Be Like The Shepherds

(LUKE 2:20)

Be like the shepherds. I was taught very early in life that you can learn
a lot by watching people. In the day Jesus was born, a shepherd was the
equivalent of a busboy or dishwasher in today's society. It was a very low
position, and these were not the type of people you would think to look at as
role models. Again, let me remind you that you can never judge a person by
the house they live in, the car they drive, or the job they hold. The
shepherds on the night Jesus was born must have been pretty important men in
the eyes of God, because it was to those men He revealed the birth of His son
in Bethlehem's manger that night. While there are many great spiritual
lessons you can learn from these men, the one I want to focus on today is
their conduct after they had visited the manger and seen with their own eyes
the baby Jesus.

The scripture reference today tells us that they left praising God for all
they had seen and were shown. Praising God. I have talked about this many
times in the past, and will continue to talk about it because it is one
element of our faith that we just don't do enough of. So much of our prayer
time, so much of our focus is on our problems and circumstances, that we
often forget to spend time each day just thanking and praising God for all He
does for us each and every day. In just the 12 short weeks since this
website has been in operation, we have already received numerous praise
reports from people who found out about the site, came for prayer, and then
saw the power of God at work first hand. Let me recap just a few of the
praise reports.

A lady in Baltimore Maryland emailed a request for God to restore her
marriage. Her husband had left her for another woman. Within 3 weeks, the
husband had come home, recommitted his life to Christ, and they were in
Christian counseling to work out their problems. For those of you today with
marriage problems, God is still in the restoration business. A man in Newark
New Jersey requested prayer the day before open heart surgery. He emailed us
a week later telling us all had gone well and the doctors told him he would
make a full and complete recovery. For those battling health problems today,
God is still in the healing business. A single mother of 4 in St. Louis
asked us for prayer after she lost her job. 2 weeks later God had given her
a better job with more money. For those of you in need of a financial
blessing today, God is still in the business of providing for His children.
On the 5th day after we started, our minister on the video feed was praying
for a person as they accepted Christ as Savior. The next day an email came
in from Hong Kong from a man who had lost his business, was thinking of
suicide, and somehow logged onto our site. As the pastor was leading the
person in the sinner's prayer, this man in Hong Kong prayed to accept Jesus
too. God is still in the business of saving souls. Every day we get
incredible praise reports of how God has touched lives and worked miracles in
the lives of people who have visited our site for prayer.

I would encourage you today to learn from the shepherds and never neglect to
thank God for all He does for you each and every day, blessings you take for
granted. It is through your praise, you telling others all God has done for
you, that they might increase their faith to allow God to work in their life.
Your praise report gives others going thru the same situation the hope and
strength to go on, trusting God for their miracle. Hope is the greatest gift
you can give to another person.

Hearing from God

Hearing from God is like anything else, it takes practice. If you want to hear God’s voice, you have got to practice listening to God’s voice. The more you practice hearing God, the more you WILL hear God. The first thing you will be amazed at is how much God is speaking to you. Like I said earlier, God is ALWAYS speaking to you. The problem is, we are not always listening. The more you practice hearing God, the more you will hear God since He is always speaking to you.

The other critical issue in hearing God is knowing His voice. You see, satan also can talk to you in all these same ways I outline above. So, how do you know you are hearing the voice of God as opposed to the voice of the great deceiver? Again, the more you practice hearing God, the better you will become in knowing the sound of His voice. As you practice hearing God speak to you, you are also sharpening your discernment. Here is the key. When God speaks to you, what He says will always be in line with His Word. God will NEVER contradict His Word. God is not going to tell you to do something that He has told you NOT to do in His Word. That is another reason why it is so critical to read and study the Bible since it helps you know what God says. When God is speaking to you, it is always in line with His Word.

Lastly, let me share with you the main reason why people don’t really want to hear God’s voice much of the time. IF WE HEAR FROM GOD THEN WE MUST OBEY GOD! You see, most people really DON’T want to hear from God, since once they do, they now need to obey Him. They feel better about themselves by tuning God’s voice out, and that way they can claim ignorance when they live in rebellion to God. That is a game from the pits of hell. Don’t you know that rebellion brings consequences while obedience brings blessings? Why
would you want to tune out God’s voice, just so you can do it your way, when you know in the end, your way doesn’t work? When you know in the end your way won’t bring blessings but consequences? Aren’t you tired of getting beat on the head with a 2x4? God had to hit me with a 2x4, a steel pole, and crush me with a few huge buildings before I finally figured out blessings were better than consequences. Yes, listening to God means you now need to OBEY GOD, but that is where your blessings come from!

I love you and care about you so much. This is a very important message today since we ALL need to do a better job of hearing God. God is speaking to us all the time through His Word, through our time in prayer, through other people, and through our circumstance. We need to start practicing hearing God, discerning His voice, and then obeying what He is telling us. After all, we call ourselves FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. That means we are to listen to His voice and obey what He is telling us.

Don’t you know yet how much God loves you and cares about you? He only wants the best for your life. One of the ways God shows you His love is by talking to you. Think about that for a moment. The God of the Universe, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who created you in His own image–SPEAKS TO YOU–ALL THE TIME! That is a powerful truth! He speaks to you because He loves you and cares about you. He speaks to you to guide you through this journey called life so that you can know the fullness of His joy, His peace, and the abundance this life can offer.

I will be praying for you today. Praying that you will start to do a better job of hearing God’s voice. He is speaking to you all the time, non-stop. It is up to you, however, to listen to Him, and after you hear from God, obey Him. God loves you enough to talk to you, do you love Him enough to listen?

Christmas Is Less Than 4 Weeks Away

(Luke 2:11)

Christmas is less than 4 weeks away, and now is the time for the season to
get into full swing. Christmas parties, shopping, special events at church,
holiday programming on television, time with family....it is a very busy time
of the year for many. While we all know what this time of year is really
about, while we all know the catchy phrases like "Jesus is the reason for the
season," many of us get so wrapped up in all of the seasonal events that we
really do forget what it is all about. Singing "Silent Night" in a Christmas
Eve service puts our mind back on the birth of our Lord...for a moment...but
the way we have fallen into the world's celebration of this time has really
motivated me to use this time to challenge you as we enter into the heart of
the Christmas season.

The best advice I can give you is to again keep that close, intimate, daily
relationship with the Lord. Knowing Him in this personal way, having that
relationship fresh each and every day, can go a long way from keeping us from
falling into the holiday trap. Let me say right here, I AM NOT one of those
extreme people who believe Christmas is evil and we should not enjoy this
time of year. It is a wonderful time of the year for kids. It is a great
time for those of us who are older to reflect on Christmas past, see some of
the shows we enjoyed growing up, enjoy the joy that seems to dominate so many
lives this time of year. Christmas is a wonderful time of the year. My
purpose today is to simply help you stay focused not just on the birth of
Christ, but WHY He came. He came to give you, and me, and everyone an
opportunity to be reunited with our God. His life was to be that perfect
sacrifice for the sin condition we were born into. He came to bring peace,
joy, and life to this world. Remember not just that He was born, but why
He was born.

This time of year, more than ever, people's hearts are at least open to what
this Jesus was all about. I have said here many times that your greatest
witness is not what you say but how you live. You will be around
schoolmates, coworkers, family members in some casual settings in the coming
weeks. Take advantage of those moments to share the love of Christ, your
personal relationship with Jesus. There is no greater season to witness than
the Christmas season. My challenge to you is that while you are busy with
the various things you will be doing in the coming weeks, don't forget to add
sharing Christ with others to that list. Hearts are never more open or more
receptive than during the Christmas season. This can be the greatest
Christmas ever in regard to allowing the Lord to use you to touch others for
Him. I want you to focus on that today. Pray about that today. Ask Him to
use you in the coming weeks to affect the lives of people you come across
that need more than anything this Christmas, a personal relationship with the
Lord.

I love you. I pray for you daily. I am praying today that this will be the
most blessed Holiday season of your life. More than anything, I am praying
that you will use these coming days to be a vessel God can use to reach
others with His love.

Be blessed today as we begin the busy Christmas season in earnest. Keep your
daily walk with the Lord first in your life. Never forget that He loves you,
cares about you, and wants to use you in a mighty way to fulfill His plan and
purpose for this world.

Why We Don’t Talk to God More

(Psalms 91:15)

Why is it that the ONE who created us and is ALWAYS willing to talk to us at any time, is the one we seem to neglect the most throughout the day. Paul said to pray without ceasing, and while there are many interpretations of that verse, I believe it literally means that we should be talking to God throughout the day, not in the sense that we walk around talking to ourselves but that silent, constant communication with the Lord that guides our every move and decision.

The number one reason we don’t talk to God more is sin. After Adam’s sin in the garden, what did he do? He hid from God. This same God he would talk to all the time, he was now hiding from. Why? Because he had sinned, and one of the by-products of sin in our life is the separation it causes in our daily relationship with the Lord. The fact is, when we sin, instead of running away from God, that is the time to run to Him. Repent, ask His forgiveness, stand on His promise that tells us if we confess our sins, He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

One of the best guards against sin in our life is to keep in constant communication with God throughout the day. It is tough to do those things we know we shouldn’t when we are talking with Him. Try talking with Him today, not just during that quiet time or prayer time each day, but all through the day. Talk to Him, let Him guide your steps, help you make decisions, show you what it is He wants you to do each step of the way. This is also one of the surest ways to stay right in the center of His perfect will for your life, when you are communicating with Him all day long.

May the Lord richly bless you today. Never hesitate to contact us so that we can be praying for you and your needs. We are here exactly for that reason, so hurting people worldwide have a place to go to find someone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to share their hurts and pains and pray for God to touch their lives.

Growing Up As A Sports Fan

(Matthew 22:29)

Growing up as a sports fan, my favorite announcer was Howard Cosell. Howard
was famous for "telling it like it was," of course, according to Howard.
Because he was bold enough to say what he felt, Cosell was a very
controversial figure. Throughout the Bible, those who "told it like it was"
in regard to God's Word, were also very controversial. Steven was stoned
for
telling the truth of God's Word. Paul went through many of his great trials
for telling the truth of God's Word, no matter how unpopular that was. The
Old Testament prophets were often killed for telling the truth of God's Word
to a society that wasn't interested in the truth, but only their own
pleasures. Today, many of God's spokesmen are shunned or ignored by
much of society for having the courage to "tell it like it is."

10 years ago, the first 3 years of my ministry was spent in over 500
churches
of all denominations doing evangelistic meetings. One thing I can say I
have
never done is candy-coat or hold back the truth of God's Word, no matter how
difficult it may be for some people to hear. I have always been a direct
person, and the last place we need political correctness is in the pulpit.
Over the years I have counseled with and spent endless hours in prayer over
so many of God's people in desperate trouble, simply because they were
ignorant of God's Word. The Bible has direction for every facet of life and
God's plan for how we can live a joyous and victorious life for Him. I am
convinced that a lot of the problem stems from the "soft, warm fuzzy,
feel-good, non-offensive" teachings so many are exposed to each Sunday. So
many of God's people are just not prepared to deal with real life in
relation
to their faith in Christ.

Let me say up front that I apologize if from time to time I make statements
that offend you. I try to write each morning under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit and give you what God has for you that day. If I give my
personal opinion I will always tell you, though I mostly try to give you
what
God says from His Word. Because of space I sometimes don't elaborate
scripturally the way I should at certain times, and I'll try to be more
diligent in that regard. What I can promise you is that each day I will
share what God wants me to say, from His Word, and not only challenge you
but
encourage you to be all He wants you to be. Now more than ever, the Lord
needs strong men and women who are capable of helping Him lead those in the
darkness into His marvelous light.

I love you, I care about you, and I promise that each day I will do my best
to help motivate you to give God your best each and every day. The real
challenge I give you today is to understand that God's Word is not always
pleasant to hear, not always pleasant to follow, not always what we want to
do. But God knows us, loves us, and has put His Word there as a road map so
that we can know His peace, His joy, and live a productive life of service
for our Lord. Never be afraid to challenge the things I might say, or
demand
scriptural back-up, since that is the test of truth. Not did a man say it,
but did God say it. After seeing Liveprayer off for a few days, I
appreciate
even more the opportunity God has given us to share His love with you each
day. I am even more determined than ever to challenge and encourage you to
give your life 100% to Him, to know the ultimate joy of this life.

May you have a blessed day and may His Word be forever a reminder that there
is black and white, there is ultimate truth. We don't have to figure out
this
journey all by ourselves.

Giving Thanks

(I Thessalonians 1:18)

On this day we celebrate as Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful
for.

I want to point out an aspect of this great verse in Paul's letter to the
church at Thessalonica that is usually overlooked and almost never preached
on. While we are so thankful today for all of God's blessings, this verse
requires a great amount of maturity because it says give thanks in ALL
things. How quickly we run over those words without ever thinking about the
true meaning. In this society where we are so focused on winning, so
focused
on the positive, so focused on things being in a state of perfection, God
tries His best to help us be realistic about this sinful world we live in.
Aside from our own sinfulness, we live in a world that is infested with sin
in every nook and cranny of our existence. Jesus, trying to prepare His
disciples for the reality of living in this world without Him, trying to
make
them understand that despite the close intimate relationship they had, told
them that in this world they would have problems and things would not always
be perfect. This verse tell us that every day we should give thanks for
"all" things.

Spiritual maturity comes in when you understand that this verse is actually
telling you to give thanks not only for those things you look at as good,
but also the bad things that happen to you as well. That is hard for us to
understand why we should be thankful for those terrible things that happen
to
us along life's journey, but we have no way of knowing the mind of God, we
have no way of understanding completely His plan or purpose, and we just can't
comprehend all of the things God does in situations we live through. It is
hard to imagine giving thanks for things like marriage problems, divorce,
the
death of a loved one, financial difficulties, health problems, strife with
friends, problems in your local fellowship, difficulties on the job, and any
other bad things we experience in life. Hard to imagine. But when you
realize that God is still on the throne, still in control, you, by faith,
have to thank Him and trust that even in those bad situations, He is working
on your behalf and will not let you down. As painful as the experience must
be, we have to thank Him because He is often times perfecting us for work in
the future. We give thanks out of obedience, and out of faith that God
knows
what He is doing in allowing those bad things we live through occur in our
life.

I realize that today would be a great day to just say some warm and fuzzy
things to make us feel good. It is a holiday, many are with family. The
Christmas season is upon us. We have so much to be thankful for here as God
has brought Liveprayer.com back stronger than ever. But the job God gave me
was not to give you each day something to just make you feel good, but to
challenge you to a closer daily walk and help you grow spiritually. Many
problems I see each day occur because people have been given too much "feel
good" talk, and are not adequately prepared for the reality of this life in
relationship to their life in Christ. When the storms come, they just
aren't
equipped to handle the onslaught. The one thing I will never do is hold
back, compromise the Word of God, or tell you something just to make you
feel
good. I will tell you the truth, not my truth, but God's, in an attempt to
help you be prepared for living a victorious and productive life for Christ.
In these last days, He needs bold, mature, fearless men and women to do the
work necessary here on earth. It is no accident you are getting these
devotionals, no accident you read them. God is speaking to you through
these
daily writings to sharpen you, prepare you, and encourage you to be all He has
called you to be.

I am so grateful for you. Your love and prayers this past week have been an
inspiration to me personally and to our people here at Liveprayer.com. We
are moving forward. Yesterday as people got the news we were back on, the
site was flooded with people eager to come and see for themselves this site
God
has resurrected as a tool to touch people worldwide with his love and grace
in their hour of need. Thank you again for standing with me, praying,
giving, helping us add people to our daily devotional list, and letting
others know about Liveprayer.com. My thoughts and prayers are with you this
day as I am truly thankful for you. For those traveling, may His mercies be
with you as you go to and from your destinations. For those of you going
through the fire this day, with little to be thankful for, remember. Give
thanks in ALL things. Whatever that trial is, it is there for a reason.
You
may not know, or ever know why, but thank Him for it because that is His
will
for your life.

Praise Report

I am so happy to report that at 6:00pm on Tuesday, November 23, 1999, the
Liveprayer.com website was back up and in full operation. I remember the
day we launched this incredible Internet ministry on Monday, August 30th of
this year, just 12 short weeks ago. I sat in my office surrounded by 5 or 6
television crews and photographers. Liveprayer would be the very first
Internet site that would ever incorporate 24 hour a day, 7 day a week LIVE
video and it was a great story. As wonderful as that day was, I can
honestly
tell you that nothing could compare to this afternoon, sitting in my office,
praying, and seeing the Liveprayer page come up on my computer screen
signifying we were back on the Internet. I sat there and thought about all of
the prayers that had gone up for this ministry over the last several days
all
over the world, how the very throne of God had been bombarded by the saints
for this work. God has heard those prayers, God has answered those prayers,
and God has honored our commitment to this work He gave us to share the hope
and love we have through His son Jesus.

I pray that these last several days of devotions have been an inspiration
for
your life how to walk through a crisis. Pray, seek God for the game plan,
pray,
press on towards your goal, pray, persevere no matter what the opposition
may throw at you, pray, and let God lead you to victory because it is His
battle. How appropriate it is that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We have so
much to be thankful for. In all honesty, I told God the night this happened
that if it was His plan for this ministry to just last for a short time to
help even one person, then the sacrifice, money invested, time and energy of
so many would all be worth it. We never know what God is trying to do and
for
who. It is our job to simply be obedient. But I remember telling God that
if it was His will for this work to continue, I would even be more serious,
work even harder, give even more of myself to the ultimate mission of
Liveprayer, which is to be there to help hurting people worldwide in their
hour of need. I left it in His hands and He has spoken loudly.

I pray as you prepare for Thanksgiving tomorrow, you will be grateful for
all
the Lord has done in your life this last year. So many blessings we take
for
granted each and every day. For me, this Thanksgiving will not only be a
day
of thanks, but a day to refocus my energies on the work He has for me to do.
As many lives that we have been able to touch during the first 3 months of
this ministry, over the next 3 months we are going to bombard this Internet
world so that everyone knows there is an oasis of hope at Liveprayer.com
where people can come 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and find a man or woman
of God that they can see and hear, and tell them that in their darkest hour
they
are not alone, that there is hope and answers in our Lord Jesus
Christ! We never know how much work God has for us before he calls us home.
But I am more committed than ever to see this work flourish into all that it
can be. Do you realize that neither ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, or any other
major broadcasting facility is broadcasting live on the Internet? Only God,
through Liveprayer.com is doing that. We will have our ministers there on
Thanksgiving, through the Christmas holidays, on New Year's Eve day to be
there to help hurting people who need to know that someone cares. 24 hours
a
day, 7 days a week, someone is there to love you, pray for you, and share
the
hope we have in Christ.

The prayers and notes of encouragement have meant so much to me. I feel
through this we have grown closer, knowing that there is a battle out there
and we MUST be united to win. Continue to send us names to add to our daily
devotional list, You can go to our site, www.liveprayer.com and hit the
button that
says Free Devotional to add anyone you wish. We will send them a
confirmation
they must agree to before receiving the daily devotional. Continue to help
us lead
people to our site. Don't stop praying. God has shown me that we must be
strong in numbers to withstand the next onslaught. Never think that as you
see
victory, there will not be other attacks. The next attacks will be even
harder, so
now is the time to prepare. There is no time to rest or relax.

Please know that I love you, care deeply about you, and as always am praying
for your needs. Even during this difficult time, we continue to answer the
vast number of email requests we get from people going through difficult
times in their life. Our problems did not stop others from having tough
times too. In spite of what we are facing, our number one priority each day
was to address the needs of those who asked us to help. That is why God has
us here, to be that beacon of hope in the midst of the storm. Never
hesitate
to email me with your needs so that I can be in prayer. After all, that is
my calling and why God raised up this ministry.

I pray you will have a happy, safe, and peaceful Thanksgiving. May He be
with you in a special way. Use this time not only to give thanks, but
renew your commitment to serve Him!

Victory Is In Sight

(Galatians 6:9)

I am excited to announce that as I write this devotional at 5:10am on
Tuesday, November 22, 1999, victory is in site. After much prayer, many long
hours looking to the Lord for strength, all of the technology is in place to
have Liveprayer.com back up. The only thing we are waiting for is for
Network Solutions, which registers domain names, to change our DNS which is an
administrative function, and we are back on! This is totally out of our
control, but we have been told it should happen sometime today. In looking
back on this episode and trying to give you something to hold on to in your
life today, the word the Holy Spirit has given me for your life is perseverance. We have talked a lot over the last few days about the battle, how to win
the battle, overcoming our obstacles in life. But the one key word I want to
impart to you today, for your life today, is perseverance.

You see, anyone can quit. Quitting is easy. Those who commit suicide are
not heroes but cowards. Everyone fails at times in life, but the one who gets
up, dusts himself off, and moves forward is a winner. There are great
lessons in failure. Often times God tests us by allowing us to fail, knowing
that we become stronger as we get back on our feet. One thing becomes very
apparent in failure. We can do nothing without Him. That verse I wake up to
every day, "without me you can do nothing" reminds me that when I am in my
own strength, I am weak and whatever I accomplish has little meaning. When I
am operating in His strength, "I can do all things" and the things I do have
eternal significance. We fight on, we persevere through the troubles because
we have the Lord on our side. When we are engaged in a spiritual battle, we
fight on because it really isn't our fight, it is the Lord's. A dear friend
and great man of God, Owen Carr, founded TV38 in Chicago over 20 years ago.
His fight song and battle cry was "the battle is the Lord's." We persevere
in our daily struggles because it is His battle and we are merely His
soldiers. When we quit fighting, it is the same as a soldier going AWOL. In
these last days, God is looking for a people who know how to persevere, get
through the difficult times without quitting.

My encouragement to you today is to persevere no matter what the fight you
may be in. If it is over a health issue, God is still in the healing
business...PERSEVERE! If it is over your finances, my Bible tells me that
God owns all the gold and all the silver...PERSEVERE! If it over a marriage
or relationship, God is still in the restoration business....PERSEVERE! No
matter what you are dealing with today, what you are fighting today, remember
God is still on the throne, He is still in control, fight on and PERSEVERE!
He won't leave you, let you down, and God CANNOT FAIL!!!!!!

I am excited about Liveprayer.com going back up in the next few hours.
Myself, the ministers who sit on camera praying for people worldwide 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week have a new resolve and new appreciation for the gift God
has given us in this incredible 21st century medium that can touch the world
with His message of hope in Christ. I am excited we will be on during
Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays when so many are alone and going
through difficult times in their life. I am excited about the plans we have
for New Year's Eve which I will share with you next week. This will be the
place to come for the world's greatest New Year's Prayer Service as we bring
in the New Year with prayer. People from all over the world will be joining
us as we see the year 2000 come in time zone to time zone. Of course, we will
be on live to update you on any Y2K problems anywhere in the world. CNN
won't be able to match the power of Liveprayer.com since we will be praying
in the new century in a worldwide night of prayer. You see, we are serious
about the work God has given us in these last days and are more excited than
ever about our opportunity to reach the hurting and lost for Christ.

I hate to be repetitive, but I have to again thank you, so many of you for
your show of support during the last few days. I have been humbled by the
outpouring of love and prayers worldwide for this new work we have started
here on the Internet. I am confident that we will be stronger, more
effective than ever as we broadcast live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the
hope and love we have in Christ Jesus to a world so desperately looking for
answers. It is your prayers, your support of this work, your efforts that
have helped us to persevere during these difficult days. Please pray today
for the people at Network Solutions to get our paperwork processed and the
necessary changes made so that we can be back on line. We are ready with the
technology. It is only their administrative function we are now waiting on.

I will be praying for you today to really take heart my exhortation about
persevering through your troubles. As always, my prayers are with you.
Alone it looks hopeless, but together we can stand and see the possibilities.
Never forget that God has placed me here to help you however I can. That is
why I give my email address in every devotional so that if you have special
needs, you can write me and let me pray with you. As many know, I respond to
every email. It may be a day or two, but I do respond personally to each one
because you are important to me and your needs are important to me.

I love you and appreciate you. Through the adversity, I feel that we have
gotten to be very close. I am thankful to see the unity of the Body around
this ministry that is only here to help people in their hour of need. Be
blessed this day and know that God loves you, cares about you, and will never
leave you.

Unity - The Game Plan To Victory

(John 17:21)

One of the most challenging passages of scriptures to me and one that has
shaped my entire ministry, is found in Jesus' words to His disciples just
hours before His death on the cross. In the great prayer found in the 17th
chapter of John, we find a prayer that still has not been totally answered.
Think about this the next time you complain about your prayers not being
answered. Here is a prayer from our Lord and Savior 2000 years ago that has
still not been answered. In that 21st verse, Jesus prays that the church
would be one. A unified body. As we unfortunately know, that has really
never been the case, as since the early days of the first church there have
been divisions in the body of Christ that still exist to this day.
Especially here in the United States, we take for granted the incredible
freedoms we have to worship as we please. Some of our friends in other
countries that we minister to each day can attest to the fact that in many
places
in the world today, unity is imperative for survival. It doesn't matter if
you are Baptist, or Methodist, or if you do or don't believe in speaking in
tongues. Christians must be united just to survive.

As many of you who
have
read my personal testimony know, I spent several years in Federal Prison in
the late 80's for insider trading. It was during that experience that I
rededicated my life to Christ and devoted the balance of whatever time I had
left to serving the Lord. In that prison experience, those who were
believers weren't concerned about denominational affiliation or some of the
fringe doctrinal issues that divide the body today. We were just followers
of Christ who helped and strengthened each other through a difficult time in
our lives.

It was from these experiences that I have made a huge part of my
ministry these last 9 years, the importance of Christians to be unified. We
have been able to do so much as the people of God, yet how much more can we
accomplish when we stand united. If you look at various movements that have
had an impact on our society, like the Promise Keepers movement for example,
their success has been due in large part to the fact that they have been
able
to cut through the denominational and other divisive elements to unite
Christian men to take a stand for God. Here at Liveprayer.com, we are not
concerned about your church affiliation or stand on various doctrinal
issues.
Our goal primarily is to pray for people in their hour of need. If there is
one issue that the body of Christ should be in total unity on, it is the
power of prayer and helping hurting people know that there is hope in Jesus
Christ.

Several weeks ago, I did a series of devotionals on "Spiritual Warfare." In
one of those devotionals, I told you that to win a war you must have a
battle plan. For the last 48 hours, I have spent a lot of time alone with God
praying about His battle plan for Liveprayer.com. I want to share with you
what He has shown me and how you can be part of His plan as Liveprayer.com
prepares to not only get back on the Internet, but have even a greater
impact.

The Lord showed me that the key to success would be in unity and
numbers. America Online has basically done whatever it wanted on the
Internet due to the fact they have a membership base so large they can
dictate what they do and how they do it, with no opposition from anyone.
Liveprayer is a lightning rod for any anti-Christian element on the Internet
because we are actively reaching out to people via the first site on the
Internet to actually broadcast LIVE 24/7 as well as the over 200,000 daily
devotionals that we email to people worldwide 7 days a week. Unlike most
sites, we don't sit passively by, but are actively reaching out to hurting
people, telling them there is hope and there are answers through Christ.
Our
long-term survival and success is going to be from amassing a base of
unified
Christian people from every part of the Body of Christ that won't and can't
be ignored!

As the Lord laid this out to me, He showed me that there were to be several
key people to come forward and take an active part of putting this
infrastructure together. These would be a couple of key people He would
call
forth to take an active roll in amassing this unified army of believers.

First would be a mighty prayer warrior who would oversee the job of
consistently posting to newsgroups and bulletin boards the Liveprayer.com
website to let people know there is a place on the Internet to go, 24/7,
where someone will pray with them and encourage them. The anti-Christian
forces use these posts in newsgroups and bulletin boards effectively to
mobilize their forces, and it is time for God's people to fight back!

Second
is a person who will oversee a continual assault on the chat rooms to let
people in those chat rooms know that if they need prayer they can go to
Liveprayer.com, have a live person there talk to them and pray with them
right on the spot. There is nowhere else in the world someone can go 24
hours a day, 7 days a week to find a Godly, live person that you can see and
hear to pray for you. We need to bombard chat rooms of all kinds and let
them
know if they are hurting, in need, tired of living the way they are, or just
need prayer at that very minute....they can go to Liveprayer.com.

In addition, God has showed me how each one of you can and must have a role
in this important battle we are in.

First is prayer. Keep Liveprayer.com
in your prayers each day. Everything we have accomplished in these first 11
weeks has been because of the prayers of God's people.

Second is to help
promote the site. Use the great creativity God has given you to do your
part
in letting others know about the great spiritual resource on the Internet
Liveprayer.com is. It is a great witnessing tool to let someone you know
who is going through a difficult time, that they can go to Liveprayer.com
for prayer.

Third is to help us get as many people as possible signed up
for
the daily devotional. Our most effective form of impacting lives for Christ
is through the words inspired by the Holy Spirit that we email worldwide
every day. As you know, this daily devotional is not to take the place of
your personal time with God but to enhance it. It is not to take the place
of going to church, but to encourage you to be more active in the fellowship
you belong to. My ultimate goal is to give you sound Biblical direction on
the real life problems we all have to deal with day in and day out. Just as
AOL cannot be ignored because of the tremendous numbers of members they
have,
God showed me that when Liveprayer.com gets to a point where we are sending
a million plus daily devotional worldwide each day, there will be a unified
group of believers whose voice cannot and will not be ignored. One of the
easiest ways to help us add more names to our list is to get people in your
church with email to sign-up. You could put together a list and then email
that list to me and we would add them. If each one would send in a list of
just 50 email addresses from your church, we would have a powerful group
overnight. Of course signing up friends and family members would be a way
also. I would encourage you to pray and get God's direction on the most
effective way you could help make this happen.

Pray, promote the website,
and help us add people to the daily devotional list....those three things
each one of you can do to help us in our fight.

God's Watchman

(Isaiah 62:6-9)

God's watchman. When I committed my heart and life to go into full-time
ministry over 9 years ago, I accepted God's challenge to become one of His
watchmen. In ancient days, the watchman was the person who occupied a tower
overlooking the city and it's walls. It was his job to announce to the city
when the enemy was preparing to attack. The majority of the Old Testament
prophets felt as spiritual watchmen to the people, although their warnings were for
the most part ignored. They lamented the fact that the people never
listened
despite their prophetic insight and warnings from God. I am sure many of
today's spiritual leaders feel as those Old Testament prophets, as they
sound
the warning from God for people to turn from their sin and embrace God.
That
message, of course, is largely ignored. Early in my ministry, after feeling
that same frustration, God showed me that it was not my job to "make people
change." It was my job to share with them the fact that God loves them,
that
there is everlasting life through Jesus Christ, and that the answers they
are
seeking are found in Him. Period. I was to sound the alarm, blow the
trumpet...that was my job. Only God can change a person's heart. That is a
divine work we cannot accomplish. It has to be Him. Once I came to that
realization, it was easier for me to focus on what my job was and to do it
to
the best of my ability. Soon after that, I got into producing programming
for Christian television stations all over the country. Through that
programming, I could do my job better by reaching more people quicker.
While I still do special services in churches, which was all I did the first
3
years of my ministry, and while I still produce some programming for
Christian television stations, primarily what I have done for the last 5
years,
my full focus and attention is now on our Internet ministry through
Liveprayer.com. God has shown me that I was to be a loud, and bold watchman
in this new medium that will ultimately be able to reach more people quicker
than anything that has been known to man. My friend, I have tried to be a
"watchman" here on the Internet and will continue to tell those on the Net
that God is real, He is alive, and it is only through His son Jesus that we
can know everlasting life, as well as enjoy a purposeful life here on earth.

Let me encourage you today. Everyone that knows Christ as Savior has been
called to be God's watchman. Just remember, God has given you the job of
sharing His love and message. That's it. The changes, the miracles, those
will all come from God himself. You are His instrument to touch a person.
He
is the one that actually does the work. Think about that today and take the
pressure off yourself if the person you have been praying for isn't
getting healed, or saved, or their marriage isn't restored. God is the one
who will bring about the actual change. You just be faithful in doing your
job to be His watchman and share the message.

A Sign of Spiritual Maturity

(Hebrews 11:13-16, 33-40)

It is appropriate that today's devotional is taken from one of my favorite
chapters of the Bible, Hebrews 11, and on the subject that challenges me
daily, faith. The most motivational verse in the Bible for me is Hebrews
11:13. Just because we have the promise of ultimate victory in relation to
our eternal dwelling place if we know Christ as Savior, that doesn't insure
we will always see what the world would call "victory" in everything we do
for God. A sign of spiritual maturity is knowing that the things we do for
God are not "end-all events", no matter how large a ministry we may have, or
how many people we may touch. Our work is only a small piece of God's
overall plan and purpose and much of the time it may look to the world as if
we failed when we did exactly what God needed us to do in relation to His
overall plan. So were the lives of many heroes of faith talked about in
Hebrews 11. In our day of instant gratification when we have to have
everything we want when we want it, how we want it, where we want
it.....where the world judges everything by how big, how many people, how
much money....God tells us that many heroes never got to see the fruits of
their earthly labor. Despite not seeing the fruits, they never wavered or
held back from giving God their very lives. I ask myself daily, can I ever
have faith like that. I challenge you today, do you have faith like that?

As most of you know, right before Halloween someone went to our Liveprayer.com
website and added many witches, warlocks, satan worshipers, and other
anti-Christian people to start receiving our daily devotional. Of course
these people never asked for the devotional and immediately began a campaign
to hurt our work alleging we were sending SPAM. Rather than just
unsubscribe or ask us to unsubscribe them, they launched an all-out effort
to destroy us. I have come to realize that there are many dark and evil
forces that dwell within the Internet world. It is no accident that as much
good as the Internet can be, it has been used as an incredible tool to
propagate pornography, hatred, and every kind of perverted thing imaginable.
The "chat rooms" have become fertile grounds for the destruction of marriages,
as people get into bondage in a fantasy world that becomes real with very
damaging results. In speaking to Internet veterans who know Christ, they
told me from day one I had no idea what kind of attacks I was in for when I
launched Liveprayer.com. Not minimizing or criticizing the tremendous
efforts of very powerful and talented Christians, most Christian sites are
"static" in the sense that they have information and have few ways of
reaching out to impact lives. As you know, Liveprayer.com not only has the
Internet's first LIVE 24/7 video feed where people worldwide can log on and
be prayed for in their hour of need, but through our daily devotional we
minister to several hundred thousand people worldwide every single day. In
the first 8 weeks, you can not imagine the number of lives impacted by God
through this website.

Under the weight of the SPAM complaints, our host ISP and mail ISP were very
close to taking us off two weeks ago. However we agreed to go to an opt-in
phase so people who signed up for the daily devotional had to then receive a
confirmation they need to reply to before they could actually start
receiving
the devotional. That seemed to satisfy everyone and as we removed the people
causing us problems, it looked like we were over that hurdle. But the
complaints continued. It was beyond my understanding how they were still
complaining, but one evening, the Holy Spirit told me to go to the office
and
log on to the NEWSGROUPS area. The Spirit then led me to various newsgroups
frequented by wiccas, anti-Christian groups, and others like that. As I
scrolled through the posts, to my horror, I started to see many, many posts
to those newsgroups of how people could destroy Liveprayer.com and "blow us
off the Internet once and for all." It encouraged people who never had any
contact with Liveprayer exactly what words to use in their complaint, an
extensive list of email addresses of every ISP that has any connection at
all
with our website or mail. Digex, who supplies bandwidth to our host ISP,
contacted them yesterday and informed them that they were going to cut off
our
host ISP's bandwidth if they did not pull our website, due to the number of
complaints they were getting about our website. Our host ISP really had no
choice but to pull our site. You may remember just 2 weeks ago when the
initial problems occurred, they only kept us going at that time after we
paid
them a $5,000 deposit they would hold for 6 months against future
complaints.
Of course, I am assuming they will keep that money.

I have to admit, last night was a very difficult night for me. I committed
all of our ministry resources, as well as the personal resources my wife and
I
had to come up with, the $100,000 it took to launch this site. Under the
tremendous financial pressure was even greater pressure from the incredible
numbers of people who we were ministering to every day. Since we launched
this site August 30, it has been 7 days a week, at least 16 hours a day to
oversee the live prayer part of the site, personally respond to the majority
of the email that came in, try to develop some key relationships with other
Christian sites, and raise the finances to continue this cutting-edge,
fast-growing ministry. My first reaction was to walk away from it. God
knows I have done my best, why stay and fight and deal with the incredible
daily ministry pressures, and then have to fight every kind of perverted,
depraved individual who had no life other than to try and destroy the work
we are doing at Liveprayer.com. I have never been a quitter, and I wasn't going to start now.

The ISP that handles sending out our mail has agreed to host our website.
It
may be 2-3 days to get the domain registration transferred, but we WILL be
back up Monday. We are not backing down, we are not going away, and we are
going to keep on ministering the hope we have in Christ to the world via the
Internet. 2000 years ago, Jesus went into the tomb, and three days later he
rose and came forth to show this hurting and dying world He was the Son of
God. Because He rose, we have the blessed hope that when this life is over,
we too will be perfected and live for eternity with the God who created us.
On the third day, Liveprayer.com will rise as a testimony to the forces of
evil on the Internet, that God is real and will not be defeated. His work
will not be stopped.

Faith

(Hebrews 11:13-16, 33-40)

It is appropriate that today's devotional is taken from one of my favorite
chapters of the Bible, Hebrews 11, and on the subject that challenges me
daily, faith. The most motivational verse in the Bible for me is Hebrews
11:13. Just because we have the promise of ultimate victory in relation to
our eternal dwelling place if we know Christ as Savior, that doesn't insure
we will always see what the world would call "victory" in everything we do
for God. A sign of spiritual maturity is knowing that the things we do for
God are not "end-all events". no matter how large a ministry we may have or
how many people we may touch. Our work is only a small piece of God's
overall plan and purpose, and much of the time it may look to the world as if
we failed when we did exactly what God needed us to do in relation to His
overall plan. So were the lives of many heroes of faith talked about in
Hebrews 11. In our day of instant gratification when we have to have
everything we want when we want it, how we want it, where we want
it.....where the world judges everything by how big, how many people, how
much money....God tells us that many heroes never got to see the fruits of
their earthly labor. Despite not seeing the fruits, they never wavered or
held back from giving God their very lives. I ask myself daily, can I ever
have faith like that. I challenge you today, do you have faith like that?

As most of you know, right before Halloween, someone went to our Liveprayer.com
website and added many witches, warlocks, satan worshipers, and other
anti-Christian people to start receiving our daily devotional. Of course
these people never asked for the devotional and immediately began a campaign
to hurt our work, alleging we were sending SPAM. Rather than just
unsubscribe or ask us to unsubscribe them, they launched an all-out effort
to destroy us. I have come to realize that there are many dark and evil
forces that dwell within the Internet world. It is no accident that as much
good as the Internet can be, it has been used as an incredible tool to
propagate pornography, hatred, and every kind of perverted thing imaginable.
The "chat rooms" have become fertile grounds for the destruction of marriages
as people get into bondage in a fantasy world that becomes real with very
damaging results. In speaking to Internet veterans who know Christ, they
told me from day one I had no idea what kind attacks I was in for when I
launched Liveprayer.com. Not minimizing or criticizing the tremendous
efforts of very powerful and talented Christians, most Christian sites are
"static" in the sense that they have information and have few ways of
reaching out to impact lives. As you know, Liveprayer.com not only has the
Internet's first LIVE 24/7 video feed where people worldwide can log on and
be prayed for in their hour of need, but through our daily devotional we
minister to several hundred thousand people worldwide every single day. In
the first 8 weeks, you can not imagine the number of lives impacted by God
through this website.

Under the weight of the SPAM complaints, our host ISP and mail ISP were very
close to taking us off two weeks ago. However we agreed to go to an opt-in
phase so people who signed up for the daily devotional had to then receive a
confirmation they need to reply to before they could actually start receiving
the devotional. That seemed to satisfy everyone and as we removed the people
causing us problems, it looked like we were over that hurdle. But the
complaints continued. It was beyond my understanding how they were still
complaining, but one evening the Holy Spirit told me to go to the office and
log on to the NEWSGROUPS area. The Spirit than led me to various newsgroups
frequented by wiccas, anti-Christian groups, and others like that. As I
scrolled through the posts, to my horror I started to see many, many posts
to those newsgroups of how people could destroy Liveprayer.com and "blow us
off the Internet once and for all." It encouraged people who never had any
contact with Liveprayer exactly what words to use in their complaint, an
extensive list of email addresses of every ISP that has any connection at all
with our website or mail. Digex, who supplies bandwidth to our host ISP,
contacted them yesterday and informed them that they were going to cut off our
host ISP's bandwidth if they did not pull our website due to the number of
complaints they were getting about our website. Our host ISP really had no
choice but to pull our site. You may remember just 2 weeks ago when the
initial problems occurred, they only kept us going at that time after we paid
them a $5,000 deposit they would hold for 6 months against future complaints.
Of course, I am assuming they will keep that money.

I have to admit, last night was a very difficult night for me. I committed
all of our ministry resources, as well as the personal resources my wife and I
had to come up with, the $100,000 it took to launch this site. Under the
tremendous financial pressure was even greater pressure from the incredible
numbers of people who we were ministering to every day. Since we launched
this site August 30, it has been 7 days a week, at least 16 hours a day to
oversee the live prayer part of the site, personally respond to the majority
of the email that came in, try to develop some key relationships with other
Christian sites, and raise the finances to continue this cutting-edge,
fast-growing ministry. My first reaction was to walk away from it. God
knows I have done my best, why stay and fight and deal with the incredible
daily ministry pressures, and then have to fight every kind of perverted,
depraved individual who had no life other than to try and destroy the work we
are doing at Liveprayer.com.
I have never been a quitter, and I wasn't going to start now.

The ISP that handles sending out our mail has agreed to host our website. It
may be 2-3 days to get the domain registration transferred, but we WILL be
back up Monday. We are not backing down, we are not going away, and we are
going to keep on ministering the hope we have in Christ to the world via the
Internet. 2000 years ago, Jesus went into the tomb, and three days later he
rose and came forth to show this hurting and dying world He was the Son of
God. Because He rose, we have the blessed hope that when this life is over,
we too will be perfected and live for eternity with the God who created us.
On the third day, Liveprayer.com will rise as a testimony to the forces of
evil on the Internet, that God is real and will not be defeated. His work
will not be stopped.

A Plan For Our Life

Acts 26:16-18)

Does God really have a plan for our life? One of the most asked questions I
get daily, and have throughout my years of ministry, is whether God really
has a plan and purpose for our life. Let me assure you that there are no
accidents, no coincidences with God. The one who created the universe and
everything in it did not just create us in His image to drift from birth to
death with no purpose. Those who are into science will tell you that the
incredible perfection of creation could never have just happened, and while
some forms of life may undergo a sort of evolutionary process to a small
degree, all of this did not just "happen" and work itself into perfection. A
dear friend of mine, years ago, who came to know Christ because of the
irrefutable evidence we have from science, told me that the creation of the
universe and the incredible precision it takes to operate properly could have
never have "just happened by some accident." He said it would be the equivalent
of taking an expensive, finely tuned Swiss watch apart, throwing the thousand
some pieces in the air, and having it land in perfect working order. My
friend, the universe did not just happen, God created it. You did not just
happen, God created you. God did not just create all of this because He was
bored....there is a divine plan and purpose for everything, including your
life!

The scripture text today is God revealing to Paul the plan He had for his
life. Most of us will never have a Damascus Road experience where God calls
down to us and gives us the exact plan for our life. However, as we are
surrendered to His will, He will move us and position us exactly where He wants
us. He will open doors, close doors, and lead us to the very place, at the
very time as you are surrendered to Him and His plan. There are no
accidents where you live, work, go to school, recreate...who your neighbors
are, the people that are in your life. God strategically places us as His
instruments, so we can do our part of fulfilling His master plan.

The key, of course, is to be surrendered to Him. If we rebel, if we don't
listen, if we do it our way and not His way, then of course His plan will
never be fulfilled. That becomes our choice each day, to live our life our
way or His way. When we do it our way, we then bear the burden of coming up
with our own plan each day. It is amazing how we try, try, and try, and it
never seems to work out. We may be successful in one area of our life, but
miserable in others. You see, when we operate under God's plan, He takes
into consideration ALL areas of our life. Our work, finances, relationships,
service to Him, recreation, He has ALL aspects of our life covered. That is
why some people you see may have a great plan for their finances and be very
successful by the world's standards, but total failures in their marriage or
as a parent. Or some may have a great home life, but always struggling
financially. The point is, when you are operating under your plan, it will
never all work, all the time. There is a fatal flaw....it is your plan, not
His.

I will be praying for you today to open your heart and really talk with God
about whether you are operating day to day under your plan or His. Surrender
is the first step. That takes faith and trust. God will never let you down,
He will never disappoint you, just love and bless you daily. He does have a
plan for you, now it is up to you to open your heart and life and let Him
fulfill it just as Paul did.

Fear not

(Isaiah 41:10)

Fear not. As I was in prayer this morning about what God would have me say to
you today, He brought this powerful verse from the book of Isaiah into my
mind and told me that many of you today needed to be encouraged and reassured
that God had not left you. The Bible promises us that He will never leave us
nor forsake us. Let me say it this way, God has NEVER left you, although you
may have left Him. How can you fear anything...any person, any situation, any
circumstance, when God is there with you? But the promise of this verse just
doesn't end with His presence.

To me, the power in the verse is His promise to help us. Every morning, when
I look into the mirror in my bathroom, the first thing I see is a Bible verse
from John that simply says, "Without me you can do nothing." I never want to
start the day trusting in my own strength or wisdom, but trying to rely on
what God provides. It is such a comfort to know that God is with me and
that He is helping me. That is why I have such confidence, even in the face
of what appears to be overwhelming odds. God is with me, He is helping me,
and the Bible says that if He is with me, who can be against me! That
promise also applies to you!!!!

I want you to put this truth in your heart and mind, and start living a
confident, victorious life..NOW!!! There is no better time than now to put
God to the test. If he said it, believe it, and live it. When you are
driving down the freeway at 60 MPH and there are cars all around you going
just as fast or even faster, you are trusting those other drivers literally
with your life. When you get on an airplane, you are trusting the pilot to
get you up and down safely. There are so many times each day that you are
putting your faith in trust in people you don't even know. If you are
willing to blindly trust total strangers every day, why not put your trust in
the God of the universe, the God who loved you so much He sent His son to
die for your sins, the God that not only promises to never leave you, but
help you.

I love you and care for you deeply. I want to see you rise above whatever
the situations in your life may be, live that victorious life. Not only do
you than become a living testimony of God's power, but you are then free to
serve Him without being so distracted by the events in your life. Overcoming
the hurdles in your life gives you the freedom to help others overcome their
hurdles.

Remembering God

(Jonah 2:7)

Remembering God. It may sound unrealistic, but many times in our greatest
hour of need, we tend to forget God. Many times we are tired of praying.
Many times we have given up on Him answering. Often we are so wrapped up in
solving our problems our way, we forget it is God who can help us. If
nothing
else, let this word today be a reminder to you to remember God, especially
in
your time of greatest need. Often times we back ourselves into corners, and
when things aren't working out, we lose sight that we are to be serving the
Lord, working for Him, and it is to be on His terms and under His plan.
When
we get ahead of God or forget Him altogether, we often fail. When it is
in His time, on His terms, under His plan, we can never fail.

I could go into a long drawn out message today, but the Holy Spirit has
impressed upon me that you are very busy, and I try to respect your time.
Today, there simply is very little more to add than that God is there. He
has never left you, though you may have left Him. He is waiting for you to
call on Him. Jonah in the belly of the whale finally realized there was
only
one place to turn. Don't wait until you are in the belly of the whale.
Call
to God today and let Him walk with you, help you, give you what you need to
overcome. Remember God today. In your busy life, remember if it is on His
terms, His way, it will ALWAYS work out, because God CANNOT AND WILL NOT
FAIL.

Forgiveness

(Mark 11:25)

Forgiveness. One word, but one of the most difficult words there is in the
human language. I want to encourage you to take a step,
one giant leap of spiritual maturity. I believe one of the marks of a
mature
Christian is the ability to forgive, not man's way of forgiving, but
God's way.
Let me tell you the difference. When man forgives, the words are said, the
intentions are there, but deep down there is still a remembrance of the
circumstances involved. When God forgives, He wipes it out as if it never
existed. That is true Godly, Biblical forgiveness. not just the act
itself, but the additional step of acting like it never happened. Forgiving
and forgetting. If you want to measure your spiritual maturity, this is a
great place to start.

So many of the requests I get daily involve people in difficult situations
where they are trying to deal with people in their lives that have hurt them
in some way. Many get past the actual events, but just can't let go of the
hurt feelings. They have forgiven the offending party, but they have not
been able to forget. Let me encourage you today. Forgetting is critical to
getting on with your life. Forgetting allows you to put the events and
circumstances behind you and go forward. It is ultimately in YOUR best
interest to not only forgive, but forget so that you can go forward and
tackle new challenges God has for your life.

The other problem I deal with each day is people not being able to forgive
themselves. Listen, the Bible tells us that we have "all come short of the
glory of God." We are all sinners. We all make mistakes. When you go to
God and confess your sins, the Bible promises us that he not only forgives
us, but cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He not only has forgiven us,
but He has forgotten the transgression. God acts like it never happened.
The point I'm trying to make is that if God has forgiven you, if God has
wiped the slate clean, if in God's mind the sin never existed...why are you
holding on to it??? Let it go, and go forward. The lesson today is to forgive others, not man's way, but God's way. Forgive AND forget.

Secondly, quit beating yourself up over things God has already
forgotten about. He forgave you, so now forgive yourself. All of this is
important because if you are not forgiving others, how can you ask or expect
God to forgive you? Trust me, the things you want God to forgive you for
are
more serious than the things others have done to you. Forgiveness is so
important because it is only through forgiveness that we can go forward with
our lives serving God, fulfilling His plan for our life.

I will be praying for each of you today to have the strength to forgive
others and forgive yourself, to put those things in the past behind, and
with a clean slate go forward in service to our Lord and Savior. I love
you, am praying for you, and am standing with you always as we work together
to grow in His love and grace. Let this be a wonderful day serving Him!

Blessing Others

(Psalm 68:19)

Blessing others. Here is a spiritual truth for you to think about today.
God blesses you so that you can bless others. Those of you that have
received these daily devotionals for a while notice that I often speak of
serving others. That is because God has put us here to serve Him, which
means serving others. We are His hands, His feet. We are His living
breathing testimonies. Our transformed lives testify to the fact that God
is
real. The greatest impact you can have on another person usually is not
what
you say, but the things that you do.

Today is going to be very simple. My challenge to you is to do two things.
First, think of one person in your life today, a friend, schoolmate,
coworker, neighbor, someone you play sports with...someone that you can
reach
out to in Christ-like love and do a good deed for. I do not know what that
would be, but you know the person the Holy Spirit is laying on your heart,
and you know the exact act that would show that person you care for them.
Do
not go to bed tonight without accepting this challenge and fulfilling it.
It
may not seem like a big deal to you, but God can use your one small act of
kindness to open someone's heart.

Second, there are at least two people in your life that could use a word
from
God each day. We have a new process now to sign-up for these devotionals.
You still go to our website, www.liveprayer.com and hit the button marked
FREE DEVOTIONAL. You enter the information required and then that person
receives a confirmation request they must respond to to actually start
receiving
the devotional. So many of you were signed up by friends and family members
and know the blessing this daily word from God has been, I am sure there are
at least 2 people who can benefit from a very relevant Biblical-based
devotional on real-life issues we all face. You may never know until you
get
to Heaven how a person's life may have been changed by God speaking to them
at a very critical time in their life.

I love you deeply. I appreciate the prayers, words of encouragement, and support you have shown to me and this ministry more than you will ever know.
We fight daily, never forgetting it is His battle, not ours. Your
encouragement, prayers, the praise reports mean so much to me. It helps me
keep going when it appears God has left us all alone. You know that
feeling,
right? Of course, that is crazy. We leave Him, He never leaves us. I pray
for you daily, and believe God for the needs in your life to be met each and
every day. For all He has done for you, go out today, and do something for
someone in His name....bless at least 2 people by getting them this
devotional each day....and never forget that you are not to hoard the
blessings of God but share them.

Being Equally Yoked

(2 Corinthians 6:14)

Being equally yoked. After 9 years in the ministry, preaching in over 500
churches of every denomination, producing programming for the last 5 years
for Christian television stations all over the country, I have personally
prayed for and counseled hundreds of thousands of people. Through this, I
have seen some of the great warnings in the Bible ignored, thus causing
incredible personal suffering and destruction of lives. As believers, we
are so quick to cling to God's promises in our hour of need as we should,
but
God also put many warnings in His word that we sometimes gloss over and
ignore.
One of those warnings is not to be unequally yoked with nonbelievers. Some
have taken this passage to unreasonable lengths, but let me give you my
interpretation of this scripture and hopefully help you avoid unnecessary
heartache and pain in your life.

I believe this passage talks directly about those intimate
relationships we have in life. So many email requests I get daily are
from men and women who are married to unbelievers and going through so
much turmoil. Let me say this up front. If you are married now to an
unbeliever, this does not mean to get a divorce. You have already missed
the warning
and entered into a covenant relationship that God expects you to honor. God
may
be able to use you to bring that unsaved spouse to Christ. But if you are
not married, getting married with an unbeliever is spiritual suicide. Love
is fine, but what about what God says? If you need to see what a closed
door looks like, this is one. Now, if that person comes to Christ, it is a
whole
different story. Dating? No problem. Again, you may be the Godly influence
in their life and God may be using you to touch that person's heart. But
marriage? Unless you just want to roll right through God's roadblock, which
you have the free will to do, you are just asking for trouble.

Outside of the marriage issue, I am not a literalist. I do believe if you
go into business with someone, they should be of like faith. The people you
do
business with in the course of the day though, will be difficult to limit to
just people of faith, though some do and that is fine. Where you shop,
where you recreate, the products you use, I personally feel to try and fit
that in
this scripture is taking it to an interpretation that is not meant in it's
context.

I want to pray for you today to really pray about your relationships in
life, and keep this warning from God in your mind. God is in the blessing
business. Sometimes though, it requires some patience on your part. He
won't let you
down, and His timing is ALWAYS perfect. My prayer is that you take notice
of this warning, have the strength to listen to the Lord, and give God a
chance
to work in your life His way, on his timing. Trust me, if you do, you will
avoid so much pain and be so blessed, because when you live God's way, it is
better than anything you ever hoped or dreamed of.

Finding Comfort

(2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

Finding comfort in those difficult days. Many of you today are just trying
to make it through until the end of the week. You are burdened by many
troubles. You have mountains in your life that are so large, you are just
waiting for them to crush you. You woke up this morning with little hope,
clinging to that small measure of faith that today, maybe today you might
get
that breakthrough you are looking for. You are tired, weary, almost without
enough energy to go on much longer. Right now, as much as anything, you are
hoping and praying for a bit of comfort in the midst of the trials, a little
rest from carrying the burdens weighing you down. My friend, put your
burdens down, quit thinking for a few minutes about the circumstances you
are
facing, and let God, our creator, comfort you today.

As you know, nobody can think clearly, make wise decisions when they are
tired. Many times, we compound the problems in our life by making hasty,
non-prayerful decisions in the heat of the moment without thinking. Today,
go to God. Ask Him to do nothing more than comfort you and give you rest.
Jesus said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest." I sense in my spirit today that many of you simply need to go to
God today and find that rest. Listen, the problems you have didn't happen
overnight, and unless God decided to miraculously work in the situation, won't
go away overnight. The problems happened over a period of time, and God
usually uses a period of time to work them out.

This is hard for me to write because I am a very motivated, action-oriented
person that likes to work until the problems are solved, then rest. But
that
isn't always practical. Many times God tests us through different
problems, and He may not work things out on our time schedule. One of the
hardest lessons for me to learn was that there are days, there are times,
when I
just need to stop, relax, let God comfort me for a time, and let the Lord
carry my burdens. What this really is starting to boil down to, my friend, is
an issue of faith. We are so worried, work so hard, and get ourselves in such
difficult problems out of a lack of faith. Faith is simply believing God
can,
and will do exactly what He says in His Word. The reason it is hard for me
to take that time of comfort is because of a lack of faith. I just don't
trust God to work things out, so I stay busy trying to do it myself. I am
not saying we shouldn't work hard, be concerned about the issues in our
life and
try to work things out...but are we doing it our way, in our strength, or
God's way, in His strength???

My prayer for you today is to take a day of rest. Go to school, go to work,
do the things you do in a normal day, but rest from the worry and concerns
of
your problems and circumstances. Let God give you rest today from your
burdens. Let Him comfort you in the midst of your trials. Let Him simply
love you today. In addition, exercise that measure of faith He has given
each one of us and start to trust Him more. Tomorrow, you will be fresh,
rested, with a renewed confidence in God, and then sit down with God and let Him
start to give you His plan for handling your problems. He promised to, and
He will. You just need to trust Him.

Let God Bless You Today

(Genesis 19:23-26)

If you have read many of the devotionals I write each day, you will see that a common thread is personal responsibility. Many of you are missing the blessings of God because you are hindering God from working in your behalf. In today’s scripture passage, we read how God was trying to bless Lot’s wife, sparing her life in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was her disobedience that hindered God from blessing her and actually cost her her life. Your sin and disobedience may not have such tragic consequences, but they are still a hindrance to the blessings God has for your life.

There are many factors that come into play that can cause us harm. The sins of others, consequences that God allows to happen that we might never understand, but when it is an outside influence, whether you ever see them or acknowledge them, God is still blessing you and keeping you by His grace and mercy despite what you are going through. Others cannot hold God’s blessings back on your life. However, your sins and your rebellion can hold back the blessings of God and keep you from realizing all the wonderful things He has for your life. To me, the worst part of sin and living in rebellion is not so much the consequences of those actions but all that we miss – all the blessings of God that are held back. God cannot and will not bless sin, so on top of everything else, you are missing the best He has for your life.

I am going to pray today that as you read this devotional, the Holy Spirit brings to your thoughts the things in your life that you know (even though you try to suppress them) are keeping you from knowing all of God’s blessings in your life. I am going to pray that God will strengthen you to turn from your sin, turn from your rebellion, and come to Him with a broken and contrite heart asking forgiveness. He loves you. He wants to bless you. All He is waiting for is for you to turn from your sin and follow Him. Why would you settle for a hamburger if you could have a New York Strip Steak? That is what you do when you won’t let go of the sin in your life. God has so much for you. It is up to you to get all the benefits there are from following Christ. Blessings you can’t even imagine are waiting. All He is waiting for is your life, totally surrendered to Him. My prayer is for you to turn to Him today and have all the wonderful blessings waiting for your life.

You Could Be Hindering God From Blessing You

(Genesis 19:23-26)

You could be hindering God from blessing you. If you have read many of the
devotionals I write each day, you will see that a common thread is personal
responsibility. Many of you are missing the blessings of God because you are
hindering God from working in your behalf. In today's scripture passage, we
read how God was trying to bless Lot's wife, sparing her life in the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was her disobedience that hindered God
from blessing her and actually cost her her life. Your disobedience, your
sin may not have such tragic consequences, but they are still a hindrance to
the blessings God has for your life.

There are many factors that come into play that can cause us harm. The sins
of others, consequences that God allows to happen that we might never
understand. But when it is an outside influence, whether you ever see them
or acknowledge them, God is still blessing you and keeping you by His grace
and mercy despite what you are going through. Others cannot hold back God's
blessings on your life. However, your sins, your rebellion can hold back the
blessings of God and keep you from realizing all the wonderful things that He
has for your life. To me, the worst part of sin, the worst part of living in
rebellion is not so much the consequence of those actions, but all
that we miss, all the blessings of God that are held back. God cannot and
will not bless sin, so on top of everything else, you are missing the best He
has for your life.

I am going to pray today that as you read this devotional, the Holy Spirit
brings to your thoughts the things in your life that you know, even though you
try to suppress them, are keeping you from knowing all of God's
blessings in your life. I am going to pray that God will strengthen you to
turn from your sin, turn from your rebellion, and come to Him with a broken
and contrite heart, asking forgiveness. He loves you. He wants to bless you.
All he is waiting for is for you to turn from your sin and follow Him. Why
would you settle for a hamburger if you could have a New York strip? That is
what you do when you won't let go of the sin in your life. God has so much
for you, it is up to you to get all the benefits there are from following
Christ. Blessings you can't even imagine are waiting. All He is waiting for
is your life, totally surrendered to Him. My prayer is for you to turn to
Him today and have all the wonderful blessings waiting for your life.

Dealing With The Enemy God's Way

(Proverbs 11:21)

Consequences of sin. The destructive nature of sin is that it does not
happen in a vacuum. I hear many say that it is my sin, my problem.
Unfortunately, that is not true. When you sin, it is like throwing a pebble
into a still pond. There is the initial ring it produces, but slowly, the
ring spreads out and it gets bigger and bigger and produces more rings inside
it. The initial pebble may not have been that much, and the initial ring may
have started small, but in the end it had grown to encompass a very large
area. The point I am trying to make is that sin is not just your problem.
At the very least, your sin is against God first and yourself second. Almost
always though, it involves other people that you are either sinning with or
sinning against.

I do not have to tell any of you about the pain, heartache, and problems that
evolve from our sin. The lives we injure, the lost trust from those we care
about. The damages are great. On top of everything else though, we end up
missing the blessings of God. God has blessings beyond our ability to
imagine for each one of us. He loves to bless His children. But God cannot
and will not bless disobedience. On top of everything else, your sin is
keeping you from enjoying the blessings of God. We are so stubborn, so full
of ourselves, that we usually try to do things our way, ignoring what God has
to say. We accept at best some very little, temporary pleasure from our sin,
and miss the greater blessings God has for us if we had been obedient. The
Bible tells us that "to obey is better than sacrifice."

I want to encourage you to pray about whatever sin there may be in your
life today. I want to pray for you as well, for God to strengthen you and
give you the courage to walk away from your sins and into obedience to His
word. I want to encourage you to leave behind the temporary pleasures of sin
for the eternal joy of obeying our Lord. There is no greater joy than when
you are in obedience to what God has asked, knowing that He is as proud of you
as a father or mother is of a child who is obedient. Being obedient is the
ultimate act of a child of God saying "not my will Father, but thy will be
done." As a believer, our ultimate objective should be to enter heaven one
day and hear God proclaim, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Spiritual Warfare - Part III

(Ephesians 6:18-20)

Winning!!! In any war, the objective is to win. In a spiritual war, the key
to winning is prayer. Sound easy? Want to tell me you have been, but it
doesn't work? Maybe God has been answering but you aren't listening. In the
battle for Jericho, how do you think the great military minds felt about the
battle plan of walking around the city blowing trumpets? Sounds like great
military strategy doesn't it? But it was God's plan and it worked!!! The
point I am making is, you are praying about a situation, and in your mind you
have figured out how God is supposed to answer. Maybe God wants to do it
another way, maybe He has his own strategy that isn't exactly like yours. Do
you want victory or do you just want victory your way? Praying involves
turning it over to God and letting Him fight the battle, and it also means
letting Him win the battle in his own way. Why? So He gets the glory!!!!!!

Part one of this series talked about the attacks of the enemy and that our
battle is a spiritual battle. Part two dealt with the whole armor of God,
both for defensive and offensive purposes. Today is about winning. After
all, the Bible tells us we are more than conquerors. We are the children of
the King. We have a royal inheritance. If you know Jesus as your Savior, you
no longer have to worry about where you will spend eternity so you can go
through this life with full confidence, with no fear, working for God in
confidence that in the end...YOU WIN!!!!!!!!! I want you to go forward today
realizing that fact. Whatever the battle in your life may be, start living in
the victory Christ won on Calvary 2000 years ago. Do not be denied, do not
be discouraged. As you pray, God will put His plan in effect no matter how
crazy it may seem to you, that will give you the victory!

Spiritual Warfare - Part II

(Ephesians 6:13-17)

God's protection plan. God, in His omniscience, knew that as we worked for
Him we would face fierce attacks from satan. Therefore, He did not leave us
without protection. Today's passage of scripture tells us about the armor of
God, God's protection for His children as we battle each day. There are many
eloquent and anointed teachings on this passage of scripture. Any message or
book on spiritual warfare will give you a full and concise teaching on God's
armor. My purpose here is to encourage you to use the protection God has
provided as you battle the enemy each day. I do want to focus for a second
on one aspect though. All of God's protection is defensive; however, God has
provided us with one offensive weapon to fight with...His Word!!!!!

In past devotionals as I have ministered to you about overcoming sin in your
life, I talked quite a bit about a battle plan. The most simple and effective
battle plan I have ever found for battling sin on a daily basis has been to
carry a small New Testament with me at all times. In those moments of
weakness, as the attacks come, to pull it out and start reading, anywhere,
and in just a few minutes know the sinful thoughts have fled because they can't
stand up under the power of God's Word. I have always been a very offensive-
minded person, not willing to just sit back and wait, so while I appreciate
the defensive armor God has provided us with and I use it every day for
protection, it is the Word of God I love so much because it is my best weapon
in fighting the enemy. I can go into his backyard (the Internet) with no
fear because God's Word tells me I am a conqueror. That with God with me,
who can be against me. That I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me. Amen!!!!

I want to encourage you today that as you fight those spiritual battles in
your life, use those defensive tools God has provided you with, but do not
neglect the offensive weapon he gave you as well. It is time for God's
people to get serious, quit being so passive, and get busy in confidence
knowing that God has given them all they need to go out and lift His name up
before this sinful and dark world. My friend, today is the day the Lord has
made, let us rejoice and be glad in it....and go out and make a difference
for HIM!!!!

Spiritual Warfare - Part I

(Ephesians 6:12)

The enemy is attacking!!!! So many of the emails I receive every day are
from good Christian people who are looking for God to help them, and
wondering why they are going thru the difficulties they are. Unfortunately
there is not always an explanation. I try to encourage and challenge you
each
day to do your part, because in all honesty, we cause a lot of the problems
in our lives ourselves by not following God's plan and ignoring the warnings
He has clearly laid out in His Word. But for those living a holy and Godly
life, who are still experiencing major battles, you have to understand that
there is an enemy, Satan, who is very real and very actively trying to
disrupt the work of God. The Bible clearly tells us that our battle isn't
against flesh and blood, but that it is a spiritual battle. Over the next 3
days, I am going to try to help you fight these battles. The most important
thing you have to understand, no matter how intense the attacks may be on
you
right now....you have already won if you know Jesus as your personal Savior.
The most important battle is the one for your soul. Knowing Jesus insures
you have won that battle, and that knowledge alone, should give you the
confidence to wage the battles of this life knowing that in the end, YOU
WIN!!!!! The lesson for today is that as a person who has put their faith
and trust in Christ, no matter what you may be facing, in the end..YOU
WIN!!!!!

The reason for these next 3 daily devotional on Spiritual Warfare comes out
of the incredible attacks this ministry, Liveprayer.com is under today. God
told me when He gave me the vision for this Internet ministry that it was
going to be a major battle since the Internet has basically been Satan's
domain and to a large extent still is. For whatever the benefits of the
Internet have been, they are far outweighed currently by the ungodly content
that dominates this world. You would be amazed at the number of lives
destroyed over the last 5 years by the Internet. Men and women in total
bondage to Internet porn, gambling....marriages destroyed by on-line romances
that became real...people lured by the greed of on-line trading and losing
everything they had in this world...every kind of evil and destructive thing
has found a place of prominence here on the Internet. I had no illusions
that this would be easy work as we try to take back the internet for the
Kingdom
of God.

All Things Are Possible With God

(Mark 10:27)

All things are possible with God. I don't know what the miracle is you need
today. Some need their marriages restored. For some it is a healing in their
bodies. Many need a financial miracle. Still others need God to provide a
miracle in the life of a family member or friend. Whatever it is you need
today, I am here to proclaim that God is still in the miracle business! The
great miracles you read about in the Bible were not limited to that time
alone, but the same God that parted the Red Sea is the same God that can
work
that miracle in your life today. The same God that caused the walls of
Jericho to tumble is the same God that will perform the miracle in your life
today. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD.

I am praying for you today, that the miracle you need in your life will come
to pass. Pray, believe, and let God show you the path to the miracle HE WANTS
TO
PERFORM, THEN BE OBEDIENT TO FOLLOW IT. The Bible says that if we have the
faith of the grain of a mustard seed, we can cast a mountain into the sea.
Exercise your faith today, believe today, let God show you His strength and
power today as He moves in your life and situation. I am standing with you,
praying with you, believing with you for that miracle in your life. ALL
THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD.