Tag Archives: Prayer

February 21, 2014 · 2:32 pm

Friday’s Prayers for Prisoners (2/21/2014)

Twenty-six or more years ago, I endured months of headaches that would cause me to weep with pain. I would lay down and wrap a blanket around my head so light could not touch my eyes. It hurt so bad I would ask God to kill me.

If the headaches hit while I was at work, I’d do the best I could to survive until quitting time. Afterward, I walked three miles home because this was the time period I had no vehicle.

I fasted. I prayed. I studied scripture, but I could not get a handle on the headaches.

Then, one day, the Lord showed me the problem in a vision. I saw friends praying for me, but it was how they prayed that caused the headaches. These friends believed I suffered mental illness so they prayed for my schizophrenic bipolar problems.

You see, the people prayed the problem rather than the answer for me. The Lord showed me that this in fact was a type of witchcraft, which allowed a spirit of witchcraft to attack my mind. Thus, the headaches.

From that period onward, when I felt a headache coming upon me, I would command it to go in Jesus’ name. It was more of a battle at first, but soon, just the mention of Jesus’ name caused the symptoms to leave.

I have not had headaches like that in years.

Remember: pray the answer for people by praying a scripture or a prophetic prayer for them. This will help set them free.

My prayer for prisoners today:

Lord, teach us believers how to pray effectively and fervently so our prayers accomplish much for the Kingdom of God. (Based on Luke 11:1 and James 5:16)

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

Join with me on Fridays to fast and pray for prisoners, according to Hebrews 13:3.

Tuesday’s Prayers for America (2/18/2014)

Ananias and Sapphira, who sold property and then kept back part of the proceeds in Acts 5:1-11, may have been leaders for the mushrooming Jerusalem Church. The church was approximately four years old and had grown to more than ten thousand members at the time. Could Ananias and Sapphira have been pastors, teachers, or overseers?

The scripture does not really give us concrete answers for Ananias and Sapphira, but allow me to make a few points:

1. Barnabas was mentioned two verses earlier as giving proceeds from a sale of land to the apostles. He was a teacher, and then later, an apostle.

2. The Bible was not written in chapter and verse format, but rather in regular prose. The Ananias and Sapphira example was written to contrast with the Barnabas example. The word “but” indicates a contrast.

3. James mentioned that teachers are judged according to tougher standards than ordinary believers. James would have been there when the Ananias and Sapphira incident happened.

4. Paul stated that elders should be rebuked openly so that all people will fear God.

5. The qualifications for overseer included being above reproach, not greedy, and able to manage his household well.

6. The Apostle Peter dealt with both Ananias and Sapphira. The scene did not take place at the Temple, but in a home where most likely a house church assembled. Maybe Peter met with believers like Ananias and Sapphira to help them in their callings. Paul did this at Ephesus.

At the least, Ananias and Sapphira were well-known by believers so that when they died for lying to the Holy Spirit, great fear fell upon the whole church.

My prayer for America today:

“Lord, raise up leaders in America who will be our fathers in Christ because they actually imitate Christ. “(Based on 1 Corinthians 4:15-16)

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

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

Lord, Help me Love Democrats (Part 4)

In the late 1980’s, Charisma Magazine published an interview of Dr. David Yonggi Cho, pastor and founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea. Cho stated the simple reason Yoido had 1,000,000 members was prayer. He went on to say that he and his four hundred assistant pastors averaged three hours per day in prayer. The church’s prayer team consisted of 250,000 members, each averaging between two and three hours per day in prayer.

Cho felt everything accomplished by his church began in prayer and finished with prayer.

“Dr. Cho, will America ever have a church like Yoido Full Gospel Church?” asked the interviewer.

“No,” replied David Yonggi Cho, “Americans aren’t willing to pay the price it costs to pray enough to make such a church happen.”

The accuracy of Cho’s words bugged me then and still does today.

But interestingly enough, Yoido Full Gospel began in 1973, the exact year Roe vs. Wade became law and also when Rev. Jerry Falwell noticed the moral decline in America.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. (2 Corinthians 10:3)

Rev. Jerry Falwell was first of all a speaker, as in preacher and teacher. His radio and television programs afforded him speaking outlets. The megachurch membership at Thomas Road Baptist Church was built on his speaking abilities.

I’m not insinuating Falwell did not pray because I’m sure he did, but his main tool, as with most American pastors, was speaking.

And what is the main tool of politicians? Of course, it’s speaking.

Why do you think the conservatives and Republicans asked Falwell to co-found Moral Majority, along with Paul Weyrich? Falwell was the dynamic speaker who had a base of followers and Weyrich understood grassroots politics.

All of this makes logical sense to fight bad laws and policies with a dynamic Christian political speaker and super-activist political organizer, but spiritual battles are not won with logic.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

I believe one of Rev. Falwell’s main mistakes was fighting a spiritual battle with fleshly weapons, much like politicians do. Sadly, this mistake continues today.

(Continued in Part 4)

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February 4, 2014 · 11:40 am

Tuesday’s Prayers for America (2/4/2014)

Does God still need America? Is America still relevant for His future plans?

Lots of good people are stating that God is not done with America yet and are talking about a great revival, which will sweep America clean from our many sins. A few even mention that President Obama will be saved and changed, much like Paul was on the Damascus Road. If these believers are correct, then America will enjoy a new age of Christianity, unlike any we have witnessed in the past.

Hey! I hope these believers are correct because nothing would make me happier than to be wrong about the future I see for America.

Yet, scripturally America compares well with Sodom. Our nation is a fertile land (Genesis 13:10). We are filled with pride, too much food, and prosperous ease. Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, sexual perversion are accepted as being normal.

Jesus Himself said it would be better for Sodom in the day of judgment than it would be for a people like us Americans. You see, Sodom had no Bibles and had never heard about the good news of Jesus Christ. We Americans have millions of Bibles and have heard the gospel so often we have no excuses before His throne.

Our only hope is that His mercy still triumphs over judgment, but even with this there are strings attached.

For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 3:13)

My prayer for today:

“Lord, I pray that we Americans open our hearts and billfolds to show mercy to the poor and needy in extravagant ways, befitting our many sins.” (Based on James 3:13 and Ezekiel 16:49)

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

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

Prayer: So Easy To Talk About, Yet So Tough To Do (Part 3)

We arrived at her apartment by night in order to escape detection. We were in Russia (in the region of Lithuania, on the Baltic Sea). Ellen and I had climbed the steep stairs, coming through a small back door into the one-room apartment. It was jammed with furniture, evidence that the old couple had once lived in a much larger and much finer house.

The old woman was lying on a small sofa, propped up by pillows. Her body was bent and twisted almost beyond recognition by the dread disease of multiple sclerosis. Her aged husband spent all his time caring for her since she was unable to move off the sofa.

I walked across the room and kissed her wrinkled cheek. She tried to look up but the muscles in her neck were atrophied so she could only roll her eyes upward and smile. She raised her right hand, slowly, in jerks. It was the only part of her body she could control and with her gnarled and deformed knuckles she caressed my face. I reached over and kissed the index finger of that hand, for it was with this one finger that she had so long glorified God.

Beside her couch was a vintage typewriter. Each morning her faithful husband would rise, praising the Lord. After caring for his wife’s needs and feeding her a simple breakfast, he would prop her into a sitting position on the couch, placing pillows all around her so she wouldn’t topple over. Then he would move that ancient black typewriter in front of her on a small table. From an old cupboard he would remove a stack of cheap yellow paper. Then, with that blessed one finger, she would begin to type.

All day and far into the night she would type. She translated Christian books into Russian, Latvian, and the language of her people. Always using just that one finger—peck… peck… peck—she typed out the pages. Portions of the Bible, the books of Billy Graham, Watchman Nee, and Corrie ten Boom—all came from her typewriter. That was why I was there—to thank her.

“Not only does she translate their books,” her husband said as he hovered close by during our conversation, “but she prays for these men every day while she types. Sometimes it takes a long time for her finger to hit the key, or for her to get the paper in the machine, but all the time she is praying for those whose books she is working on.”

I looked at her wasted form on the sofa, her head pulled down and her feet curled back under her body. “Oh, Lord, why don’t You heal her?” I cried inwardly.

Her husband, sensing my anguish of soul, gave the answer. “God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian in the city is watched by the secret police. But because she has been sick so long, no one ever looks in on her. They leave us alone and she is the only person in all the city who can type quietly, undetected by the police.”

I looked around at the tiny room, so jammed full of furniture from better days. In one corner was the kitchen. Beside the cupboard was her husband’s “office,” a battered desk where he sorted the pages that came from her typewriter to pass them on to the Christians. I thought of Jesus sitting over against the treasury, and my heart leaped for joy as I heard Jesus bless this sick old woman who, like the widow, had given all she had. (Tramp for the Lord by Corrie ten boom, ©1975, 2008, Christian Literature Crusade, excerpt from Chapter 31, “One Finger for His Glory.”)

Corrie ten boom did not mention the name of this sick old woman who prayed all day long as she pecked away on a typewriter. So, we don’t know her name, but I guarantee you this: all of heaven knows her name.

(Continued in Part 4)

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