Dayle's Blog

It would be fair to say my husband and I dream big and are prepared to take risks to go after what God has put in our hearts; we aren’t really happy to sit back and let life happen, but instead want to always be running at everything God has placed in our hearts; a bit like how David ran at the giant Goliath…he didn’t walk into His destiny, He ran into it and claimed His victory.

“As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.” (1 Samuel 17:48)

However with that sort of life there can be from time to time what many might call failures and disappointments. Plus not everyone likes or understands when you stand up and dare to risk it all, to believe God, to take Him at His word or choose to walk an unbeaten path. It makes others who may not have the same outlook in life uncomfortable. Because on that journey there is plenty of room for mistakes, for sharp learning curves, for lots of growing, introspection, disappointment and even pain.

But there is also the joy of seeing, experiencing and living this wild, crazy, exciting adventurous life where you know God is real. Where you get to see and know Him up close and personal, where His presence is tangible, where the deaf hear, the blind see and lepers are cleansed. Where people become all they were created to be rather than settling for the status quo, the comfortable and more of the same.

I want to be known as someone “who lives” and I mean “really lives,” and today I encourage you to do the same. Go after everything that God puts on your heart; stretch your faith, believe big, challenge the status quo, face your fears, deal with any issues that are holding you back, have courage and with Jesus overcome and be someone “who lives”.

Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”(John 10:10)

“You make known the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”(Philippians 1:6)

Prayer: Lord please fill me with your power and your passion and purpose to really live my life, and not to settle for anything or anyone that is not your best for me. Give me wisdom to know when to act, how to walk in all that you have for me and to live to the fullest this life you have blessed me with. In Jesus name Amen.

There is a saying that, “success is a series of small wins”. However when we are busy working at our life; our career, family and the process involved in achieving and reaching our goals we can overlook and underestimate a powerful source of daily happiness and joy in our lives. This source is to be found in celebrating our accomplishments and our to do lists that we managed to get done – essentially our wins! For there is real power in winning, no matter how big or small and a feeling of fulfilment that comes from progressing in our goals.

There is a temptation in many of us to incessantly be driven forward, to keep climbing the ladder; to always be focused on “what’s next”, whilst negating the importance and energy generated by taking the time to acknowledge and properly celebrate our progress.

Wins like getting up to exercise and eating healthy today. Wins such as tackling a difficult project, trying something new or pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. Wins like  facing and overcoming a fear or negative habit, having a daily quiet time and spending regular quality time with God. Wins like stepping out to share our faith or pray for someone, building into our relationships, making time for our partner and kids, and taking the time to do the things we love.

God is also totally into celebration as is documented all through the bible. For example the shepherds, wise men, and angels celebrated the birth of Jesus with gifts, singing and prayer. God gave Israel many directives to mark their calendar with celebrations such as the Feast of Booths, the year of Jubilee, Passover and later communion and baptism.

Jesus said that He came to give us joyful, overflowing life (John 10:10). He actually expects us to celebrate at every opportunity – both in our relationship with Him and  also in every win we experience in our daily life. It was never God’s plan for us to live dull, boring lives and Jesus’ example shows that as He was even criticised for partying too much by the religious people of the time.

Documenting our achievements and special moments and then celebrating these wins regularly helps us to get in the habit of living in the celebration frame of mind.

Today give yourself permission to celebrate when you win no matter how small. Document when and where you have accomplished something this week or month, remembering it’s the small wins we can easily forget about in the daily routine. Wins like managing to exercise and eat healthy for a certain amount of days for the week or finishing a project or facing a challenge. Keep track of these things and then reward yourself in a productive way. Pause, thank God and savour your achievements, understanding that these wins are the very things that fuel our progress, add to our sense of happiness and give us the motivation to keep going.

“At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres.” (Nehemiah 12:27)

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”(John 10:10)

Prayer: Lord please help me to recognise and celebrate even the small wins in my life. That I would be able to see the progress and steps I am making to become all that you made me to be and that I would recognise your hand of goodness more upon my life. In Jesus name Amen.

Without being aware we can actually find that we are in constant motion and never truly at rest. This lack of rest can originate from our packed schedules, connection to technology and a pressure to perform. We strive for acceptance, to earn respect, position, love, value and to fulfil our purpose. Unfortunately all this striving and motion with no true rest will inevitably leave us tired; a tiredness right down deep on the inside – we become soul tired.

I realised this week how often I allow myself to get soul tired, when instead of the constant motion I try to stop. It’s perhaps harder than we may think to stop and rest, to cease from our busyness, our constant thoughts and to seek solitude and silence. We may even struggle with guilt or feelings of failure when we can’t. But that’s okay, because not being able to rest actually reveals where we are seeking to be in control, where we are stressing, striving and often living in fear. Where we haven’t surrendered to God.

Being aware of what we are unable to rest about reveals why we feel soul weary, and is the first step towards restoration for our souls and refreshing to our spirits. God wants for us to know true rest, where we know who we are and what our life and purpose is. However we can’t know that rest until we allow ourselves to be still and to face what is actually going on in our thoughts and deep down on the inside of us. Only then as we choose stillness and awareness can God go to work to bring restoration and strength to our tired souls.

When we rest and learn how to remain seated in that rest everything changes. We start to understand our identity and purpose in God and how to walk in our authority. Instead of stress and striving there comes a strength and calm. Instead of fear and worry we live at rest and peace.

Today I encourage you to intentionally set aside some time for the purpose of being still and to rest…even for 10 minutes a day alone where you create stillness in the midst of your usual motion and schedule. No phone, no technology, no noise, no interruptions. Just you, the quiet and God, as you allow Him to do some work.

For He says, “Surrender your anxiety! Be silent and stop your striving and you will see that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 TPT)

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.”(Isaiah 30:15 NLT)

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still water. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”(Psalm 23:1-3 NKJV)

Prayer:Lord I’m choosing to take time for quietness and stillness with you today. Help me to be aware of the places in my life where I am struggling to be still so that I can surrender them over to you. That I would learn how to rest and trust you more, and to remain in that rest all day. In Jesus name Amen.

In the world we live in the concept of someone wanting to give to you is somewhat foreign. Many people, organisations and institutions want something from you and often it can be with little in return. As the saying goes, “everyone wants their pound of flesh”. Jesus however is not really interested in taking “our pound of flesh”, mainly because He already literally gave His own when He died on the cross for us.

Jesus only wants to give to us; He wants to love us, to deliver, heal, provide and to pour out His presence and peace and joy upon us. He wants to heal our minds, our bodies, our emotions, and our spirit’s – to give us beauty for ashes. (Isaiah 61:1-3)

And the only things He ever wants to get or take away from us is our shame, burdens, sicknesses, addictions, poverty, brokenness, hopelessness, fear and every other weight that the world and the devil has tried to put on us.

If we ever are asked by Jesus to give anything up it will only be because we are holding onto something far inferior to the great blessing and plan He has in store for us if we will only make room in our hearts and lives to receive it.

Today that’s what I call good news. There’s no guilting or pressure on us Jesus just want to give to us, and not the other way around.

All He says is, “Come to me so I can give to you.”

“Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me;  for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28)

I encourage you to let Jesus give to you today. All you have to do is come to Him, make room to receive and say, “Here I am Jesus’, He’ll do the rest!

Prayer: Jesus, I thank you that you just want to give to me and to love and release joy and peace in my life. I make room in my heart and life to receive from you today. In Jesus Name Amen.

There is a guy named Jabez who is mentioned in the bible who prayed a prayer saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” (1 Chronicles 4:10)

It’s a simple and powerful prayer of a man whose mother had named him Jabez because she had borne him in pain. This meant that every time his name was called, Jabez and everyone else was reminded that he had been a source of hurt and pain. The interesting thing is that Jabez did not allow the stigma of His difficult birth or whatever pain surrounded it to prevent him from becoming an honourable man, or from coming to God and believing for good things to happen in His life. For it’s in His simple prayer and His heartfelt asking and believing that Jabez’s miracle was unleashed and his life and story was changed.

Jabez it seems knew something that perhaps many people don’t. He believed that he was important to God, that He could talk to Him, that God would be with him even in the painful times and that He wanted to and would bless him.

I realised as I read Jabez’s prayer recently to our youngest son that even though I know God wants to bless us, to expand our territory and to protect our lives that I can sometimes not really expect him to bless or increase my life in particular. This thought has been challenging me over the last few days… why don’t I expect God to bless me? The answer perhaps is to be found in where I have been looking. Instead of looking at where I haven’t increased or feel I am lacking I would be better to direct my attention to where God has blessed and brought increase in my life. To look at where He has protected, cared for and prevented pain. For when i search for where His hand of blessing has already been revealed I will be far more likely to ask and expect God to move and act on my behalf again.

Jabez also expected God to bless him because he would have grown up reciting and remembering all the times where God had shown Himself strong on behalf of His people. He would have celebrated the numerous feasts, celebrations and memorials that His people recognised throughout the year; in that God was not only powerful but also that He loved and cared for them too.

Perhaps we would also benefit from remembering all that God has done in our lives and in the lives of so many others. He performs miracles every day – He provides, cares for, leads, guides, and overrides the natural order of things to fulfil his Word. He still speaks and seeks to reveal Himself to us everyday. 

Jabez’s prayer is recorded in the bible for a reason and I believe it’s there because God wants us to know that He desires to bless us and that He longs for us to come to Him and pray.

Today I encourage you to ask; ask according to God’s Word, and like Jabez call upon God saying, “Oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

Then expect God to grant your request.

“Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”(Matthew 7:7-8)

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”(Hebrews 13:8 NIV)

Prayer:Lord thank you that you desire to walk with me through every part of my life and that your plan is to bless and increase the good things in my life. Please help me to let go of any disappointments in my past, and to instead remember all the places where you have shown your love and revealed your hand. Thank you for your blessings being released in my life today. In Jesus name Amen.

My husband and I, with 5 of our children were travelling overseas a few years ago we were believing God to provide the finances for one of the places we had to stay. We’d been hearing about God multiplying money when you ask, so my husband and I both felt to take a $50 note and pray over it to meet our need.  We prayed and then I felt God say, “it’s in the drawer”. I looked in my bedside table drawer but saw nothing, but decided to just keep believing that God would answer our prayer. A few days before our trip my husband was looking in the office drawer and came across an envelope full of money – but it wasn’t Australian dollars but Thai baht.

Thailand was the location we needed the accomodation and food money for the overnight stop over we had. We had been on a missions trip the previous year and had 30 baht left at the end of the trip (worth less than $2), that wasn’t worth the effort of exchanging back into Australian dollars, so we’d put it in an envelope in our office drawer. However as we now counted it we realised there was far, far more than 30 baht in the envelope. There was in fact over 11,400 baht, which was close to $500.00 Australian dollars. It paid for the accommodation for seven of us, a meal out at a nice restaurant and a great start to our holiday. We asked and God answered and multiplied our money, plus He’d made it easy for us so that we had the correct currency to meet our need.

I could tell you story after story of God answering people’s prayers when they asked. That’s because He really does want us to ask when we need help or have a desire in our hearts. He wants to be involved in our everyday lives; where to park at the shops, the location of a missing item we could spend hours looking for otherwise, help in fulfilling our dreams and the various times when we need provision, healing, comfort, direction and other God encounters and interventions in our lives.

If you have a need, a desire in your heart or simply want God to move in your world then Ask! Ask in faith and according to His Word believing that He hears and wants to answer your prayers. He cares about the little things in our lives as well as the big and He wants us to ask and involve Him more in our everyday world. So instead of worrying, getting discouraged or running yourself into the ground trying to do everything alone – why not simply ask God!

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”(Philippians 4:6)

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14)

Prayer: Lord thank you that you love to answer my prayers. Help me to make you a part of my everyday life so that rather than having cope with and handle everything myself I know that I can always come to you and Ask. In Jesus Name Amen.

How often do we fixate on a problem or challenge that we are facing wondering what we should do? We think about it, talk about it and are often prone to spend a lot of time worrying over it. The more we do this, the bigger the problem looks and the further away a solution seems.

We may, if we believe in God decide to pray and tell Him all about our concerns and worries in the hope He will  do something about them. However I have discovered that prayer is not telling God our problems, that can easily result in us complaining, nor is prayer trying to change God’s mind because He doesn’t change.

Instead prayer is the legal right to ask God to supernaturally intervene on our behalf. “We can stand in God’s presence without fear, without a sense of inferiority, without a sense of guilt because of all that Jesus has done for us. It is our legal right to come boldly before God to request heavenly intervention on this earth on our behalf.” (Charles Capps)

God doesn’t want us to tell Him the problem; He wants us to tell Him the solution according to His Word and ask that He acts on our behalf. He already knows our problems and what we need before we even ask Him. (Matthew 6:7-8) He wants us to learn to pray with authority by lining ourselves up with what He has already spoken in His Word and then by faith His ability will be released into every situation and circumstance. There is no point reinforcing the problem by talking over and over about it; instead we are encouraged to go to God’s Word and find out what He says about our situation so that we can then pray, putting a demand upon what He has promised.

“A prayer accurately formed and stated from the Word of God will absolutely move heaven and earth, and the things under the earth on our behalf.” (C.Capps)

Today whatever it is; whether it’s  physical, financial, to do with your relationships, a need for healing, freedom, breakthrough or your future, go to God and His word and seek to find out His will and what He says about it your situation. Don’t rush the process but search  His Word and discover His will so you can then pray prayers of faith which are accurately based on the Word as you believe you will receive what He has promised.

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:22)

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Prayer: Lord please give me greater understanding and wisdom as I spend time in your presence and reading your Word. I want to know what your will is for every situation I face, so that I can then pray expecting an answer. Thank you that my prayers are powerful and that I have the legal right and ability to ask you to supernaturally intervene on my behalf. In Jesus Name Amen.

It was the 23rd September 1857 as Jeremiah Lanphier, a tall, quiet middle-aged former businessman climbed creaking stairs to the third story of an old church building in the heart of lower New York City. As Jeremiah entered the empty room at the top of the stairs he pulled out his pocket watch and sat down to wait. The placard outside the door read: “Prayer Meeting from 12 to 1 o’clock—Stop 5, 10, or 20 minutes or the whole hour, as your time admits.”  As the minutes ticked by Jeremiah wondered if it was all a mistake as it looked like no one had the time or interest.

Jeremiah waited ten minutes, then ten more. Finally one man entered the room, then another and another until there were six. After a few minutes of prayer the meeting was dismissed with the decision that another meeting would be held the following Wednesday.

Two weeks later these six men decided to move to a daily schedule of prayer.

Those small meeting were in no way extraordinary or even filled with a great outpouring of the Spirit of God. Jeremiah had no way of knowing as he began to pray that these gatherings would be instrumental to the beginnings of a great national revival.

But they were, for within six months 10,000 men were gathering to pray… and then the prayer movement started to spread across America. Within two years there was one million new believers added to the church and the movement swept out to touch England, Scotland, and Wales.

When news reached Ireland of what was happening in America three young men also were inspired to gather and ion March 14 1859 they began to meet for prayer in a schoolhouse. They prayed and prayed for revival. Within a couple of months a similar prayer meeting was launched in Belfast. By September, 20,000 people were assembling together to pray for the whole of Ireland.

Within one year, more than a million people turned to God, out of a population of thirty million.

That move of God lasted for a generation. Then once again in the early 1900’s there was a great need for God to move in people’s hearts. A general movement of prayer began with special prayer meetings at Moody Bible Institute, at Keswick Conventions in England and places as far apart as Melbourne, Korea, and India. All around the world believers were praying that there might be another great awakening. They earnestly began to pray and then Revival broke out.

In Portland in Oregon two hundred and forty major stores closed from 11am to 2pm each day to enable people to attend prayer meetings with store owners signing an agreement that no one would stay open.

The Churches of Atlantic City reported that out of a population of fifty thousand people, there were only fifty adults left in the entire city who hadn’t asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior.

So why is the story of these revivals important to us?

Because it demonstrates again and again how God can just start with and use just one  dedicated faith-filled  person to work out His purposes.

Jeremiah Lanphier and all those like him are an inspiration to the seemingly quiet, unassuming people everywhere. Their lives remind us that God will use everyone and anyone to do mighty things.

In His own words Jeremiah Lanphier’s dedication to the work came only after a struggle and a decision to totally surrender to God. He testified:

“The subject was laid upon my heart, and was a matter of constant consideration for some time. At last I resolved to give myself to the work, and I shall never forget with what force, at the time those words came home to my soul: Tis done, the great transaction’s done, I am my Lord’s, and He is mine;”

God is looking for people who will willingly go where He asks, speak when He says speak and persevere in prayer until something happens!

I encourage you today to set yourself apart to be used by God. Let’s make a decision to pray and believe for God to move once again and to use each one of us as an instrument of change that our world so desperately needs.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land”. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Prayer: Thank you Lord for all those men and women who have gone before us, who dared to believe and stood up in their hour. Help me to see myself as you see me and as someone you can use. You have created and positioned me for such a time as this. Please use me Lord. In Jesus Name Amen.