All Nations hits the road

We are on our way to Alamo, Texas which is near the border of Mexico just outside of Mc Allen. Since this is the first time I am taking the students on a missions trip, I am greatly anticipating what God is going to do with them – in and through them.

Students of All Nations School of Ministry have been on several excursions including India, Hong Kong, Russia, and interior Mexico but never collectively on a school trip. There is definitely a shift in what is going on in school this year, actually in just about everything going on – spiritually, church-wise, even politically.

How smoothly one transitions, I believe, will depend on how astute one is to the Spirit of God. We’ve been praying about this shift we are sensing. It’s beyond church-as-usual or Bible school-as-usual so I don’t want to get stuck in a rut. It’s really a harvest shift. A movement from our inside out. From inside the church out. From inside the classroom to school outreaches. Basically from inside the heart of God out to a hurting and dying world via His people.

What does the total picture look like? I’m not sure yet so I am doing what I know to do and expecting God to illumine more as I am obedient to follow Him. 

Thoughts on Prayer (part 2)

Prayer should be vibrant and full of life. But have you ever felt like a failure in prayer because you didn’t live up to your prayer expectations? And next time you go to pray you feel overwhelmed or condemned, and as a result – again – no life in prayer. Here are a few keys to help you.  

How long should you pray? Prayers are not powerful because they are long. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome, Thessalonica, and Ephesus, saying he made mention of those groups often in his prayers. Do you think God moved in those churches in response to those brief prayers Paul lifted up to the Lord? He certainly did.

Let’s look at a couple more examples of lengths of prayer.

• Jesus talked about those who just put on a façade by making long prayers.
• He said to another group how we should always pray and not to faint.
• I Thes 5:17 says to pray without ceasing.
• Paul said to cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.
• Jesus often went up to a mountainside by Himself to pray or off somewhere by Himself. It is recorded that He would even pray all night. 

So what is the best length for you? The best is what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do. Go by the unction of the Spirit. Yield to the Spirit. 

But there will also be times when you will need to pull away and spend some serious time in prayer. You’ll know when you are finished when you are finished. Follow the unction – listen to your heart.

Thoughts on Prayer (part 1)

Busy? Aren’t we all! Yet God doesn’t give us exempt status from prayre just because we are busy. This is the time we should be praying more than ever. We need direction from the Lord in a big way. There are critical things taking shape among the nations of the world and especially in the US. Although it may look political – the truth of the matter is it is not. 

God didn’t make praying hard so we could all be able to do it. Try leaning on Him. If you need help with praying simply say, Lord I don’t know how to do this but can you help me? 

When Paul was teaching on freedom from the law he was saying how we’d been released from that which once restrained and held us captive. And now we serve under the obedience to the promptings of the Spirit in newness of life (Romans 7:6 Amp.)

Whether you realize it or not, the Holy Spirit works in you with gentle promptings throughout the day.  It could be a flash across your mind or a thought of someone you knew years ago.  That was the Holy Spirit prompting you not so you could tell someone you’ve been thinking about him or her. “My thoughts are with you…” What power is there in that? We are to do something with it. Because when the Holy Spirit gives you such a prompting, He wants you to pray.

How many times have you had someone on your heart off and on for days only to find out later they were really going through something? Many times we overlook these prompting to pray because we don’t realize how supernatural they are. We expect supernatural things to be more spectacular. We want thunder rumble, the clouds open and a voice saying - Pray for so and so! But most of the time, He just gives us an impression, quietly speaks name to our heart, or flashes someone’s face before us. 

Often, His promptings are so light and gentle that if you aren’t looking for them, you’ll either miss them altogether or mistake them for the natural. 

The reason it seems so natural is because you are born of the Spirit and it is the natural way for the Spirit to communicate with you through impressions or transmissions. The Holy Spirit is always at work in you revealing, disclosing and transmitting things to you from the Father.

As we go about our daily lives we can be yielding to the Spirit. We can be listening to our hearts, receiving transmissions from HQ and lifting them back up to the Lord. 

Positioned to Receive

It seems everyone is buzzing about 08/08 with the number eight signifying “new beginnings.” God often uses natural time clocks to reveal spiritual situations and I believe we are at the threshold of some big things. In July, our church was called to a time of prayer and fasting. We felt the Lord speaking to us from Joshua 3:5, “…Sanctify yourselves [that is, separate yourselves for a special holy purpose], for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” Each morning was set aside for group prayer.

It was a tremendous time as none of us wanted to miss out on anything God was doing. How exciting to know the Lord wants to do wonders in and through your life? And that He was basically telling us, Hey, set some time apart for Me. I need you to be ready to receive what I am about to do. He doesn’t want any of us to miss out on any of the wonderful things (new beginnings) He has planned for our lives. "Tomorrow" is now today. 

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is First Corinthians 2. More of it came alive to me during July. I began to focus on verse 14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him…” The Lord wants us in position to receive from Him and if your natural man is dominating every area of your life – emotions, decisions, appetites, passions, then you could very well miss out on what is happening in the realm of the Spirit.

A time of prayer and fasting is not a time of mourning or hardship. It’s a time to refocus or fine tune, to give the Lord and His plan precedence in your life. By focusing on Him, you are enlarging your capacity to receive from Him. Natural thinking often leans toward fear and unbelief, rejecting what God wants to do because it’s beyond “you”.

To accept what God is doing is to agree with Him. When He conveys a plan or direction, you say “yes”.  After all, if it’s His idea then He is responsible to make it happen. You just keep saying yes! The Bible refers to the mind of Christ. This is simply allowing yourself to think like Him. I know you are probably saying, but I thought Isaiah 55 says His thoughts are higher than our thoughts?

God’s ways and thoughts are higher but it doesn’t say it has to stay that way. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us so we can know the thoughts of God. (Study I Corinthians 2:9-16) Once God reveals His thoughts to you for your situations in life just start agreeing with Him. Don’t try to figure out the how’s. Thank Him that He is bringing His plan to pass. The next thing you know you’ll be living in your new beginning!

 

Step Out into Your New Beginning!

The freshness of spring is in the air! It's a time of new beginnings. The number 8 signifies new beginnings and I believe this is what the Lord is truly doing this year. In my own life, I am in the midst of moving to a new home and making several changes. We've just completed our 2nd year of All Nations School of Ministry. There is so much going on - it's exciting.

I want to challenge you to step out in the new things God has for you. It's so easy to sit in fear of "missing it" only to end up "missing it" by never taking the initiative. Let’s learn a few lessons from Matthew 14:24-31.

Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." And He said, "Come!" I believe the word “come” contained everything, every resource from heaven and earth for Peter to successfully accomplish what he believed Jesus wanted him to do. On that command, Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. The wind and the waves had been acting up constantly however because Peter was so focused on the “come” he didn’t seem to care about the conditions. We tend to do the same thing. We get very excited about what the Lord calls us to do but then after further examination we find all sorts of reasons why we can’t do it. At least Peter got out of the boat. I’d rather die trying than to sit back and do nothing.

“But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” Jesus didn’t tell him to “come” only if all the circumstances were perfect. He simply said “come” knowing He had the power to overcome any obstacles between failure and success.

“Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’” Jesus wasn’t mad at Peter because he stepped out of the boat but He did want to know why he would doubt the power behind Jesus’ command. Immediately without hesitation, Jesus loving hand reached out to Peter who dare tried his best to venture out where no one else in his group would.

Did you know Jesus was just doing what Psalm 37:23-24 says? “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way.” This means God not only sets up your steps but then he launches then with His mighty power. You might be thinking, what happens if I mess up while I am trying to step out in faith? If that happens I think you will see the same thing Peter did which is illustrated in Psalm 37:24. “When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.” Jesus will be there to help you back up, hold you steady, and walk with you through the adversity back to the boat. After all, the wind didn’t stop whipping around until after Jesus and Peter got in the boat. Jesus wanted to teach him he could walk on the water even when things were contrary.

God wants to use you to do great and mighty things in these days. There are so many people who need you to bring the message of hope and love in Jesus to them. Be bold to step out and find out how much of God’s resources are available to you to cause you to succeed in everything you do.

Arise, Shine, for your light has come.

Recently I was invited to speak at a Women's Christmas Event for Copperfield Church in Houston, TX. The event coordinator, April Driskell, asked if I had anything in my heart for a theme scripture for the ladies. The Lord impressed on me the verses from Isaiah 60:1-3. It tied in with the festivities of Christmas - the lights, bright colors, fun stuff.

As I mediated on this portion of scripture, the message began to grow and develop in me. So, I started writing it down. And writing and writing until a mini-book was created. It's going to print today so it will be ready for the Copperfield Church event on December 11. In case you are interested in attending, please go to http://www.copperfieldchurch.org/events. There will be 25 vendors with plenty of Christmas shopping available. Think of it as a smaller scale Nutcracker Market. It should be a lot of fun!

Here is an exert from my latest book, Arise, Shine.

You are a one-of-a-kind treasure to God. When you realize that, you’ll experience a supernatural, overflowing, victorious way of living. You’ll want to enjoy and prosper in all that God has provided. Likewise, you’ll want to help rescue others out of darkness. You’ll desire to see them, also, shining in their quest to live in the fullness of all that God has for them. This is the abundant life mankind is searching for.

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:1-3 NASB

Be encouraged. Your light has come! God’s glory has risen upon you; to rescue and help you, to strengthen and restore you. The light will overpower any darkness in your life!

An age-old battle has been going on since Adam and Eve met the devil in the Garden of Eden: The kingdom of light versus the kingdom of darkness. Although we were born into a sin-fallen world with evil all around us, that doesn’t mean we have to succumb to the darkness. Like the “default system” that comes with a computer, you have to make changes or you will be stuck with what you’ve got. For example, if you want a green background color on your computer screen, you must first get rid of the default color blue. If you don’t change it, every time you turn on your computer you’ll see a blue screen, because that’s what the default system offers. Thankfully, we are given a choice. We can stay in the default system this world offers, or we can choose to live in the new life Jesus purchased for us at the cross.

The Bible says in Ephesians 5:8, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Actually, you are so special to God that He’s called you out of darkness into His amazing light (1 Peter 2:9). Those are bold but true statements. We can choose to believe them and be thankful that we aren’t stuck in the obscurity of darkness. It is time to live in the light!

Author: Sandra Hughes
Publisher: Royal Press Publishing - Tulsa, OK, December 2007
Format: Paperback, 32 pages, 7 x 4.25
ISBN-13: 978-0-9723370-7-6
Retail: $ 3.50

This book, Arise, Shine, will be available for purchase after December 11. Please contact the ministry for details.

Preparing for All Nations

Here is my first post. We are busy preparing for our 2nd year of All Nations School of Ministry which starts in a little over a week. There are students coming from nearby cities, from Virginia and Guatemala. In addition, our foriegn students from Russia and Nigeria are returning for their 2nd year work.

Our local pastors are scheduling time to come teach different classes for this fall. One thing I am excited about is some of the special guests we'll be having in this like Pastor Mark Brazee, Pastor Plamen Tzolov, and the Salems. Pastor Mark is the pastor of World Outreach Church in Tulsa, OK. He's started the DOMATA Bible School around the world. I served in the school in Rome for a while. He's responsible for cultivating the vision in me for All Nations. I am looking forward to the impartation he has for the school. Pastor Plamen is a great man of God from Bulgaria. I've known he and his wife for years now. They have a large thriving church in Sofia along with a Bible School where I've had the privlege of being a guest teacher. Harry and Cheryl Salem (former Miss America) go everywhere around the world ministering in churches and on television. They are a hugh blessing!

So if the Lord has been dealing with you about going to Bible School I invite you to prayfully consider All Nations School of Ministry - www.AllNations.cc. It's an awesome school where you'll get a great balance of a strong Biblical foundation along with the experience of ministering in the Holy Spirit.

Ciao for now - Sandra