MAKE SURE YOU PUT CUSTOMERSERVICE@IDENTITYNETWORK.NET INTO YOUR ADDRESSES IN YOUR EMAIL SERVER. IF NOT, YOUR EMAILS FROM US WILL GO TO YOUR SPAM FOLDER.
Allow me to explain the extraordinary way that the mind works and how wonderful God is in that creation. Now, there are a number of reasons that the Lord speaks in the night during our rest, I am going to cover just one reason I believe he chose this method. When you are faced with any instruction or insight in the world, from a conscious place of awareness, your mind will often negate or distort the thought. Negate means to remove the thought - to dismiss the thought.
Prophets are called with a Biblical job description, but they are also called with a personal mandate from the Lord, if they are real ones. You could also call that an assignment, often many assignments, but at least one. And they are still "regular people!" - meaning that they have all the human emotions and feelings that others have, but God puts an imposition on their life. That imposition is meant to be an honor, but many don't want "that" honor. But it's no different in the fact that nobody can completely control their life.
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. Genesis 39:1–2 Would you consider the young man Joseph, who was about to be sold into slavery, "a successful man?" Of course not! Yet, God says in His own words that Joseph was a successful man.
God always gives me a word for the year. It's usually a word I either think I know or don't want to spend time thinking about. This was more than true with the word He gave me for 2021. It is the word "more." The first thing I thought when He gave me the word was, What more, God? I don't want more. More means I have more to do, more to handle. I'm not sure I like this word. Here's the deal: God doesn't care if I like it or not. He wants me to understand and experience what the word means.
In a dream I recently saw portions of heavenly cloud falling down out of heaven until the earth was covered with a cloud. It was white as snow covering the ground. Then I saw beautiful white turtledoves in small circles scattered in the cloud with flames of fire coming up out of them. They were somewhat elusive, but I was infatuated with this making effort to put my hand into a group of flaming turtledoves – once I did, it was an amazing experience as my hand was not burnt by the flames. Then I looked further seeing many groups of these turtledoves moving around in the cloud which so beautifully covered the earth.
"If your heart is broken, you'll find God right there; if you're kicked in the gut, he'll help you catch your breath" (Ps. 34:18, MSG). Broken: having been fractured or damaged and no longer in one piece or in working order, (of a person) having given up all hope; despairing. It seems no matter who we are and how much we love Jesus, there remains a broken area in our lives that God is still working on. I said to my wife recently, "Do you know anyone in the body of Christ, including us, who's not broken in some area of their lives? Do you know anyone who is normal?" She said, "Bill, normal is the setting on the dryer downstairs."
In one hundred years, most of us will not be here. In fact, many who are reading this may not be here in fifty years, and others may have less than twenty-five years. By then, those who have committed will have met our sweet Master face to face and gained their heavenly reward. I do not write these things to frighten you, but rather to provoke you to deeper reflection. I have a pondering heart as I write this because eternity is closer than we even know. I feel a healthy fear of the Lord when I reflect on this reality. We will all stand before the righteous judge soon enough and give our account for the way we invested our lives. How did we spend the lives God gave us?
Matthew 6:33 (NIV) says, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." The key to living the abundant life God has for us is learning to make Him our first priority. Yet many people seek the "things" first, things like jobs, houses, cars or other material things. To seek means "to crave, pursue, to make sacrifices to get, to go after with all of your strength and all of your heart." It's a mistake to crave and pursue possessions, believing they will give us the lasting peace, joy and contentment that only come from God's presence in our lives. Take a moment and ask yourself, "What am I seeking? What do I spend most of my time thinking or talking about? How do I invest the majority of my energy?" These are important questions you need to answer from your heart.
This afternoon I was looking at an old notebook from 1991. I always loved spending hours studying the Word of God and taking notes. Even as a young believer I understood the transforming power of the Word of God. I learned that Jesus was with God in the beginning when He created the world, and He has given us the same creative power in our words, therefore we could speak things into existence. We could speak to mountains to be cast into the sea and it will obey. I understood the covenant that Jesus established with us when He died on the cross, and I knew that healing is always Gods will for us.
Every influential person has gone through a step-by-step process to their ultimate success. If you follow the same pattern, you too can discover ultimate success. That's one of the many wonders of human behavior. If you desire something, you can find someone else who has achieved what you want and imitate exactly what was done. This is called modeling. The Apostle Paul referred to modeling when he wrote, "And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1 NLT). Have you heard the story of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen who co-authored Chicken Soup for the Soul together? In creating and publishing this bestseller, they went through the same process every successful person has gone through.
This page does not exist.