A Call

January 3, 2008 '.....I am asking all of you to go before the Lord with fasting and prayer! Present your requests before the Lord and intercede for this nation and the coming elections!! We are at a very crucial time, saints of God! And I am calling the Christians out! No more are we going to vote for someone because they will put money in our pockets!! No more will we vote for someone because of a political party! No more will we sit on our hands and do NOTHING!! We need to be on our knees in prayer right now for the election of 2008. Don't wait until that day to start shooting prayers to heaven! It is our responsibility! I pray that the Lord would turn His house back into a house of prayer!!
There is a war that goes on in the heavens that does not sleep! The enemy is working hard to put his people at the top. They are the one’s that legalize the shedding of innocent blood! Psalm 94:20-23 “-They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the LORD has been my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He has brought back their wickedness upon them and will destroy them in their evil; The LORD our God will destroy them.” I have to tell you Beloved, someone must cry out for mercy for this nation! Just as Daniel went before the Lord on behalf of his people, (Dan. 9:3-5) “So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, 'Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.”
His prayers shook the heavens. He fasted and prayed for 3 weeks and it stirred the Spiritual world. A battle was going on that Daniel was totally unaware of until Gabriel told him! That story is so encouraging! We must not give up on praying because we do not see immediate results. For who knows what is going on in the spiritual world that we can not see. ( Dan 10 - Then he said to me, 'Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.)
Saints, now is the time to pray! We can not vote for a man that does not believe in the sanctity of marriage! And we can not vote for a man that legalizes murder! Questions. What about the war? Will this man protect us from terrorist? I tell you now, No president can keep us safe from terrorist with out the blessing of the hand of God! And God will not bless this land and protect us when we are shedding innocent blood, I don’t care who is in office!! But I thank God for the blood that cries louder than the 50 million innocent babies’ blood that cries up from the ground! (Gen. 4:10)
O Lord, our God, have mercy on us. A nation that has turned it’s back on you! And have mercy on your people that do not follow after you!
It’s time to take our ground! It’s time to stand on righteousness and not political correctness! Heavenly Father, awaken your people again, for we have fallen asleep! In Jesus' Name!

Natalie Y Jansen

Bondage or Freedom

Exodus 17
1Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. 2Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may drink " And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" 3But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" 4So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me." 5Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6"Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Wow! They had a need. That need was water. They had been freed from the bondage that the Egyptians had placed on them. But now it gets tough. Now they must trust their god with their entire lives. If they had no water, they died. As simple as that. But God provided, even though, as you just read, they grumbled and were even angry at Moses for daring to take them away from the "comforts" of Egypt.I say "comforts" because they were not TRUE comforts. Egypt was what they were used to. They had grown accustom to that lifestyle. Some had never known anything different. They pretty much new what to expect when they got up in the morning. But what they were used to was beatings, hard unmerciful labor, and just enough food to keep them alive to work. Comfort? I don't think so.But how often does our God invite us to freedom with a promise that He will come through for us, but we run back to our "comforts". God promises me that he will come through for me. That he will take care of that problem. But I run back to my anger because I can't control the situation. HE tells me that HE created my inmost being and knit me together in my mother's womb, but I cling to my jealousy, self-hatred and fear that something better will come and take my spot. I wallow in the filth of my selfishness. It's what I've known. To walk away from it leaves me venerable. I have to abandon everything that I have always believed to trust in someone else. In One that does not always tell me what He's doing. That's hard. But even with all their disbelief, God still provided what they needed.(Mercy) They lived. He gave them water to refresh them and invited them to trust Him again.His mercy calls to us. His grace invites us to try again. To understand that losing our life for Him is actually gaining life. And life more abundant.

Update

I thought I would give a little update on my life. Things have been a little crazy over the last few months.
A little over a month ago I passed out in my kitchen and it looked like I had a seizure to Stephen and Shelley (his sister). I went to the ER and I'm now going to be paying them for months for doing absolutely nothing! Literally! They took my blood pressure/sugar, which was fine and sent me home. Ridiculous.
I went to my doctor and she ordered a MRI...(I've also been having severe head aches for more than 2 years and they keep getting worse)....the MRI didn't show anything serious.( thank you GOD!!) Just a severe sinus infection. So I've been on strong meds for a month now and I'm going to be on them one more month. I'm still getting dizzy spells....but my head aches are not as bad and they havent been staying as long! Apparently I have had this infection for a long time. But I don't think that I have had it for two years! I guess I could have. All I know is that I have had head aches for over 2 yrs now. We'll see if that's it.

We sold our Tahoe! It was so sad. :( I hated to see it go. But I was not sad to see the gas tank go. It was bitter sweet. :)
We now have a jeep liberty. I really like it! And it is so much easier on the pocket book. We got an awesome deal on it. God was so good to us! One amazing thing is that we sold that Tahoe in a week! Couldn't believe it!

Stephen and I just celebrated our 1st Anniversary!! July 14th. One whole year! Amazing. It does not feel like a year. That scares me. Time really needs to slow down...or I do?
We went to San Antonio for a few days to celebrate. We had a really good time. We spent a lot of time on the River Walk. We went to Schlitterbahn for a day. It was good to get a way for a little while. We left on Sunday, got back on Thursday, and then left for the lake on Friday with the college ministry at out church. Didn't get back until late Sunday night! We were tired. :) But it was great.

We have a new little puppy now named Sam. He is all basset hound! we got him in May. but we have to keep him inside...which I do not like cuz he sheds really bad and he stinks( he's a hound...it's not his fault ha ha!) ...because our neighbor's dogs attacked him. It was horrible. He had to have surgery and then he lost his sight. The Dr. said that he would probably be blind from then on. But God gave his sight back and healed him. (You should have seen the look on the vet's face when we brought sam in for his check up and told him that we laid hands on the dog and asked God to give his sight back!!!) Now he's good as new. You can't even see any scars.
But To make the situation better....the dogs got him the same night I had to go to the ER. While I was on my way to the ER, Larry (Stephen's dad) had to take Sam to meet the vet for emergency stitches. It was crazy!! Then he had surgery the next morning.
But we are all good now!! haha!!

O.K. I'm going to stop now.
Hope everyone else is doing great?

Natalie J

you just need to laugh

I know that this is nothing new

But I do not understand the mercy of God. For 2 and a half weeks God has been showing me how great His mercy is and how much grace that he has poured on me. Oh I know all about the mercy of God for others.....but for me? Why I hold myself to a higher standard, I do not know. Why I think that God would hold me to a higher standard than someone else, I don't know that either. But some how I have convinced myself that, whether my sin small or great, that He is tired of me and does not want to waste anymore time with me. I have been living with this condemnation for almost 2 years now. Even though I never formed it into thought, it was still there. So needless to say, I have been hurting because I do not feel close to God. Living in that worthlessness, I come to the Father not in boldness as a child of God, but with my head turned in shame as a dirty slave. Yes, maybe God loves me, but does he accept me? Why would he accept me? I have done nothing for Him except to shame Him and disobey!

Why can't my mind grasp forgiveness?

The Lord is working on my heart. Until I can accept forgiveness, how can I forgive?

Galatians 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

This made me laugh until I started crying!!

Replying to Christina's Blog

You know...I do the exact same thing. I haven't always been like that. It's just been in the last 3 years. So many things (that were not so good) happened to me and my family all at one time, and then just dragged on. I started distancing myself. It took a lot out of me. Now I avoid any relationship( or job ) that I feel like it is draining me! I cringe inside just thinking about those people or situations!! And for some reason, Steve and I both attract those kind of people!! lol I think there must be a sign above me that I can't see that says"Dump your burdens here!" That's terrible, I know. :-) The bottom line is, I have sinned! I have become very selfish! It not only hurt my relationships with my family and friends, but I am not very close to God anymore. I have pulled away from everything. Slowly but surely. I didn't even realize it. I got to the point where I was numb to everything. The Lord is healing my mind and my heart now. But it is a slow process. Now I have to fight my very lazy mind to keep it from closing down on me when I get into a situation that will require more of me.......more of my heart. I am ready to move out of this! I want to love others more than I love being comfortable! It's going to be a battle. I am not looking forward to this.....

The HOLY SPIRIT

With the limited knowledge that I have of the gifts of the Spirit, I really feel like I have the gift of discernment. I can see things that most Christians can not. Sometimes I have seen, heard, and felt things that I did not want to. But in those times it is most crucial that I pray!

I know that God wanted Stephen and me together. He made darn sure that it happened!!
I knew that if God wanted us together that He had a plan for us to work together for His Kingdom............the coolest thing ever...........in January it was so awesome to see both of our gifts working together! We were in KC for the One Thing conference. We stayed at a hotel for a few days while we were there. A man, who's name in English in Justin....there's no way I could spell his real name... who worked the night shift. It was always after 12 every night before we got back to the hotel from the conference.
The 1st night we got back to the hotel, Justin saw us out of the front lobby window and called us in...I was a little nervous...I thought we had done something wrong. We followed him to the front desk where he picked up this large box that had all kinds of pasteries from that morning's breakfast. "Take", he said in his broken English. Stephen of course jumped right in while I had to explain to Justin that I couldn't have it. Then he asked me if I was Indian. I told him that I have Native American indian....but not from India. I asked him if he was from India and he said yes. That my friend, opened a door to start talking with him. Stephen got to tell him that he had been to India before.....that made Justin very excited and he began to share his story with us of how he and his wife came from India to America. He is 70 something years old. They have been living in America for 7 years I think.
We talked for a little while and then Steve and I went to our room. We got a knock on the door. Justin invited us to come have tea in his room the next morning and meet his wife!! We couldn't believe it!! While we were talking to this man in the Lobby, we learned that he was Hindu...and now we were being invited to his house (room)! Stephen and I of course said yes, but we were so nervous! We started praying for him and for the situation.
Next morning we go to his room, meet his wife, and have an Indian breakfast.....which is very spicy stuff, but good....for the most part. ;-) We get to share the gospel with him and just get to know him a little bit. He did not agree that Jesus was the only way to get to heaven. He believed that our God, and all the others were the same God......he didn't like it when we told him that Jesus said that HE was the Only way to the Father. Crazy thing, he's reading the Bible.....he searching.
That afternoon at the conference I felt a strong urge to pray for him to be saved. When I opened my mouth to start praying the Holy Spirit took over and I went into deep intercessory prayer for that man.

Now I have already said that I have the gift of discernment, Stephen I believe has the gift of evangelism....this is how they worked together.
We went into the lobby to see him and immediately I felt this strong demonic presence. We had obviously stirred something up...I guess we were moving in on their territory. It was really bad! I felt them taunting us! I felt this anger rise up inside me, then I began to pray under my breath. Just loud enough for them to hear me.....the whole time Stephen is talking with this man and answering his questions.....Justin began to talk about witch craft and different practices that he and his wife did. Every time he opened his mouth that evil presence began to rumble. The whole time, I am praying for Justin, for Stephen and that God would get rid of those spirits! The cool thing, everytime Stephen would open his mouth to speak it's like they would back off.....run for cover!! They had nothing to fight him with.
Did Stephen feel all this going on? No. God gifted me to be able to feel these things so that I could be praying. I guess in terms of battle, I am the diversion so that Stephen could get in there and fight where it matters!!
It's so awesome how God has gifted each one of us with different gifts and how they all work together.

Moving on

I'm tired of looking at that post so I thought I would write something else just so that it will move down......I really have nothing to say.