Ask Means What Lord????

After studying a while one night, only a few weeks after Franklin was born, I found in my Strong’s Concordance that the Greek word for Ask was aiteo (pronounced ahee-the’), which means “a demand of what is due.”  In other words, when God’s Word says, “Ask anything in my name, and I will do it,” it means to “demand what is due.”  Boy, was that heavy!  In my church and in my denomination, that was close to blasphemy or heresy.  I mean, “to demand of God” was unheard of! 

Finally, about midnight, I went to bed, saying, 

“O.K., Lord.  You’ve got to reveal this to me! I’m very confused.  I know that if your Word says to demand what is due, that it means what it says, because I believe that the whole Word is Truth!  But, Lord, ‘to demand of you’!”



               Illustrations by Beth Switzer in Teddi's book,

                       The Inner Woman of the Heart

 About 2:30 a.m., my precious baby, who was screaming at the top of his lungs, awakened me.  As I leaned over to pick him up, I heard my Lord say,

 “Teddi, Franklin is demanding what is due!  He is your child, and he is hungry.  Does that make you angry?”

I answered, “Of course not, Lord.”

He said, “Neither does it make me angry when you demand what is already yours from me.  You are my child just as Franklin is your child, and, it is my responsibility to supply all your needs, just as it is your responsibility to supply all of Franklin’s needs. 

I have equipped you to meet your children’s needs, just as I AM equipped to meet all your needs.”






Another illustration by Beth Switzer from Teddi's book, 
 The Inner Woman of the Heart





   Wow! What a revelation!  The next day He continued 

   to explain to me that when my older sons, Timothy 

   (11½) and Ted (8), say, “I’m hungry, what’s for

   dinner?” that I was wrong to feel anger or 

   resentment. They are only demanding what is due. 

   It is my responsibility as their parent to supply their

   needs.

 In fact, He said, “Meet all your children’s needs but only give them the desires that will not hurt them. I mean that as you delight in my WORD, I will place my desires in your heart.  So, as your children learn the WORD, I will place my desires in their hearts.”

                

I said, “Lord, what if I can’t meet their needs right then when they ask me?”

           

The Lord said, “I do not ask you to do anything that I have not first equipped you to do, or provided the means for you to do it.  Your children’s needs are your needs, and I shall supply all your needs by my riches in glory just so long as you obey my WORD.”

   THE DOER OF THE WORD REAPS THE HARVEST!



LOVE



Love the Lord your God with all your heart!  Love your neighbor as yourself.  Let the older women teach the younger women to love their husband and their children…that the Word of God no be blasphemed.  Love your enemies.  What a strange word is this word LOVE. 

I love your shoes!  I love Mexican food!  I love that recipe.  I love my dog.  I love that dress.  I love working.  I love babies.  I love to read.  I love to exercise.  I love strawberries.  Again, the word LOVE  is not easily understood.

The Apostle Paul, who wrote for us 13 books of our Bible, wrote for us the Love Chapter.  Beth Moore, a precious woman of God, who ministers through her conferences, books Bible Studies, etc., was here in Atlanta last April.  In conclusion, she gave her audience a charge to memorize it.  To memorize this chapter, just like I memoized Psalm 91, I must pray it every day.  So since that day, we women who pray daily the prayer blanket have prayed 1 Cor. 13. 

Paul begins by declaring to us that regardless of all the wonderful things we do, without LOVE, we’re nothing.  Then, beginning with verse 4 and continuiing through the beginning of verse 8, Paul gives us the character traits of LOVE:

When we read the love chapter, we wonder, we have to ask the question, Do we love anyone? Are we patient and kind with everyone in our life?  Are we patient and kind with anyone 24/7.  I mean, it’s easy to love someone who loves us back.  It’s easy to love affectionate, appreciative, encouraging people, but haven’t we been told we are to love the unlovely?  The Lord said, in Matthew 5, 46, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”  Stranger and stranger is this word LOVE. 

Love is a fruit of the Spirit.  Or is it a fruit? Years ago, I was shown a Truth in the Word that has blessed my socks off!  The one sharing this mystery with me was an evangelist, and he said there should be a colon after love in Galatians 5: 22-23.  He said it should read: But the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

                                 

Love,  I believe is the fruit of the Spirit, and the other eight are characteristics of Love.  1 Corinthians 13 backs that up.  We can take all the things that love is, and we can lay it side by side with the 8 characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit.
                                  

As we read more in the Word about fruit, the Lord says that we are not to only bear fruit, but He has so planned for us to bear much fruit!  He tells us that the way we are to know each other – the body of Christ or the brethren – is by our fruit.  A good tree can’t bear bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t buy good fruit. We are even to know the brethren -- other believers -- in one scripture it says, by our fruit, in another, by their love.

Speaking of love, John, the beloved disciple, tells us, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4: 8).  We love Him because He first loved us, He who loves God must love his brother also (1 John 19 & 21). 

There are so many precious promises regarding God's love.  1 John 5: 3 says, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.  Verse 4, Whatever is born of God, overcomes the world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

In order to keep God's commandments, we must abide in His Word, hiding it in our hearts that we not sin against Him.  Abide means to stay.  Therefore, we seek the Secret Place of the Most High, abiding in His Word every day, so that He gives us the desires of our hearts.

Fruit trees bear fruit.  Inside, there are many seeds, each representing a tree with fruit.  When we internalize all this, meditating – eating the Word – then that Love grows in us, molding and making us in His image. We are now, living epistles.  We abide in the vine – the LOVE – Jesus who is God – and He abides in us, and we ask what we will and it will be done for us!  

Very important to note is that if we plant a seed, we expect the kind of the tree to reproduce itself.  In the Garden, in the beginning with Adam, plants and animals, including man, reproduced after their kind.  In other words, if I plant squash, then, apples are not going to come up.  In order to reap apples, I must sow apples.  In order for me to reap love, I must sow love -- which includes all the characteristics in this chapter.

Now, that I know this, I must share what I know.  The Lord declares to the elder women in the Church to teach the younger women to love their husbands and children and describes how.  

If I say I love my husband, am I patient and kind 24/11?  Am I not jealous or boastful or proud or rude?  Do I not demand my own way? (this hurts) Am I never irritable?  Do I keep no record of being wronged -- thinking no evil?  (this probably is the bog down in all of us -- for if we are not forgiving and forgetting as our Lord does, we are holding up our on answers to prayer).  We must never give up!  We must never lose Faith!  We must always be hopeful and endure through every circumstance! 

Prayer Blanket: Time

Prayer Blanket: Time

Time

Make time!  Take time!  Time out!  On time!  Behind time!  Have time!  Mark time!  Time time American time!  Over time!  Out of time! 

Today was the fourth day with snow on the ground, and for us who live in Metro Atlanta, it is not the norm during the winter.  I've listened to all the voices around me, as we've gone from enjoying the wonder of the beauty of snow and enjoyed playing in it ...to being extremely stir crazy, doing without our mail and garbage pick-up -- things we do indeed take for granted.  Unusual for this area, the temperatures have remained very cold and the melting snow and ice today has refrozen and there was more slipping and sliding today than yesterday. 

As all this unfolds I am reminded of the first words I heard when the snow first blanketed us.  Be still and know that I AM God.  God is still on His throne, and all is right with the world.  As the voices have changed from voices of wonder to voices of complaint and unrest, I hear the Lord say,

"Just like Israel.  After I answer their prayers, they mumble and complain.  Did you not say, I need more time with my family.  I need time to clean my house.  I need time to read a book.  I don't have time to pray.  I  don't have time to study my Bible." Have I not heard you and answered your prayer?  Have I not given you four days, and many of you have tomorrow --  5 days.  Five is the number of grace!  Grace to you, my children.  You ask, and I answer..and you still murmur and complain."

If you place your hand into this water, it will not displace the water.  Yet, your hand is in the water.  Time is like this.  You must make time to do anything that you need to or want to do.  If you stop doing anything you've been doing everyday, it is hard to fit it back in.  You will wonder how you ever had time for that activity.  If you want to spend time with God, you must set aside and make your divine appointment with him everyday.  What a wonderful thing...time.  We pray,  "Lord, redeem the time.  In Jesus' Name Amen and Amen!"

He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

MUCH MORE!!!!!

One afternoon, I was half asleep, when I saw a picture in my mind.  It was as though I was looking through a window.  Outside stood a whole lot of people – many of them were people I knew – my parents, sisters, friends, co-workers, church members, etc.  – standing in the rain.  Some had their arms down straight beside them, with their heads bowed, and their eyes and mouth shut.  Some had their arms slightly raised with palms up.  Some had their arms raised high, and their mouths wide open turned up toward the rain.   And, lastly, some had everything like the last, but they had buckets and more buckets all around them.

                       The Lord said to me, “Who is it raining on?”

                        I said,  “Everyone, Lord.”

                                   He said,  Is everyone receiving the rain?

                       

                        I said,  No, those with their heads bowed, mouths

                        and eyes closed, and with their arms straight down

                        by their sides, aren’t receiving the rain.

                        He said, Who is receiving the most rain?

                        I said, The ones with the buckets!!! 

The rain represents the ‘out-pouring of the Holy Spirit.’  It is pouring out on ‘all flesh,’ just as Joel prophesied and Peter confirmed.  As you can see, you can receive different amounts of the Holy Spirit, and, you can even refuse to receive Him at all.  Those, not receiving any rain represent those who by never receiving the Holy Spirit, are never saved.  Jesus died for all men, but not all men receive Him as their Savior.  They cannot receive Him without receiving the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.”  Luke clearly says, How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?’ (Luke 11:23b). 

Father, I thank You for the clarity of Your Word.  I thank You that You have told us to ask.  In fact, Lord, You say, We have not because we ask not. You say, Ask and it shall be given to us. So, Lord, we commit ourselves to ask You for the Holy Spirit! 

This is taken from the spiritual glimpse presently on our website, http://www.womenwhopray.net/.  It came originally from the book The Inner Woman of the Heart, written by Teddi Lynne Moore Holt and the illustrations were drawn by her sister Beth Switzer. 

Prayer Blanket

Gorgeous!  Fantastic!  So exciting!  Georgia -- the deep south -- has more than 5 inches of snow blanketingfrom below Atlanta -- North. We are at this moment experiencing the GA blizzard of 2011!  LOL! 

No surprise either!  For the first time I can remember, we were warned for days that a winter storm was on its way. We heard what was called a winter storm warning over and over for days.  I guess the biggest surprise to us was that the meteorologists nailed it -- they actually forcasted a winter storm in GA, and it came to pass!  Who would have thunk it?

This area of Georgia, where I am blessed to live, is Metro-Atlanta.  I live in Gwinnett County, Georgia's largest county, and am NE of Atlanta.  My address is Dacula, GA, which is east toward Athens from Atlanta.  So, this is not normal for us!

Last year was extremely cold, but it didn't start this early.  Temperatures were very low on the Fahrenheit scale, and it lasted well into March.  Then those very cold temperatures rose quickly.  Our spring was short.  In fact, all my lovely flowers bloomed but died out very soon with the very high temperatures we had for GA last summer.  From the end of June, until almost the end of July, it never dropped below 90 degrees F, and several days were 100 degrees F or more.

Autumn didn't last long.  Once temperatures began to cool off, it became cold -- and now, very cold!  We missed our four distinct seasons this year, 2011.  I've always preferred living here to moving to FLA.  We have a home there, that we enjoy during the summer and some long weekends throughout the year, and our best friends live there.  However, Tim and I are both GA born and raised, and we love the distinct seasonal change.  We love the mountains and the beach, but we love metro Atlanta where our boys and our grandchildren all live and our siblings.

As I enjoy the snow, from inside my warm house, there's a sense of hush over my home.  There's no noise from the street in front of my house because no cars, trucks, or motorcycles are racing by my house.  All is still.  There's a silence that cannot go unnoticed.

As I stop and think about the snow...as the Psalms say selah, which means stop and think.. I hear the hushed whisper, Be still and know that I AM GOD.  Though it is a whisper...though there is a silence...or quietness...that I can't quite describe ..I also sense such a warning.  Like the admonishment in Revelation to the 7 churches, Let he that hath and ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.



Notice that with all the warning of the storm coming, there were many out who became stranded on the expressways around and through Atlanta, GA.  Of course, there were a those that had to go to or from work, and they might have been caught in the traffic jam that looked like a parking lot.  Others were not heeding the warning to stay home and off the roads, some who just don't follow anyone's directions.

Now that all is stopped around me...no traffic, no neighbors, no noise.  Only my husband here, who is never home, and he's moving in a slower pace...hardly talking at all today...so this is a great moment to blog. 

Prayer is such a wonderful way of life!  It is a mindset!  Abiding in the Lord...staying in Him...requires continual prayer.  Most of us don't want to pray all the time..we have so many other things to do.  However, prayer is the key to all those things running smoothly. 

I've always prayed, even from a child, or thought I was praying.  I've begged the Lord ...pleaded with Him...about many things.  For many years, I was not always sure if He answered my prayer or not.  I did not know how to pray according to His Word!  I did not know to pray His Word! 

The Word says that, If I abide in Him, and His Word abides in me, I shall have whatever I ask...If I pray according to His Word, then He hears me and gives me my petitions...If I delight myself in Him, then He gives me the desires of my heart. 

Now, that doesn't sound like what I was taught...what I've heard my elders say.  I've heard that God answers but His answer may be no.  I actually can't find that in the Word.  I'm sorry if I am upsetting the apple cart, but there's no where in the Word, that says that God refuses His children.  I mean, if I ask for a cadillac, then, I might not get one, but is that prayer?  Is that praying according to His Word?

His Word says that parents provide for their children.  Asking for a vehicle to drive is praying according to His Word because you need the car to get to your place of employment.  However, if there are other ways to get to your place of employment while you wailt for the car or truck, that doesn't mean He said no.  He may be putting you in a place, so that you will grow into the person He's making you to be.  You may need to ride a bus, or share a ride with a co-worker because the Lord may have an assignment for you before He gets you the car. Sometimes, the only way we go into a hospital is if we or a family member are sick.  There may be a nurse or doctor that He's sending you to win into the Kingdom.  You may be the very vessel that God has chosen for that divine appointment.

Now, maybe, it's time to connect this beautiful snow to prayer. Our environment has been blanketed in snow -- our yards, our roofs, our decks, our roads, our trees, etc.  Daily, I pray what the Lord named for me the Prayer Blanket.  He said that we are to blanket the earth with His Word.  Isaiah 55 declares that God's Word goes forth and accomplishes what He purposes for it to do!

Jesus asked His disciples, as He prayed that the cup pass from Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Can you not tarry one hour?  What had He asked them to do while He was alone with His Father?  To pray.  So, does God want us to pray and hour?  Yes.

How often does God want us to pray and hour?  I believe everyday.  The early Church met everyday and prayed as well as eating together.  The watchman on the walls of Jerusalem were in place everyday -- not once in awhile -- and they took their watch!  Isaiah 52 says that the watchmen will see the coming of Zion.  Glory!  He asks for watchmen not to give Him any rest until He establishes Jerusalem. 

We forget that God has vessels to accomplish mighty feats!  He uses people -- flesh -- to usher in major events.  Without Noah, there'd be not Ark!  Without Nehemiah, there would have been no wall!  Without Joseph, there would have been no Exodus!  Without Moses, no 10 commandments.  Without Joshua and Caleb, no entrance to the Promised Land.

God says, He's looking for an intercessor, in order not to bring judgment.  Jesus said that if there is a watchman -- on watching over his house -- then the thief couldn't come to steal, kill, or destroy.  Now, we're back to he that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.


I believe that the snow is a visual for me of just how the prayer blanket covers our tent.  Our tent is all the people of our past, present, and future.  It's all of my Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world that the Lord has given me.  I have Kingdom authority, and everywhere I place my foot, or tire, or whoever I reach by telephone, or email, or website, or fb, or blog, that I have the authority to represent my Jesus, my Savior and Lord, and reconcile whosoever to Christ. 

                  Prayer Blanket  


Wherever Christ be lifted up, He'll draw all men.  People don't need me to tell them they are a sinner -- they know it.  They need me to reconcile them to Christ. Women need to know that they are loved by me, and that no matter what they have done, that I will still love them.  If I can love them, then, they realize that there's something different about me, and they want to know what I have that they don't.  The Lord has delivered this Pharisee!  I am no longer self-righteous!  I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

It is true that there are terrible sins, but as Paul said, I am the greatest of sinners. Well, so am I!  My sins crucified my Lord, Jesus, just like Paul's and all other men and women in this earth.  Knowing this has freed me to forgive others.  How can I not when He forgave me!  Freely I have received the Lord's forgiveness, therefore, I freely forgive. 

My Lord, says, to pray for all men because it is not His will that any perish but that all come to repentence.  Therefore, it is not my will that any perish but that all come to repentence.  If I don't forgive, if I retain sin against people, then God retains it.  For whosesoever sin I remit (forgive) are remitted (forgiven), and whosesoever sin I retain (keep) is retained (kept).  As a reconciler, with that ministry given to me by God, through Jesus, I have the right and responsibility -- the authority -- to be forgiven of trespasses as I forgive trespasses, and to forgive -- to remit and not retain -- sin, so that people be forgiven and not have their sin retained against them.

Dutch Sheets talks about paga, the place where heaven and earth meet.  The place where we, as priests and intercessors before God for all in our tent -- all our territory -- bring God and people together -- reconciling them.  We hear from our God and we speak the oracles of God to those we've been given -- our tent -- and we take all needs and requests -- all petitions -- to God in behalf of those in our tent.  Our tent is made up of all those we claim for the kingdom -- every place through our life where we've placed our foot -- wherever we've lived, worked, been, etc. We take the Kingdom by force. 

Since asked by God -- and I was prostrate before Him, boohooing, with a friend of mine hovering over me not knowing what was happening but that it was Holy --  to stop praying my prayer but to pray His, I have not been the same!  For 8 years now, I have prayed the Word only during my quiet time.  About 7 1/2 years ago, two wonderful women joined me.

We pray the prayer blanket for more than one hour, everyday, with at least three of us!  The Lord has blessed us exceedingly, above and beyond, all that we could hope or think.  As I pray the Word, I know the Word better.  That Word that is health to all my flesh!  That Word that became flesh and dwelt among us!

As a linguist -- a specialist in my language -- which is English, I know that we can substitute synonyms, or in math, after we find x, we substitue or plug in the answer wherever x is.    Now, re-looking at the scripture where Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.
This being so means that I can say, The Word is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I can also say, In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God and Jesus was God.  It's not that all that believe in Jesus can say the word Jesus.  It's not that they believe He is God's son.  What differentiates us from all others in this earth is that we believe Jesus is God! 

I pray the Word everyday for more than one hour.  My mind is transformed by the washing of water by the Word!  Thank You, Lord, for the transforming of my mind, that I have the mind of Christ!  That I not wrestle with flesh and blood, Lord, but that I slay the enemy -- the adversary -- the devil himself -- with the Word -- the sword of the Spirit -- the Holy Spirit of God's sword!  I am no longer be part of the army that kicks its wounded when they are down.  I no longer tear down my house with my mouth. I do not castrate my husband with the words of my mouth!  I do not allow my tongue -- my mouth -- to sin against You, Lord! 

I thank You, Lord, that I am no longer a child, that thinks like a child and does childish things, but I am a man (the female gender) but just the same the man that is spoken of in 1 Cor. 13.  I put off the old man and put on the new man!  I choose not to walk in the flesh but to walk in the Spirit.  I am crucified with Christ.  It's no longer me, but it is Christ Jesus living in me.  I live in this flesh by Faith in the Lord Jesus.  I overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of my testimony. I am a son of God!

How do I pray the Word -- speak the Word -- without practicing the Word!  Praying the Word everyday brings the Word up when I need it -- which is all the time -- instead of my feeble, powerless, angry, fearful, anxious, unworthy, etc., words.  When you ask me to pray, I pray the Word!  My opinion means nothing.  It is flesh and carnal.  Unless I pray the Word of God for you, I pray words that are tossed  on a wave...bouncing to and fro...not going forth and knocking down strongholds...slaying our enemy.

Funny about this blogging...I could just write on and on...but I believe I need to turn my attention to that wonderful husband of mine..as he is piddling...out in the cold.  Our kids...Ted, Cassie, and Lili...have just come by and left...Fun!  I really can speak English...I am a real person...I just know that as I abide in the Lord and His Word abides in me...I have what I ask for!  My thoughts, are His thoughts, so I know He will answer my petitions.  I am a friend of God! 

That sounds like the next blog.....luv u!