Encouragement for faithful prayer

This writing is for those Brothers and Sisters who pray for our Father to help them, but do not have faith that He will listen to their prayers.

Let’s start with the understanding that you are saved and a true child of our Father. It does not matter what you have done, God is faithful to forgive even the most grisly crimes. Do you doubt me? Let’s turn back to the Old Testament and read about a young man who loved God. He loved God with his whole being and was loved in return. Yet, he like us was human. He was so human that he stole a friend’s wife. First, he lusted after her, then he took her, and got her pregnant. Afterward, this Godly man tried to cover his sin and when his plans for covering up what he had done failed, he decided the only way out was to kill his friend. So he had him murdered. Now, I do not know about you but that covers a lot of the sins we still talk about today. Lust, desire, adultery, coveting, and murder, and yet this same man is known throughout the Bible as a man who loved God. He was called a man after God’s own Heart…King David had everything his heart could desire and more. Yet, he was human just as you and I are human. God punished David for what he had done to Uriah, but our Lord also forgave him when David repented and prayed for mercy and forgiveness. Please read again the whole story in 2 Samuel 11. It helped me to understand just how far we can fall and still return to our Father once he accepts us as children.

We are children of a mighty God who loves us as His children. He has adopted us and we are heirs in His house. So, why do we now doubt that our Father will answer us? Jesus told us in Mathew 21: 22, “You can pray for anything and if you have faith, you will receive it.” I submit that we have allowed Satan to insinuate into our religious beliefs that, “God does not answer prayers anymore because we do not need him to.” I was raised very strict religiously. My first impressions of my Father was that he was like unto Zeus, sitting up in heaven with a lightning bolt ready to strike me down for even the least of sins.  And is that not so, because the writer in Proverbs states,”FEAR of the Lord is the foundation of knowledge.” Prov 1:7 or how about Prov 15:33, “Fear of the Lord teaches wisdom.” I was taught to FEAR our Father. However, I have come to understand that this is not truly FEAR but RESPECT. He is a loving Father who disciplines His children, not abuses them.  For in that same verse Prov 15:33, it goes on to say that, “humility precedes honor.” When we submit and humble ourselves to our Father, we not only honor Him but He will also honor us in return. These teachings also included a healthy dose of 2 Peter 1:3, “Jesus has the power of God, by which he has given us everything we need to live and to serve God.” So Satan turns that into thoughts of, “God has already given us everything we need in this book. Therefore, He does not answer prayers directly anymore.” That is right, if we listen to Satan, our Master has given us everything we need to live correctly and dutifully within this book. So the Master would not have to spend time answering our prayers, or intervening in our lives. For years I actually bought that description of my Father. He did not need to intervene directly because we could read how to be his obedient child just by reading this book and doing what it says. Correct? It is the user’s manual for Christian Living. What else would I need to have? Satan will work to convince you that you need nothing else. Yet, why did Jesus spend so much time in prayer? Why would Jesus tell of the coming of the Holy Spirit?

My wife explained it beautifully when she said, “In the Old Testament, God spoke directly to His people through the prophets and He interacted with them directly. Then Jesus came and we had God with us, but once Jesus left there was a new need if God was not going to be acting directly with us and that is where the Holy Spirit fills in.” The Holy Spirit is how we can communicate with our Father in a more direct manner. Prayer is what we are communicating and the Spirit is our interpreter and petitioner. The Spirit takes our prayer, communication, and translates it into a petition that our Father understands, Romans 8:27.  So why would we need the Holy Spirit if our Father did not intend to talk with and answer our prayers? Surely, not just to guide us down the correct path to heaven.  Yet, there are Christians today, I was one, who believe that our Father does not “talk” with us directly as before. Again, why do we now have the Spirit if not to facilitate this communication? Jesus tells us to, “Ask our Father for anything and if we have faith we will receive it.” Jesus continually prays himself and directs his followers to do the same. If we had no expectation of God answering these prayers, why give us directions to do so? We have become a “People of little faith.” Paul tells the Thessalonians to never stop praying, in 1 Thess 5:17.  Therefore, I believe we need to relook at the purpose of the Spirit. It is to facilitate communications between our Father and his children so that we can gain understanding of what is pleasing to our Father. The Spirit helps us to understand what we read in the Bible. He interprets for us and I believe that He communicates with us directly when we take time to sit quietly and listen.

Yet we ask for intervention in our lives and never truly believe that our Master will respond. Another manipulation by the evil one.  He will tell you that God is too busy and you are not worthy. He will say that the silence you hear means that God is not going to answer you. I know because, I bought all those lies for most of my life. And I wear the name of Christian. For example, I would pray for healing for someone at church, as we are instructed to do in James 5. Yet, I had no expectation that God would truly intervene. Why, because the same ones who taught me that God does not communicate with his children anymore also taught me that there are no longer miracles. We live and we die. The Bible says that there is a time for everything, and when it is your turn, petitioning God would not change that. Those words were never spoken so directly but those are the words that I came to understand.  Yet, Hezekiah prayed for a longer life and was granted 15 more years to his life, Isaiah 38. We are told in James 5 that if someone is sick, gather men together and pray over that brother or sister and they will be healed. I am not sure what others classify as a miracle but to me this would be a miracle. So we of little faith get together and pray, and always tell our Father we have no faith because, we always tell him to comfort the family if the sick person dies. Wait, where is the faith that our God is BIG enough to add more time to someone’s life if He chooses to? I still doubted and so would add the “caveat”. Now comes the most telling of our lack of faith…when someone is healed, we do not give God the credit. It is always the Doctor or some other reason…such as the wrong diagnosis in the first place. What? Recently, we have had members who were sick with cancers, and heart issues that were healed after we prayed for their healing. Yet, we always say, “just human error.” Wait, our Father answers a prayer for healing and we say, it was human error, or some other reason for the healing? Why? Did we not just ask? Were we not answered? Yet, I too often did not acknowledge the healing as our Father’s intervention as we asked. You see if Satan can convince us that it was our own mistake then we will never acknowledge that our Father actually does still take an active role in our lives. That our prayer is meaningless and that we have to do this on our own through struggling with the book that was given to us as a guide. Wow! I bought that whole story for years. Yet, I know that our Father truly does still intercede in our lives when asked. He does answer prayer. It is not “just human error” when a diagnosis is changed after prayer. I know this because, our Father was once petitioned by a group of men who prayed that my migraine would be taken from me. These were men of faith and believed that it would happen. It did, and I did not have another headache of any type for 3 weeks. For me, that was miraculous. I get migraines weekly or every 2 weeks. I live with headaches continually. Yet, a group of men believing that our Father still listens, showed me that we do still have open communications with our Father when we ask and believe. All we need to do is “wait upon the Lord”, in other words sit quietly and listen for the Spirit to answer. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but our Father is faithful.  So, when you pray from now on, ask your Father in heaven with faith that He will answer; then sit quietly and watch for the response. When it comes, as it will, do not be amazed or bewildered. Just give praise to our Father who hears his children’s cries for aid and gives to them in abundance. He promised to do so…and our Father is faithful.

Another Call for Sexual Puity

Our Father has given me to write this letter to again emphasize the need to abstain from sexual immorality. all throughout the Bible we are warned that God holds our sexual purity to be a priority in our christian walk. And why shouldn't it be? Paul tells us in 1 Cor 6: 15, that our body is a part of Christ's and then again in verse 19: Paul tell us that our body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, who lives within us. That is why we are told that we no longer belong to ourselves. Yet, we commit sexually immoral acts as though we were free to do whatever we choose with our physical selves.
In Jude verse 7: he warns us "not to forget about Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God's judgment." (also discussed in Lev 18:22) Father took a more direct role in dealing with humans disobedience. Only one family survived but even the wife was punished when she disobeyed. In the written Law, Exodus 20: 14 God told his people "You must not commit Adultry." then in verse 17: He says, "You must not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female servant." Even then our Father knew that we were stiff necked and would not listen. We would not be satisfied with what we were given. We would want more. We would LUST with our eyes and allow them to fill our hearts and minds with desires until all reason left us. But our Father did not create us this way. In the beginning, he created us man and woman. He took a part of each man and created for him a perfect helpmate. His Eve. His daughter of God. This is why it is written in Genesis 2:24 that, " a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife , and the two are united into one." Our Father understood that when he made us with our free will to choose, we would also have many temptations to overcome. One of them would be the temptations of the eyes and flesh to join with others sexually. Job understood this and made a covenant with his eyes. This ensured that he never strayed from his vows to his wife and God. Paul tells the Corinthians in 1 Cor 7:2, " because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband." This is not a gender specific sin. All Father's children are tempted to some degree or another by this. Only by seeking our Father's help through prayer and praying for the Spirits guidance can we hope to overcome the temptation of the Siren's call. Remember Battle Brothers and Sisters, Father calls us to, "Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage." Heb 13:4
I pray that those who struggle with sexual immorality of any sort will turn to our Father for aid in overcoming these trials. I will attest to his strength and faithfulness in response to pleas for aid. Our God is faithful to those who seek him with a repentant heart.

A Call to Arms and Prayer

This will not be a given writing. I am writing a call to my Battle Brothers and Sisters. This is a call that I am sending out to all the Christians of this nation. To all who wear the name of Christ our Lord and Master, hear my plea, that you would join me in praying for our once great nation. We are in the midst of a Great Spiritual War for the very Soul of our Nation. With that soul goes the moral and ethical fiber that makes up our freedoms. God gave us freedom when he sent his son, Jesus, to become a man. A human being who would suffer in every way that you and I suffer. He experienced every temptation that we experience, to include lust, greed, gossip, etc. Everything! It was no coincidence that Satan showed up after Jesus had been fasting for 40 days, to temp him. He was physically weak and dilerious. Yet, even in that state Jesus, as a man, overcame his weakness and persevered. He knew the scriptures so well that he quoted them even at that most weakest of moments. Satan also quoted scriptures to him you might notice...remember he is the king of lies and the great deciever. Our King was greater! He overcame every trick that Satan threw at him to show us how to defeat him. I ask you to stand beside me now and pray that our Father in heaven will support our petition to bring this nation back onto the path of being One Nation Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty and Justice For All. For to many in this nation, these words have no meaning. Yet, there are still many citizens who remember who they are and whose they are. They remember that the founding fathers referred to the Bible when looking for a book of authority to author our Constitution. They looked to the Bible when sitting on the bench and deciding how to judge a case in a Court of Law to include the Supreme Court of our Nation. The Seperation of Church and State was not about keeping God out of the Nation but about not mandating a national religion such as had been done in France and England. We were to have Freedom to Worship by not having a mandated State Religion. Yet, we have allowed others to take away our freedoms altogether. I believe the time for silence has long past. I ask you Battle Brothers and Sisters, please stand with me and pray. Pray that God would ordain a man of faith to come forward. That we would have someone of true character such as David or Job. That we could vote for a man who would bring us back onto the path of righteousness. We need these type of men to step forward for all the congressional and senatorial seats as well. Any open Judicial seat...
God will answer in accordance to our faith...we must pray with faith and conviction that he will answer our prayers as he did for Nehemiah and Elijah. If someone does not have faith, then let them ask that God "will help their unbelief", it is nothing to be ashamed of. We all doubt from time to time. Speak it out and let the Lord bless you with faith through his answer. He has promised that if you ask, he will answer. So pray hard.

Call for Sexual Morality

To MY sons, I made you with a wild and carefree heart. A heart for challenging nature and overcoming all dangers. You have always been and will be like a wild stallion roaming the range. Running free and taking on all challengers. Proving your might and testing your strength against each other and against all my creation. For did I not give you that heart. It is like unto mine and makes me proud to watch you.
Yet, I did not create in you a simple mind. I gave to you the mind greater than that of a stallion or any other beast of this earth. I did this so that you could gain dominion over all things. You are capable of thought. You have wisdom and knowledge. You can learn. Have you not developed medicines and science. What animal has progressed like this? I tell you none. Yet, you still refuse to rise above base animal instincts and reactions in areas of your lives. No greater example of this exists than your endless appetite for sex. I would approve of it and looked upon it with favor if you had stayed faithful to your partner yet you have not. You are like a wild stallion running from one mare to another. Yet Paul told you  that this was a sin against your body, not just against your soul. For I told you from the beginning that the man and the woman were to join and to become one. When you join with another woman, you have become one with her. Did you want to be one with a whore of Babylon? Solomon warned you of these lewd women in Proverbs,yet you will not listen to wisdom. I sent plagues as a warning for abstinance, yet still you refuse to abstain. Oh, you proud and obstinate sons. How shall I gain your attention? Must I destroy the proud heart that I gave to you in the beginning? Why do you not look with favor upon the beautiful Daughters that I pulled from your body and created to be your helpmates? Yet you scorn and abandon them for Jezebels. You leave your own sons and daughters to be orphans, to chase after Delilah. Is this true servanthood? Is this the image of MANHOOD that MY SON gave to you as he DIED upon the TREE of shame for YOUR SINS?
Soon I will send another to put a bit in your mouths. Your freedoms will be gone and your pride of manhood will only be a memory. If you do not remember your VOWs to my daughters to honor and cherish them. If you do not honor the VOW that YOU made before ME, then I will know that you no longer follow my path and are my sons. I will take back the piece of My heart that I gave to you and leave you to your own destiny. Return to me now My sons. Stand before me and remember your vows. Honor them. Honor your wives and children. Live the life that I directed you to live of sexual puity with your helpmate so that the Spirit will have a place of honor inside you and can give you guidance in the path to salvation.

My Guide

I have called you to freedom not slavery. Yet you continue to look for ways to enslave yourselves. You create rules and regulations where I did not intend and then try to bind each other with them. To what purpose? Did I not tell you this would happen? Did I not send my son Paul to warn you about this? He talked to you of freedom and the breaking of the chains binding you in Galations 5. Yet you still seek to bind yourselves with other chains. In days past, my children bound each other with chains against dancing…yet, I did not condemn this act. Only those acts designed to entice and seduce others are detestable to me. My son David danced in the street naked playing a harp in worship to me and I loved it. Yet, you bind others with chains against worshiping me freely. When I authored this nation and its freedoms did I bind anyone’s worship? Did I say, you must worship me like this? Or you must not do that? No! I gave you freedom to worship me in love and faith. I said that you must LOVE ME! And take care of my widows and orphans. You must love each other as yourselves. I gave you my Word, my Son, so that you would understand how to love each other. In Galations 5, the Spirit guided Paul in writing how to live by the Spirit. Yes, the Spirit is a counselor and a guide to those who will LISTEN and OBEY. You are my chosen and I am your Father. Will you follow where I lead? Or have you decided to take your own path? There are only two paths, and you must choose one. I have provided a guide and counselor to help you along the path I have laid out for you. If you will only listen to the Spirit then you will not be bound by others seeking to put chains upon you. You will be truly free to worship Me in Spirit and Truth so that you will know that you are following where the Spirit is leading and that is the way home.

Satan has always caused devision within My children by putting chains on freedom of worship. It is because you have always argued and fought over matters that were never truly meant to be divisive that allowed the deceiver to enter the body and destroy the unity of My Son’s bride. I call you to put aside these petty arguments now and stand together as one body and remember your first love. REMEMBER ME! That I may once again be strong within this nation of my chosen. I love you and will run to you if you will only reach out to me. Call out to ME, Your Father. Test Me, and see if I will not bless you as I did in days past. Your candle burns dimmer all the time, yet it is not out. Fan the flames! Restore your love for me and each other. I will bless your children’s children for 10 generations if you will only honor the pledge that your forefathers made with Me.

Another call for Unity to all

Unity in the body of Christ is important. Our Heavenly Father spends much time talking about this and about the love we as members are to have for one another. In Acts 10 God shows Peter that whatever He makes clean (or righteous) we as men have no right to declare unrighteous. Peter is told to eat unclean 'meat' yet it wasn't truly meat that the Lord of Heaven was truly referring to in this vision. We learn in Acts 11 that even though God had ordain that Peter (one of Jesus's chosen) lead Cornelius and his household to Christ, Peter still had to defend his actions to other Christians upon returning to Jerusalem. Each of us as Christians are part of a whole. We are a part of the body. However, ask any Physician if each piece of the human body exactly matches another? The answer is No. In John 15: 5 Jesus stated that "I am the vine; you are the branches." Yet does each branch look the same? Look at a Tree growing tall and mighty with age. It will have many branches coming from one huge trunk; yet not one branch will be exactly the same as the other. We as Christians must come together now. We must unite. Our Father is calling us to stand together now and remember Him. He did not ordain a name. I am sorry and beg you to forgive my abrupt approach to this but I must speak this. God did not give some to be called Baptists, and some to be called Lutherans, and others to be called Catholics and still others Church of Christ, and more to be called Protestants...or Paulin's or any other names that we have come up with sine the beginning of the First Century. Nor did Christ say anyone was better than another. What Christ did say can be found in Mark 9:39"Do not try to stop him, because no one who performs a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say evil things about me." Luke 9:50"Do not try to stop him because whoever is not against you is for you." These statements were made to Jesus's disciples because they had tried to stop others from casting out demons in the name of Jesus but were not 'part of the chosen' few. Why is it that we are still trying to fight among ourselves as Christians instead of trying to help spread the Great news that Jesus paid our debt and we now have mercy and grace that can be ours if we will only accept it? Yet we are so busy infighting that we have literally allowed the agnostics and other governmental types to quietly move into our great nation and take over our foundation. Do you not believe me? Open your eyes. Look. Our Heavenly Fatheris already prepared to remove His presence from our nation within our children's lifetime. Is this what you want? I have seen it coming. It will be worse than before. Our nation will be split apart from within. War will be visited upon us but not by others. Your children will see it as will mine and it will be in our own streets, our own cities, and by our own countrymen. The civil war will pale in comparison to the true nature of what will be, as the Communist and Socialists fight for control of this country. Religious freedom is not allowed under those regimes.
I am asking that all those who read my blogs please pray and pray mightily that our Father will move strongly to help us get His message to all His children awakening them them to the danger. That we may yet change the fate that He has set for our nation. I have prayed that all our neighborhood congregations would come together this coming election year and pray. That all the leaders would stop arguing long enough to select one Godly man from among each of them. That they would all then anoint that man with oil, and prayer, and fasting. Then have all the Christians write-in that man's name on the ballet as the Representative and another as the Justice of the Peace, and another as the Sheriff and so on...electing Godly men as our leaders who will not put themselves first but their Lord first. In this way, perhaps we may yet truly show our Heavenly Father that we are determined to correct the path of our Nation and once again move it back to a Godly Nation. Then with prayer and patitioning He may relent and not mete out the punishment that He has ordained for America.