Gather the Outcasts

Check out our web site www.gathertheoutcasts.com for upcoming events, audio messages, pictures of mission trips, and other contact information.

Friday, December 31, 2010

Looking Forward to 2011

Dear beloved: As we look in the rear view mirror at 2010 and look forward to 2011, what is the spirit of God saying as we embark on the coming year? I believe the spirit is saying prepare your hearts for the separation of light from darkness which will bring astounding changes in the world we are accustomed to seeing. Phillipians 3:12 (Paul) not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me. v13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining towards what lies ahead, v14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (NIV) God is preparing the church and His faithful to receive the second coming of the Lord Christ Jesus; are you ready for His coming?

The trials for all will be much stronger, but God will also provide for and pour out on His elect blessings for ministry, blessings for provision, blessings for families, and signs, wonders, and miracles in ways that have not been seen before. Get ready for some mighty outpourings of the Holy Spirit! We are already seeing some of that as the days of 2010 come to a close, the Bay of the Holy Spirit revival in Mobile, Alabama, and the Awakening that went on for several months at IHOP in Kansas City. The outpourings of the spirit that are coming in the days ahead will be much stronger and be marked with signs, wonders, and miracles. As the darkness of the natural world grows, so too will the Light of the world shine brighter! Many people will wander in confusion seeking answers to the problems of our economy, the moral confusion, false teaching from the church and false prophets; however, the Lord is saying do not fear. 2Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of fear (timidity), but a spirit of power, of love and a strong mind. Fear is the oppostite of faith, if you let fear dominate your life, it just shows you need to trust in the Lord more and turn your fears over to Him!

Phillipians 4:6 Brethren, be anxious for nothing, but in all things through prayer and supplication (plea for mercy), with thanksgiving, make your requests known unto the Lord. As you lay your pleas and prayers at the feet of the Lord Jesus, give thanks for what you have, and ask Him for strength in the days ahead. We will all need it! There will be events that rock our world that will shake even the strongest of us. But do not fear, for the Lord will give His angels charge to cover and guard us. Psalm 91:11. I'll be posting more specific ways to draw near to the Lord and prepare for the coming year in the days ahead. May God bless you richly, in Christ, Jim

Thursday, December 23, 2010

God is With Us

Dear beloved: As we approach the day on which we celebrate the birth of our Savior, ponder the fact that as a believer in the Lord Jesus this is your reality: God is with you! Matthew 1:22-23, Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, v23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means "God with us". Galatians 2:20 tells us essentially the same thing, as Paul stated it, "for I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself up for me." And so as we walk out our daily walk we do so by faith in the One who gave Himself up for us on the cross.

Many people do not know or recognize their identity in Christ, therefore they make all kinds of agreements with the enemy that gradually defeats them and brings them down through depression, addictions, loss of fellowship, broken relationships, and in general just a life of broken dreams and defeat. Thus it is easy for the enemy of our souls to defeat us if we do not walk in the identity of our Savior. Understand this, that the enemy will always try to tear you away from the kingdom of God, that he will never rest and leave you alone to be a child of God, but he will always continually come at you with temptation and trials. But also know that as a child of God, the God that is within you is greater than the god of this world. 1 John 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. v5 They( the spirit of the antichrist) are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. v6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us, he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Before Jesus had even spoken one word the devil was already trying to destroy him, and so to will the devil try to destroy you. Matthew 2:13 Now when they had departed, behold and angel of the Lord appeared in a dream saying, "Arise and take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him." The devil knows the plans the Lord has for your life, and he will do everything in his power to keep you from fulfilling your destiny in the Lord. But God says when you are doing His will, when you are being a witness to His kingdom and a light for the world, that He will be with you to guide you, strengthen you, and keep you. What better promise could there be than that. Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, v20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE." Rejoice, beloved, for He is with you always! God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Upcoming Kenya Crusades

Dear beloved:
The Lord has opened up the doors for me to go to Kenya again, probably in mid February to early March. The doors have opened to preach evangelism crusades in three parts of the country: 1) the first will be in Kibera, the big slum in Nairobi the capitol city, with half a million people crammed into a very small territory with deplorable sanitation conditions.(please see my website www.gathertheoutcasts.com and click on events, a video of Kibera will come up, you can get a good idea of the conditions in Kibera), 2) in Mumias, in west Kenya near the Uganda border, and 3) a church conference in south Kenya near Mt. Kilimanjaro. Each of the crusades will be open air for 3-4 nights, with praise bands, African singers and dancers, and will also have pastor training sessions during the day.

Last week in the prison an inmate came up after the service and said the Lord had shown him in a dream that on the second night of the crusade,(I'm assuming in the Kibera crusade), that 681 people would receive a miraculous healing. In addition to that, a year ago at IHOP One Thing conference in Kansas City a lady prophesied over me that 800 people would come to know the Lord the first time I speak over there, and she said "the Lord will give you more if you ask Him for them." So we asked the Lord for thousands right then and there! So you can see the prophetic word has been spoken over me and the will of the Lord is for me to go and take this nation for the Kingdom, 3 crusades in 3 parts of the country, to bring in the glory and bring heaven down to earth.

Last week I was questioning the Lord for the scope and size of this vision, it appeared to me to be like a mountain for the size of my ministry and the way I am accustomed to operating. The Lord gave me a dream that showed me I was thinking too small. In the dream I was in a basketball game, and the hoop I was shooting at was very small in diameter, like a nerf ball hoop, too small for the size of the ball I was shooting to go in. The Lord was saying to me, "Jim, your vision is too small, your goal too small, you need to enlarge your goal!" Phillipians 4:19 But my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. v24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Beloved, pray with me that the things I ask for regarding these crusades will come to pass, that the Lord will remove any doubt and unbelief from my heart, that all the prophesies and dreams will be fulfilled. If the Lord puts on your heart to be an intercessor for these crusades, or to contribute financially to help bring them to pass, please contact me and let me know what the Lord in saying to you. Thank you and God bless you. In Christ, Jim

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Dream of Famine

Dream of Famine
by Jim Rowh
pureprairie@hotmail.com
www.gathertheoutcasts.com

After reading the posting of urgency to prepare I know now is the time to release a dream given to me by the Lord while I was in Costa Rica ministering to the Cabecar indigenous people last April 09. The Lord downloaded prophetic dreams into me every night I was in the remote jungle with those precious people. Dream of famine to come: Part 1, A large black horse, it looked like a Percheron stallion, came out with a rider on its back holding a balance scale in his hand. I immediately recognized it as the black horse of Rev.6:5 and when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat upon him had a pair of balances in his hand. v6 and I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius, and do not hurt the wine or the oil. Immediately after I identified the black horse and the rider, the horse reared up and threw the rider off. Part two of the dream: I was standing in front of a dough roller, like what is used in pizza kitchens to roll out pizza crusts. Long chains of dough were coming out of the roller, and I was helping to pull them out as I was standing about 5 feet away in front of the machine. All of a sudden, the long chains of dough began to break into short pieces and fall to the ground in front of me. I reached out and tried to catch them as they fell to the ground, but I could not catch them. The Lord brought to my recollection the peanut factory in Georgia that had been shut down for sending out contaminated peanut products causing many to be recalled. Third part of dream: I was showing some people my flour mill which is on my farm. We were standing watching the mill grind flour and blow it up into the sifter.

Interpretation of the dream: Part 1, scarcity of food and hyperinflation will make food extremely hard to obtain and very expensive. Currently wheat can be purchased locally for about five dollars per bushel, a sixty pound measure. A quart of wheat for a denarius, a day's wage, will mean that prices and availability will put the price of it out of most people's reach. The rider with scales being thrown off means that balance will be out of control, chaos will reign, there will be no order. A horse that throws his rider is out of control. Scarcity could come from many directions, including drought, pestilence, blight in the seed, chaos in the cities, terrorism, or natural disasters. Part 2, The Lord is saying the food chain is going to break. The food chain in America is built upon trucking food far from its point of production to its point of consumption, and it all depends on just in time delivery. The stores will be easily and quickly be cleaned out. Disruption of the chain will be the order of the day, there are many break points along the chain that will be easily broken and the chain will break. When the chain breaks, part three will become reality. Part 3, local production of food will also be the order of the day. The mill we were standing in front of mills about 300 pounds of wheat flour per hour, the Lord was saying get ready to mill. Home production and local food supply systems will be the only reliable source of food. Get your gardens going, your food preserved, grains set aside, and local production facilities ramped up. You will need it!

Final note. This is not just about self preservation. Prov. 11:24 There is that scattereth, and yet increases; and there is that withholds more than is meet, but it tend to poverty v25 the liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered himself, v26 He that witholds corn, the people shall curse him; but blessing shall be upon him that selleth it. I will be posting more dreams this week concerning the days ahead.
God bless you, in Jesus name,

Jim Rowh
www.gathertheoutcasts.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Dream of Coming Inflation

Dear beloved: I recently had a dream of what I believe to be revelation on the coming economic meltdown and ensuing turmoil here in the United States and around the world. This dream was given to me a few months ago and I have prayed about it and asked the Lord for revelation as I have pondered its meaning. If anyone has revelation given on it that the Lord shows you, please let me know. Part 1, I was in an arena of some kind watching a bunch of cattle and bulls. Many of the bulls were raging, coming at some of the people who were standing in a line to get ice cream, and there were some smaller bulls going into the line as people got their ice cream. Then from that line I looked back into the valley below and saw a very big bull in another arena, and he was trying to get out. Part 2, I saw a glass container with a sweet potato baked in it off to one end of a table. Part 3, A bunch of people were laid out on the ground, dead, and I ran some kind of a wheel, like a measuring wheel, across the heads of the dead bodies, as if to measure or count them. Then I picked up a chair and moved it into position under a tree.

Interpretation of the dream: I believe the Lord is saying there will be small runs of inflation that will come against the economy of the country, especially in the area of food items. People will be standing in line for food and the bulls will keep raging and coming at them to take away their purchasing power for food. Psalm 22:11-13 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. v12 Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. v13 they gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and roaring lion.(satan, the destroyer). The big bull still in the pen in the valley will be the final destroyer of the economy when he gets out, as he is much bigger than the rest. With the sweet potatoes in the baking dish, I believe the Lord is giving a sense of timing. The smaller bulls will begin to attack in the winter, around Thanksgiving and thereafter, the time when people bake sweet potatoes. The attacks will pick up in frequency and intensity, culminating in the attack from the very large bull, all out inflation that will take away most of the value of the dollar. There will be deaths associated with the turmoil, people standing in bread lines, soup lines, and people who are homeless and jobless who run out of food. There will also be deaths from stealing and lawlessness as breakdown in food supplies leads to increasing turmoil.

The last part of the dream regarding the chair under the tree, the Lord is saying take up a position under His shelter and rest under His authority. Psalm 91:1 He who dwells under the shelter of the Most High, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. v2 I will say to my Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust!" v3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, and from the deadly pestilence. v4 He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. V5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day; v6 Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. v7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not approach you. v8 You will only look on with your eyes, and see the recompense of the wicked. v9 For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. v10 No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.
Beloved, pray Psalm 91 over yourself and your family, make the Most High your dwelling place. God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Time of Preparation

Dear beloved: The time for preparation for the shaking that is coming to America is now, it is time to get your spiritual house in order, as well as take care of physical needs for your family to the best of your ability. The economic collapse of the American economy is nearing as the dollar continues to slide and many banks and foreign nations are calling for the dollar to be removed as the reserve currency of the world. When this is done, you will see a new world currency that will replace the dollar and contribute to spiraling costs of all basic items, especially food and essentials that we take for granted. Please read Dream of Tornado on this blog given in August of this year. It is a warning dream of the economic tornado and destruction that will result from it in the days ahead. Also go back to dreams of famine and economic turmoil posted on this blog back in March of this year. Pray about your response for yourself and the welfare of your family.

Luke 12:54, Jesus said to the crowd, "when you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, It's going to rain, and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, It's going to be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, how is it that you don't know how to interpret the present time? Beloved, the signs are everywhere about us: falling dollar value, bank failures, government spending that is way beyond out of control, high enemployment, increasing prices for staples such as grains, and those are just the economic barometers. Add to that enemy terrorist cells in every major city, waiting for opportunities to blow up cites, as well as enemies without our borders that are becoming increasingly bold in their attitudes towards a weak America. Beloved, if there ever was a time to cry out to the Lord on behalf of this nation, it is now.

Matthew 24:6-8 Jesus told the disciples of the days ahead when they would see wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes in various places. Then he said in verse 8,all these are the beginning of birth pangs, v9 then you will be handed over and put to death, and v9. you will be hated by all nations because of Me. The time of birth pangs is here, the time when we here in America will be hated if we stand up for Jesus. Beloved, stay in prayer and stay vigilant. Watch and pray! God bless you this day, in Christ, Jim

Monday, October 25, 2010

Kenya Report pt7

Dear beloved: I have received an invitation from the Pastor's Association of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa that is 3 miles from downtown Nairobi, to come back to Kenya to preach a series of revival meetings. Kibera is a district without sanitation and is home to about 1 million people; many children there are left as orphans, and the AIDS rate is quite high. I am in the process now of working out times and strategies for the meetings in Kibera. If you would like to see a touching video of Kibera, go to www.youtube.com, then search:redhead31293, then click on Kibera:Africa's Largest Slum. 3min 51sec. Pray that God would open the doors necessary in Kibera to allow these meetings to go forth, that the provision would be there, that God would bring workers along side for the harvest, and that many in that place would be ushered into the Kingdom as a result of the crusades.
Another pastor from Kibera was touched in a mighty way when I spoke to the pastor's meeting, and later in the week he found me at a revival and asked me what he could do to stir up the spirit in his small church, and in Kibera overall. The Holy Spirit had me to speak to him about a 24-7 IHOP style house of prayer to put a prayer covering over the whole city 24 hours each day. When I started to describe to him the vision I had for his church, he began to weep and cried over and over, "This is from God, this is from God, this is from God!" I received an email from him since returning to the states and have learned that he did get his house of prayer started with 10 people. Please pray that Pastor Vitalis will be steadfast in this venture, that the Lord will bring more workers to his side, and that he will stir up the spirit of the Lord to cover all of Kibera and Nairobi with the covering of the Lord.
I also have an invitation from a pastor in western Kenya, the city of Mumias, to go there and share the gospel with their pastor's association, and to preach to villages in that area. Please pray that God would open up doors in that area, and that he would provide bibles and the provision necessary for that outreach. Thanks to all who are praying for this ministry, for the provision, and for health and safety for me personally.
I will give more details on the return trip as they unfold, just know that I am a willing vessel for the Lord. If you would like to help contribute to this mission, to purchase bibles or for travel or crusade expenses, you may do so through PayPal on this site or on the www.gathertheoutcasts.com web site. Thank you and God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Kenya Report pt6

Dear beloved: One of the highlights of the Kenya trip was a visit to city hall in downtown Nairobi, where Dr. Joe Kayo holds an evangelism crusade every day of the work week in an auditorium inside city hall. Dr. Kayo is a famous evangelist and pastor who has ministered in Kenya and around the world for many years. He has conducted the meetings in city hall for several years now, and the response has been phenomenal to say the least.

Many of the people who come to the meetings are lawyers, judges, and heads of government and business, all dressed in suit and tie and proper business attire, and they come for one hour every day. Our host pastor Boniface Musoti took Doug McCary and myself down there the first day in Kenya, and we were introduced by Dr. Kayo as men of God from America, it was a thrill to see the Holy Spirit moving amoung the influential and decision makers of Kenya. The hall holds 1,600 people, and there was an overflow crowd the day we were there, and again a week later when we went back and Doug was given an opportunity to bring the message for the day.

We had the privilege to meet Dr. Kayo in a nearby restaurant after the meeting, where he gave us a warm personal welcome and asked questions about our ministries and the crusades we were undertaking in Nairobi. Beloved, this is what we need in America, meetings in every city right under the nose of city government, men and women who are committed to prayer and praise of the Lord right in the middle of their work day! Pray for Dr. Kayo for this vital ministry to continue and to get ever bigger, for the glory of God to take over every aspect of Kenya's government and business affairs. Acts 26:28, And King Agrippa replied to Paul, "in a short time you will pursuade me to become a Christian." v29 And Paul said, "I would to God, that whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains."

May all who hear the word spoken at city hall come to believe and serve the risen Lord. Pray for Dr. Kayo, and that the door will be open for me to speak there when I go back to Kenya. God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Kenya Report pt5

Dear beloved: I had an opportunity to preach in a church in Nairobi that was established back in the 50's as one of the first Pentecostal churches in Kenya. Among the evangelists who had preached there over the years was Oral Roberts and T.L. Osborne. I preached a noon meeting at the church and during that meeting God gave a miraculous healing to a lady who had a very painful eye infection.
The lady came forward for an altar call for salvation and for healing, and it was then that I saw from the swollen socket and the redness of the eye that it was a painful infection. As I touched her and prayed over her, the Lord gave her a mighty healing touch, and instantly the pain went out of her eye. I asked her to give a testimony of the healing and she took the microphone and told the people in the church how she had been relieved instantly of the pain that she had felt in her eye. I then asked the pastor to allow her to give her testimony at the Sunday morning service, which he agreed to do.
Beloved, God wants to heal you of physical infirmity, it is His will for you and for all His children. Jesus said in Mark 2:9,"which is easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Arise, take up your pallet and walk?" v10 But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins-He said to the paralytic v11 "I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home." So Jesus was saying that the One who has the power to forgive sins also has the power to heal us, and also that inherent in the atonement, the sacrifice of Jesus blood, is the ability to heal our infirmities. He demonstrated His salavation power by healing the paralytic. Beloved, believe for your physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Jesus took the stripes for your healing, Isaiah 53:5. God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Kenya Report pt4

Dear beloved: While in Kenya I heard testimonies of three former Muslims who the Lord had touched in a mighty way and brought them to a saving knowledge of Him. The first was a former Muslim Imam, or spiritural leader, who had been an imam for most of his adult life. At middle age in his life he was involved in a car accident that left him crippled and in a wheel chair; at that point he did a lot of soul serching and he accepted Jesus as his Lord and savior, and now he is a pastor of a small church in Nairobi! The focus of his church is to reach out to those Muslim communities in Nairobi with the good news that Jesus saves, a mission that he thoroughly enjoys.

The second testimony came from a lady who was walking down the street and had a radical encounter with the Lord. God led her past our crusade grounds where we were singing and dancing, and preaching the message of the gospel, which we did each afternoon in various locations around Nairobi. As she walked past the crusade grounds, she was prompted by the Holy Spirit to stop in and listen to the singing and the message. She was wooed by the message and she stayed on, then the altar call was given and she came forward to answer the call and confess her faith in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior! What a dramatic end to her Muslim faith and a new beginning with Jesus Christ!

The third testimony I heard was in the church of Pastor Boniface Musoti, our host pastor for the time I was in Nairobi. I had the privilege to preach in his church the last Sunday I was in Nairobi. The testimony was given by a lady from Sudan, who was now living in Nairobi and had come to faith in the Lord after a faith shattering dream she had of Jesus. The events that led up to the dream were that her family was all Muslim and was also involved in black magic and witchcraft to the point that many of her family was being wiped out with sickness and death from practicing the black magic. She prayed for stronger magic but only got sicker and more terrified. Eventually she gave in to a plea from a friend who told her of Jesus Christ and that she needed to give her life to Him and be "born again". So she prayed that Jesus would reveal Himself to her, and that very night Jesus came walking up to her with His nail-pierced hands reaching out to her; He told her how much He loved her and that He wanted her to serve Him forever. She was so shaken by the dream that the next morning she got up and ran to her friend's house, where she told her friend of her dream encounter and Jesus words to her. She prayed with her friend to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior, and was born again! Since that day the Lord has used her to be an evangelist to her family, and by the power of the Holy Spirit she has brought 10 people in her family to the Lord. God does work in mysterious ways! All through the Muslim world this is happening, Jesus is revealing Himself in dreams and visions to the people trapped in the darkness, it is a testimony to the power of prayer as Christians all over the world pray for those held in captivity in far off lands. Beloved, pray for those trapped in all false religions and cults that Jesus would set them free, free indeed! God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Friday, October 15, 2010

Kenya report pt3

Dear beloved: While in Kenya I had the opportunity to preach in a 2,500
inmate prison called Kamiti Prison. Three of us from the mission team went in, where we were met by a lady chaplain who guided us around and took care of the details for our visit. When we first arrived we were taken into the Office of the Chief of Security, where he gave us the authorization to hold two services of one and a half hours each, one on the maximum side and one on the juvenile side of the prison. Before we left his office, he asked us if we wanted to pray, so we all held hands in his office and prayed for the men and the services! No separation of church and state in Kenya!
The first service was held in a big yard with about 100 men, it was quite dirty and the facilities were quite basic. A gazebo in the middle of the yard was the stage for a band and the preaching platform. When the inmate band started to play(it consisted of 2 guitars, a keyboard, and 2 singers), about 50 inmates got out in front of us in the middle of the yard and started to dance to the Lord in a choreographed dance that went on for about 30 minutes; it was a vigorous dance that was led by an inmate who was grinning from ear to ear and loving every minute of it! I had to keep pinching myself that I was really in a prison, it looked more like a Broadway production as every dancing inmate was in perfect step and rhythm, and they were all obviously enjoying it all immensely. After I preached we had an altar call and about 20 men came up for salvation decisions and prayers for healing.
Then on the juvenile side in the afternoon we had a similar service with about 50 inmates, lots of singing and dancing and testimonies. Six young men came forward to make salvation decisions; as I went down the line praying for them, two were slain in the spirit and stayed on the ground for about 15 minutes as we prayed for others who needed healing or encouragement. It was an awesome time in the Lord.
Jesus said in Matthew 25:36 when you visit those in prison you have visited me, that those in prison are the least of these of mine. Only Jesus could give these prisoners the joy that they were exhibiting, nothing else on this earth could give these men the joy and the peace that passeth all understanding, in spite of very difficult circumstances on this earth. Paul said in Hebrews 13:3, remember those in prison as if you were in prison with them, as those in adversity are part of the body. Pray for those in Kamiti prison as if you were in prison with them. God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Kenya Report pt2

Dear beloved: The last night at the prison before I left for Kenya, we were in trevail praying over the Kenya trip and the souls to be brought into the Kingdom. A brother came up to me after the prayer session and told me the Lord had given him a vision of a lady in Kenya who I was praying over and casting demons out of her. In addition to that, she had a child with her that the brother in the prison was supposed to pray for, for the rest of his life. As we neared the last of our revival crusades in Nairobi, I was conscious of the brother's vision, but had yet to see a lady who met the description of the events marked in the vision.
On the last day of crusades, the Uhuru Park crusade was the final event. I was receiving people at the altar call, taking their confession of faith and then praying prayers of repentance or of healing, or just praying the Lord's blessing on them, whatever the Lord required. A lady came down to me, she looked rather wild and forlorn, the Lord said to me this is the one. From physical appearances she certainly fit the description: eyes wide in a startled look, hair unkept, and I knew she had a rough life and she had a child in her arms. I asked her if she wanted to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior and she said in Swahili, through the pastor who was interpreting, that she did, and then I prayed with her and gently bound the demons in her and in the name of Jesus cast them out of her.(Mark 16:15 to end of chapter). After doing that we prayed together for a bit, then I asked her, "what was the name of her child?" She said,"His name is Immanuel, which means God with us!"
When she said Immanuel, I stepped back a couple of steps in amazement as the Lord spoke to me, this is the one for whom the brother in the prison is to pray, for the rest of his life. Immanuel, God with us, the name given to Jesus at the time of His birth. May God be with you, Immanuel and your mother, we are all praying for you! in Christ, Jim

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Kenya Report pt1

Dear beloved: I am home from Kenya and getting adjusted back to life here in the states, although I must say it will never be quite the same again after seeing Africa and all the transforming experiences we encountered over there. A team of 20 of us, evangelists, musicians, children's ministry people, and administration and logistical people ministered for 10 days in the Nairobi area of Kenya, as well as a couple of days south of Nairobi at the Masai Mara Wildlife refuge.
God blessed me with many opportunities to preach the word and to pray for people, to receive many confessions of faith in Jesus Christ, as well as pray for healing for sick and hurting, even pastors and church leaders who were discouraged and needing a touch from the Lord. At a pastor's meeting in Kibera, the slum district of Nairobi that is home to half a million people, the Lord gave me this verse: Acts 2:22, Peter speaking, Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know...
And so as I prayed for these pastors in this meeting, the Lord gave me a word of knowledge that several of them were discouraged and ready to quit, that they were overwhelmed with the burden of their flock and their churches. Several came up for prayer, as they stood before me I had the heart of compassion for them and their flocks... I touched the first one and he got a mighty touch from the Lord that shook him back five feet and put him on the ground. As I went down the line and prayed, all were given a mighty touch from the Lord,strengthening and restoration. The greatest miracle of all is the healing and restoring touch of the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God. Before the meeting was over I laid hands on all 50 of the pastors in attendence, and God did a mighty work in our midst. Give God the glory!
I have been invited back to preach a series of revival meetings by that group of pastors, the meetings will be held somewhere in Kibera, one of the worst slums in Africa, a place of immense brokenness, AIDS, drug use, alcoholism and glue sniffing, open sewage and trash heaps burning everywhere. Please pray for my return, the timing and for the provision, God has anointed me to preach deliverance to the captives, to bring the good news of the gospel to a desperately hurting world. Thank you for your prayers, God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Friday, September 17, 2010

Kenya Trip update

Dear beloved: I will not be posting too much in the next couple of weeks, I will be leaving for Denver today and flying out to Kenya, will arrive in Nairobi on Sunday evening at 7pm. Next week the 21st through the 25th we will have a crusade each day culminating with the main park event in Uhuru Park where we are expecting a crowd of 25,000 and up to attend. We also have ministry events scheduled each day we are there, in addition to the crusades, so it will be a packed schedule. Please pray for me for strength, safety and good health, and for souls, souls, souls to be brought into the kingdom. I am deeply humbled and grateful to the Lord that He would use me in this way. I will have posts when I get back about the trip, and may have a few on the trip if I can get to an internet cafe or place where there are computers. Thank you and God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Monday, September 13, 2010

Kenya mission trip

Dear beloved: Time is rapidly approaching for me to be going to Kenya for two weeks to preach the gospel and stir up the Spirit of the Lord is East Africa. Scroll down to another posting on this page to see a more detailed description of the trip. Last week a pastor's meeting was held in Nairobi to pray for the revival and lay down a foundation of prayer and protection. Over 1,000 pastors and leaders showed up to pray for this revival! To God be the glory, this revival many were saying is an answer to prayers for an East Africa revival that has been prayed for many years. Beloved, pray for this trip, pray for me and all the team, about 20 of us, for souls to be brought into the kingdom, for good health and protection, for God's will to be manifest, Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done. If you would like to help contribute financially please send a letter to Gather the Outcasts, 108 E. Washington, Norton, Ks. 67654, or you can make a donation through Paypal on this page or on my website. Thank you for your prayers, God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Prepare pt7

Dear beloved: As we prepare for the end times harvest and revival, know that the enemy of our souls will do everything in his power to trick and deceive us so that we will not walk the path that God has laid out for us. Revelation 12:9 tells us that satan is the deceiver who deceives the whole world. And again in 1 Peter 5:8, Peter warns us to be of sober spirit, be on the alert, your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And Paul also warns us that satan disguises himself, in 2 Corinthians 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. v14 And no wonder, for even satan disguises himself as and angel of light. v15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds. And so we must be vigilant and on guard, for satan will take over individuals, and churches, and whole nations in his attempt to subvert the kingdom of God.

Paul tells us that a hallmark of the end times will be a desire of men to have their ears tickled with false doctrines. I Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicity says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, v2 by means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,....and then he goes on to state some of the ways in which doctrines will deceive men. We can easily see the same thing happening in the church today. Doctrines that say God blesses homosexuality, that God primary plan for us is to prosper us financially without regard to suffering for the gospel's sake, doctrines that endorse fornication outside of marriage, and so many others. People will always be looking for ways to justify their rebellion and disobedience in the sight of God, that is just the fallen nature of man and it has been that way since the beginning.

Beloved, it is more important than ever before to walk in the Spirit. Paul says in Galatians 5:16 but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. v17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Walking in the Spirit is a daily, maybe even in some cases minute by minute walk with the Lord, where you stay in His glory by exercising three things: 1. we talk to God though prayer, 2. He talks to us though His written word and dreams and revelations, and 3. we are in the fellowship of believers to receive and give encouragement and support. In the next teachings in the days ahead we will explore this walk in greater detail. God bless you this day as you walk in the Spirit, in Christ, Jim

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Prepare pt6

Dear beloved: How can we prepare for the days ahead? You prepare by hiding yourself in the shadow of His wings! Psalm 91 is the best scripture for preparation, post it on your refrigerator door and on your office computer and anywhere you need a reminder that God is in control and you are not! Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. v2 "I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust!" v3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence. v4 He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

God is the deliverer, and He will deliver you from the snare of the trapper. Many will fall into the snare of the trapper, they will not realize until it is too late that they have been deceived and when the trap is set it will spring shut upon them. The deceit of the enemy in the end times will be escelated to a place of great intensity, to the point that even the elect will be deceived. Start listening for the voice of the Lord and the counsel of the Holy Spirit, it is the only voice that you can rely on. Then get some trusted prayer partners to pray and intercede with you, so you have the counsel of many to guide you through tough situations. Psalm 91:5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day v6 of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. v7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not approach you. Beloved, terror attacks are coming to this great nation, but this psalm says that you will not be afraid, and though many may fall at your side, it will not approach you. You will have the Lord's protection!

Begin today trusting in the Lord for your every need. In the midst of chaos you will have peace, in the midst of confusion you will have clarity. That is what is means to be under His wings. May God bless you this day as you walk in the Spirit! in Christ, Jim Rowh

Monday, September 6, 2010

Prepare pt5

Dear beloved: As the end days draw near and the coming of Jesus return becomes more imminent, you will see many grow cold and fall away from the faith. Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets will arise and mislead many. v12 And because lawlessness is increased, the love of many (or most people's love) will grow cold. The devil will deceive many people, even those who confess to be Christians, and lead them astray into all kinds of deception and false doctrines. For many they will join false religions and cults such that will give them a sense of belonging and satisfy their urge to be connected to a spiritual path. For many others, especially in America and other prosperous nations, they will be led down the path of more attachment to materialism and pursuit of happiness through their hobbies and nonstop desire for entertainment and pleasure.

Amos 8:11 tells us "Behold the days are coming" declares the Lord God, "when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord. v12 And people will stagger from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it. v13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst." Beloved, a day of reckoning is coming when people will be crying out for any message of hope, of restoration, of redemption, and they will not find it. Why won't they find it? First, they will not know where to look because at that point many of the churches will be closed from lack of attendance or will have been driven underground due to government persecution and separation of church and state laws that will effectively legislate the church out of its public place. And second, many of the elect will be deceived to the point the evangelists, prophets, and apostles in the land will be few and far between, they too having been hounded into seclusion or martyrdom by the ever increasing persecution. Beloved, pray that this nation will stand strong in the face of the devil's plan to destroy the kingdom foundations of this country.

You may feel like you are all alone and unable to stand by yourself in prayer and supplication for your family and nation. Elijah felt the same way and even wanted to take his own life he was so discouraged. Elijah says in 1 Kings 19:14 "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thy altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my lfe to take it away." But the Lord did not encourage Elijah's pity, in fact, he did just the opposite; He told Elijah to return to the wilderness of Damascus and then gave him three kingdom jobs to do. And then He told him in verse 18 " Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him." Beloved, take heart, you are not alone! Keep praying, keep fighting for your family, stay diligent in your faith. God hears your prayers and will deliver you from your situation. God bless you this day, in Christ, Jim

Friday, September 3, 2010

Prepare pt4

Dear beloved: How do we best prepare for the breakdown and tribulation of the coming days? Is it best for us to head for the mountains and hide ourselves and our families in a cave, or do we just blow off all preparation and trust in the Lord day by day? I believe it is important to prepare in the physical realm to the best extent that we can, but ultimately our hope and trust must be in the Lord and not in our ability to manage our surroundings and circumstances. In Matthew 24:44 Jesus says concerning the coming of the Son of Man, "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know what day your Lord is coming." And again in Matthew 25:13 in the parable of the ten virgins, Jesus says, "Be on the alert, for you do not know the day or the hour." And back again in Matthew 24, concerning the coming birth pangs and lawlessness and tribulation, Jesus says in verse 13, "And he who endures to the end shall be saved." All of these scriptures speak of being ready spiritually more than physically, for without spiritual readiness the physical will not be of much value. If you have a bunker full of food and your body is well fed but your soul is not right with the Lord, what have you gained? Mark 8:36 "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? v37 For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? v38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His father with the holy angels."

So what then is the purpose for storing up and being prepared in the physical realm? Proverbs 11:24 gives us the answer to that, There is one who scatters, yet increases all the more. And there is one who withholds what is justly due, but it results only in want. v25 The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered. v26 He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it. v28 He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf. So it is clear from these verses and many more that we are to prepare primarily to take care of our families, and then to share with those who do not have, because in so sharing we may be a blessing to others and even lead some into the kingdom of God because of our acts of kindness. When we give to the poor and the needy if we have excess, or even if we divide what we have when we have barely enough, then we are giving to the least of these of Mine, as Jesus explained in Matthew 25:36. In giving to the least of these, those without clothing or shelter or a home, or food of water, or those sick or in prison, we are actually ministering to Jesus! So give freely and do not hold back, and you will be blessed. So to sum it up, storing up is not for hoarding and self preservation, but it is for furthering the gospel. Just remember if you have plenty, some day you may be that person who is in need. How would you want someone to treat you? God bless you this day as you walk with the Lord. In Christ, Jim

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Kenya Mission Trip

Dear beloved: I will be going to Kenya Sept. 18-Oct1, with a group of worship leaders and evangelists from Vancouver, Washington, and Doug McCary of Men at the Cross ministry. We will be preaching and holding revival meetings all over the Nairobi area, culminating in a two day event at a city park in Nairobi where a crowd of 25,000 and up is expected. We will also be holding pastor training sessions, and visit orphanages associated with some Kenya ministries. I will also be meeting with another group of Pastors/elders from western Kenya who want me to come to minister to them next year.
Please pray for this trip, for health and strength, as well as provision, and most of all for souls to be brought into the kingdom. If you feel led to donate to this mission, you can do so through PayPal on this site, or send me a letter to 108 E. Washington St., Norton, Kansas, 67654. If you have any questions you can contact me at pureprairie@hotmail.com. Thank you and God bless you, in Christ, Jim
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Word of Knowledge Healing

Dear beloved: A couple weeks ago in a prison service the Holy Spirit came with great power and signs and wonders, and it was a healing service of great force. As men were praying for each other after the praise and worship service, the Lord gave me a word of knowledge that someone in the room had scoliosis. Word of knowledge is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12:8, For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. A word of knowledge is a word given about a person or situation that would not be known otherwise if it were not for the supernatural leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 16:13, "but when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. v14 He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.

And so I called out to the group that the Holy Spirit had told me someone had scoliosis, and sure enough, one man out of about 40 raised his hand and said that he did indeed have scoliosis. So I asked him to come down, which he did, and we laid hands on him and prayed for him to be healed. When the Lord gives a word of knowledge about a sickness or disease condition, He intends to give a healing for the purpose of bringing glory to Him. Jesus said, "He shall glorify Me,.." and so the purpose of the word of knowledge in a healing service is to give a healing for the glory, the greater purposes of God.

After the service was over, the brother with scoliosis told me that he had been walking around the sidewalk that very day praying that God would have someone come to the service that night who would pray for his back, because he was in a great pain and had suffered with it for a long time. So the Holy Spirit knew his need and relayed that to me. Listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life, many times He will give a word of knowledge to lead you in the direction you should pray for someone. The brother was very curious to know how I knew he had scoliosis, and was quite surprised to learn it was just the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Followup: We have prayed for him now two successive weeks after the original prayer session, and each time he says he feels better, less pain, and has more flexibility. I believe God wants to heal him 100%, would you pray with me in agreement that God would set him free of scoliosis, so he can be a testimony in the prison to the healing power of God? Thank you for your prayers. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, yet earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Beloved, earnestly desire the gifts and in so doing you may bring glory to God! God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Friday, August 27, 2010

Prepare pt3

Dear beloved: The breakdown that is coming for us here in America and around the world will be a confluence of storms from several different directions. This has been prophesied by many of the Lord's prophets and the clock is ticking on the events to begin to unfold in rapid succession. I spoke in previous teachings about the birth pangs getting closer together, and the intensity of them increasing. The day of that happening is here. Floods, tornados, hurricanes, wild fires, earthquakes, and now the Gulf oil spill have all been front and center in the news and these types of events will become the "new normal". Are you prepared spiritually for the shock waves to come? Psalm 91 tells that in verse 1, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. v2, I will say to the Lord," My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!" When we place our trust in the Lord, we know that we will not be deceived for in God alone is our refuge.

Psalm 91:3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, And from the deadly pestilence. v4 He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you make seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. The signs all point to the direction of God's judgment and wrath being poured out upon America. The blood of the innocents continues to cry out from the ground, the destruction of the pillar of marriage between one man and one woman goes on unabated, and our push to divide Israel and Jerusalem is becoming increasingly strident. Can you discern the times and see for yourself what is happening? Jesus said in Matthew 16:1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Him asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. v3 "And in the morning, There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening. Do you know how to discern the appearence of the sky , but cannot discern the signs of the times? v4 "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away. Beloved, do you remember what was happening in the times of Jonah? Jonah was sent to preach and cry out to an exceedingly wicked city, Nineveh. His cry was this: "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown". If Jonah were to show up today in your town or city what do you think his cry would be? Do you think the people in your town would take him seriously and repent in sackcloth and ashes? Would you if you need to?

Beloved it is time to take seriously the warnings God has been giving His people. It is to our benefit that He has warned us of the trials and tribulations to come. Get on your knees today and repent of anything you need to take care of in your life, don't wait for Jonah to show up. Do not wait until it is too late, and then Jesus will have to turn and go away. Seek Him while He may be found, today is the day of salvation, this year is the favorable year of the Lord. God bless you this day as you seek Him, in Christ, Jim

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Prepare pt2

Dear beloved: There will be situations in the days ahead when medicine and the ususual medical services will not be available in the way we have been accustomed to having them. Are you prepared to deal with life without your medications and services from your doctor? You may have to go for periods of time and put your trust in the Lord instead of medicines. Will you be able to do that? As you think about preparation for breakdown of normal supply lines of food and medicine, start to imagine what it would be like without them.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit were given to empower the church, to equip the saints for the work of the service in serving not only the body of Christ, but also serving those who don't know Christ but need help and aid in times of tribulation. Matthew 9:35 tells us, And Jesus was going about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. As near as I can tell that means every kind, including mental illness, cancers, tumors, crippling arthritis, high blood pressure, and everything imaginable that people take medicine for. Can you trust your illness to Jesus and the power He has given us as believers to heal not only ourselves but others as well? Matthew 10:6-8,Jesus said to the disciples, "Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, v7"And as you go preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, v8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely you received, freely give." So He also gave the disciples authority to heal the sick with the same power that He did it. And again in Mark 16:18, when Jesus is commissioning the disciples before He ascended to heaven to be with the Father, He told the disciples that a hallmark of believers will be they will lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Start practicing today to get along without medicines for all your ailments. Start trusting in the healing power of Jesus blood and the power of the resurrection. Start laying hands on the sick in your family, and on yourself, and binding those foul spirits of disease and infirmity to go in the name of Jesus. Jesus himself said the sick will recover. Do not fear failure, it is not your power and therefore you are not risking anything. Just ask in Jesus name and trust His word that what He says He will be faithful to watch over, and perform it in you and your loved ones. Then if a breakdown in supply of medicine comes you will be prepared. I am not a Christian Scientist nor am I anti-doctor, God can use both doctors and medicines. What I am doing is asking you to stretch your faith so if you can't get your normal medicines you will not be devastated or suffer any setback. Just trust the Lord and He will bring it to pass. God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Prepare pt1

Dear beloved: My spirit is bearing witness that we are in the calm before the storm, that a great shaking is about to begin in this country. This will be a time of great testing for even the strongest in the body of Christ, and for those outside the body it will be a sifting of unimaginable intensity. Where do you stand today, are your feet planted firmly upon the rock of Jesus Christ? Jesus said in Matthew 24:5 For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ', and will mislead many. v6 And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. v7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. v8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. v9 Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. v10 And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another.

Beloved, prepare yourself for the birth pangs are going to start to get more intense, closer together. And as they do, many will be mislead and follow false Christs, and many will fall into addictions of various kinds to soothe their pain, and many will take their own life and sometimes the lives of those around them. The enemy will mislead many down roads of destruction.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:24, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. v25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. v26 And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. v27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall. So which is it beloved, are you going to act upon his words? Are you going to build your house upon the rock or upon the sand? Every day that is the choice we all have to make, the rock or the sand. Prepare yourself this day, act upon the words of Jesus that you have heard, get your house upon the rock. You will be glad you did! God bless you this day as you act upon His words. God bless you, in Christ, Jim

Monday, August 16, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt12

Dear beloved: In the ninth chapter of Nehemiah the sons of Israel again came together to pray and fast for God to intervene in the situation they were in. Neh.9:1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dirt upon them. v2 And the descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. v3 While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law and the Lord their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. So you can see they earnestly sought the Lord with all their heart, and for hours they read from God's word and worshiped Him, all the while fasting and praying for releif. What was the situation that had brought so much grief and oppression into their lives? In verse 36 they summarize their situation; Behold, we are slaves today, And as to the land which Thou didst give to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its bounty, Behold, we are slaves on it. v37 And its abundant produce is for the kings Whom thou has set over us because of our sins; They also rule over our bodies And over our cattle as they please, So we are in great distress.

Beloved, we are in the same situation here in our land of America. We are slowly but surely being enslaved by the enemy by our own sin; we are losing the bounty of our land and the stage is set for our bodies also to be given over to captivity. Ezekiel 7:19 They shall fling their silver into the streets, and their gold shall become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their appetite, nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion for stumbling. v21 And I shall give it (the beauty of His ornaments) into the hands of foreigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it. v22 And I shall turn My face from them, and they will profane My secret place; then robbers will enter and profane it. And so we see that just as in the day when Ezekiel cried out to the children of Israel to amend their ways, so too we here in America need to amend our ways. The robbers are ready to enter, and they will not show any mercy, in fact, we are handing our treasures and our abundance over to them without a fight.

Verse 27 in Ezekiel 7 gives the summary of all that the Lord will do to allow the enemy to come into the land. v27 "The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their conduct I shall deal with them, and by their judgments I shall judge them. And they will know that I am the Lord." Beloved, let us cry out to the Lord. As we repair the breach, and build up the age old foundations, let us fast and mourn and cry out for mercy. Maybe the Lord will relent and turn away the calamity He has in mind for us. It is the least we can do for our children and grandchildren.
God bless you this day, in Christ, Jim

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt11

Dear beloved: Nehemiah and his friends completed the wall on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.(Neh.6:15) v16 And it came about when all of our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Beloved, when you do a mighty work for the Lord it will demoralize the enemy in your life. 1 John 4:4 tells us, You are from God little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He that is in you that he who is in the world. And so we have the confidence that when we are building for the kingdom God will give us the tools, the resources, the provision, and the strength to accomplish the task He has given us, and the enemy in our life will lose his confidence! That's good news for us in this day when we feel beat up and all alone in the face of our enemy.

It is this confidence we have in the Lord that gives us the strength to move forward in the kingdom pursuits even though in the flesh we know we are not adequate for the task. But when you listen to the Holy Spirit and then are obedient to the call, God will provide even the smallest of your needs. In Luke 16:10 Jesus says, "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." and v11 "If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you?" And again in Luke 19:16, in the parable Jesus spoke of the minas, And the first appeared, saying, "Master, your mina has made ten more." v17 and the master said to him, "Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, be in authority over ten cities." And the master gave a reward of five cities to the next slave who returned five minas for his work, but to the slave who put away his mina in a handkerchief, the master took the mina away from him and gave it to the one who already had ten minas. The master then explains himself in this way, v26, I tell you, that to everyone who has shall more be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. And so God is saying to us to put to work for the kingdom that which we have been given, and if we are faithful in using that, then He will give us more. We need not shrink back in fear thinking that He will not provide or that we are not adequate for the task; God does not call the equipped, He equips the called!

The events following the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem prove that the rebuilding was just the start of a mighty work that the Lord wanted to do in that day. After the walls were built, the gates were made and hung, the Ezra the priest brought out the book of the Law (Chapter8) and read it before the people, and the feasts of the book were put into practice; the people lived in booths during the feast of the seventh month (tabernacles). And so what started out as an idea placed into Nehemiah's heart by the Holy Spirit of God led eventually to rebuilding and restoration of the kindom in Jerusalem, to repopulating and cleansing of the house and people of Israel. Beloved, what small thing is God calling you to do today? No matter how small or insignificant you think it may be, go ahead and step out it faith and act upon it. God will add to it and multiply it, your enemies will lose confidence, and you will be rewarded for your faithfulness. Faith without works is dead, James tells us in James 2:17, so put your faith to work today, and watch God go to work in your life. God bless you this day as you go about building the kingdom in your life, in Christ, Jim

Friday, August 13, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt 10

Dear beloved: When you are building up broken walls for the kingdom you will inevitably encounter the mocker spirit. Nehemiah encountered this evil spirit when he declared his intention to rebuild the wall in Nehemiah 2:17, Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach." Then in verse 19, But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Beshem the Arab heard it, they mocked and despised us and said, "What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" And again in Neh.4:2 Sanballat says, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones?

The mocker spirit is a demonic spirit that derides and makes fun of all that the kingdom builders are trying to do. It can be present in unbelievers and even shows up in believers who are well established in positions of the church. It is a spirit that makes fun of attempts to do anything new, anything outside the box, anything that tries to restore and take back groung the enemy has stolen. As the day of Christ's return draws near, the mockers will become more prevalant and vocal. They will boldly mock all things of God, preaching, praying, fasting, and anything else that appears to be kingdom building. Peter says in 2Peter 3:3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, v4 and saying, "where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."
And so they are mocking also the promised return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

While in Costa Rica a few years ago I preached several nights at the Cabecar indigenous people's reservation. A young teenage boy came to the service every night with his parents, but he sat on the back row and with his friends made fun of much of what was going on in the meeting. The last night I had all the teens come forward for prayer, and he came with them. I took that opportunity to lay hands on him and pray for God to remove that mocker spirit; the power of the Holy Spirit came down on him and knocked him down to the cement floor, where he stayed for several minutes. The next year when I went back to the reservation he was at all the meetings but did not have the mocker spirit, in its place was a humble spirit the Holy Spirit of God had placed in Him. Jesus said in John 15:18, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you." So be prepared to be mocked and hated, its a sign the devil does not like what you are doing! God bless you this day as you build for the kingdoom, in Christ, Jim

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Dream of Explosions

July 5, 2010 Dream of Explosions
Dear Beloved: This dream was given to me by the Lord in 2003, though I did not record it in my dream journal, it is still vivid in my memory. It occurred after the terrorist attack of 9-11 but it was not a replay of any of the images of that day. I have not posted this dream prior to today but I was reminded of it by a posting from another prophetic ministry that confirmed for me the importance of the dream, and brought to my attention to continue to pray for our nation and against the enemies who would desire to destroy us.

In the dream, I am standing on the shore of a coastal city, looking across the bay at the skyline of the city. I cannot identify the city because I am not familiar with it; however, had I been familiar with it, I would have been able to identify it, because the skyline and buildings were in very sharp focus and easily identifiable. Suddenly, two or three very large explosions erupted, one after another, and huge clouds of smoke and fire billowed up into the air above the city. These were huge explosions, obviously caused by very powerful bombs. As the clouds billowed up into the air, I could only think about the devastation and loss of life that would follow as a result. This dream may have a correlation to dreams posted on this blog relating to San Francisco and New York City.

Psalm 18:1-3 "I love Thee O Lord, my strength." v2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. v3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. Beloved, pray for this nation, that the Lord would protect us from our enemies. God bless you this day, in Christ, Jim

Monday, August 9, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt9

Dear beloved: Nehemiah 4:16-18 gives us a great picture of how we are to carry on our kingdom work in the face of enemy harrassment and persecution. Neh4:16 And it came about from that day on, that half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows, the breastplates; and the captains were behind the whole house of Judah. v17 Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who were carrying the burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and one hand holding a weapon. v18 As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me. And in verse 20 Nehemiah says "At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there, Our God will fight for us."
As we go about our kingdom building jobs we must keep the gospel armor strapped on, keep one hand free to lay the bricks while at the same time keep the sword of the spirit in our other hand to slay the enemy if he should come near. Ephesians 6:10 tells us, Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. v11 put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. v12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. v13 Therefore take up the full armor of God, That you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. And of course we know that the sword is the sword of the spirit, the word of God as it tells us in Ephesians 6:17, and we know also that the sword, the word of God, is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, able to divide asunder the soul and the spirit, the bones and the marrow, even to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
Beloved, if we are going to impact our communities and this nation and turn back the onslaught of the evil schemes, then we must take our place on the wall and not shrink back with fear. God is calling each of us to get in the battle, to stand firm. We can win back what the devil has taken from us and from our families. Nehemiah 4:23 So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water. Stand strong in the Lord, the battle belongs to the Lord. God bless you as you build His kingdom today, in Christ, Jim

Friday, August 6, 2010

Dream of Tornado

Dear beloved: This week I finished a three day fast of water only, praying for the nation, the elections, and my family. At the end of the fast the Lord gave me a dream about a tornado. In the dream I am at the house of a person here in town who is affiliated with a bank. On the southwest edge of town a big dark cloud started to form, and out of the cloud a twister kept dropping down and wanted to touch the ground. I watched it form and began to think, I must get word out to the people of the town to let them know the tornado is coming. I was desperate to let them know, and kept looking for my cell phone to call the radio station, but I could not find it. I kept looking for it as the tornado formed and grew bigger and closer. Finally, I thought I'll just run to the radio station and tell them that it is coming. I really had a burden to get the word out. Then I woke up and the dream was over.
Beloved, a storm is coming, I believe it has to do with financial situations, possibly rampant inflation and breakdown. Just in the past 2 weeks wheat and other commodity prices have jumped dramatically, so food prices will again be on the rise. Matthew 8:26 And He said to them, "Why are you timid, you men of little faith?" And He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. v27 And the men marveled saying, "What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" Hide in Jesus today, He is our only refuge. In Christ, Jim

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt8

Dear beloved: You will be tempted during your times of prayer and fasting, not only to quit the fast but also to abandon or be distracted from the kingdom building you are doing. When Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness, he was tempted by the devil three different times. Had he not kept his resolve to walk in obedience to his Father, the outcome for all mankind would have been much different, and yet because he was obedient to the Father in every way, the Father knew Jesus would withstand the temptation. The devil came at Him with everything that he had to tempt Him: the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1John 2:16) Each time Jesus was tempted He referred to the Word of God to defeat the devil. Matt. 4:4 but He answered and said, "it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Therein lies the secret to staying on the fast and keeping your resolve. Stay in the Word, stay on your knees, stay in fellowship, stay in communion with the Holy Spirit.

Nehemiah faced the same test of distactions in Nehemiah 6:2 then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me saying, "Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono," But they were planning to harm me. v3 So I sent messengers to them saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"
v4 And they sent messengers to me four times in this manner, and I answered them in the same way. Beloved, the devil is persistent and does not give up easily, he will continue to attack and badger and pester you until you give in. But Nehemiah knew that the Lord was with him and so kept his focus on the task. In fact, he told the messengers that he was doing a great work for the Lord. Are you doing a great work for the Lord, maybe if you are not that might explain the lack of resolve and commitment. When you start to walk in the center of God's will, your purpose for being and for building will be much more evident to you and you will more likely finish the task.

I just finished a 3 day water fast yesterday; I was interceding for my family as well as the nation, the election, and the country. It was a battle as of course the devil did not want me to succeed. The first two days I really had to battle to stay with it and stay focused, then the third day I had a breakthrough and felt really good, like the Lord had lifted something off of me. Isaiah 58:8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. We are at a critical junction in the destiny of this nation and the devil knows it, that is why he is coming against God's people with such intensity at this time. The future of this nation and our children's opportunites for religious and financial freedom are at stake. Beloved, stay focused and don't get distracted, keep praying and keep building. God bless you this day as you put your shoulder to the task. In Christ, Jim

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt7

Dear beloved: As the wall building commenced in the third chapter of Nehemiah, the anger of the mockers also intensified, the spiritual warfare reached a higher level. Nehemiah 4:1 Now it came about when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. And again in verse 7 it tells us, Now it came about when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. Nehemiah's response was to cry out to the Lord. Neh.4:4 Hear O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. v5. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before Thee, for they have demoralized the builders. And again in verse 9, Nehemiah cries out to the Lord. v9, But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night. v10 Thus in Judah it was said, The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubbish; and we ourselves are unable to rebuild the wall.

Beloved, what you see happening as Nehemiah attempts to rebuild is exactly what is happening all across the land. The builders are running out of strength, the morale is low, and the enemy is getting the upper hand in every aspect of wall building, from government, family, business, arts and entertainment, and every aspect of our culture, including in our churches. The battle is raging, the enemy is coming at us from every direction and at first glance it is easy to get demoralized and think it is a sure victory for the enemy. But take heart, cry out to the Lord just as Nehemiah did, and let our God fight the battle for us. Spend more time in prayer and fasting, for therein lies the victory. Psalm 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. v20 God is to us a God of deliverances; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death. v21 Surely God will shatter the head of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who goes on in his guilty deeds.

Beloved, do not get demoralized and give up the fight or stop building, stay in the fight and spend more time on your knees in prayer. For it is in prayer that the battle is won, it is in prayer that we petition the Lord to send his ministering angels to war on our behalf. The battle belongs to the Lord, therefore, let us rise up and keep building! God bless you this day as you take your place on the wall, in Christ, Jim

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt6

Dear beloved: Nehemiah found favor with the Lord and with the king because he had cleansed his spirit, soul, and body before the Lord during his prayer and fasting time in Nehemiah chapter 1:4. The Lord is anxious to hear your prayer, beloved, if you are walking upright before Him. He tells us over and over in the scripture that He hears the prayers of the righteous. Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. And again in Proverbs 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous. And so God is waiting and anxious to see His kingdom move forward on this earth, and He is pleased with us when we ask to activate His angelic army to bring about His kingdom here on the earth.

And so Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem with the officers of the army and horsemen, and when he arrived he was not exactly given a hero's welcome. Neh. 1:10 And when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel. Beloved, you can be assured that when you set about to do kingdom building that the devil will not be pleased and will rise up against your work. The devil always wants to raise up his throne above the throne of God, he always wants to subvert, divide, and eventually destroy anyone who comes to look after the sons of Israel. The devil had a problem submitting to the will of God from the beginning. Isaiah 14:13 But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. v14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.
Expect opposition when you set about to rebuild kingdom walls in your life, or even in praying for your family, your church, commmunity, or nation. The devil has a plan and it is to continue to tear the walls down, and he will do everything in his power to see that his plan succeeds.

Nehemiah did not share his vision with anyone, he kept it to himself and went out in the night and surveyed the situation without arousing a lot of discussion. Neh.2:12 So I went out at night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting in my mind to do for Jerusalem and there was no animal with me except the animal on which I was riding. So he looked at the situation, which to his eyes it must have seemed to be a daunting task, but he knew that his God was with him. So he said in verse 18 And I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me, and also about the king's words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, "Let us arise and build." So they put their hands to the good work. And again in verse 20 he speaks to Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, the mockers and despisers, "the God of heaven will give us success; therefore we his servants will arise and build, but you(mockers) have no portion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem.

Beloved, have faith to build even in the face of mockers and despisers, even when the task looks formidable. If it is too big for you then it must be of God. 2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith and not by sight. Believe that God is big enough to provide everything you need, and to give you the courage to do the job. Take up the cry of Nehemiah, let us arise and build! God bless you kingdom builders this day, in Christ, Jim

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt5

Dear beloved: When Nehemiah fasted and prayed to the Lord in Chapter 1:11, he prayed for success in his mission to bring his petition before the king,.. and make Thy servant successful today, and grant him compassion before this man. Four months later in the month Nisan, his prayer was answered as God opened up the heart of the king to hear the petition of Nehemiah. Neh 2:4 Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. v5 And I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it."

Isn't it amazing that when we are preparing to do God's kingdom work that He has already prepared the way before us? Proverbs 16:7 When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Psalms 37:23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. And isn't it also amazing how God can use anyone and anything to further His kindom plan, even including pagans and non believers? Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes. And so God prepared the heart of King Artaxerxes to not only hear Nehemiah's petiton, but also to provide everything that he asked for: time off to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, letters to provide safe passage through enemy territory to get there, and also letters to secure timber to make the beams for the gates of the wall.

Beloved, do not shrink back in fear when you need something from the Lord to do your kingdom building. Step out in faith, ask and go into detail with the Lord what it is you need, and believe that you will receive it. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, that without faith it is impossible to please God, for those who come to Him must know(believe)that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And in Mark 11:22-23 And Jesus answered them saying, " Have faith in God. v23 Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. v24 Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you. And so beloved, speak to the mountains in your life, to the broken walls and burned out gates, ask in faith and go boldly before the Lord, and do not doubt in your heart that God will provide it if it is truly kingdom work. Pray beleiving that you have already received. As you can see in Nehemiah's case, he was diligent and faithful, and his prayers were answered four months after he first began to petition the Lord regarding the walls, and God provided for him every request in every detail. Now that's a faithbuilder! Step out today and ask for the mountains to be moved in your life and believe that you have already received them, then stand back and watch the Lord move! He will do it. God bless you this day as you rebuild the ancient walls, in Christ, Jim

Friday, July 30, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt4

Dear beloved: When Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were down, he mourned, wept, prayed, and fasted. He prayed to God to show mercy on him and on the sons of Israel, for he knew that without God's mercy there would be no redemption and no restoration of the walls. Nehemiah 1:5-7 And I said,"I beseech Thee, O Lord God of Heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments. v6 Let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes be open to hear the prayer of Thy servant which I am prying before Thee now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against Thee, I and my father's house have sinned. v7 We have acted corruptly against Thee and hve not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which Thou didst command Thy servant Moses. v11 O Lord, I beseech Thee, may Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant and the prayer of Thy servants who delight to revere Thy name, and make Thy servant successful today, and grant him compassion before this man."

So Nehemiah positioned himself before the Lord, showing complete dependence on God's mercy and grace. If we are to have restoration of the walls that are down in our families we must do the same; we must humble ourselves before the Lord, confess our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, and plead for God to hear our prayers and show us lovingkindness. For who can restore but God alone, who is our refuge and our strenth but God alone, and who is our rock but God alone? Psalm 18:1-3 I love Thee Oh Lord, my strength. v2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. v3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. Psalm 18:30-32 As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. v31 For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God, v32 The God who girds me with strength, and makes my way blameless?

Beloved, we need massive intercession for our families, our churches, our nation. But our deliverance can only come from one source, the God who created us. We must turn to Him in complete submission and dependence, and acknowledge Him as our only hope, He will then give us the strength to engage in the battle. The battle is much to big for our human strength, but with the Lord on our side we will be victorious. When David prepared to take on Goliath he spoke to the giant that his confidence was in the Lord, 1 Samuel 17:45 Then David said to the Phillistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. v47, and that all the assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord's and He will deliver you into our hands." Beloved, as we go into battle today, as we pray for our families and nation today, let this be our battle cry, the battle belongs to the Lord! God bless you this day as you walk with Him, in Christ, Jim

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt3

Dear beloved: As we think about praying and fasting for our families and our nation, let us consider the situation of Nehemiah when he heard the news of the condition of Jerusalem from his position as the king's cupbearer in Susa. Nehemiah 1:3 And they (Hanani) said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire. v4 Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

The burden of the breakdown of the walls of Jerusalem caused the spirit inside of Nehemiah to weep and mourn, and eventually to fast and pray. He was exceedingly grieved and moved to do the only thing he could do from so far away; fast and pray. Beloved, when was the last time you were genuinely greived over the situation of the breakdown of your family and the moral decay of this nation? Many times we are far from our children, far from our elected leaders, far from even our church leaders and don't feel like we can effect any change in the direction any of them are going, let alone change the direction we ourselves are going. What are we to do? There is only one thing we can do initially, and that is fast and pray. Isaiah 58:6 Is this not the fast that I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and let the oppressed go free, And break every yoke? v7 Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your ownn flesh? v8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth, and your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Nehemiah fasted because the walls were down. The walls are down in our nation and families also, the enemy, the devil, is prowling around our families seeking whom he may devour. On the national scale the enemies of our nation are plotting death and destruction, they smell blood and are circling close for the kill. Terror cells inhabit every major city, even worse our economy is weak and our moral character even weaker. Beloved, cy out for this nation with prayer and fasting, let us together move the hand of God, let us together begin to rebuild the walls that are broken down. Isaiah 58:12 And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell. Together we can rebuild the walls, one brick at a time, we can take back the streets, the neighborhoods, the nation, our familes. You may think you are alone, but the Lord told Elijah when he felt he was up against the wall all by himself, 1 Kings 19:18, Yet I will leave 7.000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. So too, we are not alone, there is a remnant that cares, that has not bowed their knees to Baal. Beloved, prepare to take you place along the wall and begin to repair the breach. God bless you this day, in Christ, Jim

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt2

Dear beloved: In Esther 4:16 Queen Esther issued an order to Mordecai to have all the Jews of Susa pray and fast for her. v16 "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and pray for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish." Esther was motivated by an urgency that moved her to act boldly and decisively to risk her own life in exchange for the life of her people.

The Holy Spirit will burden you with a desire to fast, and it will be a burden for others, for your family or nation, for the salvation of the lost, or for your own deliverance. Answer the call when it comes, for with it comes great blessings and victory. Jesus talked about fasting in Matthew 9:14, Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" v15 And Jesus said to them, "The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." The Bridegroom is gone away now, and so it is our opportunity to seek the Bridegroom through fasting.

Isaiah 58:8 says this about the victory in fasting, v8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. v9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; YOu will cry, and He will say, "Here I am."

Several years ago I did a three day Esther fast, crying out for the deliverance of my children and grandchildren. At the end of the three days the Lord gave me an awesome dream. In the dream I was kneeling beside a mountain stream up in the Rocky Mountains, dipping from the stream with a large dipper. I had my head tilted back and was pouring the water down my throat, enjoying the cold refeshing all the way down into every cell of my body. The Lord was showing me through the fast that He would be my everlasting stream, a river of living water welling up into eternal life. (John 4:14) He was showing me that if I put my faith and hope in Him I would never thirst again. Isaiah 58:11 And the Lord will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Beloved, seek the Lord this day through prayer and fasting, become the everlasting spring that He promises you can be. God bless you this day as you seek the source of all waters, in Christ, Jim

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Prayer and fasting pt1

Dear beloved: The Lord is burdening my heart to call out to the nation to pray and fast, to intercede for the welfare and destiny of this nation, for our children, grandchildren, lost relatives and friends. Two weeks ago the Lord had me to preach in the prison a message from the fourth chapter of Ester, where Mordecai challenges Queen Esther to move on behalf of her people, the Jews of Susa, who were being threatened by an edict issued by the King and Haman, his minister of internal affairs. The edict that went out was described in Esther 3:13 And letters were sent out by couriers to all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their posessions as plunder. v14 A copy of the edict to be issued as law in every province was published to all the people so that they should be ready for this day.
In chapter 4:13 Mordecai replies to Esther, "Do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews, v14 for if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?" v15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, v16 " Go, assemble all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I amd my maidens will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.
We know from reading on in the book of Esther that the king heard her petition, intervened on behalf of her people, and that the tables were turned on Hamsn to the extent that the gallows that Haman had prepared for the hanging of Mordecai, the King ordered Haman to be hung on those very same gallows.
Beloved, we need to intercede for this nation, for our communities, our families, our churches, and ourselves. The edict has gone out from Satan to eradicate God's children and God's commandments from this land. Satan is scoring great victories in all facets of life here in America. Will you stand up and be counted to help reverse the edict to annihilate God's people? Will you stand up for the innocents whose blood continues to be shed by the thousands day after day? Will you stand up for God's plan for marriage between one man and one woman? Will you stand up and defend Israel, God's chosen people? For the sake of your children and grandchildren, fast and pray for America. If you choose not to, God will find another way to deliver his people, but you and your household may perish. You have been raised up for a time such as this! God bless you this day, in Christ, Jim