A Conscious Effort!

Wow! So much has happened since the last time I have written a blog.



As of late I have made a pledge to myself, my wife, my family, and most importantly God that I would weed out the negativity in my life.



So with that said, God is good. Check that God is AWESOME.



Today was mine and Diana's second week back at DCW. For the past two years we had been attending Center Pointe/Axiom Church where God had worked so much in mine and Diana's lives that we are still baffled by all of the blessings and trials we have made it through during not only our time there, but the months prior to us going there when we really we not attending anywhere.



Mike Simmons delivered probably one of my favorite messages I think that I have ever heard, and last weeks message by Steve was no slouch either. Both were very powerful.



But today's sermon spoke to me in such a special way. Mike taught out of Luke 8, on how the disciples woke Jesus out of a dead sleep to deal with a serious storm while they were at sea. I love Mike's analogies. He also read a paragraph from "When Heaven Invades Earth" by Bill Johnson basically saying that we only have heavenly power over the storms that we can sleep through.



So anyways, while listening to the sermon (he was about ten minutes or so from wrapping it up), I felt my hands start to get very hot and I felt like I was supposed to go and pray for Bonnie Willoughby not knowing really anything about her recovery from cancer, but I felt this tremendous fear come over me. So a minute or two after the music started I went over to pray for Bonnie and I stood there praying for her I felt that fire (heat) just leave my fingertips. It was amazing. I had faith, but so often Christians are afraid to step out and express their faith. I have been guilty of that many, many times.

Well after a couple of songs into the praise service, Mike got back on the mic and said that he felt as though God was telling him to repent of fear, that instantly spoke to me. As soon as he asked for people to come forward one other couple beat me to the front. I wanted to rebuke that fear out of my heart. It doesn't belong there because God did not put that into my heart Satan has, and Satan has no authority over my body because I am a Son of the Most High God.

Another thing that has really grapsed me since returning to the DCW scene was our small group we attended a week and a half ago. Mike and the group were reading out of that same book Mike referred to in the sermon, and one of the clips that caught my attention since then was "when we pray we should praise God 80% of the time and make our requests 20% of the time. I have made "A Conscious Effort" to implement that into my prayer life daily. Man it has changed how I pray, it has changed my desire to pray. I always felt as though prayer was a chore, but I love praising God for all of the things He has done in my life, and over the last week and a half, I have started praising God for not only the things that He has done, but the things I know He is capable of doing and the things I know He will do.