A Closer Look at Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, 

thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)

This verse is one of the most known and quoted verses in the Bible.  It has been used many times to bring encouragement to people facing difficult times...and rightly so!  It shows the heart of our Father God who takes pleasure in blessing His children!  I recently came upon this verse because God laid another verse a few verses later on my mind, and I was on a quest to find out where that verse was in the Bible.

One recent morning before the sun rose, God woke me up to pray and intercede for someone. When I asked God how I was to pray for this person, I heard in my spirit, "That he would seek Me and find Me when he seeks for Me with His whole heart." I did not remember where that verse was found, so I got up and looked for it. I found it in Jeremiah 29:13.  I immediately recognized that it was just past Jeremiah 29:11 that everyone quotes for encouragement.  I thought about how so many people quote what God does for us, giving us a hope for a great future, but how often do we emphasize what He asks us to do?  Let's look at the two verses immediately following Jeremiah 29:11:

¹² Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  ¹³ And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Many quote Jeremiah 29:11 when they are going through hard times, but how many quote the next two verses? How many make a decision to call on the Lord in prayer, knowing He will listen? How many seek Him with their whole heart during a time when their hearts are so broken?  That's what God is calling us to do! In fact, it is during those times of "captivity" that He asks us to do just that.

I went back and read the beginning of the chapter and found out that this was a letter written by Jeremiah in Jerusalem to those Jews who were in Babylon--away from their home land and in captivity.  No matter why they were in captivity, God tells them in verse seven to pray for peace in the place where they were:

⁷ And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

I find it interesting that God said He was the one who caused them to be taken captive. That messes with a lot of people's theology, so we'll just let it sit! At any rate, God tells them to pray for the peace of the place where they are in bondage and they will have peace there.  How many of us complain about the people around us that seem to be holding us captive instead of praying for them?  This is a different perspective: Pray for those who do you harm to have peace, and then you, too, will have peace! It makes sense if you think about it, but it sure does not come naturally when someone hurts you.  That's why we have to seek God and let Him do it through us. Like another verse says, "He is our peace, who has broken down every wall!" (See Ephesians 2:14).

It is not until the next chapter that God promises to bring His children in Babylon to their promised land.  Praise God for the hope He gives us during the midst of our trials! Thanks be to the Lord for hearing us when we cry out to Him and drawing us to seek Him when we are faced with adversities in life! His gift of peace in our land of captivity never ceases to amaze me! What a joy to know that He promises to bring us through these times to our "promised land"....that being the calling on our life for ministry on earth AND the ultimate gift of eternal life in Heaven!  Enjoy the journey, friends!

Spiritual Warfare Prayer

I posted this "Spiritual Warfare Prayer" from my book Loving God with All Five Senses a couple of years ago. It has been requested that I post it again. Click here to purchase the entire book in Kindle format for only $2.99. To get a hard copy, go to my website or amazon. (Legacy Ministries gets more funding if you get it through Legacy instead of amazon.) The book is good for individual or group Bible study.

"Thank you, Lord, for placing the Helmet of Salvation on my head. It will protect me against any thought-bomb the enemy tries to place in my mind. I will not take them on as my thoughts in the Name of Jesus! I place my thoughts in Your hands. Please forgive me for the thoughts I hold on to that are not of you. I ask you to change my mind set to be more like the mind of Christ. Thank you for transforming me by the renewing of my mind.

Thank you, Lord, for placing the Breastplate of Righteousness on me. It will protect my heart. Lord, I place all my emotions in Your hands. Help me to remember that You are with me regardless if I “feel” it or not. Please forgive me when I fear. Thank you that though my righteousness is as filthy rags, yet You have clothed me with Your righteousness because of what You did at Calvary!

Thank you, Lord, for placing the Belt of Truth on my waist. Please reveal any hindrance or lie I have been holding onto that would keep me from trusting You and replace it with Your Truth, oh Lord! Help me to let go of my perspective of the Truth and seek Your perspective knowing that Your Truth will set me free! Help me also to have a deaf ear to the lies of Satan and give me ears to hear what the Spirit says.

Thank you, Lord, that my feet are shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace. I am being prepared for the calling of God on my life to take the Gospel of Peace to others. Help me to remember that no matter what I go through, You will use the circumstances in my life, both good and bad, to prepare me for the destiny You have chosen for me. Thus I can have peace in the midst of the storm. Thank you that every step I take will be in Peace and I can take that Peace to people wherever I go!

Thank you, Lord, for putting within my hand the Shield of Faith, whereby I can quench every fiery dart of the wicked one. Help me to remember that Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen and that without Faith it is impossible to please You. Forgive me when I have gone forward in my own strength and abilities instead of totally relying on You. Help me to dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High where I will be protected from any onslaught of the enemy.

Thank You, Lord, for giving me the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God—the only offensive weapon. All the other armor You give me is for protection, and I thank You for just how protected I really am! This weapon is the only thing I need to combat the enemy. It is really an arsenal of many weapons that are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Forgive me when I fail to read and study Your Word when You have prompted me to do so. I choose to read Your Word, meditate on Your Word, memorize Your Word and use Your Word against the enemy in due time. Help me to not fret over what I will say, but to trust Your Spirit to give me just the right Word in the very hour I need it. I do not want to “debate” Your Word thereby casting pearls before swine, but I will speak Your Word to those who are hungry for it as well as proclaim to the enemy “It is Written!” Remind me also, that my enemy is not flesh and blood—it is not any person, including myself—but it is Satan and all the principalities with him. Therefore, I pray that You would remind me to not let corrupt communication proceed out of my mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And having done all, I will stand! Thank You that the battle is not mine, but it is Yours! Thank You for the victory in Christ Jesus who came to destroy the works of the enemy! In reality, the enemy has already been crushed under Your feet by your death and resurrection. He is therefore under my feet as I trust in You and let You dwell in me! I am more than a conqueror through You who love me with a perfect love that casts out all fear! And for that I will ever be grateful!"

The Necessity of Solitude with God

As things are moving forward with Legacy Ministries, God continues to remind me of the importance of getting alone with Him. That is why we are opening a prayer room for people to come in to get in the Lord's presence away from the busyness of everyday life. Starting April 1, we will be open at the Equipping Center for regular business hours of Monday - Friday from 9AM - 4PM. People can drop in anytime to the "secret place" in the prayer room and to our lending library to check out books.

There are many reasons why getting alone with God is so vitally important:

1. I never want my work for God to substitute for my intimate time with God.
2. I need to seek God's perspective on everything to lesson the stress my perspective (and others') brings.
3. How can I expect to hear from God if I don't take time to stop and listen?
4. I don't know want to go in my own direction. I may have some "good" ideas, but they are in vain if they are not God's ideas.
5. I don't know how to pray until I get alone with God and let Him pray through me.
6. My soul gets aligned to my spirit where the Holy Spirit resides instead of being so pulled by my flesh that is sometimes distracted by the cares of the world.
7. Just being in quiet in His presence without always praying my "list" is sometimes just what I need to be refreshed!
8. I need to be "poured in to" so I can go back out and "pour out His love" to those He sends me who need it.
9. Those things that distract me tend to disappear in His light!

The list goes on and on! I like the commentary that Brian Hardin said on the March 22 podcast of the Daily Audio Bible. (Go to www.dailyaudiobible.com to find out about this great resource!) He was talking about how many times we read in the gospels about Jesus pulling away from the crowd and getting alone to orient Himself to the Father. He went on to say,

"Is that component missing? Could that be why things seem so chaotic? Could that be why it’s a madhouse out there every day? Have we oriented ourselves to God? Because in doing so, we realign ourselves with the way things really are. And if we are living with the understanding of how things really are, then a lot of the circumstances that blow up around us and invite us to distraction each day, they don’t even matter. They don’t really even have any consequence. We’re just sort of addicted to crises management sometimes. Some of these things can just be let go; they just don’t matter."

GOOD STUFF!! I challenge you to look for ways to get alone with God this week...better yet, today! Let me know how it changes you! :)

Spiritual Warfare Prayer

It seems as though many people close to me are facing attacks from the enemy right now. I know that as long as we are on this earth we will face trials. Jesus promised that. That's one of His promises we don't like to face. He said, "In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33) The good news is that in the end, God's Word prevails over every attack of the enemy! In the meantime, we have to seek Him with our whole heart and receive His direction and Peace.

I have decided to take the "Spiritual Warfare Prayer" from my book, Loving God With All Five Senses, and post it for all you who are facing trials. It is based on the scripture passage from Ephesians the 6th chapter. I pray it will help you as you face those things that eventually will make you a better person.

"Thank you, Lord, for placing the Helmet of Salvation on my head. It will protect me against any thought-bomb the enemy tries to place in my mind. I will not take them on as my thoughts in the Name of Jesus! I place my thoughts in Your hands. Please forgive me for the thoughts I hold on to that are not of you. I ask you to change my mind set to be more like the mind of Christ. Thank you for transforming me by the renewing of my mind.

Thank you, Lord, for placing the Breastplate of Righteousness on me. It will protect my heart. Lord, I place all my emotions in Your hands. Help me to remember that You are with me regardless if I “feel” it or not. Please forgive me when I fear. Thank you that though my righteousness is as filthy rags, yet You have clothed me with Your righteousness because of what You did at Calvary!

Thank you, Lord, for placing the Belt of Truth on my waist. Please reveal any hindrance or lie I have been holding onto that would keep me from trusting You and replace it with Your Truth, oh Lord! Help me to let go of my perspective of the Truth and seek Your perspective knowing that Your Truth will set me free! Help me also to have a deaf ear to the lies of Satan and give me ears to hear what the Spirit says.

Thank you, Lord, that my feet are shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace. I am being prepared for the calling of God on my life to take the Gospel of Peace to others. Help me to remember that no matter what I go through, You will use the circumstances in my life, both good and bad, to prepare me for the destiny You have chosen for me. Thus I can have peace in the midst of the storm. Thank you that every step I take will be in Peace and I can take that Peace to people wherever I go!

Thank you, Lord, for putting within my hand the Shield of Faith, whereby I can quench every fiery dart of the wicked one. Help me to remember that Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen and that without Faith it is impossible to please You. Forgive me when I have gone forward in my own strength and abilities instead of totally relying on You. Help me to dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High where I will be protected from any onslaught of the enemy.

Thank You, Lord, for giving me the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God—the only offensive weapon. All the other armor You give me is for protection, and I thank You for just how protected I really am! This weapon is the only thing I need to combat the enemy. It is really an arsenal of many weapons that are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Forgive me when I fail to read and study Your Word when You have prompted me to do so. I choose to read Your Word, meditate on Your Word, memorize Your Word and use Your Word against the enemy in due time. Help me to not fret over what I will say, but to trust Your Spirit to give me just the right Word in the very hour I need it. I do not want to “debate” Your Word thereby casting pearls before swine, but I will speak Your Word to those who are hungry for it as well as proclaim to the enemy “It is Written!” Remind me also, that my enemy is not flesh and blood—it is not any person, including myself—but it is Satan and all the principalities with him. Therefore, I pray that You would remind me to not let corrupt communication proceed out of my mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And having done all, I will stand! Thank You that the battle is not mine, but it is Yours! Thank You for the victory in Christ Jesus who came to destroy the works of the enemy! In reality, the enemy has already been crushed under Your feet by your death and resurrection. He is therefore under my feet as I trust in You and let You dwell in me! I am more than a conqueror through You who love me with a perfect love that casts out all fear! And for that I will ever be grateful!"

Pray for our new president.

I came across another blog by Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine that is a great prayer guide for our newly elected US President. I urge you to go to it and read, "10 Ways to Pray for Barak Obama" by simply clicking on the title to this post. I am also stirred to pray for unity within the church after the effects of this campaign has left scars in many. Let's all remember who is in ultimately in charge. God is! He is the only One who sees the whole picture of what's going on with the economy, the presidential office, congress, supreme court, etc. As I said in the last post, we must seek His face! Then we will start seeing others with different views as He sees them.

I leave you with a praise report about the elections that you may not have heard. In all three states (California, Arizona, and Florida) that had propositions on the ballet about marriage, the vote was to protect the constitutional amendment protecting the definition of marriage to be a union between one man and one woman!

We interrupt this program to give you a special report!

Have you ever watched a program on TV and an announcer proclaimed, "We interrupt this program to give you a special report!"? That's exactly what I want to do. I want to get more feedback on my last post about Jesus stirring people and then give my thoughts about it, but I have to wait on that and blog what God is stirring in my heart this morning.

I woke up early (earlier than my flesh would have liked!) to that still small voice saying, "Seek My face!" I went to my computer and did a search in the Bible. Here are the verses I found:

2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Psalms 27:8 NKJ When You said, "Seek My face," My heart said to You, "Your face, Lord, I will seek."

Hosea 5:15 NKJ I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me."

I know that right now in light of the US presidential elections, we HAVE to do this! It's not just presidential elections, it is elections for congress, laws to protect marriage, the unborn, and may we not forget the future justices of the Supreme Court that will make rulings on many values we Christians hold dear. I pray that God will stir His people (ahh, where have we heard that before?!) and draw us to seek His face.

Now I want to hear from you about what you think that means to "seek God's face" and why that is so important. Hopefully we'll have more people chiming in, so keep your posts somewhat brief. I look forward to reading what everyone says!