The Power You Possess & Strength For the Journey

                                           


April 27, 2016

The joy of the Lord is our strength, precious Heartdwellers.

This morning during my communion service, Holy Spirit rose up in me to pray for certain individuals who are going through serious trials right now. I felt the Lord's concern for them as well. I had recently learned that prayers from the previous two days had had an immense impact on the oppression certain people were in. That was very encouraging for me. After the service, I felt prompted to come and write, and this is what Jesus said to me.

"I will indeed answer these prayers for others. You see, your prayers are powerful. This is what has been lacking, seeing the evidence and result of your prayers. When you don't see change in things that are out of your sphere of influence...you don't realize what massive affects your prayers really have on situations. This is your problem with prayer. You don't recognize the power that's released. If you did, I couldn't keep you out of prayer, My little OCD Bride!

"How important that is! How important even the littlest prayer is, but how much more important is prayer that contends with darkness for the victory. From now on, I want you to continue this routine that is building you up into who you are in Me. A communion service is so very important. Worship beforehand is good. You will feel when it is time to have the service and many times I will come to you and give the message afterwards."

And just as an aside here, I have always been more free-form in my worship, liturgy didn't come easy to me - proscribed prayers or order in prayer, that kind of thing. Even though...even dwelling prayer has order to it. But I just tend to be more "go with the Spirit and flow" than actually follow any kind of format. But this has been - I could feel it - this has been building strength in me the last few days that I've been doing it.

And right after communion is when I most often see and hear the Lord, outside of worship, when I receive Him and He strengthens me body and soul, as it is written: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:51

As an aside... at the risk of being called a Catholic again, (which I am not, listen to my conversion and you'll hear that) I want to tell you that the prayers from the Sunday Missal, the St. Joseph version are so beautifully balanced and Holy Spirit never fails to use them to instruct me. I mean, it's just amazing. It's like, He's reading my mail. And it presents so many solutions to problems that I deal with.

Anyway, I remember when the Lord was asking us to spend time in different denominations to see what He was doing in each. And we visited and stayed in the Catholic Church for a few years. Now, the very first time I walked into a Catholic church with the serious intention of seeing what God was doing, I was really put off by the brown wooden interior and stiff pews and kneelers.

Remember, I came from a Pentecostal Evangelical, non-denominational background of seven years and that's where I was saved. Anyway, I was SO put off. But I made the commitment to stay and listen. I was absolutely shocked when I heard Scripture being read all throughout the service. I mean, a whole herd of flies could have gone right into my mouth, my mouth was just dropped open. It's like, every time I turn around, they were reading the Scriptures again! Little Scriptures here, little Scriptures there. Longer Scriptures. And I was saying to myself, "I don't get it, I thought Catholics didn't use Scripture??? I thought they were all idol worshippers. Why are they using Scripture??" Everything was from Scripture, even the songs. And the people were not chitter-chattering and visiting before the service, they were kneeling and praying. The whole environment was very reverent and I just slid into it as a welcome break from noisy worship. (Which, of course, I love.) But it was different. I was asking the Lord, are you here? I heard Him distinctly, "I'm here." And that's all He said.

So, when we left the Catholic church, I took the missal with me because it is so rich and well-rounded with readings from the Old Testament, Letters, Gospels, Psalms. And all woven together presenting a topic like the Bible Promises we use for Rhemas. So, my communion service is ordered just like the missal, but with spontaneous prayer and Scripture readings. Which, by the way, is ordered after the original prayer service, I've found out. Written by James the brother of Jesus when he was in Jerusalem and an elder of the early church. They call this service a Mass, and you can see it depicted on the walls of the catacombs where the early Christians met to worship God.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Sunday Missal because it has so many readings the weekly missal doesn't have and can be used for Rhemas as well.

So, as the Lord was saying, "A communion service is so very important. Worship before hand is good. You will feel when it is time to have the service and many times I will come to you and give the message afterwards. This is very strengthening. Your prayers for everyone during the communion service are powerful. (I have felt Holy Spirit rise up in me during the time for prayers in the service.)

"Oh Clare, I see your heart, I hear your cries. Do you not know how powerful they are in moving My Heart?

"My mother came to Me in this way. I would read her heart and feel her intentions and I could not resist responding to her aching heart. And you also, My Brides, because all of you have suffered for Me and are willing to suffer for Me, I have compassion on you and your families. Your tears move My Heart, My loved ones. Your tears speak volumes and volumes of love to Me. I cannot resist a loving and pure heart. That is why the war did not begin until Faustina died. I had to move her out of the way."

By the way, Faustina was a nun in Poland who interceded against the second World War. She's the one who the Lord gave the Divine Mercy chaplet to that we pray.

The Lord continued. He's talking about how Faustina's confession held back World War II. And in the next line He says, "And yes, I must move My Bride out of the way before the very worst happens. She is praying, shedding tears, fasting, seeking Me, repenting for this world's sins. How can I ignore her pleas? I can't. Simply, I just can't. So, I continue to answer her with change as she cries out. You know this truth. You know also that there will be a time when the Father says, 'Enough!!' and I will remove you. Just as I removed Faustina. But before that time your prayers are changing things around you. They are working. Do you understand?"
 

I felt prompted to look up "work" in the dictionary: "Work: activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result."

Jesus continued, "So few understand that prayer is WORK. It is hard labor, a labor of love, and of all the things man can put his energy into the most powerful is not building freeways, hospitals, skyscrapers, and bombs - it is prayer. And prayer is the intention of the heart pleading with Me, petitioning Me, pressing into Me with a contrite heart. But prayer does not have to be formal. The crying out of the heart speaks volumes to Me and I cannot ignore it.
 
"So, what I am saying to all of you: prayer WORKS. It can even be hard labor. It takes just as much effort to pray effectively as it does to physically lift hundreds of pounds and build a house. Yet the world does not acknowledge prayer as work. For this reason, all of you are assailed by guilt. And who do you suppose is the author of that?

"If you want to know how effective your prayers are, short of seeing the results, look at the efforts that are put into stopping you, depriving you of your prayer time, interrupting it. Look and measure the resistance. Then you will see assignments against you of hunger, sleepiness, feelings of guilt for not getting caught up on the laundry, such as, 'Here you are enjoying yourself in prayer while your housework is unfinished!' You will see people come to your door, phone calls out of nowhere. Anything to take you out of prayer. And for you poor OCD Brides, I must seriously help you if you get up to do anything, because I may not enjoy your presence in prayer again until tomorrow. Once you get up, you are easily distracted by your to-do list and loose ends around the house. 
 
"This is one reason why prayer at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning is better for you. You can't do housework then, really. All that time is well suited for is prayer. Whereas if you wait until after all the work is done, you may feel the liberty of saying, 'Whew, now I can relax.' But watch how your mind spins like a roulette wheel and lands on some unfinished chore and you feel the demand to get up and do it first, before you get deeply into prayer. And your mind does not want to cooperate and focus on Me. It tends to continue to spin."

You know, I've noticed that. It takes me about a half an hour for me to stop spinning when I pray after my work.

Jesus continues, "Oh My Children, the tactics of the enemy are endless. And for those who are well-disposed to take care of their households, the enemy uses that against you to pry you away from Me. You may even have a..."

lol...I saw the cat and almost said, "You may even have a 'mouse' rise up." Ohh..thanks Gracie...!

"You may even have a spouse rise up and say, 'You haven't done this, you haven't done that and now you're just sitting there?' Then you are forced to live with that scrutiny over your shoulder." 
 

Here, as an aside, I would like to add that in situations such as this, I recommend you get out of the house, even if it's cold. Take a sleeping bag and go sit somewhere with your coffee and pray. Take your Bible and pray. The cold is less oppressive than the energy of the spouse who doesn't understand or is intimidated and jealous by your spirituality. It really makes a difference. And I used to do that in the early days. I'd go sit on a pier, in the Fall of the year, mind you. Bundled up in a sleeping bag. And I'd sit there and pray for two hours. Moving on...

Jesus continued. "I am stressing this to you all because some of you don't know how to pray, when to pray or how to keep your right to prayer in the midst of oppression. You have all been taught about dwelling prayer, which is so very important to cultivate your relationship with Me. After all, how can a Bride be a Bride without time with her future husband? And now I am adding to it the simple devotion to the Scriptures and communion."

As an aside here, those of you that haven't seen our short form of communion, there is a whole video on it as well. It's on the Tethered album which you can download for free or buy from Amazon for just the cost of shipping.

Jesus continued, "So, I am coming to you all to establish you in solid habits that will strengthen you and bring forth sweet fruit. Copious sweet fruit.

"I bless you now with perseverance and steadfast faith, that your love for Me will triumph over all earthly and spiritual forces arrayed against you. I will bless your obedience and you will grow in stature to resemble Me."

And then He quickened the Scripture to me:

Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Amen. Ephesians 4:13

The Lord bless you, Heartdwellers.

Source: Heartdwellers