Get Together #219

He Has Done Great Things

When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion , We were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."

The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad. (Psalm 126:1-3 NKJV)


This morning I woke up about 4:a.m. with some things from yesterday that were on my mind. I laid in bed and could not go back to sleep with these things on my mind. I knew that I would have to get up and go pray about these things. To be honest the prayer time was pretty dry. I did not seem to get a lot of peace, but after about an hour I laid down on the couch and went to sleep.

I woke up about an hour later and J.J. and I had our prayer time together. When we first started praying I did not feel like praying. I was thinking about all of the challenges the many ways that I fall short of God’s glory and the many weaknesses that I have in my life. But we kept praying Praise God! When you don’t feel like praying that is a good time to be praying. Things got some better.

My plans were to go up to the church and pray some more. Our dog George indicated that he wanted to go outside for awhile. I took that as the Holy Spirit telling me to stay at home and pray. God did not want me to be disturbed. Then the Holy Spirit told me to start praying through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Then my good friend Jeff Fleming called and wanted to get together for a cup of coffee. Jeff is a pastor at another congregation in the Body of Christ.

While I was getting ready to go meet Jeff I found something in my basket that I keep my keys and some other stuff in. I found a little stone with the word joy engraved in it. The Holy Spirit then reminded me not to let the evil one steal my joy through circumstances, situations, peoples opinions, my shortcomings, because Jesus has delivered us from the spirit of heaviness. He has given us joy for mourning. Jesus basically told the disciples don’t let “stuff” bug you: Joh 16:24 "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

When God brought His people Israel back from Babylon they laughed, they sang, and they were glad. The Hebrew word for glad is sameach. It is used in this verse as an adjective. It means showing joy. It is O.K. for a Christian to show joy. It means to be merry . It also means malicious joy. I don’t know what malicious joy means to you, but to me it means that God has given us great victory over our adversary the devil and we can celebrate that!

It was easy to show joy here last Sunday morning. We had a powerful worship service. The anointing was very strong during the service. One woman received healing for her hearing. Another woman received healing from extreme pain in her ear. Another woman took another step to some inner healing of some scars from the past. And another woman received a word of knowledge concerning the physical condition with her heart. It was very easy to show joy then.

But Monday was a different day. People came by with some serious stuff and the breakthroughs have not come yet, but they are on the way. I had meetings with very committed Christians who have some different perspectives on some things and it was challenging. But praise God we can look just like Israel did at how God has brought us out of captivity and is taking us into a good land and we can rejoice! Like Israel we can say “The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad!


Let Us Pray

Jesus, we thank You for the joy that you have given us. Jesus, we thank You for the victory that you have given us. Today I pray that the heathen will see it and be changed. I pray that they will look at us and know that You are the answer.

It was good to see some of our old friends at Camp Sumatanga Saturday when we rode up there and also to see some others at the Green Top. May God be with you all.

Your Friend/Kinfolk

Preston