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Twelve gang members rush from their front-row seats to the altar the instant the altar call is given. A Parade Magazine reporter write of being enveloped in a sweet cushion of air that picked him up and gently dropped him to the floor. A father and son weep uncontrollably as they recount how the Lord rescued the son from drugs, saved his life, brought him to the cross, and mended their family. These are but a few of the many stories that pour forth from the revival centers all over the country. Where God is revealing Himself in visible and miraculous ways. Every night multitudes of people hear from God. Every night ministry teams pray for countless people, leading them to Jesus and praying for their needs. And every night the stories of what God’s power is doing among human being are multiplied.

This is It, But…
This is what we have always hoped for and prayed for. This is what we lived for our whole lives. To see God in His glory and power so visibly drawing people to Himself, tugging on hearts and helping people to believe in the impossible has been the cry of all out hearts for years and years. We have prayed earnestly and God has answered our prayers. But we have discovered, much to our surprise, that God does not answer our prayers according to our understanding. Therefore, when revival and renewal come, they do not appear as we had hoped or anticipated.
We pray, “God, send revival to this nation.” So He sends it to someone else and we are offended. We pray, “God, I know it will take a mighty miracle to turn this country around. Please come and bring revival as in the days of old. “ So He answers us and sends a mighty outpouring and we are offended because His work oversteps our doctrinal boundaries. We pray piously for His love but reject the means by which He sends it. We cry out for wholeness and then deny the power of God to bring that wholeness. Some of us are such hypocrites that we change the words to Davis Ruis’ song, “Break Dividing Walls,” because we want some walls to be left standing.

God is Bigger
We cannot pray for revival and then deny the One who has heard our prayers and is graciously filling our land with His love as a result. Revival comes in only one form: His form. And His form can and will change from community to community and from age to age. We will only recognize Him in the “fruit-proof” of His work. I don’t know how any man or woman who has any kind of compassion and love for the Church and who has longed for His appearing can sit through these meetings at Toronto, Brownsville, and other places and feel anything but awe at the wonder and reality of God’s power.
Yet there is not question that religios in general does not want to hear these stories. God forbid that anything should come into the little kingdoms of religious men that might threaten the flow of tithes and offerings, challenge their traditions and doctrines, or distur the status wuo. He is not governed by the rules that religious men set up for themselves; neither is He thwarted by their efforts to limit and hinder His work in the earth.
God is who He is. E is answerable to no one. He is going to have His way in the earth no matter what men believe or what battles of words occur. Just as the reality of gravity is not dependent on whether or not I believe in it, so the reality of God’s presence and power is not dependent on the theology of men. He is not tied to what men think or believe. If the religious establishment won’t cooperate with god’s work in the earth, then God will raise up others to do what He wants done. Like the master in the parable of the wedding feast told by Jesus (see Lk. 14:16-24), He will go to the highways and the byways to find people to accomplish His purposes.

“This Revival is Good!”
The New York Times, the standard in secular American media, recently published a front-page story proclaiming that the revival at Brownsville and other places is just what America needs. Now, since The New York Times sets the standard for the secular press, no other secular media will oppose this point of view. They may take different angles and talk about the revival from slightly different perspectives, but all will report the same basic fact: The revival is good for America. It seems the secular media is more willing to see God do the miraculous than our religious brethren. Could it be that these brethren reject fruit-proof in their own ministries? I wonder.
Meanwhile, some religious media organizations and denominations continue to criticize and doubt hat what is happening in the current revival is truly of God.
Something is seriously wrong here. Jesus said that we will know His disciples by their fruit (Jn. 15:8; Mt. 7:16,20) – not by their family lineage, their proficiency in reading Hebrew or Greek, or their ability to recite the Scriptures. Fruit-proof is the criteria by which the activity of God is to be judged.

Judge by the Fruit
John the Baptist learn this while sitting in prison. He knew that his time was up. Although he had openly proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God, now he wasn’t so sure. So he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are You the right guy? Are You the One we have been waiting for?”
Jesus’ response was to point to the fruit-proof of His life and ministry. He didn’t say, “Get your Greek lexicon and bring Me some scrolls so that we can study.” He said, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sigh, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Lk. 7:22)/ He pointed John to the fruit-proof that validated His ministry.
Fruit-proof still stands as the litmus test by which we are to judge the authenticity of God’s moving on earth. Et many still try to disprove these things by “searching the Scriptures” to see if they match their pre=set theology or their narrow understanding of how God is to work. Jesus did not argue with John’s disciples. He simple said, “Go tell Jon what you have seen and heard.”
Who are we then, to so judge the fruit of God’s moving in our midst that we miss the life contained in His presence and power? Jesus’ final words to John were, “And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me (Lk. 7:23). We stumble when we try to fit the move of God into our old traditions and expectations. This was the response of the scribes and Pharisees, who attempted to use the Scriptures to prove that Jesus wasn’t the Christ. In His reply, Jesus pointed them beyond the letter of the Scriptures to Himself as its fulfillment: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me; that you may have life (Jn. 5:39-40). God is doing the same thing today.

Our Example of Fruit-Proof
Jesus has always been, and still is, our living examples of fruit-proof. Even though Jesus knew that the people of erusalem would soon crucify Him, He wept over them, longing to gather them to Himself as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings )see Mt. 23:37). This is the Spirit of Jesus. He pursues like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep and watches like a father longing for an errant son (see Lk. 15). He heals and comforts those whom men would cast aside (see Mt. 9:12). e prays for unity (see Jn. 17:20-21), and in the midst of His own private hell, cares for the needs of others (seeLk. 23:43). Always, His purpose is to release the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to bring relief to the downtrodden and the outcasts of society (seeLk. 4:18).
When such things as these are happening, God is in the midst of them. He is displaying His glory in the earth. Some will seek to discredit the fruit-proof of His coming. Others will doubt that He would appear in ways to which they are not accustomed. And still others will try to convince honest seekers that God doesn’t work in the same ways that He did in the early Church.

What Fruit Do You Have?
Beware of such folly. Changes lives are the fruit-proof of God’s presence and power. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the evidence of His life (see Gal. 5:22-23). When these fruit are present, we can be sure that God is present. It doesn’t matter if we can’t understand what is happening; we can still testify with the blind man (see Jn. 9:25). “Whether or not what you say is true, I do not know; one thing I do know: my marriage was in shambles, but now I am enjoying another honeymoon…I thought I would never hear from my son again, but he’s here with me today…I carried guilt and pain for years, but now I’m, free…I lived in unforgiveness, but now I forgive…I’ve limped m whole life, but today my leg is straight and strong.”
Fruit that steal hope and love, causes hatred and separation, and fosters doubt and suspicion, on the other hand,m reveals the absence of God. What fruit of God’s Spirit are you displaying when your words separate and divide? What fruit permits you to destroy love and fellowship> What fruit do you flow in that steals hope and confidence> What fruit of the Spirit limits God’s power and denies wholeness in Jesus name? None. No one fruit of God’s Spirit can justify these actions.
When then should we accept as truth the words of those who tell desperate people that someone other than Jesus ma answer the prayer they prayed in Jesus’ name> Why should we believe those who have the audacity to say, :The devil healed you,” when healing is received through the laying on of hands in Jesus’ name?

In Jesus’ Name
When we pray and lay our hands on someone in the name of Jesus, He alone answers our prayers and ministers healing. If it were not so, what kind of salvation could we have? If we cannot trust Jesus to answer our prayers in His name, then we cannot be sure that He is the one who heard and answered when we fist sought His name, then we cannot be sure that He is the one who heard and answered when we first sought Him for salvation.
Jesus is the anchor of our souls. He is the rock of our salvation. He is our refuge, our strength, and our high tower (see Ps. 18:2; 46:1). If we cannot trust the name of Jesus, then we have no reason to trust anything or anyone. We could be wasting our time. Every one of us would be a fool and Jesus a liar, since He said, “If you ask me anything in My name, I will do it” (see Jn. 14:14). If we can’t trust jesus, who are we coming to when we accept His invitation, “come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28)?
Life is not as complicated as some people would try to make it. It becomes complex only when we try to deny the moving of God in the earth because it doesn’t match our our presumptions of what God can and cannot do and of how He will and will not act. The true measuring stick of God presence is fruit-proof that matches the fruit of His Spirit. If the fruit you see and hear matches the fruit of God’s life, then run to embrace it. If it doesn’t, then beware lest you fall into the folly of those who deny the presence and the power of the living God.

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The Brink of Disaster
By Don Nori

Sacrifice and meal offering Thou hast not desired; my ears Thou hast opened; burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God; Thy Law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:6-8 NAS).

Everyone wants to be on “the cut ting edge.” It sounds so exciting. Nothing is more intriguing than to be in the center of His will and purposes, and that is how it should be. However, few people realize what it actually means to be on the edge of God’s activity. Others may call it the “cut ting edge,” but I call it “the brink of human disaster,” the place of His activity that is beyond what we can do in ourselves. It is beyond what we can complete in our own strength—that point at the brink of failure where either God intervenes or disaster happens.

The thrill of the Second Day glitz is giving way to the solemn responsibility of carrying the glory of God into the Third Dimension of Grace, the Most Holy Place. Here the glitz does not shine and here the fanfare does not motivate. Within the Veil, all that matters is Him and doing His will. In this dimension, the clatter of Second Day mixture is engulfed by a consuming passion to see His purposes fulfilled in the earth—no matter what the cost. Here in His presence, we remember the sobering warning that only with great tribulation do we enter the Kingdom of God. There is no mindless rhetoric here, no blind following, and certainly no misunderstanding of the cost involved in total surrender in the day of His power.

The carnal prayer of the immature is much like the request made by the mother of the disciples, James and John, when she asked, “Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy kingdom” (Mt. 20:21 KJV). Jesus answered this woman with a startling reminder that an eternal and everlasting covenant was be ing wrought here; real sacrifice would be made and real blood would be shed. The true disciple does not revel in his position; neither does he find pleasure at the precipice of failure. But his passion to be obedient to Him who has washed him moves him beyond the human safety zone and into the realm of “all God”—where God moves freely through the lives of those who have yielded to Him in spite of the cost.

This is truly the cutting edge from God’s perspective. Zeal cannot sustain you there. Ambition cannot get you there. Human cunning cannot buy or connive your way there. It is not for the flamboyant or the proud. He who arrogantly and confidently announces that he is on the cutting edge of God’s purposes confesses his meager understanding of His ways.

Such a person reveals his false assumption that there is indeed a cheap entrance into a realm of existence reserved solely for those who have abandoned themselves to His service without recognition or titles of honor. Those at the brink of human disaster do not need a place of prominence or the confirmation and stroking of religious politicians whose agendas are antichrist, and who cannot recognize the flow of His purposes in the earth under any circumstances.

God has much to do in this generation. There is much on His heart to accomplish. He is looking for peo ple who will not be afraid to go where He leads, who will trust Him enough to live on the brink of human disaster and see His will wrought in their lives. People who “wait around for God to do something” must become spiritually minded so they can see that God is always moving, that He has a plan. It is up to us to respond to the moving of God, to be a part of His plan for this generation. Those “waiting for God to move” do not understand the passion of God to sweep across the earth with His glory and power and flood the nations with His love and wisdom. If only we would be willing to follow Him to the brink of our fears, to break through time and space and peer into the eternity of God, we would be motivated beyond our limited capacity to comprehend His vastness. We would recognize our procrastination for what it really is: our unwillingness to pay the price to follow Him.

We have become skilled at finding excuses to “explain” why things do not happen as they should, and we end up blaming God by developing subtle doctrines that excuse the silence of the heavens or excuse our lack of understanding of the situation. Pure and courageous study of the Scriptures reveals a deep lack of human alignment to His ways. This realization brings us immediately to the brink of human disaster, where our only hope is to allow Him to totally overhaul everything we believe.

It requires an immediate abandonment of our current modes of operation and causes us to confess that we really do not know how to build God’s house. To this He quickly replies that building His house is not our job any way! Jesus said, “…I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18 KJV).

Are you so broken that you are willing to seriously admit—to yourself and to God—that just maybe you do not have all the answers? Are you willing to admit that you might not have built according to God’s will, that just maybe some adjustment is necessary? If this sounds like you, you are among the growing number of men and women all over the world who are more interested in “being found in Him” than in preserving their own way of believing or their own antiquated methods of doing things.

“The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant” (Ps. 25:14 NAS).

It is time to go into the closet and shut the door. It is time to lay aside our busyness and all the “important things” we have on our schedules to hear what the Lord has to say to us. If you are open to His voice and obedient to His call, you will find your self in the most exciting place in the universe: in the palm of His hand, on the brink of human disaster.

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Brokenness
By Don Nori

Brokenness—the disdain of tyrants and the wonder of kings. Her mystery has eluded the intellectual and empowered the noble of heart. From her bosom flows the power and compassion of the living God. But she is as rigid and unforgiving as she is gentle and hopeful. Her wisdom instructs the hungry of heart, but her law defies the most persistent of religious antics. She is as stubborn as she is giving, demanding as she is predictable, and essential as she is eternal. She is born in the womb of divine passion and gives birth to reckless abandonment to His desires.

Brokenness gives first, heals first, repents first, hopes first, loves first. Brokenness intercedes instead of accuses, covers instead of reveals, gathers and does not scatter, builds and does not destroy.

Brokenness promotes others, but she, herself, hides from the notoriety and clamor of the public eye. She does not parade her riches and her intimacy before the world, who will only use her secretly and discard her when her cost is truly understood. She reserves herself for Him alone. Her privacy is for His eyes and His heart only.

Brokenness is content with God’s love and assurance. She does not covet the adulation of mere mortal man; neither does she demand attention or recognition, as though her gifts are mere costume jewelry purchased in the marketplace of religious popularity and emotional fanfare. No, brokenness is not for the faint of heart; to find her requires a calculated and personal decision—a resolve, as it were, to welcome a companion who comforts, consoles, and lights the way through the darkest of nights. She is a companion in hiding, know ing, and understanding the frailty of the human species apart from Him. She sees weakness and storm, sorrow and pain, even sin and personal iniquity. But rather than possessing the power to change and deliver, brokenness is overwhelmed at a God whose love is so great, whose purpose so paramount, that He plunges us into His plan, saying so softly, so confidently, “Tend My sheep.” But brokenness argues, “Lord, You don’t know…” A reassuring smile breaks across His face and fills her soul with light. “Feed My sheep.”

Brokenness walks on with a bruised hip. Confounded at His love, deeply grateful for His mercy, and still struggling with sin, she tends His sheep. Her memory is crystal clear. Brokenness never forgets her need of mercy, never forgets the grace that flows on her behalf.

Brokenness ministers from her knees. She carries a towel over her ann and a basin of water in her hands. She is content. She has found her niche, her resting place in the bosom of His heart. As she prays, she prays with the sound of His beating heart in her spirit. Brokenness knows God’s desires and God’s plan. She can almost second-guess Him. Before He even says a word, brokenness is ready, on her knees with pail in hand, waiting to do the Master’s bidding.

Thus is the picture of the brokenness described in The Power of Brokenness. Some will dismiss it as an intellectual fantasy. Others will regard it as being incomprehensible with the mind and untouchable with the heart. But still others will welcome it, savoring the fire it ignites in the spirit and the hope and assurance it gives to the soul. To these go my confidence that in this generation, a Church will emerge that has learned the power of brokenness.

She is content with His promotion, if—and only if—He desires it.

Taken from the Introduction of The Power of Brokenness by Don Nori. Published by Destiny Image Publishers.

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Anna Maquino
I think that we need to and can rejoice that His will was accomplished through vindication, however it’s a two sided sword. We need to pray for God to touch the lives the vengeance was toward. God can use anything to bring people to Him. Ultimately while we walk in His favor and justice is executed God’s heart as our own should be on souls. In certain cases like pharaoh there wasn’t anything God could have done for Pharaoh heart. It was hardened. Those Israelites should have rejoiced. Vengeance was accomplished and at that point pharaoh needed moved out of the way. Yes. I think we do and can have a right to rejoice.

April 26th
How do we or can we listen for God’s voice?

Hiram Dorado
Yes, we can still listen to God’s voice, but our heart must be at peace if we want to listen to His voice. Saul asked for David so David could play his lyre and bring peace to Saul’s heart. Elijah ran to the cave so he could find rest and listen to God’s voice. Our hearts must learn to be still and wait on God, while we remain calm, peace will proceed, and our hearts become conscious to hear His voice. He still speaks to His children! Every father loves to speak to his children!

April 18th
What is the difference between the written Word and the spoken Word of God?

Mat Reames
The written word of God is the rock and foundation of our faith. The spoken word of God is the Holy Spirit teaching us how to understand and apply the truth of the written word. If the two ever contradict each other, it is the written word that is always right. The more we know the written word the easier it will be to hear the spoken word because we as sheep will know his voice.

They compliment each other and support each other, like a two –legged ladder. When I stand on the written testimony of God’s faithfulness to His people and on Jesus’ life on earth, when I read story after story from scrolls unearthed as short as a generation later, I stand on historic ground, on facts. The written word is still read throughout the earth, not tucked away behind glass in a darkened museum! Bible verses are life-giving, and many are records of the spoken, anointed word.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly” I Corinthians 13:12

Paul is telling us that we don’t have it all. We can miss it. Our vision can be distorted. Therefore, spoken prophecy can be off. The written Word is without fault. Also, In Hebrews 4:12, the writer talks about prophecies being a two-bladed sword. Therefore, the written Word is used to judge the spoken word.

In Matthew 16:23, Jesus rebukes Peter for speaking for Satan shortly after being praised for having a revelation of Christ. That shows us that one can hit it one minute and be off the next. This phenomenon is not true of the written Word. The written Word is always on.

Chris Guess
The spoken word emanates from the Spirit of God, is eternal and formless, while the written word emanates from the spirit of man as God’s light shines within. Through the wisdom of God’s eternal word, man brings forth laws, rules and decrees by which to govern the people. If the people will obey such patterns, the morning star of God’s Eternal Word will arise within their heart bringing them into life everlasting.

Buddy Sheets
The will of God is revealed providentially, by the logos Word and by Holy Spirit – the rhema Word. The logos is the good will of God, expressing God’s general desire for everyone. The rhema is the good will applied to our individual lives by Holy Spirit. The good will tells us to preach, the perfect will of God tells us to whom we should preach, where, when, how, with whom we should be preaching, when to start and when to stop. One is good, one is better , or perfect. Get it?

April 1st
Should Christians be involved in politics? In positions of political power?

(no responses)

March 22nd
Did Jesus take judgment to the grave with him? If so, am I still under God’s judgment?

Mark Hull
No because the word say’s we will all be judged for what we do good or bad.

Diane Small
If you are saved, yes and no. If you are not saved, yes and yes. The unsaved find ways to dig it up.

George Ross
God, as the Creator, is the standard by which everything is judged. Therefore “judgement” is always in effect. Condemnation and Damnation are the sanctions of that judgement and they were dealt with by Jesus sacrifice. It’s called Justification.

March 17th
In what ways does mercy triumph over judgment?

Gary
Mercy ESTABLISHES the THRONE (Isaiah 16:5). Judgment must only come FROM this Throne of Authority, lest we judge without Mercy.

March 7th:
Why is it we can do everything we are told to do and still not be fulfilled?

Michelle Manning
Because we do what is normal to the world the way we have known it.I hated feeling miserable and incomplete. I found out for myself. It was okay to say no. It was okay to be different.I am learning to move from the Spirit realm and learning. It is much more fulfilling to do what feels right in my heart no matter how different it may seem to other people.

Susan Storm
It is because fulfillment does not come from being good little girls or boys and doing as your told. It comes from being aware that we can live in the Loving and accepting arms of God having Confidence that His acceptance and love for us never changes and it is so endless that we can never run low on it. Living in it comes also with letting that love live through us.

February 28th and March 4th
In two sentences or less, tell me this: Why should I follow Christ?

Teresa Owens
He is the only one who knows where we are going.

Hiram Dorado
Every human being longs for some sort of spirituality (connection with the Divine), but Christ is the only pattern to make this a true relationship, between the source and the resource. The single most important directive in all the gospels was “follow me” because Jesus knew that once we knew Christ, we would understand how God is In man and how man is In God, for this very reason I prefer to follow Christ!!

Jerry Overcash
The Bible is the Word of God and it tell us to accept Christ as our Savior. Therefore it is our duty to obey God in order to seek his Him

Michelle Manning
Christ is the anointing to bring us to the fullness of His spirit. Jesus is Lord and the Overcomer so you can have life more abundantly

Ryan Elward
I follow Christ because like Peter I can say, “Lord to whom else shall we go, you alone have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68

Julie Britton
He is the lover of my soul and the light of the world. He is the beginning and the end.

Lori Cummings
I say not only follow Christ but walk in him…with him and be him. So many people walk behind…I say lead as Christ leads and live in the now of his Spirit.

February 14th
Can we stop loving someone? If we do stop, was it really love to begin with?

Kiloshini Liyanage
Yes, we can stop loving someone and yes, it was really love to begin with and what’s more, we can start loving them again. We love who we know – our husbands , our wives, our children, our mothers, our fathers, our friends and so on – and they in turn love us. We have respect, not love, for society, that is, people we don’t know, people who live around us. In between those we love and those we respect, are those we have stopped loving.

The only reason for the love to be gone is only one – they’ve hurt us…real bad, repeatedly and for a long time. Our love for them makes us forgive them time and time again but we arrive at a point where we realize that we can’t take it anymore and that’s when the love starts to diminish little by little until one day they are not in your heart anymore.

Nonetheless, there is hope! Jesus said “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” NIV (John 13:34) Now that is unconditional love we’re talking about, but if Jesus said we should do it then we should. How then does it work? How do we start loving someone again? We work on it day by day with the help of Jesus until we get to the day when we can look that person in the eyes and say with a sincere heart “I love you.”

Dawn Farnsworth
The eternal choice is always before us to choose life or death, which could be translated to love or hate, obedience versus disobedience.

Zenobia Wise
I think the answer to that question would depend upon what type of love one is talking about. There is a brotherly love that exists between close friends; there is an erotic and lustful love which should only exist between a husband and his wife. And there is a love which grows and develops between family members. I might imagine that any of these love could end at some point – since they each have their origin within the confines of the relationship or other external factors.

However, if we love as God loves, as Jesus demonstrates and as the Holy Spirit testifies to by agreeing to live within such broken fragile vessels – if we possess unconditional (or agape) love for someone – I do not believe that love can end. It is not rooted in the relationship. It akin to the love that God shows us; it is rooted in the very nature of God, who is eternal – and therefore this love is eternal in nature.

I Cor. 13:4-8 tells us, ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.’ This verse speaks of agape love. True love, agape love, is patient and kind. It does not envy or boast. It is not rude, self-seeking or easily angered. It keeps NO record of wrongs. It rejoices in truth. ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS perseveres. It NEVER fails. As such, and if you have that kind of love for anyone [truly have that kind of love], there would be no reason for it to cease. If it ends, then it probably was not true love to begin with.

Jordan Wyatt
We do have a choice to stop loving someone because God has given us a free will . But at the same time if your serving God and you say you love someone but on the inside you really don’t then your actually being false and your doing things with a wrong motive because it says in the bible do things of God with all your mind and heart . Also your being disobedient to God because the bible says to love your neighbors. And don’t bear false witness towards your neighbors. That’s.what I think. You can make a choice not to love someone because God did grant us free will. But if you seek God with all your heart then you will learn to love because your relationship increase with him.

Scriptures to back up: Jeremiah 29:13. Matthew 5:43. 22:39, 2 Chronicles 19:9

January 31st
Why do we waver in faith when we know what God did for us?

Diane Small
We seem to waver in faith when we know what God did for us, because we don’t know what faith is.Faith is not variable. You either have it or you don’t. Faith, the size of a mustard-seed or a moon, is faith. Our sin-natures, though no longer our identities, still attempt to war and lure us away from the assurance that we can do all things in Christ Who strengthens us.

We start to be tempted toward the ol’-time religion by which our works and rules-keeping might make us good-enough for God, and by which we always fail, thereby thinking, “my faith has [gasp] wavered!”

“Increase our faith!” we yell. Christ says “Nonsense. Return to that faith which you have…you have been allowed to waver so you know who you are…and Who I AM.”

Leslie Flinn
People waver because they have ‘head’ faith not heart faith. They do not believe in their hearts that I Cor. 1:20 is true. Faith works by love. People do not believe that Jesus loves them enough to hear their prays the first time, wait in Hebrews 11:1 faith, and praise Him for the answer before they see anything.

January 24th, 2011
What is the difference between religion and spirituality?

Peter Griffin
Religion is the residue left after the Kingdom has moved forward. It commemorates where God was. Like old manna, its useless. A believers spirituality is the measurement of the Kingdom flowing through them. It identifies the current level at which they are being Spirit-led.

Marsha Periera
The difference between religion and spirituality is that Religion is what man says about the nature of God and Spirituality is what Gad had breathed into Man to bring him closer.

Greg Wheeler
“I think the main issue between religion and spirituality is: Religion is man trying to fulfill God promise in his own strength. Spirituality is living the promise of God from the heavenly places where we are seated with Christ (Eph 2).”

Deborah Beyers
“Religion is fear based, Spirituality is Holy Spirit directed.”

Buddy Sheets
Religion is anti-spirituality functioning as an “outsider” seeking, from the outside, a way inside via an outsider’s perspective through works born from a darkened heart. True spiritually, however, is one connected with God “bridally”, from the heart level, an equally yoked companion seeking deeper intimacy with her glorious Bridegroom.

Religion is man’s attempt to approach God. Spirituality begins with God reaching out to man and finds it’s fulfillment in our response to God’s initiative.

Elisa Mattice
Spirituality= brave,honest, broken souls. Truly seeking reality of God and then actualy allowing Him to make Himself known/felt/experienced. Raw emotion. Real life.

George
The primacy of Jesus Christ.

Hiram Dorado
At a separate note: People who hate religion are perhaps experiencing a misunderstanding of what religion truly is and what they may truly hate is when people take spirituality away from religion; on the same sense, other people also don’t like when folks take religion away from spirituality. I used to hate religion until I apprehended the true meaning of religion and spirituality. The history of our religion is so rich and there is still so much to learn about it; that studying it has made me more spiritual. If I were to try to be spiritual without my religion, it would be as good as seeking the dead, becoming a medium, or talking to evil spirits that would claim to be Jesus.

Stephen Holmstock
Religion looks to find paths to the Father through knowledge and programs. It is has a form of godliness but denies the power thereof if not through and by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is the character and integrity maintained when none of your religious friends are looking!

Religion depends on man-made laws and tries to obey them to please men. Spirituality depends on the God-given law of love and walks in it through grace, to please God. Religion is based on fleshly concepts and that produce bondage. Spirituality bridges Heaven and Earth and sets men free.

Marie Wallace
Religion=antichrist, Spirituality=Jesus Christ, The Living Word. Caser closed Thank you my dear brother in Christ, your friend and sister in the Lord,

Peter Griffin
Religion is the residue left after the Kingdom has moved forward. It commemorates where God was. Like old manna, its useless. A believers spirituality is the measurement of the Kingdom flowing through them. It identifies the current level at which they are being Spirit-led.

Matt Reames
Religion is a mindset that your works alone can draw you closer to God. Spirituality is a philosophy that says your thoughts alone can draw you closer to God. Neither is relationship with Jesus. Intimate Relationship is the only way to God.

George
Religion is what I do for God. Spirituality is what God did for me.

January 17th, 2011
Why doesn’t God bless us with an overabundance of money to help the poor?

Mat Reames
We aren’t faithful to bless the poor and needy now, why would he give us more? We would squander it on ourselves and our own ‘needs’. If we are not faithful to do as God commanded with what we have, then why should he give more.

January 6th, 2011
How do you know if you have forgiven someone for wronging you?” Explain your answer.

Hiram Dorado
We learn to forgive from our Heavenly Father. The act of forgiveness is to bestow a favor unconditionally. We have no problem doing such acts with strangers. We know if we have forgiven someone for wronging us if we accepted them again in our hearts without reservations. We love them again as if we have never met them before. This is an extreme statement, but God also did an extreme act of forgiveness. We loved us and invited us to His heart as if we were brand new people.

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Children Born in Zion
By Don Nori

Our future is not just in Heaven; it is in our loins as well. Christians are beginning to
realize that we have a powerful biblical mandate to prepare our children to carry the torch of the gospel into the decades ahead of us,

The Church is coming to the realization that the return of Christ has nothing to do with our command to “occupy until I come.” Our eschatologies and our charts of coming events have robbed us of our most precious and invaluable commodity: our children. Our expectation of the Lord’s imminent return has caused us to fall into a dangerous complacency; we expect a momentary rapture of the Church to cover for our failure to prepare our children for the Presence of God in their generation.

If the Kingdom of God is to advance from generation to generation, there must be a radical change in our attitudes toward our children. The world’s system is always preparing her children to carry on the ideology of a sick and dying society, while the Church is waiting for a rapture that prevents the proper training and preparation of her children for tomorrow. We have been more concerned with keeping our kids off drugs and out of illicit sex until they reach the age of 18 (as if that “magical age” really means anything), than we have been with preparing them to serve the Lord Jesus. Some parents are satisfied if their children grow up to be good, moral citizens, regardless of their calling, as long as they are not embarrassed with one of their kids “messing up” somehow. This “preventive maintenance” attitude must change if we are to see real global progress in Christianity in the years to come.

I am not interested in preparing any of my five sons for anything less than God’s plan for their lives in the Kingdom of God. The thought of loving our children, gently nurturing them in the things of the Lord, using biblical principles to train them in righteousness, and then to turn them over to a godless, antichrist society should be anathema to every believer. Our goal and our passion is to see our children grow up to not merely accept our faith passively, but to aggressively and passionately pursue God’s will for their lives. I want my sons to know their calling to establish His Kingdom in the earth as a primary endeavor of life; I want them to know that true fulfillment comes through joyfully doing the will of God. To that end, I give myself to my sons as much as I feel I need to, not as much as I feel I can. For if I respond to them according to the demands that are on my schedule, I would spend very little time with them. So my priorities have changed over the years—I have put their needs before mine, before the things that constantly scream for my attention.

In the years to come, when some one looks back over the past, wonder ing where the years went and how they flew by so fast, I will point to my sons and declare that my years were not wasted, for they are captured in the lives of my sons. My ability to affect the generations to come has very little to do with what I build or how many people were in my church. It has nothing to do with how many books I have written or how many video tapes I have made. These things do not contain and cannot hold a man’s anointing. This anointing can only be contained by his seed.

Parents who have a passion for the Church of the next century need to begin to pour their love, attention, time, and instruction into their children, knowing that something wonderful happens in this process. God takes that substance of spirit that He has carefully formed in you with instruction and training, and somehow pours it into the little ones He has entrusted to you.

Children born in Zion have a mighty opportunity to carry our legacy and our anointing to places where we will never be able to go, far into the next century, and in their children, far beyond even then. Let us look again at our priorities. Let us under stand that our future is as secure as we have formed our children into vessels prepared to carry that which God poured into us from the generations before us. This article can never adequately detail the awesome potential of giving our children a heart to hear and respond to the plan God has had in His heart for the generations to consistently experience the ongoing glory of God through their posterity.

The future of the Church is bright. It is bright because God has called and anointed courageous saints like Pat Morgan with a passion and a mandate to battle for the seed and teach parents how to prepare their children for the years to come.

Allow the pages of this special issue of the Digest to ignite in you a passion and a resolve for your children that will carry you through the hard times as well as the good times. The day will come when you realize that all that God has given you will not go to the grave with you, but will live on in the lives of your children, their children, and their children too.

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Why Every Community Needs a Christian Bookstore
By Don Nori

It is absolutely true. Every community, every neighborhood, needs a Christian bookstore. Operating such a bookstore is more than a business; it is a calling.

I am sure that many of you can come up with more than three reasons why every community needs a Christian bookstore, but I have identified three that stand out to me.

1.Christian bookstores are a continual witness to the community that God is alive and that He cares for His people. It is one thing to have several churches preaching the gospel in a town. But without diminishing the importance and the role of the Church, let me quickly say that having the gospel preached in the marketplace, in the midst of competing secular businesses in malls and shopping centers, is quite another thing altogether. Its power and impact cannot be overestimated.

A bookstore on a street corner or in a shopping center says loud and clear: “Christianity is here to stay and I am part of its permanence.” It is a declaration and a standard by which other stores and shoppers are challenged and influenced. It is a light that would not otherwise shine.

Just having the store there in the marketplace brings comfort and hope, especially for those who are wandering and wondering. It is a security that reminds folks that God is near and that He really does care.

2.Christian bookstores are a melting pot. Churches that are unfortunately separated by doctrines and tradition find common ground in the store. It is here that folks from different churches begin to talk and maybe even begin to like each other and trust each other.

It is here, in the Christian bookstore, that denominational walls crumble as we all rediscover the commonality of our faith: the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

Here folks begin to realize what is really important concerning the true love of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Himself. When the store extols Jesus Christ and lifts Him up as Lord, all men are drawn to Him, which automatically thaws them to one another.

3.Christian bookstores research and gather essential Christian literature and gift items and make them available where they would never otherwise be offered for sale. A store thus seeds the community with the Word. Whether it be through Bibles, books, tapes, plaques, t-shirts, or computer programs, Christian book stores make sure the neighborhood is adequately sup plied with the stuff of eternity.

Stores often play an important role in revival, for through the products it sells, it raises moral consciousness, convicts of sin, and stirs the heart to genuine repentance.

So the next time you drive by a Christian bookstore, remember what they offer the community and what its value is as a ministry to the searching and hurting. Also remember to pray for them—the owners and employees have a tough job, without much appreciation.

Finally, decide to do all your Christmas shopping and general gift buying there too. You will be doing more than just buying good, wholesome products; you’ll be helping to keep the light shining in your neighborhood.

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Out of Our Control
by Don Nori

Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed (Psalm 2:12 NAS).

Kings of the earth do not only live in world capitals, where they rule the nations. They also occupy CEO desks and superintendent’s positions in some of our most renowned religious institutions. They are truly kinds and queens in the earth, these men and women who filter what we think, determined for us how we will worship God, and write prayers that ask God the right questions.

These are the uncrowned monarchs of religion, the emperors of an old, timeworn, weight-weary system of control and illusion. They sap money, talent, time, and strength. They take our best to build their best,m even though in many cases, it is God’s worst. They are driven with the absolute need to maintain control of men’s thinking and spirits. They know all too well the catastrophic aftermath when people are allowed to think for themselves and to seek God for themselves. They know that a God beyond their control is by far the most dangerous threat to their man-made systems of religion and dominance.

These monarchies will always fear a God who is not under their control. But Jesus has His own Kingdom that He is building. He earned the right. He paid for it with blood that neither you nor I could shed. For only the royal, holy blood of the Son of God would suffice to cover the horrible enormity of the cost.

Whose Mission are You?
Jesus is on a mission from God the Father, but many of these other are on a mission of self-gratification and private royalty. They are kingdoms unto themselves, living in a delusion of pompous self-idolatry. Figuring themselves to be untouchable within their fortress of money and the holy bureaucracy that they have built, they have forgotten the point of their existence. They have lost the power of the gospel and have missed their hour of visitation by a country mile.

They control their subjects from towers of impertinence and snobbish revelry. They live high enough above the people so as not to be touched by their diseases and infirmities, but low enough to continually exert control over them.

These leaders have painted a picture of a god so terrible that he can be appeased only by a legal religious “work ethic” that keeps the people controlled, confused and condemned. Their subjects anxiously live on the brink of losing their salvation, their spiritual gifts, and their destiny in Christ Jesus.

These self-proclaimed emperors make themselves the sole bastions of truth, the appointed keepers of the holy grail as it were (as though God Himself had appointed them to such an important function), while entrusting their denomination with what they pompously declare is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Genuine Truth Frees
Such schemers they are! They have so redefined Christianity that heresy is accepted as truth and truth is touted as poison to the soul. But if the truth really be told, genuine truth is lethal poison to the system of religion that these private kingdom builders have erected for themselves. Only the Truth can free the masses from a religious system that is a surely anti-Christ as Satan himself.

Fruit-proof demands a hard look at the truth that these would-be kings claim is divine, and are so certain that they alone are called to protect. The false “ jesus” of the system produces the fruit of bondage, anger, gossip, divorce, darkness, hopelessness, disintegrating families, corrupt governments, false standards of integrity, skewed morality, and a mediocre belief in God. It also produces abundant portions of legalism, tradition, and ultimately, death.

This system has no solutions for our society – or any other society. It has maintained the highest accumulation of funds of any corporation in human history, yet it is consistently inept in its ability to use that cash to change the world for righteousness. In fact, for all of its hundreds of years of existence, its millions of people attending weekly services, and its billions of prayers offered over the centuries, the system has had and still continues to have a pitifully insignificant effect in the world.

The Line is Drawn
On the other hand, the genuine “Jesus” of the cross, the instigator of true revival and renewal, heals the sick, restores marriages, and plants hope and destiny in the hearts of everyone who seeks the Lord.

Governments have responded, and communities, school, systems and even Hollywood have been profoundly affected by this phenomenon called revival, which has lasted less than four years. (And all of this has happened at a cost that is but a minuscule fraction of the annual budget of even one of these mammoth religious monarchies.

It does not take a Harvard graduate to see that the line is drawn right here, where the systems contrived by mere moral men are being threatened by a Life-giving force they cannot ultimately resist. If left unchecked, the Life of Jesus will invade these systems in order to restore all who are truly hungry for the Lord, releasing them into the glorious liberty of the Son of God. These are countless millions who desperately love Hm locked in these systems, and He has heard their desperate, brokenhearted prayers.

Everything is on the line, though. It is no wonder that many of the leaders of these man-made kingdoms are so afraid. The know that True Life will challenge everything they do, every rule they make, and every tradition they have set in place. The Life of God will strip them of everything that is not born of God.

Ask me how I know. Ask anyone who has experienced revival how they know. It has happened to all who call Jesus Lord and give Him true reign in their lives, But this knowledge does not come without a price – and it is a high price. Its purchase required everything I am, everything I own, and everything I call dear. I had to lay it all at the feet of the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Renewed people are not mindless, uneducated zealots who are merely looking for another religious high. They are sober men, women, and children who have seen something so far beyond themselves that they have determined it is worth more than they are. They have seen Him, high and lifted up above the hassles and struggles of life. They have seen Him lifted high above the standards of average religion. They have experienced hope and a real sense of eternal possibilities that they never dreamed were even out there.

Jesus is Building HIS Church
This is the good news. Revival always causes truth to be reborn in the hearts of men and women. Cynics and skeptics, sinner and scoundrels, lawyers and lemmings all have one thing, one fear in common when Jesus Himself comes in power and victory into a person’s life; He brings with Him a precious commodity. He brings living truth. This is what breaks through the strongholds and destroys man-made traditions and kingdoms.

The truth itself embodied in Jesus, who is Truth. This Truth changes the heart from within and the person who yields to Him will never be the same. And he will be much more difficult to deceive. It is no wonder that the (denomi)nations are in an uproar, and their leaders devise vain attempts to discredit and destroy revival. Why? If revival is allowed to go on uncontrolled, if God is “allowed” to continue out of control, then counterfeit Christianity is finished.

But wait a minute: if God is the mastermind behind the revival, and if the religious system is to be dismantled by Him, isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t it good for Him to wrestle he control of the true Church out of the hands of puny and selfish kingdom builders? Don’t we remember that He wants to build His own Church? (Contrary to popular belief, He can and will do it with precious little help from us, too, thank you very much!)

The Truth indeed sets us free. When people are set free, they cannot return to a man-contrived system of rules, traditions, laws, and legalism. Those things are now contrary to the new nature planted within them by the Lord/ And no matter how much you force the issue, you cannot bring them back to an old wineskin, anymore than you can put a butterfly back into its cocoon.

Therefore, do not be surprised to see some things falling down. Anything that can be shaken will be shaken. But this is only so that everything born of His Kingdom will be seen for what it truly is. Even in the most violent quakes, those things truly born of the Kingdom will not be shaken and will not fall.

So I leave you with a final word of advice: If something is crumbling apart in your life, be sure it’s not God who is knocking it down before you go in like a hero and try to save the day! You may find yourself resisting the very God you are so hungry to experience.

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Elements of Genuine Revival
By Don Nori

Who does not want revival? Who does not want the sweet Spirit of the Lord Jesus to sweep over the nation in genuine, heart-melting, life-changing reality? So why does revival tarry?

If the desire and the heart are there among God’s people, why do we apparently have to wait for what seems to be a random moving of the Spirit, as it seems to ebb throughout history and throughout society? Oh, none of us will really admit it, but there does not seem to be any trigger point at which revival actually comes.

We think that if we pray hard enough, beg long enough, and fast with genuine sincerity, we will force God’s hand in the matter and He will move. Yet, we serve a God who is more orderly than that—one more deliberate than that.

The way we Christians pray sometimes, it is as though we think God is up there in a great fluster moving from prayer to prayer and scurrying to answer prayer after prayer in a soil of helter-skelter fashion. It’s as though He is hoping that at the end of the day He can look back and get His satisfaction from seeing how many prayers were answered and how many He must wait until tomorrow to answer.

God moves from order, not chaos. He moves deliberately, purposefully, and decisively. He is not impulsive or erratic. He has His plan, conceived in His heart before the world began, and He wants humanity to cooperate with Him in the unfolding of His master plan for the cosmos.

But as deliberate as He is, He is not bound by our limitations of thought or faith. Our limited theological understanding of His purpose does not and will not prevent Him from moving forward in His redemptive purpose.

The cross is a classic example. Jesus was forsaken by everyone. He was utterly alone as He hung from that tree so long ago. Yet, that did not hinder God’s plan. Redemption went ahead as planned. (“And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine own aim brought salvation unto Me..:’ [Is. 63:5].)

Our willingness to believe or dis believe does not hinder His plan; it only hinders our participation in that plan. So, if you do not believe Jesus can save you, you will not be saved. If you do not believe He can heal you, you will not be healed. If you do not believe He can speak to you, you will never hear Him. His plan and purpose will never be hindered by a doctrine or belief system that attempts to limit His power and His love for humanity. He is bigger than our theology. He is bigger than my puny understanding of an infinite God who existed long before I came on the scene and will exist far past the time of my sojourn on this planet. It is absurd that I should attempt to limit Him based on my personal views and limited ability to understand the eternal things of God.

We are not waiting for revival; revival waits for us. It is not God who needs to be convinced to sweep over the world; it is we who need to get into a posture of repentant expectation. We create an environment of possibilities through our repentance, our openness to change, and our willingness to for sake anything that hinders the Lord from having His way among His people. This includes making the adjustments and changes in our lives that will bring His plan to fruition.

It also requires that we permit others to do and be what God intends for them as well. These almost always challenge our doctrines and our comfort zones. If the truth were really told, we often construct and choose our doctrines and belief systems to protect our hiding places and our comfortable, personal ways of thinking. Creating an environment of possibilities demands that we relinquish these religious relics of tradition and private rebellion. We must allow God to melt our hearts, thus releasing our spirits to freely experience the fullness of the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross and come into genuine union with the One who freely gave Himself for us.

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This is who will prevail, this whom He will use. The broken, the rejected, the compassionate, the needy, the small, the weak, the hidden… all these will change the world, proclaim His coming and see it everyday. These will love the unlovable, gather the unrestrained, use the unusable, heal the unhealible and serve the so-called dregs of society. From these they will understand the secrets of His kingdom. They will experience what cannot be seen, know what cannot be told and sense what can only be described as righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If there is an end to come, it will be the church that Jesus Himself is building that will usher it in, without fanfare, without recognition, without the praise of men.
I have said this a thousand times. His church is built by His hands alone; His Kingdom comes at command alone. The only visible one will be Him. He alone determines the details of His plan, which, to be sure, is none of our business.
So while we are spending time trying to establish our identity, who is allowing Him to establish His identity within His people? Our identity will pass away, no matter we do to ensure its eternal importance. His identity has endured time, persecution, and the misrepresentation of man.
It doesn’t matter what man calls us or even what he sees in us. The real question will always be, ‘do the people we are ministering among see Him in us?’
At the end of the day, our only prayer will be, “Not my will, but Your will be done”, “Here I am, us me”, “You must increase, I must decrease.” Any other prayer will smell with the stench of man’s flesh and will burn before God and rejected among men.

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