LGBT Friendly Prayer Blog

Prayer Bears

2012-01-22T21:04:00.000-08:00

This online prayer ministry (featuring the LGBT Prayer Blog) was one of the first outreach projects I have done since I became a part of the LGBT community. There has been something in my heart for quite a while that it looks like I may be able to start. It began back in 2006 when I was working at a little Metropolitan Community Church in the Midwest part of the United States. They had a ministry called "prayer bears", it was their version of prayer cloths which is a New Testament tradition used in many churches today. Instead of a piece of fabric that has been prayed over, the church would buy several teddy bear Beanie Babies and give them to people that have prayer needs. A congregant would get one for a loved one or church member who was in the hospital or one who was suffering with AIDS, and it brought comfort and a point of contact in their faith and their recovery.

(photo is all the bags and boxes of bears that sort-of filled half of my living room)

I always thought of the "Bear" community (a sub-group of gay culture) when I thought of prayer bears and how neat that would be to have gay bears be prayer bears. We could make ourselves available at bear events or other LGBT type gatherings and pray for people. Then I came across a marvelous opportunity. I have a friend that I have known nearly three years who lives just in the next state who had a vast collection of teddy bears. She mentioned for months that she wanted to get rid of them and I bugged her for a few years that I could be the one to have them. Then in January 2012, I inherited over twenty large kitchen bags and boxes of plush toys and other bear items. Most of them are in new condition and can be great gifts. So now I am ready to have a Prayer Bear ministry and have a handful of folks that are supportive of me. All I need is some faithful saints gifted in prayer to weekly pray for those we reach and a person or two to go out with me to events. I also hope to get favor with the local bear community and that they don't think we are some kind of cult, or that we may have some hidden anti-gay agenda. I know some of the guys in charge but still not sure how we will be received because there is so much anti-church attitudes in our community.

I should add more updates on how this project goes, and always, I appreciate your prayers and encouragement.

Big gay bear hugz!

Jason

"I am just not into spiritual stuff right now"

2011-12-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

"I am just not into spiritual stuff right now"

Have you ever thought or said something like this? It's one of many signs that you may need some spiritual hunger. If this is the case, so often it drives us further away from things of the Spirit, out of shame and guilt. We may recall sermons or passages from the Bible condemning states like this, feeling as if we are so complacent or "lukewarm" that God will somehow spew us out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16). "Yikes, I am God's spit, God's reject, I might as well give up…" may be one of many ideas that come to mind. I believe states like this are great opportunities to pray for spiritual hunger.

Don't be afraid of having no or little interest in spiritual activities. If Bible scriptures seem uninspiring or uninteresting; or prayer feels empty and unheard, this is simply a normal human response to heaven. Its amazing when spiritual things do in fact happen! We have a strong earthly nature that will always try to get in the way of anything truly spiritual. When we ask God to give us spiritual hunger, it may be a time when we sense no or little faith and feel nothing spiritual at all. This is a great time to pray! When I think of something like, "I am just not into spiritual stuff right now", I want to get excited and know that its not up to me to be all spiritual all the time, but God can give me those desires.

One way to regularly check your "spiritual barometer" is to keep a daily devotional book or devote yourself to daily scripture reading. If you sense a few days or more of loosing interest, having your mind wander or getting nothing out of what you are doing, this is a great time to ask God to stir in you spiritual hunger. I can't think of a time when prayers like this were unanswered, and I am amazed how my desires change when I do pray like this. Other things you can do is to clear your mind, like make a "to do" list so your mind does not dwell on all the things you think you have to do (this is another opportunity to even pray about your to do list and ask for help, especially if you are feeling overwhelmed). There are other things that could be getting in the way of your spiritual hunger, and I believe that most of it has to do with things in our hearts that take more importance then God. There are a lot of simple prayers of consecration and sanctification, allowing the Lord to be first in our desires and being willing to let go of everything on earth.

If these things do not work, you can ask the Holy Spirit to show you why you lost your spiritual hunger. You may find great breakthroughs while you discover what may be hindering you. This may be a great opportunity for growth and a way to draw nearer to the Good Shepherd, Jesus.

Called To Intercede

2011-10-23T20:35:00.001-07:00

Called To Intercede?

I have heard it said a handful of times from the pulpit that there is no such thing as a calling of an intercessor. If you are in an Apostolic church, you can be called to one of five things: Pastor, Prophet, Teacher, Evangelist or even an Apostle. If you are Catholic, and you feel called by God, you have an entirely different set of offices: Priest, Nun, Monk, Cantor etc... If you are in a Baptist church, it may seem even more limiting (especially if you are a woman!) and you may have to choose between being a pastor or an evangelist. But called to pray for people, what good is that? No wonder why preachers discourage saints to claim to be called as an intercessor, because they do not appear to do anything for the church. Church folks sometimes look down on those who spend so much time praying, as if its an excuse to not serve someone's ministry. Even though prayer has been used as an excuse to avoid action, I believe there are sincere believers that are really called to a life of prayer. A live devoted to prayer is not an idle life. In fact, when God calls someone to prayer, God is doing it so prayers can be answered. When prayer is God's idea, stuff happens, amazing stuff: supernatural power and beyond-human loving.

Having been in a lot of different spiritual "streams" of the faith since the mid-1990's, I have met some really strange people in cutting edge churches. I mean strange. See, when God gives someone a gift and calling to pray, there should be elements of the prophetic and the supernatural. Someone who touches heaven on a regular basis should not behave like people of Earth. Its OK to be strange when you bring the Divine to the needy. If a woman or a man gets prayers answered for others its OK if they are loud and twitch like having a tick. If a believer is a sincere devoted lover of people, its fine with me if they want to lie on their face or wave their hands before God. I don't care if something looks weird. Just as long as its real.

A Church Without Worship Services

2011-06-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

The following is a piece I wrote for a creative writing class I took earlier this year. I thought it would be interesting to bring this crazy idea up to a meeting last week about starting new worship services in my area and I dropped this "bomb" to see what people thought. It was a trip, but I hope it gets us to think. I have noticed that the gay church community loves our pageants we call church. We are so prone to be all about show. We love religion and liturgy maybe a little too much. The following is a reaction to these ideas...

A Church Without Services

What would church be like if there were no worship services?

We would save lots of money not having to buy pews and that nice burgundy carpet

Nobody to fuss about whether the sound is too loud or too quiet

No stained glass - no need for candles and incense

We could save funds on not having to buy sound equipment

We could save several hours a week and spend that time giving love to others

No need for fancy suits and dresses

Your "Sunday best" will only be a matter of the heart

No one to fight over how our meetings should go

No one to disagree with the theology of the messages

No endless announcements about bake sales and bowling leagues

No one complaining about giving their money

A listener would replace a preacher

A love letter would replace a weekly bulletin

We could weep with those who weep,

Instead of the mourners hiding their tears in the back row

Instead of passing the plate,

We would put food on it for those in need

Instead of hymnals and bibles in the pews

There would be rejoicing in the streets

Instead of lighting a flame, we could ignite hearts

Instead of singing we could serve

Instead of a pulpit, there would be purpose

Instead of a steeple, there will be love - love for everyone

So if loving people is loving God, and loving God is worship

To serve others is to serve God, and a church without worship services are worship services indeed

So, we suppose a service is not such a bad thing

But to simply serve, is truly divine.

Happy Birthday Prayer Blog

2011-06-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Prayer Blog!

The LGBT Prayer Blog is over four years old

While browsing this Blogger site, I was blessed to find the stats on my blog. In just four years, the blog has gotten over 3,500 hits from all over the globe. I was amazed to find that I have readers in the Middle East and some other countries that I did not expect. Here is a grab of the top countries:

The second week of June in 2007, I started the blog to give additional media to the LGBT prayer group that was started earlier that year. It was called the Gay Prayer Resource and that was when google allowed a lot of media on their group sites. Because of this transition, the LGBT Prayer Site was started as a supplement and a lot of the media that was on the group site was copied to the google site.

The LGBT Prayer Site, Group and Blog still seem to be the only things on the web that specifically deal with the lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered community along with the subject of prayer. Also, the Gay Prayer Resource is one of the few places to go to find practical prayer principals that does not focus on liturgy and reciting written prayers. Thank you readers for all the hits. Let me know how I can serve you better,

Jason T. Ingram

Oregon, USA

gay pray at g mail

Devotional Smoothie

2011-01-27T23:06:00.000-08:00

Devotional Smoothie

While teaching at a Bible school in Far East Russia, I was giving a lesson on personal prayer and worship. I wanted to find things in the local culture that I could use in my sermons while I was there and I used the name of a fast food place in town called "Magic Burger". I shared that devotions can be compared to a magic burger, like the hamburger buns being praise and the meat was prayer. We can start and finish our time with God with praise and worship and have our prayers in the middle. Although this may be a nice method, sometimes methods can get us into a religious rut. In the early 1980's, there were some great teachings about prayer circulating around the evangelical world based on the "Lords Prayer" found in Matthew six. This is where I got the idea for the Magic Burger, or a Prayer Sandwich, because it begins and ends with praises. I like the story about when Joyce Meyer tried to apply that teaching of praying for an hour and how miserable she was trying to be like Pastor Larry Lea! The bast thing to do is have God meet you where you are at. Maybe you don't have the gift of praying in unknown tongues or the closeness to talk with God as a friend. Come to the Lord where you are, with the little or much faith you have and see what happens!

A smoothie is a healthy beverage made in a blender of a bunch of different things. There are on the other hand, smoothies that are commercially sold that are mostly crushed ice and sugar. I have made some nasty tasting smoothies and some amazing ones over the years. One time I got some old pure bulk soybean powder and I could not drink it. I have also dropped whole hard boiled eggs for protein and crushed vitamins and even got used to the taste. I have tried expensive green green stuff in smoothies and have made some that were just a glorified chocolate shake. Whatever your experience with smoothies are, we can all agree that it is about creating a whole thing from many things. A time of prayer can be a lot of different things mixed together. This will make your prayer time, you. Not someone else's brand of prayer. It may also keep you from getting bored!

Ephesians 6:18 (King James Version)

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

The NIV version says, "all kinds of prayers". How many kinds of prayer are there? More than I can cover in this writing! There is intercession, which prayer for others and there are prayers of thanksgiving. There are prayers of desperation, cries of help and there are times of "joy in the Holy Ghost". An interesting study is about the prayer of supplication. I have heard many different opinions of what supplication in prayer means, especially from a New Testament perspective. I personally like to think of this kind of prayer as seeking God diligently for something specific, like something big. But I think this kind of prayer needs to have some of the gifts of the Spirit in operation. I was recently reading in Acts 12 about the early church praying for Saint Peter while he was in prison. This may be a good example of this kind of prayer.

When it comes to our prayer time, we can enjoy so many different things with God. I believe that one of the deepest ways to pray, or as some have noted to simply "do business with the Lord", is to operate in the gifts in the Spirit. Faith, passion and sincerity are important things to have when we come to the Throne of Grace, however, God gave us tools that we can use to get our prayers answered and to have deeper experiences with heaven touching the earth. There are a handful of lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament, and one of them is commonly called "faith". But don't all Christians have faith? How then can it be a gift? I have heard the "gift" of faith referred to as "special faith", which makes me think of a revelatory kind of spiritual insight, is when a believer suddenly gets a strong unexplainable conviction that God is going to do something. I think the gift of special faith is similar to the gift of the discernment of spirits where the Christian actually plugs into the Realm of the Spirit and sees into another dimension. This may sound like some kind of mystical New Age teaching, but prayer should be accessing heaven. If one is in a heavenly realm, then the mystical should happen. If the experience glorifies Christ and not self, you can bet that you have a real Bible experience.

"Soaking" has become a popular word in a lot of church circles these days. It has to do with soaking in God's presence, like resting in a warm cozy river flowing from heaven. Sometimes prayer can be so good that you get on a revelation of God's love, greatness or mercy and you simply can't say another word. This is a great time to soak. This can also be a good time to listen. Being quiet can also be a form of meditation. Christian meditation, especially from a Protestant perspective, seems to have scripture involved. Taking a few verses and "chewing" on them in your mind is a great way to be quiet without having your mind wander. There is also something called "mental prayer" that I hope my Catholic sisters and brothers fill me in on.

Prayer can be a great time to focus on Christ and yet for many, including myself, it can be hard to keep focused. Sometimes we need to turn the ringer off on our phones, get away from our e-mail and put the world aside for a while. One of the things that works for me is to put on worship music in the background. If I run out of things to say in prayer, I can sing along like in a worship service. It also sets a great meditative atmosphere, especially if it is simple and gentle music. I have a play list of "soaking music" that is about nine hours of songs like this. I also have a few more play lists of more congregational worship, and faster praise music. Another thing that helps my focus is to have a "to do" list handy. This may sound like a distraction but I believe it can prevent distractions that come to your mind. It seems like the moment my knees hit the floor is when I am reminded that I need to pay my phone bill that is due today or call someone about changing plans later on that evening. I am the type of person that I try to do things right away or I may forget. I admit that I have gotten into prayer and then after a few moments finding myself doing little things that I need to do. I feel like I am being "responsible", but I may be missing out on a big spiritual blessing! Another reason why to have a to do list handy is because you may be inspired in prayer to do something. Remember that part of prayer can be listening, and humans are so often forgetful. This is why having a journal, or more specifically a prayer journal close by can be a great way to remember and document what goes on in these special times. This is also a good way to write down Bible passages that spoke to your heart while in prayer. You may be reminded by the Spirit of a significant dream that you need to write down or simply remember the name of a person. For example, while in prayer you keep thinking of an old friend you knew in church that you lost contact with. This probably means that you need to pray for that person. Then in your to do list, you may want to write down that person's name to call them and let them know that you are thinking about them and praying for them. Also note that if you keep thinking about someone in prayer, it might be because you need to forgive that person, not necessarily contact them.

These are just a handful of ideas that a believer can try when it comes to time with God. A Devotional Smoothie is a prayer time that is all mixed up - but in a good way. There is the protein powder of praying with a Bible, the sweetness of thanksgiving, the fruit of the Spirit, a power energy shot of the working of the Spirit... We can have a method to our praying and even a list. We can also have written prayers if they are inspired and heartfelt. Then there are times when we get so lost in the Spirit that we leave our methods and begin to combine all kinds of prayer in to a divine devoted mixture. Sometimes its good to give up our agenda and just abandon our form of Christianity to be transported to another world. I think this is what Saint Teresa of Avila experienced as "states of rapture" and what the early church experienced on the day of Pentecost. You will find so many amazing stories of the supernatural in Catholic and Protestant figures throughout history, and it makes me hungry to pray like they did. The thing is that I should not try to imitate the things they did, but to have the same heart and closeness to God that gave them these powerful experiences with God.

Powerful New Testament Prayers

2011-01-15T00:20:00.000-08:00

Power, Love and Wisdom: Powerful New Testament Prayers

Saint Paul is not typically a favorite author among LGBT people. Many of us have a hard time with what looks like a bulk of anti-gay statements written by this early church founder. I believe God inspired Paul of Tarsus to write everything that is considered canonized in scripture, and with that, this Divine Inspiration came through an imperfect man in a very different time and culture. I think that if Christians use Paul's letters to condemn gays, they should use all the passages that condemn women and give our sisters equal treatment. But, churches can not afford to loose their women; and woman rarely change into men and will never be silenced anyway. Its like many churches think: let's just ignore, or reinterpret all the anti-female statements of Paul but still use Paul's letters to condemn gays. Then we have folks in our community that are so turned off to certain writers that its hard to receive from places that can really help us. I don't want to throw out parts of the Bible, they are all there for a reason, and we can learn from every word whether it is for us to literally apply to our lives today, or an eternal principal that was applied differently in another world from ours.

One of the things we know about Paul, is that he did not have a very strong charismatic personality to depend on. We even have record of someone falling asleep during one of his sermons. But we do find that St. Paul had access to a lot of spiritual power, as shown in this example:
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (New King James Version) 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Where did he get all that "power of God"? I believe it came from a life filled with effective prayer. I am glad he gave us some insights into his prayers and perhaps we can learn what worked for him. The following passages of scripture are my favorites of St. Paul's prayers, and are the three "extended" prayers we have from Paul. There are a few other shorter passages like this, but I love how these three work in personal devotions. We see from the order they appear in the New Testament that we have a prayer for personal revelation of power followed by a personal revelation of love. The final prayer here is about character, and not only knowing what choices to make, but the integrity to carry out the spiritual wisdom we receive.

Ephesians 1:15-23 (New King James Version) 15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 3:14-21 (New King James Version) 14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Colossians 1:-14 (New King James Version) 9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

The following written prayers are based on these three passages. They can be prayed through one after the other, or separately, what ever your needs are. All through out the Bible, Like in II Chronicles 4:10, we see that it is OK to pray for ourselves.

Jabez called on the God of Israel 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!” So God granted him what he requested.

These special prayers can also be prayed for others, just replace "I" and "me" with "her" and "him" etc... I have also prayed this for me and one or more others at the same time by using "we" and "us". This is nice when I am partnered, and praying for a relationship. Paul was praying for a group of people as an example, but I think that these are the things that he also wanted for himself.
While attending a Bible school in the south, the founder of the school taught on how he would pray through these passages for himself as well as others, but he made special mention of praying these scriptures over himself, that it would result in the supernatural. That is one of our goals as Christians, besides demonstrating God's love, is to demonstrate God's power as well. What I mean by power is simply God moving, and showing others the healing, blessing miracle power of the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest needs in the LGBT affirming church communities is that we need more power. We bless others by including them and loving on them as they are; and yet when it comes to praying for a miracle, many of us are not making that step into the supernatural.
Here are my favorite prayers in the whole Bible. I like them so much, I think they should be prayed along with "the Lord's Prayer" found in Matthew six. But you must experience it for yourselves and see what kind of answers you get when you open your heart and pray humbly with these wonderful inspired words:

God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
I pray that you may give to me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You,
That the eyes of my understanding would be enlightened; that I may know what is the hope of Your calling, what are the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in me,
and what is the exceeding greatness of Your power toward me who believes, according to the working of Your mighty power
which You worked in Christ when You raised Him from the dead and seated Him at Your right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Thank You for saying in Your Word, "He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."
Amen

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that You would grant me, according to the riches of Your glory, to be strengthened with might through Your Spirit in my inner person,
that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that I, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that I may be filled with all the fullness of You, God.
Thank You for saying in Your Word, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Lord, I pray, and ask that I may be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
that I may walk worthy of You Lord, fully pleasing You, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in Your knowledge
strengthened with all might, according to Your glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
giving thanks to You, for Your word says, "the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light."
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Amen.

I know of folks that pray like this daily. If you desire variations to these prayers, try using a different translation. The New King James, and the King James seem to be the most powerful for me and praying through the Amplified Bible is also a real blessing.

Also, you can keep praying through some of the continuations of the scripture passages that I shared, like the next four verses after Colossians 1:14. There is something powerful about these divinely inspired words spoken out loud. Search more of the Bible to see what other passages to pray with. The Psalms are very powerful tools for your devotional times.

Stay on your knees, and enjoy your quality time with God!

Blessings and gay bear hugs,

Jason

Pray for anything

2011-01-15T00:09:00.000-08:00

Pray for anything! Even for a mate

Have you heard the song where it goes, "everything to God in prayer"? There are passages in the New Testament that refer to praying about all things. Some folks think this is an extreme statement about everything. When I was new in the faith, I heard references to hyper-religious (or hyper-spiritual) people that pray for guidance about what clothes they should wear that day. That kind of praying can be quite compulsive, like someone who gives thanks for the food they are eating before every bite! There are times when I leave the house and suddenly have an opportunity that arises where I wish I had worn something different. Let's say I am on my way to the gym and get inspired to serve the homeless on a cold winter day. Those are days I wish I had asked God what I should wear, and so far, I have never had that happen so I just wear whatever I think I need that day. God gave me a brain, and I try to use it. I can also check the weather to see if I get to wear long johns that day (am I talking about prayer or underwear? anyway, I do enjoy a cozy set of long johns...)

When it comes to praying about all things, "or all kinds of things" is how I like to think about it, its nice to know that we CAN bring anything to God, no matter how small of great. If you are worried about issues with clothes, pray about it. If you are naked, ask God for some threads and then go on with your day. If your landlord is bothering you, or your bank account is messed up, take it to the Lord in prayer. This creates a double blessing, perhaps a triple or more blessing: God delights to give to us and help us, thus drawing closer, you get an answered prayer and you may even get to share to others about how God answers prayers.

Something I have noticed since coming out and integrating my faith into my life being openly gay, is that I find that there are things I have to work at when mending these two identities together. When I was with my first partner, I found that my prayers were amazingly answered when I would pray for him. Then I found that God really would show up in our relationship when we would pray together. However, when I became single, I did not pray much about relationships. It may have been a habit, but even though I believed that God loved me and blessed me as I was, I still in my thinking connected dating with something that was going to take me away from God. For instance, if a date came over for a visit, I would hide my bibles and not mention anything about my faith in fear of loosing a potential lover. I also had guilt when it came to same-sex courting and sexuality that I was overcoming.

Then I realized that being a Christian gay meant that God was a part of my gay life, and all parts of my gay life including meeting other men to date. This has been hard for me because of years of thinking that pursuing men was a sin, now I am getting God Himself involved?! Indeed so. I can ask God to...

Create opportunities to meet someone special
Help me with wisdom in ways to meet others
Be with me when I meet with someone
Give me discernment about who to stay away from
Keep me safe from harmful people
Bless, lead and draw to God the person that I am dating
Open doors that are of God and close doors that are not

I have found that there were times in my single life where I felt drawn to pursue something careless or impulsive and knowing that I was headed for a harmful experience. Even in my blind drive for instant-intimacy and my "urge to merge", I have found myself asking the Lord to intervene. Its easy for guys to meet, men don't often say "no"and its too easy these days for gays to sleep around a lot, but I find it very hard to do so. I am grateful that God interrupts so many of my endeavors and stops my plans. There are even times when I don't even remember praying at all but I can see God's hand working in a situation like this. God really keeps me out of trouble, but I must remember that if I want something bad enough, God will give up fighting me and leave me to my own devices. I sure don't want to be where God's love and protection is not. I want God involved in every area of my life. I don't want compartments in my life that I try to keep from my spiritual life.

"...we ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as they happen. "
Brother Lawrence - Practice of the Presence of God
Many of us grew up without parents that we could approach about anything and I think we tend to see God in the same ways we view mothers and fathers. It is God's pleasure to "give us the kingdom", which is a lot when I think about it. I love to give but I am pretty limited, but I would feel weird if I had everything and humans were not asking, even the ones closest to me.
So ask God about every kind of need in your life. God likes it! We all get blessed, go for it!

Gay Bears - Guy Stuff and "Prayer Bears"

2011-01-11T23:06:00.000-08:00

The following is an article that was on the prayer group, and because of the google groups formatting change, I thought I would post it here to preserve its nifty-ness:

Gay Bears - Guy Stuff and "Prayer Bears"

The "gay bear" movement has been known in the gay community as a group of masculine looking, and many times masculine acting gay men. This reaction against gay male stereotypes can be a positive role in the greater LGBT world. The bear movement seems to be more defined my appearances and sexuality than being masculine. What is there about being a masculine man that goes beyond the skin? Masculinity has many great qualities that postmodern society has been rediscovering, and sometimes even overemphasizing in these newer generations.

When searching for true manhood, let us remember some of the things that it means to be a man, and how our spirituality fits into this. In the gay and lesbian community, it seems as if the ladies have us beat when it comes to masculine traits! We can all learn something from each other. Spiritually speaking, prayer is the greatest weapon a gay man has, and we can fight the darkness with light if we would take a stand for God, kneel down to pray and lie down on our faces in true deep repentance. Let us find a weak person and be strong for them. Let us find a lost young fatherless person and be a spiritual father.

Let us be "prayer bears" and become Christ's representatives in the GLBT and gay bear communities. How about being a chaplain to a local bear bar or club? Everyone at times needs folks to marry and bury others. Bear events need someone to pray and give a message. Every sub-culture is important to God just as every culture is. Jesus said in Mark 16 to "preach the Gospel to every creature..." also in Matthew 28 He mentions "all nations", all "ethnos" which means every ethnic group. The principal is clear that all people are important to God and need to know this wonderful message of Christ.

We welcome resources for gay bears that have to do with the Christian faith, healthy gay masculinity, self acceptance and other sites that are "clean". Please e-mail at the gmail address under "gaypray" if you have any ideas, links or thoughts.

Here are two great places for Bears to go...

http://community.livejournal.com/bearsoffaith/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B4CBrotherhood/

...and this is another group my ex boyfriend introduced me to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChristianBearsGroup/

Lesbian and Gay Run Full Gospel Prayer and Worship

2010-08-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Prayer Blog Readers,

I would like to announce a series of special meetings going on in Oregon for the lesbian, gay, bi, transgendered and straight faith communities. My favorite form of the Christian faith after exploring for several years is what we call the Pentecostal, or "Charismatic" type churches. Some also call them Full Gospel or Apostolic. What ever you call it, we all have crazy stories and jokes about "holy rollers" and the LGBT community is often freaked out by many groups like this partly because so many of them have fundamentalist views. There are, in almost every major US city and worldwide small communities of those who are LGBT welcoming and affirming that are drawn to "spirit-filled" worship services. This type of church is noted as being similar to the New Testament book of Acts style of churches while others just pass these off as being built on emotionalism and sensationalism. Although there have been excesses and harm that have been done (especially to the gay community); my experience for the most part has made a life changing impression on me.

I am drawn to religion that produces answered prayers and allows worshipers to experience God for themselves. I have found that many groups like this can create an atmosphere where believers can sense the Divine and enter in to a powerful worship experience. When I moved back to the Portland area after having been gone for over fifteen years, I found that there was no such place here like this that was welcoming and affirming. Over the last year, I have been meeting believers that have ministered in this local area along this "stream" of Christianity and have made some great connections. Although there is no effort to start another church at this point, there are some regular meetings coming up that I want to get the word out...

The InGathering:

An inspiring interdenominational evening of worship, prayer, and healing for the GLBTS community

First InGathering: Monday August 23 7:00 PM
Caldwell’s Colonial Chapel 20 NE 14th Avenue Portland, Oregon 97232
We will be meeting monthly on the 2nd & 4th Monday evenings

Thoughts On Prophetic Intercession

2010-06-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

Thoughts On Prophetic Intercession

The term "intercession" in the context of prayer can simply be explained as prayer for others. The subject of intercessory prayer is vast and much teaching is available for this art. I like the the image of interceding as "standing in the gap" for others. Many Bible teachers say that Jesus is praying for us because the word "interceding" is used (Romans 8:34). I personally believe that the term is used here to indicate more about how Christ stood in the gap between sin and God on the cross and that this "intercession" is forever available for us.

The suffering of the Christian is not in sickness and lack, but in sacrifice. Intercessory prayer is a way to sacrifice time and effort on someone else's behalf. An effective way to pray for others is to pray in a prayer language, which I believe is one of the forms of Biblical "tongues".

Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Prophetic intercession is a type of prayer that is led by the spirit of God to pray for things that we may not consciously know. Many of us have a “prayer list” that is based on needs that we know about. Although there is nothing wrong with prayer lists, either for personal prayer or corporate use, we can be limited and not as effective as we could be. Prophetic intercession is a way to find out needs that go beyond our knowledge by hearing from the Holy Spirit about what to pray for, and even how to pray.

1 Corinthians 14:15
What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

We can be Spirit led to use different and new methods as well as prophetic actions. A prophetic act can resemble a ritual or something symbolic in order to accomplish something in the spirit rheum. Prophetic acts are all over the Bible and those sensitive to the Spirit can practice hearing from God and draw closer with these acts of obedience. For more study, read about Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Hosea as well as other Biblical prophets...

One way to have a time of prophetic intercession is to begin with praise and worship which can be done many ways. A meeting where there are musical instruments, musicians can be asked to lead in a few praise and worship songs to set the atmosphere.

2 Kings 3:15
But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.

Some worship groups can "flow" prophetically. This is a spirit led worship team and can play spontaneous songs as well as being able to extend worship songs into a new piece.

Psalm 149:1
Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.

Prayers can also be sung and spoken with the music in addition to speaking the prophetic over the music. In a large meeting, this can be a powerful way to create a powerful place of prayer.

(Submitted by Jason T. Ingram, Portland, OR)

The following writings came out of a worship conference in the Seattle area June, 2010. During the meetings, some of the leaders had a time of prophetic worship. It was grate to see ministers in the LGBT community that have such insight into cutting edge subjects like this:

Prophetic intercession is to do what the Word says is “calling things that be not as though it was"; It is praying what God’s Word says about the person, situation or whatever you are praying about. It is decreeing and declaring as FACT what the Holy Spirit says about the situation, or person.

(Submitted by Apostle Dale Jarrett, Washington D. C.)

In and of itself, intercession is a powerful weapon to effect change in a region, a person, place or situation. When mixed with the prophetic and with worship, it takes our prayers beyond standing in the gap, and moves it into a place of decreeing the thoughts and intentions of the Lord into what you are praying about. We use it to not only speak life and victory into our prayers, but to bring the same encouragement, edification and exhortation, that we would use in a spoken prophetic word. As we pray, the Lord opens are eyes to speak into the atmosphere and shake the heavens. We speak under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and build and stir our own faith as we agree with the heart of the Father.

(Submitted by Pastor Debbie George, Seattle, WA area)

Submissions Wanted For Prayer Blog

2010-06-03T19:35:00.001-07:00

Submissions Wanted For Prayer Blog

As the moderator of the Gay Prayer Resource I find myself doing all the writing and I want to hear more from our members.

Please consider submitting an article or story about prayer. Here are some ideas:

Testimonies of answered prayer
Denominational perspectives... are you Charismatic? Catholic? Baptist? How is prayer unique in your faith?
Using the Bible to pray with
Favorite books and teaching on prayer
LGBT issues and how they affect prayer
Are lesbian and gay people stuck in written liturgical prayer? What are positive and negative aspects of written prayer?
Catholics: What is mental prayer?
Multi-media... youtube links of your articles
Prayer for the sick
Scriptures on prayer, for instance the prayers of Paul
Encouragement for the LGBT community to pray

Please email suggestions, ideas and submissions to:

gaypray
@
gmail.com

Happy praying and gay bear hugs,

Jason Ingram

God is working with Identity Thieves

2010-04-08T23:58:00.001-07:00

God is working with Identity Thieves

Here is a story about how faith is helping me with a performance piece I am working on. "Identity Thieves" is about how I survived the "ex-gay" movement, and the major part of what helped me get through the pain of the religious abuse I had as a result of trying to change my orientation was faith in God.

As an openly gay man recovering from the ex-gay movement, I have my doubts every now and then about the advocacy work I do for the LGBT community. What helps is I take my self-doubt and my inner questionings to God in prayer and I get the reassurance from the Spirit to keep going and to not give up. Another thing that helps me is to remind myself that I spent over ten years believing that being gay was a sin, and years before that trying to be straight. Then I realize that I came out in late Spring of 2006 and it takes a long time to change thinking patterns when I am so used to feeling shame about anything gay related.

For instance, it was sort of like today on a bike ride. It looked like a sunny day and I took off without a jacket and in the second half of my trip, it began to pour down rain so hard, I began to get so cold, exhausted and wondered if I should stop. But if I stopped, I would have gotten more cold so I kept biking through the rain to keep my body temperature up. It helped to listen to some encouraging music I put on my phone's music player and a few prayers later and several city blocks toward home, the rain stopped and the sun came out and began to warm me up. I am glad I just kept going, and enjoying the exercise and the music (like a song I have where Josh Groban sings "don't give up"...) the cold Oregon rain did not seem to bother me. What may seem cheesy really is true about what they say about storms in life. Sometimes dark rain clouds blow away quite quickly! In Oregon, rain clouds can stay for a week or two, but its great to see them blow away in ten or so minutes.

This reminds me of the many times I gave up working on the Identity Thieves project. Early Summer of 2008, I had put down the project for months after a very parlous trip getting footage and feeling like there was no moral support to continue. Then I saw this local show about film makers and something got a hold of me. I took it to prayer and found that I had stepped out of God's plan. With the discouraging pressure of film school, pressures at home and feeling lonely and uninvolved, I gave up working on the very reason that I was going to film school: to raise awareness about the ex-gay movement. The Spirit of God really got a hold of my heart that day and I got inspired to go over the footage and start capturing much of the video from tape to digital files.

That was nearly two years ago, and I have put down and taken up this project several times since then. Last Winter, I decided to work on the project whether I get any moral support from anyone or not, and it looks like my preparation met opportunity and I started getting places to perform. Now, back to my story about April 8th, 2010...

As I got home, I decided to take the rest of the day off. I was pretty exhausted with dealing with stuff about the premiere of the performance piece and some other pressing personal issues. Sometimes, especially with my mental health, I need to be sensitive and know when to back off. After a nap and watching some TV, I lost my remote and thought I would check on my DVD project and try to make it work again. The last few days have been so frustrating getting the second half of my show's multi-media material to work. The disk with the second act video clips was not authoring a DVD because of broken links to picture files. After I fixed the files the program was still not working and I was going to have to do the project over again.

I decided to pray that God would help this project and I opened up the program without changing anything and I was shocked when it started working! I just sat there with my mouth open, stunned; and yet, I do think that I should be amazed when prayers do not get answered. God is so real and can work in our lives every day if we only talk and let God be God. I will explain a little more. The application iDVD was not doing this project even the last few times I opened it and tried burning the disk, I would get error messages every time no matter if I restarted the program and even shut down the computer all night, it would not work the next day. The only thing I did different was to pray, and when I went to burn the DVD, it just worked. Amazing. But there are also a lot of things that have been coming together in ways I can't explain without me even specifically praying for things to work out. Producing a multi-media one-man show requires a lot of work with electronic equipment and musical instruments.

I have been listening to this station called Way-FM and have been encouraged by some of their music. This song in particular stands out, What Faith Can Do By Kutless, where part of the song acknowledges even "silent" prayers. I think a silent prayer reminds me of Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

"I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do"

Pray for, Pray with, Pray to and Pray at

2010-03-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

(Native Alaskan Jesus Drawing by Jason Ingram)

Pray for, Pray with, Pray to and Pray at

If you pray for your bible, it still may fall apart
If you pray for the devil, he may act
If you pray for God, He will wonder why you think He needs your help
If you pray with the devil, he will confuse you
If you pray to people, they may attempt to be the only ones trying to answer your prayers
If you pray to the devil, he may think he is your god
If you pray at people, they may get confused and even very upset
If you pray to a bible, it will not do anything
However...
Pray for people, they will get blessed
Pray with a bible, you will get faith
Pray to God, He will answer you
Pray at the devil, he will flee from you in terror
In other words...
Pray for people and compassion rises up in you
Pray with a bible and wisdom comes
Pray to God and He shows up
Pray at the devil and he may not be able to tell the difference between God's authority and God's boldness in you
Pray in the Spirit, and the devil won't tell the difference between you and God
Pray for people and you get to partake in their blessings
Pray with a bible and it will help your mind not to wander
Pray to God the Father in the Name of Jesus, in His name and in His will
God will answer your prayers
Pray for people
Pray with a bible
Pray to God
Pray at the devil

Anti-Gay Saints and What To Do With Them

2010-02-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

Anti-Gay Saints and What To Do With Them? But of course Watson, this is a prayer blog (and not a flog) so I should state obviously that we are to pray. Well, I admit that this is not my instinct or even my finest idea. It came out of a conversation I had this week with an LGBT minister (Naomi, pictured) who came out in a small town where she once pastored and ministered for decades. Talk about hate mail! She got it and more. However she said so strongly to me that its God that has to reveal to them who we are and what is and what it not "sin". This is where prayer comes in. Also, she mentioned that we are to pray that they see the truth about homosexuality and the Bible.

The big deal with this is not to argue. I like to make my stand known but not waste my breath on a useless quarrel. Paul told Timothy to aviod argeuments. I argue, and I get mad somewhere along the line and I can even loose my head. I take this stuff very personally, especaally when I get these candy-coated insults and have had even close friends tell me that I was demon possessed. I am learning to listen and know when not to talk. Sometimes, espesially when someone seems really ignorent, I like to ask loaded questions in the hopes that they see how outragious their anti-gay claims are. I mean stuff like, "if you see the Bible that literally... as a rule book, which rules do you pick and choose if you can't follow them all?", and "are you the one that is picking and choosing or am I?". But the people I talk with, like anyone who has been indoctrinated find ways of getting themselves out of arguements like this. One thing they do which I don't do (for fear of trying to play God) is saying stuff like, "well God says that". It was OK when I was arguing with you but now I am arguing with God Himself somehow THROUGH you? I laugh at this idea now but I am afraid that this is a pretty scary thing to do, taking God's place in the world of opinions and speaking FOR Him entirely. If that were the case, these "God said it" folks always seem to say other stuff that disqualifies them.

Just last weekend while talking to another seasoned LGBT minister and about the funny hate mail we get, she loves Justin Lee of the Gay Christian Network, and we were musing about his hate mail. He found that they have bad spelling and grammar. Well, mine stinks, I really don't have much academic education passed the seventh grade and if it were not for spell check, no one would take my articles seriously. But what is with these saints? Do they realize how ignorant they look when they make these outrageous statements?
Here is my most recent one. I got it today when I checked my personal myspace mail after I rejected someone's "friend" request:

LOL I am not the one off track...Bible does not lie.....thanks for rejecting me lol...Sad. My husband refuses to even listen to your work...you are hurting lots of people..including yourself. What you are doing is so against God...God loves you...just not what you are doing...besides being gay is gross!!
No homosexual shall enter the kingdom of Heaven my friend..read the bible...and listen with your heart. Devil is playing you man...wake up!!
Praying for you and thanks for the kind words about me...:)
God bless,
Terri

She not only misuses II Cor 6:9, but I love how "the" Bible is just "Bible does not lie" and how dumb it all sounds. I admit, I get my feelings hurt and my reaction is to fight back so much of the time. I get this sort of "justice" attitude and feel like I can go off on folks but I need to take a peaceful response. It takes a long time to undo generations of homophobia and change someone's heart about a touchy matter like this one. Peter was bound by religious racism even while he was Mr. Pentecost in Acts 2. But we see that God got a hold of him about a group of OTHER people, in this case the (non-Jewish) Gentiles.

Remember in Acts 10 about all the non-Jewish foods?

¹⁴"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."

¹⁵The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

(context link)

This is not a scripture I am now using to state that gay is OK, which it is, but for anyone wondering about another culture or people and what God thinks about culture and dealings with others we don't agree with. The principal that I want to show here is not about us being right, but I see this about that God had to speak to Peter about other people in order to change his mind about them.

My friend Naomi Harvey has stories about straight anti-gay folks that pray and see that God is with some of us, that there are some true Christians that are lesbian and gay. What if Cornelius showed Peter a sheet with snakes and other gentile gross cuisine and said, "hey Pete! Rise kill and eat!"?

They simply will not accept us unless something beyond the verbal reveals it to them as much as you can convert a couple of Mormon missionaries that are in your living room to a different religion with a debate over Mormon tea (I think Mormon tea is hot milk). Its amazing how so many religious folks, some sincere saints can be so programmed to think certain ways. But it happens and I realize that's the way things are and yet there are some things we can do: aside from praying and stating who you are, there is living a consistent life before them and demonstrating God's unconditional love. Yes, we need to come out, and sometimes coming out is simply stating who you are and living by example and letting time and the Spirit do its work in others.

Gay Bars, Gay Bears and Christianity

2009-07-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

Summer of 2009 has been quite a life changing experience traveling around the west coast states. I was hoping to make some contacts and find opportunities to further my music performing and art projects and work on some things for my documentary film. That really has not happened, however I have gotten to get closer to family and even some of my extended family.

One of the themes I keep seeing in my travels as I meet folks in the LGBT community are faith issues. It seems like for some crazy reason, gay issues have been really a hot topic in the church but it seems like church is a really hot topic in the gay community. Everyone has a story, and although most stories seem the same, I hear some unique situations in the lives of LGBT people that have really challenged my views.

Most of the people I have talked to on this trip are gay men, and mostly in the Portland, Oregon area. Portland is in the middle of rustic logger Oregon conservative culture with lots of religious influence. There is also this extreme polarity of this post “hippie” culture all over Oregon, mostly in the college towns and everywhere you look in many areas of the Portland metro area.

I grew up near North Portland on NE 31st near Killingsworth and close to the “hood” which was notorious for drive-by shootings, drug and gang violence. Fifteen years later I am shocked to find these hip-trendy-yuppie businesses all over my old neighborhood that I remember to be a commercial ghost town. Art and music on the street, bicycles ruling the traffic and everything “organic” has replaced the abandoned old boarded up storefronts on streets like Killingsworth and Alberta. Also, the gay community has really emerged from a few parts of town to several areas of Portland, with gay and gay-friendly establishments in parts of town I would have never expected.

With all this exploring, I still have not come up with an answer to how most gay men in this area view Christianity. I have gotten an earful (that’s for sure) of what I am calling my “crash course” in gay culture. I guess this the stuff I missed when I came out over three years ago. My “gay lifestyle” upon coming out consisted of moving into a suburban Kentucky ranch house with an older man with a big family who fed me constantly with “meat and potatoes” as well as feeling an isolation from the mainstream of gay culture. I am seeing that I really did not miss much! I would much rather be back in a private quiet family kind of life gaining another 50 pounds than cruising a downtown queer fashion show with a bunch of shallow queens telling me how to dress. Another contrast is this “bear” community that I have been so drawn to. By learning how not to dress, the bears counter the counter-culture of gay life to a new extreme, however I find so much of the empty sexually-driven naughty ways that I see in the gay mainstream.

So how does faith fit into all of this? Men love to talk about themselves and I am one of them. I find myself at gay and gay-friendly establishments hearing about people’s lives and most of the time sharing my life as well. Most gay bars/restaurants in Portland are unusually friendly to strangers, and I am defiantly strange. With my long hair and flannel shirt, I look like a hippie and one guy even said that I looked intimidating! But I still find that even though I have to assert myself, folks are pretty welcoming and willing to talk to me, even about God. The gay-bar experiences I have had in Middle-America were just plain pathetic with the exception of meeting a guy in a cowboy bar, but he turned out to be the creepy guy that I blocked online…

Before I mingled with LGBT folks, I came to a place in my isolated nice little Christian world that I felt like Church was everywhere, and everywhere there were hurting people and when people hurt they either go to church or mostly to some kind of escape (well then, some churches can be an emotional escape I suppose). The most common “church” that folks seem to go to in Western culture are bars because they are like community centers for just about every kind of community that adults can find. Because I don’t drink, cafes were always my “bar”, and they were great opportunities to talk to people about life and faith but with an intellectual thrust as opposed to bars which I find people letting their guard down quite a lot.

When I lived in Anchorage, I found that some of my church friends were reaching out to bars, clubs, taverns and pubs mostly through music. There were times, mostly in the 1990’s where I could find myself playing gospel songs and hymns in some really dumpy dives, including the Salty Dog in Homer, Alaska and in the bar on an Alaskan ferry boat on its way to Ketchikan. This would stir up some interesting demons, that’s for sure.

Now that I am more comfortably mingling with people in gay establishments, I find even more that gays love religion! I always thought this was sort-of true, but I see that religion is really gay (in my opinion) - just turn on Trinity Broadcasting and watch “Praise the Lord”, it is sooooooooo gay. Catholic stuff also is very gay in so many ways, its funny.

Another reason why I believe that lesbian and gay people are drawn to religion and spirituality is because of several similar themes that I find in the lives of LGBT folks. These traits include: creativity, intuition, awareness of self (feeling isolated and the search for the authentic because of gender-related rejection and even abuse…), and sensitivity to a deeper look into life. Most of us who are “enchanted” (I learned that one in California) are forced with facing self at some time in our life as opposed to many heterosexuals who can blend in with their surrounding culture and feel automatically accepted in it. Straight people in Ohio are some of the most non-interesting folks I have met around the globe, and living there made me realize that some people can go through life never having to discover or even challenge who they are.

We see that gay and lesbian people are “sensitive”, however sensitivity is not always a bad thing. A truly spiritual person has to be sensitive to the Spirit (sensitive to God) as well as sensitive to the needs of others.

Talking about Christianity in bars to strangers is really uncool, however I am surprised at how willing people are in gay bars. I also wonder if lesbian and gay folks realize more of their hunger and need for God than straight people? As I mentioned before, faith is a hot topic in the gay community as well, but if there is so much animosity, disappointment and outright disgust coming from LGBTs how come we are so open to matters regarding the church? Based on my experience, some of this may be because of my experiences with “ex-gay” programs and my desire to continue the social justice and advocacy work trying to raise awareness using creative efforts. I guess that looks really cool, and even a lot of straight folks are all ears when they find this piece of my life after probing a bit. “What on earth made you want to move to Kentucky?” people may ask, and not wanting to open up my straight-jail-can-of-worms, I feel like responding, “are you sure you want to know?”

I guess what I find with gay men in particular is a hardness of heart toward the church with some mixed sentiments added as well. It is the saddest when I find that so many gays still see the Bible as anti-gay. As educated and opinionated as so many are, I still wonder if most of these guys form their opinions of the Bible from the pulpits of the ignorant instead of being enlightened with the source itself. Since coming out I have tried to follow the Bible more in principal, not in practice. It is not a rule-book to me, it’s an oracle. It gives me wisdom and hope. I also have learned to see God as not the one ultimately to blame for everything negative that happens, but as the answer; to question self rather than question the Creator.

However, with those I come across as I plunge into what seems to be a deeper look into main stream gay culture (and mingling with “bears”), I am saddened by this sort of cynical-critic attitude that causes one to try to figure out things from afar and yet never seeming to dig deep enough into the subject of faith in a deep personal experience. As I have written earlier, guilt is one of the greatest hindrances to prayer for the gay and lesbian community. Some guilt needs to be forgiven and some guilt just needs to be educated (false guilt over sexual identity needs the light of truth to free someone); and not knowing the difference causes so much confusion and frustration that so many put up a mental block when if comes to their personal relationship with God through Christ. On the other hand, it is all so easy to discuss religion when it does not challenge the individual to face their self.

On a closing note, this faith “mental block” reminds me of the many dear people that I have visited on my journey so far, and how I am asked to fix computer problems. For some men and women, no matter how desperately I try to use non-technical terminology and make things simple, repeated, written whatever… Some still feel so overwhelmed by the whole experience that they can’t seem to grasp a single concept about computer maintenance. It could be mixed with all the baggage of past computer crashes, all the useless stuff they bought that was not the right hardware and software; and a deep inferiority complex toward younger generations when if comes to technology. It could be mixed with the pride they had ten even twenty years ago of how good they were at computers, and there is fear of loosing data, fear of loosing a sentimental PC that needs to be replaced and perhaps other psychological barriers. Fixing a PC is annoying enough, that’s why I bought a mac. But I find that I not only get involved with playing this computer “hero” which makes me feel so all-powerful, I have found that my greatest challenges with being a tech-support-vigilante is not the “blue screen of death”. It is breaking through all of the mental barriers that people have unconsciously erected and that takes a much bigger hero than I may ever be.

The good thing about these mental barriers and hardened hearts is that prayer is the answer to cure spiritually blinded eyes and open spiritually deafened ears. Learning how to strategically wage war against these little enemies of the truth is based on knowledge as well as your closeness to God. The bad news is that debating alone will produce little results and may even prove to be counter-productive. Right now in my life, my studies and the effectiveness of my spiritual influence (which I admit is lower that it has been) I am realizing now that I need to move from this sort of “collecting-a-big-gay-prayer-list” to moving into answered prayer. As we Christians know about the faith pioneers and saints that their actions were seeded by a burden. Luther seeing the brothels for clerics on his first trip to Rome was a seed that produced a holy restlessness. These burdens are from the Lord when you feel the guilt and pain of another as if you are Christ carrying their sins. But these spiritual emotions may be there for you to take them to the cross, to intercede in prayer, devotions, fasting… That is when the debate ends, the argument is cast down and the confusion ends: the one we have in our heart is knocked off the fence into either a Damascus road experience of submitting to the Light, or a bitter decision to truly turn away and consciously follow a path that leads away from God.

So anyway, as I finish this much larger article than I wanted to write, I am reminded how blessed I am in a nation where I can wear a cross to show my faith, and a rainbow to show my identity without having to be imprisoned, tortured or executed as a result. It is wonderful to know so many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people that so freely worship Christ. I am typing on my aunt’s laptop by their pool north of Seattle on a warm evening. Her partner and young daughter play in the family room after we had dinner together. My aunt, saying grace thanked God for my visit and things like that reminded me of how many LGBT Christian families are out there.

Summer Tour

2009-05-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

I need your prayers and encouragement

I hope to do some touring this Summer, playing in clubs and churches. I have had thousands of hits on my music pages and have gotten some gigs as a result. In the late 90's and early 2000's I took some road trips staying with folks I knew through various contacts around the West and in Alaska. This time, I hope to focus on the West coast from Central CA to the Seattle area; then to make my way back to Ohio through northern states.

Even though I am now more aware of my mental health and have more treatment and coping skills, I still feel insecure about taking such a trip; things can be so tough for me because of this condition. I did recently get on disability, and am waiting for the rest of the paperwork and the medicare and income to take effect.

For those people of faith who believe in what I do, please pray for direction for me. My faith has been at some all time lows lately and I have been really discouraged about moving on with creative work and volunteering. I am getting over a painful breakup and I am also getting out of a stressful living situation.

My current art exhibit is soon to be over and my paintings, along with most of my stuff and studio equipment should be in storage in SE Ohio. I am over half way through my second full length pop/rock CD, and due to some setbacks and some really badly sounding drum tracks, I have put some of that stuff on hold. I still have almost half of my 2007 CD being played on the Bear Radio Network, but I stopped marketing those songs online, and downloads have been down lately. Finishing up another film/video class in June... I hope to get an HD camera to get some better footage for my documentary project on this trip as well.

I will be using my old Kentucky address for my trip and my cell number should stay the same. My target date to fly from Columbus, Ohio to Portland, Oregon is June 28th, 2009. I am hoping my disability back-pay will come in at a reasonable time as well as favor with venues and places to crash that don't irritate me too badly (those of you who tour know what I am talking about!) Many small churches and venues only plan out a few months in advance, so I hope I am not too late to get a some gigs.

Thank you all who take interest in my work,

Jason Ingram
Logan, OH

Jason's Gay Pray Q and A

2009-04-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

Jason's Gay Pray Q and A

Is there such thing as a "gay demon" like some claim?

Yes. But there are more straight demons then gay demons! Just as a lesbian or gay person can serve God, they have the same choices that straight people do to open themselves up to the demonic realm.

Even if there are demonic spirits that are familiar with LGBT people, that does not mean that demons are what make people gay.

I believe that the kingdom of darkness preys on the weak, and whenever there is an oppressed group of people there is hurt. Where there is hurt, there are opportunities for the demonic to use those hurts to hurt others and ultimately attempt to mess up God’s kingdom on earth.

Can you pray the gay away?

You can pray away lust for the same gender if that is taking you away from your relationship with Christ, but you cannot pray away something that is a part of you.

Can God make a gay person straight?

Yes, God can. The question is whether God is willing, not able.

Can LGBT people receive answered prayers the same way other people of faith can?

Absolutely. However, those of us who went through years of anti-gay beliefs need to deal with these issues because they can easily hinder our faith.

Thank You GayChristian.net

2009-03-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

For the last two years since I started the Gay Prayer Resource, I admit my personal life of prayer suffered. Although I pray over all prayer requests, even sometimes the illegitimate ones (sometimes I get some joke prayer requests... GLBT Christians are a double whammy of what many like to make fun of) I have not "prayed through" like I envisioned. There are some that I have prayed for that I sense the Holy Spirit leading me to send a specific word of encouragement to and others its just nice to know someone cares. Most requests do get sent to a private forum on my favorite Christian community site, the Gay Christian Network. They have a message board called "Help, Prayers, & Support" and members all over the world log on regularly to see who they can pray for and encourage. There are some men and women that seem to respond to just about everyone's posts, and they even post religious pictures and quotes.

I thank God for this web community and I know that I would not have fulfilled what God called me to do in this prayer outreach if it were not for the prayers of these special LGBT intercessors. I also have asked my church, friends and others I know at times to pray for the needs of those who contact the Prayer Resource. So far, I have had responses from as far as the middle east to Japan. So far, this is the only web community and site that specifically deals with prayer in the greater lesbian and gay community.

If not for the Gay Prayer Resource, there are some that may not have found a way to get prayer from gay affirming Christians. Many are afraid to ask for prayer from those who take an anti gay position because they usually get responses that include extremest advice about their identity. If someone is willing to search long enough and wait to get accepted in private prayer forums like the one on the Gay Christian Network, I am sure they will find what they are looking for, like me when I was coming out of the closet in 2006.

Thanks also to all of my members, I know I should e-mail more announcements, but I know how folks get tired of e-newsletters all the time. Big thanks to GCN! You guys are such a blessing,

Jason

The War Against The Religious Right - How Should Gay Christians Fight?

2008-01-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

The War Against The Religious Right - How Should Gay Christians Fight?

By Jason T. Ingram - January, 2008

Most of the LGBT Christian community has been hurt by the conservative anti-gay works that has been going on all over the world in some way. Some of us have been devastated by the things said and done against us. However, whatever has happened to us, as Christians we are commanded to forgive and to love. We are also commanded to pray for those who persecute us. I see a war waged against us by what many call the "Religious Right" and this war uses weapons of propaganda, misinformation and efforts to pass laws that limit the rights and visibility of LGBT people.

I am a man that grew up extreme liberal. When I came to Christ at age 20, I found myself in a culture that was conservative, and I adapted. I believe that makes me a man who has lived in extremes. From anti-war protests (where there was flag burning and other illegal acts) to being involved in patriotic services. In my late teens, I was with a group of Earth First members protesting at a Native American site that was being de-forested to, at age 21, being involved with a pro-live rally. After I "came out" Spring on 2006, I remained a Republican, for the simple fact that conservative Americans seem to make efforts to support issues regarding the faith, and when it came to identifying myself more as gay, or as a Christian, I believe that Christian is more of how I like to define myself.

We see how easy it is for many on the religious right to "demonize" LGBT people. What I mean by that is how some make us look like the enemy. Some have tried to make us look like we are demon possessed, doomed to eternal destruction, criminals, and the one I dislike the most: not able to be Christian. I have seen us in the gay and lesbian world do the same to those in the religious right. I have also heard LGBT Christians use some strong attitudes against other Christian groups.

An LGBT pastor and I were talking about the ex-gay ministry I was involved with, and this pastor made a reference to Matthew 7:21-23 in reference to these ex-gay leaders (“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’) and I believe that's a strong statement to use against a group of people this pastor never met.

I recently finished a book on gay activism and Christianity in which I enjoyed most of the book and the amazing stories through out the main bulk of it. I even began to grow an interest in being involved in activism until I read further. This book, and like many other lesbian and gay activists who give accounts of the religious right distorting the truth, seemed to use similar tactics in which the conservative anti-gay folks were using.

If I am going to fight against propaganda, rhetoric, and bending the truth, I would not want to use those same tactics to expose my opponents. That could misrepresent my message. I admit that I am trying to be careful as I write this, knowing that I am in danger of being a third party in this matter. If I am writing this article against fighting fire with fire, I can not come in against both sides and add some fire of my own, so if I am being an accuser to the conservative Christians, or the LGBT Christians, I want to know.

I have read from a gay perspective, that the religious right are our enemies. I do not ever want to think this way, nor be guilty of the same thing that many have done to the LGBT community. They may not see how important we are, however we need to see how important they are. I am sure that just about every leader in the LGBT Christian community had their roots in religion that is not affirming of lesbian and gay people. I can not imagine where I would be today if it was not for the little Baptist Rescue Mission in Anchorage, Alaska and for the Foursquare church that I attended afterward. As a young man suffering with mental illness, confused about my own orientation, lonely and needy, I am sure that I would have ended up in a lot of trouble. Yes, there were a lot of hurts done to me in the twelve years that I remained in the closet in conservative churches, schools and ministries; however I thank the Lord that I spent those years growing in the things of God.

The New Testament makes it clear about who our real enemies are, like in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Also in Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Most Christians that I have met that are anti-gay, are that way for what seems to be the following reasons. First off, they simply don't know and understand much about LGBT people. Second, if they are straight and they don't know many gays, that these issues are not enough of a big deal to investigate the truth. Third, because of this, folks respond to what they know from society and what they hear from pulpits. Fourth, Christians can interpret the Bible trying to use ancient applications to God given commands and principals.

Where it starts getting ugly is when Christians, and especially Christian leaders that have media backing begin to believe that accepting gays will lead to the end of this great nation of ours. I have written letters to ministries who take such a stand, letting them know what I believe and how I feel about their opinions.

There are those who are insincere and have a heart full of hatred, desiring to see the ruin of certain groups of people that welcome LGBT people because of our current status in mainstream culture. There are also those who are in fact sincere. If sincere Christians are suggested such outrageous ideas that bring oppression to so many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, I believe those ideas come from hell, and not from man. Some people have their heart right, but their head messed up. Heaven is full of dear saints that have gone on to be with Jesus that held to opinions that go against gays and lesbians. Also, to their surprise, heaven is also full of lesbians and gays as well who believed in Christ for their salvation.

Soon after I came out, I began to explore organizations that were in favor of our cause and I was surprised at some of the initial statements used to describe some of them. I remember seeing the word "attack" used in order to expose and combat ex-gay and anti-gay organizations and material. Not only that, these were Christian groups fighting Christian groups.

From a medical standpoint, this sounds like a massive autoimmune disorder. What I know about this term has to do with the body's natural defensive systems (including natural body chemistry etc...) fighting essential body functions as opposed to fighting against things that are truly destroying the body. This happens as a result of a freak of nature, a tiny evil being multiplies itself within a body spreading this disease and making a healthy body fooled into fighting itself.

Friendly fire, from a military perspective, is not really friendly at all. That is when the "good guys" accidentally kill other "good guys" and is a result of errors, extreme pressure, lack of experience, negligence, bad decisions and tactical ignorance.

Another example has to do with computers. I was recently reviewing anti-spyware software when I came across a review from a consumer who wrote about this particular software erasing a few essential components of his operating system as well as spyware. This well intended program did the very opposite of what it was designed for.

My last example has to do with sibling rivalry. Imagine several groups of Christians who we will call children of Christ. These children disagree on some issues and break off communicating with each other. The human conscience can be developed in many ways, including knowledge, and knowledge is limited. Therefore division is inevitable between parties who refuse to learn and understand each other. I have not only seen this all over churches I have ministered in, but in my own family as well. I have a family member that will not talk to her sister because of something that happened in 1989.

My response to the rightly beloved (and leftly despised) statement of, "love the sinner but hate the sin" in reference to lesbian and gay people is this: love demands understanding. If we do not understand our opposers, and see what motivates them, perhaps we are guilty of their same judgmental attitudes. I hope that some day, the Christians who oppose gay rights and other related issues will learn to understand us.

Another note is that I am not opposed to activism. I am simply questioning some of the methods used by gay activists and desire that we evaluate ourselves to see if we may be guilty of the same faults as they are. There is a very important place for activists in favor of gay rights. Without activists our lives as LGBT people would be even more difficult then it is now. Its the same with the work done in the last few hundred years in the areas of equal rights for women and people of color.

When I see injustice in any degree happening around me, whether it is at work, at home or church, I have found that if I pray and be led by the Holy Spirit in the situation, God provides the solution. Sometimes I sense that I am to speak out on the situation however, much of the time it seems like I just need to keep pressing in to effective heartfelt prayer. Also, at the same time we can remember how much social justice work was sparked by faith in Christ and began within church communities through the centuries. The prophets of old risked their lives like many do today, in order to stand against harm that was, and is being done.

It is also important to keep a pure heart toward anyone who has betrayed and hurt us because of who we are. Proverbs 17:9 (Amplified Bible) says "He who covers and forgives an offense seeks love, but he who repeats or harps on a matter separates even close friends." While writing this article, I shared these ideas to a few men close to me (my partner and my Dad) and they came to the same conclusion that a leader in the LGBT church can minister what looks like justice, but could really be operating out of hurt and therefore hurting others. Times where I tried to expose the faults of others seems only to backfire on me. I have found this principal in several places in the Bible. I love how the Amplified Bible states James 5:16B "The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]."

On a personal note, I have lived in the conservative and the liberal world. I have seen both sides make the same mistakes. In 2006, I came out to the world about coming to terms with my orientation and in 2007 I came to terms with living with a mental illness and my commitment to getting treatment as well as informing others of the process. I wonder if in 2008, I will come out again in the political area as an "extreme moderate". Maybe this is not the place to make a joke about politics, but on the serious side, there could be some truth in that. As a gay Christian myself, I see this politically as me honoring my faith and orientation. Most Christians veer toward the right and gays to the left. I have a lot of thoughts about pros and cons about liberal and conservative politics, and perhaps some day I will write more about them. As an extreme moderate, I see this stand as an extreme refusal to be extreme on either side. I identify myself as a Christian and gay.

Gay secularists fight the Body of Christ enough, and we as LGBT Christians do not need to join in. There are indeed times where we need to stand up for the truth and we need to find ways to counteract the lies and ignorance without injuring so many of God's people who take anti-gay positions. Let us unite as a force of prayer warriors and non-violent equal rights activists with a powerful spiritual covering through organized prayer, and radical acts of love.

So this "war" on what many call the Religious Right should destroy things invisible: hatred, ignorance, fear, intolerance and judgment. I believe we can fight against these things while setting examples of integrity and faith while we injure no part of the universal congregations of the followers of the Christian faith.

God Bless,

Jason Ingram

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer - "Excuses, Excuses"

2007-10-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer
"Excuses, Excuses"

By Jason Ingram

Introduction:

In this article, I lay down some ideas about why Christians are to pray, and focus more on why we do not pray. I wonder now if there are Christians who read this and take offense thinking, "well of course I pray, who does this guy think he is trying to get me to pray more?" More prayer is not about getting more "brownie points" or striving to work at being more pious. I like to think about it as being closer to God, having more love, joy and more of the Spirit's power in your life. As you read, you will find that more prayer should not make you more weary, but just the opposite.

If you are someone who does not pray, or perhaps you feel that your prayers don't go beyond the ceiling, I hope you find out the reasons that are holding you back from a daily life of prayer and devotion. We all have excuses why we fail to pray, and I believe that this article is an attempt to expose some of those reasons why we don't pray, or perhaps we pray but are not making the God-connection that we need.

Shooting At Random:

I have a friend that I have known since the mid 90's that has a wonderful gift of mercy. You call him with any need, and he's there for you. That's his way of being an evangelist, and its a much better way to reach out to the down and out than by simply preaching. Before my trip to the mission field, he let me live with him for the few months when I was preparing. Much of my preparation was through extended times of prayer, and when he found out about it he felt convicted about his own prayer life. I guess he really did not pray at all privately, but maybe very little. When he did pray in church, it felt a bit "horizontal", meaning focused more on making a good prayer while in the presence of others as opposed to "vertical" prayers focused heavenward.

The result of his ministry seemed to me to be like he was firing randomly and hoping to someday hit a target. Let me explain: James 5:15-16 mentions that there is effectual prayer (so there must be non-effective prayer as well) and it makes "tremendous power available, dynamic in its working". No prayer, no power. There are times when you happen to be where and when God wants you to be somewhere, and a loving word and a helping hand can be enough to allow God to open ones heart, but only when that person is ready.

This dear saint seemed to be burned out much of the time, reacting to other's needs every day. He also got entangled in a lot of drama because of the type of needs of the folks he was trying to help. It was as if there were people who were ready to meet Christ all over his town, and yet he was reaching out to a lot of folks that were ready only for a handout. I remembered that very few of the many people he ministered to really stuck with the faith. One good example I remember is someone who was involved in the sex industry came to church for a few years or more and even had others come to church as well. All of a result of this man's ministry. I do not mean to criticize him, I just want to make a point that an effective praying Christian will be led by God about when, where and who to go to with the power of God to back it up.

I really do admire this man though. I have met many Christians that pray and pray but don't put "feet" to their prayers. I envision two folded hands in prayer with a pair of feet walking the hands to be the answer to the prayer. As silly as that image sounds, its a good picture of a Christian. Someone who prays and obeys. Giving action to the leadings of the Holy Spirit with the power of the Holy Spirit (through effective prayer). Sometimes we are the answer to our own prayer, and there are times when God will need to send someone else. Prayer brings God's plans and works to earth. If it were automatic, we would see spontaneous supernatural experiences happening all the time without anyone's cooperation.

My Personal Prayer Story:

When I first got a hold of this concept, I had been a Christian just over a few years and I began to really pray for my community and reach out. I would pray for about an hour or so, then get in my car and let God lead me. I ended up one time at someone's private studio where a lady was getting stoned. After talking with her, she shared with me about how Jesus had come to her recently and that she made some kind of vow to God. Not realizing what had happened to her, I was able to explain the Gospel. There was another time that I was led to go to two different places one night bumping into the same teenager who was running from God. One time while preaching in the smoking section of a Denny's in the middle of the night, a young lady told me that God had sent me as a sign to keep her baby that she was wondering whether to about or not. I have pulled a passed out Native man out of the snow in the woods, the man crying out to Jesus after I silently prayed for him. One time, after praying over my whole city block preparing for a home meeting, a drunk girl fell in the street as she got close to the house. As her friends and I carried her to the house she became conscious enough to receive Jesus. I saw her later at a Christian teen club wanting to live right. All of these experiences started with prayer, and there is no way that I could do any of this without God's help.

Since coming out in 2006, my prayer and devotional life has really changed. I see the first seven years of my Christian life as a continuous upward spiritual journey, getting stronger in spirit and knowledge. Then the following seven years were more of just the opposite. After returning from a successful overseas mission trip I had many brutal experiences where I felt as if I was crucified by the church. This was also a period in my life where I could no longer wear the straight guy mask and took an interest in my gay desires. Those seven years were a downward portion of my spiritual journey. Part of the problem is the church culture I was in was completely unaware of taking someone through a coming out experience and the gay culture was threatening to my faith. The church also painted a false picture of what it is for a Christian to be gay. I saw it through their eyes, that there was a paradigm of either straight Christian living, or careless godless gay living. Why I am going into this is simply to state that when I look back at the spiritual disciplines in my first seven years and my second set of seven years in Christ, the only real failures I have had were a failure to pray. The stories I shared above were in the heights of my Christian experience, and I owe it to the Holy Spirit's work. I also could not be a part of any of these experiences if I had not prayed accurately and fervently.

Prayer In Christian History:

Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure - DL Moody

There are many gifted and called ministers that don't have much of a life of prayer and devotion to God. Does God use them? Surly yes. However, without that daily connection to God, the minister will rely more on their own strength, instead of the power of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has a level of prayer they have in their daily lives. If you study much 19th century church history, you will read about the evangelism in what we call the Second Great Awakening. I have heard it said that the converts of Charles Finney stuck with the faith much more than Moody's who many of them seemed to fall away from the faith after conversion. I realize that this is a controversial statement, but I believe this to be true, and I will tell you why: Finney's ministry was noted with evidence of the workings of the Holy Spirit (although sometimes strange and hard to understand) and people in America had powerful experiences with God under his ministry. It is also noted what a great value prayer played in Finney's ministry. You find a Christian operating in the supernatural power of God, I will show you a Christian who makes prayer a priority in their life. Smith Wigglesworth from Wales, who ministered in his old age in the beginning of the twentieth century has been known to say that he did not go for thirty minutes without praying. I also heard that he prayed from four to eight in the morning.

Now I get to the main part of this article that answers this very important question:

"Why do Christians not pray?"

Here are some reasons that I thought of, however I am sure there are more...

Lack of Discipline:

Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God. - Andrew Murray

Just like any committed relationship takes consistent care and maintenance, so does a relationship with God. A loving relationship needs daily affirmation of love, clear communication and quality time. The key word here is daily. Have you ever heard about the story about the old couple where the wife asked the husband why he doesn't tell her that he loves her? He responded that he said "I love you" when they were first married and if he ever changed his mind that he would let her know. We are not to worship our loved ones, however we are to show that we love and adore the ones we love. Have you ever learned your partner's love languages? How about God's love languages?

Every religion has disciplines and learned practices, many have rituals and ceremonies that need to be practiced with precision. The Christian faith does not require outward forms of perfection, just a pure heart. A heart that has been cleansed by faith in the work of Christ and continuing to live out this inner purity.

The danger of discipline for the follower of Christ is that when you follow Jesus, He has a tendency to take you places you don't expect. So once you find a spiritual discipline that works, the Lord will want you to move on many times because God does not want us to put our faith in our devotions, God does not want us to become too familiar with practices least we forget Who we are doing all of this for. For example, when you find a way to get your prayer answered on Monday, you may find that God is leading you to pray in a totally different way on Tuesday to get the same results.

We must always remember that God is a Person, and not a thing. I do not believe that God is a mystical force, or that somehow "God" is simply the sum total of all matter in the universe including good and evil. God has feelings. God has a Spirit like we do. I will even go so far to say that God has a body, and I believe that body is Jesus Christ. When it comes to the Deity of Christ, there are many little variations in these doctrines, and its not a big deal. What I am trying to communicate here is that Christianity is about a relationship, not rituals. Prayer can easily turn into a ritual, and we need to be careful about that. What I am saying about God being a person is that this relationship demands that we take action daily to cultivate and grow in this relationship. This takes discipline, and the good news is that habits grow on us (some studies report about three to six weeks to form a habit) until after some time its not so hard after a while. In fact prayer is the opposite of someone addicted to drugs. It takes more of the drug to produce less of an effect. Every year of your life of prayer, worship and devotion; you in fact get more blessings out of less effort the more you live in the Spirit! The closer you get to God (and I'm not kidding here) the more "high" you get spending time in the heavenly bliss of the Holy Spirit. You can in fact form a spiritual habit, and even become "addicted" to prayer!

Shame:

"I just did not feel like God heard me or accepted of me... I heard so much from the pulpit about how wrong it is to be gay that I gave up." Many of us in the lesbian and gay community can relate to this. I believe that this is the #1 reason why we don't pray. This paragraph is short because I have a teaching entitled "Not Guilty". This article goes into depth about how guilt and shame is such a hindrance into entering into the presence of God and how the gay and lesbian community can fall into a shame based self-image so easily.

Misunderstandings:

There is a mighty lot of difference between saying prayers and praying. - John G. Lake

Many of us don't realize that we need to pray; and what is the eternal value of a life of devotion. Some think that prayer is not for them, that its only for nuns and monks. Some replace prayer with just doing mental practices. Others may think that they are not smart enough. Many use prayer only for emergencies. Some pray only out of prayer books, or in the presence of others like saying "grace" before a meal.

I think some of the most common misunderstands about prayer come from, I hate to say it: churches. I have heard a lot of prayers that are not based on Scripture but more on a particular denomination's tradition. Tradition is not wrong in itself, however we need to challenge any Christian tradition that does not meet the principals taught in the New Testament. What I mean by principal is to take what you believe was meant for us to practice instead of taking a passage literally or out of context. One example is what many call "the Lord's prayer". Jesus taught on prayer, gave an example saying that we were to pray "in this manner". Jesus never said for us to pray by quoting that passage word for word. There are many other prayers in the New Testament, my favorites being the prayers of Paul. We can also gain some prayer principals in the Old Testament as well, especially the Psalms. I personally love to study the prayer lives of great women and men in church history.
Some of them include: Saint Teresa of Avila (Spain, 1515-1582), Saint Columba (UK, 521-597) Aimee Semple McPherson (Canada/US, 1890-1944), John G. Lake, (UK, S. Africa, US, 1870-1935) as well as others I have mentioned and/or quoted in this article. Just like it takes knowledge in order to effectively communicate in a committed relationship, it takes knowledge to understand prayer.

This is another misunderstanding: It is that prayer is based only on sincerity. Praying with honesty and sincerity is essential for answered prayer, and we must understand also that we are required to have knowledge of prayer as well. That's basically what I am trying to do with my writings on prayer, to shed light on the subject of prayer in order to help equip the gay affirming church movement. Jesus said in John 4 that we are to worship the Father in Spirit and truth. Can this principal be applied to prayer? Worship and prayer are both forms of devotion, so I would say that worshipping in Spirit and truth applies to prayer. Just as we learn and grow in our knowledge of God and prayer, we should also not get too far off into our intellect, but get "into the Spirit". The Spirit is our destination, however it does indeed take some knowledge to get there.
"Emergence" 2004 -By Jason Ingram

The Flesh:

E. M. Bounds, who wrote many historic books on prayer (one of them I have been reading for about a decade it is so heavy!) said: "Prayer is the creator as well as the channel of devotion. The spirit of devotion is the spirit of prayer. Prayer and devotion are united as soul and body are united, as life and the heart are united. There is no real prayer without devotion, no devotion without prayer."

Prayer, as wonderful as it is can be taxing. Prayer can be hard. Prayer can seem to make no sense. Prayer can seem to use up our time and energy, however connecting with the strength of Almighty God can actually benefit us to where we find ourselves having more productive time and strength. I met a missionary who was back from India one time at a church and invited him over for some left over spaghetti. He mentioned that would pray himself to sleep every night. I would love to be there some day with that kind of devotion. It is so refreshing to associate with folks that challenge your Christianity.

The flesh is our body. In addition, I have heard it taught that the realm of the flesh also includes the human mind. Christianity can appear to the intellectual world as seeming anti-intellectual. If you read the works of C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton and other great thinkers of Christendom, you will find that there is great room for intellect in the faith. Unfortunately, there seems to be not much room in much of Christian culture for intellectuals. Part of this comes from negative aspects of church leadership from the Dark Ages until now that have to do with control and keeping people ignorant. (I have been in the church since 1994 and honestly, its not nearly as bad as some have made it out to be!) Another reason why there is a sort of anti-intellectual thrust in much of the church is this principal of the "carnal mind" which Paul teaches in the book of Romans, as well as other portions of the New Testament.

The carnal mind, or what is also called the mind of the flesh represents thoughts and ideas that go contrary to our spiritual life. Romans 12:2 teaches about renewing your mind. Paul, writing to the Ephesians also uses the term to be "renewed in the spirit (attitude) of your mind. The flesh and the mind are connected. Imagine you waking up groggy early in the morning with not enough sleep. I guarantee your thoughts will reflect your body's feelings. The emotions, the body and the mind all control each other and influence each other.

I personally believe that when we hear the word "soul" in relation to the New Testament in a Christian context, that it refers to three components of self: the mind, the will and emotions. Emotions are real and important. We are not to pretend that they are not there, because emotions can be our warning light when it comes to things that need to be dealt with. The issue here is that emotions should not lead the Christian. The will is simply the final decision making process. Christian growth can be seen as a continuing surrender of the human will to the will of God. The mind in itself has a "default mode" that is not favorable to the life in the Spirit. In fact the Bible calls the carnal mind "enmity" with God. Yes my mind can be God's enemy if not spiritually renewed.

When it comes to prayer, this wandering mind of ours in its default mode will not want to pray. Everyone can relate to this. There is always something that the mind can find that is more important or something to do that makes more sense than praying. Also, the emotions in charge of our morning will not want to pray. "I don't feel like it!" That's the voice of emotion. "I just don't want to and I am not going to" can be the voice to the will. The flesh will suddenly get hungry or tired when it is time to pray. Let me say that again: The flesh will suddenly get hungry or tired when it is time to pray. Its so true when it comes to daily devotions! So there is nothing wrong with thinking, new ideas and being an intellectual, just as long as the ways of thinking are not in contrary to the Spirit.

Prince of the Power of the Air:

When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy. - Corrie Ten Boom

In the New Testament, the devil is mentioned as being "the Prince of the Power of the Air" which represents the invisible realm of earth. Also in 2 Corinthians 4:4 the "god of this world" can blind minds so they can see the truth. This is also true for believers. The devil can blind Christians from doing what God wants them to do. He uses distractions, thoughts, ideas and anything, even religion to keep people from God's best. His realm of operation is the mind. The mind works with the will and emotions.

Simply stated, if there is a devil, or a negative force in the world as some see it, this kingdom in opposition to the Kingdom of God will try to influence God's people to prevent God's kingdom from being established on earth. One of the primary targets this demonic operation will come against is effective prayer. If the devil can't stop you from praying, he may try to get you to pray ritualistically and ineffectively. He will try to keep you ignorant about prayer and use the ways of the flesh to try to daily sway you away from your "power time" with God in prayer. This may all sound paranoid, and I realize that there is a lot of stigma about folks that talk about "the devil! the devil!" being everywhere trying to get you. I personally do not think that way, and yet there is a principal in the New Testament that we are not to be "ignorant of his devices".

The more you study the Holy Bible, you will find the Christian has been given authority over Satan and his kingdom (more about this topic in my four part online video series "Bossy"). The subject of Demonology can be spooky, however if we keep our focus on God, and who we are as Christians "in Christ" like the New Testament says, we will see that we have the power because the Greater One lives in us!

Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. - The Kneeling Christian

Accountability:

I have studied about Christian communities whether Catholic or Protestant, and one thing I see that is consistent in what I have found is that in these structured environments, people spend a lot of time in prayer. Some of these communities however, require strict times of prayer that it has a tendency to produce more of a "dead ritual" than a sweet communion that prayer should be.

I do see a positive thing about having others being involved in your prayer life is that you are accountable with your prayer discipline. I got the wonderful opportunity to live with a pastor couple on a ranch in southern rural Oklahoma. I was in a daze one morning and had one of those frustrated times in prayer that I had given up on. So I got up from the guest room to find the old rancher smiling at me and with his strong southern accent asked me, "did you pray through?" Praying through is an old Pentecostal term about when you spend enough time in prayer until you sense a spiritual breakthrough. I saw Kenneth E. Hagin describe it as hitting a "gusher". Brother Hagin began praying several hours a day until he prayed through. Then he said that as the weeks went by, it got easier and easier to get into the Spirit. Six hours turned to four, than down to one hour until he was able to maintain like a consistent walk in the spirit.

I am fortunate to have a loving partner who is sincere before God. When we first met, I felt ashamed of my life of prayer and thought that if I was in a gay relationship that I was somehow not supposed to pray. Because of that I would get so down and confused. Little by little I regained my prayer life until Tom saw how valuable it was to me. When I asked him if he ever wanted to join me in my daily devotional time, he already wanted to! We have been doing our devotionals since 2006 and it has become very important to him. We hear from God together, pray for each other, we pray for our friends and family and also intercede for our dear friends like you that we meet online. If one of us forgets or one of us just does not want to do it (yes me, the moderator of the Gay Prayer Resource does not want to pray at times!) most of the time the other will encourage the devotional time to happen.

"The secret of praying is praying in secret." - Leonard Ravenhill

The negative side of having others involved with your devotions, is that you may loose the joy of knowing that only God knows about your special time. You can still go over and above what others know about your prayer time. In fact, you may find that your secret times are your best times. Tell someone that you are going out for a long walk and find a secluded place somewhere and hang out with the Lord. You will love it!

There is another issue about why people don't pray and it has to do with mental issues. This is something I deal with on a daily basis, and is real to me enough to write an article on mental wellness and prayer. Wellness is not just about mental conditions (such as clinical depression) but also on emotional issues as well. I simply can't accuse a mental or emotionally suffering Christian of being a flesh ruled carnally minded person, just because of what they go through? How about someone who is mute? They literally can not say a prayer. I would love to do more studies about other ways of communing with God, but that's for another time.

Postlude:

I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer. -- Martin Luther

With all of this said about why we are to pray and why we don't pray, I hope that all my readers can make an informed decision about what they are going to do with their relationship with God. We can simply look at this as two roads to take in our service to the continuing work of Christ: Are we to work out of our power (our human strength) and suffer burn out (and what I mentioned earlier as "shooting at random"); or are we to "suffer" (because it does indeed demand sacrifice of time and effort) in prayer and experience God's rest, God's refreshing, God's strength and direction. It is amazing how many Christian ministers and organizations get anything done without the power of the Holy Spirit, but I think there are many things done for God in human strength. It doesn't have to be that way though. In some ways I am grateful for my many weaknesses. Although I won't get into all of them now, I will tell you that I have enough about me now that nearly drives me to God every day. Some folks operate in their natural born giftings of leadership, abilities and a drive for success. They are more prone to error and pride. With having a musical gift, I admit that I can easily relate to this issue because I can so quickly rely on the gift than on God.

Christians that never pray are not doomed to eternal destruction just for not praying. Prayer does not make you more loved by God. You don't loose your relationship with God if you stop praying. God never forces us to pray. If you pray less that brother so-and-so, does that make you less of a Christian? No. Prayer is just one aspect of the Christian life, and it also happens to be the theme of this body of work, so its obvious that I will over emphasize the subject of prayer. However, with any good thing, we must not get lost in just one subject. Remember what a Christian is commanded to do: Love.

Earnestness is good and impressive: genius is gifted and great. Thought kindles and inspires, but it takes a diviner endowment, and more powerful energy than earnestness or genius or thought to break the chains of sin, to win estranged and deprived hearts to God, to repair the breaches and restore the Church to her old ways of purity and power. Nothing but the anointing of the Holy Spirit can do this. -E. M. Bounds

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer: “Not Guilty”

2007-10-05T16:56:00.001-07:00

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer

“Not Guilty”
By Jason Ingram

A “Transparent” Introduction:

This message has been on my heart for about four months now and there is so much in me to get out. As I write this, I am hoping that I don’t explode with all these ideas. I guess I failed to write this work for so long because I felt as if I needed to gain some kind of deeper knowledge and experience about the subject before I felt adequate to tackle such a difficult issue. That also shows my readers that I indeed currently deal with guilt and shame and I have not “arrived” when it comes to living completely and daily free from guilt and shame feelings. This is where I am at in my journey and I hope that the things I have learned will help you in your life of prayer and devotion to God. Be blessed as you read.

I believe this message is so important to the LGBT community, and I hope my readers take it to heart. I also hope that those who oppose my view about gays and the church will see gay and lesbian Christians just as forgiven as straight Christians. What I want to communicate here in this article is that guilt is a very important issue when it comes to answered prayer. Guilt can be something we feel because we have done wrong, however instead of the guilt causing sincere spiritual conviction, there is a tendency for guilt to cause us to run from God as opposed to running to God. We also need to understand different forms of guilt and what shame is and how these all affect our life of prayer.

Guilt and Shame:

I had it explained to me this past summer that guilt says: “I have done something wrong”, while shame says: “I am wrong.” I grew up in an environment where I was praised for what I do (performance) however I felt like I was being put down for who I was. If I feel guilty for something that is not wrong, there is no way to right those wrongs and as a result is a deep rooted feeling of shame. There are other reasons why many of us feel shame including being unwanted and abused, especially sexual abuse.

Shame is a huge hindrance to a confident life of prayer and devotion to God. A believer who has a shame based view of self may come to God with a lot of self-put-downs. This all sounds pious and even impressive when praying in the presence of others, however many times this comes out of false guilt (a guilt that stays, shame) and I suppose I can even call it false humility at times.

False Guilt:

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, there is something I will call “false guilt” that is basically like a false accusation that is not dealt with. False guilt can be seen as a feeling of having done something wrong when really there was no wrong done. You may also see false guilt as shame. This can come from by many means. Some of them I will share:

A hyper-sensitive conscience
This describes an ultra-introspective person who always feels a sense of guilt and shame that she or he feels “I need to figure out what bad things I have done and deal with every one of them in order for me to feel OK”

Gay shame
For the lesbian and gay community this is especially important to identify and any of us who were raised in conservative Christianity or who have spent much of our adult life (like me) in churches that preach that it is a sin to be homosexual; as well as pressure form society to be straight

False legalistic teaching
Some churches have extreme doctrines that say things like we have to observe the Old Testament in order to please God, that if a woman cuts her hair she’s “going to hell” (evangelist Jesse Duplantis met a guy one time that actually believed this based on his denomination), some believe they have to drop out of society believing that anything of the world is evil, also, I have been part of a movement of the church that although is positive about healing has a tendency to put pressure on the suffering to have less “unbelief”

The accuser of the brethren
The book of Revelation calls Satan the “Accuser of the Brethren” trying to find fault because he knows that if a believer can get into shame and not pray effectively, that Christian will get way off track (Rev 12:10)

Words of others
This is a major component of producing a shame-based self image, for instance people growing up being told things like “shame on you” on a regular basis

Poor Me, Pour Me A Drink – Shame Based Attitudes:

Basically, shame gets someone to think something like, “no matter how good I try to be, I might as well give up on trying to be good”. Giving up on growing spiritually, giving up on prayer, going to church and church involvement and ultimately giving up on loving others. I will be so bold to say that out of all the reasons why Christians don’t pray, this is probably reason #1. We all have excuses why we don’t pray, but why do we make those excuses in the first place. (Please read the article: Excuses, Excuses)

One of the reasons we fail to pray may be that we feel to ashamed to came to God, or that God will not accept us. The mind is powerful and makes a lot of decisions almost automatically because of the way it has been “programmed”. In this case, a shame based person has clearly been programmed to think that way, and the input can come from many sources including religion. Another contributor to a shame based view of self is self-reinforcement. This is where the individual is accustomed to shame based self talk and like a snowball rolling down a steep hill, the problem escalates.

Several years ago, a Native American recovering alcoholic I used to work for in Oregon mentioned this condition of “poor me, pour me a drink”. We are so beaten up by the world that we beat up on ourselves and ultimately others get hurt in the process. A person in this state must choose where they are going to “hit bottom” and find their way back up. We realize that prayer is not a selfish act, however when you think about it, prayer is the best thing you can do for yourself! Its your way back up. If you feel like you have hit bottom, you are likely to hit even lower, and lower if you don’t do something right now. Prayer is the first place to begin. Prayer allows God to work in your life. You do not have to wait for some kind of supernatural thing to compel you to pray. Take action now to pray and then get the supernatural in your life as a result.

(Photo By Jason Ingram)

Answered Prayer:

Last week, my partner was on his way picking me up from work when he began to pray. Soon after that a CD from the passenger side sun visor slipped out and hit him, and landed right in the center of the console beside him. It was part of a Joyce Meyer message that he needed to hear that moment concerning some issues that the Lord was dealing with him about. It really scared him, until he realized that it was God’s way of getting his attention. Five days later I was praying for him while I was at work, and he had a major breakthrough that day. Prayer truly allows God to move, and even for gay couples!

I can’t tell you how many times that the Lord has delivered me from feelings of guilt, shame and fear. I will randomly open one of my Bibles and I will be at (or near) a passage that I need at the moment. In times like this, the Holy Spirit has taken me to passages like Romans 8:1 or Psalm 32 for instance. Sometimes I go to a passage like Psalm 51 which is about repentance and I realize that I got off into disobedience to something that God wanted me to do or not do. I also go through passages in the Bible that may not apply to me at the moment as well. Please realize that I am not floating around in some super spiritual dimension. On the other hand, I do see evidence of God working in my life, just about on a daily basis, and I am not bragging; its just what a little bit of prayer does (and sometimes a lot!) to a big God.

Shame and Insecurity:

Shame not only separates us from God, but shame can separate us from others. If I feel that something is wrong with me, I will try to act like someone else, which will not cultivate long term relationships, but maybe a few short friendships; or I will isolate myself entirely. When it comes to relationships, shame says “if you really get to know me you will find that I am a bad person so I will either keep you at an arm’s length, or reject you now so I will not have to suffer the pain of being rejected”.

If anyone wants to see if they love God, all you have to do is to see if you love people. The way you see God is similar to how you think others are seeing you. If you think other people see you as being a filthy, worthless, useless, outcast; it will be difficult to come to God with a deep realization of the fact that you are loved, accepted and forgiven. This greatly affects your life of prayer and devotion to God, just as your conversations with others may be strained if you try to operate under a shame-based self image.

Joyce Meyer teaches about how she was (what she calls) “addicted” to guilt. Growing up being sexually abused by her father, she was so used to feeling shame that she was to the point where she believed “I only felt right if I felt wrong”. I can relate. Imagine if you were so used to feeling that you are wrong, that if you were feeling that you were OK would seem like a far fetched, foreign feeling that somehow made you into someone that is arrogant or self-righteous?

I want to tell you that just being lesbian or gay does not make you wrong, just as being a man or a woman makes you somehow less than others, or some kind of a mistake. Even an unplanned birth is no “accident” like some children and adults feel. We are all special to God, and we all have a purpose in life.

Conviction:

If there is false guilt, is there such thing as “good” guilt? Sounds strange that there could be a true guilt if guilt is something that we don’t want in our lives. Look at it this way: What if every judge in the whole world decides that all guilt is bad and therefore pronounces everyone as innocent without any consequences of anyone’s harm they have done?

There is an umpire inside of us that declares whether something is right or wrong: our conscience. A conscience is not Jiminy Cricket, but if you want to use that picture, I suppose that may help to understand how this works. Hollywood sees this process as an angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other. Although it may feel that the struggle to decide right from wrong is likened to that picture, I see it quite differently. I see it as several forces at work in our decision making process:

First, there is our flesh: self... our mind... our own wants and even needs. This can also be explained in the context of a Christian who has truly experienced the cleansing and regeneration through the new birth in Christ as having a new nature, and an old nature like I am explaining here. This stubborn old self needs to be disciplined and controlled through spiritual growth and sanctification. Have you ever tried to walk a big crazy dog and had it walk you instead of you walking the dog? After the dog is trained to obey you can keep it more under control, but it takes time and work. Our “carnal” nature needs to be tamed as well.

Another force at work is the demonic element. There is an invisible world that wants to influence the minds of all of us to harm ourselves and others. What may start as a suggestion or an idea may evolve into a driving obsession to so a particular thing that is ultimately destructive. It sounds simple-minded, however I think this makes sense: If there is a devil, wouldn’t he try to deceive the guilty into thinking they are righteous and the righteous into feeling like their guilty? Both attitudes produce some kind of harm to the human race and both attitudes (of self-righteousness and false guilt) bring both kinds of people into doing what is wrong.

The positive forces at work start with the human spirit, the conscience and the Holy Spirit. I see the conscience as being simply a work of the human spirit. A reborn believer in Christ will have their spirit alive to the Spirit of Christ, and will have a quickened sensitive conscience, being ever careful of being an example of love and not of self.

The greatest force on our side is the Kingdom of God. God, Christ and the Holy Spirit working along with heaven’s angles are working to gently prod us into doing what is right. If faced with a moral dilemma, the believer should call upon the name of the Lord for help. Prayer can be a great way to make good choices.

No Condemnation:

Simply stated, conviction is what some call the “still small voice” of the conscience saying gently and lovingly “you are guilty” of what ever the transgression was and always provides a way out of the guilt. Condemnation is when there are feelings of fear and shame that there is no way out of the guilt. (Rom 8)

Pattern of guilt
Guilt will produce shame if not dealt with
Shame will produce feelings of rejection and abandonment because of the outcome having to do with isolation from a protector (parents, authority and even the way God is perceived)
Rejection, abandonment and isolation will always produce fear (separation form the protector, in this case the way someone sees God)
Fear will produce anger as a desperate insecure attempt to control one’s environment so they won't get hurt
Anger will ultimately end up as anger toward God

You show me a person that is angry at others, I will show you someone who, without even realizing it most of the time, is blaming God. Blaming God for apparently “allowing” others to abuse, mistreat, hurt and use. Angry at God for apparently not being there to protect and even purposely cause bad things to happen. Many people, even sincere folks whether Christians or not live in this angry state of mind. This hardness of heart blocks the touch of God from their lives. If this is you, there is hope.

Too Good To Be True:

So whether someone is guilty of doing wrong, or simply feels wrong, guilt can, and must be dealt with. One way many people deal with guilt is to simply deny it. Yes, denial. As silly as it sounds, I am amazed how many sincere educated men and women think that all they need to do in order to overcome these feelings of guilt is to resist the feelings of guilt and somehow rid themselves of it. Like many other feelings, guilt can be seen as a warning light on your car’s dashboard, simply telling you that something needs to be fixed. You have a choice to either “fix” the dashboard, or go to the real cause of the problem.

Perhaps the reason why so much of the world walks around with such a guilty conscience is that they have never made the connection to God and received a spiritual cleansing and pardon. I believe that the death sentence that we deserve was paid by the torture and death of Christ. Simple belief, in this great exchange of punishment and acting on that belief results in what I call the “New Birth”. If you have already received Jesus into your live, and given the Christ your heart to cleanse and renew, you are seen by God as clean, and you can come to the Lord in prayer without any shame of who you are.

If you have not ever given yourself to this new birth in Christ, the best way is to do this in prayer. Jesus paid your penalty and took your guilt, in order that we can have access to God’s loving presence, God’s healing power for our body and soul, provision for our needs and to fill our joy; and life eternal. This is the only thing I know of that sounds “too good to be true” that actually is!

Pray to God in the name of Jesus, that you give your life, dedicating yourself to God. Not sure you believe or have enough faith? If you simply agree that Jesus loves you and accepts you right now, and that Jesus is God who came to earth to make this way for all people to have life, that is faith my friend. You may not feel anything at first. The more you spend time with God through prayer and study of the Holy Bible, you will be amazed at how real God will be to you. I guarantee it.

Pray today that you be cleansed from all guilt. Then get up, thankful that you are made pure, cleansed and forgiven. It is so much easier to live a pure life when you are first made pure. Its not about you trying to become holy by being good; its about God making you holy first, so out of God’s love and goodness put in you, that from the supernatural outflow you may shine God’s love and joy – being a living example of the message of Christ.

I encourage you to take action in order to walk free from guilt and shame. There is hope and healing for everyone. I hope that the more the gay and lesbian community can learn to overcome shame, that we can draw closer to God and pray for the needs of our people.

My partner and I try to spend time reading the Bible and praying every day. We also like other Christian materials and other resources that help us to grow like group and individual therapy and at times couples and pastoral counseling.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message. If I helped you an any way, please email me at my gaypray gmail address and let me know. I would love to hear from you!

Here are some tools for overcoming guilt and shame from the Holy Bible:

1 John 1:9 (New International Version)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 32:1-2
1 Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.

More:

Romans 2:4
Romans 3:21-24

2 Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified Bible)
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

"River of the Redeemed"
Oil pastels on panel, by Jason Ingram

Meet Jesus

Part 1-The Gay Prayer Resource Presents "Bossy"

2007-06-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

Is God really in control of everything? If not, who is and why? Jason, a queer Christian artist teaches on our authority we have as followers of Christ from a gay perspective and how it is important for the lgbt community to have a strong life of prayer and stand against the kingdom of darkness. In this first part of the teaching, Jason answers these tough theological questions including "can God do anything?"

Jason is the moderator of the "Gay Prayer Resource" and is involved in affirming church work, performing and recording music, video, photography and art. For more parts to this series, writings and articles including multi-media, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray for the continuation of the series, go to http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray/web/prayer-resource-videos

Prayer and Mental Health

2007-06-24T16:45:00.001-07:00

As I share with others in the Gay/Lesbian faith community about mental health issues, I have found that it is quite a struggle for many of us. I have written this article for those who feel sometimes that they can't pray, and as a result, feel confused and even guilty. I am also sharing this writing with those that are in mental health support groups and I have gotten positive responses. A dear lesbian sister told me at church after reading the article that these issues apply to everyone in some way as well.

Click here for the
PRAYER AND MENTAL HEALTH LINK

Be blessed as you read,

Jason T. Ingram
Gay Prayer Resource Moderator

Part 2-The Gay Prayer Resource presents... "Bossy"

2007-06-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

The second of four parts about the authority of the believer in Christ.

Is God really in control of everything? If not, who is and why? Jason, a queer Christian artist teaches on our authority we have as followers of Christ from a gay perspective and how it is important for the lgbt community to have a strong life of prayer and stand against the kingdom of darkness. In this second part of the teaching, Jason begins his lesson on how Lucifer lost his authority over the earth through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and gave that authority to the church. Jason is the moderator of the "Gay Prayer Resource" and is involved in affirming church work, performing and recording music, video, photography and art. For more parts to this series, writings and articles including multi-media, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray and for the other parts of this teaching, http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray/web/prayer-resource-videos

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer - Prayer 911 – The Prayer of Desperation

2007-06-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer
By Jason T. Ingram

Prayer 911 – The Prayer of Desperation

Hear me when I cry

The book of Psalms are full of the prayers of desperate people in desperate situations. They were in war, division and even depression; so their intellectual capability of remembering traditions and teachings on prayer were not such an issue, but a time of pouring one’s heart out before heaven like a child that has fallen down crying out to a parent for comfort. In the Psalms you hear this phrase a lot: “Hear my cry” or similar phrases. Its OK to cry to God. Sometimes that’s the only Person you can cry to at times.

God knows the state of human beings, and we all have times of being so overwhelmed, we may say things based on our feelings alone, and not based on much truth. I don’t believe that God will turn away such a plea.

Prayer 911

Have you ever called 911? I have. I know that I am calling someone who has had a lot of training in the area of working with distraught folks that are in crisis. The caller does not have to use a calm collected voice, using complete sentences and be making total sense in order to get help. The 911 employee understands that. But we should not be calling 911 every day.

Prayer 411

There are times though, that when the praying Christian is in a right state of mind and heart that we are to pray according to what we know, and not based on feelings. If 911 type praying is all that goes up from a believer to heaven, perhaps there can be other forms of prayer that can be answered more effectively like:
-Praise and worship
-Thanksgiving
-Intercession, praying for others
-Praying through scripture
-Prayers against world forces of darkness
-Praying in tongues, etc...

Are you afflicted? Pray now!

Why wait? Pray now. Seek the Lord while the Lord may be found like in Isaiah 55. Don’t wait to feel better. Don’t do good things to feel better about bad things you may have done, cry out for God’s mercy and be cleansed from all guilt. Pray if you are a straight person, pray if you are a lesbian, a gay man, bi or transgendered. Pray if you are not a Christian. Call on the name of Jesus not matter what religious beliefs you may hold to. Pray if you are mad at Christians, mad at yourself, or even mad at God. Pray in your car, in the alley, in your bed, or at your computer. Pray standing, kneeling, walking, sitting or lying down. Pray if you are running from a dangerous situation. Anyone can. You can.

The one word prayer of desperation

Have you ever heard of a major disaster where folks cry out in desperation? I bet you will hear this one word:

Jesus

As someone who deals with mental illness I have come to know this prayer quite well. “Jesus” is sometimes all I can say when I am in trouble. That’s all I know how to do sometimes. When I am out of control and paralyzed with fear, even though I teach on prayer, I forget all I know about prayer and nearly abandon my faith at times. This is where I simply call on the name of Jesus. Its like calling on your Mom who is in the next room as a child in need. A name can summon a person. When you call on the name of Jesus, you have the Person of Jesus there with you.

Grab the manual

Industrial work places should train their new employees to know where the eye wash and the MSDS is. First, get the chemical out of your eyes, then you learn about the hazardous stuff that got there. The Material Safety Data Sheet is the manual of all the chemicals used in the plant. It is in a handy place like a fire extinguisher, or an emergency exit.

Just like the prayer of desperation, the other thing to do is grab a Bible if one is handy. I like to carry Bibles with me most places I go. I keep a few little New Testaments with Psalms in my bag. I have a few Bibles in my bedroom, family room and studio. Sometimes I flip through a Bible waiting for something to “pop” out at me, or perhaps I have marked a page or underlined some passages that speak to me.

Be a Psalm reader

Reading the Psalms out loud has a tremendous way of dispelling the darkness that tries to surround you. A Psalm of praise, like the last five in the book of Psalms, or Psalm 18, 27, 34, 91 etc... can break a spiritual black cloud that may be trying to get you away from God. The book of Psalms is nearly in the middle of the Bible and has 150 chapters. Its big, easy to find and there is a lot of powerful inspired words, even if they don’t make sense.

One note about this: when you see writings in the Old Testament, especially the book of Psalms that speak about enemies, remember that since Christ, under this New Covenant of love, we are dealing with dark spiritual enemies, not people. Jesus commands us to love our enemies, not curse them. We can and we should pray against demons though. So get out your Emanuel Manual and use this “Sword of the Spirit” and the name of Jesus to get you out of your desperate situation.

Resources:

Jesus

The Bible, especially Psalms

About the picture:
"Broken" By Jason Ingram, oils on canvas 2005
sources: http://www.gaychristian.net/userfiles/1160585938-Broken.jpg
http://www.gaychristian.net/community/showtopic.php?tid/13802319/post/13875659/hl//s

Part 3-The Gay Prayer Resource presents... "Bossy"

2007-06-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

(Part three of four)

Is God really in control of everything? If not, who is and why? Jason, a queer Christian artist teaches on our authority we have as followers of Christ from a gay perspective and how it is important for the lgbt community to have a strong life of prayer and stand against the kingdom of darkness. In this third part of the teaching, Jason continues his teaching on spiritual authority in prayer as well as a way to meet our Creator personally through Jesus Christ. Jason is the moderator of the "Gay Prayer Resource" and is involved in affirming church work, performing and recording music, video, photography and art. For more parts to this series, writings and articles including multi-media, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray and for more of these videos, http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray/web/prayer-resource-videos

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer - Find the Balance

2007-06-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Chronicles of Answered Prayer
By Jason T. Ingram

Find The Balance

A pastor years ago told me, “if you have the Word without the Spirit, you dry up – if you have the Spirit without the Word, you blow up - and if you have the Spirit and the Word, you grow up.” I believe this principal also applies to effective prayer as well. In my writings, when I mention the Word, I am talking about the Christian Holy Bible, and when I mention “the Spirit” I mean the Holy Spirit (especially when I use the big S which is popular to capitalize in reference to Deity) the spirit with the small “s” it typically describing the human spirit.

Spiritually dry

My partner and I were talking the other day about his experience about reading the Bible in the past and his frustrations with it. I asked him if he ever prayed for understanding or prayed the Bible out loud. His church never taught that, and for years he put his Bible down, nearly giving up on it. There are a lot of sincere Christians that have never been shown how to have an effective devotional life. Now, my partner loves to do our devotionals daily and if we miss one, he bugs me about it until we make it up. I have no super powers, I just show folks what has worked for me and I have happened to be around a lot of Christians over the years that get their prayers answered.

The supernatural

One thing I have noticed with those who have a powerful prayer life, is not only their knowledge of the Bible, but their ability to get “in the Spirit.” This Bible experience in found in the book of Revelation and is also seen in the lives of the Old Testament prophets, like Ezekiel, Daniel and Isaiah. This is a spiritual dimension (or realm) any true believer in Jesus can enter in to.

Pray what God wants for you to pray, and how to pray

On the practical side though, the spirit realm is not to be taken lightly and there is a deceptive side to it as well as the true supernatural workings of God. For the believer who is new to these things, there is a natural tendency to confuse the senses and emotions with the spirit. Another major hindrance to these experiences in the supernatural has to do with this gray matter between our ears, yes the brain. If our minds have meditated daily on the Word of God, being in the Spirit will be more accurate to have the ability to pray in the prophetic gifts. If our brains are not accustomed to spiritual things, and focused only on the natural, it is easy to get ideas that are not of God, and we could in fact be praying out of line.

Do not be caught in what the Bible calls to “pray amiss” that is found in the book of James and has been explained as asking God with the wrong motives, or even praying for the wrong things. So pray what God wants you to pray for and don’t stop praying until the Holy Spirit releases you or until you get your answer. Your answer could come sooner than you expect!

A final directive

When it comes to praying while in the Spirit realm, the Lord may indeed show you things, even about others. It is absolutely essential to recognize the following principal:

Are you to SAY or PRAY?

To say things that you see in the Spirit is in fact to “prophesy” about it. Saying something out of line, even if the message is true can cause the speaker to:
-Function out of their gift, and cross over into another ministry office that was meant for another
-Be lifted up in pride
-Cause damage to a hearer if it was not their place to hear
-Loose their ability to function (for a season) in the prophetic gifts out of disobedience
-Spread gossip

So realize that God can show you something and it could be to pray it out, not to say it out. Seek God for wisdom, and wait for an answer whether you should share what you see, and with whom to share it with. A practical rule of thumb is to keep a prayer journal, or simply write these impressions you get in prayer in your diary or personal journal. I think it is best to keep things to yourself if unsure, or share with an understanding pastor or trusted leader about your dilemma.

Resources:

Praying God's Word – by Dr. Ed Dufresne
https://secure.eddufresne.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=100&osCsid=348e8294165c0abebf5825f2d4076d56

Germaine Copeland’s resources on prayer
Prayers That Avail Much (Vol. 1, 2 & 3)
http://www.prayers.org/

Gay Prayer Resource Presents "Bossy" Part 4

2007-06-11T17:41:00.000-07:00

The last part in the series of four. Is God really in control of everything? If not, who is and why? Jason, a queer Christian artist teaches on our authority we have as followers of Christ from a gay perspective and how it is important for the lgbt community to have a strong life of prayer and stand against the kingdom of darkness. In this fourth part of the teaching, Jason concludes his teaching with practical insights about how we are to be "Bossy" to the kingdom of darkness while being kind to others. Jason is the moderator of the "Gay Prayer Resource" and is involved in affirming church work, performing and recording music, video, photography and art. For more parts to this series, writings and articles including multi-media, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray and for more of these videos, go to http://groups.google.com/group/gaypray/web/prayer-resource-videos

Gay Pride Music With Minister Terry and Jason Ingram

2007-06-11T17:09:00.001-07:00

The Gay Prayer Resource Google Group

2007-06-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

To browse my site, please go to:

Gay Prayer Resource Google Group