Another Miracle

Remember Joy? 

You can read her miracle story here and here.

I have been following her on Facebook and she has been up and down but nothing too serious to make a report about. Actually all of those who are on the prayer page are either doing really well, or I haven't heard a word about.

Well, today Joy's mom reported yet another amazing miracle in Joy's life. I have copied and pasted it here below since there are a lot of you that either are not on Facebook or are not following her story.

Attention Ladies and Gentlemen,
When Joy suffered her severe lung damage in October, one pulmonary doctor told us we would be lucky if Joy was off of oxygen by the time she started preschool, but the goal would be for her to not need it during the day when she started Kindergarten. She has needed oxygen all the time since October. Well last night Joy and God must have had a long talk.
Joy weaned HERSELF off of oxygen in just 3 HOURS last night! She is doing amazingly well without it! i cannot begin to express how unexpected this was! We will be keeping oxygen here, just in case, but it was amazing today to walk around with her without any cords!
We are so grateful and humbled to be blessed by another miracle working in our Joy. We are so very unworthy! The only way we know to honor what HE has done is to shout it out!
GOD IS GOOD! HE WORKS MIRACLES EVEN TODAY! HE IS WORTHY OF PRAISE! HE STILL LISTENS, STILL LOVES, STILL CARES FOR HIS CHILDREN!
WE ARE BLESSED!

This mom and dad have given Joy and her health completely over to God and have asked for His will to be done in her life AND just look at what He is doing!!! I am so thrilled!

Please join me in praising and worshiping Jesus Christ, healer of all!

Psalm 148 NIV

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights above.

Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars.

Praise him, you highest heavens

and you waters above the skies.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for at his command they were created,

and he established them for ever and ever—

he issued a decree that will never pass away.

Praise the Lord from the earth,

you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,

lightning and hail, snow and clouds,

stormy winds that do his bidding,

you mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars,

wild animals and all cattle,

small creatures and flying birds,

kings of the earth and all nations,

you princes and all rulers on earth,

young men and women,

old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted;

his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

And he has raised up for his people a horn,

the praise of all his faithful servants,

of Israel, the people close to his heart.

Praise the Lord.

Blessings,
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Should We Fast? Part 2

Health Warning:

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You should not fast food if you are diabetic, have health issues or are prone to anorexia. Always consult your doctor before you go on an extended fast and you should always make sure you are taking in enough fluids and salt.

In our vulnerability we should direct our self to dependence upon God by fasting and praying, asking God to intervene at our point of need and feed our spirit with His Spirit.

Appeals to God for victory:

Jehoshaphat, a king of Judah learned prayer and fasting was key to military adversaries and the result was that God set confusion in the camp of the enemy.
 
2 Chronicles 20:3 NIV

Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.

v 22-23

As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 

Elijah was given great victory over the demonic principalities operating through Queen Jezebel. 1 Kings 18:16-40 show us how Elijah was fearless in front of King Ahab and 850 Baal and Asherah prophets, but he ran for his life at the threat of Jezebel because she was sanctioned by demonic principalities of witchcraft that intimidated him.

1 Kings 19:1-3 NIV

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

2 Kings 9:22 NIV

When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”

   “How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

After a 40 day period of fasting and praying, traveling to meet with God, 1 Kings 19:1-14, God gave Elijah a message that assured him of the Lord's rule over political and spiritual forces. (This, along with Moses and Jesus' fast was a supernatural fast, directed and ordained by God).

1 Kings 19:15-18 NIV

The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Fasting places us in the position to receive protection from harm and victory over the enemy. God does not withhold these blessings from us but Satan blinds us into living below our privilege. Fasting and prayer open our eyes to seeing things in the right perspective so we shed insecurity and hold on to the continual blessing and favour that is ours as children of the King.

Safe journey:

Ezra was embarking on a journey to return to Jerusalem and he was ashamed to ask the king for an army to protect them so they fasted and prayed asking God for protection, and He answered their prayer. I also have this verse Ezra 8:23, as part of my blog title because the journey God has me on is one of intercessing. Healing from physical, emotional and spiritual ailments with the utmost healing being that of a soul, a soul given over to Jesus Christ and becoming a child of God. This is a journey in which we need the protection of our God for Satan is always on the attack and he would see people suffer and not become Christians.

Ezra 8:21-23 NIV

There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

When your life is in danger:

Queen Esther fasted a full fast for 3 days and nights before she approached the king, which was forbidden to do. No one was allowed to approach the king unless they were called forward, but because of the dire need of her people, Ester decided to do this.

Esther 4:15-16 NIV
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

When we feel tension in our relationships:

Sweet relationships with other believers is a sign that God's grace is working in us.

1 John 1:7 NIV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 

Fellowship means we are relating to others as equals, lack of fellowship means we think we are above or below them.

Fasting is an expression of the heart's longing to a greater intimacy in our walk with God, it assures a devotions that lasts. Regular practice of fasting and prayer helps assure consistency in our devotion to God because it develops a lifestyle of self-denial.

Luke 9:23 NIV

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."

Intensifies the worship of God:

Acts 13:1-3 NIV

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  

The discipline of fasting helps us to give ourselves fully to the Lord by cutting off the tendencies we have that distract our focus on Him. We develop the consistency of devotion that will draw us into the presence of God in which He is pleased to walk and talk with us.  

Desire spiritual blessing and insight: 

Colossians 2:2-3 NIV

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

Empowers us for spiritual warfare:

1 John 3:8 NIV

The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Matthew 10:1 NIV

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. 

Matthew 17:14-20 NIV

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

   “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Fasting nil's unbelief that hinders our prayer lives and is instrumental in empowering our ministries.We are to serve the body of Christ and evangelize the lost. Our desire should be to help others experience God's grace and goodness. We are to work together to see God's kingdom advance and the power of darkness leave.

Fasting and prayer does not change God, it changes us. It lines up our thoughts with God's thoughts and ways. It does not twist God's arm to get Him to work for us but it puts us in the position to receive the grace He freely gives and enables us to do His bidding.

Fasting makes sure we are humble, repentant and accepting forgiveness so we do not feel distant from God. It allows us to come to God for protection from harm over the enemy so He can overcome our weakness and vulnerability. It empowers us for ministry and allows us to light the pathway for others.

I am sure I have missed many other situations in which to fast, but I am sure you get the idea. :) Next up: How to fast.

Blessings,
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Jesus First

Matthew 6:33 NKJV

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But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Jesus tells us to seek God's kingdom first, but we tend to think about ourselves first; what we will eat, wear or where we will live and how do we make money, then we usually think about God and His kingdom. Jesus puts things in reverse order here saying to seek God first and everything else falls into place. I don't know about you but this can be really hard. It is like living with no physical reassurance that He will fulfill His promise, until we actually start seeing miracles happen we tend to worry.

Now, we don't want to become fools and not care, think or work for these things that we need of course not! :) But we are to get our priorities straight and put God and His domain first.

Proverbs 14:23-24 NIV

All hard work brings a profit,

   but mere talk leads only to poverty.

The wealth of the wise is their crown,
   but the folly of fools yields folly. 

Here in Proverbs we see that that it is right to work hard. The product of our hard work brings wealth. We need to think about money and food but we are not to make this our focus or worry about it. God should be our focus and be concerned about His heart. When we care more about the kingdom of God then ourselves then He will provide for our needs. Does this mean a fancy home and rich foods? No, but it does mean that we will have enough to eat, clothes on our back and a dry place to live. Keeping up with the Jones' is not part of God's plan for us. 

North American's are spoiled, we have the good life, but really is it good without God as number one? Physical comforts do not make for a happy heart, only God can do that. Too many people are seeking the good life. I challenge you, seek God first and I guarantee you will be happier than you ever have been. Why? Because we were created to worship Him and if we don't we are empty, missing something. We start worshiping created things but these things are not alive and cannot give us what we need; love from the Father.

Blessings,
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JESUS in His Glory

WARNING: video is very graphic    
                                Jesus: King of Heaven dying for me!!

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                                              Jesus, Jesus, JESUS, JESUS!!!





The love of my life rescuing us from the depths of hell! Oh what love He has for us!!

24/7 Prayer

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John 4:23-24 

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."

Kimberly over at Mining for Diamonds asked me "how you manage your prayer times. Do you pray for everyone on your list all at once? Do you pray as the Lord lays them on your heart? Do you remain in an attitude of prayer all day? I've found myself praying in my sleep before!!! There are so many different "styles" of prayer...quiet reflective prayer, loud travailing prayers...would love your thoughts and testimonies!"

Thanks for these questions Kimberly. This is something I have been meaning to post on so here we go!!

One of dictionary.com descriptions for the word pray is ...to enter into spiritual communion with God or an object of worship through prayer. Another word for communion is relationship. Christianity is built on Jesus Christ as the foundation and cornerstone and this is a relationship not a religion. There is no other belief that calls for an ongoing relationship like Christianity does.

How does my prayer life look like with the Creator of the world? Kind of like a typical conversation with your very best friend. Give and take. Talk and listen. God wants to have a friendship with us. He doesn't want us to come to Him once or twice a day and throw all these needs at Him and then leave without even waiting for Him to respond. You wouldn't do that to your best friend so it isn't right for us to do this with God either. Jesus wants to have fellowship with us, an ongoing relationship where we talk back and forth, or just sit in each other's presence. He really like us and wants to hang out with us in everything we do and He really does talk to us, we just need to learn how to listen.

Ok, so how do I talk with someone I do not see? By dedicating everything I do to Him and trust that He will lead where He wants me to go. If God has promised us that He will never leave or abandon us and we know that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us then it is only right to include Him in our thought process with the goal of handing over our complete self and thinking patterns to His control and way. This is an ongoing process and I have to keep reminding myself that He is always listening therefore I should always include Him in all of my conversations. Sometimes I do tend to forget to include Him but He gently reminds me, usually with an impression, that He is there.

My 24/7 prayer life is really an active relationship with the Holy Spirit who lives inside me and He will prompt me to pray. Names will pop into my mind or I will receive a very strong impression or series of pictures of someone or something and then I will just start praying. I converse with God instead of talking or thinking to myself, after all He is always listening and it is just me that loses focus on Him for He doesn't move away it is I who walks away from Him. This does take time and practice and my mind tends to wander. This, I find, is where fasting really helps as it turns my thoughts off of myself and onto God. When I am hungry I remember God and feed my spirit with the Word of God or worship and focus on Him. It is a discipline that needs to be trained like learning another language or musical instrument. You have to practice it and if you leave it for a bit you tend to get rusty or maybe even forget some things.

My conversations with God change from day to day with the different circumstances in my life. Sometimes I have a very quiet reflective prayer time or robust! There are times when I just sit in His presence or cry to Him. My prayers can be very emotional and loud and I can be overcome with laughter. The best way that I love to pray is in dance but I am not free to dance all the time so I will dance before my King in my mind. Sometimes He dances with me but most often I dance in His presence with angels. I love to worship God in tongues but I only do this when I feel prompted and usually it is for a very desperate cry out to the Lord or for a release in the Spiritual world. I guess you would say that I pray as the Spirit leads.

The pleasure and wholeness of living as one with the Holy Spirit far surpasses any worldly bliss we could imagine. It doesn't matter if you are poor, beaten or in prison for the joy of the Holy Spirit transforms you into understanding the pureness and delight of the heavenly kingdom in which one day the children of God will all be living together in. This was the joy that Stephen, the first martyr, had on his face while he was being stoned to death.  

So, when I say I pray 24/7 I am really just in a relationship with Jesus, walking beside Him, loving Him, complaining and crying my heart out to Him and just enjoying His wonderful company in all circumstances that come my way. By no means do I have this perfected, I fail a ton of times but I pick myself up, brush off the dirt and keep on keeping on as the Spirit leads.

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 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 NIV

Finally, brothers and sister, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Great one another with a holy kiss. All God's people here send their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 

How does your garden grow?

Man's garden

This past week has been a week full of prayer for people in need and there have been times that I felt I wasn't praying enough or in the right way; I felt inadequate. Yesterday I was at a loss and was feeling very overwhelmed by the weight of my brothers and sisters who are suffering. To top it off I was having a few family issues to deal with and as I prayed my mind was flying from one prayer request to another without even completing the previous. Seriously, I was stopping mid word to only start praying for someone else. I cannot say that I felt the responsibility of the weight on my shoulders, no; it is on God's shoulders but I just didn't feel like I was praying properly.

God is so faithful and He reminded me that it was the Spirit of God leading me in prayer for those He loves and cares about. Romans 8:26-27 NIV

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. 

Really how could I forget this?! Satan and his sneaky ways came in and aimed his fiery arrows at the right spot in me to make me question myself. He made me feel inadequate with myself in prayer so I would give up and focus on me and feel bad about myself! But, God is in control and He showed me that this was His leading and His Spirit took up where I left off and jumped into another urgent prayer. I have been in prayer groups where the Spirit is thick and when I start praying He will lead me all over the map and someone who is a bystander would think me a little more than scattered brained but God knows exactly what I  am saying for He is the one directing.

God's garden

Abandoning ourselves to God can be a very scary thing as we let go of control and give it to Him. I love how Paul Young, author of 'The Shack' likens it to a wildflower garden planted by God as opposed to a flower garden planted by man. This image, for me, is very powerful in trying to understand how God directs and leads. People like to have things organized in straight lines and patterns but God doesn't do things the way man does. Just look at nature and you see the wild beauty of God. God likes to come in and dig up man's garden, which by the way really can hurt, then when the soil is well worked He throws a handful of flower seeds everywhere. When they take root and grow the beauty that beholds the eye far surpasses the beauty of a well planned, organized garden. The wildness of God's garden is thrilling yet scary at the same time.

I am so thankful that God cares enough about us that when we are willing to give control to Him, He will step in, tear up our lives and plant His seeds. If we are patient and willing to leave the control in His hands then the garden that grows will be unique and all together exotically beautiful beyond belief.

God Bless,
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                                     Photo courtesy of Nikon Sniper: Mount St. Helen's

Kim Walker; Jesus Culture

Oh how He loves us!! Oh how He loves!
Kim Walker says it just right. I love her music and this really brings me into His Spirit and I want to dance before our King!
Revelation 1:5 NIV ...and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.

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Worship

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Romans 12:1-2

(Translation used NIV)

1, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is very straightforward and yet intricate at the same time. Let’s unwrap this gift and see what it is! :) The cross reference here is Romans 6:13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.  So, we are not to offer our bodies to sin. In view of the world, what is most important? I would say self. The motto of today seems to be, ‘look out for number one’. Satan is the role model for self worship and this is direct opposite of what God wants in worship. He wants us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. God does not want us to obey the rules of this world, which is self worship, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  When we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour over our lives we become one with Him. We do away with our old pattern of living and we become babies into a new way of life. Eventually as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus we not only become like Him but we can see the difference between right and wrong therefore being able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Wow, very straight forward.....accept Jesus, change your ways, worship God, renew your mind and then you will know God’s will. How do you worship God? Me, I love to dance and sing, or walk about in the mountains praising Him for His creation, but worshiping God is a daily second by second act. Everything we do we should do for the glory of God and that means even the chores we do not like, yes Squeaks dishes and SOTK cleaning the deck. If our lives become a living sacrifice we can worship God 24/7! 

So worship shouldn't be left for Sunday morning but should be a second by second act. Let's renew our mind to be like Christ and worship the Creator of all in everything we do.

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Why are we here?

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Have you ever wondered why you are here on this earth? What is your purpose? I think Rick Warren got it right in his book, 'The Purpose Driven Life'. He claims that we are here to worship and glorify God, and I agree with him.

God created us to worship Him and if we don't worship Him then we turn ourselves towards worshiping something. That can be money, work, people or anything that becomes first and foremost in your life. I don't know about you but when my eyes wander away from God I feel empty inside, like a piece of me is missing.

Trouble will come in our lives, it is inevitable after all we live in a fallen world. It is how we handle these difficulties that really makes a difference. Now this may sound like an odd thing to do but..........have you ever tried praising and worshiping God when things are really going bad for you? I mean singing out praises of thanks to God for all of our troubles. Sounds really backward from what we would find natural to do like complain, but it really does work and allows us to see that really our troubles are bearable because He handles them for us. For He promised in Matthew 11:28-30      
²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I believe that we were created to worship God and when we give Him thanks and praise we will be equipped to handle the problems that come our way. Next time you are feeling really down turn on some worship music and dance and praise the Lord your God; trust me it works!! :)

Prayer

Hi Dad,
Thank you for impressing on me to start this blog. Please bless it and allow it to be everything that You want it to be. Fill me with Your words so You will be glorified. I praise Your Holy Name and I thank you for bringing these people into my life. Please Father bless, Emily, Summer, Milly and Lisa. Touch them Father and heal them. Draw them close to You and comfort them. Let them feel Your warm presence as You wrap them in Your ever loving arms. Comfort them Lord as they travel down this very hard and rocky road. Guide them so they will walk where You want them to go and please, please ease their pain and suffering.

Father, I also want to pray for Kaboom's friends dad. Will you please give him work? Times are really tough and work is scarce but I have faith that You, the giver of all, will provide for him and the family that you have gifted him with.

Thank you Dad! I worship You above all and praise Your Holy Name. In the name of Jesus amen.

Nehemiah 8:6 NIV

⁶ Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. 

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