Posts Tagged ‘prayer’

How to Pray for Missionary Kids

Friday, December 6th, 2019

how-to-pray-for-missionary-kids

Many churches and individuals who support missionaries pray for those missionaries. But have you ever thought of praying for the missionary kids? Because they are more vulnerable to spiritual attack, missionary kids have a higher chance of experiencing despair or rebellion. Having grown up as an MK myself, the majority of MK’s that I knew rebelled against their parents, and many of them today have denied the faith and walked away from God. I have wept over many of these MK’s personally because they were my friends.

Do not neglect praying for the missionary kids. This is imperative for a missionary family to function and thrive for God’s kingdom wherever God has called them to serve. You might not know the struggles that MK’s go through in their lives, so I will tell you how you can pray for them.

Pray that they will not be bitter against their parents for being forced to live in a country where they don’t fit in. Pray that they will have godly friendships that will stand the test of time. Pray that they will not withdraw like a recluse from others after having their hearts crushed by saying good-bye so many times. Pray against spiritual attack, because even if the parents’ faith is strong, the children will have thoughts planted into their minds from the enemy who is seeking to destroy the parent’s credibility and thereby their ministry.

Pray that the girls will not be attacked by locals whose skin is darker, and who seem to think white-skinned girls are stunningly beautiful, even at age 12. Pray that the constant whistles from evil men will not distort the girl’s mind towards men in general and her future husband.

Pray for the MK’s especially as they become teenagers and have to live through all the hormones that come with that. Pray that they will not be tempted to do evil for the sake of fitting in, because MK’s more than normal people, have almost a desperation to fit in that is only magnified by hormones. This makes it nearly impossible to follow God unless their faith is incredibly solid, so pray that God will strengthen their faith and trust in Him.

And pray that the missionary kids will not abandon their faith when they leave home, that their strength and belonging might come from God, and that they will grow in their relationship to God instead of walk away.

If you would like to follow my Missionary Kid Facebook page, click here.

See my most popular MK memes and pins here.

To watch the video playlist on YouTube of our Guatemala Adventure, click here.

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How the Money Multiplied

Monday, March 19th, 2018

how-the-money-multiplied

“Why don’t you go home?” my friend from Honduras asked when she saw my eyes drooping as I sat by her bed in the hospital room. I had been by her side for almost a week following her surgery. I decided I needed a nap, and I told her I would be back early the next day to translate the doctor’s instructions before she was released from the hospital.

As I drove away, before getting onto the freeway I saw a bum looking towards the traffic with agony. Normally I feel nothing for bums, but this time I had supernatural compassion from Jesus. I’m not sure how I knew, but I saw that the agony in his soul was real. I couldn’t stop because of the green light and the traffic, so I merged onto the on-ramp to the freeway.

“Why did You give me supernatural compassion for a bum that I couldn’t do anything about?” I asked God, praying for the man, that he would know Christ and that he would once again be a productive member of society. I prayed that God would remove his agony. Then I asked God if I could see him again, and would He tell me what I could do for him.

The next morning while I drove to the hospital, lo and behold, I saw the same bum on the side of the road. I quickly grabbed $20 out of my wallet, rolled the window down, and drew his attention. He came over and received the $20. Then I reached out my hand towards him, and he looked perplexed. He took my hand, and I felt my face shining with Jesus. I cried out, “Jesus loves you!” My heart broke as I smiled at him, and I felt power going out of my hand and into the bum, and he received the love of God coming out of me.

That one moment was frozen in time.

Suddenly he realized the light was going to change and he didn’t want to get run over, so he let go of my hand and hobbled across the street. He was covered in dirt from head to toe, and I could see that he had a lower back problem. I asked God, “Would you please count my laying on of hands for his healing?” I knew that when the power of God went out of me, it felt the same as when I lay hands for healing and deliverance, so something supernatural had already occurred. I had been fasting that day by accident because I didn’t have time to eat before realizing I would miss the doctor’s instructions if I didn’t leave immediately. I determined to go ahead and make it a real fast and dedicated it to the physical healing of the bum.

Entering the hospital room, I told my friend about the bum. The doctor came and gave instructions. The nurse told me we could pick up the medication in the hospital pharmacy. Realizing that there was no one to pay for the medication (my Honduras friend has no money), I went down to my car to get my wallet. I looked inside to see how much cash I had. I despise credit cards, so I buy groceries with cash at a store that only takes cash and has lower-priced foods.

I saw that I had two $20 bills left, and I prayed that it would be enough to pay for her medication. I clearly saw that my wallet was empty except for the two $20 bills that I squeaked in my hands to make sure there was nothing behind them. This is the clearest multiplication miracle I’ve ever seen. My money has multiplied itself before, but I always thought there might have been a rational explanation; that I had counted wrong or whatever.

When I got to the hospital pharmacy to pay for the medication, it was $35. I was overjoyed that I had enough. I opened my wallet, and suddenly there were three $20 bills!

When I got back up to my friend’s hospital room, she was drooping her head because she didn’t want me to have to pay for her medication, after all the time I had spent beside her bed for the past week. I eagerly told her that God paid for her medication by doing a miracle! I jumped up and down while I told her what happened, how the money multiplied itself, and her jaw dropped. And I still had $25 for groceries left over!

We laughed as we marveled at God in awe…

You are United with Christ

Tuesday, October 24th, 2017

you-are-united-with-Christ

You are united with Christ.

Jesus says, in His high priestly prayer for unity: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity.” John 17:22-23a NASB

Can you imagine the incredible unity that Christ is talking about? He just said that in the same way that God the Father and God the Son are one, so we as believers are to have the same kind of unity. God the Father and God the Son are the same essence. They have one will. They are one in every sense of the word except that they are separate individuals. It’s an internal unity, and it must be possible among believers, or Jesus would not have prayed it.

We see in the early church this kind of unity, where people shared everything with each other and didn’t hoard anything. They broke bread and had fellowship with each other, laughing and crying together in sweet unity. They prayed together and didn’t care about earthly objects, but only about the will of God to be accomplished. This is why they had so much power in the Spirit, because they had no idols. Christ was all in all.

Being united with Christ is what it means to be saved. When you invite Christ into your life, Christ is in you (2 Corinthians 13:5), and you are in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30).

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“But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:17

And if Christ is in each of us, of course we will love each other and have unity in the Spirit because we love Jesus. We see Jesus when we see each other. If this is not happening, perhaps you are around carnal Christians who are not allowing Christ to be their greatest joy. (I estimate that up to 90% of church-goers are not true believers. You cannot see Christ in them at all because He isn’t there.) Out of selfishness, carnal Christians live their lives for themselves. Scripture asks us to examine if we are in the faith, in case we are not actually saved. If Christ is in us, we will be excited about the things of God. It is oxygen and life and feels clean and fresh and beautiful.

A. W. Tozer says: “I will never be through talking about the union of the soul with the Savior, the conscious union of the believer’s heart with Jesus. Remember, I am not talking about a ‘theological union’ only. I am speaking also of a conscious union, a union that is felt and experienced.”

It is not just a theoretical idea that we are united with Christ—He and we are ACTUALLY one. Let that sink in… Wow!

unity-in-Christ

This means that we are also united with Christ in His death and resurrection: “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Romans 6:5 NASB

When we choose to die to sin, we experience resurrection power in our lives as we see impossible things happen—changed lives, answered prayer, bitterness gone, healing from past wounds, etc.

If you want to understand the illustration of the Vine and the branches from John 15 that I explained in the video, I wrote more about that here: Abiding in the Vine.

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!

You are God’s Temple

Saturday, October 21st, 2017

you-are-gods-temple

You are God’s temple. This means that your body is a residence for God! The outside of you is like a church building with stained glass windows. The glory of God inside can hardly be contained, and it shines out the stained glass windows for all to see!

Whatever you are doing with your body, you are doing to Christ’s body, so take care of it! Don’t let anyone damage it. It belongs to Christ. Stand up for yourself and treat your body with dignity.

If someone has harmed your body in the past, ask Christ to heal your soul from that trauma.

Use your body to glorify God:

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NASB

temple: a building devoted to the worship of God.

Is your body devoted to the worship of God? This is connected to being set free—for me it included dancing before the Lord so that I could glorify God by worshiping with my entire body and not just my voice. (See the blog post You are Free to find the Scriptures that tell us to dance before the Lord in worship.)

temple

Keeping our bodies clean from immorality and sin is also obvious if we want to bring glory to God in our bodies.

Jesus has taken residence in our body, and we conform to His death by dying to sin “so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:10)

We use our body to hug a friend who is discouraged, sit with someone at the hospital, become one with our spouse, give birth to children, nurse the children, pick up and hold the children, make a meal for a shut-in, etc. There are so many ways that God can be glorified through our bodies.

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Our bodies–the containers of God Himself—are to be presented to God as a holy sacrifice, a living sacrifice. We are no longer to live for ourselves but for Him:

Romans 12:1 NASB “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

You are God’s temple. The Spirit of the Living God resides inside of you! Just imagine, the Creator of the Universe has taken residence in you, and your body actually contains God!

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!