Your hope is not dead, just asleep

In the book of Mark chapter 5, we read where Jesus cast out a demon from the man from the country of the Gadarenes. This man lived in the tombs and the people were afraid of him. When Jesus cast the spirit out, they went into a heard of pigs. When they saw the man in his right mind, the people asked Jesus to leave because of fear.

In arriving at a new town, Jesus was surrounded by a great multitude.

A ruler of the synagogue names Jarius came to Jesus, fell at his feet and asked him to heal his daughter, as she was at the point of death. He asked Jesus to come to his house and lay hands on her, and she would be healed.

Right away we see Jarius’ faith at work.  

Jesus went with Jarius, but there was the crowd, and he was interrupted by the woman with the issue of blood.

When the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus, he began asking who touched him, as he felt power coming out of him.

The discussion began amongst his disciples, stating because of the crowd, many have touched him.  Once the woman came forward and confessed to being the one touching him, Jesus took time with her and proclaimed that her faith has made her well.

By now, Jarius’ daughter had died, but Jesus told Jarius to not be afraid, only believe. When Jesus arrived at the house, he said the child is not dead but sleeping.

The child is not dead but sleeping.

I read that line several times, and it hit me. I have felt that our dreams, hopes, and future are dead, as we are still in the waiting period and we don´t see signs of life.

But our dreams and visions are only sleeping, they are not dead!

Have you felt your prayer requests are dead, forgotten? Be encouraged, they are only asleep!

In reading this passage, the Lord is assuring me that my prayers are not dead, what I have decreed are not lost. Just because I don’t see the fruit of my prayers, it does not mean God is not at work, He is. It´s just not the right time.

Like the woman with the issue of blood and Jarius, all I need to do is believe, have faith and in God´s perfect timing, everything prayed for will spring to life.

Scripture reading Mark 5: 21-43

 

The Lion Roars at his enemy

During my journaling time with the Lord, I began thanking Him for our blessings, our plans, and thanking Him that our desires and prayer request are at the door.  

I was actually encouraging myself in the Lord with music and gratitude when I was surprised by the following statement.

Image by Ian Lindsay from Pixabay

Roar your promises.

What?

Roar your promises. So I began to list the promises and prayer request we are believing for, keeping silent.

I paused and meditated on what I heard.

I was not to pray them in, I was to roar them in. 

“The LORD roars from Zion… and the heavens and the earth tremble.” (Joel 3:16)

I really did not know or understand what this meant, so I did a search and came across this teaching here.

We watched the teaching, read the handout and hubby and I roared together.

In one particular exercise, we both had the exact same communication from the Lord, the others were very similar.

In the end, we felt our list of prayer petitions was moved forward. This is new to me, to us and it is from God because I could not make this up.

Many times we may not understand everything, but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit we can be assured that God has our best interest at heart.

I am excited to see how things will move in our favor and will be sure to let you know.

 

 

His promises are yes and amen

Ephesians 1:17-18   that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

Recently I have been going through a time of waiting upon the Lord. Waiting for His promises, praying, believing, declaring, and fasting.

Nothing.

There are times where the thought goes through my mind that these words spoken over us are just not going to pass, so I better do something.

I think Abraham had the same thought, and made a mess of things.

After my pity party, I went back to what I do best, prayer and journal. I share this with you in case anyone reading is going through a time of waiting.

Where there is hope, your eyes are enlightened and will see the glory of my inheritance.

You see me and have held on to the promise I have given you. Your hope does not fade away, neither do I. My promises are yes and amen, and my word will not fall to the ground, but it will bear fruit and flourish.

I had to get back to what lies ahead of me, get back to the vision, the promises, and that way I will not perish.

Get back to what was promised you, believe it and see it. Don´t let it die, fight for it, and you will receive your reward.

Be blessed.

Powerful keys to unlock your destiny

Sometime back I received a prophetic word which stated the many things I have prayed for will come to pass, but in order to receive them, I would need to use my keys.

The word was specific as to the things I had been praying for, and it was not a generic God knows the desires of your heart word.

Image by Mabel Amber, still incognito… from Pixabay

This encouraged me greatly, and I thanked the Lord in my prayers that what I was sensing in the spirit was right.

I tucked the word away and forgot about it.  A few days ago I kept hearing the still small voice of the Lord saying, use your keys, and I was reminded of this word. 

I dug it up, re-read it and understood.  In this particular word, I needed to use my keys which represent authority,  to obtain my promise.

What are those keys, anyway?  I had to do some serious meditation to get my answers.

I have found these following keys that I or anyone can work with:

• Praise and worship
• Prayer. Not praying out of fear, but out of faith
• Using the name of Jesus in my prayer time. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
• Fasting. There are many books and teachings on fasting, but to give you the short answer, your flesh comes under the submission of the Lord. Isa 58:6  “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
• Obedience. Obey those in leadership, your pastor and obey the word of the Lord for your life.
• Serve. Jesus came to serve, and we should do the same
• Rest. Rest in the Lord and believe.
• Right heart attitude, make sure your heart is right in each action you take.

What can cause your keys to not work?

• Ignore you have keys, which is what I did until I was reminded
• Unbelief and doubt, not believing the word of God, or that He even cares about you.
• Laziness. Not using your time wisely in meditation of the scripture and prayer
• No placing the Lord first in your life

Have I received my desires?  Not all of them. I am still waiting, and even while I wait, I know God is at work in me and through me and for me. 

Waiting increases faith, and to be honest, can be difficult, but as the song goes, I trust and obey.

What other keys have you discovered? Share them in the comments below.

Praying for my prodigal

Our son will be 30 years old this month of August.  As a mother, I always envisioned him going off to the University, but instead, he has chosen to become a mixologist. We attended church as a family, he was in Sunday school, he shared Christ and even went on a short term mission trip. But like many parents out there, their children and my son have decided to follow the world.

Image by Scott Webb from Pixabay

I have been praying for his return to his first love for many years, and it is easy to get discouraged and give up.  But there is something that keeps me going, and that is the promise I have received from God that yes, he will return and yes, he belongs to Jesus.

My journal times with the Lord are precious. It is here I receive comfort and vision to pray in His promises over my son, and I also pray the same for nieces and nephews that have gone astray.

So what do we do in the meantime?

• We love him
• We call him
• Invite him for lunch or dinner
• Casually share how God is moving in our lives
• Challenge him
• Give thanks
• Keep praying

Through the years I have come across prayers and have even made up a few of my own, and I would like to share a few with you.

I ask you Lord to place (child’s name)  in a hedge of thorns, so that he may not sin against you, and that he may not continue his path towards deception, lust and evil, and wickedness, and he will turn back to Jesus with all his heart, soul and mind.  Hosea 2;6

We are mindful of the seeds that we have planted in (child’s name), we declare that these seeds will be watered by our love and your love Father, and bring a great increase in every area of (Child´s name) life.   May he/she increase in heavenly wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man. Matt 13.23

(Child´s name)  has been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.  He stands holy and blameless before God in love, because of what Christ did on the cross.

John 10:28 -29  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

Lord, bring (child’s name) back to his first love, and may he/she be miserable in their sin. I received this prayer from a pastor. His son came back and is now a preacher!

One thing I have learned from praying these and other prayers is to cooperate with the word of God, pray it like you mean it and believe. God´s word will not return void!

To be honest, it can get weary at times and I falter. The word of God sustains me, and I get back to praying and declaring blessings over his life. I know the Lord hears my and other parents prayers. I have resolved to not give up, and I know all the years of intercession will bear fruit.

The calm of the ocean

In my prayer time this morning, the Lord showed me an ocean.  As I looked, I thought it was a lake, as the waters were not moving like the ocean does.  But it was not a lake, it indeed was the ocean.

I saw boats scattered throughout the ocean, some of these small boats had one person inside, others two, sometimes three.  They all had a single fishing pole.

Lord, what does this mean, what are you showing me?

I will calm the waters to bring in my lost sheep.  The harvest will be performed on a personal level, one on one, or two on one, in intimate settings.

It is time for my harvest to be reeled in. They will be saved from the depths of the sea, the sea of sin where it is dark, cold and lonely.  They will come out of the depths into the light, and I will expose them to the “Son” and they will receive healing.

It is a season of restoration and harvest of souls.

I have loved ones that I am praying for, and this word encouraged me. May it do the same for you.

 

 

How to see in the Spirit

Do you ever find yourself desiring to learn something new, and when you find it you delve right into it?  Recently I have been reading books as to how to see in the spirit.

These are:

• How to See in the Spirit by Michael Van Vlymen
• Powerful Keys to Spiritual Sight by the same author
• Seeing in the Spirit made Simple by Praying Medic

You could say the Lord has placed it upon my heart to study this.     As a young child before Christ, I had the ability to see in the spiritual realm, but what I would see were not always nice or pretty. 

Once I became a believer in Christ, my seeing in the spirit was not as active, and I was relieved.   Instead, I became aware of my surroundings,  but not always. 

There were times where I knew if something was off, or if someone was of the Lord.  Some people would call these types of people feelers.   I understand now it is the gift of discerning of spirits the Lord has given me.

Recently, my interest has peaked to be able to see in the spirit more accurately and frequently. I can sense, discern, and when I pray visions are common, but I wanted more.  

These books have helped me, and I would like to share a few nuggets with you that may help you see in the spiritual realm.  If you are truly interested, these books and others  are available at Amazon. 

Repent of any sins.  Yes, we all sin. Confession and repentance is a good thing.  Admiting something you did wrong does a lot for you. 

Intimacy with Christ is important and staying close to Him. Read the Bible, journal and pray.  I have journaled for years, so this was very easy for me.  It is in my journal where I can truly be myself and share my heart with Him in my notebook. I also have times of gratitude, praise, petitions, joy and sadness. Here I am real. 

Pray for others.  I purposely joined my church´s prayer chain years ago when I noticed that all my prayer request were for myself and my own family needs.  I realized that I was becoming selfish, and this is not right. I joined the prayer chain to move my focus from me to others.  I have always enjoyed prayer and praying for others, but I went out of my way to see whom I could pray for.  We receive our prayer chain in the mornings, and often times there are certain prayer request that I pray for throughout the day. 

Listen to praise music, as often as you can.   I am the type of person when reading or working, I need complete silence.  My husband, on the other hand, works best with music on.  To make matters worse, the spare bedroom in the house functions as our shared office.   So what we now do,  is having praise music on our Smart T.V. as soon as we wake up, and this has helped with the spiritual atmosphere in the home.

Fast and pray in the spirit.  We have a habit of fasting the beginning of the year, but this is an area where the Lord is telling me that I need to fast more, not just at the start of the year.  This type of fasting could be a meal, or one day a week.  Instead of cooking, eating and cleaning the kitchen I would use that time to pray and read the Bible.

On my next post, I will be sharing an exercise listed in these books and how it went for me.

5 ways to increase your prayer life

Have you ever been at a loss for words when in a prayer group or ministry time and felt intimidated by those around you, especially the way they prayed and spoke over someone?    My idea was, they prayed everything and so well and so eloquently, I possibly could not add to it.  So therefore, I would not pray.

The Bible says some of the  Apostles were unlearned men.  But, they were with Jesus and spent time with him and learned to speak like Jesus.

Acts 4:13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.

Imagine speaking like Jesus!  Do you think this is available for us today?  I do.

So how did I learn to pray and not feel ashamed about saying what was on my heart?

Here are five steps that I learned along the way that can be of some benefit to you.

a)  I listened to the way others prayed. I paid attention to their prayers and the words they used.  I was especially impressed with how they were able to incorporate scripture when praying over someone.

b) Learn to hear the voice of God.  There are many wonderful books on how to hear the voice of God.  Just to mention a few authors:  Shawn Bolz, Mark Virkler. Don´t just read the books, apply the principles taught in them.  When you do, you will be pleasantly surprised.

c) Spend time in prayer and meditation of the word.  God invented meditation, and it is something we are to do. It is simply repeating the scripture over and over.  Writing down the verse will help you memorize it, and chew on each word.

d) Journal.  Where would I be without my journal, I write everything down.  In my prayer times, I express my gratitude, my love, my frustrations and prayer request.  While journaling, don´t forget to listen and write down what you hear God saying back to you.  Develop two-way communication.  It is available to you and within reach.

e) Practice, step out in faith. There comes a time where you have to take the plunge and step out in faith.  You will be surprised as you yield to the Holy Spirit, He will guide and lead you.  Don´t worry if you make a few mistakes, we all have to start somewhere.  The idea is to get going, and before you know it, your will have a flavored prayer life.

Start praying those awesome prayers inside of you.  As you do, the receiver is blessed, and so are you.

What other ways have you learned about developing a prayer life?  I would love to hear about in the comments.