Preparing for Hurricane Ike

In Step with God: Understanding His Ways and Plans for Your Life By Charles F. Stanley / Thomas Nelson How do you make all the choices you face every day? Stanley reveals that understanding, considering, and trusting God's character will help you align your life with the direction he has for you. Discover how to know when to make big decisions; what God has for your future; why you're in difficult circumstances; and more. 256 pages, hardcover from Nelson.

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It's kind of difficult to say which is tougher; the Hurricane with the winds, rain, etc. Or the damages and the cleanups that the Hurricane leaves behind. Well both, sort of. The winds from my experience is scary. The way it hits against the windows, the walls of the house, and shakes the house. It's not the best thing to witness in life. But, that's not all. Some people are usually more prepared for things like this than others. Usually, the more prepared ones are those who have gone through it before. They know how it is. They're aware of the lights going off, trees falling, water problems among other things that happen when the storm is raging. Some others that are prepared are the ones who tune in to the News Channels, Radio stations for News, Weather Channels, and maybe read the Newspaper.

As we know, knowledge is power. There are those who maybe just want to try out their Faith. They believe that nothing will happen, after all, God is God. And, some others are not even aware of what is happening. This is just how it is in our Christian lives. Some of us are always "in tune" with God, the Holy Spirit. And we receive the messages, the warnings against danger, against temptations. And because we are "in tune", we are on the same "Frequency" with God, the Holy Spirit, we listen, and we obey. And guess what, we prepare ourselves for "it". We read the Bible, the Word of God. We sing songs of Praise and Worship. We pray. All these, to get us prepared so that we can overcome. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24; John 16:3, 4, 13; Proverbs 20:27)

This brings me to talk about being God-Inside Minded. I believe as people of God, when we become "in-tuned" with God, we become God-Inside Minded. We are no longer of the world, even though we're in the world. We are "spirits" living in a natural world. We have souls, and we live in a physical body. We receive the Spirit of God who guides us into all truth through our regenerated human spirits. The Spirit of God living inside of us leads us in all. And all we do is look inside of us, and know that His spirit is there. After a while, we become spirit-conscious. But this can last all through life, only if we dwell in the Word of God, making sure the Word does not depart out of our mouths. We meditate upon it day and night. (1 Corinthians 2:12; Romans 8:14 - 16; John 3:6, 7; James 2:22; Joshua 1:8)

On Saturday, my husband and I had to go to the church for a church duty, and as we were driving along the streets, we noticed there were so many cars on the road, this was just after the rain stopped. But, we noticed that people were searching for food. On our our way back home, we became hungry. And, since there was no light and our stove and oven are electric, I couldn't cook. As we drove into our driveway, we noticed that our neighbors to the left and right had light from their generators. Also, on our way home along one of the streets we drove through, there was a Popeye that was open. But guess what? It had a very long line. Over 20 cars lined open to buy food. Later on when I was talking to my sister, she asked me why we were not prepared. She and another sister had warned us to get prepared in every way. We were not. We eventually ate cake, raisin-bread and sardines, and drank some chocolate beverage, the water came from the tap.

Why am I writing about this? Preparedness, not just for Hurricane Ike, but in the Spiritual also. "Put on the full armor of God ...." Ephesians 6:11-14. We should put on the Word, which is truth. It contains all the weapons of our warfare, which are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

We should put on the breastplate of righteousness, which is faith and love. Our feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In Christ Jesus, we have peace and pursue peace with all men.

We also need to take the shield of faith, with which we are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; the helmet of salvation (holding the thoughts, feelings, and purpose of god's heart); and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So that, in the face of all trials, tests, temptations, Hurricanes, tornadoes, and tribulation, we cut to pieces the snare of the devil by speaking the Word of God. For "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world". (2 Corinthians 10:4; Ephesians 6:14 - 17)

So, I believe that we should pray at all times - on every occasion, in every season - in the Spirit, with every manner of prayer and entreaty. In that way, we will keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding on behalf of all others in our lives and outside our lives. Our loved ones, friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances, church members, every one including the needy, the homeless. Let's remember that the Hurricane Ike, has rendered a lot of people homeless.

More Scripture References: Ephesians 2:14; Psalm 34:14; 2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 John 4:4; 2 Corinthians 3:5, 6.