Month: October 2016

Our Hope is in Jesus

Bethany Christian Living

The world is a scary place, but our hope is in Jesus. He does give us peace. Have you notice your mind maybe worried or even fearful about something, but something inside you is peaceful despite of it. I have experience His peace when I was going through a terrifying time and the peace was so strong, despite of my fears. It was living and I realised it was Jesus Himself. Jesus lives in us. We may still have to go through hard times, but Jesus does give us His peace. He is our only hope in this world. His truths are all sane. Whereas what the world calls truth is all fantasy. Sooner or later the truth will prove itself. It will stand. Truth will not bow down to lies. When we practise what Jesus teaches us we are building our house on rock and when the storm comes your house will remain standing. But people who live out their fantasies are building their houses on sinking sand. And when the storms hit, the house will come tumbling down. The fuller version is found in Luke 6:48-49.

Luke 6:48-49

He is like a man building a house who dug and made deep and placed the foundation upon the rock: and when the flood came the river burst upon the house and it was not able to shake it because it was well built. But the one who heard and did not do is like a man who built a house upon the ground without a foundation, which the river beat against and it immediately collapsed and there was a great ruin of that house.    One New Man Bible translation.

We hear these verses so often and fail to see the depth of what Jesus is teaching us. There is only one truth and that is what Jesus teaches us. His commandments are beautiful and people who obey them in His Spirit become beautiful people.

1 Corinthians 1:25

This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

When we learn to trust God that is the greatest day of our lives. Because trusting in Him gives us His peace, wisdom and courage to live our lives victoriously in Him.

Asking God Questions Pays

Bethany Christian Living

is(19)I have been asking God about the question on judging. I asked because you need to judge sometimes. For example you need to know who is a false shepherd etc. And one day it became clear to me, judging is when you look down on some one. Even if the person lives a wicked life, it is not for us to look down upon them, because if were in the same situation as them we might be just as bad. It sounds so simple that I thought I should have known that ages ago. But I didn’t ask ages ago. Another question I started asking was how do you receive gifts from God. People will often say ‘receive’ and I be thinking how? Jesus is the vine and we are the branches comes to my mind. I receive from Him spiritual nourishment when I listen to quiet Christian music. Or when I go outdoors and admire my plants and look at the clouds in the sky. I sometimes feel His presence. It is being quiet and so importantly learning to slow down so I can take Him in. I am still learning to slow down these last two years. It is not an easy lesson for some of us. When we ask questions, we think the answers are going to be complicated, but they are so simple we think, why didn’t I think of that? God speaks to us in a way that we understand. He speaks to us in our own individual language that only God knows. There is so much communication problems with one another, but God understands us and He knows how to talk to us.

Be Still and Know I am Your God

Bethany Prayer

Psalm 46.10. He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’

There are many ways to learn to be still.  The enemy of our souls does not want you to learn to be quiet and still before the Lord. Great intimacy and a very powerful union with God will come out of this type of prayer. It can make you a saint, if you practise it diligently. You will be walking in the presence of God. Look at the world we live in, it is anything but peaceful and quiet. It is so noisy and chaotic. All the inventions just about are so noisy that you cannot hear yourself think. Where there is unrest, your mind is not on God. Noise helps to prevent you from being in a state of calm. When you are calm you can see things more clearly, as God wants you to see. You will be able to relate to God more easily, because you are in peaceful state of being. When you learn how to practise the silent prayer, the peace which comes from Gods presence will carry you through all the stress and noise of this world.

Distractions

Satan will try to distract you like crazy, sometimes it may take thirty to sixty minutes, just to quieten down. One woman asked a nun ‘how many different ways is there to practise contemplation?’ And the nun said ‘as many as there are people in the world.’ Contemplation is another word expressing to ‘be still before God.’ There are many different ways people express it. Some call it the silent prayer, others call it going into the secret place, or garden, where basically you are alone with the Lord. God is in you and being silent before God is just like when you are enjoying somebody you love being present. There is no talking with one another you just enjoy their company or another way of putting it you, just want to be with them.

You don’t always feel His presences especially when you are just starting out and lot of people give up, because you feel like you are wasting time. You think nothing is happening, but I think God is training you about many things. One thing for sure it takes perseverance, patience, humility, faith and loyalty to keep at it. So you are definitely growing in virtues.

Interior Castle

Saint Teresa has written books on her contemplative experiences, for example her classic book ‘Interior Castle’ is so difficult to understand. When I first read it I couldn’t understand it but I felt the presence of love so strong in her words. She was so advance only a few can really understand her. She even explains it that it can be like reading Greek if you don’t understand it. Because basically spiritual things of God is so impossible to use ordinary human words to describe them. You know when people try to translate a sentence for example in another language and you can’t always do it that well, you lose something in the translation, well how much more is that true when you are trying to explain spiritual things. 

Mark 4; 39.  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 

We can do this too, because when we are quiet within ourselves we are connected to God and His power.  Now there are many ways to connect to God and we need to practise them all. We are not always quiet before the Lord for example, what about the times when we are singing to Him on top of our voices. We have to know the times when God is calling us to do absolutely nothing and just rest in Him, so that He can do His wonderful work in us. Being quiet also can be practise when we choose to quieten our emotions to serve God, for example instead of practising being irritable, because things are not the way you want them, try to be gentle and loving or sometimes you can try to be cheerful instead. It works. Love works. And people either like you more or love you more. Do not go overboard with cheerfulness, sometimes people need you to cry with them too.  

Psalm 37: 7. isZJPOFTZOBe still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. 

If we are in a state of worry, it is a good indication that we need time out with God and learn to be quiet and still before Him. Really we should practice being quiet before Our God every day, sometimes it is not always possible but ideally we will feel a great deal better and more able to cope with life if we do. All prayers quieten you down to some extent. I am a quiet person by nature, probably due to the fact that I live a pray life. Being still before God, I have practiced it off and on throughout my life and I am just only now doing it more persistently than ever before, through necessity. This prayer demands a great deal more discipline then all other prayers and it may also require a great deal more faith, because you basically do nothing. And you know what humans are like. They want to do things for God, not just sit around and do nothing.

God Works on Your Soul

This is a time when God is doing all the work, sometimes secretly and other times He may let you know what He is doing. It is a time of healing, of being cleansed, being refreshed, being strengthen and growing in the knowledge of God, are only a few things that can take place. So you can imagine why the devil hates it so much. And why he is trying to make this world such a noisy place to live in. He is trying to stop people from hearing God.

Sometimes you can feel God’s presence and other times you cannot. Naturally when you feel His presence it is a great deal easier then when you cannot. It is a time of great relaxation, the deeper you go the deeper your level of peace you enter into. Hours can feel like only minutes. If you are like me it is hard work staying still. Everybody has to finds what works best for them, with some people they find God in the garden, others during fishing, Saint Teresa would look at a picture of Jesus, with me it is music. They call it soaking music. Quiet gentle music that is praising God. Other times I meditate on Jesus Crucifixion and can feel God’s presence that way. You have to find what works with you we are all different.

Being Honest with One Another

Bethany Supernatural Gifts from God

is(7)I have been busy learning about casting out of devils for nearly about two years now. My faith is improving through necessity. And one of the things I am learning is being persistence. Something I am not good at. We live in a world that expects instant everything, including me. I am now confident that doing self-deliverance every day is the way to go. I am learning from experience and books and CD’s on the subject. I do recommend everybody to learn how. We are not always in a situation that you can rely on another person to help you out.

I wish we can really be honest with one another and truly understand one another so we don’t be mean in how we judge one another. My doctors marvel at how quickly I am getting over my breakdown. I have told them I say three hours of prayers every day, to their horror. They think I could be over doing it. I don’t dare tell them sometimes I say more than three hours and I am casting out devils in myself. They would send me straight back to hospital if I told them openly what has been going on in my life. They be even more afraid. I have heard other people who won’t tell their doctors everything for the same reason. That is the problem, nobody can be truly be honest with others. If you haven’t walked in somebodies shoes for at least ten miles, so that they may be understood, people can be judgemental about others.

I am certainly still learning the very basics of self-deliverance. I rely on books and CD’s about the subject. We Christians shouldn’t have to rely on books to learn. I believe strongly that Church Leaders should be equipped to teach us. We are only serving God a little if all is expected of us is to be good and no more. We should be walking in the gifts of the Holy Spirit every day. I believe that Church Leaders should be daring and delegate their flocks into going the extra mile. Encourage them to use their gifts. How can you encourage somebody to use their gifts if you don’t listen to your flock and find out what they are? Christians aren’t always game enough to talk freely, because other Christians think they are strange. How Christian are we? if they don’t believe we should exercise the gifts God wants to give us.

1 Peter 4:10.  As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

 

 

 

Novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague in Urgent Need

Bethany Prayer

This novena to be said for nine days or nine consecutive hours.

O Jesus, Who said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you,” through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted. (Mention your request.)

O Jesus, Who said, “All that you ask of the Father in My Name He will grant you,” through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask Your Father in Your Name that my prayer be granted. (Mention your request.)

O Jesus, who said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass,” through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (Mention your request).

About the year 1628, the Discalced Carmelite Fathers of Prague received a statue of the Child Jesus. Princess Polixena who gave it to them said to them, ” I give you what I prize most highly in the world. As long as you venerate this image, you shall not want. After three years “the enemies of the faith carelessly thrown it into a heap of trash. The stature was discovered by Ven. Cyril of the Mother of God. One day he was praying before the stature when he heard these words, “Give Me My hands and I will give peace. The more you honour Me, the more will I bless you.”

 

Graces Derived from Assisting at Mass

Bethany Christian Living, Uncategorized
  1. The Mass is Calvary continued.
  2. Every  Mass is worth as much as the sacrifice of Our Lord’s life, sufferings and death.
  3. Holy Mass is the most powerful atonement for your sins.
  4. At the hour of death, the Masses you have heard will be your greatest consolation.
  5. Every Mass will go with you to judgment and plead for pardon.
  6. At Mass, you can diminish more or less temporal punishment due to your sins, according to your fervor.
  7. Assisting devoutly at Holy Mass, you render to the sacred humanity of our Lord the greatest homage.
  8. He supplies for many of your negligences and omissions.
  9. He forgives the venial sins which you have not confessed. The power of Satan over you is diminished.
  10. You afford the souls in purgatory the greatest possible relief.
  11. One Mass heard during your life will be of more benefit to you than many heard for your after your death.
  12. You are preserved from dangers and misfortunes which otherwise might have befallen you. You shorten your purgatory.
  13. Every Mass wins for you a higher degree of glory in heaven.
  14. You receive the priest’s blessing which Our Lord ratifies in heaven.
  15. You kneel amidst a multitude of holy angels who are present at the adorable Sacrifice with reverential awe.
  16. You are blessed in your temporal goods and affairs. In eternity, we shall fully realize that it was certainly worthwhile to have assisted at Holy Mass daily.

I believe that many Catholics and priests are no longer celebrating the Mass with this understanding. The Catholic Church is being attacked. I have been kicked out of my local church and far as I am concern there are many traitors within the church, watering down the truth in every way they can. Since I have been kicked out approximately seven years ago I have been saying my own form of the Mass at home. Many people would be horrified in me doing this, but I can reassure God has made it clear to many times that He has accepted it. Only because I can’t receive the host in any other way. One of my Masses that I celebrated in my home, I asked God if other people who can’t receive the Mass for what ever reason such as living in remote places or like me kicked out, may you put it into their heads to celebrate their own Masses at home too, and God was please with that prayer.

These promises I got from ‘The Pieta Prayer Book.’

Prayer to the Guardian Angles

Bethany Prayer

isCDQ8IBZ3‘He has given his angles charge over you, to guard you in all your ways’. Bless the Lord all you his angles who are mighty in strength and do his will. Intercede for me at the throne of God, and by your increasing watchfulness protect me in every danger of soul and body.

Obtain for me the grace of final perseverance so that after this life I may be admitted to your glorious company and may with you sing the praise of God for all eternity.

Holy guardian angels who are sent by God to watch over and protect us, help us instil into the hearts of men the message you proclaimed on the night of Christ’s birth: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favour’.

Holy guardian angels who enjoy the vision of God intercede for me and obtain the special favour I now ask of you if it be for my good.

Angel of God, my guardian dear to whom God’s love entrust me here Ever this day be at my side to light and guard, rule and guide.

Chaplet to Obtain A Great Confidence

Bethany Prayer

You use the popular 59 beads Marian Rosary.

On the five “Our Father” beads pray:

is“See where Thy Boundless Love has reached, my loving Jesus! Thou of Thy Flesh and Precious blood hast made ready for me a banquet whereby to give me all Thyself. Thy heart, Thy loving Heart! O adorable Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of Divine Love! Within Thy Sacred Wounds take Thou my soul, in order that, in that school of charity, I may learn to love that God Who hast given me such wondrous proofs of His great love.”

Amen.

On the “Hail Mary” beads, pray:

“Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.”