Song-"...You're My Portion...
Prayer for the 40 or more pastors who came to our church this past Thursday. Names were 'on the wall' for us to see. Our church prayed out loud for these pastors and their churches and this was very meaningful to me personally. It is a personal dream come true-to have the pastors in the area united in one heart, praying for one another, asking God to send revival to our land. I'd like to see the pastor's wives get together. This can be a lonely role. No one can build the wall alone.
Prayed for missionaries, Bo and Holly, working in India. A young girl in a nearby village accepted Christ through their ministry. When they went back to check on her the following week, they found she had been sold into sex slavery. Dear Jesus, watch over that young girl, and keep her close to you, and deliver her from this evil done to her.
Prayer for Dan and Susan H.-life threatening difficulties for both and young children to raise. Healing, Hope, and Help.
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Opening Comments:
Faith is a demonstration of commitment
to be in the presence of the One in whose power we stake our trust.
The woman with the issue of blood got into His presence.
Jesus didn't pray for her or lay hands on her.
She is the one who got in His presence.
PF-"I believe this is the time we'll see a Jesus who will open blind eyes, raise the dead, heal the leper and make the lame walk...Wash out of our systems all this religious and theological junk...The world needs to see a more than a 'Now I lay me down to sleep Jesus.'"
The gleaning time is over.
The time to use the sickle has come.
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Last week we looked at Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the wall.
The workers were so committed to building the wall,
that they didn't change their clothes.
(NKJV says they only changed their clothes on wash days.)
We are so often consumed with our own crisis and needs that we strive after the miracle rather than the one who does miracles.
In the story of the demon possessed man, Jesus sent the man's demon's into the pigs. People came from the town and asked Him to leave. They would rather have had their demons than have the presence of Jesus. Jesus shakes things up. Some of us really don't want that.
The friends who took the paralyzed man and lowered him down from the roof of the house to be in the presence of Jesus, were looking for a healing for their friend. They weren't expecting that Jesus would forgive his sins. When we get in the presence of Jesus, He will first deal with our sins. The closer we get, the more He peels our onion. The closer we get, the more He deals with.
Our righteousness is as filthy rags. Jeremiah was lowered into a cistern with no water. Obedmelech went to the king and said, 'You have thrown 'the Word of God' away and now the Word of God is sinking in the mire.' (This is happening in our society today.) Obedmelech said that this is no way to treat the Word of God. He went to a chamber and pulled out filthy rags, tying them together, and went to rescue Jeremiah. Jeremiah wrapped them under his armpits and gently they pulled him out of the well, one filthy rag at a time.
Tie me up with someone else who is also a filthy rag. Tied together, we'll pull the Word of God out of the pit. God uses filthy rags.
David and Jonathan had such a great love for each other, the Bible says it was greater than the love between a man and a woman. Jonathan had on his princely robe and he gave it to David, who was wearing a shepherd's cloak. David was able to go about and do what he wanted to in freedom, because that princely robe carried the authority of royalty.
Would we be clothed with the presence of God that we could go and do those things in the Kingdom that we couldn't do before.
When you come into the Kingdom, there's an exchange of clothes. You are given a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. You are given a robe of righteousness and the filthy rags are cast aside.
When Jesus was born in a barn, His parents wrapped Him in swaddling clothes-a sign of poverty and brokenness; something to keep Him warm.
However, when this same baby Jesus was laid in a tomb as a grown man, and rose back to life, He left His swaddling clothes behind.
There was a separation in the tomb between the clothes that represented Jesus as the Son of God and Jesus as the Son of Man. And His clothes were folded in such a way that the people of that culture understood that He was coming back.
Our bodies are just clothing for the Spirit of God to dwell in.
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Prophecy over your children. Write their names beside Scriptures that you want to see fulfilled in their lives. It will mean a great deal to them if they ever read your Bible, and they will understand why that Word is Rhema in their lives. God's word will not return void.
Beautiful Pottery grown more valuable
with Time and eternal prayer from a Mother's heart:
Isaiah 62:9-12
'But those who have gathered it (the harvest) shall eat it, and praise the LORD; Those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts. Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples! Indeed the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world; "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.'
And they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; And you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.'
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I add some pottery that I've had on my shelf for awhile.
Is. 57:14, 15-"And one shall say, "Heap it up! Heap it up! Prepare the way, Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people."
For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
God's presence is with the humble.
Revival comes to the contrite of heart.
Is. 58:12, 13-"Those from among you shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In."
Is. 61:4-"And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations."
We are building a wall from the ruins of many generations. I find it interesting that when Nehemiah was directing the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem, more than 40 groups worked simultaneously. Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but isn't it fascinating, that more than 40 pastors came together, with only three days notice, to help rebuild the spiritual wall in this region. The trumpet will sound again on May 13, and they will come together with more workers than before, to encourage the call of God in each other's lives and to hold up each other's arms, lest they grow weary in the battle.
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