iPray 2010: When bloggers pray

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 2nd Chronicles 7:14

Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. James 5:16 AMP

The Scriptures above are just two amongst many that encourage us to pray. What is prayer? Simply, talking to God AND hearing God speak back. It is communication. There is no intimacy without communication, the level of relationship I have with you stems from what I choose to disclose/keep from you. God desires to be intimate with His creation, He longs to hear our voice, He longs to speak to us but the truth is sometimes we (or maybe it's just me!) are just too busy. There are bills to pay, jobs to do, deadlines that cannot be missed and even church programs to attend that sometimes one-on-one moments with the Father get lost at the bottom of To-Do lists as we go to bed with a guilty feeling and making the well worn promise to spend even more time with Him the next day.

I'm describing myself, some people ask why I love prayer? I don't know if I love it, I can't count the times that days have gone by and I've only said Thank you Lord, days when it's been a brief hi, hello usually reserved for strangers instead of a Lord, I love you so much! Just as there can be no intimacy without communication, there can be no power without prayer? Why do we need power? Power is required to do any and everything. If my hands had no power I could not type, if there was no power, I couldn't switch this computer on. Without power, I cannot accomplish the purpose He set out for me from the beginning of time.

So what's iPray 2010? Well, last year I spent a few months on what I titled 'A Season of Prayer', this year I was going to do the same but on a very personal note as I had to get my prayer life back and wanted to retrace my steps back to intimacy with the Father. However, I've felt led to open it to all of blogville and declare February the month of iPray because I believe that miracles can happen when bloggers pray. There is power in corporate prayer, there is power in corporate worship, there is power in unity.

Therefore by the grace of God, every day in February, there'll be a post here with a prayer, different topics, different areas, pouring out our hearts to a God who understands us more than we even do ourselves. I'm so grateful to the bloggers who have chosen to be a part of this. God bless you real good and I'm excited to hear your prayers. It's not too late to join in, sorry if I didn't send a message to you, as it means I don't have your email address but if interested email me amarasviewonstuff@yahoo.com.

If you can't write a prayer, please lift us up in prayer as the devil never likes it when we pray but we serve a God at the mention of His name every knee must bow. Too few answers to too many questions. We always seem to look for solutions on this plane when maybe, just maybe we should be looking higher.

So iPray, do you?

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 2010 remains our year of 'The Lord has done this' in Jesus name.

Dear Daddy

Dear Daddy

You are the One to whom all praise and glory is due. The One who is all-knowing and all-Powerful, the One who is great and greatly to be praised. The reason I am here, still singing and still standing, the One who is worthy of all adoration and all praise. There's a reason why you say we should enter your gates with thanksgiving in our hearts, to come into your courts with praise, this is because it's really easy for me to get bogged down with the issues of life, praising you glorifies you but magnifies you in my life also. Today was a day of testimony but also a day of manifesting the word that we should wait on the lord until our change comes, that those who put their trust in the lord will never be put to shame and even when the answer appears to tarry we should wait for it. You are a God who can reverse what has been written about us, we need not fear the letters written by men for when we place them before you, you turn it around to for your glory. Thank you Daddy.

Father, I've been in a 'phase' for a while now, I know it and You know it. I wouldn't call it bad or good but I thank you because you have been faithful. Even though I know I haven't really been. Forgive me for cloaking relationship in religion, forgive me for thinking that religion only occurred in 'institutions', forgive me for coming to you with my lips but my heart being a little distant from you. Thank you for rising me up from my slumber and opening the eyes of my understanding to realise that it is when men sleep that the enemy sows tares amongst us. Thank you for showing me that it is a battle, a battle that will be won not by my power or my might but by your Spirit. Thank you because the battle will be won by PRAYER, by FASTING , by living a RIGHTEOUS LIFE and by SPEAKING THE WORD.

Heavenly Father I know consistency and discipline have not always been strong points with me so I'm not looking at the whole stretch. I'm looking at today, I'm looking at this moment, I'm looking at myself, unable to do what I need to do and thereby stretching out my hands to the master in faith because I know that with Him, I can walk on water. Father teach me to live a life of joy, understanding that tears may fall and there might be pain but deep within me, there is a well that bubbles and brings freshness, a joy that becomes my strength, a joy that transcends situations and circumstances, a joy that says I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVETH!

In coming days I will be unburdening my heart to you and allowing you to do the work I have been attempting to run away from! I'm blessed that you are my daddy for how many can say that with total confidence. I can sleep at night because you give your beloved sleep, I can rise in the morning because you have said I shall live to declare your glory. Thank you for a new season of prayer we are about to enter, I give you glory and praise. Teach me to open my mouth and unburden myself to you. Thank you Heavenly Father for just as I have testified today, this year shall be a year of your greatness and goodness in my life in Jesus name.

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. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:5-8

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 2010 is our year of rising like eagles in Jesus name.

Introducing iPray: When bloggers pray, 2010 coming to a blog near you in February 2010, for more info or if you want to join us please email me amarasviewonstuff@yahoo.com. God bless.

The Wilderness Chronicles: Day 11

My mind or His mind?

Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had IN MIND to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joesph, son of David,do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." Matthew 1:19-20

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ JesusPhilippians's 2:5

I need to thank the blogger Truth because this post was inspired by a conversation I had with her. I'm a thinker, so there's always something on my mind, Joyce Meyer says the mind is a battlefield, it's where our thoughts spring from and we win or lose there first before we even pick up any weapons.

When I'm tempted to ask Why Me?, Lord please remind me about Joseph, Matthew called him a righteous man, that one faces the issues of life is not as a result of sin but because we have been chosen! God knew that it was only a man like Joseph, a righteous man who could hear from Him that He could entrust with the position of being Himself (a Father) on earth to His only begotten. Joseph was engaged to be married which in Bible times was as good as being married as breaking an engagement was tantamount to divorce!! We have a lot to learn! So not only did word come to him that his boo was pregnant (and not by him?), she was talking all manner of crazy about some Holy Ghost conception? Why me Lord?

Don't we still ask the same question today? Why me Lord? I have served in your house faithfully, I have lived a righteous life and here I am waiting for the manifestation of your word in my life. Why me Lord? Why the burden of preaching the gospel to a man, woman, family member, boss who isn't even interested? Why me Lord? Why this responsibility? Why can't I have a baby? Why can't I get married? Why can't I get unmarried? Why am I sick? Why is my baby sick? Why can't I get a job? Honey, God alone has the answers to the Why's of life but we see that we grow in trust as we place them all into His capable care!

Joseph resolved in his mind what he would do, recently I made a decision about one of my close relationships, I made up my mind what I was going to do and then the Lord reminded me of this Scripture,

He said "Both of us know what is in your mind about this issue but do you know what is on my mind? and if they are different which do you follow? Don't give up on Mary because you don't understand what is going on with her for your destiny is tied to her"

Can I be real? I dropped my Bible when I heard that statement, no, not on the floor, just to my side because I wanted to do what I wanted to do but as always God wins. When unsure about any decision, ask God to confirm His word by two or three independent witnesses! I say this same thing to you, don't put Mary away because you don't understand why things are working the way that are, Mary could be a job, your ministry,your spouse, your fiance/fiancee, an issue, a person but hear God, because what Mary is carrying is from the Holy Ghost even though it doesn't look that way!

People may laugh at your decision, even when Jesus was an adult, He was mocked about not knowing His father but that is irrelevant. 2010 is about recognising His voice, heeding His voice,obeying His voice above all else. So let them laugh, let them talk, whatever action you take ensure it is His mind. I love God because He speaks His mind. So when His mind and my mind clash, I'm learning to realign myself and say Yes Lord, all the way. I pray you do the same!

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 2010 remains the year of 'The Lord has done this' and the rise of the eagles!

The Wilderness Chronicles; Day 10

When the tempter speaks...

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread". Jesus answered, "It is written: Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' Matthew 4:2-4

My phone rings, the display unit shows 'Private number', I hesitate; I like knowing what to expect before I pick! "Hey dearie, please let me in, forgot my keys at work",I smile, check the door and let my sister/friend/neighbour in, I don't recognise the number but I know the voice. The voice determines the response, if I don't recognise the voice, the door does not open.

Jesus was hungry, the Bible acknowledges it and he hears a voice that tells him to turn stones to bread, it is in His power to do so for He has spent the last forty days in the wilderness in preparation for the ministry His father has given Him and yet through the cravings for food, He recognises this voice, it is not the Father, it is the tempter. It makes me wonder, why I do the things I do, when I do the things I do, am I listening to the Father or am I listening to the tempter?

Do I recognise the voice of God as clearly as I do my mum or dad's, for 2010 to be the best year yet I realise that I must first recognise the voice of the Lord and then heed it. Recognition comes with intimacy, sometimes I try to play pranks on my friends by pretending to be someone else on the phone but they see right through it because they know my voice. 2010 is about being led by the Holy Spirit, my sheep hear my voice and obey. What would have been the lot of Jesus if he had thought that the voice of the tempter was the voice of God and he obeyed!

So how do I recognise the voice of the tempter? Work hard on recognising the voice of 'real McCoy', bank workers are taught to identify genuine bills, there are too many counterfeits out there, energy is wasted learning about the fakes, focus on knowing the real article so much that warning signs ring when the fake stuff comes up. 2010 has to be a year of spending time with the Father, learning His ways, walking His paths. When the tempter speaks, speak the Word back to Him. The tempter is sly, he knows the Word so we must know even more of the Word, the voice of the Lord will never contravene the Word. When in doubt, pray and seek spiritual counsel but I want to cultivate an even deeper relationship with God so when He speaks it's the obeying bit I have to work on and not who is this?

We cannot be successful without hearing and following the voice of God. He speaks but am I listening? Help me Lord, I'm tuning my ears to the right frequency.

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 2010 is our year of 'The Lord has done this' and rise of the eagles, which includes you.

2010: The year of 'The Lord has done this'

I will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,so that people may see and know,may consider and understand, that the HAND OF THE LORD HAS DONE THIS, the Holy One of Israel has created this Isaiah 41:18-20

I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in YOUR OWN LAND. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken AND I HAVE DONE IT, declares the Lord Ezekiel 37:14


Happy New Year! It's still a New Year and Lord I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to be here and still standing. To God be the glory for the great and wonderful things He has done and I' excited because He still has even greater things in store, more than I can think, imagine or comprehend!

Sometime in December I got this strong impression in my spirit that 2010 was going to be a year of the Lord doing the impossible. Yes, the Lord has always been in this business but I haven't reflected on what this means to me Zoe Believer personally!

2010 is the year of seeing the hand of the Lord as prayer points turn to testimonies and praise reports of this is the Lord's doing and it is indeed marvellous in my eyes. Don't get tired of going before the face of the Master, you may have toiled all night but keep on keeping on

2009 was tough in many respects but yet you are still here, with the same income and increased cost of living, we all still made it! Everyday we woke up, found something to wear in the wardrobe, got in the car or bus or train, went out, came back in, food in stomach. God was and continues to be faithful to us all.

God says in this season, He will turn things around, this is not survival mode, this is not scarcity mode, this is abundance even in the midst of dryness we can FLUORISH. In 2010, we must take God at His word. In 2010, let's be committed to walking with God, it's a New Year and God is still in business! Halleluyah!

Father, let my testimonies be such that you alone can take the glory. I shall testify publicly of your goodness and faithfulness in my life. I will give you the praise that is due your name that the hearts of those who hear may be encouraged to stand and live for you.

Lord, I'm excited, here we go!!

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 2010 our year of 'The Lord has done this' and the rise of the eagles. Amen and amen!