His Intentions

Yesterday as we were worshiping at church the Lord spoke to my heart about His intentions for me. He asked me if I believed that His intentions for me were always good. 

 

As I thought about that I had to think that if I did I wouldn’t fear, I would trust that He is in control and His intentions are good for me so everything is gonna be ok. 

 

Do we sometimes go through things that cause us to question God’s intentions for us? 

 

I know I have, losing my mom, my daughter being born sick, loss of things, betrayal from people I once trusted. You know as we are going through these things we have such a hard time believing God has good intentions for us, it’s when I look back after I have come through those things that I see God’s hand at work. 

 

I made a decision yesterday as everyone was singing about His goodness running after them that I would choose to believe from that moment forward that God has good intentions for me and my family. His plan is good. 

 

No matter what this world hands us we can put our trust in The One who is still in control of our lives.

 

I am blessed.
 
– Lisa Stidham

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Celebrate YOU

Sometimes do we feel guiltier for what we are not more than we feel thankful for what we are?

We see all kinds of ladies doing all kinds of things that maybe aren’t our thing… We allow thoughts to come in about how we should be cooking like her, cleaning like her, her house is perfect, or whatever we see in someone else. 

Today I’d like to remind you to celebrate who YOU are. YOU are created to be and do the things God chose especially for you. 

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14 

So today we will trust that He did a great job making us into the ladies that we are. 

We will rejoice in who we are and praise Him for all He is doing through us and in us. 
 
-Lisa Stidham

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Scattered…

Do things in your life seem to be scattered right now? 
 

Ezekiel 37 tells us about a valley of dry (scattered) bones. That’s all they were until God steps in. We see God asking the prophet a question, “Can these bones live?” The prophet replied, “O Lord God you know!” Then comes the part where the prophet had to put his faith into action. He was told to prophesy to the bones. Then he did as he was told. Then there was a rattling…before the miracle was a rattling. 

 
We all know this story and now I want to share with you what God showed me last night. We all have scattered dreams, things, stuff.  We don’t always give them over to the Lord, sometimes we hold onto our (bones) hoping we can figure out how to put them all back together. God wants us to give it ALL to him. He loves us and wants to help us in our times of need. When we do give it to him there may be a time of rattling before we see anything happening. 
 
Have you ever been driving in your car and something is rattling? Usually, Greg will pull over and find it because he just can’t take the noise of it. We may mistake the rattling as something that is not good when actually it is a lining up of things. God rattled these bones and lined them up before they fell into place. We play a part in this. We must speak to our (bones). We must stop speaking negatively over them. We must start saying what we believe God is saying about them. Do we believe it? Then we must line our mouths with his word and speak before we see anything. Speak over them while they sleep, anoint their car, pray over their pillow, declare the word of the Lord over whatever your situation is and watch our God move. Listening for a rattle. 
 
Our hope is not lost! We serve a might God and He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can think or imagine. 
 
Let’s believe with Him.
 
Lisa Stidham
 
 

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United in Prayer: Day 10

Today, we end our ten days of prayer and fasting. Looking back, we have covered inviting God to move in our lives, to clean our hearts, breaking negative relationships, and repositioning/refocusing our relationships with God, the Word, and Holy Spirit. We have prayed over our homes and families and our church. Today, as we end, let’s focus our prayers on this “new season”.

 
Through these past days, we have chosen to position ourselves to hear from God. We have chosen to trust God ..to ask for more. God can be trusted. He will move to meet us in our new season.
 
2 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
 
Throughout the word we can see those that waited on God, that journeyed into the unknown just to chase after Him. They didn’t know either of what to expect, but one thing they did know was that God is true and He will do what He says. The disciples were waiting indefinitely! They had a set mind–that they were not coming out until God showed up. 
(Acts 1:13)
 
Our prayer focus for today is for that new season approaching. We are praying for the “suddenly” in our lives and the life of the church. (Acts 2) We are crossing the threshold from one season to another. We always know the timing for the season change before we officially see the date on the calendar. For example, from summer to fall the weather begins to cool off with leaves falling and days getting shorter. We can notice it and then before we know it, we are standing in the new season and sometimes we can miss the transition into the new season. There is so much beauty in the transition if we stop to look. We are crossing into a new season and that means transitioning from one to the other and let’s focus our prayer that we don’t miss the beauty of the transition. Once in the new season, let’s move forward trusting God that we walking and moving in His plan for our lives and the life of the church. 
 
In Acts 2:41-47, we see the life of the church for the early believers. What we see here is the life breathed into the church after the day of Pentecost. We see what was breathed into that early church. We see God’s heart. We see believers that participated in the life of the church. 
 
  • 2:41 Salvations
  • 2:42 Community / Prayer Meetings
  • 2:43 God fear and awe / wonders / signs / miracles 
  • 2:44 Unity 
  • 2:45 Giving 
  • 2:46 & 47 Hunger / Meeting Together / Strengthening of One Another 
 
Prayer Focus:
 
God, I pray that we become believers that are caught up in the life of the church. That we step out and are vessels for you and not merely vessels that sit on the pew unchanged and not used. God that we see and feel Your heart for the ministry and that our focus is shifted to hear from heaven. God that we will seek Your will. God that we will see the transition and move into the new season not looking back but choosing to look forward leaving the past behind and having a heart that is chasing after You. That we will be a body collectively praying for the prodigals, to consistently pray and guard and Your presence that we will be whole and complete vessels that You can use. That there will be unity among the body with hearts that give knowing it is not for a “person”, but God, we give to honor You. God, we also pray for encounters with Your presence ..knowing that creates a hunger for more of You. God that we meet together building one another up in unity strengthening each other building Your church and Your name in this city. 
 
– April Price

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United in Prayer: Day 9

As we continue moving outward in our prayer focus, let’s shift to the church.
 
Yes, we are the church, and ministry lies within us. But we should also be just as consistent in praying over our place of gathering. For so many, “the building” is where they know to go if they want God in their life, and for that reason the enemy attacks in ways that the church has trouble ministering to the full intention God has for that place.
The enemy almost like a game plants discord and waits for it to start to grow then feeds it and intends to break the unity within the body. God not only has plans and purposes for us individually in our lives, but He also has plans and purposes for His church. He has always wanted to be with His creation and He wants to use us as living breathing vessels to minister His will and purpose to others. He wants to speak through us and through our ministries to the people we are being called to reach. 
 
Our church, CC, is just one of many places God has chosen to manifest His presence to take a seat among us..to be with us. We as a body need to protect that and we need to water it ..we need to guard the presence..we need to fight for the purpose and plans of God for CC that they return to Him fulfilled accomplishing everything He intended when He first breathed life into a little red brick building next to the school. As we are preparing to enter a new season, I believe the church is crossing a new season as well, but the church will only cross into that season as much as we carry it there. 
 
Today, let’s focus on praying for the ministries of CC. Let’s pray for our pastors, worship leaders, and worship team. Let’s pray for the prayer ministry, children’s ministry, youth ministry, women’s ministry, and men’s ministry as well as connect groups and the jail ministry. Let’s cover CC from head to toe praying that as a body we (ministry/leaders) hide behind the cross, presenting all that Jesus is and nothing of who we are. We present Jesus. We are asking for Holy Spirit leading and guiding. We are asking for the presence of God among us that we will guard and protect His seat among us. 
 
Matthew 18:20 For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My followers) in (into) My name, there I AM in the midst of them. 
 
2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). 
 
God has a plan for CC and I pray we are the body that carries that plan, guarding and tending and protecting, into its intended new season. That the plan God has breathes and lives and grows with no attacks of the enemy being successful because we are the watchmen that are vigilantly standing guard. 
 
    -April Price
 
Prayer Starter:
 
Father, we are asking for your perfect will for our church. We ask not for ourselves but for your purpose to be accomplished in all that CC is and becomes. We know you have a new season for our church, we ask you to guide us into it. Help us carry our weight, help us water that purpose. In Jesus’s name, we rebuke divisions and we ask you, Father, to guard our hearts individually to protect the unity of your church. 

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United in Prayer: Day 8

Yesterday, we shifted our prayer focus moving outwardly praying for our families. Today, let’s continue that outward focus as we pray over our homes and our land.

 
Praying over our homes and land should be a consistent part of our spiritual lives. I like to view it as I do physically knowing that my house needs to be cleaned and there are times that it needs cleaning out. Closets, cabinets, and drawers are too full, so we clean out and sell, or donate, or throw away just to declutter our homes. How much more should we do spiritually?
 
Spiritually things come into our homes by either invitation or attaching itself to other things that are allowed into the home. The enemy likes to stay attached to things, hidden or tucked away refusing to leave and all the while affecting the spiritual atmosphere in your home. Our homes should carry an atmosphere that welcomes the presence of God. A place where our sleep is sweet.
 
Proverbs 3:24 When you lie down, you shall not be afraid; yes, you shall lie down, and your sleep shall be sweet. 
 
We want our homes to be a place that welcomes the presence of God. A place where we have encounters that change our view and or perception of God. 
 
Psalm 84: 1-4; 4 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence; they will be singing Your praises all the day long. 
 
The presence is supposed to be the place where things are birthed. Yes, we can feel and know His presence at church, but how much more in our homes? The true presence of God in our homes will wreck our lives filling our home with a fragrance that can’t be bought and fighting warfare we never knew we were fighting. 
 
Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Highest shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty Whose power no foe can withstand. 
 
That secret place with God develops through your relationship affecting everything around you. The more we stay under His wing, the louder and clearer His voice is in our lives and the farther distant and weaker the voice of the enemy is in our lives. But also true, the farther we walk out from under His wing, the louder and more clear is the voice of the enemy while God’s voice becomes distant.
 
Prayer Starter:
 
Take time today to walk through your home and your property lines. (Speak Psalm 91 over your home) As you walk ask God to show you things that need to be removed anything that the enemy has attached itself to that is attacking your life. Ask God to show you the things you know and also the things you may not even know about. Ask God to reveal anything that would offend His presence in your home. Ask Holy Spirit to breathe through your home cleansing the atmosphere spiritually and physically leaving behind the fragrance of God. 
 
– April Price

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United in Prayer: Day 7

So far, we have been praying inwardly focusing on ourselves and our relationships. Today, we will begin to focus our prayers moving outwardly and to those around us. We will start by praying for those closest to us in our lives and our homes and that is our families. 

I once had someone speak into my life the importance of consistently praying over my family. I was taught that through consistent prayers regardless of what I see, I am praying prayers that are active and living for my family. This ties back to that consistent relationship with the Word of God. The more we sow into that relationship, the more we understand, and the more we can release the Word into our lives and the lives of others. When we speak His Word, we are releasing His words! In response, the Word of God tells us that even the angels move to respond to the voice of the Word. 

Psalm 103:20 Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His Word.

When we speak the Word, angels are on the move to fulfill it. When we speak the Word, we are choosing to release what God says about the situation other than what we see. Speaking the Word is us releases our faith that we are choosing to believe God what God says. 

As a parent, our hearts for our children from the moment they are born is remarkable. We love them, we hope for them, we protect them, we believe the best even when their lives may take a direction we didn’t expect. If our hearts as a parent is just a portion God lets us feel compared to His heart as Father. Can you imagine the love God has for us? He just, like us, has hope and love for us wanting to protect and believe the very best for our lives. 

Let’s take time today to ask God to show us our family through His eyes and His heart. Asking God to show us how to pray for our spouses, and our children. What would He want us to pray over them? 

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. 

Romans 11:29 For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. He never withdraws them when once they are given and He does not change His mind about those to whom He give His grace or in whom He sends His call. 

Isaiah 55:11 So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me voice without producing any effect, useless, but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose and it shall prosper the thing for which I sent it. 

Prayer Starter: 

God, I lift my family up to you realizing that You have a purpose and plan for their lives. God that you have giftings and callings within them that You won’t take back. God that You won’t change Your mind about them. God, You have a purpose for my family and God, I ask You to help me see how to pray for my family through Your heart. I am choosing to pray and speak Your Word, and Your heart over the lives of my family knowing that in that choice, I am releasing angels that are moving in response to Your word. Also, God releasing Your word means that it will not come back without producing. God show me the words to speak. God, I thank You for Your heart, for Your protection, and Your hope for my family. 

  • April Price

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United in Prayer: Day 6

For the past few days, we have been focusing our prayers on the relationships in our lives. Today, let’s focus a little further on the relationship we have with the Holy Spirit.
 
God intended for us to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Jesus shows us this.
 
John 14: 16-17, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart) because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him, for He lives with you constantly and will be in you. 14:26 But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf, He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything that I have told you.
 
The Holy Spirit is a promise; a gift for us and for every generation after us. Acts 2:39 For the promise of the Holy Spirit is to and for you and your children, and to and for all that are far away, even to and for as many as the Lord our God invites and bids to come to Himself. (A gift for all–Acts 10:43-47)
 
If you are reading this and think..okay, I am good with Holy Spirit…hang on we will focus there shortly. If on the other hand, you know that you haven’t been filled with the Holy Spirit having the evidence then let’s stop here for a few minutes.
 
I once sat under teaching that explained that receiving the Holy Spirit and His gifts were as simple as how I would receive a gift from a friend. If a friend was giving me a beautifully wrapped gift and this friend was so happy to give the gift to me, my response would determine how that friend would feel. Now, I could say, yes, I will take the gift and hold my hands out to receive or I could say, well I don’t deserve that gift. There are so many directions, but we usually take the gifts. The Holy Spirit is a beautifully wrapped gift from God that Jesus left us with; yet when we feel that gift, we can back away. If you haven’t received that gift, let me encourage you to hold your hands out and simply say, yes I receive the beautifully wrapped gift from You God. Ask God to completely fill you and keep you ever filled with the Spirit. (Eph. 5:18)
 
Now, for those that say, I am good ..filled with the Holy Spirit……as believers we have the Holy Spirit, but how much does the Holy Spirit have you?
 
Let’s examine our relationship with the Holy Spirit today.
 
Prayer Starter:
 
God, I pray that I live my life being led and guided by the Holy Spirit. I ask that You, Holy Spirit show me where I have pushed Your voice aside. Reveal areas in my life that I have been hesitant to change. Fill me fresh. I need Your Holy Spirit in me to be my guide, comforter, counselor, advocate, helper, intercessor, strengthener, and standby. I need you to pray through me when everything around me is so hard to understand. I need to see my life, and those around me through Your eyes. Holy Spirit I need You in my life…my family ..and my future.
 
   – April Price

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United in Prayer: Day 5

Yesterday, we focused on our relationship with the Word of God, today we are going to focus on our relationship with His presence in our daily lives. God wants to be involved in our lives–God has always desired relationship with His creation. God wants us to know Him through the Word and He also wants us to know Him through His presence, through encounters with Him that continually draw us closer into an intimate relationship with Him. 

God wants so much more for our relationship with Him. More than it to be limited to Sunday and Wednesday encounters. God created us for a relationship, to know Him intimately. The first example we see is with Adam and Eve. God created Adam…and God shared creation with Adam.

Genesis 3:19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every wild beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name.

In verses, 20-25, we continue to see this relationship between God and Adam and when Adam realizes he needed someone to compliment him..God responds by creating a woman to meet that need. The relationship continued with Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:8-11) There was a time, a cool of the day time that God would meet with Adam and Eve. In these verses, we see they knew, and could recognize the sound of God walking in the garden. 

Genesis 3:10 He said, I heard the sound of You walking in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. 

What’s interesting here is God knew of the sin; yet He still came walking to meet them just as normal. God’s presence meets us to keep us going, we can let things push Him away and we can choose to hide, but God still wants to be with us.

Adam and Eve were familiar with the sound of God’s presence entering their day. They had a personal experience with a living daily relationship with God. His presence in our lives is so important for us in understanding who He is and fully experiencing God. These everyday encounters change our perspectives and He becomes more and more real to us.

There have been many times in my relationship with God where His presence just showed up. I learned that God can show up even when I am not expecting Him or seeking His presence. Our day can be normal, then God can invade our normal

Another moment in my life that changed my view of God happened on April 25, 2011. I was having a normal day and out of nowhere, I felt a strong pull to go and pray. I didn’t understand what for or why but I couldn’t shake this desire to just be with God. I just knew I had to pray. In turn, because it was a “normal day”, I pushed this feeling to the side, thinking I would pray later when it was my time to pray. Within just minutes of pushing that feeling aside, it came back. I didn’t understand a lot then, but I did understand that God was leading me. 

I knew that I had to follow this leading. I went outside my house and began to pray. The wind was picking up and the smell of honeysuckle was all around me. I started to pray for my parents. I began to pray deep prayers asking God to go before them, to protect them, to honor the parents that gave me my childhood. I reminded God of who they were and who they were to me and to Him. I asked God to keep them safe. This deep prayer went on for a while, then as soon as it came it left, and I continued about my “normal day” not knowing what would come only two days later on April 27th, and I would lose both of my parents to the tornado. It would even be a few more days later before I realized the praying moment I had just two days before.

That day, I saw another layer to God and that is that He is the God involved in our lives that He not only holds us but our families and everything connected to our hearts. That day, April 25th, was a normal day for me with God interrupting it because of our relationship I could sense His presence and because of that, I know that God was ahead of April 27th. Because of that day, every spring when I smell honeysuckle, I am reminded of the God who goes before us. We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we can have a relationship with the God who holds tomorrow. 

Prayer Starter: 

I want a relationship with God with not only Your Word but also with Your presence. God interrupt my normal day. Make Your presence known to me. I open my heart, my ears to hear that I will be sensitive and responsive to hearing Your voice, your leading in my life to follow when I understand Your ways, but also God when I don’t understand Your ways. I am choosing to look for You, to become familiar with the sound of You walking in my life. 

  • April Price

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United in Prayer: Day 4

Yesterday, we began to focus on relationships in our lives shedding buried pain and hurt. Today, staying focused on relationships, let’s evaluate our relationship with the Word.

The Word of God is God’s letter to us. The Word is what God left for us as our inheritance to fully know who He is and His extreme love for us. The Word is God, and we can have an active, living, breathing relationship with it.

John 1:1 In the beginning before all time was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.

Hebrews 4:12 For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power making it active, operative, energizing, and effective, it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and the immortal spirit, and of joints and marrow of the deepest parts of our nature, exposing, and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

So many of us can struggle to develop a consistent relationship with the Word. I know, I was one of those people. It’s easier to just do a devotion, or wait until Sunday to hear, but God intended for us to have a consistent relationship with the Word. He shows us Himself through it; we see who we are through Him; we see our inheritance as a child of God.

When I first began my relationship with the Word, I set aside time to read, but I struggled. First, I struggled just staying awake long enough, then I struggled to understand, and I also struggled because I didn’t see the Word like so many others in my life who saw the Word applicable to their lives. I wanted that, but growing up I saw the Word as a story, and God as a person I would encounter when I got to heaven, so the Word was stories to me.

I began to pray a prayer that I pray today and I haven’t changed that prayer. Before I begin reading the Word, I ask God to show me what I need to see and let me hear what I need to hear that I want to see His Word alive in me. The Word is alive so I choose to breathe in that breath of life from the Word.

As I began praying that prayer, I would keep a notebook nearby to write down anything that I would understand. One day, I was reading about the life of David. During that time, I had taken a break to make a pan of cornbread to go with supper for the night. I go back to reading and began to get so interested in what I was reading and at some point, the oven timer went off and I continued to read and couldn’t find a place to stop, because I didn’t want to stop. For the first time the Word was not a story! I was reading the life of David and was seeing my life through it.

Eventually, I had to stop and go get the cornbread out of the oven. I ran and pulled the cornbread out then got back to reading and writing. As I began to write, it dawned on me that in my hurry to just get the cornbread out so I could get back to reading again, I realized I didn’t use any oven mitts to grab the skillet. I had grabbed with my bare hands. I looked at my hands and not even burned or anything. That day, my life and my relationship with God and His Word changed. The Word became alive to me and I never read the Word with a struggle again.

God wants us to find Him in His Word. There are moments in the finding; He wants to be found.

Jeremiah 29:13-14 Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me as a vital necessity and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you…

Prayer Starter

God invade our time in the Word. We choose to open our eyes to see, and our ears to hear what You show us through the Word. We confess the Word is alive God, it is your breath into our lives. So, God we open the Word not only to read but God to breathe Your breath into us. God open the Word to us that we will read and see and understand like never before that there will be supernatural moments of finding You.
 
-April Price

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