Bringing the Year to Completion 12-31-04

Friday, December 31, 2004 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. It is good to rise and greet You, to seek You and embrace You in prayer as an old friend at the beginning of each day. Thank You for the gift of our friendship in the intimacy of prayer. Thank You for offering this extraordinary, incomprehensible gift of Your Living Presence to us all every moment of every day. ... Lord, we've come now together to the last day of the year. You were here with me on the first day, offering Yourself in the intimacy of the communion of prayer; and here You are with me on the last. You called me to this journey of prayer at the beginning of the year -- to rise a little earlier, to start my day with my first thoughts on You, to journal our conversation in prayer, and to send it out to share with my friends. I confess that I wondered whether I would have something to pray or whether You would have something to say every day. I wondered if I could really just sit here in the silence of surrender and wait for You to bring an image or a Scripture or a living word in the conversation of prayer every day. But You did; You never failed. You are faithful to provide all we need for every leading You call us to obey. You are faithful to complete all that You begin. You have taught me this year that You will be faithful to us to help us be faithful to You. As I write this, I see the faces and hear the voices of the people I worshiped with in Brazil several years ago, living a simple but poor life, trusting in You every day. I see the light in their eyes and the smiling joy on their faces, as I hear them singing their simple song of faith in their own language, then translated into ours: "He Who began a good work in you, He Who began a good work in you, Will be faithful to complete it, will be faithful to complete it. He Who started a work will be faithful to complete it in you." Thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness and Your steadfast love. Thank You for calling me to the joy of this journey of prayer this year. Thank You for calling my friends to come alongside me in the journey. I pray You have used these simple prayers to help us each start our day more centered on You as You have formed Your thoughts in our minds and formed Your desires in our hearts at the foundation of our day. You have changed me and blessed me beyond words, and I pray You have blessed my companions in the journey as well. The journey has not always been easy, but it has always been a joy -- because it has always been with You, my Best Friend. As our brother in the faith, Paul, prayed for his companions in the journey who read his letters, so I pray for those who read these prayers today: "I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every on of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the One Who began a good work in you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight, to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God" -- Philippians 1.3-11. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Dear praying friends, I thought I would include below the note I sent out at the first of this year inviting you to join me on the journey of prayer, to rememember the vision the Lord gave me for these devotions. I appreciate each of you so much who have joined with me along the journey. I would appreciate your prayers to discern whether I am to continue for another year. God bless you all! In the Love of Jesus, your companion in the journey, Tommy January 1, 2004 Re: Morning by Morning, A Prayer Journey with Tommy Hays Dear praying friends, I invite you to join with me in a journey of my morning prayer life this year. For some time I believe I’ve felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit to write a few words each day from my time with the Lord to share with others. The Lord is speaking to us all to lead us in His paths, and I believe we can learn from the journeys of others to see more clearly the steps we are taking in our own journey. Please just send a reply to remove your name if you’d rather not receive these -- I understand about getting too many emails. I plan to send these prayers "Morning by Morning" when I can. In my own prayer life, I journal sometimes my own thoughts, sometimes the words I believe the Lord is speaking to me, and sometimes my responses in prayer. So, I welcome you to listen in on our conversation and even let these prayers come along side your prayers, as I try to share some of the nuggets of Spirit and Life the Lord is digging up in the circumstances of my life this year. For you, some may be nuggets of gold and some may be nuggets of coal. Feel free to dust off what seems to weigh as Truth in your hands and to cast off what doesn't. When I share what I believe to be the Lord's guidance, please know that I'm not saying "this is the Word of the Lord" with certainty but only what I sincerely believe in humility and without presumption are His words of guidance for me. On this side of heaven, we see in part and prophesy in part as though looking through a glass dimly. At the same time, though, the Shepherd leads His sheep by His voice and He truly wants His sheep to learn to hear and obey His voice. So if you sense the Lord's leading, you're welcome to come along with me in the journey this year as I try to follow the voice of the Good Shepherd. If you come, please test everything in your own spirit, as we are commanded, seeking to discern between the voice of the Spirit and the voice of the flesh, taking the meat and leaving the bone. Please pray for me to do the same, and I'll be praying for each of you who receive these prayers. May you be encouraged and may God bless you this year and every year! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays PS: A biographical sketch is included below for those who would like to know a little more about our ministry: Tommy Hays Spiritual Director and Revivalist Messiah Ministries 2800 Tates Creek Road Lexington, Kentucky 40502 859-422-1794 MessiahMin@aol.com Tommy Hays is a Spiritual Director, Conference Leader, and Revivalist. He serves as Executive Director of Messiah Ministries, the ministry he founded and leads for interdenominational teaching, preaching, equipping, and prayer ministries of inner healing, deliverance and spiritual formation. Tommy ministers throughout the diverse traditions of the Christian faith and is ordained as a United Methodist Pastor (Elder in Full Connection) under special appointment to the ministry by his bishop (Southwest Texas Conference of the UMC). He is also a member in covenant relationship with the MorningStar Fellowship of Ministries, an international prophetic teaching ministry. He holds a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from The University of Texas at Austin. Tommy was called to ministry from his law practice as a trial attorney in Texas, and now offers personal prayer ministry and spiritual direction by private appointment. He is a frequent speaker in conferences and churches of many traditions -- leading teaching conferences, healing services, prayer retreats, ecumenical gatherings, spiritual renewal weekends, and prayer revivals inter-denominationally throughout the United States and the nations. His vision and the calling of Messiah Ministries is to help "prepare the way of the Lord" by preparing the people of the Lord through the ministries of healing, wholeness, and sanctification to be trained and equipped to continue the ministry of the Lord throughout all the earth. His daily prayer devotional, "Morning by Morning" is sent to readers around the world every morning by email. With a Christian counselor, Tommy also leads a citywide, ecumenical service each month of prayer, praise and healing worship called "The Fountain" and teaches The Fountain School of Ministry, to train and equip believers for inner healing and deliverance prayer ministry. Tommy is forty-three years old, married to Tricia Hays, and the father of four wonderful children -- Elizabeth, Zachary, Madison, and Elijah Hays. They are members of Centenary United Methodist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, where the Messiah Ministries office is located. He continues to practice law on select matters from time to time as the Lord leads in the Lexington law firm of Troutman & Hays, as a minister in the marketplace and public square of the community. Tommy’s teaching and messages focus upon all aspects of spiritual renewal and revival through prayer, healing and wholeness, spiritual warfare, evangelism, and holiness, while equipping the Body of Christ to live out their identity and destiny in the ministry of the Kingdom of God. His ministry focuses on the process of healing form the inside out by bringing every area under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Wounds of rejection, roots of bitterness, shadows of fear, walls of isolation, and shame of sin -- the unhealed pain and shame of life steals the blessings of abundant life Jesus makes available through the power of the Cross. Our unhealed wounds and brokenness block us from intimacy with God, divide us from loving one another, and imprison us from living out our destiny in Christ. We need healing from our wounds and deliverance from our bondage. We need to know our identity and our purpose. We need to know our gifting, our calling, and our destiny. Through ministries of healing and wholeness in the process of sanctification, we become free to be more like Jesus so we can continue the ministry of Jesus as the Body of Christ filled with the Spirit of Christ to a broken and hurting world. Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted and set the captives free as He proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God (Isaiah 61; Luke 4). Now, as the Father sent the Son, so the Son sends us in the power of the Holy Spirit to glory of God (John 20). This is the mission and ministry of Messiah Ministries as we do our part to "prepare the way of the Lord" in our generation. Please contact Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries if we can come alongside you in the ministry of Jesus. To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!