is still teaching me.
But there is an important distinction:
I Know What He Has Said to Me.
That conviction is fundamental to how I understand my calling.
As a Messenger, My Responsibility Is Different.
A messenger does not own the message.
The messenger’s responsibility is to deliver it.
In the book, I describe my understanding of this office very plainly: as a Messenger of the LORD, I am responsible for speaking what my Father instructs me to speak when He instructs me to speak it.
That does not mean everyone will agree with me.
It does not mean everyone will understand me.
And it does not mean I expect anyone to accept something merely because I have said it.
That is why throughout my work I continually return people to:
God.
His Word.
Prayer.
I ask people to examine what I have said and take it to God for themselves.
First to the Christian World
The original charge was directed specifically toward Christians.
That remains significant because the warning itself concerns the condition of the Christian world.
But God did not permit me to stop there.
In the introduction to A Call From God for Change, I explain that God charged me to go first to the Christian world, but ultimately to tell:
“Anyone Who Has an Ear to Hear.”
The Preface makes the same progression: the warnings were initially to be presented to the Christian world, but the messages were ultimately to be given to all those who will listen.
That is why today I am willing to speak to churches, ministries, seminaries, Christian media -and also to people and institutions outside traditional Christian settings.
The Audience May Expand, but the Message Does Not Change.
I will not remove God from the message to make it more acceptable.
I will not remove Jesus Christ.
I will not remove Scripture.
I will not remove the revelations God instructed me to share.
And I will not soften the warning God gave me simply because it may be difficult to hear.
My responsibility is to deliver the message.
What each person does with it is between that person and God.
The Work Continues
The assignment God gave me did not end when I first delivered His message.
It did not end with the establishment of Dissect My Soul Ministries.
And it did not end when A Call From God for Change was written.
The work continues.
Today, I carry the assignment through Dissect My Soul Ministries, A Call From God for Change, Biblical teaching, the Academy, outreach, public discussions, and the opportunities God provides for me to speak and teach.
These are different expressions of the work, but none of them is the destination.
God Is the Destination.
My purpose is not simply to build an audience.
It is not simply to distribute a book.
It is not simply to increase someone’s religious knowledge.
And it is not to create followers of Zelma McKinney.
Everything I have been instructed to do must ultimately point people back to God.
The Message Must Be Heard
God first instructed me to carry His message to the Christian world.
That assignment continues.
I will continue to speak about the warning He gave me.
I will continue to teach the things He has taught me.
I will continue to make known the revelations He instructed me to tell.
And because God instructed me to speak to those who will listen, I am also willing to carry the message beyond traditional Christian settings when He provides the opportunity.
The Audience May Expand, but the Message Does Not Change.
I will not remove God from the message to make it more acceptable.
I will not remove Jesus Christ.
I will not remove His Word.
I will not remove the warning.
And I will not remove the revelations God instructed me to make known.
The Work Includes Teaching and Discipleship
The work also continues through the Dissect My Soul Ministries Academy.
The Academy provides structured Biblical study and instruction grounded in A Call From God for Change and the teachings God has given me.
Its purpose is greater than completing a class.
Participants are called to examine, learn, respond, surrender, and grow in their relationship with God.
As that work develops, those who are prepared may carry what they have learned into their own communities as God directs.
But the ultimate purpose remains the same:
To Know Jesus Christ Intimately and Fall Radically in Love With Him.
And for the person who does not know Him:
Discover Him.
My Responsibility Is to Continue
I cannot determine who will listen.
I cannot determine who will believe.
I cannot determine who will reject what I say.
And I cannot determine how another person will respond to God.
But I can remain faithful to what He instructed me to do.
In A Call From God for Change, I explain that my responsibility is to repeat the revelations to “anyone who has an ear to hear and those who are willing to listen.”
So the work continues.
One person.
One congregation.
One classroom.
One interview.
One community.
One opportunity at a time.
Wherever God opens the door, my responsibility is to remain faithful to the assignment He gave me.
Hear the Message. Examine It. Take It to God.
I am not asking you to accept something merely because I have said it.
Examine the Scriptures.
Examine the message.
Examine yourself.
Pray.
Ask God for understanding.
And respond to what He shows you.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
~ Psalm 139:23–24, KJV
Zelma McKinney
Minister of God’s Word, Teacher, and Messenger of the Most High God
Founder, Dissect My Soul Ministries
Author, A Call From God for Change