Wanna experience God doing some AMAZING things? Amp up your prayer life!!! I am blessed to belong to a church that believes strongly in the power of prayer. Even more blessed to belong to a women's group that is just starting to realize the power we have in Christ through prayer.

Now I'm not talking your grocery list kinda prayers, I'm talking Holy Spirit lead prayer, the kind of prayer where you're down on your knees getting real with God. The kind of prayer where you don't do all the talking, the kind where you take time to listen as well. That is when God speaks, God leads, God shows up!! I know you're thinking, I don't have TIME for that kind of praying, I'm telling you MAKE time. Once you experience God through prayer you won't want to pray any other way, you will, but you'll LONG for the kind prayer life where God speaks to you.

The book we're studying in our women's group is called Intercessions by Joy Dawson. Here's a list she gives that takes you through some steps for praying. Give it a try!

1. Praise God for who He is.
2. Make sure your heart is clean before God by giving the Holy Spirit time to convict should you have any unconfessed sin.
3. Acknowledge that you cannot really pray affectively without the Holy Spirit's enabling.
4. Deal aggressively with the enemy. Come against him in the all powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Sword of the Spirit-The Word of God.
5. Die to your own imaginations, desires and burdens for what you feel you should pray for.
6. Praise God now for the remarkable prayer time you're going to have.
7. Wait before God in silent expectancy, listening for His direction.
8. In obedience and faith take action to what God brings to your mind, believing.
9. If possible have your Bible with you in case God wants to give you direction or conformation through His word.
10. When God ceases to bring things to your mind for which to pray, praise Him and thank Him for what He has done.

Now do you have to follow a list every time you sit down and pray, no of course not, however, making your prayer life more than just the grocery list of things that you'd like God to do for you is so powerful. You WILL see things happen and God WILL talk to you, if only you take time to listen!!

This has been a difficult and interesting 4 days. 4 days is the number of days I've been off of Facebook. At first it was about what I should be doing if I wasn't spending time on Facebook? I wandered aimlessly through the house for a bit, I saw all the dusting that needed to be done, the laundry that was waiting for me and the floors that needed to be washed. I quickly went into panic mode thinking there was no way I was going to fill up my time with housework. That can't possibly be what God meant when we told me to fast from Facebook. So I put on my art clothes and headed to my studio, and that's pretty much where I've been when I haven't been working. I've been productive, which is good right? Except I'm not feeling like it's good. I mean, yes, I've been praying a lot, and praising a lot, which is what I do any time I'm in my studio, and well, most the time when I'm not in my studio. So what am I learning from all this?

What I'm learning is actually quite surprising to me. I'm learning that there are things that happen all during my day that are pretty awesome, God shows up all day long!!  I've learned too that I can't keep these things to myself, I need to share them. I need to share the way God blesses me, ways that He speaks to me, things that are AMAZING that He does all day, every day!!!  If nothing else it's renewed my dedication to discipleship and evangelism.

So, with new eyes, and full awareness of who He is, and how He shows up in my life, I am returning to Facebook so I can share it with all of you.