Recently I was involved in a prayer time. Nothing newsworthy there. I’m a Christian and Christians should be involved in prayer and especially when two or three are gathered because Jesus told us that was a powerful number because He would also show up for that prayer time personally. And, if we could agree together in prayer (and, of course, pray agreeing with what His Word states) that He would grant the request. It seems fairly straightforward to me. There were at least 8 or 10 of us there that morning and we were all Christians and well versed in the scriptures.

It had begun as a fellowship time over a cup of hot coffee. It had gone from there to someone sharing or expressing a deep seated pain about a family member who was struggling with some fairly serious issues. Someone asked if we could pray – something Christians are likely to do – and so the coffee fellowship was on its way to being a powerful opportunity for Jesus to become involved in someone’s life in a special way.

That’s where the good news ended. The prayer time was a serious disaster. People prayed out of sympathy and not out of godly compassion; from the soul and not from the spirit. They gave advice instead of praying – advice to the person and, get this, advice to God as if He was clueless as to what needed to be done and how to do it. Several entered into a time of open counselling expressing similar situations that they had faced in their past and the pain they had gone through and how bad it had been and how desperate it was during those times (not in the least bit edifying or encouraging – and certainly not “prayer” by the wildest stretch of anyone’s imagination). Oh, it sounded like prayer as they rehersed their past disaster and feelings to God in front of everyone in the group. One even – again in a way that sounded like prayer – pointed out that he was there to help and that he knew he could be of great help to the man we were praying for because… well, let’s not go there. Suffice it to say he succeeded in taking the focus off of God and putting it on himself – the spotlight swung around and we found out how great and wonderful this man really was. Wow! A surprise power-packed gift to the world and we didn’t even recognize it. Whatever happened to the concept of dying to self when one becomes a born again believer?

Maybe I am just a simpleton. But, here is how I believe prayer should work. Here is what I call “Bible prayer”. You sit by yourself or with others and after “being still” on the inside and the outside (be still and know that I am God) you listen for the voice of God. I found out early in my walk with Jesus that He is God and I am not. I used to work in a firm of chartered accountants where there were junior and senior partners who ran the local office. God is my senior partner. When I entered the senior partner’s office I only spoke after being spoken to. I sat if he invited me to do so. It is the same with God the Father. He is God and my Senior Partner – my owner as I did not come under new management when I was born again but I came under new ownership – and I wait for Him to speak and then I respond to whatever He says. This is praying according to His will (1 John 5) and not according to my feelings, needs, thoughts, wants, agenda…

So, I sit still in His presence (I am with you always) and I listen for His voice (My sheep hear My voice) and I respond to Him as is only polite in any conversation and then I go out and do what He has spoken to me about (You are ambassadors of Christ Jesus). Seems fairly simple to me. Some call this “listening prayer”. I simply call it biblical prayer, prophetic prayer… listening to Him and then praying (speaking to Him) about what is on His mind and heart. Then, at the end, I simply remind Him of the things on my “shopping list”. I don’t list all my needs and concerns as “the Father knows what you have need of before you ask”. I simply thank Him for supernaturally meeting my needs – not my wants – and tell Him I am looking forward to seeing how He is going to do it.

When He says I can go – remember, he is my Senior Partner – I thank Him for spending time with me and expressing His heart to my heart and then I go to my office and start work for the day…

Maybe this is too simple an approach but it works. And, to this day, 7 weeks after that so-called prayer time with other believers, I still don’t think we prayed. A wonderful Christian leader once said: “If there is no moving of the Holy Spirit, there has been no prayer…just the speaking of many words”. That day there were many words and little prayer.

Thank you Lord for Your patience with Your kids. I greatly appreciate it. Increase in me Your gift (fruit) called patience.

I have decided to seek God and only God. I have decided that I personally need to be seeking His face as never before remembering that I need to seek Him with my whole heart and, if I do, that I will find Him. I have decided to focus on being God-sensitive and not seeker sensitive. I have decided to no longer follow the crowd and seek for revival as if it is the answer to all of the church’s (and my) problems and issues. It sn’t. He is!

I believe that we need to seek God and settle for nothing less than His manifest presence in our lives and in our worship services. Come on now – admit it. You have been to many services where God simply didn’t show up. I teach almost daily. I attend and participate in numberous services a week … and I certainly have been in a lot of services and situations where God simply did not make Himself known in any way. We need that to not be the case. We need the manifest presence of God to be in each and every service then seekers, sinners and saints would be impacted – changed, permanently changed. Then and only then will we see born again believers excited once again about attending weekly worship and fellowshipping with Him and each other (1 John 1:1-9).

An old-time preacher speaking about God sending fire from Heaven onto Mount Carmel during the prophet Elijah’s day (1 Kings 18) … He said that the manifest presence of God is “when God shows up, and he shows off!” He comes in not to take sides but to take over. When He arrives in splendor and glory, it is obvious to everyone that He is present and He is in charge. The human agendas fade away in the overwhelmingly awesome presence of the Kings of kings.

The longer I live, the less interested I am in how many people we have in the sanctuary. What is far more important to me is how much of God we have in the place. If He comes, we will have a wonderful service, no matter if there’s only a handful. God will be glorified and people’s lives will be changed – permanently changed. And that is what it is really all about – glorifying God and changing so that we become more like Him.

Here at Ralph Howe Ministries we have some plans for some new ventures that we researched in depth and on purpose while in Ukraine these past three weeks.

Starting the 1st of January 2010 we will be going off of the broadcast stations (radio) that we are currently heard on (and paying for the air time) as we move towards a 24 hour a day – 7 day a week internet Christian radio station. We are working on the format, we now have a basic grasp of the technical side of things, and now must work out the needed equipment and some computer challenges and we are off and functioning.

Plans are to simply post a daily program on www.ralphhoweministris.com for the first three months as we design and accumulate the “stream of programming” we will need to go 24/7. Then we will have the potential of increasing our listening audience as we will be available worldwide all day, every day. This will cost this ministry less than the current two programs a week heard over regular broadcast stations.

Your prayers for this expansion are much appreciated.

As well, we are planning to “flip our website”. We will be duplicating what is already posted and on line (2 years and 1 month of written resources) as well as everything that is posted on a regular basis from that point onward … flipping it into Russian and Spanish. Then those who speak English will find an English button on our simplified and redesigned front page off the web site … those who speak Russian and those who speak Spanish will be able to click on their language button and the whole web flips to that language for them to read and benefit from everything that is posted.

The Spanish edition of the web site is a “step of faith” as we have received a prophetic word that the United States will be opening up to our ministry and due to the number of Hispanic speaking people in the United States we believe God would have our site available to them in their own language.

Again, we have researched this and have acquired some expert help with the move towards three languages … and we believe that this will help us to minister better to the Hispanic population in the United States and the Spanish speaking population in Central and South America. We believe the Lord is saying that we will be seeing more invitations and opportunities in these communities. So, we are preparing ahead of time for ministry with them.

Again, your prayers for this expansion are greatly appreciated.

We are also sending Russian material to our shorter list of apostles and prophets – those who work regularly with us when I am there ministering. We have our first book on prophecy picked out and have just purchased 35 copies. We will be mailing them in a month (from our office in Ukraine) to all of our team members as a free resource (and gift) from Ralph Howe Ministries. The funding has already been released for this. This will become a regular occurrence every two months as we are working on a list of all good books on apostles and/or prophets available in the Russian language and will be purchasing supplies to distribute as a gift and a “thank you” to all the young men who so willingly help us as members of my team in Russian speaking nations (while they receive more training and practice doing so).

Exciting times ahead … and much faith needed. Join your faith (and prayers) with ours and let’s see what God can accomplish.

It is good to be home in Canada. I have spent 18 days travelling and ministering overseas. Exciting times – when God did some amazing things. Many were saved (50+); many were baptized in the Holy Spirit (15+); healings were an everyday occurrence; young people were discipled; young apostles and prophets in training were equipped and personally mentored as well as having opportunity to learn to further function as a team. God touched many hearts and lives including mine, of course.

You can never be part of what I have experienced over the last eighteen days and remain the same. Working with hungry and excited young people will always bring new life and change to the older generation such as I now find myself to be a part of. And, every day the Lord touched my heart and life and my personal relationship with Him. If you saw my daily schedule you would wonder where there was time for the Lord to work in and on my own life (not my ministry but me personally). However, believe me God can make a way, find a way, create a way… and He did.

I have journalled about some of the things He showed me. They will form a series of blogs later in the fall I am sure. I have thought about other things He revealed to me – but have yet to record them in my personal journal. Still other things have been deposited in my heart and I have yet to grasp the reality of them with my mind. But they are there (I can feel them) and, in time, I will know what it was the Lord was showing me in each and every situation. Revelation knowledge – even when it is God revealing something to you about you – is like that some times.

An added blessing was simply being around so many young people who are on fire and enthusiastic for the Lord Jesus Christ. Sold out! Passionate!! Ready to go anywhere and do anything!!! Serious about the things of God!!!! Unconcerned with what it might cost to serve Him!!!!! Powerful worshippers and lovers of Jesus who give their all to Him in every service and meeting!!!!!! It is contagious and brings hope and refreshing to someone like myself who preached his first sermon in 1969 … 40 years ago next month.

Then, I receive an email from a prophet friend stating that the Lord is opening doors in the United States for my ministry. This is a serious and well-timed answer to prayer. I don’t want doors in the United States to open simply for more ministry opportunities. I have ample to keep me very busy for a long time. I don’t want to become well known and in high demand. Heaven forbid. However, I do need to have ways to earn more income for Ralph Howe Ministries so that we can continue to expand our ministry in and to Eastern Europe (the many nations of the former Soviet Union). It costs money to minister in these nations although they do try, in their own ways, to bless you and help with some of the expenses.

For example, this last trip cost Ralph Howe Ministries a little over $5,000.00 American and this does not include any costs for other team members which, if they are young or have young families, we often try to help them financially. These direct costs include travel, food while there (I am usually supplied a small suite to live in with kitchen facilities and supply my own basic ingredients for meals, guests I entertain and meet with and snacks for the team meeting), money we give away when we see a need that we can meet so as to be a blessing to others, as well as general operating costs of some of the events such as this trip to minister for 10 of the 18 days at a youth camp where we paid a number of the basic camp expenses.

So, to meet these types of financial output every six to eight weeks (the frequency of planned trips) I need opportunities to minister in North America where I can earn income and donate it directly to Ralph Howe Ministries. I, as yet, do not receive a salary from this young ministry. However, we have one full-time staff member and two part-time staff members as well as a computer and technical consultant all of whom receive adequate salaries for the work that they do every month. As well, we have internet, radio, translation, phone and office expenses that can add up very quickly.

Our ministry overseas continues to expand and we are believing God to continue to supply the needs of that ministry without financial appeals and programs geared to raise funding. And, I am not afraid of hard work and more than willing to work hard and long if and when the doors of opportunity open up and invitations are received. This is, of course, one of the ways the Lord supplies abundantly. So, please stand in faith with all of us working here at Ralph Howe Ministries as God opens doors into the united States and, let’s together, watch God perform yet a miracle a month as each month’s needs are met ahead of time.

At the present time – just for operations and salaries – we need to triple our monthly income. Add to this the cost of mission trips approximately every six weeks and we are looking at believing God for a seriously substantial increase in income here at the ministry. This without adding to it other plans already underway for 2010 and 2011.

So, we would appreciate you adding your faith to ours and believing God to move mightily in this area. We believe we are in His perfect will and not running ahead of Him or lagging behind Him … so together we are about to be participants in a monthly miracle. I am excited to watch how God is going to do it.

I am sitting in a train on a siding a few hours from Kiev. It is 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning and we got on the train at 9:00 p.m. Sunday night. If all goes to the schedule we will be disembarking in Kiev in about 4 hours. It has been a rough and bumpy train ride although this has not seemed to bother my travel companions who share the same sleeping compartment. They are still nicely asleep while I have laid awake all night. Now that light has appeared again I am able to work and so I decided to get connected to the internet and post a blog about Sunday.

I had a good morning in the place where we were staying for the night. After a very active and busy first day here … and a good night’s sleep … a hot shower and shave followed, a cup of tea, and a team chat. An opportunity to review my teaching for the service and then we packed ready for the long day and longer night. We were picked up at 11:00 a.m. and driven to the church building. I met with the pastor and we carried on a good conversation considering none of our interpreters were there. Then, upon arrival of the interpreters, I met with a young man whom I had prophesied over the day before at the youth service.

At noon we started the service and the worship was heavenly. After an hour and 15 minutes of great worship the pastor led the service in prayer – for the sick… and their ministry team ministered to about 60 attendees. Then a presentation of the Gospel and five people came forward for first-time decisions for the Lord. After being born again they were taken out to the side room where they had a conversion package handed to them and the pastor’s wife spoke to them briefly about the first step now that they were saved.

Then the pastor introduced me – we are now 1 hour and 40 minutes into the service. I spoke on how to have passion for the Lord when the music fades, the service has ended, the crisis is fresh in your mind, your friends have all gone home and the lights have been turned out. How do you maintain passion for the Lord and His cause when things are going south. Then we ministered to a number of people that I had picked out earlier during the sermon. One was an elder’s son who had been in church once in the last year. I did not know who he was or whom he was connected to. He got nailed – severely and lovingly nailed – by Jesus. One was another man that I did not know and the third was one of the new converts. It was great ministry to all three with my team being a tremendous help.

We dismissed the service and after 35 people wanted to talk to me and about 10 managed it – I was finally ushered into the side room for some food and a break. A walk for 30 minutes with a team member to discuss some personal issues and then we began the leaders meeting which went from 5:00 to 7:30 and during which we had questions and answers for an hour, a coffee break (actually tea and sandwiches) and then we prophesied over three people – one lady and a couple … left over and waiting from a list that originated in our November visit and which we had worked on during our February visit… The list has been accomplished.

Then another meal and a quick dash for the train station (we walked – the bags drove there). And, we have been on the train every since. Miroslav and I talked business – plans, organization, visits to minister in different area, things that we need to accomplish and the order in which they need to be dealt with. Fairly boring stuff but easier to do when together in person and very necessary as this ministry is growing rapidly and we needed to add some more time slots to accommodate everything and everyone who has asked us to come and minister … and the number of places and leaders grows weekly.

Once we arrive in Kiev and have a shower we are off to appointments and more ministry (prophecy). I will report on that tomorrow morning from the airport (a 3:00 a.m. arrival to board at 4:45 a.m.).

Blessings to everyone.