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Introduction

At a time when many Apostolics are 3rd, 4th or even 5th generation, many are losing sight of the landmarks that our previous generations have left us. This eagerness to depart from the things that identify us is not always a lack of love for truth, but is often the result of a lack of adequate teaching. This is reflected in my own life. Being a 4th generation Pentecostal myself, I fell for the "it's only a consecration" philosophy and for a period of time lost my way. It was not due to a lack of love for God, but it was because I had only been taught "The Rules" without ever really learning the reasoning behind them. By the grace of God my wife and I found our way back to fullness of truth and for that we will be eternally grateful. In retrospect we now know that by turning away from our heritage God opened our eyes to see that what before seemed like bonds and burdens was the very thing that brought us back and into deep relationship with Him.


Because of our past experience, God has given us a burden for what we will call Prodigals. The dictionary defines prodigal as a person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance. This seems very fitting as many former apostolics are using their God-given talent wastefully. Many fine singers, musicians, and even preachers are using their talents for pursuit of worldly gain rather than to glorify their Creator. We know that everyone is called to be a minister in some capacity and we pray that you will join us in praying for these that have gone astray.


Many days I will simply post the prayer requests that I have received while other days I may be able to post an encouraging scripture or story. To subscribe simply click the RSS subscription button below or simply visit this page to check for updates. Because of other excellent resources for prayer, such as World Network of Prayer (www.wnop.org), I ask that your requests would be limited to lost children of Apostolic parents. I will be accepting prayer requests, praise reports and encouraging stories for entry into the blog. If you or anyone you know is praying for a son or daughter who has wandered or has been led astray, please do not hesitate to send me a prayer request through the comments section below. Comments are not public and only prayer requests, praise reports etc. will be published. In order to maintain anonymity only first names along with the state of residence will be posted on any prayer list.


This blog is a new venture for me entirely and I will apologize in advance for any growing pains we may experience over the next few months. I pray that you will be patient with me as we begin this journey together.


Thank you for taking the time to view this blog. I hope and pray it will be a blessing to you.


For the Kingdom,


Mark Barnes

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

How You Look

I've been studying Luke 19 a lot over the past couple of weeks, during this time God has shown me that it's not about how you look, it's all about how you look. Confused yet? In this day and age, and for most of history from what I can tell, people have been interested in how they look. They worry about how others view them, they want to be seen as the best at something if not everything. It is within human nature to desire to be better, to have better and to do better. In Luke chapter 19 we see something else though. The Bible tells us that Zaccheus was the chief publican and a very rich man, and yet he was not concerned about what others thought about him. Zaccheus could've been like everyone else that day and just remained in the crowd. It's easy to be in the crowd, we see that Peter disappeared into the crowd when Jesus was taken from the garden. The crowd is a good place to be when you are concerned with how you look. It's easy to blend in, it's easy to look like you are just like everyone else when you stay in the crowd. That's not what Zaccheus did though, he asked where Jesus was going and he ran ahead of the crowd and found a tree. He knew that if he looked hard enough he could see Jesus, and in order to get a look at Jesus he was willing to forget about what he looked like. Sometimes we need to have this same mentality, we need to stop worrying about how we look and start worrying about how we look. We need to start seeking Jesus, longing to look in his face, longing to spend time with him and longing to have a true relationship with him. If we do this, his reaction will be the same as he reacted to Zaccheus. He called him by name and said I must abide with you today. Start seeking Jesus and he will be found.
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