Month: January 2021
God Knows. Let That Be Enough.
A year ago today, my youngest son and his wife were in Bangladesh on a mission trip. It was definitely a high point in their life and walk with God. I was so vey proud of them, and thankful for their opportunity to be a part of something so powerful and eternal.
Caleb came home from that trip with the flu. He flew the 17-18 hours from Dubai sicker than he had ever been in his life. The next morning, when he asked to be taken to the doctor, we knew he was seriously sick. He was treated for the flu, and all seemed well.
Soon enough, Covid arrived, and the lockdowns began. Still, our family was together and healthy way out on our farm. It’s amazing how things can change so suddenly. One day we were fine. Then next day Caleb couldn’t breathe without severe pain. From emergency room to Vanderbilt ICU in a blink.
Pneumonia had been growing undetected in his lung for a couple of months since he had the flu. He had to have surgery to drain the fluid from his chest cavity. Over 2 liters of fluid. Alone. All we could do was pray. The Lord was so merciful to bring him home to us.
More Covid. More lockdowns. Online Church. All travel plans cancelled. Family members with Covid. Powerful men and women of God being taken home to their reward. People we never thought we’d have to go through life without. Gone into their eternity.
Breathe.
Riots. Bizarre election. The country has gone mad.
My mother-in-love contracts Covid. No underlying health issues. We had to say goodbye in the wee hours of December 26th. Never expected it. Would have never dreamed we’d be here without her so soon.
Still, God is good. He is faithful. He knows the future, and the past because He’s already there. If we had known a year ago what our family would have to endure over the next twelve months, it would have shaken us to our core. We might have failed God had we known. I’d like to think we would have stood strong, but only He actually knows for certain.
Sometimes when we want to know what’s coming, it’s best just to know that He knows, and let that be enough.
“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” (Psalm 27:13-14)
4 Reasons Why Prayer Gets The Job Done
Men love tools. It doesn’t matter if they are city slickers or farmers, preachers or drunkards, musicians or writers, accountants or lumberjacks. They LOVE tools.
My husband and two sons have a vast and varied collection of tools. From precision machinist tools that will measure the minuscule width of a human hair to massive combines that harvest huge amounts of grain at once. Tools make everything easier. Having the right tool, and knowing how to use it, gets the job done, big or small.
A frustration of mine is to find tools that the men in my life just “had to have” still packaged in their boxes months, and even years later. At some point, they saw their need for the tool. They acted on that need to purchase the tool. They were so proud of the tool when they brought it home from the store. Yet, somehow the tool got pushed to the side and forgotten about.
It’s fun to see my husband find a tool that he had lost, or had forgotten that he had purchased. What excitement! It’s like Christmas or his birthday. Would you believe that sometimes those recently found tools get lost again without being used?!
The Church has a lost, forgotten, and definitely underused tool at our disposal called Prayer. There are countless tasks that are vying for our attention, and God has not left us unequipped. He has given us the tools that we need to get His work accomplished in the Earth during these last days.
Much of the time, we attempt to work the problem using our own finite reasoning. It’s a lot like using your teeth to open a soda bottle instead of a bottle opener. It’s not necessarily that it can’t be done, but it’s going to be less efficient at best, and painful at worst.
Why is it that we feel like we are not getting the job done if we resort to prayer first, rather than last? Why does that make us feel less than? Shouldn’t we be seeking for God to get all the glory?
FOUR REASONS TO PRAY
- Prayer is universal. It is not restricted by time, distance or language barriers. You can send a prayer to the other side of the world, into a specific situation, for a person who you can’t even communicate with. Prayer will get the job done.
- Prayer is powerful. There is no other tool that can be depended on so certainly than prayer because it is backed by our all powerful God. Our prayers are limitless because our God is limitless. You can send a prayer strategically into an impossible situation, and prayer will get the job done.
- Prayer is invisible. The enemy cannot see prayer coming. It is like a stealth military jet that can fly below the radar into enemy territory. You can send a prayer behind enemy lines, and get out without detection. Prayer will get the job done.
- Prayer allows God’s will to be done. Many times we anguish over situations that we are powerless in our humanity to do anything about. Often, we don’t even know the words to say when we pray about them. When we pray in the Spirit (tongues), we allow God’s will to have free course. You can pray in tongues over a situation, and God will intervene in His divine wisdom. Prayer will get the job done.
No matter what situation you have in your life, what problem you are concerned with, or what craziness is going on in the world, PRAYER is the spiritual tool you should reach for first. Perhaps the tools in your spiritual toolbox have gotten lost or misplaced. It’s definitely worth rounding them up, getting them organized, and putting them to work. Prayer gets the job done!
”Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
As always, I encourage your feedback. Blessings, -Pat
A Message From The President
Everyone Dies. How Does This Make You Feel?
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15)
Everyone dies. This statement brings me comfort. It should bring you comfort, as well. If it doesn’t, there is a deep spiritual reason as to why not.
You may ask, “How can the knowledge that everyone dies bring comfort? To me, it means that every single person who has ever lived (with the exception of Enoch and Elijah, but that’s for a different post) has passed through the doorway of death. From this life to the one that comes after. From this realm of existence to another which is just as real, but invisible to us at the moment.
To die is not to travel a path that no one has ever travelled before. On the contrary, it is a well-worn path which has been traversed by doctors, lawyers, presidents, kings, drunkards, drug addicts, worshipers, prayer warriors, sinners and saints, the very good and the very evil. All have passed through this door. So will I. So will you.
Knowing that I will one day pass through this doorway should not cause me to fear. It should give me solace in the fact that death is natural. It is part of living. We are born. We live. We die. Unfortunately, most of humanity spend so much of their time dreading dying, that they never truly live.
If I spend my allotted time so fearful of death, how can I make my life matter? It is the knowledge that I will one day die which causes me to pursue the most noble life possible. The realization that I only have so many decades, years, days, moments, breaths and heartbeats to make something valuable of my life keeps me hyper focused on the importance of every decision I make.
Everyone dies. Again, I point out that if this statement causes you undue anxiety, then something is off kilter between you and God. People who have a deep and abiding relationship with their Creator know that He is working all things for their good. We are assured in His Word that He has gone to prepare a place for us, so that He can bring us to live with Him and the saints of all the ages forever. We know that when the God of all glory came in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, that He gave Himself as the only perfect and pure sacrifice for our sins. We read that even though he died for our sins, He also was resurrected to immortality. So will we be if we are born again according to His Word, and abide in Him.
When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t go to his death kicking and screaming in fear. On the contrary, He declared, “It is finished,” and gave up the ghost. (The Holy Ghost) He knew that He had accomplished everything He had come to do. He was ready to yield His flesh to the process of death, and walk through the doorway into the spiritual realm.
Everyone dies, but I will live forever. Yes, my body will die, but my spirit, the part of me that is conscious and aware, will go immediately to be in the presence of the Lord. At the rapture of the Church, my spirit will be joined to a new and immortal body, and I will live with Jesus and the saints of all the ages for all eternity.
Even though my flesh shrinks away from the thought of possible suffering, everyone dies, and I am comforted by that fact.
CALLING ALL WIDOWS
There is a call going out from the throne room of God in these last days. It is an urgent and fervent plea for the saints of God to pray and fast like never before. The call is to all who will hear and obey. However, there is one group of people that is equipped to accomplish it better than any other.
There are those among us who are often forgotten or overlooked. This is a terrible tragedy since they hold the greatest potential for ushering true revival into the world. Widows, who the apostle Paul called “widows indeed,” meaning they have their eyes set on Jesus, and not the pleasures of the world. They spend their time in prayer and fasting, seeking God for their families, and for a lost and dying world.
These women are the unheralded heroes among us. They often feel that they have lost their purpose. Perhaps they were pastor’s or minister’s wives. Their lives were previously filled with ministry, and now they sit alone waiting for an opportunity to serve again.
We often see them as precious and fragile pieces of porcelain that must be set on the highest shelves to keep them safe. We unknowingly label them as relics of the past. Yet, inside of their very being are vaults of wisdom gleaned from lifetimes of experiences. What a waste. What a shame. What a tragedy.
We must pull widows indeed from the safe storage boxes that we have relegated them to. We must interact with them. We must sit at their feet and learn. We must listen. Most of all, we must encourage them to pray and fast for our families, congregations, communities, nation and world.
Calling. All. Widows. God leans in to hear your prayers. If you are desiring to minister, and don’t know when, where or how to make that happen, I encourage you to enter into a season of prayer and fasting. I beseech you to go before the throne of God for the Body of Christ as only you can. The Spirit is calling you to your greatest and finest hour of selfless ministry.
Look around you. We are in the last days before Jesus returns for His bride, the Church. If we are going to have revival, it needs to be now. If we are going to reach the lost, it needs to be now. If we are going to do something beneficial for the Kingdom, it needs to be now.
Calling. All. Widows. We need you more than we ever have before. In this winter season of your life, you are truly more valuable than you have ever been.
“Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.” (1 Timothy 5:5)