One of the ways to secure destiny is through the realization that God’s word is not just an empty basket without substance.  The word of God is about the promises of God for a life of obedience, and you are empowered by Holy Spirit to live a life of obedience when you submit your life to Christ.

It is the grace of God working in me that empowers me to obey.  All I have to do is submit, listen, obey and remain in the vine.

But when you do remain in the word of God blessings begin to overtake your life.  The same promises that were given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to the nation of Israel become promises for your life too.

What do you mean, do you ask?

Well, let’s take a passage like Deuteronomy 28 (I suggest you follow the link and read the passage in whole), which is filled with so many promises for the obedient child of God.  When I understand in my heart that these blessings are available to me because of my obedience (which again is empowered by Holy Spirit), then I can use them as a word to fight my prayer battles.  Here is an example of how I might pray using the above passage.

“Lord Jesus, you said that I would be blessed in the city and in the country and that when I come in and go out I would be blessed, therefore my God I declare that your blessing will flow through and from my life. My God, I will be the head and not the tail in all my dealings with the enemy. Nothing can arise against me to destroy me because I am obedient to Christ and His word for my life, therefore I will be victorious in all my life.” 

When these prayers take over my heart they are answered, because I am praying according to a promise in scripture, which is God’s word for my life.

And truly I am victorious in my life even when I may face valleys and mountains of many kinds.  As long as I have God’s word in my heart I know that I will overcome.  There is no fear or circumstance, nothing negative that can hold me down.  I am more than a conqueror when I have the word of God for my life.

I pray that you will feel this security too.

(This post first appeared as the DWOD for Nov. 17, 2012)

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24)

The self matters very little. What I desire, what I think I need, what I think I want to do does not matter. All that matters is God. This life that I live must be lived in absolute surrender to the will of God. Those that live for self will die to self. Those who live to promote their own agenda will die in abandonment and the grave. This longing for self is a false longing.

I will be honest with you, dear reader. There are times that I notice my self wanting to be served rather than to serve. There are times when I would rather sit at a table and have someone wrap a cloth around his or her arm and wait upon my every desire – to be treated with respect and dignity. This desire is false because it does not emanate from the heart of Christ. Christ came to serve and not to be served. He came to give his life and not to pick it up.

Even when I work hard and have success I still do not deserve to be served. Even if I have worked for 12 hours straight and feel weary and tired I do not deserve to come home and expect to be waited upon hand and foot. The heart of Christ within me must come home – pick up the towel – and wash the feet of those whom I love. In this dying to self and the desire to be served I will find my new life. Christ within me will glow and those that I love will be edified and built up rather than torn down.

When I expect something from those I love they will live in the pain of my expectation, but when I expect nothing and give, then those that I love will be free to love me in return, since there will be no expectation from me to unsettle them.

My prayer becomes: “Father in heaven, please free me from the desire to be served and radiate a servant’s heart within me. Help me to come to the place of pure desire – a place of serving you and those you bring my way. Holy Spirit, help me to die to the need to have others serve me. Help me to be a servant to the world.”

I believe if you will pray this prayer now a new anointing will come upon your life and you will be set free to serve the body of Christ in a brand new way. Try praying this prayer sincerely. It is my belief that you will be surprised by the joy it brings to your spirit.

(This post first appeared as the DWOD for Oct. 24, 2012)

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24)

The self matters very little. What I desire, what I think I need, what I think I want to do does not matter. All that matters is God. This life that I live must be lived in absolute surrender to the will of God. Those that live for self will die to self. Those who live to promote their own agenda will die in abandonment and the grave. This longing for self is a false longing.

I will be honest with you, dear reader. There are times that I notice my self wanting to be served rather than to serve. There are times when I would rather sit at a table and have someone wrap a cloth around his or her arm and wait upon my every desire – to be treated with respect and dignity. This desire is false because it does not emanate from the heart of Christ. Christ came to serve and not to be served. He came to give his life and not to pick it up.

Even when I work hard and have success I still do not deserve to be served. Even if I have worked for 12 hours straight and feel weary and tired I do not deserve to come home and expect to be waited upon hand and foot. The heart of Christ within me must come home – pick up the towel – and wash the feet of those whom I love. In this dying to self and the desire to be served I will find my new life. Christ within me will glow and those that I love will be edified and built up rather than torn down.

When I expect something from those I love they will live in the pain of my expectation, but when I expect nothing and give, then those that I love will be free to love me in return, since there will be no expectation from me to unsettle them.

My prayer becomes: “Father in heaven, please free me from the desire to be served and radiate a servant’s heart within me. Help me to come to the place of pure desire – a place of serving you and those you bring my way. Holy Spirit, help me to die to the need to have others serve me. Help me to be a servant to the world.”

I believe if you will pray this prayer now a new anointing will come upon your life and you will be set free to serve the body of Christ in a brand new way. Try praying this prayer sincerely. It is my belief that you will be surprised by the joy it brings to your spirit.

(This post first appeared as the DWOD for Oct. 24, 2012)

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.” (Matthew 24:36-41)

I believe that we have entered the season of the harvest.  This was brought home to me on my last two ministry trips to Pennsylvania this summer.  God seemed to be declaring the season of harvest all through this journey.  He spoke it to me through nature as I was driving the beautiful roads and highways of that great state.

I spoke at 7 churches throughout PA during July.  Many of the churches were located on corn fields.  In fact the corn was being harvested as we were on that trip.  I got to eat some incredible sweet corn that one of the preachers gave to me.  He has a church in a barn down near Harrisburg.

Four of the churches that I spoke at were located on farms.  Two were renovated barns, one was a farm house and the fourth was a little white church built on the edge of a farm.

As I preached in these places, I kept feeling this was very prophetic.  I kept preaching for the church to rise and shine for their light had come.  I kept commanding the church to arise and to go into the harvest.

Another sign that kept following us was thunder and lightning storms.  In fact two days ago I was driving home from Chambersburg when I encountered perhaps the biggest lightning storm of my life.  Literally there were shots of lightning that would start in the east and go for a hundred miles across the sky to the west.  The Appalachian Mountains would light up before my eyes.  It was a brilliant display of God’s power in nature.

As I witnessed this, in my mind’s eye, I kept seeing the Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro.  I was witnessing in this moment the same kind of lightning I had seen in recent pictures striking that magnificent statue in Brazil which sent pieces falling to the ground.

And then I thought it was not an accident that I was seeing that picture of Jesus’ statue within my mind.  Matthew 24:27 says, “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

I believe we have entered the season of Jesus coming like lightning into the lives of people in North America and around the world.  Many of them are not even looking for Jesus, but just as lightning at night cannot be ignored, neither will Jesus Christ be ignored by those about to see Him.

He is coming to collect a harvest, to bring His children on to Himself.  He is about to radiate in their lives and they are about to become fanatical Christians willing to lay down their lives for the Kingdom’s sake.  There are some of you even now saying “Oh, I’ve heard this all before.”

To you who would say this, let me share John 4:35: “Do you not say, ‘there are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”

I tell you to get off of your chairs and go outside of your door and start hollering the name of Jesus on the top of your lungs.  You will be surprised at the evidence of salvation that will come to you.  People will get saved in the streets if you just believe.

Two people will stand together.  You will share the gospel with both.  One will receive and the other won’t, but by the time you are done preaching thousands will have come into the Kingdom.  So, get going. God will meet you in the harvest field and be your sickle.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:15-18)

The expectation that God is going to move and touch lives is the fuel that propels me into the harvest field.  I know that when I step out in faith, God is going to do something.  It isn’t about me, as if by some strength of my own a person might be touched by God and healed, but it is the knowledge that God moves that carries me into unknown lands and realms.

This past weekend I was in Southern Pennsylvania preaching in corn fields, prophesying on mountain tops and driving through lightning storms.  God met us there.  We saw many signs follow the preaching of the word.  People who were sick were healed, those oppressed by the devil were delivered and many saw the glory of God.  His presence came like waves of peace into rooms which were packed with people hungry for an encounter with the Lord.

The first church that I went to there was a preacher man there who since the age of 17 has been bound to a wheel chair.  As soon as I saw him I felt a kindred spirit.  There was a pureness of heart that could be seen in the windows of his soul.  He played the harmonica and worshipped the Lord.  He would get words of knowledge for healings and people would get healed.

There was favour as I preached on this trip.  People responded to the word and wanted me to pray for them.  I felt the Lord wanted to touch bodies for healing and so I had everyone who had pain stand and asked those around them to lay hands on them.  More stood than what I expected.

I then called some people to the front.   One lady who looked oppressed of the devil said that her back was in very bad shape.  She had pain for three months.  I could sense that there was a spirit holding back the healing, so I rebuked it.  I did this three times but there wasn’t much change and so I moved on to other people.

After about 10 minutes I looked over and saw the hand of God touch her.  It was like a wave of peace struck her.  She started to glow under the Holy Spirit.  There was a bubble of joy all around her.  I said, “You have been touched, haven’t you?”

The oppression around her eyes was gone.  She said, “Yes.”  She started to dance on the spot and rejoice.  Such liberty was now in her heart.

If you will extend yourself for Christ, He will move.  In fact, faith has a way of pushing God to do which you can only see Him do when you go.

If you are waiting for some magical hour to come when you will go, I say to you “now is the time,” so “go.”  Don’t be a general who sits in a pew never doing anything, but go into the world and collect a harvest.  Go and see what God will do.

I pray for you today.  I ask the Lord to strengthen your faith so that you can step into action.  May all that is stopping you fall away today and may hope arise as you step out.  I ask the Lord to add to your faith signs and wonders following that many hearts might be touched by the power of God flowing through you.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15)

Leaning on God for the wind in our sails is the most important thing in the Christian’s life.  We can try forever to make things happen or we can rest in the assurance that God is going to make things happen.

Many years ago the Lord said to me “You see that chair over there?”

I said, “Yes, I do Lord.”

He said, “I want you to go and sit in it until I tell you to get up and go do something.”

I was stunned. I was not used to obeying the voice of God. To tell you the truth, I was a bit of a workaholic.  I was used to doing, doing and doing some more.  So when God said to me “Go sit in that chair and wait”, it felt like He was saying that I would never do anything ever again.

Well, that was many years ago now and I continue to learn the lessons from that experience with God.  There are many times I have done things where I wonder if it was me or if it was God who chose to do it. But then there have been many times that I have stepped out in His voice and have seen great fruit.

We have heard it said many times that Jesus did only what the Father told Him to do.  I used to struggle with this scripture in John 5:19.  I have heard many preachers try to explain this to me.  One preacher said, “Jesus used to spend many hours on the mountain top on His knees in prayer.”  His assumption was that from this place of reverence the voice of God came into Christ’s ears.

But the truth is we don’t really learn too much about the internal life of Christ in Scripture.  We don’t really know how He heard from the Father.  We certainly know that He prayed and fasted.  We pick up bits and pieces from the stories that were told of Him.

We know that He responded to the enemy with the word of God in the wilderness, therefore He must have meditated upon it (Matthew 4:1-11).  The word of God He hid in His heart that He might not sin against His God (Psalm 119:11).

He also taught His disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13).  The “Our Father Prayer” is a wonderful prayer that I have heard many preachers say is a synthesis of the way Christ prayed.  It is simple and to the point but it must be a prayer with intention and understanding.  It is a prayer that we can meditate upon the rest of our lives and still only glimpse its foundations. Yet, its perfect simplicity even a child can understand.

What I have come to learn through the word of God is that we come to understand the mind of Christ through the Holy Spirit, who is the Helper leading us into the thoughts and imaginings of our God (John 16:12-15).  When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the lights come on and God’s voice becomes clearer in our hearts.  We recognize God by the way He speaks, which lacks confusion and is imbued with peace.

As I remain in the vine, obeying the voice of God, and as I lay down my right to “do”, and only do what I am told by God to do, then His peace and glory weighs more heavily on my life.

God will speak in many ways and it is too much for me to include my understanding of this here.  My book, “The Science of Prophetic Ministry” covers this topic well.

I pray that you will be filled afresh today with the presence of God and His voice becomes clearer in your heart.  May the peace of Christ weigh heavily upon you and may God’s glory shine through your very eyes.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

The battle that you and I fight is not external to us but rather internal.  It is a battle of the mind.  The exciting thing is that each time that we get upset or feel anxiety becomes an opportunity to surrender to God.   It becomes a gate into which more peace can come through if we allow the renewal to occur.

From the Christian perspective the mind is made up of the will, thoughts and emotions.  We have either good thoughts or bad thoughts.  What we want is more good than bad.  When our mind is filled with good, then we are able to live in relative harmony with ourselves and those around us.  When our mind is constantly raging, then our emotions and bodies are affected.

Peace comes through renewal of the mind.  As we allow God to reprogram the thoughts that enter, then we have more and more peace.  A thought like “I will never achieve anything” can be so toxic to our minds and emotions that it can cause you to die prematurely.

A thought like “Everyone else is successful but me” can keep you chained in poverty the rest of your life.

A thought like “I am stupid, why try” can keep you from doing the things that you long to do.

A thought like “There is no way I can escape the cycle that my family is in” will keep you and your family under the curse.

The Holy Spirit cleanses us and leads us to pure waters.  These waters are the words of God for our life and they wash away the lies we hold onto.  As we meditate on the Bible and listen to God’s voice, we are programmed with the thoughts of God.  He is the most encouraging person that I have ever met.  He is constantly speaking good things over my life.

I remember when I first started hearing God say nice things about me, I thought He was wrong.  I didn’t believe He could really love me that much.

There was a time in my life when I felt no one in the world loved me and in fact I believed they were afraid of me or hated me.  It was a very difficult way to live my life.

So the feeling of being loved by God was life changing.  I learned to love myself because I knew He loved me.  I knew He loved because He said it all of the time.  I became the center of God’s attention.  A mystery of God is that each one of us is the center of the universe when Christ is in our heart.

God becomes my personal God just as He becomes your personal God.  He is there for me day and night.  There is not a time that He isn’t there for me.  It is really like it is just me and Him living in the earth. Such great love He has for you and me.

When you are filled with the presence of God and become centered in the Shelter of the Most High, His thoughts for you become your thoughts as well.  Old lies begin to fall away.  Each day you become aware of the destructive thoughts that once bound you.  Each day the truth sets you free.

Yes, Christ died once for my sins on the cross, but each day my freedom grows brighter and brighter.  As I continue to gaze upon the one my soul loves, then my mind becomes freer.  Peace goes deeper into my heart and I am not as easily shaken.

We all want to be in that place of unshakable peace.  It comes with a price.  In order to enter into that place, we must freely surrender all of our fears.  God will make us face each fear for freedom’s sake.  The lies that you hold onto will bind you until Christ reveals them and you surrender it back to Him.  He will show you the truth that you believe and you must repent or forgive.  When you pay these costs (which can seem very high), then in return Christ gives you a peace deeper and more wonderful than anything you can imagine.

So I pray that today you will enter into that deeper place.  I pray that you will be open to the renewal that God wants to bring.  I pray that God will just show up in your life and begin this work.  Just cry out to Him today and watch what He will do.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Perhaps you, like me, consider yourself a person of faith and have even walked in a certain measure of it.  Romans 1:17 has two interesting concepts that I want to share with you today.  Firstly it says, “The just shall live by faith.”  Faith in our walk is like the breath that we breathe.  We cannot please God without faith and by faith we grow in faith.

And then it says, that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.  We learn to trust God not in a moment but through time.  We learn to trust Him with the multiple circumstances that we face in this life.  We learn to trust Him first with our lives and then the lives of our families.

We learn to have faith to trust Him for our finances, health, safety, and salvation.  And then once we have learned to trust Him with our own lives, we must learn to trust Him for the finances, health, safety and salvation of those we love dearly.

In this way we learn faith by going from faith to faith.

 

There have been a number of times in my life when I have been preaching the gospel in various cities and have faced dangers of various kinds.  Once I came close to being shot and many times I have nearly been in car accidents.  My knowledge that God would take care of me during such trials has been strengthened because of the trials I have faced.

But then I faced the same situations with my family.  Just this week I was with my family in a city in the United States.  I had planned to have a nice evening at a hotel with them on the ocean.  A friend of mine blessed us with a hotel room on a beach front, but when I got to the hotel I soon realized that we were in a very bad part of town.

I sent my wife in to check into the hotel room and she was gone for a long time.  She told me that she felt danger inside that hotel and while waiting for her, I noticed a number of drug addicts stumbling down the sidewalk.  I had my four sons in the car and these people looked like they could cause trouble for me and my family.

In that moment I didn’t trust God with my family.  We brought our stuff into the hotel room where the furniture was falling apart.  That is when I started to panic.  About a month before this experience I saw that it would occur in a dream.  I ended up hurting people in the dream because of the fear of my family being hurt.

I decided I was leaving the hotel.  I went to the desk to check out and the man politely asked me why.  I said, “The furniture is falling apart in the room.”

He said, “Well, let’s see if I can get you another room.”

It wasn’t the furniture that I was concerned about.  It was the drug addicts in the streets.  I pictured them breaking into my car and hurting my little boys.  I was walking in fear and not faith.

I got upset with the guy at the desk and told him we were leaving.  You could tell that I had offended him and that he was quite sad.  I actually had made a spectacle of myself.

As I drove away from that hotel, I realized that I didn’t trust God with my family.  I repented with tears and asked God to forgive me.  I understood that I had learned another valuable lesson.  I now knew that in order to walk the path that He had for me I would have to learn to trust Him even with my children.

Perhaps you also need to learn such faith.  I pray for you today and ask the Holy Spirit to impart this knowledge supernaturally into you so that you don’t have to go through what I went through.  I pray that you will have strong faith to face every trial and that you will know that God is present in all your circumstances protecting you and even your family.

“In him there was life [or What was made through him was life], and that life was the light of all people. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered [defeated; or understood; comprehended] it.” (John 1:4-5)

Darkness does not understand the light of God nor how it operates within the heart of a man born of light.  The best that darkness can do is test the man of God to see if He is truly born of light.

The enemy uses temptation, because for a great percentage of mankind it works.  When the enemy presents man with a bribe and he does not bend to that bribe, the enemy is confounded.  He does not understand the light and how it completely satisfies the heart of man.

The enemy is a greedy liar.  He is a murderer and he is covetous.  In eternity he longed for something that was not his – the throne of God.  He did not understand his place in heaven, and as a result was thrown from heaven, falling like a star into the earth.  He did not learn his lesson in that moment and continues to live under the false presumption that he is greater than he is.

The light satisfies a man completely.  When a person experiences the things of the Spirit of God and sees the Kingdom from an eternal perspective, this earth dims in comparison.  The rewards of the Kingdom are far greater than any earthly temptation.  When you see from heaven’s perspective, all the money on earth is not worth turning from God for.

The enemy has never defeated the light and has never truly understood it.  He is continuously confounded by the person who operates from the Kingdom’s perspective.

The most that he can do is tempt, but when confronted by true belief he will always flee.  When a person sets his heart on pleasing God above all else, nothing can stop that person from succeeding.  God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

Even when the worse circumstances arise in your life and the temptation is great to do what is wrong, you need to stay strong.  God will deliver you and set you free.  You may have nothing from an earthly point of view, but you still have God, which means you have everything you need.  Stay strong and God will bring you through.

There have been times that the enemy has used bribes to try to stop me from moving forward into my destiny in Christ.  These are real temptations, because he knows what motivates my life.  In those moments of temptation, I realize that he is threatened by me and that God must have something far greater in store than what the enemy is offering.  I actually get excited about what I am about to receive from the Lord, because I know it is much better.

Moreover I know that the enemy does not give anything good to me without wanting something in return.  The end result of giving into his temptations would be a life separated from peace and joy for eternity.

I also know that he would likely not give what he promised to give me anyway.  He would make sure I would be destroyed before the consummation of the reward.  The enemy is only a liar, only a thief.  He is a devourer and nothing good comes from him.

I pray that you will have understanding today to know the truth of what I am saying.  I pray that you will have great strength in the face of temptation and that you will overcome every battle every time.  Be blessed in the Lord and the power of His might.

“You fathers–if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?” (Luke 11:11)

When I pray, I simply ask God to speak to me.  If I need direction, He gives it.  If I need peace, it always comes.  When I ask Him for help, He gives it to me.  When I ask for wisdom, it arrives.

Answered prayer emboldens me to continue in prayer.  Each time God speaks to me says that He will speak again. Because I have had past prayers answered, I know that my future prayers will get answered as well. And so I have confidence when I pray.

There are times situations arise bringing stress to my life.  Until I learn to put these things in the hands of God in prayer, it can continue to cause me stress.  There are times when I realize that a situation has been bothering me for some time and I haven’t prayed about it.  When I remember to pray I become excited because I know the stress will leave, because I know that God will answer that prayer.  In those moments I just wish I had prayed sooner.

When the most difficult situations arise in our lives, we must remember to pray.  God will guide us through tough circumstances as long as we turn to Him for the answers.  Every day we need to lay our lives before His altar in prayer and ask for guidance through this maze called life.  As we do, our paths become straight and we will take great leaps while others flounder (Proverbs 3:5-6).

People who don’t pray face all kinds of perils and many end up blaming their pain and misfortune on God.  They don’t realize how close He is and how much He really wants to bless their lives if they would only just turn to Him and love Him.   They don’t pray to Him because they don’t know His nature and that He is good.

Earthly children can be the same way.  Many blame their parents for the pain in their lives.  Anger burns inside of them for the things that they feel they lack.  They don’t realize the blessing that they do have in that parent.  They choose to not have a relationship with their father or mother because the pain is too much.  Many children lose a parent not because the parent doesn’t love them, and does not want to be with them, but simply because the child cannot get past his pain.

As the prodigal turns to the Father in prayer, great blessings can come upon his life.  The Father has so much that He longs to give to His children. But as long as they separate themselves from Him, then He cannot give them what He wants to give because they do not wish to receive from Him.

A man’s idea of God can be very different from the reality of God, but because that man cannot see past his pain, then he cannot see that God is a good Father.

But as you allow God to come into your heart through prayer, you are healed.  It is prayer that brings healing into all of our lives.  We must communicate past our hurts and fears and let God speak to us.  As we do this, God washes away the sickness of our hearts and bodies.  He releases us from the dungeons of depression, anxiety and fear that bind us.

I pray for you today and ask God to give you a revelation of His greatness and goodness.  May you see the loving Father as He is and may you turn to Him more in this hour than ever before.