Monday, July 27, 2009

Health Update

Hi, everybody. In two days it will be a year since I had the stroke. I wanted to give a progress update. It seems I have improved somewhat, though from day to day that can be subjective. I am so glad I can speak, though it is still not easy, and that though I still have no real appetite, I can maintain my weight between 130-135 pounds. I am walking several days a week from a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half or so and lift weights two to three times a week, though by the time I finish either activity I am exhausted. Cooking is still very hard, and though I can do dishes, I don't do well. Laundry is still hard, but possible. I just found out about three weeks ago that I can ride an escalator like I used to without thinking about it, and can shower easily again. Brushing teeth and eating still take concentration, though I think they are taking less concentration than they did for a while. On some days typing is easier than before, though it is not yet simple. Concerning driving, I am still driving to church and short distances from home only.

Concerning my emotional and spiritual health, I am trying to move on. I am in counseling at my church, and that is helping some. I had never dealt with some of the issues raised when my marriage ended, and we've been dealing with that, and I am also dealing with who God made me to be--issues needing consideration to be able to move forward in my life. In addition, I am revisiting another issue that is very important to me, and that is divine supernatural healing. I believe God does it with all my heart and have experienced it quite often, but I am sad that I am not walking in it right now and feel I am letting God down even though that doesn't change His love for me. I think part of the good to come out of this stroke will be some new understandings only God can give me. I am also once again realizing the old adage that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. I can't just receive what someone else says. I can (and need to) consider it, but I'm desperate for the Lord to speak to my heart. It seems those are the only things I really have been able to hold onto in my life.--Another thiing-it's very hard to feel close to God with all of this going on, but I want to get there again. I hear His voice in some areas again, but I long for more.

I am still not working--not enough stamina yet, but I am hoping with my walking and weights to build more. I am still going day by day financially, and will see what God does. He has been providing till now, and I'm very thankful.

Well, I guess that's all for now...more later as I know it.

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Intervention of Intercessory Prayer

I wrote this article on my web page some time ago, and believe it fits us now. I hope it is a blessing.

Intercession is a vital ministry in the body of Christ. I want to discuss its importance in any work God has established. I have learned that a Christian work must operate from a very consistent, solid Holy Spirit-directed base of prayer. That can only be accomplished by having humble people with strong intercessory prayer giftings either in charge or close to the top. If the director is not an intercessor, he or she must understand its importance, that it is not "window dressing," but the very avenue the Lord by His Spirit uses to set the direction and even the atmosphere of the work. These prayer warriors in turn must lead the rest of the workers into prayer that zeroes in on God's heart for the work and the people He sends there. This kind of prayer does not come from our minds, but from actively waiting on the Lord to reveal His strategy.

Why is this kind of prayer so necessary? Using the works I have been involved in at a local Crisis Pregnancy Center and a Christian-based homeless shelter as an example, God's enemy has worked quite hard to get these women and children into a position where he has almost destroyed them, and he has no intention of giving up easily. His purpose is to target the family so that godly children will not be raised up to hold up God's standard, testify to His reality, and help bring others out of their prisons of sin. Many of these women who are pregnant without marriage or hurting from abusive marriages and/or severe drug/alcohol addictions are already familiar with the church and its claims. Yet this familiarity has not impacted them with God's reality as much as it has with the doctrines of the church.

The Bible explains that the letter of the law without the Spirit kills. Doctrines without the life of God only lead to legalism and its fruit of self-righteousness, or rebellion and its fruit of lawlessness. This ungodly fruit from exposure to church delights the enemy. He doesn't mind our talking about the Lord. The only thing he fights with everything he's got is a person's or a work's living the revelation in such a way that the reality of God convicts those who hear. Intercession can break through that "wall of unreality" that causes the Word to be ineffectual. This allows the Holy Spirit to minister the living Truth of God that is Jesus and the revelation of God's Word through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in a life-giving way that can transform those who are willing to hear with their hearts.

Intercession can also keep the enemy from defeating the workers. Oftentimes the workers are attacked both by external circumstances and divisiveness to prevent the demonstration of the reality of the gospel. Only Spirit-led intercession can cut through these attacks. Only consistent, honest, in-depth intercession can build up the spiritual protection needed to keep a work functioning in such a way that the Holy Spirit can bring lasting fruit that remains.

Another way in which intercession helps a Christian work is to keep God-given methods and understanding (even of God and His ways of working with those we serve) from being applied in the flesh. It is very easy in areas commonly labeled "social work" to apply principles with our minds. I have learned if I do not pray and intercede for each client I deal with that things fall flat. No matter how much "truth" I share, it becomes "dead letter."

I have discovered that even as a Christian I can do "fleshly" social work, and that Christian social work done in the flesh gets fleshly, not godly, results. To help hurting people, I must not try to diagnose the needs myself, but must remember I am constantly dependent on the Lord to discern and minister to the needs of the people. If I minister in my own strength, I also experience "burn out" very quickly. Additionally, I find myself defending "my" authority. If, however, I am prayed up, I find I don't have to keep my distance from the clients to maintain my authority. The authority God wants me to have is given and maintained by the Holy Spirit as it's needed.

It has been my joy to participate where humble Holy Spirit-led intercession is carried out on a consistent basis day in and day out. As each worker regularly practices sincere, in-depth prayer with another worker as she comes on her shift, a fervency for the Lord and a bond of love and genuine caring for the other workers, the work itself, and the clients is built. It becomes so tangible that it is felt. The love and respect grows between workers and the leadership as they bare their hearts before each other and the Lord. As the oil of the Holy Spirit flows through such a workplace, relationships between leadership and staff flow smoothly in a unified direction. This attitude of caring, love, respect, and deep concern is "caught" by the clients because eventually it becomes part of the "atmosphere" of the place, and it allows the Holy Spirit to soften hearts to be receptive to the living seed of the gospel.

God says the prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16). He tells us to pray without ceasing (1Thess 5:17), and by prayer and supplication let our requests be made known to Him (Phil 4:6). In the Bible He speaks of a serious time, and of what is needed to bring His deliverance into situations (this was spoken to Israel, a nation that knew God to the greatest extent of any nation at that point in time): Isa 59:15-18 (TLB) 15Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who tries a better life is soon attacked. The Lord saw all the evil and was displeased to find no steps taken against sin. 16He saw no one was helping you and wondered that no one intervened (KJV: that there was no intercessor). Therefore He Himself stepped in to save you through His mighty power and justice. Intercession, according to the Encarta� World English Dictionary � & (P) 1999 Microsoft Corporation, is defined as 1. interceding: the action of pleading on somebody�s behalf 2. trying to resolve conflict: the action of attempting to settle a dispute 3. prayer or petition: prayer to God ...on behalf of somebody or something.

Intercession, then, according to both the Bible and the dictionary is a form of intervention and mediation between people and sin, and people and God when sin (or danger) is involved. It takes a righteous person who is convinced God hears to stand in the gap between man and sin so that God's purposes can be accomplished. It is more important than any program or methodology we could use, and it alone will bring God and His creative life into the situation. My experience working with people who know the power of intercession has demonstrated its value. It sets all my work into proper perspective as I realize I cannot solve thorny problems with my understanding. It is not only understanding that brings change, but heart transformation, and that is only accomplished by the Lord. I pray the Lord put an urgency within His people, that we would learn His truths of intercession and how to hear His heart so as to be instruments He can use to transform others with His life.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

More About Worship

I have been considering the subject of worship again. To recap the last series on worship, I believe we should worship God with our whole life. Now I would like to touch on worship through music. As I said earlier, worship styles and sounds are being strongly contested in many places, and I believe the Holy Spirit will bring us into unity on these things and give us a new sound as we stay before Him.

For the last few weeks, though as I have thought about worship music, two seemingly contradictory ideas keep coming to mind: inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning starts with specific instances and tries to generalize, while deductive reasoning starts with general truths and tries to prove them with specific instances. How does this apply to worship?

Some people need to start with the general truths about God and His character to bring them to faith concerning what He can and will do for them. They need to focus on His holiness, justice, righteousness, love and faithfulness before they can believe He is willing to help them. Others need to focus on what He has done for specific people in specific situations to bring them to the place of believing that He will help them and also to believing that those qualities exist in God at all times in all places whether they personally see His work in a particular area of their lives yet or not. This is why we need worship and praise about God and His attributes coming from both angles.

There are problems when either of these approaches to God get out of balance. Too much thinking on God's character in general can leave us without a personal faith, because we think He's so holy He doesn't want to bother with helping us in our (we think) mundane lives. On the other hand, when we focus almost exclusively on God's personal care for us, we can lose sight of the bigger picture and reduce Him to our personal problem solver, instead of God of everything who always was, is, and ever will be. He even wants His people to be able from sincere hearts to say that "though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" as Job says, and that though everything is wrong in my life, I will rejoice in God as it says in Habakkuk 3:17-19. That ability grows the longer we know and trust Him.

The truth is God is love. He is also holy, righteous, just, true, faithful and many other things through all time and eternity-before human beings existed, now and forever in the future-even when time ends. Even if He had never created us, He would still be those things. It says in His Word that He will never change (Heb 13:8 and Malachi 3:6), and that is why we can trust Him and ask Him to help us. For these


One other issue I need to mention is that of singing about God or singing to God. I may sing that God is or has done all these things, and that is good. That is praise. But I need to at least sing equally to God about who He is-both who He is generally and who He has shown Himself to be in my life. That is worship. If we can incorporate these things rightly in our lives, our worship and praise will be pleasing to God, and it will help us. The more we say and sing the truth, the more we will know it, and the more we know and practice it, the more we will have to say and sing concerning our wonderful God.