Jesus Praying Through Me – Faith and Health Scripture – Galatians 2:20

Last week I prayed in a way that I had never prayed before.

My heart has been heavy for an individual for many months. I sensed that person needed a special touch from God from deep within. On many, many occasions I had prayed for him. In my Men’s Bible study we have been looking at how Christ lives His life through us. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.” That tells me that a follower of Christ is to allow Christ to be the one who is speaking, behaving and doing all the other things a person does. If we were truly one with Christ, we could step aside and let Him live though us.

Jesus tells us in John 15:4 & 16, “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” “The Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.” To me, this says that if we are so deeply abiding in Jesus that we will actually sense His presence in us. We will know that Jesus actually is living in us. Since that is the case, then we ought to understand that Jesus wants to be the one praying, not us. If we have this awareness and are able to yield to Jesus during our prayers, then in those moments we can be confident that the prayers that are being lifted up to the Father are actually the prayers of Jesus. Wow! That is so very powerful and sacred and holy.

I believe that this is the true essence of abiding in Jesus. When we are able to experience that Jesus is present and the one living through our bodies and the one doing the talking through our lips, then we are “joined” to Him just as He desires us to be. When we are able to be in this place, that’s when much fruit will be produced. (John 15:5) And one of the fruits that most pleases the Father is the fruit of someone entering into His Kingdom.

Why does Jesus want to be able to pray through us to the Father? He wants us to experience the ultimate connection with Him that occurs during that time of prayer. He wants us to have that sweet fellowship with Him. He wants us to experience the confidence and the power that occurs when we are with Him so solidly. He wants us to be instruments of His love as we pray for others. He wants us to really know Him… the kind of knowing Him that is experienced during such intimately prayerful times.

When we are in God’s presence, imagine how quieted our body, mind and emotions are. Such peace is wonderfully conducive to our health. When we are purely connected with God and Jesus it’s a really beautiful thing. Anytime we experience something beautiful, it’s good for our inner being and wellness. Imagine the strong sense of confidence you’d have and a sense of power, not power that comes from self, but power that comes straight from God. We should not be motivated for these reasons, but it’s an extra benefit that comes from such a close and intimate relationship with our Savior!

I have full confidence that God heard that prayer last week. It was Jesus’ prayer to His Father. I also know that God then touched a man’s heart in a special way over the next few days. Thank you Jesus for revealing more of your nature to me.

Sharing This Good News & RSS Feeds with Others

I’ve been asked to give subscribers to my posts an easy way to share these feeds with others at popular social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Facebook, Mixx, StumbleUpon and Digg to name a few. For those who may have heard about Social Bookmarking but don’t know what it’s all about, read more on Social Bookmarking on Wikipedia.

After doing some research and changing my blog setup, I think I’ve been able to provide a fix. Beginning with this post, you should see links for many sites at the end of the feed. One of them is an Email link – – that makes it easier to send a link for a feed to someone. You can also use all these links to share any page on my site with others. Please let me know if there is a link you need that I may not have included and if it’s available, I’ll add it. Read more about this plug-in to my Word Press software that makes this possible at Sociable.

I appreciate your interest and desire to share my feeds and pages with others! If you have any questions or feedback please add a comment here so others can benefit from the discussion.

Thanks and have an awesome day!

The Spiritual Exercise of Have Faith and Trust in God

This morning I had the good fortune to see two Carolina Wrens make their first flight. Janice, my girlfriend, and I have also had the good fortune of seeing the first flights of eastern bluebirds and chickadees over the last year. It’s a cool thing to witness! I had been observing these wrens poke their heads out of the bluebird box in my back yard over the last few days . As I write his, two fledglings remain in the nest, slowly getting up the nerve to make their inaugural flight.

I imagine the wrens must have had a lot of trust that their wings would carry them to a nearby tree as they launched out of the nest. Trust. It’s an important thing. That’s why I have identified Have Faith and Trust in God as a Spiritual Exercise. Imagine if you lived without the ability to trust. Life would be pretty nerve racking. The opposite of trust is worry and God tells us not to worry. In Matthew 6:25-33, Jesus teaches that His Father will provide food for the birds. Those baby wrens will have all the food they need. He also says that since we are so much more valuable than birds, that God will provide for all our needs. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, worrying over a period of time will likely have negative consequences on our health. I think that is one reason why Jesus told us not to worry. He knew not only that it has health consequences, but that worrying also steals our joy and peace.

God knows all your needs and He’ll give you all you need if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. (verse 33) Stay connected to Him. Pray to Him. Keep your thoughts on Him. As God will meet the needs of those little wrens that flew off this morning, He will certainly meet your needs because He loves you so much.

The Spiritual Exercise of Healthy Thinking – Weekly Faith and Health Scripture – Philippians 4:8

James Allen, author of As a Man Thinketh, once said “You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.”

Our thoughts and emotions are represented in the body as electrochemical reactions. These chemicals are constantly floating around in our bodies and are stored in different places. The research is clear that negative thoughts, and the associated harmful chemicals, have detrimental effects on our health.

You can control the degree to which harmful chemicals float around in your body by adjusting your thinking patterns. Start by making a deliberate decision to change how you’re thinking. Commit to putting a concerted effort into this for a week and see if it doesn’t make a difference in your attitude, emotions and resulting behavior.

Begin to monitor your thinking patterns and identify when you’re thinking or meditating on negative thoughts or thoughts that cause you to be anxious or are connected with some other harmful emotion. Let those thoughts go and replace them with positive thoughts.

Read the Bible and meditate on scriptures. Believe what you read to be true and tuck these truths into your mind and your heart. Identify scriptures that are meaningful to you and create personal affirmations and speak them out loud. Here’s an example using Psalm 63:5. “You satisfy me more than the richest of foods.” When reading and meditating on scripture becomes part of your daily ‘diet,’ you’ll likely see a change in your thinking patterns.

Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

This spiritual exercise of healthy thinking is all important in living a healthy life. The more effective we can be at thinking as Paul urges us, the more likely we’ll live a full and healthier life.

Read my article on Think Spiritual Thoughts/Renew Your Mind… A Spiritual Exercise for a Healthier Life.

Read another article Are Your Thoughts Making You Unhealthy?

Learn about 17 other Spiritual Exercises for a Healthier Life.

High Jumper – Adriane Stone

A few weeks ago I posted an entry about Adriane who was jumping in the Olympic Trials High Jump and asked for prayers. How did she do?

On the 4th of July she jumped 6′ 1/2″, her best ever and tied for 8th place. A video of her jump is at this post on her blog. She communicated to me that she received several emails of encouragement by many readers of my blog and newsletter. Thanks for doing that as it meant a whole lot to her.

She is now having an opportunity to give talks about her trials experience and her life “turn-around”… with God’s help.

Spiritual Exercise – Weekly Faith and Health Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:7-8

Most of us can imagine what a typical physical workout might look like. We’d first stretch a little to warm up the muscles we would be using in the rest of our session. Then there would be some type of cardiovascular or aerobic workout – repeated, nonstop contractions of a major muscle group over a period of 15 to 60 minutes or even more that would elevate your heart rate to a level that is measurably above your resting heart rate. That might be followed by resistance exercises to strengthen the muscles. If you were in a gym you’d perhaps use some equipment designed for that purpose performing two sets of 10-15 repetitions of about ten exercises working the major muscle groups. To end the workout, you’d want to again stretch out the muscles that were used. The workout might last an hour or an hour and a half. If you were working with a fitness professional, he would consider the FITT principle in developing your workout plan. He’d want to determine the frequency(F) of your workouts, the intensity(I) or how hard you’d perform the exercises, the duration or amount of time(T) you’d engage in the various exercises and the various types(T) of exercises you should perform. These are all basic considerations when working out physically.

How would working out spiritually or working out with God look? First Timothy 4:7-8 says “spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.” ( First Edition of the New Living Translation of the Bible) In the context of how this word is used here perhaps your consider this as a definition of spiritual exercise - “It’s any belief or intentional behavior that helps one become more like Jesus, draw closer to Him, know Him better or that follows the principles or commandments of God.”

Over the course of the next several weeks, I’ll be writing more on this topic. In the meantime, I have a few questions for you.

What types of ‘spiritual exercises’ are you including in your day to day activities to be spiritually fit?

What are you doing to work out your spiritual muscles?

Have a great week!

True Freedom & Independence – Faith and Health Scripture – John 8:32

We are truly fortunate to live in a country where we have so many freedoms. A big “thank you” to our forefathers who had the vision to write up our founding documents in such a way to pave the way for these freedoms. And, I am honored to have been a part of the Armed Services for 20 years in which millions of men and women are still serving throughout the world to protect our nation’s liberties. To them another “thank you!”

An even greater and more significant personal liberty is available to those who may struggle with any sort of destructive and unhealthy behavior and thinking pattern, feelings of unworthiness or a lack of being accepted or loved.

Many of us try to cope with the stressors of life and to meet our basic needs of self worth, acceptance and identity by our own resources and apart from God in ways that are unhealthy and can be self-destructive. These self-sufficient attitudes, thinking patterns and behaviors often become habits that have a negative impact on our emotional, spiritual and physical health.

We are so fortunate that there is a God that loves each and every one of us so much that He sent His son Jesus to live on the earth to teach others about God and of His love and then to die for us. Jesus came to set us free from our self-sufficient and sinful nature that hold many of us captive and in bondage. Getting to know Jesus in a personal way and believing in and embracing the truths of the Bible can set us free from our unhealthy attitudes, manner of thinking and habits that we may have developed over the years to meet our needs apart from God. See John 8:32

Then, if we stay close to Jesus and the Spirit of God is alive in us, we can be rewarded with love, joy, peace, kindness, self control and other such ‘fruits.’ Our life will be more abundant and meaningful. Finally, because our life will have been turned around, we’ll want to share with other people what Jesus has done and encourage them to turn to Him so that they might also experience true personal freedom and liberty. This will all bring tremendous glory to God.

Thank you Jesus for giving me the type of freedom that can come only from you!

Have a Happy Independence Day!

See more info on health scriptures

Jumping for Jesus at the Olympic Trials

Are you discouraged? Feel like God has abandoned you? Wonder if you can turn your life around after making a mess of it? Read on …. and be encouraged.

“So let me tell you what Goliath I slayed today. I stand before you today January 12, 2008 delivered from alcoholism for the past year and 3 months, smoking, pills, obesity, loneliness, depression and it is all because of my Lord and Savior JESUS the Christ! So this blog is for anyone who thinks that God has forgotten about them.“

The quote above is taken from a blog started by Adriane Stone, wife of an Army Sergeant stationed in Hawaii, and a finalist in the Olympic Trials Women’s High Jump scheduled for July 4th in Eugene, Oregon. (She jumped 5′ 11 1/2″ on Monday night in the preliminary round to qualify.) Her story is about how God can do wonders in a person’s life if she turns to God in desperation and humility. In her own words, her blog “documents my comeback to the high jump after 7 years of living a life that was a fast track to the pits of hell.”

I’m going to add a few more of her quotes so you can take a peek into her heart and spirit:

“You see going from a complete wreck to having the glory of God shine upon you in a public way is very intimidating and humbling at the same time.”

“Lord allow me to soar on wings of eagles as I feel your Spirit guide me along this path. You inspire me through you Holy Word. You give me a passion that I want everyone to yearn for. Come and taste what He has to offer. He brings life. He is Life!”

The day she flew to Oregon for the trials: “Now is not the time to begin second guessing the mighty hand of the Lord. Now is the time to rest in His presence and trust Him. Please pray for me, and know that this is God’s great plan. Whether I qualify, lose, win or not even jump, nothing can take away the great testimony of my life changing death to myself (Galatians 2:20). We are already conquerors through Christ Jesus.”

About two months ago, Adriane came across my website and sent me an email, asking for prayers. Perhaps you’ll join me in praying for Adriane as she prepares to jump on Friday, July 4th…. for the glory of God. Or, consider sending her an email of encouragement.

To learn more about Adriane’s journey over the last year and a half and to see how God can turn around the life of someone who, on her own made a mess of hers, I encourage you to read her story on her blog.

Does life have you down? Be encouraged by Adriane’s testimony!

Have a great day!