Prayers For An Unknown Sister

Jeremiah 33:3

“Call to me, and I will answer you.

And I will show you great and wonderful things

which you do not know.”

I am a “show me” type of girl. I am not prone to blindly accept things that I don’t understand. Raised in a conservative Baptist church, my first experience hearing someone ‘speaking in tongues’ during my college years left me wide eyed and wondering, “what in the world was THAT!”

Fast forward about 19 years. The tragedy of 911 brought me through the doors of a Spirit filled, Bible believing Church. I attended a weekly women’s bible study where we began a series on the “gifts of the Holy Spirit” At the culmination of the study, there was a time of prayer for anyone who desired to receive Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues.

Now, In my heart, I wanted to experience this gift. But in my head, I was afraid that the Holy Spirit would cause me to blurt out unintelligible words at the grocery store or my PTA meeting! I voiced this struggle and was quickly assured that The Holy Spirit is gentle and allows us the choice of when to use our prayer language. So I said “Yes” and we prayed a simple prayer for me to receive this special gift of speaking in tongues.

My experience was not dramatic. Little by little I noticed new words that I did not understand begin to flow quietly from my lips during worship. Soon I was happily singing and speaking my new Holy Spirit language in my personal prayer time.

As my fluency increased, I began to notice repetitions of words when I prayed. I had no idea what I was praying for in the Spirit, but one particular word began to be repeated within my prayer language... “Galia” Sometimes spoken as if I were encouraging a frightened child and, at other times, I sensed I was defending someone or warring against something. The word “Galia” consistently remained within my prayer language. I wondered what it meant so I called upon the Lord to show me.

God disclosed the mystery 6 months later while on a mission trip to Ukraine. A young woman came up for prayer following a conference on the gifts of the Spirit. Through the interpreter, she told us that she desired to receive the gift of tongues. I smiled, remembering my own request a few months earlier and marveling at His timing & the miracle that I was here now, praying for this unknown sister. I asked the interpreter to tell us the woman’s name.

She replied in broken English.....”Her name is GALIA.”

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, May we operate in the fullness of your Spirit every day we live! May we never be so grounded to the world that we miss the blessings reserved for those who soar with your Spirit. You are such an amazing God! Amen.


-Kim Dent

What Are You Serving Your King?

This morning,  as I was getting my coffee creamer out of the fridge, my nose was
assaulted by a very disagreeable or more accurately, DISGUSTING odor!  I am not
good at using the leftovers before they “go south”  and today the culprit was a lone
piece of chicken hiding way in the back behind the milk.

I dug out the smelly poultry and quickly dumped it down the disposal and followed it with
a lemon chaser to be sure the stink was completely gone.

I settled in for some time with Jesus. I love how The Holy Spirit uses object lessons to
teach me truths in His word.  This morning He decided the recent “chicken incident”
would coincide nicely with Malachi 1.  (I can hear you saying “WHAT?”  hang in there
with me...)

Here’s the scoop: Malachi was the last of the OT prophets. The temple had been rebuilt
for almost a century and the people were, once again, losing their enthusiasm for
worship. The sins that had led to the downfall of Jerusalem were rearing their ugly
heads once again; Contempt for God’s name, offering false worship and leading others
into sin. Oh and let’s not forget that they were also breaking God’s laws by offering
diseased and imperfect sacrifices on His Holy Altar. (smelly leftovers) Added to that list
was the sin of calling evil “good”, keeping God’s tithes and offerings for themselves, and
becoming arrogant hypocrites. Ouch!

OK, Before we shake our heads at the Israelites,let me ask you;  Have you ever gotten
tired of waiting on the Lord?   Ever lost your zeal for living the sanctified life?  Ever fallen
back into the same old sin you were sure you had been delivered from just last week?
Have you ever worshiped or spent time with the Lord out of duty and obligation? This is
simply serving Him the dry leftovers of a heart that has lost it’s freshness in the
dailyness of life.

Come on girls, confession time. Have you ever had one of those days you just don’t
FEEL like cooking something new and creative so you warm up the old leftovers from
last week?  While this may be occasionally acceptable at our family dinner tables, it is
NOT acceptable to our Holy God who commands us to love Him with our whole heart
mind, soul and strength.

Listen to God’s words in Malachi 1:6-7  (italics mine)

     “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the
     honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the LORD
     Almighty.
     “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.
     “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’“You place defiled food on my altar.”
     “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
     “By saying that the LORD’S table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals
     for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals,
     is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! (husband) Would he be
     pleased with you? Would he accept you?” Says the LORD Almighty.

Chapter 5 of Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love”  is entitled  “serving leftovers to a Holy
God.”  I can’t help but see the correlation here. The days that I am too busy, tired,
depressed etc. to serve Him my very first and best worship are days that I am choosing
to serve Almighty God that smelly chicken in the back of my fridge.  My heart hurts as I
realize that I have done this to the Lover of my soul.

So, sisters...What are YOU serving your King?  Is it your very best and freshest or are
you dragging out the leftovers?

Leftovers are never OK with God.  He desires our whole hearts. Fresh and delivered
piping hot to His holy table each day.  Yet, in His grace and mercy, He understand that
we are but dust and we do grow weary of the waiting. So God made a way for us to
revive our tired hearts  to restore the freshness that the world would seek to destroy.
 
     Jesus said “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened,
     and I will give you rest. (Matt. 11:28)

May we serve our King Jesus a beautiful, fresh and authentic platter of praise with a
delicious and heaping side of honor every day we live!
He is Holy. He is worthy of our VERY BEST!

I”m heading to the “grocery store of His Word” now... I hear His mercies are new
(FRESH) every morning!  I need to stock up!

Let’s Pray...

Lord, Forgive me for the times I have served you the leftovers of my weary heart.  You
deserve all of my praise and all of my heart and my obedience.  I know that you are
willing and able to revive me when I am tired.  I know that you are more than enough for
me.  I know that you desire truth in the inmost places and that means you want my
authenticity which is precious to you.  Help me to never serve you leftovers.  I need you
to draw me deeper so that every day will be a new adventure with you. I desire for each
day to become a brand new menu of praise for You!  I adore you, my King.

In the creative, inspiring name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


-Kim Dent