An Open Letter Regarding HEAL THE NATIONS

Heal the Nations is our annual conference.  On Wed 20th August, our second Heal the Nations kicks off.  We have an amazing array of guest speakers and we have a great worship leader.  We also have great ushers and hospitality people—a massive thanks for everyone who is involved.  I really love and appreciate you and your help!

Last year Heal the Nations helped people so much, and this year it is about to do the same again.  There is something about hearing the Word all day, worshipping all day and being in a positive atmosphere.  Healings happen, financial breakthroughs happen.  Lives change.  Freedom comes.  Vision comes.

I am just writing this to say that I want you to come to Heal the Nations, or at least as many sessions as you can.  Some people have contacted me and said “who is speaking when”… I have told them and indeed the speaker schedule is online—unlike a certain conference I have just been too where it was cloak and dagger!  But the truth is that if you come to hear one speaker although you will be encouraged and inspired by the Word, the whole conference has been planned with me carefully listening to God and asking who to speak and who to bring.  The messages I believe will blend together (like they did last year with each speaker mentioning that God was calling us to a feast) in a special way to inspire you and give you a healthy balanced diet that you may grow thereby.

I don’t want people to come so I can say “there were xxx people at Heal the Nations.” I don’t care—in fact the less people the more personal attention we all get!  I don’t want you to come to give in the offering, it has all been paid for in advance because of the generosity of this church and the wise planning of finances.

I want you to come because I know it will be the most awesome time of spiritual growth in your life.  I go to conferences, I know about many conferences—I know some are all about money, I know some are all about bragging that our conference is bigger than that conference.  I know that we are doing Heal the Nations for you.  God wants you to be healthy, He wants you to receive the Word in its entirety, He wants you to be a church changer, a nation changer, a world changer.  He wants you to be fully equipped to do the works of ministry.  All of the preachers at Heal the Nations are equippers—their heart is your best.  They wouldn’t be invited if it wasn’t so.

So whatever you are doing Aug 20th-23rd, plan to be where you can be equipped to be all God wants you to be.  Plan to be where the Word and the Spirit come together, where grace and faith are mixed together, and where dreams come true! 

Plan to be at an event that is going to help you, heal you, equip you, inspire you, challenge you, encourage you and lift you!

Plan to be where revival isn’t prayed for but is happening.  Plan to be where you are going to find out your destiny and begin to walk in your destiny.

Plan to be at Heal the Nations.

http://www.healthenations.net

Popularity Doesn’t Matter

Just as it is dangerous to follow a preacher or teacher because they are popular, it is equally dangerous to follow a preacher or teacher because they are unpopular.

I have been a follower of Andrew Wommack since 1998, when he rocked my world with a message called “Two Kinds of Righteousness”. Back then he wasn’t on TV in Europe, and nobody in the circles I moved in knew who he was.

Now Andrew is one of the leading TV ministers in this nation and his ministry has garnered a measure of success and his Bible Colleges are taking off and his conferences are growing, I actually know people who have stopped listening to his ministry, stopped going to his conferences, stopped being part of it all because “I’ve heard it all before”, “I’m on the new thing”, “I want to be on the fringe”.

Sometimes the fringe is exactly where it is happening. Sometimes it is just the lunatic fringe. Some people actually like being unpopular and being persecuted – sometimes they deliberately choose to go to a church that rejects tongues or healing or the grace message because they enjoy the feeling of being rejected and being persecuted. It makes them feel better than other people. Not being secure in their righteousness, they like being around people they feel superior to because that assuages their sense of guilt and inferiority.

Sometimes they come up with increasingly outlandish revelations in the name of grace most of which tend to universalism or a licentiousness which even our worst religious accusers wouldn’t dream we are capable of. Just to stay persecuted. Just to stay on that high of being on the “cutting edge”.

The fact is some days they will praise you, some days they will crucify you. Learn to live immune to both through faith in His work. Don’t let a need for popularity lead you to disobedience, and don’t let a need for unpopularity lead you to disobedience.

Find out where you fit into the body of Christ, get there and stay there.  People left Tree of Life Church because it was too unpopular, and people have left the church because it was too popular.  Being popular doesn’t mean anything – honouring God does.

Straining at Gnats

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In Matthew 23.24, Jesus in His gentle and tactful manner tells the Pharisees “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel”.  The Pharisees would get upset and vitriolic at the most minor of things, but fail to see how areas of their lives and ministries were hugely out of whack with God’s heart and love.

The fact is there are still people out there today.  As I express the Biblical truths about healing, people will come at you and say “That sounds Christian Science-y” – of course these will be people who have never met a Christian Scientist, never read Ellen White, and don’t actually know what Christian Science is all about.  But someone told them this, they think it sounds wise so they strain at the gnat in your teaching.  

Someone else might say “That sounds like Greek philosophy”, or the power of Words doesn’t work because I can’t confess I am married to a supermodel and have it happen tomorrow (the fact that doesn’t work is because their spirit has never been wired with faith for that to happen, but your spirit is wired for faith in healing and prosperity – the problem is the mind has been programmed for failure!). 

They are straining at gnats, but missed the camel.  Here is the camel:  Jesus told us that we should do greater works than Him (John 14.12).  He told believers (not apostles or pastors or super-doopers, but believers – all Christians) to lay hands on the sick and they would recover (Mark 16.17).  

The camel in the room is that Jesus Christ has given every single believer a healing ministry.  Hebrews 6.1-2 tells us laying hands on people is a FOUNDATIONAL and BASIC doctrine – the milk of the Word. 

If you are not seeing the sick healed in your life and in your ministry.  If you don’t have some testimonies of people being healed because you laid hands on them and prayed in Jesus’ name, then you have a massive camel in your dinner. 

You do not have time to find someone who is healing the sick and tell them that they haven’t dotted their theological i’s and crossed their philosophical and ministerial t’s correctly.  You have a far, far bigger problem: you are failing to help sick people the Biblical way and failing to go around doing good by healing all those oppressed by the devil.  You are failing to imitate Christ in one of the major areas of His life and ministry.  You are failing to help captives of the devil get set free.

You need to get on your face before God and ask Him for the wisdom to start seeing the sick healed in your life.  You need to dismantle some of your poor theology and thinking that leads to doubt and unbelief; you need to destroy the traditions that make the Word of God (that when sent healed the sick) of no effect.

You really don’t have time to go around correcting everyone else’s gnats until you sort out this massive camel.

If the church took this advice seriously, it would revolutionize our witness on planet earth.

5 Attitudes to Ditch before the New Year

1. Apathy.  There was a survey done of pastors of growing churches recently that showed the one thing they had in common wasn’t their theology, doctrine, mannerisms in the pulpit – but that they worked hard.  They knew how to rest and enjoy the rest patterns of life, but they worked hard.  They were continually learning how to engage with people better, how to become better leaders, how to influence and help people more.  Apathy never lets anything grow.  Gardens become wastelands when we do not tend to them.  Are there things you know need doing?  Make a list, and start working through them one after the other.  Stop watching nonsense on the TV, and vegging out all the time.  You are creating a vicious cycle that is not helping anyone.  Set the alarm for 5 one day before the family get up and spend 2 hours working through the to-do list.  Take a few days of Facebook – no one will actually miss you and your church or business won’t implode because of it.  Apathy is a killer, the Bible says clearly that laziness arms poverty in your life.  Not just poverty of finances but of thinking, of dreaming, of relationships.  Get up and put some effort into what you want to grow in 2013.

 

2. Stubbornness.  The death cry of the church or ministry or the business or the relationship is “we’ve never done it like that before…”  If you want different results that what you have always had, you will have to do something you have never done.  If you want success that you have never had, you are going to have become more flexible, more adaptable.  Stubbornness is a virtue only if you are right – if not, it is a vice.  Find out how people who have achieved more than you have achieved it, and make some changes.  Change is your friend, not your enemy.

 

3. Noseyness.  You have the exact amount of time in 2013 to do everything God has called you to do.  He is a master planner like that, but He has allocated zero time for you to poke your nose in other people’s business.  Every time you are interfering with someone else’s destiny you are absolutely failing to be working out your OWN salvations.  The fruit of the Spirit is self-control, not other-control.  Live and let live.  

 

4. Stinginess.  He who scatters sparingly shall reap sparingly.  Unless you learn true heart generosity, you will never receive the increase you deserve this year.  Become a great giver and you will become a great receiver.

 

5. Envy.  Stop looking at what other people and what they are doing in terms that you want them to fail so you look better.  Blowing out all the other candles in the room doesn’t mean yours will burn any brighter!  When Peter was told he would die for Jesus, his immediate response was “what about John?”  Jesus told him that John’s ministry was none of his business!  It’s true – the pastors envy the evangelists, the evangelists envy the pastors; the ushers envy the Sunday School workers, the Sunday School workers envy everyone who is not in the Sunday School… it’s hard to keep focused sometimes.  Spend time thanking God for what you DO have, and it is a lot easier not to get frustrated about what you don’t have. 

10 Reasons God Wants YOU Well…

10.  The Bible says that His Name is Healer (Exodus 15.26) – it is important to God that He is always faithful to His name.

9. Jesus wants us to enjoy life in abundance, and if you are sick you cannot be living life to the full. (John 10.10)

8. God created Adam sickness free and declared that it was good that man was healthy (Genesis 1.26ff)

7. In heaven there is no sickness (Revelation 21.4), and we are told to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 7)

6. In Deuteronomy 28, sickness is a curse and health is a blessing and Galatians 3.13-14 says we are totally set free from the curse and we have the blessing.  Sickness has not suddenly moved to the blessing side!

5. Jesus said healing is the children’s bread (Matt. 15.22-28), and we are the children of God (John 1.12)

4. Jesus went around healing the sick and doing good (Acts 10.38) and Jesus has not changed (Hebrews 13.8)

3. Jesus Christ carried our sicknesses and our diseases on the cross (Matt. 8.16-17) and we should not carry something that He carried for us.

2. Six one syllable words that it would take someone to help you misunderstand and misinterpret their plain and simple meaning: By His Stripes, We Were Healed (1 Peter 2.24)

1. The number one reason I know God wants you well is that you are beloved of the Father, and if you ask your Father for bread He will not give you a stone (Luke 11.11).  It is that simple: God loves you as a Father and every Father would want their child to be well.  That is just a fraction of how much God wants you to be well.

All you have to do is believe and receive (Mark 11.23-24) and you can enjoy divine health for the rest of your life.

Glory and freedom,

Benjamin

Christianity: A New Heart (Dag Heward-Mills)

CHRISTIANITY

Read: Eziekel 36:22-28

“…that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ” John 3:6

The difference between Christianity and every other religion is simple. Christianity claims to change the essential nature of a man. Jesus makes you a new creation. You become a brand new creature with a brand new heart.

In the Old Testament, the prophets predicted that the day would come when God would take out the stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an HEART OF FLESH.” Ezekiel 36:26

When a man is in Christ, he is a new person. He is regenerated. He is born again. When we speak of being born again, we do not mean going into your mother’s womb again. It is your spirit, the inner nature, that is born again. There is a rebirth of the human spirit. “…that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:6

Outward change is not the answer. Obeying a set of rules does not change your heart. Coming to Christ and being born again is what affords every man the opportunity to have a new heart.

If you take a pig and wash it, bathe it and dress it up in a wedding suit, all you have is a dressed-up pig. This same pig will return to the filth which it is used to because that is its essential nature.

I believe with all my heart that it is only a change in the unsaved nature of a man that can bring about a change in this world. New Year’s resolutions and obeying rules do not change anything because the spirit of the unsaved man is dead and desperately wicked.

No one toys with a dead thing. Dead things must be separated from living things. The only hope for a dead and wicked human spirit is the miracle of rebirth in Jesus Christ.

Walking in Wealth: Poverty Is A Curse

One of the foundational truths we must assimilate into our minds if we are to prosper is that poverty is a curse.

Poverty is not a teaching tool of God, it is not a vow we should take, it is not a blessing-in-disguise.  It is a curse.  It is a negative thing, it is evil, it causes grief and pain.  Poverty is not and never will be a good thing.
Let’s look at a few Bible verses on poverty, starting with Proverbs 6.10-11:

10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

11So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

Here the Word of God likens poverty to an armed man (an armed robber according to the NLT).  This is how Scripture sees poverty: like a thief.  Does that remind you of another Scripture perhaps: The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy (John 10.10, AMP).  Poverty and the devil are parallelled in these two Scriptures.  Get this into your spirit by thinking about it and meditating on it: poverty aligned with the devil.  Poverty is not good.  Taking a vow of poverty is not a good idea, it is a foolish idea!

Proverbs 10.15 says the destruction of the poor is their poverty.  Poverty is a destroyer.  Remind you of anyone?  Poverty is from the devil!  If you look through Deut. 28.15-68 you will find a list of curses.  In there is never having enough, being hungry, being thirsty, not having a home, being naked.  Poverty is always on the curse side.  Look at Deut. 28.1-14 and you will find a list of blessings: having overflow, having more than enough, having choices you can make in life about what to wear and what to eat.

This is how you can know that Jesus Christ wants you wealthy: Galatians 3.13 says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.  Do you realize this: God, in Jesus Christ, has completely redeemed you from poverty, from hunger, from thirst, from nakedness.  You are blessed.  You are able to live a great life.  You need to start thinking this way.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Cor. 8.9)

I will pen some more on how to live in wealth next month,

Blessings,

Ben

God Has Your Miracle on His Mind (Gloria Copeland)

God Has Your Miracle on His Mind

by Gloria Copeland

What do you need from God today?

Stop and think about that for a moment. It’s a serious question. Picture yourself the way you want to be, healthy and whole in every area of your life. That is the will of God for you, you know. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, He desires you to be “preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)” (The Amplified Bible).

God wants you to be sound and complete. It’s His perfect will for you to be whole, undamaged and intact—spirit, soul, and body—before Jesus returns. In light of that fact, let me ask you again: What changes would you need God to make for His will to be fulfilled in your life? What would it take for you to be whole?

It would take a miracle.

That may well be what you’re thinking right now. If so, I am here to tell you God has one for you. He has as many miracles as you need. He is the God of the miraculous.

What’s more, He is thinking about you today. That’s amazing, isn’t it? The fact that the Almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth has you and me on His mind is almost more than we can comprehend. Yet we know it’s true because the Psalmist says, “How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn towards me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!” (Psalm 139:17-18, The Living Bible).

Just imagine that! When you woke up this morning, God was thinking about you. He was aware of your needs. He was mindful of the blessings He has laid up for you and He was making plans to get them to you.

In other words, when you awoke this morning God had your miracle on His mind.

Every Part Precious

I preach about healing a lot and healing is wonderful. But sometimes you need more than healing, you need a miracle. A miracle is different. A miracle is something that is absolutely impossible apart from the supernatural working of God. It’s something that cannot happen by natural means.

If you have a disease, you need healing. But if you have a part missing—if you were born without fingers or toes, for example, you need a miracle. For years, it’s been prophesied that we will see those kinds of miracles again in the Body of Christ. It’s been prophesied that we’ll see all the miracles the early church saw and even greater miracles than those. I sense in my heart we’re there!

I truly believe it. They might say, “Surely, you don’t expect to see somebody grow a part on their body where there was no part before!”

Yes, I do. God has parts for people! The Bible says He made all of our parts before we were born and we can easily believe that. Why is it so unthinkable that He could add another part at a later time if it’s needed?

Just before the verses we read that tell of God’s thoughts about us, Psalm 139 says:
 

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect [or unformed]; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (verses 14-16).

According to those verses, God wrote down all your members (every part of you) in His book. And because God does all things well, He didn’t write them down as broken or missing. He wrote them down as whole and intact.

My friend Billye Brim has revelation of that so she speaks to her body according to those scriptures. She says, “My parts are written in God’s book. So, parts I command you to be the way God designed you to be. I command you to be whole and complete in agreement with God’s book. All my parts are intact with nothing missing, nothing broken. All the parts of my body function and work as they’re designed. I receive what the Book says about me!”

You may not have thought God cared about your parts but He does. Your parts are as important to Him as they are to you. He made them for you and He wants you to have them the way He made them. We need to get that revelation because God is ready to restore some parts. He wants to work miracles!
 

Expect the Impossible

I am fully expecting to see those miracles in the days and months to come. In times past, we’ve had people who were very small in stature because of disease or abnormality come to Healing School and ask us to pray for them that they might grow. Naturally, their DNA had patterned their body to be very small. But that’s not their heavenly DNA. That’s not how God designed them to be. That’s just something that happened as a result of the devil’s work in this world. Through thousands of years of getting people to sin, he’s been able to mess up God’s perfect plan for people-not only spiritually but physically.

Well, what do you think God did when He saw that the devil’s work had perverted His divine plan and made that person abnormally small? Do you think He said, “Oh, my. I guess the devil won this time. I’d better go back to My book, scratch out My perfect physical plan for this person and write in ‘midget-size,’ instead.”

Certainly not. God never changes. He just kept the original entry in His book which says that person’s DNA is perfect. Now He’s waiting for somebody to agree with Him and believe for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

If faith in the Word of God is spoken and released without wavering, I believe we can see that small person G-R-O-W up and become normal right before our eyes.

You might think that would be impossible and, naturally speaking you’d be right. “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). “All things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23) so we need to start believing.

We need to start expecting the impossible!

It’s Never Too Late

Of course, people with physical abnormalities or missing parts aren’t the only ones who need miracles. Miracles are also needed when natural circumstances have gone on so long that it looks like it’s too late for a turn around. Abraham and Sarah needed that kind of miracle, for example. They needed a child for their lives to be whole and intact. Yet they were well past childbearing age when God told them He was going to give them one. They were about 100 years old.

No doubt, their natural thought was, Even if God did heal our barrenness, it’s too late for us now. We’re too old. That kind of thing can’t happen this late in the game.

But God did it for them, didn’t He? He proved that it’s never too late for a miracle.

A friend of ours experienced a “never too late” kind of miracle in his family. His name was Justus Du Plessis and although he went home to be with the Lord a couple of years ago, he experienced some amazing things during his lifetime as a Pentecostal minister in South Africa. On one occasion his father was desperately ill. In fact his father’s death was so imminent that the doctor who came to see him went ahead and filled out his death certificate.

After the doctor left, the church members gathered around to pray and while they were praying, he was healed. Do you know what he did? He got up, took a shower, milked the cows and then walked to the doctor’s house to return his death certificate.

Talk about a miracle coming late in the game! You know it’s late when you have to take back your own death certificate!

Clearly with God, it’s never too late for a miracle.

The Definitive Factor

Okay now, you may be thinking, if God wants to give me a miracle and I want to receive one-what’s the problem? Why hasn’t a miracle already taken place in my life?

For a miracle to get from heaven to earth, a divine connection has to be made. Miracles aren’t magic. They don’t just happen—poof!—because God decides to wave His miracle wand one day. No, miracles primarily occur when people put themselves in position to receive them.

To find out how to position yourself for a miracle, you can study the miracles in the New Testament. As you do you’ll see patterns emerge. You will find certain elements were most always involved when miracles happen.

The first of those elements is faith. Whenever a miracle takes place someone on earth is believing. It might be the person who needs the miracle. It might be the person who is ministering. It might be someone praying for the one who is in need. The situations may vary, but the fact remains that it is faith in God which connects the power of heaven with the need on earth. For a miracle to happen someone has to believe that God is willing and able to do it—and do it now.

Galatians 3:5 confirms that. There the Apostle Paul, rebuking the Galatians for their legalism, asks this question: “Does He Who supplies you with His marvelous [Holy] Spirit and works powerfully and miraculously among you do so on [the grounds of your doing] what the Law demands, or because of your believing…?” (The Amplified Bible).

The answer is obvious. God works miracles because we believe! We could look at one miracle after another and see that truth in action.
 

  • In Mark 5, when the woman with the incurable issue of blood receives her healing, Jesus says, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole” (verse 34).

     

  • In Mark 10, when blind Bartimaeus receives his sight, Jesus says, “thy faith hath made thee whole” (verse 52).

     

  • In Luke 17, when the leper is not only healed but his body parts are restored and made whole from the disease that had eaten them away, Jesus says, “thy faith hath made thee whole” (verse 19).

     

  • In Acts 3, when Peter and John heal the man who was crippled from birth, they give glory to the name of Jesus. And Peter says, “His name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness” (verse 16).

It’s interesting to notice that the power of God isn’t mentioned in most of those instances, just the faith of the people. I think that’s because God’s power and His willingness to heal and work miracles never changes. The variable is people’s faith. Faith is the definitive factor.

Just Do It

As important as faith is, however, that alone won’t get the whole job done. You can’t just sit around believing on the inside and doing nothing on the outside. For faith to come alive you have to take action. As James 2:26 says, “faith without works is dead.”

You can see the connection between “doing” and receiving in the very first miracle Jesus ever performed. I especially like to think about this miracle because it was clearly not a miracle Jesus planned to do. It was one that was drawn out of Him by the person who most wanted that miracle—His own mother Mary. John 2 tells us that she and Jesus were attending a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the host ran out of wine. Mary looked to Jesus to do something about it. He told her His time to do such things had not yet come but her faith was unshaken. She continued to expect a miracle and she turned to the servants and said:
 

Whatever He says to you, do it. Now there were six waterpots of stone standing there, as the Jewish custom of purification (ceremonial washing) demanded, holding twenty to thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, Fill the waterpots with water. So they filled them up to the brim. Then He said to them, Draw some out now and take it to the manager of the feast [to the one presiding, the superintendent of the banquet] (verses 5-8, The Amplified Bible).

What happened when the servants did what Jesus said?

They saw a miracle. The water was turned into wine!

It would serve us well to always remember what Mary told the servants that day. She said, “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.” That’s one of the major keys to receiving a miracle.

Whatever the Lord says to you—do it.

If the Lord tells you to get up and run, get up and run. If He tells you to dance and shout, then dance and shout. One time a man attended Healing School and during the meeting the Lord told him to run. He didn’t want to run in the meeting so he ran out the door, ran outside and ran around the block. If you think that’s silly, think again because he came back in healed!

Whatever the Lord tells you to do, do it!

If he tells you to repent of something, you repent. If he tells you to forgive someone, forgive them. He knows what you can do that will bring you into position to receive. So listen for His instructions, then obey!

Kick Doubt Out

Once you’ve believed and acted on your faith, refuse to doubt or fear. When the devil comes to you and says, You’re not going to get that miracle. You don’t deserve it. Remember how many times you’ve failed God. Refuse to entertain those doubt-producing thoughts. Instead, just answer him and say, “Bless the Lord, I don’t get what I deserve. I get what Jesus bought for me. I get the mercy of God. I get a miracle!”

Every time I think about refusing doubt and fear, I think about the story of Jairus. Initially, when he came to Jesus his daughter needed a healing. She was very sick and Jairus believed if Jesus came and laid His hands on her she would be healed. But before that healing could take place, Jairus’ daughter died. Suddenly the girl didn’t just need a healing, she needed a miracle.

Do you know that Jesus wasn’t disturbed by that? He knew that God could work a miracle just as easily as He could perform a healing. So he said to Jairus, “Do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear; only keep on believing” (Mark 5:36, The Amplified Bible). We know that this worked because the little girl was raised up whole.

That’s a good word for all of us who are positioning ourselves for a miracle. No matter what the devil says, no matter what circumstances may say, no matter what our natural senses might try to tell us, if we’ll refuse to doubt, refuse to fear and keep on believing God, our miracle will surely come!

Kenneth E Hagin – What To Do When Faith Seems Weak and Victory Lost

Every one of us have had times when we have felt that our faith is weak and our victory is lost. This sermon will teach you what to do in those times. Be blessed and enjoy!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Jesus Loves the Poor (Ulf Ekman)

Two Sundays ago, I preached a sermon about how Jesus loves the poor and the weak in an altogether special way. I believe that is so. When He came here to earth He identified Himself with us all in our poverty, but He looked upon those who had great need in their lives in a very special way. Throughout His entire life, He showed that. He had pity on those who were wounded and very much the worse for wear. He was sent to the broken-hearted, to heal them and to preach the good news to the poor.
In Isaiah 58, the Lord shows us a route, which is both to a true fast that is pleasing to Him and one which is for our healing. This is what it says from verses 6-8: “
Here is a way that breaks with today’s materialism and hedonism. Of course, I believe that the Lord wants and is able to bless His people and that He can do it in abundance. There is a risk, however, and it is an incredibly big one, and there are many examples to prove it, that that way of thinking can lead to full-on selfishness if it is not balanced by what the Bible says elsewhere. There is also a difference between poverty and simplicity. Simplicity is self-imposed and a sign of abstemiousness and self-control and it often makes life easier to live because much requires more and “things take time” (as Peter Halldorf is wont to say).

Poverty is a scourge and the enemy of mankind. The statistics for how many succumb to poverty, starvation and related diseases are hair-raising. And neither can we close our eyes to the fact that there are structural reasons for poverty and that great injustice exists where the rich become richer and the poor poorer. These are truly not facts that ought to be kidnapped by the far left and made use of in their manifestos. Neither is it only the left who have the capacity for empathy or to solve the problem of poverty. But against that, there is the risk of having a totally individualistic worldview – secular or Christian – and then these problems get brushed aside.
God loves the poor and he who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker (Proverbs 14:31). He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, says Proverbs 19:17