Spiritual Weapons

So tonight after our home being filled with prayer for well over an hour these verses seem to come alive to me all over again....

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to the breaking down of strongholds....

RKS translations goes something like this....

Our weapons are not humanly and are incredible when pulling down those things which have taken a strong hold on our minds....

Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of Christ....

Why do our thoughts and desires exalt themselves in our minds against what we know HE would have us to do?

And then how can this subject be discussed without.....

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Again from the RKS....

We do not fight with people or personalities, but against dark spiritual entities and wickedness in the high places of the mind.....

Tonight once again I decide to not allow some things to be and realize that fighting people personalities is always a losing proposition....

Rather, I choose to employ the spiritual weapons of praying in the Holy Ghost and rejoicing as strong holds, or those things that have a strong hold upon situations come crashing down....

Blessings....rks

Sunday Morn Sermon?

Seen on church sign......

ATM Inside

Atonement - Truth - Mercy.....

Bound to be a good Sunday morning sermon somewhere in this......

I Have Heard Your Prayer

One year ago CUPC began a new season of prayer and seeking the Lord....

Then, last May, I was led in prayer to this familiar verse and used it as the basis for several weeks of study....

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.   2 Chron 7:14

The Lord led us to seek His face, turn from our ways and pray with the promise that he would hear us in his heavenly realm and heal us in our earthly one....

We labeled our study and pursuit....

7.14 Church....

Many, many, many hours of prayer have gone up from our sanctuary....

Prayer changes this.....

Our prayers altared the landscape of our church.....

Revival comes in many packages.....

Last week, after a year of passionate pursuit of His miraculous....

With inadequate time to prepare for our Sunday evening service I asked the Lord what he wanted me to say....

He told me, "Go tell the people that I have heard their prayers"

I referenced the phrase and like a thunderbolt I felt the clear voice of God as he shared Hezekiah's promise with myself and CUPC.....


Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.  2 Kings 20:5-6

These words came alive to me and I consider it a word from God for our church.....

I have heard thy prayer......

I have seen thy tears.....

I will add to you.....

You are healed.....

I will deliver from the spirit that has besieged you....

I will defend you, therefore the battle is mine and not yours.....

These key words jumped into my spirit.....

Heard, seen, heal, add, deliver, defend...

He has heard and seen and healed and is adding, delivering and defending on our behalf......

After seeking his face for a year with as many as four prayer events a week in our Sanctuary.....

Breakthru!!!!

The Lord has heard our prayers....

He has seen the sincerity and purity of our tears.....

Healed as he promised back in May if we would seek his face.....

He is adding right now to the church.....

He is delivering from the afflicter and besieging spirits......

And he is defending.....

However, it is not time to relax.....

Rather, it is time to turn up the heat a bit more....

Pray a little harder and humble ourselves a bit more....

And stand back as God adds, delivers and defends......

Time-out for a shout!!!!!

rks

I Am Blessed

Sleep got up earlier than I did today.....

So at 5 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning I leave the house in search of the ellusive Black Friday sale papers and wouldn't you know, I have purchased 5 of them and am back home in 15 minutes....

Last year it took 100 miles and 5 towns to find one....

So now I take a few moments to offer thanks for a most incredible year....

First off, I thank the Lord for the journey he has led me....

A year of prayer, seeking his face in a pursuit of Him and in the process a rediscovery of his greatness and recreation of myself, my family and CUPC.....

The transformation of CUPC is an aweing reality and I simply say thank you Lord....

I could not do the things I do without Tracie....

This is our 31st Thanksgiving to share and love you more today than I did when we were thinner and younger and I still had hair....

Tracie.....

Babe, you have been a trooper and even in the most difficult of times, never a single complaint, not  a single whine, not a single "I wish" has crossed your lips....

You dear have been my special gift from God and I thank Him for you and I thank you for being dreams come true and resolute strength personified....

I love you....

My kids continue to bring joy....

Redonia, I am proud of you.  As I watch you walk a not so easy path of adulthood I rejoice at your strenth and poise.....

I am proud of you and know that soon you will be blessed by God with a most special someone in your life.....

And then of course you gave me Annaleigh....

Just think, If I could have skipped you and gone straight to her.....smile .....wink........I love you girl....

Trent....

Oh what a man you have become.....

I saw a business aquaintance from the past this week who had seen you in public and they were so impressed with the young man they had known as a boy....

I love and respect you ......

Calah....

You laugh and giggle at all the stupid stuff Trent likes to do and make him feel so important...

But you also have learned to take charge of some things in our world and I am proud of you......

Trent is a better man because of you....

Now, get me that grandboy......

Extended Family.....

Ours is no different than other families today and we have been touched by disappointment and heartache....

The Patrick side laid to rest the first sibling, Carla.....

The Smith side sees two granddaughers and a daughter deal with the realities of single parenting.....

But amid these, none of us can really doubt the greatness of our God....

Mom, Dad, Gram, Popsie, thanks for loving us all and believing in me personally all of these years.....

CUPC Family....

The last year or so has been one of the most heart wrenching times of our life....

My heart has been handed to me time and time again....

But as I think of these things, there is only one emotion I feel this morning...

Gratitude for every single person who has passed our way over these years.......

I pray for each who passed, paused and then moved on; and I am thankful each....

I rejoice for each who cointinues with us....

I rejoice for every answered prayer....

I also rejoice as the miraculous continues to unfold amoung us....

CUPC Staff.....

This year the Lord chose to flip the staff and the incredible group of people around us daily is second to none...

I thank the Lord for each ofyou.....

Last but the Greatest.....

Lord, I thank you for your keeping grace.....

You took me on a journey of mercy and grace this year....

You educated me in the ways of mercy for yesterday's failures, and grace for the things we face today....

You led me to seek your face with the promise if I would that you would hear me from heaven and would take care of my earthy affairs from your heavenly realm....

Then last week you told me you had heard my prayers and seen my tears and had healed my land and that you would add to me and destroy the afflicter and be my defender....

I simply say Thank You Lord.....

rks

There Is Life In This Body

Twas the last night of a seven night revival and Paul gave them their money's worth.....

He preached long....

Eutychus, the Window Percher, wearied and nodded and drifted and slept and fell out the window and landed on his head and broke his neck and died....

There are many Eutychus's today....

They sit on the periphery keeping an eye on whats happening in the church and an eye on what is happening outside....

They weary themselves and others with chronic discontent....

They influence others to be double minded as well.....

And as Eutychus falls out the window and crash lands, there are others that are influenced by his attitude....

There are many who can diagnose death in Eutychus and the church he fell out of.....

Surely broken necked Window Perchers represent the whole and core of that church....

However Paul showed us how to handle such....

He simply ran downstairs and let the other Window Perchers know that he was not dead.....

Window Perchers can see and discern broken necks and horrific demise.....

But Paul ignored the Window Perchers and evil reports and simply said....

His life is in his body....

And despite Eutychus' failure, Grace and Life continued in him.....

And Paul went back upstairs and finished preaching....

Paul went right back to what he was doing before the Perching Eutychus fell and broke his neck and before the other Window Perchers looked out the window to hear the message....

Life was in his body.....

And that ain't the only place!!!!

Life was still in the service!!!!

For Paul finished his sermon and then fellowshipped until daylight before running to catch his flight....

Fallen Window Perchers, broken necks, dead bodies and bad reports need be ignored.....

For life continues in the body...

There Is Life In This Body!!!!

There was life in his church....

And there is life in yours.....

Ignore the reports of the Window Perchers and broken neck memos....

Just keep having church......

God will take care of Eutychus.....

God will fix his broken neck....

Maybe he will stop being a Window Percher....

But if not....

God does not change....

And life will forever continue in the body.....

There Is Life In This Church!!!!

rks

My Helper

Desperation drove the dear dad to the feet of the Master and these words, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief”

A broken hearted mom from Psyrophonecia fell at his feet worshipping and said, “Lord help me”

And who could ever forget the day Mary sat at his feet, while Martha fretted in the kitchen and then demanded He make her help with dinner…

Oh the misguided notion that our help can ever come anywhere but from Him….

Lately in my prayers I have overheard myself seeking His help…

“Lord, help me. I need your help. You are my helper”

David remembered his help came from the Lord…

So does mine…..

And yours…..

Without doubt He is our helper…

Heb 13:5-6 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

His help gives us confidence to be bold in the Holy Ghost….

Sort of like, “My daddy is bigger than yours”…

“My Helper is bigger than your helper”

Never forget my friend that indeed He is our Helper and a very present Help in the time of trouble…..

And of course we have no other recourse but to rejoice in His help….

Ps 63:7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice….

We just might as well step back and allow Him to Help us and set aside any human manipulations of schemes…..

I pledge myself anew today to be a worshipper for I know as long as I stay close enough for his shadow to touch me, I will always be close to my Help….

Ps 30:10-12 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

His Help turns sadness into a party and replaces sadness with gladness…

His Help is the kind of Help I need…..

Next time you hear somebody say, “You just can’t find good help anymore”

Why don’t you break into one of those old fashioned “praise breaks” and let them know you found the best and only Help worth seeking…..

Hold on, while I rejoice a bit myself…

For indeed HE is my Help….

Can’t get no better than that!!!!

Blessings…

RKS

Who Ever Heard of Such

Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Isaiah 66.8

So the Lord dropped this into my spirit last week and I shared this verse Wednesday night with my bible class....

Whoever heard of such a thing?

Who has seen such things done?

Can a nation be born in a day?

Was the earth formed in a day?

These things don't just happen........

But as soon as Zion travailed her children were born......

Hummmmmm......

Before the mom felt the pain of birth the babies were born????

Who hath heard of such a thing?

And God said to go tell CUPC a quick work was happening.....

And things were quicker than I could imagine....

I am awed at his speed and efficiency at being God....

I rejoice to see his miraculous unfold.....

Quick revival...

A quick work........

A great God.....

rks

My Personal Agabus

Well it happened faster than I could comprehend ........

Agabus the prophet.......

No, not the real New Testament Agabus that made very simple stage appearances, delivering a word from God and then willingly faded into oblivion......

But my own personal Agabus showed up at the $9 shirt rack at the Dilliards clearance center at Gunspoint Mall in Houston. .......

Yeah Gunspoint Mall; the only mall in America with it's own police station and jail over by the food court.....

Agabus my prophet showed up and spoke into my life......

"For 20 years?.................and as Late as thus morning" was where he began and ended my personal message from God......

Tracie started texting what was going on......

I stood and wept......

The Holy Ghost fell upon us as we held hands and prayed......

Friend, please know I share this because just as God sent me my Agabus.....

I am praying He send you yours....

You are not alone .........

Stand tall and in faith ........

Blessings......

rks

Gone Pic Crazy

Folks...

It looks like I have gone pic crazy but just thought to share a few with those interested....

Just wait til you see the one of me and my new GRANDkid....

Root Issues...

Wednesday night's bible study took on all the dynamics of a move of God....

Jesus passed by and noticed leaves on a fig tree but could find no fruit....

Leaves come on the fig tree after the fruit, but in this case leaves came but fruit did not...

Jesus looked at the leaf bearing fruitless tree and cursed it...

The next day it had withered from the roots...

So many times we have a move of God and it is only a leaf stripping session....

When what we really need is to address and curse and remove and deal with the root of the issue....

At another time Jesus said faith like a mustard seed would allow us to speak to the sycamore tree and it would move itself by the roots to the sea....

Our faith is powerful enough deal with the root issues...

Our faith is build up by praying in the Holy Ghost...

So our prayers create a faith that can remove root issues.....

However our habits are to just cut back the plant in the off season and it grows back every year....

When in all reality what we should do is not cut back, strip leaves or cut off the plant...

Rather we should wrap our hands around the issue and pull it up by the roots....

I dealt with such an issue this week....

While doing so I felt deep in my body virtue flow from me to another....

And together we dealt with the root issue of something that had gone on way too many years....

My friend...

Instead of leaf stipping or stalk cutting....

Try praying in the Holy Ghost until your faith is built up enough to speak to your sycamore tree and move it all the way to the sea...

The sea of forgetfullness.....

By the roots....

Howdy

Life has been crazy of late...

Between a new grandbaby, big stuff happening at CUPC, the loss of nearly 70 pounds, and my golf score dropping 20 points life has been good...

Those that follow me here know that the last year has been a BIG journey of all sorts of heartbreak, disappointment and grace....

But life moves on and after the discovery of the sufficiency of God's grace through any situation....

I have discovered a new level of unconditional love and walking in joy....

I want to write about these things in the near future....

RKS Upclose has not been abandoned...

Rather the blogger has been bogged down in life but in the next few days look out....

I want to rev up my thoughts and talk about life again...

So as a temporary farewell I thought I should share the pic with you....

I think it says it all......

rks

Gracefully Gracious Grace

The unmerciful servant learned a hard lesson that day….

Tis too bad he had failed to learn it before he failed to offer the same grace his master had extended him….

For he had been handed the gift of grace…

But failed to offer the same grace to another….

And to whom much has been forgiven much is always required….

John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

He used His grace on us so we would have some grace to use on others…..

He fills us with His grace so we will be full of that same grace…

Being filled with His grace mandates we be graceful

That means we are so full of grace that everywhere we go grace splashes out on others….

And such gracefulness produces in us the ability to be gracious….

Gracious when things are not comfortable…

Gracious when we are embarrassed….

Gracious in the midst of awkward circumstance….

Gracious when our prides would have us be otherwise…

I have been presented more than once the opportunity to be gracious when my flesh did not want to…

But how can one be covered and filled with His gracefulness and not be abundantly gracious

Therefore the sufficiency of His grace mandates my grace-filled graciousness

This thought brings me to this statement I tweeted a couple of days ago….

The most powerful words are those I choose to not say......

Such words can only be influenced by…

Gracefully Gracious Grace….

The Bishop's First Sermon

I took Bishop the Killer Guard Poodle to church tonight…

He taught the lesson…

OK, here is how it all went down…

I bought the advertisement hook, line and sinker…

Well rather I bought the dog food…..

During my morning time at the Y there was an ad talking about a particular dog food that had a scruffy happy doggy with tongue hangy outy and slobber drippy drippy while his tail was waggy waggy….

I think you get the picture….

So when Bishop the Killer Guard Poodle ran out of his food and when my eyes beheld the incredible looking bag at Kroger I was a bit surprised when my tail started going waggy waggy and my tongue did the hangy outy thingy ……

I bought it…

And Bishop loved it….

He always wanted more….

He came back early for more…

Sometimes at 4 a.m.

He couldn’t seem to get enough……






















I even worked his love for his new dog food into a bible lesson….

I would laugh when Bishop was over by the cabinet trying to get more of the stuff…..

But then I noticed….

Noticed that though he wanted more; the waggy waggy, drippy drippy routine slowed down…..

His hair began to lose luster…..

And then he looked skinny…..

How could he start looking like this while eating that so very good looking dog food…..

It looked so good I talked about putting some water in bowl of it and microwaving it and trying it myself…

But Bishop was not the same Bishop from a month ago….

So I researched the nutritional ratings of the new dog food……

And was surprised to see the food rated with the lowest dog food rating available…

Not only was it rated very low…

But along with the rating was a rebuke from the rating agency for the marketing misrepresentation of the parent company….

For the commercial had a scruffy doggy, loving master cutting up big chunks of beef and real veggies…

But the reality was….

The food consisted of chicken fat and soy powder with some food coloring and taste enhancement…..

Twas junk…

And I had been feeding it to my Killer Guard Poodle….

Shame on me….

So today I went and got him some good stuff that was rated very highly by the doggy food rating people….

And after one meal the pup seems so content and is snoring right now across the room….

This is kinda like some churches….

Got the right marketing down….

But do not offer truth or righteousness or nutrition for the soul…

Rather some nice little sound bites and non nutritious coloring but nothing substantial……

And we wonder why folks become so carnal and spiritually malnourished….

Shame on us for buying into the slick marketing of the non nutritious insincere and shallow of pop culture church….

Felt needs have been substituted for cross bearing….

Praise teams for prayer warriors….

Illustrated sermons and video clips have replaced the anointing for some…

Shame on us….

Is it any wonder that the outward looks of so many are changing?

Is it any surprise that a single diluted service in the week does not satisfy the attendees and their lives are filled with the world?

Shame on us for buying the slick marketing of the religious profiteers who make millions on the ignorance and spiritual decline of others while making everybody feel so good about themselves…

Orphanages and feeding the poor will never replace the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost…..

There is absolutely no substitute for Apostolic Anointing……

Some have exchanged anointed church for created atmosphere…..

And a Word from God must be filtered through the Creative Team……

Shame on us….

I apologized to Bishop for feeding him the garbage food…..

And the saints of God that we have served low rated spiritual food deserve to have it replaced with substance….

Prayers and blessings….

rks

Annaleigh Sage Smith

Born December 29, 2010









































I seem to be adjusting OK






















I ain't gonna lie, this kid is cuter than yours.....