Category: Prayer

Praying for A_____ is Difficult, so….

Post author By David Burnet
Post date June 3, 2021
1 Comment on Praying for A_____ is Difficult, so….

This is from my Prayer Journal of today. I was having difficulty praying well for someone I know who needs our Lord’s help. And I was having difficulties, probably because a big part of me is aggravated. That’s not pretty, but it’s the truth. So here is what I wrote; I’ll call this person A______.

I find praying for A______ to be difficult.

So I look to Father, who already had a plan before the beginning, and who looks down on A_______ with immense love.

Then I look to Jesus, who as always is ready to heal.

Then I ask Holy Spirit to tell me how to pray for her. I am to pray with Father’s love and planning for good; pray with Jesus, who is always ready to heal and make whole. And I pray as Holy Spirit is leading me, now.

A______ has been restored and has received complete sozo. So this is how I pray.

Pray according to the nature of each Member of the Trinity, my deepest community and my most real family – who teaches me, mercifully, about how to have more and better faith.

And forgiveness, my ability to forgive and to have forgiven, was included as a free extra – pure grace!

The Trinity is my real family of faith. What a gift!

Conversation with God Discipleship Hearing God Jesus's Communication Prayer

The Voice of Jesus Plays “Hide & Seek”

Post author By David Burnet
Post date May 24, 2021
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You hear the voice of Jesus. You may not always recognize that it’s his voice. Part of the maturing process is learning to hear his voice in more ways – and recognizing that it is his voice you are hearing. That may sound a bit odd. Let me explain.

Jesus says that his sheep hear his voice. That’s us: we hear him.

The paradox is that he speaks in many ways.

And we hear his voice. And we don’t always recognize that it is Jesus who is speaking to us. And there’s more.

The more we learn to hear his voice in more ways, the more often we know we are hearing him.

A result is that we recognize we are hearing Jesus more, and we discover he is already speaking to us in more ways and more often than we had previously realized.

We are learning to recognize our Appointed Lessons.

There’s more.

He continues to surprise us, as we learn not only to hear him, but to recognize that it is him talking to us – and talking to us in more and different ways.

It’s almost like a game: There’s more.

“Hide and Go Seek” – is Jesus playing with us this way? Hiding and challenging us to find him?

Yes!!

Jesus speaks to us in a stream of surprises. His answers often surprise us. His methods of speaking and answering us often surprise us.

We are being drawn in to look and listen in more and more ways, more and more deeply. And our relationship with God is always deepening.

Always becoming…something more.

Getting Help Healing Holy Spirit Jesus Prayer Prayer, Intercession, Angels,

Jesus Teaches How to Pray

Post author By David Burnet
Post date April 6, 2021
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Jesus Teaches us – Intimately and Personally

Jesus will teach you how to pray – if you ask and also pay close attention to whatever it is you experience next. I’m still learning a lot, and he always surprises me. Here’s a recent example.

A good friend was lighting a heater, there was an explosion, and his eyes hurt so much he could not open them. So he went to the hospital emergency room.

I asked Jesus how to pray for him. I saw a thick white line out in front of my eyes; I was seeing through the face of the person who was hurt. Normally, I’d ignore such a strange thing to see, continuing to ask for an answer and looking for one. Which would mean I would miss the answer Jesus had already given.

I’ve learned that the first thing I experience after asking is literally the answer as to how I am to pray. So I prayed by seeing that thick white line in front of my eyes, as I identified as though being the person who was hurt.

This made no sense to me. Even more than usual, this made no sense to me. But I’ve been learning that what I experience first, after asking Jesus how to pray for someone or something – is my answer, and this is literally what I am to do.

This morning the line was far thinner. And I continue to pray this way, seeing that white line, no longer thick, as if through the eyes of my friend who had been hurt. Jesus is healing him.

I also realize that even if I am mistaken in how I am seeing what Jesus says about how to pray, when I pray as I am shown, I am praying with faith.

And I realized my friend is getting better, and I knew he would be okay. And I am to continue to pray this way, enforcing the answer to my question about how to pray in this situation, for this person, until the answer is completely enforced and his healing is complete.

Jesus will also teach me when I’m done, if I am attentive to this issue. He sends Holy Spirit to give me what I need.

And for most of my life I’ve missed the answers he’s given, I suspect, because his answers surprise me so much, seem so unusual and unexpected. And because I had not thought to ask how I should pray; I presumed I knew how to intercede – without asking Jesus and paying close attention to what he says to me through Holy Spirit.

I am slow…but I am learning.

Discipleship Intercession Key Article Kingdom of God Ministry Prayer

Ministry Size & Fame

Public Ministry is Like Being on a Stage

Most of us are called to minister in our sphere of influence. There is a deep satisfaction to ministering where we are to people we can touch with the Kingdom of God.

This is a safe place to practice, learn, and minister in. Your ego will be tempted far less than in some other spheres. It’s a good idea to start where you are, and to follow Holy Spirit as in Galatians 5. The Fruit is good!

I notice that when I minister in my sphere of influence, Holy Spirit often noticeably helps. I feel safe, secure, helpful. Inspired. Temptations of my ego and flesh are minimal. Holy Spirit moves.

Please notice for yourself what it is like for you when you minister in your sphere of influence.

Then there is the Normal Christian Pattern of Ministry Growth. That Jesus taught, his disciples followed, and ministry and church growth – Kingdom of God spreading – was rapid and overcame the Roman Empire. (Until Constantine when they started using expensive buildings and stopped Christians from ministering and turned most of them into passive participants. That’s another story.)

Jesus sent disciples out in pairs. See Mathew 10 & Luke 10. Go. Go minister. Jesus even gives directions on how to do this without money or buildings. Sent people go out in pairs. Take little with them. Depend on resources to live from where they stay, in houses of peace. Ministering to the people who know and are in contact with a house of peace is easy. As healing happens, as people are set free, you become busy.

Be not burdened with seeking fame, money, or expensive buildings that eat up resources for ministry. Follow the pattern in the Gospels. Share the Good News of the Kingdom. Heal the sick. Free the bound. Some people will be eager to learn more: make disciples, of all sorts of people. Disciples that meet together are the start of an ecclesia – often translated as church.

(A church is a gathering of believers, not an expensive building.)

Doing these things will cause increasing numbers of people being ministered to, healed and set free. You will become busy as word gets out – the need is great and there are many in great need. Disciples who plant ecclesias will multiply, and multiply, and the numbers can become amazing before too long.

This is a simple and powerful pattern that Jesus demonstrated, taught, and that his Disciples followed. This pattern still works today.

A few are called – a few – to larger and more public ministry. These are few, and the traps and dangers are many: various temptations. Big expenses and big egos are rampant. Selling the current culture of entertainment works, and becomes part of ministries – too often without Holy Spirit. Tricks of theater can become ineffective substitutes for Holy Spirit, as can enlarged egos of people who seek fame.

Theater skills and lessons can be used well in ministry. Some do this on a full time basis, some part of the time. Too many are distracted by worldly fame and worldly methods – this is not a path that is safe or good for everyone! Take care. Follow Holy Spirit, always; and you will be doing well. For Jesus sends us Holy Spirit for such reasons as these.

The most successful ministers and ministries have intercessors – before, during and after ministry. (This is true whether ministry be large or small; is part of the the Normal Pattern of Ministry Growth that Jesus gave us. Jesus sent people out in pairs. One prays while the other ministers, I was taught early on – and this works amazingly well.)

Teams of intercessors leads to more effective and powerful ministries.

Best is to always minister where God calls you to minister. If you are not clear, ask for more of Holy Spirit. Then ask for where you are to minister. Usually you will not be given a grand plan or a grand assignment. Usually you will be given a single step to follow and do, where you will learn what you need for future next steps.

You will make mistakes and run into obstacles. Holy Spirit will show you what’s next, as you continue to learn. We love our successes and learn most from our failures. After five or six good failures, your ministry will likely be taking off.

You may become famous or have acclaim. If this is for the glory of God, you and your ego and flesh may be safe from temptation.

Seek first the praise of God.

Getting Help Key Article Kingdom of God Miracles Prayer

Ask for Kingdom Rule

The Kingdom of God is where everything works the way it did in Paradise, Eden. God rules, with love and gives hope, always.

So when you have a problem or difficulty, Ask for the Kingdom of God to rule in that part of your life. (Or even better – all of your life!)

Expect good miracles.

Expect God’s rule to replace that of Satan’s.

So simple. Easy. Effective!

Calling Conversation with God Create Holy Spirit Key Article Lessons Miracles Prayer Presence of God The Word

Call and Response

Call and response has a long tradition as a pattern of preaching or speaking in historically black churches. The preacher calls, pauses, and the congregation responds.

It’s more of a two-way conversation than is being preached at, which none of us like very much.

There is similar a pattern in creating, healing, calming a storm, moving your mountain, or commanding a fig tree. Or even having a two-way conversation with God.

This is hard to put into words, and most of us are not used to doing this, noticing or paying attention to the elements of this – so please bear with me and seek and ask to understand – this has been a missing element for too many of us for too long. Including me. It’s taken me years to notice and appreciate this pattern, how widespread this pattern is, and how wonderfully useful it is.

There are elements to this pattern. The hovering of Holy Spirit over what is yet undone or uncreated. The speaking of the Word. Pausing, maybe like a Selah, pausing in the Presence of God. Having called forth a response, we pause for and give room and time for a response, and we pay attention with our spirit in Holy Spirit, and listen or receive.

A conversation with God is a two-way communication. You take turns expressing something or asking something, pausing and then receiving or giving a deep response. And you take turns.

Talking to your mountain, storm, fig tree, healing or other situation is the same. You say something, first in your spirit, and in connection with Holy Spirit, in this case a command. And you pause, listen, calling forth, and inviting and allowing for a response from the deep.

It is not just you talking. Not in a conversation with God, which would be rude and ineffective if you never listened. The same with talking to nature, commanding or calling – there is a response.

Call and response. That is the pattern. Call with your spirit first, in contact with and in harmony with Holy Spirit. Speak, Pause, and actively receive your response.

Too often we broadcast in our communication, but never Selah, pause in the Presence of God. We do not pause and wait for the response in our spirit, which happens before we notice a response in the world.

Response. From God. From our mountain, storm, fig tree, or healing a Centurion’s son at a distance.

And sometimes not directly, do we call or command. But sometimes we do it implicitly. “Stretch forth thy hand”, (commanding what a disabled person could not previously do). Not always commanding healing directly.

Call and response. For many of us, and for me, this has too often been a missing element, and thus a missing key.

Call and elicit, ask for and wait for the response you sense in your spirit, done with Holy Spirit, and there you sense a response before a physical response happens.

All this happens first in your spirit, in harmony with Holy Spirit. Then in the world – response happens.

Miracles happen when faith comes into contact with the Anointing or the anointed. Similarly, call and response for healing or correcting something in nature happens when the Holy Spirit hovers, the Word is spoken, and then there is a pause as we allow space and time for a response.

Whether in creating, healing, commanding nature. It is all the same pattern.

Done with Holy Spirit.

We experience the Anointing as Holy Spirit for a purpose.

Creation of the universe was through the spoken Word of God. With, and after the Spirit was hovering over the deep.

You may notice that you can know in your spirit, with Holy Spirit, when you’ve made contact. You may know you’ve made contact, and a response is in process. Other times, you may not have made contact in your spirit with Holy Spirit with whoever or whatever you are calling to. At least this has been my experience with this. And you may not know why. This is a good time to ask Jesus how to speak or pray. And notice what comes to your spirit and mind next, arriving and in harmony with the Spirit of Holiness.

Call and respond. For many of us, it’s more than a conversation between a preacher and congregation. It’s been a missing element too often in creating, correcting, or healing.

Call. And notice whether you are in contact, and pause for and allow the response. Starting with your spirit, with the Spirit of Holiness, speak a word in harmony with or in Christ Jesus, the Word; pause and allow for a response.

You may find you know what to do next. Including giving thanks and rejoicing!

Create Discipleship Faith Getting Help Hearing God Holy Spirit Intercession Joy Prayer Purpose

Intention & Intuition

Intuition reveals what or how, intention helps you accomplish your target

Here’s an interesting and fun way to look at Intention & Intuition.

From the point of view of how we humans experience things, intention and intuition are the same thing, but going in different directions. Let me explain. And try to put this into words.

Especially when experienced as the Still Small Voice of God, we experience deep intuition as something that comes into us from outside. We receive it on the inside, but it doesn’t really come from us.

We experience intention as something inside us with which we want to use to change the world outside of us.

Intuition comes from outside of us into the deep center of us, often transforming us. Intention goes out through our deep center into the world outside of us, changing the world.

(I’m trying to put into words things that are far deeper than words. Not everyone will describe these experiences the same way.)

Intuition is heard or experienced through our Still Center, a place of stillness that feels like the very center of our being. This is where we experience the Small Still Voice of God. We experience intuition as coming from outside of us into the inside.

Intention is felt or experienced through our Still Center, as something that is already inside of us and with which we intend to affect the universe outside of us. We experience intention ad coming from the inside of us and going out into the world.

It’s an odd and unusual thought, but intuition and intention have far more in common than has been recognized. They might even be the same thing, just coming from and going to opposite directions.

In terms of how humans experience two-way conversation with God, intuition is vital for hearing from God. Praying in the Spirit may be related to intention. I have often prayed with intention, especially after hearing from God.

Hearing from God and praying to God seems very much related to intuition and intention, at least sometimes.

Authority Faith Intercession Prayer

Command! – Never Negotiate with Evil

Post author By David Burnet
Post date December 12, 2020
1 Comment on Command! – Never Negotiate with Evil

Consider: What are We Doing? – Herb Otter, Jr.

It is said history repeats itself. Well, sorta…. Events and periods of time occur that are unique so they are given a name so we can tell one from the other. However, although different, there are patterns that are repeated over and over again. It generally is good versus evil, good guy versus bad guy.

As I write, we are truly in a unique period of time. So much is happening to us, to our area, to our country and to our world. Any period of time can be defined that way; but it appears that at this moment we are facing some of the biggest issues we have ever faced. In a historical as well as biblical sense, this is a major time of GOOD vs EVIL.

During an earlier time, the world faced a threat of world domination by Japanese as well as German empires. Most of us were not around and only know there was a war in the mid-20^th century. However, at the time experts agreed that the allies, as the good guys were called, could not win the war against the greatest armies of that period. For a time, America was unprotected after Pearl Harbor; Australia considered moving its relatively small population to the south in order to protect them from the expected Japanese assault; Britain barely survived an invasion from Germany. Germany and Japan were printing money in English for the expected takeover of the USA. Could it have happened regardless of the formidable outback, the huge determined American continent and the British nerve? Maybe.

Even if they couldn’t beat us many believe – which even was reflected in slogans of the time – that to win the war or at least stop the tyranny it would take until the late 1940s or even beyond. That’s almost a decade. As it happened, from Pearl Harbor until the German surrender was less than 3 and a half years. We didn’t have a lot to begin with and it that relatively short period of time defeated one of the greatest fighting forces ever assembled, with Japan surrendering soon thereafter.

In 1776, we were at war as a new nation against the mightiest of empires known to man. We definitely at that time had no chance of winning ….. but we did.

In 1989 the Berlin wall came down without a shot fired. Talk about impossible.

Christians… believers… all know that Good is stronger than evil. But many times evil wins.

What happened that was different in the above. People of prayer, and especially those who believe what GOD has promised. And the Bible has thousands of promises.

In the revolutionary war, the clergy lead the charge of freedom; Washington himself was continually on his knees and the new leaders put their lives on the line betting a country could be formed based on the LOVE OF GOD. It proved true.

In world war II, the churches were more prominent than they are currently and people knew the dangers. They prayed. There were no ships… a man prayed .. ships were built quickly. Patton prayed, and the weather was with him to win a battle. People prayed, and the biggest and riskiest invasion of France was successful.

People from many countries prayed, and the walls of Germany were torn down by regular people.

In the natural; in logical thinking none of this was possible. So prayers of many were provided, but not just wishing prayers. Jesus said for us… not HIM… to speak to the mountain. Don’t talk about the mountain, don’t negotiate with the mountain. Command the mountain to go. We personally can’t pick up that mountain, but if it’s in our way… whatever that “mountain” is… it must go if we have the FAITH OF GOD and accept that authority.

That means what we see or what we reason to be is not the truth. The truth is our desired outcome. We speak to the mountain – and we do not let the mountain speak to us and tell us what is to be!

The early Americans wanted freedom only GOD could provide. Extended war and failure was not an option for the events of the 40’s. Tyranny under the Iron Curtain was not GOD’S best.

The mountains moved.

The world currently is in crisis. It’s historical, and it’s biblical. Many people are praying. As before, we are to move the mountains. We are not obligated to repeat what experts tell us. We are told to follow this sequence or expect this or that. They tell us hope is way off. WE DO DOT PRAY WHAT WE SEE OR HEAR. We pray what we want to happen … period. God’s way is better than ours. There is no compromise; we don’t negotiate. Like Jesus, we don’t negotiate with evil – ever! We believe and set the process up for the impossible surprises of GOD. We bind the evil; we curse the disease; we pray for heaven to come down to earth. We don’t need a flowchart; we want to move things out and bring in the good in the eternal NOW of GOD.

Don’t be like Pharaoh who when asked when to get rid of the Frogs, he said tomorrow. What’s wrong with today?

Guest Contributor: Herb Otter, Jr.

Emotional Pain Freedom Healing Holy Spirit Love Ministry Prayer

Heal Memories with Agape Love

Post author By David Burnet
Post date December 3, 2020
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Jesus Motivates Us to Move to a Higher AGAPE Love Walk ... — Jesus motivates us to move to a higher LOVE walk – Agapegeek.com

You can heal old memories of bad things that happened to you & old memories of when you reacted badly by applying Agape love. Let me explain….

First, a brief & quick reminder, from 1 Corinthians 13:

⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NKJV

So here’s how I do it, I expect this can work well for you, too. (I’d love to hear about your experience with this so I can learn.)

I think of a memory that is painful. First, one where I responded poorly. Then I review 1 Cor. 13:4-7. I see where I reacted without Agape love. I make a new decision, and choose to respond with Agape love, the God, generous kind of love. I choose to respond with Agape qualities in the future. That’s not only a new decision, that’s repentance.

I mentally rehearse or practice having done that. Two or three times if necessary; though once will often be quite enough.

It’s done!

I check to see if my memory of that bad or painful memory is different or better. It usually is.

Then I do this again with a different memory, where I may not have reacted badly, but where I still did not respond with Agape love. I make a new and better decision, with the help of Jesus (which I ask for). A decision to respond with Agape love. Generously. Lovingly. The God-kind of love.

Afterwards, I again check the old memory, am I doing better now when I remember it?

Usually my own response to an event makes a huge difference in how painful the memory is or isn’t.

If I have trouble succeeding with this, I again ask Jesus, who is always near, always at hand (like his Kingdom) – within reaching distance – to help. And I ask for and receive by faith, more of Holy Spirit. I may not feel anything, but I notice I respond differently and can choose Agape love more easily and more deeply.

Let me know how you do with this, I’d love to know!

Thank you!

-David, David@DavidBurnet.com

P.S. Teach this to someone else, maybe by walking them through it. Jesus and the Jesus kind of love can minister to them, too!

Faith Glory Holy Spirit Kingdom of God Lessons Prayer Spiritual Warfare

Running My Race

Running my race. Sometimes I do well; too often I do not.

I have recently, again and again, fallen short of the Glory of God.

I am a sinner.

I have hurt others, and I have been hurt by Christians I look up to and admire. And I have used that as an excuse to sin even more.

How did all this happen, I wonder. Maybe you wonder, too. Well, it was all too easy.

A lot of it happened through social media. Through the news. And most terribly – in my own heart.

Friends I admire and look up to would send me jokes about democrats, and I would laugh – some of them were really funny. And some of these were not just funny, some were also quite nasty.

Other friends would send me descriptions of religious republicans and the twisted things some of them are encouraging, and I would agree.

Friends from different parties would send me news articles. Too often full of truths that make my heart recoil. And too often — one sided or twisted versions of events. And I would agree for a while, before I saw more broadly and inclusively.

Friends with high ideals and good reasons sending me twisted, one sided, soul shrinking propaganda. And I would read and agree for a while. Until….

Everybody has good reasons. Too often amplified beyond reason – the kind of thing that gives opportunity to unclean spirits. Too often twisted, to make a point. Too often so one-sided as to be sinful in themselves, yet very convincing.

And here I am, a well meaning feckless chameleon; first agreeing with this and seeing it clearly. Then agreeing with that, and seeing that clearly. Boy, talk about being double-minded. I’m an expert. A friend tells me the Greek literally means two-minded, a person with two minds – actually two souls.

I have lost all sense of proportion and of the larger picture: I am bound by love, previous repentance, and duty to a King and Kingdom that is at hand: Immanuel and his Kingdom. How often do I forget the Good News of the Kingdom? Too often.

I get caught up being for this or for that; or against this and against that. As though these were my first allegiance. I forget Whose I am.

I have sinned. Repeatedly. Forgetting Whose I am, forgetting the Kingdom and Immanuel. My first allegiance. I am ashamed.

So I again repent and ask for more of Holy Spirit. For help to live not for what I eat or drink but for righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Putting the Kingdom first.

Lord, help me be a beneficial influence in the culture that surrounds me, influence, share and spread the Kingdom of God. And to do this first, before and more strongly and with more skill, love and determination – than any good thing I do in well intentioned and wordly politics. Help me follow Holy Spirit so well and so much that I am full of Fruit of the Spirit. Love, self-control, kindness, patience…and control my tongue.

The Untamable Tongue
3 My brethren, ^(A)let not many of you become teachers, ^(B)knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. ²For ^(C)we all stumble in many things. ^(D)If anyone does not stumble in word, ^(E)he is a^[a]perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. ^3 [b]Indeed, ^(F)we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. ⁴Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.⁵Even so ^(G)the tongue is a little member and ^(H)boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! ⁶And ^(I)the tongue is a fire, a world of ^[c]iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it ^(J)defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of ^[d]nature; and it is set on fire by ^[e]hell. ⁷For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. ⁸But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, ^(K)full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made ^(L)in the ^[f]similitude of God. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹²Can a ^(M)fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? ^[g]Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Heavenly Verses Demonic Wisdom
^13 (N)Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have ^(O)bitter envy and ^[h]self-seeking in your hearts, ^(P)do not boast and lie against the truth. ^15 (Q)This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ¹⁶For ^(R)where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. ¹⁷But ^(S)the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, ^(T)without partiality ^(U)and without hypocrisy. ^18 (V)Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+3&version=NRSV