4th Quarter 2019

Note: I read the following in a Prayer Guide:When we were going through the fiery trials of pastoring, a minister told me, “The prayers of your grandparents are sustaining you right now.” My godly grandparents had been deceased for many years, but I believe that their prayers live on and are now living on in my children.

My daughter recently attended a conference and told me that someone there had prophesied over her. “They said that the prayers of my mother would come to pass. I couldn’t wait to call you to find out what you have been praying for me.” I am not sure what she was expecting but my prayers for my children are not for belongings, positions, or honors. My consistent requests come from a combination of eighteen scriptures that contain the basic core values instilled in me from my parents and grandparents and that I hope to pass on to the next generation. ( Author Unknown)

My prayers for my children that I hope will be passed onto theirs, usually go something like this:

Our Father which art in heaven, we love Your name!

Let Your kingdom be evident in my children and let Your will be done in their lives.

Help them to be genuine, to know the truth, love the truth, and let it set them free.

Jesus, supply their needs.

Forgive them as they forgive others.

Help them to love and respect others even when it isn’t deserved. Don’t let the sun go down on their wrath. Help them to place their enemies in your hands, letting go of grudges or hurts.

Keep them from temptation and deliver them from evil.

Anoint my children. Help them to avoid evil by having mental clarity and integrity, and by making good choices.

• Love
  Surround my children, infuse them, saturate them, and consume them with Your love.
• Emotional Maturity
  Help them to mature in You and have a sure footing. Help them to be examples and not to faint in the day of adversity. Give them joy! Help them to be peaceable and slow to anger. Help them to use kind words and to be easily entreated.
• Fearlessness
  I pray that my children will walk in Your power, boldness, confidence, and authority. Help them to fear no evil.
• Self-Discipline
  Teach my children to pray and to study Your Word. Guard their hearts. Set a watch over the things that come in their minds but especially those that come out of our mouth, for those are what defiles. Keep them from the influences of the world as they grow up in a fun, healthy, and godly environment.
• Faith
  May my children have great faith so that nothing will be impossible for them.
• Humility
  I pray that my children will do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.
• Gratefulness
  Help my children to always be thankful for their salvation, their spiritual legacy and inheritance, their past traditions and future promises.

Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever!

As for our house, we will serve the Lord!

~Cheryl Craft

Book: Delighting in God by A. W. Tozer (Sold on Amazon)
A sequel to The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

2nd Quarter 2019

Prayer can influence God’s divine purpose and plan. Abraham pleaded with God to spare the city of Sodom if fifty righteous persons could be found. God graciously assented. But we know that Abraham could only save his family for the planned destruction. Fifty righteous could not be found.

At another time Moses bargained with God. “Why should the Egyptians say that it was with evil intent that you brought us out of Egypt to kill us in the wilderness. Turn from your wrath and change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.” The Lord changed his mind.

Hannah changed the course of history by venturing to influence the divine plan. She prayed, ”God give me a son and I will give him back to you. (Samuel 1:11) Her prayer resulted in the birth of Samuel, the reform of the priesthood, and the birth of the Israelite monarchy.

Your prayers can influence the course of events in your life, family, church and the nation.
I call today for prayer for our country. We have elements in government and in our nation who would tear down the foundations on which our country is built. They have succeeded in removing God and faith from our educational system. They have replaced God with humanism in our schools and colleges. They are rewriting our history and tearing down statutes of those who were seen as heroes in our nation’s past. This is what happens when the Godless philosophies of communism/socialism take over.

We are in a spiritual war. Satan is working overtime corrupting a generation of youth. Right now we see a struggle going on to take over a conservative government. These godless elements are people who are fighting on all fronts to remove and replace faith and God. The goal is to have a complete humanist state. Our nation was built on foundations of faith. Let us pray that our country returns to the righteous principles upon which we were founded. God has a plan for nations who forget God. Punishment awaits. But those who pray can prevail with God and bring God’s forgiveness and mercy to bear.

It is time for those who know how to pray to address this situation. Fight for our country in prayer. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. Let us influence the divine plan through prayer. If our nation survives, it will be because someone prayed and prevailed with God.

NOTE: This article was written with the USA in mind; however, these marauding spirits are the same the world over. Fight in prayer for your country where you live as missionaries. Pray for your city and the leaders of your country so you may live in peace

BOOK SUGGESTION: Mighty Prevailing Prayer by Wesley Duewel (Available on Amazon)

~Cheryl Craft

3rd Quarter 2018

Let developing a life of prayer become a passion with you.

Plan your day with prayer included. If you have a busy day planned, get up an hour or two earlier or stay up an hour or two later. Never let a day go by without spending time with God. Guard your prayer time carefully and jealously. These are your special times with God. Let nothing and no one steal your time that you have set aside to be with God. Do this and you will grow very quickly in prayer.

Read all the books you can on prayer and seeking God. Some will be excellent and some will be mediocre but you can always glean something from them if you are hungry enough. Of course, you will want to read your Bible daily. He will speak to you through His Word and you will see the many rewards of prayer and be inspired to seek God and His glory.

God to send you a mentor when you are ready. I prayed, studied, and sought God for eight years without someone to teach me. When the time was right, He sent a man of God to teach me what I could not learn on my own. I entered a whole new level of prayer. Don’t worry about where you will find him or her, God will bring him or her to you when you are ready. Somewhere there is someone who is sensitive to God and will teach you.

BOOK SUGGESTION: God’s Power Is for You by Wesley Duewel (Available on Amazon)

~Cheryl Craft

2nd Quarter 2018

We begin this second quarter letter with a science lesson. The second law of Physics is called Thermodynamics. We know is as “entropy”. This means that all falls from order to disorder. A ball rolls downhill and needs energy to push it uphill. Everything wears out. Things need to be renewed or replaced. A car wears out whether you drive it or not. Think of our bodies and you can understand that we must take care of our bodies or pay the consequences: could I say weight gain in later years. In youth we ate what we desired with no consequent weight gain. In later years, one must be conscious of intake as compared with energy given out. In summary it takes energy to keep everything, bodies included, in working order.

Spiritually, we must order our prayer lives or we will lose momentum and power. Paul told Timothy to stir up the gift that was given to him by the laying on of hands in prayer. Is your prayer life lagging? Have you lost excitement and passion for prayer?

First of all measure your prayer life by your love level. Do you love God like you used to do? Return to your first love.

Then measure you prayer life by how you spend your time. Measure your desire for God. Has your desire been replaced by something else?

Do you spend more time on the Internet, or sports, or entertainments then you do in seeking God?

It is time to put energy into your prayer life. Build it back up to your early days of prayer and the joy it brought to you.

Renew: Devote time again as you did before.
Refresh: Be faithful to your time in prayer and seeking God.
Restore: First love for God by study of God’s Word and give Him your undivided attention.

Do not let your prayer life fall from order to disorder. Like our example at the beginning of this article, a ball will roll easily down hill, but it takes energy to push it up the hill. Your prayer life will become disordered if you don’t give time, love, and desire to maintain it.

Don’t wait to feel like praying. You may not if you have allowed your prayer life to dwindle. Like the second law of physics you have to maintain or you will lose. If you think your prayer life has weakened, restore order by setting a time for God and staying with it. You will soon find that your prayer life has gone from disorder to order.

BOOK SUGGESTION: Measure Your Life by Wesley Duewel (Available on Amazon)

~Cheryl Craft

1st Quarter 2018

At the beginning of a new year I like to set new goals for the year. At the top of the list I write losing weight or exercising daily. Sometimes I follow through on my goals and some are dropped along the way.

However, this year I have set a goal I feel sure I will follow through to the end of the year. I have determined to pray my way through the Psalms verse by verse. I began Jan 1 with Psalm 1:1. I have not been disappointed in my reading. Often it is difficult to lay aside cares and worries of this life and the realm of prayer seems difficult to enter, but when the Word of God opens the door, you can step easily into His presence.

Psalm 1 begins with “Blessed is the man….” As I read the first verse of the Psalm, I saw that a blessed person does not do certain things. What then should a blessed person do? A blessed person walks in the counsel of the righteous. He stands in the way with the saints of God. He sits with believers where they are. He delights in the Word of God and thinks on it often.

What about men who do not follow in the path God sets out for them? They follow the counsel of the wicked or ungodly that leads to frustration.The path of the sinner leads to destruction, and the seat of the scoffers leads to emptiness. I had to stop and consider how often I thought on the Word during my day or whose counsel was I following, godly or worldly? It is easy to get caught up in the latest positive thinking position or popular psychological babble.

Only delight in the Word of God leads to fulfillment.

With the help of God we are energized and enabled to walk in the counsel of the righteous, stand in the assembly of the body of Christ, and sit with the believers. To delight in the Word of God is to be firmly planted by eternal waters. We can be assured of fruit and success in living for God as the Lord approves our ways.

As I prayed and mediated in this Psalm I found that the Lord led me into new avenues of thought and understanding. After one week of prayer in Psalm 1 I knew I had made a goal that was worthy of completion. As you plan your goals for the year, add praying through the Word to your list. You will find great reward.

BOOK SUGGESTION: Biblical Meditation for Spiritual Breakthrough — Elmer Towns

~Cheryl Craft

4th Quarter 2017

We are all familiar with seasons of the earth: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Just as there are seasons of climate so there are seasons of prayer. I think seasons in prayer could be tied to our season in life and the place where we find ourselves. We understand the concepts of seasons of the year and we understand the seasons of life: birth, childhood, youth, adult and old age; however the seasons of prayer are less defined. There are times of great passion and energy and times of quiet and peace. The Spirit ebbs and flows, and we ebb and flow with it. We try to enter into the spirit of prayer but it is not always readily available. We think that prayer should unfold in a certain way, but it doesn’t always take the path we think it should.

Then it follows that we become disenchanted with prayer and it becomes more difficult for us to pray. The more we try to enter into the blessed halls of prayer, the more we struggle. In fact it becomes such a struggle that our prayer times become a battlefield. I’m reminded of the scripture: We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers and wickedness in high places. (Eph 6:12)

What do we do at these times? Keep praying. Pray whether you feel like you are touching heaven or not. Don’t give up. Hold fast to your time of prayer. Perhaps pray a little longer each time. Never give up. God is the same and he understands your struggle. He is near and hears you every time you call on Him. Persist in prayer and push past the inertia and stagnation. I believe that there are territorial spirits that rule in their area. When you move into their area, you need to prevail in prayer until you conquer them. Spirits of complacency and laziness that hinder and plague your prayer life have to step back when you prevail over them in prayer.

Remember we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. Rise up and use your authority. Push back the darkness that smothers your prayer life. Prayer does not always have to be a struggle. It should and can be a time of heavenly exchange and victory. Turn your season of struggle into a season of triumph through your prevailing prayer.

BOOK SUGGESTION: Mighty Prevailing Prayer—Wesley Duewel

~Cheryl Craft