'I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; 
I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 
Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 
They will be my people, and I will be their God. 

But as for those whose hearts are devoted 
to their vile images and detestable idols, 
I will bring down on their own heads what 
they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord .” '

Ezekiel 11:19-21 NIV

Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
Through Him we are all adopted into sonship
We have hope through His resurrection 

It is always good, I mean very good 
to be in the presence of the Lord
In His presence there is liberty and direction

For all men are like grass 
And all glory from men are like flowers of the grass
The grass withers 
And its flowers falls away
But the word of the Lord endures forever

Welcome to my vault, hope you had a good weekend.

My weekend was great. I went to a party and if you ever go to a traditional Sierra Leonean party we always pray before we start the drinking and dancing and laughing and eating. So I had a good time. On Sunday, there was no church in the building, we went to the park and enjoyed the day outside: talking, playing games and it was very lovely. You get to know others that you see only on Sundays. It is good to spend time with others

It has been a while since I entered the vault.

You might say, I got side tracked by the views outside. I will say I was learning the act of focusing on the Lord with all the beauties and the darkness around me.

And knowing the difference between What matters to the Lord or allowing what matters to me to direct my path?

The flesh is a grass and it fades

God is Almighty, His word is Yes and Amen by us in Christ Jesus

The past two weeks – I have learnt what it means to intercede. 

So I enter the vault, quiet and listening: sssh

What does intercessory prayer or interceding for others mean? Hmm

As I reflect and looked at The Book of Acts, the Church is borned and the webs are formed

The web starts to move
A web is not a single line
If you ever caught in a web 
Trying to free from it just shows you more it

And the church forms it's web 
to catch the enemy and trap it
It is clean with all sort of prayers
Now let us thank God who directs
the enemy into the web

And when we forget our prayers
we have a cobweb and losses it effectiveness
and thank the Lord that He is faithful, 
His word will never fail
For His word is always a lamp 
And a light to the path

Intercessory prayers – a constant prayer offered to God for someone else

Listening to what the Holy Spirit says and having the courage to do the prayer that you have heard. Also discerning, is it mine? Is it someone else? 

Is it God? Some of what God asks and says

• will be contrary to what we know
• Also will offend our core and belief 

Our pride will get in the way but at the end the will of God will be done. The Lord’s Name will be glorified. 

When we pray - God sends His angels to work
The light shines in the darkness 
The person is set free 
The chains are broken - it allows us to move and get up - we are free too

When we intercede it takes us out of the equation and the focus on someone else. 

We must listen to “the voice of the Lord and NOT man”

So I reflect, a man’s voice means prayers are NOT God’s will.

The news, I do listen with the intention of How should I pray? Then being sensitive to His voice and acting on the answers. Sometimes they come and sometimes not the way you want it or quicker.

Listening to the voice of man can lead to wrong prayers and not the will of God but the news of man.

When the news came out about the Taliban, and everything. For the first time in ages I asked, how should I pray for them? What should I pray for? 

Pray for them, pray for the Taliban and bless them. My first thought was this is not God, with what they have done and all the evil they have done? Who am I to judge? And the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 :43-48 and also compared to Luke 6:27-36

We are to pray and love our enemies. Otherwise we no different to them

Those words weighed in my heart, so I started to pray. 

The Lord reminded me of when I was in that situation

It wasn’t people that saved us

On the contrary the western did not save us 

They left us to the rebels and gave them the weapons

Now God is the one that saved us. He did it for us and I believe He will do it again.

He looks for someone to pray for the ones in the situation
The ones walking into the fire 
Or thrown into the Lion's den

For I know the God I serve
He will not destroy a city for the sake of the twenty righteous
He will leave the ninety-nine to find the one
He is a God of Love and Justice

He did it with Gideon, He did it with Moses, He did it with Daniel
He has done, Jesus has won the battle

God will save the people 

Why did the nations rage,
And the people plot vain
The Kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against Christ - Acts 4:25b-26

So let us pray for strength as they walk into the fire 
For boldness to speak truth in Love 
For in this world we will all face persecution 
But we must hold steadfast to the word of God 
To know that God is holding our right hand
He will never leave us not forsake us
In Christ Jesus we walk by faith and not by sight

And that God’s name will be glorified 
His will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven
As He give us our daily bread 
He forgive us as we forgive others

Father,
Create in me a clean heart 
and renew a right spirit within me
In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen

So interceding, I have come to see as listening and to be sensitive to the voice of the Lord and not man while we stand in the gap. We come boldly to the throne and intercede for others. Not doubting but believing, we are that person and expecting an answer. So we must always wear the full armour of God because the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. For we don’t fight against men.

Thank You Father for the care and love you show us daily
For Your mercy is new every morning
For You love the unseen, hidden away 
You bring Joy and provision on the day
Your Love surpasses all understanding
In Jesus Christ we are adopted
Thank You Lord for providing
Amen

'But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 
that you may be children of your Father in heaven. 
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, 
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? 
Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 

And if you greet only your own people, 
what are you doing more than others? 
Do not even pagans do that? 

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'

Matthew 5:44-48 NIV

Thank you again for stopping by it means a lot to me. 

Pray you have a wonderful week 🙂
We cannot control what happens around us, 
but we can control our responses.
Be bless and know that the Lord loves you

©Hannah M Vandi.

And I also pray that this verse refreshes you this week: 
'However, 
I consider my life worth nothing to me; 
my only aim is to finish the race and 
complete the task the Lord Jesus has given 
me—the task of testifying to the 
good news of God’s grace. '
Acts 20:24 NIV