Be Encouraged!

I have been trying to upload this video all day. I made a video a week or so ago and it was taken down by YouTube…we will see if this one is flagged.

God Bless you all. Keep praying and listening for the voice of God.

The Great Distraction

My hope for this post is that you hear my heart beyond these words. We filter everything through our own experience. This is natural. Our country, even the world, has been on a journey the past year and half. Things have changed. Different regions are experiencing different things. This isn’t meant to take away from any personal experience you have had and how sickness has effect you or yours. This is about focus.

Most of my readers know that many years ago I wrote a book about focused prayer; focused corporate prayer (praying in a prayer group). Click here for info on the book. The idea of focused prayer is praying the heart of God; praying what Jesus prayed which leads to swift answers (usually). In shooting terms, if you shoot an AR (that’s a type of semi-automatic gun) and you aren’t aiming, the bullets will fly in the general direction of where the gun is pointing. A few of those bullets may hit the target. When you focus and shoot, it is not all that difficult to hit the target or even get a bullseye even from some distance.

Spirit-led prayer hits the bullseye; the bullseye is God’s prayer requests.

I am saying this, there is a better way to pray. Yes, prayer is always good…well, that isn’t accurate. We can pray things that directly oppose God’s will and plan. Any prayers prayed that opposed God’s WORD (the Bible) amount to witchcraft. Like most things in life, we often react out of emotion than respond out of faith. Praying from a position of faith is far different than reacting to what is going on around you. Stop praying from emotions.

Since having kids and it being summer time, my prayer life has been “different”. Thankfully, God knows what I need in order to have a rich prayer life. My vehicle is often my war room. My job frequently keeps me on the road for more than an hour or two a day; Lot’s of worship and lots of prayer. If this is where you are right now, God is understanding.

I still make a prayer list, those are the things and people I feel called to pray for. Prayer lists are great. In addition to my prayer list, I pray for many requests being made to prayer teams I am connected to. Sometimes there are things that “I ain’t praying for.”

(Insert sense of humor here). I often times feel like this when it comes to prayer groups:

I know this is silly. We once had someone request prayer for his neighbor’s dog’s teeth….seriously. Oftentimes these prayers are distractions to what is on God’s heart.

In my opinion, we, as believers, have the power to pray for those close to us without involving whole teams of people. If twelve people are gathered for focused prayer for the church, it’s not time to pray for random requests. On the flip side of that, if it was your dog and and seriously close to your heart, I would agree in prayer with you but I would prefer to do that one-on-one, not taking up the time of twelve people. That prayer does not require the faith of twelve people.

On Sunday, I was heading off to work (yes, after church, I had to work). I had a 45 minute drive. I was praying for some names from one of my groups; individuals who have Covid. I am not down playing Covid, for some people it can be quiet serious. God started a conversation with me. He clearly says, “Covid is a great distraction for people to focus on rather than on what is on My heart.” God knew Covid was going to be around. He as not shocked, surprised, or startled by any of this. It is not that I believe God doesn’t care about Covid; He cares. There are most likely some prayer warriors who are called and commissioned to pray against this plague. It’s just not me….I don’t care about Covid (I care about people) and my prayers regarding it are a half-hearted. I believe demonic strongholds of fear and depression need to be dealt with on a global level…even those, as powerful as they may seem, are just imps compared to what the enemy is up to. RARELY is the spirit manifesting the actual stronghold. We have to see beyond the manifestations.

I considered what God would have us praying for is this season. This is what I felt God lead me to pray for; these are prayers Jesus prayed:

1. His Kingdom Come, His will be done on earth as in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). Pray that God’s will is released into your life, into your family, into your community, into our nation and into this world. God’s will is better than our plans or our feelings. His plan is bigger and better. Trust Him! We pray His will because we know His will. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. We hear His voice and we follow Him and only Him. WE CAN PRAY HIS WILL BECAUSE WE HEAR HIS VOICE.
2. Pray for those God leads you to pray for that their faith would not fail them in the season they are in. In Luke 22, Jesus turned to Simon Peter and said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren”. (Luke 22 NKJV). Jesus didn’t rebuke Satan and tell him “No”. Some things we go through are for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. Many years ago I heard a preacher, Stan Mitchell (I think) preach that sifting does not make, it only reveals what is there. He said in the process of sifting (during Biblical times) the farmer would need a wind from 8 to 15 mph and he would throw the wheat and the tears up into the air. If the wind wasn’t strong enough, the tears would fall back down with the wheat. If the wind was too strong, even the wheat would blow away….in the perfect wind, the tears blow away and the wheat drops to the ground. God knows how much wind we can endure. For those facing medical diagnosis it may not be about the healing, it may be about the revealing; revealing weakness and strength. Pray that the faith of our brothers and sisters would not fail them no matter their season.
3. Pray for the Church (the body of Christ) that we would kept from the evil one (John 17). The past two years has been a series of the enemy coming in like a flood; wave upon wave of fear. Jesus prayed for us that we would be kept from the evil one. We need to pray the same thing for one another. It is easy for fear to gain a foothold. I heard a quote that is applicable to this “Fear reveals, it reveals what we value the most and where we trust God the least.” (Craig Groeschell). Let that sink in. If you are sinking into fear, what is that you value and what do you need to place into the hands of the LIVING GOD? There are times when we need to pray for ourselves. “Father, please keep me from the evil one.” Lay your hand on your own forehead and pray for yourself.
4. Pray for the Church (the body of Christ) to be ONE (John 17). The Church has been divided on several fronts…politically, morally, racially, and spiritually. I have seen so many people posting pro-vax and many anti-vax, all believers. There are some issues that we should be divided on…like, the Bible. If you do not believe in the Bible or salvation through Jesus Christ…well, we aren’t divided, you aren’t a believer. But the church dividing over race, politics, or medical choices, that’s not okay. Jesus didn’t die for us to fight over these things. Pray for the unity of the Church. Jesus is returning for a spotless bride, not a bickering hateful bride. My belief is this is one of the most powerful prayers we can pray right now, in this season. This is the prayer we are being distracted from praying. While we are spending all of our time praying for the sick, the body of believers is splitting into multiple camps.
5. Pray with the authority God has given you. We are the BRIDE of Christ, not a concubine. We are a legitimate and chosen wife. We carry His name. We are under His protection. We are a warrior bride.

Do not lose hope or lose heart. God is still on His throne. Like I wrote earlier, none of what is happening in the world today is catching Him by surprise. He isn’t pleased with much of it but He is not shocked. Throughout the Bible, God has had a remnant of believers who did not bow to another. This is our time in history to not bow our knee to any other “god”. Continue in your steadfast faith and let me know what God is leading you to pray.

Why Socialism is Demonic

This could have been titled “Why God hates Socialism” but mentioning the demonic is so much more dramatic, plus God is love so how can He hate…I’m not sure the idea of God “hating” is Biblical. I’ll have to think about that.

Last week I was listening to the Rabbi at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. After finding out we have Jewish blood, my husband and I (we both have Jewish roots) have been increasingly interest in Jewish culture and history. Plus, learning these things clears up so many things in the Bible that can be confusing. They began with a song in Hebrew and then they read a passage from Genesis 17 about how God gave the land to Abraham.

Then the Rabbi expounded a little (a lot). He said that God gave them the land and when God punished His people, the punishment was separation from the land; God allowed them to be taken captive to another land.

As I was listening to this, I thought about our current society leaning toward socialism. I have considered this wrong because the Bible says God blesses the work of our hands and if a man doesn’t work he doesn’t eat, etc. The idea of people who do not work but are given money or food from the government does not sit well with me. Yes, I am compassionate and understand that there are times when jobs are lost or injuries happen. Part of my issue with this is, God gave the Church directives to take care of the widows and the orphans, not the government. The government was never meant to take this on.

The government is trying to take the place of God. In socialism and communism, the government is trying to usurp God; to dethrone Him and take His place. God is our provider, not the government.

Back to the land. In Socialist and Communist governments, the government, not the people, own the land. The government owns the land and rents it to people or gives it to people. They control the cost of housing. They control if you are allowed to plant food or crops on the property, thus controlling food availability. They control everything again trying to be like God.

God gave the land. The government wants to give land. If you don’t think the US government owns land…they own the national parks and they own all business purchased through government loans, they own all homes purchased through HUD, they own all farms purchased with AG loans. The government could call government back loans and if the owner cannot get non-FHA financing, the government would own that home…to put that in perspective, in the US right now 8.6 million homes are backed by the FHA.

This is why we need to fight for the freedoms we still have. We must pray and fight for a free nation; The government controlling our lives, our land, our work….it’s demonic.

God and God alone should be our provider; our Giver of rights.

When the United State of America was established, the founding fathers did something no other government had done. All other governments gave rights to those they governed. Our founding fathers instead of granting rights, acknowledged that rights are God-given not government-given.

In generations past, the US fought the spread of socialism and communism. These days, our “leaders” do not value God, our history, our government. It is difficult to identify what their “end game” is…maybe one world government?

I had been praying for some “road to Damascus” experiences for our leadership; that these folks would meet Jesus, face to face. Meeting Jesus face-to-face changes most people. At some point, we have to admit that some people will have that face-to-face and their hearts are hard and their resistance is strong and they will not change. They have decided there is no God. They have decided they can be a god.

Recently, my prayers have changed. Now I am praying a declaration of Moses (Numbers 10:35) “Rise up, O Lord! Let Your enemies be scattered, And let those who hate You flee before You.” It is time for some Old Testament prayers. It is time, like in Biblical times to see the enemy turn on itself like it did in Gideon’s time.

The church needs to stop praying pansy prayers. Stop praying for peace and safety. Stop praying for security and everything to be “okay”. Stop praying for “OK”. You are praying to the GOD of the Universe. He is way bigger and better than “okay”.

The other half of the church need to stop focusing on the strength of the enemy. The Enemy isn’t strong…compared to God. The enemy is a defeated foe.

Lift up Jesus and He will draw all men unto Him. Again…pray that God arise and His enemies scatter. Pray for godly leadership to be put into place. Pray that all that is in darkness be brought to light.

God is bigger than all of this. God is bigger than your biggest problem. God is still God no matter who is in the Whitehouse. God is more powerful than the president. God is greater than socialism and communism.

Pray bigger because God is bigger.