Married to an Unbeliever

But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace (1 Corinthians 7:12-15).

Yesterday, I discussed marriage between two believers and talked about how believers should deal with problems in their marriage relationship. Today, I want to discuss marriage between a believer and a person who isn’t, or a person who says they are, but never acts like it!

In the verses above notice that Paul strangely says but to the rest, I not the Lord, say. He said this because this is the first time in scripture that a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever is mentioned (In the Old Testament, and in the gospels, marriage is addressed in the context of two Jewish believers and the law). When the church age began, those who were converted and already married found themselves in this situation. No believer should marry an unbeliever!

Then Paul basically says that if a believer has an unbelieving spouse, they should remain together as long as they get along and treat each other with kindness and respect. As long as the believer is in the home with the unbeliever, there is an influence of righteousness that speaks into the life of the unbeliever and sets an example for the children. And the unbeliever may come to the Lord!

Those who do not get along have to weigh their options. If the unbeliever is abusive or hurtful to the spouse or children, then the believer has to make the choice of what should be done. Are the actions so bad that they warrant leaving? These matters should be discussed with church leaders, and be treated with much prayer and caution. Rash decisions and hurtful actions by a parent can leave a child scarred for life!

God’s ultimate will is for the unbeliever to come to the Lord in this relationship. And if the believer will pray and live a godly lifestyle, then that may just happen!

This is a day to carefully guard our marriages and families with much prayer. Our nation needs strong families. Our children need the example of those who do it right! Let’s pray for families today. Let’s believe God for His best in life where we find ourselves right now. Don’t waste time brooding over the past. Look ahead from today, and let’s give God our best!

Work out Marriage Problems

Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife (1 Corinthians 7:10-11)

I’ve often stated it this way: When you get married, regardless of the former circumstances, it becomes the will of God for you to stay married. The will of God for our lives in found in the Word, not in subjective circumstance.

In the above verses, Paul addresses the relationship between two believers in a marriage relationship. He tells both husband and wife that God’s best is that they not divorce when they have difficulties. He acknowledges that at times someone will succumb to the pressures of life and divorce, and in that case he tells believers to remain unmarried for a period of time because as long as they both remain unmarried, there is the possibility of restoring the relationship.

Susan and I have been married 30 years next month! She’s had a lot to put up with in me! We made a decision before we were married that when married, we would never consider separation or divorce as a way to solve problems that would arise.

Just like everyone else, we’ve had disagreements and challenges over the years. That comes with just being human! But we both made the choice to deal with ourselves and to let the Father deal with us.

For two believers, unless there is unrepentant infidelity involved, or physical abuse, they should work together to solve their problems. Separation and divorce do not solve problems. Separation often creates a sense of false peace and removes the immediate pressure to problem solve together. And divorce doesn’t solve the problems either; those that go that route may find themselves dealing with the same problems they had in the previous relationship.

Some people say, well, we have marriage problems. Actually, it isn’t the marriage that is having the problem, it’s the two people that make up the marriage that have personal issues that they must face and deal with! Marriage problems are people problems!

God hates divorce because it hurts people, it wounds children, and it weakens society. For us Christians, we have tools available to us to help solve our personal problems that hinder marriage. We have the Word of God to believe and obey. We have the fruit of the spirit that we must choose to develop. We have the Holy Spirit that will help us change. We have the spiritual strength that comes from praying. We have the ability to pray the perfect will of God by praying in the spirit. We have the authority to command Satan to take his hands off of us and our family. And we can avail ourselves of the help of other loving believers as well as personal ministry within the local church. We must use what God provides.

Work on your marriage today by working on yourself. You can change yourself. You can’t change your wife, and you’ll frustrate her and yourself if you try! Keep yourself built up in the Word. Pray for your spouse and for the Father to watch over you and your marriage. Ask for His help. Ask for His wisdom and strength. Refuse the taunting of the enemy to compromise with the influences of the world.

Stay Married!

The family unit is the basis for any human society. And marriage is the foundation of the family. If marriage loses its value, then that society is in danger of collapse. Marriage and family are God’s plan to pass values and morality from one generation to the next. As goes the family, so goes the nation.

In our nation, we have more couples living together in fornication and having children than ever before. Divorce is as rampant in the church as it is with the unbeliever. We are a nation in great danger. Our moral fabric is coming apart!

You and I can make a difference! How? By making an unqualified commitment to remain loyal and faithful in our marriage for life! Too many believers have an “escape clause” in their heads if problems in the marriage arise!

Here’s the bottom line. It is the will of God for you remain married for life to your present spouse. There are basically two God sanctioned reasons for divorce in the scriptures. Only two. And if the problems a couple have don’t fit those two, then they should work together to solve them. Every marriage will have some problems because we humans are imperfect! We just have to be willing to work on ourselves and change!

The two God sanctioned reasons for divorce are 1) adultery - But I tell you, whoever dismisses and repudiates and divorces his wife, except on the grounds of unfaithfulness (sexual immorality), causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who has been divorced commits adultery (Matthew 5:32) and 2) desertion by the unbelieving party - But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace (1 Corinthians 7:15). This second God sanctioned reason also covers spousal abuse and neglect.

Other than these two reasons, generally speaking, stay married! Work your problems out. The Holy Spirit and the Word are God’s two problem solvers! If we’re really committed to Jesus, these two friends will help us find answers to the problems life brings! The Holy Spirit knows you, and the Word of God will change you! All it takes is a committed will.

If you’re already divorced, walk in the grace of God! God forgives and cleanses our past! There are innocent victims of divorce. The Father doesn’t hold guilty a person who has a spouse who chooses to go their own way and forsake God’s plan. If you’re experienced this, let the mercy and grace of the Father mend your heart. And walk in forgiveness.

We should pray for our spouses daily. Here’s a great prayer. Father, help me be the best spouse my husband or wife could possibly have! Help me to be what he or she needs! Don’t pray, Lord, change my spouse! Pray, Lord, change me!

I’ll address the issues of marriage again tomorrow!

Right Thinking,Right Believing, Right Speaking

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).

It’s right thinking, right believing, and right speaking, that will lead us into victory in our lives. The first thing that we must correct is our thinking. We are to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, positive, and worthy of praise. If our thinking is right, then our believing will be right. And if our believing is right, we’ll speak what we believe.

Words are so important. Your success or failure today will be determined by the tenacity of your confession in the hard place. You may feel and experience all kinds of things, but it’s important to say out loud what you really believe!

Even if it seems like the Word isn’t real and it isn’t working for you, it’s important to say it anyway! Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, so and so has said that so much that they really believe it! Well, the truth is that you can “school” yourself into believing by saying something over and over again.

Meditate on the Word in the area of challenge you face, and then start confessing out loud what the word says. At first, you may not seem to believe it, but just keep on saying it. Sooner or later your words will register on your heart, and you’ll begin to believe what you say. You’ll notice a quickening on the inside, and joy will rise on your spirit! I’ve used this principle so many times in a hard place.

Many years ago, Susan and I faced a financial challenge. It seemed as though lack dominated us! I felt trapped and defeated every day! On a note card, I wrote out scriptures that promised God’s blessings on those that obey Him and are givers.

I meditated on them every day and begin to repeat them out loud. And I would say every day, Father I thank you that we have not only enough money to meet our own needs, but we have enough to give away! I said this over and over again.

Slowly my thinking and believing changed, and I saw myself as a prosperous person. And what I said came to pass! The Lord has blessed us, and our needs are met, and we’re able to give and bless others! God’s Word never fails! He watches over His Word to perform it! Give Him something to watch over today!

Start saying what you want to believe that is in line with God’s Word, and sooner or later you’ll believe it! The Father watches over His Word to perform it!

A Love Environment

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:7-8).

God created us to live in an environment of love. God’s original plan was that husbands and wives bear children, and then raise them in an atmosphere of unconditional, self-sacrificial love. That’s God’s best, but because of the fall, we often fail to receive the nurturing love that will balance us out spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and socially.

If parents are raised in a non-nurturing home, then they will most likely infect their children with the same kinds of neglect of love that was modeled to them when they were young. And the cycle goes on and on for generations.

A human being has a God-given need to be loved. It’s basic to who we are. And if we don’t receive this nurturing love as children, it produces a love deficit that can affect a person lifelong.

People looking for love live lives of fear of exposure and fear of others. Without parental nurturing love, this common belief fills the human psyche: Those who fail are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished. Children need an environment that shows them, even if you fail, I still love you. And the truth is that is the way the Father treats us in Christ. He loves us no matter what we do. No, He doesn’t commend us when we do wrong, but He nevertheless loves us and woos us to Jesus’ cleansing blood when we sin. If we’re loved only when we succeed, then it promotes fear and causes us to hide our real selves from others.

When Adam and Eve failed in the garden, they hid themselves from God and from one another. Like them, we often box ourselves in with a roof to keep God out, and walls of defense to keeps others out if we fear that exposure of our real selves will bring rejection.

Agape love is love that is unconditional and self-sacrificial. And this is the love that we are to show to each other. When we love with agape, we don’t require others to perform to our standards before we love them. We love them just as they are, because that is the way God loves us. Agape love is self-sacrificial, and puts its own needs last and puts others first.

This agape is to rule the family of God and is to be a sign to the world that we are different. If you’ve been raise with criticism, harshness, and conditional love, then the family of God is the place to come to be loved with real love.

Most people live fear based lives. There is no fear in love. Genuine love brings freedom and intimacy. In the presence of genuine love, there is no fear of rejection or exposure.

Start today, and ask the Father to reveal to you His unconditional, self-sacrificial love for you personally. Take the risk of opening your heart to Him. You’ll find He is absolutely dependable and trustworthy. He knows every single thing about you, and still loves you to pieces!

Come with me on this journey to live a love based life that treats others in an unconditional, self-sacrificial way. It’s the way of the Father. It’s the way of peace, freedom, and exquisite joy!

We're Living in A Prophetic Time

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it (Zechariah 12:2-3).

We need to be very careful as a nation to be a friend and not an enemy to Israel. Though in unbelief, they still are heir of the promises of God through Abraham. In 1948 they became a nation again as prophecied and have been gathered by God back to their land.

With our nation pushing the creation of a Palestinian state, we are coming very close to siding against Israel. If we do this as a nation, we will receive a curse and not a blessing. Those who harm Israel will be harmed. Things will not go well for those nations that trouble her. Remember God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: I will bless those that bless you, and I will curse those who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

This is a time to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Their choices with respect to Israel will determine what happens to our nation. It is difficult to see our current administration pulling away from support for Israel and engaging in dialog with Israel’s sworn enemies. You will see multiplied problems on every front in our nation if this pattern continues.

We’re living in the season of the rapture and Second Coming of Christ. The signs are everywhere. God’s word is being fulfilled. Notice the following:

Israel has been regathered to their land; Israel occupies Jerusalem for the first time in 2000 years; Iran and Russia are working closely together now as Ezekiel foretold (Ezekiel 38-39), and one day will seek to destroy Israel; Ethnic conflicts abound worldwide (Matthew 24:7); weather patterns have become extreme and difficult worldwide creating floods, huge storms, drought, and fires (Luke 21:11); epidemic diseases are on the rise worldwide (Luke 21:11); the world economy is in disarray and continues to spiral out of control, a setup for Revelation 13:16-18; 16:2) seismic activity has become a regular pattern (Luke 21:11, Matthew 24:7); mankind has become self-centered, sexually loose, greedy for money, cold and resistant to Christianity and true godliness (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Conditions are ripe on earth for the Anti-Christ to sign a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. This will signal the beginning of the tribulation, which I believe will occur either just before or right after the rapture of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Daniel 9:27).

We are living in a time of tremendous change. Now is the time to seek first the kingdom of God, to wear our spiritual armor daily, and to fight the good fight of faith. God has promised that His glory would be poured out on us when things get really dark on earth (Isaiah 60:1-3). Let’s spend extra time in prayer and in the Word and position ourselves to be used by the Father to bring hope, blessing, and deliverance to those bound by sin all around us. Let’s keep ourselves clean spiritually and be the salt and light that Jesus’ has destined us to be in this hour!

As Andrea Crouch sang years ago, soon and very soon, we are going to see the King! Stay ready!

It's Time to Pray!

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18).

Persistent prayer is a necessity of our day. With the world rapidly approaching the time we call the tribulation period, and with the souls of men at stake, we must take our prayer responsibility.

With sin, crime, and lawlessness abounding, it should drive us to our knees. Realize that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the forces of the enemy seeking to push back any advancement of the kingdom of God on earth!

Prayer in the form of intercession in other tongues is a powerful weapon in the hands of a believer. That’s the reason the enemy seeks to keep us busy; so we’ll think that we just don’t have time to pray. And if we push away the prayer burden, the enemy wins and he knows that. Begin now to see busyness that intrudes into your prayer time as the enemy seeking to get you to lay your weapons down!

We have been delivered from Satan’s authority, and have been given authority over him by the Lord Jesus. Begin today to take your authority and pray for our national leaders, from the president right on down to local government. Pray that godly men and women would fill these offices. Pray for corruption to be rooted out of government, and pray for the saints of God to have boldness to rise up and take a stand against lawlessness.

Pray that conviction of sin would rise in the hearts of men and women, and that the ministry of reconciliation would come to the forefront in the body of Christ; each believer receiving boldness to share their faith in the Son of God with others.

This is an in your face day and we need to do some bold in your face praying if we’re going to usher in the move of God that will bring change! Let’s pray and ask for a revival in our land. That means a rise of conviction and repentance; it means us laying down our wishes and plans for a higher purpose, the kingdom of God.

Make a dedication today to spend a minimum of an hour a day before the throne of God. Pray with your understanding. Pray with your spirit. Believe God to do the impossible. The kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force!

Give Your Best

It’s time for us in the body of Christ to fine tune ourselves and get ready to be the best we can be for God! The world situation is changing rapidly and all signs point towards the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ.

I believe that as calamity and disaster increase, many will turn to the Lord and be opened to receive ministry. Here are some things that we can do to be ready.

First, commit to an attitude of excellence in all that you do. Colossians 3: 23-24 reads, And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

Give everything you do the best you have; on your job and also in your church life. If you volunteer in an area of ministry, give it your best. Be on time to events! Do what you do as if Jesus were your boss. Work as unto Him.

Ephesians 6:6-8 reads, not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

Secondly, think unity. There is strength when we unify with fellow believers. The power of the early church was in their being in one accord. How we treat fellow believers is how we treat Jesus Himself. An atmosphere of unity is a breeding ground for the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself. Be quick to forgive and quick to love. Believe the best of others.

Thirdly, ask the Father to manifest spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 14:1(NIV) reads,
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. Ask the Father to use you in spiritual gifts. In church services, ask the Father for prophecy, diver kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues to manifest. Be open for Him to use you if He so chooses.

In your daily life, walk in love and ask the Father to make you a blessing to others. He may choose to manifest the Word of Knowledge or Gifts of Healings through you. Remain conscious throughout your day that He wants to use you.

When we gather in church meetings, we actually become collectively a temple of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we individually have Him living in us, but there is a special manifestation of the presence of God among us when we gather together. The depth of the manifestation is determined by our desire for Him. So be on time to your local church services. Show by your actions that you want the best He has and that you want others to receive. Arriving late to a church service on purpose is really showing disrespect to the Father and a lack of desire for Him to give His best. And being late signals others who may be visiting (and that need the Lord) that we really aren’t all that committed to what we believe!

These are important days for the kingdom of God. Jesus is coming soon. So many need ministry. Let’s go the extra mile in all we do. It’s time for the Father to show Himself strongly through us.

The Healing Word

He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions (Psalm 107:20).

The will of God is healing and health. It’s important to take some time daily and feed on the word to build up your faith in the Father for healing. Faith comes by hearing the Word over and over again and then practicing it. I woke up last night and spent time meditating on the healing word. Read the following scriptures and then take some time to meditate them. Let them revolve slowly over and over in your mind. This is God’s medicine. Allow it to do its healing work in you!

And said, If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you (Exodus 15:26). So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you (Exodus 23:25). And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you (Deuteronomy 7:15). Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:1-3). He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes (Psalm 105:37). My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh (Proverbs 4:20-22). He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:3-5). That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses (Matthew 8:17). Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38).

The High Praises of God

Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD (Psalm 149:6-9).

In the verse above, notice that offered praise becomes a double edged sword in the realm of the spirit. The plans of those opposing the Word and the purposes of the kingdom of God are hindered. The binding of their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron refers to the demonic forces In the unseen realm. Praise stops them in their tracks!

God inhabits praise! There is a manifestation of His kingdom power where praise is offered. The principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the wicked spirits in the heavenlies mentioned in Ephesians 6:12 are hindered in their exploits of stealing, killing and destroying when saints begin to praise!

The children of Israel noticed that when they put the tribe of Judah in the front lines of battle that the fight was easier and they won! Paul and Silas’ prison chains fell off during an episode of praise! Don’t take this lightly, it works!

Take up praise as a weapon of spiritual warfare today. When doubt, fear, discouragement, depression, sickness, or lack attacks your life, get out the weapon of praise!

Back in 1985, I was attacked with terrible flu symptoms. Everything hurt! I called my secretary and cancelled my appointments for the day. I was listening to scriptures on healing as I lay in bed, and the Lord spoke so clearly to me. If you believe you’re healed, get up and act like it! I knew He was right, and got up and began to walk around my bedroom with my hands lifted praising God for my healing. For about ten minutes I ached and hurt and praised! Then, just like a bird flying away, every flu symptom disappeared! I was totally healed.

Right in the middle of your life circumstances today begin to offer the sacrifice of praise. You’ll find God kingdom manifesting in your life and you’ll find that the enemy will back up! Praise is an awesome weapon!

The Book of Remembrance

Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. They shall be Mine, says the LORD of hosts, on the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him (Malachi 3:16-17).

It’s a special thing to the Father for us to think about Him, to talk about Him, and for us to occupy our minds with thoughts of Him. He takes notice when we make Him the object of life’s pursuit. He has a book where He records the times we spend with our focus on Him!

In the New Testament we’re admonished to let the Word dwell in us richly. Jesus encouraged us to allow the Word to abide in us. The Greek word for abide is meno and it means to settle down in, to remain, or to make a home with. The idea is that the word finds a permanent home in us. The Word is our link with the Father as we walk through life.

Jesus told the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit when He left the earth to go to heaven. He called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth. You see, the Holy Spirit is attracted to the Word in us! Really, we are no more filled with the Spirit than we are filled with the Word! Taking time each day to absorb the Word is also taking time to allow the Holy Spirit full reign in us. When we choose to obey the Word, we’re choosing to yield to the Holy Spirit.

Never neglect the Word. The Word is precious to God. The Word is precious to the Holy Spirit. The Word is our connection with heaven. Occupy yourself with the things of the Word today. If you do, you’ll become a favorite with the Father. He longs for you to want Him!

Ankle Deep, Knee Deep, Waist Deep, Waters to Swim in

The last couple of days I’ve been discussing the river that flows from the Millennial Temple and how it speaks so strongly in our day of the moving of the Holy Spirit among us. Today I want to look more closely at Ezekiel 47 and the different levels of water that may give insight into what it takes to allow the Holy Spirit to use you in this hour.

And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed (Ezekiel 47:3-5).

Water up to my ankles is literally water to the soles of the feet. This speaks of our walk of obedience to the Father. The Father tells us in Isaiah 1:19 that if we are willing and obedient we will eat the good of the land, but that we will be consumed by the enemy if we walk disobediently! God told Israel that they could have the land that their feet treat on: Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours… (Deuteronomy 11:24). A life of blessing is not automatic. We must purposely pursue God’s best for our lives. We must pursue the will of God!

Water up to the knees speaks of the power of a consecrated prayer life. Jesus tells us that if we will meet Him in the secret place, He will reward us openly with His Spirit and power (Matthew 6:6). We are as powerful as we are prayerful! Only as we pray with fervency can we see the full purpose that God has for us individual and corporately fulfilled!

Water up to the waist speaks of spiritual strength. Paul encourages us to gird our waist with truth (Ephesians 6:14). It’s the Word of God that provides spiritual strength! …I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:14). Isaiah 33:6 reveals: Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation... Wisdom and Knowledge is the Word of God! We can only be strong in the Lord as we are strong in the Word! This provides a foundation for the Holy Spirit to be able to use you!

Finally, Ezekiel mentions water in which one must swim. This speaks of the end of self-effort in the life of a Christian. The Lord wants each one of us to come to place that we turn over to Him the reigns, the control of our lives! Smith Wigglesworth perhaps summed it up well when he said: All of me-none of God; less of me-more of God; none of me-all of God!

Lord, help us all to relinquish control of our being through obedience and prayer. May we step out into the deeper water of Your Presence, Your Word, and Your Spirit where You carry us where You will!

Unselfishness, Holiness, and Humility

I believe the Lord is endeavoring to move the church into a place where the Holy Spirit can flow freely to through us to others. As we open ourselves up to be obedient to His promptings, expect the signs and wonders that follow the ministry of the Word to increase! (Mark: 16:20).

Yesterday I began discussing the river that flows from the Millennial Temple of God and how that is analogous to the moving of the Holy Spirit right now in our day. The water flowed from the temple, and the farther it flowed the deeper it went; ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, and waters to swim in (See Ezekiel 47:1-9). Here are a few thoughts about the water flowing from this temple and how it applies to the moving of the Holy Spirit among us right now at the end of the church age.

Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar (Ezekiel 47:1).

Notice that the water flows out, not in! The Holy Spirit will work in us only as we get our eyes off of ourselves and began to live to bless others. Put yourself last and others first. An acronym for JOY is Jesus, Others, You. Remember that Job was delivered from his terrible plight when he prayed for his friends (Job 42:10). Jesus said give and it shall be given to you (Luke 6:38).The Spirit can flow from us when we put others first!

Notice in this verse also that the water flowed from the Temple, a Holy place. Only as we pursue the holiness of God will the anointing of the Spirit flow. We’re encouraged to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1)! We are to be holy in all our conduct, for it is written, be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:14-15). Purity precedes power!

Lastly notice that the water flowing from the temple flowed from under the threshold. This speaks to us of the humility of spirit by which we should live. Notice Isaiah 57:15:For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Personal humility draws the presence of God!

Peter tells us, Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). John the Baptist proclaimed, He must increase, but I must decrease! (John 3:30).

Let’s make a choice today to put others first, to pursue holy living, and to live in humility so that the Spirit of God can use us with His might and power to give glory to Jesus and to bless others!

The River of God

In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side. The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway. Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles. He measured off another 1,750 feet and led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist. Then he measured another 1,750 feet, and the river was too deep to walk across. It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through. He asked me, "Have you been watching, son of man?" Then he led me back along the riverbank. When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river. Then he said to me, "This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows (Ezekiel 47:1-9 - NLT).

We’re living in the time that the Father will be fulfilling the prophecy of Joel 2:28 in full! He desires to pout out His Spirit on all flesh! And this is the time for the body of Christ to take full advantage of our personal relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit.

In the above passage, Ezekiel saw the future Temple of God and saw a river flowing from it. The water began as shallow as ankle deep and grew in depth; from ankle deep to knee deep, to waist deep, until it became waters to swim in!

The river speaks clearly to us church age folk of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and its rise in our lives and ministries, and of the harvest of souls that we should seek to bring into the kingdom of God.

There is rising a stream as it were of the Holy Spirit that the Father desires that we jump into. We must be willing to get wet if we want God’s best. We must be willing to go where the Holy Spirit through the Word is leading us! At first, we’re ankle deep, and for the most part we can choose our direction.

Then as the water of the Spirit gets deeper, we feel the tug and weight of the water. Knee deep, we can still push ahead in some self-effort. Waist deep water is more difficult to navigate. It takes a lot of flesh effort to resist the waist deep water’s tug.

But when the water becomes deep, perhaps over the head, and becomes waters to swim in, I become completely controlled by the current of the water! And that’s where the Lord wants to take all of us; to a place where we are no longer in control of our lives. He is in control. We simply allow Him to take us where He wills!

Jesus called this abiding in the vine in John 15. Paul said it this way in Acts17:28, In Him we live and move and have our being! Paul also referred to this process of giving control of us over to the Father in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Be willing to step out into the River of God! Allow Him to work in you to the point that you’re willing for Him to decide what is best for your life; you’re willing to risk letting go of the reigns of your life and you’re willing to do whatever He says! The end result of this type of living is LIFE! We go into more detail about Ezekiel 47 tomorrow!

Prepare for a Fresh Move of the Spirit!

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

The Lord is obviously up to something fresh among us! Let me start from the beginning here. I attend a Word and Spirit meeting last week in Gatlinburg, Tennessee held by Randall Grier Ministries. During the last meeting on Thursday, August 13th, Randall had a Word from the Lord for all present. He said…Your best days are 3 days ahead of you. You will walk into a freshness and an anointing…you will step into the glory…

Our Saturday night service was a normal service. We had praise and worship and I preached the Word, gave an altar call, and closed the service. But on the third day from last Thursday, during our morning services on Sunday, the Spirit of God fell on us during praise and worship! And we did not have a normal service. The moving of the Spirit was rich! It spilled over into our 2nd service at 11:00 AM. Again, the Holy Spirit fell on us and the Glory of God manifested.

Again, I did not preach during our 2nd service. The Spirit of God had an agenda, and we ministered to many people. Refreshing from heaven filled us all! At the close of the 2nd service, we had several born again and Spirit-baptized.

I believe that we are in the beginning stages of a fresh move of the Spirit among us. I believe the Lord is preparing us for the reaping of the final harvest of souls before the return of Jesus.

It is as though we’ve just put our foot into the river of the Spirit that is here. Now is the time to consecrate ourselves fully to do the will of the Father! When you come to our services, come with an expectation that the Father is going to meet us in a powerful way. Bring the sick, bring those bound by drugs,alcohol, and other addictions, and bring those who are emotionally scarred. I believe the Lord will touch them in a powerful way. The power of God is rising and we need to ride the crest of this wave right into the rapture of the church.

I encourage you to spend more time praying, particularly praying in the spirit. We’re going to see some great demonstrations of God’s power. I believe that God is beginning to sovereignly move among us. Let’s take full advantage of what He is doing. Pray before you attend the meetings. Tell the Lord that you want all that He has for you and all that He has for all of us!

I am out of my conservative comfort zone! I sense the Lord strongly urging me to allow the Spirit of God to direct our every service. Please help me by praying for our services, for the Word of God to impact us richly, and for the Holy Spirit to manifest in spiritual gifts as He wills.

We are in the outer edges of what I believe will culminate in another Great Spiritual Awakening in our nation and across the globe that will usher in the Rapture of the church. Let’s go after God with everything within us!

Come and pray with me in our prayer room before the services. Let’s expect God’s best every time we meet!

I’ll leave you today with this quote from 2 Chronicles at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple. We’re going to see the Glory of the Lord manifest in a similar way in the days ahead of us. Let’s prepare ourselves!

Then the priests left the Holy Place. All the priests who were present had purified themselves, whether or not they were on duty that day. And the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and all their sons and brothers—were dressed in fine linen robes and stood at the east side of the altar playing cymbals, lyres, and harps. They were joined by 120 priests who were playing trumpets.The trumpeters and singers performed together in unison to praise and give thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, they raised their voices and praised the Lord with these words: "He is good! His faithful love endures forever!" At that moment a thick cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple of God (2 Chronicles 5:11-14 -NLT)

Affect the Natural World through the Spiritual World

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12-NLT).

We need to remember that the things that are going in our nation today have a spiritual side to them. Behind natural happenings is the spiritual world. Natural things came from spiritual things. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (Hebrews 11:3).

Elisha and his servant were surrounded by an enemy army, but in the spirit realm, the angels of God were there to protect them: So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. "Oh, sir, what will we do now?" the young man cried to Elisha."Don't be afraid!" Elisha told him. "For there are more on our side than on theirs!" Then Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!" The Lord opened the young man's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:14-17).

While Daniel was praying for his nation, and angel appeared to him and told him that he had been sent from God with the answer to his pray but had been hindered: Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. And the man said to me, "Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you." When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling. Then he said, "Don't be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia (Dan 10:10-13 - NLT).

Demonic forces in the unseen spirit realm are currently seeking the demise of our nation politically, socially, and economically. We the church of Jesus Christ have authority over these forces of darkness. Let us NOW rise up in faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit and command them to stop in their maneuvers and operations against our country. And then pray for the awakening power of God to manifest in our country and bring the masses to repentance! NOW is the time we must act!

Our Nation

And the Lord said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day — with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods — so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them (1 Samuel 8:7-9).

The meeting last night here in Gatlinburg was very interesting and sobering. Randall Grier talked about our nation, and how the prayers of the church can and should make a change.

He spoke in detail about the last presidential election, and it was sobering to say the least. After pondering what he related to us in the meeting, I don’t think it would be prudent for me to divulge it here in my blog. SO, I’ll relate this at some point in our services. What I can relate here is that Randall Grier said that the Lord told him that we would get 1 Samuel 8 as a result of the will of the people of our nation in the last election.

As revealed in the above scripture, The Israelites wanted to be like other nations and have a king to rule over them instead of the Lord. God honored their request, even though it was not His will. As you continue to read through 1 Samuel 8, the Lord revealed to Israel that though they got the king they wanted, it would not turn out well for them.

Our last presidential election was a result of the will of the people. As a whole, America elected whom they wanted as president. Now we must deal with the results. A sobering truth is that we the church are responsible for what goes on in our nation. As goes the church, so goes the nation.

The raucous town hall meetings taking place in our nation are only the tip of the iceberg as to what may be ahead if we the church do not begin to pray and take authority over the enemy concerning our nation. I’ll talk more about this in our services.

Let me urge you to take some time every day to pray for our nation and our government. The Spirit of God will show you the specifics of which way to pray! Our future way of life is at peril. We the church must rise up and take our authority over the enemy and use it to stop his plans!

The Lord has promised: Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Word and Spirit

As you know, I’m in Gatlinburg, Tennessee attending a Word and Spirit seminar with Randall Grier. Randall says the Lord spoke to him in 2007 and told him that a split or division is coming in the body of Christ.

He said there are churches he calls Informational that have come to the forefront in the body of Christ and that will assert even greater influence in the next year and a half.These churches have abandoned the teaching of the Word and the moving of the Spirit and are following a plan devised by men and not God. I suppose we could call them seeker sensitive churches, catering to the likes and dislikes of the audience. People come and go unchanged.

Then Randall says that the Lord told him that there are what he calls Revelational churches, or churches that teach the Word strongly and are open to the moving of the Holy Spirit in their meetings. These churches cater to the presence of God and seek to make the atmosphere conducive to God’s power manifesting. People are changed by the power of God in these meetings.

Yesterday, he listed 16 characteristics of Revelational churches:

1. These churches are committed to the Word, to Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit
(1 Timothy 4:13-16).
2. These churches teach the Word and refuse to compromise doctrine (Romans 16:7).
3. They refuse worldly influences through any person or source (1 John 2:15).
4. These churches treasure and seek the Word of God and manifestations of the
Spirit(Acts 4: 29-31).
5. Pastors and church leaders spends lots of time studying the Word and praying
(Acts 6: 3-4).
6. The messages preached in these churches are born in prayer and Study of the
and not by group consensus (Galatians 1:12).
7. Pastors minister with an anointing and flow in spiritual gifts as the Spirit
wills(Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10).
8. Pastors and church leaders walk closely with the Lord in thought, word, and deed
(Ephesians 4:1; 1 Timothy 4:12).
9. These churches pray and seek God for everyone to be born again and Spirit filled
(Acts 2:42; Acts 8:15).
10. Church services are prayed out in advance, and ministers implicitly follow the
direction of the Holy Spirit for the meeting (Mark 16:20; John 5:19).
11. People are ministered to and refreshed by the Holy Spirit in these chuches
Romans 15:13; 1 John 5:4).
12. The messages preached require a response and the people are urged to grow
spiritually (Acts 20:32).
13. The Fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit operate along with ministry
gifts(Galatians 5:22-24; Ephesians 4:11-12; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10).
14. The Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ are always welcome in these
churches (Acts 4:29-31).
15. The Spirit of truth and the wisdom of God flow freely in these churches
1 Corinthians 2:12).
16. These churches are blessed by God and will eventually grow and flourish because
teach the Word and follow the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit carefully
(Matthew 16:18-19).

Randall declared that we need a new reformation in the church today, and he urged pastors to minister in an uncompromising way.

I’ll end here with a declaration he had everyone recite:

I will not compromise the Word of God or the Holy Ghost, and through the Lord Jesus Christ I exercise authority over the devil and over the influence of the world.

My personal take on all of this is that at Victory we are right in line with what I believe Jesus wants us to be doing, and we're going to get stronger in it!

Informational and Revelational Churches

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future (John 16:13).

As you know, I’m in Gatlinburg attending a “Word and Spirit” meeting with Randall Grier. Randall begin addressing concerns the Lord has given Him concerning trends in the church and what he says he sense coming in the next few years.

He began last night saying that in 2007 in prayer the Lord showed him a division or split taking place in the church world. From this split two types of churches will emerge: Informational seeker friendly churches, and Revelational, God seeking churches that will contend for the power of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Word. He feels that the Lord has empowered him to get the message out about what is happening now and to warn pastors and ministers to contend for the fullness of God’s power in our day.

He mentioned that the seeker friendly Informational churches would grow greatly in popularity in the next year and a half, and that eventually this movement would dwindle and many of these churches would begin to have problems due to the works of the flesh and the spirit of the world entering in.

Then he gave us 13 points that identify the Informational churches. I’ll give them briefly here with the scripture he mentions:

Characteristics of Informational Churches

1. The churches started right but begin to yield to seducing spirits (1 Timothy
4:1-2).
2. They are based on man’s plans and not God’s Word (Matthew 16:23; Romans16:17;
Ephesians 4:14).
3. The spirit of the world invades these churches (1 John 4:15-17).
4. The Pastors of these churches begin to neglect time with God in prayer and
in the Word; more time spent “playing” than “praying.” (Acts 6:1-5)
5. Messages are based more on natural things and men’s opinions than they are on
the Word. (1 Timothy 1:4)
6. The church leadership place on emphasis on outward appearance (1 John 2:15).
7. The churches services are designed to please people more than God
(2 Timothy 4:2-4).
8. People are left unchanged and leave the same way they come because the Holy
Spirit is not present to change them (2 Corinthians 3:18).
9. The messages are not designed to demand a response from the people for fear
of offending them (Hebrews 13:6).
10. The works of the flesh manifest through the leadership and people of these
churches (Jude 18-19; Galatians 5:19-21).
11. Jesus is standing at the door and knocking in these churches wanting to come
in and minister to them. He eventually rejects them (Revelation 3:16,20).
12. Satan has deceived these churches into believing a lie (Revelation 12:9).
13. These churches eventually fail due to sin and false doctrine (Revelation 2:5).

This is a strong Word and in my view needed for our day. Randall mentioned that he told the Lord that he didn’t want to minister this because it seemed so negative, but the Lord urged him to obey and bring a word of warning and admonition.

I’ll keep you updated as the meeting progress today. My heart is to preach the Word with boldness, and for the Lord to confirm His Word with signs following! Let’s stand for the truth of the Word and for the power of the Holy Ghost. Let’s join together and pray for an AWAKENING in our nation and around the world!

I’ll be in touch.

Going to Receive!

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28).

At times I just need to go receive from the Lord for me so that I can more effectively minister. You can’t give what you don’t have!

This morning I leave for Gatlinburg,Tennessee, where I will be attending a Word and Spirit seminar. Randall Grier was influenced personally by Kenneth Hagin before Rev. Hagin went to be with Jesus in 2003. Randall has a prophetic twist to his ministry and has some things to say about the church today, and where we are headed in the next few years. I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to take time to go to this meeting this week. I’m expecting to receive from the Lord!

I’ll be twittering when possible. And I’ll keep my blog going each day. I return on Friday! Pastor Mike will be ministering on Wednesday night, and I’m sure that he will have a “now” word for our church. Don’t miss it!

Here’s a statement from Randall Grier taken from his e-newsletter that explains what he will be addressing in the meetings I attend.

Randall Grier
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to me about a split, separation or division, taking place in the church world. Out of this split two types of churches will emerge. One type will be an informational church and the other type will be a revelation church. Jesus said, “This split or division has been going on for about three years but it will increase greatly in the next year and a half because of the popularity of informational type churches. Informational churches are not built on the Word of God but on the plans of men and they will eventually implode because of sin and false doctrine. I will establish those who have built their church on My revelation and My Word and they will flourish and grow.”

There is much more that the Lord said to me about this and I will be speaking on this subject at our Word and Spirit meeting next week. It will not cost you but it will pay you to be there to hear what the Lord is saying and doing in the church today. I look forward to seeing you there.

Our Nation Needs God

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34). I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

Twice in the last several days I’ve been awakened with a strong burden to pray for our nation. It happened again this morning. When I woke up, I was already praying for our country. The prayer started in my sleep! Friends, something is up and we need to seek God for the future of this nation.

Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The political and civil dialogue is becoming more and more heated. Passions are strong. This is a democracy. The problem is that as a whole we have left God Almighty out of our plans to solve problems, and out of our future as a nation (I’m speaking in broad generalities here). And as people oppose each other in opinion on how to solve the deep issues of our day, division and strong dissention occurs. The flesh can get really ugly.

Listen to this quote from John Adams in 1798 as he addresses the military: We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.*

I am being alerted by the Holy Spirit to pray for a reason. I want to encourage you to join me in prayer for our country. Pray for our president, our congressmen and senators. Command the demonic forces seeking to bring civil strife to our country to back off. Command the demonic forces that are seeking to hinder our freedoms to back off and desist in Jesus’ name!

Above all, pray with millions who are praying for a spiritual awakening in our nation. It’s the only chance that I see for our nation to be saved from absolute ruin. Remember 2 Chronicles 7:14(NLT): Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

I’ll leave you with a prayer that’s been widely circulated supposedly prayed by Billy Graham for our country. I’ve decided to place it here because it clearly addresses our national need. Thanks for praying with me:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics.. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

* http:patriotpost.us/fqd/results.asp

A Loving Father

The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works (Psalm 145:8-9).

The Father used this verse to set me free from my fear of His presence, and to create in me an openness with Him. From my early childhood I had the idea that God was harsh, uncaring, demanding, angry, and somehow just simply unhappy with me. It’s as if He put up with me because He had to, not because He wanted to.

God is often mirrored to us through our parents. Our perceptions of what the Father is like are compared in our mind with what we’ve experienced with our parents. If you’re raised in an environment of conditional love, then you may be challenged in receiving the unconditional love that the Father has for you.

Parents mean well, but if the only time you received love as a child is when you met certain conditions, then you become a performance oriented person. And when you fail, you will feel unworthy of love and will shun intimacy. And that attitude will spill over into your relationship with the Father.

As parents, it is so important that we show love to our children when they fail. If we are harsh and angry when they fail, and don’t affirm our love to them, then we’re unconsciously creating in them a belief that they are only loved when they perform well.

In the above verse, gracious means disposed to show favors. It is speaking of an unconditional love that the Father has for His own. He loves us. He cares for us. He is slow to become angry at us. He acts in mercy towards us. Mercy is when you don’t get what you deserve.

Most people think that God is so harsh and demanding, but when you get to know Him, you’ll see that He is the most loving being you’ll ever know. He loves you so much that He’s made provision to cleanse you from sin and to make you so righteous that you can stand in His presence as though you’ve never done wrong!

When you know this, you’ll run to the Father when you mess up and not away from Him. Proverbs says that a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again. That’s possible because of the unconditional love of the Father!

Meditate on Psalm 145: 8-9. This verse opened the Father’s presence to me in a fresh way. It began a journey of intimacy (in-to-me-see) with the Father in my life. It enabled me to curb perfectionistic tendencies that would have crushed my children with my harsh, strict, rigid demands. Yes, I have strong standards, but they’ve been backed by consistent unconditional love for my kids. Strictness without unconditional love will push your children away from intimacy, and will set them up for a life long battle with personal acceptance with the Father.

There is no love like the love of the Father. You can pour out your heart to Him with abandonment. He cares about every cell of your being. He’s waiting on you now with open arms. You can trust Him to help you with every issue of life. When you sin, there is forgiveness and mercy as you confess it. He willingly pardons. He wants your heart life. He longs for you to know Him.

Watch You Mouth!

Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3).

Our words contain the power of life and death! Our words set in motion the things that occur in our lives. God uses our words as a vehicle to bless, to heal, to provide, and to strengthen us.

The enemy also wants to use our words to defame, to discourage, to hinder, to impoverish, and to promote fear.

Our words are like landmarks in our lives. We rise or fall to the level of our confession. If we confess weakness, it develops weakness in us. If we confess fear, then fear rises up like a giant and binds us. If we confess sickness, it enforces sickness in us. If we confess lack, then our confession hinders God’s blessings.

We must learn to say only what we want to happen in our lives! Our words are conveyors of our faith. We say what we really believe. This is a law of the kingdom of God.

I have learned to voice what I believe in the face of contradiction. The circumstance may tell me that I’m whipped, defeated. But I say that in all things I am more than a conqueror! I voice that if God be for me, what enemy can defeat me! I may feel that I won’t make it, but I have learned to defy my feelings with a positive affirmation of the Word.

It may seem that infirmity is getting the upper hand in my body, but I line my words up with what the Father says about my body. I voice boldly that Jesus took my infirmities and bare my sicknesses. I never give in to the feelings and symptoms. I fill my words with God’s Word and stand my ground.

Thoughts of doubt often come creeping into our minds. I have learned not just to ignore them. But when they come, I confess boldly what God’s Word says about me. I refute the thought with God’s Word on my lips.

Sometimes circumstances, people, feelings, and our own thoughts try to gang up on us and defeat us. The enemy uses all these things to try to weight us down and force us to abandon our faith by yielding to discouragement. When this happens, I put my mouth to work! I say with conviction what the Word says about me and I refuse to waver!

Keep a watch on your lips today. Fill your Words with what you really believe. Feeling and circumstances change like the weather. The Word is constant! It forever settled in heaven! Positive affirmations of the Word will chase away doubt and fear, and will fill you with courage and strength. Remember, we rise or fall to the level of our confession.

What are you looking at?

…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead (Philippians 3:13). Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

The Father wants each of us to look away from our past successes and failures and keep our focus on Him and His ability that is available to us! This word for looking here in Hebrews is the Greek word aphorao and it means to purposely turn your eyes away from other things and to fix your gaze purposefully onto something.

We often allow the distractions of personal weakness, inferiority, and of our past to hinder us from moving forward in God. Peter walked on the water as long as he kept his eyes fixed on Jesus. He began to sink when removed his gaze from Him. And we stop moving forward when we focus on anything but the Jesus and His ability in us through the Word!

Abraham’s life was changed at age 75 when God gave him a vision of a multitude of children living in a land God promised him! A man from a pagan family was transformed into the father of faith by a Word from God. He became what he looked for!

Jacob’s life was changed after he wrestled with an angel an entire night. His name was changed from Jacob (deceiver) to Israel (prince with God)! His vision of his life was never the same.

Joseph’s life was transformed when he had a dream of being great leader. Because he kept his focus on this dream, circumstances never got him down! Sold as a slave by his brothers, lied about and thrust in a prison, Joseph rose to the top regardless of circumstances. And it was because his inner gaze was on the dream! And he became that leader he dreamed about years later, after successfully overcoming daunting impossibilities.

Moses was born with a death threat on his life. He killed a man at 40 years of age and spent the next 40 year living in a desert in exile. Moses’ life was forever changed by a Word from God in the burning bush. He became one of the greatest prophets of Israel because He moved his gaze to the Holy God revealed in the bush! His legacy lives on!

Focus on your past, and you’ll never overcome it. Turn your eyes away from the hardship and troubles that life has brought you and look purposefully at Jesus by focusing on the Word, and you’ll become a transformed person!

A change of gaze will change your life course! Forget what has happened. You can’t change it. But you can do something with today! And what you see determines how you live! Let’s keep our focus on the promises of God today. He is faithful that promised!

The Right Foundation

The foundation of a house determines its strength. Wind and Water are powerful forces of nature, but a house built on the right foundation can remain strong when they rise against it.

Likewise, a person who chooses to be a doer of the Word has a firm foundation in life. Adversity has many faces and comes to us from so many sources, but a person who chooses to live life by obeying the Word will come out on top every time!

The Word never changes nor will it ever fade into useless nothingness. It’s eternal (Matthew 24:35). The Word will always accomplish the purpose for which it was sent (Isaiah 55:11). The Word has been sent by the Father to produce forgiveness, healing, strength, love, joy, patience, victory, prosperity, and abundance. The Father is always watching over His Word to make it good where believed (Jeremiah 1:12). Earthly things wear out, but the Word endures and is ageless (Isaiah 40:8). It stronger than rock, and is forever established (Psalm 119:89). The Father will never break the covenant He has with His Word. It will always produce fruit, and will be honored by the Father in the life of whoever believes it (Psalm 89:34)!

Since the Father’s Word is so sure, the best assurance of a blessed future is obeying and lining your life up with the Word now. A step away from the Word is to invite disaster. A decision to go your own way at the neglect of the Word is an invitation for the thief to invade your life by stealing, killing, and destroying in some way. It’s a real bad idea to forsake the Word for your own way!

I’m still amazed at how a person can hear the Word week after week, month after month, and year after year, and still refuse to act on it when challenges come. Don’t ever let yourself get so burdened that you make a decision that is contrary to the Word. Never turn a deaf ear to God’s will as found in the Word. That decision is a disaster in the making. The flood and winds of life will destroy a person who willfully chooses to ignore the Father’s counsel.

Over the years I’ve seen people overcome great adversity and succeed when failure seemed apparent by simply firmly choosing to obey God’s Word when it was not the most convenient or the most comfortable thing to do. You’ll always come out on top if you’ll obey God and stand on His Word. It’s not always the easiest route. And yes, there are challenges when you choose the Father’s way through the Word. But the end result will always be the same. Victory, success, peace, and joy will rule your life!

Small Beginnings

For who has despised the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10).

Plants, trees, and shrubs begin life as a small seed that germinates. Human life begins as a zygote. Speech development in a child begins with one syllable words.

The kingdom of God operates on the principle of the seed. Something begins small and then grows a little at a time. When you are born again, God plants the seed of His nature within and it begins to grow and develop. With that seed from Him comes a talent, an ability, a skill, a calling.

Faithfulness in the small things causes the seed of His call on your life to germinate. No person in God’s kingdom starts out immediately after salvation functioning in their full calling. The seed must grow.

I began my ministry cleaning a large local church. There I learned humility, faithfulness, integrity, endurance, submission, respect for leaders, unselfishness, and how to adapt to different personalities. I also studied and developed my fellowship with God. The seedbed of my ministry now found its fertile soil in faithfulness in small things.

You may feel the call of a pastor, an evangelist, or a teacher in the body of Christ. You sense a seed of ministry in you. Find a way to be faithful in small things. Minister in nursing homes, prisons, Bible studies, home groups, in children's ministry, in youth groups. Assist your pastor in the local church in any way he needs you. Usher, greet, duplicate CD's, cut the grass, repair the building, help with the sound. Look for areas of need and lend a hand.

Promotion in ministry comes from the Lord. Don’t despise the day of small things. Those days are the proving ground for what God can do through you for the rest of your life.

Faith and Patience

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise (Hebrews 10:35-36). Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him (Hebrews 10:38).

Endurance or patience is an important ingredient of faith. It’s faith and patience that inherits the promises. The Greek word for endurance is hupomeno and it means to remain when under pressure. It’s the ability to keep your chin up when things aren’t going well. It’s the ability to remain joyful and expectant when it looks as though nothing you believe is coming to pass. It’s the ability to remain unmoved and unshaken by circumstances.

The very nature of what faith is makes patience so necessary in the faith fight. Faith is for what you don’t have in the physical realm yet. Faith takes the place of what God has promised you until it arrives in the physical and you can see it. Faith is the substitute for the thing God has promised you until you can physically see or feel it.

The Word promises healing, so you have prayed and exercised your faith. The pain increases and the symptoms worsen. Patience enables you to stand your ground in the tough time. Patience or endurance enables you to look away from the symptom and look at the promise of God, knowing that God is faithful to fulfill His Word.

The faith life is very challenging to the flesh! So many think that walking by faith means you receive instantly, but that is just not true! Abraham waited 25 years for the child of promise to come! And his patience enabled him to keep going strong when the impossibility of what he believed weighed on him.

Faith and patience are the twins of success! Patience keeps you from letting go of your faith! I remember when I was believing God to build our current building. It seemed that obstacles manifested every hour to keep it from happening. I had prayed, and I was believing that I received the answer to my prayer, which was a building being built.

At times I would get so tired of resisting the circumstances that just kept compounding! But it was the hupomeno, the ability to keep on going when the chips are down, that refused to let me quit. I gritted my teeth and praised God for honoring His Word! And you can see the results.

Don’t quit if you’re in a faith battle. Rest in the promises of God. He is faithful that promised. He watches over His Word to make it good. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His Word never will! Allow patience to under gird your faith today. Keep your eyes on God’s promises and not the unmoving circumstance. You will receive if you just don’t quit!

The Private Room

But when you pray, go into your most private room, and, closing the door, pray to your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open (Matthew 6:6- Amplified).

This most private room Jesus mentioned here is a bedchamber. It’s a place of intimacy between husband and wife. It’s a place where no one else is invited. It’s a place that is secure from intrusion.

The Father wants to develop an intimate relationship with each one of His children. He wants each of us to find that private place of meeting with Him where we can bear our heart to Him and share our deepest secrets. He wants to develop a closeness with us that affects the whole of life.

Many believers find this private place with the Father intimidating. They’ve not been raised in an environment that allows them to really bear their heart. Relationships are casual and surface.

It takes time to become comfortable enough with someone to be able to share the intimate secrets of your heart with them. The father wants this kind of relationship with us. It’s a branch-vine relationship. It’s life-freeing and life-producing.

To begin this private room experience with the Father, find a place free from intrusion where no one will interrupt you. Then read Psalm 139. Realize that the Father loves you as much as He loves Jesus! He knows every thought, purpose, motive, intent, desire, need, and want in your life. He sees everything about you. He is absolute love and wants the best for you. He is longing for you to open your heart to Him.

Talk to Him about the things that bother you. Tell Him everything; the good, the bad, and the ugly. He already knows. But He wants you to submit your needs to Him in simple faith. When you do this, it gives Him permission to help you, and it will free you from life’s intense pressures that build up inside. It’s this acknowledging Him in all your ways (Proverbs 3: 4-5) that allows Him to move on your behalf.

Intimacy with the Father makes us care free and worry free, and keeps stress from building up inside. Most of our mental, emotional, and physical problems are stress related. Personal intimacy with the Father is His answer to human stress.

The Father has a longing to be close to you today. Go find Him in the private room.

Prayer Importance

And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. (Luke 24:53). These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers (Acts 1:14). So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart (Acts 2:46). And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31). Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12).

The foundation for all that God does in us and through us is in our prayer life. Jesus set the standard. Jesus’ days of ministry were preceded by nights of intense praying. The early church was formed after Jesus ascension in the incubator of prayer.

The kingdom of God functions on the prayers of the saints. The mighty forces that shape the world are not physical but spiritual. The answer to every challenge we face is first of all found in that place of solace with the Father. If Jesus heeded the importance of praying things out in His earth walk, should we not heed His example?

We’re facing pressures unheard of in previous generations. The climax of the ages is upon us. God has a grand and glorious strategy for the church in this hour. And it begins and ends on our knees! To neglect the place of prayer is to neglect the very purpose and plans of the Father for life.

Start today. Move yourself into a deeper place of prayer. Find a private place, and begin to tell the Father how wonderful He is to you. Ask Him to help you pour out your heart to Him. Then, take to Him every concern and problem. Give Him the details of what bothers you. Then ask Him to intervene and bring the solution. Remind Him of the promises of His Word to you. Spend time in thanksgiving for the answer.

While praying, take time to pray in tongues. This is the most effective form of prayer. Praying in the spirit enables you to pray the perfect will of God about the unknown future. It enables you to pray the will of God into manifestation in so many ways! Don’t neglect this secret weapon God has given to you! Use it regularly and watch the forces of the enemy back up!

The success of your day today begins in your prayer closet. Make it count!