Your Engagement Ring

All at once you stop in mid-step. Your engagement ring is not on your finger. Your engagement ring is precious to you. You panic! Your mind is racing. Where could it be? Your finger can still feel the ring.

Beloved, you have another engagement ring that is more precious than your physical engagement ring. But when you no longer feel it most do not panic! Most know why they can not feel this ring of promise but do nothing.

This ring of promise, your engagement ring is worn on your heart. It protects and moves your heart. When you no longer feel Him, it means you have pushed Him far down into your heart and chose not to listen to Him. By your choice, He may not fully protect you. You have grieved Him.

In Ephesians, chapter one, is a beautiful love story you can read. This chapter tells who you are engaged to and tells of God’s promise to you. When you accept God’s proposal, He seals you with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit is given to you as a pledge of your inheritance with Jesus Christ.

When you decided to accept Jesus as your Savior and to follow His teachings, you are given the Holy Spirit to live within you. He is to teach you, to guide and to give you a commission (Acts 13:4). He commands you (Acts 8:29), restrains evil and He intercedes (Romans 8:26) for us to Jesus and Jesus will talk to the Father God concerning us. It brings peace to us because Jesus talks to God about your situation. The Holy Spirit bears witness of God (John 15:26 and 2 Peter 1:21). We can cause the Holy Spirit to Grieve (Ephesians 4:30).

The Holy Spirit is our foundation. This Spirit of God will write things on your heart. He will help you to love more.

When we are living in heaven’s eternity, the Lord will bring our love story to each of us. Beloved, we will see and feel His glory that He shared with us to its fullest. We have this to look forward to and it will never be taken away. We will not find the words to say to Jesus. There will be tears of love that He will collect and put in His heart. Your tears, my tears, He collects for His heart. What words can be spoken that carries what we will feel in that moment. This moment and for eternity is why we were created. We will see and understand God’s grace and mercy that He shared with us. With eternity on His mind, God gave us our engagement ring. Then our hearts and knees will bow and we shall say, “Here are your Beloved for eternity. We love you.

WHY WE SHOULD LOVE

Big Horn in Utah

Dear Ones of the Lord Jesus, it is love that gives our lives the fullness with peace and joy for our journey here on this earth. Remember when you fell in love for the first time and how your heart became so full that you did not know if you could contain that love within you. We need to strive to carry within us a fullness of love for Jesus Christ. As we mature in our love for Jesus Christ, we are able to love others more fully. For when we love Jesus to the point where we cannot contain it, the love flows in such a way that others around you feels that love. That is when you carry God’s presence’s and majesty to others. It is here that you feel God’s perfect peace.

I have seen Christians become so hostile to the sins of others. They are especially hostile to other Christians. Our heart is to look at others in love. Does your heart feel the presences of God when you approach others in sin. There is a saying, and I do not know who began this but it says something like, “Don’t judge others because their sin is different than yours.”

In Matthew 18:15-20, gives further instructions on how to approach those that need Christian discipline. This is a command on how we are to do this discipline. First we are to go to them privately with deep love. If they repent,he is then restored in the fellowship of God and service. If there is no repentance, we are to take one or two more with us and speak to them. These other will be witnesses. If there is still no repentance, then you go to the church. We are to keep God’s name holy.

Beloved, in all these steps, they must be covered with deep prayer to have the Holy Spirit go before you. You must carry with you God’s love and His presences. You must feel the pain that Jesus feels over this precious wounded one. In Luke 15:4, Jesus talks about leaving 99 sheep to look for one.

Matthew 7:1-5, speaks about removing the log out of your eye before removing the speck in another’s persons eye. This must be done before you approacyh another and this must be done with scripture. The same scripture that Jesus uses to judge. Consider this passage as qualification of you judging. Christian discipline should be the highest form of Love. Any other form is sin.

I can not remember Jesus being hostile to any individual in sin. Yes, He was angry with groups of religious leaders and in the temple, but never individuals. If you know of any scripture in the New Testament, please let me know.

Let me again, state the importance of asking God daily to put more love in your heart for Him. The more you love Him, the more you are able to love others. I did not think I could love my husband, children and grandchildren any more than I did at some point in time in the past. Your love to others can grow by leaps and bounds. Then your ministry can grow by leaps and bounds. You being a servant of Jesus Christ can grow deeper. Your love can cause the Holy Spirit to move in greater power. More love can move you deeper into God’s heart. You can express God’s love to the world in ways you never imagined.

Now for the all importance of Saul’s conversion to Paul on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:4). It says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Jesus did not say why are you persecuting my children. Jesus said, “persecuting Me.” When the Lord repeats a name twice, you better listen because He means it is very important. When the Lord brought this to my attention, I immediately thought of cross words to my husband and other Christians. It is the same as those words being said to Jesus.

I pray that your heart is so filled with love, that you remember this before the fact and not afterwards, as sometimes I do. Ask Jesus to put more love in your heart starting now.

World Economics Changed For One

My daughter Tiffany needed braces. We decided we did not want to pay it over a period of 18 months. A few years earlier, we had invested in some gold. I shared with my husband that the price of gold was lower than what we had paid for it. We talked it over and decided to sell it on a certain date which was about three weeks later. I watched the price of gold and it stayed low. When we woke up on the target date, the price was over what we had paid. My husband went to the bank and collected the money. We had more than enough. The following day, the gold dropped back down to the low price it was before our sell date. I wondered how many other Christians needed to sell their gold that day. Or were we the only ones. Did God change the price of gold just for us? That thought does not really matter. What matters is that our loving Father changed the world economics for one family.

Before this point in time, God did test our obedience concerning money. When you have four or five children plus who ever they brought home, the food in the house could be slim. That would be the time God would ask us to do something. It could have been to give money or food to someone. One time it was to buy a sleeping bag for a homeless person. When we were obedient, God would always have someone ask our family over for dinner or unexpected money would arrive.

We believed and taught our children that a family works together and to not expect money for chores. Sometimes we would pay for things they wanted. We paid for extra school activities. For example an instrument for band, pep squad uniforms, choir outfits and Gold Duster uniforms.

We now have grandchildren and they are taught not to expect money when they help us. Two of our children live in near by towns and we would rather spoil our grandchildren. They never know if we will pay them. We do have some pre-arranged work for pay. For example, my health prevents me from feeding my animals. I have horses, peacocks, ducks and chickens. Feeding them is not easy especially when it rains. Plus one day a week the younger ones will help the older ones feed. We all know that most of the time by doing this, it takes longer.

My children have taught my grandchildren to give a tenth of what they make back to the church. This warms my heart with such joy. The preschool children may give all they have to missionaries. I have seen my teenage grandchildren give all they have to someone in

Sharing your money begins in your heart. Giving money to spread the news about Jesus generally begins with how much you love Jesus and letting it to spill over in other areas.

Beloved, give some time to your church and the spreading of the words of Jesus. Many forget about giving time to help the church or others.

Now, I do understand the fear of living from pay check to pay check. Please start saving a little at a time toward getting out of debt. An excellent study for your finances is Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Institute. It is wise to tithe (giving a tenth of your income) to your church and watch and see what God will do. But if you do this trying to get God give you more…well that will not work. All things are done because of your love. I took a class that was free at a local church.

Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Institute: https://www.daveramsey.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-9PmwPb94gIVFbnACh2_kQXnEAAYASAAEgJ0TfD_BwE

How Often Should One Pray

Reflect Jesus Christ

When you are in the Throne Room and have not asked this one thing, you need to stop here and ask God to show you your sins as He sees them. When He shows you, it should break your heart. All pride should be broken too. This is hard to do. I would prefer just to skip this part. To be broken is necessary for you to become poor in spirit. In Matthew 6:3 it says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” One needs to feel totally unworthy before God. It is here that we become what is in verse 5. “Blessed are the gentle (meek). This means your attitude is under control. You can do this and be confident to go before God. Just know that God is a good God and His Spirit has lead you this far. This is your confidence. Study this chapter. This chapter are principles of God to us.

How many times a day should we pray. I would suggest 3 times a day as Daniel. (Daniel 6:3)

Early morning prayer is wonderful, that is if you don’t fall asleep. A Jewish belief is that God visits (wanders) the earth from midnight to 6:00am. Now I don’t know the time zone. (LOL) I would assume on Israel’s time. Also some say if you wake up at 3:00am that it is God wanting to speak to you. Now I don’t know if these things are true but I do wake up sometimes at three. I do feel that a morning prayer is good so you can pray about the day and get instructions and leading for the day. Also some say that your first thoughts when you wake are things that God has counselled you while you were sleeping. (Job 33:16) I know some of these things are not found in scripture but you might put these things in your hip pocket and draw them out to ponder on if things happen to you.. Remember though, this is my life time with God. Your life and relationship with God will be unique to you. Jesus did not heal the blind the same way. every time. Why, because then people would worship the method instead of Jesus

A noon prayer is important, At noon you know more about your day and we know more about our path for that day. At this time you will probably need further instructions,

Now for the evening prayer. Important is an understatement. It is the evening prayer time where you come in from the field. You need to be inspected by your Shepherd. He needs to use His rod and His staff. His rod and staff use to scare me because I thought it might be some kind of punishment. No, it is far from it. At the end of the day, a shepherd would hold his rod low at the entrance to a fold. Every sheep had to pass under his rod. By this means the shepherd could examine each to see if it had any wounds needing attention. You need to pass under the rod and allow God to examine you. You need to allow Him to look at your wounds made by the world and wounds made by your sins. It is under this rod that your healing takes place. Read Psalm 23:4 which says “Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.” They bring comfort to the one that approaches God in a worth manner. In the evening, when you have come into the sheep fold you can have a restful sleep for you know that the Shepard Himself has inspected your wounds and healed them. Jesus stands at the gate guarding you as you sleep.

Also God will use His staff to pull you back onto His path. Cherished friends, He loves us so much. Who else would give their all for sinful people.

Remember that God did not create you for a time. He created you for eternity. Your life here on earth provides the opportunity to get acquainted with Him. It is the opportunity for Him to develop your character in His likeness.

Let your heart seek Him continually. This is a state of the heart that is constant. God uses your present time to mold and shape your future usefulness here on earth and in eternity.. Remembering you were created for eternity will help you in your prayer and worship time with the Lord. It will help you to walk in the spirit. Ask yourself throughout the day, “Do I feel the presence of God?” If you don’t, then go to God and wait. Pray and worship Him. Then ask yourself, “Did I feel His holiness and acceptance of my worship” He will tell you.

In closing let me say this…God does not need our worship and prayers. God is self-sufficient. Prayer is for our benefit. Because of His love, He allows us to behold His attributes. He shares them with us. Nothing surpasses being bathed and held in God’s glory.

Enter The Throne Room of God

In an instant, everything changes. You run to God and fall to your knees while a roaring thunder rolls with pain through out your whole being. If you do not know God, your tears and words may fall to the ground and be void before God. Those who have knelt before the cross of Jesus and has His blood fall from the cross to cover them., then you are not alone because you have the Holy Spirit within you. Yes your soul will ache, The pain keeps your words all jumbled up inside of you. Beloved, God is already there. The Holy Spirit will take your tears to God who puts them in a bottle. The Holy Spirit will speak to Jesus about what is happening.

I have been there my friends. The pain is unbearable. Sometimes I have heard the Holy Spirit speak on my behalf. I may not know exactly what word was being said word by word, but I knew the meaning of each sentence.

The closer you are to God, the closer His presence can be felt by you. God knows you need Him, He will bring you comfort. As to how fast this comfort comes depends on your relationship with God. God does heal you spiritually, mentally and emotionally.

Don’t hide from God and only come to Him when you are hurting. Have a relationship with God so you can enter His throne room in an instant.

I use Psalm 100:4 as a guide in my approach to God. “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him: bless His name.” (NAS).

But before we can enter His gates to the abode of God, we must have Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is the key to unlock the gate to the realm of God. This holy place can only be entered by someone made holy. The Holy Spirit is your guide in this place. Stay at the gate to examine yourself, and confessing sin. If my heart is not prepared to go through this gate, I can feel pressure around my heart. It is as if the Holy Spirit is holding me back and saying, “Not yet.”

With sin forgiven and washed by the blood of Jesus, one can now enter the gate. I enter the gate thanking God for what He did for me that day. One needs to stand in the open gate giving thanks to the Lord God, waiting until the Holy Spirit to draw you to God’s court.

Remember Moses and how he waited for God. One needs to stay in the court praising God until the Holy Spirit says you can enter the throne room of God.

It is then that one can have confidence to enter into the presences of God. Hebrew 4:16 says, “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 10:19. In I John 3:21, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Dear Ones, if one approaches God through the blood of Jesus with His holiness in mind through worship, one can approach His throne with confidence. It is here, humbled at the feet of God, one can ask for help and the desires of one’s heart. The Holy Spirit will guide you in praying in His will. Again, if you start to pray out of the will of God, the Holy Spirit will put pressure on your heart. Let me warn you now, that when you are at the feet of the living God, touching the hem of His Holiness, your request may seem so unimportant. What you are experiencing and seeing more clearly are the attributes of God. It is there that you realize that you are but “dirty rags” and only want to praise and worship God with the giving thanks for Jesus and the work He did in order to save you and bring you to His feet. As Moses did, we are to wait and approach God, to accomplish Ephesians 3. We must take the time and discipline ourselves. God is always waiting for us.

You may want to search other books on prayer to help inspire you. I took a course called Prayer Life by T. W. Hunt. Then I guided my children through the course. http://www.lifeway.com

Next I will explain how many times a day one may need to pray.