Day 14 AWAKENING 2012

Matt 11:28-30

 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." 

NKJV

Many of us need to "come apart" before we COME APART. Do you know what I mean? We have all  been there!! Come be honest with the mirror. These days of prayer and fasting have been working these truths in me as I DRAW NEAR. My prayer for you is that you will experience this rest.

The Lord uses the word REST twice in three verses. I believe that they are two distinctly different kinds of REST.

1. The REST that the weary heavy laden sinner ( does not know Jesus ) needs is available if they will COME TO HIM. 

The overburdened person who carries unnecessarily the shame and guilt of a life that at best can be described as "HEAVY LADEN." Hear Him inviting them to COME AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST that only a SAVIOR CAN GIVE. Lay your life down at His nail pierced feet and SURRENDER.

2. The REST that comes to the BELIEVER as they 100% SURRENDER to Christ.

They learn from Him and yes they become the D word - DISCIPLE (a learner under discipline). This Christ following business cannot be double minded nor can be enticed away by the world to just be content to live our lives however we want and just add Jesus like an additional accessory that we want to add to a new car. TRUE REST ONLY COMES FROM TRUE SURRENDER.

Matt 6:10

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

NKJV

It does not matter which REST that you need they are both readily available to those who will TOTALLY SURRENDER TO HIM. If you need Jesus as your SAVIOR just ask Him to be your LORD AND SAVIOR. If you have lost your FIRST LOVE go back to that place on the mountain top and just SURRENDER YOUR WILL FOR HIS.

COMING TO JESUS DAILY

Ed

Day 12 AWAKENING 2012

We are more than half way - BE STRENGTHEN IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT!!

Luke 24:30-32
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"  NKJV

The resurrected Lord Jesus had revealed Himself to some followers but they did not recognized Him. How often do we not recognize His presence among us. This AWAKENING time has cause me to be acutely aware of when I am in His presence and when I am not. Of course He is always there for me but I have been the one to drift off into other arenas.

They finally recognized Him once He broke bread with them. One translation said that their eyes were "INSTANTLY OPENED" and they were able to recognize with whom they had been walking and talking with. Like us we cruise through life not knowing that He is right there with us and it usually takes broken bread (the Bible) to open up our ears and hearts (Matt 4:4).

They knew that something was different about this man as He walked and talked with them along the Emmaus road. They recalled how "our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road" which is just like us because we know that He is speaking and our hearts are on fire yet we choose to ignore it. AT WHAT COST DO WE DO THIS?

Lets carry over our awareness of Him from this 21 days of AWAKENING. I pray that our hearts will continue to burn with the power of His WORDS.

Be Blessed,
Ed

Day 11 AWAKENING 2012

PRAYING AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN . . . .

Have you ever felt that way? Like when is God going to give me an answer?


1 Kings 18:43-44


43 Then he said to his servant, "Go and look out toward the sea."
The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, "I didn't see anything."
Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. 44 Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, "I saw a little cloud about the size of a man's hand rising from the sea." NLT

In many instances it is in the process of waiting for the Lord to answer our prayers that we find Him doing His work in us. I have written about the before, but if we ABORT THE PROCESS WE ABORT THE MISSION (see archives). Many times the answer to prayer is about the preparation for the answer to come as much as it is about the answer itself. Sometimes we may think that it is cruel of Him to make us wait for the answer but in reality if we do not work through the process and the answer came we probably would not be ready to walk in it.


James 1:4
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 
NKJV

Stay engaged and persist until the answer comes. When it is over you will be better for it!!

Loving my Lord

Day 10 AWAKENING 2012

James 5:16 . . .The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. NKJV

The word "fervent" in Webster's dictionary means bring to boil or white hot. To pray fervently it takes constant and consistent prayer which translates into PERSISTENCE. The original language of the N. T. indicates that this word means to intiate action with purpose and intentional actions.

At this point of our 21 days of prayer and fasting this is where I find myself. Actively in fervent, persistent pursuit of our Lord and Savior. I am not PURSING something from Him. I am PURSUING Him. I am finding out that He has been PERSISTENTLY PURSUING ME.

The end result is that our prayers "avail much." Spoken another way our prayers change circumstances, change hearts, and invades hell which brings in the King and His Kingdom.

Persistently Blessed

Day 9 Awakening 2012

I am so encouraged by the church that I serve. To be honest they AMAZE me!! You can tell that many of them want a MOVEMENT and not just a meeting. When we came together for service Sunday the atmosphere was electric. I cannot wait to hear how God has invaded lives during AWAKE 21 OF 2012. 


Mark your calendars now Friday February 3rd at 7:00 PM we will have a PRAYER AND TESTIMONY service to conclude our 21 days of prayer and fasting.


A note of encouragement for you today  

Matt 4:1-4
4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." 
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.'
NKJV

I have always focused on the part about how we should feed ourselves on the Word when I have spoke on this verse in the past. In meditating on this verse I saw a connection to Jesus and His fast for the first time. You see Jesus was hungry when He said these words. He told the tempter (Satan) that He had FUEL that he (Satan) knew nothing about.

What is fueling your life today? Press in, Plug in to the Word, to do that you may have to unplug from some other stuff. For more encouragement check out the message at Generations Church it will strengthen you greatly.

Having a Great Day!!

Day 6 AWAKENING 2012

Today has been fresh. Did a memorial service this morning for family who chose to cremate their loved one. I saw Jesus touch hearts and lives.


Luke 19:42
"If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. NKJV

Lord give us eyes to see your grand plans for us. The purpose of fasting is to clear out / reset our VISION so that we can see and hear clearly the plans that the Lord has for us. Uncluttered VISION in our culture today could be as big a miracle as healing cancer for some.

Pray with me today: Lord give us eyes to see your GREATNESS AND THE GRAND PLAN  that you have for our future. Lord do not let anything  be hidden from me by ________________. You fill in the blank: PRIDE, FEAR, ANGER, POSSESSIONS, MONEY, JOBS, DISOBEDIENCE etc.

He desires PEACE for us and the only way it can come is not by more accumulation. True PEACE comes by ELEVATION over the circumstance which happens when we DEMOTE ourselves (or empty out).

Have Blessed Day,

Day 5 AWAKE 21

Found myself wide awake at 4:45 AM today. I feel better and more in tune with the Lord.

John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice,, and I know them and they follow me.

Hearing God is difficult only because we do not deny our flesh. We must empty ourselves of ourselves and disconnect from the world around us (especially during a fast).

"Enoch walked with God three hundred years."  Genesis 5:22  WOW!! What a testimony. When we can walk in AGREEMENT & ALIGNMENT with God. It is one thing to know God's will for our lives; it is another to live in AGREEMENT with His will.

I believe firmly, that the moment our hearts are emptied

of pride and selfishness and ambition and self seeking, and everything that is

contrary to God's law, the Holy Ghost will come and fill every corner of our 

hearts; but if we are full of pride and conceit, and ambition

and self seeking, and pleasure and the world, there is no room for 

the Spirit of God; and I believe many a man is praying to God

to fill him when he is full already with something else. 

Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray 

Him to empty us.

D. L. Moody

Day 4 of AWAKE 21

I am going to be a little transparent. Today was a little difficult because we went to the mall with my Mother in Denver. As we passed the Starbucks I had a coffee craving deluxe. As part of my Daniel Fast the Lord asked me to fast coffee since it is one of my comforts in life. I HAVE OVERCOME!!

Joel 2:12  New Living Translation (NLT)                       
                                                                                             
That is why the LORD says,
“Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Fasting is not a way to obtain God's favor or forgiveness. This thought is only found in relation to fasting in the OT. Under the new covenant, every wrong we have ever done or ever will do was handled with favor and forgiveness on the cross of Calvary.

NT fasting is about drawing close to God and surrendering to His plans and purposes. Which makes Joel's words ring so strong in my spirit. . . "Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts."

As I let the comforts of life go by for the single purpose of drawing nearer to Him I find Him waiting on me there.

I believe the power of fasting as it relates to prayer is the spiritual

atomic bomb that our Lord has given us to destroy the

strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual

 harvest around the world.

Bill Bright

Day 3 of AWAKE 21

During these days of prayer and reflection I have been reading through some of my past journals. I have come across many written prayers that have been answered and some  not and some others that are in the process of being answered.

My thought for you today is that He does this Psalm 37:4 DELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD AND HE WILL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEAR.

I would also strongly encourage you to read "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson. This book has deeply challenged me about my prayer life.

Keep going!!