This week has been the most challenging since the foundation of Esther's Call Prayer Ministry. The ministry has been reaching more people every day, both in the United States and around the world, including creating a new ministry connection with Helping Hands Ministries in Pakistan. It has been an amazing and very explosive ride over the past couple of weeks. In the past 2 weeks, there have been over 1150 pageviews of the website, and it has been both humbling and exhilarating to pray over brothers and sisters who love the Lord, but are facing situations in which there seems to be no hope. I have clung tightly to the Lord's words of promise that "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23)" and "nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37)."
I have been challenged in my own life, as well as my personal prayer time, due to the heavy demand of prayer requests coming to the ministry. I find this to be a great blessing in that I am being pressed into God's presence even more, having to seek Him with all my heart. I am finding Him and He is comforting me when I feel overcome with fear of failure and rejection. My family is also facing personal struggles as well, while I pray over the needs of others, I must remember to keep my own family members in prayer.
This week, I have seen God move in the miraculous! I have also seen the enemy (the powers of darkness) launch a massive attack against my family and this ministry. This past week I was called the devil and told I operated in gifts empowered by demonic spirits. That reminded me of when the Pharisees told Jesus that He was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the "lord of the flies (which represent demons)." But the Bible also says that when we share in the sufferings of Christ, we also share in His resurrection power (Philippians 3:10-11). He promises that no weapon formed against my family or ministry shall prosper and I will condemn every tongue that rises against me in judgment. It also says this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of God. (Isaiah 54:17).
We faced many challenges this week. Our two year old son refused to sleep one night when I was already exhausted, but God graciously granted me rest while he napped during the following day. We had a major setback financially when a rental car company (dealing with us for a car accident on Mar. 1, 2012) debited our account for the entire amount of the rental instead of billing the insurance as agreed. We spent an entire weekend with no money, gas, and unable to do grocery shopping. We ended up having one of the happiest and most blessed weekends for our family in several years! Our daughter has been having a battle with anxiety and depression since arriving in Oklahoma. She has had trouble making friends. She has also been struggling to believe she is successful at anything. This week, she received test scores from her school that said she is equivalent in two areas with a 10th grader. She is currently in the 3rd grade! She also added two new stripes to her tae kwon do belt! Most importantly, she made two new friends! Our middle son suddenly got an abcess on his leg this week that wouldn't seem to heal. Now, it is being healed. We also saw him rise up as a little prayer warrior, asking us all to pray for a family while their house burned down near our home. He didn't have to be told to pray, his heart was touched and he asked us to "agree" in prayer with him, showing that he understanding the power of the prayer of agreement. The baby has slept better than he has in months for the remainder of this week! It has been a great week of challenges and victories from the Lord!
As for me, my greatest struggle has been a sudden onset of a spirit of fear. It has come to cause me to stop ministering and be afraid to move forward. I began to feel overwhelmed and felt as though I almost could not minister in prayer. But the Word of God says that I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7). I had great struggles in the past with fear and God has given me great deliverance from it! When I came into a relationship with Jesus, I was told that I would become an evangelist. At that time, I was so terrified to even mention the name of Jesus that I could not imagine how THAT could ever happen. God has proved that He can overcome any obstacle.
I also remembered an important principle of prayer. God says that if we pray anything according to His will, we can expect to receive what we have asked for from the Lord (1 John 5:14). We can pray with confidence when our prayers line up with the Word of God. We WILL have what we ask for in prayer. That is the will of God in Jesus Christ.
Have a blessed week! I know our next week will be blessed as well because we are abiding in Christ.
Your sister in Christ,
Sarah
I have been challenged in my own life, as well as my personal prayer time, due to the heavy demand of prayer requests coming to the ministry. I find this to be a great blessing in that I am being pressed into God's presence even more, having to seek Him with all my heart. I am finding Him and He is comforting me when I feel overcome with fear of failure and rejection. My family is also facing personal struggles as well, while I pray over the needs of others, I must remember to keep my own family members in prayer.
This week, I have seen God move in the miraculous! I have also seen the enemy (the powers of darkness) launch a massive attack against my family and this ministry. This past week I was called the devil and told I operated in gifts empowered by demonic spirits. That reminded me of when the Pharisees told Jesus that He was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the "lord of the flies (which represent demons)." But the Bible also says that when we share in the sufferings of Christ, we also share in His resurrection power (Philippians 3:10-11). He promises that no weapon formed against my family or ministry shall prosper and I will condemn every tongue that rises against me in judgment. It also says this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of God. (Isaiah 54:17).
We faced many challenges this week. Our two year old son refused to sleep one night when I was already exhausted, but God graciously granted me rest while he napped during the following day. We had a major setback financially when a rental car company (dealing with us for a car accident on Mar. 1, 2012) debited our account for the entire amount of the rental instead of billing the insurance as agreed. We spent an entire weekend with no money, gas, and unable to do grocery shopping. We ended up having one of the happiest and most blessed weekends for our family in several years! Our daughter has been having a battle with anxiety and depression since arriving in Oklahoma. She has had trouble making friends. She has also been struggling to believe she is successful at anything. This week, she received test scores from her school that said she is equivalent in two areas with a 10th grader. She is currently in the 3rd grade! She also added two new stripes to her tae kwon do belt! Most importantly, she made two new friends! Our middle son suddenly got an abcess on his leg this week that wouldn't seem to heal. Now, it is being healed. We also saw him rise up as a little prayer warrior, asking us all to pray for a family while their house burned down near our home. He didn't have to be told to pray, his heart was touched and he asked us to "agree" in prayer with him, showing that he understanding the power of the prayer of agreement. The baby has slept better than he has in months for the remainder of this week! It has been a great week of challenges and victories from the Lord!
As for me, my greatest struggle has been a sudden onset of a spirit of fear. It has come to cause me to stop ministering and be afraid to move forward. I began to feel overwhelmed and felt as though I almost could not minister in prayer. But the Word of God says that I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7). I had great struggles in the past with fear and God has given me great deliverance from it! When I came into a relationship with Jesus, I was told that I would become an evangelist. At that time, I was so terrified to even mention the name of Jesus that I could not imagine how THAT could ever happen. God has proved that He can overcome any obstacle.
I also remembered an important principle of prayer. God says that if we pray anything according to His will, we can expect to receive what we have asked for from the Lord (1 John 5:14). We can pray with confidence when our prayers line up with the Word of God. We WILL have what we ask for in prayer. That is the will of God in Jesus Christ.
Have a blessed week! I know our next week will be blessed as well because we are abiding in Christ.
Your sister in Christ,
Sarah
