Halloween: PRAY OR PARTY??

 

Readers I am opening my heart to you today!

Are you aware of the horrible child and animal sacrifices that are taking place now with Halloween all over America and the world? Christians must be at war, not only for the election, but for the lives at stake during this season of ungodliness celebrated by witches and Satanists and even churches trying to sanctify the holiday. Did you know that dressing up in costumes goes back to the evil teachings of the Druids? Halloween is the night before All Saints Day. It’s the night when evil spirits roam the earth. It is the night of necromancy, the conjuring of evil spirits. It’s the devil’s night, the Black Sabbath. How can we party?

 

In Charisma magazine, researcher, revivalist, Rev. John Burton warns: “If you participate in Halloween at any level, you are at risk. There is nothing innocent about it and no way to sanctify it. The level of demonic activity around the world on this night should result in millions of Christians gathering to pray with fire and passion. Abstain from all appearance of evil.  (I Thess.5:22). Children in costumes celebrating a night of candy and fun is not innocent. It’s a dangerous affirmation of the evil spirits of this age. Lives are truly at stake. The key role for us Christians is to expose darkness. And do not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; instead, expose them. Eph. 5:11.  I propose we eliminate all supposed Christian Halloween alternatives and instead make it clear as Christians we will have nothing to do with such a demonic celebration. “ https://burton.tv/2016/10/29/halloween-the-invitation/

 

Instead, we should see Halloween is a prime opportunity for Christian parents to teach their children about consecration and opposition to multi-billion dollar wickedness in our culture. Hold a late-night prayer meeting for the entire family or church. Prayer walk your neighborhood. Pray in the Spirit. We have and must USE the power to counteract the released demonic activity of Halloween (Luke 10:19). It must be a night of intercession, not a party. Have you ever considered that Halloween comes only a few days before our American election each year? Consider how much we may have lost in conservative causes in recent years as Halloween has grown to front and center stage in America as a multi-billion dollar business?

 

JOIN ME IN PRAYER:

“Father God, we come to you in the Name of Jesus and we worship you as the One and Only True God. We ask You to show us, Your church, how to pray about this great evil that has deceived and gained such a foothold in our nation. First, we repent and confess like Nehemiah 1:6: “Both I and my father’s house have greatly sinned.”  We cry out for Your mercy and forgiveness and for a Great Awakening.

We stand on Your promise in Luke 10:19 and right now we receive “power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy,” and we declare “that nothing shall by any means harm us.”

In Jesus’ name, we take the sword of the Spirit and enter in hand to hand combat!  We bind all demonic spirits being loosed in Jesus’ name! And any demonic powers released to stop the godly being elected in America’s coming election.

 

We cry out for every human, adult or child, and animals that are set for sacrifice in tonight’s Black Sabbath. Lord, reveal their secret meeting places and deliver the innocent. Cause SOMEBODY who knows the plans and location to come forth and expose them. Send in law officers (and godly judges) who are not involved and can’t be paid off. “Break the arm of the wicked. (Psalm 10:15). Release angels to fight in this battle as we pray! 

 

Lord, forgive and cleanse us of apathy, deception. Have mercy on us during Your judgment against this wickedness and do not destroy the righteous with the wicked. Open the eyes of America and Christians who are joining in this pagan celebration. Raise up a great army and ministers of the gospel who will preach the truth about this and take their stand. We can have victory! (Our law officer son has had to investigate reported satanic rituals in Greenville County. In our battle in Anderson to close the Hwy. 28 nude club, a group of us prayer warriors had to go to all known sites where occult rituals had taken place, according to our solicitor, and bind those devils and sing hymns to help defeat the nude club--which WAS DEFEATED PTL!)

 

Lord, we believe You are hearing our prayers and moving mightily to save, deliver, and wake up many right now. So we praise and worship You. You are our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the Faithful and True who rides the White Horse with eyes as a flame of fire and many crowns upon Your head. And written on your thigh a name is written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS! Hallowed be thy Name. THANK YOU ANGELS BATTLE THE FORCES OF EVIL AS WE PRAY.  Amen.”

In His Majesty's Special Ops,

Elva

Elva Cobb Martin is a retired school teacher, a mother, and grandmother who lives in South Carolina with her husband, her high school sweetheart, Dwayne. She grew up on a farm in South Carolina and spends many vacations on the Carolina Coast. Her southern roots run deep.

A life-long student of history, her favorite city, Charleston, South Carolina, inspires her stories of romance and adventure. Her love of writing grew out of a desire to share exciting love stories of courageous characters and communicate truths of the Christian faith to bring hope and encouragement. She always pauses for historic houses, gardens, chocolate, and babies of any kind.

Writers' January Prayer & Fast - Part 2 Five Prayer Points

by Elva Cobb Martin

For Part 1 click here http://bit.ly/2GSzoja

Below are five prayer points to help you draw close to God during whatever fast you choose to do. My fave fast is to fast all meats, all sweets, secular TV, movies for at least one week. This will cleanse your body from a lot of toxins and your mind from culture contamination--and bless you spiritually! And there are plenty of great vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, eggs, etc. to choose from. God's original diet he gave mankind in Gen. 1:29 was a vegetarian diet and they lived hundreds of years. 

These five prayer points are based on James 4:7 "Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee."

1) Draw close, submit to God and humble yourself
In true repentance for any backsliding, slackness, unforgiveness, anger, jealousy

In all manner of prayer (petition, confession, intercession, binding and loosening (spiritual warfare)and your prayer language, if you have one.

Start your annual Bible Read through plan

Meditate, memorize scripture

Read other Christian growth books (you’ve got time now, without TV). Check out my mini-book on Spiritual Warfare prayer at this link: http://amzn.to/2xwObpT  If you'd like a free eBook of Power Over Satan, leave your request in a comment below or contact me through my web site at www.elvamartin.com.

Keep a prayer journal (notebook) daily. Start out with thanks and praise, then list prayer needs and jot down texts of God's promises. I have prayer journals that go back years and track so many important moves in our lives. God's plans.

2) Ask the Lord to reveal and change whatever needs to be changed in your life.
Stewardship of your body (diet, exercise), your time, and your money and talents

Determine to show God’s love and kindness to all

Be a better witness and seek first the Kingdom of God

Determine to speak right words of faith (Prov. 18:21) and hope vs. negativism, doubt, fear. Speak the Word of God over needs. Bless others. Call forth seeds of greatness in those others are tearing down.

3) Petitions – List your needs and write scripture promises for each one in your journal

Your family and lost family members

The church pastor and church family

Health issues

Financial needs, getting out of debt, wisdom to plan

Other personal needs. If a writer, like me, ask the Lord to guide and bless your efforts, your computer, your time, and give you divine connections to those who can assist you. Plant seeds of help to others. Harvest will come just when you need it.

4) Pray for our Nation, Our Leaders, and a Great Awakening

The President, His Cabinet, Congress, Pentagon, city and state leaders

Our schools blessing and protection

Ask God to deliver all unborn babies slated for abortion and turn our nation against murder of the unborn.

Ask God to protect our soldiers, law officers, and firemen whose lives are on the line for our protection

Join the thousands in our nation praying fervently for God to send America a Great Awakening. I believe it is beginning!

5) Resist the devil –and he will flee

         Be forewarned, the enemy will try everything to keep you from prayer and fasting. Be wise. Don’t plan anything extra to do, or places to go. Give this prayer and fasting week your first, best and quality time. Refuse to be sidetracked, sideswiped or sick in Jesus’ name! You are in the Army now!

During my week of  prayer and fasting, I usually spend about an hour daily in the above type prayer mode, then go about my regular duties. 

Two vital things God spoke to me during earlier January Prayer and Fasts

1) He instructed us to move our retirement funds out of the stock market several years ago two weeks before the first big 300 point dip of the market. Some folks lost a great deal.

2) For years I have lifted up our financial plans, especially investments for retirement, during these January times. One year the Lord spoke into my spirit, "If you don't become a better steward over your body, somebody else will be steward over your retirement funds." DUH! I got that message and that coming year we made an about face toward a healthier diet, supplements, and regular, diligent exercise. We continue to study health stuff in our retirement. And we are blessed in every way. Even with our retirement funds. We give God the glory!

Thanks for stopping by. Do you have a pointer for prayer and fasting or an experience to share? Don't miss next week's guest blog on "32 Ways to Write About Fear."

Blessings,

Elva Martin

Elva Cobb Martin is vice-president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels published with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. She has indie published a Bible study on Amazon, Power Over Satan, on the  believer's authority in Christ. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com,on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin    

 Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon:http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

A Dry Dock Fast for the New Year

by Elva Cobb Martin

Do you do any kind of fast and prayer for the New Year? I always do some kind, whether Daniel's 21-Day prayer and fast of no pleasant bread (sweets) or just one week of fasting sweets, maybe meats, and TV to spend more time seeking God and His plan for us for the New Year.

A prayer and fast is similar to dry docking a ship.

 In my historical research of sailing ships I've learned why ships need to be dry docked after periods of service. According to Tom Hardiman, dry dock occurs when a ship is taken out of its normal surroundings in order to examine what has happened below the water line.


For example, after the USS

 USS Constitution

Constitution had been in commission for about twenty years, this vessel, which had been nimble and easily able to change course, began to slow down. In dry dock ten wagon loads of barnacles were removed from its bottom. Barnacles are living crustaceans with a glue-like substance that attach to bottoms of ships. If not removed, these barnacles grow a hair-like substance that almost looks like a beard. Sailors know this as "Satan's Beard." It's a long trail of stuff that slows the vessel down and, if not removed, the vessel will never return to its original precision.

Dry dock for modern ships is a structured area wherein construction, repairs, changes, and maintenance of merchant vessels and boats are carried out. Do you need some dry docking?

What has attached to you "below the water line" this past busy year? Fear, worry, disappointment, anger, grief, confusion? Satan's Beard, all of them. If these things aren't uprooted from your spirit, they will limit your effectiveness in 2018. They can even abort your having a successful year at all.

So I come aside in my special place, with my Bible and prayer journal, and I have some long talks with Father God at least the first week of each new year. We talk about anything concerning me, my successes, my failures, my time and how to spend it, my writing and marketing, our family finances, and any changes or wisdom needed. I date and write down what He says and confirming scriptures.

And He always also speaks something new into my life. In my year 2000 January fast when I'd been praying about our family finances and whether to make changes in our retirement investment, the Lord said, "If you don't become as concerned about your diet and health as you are with that little nest egg, somebody else will be making decisions about that money." Duh! I got the message. That whole year God began to show us some diet and exercise changes we need to make to our lifestyle if we wanted to live long and healthy. We made big changes and continue them.

Sometimes I didn't act as fast.  I think it was the 1998 January Prayer and Fast, when I was asking the Lord about our investments. He said, "Get totally out of the stock market." We had invested some retirement money in two small mutual funds that were currently earning 16-17%. (Are any of you old enough to remember those good old days?) Who wanted to move money earning good rates like that? I was sure I had misheard. So we did nothing. 

In April I had a vision of an angel in the New York Stock Market.  When I asked the Lord about it, He said, "He's there to hold back the worse losses until more Christians can get their money out." I asked where to rollover our investment, but still received no direction. So, again, I let it slip.

In July on one of my busiest days of year, I was rushing to finish a 21-page prayer booklet that would be distributed to 45 churches in our county who were helping us put a 24 hour prayer cover over our Anderson, S.C. county. God said, "Get your money out of the stock market, NOW." This voice was like a parent's last stern warning to a disobedient child. I called my husband, told him what I'd heard. He agreed, but we still didn't know where to roll the money over to. I called our broker and told him to redeem all our shares and move them into a bank money market at about 2%. He thought we were crazy but he did it that afternoon.

Two weeks later the stock market took its first plunge of 300 points. One friend told us she lost $35,000 in that plunge. Our little nest egg sat safely in a bank money market.

The Lord later showed us to invest in rental properties for retirement income, which are going great. So our "dry dock fasts" have been a realigning, a revealing, and given us wisdom for important decisions over the years.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment and share this blog on your social media by clicking on the small icons below.

Have a blessed, successful New Year!
Elva Cobb Martin

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

America's Prayer History - Part 2

by Elva Cobb Martin (Resource: The Incredible Power of Prayer by David Balsiger)

A Miraculous Wind

When the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria headed out on their historic journey west, Samuel Eliot Morison, a Columbus historian, wrote that the daily ship schedule included devotions at daybreak and at close of day for all the sailors. However after two months and more than 3,000 miles of sailing and still with nothing in sight, suspicion and fear began to affect the crews. Talk of mutiny began.

In grave concern, the captains of the other two ships rowed small boats to Columbus on the Santa Maria.  Columbus promised them, “Just give me three more days. If we haven’t sighted land by then, I’ll order the ships to turn around.” The men left and Columbus fell to his knees and cried out to God.

During the next 24 hours, a miracle occurred. A strong wind came and began pushing the three ships west at an alarming speed. The crew finally panicked, thinking they’d end up so far away from home they could never return. Columbus could barely control the frightened sailors, until one of the crew spied a reed and a piece of carved wood floating on the sea, then a small branch with roses on it.

At dawn on the third day, a voice rang from the crow’s nest, “Tierra! Tierra!” Land! Land!

Of course, the land discovered was in the Caribbean. The first thing Columbus and his men did was kneel on the pristine sand and thank God. Then they erected a cross and christened the island as San Salvador—Holy Savior.

Does this true story inspire you? If so, please leave a comment and share this on your social media by clicking on the icons below.

Elva Cobb Martin
PS For some crazy reason I can't insert photos and my keys are sticking while doing this blog. Can anyone help? ( :

A New Blog Series: America's Prayer History - Part 1

by Elva Cobb Martin 

America’s Prayer History - Our  Most Precious National Treasure

As we head into the inauguration of a new U.S. President in January, I am going to share some amazing answered prayers that are part of our spiritual national treasure. 

These prayers were by American leaders and by prayer warriors just like you and me, and they impacted our nation’s destiny. Unfortunately, we don’t find these in most of our school textbooks, so we must share them with our children and grandchildren. 

At the end of this series, I hope you’ll decide to join the long line of praying Christians before us, take up the torch, and continue the prayer march down the halls of America’s history. YOUR prayers can impact our nation in the coming years and birth the next Great Awakening.

In this series I hope to share sample stories of how simple but fervent prayer led to the discovery of the Americas, helped the colonies become established and preserved and strengthened our ragtag Continental army to break the back of the formidable British war machine, inspired the documents that have guided our country through two centuries, inspired four Great Awakenings, and forged a broken nation back together after the Civil War. 

Truly, through all our national conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to the current Middle East Wars, America has been preserved through the incredible power of praying Americans.

For this series I give upfront thanks to researchers David Balsiger, Joette Whims, and Melody Hunskor and their work, The Incredible Power of Prayer, published by Tyndale House in 1998. The Incredible Power of Prayer traces the power of prayer in our nation's history through nearly 100 miraculous instances where prayer changed the course of our destiny. 

Here's a bit about Christopher Columbus:

Columbus Sailed to the Americas in 1492, praying the earth was round, not flat!

 Educators teach that Christopher Columbus’s main purpose for sailing west to the Americas was secular. But his personal diary reflects a different  motivation: “It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) that it would be possible to sail from here (Europe) to the Indies...The fact that the gospel must still be preached to so many lands in such a short time, this is what convinces me.”

A priest friend shared a verse of scripture with Columbus  that convinced him the earth must be round. “To whom then will you liken God...It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth...” (Isaiah 41:18,22).

Hope you are having a blessed Christmas Season!

Elva Cobb Martin, President ACFW-SC Chapter
www.elvamartin.com