The Network of Prayer
October 5, 2020
James 5:13-16
13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
The Network of Prayer
My daughter is a struggling single mom with two boys. Recently she began a new job in which she is selling vacation plans. She’s a good little sales girl, but she has been learning the job and then they were given a mandatory vacation for two weeks in December so finances have been real hard for her. The really great thing about my daughter is that she has really been trying to get her life back on track in the will of God for her life. She has often called asked us to pray for her and along with others of friends and family as well. The other morning, we prayed for her at breakfast and asked the Lord to provide for her in such a way that she would know that the Lord is her provider and He will care for her. Later that evening she called very excited and said she had just sold their biggest plan, which amounted to about a $30,000 sale. She said she was only the second one that had ever sold this package, but among her first words were, “thank you for praying for me.” I happened to be on the other line at the time with my parents and was able to share the good news with them as well, because I know that they also are praying for her, along with many others.
The point is that we are a body, a network of believers, joined together for one another’s good and benefit. This is why we pray often for one another. We all have needs, problems, temptations and struggles. Isn’t it wonderful that the body of Christ wraps its arms around us and lifts us up in prayer to the Father? There is power in your prayers and your prayers are not only important for your sake, but for the sake of others as well. How many times has the hand of God been there moving on our behalf, because others were praying for us? God uses the prayers of faith as the vehicle to deliver His blessing and provisions. Whenever we go any place of distance we need a mode of transportation; the prayers of faithful and godly saints are the vehicles of His divine blessings and provision. Whatever our need, our problem, our temptation or our struggle, God wants us to network together to lift each other up and pray for one another. If we are failing to pray it is like being disconnected from the power grid. Our prayers of faith are like little generators putting power in the system. If we are not plugged into a faithful prayer life we are robbing ourselves and we are robbing others. Prayer is our network to have our needs met and to meet the needs of others. We may even be the physical means by which a prayer is answered, but we will miss the blessing if we are not tuned into the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Don’t fail to respond to God’s calling to be a part of the network that comprises the body of Christ, for it is constantly operating, praying and functioning for the good of the whole. This is the functioning of Christ in you.
Blessings,
#kent
A Day with the Lord
August 17, 2018
A Day with the Lord
1 Corinthians 1:9
God [is] faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
The sun strikes the peaks with pinkish hue,
As I rise to start my day with You.
Soft, back lit clouds streak across the eastern sky,
As the day dawns and You are nigh.
With sleepy eyes I step out into the newborn day,
With praise and worship, I begin to pray.
Lord You are faithful, good and so kind,
You are the treasure I seek and the wisdom I find.
In the fresh clean morning air,
I step out and sense You are there.
A dove coos nearby as Holy Spirit says I’m here.
A fragrant breeze passes saying God is near.
Outward signs remind me of our inward chat,
A dialogue where we can talk about this and that,
Where God listens intently as I pray,
And I so want to hear what He has to say.
Often it is quiet when I listen for Him
With patience in prayer, I seek Him again.
He doesn’t always respond like I think He should
But often He speaks in other ways than man normally would.
Sometimes it is in the day that He is speaking to me,
Even through my wife, a friend or someone I meet.
I must learn to listen and see with spiritual ears and eyes,
Or I’ll miss what He is saying as my life goes whizzing by.
God often speaks when we’ve ceased to pray,
He talks to us often in such little ways.
He gives us opportunities to respond in His love,
He allows those tests to see what our hearts are made of.
No, He doesn’t speak audibly to me,
But He is speaking in ways that are setting me free.
He is not constantly condemning my sin,
But He is teaching me the liberty of the righteousness in Him.
Let us always start our day with prayer and praise,
Let us bask in His love, rising above earthly haze.
Let us learn to carefully listen and look for Him.
Walking in the Spirit, is knowing our dearest Friend.
Kent Stuck
Blessings,
#kent
The Streams of our Hopes and Dreams
October 20, 2016
The Streams of our Hopes and Dreams
Psalms 127:3
Lo, children [are] an heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward.
Springs bubble up from the melted winter snow
Pure little streams trickle down to larger ones below.
How precious the resource of these little bubbling springs
They are like the wellsprings of all our hopes and dreams.
They bubble to the surface birthed into their little stream.
They are so rich in hope as they start off pure and clean.
Hopes and dreams cascade over the rocks smoothing them to stone,
They cascade over waterfalls showing a splendor all their own.
Sometimes they are muddied as they flow to rivers below,
Sometimes they are unappreciated among the river’s flow.
Still they exist in the heart of the spring from which they came.
Even when they become muddied they are cherished just the same.
Our children are often the seed of so many of our hopes and dreams.
We hope and desire they are not just milk, but rise to be the cream.
Even when life doesn’t bring to pass all that we had dreamed for,
Forever we cherish our dream in them and for them pray the more.
They are our legacy to carry on the resource of our life,
Sometimes they turn from us and it cuts us like a knife,
But we look beyond what we see as we hold on to our dream,
We hope, as long as there is life, that our waters again become clean.
Never lose your hopes and dreams though they become clouded along the way,
Bath them in prayer and faith as you look to a brighter day.
Look to the promise of the seed that you planted within their precious hearts,
Believe that when they are old, from God’s grace and love, they will not remain apart.
Blessings,
#kent
Call to Fitness
November 5, 2015
1 Timothy 4:8
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Call to Fitness
Sometimes our spiritual muscles and countenance begin to droop and sag over time like much of the rest of our body. The spiritual man need not grow old. He is the eternal youth and life that lives in us. But if left to neglect the spiritual man can’t serve us. Certainly we need to care for the temple of this natural body, for it is what houses and facilitates the spiritual man within us. Our greater obligation and responsibility is to the spiritual man. This is the eternal part of us that is both now and forever.
The spiritual man is fed as we read and study God’s word. The spirit man feeds on truth. He is exercised as he acts upon this truth in faith. He is strengthened and activated in our life of prayer and fellowship with the Lord. Spirit feeds spirit. Do we spend as much time a day feeding our spiritual man as we do our natural man? Are we as attentive to our spiritual needs as we are our physical needs? Would your natural man be in better or worse shape if it was given the same amount of attention and food a day as you give your spirit man? When we put it in this perspective we might see why we might be spiritually weak and ineffective, not only in our lives but in the lives of others.
This is our day to awaken to our spiritual self and who we are in Christ. This is not just a head knowledge, it is a call to spiritual alertness and fitness. I can set on the couch and watch fitness and exercise programs all day long, but unless I engage my body in those routines no amount of mental agreement or ascent will change my physical state. Many of us listen to the word of God and we have a lot of spiritual head knowledge, but like James says, “faith without works is dead”. In order for us to have spiritual strength we have to exercise our spiritual man. James 1:22 exhorts us, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” We are a kingdom people called for a kingdom purpose. We must become sensitized to who we are as a spiritual people and not just a natural people. We must see our world through God’s perspective and then act out of our spiritual man in life’s circumstances. Maybe it is just offering to pray for someone or building them up through an encouraging word. Maybe it is random acts of kindness and selfless giving. Whatever it is, it needs to be Christ finding expression through our lives and everyday circumstances. This is exercising our spiritual man.
Jesus commissions our spiritual man in Luke 17:15-18, “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” How many of us are walking daily in this commission? We have to have a strong and energized spiritual man to carry our what we are called to do. The Lord is calling us to spiritual fitness so that we can make a difference in our world. Let us exercise ourselves in all faith and godliness that He may be lifted up and glorified through us.
Blessings,
#kent
Attitudes that Nullify or Qualify
July 13, 2015
Psalms 30:7-12 LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled. 8 I cried out to You, O LORD; And to the LORD I made supplication: 9 “What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? 10 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper!” 11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Attitudes that Nullify or Qualify
There are times we come to some very hard places in our lives. Some of us have lived in those places for a very long time. We have no doubt cried out to God to remove our mountain, whatever form of adversity and trial it may take. I found it interesting that the Psalmist David says here, “Lord, you have made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face and I was troubled.” There is no doubt a lot of us that have been, and maybe still are, in this place. The question is, “have we viewed it as the Lord’s favor?” One thing God often does with us is that He puts us between a rock and a hard place. We find ourselves in such a pit that the only we have to look is up. Our resources dries up. Our strength fails. We are left with two choices: forsake our faith, as we mummer and complain, or encourage ourselves in our God and the power of His might. We see two examples in the Word. We see the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and led into a wilderness where there is no food and water. A great many of them choose to murmur and complain when they find themselves against the mountain of adversity. They want some one to blame for their trials and problems. They focus on death and what they left behind and how bleak the picture is before them. They are always looking at how big the problem is and not at how big their God is. On the other hand, we have someone like David. Here is a man who has seen and experienced the reality of God and yet finds himself seemingly forsaken as King Saul pursues him to take his life. I believe the reason David found such favor before the Lord is because he refused to allow his fears to be the giant that conquered him. He saw himself in God in the sense that he knew God would not deny or forsake Himself. He expresses the fact more than once that he became discouraged in his soul, but in his spirit he would rise up and say, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Forget not all of His benefits.” It is the favor of God that causes our mountain to stand strong. It is not that He may beat us down, it is so that He can build us up. Philippians 3:3 says, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Until we develop the eyes of the Spirit our fleshly mentality will keep us just going around and around our mountain. It is with the eyes of faith and by the Spirit that we will, in due season, go through the mountain and that mountain will be cast into the sea. Our mountain is our place of spiritual preparation and the place where God is honing us for a greater purpose. We have two choices: murmur and complain or praise and worship. Which do we think will bring us more quickly into the purposes and plan of God for our lives? Philippians 4:6 reminds us, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Our problems and our mountains aren’t always going to go away like we might like them too, but we are not alone in the trial. Enter into your God and His mighty promises. He will, in His time, turn your mourning into dancing. He will put off your sackcloth and clothe you with gladness. Encourage your soul today, “How great is our God.” He will never fail us or forsake us. “O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever!”
Blessings,
#kent
Motives of Prayer
June 30, 2015
James 4:3
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Motives of Prayer
It is said of Jesus in Hebrews 7:23-25, “Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” When Jesus intercedes for us what do you suppose His motive to be?
When we pray, what is the focus of our prayers? Of course when we pray and seek the Lord we all want to be favored and blessed and receive our petitions from the Lord, but to what end.? What are our motives in the things we pray and cry out to God for? If we think of God as a celestial Santa Claus to whom we come with all our needs and request to be met for our personal gain, we’ve missed the heart of God. Prayer is about seeking the heart and will of God.
If prayer is like a checkbook with an unlimited supply of resources and wealth, and it has been given to us, how will we write the checks? Will most of them have our name on them or are they written to benefit others we see in need? When God sees that our motives in prayer, intercession and petition aren’t centered around us, but others, do you think He might feel compelled to meet your needs as well? Selfish is never the heart of God and selfishness in us will always pervert the ways and means of God. God exemplifies Himself selfless in His giving. He doesn’t even give to us because we deserve it, He gives because that is His nature which flows out of love. He delights in His people that have this same heart to give and bless. His desire is to bless us so that we can in turn bless others. If we pray and seek with wrong motives then how can we truly pray in Jesus’ name. Jesus says in John 15 and a few other places, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Jesus says He will give us what we ask in His name, but what is the prerequisite? “Go and bear fruit–fruit that will last.” The name of Jesus speaks to the character and nature of God. If we pray outside or contrary to His nature then should we be surprised if our prayers are not answered. Jesus wants to empower us through power in His name to establish and perpetuate His will and His kingdom in the earth. It is one of the next principles He teaches us in the Lord’s prayer right after He establishes the position and the holiness of the Father. Jesus said in John 8:28, “So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.” Prayer is our avenue to carry out the Father’s will, not our own. We want our prayers to never stem from selfish motive, but to be one with the Spirit of God that prays through us. It is when we have the heart of God, the intercession as priests of Jesus and the motivation to pray in the character and nature of His name that we will see our prayers be fruitful, because we seek the fruit that will last; His kingdom come and His will being done in earth as it is in heaven.
Blessings,
#kent
To the Faithful
May 25, 2015
To the Faithful
Revelations 17:14
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him [are] called, and chosen, and faithful.
There are those of you who read this, not because you lack understanding of the ways of God, not because you don’t know Him intimately and personally, but because you are the faithful of the Lord. You have learned to feed upon His Spirit Life wherever you find it, because that is the pasture and the feeding place of your souls. Those whom the Lord finds faithful in His kingdom, He does not regard lightly, but they are His delight and joy. There are those of you who have walked with the Lord for many years. Many of you have had your stumbles and falls along the way of life, but you stand here today faithful to Him because He has always been faithful to you.
Those of you who continue to be faithful to read these little Trickles; it is a testimony that there is something deeper, richer that yearns and hungers after the heart of God. Today the word of the Lord is to you faithful. God sees your heart; He has proven you through waters of adversity and the fires of affliction. You know that He will never leave or forsake you; He knows you will not forsake Him. You are the faithful. Many are “called” it says, but not many are chosen. The chosen are those who abide in the vine. They are not there for a season and then whither away; they are there season after season, after season. They are the fruitful branches of the vine, drawing their life from the root and vine of Christ and producing the precious fruit of His Holy Spirit. You are often the unseen ones, unnoticed and most often unappreciated by the world, but when you enter into prayer, heaven and earth can be moved by the words of your heart, for you pray not your will, but the will of the Father.
Psalm 31:23 says this about the faithful, “Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full.” Again, Psalms101: 6 speaks to the faithful, “My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.” It is the faithful who are the sheep of His right hand, who walk with Him in obedience and humility, who esteem His ways above their own.
Even the faithful can grow faint, weary and discouraged for their walk is often not an easy one. They daily must fight the good fight and wage the spiritual warfare to overcome the adversary of their soul. Most often they not only contend for themselves, but also are faithful to stand in the gap and intercede for the saints, the needs of those who are upon their heart and often for those weaker and less faithful.
Faithful ones, here is the Lord’s word to you. Ephesians 1:1 says these promises are to the faithful of God. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” You faithful ones know who you are in Christ because you have read the promises and they have become more than words on a page, they have become substance and life. You are investing your lives into living in the reality of the truth of who you are “in Christ”. The rest of us want to look to these faithful ones as our examples of godliness and righteous living. They are the living testimonies of God and His faithfulness and they can teach what it is to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. These are those whom the Lord covets and is jealous over. These are the hidden diadems of His crown jewels.
Continue on you faithful ones; continue to shine as the morning sun in your life in Christ. Continue to be the living testimony and example before us, that those of us less mature and experienced might see and grasp what it is to walk in faithfulness and in truth. Continue on, you blessed of the Lord, for great is your reward. “His lord said unto him, Well done, [thou] good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25:21)
Blessings,
#kent
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