I Serve An Awesome King

Hello Readers (if your still out there),

I promise I am still here and I still plan to finish this series on the Full Armor of God. I've been a little busy lately with summer activities for church and my time to write has been limited.

I wanted to give you all an update on the note I made a couple months ago with regard to being called to missions in my home town. While my original vision for this involved a few area trailer parks and low income houses, God has put that on hold. I don't think He is telling me NO, but He is definitely asking me to wait. In the meantime, He has opened a door through a friend from church who works in a Summer Camp locally. It is a camp that I was actually exposed to as a child myself. My friend, her husband, and her family run the camp in the summer and during the school year they do what is called a Release program where they can take kids off site from school with their parents permission to do Bible studies. The really awesome thing is that my friend has teenage boys and girls that come to help them run the camp. Some of these kids are quite troubled themselves and need lots of love and lots of teaching. I was invited for the past two weeks to come and share a devotional with the teenage girls. It was a great privilege and an encouragement to see God open up a door for me in this area. The camp is near my childhood home so lots of these girls are growing up where I grew up. While the camp season is now over, my friend and I are going to begin meeting to pray about how God might direct us to continue to minister to these girls throughout the year. We are hoping to get them involved in some service projects; perhaps volunteer at a local abortion alternatives clinic in order to help them get their eyes off of themselves and on to the needs of others and more importantly onto God.

I just wanted to share this to show you how God is so Awesome and how He works. So many times we want to make our plans and expect Him to bless them. I have learned that lesson the hard way. This time when God closed the door on my plans, I did not think that I had misunderstood His calling, but rather, I just began to pray and ask Him what He wanted and confessed my willingness to wait. I was so at peace just knowing that I had at least publicly acknowledged my call to mission work that He would bring it about even if I was 80 years old before He did. But, He is so good to me and He didn't make me wait too long this time. In fact, I would say since making my "announcement" to the church, God has thrown open so many doors that I am having to be very careful and prayerful about my time and my priorities.

Well, I am off this morning to participate in a baby shower that my church is hosting for 10 girls from a local abortion alternative clinic. We are celebrating their decision to "choose" life by showering them with love. Our hearts desire is to wash their feet today. One of my friends who is putting this all together described it that way and I just love that notion. It is so nice to be able to demonstrate to the world that this is how Christians fight the enemy of our souls: by love and service!

God bless you all and thank you for continuing to hang around while God breaks this vessel and changes it into something beautiful for His good pleasure. I tell Him often that I, myself, am amazed at the work of art He is performing in my life and that if anyone offers me any accolades, I want to be quick to point out that the beauty they see is the Spirit of God. Without Him I was a wretched, selfish, judgmental, self righteous, desperate, pathetic, hateful, and hideous creature. But with His spirit, I am becoming a New Creature. To God I give all glory, power, dominion, and PRAISE!!!!

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Principles of Powerful Prayer at 1000 Souls

Alongside my series on The Full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), I am going to do a series on The Principles of Powerful Prayer at my Prayer blog, 1000 Souls. Please click here to learn about principle #1: Honesty.

Happy 4th everybody!

I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.
Psalm 119:45

Be Strong in The Lord

Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Ephesians 6:10

Upon first reading that it sounds so simple, so encouraging, so 'Hallmark' like. It almost sounds like the title to a self-help book, "Be strong in the Lord". What does that mean? How do I be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might? Where do I begin?

Finally be strong: The word strong is the Greek word: Endunamoo

1. to be strong, endue with strength, strengthen
2. to receive strength, be strengthened, increase in strength
3. in a bad sense be bold, headstrong

I like the bad sense definition because the passage on the armor of God is a passage about how to do battle against the enemy. We have to recognize that there is an enemy of our souls who is daily seeking to destroy us. If you aren't experiencing that or if you don't recognize it for what it is, then you are probably not actively engaged in the battle and may not be fit for the kingdom of God. Examine yourself! We must recognize that every day when we go before the Lord in prayer we are to seek His kingdom and His will here on earth. That means we are inviting the enemy to fight us and we must be bold and headstrong in our prayers against the enemy. Do you feel like you are capable of that most often? I didn't use to, either. Certainly we are to pray for our needs and confess our sins and praise our Lord in prayer, but an element that is often missing I believe is a stubborn, bold, headstrong battle cry before the Lord against satan! We often times struggle against our anger with other people and fight our flesh, but if we would just go to the Lord in prayer and declare against our enemy the anger we feel, we would see so much more success in prayer.

Let me give you an example. I used to pray against my husband in prayer. I was selfish and self centered and was constantly complaining to the Lord about how it was all his fault with regard to whatever. Then, after many, many, many times to the woodshed the Lord broke me and helped me to recognize that my husband is not my enemy. Satan is my enemy. He is the one prowling around seeking to kill, steal, and destroy me, my husband, our marriage, our family, our son, our witness, everything! Once I began to recognize this and I began to seek the Lord in prayer with a bold, headstrong, battle cry against satan for my marriage and my husband, I finally started to see the walls shatter. The enemy was losing ground. Did he turn up the heat? You betcha. Did I fall sometimes. You betcha! Did I go running to my place of refuge crying for help. Absolutely and I still do often. That is where I will 'receive strength; be endued with strength, be made strong' in the Lord! Then, I am resolved in "the strength of my Lord" to continue to fight the enemy by boldly claiming the authority I have over him through the strength of my Lord. Prayer is the gateway to which you do battle against the enemy over your mind, body, soul, and STRENGTH! You cannot love the Lord with ALL of your mind, body, soul, and strength if you don't boldly fight the enemy in prayer for that territory. He wants is to keep you defeated in those areas and defeated in your walk so you cannot do battle!

Here is my point: Being strong in the Lord and the strength of His might means humbling yourself in prayer before Him, crying out your great need of Him and your wretched, pathetic, inability to fight your own battles, and then declaring against the enemy of your soul the rights and authorities you have over him in the name of Jesus. He cannot argue and he will flee!

So, my dear brothers and sisters, "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might." Ephesians 6:10