Tuesday 3/3/15 Talking to God (7)

Dear Father in Heaven: I love You and I am truly thankful that You love me, even with all my faults. Please be with people on the road this evening as everywhere we look there is ice. Lord, we give praise that Steve does not have cancer, and now we ask that you take care of his Hepatitis C. Lord, be with Tom Sansoni and his team as they ready for a missions trip. And Lord, thanks for sending a baby in the womb to LeaAnne and Brian Clugston. Protect that child, please, Lord. Lord, please protect Israel's Prime Minister and his crew as they are in America, and please, Lord, protect our homeland, the place where Jesus walked. Please help me now with the message and after that please help me to dispatch the message. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters: Please keep praying for Israel's Prime Minister as he travels in America and also pray for Israel, our homeland. Please keep all those on the roads in prayer and the best defense for a road covered with ice is keeping your car parked.

I want to get onto the message today, so let's get talking about "Talking to God."

Tuesday: March 3, 2015: Talking to God (Day Seven)

Act 4:31 - After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (NIV)

Now that was powerful prayer, as the place they were meeting was shaken. I want to take you way back in my life, brothers and sisters. From 1962 to 1966 I worked for the United States Post Office as a letter carrier. One of the jobs I had for a few years was night collections, and often I would be working those collections on a Sunday evening. Some of you will remember when there were places to mail letters on a lot of corners, some had small boxes on posts. The event I want to tell you about happened at Fourth and Reilly Streets in Harrisburg, PA. There was a collection box located near a church which had a flock of our black brothers and sisters. I would sit out there and listen as they would pray and praise the Lord, and as in the scripture above, the place they were meeting was shaking, and you could tell the people were filled with the "Holy Ghost." Now I know the church was shaking as the mail truck was bouncing on the street out front. My brothers and sisters in that church were singing and praising the Lord and it went on and on and on. Although I could only sit there about 10 or 15 minutes without getting late on the schedule, it was indeed great. I mean those folks were "HAVING CHURCH." I am sure they might have been called "Holy Rollers" or Jesus freaks or a name like I was called not long ago, a radical Christian. So if you don't think prayers can't shake the buildings and the ground and/or the Holy Spirit cannot light up your fire and the fire in a church, you better be thinking again.

How long has it been since you have prayed and something was moved? Think about it, it might not be the home you were praying in. Here is one that I have prayed more than once. A vehicle would not start, you have just about given up when you decide to call on Jesus. You pray and pray asking for God's help starting that old "bucket of bolts" when all of a sudden it comes to life, you goose that throttle a few times and the car shakes ... who are you going to praise, General Motors, Henry Ford, or a Shepherd who now works on cars? PRAISE GOD, PRAISE GOD, PRAISE GOD. I had a few people on this line who have been with me when I laid hands on a bus and it sprang to life. It was not my hands, it was our Lord God. WELL, GLORY!

Years ago a group of us gathered and prayed at Hope United Methodist Church as the new building was getting started. A man came in, put dynamite down a drilled hole and BOOM, the earth shook and stones flew apart. Praise God. Oh, you are saying man did it. Well, who made the man and who gave the man knowledge to make dynamite, and who gave him brains to use it? Thank you, you are catching on. PRAISE GOD. And the people prayed and the place was shaking. Praise God.

Acts 6:6 - They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. (NIV)

Praying and laying on of hands, I just pulled this scripture and here people full of the spirit were prayed for, before going out to preach. Laying on of hands can be found in Genesis 48:13/20 to confer blessings. To transfer guilt look at Leviticus 1:4 and look at this for healing.

Acts 28:8 - His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in and after prayer placed his hands on him and healing him. (NIV)

Yes. The Apostle Paul laid hands on a man and prayed for him and he was healed. But let's not stop here, let's look at the one who sets examples for us.

Mark 1:41 - Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. "I am willing," He said, "Be clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. (NIV)

But you are saying that was then and this is now. Oh, but look here, Jesus is the same.

Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (NIV)

So brothers and sisters, go and pray until the place shakes, and lay hands on someone who is not feeling well and pray for healing. Lay hands on a person going on a mission trip and pray for them. Pray and pray and sing praises until the building shakes until the earth shakes. Pray and pray and pray. How about it, do you have that kind of Faith?

Dear Father in Heaven. I have faith that You answer prayers and when I pray I always want Your will to be done. Lord, please give us the kind of faith we need that when we pray things shake. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings. Love ya. Please share a prayer with someone and pray until something shakes.

Pastor Dan