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December, 2005

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FAITH HAS CORRESPONDING ACTIONS
by Marilyn Conrad

Several years ago I discovered a lady’s handbag next to my mailbox in the front yard. I found the owner’s name and phone number inside the bag and immediately called to report that her bag had been found and that money, paychecks, credit cards and other valuables seemed to be intact. Needless to say, the owner was very happy to recover the purse, which had been stolen.

A few days later I went to Wal-Mart to purchase poinsettias for our Covenant Keepers Christmas party. While unloading them from the shopping cart I discovered three envelopes in the bottom of the cart. They were addressed and stamped for mailing. As I held them up to the light I could make out checks inside. Again, someone had lost something valuable!

As I drove home to call the person whose return address was on the envelopes I prayed and asked, “God, what’s going on? This is the second time in one week that I have found important items that belong to someone.”

You see, over the years I have learned that many times God will show us what is happening in the spirit realm by allowing things to happen in the natural. For example, many times it will rain after the intercessors and I spend time in intense warfare, showing us that the heavens are open and the answer is coming.

Shortly after asking the Lord what was going on I heard in my spirit, “That which is lost is found.” Luke 15:24 says, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. . .”  I began to weep as I understood that He was speaking of the prodigals of many covenant keepers.

One of the purchases I had made at Wal-Mart was battery operated candles to put in my downstairs windows for the Christmas holidays. I had felt impressed to do this, not for decoration, but as an act of faith for my husband’s return. I can remember as a very small child watching my mother place a candle and a flag with one star on it in the window of our home for my older brother, who was serving in the Navy.  It was nearing the end of World War II and that candle said, “We love you and are praying for your safe return.”    

I prepared the candles and bent down to place them in the window. When I tried to get up something caught in my back and pain shot down my lower back and legs. After prayer and several treatments from my massage therapist, the pain left and my back returned to normal.

I realized the devil did not want me placing the candles in my windows, so he tried to stop me. James 2:17 (AMP) says, “So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).” Placing candles in the windows was my act of faith, showing I believed God was working in my situation.

I believe that when the devil attacks us we should just double up on our attack against him. So I went back to Wal-Mart and purchased more candles. I told the devil I would pray harder and not only put candles in the downstairs windows, as I had planned, but I would also place them in the upstairs windows. Take that, Satan!

As we come to the end of another year and prepare to enter a new year, I challenge all of us to not be apathetic and passive but to have active faith with corresponding actions. Pray and hear from the Holy Spirit the things you are to do to show that you are believing God to restore you marriage and family. Don’t do what God told me to do or what your flesh wants to do. Hear from Him for yourself and be obedient.

The year is not over and we can still see many answers to our prayers. Yes, prodigals do come home and hearts always turn toward home at Christmas! 

THIS CHRISTMAS, AS WE GATHER WITH OUR LOVED ONES TO THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF HIS SON, WE HERE AT THE international OFFICE OFFER THANKS ALSO FOR FRIENDS LIKE YOU. . .

YOUR SHARING AND CARING IS WHAT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE.  YOUR PRAYERS AND GIFTS HAVE TOUCHED THE LIVES OF SO MANY ALL AROUND THE WORLD!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A Christmas Prayer
By Dorothy Hsu

It’s Christmas, Lord.
The season to be jolly and all that.
But some of us aren’t so jolly.
It’s time for families to be together,
To sing, “I’ll be home for Christmas.”
But Lord,
Some of our loved ones won’t be home
This year,
And some of us find that
Happy memories of Christmases past
Make this Christmas seem
Hollow.
Altogether unbearable.
It’s a temptation, Lord,
To just skip it.
To refuse to decorate a tree,
Or send a card.
Or purchase a single present.
For one alone,
Such an approach is possible,
I suppose.
But for little ones in a home,
Lord,
It’s unfair.
It takes tremendous strength
For some of us to say
“Merry Christmas” this year.
More strength than
Some of us even possess.
And that’s exactly why you came,
Isn’t it, Lord?

Now, Can You See?
By Ken Harris, England

His proud father
Raised a baby son
For all to see,
And simply said;
“The King!”

In later years
When I’m also a father
And still a son;
Tell me friend,
“Can you see the King in Me?”

Prophetic Acts In Christmas Traditions
By Terry Somerville, Canada (used by permission)

Matthew 13:52: Then He said to them, "Therefore every scribe who is instructed in the kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out treasures new and old."

Amazing as it may seem, our celebrations of Christmas may actually be keeping the nation from slipping into total darkness. In his book The Twilight Labyrinth, George Otis Jr. says that cultures throughout the world reinforce their spiritual darkness through seasonal festivals. Covenants are maintained with the powers and principalities by annual observances. Can it be possible that our celebration of Christmas reinforces the spiritual light in our nation? 

Charismatic Christians frequently ignore church traditions in favor of spontaneous actions. But recently prophets have recovered the whole idea of "prophetic action" to establish things in the heavenly places. Could Christmas observances be "prophetic actions?" Can it happen even when most of the "actors" don't know why they are doing it? Here are some of my thoughts on prophetic actions in the traditions of Christmas.

1. Christmas Lights: This is a wonderful prophetic act to everyone far and near. “Jesus is the Light of the World".

2. Christmas Carols: It's remarkable! We hear the prophetic declaration in stores, businesses and broadcasting, that "Christ the Savior is born.” We sing, "No more let sin and sorrow rule, or thorns infest the ground! He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found!" This is a prophetic declaration to the earth! How many thousands hear this prophetic music every year? 

3. Christmas Trees: Now don't go off about the pagan god thing. That culture was redeemed a thousand years ago and I've never met anyone worshipping a pagan god with their Christmas tree. Instead it is a prophetic act proclaiming "the tree of life" which is ours in Jesus Christ.

4. Christmas Presents: This should be obvious. Giving presents is a prophetic action based on "God gave His only Son.” Amazingly, everyone can distinguish between selfishness and the real love expressed in the "spirit of giving" Have we ever stopped to wonder where that awareness comes from? It comes from God Himself.

5. Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol": Now this has become a Christmas tradition. It's broadcast coast to coast starring everyone from Alistair Simms (original actor) to Mickey Mouse. It is prophetic. The gospel is proclaimed (listen closely to the dialogue next time). Scrooge is confronted by his sin, faces his own mortality and hell. He repents, is born again and becomes a new man, doing works befitting repentance! He's even got the joy of the Lord and can't stop laughing! "I'm light as a feather... I feel like a new man." This movie is undoubtedly the most popular proclamation of the gospel at Christmas and we should pray for it!

6. Feasting on Roast Beast: Fellowship and food is the foremost fashion for faithful friends to feel the Father's favor at a family feast. (Whew!) Food and Christianity go together. Feasting is also prophetic. The Lord has "set a banquet for all nations" and we will all be at "the marriage supper of the lamb." Even communion is not supposed to be a sterile wafer and sip event. Jesus said, "Whenever you eat and drink, do it in remembrance of me." 

7. Church Services: Yes, many people only go to church services at Christmas and Easter, but even that is prophetic. They want to celebrate the birth and death of the Savior, but are not really finding the way we do church the rest of the year relevant! (Let it sink in.) 

We are free to pursue new wineskins but that does not mean we throw out old things! We are free! The Spirit of God still speaks through our traditions with a prophetic voice to a lost humanity. 

Marriages Will Thrive
in 2005!