Category: Prayer

This is war. Day4

Do we limit our lives to being as only humans of flesh, bounded by life-long accomplishment, by race, by nationality, or by social status? Can we see our value beyond the mortality? If humans have no spirit and soul, what is the difference between a human corpse and a piece of dead meat on the cutting board?
So we should ask: Who gives each human a spirit and soul? The Bible says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of the belly.” (Proverbs 20:27) All humans are given conscience to tell good or evil. However, contrary to animals, humans can suppress their conscience by their pride or prejudice, which are called sins that numb our conscience. The danger of sins turns our hearts hard like a rock, senseless to the pain of soul. Consequently, we lose the desire to look beyond our limitation to the God, our life-giver.
That’s why people feel desperate and doomed while facing the insecurity in pain. That’s why people seek to end their life in “dignity” while they consider having all the fatal pain and dysfunctional body as shame. Therefore, they proclaim they have right to deserve a mercy killing (or Physician-Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, medical killing) for escaping the pain and hopelessness. Nevertheless, they are offending God, who gives them life, by downgrading the value of humans to mere animals.
Without pain, we don’t know we are in bleeding danger. The inner pain of desiring the human dignity should lead us to seek help for getting healed, not for the body, but for the soul. Jesus Christ is the way for you to come to the God, our Creator, for a conscience-restored soul.
So I pray: God, you are holy and merciful. You want to make Your children holy as royal priests ruling over the earth. We praise Your great and awesome name for your splendid wonder and Your almighty work. May Your salvation come upon the people who need Your mercy.

This is war. Day3

Be still. The Holy One is here.
Be still. For the presence of the Lord is here.
Be still. For the glory of Lord is shining all around.
Be still. For the power of the Lord is moving in this place. He comes to cleanse and heal.
Many years ago, I visited a Taiwanese friend in Taipei, who studied in the same graduate school with me in New York City. She told me how she became a Christian. At the last time we saw each other in NYC, I prayed with her before I left for Minnesota. “You said I am a Christian after I prayed with you.” She told me. “I did?” I totally forgot what I said to her.
I remembered I answered her questions with my limited knowledge of Bible during the year working in the school campus. But her faith is God’s work, not mine. I only happened to be the messenger to tell her the good news at that moment. And God gave her the faith to receive Jesus Christ as her Savior.
Later, she told me her story of faith, which amazed me. Right after she became a Christian, she traveled in Puerto Rico by herself. She didn’t speak Spanish but she had a pure faith to the Heavenly Father and believed He would guide her safely. In Puerto Rico, for several times, when she was not sure where to go next, there’s always a person showing up in the corner and pointed her the direction. After she graduated, she gave up the opportunity in USA and decided to go back to Taiwan for desiring to share the gospel with her whole household.
When she waved goodbye to me after our meeting in Taiwan, I saw her as my dear sister and my heart was so touched by God’s love. We could be stranger or even enemy in this world, but God chose us for each other to love each other by adopting us to His family. And He fills His own love to our hearts so that we can love each other.
So I pray: Lord, You come to cleanse our sins and heal the wounds in our hearts. Your power is moving in this land. Thank You for the work of salvation has been done. Thank You for healing and restoring our lives to the original beautiful status. Thank You for patiently waiting for us to grow in our faith. Therefore, we resolve to strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees. We take action on sinning no more for making level paths for our feet. So that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. (refer to Hebrews 12:12-13)
Be still: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQWurJbhMhI

This is war. Day2

What is justice? I recently interviewed a judge and asked him this question. He cannot give me the definition. He only said that different judges may have different opinion about individual case. Therefore, he applies his experiences from the past to do his best in the judgement.
The Bible says, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side.” (Psalms 97:2b-3). However, for God guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked, Christians can rejoice in Him, who reigns the whole universe.
I read the book called “Surviving Hitler: A boy in the Nazi death camps”, which is about the Jewish young man survived in the Nazi concentration camp through holding the hope of seeing his family someday and having God’s grace from other people’s help. After the war was over, he ran out of the cell in great excitement and told other prisoners the good news. Some people didn’t dare to believe the freedom finally came to them. But when they saw all the German soldiers left, they were overjoyed.
Are you still in your own prison of the evil darkness? Jesus Christ has come to set the people who believe in Him free. God is just but He also has great mercy. That’s why God sent Jesus Christ to come to the world for bringing the good news of freedom, peace and joy established in His Kingdom. He wants to give mercy to the people who know they are suffering in the darkness. He wants to set them free.
Jesus Christ is the good news for the people who need to see there’s a heavenly hope in depression, painful illness, handicap or coma; there’s joy in Jesus Christ to persevere the believers to the eternal life. Come to Him. Our God reigns. Praise His name!
So I pray for my neighbors to desert the evil taste and come to love the truth and justice. I pray God reigns in their household and the neighborhood.
https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Hitler-Nazi-Death-Camps-ebook/dp/B008TW3J22/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1507131644&sr=8-11&keywords=poland+nazi+survivor

This is war. Day1

Right after I finished the writing, I sang the song, “Shine, Jesus. Shine” and worshiped the Lord. With the full armor of Spirit, I set out to pray in my neighborhood. The witch across the street stood tall. I firstly passed by that house, with my song playing on from my phone, I sang and prayed:
Jesus Christ’ name is lifted up high. Jesus Christ reigns in this land and neighborhood. Shine through the darkness, Jesus. Reveal the sins, selfishness, bondage, darkness and destroy them in Your Truth and Light. Shine, Jesus. Send out Your Word to the land and let there be light.
While I prayed, a white butterfly flied close to me and lingered by my side. So I prayed: May the Holy Spirit come down to the neighborhood and fill the hearts of people.
Bring them out of darkness into light, out of death into life.
The rain started to fall and I thought it’s time to go home. When I walked close to my house and saw the witch across the street has bent down from the waist after my walking-and-praying around 20 minutes. It seemed an encouragement from God’s victory. So, I went back to walk to the nearby Jewish tabernacle and prayed: May Jesus Christ flood the land and the congregation with His mercy and grace. Open their eyes to see Jesus Christ as their Savior and the Lord.
The rain stopped for a while and started again. But I felt the need to go farther and I had the song play while I passed by the houses. I prayed: Jesus Christ is victorious. He reigns. All the knees will bow down to Him because His name has been exalted higher than any names in the heaven, on the earth and under the earth by the almighty God.
I went home after one hour and gave all the glory to God.

This is war

One week before Halloween last year, the neighbor across my house erected a purple inflatable witch with a black hat on the top and green fingers like craws stretching out in the front yard. This is the beginning of my fighting of prayer. Every morning, I walked by and prayed in my neighborhood. In the end of day, the witch inflatable leaked air and bent the waist bowing down. However, my neighbor was determined and inflated it again each day. So I kept praying. On the night of Halloween, this witch was totally “dead”, lying flat on the ground.

After the victory last year, I plan to pray again one week before Halloween this year. But my neighbor took out the witch inflatable in the beginning of October. So I am going to pray earlier than the date I planned.

The Bible tells us: Fearing God is hating evil (Proverbs 8:13). I once saw a festival of “Pagan’s pride” celebrated in Minnehaha Fall Park. The attendants who dressed up for that exactly like for the Halloween: witch, painted face of death, and horrible figures. This tell us that Halloween is the display of pagans’ pride, who are proud of being company with darkness, rather than enjoying the lovely light and truth.

My children thought I am not “Americanized” enough to celebrate the Halloween. I told them the story from an American missionary, uncle M, who was invited to share his story in our Sunday School. He has been a missionary for more than 20 years. When he travels to Asia and Africa, he saw how the devil persecuted Christians from torturing or killing them to burning down their churches. He told me that he never wants to give Satan a foothold to rob him of God’s truth by naively or ignorantly participating in the evil activities.

Remember: One step closer to the evil darkness is one step away from the righteous God. And our God is a consuming fire (Hebrew 12:29). His justice will burn down all the evil unrighteousness. Only through Jesus Christ’ blood of righteousness like fire-proof coat in the fire, the forgiven sinners won’t be consumed.

Please join me to pray for our family, neighborhood and the nations. I have asked God for the strategy and I want to write it down for calling all the saints to pray to advance His Kingdom.

Psalm 96 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for He comes, He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His truth.

Therefore, my prayer this week will firstly praise God. I choose several songs focusing on His attributes and sing aloud at home or walking in the neighborhood. When you worship in singing, you can feel free to pause and pray whatever God prompts in your heart.

Shine, Jesus shine.
How Great is our God.
Majesty.
Our God reigns.
Holy, Holy, Holy.
Great is thy faithfulness.
Then sings my soul.

This is war. Day14

When would you cry out to God in your trouble? There might be three situations coming to our reality:
Some people may suffer for bitter labor in an unfair working environment. But their attitude of pride put their hearts in constant grumbling and the deepest gloom, like prisoners suffering in iron chains.
Some people may become foolish to beat themselves up by demanding things in their own selfish ways. They become depressed and loathe all food, drawing near the gates of death.
Other people may suddenly encounter disaster or crisis in life and are at their wits’ end. Their courage are melted away in their peril.
However, there’s a hope.
The Bible says: “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.” (Psalms 107:19)
It’s not a shame to have trouble. But it’s a shame not to ask for help. The good and loving God is opening His ears to listen and His arms to embrace you when you ask Him in the name of Jesus Christ for wisdom and deliverance with a broken and contrite heart .
So I pray: Lord, God, our pride and evil bondage keep us from crying out to You in our trouble. When the situations strike us, may You give us humility to come to Jesus Christ for help. Then, You will bring us out of darkness and break away our chains. You will send forth Your word and heal us. You will still the storm of our life and guide us to the desired haven. As a result, we can sing our thanks and praise to You with all our hearts.

This is the war. Day12

A baby boy was born blind and abandoned on the street in Taiwan. He was sent to the orphanage and well taken care by the staff. He grew up with a joyful heart because he received a lot of love. Whenever he struggled with his physical blindness, he remembered how greatly he was loved by “many fathers and many mothers” in the orphanage. The eyes of his spirit are bright.
Later on, a pastor taught him to play Saxophone and he loved the music and carried the musical instrument with him all the time. He studied in the special aid school called Huei-Ming, which organized a music group for the students to play music. This group was invited to perform in many places including prisons. The prisoners were touched by his gratitude to God in his weakness.
The joyful attitude of the handicapped people often make healthy people feel shameful because the physical healthy people with unhealthy soul often take what they are given for granted.
Therefore, if we often feel not satisfied in our heart, why not come to ask God to check if there’s any illness in our soul?
The Bible says: “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.’” (Romans 3:10-11)
So I pray: Lord, God, “No one is good” is Your diagnosis of every person’s spiritual health. You, as our Creator, know humans’ situation so well that You sent Jesus Christ to come to heal the brokenness in our soul. May You open our spiritual eyes to see our souls are sick and need Your healing through receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior and the Lord.

This is the war. Day11

If you receive foreign currency, without knowing which country it is from and its foreign exchange-rate, you have no clue about how much it is worth.
Likewise, if you want to know your value, you have to find the right measurement from the origin that you are from.
Knowing your value is the only way of restoring your self-esteem. But with what unit do you measure your value? The world teaches us to value our value by the unit of social status, financial condition, people’s praise, virtues, or achievement, etc. But sooner or later, such kind of self-esteem will pop out like bubble when we don’t live up to the standard of the secular measurement.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to reveal to humans the right measurement for our value: we are created in the image of the infinite God.
Even though we are mortal and finite in this life, we are given potential and power to rule over the earth. Don’t you want to know this potential and power He grants each of us? If you do, how will you find it?
Jesus uses the natural law to explain the spiritual law. He says:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)For bearing much fruit in your life, your pride and self-dependence need to go away. Look at a farmer. He plants the seed and then waits in expectation for God to make it grow. Likewise, you first receive and plant the seed of the gospel to your heart, which is Jesus Christ came to save you by His sacrifice for your sins. Moreover, through regularly coming to learn His truth like watering the seed, and confessing your sins to Him like weeding in the field of your heart, then wait for God’s timing. The seed in your heart in due time will grow to a beautiful abundance of life, one of a kind, designed by Him.
So I pray: Lord, God, please give us a heart of fearing You, not people including ourselves. Therefore, we can hate sins and die to sins, then we will be alive to God in Jesus Christ.

This is the war. Day10

Have you ever cried out to God in the midst of your trouble? Are you seeking His help or wanting to find out what He desires for you? God promises that if you truly seek Him, you will find Him.
God is good and doesn’t force us to love Him even though He has the ability. But He patiently shows us how much He loves us. Every morning, the sun faithfully shines up in the sky to provide heat and light to all the creature. A healthy human body functions in a complicated but efficient way. We are given taste buds for enjoying all kinds of flavors of food rather than just devouring stuff for digestion.
However, when we take all the good things offered by the infinite Heavenly Father for granted like a spoiled child, we may question God in our trouble, demanding an answer by saying something like: “If God is good, why does this happen to me?”
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” (Romans 9:20)
Do we really want to know the answer? Or are we justifying our anger by blowing it out to God? This question is not wrong, but could be hidden with a wrong attitude. For a truth seeker, this question can be rephrased to a prayer like: “In the midst of disaster, what does God want me to learn?” or “How does God help people like me overcome in this situation?” Asking a good question with a humble attitude may bring you beneficial answers.
So I pray: God, when we come to you with a wrong attitude, our questions often reveal the evil darkness in our hearts that we are not thankful and respectful for the all-knowing Creator as finite creature. Lord, please forgive our self-exalting pride to question You in an arrogant way and please teach us to ask You good questions with humility.

This is the war. Day9

If someone lies to you once, it is normal that you give what he says a second thought: is he telling the truth this time?
However, if someone promises you hundreds of things long time ago and he remembers and fulfills them all, it is natural that you want to trust this person with all your heart.
Henry Blackaby, author of “Experiencing God”, refers to the Bible not as what “it says” but what “He says”, meaning what God says. As the author of “The battle plan for prayer” mentioned, the Bible is not like other books you read. When you open the Bible, the Writer of the words is there with you. God is here. God is speaking. God is listening.
Once, I prayed before I opened the Bible to read, I thought about what Holy Spirit is about. I usually pray to God by calling Him “Lord” or “Jesus”. But that day, I heard myself praying, “Abba Father, do I have Holy Spirit in my heart?” Of course, I didn’t hear anything audible. But when I opened the Bible to the page I planned to read, I saw this verse before my eyes: Galatians 4:6, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.””
I was shocked to “hear” the instant reply from God. He is kindly telling me what I want to know to assure of His love for me as His child. Since then, I always pray to God to lead me to read His words.
If you don’t know who God and Jesus Christ is and never read Bible before, why not give yourself a chance to meet Him in the Bible with a seeking heart?
So I pray: Lord, God, the Bible is Your word to tell us about Yourself and teaches us to know who we are so that we may be complete, fully equipped for every good work You design for our lives. May You open our hearts to understand Your divine message through reading the Bible.