When God Moves

Do you ever get discouraged praying for your loved ones? It can be so hard to watch them living outside of God's will for our lives, and trying not to overstep, or be preachy or judgmental when we see things they don't even recognize as sin in their lives. If we try to say anything, it is often met with hostility, or hurt feelings. So, what do we do? We keep praying, and we keep loving, and when we have to say something, we make sure it is 100% biblical, and not our opinion or pride. Then, we pray some more, and we stand back so that our imposing presence is not hindering the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. 

I know for a fact, if we are praying, God is working. 

Here is my brother's story. I and my family have been praying for this day for more than 20 years. He wrote this as his facebook status last week. I cannot read it, even now, without tears of joy splashing down my face. 

When God Moves

By Robert H. Gwinn

When God moves in your life, it changes you. The experience is real. It is a physical reality. If you are asking if there is a God based on what you can see and feel, I will tell you yes. I have both seen and felt him. I wasn't seeking him or expecting him, nor was I deserving of his intervention. My family had become increasingly aware of darkness in our lives. A "PRESENCE" had been felt in our home. My son had been telling us that dark things were in our home, lingering close to me, and disturbing his dreams at night. At first I played it off as a child's fantasy, a nightmare, or the illusion one sees when shadows interact with a shirt hanging on the back of a chair, and creates the illusion of someone sitting in the corner of your darkened room. It was the way he said it, that made us consider the possibility of something deeper, or more real, at least to his mind. 

The night it happened, he was at Grandma's house. I wasn't feeling very well, and had decided to sleep in his room, so I wouldn't disturb my wife. Not that she would miss me; I had taken to sleeping in the boy’s room or in my reclining chair most nights anyway, and had spent very few nights in our bed in the last several years. My wife and I hadn't really been connecting and apathy had settled into our relationship. That night she went into our (her) room and I had gone to bed with the dog and cats. 

Soon, I was in what would have seemed like a deep sleep and I found myself dreaming of an empty movie theater. There were no employees to be found and it was just my wife and I out for a quiet evening. She took a seat in the lobby in a row of plastic molded chairs bolted together and anchored to the floor. After several minutes I went to search for someone to sell us a ticket or provide us with concessions from the snack counter but the place was empty. I peeked through the space between the closed doors of one of the screening rooms, and could see a flicker of light, but the doors where just a facade and were quite immovable. A bit let down, I returned to the theater lobby to collect my wife and go home. There was a woman sitting beside my wife. She was an attractive black woman with a short Afro hair style and wearing a fuzzy white sweater, angora I think, that fit her loosely around the neck. She had her arm around my wife's shoulder. The woman smiled up at me but said nothing to me. My wife was crying quietly. "Let's just go." I said "You are obviously not having a good night, so let's just go home." Still without saying anything to me, my wife got up and followed me out to the car. As we left I glanced back at the black woman who was still smiling pleasantly at me as we left the building. The car was just outside the door, waiting by the curb and I opened the door and let my wife in. I walked around the car and opened the door, but couldn't sit because for some reason that wasn't clear at the time, my wife was taking up far more of the car than reality would dictate. "Scoot over." I grumbled. She didn't move. "Move" I said more forcefully. At this point I reached in and began to absurdly slap my wife on top of the head, fanning my hand rapidly, not in a particularly violent fashion, but the sort of short slapping motion you might associate with calling your dog to sit on your lap. 

It was all very clear to me, but I was aware that I was in a state of hyper-consciousness, watching this odd play from inside my own head. "What am I doing" I asked myself. "This isn't how I treat my wife. She is crying and I am being cruel. Where is all this negative energy coming from?" 

Just then something happened. In the corner of my mind’s eye something stirred, something dark, something mischievous and twisted in the worst possible context. It was as if I had caught a child with its hands in the cookie jar, or possibly like the moment when Toto pulled the curtain away to reveal Professor Marvel playing at being the wizard of Oz. It was exposed and was waiting to see what my reaction would be to it. For a moment I stared at it and it stared right back. 

Then, suddenly, I knew what I was dealing with. This small blackness was the dark thing that had been tormenting my son when I was sleeping. This was the thing dancing in our living room the night he had fallen asleep on the couch and me in my recliner, and he had woke in the night and said he had seen. And then I did something that neither of us expected. I demanded that it leave my home, and I ordered it in the name of Jesus Christ. I felt it shove me, mentally it was going to fight back, and it was angry and defiant. I tried to call out to my wife, who I knew in reality was across the hall in the bedroom getting ready for bed and I tasted bile as it tried to shut me up. Again I said "you have no authority here! I cast you out in the name of Christ!" 

The dark thing retreated and suddenly I heard a sound. It was coming from somewhere close, I couldn't hear the words, only a voice but I knew immediately what it was. My wife was in our bedroom listening to scripture from the Bible on her phone. I was hearing the word of God. The dark thing heard it too and suddenly a look of fright came over it, it glanced wildly from the source of the sound, to me, and back again and back to me, to see what my next move would be. Again I tried to call on my wife, but it grinned and stifled my physical voice from calling out in my sleep. I pushed back again with my mind and yelled, calling out as loud as I could from that psychic place at the core of my, from the very soul of me. "God... Jesus... I cannot drive this out on my own! Help me!" and with that I just started repeating "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus... Scripture, Scripture, Scripture!" 

Now the sound grew and the word or at least the voice grew louder, though still muted by the closed door separating the two rooms and the hallway. "In the name of Jesus Christ, Go!" I commanded, and a wave hit me... Now let me try to describe this as carefully as possible. It began at my feet, which were pointed toward the hall. It was the sort of tingle you might feel from a mild current passing through you, but instead of running through the circuitry of my body in tendrils of electricity, it began moving up my legs in a solid line. Imagine passing your hand through the surface of water but instead of the water moving out of the way it simply became a part of you on a molecular level right at the point of surface tension. I am afraid that even this description is vague at best compared to the actual sensation but it's the closest I can think of. This line of energy raced up my body, through the very core of me and out through the top of my head which was pointed at the window, and as it did, the darkness fled before it. As it surged through and out I regained control of myself and practically levitated off the bed and onto my feet. I dashed across the hall and burst into the master bedroom, "Scripture, Scripture, Scripture!" My wife was startled and reaching for her phone she apologized, saying "I didn't mean to disturb you. I'll turn it down." "NO!" I said, "Turn it up and bring it with you!" As we sat on our son’s bed, after listening to the Bible scriptures for several more minutes, I told her what I had just experienced. She told me that she had been crying in the shower, and praying. and then she told me that she had heard me moaning in my sleep. She told me she had gotten ready for bed and that just before I came leaping into the room she had been listening to Matthew 8:28-34

28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

The next day, I told my mother and my son what had happened. The day after that, my son came home and went to his bedroom and began to cry. With tears in his eyes he grabbed me and hugged me, "It's gone" He cried joyfully "It's gone and it's really over". This was my experience on March 6th 2013. Take from it what your own spirit will. If I ever doubted, I don't now. I am forever changed. I know two things. I know I am saved (though I have a lot of work to do still) and I know beyond any scientific scrutiny that there is a God. After this event, the blessings have continued. My health has improved or at least I feel better. My Wife and I have grown much closer and her smile is back. (Most of you have no idea how BIG that is) and there is a calm and a lightness in our home for the most part that has been absent for a while. I still have a lot to pray about and get guidance for, but i finally feel I am headed in the right direction. I am not out to convert anyone, just to share this experience, and if someone’s spirit is touched by it, then it's a blessing and a gift to me as well.

*************************************


I don't know where God is going to take my brother,but I do know that from that day forward, he belongs to Jesus, the enemy of our souls has no dominion in his life, and our prayers have been answered. 

Please keep his family in prayer as they follow the leading of the Lord and the Word of God for their household of newly found faith. 

Free To Be Clean

Sometimes we need to take a break, get alone with God and let Him show us areas of our life He wants to deal with. I was led to take a little hiatus this summer and really sit at the feet of the Lord and LISTEN. Well, some of it I liked a lot, some made me cry tears of repentance and some left me saying, "Wow God."

No matter who we are, or what we do, we all have a primary ministry if we are married or mothers or both. That is a ministry to our family. I have always known that, but knowing and doing is sometimes different. For example, praying for my husband and giving him encouragement from the Word is easy for me. Keeping a very clean, and organized home, is NOT easy for me. In all of my busyness over the past couple of years of conferences, new book releases and helping others start their ministries, I had neglected the thing that makes my husband happy; a clean and organized house. And boy, when you begin to let things go, they snowball pretty fast. Those were the tears of repentance. Personally, my home was a disaster and my family felt neglected.

Thankfully, God always provides what we need when He sends us to a task. He provided a wonderful friend, Tabatha, who is amazing at organization and cleaning, and she, Melissa (my personal assistant) and I went to work. We donated, we threw out, we organized, and we scrubbed. I cannot tell you how much freedom there is in a clean house. There are still a few nooks and crannies to de-clutter and clean, but overall, it is transformed to what it should have been in the first place. My husband is already happier and I am so much happier.  Now, rather than having a huge cloud hanging over my head when I walk in the door, exhausted, and see the mess. I can spend 15 minutes a day keeping things picked up, swept, etc. And when my husband walks in, he can see that I love him, even if I’m not here to tell him.

The summer hiatus for renewal is almost over and I will be back to writing and ministry full swing, with my short cleaning breaks in between.

I write this because I know I’m not alone. As I posted updates on facebook, there was an outcry from women saying how much they admired my energy, or organization. They wanted to get motivated, but they could not; they didn’t know where to start. The responses went on and on, often from women I thought were far better in this area than I am. Most of them were private messages because they were too ashamed to admit their lack of zeal for their homes in public.

It broke my heart for my friends and for women in general. When did we go from June Cleaver to master hoarders? How did we allow the enemy to inflict something into our homes that would burden us with such guilt and feelings of failure?

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

New King James Version (NKJV)

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Does this scripture apply here? I believe it does. When the enemy of our souls uses something to heap guilt and shame upon our minds, it is spiritual warfare. Cleaning my house was not the weapon that freed my mind from the guilt. Time with God, time in His Word, and surrendering this area of my life to the Holy Spirit is what resulted in freedom. I then had the release to ask for help. It was only after the guilt was not holding me in chains that I could do the things in the physical that needed to be done. It all started in the spiritual.

 We, as women, get so busy doing all of the things we are supposed to be doing, that we often forget the most important parts of our life. We forget that everything in the natural is directly affected by things in the spiritual. It’s not a battle over dust-bunnies. It is a battle for our families. There are six things I have to do each day, no matter where I am or what is going on. When I allow God to lead my thoughts and actions toward my family, I defeat the attack of the enemy that says to neglect them before it even comes my way.

• 1.       I must pray for my heart to be right in every situation.
• 2.       I must forgive any offense I have encountered from my family.
• 3.       I must pray for my husband; that God would guard his heart, prosper his work and cover him with protection. (If you have children, pray the same for them.)
• 4.       I must consider first, what the needs of my home are for the day.
• 5.       I must communicate my love for my family in a language they will understand.
• 6.       I must take personal inventory of my heart and allow God to purge anything that would get in the way of what HE wants to do in me that day. 

As women, especially wives and mothers, we are given a responsibility to be the caregivers of those in our homes. It’s not just about a clean house.  It’s about showing them our love through the giving of our time and our commitment to them. It’s about knowing that they are the most important to us because they are so important to God. It is truly the ministry of being a wife, or a mother, or both. We are called and ordained to it, now, let’s do it. 

We Will Rise

 I started this century with months in a wheelchair after undergoing hip replacement surgeries and bone grafting. People were so supportive and caring. A day never went by that someone didn’t ask, “How are you doing under the circumstances?”

Seven years ago this week, I was diagnosed with cancer. I praise God that it was discovered in early stages. After surgery and a few days with a radiation implant I was on my way to a speedy recovery. People in my life were very supportive. Concerned friends and acquaintances always wanted to make sure I was doing okay physically, emotionally and spiritually, under the circumstances.

Five years ago I was laid off from my day job. I prayed that freelance writing and speaking would meet every financial need that I had, but at that time, it seemed impossible. I prayed for God to open another door, according to His purpose. Again, our friends were concerned and asking how we were doing, under the circumstances.

Today I walk. Today I am cancer free. Today God blesses my life with His provision so that I may work for Him.

We all experience circumstances in our life.  Often, through no fault of our own, life hands us one circumstance after the other until we are treading water barely able to keep from being swallowed by turbulent tides.

Many would say that, as believers, we have a life preserver for the times when we feel like we cannot tread water for another moment.  When our circumstances have overtaken the depths of our soul we can cry out to God for help and He will be there. Under the circumstances we will be okay, if we just have faith.

There is a sweet assurance in that idea. However, I don’t believe that it is the way God intended our faith to be exercised. When we wait until we are drowning to call out to God our faith is used as an insurance policy. Not just fire insurance, but flood insurance.

If we look at Romans chapter 8, verses 35 through 39 we find that our circumstances are opportunities for us to display the conquering power of Jesus Christ, through our faith.

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NAS)

I have not personally experienced the persecution that was present for Christians in Rome at the time of Paul. I have not been through a famine. My poverty level has never reached nakedness and my life has not been threatened by another person because of my faith in God. Yet those around me continue asking how I am surviving, under the circumstances.

No matter how things have looked from the outside, every circumstance I have been through has been used for the Glory of God if it was given to Him, for His purpose, from the beginning. Each time I have learned invaluable lessons. Every victory strengthened my faith and fervor for the Lord. Through each triumph has come opportunity to reach out to people I would have never been able to understand without the circumstance I walked through.  

The times in my life, and there have been several, when my circumstances swallowed me were the times that I kept trying to cope with my circumstances or try to fix things myself. Spiritual bruising happened every time. I was riding my circumstance like a bull, trying to make the 8 second buzzer. And, like the cowboy who holds on after he is in trouble, I have gotten tangled in the rope and been beaten more severely than if I had just let go. It took me years to realize that we are not called as believers to live under our circumstances or to fix situations on our own.

What if Christ would have been swallowed by His circumstances? Defeat looked absolutely imminent from Golgotha, yet we know that He reigns victorious. What if the circumstances of the cross would have been the end? What if Christ would have waited until He could no longer “fix” things to cry out to God? Even as the divine Son of God He had free will and could have refused to complete the plan.

The reason that Christ could take every step through His circumstances was that He knew from the beginning that whatever He would endure was for the Glory of the Father and the salvation of the creation that He loved. He knew that everything meant for evil would be used for good when it was done with a pure heart, giving all honor to God. He did not walk to Calvary under the circumstances of the cross. He walked to Calvary knowing that He was born of God, and would be victorious.

1 John 5:4 & 5 says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (NAS)

As believers we are born of God. We are called to walk victoriously through every trial that comes our way; not to be under our circumstances, not in spite of our circumstances.

We are called to live each day, each hour, and each minute by faith, knowing that no matter what we may be going through God will use it for His Glory and our good when we give it to Him completely. The victory in our lives is what shines as a beacon to the rest of creation, telling them the good news of the resurrection plan. By overcoming the world and every circumstance in it, in the name of Jesus, we rise again, with Him.

** This article was oringinally written before the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We are all shocked by the horrific scenes and the life threatening conditions. Truly many thousands will not survive this disaster. Under their circumstances seems like an understatement. But, God will use even this disaster if people hand Him their broken pieces an allow His will to prevail in their lifes. 

 I pray mostly for those who do not know the Lord Jesus. The thought of those who did not accept Christ’s offer of salvation is heartbreaking in these situations. Please keep the families of those lost, and the people who are still displaced, injured or sick in your prayers. I don’t know how I would have survived anything in my life without the Lord and the prayers on my behalf, and my circumstances are trivial by comparison.

He Will Meet Me On My Knees

I don't usually post poetry on my blog, but I wanted to share this one with you. Sometimes we just need to be reminded that we can come to Jesus and let him restore our broken hearts.

He Will Meet Me On My Knees

By Pamela Sonnenmoser ©2007

©2010 The Salt and Pepper Stone: The Poetry of Pamela Sonnenmoser (Party Line Press)

My white dress fluttered gently

As the breeze went through my hair

And the congregation waited

As I met the preacher there

Standing at the altar

I pledged my heart to stay

With each soul present as my witness

I would never walk away.

And my hungry heart surrendered

Knowing He would never leave

As I let His love enfold me

And He met  me on my knees.

But after years of faithfulness

I met temptations sting

And I wandered into darkness

My first love, no longer seen

As I wandered through the wilderness

A new love locked my embrace

We ran together through the darkness

Far away from Heaven’s grace.

And my wild heart offended

The one who said He’d never leave

As I pushed His love away from me

And refused to bend my knees.

No longer guided by compassion

My new love met the sting

And his wayward heart betrayed me

As life brought me to my knees

On my face before my Father

Not knowing where to turn

I begged for the forgiveness

That I could never earn.

And my broken heart remembered

That He said He’d never leave

When I let His love enfold me

He would meet me on my knees

And my healing heart repented

Thankful, He would never leave

When I let His love restore me

As He met me on my knees

Praying Scriptures for our President

I am all for freedom of the press. I think it is absolutely required in a free country. I am also for freedom of speech and appreciate that I live in a country where, regardless of the backlash we may receive for what we say, we are indeed free to say it without worrying about being imprisoned or fined. That right is in danger as the government has decided to step in with limits to that right. Is it a good idea limit those rights so that something considered hateful is not allowed? I don’t know. I wonder if hatefulness is so subject to interpretation that it would be impossible to prove intent of the speaker. Certainly there are clear statements of hate that would be without debate. Issuing threats against someone’s life or safety are certainly unacceptable. Enticing violence against any group of people for any reason should not be protected under those rights. But where do we draw the line between what is hate speech and what is freedom of religion?

Can someone of the Muslim faith call for jihad against Christians on American soil and be protected by our right to free speech? Can a Christian speak from their Holy book, the Bible without being accused of hating non-Christians? Can someone who is extreme in any faith or creed cause laws to be enacted, taking away the freedom of peaceful Americans due to the actions of less than 100 Americans? These are all hot topics among Christians today. So much so that we are reacting with emotion to defend our faith, and not always reacting the way Christ would have us react.

A recent news story caught my attention, not because of the validity of the source, and not because it was extremely well written. It caught my attention because Christians became incensed by the situation described in the story. Many Christians believed the story was yet another example of the world taking a jab at the Bible and at praying for our nation. I was excited to read the story and was ready to write letters to my congressmen and representatives about how horrible the persecution of Christians is becoming in our society.

One of the comments I read about this story said that it is just another example of the world twisting the Word of God. After reading the story, I was sad. Not because of biblical sensorship, or the world twisting a book so inspired by the God I love and serve; but because it is another example of Christians taking the Word out of context, using it for twisted purposes and disregarding the way the Bible says we are to live as followers of Christ.

The story, which is continuing in Florida, talks about a deputy sheriff who received an email about Psalm 109 being “The Obama Prayer.” Verse 8 (NKJV) says, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” In itself, that may not seem that bad. Many Christians are praying that our current administration doesn’t see a second term in office. That is completely in line with our rights as Americans, and it is in line with scripture, to pray for our leadership to be Godly. However, in context, this passage is not benign. Verses 9 through 15 say this, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually,  that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.”

What in these verses is the way we should be praying for our President? What in these verses is appropriate for us to pray for anyone? Are we as Christians allowed to take the word of God and twist it for our own, very fleshly, irritation? Yet, get angry with those who are blind to its truth when they can’t understand it?  “The Obama Prayer,” is supposedly a joke, I’m not sure I think anything of this nature should be considered funny. Are we so busy being defensive about our faith that we are willing to find prayers of peril for others entertaining?

The deputy at the center of this story reportedly admits that the joke was in poor taste. He did not start the email and it will likely circulate for many months, as this type of trash usually does.

I am not a supporter of the ideals of Mr. Obama. I am not planning to vote for him in the future, nor did I vote for him in the election that brought him into office. However, as an American Christian, I am obligated to respect the office of the land, in this case, the President of the United States, regardless of whether I agree with him or not. I am not talking about obedience as much as I am talking about love.

Matthew 5:44 tells me to love my enemies and to pray those who persecute me. It does not say to pray for their demise, but for them to be blessed. Perhaps “The Obama Prayer” should be taken from Numbers, 6:24. (NKJV) The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”

If our President had the face of God shining on him, and if the Lord lifted up His countenance on him and gave Mr. Obama the peace that passes understanding, the peace that only comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I can assure you that his presidential decisions would be changed.

2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV) tells us, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

If we are going to have the heart of Christ toward our leaders, and truly pray for them in the way God would have us pray, isn’t their salvation going to be first on our hearts rather than their demise?

Certainly we should use our freedom of speech to voice our concerns over the laws of the land. Write to your congressmen, senators and representatives, attend ralleys, sign petitions, pray without ceasing. Just be sure your heart is right as you walk in the Holy Spirit to be a voice in the desert, declaring the way of the Lord.

To read the article I am referencing in this blog you may use this link. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=247085