Prayer

Question for You

Praying In TongesFor all of us that meet up here at Lynndonovan.com, I want to have a conversation about speaking in tongues. During the fast this past week, the Lord has directed me to pray more frequently in my prayer language. 

It seems to me that this area of faith practice and prayer is confusing to many. I'm one of them. However, FINALLY, the Lord is beginning to lead me in understanding. 

So, what do you think? Do you want to learn more about this particular prayer practice? Let me kn
ow in the comments your thoughts and questions. Let's find out this year the real value that comes from this prayer practice. Hugs, Lynn


Is Your Heart Healed -Part II

image from www.spirituallyunequalmarriage.comLast week we began a series on healing of a broken heart. And for most of you who are readers here at Thrive Ministries with Lynn Donovan have submitted yourself to the hard work of prayer and study to find healing.

I’m so proud of you. Healing takes effort, time and persistence. For more on the spiritual principle of persistence, I’m writing about that at SpirituallyUnequalMarriage.com. Click here for the first in that series.

However, how do you know if the healing efforts have been enough? Let’s look at our lives and consider seven aspects of our behavior that indicated we might have some more work to do.

  1. Anger: Is there a slow burning resident of anger under the surface? If you are set off by triggering events and people, and rage manifests, there is some more spiritual work to be accomplished. And there can be a demonic oppressor that is contributing to your torment.
  2. Are you overly insecure? Shame, blame and guilt seem to be your constant companions and you never feel good enough or worthy of love or acceptance? You feel the constant need for affirmation and encouragement. You are uncertain of your decisions.
  3. Pride: This is the other side of insecurity. You may have thoughts such as: Because of my pain I’m going to show the world I’m better. I’ll take care of me. No one will hurt me again.
  4. Are you overly independent? Do you refuse to accept help? This often manifest in inner statements such as: Because of my wounding, I can’t trust anyone. I don’t need anybody. I don’t trust God. Side note: Ahem, yep, this was me. Praise God He was so patient to help me unwind all this pain and wounding. Hallelujah!
  5. Overly Sensitive: This is where we are offended easily. No one can say anything to me because I’m sensitive. Our culture today is in a constant state of offense. I’ll share this with you. A few years ago, the Lord said to me, “Lynn, the second you are in offense. You are in sin.” Ouch!
  6. Excessively shy: This will manifest in avoidance. Because of the emotional bruises and feeling beat up, you won’t risk relationships.
  7. Excessive need to control: Controlling of relationships, time, emotions and others. This is born from living and/or a childhood where there was no control. This is where we manipulate our circumstances to our optimal best because we cannot face uncertainty. I’ll admit, this one I still battle with. Lord help me!

My friend, if you just read through all of this, then you are a prime candidate for healing. And God is filled with love, mercy and forgiveness. And if you are breathing, there is always hope for healing and a better tomorrow.

Take the time to do the hard work of healing. I promise, as a child of God, who has done so much work in prayer and practice myself, it’s worth it. The peace, the truth and the reality of our loving God and Kingdom family is worth all your efforts.

To schedule a Healing Prayer session with me, Lynn Donovan, visit: HEALING PRAYER

Have a blessed day. Lynn


To Know Him Is To Love Him

Hi Friends, Jeanne here. I have a question for you:

Heart rose“Who is Elon Musk? What is he like?” 

If you asked a hundred people, you would get a variety of answers, including several, “I have no idea.” You’d probably form some concept of Elon Musk based on what you’d heard and read.  But unless you know Elon Musk personally, you’d have no way of knowing what he’s really like. 

“Who is God? What is he like?”  If you asked a hundred people, you’d a variety of different answers, again including several “No idea.”  But God is who he is, regardless of what people believe about him.

What is God really like?  Unless you know him, you’re going to take someone else’s word for it, just like you would with Elon Musk.  I was raised in a family that believed in God, that went to church regularly, that participated in “religious education.”  I had a concept of God that was influenced by what people said about him and by what I read. 

As a kid I was taught the Ten Commandments (and thanks to all that “Religious Education,” I can probably still recite them.)  Jesus even referred to the greatest commandment:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength.”

My line of thought went something like this: How do you love God, an invisible being so far away? And who would know whether or not I obeyed this commandment?  In my mind, love was a warm fuzzy feeling.  Thinking about God didn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling, but I could say it did and no one would know the difference. So, I could “check off” the first commandment and move on to worrying about the easier commandments like “Thou shalt not steal.” Is it stealing if you sneak a cream puff out of the refrigerator when you’re supposed to wait until after dinner?

When I became a follower of Jesus, I realized there is a whole lot more to the Christian life than going to church and trying to obey the commandments.  The question remained: how do I love God with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength? I understood that this all-out love is much more than admiration, or general gratitude for a wealth of blessings.  But to be honest, I still didn’t love God this way right off the bat.  Rather, I spent years getting to know who he is and how he feels about me.  There is nothing that describes this process better than the phrase “falling in love.”

When you meet someone special, you think about them a lot.  You want to spend time with them, getting to know them, and sharing yourself with them. As time passes you become closer and closer until you can’t imagine doing life without them.  This has been my experience with God. 

The process is different than human romantic love, of course.  God is not going to keep you on the phone for hours or send you twenty texts a day.  His love-gifts won’t be delivered by a florist or UPS driver. I fell in love through the Word of God and the Spirit of God.  I read the Bible to learn what God says about himself.  I also learned prayer as a conversation, not a monologue.  The best part of my relationship with God is that he both listens and speaks to me. Often his voice is a gentle whisper; but occasionally he rocks my world with a virtual shout!

When people fall in love, sooner or later they realize that their beloved isn’t quite perfect, but I’ve never experienced that with God.  Not only does he never hurt me, but he always forgives me when I hurt him.  He doesn’t hold grudges, and if I run away from him, he follows me and welcomes me back the moment I turn around.  He only wants what is good for me, no matter what it costs him.

There were plenty of times in my past that I thought God was being unfair or unloving, but I was wrong. The evil that’s in this world is not from God at all, but from our enemy. The devil and his minions attack us and try to make us think that it’s God doing it.  He’s so good at it that even many Christians don’t realize that God is essentially being framed, but that’s a topic for another day.

I have come to know that God can be absolutely trusted; that his plans for me are far better than anything I could think of for myself.  I have begun to experience the joy of his kingdom right here, right now. 

I can’t give you a shortcut to this place, but I can assure you that if you honestly seek him, you will find him.  It will be worth everything you have to know and experience how much he loves you.  There was a time when truly loving God seemed impossible to me.  But now I can say without reservation that the more I know him, the more I love him, and want to know him more.

How about you?  How have you experienced the love of God?  As always, your comments and questions are welcome!


What about Tongues?

Hello! This is Jeanne wishing blessings on your springtime, wherever you are!

A few weeks ago, someone asked me out of the blue, “Where do you get the idea of tongues?”  I could picture myself twenty years ago asking the same question.  Growing up, the only exposure I had to the “idea of tongues” was in the account of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11).  To me, it was a one-time event that happened 2,000 years ago, and had no bearing on my life.

Since that time, I have explored the concept of tongues through Bible study and my own experience, as well as that of others. 

The gift of tongues has two different expressions.  There is a public gift, where one person speaks in tongues and another one (or the same person) interprets the tongue in the common language.  I’ve only seen that in operation once, and can’t speak to it outside of what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 14.

On the other hand, there is praying in tongues or in the spirit, which all believers are encouraged to do.  

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God… they utter mysteries by the Spirit… Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves… I would like every one of you to speak in tongues…If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays… I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. When you are praising God in the Spirit, you are giving thanks well enough… I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.  (1 Corinthians 14, selected verses)

I purposely left out the limitations Paul gives in this passage, because he was addressing a church where people were going overboard with their tongues and prophecies.  He clearly was not saying the gifts were bad, but that they weren’t helpful to the church assembly if they weren’t expressed decently and in order.  I don’t think it’s possible to privately pray in tongues too much. 

One key is in verse 14: “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays.”  We have talked before about how each of us is body, soul, and spirit.  The body is our physical flesh; the soul is our mind, will, and emotions; and the spirit is where we become a new creation in Christ when we believe.  Our born-again spirit is where we are the righteousness of Christ, holy, perfect, and blameless.  And when we pray in tongues (or pray in the spirit) we are uttering mysteries by the Holy Spirit. We are praying the perfect will of God, and we are building ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude v.20).  Jesus says that God desires those who worship him in spirit and in truth.  We can pray with our flesh, reciting words without even meaning them.  We can pray with our souls, pouring out our emotions. But praying in the spirit involves yielding our tongues to the Holy Spirit, letting God choose what we say. 

Praying in the spirit involves yielding our tongues to the Holy Spirit, letting God choose what we say. 

James describes the immense power of our tongues.  If they can steer us down such a dark and evil path, imagine the incredible blessings on our lives if we turn them over to the Spirit!

If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest.  And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.  (James 3:2-6)

Jesus addressed this same topic:

For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.  The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure. (Matthew 12:34-35)

When Jesus speaks, the Father acts!

The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works. (John 14:12)

When I was first filled with the Spirit, I rarely prayed in tongues.  My first experience with it was when one of my children was in a crisis situation that I had no power to affect in the natural, and didn’t even know what to pray.  For years, the only times I prayed in tongues were when I had reached the end of my human strength.  I gradually learned that this yielding to the Spirit brought with it peace, strength, and wisdom or revelation regarding the situation.  I’ve come to realize that these are the very words of God, coming through my mouth. 

I’ve come to realize that these are the very words of God, coming through my mouth. 

Whether I feel a mighty move of the Spirit while I’m praying, or nothing at all, I know that what I’m speaking is incredibly powerful in the spiritual realm.  I am watching God do things in my life that I wouldn’t have known or dared to ask for. To God be the glory!

Please share your experiences and questions in the comments. I'm excited to hear what you have to say!


Prayer & Fasting Preparation

LDM Fast 2022Hello,

All who hunger for more of God this year. As we fast this week, I'll offer a few fasting points to consider.

  1. Let your family know. Set up this week for the best success. Let your family know you are staying out of the kitchen. Help them to help themselves to meals. Let your spouse know you are fasting and ask his/her support to help them feed themselves. And ask them to refrain from tempting you.
  2. Have plenty of filtered water on hand. Have juices on hand and even a cracker if you feel faint.
  3. Give yourself grace. If you fall off one day, start again the next. Do the best that you can.
  4. Pray, pray and pray. Even if you don't fast. Pray. This praying at the beginning of the year is powerful and leads into 12 months of living life in His will.

Okay, See you tomorrow.

Lynn Donovan

Jesus is King!