Tag Archives: Church

Prayers for America (6/7/2018)

The American church has more than enough critics pointing their fingers at its problems. From feminists to LGBT individuals to racial activists to homeless communities to doctrinal purists to politicians to whomever – all seem to have a bone to pick with the American church.

Here’s my challenge to every critic: are you willing to be a part of the solution? Or do you just want to keep throwing rocks?

You see, change will only happen when critics, like you and me, have a revelation of what the American church should be: the Bride of Christ. If we can just get a small glimpse of what this Bride should look like, we would fall in love with her. Then, we’d do whatever we had to do to bring the Bride into her fulfillment.

My prayer today:

Lord, help us. We believers are being tossed about by every wave of criticism, by the trickery of men, and by deceit, but if You would reveal a glimpse to us of Your Bride without any spots or wrinkles or blemishes, in all her holiness and without fault, we would use our revelations as lighthouses to draw us toward her. (Based on Ephesians 4 and Ephesians 5:27)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Prayers for Israel (6/5/2018)

 

I wrote in a recent WND column:

The main storyline of the Bible from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation revolves around the nation of Israel and God’s covenant people – the Jews. There are side narratives, allowing Gentiles to be grafted into the main storyline, which believers like me are thankful for. Yet even so, the Apostle Paul warns Gentiles not to think of ourselves as being superior to the Jews, but to be grateful and to fear God. Paul also states that the calling of God on Israel is irrevocable. (China and Israel: My End-Times Teachers)

If we believe we’re in the last days, then we need to start praying and interceding for Israel. As John Wesley wrote: “God does nothing except through prayer.”

My prayer today:

Lord, give us Your love and zeal for Israel and Jerusalem. Help us to open our mouths  to defend and to pray for them until Your righteousness and salvation is fulfilled in their midst. (Based on Isaiah 62:1)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for Israel and Jerusalem.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Church, End-Times, Fasting, Israel, Jerusalem, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Prayers for LGBT Believers (5/29/2018)

https://vimeo.com/270783445

The above almost six-minute video is from Church United and was produced as a tool to stop AB 2943 from becoming law in California. This proposed law would ban helping anyone with unwanted same-sex desires or gender confusion. So far, AB 2943 has passed the California Assembly by a lop-sided vote and will soon be voted upon in the California Senate.

The video shows five men and two women relating their journeys out of their LGBT lifestyles. All of their remarks touched my heart with the challenges they faced. Here are a few words gleaned from their testimonies:

Woman #1: “I heard the Lord say to me in His still small voice, “Choose,” and it wasn’t an easy choice. It was the hardest choice I have ever made…”

Woman #2: “I lived and loved being a lesbian. I felt like I was born that way. It seemed to explain why I was the way I was…A seventeen year-old boy approached me with what he called a word from the Lord. What he said to me was a direct answer to something I had been praying about for years.  Getting this answer to my prayer caused me to question whether I knew God. So, I picked up a Bible and began highlighting every passage that described the character of God. I discovered this amazing God that was so beautiful and so excellent. I couldn’t think of withholding myself from Him.

Man #1: “My parents and I cried for two hours. They told me how much they loved me no matter what. They asked me how they could help. I wanted help wherever I could get it. They found a Christian counselor. I had no promise that I would ever change but I had support from the counselor and my parents that I was loved and I was safe.”

Man #2: “God can restore the years the locusts have eaten. It is absolutely amazing.”

If you have the time, the six-minute video is well-worth watching.

My prayer today:

Lord, help us to be Your hands outreached to the LGBT community and help us to yield to Your loving Spirit to be Your servants to them.

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for LGBT believers.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gay, Homosexual, Kingdom of God, LGBT, Prayer, spiritual warfare

Prayers for America (5/24/2018)

 

In the early 1990’s, Larry Burkett told a story on his radio program, “Money Matters,” that still sends shivers down my spine. Burkett had attended a local church and heard a Chinese man tell his testimony.

It seems the man was a lieutenant of Mao Zedong when Mao’s communist army defeated Chiang Kai-Shek and took control of China. Mao then set out to cleanse China of all imperialist influences, especially American connections. Missionaries were sent home or killed. Chinese pastors were imprisoned or killed. Christians were killed. Political leaders, people who had visited America or attended schools there were killed.  Historians estimate 40,000,000 Chinese were executed by Mao during his various purges.

The man, who told this testimony, was chosen by Mao as one of the leaders in the rural purges. He dispatched his tasks with cruel efficiency. But some Christians focused their prayers on him and he was miraculously saved. So convinced was the man that Christ was the answer for China he decided to return to Peking (Beijing) and tell Mao the good news of Jesus.

Mao was not impressed with his lieutenant’s message and commanded him to renounce his new found faith. The man refused and said, “I cannot deny the experience I’ve had with Jesus.”

Mao brought his wife and children before the man. Soldiers stood behind his family with guns aimed at their heads. Once again, Mao asked the man to renounce his faith. The man fell to his knees and said, “Please do not kill my family, but I cannot deny Jesus.”

His family was executed before his eyes.

Next, his parents, brothers, sisters and their families were brought before the man with soldiers standing behind them with guns at their heads. Mao insisted the man renounce Jesus. The man refused. His entire family was executed before his eyes.

All of his friends and their families were placed in front of him, but still he would not renounce Christ. They were executed.

Then, Mao decided death was too good for the man. He was stripped naked and placed in a cold cell. Once a day, guards were ordered to beat him.

His imprisonment and beatings continued for fifteen years. During that time, the man led 90% of the guards to Christ and the guards even risked their own freedoms by bringing Bibles to him.

When he finally emerged from prison, he walked down a road, heading toward his hometown. As he walked, people in the fields next to the road, fell to their knees and cried out to be saved by Jesus. Yet, the man said nothing because the presence of God was so heavy upon him that he just continued to walk.

Larry Burkett said that when the Chinese man finished his testimony he was asked, “What do you think of our American churches?”

The man gazed at the audience with tears in his eyes. “You American Christians do not know the Jesus I know,” he said.

My prayer today:

Lord, help us Americans to know the Jesus of the Book of Revelation and to not be offended by what He does in the end-times and by what He doesn’t do.

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Kingdom of God, Prayer, spiritual warfare, Suffering

Prayers for LGBT Believers

 

Most believers, including me, would love to have a LGBT person give his or her life to the Lord and presto! Every LGBT desire would instantly be removed from the person’s life.

Yet, it seldom works that way!

But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body [of Christ] just as He pleased… In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. (1 Corinthians 12:18, 23)

My prayer today:

Lord, help the Body of Christ to care for each member as You do because he or she is necessary and if one member suffers, help us all to suffer with them so that there is no division in the Body. (Based on 1 Corinthians 12:25-26)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for LGBT believers.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Fasting, Gay, Homosexual, Kingdom of God, LGBT, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Prayers for LGBT Believers (4/10/2018)

 

“Son you have been deceived.”

This short message came to me after praying for hours in the early morning of July 8, 1994. I knelt on the floor next to my bed in an upstairs bedroom of my two-bedroom townhouse apartment in Ames, Iowa.

The words were not the ones I longed to hear from the Lord at that particular moment. I hoped to hear about a miraculous deliverance, much like the Lone Ranger arriving on his white stallion, Silver, with the U. S. Cavalry riding alongside.

Those five words could have just as well been etched on my gravestone. They ripped my life to shreds. My prophetic calling, ministry, and finances died right then and there. Rigor mortis settled upon my dreams as I knelt on the carpet.

“Lord, I never wanted to be in this battle,” I said through sobs, not knowing what else to say. “The only thing I know for sure right now is You love me and Your grace is unending and sufficient, even for a loser like me. This means at some time in the future, You will deliver me out of this mess, but until then, I’ll learn how to lean on Your grace even more than I do now.”

Let me tell you, twenty-four years is a long time, especially when you consider I was forty-eight years old and physically strong on that morning. I’m now seventy-two years old. My youth has long since passed me by, along with the move of God I was a part of back then. All are forgotten yesterdays to most people, but not to me.

If the Apostle Peter’s worst day occurred when he denied Jesus three times, then this was my all-time worst day. Every bad day since then has been, at best, a little speed bump on the road of life compared to that day.

(Excerpt from The Hunt for Larry Who by Larry Nevenhoven, © 2014, Amazon eBook)

Cold shivers still run down my spine when I think about the Lord saying, “Son, you have been deceived.”

Yet at the same time, I praise God that my deception was unmasked before I stood face-to-face with Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Deceptions handled in my life here on earth are stepping stones to greater revelations of Jesus’ love and grace, ones that make me love Him even more.

But deceptions uncovered at the Judgment Seat will result in loss of rewards and position in the Millennial Kingdom and throughout eternity. Although the Lord would wipe away my tears of shame, I don’t want to ever hear Him say those words to me again.

My prayer today:

Lord, send Your light and truth to every LGBT believer, leading them to a life of holiness in You. (Based on Psalms 43:3)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for LGBT believers.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gay, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

“Deceived Dead and Delivered” is FREE on Amazon Today

DDD1

My book, Deceived Dead and Delivered, is FREE on Amazon today through Sunday.

Amazon book description:

Deceived Dead and Delivered consists of two short novels, a prophetic allegory, and a few short stories, written especially for believers who are looking for answers to today’s tough questions.

In the first short novel, Pull the Plug, life was perfect for Chuck Brewster until that Easter Sunday in San Francisco when the angel arrived and opened Chuck’s eyes. From then on, Chuck’s new revelations stirred up nothing but trouble…or so his wife and family thought.

The second short novel, Deceived Dead and Delivered, takes place near the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where Daniel and Amanda McCord attend the progressive Jesus Is Love Community Church. Then one morning a new spiritual gift causes Daniel to realize, “demons suck,” and that his church has big problems.

The Great American Church Derby is a prophetic allegory which takes place in a Starbucks with two men drinking coffee. It offers hope to hungry believers who long for a church who truly walks in unity.

The book contains the above, and also a few short stories.

Fiction or revelations? You can decide for yourself after reading Deceived Dead and Delivered.

Available on Amazon for Kindles and Kindle apps.

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Filed under Books, California, Christians, Church, Fiction, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, San Francisco, Self publishing, spiritual warfare, Writing

Prayers for our Schools (4/3/2018)

None of us know the day and hour that the Lord will return, but it’s possible that the children who are attending school right now could be a part of the generation who will see Jesus return.

My prayer today:

Lord, reveal Yourself to today’s school children so they will know You and be strong so they can carry out great exploits in Your name. (Based on Daniel 11:32)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for school children.

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Filed under America, Children, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Kingdom of God, Prayer, spiritual warfare

Christians: Stop You Whimpering About Trump’s Sin

 

WND logo

My new weekly column entitled, “Christians: Stop Your Whimpering About Trump’s Sin,” can be read by clicking here.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can perhaps read it better by using the Chrome browser rather than Safari. Also, you can go to the app store and download a free app called: WND.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Commentary, Kingdom of God, Politics, Prayer, President Trump, spiritual warfare

“Jonah” is FREE on Amazon Today

 

Jonah1

My book, Jonah, is FREE on Amazon today through Sunday.

Amazon book description:

The novel, “Jonah,” consists of two novellas written specifically for people who live in a post-911 America and who no longer see hope in a watered down, same-o same-o religion.

The main character in the first novella, “Jeremiah,” has his dreams wrecked by a late night visitation with an angel. Then, he receives a prophetic message for San Francisco. Will the city heed Jeremiah’s warning or is the city doomed?

In the second novella, “Jonah,” two prophets receive identical messages for the West Coast. Though each faces different struggles, it comes down to whether or not the people believe the prophets’ words. If the prophetic words are ignored, what will happen?

Fiction or prophecy? Time will soon reveal the answer to all of us.

Available on Amazon for Kindles and Kindle apps.

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Filed under America, Books, Christianity, Church, Fiction, Kindle, Kingdom of God, Literature, Prophecy, Publishing, San Francisco, spiritual warfare, Writing