Victory Word Church (VWC) International- Tokyo, Japan
Luke 4:14
Jesus Begins His Galilean Ministry
14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.
Luke 11:13
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
It is a great thing to pray for revival for your area. Start by praying for revival in your church
Visited a prayer meeting of men from different nations in the US this week. It was fun to get together and pray with Spirit-filled believers. You could see their passion as they prayed fervently in tongues and we interceded for the United States, Kenya, and Japan. It was a good time.
At the end of the prayer time one older guy said that he had a word from the Holy Spirit. He talked about how the United States was under the judgment of God and in economic turmoil because of judgment for four reasons. He mentioned it was judgment for allowing abortions, allowing homosexuals to push their immoral agenda and two other reasons which I have forgotten. Frankly, I was disappointed to hear his points.
One of the guys in the group told him to pray and intercede for the nation for those areas rather than just talk about it. He did.
However, we must remember that we have earthquakes, wars, famine, physical abuse, and all sorts of evil happening on the earth. Economic turmoil is not a good sign of the judgment of God. If that is the logic can we say Saudi Arabia is healthy because they have a healthy economy? Absolutely not.
God will judge all nations but God is not evil. We are now in a time where we are in control of the earth and we have to fight with the enemy so that it doesn’t go towards darkness. The enemy is trying to take that authority.
We currently have authority over the earth with the enemy fighting to kill steal and destroy us. King Jesus is coming back soon and everything will be changed. The Holy Spirit confirmed that in my readying of 1 Corinthians this AM.
1 Cor 15:24
24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
NKJV
Evening and morning and at noon I will pray.
(Ps 55:17 NKJV)
D.L. Moody: “If you have so much business to attend to that you have no time to pray, depend upon it, you have more business on hand than God ever intended you should have.”
Jill Briscoe: “The management of time is the management of self; therefore, if you manage time with God, He will begin to manage you.”
Helmut Thielicke: “The Word of God is demanding. It demands a stretch of time in our day—even though it be a very modest one—in which He is our only companion…God will not put up with being fobbed off with prayers in telegram style and cut short like a troublesome visitor for whom we open the door just a crack to get rid of him as quickly as possible.”
A.W. Tozer: “Now, as always, God discloses Himself to babes and hides himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without a doubt God will quickly respond.”
Tell yourself how you feel.
As believers, the world we live in is becoming darker and darker. You are what you think.
Spend a lot of time in movies, music, and internet that is filled with foul language, sexual immorality, and violence and that is what you become.
Let’s focus on the thinking his Kingdom which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
It is amazing how small you feel when you fly as you look at our Awesome God Yahweh’s creation. It is beautiful.
Whenever you have issues at the home, office or school getting up 30,000 feet tends to help you remember how small those problems really are.
Is to live life without purpose.
This is excellent research and write up by George Barna. Six Reasons Why Young People Leave The Church.
The pastor needs to be encouraging his church to go deeper with God. Too many churches are distracted by fund raising and programs. We need to focus on getting on our face before God.
God is so deep and awesome going to a great church is an adventure!
Summary of the article is
Reason #1 – Churches seem overprotective.
A few of the defining characteristics of today’s teens and young adults are their unprecedented access to ideas and worldviews as well as their prodigious consumption of popular culture. As Christians, they express the desire for their faith in Christ to connect to the world they live in. However, much of their experience of Christianity feels stifling, fear-based and risk-averse. One-quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds said “Christians demonize everything outside of the church” (23% indicated this “completely” or “mostly” describes their experience). Other perceptions in this category include “church ignoring the problems of the real world” (22%) and “my church is too concerned that movies, music, and video games are harmful” (18%).
Reason #2 – Teens’ and twentysomethings’ experience of Christianity is shallow.
A second reason that young people depart church as young adults is that something is lacking in their experience of church. One-third said “church is boring” (31%). One-quarter of these young adults said that “faith is not relevant to my career or interests” (24%) or that “the Bible is not taught clearly or often enough” (23%). Sadly, one-fifth of these young adults who attended a church as a teenager said that “God seems missing from my experience of church” (20%).
Reason #3 – Churches come across as antagonistic to science.
One of the reasons young adults feel disconnected from church or from faith is the tension they feel between Christianity and science. The most common of the perceptions in this arena is “Christians are too confident they know all the answers” (35%). Three out of ten young adults with a Christian background feel that “churches are out of step with the scientific world we live in” (29%). Another one-quarter embrace the perception that “Christianity is anti-science” (25%). And nearly the same proportion (23%) said they have “been turned off by the creation-versus-evolution debate.” Furthermore, the research shows that many science-minded young Christians are struggling to find ways of staying faithful to their beliefs and to their professional calling in science-related industries.
Reason #4 – Young Christians’ church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental.
With unfettered access to digital pornography and immersed in a culture that values hyper-sexuality over wholeness, teen and twentysometing Christians are struggling with how to live meaningful lives in terms of sex and sexuality. One of the significant tensions for many young believers is how to live up to the church’s expectations of chastity and sexual purity in this culture, especially as the age of first marriage is now commonly delayed to the late twenties. Research indicates that most young Christians are as sexually active as their non-Christian peers, even though they are more conservative in their attitudes about sexuality. One-sixth of young Christians (17%) said they “have made mistakes and feel judged in church because of them.” The issue of sexuality is particularly salient among 18- to 29-year-old Catholics, among whom two out of five (40%) said the church’s “teachings on sexuality and birth control are out of date.”
Reason #5 – They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity.
Younger Americans have been shaped by a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance. Today’s youth and young adults also are the most eclectic generation in American history in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, technological tools and sources of authority. Most young adults want to find areas of common ground with each other, sometimes even if that means glossing over real differences. Three out of ten young Christians (29%) said “churches are afraid of the beliefs of other faiths” and an identical proportion felt they are “forced to choose between my faith and my friends.” One-fifth of young adults with a Christian background said “church is like a country club, only for insiders” (22%).
Reason #6 – The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt.
Young adults with Christian experience say the church is not a place that allows them to express doubts. They do not feel safe admitting that sometimes Christianity does not make sense. In addition, many feel that the church’s response to doubt is trivial. Some of the perceptions in this regard include not being able “to ask my most pressing life questions in church” (36%) and having “significant intellectual doubts about my faith” (23%). In a related theme of how churches struggle to help young adults who feel marginalized, about one out of every six young adults with a Christian background said their faith “does not help with depression or other emotional problems” they experience (18%).
Circumstances do. Rise above them by prayer