Friday, April 4, 2008

Yesterday...

...We welcomed back our beloved sister Angie who had been serving in India for about 7 months. We praise the Lord she made it back safe and sound.








Glorious Sunsets

Isn't our God awesome?


El Malecon, Miraflores





The above three were taken somewhere around Magdalena

Friday, March 21, 2008

March Updates

It's been exceptionally busy for me this month. The Lord by His grace has been allowing me to spend more time in prayer, and studying His Word. He's also given me the opportunity to minister to and disciple different people.

Among the other things I did at church this month, I was able to help out a team of believers that came down from Florida to continue the construction in one of the churches we have in Puente Piedra, a poor, desert-like part of Lima. I helped translating and a little with construction. In about 6 days we managed to put up a concrete roof in one of the rooms and a concrete floor in another. Though I didn't labor nearly as hard as the rest, it was still very physically demanding work for me, especially since we were out in the sun all day.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------



Last week my aunt came from California to visit, bringing much love, blessings, and goodies from the States. She's in the middle, with my grandma and my other aunt.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yesterday, a group of us from Koinonia hit the streets to do evangelism. Many of us had the day off because of Easter weekend. We went to a huge market area in the district of Gamarra. We witnessed to many, preached open-air, and handed out hundreds of tracts. It was really awesome to see the Lord work through us in His mighty power. He united us in one spirit and filled us with boldness and compassion for the lost. He has been working in the hearts of many of my brothers and sisters lately, giving them great zeal to exalt His glorious Gospel, and more of a passion and desire to know Jesus more and to see Him glorified. I praise the Lord for what He did yesterday.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

God has been opening many doors for me this month. Pretty soon I'm going to start an evangelism class for the youth of our church, God willing. Also, either this month or early next month I'm hoping to travel with a friend to the city of Huancayo, which is in the mountains. God has been speaking to us about going there; from what I've heard there is great spiritual need in that city. Our purpose in traveling there is mainly to spy out the land, to see what kind of spiritual giants we're going to be facing. Then later on (God willing) we'll be able to return with a team of armed and equipped evangelists to wage war on the principalities and powers of the city.

Well, that's all for now. Please pray for me for much wisdom in making decisions, for the Lord's help and presence to always be real in my life, for the Spirit's fullness, for boldness, and for more open doors for the furtherance of the Gospel.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Some thoughts on prayer...

"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil."
1Peter 3:12

The Lord has been so faithful during these past fews months. He has used many different circumstances to demonstrate to me that He not only hears my prayers, but that He also answers them! I can trust Him and stand firm in His promises. Not like I didn't know this before, but all this year it has been a constant REALITY in my life--I've seen Him accomplish both supernatural and seemingly ordinary things as answers to prayer.

(Among some of the "ordinary" things, He has provided me with a new digital camera, which means I'll be able to post more pictures up soon.)

Lately He has been filling me with an ever-increasing passion for Him--to KNOW Him more, and that my Lord and Savior be exalted and glorified. One of the verses that He has been showing me is Philippians 3:10:

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death"

I'm getting more and more of a holy desperation for His presence and power to be REAL in my life. I've been spending much more time with Him in adoration, prayer, and intercession. One of the things He does not allow me to forget is that the most important thing we can do as believers is pray. And not just pray, but really pray: to come to Christ, absolutely surrendered, and draw close enough to Him to become a partaker in the "fellowship of His sufferings." To feel what He feels. To pray the prayers of His heart. To come into His holy presence, boldly before His throne, and agonize in intercession, wrestling with Him until we have received the blessing. That is true prayer.

Oh, but there is a high price to pay for such a type of prayer, as God has shown me. It'll mean loss of food, of sleep, our reputation, our time...it will cost us our very lives.

But can we afford not do this in such a wicked and perverse generation as this? In the light of eternity, what will our petty little necessities matter? Souls are being damned to eternal torment by the minute; the name of God is being blasphemed daily by the heathen; Jesus is not receiving the glory He so rightfully deserves; most of the Church in the west is limping; and multitudes in Christendom today are in danger of being spewed out of the very mouth of Christ!

Brothers and sisters, the time is urgent! We need to pray!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The Secret of an Intercessor

John Hyde was a missionary to India in around the early 20th Century. His life, like the prophet Elijah, can be summed up in two words: "He prayed."
He spent days and nights in agonizing intercession, weeping, sighing, and groaning in the Spirit for souls and for the Church, sometimes going without food or sleep for days. His travail of soul increased to such a degree that his heart-cry became, "O God, give me souls or I die!" He was used of God to bring down many outpourings of the Spirit in North-West India, beginning in 1904 in Sialkot. Shortly before he died at the age of 47, a medical examination discovered his heart had moved to the right side of his body, worn out by years of intense intercession.
Hyde's life serves as an example of a believer absolutely surrendered to God, who has drawn near enough to Christ to feel His heart, and through whom we may have a glimpse of the very prayer-life of our Lord.


The following is from the book Praying Hyde: Apostle of Prayer, edited by Captain E.G. Carre:

"Let me introduce here a gem from the pen of Paterson: 'What was the secret of that prayer-life of John Hyde's?' he asks. 'This, that it was a life of prayer. Who is the source of all life? The glorified Jesus. How do I get this life from Him? Just as I received His righteousness to begin with. I own that I have no righteousness of my own--only filthy rags, and I in faith claim His righteousness. Now, a twofold result follows: As to our Father in Heaven, He sees Christ's righteousness--not my unrighteousness. A second result as to ourselves: Christ's righteousness not merely clothes us outwardly, but enters into our very being, by His Spirit, received in faith as with the disciples (see John 20:22), and works out sanctification in us.'
"Why not the same with our prayer life? Let us remember the word 'for.' 'Christ died for us,' and 'he ever liveth to make intercession 'for' us,' that is, in our room and stead. So I confess my ever-failing prayers (it dare not be called a life), and plead His never failing intercession. Then it affects our Father, for He looks upon Christ's prayer-life in us, and answers accordingly. So that the answer is far 'above all we can ask or think.' Another great result follows: it affects us. Christ's prayer life enters into us, and He prays in us. This is prayer in the Holy Spirit. Only thus can we pray without ceasing. This is the life more abundant which our Lord gives. Oh, what peace, what comfort? No more working up a life of prayer and failing constantly. Jesus enters the boat, and the toiling ceases, and we are at the land whither we would be. Now, we need to be still before Him, so as to hear his voice and allow Him to pray in us--nay, allow Him to pour into our souls His overflowing life of intercession, which means literally: FACE TO FACE meeting with God--real UNION and COMMUNION."