Pray The Word

There is nothing quite like the Bible, God’s Holy Word.

How wonderful it is to be able to

preach it

teach it

hear it preached and taught

read it

meditate on it,

but do we pray it?

A long time ago, I learned that we can incorporate the Word of God into our prayers. Doing this is something that can add a new dimension to your prayer life. Here are some examples of things I have prayed.

 

For myself personally

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 

Psalm 19:14

 

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

 

Psalm 86:11

 

Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

 

Things I Pray For Our Church

 

1Timothy 6:12

 

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. (Lord, help us to continue to fight the good fight of faith!)

 

Jamess 4:7

 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Lord, help us to submit ourselves to you so we can resist the devil!)

 

James 1:22

 

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (Lord, help us to be doers of your Word and not hearers only!)

 

2Peter 3:18

 

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (Lord, help us to grow in your grace and knowledge.)

Things I Have Prayed As A Parent

 

 

Proverbs 22:6

 

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.(Lord, help us to train up our children in the way they should go, that when they are old they will not depart from it!)

 

Eph 6:1,2

 

 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

 

Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) (Lord, help us to train our children to be obedient and honor their father and mother as your Word says!)

 

James 1:5

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (God, give us wisdom to know how to raise our children to serve You!)

 

Deu 6:6,7

 

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

 

 

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Lord, help us to be diligent in teaching your Word to our children!)

 

These are just a few examples of things in the Word of God that we can incorporate into our prayers. If you feel your prayer life may be a little dry, or you’re feeling like you may be in a rut of praying the same thing over and over again, I challenge you to put the Word of God into your prayers. There is power in God’s Word!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s About A Relationship

God dropped a thought in my mind this morning as I was thinking about prayer. When Jesus’ disciples had asked Him to teach them how to pray, these are the first words that came out of His mouth.

Matthew 6:9

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

 

Those 2 words, “Our Father” just seemed to jump out of this verse. “Father” signifies a relationship. The first thing that makes a father a father, is the fact that he has a child or children. I thought about the attributes of a good father.

A good father will………………

provide for your needs

sometimes indulge your wants

listen when you come to him with your cares

will offer helpful advice to you

wants to help comfort you when you’re hurting

delights to share in your joys

is firm, but loving at the same time

 

Although asking is a part of prayer, there is so much more to it than that. God as our Heavenly Father wants to hear of our joys, hear of our struggles, comfort us when we’re hurting and will give us the best advice in the world through His Word, if we will just listen. May we seek to cultivate that special relationship with God, our Father.

 

There’s Nothing Like The Face Of A Kid Getting The Holy Ghost!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are so thankful that Sonia received the baptism of the Holy Ghost at Pacific Coast Camp 2011!

 

Pacific Coast Camp 2011

Pacific Coast Camp 2011 is still in progress at the time I am making this post. It has been absolutely wonderful, and I just wanted to share a few things about the camp for which I am thankful.

 

I am thankful……………………

-to be able to come to this camp(Things are really tight for us financially, but God made a way for us to come!)

-that we have 4 other young people from our church with us in addition to our 2 kids this year

-that Sonia received the Holy Ghost Tuesday night! (Years ago when I was a kid, and we had a television, I remember a commercial for Hershey’s chocolate bars. The slogan was, “There’s nothing like the face of a kid eating a Hershey bar.” The commercial went on to show the faces of various children happily eating this sweet confection. I would like to say, “There’s nothing like the face of a kid getting the Holy Ghost!” I hope to post a picture of Sonia up at the altar receiving this glorious gift when I return home. It was awesome!

-for the preaching of the Word of God! It has been tremendous, and it is beautiful to see many young people responding to the preaching and pouring themselves out to God in praise, worship and deeper consecrations at the altar. This will be a life changing camp for many. Thank you Brother Frazier and Brother Lambeth for being sensitive to God and preaching the Word to us!

-that Sis. Joslyn received a healing touch on Wednesday morning! She took off her back brace and told me she had no more pain. To God be the glory!

 

More later……………………………………….. 

 

Oh My! The Wings Part.

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots, the other is wings.” Hodding Carter

I heard about this quote a couple of years ago from a missionary that came and preached in one of our services.  We have been laboring on the roots part for many years, but tomorrow, weather permitting, my son is going to experience the wings part. Paul, who wants to become a pilot completed the first part of an online pilot’s training course. For completing it, he has earned a complimentary first flight lesson, which he will be taking tomorrow at a nearby flight school. In a sense he is “getting his wings”. He’s excited. I’m a little nervous. Y’all pray for me and for a safe flight for Paul.

 

O Happy Day!

I had an incredible session today with one of my clients, whom I will refer to as JC. One of the things I work on with this boy is manding, which is basically getting him to  properly request to have an item or do an activity. Since it was Valenine’s Day, I brought some little heart shaped boxes that each contained a little treat. I showed him the hearts one by one and would wait for him to request to have them. A couple of times, after receiving a heart, he said “thank you.”  JC had never independently thanked me for anything before this time.  Also, later on in the session after his mom gave him a piece of gum he said thank you to her. She expressed surprise over that.

Another thing we work on is having JC take a walk around the block, staying on the sidewalk and keeping close to his mom. As we were walking out front, he began to get a little ahead of us and was nearing the corner. His mom spoke out and told him he needed to stop and wait for her when he got to the corner. He listened, and did what his mom said. There have been timeswhen he has gotten ahead of us and then tried to bolt away, but he did not do that this time. His mom and I praised him highly for that, and he also stopped and waited another time on the walk.

Finally, we were playing the children’s version of the game Sequence. I have never seen JC so focused on a game. He always knew when it was his turn and did not have to be prompted at all to take his turn today. On his last turn, he had his chip which he could put down on one of two spots. He put his chip down on the right spot, giving him four chips in a row, which is what is required to win the game. When he put his chip down, he exclaimed “BINGO”!  His mom and I both started laughing. He did not need to shout out Bingo, but it showed me that he understood that he had won the game.  I left my session feeling very thankful for the progress I had just witnessed. JC was the very first client I was assigned to when I first started working as a skills trainer with autistic children in September of 2009. This is the last month that JC is eligible to receive services from our company. I am thankful to God that I have been able to work with him all this time and see how far he has come.  I believe with God’s help, he will continue to progress, and I’m believing God has good things in store for JC and his future!

 

Little Things

I’ve been thinking a lot about litte things for the past few weeks. I think it started when I read Unlocked and saw how the main character, Holden Harris took little steps in coming out of his private, autistic world. It really gave me a greater burden to pray for “little” breakthroughs among the young clients with whom I work.

Also, I read a post recently by an evangelist friend of ours which spoke volumes to my heart.  You can read it here.

There have been some little improvements recently that I have seen in my clients.  The past 2 times I went to JC’s house, he spontaneously asked for the bowling pin game without the game even being in sight and before we had even started our “manding time” where I try to entice him to ask for toys or different objects of interest. Last week, when JC was sitting at the table working on an activity, he suddenly got up and started walking toward me. I got up and stood in his pathway and made eye contact with him. He said “Going potty?” to which I replied,  “Oh sure, you can go potty!” He has never asked me before if he could use the restroom, so that was another small victory.

After not being at JV’s house for over 6 weeks, I was scheduled to have a session with him. JV is one of the most difficult clients I have because he is very busy and just all over the place. One of the first things he said when he saw me was “peek a boo”. That helped me to know that he still remembers me, because peek a boo was something special that I did with him.

I have a new client, AB, whom I started working with last week. We were instructed to just do what is called “pairing”(basically playing without putting any demands on the child)for the first week to give him a chance to get used to us. One of the things AB really enjoys is bubbles. On Wednesday, I was at his house, and I was blowing bubbles for him. He gives good eye contact when I do the bubbles. Suddenly the thought came to my mind to pause with the bubble wand at my lips and just give a wide eyed look to AB. He looked at me and said “bubbles” to which I said “good asking for bubbles.” I did this a couple of more times with him and he was still saying “bubbles.” Then without any prompting, he slowly said “I want bubbles.” He did this several times in between laughs and the popping of bubbles.

While I am thankful for the little victories I have seen in my clients, I am even more grateful for the little breakthroughs we are seeing in the spiritual realm. God is definitely doing things in our midst, and it seems like the presence of God in our services is getting stronger. I know this is first of all because people are endeavoring to pray just a little more and then witness a little more.  I feel like God has great things in store for us in 2011.

 

It’s Been Over A Year Now…

that I have been working part time with autistic children as a skills trainer. The time has gone by so fast, and I definitely feel more confident in what I’m doing than when I first began. Last week when I was at a client’s house, the educational specialist came by too. That’s not an unusual occurrence, but when she came in she told me that she had to do a TFI on me. I don’t know exactly what that stands for, but it basically means that I was going to be evaluated. I thought, “Well Lord, okay. Just help me to do my best.” One of the things I work on with this little boy is labeling. I might show him something like a teddy bear and say, “What’s this? or “What is it?” or  “Touch the _____________. I am trying to get him to tell me what things are without having to fully or partially prompt him for the answer. Some days this boy is really distracted, and it’s hard to get him to focus on anything, but that day he was just naming things left and right. It was really the best session I ever had with him, and I was thrilled.  Later the ed specialist told me that she liked the way I did the labeling with TB so that even though it was work it was fun for him. I thank the Lord for giving me favor. It has been a blessing having this job, and I just love those days where you see even the smallest breakthrough that a client makes. It could be a new word, a skill mastered or just receiving great eye contact. Little things like that really make it rewarding, and I’m just thankful to play a small part in trying to help these children.

 

Heart Thrillers

Two wonderful things happened today that really thrill my heart, and I wanted to post them here.

1. I received a text this morning from a dear sister from our church who is visiting her 80 year old mother in Arizona. This morning, she was praying with her mom, and her mom received the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues!(If you want to know more, read the book of Acts in the New Testament) She clearly heard her mother speaking in tongues and reports that a peace has come over her that she did not have before. I am thankful to God for answering this prayer!!

2. My daughter taught her 1st home Bible study today! I know she has been praying to be used of God to reach people, and I have prayed about this too. She got up early this morning, studied, prayed, and then she was on her way. I am believing God for great things to come from this Bible study. The Lord said that His Word would not return onto Him void, ( Isaiah 55:11)and I believe that even now, he is working in the heart of the lady that received this Bible study. As a mother, there is nothing more thrilling to me than to be able to see evidence of God working in the lives of my children. To see them living for God with all their hearts and working for His kingdom is my greatest desire. Thank you Jesus, for the joy You have brought to my heart this day!!!

 

To Be Like Gumby

If you are 40 or over, this bendable toy may have been part of your childhood.  How many remember Gumby? This is a toy that I had when I was a kid. The neat thing about Gumby is you can bend him any way you want, and he will stay that way. You can put his right arm in the air, and it stays that way. Take his left leg and move it forward, and Gumby will never try to jerk it the other way.  Push his neck downward, and he yields without a fuss.  Gumby is pliable, bendable, twistable and totally yields to the hands in which he is placed.

We could learn a lot about living for God and having victory over the devil by playing with this simple toy.

James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.