If the spirit of prayer be not with the people, the minister may preach like an angel, but he cannot expect success. If there be not the spirit of prayer in a church there may be wealth, there may be talent, there may be a measure of effort, there may be an extensive machinery, but the Lord is not there.

It is as sure evidence of the presence of God that men pray as the rising of the thermometer is an evidence of the increase of the temperature. As the Nilometer measures the rising of the water in the Nile, and so foretells the amount of harvest in Egypt; so is the prayer-meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people.

If God be near a church it must pray; and if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be slothfulness in prayer.

from thedailyspurgeon.com

The Holy Spirit has convicted me about the amount of time I have spent praying for my church, and really praying for a miracle to happen in our midst as we worship together.

I think many times we have gotten to the point that we don’t really expect God to show up any more and do something where only He could get the glory.

It takes time, dedication and concentration to get before God and get in the right frame of mind and heart to pray fervently for the needs of others. God desires to use each one of us to do His Work here on earth, but we must align our desires and hearts with His.

The church as a whole has become powerless against Satan and his methods because we do not take the time to make prayer a priority. It is easy to say short prayers here and there, but hard to really get down to the business of the kind of praying that changes lives and hearts for good.

I challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to help you make prayer a priority in your everyday life.

I found an awesome prayer that I know can make a huge difference in your life if you will ask God for these three things each day.

Ask God to do whatever is necessary in your life so that you can be a part of His supernatural Kingdom work. He wants to use you in a mighty way to make a difference in whatever way He chooses.

Related posts:

1. What Kind of Prayer Describes You?
2. 23 Elements Of The Lord’s Prayer
3. What Is Prayer?

What a powerful statement. Most of us will go to almost any lengths to avoid being a failure because it will make us look really bad in the eyes of other people and we might be the topic of their conversation. I know that for much of my life I have been more concerned about what others thought of me than what God thought of me.

I wanted others to look at me as a successful person, especially from a spiritual standpoint. When you are careful to always do and say the right things in public, only people who have a great deal of discernment can see through the charade and know there is something wrong even if they might not be able to tell exactly what it is.

When we have our own plans and try to carry them out, we usually try to do something that will make us look good or put us in a leadership position in some area. Sometimes we even want to do things that will make us look as if we are very humanitarian or mission-minded.

I can say from experience (from one who used to do everything just because it was good or spiritual) that there is a major difference in my life now. I have found that when you are completely in the center of God’s will, you don’t have to fight to keep your head above water; you also don’t have to fight battle after battle trying to make something happen.

I am definitely not saying that you won’t encounter obstacles and problems, but they will be much easier to handle because you know that you truly can place your life in God’s hands.

He has an awesome plan for your life, but you only get to partake of His Best if you do things on His terms.

Satan wants to keep you BUSY, BUSY, BUSY doing a bunch of “stuff” that will never make a difference at all where eternity is concerned. Make the choice to be BUSY doing work that will truly last for all eternity.

Related posts:

1. Put Your Focus On Things That Really Matter!
2. God Can Use You No Matter What!
3. Don’t Miss Out On The Awesome Things Of God!

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?

**********

David wrote this Psalm when he was in exile from Jerusalem. He longed to go back there and worship daily in the Temple because that was where God resided. It would be many years before Jesus would come to earth as a man, die on the cross, rise from the grave, and ascend to Heaven so the Holy Spirit could come back to earth to live in the heart of every person who accepts Him as Savior.

David had to physically go to the Temple worship services, and be a part of the chorus of praise that rose up to his Heavenly Father during one of the sacrifice times before he felt he had truly worshiped God.

A hart is an animal (like our deer today) that is fond of feeding near the water. When hunted he will go into the water and stay submerged as long as possible, then get in the middle of the river and swim downstream, not touching any tree branches on either side so dogs won’t be able to follow his scent. In a chase he becomes faint, and longs for  water intensely.

The word “panteth” as David uses it here means not just a quiet longing and inward desire, but audible panting produced by an agony of thirst – the intense desire and overwhelming sense of want.

This exact word occurs only twice in the Bible,  here and in Joel 1:20.  It  properly means to rise, and then, to look up toward anything; to long for. It refers here to the intense desire of the hind (female deer), in the heat of day, for water; or, in Joel, to the desire of the cattle for water in a time of drought.

There was an intense thirst that needed to be quenched, and nothing would help until water was found.

**********

How much do you thirst to truly know God? Does that thirst consume your very being?  Are you satisfied just being the way you are right now, whatever that is?

God has a plan for every Christian life, but many times He doesn’t reveal that plan until He sees how thirsty you will become to find out what it is.

In these last days, He wants to use His People to do an awesome work. Will you be willing to get rid of all the unnecessary baggage that has been holding you back and completely surrender your life to Him? It probably won’t be easy, but in the long run it will be well worth it. There is nothing greater than living a life of peace and harmony with God.

Now that is truly living!!!

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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Don’t we all need to put this on our wall and read it every day so we will remember that we truly should exist for the purpose of “reflecting back to God His matchless glory?”

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

Related posts:

1. The Matchless Pearl Story

You are God’s Child if you have asked Jesus to come into your heart as your Savior; only then can you call Him by name and be one of  His People.

God always has conditions for His Blessings. He promises to do His part if you promise to do yours.

Below are His conditions:

shall humble themselves

AND

pray

AND

seek my face

AND

turn from their wicked ways

In the Greek, the AND connecting all these verses means you must do ALL of them, not just choose which ones you want to do and leave the others out.

Then God says after His Requirements are met, He will hear your request, forgive sin, and bring healing and restoration.

You have to really want revival in your own life and in your church before God will send it. If you are tired of  living a powerless Christian life, make the choice to meet the requirements of this verse. God will reveal Himself to you in a marvelous way.

Don’t settle for powerlessness in your Christian life any longer.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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The choice is yours. God is just waiting to hear your answer!

Can you trust Him enough to give Him control over every area of your life?

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

Related posts:

1. Let God Change your Life 2° at a Time

It seems we had to travel 1000 miles for God to do something spectacular in our own lives; we have truly been blessed beyond words.

The bus ride was a long 20 hours, so we were able to share a lot of good laughs – you know those belly laughs that make you feel so good after they are over. They just seem to happen in the moment, and certainly are enhanced by the fact that you are tired and haven’t had much sleep. I will treasure those times also, for I find myself much too serious most of the time thinking about all the things I need to get done. It was wonderful to be able to let our hair down and just have some fun.

From the time we got off the bus, the people welcomed us warmly and were genuinely glad we had come. As the week wore on, we saw a deep and desperate desire for God to do something in their life. All of them had been touched in some way by the economic woes that have hit the whole State of Michigan. I so admire their tenacity and trust in God to meet their needs. God has given us a miraculous bond with these people in only 5 days.

On the last afternoon, it was really cold and after we had been out walking about 30 minutes it started to rain. We got wet and had to get back on the bus and go back to the church. It was a special time, though, as all the women in our group gathered in a circle around their women and prayed for strength and encouragement for them in the days ahead.

I also want to share about our prayer and Bible study times together each morning. That was such a special time as many of us became transparent and shared things about which God had been dealing with us, or areas in which we needed to get rid of pride. I feel such a bond with the 14 people who went, and we will always be able to share that special time.

The day after we got home, I received an email invitation to join Christine and Amanda, two of the women in the church, on Yahoo Messenger. I accepted, and we have already had some good conversations. In fact, God showed me yet again just how awesome He is.

Christine knew that I had some websites and she asked me their names, so I typed them out for her. She wrote me back and told me that she and her husband had found one of my sites some months ago, had bookmarked it, and now read it regularly. She said she would never have imagined she would meet the author.

God is so awesome. When you really think about it, you can see that God was preparing us all months ago to be a part of His plan for revival in Lake City. We are just humans, though, and will never be able to see the whole picture like God. He really knows how to encourage you in a great way when you need it most. All I did was obey his instructions as to what He wanted me to put on the site, and He took care of the rest.

I can’t close without talking about how beautiful this state is. There are lakes everywhere from the time you cross the state line. There are many farms with beautiful, lush crops waiting to be harvested. We also saw a tremendous amount of Christmas tree farms. The leaves ranged in colors from yellows to fiery oranges and reds. When you live in the South, you don’t get to see beautiful fall foliage like that.

Here are some more pictures. Some of them were taken as we were traveling, so they are a bit blurry.

A soybean field in Indiana - the leaves turn yellow and fall off right before they are harvested

Look at these lush fields in Michigan!

A shot of a typical Michigan farm taken from the road

We saw these all over

There were also lots of Christmas tree farms

I had never seen black squirrels until I saw these

Seagulls were flying all over Lake Cadillac

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

Related posts:

1. Mission Trip Day 4
2. Mission Trip – Days 2 and 3
3. Mission Trip to Lake City, Michigan

We were all pretty wiped out and went to bed as soon as possible. It was a good day, though, with everybody excited about what is to come. We got up early again and left today about 8 AM to complete the last leg of the trip. We ended up driving about 6 more hours before getting to our motel.

We certainly had some interesting conversations and a lot of laughter. It was an enjoyable trip, even though it was long. We finally checked in about 2 PM.

We took along a cooker and bought some food when we arrived so that we could meet the people of the church and share a meal with them. We had some great grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, some of the best french fries I have ever eaten, and some great desserts.

The people here are warm and friendly, and already we have had some great conversations with them over food.

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring, as we actually start revival services in the AM Sunday service. We will be leading the whole thing, and have been praying hard that God will do something miraculous this week.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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