BREAKTHROUGH PRAYER!

Dear Reader,
After the past two postings and the comments received and my own personal prayers that I've been praying, I sense in the Spirit that MANY in the Body of Christ have been praying prayers for years and have still not seen the long awaited breakthrough.  Many of you are holding God's promises in your hearts of what you have heard from the Lord and seen in visions which He has given you....and still you wait.  You KNOW that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD....and you wait.  I wait for answers to prayers too, just like you....some have been prayed for 15 years or more....


Well today...we're praying for BREAKTHROUGH!  Through Christ, we are His children and by the Blood of Christ, we may come boldly before His Throne in time of need.  Within many of us, He's put the yearning and the longing for expansion....for more than where we are right now....We know we are to be content in Christ; but there exists this passion within us to expand....to bless others in far greater measure than where we are right now.  As Jabez prayed, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!", you want this with your whole heart.  Jabez's name meant: "Pain".  His mother born him in pain, and named him pain.  Some of us feel as if all we've ever had to deal with is the pain of not being what we would have liked, the pain of our past staring us full in the heart, the pain of unanswered prayer....for hope deferred makes the heart sick.


God has given you a promise for expansion and even told you to enlarge the place of your tent, but you have YET to experience His promise that He gives us in Isaiah 54:1-4 "Sing, O barren, You who have not borne!  Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child!  For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says the Lord.  Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strenthen your stakes, for you shall expand to the right and to the left, ......" 


No longer are we content to hear.....we want to EXPERIENCE THE BLESSINGS OF GOD TO BLESS OTHERS IN GREATER MEASURE....IN OVERFLOW.   We are praying for breakthrough in that as the Song of Solomon states in Chapter 2:11-12...."For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.".....You want to hear the voice of the Lord afresh....You want to KNOW that the winter of your prayer time is over and now there will come forth A BURST OF NEW LIFE into the winter of your prayers!  You long to hear the voice of the turtledove announcing Springtime to the situation for which you have labored and travailed.  "GOD!  HEAR MY PRAYER!", you have cried.


As Psalm 123:1-3 declares, your heart cries out, "Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens.  Behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us.  Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us."


This morning, the Lord took me to the following verses from the Amplified:
Ps. 34:4 "I sought (inquired of) the Lord and required Him [of necessity and on the authority of His Word], and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."
Ps. 33: 18-22 "Behold, the Lord's eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and lovingkindness.  To deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.  Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield.  For in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted (relied on and been confident) in His holy name.  Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You." 


We have prayed....We have hoped....and now, we are going to go boldly before His Throne of grace this day, to pray for His breakthrough anointing in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit, because His Word in Zech. 4:4 declares, "Not by might nor power, but by My Spirit....says the Lord of hosts."


Let us pray:
"Father, I come boldly before Your Throne of Grace in time of need through the Name of Your Son Jesus Christ whose Blood redeemed us and paid for our sins. 
I come Father on behalf of Your Sons and Daughters and myself who have been praying long and travailing prayers for years.  Lord, we know that You are sovereign and we do not attempt to know Your plans, but Lord, You have given us promises....year after year...and we have yet to see the fulfillment of Your promises.  Lord, we have been faithful to ask, seek and knock....and to pray in the Spirit with groans that we cannot understand...but Lord, it has still remained winter to our prayers and we long to hear the turtledove once more in the land.  Lord, we long for Spring to come to our prayers for which we have labored.  Lord, You have told us to ask.  So Lord, we are asking.
As Moses stretched out his rod over the Red Sea and it parted, so do I, right now in the Spirit realm, by the Person and Power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, stretch out the Rod of Righteousness, Who IS JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, over each and every unanswered prayer of your saints, myself included, to declare BREAKTHROUGH IN THE HEAVENLY REALM FOR YOUR ANSWERS TO COME TO THE EARTH TO PART THE WATERS FOR LONG AWAITED BARREN ANSWERS TO PRAYERS TO BE MANIFESTED ON THE EARTH - FOR WE WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, BUT AGAINST PRINICPALITIES AND POWERS, AGAINST THE RULERS OF THE DARKNESS OF THIS AGE, AGAINST THE SPIRITUAL HOSTS OF WICKEDNESS IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES.  THEREFORE, I LIFT THE SHIELD OF FAITH ABOVE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS TO QUENCH ALL THE FIREY DARTS OF THE EVIL ONE AND I TAKE THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT TO SEVER ALL PLANS OF THE ENEMY AGAINST YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS AND PLEAD THE BLOOD OF JESUS OVER EACH AND EVERY PRAYER PRAYED THAT LORD, YOU YOURSELF WILL INTERVENE AND MANIFEST YOUR ANSWER ON THE EARTH AS IT IS DONE IN HEAVEN.  LORD, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, I DECLARE THAT HEAVEN SHALL INVADE EARTH WITH THE MIGHT AND POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO SPLIT THE RED SEAS AND THAT OUR ENEMIES WHOM WE SEE THIS DAY, WE SHALL SEE NO MORE, FOREVER IN JESUS NAME!

In completion, as the priests raised the trumpets to their mouths and blew at the Lord's command through Joshua, so do I life the trumpet to my mouth to blow the wind of the Holy Spirit into your situation....I sound the trumpet to announce in the heavenly realm to our enemies that they ARE DEFEATED IN JESUS' NAME...THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES WHO HUMILIATED THEM AT THE CROSS IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM!  HALLELUJAH!  I BLOW THE TRUMPET - THE SHOFOR OVER YOU AND YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!

Father, I pray You loving-kindness and mercy be displayed to each and every person reading this prayer, this day, in Jesus' Name, so be it.  Amen and Amen, Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.  To God be the Glory, both now and forevermore.  Amen!'


God bless you, dear one.  God bless you.
Ever yours in Christ,
Crista
CMSimmons52@aol.com

Out of Your Belly Shall Flow Rivers of Living Water!

Sometimes we're just sailing along in life....and whoosh....the skies are blue, the breeze is gentle and the waters calm....and then something comes along to change all that....Now, I'm not talking about the turbulent, tornadic water spouts that spring up out of nowhere.....It's not that we find our boat capsized and we're choking on life's onslaught.....No, it is just those times in life that we take a time out and ask for God's clarification for His further direction. "Lord, am I on course?"

I'm talking about those nagging rubs which happen along the way in life where we stop to ask, "God? Am I really doing what You have intended for my life? Is this it?" Added to all of this is the fact that I'll be entering my next "mile marker decade" this year, and it has given me pause to consider the time the Lord will allow me to fullfill on this earth and what He wants from me....What do I do with today? Lord, am I fulfilling what YOU want....or just what pleases me?

For those who've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I am not an "expository" writer.  I don't take scripture and dissect it into little teeny, tiny pieces parts to examine every jot and tittle.  That is just NOT my calling....and I will leave that to the experts!  (Whew!  Thank you very much!)

I'm just not one of those persons who delights in diagramming a sentence.  Oh my goodness!  Poor Mrs. Hufnagle - our seventh grade English teacher.....Having to teach dissection of the written human language to teenagers!  I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!  I'm sure I would cause heart palpitations to the the most precise writers of the English language!  But, please pardon me while my participles dangle and my adverbs jump the proverbial grammatical curbs!  (I think this is why I enjoy blogging....No editorial red lines!)

In fact, I'm reminded of Erma Bombeck's writings.  I cut my teeth as a mother on the humor of "Erm".  She was THE reason I subscribed to our local newspaper....What did Erma have to tell me today that would help me to laugh my way through diapers, teething and toddling?  There was a quality to Erma's writing that I thorougly enjoyed...and so did her multitudes of readers....We KNEW her, because she was us!  She wrote in a way that shared the pithiness and poignancy of life with "Bombeckian humor" that was uniquely hers.  She came "into her own".

Whether it be literature or film, music or canvas...we know there are those "artists" who are uniquely their own.  When we see or hear their particular style, there is something that lights up within us that goes "Aha....that's ___________" and a smile eases its way into our hearts as a soothing, warm, gently scented oil or with a grandiose fortissimo!

Well back to my opening thought...I think we can find comfort in those times of self-introspection and evaluation.  I think the Lord causes these "rubs" as I call them, to help us to know more fully our calling and sense of direction to which He's called us....for if we don't know....Well, as they say, "If you don't know where you're going....You'll never get there."  And it is the desire of my heart to one day hear the Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your Lord."  And this has been one of those times....that I wanted to know that I know that I know that I know that I was "on track" and not missing the mark.

So it is that it has been just such a time....searching...asking....waiting for His answer.  Not agonizing...but waiting....And just as a summer breeze sweeps through the window to refresh our soul....sometimes almost unperceptible....the Lord brought His answer.
I was writing to a friend from church who'd prayed for me this past Sunday at the altar.  She specifically asked the Lord to reveal His answer within one week, and wrote yesterday to ask how I was doing....I replied that I was writing again after having not feeling well for about a month, and wrote that writing for me is as a composer would put to paper that which has been formulating in his mind and heart....perhaps not totally distinguishable, but in skeleton form, until the work begins...and that which seems elusive begins to evolve....melody and harmony in synch with one another....at times in a minor key...at times up an octave....dipping and curving....intertwining....until that which the composer had only at one point known needed to be expressed....even though perhaps not seeing the finished product at the time....took the step of faith to put pencil to paper and begin....one note at a time....until the piece slowed for its final ritardando....and final notes - whether sung as a solo....or in harmony with its musical companions.

I guess I realized in greater depth what a creative outlet writing really is for me...and what gives me the greatest sense of fulfillment is "writing from the gut"....coloring "outside the lines"....where the rawness of life meets the Glory of God...That place where God blows His Spirit into the dust of the earth and gives life and meaning the ashes of our lives....the miracles that are birthed out of the grit of a seeming void....that place where God creates....that place where we become His hands and His heart....His encouragement....His hope to someone who needs what He wants to give to them through us this day....because He knows they need a lifeline and He wants to use us to do it! 

I finished my email and clicked "send"....not fully realizing what the Lord had revealed to me...It wasn't until this morning that He brought His Word of confirmation...to make sure I really "got it".  (Oh...the long-suffering of the Lord!  His mercies are new every morning!)....And this morning it was that He wakened my sleep with this scripture from John 7:38 "....out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."  Some versions use the word belly to describe...the gut....the core of our innermost being.
There was the completion to His answer!  It was as if the Lord said, "Now, just in case you missed it (which I had!), I'm going to give you My Word to confirm what I revealed to you yesterday." 

Maybe you're content in life....and you're doing just fine.  But maybe you've found yourself asking the same question of late.  And so I encourage you today....What is it that flows out of your innermost being?  What is it that you love to do?  What is it that gives you joy when you do that particular task?  What is it that "describes" you?  That is what the Lord has given you to do at this particular time in your life. 

So often, I believe especially as women....we compare ourselves to others....But may I encourage your heart to just be you....just you?  Maybe you love to clean (which is TOTALLY beyond my comprehension!)....and you would be able to help someone who has special needs....Maybe the Lord has called you to pray and love on your grandchildren in a special way for this time in their life....Perhaps you could be a helper to a single mother....or a mother who has no family members to call upon to give her some "time off".....

Whatever this may be for you....even if you don't know....perhaps you want to start by just listing a couple items....and title it: "Things I Like to Do".  Ask God to take those gifts that He's given just to you and to multiply them for His glory.
You know, Jabez prayed a prayer like that in I Chronicles 4:10 "And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!"  So God granted him what he requested."

So whatever your point in life, let's close in prayer together shall we.....trusting that as we come humbly before Him that He will hear and He will answer.

"Father, we come to You in the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  And Lord, You see the gifts You have put within each one of us to bring glory to Your Name.  Lord, maybe we don't even see them right now, but You do.  Help us to know what You know fully well about who you made us to be.  As one snowflake is different from another, so have you made us.  Lord, our desire is to serve You.  We ask You Father to take these gifts and cause Your living water to flow out of us to others as You so desire.  Bless us indeed that You may bless others through us, that we may not cause anyone harm, but ever live to bring Glory to Your Name.  Amen."

Someone needs Him today...and He wants to use you to touch their lives and hearts for His Glory....You are the vessel He has chosen for such a time as this....for out of your belly shall flow rivers of His Living water.....
God bless you always~ 
Ever yours in Christ,
Crista
Numbers 6:24-26
CMSimmons52@aol.com

She's Not Here, She Is Risen, Indeed!

What I'm about to write to you....well, I've never put in print before...but have told this to many a person.  Today...I feel I must write.

It was just a month ago that I drove to my hometown of Lowell, Michigan to attend the funeral of my sister-in-law's father.  Everything seemed to be going as expected....
Rolling down my window to find out where the parking attendant wanted me to park my car...."Hey, Don!  Great to see you!" I chatted.  (Always nice to be back in my hometown to see friendly folks that I hadn't seen in a long time.)
Don knew I was part of the family....It was my brother's wife's father who had passed away...."Hey Cris!  How's my girl?"....Now at my age, if anyone wants to call me a girl, I have absolutely no problem with that!  I'd known Don for years.  He was a close friend of my cousin and her husband, and he knew both my brother, Gary and I since we were just little squirts. 
"You going to the cemetery?"
"Sure am, Don."
"Well then, he said pointing to my left, "You just take your place behind this red truck where your brother will be."
This necessitated a U-turn in order to get my car into position.....but as I wheeled around, I was totally unprepared for what happened next.....
There...at the rear of the funeral home....sat the white hearse poised and stationed to carry Connie's father's body to his earthly resting place....And unexpectedly, I came stone cold face to face with the same white hearse that carried my mother's body 16 years prior.  In the flash of a nanosecond, I whirled back to her funeral.  It took all I had to keep myself together.  Fumbling for my keys and purse, I set about to enter the funeral home.  It was as if I were dazed and in shock; fighting back tears.  What had just happened?  Why?
My brother greeted me with his tender,  "Hey Sis, how ya' doing?"
Fighting back a flood of emotion, I choked, "Not too bad - until I saw that white hearse!  Gary, it brought it all back!"
Mom's funeral: April 24rd, 1996  So many people had gathered at her visitation....Business associates dating back 35 years....Townspeople who had known mom since childhood....my personal friends....
And there was that white hearse...Couldn't the funeral home at least bought a different color since '96?  I don't even remember what kind of car we rode in to the cemetery....All I remember is those long two miles to her grave ite....and the back end of that hearse!

Remembering back.....In the Fall of 1995, I had just returned from a three week trip to Germany in August; during which time, my mother-in-law had passed away...."Don't come home", my husband told me.  "Mom wouldn't have wanted you to." 

My mother-in-law, Marg....One who had so faithfully prayed for my salvation. 
Lung cancer was diagnosed in the early part of the year....(She'd never been a smoker, but her deceased husband had.)  I was planning my trip to Germany to visit my birth family and friends.  I asked my husband, "What if your mother passes away while I'm gone."  "Oh, that's not going to happen." he replied nonchalantly.  Probably his own defense mechanism, but in my heart, I wasn't too sure.....One week after I arrived in Germany, I received the phone call that she'd passed into Heaven.
Mom Hull didn't want any one to come visit her after her diagnosis....I never got a chance to tell her how much she meant to me...or say "Good-bye", but I think she knew.

Now, less than a year later, I was burying my mother.....
About two week's after arriving back home from Germany that August, and still not quite recovered from my trip, I received a phone call that my mother had fallen and broken her shoulder.  Her cancer had now spread to her bones.  She not only required physical assistance, but my background in nursing to help with obtaining home medical equipment and care.
On top of all this, my father had also been diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer and required immediate surgery.
Life from that point on became a blur.  Hour long trips to Lowell to get mom settled into her "new" hospital bed.  The dining room became her bedroom.
As I wrote in a previous blog, this was when my mom accepted the Lord as her Savior; asking Jesus into her heart....My mother who never "needed" any one's help and would do just fine - alone, thank you very much....until she realized that she needed Jesus.
The looming sense of eternity smacked her full in the face....Where would she spend it?  Jesus came into her "bedroom" that evening in a gentle, tender way that is all His own, to invite my mother to take His hand and as a result, invite Him into her heart....She bent her heart before Him that evening to ask, "Jesus, come into my heart.  I need You."  The promise of a new, heavenly body and eternity in Heaven with Him now rested peacefully in her heart.
The months passed....My dad uncharacteristically slipping away out of the house when I came to care for mom....

We decided to give mom a surprise 75th birthday party in November and invited absolutely everyone we could think of!  It was such a joyous time!  She truly felt like "Queen for a Day".  We could think of no way better to honor her.
By December, neither mom or dad were doing very well, and I was afraid that they would both pass away during this time.  The blessing of having a caretaker in the house 24/7 relieved many a family's mind during this stressful time.  Dad had seen to it that mom had round the clock care since her September fall.
By Christmas, I was praying the Lord would not allow my mom to suffer; asking Him to take her Home before her condition deteriorated to the point of agony for both herself and our family.  During my prayer time, I saw Jesus walking toward my mother and saying simply, "Ida.  It's time to take My hand.  It's time to go Home now."  I felt such peace in my heart.
Comforted by this vision, I shared with mom what the Lord had shown me.  Yet ever the skeptic, she pointedly asked, "How will you know if you're right?"
"Well, mom.  I don't, but if the Lord wants me to know, I'm sure He'll do it somehow."

Wed., April 17th, 1996.  I made the hour drive for my weekly visit.  Our Hospice nurse would be making her rounds, and I wanted to be there.  The minute I went to my mother's bedside, she said, "Cristy, don't leave me."
"I won't, Mom." I assured her.  (I wasn't sure what she was telling me at the time, but it became clear within 24 hours.  A severe head injury from a car crash in 1972 left my mother's communication skills in a challenging state.)

Mom and I had quite the discussion that day.....Looking about her at the pool and spa that lay in the backyard and motioning to the vast expanse of their house, she remarked in the way a person who has seen Heaven would talk, "Cristy.  None of this means anything."...."I know, Mom....I know."......This, coming from the mouth of my mother who had wanted nothing more than to be a self-made millionaire in her life, had acknowledged that NONE of her earthly possessions amounted to a hill of beans.

We never really ever had a family....We had an existence in a house....and the business was always the reason for every disappointment. 

By Thursday morning, my mother announced after her meager breakfast of Jell-O and juice, "I want to say 'Good-bye'"...."You do, Mom?  To whom?"....."Everyone", came her matter of fact reply.
We called the family together.....

Later that Thursday evening in a scene that I shall never forget....my mother in a coma....my father sat reading at her bedside....spending time with my mother....That was the only thing in life she really ever wanted in their almost 50 years of marriage....and now, when it was too late...he sat with her....The agony and tragedy of it all.

That night I lay on the living room couch in the next room....listening as her breathing stopped...and then start again.....
Friday morning, mom's eyes were opened, but she was no longer seeing in this world.
"Mom.  What are you seeing?", I asked her gently.
"I see God.  I see the Lord," she replied.  My mother had never before in her life, ever used the term "the Lord".  I knew what she was seeing was real!
"Is He coming to get you?  Is He holding out His hand to you?"
"Yes." was all she replied.
"Then, Mom....take His hand and go."
Her eyes remained closed....she continued to breathe.....
By the next morning, her nurse's aid had arrived to care for her that day.....
As God is my witness, and Elizabeth (her Tech. who is also a Christian) who stood by, my mother stated in the most robotic voice I have ever heard, "I died.  I died yesterday."  Elizabeth and I just stared at each other at what we'd just heard.
Absolutely incredulous!  Elizabeth continued her care.
At 6:24 pm the next evening, my mother's body died....and the crystal on her best friend's watch broke.
The funeral visitation....the service....and procession to the cemetery....the graveside service....then time to walk away from her grave....Her life on earth was over.

And then the Lord spoke so clearly that I can still hear Him today...."Why do you seek the living among the dead?  She is not here.  She is risen.  She is risen, indeed!"
Oh....blessed assurance.  Thank You, Jesus!
"So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory."  "O Death, where is your sting?  O Hades, where is your victory."  I Cor. 15:54-55

"Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.  But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.  Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen!'"  Luke 24:1-6

"I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."  John 11:26

"I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.  Amen.  And I have the keys of Hades and of Death."  Revelation 1:18

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Ever yours in Christ,
Crista
CMSimmons52@aol.com