Fearlessly Courageous

Sundays New Years Prophesy

I sat at home waiting for the girls to finish getting ready for church and I felt this unction to sit down and write. I began to ponder, a couple of situations pressing in on me. I had been praying for them to resolve, off and one for a few weeks. I started to type what I was feeling when it was time to go, we were already running late. When we arrived in the sanctuary the worship was anointed and I could feel the Spirit leading me to write again.

"How much do you really love me? I’ve called you to pray without ceasing and pray to the end of it. Have you?

Do you love me? Pray for your children and your relationships. PRAY!

Do you love me? Pray, for your heart to explode with your love for me. PRAY, until your feelings return.

Pray for my Holy Spirit and a fresh anointing for a new and critical season. Pray.

Do you love me truly? Be my intercessor — for your community – for your state and nation — for godly leaders –

Pray my heaven come, my will be done, until the walls fall down.

Daniel prayed for 70 years but would not let go of the ache in his heart to love me even through the valleys, deserts, and wastelands. Intercede until it is done according to my will.

Pray for the strength to persevere. It is not by your might or your power but by my spirit. Join my army of intercessors and take your spouse, family, and friends with you!

Love me enough to not give up! Love me enough to pray until it’s done".

I thought about the passion one feels in just getting married. The honeymoon. The first few months and how madly in love we are. And then the pressures of the world press in and we still love our spouses but the demonstration…the kindness…the over-the-top thoughtfulness begins to wain a little. That’s what happens when we are born again to most of us. We become familiar with God, with our spirituality, with church, and slowly the fire and passion wains a bit. If we’re not careful over time we become lukewarm. Yes, we are saved. Yes, we love God! But, the passion to read and to pray…(if we ever did) dims. When I kept hearing, do you love me, It reminded me of Peter after he had denied Christ three times and Jesus asked him 3 X’s Do you love me?

I felt like Peter today. I too love God. I write these devotionals every day. But I have slacked in my intentionality to pray things to their end. Important things! I was caught up in so many really good things, even Godly things, but I did not stay alert to the Power of Prayer. Or should I say the forever call to prayer!

I prayed for this or that but I truly did not intercede. I truly had not battled in the spirit until I could see a change. My prayers were sporadic. Too occasionally.

I know that I am not alone in this. I know that everyone struggles with prayer. How to pray. When to pray. How long to pray. And we get discouraged as we pray alone and over time we can read a devotional, say a sweet prayer for someone and be on our way. But, for those who are fighting cancer like Pastor Dale and my neighbor, their prayers are a sweet incense unto the Lord, forever rising on their best and worst days.

How can one pray without ceasing? But it says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you". 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 The Greek word ceasing in this verse literally means to pray uninterruptedly and incessantly, without omission or intermission.

Praying without ceasing may seem like an impossible task–but think about it; when was the last time we told ourselves to BREATHE? Our bodies live, breathe and have their beings on auto-pilot while we go about our daily tasks. “’In him, we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, For we are indeed his offspring" Acts 17: 27 We do not have to tell ourselves to think, we just do it.

When we delight in his presence and acknowledge that he is with us when we sit and rise, when we come and go, and when we perform our tasks for the day, we are praying without ceasing. Why? because we have made Jesus our main focus in what we do and how we do it without regard to the outcome.

Prayer is Practicing the Presence of God.

Prayer is the most intimate and wonderful way we can communicate with God. We can do this silently in our minds while driving in our cars, doing the dishes, preparing meals, exercising, walking, or sitting at our kitchen tables.

Brother Lawrence, who served as a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in Paris, said in his book The Practice of the Presence of God,

“We should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence, by continually conversing with Him.”

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer". Romans 12:12

"How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you". Psalm 139:17-18

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will".Romans 12:2

Do you love me? If we love him enough, we will pray! May I encourage you on this first workday of the new year to decide to Pray? To commit to prayer! To agree with someone else for a specific prayer time and be accountable? Put a name down of someone who needs to be saved and pray them into the kingdom. Make a prayer list and a praise list of how God will begin to answer your prayers and then tell someone how much you love Jesus.

Perhaps you should share this devotional and let them decide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH9kYn4L8TI

Somewhere in the water. Carry Underwood.