Confirmation and Commitment of Surrender 4-26-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are my Good Shepherd and I listen now for the leading of Your voice and stirring of my spirit. … “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Sunday morning at my home church, many of young people stood with their families at the front to publicly proclaim You as their Lord in their personal confirmation of their faith. With the symbol of water, for the washing away of their sins and the resurrection into newness of life, some were baptized and others remembered their baptism. With the symbol of oil, all were anointed for the filling of the Holy Spirit as a mark and seal of Your hand of grace upon their lives. In words of faith, they declared their loyalty to You as Savior and Lord of their days to come. And in our response, we declared our loyalty to You and our commitment to them to walk with them in the journey of growing up into maturity, into the full measure of the stature of Christ. I was honored and humbled to have been one of their teachers, as they learned the foundations of our faith and the nature of their commitment to a life surrendered to the Lordship of Christ. There’s’ “no greater joy” than seeing our children of the faith walking in the truth of God’s love in Christ (3 John 4). And every day, I’m honored and humbled that You keep teaching me Your lessons and establishing me in Your foundations of my faith in You. Maybe the deepest foundation and greatest lesson is continuing to acknowledge and declare that our lives are no longer our own. From the moment of our choice to entrust our lives to Your care and welcome Your Spirit into our hearts, we were bought with a price by the blood of the Lamb. Our lives are Yours and no longer our own. Our declaration to You, to ourselves, and to all the world is that we now choose to live our lives to God, crucified with Christ, so that it is not longer we who live, but Christ who now lives in us and through us for the glory of God (Galatians 3:19-20). Lord, empower me by Your grace to live out my confirmation and commitment of surrender of my life into Your life each day. Forgive me when I fail; pick me up when I stumble; cleanse me when I sin; and remind me when I forget. My life is no longer my own; my life belongs to You. That’s not a bad thing of bondage; that’s a great thing of freedom, because only then am I truly free to be all You created me to be. Only then will I be fulfilled in the life You’ve purposed in Your heart for me to live. Only then will I bring You the great joy You’ve paid such a great price for us both to have. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute to our ministry on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org Messiah Ministries; 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502 God bless you!

Go and Preach the Kingdom 4-22-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Help me start this day and every day centered in Christ, embraced by the Father, and filled afresh with the Holy Spirit. … “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7-8, NKJV). For four nights, You have given me the honor and entrusted to me the responsibility to share Your Word from my heart, to spend and be spent in the sharing of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God among the people of a Georgia town where I’ve never been before. In the bond of Your Spirit, we worshipped together, kneeled down to pray together, hungered and thirsted for a fresh touch of Your Presence together, wept over our battles and struggles together, and laughed in the joy of the Lord together. Thank You for this gift of allowing me to love and be loved so deeply from the heart in places I’ve never, among people I’ve never known, as we open our hearts together to seek the face of the One we all long to see and yearn to know. Truly we were in Your Presence and truly our lives were changed, because we can’t help but be changed as we behold Your glory and embrace Your Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let Your revival fire continue to burn in our hearts and set others ablaze with a passion for Jesus everywhere You send us to proclaim with our lips and live with our lives the coming of the Kingdom of God. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)?’ And I said, ‘Here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:8). In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, thank you so much for covering us in prayer for our Revival at Villa Rica First United Methodist Church in Georgia hosted by pastor James Smith. Surely the Presence of the Lord was in that place! We'll be excited to hear more of all the Lord has done and will continue to do. I pray the same for you in the revival and renewal of Your spirit, your church, and your city, my friend! Send us a note if you would like to order our ministry resources with my preaching messages on The Father's Blessing or Spiritual Warfare or Elijah--A Prayer Revival of Powerful, Passionate, Prevailing Prayer to Marilyn at DirOfMinistries@aol.com Let us know if your city or church would like to arrange for me to come preach or teach on these topics or others. You can also order many from our resources web-site: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 in Lexington next week. A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

Go and Preach the Kingdom 4-22-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Help me start this day and every day centered in Christ, embraced by the Father, and filled afresh with the Holy Spirit. … “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7-8, NKJV). For four nights, You have given me the honor and entrusted to me the responsibility to share Your Word from my heart, to spend and be spent in the sharing of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God among the people of a Georgia town where I’ve never been before. In the bond of Your Spirit, we worshipped together, kneeled down to pray together, hungered and thirsted for a fresh touch of Your Presence together, wept over our battles and struggles together, and laughed in the joy of the Lord together. Thank You for this gift of allowing me to love and be loved so deeply from the heart in places I’ve never, among people I’ve never known, as we open our hearts together to seek the face of the One we all long to see and yearn to know. Truly we were in Your Presence and truly our lives were changed, because we can’t help but be changed as we behold Your glory and embrace Your Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let Your revival fire continue to burn in our hearts and set others ablaze with a passion for Jesus everywhere You send us to proclaim with our lips and live with our lives the coming of the Kingdom of God. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)?’ And I said, ‘Here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:8). In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, thank you so much for covering us in prayer for our Revival at Villa Rica First United Methodist Church in Georgia hosted by pastor James Smith. Surely the Presence of the Lord was in that place! We'll be excited to hear more of all the Lord has done and will continue to do. I pray the same for you in the revival and renewal of Your spirit, your church, and your city, my friend! Send us a note if you would like to order our ministry resources with my preaching messages on The Father's Blessing or Spiritual Warfare or Elijah--A Prayer Revival of Powerful, Passionate, Prevailing Prayer to Marilyn at DirOfMinistries@aol.com Let us know if your city or church would like to arrange for me to come preach or teach on these topics or others. You can also order many from our resources web-site: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 in Lexington next week. A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

Days of War, but Victory is Won 4-20-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Your name is my first word; Your praise is my first thought, as I start this new day centered and grounded in You alone. … “As I looked, this horn made war with the holy ones and was prevailing over them, until the Ancient One came; then judgment was given for the holy ones of the Most High, and the time arrived when the holy ones gained possession of the kingdom” (Daniel 7:21-22). Every day is a day of war between the wicked one and the holy ones. And his primary weapon of warfare is the deception that we are not Your holy ones. He comes to tempt us and taint us; he comes to deceive us and defile us. He’s always trying to remind us of our unworthiness, condemn us with our sins, shame us with our failures. He accuses us before God and before one another that we are far from holy, wicked and selfish at the core of our darkened hearts, really no different from him, but only by matters of degree. He tries to “wear out the holy ones of the Most High,” making us weary with his words of accusation and unworthiness of Your love and our inheritance as the children of Your kingdom (Daniel 7:25). That’s how he comes, as You said, “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). That’s how he comes, as Your Word says, “like a roaring lion … looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). And but for the grace of God, his accusations would be true and his condemnations would be justified. But we are not holy ones by our own holiness; we are not the righteous ones of the Most High by our own righteousness. Even our most righteous deeds are as filthy rags in light of the glory and goodness, the holiness and purity of our God (Isaiah 64:6). So we do not overcome our accuser by the record of our good deeds or by the nature of our good hearts. If that were the standard, he would always prevail because we would always fail and fall short of the glory of God. No, we overcome him only by the power of the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony that we are not worthy but the One who is worthy loves us and forgives us and cleanses us from all our unrighteousness by the righteous and holy blood of His sacrifice of love for us (Revelation 12:11). It’s Your Word, that shuts his mouth. It’s the victory of Your cross that crushes his head under our feet (Romans 16:20). And it’s through our faith and trust in You by the power of Your grace and mercy of Your love that “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). For “greater is He that is in (us) than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Though our adversary roars his accusations of our unworthiness of all You have for us, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah “roars from Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. (For) the Lord is a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel” and all who are sealed into Your covenant promises and all “the blessings of Abraham” by the blood of the Lamb (Joel 3:16; Galatians 3:14). It’s by Your blood, by Your righteousness alone, that we are “the holy ones of the Most High” and we shall prevail and overcome the enemy of our souls. The day of Your judgment shall come when this wicked and evil beast will be “put to death, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire” (Daniel 7:11). Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus! One day You’ll be “coming with the clouds of heaven” in all Your “glory and dominion and kingship” to rule and reign in our hearts and all the earth with “an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away” (Daniel 7:13-14). “Those who conquer (by the blood of the Lamb) will inherit these things” for You will be our God and we will be Your children of Your kingdom forever and ever through the mercy of Your grace and the power of Your steadfast love (Revelation 21:7). “The kingship and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them” (Daniel 7:27). It’s our certain hope of Your sure victory that encourages us and empowers us to win the war for our hearts and minds every day between now and then. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, the altar was full last night as we humbled ourselves in prayer before God and rose up in the victory of the power of His name at our revival meeting last night! Thank you for covering us in prayer this week as I preach the Spring Revival at Villa Rica First United Methodist Church near Atlanta Georgia, hosted by Pastor James Smith, Sunday Night through Wednesday Night April 18-21: www.vrfumc.com Send us a note if you would like to order our ministry resources with my preaching messages on Spiritual Warfare or Elijah--A Prayer Revival of Powerful, Passionate, Prevailing Prayer to Marilyn at DirOfMinistries@aol.com Let us know if your city or church would like to arrange for me to come preach or teach on these topics or others. The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 in Lexington next week. A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

Humility, Intimacy, and Authority of Spiritual Maturity 4-19-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Let Your Word light my path, let Your Spirit fill my soul, as I follow You throughout my day. … “Be He gives all the more grace; therefore, it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ … Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you…. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:6-10). As I was seeking Your heart and Your word for the people of Villa Rica, Georgia, where You’ve called me to preach and pray for spiritual revival this week, You stirred up these words in my spirit: Humility; intimacy; and authority. These are keys to spiritual maturity for Your Church in this hour. We are to grow up “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). We are to become “mature in Christ” as Your Holy Spirit forms the nature of Christ within us—“Christ in (us), the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27-28). In this hour, You are preparing a people who will arise and stand in the strength of Christ, shining with the light of the glory of Christ in the midst of the darkness, made ready for the battles and tribulations to come. Now is the time we must learn humility—to humble ourselves before You, to become desperately dependent upon You alone, to be shaken free from our self-centered lives and firmly established in a Christ-centered life. Now is to the time we must learn intimacy—to draw to You, as You draw near to us, to allow Your Spirit to search our hearts and remove everything from us that would hold us back from embracing the fullness of Your mercy and love. Now is the time we must learn our authority in Christ and the authority of Christ in us—to know that together we are the Body of Christ on this earth, the hands and feet of Jesus, to continue the ministry of Christ in the Spirit of Christ to the glory of our Father, to teach what You taught, to do what You did, in the power You had (John 14:12). O Lord, revive us. Breathe afresh Your breath of life within us. Remind us of who we are in You and who You are in us. Awaken us to our calling and destiny to arise and shine for our Light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us (Isaiah 60:1). As we humble ourselves before You, as we draw near to You, as we obey Your command to proclaim the gospel of Your Kingdom with the power and authority You’ve given us in Your name to glorify You, we are growing up into spiritual maturity. By the transforming power of Your Holy Spirit, we are becoming the Bride of Christ You long to see on this earth and You long to embrace in Your coming (Ephesians 5:25-27). You are bringing many sons and daughters of God to glory so that You may display Your glory through Your people—a people of deep humility, intimacy, and authority. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please keep us in prayer this week as I preach the Spring Revival at Villa Rica First United Methodist Church near Atlanta Georgia, hosted by Pastor James Smith, Sunday Night through Wednesday Night April 18-21: www.vrfumc.com They have been fasting and praying with great expectations to see what the Lord will do! We were off to a great start last night with a great hunger for more of Jesus. The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 in Lexington next week. A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

Strengthened for the Battles to Come 4-16-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Your name be glorified here in all the earth; Your name be glorified in me. … “Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43, NKJV). You know the battles that lay ahead for each of us. You know the battles that rage in the mind, will, and emotions of our souls every day. But as we entrust our will to Your will, our thoughts to Your thoughts, our desires to Your desires, You strengthen us for every battle to come. You send Your angels to fight for us; You send Your Holy Spirit to empower us; You send Your people to encourage us. And You remind us that You have already gone before us and You will be going with us into the battles that are already won for us by the victory of the cross. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). So in the daily battles of the mind, we can take every negative thought captive, and bring them into submission to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). We can overcome the thoughts of fear, worry, anxiety, and stress that seek to steal our peace and rob our joy—not in our own strength, but by Your power; not in our own wisdom, but by Your grace. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Two mighty weapons of our warfare You put in our hands and seal in our hearts are the promises of Your Word You’ve set before us and the remembrance of Your faithfulness through the battles behind us. As we think on these things, You strengthen us and encourage us so You can send us forth in courage and faith into the days of the battles ahead. The faithful courage of one will inspire many others to rise in the strength of the Lord and follow “the Commander of the Army of the Lord” into the battles to posses the land of our inheritance in You (Joshua 5:14). “But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see” (Deuteronomy 3:28). You are our Joshua, our Yashua—the salvation of God and the Commander of the Army of the Lord. You are the One who strengthens us. You are our Strong and Mighty One, dwelling within us and rising up in us in the power of Your Spirit and in fulfillment of Your Word. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? … Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident” (Psalm 27:1-3). In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Come to The Fountain! This Friday Night April 16th at 7PM, the 3rd Friday Night of every month, for our Messiah Ministries monthly city-wide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship. Led by Messiah Ministries and hosted at Centenary United Methodist Church, 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky. Come drink deeply from The Fountain of Living Waters as we worship Jesus in the freedom of His Holy Spirit. I will be leading in Prayer while Brooke and Shannon Barrett will be leading in Worship this month. All are welcome and please spread the word! Contact Marilyn Walker, our Dir. of Ministries for details 859-317-1591 or DirOfMinistries@aol.com Friends, please keep us in prayer next week as I preach the Spring Revival at Villa Rica First United Methodist Church in Georgia with Pastor James Smith, starting Sunday April 18-21: www.vrfumc.com They have been fasting and praying with great expectations to see what the Lord will do! The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

Pressing On in Passionate Pursuit 4-15-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Your Word tells me that as I behold You I become more like You, as Your Spirit changes me into Your image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). I want to be more like You by the grace of God, so I do look to You and open myself to Your Holy Spirit in these first moments of my morning to begin well and set the tone for my day. … “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own” (Philippians 3:10-12). Paul said, “I want to know Christ … so I press on; I want to know the power of His resurrection … so I press on; I want to know the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death … so I press on; I want to know my own resurrection from the dead … so I press on.” Your Holy Spirit revealed to him that in order to “make it (his) own,” he had to press on. He wasn’t passive; he was passionate. He wasn’t holding back, he was taking hold. He wasn’t waiting for You to come change him; he knew You were changing him as He pressed on and pressed in to more and more of You. Lord, help me to be more passionately in pursuit of You. I hear Your Spirit now stirring my spirit with the words of a new song of passionate pursuit Your writing in my heart as I pray: I want to be like You, Lord I want to see like you, Lord I want to know that my life Is Your living sacrifice So I must press on To make it my own In passionate pursuit Nothing less will ever do ‘Cause anything less Will always be less than all You have for me Yes, Lord. More, Lord. It’s the grace of God by the leading of Your Holy Spirit that lifts my eyes to You, that gives me the desire to seek You and to trust You. But only I can choose to obey You, to give myself completely to You, to passionately pursue You. It’s my choice. And I choose You—as best as I can and all by Your grace. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays God bless you my friend, as You passionately pursue the Lord our God! Thank you for joining with me in the journey and the pursuit of the glory of His Presence in our lives. Come to The Fountain! This Friday Night April 16th at 7PM, the 3rd Friday Night of every month, for our Messiah Ministries monthly city-wide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship. Led by Messiah Ministries and hosted at Centenary United Methodist Church, 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky. Come drink deeply from The Fountain of Living Waters as we worship Jesus in the freedom of His Holy Spirit. I will be leading in Prayer while Brooke and Shannon Barrett will be leading in Worship this month. All are welcome and please spread the word! Contact Marilyn Walker, our Dir. of Ministries for details 859-317-1591 or DirOfMinistries@aol.com The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

Canaan Land 4-14-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Put Your thoughts in my mind and Your desires in my heart, as I wait on You to order the steps of my day. … “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance” (Psalm 105:11). Last night several of us from our ministry gathered together for a meal, for direct and honest discussion, and for prayer about part of the long, long, long term vision of Messiah Ministries—the part of our vision that one day we would have land of our own for our retreat center and our ministry home in the countryside of Your creation. There we would live life together in Christian community, with people from many streams of the body of Christ, in close relationship with other ministries, to minister the healing love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, equip and train disciples of Jesus Christ, refresh and renew weary warriors and ministers of the gospel of the kingdom of God, and send them forth again into the battles of this world for the hearts and souls of men to know the love and Father heart of God revealed in Jesus Christ. It would be a city of refuge from the world, but also a place of equipping, encouraging, and empowering of passionate lovers of God to be sent forth into the world to be part of Your transformation of this world in our generation. We laid before You a place literally named Canaan Land Farm, not far from here near the stone fences and rolling green hills of the Shaker Village down by the Kentucky River. I don’t know whether or not that’s the place You have in Your heart for us, but we are beginning to discern together that there may be a place You have in Your heart for us to possess as a portion of our inheritance to fulfill Your calling for our ministry in Your kingdom. As we prayed together last night and will continue to pray, “Lord, put Your thoughts in our minds and Your desires in our hearts. Take away all that is not of You and give us courage to embrace all that is of You—all by Your grace, all in Your timing, all in Your way. This ministry is Your ministry. We don’t want to go anywhere You’re not sending us to go or do anything You’re not calling us to do. Unless You go with us and before us, we don’t want to go. But we do say, together as one, ‘Here I am, Lord. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Something like that would have to be God and not us. It would require so much more than we have and so much more than we are. Our simple ministry lives month by month by faith as it is. I have to continually entrust my concerns about every next month to You now. Yet You have been faithful every month for the first thirteen years of ministry together with You. And I know You will continue to provide all that is needed for every month of ministry to come, as long as we keep seeking Your face and listening for Your voice, to trust and obey Your will and Your ways for our lives, by the power of Your grace. Whatever Your will is—for this land or any land or anything else—that’s what I want, that’s what our ministry wants, because we trust Your will for our lives. We know we will only be fulfilled in this life and in the life to come as we willingly entrust our lives to Your care. So we pray and we trust that You will do all that it is in Your heart to do in us and through us, all by Your grace. This is our portion; this is our inheritance—to be completely surrendered to You and Your will for our lives. This is our “good land”, our Canaan Land, flowing with milk and honey—it’s being found faithful to You and Your calling and Your vision for our lives, wherever that may be and whenever that may come to pass (Deuteronomy 8:7 and 26:15). In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Come to The Fountain! This Friday Night April 16th at 7PM, the 3rd Friday Night of every month, for our Messiah Ministries monthly city-wide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship. Led by Messiah Ministries and hosted at Centenary United Methodist Church, 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky. Come drink deeply from The Fountain of Living Waters as we worship Jesus in the freedom of His Holy Spirit. I will be leading in Prayer while Brooke and Shannon Barrett will be leading in Worship this month. All are welcome and please spread the word! Contact Marilyn Walker, our Dir. of Ministries for details 859-317-1591 or DirOfMinistries@aol.com Please prayerfully consider becoming a regular support of Messiah Ministries in your prayers and financial giving. It's greatly needed and greatly appreciate so that we can continue to fulfill our calling of "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" I'll be glad to speak with you about our calling and vision. This is a critical financial time for us in the life of our ministry. As you're led, please join with us by including us in your offerings to the Lord and the Kingdom of God either on-line at www.messiah-ministries.org resources or by check to "Messiah Ministries" at Messiah Ministries; 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky 40502 God bless you and thank you! The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

“Laid-down Lovers of Jesus” 4-13-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are the King of kings and Lord of lords. You are the King of the Kingdom of Heaven and I open up to You the gates of the kingdom of my heart that the King of Glory may come in. You are the King of Glory; You are the Lord God Almighty in every dimension of Your Being—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. … “But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him…. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 1:17-20). Somehow Heidi Baker came to Madisonville, Kentucky to encourage one her spiritual sons in the faith who’d received an impartation of her heart for the poorest of the poor. Her primary ministry has been among the poor and abandoned and abused children who make their home in the garbage dumps of Mozambique in Africa. She and her army of lovers of God and God’s children gather them in their arms and love them back to life as they lead them to You to be Lord of their lives. Now she oversees ten thousand churches in that nation, where transformed lives gather in Your name and share the love of Jesus with the lost and the broken and all who are hungry to know the truth of the Father love of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, ready to be poured into their hearts in the power of Your Holy Spirit. And there You confirm Your Word with signs and wonders and miracles in the spirits, souls, and bodies of the people who hunger and thirst for You and the manifest glory of Your presence every day (Mark 16:20). Truly she is one of Your apostolic leaders You’ve sent forth to proclaim the coming of Your Kingdom and see it demonstrated in the power of Your love (Ephesians 4:11). And somehow last night, as I lay face down, stretched out in the river of God at the altar of the church, You allowed me to be the last one she prayed for. She spoke into my ear about You strengthening me for the battles to come, prayed over me, and then stretched out herself to rest in Your presence under the weight of Your glory in that place. A friend of mine said she poured out the very last of all she had to give into me and then collapsed, herself, into the arms of Your presence. I don’t know all You were doing in me and each of us there, but I know I couldn’t get low enough to the floor. I knew I just wanted to be one of those completely surrendered, “laid down-lover of Jesus” willing to pour out my life for You and the burdens on Your heart in whatever way You lead (see John 15:13). As Heidi Baker has proclaimed with her words and her life, “The harvest is ripe! God is calling forth a new breed of missionaries, a generation of laid-down lovers who will run into the darkest corners of the earth, call in the outcasts, bring in His Bride, and compel the poor to the wedding feast.” I know I don’t live that out every day; but it is my desire to be that surrendered to You and Your will for my life. And last night was another commitment of my desire to Your desires, of my heart to Your heart—wherever that may be, no matter what battles may come, however You choose to use whatever remains of my life. By the grace of God, may I be one of Your face down, laid-down lovers of Jesus. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, I praise God for these often-unexpected opportunities along the journey to encounter the great love and diversity of our awesome God and His awesome servants. For more information about the ministry of Rolland and Heidi Baker in Mozambique and around the world: www.irisministries.com And thank you so much for your prayers for us last weekend at our Breaking the Silence, Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church day of fasting and prayer in Lexington. We experienced the presence and power of the Lord in a deep way concerning the topic of women and men, rightly aligned and empowered together for ministry in these exciting days of the Kingdom of God advancing in power throughout the earth. God bless you as He aligns and empowers you in His for you! Come to The Fountain! This Friday Night April 16th at 7PM, the 3rd Friday Night of every month, for our Messiah Ministries monthly city-wide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship. Led by Messiah Ministries and hosted at Centenary United Methodist Church, 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky. Come drink deeply from The Fountain of Living Waters as we worship Jesus in the freedom of His Holy Spirit. I will be leading in Prayer while Brooke and Shannon Barrett will be leading in Worship this month. All are welcome and please spread the word! Contact Marilyn Walker, our Dir. of Ministries for details 859-317-1591 or DirOfMinistries@aol.com Please prayerfully consider becoming a regular support of Messiah Ministries in your prayers and financial giving. It's greatly needed and greatly appreciate so that we can continue to fulfill our calling of "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" I'll be glad to speak with you about our calling and vision. This is a critical financial time for us in the life of our ministry. As you're led, please join with us by including us in your offerings to the Lord and the Kingdom of God either on-line at www.messiah-ministries.org resources or by check to "Messiah Ministries" at Messiah Ministries; 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky 40502 God bless you and thank you! The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2, April 28-May 1, 2010 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. This time, Dan Van Nice from Austin and Lisa Preston will be joining us to teach. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Also, you can contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

“My Lord and My God!” 4-9-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I believe You and I believe in You. You are worthy of my trust, my heart, and my life. And by the same grace You’ve given me to trust You, You give me the grace to entrust myself and my day to Your care and Your will. ... “But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in His side, I will not believe’ ” (John 20:24-25). Thomas was one of the twelve—one of the ones who heard You teach and preach the coming of the kingdom of God and demonstrate it in the power of God every day for three and a half years. He saw the sick healed, lepers cleansed, sinners forgiven, and the dead raised. But he could not believe the good news of Your resurrection. Or at least, he refused to believe it except on his own terms. Looking at his lack of faith, we call him “doubting Thomas” and to this day, we mock others for their lack of faith in anything by calling them a “doubting Thomas.” But why was Thomas different from the other twelve? Was it because he was more scientific, more skeptical, more left-brained, more stubborn, more thick-headed or hard-hearted than the others? No, according to Your Word, Thomas “was not with them when Jesus came” (v. 20:24). He had not had a personal encounter with the Living Christ. He was not willing to take anyone’s word for it that Your resurrection was true. Information, knowledge, correct doctrine, peer pressure, even eye-witness accounts of those who had seen You and experienced You themselves was not enough. He needed his own encounter. The same may have been true for any one of the twelve who had not been there the first time You came to let them see You resurrected and alive. So You let Thomas wrestle with his doubts for a week (v. 20:26). It seems You could have come to him any day, but You didn’t. It seems You could have immediately put to rest all his questions and doubts, allowed him to be calm and settled, comfortable in the truth he could see with his own eyes and feel with his own hands, able to get a good night’s sleep free from all his skepticism and stubbornness. But You didn’t. You let him simmer in the stew of his doubts. Why? You teach us much in times of waiting. You focus our thinking in the times of questioning. You lift our eyes and our hearts above the things of this world in the longing to experience You. You draw us close to You with the hungering and thirsting to encounter You. And You humble us to remember that You alone are God and You alone will determine the time and place of our experiences and encounters on Your terms, not ours. Even when You did come to Thomas and offered him Your hands and side to touch and feel, he never did. He just declared with all his heart, “My Lord and my God!” In the moment of his personal encounter with the Living Christ, all his terms and conditions of his faith and his relationship with You vanished in the glory of Your Presence (v. 20:27-28). In fact, his words are the highest declaration of faith in Your Divine Identity as God in all the Bible. Thomas’ faith became sight in his own personal encounter with You. So it was for the others as well. The same is true for most of us. True faith is more than knowing about You, it’s knowing You. True faith seems to require a personal encounter—it seems to be so much more a matter of the heart than a matter of the mind, though both are necessary. But it is Your way, always in Your timing for Your purposes, to allow us the grace of a personal encounter with You. Ours may not be like Thomas and the first disciples who literally saw You with their own eyes. But we can each have our personal encounter and experience Your Presence in our lives. Those encounters come in many ways, but each way comes in the time and means of Your choosing—not on our terms, but on Yours. But when we do have our encounter with You, we are “blessed” with Your gift of faith to believe (v. 20:29). Thank You, Lord Jesus, for every experience and every encounter with You along the journey of my life. I hunger and thirst for more. I long to live every day looking you’re your Presence in the moments of my day. Thank You for the grace You’ve given me to believe. I have not yet seen Your hands and side, but by the grace of Your mercy and love, I have personally encountered You so many ways, so many times. I believe and I am blessed. And like Thomas, I declare You are my Lord and my God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please come join us for two Messiah Ministries events coming up in Lexington, Kentucky in April, as well as The Fountain, our monthly citywide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship always at 7 pm on the 3rd Friday Night of every month: April 10, 2010 Day of Prayer and Fasting we're calling "Breaking the Silence--Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church" based upon Acts 2:17-18. Laura Beach and I will be leading in prayer along with various worship leaders throughout the day. April 28-May 1, 2010 "The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2." Please contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY

“So I Send You” in Resurrection Power 4-8-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Your name is above every name. And I exalt Your name above every moment of my day. … “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.’ When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ ” (John 20:21-22). Your resurrection was a transition from the ministry of Jesus to the ministry of the disciples of Jesus in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit of Jesus. Just as the Father sent You, now You sent them. Just as the Father sent You as Son of Man, empowered by the Spirit of God, so You sent forth Your disciples as sons and daughters of men, empowered by the Spirit of God. They were to be disciples of Christ, filled with the Spirit of Christ, continuing the ministry of Christ—not in their names, but Your name; not in their power, but Your power; not for their glory, but for Your glory. And so it is with every generation of the disciples of Jesus Christ. You call us to receive Your peace as welcome the One who is peace within us. You call us to open our spirits to receive the breath of Your Spirit. We’re to look and see and remember all You did on this earth as Son of Man by the Spirit of God, as we go where You send us in the power You’ve given us. We’re to be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of Your name and the glory of Your fame, so You can raise us up into newness of life in the resurrection power of Christ. That’s how You change us and that’s how You change the world around us. As Your disciples, throughout every generation, we are “the body of Christ” on this earth, being filled with “one Spirit” and “all baptized into one body” to continue the ministry of Christ on earth in our generation (1 Corinthians 12:13, 27). Together, we are Your hands and feet, Your heart and words, Your body filled with Your resurrected Spirit. “Because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Lord Jesus, help me know my place in Your body. Help me be filled with the fullness of Your Spirit. Give me courage to pray what You give me to pray, to say what You give me to say, and to go where You send me to go. Give me understanding to be who You’ve created me and called me to be. Then Your peace with be with me because the Spirit of the One who is Peace will be within me. Then I will fulfill my destiny in Christ because I will know my identity in Christ. As You change me, You will also be changing the world around me in every place You send me by Your Holy Spirit within me. Lord, let it be so. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please come join us for two Messiah Ministries events coming up in Lexington, Kentucky in April, as well as The Fountain, our monthly citywide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship always at 7 pm on the 3rd Friday Night of every month: April 10, 2010 Day of Prayer and Fasting we're calling "Breaking the Silence--Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church" based upon Acts 2:17-18. Laura Beach and I will be leading in prayer along with various worship leaders throughout the day. April 28-May 1, 2010 "The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2." Please contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

Holy Holes in the Hands of God 4-6-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Holy and mighty, Risen One, help me rise and follow You today. … “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord!” (John 20:19-20) One encounter with You can turn our fear into joy. One word of peace from Your lips can steady any storm or calm any heart. And all the walls in the world we try to hide behind to lock out our fears can never lock out Your love. When You come and stand among us in the power of Your love and the glory of Your Presence, all fear must flee. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…. We love because (You) first loved us” (1 John 4:18-19). The holes in Your hands and side perfectly reveal Your perfect love for us. And those marks will never go away. For all eternity, the Son of God who also humbled Himself as the Son of Man to be nailed to a cross will forever bear these marks of Your love. And as we remember these holy holes in Your holy hands, let us rejoice and be glad for such amazing love You have forever shown for each one of us. Let us forever praise Your name that no walls or fear or anything else will ever be able to separate us from this power of Your love (Romans 8:37-39). “But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 4:8). This is the holy love forever revealed in the holy holes of God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, God bless you as you live out love and mercy we have in the resurrection power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is risen indeed! I'm excited to get to spend this week with my youngest daughter Madison on her spring break visiting my Mom in the mountains of New Mexico. So my morning prayers will likely be coming out a little later each morning this week from our earlier time zone. I'll be back in Lexington for our Breaking the Silence day of fasting and prayer this Saturday. Please come join us if you can in person or in prayer. Please come join us for two Messiah Ministries events coming up in Lexington, Kentucky in April, as well as The Fountain, our monthly citywide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship always at 7 pm on the 3rd Friday Night of every month: April 10, 2010 Day of Prayer and Fasting we're calling "Breaking the Silence--Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church" based upon Acts 2:17-18. Laura Beach and I will be leading in prayer along with various worship leaders throughout the day. April 28-May 1, 2010 "The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2." Please contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

Passion and Perseverance of Mary Magdalene 4-6-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. You’re alive! Be alive in me by Your Spirit today. … “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord!” and she told them the He had said these things to her” (John 20:18). I love Mary Magdalene. She’s probably my favorite disciple. She was deeply drawn to Your mercy and readily embraced Your power to forgive her of her sins, to heal her of her brokenness, and to free her from her spiritual oppression (Luke 8:2). And she never forgot it. She never took it for granted. And except for that day Your crucified body lay buried in that tomb behind the stone, she probably rarely let You out of her sight and never let You out of her heart. The one who was forgiven much loved much (Luke 7:47). I know the power of that principle—You have forgiven me of much, healed me of much, freed me of much; and now I love You very much. I never want to take You for granted, never want to forget all You’ve done for me, and never want to let You out of my sight. Mary stood at the foot of the cross on the day of Your crucifixion (John 19:25). And she stood at the door of the empty tomb on the day of Your resurrection (v. 20:1). Mary saw You first in the glory of Your resurrection (v. 20:14). You chose her alone to be the first to hear Your resurrected voice (v. 20:15). She couldn’t restrain the joy in her heart as she reached out to embrace Your resurrected body on Your way from Your burial chamber on earth to Your mercy seat in heaven (v. 20:17). You honored her passion and perseverance with the very first post-resurrection encounter of Your Presence. Some seem to have the testimony of a holy life—untainted, undefiled, somehow seeming to live above the challenges of sin and the ravages of disappointments and sorrows in this broken, fallen world. They seem to find it hard to have mercy for those less holy than they. They find the passion of Mary a little too extreme. And they find Your eagerness to forgive and free and heal one so undeserving as she a little too unsettling. That’s also a spiritual principle—“the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little” (Luke 7:47). I guess that’s why I love Mary Magdalene so much—I see a lot of me in her and a lot of her in me. And by the mercy and power of Your grace, I don’t plan on restraining my joy or letting go of my hold of my risen Lord. You honor me every day with the resurrection glory of Your Presence. May I never take it for granted. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, God bless you as you live out love and mercy we have in the resurrection power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is risen indeed! I'm excited to get to spend this week with my daughter Madison on her spring break visiting my Mom in the mountains of New Mexico. So my morning prayers will likely be coming out a little later each morning this week from our earlier time zone. I'll be back in Lexington for our Breaking the Silence day of fasting and prayer this Saturday. Please come join us if you can in person or in prayer. Please come join us for two Messiah Ministries events coming up in Lexington, Kentucky in April, as well as The Fountain, our monthly citywide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship always at 7 pm on the 3rd Friday Night of every month: April 10, 2010 Day of Prayer and Fasting we're calling "Breaking the Silence--Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church" based upon Acts 2:17-18. Laura Beach and I will be leading in prayer along with various worship leaders throughout the day. April 28-May 1, 2010 "The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2." Please contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

Suffering Servant, Faithful Son, Righteous One 4-2-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. This is the day we remember Your cross. Your body was lifted up for me so that my heart could be lifted up to You. … “See My Servant shall prosper; He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at Him—so marred was His appearance, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of mortals—so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate…. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him of no account. Surely He has borne our infirmities and carried out diseases; yet we accounted Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him with pain. When You make His life and offering for sin, He shall see His offspring, and shall prolong His days; through Him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of His anguish He shall see light; He shall find satisfaction through His knowledge. The Righteous One, My Servant, shall make many righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will a lot Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors” (Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12). You are the Suffering Servant, the Faithful Son, the Righteous One. As Messiah, the Christ—both Son of God and Son of Man, having both the nature of God and the nature of man—You are the fulfillment of the words You spoke through the prophet Isaiah over seven hundred years before Your first coming to lay down Your life for us through the suffering of Your cross. You are the Manifestation of the Father, humbling Yourself in the form of the Son, so You could free us from our sins and abide within us by Your Holy Spirit. How can we imagine such a God who is so willing to suffer so much for our salvation? How can we grasp the choice You made the price Your paid for us to be able to live forever with You in a relationship of love? Only by the grace You give us to believe, only by the grace You give us to receive this indescribable gift of Your sacrifice of love. “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring (us) to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). Because You died, now I can live Because You gave, now I can give Because You loved, now I can see Because You were, now I can be You are the One who gave it all You are the One who’s my All in All You are the One who loves me so You are the One I long to know So I will lift up Your name So I will sing You my praise So I will give You my heart So I will proclaim how great You are … You are a great God. And somehow in mystery of Your mercy and love, You were willing to greatly suffer for me. As I think about the suffering of Your cross this day, may I know the depth of Your love for me more than ever before. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, God bless you this Holy Week of preparing our hearts to experience the resurrection power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Please come join us for two Messiah Ministries events coming up in Lexington, Kentucky in April, as well as The Fountain, our monthly citywide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship always at 7 pm on the 3rd Friday Night of every month: April 10, 2010 Day of Prayer and Fasting we're calling "Breaking the Silence--Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church" based upon Acts 2:17-18. Laura Beach and I will be leading in prayer along with various worship leaders throughout the day. April 28-May 1, 2010 "The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2." Please contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

The Hinge of History 4-1-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Holy One worthy of all praise, humble to ride on a donkey and allow sinful men to nail You to a cross, yet heralded by angels and all generations who bow their knees at the mention of Your name. I bow my knees and open my heart as I praise Your holy name in these first moments of my day. … “Then He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet, not My will but Yours be done’ ” (Luke 22:41-42). The hinge of history hangs on Your prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane. As Son of Man, You had free will to choose whether to drink of the cup of all our sins, whether to submit and surrender to the will of the Father while knowing the horrific cost of Your sacrifice to come. And You wrestled with that choice. You anguished over all it mean. You counted the cost as You foresaw the moment when You would fulfill the prophecy of being forsaken by God in the moment our sins were imparted to You—“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, fulfilling Psalm 22:1). Yet You chose to drink the cup. You chose to submit Your will to the will of the Father. You chose to sacrifice Your sinlessness for our sinfulness. You chose to break Your eternal intimacy with the Father so that we could have it, to allow Your righteousness to be defiled so that we could become the right with God through this sacrifice of Your love. “For our sake He made Him sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5;21). We cannot really even fathom the cost of all You were willing to endure by Your choice to drink that cup of our sins for our salvation. You were willing to go to hell on our behalf so that we would never have to (1 Peter 3:18-22). You were willing to be forsaken and separated from God the Father in the moment You became “the atoning sacrifice for our sins” so that we would never have to (1 John 2:2). “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). But what if You had not been willing to make that choice? What if You had not been willing bow in prayer, to seek the will and the heart of the Father, and to yield to it no matter the cost? If Christ were not crucified we would still be dead in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). Our very lives hung in the balance of Your choice. Our capacity for intimacy of relationship with God swung on the hinge of history that night You kneeled in the Garden to pray. Without Gethsemane there would be no Good Friday. Without Your choice to yield to the will of God we would have no choice to embrace it ourselves. I really have no idea just how much Your choice cost. But as much as I know, I thank You and praise You now for making that choice for me then. When You chose to embrace the will of the Father, You chose to embrace the love of the Father for me. In this is love—the love of the Father and the love of the Son, now poured into my heart and the hearts of all who would humble themselves to believe it and receive it by the love of Your Holy Spirit now living in us by the mercy of Your grace (Romans 5:5). In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please come join us for two Messiah Ministries events coming up in Lexington, Kentucky in April: April 10, 2010 Day of Prayer and Fasting we're calling "Breaking the Silence--Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church" based upon Acts 2:17-18. Laura Beach and I will be leading in prayer along with various worship leaders throughout the day. April 28-May 1, 2010 "The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2." Please contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 God bless you this Holy Week of preparing our hearts to experience the resurrection power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

Turning Point of Humility 3-31-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I welcome You into my morning, and I want to walk with You throughout my day. … “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11). A friend of mine goes to a little church in a little town next to Lexington—Turning Point Church in Nicholasville, Kentucky. On Monday nights, a few of them gather to pray, to worship, to seek Your face, and welcome Your Presence their hearts, their church, and their city. And this Monday night of this Holy Week, Your Holy Spirit began to fill them with a deep sense of Your Holy Presence. My friend said You had been speaking to her about Your desire to pour out Your greatest anointing in these days—“the anointing of humility, because the last shall be first.” Several of us were moved with a hunger for Your Presence to join with them a second night to watch and wait and see what You would do. As we worshipped and waited with expectant and hungry hearts, I sensed a deep, abiding peace filling my soul. I felt what I would describe as a thickness or heaviness or weightiness of Your Holy Spirit. The thought came to mind, “No flesh can glory in the Presence of God.” I didn’t want to move. I could barely lift my arms in the gesture of my arms open wide to express the longing of my heart lifted up for the welcoming of Your Presence. After awhile, the prayer leader felt the children and young people were to come stand up front and asked me to share what came to my heart. I felt we were to pray for the burden of the Lord for each one of these young people, to stand before the one to whom You led us, and to speak the words of blessing and encouragement You gave us to speak into their lives. It seemed it was a measure of Your fulfillment of Your promise to restore the hearts of the children to the parents and the parents to the children in the days before the coming of the Lord (Malachi 4:6). Then the prayer leader felt we were to all to pray for one another in the deep waters of Your Presence that continued to fill that place and our hearts. My friend shared a vision that You opened a book and said, “Turning Point is in my appointment book.” Many could not stand in the glory of Your Presence. Many were humbled on our faces in the thickness and heaviness and weightiness of this encounter with Your Holy Spirit. I sense that same feeling even now. I pray for the Your anointing of humility. I pray You would bring low every high place in my heart that would try to exalt itself above You and Your will for my life. I pray You would teach me how to step aside and get out of the way for Your Spirit to move in the ways You choose. Let me have in me this mind of Christ, who humbled Himself. Crucify my flesh at the cross of Christ. Let this Holy Week be a holy journey to a deeper place of humility before You. This is a journey that has nothing to do with a place, but everything to do with giving You Your place in our hearts. This is the anointing of Your Presence I desire. I pray for the anointing of Your humility. Teach me to be last; teach me to be least, in trusting surrender to the leading of Your Spirit in every area of my life. Humility is the turning point. And this is the turning point in Your appointment book for us all. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please come join us for two Messiah Ministries events coming up in Lexington, Kentucky in April: April 10, 2010 Day of Prayer and Fasting we're calling "Breaking the Silence--Restoring the Voice of Women in the Church" based upon Acts 2:17-18. Laura Beach and I will be leading in prayer along with various worship leaders throughout the day. April 28-May 1, 2010 "The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2." Please contact Marilyn, our Messiah Ministries Director of Ministries for more information: DirOfMinistries@aol.com 859-317-1591 The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry, Level 2 A focused time of teaching, mentoring, discipleship, personal ministry, equipping, worshipping and prayer led by Tommy Hays and a Messiah Ministries teaching team of experienced prayer ministers. We will continue to study and experience a Biblical perspective of the ministry of healing and wholeness of spirit, soul and body, and apply the foundational principles of the Kingdom of God for prayer ministry. The course combines dynamic classroom teaching in a small group setting with personal hands-on experience as students receive personal ministry and are guided in ministry for others. Level 2 gives deeper experience, opportunity, and practice in healing ministry. For more information or to Register for The Fountain School of Spiritual Ministry: Information/RegisterSchoolOfMinistryLevel2 Friends, God bless you this Holy Week of preparing our hearts to experience the resurrection power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

The Choice of the Cross 3-30-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I journey with You to Your cross this Holy Week. Give me grace to journey with You to my cross every day. … “He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to Him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death; then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles; they will mock Him, and spit upon Him, and flog Him, and kill Him; and after three days He will rise again’ ” (Mark 10:32-34). You were not caught off guard; You were not surprised by what happen to You in the final week of Your life as Son of Man on this earth. Both Jew and Gentile, leaders of religion and leaders of government, representatives of all humanity, would reject You, dishonor You, defile You, and try to destroy You. Yet You willingly gave Yourself into their hands because You willingly gave Yourself into the Father’s hands. Ultimately, they had no power over You but what the Father allowed (John 19:11). And the Father set before You the choice to yield to His will or not, even knowing the cost of Your sacrifice to come (Luke 22:42). But You chose to trust the love of the Father for You and for all humanity, willingly offering Your life as a sacrifice of love for each of us. “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I power to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father” (John 10:17-18). You were not blind to the cost of the sacrifice You would endure, but You chose to look beyond to cost of sacrifice to the joy of all it would forever accomplish for us. So when we remember Your journey to the cross and all the suffering of sacrifice You endured for us, we should not dwell on the hatred of men who wanted to take Your life but on the love of our Savior who willingly chose to endure the hatred of men for us for the sake of the joy it would ultimately bring to You and to us. Let us not look at their hearts, but look to Yours—“looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart” (Hebrews 12:2-3). Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your choice to endure the suffering and sacrifice of the cross for me. Thank You, Lord, for loving me in that way beyond my comprehension and imagination. May my love and thanks to You in response to Your sacrifice for me bring You joy today. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, God bless you this Holy Week of preparing our hearts to experience the resurrection power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

“Blessed is the One Who Comes” 3-29-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Let me be centered in Your will; let Your will be centered in me. … “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your home is left to you, desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord’ ” (Matthew 23:37-39). Lord Jesus, do You lament over my city as You did over Jerusalem? Do You lament over my heart as You did over theirs? Your heart’s desire is that we would turn to You, trusting in the wisdom of Your ways and trusting in the nature of Your heart. You long to gather us close, keep us safe, and nurture us to grow up into maturity as the sons and daughters of God You’ve created us and called us to be. But so often our eyes are blind to the fullness of Your truth and our hearts are hardened to the depths of Your love. We tend to turn away from You and toward ourselves, rebelling against Your ways and embracing the ways of the world around us. And Your heart breaks, because You already see the destruction and desolation to come. We cannot truly see You until we see our need of You. If we think we have no sin, we have no need of a Savior. If we think we have all the wisdom we need to live well in our world, we have no need of the only wise King whose wisdom is from above. If we think we have no wounds or bondage that hurt us and hold us back from knowing our identity and fulfilling our destiny, we have no need of a Healer who comes to bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted and set the captives free. When we think our good deeds or our good intentions are enough to get by, we have no need of the One who says even our most righteous acts are as filthy rags apart from Your Spirit in our hearts and Your transformation of our lives. But when we humble ourselves in Your sight, You can lift us up and establish us in Your truth (James 4:10). When we humble ourselves to see ourselves as we truly are apart from You, then we can look up and see the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Then we can see the One who comes in the nature of the Lord—the One who loves us, who’s for us, who longs to forgive us and free us to live a life that empowers us to be all You created us to be. So for me and my city, let us not fail “to recognize the time of (our) visitation from God” (Luke 19:44). Let us not be found resisting the conviction of Your words or rejecting the mercy of Your love. Let us welcome You and embrace You in the fullness of Your glory among us, trusting in the goodness of Your intentions toward us. Let us not praise You one day with our mouths and crucify You the next in our actions. Let us humble ourselves in our hearts to look up and see You for who You are and welcome You just as You are into every area of our lives. Then we will know and then we can declare, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord” and blessed is the one who embraces You as Lord in our hearts and our city. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, God bless you this Holy Week of preparing our hearts to experience the resurrection power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

Joyful Givers 3-25-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I welcome You here in my heart and my home and every area of my life. … “All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ Zachaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost’ ” (Luke 19:7-10). You love it when we seek You. But You are also a God who seeks us. You loved telling the story about the prodigal son running to the father, but You also loved telling the part of the story about the father running to the prodigal son (Luke 15:20). You are not a passive God. And You are not passive about our salvation. You’re passionate to seek us out and to save us—every last one of us. “Which one you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices!” (Luke 15:4-5) You are the God who is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, KJV). And when we do, You rejoice! That day You called out to Zachaeus and he “hurried down and was happy to welcome (You)” Zachaeus was happy and full of joy for the day of his salvation, but so were You. You didn’t just check his name off Your list, You celebrated with him (Luke 19:5). And the celebration was just beginning, because not only did Zacahaeus’ heart toward You change that day, so did his heart toward others. He became a giver, a joyful giver! And he not only gave out of his excess, he gave in abundance (Luke 19:8). And how that again stirred Your heart with joy for the joy that rose up in Zachaeus’ heart to give. “For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every abundance, so that always having enough for everything, you may share abundantly in every good work…. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God…. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:7-15) Those with religious hearts will “grumble” and complain, trying to justify the hardness of their hearts and the self-centeredness of their souls (Luke 19:7). They’ll judge us for what we’ve done and what we deserve instead of rejoicing for what You’ve done despite how none of us deserve anything. Your salvation is Your indescribable gift. And when we’re truly saved by the power of the grace of God, we can’t help but be joyful givers too. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502

Looking and Longing like Zachaeus 3-25-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I seek Your face and need Your grace. … “He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zachaeus; He was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. See he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him, because He was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome Him” (Luke 19:1-6). On Your way to Your final, holy week in Jerusalem, it seems You were looking for those who were looking for You. You were happy to welcome those who were happy to welcome You. And Zachaeus was one of those who was trying to see who You were. He had heard of You, but he wanted to know You. The crowds of people were in his way, but he was tenacious and persistent in his quest to see You. But You already knew his name; You already saw his heart. And you called him out to come walk with You so You could come spend some time with him. Lord Jesus, I long for You to spend some time with me. Before I get up and get on with my day, before my time gets hidden away in the crowds of people, I long to look for You, excited for the moment I see You come and call out my name. You already know my name; You already know my heart to know You more. So Your Holy Spirit moves in my human spirit, drawing me near in the communion of prayer. As I watch and wait with an open heart and eager anticipation, seeking Your face and listening for Your voice, the yearning in my spirit for the encounter of Your presence moves me to persist in prayer until You come. Sometimes You come with a song. Sometimes You come with a thought, or an image, or a stirring of words from Your Scripture. Sometimes You come with stirring of my heart from Your Spirit. Sometimes You come and move me to tears, or to laughter, to peace or to joy. Sometimes You come and call me to just settle down in the stillness and quietness of the silence of surrender to Your will and Your way. But You always come. Because, at the same time, You’re always, already here. You’re here in my heart where I looked for You long ago, happy to welcome You in to come stay with me in the house of my heart that day and every day. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Subscribe by email to Tommy Hays at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute on-line: www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502