Dear Friends, This weekend was a wonderful opportunity for our existing, and potential, Southern California Joel’s Army Intercessors to come together and be reminded why we press through the obstacles each day. There were a couple intercessors who faced obstacles to get there, and I’ve spoken to plenty who’ve faced obstacles when heading to a Gathering, or upon joining Joel’s Army. The truth is, if the enemy knows we are about to engage in Kingdom-work, he will send an attack to interfere with—or even thwart—our commission. (He’ll come in afterwards too!) However, it’s important that we remember this: if God is calling us to do something and we obey, He will handle the rest.
This is a difficult lesson for us to learn, trust me, I know all too well how hard that lesson is on those with struggling parents or children, really, any family member can tug at our heart-strings hard enough to stop us in our tracks. However, when we press through to obedience during the greatest obstacles, we are living out what Samuel was referring to when he said, “obedience is greater than sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 15:22b) Our obedience amid external pressures produces the sweetest, most powerful aroma unto our Lord. An anointing is released because it’s an act done regardless of the personal cost, and one in which we’ve become so wholly dependent upon the Lord to fulfill, it is His Spirit that carries out the work. In essence, our flesh stands down, paving the path for His power and authority to be fully released. What a sweet fragrance this is unto our Lord!
The enemy’s goal is to stop our call, our commission, our very purpose in life. That is his plan. Such a stark contrast from God’s plan, to see us fulfill all that He’s created us to fulfill.
In Southern California, we were blessed to have two worship teams and God used them to usher us into His presence quickly as we set aside everything and just lifted our hearts to worship Him. In the afternoon, the Lion of Judah entered the service and the Lord told me the breaker anointing was there and we were to stand together and fight for our families, our state, our nation and then Israel in that order. What a precious act of our Lord to break the strongholds off our families first! We could feel the power of His presence and knew He was taking the lead! What a powerful time, what a powerful release, what an amazing God we serve!
In honor of Israel’s 70th Anniversary, we spent time praying over our Nations and the work God is doing in this hour between the USA and Israel.
We give Him all the praise and the glory for the worship, the teachings, and the work that was accomplished!
Joyce Simley, our incredible California State Coordinator, facilitated our time together and God orchestrated the rest. I want to thank her for pressing through these past two weekends to help us put on a JA Rally in both the northern and southern parts of California! I’ve been told more than once that the Chinese intercessors are holding California together – they continue to open their doors for us. I really saw that these past two weekends and I am so thankful to Pastor John and Debby Chin for their work in overseeing this arm of our ministry and ensuring the flow of information continues from English to Chinese. The Lord selected them for this commission and for that, we are so grateful.
Our next JA Rally will be in Florida! We’ll get the information out to you in the next week!
Blessings & love,
Ricci Johnson-Wilson
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CW Expansion Project Update:So far, we received monthly pledges for a total of $4691 toward the projected monthly budget increase of $6000! We’ve received just over 78% toward our increase! Thank you for standing with us in this endeavor!
At CedarWood, our clients receive more than just food. They receive prayer as well. I’d like to share the following excerpt from our CW Weekly Report: Perhaps you will remember the report from last week about a woman who received prayer for MS. She told us she went back to her doctor for an exam and they found no indication of the disease in her brain, even though she had been told otherwise in previous visits. Praise God! We continue to pray and believe for her complete healing.
This is what you are helping us build; a community that cares for—and reaches out to—one another. Again, I invite you to participate in our CW Expansion Project with your pledge of support: Copy and paste the following statement into an email addressed to tiffany.wfjm@gmail.com. She will save your commitment letter and, if you like, sign you up to receive weekly updates with stats and personal stories from our Monday Pantry events. To begin donating today – Click here to be taken to our CedarWood Expansion Project donation link.
I/We commit to support the expansion work of CedarWood Int’l by my/our donation of ___________per month. I also agree to partner with you in prayer over this outreach and would welcome weekly correspondence providing updates on the CedarWood Pantry efforts.
Sincerely,
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DID YOU KNOW?
We've added the download feature to our website! You can listen online or download from our media log and listen on the go!
You can find more articles and recordings of all our corporate prayer calls on our website?
We have a new section just for Joel's Army News in the sidebar of our e-news?
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“The Refining"
Part 1A
Transformation of Our Inner Man
By Ricci Wilson
Opening Prayer:
Thank You Father, for Your Word. I thank You for the message You have given us for 2018. I pray that today, Your Word would come forth and speak to us that we might hear, understand, and develop in You, Lord. Our desire is to prepare our hearts for Your work this year. Let Your Word have its way in us and in our lives. Holy Spirit, come and be our Teacher. Come and open our hearts and minds to receive the treasures of Your Word. In Your precious and Holy Name, amen.
We have spent months studying one of the most important books of the Bible. If we had access to only one of Paul’s epistles, today I’d say it is kind of a toss-up between Galatians, Ephesians and Romans, because they each lay such a solid foundation for our walk. We could chew on the meat contained within these three epistles day after day, month after month, year after year.
During my time away, I began studying Ephesians and Galatians; I am going to incorporate some of this here, especially in light of what we are seeing today with the Unity Movement. We need to understand what caused Martin Luther to take his 95 Thesis and nail it on the door of that church 500 years ago. We need to grasp hold of the revelation he gained, pouring over the scriptures—this is a man who was tormented deep within. He knew there was more to God, he knew that Jesus was a man, but God did come as a man, did He not? As Jesus. He knew intimately what we were experiencing. Jesus came, He walked this earth, He died on the cross and He rose again that we might have life. Not just life abundantly, not just eternal life, but infinite relationship with God. That is what Jesus provided: our salvation and an intimate relationship with God.
Martin Luther poured over the book of Ephesians and the Lord exposed the truths contained therein. Through the Word, Martin learned that we are not saved by works, we do not receive forgiveness upon completion of a confessional, nor are we saved because we donate money to a church. Our loved ones are not granted a heavenly eternity due to a deposit of gold or silver into the treasure chests of the church. We are saved by grace and grace alone. How? Through faith. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
God has given to each a measure of faith. He deposited it within us when we were formed in our mother’s womb and our cells began to multiply. Faith is a part of us at the cellular level. It is part of the fabric of who we are. God has given to each a measure of faith! It may seem dormant, but there is that moment, that divinely appointed time when faith is ignited and that is the moment we turn to God and finally bow the knee.
Paul was created to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. When he wrote his letters to the Romans, the Ephesians, the Galatians, and the Colossians, one of the key elements he was dealing with was the merging of the doctrines. The Judaizers were certain Jews who had incorporated Jesus into their belief system, insisting that the Gentiles who want to enter into the fullness of salvation be circumcised and enter under the Law of Moses. It was a merging of their belief system into a new religion.
Paul understood the Jews better than anyone—remember, he was saved by the Lord Jesus Himself while carrying his letters to Damascus to arrest the Christians—he understood the heart of one fighting for what he believed. Paul was not just a Jew, he was a zealot. He thoroughly knew what we call the Old Testament, as he was trained from very young, and he believed that by pursuing the Christians, he was carrying out the will of God. He believed it with all of his heart so when Jesus appeared to him and said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts Chapter 9) he fell on his face before the Lord and the faith that had been imparted to him was ignited—he saw the truth of the Gospel and that truth set him free!
They took him into the city and he neither drank nor ate for three days! Ananias, sent there by God, came in fearful but obedient. Why? Because Saul had been persecuting and arresting Christians. However, the Lord instructed Ananias to go and pray for him. Saul, who would from this point be called Paul, needed confirmation of what God was doing and Ananias’ obedience allowed the scales to fall from Paul’s eyes, completing the work the Lord had done in him during those three days he was without sight.
Just like Jonah in the belly of a whale, God did significant work in him while he was in the belly of darkness for three days. A zealot entered but three days later a humbled man with a passion for the Gospel exited. Galatians teaches us that Paul was taught by the revelation of Jesus Christ for three years. What does that mean? Jesus personally taught Paul, bringing forth powerful revelations of His Word in preparation for the ministry he was called to. When Paul’s time was complete, he launched out in ministry.
To be continued next week…
Blessings and Love,
Ricci Wilson
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Portland Gathering of the Eagles, 2018!
Dates: September 24-28, 2018
Location: Holiday Inn Portland-Airport (I-205) 8439 Northeast Columbia Boulevard Portland, OR 97220 Call 855-642-6271 to reserve your room.
Room Rate: $109.00* Parking Fee reduced to $5 daily.
*Room must be booked before 8/23/2018 with group code: "Gathering of the Eagles 2018" to receive this rate.
Pre-Registration Required! -OR- Call Karen at the office at 559-435-2423.
Click here for This Week's Schedule:
We invite everyone to stand with us as we fight for the healing of our Nation. Click below for PDF with: Flash Phone Instructions
Flash Phone Access Then enter the number and access code for the any of the desired lines. _______________ Smartphone users (when connect to wifi) click here for instructions to download the FreeConferenceCall.com or FreeConferenceCallHD.com APP and start using the internet to join our calls instead of your minutes!
Corporate Intercession Line
712-770-4160
Access Code: 182152#
Chinese Translation Line
641-715-3650
Access Code: 336087
This week's prayer times are as follows:
Wednesday May 9
10:20am - 12:30pm PST
11:20am - 1:30pm MST
12:20pm - 2:30pm CST
1:20pm - 3:30pm EST
Thursday May 10
Call In
5:20pm - 5:30pm PST
Teaching
5:30pm - 6:00pm PST
Prayer
6:00pm - 7:00pm PST
Friday May 11
5:50pm - 7:30pm PST
6:50pm - 8:30pm MST
7:50pm - 9:30pm CST
8:50pm - 10:30pm EST
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Sunday May 13 No Corporate Prayer Mother's Day
Interactive Corporate Prayer Call
East and West Coast calls combined!
5PM PST NEW NUMBER - SAME ACCESS CODE
712-770-4160
182152#
Chinese Corporate Intercession
5PM PST
641-715-3640
ACCESS CODE: 800754#
Canadian Corporate Intercession 3:20 PM PST
Call in: +1-605-475-2875
Access code: 828 6487
Korean Corporate Intercession
712-775-7035
Access Code: 881779#
5:00pm - 7:00pm PST
All are welcome to attend any of the above calls. _________________
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PCL Training
May 15th
5:50 - 7:30pm PST
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Be sure to check the PCL/PCM section of our website for this week's Prayer Points and Resources!
Still experiencing WEBSITE LOGIN troubles? Contact the office and we'll get you set up!
Fill the Gap Campaign!
If you live in one of these states consider joining Joel's Army. Don't leave your state unprotected!! - Maine
- Rhode Island
- New Hampshire
- Wyoming
- Utah
- Puerto Rico
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Thank you for your continued support of this outreach. Lives are changed each week through our CW Pantry and support team. Check out our FaceBook page for details. Monday May 14th 1-2:30 PM
Location: Bethel Chapel
23010 66th Ave W
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043
Here are some pressing needs our CedarWood department has:
- Child Sponsorship - $34.99 per month provides essential nutrition to a child in need
- Shoes
- Blankets - All sizes
- Sleeping bags for the homeless
- Volunteers
- Diapers (Size 3 & up) & baby wipes
- Baby Food & Formula
- $5-$20 Gift cards for Gas for our volunteers who transport the food to and from the Pantry
Most donations can be dropped off during the Pantry or mailed into our office. Tax deductible receipts provided.
Coats & Clothes Closet:
Open Mondays and by appointment. We need volunteers to help organize and prepare clothing for visitors
The need is great and our numbers are increasing every week. Please pray that our volunteer base will increase as well!
If you would like to help with BackPack Kids, contact Eileen Howard at eileenh@worldforjesus.org
We extend a special thanks to our CW Team and volunteers for their faithfulness every week.
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