Hi Family!

Just a quick request for prayer covering over this weekend. Have decided to go away for the weekend to try and catch my breathe and spend some time with God. Need renewal for my spirit. With everything that has occurred just want to take inventory and get myself back on track for good.

Would appreciate your remembering me over this weekend as God leads.

I praisae God for all of you!

Howard

Howard,

Father God,

May your give your son Howard rest and a time to reflect on your love and grace. May you renew his mind and spirit while reflecting on your word and promises.

Give him new visions, new strengths, and clear paths. Keep him safe this weekend and bless his soul.

Thank you Lord for allowing us to lift up eachother daily on this message board, driven by your dwelling spirit.

Have a Blessed and peaceful weekend.

I love you brother!!!!!!!!

Howard,

I will call you out by name over the next few days and I pray that the Lord will visit with you often during your quit time with Him.

I love you and I love your faithfulness to our Lord and Savior.

Praise Him

Howard,
Go! Go be with our Father. Open your heart to Him and let Him renew your spirit. Find rest this weekend in Him. Please take these verses with you. I pray that they will open your heart.
Show me Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God who saves me. I wait for You all day long.
(Psalm 25:4/5)
My salvation and my honor depend on God. He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
(Psalm 62: 7-8)
Abba, we lift up your child Howard, we ask that your renew and restore him. Grant him peace and a renewed spirit. Wash his eyes so that he will find the path in which you need for him to follow. And in that direction may he find unimaginable joy and insight. We ask for these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
We love you Howard!

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

Howard
I'll be praying for you to renew your mind with the word and recieve new strength. May you not be distracted much and be able to hsave a closer walk with God.

Father God,
Your Son is coming to you and you are the only one that knows what he is seeking. You said that if we "seek, you shall find". I praise you Lord for the works that you are doing in Howard. I come to you asking to renew his spirit, his heart, his mind as he seeks you. I pray that no hurt, harm or danger comes anywhere near him as he travels to his destination to spend time with you. Thank you for your guidance and favor over Howard. Amen.

Howard,
My spirit tells me to let you know to take water with you. I don't know why but water keeps coming up.Everytime I try to stop typing, water keeps coming up. I hope this blesses you.

NB

Father God, please be with Howard. Grant him rest and refreshing by your Holy Spirit. He loves you and wants to serve you effectively. Grant him, Lord, the desires of His heart. We ask this in confidence as we come in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus. Trustworthy is our God!

Howard,

Just a quick note to let you know that you are still in my prayers. I pray that you had an awesome weekend and an even greater week to come.

Read Psalm 121.

Keep the faith,
Praise Him

John, Praise Him, Brian, Grace&Faith, NB & Terri -

First all of thank you for your love, prayers and support. You will never know just how much I treasure you all and how you have sustained in through this trial.

I had a great weekend. God met me and I am so very thankful for that. While I did not get the weekend that I had planned (imagine that), God something even better planned for me.... "restoration".

As most of you know, I am coming through a divorce that literally rocked my world. When I found the "Dear John" letter my spouse left taped to the kitchen wall I was in shock. Honestly, I felt like I was last week's trash that got kicked to the curb. It has been extremely hard for me to work through. I have questioned everything and everyone....even God. Felt like I was at rock bottom and that even my walk with God was falling apart.

Although God's mercy and grace has been on me through these past 9 months, I still struggled with all of the why's and how's and it caused great turmoil within me. I felt like I honestly was dying spiritually.

My hope for the weekend was that God would finally meet me and give me the answers to my questions so that I could have closure on this once and for all.

But God....

Instead, He had another plan. He needed to teach me that there is still a good life for me whether or not the questions get answered. It is called living by faith. I was reminded that He still has plans for me...good plans. That dispite the divorce He can still use me. I am not week old garage and He didn't orchestrate the divorce. Instead He gently reminded me that my first priority always needs to be my friendship with Him.

After meditating, praying and just getting honest with God and telling all the things that were flooding my heart. He simply led me to Psalm 23. I saw it in an entirely different light than before. We always use this as a passage of great comfort for those left behind when someone dies physically. He was using it to show me that sometimes it can help those who are left behind and are struggling with pending spiritual death too.

I love the both the NIV and the Message translation of this:

Psalm 23 A David psalm

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters (you find me quiet pools to drink from - Water is so vital as all life depends on water and likewise spiritual life depends on the water of the Word for life and growth - NB you were right on!), he restores (revives, brings to newness) my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. (True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction).

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (or through the darkest valley - or the darkest time in my life), I will fear no evil, for you are with me (I'm not afraid when you walk at my side); your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows (You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.).

Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

God, showed me so much from that well known passage. I wish I had time to share it all with you.

One last thing, a friend shared a song with me written by a then 23 year old young man who had terminal cancer. As I listened to it, tears simply poured as I experienced the healing grace that only our awesome God can give. This was a prayer from one who knew he was dying a physical death, yet there he was praising God for the circumstance. What an awesome testimony. Wish I could sing it to you, but here are the words.

Restore Me

Restore me, I will have no way but yours my Lord.
Restore me, like an eagle spreads its wings and soars.
I will lift my faithless heart to a God whose love is pure.
Resting in Your arms I am secure. Restore me.

I lift my prayer, to a God who waits to hear.
Each groan that I call out in His name.
I'm standing here in silence, as I wait for You to speak.
For Your whisper heals me, with one word.

Restore me, I will have no way but yours my Lord.
Restore me, like an eagle spreads its wings and soars.
I will lift my faithless heart to a God whose love is pure.
Resting in Your arms I am secure. Restore me.


Thank you Lord, for your loving kindness, grace and mercy. Thank you for the water of your word and its power of restoration into our lives. Thank you for gathering me up and setting my feet back on the Rock of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for my GDW family. I pray abundant blessing on each of them and ask Lord that they truly experience your love, peace and joy in their lives. God you give us such wonderful gifts, You know what paths to takes and You love us enough to walk beside us to get us to where we really need to be. Continue to do a new thing in each one of our hearts Father. I love you and praise you and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

I love all of you guys!

Howard

Howard,
The Good Lord is doing wonders in your spirit.

Continue to spread his love and grace. May the LORD CONTINUE TO GUIDE YOUR HEART AND EQUIP YOU FOR ALL THINGS. PRAISE GOD FOR ALLOWING YOU TO GET SOME GUIET TIME.

May our Lord open the heavens for you. May he grant greater visions and clear paths on your journey of righteousness.

May you continue to encourage ,love and serve with all your heart.

We all love you!

God give you all you need in Him my brother!!!

I wanted to thank for all your kind words you always post.

Glosry Be To GOD......Praise Him! He is so awesome! Your testimony is heart felt and I thank God for the many blessings that he has bestowed upon you.

Howard,
I am putting myself out there but I just want you to know that you are not alone in your situation. From my heroin addicted mother leaving me at as a child, from every family member telling me I am not going to do anything with my life, to a father that is a atheist, to a grandfather who was a Bishop and slept with every woman in the church to relationships that has left me broken hearted abused and as you said "feeling like yesterday's garbage"!YET, Through every circumstance and situation I PRAISE HIM and I praise him. He is my shephard, I shall not want. HE supplies all my needs. He leads not into temptation but deliver us from evil. If he can do it for me I know he will do it for you ten-fold!

The greatest time with him is when you can remove yourself from everything and everyone and I am glad that God restored back to you what the devil TRIED to take away. I love the LORD's salvation, restoration and deliverance. He is constantly opening unforeseen doors. I will continue to pray for you but just know that whenever you are feeling discourage,"PRAISE HIM"!

"And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the
salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today:" - Exodus 14:13

"And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and
spear: for the battle is the Lord's..." - 1 Samuel 17:47.

The battle is not yours, its the Lords. (YOU ALREADY WON!) "PRAISE HIM"

Have a blessed day!

Father God,
I lift up to you your son, Howard. We thank you for continually suppling his needs, we thank you for your restoration, we thank you for your deliverance, we thank you for your love, no greater love than yours, we thank you for being our provider, Our Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End. We thank you for touching every portion of his life. I praise you, Father, for your blood covering him and your anointing flowing from the very tip of his head to the bottom of his feet.

Father, I ask you to do a new thing within Howard and I give you all the glory. In Jesus name, AMEN!!!!!

NB

NB,

THANK YOU FOR YOUR STRONG MESSAGE AND TESTIMONY. WE ARE OVERCOMERS AND WE ARE HOLDING ON TO WHAT IS TRUE AND REAL! WE HAVE A PURPOSE AND A PLAN THAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN OUT FOR US. WE JUST NEED TO HAVE AN ATTENTIVE EAR TO THE LORD AND FOLLOW HIS GUIDE; FOR ARE WAYS ARE NOT HIS WAYS! PRAISE THE LORD!

GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU NB!!!

HOWARD,

HAVE A GLORIOUS DAY MY BROTHER!!!

Praise God!
Father God, thank you for the restoration of your child, Howard. We praise You for all that has been done and praise You for that is yet to be done. We praise You for Your never ending love for us. We praise for ALL things!
Amen!!
Welcome back Home Howard!

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

Wow, Howard! What a powerful testimony! Thank you for taking the time away to be with God. Your experience reinforces something I've been convicted of on numberous occasions: I can't afford "not" to take time off to seek the Lord. He will meet me, if I will just show up. You are in my thoughts and prayers! May our God be ever praised for His kindness to You and to us. Much love, Terri

Howard
Thank you for the refreshing testimony. That psalm 23 ministers to me the same way. I know your testimony is helping others. god knows how to focus our minds and hearts on himself if we but just " be still and know that I am God". He often brings to my rememberance that little scripture.