You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)

There are lots of people who want God to bless them so that they might have the things that people have in the world.  “Please God, bless me with a car like my friend has” or “Please God, give me a house with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms in the nicest part of town.”

Well, why would God do that?  He can see the motivations of our heart.  He knows our motivations better than we do.  Covetous prayers do not get heard.

The better way to pray and receive is to ask God what He wants and then ask Him for the abundance to be able to do what he says.

I know people who are waiting for a cheque in the mail, or for someone to drop a lot of money in their hands but they don’t really know why they want it.  They are even praying that it will happen.  These prayers never worked well for me, although if someone wanted to drop a lot of money in my hands I probably would still take it, unless of course, God told me not to.

The most important thing is to please our God, so my prayer becomes: “Show me what you would want me to do.”  When He shows me I understand the course that I am to take.

My bank account does not stop me from doing the things that God has called me to do.  I step out in the things He shows me and provision follows.  He knows what He wants me to do and is pleased to give me the resources I need to do it.

In essence, my money does not determine my course but my course determines my money.

I look at the Kingdom as a place where I can make many investments and I am always asking God where He would have me invest.

The other night I had a dream.  In it I saw a well-known minister.  When he came up to me I said, “Oh yes, I owe you $500.00.  I will get that to you as soon as I can.”  When I woke up, I realized the Lord was showing me what He wanted me to do with my money.

I will be honest with you, I don’t actually have that money in my bank account right now, but I do know that money will come for me to invest and it will be soon.  I know that when I pray asking for this money it will come because I believe by faith that God showed me that He wants me to sow it into this man’s ministry.

I actually get excited when this sort of thing happens because I know that if God wants me to sow then I am going to reap something as well.  It might be money, but my hope is that it will be a portion of the anointing that this man operates under, which is much more exciting to me.

I pray that God will download to you a greater understanding of Kingdom finances today.  I ask the Lord to rain down abundance upon you today and to meet all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

Meditating on the word of God has a way of binding the thoughts of God to our hearts.   We become people of the word because the word goes deep within us.   It is not that we have every scripture memorized to be able to tell exactly where such and such is said, but His word we hide in our hearts that we might not sin against Him and that we might live for Him.

The word becomes my comfort and my strength when hard times come upon me.  As I read the words of David in the Psalms, I find the language to speak to God when I am in my own distress.  As I read the prophecies of Isaiah regarding the restoration and rebuilding of Israel, I am convinced of my own restoration and recreation.  I learn that God is creating a clean heart within me and establishing me in my generation in such a way that I will shine as a righteous star before the darkness of my time.  I know this by the word of God.

Even when fear rises up within me, I know that it will not remain because God is my strong tower and my strength.  He is my rock that is much higher than me.  As I wait upon the Lord he renews my strength and I am able to fly with the power of the Spirit into greater things than I ever imagined.

I know that I am not limited because the people in the stories of the Bible were not limited.  They seemed to do things that were superhuman or supernatural, and as they were in the world so can I be to my world.  All this I understood as I meditated upon the word.

I knew that if I cried out as Solomon cried out for wisdom, that I would be given much more than wisdom just as Solomon was granted much more.  I knew that if I trusted God as my sword in the face of the enemy just as Gideon trusted him, then I would advance against a troop and jump over high walls and scale great mountains.

And as I meditated upon the Gospels I began to see a possibility for my own life.  As Jesus was in this world I could become.  Just as Jesus was a healer, I knew I could be a healer.  I knew that as Peter walked on water, so could I walk upon water.  Just as Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, I could.  Just as Paul walked in the Spirit I could walk in the Spirit.  I could dream and have visions.  I could see the heavenlies, encounter angels and overcome the flesh.  This I understood because I meditated upon God’s word.

The intimacy that John had with Christ I could have.  I could become something much more wonderful and loving than I once was.  I began to understand from the word of God that my mind was being transformed on a day-to-day basis so that the thoughts of Christ were becoming my thoughts.  I knew that I would not be bound by my old nature but that I would overcome, not by my own strength, but by the grace of Christ living within me.

I knew that I could operate with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit because the people in the word operated in tremendous ways.  I knew that if I exercised my faith, then I could do even greater things than I ever imagined doing.

And each day as greater things come toward me I know that I will see greater things still because in Christ I am not limited at all.  All this I understood from reading the word of God.

I pray today that you will begin to understand who you are in Christ.  I pray that a great hunger for God’s word will arise in you and that you will not rest until great revelation floods your heart like a spotlight in a dark room.   I pray that God will open your hearts and minds to the things of Jesus Christ so that you understand who you are in this world and the great authority that you do hold.

Even when you are a revivalist like me and you have seen tremendous signs and wonders and outpourings in many places, you come to understand that you are nothing and that God is everything.  Moreover God has not created me as an island unto myself but created me to exist within community.  In community I flourish and together with my brothers and sisters we reach our generation for Christ.

When our time on earth is done, history might look back at a few people and remember them as something special (like John Wesley or Charles Finney). But really every person who is doing anything for the Lord knows that these special ones are just products of the hunger of many persons working together to see revival poured out into the earth.

It is within the body of Christ that each of us comes to fruition and freedom.  I can no more take credit for the way the Spirit moves through me than I can take credit for the way my car drives.  I just really enjoy the drive.

My friends that surround me also have incredible anointing upon their lives.  I believe that when we work together the anointing on each of our lives sparks more significantly and together we pull on heaven’s cords for outpouring in our generation. 

We cannot do it alone.  We must work toward revival together and I believe that the spark that is inside each of us will alight a generation for the Lord.  Not one spark alone but many sparks in the many hearts of people.

And as we come together in larger and larger numbers I believe we will see greater manifestations of His presence.  It is not about us and never will be.  But I believe that God in me and God in you is pleased when you and I come together seeking His presence and demanding heaven to move. As we seek Him we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts.

And so together we can become a revival generation.  We can become a people that generations will look back to and comment about how they were a generation that changed the world. 

A revolution doesn’t come from the sound of one voice.  A revolution arises inside of the hearts of a people who have had enough of the way that things have been.

Such darkness lurks over the hearts of our generation.  Collectively we have taken a lot from the evil one, but together as we cry out to God and demand our countries to be touched by the power of God, the power of God will be poured out in a new way even in this time and innocence and purity will be restored.

There are times when it will seem that God is moving more through someone else and then there will be times that it seems that He is moving more through you and me.  It is not for us to lecture God on His choice of servants.  We must rejoice with those who rejoice and support them when God is using them powerfully.  Just as we rejoice when He uses us for His glory.

God will use you powerfully.  Trust me, I have been around long enough now to see God use many hearts to glow in the earth.  Each one is His choice instrument for glory.  Together as we burn we can set a city aflame.  Let’s let God be God and let Him burn more brightly than ever.

I love this season that we are entering.  God is about to burst through ordinary people like you and me and we are about to see a generation shifted into the purposes of God. In the process we will be propelled into our destiny as well.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.(Romans 12:2)

The peeling back of the broken layers of the heart is a process I am not sure will ever end on this side of eternity, but it is a process we must submit ourselves to in order to become the perfect bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle.

The renewing of the mind is a substantial thing.  It is not a momentary “bang” and it is finished and over.  Jesus died on the cross for our sins once and for all, but our minds are renewed out of the ‘old man’ and into the ‘new man’ on a day-to-day basis.

There are so many fears that entwine our hearts.  We are not even aware of many of them.  These fears have a way of leading us into compromising situations where we surrender the best that God has to offer us for inappropriate relationships and company.  Our fears have the power to trap us with the great swath of humanity that is headed into darkness and death.

The darkness causes shadows to manifest within our heart and shadows have a way of looking bigger than they really are.  Our hearts manifest any number of fears which empower our own hearts to compromise but also set fear in the hearts of others.

One person’s shadow is another’s brokenness and fear.  The sounds of fear that come from my own heart become the foundation of fear for generations to come.  If I am not set free from fear then it is likely that my own family members will be bound by the same fears.

But Jesus came to set the captives free.  He will set me free and he will set the generations that follow free as well.  The captivity of my heart is greater than I first imagined.  Even last night I was in the mansion of my mind and within it I saw shadows that set fear deep within me, but then the light was turned on within that mansion and I realised that my fear had no substance other than the sound coming as a cry from my brokenness.

Inside of my dream the lights came on and I began to wander into the rooms of my fear, where nothing was that fearful at all.  Within these rooms was plenty and even comfort.  I was surprised to see that hell did not reign within my broken heart.

God wants to unveil every secret shadow of your heart.  He wants to show you that there is no reality that is greater than His love and peace inside of you.  Perfect love casts out fear and love has a way of making us feel safe in our Father’s arms.  In fact love is one part of the arms of God.  When I am in God I am in love.  There is no difference between God and love.

Where fear reigns inside of our brokenness we must allow God to turn on the lights and expose the lies within us.  The truth sets us free.  Many times when God reveals the truth of our fears we are shocked to discover the unreality and the lack of substance of that fear.

We had convinced ourselves that our fears were menacing creatures that lived in our closets when in fact they were just thoughts that bound us.  When the lie is exposed the truth does come and then freedom like a rushing wave washes over our hearts.

I pray today that God will open your heart to His wise counsel.  I pray that He will expose the lies that bind you to every fear that has a hold upon your life, including poverty, loneliness, infirmity and lust.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”(James 4:7)

Each one of us in Christ can have the lion’s heart in the face of fear.  But how do we resist the devil.  I was actually asking God this myself this morning and then I was reminded of the confrontation of Jesus and the Devil in the wilderness.

And if we look at this confrontation as a type of battle between man and the devil, then we can understand how man can defeat the devil by resisting him.  In that scripture the devil comes to Jesus tempting him with things that might satisfy a fleshly man.  The way Jesus seems to have overcome in those moments was with the word of God.

Satan, knowing the heart of Christ, uses the word as a part of the temptation process.  He gives him enough truth to try to overcome him.  This worked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and has probably worked with most of mankind since that time, but it did not work with Jesus.

Jesus resisted the devil with the word of God.  You might say, “But Jesus knew what was in store for him in eternity, therefore the devil’s temptation was shallow.”  Maybe, but in order to inherit what was in store he had to endure the cross and we know from his moments in the garden of Gethsemane, that this was a great trial for him. 

You and I are not much different.  We know the promises of God for our own lives too, but the process can be hard.  We don’t want to die to our own ways, so if a quicker way presents itself that seems to cost less, it can be a real temptation.  And yet, there is no achieving the will of God in our lives without remaining in the Vine or by submitting ourselves to God. 

We have to be able to recognize the devil when he approaches.  And many do not.  Many confuse the devil for God and jump into his bed like it is filled with roses.  That bed is a bed of suffering, shame and guilt and those who are seduced by it will be overcome.

There are seasons that you will be pursuing God in a marvellous and real way and the devil will come to you at that time to present to you a counterfeit that seems so seductive you will have to have the gift of discernment in order to know that it isn’t God presenting it.

I have had friends who have pushed into the deepest places of revival fall because they could not recognise the seduction of the enemy when he came. They settled for something smaller, less wonderful than what God had in store, and deep in their hearts they know it.  In the hour of temptation they failed.

There have been times in my own life when I have been tempted by the enemy to short cut the process that God has to cleanse my life.  But I have come to understand that there is no avoiding the refiner’s fire. You have to submit your life to the fire in order to glow with a passion to reach nations for the Lord.  You cannot take a shortcut to Zion.

The way was paved by Calvary and when we submit ourselves to the Cross we will enter into the fullness of Christ by the hand of God.  Christians will experience the temptations of the devil, but by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and the power of God working through them they will overcome.

We must become people of the Spirit because when we walk in the Spirit we will overcome the flesh.  Learning to hear God’s voice and walk in the sound of it will keep us from hundreds of temptations because the people of faith will walk a different path where temptations are beneath their feet.

Learning to overcome temptation is a key to achieving your greatest destiny in Jesus Christ.