God Uses Ordinary People To Accomplish His Work – Day 2 – November 28, 2014

Today is Day 2 of our 36 Day Spiritual Adventure of getting to know and then actively praying for Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM) and all of the various unreached people groups in and around Northern Thailand. Please join us and invite your friends to join us for this great time of seeking the face of God on behalf of millions who have never heard the message of our Lord Jesus.

When God is about to do something extra ordinary, He looks to see if He can find some ordinary person whose heart belongs to God and who will be obedient and do the thing God wants to be done. We see this when we look at the life of Abraham, or the life of Noah, or the life of Moses, and the lives of many men and women God used in the Bible.

God’s Word says, “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His....” 2 Chronicles 16:9.

When God finds someone who is willing to do what God wants to get done, God extends an invitation to that person to join Him in what God is doing. I believe that God extended that invitation to me (Michael Johnson) and my family some 17 years ago as I was on a business trip to Thailand for Sharp Manufacturing Company of America. I am an ordinary guy from Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the USA and do not have anything special about me except that I have given my heart to Jesus and been touched by an extra ordinary God and am willing to be used for God’s purposes. I was only in Thailand for a few days on that business trip some 17 years ago, but I was in Thailand long enough to realize that the message of Jesus was not reaching most Thai people.

On that short business trip, I did not meet one Christian. I did not see one church. I did not see any evidence that the Thai people had a chance to hear the most important story of Jesus ever told. That realization broke my heart and God began to speak to my heart about joining God in bringing this message of hope to the Thai people. Shortly after that trip, following many confirmations that God was leading us to move to Thailand and serve the Thai people, our family sold our home, cars, etc. and boarded a plane bound for Thailand. We landed in Thailand on January 13, 1999 and have served the Lord here in Thailand since that time. Above is a picture of our family before we left for the field while we were at the missionary learning center in Virginia. 

God truly wants to use ordinary people like you and me, but we must be willing to make our lives available for Him to use them. God isn’t interested in us coming up with some great thing we want to do for God. No, God is more interested in us being willing to embrace the great plans He already has for our lives. It reminds me of when Isaiah said to the Lord, “Here I am Lord, Send me.” In other words, “Lord, if you want me to go, I am willing. Whatever you want from my life, I am willing to do that because I love you and because I recognize that your plans are better than my plans.”

Prayer Example: “Oh, Heavenly Father, thank you for placing a little of your love for the Thai people in the hearts of the Johnson family. Please continue to lead them and guide them as they seek to lead the work of NTIM on the field. Help them to understand your plans for reaching the nations in and around Northern Thailand. We ask you to help them to follow your plans and to encourage others to join you in what you want to do through NTIM in the days ahead. We thank you for recently calling and sending out Josh & Jessie Grammer and pray that you would use them as your hands and feet. We also pray that you would be pleased to call out others to go and serve You through NTIM. The fields are ripe for the harvest but the laborers are truly few. Please raise up others to go and join you in what you are doing in and through NTIM and their partners. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.”

It All Begins With God And God's Heart For The Nations - Day 1 - November 27, 2014

Today is Thanksgiving and the beginning of a 36 Day Spiritual Adventure of getting to know and then actively praying for God’s Work in and through Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM) and all of the various unreached people groups in and around Northern Thailand. We are glad you have chosen to join us in this SEASON OF PRAYER and we invite you to ask your friends and any small group you are a part of to join us for this great time of seeking the face of God on behalf of millions and millions of people who have never heard the message of our Lord Jesus.

It all Begins With God And With God's Heart For The Nations.

 

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we find a consistent thought pattern that communicates the message that God loves all of the peoples in every part of God’s world. We also find passages like Eccl 3:11 that says, “He (God) has set eternity in their hearts (hearts of humans everywhere)…” God truly has placed in the heart of every man, woman, and child, in every place on the earth a desire to know the true and living God. But not everyone in God’s world has heard this great message.

My family has lived the last 15 years in the heart of Southeast Asia where millions of people have never heard the message of Jesus and have been trapped in thought patterns and ancient traditions that have kept them from the light of the gospel for thousands of years. There are over 70 different unreached people groups in the country of Thailand alone. Your heart and your prayers are needed. We are asking you to join us in seeking the mercy and grace of God to penetrate this darkness with the light and love of Jesus.

This is a 36 day spiritual adventure of learning about and battling the forces of darkness – through informed and fervent praying - on behalf of all the peoples living in and around Northern Thailand including all the unreached people groups in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and China. This SEASON OF PRAYER is a significant task we are asking you to do.

As we begin this 36 Day SEASON OF PRAYER for N.T.I.M (Northern Thailand Impact Ministry) and all of the peoples in and around Northern Thailand, we want to begin this spiritual journey by seeking the face of the Almighty God and asking Him to give us the Nations that are in and around Northern Thailand. The Psalmist wrote this, “Ask of Me, and I Will Surely Give You the Nations….” Psalm 2:8.

Prayer Example: “Oh, Heavenly Father. We know that You have set eternity in the hearts of the hundreds of unreached people groups living in and around Northern Thailand. We see on the map how Northern Thailand is strategically located to reach many other nations in that part of Your World. We pray and ask that You might be pleased to use NTIM and those who partner with NTIM to take the gospel and message of Jesus to the hundreds of Unreached People Groups living among them especially in this upcoming Christmas season. Help them to be your salt and your light and to begin breaking down the barriers of resistance that have kept them from opening their heart to our great Savior Jesus. We pray this in Jesus name and for the expansion of His Kingdom. Amen.”

SIGN UP TO GET NTIM's 2014 SEASON OF PRAYER UPDATES

NTIM's 2014 SEASON OF PRAYER is starting this Thursday. Please join us and receive daily devotional/prayer guides that will begin on Thanksgiving and take us to the end of the year. If you send me your email address, I will put you on our mailing list and you will receive daily devotional/prayer guides that will help you understand some of what God is doing in Southeast Asia and how to better pray for the expansion of God's Kingdom. Please email Michael at pray4ntim@gmail.com

Last year was our first year to initiate this SEASON OF PRAYER and God responded mightily to those prayers. We have been asked to initiate this SEASON OF PRAYER again this year and want to encourage you to please join us in seeking the CREATOR OF THE HEAVENS AND EARTH on behalf of the millions and millions of people living in this part of God's World who are still living in darkness, many without ever hearing the message of our great and awesome Savior Jesus Christ. Please join us on the front end of the SEASON OF PRAYER and send me your email address if you haven't already done so.
UNTIL ALL THE PEOPLE LIVING IN THIS PART OF GOD'S WORLD KNOW HIM,
Michael

URGENT PRAYER - SATAN HAS NOT RELEASED HIS GRIP YET - Nov 17, 2014

Today I received news about the land that has been given to us that has troubled my heart deeply and reminded me of the reality of the spiritual war that we are in here in Thailand. Many of you know that Thailand is in the heart of the 10-40 Window in Southeast Asia and from a Christian perspective has been a stronghold for the forces of darkness for thousands of year. 

PRAYER REQUEST DETAILS: GOD HAS GIVEN US LAND…. BUT SATAN HAS NOT RELEASED HIS GRIP YET

The news I received today reminded me of the deep truth the Apostle Paul was referring to when he penned these words, “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 4:12. 

As most of our Prayer Supporters already know, God has not only given us most of the financial resources needed to build the “Spiritual Beachhead” God has put on our heart to build but God moved in a Thai person’s heart who then donated 3 rai (about 1 acre) of land to us to set up this beachhead. (Here is the link where I wrote up the prayer request for the Beachhead ….  http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Day-26-Lighting-Up-the-Darkness---Together-We-Build---Dec-26--2013.html?soid=1103335986076&aid=jX4lQ8PCDnE )

Once this land was donated to us from this Thai person, our foundation in Thailand began to put together all the paperwork that was necessary for us to get the land legally transferred into the name of our foundation. We then submitted that paperwork in July 2014…… Since that time we have seen resistance to release that land to us. We are confident that this is not a normal type of resistance but is one that is embedded in the battle over the hearts and minds of these precious people we are trying to reach with the gospel of our great and awesome Savior.

The process of transferring land ownership is not suppose to be this difficult and the bottleneck has now been clearly identified with the information we received today. Part of the approval process that the Government Office has asked of us is to schedule a meeting with the village where this land is located that has been donated to us. We have had one small meeting with various leaders who then requested that we meet with the whole village. We have been very happy to do this, however, the Village leader has continued to postpone scheduled meetings and not allowed us to take the process forward. 

Our last scheduled meeting was this past Saturday, November 15. Several days before this meeting was to take place, we got a call from the Village leader and he says that something has come up and we cannot have a meeting on that day and will have to postpone it for another time. We were disappointed of course but didn’t think too much about it UNTIL TODAY! TODAY WE HEARD THE NEWS. The news that we heard is that the village did have a meeting last Saturday and when a question was asked about why our foundation did not come to the meeting, the Village leader told a bold face lie and said that we had called and said we could not meet.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

IT is time for us to claim this land for Jesus. We are asking all of you who read this urgent request to take this very serious matter before the throne of grace of the Ruler over all the Affairs of Men – our Lord and Savior Jesus.

The Bible clearly tells us in Proverbs 21:1 that “The kings heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord and He moves it which every way He wishes.” Please join us in praying that God would move in the hearts of those who are above this Village leader. Tomorrow a few of us are going down to the government office to bring to light what has been happening and to ask for their intervention. It will be a tender situation but one that is clearly necessary for us to do at this point. 

Today a thought came into my heart that had never occurred to me before today. When God gave the land of Canaan to the Israelites, it was theirs but they had to “claim the land.” The Israelites still have to fight for and defend their land even today.

 TODAY, we have called on our God… and we are calling on you to call on our God in our behalf. TOMORROW, we go to claim the land and to call on the favor of the Thai Government to give us this land with or without the support of the Village leader.

Thank you for supporting God’s work through your prayers. God’s Word says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16b

Until the nations in and around Northern Thailand know Him,

Michael

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58