Praying for church plant...

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." ~ Romans 11:36 (NIV)

We are so looking forward to seeing what God is going to do with Freedom Fellowship...Sunday, April 1st is finally here tomorrow. That is opening day for our new spirit-filled church plant.

Within 24 hours of this writing, we will be having our first worship service and we are excited. We know the LORD is with us as we move boldly in this venture with him to further his kingdom. He will do more than we can ever imagine. Please pray today for our first worship. May his glory be shown through us.

Cling to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit...

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV).

Cling to God the Father, Christ the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! For he is the only one you can trust. Don't put your trust in man for anything. You will only be hurt and disappointed. I have seen it over and over in my own life and in the life of others.

When your mind goes in a funk and you struggle as you paddle down life's river, remember your help comes from the LORD and it is only He that can truly help you. You have authority over evil through the name of Jesus. Yes, victory through Jesus.

"The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life;the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalm 121:7-8 (NIV).

Shalom,

Rick Hawbaker
Praying 4 U Ministries †

LORD, show us your glory...

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." ~ Psalm 147:3 (NIV)

Please join me in lifting up Anamika to our great healer, Jehovah Rapha. This is the letter I received from her today...
...................sir,i met wid an accident last year...dec.7,2010,,, n,ma leg got fractured n nerves got damaged... doctor said last month,dat i cudnt b fully well as b4... n,i hav to wear a particular kind of shoe life long.... bt,i m born again Christian gal... knows my Lord Jesus Christ is the Healer n i know he can turn the things...upside down.. I WANA GET HEALED SOON,,,, WANA BEND MY KNEE FOR PRAYERS...(as i cudnt bend ma knee...).. i wana jump dance n run as b4... mark10:27 says"..with man this is impossible...bt,not with God...for all things r possible with God"... May this word work in my life... n,my frnds cud see the Lord's Glory again... as, HE SHOWED WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL N,MY ALL VEINS OF RIGHT LEG, GOT CUT N JESUS HEALED THEM ALL....,THRU WHICH I CAME TO FAITH.... MAY THIS B DONE AGAIN,WITH MY LEFT LEG TOO...WHEN,DOCTORS SAID MY CPN NERVES R DAMAGED N MY KNEE CAN NEVER BEND AGAIN!! BT,PLZZZ PRAY WHER DOCTORS FAILS LORD REVEALS HIS GLORY.... 10 YEARS B4 I GOT SAVED WITH THE HEALING IN MY RIGHT FOOT. MAY THIS TIME MY WHOLE FAMLY N FRNDS N GENTILES CUD SAVED BY SEEING THE LORD'S MIRACLE AGAIN IN MY LIFE. YES,I GET TENSED SOMETIMES.........WHEN I THINK,Y THIS HAPPENED WITH ME......?.... BUT, AT THE SAME TIME......WAIT FOR MY LORD'S HEALING TOUCH IN MY LIFE. SO,KEEP ON PRAYING FOR ME......sir,,as... M IN GREAT NEED......... THANK YOU.

Dear mighty God in heaven ~ You go unmatched as the greatest thing known or unknown. All honor, glory and praise goes to you. O LORD, I ask that you come upon the young girl, Anamika, that wrote the above letter. She has great faith in you and has jumped up in your lap. Come upon her in a mighty way and wrap your healing arms and hands around her. You have told us you are the great healer and you are so good at it. Open up heaven above her and heal her in the name of Jesus. Heal her leg that was fractured and restore her to exactly how she was before the accident. Show us your glory LORD. I ask this all in the good and great name of Jesus. Amen and Amen!

Led by the Spirit,

Rick Hawbaker
Praying 4 U Ministries †

Morning Prayer...

Father God ~ We come to you this day with great thanksgiving to a dad who is more than enough. Thank you for taking care of every detail in our lives. May we not forget to call upon the mighty name of Jesus. Yes, LORD. May we call upon the name above all names when we are buried in the muck and also when we think we are at the top of our game. You are the great God in heaven, the one who provides, who heals, who delivers, who saves us from ourselves, and from a world of darkness and more. To you goes all honor, glory and praise. May we bask in the presence of your Holy Spirit. Show us your glory. In the good and great name of Jesus. Amen and Amen.

He is showing up in a mighty way...

For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the LORD ~ Habakkuk 2:14 (NLT).

Enclaved by the goodness of God, His glory around me continues to increase. I am amazed by the love and awesome power of our Almighty God, but yet I am not surprised by what is happening in and around me.

For I know He is alive. Jesus of Nazareth is here right now. The Holy Spirit has rained down on me and although I am surrounded on earth by evil, there definitely is a circle of God’s good things happening around me.

I saw a slice of heaven a couple nights ago as men of all ages got together and prayed over one another. We prayed to take back things that the powers of evil had taken from us in our marriages, families, workplace and more.

A rummage sale outside of the world’s largest retailer to benefit a co-worker happened in my community yesterday. Nearly two thousand dollars was raised from the selling of things and from the cash donations. It will help a family that’s baby,10 ½ month old, is fighting for its life in a Children’s Hospital.

God’s presence was welcomed and certainly felt as six men and women gathered together at a friend’s house. The recently divorced friend has a 14 year-old daughter who had tried to end her life earlier in the week. God worked through the group as they talked and prayed with the daughter.

This is just some of the foot prints of God walking around me in the last three days. Before my feet hit the floor in the mornings, I pray to be conformed to the image of Christ. I want to walk in the glory of God and glorify Him in all I do. As I have tried to do this, He has shown up day after day in a mighty way.

"For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God,” ~ Deuteronomy 10:17 (NLT).

Hosting The Holy Spirit,

Rick Hawbaker
Praying 4 U Ministries †

Receive and Give Prayer...

“My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” ~ Psalm 121:2 (NIV).

Have you ever been in a group of people and someone has offered to pray for you in the name of Jesus? The anticipation of feeling heaven opened up and the healing power of the Holy Spirit falling down sweeps across you. It is great feeling the love and power of God.

Even if you are following God and his will for you, you still run into cruxes that make you look to deviate off the right path. These sometimes huge boulders propel us to the panic mode and sometimes it is to the point of giving up. That’s why we need one another to get up and over the current mountain we are facing.

Our strength is from the LORD and he works through others to help us. We just don’t turn down a chance to be prayed for by others and we should jump at the chance to pray for someone else.

“May you be blessed by the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. “~ Psalm 115:15 (NIV).

Shalom,

Rick Hawbaker
Praying 4 U Ministries†

Prepare for the coming storms...

I strongly believe in the power of prayer. The word of God tells us in Ephesians 6:18 (NIV) “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

God must have been looking at my last week when he wrote those words. I was bombarded by people with all kinds of requests from those needing all kinds of prayers.

I am talking about marriages, serious health issues, and finances. A lady with tears in her eyes showed me pictures of her husband with another woman. A man talked with me about losing both of his sons in the last two years. One to cancer and one in a car wreck.

A woman had a sparkle in her eye as she spoke of her son she had recently seen and it was the first time she had seen him sober in many years. A man in his 40’s talked of going to jail to serve out his sentence for being caught twice driving under the influence of alcohol. He is living a 10 year-old son behind.

These were just some of the hurting people God brought to me in a two hour period my first day at work last week. It does not include the 18 year-old girl that night we held in our arms who had just found out a friend had committed suicide.

Life is not easy. The storms of life keep on coming whether you are a Christian or not. But let me tell you, if you build your house on a solid rock, it will be still standing after the storm has passed.

Jesus told in Matthew 7 of the wise man who built his house on the rock and said of the foolish man who built his house on sand, “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Get hooked up with God today. He is the creator of all things known and unknown. He sent His Son to earth to die for you to set you free. He took our sins, sickness and disease to the cross. He died, walked through death and rose from the dead. The Spirit of the most holy one lives in us yet today. Don’t be caught dead without him.


Shalom,

Rick Hawbaker
Praying 4 U Ministries

Let your light shine...

“Let your light so shine before men,” Matthew 5:16 (KJV).

A couple months back I found myself driving through a blinding snow storm late at night from a surgical center to an emergency room at a hospital across the city.

My wife’s surgery on her broken arm and torn shoulder had taken longer than expected and since she had lost so much blood, they decided to send her by ambulance to where a blood transfusion could take place.

I slid this way and that way across the wet roads. I had never been on these streets and did not know where the hospital was. I prayed for a lot of things that night besides my wife’s circumstances and health. I prayed for a street sign that I could read. They were all covered with snow.

I got to the emergency room and parked my truck in a foot of snow. I ran across the wet white stuff lifting my feet high and headed for the door still praying my wife would not need a transfusion.

Once inside, I was stopped by the security. Panting from running, worried about what was going on, and wearing the winter weather on my clothes and in my hair, I must have looked a bit perplexed. Looking me over, the security person became concerned about the bulge in my coat pocket just above my heart. What was I carrying into the hospital?

Much to his surprise as he searched me he found my 6 ½” by 4 ½” Holy Bible kept dry from the weather. I am here to tell you that God is always using us and you can’t hide the fact that you are a Christian.

We have been told in the Holy word to let our lights shine. Shine like a city on a hill or a lighted lamp on a stand. Walk close to our great God and reflect the shining light from Him into the darkness. His light shining through you just may be the light on a path to show someone their way home.

"Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. " John 15:8 (KJV).

Led By The Spirit Of God,

Rick Hawbaker
Praying 4 U Ministries †

They are gone...

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1 (NIV).

I went grocery shopping this morning with my wife. It was a great day at the large box retailer on a super slab. It was not great because we found everything we wanted in one store and we were out the door quickly. It was great because of what we did not find.

A good friend of mine told me several years back that this huge retailer had an inspirational book section full of books that were not of the Christian doctrine. I hoped nobody would pick up one of these books thinking it was o.k. to read since it was near the Christian books.

I just could not believe that this could be. This was a family-oriented business when it was begun in the 70’s and the company stressed Christian values for a lot of years.

I visited this retailer and sure enough, there it was. The store had eight feet of bibles and other Christian inspirational books and then had four feet of inspirational books from a group many have called a cult.

I vowed that day that every time I went in that store that I would stop and pray over the Christian section of books. I prayed that they would increase and prayed over the other books that they would be found not to be selling and removed from the store.

Guess what? Yep, you guessed it. The non-Christian inspirational books are gone. I am not saying the books are gone because I prayed over 100 times for them to be removed. But, I will say that not one prayer is wasted as our LORD hears the prayers of his children.

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Ephesians 6:18 (NIV).


Led by the Spirit,

Rick Hawbaker
Praying 4 U Ministries