My stepson, 16 at the time, checked into a local in-residence rehabilitation center almost 2 years ago. His father had just thrown him out of the house he grew up in and he faced legal problems as well for vandalism and probation violation. I’m describing the situation matter-of-factly because there are no appropriate words to describe the chaos, betrayal, violence and volume of the time leading up to this moment. He embraced rehab and has now been sober and sane for almost 2 years. He’s back to the person we knew with all the good and bad that went with it, without the aforementioned. It’s the gift we all want and that I now pray for my daughter, now 18, who is an addict that is not in recovery.

The general platitudes about parenting that you learned from your parents, from Bill Cosby or from anywhere else are not going to work. Being unselfish, helping, rescuing, making bold, courageous moves … they don’t work. I hope you detect the  theme from someone who has and is living the nightmare and seeing the solution:

What you think based on the sum total of all your experiences is not going to work with your child that has an alcohol or drug addiction.

What is needed is a completely overhaul of how you feel and think. You must by faith trust a new way that includes healthy recovery for your child and for your entire family — this is the mission of The Sights and Sounds of Enabling. Much of the information will be new to you but it’s not new information. It’s lovingly expressed and supported by these missional authors. Listen to them, learn from them and then BE them.  I can say it’s worth the wait to have your child back.

The Sights and Sounds of Enabling is just a beginning; I strongly recommend it as a first step to sanity and meaning.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo (audio version)
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 12, the final day of the Prodigal Prayer Mission by Kathie Saari.

The Plan of Salvation

Meditate on John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

READ AND PREPARE

How to Lead a Person to Christ by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir including

Billy Graham/Bill Bright Four-Step Process (Campus Crusade):

1. God’s purpose: peace and love. God wants you to experience peace and life abundantly and eternally (Romans 5:1, John 3:16, 10:10).
2. Our problem: Separation, God created us in His own image to have abundant life. He did not make us robots to automatically love and obey Him but gave us the gift of free choice. Hence, we chose to disobey God on our own will, which resulted in our separation (Romans 3:23, 6:23). Our attempts through the ages have failed to bridge the gap (Isaiah 59:2, Proverbs 14:12).
3. God’s remedy: The cross. Jesus Christ is the only answer to this problem. He died on the cross, rose from the grave and paid our penalty (1 Timothy 2:5, 1 Peter 3:18, Romans 5:8).
4. Our response: To receive Christ, we must trust in Him by personal invitation (Revelation 3:20, John 1:12, Romans 10:9). Then pray with the person and make sure they receive discipling. And focus on the basics, which include prayer, Scripture, devotional life, accountability and discipleship.

The Roman Road

The Roman Road is a group of Bible verses from the book of Romans that are used to help people to better understand salvation and to lead people to Christ:

1. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
2. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
3. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
4. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)
5. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13)

The first thing you have to realize is that YOU ARE a sinner. Secondly, God loves YOU. Thirdly, without God, you are doomed. Fourthly, come clean, confess your sins to God; and lastly, you are not excluded from salvation no matter what you’ve done.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Nine of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 11 of the Prodigal Prayer Mission by Kathie Saari.

Testimonies That Build Faith

Meditate on Matthew 17:20

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Testimony 1

Steve Friskup: A Drinking Man’s Salvation

by Christine McWhorter of The 700 Club

CBN.com – Working as a horse auctioneer isn’t just a job for Steve Friskup; it’s a passion. He also loves calf roiping and spending time with his wife, Robin. But years ago, Steve’s favorite activities were overshadowed by his love for alcohol. “I never was a guy who could just have one drink,” Steve tells The 700 Club. “If I had one, I had two. If I had two, I had 12. If I had 12, then some time in the night I was going to become rich, handsome and bulletproof, all at the same time.”

Steve had his first drink at just 9 years old. His parents were Christians, but alcohol was a big part of their lifestyle and always available in his home. Later, as an adult, Steve discovered alcohol gave him something he had always longed for:

It made me liked. It made me popular. It made me fit in. I may not rope as good as anybody. I may not have as much money as anybody else, but if we’re at the bar, you’re going to like me. That’s just how it is. That need for that attention or something.

But the alcohol didn’t just make Steve popular. It turned him into a man he barely knew. He says, “Anything that alters the way a man thinks and alters his morality — it can’t be good. Alcohol somehow demoralized me. I could see it getting worse and wors. It just dumbed me down to a guy that I didn’t want to be. Every time I sobered up I didn’t want to be that guy. That’s now who I wanted to be and I knew it.”

“Money was a big one. I could spend money on the dumbest stuff. I could buy drinks for everybody. I could gamble, just do dumb stuff with money you didn’t have. You go home and you’re trying to keep the lights on for your wife and your little kids and you just spent the stupid money. I was just making really bad decisions.” Steve’s drinking affected his family the most.

“I used language that a man should be crucified for in front of my children. [It] wasn’t abusive; I was just vulgar. Stuff like that. It’s no good. It was no good. I’ll tell you the worst one. I’ve got two daughters and one of them’s never had a drink that I know of. Pretty sure not. The oldest one can’t say that, because her daddy gave her a drink. Little girls [sic] should have never been given her only taste of alcohol in her live [sic] from her dad. That’s what alcohol did for me.”

After partying one night with a friend, Steve woke up with a hangover and a revelation. He was finally tired of his drunken lifestyle: “I got up that morning, and I was sick with a capital S. It was bad. It was like you hit me right in the forehad with a choppin’ ax. I didn’t have any money left and I just laid there in that bed and I thought, “Now, I’ve got to put my game face on and go auctioneer this horse sale and pretend like I’m fine.” I told that friend I said, “I’m not drinking no more.” My friend kidded me and told everybody, he picked on me all weekend.

But Steve was serious about his new commitment. He just didn’t know how to keep it. On the ride home after the horse auction, he decided to talk to God:

That night I called on Jesus for some odd reason. Nobody’s told me how to pray this prayer. I just called on Jesus and I met Him. You know the first thing that the Lord spoke to me: ‘What do you want?’ I said ‘I want to be a good husband. I want to be a good dad. I don’t want to do another thing away from home that I’m ashamed to tell my family when I get back. Alcohol’s turning me loose to be an idiot and I don’t want it anymore. I want rid of it right now! He said, ‘If you’ll give me all of it, I’ll get rid of that.’ I said, ‘I’m all yours.’

It moves me every time of how awesome it is for a guy like me in a cab of a pickup to have your sins forgiven. Heaven is part of the deal, but I don’t think people realize unless you’ve been an old sinner what it means to be sitting in the cab of a truck and have God tell you that your sins are forgiven.

He drove home that night and began a new life. He began r3ading his Bible and going to church with his family. “It was pretty amazing when you pull in your house and you tell your family,” Steve continued, “Get up. We’re going to church. I just got saved.” You don’t even know what that means. They think I must have snorted something up my nose or something and went crazy.” Steve says he hasn’t had a drop of alcohol since then.

“The fear of the Lord will make a man hate evil. As I’ve grown, I’ve got to where I just despise evil. I’ve gotten that way about the alcohol, because it was so dangerous in my life and i didn’t know it.”

Now, the Friskup home is peaceful, and Steve makes strong decisions for his family. He and Robin are pastors of Muleshoe Cowboy Church in Texas. He says, “It’s just what God’ll do. We run horse sales with grown men walking around telling each other they love each other. That’s just crazy. That ain’t how that goes. But that’s what God’ll do.’

Testimony 2

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but it seems to me that a lot of people have come to know the Lord at the age of around 20. Maybe it’s just the ones I’ve met? But that is when it happened to me. I was just approaching my twentieth birthday, twenty years ago nw, when someone came right up to my friends and unashamedly told them that he had given his life to Jesus. My friends at that time knew this particular young man and made the most of ribbing him and giving him a hard time. I just listened quietly in the background and when they had finished their taunts I asked him some questions of my own: “What about starving millions? Why doesn’t God do something about it?” and I can’t remember what else. I don’t think his answers impressed me, nor anything particularly of the whole event, but all I know is that at that moment in great simplicity I said within myself, “OK, I believe you, there is a God.”

I had not thought much about it before and I had special intention of ‘going away to think about it’ at that time. However, the next I knew was, wherever I went, whatever I was doing, all that kept going through my mind was, “There really is a God’, ‘there really is someone called Jesus, there really is a heaven and there really is a hell.”

My knowledge of the Bible was pretty much limited to what the cover looked like of a little Gideon’s Testament I had among my possessions (somehow!). My only previous use for this was to press a four-leaved clover inside of it and occasionally tuck it under my pillow at night, in some vain attempt at procuring some comfort from a state of paranoia about my health and death.

My concern for my state of health and fear of death did have some basis in reality. I had severely traumatized y own body by a lifestyle of drug-taking and had on two previous occasions overdose on amphetamine and once at an evey younger age tried to completely asphyxiate myself with my head in a bag of solvent.

Mine is the case of the typical broken-home scenario. I’ll spare the details of the early years, suffice to say that by the time I was 13 I was headlong into crime, girls, self-abuse and the care system, complete with D.C. (detention centre) — the short, sharp, shock treatment. By the time I was 19 I wasn’t looking as though I was going to improve much.

So we come back to my little encounter above. A lone off conversation with nothing especially much to impress, but during the 2 weeks that followed that brief encounter something was still progressing inside of me. In the course of that time that “voice” (not audible but none-the-less very real) did not let up at any moment. It was saying every day : There really is a God, there really is someone called Jesus, there really is a heaven, there really is a hell.”I somehow knew as if by instinct (or the young man told me, I can’t remember) I must repent of all my sins, ask Jesus to forgive me and live a completely different life.

The idea of “giving up” all my vices in life was almost too much to contemplate, but there was something much more powerful growing inside of me that I knew I couldn’t escape — the fear of Hell. I am not saying that the whole purpose of my Christian life now is simply to escape Hell, I am not saying that such a thought is a wonderful motive for giving your life to Christ; but the bottom line for me and my particular thought processes at that time was this: It doesn’t matter how bland, boring, dull and difficult life will be, it will only be temporal — but after that comes the eternal! By comparison there was only one thing a self-seeking sinner could do — turn my life over to Jesus and be saved. Such was my reasoning and such was God’s method of reaching into the depths of me and making me repent of my sing.

The time had come; I knew what I must do, so, alone in my flat one night I decided that I was going to do it. One final thought struck me. It was late in the evening and I had a habit of making resolutions last thing at night about changing my lifestyle. Not for any moral reason, but simply for the sake of my health, which as I said I was somewhat paranoid about. I would make my plans to live a cleaner, healthier lifestyle at bedtime and in the morning would go my way in pursuit of besetting sins. So that evening I said to myelf, “If I really mean this, then I’ll mean it just as much in the morning. ” So I did nothing that night and went to bed.

That was the beginning for me. Needless to say, many are the lessons along the way. Jesus said that He is “The Door”, but He also said that He is “The Way”. One of the most valuable lessons I had to learn as a young Christian was that it doesn’t matter how radical and striking your conversion experience is, unless you continue to walk with God day by day then you are still powerless to live righteously before God. I was greatly helped by reading a book by the title of Abide in Christ. Of course, ultimately it is God Himself who sees to it that you and I will hear the right thing, read the right book, meet the right people at just the right time in order to teach us the things we need to know, as we are able to receive them. Jesus also said that He is “The Shepherd”. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher. God Himself has promised to guide us into all Truth. May He guide you along the paths that to everlasting life, too.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Nine of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 10 of The Prodigal Prayer Mission.

Blessing

Meditate on Proverbs 10:6

Blessings crown the head of the righteous,
but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.

• Salvation is a free gift from God of eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. This was done because of His love for all humanity. In order for us to receive God’s free gift of salvation we must accept His Son Jesus as our personal Savior in faith (John 3:16).
• Bless your Mission Person that they may have eyes to see the truth.
• Bless them to have ears to hear the truth.
• Bless all their 5 senses to be used by God to bring them into a salvation relationship with Him.
• Bless them to be cut free from the plans of the enemy to stop their salvation.
• Bless the way God made them and all He has planned for them to walk in their destiny.
• Bless their family, their spouses, friends, coworkers and jobs.
• Bless their minds, that they would desire the mind of Christ through salvation.
• Bless their day today and all their Lord has planned for it.
• Bless them with protection as you pray for their salvation.
• Bless and honor God for He alone is their Savior (not you).
• Amen

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Nine of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 9 of The Prodigal Prayer Mission by Kathie Saari.

Declaration

Meditate on Acts 4:31

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Declare:

• God’s Word promises me that if I pray according to His will, He will hear and give me what I ask for (1 John 5:14-15). “Lord, it is not Your will for any to perish, but for all to come to the saving knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, I declare __________ will NOT perish, but he/she will repent and come to an understanding of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.”
• I declare Godly interference will disrupt the negative thoughts that hinder __________’s acceptance of the Gospel. My loved one is no longer blinded – he/she sees the need for a Savior (2 Corinthians 4:4).
• I declare that __________ is hungry and thirsty for righteousness and finds no satisfaction in a life outside of Christ’s. Thank you for bringing them to a place of surrender (Matthew 5:6).
• Father, You say in Your Word that I am to refrain my voice from weeping and my eyes from tears, for my prayers will be rewarded and my family shall return from the world of the enemy to their own country (Jeremiah 31:15-17).
• I ask You, Lord, to place the perfect laborers into __________’s path, someone to share Your Gospel in such a way that he/she will listen and understand it and that they will make Jesus the Lord of their life (Luke 10:2).
• I thank You, Father, that __________ will choose to serve You and turn from their sinful ways (Joshua 24:15). Lord Jesus, I thank You that my unsaved loved ones will call on Your name and will be saved (Romans 10:13).

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 8 of The Prodigal Prayer Mission.

Believing

Meditate on James 1:6-7

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

God answers believing prayer, not doubting prayer.

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

Be specific about your prayer for your Mission Person. We know we want salvation for them, but they may be struggling with a sin that you are aware of. Maybe they need to be free of circumstances that are preventing them from salvation. Perhaps they are believing the lies of the enemy. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to pray specifically for your Mission Person.

Jesus says in Mark 11:24:

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Notice that this Scripture does not say to believe that you will receive. No! It says believe that you have received. You must believe that you have the answer already, even before you physically possess the answer — this is faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Faith is thanking God for the answer before you can see it.

Since you already believed that God has answered your prayer, the only logical step is to thank Him in advance for the answer. Doing this proves that you trust God’s Word.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 7 of The Prodigal Prayer Mission.

Praying the Fruit of the Spirit

Meditate on Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

• Ask the Lord to help you model the fruit of the Spirit in your life so that your Mission Person(s) may see God’s character in you.
• Claim the fruit of the Spirit over your Mission Person(s) where you see their need is. For example, if they are fearful, impatient or unkind, speak the fruit of peace, patience and kindness over their lives. If you do not know, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you on how to pray.

Dear Father, I desire the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in my life. Help me to read and meditate on Your Word. Help me to relate to you in prayer and convession. Help me, Holy Spirit, live the life You want me to. Produce Your fruit in my life, even today in Jesus’ name, amen.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 6 of The Prodigal Prayer Mission, designed by Kathie Saari.

Intercessory Prayer

Meditate on 2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Pray for salvation:

Father, I come before You in prayer and in faith, believing. Your Word says that you desire all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth, so I bring __________ before You this day. I break the power of Satan from his assignments and activities in __________’s life, in the name of Jesus. Now, while Satan is bound, I ask that you send forth the perfect laboreres to share the good news of the gospel in such a way that _________ will listen and understand it. As the truth is ministered, I believe __________ will open his/her eyes to the gospel, come out of the snare of the devil and make Jesus Lord of their lives.

Father, I ask that you fill _________ with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. As I intercede in his/her behalf, I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is activated, and from this moment on, I shall praise and thank You for __________’s salvation. I am confident that You are alert and active, watching over Your Word to perform it, it will not return to You void. It will accomplish that which You please and prosper in the thing where it was sent.

Therefore, my confession of faith is:

God has begun a good work in __________’s life and He will perform it and bring it to full completion until the day of Jesus Christ, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer References (Amplified Bible)

Matthew 18:18, 9:37-38

2 Timothy 2:26

Jeremiah 1:12

Isaiah 55:11

Philippians 1:6

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 5 of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission.

Spiritual Warfare

Meditate on 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Confess Aloud

• I realize that I am not in a battle with flesh and blood, but I am contending against demonic powers, wicked spirits in the heavenly sphere, who are tryint to influence and control the person I am praying for (Ephesians 6:12). Jesus said (Luke 10:19):

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

• Whatever I bind on earth is bound in the heavenly realm, and whatever I loose on earth is loosed in the heavenly realm. (Matthew 18:18).

Binding Prayer (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

(Say aloud and add your prodigal’s name)

Right now I bind the god of this world (Satan) who has blinded their eyes to the truth of the gospel and stopped my prodigal’s ears from hearing God’s Word. I loose the light of the gospel to shine on them and open their eyes. Holy Spirit, I pray You draw _________ and remove the obstacles against the gospel to keep him/her out of the kingdom of God. I bind you now; I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and carry His authority and righteousness. In His name, I command you to desist in your maneuvers. I spoil your house according to the Word of God and I enter into it to deliver my prodigal from your hands.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission

This is day 4 of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission.

Praise and Worship

Meditate on Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.^{[a] 5} Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

• Pray your love of God will grow to fill your heart as you worship Him.
• The Holy Spirit will fill you with boldness to pray for your Prayer Mission Person.
• Ask for you to become sensitive to the hurts and needs of your Prayer Mission Person.
• When communicating with them, communicate in love. A soft answer turns away anger.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit will work in their lives. Pray He will draw them near to Him each day of this journey till they meet Him as their Savior or return to Him.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Sights and Sounds of Enabling
  by Diane Viere and Elaine Altman-Eller
• Counterfeit: Lies We Believe About Work
• Day Twelve of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Eleven of the 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission
• Day Ten of The 12-Day Prodigal Prayer Mission