ARTICLE: JUST WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT!

Scripture Reference: 1 Samuel 15:22b

Many of Father's People have been praying for specifics in their lives and they have grown weary in "Heaven's Waiting Room". It's like sitting in the doctor's office and you are reading from the slim pickings of outdated "Better Homes and Gardens", "People Magazine" or really outdated copies of the 94 year-old Reader's Digest (where you can tell by the worn-out pages) that the "Laughter's The Best Medicine" column continues to be one of the reasons why, my grandma and yours, always kept an ample supply, in what many a man refers the bathroom as "the library". (LOL and I hope you are laughing too!😀.). Many of us are just "thumbing through the pages of life" as we await God to answer our prayers. We need to stop and ask ourselves this: Are we the ones who are waiting? Or has God been asking something of us in order for Him to be able to release the answers to our prayers? 1 Samuel 15:22b tells us, "...obedience is better than sacrifice". In a song lyric I once wrote (Song: "Lead Them In Truth"), it says:

"Outside of our obedience lost souls are crying out -- they're asking, "When will you submit to God so you can lead us out?"

God awaits our obedience -- our willingness to be obedient to the instructions of His Holy Spirit. Our obedience, when joined with our faith and linked with His grace, mercy and the redemptive power of Jesus' blood; with all of these incredible elements combined, there is an activation of God's "Release" in answers to prayer; which I believe also are the same elements in His Power that activate miracles, signs and wonders. When we are willing to be obedient to The Holy Spirit's instructions, I believe we will see "Mountains move in our faith" and that the "Mustard Seed Size Faith" is given the power to blossom into a "FULL GROWN TREE" of divine action. We underestimate our obedience to what God is telling us to do. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, "IF my people, which are called by My name, shall HUMBLE themselves and PRAY and SEEK MY FACE and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, THEN I will hear from heaven and I will HEAL their land". You see, my beloved, God is waiting for us to be obedient in HUMILITY, PRAYER, SEEKING HIM, and TURNING away from OUR SUN! Our willingness to be obedient in ACTION causes a REACTION from God and His principles, promises and power to do everything from the miraculous to answering a humble man, woman or child's prayers! (And this in itself is miraculous!).

I understand what it means to keep the faith as you stand on a particular promise Father has given you-- the challenge, we as humans face, is that The Timing of God doesn't always mesh with our timing-- what may seem like months and years to us here on Earth is only an instant in heaven; it may seem like an eternity to us when heaven's chimes aren't ringing in synch with our "Coo Coo Clocks" here on Earth. (And let's be real here shall we? If we are honest, some of us will admit we sometimes tend to go "coo coo" while waiting for answers to our prayers AMEN?).

BUT WHEN ANSWERS TO OUR "LONG-AWAITED" PRAYERS COME, THE LEVEL OF OUR FAITH (AND THE VOLUME OF OUR SHOUTS OF "HALLELUJAH ") RISES AND WE DECLARE THE FAITHFULNESS OF FATHER GOD TO THE WORLD AROUND US).

More than ever Saints, we need to be interceding for our beloved nation. America is DISEASED with CANCEROUS IMMORTALITY (The Sin of Lawlessness), and for many it seems TOO HOPELESS AND THEREFORE "WHAT'S THE USE IN PRAYING, AFTER ALL, WE CAN'T CHANGE GOD'S MIND?" (Believe me when I tell you, that I too have wrestled with this wrong mindset, but I have since repented. There is an ever-creasing. mentality of "What's The Use"! Americans do believe "The United States deserves God's judgment and wrath" and ask the question of "how is my little prayer going to help make a difference"?

This Jonah in the Bible (The Book of Jonah) when God told him to go to Nineveh and prophecy-- declaring God's judgment against This Great City for Its Sins and Offenses. Jonah, in his refusal to be obedient to God, went off running with an attitude "oh, what's the use, they're not going to change anyway". But GOD knew what would happen if only His servant would be obedient to His instruction-- on the other side of Jonah's OBEDIENCE, the people of Nineveh would have the WILLINGNESS TO OBEY, which would lead them to repentance; which would lead to "healing and restoration" for that Great City. As an interesting backstory add on, Jonah actually gets angry when he sees that the Great City of Nineveh actually embraces God's word through His Prophet (Jonah) and they repent-- this action from Nineveh was an unexpected reaction, that was not in the core of Jonah's faith and personal belief. God proved both Nineveh and Jonah (AND US TODAY) THAT HE IS WILLING TO CHANGE HIS MIND, ABOUT HIS JUDGMENT AGAINST A NATION, WHEN PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO BE OBEDIENT IN REPENTANCE.

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, there are many of us who are like Jonah (The Bible) in that we are embracing "hopelessness" and believe America can't possibly change or adhere to what the Prophets of God are saying to America. We too are running from God's instruction given to His People to pray (and proclaim and/or prophecy over this nation-- to rise up as The Body of Christ and declare that America is not finished-- God desires to make America great again! You see, Jonah was looking with his natural eyes and with his own prejudices and opinions -- sizing up Nineveh as a lost cause. My beloved of Christ, we need to rebuke and refuse these lies about America-- YES, America is diminishing due to its Sin of Lawlessness" and YES, there is wickedness all around us, BUT OUR GOD IS FAITHFUL AND HE IS BIGGER THAN ALL OF AMERICA'S MESS, AND, YES, I believe AMERICA WILL BE GREAT AGAIN, but WE, THE SAINTS OF GOD, MUST UNITE IN PRAYER AND STAND IN THE GAP AND REPENT! America is NOT a Losing Battle and a Hopeless Cause". It is not a Waste of Time for ALL OF GOD'S PEOPLE to repent and intercede on behalf of this Nation-- calling God back into the center of America. I believe wholeheartedly that if we ALL take the time to really cry out for God to heal this land, we are going to experience A great revival and we are going to sit back in utter awe as we witness God's Power in action! Our government--MANY WILL GET SAVED - and our Nation's Capital will have once again Godly Leaders and The U.S Government will seek The Will of God (EL ELYON- GOD, MOST HIGH) and the Nation will ask that God come back into the Center of ALL AMERICAN AFFAIRS!!

I believe in The Power of Prayer for I continue to see Father answering prayers for me time and time again. Even recently, Father God has answered a personal prayer that I have been praying for over ten years. FATHER GOD DOES ANSWER PRAYERS MY BELOVED!! Sometimes, I receive answers to prayer, because someone else has been interceding for me. Praise God for the INTERCESSORS in The Body of Christ; praying mama and daddy's, grandmas and grandpas, siblings or spiritual leadership in our local churches. AGAIN I SAY, THERE IS POWER IN PRAYER, BELOVED SAINTS! In knowing this, I am asking every individual who claims to be a Christian-- an authentic follower in Christ, to begin to intercede on behalf of this nation. PLEASE ADHERE TO THE LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD My beloved. Let us not be like Jonah and find ourselves running from what God has called His People to do.

I love you all and encourage you to be obedient to the Holy Spirit's leading And PRAY! PRAY! AND PRAY SOME MORE! SELAH and AMEN! 

3-9-16 J.