I have been thinking about prayer a great deal lately.  Since last November, God has put it on my heart to a new level.  Yes, I practice prayer daily and throughout the day.  I have done this for years and years.  Here is what I have been thinking about.

(1) Prayer places God’s will in your heart.  If you pray about something long enough, God will place His will within your heart.  Obviously, if the request is offered and soon forgotten, your lack of burden pertaining to it indicates that it may not be the will of God.  At the same time, if you present it with diligence daily, and not able to get off of your heart, in time He will put His will in your heart.  It may or may not be to answer it like you had hoped, but you can have the grace to deal with it, knowing you have given it to God.

(2) Prayer opens doors.  Yes, it is true . . . prayer really opens doors for your life.  We give ourselves way too much credit and we need to lean on the Lord heavily.  Prayer has the power to open doors that we sensed are locked forever.  Do not give up!  Jesus taught us to be diligent in our praying. 

(3) Prayer moves you into action.  Prayer does involve waiting at times, but at the same time, it needs to be blended with balance.  I can pray for my region, my country, and my world to come to Christ, but I must do something about it.  This is imperative because I know it is God’s will for no person to perish.  Therefore, He wants to move people to Christ and usher the gospel to get to them in some way.  Act by faith upon your prayer, unless God has you in the waiting room of prayer.  Yes, waiting is a part of God’s plan as well.  Therefore, God’s wisdom is imperative for you to have in your life so you can know if you are to wait or to act.   

I hope you will not only think about prayer but activate it with all your heart in your life.  God wants to do the miraculous for you and through you.  It does not happen without prayer.   

This week my schedule will be very uncertain.  If you come to the blog at that “normal time” you may miss me, so revisit. 

I am away some this week serving as a Trustee on the board of a ministry.  Beyond that, my time is very limited due to these responsibilities.  I have been in meetings since 7:00 a.m. today and have a short break before lunch.  After that, I am booked until late night. 

I think God gave a real word to all of us who were engaged in worship yesterday at one of our two campuses.  I spoke from Nehemiah 1 on the subject:  Live A God-Conscious Life.   His Spirit seemed to use the words to impact lives.  We give God the glory.

Be praying for our staff this week.  Today and perhaps tomorrow, most of our teams are engaged deeply in strategic meetings for our future. 

I am sorry but I must go.  Check you later.   

Look up Habakkuk 2:1-4 in your Bible today.  You know, it is over there in the white pages of the Bible.  These are the pages you do not get to very much.  Yet, they contain just as great of truth as some of those wonderful passages in the New Testament. 

Let me talk to you a little about vision:  for your life, family, career, business, and future.  These four verses give you some great thoughts on vision.  Habakkuk really articulates clearly for us his concerns and how God spoke to him.  His insights and principles on vision are marvelous.  There are 5 of them and they apply to every level of your life.

#1  Vision Given.  He looked and waited for God to speak to him and notice:  “The Lord answered me.”  Do not run by this statement.  God answered him with a vision, when he asked God to give him one and speak to him.  Question:  Are you even asking God for a vision?

#2  Vision Written.  God told him to write down the vision clearly.  Write where others can read it and understand it.  This vision had a timetable and it was God’s, not Habakkuk’s! Question:  If God has even given you a vision, have you taken the time to write it down clearly where everyone can read it, understand it, and be able to run to it?

#3  Vision Declared.  Habakkuk was told to testify about the vision, even though no one could see it yet with their human eyes.  Vision is seeing it before you see!  It is seeing with your spiritual eyes before your human eyes can see it.  Question:  Are you testifying and declaring to others what God has put in your heart?

#4  Vision Faith.  God informed Habakkuk that the vision was for an appointed time.  Even though there will be a delay on seeing it come to pass, you wait for it.  While waiting in faith for the vision to come to pass, it will certainly come and not be late.  You can only do this in your life with vision faith.  Every great vision involves faith!  Question:  Are you waiting for God to fulfill what He has shared with you, put in your heart, helped you to envision through you and around you, or have you forgotten it, walked away, and not even waited in faith?

#5  Vision Realized.  The vision will come and it will be realized.  If God has said it, He will do it!  His integrity in on the line and God never lies.  Question:  Have you ever realized a vision God has put in your heart?  If so, there is nothing like it.  I am living out one of those now.  Yet, He always answers when we pray by His Word and believe in faith.

There is so much more to this and you can find it at www.ronniefloydwinners.com.  I talked about this on February 12, even though the weather-related day had limited numbers in attendance. 

Ask God for vision.  Have a great day.  If you do not hear from me again until after the weekend, later.  But you never know, I may be back at some time before Monday. 

Would you pray with me about some needs my Mom has in lieu of my Dad’s death?  We need to get Mom out of some financial challenges now that she has lost Dad’s income.  We need three things to happen:  a) Her car to sell  b) Dad’s little truck to sell  c) Her house to sell.  She has had the car and truck up for sale since the first of the year, but to no avail.  She has determined to sell the house, which has been a difficult decision, but she is about to put on the market.  Obviously, this presents the need for a vehicle for her and a home for her.  Both of those will come with greater clarity once the above items begin to sell one by one.  Living in a smaller town of 5,500 people limits your prospects, but please pray for these matters.

Would you pray with me about the financial needs our ministry faces now that we have had back to back Snow and Weather related Sundays? When a ministry at our level faces those obstacles, especially back to back, it is a huge thing to overcome and most do not.  If not, then it has implications for the remaining budget year.  Pastor Tom Mullins, of Christ Fellowship in South Florida, was our speaker at the Summit last week.  He shared with me that last year they could not meet for two Sundays due to hurricanes which challenged them financially the entire year.  We need a miracle and I leave in God’s hand.  He is moving and will supply the need, but join me in prayer about these needs.

Would you pray with me about those two great moments before our ministry?  The first moment will be in late April or early May, when our Springdale campus occupies the new space for 400 more adults to be reached in Bible Study weekly, fellowship space, and also our Children’s Worship Building for 500 children.  This venue will provide for us this fall, another venue for Sunday morning worship at the late hour.  Additionally, our fields will be ready for the spring and we will launch the outdoor portion of our Sports and Wellness Ministry.  Our second moment will be in late August to early October, when we move into our 169,000 square feet of space at our Pinnacle Hills Campus.  This campus includes our Worship Center, Fellowship-Lobby space, space for 500 preschoolers and additional space for 500 children.  As well, space for a bookstore and coffee shop, of which, is being built at Springdale as well.  These are two great moments and we know that God must be all over them.  Please, please, please pray about these moments!

Would you pray for me daily as we prepare for each Sunday and begin to share the Gospel across the world daily through our television ministry?  The weekly need in preparation is for God’s leadership and anointing in both the preparation and presentation of God’s Word to our people.  The daily need for the television ministry will begin officially on the air on April 3, but in reality major decisions are now being made and taping for some of those shows will begin in March.  Yes, we need prayer.

Thanks for praying with me and for me concerning these needs.  We are praying for miracles together!  Yes, we agree in prayer in Jesus name upon the authority of God’s Word as we claim the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 18:19.  He said, “Again, I assure you:  if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.”

Yes, we agree for these needs to be met in Jesus name.  Thanks for partnering with me in prayer. 

Did you know on April 3 we will begin a daily program on the DayStar Christian Television Network? The program will be on Monday-Friday at 2:00 p.m. (CST) across the world. Around the first of June, this network will be in the Northwest Arkansas region. My associate who heads up the television ministry visited DayStar in person yesterday in the mid-cities of Texas and he was very impressed. Dr. C. Alan Damron attests to what I had witnessed before: DayStar is a world-class network, second to none in quality. Just yesterday, we received an email from a Priest in Nigeria who watches our broadcast as we are on each Sunday right now at 4:30 p.m. (CST) So much must be done in these countdown days so please pray for us.

Did you know our morning was blessed today by Peyton showing up at our house? This morning Jeana is keeping him for Kate as she attends Ladies Bible Study. When I went downstairs for a brief breakfast there was the little man! He was fired up to see me…I think! What a blessing…thanks God!

Did you know Jeana works in our Jail Ministry weekly? Can you believe it? Each Tuesday she accompanies some ladies from our church and they minister in the jail to women from all walks of life. She loves it and finds great fulfillment in it. By the way, pray for Earl Adams, our Jail Chaplain, as he and his wife were in a wreck a couple of weeks ago. They have been sidelined, especially his wife, for an extended time. Earl is working his way back into the groove of ministry. He reaches hundreds for Jesus annually. Pray for Earl and his wife. They have the need for resources to care for her at this time.

Did you know this weekend we are having a Ladies Conference at our Springdale location with Kathy Ferguson ministering God’s Word? Details can be found at www.fbcs.net or by calling 751-4523. Kathy is an excellent communicator of God’s truth. She serves as the Director of Women’s Ministries and Special Projects at our Pinnacle Hills Campus. We are so blessed to have her as she brings many years of Bible learning filtered through the processes of life to communicate God’s Truth to women. As well, until her husband’s tragic death almost 4 years ago, she was the wife of a megachurch pastor. Rick Ferguson served as Senior Pastor of the Riverside Church in Denver, Colorado, until the Lord called him home suddenly four years ago this coming summer. I loved Rick greatly and it is a privilege to have Kathy here with us. Please come and hear her.

Did you know I am a “grazer” in the pantry? This is what Jeana calls me as I raid the pantry nightly. In fact, she believes I would rather eat junk food than real food. You know, many times I would. Why do I tell you this? I just wanted to see how many of you were reading.

Try it…you know, Grazing!

The snow fell much of the weekend, resulting in a challenging day on Sunday. Oh my, I wish those weather patterns would wait to come in on Sunday afternoons or Mondays. We have had back-to-back challenges, but this Sunday was an attendance disaster.

Since I have been through many of these through the years, I was able to guess the outcome of attendance within a few people on both campuses. I have learned to keep the big picture and do not set my expectations high at all. The big picture is we meet 52 weeks a year and weather Sundays do occur. The big picture is that God did not go to sleep . . . He is speaking and He is moving.

On Saturday by noon, I punted the idea of beginning my new series. Therefore, this put me under some major pressure of preparation on Saturday afternoon, evening, and Sunday morning. Thank God for a devotional life built upon the Word of God. On that Saturday morning, before that decision had been made, God spoke through His Word to me in a profound manner. This resulted in many things written down in my journal of which later verified these verses were God’s direction for yesterday morning. Yes, God is always moving and always speaking . . . we just have to develop the spiritual ears to hear what God is saying to us in and through His Word.

Today will be a slow day for many as they will not get out much due to weather. The roads are filled with snow that has now turned to ice, but the weather is to warm up. I predict most will be slow until just after lunch. Of course, work will demand greater attendance than church so many will get out today that stayed in yesterday. Oh my, I must move on before emotions creep up within me that are not good.

Due to the changes above, I will begin my new series this coming Sunday, February 26. Pray for God to use it in the lives of others and please pray for me as well. I will be communicating about: “Keys To A Winning Life“.

We have some of our main staff players away this week conducting or leading in various conferences. Please pray for our entire team this week. Pray especially this week for Jeff Young. He is leading and coordinating the Annual Meeting of the Minister of Education Group that serves churches with 2,000 or more with attendance. This is a huge responsibility and we are proud of him. Pray for him.