ReFocus

David called it a horrible pit with miry clay.  Daniel had a lion’s den.  Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego had a fiery furnace.  Joseph had a slave pit and prison cell.  Moses had the back side of the desert.  Paul had several prison cells and a shipwreck.  Jonah had a belly of the whale.  Jeremiah had captivity and the stocks and bonds.  Peter had a storm.  Noah had a flood.  Abraham had an Egyptian season.  Mark was terminated as a missionary.  John was isolated on the Isle of Patmos.  David had a bad kid named Absolam.  Job had a disease, a theft, a tornado, and major losses.  Abigail had a stupid husband.  Sarah had a liar for a husband.  Jacob had a bad father in law.  Esau had a scheming brother.  Sarah had a barren womb.  Job had a nagging wife.  Job also had three accusing friends.When Xerxes was King of Persia, he hosted a party that was full of booze and drunken debauchery.  He asked his queen to come join the party. The king wanted to show off his queen in front of these drunken lustful men.  Vashti the Queen said, “No!”  This outraged the king. He had her shipped off to Siberia that very night.

Xerxes wanted a queen.  His advisors came up with a plan to find the perfect queen.  The plan was called, “The Persian Queen”.  This was the forerunner to “The American Idol”. The kingdom was divided into 127 provinces.  Each province would hold auditions.  Each of the 127 provinces would send a representative to the contest.  The final contestents were gathered in the town of ‘Shushan’ the summer capital of Persia.

Preparation for the event was intense.  A lot was riding on this contest.  The contest would last for one full year.  During that time, each of the women would go through intensive skin preparation, and makeup.  The winner would reign as the Queen of Persia along side King Xerxes.  Early on, one girl began to distinguish herself as a leader. Her name was Hadassah.  Later, her name would be changed to Esther.

The king wanted his future bride to be beautiful.  That is why he designed special preparation for each contestent.  The preparation was tough but the reward would be even greater.  The winner would share the kingdom and live with the king.  Scripture tells of these things in Esther 2:3 (NKJV)  ”…and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the citadel, into the women’s quarters, under the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, custodian of the women. And let beauty preparations be given them.”

Esther went on to win “The Persian Queen” contest and she became the Queen beside King Xerxes.

There is a King who is the King of Kings.  His name is Jesus.  One day He will establish His kingdom.  He is preparing a people to reign with Him.  He has carefully designed preparation for that group of people to make them ready to reign with Him!

From our perspective, we can call this preparation horrible pits, disease, fiery furnace, miry clay, stupid husband, theft, termination, loss of job, nagging wife, bad kid, tornado, or a thousand other things.  Just know this, from His perspective,  King Jesus calls it “beauty preparations”  getting you ready to reign with Him.

Just remember, one day of favor with the King can wipe out a life time of disappointments!

We love you.

Billy and Sheilah Daws

It was late and bitterly cold.  I had forgotten to wear my big coat. As I walked home, I notice a young boy under the street light on his hands and knees searching frantically for something.  I asked him what was wrong.  He told me that he had lost a newly minted one dollar coin that had been given to him by his grandfather.  I offered to help him find it. After 30 minutes of searching with him, we had had no success in finding the lost coin. So I asked the boy to tell me exactly how he had lost the coin.  He told me that he had stayed over at his friend’s house for supper and knew that it was getting late.  He made a mad dash to get home quickly.  As he came to the intersection, he turned to come up this street and lost his balance.  That is when he lost his coin.  The boy pointed to the intersection about 25 yards away from him.  So I quizzed him.  “Are you telling me that you lost the coin at the corner…25 yards from here?”  The lad said, “Yes.”  I then asked him a crucial question, “Why are you searching for it here…25 yards away from the corner?”  The lad looked at me and said, “Because the light is better here.” 

I hope he found his coin.  I recommended that he one day attend the University of Georgia…I think he would be readily accepted there.

Sometimes you find the best things in life in the darkness.

I like the darkness when I want to go to sleep;I don’t like a night light in the same room with me.  I like the darkness when I go camping because we get to sit by the campfire and make smores and roast wieners.  I like the darkness if I am running from a bad guy who wishes me harm; it’s easier to hide in the darkness.  I like the darkness when I want to observe the stars and the planets.

Beyond that, I don’t like the darkness.  It is scarry.

We went to Kentucky recently and spent some time in Mammouth Cave.  We were several hundred feet below the surface. Our guide told us to stand still.  She then proceded to turn out the lights.  Now that was darkness.  I knew my hand was six inches in front of my face but I could not see one bit of my hand.

I pastored a church that had a cemetary beside it.  We lived next door.  One of the staff thought it would be a great idea to have balloons with helium for a Valentine Banquet.  The security alarm went off three times that night because of those balloons.  It was a dark walk, next to a dark cemetary, into a dark church. That was not fun. 

Being in the dark physically is not fun…but being in the dark spiritually is definitely not fun.  However,it seems that every believer that is used of God goes through dark times spiritually

• Abraham was told to leave home, but he was kept in the dark as he was not told where to go. 
• David was told he would be king, but he was kept in the dark because no one told him that it would be at least 13 years before it would happen. 
• Abraham and Sarah were told they were going to have a baby, but they were kept in the dark because no one told them that it would be 26 years later and well past their prime time to have children. 
• Joseph was told that his family would honor him, but he was not told that it would be 13+ years before it happened and that he would be sold into slavery, be falsely accused, and go to jail. 

What is a dark time? It is a time when you don’t understand what is happening; you can’t make sense of the situation; you can’t find your way; you are not sure that God is listening; and you don’t have a clue what to do.  It is not necessarily a time brought on by sin as seen in Isaiah 50:10 (NKJV) ”Who among you fears the Lord?  Who obeys the voice of His Servant?  Who walks in darkness and has no light?  Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God.”

Since we are told in scripture that God is light, we don’t usually think of the fact that God can be in the darkness.  1 Kings 8:12 (KJV)  Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in thick darkness.  Exodus 20:21 (NKJV)  So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

There are times that God brings us into those ‘dark nights of the soul’ so that He can get us to refocus.  It is not a time to complain and gripe.  Real faith comes out when we are in the dark with no way out, not a clue as to why, and not being able to understand any element of our circumstances, but we declare, “God, I don’t know what is going on, but I choose to trust You anyway.”

(Sorry about that comment about the University of Georgia. It was a test to see if you were really reading these newsletters. )

We love yall!

Billy and Sheilah Daws

When I turned and saw my bride walk down the aisle in her beautiful white wedding dress, I was carried away.  When I saw the birth of my four children, I was carried away.   When I saw my first sunset on Bean Point on Anna Maria Island, I was carried away.

Billy and Sheilah Daws

The stove works better if you plug it in. I found this principle is the same for the dryer, the tv, the microwave, the dishwasher, the hairdryer, etc. I have a list of about 30 principles that I have picked up from some very great men in the faith, but this principle I came up with by myself, with no help from anyone else.

Let’s just focus on the stove for a moment. You can make use of the stove without plugging it in. There are several uses of an unplugged stove. You can use magnets to hang the children’s artwork on it. You can lay today’s mail on an unplugged stove. You can sit the groceries on top of an unplugged stove. We came in the other day and someone had been using a hot glue gun on the top of the stove. All of these are ok uses of the stove, but let’s face it, we could have used an old metal cabinet to do those things. However, once we discovered the plug and the power source in the wall, we realized there was so much more the stove could do than an old metal cabinet could do.

Things work better and do what they are designed to do, if you plug them in. If that is a great principle in the physical arena, what about the spiritual arena? Prayer works better if you plug it in. Anybody can pray. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Or what about this one: “God is great! God is good! Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” These are nice prayers, but neither one of these prayers is going to rescue your son from the enemy’s clutches. Neither of these prayers is going to shake the walls of heaven. Neither of these prayers is going to grab hold of the scepter of God!

How do you plug in prayer? Start by plugging in the name upfront: “Heavenly Father, I come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…your only begotten Son who is risen from the grave and now sits with you in majesty and power.” You just got God’s attention and all the angelic beings have hushed to see what is coming next!

Now, what is the power source for prayer? “I come as a child of God and as part of the Bride of Christ. I am a child of Almighty God and a brother to the King of Kings. I married into royalty and into wealth. Power and authority have been granted to me by divine decree!” Wow…God is ready to open the vault for you!

Ok, once you have plugged in prayer by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by using your power and authority given to you as a child of God, you can now scare the living daylights out of the enemy: “Satan, you have no rights over my children. You are operating illegally, and I ask Jesus to bind you from your hellish activity and to cast you out of my children’s lives!” Make sure you are confessed up and covered by the blood of Jesus Christ when you pray this part.

To see even more of what prayer was designed to do, pray scripture….God loves it and Satan hates it: Remind Satan, that “the gates of hell will not prevail…”(Matthew 16:18) or remind him that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”(2 Peter 3:9)

Although you don’t praise your electric company for power everytime you use your plugged in stove, you should always remember to thank God and praise Him for His power, provision, love, etc. Praise God for a good 5 to 10 minutes for everything you think of.

You can pray like this for marriages, for children, for a job situation, for your love life, for a sickness. In fact, you can pray about anything, just remember this: pray works better if you plug it in!

Thank you for plugging in prayer to pray for us and for allowing us to pray for you,

Billy and Sheilah Daws