In America we recently saw a computer technician, who lost his way and while in the courthouse on charges for his offenses, he murdered several law enforcement officials. While on the run from authorities he encounters a young Christian woman whom he takes hostage. No one knows this situation is going on. During the seven or more hours that she is held captive, the Lord uses her to reach out to him, bringing him to the cross of Christ. The Holy Spirit in her does in a few hours what an army of law enforcement officials in a state-wide manhunt hadn't been able to do in twice that time. And now, if Brian Nichols prays through and remains in Christ, even though he is facing severe punishment for his crimes, he has a hope that thousands of other Americans, who have never so much as received a traffic ticket will never have---a life of freedom in Christ and an eternity of hope. Even though behind bars, he will have a life full of meaning by reaching many others in prison. My question is this, why did it have to come to this? Why did the Lord have to show the church and the American media what he can do with an ordinary handmaiden of the Lord? If we would spend less money on Christian media and more on 'ordinary handmaidens' going out into their individual communities we may never even have to grieve for the Brian Nicholses and the people they wound. If we would spend less money and time and effort in sending the pastors around the country to preach in churches and on TV and spend more time and effort in teaching and releasing the 'regular' body of Christ to evangelize and appropriately preach in their individual spheres of influence, there may actually be a secular media that has nothing bad to report about on TV. Okay, maybe I'm dreaming a little, but before anyone wakes me up, pray and ask the Lord to redirect the body of Christ to focus on what is really important. If we reach everyone that we can on an individual basis, and we train those to reach others that need the training, our judges would have to think more than twice before they overreached their authority and dictated public policy from the bench thereby overriding the will of the voters.

I've spoken to many in the body of Christ that have gotten this message and are going out into their communities making a difference. Last month on this website we asked you to pray for women in the body of Christ and this month we, here in America have seen the difference that one Christian woman can make. Yet I'm still listening to 'big name' preachers getting on TV and telling people that women cannot lead in the church. How about this: Why don't we let Jesus lead the church and we pray for everyone that He uses? All of us as leaders (male and female) need encouragement through prayer to train and teach and get out in our communities. We need the encouragement as we pray and counsel, especially with some branches of our government trying to stop us. We've been seeing God answer miraculously for people when we reach out to them. He has been showing up and doing things like healing the sick, tending to the emotionally wounded like no other counselor can do. All the leaders in the body of Christ need to do is release the body. They will see the sick recover and the wounded healed and the poor fed. Instead of building colossal structures to house folks in order to listen to one person preach to them one day a week, how about we build people up so they can preach to at least one person a week. More people will hear about Jesus and then get to see Him do miracles than what we are doing in our present systems by putting people to sleep each Sunday so that they forget what was preached and can't even form two sentences about Jesus and what He did for them. I usually don't get this verbose with these prayer requests, but this need in prayer has been building in my spirit for many years as we have been praying about this particular need for the body of Christ. It just seemed that this month the Lord allowed me to release it to you. As always all we do is ask that you pray according to the Holy Spirit and how He leads you. We pray for you regularly and continue to pray until we hear back from you. We thank God for all the answers to prayer that we have received. As always, you can email your prayer requests. Blessings in Christ as you pray.

Sometime in late November, early December of 2004 the Lord reminded me of the experience I had had in the Spirit on December 19, 2003 of planets colliding and hearing Islamic-type language and four 'prophecies' and opportunities being created to minister the Gospel and expand the kingdom of Christ. He also specifically reminded me about the California earthquakes as the confirmation for that word. Since I felt what was written for the December 2004 prayer request was from the Lord, I believed what He now asked would be for January of 2005, so I did not change the December update. After the earthquake and tsunamis I realized the relevance of both the January 2004 prayer request He had for us and now this one a year later in 2005. (Please take a moment to read the prayer update for January 2004) When He reminded me of last year's prayer need just recently, the need to pray for opportunities for the Gospel was especially relevant and extremely strong. Last year's prayer concerning the loss of life was strong and this year the request to expand opportunities to minister to the lost and hurting while ministering the Gospel is urgent. We can all see the need for this now. As we have seen over the last two years, the Lord has us pray for many things months in advance of them occurring. While the loss of life has been great, we give a thank offering to those that were spared. The majority of souls in the region affected by these catastrophic events are Muslim, with many different dialects of language (see the 01/04 update). The next groups are Hindu and Buddhist. No one wants to see loss and death, but unfortunately it does happen. When that takes place, sometimes people are more open to the Gospel. Please come in agreement for open doors of opportunity for many Christians to help physically and spiritually in these regions. The American news reported that this earthquake caused the earth to shift on its axis, shortening the day and that certain mountains in Indonesia are no more, while there is now land where there had been ocean. These are certainly cataclysmic events. After reading our January update from 2004 and remembering the vision the Lord gave of planets, etc., colliding, we can believe Him when He said that great opportunities to minister would unfold. I can't stress enough to pray for those able to communicate the Gospel in that region to receive the fullness of these opportunities. Even if you can't go or send help, pray for those that can. As always you can email your prayer requests. It is a joy to lift you up before the Lord. We bless you in Christ and bless what He is doing in your lives.