Prayer For the Sick

I am all in favor of praying for the sick and at the same time, there are times we need to not pray. Most of the times that I say we should not pray is that we are not prepared to pray, either by the one doing the praying, or the one receiving. Even though I was educated from a Word of Faith perspective, I will try to give a practical and balanced view of healing prayer.

The Word of Faith movement, also known as "name it and claim it" by those who like to poke fun at "faith" people, believes that God wants and wills to heal all people. I love that concept, and there are plenty of scriptures that back that up. It seems to define the God that I know: One who does not make people sick to teach them lessons or keep them humble. There are a few issues about those that heavily push this doctrine though: the extreme of this perspective is that if someone is not healed after this kind of faith prayer, that is is all our fault. Either there is not enough faith, or "sin" lingering in the lives of the believers doing the praying, but it typically puts the guilt on the sick person. I have seen a lot of people give up on their faith because of this. Some leave their religion entirely while others can go into a sort of denial. Many feel ashamed that there is some kind of sin and doubt that they can't seem to figure out what it is.

On the other hand, these "faith" preachers can also get a lot of results if they sincerely practice this perspective. Sometimes even if the person receiving prayer doesn't even believe, the strong faith and anointing (the Holy Spirit resting on the believer, and through the believer to be a sort of "channel" to God's power) and spiritual gifts can be enough to allow God to do wonderful things.

Another misconception is the difference between a healing and a miracle. This idea will probably not get in the way of someone's prayer, but it's interesting to study. To put it simply: a healing is to fix something that is ill and a miracle is to create something that is not there. One way this concept can come in handy is that if someone knows they have healing faith but not miracle faith, they may want to consider working on what they believe.

Healings and miracles can demonstrate God's love, draw those who do not believe, and help us to live better lives. At the same time, we can get distracted by the sensational and miss the simple fellowship with God.

What do we do when we don't receive our healing? This is a very tough subject, and I would love to go over more of this some time. All I can say now is that we need to find peace in our life which ever road we take. If we find peace accepting this sickness as part of our life and we can still love and believe God; I can't argue with that way of life, especially if trying to fight the illness would cause strife. If we find peace in holding on to the hope that we have our healing whether we feel it, see it or have received its manifestation; fighting the "good fight of faith" can be a challenging but rewarding way of life. The important thing is to find out where you are at in your heart and what you believe, and not let sickness get in the way between you and God.

Then there is the principal that these patterns can sometimes surprise me when things seem to work in contrary to everything I have learned about faith and answered prayer. We need to always understand that we don't have all the answers. I have heard stories of ministers who are very gifted in the areas of healing and miracles and yet they suffer themselves. There is the principle of child-like faith which folks can get healings and miracles without being at all educated in these matters. People get answered prayer all the time without knowing what they are doing, even people that don't read my blog (LOL!). There are people that don't even believe, or folks that have things in their life that hurt themselves and others; and they get all kinds of prayer answered. No fair... But I love this about God. We really can't put God in a box. My philosophy has been that we need to get in God's box.

Be Careful What You Ask For, You Just Might Get It

It has been said that prayer does not change God, it changes you. That is a very true statement and at the same time, when it comes to the prayer of Abraham in Genesis 18:16-33, it looks as if God changed His mind. (I must add because this blog is LGBT friendly, God did not want to destroy Sodom because they were gay. That's another discussion…)

Yes, God does not change, and God is not a man. At the same time, God has a lot of human traits, male and female. Contrary to most LBGT theologies, I don't refer to God as "He" AND "She". I view God as having a bit more male attributes than female, and when I have to chose one, I prefer to use "He". I do know a lot of sincere folks in LGBT circles that it helps their faith to view God as a she/he and I am not entirely opposed to that idea. That's also another discussion...

(rainbow pray-er design by Jason T. Ingram)

Anyway, sometimes God gives us what we want, even if it's not the best for us, just to show us what it's like. There are very few instances of this, and the one I think of is about how the early Israelites wanted a king when the Lord wanted to be King while there was a mediator (a judge) to stand in between God and people. The message was basically that a king will do bad things, but if you would rather want a man to rule over you then God, go ahead and see what happens.

Then there was the time when king Hezekiah was destined to die but pleaded to live longer. He got his request (in 2 Kings 20) when the prophet Isaiah heard God seem to change His mind. As a result, Hezekiah lived another fifteen years, and had a kid that caused a lot of messes.

Be careful what you ask for - you just might get it! One time when I was really into the prosperity movement, I thought God wanted to bless me with a big black SUV. Within weeks, I knew a guy that was getting rid of one and I thought it was a miracle blessing. It turned out to be a curse! It took me a long time to get the title, the giver wanted it back and was harassing me, it sat while I was at "straight camp" and I had to pay insurance on it for over a year without being able to drive it and I borrowed money against it that I could not afford to pay off. It was also hard to get rid of and had to put a lot of money into it to get it to sell while I was living out of state.

There is a New Testament principal that if we "ask amiss" like in James 4:3, we will not get our prayers answered. I am glad that a lot of the stuff I asked for I did not get! Sometimes I ask for something that is not God's will or that I ask with wrong motives. Another way at looking at John 14:14 where it says that if we ask anything in Jesus' name, we can see His name as being His will.

Ask the Father in Jesus name, and if it's not God's will, don't go banging on the gates of heaven, pleading for it because you just might get it and it will not make you happy. In fact it could really make a mess out of your life.

Prayer Bears

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"

"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

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

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

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