PRAYERS

Welcome to this site. My prayer is that you take a look at the site and as you do, let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and reveal what God wants you to discover. (in Jesus' name)

God tells us that if we see a brother (or sister) in need we should do that which is within our means to help. Prayer is always within our means but we never know what doors Father may open through them. Should you desire prayer for anything (healing, direction, etc.) or if you want supportive prayer along with your own please feel free to e-mail that request to sharbu3@gmail.com and be assured that there are others who will be praying with or for you.


In this blog, I share what the Lord shares with me. I reference scripture a lot in support of what is being said. I realize that what is in each entry is NOT a complete 'word' (discussion) on what is being said, but is rather enough information to stimulate our spirits to dig deeper (remember the Bereans Acts 17:10-11) thereby gaining a fuller understanding for ourselves.

At the end of each post are the options to share, forward or make a comment. Click 'comment' to respond. Let us know if you like, don't like or are helped by what you read. Comments can be made or read by anyone. All you have to do is select the "comment" at he end of the entry.

Saturday, March 25, 2023

3-25-2023 Micah & the 2-edged sword


Listen to the words of the prophet Micah: 

1          Listen up you heads of Jacob, princes of Israel, is it not for you to know judgment? 

Let’s exchange any reference of Israel and Jerusalem to reference today’s church.  Aren’t we supposed to know the ways of God?

2          They have come to hate good and love evil.  They strip the skin from the people, even the flesh from their bones. 

3          They scrape their skin off, eat their flesh and even break their bones.  They chop them up as to boil them in a caldron.

Hasn’t too much of today’s church set God aside to accommodate the world’s views?  We can’t offend anybody!  They might not come to church (and feed our offering trays)!  Indeed, we have minimized and scraped away too much of God’s truth just to bring more people into the church.  After all, everyone knows that the bigger a church, the more successful it is!  Right?  We have mutilated God’s teaching.  We have cut it down to our size to fit our needs. 

4          Then they cry to the Lord, but He won’t hear them.  At that time He will hide His face from them because of their ill doings.

But when things start to go wrong doesn’t the church call out to God?  Yet, when that time comes, because of the church’s waywardness, God will not hear it.

5          He says this to the prophets who make His people err.  They bite with their teeth and cry peace but God does not tell them what to say.  They even prepare war against Him.

Listen!  Today, too many prophets are prophesying nothing but good and there is no longer a balance.  Once saved, you’ve got it made God wants to bless you!  Yes, God wants to and will bless us, but are we being told that we have a responsibility to insure those blessings?  In seeking God’s kingdom we should be seeking to have His will done in our lives and through our lives and in so doing, we become obedient in His will.

6          All things will become as night and they won’t have a vision, it shall be dark.  They shall not divine and the sun shall go down over the prophets and it shall be dark over them.

7          Their seers shall be ashamed and their diviners confused, indeed, they shall cover their lips for there is no answer from God.

Truly, darkness will fill the church when we refuse to obey God’s will. The prophets will preach feel-good lies without the balance of how we should be living our lives.  As with Israel, those prophets who were out only for their own gain will be speaking their ‘own thing’ because God has not spoken to them.  And won’t until they come back into His will.  Experience tells us that, yes, there are those false teacher who know exactly what they are doing and are trying to get as rich as they can off of our sacrifices.  And yet, I am persuaded that there are others who are only doing what they have been taught and because so and so said it, it must be true.  Unfortunately, they never check it out for themselves!  We have to know God’s word so we can see the ‘real deal’ when we see it and discern that which is not.

8          But I am truly filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord.  I declare judgment and might unto Jacob for his transgression and unto Israel their sin.

9          Hear this, I pray, you heads of the house of Jacob and you princes of the house of Israel, who hate judgment and pervert equity.

Micah says that he does hear from God and as Micah’s plea went to the church, today’s plea now goes out to church leaders to examine themselves – is God’s Word really being preached, in accordance with His will, in His love?  is it designed to edify and grow the people and not just tickle their ears so they can ‘feel good’?

10        They who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11        The heads judge for reward, the priests teach for payment and the prophets prophecy to be paid.  Yet they will say “Isn’t the Lord among us?  No evil can come upon us.”

In Micah’s day, the church leaders told the people what they wanted to hear and got paid to do so.  Do today’s prophets, priests and ministers do so just to increase their income?  Yes, there are expenses that come along with ministry, so money is necessary.  Judas Iscariot was the disciples’ treasurer, he kept the money.  Read the gospels they used that money for their own living expenses and to help the needy.  The disciples carried on this tradition for the same reasons and today’s churches need to gather money for the same reasons.  Or should I say this is why they should be gathering money?  Do any of today’s preachers say “I preach the ‘word(s)’ and think “I’m secure because God is with me”?  Or are they any like those of 2000+ years ago and do everything to pad their own pockets knowing that God is far from them? 

12        Therefore, for your sake, Zion shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become a heap.  The mountain of the house shall become like he high places of the forest.*

God tells Israel that because of their waywardness, they shall become nothing.  Mounds of dirt that have been plowed for field but not planted with seed – or, at least, good seed.  The high places of the forest become overrun because of lack of use.  How many churches today have become useless weeds by the wayside?

I’m not saying the whole church is off track. God forbid that I point a finger.  But I am saying that too much of the church has strayed.  We shall know them by their fruit (Matt. 7:16-20).  We can identify those committed to Jesus Christ.  Of course, then, we need some sort of personal knowledge of the fruit and the bible is that basic source of knowledge.  How else do we know God’s love?  Yes?

We’re looking at a two-edged sword today.  Part to f the church needs continued building and being encouraged, but too much of the church has gotten off track and needs a swift kick to the keester (backside).  God has been trying and will continue His attempts to get our attention.

Thank God for what happened in Asbury, Ky.  Thank God for the planned revival I am hearing about coming to California and the west coast in April.  But thank God that once these souls have given their heart to Jesus Christ or have come back to Him from their wayward steps, they are given a solid foundation for living in Christ Jesus.  WE have to know God’s nature (LOVE) in order to be with Him when He calls us home!  Yet, how many will be like those who said “But Lord, didn’t we do all these wonderful things in your name (Matt. 7:20-23)?

Read the book of Acts.  Paul spent weeks, months and even years establishing a church assuring that the leadership, he left behind was able to lead the church, was grounded in Christ’s doctrines of love.  Why? So they could raise up ‘true’ believers founded in the love of God and then that they could continue sharing that love – in its totality.  Too many souls have felt that once we accept Jesus, the battle is won. True, but the war is just beginning.  There is a life to live!

Read the parable of the sower (Matt. 13:3-9).  The seed by the wayside never received salvation, came into the church.  The seed among the thorns and on rocky soil professed a faith and joined the church but didn’t stay and left for their own reasons.  Only the seed sown on good ground took root and held on to God’s love and remained faithful.  Read the whole chapter for Jesus’ explanation.

Have we been learning how to live in Christ Jesus?  Does our love grow stronger each day?  Do we commune with our Lord each day?  I don’t mean just saying the “Our Father”, then “see ya later!  Got things to do.”  God is our friend.  We should share our heart with Him – even more so than we might with our closest friend!  Do we experience the joy of His fellowship?  I enjoy singing songs about God, who He is and what He does.  His Spirit literally fills my heart with joy and peace.  I can’t just stand up and walk away.  I have to sit and bask in His presence until my body can, once again, move.

Yes, we need to draw souls into the kingdom of God, but we also need to do what we can to help them get grounded in their faith.  Salvation is not just confessing Jesus then getting ‘dunked’.  We have made a commitment.  Our relationship becomes a living faith!

So, where are we at today?

Amen

Monday, March 13, 2023

 

3-11-2023 The Asbury, Ky. Revival

 

Not a regular post, but Father said to post this on the blog, anyway.

A good thing happened in Asbury, Ky. In February.  People came together at church to receive something from God.  I have no doubt that many did receive what they went for.  I have no doubt that the presence of the Holy Spirit was present but was His power also there – full blown? 

The ‘miracle in Kentucky’ may go down as the spark that ignited the Spiritual explosion God IS bringing into the world.  Yet, many ‘little campfires’ have already started in various parts of this globe.  India?  Africa?  Asia?  And many may yet go to where they can receive something from God.  Yes, Father desires to bless His children and as He gives to us, does He expect anything in return?

Yes.  Our hearts.  Jesus identifies the greatest Commandment as “Love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength” (Mark 12:30).  This is not doing something thinking that God will give us something good in return.  This is expressing our gratitude for what He has already done for us.  We can’t give Him precious jewels or metals or things that we own.  God created the world, the universe, existence, just by saying ‘let it be so’!  The only things left for us to give Him is our devotion, our love, our commitment to honor Him above all else (He created all else!). 

Father says that there is a Spiritual explosion forming.  This explosion won’t come because of our tithes and offerings.  This explosion won’t come because of all the ‘good works’ we do.  It will come because we have committed to live for Father through our relationship with Jesus Christ because the Holy Ghost is alive and well within our heart!  The giving and the good works will come as we grow in our love for our Lord and Savior.  As our commitment grows, within our heart, to live for. with and in Him.

God knows that fires have already been kindled for the Spiritual Explosion, but in retrospect, with the publicity it has received, Asbury may get credit for igniting it.  That’s OK for God will, ultimately, get the credit and souls will grow in Christ Jesus and ‘men’ WILL start doing everything Jesus did – and greater (John 14:12)! 

This Spiritual explosion isn’t just an evangelical, come to Christ and be saved, work.  It will become a work where the power of the living and eternal God can and will be experienced by ‘average’ people!

To a degree we can truly say “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10)! 

Yet, though God desires that none perish but that all come to salvation (2 Peter 3:9), He knows that not all will receive His free gift of eternal life (Matt. 7:21).

Thank God, our Father, for what is already happening, but praise His holy name for that which is to come!

Saturday, March 11, 2023

3-11-2023 Cry for the children of man

                

Joel 1:1-20

1          The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

2          Hear this, old men and listen to this all you who live in the land.  Have you seen anything like this before in your days or have your fathers even seen anything like this?

Look around all you people.  As we see the world today, have we seen anything like this before?  In our nation, we have survived a battle for independence (1775-1783), invasion from a foreign source (Britain 1812-1815), civil war (1861-1865) and civil unrest (off and on throughout our history).  The world has suffered two global wars (1914-1918 & 1939-1945) and on a smaller scale, how many nations have tried to overrun their neighbors?  We have seen a great depression (1929-1939) and continue to flirt with another.  We have seen world-wide hunger and just look at how intense nature is becoming!  Storms and earthquakes have been becoming more frequent and more intense over recent years.  Yes, there is nothing new to man (Ecc. 1:9) but examine the complexity and intensity of how all things are becoming. 

3          Tell our children about it and let your children tell their children and they, the next generation.

Tell your children about what is happening so they might be prepared and let them tell your grandchildren and even then  to next generation.  These are signs of the end times (Matthew 24:1-31, Thess. 4:14-18, Joel chptrs. 2 & 3 and don’t forget the book of Revelation).  We don’t know when the end times actually will be (Matt. 24:36), but the passage in Matthew tells us the world has not nor ever shall see the likes of the tribulation period again (Matt. 24:22).      

4          what the palmerworm has left, the locust have eaten, what the locust left, the cankerworm has eaten and that which the cankerworm has left the caterpillars have eaten.

Despite scientific advancement, look at how the beauty and fullness of God’s creation has wasted away through natural catastrophes and man’s advancement into the future.  Famine and natural disasters still persist.  This passage implies the complete desolation of plant life and that will impact animal life, even the air we breathe.   

5          Wake up you drunkards and weep.  Howl, all you who drink the wine because the new wine is cut off from your mouth.

The world lies drunken with the old wine (the way in which we have been living their lives) which has dulled our senses, become bitter and, even now has become undesirable.  The world will (and much already) has become a wasteland.  Yet there is new wine ready to replace the old and to take the bitter taste from our mouth.  The new wine is new life, abiding in the love of God.  Will the world reject it?  Will we (the church) reject it?

6          For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number whose teeth are the teeth of a lion and has the cheek teeth of a great lion.

Destruction is coming!  Grant it, Joel is talking about Israel, but these things are prophesied for Israel because of their rejection of God.  Is today’s world, today’s church guilty of rejecting God?

7          He who has laid my wine to waste and barked my fig tree has made it clean bare and cast it away and its branches ae made white.

The world has wasted the goodness that has God originally given us.  Our existence (largely) has slipped away into a pile worthy only to be burned.  Have we brought this legacy of destruction upon ourselves?

8          Lament like a virgin who is girded in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Cry like a young girl who has lost the love of her youth.  And yet, do we realize what we are losing, even today?  We should mourn at what we see, yet are we doing anything about it?

9          The meat offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord.  The priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.

10        The field is wasted and the land mourns because the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes.

The churches do cry out.  But, have we stopped bringing our sacrifices before the Lord?  That is confessing our sins at the cross?  Do we still bring thanksgiving to the altar for all that Father has done for us?  Do we seek His direction in daily matters?  Do we even talk with Him?  Where has the relationship with our God gone?  Has it dissipated into oblivion?  Father has been bringing new wine (the love in Christ Jesus) into our lives afresh and anew yet, all too often, has it been squandered?  Has it even been truly received?  My Lord, even the churches have gotten off track and are falling away (2 Thess. 2:3).

11        Be ashamed, O you husbandmen, howl you vine dressers for the wheat and the barley because the harvest of the field is wasted.

Too much of the church just aint’ actin’ like it should and all the sacrifices are like ashes tumbling off the altar.  Brushed away and unaccepted!  And, like the church of Jesus’ time, the church knows what to do (Matt. 23:1-7, James 4:17).  Is it really just too much to ask?

12        The vine is dried up and the fig tree languishes, the pomegranate tee, the palm tree as well as the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered away because the joy is withered away from the sons of men.

Look at today’s churches!  Does it reside in the joy of the Lord?  Membership is declining because God’s Word is being compromised. Don’t offend anyone but always bring a joyful, word.   Yes, souls should be brought into the kingdom, but God’s standards should not be compromised in so doing.  We need to hear the truth so we can abide in it.  

13        Gird yourselves and lament you priests, howl you ministers of the altar.  Come, lie all night in sackcloth , you ministers of my God for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of  your God.

Waywardness has brought emptiness.  Order needs to be restored.  I don’t mean sit still and be quiet.  Dads are (should be) responsible for the family, the pastor and church leadership should be responsible for the congregation because Jesus is respsonsible for the leadership.  Is the leadership listening to Him?  We may talk about the Holy Ghost, but how many actually listen to Him?

14        Sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry to the Lord.

Just as Israel called for fasting and prayer when they were told that they were off track (2 Kings 22:1-23:3).  Shouldn’t today’s churches consider the same.  Even those fellowships who might have a right relationship with the Lord, shouldn’t they be praying for those who don’t?  And, My God, be bold enough to enlighten them?

15        Alas for the day!  The day of the Lord is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Read any or all of the prophets.  When we go against God’s Word, there are consequences!  God will not put up with it forever (Gen. 6:3, John 15:6, Rom. 11:22)!

16        Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, even the joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17        The seed has rotted under the clods, the garners are laid desolate and the barns are broken down.  The corn is withered.

Look at this passage.  When we turn from God, everything we do, say or think turns sour or goes bad.  When God is not a part of our lives, there are no positive results.  We won’t even be able to store the good things that have come our way.  It all becomes for naught. If this is the state in which we stand before God, all is lost.  Polls tells us that today, church attendance is on the decline!

18        How do the beasts groan!  The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, indeed, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

19        O, Lord, I will cry unto you for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness and flame has burned all the trees of the field.

All creation, even the things or people that rely on us lose hope for there is nothing for them to hold on to.  Those who may have come to the Lord through us, are we a positive example for them follow and grow?

20        The beasts of the field also cry out to you because the rivers of waters are dried up and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Everything we could have given them is dried up and burnt – totally gone.  The wayward churches impact their fellowship, but even the communities and beyond.   

Yes, this passage speaks of Israel turning their back on God, but hasn’t too much of today’s church done just that?  Haven’t they ‘shelved’ God’s standards to accommodate the world’s values?

When Isaiah had come to Hezekiah and told him that his time in this world was over, Hezekiah wept and repented. Then the Lord gave Hezekiah fifteen more years to live.  Hezekiah was also healed and received a miracle as God’s testimony to the truth of the matter (2 Kings20:1-11).

In the eighteenth year of king Josiah’s reign, Hilkiah, the high priest discovered the book of the law during a rebuilding effort.  Hilkiah then showed the discovery to Shaphan, the scribe who showed it to the king.  The king Realized that all the evil which had befallen Israel was because Israel had strayed from God.   Josiah repented, God gave peace to the king and Israel because Josiah made covenanted to abide by God’s law.

Again, shouldn’t the church, which has strayed, repent and come back into the ordinances of God?  We see with king Josiah that there is restoration through repentance and obedience.

As dad is obedient to God, the family will line up better with God.  The family’s obedience to dad and God helps the church to line up better with God.  As the church lines up, we just may find that people (in general) are making better decisions about life.  As people start making better decisions we may see communities making better decisions.  As the communities make better decisions this must may spill over to the counties, the states.  Even decisions made at the national level!  Say what!  The world may become better off (at least in some places).  How does the prayer go?  “On earth as it is in heaven”?  But, it has to start somewhere.  And the bottom line is God within an individual!

So, do we cry for the children of man?  Should we be crying for the children of man?  Are we seeking how we might be an impact in our little part of the world?  Do we sit back and say “Well, that’s just the way things are.” 

Crying for the children of man starts somewhere. Who’s taking the first step?

Amen