Wow! What a time we are living in right NOW! This weeks word will just be a documentation of testimony. The Word says that this is how we will overcome satan. Revelation 12:11 “They overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” I pray that the Lord will begin to increase the testimonies of everyone who reads this.

God has made Himself so personal to me these last couple of weeks, and I just want to share what the Lord has been doing in my life. The Holy Spirit is moving so powerfully right now in the midwest. If you have not heard about the outpouring going on right now at IHOP-KC, you should really check it out. This is the second week in a row of renewal meetings every night. The Spirit has completely broke into their atmosphere.

There has been a massive move of deliverance and inner healing, physical healing and joy being poured out. You can actually watch every meeting through their website. www.ihop.org. It really feels like we are on the brink of a historical move of God.

I have good friends that are down there that continually keep me posted. It has definitely encouraged me to pursue God for the greater things. John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” This verse is SO HUGE!  We have the power through the Spirit to do GREATER things.

This verse is so awesome, but we must have the correct motivations in doing these “greater things.” The Lord really showed me, and revealed this to me 2 weeks ago. I had some down time at a wedding and started reading in Luke chapter 10 when the 72 returned joyfully saying that even the demons submitted to them. I love Jesus’ response in verse 20, He says, “Do not rejoice that the demons submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

I then read through to Luke 11:29-32. It speaks of the sign of Jonah. In summery, it says that a wicked nation asks for a sign. Jesus said, “None will be given it except the sign of Jonah. Jonah was three days in the belly of a whale and then brought back. Basically speaking of what was going to happen to Him on the cross in the future - which brought salvation.

The Holy Spirit immediately dropped on me the phrase, “Souls before Signs.” I want to see the miraculous, healing, signs and wonders (and I believe I will), but the main priority is to seek and save the lost. We must be pursuing these signs for the simple fact of drawing souls into the kingdom. I totally received this and it rekindled the passion for praying for lost people I know. It gets good from here.

That was Saturday night. I go to church sunday morning and got so ministered to. I went to the altar overtaken by the love of God. I see a few older people start coming around and praying for me. After the service, numerous “older people” start coming up and congratulating me saying such things as, ” A new name has been written down in glory,” or “God is so happy with your decision.” I realized that they thought I had just given my life to Jesus. It totally then hit me that these people were more concerned about my salvation than any sign or even healing that may have taken place. That really struck me and sealed the word that the Spirit spoke to me the night before.

The following weekend (last), the Holy Spirit really broke out in our Friday night meeting. The Lord released joy all over the room. The whole place was dancing and singing. Some were even taken over by Holy Spirit laughter. It was awesome! Literally people laying on the floor for an hour in uncontrollable laughter. The wine was poured out. Like something out of the book of Acts. Jesus is doing this right now all over the Peoria area. Jump In!! Now is not a time to sit on the sidelines and miss out on this current move of the Holy Spirit.

God revealed Himself again to me on Sunday morning. I was struggling that morning for some reason with writing out my tithe check, but that gentle voice just seemed to speak again saying,”Just do it. Don’t worry.” So I did. Before church we had to make a quick stop at Krogers. I decided to pick up in Luke where I had left off while I was waiting for Julia. I open my Bible to where the built in bookmark had told me I needed to start. It happened to be Luke chapter 12, the parable of the rich fool. God begins to highlight so many things in that passage to me concerning money, worrying, and heavenly treasures.

I began to frantically highlight verses as it seemed as if the words were jumping off the page. Considering the whole tithing issue I was having that morning, this was the perfect chapter for me. Well long story short…We get to church and Pastor Tom preaches one of the most liberating tithing messages I have ever heard. Where in the Bible did he preach out of? You guessed it, Luke chapter 12- the parable of the rich fool! Praise God for confirmation! Totally awesome!

As if all this was not enough revelation and confirmation, the best was yet to come. Now just remember a few paragraphs back about the Spirit given word, “Souls before Signs.” I get a call on Monday morning from a great guy that I have been praying for salvation since March of this year.The Lord had spoken to me on April 24th of this year that his salvation was near. He says, “Jarod, were you praying for me last night?” I say, “No, not specifically last night, but yes, throughout the week.” He says, “Are you sure you were not praying last night for me?” I reply, “No, but tell me what is going on please.”

He goes on to tell me that the night before that he was woken up in a state of fear. He felt that there were evil spirits surrounding him and tormenting him. He called out to God saying, ” God help me!” Sure enough, the sprits left, and his body was flooded with peace. He recalls feeling like he just wanted to cry. He then was taken into what seemed to be a vision of sea of darkness with me moving around in the middle shining as if a light was on me. Wow! Thank you Jesus for your display of power!

We quickly proceeded from there. The night after that, which was Tuesday night this week, I was blessed to have the opportunity to lead both he and his wife to Jesus. Praise God! It was truly a glorious evening. The presence of the Lord was very evident in their home that night, and as a result there were two new names written down in glory as all heaven threw a party for the prodigals called home.

God’s Spirit is moving very strongly right now. Take this opportunity to experience more of God’s power moving in and through you. Isaiah 55:6- ” Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”

Be blessed,

Jarod

     My heart is so full today! It is just one of those times that you feel Jesus is so close! And He is. Always. He never leaves us or forsakes us. I had an interesting weekend. I won’t go into much detail, but simply put- the enemy launched an attack. He fired some arrows and landed a couple. I was drained. Sunday came at the perfect time. I was still feeling some aftershocks. But Monday morning was awesome. The Lord touched me and spoke to and encouraged my heart. What the enemy intended to be a curse, the Lord turned into a blessing. My tank was refueled! 

Isaiah 60:1-3-“Arise, shine, for your light has come,and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the people, but the Lord rises upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of you dawn.”

     Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or a prophet, for that matter, to tell you that darkness is becoming more prevalent. Darkness is becoming the norm. We were just talking the other night about how the tv has gotten so terrible. You can no longer watch the tv without seeing the effects of the perverse times that we live. Is. 60 tells us that the world will be covered in darkness, but there is good news. The glory and light of the Lord is upon us. 

     Sure darkness may ultimately be coming, but that doesn’t mean we just have to accept that. The Lord is looking to strengthen His church to push back darkness as long as possible. His eyes are searching the earth for those who are committed to shed light on the darkness. It is up to us to answer the call! We can choose to sit back and just say,” whatever happens, happens”, or we can ARISE and SHINE! 

     If we choose to arise and shine, we can be sure that the glory will follow us. No darkness can overshadow the glory. We must make this decision to come to and into the light. Jn. 3:19 says, ” Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” Evil deeds will keep many from coming into the light because the light will expose their actions. We must be of those who walk in the light. We do this so that others will see Jesus through us. Jesus is the light of the world. We are called to be a reflection of Him.

     Unfortunately the dark will get darker. When the dark gets darker, what happens to the light? The light shines brighter. We must make our choice now to walk in light and truth. If we do not, the dark places will get even darker. What does this ultimately do? It removes the neutral position. Neutrality from this point on is ruled out. In Mt. 12:30 Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” Are you hot or cold, luke warm is going to be spit out. 

     The body of Christ can no longer be content with sunday morning Christianity. This must be an everyday commitment. Complacent Christians will be steamrolled, literally. The heat and pressure of the coming times will suffocate many. The love of many will grow cold. 

     I don’t think we will even have the conversations of weather this person or that person, or this kind or that kind of church will go to heaven. Denominations will be old history. You will either be hot or cold. For Jesus or against Him. You will either gather or scatter. Listen to what Rev. 22:10 says; “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.” 

     Again, I emphasize that you can not stand still. You have to go up or you will go down. The bad will get worse, the corrupt will continue to get more corrupt. At the same time, we cannot be content in our righteousness. We cannot be content with our current walk with the Lord. It must increase! The flame must get bigger! Jesus must be our passion. My prayer is that the Lord continues to reveal His love to us that we might love Him more. We can only love Him because He first loved us.

     So, what is our job? To let our light shine. Matthew 5 tells us that “we are the light of the world.” It says to “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” We must put our light on display. It’s time to shine! It’s time for the rising of the bright and shining lamps. This life is meaningless unless we are displaying Jesus to others. Just as the moon is so visible in a vast ocean of darkness, so are we to be to this world. The moon is merely a reflection of the sun. Sound familiar….Just what we are called to be- a reflection of the Son. 

     It is time for the church to be in full moon phase. We can no longer settle for first quarter, half or three quarter phase. We must be at maximum brightness. When this happens the Word says that the nations and kings will come to our light. It is time for the church to be the answer. It is time for Jesus to be shone through His bride. The nation needs answers. The government needs help. Let us be the ones they turn to for the solutions to the problems. Not so much us, but Christ in us. 

     God, let us be counted among those that advance the light of Jesus and pierce the darkness!

Be blessed,

Jarod

This is definitely a topic that the the Lord has tapped on my heart about recently. I believe the topic of giving thanks and praising His name is so often overlooked. We are always asking for the Lord to do things, and even good things. Things that He wants us to ask Him. Spiritual renewal, revival, fire, more grace and so on… These are all great things, but lets take a look in the Word as to how we should approach His throne.

Psalm 100:4- “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name.

I have probably heard this verse 1000 times, but just this past week the Lord poured some new wine over it for me. I love when that happens! He gives the same old verse a completely different flavor. He really opened my eyes to the power of praise. The gate leads to the courts and the courts lead into the place we all long to be… The Holy Place, The Throne Room, His Presence!!! You first go through the gates with thanksgiving, then through the courts with praise, and then into His mighty presence. 

Wow! I hate to use the word formula, but what a formula! Once we offer thanks and praise for what a wonderful God He is, we immediately have all access. What a gift! We really need to embrace this truth in our prayers and in our times of worship. The Lord has so clearly shown me that this is a must needed strategy in order to entertain His presence. It is time to start being intentional about approaching the Lord with a thankful heart. Heb.12:28 says this,”Therefore(Bill Johnson says that anytime a verse starts with therefore, there is a reason it is there for.) since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”  First comes the thankful heart of worship, then comes the FIRE!

Hebrews 13:15 tells us to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. The fruit of lips that confess His name. This is a sacrifice that we can offer God. Did you ever view praise as a sacrifice? I didn’t. In Psalms, David said, ” Let my lifted hands be as the evening sacrifice….”. Sacrificing was not just for Moses and the gang. It is for us as well. What a privilege to be able to offer God a sacrifice still today. Again, you know what happens next when you put a sacrifice on the alter, FIRE! When is praise really a sacrifice? Just think when you are going through a hard time, or maybe a wilderness period. That is when I physically feel like my praise and thanks are a sacrifice, but do you know the power that has! This spring Julia and I went through a really hard time with Olive being really sick for weeks. I kid you not that I did not experience breakthrough until I came to the Lord with praise. That was truly a sacrifice of praise.

Just think about the 10 lepers that Jesus healed in Luke chapter 17. Jesus had compassion on all of them and healed them, but only one came back to thank Him. For that simple act of thankfulness He was saved. Sure the others received their earthly life back, only one was given eternal life. Only one was given immediate and eternal access to Jesus. The one who chose to give thanks. To him was granted a kingdom that cannot be shaken! The seed that never parishes, spoils or fades. If only the other nine would have just expressed the fruit of the lips that confess His name. That is what Hebrews 13 describes as praise. Let us not be counted among “the other nine”.

Lets look at Matt.6:9-13, The Lords Prayer. The opening line of Jesus’ model of prayer declares, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name….” Jesus starts His model of prayer-which we would be wise to heed- with words of adoration and an attitude of reverence and awe. This ties directly in with what it says in Heb.12:28 about being thankful and worshiping God with reverence and awe. I hope this is all clicking for you as it recently has for me. Praise, thanksgiving, and reverence are keys to unlocking His goodness, His protection, His provision, His power, His faithfulness, and most importantly, His Presence. I encourage everyone, if you are already not doing so, to start your prayer and worship times with praise from a grateful heart.

Don’t just take my word and research for it. Take a look at the words of David in the Psalms. Psalms is a complete book of praise. I can’t even begin to list all the verses that include praise. The word praise, or some form of it, is used over 275 times in the book of Psalms. Almost all of these words coming from the man titled, “a man after God’s own heart.” What a compliment! Not a bad header on the ol’ gravestone. A man after God’s own heart! I’d take that. So this must in fact mean that praise is the way to reach God’s heart. Sounds like a strategy I’d like to try, to reach a place I’d like to be. His heart. 

If nothing else, just read Psalm chapter 150. It is only six verses. All of which start with the word “Praise.” It describes where to praise, what to praise for, and how and what to use to praise Him. The final verse says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Every creature on this earth was made to praise Jesus! The Word even tells us that if we don’t, the rocks will cry out in our place. Sounds like a direct order from the King. I sure don’t want to leave my God given duty up to a rock with no mouth. Praise is yet another weapon we have in our arsenal to wage war on the enemy.

In wrapping this all up, I will just tell you a practical way I have gone about to implementing this strategy for more of the presence of God. Just last week I sat down with one our leaders and told what the Lord had been laying on my heart. This revelation of praise and thanksgiving came just two days after we had sat down to talk about ways of increasing the Holy Spirit’s working in our ministry. I explained how I believe the Lord is wanting us to start every prayer meeting and corporate gathering with praise and adoration. Coming to him first, before any other agenda, expressing our gratitude. We put this into practice last friday night, and what happened you ask…….. We reached a level of worship that touched the heart of God! A new level of intimacy with our King. It was very evident among the group.

One report spoken to the group after worship came from an encounter that Julia had during that time. She got up and explained,(which she never does ;- ) ” When we were in worship, all at once it was like I was in heaven. I could feel the hugeness of it and I could hear but my eyes were closed. It was like a billion voices - all in sync - every octave, every tone, all in accord. It was unfathomable and overwhelmingly beautiful. It was full and pure. All of our voices here were in perfect sync. Heaven was turned to us and was worshiping with us!” 

Hope you were blessed!

Jarod

2 Chronicles 7:14- “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

I have heard this verse so many times in my life, and just now is it  really starting to hit home. This one verse has so much meat to it. You could really pick apart every 3 to 4 words and try to make it a lifestyle. The phrase “turn from their wicked ways,” is really what the Holy Spirit highlighted to me. More specifically, the word “TURN.”  Then after Turning, going out and Burning for Jesus.

Here are a couple definitions of the word turn:  To move or cause to move, To aim or point in a different direction, To change. Each one of these definitions is starting to resound in my spiritual ears. God is calling His people to start walking in a new direction. He is calling us to turn our spiritual cars around. This new road He is calling us to travel is going to be little more narrow than the previous road we were on. Matt. 7:13 says,”Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and may enter through it.”    

Paul is a perfect example of this “Turn and Burn” transition. Acts chapter 9 details the account of Paul’s Damascus Road experience. Talk about a turn! Total 180. Paul is actually on his way to the city of Damascus to persecute the Christians there. The Lord hits him with a bright light and in essence says, turn from your wicked ways and burn for me. The Lord said, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me…… I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes and TURN them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to the power of God.”(Acts 26:16-18). So not only is he called to turn, but then to burn and let his light shine as to call a whole nation to turning back to God.

This is definitely what it took for me to turn back to God. My Damascus Road experience took place in Olive’s (my 2 yr. old daughter) nursery almost exactly one year ago, Praise Jesus. I had been out of the church scene for over 6 years. I was doing nothing to let anyone know that I was a Christian. I really was somewhat uncomfortable talking about God and church. I grew up all around that stuff, but I became desensitized and numb to it all. Little did I know that this was all about to change. My life was about to do a 180!

Julia and my parents had just started going to this group called the Garage. She had been inviting me to go, but I would have none of it. Finally, one night I agreed to go with her. I hated it! The whole night the enemy was throwing thoughts in my head like, “what are you doing here, “you really don’t want to do this again do ya,”, or “you already tried this and failed.” It really was terrible. I left there and did not think much of it. I told Julia that I really did not feel like I would ever go back. That was on Friday. The following Thursday night is when the Lord blinded me with His light.

It was my night to rock Olive, and give her a bottle. We always say a prayer with her as well. Well I go to say my simple and totally un-earth shattering prayer, and the power of the Holy Spirit falls in that room. It was an immediate presence of God that I was not familiar with. He told me to start interceding for Olive’s life. To start contending against the enemy on her behalf and becoming the father that she needs me to be for her. I immediately saw a picture of her on a very high rock. There was all this black and gray chaos swirling around her, but not phasing her. She was so calm and content. This was surely the power of Jesus!

I will never be the same after coming out of her room that glorious night! Just one week before that night I had told a friend,” I don’t know what it is gonna take for God to get my attention.” It was such a quick and powerful turn. I was convinced that God was the real deal. I now live my life to burn for Jesus! He is definitely still taking me through the turning process. I find that the more I give to God, the more He gives to me. What an incredible Saviour and Lord!

After all of this, one of my friends asked me, “What is going to happen when this whole church camp experience wears off? When you aren’t on fire anymore?” Haha. C’mon! I love it! I responded, “Where does it say in the Bible that the fire has to go out?”. The Holy Spirit is an ever increasing force with no plans of relenting. “For our God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:29).

So what’s the next step? Paul encountered Jesus and turned, he then was set aflame and burned with fire unto to calling the lost to Jesus. It is time to shine! Is. 60 says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” It is time for the world to see the burning and shining lamps. The voice calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord”!  The more we turn, the more we will burn! Go Burn!

Jarod

This has really been a neat week! The Lord has confirmed 5-6 words and/or verses to me just this week. God is so awesome! I will briefly tell about the coolest one.

For a few months now my spirit has been stirred to go after God at a new level. I felt like the Lord was stirring in me to make a concentrated separation to Him. Also called a consecration. We actually had talked to some people one night about what this consecration could entail, and started to pray about when and to whom this should be presented. 

So this weekend the Bradley Epworth and the garage had a guest speaker in named Rhonda Hughey. She is a world renown author, speaker who is commissioned by God to speak breakthrough and transformation into cities. She felt she had a message and a God given challenge for Peoria. She presented a call to a 21 day separation and consecration period unto God dwelling in and transforming this city. It is actually entitled “The Divine Experiment”. 

God took what was burning in my heart and several others and sent us an answer to our prayers. What we thought would be great if we could get ten or fifteen people committed to doing turned out to be a city wide fire that is soon to be lit.

Ok…… So God is definitely leading and we need to be following. Today I am finally going to write on this topic that has been burning in me for a while. Renewing our vows with God. Separating ourselves from this world in order to have intimacy with Jesus. I am going to talk about some very conventional steps we can take to experience some unconventional results.

Numbers 6:1-3  ”Now the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the Lord as a Nazirite, he must abstain from……….

I encourage you to read the rest of the chapter. It then lists what they are to abstain from and what they are to do. The word nazir in the Hebrew means “to separate.” This was not a specific origin of people. It was simply a name given to the Israelites who chose to make this vow.

I believe God is raising up a remnant of people that He is ready to give a new name. He is raising up a John 3:30 people whose heart desire is that He must increase and they must decrease. A people that love not their own lives to death. Wow, what could He do with a group of people with that attitude and desire? I will tell you; He could flip this world upside down!

Acts 17:6 says, “And these who have turned the world upside down have come here also!” It is possible! We can be world turners! We are going to need to walk in Godlly wisdom and power if this is to happen. We can gain this power through intimacy with Christ which is separation from sin. We have to stop feeding the flesh. We will  need some serious grace to walk this out, and we know that the Word says that His grace is enough.

So, how do we kill our flesh and strengthen our spirit? It is time to take drastic measures! It is time to put aside the norm once and for all. We need to stop entertaining ourselves with what quenches the Holy Spirit! What is our primary entertainment source? That’s right…The TV, boob tube, box to Babylon. Just think about the programs we watch to “relax” or “unwind”. Murder, sex, profanity, idolatry, cheating, divorce. This is what saturates our media, which in turn saturates us. The Spirit of God can not hang out in that environment. It is time to declare a separation from all media that sets itself up against the knowledge of Christ!

Music is another area that we have seen the benefits of separation. Our house has not listened to any secular music for almost one year now. What a sense of freedom that brings. Music plays such a huge role in our lives today and it affects our heart, emotions, mood, and our spirit. Again, you can choose to listen to music that glorifies God, or music that doesn’t. Worship is such a strong form of spiritual warfare. So you can actually choose to be fighting the enemy on your car ride home from work! I know my choice. 1 John 3:8 says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. I want to partner and fight along side Jesus any way I can.

Bottom line, we just have to steer clear of any area of our life that does not glorify God. We need to be very intentional about it. It is time to start making some sacrifices to show the Lord that we are desperate for His presence. I think we all know what doesn’t work by now. 

Mike Bickle quotes, “To a people without mixture, He will give His Spirit without measure.” To the people that decide they are sick of having one foot in the world and one foot in the church. God desires wholehearted commitment. I personally am going to start to take drastic measures to see the presence of God in my life. Steps that I have never taken before. You have to go a different direction to get to a place you have have never been. God will give the grace needed to do this! Lets all go for it together!

Jarod

Matthew 6:5-6 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

This Weekly Word is going to break down what it is to live a life of prayer. Why it is so important and what we can expect when we do this. Jesus’ words make it so clear here in Matt. 6. He really lays out the ground rules for living a life of prayer. Obviously we are instructed many times throughout the scripture to pray with others, or be more visible with our prayers. But there is definitely a pattern defined in the new testament as to how Jesus often prayed. It says in Mark 1:35 that Jesus arose very early in the morning and went to a solitary places to pray. Mk. 6:45, Mk.14:32-34, Lk. 4:42, Lk. 5:16 and Lk. 6:12 are just a few more references to to Jesus withdrawing Himself to a place of just He and His Father.

1. What is a Life of Prayer

I believe Jesus is calling all of His people to a deeper life of prayer. One year ago I had no prayer life. Rarely would I even pray before dinner. That seems like the most obvious time to pray! If you can’t do it then, good luck making it a lifestyle. The truth is that I thought prayer was boring. I wasn’t seeing any fruit from my prayers. I don’t think I would have recognized even if there had been fruit because I didn’t recognize the voice of God. Just to recognize that you don’t recognize the voice of God is enough revelation to get you on your knees. It is enough to apprehend you to a life of prayer.

The Muslims have 3 set times per day that they all pray to their false God. They have set up a prayer culture. When you think of Buddhist Monks, is not the first thought that goes through your mind some dudes in robes doing that chanting noise, “Hummmmm….”. Well good for them! They have set up for themselves a wide spread reputation of being men of prayer. Maybe we need a few of them to convert to Christianity to show us what it is to live a life of prayer! See, a life of prayer isn’t just telling the Lord some things you want a few minutes before bed. Jesus was our example on how to live in prayer. A life of prayer is continually and intentionally drawing yourself away to seek the Lord. A life of prayer is daily setting aside time- or times if you are really spiritual ; ) - to build that relationship. 

It is so equivalent to the relationship between husband and wife. Imagine that, Jesus really did have a deeper meaning by that whole bride/bride-groom stuff. The more time that we spend with each other the deeper our love will be. The more we will know each other. The more we will trust each other. The more we will experience joy together. We will be able to walk through rough times together and not just automatically opt for divorce. This is the exact same with Jesus. We are to be married to Him! We are to share that level or greater intimacy with Jesus than our spouse. So that when times of trouble come, we do not divorce Him. We need to be so at one with Christ that we ultimately share the same heart. The only way this can happen is if we live a life that is rooted in knowing Him. The only way we can know someone is through communication with them. Communication with God in His Word is called prayer.

2. Why is Prayer so Important

We have already touched on this a bit, and the answers are, to some, pretty familiar. I, personally, love to continue to ingrain in my heart why I pray. It builds faith. How do I ingrain in my heart why I pray? One huge way is to remind yourself of answered prayers. That will activate the faith to keep praying. Another way is to recite OUT LOUD scriptures that talk about the power of prayer. Paul says in 1 Thes. 5:17 “Pray continually.” That is all the verse says! Sure there is a context, but I think you could probably put that verse anywhere in the Bible and it would fit. As we can also put that verse anywhere in the context of our lives and it will fit. Joy or sorrow, pray continually!

It is also so vital that we pray in order to hear the voice of God. You can ask God for ears to hear, but if you don’t shut up your still not going to hear. There must be times of silence in your prayer time to hear the voice of God. Jesus could have withdrew to a busy intersection to pray, but he didn’t. He withdrew to lonely, quiet places. In the verse at the top Jesus says to “close the door” in your place of prayer. This is where I have learned what the voice of God sounds like. My deepest revelations have not come in corporate prayer times, or even at church, but in my 8x8 prayer room in my basement. Through these intimate times with Jesus, I have learned the voice and promptings of the Holy Spirit.

It is important to contend in prayer. This one jacks me up! I view it as a contest, a war! Thus we contend. Because this is exactly what it is! We need to raise up an army of prayer WARRIORS! Ones that go to battle in prayer against the darkness and corruptness of this world. Warriors that contend on the front lines in prayer. An army that doesn’t settle for sickness. An army that is not content with there being lost souls. An army that does not make peace with the wisdom of this age, but wars against it in prayer for the cause of Christ! 

I love the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. It says that God will bring about justice to His chosen ones. How? By crying out to Him day and night!  This is one of the passages of scripture that I recite to myself to strengthen my heart in prayer. This one hits home. On March 9th of this year, actually it all started on the night of March 8th, Julia had an enemy attack launched against her. Julia is my wife for those who did not know. She describes this as a night she was not at peace to say the least. She said that night that she felt as if an elephant were sitting on her chest. She could not breath easily, she felt very anxious and was very disoriented. We recognized this immediately for what it was, An Attack! What do you do when you get attacked? You fight back! Remember, our weapons are not carnal. No, we have much more mighty weapons in God that are used to demolish strongholds! Come On!! Time to fight! 

So we contended until about 3 am when she was finally able to fall asleep. Well she woke up still under attack. So then we went for re-enforcement. We took out the sword! I felt led to read Luke chapter 18. So at about 2 in the afternoon, after fighting in prayer and reading Luke 18 out loud, the enemy retreated! She was free! Praise Jesus!

3. What We Can Expect From a Life of Prayer

For one, we can expect answers to our prayers. As Jesus stated in the parable of the persistent widow, “Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly.” God is our Father. He wants to bless us. He wants us to have abundant life, but we must pursue Him for this. He wants to answer our prayers probably more than we want Him to. When we open the door to His presence in our lives, He can do, as the word says, “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.” Rev. 3:20 says” Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Just accept His invitation to be intimate with Him!

We can expect an increase of power. God says that He will give the Holy Spirit without measure to those who ask. The Holy Spirit is our power source. That is the Spirit of God dwelling in us. We can have power over the chains of sin if we walk out a life of prayer. We can have the power to forgive. We can have the power to witness. As a matter of fact, the disciples did not even attempt to evangelize until the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them. What then is the fruit of Holy Spirit empowered evangelism? Matt. 10:8- We can lay hands on the sick and see them healed. We can raise the dead, both physically and spiritually. It then says that we can cleanse the lepers and drive out demons. That sounds like something I want! Don’t you!? We need this power, and it is available to us through that secret place. The place where we drop all of our worries of the day, close the door behind us, and get on our knees before God.

Lastly, we can expect change. A life dedicated to Jesus will produce change. Change can be slow, but change is inevitable. The pace of our change is in direct proportion to the amount of time that we spend in prayer. Pastor Rice  Brooks says this, ” You can grow a year in a week, or a week in a year!” What a statement! It’s like this… If you meet someone new and you really want to get to know them better, have them over every night of the week. You will probably already have nicknames for each other by then. Or, you can see them where you see them once in a while, and maybe by your second or third month of seeing them you invite them over for dinner. And so on… What took you 3-4 months, could have been done in one week. 

You may not even notice this change, but it is taking place. Just ask someone. It is easier for and outsider to see our change than it is for us. You will begin to produce the fruit of the Spirit. That fruit is evidence of change. David, in Psalm 1, says that we are like trees planted by living water that produce fruit in season. Weather we are in a season of rapid, visible change, or in a season of slow and seemingly dormant change. Just be assured that a changed life is one of the rewards of a life given to prayer.

To wrap this up, I challenge myself and everyone else to step up our prayer life. Open the door for the presence of God in your life. Pray with expectancy. James 5:16 says, ” The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Lets give God the opportunity to do what He wants to do in our lives. Lets unleash the power of prayer.

Jarod

Psalm 139:13-16 - 13 “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written for me in your book before one of them came to be.”

I don’t know about you guys, but this verse gets me totally jacked up! Thats a good thing. The more I write the more you will understand my terminology. So just hang with me through a few of these “Weekly Words”. This verse was really revealed to me a few months ago while listening to the live webstreaming of the IHOP(International House of Prayer) prayer room. I heard them singing this passage of scripture over and over. It hit me so hard. I was just sitting at my computer with tears welling up in my eyes. I wasn’t even sure why at the time. I recorded that session, and since then have listened to probably over 50 times easily. The more I began to sing this song, the more the Lord revealed what He was telling me. So I hope through this message I can convey to you what the Lord wants us all to hear.

My life started out pretty rough. I was in and out of the hospital for the first couple years of my life. I had many complications as a baby. A few that were life threatening. My parents were told numerous times that I would not make it. Praise Jesus for praying, Bible believing parents. Well contrary to doctors reports, I made it. Jesus had a bigger plan than any attack of the enemy! Amen! See I firmly believe that God has big plans for my life. Thats not being cocky or proud either. Thats simply holding on to the promise of God stated in Jeremiah 29:11- “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.” Just declare that promise back to God right now! Declare it over yourself right now! Tell Him you believe His promises are eternal. That the covenant the covenant that He made with Abraham is still going today. Ok, I could go on with that for a while, but I am going to get back on course. So I just began to get this revelation that God uniquely created ME! He has a specific mission just for me. I love that! He designed me for a specific purpose and the enemy knows that too. That is why he tried to take me out at birth. He did not wants God’s plan for me unleashed on the earth because it is going to wage some serious war on darkness! Come On! Doesn’t this fire you up! You are a purposefully created weapon in God’s arsenal! He intends to use YOU to kick the enemies butt! In Ephesians 2:18-21 Paul prays that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened that we would know the hope, glorious inheritance, and incomparable great power for us believers. He then likens this power to the strength used to raise Christ from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of God in heavenly realms far above all rule and authority,power and dominion of this age or any age to come. Now for what’s really awesome…. Paul says following this in verse 6 that God raised us up with Christ, and seated us with Him in those same heavenly realms. Are you putting it all together? We, being seated with Christ, are also above all powers and authorities of the enemy. We now can be the attackers and not the attacked! It is time to start living in the power that Christ has given us.

The last part of this passage in verse 16 is where the title and main point of this Weekly Word comes from. It declares that all of my days were ordained for me. It says that all my days were written in your book before one of them came to be. I just love to think about His book for me! What does that look like! A book all about my life. What chapter am I even in right now? I often fantasize about this. Now that is a real fantasy! Much better to fantasize about that than in any other worldly garbage we could indulge our minds. Just think about that…God has authored a book about your life. Talk about a “must read”. A novel written about you from the most creative author of all time. Mystery, suspense, tragedy, momentary defeat. War, peace, laughter and sadness. All this in one book! The best thing about His books is that ending is always the same for everyone that chooses to follow his plan…VICTORY!!! So many people miss out on their book. Maybe they get through a few chapters and set the book down when they come to the chapters on sorrow or momentary defeat. Oh, if they would only keep reading! If they would only keep their eyes focused on the final chapter. This is one book where it is nice to know the ending. As a matter of fact the end was written before the beginning. This is often times what pushes us to keep going on our journey through our book. My personal desire is to get through every chapter in the novel God wrote for me before I was even formed in the womb. I want everything that God has for me. And much more importantly, God wants me to have everything that He has for me. He desires to give us the desires of our heart if HE is our desire. That is a mouthful, but really think about that. He alone wants to be our hearts desire. And it says in Psalm 37:4 that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, that He will give us the desires of our heart. So by delighting in Him, we are making Him our hearts desire. Anyways, I think you get the point. He wants to give us His fullness, but it comes with a price. I’ve always loved this quote, “Salvation is free, but it will cost you your life.” Many Christians settle for a boring story, when in fact God has appointed them to a matchless biography! Don’t settle for anything less that God’s best for you. Being bored is one clue to knowing that you are not walking a victorious, Holy Spirit inspired, christian life. Jesus did not go through death on the cross for us to live a boring, uninspired or defeated life! If you claim that the christian life is boring chances are you are not going after the whole story. I challenge you to start pursuing God with your whole heart. Read Jeremiah 29:12 & 13 right now! In short, it says that if you seek Him with everything in you than you will find Him. He will reveal His love to you, and in response you can love Him back. Because ultimately the Bible - which is the greatest book ever written - and all the books that He has written for us are love stories.

Hope you were blessed,

Jarod

The only reason I have this blog is to tell what the Lord is doing in my life. I will be regularly posting developed words that the Lord has given me. AKA sermons.

Peace.

Jarod