dads | Energy For Your Life and Health

Let God. Won’t He do it!

A menagerie of wild beasts arrived at our door. Lions, a Siberian tiger, and a black panther all came to help us reach children with the gospel. One afternoon, we stood outside a busy road with a humongous tiger and let passersby gawk. What was a big cat doing in the middle of the city at a church?

For a finale at our event my part was to put a lamb on the back of a hungry beast of prey, the lion and get away alive.

The night before the big event, the male lion had to be swapped for the female, the hunter. The normally docile male was anxious. In a pride, the females do the hunting. Made me nervous. Trust God. Won’t He do it.

The trainer, a former animal trainer with Ringling Bros circus assured me we could do it. As we approached the circular cage I heard the snapping and growling of the lion. Two men held her down with chains from outside the cage. They were safe. Another slapped chunks of raw, bloody meat onto a plate for her to attack and gorge down. He was safe.

The trainer told me to take off my red cap. Lions don’t like red. It left my head in a flash in the bushes and is never seen again. On the ground in our path lay a hypodermic loaded rifle in case something went wrong. Then we came to a 457 magnum pistol and I asked why we need it. Of course, in case the hypodermic didn’t work quickly enough.
Then came the cage.

Growling and snapping, growling and snapping. Teeth on bloody meat. The trainer instructed me to stand behind him. Lions don’t like strangers. Is there anything lions do like except killing and eating?

As we entered the small enclosure with hundreds of kids watching, another showed up with a lamb. The lamb was placed on the lion’s back, I put my hand on the back of the lamb. Here I stood next to one of the most powerful predators in all of Africa. This lion could kill an elephant with her massive sinewed clawed paws. The heat of her body reached out as I was only an inch from her. The smell of her fur reached my nose. If she sensed me at all, it would be over in a second. There would be no time for the rifle or the pistol. Those only protected the crowd. My destruction would be too quick. Do they really smell fear?

The trainer tapped my shoulder to signal retreat. The pictures had been taken. I stepped quickly back through the one door of the cage into the relative safety of the outside. We had placed a lamb on the back of the lion and lived. The crowd just saw the stunt. They didn’t feel the closeness of the challenge, the rush of adrenaline, or the excitement of facing uncertainty.

As the pastor over 600 children and 120 workers who served them, this stunt and the zoo were my responsibility. Here we displayed the protection of God and His majesty so children would trust Him with their eternal lives.

As DADS, we want the best for our children. We want them to have fun and challenge and faith. So we live it in front of them. Live your faith. Let God. Won’t He do it! You don’t need to stand beside tigers and lions. That is an extreme. Kids like big things. And kids like little things. They are impressed when you help them learn to ride a bike and face the fears of falling. They are impressed when you pray over them at bed time. How many times have I faced lions in the dark and prayed as they slept while sick?

Stand where you are called to stand. The lion can be a lost job or an unexpected disease or a broken mind or body. The lion can threaten you, your wife, your child, or your friend. Let God. Won’t He do it!

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV

Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands. Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
Psalms 112:1‭-‬8 NIV

Phil Larson #thethinkdirector @everyone

Matthew 12:28-29 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house
Jesus has a determined streak in His approach. If you read the stories surrounding this little snippet, you find He was daily “casting out demons”. Now maybe we would like that piece of who He is to go away. Kinda scary. We would rather have a Grimm like the popular TV series or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or even Abe Lincoln. But we all know that evil is real and it is bigger than the world we look at every day.

Jesus just steps into that other world and deals with it. We find him wrestling with the ol’ Devil, Satan, himself in the desert in Luke’s stories. A small child that was jumping into fires is rescued in another story. Two raving mad men in a graveyard are restored on a trip. Jesus does not back down from real evil.

In the last two days I have had some rather intense spiritual experiences. The unusual aspect of those has been the clarity and the subject. Being intensely spiritual is not a new thing. The experiences are certainly not new to me. The nature and intensity back to back is revelatory of a present danger and present reality.

The first was on Monday morning early in the am. At least three times I awoke to the sense of strong evil in my room. None of these disturbed me, but alerted me. It seemed there as a source of confrontation against me and my family and my leadership. Like it was there to stop me and threaten the health of family and finances. Of course, I rebuked this presence and told it to leave and went back to sleep each time.

It impressed me that each time I woke, there it was. I don’t know if it came and went or just stayed the night. But by morning it was gone and peace continued to reign. Never was I overly disturbed. Of course, anyone would be startled by such an occurence, but it did not overly disturb me or my sleep.

This morning was followed by a similar occurence in a dream. It was a most vivid and accurate dream. In the dream, which had many scenes, I was with a team struggling to accomplish their goal. We were researching in a library/resource facility for answers. After having gone to many rooms, we were stymied and standing together. Then it dawned on me to go check another area of the facility as a voice said, “We are over here.” As I entered the room, there was a leading evil entity surrounded by several others. They were in concerted effort to interfere with us and quite open to talk. The leader said, “I wondered when you would come find us. Of course, we are the ones that have been stopping you.” It was a matter of fact conversation. There was no conclusion to the dream as I stood there and they defied.

I don’t know what you believe about such things and maybe you think I just had some bad pizza or that there is more a bit of gravy than the grave as Scrooge called it when the Marley’s visited in A Christmas Carol. But all the rest of the information you will read is just fact. And you can accept fact, right?

This morning on rising, I posted specific prayer information out to a thousand folk. That would be the third intense situation. People take time to pray and respond like anything else. Only two of a thousand have responded so far. It is not common for me to solicit prayer in such a manner, yet I did similar yesterday via directing people to a slideshare on praying for fathers. No feedback on that. Only six of hundreds clicked to notice it.

So this morning, I pray for prayers. That is right. I need more real prayers. Why are people so reticent to pray It is deliriously frustrating work. And it needs done. It needs done daily and weekly and monthly and regularly and irregularly.

Here I am in a high center situation that needs concerted prayer to break through. This is not a game. This is serious.

At a meeting yesterday the idea was put forward that we only need 150 new foster homes in Oklahoma City to take care of all the children. Yet of the 553 that are in existence, a third will probably fall out in a short time. So really we need 300 new foster homes and support networks for all 703 that must stay on the wall and a constant supply of new foster homes and support for them and healing for the ones that fall out and healing for the natural families so kids have a permanent home to which to return and support for them to stay faithful so the kids won’t go back into foster care because of danger and suffering.

So let me count:
We need 853 prayer warriors just to have one per foster home in need.
We need 703 prayer warriors just for the kids in the system we are targeting.
We need 703 prayer warriors for the families of the kids in the system we are targeting.
We need 50 prayer warriors for the social workers and investigators and judges and other officials.
We need another 30% increase in prayer warriors a year to handle influx and change.

So 853+703+703+50+800 = 2309 prayer warriors.

This morning, when I asked a thousand to join me in prayer for fathers, 2 responded. These thousand are people who have received thousands of prayers from me to them. Of course a good prayer warrior can cover a father, a child, a home, a social worker, a judge, an investigator, a counselor, and a foster home all at the same time so maybe I only need 853. So all I have to do is ask 500,000 and we can get them. At least one time I can get them.

Every prayer warrior I know is overburdened. What we need is new ones. What we needed is trained, praying saints.

At first, what looked to be a simple task, 150 new foster homes, is looking much more complex. There are only a million people in our metro. Only 25% are regular church folk, so that is 250,000. Of those, maybe 20% are doers. So that is 50,000. There are not even 500,000 people to ask.
And don’t forget, we need maybe another 4000 folks to help with foster parent night outs and furniture help and entertainment help and friendship and a shoulder to cry on and, and, and,…….

So It would not be unreasonable to say we need about 6000 people out of a field of 50,000 and we don’t know who those 50,000 are as they are hidden and protected in the church roles of 1200 churches.

So, we need prayer.
Will you pray for us?

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Fathers in the homes.
Children safe and secure and confident in a good future.
Strength for foster parents and resources.
Blessing for children of foster parents who are giving up some of their portion that another would be blessed.
Investigators and case workers and judges and officials who will make right and compassionate decisions.

www.fearlessfathers.org/fearless-registration

Prayer: Father, we really do need You. There is evil in this world that is resistant to normal efforts. It is real. It is intense. It is present. We must find ways to deal with it. Teach us to confront with wisdom.Teach us to not be overly enamored with evil but seek to replace evil with good. That works most times.But, Father, there are situations that just reek and resist goodness. They need the intensity of Jesus that only comes with prayer and fasting.Cover us. Protect us. Deliver us from evil, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.