Prayyior's God Talk

When you least expect it….God shows up!  At first I had no idea it was HIM, and even as the first dream occurred, I still didn’t know.  When the 2^nd dream happened, I still wasn’t sure, but then the phone rang, and I no longer had to wonder.  When God showed up in my 2 dreams….they became very real!

The first dream of the night was a sexual encounter with a stanger.  Yea, I know…Weird…Right?  Well the encounter was actually an invitation to enter in to the relationship, all the time desiring to proceed, even though my husband slept in an adjoining room.  I was given a choice.  I could proceed with the lust filled encounter, which in my dream seemed inviting, exciting, fulfilling, and I found myself wanting to accept this invitation to worldly frolic.   However, someplace in there my heart said “NO!”  I am not doing this.  I will remain faithful to my husband.

I didn’t realize until much later that this really wasn’t a sexual dream, but a loyalty challenge.  Would I remain Faithful, or would I at the ripe old age of 72 turn my back of the King of Kings.  Would I let the world suck me into a void,  an emptiness?  Would I turn my back on the one who loved me so much that he took my sin, saved my soul and loved me with an unquenchable Love.  Would I reject the hope that is in Jesus?  Would I reject the leading of the Holy Spirit?  Would I make a wrong choice…which had the appearance of a wonderful choice.

Earlier in the evening I had been praying.  Once again I spoke to Satan, and told him to get out of my house and get out of my life.  I suspect the dream that came to me really came from Satan to open a door into my home.  I believe God allowed it.

I remember the story of Job and how Satan came to God and God was  sharing the great faith of Job with Satan, and Satan told God that it he would allow him to test Job, he would see that Job would fail the test and curse God. However God had faith in Job and allowed Satan to kill his children destroy his livelihood and take his health.   The story continues on and you might find it interesting reading……even studying, because the end is glorious.  I thank GOD that my answer was the same as Job’s.  No…I will NOT DENY GOD.  I am so thankful  that somehow I made it through that test.  I am so grateful to God for His HOLY SPIRIT…because had I just been me….I would have succumbed to the temptation, and probably gloried in it.

I awoke…the dream was seared in my memory.  I think I told God…Thank you for helping me make the right choice in that dream… and then I think I asked…..”What was that all about?”  After all…it was weird, enticing, strange…..

I went back to sleep….and the 2^nd dream began.  I was in a place where food was given for free.  You could just help yourself.  I arrived there late, but there was still some groceries and especially meat.  There were plastic bags so you could put as much as you wanted into them.  I began to fill my grocery cart.  It was getting piled to the top…I grabbed every piece of meat I could find, shoved it into a bag and put it in the cart.  The cart was overflowing, and I thought I should take my cart and go load it in my car and get out of there…..but there was still more meat…I think the last thing was the bacon…and I took it all.  It wasn’t a huge package….maybe a couple pounds.  I got it in my bag and the thought crossed my mind that I was being greedy.  I should not have taken so much.  It was unfair, there was probably someone else who needed it more than I did….but I pushed that thought aside and turned to put the bacon in my cart.

The cart had been moved…it wasn’t right behind me…it was a ways behind me…and ALL the meat I had gathered was gone.  Someone Stole my meat!  Someone stole ALL of my meat, except the bacon of greed I held in my hands.    Hmmmm

Wow…did I get angry?  Yea… I was very upset.  And then the thought came…You should have shared what you had.  I knew that was right….and anywhere in the process of bagging all that meat, I could have made a decision to share it with those who needed it…BUT I DIDN’T!   Selfishness caused me to lose everything.  The dream ended and I awoke.

By now, I am thinking that God is trying to get something across to me, and I am asking, “what are you trying to tell me, Lord?  What is this dream about?  What am I supposed to do.  At this time, I have not put the two dreams together.  I have no idea, so I keep asking.

By now, I am out of the shower, makeup on, hair done, dressed…ready to head to church because it is Sunday, and that is where I go every Sunday that I can.

As I get in my car and start it, my phone rings.  It is a friend calling and I answer.  She doesn’t usually call me on a Sunday Morning.  Something must be wrong….  “Do you want some meat?” she asks…and I am like “WHAT?”  What?”  “What?”  “You don’t have to give me meat,” I said….  “Yes, I do,” she said.   Yes, I said….”I will take the meat.”  “OK, “she responded,  “I will put it in a cooler and bring it to church with me.”  “Ok,” I say….”I will bring an insulated bag with me.”

We get off the phone, and I grab the bag and head out the door.   Now my mind is going a little crazy, but I am positive that God is in the midst of this dream and this phone call.  I rethink the things my friend has done for me in the past.  She has given me meat before, when we had none.  She has let me come and pick a 5 gallon pail of beans, she has let me come and practice shoot on her property.  She has taught me how not to cause myself to bleed when I worked the slide on my gun.  She has been a friend and we have prayed for each other many times.

My Questions rise….”What is this about, God?”  “What are you telling me?”

I recognized a couple of things.  The first was my selfishness that my dream had revealed and another think was that I need not worry about tomorrow and the scripture of how God cares for the sparrows and provides them with food and is fully aware when even one of them dies.  Yea, God has me in his sights…I can rest in that….and then I am reminded that The Word says that “My God shall provide all of my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  So no need to be greedy….Jesus will provide all that I ever need!

One of the things I have learned about God over the years is that sometimes the obvious message is not really the message, but just a reminder.

I arrived at church and attended Worship where the actual message was that we are called to go out into the world, whether our jobs or our social gatherings and share Jesus with those who don’t know him and to encourage young Christians, because they are needing to learn more about Jesus, about Holy Spirit and about God.  One of our jobs is to help them grow.  Good message….guess I needed that today.

So when services were over I found my friend.  She said she woke up this morning and God said to her that she should give me meat.  1 package of steak, 2 of roasts and 2 of ground beef.  She said…OK Lord, kinda wondering what that was about, but she was going to do what God told her, so she made the call to me.

I told her about the dream….the meat dream.  I still have not put together that the dreams are part of a set.  They have something to do with each other.  As we are talking, I am wondering about what God specifically told her.  That she was to provide meat was one thing and definitely was the confirmation that the dream was from God.  But what about the specifics…. 1 package of steak, two of roasts and two of ground beef.

As we are talking I say something to the effect of ….Is this just meat that God is providing or is it MEAT.  The MEAT of the WORD,  The Meat of TRUTH…….   That is when Holy Spirit causes every hair on my body to stand on end.  OK..so this is not REALLY about the physical meat you eat, but about the meat of God that those who have served HIM for years have learned over the years.  It is God’s Wisdom and God’s gift of knowledge, It is the way to fight, the way to stand, the way to accomplish what God has for you to do.  YOUR PURPOSE!

I now know mine….  But there is more!  I am to share what I have learned.  I am to teach other truths to those who God places in my path.

Years ago, I knew I was called to write about God, about hope, about the love of the Lord.  I was supposed to write prayers, and write stories of how God has intervened in my life.  I was to share the answers to prayer, and to help others that God brings my way.

Well…it would seem that that is the end of the story, but it is NOT.

There was a reason why God told my friend   1 package of steak, 2 of roast and 2 of ground beef.

I began to ponder the meaning of the 3 different items…(Interesting that there are 3 categories, isn’t it?)

I kept asking….  “What are you telling me?”  So as I seek  full knowledge from God, this is what comes to my mind.  I am pretty positive these are God’s thoughts, because I have heard them before, and now I am hearing them again…..although I never heard the message this loud and clear.

“Why hamburger Lord?”  Hamburger is the truth in little pieces you are to share with young Christians.  They can’t handle more than tiny morsels of truth at one time.  How many morsels are in hamburger?  Thousands, and especially if there are two packages….and there are.  So it appears I am to share the gospel to others in bits and pieces, and I am to teach them the little, but seriously important things they don’t know yet.  Let them grow up….milk is for babies.  Meat is for those who are growing so they get stronger and build strength and become more aware, more able to hear and closer to God’s Throne and begin to rely on Holy Spirit to learn.

2 Roasts…..  Importance of a roast…  Roasts are usually cooked over a period of time.   Some more tender cuts are cooked a shorter period and that gives you rare roast beef.  Good stuff to eat!, but then there is the tough meat that has to be cooked a long time to get tender enough to eat easily.

So this indicates that when people graduate from morsels of truth, next comes the solid piece of meat.  Some very juicy to learn, other requiring a little more chewing.  The Word of God should not be swallowed whole anymore than a roast.  Bigger pieces are on the menu, and there is more to consider when you learn the Word, and when you learn the Way.  Some of those larger pieces can be very juicy and delicious or maybe you prefer the less juicy and more fully cooked meat.  There is in the Christians diet a time for both of them.  How do we share the roast.  Usually with a family.  Almost never alone, unlike the hamburger which is designed for one person to partake.  A person alone seldom cooks a roast just for themselves.  So, not only am I to share with individuals, but also with small groups.  After all the roast isn’t a half of beef.

Why the steak?  A steak is a glorious piece of meat.  One person can eat the whole thing!  It has meat that is grilled in many different ways.  It can be grilled, fried, sautéed,  but for the very best steak you want it to be thick enough to have the very center at least Rare(I prefer Medium rare)  but throughout the Steak there are areas that are different.  The Outside edge is the most done, then next comes an inner portion that is medium  or medium well and then maybe Medium rare.

Steaks can be eaten all by yourself, or with a group of people who either slice the steak so each gets a portion of what they like or each person gets their own steak to partake of.  The steak can be different sizes…Some eat lots and others eat little.  Melt in your mouth tender is preferable to “tough as nails” steak.  Steak is for grown-ups.  The meat has to be chewed well, one bite at a time, if not, you could choke.  It is the finest meat of the Animal, it is the choice of many, and the one most people use to celebrate when they are celebrating.

Steak is a wonderful delicious meal, it is grilled or fried to perfection,  it is the choice of many…others, not so much, because they get tired of chewing.

Steak is the big secrets of the Kingdom of God.  Steak is the Word of God in its most powerful form.  Steak is what makes a prayer that the Kingdom of Heaven rejoices in and brings to pass quickly and with great power through Holy Spirit.  Steak is the ultimate feast!

So today I learned that it is now time to move forward.  It is God who is directing the way.  He will be the one who leads me to speak the truths I will speak and the stories of his miracles, and love and peace.  He will lead to ask the right questions, He will show me the way I am to go, and how I am to get there.  I do know that writing will be a part of it, so expect more “words” coming from my computer to yours.  I will do my best to listen and to obey.  I will do my best to hear the Voice of the Lord.

I think of how this day has changed my life.  I now remember the choice provided in the first dream.  Had I made the wrong choice and chose the World over my God….I have no doubt that there would NOT have been a second dream.  There would not have been a future.  Perhaps even this was my expiration day, and had I chosen wrong and betrayed my God, I would not be able to ever again share his Joy, and the hope that is in me right now.

I have never had a dream like this before…well dreams…  I have seen visions and I have seen his outline and I have heard his voice.  I pray that now…today…I can follow after HIM with gusto!

I pray that as you read this, it will bless you.  I pray that it will help you know that GOD is ALIVE and He is REAL.  I pray that you will choose to receive His free gift of Forgiveness, which he died for, so your sins could be forgiven, and I pray that you will hear Holy Spirit as he speaks to you in whatever way he does. ….Knowing full well that each of us hears and sees and learns as HE reveals himself to us.

I encourage you today….Do say YES to JESUS CHRIST,  commit, follow and invite HOLY SPIRIT to enter in, pray for you and lead you to where God has for you to go and do what God has for you to do.

God Bless you ALL!

Lloyd Ann Caston  AKA PRAYYIOR

Well guys…or Y’all….whatever you call your friends, peeps, or others in general.  Today is a thinking day.  I am thinking whether I should hop in my Car tomorrow and head for a meeting. It is supposed to snow.  What that means is that I will probably be driving in the night with 3 to 6 inches of the snow on the roads.  I’ve done that before.  I once took my Ringneck Parrot named Pecker….on a 120 mile strip in a blizzard to see a vet because that bird kept falling off his perch.  NOT GOOD.  Poor Bird.  Then I find out from the Vet that these birds often get brain tumors and this is what it “probably” is.  So home I head, blizzard still raging with my poor bird, whom the Vet could not help.

But back to the storm.  I am really tired of storms and winter.  I want desperately to go to this meeting in Bismarck, and the plan was to go to the meeting and since I needed to drive over a hundred miles home, I might just as well go visit my Daughter for the weekend.  Evidently the snow is headed their way too.

I miss my daughter, we just never get enough time together.  Different City, 3 hours away, a full time job….Yea…it is life.  The answer is surely…Just go!  Maybe better wash some clothes first…….

One of the things I wanted to do this year is set up a non-profit for Vets to get teeth with.  I speak from experience.  My dear old Vet, has no teeth.  We spent about 3500 bucks to get his teeth all pulled so he could get dentures…Pulling wasn’t enough…Then they had to shave down his gums so false teeth would fit.  Finally all our “teeth” money was spent on “prep for teeth,” but no teeth…so next step, save money until there was enough to get teeth, but they wanted another 3200 bucks for that.  Well, needless to say, he is learning to eat without teeth.  His biggest complaint is that he can no longer eat Potato Chips or meat, other than ground beef, pork, or whatever.  I do have to admit…It seems a total shame to grind up a beautiful Ribeye into hamburger.  Yea, just buy the cheap stuff!

So it seemed to me the key would be to set up a program where he and all the other Vets without teeth or needing teeth could get them.  I still haven’t filled out the paperwork for that, and applied for 5013C…which is a government non-profit.  Then you have to ask yourself, “ how good am I at asking people to donate to a cause?”  Well, that answer is “not very.”

So I sit, and do nothing instead.  That is just pure crazy.  I look at the people in our world, out there changing peoples lives, providing needs that no one else meets and I get discouraged.  What is wrong with me?  I need to get in gear and accomplish this.  “No time like the present”…isn’t that what they say.  Procrastination will get you every time…  Jump in, one step at a time.  One goal met another on the horizon.  If you don’t start, you can never finish.  Half-finished is the same as never started!  The result is the same.  Time wasted, nothing accomplished.

Time to move, senseless to sit.  Find the form on line and fill out the papers….get them sent in.

So the message for today, for some of us…is “stop procrastinating!”  The rest of you, just move on…Nothing to see here!

However there is one more word….  “I can do all things through Christ, who Strengthens me.”  Knowing that, getting it into your head, feeling it in your heart…YEA….That makes it impossible to fail!  Sounds mighty good to me!  How about YOU?   What are your unfulfilled plans, goals, desires?

Blessings to you all!

Lloyd Ann

NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

Well here it is ….New Year’s Eve 2017.  I thought I would share some thoughts.

Today I thought about by-gone days of a school carnival.  Mom and Dad played Bingo all night, us kids ran around like crazy kids…and we threw bags and bags of confetti.  It is the most glorious stuff.  Confetti is just little pieces of paper of different colors all in little circles of joy.  You throw it up in the air and it lands of everything, it gets in your hair, and old grumpy people didn’t like it, but it was fun.  If I had confetti for New Years, this year, even though I know the mess it makes, I would throw it all over and laugh and laugh.

It has been a tough week here in ND.  The temp is 25 below zero…so cold that the sewer vents on houses freeze shut and the sewer gas bubbles up in the bathtub and escapes the pipes….Now this is not like someone farting in the bathroom…it is like a million people farting in the bathroom…and it seeps through the house, and it makes you want to puke.  But it’s fixed, thanks to my troubleshooting the fix and my Grandson, Josh, following directions and doing all the roof work.  Frozen fingers had to be warmed multiple times, the ladder slipped and that was exciting because Josh was on it when it did…then when he wasn’t hurt and didn’t hit the ground, we laughed and laughed.  It was really a wonderfully successful day.  Sewer Vents are no longer filling the house with the smell of a million farts, and I got to spend time with my Grandson, and I watched God work a marvelous Miracle.  But that is not my story to tell, so I won’t.

I have determined that “Nodaks” (that’s a nickname for North Dakotans) take great pride in the survival during the coldest times of the year.  We complain, but we brag too.  It truly is amazing that anyone can survive in the cold.  How birds and deer and wildlife survive is beyond me.  All I can say, is that God knew exactly what He was doing when he created them, knowing the harsh conditions they would sometimes experience.  It makes me think of my Grandfather who came to this unsettled country so many years ago, and ended up on the prairie in what is called a “soddy”  dirt floor, no real heat, other than the ability to burn some grass, very little to eat….but they survived….Thankful they did, because through it all, I got life.

Would I like to be in NYC for New Years?  The excitement of the ball dropping…all the crystals on it…  NO…  I prefer home celebrations.  A time of family, kids putting on parades, and playing games and laughter.  I prefer Oyster Stew at Midnight, and those little round crackers.  Never mind that about 4 Am I get reflux…  Still worth it.

I am eating the last popcorn ball of the season…all the others are gone…  Have to enjoy this one enough to last a whole year.  I make Popcorn balls because my Sister loves them, and I love my Sister!  I plan to make them again in December of 2018, God Willing.

I think of all the little dogs I have loved over the years….and the cats.  I always laugh when I remember seeing my Daughter pushing this little kitten to our door….  Then she opened the door, jumped in front of the kitten and said…Look what followed me home.  After hunting all over for the owner, the kitten became ours.  So fun…..love that girl!

This year has been interesting.  I have met so many people on line.  So many that I now have heart connections to.  So many who are more than friends, friends to laugh and talk with, pray with, share thoughts and hopes and dreams with.  Then there are others, who have needed prayers, have needed hope, and needed health restored, and laughter, and love….Yea, the world is full of those we meet  who are there to brings us hope or a word of truth, or someone who needs something from us.  God is amazing how He connects people who give and gain from each other.  It truly is a blessing in my life.

I worked hard this past summer, my Son was here, and we worked at selling things off so the house could go on the market.  Just didn’t get done….partially, but not fully.  I had no intentions of being here this winter.  By next winter I fully expect the house will be sold and we will have moved on to someplace smaller, someplace with less yard to cut.  Love the park we have here, but we are getting too old to care for it.  This place is for someone younger, with kids who can play in the yard, making forts in the trees, and riding bikes and watching birds and squirrels….Yea, I will miss it terribly.  It is the one place in the world where every single day I have thought….”I just love going home!”  Someone else needs to feel that. The best thing about memories, is that wherever you go, you get to take them with you.

My hopes for the future are that all my family members are settled somewhere that they belong and are happy and able to care for themselves, I want to see my Grandchildren in Alaska again.  I want to spend some time visiting my kids, wherever they are living.  I want to make a nationwide trip and visit some of the people I know in other parts of the Country.  Some of them I have known for years, and some I have just met and some I have never met in person.  They range from Michigan to the Carolinas, south and north and zig-zagged all over…..Relatives in California, and Oregon, and friends from Military bases, and the list just goes on.  I have hopes of forming a 501 3C to help Veterans with needs the Country and the Military don’t meet, such as teeth and hearing aids, and other personal needs that just don’t seem to be getting met.  I want to sit on a porch in the shade and listen to the birds and laugh at the squirrels, and drink a big glass of sweet tea.  I want to go fishing for “big” fish, and am hoping that soon my Son will have a boat that is just what he needs to fulfill his dreams.  I want to visit my Great Grandkids, and want to finish the book I have been working on, much of what is written here on this sight.  I want to spend time sharing Jesus with more and more people, because I care about them, and want to spend eternity with them, and if they don’t know Jesus, we will not be together.  I love helping people find the house they need, and I love helping people get their houses sold, so they can move on to fulfill their hopes and dreams.  I am not sure how long I will sell Real Estate.  Laughingly, when someone asks that question I tell them I am planning to retire when I am 91.  Only God knows if that is true.

What are your dreams?  What do you want to leave this world with they didn’t have before you came along?

What are your goals for the upcoming year?  I hope one of them is to enjoy your family or those friends that are closest to you.

Will you laugh at the troubles of this world or will you let the troubles take you down?  I hope you will laugh.  I hope you won’t borrow trouble from thinking too much and imagining all the bad stuff that can come in life.   I hope instead you do what the Bible tells us to put the stuff, the troubles, the sorrow, the hurt and sadness behind us and look forward to this day…and the next…and the next…One day at a time.  There are enough troubles in each day to deal with.  Don’t borrow any from your past or your future.  Live today, trust that God’s got you, and will always care for you.

Can’t seem to hear what God is saying to you?  Sometimes yelling at him from the depths of your heart will be effective.  God put your passion in you when He created you, and he loves to see that in you.  Some of my most effective prayers are those where I stand in the middle of my yard in the dark of night and screamed out my need…and some of my other most glorious times are singing to my dear Heavenly Father….One of His Favorites, I think…is “How great thou Art.”  In the dark of night…at the top of my lungs, out of tune, but with a joyful noise!

God just want you to be you.  He loves you like you are, He calls you to seek his forgiveness, and to forgive the people who have wronged you, hurt you, abused you, lied to you, cheated on you, stole from you, hated you……because he wants desperately to deal with those people.  He can’t you know, as long as you hold on to your “right” to vengeance!  He wants you to remove that fish from your line and put it on his.

I hope this New Year you will find the joy of watching God’s miracles happen.  They happen when we believe.  They happen when we Pray.  They happen when we decide to Trust God, Trust Jesus and listen to what Holy Spirit is saying to our hearts.  So many people in your life need you, they need you to pray for them, someone needs to pray for them.  Are you aware that some people on this earth have NEVER had another person pray for them?  God really can’t do anything in their life until someone prays for them.  Why don’t you commit to being the one?

I want to talk to Fathers today.  My heart is terribly burdened by the children who will never find Jesus and His love for them because their Fathers have not shared Him with them.  There is something special about Fathers and the influence they have on their children, especially their boys.  Boys often see the act of following Christ as a weakness.  There is this mind-set that “men” are weak if they have to rely on Jesus.  The opposite is actually true, Men are the strongest and most powerful when they hear the voice of God, and follow His ways, and Love how He loves.  Those are the men who are most respected.  The Men you can count on to help others, to care for others, the ones who you can allow yourself to trust in.  Men are the Glue that God provided to hold our World together.  They are firm and strong and courageous.  It is an honor to have been born to be a Man.  Please Fathers, take time to spend with your kids.  They need to know that you Love Jesus…They need to know that You rely on Him for your strength, they need to know your stories of the times He has come to your rescue.  They need to know they can call upon them and He will be there for them, just like you will be there for your kids.  Nothing is more important to a child than to have the instruction and knowledge about How to Ask Jesus into your Life, How to trust Him, how to act as He wants you to act, how to treat people with respect and honor, how to be a friend to those who need friends.  Fathers….I call out to you….Change Your children’s lives by sharing Christ and your Walk with HIM, with them.

One day I will talk about Mothers and their enormous gifts and responsibilities, but it is not for today.

I wish you all a Wonderful New Year.  A year where you find a new found strength and faith in Jesus and where your soul will be at peace.  I Pray for you A year full of laughter, love, hope, joy, lots of self-control, and joy in abundance.  I pray that you will have a closer relationship with someone; One who you can share your heart with, someone safe, someone who will honor your gift of relationship.   I pray for you this year, that you will find peace in your soul.  I pray that God will provide for you whatever it is you need, and I pray for Miracles galore.  Miracles in your home, your relationships, your health, your family, your work…..YOUR LIFE HERE ON EARTH!  And I Pray that God will open every door so that YOU can and do share JESUS and his gift of salvation, forgiveness and eternal life with them.  Let’s share Jesus and fill heaven with our friends!  If you care, you can share!

One last Word….  Don’t ever give up…NEVER EVER give up.  The miracle you need could be just around the corner.  Think about this…  How many dreams have been lost because we quit, the moment before success?  NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

May God Bless you Richly and I wish you a Happy New Year to you all!

Lloyd Ann aka Prayyior

Las Vegas Terror attack… October 2, 2017  Today is the 3^rd.

I am not convinced!  Yes, the report is out that they have identified the shooter.  That he is dead and he took is own life before the police entered the room….

Nothing in the person they are pointing too indicates that this man was a danger to anyone.  No trouble anytime…ever… so now, the man who sent cookies to his Mother is out killing?

Something is not right here.

So today I have questions..

Is it really him?  If I were a terrorist and didn’t want to be stopped, or checked or whatever, I would find someone who lives alone, who’s got a great reputation, who someone wouldn’t miss right away, and I would kill them, take there Identification, get their passwords to everything, get their pin numbers which would be on a home computer.

I would then use those to rent a room, I would already have all the weapons, I would already know which room I needed, I would already get it reserved so I would be able to get things in.

It’s evil…but I am not convinced this is the man who did the shooting…

Why would he care about killing himself right before the police breached his room…Standing with a gun, would have gotten him killed anyway.

Perhaps he wanted the chance to blow his face off, so it would take days for the police to realize, if they ever did…that it wasn’t the suspect they throught it was.

Will they find this suspects real body somewhere near his home.  He would have been the perfect patsy.

Lived quietly, clean, above board citizen, wife out of the country, no children…Yea..

Time will tell…Perhaps I am totally wrong…but perhaps I am right.

When Guilt is trying to cripple you…You need to know that God has a plan for your life, and it is good!  “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer 29:11 NIV)

I certainly don’t have time to write today…just too much to do, but that still small voice of God keeps whispering…Someone needs your words of advice today. OK…so here I am.

It has only been in the last few months that God has shown me repeatedly that HE is not the one who puts “GUILT” on ANYONE…. God will convict you of sin in your life. He will bring to mind the deed that “guilt” is now trying to destroy you with.  Guilt is NOT a creation of God!  Period…the end.

For as long as I can remember and that is a very long time, I always thought that guilt came from God and it was a trigger for me to repent and get my life straight. Unfortunately, most of us live with guilt about things that have occurred in out past.

It seems in our minds we need to find a way to deal with guilt. In some instances we go to the person or persons we have wronged and ask them to forgive us. They may or may not be willing to do that. Then what do we do?

Well, we seem to think we can erase the guilt by making amends. We search out ways to make it better. We hunt for ways to assuage our guilt. Help someone, do something, send something, fix something….

Sometimes what we have done has been sin, something that we know God despises, and sent his SON to die a horrible, painful, humiliating death on a cross to pay the penalty for our Sin.

Wow…He loves us so much…and so did Jesus.. or He could have called for legions of angels to get him off that cross and cancel the whole plan. He didn’t.

When guilt is laying across your head and your heart, it is a terrible pain. It is something that is hard to live with. Sometimes we go to God and ask forgiveness, thinking that God is the author of that pain of guilt. However we get to God is good. It is God doing what God does. God takes the things that Satan meant for evil and turns them into something good. A relationship with God is good. It heals you, helps you, erases the sin, it gives you new life, and removes a heart of stone and installs a heart that can love.

The guilt itself, never comes from God. Guilt is one of those things that has Satan’s name written all over it. It is intended to kill, steal and destroy. That is Satan’s goal. Satan thinks that the more guilt he piles on you over your past, then the more likely you are to run and hide from God, or get mad at God, or even kill yourself, because you can’t deal with it anymore. If you die, never having asked Jesus into your life, then you get to spend eternity in a hell that you have no idea is as terrible as it is. Take your worse day ever, compound that 10,000 times…and maybe it would be as bad as hell is…but then add fire, and you can see why Satan would go to extreme lengths to keep you. NOBODY in their right mind would want to spend their eternity with Satan….

So KNOW that when guilt is attacking you, it truly IS an attack from Satan. Only thing to do is ask Jesus for help, then cover yourself in the blood of Christ, which is a covering of protection….Then command that guilt to leave in the name of JESUS. You have the authority as one of God’s Children to demand that. Satan is never more powerful than one of God’s Children. You hold POWER from the Mighty God of the Universe and Beyond., through the Blood and Name of Jesus. There is Power in the blood and Power in the Name of Jesus….Use it…

Set yourself free….Send Guilt packin’ , get up and walk in the ways of God…Get a life! Get Jesus….You are a CHILD OF THE KING OF GLORY!

Blessings to you all,
Prayyior

It’s been quite a week…nowhere near normal (whatever normal is). When you get right down to it…the entire last year has been nowhere near “Normal”. I think of the things that have occurred. We here in Minot have been dealing with evacuation, flooding, disaster, homelessness, financial loss, and a total inability to make most decisions because we are reliant on someone else to make a decision so that we have a chance to make the right decision….Decisions, decisions, decisions…it is enough to make you doubt your ability to figure anything out.

The decisions of others really should have no effect upon our own lives, but inevitably others decisions certainly affect ours.

I remember calling a help line once….it was an emotionally trying time in my life and I remember saying something about the demands being placed on me, and the struggle to go along with those demands or to somehow step out of the situation. The gal on the other end of the phone said….”no adult has the right to tell any other adult what to do.” It may seem to be a small statement, and it may not be, but that day it stuck in my brain like glitter sticks to everything it touches. I found myself reminding myself that I should not be the person telling another adult what to do….but then there are those people in your life that can’t seem to figure out what to do, and when you know the answer it seems important to tell them. The years have passed and I have certainly found many examples that make that statement inaccurate. A person employed is required to do what they are told to do unless it violates the law or causes them to have to compromise their principles.

We all know those people who think they know how to run our lives better than we can run our lives. We should all have a good friend that will tell us when we are messing up whether or not we want to hear it. Friends are way different from acquaintances. Proverbs 27: 9 says the heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. What a friend tells us we can hear but when an acquaintance tells us, we pretty much disregard it. We all “sometimes” listen to advice given whether asked for or not. I always think we should keep our advice for someone else to ourselves unless they ask. But for our friends we have to speak up when we see them heading a wrong direction.

I have been asking lately, of friends and family what they think about future plans. It’s interesting the suggestions they make. Proverbs 15:22 tells us that plans go wrong for lack of advice, Many advisors bring success. A friend of mine tweeted that word a few weeks ago…and it was at that point that I began to invite people into my life by asking for their suggestions. This same friend also tweeted Prov 19:20 which says to get all the advice and instruction you can so you can be wise the rest of your life.

So maybe we should get on the phone and talk to everyone we can talk to about what to do next. Perhaps we should go ask the waitress at the local diner what stock she would advise us to invest in. Or perhaps we should make a Doctor’s appt and ask what kind of flowers we should plant in our flower bed. Or we should perhaps call a plumber and ask about what our house is worth.

I am quite certain that any of these examples would turn into disaster if we listened to them. NOPE…wrong choice. So who do we ask? I think there may be a couple questions we should answer before we ask anyone, anything.

Is this person responsible?…..like…. do they have a real job, and actually go there and work? Does this person live in the real world or are they only interested in video games, or do they think of everything as if it were them against the world? We need to ask ourselves…How does this person make decisions? Does this person have the ability to see 6 steps ahead, or are they the kind of people who go from one step to the next and never see that there is a cliff ahead?

I love those new commercials that are running….It starts out like if you have cable it won’t work and then you get mad and it weaves a trail that takes you from step to step until you end up with an eye patch and people who see you with an eye patch think you are tough and want to know how tough and then you end up in a ditch, in the mud and grunge….so then it says…so get rid of cable and do this….I call it following the trail…or learning how to think…in business they want you to explore the possibilities, and think “outside the box.” Most of us forget to “follow the trail”. We don’t see where a journey will go to. I have a sign on my office wall that says “Go as far as you can see….from there you can see farther.”

Ultimately, listening to others can be your downfall. How many kids, maybe you were one of them, heard their Dad say….You will never be any good. Or when you had an idea that you thought was good, had someone say…”That’s such a stupid idea!” or perhaps they said…”you aren’t smart enough to become ____________.(fill in the blank)

Listening to these things is like installing a game disk in your computer and then trying to pay the monthly bills with it. It will never work…If you want to pay your monthly bills you need the proper program. Install the right one and it can be accomplished.

When someone has the plan for you, it may or may not be the right program so you must determine if it is a program that will do the job or one that will fail or crash the system. Every computer has a delete button. When those wrong programs get installed in your brain and you think you can’t do it, then click delete and install the program from God that says….”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” If we would delete all the programs that have been installed in our brain that are total lies, and reinstall the non-contaminated program, we can reprogram our lives to be effective and successful.

We can practice until we get it right. When I first became a Real Estate Agent, I thought….I don’t know anything about this business…I don’t understand it and why in the world would anyone hire me to do this job? My Brokers, at that time, said…“You have all the training you need.” “You know so much more about this than you think you do“…so out I would go to try and list a house or try and help a buyer find a home…. I thought to myself…I need to do this, because I have to help these people I am called to help and I also need to make a living and there was no paycheck if you didn’t help someone fulfill their plan whether it was buying or selling. I would sit in my car and I would pray….Lord, I don’t know how to do this, but help me pretend to be a Great Real Estate Agent…As a kid I had played pretend, so I was good at it. One day I realized that I was no longer pretending to be a Real Estate Agent….I was the real thing, and I did know the answers, and I did know how this worked, and these people who God had placed in my path were helped by my training and my skill.

So what does all this mean? I think it means that we need to seek advice from wise counselors/friends/professionals, but not from fools. I think it means that even with all that good advice we can still screw up if we haven’t sought and received the advice offered by God which brings true Wisdom and understanding and that same wisdom that removes confusion. I think it means that we have to analyze the words people say to us, so that we don’t believe everything people tell us. We must instead click the “delete” button when the words that people have told us about our inadequacies or inability to do something, or about how lazy or worthless we are, or that WE will never be able to do that, or that what we think is a stupid idea…IS WRONG We have to delete it, and reprogram our minds with truth. When we know Christ as our Savior and Lord, then He will give us the mind of Christ. He says that HE loves us and he would not have died for us if we weren’t loved and OK. We have to KNOW that it was God that designed us the way we are, and it is God who can take all the garbage in our lives now and in days gone by and turn them into something good…. it doesn’t matter how bad it is, or how hopeless it looks. We have to change how we think. We have to recognize the Value we have. We are who we are, have gone through what we needed to go through to become who we are today…..and that is Good!

We have a purpose, and there is a plan, if you are still alive when you read this, God has a plan in store for your life…..Age doesn’t matter….When your work is done, you get to go home….until then, there are lessons to learn, plans to be made, hope to be given, Love to share, Children to speak truth to, Laughter to be experienced and Questions that have definite answers. Yes, we do need to ask for instructions and what we are to do….but the only one who knows the answer is Jesus, and He will reveal it and answer our request when we need the answer. In the meantime….we just follow directions, delete the lies that are told to us, and Know…that God’s Got it!

I can’t end without the scripture from II Chronicles which says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with Wings of Eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

Install that new program…. With God NOTHING is impossible!

Many Blessings to you all
Prayyior