PRE Fast Day THREE On Monday (January 8) as you reach mid-afternoon most of us will begin to experience hunger pangs. Grrrr, the drive of our physical body is powerful. And it’s often our weak responses to the physical that cancel what is about to triumph in the spiritual. I’ve determined that a LARGE part of our journey through life on planet earth is all about growing our spirit (soul) to the point that it takes captive the desires of our physical body. When we begin to mature in faith, we take captive our thoughts to Christ. Often, we find freedoms from addictions and harmful thought processes and more. But eating is something we will participate in for the duration of our earth-life. Taking captive the god called -stomach- is a HUGE issue for so many of us. It is for me. But this fast, which I started yesterday and... Read more →

PRE Fast Day TWO Question: Do you know what to do while you fast? What am I supposed to do? Do I pray normally, pray more? Do I just sit in silence? Do I just starve myself and hope something happens? Perhaps some of you are scratching your head just like I did a few years ago. Anyone? I want to share some insights that make your fast powerful and effective. Make time every morning to rise before the house wakes, go into your prayer place with your Bible, journal and any other book that you are reading to grow in your faith. Open up your spirt by inviting the Lord to come in. Give God your heart and ask Him to speak to you. Start your prayer time with worship, or/and prayer language, or/and surrender. Read a chapter or verses in your daily reading. If you don’t have a... Read more →

SUMite Nation Next week, January 8-12, 2018… We will fast together in a Corporate expression of sacrifice and prayer. Seeking a greater intimacy with the Lord and seeking revelation for the year ahead. Begin to think about what and how you are going to fast. Prepare your family and let them know you will be fasting. Pre-prepare meals for them and let them know that you need their support to fast. My challenge is for you to fast an entire five days from solid foods. And for some of you who truly need a miracle, a water only fast for five days. If you can’t fast all five days, consider a sunrise to sunset fast, with dinner in the evening. I also challenge you to fast from television and devote that time to reading the Bible or another book that will strengthen your faith. Let me ask you this. Do... Read more →

Meet Finn. His mama was found wandering about Los Angeles and birthed a litter right around Christmas day. We adopted this little buddy from a Chiwawa pet rescue. We also adopted his sister, Gracie, nearly two years ago. Finn, I’ve come to decide, is a special needs doggie. Something happened to him before our ownership that has left him with permanent pain in his back-hind quarters. He often yips and yelps and scurries along the floor like someone is chasing him because of the moments of pain he experiences. We have taken this poor mutt to the Vet several times, x-rays and exams to figure out what is causing this pain. Nothing. We can’t figure it out and he continues to be in pain. This causes the little pooch to be very fearful. He’s also obsessively devoted to my husband Mike. Follows him everywhere. It breaks my heart to look... Read more →

Photo sourced from St Clare of Assisi Catholic Church I was intrigued to read a post Christianity Today published last week based on some research conducted by Lifeway Research. It revealed 24% of Americans observe Lent, the greater majority Catholics. Interestingly, 82% of Catholics who regularly attend Church are likely to observe it while only 30% of Protestants who regularly attend church will. The stats didn’t surprise me. I’d love to see comparable ones for Australia as I expect they’d been even lower. I’m the only person in my circle that observes it and it’s not mentioned in my church community. So why bother with it? I only adopted the practice in recent years having lacked understanding of what it was about. I grew up believing it was something Catholics observed and as I wasn’t Catholic it didn’t apply to me. As I’ve come to better understand the practice I... Read more →

We arrived. Hallelujah! My fast went fairly decent. Wasn’t perfect but fasted mostly for five days, (I still have today to go). I lost four pounds and gained new awe in my heart for our Father. I feel almost melancholy that our fast is ending. This week has brought tears to my eyes, laughter to my heart to read what happened in your lives through the book and the fast. I’m humbled and in awe that our Lord is so powerful on the move to bring breakthrough to our SUM House of believers. Today, is a special day because chapter 13 is a gift. I wrote it following a powerful prayer session. And what I received, God says is for everyone who contends for an unsaved spouse. So I pass it along to you. Pray and release. Don’t carry the burdens you are not to carry. Jesus died to bring... Read more →

I’m completely overcome by what is happening in our community this week. Gang, reading the comments and the emails that I’m receiving… It’s just wild and awesome! I’m undone by how God is moving in the pages of the book, Winning Them With Prayer. Some of you are experiencing breakthroughs at home, with husbands and even feeling the spiritual bondage break off….. THIS IS THE REASON I WROTE THIS BOOK. God has purposed THIS book with power from on High to break the chains of Satan. This is what Anja from Switzerland wrote at the end of her astonishing comments on the Day Three post: Needless to say…I’m without words. I’m humbled, amazed and feel as if years of burdens have been lifted off my shoulders. It is the answer to so many of my heart’s cries. I got a long way to go but now I am certain I... Read more →

This verse has been pinned to my prayer board for weeks. My friends, we are already on day three of our prayer and fasting. Please share what God is showing and/or telling you. Your testimony may be the very piece another SUMite needs to help her or him connect the dots of what God is revealing. I’m finding myself in that place again where God is connecting dots again and revealing answers to prayers. I’m so very encouraged especially for my children and hope to share more soon on what’s happening. Plus, our first night of fasting from television turned out to be such a precious time for my hubby and I. We played games and didn’t miss watching it at all. I am amazed by that, my friends. I know the Holy Spirit gave me grace for that. Plus I had time to spend in His presence later in... Read more →

My friends, we are on day two of our fast. I’ve chosen to fast from sun-up to sun-down each day. I also sought the Holy Spirit’s guidance on anything else I should fast from, to honor the Lord. He’s impressed upon my heart to fast from television. Not that I watch that much, but it is a routine thing for hubby and I in the evenings to relax and watch old reruns. I find this time very cathartic. But God told me He wants to do something different so maybe this is part of it. The unexpected part of it is when I told my husband I was “considering” doing this, I asked him what he thought and if he’d like to join me. He said yes! So, Mike is joining me in a fast from television this week. I’m fascinated to see what God does with that, my friends.... Read more →

SUMITE Fast 2017: Monday, January 9: Day one. SUMites…. Who wants a new beginning? A fresh start? A year of new possibilities, promises fulfilled and a deeper walk with our Lord? We are a people who are endowed with new starts. Believers have been given a gift of new starts and new beginnings. It’s in our nature. We experienced our first new beginning when we came to faith in Jesus. I’m convinced that the Lord gives us new beginnings, new starts over and over again throughout our life. And this fast is going to be the start of significant changes and fulfilments in our lives in 2017. I am CONVINCED that this year is a breakthrough year. I have enough faith in this statement for all of us, even for those of you who aren’t feeling it yet. I’m convinced that God is leading us toward significant person healing. I’m... Read more →

Hello, SUMites! My dear friends, I've missed you. I hope your Christmas was filled with joy and wonder, and that your new year is off to a great start, full of hope and expectation. My time with my family over Christmas and New Years was very sweet and precious. I am so grateful for it as we only get to spend Christmas together every other year now. So thank you, my SUM family, for your prayers and blessings over my time with my daughters and son-in-love. As you can imagine, I miss them greatly. Our Papa God has comforted my melancholy heart every time I’ve run to Him. He’s so good. But I am ready to walk into 2017 with new expectations and new clarity for direction. And I'm "expecting" next week's prayer and fasting will be key to that. I believe many of you are too. I've loved reading... Read more →

Photo courtesy of khunaspix/FreeDigitalPhotos.net Last year my Word for the year was “DELIGHT”. I so enjoyed delighting and figured there was so much more for me to experience that I was expecting I would stick with the same word for 2017. As I prayed and meditated on it last week I stumbled across a line in a prayer I read: “If I’m going to be in a hurry about one thing this year, may it be to linger longer in Your Presence. Everything else will fall into place.”1 I stopped. Re-read this line a few more times as I prayed and then I had a new Word for 2017. Can you guess what it is? Linger! It’s a great word. How much do we enjoy lingering on a great cup of coffee or fabulous dessert or a piece of music? But how much time do we spend simply lingering in... Read more →

My friends, The New Year fast is going to be different than in years past. I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to walk all of us through a season of healing. One of the ways believers encounter healing is upon our discovery of our divine purpose and calling. DISCOVER YOUR DIVINE CALLING - FAST 2017 Day one you can expect a few questions that you will take with you into your prayer time. And as your hunger grows throughout the day, I’m convinced that the answers will flow from the Throne of Grace and Mercy. We will also be using the prayer book as a prompt and it will also become a record of our fast and so much more. It’s not too late to order you copy. However, we are sold out. Every book that Dineen and I order has been purchased and shipped. We have more on... Read more →

Hello SUMite Nation, Wow, I have missed all of you! I feel like I could burst because I’m keeping inside all of this amazing stuff that has happened in the past several weeks. A-MAZ-ING stuff that I can’t wait to share with you…. I can’t wait to start teaching about emotional healing. (And other surprises.) I PROMISE YOU THIS, you WILL experience freedom and healing if you work through the series of posts that we will tackle beginning January 23rd. Before we get to that we need to focus on our prayer life for 2017. Our emotional healing happens through prayer, so I find it perfect timing that we will focus on prayer during our annual fast week. We will fast as a community the week of January 9th through January 13th. Dineen will be providing some links to how to fast, January 6th. Every year I’m fascinated at the... Read more →

My friends, I pray you are still discovering sweet revelations and blessings from last week's fasting and praying for Rosh Hashanah. Dawn did an amazing job leading us. Thank you, my friend! We love you so much! And my friends, your comments were moving and inspiring. If you didn't read Ann's comment about her revelation dream for us that she posted on Thursday, please go read it in the comments. It's very encouraging and confirmed many things for me. In fact, God used her comment and Dawn's story about her house to show me what I was to share with you next. Can I just say, I love our Father's heart for us and our spouses? He is so passionate about us, my friends! I'm overwhelmed by His love and heart for us. Now about our house...we are just 16 days away from closing. We have watched our house transform... Read more →

“If I told you my story You would hear Hope that wouldn't let go And if I told you my story You would hear Love that never gave up If I should speak then let it be Of the grace that is greater than all my sin Of when justice was served and where mercy wins Of the kindness of Jesus that draws me in Oh to tell you my story is to tell of Him” Lyrics from “My Story” Big Daddy Weave The words to that song are the words to my song – my story. And to tell you my story is to tell of Him. My story of the last year is one filled with hope, love, victory and abundance. It has been a jubilee year indeed and it all started with the Rosh Hashanah community fast here in our Sum Community. It was Monday, September 14th.... Read more →

Hello, SUMites! I’m excited to tell you about what will be happening next week and who will be leading it. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sunset on Sunday, October 2nd and ends at nightfall on October 4th and means “head of the year” in Hebrew. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah, which in Hebrew means day of shouting and blasting and is sometimes translated as the Feast of Trumpets. Thus why the Shofar is a symbol of the holiday (as well as the eating of symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to evoke a "sweet new year”) and is blown as part of the celebration. The significance of this horn is very symbolic as well. Remember the story of Jericho and how the seven priests bore seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord? They were to blow the... Read more →

Hello SUMers, can you believe its September? Say What? It’s back to school. Back to church. Does your church start a whole ton of stuff this month? There are tremendous opportunities in the fall in which to participate. Just remember to find balance and not over commit yourself and leave your husband/wife feeling left out. Choose wisely! In the last few weeks I’ve shared six prayer strategies. I absolutely believe that our prayers are magnified and moved upon by the Lord. And as I was considering wrapping up this series, the Lord reminded me about a tactic of prayer that I’ve yet to discuss: Fasting There are times when we have prayed and prayed. Employed our will, the Word, etc., etc. And…. Nothing. This brings me to the wild story in the book of Daniel. Chapter 10, let’s listen in to this conversation: Daniel speaking: Then I heard the man... Read more →

I was waaaaay back in the archives and stumbled over this treasure written by our beloved Rosheeda Lee. For those of you who don't know Rosheeda, she was a popular and frequent guest writer here at SUM. She always led our community through our January fast with power and amazing intimacy. She passed away in a car accident while on her way to meet up with us at a conference. You can read about Rosheeda Lee Legacy. We love and adore her and I can't wait to see her in the Throne Room. We plan to hug and dance and sign together for at least 10,000 years. But today, I want to share her thoughts about the foxes and the elephants. This was written during our fasting. Have a great weekend my friends... I will be back with a TON of fantastic thoughts, classes and insights on August 1st. Love... Read more →

Part III today... Part I (click here) Part II (click here) ----- Granddaughter reunion in January But, my friends, wait as I grab tissue to dab at the tears, there is STILL MORE. Yesterday, when my mother called to check up on my health progress, at the end of our phone call, I said, “Mom, thank you for always praying for me and my healing. But Mom, how can I pray for you?” And this is almost the best part of the story. She said, “You know I wasn’t going to mention it to you but since you asked, I think I’m having some kind of a spiritual breakthrough.” “What? Oh Do tell me more. I want to hear everything.” “Well, for some reason I am teary. I don’t know really what is happening but I’m so teary and weepy.” OH HOLY GOD BE PRAISED!!! “Oh Mom, I’m so glad... Read more →

SUMites, I pray this week of fasting has brought you encouragement and strength this week. I wish I could have fasted more, but my pain medication only allowed me to fast a couple mornings. I am encouraged however that even in the midst of this recovery, which has made focusing on God very challenging, I was still able to hear His heart for our community. That right there knocked another lie out of my spiritual life. For that I am grateful. He has shown me that even in such places of challenge when I don't feel close to Him, He is still speaking and He will make sure I hear Him. Our own Cindy C. shared this profound truth perfectly: "Trust God's hold on you MORE than your hold on God." (Thank you, Cindy!) Now, the rest of Abba's message for us is in Jeremiah 33, where I started on... Read more →

­­­­­ It’s the final day of our community fast. SUM family, what an experience. For me personally, at the beginning of the week, I was feeling far away from God. I had lost my will to pray and even reading His Word felt as a chore. I was stinging from family pain over the holidays and because of that, holding some unforgiveness in my heart. Yikes! I knew I needed surrender and renewal. The Holy Spirit did not disappoint. Yesterday was my breakthrough. Yesterday Southern California, where I live, received a much needed dousing of rain. Rain has fallen steady for over 24 hours. Thank you Jesus for answered prayer. On Thursday morning, I rose before dawn, as usual. However, pain in my knee caused me to turn around and head back to bed. When I woke a few hours later, pain-free- the sun was brilliant in the sky and... Read more →

My friends, as I shared on Tuesday, I have an amazing story to tell you today. I just want to say personally how grateful I am for those moments that reveal His presence at work in our lives. I am renewed and strengthened every time by those moments. My faith grows and hope is restored. How about you? This was one of those moments. During the week, Holy Spirit had revealed more of Abba's heart for us through Scriptures in Jeremiah. More specific than I anticipated so I asked Him to please confirm that I was hearing Him correctly. Sunday morning I went to church and the pastor of my church was speaking on the EXACT same Scriptures and message that Holy Spirit had shown me for our community. My friends, I can only imagine what I looked like as I sat there with my eyes bugging out and my... Read more →

Welcome to Day Three of our Community Fast. I also want to welcome any listeners from the Bob Dutko Show (1:00 ET) who are joining us today. Your prayers have been heard by God. You have found an amazing home one the web. Take a minute to read about Our Community and plan to join us in the fantastic life of living for Jesus. SUMites, I have been fascinated by keys. Specifically the keys that are mentioned in the Bible. And I believe God is revealing and giving keys to His people. Do a word study on Keys… I’m blown away by the Key of David. I could chat with you for hours about the significance and the passages about keys. But for today, I want to share with you a glimpse of the classroom the Lord has me in. Binding and loosing from Mathew 18:18. On Monday I spoke... Read more →

My friends, I’ve been praying for our community and seeking God’s heart for us these last two weeks. Reading your comments and hearing your heart has so encouraged me. I love seeing God work in your lives! SUM family, I believe God has given me a powerful word for our community. When I first heard Holy Spirit speak this to me, I was quite stunned and then realized this was not only a word for me but a corporate word as well for our SUM community. I've been praying into this for understanding and leading for us. That word is SALVATION. As I prayed for understanding and wisdom as to what this word means for us, Holy Spirit kept taking me to Jeremiah, a very challenging book to read in the Bible. But thankfully His intentions became clear as I came to chapter 24: After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had... Read more →