Welcome to the Church Ministries. We have now passed our two rear point and our hopes and dreams are fulfilled, but in another way you all know how we have communication with the world and we are following the great commission. I am so glad that it worked out this way. You see, if I did not get this affliction, we would probably be serving people downtown instead of following Jesus’s command, of the great commission. People who do not do what Jesus asked in (Matt. 28:18-20), we should all be training disciples of all nations which The Church Ministries is doing. (Mark.16:15-18). You see, the church, with the prayer ministry, is getting out through all the world and the prayer letters are sometimes two to three pages long and mixed with scriptures and the power of God and Christ they are all learning letters to help each person with there own needs, plus the letters add more and people send them to others and family members. Some are kept and filed for future prayer and the responses are full of healings and other wonderful stories. I wish I could print them all, plus I have given permission for eight different countries in the 10/40 window area, which is the area most needed to hear the word and to hear about Jesus! I have also given many ministries and pastors and people all over the world permission to use the sermons and the prayer letters for teaching and for there own people to use, so the writings of The Church Ministries are traveling into the deepest parts of the world just like Jesus asked. If I was working a church/mission downtown we would not be doing what Jesus ordered us to do and for me as a church we should be following Jesus’ last commands which I believe is so important, that is why I use a lot of scriptures and we have to realize that there are 3,000 languages still on this planet that we do not have one word of scripture for them to understand, so our Pastors and Ministers are taking some of these writings into these untouched lands and teaching scripture through translators and some computers now can take a page and print it out in the language that is needed. I am working as hard as I can and I know God is influencing me with the words and subjects. We are not doing anything pre- planned, it is all coming from the influence of Divine Grace. The prayer letters are written everyday, a new one with new subject matter is sent out all over the world. We are up to about ten prayer ministries that we are associated with, plus our own, we have our own prayer request box on our prayer page and that too has been active. So for me, one man, fighting spiritual warfare and this horrible affliction and something else which is even more dangerous, is spiritual abuse. When I first started and still attending school, there was only one website with a about one paragraph on spiritual abuse many years ago, now there is lists, just like any other subject. Spiritual abuse is horrible to put it bluntly, next week I will be doing a teaching on it, but The Holy Spirit can change that. I also wanted to speak about the pearl, the only gem that is alive, which represents the church and is made through suffering in a misty, muddy area in the oyster, way under the deep of the ocean, this has been a major prime directive, but we have a life of eternity to share our views together. I am excited over the developments that have happened to The Church Ministries, we even noticed a web page made to discredit our Church and something like that could only be one of two people; it is very strange, lead by the devil of course. The way it is worded and presented with one page, they bring up the part why there is not any about us? The about us page is there, we only changed the name of the button to my testimony, but the page is still named “about us”. The thing is, I am very proud of my testimony, and how important it is to our Church, but the thing is I know just exactly more and more who this person is to discredit The Church Ministries, and just the way it is spelled, for the most part when I go to any search engine I type in (thechurch) ministries, this way the engine can pick up the “the” so I write it out as one word , remember the church was originally named The Church at Hilo or The Church in Hilo, which they have one of them locally and I have not had a chance to visit them, maybe tomorrow if I feel up to it, so the church as a name is so important, more biblical, because that is the way they named the Churches in the Apostolic times, which we are following the early church with sound doctrine which is the same teaching of the Apostles.
So this web page also has two sections about mini-skirts something not vulgar but just enough to discredit thechurch ministries. There are many search engines that have a breakdown of all the sermons and all the pages, Google was monitoring every sermon and printing the new one by Wednesday or Thursday they do not have that extra line “more from the church ministries” anymore, most of the major search engines are picked up as the church ministries but now when I separated the “the” from the church some of them list it right at number one, but other engines you may never even find it if you did a search, The Church Ministries, but many still have us listed at least on the first page, ranked even one or two, I have some friends out in Texas the Providence Baptist Ministries and I put them on the credits for a few sermons and they put a link on there website for us and now they are listed at times before us as number one just because they are carrying thechurch ministries name. So I would say we are listed number 1 or two on most any engine in the top 20 engines, of the world, which all came from the Lord. We are even listed on pay search engines, this is a blessing from God. Most engines like I said before, have a list under the index page or contact us page, or the awards page, which opens anywhere from 70 to 100 of our 126 page church site. So you can read about each sermon and click on it the only thing is that many that have that opening, they are the older sermons, but you can get them all on the Early services page. We have them all listed in order press the black button of early church services on the index page and there are about 88 of them in all. They are all different with each having about 4 digital pictures of the photography of the area in Hawaii which are so beautiful, lately I have to be truth full, I have been so sick and so weak, that I cannot even go out and take any pictures and I have been going through the old library to post what I have, there are a few that I have doubled up on some of the real nice ones, but we started the pattern and we are sticking to it and are still finding more and more pictures that we have not used.
Well my Brothers and Sisters, maybe when I am healed and we will have that church/ mission, but now I am focusing on doctrine and truth to help so many others that have never even have heard the word or about our loving Jesus Christ that is this Church’s job for now and spreading the word as far as we can into the remotest places on this earth and we pray that our other people friends and parts of the congregation feel the same way we do. God Bless You All! I am getting attacked right now to where I could not read for a half an hour
Today I will be talking about prayer and how important prayer really is,
My vision is to spread the word of God to all the people of the world. I have the ability and God is behind me. My love God is to make him happy and He would be happy if more of the world were educated about the Son Of God. We are working for a spiritual renewal and it can become a reality if others lend a hand. I have a vision and it seems God has implanted it into my mind. I should not be underestimated, even though I am sick and struggling, I need The Lord and I need people who want to spread the love and power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to all parts of the world, especially the areas that other missionaries do not go into. I need locals that speak their language to go into their villages and teach the love of God, The Holy Spirit is with me as the Spirit of God will be with you. I must share this vision with others because The Lord had shown me that I am capable of sending the word of God to the places that need it. I must share it with all and I trust The Holy Spirit to impress you all with the same vision and similar thoughts. I am not there but you all are. I am not the only one working for this vision, God planted this vision into my head and I need all of your help and others to turn it into a reality. I just want to encourage you all so you all get inspired, like I am this way we put team work into action to accomplish Gods goals. I hope you understand I have nothing to gain only to follow Gods direction to advance the Kingdom here on this planet. To give people the Christ and His power His teaching and His love to all those who have not even heard about the gospel or the good news please share my vision, I need your help. I will be praying for you all!
“The two other men went on toward Sodom, but the LORD remained with Abraham for a while. Abraham approached him and said, "Will you destroy both innocent and guilty alike? Suppose you find fifty innocent people there within the city will you still destroy it, and not spare it for their sakes? (Gen.18:22-24) We often wonder does prayer change God’s mind or does prayer change our own minds. In this situation Abraham was speaking to God and he was asking well if there are fifty righteous men will you destroy Sodom and he knew his nephew was there and his family and Abraham didn’t want to see his own blood destroyed along with all the other sinners and he went an asked well if there is forty men that are righteous men will you still destroy Sodom, and he went down each time till he got to ten righteous men, Abraham was wondering about the mercy of God and he knew that God is just and He does what He has to do with sin. Our prayers will not change God’s mind but enough prayer can alter different situations, in this situation we know that God helped Lot and his family out of the city before it was destroyed. It is very complex if you look at the whole situation was God just letting him ramble on and ask about God’s justice and was he trying to plead for a wicked city to save his nephew, Abraham knew God has to do what is right in all situations and God must punish sin. God does not take any pleasure if He has to wipe out sin. God is just and amazing put together and to let Abraham plead away and let him try to intercede for the wicked city. God is both just in His judgments and He is also merciful, what wisdom our God has, that is why we pray to Him to let Him be the judge of the prayer with in itself. When we pray we don’t realize it but it helps us to understand the mind and thoughts and actions of God. We should always be thankful and express our thanks even for the small things that God gives to us, and just look at the mercy alone he has given us all and still is granting us so much mercy, we are still in the flesh and we are still sinners and we sin everyday, and God loves us so much I just hope someday we could just all communicate with everyone and discuss the love and justice and mercy of God. “Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.” (Psalm 4:3) When we have trusted in the Son of God and are believers in Christ, God has already forgiven us and He does listen to us, here in this psalm David knew that the Lord was hearing and listening, you see the godly are those who trust God and are close to Him and devoted to Him and they are also faithful to the God of the universe. We at times seem that God is not listening or He is distant, He is always here and He can always hear us and He wants to listen to us, God does not listen to sinners and people that do wrong, He is faithful and just when we approach Him asking forgiveness. Remember he stays clear of sin not the person at times doing the sin, He understands the human thinking and that is the mercy that is about Him. We all fall short at times but Christ has placed a plank across the broken bridge that lets us come to the throne of grace and we as children should always be in deep thankfulness that our Jesus sacrificed His own life so we can just be able to communicate to God. What a team the Father and the Son. Remember when God answers prayer He does answer in His timing and in His own format and sometimes the answers are not the answers that we are expecting, you see God knows so much more then us, and it is hard to explain how we can look at what God is thinking with His mind and in His light and power, we all have problems but we have to see them through the same window God looks through and sometimes the window we are looking through is either dusty or the reflection is altered or just the widow itself has a shadow that God can see through but we can’t. God does answer our prayers and He hears them, don’t think that he doesn’t but we just don’t think and know the plan that God has for us, He knows our future and we should just trust Him and say my life is in your hands Lord. You are the driver and You are destination. We have to just let go and let God. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb. 4:14-16) We all by now understand the authority Jesus has over all the priests and the priesthood, and He is far more superior to any priest of all time. We also know that only the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies in the temple once a year to make an atonement for the sins of the whole nation, we learned all of this in Sunday school if not it is in the book of Leviticus chapter 16. But Jesus is even more higher then we realize, Jesus acts like a go between or a referee or a umpire and He intervenes and intercedes between God and all of us, He represents all of humanity which is also an added value because Jesus has experienced everything that we have experienced, He has been tempted like we have, He understands our weaknesses, He has lived like we have lived and He knows how people think and the games people play and how cruel humanity can really be, He understands the corruption, the lies the lust for power and the lust of the flesh, He is like our Lawyer and it is the best lawyer we could have in the world and He can sympathize with us. You see Jesus is always at God’s right hand and he is our negotiator and he is the best for us and He too is always available to hear us when we pray. So do you see how intense of a team we have when we pray and we have such a great understanding team helping each one of us, it is like we have the judge and the Lawyer both with complete understanding of the whole world able to listen and understand and answer our prayers, some people just don’t realize the value and how powerful prayer can be, that is why satan is like the other lawyer and he is the accuser he is the one constantly saying evil about each and everyone of us it is like a court room in heaven every time someone says a prayer. Some people just think praying is just a way to get out of trouble, or people pray when there life is on the line, prayer is so complex but is so simple and easy and it is the whole source to the life of a Christian, and we have so many advantages on our side we just don’t realize it. Prayer is so important it does more then asking for things prayer gives us strength and understanding and like I said before prayer makes us understand the Father and the Son even better, so that is why we should be always praying always trying to communicate and share and better our lives, prayer is awesome. Prayer is the way we approach God and the main thing is we should come with confidence, some Christians have there head down and coming to God in fear and unsure about themselves and there own prayer, we have to have respect but we should have some boldness, some people start to pray and they are just not with it they are not serious and there prayers with that type of attitude will be hard to judge just because of your seriousness we have to be very solemn and serious, it does make a big difference on how we approach God. I just hope I have made myself clear enough on how important praying can be and the benefits behind the scenes not just getting the prayer answered, it is what we have learned and experienced in the process. Remember to be bold but come with respect you are talking to the King of Kings, but He also is your friend and also your counselor. “Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.” (Gen. 25:21) We see that Isaac prayed to God and Isaac really wanted children, even the bible itself tells us to pray in a way that is very close and very special and personal and even the most delicate to the most important requests. God wants to help us and He wants to hear from us and most important He wants us to ask, He wants us to ask for things that maybe are so far to reach or so impossible, He still wants us to ask, remember we are not going to ask God for a Porsche. God has so many reasons for His timing of answered prayer, it all depends He might want us to fully analyze what we really need or if we need it at all, in other words He is educating us while we wait, as we study why we are waiting to develop a contrast or a deepening of insight for the things that we really need or don’t need. Waiting expands our gratitude when we do receive an answer, and also gives time for us to grow so when we receive His gifts we become more thankful, understanding and have more wisdom as we use them. There is so much to prayer about answering and asking and timing that people just don’t see, prayer is so powerful, that is what makes the Christian, his or her prayer life. Prayer makes us more relaxed, less stressful, settles or emotions and leave us open to listen. One of the greatest prayer warriors was asked well how do you pray, and they said I listen, and then they were asked well what do you pray for, they answered back and said I listen more. I am sorry I got carried away again, sometimes I write just a simple response and want to say I will be praying and then the Holy Spirit just keeps me typing away, my prayers are with you, and my hopes and dreams and faith for an answer will come as we wait upon the Lord, He knows what is best for us all, and everything He gives and does or fixes is always perfect.
“But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" (Ex 17:3 NIV) I started with this scripture because we all know how we ourselves get and we know when we want something we want it now, it is like people that don’t even want to send away for a particular item and they will go through stores to see if they can get that exact thing today, people are generally impatient and it takes a long time for some to develop patience, some just normally have it, and some grew up with it. The scene takes place in Rephidim after leaving the Wilderness of sin and that lies in between Elim and Sinai in (Ex.Chapter 16) This was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed, the southern extremity of the Sinitic Peninsula, where the Lord took care of the Israelites with manna and an abundance of quail, now they get to another camp in Rephidim situated in the Wady Feiran, near its junction with the Wady esh-Sheikh. And then they started complaining that there wasn’t any water and the people of Israel were getting just out of hand and here Moses has taken all of these millions of people on such a long haul and they are camped out in this particular area and still these people showed no thankfulness, in fact they were about to stone Moses, and Moses prayed out to God. “ But tormented by thirst, they continued to complain, "Why did you ever take us out of Egypt? Why did you bring us here? We, our children, and our livestock will all die!" Then Moses pleaded with the LORD, "What should I do with these people? They are about to stone me!" (Ex. 17: 3-4 NLT)
The LORD said to Moses, "Take your shepherd's staff, the one you used when you struck the water of the Nile. Then call some of the leaders of Israel and walk on ahead of the people. I will meet you by the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come pouring out. Then the people will be able to drink." Moses did just as he was told; and as the leaders looked on, water gushed out.
Moses named the place Massah "the place of testing" and Meribah "the place of arguing" because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD going to take care of us or not?"
Time and time again these people complained about this and that instead of praying, people need to understand that prayer can do a lot more for the human soul and the emotional and physical parts of man and women, then complaining. We all know that many problems can be solved if we just take a minute and analyze the situation, I had a friend that prayed before he did anything, I went up to him one day and his car stereo was all over the place and he just looked at me and said you see what happens when I don’t pray before I try to do something, that was along time ago and I learned a lot from him and he saved my life more than once. That was another gift from the Lord to change my whole outlook on the future, that is how I got familiar with the mission and gave me all the education and ideas back then, and they stuck with me, that is why I came to this place to start a church/mission and this town needs one more than any town in much of the US, and if you know me by any of my previous prayers or have read any of the churches sermons you know I have been around. That is why the devil struck me with this affliction to stop probably the most important building on the whole eastern side of the Big Island of Hawaii. We know most problems like I said before if we just think and stop to analyze things or regroup or reorganize the situation, some problems can be solved by just talking them over with a friend or someone that has knowledge in the particular field. I would like to say that some problems can be solved by prayer, people just in general don’t think about prayer, Christians do, they know God is the master of all things, so before we get upset or start to complain we should pray, it just makes things worse when people are complaining because it causes more stress to the situation. Remember we are to listen to God and while we are praying we become more relaxed and we can think better and we become just a bit more calmer for any situation.
“Master, GOD! Oh, please, look on me again, Oh, please, give strength yet once more. God! With one avenging blow let me be avenged On the Philistines for my two eyes!” (Jud. 16:28 NLT) This was a heavy prayer some of us know the story and Samson, he did sin and he was really hoping God would listen to is prayer, God does not want to listen to sinners and yet God hears the cry’s of people and they may have been sinful but the Lord is just and merciful and understanding. So even God new of Samson’s past and yet the Lord wanted to help him on this last and final request and the end of Samson’s life too. God still loved Samson and God heard his prayer of affirmation and it was the kind of a prayer of truth and repentance. The Philistines cut out Samson’s eyes and made him a slave grinding grain having him walking in a circle he didn’t have the strength he had because they cut his hair and lost his power, he feel into the clutches of Delilah and fell into temptation of her for the forth time, he was just dazzled over her and he lost his sense of reality. One of the things about sin it does keep us from praying and sometimes we don’t notice the effects until it is to late, that is why we must always be close to God even with small prayers because we never know what lies ahead. Even if we are doing good things all day long we should still be in prayer, good deeds does not equal prayer, prayer is our relationship to God that always must remain open. Plus don’t let sin make you feel so guilty that it stops you from praying, prayer is so important, and what I have learned is it is a sin “not to pray”, and there are some days that I forget and don’t pray like I should and that is the most important thing in our lives, our communication with God our fellowship our understanding is the life of a Christian, and the more and more we pray the closer we become to God. God made us and He wants to hear from us. Prayer restores us and replenishes our heart and our strength, remember Jesus how he would go off for hours as the disciples would wait and wonder when Jesus would come around back to them. Prayer is power, and prayer gives happiness to God. No matter how long you have been distant from God and prayer, God is always willing to hear you and forgive you and welcome you back into the fold. Any situation in this life can be fixed if we are willing to turn back to our God and He will help you with regaining the relationship back together. If God could work things out with Samson and his situation God can certainly make full grace out of your life and build once again something that is meaningful for your future. Samson did end knocking down the temple and they say that his hair grew back and the Philistines just forgot that his hair being long again would give him the strength, but I believe with that prayer that Samson prayed God gave him the strength to knock down that whole area of the temple. “Then Samson reached out to the two central pillars that held up the building and pushed against them, one with his right arm, the other with his left. Saying, "Let me die with the Philistines," Samson pushed hard with all his might. The building crashed on the tyrants and all the people in it. He killed more people in his death than he had killed in his life.” (Ex. 16:29-30)
“There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.” (Ezra 8:21) I added this scripture in today because the man Ezra meaning “help” relied totally on God, prayer and the word, he knew the word so well he was a fine teacher. Ezra was a praying man and he had to take about 2000 men and their families and all kinds of gold and silver across 900 miles of hard terrain on foot no less, the trip took about 4 months through all kinds of danger and difficulties, Ezra was into fasting and he was very into God and without the thinking of food you can concentrate more on God, and the brain functions more and effectively and your spiritual level goes higher, you see when you eat all the blood goes to your stomach to digest the food and when your trying to keep in prayer and concentration food makes a bit of a limitation on your spiritual availability. He was totally dependent on God for this journey and the thing is he wanted everyone else to think and act with safety in their minds the whole time too, before we take any journey we should always get as close to God as we can for guidance and safety. He also made it clear to everyone else that they were not strong enough to make this journey without God, so the people themselves had a total leaning on God to help them with every need for this whole adventure, Ezra was making spiritual preparations even before any physical preparations, their prayers and their fasting showed God that they were giving total reliance to Him, you see that is the secret to all traveling or planning for a trip when we put God first even before we start putting things into a suitcase, we are defiantly preparing in the proper way, God first then everything else is second that is the secret to a successful journey to anywhere even to go to the corner store, that is the thing that we are all beginning to understand even before we put the key into the ignition of a car we have to acknowledge God in prayer, as the source of our safety and dependence, guidance, and direction, that is the key and I am saying that with multiple meanings. Some people forget about serious prayer some people have never even thought about real serious prayer and fasting together, there are a lot that do too, remember serious prayer requires concentration so when we are humbling ourselves by fasting remember we concentrate better because we have no food in our system and the blood will not be in our bellies but in our brains for the ultimate degree of concentration, it is like remember your mother telling you don’t eat a big breakfast before a big exam or taking your SAT’s it all makes sense, even scientifically, besides humbling ourselves we can concentrate more and we can put more thought on God then on food, we also have to remember when you eat a big meal it makes you naturally sleepy, especially eating turkey on Thanksgiving. Being hungry for instance can let you know within your mind that you are depending on God, more than if you are eating normally, also fasting can give us more time to pray and be in the presence of God, especially with a vast number of people the time it takes to set up and clean up feeding so many people does make a big difference. Again I would like to say that serious prayer puts us more in touch with God as we get closer, it seems at times when you really get down to praying and it takes a while to get to that point to where you know you are in the presence of God, you can feel the warmth all around you and some of us even start shedding tears, at least I do, because my tears are tears of joy and my system seems to feel the love of God and of course my body just tears away when I really feel the closeness of the God of the universe, there is a change and a feeling that is hard to describe sometimes I want to stay in God’s presence because of the peace and the feeling of a closeness of joy without being happy, it is just a good feeling, that is when you really get serious and pray for long periods of time and then you can here the whispers and almost can here God talking very plainly in different spurts, it is like we are just falling into the will of God and that can make changes in our appearance and in how we feel and our attitudes are calmer and more relaxed it is almost like you are sharing the pure love of God. Without serious prayer our prayers become like taking a pill for any type of ailment and we are actually reducing the true effect of God and the feelings He sends to us.
Dear Heavenly Father, First of all I would like to thank you for giving me affliction otherwise I would now be handing out soup to the wayward people of Hilo, but You changed all of that, now we are following the great commission with a world wide assembly and the vision I have been seeing is the words that you give me to type and write are being passed around in the places it can do the most good, we are using our own people to bring the Word to there own congregations, and they are bringing the word into uncharted territory and it is easy for the people who grew up there, just like it would be easy for me to walk around the lower east side and 42nd street and in greenish village, I didn’t grow up there as you know Lord but you made it so easy for me to go to Manhattan, so even when I was 16 I was getting into mischief and only a few of us were traveling into N.Y to get the excitement we wanted but we were learning. And the rest of the class was different, we were changing but everyone else was staying the same. We lived in a suburb in New Jersey and I thank you for that, because we went to a regular school with regular people, and I just want to pray and say thanks for everything you have done for me and this church, this church has been built by You and Your Son Jesus and we are being directed by the Holy Spirit, I know now what you are doing with me, and I also know what you want from this church. I never would have been able to right prayers everyday and send them out for so long if I wasn’t sick and there are many days I am in so much pain I can’t do anything, and that is everyday from the morning till about late afternoon. You have been a spectacular God and now that I look back on everything you have been training me for more communication with You and with more prayer in everything I do, I have been adapting to what You want me to do, all I ask is the rest of the congregation help me with the movement of the prayer letters and the sermons, of course today the sermon will be on prayer and I know Lord this is one of Your most important subjects, I am sorry it took so long for me to realize what You wanted me to do, and I am deeply sorry. All we should do now is worship You and give you a big thank You for helping us and our lives, and none of this would even be possible if it wasn’t for the suffering and pain and the death and resurrection or your Son Jesus, we all love Jesus and we Love You and please forgive us of all our sins and please have the Holy Spirit guide us and help us and anoint us this day, or any day someone is reading or hearing this prayer, we all need a fresh start and we need our slates wiped clean so we can follow the orders of Jesus and continue to help all people around the globe, the stuff that comes out of here and this computer is amazing but God You gave us everything and the library and the reference books and God all the bibles I can’t thank You enough, what a blessing, I wish I could whip out the guitar and start playing some praise music , but we are to concentrate on one thing at a time. Thank you Lord and thank You for my disabilities and I just want to say I know You will heal me and what ever I get diagnosed with You will heal me, but these 21 months had made me think, I don’t watch TV like other people I have a library of Christian videos and they always help when I need to talk to You, it is more life like when I can here and see Jesus in the films I feel so close to Him during those times. My study habits have shifted to the evening, I am in to much pain and confusion in the mornings, it is a horrible felling every morning Lord, but I can tell that You have been helping, Thank You Father and Thank You Jesus and Thank You Holy Spirit. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Early the following spring,during the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes' reign, I was serving the king his wine. I had never appeared sad in his presence before this time. So the king asked me, "Why are you so sad? You aren't sick, are you? You look like a man with deep troubles." Then I was badly frightened, but I replied, "Long live the king! Why shouldn't I be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and the gates have been burned down." The king asked, "Well, how can I help you?" With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, "If it please Your Majesty and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried." The king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked, "How long will you be gone? When will you return?" So the king agreed, and I set a date for my departure. I also said to the king, "If it please Your Majesty, give me letters to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, instructing them to let me travel safely through their territories on my way to Judah. 8And please send a letter to Asaph, the manager of the king's forest, instructing him to give me timber. I will need it to make beams for the gates of the Temple fortress, for the city walls, and for a house for myself." And the king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me. When I came to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, I delivered the king's letters to them. The king, I should add, had sent along army officers and horsemen to protect me. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of my arrival, they were very angry that someone had come who was interested in helping Israel. Nehemiah 2:1-10 NLT
Nehemiah was defiantly a praying man he prayed a lot through the whole book of Nehemiah he had a vision somewhat like I have to spread the gospel, his vision was to reconstruct the temple and that was his job in the scripture above he is asking the King if he could leave what he was doing and to head over to Judah and start on rebuilding the temple, He was well used and he held responsible position in the Persian government, and gave it up to do what God wanted. He found out that the walls were falling apart and that the gate was set on fire. As soon as he arrived in Jerusalem everyone knew who he was and he was the head honcho, and Nehemiah was a man of action he just didn’t sit back and say well we could do this or we could do that. He organized , and managed , supervised and even encouraged the men, that is one of the most important aspects of building anything by encouragement while building, people want to here they are doing well and this way the people that are helping even want to do more, did you ever work for someone that never said one positive action? Well I think we all have and we probably don’t work for that person any more. But let us roll back here Nehemiah always prayed and he was always talking to God. Nehemiah was a type of man that prayed even while he was having a conversation with someone else. He was truly a man of God. Nehemiah could pray all day, and the thing is with him and God he established a relationship an intimate one because he always prayed and talked to God with full extended prayers. The thing is he knew God was always there and he knew he was always listening what a relationship that is another reason we chose Nehemiah for this part of our prayer sermon, he was a man that knew with out a doubt that God hears and answers every prayer. Amazing isn’t it, I would say, just imagine to be for sure that you have built up such a close friendship way beyond just simple prayers, he and God new each other. The thing is if we want to reach God with emergency prayers we have to have already built a substantial relationship, so if you need at time answers to prayers my advice to you would be start an intimate relationship with God right now, drop what you are doing and sit back and talk to God till you feel the warmth and the tears, that I mentioned earlier in the past paragraphs, I mead not everyone is going to tear and feel the warmth, other people will feel other things when they really get down to a beautiful relationship.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matt. 6:7-8 NIV
We know back then the religious leaders wanted to be respected for their great prayers, the thing is they were not addressing God, but more like putting on a show for people to see them as if they were holy and they wanted other people to respect them and their prayers, when you pray publicly you are bring attention to yourself which is an act of self righteousness. Jesus was more into private prayer. Remember the story in Luke 18-“
“Then Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else: "Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: `I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don't sin, I don't commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, `O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.' I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored." (Luke 18:9-14 NLT)
"I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:14 NASB)
Jesus Always mentioned praying in secret I mean there really isn’t any reason to pray publicly except the opening prayer before church which I have seen many of a church take turns saying the opening prayer, it doesn’t always have to be the pastor, and there are other reasons you could be with in a group and everyone is praying together and they all are saying different things like for instance the 120 in the upper room in Jerusalem just before the Holy Spirit came and that is when Peter stood up and read something out of book of psalms 109:8 to replace Judas and they had to pick from two men Justus and Mathias to be the 12th apostle, that was a public style prayer, plus the fact when someone stands up within the group it may be a voice from the Lord of some sort of vision or some type of warning or even some type of edification or Prophecy. There was a time when I was in school we had a teacher that picked people at random to say the opening class prayer, and to tell you the truth I didn’t enjoy those days at all I remember driving to school and it was that day that teacher was going to be there and my palms would start sweating on the steering wheel even before I got to school, the point is I was never relaxed enough to just let the Holy Spirit say the prayer or just let my mind relax and let the Spirit pray, everyone was all nervous and everyone stuttered and everyone kind of stopped in the middle of the prayer because they didn’t know what to say next, again I was surrounded by many want –to –be – Christians and that made it even harder, I didn’t even feel comfortable in that particular class even when the random choice was over. I remember the looks on peoples faces and the smirks on there faces if you messed up but the thing is was who were you presenting the prayer to, it was to God not the classroom, even though they were your judges and everyone was generally nervous, it was a class I would just like to forget. Anyway I don’t think Jesus liked public prayer but he himself did both, the time He prayed feeding the 5,000 and he had to lift up the fish and the bread and pray to God to make the food multiply
When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, "This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" They said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." And He said, "Bring them here to Me." Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children. (Matt. 14:15-21NASB)
Then after that he sent the disciples on the boat to go across the lake and he sent everyone home and He went away and prayed by himself.
Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. (Matt. 14: 22-23 NASB)
In conclusion the essence of prayer to the Father is really not meant to be public but a private communication between you and the Father, There is a place for public prayer, but the thing is which is well thought, some people pray only to be noticed by others which is a plane indication that your real audience is not God. Even this simple scripture when we brought out the prayer in the book of Luke with the Pharisee and the tax collector, we are at a point I would just like to right now slip into my prayer closet and talk to God alone.
We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; (Col. 1:3-6 NASB)
We have a nice list compiled by the Apostle Paul for praying for others when you don’t know them, Paul had never met the Colossians but he did pray for them with complete care and honor. We at The Church Ministries sends out prayers everyday and we never know any of the people but there has been quite a few relationships that we have now with people across the globe, and some of them are very important to our quest to pass on the prayers and the sermons if need be, there is one pastor he has a congregation of a 150 and on Wednesday night he teaches the children and even he got attacked and was in a car accident, and all of the children were sending prayers to me it was touching, but he uses the churches writings for his Wednesday class which makes me feel good. Anyway let us get back to the list remember sometimes we don’t know how to pray for lets say missionaries and all kinds of other ministers, pastors, chaplains, and leaders we never met, I don’t know why I am putting up the list anyway basically you follow the Spirit and then the Spirit helps you , but I liked the list anyway first we can request that they understand the will of God which most people do, next is to always try and seek that extra spiritual wisdom which we all need and cherish, next we should always try to please God, then we are to always to honor God, which many of us all do anyway so it is not hard to communicate to people you never meet, we are dealing with a general love and compassion list, next we should always mention about bearing good fruit and lots growing, next we are always growing in the knowledge of God, when we read a simple scripture at times I know I do I grow with it and I meditate on it, there are some beautiful scriptures that we should all memorize, through prayer we should always be filled with the strength of God. We should carry perseverance, fortitude, endurance, serenity, stamina, determination, and patience. We should always be filled or be joyful in our Lord Jesus, knowing He can do anything for our lives and we don’t need anything else but Jesus. Next we are to be thankful and always giving thanks to God and to man or woman. As we look over our list we could add maybe a few more but these are the basic Christian needs, so think about these qualities in others and then we naturally know how to pray for anyone.
Joshua and the leaders of Israel tore their clothing in dismay, threw dust on their heads, and bowed down facing the Ark of the LORD until evening. Then Joshua cried out, "Sovereign LORD, why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side! Lord, what am I to say, now that Israel has fled from its enemies? For when the Canaanites and all the other people living in the land hear about it, they will surround us and wipe us off the face of the earth. And then what will happen to the honor of your great name?" Josh 7:6-9 NLT
So Joshua had to pray this way to God, Joshua was afraid and confused just like I was 2 weeks ago, Joshua didn’t know what was happening all around him, and Joshua pored out his real thoughts to God. He had to be truthful we can’t go through life hiding our true feelings from God, it is like if you are going to hide things from God it is the same as if you were just ignoring Him, and God is the only one that can help, God wants our true feelings and he wants to hear how we really feel. God knows everything already anyway but sometimes well I should say all the time God wants to hear everything from us, He wants to know if we are afraid and confused and this is al we can do is pray that is what Joshua did and then he finally found the answers. You see after they lost against the small city then they turned to God to find out what happened, they should have turned to God first, even though they thought they would win doesn’t make any difference you need to pray to God before anything. Pray before you do anything, and your life will be a lot simpler.
You see Joshua and his elders tore their clothing and through dust over their heads which is a common ritual of deep mourning before the Lord, his prayer was one of worry because he had no idea of the circumstance, he had no idea that it wasn’t their power that lost this small battle, after just taking Jericho, he didn’t know there was like a curse or a bad apple in the basket that made them loose this battle it was because of a man and a word called greed, they were told not to take anything from Jericho and a man named Achan took Gold that weighed about a pound 200 silver coins and a robe from Babylon bad thing from Jericho so that is why they lost the battle and 36 men died in the process the thing is God could not help them and they had to find the bad apple which caused the defeat, so this man defiled what was told to him and finally Joshua got the news out of him and he had to tell him what he took and where he hid the articles, so they went a retrieved all of the stuff and took them all out the whole family there animals the sons, and daughters the wife, cattle donkeys, sheep, goats and even their tent, the works and stoned them all in a valley called Achor and then set them all in a blaze of fire to get rid of all the sin, this whole story is very heavy but in order for God to help them in the future this is what they had to do.
Then Joshua said to Achan, "Why have you brought trouble on us? The LORD will now bring trouble on you." And all the Israelites stoned Achan and his family and burned their bodies. They piled a great heap of stones over Achan, which remains to this day. That is why the place has been called the Valley of Trouble ever since. So the LORD was no longer angry. (Jos. 7:25-26 NLT)
Dear Heavenly Father, It has been a long week, I found a medical worker to help me and maybe by Your grace they will find out what is wrong with me. Father I am going to try to keep praying about everything, and I hope the rest of all the pastors and ministers will pass the word. We all need You we need You to help us pass the word about prayer to all the un-chartered places of the world, we need our pastors and ministers and leaders to pass on the word, this week is very meaningful and I can’t thank You enough for all the things You have done for me. Thank You Father for granting me with talents and abilities, than I even know. Sometimes I never find out how far anything travels. Please Father help our congregation spread the good news and then You can help all of us get the word out and share the abilities and our strength throughout the world to give You the glory, to help others understand prayer and Your love and the Love of Christ and what He has done for each of us, I pray this message gets to the inner parts of the unreachable areas of each country, please Father don’t let this work go void, please Lord open everyone’s eyes with the vision that I have to spread the good news, In the Powerful Name, the Name of Jesus, Amen and Amen
