*A month after losing his long-shot bid to return as president of
the National Baptist Convention, the Rev. Henry Lyons is once again
suing the organization he used to lead.
According to the St. Petersburg Times, Lyons has filed a lawsuit in
a Washington, D.C., court claiming election fraud and improper vote
counting in the September contest, which he lost in a landslide.
Lyons is well known in the Tampa Bay area for rising to the top of
an organization that represents millions of African-American church
members, and then falling hard a decade ago as he was convicted of
swindling more than $5 million from the organization’s corporate
partners. He spent nearly five years in prison.
During his candidacy last month, Lyons filed a lawsuit attempting
to stop the election, claiming that new bylaws violated the
organization’s constitution. He lost. Now he has filed suit again,
claiming irregularities in the election itself.
Lyons lost last month’s election to the Rev. Julius R. Scruggs of
Huntsville, Ala., who could not be reached Friday.
But Scruggs told the Nashville Tennessean newspaper that the
“overwhelming” margin of victory in the election “sort of suggests that
the opposition did not have as much influence as they thought they had.”
Lyons, who formerly was pastor of a St. Petersburg church, is now
pastor at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Tampa.
WORD OF THE DAY: Confidence in Prayer
by Dr. Creflo A. Dollar – submitted by Guy Brody
*Are you tired of praying and not getting results in your prayer
life? If so, you probably need to examine your confidence level in this
area. A lack of confidence in prayer simply comes from not knowing God’s
Word.
Too many Christians pray emotional, fear-based prayers, hoping that
they get through to God. However, He does not respond to emotionalism;
He responds to His Word.
To pray apart from the Word of God won’t get results. But when you
have confidence in the Word and say to God what He has already spoken,
your life will change forever.
It is critical for you to first find out what God has said in the
Bible about your situation in order to effectively pray about it.
For example, if you need healing, instead of begging God to heal
you, begin to confess 1 Peter 2:24 which declares that you have already
been healed by the stripes of Jesus. If it is financial prosperity that
you need to become a reality in your life, find scriptures on wealth and
declare them in faith. Your first step in prayer is to discover the
promises of God in the Bible. Then you can release your faith by saying
them in your prayer time.
Jesus walked in the most powerful ministry ever known to man
because He practiced the presence of God and had a strong prayer life.
The scripture says that He often took time away from other people to
pray and spend time with the Father (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12; Luke 9:18).
This was one of the keys to His ability to perform miracles and do other
great works. He had total confidence in His Father because He spent time
with Him in prayer. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that He could
never fail because of His confidence in God’s Word.
Just like Jesus, your prayer life must be activated by faith, which
is a practical expression of your confidence in God and His Word; and
your confidence comes by spending time in meditating on the scriptures.
Joshua 1:8 says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy
mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest
observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou
shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
Simply repeating the scriptures is not enough. The key to success in
your prayer life is meditation.
To meditate the Word is to ponder, mutter or consider it in your
mind until you have gotten revelation out of it. When you discover the
deeper meaning behind a scripture, and God speaks to you personally
about it, you have the ammunition you need to take that scripture with
you in your prayer time and boldly release your faith when you confess
it.
As Believers, we are to follow Jesus’ example. His life is evidence
of what happens when a person is continually connected to God’s presence
and lives a life of meditation. When you do, your confidence will be
bolstered and you will begin to experience supernatural results every
time you pray.
© Creflo Dollar Ministries all rights reserved
