prayer for America
Henri Nouwen on “hope far beyond” and changing my heart
Begging is not Praying
I turned 63 at midnight and have been praying ever since. I can’t stop. Each time I try and think I’ll go to sleep, I start again. But let us back up. I keep using that word, “praying” and I do not think it means what you (maybe) think it means. My friend said it’s time to stop praying and start declaring and decreeing according to the Word, according to the promises, of God.
I thought that was part of prayer. Well, so does she, but in response to the unbelieving begging done by her prayer group, she’s defining prayer as do they: a begging of an unpredictable God. This, my dearest reader, is a mixing of covenants.
Unless and until you believe and receive what Jesus gave/accomplished on the Cross, you will never walk in victory, you will never pray the fervent, effectual prayers of a righteous man. “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.”
Begging and hoping God might be in a good mood, that you might be “good enough” to get a good outcome, is not righteous behavior. Going around parrotting the evil report that “God is sovereign” as a cop-out, rather than standing fearlessly in faith come Hell or high water, is not righteous behavior. “Sovereign” is another one of those words you (maybe) keep using and which does not mean what you think it means.
Praying a paltry begging prayer from a heart full of pride and unforgiveness rather than from a confident heart–one cleansed via the childlike acceptance of the free gift of Jesus’ shed blood at Calvary–isn’t pious, it isn’t effectual, it isn’t righteous. It is selfish.
It is thinking that it’s so much all about you that you’re going to ignore the gift of the blood of Jesus. So, like my friend’s prayer group ladies, you can meet all day and all night and beg and beg and cry and cry for God to “do something” but until you receive and believe what He’s already done, you’re wasting your time.
Pathetic, paltry, lily-livered Christianity has got to go. It’s time to man-up, trust, and obey. And it’s time to stop believing lies of so-called “spiritual authorities” and just believe God. Jesus said to love and pray for our enemies; He said to trust and obey; over and over and over He said, “Fear not.” He said if we’d humble ourselves He’d heal our land. He said John 10:10. He said we have what we say. But He never said to beg.
Making COVID Bread! Amen!
I have e-mailed this after watching twice and praying much that it will be seen and heard and RECEIVED. I pray that you will consider not the messenger, use none of your filters (“Oh, I know that guy, he’s one of those”) and too, pass this on. We’ve had this giant in our lives long enough!
We are blessed!
I read the following from Jerry Savelle this morning, this after waking up with the thought: We are not a product of our president, of our “leaders”– if and when our leader is Jesus.
We are children of the Most High, and when we walk with Him we are blessed coming in and going out, the head and not the tail, above and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13 and 28:6).
Here’s Jerry:
I truly believe there is nothing more enjoyable to God than blessing His people! That is true with every good father. If you ask my children (even though they’re grown with their own families now), they will tell you, “Our daddy loves us!” I love blessing my children and grandchildren…and now my great-grandchild. I want them to enjoy the best life that they could ever imagine. We can see God’s heart in Genesis 12:2 where He declares, “I will bless you…” to Abraham. But His blessing didn’t stop with Abraham, God also promised to bless Abraham’s seed. The apostle Paul explained that “in Christ” you are Abraham’s seed saying, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29 NIV). God always loves blessing you. He is not the one who is withholding good things from you. Don’t ever forget that God enjoys blessing His people.
This 4th of July, let us remember who and Whose we are.
Dastardly Doubt, Get Out!
It’s time to get back to basics, or, as in the case of so many Christians, to go there for the first time. So here are some basics:
- God’s accepted currency is faith; Satan’s is fear.
- Faith works via Love.
- Love never fails.
- Death and life are in the power of the tongue–you will have what you say.
- You must receive Jesus’ gift of forgiveness, and pass it on without reservation to others.
- Sins ruins everything, and doubting God is sin.
- He wants you to receive the victory over sin Jesus bought for you at Calvary–He’s for you!
- The prayer of faith avails much!
These basics are all based in Scripture, and to believe otherwise is insanity leading to death, and calling God a liar. Doubting victory is calling God a liar. In fact, it is believing the great deceiver, the father of lifes.
Dress it up any way you like, call it common sense, prudence, or whatever you want–fear is a lie.
Watch yourself-we all have to, all the time, because our enemy is good at his craft. Watch to see what you’re thinking: do you immediately believe and accept the defeat and the negative, and doubt the possibility of victory?
Your experience, education, and opinions do not matter. What your pastor and best friend think is not the issue. The issue is the Word of God Almighty, and if you’re not going to go with that, prepare for devastation in your life.
Once the devastation comes, you can continue in the crud thinking–blame God, refuse responsibility, accept defeat, and do the woe-is-me mantra. Or, you can change your wicked ways.
That’s right. It is wrong, wicked, perverse, and purely evil to call God a liar, and call what the liar Satan puts out, the truth.
If things aren’t going well, and maybe never have, God isn’t the one who missed it. Maybe someone doesn’t want the responsibility required for victory in Jesus. Jesse Duplantis, in I Never Learned to Doubt, says, “Doubt doesn’t want the responsibility of believing–doubt always seems to want to pass the buck or shift the blame–but it’s not OK.”
If we don’t get it, if things haven’t gone for us the way we prayed, hoped, expected–again, God didn’t miss it. Believe it or not, there’s something we missed, or don’t know, or haven’t patiently and persistently and immovably waited on. There is a lie we’re believing.
I told my husband recently, regarding healing in America, “If I’m the last person on earth standing and believing that God is healing our land, I will stand. If I’m the last person on earth who believes He wants to heal and bless His children, that He cannot lie, that Jesus’ blood bought us free-indeed freedom, I will stand.”
The enemy of our souls wants us to think we’re the last and only one, that it’s up to us, that’s it’s too little, too late. Such a stupid liar he is, and certainly no match for the God I serve.
Come along with me. The only choice is faith, the only path is Love–the victory-bringing, blood-bought Love of Jesus.
Pray with me: “Father we repent of doubting You, of misunderstanding You, of being ignorant of Who You are. Help us, Lord, to trust and obey, to hear and heed Your voice. Cleanse us from the unrighteousness of fear and doubt, from the pride that says we can do anything at all apart from You. Amen.”
Bring on the Persecution! Bring on the Power!
The Bible says we’re to rejoice when people persecute us and tell all kinds of lies about us. So, rather than getting all shook up when the IRS seems to target the most effective ministers, or when a group of politicians tries to impeach a president who isn’t even in office, and when the media hands out lies like Halloween candy, let’s say, “Hey! That guy must be doing something right! If that gal is rejoicing every time she’s plagued and persecuted, her life is one big party!”
Let us not be surprised or dismayed or angered about what we’re told is coming. Jesus told Paul, in a nutshell, “They hated me, they’re gonna hate you.”
It’s not personal. It’s just darkness vs. light and there’s no hiding from it. We may as well stand up and fight.
How to stand? For what to fight?
We stand by humbly bowing to Him, by obeying His . . . command . . . to Love . . .
We stand by rejoicing because we are being continually filled with His Spirit via hanging out with and obeying Him, acting, thinking and talking like Him. Talking like Him, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Thinking like Him, “It’s not about politics in America. It’s about the Good News being preached throughout the earth.” Acting like Him, “I forgive my persecutors.” (Good Newsflash: When we’re continually spirit-filled, we have the power to forgive–we look like the One we say we serve.)
Praying, as He suggested? No, as He commanded. Praying for our enemies, that they may turn from darkness to light.
For what to fight? We fight for the Light, not to be right, not to “win” an argument (there are no winners where there is strife). We fight for the Light. How will they turn to light if there is no light? Will there be light if we refuse to obey? When we disobey, our own hearts convict us and we are sick inside, dark, without light to share, cut off from power.
The light is Love, Who loves the persecuted, and the persecutors. “Where,” they ask, even as they revile and hate us, “is the Love?” “How and why,” the astute among them marvel, “do they serve my master Satan even more effectively than do I?”
We stand by repentance. There is no problem on earth, and no solution on earth, apart from the Church. Let us pray, beginning with, “Father, forgive us, for we know exactly what we DON’T do, haven’t done, refuse to stop doing. Make us strong (humble) enough to admit our weakensses and failures, strong enough to stop looking at the weaknesses and failures of others, strong enough to disregard the opinions of man, and consider only Yours. Create in us clean hearts, O God. Hearts mighty in Love.”
Love is mighty enough to tell the truth, and to withstand the consequences of doing so. Love is of God, and is up to any task or trial. When all else fails, such as supreme courts, parties, legislatures, media, medicine, education and other things of man, we will turn to the One Who cannot fail, and cannot lie. We will cease looking for natural solutions, and seek the supernatural.
When we stop returning hate for hatred, reviling for reviling, and become living testimonies of the power of Love, the enemy will have nothing to work with. We will see victory in Jesus, when we are “in Jesus” and His Spirit in us.
“How much longer,” God must be asking, “are you going to walk in circles in this wilderness?”
We can come right out anytime we decide our way isn’t working, anytime we believe that apart from Him we can do NOTHING, anytime we stop the insanity of disrespecting, disdaining, and disregarding of the Blood-bought freedom of Calvary.
Why not now?
Do Not Believe Evil Reports
Put your faith ONLY in God.
American Voter Fraud – Help!
Please listen and send out to anyone you know who will pray.
God Bless America.
Get Thee Behind Me, Fear of COVID!
Even as I am grieved and aggrieved at masks, social distancing, and other evidences of people tormented by Fear and lies, I am glad of the changes I see. In me.
After the third “encounter” with extremely aggressive and just plain demented-by-fear folks because my mask was below my nose, I am at a good place with it all. I am in a place of prayer, day in and day out, and all the day long. And even as I want “the end of masks forever and ever amen” all of it is growing me, hooray.
I wasn’t always so sanguine, and handled each mask attack differently. To the first “helper” I said, “I don’t need a mask, I have Jesus,” which caused him to physically jerk and jump, and then scuttle away as quickly as possible.
I wasn’t feeling so smug after subsequent incidents. “You’re not that special,” I said to three store clerks actually shouting at my husband and me across the store (about 30 feet away). We turned and left the store, where they no doubt lamented the idiocy of stupid old goats like us who are too dumb to understand the importance to us all of wearing the masks.
Then there was the wild girl who looked like she was about to lose it, so I pulled up the mask and said just loudly enough for her to hear as I left the store, “Shove it up your ass.” Yay, Bev. Way to go! That really was brilliant and beautiful.
And then. She was a young mom who just really, really, really got under my skin. If you’re a bit “mature” as am I, you know the one. She thinks her child is the first and only and she’s God’s golden model of excellence in motherhood. Along with that pride, of course, is the knowledge that anyone past fifty is passe, and must be helped and educated and somehow tolerated. Just the memory of that encounter. Well, I didn’t say much to her, as she made it clear that listening wasn’t her strong suit. But I lost my joy over it to the extent that I had to come up with a strategy.
Obviously, I reasoned, these helpful little darlings aren’t going anywhere (there have been two more happy times to date). I had gone through the usual prayers of repentance, forgiveness, etc. but I couldn’t shake the aggravation of Super Mom. Finally, I did two things: I made a plan for exactly how to handle it next time; and I gave her a name and went to work in prayer.
I named her Amanda and her baby Chloe, and prayed for her husband, home, finances, everything that came to mind. I prayed her free from fear. And I determined that the next encounter will go something like this:
Helper: I’ll need you to pull your mask up all the way and keep your nose covered.
Bev: Oh, certainly, even though I can’t breathe and it’s very unhealthy, and the masks don’t work. I’ll do that for you, and listen to your views about this, and very respectfully, and in return I’d like to ask you to listen to my views about the real reason, even deeper than those I mentioned, about the mask.
Helper: OK (not looking very ecstatic so far).
Bev: The real reason is that Jesus is my healer. I haven’t been to the doctor since my last child was born twenty years ago, and (if there’s a child) I can tell you how to raise that child free from the torment of Fear.
Helper: Uh . . . (she very well may leave with a pithy comment about my selfishness and ignorance, punctuated with sighs and eye-rollings, in which case we hope Bev’s best laid plans don’t fly out the window as she blows it yet again). But let’s just suppose things remain civil.
Bev: Here’s my card. I’d love to talk to you about this. And pray with you. You don’t have to live in fear. Call me. Really.
Helper takes card and I ask if she’s brave enough to shake my hand. I ask her for her name and tell her I’m going to pray for her, assuring her that I’ve been where she is, only probably much more fearful, as I was a world-class worrier once upon a time.
I hate Fear, and I hate the author of it. The Great Deceiver, Father of Lies.
If you’re under the dominion of Fear nothing I can say will change your mind. The mask, may I suggest, is your God. But could I implore and beg you to look at the words of God, the deeds of Jesus. “For God has not given us a Spirit of Fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” You can’t have it both ways, if you bow to fear, you will be powerless, unloving, and not of sound mind.
Let us all pray for victory over Fear. Let us pray for each other and let us be changed. Amen.
The Home Front Show 
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