Is Your Faith Worth Holding On To?

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What does your faith do for you?

What does your faith do for you?

What is the reality of your faith? Is it a set of rules that keep you from doing bad things? Is it an obligation you fulfill for your mother/spouse/friend? Is it a tradition or ritual that you automatically follow? Does it do anything for you? Seriously think about this. If what you believe as a core value does not actually affect your life, then be honest.

Your faith should lead you straight to the heart of God. Living in the kingdom of God should change you profoundly. It should heal you of physical and emotional wounds. It should fill your life with blessing and the power of God to heal and bless others.

Your relationship with God should be two-way. You should talk to Him and He should talk to you. It’s all God’s great plan to have a people of relationship so He can be intimate in our lives. He’s here to give us hope and destiny for our future and practical help for our needs today.

If you are not actually living in the kingdom of God, you can. Ask Jesus to be your Savior. Confess your sins to Him and ask Him to fill you with His Spirit. Then listen with your heart when you pray. He has so much to do for you. This is a faith that can give meaning to your life.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

Don’t Let Your Expectations Ruin God’s Plans For You

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No one understood who Jesus was or what He was up to until after His resurrection. The disciples tried to understand, but clearly didn’t. The Romans mocked Him by calling Him King of the Jews. Even the Jews expected a king who would return them to the glory days of Solomon. John the Baptist knew the Christ was coming, but wasn’t sure what He would look like. As anointed as John was, he didn’t expect Jesus to be so low key. No one expected a humble servant King.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, not your expectations.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, not your expectations.

It’s a problem when we set up expectations that God has not. His ways are so much higher than our ways. His ideas are vast and creative. If we try to organize Him into our thinking, then we’ll never see who He really is.

Don’t miss your blessing through expectation. You may have a dream in your heart of “x”. That’s fine. God can bless it and make it “X”, but only if you let Him get you there His way. The journey He needs to take you on is probably not one you would choose for yourself.

Don’t miss what God is doing for you because you weren’t looking for what He has planned. Keep your heart open and and content with Him, and He will be everything you need Him to be.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

The Only Time It Is Legitiamately Acceptable To Not Forgive

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It's time to let it go.

It’s time to let it go.

The only time is it legitimately acceptable to not forgive is — never. Yes, it was a trick. Do you forgive me? Peter wanted to know how many times he had to put up with forgiving a brother (Mat 18:21), but he didn’t understand why he had to forgive.

We don’t forgive others because we’re being nice or letting them off the hook. We forgive others to clean house in our hearts. Unforgiveness is rottenness to our soul. If we leave it there, it festers and grows and damages us from the inside.

Remember that forgiveness doesn’t mean we condone bad behavior, it just means that we’re not going to hold onto anything that hurts us. We forgive them and trust God to deal with them.

Forgiving ourselves is just as vital as forgiving other people. Confess your sin to God. He will forgive you, so you should too. If you refuse to forgive yourself after God already has, then you have some issues that He needs to help you with. Lay it all before Him and ask Him to clean you up. He can fill you with His peace and give you joy. That’s His desire for you. Just forgive and let blessing flow.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

God Is Big And Powerful And He Can Do What You Need Him To Do

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God can do anything. He is God. We have to stop thinking of Him as a man, because it’s so far from truth that it’s almost laughable. He doesn’t think like we do and He doesn’t act like we do. He’s much nicer for one thing.

God has you covered. Just believe.

God has you covered. Just believe.

The only reason we experience the difficulties that we live with is because we don’t ask God for help. He is more than able to fix our problems, but He won’t until we ask. And just because He waits to be asked, doesn’t mean that He can’t answer completely.

God is really, really big and really, really powerful. He can do what no man can do. There is no problem too tough. No problem too complicated. He sees what we cannot. He can be where we can’t go. He can do it all. All we have to do is ask.

Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, Says the Lord of hosts. (Zech 4:6) Give it to God. Let Him take care of it. It’s what He’s waiting for. It’s what living in the kingdom is all about. If you don’t allow God to take care of you, then you don’t live in His kingdom. And that’s a scary place to be.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

Three Keys To Spiritual Growth In The Kingdom Of God

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It takes an ability to multitask to live in the kingdom. You can’t be focused on one area and neglect everything else. We can’t be so focused on serviced that we forget to do it with love. We can be so focused on love that we forget our authority over the enemy. You see where I’m going here.

Balancing humility, love, and power

Balancing humility, love, and power

Keeping three basic strengths in balance will do you well as you grow spiritually. Those three keys are humility, love, and power.

Humility will keep you out of trouble. Just imagine what the world would have been like if Solomon had as much humility as he had wisdom. He would have remembered where his blessings came from and wouldn’t have turned to other gods. None of us is better than anyone else. And those called to lead are first called to serve. Humility will keep your heart before God in great reverence.

Love should be the source of all actions.        1 Corinthians 13 makes it very clear. It doesn’t matter how much I serve, what I give, or sacrifice, if my heart isn’t filled with love doing it, then it was all wasted effort. This isn’t easy. It takes God to change us and fill us with His Spirit to love through everything we do. It starts with the humility to ask God to change us as we recognize our need. Love will serve with blessing and do far more work in the kingdom than soap box rantings.

Power is where we reach out to protect and defend the lives that God puts in our hands. It’s our responsibility to heal and bless those around us. The power and authority are ours through the blood of Christ, and it’s our job to be His authority on earth. Too many people are left sick, hurting, and abandoned because we failed to walk out our responsibility as believers. Everything that Jesus did, He did to show us how. Now it’s out job to do it.

You ability to walk in humility, love, and power will change your life and the lives of those around you. All of it comes from your close and intimate relationship with Jesus. He will be everything that you need. All you have to do is step along next to Him. Stay humble, full of love, and let the power flow. It’s going to be awesome!

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

Praise Is The Key To Winning The Battles You Face

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There is something powerful and amazing about how praise affects our problems. I love the story of Jehoshaphat when Judah was besieged by enemies. God promised to be with him. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.” (2Chron 20:21)  And yes, God delivered them from destruction through the power of that praise.

Praise will release the power of God.

Praise will release the power of God.

Now then, how big is your problem? Is it anywhere near the size of an invading army? It doesn’t matter. Even if it were bigger, the size of the problem isn’t an issue. How you deal with it is. Jesus said not to worry. Period. In fact, if you can not worry and thank God for taking care of you, even better.

But victory comes with praise. Praise means that you trust God to help you, that you recognize His greatness and compassion to take care of the issues that face you. Praise takes your eyes off the problem and on to God. That’s the real key. When you stop staring at the problem, you see how big God is and how completely trustworthy He is to be God for you. So, lift up your eyes and let the praise begin. Praise God for being amazing.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

Five Loaves And Two Fish Should Do It

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Are you the kind of person who needs to see things for yourself before you believe? Do you distrust the testimony of others if you were not there personally to experience it? It’s hard to have faith like that. In fact, that’s the opposite of faith. That’s called doubt and unbelief.

Jesus said: Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (Mat 29:29) Faith is about believing what you can’t see. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17) Faith comes by hearing, not seeing.

Five loaves and two fishes should do it.

Five loaves and two fishes should do it.

Will you believe or not? Is God who He said He is? Yes? Then all the miracles of the Bible are true. And since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the same capacity for miracles is true today. What do you need? Five loaves and two fish should do it. That is, the same God who provided for lunch for five thousand hungry souls can do what ever you need Him to do today. All you have to do is believe.

We make things so complicated, but God said, just believe. Try it. See what happens. Is it any harder to feed five thousand people or answer your prayer? A miracle is a miracle, and it’s all easy to God.

 

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

Can You Rejoice About Your Day? It’s Totally Up To You

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This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps 118:24) So what do you do when you have a bad day? Some days just start out hard. How do you rejoice then? You pull yourself up by the bootstraps and will yourself to.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad. It’s an act of determination. And yes, you can do it. You attitude is completely in your control. Whatever is falling apart around you may be frustrating, but God is still God. He is still glorious and wonderful. And when you praise Him, your spirit will be lifted. When you put the frustrating issues in His hands, you allow Him to work for you to do what you can’t.

The day isn’t joyful because something good happened to make it joyful, it’s good because God is God and He gave you the day as a gift. No matter how bad your day has become, it’s still a gift. The alternative is to agree with the enemy that the day is bad and choose to not rejoice. Agreeing with the enemy about anything is a bad idea.

No matter how bad it is, make the decision to rejoice and thank God. Once you do, you’ll find all the reasons why you need to be thankful. You open yourself to more blessing when you do.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

What Will It Take For You Trust God?

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The angels already came to announce that God is with us.

The angels already came to announce that God is with us.

Wouldn’t it be perfect if God sent angels to us to announce His presence and tell us all the things we need to know? Then we could nod and say, “That’s what I’m talking about! Finally, God is letting me know He’s for real!” We could really put our trust in Him, if we could see a sign with our own eyes. We all want the writing on the wall to make things perfectly clear.

The thing is, God already did that. The angels did come and announce His presence with us, and He did tell us very clearly what we need to do. He’s not going to do it again. The fact is, we are responsible for the message He already gave.

And the writing on the wall? The only time that happened, it was not a pretty message. (Dan 5:27) God has already promised to be everything that you need Him to be. All you have to do it take Him at His word. He is God, so He can’t lie. If there’s a problem, it’s with your faith, not His promise.

What will it take for you to believe Him? It’s going to take you finally letting go of the flimsy control you think you have. Give it all to God and let Him show you how it really works. There is blessing in that trust to protect you so He can be everything you need.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart

 

Why Is The Narrow Gate So Hard To Get Through?

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The gate is narrow, but not impossible to get through.

The gate is narrow, but not impossible to get through.

You’ve been warned. Jesus said it up front: Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Mat 7:14) He came to bring salvation, not a path of rose petals. The path is tricky to follow,  and only those who stay with it will find the salvation He promised.

Why is the road so hard? Two reasons. 1. Our nature is selfish. We live to satisfy our own desires. We can’t help it, we’re born to think of ourselves first. And it’s a very strong desire to save ourselves and satisfy our own wants.

2. We have an enemy who lives to see us fail. Since he lost his place in heaven, satan’s only thought is how to hurt God by hurting us. He works against us in every single place he can. Those areas where we actually feel good about giving to other people come under attack so it gets harder to do than it should.

The gate to salvation becomes very narrow indeed, because God calls us to be selfless. It goes against our own desires, and the work the enemy presses against us. Only putting everything in God’s hands gives us the strength and courage we need to follow Him as we should. Daily prayer, daily commitment to the One who loves us best, will fill us with all we need to rise up in blessing to those around us. It may take effort, but it’s not impossible.

 

Read the first chapter of my book Crucible Heart