Conveying the Ministry of Prayer to Our Students

Casiano's Martial Arts 1 Minute

Martial-Arts

No other ministry is challenged more by Satan than the ministry of prayer. People can fake many things; they can go to church on Sundays, they can read Christian Books, they can enjoy Bible Studies, they can talk the Christian talk and they can even learn how to sound good praying publicly. However, we can never fake our intimate relationship with God in our secret places.

            As we see in the life of Jesus, our ultimate example, everything He did had its foundation in prayer. Jesus, days before His death, asked the disciples, Can you not pray one hour? (Matthew 26:40) Eve on the cross, Christ kept His relationship with the Father through prayer and even interceded for others.

            We start every class in prayer. Also at the end of the physical aspect of our classes we do small devotionals and, at times, we pray for each one of our students as we play anointed worship music. Through our devotionals, we are constantly encouraging our students to develop their own relationship with Christ.

            Because our classes are held outside of the traditional church, the focus becomes salvation more than prayer, which can be challenging for those who have not grown up in a Christian home environment. The only time some of our students hear the Word is in our school.

            I often tell my students that jogging is to the athlete, as prayer is to the Christian, it is indeed the key exercise of our faith. We teach the Word, we teach sound doctrine, and we trust that the Word will not return void.

            If I can successfully encourage my students to develop a relationship with God through to the study of His Word and prayer, then the student will have attained something much more valuable than any black belt or degree.

Published by angelcasiano

An independent thinker with a profound call to see the orthodoxy of the church and passion for Christ manifesting together. Angel was born in Brooklyn, New York in April of 1968, he was raised on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico where he earned his B.S. degree in Sociology with a minor in Education from the Inter American University in San Germán in 1991. That same year he moved to Jacksonville, Florida. After working construction jobs for a year and learning the English language, his first job working with foster-care children in the capacity of youth care worker was with Jacksonville Youth Sanctuary in September of 1992. With JYS he was promoted several times as group home supervisor, legal caseworker, and program director. While in Jacksonville, Angel studied a couple of martial arts styles. After earning his black belt, he became the founder of Good Fight Ministries as he used martial arts as an instrument to preach the gospel. In 2004 Angel was selected Martial Arts Instructor of the Year for the State of Florida and in 2005 Angel was inducted in the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame where he also received the Christian Spirit Award. In July of 2005 Angel accepted his call to pastor a bilingual church in Winton, NC where he served for a couple of years. Five months later he lost his first wife to cancer in December of that same year. This initiated a deep valley of suffering in his life, a mountain of costly mistakes and the embracing of lifestyles of sin that are well documented through this blog. In August of 2012 Angel moved to Fairbanks Alaska with his wife Rayette Casiano and six children who are now adults. In Alaska, Angel continued his social work-related career and his ministry of preaching, teaching and writing. Angel is the author of two books, Hope for the divorcee: Forgiving and Moving Forward and 7 Banderas de Esperanza: La Bendición de Yokdzonot. In January 8th of 2020 Angel and his wife moved to Arizona.

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