Prayer Time All The Time

Any and every time is a perfect time for prayer.

Prayer is the breathe of the soul and it is unfortunate that we do not pray as often as The Bible tells us that we should. Many of us know and quote 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which says "pray without ceasing" and yet we hardly do. 

Make time to pray/talk to The LORD. Do not wait until there is an issue, or you need something to pray. Praying is talking to The LORD. Speak to Him reverently, respectfully and often. If you have a best friend/spouse or significant other that you love and adore, you want to spend every waking moment with that person, so why would time with The LORD be anything less? Practice praying your way through the day today and every day.

Watch

This new year has brought with it a new U.S. president and new laws.


In the last few days, the country has been turned upside down by immigration laws that have forced many (on both sides) into confusion, anger, frustration and chaos. And I am certain this is just the start.


No matter what any administration does, The LORD GOD still has the final word on everything. This year may be a year of shock doctrines and surprising legislature, but I am reminded of some of The LORD's words in the Gospel of Mark.


In Mark, chapter 13, Jesus speaks about the importance of watching and praying especially in the last days. Here are the last verses of this chapter:


Verse (35) Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

(36) Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

(37) And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. 


The LORD has called us to be watchmen and watchwomen in this present time. As prophecy unravels before our very eyes, what are we doing? We should be watching, praying, studying, getting and staying ready for the things which will shortly come to pass on this earth. The time for sleeping has been over for years, our word for the year is 'watch' and don't just watch without action, get on your knees, pray and follow Christ in this spiritual battle. The battle will get hotter, but HE promises to never leave us nor forsake (and we already know who will win!!!!).
What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch!

Ten Days of Prayer

For the last few years, The World-wide church has been coming together in the beginning of the year to pray together for ten days. This year, the 'Ten Days of prayer' will focus on being A Living Sanctuary. It will take place from January 11th - January 21st 2017.

To participate and to download the materials for this year, go to Tendaysofprayer.org.  

Persistent Prayer

The GC (General Conference) is just a few months away, but we are well on our way in the "100 Days of Prayer" initiative that started on 3/25/2015.

If you have never heard of this initiative before, or if you have and are confused about how it works, the '100 Days' is a prayer initiative that encourages the whole body of believers to pray persistently for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the GC meetings. Once you sign up, you will receive daily devotions and a list of items you should pray for. Although everyone is encouraged to pray throughout the day according to the daily admonitions, all are invited to join the 100 Days prayer-line by calling # 605-562-3131 ~ Access Code: 250159# every day at 7:00am {Pacific Time}.

To learn more or to sign up, please visit: www.100daysofprayer.org. Now, more than ever before, we need to pray collectively and individually for the church and the spreading of the good news of Jesus The Christ!

100 Days of Prayer

This year is a big year for the Adventist Church.

It is a GC (General Conference) year, so thousands of believers from all over the world will be gathering to worship and to be a part of the session in San Antonio this summer.

As always, there are a number of very potent items on the agenda for delegates to vote on. The Revival & Reformation team has created a prayer initiative I just found out about, and want to help spread the word. It is called "100 Days of Prayer" and it starts tomorrow, 3/25/2015.

Please click below to learn more and to sign up. More than ever, we need to pray for unity, for the spreading of the gospel and for the church:

www.100daysofprayer.org

Ten Days of Prayer (2015)

Saturday (Jan 17th) marked the end of the Worldwide Church's prayer initiative. At the beginning of each year, 10 days are carved out for the whole world to pray collectively on one theme. This year's theme was the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

 

It was a blessing to praying with my church family via conference call these past 10 days. It was also a focus on each part of that Heavenly Fruit per day. I am planning to go over each day again and spend some time going over the readings of each day. You can join me too! Go to http://www.10daysofprayer.org for all the resources.

 

Now let's look at the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is so amazing how this ONE fruit has so many components. Here they are as stated in the Book of Galatians (5:22-23 KJV):

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Longsuffering
• Gentleness
• Goodness
• Faith
• Meekness
• Temperance

One point that was brought up in our conference calls was that since its one fruit, we cannot have one (or some) parts of the fruit without the other. We should have all or none at all. That made me think. Do I exhibit one or more portions of the fruit? How about you? Am I loving but show no temperance? Would that mean that I don't have the fruit at all? (questions, questions, questions).

 

I just thought about another thing. You can't have some of the Holy Spirit either. You are either filled with The Spirit or not at all. So in the same way, we either manifest His Fruit (His Whole Fruit) or none at all. Let's pray that we may be filled with the Spirit so His Fruit can be seen in us.

Arming Yourself For Spiritual Battle

*****  Read my testimony about ARME Bible Camp here *****

It is always a blessing to attend a conference and to be filled with powerful tools for Bible study, witnessing and outreach....

but...

I believe the blessing is doubled when we actually implement these tools in our own bible studies and share them with others!

Since ARME Bible Camp ended on November 2nd in Pennsylvania, I have been able to share these tools with others, but have also embarked on an exciting project!

One of the exercises we did at the camp was to come up with 10 scriptural references for The Sabbath without opening our Swords (The Bibles)! Andre Waller spoke about the importance of having scripture memorized for all that we believe and I got convicted on this point. In 1 Peter 3:15, we are supposed to be ready always to give answers to anyone who asks us about our beliefs. So following this model, I am embarking on arming myself with scriptures for each of the fundamental beliefs. Below is an outline of what I have created to help me in this project. Feel free to modify ~

Here is how to do your own Bible Study/Memorization project:

1) Always, always, always start with prayer, and have a dedicated notebook/electronic note-taking app for all your notes.

2) Pick a topic/doctrine from the Bible: You can pick from the 28 fundamental beliefs, or any other topic. Let's use the Sabbath for our example.

3) Find 8-10 scriptures that speak about this doctrine and memorize their references: You can have as many scriptures as you want, but I think having 10 is a good strong number. References for the Sabbath we can use can be Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 16:23-30, Exodus 20:8-11, Mark 2:27-28, etc...

4) As much as possible, memorize many of the scriptures for each topic: In instances where you referenced a whole chapter, you can just summarize the passage, unless you want to memorize the chapter! Go for it!!!

5) Take your time with each topic! The purpose of this project is not to boast about how many bible verses you've memorized or how quickly you can recite passages. The purpose is to grow in your relationship with Christ Jesus and to understand why you believe what you believe. Do not rush each topic, spend as much time as you need studying (not just memorizing!) each scriptural passage and making notes on each one.

6) Review! Review! Review! Once you have studied out a topic and you now have scripture to back it up, review the topic and its references repeatedly until they become part of your long-term memory. 

7) Move onto to another topic/doctrine and repeat the process.

The only weapon The LORD used when tempted by the devil in the wilderness was The Word (see Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13). Because He had the Holy Scriptures memorized, He was able to fight off the advances of the enemy with a "It is written". It is imperative we too have the Holy Scriptures hid in our hearts. 

So I leave you with these questions: What are you doing with The Sword God has given you? Ephesians 6:17 says the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. Is your Sword collecting dust? Have you been neglecting study and bible memorization? May I suggest to you to pick up your sword daily and put on the whole armor of God. I'm in the Lord's army, are you? Prove it...

 

Perilous Times, But Pray and Praise Anyway

I cannot keep up with the signs of the times....

As I type, there was a U.S. airstrike on Isis in Syria, a sit-in near Wall Street to protest Climate Change, a bus tragedy that resulted in 2 deaths and many injured; increased prevalance of the Ebola and Chikungunya outbreaks (in West Africa and in the Caribbean respectively), and the capture of a White House intruder who had more than 800 rounds of ammunition!

And that's not even the half of it.

Our world is in turmoil. Those who once dreamed or believed society was 'getting better' are now realizing that things are indeed getting worse. Despite it all, the Bible had forewarned us about the times in which we live in. It also tells us that we should be spending a lot more time in prayer AND praise.

How do you react to these different headlines I just mentioned?
 
Do you just shrug your shoulders and keep on living?
 
Does depression grip you and fear for the future?
 
Do you ignore it? Do you pray about it? What do you do with it?

Friends, fear is not from God (2 Tim 1:7). Even as we see so many painful situations in the world, The LORD gave us The Comforter (in the form of The Holy Spirit) to comfort our hearts and to be our teacher in all of life's matters. Two of the most comforting verses in the book of John reveals the work of the Holy Spirit and the compassion of The LORD to give us The Comforter in these troubling times:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
 

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  John 14: 26-27

Did you notice that? We can have peace in THIS world! Peace! 

Cling to Christ. Pour out your heart to Him. Give Him your fears, anxieties, trepidations, worries and everything in-between. You cannot burden Him, and He never gets tired of hearing from us (He never sleeps!!!). As we struggle in our day to day lives, endeavor to make time to pray and to praise God without ceasing. To learn how to pray, go to Matthew 6:5-15. To learn how to pray, go to the Book of The Psalms. 

Life's hard and it won't be getting any easier. Why not come unto The LORD, give Him your burdens and He will give us His rest (Matt 11:28). Learn to pray and praise Him more than ever before.

So Much To Pray For

One of the most quoted, most loved and most memorized verses in all of Scripture is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  It says;

"Pray without ceasing"

May I submit to you that it's also one of the least performed commands in all of Scripture. How many of us actually 'pray without ceasing' anyway? We spend an exorbitant amount of time fantasizing, fussing, worrying, plotting and everything else but praying constantly. 

Some may wonder how is this possible, but if it is commanded, then that means there must be a way to be in prayer without stopping. The LORD never tells us to do something that is impossible to do, otherwise why would HE ask us to perform an impossible task! HE knows us better than we know ourselves and HE knows the limitations of fallen mankind, yet we are told to pray unceasingly. We must learn what that means.

I believe Enoch mastered this command and it is probably one of the reason why The LORD took him to be with HIM. In Genesis 5:22, it says "And Enoch walked with GOD after he begat Methuselah...", and again in Genesis 5:24, "And Enoch walked with God; and was not, for God took him".  The ability to have a never-ending prayerlife with God is to walk with HIM! Imagine, if you are with your very BEST friend in the whooooole world for a week; you would be talking up a storm with this person throughout the day! I believe this is the very relationship The LORD wants to have with us, and even more deeper than that one! 

Well, with that realization, these last few weeks have been intense! There are increasingly more things/situations/people to pray for and I can't keep up with my prayer list!!! I will tell you this; it is must easier to pray throughout the day when you have a long list of family members, friends, situations and petitions to pray for than if you didn't. Whatever you are experiencing, give it to THE LORD. He bids us come to HIM especially when life's trials seem soooo gigantic and our faith seems so small...

Exhale.

Pray without ceasing guys....

Prayers, Petitions and Pleadings

To live is to suffer pain and loss.

Life consists of many ups and downs. These experiences sometimes aid in building up our strength and character; but alas, sometimes, it wears us out.

Yesterday, an employee at my job told me to keep on smiling and that she loves my smile. Sometimes I can't smile, sometimes it's hard for the face to manifest what is not in the heart. It is during these times of pain and trial that we should fight the desire to stay in the dark.

As mentioned in my previous post, there are times when something happens in life that leaves us speechless; just at a loss for words. The LORD allows situations to take hold of us where we have nowhere to turn up except down on our knees and look up to Him, and PRAISE GOD for that! We have awesome examples of men like Moses, Elijah, David and Job who went through severe tribulations in their Christian journeys, but knew that their help came from The LORD which made heaven and earth. The Bible overflows with promises, and when we find ourselves in deep dark valleys of pain, depression and darkness, we MUST persevere in crying out, fasting, praying, pleading to The LORD who never slumbers nor sleeps. It has and is working for me, and it WILL work for you too.

...'I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me' (Gen 32:26)

Ten Days of Prayer Recap

 

The worldwide church just completed its 'Ten Days of Prayer' series on Saturday, January 18th and it ended on a HIGH NOTE!

My home church went over the 10 different lessons nightly as our theme was The LORD's prayer that is found in Matthew 6: 9-13. We ended the 10 days on Saturday evening with a summary of each of the readings and a short prayer. It was such a HIGH SABBATH, and it definitely did my soul well (after a trying week!!!). All the readings can be found at Ten Days Of Prayer website.

Here is a quick run-through of each day:

Day 1: The Secret of His Power

Day 2: Children of The King 'Our Father In Heaven'

Day 3: Name Above All Names 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'

Day 4: Kingdom Work First 'Thy Kingdom Come'

Day 5: Walking in Step With Jesus 'Thy Will Be Done...'

Day 6: Filled to Overflowing 'Give us this day our daily bread'

Day 7: Clean Hands, Pure Heart 'And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors'

Day 8: Victory In Jesus 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil'

Day 9: Unlimited Power 'For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen'

Day 10: Pleading For The Spirit 'If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!' (Luke 11:13)