September 10, 2008 #628 / By Susan McIntosh / susan@actsfoundation.com
ACTS Team Member, Mary Sauer, recently brought to our attention a recently launched corporate prayer for America which we feel should be passed on to 2 Chronicles 7:14 intercessors in all of the 39 WWW/MMM nations. Mary is a woman of prayer. She prays for all of us. She processes most of the Foundation’s correspondence and heads a growing prayer ministry for prisoners. We know Mary already has her alarm clock set to go off, alerting her to pause and intercede for America and for your nations. Bless you, Mary! As Mother Teresa was to orphans, you are a spiritual, interceding mother to thousands!
She has passed on a reminder to all of us that God responds to corporate prayer! “If My people pray…” You may remember reading that during WWII there was an advisor to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace. This had an amazing effect as bombing stopped. There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America.
WWW/MMM, this is a fantastic call! We invite all of you to organize a prayer army in your nation. You can start by phoning a few friends and family members. Encourage them to phone a few more people. You know how fast good news can travels! In the US others have already begun so I am joining them—it is just one minute each evening at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, 8 p.m. Central Time, 7 p.m. Mountain Time, and 6 p.m. Pacific Time. All of our nations need intercessory prayer. You might not be an orator, a journalist, a politician, or in the public eye. HOWEVER, you can step up, or kneel down, or sit down for one minute each evening and lift your family, your community, and your nation up to the Lord in prayer and be assured that those you have rallied to pray with you and thousands around the world are also “standing in the gap” before Father’s throne!
Can you imagine the JOY such prayer-of-agreement-from across-the-nations piercing through the Heavens straight to the heart of God! WOW! Just think, we WWW/MMM alone represent 39 countries! The prayer of agreement is POWERFUL! We can bellyache about world problems OR we can reach out and spiritually grasp hands with believers worldwide and move like a mighty Army of the Lord, preparing the Way of the Lord! It is exciting. You may be one of our readers who is in prison, YOU can be a HISTORY MAKER! Gather a band of prayer warriors and syncrize your watches. They might be in their cell and you in yours but in the Spiritual realm, you are marching through Heaven’s gates TOGETHER in AGREEMENT and my Bible tells me, God will respond gloriously! You might be elderly, be sitting in a wheelchair, be a missionary in an assignment hundreds of miles from your nation, be a renowned doctor, be a military or government man or woman, be a busy mom home-schooling, or be a student busy with college courses. We can make a huge difference. We can worry or try to ignore economical, political, personal, relationship, and welfare problems. But, we can also make a difference! We can be history makers.
Some of you may respond, “I wouldn’t know what to pray.” My first reply would be, “Ask the Lord to show you.” I stand by that, but, to prime the pump of interceding, History Makers, here is a sample of my own prayers: “Father, in faith, I grab hands with Believers around the world and gather with them here at Your Throne. We acknowledge You as our Father. Teach us how to hallow and honor You MORE in our daily lives. Corporately, in this minute of intercessory prayer, we acknowledge our need for a deeper dependency on You. Forgive us for grieving Your Holy Spirit. Forgive the many sins of our nations. Cleanse us, Lord. Convict us of sin. Transform our hearts as we wait expectantly in Your presence. We long to experience Your Kingdom in our own lives and in our nation. Teach us how to humble ourselves, pray, and seek Your face on behalf of our nation. Heal our land! Thy Kingdom COME. Thy Will be DONE in us as it is in Heaven. Hallelujah! We praise You together, in Jesus’ Name, Amen!”
Monday, September 22, 2008
Fault Lines
September 3, 2008 #627 / By Ralph E. McIntosh / ralph@actsfoundation.com
I am from California. I was born there in 1946 to missionary parents who promptly took me to Mexico at a very young age. Mexico became my second home and Spanish, the language of my heart! Both California and Mexico have the dubious distinction of having earthquakes. I have experienced them in both places and they can be less than fun!
Fault Lines are cracks in the earth’s surface. It is along these cracks that the immense pressure of shifting layers of the earth can suddenly give way causing earthquakes when the friction can take no more stress.
I see the great moves of God as spiritual fault lines in our belief systems, but they are not faulty! They do cause us to be very uncomfortable with the shaking and the uncertainty about where things will settle! As I look at Scripture, Jesus was very comfortable with making the religious uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to be shaken off dead-center. We don’t need to be eccentric; we need to be God-centric! (Ezekiel 37 is a good picture of what “spiritual shaking” accomplishes.
Personally, I am more comfortable without shouting “Hallelujah” or jumping while loud music is played. However, when you hear the testimonies of redemption from the world’s system, it makes one want to yell and jump if you haven’t done so before. Besides it is Scriptural to “shout to the Lord” and to “leap for joy.”
I have been grieved to read some of the comments on the Internet written often by those who are trying to discredit what God has been doing. It is truly amazing. Obviously, every good fruitcake has some nuts in it! We met a few of them too! By far the majority people we met at the Outpouring were genuine believers wanting nothing but God’s perfect will for them and their families.
If only the critics would take the time to come and listen and worship alongside some real people, they would have less to criticize. I noticed something on the
Internet that amused me. The blogs and videos that were negative received more attention that the positive ones! What does this tell you about the hunger for God of even the Christian public?
Let’s all pray that we focus on Faith and not on frenzy!
Luke 18--Men ought always to pray and not to faint…Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican… The Pharisee represents the religious and “better than thou” while the publican cried out to the Lord from his acknowledged humility and genuine need.
Hearts-of-Faith
Hearts-of-Faith from miles apart,
Here, converge, to do their part.
Come to lift up Jesus’ name,
Then return--but not the same.
Drawn, we come with common cause,
Lifting hearts and faith’s applause,
Driven only by His love,
Looking to His face above.
We can never be the same.
We will always praise His Name.
Touched by Jesus’ mighty hand.
Now empowered for our lands.
Oh the Lord of every morning.
Oh His glory now surrounding.
Oh the mercy of His blessing.
Oh His awesome love abounding.
©Ralph E. McIntosh / 9/2/08 / Lakeland, Florida
I am from California. I was born there in 1946 to missionary parents who promptly took me to Mexico at a very young age. Mexico became my second home and Spanish, the language of my heart! Both California and Mexico have the dubious distinction of having earthquakes. I have experienced them in both places and they can be less than fun!
Fault Lines are cracks in the earth’s surface. It is along these cracks that the immense pressure of shifting layers of the earth can suddenly give way causing earthquakes when the friction can take no more stress.
I see the great moves of God as spiritual fault lines in our belief systems, but they are not faulty! They do cause us to be very uncomfortable with the shaking and the uncertainty about where things will settle! As I look at Scripture, Jesus was very comfortable with making the religious uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to be shaken off dead-center. We don’t need to be eccentric; we need to be God-centric! (Ezekiel 37 is a good picture of what “spiritual shaking” accomplishes.
Personally, I am more comfortable without shouting “Hallelujah” or jumping while loud music is played. However, when you hear the testimonies of redemption from the world’s system, it makes one want to yell and jump if you haven’t done so before. Besides it is Scriptural to “shout to the Lord” and to “leap for joy.”
I have been grieved to read some of the comments on the Internet written often by those who are trying to discredit what God has been doing. It is truly amazing. Obviously, every good fruitcake has some nuts in it! We met a few of them too! By far the majority people we met at the Outpouring were genuine believers wanting nothing but God’s perfect will for them and their families.
If only the critics would take the time to come and listen and worship alongside some real people, they would have less to criticize. I noticed something on the
Internet that amused me. The blogs and videos that were negative received more attention that the positive ones! What does this tell you about the hunger for God of even the Christian public?
Let’s all pray that we focus on Faith and not on frenzy!
Luke 18--Men ought always to pray and not to faint…Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican… The Pharisee represents the religious and “better than thou” while the publican cried out to the Lord from his acknowledged humility and genuine need.
Hearts-of-Faith
Hearts-of-Faith from miles apart,
Here, converge, to do their part.
Come to lift up Jesus’ name,
Then return--but not the same.
Drawn, we come with common cause,
Lifting hearts and faith’s applause,
Driven only by His love,
Looking to His face above.
We can never be the same.
We will always praise His Name.
Touched by Jesus’ mighty hand.
Now empowered for our lands.
Oh the Lord of every morning.
Oh His glory now surrounding.
Oh the mercy of His blessing.
Oh His awesome love abounding.
©Ralph E. McIntosh / 9/2/08 / Lakeland, Florida
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Guilt by Association (Harry Potter Re-visited)
At a recent meeting in
A couple of verses that say nothing directly about sorcery or witchcraft are, however, great guidelines for our thoughts and perhaps the most powerful directives against dabbling in the occult ( relating to, or dealing with secret supernatural influences, agencies, or phenomena ). They read like this…
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. NAS
In other words, what ever we plant in our brain we will reap. Would any of us want to reap the results of witchcraft?
Matthew 12:34-37 34. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak(or read), they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will condemned. KJV
Note also that on numerous occasions the occult is linked with whoredom, adultery, rebellion, etc. It is an association that is closely linked in Scripture and carries a load of guilt with it.
Lev. 20:6. And the soul that turns after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. 7. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. 8. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you.
Revelation 21:8 8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
ACTS
Other Scripture to review: Revelation 22:15, 1 Samuel 15:23, 2 Kings 9:22, 2 Chronicles 33:1-6, Micah 5:12-13, Nahum 3:4-6, Galatians 5:19-21, Malachi 3:5-7, Acts 13:6-8
Our prayer is that none of the works of the enemy, especially witchcraft and related dark subjects, will hold any attraction for you or your family. If this has been a trap, take a clue from Scripture and gather the things together (books,
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Stoke on
I Want More
Lord, I Want More…
More than sight;
Give me insight.
More than education;
Help me have Your wisdom.
More than touch;
Help me feel.
More than a walk;
Help me finish the race.
More than rest;
Help me lean on You.
More than winning;
Help me be triumphant.
More than my world;
Help me see the nations!
By Ralph E. McIntosh ©2000
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