Wednesday, January 31, 2018

BEANS AND WATER

BEANS AND WATER
The other day I was laughing about the huge bag of beans I still haven’t consumed. They were a part of my survival plan in case of an emergency. I bought them back in 2013, and I’m still working on getting them eaten. I also bought gallons and gallons of water, which I either drank or used to water the plants. The two items, beans, and water made me think of staying strong in the Word of God and getting refreshed on our journeys.

Beans are a staple, and they last for a long time without going bad. I got my big bag of beans five years ago, and when I cooked some up this weekend, they were delicious. They are a great source of protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, and fat. They’re also a powerhouse of nutrients including antioxidants, and vitamins and minerals such as copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc.

For me, the beans represented the solid, well-known Biblical principles, such as “love God and love your neighbors as yourself,” and stories that always teach us a great lesson, like David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah, Joseph and the Pharaoh, etc.

Then there’s water. The gallons of water I was saving for an emergency were way more maintenance than the beans. The plastic on the gallons would begin to break down. I’d see the bottles bend, shrink and lose their shape and then their water, little by little. I had to keep track of the dates on the water and use it before it got stale. It reminded me of how we need to faithfully keep finding new refreshing water from the Word of God, so our soul lives don’t get dull.

Finding new things to refresh and delight us, takes more work than tending the “beans.” Psalm 42:1 gives us the essence of what our attitude needs be each week: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” Psalm 43:19 tells us: “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

Rivers in the desert are surprises, delights, and true survival to a thirsty soul. We need new delights in our Christian walk. The Lord has lots of new delights for us. He says in Psalm 29:3 that “the voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”

God sometimes hides His treasures in plain sight. We seek them, and He promises “the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” The Lord’s water “springs” up. The wording indicates a freshness of activity and excitement. God’s water is bubbling and even sometimes turns into the most precious wine. When Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding party, it was the best wine the guests tasted, and it was a wonderful celebration.

Some of you go to a church where you often hear new sermons to inspire you. If that doesn’t happen for you, then you can easily go on YouTube and check out some new preachers that may talk about things you haven’t heard in church. John 7:38 tells us that living water flows from people filled with the Holy Spirit, and I believe this verse is talking about more than speaking in your personal prayer language: “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Also, you often hear me talk about doing a word study on a favorite passage. That activity always gets me excited and refreshed.

Beans and water. Let’s keep solid and faithful in the old, well-proven statutes of God’s Word and let’s keep seeking the treasures we can discover in the Lord’s rivers in the desert.

Love, Carolyn


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Sunday, January 28, 2018

BREAKING DEMONIC TAG TEAMS AND SHATTERING CABALS

BREAKING DEMONIC TAG TEAMS AND SHATTERING CABALS                                                                                                    
The devil knows the value of tag teaming a person with calamity. He counterfeits the ways of our God. God tells us to agree on something good, and it will be done. The devil gets demons to agree and work together to wear us down, to “steal, kill and destroy” like it says the in John 10:10. But God has the answer for that, and we see it in Genesis 11 with the story of Babel. 

Nimrod was a mighty man against our God. God wanted people to spread out across the world, but Nimrod wanted to keep them together. He was tapped into the truth that the power of agreement works wonders, but instead of using it for good, he wanted to use it for evil.

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, ‘Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’

“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, ‘Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

“’Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech’” (Gen. 11:1-7).

 ”Confounding” is the key to breaking up a team of attackers. We pray for divine intervention, confusing the people involved so that they can no longer agree. They can no longer communicate with each other.

Genesis 11:8-9 goes on to say: “The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build [stopped building] the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

What a great key God’s given us in this passage! When the witches’ covens, warlocks, Satanists, various cabals, Illuminati or even small groups of demons are getting together in unity to attack us or our Christian ways, we can pray specifically for God to release the same sources of confusion on the demons and/or the people who are letting the demons influence them.   

The definition of Babel is “mix up and confuse.” James 3:16 says: “For where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” Envy and strife will wreak havoc in a group that was apparently solid. Unity will quickly begin to deteriorate and shatter. The Bible tells us when “the wicked plots against the just, their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken” (Ps. 37:12-15).

When we pray for the Lord to put the spirit of Babel on a tag team of demons, or on a group targeting Christians, the demons who supported and protected those people, are stopped. Blocking the demons takes the demonic protection from the people, leaving them naked to the consequences of their sins. The evil they intended for others, turns back on them. Their businesses fail; they lose their homes; they fall prey to sickness and disease; their families experience traumas and disasters. All the protection they got from Satan’s minions falls away and a harvest of bad cavalcades down upon them.

Yes, they can get delivered, but God is serious about protecting those who love Him. Our job is to pray and then do what the Lord leads us to do.

God shattered Nimrod’s plans at Babel and warns everyone else: “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (Ps. 105:15). And in Romans 12:19: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Several groups consciously get together to put curses on believers and righteous causes. But demons also agree to attack us and work with separate individuals who are not necessarily connected in the physical. For instance, two or three demons could conspire to influence three different people you meet in one day. The one demon is getting one person to reject you, then a different demon working in someone to sideswipe your car. Then a third demon working with yet another person, inspiring them to blast you on Facebook. When you catch this type of attack, you can easily rebuke the demon group and scatter them like Babel.

Another way this teaming agreement works is when, as in the case of my friend Paul Norcross, it was a barrage of the same type of demon trying to force him to be sick.

He was getting symptoms of a cold, so, in the name of Jesus Christ, he rebuked the demon causing it. He felt great for a while but then the symptoms came back, and he rebuked it again. The same thing happened: He felt great for some time, then the symptoms came back again. He went to the Lord and asked why this was happening. Was he doing something wrong? The Lord told him that several demons were coming at him one after another and he was doing the exact right thing by rebuking them all.

Our God has the answers to every attack. Our Lord Jesus knows how to get us to God’s answers. God dispersed examples throughout the Bible, showing us how to use the answers in our everyday lives.

I know you will be able to use this spirit of Babel key in prayer against God’s enemies, and you’ll become more aware of tag team demons in your life. Let’s stop them in their tracks and send them fleeing!

Love, Carolyn

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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE, RIDE THE WORD

SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE, RIDE THE WORD
I was waiting at the trailhead for the rest of the hiking group. It started to sprinkle and was an unusually cold morning for Las Vegas. I saw movement up at the top of the cliffs and got my binoculars focused on one large golden eagle sitting at the edge of the cliff and another circling in the sky. They were getting ready to fly above the oncoming storm. Being above the storm, they cruise along peacefully. If only we could be as smart!

Satan wants to fill us with fear about the future. We can't let him do that. The Lord has already rescued us and made a way for us to rise above like the eagle.

Our God is a good God. That sounds like a no-brainer, but how often have we gotten worried, scared or angry about our circumstances and felt our present situation and our future looks pretty dim?

I got somewhat worried a few years ago when Las Vegas wasn’t building, and painters like me didn’t have jobs. When this happened before, I did a lot of side jobs, but people were being tight with their money and didn’t want to pay for extra projects. Besides that, I was caring for a sick friend, so I had extra expenses. Things were going downhill financially. It hit me like a brick wall, but friends and family helped and I cut way back on my spending, cutting my bills down, etc. It didn’t hurt me a bit.

I was glad to experience what I did. The Lord showed me how to cruise through, one event at a time. My low financial state took me to new heights spiritually.

I met some of the greatest and most loving people in the most unexpected places—places I’d never even thought of visiting before. The Lord was showing me a wealth of blessings and only a small part of it had to do with money prosperity.

In the last several years there has been so much teaching about financial prosperity that many Christians felt ashamed if they didn’t become rich like the church leaders and others who followed those leaders. I’ve come to believe their teaching led many in the wrong direction.

The Bible says, “They shall not be ashamed in the evil time; and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied” (Ps 37:19 KJV). The NIV reads: “In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.” And in the NAS: “They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance.” That abundance is not just referring to money. If we truly trust God and his son Jesus Christ, we have everything because the Bible promises “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

I was financially poor a few years ago, and yet with God, I soared like an eagle above the storm because I learned to ride the Word. What I received spiritually and in my soul was wonderful and worth so much.

No matter what our situations may look like and no matter what frustration we may suffer, we can’t let fear lock us into bad times. We “seek those things that are above . . .  and set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:1-2). Our God is a good God and will always provide a way for us to rise like the eagle above any storm. And even if we don’t get out of it in time and are encircled by a storm, physically or emotionally, we trust in the Lord and are assured that the storm will pass and we will rise again.

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Love, Carolyn

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Sunday, January 21, 2018

BEAUTIFUL BUT DEADLY

BEAUTIFUL BUT DEADLY
When I saw this photo of the Blue-Ringed octopus, I thought it was strikingly beautiful. But then I found out that it’s one of the most venomous creatures in the ocean. When it feels threatened, it strikes and asphyxiates its victims by paralyzing respiratory muscles. It reminded me of Satan in the Graden of Eden. Ezekiel 28: 12-15 describes how beautiful he was, but we quickly see that his ways were deadly to humanity. We can never trust in outward appearances. Moses and the great Apostle Paul were both murderers. Peter was somewhat of a bigot. But, in contrast, look at how beautiful and wise Satan was:

“Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;

Every precious stone was thy covering,
the sardius, topaz, and the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper,
the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold:

The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes
was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so:
thou wast upon the holy mountain of God;
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity was found in thee.

If we go one by one through the Bible stories, we see that most of the great men and women of the Bible had pretty big flaws. Jesus himself said: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). And guess what? We all fall into that sinner category. There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).

That doesn’t mean we are okay staying sinners. The goal is to do our best to let the Lord guide us into all righteousness. Only Jesus can lead us. It’s the way God set it up.

We can’t make up what we think is right. We go by what the written Word of God says, and we get born again of His Spirit so we can truly understand the lessons of the Bible and get personal downloads from the Lord of spiritual understanding and instruction in everyday life situations.

Our beauty is from within. It’s not in the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, the great book knowledge we have, or the intellectual acumen. That’s all fluff—nice fluff—but fluff none the less. And even as Bible-believing sons of God, we are going to do some things that are not so beautiful, and we are going to see others do some things we don’t like either.

But the lesson of looking on a person’s heart is never overstated. God does it, and Ephesians 5:1 tells us: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.” One way to pray for ourselves and others is to pray that the Lord gets to the heart and brings us and others forward into the things He’s intended. It doesn’t always look sparkly, peaceful or pretty. But integrity of heart is better than beauty.

Love, Carolyn

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

HE THAT HATH PITY

HE THAT HATH PITY UPON THE POOR LENDETH UNTO THE LORD
Today I went to file a claim to get back the $1000 I had to pay out for new computers and a camera when my house was robbed. It turned out the best way to get the $1000 is to take my case to small claims court, and get the money from the teen’s legal guardian. Having no parents, the boy’s aunt was his guardian in 2016 when he robbed several other houses, and his grandma was his guardian when he robbed my house. But I felt wasn’t fair to go after the grandma, since she only recently became his guardian. I gave her financial mercy.

The Bible says: “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again” Prov. 19:17). I feel like I am lending to the Lord by not putting a financial burden on the poor grandma. Our Lord Jesus doesn’t want the woman to be loaded down any more than she already has been.

I thought I was doing the right thing by going through this process, and I was. I just didn’t get the result I thought I was going to get.

God used this experience to show me His mercy and His love for the poor. He doesn’t want any of us to suffer.  I’m glad I was able to help the Lord to take a little bit of the burden off of one of His own.  

As it turns out, a wonderful friend also helped me out financially in this situation and I know the Lord will bless him as well!

Love, Carolyn

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Sunday, January 14, 2018

DON'T BE AFRAID

DON’T BE AFRAID
Wendy gave us a beautifully framed Christmas present. It says: “The phrase: ‘Do not be afraid’ is written in the Bible 365 times. That’s a daily reminder from God to be fearless every day.” With the things we are seeing and experiencing in this first month of 2018, this mandate from our Creator is the encouragement we cling to with all our heart, for survival and the more abundant life. There is normal fear, and then there is a spiritual demon called “fear.” That’s when fear gets a hold of us, and influences just about every move we make. Fear wants to rule our lives and keep us from living a happy life, doing the will of our Lord Jesus and His father, God.

After someone broke into my house, the demon spirit of fear confronted me, whispering things like, “He could come back,” “He might tell his burglar friends where my house is, and they’ll get in before you fix the door,” all kinds of crazy stuff like that. The spirit of fear wants to take over our lives by putting all kinds of “what if” thoughts into our brains. The Word tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” A sound mind thinks what the Word of God says about life, not what circumstances say.

Fear must be a very big weapon of Satan, for God to have to tell us 365 times not become prey to it! Fear not. Fear not. Fear NOT! Why not? Because God has our back, and our front, and our side, and above, and below. Isaiah 54:17 tells us: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”

Romans 8:37 says: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” God intends good for us, no matter what. So, when fear confronts us, we are not to capitulate, but to go to our Lord Jesus for wisdom concerning the thing we must believe, say, or do to shatter the mirror of fear into such tiny pieces that we can blow them away in one breath, GONE!  

Jesus showed me how to stop any further attack of fear regarding my break-in. He gave a strong urging that I couldn’t ignore. He gave me an instruction I knew I couldn’t refuse: “Go to the court case of the burglar.” I obeyed. When I saw the burglar in person, a 17-year-old teen, and heard the judge sentence him to a year in juvenile prison, I wasn’t afraid anymore. I knew from the Word of God that only Jesus could save him, and I pray that he will find Jesus while he is locked up. That is seriously his only hope as he goes into adulthood.  Besides going to the court case, the Lord also let me know I’m important to Him and I need to get more security in my house, so I did it.

For every fear, Jesus is the answer. His wisdom is undeniable. James 3:17 tells us: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

Let’s make 2018 an exceptional year of intimacy with Jesus and His wisdom. Let’s wipe away fear in our lives and help others to do the same. We have a loving God and the closest friend in Jesus. 365 days of FEAR NOT.

Love, Carolyn

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

HIS WILL IS TO TAKE SICKNESS AWAY AND FULFILL OUR DAYS

HIS WILL IS TO TAKE SICKNESS AWAY AND FULFILL OUR DAYS
When we read in the Bible that God says, “I will,” we need to understand that God is telling us what He desires, what He wants for us. He is saying, “You want to know what My will is? This is it.” In the original texts, God jumps directly to the action, which we find after the “I will.” “Put none of these diseases on thee,” “take sickness away,” and “fulfill your days” are three phrases I’ll briefly talk about in this post.

The first phrase is in Exodus 15:26: I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” In this verse, “put” is a Hebrew word which means “place, set, bring to pass, lay upon.” Part of the meaning of this word is “consider.” God wouldn’t even consider laying any of these diseases on us. It wouldn’t even cross His mind! I found the following on some of these diseases:

“A team of specialists from around the world gathered in 1975 for the express purpose of performing autopsies on the Egyptian mummies in the Manchester (England) Medical School museum. These mummies dated back to 1900 B.C. The ancient Egyptians suffered from many illnesses common to modern man: heart disease, cancer, vascular diseases, arthritis, hepatitis, tetanus, trichinosis, lockjaw, tuberculosis, boils, parasites, and others.”

God doesn’t put disease on us, and it is His will that none afflict us. If they do, then there is a cure. Going to God and reminding Him of His will is certainly a good place to start. And especially since in the very same verse, He says: “I am the Lord that healeth thee.”

The next phrase I want to look at is in Exodus 23:25: “I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.”
The word “take” means “remove, to cause to depart, to come to an end, reject, abolish, pluck away, to turn off, behead, withdraw and be without.” Those are powerful words, and those are what the Lord God, our Creator, wants to do to ANY sickness that attacks us from within or without.

The last verse I want to look at is Exodus 23:26: “The number of thy days I will fulfill.” We use the phrase, “they died before their time.” There is a time set for each of our lives, and the Bible says it is when the number of our days have been fulfilled. But let’s look at what that word “fulfilled” really means.

It’s the Hebrew word “male’,” which means accomplished, replenished, overflow, satisfied. It means fullness, abundance, complete. It means to fill any vacant place with abundance, like in Genesis 1:22, “fill the waters in the sea, or Exodus 40:34 “the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.” It’s also used of satisfying the soul, i.e., the desire, the hunger. It means to do anything fully or thoroughly. In Jeremiah 4:5 “male’” is translated, “cry out fully, i.e., strongly. All of these great attributes are God’s will for fulfilling our days here on earth.

The above three “I will” verses are great ones to study and meditate upon. Slowly re-read the paragraphs above, pausing at each definition of God’s action word. Think about what the Lord is really saying to you. Put the verse in your own words. Memorize the verses and repeat them aloud.

If we can believe, we receive. “Jesus said unto him, ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’ And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief’” (Mark 9:23-24).

Love, Carolyn


GREAT READING FOR 2018


Sunday, January 7, 2018

"I WILL" - WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

“I WILL” – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
When we say, “I will,” it’s often a weak or mundane response, like: “I will take a ride.” But when God says, “I will,” it’s much stronger, and should be understood as: “THIS IS MY WILL; THIS IS WHAT I WANT.” I started in Genesis, looking up the usages of “I will.” But when I looked for it in the original texts, it wasn’t there! Why not? God didn’t need to say, “I will.” The translators added it. God’s will was in the action word following the “I will.”

This seems to be consistent throughout the Bible. God doesn’t need a lead up; He jumps right in with immediate engagement. I’ll show you by starting with the first place we find “I will” in the Bible. (You younger, and older, men who are looking for the perfect wife will love this one.)

Genesis 2:18: “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.’” When you drop the “I will,” you have a much more direct and powerful demand: MAKE, as in “make it happen; do it.” The original Hebrew word is “asah.” By the simple task of looking it up on your online Strong’s Concordance, you see that it means, “to produce, to procure, to prepare, to put in order, appoint, ordain, bring about, to celebrate, and maintain!” WOW! What a great promise for any single man who admits to needing a help “meet for him.” God’s will is to MAKE it happen absolutely! God says it’s His will to perform, celebrate, and maintain it! He declares to His universe, “Make it happen!”

On the same website, you’ll see a further explanation of the word MAKE.  It’s “to create, to work a miracle, to make or produce it from oneself.” What a great and loving God. Three examples given are of how a cow makes milk and how a tree makes fruit and how a grain makes flour. The product comes from the source. The explanation goes on to say the thing made is acquired by labor. It is prepared and made ready, like food. It is also trained and combed (not shaved). When we apply this to a human being, God is telling us that He is the one who produces this person. He prepares them; He labors in them to give them the best stuff. He trains them and combs them, bringing out the best, not cutting them off. When God picks a person for you, He does it right.

The above example is only the first place we see God saying, “I will.” I also looked up Genesis 17:7 where God says to Abraham: “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” Galatians 3:29 says: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” So, the many “I wills” God said to Abraham after Genesis 17:7 apply to us too. I highly recommend looking some of them up.

But in this verse, the action word after “I will” in this verse is “ESTABLISH.” It’s a firm, strong and sure declaration, like the MAKE in Genesis 2. In this verse, God is talking about a personal relationship between Him and us. When we look up the word “establish,” it means “to prove, to fulfill, to validate, to raise up, stir up, stand up, make clear, and strengthen.” God’s strong desire is an intimate organic relationship with Him every day.

Three very powerful “I will” verses that I will look at in the next post (Wed.) are in Exodus 15:26 and Exodus 23:25-26. The verses read:

I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Ex. 15:26).

I will take sickness away from the midst of thee” (Ex. 23:25).

“The number of thy days I will fulfill” (Ex. 23:26).

Four steps - 1. We look up the “I will” verses in the Bible. 2. We jump right over the “I will” and go directly to the action God Himself declares. 3. We agree His action is our blessing. 4. We believe, and we receive with thanksgiving. All the glory goes to God.

Love, Carolyn

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Wednesday, January 3, 2018

A GOOD WAY TO START PRAYER: "LORD, WHAT DO THEY NEED THE MOST?"

A GOOD WAY TO START PRAYER: “LORD, WHAT DO THEY NEED THE MOST?”
When I’m scrolling on Facebook, I try to answer as many requests for prayer as I can. I do pray each time, but I can do better. How? By asking the Lord every time, what is it they need the most? He knows, and I don’t! I can speak my personal prayer language (speaking in or with tongues), but I also like to be able to get detailed specifics on what to target. Sometimes a person needs a body part repaired, sometimes they need for me to rebuke the fear. Sometimes prayer is needed for the doctor to get revelation in the middle of a surgery.

One of the preemie twins (weighing in at just a little over 4 lbs) was having open heart surgery. The mother of the little girls asked for prayer. I texted back that I’d pray. Then I went on to check my other texts, posts, and e-mails. A few minutes went by, and I caught myself, “Carolyn, you need to pray NOW!” It’s way too easy these days to go through e-mails, social network posts, texts, etc. and take the messages in as mental information without really engaging and DOING something about them. When it comes to prayer, we need to change this bad habit.

Prayer is a very powerful force God’s given us. It gets things done, and we need to take it seriously.  Jesus tells us: “I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, WHEN ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24). WHEN we pray we are to believe – right then, not later, not pray and hope there will be an answer, not pray and wish, but focus enough when we pray – focus on the answer – the end result. If we ask the Lord what the person needs the most, that gives us a huge head start! Then when we pray, we know we’re praying for what the Lord wants most. Then it’s easier to believe for the best results.

Too much praying has been, “If it be your will.” If we spend time in the Bible, then we won’t have to say “if” all the time, because we will know what God’s will is.

When we pray for someone, it’s a serious matter. It means something. It is not casual or frivolous, or just words or thoughts in the air. According to God’s written word, prayer can heal, get people delivered from devil spirits, alter weather conditions and many more things. It’s powerful and effective. Check out the word, “pray” or “prayer” in a concordance to see just how wonderful and powerful it is.

Jane and I prayed about the baby’s heart surgery. We knew in our spirits as we began to pray, what was most important to the Lord in the situation. We believed what the Bible says about children being a blessing (Ps 127:3-5). We also believed in God’s ability to work through the surgeon’s hands. We knew that the parents were standing in faith for the little girl to live and grow strong. We knew that the Bible says if two agree in prayer, God will do it (Matt 18:19). We knew that our main focus in prayer was that the little girl would live. So, when we prayed together we were persuaded God would answer – and He did. She went through the surgery with flying colors, had a speedy recovery and all the tubes were taken out in only a few days. Today she is a healthy little girl, 3 or 4 years old by now.

Prayer works. But every once in a while, we need a reminder of how we can make our prayers more effective. The next time someone asks for prayer, we stop a minute, pay attention, ask the Lord for their most important need. And when we get His answer, (usually the first thing that pops into our minds) we pray and believe.

Let’s make this the most exciting year of prayer ever.

Love, Carolyn