THE INNER ROOM - "Learn and Grow - to Maturity". Please read the 1st Post.

[Bondman]

That is so awesome, BM! God answered prayers through the nurse who advised her to go home. The thought DID occur to me that it might be better if she were home, but then I remembered that you wanted them to keep her as long as possible, so I didn't mention it. oh, well, God got through anyway.

I'll continue praying though. God really does love us! Sweets

Oh yes, He sure DOES love us!!

Hey, any time at all that some thought comes to say to me, please do so. I greatly value your thoughts, and it may be exactly what God wants me to know!

Thankyou so much for continuing to pray. We have to get her healed now - and that's gonna be a long and difficult time. (She's still SO sore from all the cuts the Surgeon did!)

Bless you heaps, Sweets!!

- BM

 

[Bondman]

This is a great answer to prayer Bondman!

Thankyou so very much, my dear brother. Yes, God DOES answer fervent prayer from his children!

Bless you greatly!!

- BM

 

[nikljones]

I haven't been here for a few days but you and your beloved haven't been forgotten in my prayers. Such good news and so glad she'll be back home. I stand amazed at the power of prayer and don't know how my/our life would survive without it. Praise the Lord for answered prayer.

 

[Bondman]

We've said the same things, Nick. Where WOULD we be without God and prayer. Not a nice thought as to where actually!

But we DON'T HAVE TO THINK THAT AT ALL!! Praise His Name!! He is our heavenly Dad, and we're his kids. His love for us is past finding out.

Then when brothers and sisters love us enough to take special time out to PRAY FOR US - that truly blows my brain!! And I am SO grateful!! What I love though, is that many, many people praying my Love through a serious operation for an ill person didn't blow God's brain at all. Instead I know that He smiled a very broad smile - of pure JOY!

And now she's home and we're back together again, and that's the best medicine for us both. She has a long period of healing but He will continue to answer the prayers of those who belong to Him.

Thankyou my dear brother!! I love your "Lovin' and prayin'" in your Sig. Wonderful!!

- BM

 

[Bondman]

Reaching Higher #51​

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Let's Get Serious - Why Haven't We Got Faith and Prayer Right Yet?​

We've had absolutely wonderful prayer answers because of so many here loving us enough to pray, and this has been utterly amazing and so very moving to us: That is, others prayed and we were the very fortunate recipients of their prayers to God. That's pretty special stuff, don't you think? (Our teens would likely call it cool or maybe wicked!! *grins!* It all got me thinking again about the relationship between praying and faith.

Make ABSOLUTELY NO MISTAKE that this is TOTALLY MAJOR as I'm about to show you. How's our "FAITH QUOTIENT" in our Western societies do you feel? Pretty poor? I'd rate it in general as: Faith Quotient=Low. What does that mean for us all? It means that our PRAYERS are adversely affected in a major way by our low-grade of faith. That is, faith not strong enough (whilst doing our very best) means prayer answers NOWHERE NEAR as good as they COULD and SHOULD be. I find that most serioius.

Let me give you some examples and facts about this. Many times we will say that we're praying for someone TO BE HEALED, who is ill and may even die. But mostly it doesn't happen, right! When it does, that's just fantastic beyond expression. Yet even the denominations today that actually TEACH that we should all be healed, and have many people out the front every meeting for healing - have very very few truly miraculous healings FROM GOD.

Okay, that's the West. Let's go to an emerging nation for a COMPARISON, and I'll simply choose what I know best: Gospel for Asia (gfa.org). Consider Akash, a fully-trained Indian Missionary-Pastor who's been working in a small rural village the Lord sent him to over a year ago. God's blessed Akash's evangelistic efforts, so he has now planted a church, and in that church are over 30 Believers, baptised AND fully discipled, living a FULL but difficult Christian life (because of persecution and acute poverty).

Akash comes across Priti, a young lady who is extremely ill! One after another, she and her family have gone to the many dead gods her family worships, and sacrificed to them all with, of course, no result. She's also been to a hospital and again no result. Priti is lying ill and she and her family have virtually given up all hope. Akash asks if she would like him to pray for her. She agrees, though her family are not happy about it. A very short time after Akash prayed for her, the whole church are in prayer for Priti's healing! Sometimes healing comes instantly by a Pastor's prayers. Other times it's longer. The whole church will go to prayer AND fasting and will CONTINUE this until she is healed!!

After God's power heals Priti completely, it's not too surprising that she soon believes in Jesus, and today she and all her family are full church members. These miracles happen all the time in India and in China's Underground House Churches. Yet it seldom happens here! WHY?? Clearly they are good at praying, and somehow SERIOUS in a way different from us. But I see it as FAITH. First, they are not bound up by a world of materialism and ease and comfort like we are. In fact, as Believers they are NOT worldly at all! As a result I would rate their Faith Quotient=High to Very High!

But does the high degree of faith of these dear brothers and sisters of ours totally explain the miracles of healing and other things they constantly experience. I've come to believe that there's one more VERY IMPORANT aspect to this. I've termed it simply as "GROUP FAITH". Here we may pray for someone's healing let's say, and perhaps even manage a Faith Quotient=Medium. Maybe in a few cases even High. Yet still the person ultimately dies... And the reason, I think, is our lack of "Group Faith".

The Indian church were of ONE MIND, weren't they? They were not occupied with the world like we are. They'd fully come out of their already simple world directly into God's Kingdom. They made prayer and fasting for Priti a TOTAL priority! And they ALL DID IT TOGETHER (no matter where they were: in the fields working, wherever - and they all KNEW that the others were doing the same). Many prayers, in full faith, continually went up to God - IN UNISON, for Him to answer. And He DID!! It was group prayer, yes indeed, but the best was that it was TRUE "GROUP FAITH" IN ACTION.

Please don't think I'm saying that I don't believe in the power of the prayers of a righteous individual Believer - of course I do!! But it's the Church that is Jesus' Bride (not individuals), and if Beloved and I were in that church in India (or one in China) it's extremely likely we'd have been totally healed long ago! That's a rather sad and sobering thought isn't it!

Do you think we could ever get to (unworldly) GROUP FAITH? And HOW??

Many blessings to all!!

- BM

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[Bondman]

PRAYER UPDATE - 8

I love to be able to report that things are going slowly but well! Her wounds are still VERY sore and unhealed, but we're getting there. Thankyou guys!! Thankyou Lord!! Beloved was up more today, actually up a little bit to much, so we'll aim for more time on the bed tomorrow.

She did, however, have her first regular meal since the op., which it looks like has worked out okay!! Wow! (Carefully chosen things on the place of course.)

Sleep last night was WONDERFUL for her after such little sleep in the noisy hospital. And of course we are so enjoying being back together.

FUNNY STORY: Yesterday after she came home, I suddenly realised that I was singing. Not at all unusual for me as I sing and whilstle every day cos He is my God and I am His! At least that's what I always figured. But I suddenly realised I had not sung one note or whistled one note the whole time my Love was in hospital. So apparently it takes TWO people very special to me to get me a-singin' and a whistlin'!!!

Beloved stressed to me tonight that she needs you to keep praying. Much to be healed yet, and every day she has to consider trying a new thing, always with the possibility of getting it wrong.

Bless you all for your love and prayer for us. NOT taken for granted, not one teensy bit!!

Love to each of you!

- BM and his Lady-love

 

[nikljones]

I've often thought along the same lines. I've seen the wonderful power of prayer and more powerful group prayer. We have become a people of things and find ourselves putting our trust and faith in man rather than God. We go to church and hear a wonderful sermon (most of the time) but you look around and the people are talking amongst themselves, sipping their coffee, and look bored as we sing praises to God.

I admin another small private Christian board where the people truly have come together to pray for a dear Christian lady who is dealing with deep depression over the loss of her very close brother, deteriorating health of her mother and a husband who is psychologically and physically depressed to the point of not functioning. I can see the power already of these prayers, group prayers, for this dear lady.

Just know that I do firmly believe in the healing that God promises if we bring those needs to HIm in prayer and I will continue to fervently lift you and your beloved in prrayer for complete healing.

Thank you so much for your ministry and witness on this site.

Blessings my friends.

 

[Bondman]

What a breath of fresh air to read your post, Nick.

I'm thrilled to bits to hear of the prayer for that dear lady. Way to go!!!

Thankyou so much for your prayers for our healing. I've been on this task for us for many many years, and I've had just a few signs this year that He is "interested" (*smile* I'm sure you understand!)

More GROUP FAITH in prayer could get us healed. I believe that with all of my heart!! (Maybe 2010 could be "our" year...)

Bless you heaps, my brother!

- BM

 

[SweetSurrender]

About your question on the Why Haven't we Gotten Prayer/Faith Right Yet, I believe the only way we could become like our precious bros in India/China, etc, would be to place the cares of this world in the right order, and put our prayer life at the head of our life.

If we really learned to love the agape way, "the love of God would be shed abroad in our hearts." If God's love was felt throughout our lives, we would have nothing but love towards those dear servants who did not have the same kind of advantages we have. They would be continually in our thoughts, our minds, and we would set our priorities right I think.

Right now, our priorities are what we are going to get or buy others for Christmas. Instead, we should give Christmas away. Give it away to someone who really needs it. Someone who needs a simple hen to provide eggs for eating. Or, maybe 10 hens so they could sell eggs for a living. Or a bicycle so a missionary could reach out to more people and take the message of Gods love to them.

Whoa, now I'm stepping on toes. Sorry. The older I get, the bolder I get, and once I get started, watch out. I'm sure to step on someone's toes. Can't be helped. :smiley30: I'm too enthused about it now. :smiley10:

I've been reading my fav book lately, "Absolute Surrender" and Murray says something in it I'd like to share. Why is a lamb always gentle and a wolf always cruel? Because it's their nature. We have the great gift of communion with our Heavenly Father to change our nature into His nature. So, our first thoughts when we retire, or arise in the morning, should be on God and His goodness to us. It should be in our nature.

We should be thankful that the kids are loud and obnoxious because it means we can hear. We should be thankful the leaves fall off our trees in the fall, and we have to rake them up, because we have a house to live in. We should be thankful we couldn't find a parking place closer to the door at the grocery store, because it means we can walk. Our very nature should be that of a little child, who only sees what he needs to see. Nothing more . . . nothing less. Maybe we have too much to be thankful for. We have become complacent to that extent.

God help us to capture some of the innocence of our youth, to see the needs of others not so fortunate as us.

Our dear Bro. Bondman and his Beloved are maybe so blessed, because they have very little health, but what they have, they use to bless others. The strength they have they give away to the glory of God, to help others. They may not be strong down here, but when all powers are broken, when we see Jesus, watch out!

 

[Bondman]

Reaching Higher #52​

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Christmas Giving - or TRUE Christmas Giving? - Part 1​

Fabulous post by SweetSurrender. Please read it (HERE) - where she commented: "...now I'm stepping on toes. Sorry." No need to be sorry, dear one! You didn't in any way go over the pail, simply expressed your deep passion about helping those in need according to Jesus' very words to us!! God is not averse to stepping on toes Himself - and sometimes DOES! All you're doing is presenting Scriptural truth, and this site stands for just that!

The so-called celebration of Christmas usually includes some dreadful things by Christian people. CONSIDER: we're celebrating the gift by God at great cost to Him, of His only, unique Son. Hmmm... so how do we mostly do this? By corporately spending truly OBSCENE sums of money on gifts to people who maybe don't need them, perhaps don't even like them, may use them once then discard them, and so on. This is WORLDLY MATERIALISM on a grandiose scale, and any who think this blesses God couldn't possibly be more mistaken.

Please don't mistake me - I'm not against gift-giving. I'm against HOW we do this. I know that Sweets and others here will be doing what we'll be doing: giving gifts for Christmas to brothers and sisters living in slavery and utmost poverty. To help them with their daily NEEDS (NOT their wants!!) We're both still too sick to get our Christmas giving sorted, but hope to soon.

I know we'll be giving some things Sweets mentioned: numbers of pairs of wabbits, er, rabbits, and the same for chickens. Certainly towards a VERY sturdy bicycle (or maybe a whole bike for $105) - you can give just 5 bucks or less towards one if you like - but 50 is better!! *smile* - for one of the Missionary-Pastors, so he can reach the village NEXT to the one where he's already planted a church!! (it's too far to walk). And maybe even to a 3rd!!

There he will bring more souls to believe in Jesus, who currently worship and sacrifice to many, many dead gods - including sacrificing their precious food!! Isn't that APPALLING!! They have no hope, no knowledge of Jesus' sacrifice, little if any love, and their life of slavery will pass to their children - unless we do something to make a difference. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, people. You can give to whoever, wherever you like of course. All I'm doing here is giving you an organisation we know well, where every cent you give DOES arrive at its destination, guaranteed, (and tax deductable) where the gift is bought locally for cheapness, and where the Missionaries, on average, in a recent year each brought 30 people to the Lord Jesus - and much more.

You can go to http://www.gfa.org/donation if you wish, and enjoy browsing, and the wonderful difficulty of choosing what to give to celebrate the birth of our wondrous Lord and Saviour. These are works that go towards your heavenly works' REWARD that God WANTS to give to you. You can easily stop Him doing that of course: regular Christmas giving, sadly, mostly does exactly that.

This Message is NOT to plug Gospel for Asia (GFA). Rather it's to challenge you to actions and to living that's of God, that PLEASES God, not follows the dictates of man.

Bless you mightly as you consider these things!! With much love from us both!

Contnued in Part 2, "Please Take Note of How Serious THIS Is For You"...

BM (with his Lady)

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[Bondman]

PRAYER REQUEST - 9

WE HAVE A CONCERN

Eight days from the operation and still basically no sign of healing (many folks are okay by then). And the past day has seen a constant vertical pain on her right side, that won't go away.

It could be absolutely anything! That's the problem. With her LONG healing period how do we know if it's nothing more than a muscle in spasm from sneezing, or torn stitches, or all the way to an infection developing.

I've totally worn myself out, sort of trying to heal my Beloved myself, if you see what I mean! We're taking care of each other pretty good. I do the heavy work a bit at a time, and we sort of share other things (she has to keep moving or that's negative to healing).

THANKYOU FOR CONTINUING IN PRAYER FOR US!! We love you very much!!!

- BM and his Lady

 

[nikljones]

Prayer does continue for your concerns. As you know God is in control and will provide the healing in His time. I pray for the healing and for peace and comfort.

I've placed your prayer needs on my site. You won't be able to see it if you were able to visit but I can assure you the people there will pray.

Blessings Brother & Sister.

 

[Bondman]

Thankyou so much, Nick!! We remain concerned about this pain.

I have to say that I've always found it very humbling and sometimes astonishing that others who don't know us are prepared to spend their personal time to pray for us and for our healing. Definitely a WOW!!!

Blessings and love to you and your group!!

- BM

 

[Faithwoman]

Wow great posts.. had alot to get caught up on.. spent the Thanksgiving with my family. We had a super time. My two brothers and their wives and kids decided to adopt Care-A-Van families for Christmas this year! yipee what a blessing. They went shopping then on Wed night after dinner, they got out long tables and everyone helped wrap! They bought gifts for kids , teens and then they got soap, shampoo, conditoner and bars of soap and put them in bags. There are so many here on the streets that do not have the basic necessities.

They then loaded my car up with all the gifts 150 plus.. I barely had enough room to drive the 7 hours back home! Last night a couple opened their home and garage and we decorated the bus for Christmas , PJ the owner of the home who comes to the streets with us, invited some of the street kids to come out and enjoy the indoor pool. These little girls just loved it!

Every Sunday our church has a time of prayer and altar call for healing. Our youth pastor and his wife just had a baby, and the wife ended up with some nerve damage to her leg and can barely walk on her one leg since delivery. There were mighty prayers going on as a group this morning for healing for all suffering, and Bondman I included you and the Mrs in on that.
prayer is a powerful thing! I have seen it in my own life and others.
It is so awesome to have a place like this to come and ask for prayers.
I belong to another forum as well, and they are always praying in unison together for healing for all. We do need to keep the faith and remember that Nothing is to hard for our Lord!

I spent alot of time praying these past few days. There are things that I have not been obedient to. I thank goodness for all I have learned and continue to learn. Praying here in NY..
God Bless
Robin

Attached is pic of my kids and their cousins after they got done wrapping all the gifts for the needy. It truly was an eye opener for these kids. I got to share stories of the families they were helping and then we all prayed over the gifts. The other pic is of 3 of my little friends from the street enjoying an evening out. PJ and his wife have a huge heart for the kids of the street.

 

[Bondman]

Goodness you have been busy, dear one! Lots of good things: great work!!

Sure are a lot of folks in that first pic!! *many hands make light work!!*

Blessings to you and thanks for all prayers for us. We still need 'em real bad!

Love you!

- BM

 

[Bondman]

PRAYER FOR HEALING - 10

No, I'm not surprised that we're reached #10 here, but sure wish we hadn't!

Now on to Day 10 since the Op and basically no healing that we can see thus far. My dear one has had a really rugged 2 days with the pain, where a sneeze, cough or unwise movement would make her yelp with extra pain - which may then remain acute for hours. Unable to turn over in bed without more pain, and ditto getting out of bed. She has to move around as much as possible to promote healing of course.

I thought we'd be ringing for the Doc to come to her today, with the possibility or even more hospitalisation, but praise God so far the pain today is somewhat less!!! Whoo-hoo!!

Naturally enough the pure human stress of all this is affecting us both. As a result I'm right on the edge most days now, but still managing to keep going and help her as needed. God is good!!!

Thankyou so much for your continued prayer. nikljones (Nick) has kindly added in his prayer group to the task. Thankyou Nick!

I'll keep you all posted. God bless you every one!

- BM and his Love

 

[Bondman]

PRAYER UPDATE - 11

GOOD NEWS: "Thankyou, Lord Jesus!!" - today we've had the first indication of healing taking place since the operation! The areas operated on are not quite so sore and tender for the first time!

With this came an opposite. I think about 36 hours of severe headache for her! Of all the pain in all the parts of Beloved's body that she manages to somehow handle, there is just one that makes her extremely sick and wipes her out: headaches. Just normal ones so far as we've always understood, similar to what you may get. But they devestate her!! Pain-killers have no effect - she just has to 'hack' it...

Tonight maybe it's finally easing. She's asleep at the moment.

Today has been my worst day since this all started. Just totally worn out. And I had my pain also, with a severe stomach cramp that I can eventually stop with a lot of heat. But this one was a doozey and incapacitated me for many, many hours.

In so far as the headache and stomach cramp are concerned, both are common enough and so that's just life for us. But it's GREAT NEWS that at last we're seeing some healing!!!

Thankyou for all of your selfless prayers!!

- BM and his Lady

 

[nikljones]

Good news BM and praise God! Will keep the prayers going. Will also report this to my group. Praying for rest and comfort.

 

[Fluffy]

Good news, indeed!

Will continue to pray.

Please add one of my firefighters to your prayer list, if you can. Gunny (his nickname he got in the Marines) was in a motorcycle accident and got pretty busted up. Broken arms, shoulder, ribs, fingers, a couple of vertebrae in his back (no paralysis, thank God!), pelvis, a punctured lung and broken teeth. He had his first surgery yesterday and is doing as well as could be expected. Still maintaining his sense of humor! ha! It looks like he will be in the hospital for about a month. So prayers for his family would be good, too.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday and are keeping warm this winter.

Miss you guys! ((HUGS))

 

[Bondman]

PRAYER THANKS - 12

BELOVED - She is doing so well. It's like a MIRACLE!!! She saw the Surgeon today. He said her gall bladder was absolutely "rotten". She asked, "So how do we get on without a gall bladder?" He replied, "For you? - NO DIFFERENT!! Yours wasn't working anyway!"

He was very pleased with her progress. There are two things to look at as to why: 1. Maybe her body IS still stronger than my poor old body is (in more recent times we've had that round the other way). 2. Clearly GOD answered our prayers. She's doing MILES better than anyone could have possibly expected. A BIG, BIG THANKYOU to everyone for sticking with us for this amazing result!! A v. sick lady went and had a serious - for her - operation. She got through it. She came home, and it was a very hard time for us both. But she started healing, and now I have my Sweetheart back!!! "Hallelujah, thankyou Lord Jesus!!!"

BONDMAN - Isn't doing so well. Yesterday I was the sickest I've been this year. A lot of this was simply going down and down under the stress of it all. But I'm still troubled by the lower half of my stomach which wants to go into pain and spasm - unless I ensure it does not get even cool, let alone cold. We don't know what this is about, or what to do about it. Our good Doc is away till 14th. I've had a better day today.

MUCH LOVE, AND BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!!!

- BM