This is another write up am sharing. It was delivered by "John Mulinde" of World Trumpet Mission.
“The Power of Family Altars”
We learned about the corporate Prayer altar beginning with the family. Today we see the church
surrendering territory and everyday we allow ourselves to take lower standards and values. It is so
disheartening and very discouraging. God is saying, “Arise My remnant I am not through with the
nations.”
Read All of Genesis 19
I pray that the Holy Spirit will help us so that the word we read in scripture will continue to unfold in our lives. I want to talk to you about the great responsibility we have primarily as parents in a land so filled with wickedness. In Genesis 13 when Lot was with Abraham, there came cause for strife and
Abraham said to him, “If you go east I go west,” Lot decided to go east and they separated. The Bible
says Lot went down to the plain in the east near the city of Gomorrah and then it goes on to say the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah were exceedingly wicked and sinful before God.
The Lord does not give us information for nothing. He is not extravagant with words. When God
makes a statement He knows its significance. He was warning us what kind of environment Lot was
going into. He was not in Sodom but outside it; but in chapter 19 as the angels go into Sodom he was
inside. He was outside yesterday and today he is inside. He is even seated at the gate. He had status
and found a place of acceptance and influence. He had worked his way into society and had found a
place of honor and sat among the elders at the gate.
We live in a society where evil takes over the minds of men and women. It is easy to think our
Christianity and homes are safe havens simply because we live and teach Christianity. The Bible
does not call Lot a wicked man. His heart was after God. Peter the apostle says he groaned for the
evil in the city. What about his wife? It was the responsibility of the wife in those days to raise their
children. Lot makes a statement that, “I have two daughters who have not known men.” They had
raised them in purity, not following the way of the world. They preserved them to the age of marriage
and they knew no man. When it came to instruction, their children had good instruction.
There is more to our walk with God. We are not dealing with an academic world or a world operating
in the material and physical alone. We deal with spiritual forces. We don’t fight against flesh and blood but principalities, powers and rulers of darkness in the world and hosts of spiritual wickedness in high places.
Today we have many who love and worship God, come to worship every week give service to
the Lord and all they are seen to do is instruct their children in a good way of life, then they wonder
why these lovely sweet trusting kids grow up and as soon as they are teenagers and into adulthood,
they go away from God into all manner of manifestations of wickedness. They become “dead-heads”, join cults and secret societies, go into drugs and all manner of substance abuse and addiction, sexual immorality and deviant sexual behavior. Their parents watch helplessly and hopelessly wondering why they choose the way of the world and go into the way of the land. It is as though something arrested them and drew them to follow the way of the world. Unable to handle the onslaught of wickedness their children launch into, many parents try to justify the wickedness and accommodate it as much as possible into their lives e.g. homosexuality, lesbianism, cults and secular humanistic ways of life.
Many parents groan deep inside and think on how they instructed their children faithfully in all ways
possible, even encouraging them to join the right company and all that. I want to say it is very good to instruct our children; however, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Instruction alone is not enough.
What we are learning is that the best thing that can become an anchor is to come into the presence of
the Lord daily, not only to speak and talk to Him and make petition, but seek further communion so
that, the ‘Spirit of God comes upon us like waves’ as the psalmist says in Psalm 42.
The Lord spoke to us back in Uganda when we cried out under the scourge of AIDS. He said, “Stop
praying about problems and pray for My purposes. Fill the land with prayer, teach My people to seek
My presence. Don’t do it in churches only. Teach people to take prayer back home and raise prayer
altars at home. Bring children at home to the altars. Stop praying for kids sugar coated prayers when
you lay them in bed and then come to Me and bare yourself in private saying, “God I need Your help.”
Come with your kids before Me. Let them hear you cry before Me, plead your case before Me; let
them see you express your trust and confidence in Me. When you are frustrated and have no hope let
them see that frustration. Don’t act strong before the kids and lay them in bed with a one minute
prayer then you come and break down before Me.” Let them see you before God.
God went on and said to us, “When you are not there and they are alone when they are being forced
to turn away from Me, when circumstances are too overwhelming and they are being cornered, they
will remember how much their parents depended upon God and God proved faithful. It is no use for
your child to come to you and say, “mom I need school fees” and you cover them with a short prayer
and then go and breakdown desperately saying to Him, “God you know how broke I am. You know I
have no means. I am desperate. I need help.” And you spend hours interceding until breakthrough
happens and you come out in faith knowing He will be faithful to bring your petitions to pass. When
you come home the next day, somehow God has intervened and you provide for your child that need.
They will never know how much God helped you and how you model your life with prayer. When they hear your cry until the spirit touches the Almighty God, and see the travailing that takes place, thenthey will know that it is not an instant thing. Let your prayer not stop with petitioning. Let it not stop with expressing desire but seeking the presence of God. Every time you pray and worship and stay there and press in, not only looking for answers but for the God who gives answers and when that presence comes in the prayer room you know a breakthrough has happened then they too will learn.
Let your children learn how to woo the presence of God, let them learn the sweetness of that
Presence, the Aroma of that Presence, how to tread softly with that Presence, so that in their own
time when you are not there they will hunger after that Presence and not settle for less. When they
think they have done everything they think is enjoyable they shall come home and yearn for that
sweet Aroma. Nothing else will satisfy them. No drugs, no sexual immorality, nothing the world offers them will quench that deep yearning for the real presence of God.
When we have nothing but good instruction, we shall be kept as long as we have stamina, boldness
and ability to stand. However, every man has a breaking point when we say, “I know what is right but
can no longer do it because I don’t see any other way.” People don’t do things because they don’t
know what is good to do; they know it, but don’t see a way out. If we were brought up and saw how
much God can make a difference then we would turn to Him. If all we have is good instruction, we
have to sadly yield to pressures of the moment.
I look at this holy man Lot. He knew right and wrong, brought up his children in purity of spirit even in the midst of the lifestyle in Sodom. He stood until that moment when all men young and old were
pressing against his door, to draw out his visitors and defile them, abuse them sexually. Under
pressure, Lot made an offer that was totally against his values. He said, “I have got two daughters. Let me bring them to you. Do what you want to them, but don’t touch these men under my roof.” This is a parent who knew better. He did not know what to do under pressure but only that which was totally against his conscience.
How many parents today know very well the evil that their children are walking into, but are totally
unable to stand with them. Their children make all sorts of decisions that are totally ungodly; even as
Christians, and yet, the parents have to bow to these decisions against their conscience and clear
understanding of what the Bible says about these things.
The angels pulled him back. That is an expression to say it was not God’s solution to the problem.
Today we try to solve spiritual problems with human solutions. We have things in the physical that
have nothing to do with physical solutions. The angels dealt with the problem that was spiritual in
nature with a spiritual solution and in a moment there is no problem.
The threat was now no longer from people pressing into Lot’s house but God. The angels told him
“Quickly find those who you love and get them out of this city because God will destroy it.” Lot goes to his sons in law who were pledged to marry his daughters and told them. He sounded like he was
joking. Today we speak to people and we sound like we are joking because we have not broken
through in our prayer. Words are wonderful but they do not change people. The letter kills bur the
spirit gives life – only God changes people.
Lot could not save the lives of his sons-in-law but he was lifted out of the city with his wife and two
daughters. Again his faith is not in God but his ability – like many of us today. We take our spiritual
problems to the psychologist rather than to God. We want to reason with God’s instruction in the very face of His miraculous intervention in our lives. Even when with miraculous intervention his faith is in his ability he says “Don’t take me to the mountains I will perish. Allow me to go to Zoar it is small and I will not perish.” He was not looking to his God but his ability and what made sense to his mind.
That is typical when one has not built a lifestyle of being in the presence of God.
The people who spend time in presence of God come to a moment when they are beyond themselves
and say “my God is able.” We said that those who have broke through in prayer, do not look at the
circumstances and panic. They have a deep assurance as to their God’s ability. Daniel, Meshak,
Shadrack and Abednego all reached those moments and said “I know my God is able. But even if He
does not come through I will not bow to the circumstance.” They surrendered to the ability of God and ignored their own ability or lack thereof.”
Let us seek after the presence of God, not just praying and speaking to God or worshipping and
seeking but that heart that seeks to come to a place of communion with God, You are meeting with
God, the presence comes in your own house, prayer closet and you know you have met with God. He
says no word but you know that you know that you have encountered with your God. That is the most precious thing He is calling us to. We build that atmosphere in our family prayer altar – at home and where we spend time in occupation. The people who know their God will be strong and do exploits.
We live in times when no human stamina will stand. The system gets tighter and tighter and pressures more and more. Everyone who knows what is right and wrong is challenged and everyday we are giving a bit of ground and compromising a little, and we continue to surrender territory. If we continue in our mental ability and understanding we shall be retreating, our nations will continue to rot, and moral standards will go lower and lower. I want to say to you, in the name of our Lord, God is seeking out a people who will say “no” to the dictates of society, people who will say “We choose God’s way.”
The only way we choose His way is by His strength. We shall therefore seek Him. We shall not seek
to do right because we know we have a breaking point, but we will find Him and when we find Him He will make us able. If we don’t do that, without realizing it the spirit of the land changes us. (Ref.
Transforming Your World – John Mulinde)
This holy man Lot saw it acceptable to offer his children. Something had crept deep inside him
unawares. It went deep and he could lower his standards at an impossible situation. Something
happened to Lot’s wife when there was nothing to save and desire in the ashes of Sodom anymore.
God had said, “Don’t look back,” but something had gone so deep in her heart, totally unawares, and
she looked back and lost her destiny there and then! We may think it is not fair; but it goes deeper
than turning back.
The taking of Lot and his family out of Sodom and Gomorrah is likened to the rapture. When the
Christians are caught up with Christ at His second coming, it will not be something so simple. There
are those who will be taken up with Christ, but just like Lot’s wife, they will look back to the things that hold them here on earth – “oh what about my property? What about my children? What about the office? What about this and that? And like Lot’s wife, they too will lose their destiny and remain
behind.
Even Jesus mentioned her and said, “Remember Lots wife”. In heaven it is a big deal. Where is your
heart? The Lord who is saving you, is saying “Come to Me, I make a way of safety before you. Don’t
turn back.” But the heart was drunken with things of Sodom and Gomorrah. It turned back and was
judged.
What about the daughters who were brought up with good instruction? They ended up with their father in the mountains and one said to the other, “Hey is this how we will die without children? Let us make our dad drunk and have sex with him and have children by him.” Is this natural passion!? Is this something they learnt or saw anywhere? Definitely not in the house of Lot but possibly in Sodom where the sexual immorality was abominable with homosexuality, lesbianism, incest and all manner of deviant sexual habits. The spirit of the land had penetrated unawares into their hearts. The mind was fine but their spirit was defiled. One daughter lay with the father and said, “I did it! Let us do it again for you.” That is how far their spirits were corrupted and they did it. Out of Sodom and Gomorrah no soul was redeemed. Lot lost his marriage, lost his children lost his wealth and lost his destiny.
Beloved I want to end with this - Look at your nation today, the land you live in, the forces of darkness bargaining for the souls of the people of the land. Everyday pressures increase and everyday our stamina is being challenged - not only yours and mine but our children’s; those innocent kids we bring into the world raising them up for tomorrow. I want to say to you beloved, together with all good instruction and good teaching and standards you put in their lives, let us together seek to bring our children to daily seek the presence of the Lord in the family altar. That is not dependent on your ability but on God. If you don’t know how to seek Him cry out to Him and say “Teach me to seek Your face, to hunger after You and love Your presence until I can’t do without it.
Don’t despair if your children are going in the world; with God all things are possible. Even if they went that way if we turn to Him, the Bible says in Psalm 91 he has put his trust in me therefore will I redeem him.
Let us pray and ask God to teach us to make it a priority to bring our families to Him. Let us ask God
to teach us how to raise up a family altar and overcome all barriers that hold us back because His
presence is our insurance. Let us ask Him for that. The children are never too young. Bring them from the one suckling on the breast to the eldest including all others who are under your household.
Where is it Biblical to bring children to the altar? Gen 22:6-8, 26:62-63, Jer 9:20, Joel 2:16-17
For more information email: trumpet@infocom.co.ug or info@worldtrumpetmission.org
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Family Altars
It is very necessary to have family altars. I read this write up below by John Mulinde and i would like to share with you.
WORLD TRUMPET MISSION – PRAYER TEACHINGS
SERIES – COMBAT IN THE HEAVENLIES
“Family Altars”
We have seen how Abraham started building altars, and generally what the prayer altar means in this
context. You cannot tell others about prayer when you don’t practice it. You cannot lead others where
you have not been. We need to cultivate our hearts as the first prayer altars (Romans 12.1-2). As we pray to God He will make us effective in the land. In that, we can be effective in leading others in the same position we are in because we wont just be giving them head knowledge but a life that we are living.
We read in Hosea 1012 –
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rains righteousness on you.
God needs ploughed ground in order to come and soak in His anointing so that you may be people who will accomplish the purposes of God in your nation. How do you attract the pillar of His presence into your life so that it goes through the firmament and you have open heavens at all times? You have to keep your fellowship and relationship with God unbroken.1
Today we continue to examine more closely, the family (or corporate) altar. After cultivating your heart so that it becomes an altar, you have legal ground for God to affect the land. Before revival can take over a nation, it has to start in your heart. As each person yields their heart to God they become a praying, moving altar. Wherever you are, you have fellowship with God; that unceasing prayer bubbling out of your heart thus fulfilling the scripture “pray without ceasing”.
Hebrews 514:
Solid food is for those who are mature who have trained themselves to recognize what is right and wrong and then do what is right.
As we work out our salvation, we can train ourselves to be in constant worship and prayer so that even when we are interacting with other people, our spirit is in constant bubbling deep within like a running motor. When a situation arises which requires prayer action, we immediately counter it without having to be “warmed up.” Can you imagine what happens if a number of people with this kind of heart attitude toward prayer come together in fellowship? The scripture will indeed show results that say, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I will be in the midst of them. Whatsoever they bind on earth it shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever they loose on earth it shall be loosed in heaven. When you lead such a prayer lifestyle, people who interact with you will notice the difference, at your place of work or at home. In every situation you get involved, things start to change.
In your family, you must bring change. It is not just a coming together to say some short routine prayer and read a psalm or two or praying with the children when they go to sleep. We need to cultivate a real prayer atmosphere in the home. This is very vital. People around us, must experience the presence of the living God.
We shall see how this is effected as we study the Importance of the Family Altar. God wants us to create family altars. Families come together for meals or to watch TV, but when it is prayer time, God wants us united more than ever. As you come together the presence is not only upon
your life, it comes on the whole family. The pillar of fire covers up your entire household and it can even affect the neighbors. In this, even spiritual warfare becomes easy because you have a bigger area of influence compared to when you are praying individually.
The church and the nation start with the family. In one congregation, you can be from different families however under that church umbrella you are also one big family. The family, as God intended i.e. one husband, one wife and their offspring (if God has blessed them with any) is a very fundamental unit for two great entities – The nation and the church of Christ. That is why the devil is busy destroying God’s definition of the family. If he can destroy the family, he can destroy the church and then destroy the nation–that is his agenda; to steal, kill and then destroy.
"Effective Fervent Prayer © Michael Kimuli – Published by New Wine Press 2003"
The strong family foundations have influenced Strong and successful society set-ups. Deterioration and breakdown of society has been traced to dysfunctional or broken family foundations.
When there is no effective fervent prayer in the family, you have lost the church of the next generation. The church is only one generation away from destruction. When you do not do your part to raise up the next church generation in your family, you are part of the destruction of the church in the next generation.
Many people are busy trying to give their lives to God but they leave their children and families behind.
Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:6-9
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Proverbs 22.6
Train up your child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 6.4
And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
God wants us to fellowship and pray corporately as a family. Your children are the pastors of tomorrow, the prophets of tomorrow, the presidents of tomorrow. They are the ministers of tomorrow, and the national and spiritual leaders of tomorrow and the policy makers of tomorrow. The devil has blinded us and we have not trained them in the admonition of the Lord, thinking that, when they grow up they will decide for themselves. Meanwhile, the devil is having a hey day with the children today.
We can go to church today and it is okay, but where is the church of tomorrow? When we travel to
different nations in the world, we cry a lot for the church there. Most of them have cultivated nothing for their children in spiritual things. When you go to church you find all people are old. When you go to a church you wonder, “Where is the future church?”
With the information age, leaders and policy makers are getting increasingly younger and younger.
Information is power and the youth are at the cutting edge of acquiring it. They increasingly advise and direct affairs of today in every aspect.
All marketing is geared to the younger generation. What kind of policies and decisions are they making today? Are they building Godly foundations? Today the unadulterated Bible truths are being twisted and,bent diluted and simply ignored to fit into the way of today’s thinking; whether in animistic or humanistic direction. However our God who in times past redeemed the family and society, is able to do it again in our generation.
This journey will prepare your generation and the generation to come. When you pray you are helping children who come after you to find the work easier. We need to pray in our family. God wants to visit your family. A Christian who comes to church on Sunday uses only an average of two hours in the 168 hours of the week. If the pastor takes some extra time, he gets tired, walks out. He spends another 166 hours waiting for the next 2-hour dose of spiritual sustenance. If he is diligent he makes a little two or five minute snatches of prayer and worship or attend a midweek cell group meeting. How will he be effective in the land? How can he work with God in such a lifestyle? God wants to meet you where you spend a big chunk of your time.
After a good church service we say we have been in the presence of God. God is asking you “In whose presence are you at home or at your place of work?” Many people don’t really think about it that way. The minute they leave the church door they think the presence of God is left behind.
Matthew 18:19-20
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them God is looking for unity. Many families live together but inside they are divorced. They are not in unity.
They don’t draw the fellowship and relationship with God in their house. Today we are increasingly
hearing the call for the church to come in unity, but unless it starts in the family, how will the church be united?
Some think the church is the remedy. Some come to church after fighting at home and say, “Let me come to church and sing and praise God, because that is where the presence is,” but God wants to come to your family. “A family that prays together stays together”.
As children come in His presence their calling and gifting are cultivated at an early stage however, today most Christian children, are the ones who bring trouble in their nations. Brothers and sister go back and start family altars.
When we started the family altars in Uganda, we saw many breakthroughs coming in our nation. God was telling us “every Christian home is a prayer altar”. Two years ago, we have around 7 million who were born again Christians. How much more powerful would the effect of such a large mass be, if all their families come before God every evening and/or every morning and call on the name of the living God, on behalf of themselves and their communities? There would be chaos in the kingdom of darkness!
God is calling us also to start cell group altars. These in turn come together in a church altar, which
consists of different families coming together. From every level of society that we come, we enter greater levels of authority in the spiritual realm. There are certain demon gods you can contend with as a family, especially those that come against you from your family lineage. However as a single-family unit, you cannot come against a spirit ruling over a village territory unless you are united in a cell group with other families or members of the neighborhood. Once we come together, there comes upon us a corporate anointing to reach a greater level of authority.
Today, the devil will fight two things. The first is prayer. Many churches have program from Monday to Sunday except prevailing prayer. Even when church comes together on Sunday service, people can
praise for one hour but when it comes to prayer, they do it for two minutes and then they go to the next thing on the agenda.
The second thing is the Word of God. Today people don’t want to hear long sermons. Within two hours most congregations will have 15 or 20 minutes of God’s Word, unless the speaker is giving them a message that will tickle their itchy ears!
Many people will argue, “Do we have to pray only? Is that all that we need to do?” No it is not. As I said earlier, everything we see in the physical is a manifestation of what has happened in the spiritual realm. If immorality and demonic activity and kingdom of darkness is overcoming in the physical realm around you, it tells you who is prevailing in the spiritual realm over the land. All things begin in the spirit before they are manifested in the physical. The destiny of your family, your nation is in your hands and it must be won in the heavenlies first before it begins to be manifested. Prayer is the only communication way of communicating from the physical realm into the spiritual realm. (Ref. God’s Watching Priesthood – Michael Kimuli)
After prayer has broken through, then people will have opening to push for other physical agendas in the nation. Otherwise, the world is full of physical strategies and many of the nations from where these strategies are emerging are moving further and further away from God and His purposes. If you don’t pray, God will have nothing to do in your nation. The destiny of the nation is in your hands. You can let it to go or take it and pray through.
Prayer sustained the early church in Acts of the Apostles. The Bible says, in Acts 242-47 everyday these people came together and prayed. They broke bread in every house. And as they did that God added to them those who got saved. Moreover they came to church or temple everyday. In Acts 3 it says, as it was the 9th hour John and Peter were going to temple for that was the time of prayer when the lame man was healed. This is not something new, it sustains revival.
As the family altars are set up and the network of prayer began to take shape, villages started receiving transformation. One of our missionaries, David gives the following testimony:
Our town is 17 miles from Kampala. As you enter the town, there are two mosques on each end that act like entrances to the town. These people would wake up every morning and call their demon gods. They did that every day until one day, we got spiritual anger and said, “This will not happen when we are here”.
So when we came to church altar, I told my brothers and sisters what I had in my heart. I said, “We have to come against this spirit. We will wake up at 5 am and call upon our God and call on Jesus Christ in our families and He bring turbulence so that when they call on their god, they find that the firmament is messed up.
We went to our family altars, we repented of covenants and sacrifices made to the demon gods and when we came together as a church, we started to come against that spirit because we had legal ground to attack it. Within one week up to today, their speakers don’t speak again. Another week on Sunday we saw one Maalim (teacher of Islam) coming to church. We wondered, “What has he come for? A fight? But as we welcomed the visitors we asked him to greet us. He said, “I have come here not as a visitor. I have come to stay.”
We knew we have done something in the spiritual but we did not give up there. Once a week we resist that spirit and continue to pray for sustained victory. The moslems are coming to Christ, not because we have gone to preach to them, but because the strong man was overcome. With our God all things are possible. We need to win battles in the spiritual realm and the physical will manifest our success.
I encourage you today; if you have not bought the Transformations 2 videotape or DVD, please buy it. You will see how the church altar and the family altar work and how God worked in the nation of Uganda.
People have come to know that “wherever God has placed me, I am an ambassador.” During AfriCamp Prayer conference we hear testimonies of what God has been doing in the nation and other nations where people have been learning about prayer and community transformation.
There are some offices where the pastors have no access, but you have access because you work there. You are the pastor there. Begin to pray for your place of work and with time God will honor your work.
Wherever you work, you are an ambassador. You are not there to get money or have a position. God in that place does not identify you by your job description. He identifies you by the ministry He has place upon you in that position. If he has called you as the prophetic voice in that office, or the pastor or the teacher in that place or whichever position He has for you there, it is what He looks at and wants you to be a good and faithful steward. Begin to seek God for what He wants you to be and to do in that place of work.
Genesis 19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom:
Do not be like Lot in the Bible. Sitting at the gate, in the Biblical terms implied being a man of authority, in decision-making capacity. He was an elder in the city. However Lot was not known to anyone by any other description except that he was a man of influence there. When it came to matters of righteousness, he was quiet about the wickedness of the city. Even when he began to speak about judgement, everyone found him quite ridiculous.
If you are in a business or company, office, etc God has placed you as leader there. Start instituting a
personal prayer altar and ask God to raise others. God wants to visit your shop or business and bring His transforming power there.
You may wonder, what happened in Uganda? Many may not recognize it but the successes that have
been recorded to date started by instituting prayer where we were. Prayer is a secret activity. Only those who are praying see the signs and know what is happening in the spiritual realm. They can be confident and are not blown by every circumstance that seems to be cropping up. In 1997 something amazing happened - the president of Uganda came to AfriCamp. That was a time of repentance. Even at the time the army general was a born again Christian. He was there to repent on behalf of the army for the atrocities they did to Uganda over the past years.
That year the president did something miraculous. After speaking he got the national flag and handed it over to the intercessors. He said “I hand over this nation to you intercessors. You are the ones who can bring change. We have tried here and there, but without success. What prompted that? A network of prayer, which began in individuals and grew into families and cell groups and churches. Also in 1998, he sent the vice president to AfriCamp with a signed document for the launching of the African Missionary
Initiative saying “In the name of the government of Uganda, we send missionaries all over the world. Go and be a light” and then they brought a light and handed it to missionaries. So we do not go out of our nation alone, we are here standing under a mandate released by the President and government of
Uganda.
Even when he does not recognize it, the president has a kingly anointing which comes with his position, and by giving us the seal of approval, it is conferred on us. There are certain things that take effect even if the leaders are not saved. In being leaders, they already have a kingly anointing over their lives. They have an authority to open up the nation to Godly or ungodly influence.
They stand in the gap as leaders and can declare things in spiritual realm knowingly or unknowingly. We must steer their decisions and declarations through fervent prayer for them. (1 Tim 2.1-2). The wife of our president is born again; moreover, on December 31 1999, as we entered 2000, the church prepared a big prayer altar so that all people from the whole nation came so we can pray together in our largest stadium.
When the state house learnt about it, they said, “no, we are the ones who will sponsor all that meeting. Just announce it. People came from the south, north, east Uganda etc. Amazingly at 10pm the president of Uganda, his wife, and the whole family came and they spent the whole night there praising God and praying for the nation. They left at 5.00am.
Today we have 3 Christian radio stations. But every morning at 5.00 we have pastors leading prayers.
But we got those radio stations after prayers, because the national radio had refused to announce
anything to do with born again Christians. So we went into prayer. We said “God do something.” If you have 1 million homes putting on that radio in the morning praying for only one thing corporately, you have corporate anointing. On seeing that the government said, “please give them free airtime on Uganda TV; to preach the gospel. Even on the national radio give them free airtime.
Today as I speak, there are radio stations that don’t belong to Christians but they say, “please pastors of the Christians, we are giving you free airtime. One radio belongs to an Asian who is not a Christian. He has nothing to do with Christianity. He says, “Every morning at 5.00a.m come to the radio and pray. Take the free time. Lead people in prayer.” As they close their stations, the pastor is there, leading prayer.
In the Bible, corporate prayer altars brought change in the land. 1 kings 18:30-38
Then Elijah said to all the people, “come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he
repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall
be your name.” 32 Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 3 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the brunt sacrifice and on the wood.” 34 And he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water. 36 And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be know this day that You are God in Israel and I am your servant and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.” 38 And the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stone and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
This was a time where Elijah had declared 3 ½ years of drought because the people had rejected God.
Jezebel the wife of Ahab had brought foreign gods in the land and people had erected altars to these
gods. There were so many prophets worshipping baal. God brought a crisis in the land and Elijah stood on behalf of God to judge the nation.
After 3 ½ years ended, he came to people and asked them “For how long will you be double minded. If God is God lets us serve God but if it is baal then let us serve baal.” I will talk more about Elijah in “Taking the Land As We Institute Prayer”. Elijah asked for two bulls to be sacrificed at Mt Carmel and the God who answered by fire would be declared God. The followers of baal called on their god for many hours, to bring fire but he failed.
In V30 Before Elijah could give sacrifice he first repaired the altar of the Lord. It was in ruins. That shows that these people had taken years without giving sacrifice to the living God. He first repaired the altar.
God is calling us today; He is blowing the trumpet all over the nations saying “Please prepare an altar for the Lord. Prepare the altar of your heart, prepare the altar in your family, the altar in your churches, in your places of work, in your business - before God can move in the land”. Before the presence of God can come down, we need to repair the broken altars of prayer. Elijah repaired the altar, for it was in ruins. He prepared the sacrifice and put it on the altar.
He prayed at the time for giving sacrifices – there are also set time2 for going to the altar. Set up time for the altar. You should not say, “We will go anytime we are free”. You have failed before you start because the devil will make sure you are busy all the time. Set up a specific time for the altar. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah came and prayed.
When we erect altars we call on the presence of God. Altars attract the presence of God. Even when
people had sacrificed so much to baal, because of Elijah who was willing to standing in the gap, erect an altar and cry to the name of the Lord, the presence came down. Elijah turned the hearts of the people of Israel back to God. It was double victory.
PRIESTHOODS
In every land, there are always two priesthoods. There is a satanic priesthood and a Godly priesthood. The priesthood that stands in the gap on behalf of the land will have authority over the land. Before Elijah came, the priests of baal were rulers of the land, because they sacrificed regularly at their altars and were in constant communion with their demon gods. They had turned the heart of the people to baal. Even in our day when we refuse to put up corporate prayer altars, the satanic priesthoods will put up their altars.
As you see more and more mosques, Hindu temples, buddhist shrines and witchcraft rising in the land, you know that it is a physical manifestation of the spiritual activity over your area; and it is time to stand in repentance and bet into spiritual warfare.
When people called by the name of the Lord God are spiritually slumbering, we say, “You see we are
tired. We are busy.” Someone else will call on his or her demon god 5 times a day! You call church
members to prayer once a week and it is a struggle; surely which priesthood shall prevail? Take heed!
We learnt that altars are places of mercy. Whenever you are stranded, and in trouble, if you have a family altar, or another corporate altar, which you attend daily, you find it easier to deal with issues rather than let them accumulate until you see the pastor! Instead of running to men to and fro, you run to the altar. It is a place of mercy.
We shall look in greater detail at the importance of praying specifically within the family thru the life of Lot in Sodom. Cry out to the Lord, “Lord I am here, I am weak, I am nothing without You, but if You call me, I am ready
for You. This is my day. I was created for a time such as this. Holy Spirit I call unto You come and help me to build a prayer altar within my life, my family, my school, my place of work, my business! Help me and give me grace and mercy.”
For more information: trumpet@infocom.co.ug or info@worldtrumpetmission.org
WORLD TRUMPET MISSION – PRAYER TEACHINGS
SERIES – COMBAT IN THE HEAVENLIES
“Family Altars”
We have seen how Abraham started building altars, and generally what the prayer altar means in this
context. You cannot tell others about prayer when you don’t practice it. You cannot lead others where
you have not been. We need to cultivate our hearts as the first prayer altars (Romans 12.1-2). As we pray to God He will make us effective in the land. In that, we can be effective in leading others in the same position we are in because we wont just be giving them head knowledge but a life that we are living.
We read in Hosea 1012 –
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rains righteousness on you.
God needs ploughed ground in order to come and soak in His anointing so that you may be people who will accomplish the purposes of God in your nation. How do you attract the pillar of His presence into your life so that it goes through the firmament and you have open heavens at all times? You have to keep your fellowship and relationship with God unbroken.1
Today we continue to examine more closely, the family (or corporate) altar. After cultivating your heart so that it becomes an altar, you have legal ground for God to affect the land. Before revival can take over a nation, it has to start in your heart. As each person yields their heart to God they become a praying, moving altar. Wherever you are, you have fellowship with God; that unceasing prayer bubbling out of your heart thus fulfilling the scripture “pray without ceasing”.
Hebrews 514:
Solid food is for those who are mature who have trained themselves to recognize what is right and wrong and then do what is right.
As we work out our salvation, we can train ourselves to be in constant worship and prayer so that even when we are interacting with other people, our spirit is in constant bubbling deep within like a running motor. When a situation arises which requires prayer action, we immediately counter it without having to be “warmed up.” Can you imagine what happens if a number of people with this kind of heart attitude toward prayer come together in fellowship? The scripture will indeed show results that say, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I will be in the midst of them. Whatsoever they bind on earth it shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever they loose on earth it shall be loosed in heaven. When you lead such a prayer lifestyle, people who interact with you will notice the difference, at your place of work or at home. In every situation you get involved, things start to change.
In your family, you must bring change. It is not just a coming together to say some short routine prayer and read a psalm or two or praying with the children when they go to sleep. We need to cultivate a real prayer atmosphere in the home. This is very vital. People around us, must experience the presence of the living God.
We shall see how this is effected as we study the Importance of the Family Altar. God wants us to create family altars. Families come together for meals or to watch TV, but when it is prayer time, God wants us united more than ever. As you come together the presence is not only upon
your life, it comes on the whole family. The pillar of fire covers up your entire household and it can even affect the neighbors. In this, even spiritual warfare becomes easy because you have a bigger area of influence compared to when you are praying individually.
The church and the nation start with the family. In one congregation, you can be from different families however under that church umbrella you are also one big family. The family, as God intended i.e. one husband, one wife and their offspring (if God has blessed them with any) is a very fundamental unit for two great entities – The nation and the church of Christ. That is why the devil is busy destroying God’s definition of the family. If he can destroy the family, he can destroy the church and then destroy the nation–that is his agenda; to steal, kill and then destroy.
"Effective Fervent Prayer © Michael Kimuli – Published by New Wine Press 2003"
The strong family foundations have influenced Strong and successful society set-ups. Deterioration and breakdown of society has been traced to dysfunctional or broken family foundations.
When there is no effective fervent prayer in the family, you have lost the church of the next generation. The church is only one generation away from destruction. When you do not do your part to raise up the next church generation in your family, you are part of the destruction of the church in the next generation.
Many people are busy trying to give their lives to God but they leave their children and families behind.
Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:6-9
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Proverbs 22.6
Train up your child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 6.4
And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
God wants us to fellowship and pray corporately as a family. Your children are the pastors of tomorrow, the prophets of tomorrow, the presidents of tomorrow. They are the ministers of tomorrow, and the national and spiritual leaders of tomorrow and the policy makers of tomorrow. The devil has blinded us and we have not trained them in the admonition of the Lord, thinking that, when they grow up they will decide for themselves. Meanwhile, the devil is having a hey day with the children today.
We can go to church today and it is okay, but where is the church of tomorrow? When we travel to
different nations in the world, we cry a lot for the church there. Most of them have cultivated nothing for their children in spiritual things. When you go to church you find all people are old. When you go to a church you wonder, “Where is the future church?”
With the information age, leaders and policy makers are getting increasingly younger and younger.
Information is power and the youth are at the cutting edge of acquiring it. They increasingly advise and direct affairs of today in every aspect.
All marketing is geared to the younger generation. What kind of policies and decisions are they making today? Are they building Godly foundations? Today the unadulterated Bible truths are being twisted and,bent diluted and simply ignored to fit into the way of today’s thinking; whether in animistic or humanistic direction. However our God who in times past redeemed the family and society, is able to do it again in our generation.
This journey will prepare your generation and the generation to come. When you pray you are helping children who come after you to find the work easier. We need to pray in our family. God wants to visit your family. A Christian who comes to church on Sunday uses only an average of two hours in the 168 hours of the week. If the pastor takes some extra time, he gets tired, walks out. He spends another 166 hours waiting for the next 2-hour dose of spiritual sustenance. If he is diligent he makes a little two or five minute snatches of prayer and worship or attend a midweek cell group meeting. How will he be effective in the land? How can he work with God in such a lifestyle? God wants to meet you where you spend a big chunk of your time.
After a good church service we say we have been in the presence of God. God is asking you “In whose presence are you at home or at your place of work?” Many people don’t really think about it that way. The minute they leave the church door they think the presence of God is left behind.
Matthew 18:19-20
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them God is looking for unity. Many families live together but inside they are divorced. They are not in unity.
They don’t draw the fellowship and relationship with God in their house. Today we are increasingly
hearing the call for the church to come in unity, but unless it starts in the family, how will the church be united?
Some think the church is the remedy. Some come to church after fighting at home and say, “Let me come to church and sing and praise God, because that is where the presence is,” but God wants to come to your family. “A family that prays together stays together”.
As children come in His presence their calling and gifting are cultivated at an early stage however, today most Christian children, are the ones who bring trouble in their nations. Brothers and sister go back and start family altars.
When we started the family altars in Uganda, we saw many breakthroughs coming in our nation. God was telling us “every Christian home is a prayer altar”. Two years ago, we have around 7 million who were born again Christians. How much more powerful would the effect of such a large mass be, if all their families come before God every evening and/or every morning and call on the name of the living God, on behalf of themselves and their communities? There would be chaos in the kingdom of darkness!
God is calling us also to start cell group altars. These in turn come together in a church altar, which
consists of different families coming together. From every level of society that we come, we enter greater levels of authority in the spiritual realm. There are certain demon gods you can contend with as a family, especially those that come against you from your family lineage. However as a single-family unit, you cannot come against a spirit ruling over a village territory unless you are united in a cell group with other families or members of the neighborhood. Once we come together, there comes upon us a corporate anointing to reach a greater level of authority.
Today, the devil will fight two things. The first is prayer. Many churches have program from Monday to Sunday except prevailing prayer. Even when church comes together on Sunday service, people can
praise for one hour but when it comes to prayer, they do it for two minutes and then they go to the next thing on the agenda.
The second thing is the Word of God. Today people don’t want to hear long sermons. Within two hours most congregations will have 15 or 20 minutes of God’s Word, unless the speaker is giving them a message that will tickle their itchy ears!
Many people will argue, “Do we have to pray only? Is that all that we need to do?” No it is not. As I said earlier, everything we see in the physical is a manifestation of what has happened in the spiritual realm. If immorality and demonic activity and kingdom of darkness is overcoming in the physical realm around you, it tells you who is prevailing in the spiritual realm over the land. All things begin in the spirit before they are manifested in the physical. The destiny of your family, your nation is in your hands and it must be won in the heavenlies first before it begins to be manifested. Prayer is the only communication way of communicating from the physical realm into the spiritual realm. (Ref. God’s Watching Priesthood – Michael Kimuli)
After prayer has broken through, then people will have opening to push for other physical agendas in the nation. Otherwise, the world is full of physical strategies and many of the nations from where these strategies are emerging are moving further and further away from God and His purposes. If you don’t pray, God will have nothing to do in your nation. The destiny of the nation is in your hands. You can let it to go or take it and pray through.
Prayer sustained the early church in Acts of the Apostles. The Bible says, in Acts 242-47 everyday these people came together and prayed. They broke bread in every house. And as they did that God added to them those who got saved. Moreover they came to church or temple everyday. In Acts 3 it says, as it was the 9th hour John and Peter were going to temple for that was the time of prayer when the lame man was healed. This is not something new, it sustains revival.
As the family altars are set up and the network of prayer began to take shape, villages started receiving transformation. One of our missionaries, David gives the following testimony:
Our town is 17 miles from Kampala. As you enter the town, there are two mosques on each end that act like entrances to the town. These people would wake up every morning and call their demon gods. They did that every day until one day, we got spiritual anger and said, “This will not happen when we are here”.
So when we came to church altar, I told my brothers and sisters what I had in my heart. I said, “We have to come against this spirit. We will wake up at 5 am and call upon our God and call on Jesus Christ in our families and He bring turbulence so that when they call on their god, they find that the firmament is messed up.
We went to our family altars, we repented of covenants and sacrifices made to the demon gods and when we came together as a church, we started to come against that spirit because we had legal ground to attack it. Within one week up to today, their speakers don’t speak again. Another week on Sunday we saw one Maalim (teacher of Islam) coming to church. We wondered, “What has he come for? A fight? But as we welcomed the visitors we asked him to greet us. He said, “I have come here not as a visitor. I have come to stay.”
We knew we have done something in the spiritual but we did not give up there. Once a week we resist that spirit and continue to pray for sustained victory. The moslems are coming to Christ, not because we have gone to preach to them, but because the strong man was overcome. With our God all things are possible. We need to win battles in the spiritual realm and the physical will manifest our success.
I encourage you today; if you have not bought the Transformations 2 videotape or DVD, please buy it. You will see how the church altar and the family altar work and how God worked in the nation of Uganda.
People have come to know that “wherever God has placed me, I am an ambassador.” During AfriCamp Prayer conference we hear testimonies of what God has been doing in the nation and other nations where people have been learning about prayer and community transformation.
There are some offices where the pastors have no access, but you have access because you work there. You are the pastor there. Begin to pray for your place of work and with time God will honor your work.
Wherever you work, you are an ambassador. You are not there to get money or have a position. God in that place does not identify you by your job description. He identifies you by the ministry He has place upon you in that position. If he has called you as the prophetic voice in that office, or the pastor or the teacher in that place or whichever position He has for you there, it is what He looks at and wants you to be a good and faithful steward. Begin to seek God for what He wants you to be and to do in that place of work.
Genesis 19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom:
Do not be like Lot in the Bible. Sitting at the gate, in the Biblical terms implied being a man of authority, in decision-making capacity. He was an elder in the city. However Lot was not known to anyone by any other description except that he was a man of influence there. When it came to matters of righteousness, he was quiet about the wickedness of the city. Even when he began to speak about judgement, everyone found him quite ridiculous.
If you are in a business or company, office, etc God has placed you as leader there. Start instituting a
personal prayer altar and ask God to raise others. God wants to visit your shop or business and bring His transforming power there.
You may wonder, what happened in Uganda? Many may not recognize it but the successes that have
been recorded to date started by instituting prayer where we were. Prayer is a secret activity. Only those who are praying see the signs and know what is happening in the spiritual realm. They can be confident and are not blown by every circumstance that seems to be cropping up. In 1997 something amazing happened - the president of Uganda came to AfriCamp. That was a time of repentance. Even at the time the army general was a born again Christian. He was there to repent on behalf of the army for the atrocities they did to Uganda over the past years.
That year the president did something miraculous. After speaking he got the national flag and handed it over to the intercessors. He said “I hand over this nation to you intercessors. You are the ones who can bring change. We have tried here and there, but without success. What prompted that? A network of prayer, which began in individuals and grew into families and cell groups and churches. Also in 1998, he sent the vice president to AfriCamp with a signed document for the launching of the African Missionary
Initiative saying “In the name of the government of Uganda, we send missionaries all over the world. Go and be a light” and then they brought a light and handed it to missionaries. So we do not go out of our nation alone, we are here standing under a mandate released by the President and government of
Uganda.
Even when he does not recognize it, the president has a kingly anointing which comes with his position, and by giving us the seal of approval, it is conferred on us. There are certain things that take effect even if the leaders are not saved. In being leaders, they already have a kingly anointing over their lives. They have an authority to open up the nation to Godly or ungodly influence.
They stand in the gap as leaders and can declare things in spiritual realm knowingly or unknowingly. We must steer their decisions and declarations through fervent prayer for them. (1 Tim 2.1-2). The wife of our president is born again; moreover, on December 31 1999, as we entered 2000, the church prepared a big prayer altar so that all people from the whole nation came so we can pray together in our largest stadium.
When the state house learnt about it, they said, “no, we are the ones who will sponsor all that meeting. Just announce it. People came from the south, north, east Uganda etc. Amazingly at 10pm the president of Uganda, his wife, and the whole family came and they spent the whole night there praising God and praying for the nation. They left at 5.00am.
Today we have 3 Christian radio stations. But every morning at 5.00 we have pastors leading prayers.
But we got those radio stations after prayers, because the national radio had refused to announce
anything to do with born again Christians. So we went into prayer. We said “God do something.” If you have 1 million homes putting on that radio in the morning praying for only one thing corporately, you have corporate anointing. On seeing that the government said, “please give them free airtime on Uganda TV; to preach the gospel. Even on the national radio give them free airtime.
Today as I speak, there are radio stations that don’t belong to Christians but they say, “please pastors of the Christians, we are giving you free airtime. One radio belongs to an Asian who is not a Christian. He has nothing to do with Christianity. He says, “Every morning at 5.00a.m come to the radio and pray. Take the free time. Lead people in prayer.” As they close their stations, the pastor is there, leading prayer.
In the Bible, corporate prayer altars brought change in the land. 1 kings 18:30-38
Then Elijah said to all the people, “come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he
repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall
be your name.” 32 Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 3 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the brunt sacrifice and on the wood.” 34 And he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water. 36 And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be know this day that You are God in Israel and I am your servant and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.” 38 And the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stone and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
This was a time where Elijah had declared 3 ½ years of drought because the people had rejected God.
Jezebel the wife of Ahab had brought foreign gods in the land and people had erected altars to these
gods. There were so many prophets worshipping baal. God brought a crisis in the land and Elijah stood on behalf of God to judge the nation.
After 3 ½ years ended, he came to people and asked them “For how long will you be double minded. If God is God lets us serve God but if it is baal then let us serve baal.” I will talk more about Elijah in “Taking the Land As We Institute Prayer”. Elijah asked for two bulls to be sacrificed at Mt Carmel and the God who answered by fire would be declared God. The followers of baal called on their god for many hours, to bring fire but he failed.
In V30 Before Elijah could give sacrifice he first repaired the altar of the Lord. It was in ruins. That shows that these people had taken years without giving sacrifice to the living God. He first repaired the altar.
God is calling us today; He is blowing the trumpet all over the nations saying “Please prepare an altar for the Lord. Prepare the altar of your heart, prepare the altar in your family, the altar in your churches, in your places of work, in your business - before God can move in the land”. Before the presence of God can come down, we need to repair the broken altars of prayer. Elijah repaired the altar, for it was in ruins. He prepared the sacrifice and put it on the altar.
He prayed at the time for giving sacrifices – there are also set time2 for going to the altar. Set up time for the altar. You should not say, “We will go anytime we are free”. You have failed before you start because the devil will make sure you are busy all the time. Set up a specific time for the altar. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah came and prayed.
When we erect altars we call on the presence of God. Altars attract the presence of God. Even when
people had sacrificed so much to baal, because of Elijah who was willing to standing in the gap, erect an altar and cry to the name of the Lord, the presence came down. Elijah turned the hearts of the people of Israel back to God. It was double victory.
PRIESTHOODS
In every land, there are always two priesthoods. There is a satanic priesthood and a Godly priesthood. The priesthood that stands in the gap on behalf of the land will have authority over the land. Before Elijah came, the priests of baal were rulers of the land, because they sacrificed regularly at their altars and were in constant communion with their demon gods. They had turned the heart of the people to baal. Even in our day when we refuse to put up corporate prayer altars, the satanic priesthoods will put up their altars.
As you see more and more mosques, Hindu temples, buddhist shrines and witchcraft rising in the land, you know that it is a physical manifestation of the spiritual activity over your area; and it is time to stand in repentance and bet into spiritual warfare.
When people called by the name of the Lord God are spiritually slumbering, we say, “You see we are
tired. We are busy.” Someone else will call on his or her demon god 5 times a day! You call church
members to prayer once a week and it is a struggle; surely which priesthood shall prevail? Take heed!
We learnt that altars are places of mercy. Whenever you are stranded, and in trouble, if you have a family altar, or another corporate altar, which you attend daily, you find it easier to deal with issues rather than let them accumulate until you see the pastor! Instead of running to men to and fro, you run to the altar. It is a place of mercy.
We shall look in greater detail at the importance of praying specifically within the family thru the life of Lot in Sodom. Cry out to the Lord, “Lord I am here, I am weak, I am nothing without You, but if You call me, I am ready
for You. This is my day. I was created for a time such as this. Holy Spirit I call unto You come and help me to build a prayer altar within my life, my family, my school, my place of work, my business! Help me and give me grace and mercy.”
For more information: trumpet@infocom.co.ug or info@worldtrumpetmission.org
LOVE
I have been happily married for two years now and i have a little authority to share about love in Marriage. I met my beautiful wife 4 years ago and then we dated for close to 2 years before we finally got married. I love her so much and i have come to realise that it is true that love grows stronger and better with the passing of each day in our lives.
It's so interesting how we learn new things about each other day by day because we all keep changing with the time due to different causes. I remember in this last year we kinda got very busy with work and we lost track of some of the quality time we used to spend together especially in dining out and going for holidays. We are however returning to the basics in this year and as such we must have these back in our lives.
You know, it is so easy and it is actually happening with most marriages that couples tend to stop loving the way they used to before they tied the knot. There are so many marriages that are rotting everywhere one looks and as such, we need to encourage these couples and let them know that it is very possible to get back on course.
Why is it that the journey starts so well but the finishing is bad. At the marriage altar, we share vows very excitedly but the flame seems to run out quickly. Well, this is something you need to ask yourself as you re-examine your marriage.
There is need for a daily, hourly, minutely, secondly dose of love in our marriages. There is need to put aside quality time that existed before. Romance should be there more often. I encourage couples to do this in their lives.
I know there are changes at times that take place in the family as the children come into the picture. Yes, these really change a lot. This is where you need to set in another level of creativity to ensure the quality time still abides. It is also useful to get a mentor couple. This may not be easy but it is very necessary. Look for a couple that has more time or age in the marriage to offer advice so that we keep love alive in the marriages.
I can't list all the good things that will come as we live a marriage of love daily. There will be alot of inner joy and self gratification. More fulfillment and new energies to help you achieve the vision you have for your marriage and family. 1 Corinthians 13 puts it more clearly;
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It's so interesting how we learn new things about each other day by day because we all keep changing with the time due to different causes. I remember in this last year we kinda got very busy with work and we lost track of some of the quality time we used to spend together especially in dining out and going for holidays. We are however returning to the basics in this year and as such we must have these back in our lives.
You know, it is so easy and it is actually happening with most marriages that couples tend to stop loving the way they used to before they tied the knot. There are so many marriages that are rotting everywhere one looks and as such, we need to encourage these couples and let them know that it is very possible to get back on course.
Why is it that the journey starts so well but the finishing is bad. At the marriage altar, we share vows very excitedly but the flame seems to run out quickly. Well, this is something you need to ask yourself as you re-examine your marriage.
There is need for a daily, hourly, minutely, secondly dose of love in our marriages. There is need to put aside quality time that existed before. Romance should be there more often. I encourage couples to do this in their lives.
I know there are changes at times that take place in the family as the children come into the picture. Yes, these really change a lot. This is where you need to set in another level of creativity to ensure the quality time still abides. It is also useful to get a mentor couple. This may not be easy but it is very necessary. Look for a couple that has more time or age in the marriage to offer advice so that we keep love alive in the marriages.
I can't list all the good things that will come as we live a marriage of love daily. There will be alot of inner joy and self gratification. More fulfillment and new energies to help you achieve the vision you have for your marriage and family. 1 Corinthians 13 puts it more clearly;
1 Corinthians 13
New International Version (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
SAYING SORRY
I have yet to find another more important virtue in marriage that will keep it on track for sustained happiness. There is this important virtue of repentance and saying sorry.
Most families today are struggling with forgiveness. Pride has overtaken husbands and wives to the extent that couples are no longer apologetic and sincere with each other. You find so many couple struggling with stress and bitterness over unforgiveness and non repentance. I don't want to appear biased but this is an issue that is mainly affecting the husbands.
There is a reason why God advises to forgive unceasingly and also to confess our sins to one another so that there will be healing and restoration. James 5: 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
This is how i would describe repentance that is effective between husband and wife.
Many times spouses say sorry for the sake of saying it and then go ahead to do the same mistakes and then say sorry again. This is very bad in marriage and can destroy it. It's good in marriage not to take each other for granted. The real root cause for such pathetic situations in marriage is most times the failure for couples to have genuine repentance and forgiveness for one another.
Believe it or not but SAYING SORRY is one of the biggest pillars in marriage. You need to ask yourself as a partner in marriage of the benefits you get from repentance versus non repentance. If you hurt your spouse for any reason, you are not doing any good in your marriage. It does not add any value to you if you remain in your pride and unbrokenness to repent and forgive each other in marriage but it will always add a lot of happiness and healing to the marriage if couples remain repentant.
Most families today are struggling with forgiveness. Pride has overtaken husbands and wives to the extent that couples are no longer apologetic and sincere with each other. You find so many couple struggling with stress and bitterness over unforgiveness and non repentance. I don't want to appear biased but this is an issue that is mainly affecting the husbands.
There is a reason why God advises to forgive unceasingly and also to confess our sins to one another so that there will be healing and restoration. James 5: 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
This is how i would describe repentance that is effective between husband and wife.
- Tell your spouse that you are sorry from the bottom of your heart and mean it.
- Go ahead then and describe what exactly you are sorry for. List the issues you have wronged your spouse in detail.
- Re-assure your partner that you are going to change and not repeat the wrongs you have done.
- Your spouse should now go ahead and forgive you.
Many times spouses say sorry for the sake of saying it and then go ahead to do the same mistakes and then say sorry again. This is very bad in marriage and can destroy it. It's good in marriage not to take each other for granted. The real root cause for such pathetic situations in marriage is most times the failure for couples to have genuine repentance and forgiveness for one another.
Believe it or not but SAYING SORRY is one of the biggest pillars in marriage. You need to ask yourself as a partner in marriage of the benefits you get from repentance versus non repentance. If you hurt your spouse for any reason, you are not doing any good in your marriage. It does not add any value to you if you remain in your pride and unbrokenness to repent and forgive each other in marriage but it will always add a lot of happiness and healing to the marriage if couples remain repentant.
JESUS
Happiness in marriage is possible. We however need to have Jesus in the circle to make the picture complete. Marriage is created as a partnership between three people, husband, wife and God. God should be at the top in this triangle.
This great institution was created by God. He is the founder and therefore needs to have due respect accorded to him. He is the only one who knows it all and even understands it all.
Genesis 2:
8 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
There is alot of happiness in marriage that will be ushered in by Jesus if we let him in. There is nothing too high or too big that he can not handle. He will give you peace that surpasses human understanding.
It does not matter how big the issue might be, he will give you wisdom to make the right decisions.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
As we lay all our burdens unto him and as we bring happiness everyday to our marriages we need to also obey this command.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body.
This great institution was created by God. He is the founder and therefore needs to have due respect accorded to him. He is the only one who knows it all and even understands it all.
Genesis 2:
8 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man. ”
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man. ”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.There is alot of happiness in marriage that will be ushered in by Jesus if we let him in. There is nothing too high or too big that he can not handle. He will give you peace that surpasses human understanding.
It does not matter how big the issue might be, he will give you wisdom to make the right decisions.
Matthew 11:28-30
New International Version (NIV)
As we lay all our burdens unto him and as we bring happiness everyday to our marriages we need to also obey this command.
Ephesians 5:23-30
New International Version (NIV)
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body.
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