Abba hears the pleas of his children!

A powerful example of his attentiveness to our entreaties for mercy has encouraged many believers since the night he answered a heart-cry from one of his precious daughters in the Spring of 2006.  

The setting was a home gathering of about a dozen college students in Kansas City, MO, who were on fire for Jesus and had traveled quite far from their campus in another state to visit the International House of Prayer (IHOP) during their Spring break. The couple who hosted these students in their large home for several days had invited me to visit at the same time and help encourage them in the evenings with times of teaching, ministry, and activation of their faith.

God moved in amazing ways during these times of ministry to the students and on one particular evening, a student named Mara asked for prayer since she had been through some traumatizing experiences and, although she had already experienced some amazing healing, she was still downcast.   

As we prayed for her, a friend of hers read from Isaiah: “… you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow (Isaiah 62:2b).” Abba impressed upon me that he wanted to change her name, from Mara (which means “bitter”) to Naomi (which means pleasant or delightful)! I shared the story from the book of Ruth where Naomi said (see Ruth 1:20) to the women around her upon arrival in Bethlehem, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because I am bitter [over the loss of her husband and two sons]!”  

The young student was overwhelmed with shock and joy upon hearing that Abba was giving her the new name Naomi – she would now be “pleasant” instead of “bitter.” I told her that she was to say, “Do not call me Mara. Call me Naomi!” With tears of joy, she called her mom and grandma back home and asked if she could change her name to what God wanted to call her. They agreed, and I learned later that she filed the paperwork with her state to officially change her name from Mara to Naomi!   

What I didn’t know that evening, nor did anyone else before our prayer time, was that she had been secretly asking God to change her name from Mara (“bitter”), as it had really begun to bother her over the preceding couple of months. No one else knew this deep desire in her heart, but Abba loves to partner with his servants to answer in ways that are unexpected, and even thrilling!

That memorable evening we were all blessed with a “pleasant” surprise from Abba!  

P.S. Fourteen years later, Naomi was “pleasantly” wedded to her husband, as God continued to answer her prayers! 

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries

Every so often I wonder if Abba has taught his son Jesus somewhere along the line how to design and carry out sneaky surprises for us, that catch us “off guard” and thrill us with a sudden “invasion” from heaven. The Lover of our souls delights in showing us his playful, romantic nature as he communicates his enthrallment with our betrothal to him.

One of these “invasions” from heaven I experienced early on, in the second year of my walk with Jesus, and it still warms my heart decades later whenever the memory “bursts” upon me. I was busy finishing an “important” task at home when my young daughter chose that moment to sweetly invite me to play Scrabble with her. I responded, “Honey, let me finish this project quickly while you set up the game on the living room floor by the fireplace. I’ll join you in just a couple of minutes.

When I joined her a few minutes later, she had set up the game board and had positioned all the letter tiles face down, ready for me to choose the seven tiles I would start with. I selected the tiles and placed them one by one on my letter rack to then try to invent a clever word or two to begin the game with her. I was shocked by what I was staring at as I looked at the word that appeared on my rack, with no tile rearrangement yet by me:

EPHESUS

“Jehovah-sneaky” had guided my hand in selecting, in order, the seven letters in the name of the famous biblical city in Asia. This name is associated with one of the most exhilarating New Testament letters written by the Apostle Paul. I had studied Ephesians early in my walk, and I was undone by the message the Lord had clearly spelled out on my Scrabble tile rack, because I knew the meaning of the word ephesus.

I was weeping as I asked my daughter to please give me a few more minutes before I could continue the game with her. Jesus had just called me, “Darling!”

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries

On a beautiful May morning a couple of years ago I was driving through my neighborhood praying for the Lord’s blessing upon the precious people. On a certain street I felt led by the Holy Spirit to pull over and park for a moment and I knew he wanted to show me something.

I watched a dog limping along a nearby driveway as he fetched a newspaper and brought it to his master at the door to the house and I realized the incredible devotion he had to his master.  Despite his limp, he was not “lame” or unable to serve his master. He pushed past his limitation in order to remain faithful to serve.

I was convicted of the times when I used a painful “limp” as an excuse to abdicate responsibility. I prayed right away: “Lord, help me embrace the lesson you taught me today through the steadfast faithfulness of a loving servant.”

I also recalled a very powerful lesson I learned several years before concerning the ability of the Lord to help us push past our limitations to remain faithful to his calling to serve him in advancing the Kingdom. Read on, if you dare!

Many years ago, one of our Father’s Touch healing teams was asked to pray for Susan (not her real name) who had been in a coma for two years. [Her story is shared in our TouchStones collection of encouraging testimonies of God’s goodness]. She was in a sub-acute coma, alert during her “awake” periods and able to communicate with us by blinking her eyelids four times for “yes” and twice for “no.” 

She had breakthrough in finally forgiving the people responsible for her coma condition, and as the team continued to visit over the next year, they witnessed the development in Susan of one of the most wonderful, intimate relationships with the Lord that they had ever encountered! 

Susan’s relationship with the team continued to grow and the Holy Spirit began to reveal what was on her heart so that she could “communicate” with them. So, even though Susan couldn’t talk, the Lord’s mercy enabled her to still “tell” the team how much she loved him and worshiped him. 

One of the burdens on her heart was to pray for others; her focus had shifted from her own plight to the needs of others, particularly for healing. So, Susan was grafted into the Father’s TouchTeam and began praying for visitors while she herself was in a coma! One lady who came for “prayer” from Susan was powerfully touched by the Holy Spirit as soon as she grasped Susan’s hands and she received instant relief from her painful condition!

So, if the limping dog could still fetch the paper for his master and Susan could heal the sick while in a coma, we can rest assured that whatever our “limp” might be, it does not make us “lame” and with the Lord’s help we can fruitfully serve him with all our hearts!

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries

As we are fashioned into the image of Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit, we can rejoice when evidence of the ongoing transformation is displayed, even if the occurrence seems “natural” at the time. That “naturalness” is in fact part of the evidence that you are a son of Abba!

“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you

is divine love in all its varied expressions:  

joy that overflows, peace that subdues,

patience that endures, kindness in action,

a life full of virtue, faith that prevails,

gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit.

Never set the law above these qualities, 

for they are meant to be limitless.”

Galatians 5:22-3 [TPT]

I was “ambushed” one day by the Holy Spirit as he helped me understand that “kindness in action” not only can bless the recipient of this “fruit of the Spirit,” but also serves to help us with the mission of preparing the next generation of younger Christians who are “watching!”

It happened several years ago, as I was enjoying my weekly after-school visit with Sammy (not his real name), a young boy whom I was mentoring through the “Brothers’ Keepers” ministry for fatherless boys at my church. During our visit I received a call from my friend Jenny (not her real name), who was “stuck” at her patio table at a local coffee shop, needing help because she was too weak to walk to her car. Her plight was due to sudden extreme fatigue brought about by her auto-immune disorder.

So, Sammy and I went to the rescue.

When we reached Jenny, she asked me to help her to her car, as she felt confident that she could at least drive home. We followed her to the underground parking garage at her apartment building, and I carried Jenny from her car to her door. We helped her get settled before Sammy and I walked back to my car to resume our mentoring visit.  

As we walked across the courtyard of the apartment complex to the street, Sammy mentioned that he wanted to be like me when he “grew up.” I asked, “Why is that, Sammy?” He answered so sweetly, “I want to help people.” 

Mission accomplished.

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries

This is a profound question for the believer. How can I know if I am Father’s friend? Do I have to hear his voice from a cloud declaring such? Are my shortcomings an impediment to friendship with Abba? Is it even possible to be regarded as his friend, and not just his son or daughter?

These are just some of the questions that can swirl through our minds as we contemplate the question posed in the title.

Let me settle the swirl straight away! What matters is Abba’s opinion, not our own perceptions. He calls you his friend, because Jesus has done so. When did Jesus call you his friend? The moment you desired to entwine your heart with his! Jesus announced to his disciples that 

Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.   [John 14:23]

The desire of Jesus and the Father is to “take up residence” with those who love them, with the obvious implication of entwinement of their hearts with the believer. This is one of the hallmarks of close friendship.  

A friend of Jesus is a friend of the Father, because Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. [See Hebrews 1:3] He explicitly said to Philip: 

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.   [John 14:9]

It will not change reality if you claim to be unqualified to be Father’s friend. Your desire for entwinement of your heart with his (e.g., your love for him!) is sufficient, and it trumps all your imperfections that you might list for disqualification. 

So, let your heart be settled from any swirling in your mind. Receive your status as a friend of the Father, because his desire is stronger than your shortcomings.

Keeping this in mind, you can gain encouragement as you consider some of the fruit of this glorious, loving, friendship with Abba and that will serve to help you deepen your friendship with him because love begets more love!

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries

Many years ago, I asked the Father this question: “Abba, when you made Adam why didn’t you just make the rest of us right along with him? It seems to me that it would have been a much more efficient and quicker way to fill the earth with humans than the long process of reproductive multiplication. And surely there was enough dirt available to make us all at once!” ☺

I could sense Abba’s chuckle at my suggestion of a better way to populate the earth, but I didn’t hear an answer to my question, at least not a verbal one. Instead, I began to sense an emotion that was not mine, and I realized that I was sensing something in the heart of my Father, who has made his home with me. With the help of Holy Spirit, I gradually zeroed in on what this emotion was – I was feeling the joy that the Father had in being a “father!” In other words, his heart treasures the joy of “parenthood.”

Because of his sharing of this feeling in his heart with me, I began to get very excited as I remembered that Abba is, in a sense, “compelled” by his love to share every good thing (with those whose walk is blameless) because that is the nature of pure love.

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.   [Psalm 84:11 (ESV)]

Before Adam and Eve sinned, their walk was blameless and thus God was pleased to share this good thing (the “joy of parenthood”) with them (and consequently with us). In other words,

Abba shared his joy of parenthood by not making us all at once!

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries

I somewhat playfully asked the Father one day, “Abba, why did you make us in your image, and not something else, like a giraffe, for example?”

His answer was immediate and “dripping” with loving-kindness: “Because my image is the very best I could give you!” I could feel the joy in his heart as he shared his motive, and I had yet another glimpse into his incredible heart, the most fascinating place in the universe.

I have meditated on this love-driven choice by Abba for quite some time, and I encourage you to do the same because the delightful revelations of his infinitely textured love will keep coming to you!

For example, a shift in understanding will likely occur as we realize that the process of becoming like Jesus (and hence like the Father since they are one) will enable us to share in the blessings of this First-Born Brother of ours (see Romans 8:29). “Cleaning up” our behavior is just a rudimentary benefit of becoming like Christ. We shall also partake (in a substantial way) of the tremendous blessings that Jesus experienced as a son of God (see Ephesians 1:3)!

The list of such blessings would be very long, of course, but I can mention just a few. As we become like Christ, we develop “Jesus levels” of love, confidence, joy, peace, and “oneness” with he and Abba. We shall experience these blessings (and many more!) because Abba loves us in the same way that he loves Jesus (see John 17:23, 26).

Abba’s purpose in making us in his image goes far beyond fashioning creatures with behavioral perfection. Indeed, he was “compelled” by his love to share every good thing with us because that is the nature of pure love (see, for example, Psalm 84:11). The only way we can experience those good things is if we are like him!  Let me put it this way,

Abba foresaw your pleasure in becoming like him!

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries

Not only does Abba sometimes surprise us when someone is in desperate need for healing, but he also delights in meeting even our less-pressing needs. Here is an example that not only ratchets up our faith, but also encourages us to ask and not be silent because we think it wouldn’t be important enough for God to be “bothered.” We “… do not have because [we] do not ask God.” [Js. 4:2] All of our needs are important to our Father! 

On a 3-day weekend retreat trip to Mexico from Los Angeles, some of the Father’s Touch team members were riding in a car together and one of them remarked how disappointed she was that she wouldn’t be able to eat her favorite, spicy Mexican foods because of her recent bout with stomach trouble, including an ulcer. 

Rather than praying for healing for the stomach outright, one of the team members felt led to first ask the question, “What is the food that is easiest for your stomach to tolerate?” She replied, “Well, that would be bananas. They give me no trouble at all.” The Holy Spirit then prompted the following prayer: “Lord, while she is in Mexico, please let her savor the taste of whatever she eats, but change it into bananas before it reaches her stomach!” 

As you may have guessed by now, that is exactly what happened over the three days of feasting on wonderful, spicy Mexican cuisine. Anything and everything she ate did not irritate her stomach in the slightest! The Lord blessed her wonderfully by answering that simple, but rather unconventional, prayer. What an awesome God we serve! You can imagine how the faith of the people around her, and that of many others who have heard that story since then, was ratcheted up another notch! 

An interesting side lesson was learned through this experience, by the way. Recall the exact wording of the prayer prayed before leaving California: “…while she is in Mexico…” On the way back home to California, the carload stopped at this lady’s favorite taco stand in Tijuana so she could get two of her favorite super deluxe, spicy tacos! She ate one of them while waiting in the long line of cars at the border, and in keeping with the fact that she was still in Mexico, her stomach was fine! 

About an hour later, however, as the group was well within California heading home to Los Angeles, she ate the other taco. Big mistake! Her stomach rebelled and required a fast dose of peppermint! So, Abba honored the prayer request to change all she ate in Mexico to bananas, but once back across the border, the miracle ended! He evidently wanted to teach everyone a lesson about the power of our words and to think carefully about our requests, since he took the request literally! Be forewarned! 

© 2022 The Father’s Touch Ministries