SHILOH MESSENGER - September 2008
















 

"I Sought For A Man"

Our fictional brother Cecil continues to grow.    If you would like a copy of the earlier installments, please ask us or visit newsletter archives.

Praying for God to save another persons’ soul, or to heal their body, or give them strength and guidance, or any number of other requests for other people never entered my mind. Cecil Armstrong related thoughts were always just about the only thoughts on my mind. I am realizing with each new day that my deliverance from drugs was only a small fraction of all that God has determined to deliver me from. Selfishness almost consumed me.  God is daily revealing to me that selfishness is the chief stronghold in my life.  Because I failed to guard my heart against selfishness, I allowed it to ravage me, and I allowed myself to be open to all the other evils that attacked me.  I am learning that the best way to combat selfishness and the degraded soul it leaves in its wake is to pray for others.  As I am learning to pray for the salvation of another, the healing of another, strength and guidance for another, I notice that a change is happening in me.  I am not focusing on Cecil Armstrong.  God is breaking down the self pity and selfish attitudes that have been controlling me.  I am finding as I meet with and pray to God in intercession for another person I am giving up a piece of who I am for another.  By doing so, my focus is not on Cecil Armstrong, but rather on another person and how best to beseech an Almighty God to work his transforming power in that person’s life.  I am learning about prayer and how to seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness for myself and others and then I observe how amazing miracle works as described in the Bible, that He shall give you the desires of your heart.  Since coming here, the desires of my heart are definitely being transformed.  I am now seeking more than just freedom from my drug addiction, even though I do continue to seek total freedom from addiction.  As I move from just praying that I make it through the day without craving drugs, to praying more about my desire to know God and praying that He will work in another individual’s life in addition to my own, the desires of my heart are beginning to reflect the desires of Christ’s heart and are becoming more and more like the desires of Christ’s heart.  Christ is working in and through my prayers.  I am experiencing an excitement like I have never experienced.    

In my scheduled classes we have Corporate Intercession. Our teachers tell us that when we actively pray on another’s behalf we imitate Christ best.  Intercession for another is the most selfless activity we can participate in. Yet it is the most profound and powerful use of time we can ever be involved in.  I am taught that a sure way to combat selfishness’ degrading effect on my soul is to give.  Intercession in prayer for another is laying all we have in our time and self before the Lord on behalf of another.  I am instructed to pray for myself during my personal quiet times with God, but Intercession time is a time for me to give of myself completely toward others by setting aside myself and asking God to intervene in another person’s particular circumstances.  It amazes me that I can sit in a classroom in Liberty, Texas and travel in prayer to other places all over the world.  This subject can be intimidating to say the least when you are the new kid on the block. Before coming to Shiloh, I never had prayed in public nor had I desired to.  God is showing me that the more I pray privately, the stronger I am when we pray corporately. I understand now that intimidation is a tool the enemy uses to try to keep God’s people from participating. I am aware that I am on assignment from God and even though I am surrounded by others in the classroom, I am praying to an audience of one.  My prayers are not worthy or successful based on their length or the articulation of my request.  My prayers are worthy and successful when the condition of my heart is pure.  I find that when I have spent time with God and I am at peace with Him, He guides me by His Spirit in what I say in a corporate setting. His Spirit causes me to pray effectively. I never thought I would actually love to talk to God yet talking with Him is what now gives me the greatest contentment. I have learned that the New Testament way to pray is in the Name of Jesus. Jesus is our door by which we must go through to God. (John 14:6) I do not understand all the dynamics of why God would even want to use us like He does, but I am thankful for the first time in my life to work with Him instead of against Him.

Some of the things we pray for boggle my mind. We actually pray for the President of the country to have wisdom in his entire decision making. We pray for God to put in government offices the people He knows will lead our country in an honorable and God fearing way.  We intercede for the Nation of Israel and their upcoming election for Prime Minister.  We pray for Missionaries to have favor in their field of assignment, that their message of the Gospel will be bold and full of love, and for their protection and provision.  In our Corporate Intercession we pray for our families who do not know Christ as their Lord, that God would ready their hearts to receive Him. We intercede for entertainers and those who have a vast audience and great influence to surrender their lives and their talents to be used for God’s Glory. We pray for healing for people whom we know who are physically sick. We target the escalating fuel prices to come down. We pray for areas suffering natural disasters.  Lately we have been keying in on the weather as we watch storms heading toward populated areas. Living here in the Gulf Coast has been a shocker to me about what the people in Southern Louisiana, South East Texas, and the Gulf states go through every hurricane season.  We also ask God to have mercy on our nation and to protect us from Terrorist attacks.  We pray for our troops in harms way.  Most always someone in our group will pray for revival in the Body of Christ. These are but a few of the many other situations and people that we pray for.  I have this assurance that when we pray we actually are being used by God to push back darkness and advance His Kingdom. It makes me for once in my life feel I am a part of something huge.

All of us at Shiloh are a product of someone else’s Intercession on our behalf. Dad and Mom and my wife Renee, and even my 14 year old daughter Beth and my 10 year old son Eric, have been praying for me. I am touched every time I think about how they persistently kept on in spite of my foolish behavior.  It is because of God’s mercy and the intervention of people praying for me that I am alive, saved, and receiving revelation about spiritual matters.  I am learning that there is a spiritual law of reciprocity. What I sow, I will reap.  I have been praying for my brothers here at Shiloh and reconciliation between them and their families. I am receiving more and more letters from my wife and my children.  I believe God is softening their hearts toward me.  I know that God is not only salvaging my marriage, but He is making it better than it was ever before. “I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and this life I now live in this body, I live by faith in The Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me” (Galatians 2:20).  I believe because my life belongs to Christ now, He will equip me to be the best I can be as a Husband and Dad. God is giving me a heart for Intercession. It is no longer merely a mandatory class assignment. I truly desire to fulfill God’s search.  He is seeking for a man to stand in the gap. (Ezekiel 22:30)  I heard it said that “No man is greater than his prayer life.”  Oh that I would be a man of prayer.       

Shiloh Ministry Team


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