Tempest in a Teapot 2-8-05

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Before anything else begins to cloud my mind this day, I devote my thoughts to You. ... There is a stirring in the spirit and a moving in the heavenlies, it seems. The image of swirling winds, like a hurricane, comes to mind; but I see it in a cup and saucer. I hear the old phrase, "a tempest in a teapot." As I look into Your Word for direction, I find this Scripture: "Our God comes and does not keep silence, before Him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around Him. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth that He may judge His people: 'Gather to Me My faithful ones, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.' The heavens declare His righteousness for God Himself is judge" (Psalm 50.3-6). Lord, what do these images and words mean? What is this stirring in the spirit, in a cup? "All the world is Mine and I am moving throughout the earth. The actions of those throughout all the earth affect one another, throughout all generations. None are isolated; none are exempt. All things move together. Nation affects nation; person affects person; generation affects generation. The earth is as cup of tea to Me. I am stirring in the earth, so I am stirring everywhere. None are isolated; none are exempt." Lord, open our eyes to see the reality of these days. Free us from any sense of false security, to think the storms in other regions and other families and other generations do not affect our own. Let us prepare now to find our security in You. Let us strengthen our relationship with You now, as we devote our thoughts to You, to be able to move with You and not against You. Sweep us into Your arms, so that we are not swept away in the tempest that swirls in the cup of our world. "When the tempest passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are established forever" (Proverbs 10.25). Lord, we have no righteousness apart from relationship with You. By the mercy of Your grace, move in our hearts like a tempest, as Your tempest moves in our world. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Arise, My Soul, Arise! 2-7-05

Good morning, Lord Jesus. In these first moments of the morning, let me see nothing but what You show me, let me hear nothing but what You say. ... "Arise, my soul, arise!" The words of one of Charles Wesley's ancient hymns stir my soul in worship and prayer this morning. Your Holy Spirit brings the confirmation of Your written Word to mind from Solomon and Isaiah: "My Beloved speaks and says to me: 'Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away" -- Song of Solomon 2.10. "Arise, shine; for your Light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the face of the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will appear over you" -- Isaiah 60.1-2. Yes, Lord. Let our souls arise. Awaken us from our slumber. In the Spirit, the season of winter is passing and the calling of spring is coming. There comes a season of new beginnings, of awakenings. Stir the souls of Your people to arise and to awaken. As You called out to the generation of Your first disciples, so You are calling out to our generation, "the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force" -- Matthew 11.12. "Arise, My people, arise! Awaken from your stupor as I revive you with My Spirit. Arise and take your places in My kingdom. Awaken and hold your positions in My army. You will move as one at My command. You will overcome the kingdoms of violence in the power of My love. Out of My love for My people who are lost and bound, I will send forth My army and advance My kingdom. Arise now that you may be prepared. Awaken now that you may be trained and equipped, ready to march against the kingdom of darkness in the light of My glory." Yes, Lord. We have much to learn. Give us a teachable spirit that You may train our hands for war in this spiritual battle we will fight on our knees with the weapons of love. You are Love, and Your love is compelling us to be prepared to fight. Forgive us for our passivity and complacence; forgive us for sleeping on our watch. Stir our souls to arise and shine, for our Light has come and Your glory is rising upon us -- the glory of Your Light, Who overcomes the darkness. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

The Adventure of Prayer 2-6-05

Morning by Morning, Sunday 2-6-05 Good morning, Lord Jesus. I watch for You to come and wait for You to lead as I listen in the silence of surrender. ... Your ways are wonderful; Your words are life. You call us to surrender and to listen in silence. Then You can fill us with the fullness of Your presence. Then You can lift us to the heights of Your heavens. Teach us to pray -- to watch and to wait. Teach us to stay and not quick to pull away. You reward those who seek You with wisdom and peace. You come to those who come to You with bended hearts on bended knees. You bless us with Your presence as You open our eyes. You order the steps of our day before the sunrise. Help us to surrender all things to Your hands. To set aside the foolishness of our own mortal plans. Lead us on an adventure in the journey of pray. Take us to places where only angels are there. Open Your heavens, draw us near to Your side. Mount us on Your heavenly horses who lift us as we ride. Holy are You, Lord, and worthy of praise. King of Kings, Lord of Lords, The Ancient of Days. Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard The glories You'll show us as we come seek Your face. Yes, Lord. Thank you for this poem of prayer You've written this morning. Let it stir our hearts to seek You and join You in this journey of prayer. We are blessed that You want to include us on the adventure -- Revelation 19.11-16. As the worship song says, "Yes, Lord, we'll ride with You!" In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, some haved asked to use or add music to some of these poems or songs that come in the morning sometimes. Please feel free to use them and share them as the Lord leads. They belong to Him! To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Fallow Ground 2-5-05

Saturday, February 5, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. Come fill my thoughts and fill my heart with Your presence and Your words. ... "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain righteousness upon You" -- Hosea 10.12. Yes, Lord. We confess that we have fallow ground in our lives -- the hardened places of our hearts where we've compromised our complete devotion to You. We've let the cares and worries and the busyness of life grow up like weeds in our hearts and harden the soil of our souls. At times it grows hard to hear the leading of Your voice and sense the nearness of Your presence. Let this be a sign to us and a call to repentance. Let the dryness of our spiritual life expose the hardness and barrenness of our hearts where the life of a living faith has been slowly choked off and overcome by the season of wilderness. Like soil intended to bring harvest, the soul always returns to the state of wilderness without the continual and deliberate process of cultivation and nurture. Forgive us for our passivity and the ways we fail to continually cultivate our relationship with You and allow the soil of our souls to become fallow and hard, in the wilderness apart from You. "Plow up, plow up the hardness of your hearts and the soil of your souls! Call to Me and I will answer. Look to Me and you will see. Open your hearts and I will come in. It is not fallow, hardened souls that I desire, but open hearts ready to receive the rain of My righteousness. Then your lives will bear much fruit, My fruit. Then I shall cause to spring up My harvest of holiness throughout all the earth. Then My glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea!" Yes, Lord. By Your grace and Your power, we choose this day to look to You and open our hearts to You. Come plow up the fallow ground, plant again Your seeds of life, and bring forth Your harvest in due season. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Humility is the Key 2-4-05

Friday, February 4, 2004 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. Lead me in to the holy of holies in the communion of prayer, as I get quiet and still in Your presence. ... I hear You saying: "Humility is the key. Faith is important; obedience is important; courage is important -- but humility is the key." Yes, Lord. How hard it is to humble our hearts and bow our knees, to be emptied of ourselves that we may be filled with You. Humility slays our pride. Humility takes our minds off of ourselves and turns our hearts to others. Humility prepares the way for holiness, and holiness prepares the way for Your power. There is no revival without repentance and no repentance without humility. You modeled the key of humility when You humbled Yourself to the will of our Father to come into our world as Son of Man. "Do nothing from self ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 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 formed in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death -- even death on a cross" -- Philippians 2.3-8. There is something about the call to humility that cuts through our pride, breaks down the walls of passionless religion and the traditions of man. To literally get down on our knees makes us feel weak and vulnerable as our pride is crushed. That's the point, isn't it, Lord? To come the place that we know and we are willing to show to You, to ourselves, and to others, that apart from You, we can do nothing. Your power is made perfect in our weakness, for whenever we are weak then we are truly strong -- 2 Corinthians 12.9-10. This mind that was in Christ Jesus cuts against every stirring of the flesh within us, and cuts against every teaching of the world around us. Teach us how to take up this key of the kingdom that unlocks the door to Your power being released through our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Worship and Praise 2-3-05

Thursday, February 3, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be high and lifted up, enthroned on the praises of a thankful heart. Help me to look and listen, to watch and wait for Your leading. ... "Worship the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is He that made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name" -- Psalm 100.2-4. You created us for a relationship of love with You, for You are Love and You created us in Your image -- 1 John 4.16. Yet true love requires the freedom to choose to accept Your love or not, to obey Your will or not. Without that freedom, there would really be no love at all; we would just be robots. You have created us for a much more intimate relationship, one of trusting surrender and loving obedience. So You do not override our freedom to choose to love You and obey You, even though out of that same freedom comes the sin and destruction of ourselves, of one another, and of Your creation in our broken, fallen world. Our world is broken and fallen because of the choices we have made in the freedom You have given us -- freedom that is necessary, yet having both the power for good and for evil. Forgive us for the sin of using our freedom for our purposes to satisfy our own desires, rather than choosing to willingly submit our wills to Your will so that Your desires become our desires. This is the sin of pride -- self-centeredness and self-satisfaction and self-glorification. In pride, we exalt ourselves and worship ourselves, bowing down to our own graven image that we have created and worship and want others to worship. In Your mercy, break down our graven images and let our brokenness lead us to repentance, that You may forgive our sin of idolatry and pride. When we worship You and come into Your presence with songs of faith and love to You, our eyes are lifted from ourselves and restored to You. You are high and lifted up, enthroned again in Your place of Lordship in our lives. Our hearts are cleansed and restored as we worship You with thanksgiving in our hearts and praises on our lips. Thank You for the gift and the blessing of worship and praise. You use them as a means of Your grace to restore us into the intimate relationship of love we were created to live with You. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

First Fruits of the Morning 2-2-05

Wednesday, February 2, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. As best as I can, I choose to turn my eyes and my attention to You -- to behold Your glory and to welcome Your presence. ... Each day is an opportunity to choose this day Whom we will serve. By Your grace, we can choose how to begin -- with our eyes on You or ourselves, on Your provision or our lack, on Your peace or our problems. What a difference it makes to offer You the first fruits of our morning with the first thoughts of our minds. As we humble ourselves in Your sight, You exalt us into the glory of Your presence. As we watch and wait on You, You order the steps of our day. You seat us in the heavenly places as our eyes are fixed upon You, before we turn our attention to the callings of this world. Those callings are important, for You have placed us here in these earthly places to serve and to love the world as You so loved the world. But to give the callings and the needs of this world the first fruits of our first thoughts is just another form of idolatry. Forgive us of our sin of looking to others before You and answering the call of this world before answering the call of Your Spirit. Forgive us when we convince ourselves there is something just as holy or just as important about doing the things we need to do without first being the people we're called to be. "And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of this world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" -- Luke 12.29-32. As we learn to abide in You and in Your kingdom and as we learn to seek first Your kingdom, You bestow on us Your "blessings forever" and make us "glad with the joy of Your presence" -- Psalm 21.6. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Seated with Christ 2-1-05

Tuesday, February 1, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are alive and living in me--here in my heart and the hearts of all who believe in You and surrender their lives to You. Come fill me afresh and continually with Your Holy Spirit, the Promised Presence of our Father in heaven. ... "But God, Who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus"--Ephesians 2.4-7. How amazing! Somehow by Your grace and in Your sovereignty, You have already seated us with Christ in the heavenly places. We live out our lives in this earthly realm, where time passes day by day; yet at the same time, we are also living out our lives in the eternity of the heavenly realm, where there is no limitation of time and space. In that realm, all things are present to You; and we are also already in that realm, because we are alive in Christ and Christ is alive in us. By the mystery and miracle of Your grace, every decision we will ever make has already been made in that dimension. Every sin that we will confess has already been forgiven; every wound we will receive has already been healed; and every bond that will ever bind us has already been broken. All that You will ever redeem by the power and authority of the blood of the Lamb through the sacrifice of Your life has already been redeemed--eternally. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places"--Ephesians 1.3. Thank You for Your amazing love and grace. Help us live our lives the certainty of hope that these words are true and they can be trusted. Teach us how to live in this eternal dimension with the One Who holds all eternity in Your hands. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Send Me 1-31-05

Monday, January 31, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. I entrust this day and my life to You. ... "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?' And I said, 'Here am I, send me!" -- Isaiah 6.8. Your Spirit moved through our hearts and released your commission through our hands as a church last night. You sent forth our dear friends, Greg and Connie Gallaher, as missionaries to Cambodia to pastor a church of missionaries. You have been preparing their hearts, their minds, their souls, and their strength for this day, long before they knew it. It seems You do not so much prepare us for a particular mission as much as You prepare us to be available for any mission. This is the heart of complete surrender and complete obedience. This is the heart that is dead to self and alive to Christ. This is the heart that longs to hear Your call and longs to answer, "Here am I, Lord. Send me." Thank You for letting us see the model of the surrendered heart in Greg and Connie's lives and in the lives of so many others who have gone forward in the faith before us. This was the heart of Moses and Aaron, as they surrendered to Your call to go to Egypt and confront Pharaoh. This was the heart of young Mary who said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to Your word" -- Luke 1.38. This was Your heart as You emptied Yourself of the glory of heaven to answer our Father's call to take up the likeness of human flesh and blood to live out a perfect life so You could lay Your life down as a perfect sacrifice for us. We could not be more like You than we when we say, "Here am I, Lord. Send me." Prepare our hearts to be like Your heart. Prepare us each to be ready so that we are available for any mission, every day. Make us more like You each day. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please agree with us in prayer for Greg & Connie Gallaher & their family for the Lord's provision in every way as they advance in the Kingdom this year. I pray for each of you as you answer the call to advance this year as well. God bless you! To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

You are There 1-30-05

Sunday, January 30, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. I give as much of me as I can give, and I receive as much of You as I can receive. Make me more like You each day. I decrease as You increase; now I watch and wait for the leading of Your Spirit in these first moments of the morning. ... Lord, You are faithful and true. When we cry out to You, You answer. When we call upon Your name, You are there. Sometimes we see what You are doing in our midst and sometimes we don't, but we know because of the steady and sure pattern of Your faithfulness that You are there. "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,' even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to You" -- Psalm 139.7-12. Thank You for being there for us -- no matter where we go, no matter what we do, You are there. What courage and peace that gives us. You go before us, You are our rear guard. You come along beside us and You lead the way. Though we do not always see You or hear You, we can know that we know that You are there, for You are faithful and true. And those times when the power of the glory of Your presence is so undeniably real, our hearts sing with delight and our spirits soar in praise. Thank You for the joy of Your eternal presence in our journey with You. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, thank you for all your prayers for us at our healing prayer retreat this weekend. Surely the presence of the Lord was in this place! God bless you all with joy in your journey with Him. To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Come 1-29-05

Saturday, January 29, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. Welcome in my heart and welcome in this place. I watch and wait in the silence of surrender for the leading of Your Spirit. ... Our song of invitation from the healing service last night still stirs in my spirit this morning: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come." You long to come into the hearts of all who will open their hearts to You. You love to step into every moment of brokenness and pain and shame in our lives to let Your light remove the darkness, to let Your love heal our wounds, and to let Your power deliver us from evil. Give us humility to let You come; give us courage to let You heal; give us faith to trust Your timing and Your ways. You healed Naaman from the leprosy that dwelt in his flesh, but only after his pride was broken and he humbled himself to Your timing and Your ways -- 2 Kings 5.1-14. Expose the leprosy in our lives -- the areas of our flesh that are unclean and dead to the life of Christ. Wash us in the Living Waters of Your Word and we shall be clean. Wash us seven times -- as long as it takes to bring to completion all that You have begun. You'll be faithful to complete it -- Philippians 1.6. As You heal us and make us whole, You are preparing a holy bride, washed and cleansed by the washing of the water of Your Word, that we may be holy and without blemish for the glorious coming of our glorious King -- Ephesians 5.25. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come. "The Spirit and the bride say, "Come" -- Revelation 22.17. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, please cover us in prayer at our healing prayer retreat, "Come Away with Jesus" sponsored by the churches of the Madisonville District of the Methodist Church in Princeton, KY this weekend. The Lord is touching hearts and changing lives -- God bless you all! To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

The Lord our Healer 1-28-05

Friday, January 28, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. You and our Father are One, dwelling in the hearts of those who believe in You through trusting surrender, by Your Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come dwell in my heart and help me grow in understanding and intimacy with every dimension of Your Being and in every dimension of our relationship. ... Father, You have been preparing my heart for this weekend healing prayer retreat among Your children from the Methodist tradition and others, who will come to seek Your face and receive Your grace as You pour out Your healing love. I keep hearing You call to us to release our pain, our shame, our fear, our sin, our bondage, and our burdens to You. You want to draw out the pain and pour in Your love. You want to take what is broken and make us whole. You want to break the bonds that hold us and set us free. You are the Lord, our God, Who heals us -- Exodus 15.26. You have come to bind up the broken-hearted and set the captives free -- Isaiah 61; Luke 4.14-19. You are releasing a song of healing into the spirits of those who are broken and crushed in spirit, soul, or body: "Come to Me, My children. Come rest in your Father's love. Let Me take your pain away, let Me lift you here above. Give to Me your burdens; give to Me your shame. I'll heal you now; I'll make you whole; I'll set your spirits free." Yes, Lord. Help us receive Your healing song. Release us from the burdens and bondage of our past, that we might live free in the present, and press on to our calling and destiny of the future with the certain hope You have prepared in the heart of each of us -- Jeremiah 29.11. You love to bring victory into our lives where we have felt defeated, as You sing and rejoice over us with gladness and renew us in Your love -- Zephaniah 3.17-18. Come sing over us, Lord, and release Your songs of healing into our spirits here and throughout the earth. You are the Lord, our Healer. You are the Warrior, Who sets the captives free. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Fasting for His Presence 1-27-05

Thursday, January 27, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. I hunger and thirst for You and the fullness of Your presence. May I be emptied of myself and filled with You as I begin this new day. ... We humble our souls with fasting -- Psalm 69.10. The mind, will, and emotions of our souls yield along with our bodies to the leading of our spirits, which hunger and thirst for You. Fasting is a physical expression of our spiritual hunger for You and the fullness of Your presence. The food and drink of this world does not satisfy our deepest longings, nor was it ever meant to. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" -- Matthew 5.3-6. You are our Righteousness, Lord. You are not what we do or don't do. You are the Living Presence of the Living God, Who comes to dwell in our hearts -- hearts humbled from selfish pride and yielded in trusting surrender to You. As we allow You to empty us of ourselves, You fill us with Yourself. Then we begin to think more like You think, desire what You desire, and live like You live because You are living through us. Then our lives will satisfy Your deepest longings: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your Vindicator shall go before You, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord shall answer; you shall cry for help, and He will say, 'Here I Am" -- Isaiah 58.6-9. Yes, Lord. Empty us of ourselves and fill us with You. Fill us continually, this day and every day, as we make room for You to live Your life through us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Certainty of His Sovereignty 1-26-05

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. Holy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. ... You are the Redeemer. You redeem all things, causing good to come out of bad, light out of darkness, and glory out of pain -- if we entrust them to You. Give us the patience of a sure hope that trusts in You and Your power to be at work in the midst of every struggle. You see the end from the beginning and release that certainty of Your sovereignty in our hearts. Sometimes You move instantaneously in the miraculous, most of the time You move in the process of time -- as we turn all things over to You in trusting faith. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" -- Hebrews 11.1. In Your timing and in Your way, You take the broken pieces of our lives and make them whole; You take away our bondages and set us free, as we call upon Your name and remember who we are. We are children of God; we are growing up into maturity; we are being prepared and transformed to live with You in glory forever. This broken and fallen world is not our home. "But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, by the power that enables Him to make all things subject to Himself" -- Philippians 3.20-21. By faith, we trust You to continue to redeem us and transform us into the glory You have prepared for us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Simplicity 1-25-05

Tuesday, January 25, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. Let the peace of Your presence settle in to my soul. For these next moments, let me have no thought but You and the thoughts You bring to my mind. ... As the psalmist cries out, "I am Your servant, give me understanding, so that I may know Your decrees... Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of Your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple" -- Psalm 119.125-30. Lord, teach us how to humble ourselves in Your sight, to let our soul submit in our mind, our will, our emotions to the leading of Your Spirit in our inmost being. Teach how to be quiet as we watch and wait for the leading of Your voice in the silence of surrender. You impart understanding to the simple -- those who simply look to You and listen for Your voice. This is wisdom, the understanding You impart to us to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. This is more than knowledge about You, this is how we come to know You. As we know You more intimately, we can trust You more completely. As we grow in trust, we can grow in obedience. Obedience brings blessing, for we are at peace in the trusting surrender of our lives to You. Teach us how to walk in this holy path of simplicity. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, I'll be leading a weekend healing prayer retreat in Princeton, Ky this weekend called "Come Away with Jesus" -- please keep us in your prayers for the Lord's healing grace to be released in spirit, soul, and body. To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Wash Over Me 1-24-05

Monday, January 24, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are my King. I willingly submit to Your rule in my life this day and every day through the trusting surrender of my soul to You. ... Wash over me. With Your Spirit and Your Word. Wash over me. With Your mercy and Your love. In You, I'm clean. In You, I'm free. Free by the blood of the Lamb. Free by the touch of Your hand. In You, I'm clean. In You, I'm free. Free by the blood of the Lamb. Free by the touch of Your hand. Wash over me. Thank You, Lord, for the peace and the joy that comes with surrender. Thank You for this new song You've sung in my spirit this morning. We pray You would release the song of the Lord in the spirits of Your children throughout the earth this day. As we draw near to You, You draw near to us. As we come with humble hearts in the trusting surrender of our soul, Your Spirit and Your Word wash over us. As You spoke through Moses to Your first generation of priests, so You speak to our generation as we come to You each day in the sanctuary of our hearts: "You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and wash them with water" -- Exodus 29.4. Cleanse and sanctify us as a holy people that we may draw near to receive the mercy and love of our holy God. "Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the Word, so as to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind---yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish" -- from Ephesians 5.25-27. Wash over us, Lord, that we may be the holy and glorious people You've called us to be by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of God. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, we'd appreciate your prayers for our travel today as we leave the mountains for the plains of Texas, before returning home to Kentucky this week. We pray the Lord's blessings for you wherever you are and wherever He leads you. God bless you! To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Disciples of our Teacher 1-23-05

Sunday, January 23, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. I look to You with single-minded devotion and whole-hearted surrender. I humble my soul as You lift my spirit up into Your presence. ... "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle" -- James 3.1-2. Thank You, Lord, for allowing me the honor and the responsibility of teaching Your Word and Your principles of the Kingdom this week. May every word that was of You go forth with life and bear much fruit, and may every word that was of my flesh rather than Your Spirit fall to the ground and die. Help us all to grow in maturity and learn to walk in our gifts by the leading of Your Spirit, that we may see Your church grow up into maturity, to the full measure of the stature of Christ. Give us courage to move forward in the gifts You have given us and humility to receive Your correction with the wisdom to never stop learning. "We have gifts that differ according to the grace given us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness" -- Romans 12.6-8. You are the Giver of the gifts; You are the Teacher of the teachers; You are the Leader of the leaders. May we give and teach and lead by Your power to Your glory for Your purposes. Though we may teach as You lead, You are our Teacher and we are You disciples. "A disciple is not above the Teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the Teacher" -- Luke 6.40. You qualify us to the degree that we trust You and obey You. Then we may be Your vessels of love and Your instruments of grace as we humble ourselves to be used by You for Your purposes. "The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning He wakens -- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught" -- Isaiah 50.4. Lord, let it be so in our lives as we learn the gifts You have given us and learn how to use them by Your power for Your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, we closed our retreat for prayer ministry last night in Ruidoso, NM, with a beautiful and powerful healing service led by the Lord and many have given witness to changed lives. Thank you for your prayers and may you receive a double portion. God bless you! To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Continuing His Ministry 1-22-05

Saturday, January 22, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. In these next moments, let me hear nothing but the words You place in my heart, let me see nothing but the images You place in my mind. I give these first moments of my day to You as a willing sacrifice of worship and prayer. ... Lord Jesus, we love to sense Your joy as You continue Your ministry through the body of Christ on earth though the power of Your Holy Spirit to the glory of our Father in heaven. You taught Your first disciples how to minister healing and deliverance in Your name. Then You "gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal...They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere" -- Luke 9.1-6. You not only gave Your power and authority to these first twelve, but continued to teach, equip, and send forth Your disciples after them to continue Your ministry: "After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of Him in pair to every town and place where He Himself intended to go. He said to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest...Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you'" -- Luke 10.1-9. When these disciples returned from obeying Your command to continue Your ministry in Your power, these "seventy returned with joy, saying, 'Lord, in Your name even the demons submit to us!'" -- Luke 10.17. Their joy and their obedience gave You great joy: "At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, 'I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will" -- Luke 10.21-22. Praise You, Lord Jesus! It has been beautiful these past days to see You move in power through Your disciples proclaiming Your kingdom and demonstrating the coming of Your kingdom with Your power, as You bind up the brokenhearted and set the captives free! The harvest is plentiful, and it brings You joy to equip more laborers to send out into the harvest for the end of this age. You're still sending Your disciples to every town and place where You intend to go. What a joy it is to our hearts to sense the joy in Your heart as even now as You continue to rejoice in the Holy Spirit. We long for the day coming soon when You will come to receive Your harvest. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Wisdom from Above 1-21-05

Friday, January 21, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. I lift up my eyes to the hills, to the mountain of the Lord. You are my help and my strength. I seek Your face and listen for Your voice. I am refreshed and renewed in Your presence. ... Some say we should not be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. It sounds practical and wise, but it is the wisdom of this world. Your Word calls us to a different perspective: "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ Who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory" -- Colossians 3.1-4. "Yes, My son. Look to Me. I have not called you to be blinded to this world, for I have placed you in this world. Yet the priority of your perspective makes all the difference. Look first to Me, then to the world. Then you will see more clearly with my eyes and my perspective. Those who do not look to Me do not have My perspective. It is their own, influenced by the world they see. Though they think they are wise, they are wise in the ways of the world -- these are not My ways." Yes, Lord. Forgive us when we are so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good. As we take time to wait in Your presence and watch for Your leading, You are shaping our thoughts and focusing our vision on things above rather than things below. You are making us wise in Your ways, with a wisdom that is different from the world's. "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace" -- James 3.17-18. May we turn our eyes toward You and gain Your perspective each day before we turn our eyes toward the world for the day. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!

Abiding in His Presence 1-20-05

Thursday, January 20, 2005 -- Morning by Morning Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are the Vine; I am one of Your branches. Let the life of Your Spirit flow through me as I abide in You. Let my life bear fruit for Your glory this day. ... "Abide in Me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from Me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in Me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples" -- John 15.4-8. Sometimes we feel withered or drained. Sometimes it is hard to see the fruit and meaning of our lives. This is the mercy of Your call to abide once again in You. A branch cut off from its vine cannot bear fruit; in fact, it cannot live long. When our spiritual life is withering, when we do not sense the flow of Your life and Your Spirit through our hearts and our lives, we know we are not abiding in You. Teach us how to abide -- how to open every level and depth of our being to You, with no restrictions and no resistance. Like the branch of the vine, the more life we receive from You, the more mature we become through the abiding flow of Your Spirit in us and through us. As we grow in spiritual maturity, our capacity to receive more of You and abide more in You grows. The more we grow, the more fruit our lives will bear to the glory of our Father in heaven. Our thoughts become more like Your thoughts; our will becomes more like Your will; and our lives reflect more of Your life. Then whatever we ask and whatever we do comes out of our abiding relationship with You. This is the fruit You desire to bear through the lives of Your disciples. As we abide in You, our lives bear fruit; and when we don't, we wither and die. Let it be life and not death that we choose as we learn to abide in You. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, thank you for your prayers for us. Our teaching and ministry is being very well received in New Mexico as the Lord is healing hearts, changing lives, and stirring a passion for His abiding presence. Please keep us in prayer as pray for each of you! To subscribe/unsubscribe/reply please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- "preparing the way of the Lord" -- MessiahMin@aol.com God bless you!