“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” (James 1:19)

In his classic book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, Dale Carnegie tells of an evening he spent at a dinner party hosted by a book publisher. One of the guests at this party was a distinguished botanist.

Carnegie was so fascinated by what this man had to share that he literally sat on the edge of his chair and listened for hours while the botanist spoke of exotic plants and experiments in developing new forms of plant life, yadi, yada.

As he was leaving the party, the botanist turned to the host and said that Dale Carnegie was a “most interesting conversationalist.”

Needless to say Carnegie was totally flabbergasted by this compliment, considering he had hardly said anything at all.

He writes: “I had him thinking of me as a good conversationalist when, in reality, I had been merely a good listener and had encouraged him to talk.”

You have probably heard something similar to these words before: “God gave us two ears and one mouth, so that we would listen at least twice as much as we speak.”

Although these exact words are not part of Holy Scripture, other verses express the value of listening more than talking.

“Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.” (Proverbs 10:19)

“Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent.” (Proverbs 17:28)

Abraham Lincoln is credited with adapting the latter into this more popular version: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” Ouch!

Perhaps no other verse expresses it quite so succinctly as the one cited earlier from James 3: “Be swift to listen and slow to speak.”

Easier said than done, though. Amen?

Yet, it is indeed a key to becoming known as a conversationalist.

Sulojana and I couldn’t help but wonder…

If this is indeed true of our relationship with other human beings, how much truer still is it when it comes to our conversations with God?

For the longest time in my life (can you say decades?), I was one who was swift to speak and slow to listen.

Prayer was primarily a time for me to do all the talking. Correction. Venting and Asking with a dash of Thanking.

Clearly, prayer was no conversation 🙁

However, when I finally saw the light and started to reverse course, everything changed!

I was amazed how much God had to say to me when I was “swift to listen!”

There was an appreciable increase in the intimacy of our relationship when I started becoming “slow to speak.”

Interestingly enough, it started to manifest itself in human relationships as well. Wow!

Dear DWOD friend, we bless you to develop and grow a reputation as “a most interesting conversationalist”–here on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  (Isaiah 40:31)

How often have you heard these words before?
How often have you quoted this verse to someone else?
How often have you taken these words to heart?

Chances are the answer to all three questions is: “More than once!”

For the most part, we have interpreted the expression “wait” on the Lord to mean staying still in His presence and waiting for Him to fill us up, to infuse His strength into us…or something to that effect.

Moi aussi.

Not that long ago, my friend Matt Tapley, Lead Pastor at Lakemount Worship Center in Grimsby suggested we look at the word “wait” in a different way.

He asked us to consider how a server in a restaurant “waits” on us when we sit down to eat at a particular establishment.

The servers who catch our attention (and our tips) are those who make sure that they pay close attention to what we want–exactly how we want our steak done, our potatoes dressed, etc.–and then deliver it according to our wishes.

Matt wondered what would happen if we were to re-define our times of waiting on the Lord according to this analogy.

Rather than focus on what we want, we would focus on Jesus and Him alone.

We would pay close attention to what He says as we seek to know the desires of His heart–what He wants us to do, how He wants us to serve Him at that particular moment in that particular place, etc.

Then we would do accordingly.

I don’t know about you, but Matt’s words stirred up something in my spirit.

You see, I had made waiting a rather passive time, when I tried to focus on Jesus’ face and just spend time with Him.

But I had not really made an attempt to know the desires of His heart.

To be very honest, I was waiting for the fulfillment of Psalm 37:4 when I spent my time waiting on the Lord. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will grant the desires of your heart.”

There was a bit of a personal agenda in that waiting…I wanted Him to grant the desires of my heart.

Anything wrong in desiring this? I don’t think so.

However, I could see that Jesus would be so happy to have me get to know the desires of His heart first.

He gave us a hint of this in the story of Mary & Martha in Luke 10:38-42. Even though it looked as though Martha was the one playing waiter, in reality it was Mary.

No, she did not wait on Him hand and foot. But she sat at His feet and focused intently on discovering what was on His heart at the time.

You may recall that Jesus had just set his face like flint toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) where He was sure to face suffering and ultimately death.

He needed someone to wait(er) on Him. Mary did. And Jesus declared that she had “chosen the better part.”

How about you?  Would you also follow Mary’s example?

Two nights ago, I was soaking and seeking Holy Spirit about what He wanted (us) to do at last night’s Miracles, Signs and Wonders Meeting at Morgan’s Point United Church.

Frankly, I was taken aback by what I heard.

I wanted to make sure that I had heard correctly. So I shared what I had received with my in-home Holy Spirit consultant, aka Sulojana.  She did not bat an eyelid.

If you were expecting me to shout: “Praise God! Glory, Hallelujah!” you missed the mark completely, my friend!

What I actually felt like saying (but chose wisely not to) was more like: “Uh-oh! Now that I’ve got a reliable witness, I have to go through with it!”

 

Receiving “unusual” directives is not exactly unusual…but this one was a stretch!

 

Sunday evening came. The meeting began with a powerful time of worship.  In between songs, I scanned the congregation and noticed a new couple. She was standing; he was sitting with his head down.

 

A few minutes later, I leaned over to grab a drink of water and spotted the man heading out the door. Not quite sure what was going on…

 

We moved on from worship to a time of sharing testimonies. I watched as one of our friends went out the door and returned with the other man in tow.

 

Within moments it was pretty apparent that this man was in excruciating pain. He had trouble sitting down. He kept changing postures until he could be comfortable. It was not easy.

 

My heart went out to him…I wanted to rush and lay hands on him. All Holy Spirit would permit me to do was take a prayer cloth and ask him to apply it to the point of pain.

 

We moved on to the offering and then the message, which was essentially an elongated version of yesterday’s DWOD on the power of Expectancy.

 

Now it was time to move to ministry time. As always, we asked those who came seeking a healing/breakthrough/miracle to identify themselves.

 

Our usual pattern is to ask them to stand while others gather around them and minister as Holy Spirit directs.

 

But that was not the directive for this meeting.

 

So, we invited them all to come and sit on the front row.

 

Then, are you ready for it…we invited everyone else in the congregation to form a line and walk past them, so that our shadow could fall on them as did Peter’s in Acts 5.

 

Of course, we had made it perfectly clear that just as Peter’s shadow released what overshadowed him, namely the Holy Spirit, so would ours!

 

We asked for progress reports after the first pass…there was some improvement in the gentleman with excruciating pain. He felt some warmth in his stomach area. That’s all.

 

We thanked God for what He was doing and waited to see what to do next.

 

Two of our ministry team sensed that Holy Spirit was directing us to do another walk-past. We obeyed.

 

When we checked again, we discovered that the pain had subsided even more. Now he was sensing the presence of God in his chest.

 

We continued to praise Jesus for the progress and sensed that we needed to do one more round of Shadow Healing.

 

This time the change in his body was nothing short of miraculous. He was smiling. He was walking without pain. Wow!

 

Yeah, God! Praise You, Jesus! Thank You, Holy Spirit!

 

(You can listen to the entire ministry time, should you so desire).

 

Do you realize that you too have something in common with Peter?

 

Same shadow. Same Holy Spirit. Amen?

As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed. (Acts 5:15-16)

You have most likely read this passage before…more than once.  You may have even heard a number of sermons based on it.

Chances are that the focus was on how the anointing on Peter was so strong that he did not even have to lay hands on anybody to heal them or deliver them from demons.

As a matter of fact, this phenomenon has often been cited as a fulfillment of Jesus’ words in John 14:12: “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

And it certainly is. After all, the gospels do not record a similar incident.

People touched the hem of Jesus’ garment (Mark 5:27-29, 6:56) and were healed. Some were healed when He simply released the healing word (Matthew 8:13, 15:28).

Of course, many were healed when He touched them or spoke words over them.

But, there is no healing miracle or deliverance that happened when Jesus simply passed by those who were sick or demon-possessed.

It is truly an amazing phenomenon, not to mention an accurate fulfillment of Jesus’ promise.

You know what is equally amazing?

The expectancy of those who came from the villages around Jerusalem, believing that all they had to do was to be on the sidelines and wait for Peter’s shadow to fall on them.  At that very moment they would be healed and/or delivered.

Would you agree?

Let’s look at another scenario.

We are told that when Jesus ministered in his home town of Nazareth that “He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58)

They did not expect Him to do anything miraculous…and it was so, according to their faith (or lack thereof).

This is in stark contrast to what happened in Jerusalem with Peter, isn’t it?

They came expecting the miraculous…and they got it!

So, let me ask you this today: What is your expectancy level?

Yes, you believe that God can do it. Yes, you’ve seen God do it for others.

But if it hasn’t happened for you, yet…could it be related to your expectancy level?

Would you take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit if this is the case?

If the answer is No, praise God! Your mission is to help others raise their level of expectancy.

If He says Yes, would you please take a moment to visualize all those people who lined the streets of Jerusalem waiting for Peter’s shadow to fall on them?

Ramp up your expectancy level to theirs.

When the Holy Spirit overshadows you, get ready to witness the miraculous!

The last time we purchased a set of knives, it came with a block that had one slot per knife…plus one.

The extra slot looked nothing like the rest of them, which were essentially flat perpendicular slits in the wood.

This one was much shorter than any of the knife slots. Also, it was a small square.

As we started taking out the knives, we noticed one that was not a knife.

It turned out to be the knife sharpener.

The manufacturers, recognizing the fact that all knives eventually grow dull with use, chose to include the solution in the package.

Of course, we had no reason to use the sharpener for quite some time as the knives were still brand new.

But then came a day when cutting up chicken with the biggest knife turned out to be quite a chore. It sliced through the meat with very little difficulty, but cutting through the skin was quite another story.

It was pretty obvious that the knife had lost at least some of its sharp edge.

Thank God for the knife sharpener in the block. All we had to do was take it out, run the edge of the knife on it a few times and bingo! We had ourselves a sharp knife again.

Isn’t it true that we, like the knives, can lose our sharp edge from time to time? Whatever the cause may be–constant use, fatigue, stress—becoming dull is inevitable.

Thankfully, God has provided a way for us to re-gain our sharp edge.

Are you ready for it? Here it is in Proverbs 27:17:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

That’s it.

For the knife to be sharpened, it needs to come in contact with the sharpener.
So also, for us to stay sharp, we need to place ourselves in a position where we come into contact with others.

This is why God created us to live in community.

God placed in us the need to need one another.

Living in isolation could turn out to be a recipe for dullness of mind and spirit.

Meeting with others to study the Bible, spending time with a mentor, being part of a “mastermind” or “think-tank” are practical means by which we keep one another sharp.

Interestingly enough, the process of sharpening a knife produces friction when it comes in contact with the sharpener.

However, without that friction, the sharp edge is not regained.

What this tells us is that we need not meet with people who are like-minded and agree with us on everything.

As a matter of fact, those who challenge us and create friction in the process contribute to our sharpness!

My friend Grant Lafleche who engaged me in a debate on the meaning of Christmas last December sharpened my wits quite a bit through his views, which were often diametrically opposed to mine.

How about you? Have you discovered the truth that “Iron sharpens iron” in your life?

On the road to reaching our destiny, it is highly desirable if not outright essential that we connect with others, even with those who disagree with us (at least on certain points) and make us sharper in the process by creating friction.

What has been your experience in this area? Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family.

News came today that Brennan Manning had died.

Manning was a friar, contemplative and author who wrote about the scandal of grace out of his intimacy with the Father with disarming honesty.

Books such as The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-up and Burnt out and Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging are classics that will far outlive his 78 years on this planet.

For today’s DWOD, would you please read and reflect on these quotes that came from the heart and pen of this humble yet powerful man of God?

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”

“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.
To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, “A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.”

When Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened,” He assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way. These words are a touching testimony to the genuine humanness of Jesus. He had no romantic notion of the cost of discipleship. He knew that following Him was as unsentimental as duty, as demanding as love.”

“I want neither a terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in right relationship with my heavenly Father nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that he will not condone. I want a relationship with the Abba of Jesus, who is infinitely compassionate with my brokenness and at the same time an awesome, incomprehensible, and unwieldy Mystery. ”

Finally, here is a prayer that you may wish to make your own:
“Lord, when I feel that what I’m doing is insignificant and unimportant, help me to remember that everything I do is significant and important in your eyes, because you love me and you put me here, and no one else can do what I am doing in exactly the way I do it.”

Would you please share your reflections on these quotes with the rest of your DWOD family? Thanks in advance.

“Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavour, how do you make it salty again? Flavourless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away.” (Luke 14:34-35)

Chemists will tell you that it is virtually impossible for sodium chloride to become unstable and lose its saltiness.

However, in Jesus’ day, salt came in different grades and various degrees of purity. The impurities could be so overwhelming that they could render the salt flavourless. Thus, salt could literally lose its saltiness.

When that happened, it was of absolutely no use for anything, not even the manure pile. There was no other alternative left except for it to be completely discarded.

Jesus uses salt as a metaphor of the way in which we as his followers influence culture.

Prior to the practice of refrigeration, salt was used as a preservative. It was also used as an antiseptic, for example, to rub on newborn babies. (Ezekiel 16:4)

In other words, salt that retained its saltiness would make a tangible difference to the meat or fish to which it was applied. It would prevent them from rotting.

Similarly, Jesus declares that when the witness of his disciples is as it ought to be, then it is bound to impact those with whom we come in contact in a noticeable way.

However, when our witness is contaminated by internal impurities or corrupted by outside influences, then it loses its ability to effect any change in others, amen?

George Barna reports that based on surveys conducted by his organization, less than 20% of self-declared “born-again” Christians hold a biblical worldview.

There is virtually no difference between Christians and non-Christians in matters of sexual expression outside of marriage, divorce rates, to name a couple of areas.

On more than occasion, we have heard stories of a visitor to a church service who discovers that a co-worker is a member of that church and remarks: “I would’ve never guessed that you went to church, (first name)!” Ouch!

It could be the language we use, the way we treat co-workers, our response to suffering, our unwillingness to take an unpopular stand, our use of drugs and/or alcohol or moral relativism that shies away from absolute truth.

Such tainted witness ain’t worth its, er, salt.

It does nothing to prevent the moral rot of culture. Chuck it out!

That’s what Jesus seems to be saying.

So, here is a question for you. Have you checked your saltiness level lately?

Would your witness be described as one that makes a difference to those around you?

If yes, praise God!

If no or not sure, surely this is a good time to get rid of the contaminants and pollutants that have corrupted your witness and become salty again.

After all, who wants to end up being simply dismissed or discarded?

For all of you Bible scholars, here is a (trick) question:

•    At whose hands did the miracle of water changing into wine actually happen?

If you answered Jesus…think again!

Better still, read again!

Jesus told the SERVANTS: “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the SERVANTS followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the SERVANTS knew), he called the bridegroom over. (John 2:7-9)

Put yourself in the place of one of the servants at the wedding feast.

You have just carried out Jesus’ instructions to fill the jars with water. The jars are now full of water.

Then you dip into the jar and take some water out to the MC. By the time the water gets to him, it has turned into wine.

Clearly the miracle happened because Jesus was in the house and gave the orders.

But He gave the servants the privilege of being the ones who actually got to “do” the miracle as they obeyed him.

You could say that Jesus got the glory, but the servants got the honour!

Similarly when a man who was born lame gets healed at the entrance to the Jerusalem temple, Peter says to him: “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.” (Acts 3:6-7)

When he and John are questioned by the authorities as to how they could make this happen, Peter replies: “Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.” (Acts 4:10)

Jesus gets the glory, but Peter gets the honour!

Over the past weekend, Sulojana and I were privileged to minister in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

A number of signs, wonders and miracles happened at all four locations.

At The Oasis in Kinburn, a woman who had been wearing a brace to control the pain from carpal tunnel syndrome was set free from her pain on Friday evening. She showed up at a meeting on Saturday night at the Destiny Center in Carleton Place, with her brace-free hand as a testimony and the brace as a souvenir!

Jesus got the glory, we got the honour of laying hands on her.

That same night, a woman who was clearly experiencing demonic oppression experienced freedom after a dramatic encounter with Jesus.

The five women who gathered around had the honour of participating in her deliverance, but the glory belonged to Jesus and Him alone!

God makes this very clear in Isaiah 42:8: “I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another.”

But He certainly gives us the honour of co-labouring with Him, so that the miracle actually happens through us. Wow!

Just as the servants in Cana, so also we here in Canada know that it is Jesus who is responsible for the miracle.

Yes, Jesus gets the Glory, but We get the Honour!

Will you please share experiences in your life that confirm the truth of this statement with the rest of your DWOD family? Thank you.

Have you noticed that the simplest slogans are also the most memorable?
“Just do it.”–Nike
“Eat fresh.”–Subway
“Finger lickin’ good.”–Kentucky Fried Chicken
“I’m loving it.”–McDonalds

The easier a slogan is to remember, the more likely you are to think of a particular company say, when you’re shopping for runners or looking for a place to eat.

A leader in a networking business used to teach what he called the L.T.D. Principle (in the days when Ford made a car called the LTD).

“Keep it Learnable, Teachable and Duplicatable.”

In other words, don’t complicate it. Keep it simple!

Those who followed this piece of advice did indeed achieve remarkable success, while those who came up with complex plans found out the hard way that simplicity wins!

You may have noticed that God has a way of keeping things simple as well.

Take the 10 commandments, for example. Every one of them is essentially a simple one-liner.

A scholar once pointed out that if you were to translate the Hebrew literally, some of them would read as follows:

”You no steal.”
“You no kill.”
“You no hanky-panky.”
“You no covet.”

Since they are so simple, they are also memorable and are L.T.D as well!

Did Jesus not also keep things simple?

You could summarize his essential teachings with these two sentences:

“Love the Lord your God with all you’ve got.”
“Love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

That’s it! How much simpler can you get, eh?

No wonder Jesus has had so many followers down through the ages!!

He left us with something that is Learnable, Teachable and Duplicatable!

A number of years ago, I was at a Worship, Media & Technology Conference at a church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

At that time, they had something like 5 services on a weekend, with 1500-2000 people at every service.

I went there under the mistaken impression that their mastery of media and technology was responsible for their spectacular growth.

It turned out that it was their spectacular growth that forced them to become so media and tech savvy!

As I investigated their reason for explosive growth, it became very obvious it all had to do with a very simple slogan/mission statement that was inculcated into every member.

The exact words escape me, but it was something along the lines of: “Each One Reach One for Christ.”

In other words, all they did was teach every follower of Christ in their midst to invite a family member, friend, co-worker or total stranger to follow Jesus.

Then they taught this new disciple how to reach another one for Christ. Once they learned it, the process was now duplicated. Another person came into the Kingdom. And the church grew by one more member. The process was repeated over and over again with every new follower of Jesus.

When they hit a critical mass where enough of them were making disciples on a regular basis, exponential growth became the order of the day.

Oh, yeah, didn’t Jesus say something simple like: “Go and make disciples?” Duh!

The sheer simplicity of it all is simply amazing, isn’t it?

If you sense that you are not advancing toward your destiny as rapidly as you ought to, could it be because you are making everything too complicated to be duplicated?

Could this be the reason you are not seeing much growth in your church, sales force, business or organization?

Put the L.T.D Principle to work. Keep it Learnable, Teachable and Duplicatable.

You too could end up experiencing exponential explosive and exceptional growth!

It is a choice that needs to be made every time I take Sulojana to work.

Do we turn into the alley that connects King Street and Church Street? Or do we drive a block further and take Queen Street?

Personally, I prefer the alley, as it is a tad shorter, takes less time and saves us the trouble of going through two sets of lights.

There is only one potential problem with taking the alley.

When two vehicles are coming towards each other, there is not always enough room for both to get through…especially when one vehicle is a truck.

Delivery trucks do like to take the alley so they can get to the loading/unloading areas at the rear of buildings.

So, any vehicle taking the alley is also taking the chance of encountering one of these oversized vehicles.

Since one defers to size in such cases, it is usually the passenger vehicle (namely moi) that has to back up, and often back out back on to King Street and then take Queen Street…by which time, we have wasted a couple of precious minutes.

Get the picture?

Did I tell you that I love to take this risk just about every time, unless one of those trucks is already in the alley within my line of vision?

So, here is the scenario. Two weeks ago, I have already committed to taking the alley. We are a third of the way into the alley when a truck turns into the alley from Church Street and is coming towards me.

Suffice it to say I am not too thrilled about re-tracing my steps a third of the way down the alley back to King Street and then on to Queen, hit the lights, yadi yada…

For some inexplicable reason, I decide not to back up, but simply keep moving forward.

That’s when I noticed the truck making a left turn into the alley that connects our alley with the other parallel alley running north to south.

Now the way was clear for us to keep going, make the right turn on Church Street and drop Sulojana off at her office, right on time!

The Lord used this experience to teach me how we need to keep moving forward in the face of obstacles.

Quite often we are tempted to see obstacles as being immovable, impenetrable, impassable or impossible.

Yet, isn’t it true that obstacles can move too?

A church is told that they cannot add to their existing building because of a bylaw.  Guess what, a bylaw can be changed…it is movable!

You apply for a line of credit that is absolutely necessary to get your next project off the ground, but you cannot convince the loans manager at your bank. Surprise! The manager is “moved” to another branch and her replacement honours your request!

The secretary is firm about it. You will be waiting at least 6 months for your surgery. You are believing for an earlier date. And then you get the phone call. An appointment got “moved!” Can you come in next week instead?

Yes, obstacles have wheels!

God drives obstacles out of the way when we

a.    Speak to them in faith as Jesus commanded us to do. “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” (Mark 11:23)

b.    Keep on moving forward as the apostle Paul exhorts us to do. “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal…” (Philippians 3:13-14)

Have you experienced this in your life? Please share your stories with the rest of your DWOD family, will you?