Praying Pam

Friday Food for Thought: Honor.... There are different ways I see 'honor' happening around me. Today I got to see two of those ways. Both impacted me on a deeply personal level! It's a cloudy Friday in December and my husband and I went to the hospital to pray for someone from our church who had a stroke over Christmas. It is always a honor and priviledge to get to pray with people in these times. It's hard to explain the honor that is given to you as pastors, that a family would trust you in such a way, as to let you 'in' to such a personal and private time - and today we were honored in such a way. We had gone a couple of days previously.. and the Lord had told me to 'sing' over this wonderful woman of faith. I knew I had read somewhere that often people who have had strokes .. or dementia - brain issues - will often have trouble speaking but they will not have trouble singing. So.. I knew the Lord was showing me something. We arrived that day,...

"I LOVEChristmas ! It Changed my Life!!" I wish you could meet my friend Catherine. She's amazing! She's one of those women who just radiates life .. and love..and joy! She's got a story - like many of us do - and while it's her's to tell, let me say that its because of her story that she has the ability to look at the grinches of Christmas and those who have lost the meaning of this time of the year, and proudly ( and knowing Catherine).. loudly proclaim: ' I LOVE Christmas!! It changed my life! ' Yup! That's my friend - a vibrant , 'full of life' lady, who has never forgotten what Jesus has done for her. When she proudly proclaims her truth, it's because it's not what Jesus did.. it's about what He did, what He's done, is doing and will continue to do! She proclaims her truth and her joy, from a heart that long ago acknowledged her need of a saviour. She radiates the love that He brought into her life. She...

The Bond of Peace Have you forgotten who the enemy is?!! We are so busy fighting each other - judging each other - have we forgotten who is really benefitting from all this dissension? The enemy has lit a fire and just stands back and watches things burn. We have drawn lines in the sand that don't need to be there! I'm ok with your choices. Are you ok with mine? Anger and judgements are hitting a new level. People attacking each other on FB and in person. People are now afraid to ask questions for fear of being judged and attacked!  Lord, help us! Eph. 4: 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ... Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves. We need to wake up and see what the enemy is doing. When we are fighting or bickering, we often stop praying for one another. Let’s make the enemy the enemy; and take the targets off the backs of our brothers and sisters.  I'm advocating we love louder . What is t...

Definition of an intercessor; is a person who builds up a wall and stands in the gaps. Ez. 22: 30 Everyone is familiar with this scripture. God is searching a man/woman to stand in the gap . I believe that God is often looking for a man/woman who would stand in the gap for a LEADER, so that they will not be overtaken, overwhelmed or taken out.   People who will come to the Wall when he calls them - not when it's convenient or they feel like it.  God is looking for people  who come when the Holy Spirit calls!  So many times we will say we are good at intercession and we  pray for hours at a time - but God is looking for is, do you COME when He calls you? Leaders need intercessors praying for them. God is constantly giving us new strategies on how to pray. That is why we need, as intercessors to constantly be trained in prayer. We need to be looking up new books, or DVD's.. and conferences on Prayer - so that we are building ourselves up - staying fresh and g...

Recently I worked with a leader who had originally been 'working' his prayer shield with a lot of success, but something changed in the past year.  I had noticed that less and less prayer needs were being sent out to his 'team' and eventually in the last 6 months almost nothing was going out to his prayer team at all!  Hmmm... something was definitely not right! As I began to look more deeply into his prayer shield, I began to see that it was 'top heavy' with intercessors that were made up of people and leaders from his church. That might not seem to be a problem except in the the last 12-18 months, his church began to experience some relational and leadership issues.. As these things were coming up, it made relaying information to his prayer shield feel 'unsafe' . This is one of the reasons why, I tell pastors and leaders alike, NOT to put too many people from within their church, or even family, on their prayer shields. You need to be able to ASK f...

I had a wonderful email from someone on the Mission Field, asking 'how' do we find the intercessors we need to make up a prayer shield. That really got me thinking. My own personal prayer shield has been up and running for over 10 years...a number of the prayer shields that I've set up for other leaders, have been running as long and one even longer ( 15 years).   The question made me stop and go back to remembering, what it was that I first looked for.. When  I first 'accepted' the fact that my husband and I also needed a prayer shield - it was hard! I'd prayed for other leaders for so long, I struggled with thinking that 'I' was worth asking others to commit to praying for me.  That's probably the biggest hurdle to get over!  Once I decided I wasn't so 'strong' that I could do my mission on earth without prayer support...I began by praying and asking God to show ME if there were already people in my life who might be able to pray for ...