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Think on these things... 10/18/2007 11:35:14 AM
devotional for week 1 (10.8.07) October 8, 2007
The Father has told me that Satan will often distract His servants by focusing on situations, while he (Satan) is strategically plotting to steal, kill and destroy in our own lives. God has continually reminded me to be sober and vigilant for my adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I shared this with my church members on September 23rd to let them know, every lion and everyone’s battle just isn’t their battle. I keep many incidents in mind when I or a group of people are focused on certain things and then “BAM” along comes something catastrophic that they are not prepared for. I try to keep my focus on what the Father places on my heart to intercede for, or as I would say, “My Lions.”
I get numerous prayer requests. Some requests are very urgent, requiring immediate actions that I am, at times, unable to figure out where to begin or exactly what to pray.
Just the other day I received several prayer requests to pray for the Jena 6. First it was so hard to believe that such a thing happened. Secondly my emotions were so stirred up that I couldn’t get my mind together. I knew I should not pray out of my emotions, so I opted to wait until I settled down. I asked the Father, “What should I specifically pray?” And honestly, I was not prepared for His answer.
Ever so gently, He responded, “I don’t need your prayers for them, there are already many, many prayers coming before me for them.” He then brought to my remembrance a lady in which I had encountered while doing some shopping. “When you were at the store today there was a woman who caught your attention, pray for her,” He began. “There aren’t many prayers coming before my throne in her behalf and she is in need of prayer.”
It wasn’t three days later after I shared with the saints that I received a call my youngest son Jeremy who is a graduate student at St. John’s University in New York. He said, “Mama, Peppy called and told me off.” His brother had received a phone call from a friend in New York about a gunman being on St. John’s Campus. He continued, “I told him I was in Staples and he told me to stay there because of a gunman on campus. I asked him which campus and he yelled at me and said ‘DON’T GUESS’ just stay at Staples.”
Jeremy later told me that he was headed to campus to retrieve a disk from a computer that he had left there but he heard, “Don’t Go!!!!” He also heard of encounters by others that they had seen the young man walking around campus with the mask and something in a bag possibly around the same time Jeremy heard, “Don’t Go!!!!”
What if I had not obeyed the voice of God?? What are the odds of the gunman being on that very campus right after the Father spoke to me to basically, hear Him and Focus?
I thank God I did because that very day, Satan was walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour. I thank God that as a child when it seemed everybody was participating in certain things and I would ask my mother if I could she would always give me an unwavering answer. Well there were more times than I can count when she would simply say “ No!” One of her responses to me, on a particular occasion, is forever etched in my soul.
I said, “Mama, everybody is going to be there.” She said, “No Doll, everybody won’t be there, because you won’t.”
The older I get, the more I thank God for the lessons learned as a child from my mother.
Until the Father gives me something else to share, “Think On These Things!”
