(Be blessed by this powerful word by guest blogger, Luc Niebergall)

Doing ministry full-time as an author, itinerant minister and pastor, I get to hang around a lot of different church groups. Something I have noticed while ministering is that we can be very accustomed to only receiving the aspects of Jesus which don’t threaten what is comfortable to our personalities.

What do I mean by this? Well, let me tell you:

For some of us when the prophetic is being released, we are quick to get excited because we love the Now Word of of the Lord. Or when miracles, signs and wonders are taking place, we are quick to embrace these expressions of God’s heart.

For some of us who are more analytical in our way of thinking, we might have more trouble receiving these aspects of who Jesus is. It can be hard for us because supernatural manifestations don’t fit into our intellectual grid.

It can be a dangerous thing to allow offense to swell simply because we don’t understand something God is doing. When we reject prophecy in our churches because of an offense, we are in fact rejecting Jesus the Prophet from ministering in our churches. When we allow offense to swell when God is releasing miracles, then in our hearts we are actually compartmentalizing how we will receive from Jesus. Our offense will actually stand in the way from us receiving from Jesus the Miracle Worker.

For others of us who are more emotionally driven than intellectually stimulated, we may have trouble receiving when people are teaching the written Word of the Lord. We need to understand that when we reject the expression of how God chooses to minister, then we are actually rejecting the source of the expression. When we dismiss the teachings of the Lord, we are actually rejecting Jesus the Teacher.

Something I have noticed in many church circles is that as soon as someone comes and walks alongside of us trying to challenge and champion us to walk in healthy relationships, we are quick to push aside the advice. If someone tries to teach us how to embrace and work through conflict in relationships, we emotionally detach ourselves from the relationships, prior to allowing someone to train us in how to do kingdom conflict.

This form of response comes most commonly from those who are more introverted. This is unfortunate because when we aren’t willing to receive training in the realm of relationships then we are actually rejecting Jesus the Pastor from ministering to us.

We need to make the decision to not allow our personality to become a stumbling block from Jesus doing work in our heart. Just as Jesus loves and receives us just the way we are, we need to make the decision to receive Him just the way He is.

This will cost us our comfort. This will cost us laying down our offense towards certain aspects of Him. However, our comfort and offenses are a small price to pay if our reward is receiving Jesus’ full leadership in our lives.

Please pray with me: “Jesus, I receive you as my Apostle. Give me vision and guidance for kingdom expansion. Jesus, I receive you as my Prophet. Teach me to hear and declare your word. Jesus, I receive you as my Evangelist. Give me a heart for the lost and step me out of my comfort zone. Jesus, I receive you as my Pastor. Teach me to walk in healthy-kingdom relationships. Jesus, I receive you as my Teacher. Stir a deep passion in me for your written Word. I receive you in the fullness of who you are.”

(Luc Niebergall lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife Eline where he ministers as the assistant pastor of Imagine Church. Luc has a passion for revival and to see heaven invade earth across the world. Please visit his blog at www.lucniebergall.com)

The other day, I came home from work to eat lunch. As I was getting out of my car, I saw a duck by our curb that was acting frantic. It kept walking in circles and quacking. Then it would fly in a small circle and land and walk again in a circle making a frantic quacking sound the entire time.

I watched for a couple of minutes but couldn’t figure out what the duck was doing.

As I started to walk into the house, I said, “Lord, what is the problem with that duck?” Suddenly, the answer came to me. “Its babies fell through the street grate into the sewer.”

I stopped in my tracks, went and got a spotlight from my garage, and went over to the sewer grate a couple of feet from where the duck was standing. I shined it down, and saw and heard six little baby ducklings.

They didn’t know what to do nor did mother duck. Nor did I. I thought, “Lord you showed me that they were here. You didn’t show me that so that I could do nothing. What should I do?”

Suddenly I saw another picture in my mind. This sewer went to the creek in my back yard. The end of the sewer that goes into the creek has a grate over it. I ran to the creek where the sewer extended into it. I got down by the grate and began making duck calls.

I probably sounded like a fool but what the heck, I was on a rescue mission. I thought the ducklings could hear me because it seemed like I could hear them moving toward me as I quacked. (No jokes about being a quack, please!)

I went back to the mother duck and tried to coax her to the back yard. It wasn’t working. I went back to the creek sewer entrance and quacked some more. The babies were coming toward me.

The mother came back to see what I was doing. I lifted the grate figuring she might hear her babies and go get them. She did. She got them out and they were all fine.

Then I got some bird seed that I had in a garage and put in on a plate for them to eat. They came and dove in it. (I hope it was alright for the babies to eat. The mother let them.)

Later the Lord used all this to speak to me. He said, “Today you experienced what I do daily. People get in a crisis. They cry out to me. I try to lead them to their solution but they are so absent of faith and blinded by their crisis that they can’t see past it (like when you were trying to lead her to the creek.”)

The Lord said, “Just as you had the ducks’ best interests at heart the entire time, so do I. But, because people are paralyzed by fear instead of being at peace while leaning on me in faith, they too often miss their help.”

Jesus reminds us of His care for us always saying, “What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7 NLT)

I thank God that He does care for us intimately and on every level of our life – from the most important things down to helping a distressed duck. His wisdom and grace to help are available to us for every situation. Praise His Holy Name!,

(We are grateful to Pastor Tim Burt for granting us permission to reproduce this post from his blog Fresh Manna. Pastor Tim serves as one of the associate pastors at Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, MN)

“The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.”  (Luke 3:5).

I love the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in cars. A voice comes on and tells me how far I have to go and when to turn.

However, sometimes I get off course and the voice says: “Recalculating route.” The GPS is telling me I have gone off course and it is now recalculating the route based on my wrong turn.

Sometimes we can make wrong turns in our spiritual lives. We think we are going the right direction only to discover it was never God’s will to enter that relationship, make that business deal, hire that person – the examples are limitless.

There is an amazing thing about God. He can make our crooked places straight. He has an ability to make whatever blunder you make turn out right.

It may mean there might be some consequences to those decisions, but He will always allow your actions to work together for good for those called according to His purposes if we repent and seek Him fully to make things right.

These lessons can even contribute to greater wisdom in our lives if we learn from our mistakes.

God’s omnipotence is always one step ahead of our incompetence. Do you think He knew you would make that misstep? Absolutely.

Do you think your life was planned even with that misstep figured in? Absolutely.

Isn’t it comforting to know you cannot plan God out of the equation no matter how bad you mess up?

He will always turn crooked places into straight places for those who are humble and contrite.

Do you need a crooked place straightened out today? Ask Him to straighten the course so you can flow in His perfect will for your life.

(Reprinted by permission from the author. Os Hillman is an international speaker and author of 15 books on workplace calling. To learn more, visit www.MarketplaceLeaders.org)

For many of us, our focus in life is too often horizontal, not vertical. What I mean is; we’re people-focused not God-focused.

We work very hard to please the people in our life; trying to earn their approval for various reasons. And some of those reasons aren’t wrong, because they’re motivated by a real love and compassion for our fellow human beings.

We want to influence them for the right reasons, to greatly benefit their life and protect them from a destiny of destruction. Of course, other reasons may be more selfish and hypocritical, like wanting to get a promotion or a raise on the job or wanting something they have that we don’t have.

Both ways are people-focused, which I call a “horizontal lifestyle” because the focus is on people and ourselves, instead of God and a “vertical lifestyle”.

I agree we need both lifestyles, but one should flow out of the other and be a direct result of the other… not two separate lifestyles.

When our lives are vertical, (focused on knowing and loving God) the natural by-product of that lifestyle would be caring for others with a pure heart, not with faulty motives.

Even as Christians we’re living most of our life horizontally. Yes, we share the gospel with more people today than before, but what we’re presenting isn’t life-changing. We’re reproducing ourselves instead of reproducing Jesus!

As Christians, we’re called to re-present Jesus here on earth, but that’s only possible if we are filled inside with Him (living vertically).

God can’t work through us what he hasn’t worked in us.

If our life isn’t vertical enough, isn’t God-focused, we can only give to others what’s inside of us (which quickly runs out).

How can we turn this around and be more vertical than horizontal? Remember that we become more pure-hearted and effective in our horizontal life when we focus on our vertical life. Here are some very practical, life-changing steps.

1.     Pray at least once a day, asking God to give you a pure heart, having right motives. (Matthew 5:8). That prayer lines up with God’s will for you and will be answered.

2.     Make it your business to worship the Lord three times a day. It doesn’t have to be more than three minutes, but it releases what God placed in you…love and adoration for Him. Releasing that through worship strengthens your spirit-man. As your spirit goes, so goes your whole life!

3.     Remind yourself daily (bring back to your conscious mind) how God has delivered you and where He has taken you. Remembering how God’s miracles have changed your life and destiny will immensely help you become vertical almost immediately. I’m sure, like me, Jesus has delivered you many times since He came into your life as your Lord and Saviour. Bring to mind your latest life-changing breakthrough.

4.     Next, share that event with one person every day. Develop the habit pattern of sharing your testimony with one person a day.

5.     Refuse to allow yourself to be offended! When someone offends you, and they will, choose to deal with it immediately. Don’t stuff it down in your heart.

These few steps will keep you vertical and not only horizontal. I assure you; when you live a vertical lifestyle you will have a very successful horizontal life!

(Pastor Gaspar & Michele Anastasi have developed an inner healing Prayer Ministry that offers freedom from damaged emotions and the pain of past hurts. You can learn more about their ministry at www.stophurtingstarthealing.com)

(Today we share with you a great word of caution for all who are prone to act out of impatience on the road to their destiny. Be blessed by this post by guest blogger, Os Hillman)

“The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” (Gen 16:2).

Have you ever felt that you were supposed to receive something from God but it just hasn’t materialized?

You wait and wait until finally you decide that maybe God wants you to help out the situation. This is exactly what happened in the case of Abraham and Sarah.

God had promised them a son, but as years passed by they were still without a child. They took their eyes off the One who had made the promise and decided to take matters into their own hands. So, Abraham lay with Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar, and she bore a son, Ishmael (see Genesis 16).

The son of promise, Isaac, came later through Sarah, just like God had promised. However, the modern day conflict between the Arabs and Israelis is the fruit of this act of disobedience that occurred centuries ago.

I recall a time when I launched a business enterprise only to fall on my face. It had all the hallmarks of a Godly venture, but I was premature and guilty of presumption instead of faith.

The resulting financial losses are lasting reminders of a decision that was based on a horizontal choice instead of a vertical dependence that required patience until God said, “Go.”

The way to avoid making “Ishmael” decisions is to:

1. Seek God fully on the matter in prayer,
2. Be in an accountable relationship with your spouse and close associates who know you well, and
3. Gain agreement through two or more people.

The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Whenever we want something strongly, it is a dangerous place because we no longer look at the matter objectively with a willingness to change our viewpoint. We have to approach a matter as being “dead” to the issue in order to fully see God’s perspective.

(Reprinted by permission from the author. Os Hillman is an international speaker and author of 15 books on workplace calling. To learn more, visit http://www.MarketplaceLeaders.org)

 

 

(We thank our good friend, Luc Niebergall, for sharing this revelation with us today)

“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)

There needs to be a revelation of honour that grips the Church if we are going to see a unified move of God. Honour needs to be woven into how we react to people who believe in different doctrines than we ourselves do.

If someone believes doctrine that we deem as ‘bad’, that doesn’t make them a bad person. I’ve heard some leaders of the church say that they won’t even sit down beside another leader because they don’t agree with their doctrine.

I’ve also heard of leaders who have resorted to sarcastic bullying in an attempt to putdown others with different view points. This form of stubbornness is probably one of the quickest ways to separatism and disunity within the church.

We need to honour people to the extent where we can differentiate them from whatever doctrine they believe.

Jesus was brilliant in how He picked His disciples. He picked a few fishermen which was one of the lowliest trades in that culture and time. He called Nathaniel, who was a nobleman. Jesus picked two men who were Zealots, which was a conspiracy group against the government and then picked Matthew who was a tax collector.

So, check this out. Jesus throws a bunch of lower class men with a nobleman. He takes two zealots who would have been labelled terrorists in His day and puts them together with Matthew who was a government worker.

Jesus took men who didn’t only come from different walks of life, but He chose men who had entirely different ideologies all together and taught them how to be a family.

The Last Supper is one of the most beautiful depictions of unity and fellowship written in scripture. We see 12 people eating together who from a realistic point of view should not be in relationship with one another.

Throughout the gospels we can see how the disciples clearly didn’t get along all of the time. In fact, there are numerous accounts of them arguing amongst each other. Considering their differences, how couldn’t they?

Nathaniel could have been somewhat pretentious, whereas the fishermen were probably on the rougher side in their personalities. Matthew, being a tax collector probably had problems with superiority and the Zealots more than likely had ridiculous authority issues. Yet they could live life together because they met around Jesus. He was their common ground to relate and love one another.

Back in Biblical times, people wouldn’t get together to eat with just anyone like we do today. Fellowshipping over food was something special. In that time and culture people would only eat with those who they were committed to living life with.

The communion is a picture of 12 men who committed to living life with one another. Jesus brought these men together and taught them to love one another despite their differences to the point where they could commit to each other and be a family.

All of that being said, we need to learn to stop stumbling over one another’s secondary and tertiary doctrines, and instead meet around Jesus who is perfect theology and our primary doctrine.

The church is supposed to be something greater than an institution or organization. The government model that God chose for the church, is family.

(Luc Niebergall lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife Eline where he ministers as the assistant pastor of Imagine Church. Luc has a passion for revival and to see heaven invade earth across the world. Please visit his blog at www.lucniebergall.com)

“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

Do you find yourself in a place of nothingness?

There is a time and place in our walk with God in which He sets us in a place of isolation and waiting. It is a place in which all past experiences are of no value.

It is a time of such stillness that it can disturb the most faithful if we do not understand that He is the one who has brought us to this place for only a season. It is as if God has placed a wall around us. No new opportunities–simply inactivity.

During these times, God is calling us aside to fashion something new in us. It is a place of nothingness designed to call us to deeper roots of prayer and faith. It is not a comfortable place, especially for a task-driven workplace believer.

Our nature cries out, “You must do something” while God is saying, “Be still and know that I am God.”

You know the signs that you have been brought into this place when He has removed many things from your life and you can’t seem to change anything. Perhaps you are unemployed. Perhaps you are laid up with an illness.

Many people live a very planned and orchestrated life where they know almost everything that will happen. But for people in whom God is performing a deeper work, He brings them into a time of quietness that seems almost eerie. They cannot see what God is doing. They just know that He is doing a work that cannot be explained to themselves or to others.

Has God brought you to a place of nothingness? Be still and know that He really is God. When this happens, your nothingness will be turned into something you will value for the rest of your life.

(Reprinted by permission from the author. Os Hillman is an international speaker and author of 15 books on workplace calling. To learn more, visit http://www.MarketplaceLeaders.org)

(Be blessed by this awesome post by guest blogger, Peggy Kennedy www.TwoSilverTrumpets.ca)

“Do you not know?  Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” (Isaiah 40:28)

“The Lord has not exhausted His inventory of creative solutions to our situations.”

This word broke into my spirit as I stood preaching from II Chronicles 20.  It continues to resonate within me!

To be involved with God is to be involved with the supernatural!  There are creative solutions because He is the Creator God.

King Jehoshaphat definitely needs a creative solution in II Chronicles 20. He has responded to the threat of the approaching military alliance of three kings by summoning all the people to come before the Lord with fasting.

The Lord has responded.  The Spirit of the Lord came upon a prophet and the message rings out:  “For the battle is not yours, but God’s.”  To be involved with God does not mean we will be passive. The instruction continues:  “Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.”  

Yes, there are creative solutions because He is the Creator God.  King Jehoshaphat and the entire contingent dispatched by the strategy of the Lord must have been amazed at the scene awaiting them.

The Lord set ambushes against the enemy and the three kings systematically destroyed each other. The valley is cluttered with corpses.

The people of the Lord took the plunder…for three days!  Their battlefield became the valley of blessing.

The sound of their rejoicing extends back to their celebration in Jerusalem.   Praise to their supernatural God reverberates out to the surrounding kingdoms bringing the fear of the Lord.  They acknowledged that Lord had very creatively fought for His own.

Allow that anthem of triumph to reverberate into your spirit, too!  “The Lord has not exhausted His inventory of creative solutions to our situations.”

When the prophet Isaiah addresses the people of God who are weary in their expectation, the Spirit pulled back the curtain and reveals their God to them as the Creator. (Isaiah 40:28-31).

All promise carriers can identify with the “weariness of waiting”.  Yet, as the prophet proclaims, our God is not only faithful, He is also Creator…He never faints, is never weary, is never in decline, and is never subject to a depleted inventory!

He is more than qualified to sustain our expectation and even offers His strength to those who are weakening under the weight (and “wait”) of the promise.

Mounting up with wings as eagles is not really a generic pledge.  It is reserved for those who fix their expectation on Him. Allow this unlimited Creator God to minister to you!

On the authority of His Word and unblemished track record, let’s declare it together: “The Lord has not exhausted His inventory of creative solutions to our situations.”

(Used by permission of the Author–Peggy Kennedy www.TwoSilverTrumpets.ca)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

There is a battle that is raging in each one of our lives every day. It is the battle between the flesh (our old nature) and the Spirit of God (our new nature).

There are many things that have shaped our old nature as we have grown up… life experiences, parents, the world system, and of course ourselves.

The enemy of our souls has his grip in this part of our lives as well. Any chance he gets, this is where he will launch his attack.

The new nature on the other hand, comes from God. The Bible says that we are born from above, seated in heavenly places, a new creation, hidden in Christ with God, a child of God and a joint-heir with Jesus.

When we believed in Jesus, His Holy Spirit took up residence in our hearts and we were born again into His kingdom.

The truth is that this is who we are now. This is our real identity for all of eternity.

Growing in our relationship with our heavenly Father is all about discovering who the ‘new us’ is and rejecting the ‘old us’.

Since our old mindsets are engrained in our thinking, it is easy for us to default to our old life which the Bible calls our flesh. Sometimes it is easier to just believe what we have been told or what we experienced, rather than to believe that we are now holy, loved, forgiven, free, transformed, empowered children of God.

My prayer today is that we would all have a deeper revelation of our true identity in Christ.

My hope is that we would all have the grace of God today to simply yield to the Spirit’s leading and follow wherever He goes.

When we simply sink into our new identity, we will truly discover who we were created to be. In this place of rest and peace, the law has no power over us. Our past has no power over us. The world system has no power over us.

We are simply God’s kids, holy and dearly loved.

Dear DWOD friend, as you continue to advance toward your destiny, please remember that this is your identity, now and forever.

(Barry Adams is the humble vessel chosen by God to bless the world with the revelation known as the Father’s Love Letter. Along with his wife Annelise, Barry ministers the Father’s Love all over the world. Today’s DWOD is from a post he wrote for A Son’s Life Blog.)

(Be blessed by this awesome DWOD by guest blogger, Doug Fields)

Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.  (I Thessalonians 5:11)

I was having lunch with a new friend who told me, “I’ve listened to you teach, and I’ve really listened to you, and I think you could be…” He went on to affirm me with what he believed I could be with the new messages brewing within me.
My brief lunch with him was empowering! I felt so inspired and motivated. I left this lunch feeling challenged, believed-in, and thankful that I have a friend who has “spiritual eyes” to see what could be in me.

After that lunch, on the way to my car, I met a very nice person who knows me from my speaking at church. She said, “You’re taller in person than you look on stage.” I’ve heard that hundreds of times. Apparently, I sound short. Then they usually say, “You’re not as funny in person.” Pointing out the obvious did nothing for me.

Superficial relationships tend to focus on the obvious and inspire nothing new. One of the ways to deepen the quality of your relationships is to be a person who challenges others to see their own potential. If you’re like me, you tend to see your own faults, sins, and inadequacies and don’t always see qualities or potential for good.

So when others go beyond pointing out the obvious, to envisioning what could be and make it known, it breathes life into our souls. This type of affirmation is incredibly powerful and can become life changing!

When I was a teenager, my youth pastor, Jim Burns, shocked me with his words, “Doug, I think God has great plans for you as a leader…I don’t know what they are, but I know you are going to be a leader who God uses.” Jim’s words became a visual portrait to me of who I could become.

What Jim did for me, was simply to copy what Jesus did for Simon. You remember the event where Jesus looked past Simon’s big-mouthed misadventures and gave him a new name: Peter, Petros, Rock.

Jesus saw something in Simon (and told him so!) that Simon did not see in himself, and this simple fisherman became a rock-solid leader in the Jerusalem church.

We all need people in our lives to see what we don’t see in ourselves. Today, breathe some life into another person’s life by recognizing their potential and telling her or him what could be.

GOING DEEPER:
1. Reflect on a time when someone affirmed your potential. How did it make you feel? What difference did it make in your life?

2. What portrait of potential can you paint for someone in your life today – one that they can grasp and begin to move toward?

FURTHER READING:
Matthew 16:13-19; Ephesians 4:29; Hebrews 3:13

(Doug Fields is a pastor, communicator, resource-provider, writer, & leadership mentor. He’s the author of more than 50 books. We appreciate the willingness of the good folk at HomeWord (Pacific Azusa University) for granting us permission to reproduce this daily devotional from their website.)