Power of An Exodus Identity

Key Scripture: “ Behold I send the Promise of My Father upon you, ...wait until you are endued with power from on high." Luke 24:49  

Power Point:

The health center where I go regularly to be “adjusted” back to health, is called, “The Exodus Center”. This past week Dr. Jockers wrote an article on the “Exodus Brand”-describing what characteristics make Exodus unique.  The first thing you notice when you enter the door is the worship music.  That is certainly unique. The second thing is the unashamedly bold scriptures written on the walls declaring God’s promises for our well being. You are met with a smile and a welcoming attitude. When you meet with Dr.Jockers, he greets you with such enthusiasm and confidence that when you leave you know you will be better than when you came in. At the close of each session he prays power into your body. It is certainly worth the miles I drive each week to go there. In fact I can’t imagine starting my week without an Exodus Experience.

As Christians we are constantly reminded that we are “new creations."  We are new creatures living in a post-resurrection society. We are supposed to have a “resurrection identity”. Everything in our lives should be filled with “new” power, “new” dreams, “new” direction and purpose. We are filled with the boundless living hope of God. The Resurrection is supposed to have given us the “new” that moves us from poverty to prosperity, from lack to abundance and from discouragement to hope.  It should make a difference. Other people should look at us and see “new”.

When the children of Israel began their exodus out of Egypt, things should have been different.  In Exodus 1:14 it describes what their “Egyptian identity” was. “And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage…All their service in which they made them serve was rigor.” In case you were wondering, “rigor” means harshness, severity, and cruelty. Wouldn’t you think they would have been tickled to death to be out of that place?

It seems not. Shortly after their miraculous journey began they started and ended each day with complaints about the “new” and a longing to return to the “old”.

Beloved, if we’re not careful we can do that too. If we do not begin to establish a “Resurrection Identity” in our hearts and minds we will never move beyond where we were when Jesus set us free.  We will miss the confident expectation of God’s goodness in our lives and trade it for the old way of “just making do”, just barely getting by, and living “under” our circumstances. That’s the old way of thinking and unless we change our thinking nothing else will change. You can’t get “new” results from “old” thoughts. You can’t live in resurrection power if you refuse to leave your old place of bondage. You just can’t.

In Dr. Jocker’s article, he says that an Exodus identity is one that acts in “audacious faith”. Don’t you love that? And it is the truth. If you’ve made the exodus out of the world into the kingdom of God, then you life will be governed by faith. I vote for making that faith audacious.  How about you? Are you ready for an exodus into freedom?

Power Thought:

Are you still living in your exodus experience or have you moved on to experiencing the resurrection and all that Jesus died to give you? 

Power of Cheerleading For God

Key Scripture:  “Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise.” Psalm 51:15, The Message

Power Point:

My grandsons both play football. Their job is to do what they’ve been taught to do and my job as their Gami is to lead the cheerleading section. I’m very good at it.  I may not know what the play was supposed to be but I know that one of my grandsons was a part of it. That’s enough to prompt jumping up and down and cheering them on.

For most of my Christian life, I wasn’t that excited about Holy Spirit.  I really didn’t understand His “plays” and if I had been at a game I would have been the one sitting quietly on the sidelines just watching what was going on in the field.  About ten years ago all of that changed when I got to know Holy Spirit up close and personal. I began to understand that He really understood the game plan and how to execute the plays. I found that when I let Him take the lead, I always got where I was supposed to be going and learned a lot along the way.

I have discovered that God is always kind. That’s an amazing thing to know isn’t it?  I have discovered through the revelation of Holy Spirit that God is always good and not only works good things into our lives but plans good things for our future. That has changed my life. I hope it changes yours. You see, Beloved, if you don’t “learn” what you “read”, it won’t do you any good. When I was in high school and college I was very fortunate because I could memorize just about anything pretty quickly. It was a huge asset for final exams. The problem was that after the test, I couldn’t have told you one thing I had memorized. That’s exactly the picture I want to leave in your mind today. What God reveals to us is always for a purpose. He sends Holy Spirit to teach, guide, and reveal the truth to us that will bring heaven to earth, His plans into reality. They’re not just words on a page, they’re there to change our lives for the better. But like my ability to memorize facts, the Truth won’t do me a bit of good unless I make it a long-term study and begin to apply what I learn.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could “friend” God on Facebook? What if our “walls” were filled with photos of how good He has been in our lives? Wouldn’t it be amazing if every word we wrote on our site was a testimony of, and praises of our heavenly Father? Hmm.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could form a group called “Cheerleaders for God”? If every word out of our mouths was a word of enthusiastic praise for the God who is good enough to make everything in our lives better, and prosperous, and a blessing (even if it’s in disguise at the moment)?

As I am readying the Power UP! book to be published I have to write a “blurb” for the back cover. When I asked Holy Spirit about it, He said, “You are a cheerleader!” As I thought about it, I really am.  I am so enthusiastic and excited and usually jumping up and down over what I have learned about the goodness of God for His kids.

Will you join my group and be a cheerleader for Him?  Of course you will. Come ON!

Power Thought:

Rah, Rah, Sis Boom Bah!

God is great, Hallelujah!

Go team go! Unbutton your lips!

Power of All Things

Key Scripture:  “All things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.”  Romans 8:28

Power Point:

If you peek carefully around all the corners of this verse, it has some pretty surprising promises for the children of God. All things? Surely that’s a mis-quote; ALL things -every good thing, every bad thing, ANY thing? All things!

So who are these “called” ones? They are the ones who have accepted God’s invitation to be part of His family and His kingdom and are in line with His purposes. If you have accepted His invitation offered through Jesus, then you, my friend, are The Called. That puts you in a very select group just like the children of Israel all those years ago. They were “The Called Out Ones” from Egypt. Everywhere they went and everything they did was covered by the presence, power and blessing of God. That is, unless they didn’t take advantage of it. Unless they did everything in opposition to what He told them.

Sadly they didn’t take His advice on a regular basis and ended up not being able to enjoy all the benefits of their position.

Matthew 6:33 tells us that if we seek Him first all things will be added to us. A few verses before that Jesus says, “Don’t worry!  Do NOT worry about your life…not about what you eat or drink or about your body, or how you will clothe it.”  Why? Because your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things and if you search for His kingdom and His way of doing things, all these things will be added to you.

Okay, let’s jump over to Mark 9:26 where Jesus makes this comment, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Actually all three verses are saying the same thing aren’t they? If we seek Him first, if we love Him and believe Him, Jesus says, “All things are possible to us and for us.  In fact, in Matthew 19:26 He goes even farther when He says, “With men it (salvation) is impossible but with God all things are possible.” The word He used there for salvation is “sozo” and it means to heal, to keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger and destruction of any kind. I guess that means that when Jesus saves us He saves us from all those things and for all those things that God has in store for us, an abundant life in the here and now.

It means when you say “yes” to Jesus; you have the privilege of receiving all things that are possible for Him for you.

Power Thought:

All things that are possible for Jesus are His gift to you.

Power of The Secret

Key Scripture:  “...stewards of the mysteries-that is the secret purposes-of God.” I Corinthians 4:1

Power Point:

Shh!  I have a secret to tell you. It’s one of the best-kept secrets on earth.  It’s stunning in its magnitude and its scope for our lives and it’s so well hidden that even the most prestigious scholars have not been able to find it.

Are you ready? Here it is!  God is good!  He’s good in the morning, in the evening and all the hours in between.  He’s good all the time. What? You say that you knew that? Well do you believe it so deeply that your thoughts are wrapped around His goodness in the morning and in the evening and in all the hours in between?  Do you live your life expecting God to be good to you in each and every moment of each and every day? Or have you been sidetracked by the lies that say that He’s only good some of the time, to some of the people?  Do you have your own restrictions for God-allowing Him to show His goodness to you only at certain times and places?

Maybe its time for you to transform your mind so that you can prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God for your life. Do you think so?  Is it possible that you’ve allowed the enemy of your soul to convince you that sometimes God is good but at other times He’s not? Are you so wrapped up in your circumstances that you’ve forgotten to allow your faith in His goodness to unwrap them and set you free?

Beloved, the gospel is good news.  The angel did not come and announce the birth of Christ, saying, “Here is "sort-of- good news" for some of you!” He said, “Peace on earth and good will to all men and the last time I checked, that included you.

Why don’t you ask God’s forgiveness for not receiving His gifts to you and ask Him to help you grow in faith so that you can begin to do it from now on. The Word of God, which is all about the goodness of God, teaches us how to do the right thing and corrects us when we are wrong. That's how God prepares us to do the good things He has prepared for us to do. 

You know, like Father, like son, (or daughter!).  It's our job to carry on the "family" business.

Faith believes that God is good. Period. Do you need to rethink some things?

He’ll be glad to help if you ask. He really doesn’t want to keep His goodness a secret. In fact, He wants you to shout it from the housetops!

Power Thought:

We transform our lives when we transform our minds by believing in the absolute goodness of God and refusing to believe anything to the contrary.

Power of Torment

Key Scripture: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” 1 John 4:18

Power Point:

Torment is the pits. I speak from experience. When you are under attack by a tormenting fear it can be devastating. When we receive the Perfect Love from the Perfect One in our hearts it is there to cast out all fear.  It can do that because His love is so vast that it has provided for us everything we could ever need for our lives. His love provides an abundance in our lives that is way beyond anything we could dream up on our own. I like thinking that my life can be the fulfillment of God’s dreams. 

Jesus has had a lot to say about love and about fear. They cannot co-exist. They are polar opposites.  He says, “DO love, DON’T fear.’

Let’s dissect the sentence that says, “ There is no fear in love.” It’s easy to live without fear when you know that the King of Love loves you isn’t it? If you really understand the height and the depths of His love and all that it means for you, all the goodness, and the wonderful things He has in store for you, then you will never fear because you will never see your future without Jesus in it. You will never see tomorrow without the things He promised to be for us and to give to us; total peace, provision, covenant protection and your every need met. And don't forget rescue and deliverance.  If you can trust in Perfect Love you will not live in fear.

On the other hand, if we unpack this verse a bit more, we can see how it applies to loving others with the love of Christ which can be a bit tricky can’t it?

We can trust that if we do what He tells us to do and continue to love as He loves, Holy Spirit will hover over that relationship, over that situation, and create a good thing from it. The thing is, if you don’t do that you will be under the influence of the tormentors, those ugly darts sent by Satan to destroy the fabric of your heart. It won’t be pretty. When you are tormented, it’s a continual siege against your thoughts. It’s a constant opportunity to think “low”. It drains you physically and mentally and spiritually. It separates you from the love of God. It leaves you like a stripped down bush in the desert and you won’t see any good even when it passes right by you.

Let’s make a pact. Let’s make today the day we ask Holy Spirit to help us to transform all those negative tormenting thoughts into Truth that sets us free. Can you imagine living the rest of your life fear-free, torment-free? It’s possible, Beloved. Jesus said so.

When you settle into the Perfect Love of Jesus, through the power of His Holy Spirit you will find that fear becomes easier and easier to dismiss and cast out. When you make the quality, intentional decision to guard your heart from fear and keep it in the love of God, everything in your life will change. It’s a big leap of faith, I know.  Sometimes it is much easier to allow the fear to define your life. It may be easy but it is definitely not a good thing. You’ll be so glad you changed course.

Ask Him to show you how to be free from your particular tormenting fear. And then ask the King of Love to fill your thoughts as He longs to do so that His perfect Love can set you free.

Power Thought:

Fear only breeds more fear.  The Good News is that faith will always breed more faith.

Now that’s a GOOD thing!

Power of A Mental Battle

Key Scripture:  “Guard your heart above all else,
    for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23, NLT

Power Point:

Life’s a real battle isn’t it?  There are days when life goes smoothly and it’s easy to think happy thoughts on a regular basis. I love those days.  I’m sailing over every obstacle in my path and I’m climbing every mountain in record time. Thank You Jesus!  Then there are those days that are just plain hard. For whatever reason I’ve cracked that door open in my mind that allows the enemy to sneak in and begin to rob, kill and destroy. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what is happening and before I know it I’ll find myself in the middle of a cascade of depressing or angry or fearful thoughts that are waging an all out war against the thoughts that Jesus died to give me.  Have you ever had one of those days?

You simply cannot separate yourself from a mental battle, Beloved. You cannot lie down on your mental couch and wish it would all go away. (I know that because I’ve tried it!) It’s your job to keep your heart with all diligence. The words, “guard”, and “keep”, and “diligence” seem to indicate an aggressive stance don’t they?  Jesus said in Matthew 12:35, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things.”  Is it possible that we bear some responsibility for the “good things” coming forth in our life? Hmm.

Many times people will ask for prayer for the same issue or at least the same foundational issue.  Their faces are sad and downcast. They sigh as they voice their problems and then they wait for God to change things. Dear One, please hear what I am saying. God will do that but we are in partnership with Him. We have some areas that are our area of responsibility and we must choose what we allow our mind to dwell on and what we guard in our hearts. The fruit of a relationship with Jesus is peace, faith, power and wholeness. If we are continually fighting the same battle in our mind and losing it, then there’s something that we are missing.

It’s God’s job to work with what you’re giving Him to work with and faith is not an option, it's a requirement.  What I am trying to say is that the most powerful, fruitful Christian life is one lived in partnership with Him. That means that you are to be in agreement with what He has said and expect Him to be who He has promised to be. That means that when the Enemy knocks on the door of your heart with his nasty little negative thoughts, you have options. You get to choose life or death. You get to choose what you think. Sometimes it’s a real struggle but Beloved the victory begins before the battle begins. Every morning when you sit down with Him and are strengthened with His thoughts and words to you, you are “suiting up” with God’s armor. Each word you agree with and assimilate into your heart, is your weapon of warfare. Your job is to be diligent to guard what He has told you.

At some point we just have to trust God don’t we? Is it time to change your mind?  Is it time to take God at His word and capture and defeat those nasty little thoughts that are keeping you from an abundance of goodness in your life?

Power Thought:

Changing your mind means changing your thoughts to “higher” thoughts-that’s how the abundance of His goodness is received.

Power of Hope

Power of Hope

Key Scripture:  “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 15:13

Power Point:

One of the biggest blessings that God gives us are His promises. They mean everything to Him and He wants them to mean everything to us. Like you, I have some promises that have been around for a while. God uses His promises as our vehicle for hope for the future. They are the currency of heaven for us and when we believe them and take them as our very own, then we can cash them in to receive our inheritance.

The process of receiving the answer to your promise is to begin to believe it simply because you can believe the God who made the promise. The next step is perseverance. Sometimes you see people in the world persevering and it’s just hard to watch. God wants His kids to persevere in hope knowing that they will not be disappointed. That means we have joy and we have peace because we know Him and we know He would never lie to us. We know that He would never let us down or leave us helpless. Those are just some of His promises.

God is totally serious when He promises something. He never says anything He doesn’t mean and He never says no. His promises carry within them His own power to fulfill their potential. Just like us. Thank You Jesus.

Have you got some old promises gathering dust that you need to refresh? Are there some dreams you are still longing to see come to pass? Then go back to your promises and set yourself to persevere, in hope. Let Him refresh your joy and peace so that you can believe and then abounding hope will come.  Start preparing the place for the promise to live. And then Beloved of God begin thanking Him before you see what has been promised because you can trust the One who has promised. That’s really what this is all about isn’t it? Believe that God is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do. And He will.  I promise.                      

Power Thought:

The God of Hope always lives in hope. He trusts Himself to give us a future and a hope. We should too.

Power of Courageous Courage

Key Scripture: "So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith-complete confidence-in God that it will be exactly as it was told me.” Acts 27:25

Power Point:

We have so many wonderful examples of courage in scripture. The Apostle Paul is definitely one of my favorites.  In this passage Paul has been placed on a ship headed for Rome. The ship encounters every disaster imaginable. Everyone is terrified but Paul, who at this point is definitely the “low man on the totem pole”.  He’s a prisoner with no authority whatever but he has a word from the Lord.  His word was: “Take courage Paul, for as you have borne faithful witness concerning Me at Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.” This word came “as the Lord stood beside him.” Whew! I guess that would give me new courage too. (But I digress.) The point is that God Himself had told Paul that he would be going to Rome. The circumstances looked anything but promising but Paul “took courage” from God’s word to him. If you think about it, he simply followed a couple of steps which we can follow too.

Lack of Confidence

First he encountered God in an intimate place and God talked to him as an intimate friend, telling him things that were going to happen. That's our privilege too because of Jesus.

Secondly: Every possible test of that word that could destroy his faith happened. Satan will always try to steal our courage by discouraging us. If Paul had walked by what he was “seeing”, he would have jumped off that ship! Instead he reminded himself of God’s word to him and he believed it. In fact he himself says, “I have faith.”  He had complete confidence in God that it would be exactly as He had said.

His faith gave him courage and his courage ‘infected” the other passengers and they were all delivered safely to Malta.

When it says that Paul “took” courage, it means that he thought about it, then made a quality decision to choose courage and apply it to his situation. It meant that circumstances could not discourage his courage.

Beloved you can be courageous too. Paul had already asked Jesus to make him bolder. It seems that He did. You can "take" courage just as Paul did

because you know that you know that you know that God is on your side, that He is able to keep you and bless you and that He really, really wants to!

That should give us all cheerful courage shouldn’t it?

Power Thought:

Take courage from Who He is and know that He is always there for you. That should make you cheerful!

Power of Stolen identity

Key Scripture: “The thief comes only to steal kill and destroy.” John 10:10

Power Point:

A very large problem in our country right now is that thieves are stealing people’s identities. Then they reshape those identities. They have access to every thing in someone's life and can totally destroy a person.  

As large a problem as this is in the natural it is also a huge problem in the supernatural.  You see, Beloved, when you became a child of God you received an incredible inheritance, complete with a new identity. You have been given the same authority and power that Jesus has.  You have been anointed with the same Spirit that anointed Jesus. You have the same assignment in the kingdom that Jesus did, to do good, to be more than a conqueror in life and to live an above and beyond kind of life. So-are you? Or has your identity been stolen?

Has Satan been able to sneak into your mind and convince you that you are not who God says you are and that what God says you have is not really yours? Has he convinced you that you are too unworthy, too bad, too “everything” so that God could not possibly have made you His heir? In other words, do you believe you just don’t deserve it?  Has he convinced that you that the whole idea is too “far out” and way over the top?

Well guess what Beloved of God. You woke up this morning loved, blessed and treasured by your heavenly Father. And very, very rich! How amazing is that? You can read about it in your Bible. Ephesians is the perfect manual for discovering what your new identity is and how to use it. Corinthians tells us that we are a new creation created for good things. Peter tells us that God has given us everything we could possibly need for this life through God’s promised inheritance. In fact, Jesus says we’ll have abundance in this life, more than we could ever need.  It’s far out and way over the top! I think that’s grace and that’s just the way God always measures things.

Identity theft is a real issue. It happens to believers who do not believe and do not receive their inheritance. The difference in the world’s view of identity theft and that of the Spirit is this. In the world, it is stolen from us but in the spiritual realm we often give it up all by ourselves. You are the only one who can stop the destruction of your role in God’s kingdom. You are the only one who can bury your inheritance in the ground. You are the only one that can restore what has been stolen from you. How? Find out who God says you are. Read the book of Ephesians until you understand what Jesus died to give you.  Ask Holy Spirit to replace the lies that steal your identity with Truth that establishes you as an heir of the King.

Power Thought:

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe."  Ephesians 1:18,19

Power of "But Me No Buts!"

Key Scripture:  “When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne.  Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.”  Matthew 25, The Message

Power Point:

A few weeks ago our pastor Tom made a comment at the end of the service about coming forward for prayer if you felt “stuck” in your Christian life.  Three weeks later people were still coming forward because they were “stuck”. It was actually easy to see why. The resurrection power of God had had no influence on their daily walking around life. They were still living that life under the old power and the old patterns which pretty much included not asking God for advice or thinking He might have a better idea. Let me rephrase that. They were asking God for help but then they weren’t listening to His answers, and then they were wondering why nothing changed.

I was reading in Matthew 25 the other day  about Jesus separating the sheep from the goats. It’s an interesting passage. A sheep hears the Shepherd’s voice and does what he says. He just trusts that the Shepherd has a plan. The goat- (in Hebrew there’s an interesting analogy here)-is one that is quick to war, to use his horns. He doesn’t usually listen to anyone. He butts anything and anyone that gets in his way. Aren’t we like that as Christians sometimes?

When God says, “Love one another.” Don’t we say, “BUT I don’t like them."  "BUT they’re not lovable." BUT, BUT, BUT! You fill in the blanks. If this describes your relationship with the Father, (“but, but, but”) then you might want to read the next two verses. In verse 33 he puts the sheep on His right hand. (the place of His power), and he puts the goats on the left. The ones who are on the right are blessed, and invited to inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for them, because they took His advice.

The poor goats, on the other hand  (who are actually ON the other hand) are told that they are cursed and offered eternity in hell. He seems to be really serious about this. Do you think there’s a lesson here? Do you remember the children of Israel and all their grumbling and complaining about what God required of them? They were being "old goats" weren’t they? Every time poor Moses opened his mouth to tell them what God had told him, he could pretty well anticipate a big “but”!

Beloved, God doesn’t ever mind when we ask Him questions. He loves to tell us His answers. However He does mind when we continue to “butt” our heads against His wisdom and plans and place ourselves in active rebellion against Him. The children of Israel "butted" every day for forty years in the wilderness and never even got to go in to the Promised Land.

We do NOT want to live our lives that way do we? The answer is “NO!” We don’t want to tell God to “butt out” of our lives. We need Him. We desperately need Him and His wisdom. 

Power Point:

Jesus and the Lamb
Katherine Brown

If we said “but” to "the other guy” (Satan)  as often as we say it to God we’d be a lot better off wouldn’t we? Well- wouldn't we?

Power of a Definite Maybe

Key Scripture:  “Only it must be in faith that he asks, with no wavering-no hesitating, no doubting. For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea, that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind…(For being as he is) a man of two minds-hesitating, dubious, irresolute- (he is) unstable, and unreliable and uncertain about everything he (thinks, feels, decides.)  James 1:5-8, Amplified Bible

Power Point:

Okay, I can’t get off the word “maybe”. Really good Christians can get really messed up by not understanding that when they say “maybe” to God it is the epitome of double-mindedness.

The thing is if we only look at God, we have great faith. It’s when we start to look at ourselves or our situation the power of God for us becomes “iffy”. That’s when Satan jumps in with both feet to cause you to waver, and then doubt.  Then we hesitate on moving forward in faith.

Remember Eve? His famous words to her, “Did God really say that?” led to a deep downhill plunge for all of us.

In Hebrews 11:6 the author says, “Whoever would come near to God must believe that He is and He will reward your faith.”  In James it says, “It must be in faith that you ask.” Must is not maybe.

Often when we are praying for healing for people, the first question we ask is, “What do you think God wants to do for you?”.  Very often the reply is, “Well I know He can heal me.”  Beloved that’s not faith. Of course He can. Do you believe that He will? What we are really saying is, “Well, if He wants to He can.” In other words, maybe He will and maybe He won’t.

This might be a good time to sit back and ask Holy Spirit to show you the “maybes” in your life. As I’ve done that I’ve been pretty surprised at how my thinking had slipped in some areas from “must” to “maybe”. 

You know you are stuck on “maybe” when you try to explain away the truth of what God has promised you. 

You know you are stuck on “maybe” when you don’t explore the options.  

You know you are stuck on “maybe” when you don’t look ahead with confidence and you stay “stuck” in today.

Maybe is not faith. You can’t think that “maybe” God will be good. You have to grab that truth and be determined to believe with every fiber of your being that God is good all the time.

You must believe that or your faith will never stand the test of time.

Have you thought of some promises of God that are just “maybes” for you? Is it time to eliminate that word from your vocabulary where it concerns your heavenly Father?

Maybe so. Definitely.

Power Thought:

Faith brings confidence not confusion. You never need to live on the edge of "maybe".

Power of A Name

Key Scripture:  “And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” I Chronicles 4:10

Power Point:

It really is important what name you give to things isn’t it?  Poor Jabez. His name means “he causes pain.”  How AWFUL!)  His mother named him that because he caused her pain when he was born. Can you imagine living your whole life being reminded and reminding others several times a day that you cause pain?  Good grief!

Jabez had finally had enough.  Scripture tells us “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers.” But the name still stuck. It was a curse placed on him by his own mother. The thing I love about Jabez is that he knew it was a curse and he knew where to go to get it reversed. He marched right up to God and said, “God please bless me, indeed. And would You please give me more territory to possess and keep Your hand of blessing on me and by the way could you keep me from evil because I do not want to cause pain.” (Suzanne translation).

Sometimes other people name us things like “unworthy” or “stupid” or “failure”. Sometimes we name ourselves that. We need to be sure that we don’t live up to our name. You see, beloved, the whole mission of Jesus was to “reverse the curse” in our lives and release the blessings, and the favor of God over us. Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with cancer or an eating disorder or have a drug addiction. Those are just “names” and God would happily reverse the curse of those words.  Like Jabez, you do not have to carry those names forever.

Jesus has the “Name above all names”.  When He died the curse was reversed. He gave us all power and authority to change our name. His favor and blessing are ready to be poured out on His children in every place.
 “Blessing” means "to cause to prosper, to make happy, to bestow blessings on and favored of God." That’s how God wants us to live isn't it? That’s abundance. That’s what Jesus died to give us. That was the plan all along-to give the people that He loved the ability to live blessed and not cursed.

I don’t know what your situation is. You may have named it “impossible”. I don’t know what people have named you but I do know you don’t have to live up to that name, unless of course it's a good one and then you'll be too blessed to be stressed!

Power Thought:

Is it time for a “name” change?

Power of Offenses

Key Scripture:  “It is impossible that no offenses should come.”  Luke 17:1

Power Point:

If you are human, you can understand that can’t you? I find that I have many opportunities weekly, perhaps daily-(make that hourly), that someone or something will offend me. The Word for “offense” means something that “snares” you. It’s like a piece of bait that lures an animal into a trap. Once you take the bait, the trap swings shut and you’re trapped. It’s easy to take offense-it can be very tempting-but it’s a lot harder to live in offense.

When you are offended, you are hurt, and you are angry, and if you allow the offense to remain, you become bitter. When bitterness takes root in you, you become totally deceived. When you are deceived, you can’t hear God’s voice. In fact, in Hebrews 12:14, 15 God puts it as plain as the nose on your face.  He says, “Pursue peace with all people.” Ouch. Peace with everyone? Surely He didn’t mean every one. Darn.

When we refuse peace bitterness has a chance to grow and blocks out the light of Truth.

I know you’ve never done this but you probably know people who get mad, get offended and then get bitter. When you listen to their version of the events that led up to the offense, they have done nothing wrong and the other person is totally at fault. You can stay in that place or you can “move on”.  You can forgive and then pursue peace and reap the rewards of peace in your life or the rewards of bitterness. Can you remember even one time when Jesus was bitter about something that happened to Him or something that someone said about Him? I know He had plenty of opportunities but He never “took” the bait. Some of His last words were, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.” It never occurred to Him to take up an offense. It shouldn’t occur to us either should it?  Because Jesus chose to live life “unoffended” we can too. Because He died without ever allowing bitterness to grow inside His heart, we can too. The same Spirit that gave Him the ability to live an “unoffendable” life lives in us. And He never takes offense.

Peaceful relationships are one of the biggest blessings we can have in our lives aren’t they?

Imagine what your life would be like if every single relationship was at peace. Imagine what your life would be like if every member of your family pursued peace with each other. What about your church?  Your office? Hmm.

Think of how peaceful WE would be if every other person we knew was pursuing peace with US?

Beloved, we could change the world and I think that’s exactly what our Father had in mind, don’t you? Do you think that’s why He told us that we would be known by our love for one another? What does it do for the Father’s heart when we walk in love, and peace? It honor’s Him doesn’t it? It blesses Him and it brings Him the greatest joy.

Let’s do it! Let’s refuse to take the bait that Satan offers us and choose to let Holy Spirit do in us what He did in Jesus-forgive, bless, lay down our lives and pursue peace. It only seems impossible Beloved. Remember, with Him absolutely every single thing is a distinct possibility.

Power Thought: If you don't take the bait, you won't gain the weight of bitterness.

Parable of the Talent of Faith

Key Scripture:  “And the disciples said to the Lord, “Increase our faith”. Luke 17:5

Power Point:

Over the years the Lord keeps taking me back to Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents.

Each time I find a huge nugget of truth. Recently He told me to exchange the word “talents” for the word “faith”. It was a real eye opener. You see, Beloved, every good gift He has given us is a “talent’ that we are to use and to increase. I decided to write out the parable and personalize it. I hope you will add your own name and make this a personal message for yourself.

And He gave Suzanne the talent of faith knowing that He had given her the Holy Spirit to equip her to use that “talent”.  It was a key she would need to bring heaven to earth for Him. Suzanne set out to use her talent for faith and each time she did- it increased!  When the Master returned He saw that she had been faithful to use the talent He had given her. “Well Done! You have increased what I gave you-that makes me very happy. I am going to give you more opportunities to increase your faith. Good job!”

In Luke 17 the disciples ask for more faith and Jesus responds “You don’t need more faith.  There is no “more or less” in faith. “ (The Message).  Sometimes we are afraid to step out in faith just like the third servant in the parable of the talents who went and hid what the Master had given him in the ground.  When we received Jesus and He filled us with Holy Spirit, we received “more than enough” of anything and everything we would need to do what He has asked us to do. Each of those stewards had the opportunity to increase what they had been given, enabling them to complete their assignments. So do we! Everything God has given us is for a purpose.  Every gift, every talent is in us to complete His good plans for us and in us. What are you doing with your “talent”? Are you using it and increasing your confidence and ability to use it or have you buried it because you do not believe that God has given you a good gift as a means of blessing you in whatever you do.

We look at the “faith” superstars around us and wish we had what they had don’t we? The truth is, they have been faithful to use their talent of faith and as they did it increased. We each have the same opportunity Beloved. Use it or lose it!

Power Thought:

“When the Son of Man returns will He really find faith on the earth?” Or in me?