21 Day Fast

April 15^th – May 5^th

Heritage Fellowship has entered into a 21 day fast that began on April 15^th and will end on May 5^th. 

We believe in the discipline of fasting because it is modeled for us in both the Old and New Testaments.

Moses, Elijah, Ezra, Jehoshaphat, Nehemiah, David, Anna, John the Baptist and Jesus all fasted.

What is fasting? 

Fasting is a spiritual discipline of self-denial that embraces humility and repentance, increases sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, honors others, and wages spiritual warfare.

People in the Bible who fasted also had a focus to their fasting.  Moses fasted to prepare to meet with God and receive the commandments.  Elijah fasted in preparation to meet with God on Mount Sinai.

Esther asked the Jewish nation to fast before she attempted to approach the king.  Jesus fasted as an act of spiritual obedience and spiritual warfare before beginning His ministry. 

What is the focus of the Heritage Fellowship 21 Day Fast?  “HEALING BREAKTHROUGHS”

We have a number of brothers and sisters, some with life threatening diseases and some with long term illnesses.  Our fasting is a way of honoring them while also doing spiritual warfare on their behalf.

You may pick up an updated list of persons we are praying for each Sunday.  

Also, we are asking that each person or family make a personal list of others who are not related to Heritage Fellowship but whom you might know need prayer for healing.  Please bring that list of names to either of the services on May 6^th.  We will collect all the list and spend time in prayer over all the names listed.  We will also be praying personally for everyone from Heritage who is need of a healing breakthrough.  

If you were not aware of the fast when we started on April 15^th, please join in at any time.  You may pick up a list of names for whom we are praying at the church office or email me at jprice@heritagefellowship.us to receive a list. 

Thank you for joining with us in this significant time of prayer and fasting. 

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear…..                                                         Isaiah 58:8

Christmas Prayer - 2011

My Christmas Prayer for our church family at Heritage Fellowship and our many friends around the world.

The prayer is taken from Acts 11:23-24

1.       I pray that we would embrace the grace of God that is upon us.

God’s grace is daily extended to us and available to us.

God’s grace has pursued and rescued us.

God’s grace does not make all things in life as we think they should be but His grace carries us through every circumstance as it is. 

God’s grace allows us the opportunity of connecting with His strength.

God’s grace creates a place of refuge.

2.       I pray that we would remain true to the Lord with all our hearts.

I exhort, encourage, admonish, urge, and appeal to us to remain true to the Lord.

I pray that we would always be faithful.

I pray that we would cleave to Him who is faithful.

I pray that we would be wholly devoted to the Lord.

I pray that we would never give up or lose heart on our spiritual journeys.

I pray that we would love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. 

I pray that we would not allow our self, our flesh, our tests, our trials, our strengths or our weaknesses, to shift us from a position of remaining true to the Lord.

I pray that we would remain positioned and focused toward Him and with Him until He comes or until we go. 

3.       I pray that we would be good people.

I pray that our lives would be a constant representation of Jesus Christ.

I pray that our lives would reflect the glory of God.

I pray that our words would be seasoned with blessing and life.

I pray that we would be known as encourages and people of compassion.

I pray that we would be people of humility.

I pray that we would see value in all people.

I pray that we would be people of holiness, purity, and integrity.

Goodness is not about performance.  We could never perform our way into being good.

Living good lives is the fruit of hearts of faith that have been captivated by the love of God, the freedom of Christ afforded to us at the cross, resurrection power and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

Remember:  The Lord is good and His mercies endure forever and that Jesus, himself, went about doing good. 

4.       I pray that we would be full of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that we would be under the leadership, guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit.  

I pray that we would be filled up, saturated, overflowing  and baptized in the Holy Spirit. 

I pray that we would allow the Holy Spirit to create within us a passion for Christ and intimacy with the Father.

I pray that we would grow in the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The key to a victorious Christian life is through our relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

5.       I pray that we would be people of faith.

I pray that we would grow in faith.

I pray that we would live by faith.

I pray that we would walk by faith.

I pray that we would fight the good fight of faith.
I pray that we would please God with our faith. 

Faith launches us into the purposes of God and is constantly guiding us toward God’s unique plans for our lives.  Faith moves us from the seen to the unseen. 

We are sanctified and justified by faith.

We are saved by faith.

We receive righteousness by faith.

We receive the indwelling of Christ by faith.

We can have little faith or great faith.

We can have strong faith or weak faith.

We can encourage and strengthen our faith.

We can benefit others by our faith.

The Joy of Christ to all this Christmas season,

Pastor Jim

Several months ago, the Holy Spirit directed me to Luke 5.

 ⁵ But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” ⁶ And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. ⁷ So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

 This is a Scripture familiar to all of us, but it is always good for us to take a fresh look at something with which we are already acquainted.  Simon acknowledged that within their own efforts –their physical strength, their past experiences, and their knowledge of fishing– nothing happened.  In other words, “Jesus, you are a carpenter and we are fishermen and we have already done everything fishermen would do.”  But then Simon says, “NEVERTHELESS, at Your word I will let down the net.”  It is important for us to acknowledge that in our own strength and knowledge, there is a greater realm of faith that challenges us to launch into the deep and let down our nets at the instructions of the Master. In those moments we must say, “NEVERTHELESS.”  If we simply live our life operating in our personal areas of giftedness and knowledge, we run the risk of being “shallow” instead of “in the deep.”

 Now, let’s look at another truth from Luke 5.

  ¹ So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, ² and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. ³ Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
⁴ When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

 Verse 3 tells us that Jesus stepped into Simon’s boat and asked him to put out a little from the land so that He might teach the multitudes. Jesus took possession of Simon’s boat for the purpose of reaching the multitudes.  Are we allowing Jesus to take possession of the things within our stewardship so that multitudes might be reached for His kingdom?  Simon could have refused to let Jesus use his boat, but instead he honored the request.  I believe Jesus is always asking us for our boats.  He desires to take that which we are stewards of in order to reach the multitudes. 

 Another truth within these Scriptures is this:  Faithfulness in small things is the pathway to greater things.  The first request was for Simon to let Jesus use his boat to speak to the multitudes by going just a short distance from the shore.  Simon obeyed.  Then after Jesus finished teaching, he then told Simon to launch out into the deep and let down their nets.  Again, Simon obeyed, even though his rational mind would have told him that he knew much more about fishing than Jesus.  Because he responded in faith, he received the largest catch of his life.  What large catches did we miss when we simply failed to obey just going a little distance from the show.  Let’s be faithful in small things.

Living Faith

Christianity is considered a world religion, but in reality it is better described as a personal relationship with God.  Our faith must be grounded in the Fatherhood of God which speaks of relationship.  It must be grounded upon the sacrificial work of Jesus for it is only when we receive the redemptive work of the cross into our lives that we begin to draw identity from who Christ is, rather than our own personal journeys.  Our faith must be grounded in receiving the truth that the Holy Spirit desires to communicate to us the will, thoughts and heart of the Father.  Without the Holy Spirit being active in our lives, we would tend to crystallize in our spiritual journey at which point we build religious boxes to make us feel comfortable.  Lastly, it is important that we walk in the disciplines of faith:  (1). A love of the Word.  (2).  A lifetime of Prayer.  (3).  Fellowship  (4).  Serving. 

I pray that we all would passionately pursue intimacy with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through the Word, prayer, fellowship and serving. 

A moment of distraction, a jerk of the wheel

A life that shone brightly so suddenly was still.

The damage was done, the prognosis grim

The word was spread quickly by all who knew him.

As his family gathered, the church family there

The call went out quickly, “our Josh needs your prayer.”

From hospital lobby on to the small town

The cry of God’s people was heard all around

We sang Jehovah Rapha, Your healing we claim

From small town to nation, we worshipped Your name.

The seeds had been planted in lands far away

The word was sent out for those saints to pray.

From Africa to England, from Germany to Suriname

From China to Russia, the cry was the same.

“Come quickly Lord Jesus for this gentle man

We proclaim healing, for only You can.”

Then just with one touch of Your faithful hand

You showed Yourself mighty, the healing began!

Doctors bewildered, prognosis defied

Medical technology must step aside!

The glory is Yours, and Yours all alone

Oh Mighty God, You’re still on the throne!

We lift our thanks, and we lift our praise

Our loving Father, our hands we raise.

In awe of Your loving and great healing hand

Let praise rise forth throughout the land!

Update:  Joshua Loveday was involved in a serious car accident Sunday evening on his way home from the second service.  He lost control of his car and slammed into a telephone pole.  He was transported by Lifestar to UT Hospital.  He had seven points of bleeding in his brain, badly bruised lungs, and a broken clavicle.  He was placed on a ventilator, either at the scene of the accident or during the flight.  The doctor’s first words to the family were, “It doesn’t look good.”  That statement was repeated several times. 

It is with great joy that I share these words, “Joshua is looking good.”  We praise God that he had no swelling in his brain.  Also, his lungs, which were very damaged began to heal quickly.  In the natural, what appeared to be several days or even weeks of being in a holding pattern of “let’s just wait and see what happens,” became continued moments of thanking God for supernatural progress.  By Monday night he was taken off the ventilator, he had no swelling in the brain and the feeding tube was removed.  Although he is still in critical care, his progress in just a few hours has been miraculously amazing.  He has been coherent in his non-sedated moments and was able to eat some crackers and part of a banana. and if he continues to do well; he may be moved from critical care to a regular room. 

Peggy and I, along with Joshua’s family, would like to thank all of you for your many prayers and for those who arrived at the hospital Sunday evening, positioning yourselves in a prayer vigil.  Thank you for the time of worship in the emergency room.  As you all began to worship, we were with Joshua’s mother, grandmother, sister and future brother-in-law.  The worship truly ushered in God’s peace and hope. 

We thank God for his faithfulness to Joshua and look forward to him being back with his Heritage family – SOON! 

What do you think of when you hear the words, narrow road?  Does it create a negative or positive image in your thoughts.  Is the narrow road a what or a who?  Join with us at 10:00 a.m. or 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 27^th, or watch live at heritagelive.us as we explore the narrow road. 

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Sometimes in the hectic pace of daily life, we forgot a very important truth.  That the God of the universe desires to dwell in us.  God’s purpose is to become a habitation within us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  I pray that we give honor to that truth for it is only when we have welcomed Him into our temple to take up residence, that we truly discover who we are and how to live life in abundance. 

Paul said in Ephesians 3 that:

·         We can be strengthened with might in our inner man, by the Holy Spirit.

·         We can have Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith.

·         We can be filled with all the fullness of God.

God dwelling in us will force out all the impurities of life that have sought to make us less than who we really are.  May we daily invite the Holy Spirit to live within us, so that we become a representation of the love of God to others. 

PURITY:  Living life according to the truths of God’s Word, the character of Christ, the holiness of God and by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. 

The Breath of Purity

As of today, I am planning on sharing a word on “The Breath of Purity,” in both services on January 30^th.  I believe this is a significant word for each of us as we continue to grow in our spiritual journeys, both individual and corporately. 

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Dear Heritage Family,

Thank you for the many expressions of love and honor toward us last Sunday.  We are blessed to serve you and want you to know that we hold you in our hearts and prayers. 

The financial blessings will not only assist us with the expenses of the trip, but will afford us the opportunity of blessing Hosanna Christian Church in Makhachkala, Dagestan.  We will take all the cards and notes with us on the plane.  Thank you for sowing words into our lives. 

We are excited to be in a spiritual journey with you as we continue to grow as a congregation, stepping into the many ministries and destinies that God has for us. 

Blessings and love to all, Pastors Jim and Peggy