AN INTERCESSORY PRAYER

An Intercessory Prayer

“O’ God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,”

Healer and Keeper of our souls, we come humbly, soberly, and joyously to Thy Throne of Grace to say, “Thank You Lord!”

We thank you Lord for the gift of today, the PRESENT, a PRESENT, A Gift, Many Gifts of Pre-Sent Moments!

We thank you Lord for the Sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who took away the sin of the world!

We thank you Lord for the Comforter, The Holy Spirit, who maketh intercession for our groans and moans that we cannot and tremble to articulate!

We ask you, Gracious Lord, to heal our wounds, deep wounds, private wounds, nursed wounds, and unconscious wounds with your balm of love and your ointment of healing.

We pray, Heavenly Father, that you will calm our unspoken fears…fears that cause us to believe our lives will be perpetual winters that go from frost to frost, from sleet to sleet, from hail to hail, and from barren wastelands to barren wastelands, quietly wondering shall spring or summer ever visit us again?

We ask you Heavenly Father to remove the veneers that hinder us from being transparent with Thee and with others as well as ourselves!

We ask you, Father, God, to quiet those secret anxieties that take us hostage, that rape us of thy present joys, that imprison and hinder our capacity to earnestly love, that cause us to fight, to take flight, or to freeze in our actions to connect with others because fear has cohabitated with us and rented space in our psyche and despair has caused us to believe the our concerns have no merit in Thine eyes!

We petition Thee, Heavenly Father, to breathe upon us a fresh anointing as our hopes have been pillaged by the storms of life, while the winds of unpredictability and the proliferation of carnal agendas that have the form of Godliness, but lack the power therein, have scattered our remembrances of Thy glorious promises! Breathe on us Lord, because in quietude we have surrendered our inspiration and acquiesced our zeal as our dreams have been decimated by the fiery darts of the adversary and naysayers!

Lord, we pray for the brokenness and apathy in the world, the nation, the county, and our communities.

Gracious Lord, we pray that Your hand of healing would bless, heal, restore, and deliver those whom are sick, hungry, homeless, elderly, outcast, scorned, forgotten, unloved, overlooked, incarcerated, abused, exploited, abducted, bereaved, broken in spirit, those who are contemplating suicide as a way out, those who are in the clutches of all types of addictions (substances, sex, food, money, power, fame, and vain glory), and those who are overwhelmed by financial pressures. Lord, touch and heal men, women, and children in the Name of Jesus!

Lord, we pray for the pulling down of cloaked destructive and carnal strongholds in our Churches, Schools, Communities, and Nation. We pray for more charity in the world and the extinguishing of self-centeredness, apathy, and malignant narcissism. We pray that You, dear Lord, will convict and melt the hearts of those in positions of leadership helping them to remember that “Thy will be done!”

Grant us Lord the peace, knowledge, wisdom, and the blessed assurance that You are the Maker of Heaven and Earth and beside Thee, there is no other!

As we reflect upon and render thanks  for Your greatness, help us dear Lord to remember that

The air that we breathe is Your breath,

The light that shines every morning is Your banner and its rays, Your sword of truth!

The earthquakes that shake the foundation of the earth and the thunder that rolls are Thy voice that calls the world to remember that Thou art God!

That the Pleiades, the earth, the sky, and mighty oceans art thy glory!

"We thank you that you have made us like a signet on your finger and that you have chosen us."

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory wiith exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever"

These prayers we petition Thee in the Mighty and Matchless Name of Jesus Christ we claim and pray! Amen!

Reverend K. Mason

(c) 2017

Be Blessed

Reverend K. Mason

(c) 2017
For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below.
All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed!
Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.
BlessingsPlethora Ministries
Plethora Ministries

Click here for Web log
Page contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures
Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

Click here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi
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Plethora Ministries

Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:
plethoraministries@yahoo.com

K.Mason (c) 2017

Strength and Weakness

On this day dear LORD caution us to never cease praying and to expect the miraculous in the ordinary. Teach us daily and by the moment to accept thy will and grant us the wisdom, faith, and the serenity to discern self-will from thy will. Teach us to humbly embrace the weakness of our strength and the strength of our weakness. This is our prayer today as we render thee thanks in Jesus’ name we pray.  Hear us dear LORD we pray. Amen    

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

(c) 2013
For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below.
All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed!
Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.
BlessingsPlethora Ministries
Plethora Ministries

Click here for Web log Page[contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

Click here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi
plethoraministries@yahoo.com
Plethora Ministries
Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly (Forthcoming in a new format in Fall 2009...stay tuned),
please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD."
Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:
K.Mason (c) 2013

WAIT ON THE LORD

Plethora Ministries

WORD WEEK 06-11-06

WAIT ON THE LORD

ISAIAH 40:28-31

KJV28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

WAIT ON THE LORD

Fear, anxiety, brokenness, helplessness, disempowerment, hopelessness, suffering, and oppression are a few of the daily dynamics that hundreds and hundreds of the BELOVED of GOD experience far too frequently. Pandemic suffering is so great that the motivation to live and the intrinsic desire to wait on GOD appear too great of a charge to fathom much less implement. Consequently, far too many of the LORD'S people have given up, given out, and have given in because waiting on the LORD appears to require too much work and does not appear to abate one's present suffering!

This "weight to wait" is one dynamic that causes the dedicated, the humble, the committed, and the courageous to question not only the issue of whether or not GOD hears, but question at a more profound level if GOD really cares about the concerns that matters to each of us! Help us GOD! We reside in a world that provides each of us with implicit and explicit messages that speed as well as instant gratification equals proficiency. While the aforementioned is far too often an occurrence, there are other instances when real progress and transformation are and can only be authenticated by the SLOW WORK OF GOD!

Success is heralded as money equals movement equals prestige. While many can access and generate revenue and while the media attempts to dictate to whom should be rendered the spotlight, the aforementioned indicators are not necessarily markers of success nor do they indicate consultation with the LORD. However, “the weight of the wait” becomes greater as we see the secular world making strides and gains and the faith community appearing as though it is stuck in freeze-frame!

This dynamic of waiting is one that is tempered by the gracious presence of The Holy Spirit. When we wait in anticipation for the movement and the manifestation of the blessings of the LORD in the pulling down of strongholds, the release of shackles, the manifestation of healing in the presence of sickness, the activation of congregational growth, and the answering of petitions, the "weight of the wait" will become lighter if we trust GOD. The Prophet, Isaiah, reminds us that they who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength, fortitude, vision, hope, song, and their spirit as it is the breath of GOD that carries the Beloved of GOD over mountains, through valleys, and around oceans like the winds that supports the wings of eagles causing them to soar!

While we wait on the LORD, this act of trust, faith, and grace is one of a myriad of ways in which we are grown by the LORD and purified by the SPIRIT. Blessings authenticated by GOD do not necessarily happen over night though they could should GOD desire.

Throughout history we are witness bearers of those who saw the vision and trusted GOD in the midst of their disenchantment and suffering. If the truth were investigated, each of us would arrive at the conclusion that it is the presence of the LORD that sustains us in the period of the "wait without weights!"

Far too often the Beloved of GOD get the waiting process confused with the secular world's perspective of waiting which is often a softer way to abandon the well being of others. Consequently, believers embrace the weights of what they perceive as inactivity and abandonment and become weighted-down! Help us GOD! In essence, waiting on the LORD should not weigh us down but lighten the burdens because we know that GOD is in control! Each and everyday that we encounter the news, we get stanch glimpses of the myriad of ways that this whole dynamic of waiting gets played-out in the lives of the rich and poor; the white, black, yellow, and red; the famous and the unknown; the controllers of power and those oppressed by such power; the strong and the weak; the embraced and those for whom an embrace is feared; the restored and the broken; the accepted and heralded; the rejected and the outcast.

However, "the weight of the wait" should motivate the Beloved of GOD to action! Actions such as Prayer, Active Listening, Meditation, Spiritual Reading, Praise, Reflection, Contemplation, Self-Reflection, and Mission, all of which will bring about a glorious transformation in the Christian man/woman! Consequently, the wait is not a weight but a holy invitation for each of us to engage in an intimate relationship with a GOD who loves us with a love that is deeper then any ocean, wide as any valley, and high as any mountain top! Now, that is LOVE!

In times of distress, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of brokenness, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of confusion, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of grief, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of despair, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of sickness, WAIT ON THE LORD, In times of disappointments, WAIT ON THE LORD, In times of what appears as stagnation, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of family disintegration, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of betrayals, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of transition, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of uncertainty, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of woundedness, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of abandonment, WAIT ON THE LORD! Yes, Beloved of GOD WAIT ON THE LORD who fainteth not, nor is GOD weary for when we call upon the LORD GOD, GOD always answers!

As the events unfold in the text of Isaiah, Chapter 40, we are reminded that we should be of good cheer as we wait upon the undefeatable presence and power of YAHWEH! Subsequently, as the events unfold, we become witness bearers as we are reminded of the an unnamed woman who yearns for healing and quests for deliverance from twelve long years of suffering whom we encountered in the prior week's reflection. As she recognizes that JESUS is present, it is likely that she recollects via flashbacks, her twelve years of suffering, praying, disappointments, fears, letdowns, betrayals, and watching others receive their blessings, all of which became days that have acquiesced into nights, nights that have acquiesced into days. She had to WAIT! However, when her deliverance was at hand, there was not a force in humanity nor nature that dared stand between her and GOD! In essence, we WAIT ON THE LORD, we are in actuality, waiting for the LORD to set things and motion for supernatural movement! When we encounter Jesus in our suffering and when everything familiar to us appears at risk because we are required to wait, Jesus touches us in a way that causes our suffering and brokenness to become the launch pad that catapults us to higher and greater dimensions in the LORD! In other words, your weakness becomes your strength, your brokenness becomes your fortress, and your faith becomes the reality!

Throughout the sacred text; i.e., from the book Genesis to the book of Revelation, we as the Beloved Community of GOD are petitioned to embrace the spiritual necessity that the Divine Journey will call into question, the necessity of the wait, which could cause some weight at times! Oftentimes, the require of sacrifice and the delay of gratification accompanies the life of him/her who thirsts, follows, and is compelled by the intimately transformative presence of GOD! Far too frequently, many of the Beloved of GOD are dismayed, while others are disconcerted, still even others abducted by fear when events and plans do not occur according to plan. Moreover, such distress is ignited like wildfire by the harsh reality when fear, disappointment, loss, and suffering occur when the Beloved of GOD is petitioned by the Spirit to wait. Waiting while we struggle with "It might happen, It could happen, It is likely to happen, and/or What if it did happen!" While our faith in GOD is couched in NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, so is the capacity and the power of the wait!

As we look at current events, both nationally and internationally, injury, destruction, suffering, and the pleasure principle are all at pandemic levels. Sensitivity, patience, morality, the necessity of being our brothers' and sisters' keepers, the honoring of those in their senior years, the feeding of the hungry, team work, the sheltering of the homeless, the liberation of the oppressed, and the readiness to die to CHRIST are all being sacrificed, because the dynamic of wait relies on GOD'S vision verses that of humanity.

We deepen our faith walk and our relationship with CHRIST when our journey is accompanied by such a dynamic because waiting is a very active process! The spiritual life in CHRIST causes each of us to take risks, walk out on cliffs, venture down unknown paths, abandon that which is familiar and predictable, stand against the crowd, and remain loving and forgiving in the face of betrayals and trap layers while we WAIT!! When we abandon the parameters of human reason alone and "tap" the consciousness of GOD, our lives become transformed in our realization that our lives are really not our own, but gifts birthed by the unfathomable love of GOD! The Holy Spirit causes something to happen to us, with us, and in us as we know that victory and triumph can only come from divine intervention via the LORD! In essence, Beloved of GOD, rejoice in the LORD and be of good courage, wait I say on the LORD! For your waiting is not the indicator that life is taking you under, but is in actuality a door for the LORD GOD to endow your life with greater possibilities and blessings then eyes have seen and ears have heard! YOU are an aspect of GOD'S DREAM being fulfilled and GOD'S LOVE regenerating itself! They that wait upon the LORD shall RENEW their Strength!

ISAIAH 55: 11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

K. Mason
(c) 2005

For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below. All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed! Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.


Blessings
Plethora MinistriesPlethora Ministries Click here for Web log Page [contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures]Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

Click here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi

plethoraministries@yahoo.com
Plethora Ministries
Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the

WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly , please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD."

Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:

K.Mason

(c) 2005

IN THE MEANTIME

WORD WEEK 11-27-05

IN THE MEANTIME

I KINGS 18:43-45 43

"Go and look toward the sea," he told his servant. And he went up and looked. "There is nothing there," he said. Seven times Elijah said, "Go back." 44 The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea." So Elijah said, "Go and tell Ahab, 'Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.' " 45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 46 The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

Thanksgiving is now over, the turkey is carved, and family members have returned to their respective destinations. We are grateful to the LORD for the opportunity to reflect, pause, and render gratitude for GOD'S rich grace during the season of harvest. While many of us gathered around the table for fellowship and communion, we felt that our distresses and concerns were minuscule in the assembly of togetherness and love. Significantly, from having gathered together, we reemerged from this compelling encounter with the confidence that there is power and strength in number.

Subsequently, as the days pass into weeks, many of us are still struggling with the concerns and issues to which no resolution nor reprieve appears apparent. Many of us still have concerns about our family members, while others are confronted with the challenges of staying financially solvent, and still others are challenged with the residue of brokenness, grief, depression, loneliness, abandonment, and rejection.

Yes, we have rendered fervent thanks to the LORD for the miraculous manner in which he has protected and graced our lives with this cloak of love. Yet, we are still anticipating a much needed reprieve for agonies that linger, taunt, and haunt us oftentimes.

In I Kings 18, this narrative illuminates the struggles of a Prophet and the struggles of a People as famine was prevalent in the land of Samaria and Jezebel was killing the LORD'S prophets. However, Obadiah, a man of GOD, had taken 100 prophets and hidden them in caves; i.e., fifty in each cave with an adequate supply of food and libation.

Both Obadiah and Ahab contrive a plan so as to derail Jezebel while saving the animals commensurately. While on the Journey, Obadiah meets the Prophet, Elijah, who petitions Obadiah to inform Ahab of Elijah's presence. Obadiah is confused and fearful as he doubted that Elijah would reveal himself once he gave the message. However, Obadiah acquiesces in the request due to his trust in GOD verses his trust in his own understanding. Obadiah originally believed that he had done something wrong to incur GOD'S wrath; this was not the case!

Elijah informs Ahab, Israel, and all of the Prophets on Mount Carmel that those that be for GOD to proclaim so and that those who advocate for false gods to do the same. He tells them, though he be the last remaining prophet, that it is not he who has made trouble for Israel, but a consequence of the people and their people all of whom have turned their backs to the LORD.

After putting Baal to the test of GOD, Elijah requests that his servant look towards the sea. The servant reports that he sees nothing. Elijah requests that the servant go back a total of seven times and when he does, he reports that he saw a small cloud arise from the sea as small as the hand of a man. Elijah beckons the servant to inform Ahab and Israel to hitch their chariot because the LORD was moving. In the MEANTIME, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, and a heavy rain occurred and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the LORD came upon Elijah, and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

Beloved, GOD offers you a resolution to your distress even while you are reading this right now. The aforementioned narrative illustrates for each of us that our journeys are full not only with the events themselves, but with MEANTIME events! While GOD petitions us to move accordingly to his plans for our lives, in the MEANTIME GOD is intervening in a miraculous manner!

MEANTIME moments are the instances when reason is elusive and hope appears to have taken a hiatus. MEANTIME moments are the instances when hopelessness and brokenness provokes the people of GOD to raise some life transforming existential questions about the purpose of our journey as far too many of GOD'S people have walked away from service in the MEANTIME; they have walked away from love in the MEANTIME; they have walked away from tolerance in the MEANTIME; they have walked away from a genuine desire to understand in the MEANTIME; they have walked away from openness as it requires too much authentic introspection in the MEANTIME; they have walked away from passion in the MEANTIME; they have walked away from integrity in the MEANTIME; they have walked away from power because they feel, far too frequently, defeated by the daily malaise of making it from one moment to the next in the MEANTIME! They have walked away without realizing that in the MEANTIME is the place where eternity meets our "NOW-HEREness" and the HOLY SPIRIT breaks open the widows of heaven and blesses us in ways that we have never conceived or imagined.

When you doubt, turn it over in the MEANTIME! When you are fearful, turn it over in the MEANTIME! When you see no way out, turn it over in the MEANTIME! When all of the odds appear to be against you, turn it over in the MEANTIME!

In the MEANTIME will you trust GOD? Have we not wondered to where/whom should we turn when things are in disarray? Have we not wondered to whom we could run to find a shoulder to lay our heads upon? Oh yes, we have wondered these things and many more? Thank GOD that we can be encouraged by him, turn to him, rest in him, and run to him! In times of distress, darkness, despair, danger, and death, thank GOD in/for the MEANTIME!

What does in the MEANTIME really mean? It means that GOD'S

Mercy

Eradicates

All

Negative

Trepidation

In

My

Existence

K. Mason
(c) 2005

For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below. All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed! Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.

Blessings
Plethora Ministries

Plethora Ministries

Click here for Web log Page [contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures]Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

Click here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi

plethoraministries@yahoo.com
Plethora Ministries

Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly, please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD." Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:

K.Mason (c) 2005