The Holy Spirit Prays and Listens Within Us

When we have received the Spirit of Jesus as the breath of God breathing within us - that Spirit creates in us a sacred space where the other can be received and listened to.  The Spirit of Jesus prays in us and listens in us to all who come to us with their sufferings and pains.
-- Henri Nouwen

Lord, don't let me forget that Your Holy Spirit prays and listens within me.
Grateful

Holy Spirit Possession

Judges 6:34 (NLT) "Then the Spirit of the Lord took possession of Gideon. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him."

Grateful

TOO MUCH

"And this hope will not lead to disappointment.
For we know how dearly God loves us,
because he has given us the Holy Spirit
to fill our hearts with his love."
-- Romans 5:5 (NLT)

My Prayer Response to Romans 5:5:

Abba Father, You have loved me TOO MUCH,
because that's what I most desperately needed.
You have given to me Your Precious Holy Spirit.
In so doing, You have filled my heart with Your Love.

Lord, I want to truly Love You back, through
Your Holy Spirit, Whom You have poured within me.
Regardless, of my feelings, please continue to fill me
with Your Presence and The Purity of Your Perfect Love.

In the Name of Jesus, my Hope. Amen.

Grateful

Prayer Over a Friend

I prayed this prayer over a friend this morning. Please allow me now to pray it over you, too:

"Lord, help my friend to remain focused on You as his/her Helper and Comforter in the struggles he/she is straining at. Give him/her permission to pull the oars in the boat and trust the whispering winds of Your trustworthy Holy Spirit to direct his/her journey totally. Most of all remind him/her often of Your Love, Yes Your amazing Love towards him/her. God be in his/her head. Keep the enemy far away from him/her and his/her family. In Jesus' name. Amen and Amen."

Grateful

Proof We Belong Exclusively to God

God's love for us is not proof that we belong exclusively to Him.

Only God's presence living in us is proof we are exclusively His.

 

Click here: I Belong - Kathryn Scott - YouTube

Lord, Your Holy Spirit's Presence within us, guarantees we are Yours.

Grateful

Holy Proof

There's only one proof of the Holy Spirit in your life and that's a holy life. -- Leonard Ravenhill

 

Scripture says, “Be holy, because I am holy.”

-- 1 Peter 1:16 (GWT)

 

Holiness Unto The LORD!

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Your Only Son and Your Holy Spirit

Thank You, Father God, for giving to us...
...Your Only Son and
...Your Holy Spirit.

God loved the world this way: He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not die but will have eternal life.
-- John 3:16 (GWT)

So how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
-- Luke 11:13b (GWT)

Father, You are Faithful and Your children are...
...Grateful.

What God Is Tired Of

You have abandoned me and turned your back on me,” says the Lord. “Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you. I am tired of always giving you another chance.
-- Jeremiah 15:6 (NLT)

I am tired of showing mercy.
-- Jeremiah 15:6 (CEV)

Father God, You gave Your one and only Son to die for us. We want to be made willing to live for You. Please, Holy Spirit, help us to be wholehearted God-worshippers and dye-in-the-wool despisers of sin. Jesus, we want to obey Your words, yes, Your spoken desires, when after defending the woman caught in adultery, in love You said to her, "Go and sin no more." Amen.

(1) Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, (2) but early the next morning He was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and He sat down and taught them. (3) As He was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. (4) “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. (5) The law of Moses says to stone her. What do You say?” (6) They were trying to trap Him into saying something they could use against Him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with His finger. (7) They kept demanding an answer, so He stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” (8) Then He stooped down again and wrote in the dust. (9) When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. (10) Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” (11) “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
-- John 8:1-11 (NLT)

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

A Saving Passion For Sanctified People

The Holy Spirit cannot conquer the world with unbelief, nor can He save the world with a worldly Church. He calls for a crusade, a campaign, and an adventure of saving passion. For this enterprise He wants a separated, sanctified and sacrificial people.
-- Rev. Samuel Chadwick

Lord, I want to be in this world but not of this world. Yes, by faith, please include me in the adventure of Your saving passion. Make me (by the indwelling presence of Your Holy Spirit) to be a separated, sanctified, and sacrificial saint for Your glory, that is, make me exclusively Yours. In the Name of Jesus, I ask these things. Amen.

High Priestly Prayer of Jesus to the Father for His Disciples:
(15) My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. (16) They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. (17) Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. (18) As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. (19) For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. -- John 17:15-19 (NIV)

By Faith! In Faith! (Hebrews 11)
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Revival Lifestyle

How to live in revival as a lifestyle:

(1) Align -- Get right and stay right with God and others.
(2) Agonize -- Travail in fervent prayer.
(3) Acknowledge -- Keep God's Word paramount at all times.
(4) Anointing -- Be reliant on the Holy Spirit's presence.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

My Prayer Request Especially Today...

My prayer request especially today and even day-after-day resides in the mysterious and marvelous depths of this New Testament verse of Holy Scripture:

For, "Who can know what the Lord is thinking?
Who can give Him counsel?"
But we can understand these things,
for we have the mind of Christ.
-- 1 Corinthians 2:16 (NLT)

Lord, my prayer especially today is that I would know Your mind in all things. Within my thinking, give me Your Counsel at all times by the undeniable, indwelling, purifying presence of Your Precious Holy Spirit. My prayer will be the same tomorrow. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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You Will Be My Witnesses

These words of promise concerning the coming of New Testament Pentecost were spoken by Jesus and recorded in Acts 1:8 (NIV) -- But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses...

Praise God! New Testament Pentecost happened and is still happening. Why? That The Holy Spirit might enter and indwell believers. Why? That He could live the life of Christ through his saints -- yes, that the world might know God personally one-soul-at-a-time.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27b (NIV)

Lord, I don't just want to talk about You. I want to be Your Holy Spirit-filled witness. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

The Lord "Had" Left Him

In Psalm 51:11 (TLB), King David included this plea in his passionate prayer of repentance: Don’t toss me aside, banished forever from your presence. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

Precious Holy Spirit, let me never put You off, lest You would put me off. In Jesus' name. Amen.

(16-17) She (Delilah) nagged at him (Samson) every day until he couldn’t stand it any longer and finally told her his secret. "My hair has never been cut," he confessed, "for I’ve been a Nazirite to God since before my birth. If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else." (18) Delilah realized that he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the five Philistine leaders. "Come just this once more," she said, "for this time he has told me everything." So they brought the money with them. (19) She lulled him to sleep with his head in her lap, and they brought in a barber and cut off his hair. Delilah began to hit him, but she could see that his strength was leaving him. (20) Then she screamed, "The Philistines are here to capture you, Samson!" And he woke up and thought, "I will do as before; I’ll just shake myself free." But he didn’t realize that the Lord had left him. -- Judges 16:16-20 (TLB)

At the very end of his life, Samson humbled himself, prayed, sought God, repented and wouldn't you know the Lord returned upon His life with power.

We read the end of the story in Judges 16:28-31 (TLB) -- (28) Then Samson prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord Jehovah, remember me again—please strengthen me one more time, so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of at least one of my eyes." (29) Then Samson pushed against the pillars with all his might. (30) "Let me die with the Philistines," he prayed. And the temple crashed down upon the Philistine leaders and all the people. So those he killed at the moment of his death were more than those he had killed during his entire lifetime. (31) Later, his brothers and other relatives came down to get his body, and they brought him back home and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, where his father, Manoah, was buried. He had led Israel for twenty years.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

An Extra Anchor

As the oldest son of a shrimp boat captain, I have spent a lot of time on the storm-tossed sea with my Daddy. At times, in an attempt to escape the angry ocean waves, Daddy would steer the vessel into an inlet and drop the anchor on a hard bottom. In especially threatening weather, my Daddy would drop an extra anchor over the side just to reinforce our survival and to give additional peace to his son.

Seven words from Psalm 27:14 in the Message Paraphrase of the Holy Bible are serving as an extra anchor -- additional peace -- for my somewhat storm-tossed soul today:

STAY WITH YAHWEH.
TAKE HEART.
DON'T QUIT.

Abba Father, Daddy Daddy, I know there is no human substitute for Your Holy Spirit. In life's stormy weather, let Your Faithful Holy Spirit hold my faith fast. In the name of Jesus, I ask it. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

I Fall To My Knees And Pray...

Today, as "I Fall To My Knees And Pray" I invite you to do the same. Seriously, go ahead right where you are, yes, if you're able and you want to, right now, just physically get on your knees.

Take a few moments just to allow your heart, mind, and soul to spiritually breathe.

Now, let's pray together the Apostle Paul's prayer from Ephesians 3:14-19 (NLT). I will pray the prayer for you and you pray it for me. It is really a prayer of blessing:

(14) When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, (15) the Creator of everything in Heaven and on earth. (16) I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit. (17) And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. (18) And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. (19) May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

"The Eight 'We Can'ts' of Ministry"

At Nazarene Bible College, in 1994, a seasoned pastor spoke to the student body at chapel one day and shared what he called "The Eight 'We Can'ts' of Ministry." I wrote these still relevant notes in the flyleaf of my Bible:

"The Eight 'We Can'ts' of Ministry"

1. We can't control everything.
2. We can't change or fix anyone.
3. We can't explain everything.
4. We can't dodge questions and decisions.
5. We can't explain why God loves you and me.
6. We can't worry about who gets the credit.
7. We can't cling to the past.
8. We can't do what needs to be done apart from the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4:1 -- Therefore, since through God's mercy we have ministry, we do not lose heart...

Based on 2 Corinthians 4:1, I've added a ninth 'we can't' of ministry:
9. We can't lose heart! (We can, but we must not lose heart!)

IF MY PEOPLE...WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Speak and Live to Encourage (Not to Sorrow)

Ephesians 4:29b-30 from The New Living Translation of the Holy Bible is near to my heart. I share The Apostle Paul's words with you:

Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, He is the one who has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

ALL JOY!
Grateful

Nine-Eleven

Whenever I hear the words nine-eleven or see the numbers 9-11, I always think just how much our planet needs the Presence of the One called The Prince of Peace.

My friend, Pastor Bill Wilson, from Brooklyn, New York, who saw the Twin Towers falling on 9-11-2001, said this in the aftermath of the terrorists' attacks on American soil: Tragedy doesn't really change us, only God's presence really changes us.

Let us never forget that we really need God's presence, and let our cry have the same desperate tone of King David's prayer recorded in Psalm 51:11: Do not banish me (us) from Your presence, and don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me (us).

ALL JOY!
Grateful