Ephesians 1:3,4 - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
Many people who are doing something significant for God in the world are doing it "without their own resources" because God doesn't want us to depend on our own abilities.
Instead, He wants us to be obedie
1 Corinthians 4:20 - "For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power".
We cannot be witnesses of the Almighty God without power. When we think of power we often think of miracles, but they are only one example of God's power, not the very essence of it.
The essence of God's power is the life of God. This is why the author of the book of Hebrews explains that the Lord's priesthood is based on "the power of an indestructible life" (seeHebrews 7:14-17).
We are called t
"On this Matthew 16:18 -rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Where precisely are the gates of hell? Where does the devil sit in power?
The mind is the gatekeeper of the Kingdom of God. It is the place of access, transition, and power. It follows that the gates of hell are set up in people's minds. Jesus made this clear:
Matthew 16:23 - But He turned and said to "Get behind Me, satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful o
Romans 4:17 - "Even God who quickeneth the dead, and called those things which be not as though they were."
Many people know what it means to have "common sense", which is sound, practical judgment. "Christian sense", on the other hand, involves seeing adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith and exercising your God-given authority to change those circumstances.
Jesus taught His disciples how to change negative circumstances. The Bible tells us that He cursed a fig tree with wo
John 3:27,30 - "John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. He must increase, but I must decrease."
Some Christians say that they were trying to decrease so the Lord could increase in their life. This seems noble, but it is not biblical, and is actually the opposite of what John the Baptist said,
If we try to decrease before He increases in our life, we will just be empty, and the void will usually be filled with an evil, religious spirit. When w
Mark 7:6,7 - "He answered and said unto them, 'Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."'
Jesus lived in constant confrontation and conflict with the world around Him, because Kingdom logic goes against carnal logic.
Questions to Ask Myself:
AM I LIVING IN CONFLICT WITH THI
Hosea 4:6 - "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
Revelation is so essential in our lives that
The word vision refers to the spirit of revelation coming upon you, giving you a vision of things that are unseen.
Proverbs 29:18 says similarly, "Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint." A more correct and complete translation is: "Without a prophetic revelation, the people go unrestrained, walking in circles, having no certain destiny." Wit
John 3:8 - "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
The wind is known by its sound, and by its effect. Whenever the Spirit moves there is a spiritual sound coming from the spirit realm.
Spiritual sound is not random indefinite noise. It is a sound which speaks and reveals knowledge to those with ears to hear.
John 12:28,29 - "'Rather, I will say, Fa
John 3:3 - Jesus answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
What does it mean to "see" the kingdom of God?
Jesus urged us to do an about-face in our approach to reality because His Kingdom is at hand. He brought His world with Him, and it's within our reach. He wants us to see reality from God's perspective, to learn to live "from" His world "towards" the visible world. But we have to chang
Genesis 3:1 - "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
When we succumb to guilt and shame, we give in to the single oldest temptation in the Bible - the temptation to question our identity and God's identity.
The very first temptation in the Bible was not to partake of forbidden fruit, but to question what God had said. The serpe
Genesis 1:26 - "Let us make man in our image,in our likeness."
The word "image" refers to moral and spiritual character, while the phrase "in our likeness" means "to function like." In other words, we were created to live according to the nature of God and to function as He functions in the world.
The Bible is very clear that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). If you try to function in any other way than faith, you will malfunction. That is w
Psalm 115:16 - "The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; but the earth He has given to the sons of men."
The Lord requires the cooperation of men to move on the earth. This is why, even though the Lord knows what we need before we ask Him, He requires that we ask before He moves on the earth. When He demonstrates His kingdom and the powers of heaven to the earth, He does it through men.
The Lord could have parted the Red Sea without Moses, but not without violating His o
Hebrews 11:1 - "Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things that you cannot see."
The scripture says that "For we walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). We must never let what our eyes see determine what our hearts believe. In other words, we are to walk according to what is in our hearts. We are to let what is in our hearts dictate how we see life.
Physical sight is the ability to see things as they are. Vision is the capacity t
Nehemiah 4:6 - "So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart."
Passion is stamina that says "I'm going to go after this, no matter what happens. If I have to wait ten years, I'm going to get it." Passionate people are those who have discovered something more important than life itself. Jesus told His disciples, "Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:27)
Deuteronomy 30:19 - "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life."
He was saying, "Stop procrastinating and hoping you will eventually get somewhere in life. Decide whether you're going to get a curse or a blessing. Decide whether you're going to die or live."
Affirmations:
I AM NOT DESIGNED TO DRIFT - I AM DESIGNED FOR DESTINY.
I AM NOT GOING TO PROCRASTINATE ON MY DREAM AND DRIFT ALONG, ENDING UP WHEREVER THE LUKEWARM TIDE
Matthew 6:9-10 - "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Many people are confused about the will of God on earth, believing that it is fuzzy and vague.
The will of God is simply this: "On earth as it is in heaven." When we pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," we're praying for the King's dominion and will to be realized right here, right now.
God has not kept His desires secret: He
Isaiah 9:7 - "Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end......"
How important is increase to God? Jesus once cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season (Mark 11:13-14)! A man in one of His parables was cast into outer darkness for burying his money and not obtaining an increase for his master (Matthew 25:24-30).
When the main goal of our faith is keeping us safe from the devil, our faith becomes inferior to what God expects. Jesus had in
Luke 10:38-40 - "As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"'
Many people have their own ideas about what they want to do for God, a
Psalm 50:11,14,23 - "Gather My godly ones to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; he who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God." The terms of the covenant are simple: we pledge to thank Him and adore Him in everything; He pledges to shine
Deuteronomy 30:19 - "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." Some people seem to enjoy being the victim. No matter what failure or disappointment they have experienced in life, they have convinced themselves that someone or something is to blame
This lie is old as Adam. He blamed Eve and she blamed the devil when they messed up in the Garden of Eden. Ho
Romans 12:2 - "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." That word transformed is translated from the Greek word from which we get the term "metamorphosis." It's used in Scripture in two other places - when Jesus was transfigured on the Mount as He spoke with Moses and Elijah - and in 2 Corinthians 3:18. It says, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by
Psalm 138:7,8 - "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." God has promised to revive you in the midst of trouble. He promised to perfect that which concerns you. That means your recovery from your adverse circumstances, from the schemes of the devil, your victory, and all that God has destined for you has been planned out in heaven.
Exodus 4:2-4 - "And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod. And He said, Cast it on the ground. And he did so and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said to Moses, Put forth your hand and take it by the tail. And he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand."
Moses' rod became a serpent. A serpent was the symbol of royal and cultic powers. A serpent was placed on the crown of every Pharaoh because
Many Believers live in fear of the powers of darkness. Many are plagued by the spirit of suicide and death, discouragement and depression, sickness, lack, poverty, and failure. Many are caught in the vicious cycle of defeat, circling around the valleys of despair and can't seem to find their way out.
Many have been oppressed by the enemy for a prolonged period of time. It's been many years and many seasons of great grief and loss. You've been under such a weight of the enemy you coul
Mark 4:14,20 - "The sower sows the Word. And those sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit - some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some even a hundred times as much." JESUS DIDN'T SPEND TIME TRYING TO GET MEN OUT OF POVERTY. HE GOT THE POVERTY OUT OF THEM AND THEY DID THE REST.
IF CHRIST WERE HERE TODAY, HE WOULDN'T MOVE PEOPLE OUT OF THE SLUMS....HE'D SIMPLY GET THE SLUMS OUT OF THEM. THEIR NEW I
