O brothers and sisters, I am so burdened to see God at work among us. To see His glory and power spread over this wicked land. To see the prodigals stop disgracing His name, give up their arms and serve God.

Every word in the Scriptures, it's real and alive, and God still means every word He has said concerning His people. "If my people..." "If two of you shall agree touching anything in my name, it shall be done."

Can we come clean before God, get earnest as never before and unify in agreement to see our holy God come and fulfil His holy obligation to His word? Will you join in this pursuit for God, to keep asking, and keep believing that God WILL perform what He's promised to do, IF we'll get earnest and doing?

Thirsty for GOD, fishing for souls, praying to the Lord of the harvest to raise up more laborers. Without Jesus right there, all I do is just fish all night and catch nothing. Without faith, and without people agreeing with me in that faith, my prayers are feeble and unanswered, not "boldly before a throne of grace.

Praying with you to catch the burden, to believe for the impossible, to be bold in our prayer, to be fanatical about what God's promised to us.

Amen dear sister!

God is faithful. His Word is true! He will perform His Word if we will declare it, if we will obye it. May the Lord give us a hunger for more of Him, a thirst that can only be quenched by Him, a burden for a Heaven sent revival. May our hearts be broken with that which breaks the heart of God. May we be in union with God, that we would pray the prayers that are on His heart. In Jesus name!

_________________
Mike

I'm in....have been longing for this for quite some time!

We pray for God to fill us and this is good,
but God can only fill us to the degree that
we have allowed Him to empty us of self.

"He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich has He sent away empty.
(Luke1:53)

"For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and
the hungry soul He has filled with what is
good. (Psalm 107:9).

"Blessed are those that hunger and thirst
for righteousness, for they shall be filled."
(Matthew 5:6)

Father, we ask you to revive your Church.
Let it begin in each one of us Lord. We
repent for being satisfied with the things
of this world. Forgive us for being filled
with self satisfaction. We ask you to remove
everything in us that hinders you from
having your way in us, and fill us to
overflowing with your Spirit that we may
bring forth fruit to and for your glory. In
Jesus name we pray!

_________________
Mike

One thing my prodigals taught me is that conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. A parent can lead a child to the LORD but that will not force him to drink. You can teach him all and everything you know but that will not convert him. You can pray and that will not convert him/her. Too many times we are made to feel like our strategy has been inadequate in bringing about conversion. Not so.

In recent years there have been ministries devoted to strategy in raising children only to discover that you cannot manipulate the human will. This is a form of idolatry because it is looking to self, my efforts - and God help me!

How does one deal with prodigals? You pray and you love them. The Holy Spirit so clearly told me, "You be mom and let me be God!" Yes, Lord. He knows all about it and He will bring it to pass if it is possible. And He is doing it, too. Sometimes it may take years.

My g-parents prayed many years for the salvation of their oldest son. In his old age he came to the LORD, but oh, what reaping along the way!

We simply must rest in the LORD, casting the care upon Him and then get out of the way lest you hinder his work. And love them still, letting them feel your love. Just 'be mom'.

_________________
Sandra Miller

Thank you for your thoughts, ginnyrose, they are thought-provoking. I wholeheartedly agree that there is no formula to raise a child to walk in the truth. No, it's never our strategy--because the devil will always be smarter than our strategy, and also because God's power and grace is so much stronger than our weakest efforts. But oh in the meantime, it can be hard to "just" pray.

Another thing that has me thinking is what Finney said in his hindrances to prayer/ineffective motives: that we don't see answers to our prayers for family many times because we pray mostly based on sympathy (that they're going to hell, or "I want us to be together in heaven" or they're ruining their life or "oh what will everyone think of us/me"), forgetting that they're dishonoring a holy God. It sounds harsh, but I find that in my mind I have to distance myself from that person to see the sin as against God, not anyone else. To see that person as their problem relates to God, not to me. Kind like you said, just being the mom (in my case the sister)--or even just loving that person like you'd love someone you see on the street--and letting God be God, their God.

QUOTE: You can pray and that will not convert him.

I know what you're saying is that our prayers aren't what save, but that God has to do it. And I know there's no formula for saving someone (even praying through?)...where are the pray-ers that get through to God, like in Keith Daniel's message, The Prodigal Son? I appreciate so much your wisdom on this issue...what do you think about how Jesus said "anything shall be possible to you if you believe." Are we not tapping out those reserves of impossibility? I know the stories of prodigals who never came back to God, and the issue of free will...but something makes me think that more of the fault lies with us Christians than we'd like to bear...what do you think? As Keith Daniel says, God has a holy obligation to his promise,

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

This is to US! Either God's wrong or we're wrong (guess who, haha) cuz this just DOESN'T happen in the circles I'm in. Again though, there's the factor of the persistent widow, to KEEP ASKING, of even believing that verse... It's all so hard to put into a pretty theological statement, ya know?!

Sorry I'm so longwinded here...I prolly have too much to say/ask on this topic.

Savedtoserve, I would like to connect with you via email. Would you be comfortable contacting Greg Gordon and getting my email from him? I am not able to leave it here publicly. I don't know if he is willing to do so, but I will email him to give my permission. Blessings, mama27

The Spirit spoke again this morning in our Sunday servixce much like He did not so many weeks ago. Many many are burdened also to see a real and nation changing move of God. Yet things are likely to get a lot more broken before they begin to get well. Tremendous shaking and pain and upheaval are ahead in this nation and after that will be when a spiritual revivial will occur. This coming year God is going to begin to press His people and is not going to let us get away with what we have been getting away with. No more excuses for nuturing the old man and his deeds. Pinpoint personal dealings for us such as seldom seen are beginning for us individually and are from God. These highly personal dealings will be to make us more fit to fit in the body the Lord is building. Things are going to be exposed in us we never thought we even had that need repentance from. As He presses society with chastisement He will press His church also for real change. No more excuses and not embracing the necessary process. If we remain in Christ we will learn to be unshakeable even as He is unshakeable even while He shakes this nation. On the other side of the coming chastisement is revival though and revival of a lasting kind to see us through to the end of the age. A astonishing harvest of souls into God's Kingdom is going to take place. All these things we heard clearly this morning in church. I'm not trying to be a know it all. I'm just sharing what we heard. Our local fellowships are going to become more and more a place of life and shelter.

_________________
David Winter