Accepting God plan for our lives...

In 9 days I will be on my way to Lagos, Nigeria, Africa. We'll get to that in a little bit.

Spiritually I feel the most energized I have been in years. I am humbly thanking the Lord for spiritually energizing me (now if my body could just catch up). I am also asking that you all agree that the devil not get in there with attacking me or my family, which has been a pattern in the past, i.e., I start growing spiritually and some tragedy happens (not this time in Jesus Name).

I have been reading Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" daily devotional. I'm going to share part of one with you from just a week ago on November 11 PM.

Main verse: "He shall choose our inheritance for me..." Psa. 47:4
"Believer, if your inheritance be a lowly one you should be satisfied with your earthly portion; for you may rest assured it is fittest for you...Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there...and if you had the choosing of your lot, you would soon cry, "LORD CHOOSE MY INHERITANCE FOR ME".

Now my thoughts on that. While I believe it is true, part of me doesn't like it. If I had my choosing I would change a lot of things in my life from birth to present, I would hardly call this life an "INHERITANCE"! But I know that is just my "self" talking, because I truly believe God is sovereign and His plan for my life is BEST and out of His divine love.

I am eternally grateful that HE saved my very, very lost soul on June 21, 1975. Not only was His love shown in that, but His love is shown throughout my life.

Now, let me pose the same question to you, are you content with your lot (inheritance) in life. If you're not saved you will never be satisfied, so I would suggest to you that you throw yourself at the mercy of God to save you!

If you are a Christian and still not content, I hope this little nugget from Spurgeon will get you thinking, and that you will have a change in attitude to accept "Our Heavenly Father knows BEST."

For this entire Spurgeon devotion go to: www.ewordtoday.com/spurgeon/1111pm.htm
Also for ALL 365 days AM & PM devotions free online go to: www.ewordtoday.com/spurgeon/
http://www.christianbooks.com/ - Right now is only $7.99 Hardcover - No: WW75532

Saturday was an exciting day as I had many opportunities to minister online and by e-mail. Also, I had a phone call come in by God's hand from two brothers in Christ, one from Buffalo, NY, and one visitng from Lagos, Nigeria, who attends one of the RCCG Churches I will be ministering at - that is so exciting!

Then, Sunday we went to a church we had visited 2 times before, which we are going to make our home church until we move down South in 2010. After church the pastor came up to me and said, he had heard I was a minister and that I was going to Africa soon, and wanted to know if the church could pray for me next Sunday for my missions trip." Now that is all nice and cool, but what made it even more special was during service, I threw up a prayer request (in private) to the Lord saying, "Lord, I sure would like it if the church prayed over me for my trip to Nigeria." That was a quick answer to prayer :-)


Now back to my mission trip to Nigeria. While there is some wealth in Nigeria, there is a lot of poverty (70% live below poverty line). There are many health issues include diseases such as malaria and AIDS (170,000 deaths per year - 3rd highest in the world), and the average life expectancy is only 47 years old, compared to USA which is 78 years old. That is quite a difference!


Picture above: People walking pet Hyena's and Baboon in background!

God is moving in Southern Nigeria! There are many Christians and the numbers are growing, especially in the city of Lagos where I will be going. While there I will be ministering approximately 40 times over 41 days. I ask you all to please pray for me that God will use me for HIS GLORY, and also, that when I come back to the USA that I will have a freshness in the LORD to minister here (USA) for HIS GLORY.

I will be in NIGERIA for 5 weeks of ministry. One venue I will be attending (and likely be one of the speakers) is the RCCG Holy Ghost Conference \-"Our God Reigns." This will be the largest Christian gathering I will have ever attended or preached at. It is possible they could have 1,000,000 in attendance.

Keeping me and my family in your prayers during that time will be especially appreciated. For you night owls, you can see me preaching online in Nigeria at their 7:00 AM service every Sunday which is 2:00 AM EST, (obviously earlier in other time zones); for live feed: http://media.rccgnet.org/live/livingstone.html

Have a Jesus blessed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. This will be my last blog until I get back to USA in January 2010. I look forward to sharing with you many good reports from my missions trip.

God bless you all!

November - What's new and my trip to preach in Nigeria!

It would be an understatement to say I am excited about my trip coming up in 2 1/2 weeks. After 30 years of desiring to preach in Africa the door is finally open. I also was shocked to find out recently that I will be ministering at some very large churches, some services will also be live on the internet, and I will be preaching approximately 40 times over a 5-week in Nigeria. This is definetely, "exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think" (Eph 3:20).

Also, just this week we received financial support to make our goal for our needed budget for the estimated expenses of the Mission trip.
I am hoping that if we have extra money that we can give it to the poor or an orphange in Nigeria. See: http://www.goproclaim.com/

It's interesting that the LORD has provided every cent for my trip (ministry), and yet personally this is our biggest test in a decade trying to survive and pay all our personal bills. So pray for us in that area.
Note: Ministry money and personal money are two totally separate things!!!

As to other happenings.

As I mentioned in the last blog, we left our pastorate and church in September and have been looking for a church we can call "home" until we move down south.

For the 2 previous Sundays, a small local church had me fill their pulpit. AMEN!

Then yesterday, we returned for a second time to the church I personally believe will be our church home until we move down South. I was blessed with the worship, seeing the Word go forth, and that the pastor asked us to gather around people with illnesses and pray for them to be HEALED. Interestingly, I felt earlier in the service that God had wanted me to pray for the sick. So when he said that, I ran to this one man and laid hands on him and prayed for his healing with others. Afterword, he said he felt the warmth go from my hands into him. It was no surprise to me that our awesome God touched him.

This stepping out and praying for the sick has been somewhat limited in my ministry in the past few years (though it has happened some). It was such a blessed experience, and excited me as I prepare to go to Africa and see many saved, healed, and delivered by the wonderful power and mercy of God. I was so excited at the service yesterday (Sunday service), I could barely talk to anyone without getting excited and practically preaching to people in the church about our awesome God.

After going through a rough time recently with changes and all, it was good to sense God's anointing on my life. I have believed since early this year that 2009-2010 would bring a huge change to the ministry God has called me to (in a good and productive way). We have already seen God preparing the way in various aspects of Go Proclaim Ministries (www.goproclaim.com).
Please lift me in prayer to be strong IN THE LORD no matter what the enemy "tries" to throw at me; that I will go over healthy and stay healthy my entire time in Nigeria.; that God will have a yielded vessel (me) that He will be able to work through to touch the lives of many in Nigeria; AND THAT I WILL ALWAYS GIVE GOD ALL THE GLORY!

I personally can't imagine a better way to end 2009 (on the mission field) and start the New Year (as I'll still be on the mission field). Please, prayer warriors - Pray! Pray! Pray!

Thank you so very much!

I hope to get one more blog out before leaving for Nigeria (departure date Nov. 26).

Then it will be likely a couple months while I'm away ministering, but once I get a chance I'll be blogging here again.

Thanks for being with me as I share "My Journey in Christ."

Jim (jim@goproclaim.com)