I am researching a potential article about "praying in the Spirit." Have you ever wondered what that means? See Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 1:20-21.

I decided to research this after I had the most wonderful prayer session the other day. I was sitting in my prayer chair, and, as often happens, I felt this delicious tingling course through my body. I have come to recognize this as the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I always welcome the knowledge that He is alive and well within me.

But this particular prayer session was different, because the tingling did not stop. As I continued to pray, the tingling went on and on. My prayer sessions in my prayer chair can go from half an hour to an hour, and since the tingling did not start at the beginning of my prayer, I'm not sure how long I experienced it, but it went on until I concluded my prayer. When I was done, I was so thrilled, I asked the Lord to let me always pray like that.

I wondered: is this what "praying in the Spirit" is? Of course, the writer in me immediately sensed a wonderful new topic to dive into, and today I literally went through every single verse that alluded to "praying in the Spirit" or "in the Spirit." Why did Paul and Jude specifically instruct the church to "pray in the Spirit"? They seemed very emphatic about it--could this signify that more power would accompany their prayers? And how would they know if they were doing so or not?

My M.O. with writing articles is to research first, and then pray and chew on it for a few days, because the Holy Spirit always gives me insights that I did not have when I was first reading. I haven't heard from the Holy Spirit yet, but I will talk about my first impressions upon recording the 25 verses which I feel relate to "praying in the Spirit."

First of all, whenever the Spirit is present, power always accompanies Him. And when the Spirit falls upon someone, His presence is usually manifested by some outward sign. Another thing I find fascinating is that when people in the Bible were "in the Spirit," they knew. Take a look at Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me..." How did he know? I think it's because the experience was unearthly. And in Ezekiel's visions (Ezekiel 2:2 and 3:24), he knew when the Spirit entered him.

It's important to note the difference in semantics here. Having the Holy Spirit and being in the Spirit are two different things. The apostle John who clearly had the Holy Spirit, said that he was "in the Spirit on the Lord's day..." (Rev. 1:10) just before our Lord Jesus appeared to him in all His glory.

It seems that being "in the Spirit" and thus, "praying in the Spirit" is an intentional thing. John knew that it was the Lord's day (sabbath), and was praying in the Spirit. It seems that we can intentionally pray in the Spirit, and the Spirit will respond and give us a manifestation of His presence and His power.

Did I intentionally pray in the Spirit when I experienced the tingling sensation that went on for some time? Maybe not intentionally, but I did ask for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon me.

As Christians, we have the wonder and power of the Holy Spirit available to us, yet how many of us call upon Him to fall upon us afresh? How many of us ask for His power expectantly? How many of us intentionally "pray in the Spirit"? (This is not a judgment call, because I'm 51 and I'm just now getting it.)

I hope you earnestly seek to "pray in the Spirit." This is not something you can do in traffic or in the shower. Set some time aside, focus on the object of your affection (our Lord Jesus Christ), and ask to "pray in the Spirit." He will not disappoint you.

Blessings,
Gwenn

Labels: prayer, praying in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit

1. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.
2. In Christianity, the theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.

The book of Job is full of hope....Job's hope that he will be healed and his heart will be restored. Job is ever so faithful and he cannot be broken....no matter what is done to his heart, his land, his fortune, his health. He BELIEVES that God is what He says He is, only faltering from that faith for a split second. Job trusts God. He just does.

Do you? Do I?

I have often wondered where my faith and hope truly rest. Do I believe that God is who He says He is? Do I have FAITH that He will get me through any and all situations with the ultimate goal of showing His glory and my heart for Him growing deeper? I don't know. I just don't.

In my recent days I have seen, over and over again, how quick I am to just take the ball I am given and run with it. Starting a business while raising three kids and working full time is not easy. You just learn to do everything yourself for fear that something might not get done. If it doesn't, uh-oh. If it does, whew. That's it. No big fan fare for a job well done, no big "HOORAY! You did it!" Just....done.

With this taking the ball and running mentality comes FEAR. Big time fear. You start playing "what ifs".....What if I don't get it all done? What if my child doesn't take a bath and have a clean pair of jeans to wear to school tomorrow? What if I can't get my orders filled quickly enough or I'm so tired from being up late that I can't do my "paying job" well enough anymore? Or what if I forget to send lunch money to school? What if one can't go to an event because another has something else more important to attend? Unfortunately, I can't be in more than one place at a time (and actually....now that I think about it....I'm glad I can't. I'm tired enough as it is!).

So I've been looking for an answer. An answer to why my hope isn't fully in God. And you guessed it. Yep....God whacked me upside the head and gave me my answer. I love it when He does that. :) My answer is in Jeremiah 29:11-13.

"For I know the plans I have for you,"
declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future. Then you
will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen
to you. You will seek me and find me when
you seek me with all your heart."

I love this verse. Probably in my top 10 favs. But...and yes there is a but....I MISSED this part. Verse 13. The part where God says "SEEK ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND YOU WILL FIND ME". That's what I have been missing. My lack of faith has lead to fear, which lead to lack of seeking Him with all my heart, which lead to having only partial hope in God and putting the rest of my hope in my own limited abilities.

DUH. DUH. DUH.

Now what? Now what. Well....I seek Him. With all that I am and all that I have. I open my heart to His direction and in that openness is where I find Him. I stop being so hard on myself, stop wearing myself out and give God the chance to take care of things for me. I let Him have control of the reins and steer me down His path where I can only hope is more peace and less stress. That will not be easy but as my favorite line from my favorite movie of all time "Hope Floats" goes...."Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will...."

HOPE....I'M GIVIN' YOU A CHANCE. SO FLOAT ALREADY! :)

Labels: Hope, Jeremiah 29:11-13, sockrma18

Yesterday was a sad day. I didn’t stay up on Tuesday evening to see the results of the election but I knew when I went to bed that things didn’t look promising. When I awoke in the morning and turned on the radio my fears were confirmed. Barak Obama had won the election.

Over the last few weeks my husband had talked to our six-year daughter about the candidates, who we stood for and why. When I told her on Tuesday that everyone was voting she said she hoped John McCain would win. I told her that may not happen but she told me not to worry, God would let the “good man” win.

Unfortunately that isn’t true. I explained to my daughter than Israel had many bad kings and that sometimes God gives us bad leaders to teach us or to judge us. In way though she is right. Our sovereign God does choose our leaders and we can still rest in his choice even when we suspect the outcome won’t be easy for us.

But this is still a sad time for me because our nation has chosen a leader who does not support Godly values. A man who fully supports partial-birth abortion is a candidate that no Christian should be comfortable with. I can only expect that with a liberal President and a liberal Congress our nation will slide further into ungodly practices and incur God’s judgment. That is not a place I want to be.

I am also scaried as a parent. If our nation lurches more and more toward darkness I will have to fight harder and harder to keep my children in the light. As things like “alternative lifestyles” become more acceptable I have to worry that my kids will see things at our local mall that I don’t care to explain to them at a young age. Sheltering my children from ungodly practices may become impossible.

But despite my sadness and fears, I know that God “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28). The darkness around us may grow but it will never overcome the light.

But I do hope this time will be a wake-up call for Christians. I think too many Christians today have become too comfortable with the world and it is time for us to set ourselves apart and be different. As children of God we are a holy nation – let’s start living that way and show the darkness what is light.

Labels: Carrie

We are on the eve of the most evil days on our calendar. Sadly, most who read this will think I'm going a bit overboard. I'm not … I promise you!

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of presenting a sermon I entitled, Deliver Us From Evil, based on the phrase from the Lord's Prayer. It has occurred to me that most of us pray amiss when we pray those words, especially if we willingly participate in the evils of things such as Halloween. Yes … I said evil.

It is understandable that the "world" celebrates this day since they have no relationship with the Holy One of Israel. But, it is NOT understandable that Christians celebrate Halloween … not in any shape, form, or fashion. I found a quote that sums up what I'm trying to say and really puts the controversy into perspective: "For a Christian to celebrate Halloween is as bizarre as a Holocaust survivor celebrating Hitler's birthday." Stop a moment and re-read that. There's no difference.

Jesus shed His most precious, pure, spotless, and holy blood so we can be FREE from evil, FREE from the penalty of sin and death, FREE from the chains that bind us to the grave. Yet, so many in the Body of Christ willingly celebrate the "lord of death" every October.

Halloween isn't a cute, innocent excuse to have a party. It's not even a fun time to do something strange by dressing up and parading around the neighborhood with a bag expecting strangers to fill it up with candy. And, anyone who thinks so is blinded by the father of lies himself.

If you're a parent or grandparent, please … don't allow your children or grandchildren to participate in the "high holy day" of the occult world. Don't allow them to partner together with the archenemy of God and call it cute or innocent. Any celebration on this day is falling into the trap of the enemy—he lures us by making it fun and all about the kids.

I have put together what I've called an 'INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING' about the origin and the dangers of Halloween. Please feel free to download the .pdf file, share it with others, pass it around to friends and family. Then, please … pray protection over your children and your grandchildren. Pray for their minds and hearts and souls to be protected from seeds of evil and lies and deception from taking root and growing in them. Take some time and do some research … become informed and stop allowing the enemy's tactics prevail.

Paul gives us the answer to the bombardments of evil being shot at us as firey darts by the enemy of our souls. Ephesians 6 gives us clear explanation about how to fight against the spiritual forces of darkness ruling this world. But the Armor of God is absolutely no good to us unless we put it on and use it. The 'INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING' covers this as well.

I pray this year, the eyes of many will be opened and the malicious deception of the enemy will be exposed. I pray that you, a blood-bought Christian, won't become another one of the multitudes of people who contribute over $2.4 Billion to the Halloween profiteers. The only two more popular reasons for partying on our calendar are New Years Eve and the Super Bowl.

Take a stand … make a determination in your heart and say with me, "I Won't Compromise!"

© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved

Blessings,

Gwenn

Labels: divorce, faith, marriage

I was reading 1 Corinthians last night and was struck by the following verses:

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” 1 Cor 15:3-5

Remember Peter? As one of Jesus’ disciples, he had listened to Jesus’ teachings and saw him perform many miracles. Peter had walked on water, witnessed the Transfiguration, and claimed he would follow Jesus to death. Yet when Jesus was captured and put on trial, Peter vehemently denied his relationship with him three times just as the Lord had predicted.

“Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Luke 20:60-62

From there the Lord was crucified and Peter was left to his own thoughts. I can’t even imagine what Peter must have felt for those days following the crucifixion. At this point he looks like a complete failure. When the “going got tough”, Peter folded.

But look at what happened according to 1 Corinthians. The Lord appeared to Peter alone before appearing to the rest. We know that all of the disciples had scattered like sheep during Jesus’ capture, but it was Peter who openly denied the Lord and was confronted with his own failure by the rooster’s crow (and Jesus’ gaze). If anyone needed face-time with the Risen Lord, it surely was Peter. And that is what he got.

We don’t know what the Jesus said to Peter when he appeared to him, but we know that Peter went from cowardly denier to bold proclaimer. In the second chapter of Acts it is Peter that addresses the crowd with the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion and converts 3000 to “the way”. Peter’s failure was no obstacle to God.

And so it is for us. We have a Savior who is willing to meet with us personally, even when we have failed him. He can lift us back up and continue to use us despite our failures. How lucky we are to serve such a loving and merciful Lord!

Labels: Carrie, christian living