Let’s roll the clock back. Abraham started as Abram. The Lord promised to bless and multiply him. But Abram didn’t see anything happening. He got old. His wife, Sarai, got old. And they figured they would never have a child, let alone a multitude of descendants.

Abram and Sarai pursued Plan B. Ever been there? You know God promised you something but you haven’t seen it yet. So, you decide to help Him out a bit with your own plan. That’s what Sarai and Abram did. Sarai sent Abram into the tent with her maid, Hagar, to produce a child. It worked, and Ishmael was born.

Ishmaels always result from our Plan B’s. When we don’t endure waiting for God, we end up with a distant second best.

Ishmael wasn’t God’s best. He still hadn’t moved off His promise to Abram. To get Abram back on the program, God went back through the promise with Abram. He showed him the stars of the sky, and told him he would have descendants more numerous than all the stars he could see. Every time Abram saw stars, he remembered the promise God made to him and believed. It was counted to him as righteousness.

The Lord even changed Abram’s name to Abraham: “Father of Nations.” Every time Abraham introduced himself, he was confessing increase and multiplication. His name tag at the convention said, “Hello, My Name is Father of Nations.” When he met someone new at the market, he introduced himself as Father of Nations. Every time he said his name, Abraham remembered the promise God had made to him and he believed. It was counted to him as righteousness.

So what has the Lord promised you? He’s promised many things. Here’s one for instance. He promised that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved. He’s promised that Jesus, who knew no sin, actually became sin for you, that you could be made the righteousness of God in him. Why doubt it? Why still call yourself an old sinner? Of course you may miss it, but the blood of Jesus has removed your sin from you. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. Use the new name the Lord has given you: Righteous in Jesus. Believe God’s promise. It will be counted as righteousness to you.

The Bible is full of promises to we who are born again. Believe them as Abraham did. Call yourself what God calls you in the Bible. Believe everything He has promised you. Persevere and don’t make your own Plan B. And before you know it, you’ll be living all He promised you like you’re in a dream dream, resting in His Blessing!

In 2012, we’re all going to read through the Bible in a year, canonically. We’ll make it easy. Our new mobile app will come preloaded with the reading plan. We’ll put the reading plan on our website. The schedule will be in our monthly newsletter so people can read their print Bibles.

My wife and I have done this several times. For those who have never done it, this exercise should help them understand more fully the story of God’s plan for mankind. It’s a story of Blessing, fall, reconciliation, and restoration. It’s a story of love, even in rough times of rebellion. We see the God who is both just and merciful.

It seems to me it is impossible to understand fully what Jesus did without knowing Him within the context of both testaments. I’m looking forward to a year of revelation for the people of Abundant Life Church. My prayer is that our eyes will be opened and our hearts will be filled with the Word of God.

The Church today should operate more like the Church of the early followers of Jesus. They gathered regularly to worship, to be equipped, and to encourage each other. The gifts (manifestations) of the Holy Spirit were present. But those early disciples didn’t just have meetings. They met to be recharged for ministry outside the meeting place. And when they went outside the meeting place to share the good news of Jesus, signs and wonders followed.

Today I see some churches that are filled with lively worship, encouraging and solid Bible teaching, and manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but all of that good stuff stays bottled up in the building. Other churches are passionate about the Great Commission and engaging the culture around them, but they deny that the miraculous workings of the Lord are for today.

We should be seeing both. We should gather for life-changing worship, fiery and encouraging preaching, and manifestations of the Spirit, but we should be taking what we learn, the power of the Spirit, and the good news of Jesus to people we encounter. We should be focused on engaging the culture and being missional, but as in the “early church,” we should expect healings and miracles to manifest in the name of Jesus as we encounter people.

I’m hungry to see the Body of Christ do the greater works Jesus prophesied in John 14:12 – just as our brothers and sisters did in the earliest years of the Church. We can’t do it if we just meet, and we can’t do it if we just go. We need to meet, we need to go, and we need to expect the power of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate signs and wonders as we minister. That is when we will be mirroring the ministry of Jesus, who constantly engaged ordinary people and made Himself available for miracles to occur through Him.

Let’s be the Body of Jesus. Let’s GO in the power of the Spirit!

To many Jesus is Savior. That’s awesome! He is the Savior. Every Christian knows that He saves from sin and paves the way to heaven. Some know He still saves from sickness, financial ruin, addiction, bondage, and any other thing we need saving from.

Jesus is our Savior. But is He really our Lord?

A lord is someone to be obeyed. And it’s just “human nature” to chafe at obeying someone else. Just ask Adam and Eve.

Even if we want to obey someone, it’s tough to obey a lord who doesn’t adequately tell us what we should do, or who crushes us if we misunderstand and mess up.

Our Lord isn’t that way. He’s given us a Bible to instruct us, the Holy Spirit to comfort and lead us, and the Church to come around and disciple us. And He’s not a hard taskmaster; Jesus is a Lord who IS love.

I’ve noticed in my own life that when I do things the Bible way, and let Jesus be Lord, it opens the door for Him to be Savior. When I do what He says, things eventually turn out right. But when I do things my own way, things start to tank, and I need to run sheepishly back to him for mercy. Thankfully, He always wants to fix the stuff I mess up – to be the Savior – but He expects me to repent and come back to Him as Lord.

One of my goals is to remember in every circumstance that “Jesus is Lord” – in my finances, in my health, in my marriage and family, in my job, in the ministry He’s given me, in my relationship with the people I bump into every day. My heart’s cry is to do things His way. And I know that because Jesus is my Lord, He’ll always be my ready and ever-vigilant Savior.

Thank you Lord!

The armies of Israel are a great example of the wrong thing to do. They had been listening to Goliath taunt them over some time. The more he taunted, the bigger he got in their eyes.

David, by contrast, had been spending time in the field tending sheep. His practice there was to sing to God and to marvel at how vast and great He was. It was in those fields that David caught the idea that this vast and powerful God cared for him. That idea blossomed into faith that allowed him to rip bears and lions to shreds with his bare hands.

When David arrived at the battlefront, he was still marveling at how big God was. He found an army that had forgotten God, and instead was marveling at how big Goliath was. David arrived in faith, while the armies of Israel cowered in fear.

If you and I want to conquer our individual Goliaths, we need to be careful what we mediate on – what we spend time turning over and over and over in our minds, what we read, what we watch, what we listen to, and what we say repeatedly. Pondering how big problems are produces fear. Pondering how big God is, and how much He loves us, produces faith.

I want to be like David.

Peter and John

Think about it for a moment. The leaders of the temple bound and beat them for proclaiming the name of Jesus, and commanded them to stop. They didn’t. Instead, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer persecution for Jesus. They prayed for even greater boldness to proclaim the name of Jesus. They asked for a healing revival to break out. The Lord must have been happy because His power shook the place! Everyone went out and proclaimed the name of Jesus with boldness!

Miracles and healing were expected. Peter and John walked by the Beautiful Gate of the temple, found a lame beggar. They ordered him to get up in the name of Jesus, expecting him to be healed. He was miraculously healed, got up, and danced.

Throughout the book of Acts, we read that thousands were added to the church. And we’re part of the same Church – just a few centuries later.

We should be doing the same things as our early brethren – and more. But we won’t see any of it if we’re inward looking. We won’t see it if we’re paralyzed by fear of failure or criticism. The Church will be weak if we don’t both BELIEVE and DO what the Bible tells us we can and should do.

Let’s really live by faith and not by our senses and experience. Let’s be really evangelical, boldly proclaiming the lordship of Jesus, and inviting people to join us. Let’s believe what the Lord says in Mark 16:17-18. Let’s have some faith in the authority of the name of Jesus, and in that name let’s cast out demons and lay hands on the sick expecting them to be healed. Let’s operate in the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.

Let’s stop entertaining ourselves on Sundays, and secluding ourselves in little enclaves. Instead, let’s break out of our safe houses, go into all the world, and let the Lord use us to minister His love and His power to the world around us – just like He did in the Church years recorded in the book of Acts.

I want my church to be a place the early disciples would recognize and feel comfortable in. How about you?

Today I received, from the Global Prayer Alert Network of Mac and Lynn Hammond’s Living Word Christian Center, a great piece written by John Osteen, the founder of Lakewood Church. John Osteen’s son, Joel, is now the pastor of Lakewood. I wanted to share this piece. Let it sink into your spirit.

John Osteen, a man of faith.

The following excerpts are taken from Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith by John Osteen:

What to Do When Nothing Seems to Work

1. Check Up on Your Own Life

When I face adversity, the first thing I do is to turn God’s great searchlight on in my heart to check up on my own life. I want to find out if I have overlooked anything that needs to be made right. Jesus said, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that you Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).

2. Check Up on Your Promises

If you do not have some definite promises from the Word of God that has been whispered to your heart and which you have embraced; if you do not have any real, definite, pointed promise that God has quickened to you in your present situation, then you have a loose connection.

3. Check Up on Your Confessions of Faith

Jesus said, “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). You will never rise any higher than your confession. You will never sink any lower than your confession.

4. Check Up on the Arena in Which You are Fighting

If the devil ever gets you in the arena of reasoning and looking at your symptoms, he will defeat you every time. Stay in the arena of faith and you will win every time.

5. Check Up on Your Companions and Fellowship

Are you in constant fellowship with people of faith? If you associate with people who cannot support you in faith, you may find yourself struggling to hold on to your promise.

6. Check Up on Yourself to See if You are Obeying the Scriptures

Many people live very worldly lives. They disregard the commandments of God. When they try to appropriate God’s promises, they fall.

7. Check Up on Your Praise Life

Are you showing your faith by praising God before you see the answer, The Word of God tells us: I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in your mouth.”

Jim and Judy Stevens

This past Sunday, we were blessed to have Prophet Jim Stevens, and his wife, Apostle Judy Stevens, minister in the church. Prophet Jim chose 1 Corinthians 13 as his text, and challenged us to look at it as the “prophecy chapter,” and not just the “love chapter.” The message will be added soon to our podcast; I encourage you to listen.

Through the Apostle Paul, most particularly in the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters of 1 Corinthians, the Holy Spirit admonishes the Church to operate in the gifts (manifestations) of the Holy Spirit. He also instructs us as to how to operate in the gifts of the Spirit in an orderly and powerful way. The Body of Christ needs to heed the admonition of the Holy Spirit!

Let’s all make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit for Him to minister through us. All of the gifts operate by faith, and MUST be powered and led by love. Let’s get to it!

My family and I made our annual trip to Fort Worth for Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ Southwest Believers’ Convention.  As always, we had an awesome time.  I highly recommend it for anyone who seeks a week of outstanding preaching and teaching, glorious praise and worship, and intense immersion in the Word of God.  We were also blessed to reconnect with old friends and to make new friends.

We were also blessed to learn that 2774 people gave their lives to the Lord Jesus as a result of the work of Riley Stephenson’s evangelism team, which swept the streets of Fort Worth during the week before and the week of the convention.  The Word of the Lord will not return to Him void, but will accomplish His purpose!  (Isaiah 55:11).

On Saturday, though, I read an online New York Times article about the convention.  Not surprisingly, it highlighted pictures of ushers carrying stacks of offering buckets and of a woman placing an offering on the steps of the platform, and included digs about the speakers’ preaching about prosperity and divine health, and the manifestation of health and prosperity in the speakers’ lives.  The article also quoted a religion professor from the University of California, who attended the convention to do “research” on Word of Faith preachers.  He gave his opinion that the preachers were irresponsible because they barely acknowledged the current economic downturn, and because they suggested that people continue to tithe and give while expecting a financial return from the Lord.

Let me flip open my Bible.  It says that the tithe is holy to the Lord.  (Leviticus 27:30, 32).  My Bible tells me that the Lord considers it robbery to withhold tithes and offerings.  (Malachi 3:8).  The Lord also invites us to test Him and His promise that He will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing for the tither, and that He will rebuke the devourer for the sake of the tither.  (Malachi 3:10-11).

Jesus Himself preached the hundredfold return on giving (Mark 10:29-30) and that the giver will receive “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”  (Luke 6:38).

Obviously, the Times article didn’t include any such scripture references.

The Times article also missed the the theme of Brother Copeland’s messages during the convention: remaining clean of covetousness.  In an awesome series of teachings, Brother Copeland taught from Luke chapter 12 about covetousness, and about maintaining a right relationship with money and things.  Just like Abraham, we’re supposed to be blessed for the purpose of being a blessing!

I love to tithe and give.  It’s an honor to be able to tithe and give.  The day I stop tithing and giving will be the day I go home to be with the Lord.  And because the Blessing of Abraham has come upon me (Galatians 3:14), I can be like Isaac and thrive in famine.  (Read from Genesis chapter 26).  If I thrive, I can be a blessing to people who are hurting, and to ministries that are spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

We already have our hotel reservations to return to Fort Worth next year.  In the meantime, I plan to implement what I learned at this year’s convention.  I and my family will continue to tithe and give, and to be obedient to the Lord as He instructs us.  I’ll probably preach to Abundant Life Church in Athens some of the things I learned in the convention.  When next year’s comes along, the Lord will have provided more than enough for us to attend and to be a blessing to other people along the way.

I thank God for Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and to the other speakers at each year’s Believers’ Convention.  My family and I are blessed to have heard them!

(If you want to see and hear the teachings from the conventions, you can find them online:  http://www.bvov.tv/kcm/ondemand/2009swbc.php.  Also, you can see the side and back of my bald head in the picture above).

Janet and Craig Watson.

Today I received a Skype call from my dear friend, Craig Watson, the pastor of Eagle Christian Ministries in Durban, South Africa.  Cherie and I have a covenant relationship by divine appointment with Craig and his wife, Janet, and we are becoming closely knit together in the Spirit.  Craig and Janet have been in Athens and have ministered at Abundant Life Church.  Talking with Craig via Skype (a free computer to computer “telephone” call) with web cams was like being in the same room with him.

Craig shared with me that his greatest passion over the last many months has been to live in the presence of God.  For years he has enjoyed daily fellowship with the Lord.  Lately, though, he has been hungry for the Lord’s presence, and has begun to spend each Wednesday morning in prayer and fasting before God.  The result has been striking.  Craig has experienced wonderful times of fellowship and received extraordinary revelation and anointing from God.

To Craig’s flesh, taking Wednesday morning to seek God seemed like a big sacrifice.  In addition to pastoring, Craig and Janet operate an international logistics business that is thriving in famine.  Time is not something he possesses in excess.  But he made the quality decision to make time to seek God, and has reaped enormous rewards, both in the Spirit and in the natural.

Craig reflected, and I agree, that we’re not “professional preachers” delivering a joke, three points, and a story.  We shouldn’t preach just to preach.  Instead, we need to preach from a position squarely in the presence of God.  The presence of God and the anointing that accompanies His presence makes the difference between just a nice message and a rhema word from God that will change the lives of the hearers, open blind eyes, heal bodies, bring deliverance to the captives, and cause miracles to occur.  Like Moses, we should not preach or do anything unless the presence of the Lord goes with us.  (Exodus 33:15).

In your own life, seek the presence of God and let it transform you.  Make a quality decision to spend time in the Word of God, being quiet before the Lord, and hearing His voice.  In your marriage, your job, your health, and every other part of your life, seek first His kingdom – and His presence – and everything you need He will supply to you.  (Matthew 6:33).   And when He supplies it, it won’t be by small degrees.  It will be exceedingly above all you can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20) and according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

Seek His presence, and let Him transform you!