Persistance Brings The Answer

Have you ever been praying about something and can't seem to get an answer?
You have to be persistant in your prayer life. In God's time your answer will come.

Text:Luke 11:5-10 LB

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this illustration: "Suppose you went to a friend's house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You would shout up at him, 'A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit and I've nothing to give him to eat.' He would call down from his bedroom, 'Please don't ask me to get up. The door is locked for the night and we are all in bed. I just can't help you this time.' "But I'll tell you this-though he won't do it as a friend, if you keep knocking long enough he will get up and give you everything you want-just because of your persistance. And so it is with prayer-keep on asking and you will keep on getting; keep on looking and you will keep on finding; knock and the door will be opened. Everyone who asks, recieves; all who seek, find; and the door is opened to everyone who knocks."

 Persistance and the refusal to give up brings the answer. You just have to have faith. Faith can move mountains in your life. Sometimes you have to do something in order to release your faith for your miracle that you need from God. Sometimes it takes a "prove-me offering", or fasting and prayer.

Two frogs fell into a bucket of cream. One frog decided to except his fate, so he gave up, and drowned. The other frog kept on kicking until he made butter out of the cream and he was able to jump out.

Which frog are you? Are you the one who keeps on kicking? Or are you still in the bucket? The bucket can be your circumstances. In the natural world you have no way out of your situation. The only place that you can go is up, to get out of the top of the bucket. When you look up, God is there. The Bible says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us out of them all."

Here is another example found in Luke 18:1-8 LB:

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must keep praying until the answer comes. "There was a city judge," he said, "a very godless man who had great contempt for everyone. A widow of that city came to him frequently to appeal for justice against a man who had harmed her. The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually she got on his nerves. "'I fear neither God nor man,' he said to himself, 'but this woman bothers me. I'm going to see that she gets justice, for she is wearing me out with her constant coming!'" Then the Lord said, "If even an evil judge can be worn down like that, don't you think that God will surely give justice to his people who plead with him day and night? Yes! He will answer them quickly! But the question is: When I the Messiah, return, how many will I find who have faith [and are praying]?"

Prayer Request From Jesus

Prayer Request from Jesus, for the church.

I was reading the Bible the other day, and these scriptures jumped out at me.

Text: Matt. 9:36-38

Matt. 9:36 KJV

36. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

First of all, you have to have compassion for people. Jesus had compassion, and he took the role of leadership over the people.

It takes the love of God to win souls for His kingdom. You have to have a heartbeat for souls. If you don't have the desire, pray for it. Ask God for His Heartbeat for souls.

Verse 37-38

37. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous; but the labourers are few;

38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that we will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Our prayers must be for a harvest of souls, as well as labourers to reap the harvest. We have plenty of opportunities to pray for people to be saved. There isn't any shortage there!

We all have unsaved loved ones. Sometimes you have to pray for someone to come into their lives to lead them to the Lord. There are people who can have more effect on someone, because sometimes we are too close to the situation.

When we pray this prayer, we have to have the willingness to be part of the answer. It involves our willingness to respond to the call of the Lord on our lives.

Not long after Jesus made this prayer request, he commisioned his disciples and sent them as labourers. (Matt. 10:1) The very ones who Jesus commisioned to pray became spirtual harvesters themselves.

Praying this prayer can have a tremendous effect on your life. It is a submission to Him to do His will. When you are walking hand in hand with Him, then that is when you have His peace and Victory in your life. You are most miserable when you aren't in His perfect will.

I challenge you to pray for Jesus' prayer request, and see what He does for you in your life. You have to get on His team. Look at the word, TEAM. There is no I in it.

I feel led to pray for the people who are reading this.
Father, I ask you to move on the people to pray about your prayer request for your church. I ask you to give them a spirit of prayer, and the willingness to be a labourer in your harvest, even if it means they are just a prayer warrior for your kingdom. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

The Joy of Sharing Jesus: You Have a Story to Tell (The Joy of Knowing God, Book 10)

Your Christian Library

Here is a list of books that most Christian Bible Colledges recommend that you have in your Christian Library. You can add to your collection whenever you can.

• Several late translations of the Bible.
• Dake Bible Dake Annotated Reference Bible-KJV
• A Bible Dictionary Zondervan's Compact Bible Dictionary
• A Bible Concordance The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
• Commentaries and Books on Revelations and other timely subjects 
• A Thompson Chain Reference Bible Thompson Chain Reference Bible (KJV, Handy Size, Burgundy Bonded Leather, Red Letter)
• A Book of Synonyms and a large Collegiate Dictionary Trench's Synonyms of the New Testament
• The Aprocryphia and other historical writings The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version
• Copies of the writings of Flavius Josephus The New Complete Works of Josephus
• Books on all subjects by Spirit Filled writers
•  Books on the cults, the occult, and Satanism (again by Spirit-Filled writers)

Holy Altars

Are you giving to God on Holy Altars?

Exodus 29:38-42 KJV

38. Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.

39. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even:

40. And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering.

41. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

42. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.

The Burnt Offering represents total surrender to God. The Hebrew word for Burnt Offering is "Olah", and it means "that which ascends." The offerings, the priests, (the sons of Aaron) and the altar were consecrated and set apart as Holy.

The word altar is translated from the Hebrew word, "mizbeach". It signifies a raised place where a sacrifice was made. Old Testament saints built altars unto God to commemorate whenever God appeared to them, or they received a revelation or made a vow.

The offering was totally consumed by fire on the altar in the Temple by the priests. The fire on the altar was not a natural fire, it came from God.

Lev. 9:23-24

23. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.

24. And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

Through the blood of Jesus, we are sanctified and made holy unto God today. The tithes and offerings are Holy, and the altar must be Holy also. The ministry and the Church must be Holy also. When the offering was accepted, the fire came out from before the Lord. That was a sign that the offering was accepted. We don't do these kind of offerings anymore due to Jesus Christ being our sacrifice. We give ministries money today instead of sacrificing animals, and giving crops.

Tithing is not an option. It was commanded in The Law of Moses, and Jesus himself said that we should pay tithes. You have an option though. If you have to redeem your tithe money for something else, you pay interest of 20% on what you owe when you settle up with the Lord. See Lev. 27:31. The Bible says to add a fifth part to your tithe.

I recently read a book about this subject, and was wondering where people where getting the 20% interest. If your tithe is the tenth of your income, wouldn't a fifth part be 5% more? I looked it up in my Dake Bible also. Dake Annotated Reference Bible-KJV-Large Print [B-KJ-DAB BLK RL LP] [LARGE PRINT] It said the same thing. I prayed about it, and then the understanding came to me. The tithe is 10%, you add another 5% to the tithe, and the fine is 5% for not paying your tithe and using it for something else.

Just be sure that you do settle up with the Lord if you do this. You don't want to interrupt the flow of God's blessings on your life. If you use your tithe money for something else, your money and the thing that it used it for becomes cursed. I didn't make this up, I am telling you what the Bible says about it.  


Are your offerings acceptable unto God? Are you giving on Holy altars? Is the ministry that you give to, winning souls for God? Do they pray for the needs of the people? Do they let the Holy Ghost lead them in their ministry? Do they subject themselves to be under the correction of the Holy Spirit? Are you totally surrendered unto God? If you said no to any of the above questions, it may cause your flow of blessings from God to be blocked. Ask God to direct you to the ministry that has a clean and Holy altar.

A Psalm For Any Situation

Psalms 91

1.  He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2.  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

3.  Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

4.  He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings shall you trust: his truth shall be your shield and buckler.

5.  You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day;

6.  Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7.  A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.

8.  Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9.  Because you have made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, your habitation;

10.  There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.

11.  For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.

12.  They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

13.  You shall tread on the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet.

14.  Because he has set his love on me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he has known my name.

15.  He shall call on me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.

16.  With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.

I have been having a lot of requests for prayer for fear and depression. I felt led of the Lord to post this Psalm tonight for someone that needs it. I read this Psalm almost every day. If you are suffering from fear, depression, challenges, problems, negative circumstances, or sickness, this Psalm is for you.

This Psalm reveals that there is a secret place of relationship with God where you can experience continual provision and protection from God. The "secret place" is an intimate place of personal relationship with God. He will draw nigh to you if you draw nigh to him.

You must first believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be able to come into the secret place. In the secret place, there is total openness and intimacy with the Lord. The place where you have it isn't the issue; it is the relationship that you have with Him.

This doesn't mean that you will be immune from trouble, or any challenges in the secret place. We all face the same devil, demons, and snares, but God will keep you from the fear of these things. They won't come nigh your secret place-no matter what happens, it will not hurt your relationship with God.

The Shepherd Trilogy: A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm / A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd / A Shepherd Looks at the Lamb of God

The Vision of Ezekial

I read this the other day, and looked up some more scriptures and it blessed me so much, that I decided to share it with you. In Ezekial 47, God gave him a vision of a river of living water flowing out of the temple of God.

Ezekial 47:9 KJV

"And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh"

Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Ezekial saw a divine flow of the Holy Spirit that is being released from the throne of Almighty God. That river is alive with God's awesome power! Everywhere the river flows, it brings life and healing. That same river will release the power of God into your body to heal and set you free from whatever sickness or desease that you have. This river has the life and spirit of Almighty God in it.

John 7:37-39 KJV

"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)"

Everything Ezekial saw was the flow of the Holy Spirit which God was going to send forth into the world. From the river of God, you can receive salvation, healing, deliverance, miracles, or anything else that you need, from salvation from your sins to raising you from spiritual death unto life. The same God that will heal you of all your diseases.  The same God that brought the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage is the same God Who has placed His Spirit within you.

Psalm 103:2-3

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases"

See also Romans 8:11, John 4:14 . If you have a need, get into the river that flows from the throne of God. This is a powerful truth, let it sink into your spirit. Claim God's deliverance in your life. Read the whole vision in Ezekial 47.

God's Covenant Based on Offerings

Deut. 15:4-5 Listen to God and obey his commandments.
Deut. 7:12-14 God promises to bless and multiply them.
Deut. 7:15 God promises to take away all sickness.
Deut. 11:23, 24  God promised to drive out all nations from before them. He gave them every place where the souls of their feet tread.

The main conditions of these blessings were based on following the commandments of offerings. When it was time to do offerings, they were not a solemn time, but a time of great rejoicing before the Lord with their families and servants. This really got me to thinking, and now when I start to give an offering, I thank God and praise Him for what he has done for me, holding my offering in my hand before I give to him. Sometimes, after I praise Him, then I tell Him my needs, and then thank Him again for the answers. 

Back then, it cost them a lot of money to bring one of their animals to the temple. In the book of Lev. it gives strict instructions to the people and to the sons of Aaron, the priests. The ram or bullock was to be brought to the temple in the presence of God. They were to lay their hands on the animal's head, and then they killed the animal before God. The priests did the rest of the work.

The reason they laid their hands on the animal's head is because the animal was taking their place on the altar. Jesus's death on the cross fulfilled the offerings, and we don't have to do that anymore. We give our money now in an offering to God. It represents us.

Something else about offerings that I have learned, is that when God speaks to me to give a certain amount, then I know that he has a harvest in mind. There are some seeds that you can plant where you don't see a harvest right away. But when God speaks to you to give, He has something in store for you. There are also times when you can give an offering to Prove God, as it says in Mal. 3:8.

Targeted Offerings are offerings that you give like a vow to the Lord, to get your needs met. For example, if I need a miracle in my finances, I pledge a certain amount until I pay it off.  In my own personal experience, I have found that when I make a pledge to a ministry for a certain amount, as I pay it off, God moves for me. The payoff of the pledge is my point of contact to get my needs met. A word of warning however. Don't ever make a vow to God that you can't keep. He holds you accountable for it. The Bible tells us of a vow that Jacob made to God. He vowed to give God a tenth of whatever he blessed him with.

One time, years ago, I made a pledge of a $1000.00 to a ministry, and forgot about it. The Holy Spirit brought it back to my memory, and I had to pay it. I asked God to forgive me for not paying it.