Answered Prayer, Again!

We've been seeing God answer prayer lately.  Here's one story:

One of our members, Steve, has an Aunt Peggy, who was scheduled to have an angiogram on Friday.  We had prayed at a prayer meeting the Tuesday before that Steve would be used in a special spiritual way in the situation to minister to her and/or her family and to be sensitive to their needs. During the angiogram, she got worse and they decided she needed a quadruple bypass operation immediately.   That night, before surgery, 7 people came to her bedside and said, "You know, we don't know where you stand with God and we would feel a whole lot better with you going into this surgery knowing you had accepted Christ."  About the 4th person got to see her accept Christ.  She was overwhelmed God sent so many people to make sure she was right with Him before the surgery.

After the surgery Friday night, she didn't wake up.  She didn't wake up Saturday.  The doctors were saying that they didn't expect her to recover.  Steve's late wife Ana had often been awakened by the Lord to pray for people during the night.  On Sunday morning at 4:00 a.m., Steve was awakened to pray for Aunt Peggy.  The burden on his heart was that she was lonely.  He didn't understand since she hadn't woken up after surgery, but he prayed for her not to feel lonely for the next 2 hours, until the sun came up.  During these 2 hours, Aunt Peggy woke up just long enough to write Steve a note telling him she felt very alone.  Then she went back to sleep.  The note was delivered to Steve from Aunt Peggy by her son Sunday morning.  Steve called us Sunday morning to say he wouldn't be at church, that he was going to see Aunt Peggy instead, and asked for us to pray for her during the service. 

At 9:30, when we finished worship, Greg prayed for 3 people in our church, one of which was Aunt Peggy.  We found out later that day that Aunt Peggy woke up at 9:40, stayed awake, and by 10:00 they took her off oxygen and said she would be fine.  She went home a few days later.

We also had a little girl's back healed after praying for her as well.  God responds when we seek Him through prayer.  I'm so glad we are a praying church. 

If you have a prayer request, you can send it to me at sandy@equipchurch.org and I will make sure it is prayed for at our Tuesday night prayer meeting.

Blessings on this cool, breezy, Sunday night.

How to Fight

All around me I see the enemy stirring things up, like a Tazmanian Devil swirling dirt in a dust devil. I've thought back over the last 2 years since God called us to plant a church and I am more convinced he has been at work to thwart our efforts since the beginning, or even sooner. It doesn't really concern us, though, as we know God will win the war. It is bothersome though, at times being knocked off balance until we get our footing again, realizing the cause, and then having peace that our God is so much bigger. Here are some of the things our church family and those we have been reaching out to have had to endure and some of the things we are still in the process of seeing what God will do.
1. Ministry Loss
2. Job loss
3. Rumor/Gossip/False Witness
4. Bypass surgery
5. Death
6. Illnesses/Siezures
7. Arrest
8. Doubt/Confusion/Fear
9. Suicide Attempts
10.Depression
11. Drug & Alcohol abuse

I'm sure there are more. God spoke to Greg some years ago and told him to fight spiritual battles on a spiritual plane. That means fighting in the environment which the battle resides. We are to fight from a position of prayer. As I continue to read through the Old Testament, I continually find great fighters and kings pray to God and ask if they should fight a particular battle. God answers them, and the outcome is in alignment with what God says. Even BEFORE the battle, these Godly men like David are praying about the battle. Shouldn't we do the same? Rather than wait until we've received the first blow, unsuspectedly, shouldn't we be bathing the possiblity in prayer? Be ahead of the curve. Even if you don't expect anything right now, that's the sweetest spot for the enemy to attack, when we least expect it. Many of the battles in the Old Testament show armies being attacked when they least expected it and they lost many men that way.

When Jesus instructed his disciples in prayer, he told them to say, "and lead us not into temptation." Even BEFORE they were being tempted by the enemy, Jesus told them to pray against it. So many times our prayers are during an emergency. It's better to avoid it altogether if we can.

Pray now, even when you're in a season of coasting. If your church has a prayer meeting, attend it. It will make a difference. We meet at Josh and Monica's on Tuesday nights from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and you don't have to be part of our church to attend, it's open to everyone.

Have a blessed opening night of the football season!

A Perfect Score!

Today marks my 300th post. What does that mean? Absolutely nothing. My brother has scored a couple of 300 games in bowling, however. Moving on.

We had a wonderful evening last night and saw God orchestrate some very cool connections with people. We have a prayer meeting each week and the couple who's home we go to don't have a ride to our church. Sometimes we take them, but it was time for them to reach out into their own community. There is a lady from our church who lives down the street from them so during the prayer meeting we decided to just walk down to her house. She was mowing her front lawn, which was perfect! She had already said a few months ago she would be happy to drive them to church. Last night we introduced them and it's going to happen.

I've been praying for all the children of this couple in different areas of their lives. Their youngest has fallen away because of a spiritual hurt. I've been praying that he would come back and start going to church again. Last night was the first time that he and his fiance actually came out into the kitchen and living room and talked with us. They allowed us to pray for them. His friend sat down by himself during our meeting and shared he decided to come back to the Lord. He just wasn't happy without Him. I know that this young man will be a great influence to the son and his fiance to get them back on track. We prayed for him as well. It was a great meeting. The two other children and their spouses weren't able to make it, and I think God planned it to give us the time and freedom we needed to minister to these other young people and visit the neighbor. God is so good!

Blessings on this beautiful Thursday!

Prayer

I'm finding myself craving prayer lately. I've almost always enjoyed it and looked forward to spending time with God, but it seems to be a craving lately.

Usually Greg resets the alarm clock when he gets up, (today at 4:15 am!) and I'm up by about 5:50. This gives me 10 minutes to put on my exercise clothes and contacts, exercise for 30 minutes, 30 minutes to shower and get ready, 30 minutes of quiet time, 20 minutes for breakfast/blogging, and 15 minutes to finish getting ready for work. However this morning, I messed up the alarm clock somehow and overslept by 20 minutes, which killed my exercise time but gave me a few more minutes with God, which I love.

Sometimes I think God draws us to himself for our own good and sometimes I think He does it for His pleasure. I feel like right now He's upping the ante on me. I'm happy to be stretched.

Spend time with Him, thankfully expressing His goodness and seeking His will in all that you do. My He bless you this beautiful Wednesday!

Our Second Prayer Walk

Today Greg and I went for our second prayer walk. I picked the more affluent northeast side of town to see what God would reveal. I spent about 3/4 of the time silently praying, Greg about 1/2 and the rest of the time we listened for anything God wanted to tell us.

When we started out, Greg told me to lead where we would walk. As I turned down a court, he told me that we were starting exactly where is platoon (group of young men he discipled last year) had left off on their prayer walk. That was cool!

When we got back to the car, we 'debriefed'. We talked about what we felt God had communicated to each of us and it was amazingly similar. Basically, that both this part of town and the West Side had many similarities. Though the West Side was concerned with what they didn't have and the northeast side with what they did have, both had domestic problems. There were addictions to alcohol and drugs, physical abuse, fathers who were too hard on their kids, and those who were almost absent. Both neighborhoods had homes where they weren't taking care of the yard. Too busy? Unexpected life situations? Other priorities? I saw one huge house with a Mercedes, a BMW, and a Cadillac in the driveway, but their roof was bare in places where they needed shingles, if not a new roof.

As we talked about the domestic issues, we explored the differences in how the husbands in both neighborhoods reacted to divorce. My impression was that because the Hispanic culture is very family oriented and dedicated, a divorce would be devastating both emotionally as well as socially. Their whole family would be disappointed. In the predominately white affluent neighborhood, the social aspect may not be as present or severe. That might contribute to the higher divorce rate among whites. Just a thought.

I was very excited to see that God told both of us that the neighborhoods were very similar, even though the income levels were so different. I would encourage anyone to go on a prayer walk in any part of town. Spend part of the time praying and then just listen for God. Start with your spouse. Take your small group. Take a friend. Go by yourself. I'm so looking forward to the next one!

Our Second Prayer Walk

Just a note that we are planning our second prayer walk this Saturday. I want to walk in a very different part of town to see how it will be different. I have a few prayer requests regarding this walk:

1. To feel God's heart for this part of the city, the way we did on the West Side.
2. Many of the homes we will be walking by will be filled with people who don't know Jesus. Please pray for their hearts to be open.
3. Please pray for protection and provision for these families.
4. For those who do know God, to be Godly, for revival in their neighborhood, and for a passion to minister to each other.