Famous Last Words - Morning by Morning, May 22, 2020

Morning by Morning, May 22 - Famous Last Words

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be high and lifted up, here in my heart and every moment of my day. ...

 

"Then (Jesus) lead them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up His hands, He blessed them. While He was blessing them, He withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God!" (Luke 24:50-53)

 

On the day of Your ascension into heaven after Your resurrection from the dead, You gave them Your blessing, as You stretched Your hands over them and spoke out Your words into them. They worshipped You and welcomed Your blessing "with great joy!"

 

Your last words to them were weighty words. They were words full of significance for their identity in You and their calling and destiny in You, as Your witnesses and disciples. They were Your famous last words to them before the great day of Pentecost soon to come.

 

From my years as a trial lawyer before answering Your call to lay down my nets, to take up my cross, and to follow You, I remember how important, how significant the last words would be that I would speak to the jury before they went to their chamber to deliberate my client's case and reach their verdict. They would be perhaps the most weighty words of the trial. They were the words I wanted to fill their thoughts, to stir their hearts, and to set in motion their determination to do what was right.

 

I'm remembering now those final words I had the honor of speaking on behalf of one of my favorite clients who had been wrongfully fired for speaking the truth to the Texas Rangers about government corruption in his city job: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. George Kneuper put his faith in God; he put his faith in the laws of the State of Texas; and now, he puts his faith in you."

 

With Your last words, Your weighty words to Your disciples on that day of ascension, You spoke words to fill their thoughts, to stir their hearts, and to set in motion their determination to do what was right  --to be Your witnesses, to go make disciples, to go in the power of Your Spirit after they were endued with power from on high:

 

"And (Jesus) said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are My witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what My Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:46-49).

 

These are our days between the day of Ascension and the day of Pentecost on the Biblical calendar of this prophetic year of 2020 vision, as we linger and long to be clothed with power from on high, to be endued with power from on high, in a great outpouring of Your Holy Spirit, the great Promise of the Father.

 

Give us a deep hunger, an insatiable thirst, for more of You, more of Your Spirit, more of Your boldness to be Your witnesses and go make disciples of all nations--not in our power, but Yours'. As You said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). As we watch and wait with expectant faith, to be filled afresh with Your Holy Spirit and power (Ephesians 5:18), we worship You with great joy and we yearn to honor You and Your name in all nations with Your passion.

 

Holy Spirit, Promise of our Father, give us ears to hear the weighty words of Jesus in our hearts and minds to go and do what is right, to fulfill the final verdict of the victory of the cross, that all righteousness may be fulfilled! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you be yearning and longing with deep hunger and insatiable thirst for a fresh outpouring and infilling of God's Holy Spirit, to be endued with power from on high as a witness of Jesus to go and make disciples, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

 

Pakistan Preaching Praise Report from This Week's Meeting!

Friends, I'm so excited that we received permission to start our open air evangelistic meetings again in Pakistan through our online Internet Ministry! Each month we set up in a different village through our ministry partnership there with Pastor Fazal with a big screen and projector. I'm able to share a message of the hope and healing of Jesus Christ through our Skype Internet Ministry, where I'm preaching here and it's interpreted by live simultaneous translation there. Then we have a followup team for those who are saved and experience the salvation, healing, deliverance, and revival of Jesus! For the past two months, I've only been able to share in home group setting with Pastor Fazal and neighbors, but yesterday we were able to go back out into the streets in an unreached village again! We praise God for this praise report I received with some photos from Pastor Fazal! Thank you all your prayers and support and encouragement!

Praise Report and Photos from Pastor Fazal from the Meeting

for what God has done!

"Thanks very much Brother Pastor Tommy to share Powerful Word and Story with people of Pakistan in Village. Thanks Lord 324 Souls are Saved and 37 Persons are healed on the spot. I'm sorry for internet problem but this was impossible and we both made this Possible Meeting in Lock Down Virus and we are looking forward to arrange more Open Air Souls Winning Meetings as God has given us this opportunity. Thanks and God Bless You!"

 

 

"And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!" 

(Matthew 24:14)

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"Emerge!" - Morning by Morning, May 21, 2020

Morning by Morning, May 21 - "Emerge!"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I open wide my heart to You because You've opened wide Your heart, Your mercy, and Your love to me -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...

 

As I listen and wait for Your leading, I hear in my heart, "Emerge!"

 

Yes, Lord. What comes to mind is it's time to emerge! It's time to come out, to spring forth, to emerge! 

 

I know much of the world is still on "lock down" but our hearts are not locked down, our spirits cannot be shut down, our dreams will not be pushed down. We are sons and daughters of God! We are children of the King! We are ambassadors for Jesus Christ! And we will not be locked down, shut down, pushed down or put down in any way that's anything less than all You've intended us and called us to be!

 

So whether it's time or not to come out into the open of our neighborhoods or marketplaces, You'll be speaking to us with Your wisdom and empowering us with Your faith, as we pray for our leaders around the world to be listening for Your leading and to lead us by Your Spirit. But no matter what the governments of man may choose for the wellbeing of our bodies and health, I believe You are calling forth Your people in our hearts and our spirits to emerge! Whether at home or at work or working from home, it's time to emerge!

 

Your Word comes to mind from the story of Job. What a season of challenge and testing and humbling and spiritual attacking he went through! Yet even in all he was enduring and all he was learning, You gave him hope of the day to come when he would emerge from that hard season and boldly take hold of the next season. Even in the midst of his questions and expressions of all his emotions and thoughts, he knew his time would come to emerge from the fiery furnace he was going through:

 

"But He knows the way that I take;

when He has tested me, I shall come out like gold"

(Job 23:10).

 

You dealt with his pride. You dealt with his doubts. You dealt with his enemies. You dealt his friends. But in the end, You called him forth, out of the fire, refined like gold, ready to shine with the light of Your glory, full of thanksgiving and praise to You! You called him to emerge!

 

Lord, let us emerge! Refined by Your Fire -- wiser than before, more humble than before, more faithful than before, more obedient than before, more like You than before -- but never the same as before!

 

I pray this for myself. I pray this for my world. And most of all, I pray this for the body and the bride of Christ to emerge and to be all You've called us and created us to be!

 

The prophet Isaiah spoke of these days and said it like this:

 

"Arise, shine! For your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

For darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will arise upon you,

and His glory will appear over you!

Nations shall come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your dawn.er to

 

Lift up your eyes and look around;

they all gather together, they come to you;

your sons shall come from far away,

and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms.

Then you shall see and be radiant;

your heart shall thrill and rejoice! ..."

(Isaiah 60:1-5)

 

Lord, let it be so -- all according to Your Word and Your will for me and for each one of us, all in Your time and in Your way! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you emerge! Refined by the Holy Fire  of God-wiser than before, more humble than before, more faithful than before, more obedient than before, more like Jesus than before -- but never the same as before! in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

 

      

Pakistan Preaching Praise Report from Yesterday's Meeting!

Friends, I'm so excited that we received permission to start our open air evangelistic meetings again in Pakistan through our online Internet Ministry! Each month we set up in a different village through our ministry partnership there with Pastor Fazal with a big screen and projector. I'm able to share a message of the hope and healing of Jesus Christ through our Skype Internet Ministry, where I'm preaching here and it's interpreted by live simultaneous translation there. Then we have a followup team for those who are saved and experience the salvation, healing, deliverance, and revival of Jesus! For the past two months, I've only been able to share in home group setting with Pastor Fazal and neighbors, but yesterday we were able to go back out into the streets in an unreached village again! We praise God for this praise report I just received with some photos from Pastor Fazal! Thank you all your prayers and support and encouragement!

Praise Report and Photos from Pastor Fazal from the Meeting

for what God has done!

"Thanks very much Brother Pastor Tommy to share Powerful Word and Story with people of Pakistan in Village. Thanks Lord 324 Souls are Saved and 37 Persons are healed on the spot. I'm sorry for internet problem but this was impossible and we both made this Possible Meeting in Lock Down Virus and we are looking forward to arrange more Open Air Souls Winning Meetings as God has given us this opportunity. Thanks and God Bless You!"

 

"And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!" 

(Matthew 24:14)

New: Hear and join me in today's Morning by Morning prayer

https://anchor.fm/morningbymorningtommyhays

Tommy & Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

Messiah-Ministries.org

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

Speaking God's Words of Spirit and Life - Morning by Morning, May 20, 2020

Morning by Morning, May 20 - Speaking God's Words of Spirit and Life

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I lift up my voice in prayer and praise to begin my day embraced by My Father, centered in Christ, and filled afresh with the Holy Spirit of the Living God. ...

 

As I listen and wait, I hear my heart, "My word will go forth. My word will not fail. And I will release My word on the earth through My people who will seek My face, listen for My voice, and speak with My heart." ...

 

Yes, Lord. ...

 

As I ponder these words in my heart, You're drawing my mind to Your written Word in confirmation of Your spoken word:

 

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall My word be that goes out of My mouth;

it shall not return to Me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:10-11).

 

Lord Jesus, You said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). And as I abide in You and You abide in me, I'm asking Your words of spirit and life to be spoken and released through me according to Your will and in Your way to accomplish that which You purpose through my life today (John 15:4). As You said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from Me you can do nothing.... If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples" (John 15:5-8).

 

This what I ask, as I seek to abide in You, as I seek Your face, as I listen for Your voice -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God -- that I would hear and speak Your words with Your heart. 

 

Father, put Your thoughts in my mind, Your desires in my heart, and Your words in my mouth. As best as I can and all by Your grace, I offer my words and all of my life to You as "a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is (my) spiritual act of worship" (Romans 12:1).

 

Though it's hard to fully comprehend just how much You have entrusted to us as Your sons and daughter in the earth, Your Word declares this truth of our place as Your ambassadors and messengers of Your words of spirit and life in our world: 

 

"Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever! Amen!" (1 Peter 4:10-11)

 

Yes, Lord. Let it be so according to Your Word and according to the words You have spoken into my spirit today. Let Your words of spirit and life go forth today -- here in my heart and everywhere You send me. May God be gloried in all these things through Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. 

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you seek God's face, listen for His voice, and speak with His heart in your prayers, your praise, and your words everywhere He sends you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

         

Pakistan Preaching Again Today!

Friends, I'm so excited that we have permission to start our open air evangelistic meetings again in Pakistan through online Internet Ministry today! Each month we set up in a different village through our ministry partnership there with Pastor Fazal with a big screen and projector. I'm able to share a message of the hope and healing of Jesus Christ through our Skype Internet Ministry, where I'm preaching here and it's interpreted by live simultaneous translation there. Then we have a followup team for those who are saved and experience the salvation, healing, deliverance, and revival of Jesus! For the past two months, I've only been able to share in home group setting with Pastor Fazal and neighbors, but now we are able to go back out into the streets in an unreached village again! Please keep us in your prayers for a powerful outpouring of God's Holy Spirit!

"And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!" 

(Matthew 24:14)

Joyfully embracing Jesus in their hearts!

From one of our past meetings in a Pakistan Village

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We're Messengers of Hope! - Morning by Morning, May 19, 2020

Morning by Morning, May 19, 2020 - We're Messengers of Hope!

Good morning, Lord Jesus. As I speak out Your name, I open up my spirit to listen for Your voice and hear what's on Your heart. ...

"'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scripture say, 'How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!'" (Romans 10:13-15).

I was thinking the other day about the old Amy Grant song that You bring to my heart at times to give me comfort in hard times. It's goes something like this -- "We believe in God. And we all need Jesus. Because life is hard and it may not get easier. But don't be afraid to show it... If you believe in God, if you say you need Jesus, He's be where you are and He never will leave you...."

We believe in You, God. We all come to know sooner or later that there's Something much greater than ourselves and that we can't really control much of anything in our lives, at least not for very long. Sooner or later, we come to the end of ourselves and cry out to You to hear us and help us.

And there You are. You've been with us all along, You're never far from any of us--no matter our culture, our language, our economic status, our belief system, our world view, or even our parents' religion (Acts 17:27). In Your mercy and love for us You've come to reveal Yourself to us in the Person of Jesus--fully God as One with You, Father and One with Your Holy Spirit, yet choosing to humble Yourself as fully man to be One with us, that we would know the true nature of the invisible God (Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-18).

We believe in God and we all need Jesus. We all need the mercy and grace of God that forgives us from our sins and removes from us our walls so that we can all know we're loved and forgiven and free, welcomed into the embrace of Your Presence, where nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God, revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).

Lord Jesus, because You came and You died on the cross for our sins and You rose again, we can call on Your name and be saved. "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The Scripture says, 'No one who believes in Him will be put to shame' ... For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved'" (Romans 8:9-13).

Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see You as You are and put my whole trust in You alone for my salvation, every moment of every day. And open they eyes of my sight to see the hearts of my neighbors and their struggles, their questions, and their desperate need to believe God and come to the end of themselves and acknowledge they need Jesus. 

And there You will be, so ready to come into their hearts, as their Lord and their Savior. You'll be so ready to embrace them in Your love, forgive them of their sins, to take away their fears, to begin to answer their questions, and to fill them with Your Spirit and all Your love and peace and joy like they've never really known.

But how will they believe, unless they hear? And how will they hear unless I tell them? And I will I tell them unless You send me? ... Oh, that's right... You did send me!—all in the power of Your grace and the mercy of Your love to share the hope You've poured into my heart and made so real in my life (Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Peter 3:15). We're Your messengers of hope to share the mercy and love of Your good news. Here I am, Lord. Send me today! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you be filled afresh with the hope and love of God, as you share the hope that is within you of His mercy and love with your neighbors and everywhere the Lord sends you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

           

Pakistan Preaching Again This Wednesday!

Friends, I'm so excited that we have permission to start our open air evangelistic meetings again in Pakistan through online Internet Ministry! Each month we set up in a different village through our ministry partnership there with Pastor Fazal with a big screen and projector. I'm able to share a message of the hope and healing of Jesus Christ through our Skype Internet Ministry, where I'm preaching here and it's interpreted by live simultaneous translation there. Then we have a follow team for those who are saved and experience the salvation, healing, deliverance, and revival of Jesus! For the past two months, I've only been able to share in home group setting with Pastor Fazal and neighbors, but now we are able to go back out into the streets in an unreached village again. Please keep us in your prayers!

Joyfully embracing Jesus in their hearts!

From one of our past meetings in a Pakistan Village

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Daily Prayer Journey with Tommy Hays

Tommy & Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

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Burning Hearts with the Fire of God! - Morning by Morning, May 18, 2020

Morning by Morning, May 18 - Burning Hearts with the Fire of God!

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. King of Kings and Lord of Lords, be King of my heart and Lord of my life this day and every day, as I begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled afresh with Your Holy Spirit. ...

 

"Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. And He said to them, 'What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?' They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered Him, 'Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days? He asked them, 'What things?' They replied, 'The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed Him over to be condemned to death and crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the One to redeem Israel...'" (Luke 24:13-21).

 

In the days between Passover and Pentecost, these two disciples of Yours on their walk to Emmaus were trying to figure out all that had happened. On the one hand, they were "looking sad" and felt deep disappointment because they "had hoped" things were going to turn out differently than they had. On the other hand, at the same time, they had heard great news that great things had happened in ways they didn't yet fully understand. They were expressing this to You as well, before they recognized You was the very One they who was so patiently waking with them on their journey all along, saying: "It is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find His body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive! Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said..." (v. 21-14).

 

As we walk out these days between our Passover and Pentecost on our Biblical calendar of this powerfully prophetic year of 2020, there's so much going on in our hearts as well. Things that make us sad for what it seems we have lost. Things that haven't worked out in the way we had hoped according to what we had planned. Yet, at the same time, hearing and seeing amazing things in our midst. Words we've heard from You in our hearts keep bubbling up to the surface, almost ready to burst forth like a wellspring of hope and a fountain of life from deep down inside.

 

And as it turns out, You've been with us all along! You've been at work in our hearts and in our hopes and in our dreams preparing the way for what You have next, for what You've known and planned all along!

 

You drew near to those disciples of Yours on their walk to Emmaus, between their Passover and their Pentecost, speaking Your words of spirit and life and truth, reminding them of what You had said, encouraging with what was to come, and even lovingly correcting them in their lack of faith and trust in the words You had said and the Scriptures of the Word of God: "Then (Jesus) said to them, 'Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into His glory?' Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the Scriptures" (v. 25-27)

 

As You spoke to them, their hearts burned within them! (v. 32) As they took hold of You in their burning hearts and in the breaking of bread in communion with You, "their eyes were opened, and they recognized (You)!" (v. 30-31)

 

You removed their sadness and filled them with joy! You gave them such comfort in the midst of all the changes and imparted courage to step into their future. You opened the eyes of their hearts to see You and Your plans more clearly than ever before -- like 2020 vision! 

 

They couldn't wait to go spread the news! "That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, 'The Lord has risen indeed! And He appeared to Simon!' Then they told what had happened on the road, and how He had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread!" (v. 33-35)

 

In these days between our Passover and Pentecost, between the day of Your Resurrection and the day of the great outpouring of Your Holy Spirit, You are preparing our hearts. We're Your disciples on the road of our journey with You. And though You've been with us all along, You are also drawing near in deeper ways to manifest Your Presence, to burn in our hearts by Your Spirit, to open our eyes to Your Word, in invite us to encounters with You in the breaking of the bread of the Word of God and the abiding communion of Your Presence.

 

Father, we long for a great outpouring of Your Holy Spirit! Yes, on the Day of Pentecost at the end of this month, but also on every day as we come to the end of ourselves and anything we understand or planned apart from Your perfect plan.

 

Come, Holy Spirit! Give us burning hearts with the Fire of God! We pray for revival and awakening--here in our hearts and here in our world! Let our hearts burn within us, as You set us ablaze as the body and bride of Christ, filled afresh with the Spirit of Christ, to go forward boldly and passionately in the great ministry of Christ in world, whether at home or abroad, whether face to face or through the airways of the internet! Like those disciples on the walk to Emmaus, we can't wait to go share the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God! He is risen! "The Lord has risen indeed!" In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. 

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you be consumed with a burning heart in the Fire of God, filled afresh with the Holy Spirit and embraced by the arms of our Father to go share the good news of Jesus in the power and love of God everywhere He sends you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

         

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Daily Prayer Journey with Tommy Hays

Tommy and Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

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