"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, Ephesians 6:19 NIV

The Apostle Paul is asking his friends to pray for him? If Paul needed prayer, how much more do we. This wonderful man preached all over the ancient world, but he still wants prayer for words.

I suppose if anyone knows about fear, it would be Paul. I don't know what he has faced at this period of his life, but he had some very painful, near death situations during his lifetime.

All of us need to pray however we can in our circumstance. I shared about speaking out loud the other day, but I want to tell you why I know the silence kind are important too.

We can be in places where it's not appropriate to pray!  Have you ever prayed to silently in a doctor's office? I think most people have. We can be sick and not know what words to say. I am recovering from a sinus and ear infection, and I prayed silently a lot this week!

Thank God we can have hope in our Father who hears even when we don't speak. We can get to know Jesus, and who He says He is, when He answers those silent prayers. No one knows but God himself what your request is.

I read Luke 11: 1- 13 last night. You are probably familiar with verses 1-4. It's the Lord's prayer. What I didn't realize, just after this, Jesus shares the story about the traveler who comes at midnight. The house he enters doesn't have any food, so the host runs to his neighbor for bread.

The neighbor doesn't come to the door because the man asks him to, but only comes after much persistence from the host. This man wouldn't give up knocking, banging and so on. Jesus relates this to a father who is good, and wouldn't give his son a snake if he asked for a fish. You can read the rest for yourself.

What struck me was the goodness of the fathers in this story. Of course Jesus is relating this to the goodness of our heavenly Father.
We belong to God, and his love for us is deeper than we can ever imagine.  Verse 13 of Luke 11 reads, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"  Not one of us can say we have enough of the Holy Spirit.  

"Pray at all times - on every occasion, in every season - in the Spirit, with all{manner of} prayer and entreaty, To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints {God's consecrated people}." Ephesians 6:18 AMP 

Have you ever felt as if you were a little fish in a big pond? I thought this child may feel this way, but then I thought maybe there are 20 people at the other end we can't see? We don't always have the luxury of seeing the whole picture.

I think she is happy, so I'm not going to be concerned. How our minds can jump to conclusions! I have concluded about others character on very small tidbits of information.

I'll bet you have done this too. Prayer is important when it comes to deciding how we feel about someone. Sometimes first impressions can be deceiving. Do you conclude someone isn't "your type" on first meeting and forget about building a friendship?

I have done this too many times to count! Fear was behind some of these judgements. I have been open to people as I have gotten older. I don't have time to play games. We are all the same on the inside.

When it comes to prayer, God tells us in this verse to"watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints." I'm putting away immature behavior so I can focus on what can make another stronger.

I don't want you to congratulate me or anything, because I don't have it done to perfection! I don't think any of us have. Let's be aware of our judgements so don't push away those who may need our help. Give out what God has given to you. This is a sure way to filled again!

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." Ephesians 6:18 NIV

You might have noticed I have used the same scripture for the past few days. I can't let go of it right now. It is such a powerful truth and I want to drive it home in my heart and yours.

I pray for those who receive my blog, and I care about your spiritual growth.I may have never met you before, but God knows exactly who you are and every detail in your life.

I trust Him to make these blogs personal to you by His Holy Spirit. Only Jesus can minister through my words to your heart and situation. He is beyond faithful to us!

I wish I had a stronger word than faithful to use. It isn't enough to express how wonderful our Father in heaven is to us. Sarah Reeves expresses faithfulness in her song, "Faithful".

The dictionary uses steadfast, unswerving, and committed to describe faithful. We can stack these words together and still not reach the magnitude of the faithfulness our God demonstrates toward us.

I haven't mentioned the picture at the top yet. These are our first two children, Rudy and Rachel. Rachel graduated from Depaul Law School in May. Rudy graduated from Hofstra Law School in 2015. They are precious to us.

They have worked hard for their degrees, and we have prayed. Obstacles came out of nowhere in seemed, but they persevered. We believing God to use them mightily. Prayer was lifted up for them before they were born.

I'm sure most of you can relate to this. When we don't know what to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us. The gift of tongues is able to pray through us to the Father when we don't know how or what to pray. Isn't this amazing?

photo by Ben White-Upsplash.com

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." Ephesians 6:18

This is a mouth-full of a verse and it was supposed to come up on yesterday's post but for some reason did not. It is worth repeating. I cannot say enough about the importance of prayer!

Prayer is our bridge to Jesus. He lives within us as believers, but our verbal declarations are powerful and effective. Lifting our voice is how we reach out to Him. It has nothing to do with space or time, but everything to do with our hearts.

It also involves our minds. We engage our brain in the process through our language and call out to the King of Kings. Our body, soul and spirit have to be involved because this is the totality of who we are.

Without words our brain won't process our prayer as declarations or dialog. Many thoughts pass through our mind throughout the day, but those thoughts that make it in to verbal language are recorded in our hearing as well as our memory.

This process is important. God hears our heart cry, but we need to hear the words. 

Prayer is possibly the most important activity we do on any given day. Tonight the churches in our area are having a 24/7 Prayer Service for revival. We need God to move on our Island!

It doesn't matter where you live, your area needs prayer. You may have needs different than ours, but it is our responsibility as the people of God to go before Him. The days in which we live warrants this.

We are living in the last days. Before you accuse me of being negative, let me say that the Bible describes these days as the time after the ascension of Christ. Basically we have been in the end times for 2,018 years.

Most theologians believe the third day, or the years after the year 2,000 are significant for Christ's return. I am referring to the past 18 years, and as long as God says after this. The end of the age known as "the church age" is within our grasp.

We can see the sign of the times in our culture. Our nation used to uphold Biblical values, but today many of them are not seen as significant. Marriage was vital to the fabric of our society but our current culture sees it as not important. We have seen terrible attacks on marriages in the past 40 years or more.

This is only one area of morality we see disintegrating. For the sake of time and space I will spare you the details, which most of you know.Violence is another specific moral downfall we see on the rise. My husband just informed me of a shooting today in Florida.

Our nation needs us to stand on the walls of our cities and communities! Take a stand for the salvation of your neighbors and loved ones through prayer. Prayer in the spirit so God can pray through you for specific needs you may not know about.

Cry out with your voice to the only one who can deliver and move on our needy world! All He needs are willing citizens of His heavenly kingdom to take down the lies enshrouding our earth. Are you willing to be used by God?

"Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God."Ephesians 6:17 NIV

Great times are coming, or have they already come? It depends on who you listen to. There are many theories and some are based on nothing much, or on Biblical truth.

The ones to be taken seriously come from the Bible. Many theologians speculate and I'm sure they have some clear understanding about when all of this will come. We are in a holding pattern right now. This is for sure.

The first garden is gone, and the second one is coming. Both are free of sin, sickness, distress, evil, hunger and death. There will be a renewal of what was supposed to be in the first place. This is where the holding pattern comes in; our current state.

If you are confused about any of this, join the club. I don't  study eschatology, or what the Bible calls the end times. I need to know more than I do right now, but where to start is the problem.

What I do know is that a great revival is coming to the world before the end. This is what we desperately need! When the presence of God moves in power on this earth many will come to Christ.

Many who lack understanding will see Jesus as the Son of God and call Him Lord. Some will be miraculously healed, families will be restored and lives changed. Then the end will come.

There are some great books written on these times I call the holding pattern. Lysa TerKeurst has a book coming out in November called, "Between Two Gardens." I have read the first and last chapter as a member of her writer's training called "Compel. It looks promising.

John Elderidge has written a book called "All Things New" and I have briefly looked at this. Pastor Fowler from my church has written a book called "Life in the Middle."

I haven't spent much time thinking about being "in the middle,". Now I have three books from people I respect, I think I should take a look. John Elderidge is a Psychologist, who writes along the lines of C.S. Lewis, because he describes in detail surrounding  and emotions. His years as a gifted Psychologist and sensitive, caring person help the reader to picture in their minds what his words say.

 I think we will continue tomorrow. There is a lot here to discuss, and I'm not sure which way God wants me to go right now, so hold on! Love and kisses to you! I appreciate your patience.

"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." Ephesians 6:16 NIV


Did you ever consider the heart has a breastplate and shield to cover it? Of course, the shield can be used many places, but when I think of this armor in a resting position it usually is near the heart. 

The shields of roman soldiers were much bigger than any other army. As Paul describes the armor it is considered  by scholars he is referring to the roman army's armor. After all, he is in a roman prison and has easy access to the particular traits and details.

The shields were 6 feet high, and could lock into another soldier's on each side. When the army would approach an opposing country for battle each soldier would lock shields until there would be a massive straight line.

The shields could reflect the sun because each one was meticulously clean and prepared for war. If an enemy tried to move forward, the reflection would be blinding.

Faith must be held high in our lives. Faith is substance even though we cannot see it. It is evidence of things not seen. It can be felt in our hearts. It can be proclaimed loudly from our mouths and ought to be always.

All we see in the natural realm points to the spiritual realm. The unseen came first. All of the seen world is governed by the unseen. Which camp are you from?