And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. — Ephesians 6:18
As I write this newsletter, we are still under lockdown due to COVID-19 and under a curfew due to rioting in our streets. Our circumstances seem to be out of control with angry, frustrated rhetoric coming at us from all sides. Our perspective can be distorted if we give in to fear and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Yet could it be that what the enemy has intended for evil, God is using for good?1 And could the good coming out of these terrible times be God’s people turning to Jesus in repentance of sin, crying out for Him to return to us in order that once again, we would receive His blessing? May it be so!
On Pentecost Sunday, May 31st, I felt led by God to offer a prayer initiative, Turn to Jesus: Calling Women to Pray. While the pandemic was the original catalyst, the chaos, confusion, and violence that followed the senseless killing of George Floyd seemed to underscore that the timing was Spirit-led. The following are some online testimonies from those who participated.
I’m convinced that Heaven was moved in answer to the hundreds of thousands of us who prayed on Pentecost Sunday. Thank you for participating. But our work of prayer is not finished.
I was reminded of this when the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown loosened and businesses began to reopen, allowing me to meet a friend for lunch at a local restaurant. As we sat down in the booth, we almost immediately plunged into a conversation about the national unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s horrific murder. In a few moments, we were served by a young African-American man who was wearing a large black face mask. After the server had left to turn in the order we had given him, we bowed our heads and my friend asked God’s blessing on our meal. When she lifted her head, I blurted out regretfully that we should have asked the waiter if we could pray for him. When he returned to bring us our order, I told him we had just prayed, and I wanted to know if there was anything we could pray for him. He immediately gave us a request, then to our amazement, he held out his hands, bowed his head, and waited for us to pray! We took his hands and I prayed as he had asked. When I concluded the prayer, his eyes were filled with tears. He said he was trying hard not to cry…that we had no idea all that he was going through. And he thanked us. For praying. Such a simple act that meant so much to all of us.
The experience led me to recommit to not just a set-aside-time of prayer as we had in Turn to Jesus, but to obey Paul’s exhortation, And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.2 Join me in being alert and Spirit-led in prayer for people all around us with whom we interact. Through our prayers, let’s move Heaven on behalf of another person.
For His Glory,
1 Genesis 50:20
2 Ephesians 6:18
Being prayed for by Pastor David Anderson and his wife Amber at Bridgeway Community Church.
Praying for a Samoan American soldier in Jerusalem.
Praying for an African ambassador in India.
Praying for hotel workers in Hyderabad, India.
Read 1 Kings 18
Available October 6, 2020
In this powerful new volume, Anne gives readers a starting point for their own daily encounters with the One who listens to every heartache and who delights in giving every good gift out of His abundant grace and mercy.
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“…Now show me Your glory.” — Exodus 33:18
The coronavirus pandemic this Spring has put everyone in a hard place. Many of us have been either locked down in our homes, quarantined, or even hospitalized. Businesses and restaurants and beaches have closed; schools and churches have moved online; even legislators are contemplating voting from home, as we are all urged to keep a social distance from each other in order to protect ourselves from this highly contagious, deadly disease. The hosts for my upcoming speaking engagements have canceled their events; my doctors have canceled my appointments; and I find that I, too, am isolated. I’ve been reminded of a dramatic scene in the Old Testament…
When Moses asked God to show him His glory, God agreed, but specified that Moses would only be allowed to see the backside. In other words, Moses would only see God’s glory as he looked back. He placed Moses in the cleft of a rock…in a hard place…as He covered Moses with His hand, to reassure him of His presence. Then God removed His hand, and Moses must have felt abandoned. Forsaken. Isolated. Alone.1 But it was just then that God caused His glory to pass by Moses. God’s glory was not a shining cloud, but a fresh revelation of His character: And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’ 2
In the past four years, I, too, have been placed in the “cleft of a rock”. A hard place. My husband’s sudden, unexpected death; my father’s death three years later; my diagnosis of cancer and the subsequent surgery and follow-up treatments have been personally and equally as hard as the place in which we now find ourselves as a nation. But…
As I have looked back, I have seen God’s “glory”. I have experienced God’s faithfulness to meet my needs, His grace to pour out His blessings through family and friends, His strength to enable me to endure triumphantly, and His goodness to bring me through one day at a time. The vision of His glory enabled me to maintain my joy, my inner peace, and the steadfast hope that God was in control and would work out all things for my good.3
In what hard place has God placed you? Do you find yourself today in “the cleft of a rock”? Your situation may be directly related to the coronavirus, or it may have nothing at all to do with it. But do you feel isolated from others, lonely, abandoned as you wonder where God is?
If you are in a hard place, ask God to show you His glory. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you in a fresh, personal way. He promises that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.4 So…Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.5
Who knows? As you look back on the hard place in which you find yourself, you may discover that it actually has been the place of your greatest blessing because it was there that you experienced a fresh encounter with the living God.
For His Glory,
1 Exodus 33:18-23
2 Exodus 34:6-7
3 Romans 8:28
4 James 4:8 NKJV
5 Hebrews 10:22
With my oldest daughter, Morrow, looking on, my younger daughter, Rachel-Ruth, and I spoke to a gathering of over 200 Christian women leaders in the beautiful backyard of a friend’s home in Santa Barbara, CA. What a privilege! We shared the urgency of the hour, challenging them to maintain their walk with the Lord, share the Gospel, and make disciples of their children. It was a blessing to stay afterwards and visit with those who had come.
Pastor Ray Bentley gave me the privilege of speaking at his three worship services at Maranatha Chapel in San Diego, CA. Following the 3rd service, I had the time to pray with those who responded to the invitation, indicating they wanted to invite Jesus to come into their hearts in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Praise God! Many did!
I was invited by Pastor David Anderson to speak at all three Sunday morning services at Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, MD. From the time I arrived until the time I left, I was bathed in prayer by his elders, his leaders, and himself. In answer to prayer, God poured out His Spirit on all of us.
I. IN THE DESERT
*Describe a spiritual “desert.” See Exodus 15:22; 16:2-3.
*Where did God’s people see the LORD in Exodus 16:10?
This latest edition of the 365-day devotional features a larger trim, enlarged print, and a fresh design, breathing new life into a title that has been loved and appreciated for over 15 years. Each dated devotional in The Joy of My Heart includes a Scripture verse and reflections from Anne on topics such as eternity, grief, and faith.
If you would like to receive AnGeL Ministries’ full newsletter by email or postal delivery, click here to sign up for our free resources!
I. IN THE DESERT
II. IN THE DARKNESS
III. IN THE STORM
IV. ON THE MOUNTAIN
Mountains can represent peaks and high points in our lives, but they can also represent difficulties, obstacles, hardships, and stress because of the effort required to “climb” them.
The Bible says, now we see through a glass darkly…but one day we will see Him face to face (I Corinthians 13:12). Would you ask God to show you His glory even now in the midst of your desert, darkness, storm and mountain-sized hardship? Then open your eyes and look up, look around, and look back….
This Bible study was prepared especially for the Spring 2020 Newsletter.
What do you know about the One whom Jesus promised He would ask the Father to give us, in His absence? How much do you know about the Holy Spirit? Growing up, I can never remember being taught about the Holy Spirit. I knew His name because the pastor of the little mountain church I belonged to always ended the Sunday morning service with a benediction in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He was also mentioned at weddings when the bride and groom were pronounced joined together in the same three names, or when someone was baptized. But it wasn’t until I began studying the Bible in order to teach it that I increasingly got to know this One we refer to as the third person of the Trinity. I discovered He is not spooky, He is not an “add-on” or an optional extra in the Christian life. He is a divine necessity. Yet one misconception of who He is lingered in my thoughts.
When I received Jesus as my Savior, my assumption had been that the Holy Spirit was “assigned” to me. I thought He had come into my life because He had no option. I was now His “job”—His responsibility. My view of Him was that He was strictly professional, a perfectionistic stickler for details and Someone who would keep me in line until one day He would present me to the Father and say something like “Here she is. I’ve done My best to work with what I had.” This harmful misconception could have led me to living a lie, as I would have tried hard to impress Him. I could have burned myself out trying hard to earn His love.
Then one day, while reading my Bible, I was gripped by the following: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”1 While I understand that Scripture is warning us not to intentionally, willfully sin, the word grieve caught and held my attention. I reflected on grief in my own life and knew I had experienced that emotion only when I deeply cared about someone or something. I grieved when my mother went to Heaven. I grieved when my husband followed her there about eight years later. I grieved when my father joined them both. And I realized that grief is a love word. I grieve because I love my mother and my husband and my father.
This realization turned the light on in my thinking as I realized that if I can grieve the Holy Spirit, it’s because He loves me. The Holy Spirit loves me! That was a profound, revolutionary thought. He’s not just a professional partner. He’s not just assigned to me. He doesn’t live within me because He has to—He lives within me because He wants to live within me. He deeply cares about what I do and who I become. When I do the right thing, He rejoices. When I do the wrong thing, He grieves. Not only is He spiritually and practically involved in my life, He is also emotionally caught up in who I am and who I am to become. What a difference that simple truth has made in my perspective. I can be myself with the Holy Spirit. I don’t have to be “on.” I can relax and be transparent with Him. I can trust Him completely because He truly loves me!
And the Holy Spirit loves you too! He cares deeply about what you care about because He cares about you.2 It doesn’t matter how small or how large your concern is. He cares. He understands. He wants what’s best for you. He desires for you to fulfill your God-given potential. He wants to ease your burden, solve your problem, comfort your broken heart, bind up your wounds, bring you through the valley of the shadow, shower you with blessing upon blessing. And yes, He wants to make you holy—because He loves you! He will work all things—all things—for your good.3 So relax. Stop trying to impress Him. Stop working so hard to earn His love. Be open and honest and transparent. Live with the confidence that you are deeply, unconditionally, permanently loved by Him.
I cannot begin to express in words what He has meant to me during this past year. I have experienced His constant companionship. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that He has carried me through not just somehow, but triumphantly. So if you, too, are faced with a deadly disease…divorce…death…disaster, open your heart and life to the One who is Jesus in you.
For His Glory,
1 Ephesians 4:30
2 1 Peter 5:7
3 Romans 8:28
As the launch of Anne’s new book, Jesus in Me, approaches, the AGL Team invites you to saturate this new ministry assignment in prayer. We will keep you updated with specific requests so that we can pray together for the Holy Spirit Himself to guide our efforts, breathe His life into our promotion, and prepare readers for the launch in October. Click here to join.
In what surely was a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, Anne was able to complete the three-day audio book recording of Jesus in Me in two days.
Christophe Zimmerlin flew from Europe to interview Anne for France 2 Public television. Their conversation was warm, energetic, and Christ-glorifying.
Anne’s longtime friend, Hall of Fame basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell, had just been forced to resign from the University of North Carolina after 33 years for the ludicrous charge of racism. Yet she hosted with courageous grace her annual picnic for friends, neighbors, Rachel-Ruth’s Bible study, and the men’s study that Danny established in Chapel Hill. Approximately 300 gathered on Sylvia’s front lawn to hear a testimony from former UNC All- American, WBA star, Sylvia’s assistant, and now head women’s basketball coach at Elon University, Charlotte Smith, who has been mentored by Sylvia. It was also Anne’s privilege to challenge everyone from John 11 to trust God when we don’t understand why. (Pictured left to right: Rachel-Ruth, Sylvia, Anne & Morrow; inset photo: Charlotte Smith)
Have you ever felt lonely—even in a crowd? Without companionship? Especially when facing a death, or disease, or divorce, or some disaster? In the past three years, I have become a widow…and an orphan…while at the same time facing some of my life’s greatest challenges. Yet I have experienced the companionship of the Holy Spirit in a deep, vibrant relationship that has been a constant source of joy, peace, and comfort. It’s worth getting to know the One who is Jesus in me…and in you.
I. HIS COMPANIONSHIP BRINGS COMFORT
Read John 16:5-16
*From John 16:5-7, why did the disciples need comfort? Put their feelings into your own words.
A. COMFORT OF HIS PERSON
Get into His Word using one of Anne’s classic Bible Studies. Each study has a DVD and Leader Guide. Participant guides may be purchased separately. We are offering each video study at a discounted price of $20 from August 1 – November 1, 2019.
In Jesus in Me, Anne draws on her rich biblical knowledge as well as her personal story—including her recent cancer journey—to help us understand that the Holy Spirit is not a magic genie, a flame of fire, or a vague feeling. He is a Person who prays for us, guides us in our relationships and decisions, comforts us in pain, and stays by our side at all times. In this simple, yet profound teaching, she explores seven key aspects of the Holy Spirit that will revolutionize how you understand and relate to this vital third Person in the Trinity.
Discover how to better love and rely on the Person of the Holy Spirit–and embrace how much He loves you.
Pre-order your copy today through any online retailer and receive exclusive bonus gifts from Anne.
If you would like to receive AnGeL Ministries’ full newsletter by email or postal 
delivery, click here to sign up for our free resources!
Have you ever felt lonely—even in a crowd? Without companionship? Especially when facing a death, or disease, or divorce, or some disaster? In the past three years, I have become a widow…and an orphan…while at the same time facing some of my life’s greatest challenges. Yet I have experienced the companionship of the Holy Spirit in a deep, vibrant relationship that has been a constant source of joy, peace, and comfort. It’s worth getting to know the One who is Jesus in me…and in you.
I. HIS COMPANIONSHIP BRINGS COMFORT
A. COMFORT OF HIS PERSON
B. COMFORT OF HIS PRESENCE
II. HIS COMPANIONSHIP BRINGS CHANGE
A. HE CHANGES ME
B. HE CHANGES OTHERS
Ask the Father now to give you a fresh experience of the Holy Spirit as your life’s companion.
This Bible study was prepared especially for the Summer 2019 Newsletter.
