Something to Celebrate!

Every morning we start with staff devotions (about 20 minutes) which are recorded and sent to our remote churches in the provinces. With up to 1,200 pastors having smartphones, these messages are disseminated to thousands of home groups. The subject of this morning's teaching (Sept 29th) is "Cheer up! You're going to die someday!"

FCOP ends staff devotions with about 20 minutes of praying in the Spirit and in the natural. We pray for people with serious illnesses every day, mostly for life instead of death. It may shock you but occasionally we get requests from people who want to depart and be with the Lord. Many people are afraid of death. Me? I'm looking forward to dying; it's just the journey that may concern me. We all have to remember, as far as our physical bodies are concerned, we are all going to be 'dead' someday. Make no mistake, death is the last enemy that will be destroyed. But, it is an enemy and it is of the devil. It's just that for believers, Jesus has removed the sting (1 Cor 15:55-57). In His three years of ministry, Jesus raised three people from the dead. FCOP has seen about 10 in 22 years. Jesus did see thousands of healings and so have we, but I would be lying if I said that everyone we pray for is healed. Jesus had meetings where everyone was healed but He did not heal all the sick people all of the time (His hometown and the Pool of Bethesda, for example). So, what do we do? Jesus always listened to the Father and our connection is through the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we get specific instructions and see miraculous results. Those times are rare but we are always able to pray the prayer of faith as in James 5:14-15. If we have no oil or the person is not physically present, we pray as Jesus did for the Centurion's servant. We are told in 1 John 4:17 "...as He is, so are we in this world.” The Centurion did not even make the request in person and Jesus never went to the afflicted servant, but there was definitely an element of faith involved. We never give up faith but the results are in the Lord's hands. (Prayer Video)

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