The surrendered life

- David Wilkerson, January 2002 -

 "Surrender." What does this word tell you? In literal terms, surrender means to give up something to another person. It also means to relinquish something granted to you. This could include your possessions, power, goals, even your life.

Christians today hear much about the surrendered life. But what does it mean, exactly? The surrendered life is the act of giving back to Jesus the life he granted you. It's relinquishing control, rights, power, direction, all the things you do and say. It's totally resigning your life over to his hands, to do with you as he pleases.

Jesus himself lived a surrendered life: "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me" (John 6:38). "I seek not mine own glory" (8:50). Christ never did anything on his own. He made no move and spoke no word without being instructed by the Father. "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things...for I do always those things that please him" (8:28-29).

Jesus' full surrender to the Father is an example of how we all should live. You may say, "Jesus was God in flesh. His life was surrendered before he even came to earth." But the surrendered life is not imposed on anyone, including Jesus.

Read more HERE.

12 Things You Need to Really Get Rid of in the Next 12 Months

- Lolly Daskal in Inc. -

"In 12 months you can be a more successful, more productive, more effective leader. You just have to get rid of these 12 bad habits.

If you want the next 12 months to be different than the past 12 months, look at your habits.
   Changing a habit, especially a bad one, is among the most powerful forces you can employ to make your life and business better.

   Here are 12 habits many of us repeatedly struggle with. If you recognize yourself in any of these, you really need to get rid of them--and this time next year, you could be free of the consequences they cause."

Christians See Parallels Between Rise Of Islamic Terrorism And End Times

- Prophesy News Watch -

"While there are differing versions about end-time eschatology, an overall increase in the belief we are living in the end-times shortly before the return of Jesus Christ coincides with the rise of ISIS and their attempt to bring in similar Islamic based prophesies regarding the end.

   Many have been lamenting President Obama’s ISIS strategy, saying they do not believe he has a plan to deal with the threat of terrorism, both here and abroad. This theme has played a major role in recent Republican debates as the candidates have all criticized the president for even refusing to use the term Islamic terrorism for fear of offending Muslims. However, many fail to realize the theological implications that motivate many in the Muslim world. This failure prevents our leaders from coming up with an adequate strategy to defeat an enemy motivated by religious fervor.

   ISIS, including the governments of Iran and other Muslim counties, believe they are commanded to fight against all non-Muslims, as well as those Muslims they consider apostate, until Jesus comes back to put down the anti-Christ. However, unlike Christians who believe that Jesus will come back to put all nations under his feet, they believe Jesus will submit to Allah."

Day of the Locusts

David Wilkerson, December 2001

In Revelation 8, we read of seven angels sounding off trumpets. These mighty horn-blasts warn all of humankind about awesome calamities coming upon the earth.

The first four blasts warn of incredible pollution that poisons the trees, grass, rivers and seas, as well as the air. Waters become bitter, and skies darken over one-third of the earth.

Then, in chapter 9, a fifth warning comes. It describes a worldwide invasion of locusts:

"There came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power" (Revelation 9:3).

Who is behind this terrifying swarm of locusts?

Read more HERE.

Salvation Army Today - 12.15.2015 - Our Christmas Gift; Angel Tree Program

The Salvation Army in the Australia Southern Territory has shared in the joy of the holidays with Our Christmas Gift, a concert spectacular held in the city of Melbourne. Featuring several well-known Australian entertainers, the Melbourne Staff Band and a 130 strong community choir, this annual event was celebrated with five thousand people in the famous Hamer Hall, as well as beaming live into Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne. Our Christmas Gift is The Salvation Army’s way of saying ‘thank you’ to the people of Australia for their ongoing support.

It´s Thursday - Reflections om Genesis (54)

They told him(Jacob), “Joseph is alive! In fact, he is the ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them,' Genesis 45:26. 

Had you been Jacob and believed your son to be dead for over 20 years, what would your response have been to the news the brothers brought back from Egypt?

Obviously Jacob was shocked at what he heard. It was unbelievable. It reminds us of the reaction of the disciples at the news, 'Jesus is alive,' that first Easter morning: how none of them would believe without evidence. Only as each disciple met with the risen Lord, did they believe.

Jacob, on seeing the evidence of the carts,(v 27), (and no doubt the 'best things of Egypt' v23, that Pharaoh sent), believed. We believe in heaven, not because of what others have told us or even what the bible says, (as true as that is). No! We believe because of the evidence, the taste of it that we have now, the presence of Jesus  within us made possible by the Holy Spirit. (1 John 5:9–12). The things that were sent from Egypt were convincing proof that what the brothers were saying was true. Our personal experience, here and now, of the presence of Jesus in our hearts is convincing evidence that what we have been told and what the bible says, is true. God bless you all.

An Ever-Increasing Faith

David Wilkerson - August 2001

"The apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5).

The men who comprised Christ's close circle were asking something important of their master. They wanted a greater understanding of the meaning and workings of faith. They were saying, in essence, "Lord, what sort of faith do you desire from us? Give us a revelation of the kind that pleases you. We want to grasp faith in its fullest meaning."

On the surface, their request seems commendable. Yet I believe the disciples asked this of Jesus because they were confused. In the previous chapter, Christ had baffled them, saying, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much...If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" (16:10-11).

Jesus knew his followers' flesh wanted to avoid what they considered to be the lesser matters of faith. So he told them, "If you're faithful in the little things, the foundational matters of faith, you'll be faithful in the greater things too. So, prove yourself trustworthy in the basic requirements of faith. Otherwise, how can you be trusted with a deeper measure?"

If we're honest, we'll admit we're much like Jesus' disciples. We also want to proceed straight to the larger matters of faith, to obtain the kind of faith that moves mountains. And, like the disciples, we often judge faith by visible results.

Read more HERE.

Interview: Colonel Linda Bond

Original Publication - JAC #13,  June - July 2001

Linda Bond is the Chief Secretary for The Salvation Army, Canada & Bermuda Territory. She has been a Divisional Commander in the United Kingdom and Canada. She has also served at I.H.Q. in London.

JAC: Please tell us a little about your experience of holiness.

LB: If I look to a dramatic experience, it would be while I was a cadet in College. This is not the time or place to go into detail, but the Lord came to me in a very clear way and assured me of a deep cleansing. I do have to confess that I have failed Him miserably, but I am convinced that His call to holiness is insistent and every provision through His Son and Holy Spirit has made it possible for me to claim by faith this holy life.

He has all there is of Linda Bond and whether He chooses to grant dramatic encounters in my spiritual journey or requires me to walk by faith alone, then that is His choice. I seek to be like Jesus and be open and responsive to the Holy Spirit.

Read more HERE.

It´s Thusday - Reflections from Genesis (53)

 'Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, 'Don't quarrel along the way!' Genesis 45:24

 

I love the little incidental verses we find in the bible, the tiny throwaway remarks that seem at first sight to have little importance in the story. At the end of the story of the healing of Jairus's daughter we read how Jesus, 'told them to give her something to eat,' (Mark 5:43). Swept up in the joy of witnessing the miraculous, her parents seem to have so easily forgotten the obvious, the ordinary, the fact that their young daughter had not eaten.... probably for days. To God, the small things are as important as the sensational big things that we are so easily impressed by; the detail is always as important as the big picture.

When the Children of Israel were desperate for water a second time, God told Moses to speak to the rock, (Numbers 20:8), and water would pour out. Instead, Moses hit it with his stick as he had on the previous occasion, (Exodus 17:6), and, although successful in man's eyes, (that is, water flowed as it had before), Moses had failed as far as God was concerned.

I love the way, as his brothers are leaving to return to their father, Joseph tells them, 'Don't quarrel on the way.' He knows his brothers. He heard them when they did not know who he was or realise that he understood Hebrew, when Reuben took the moral high ground and blamed the others for what they did to Joseph all those years before, (42:22).

Two thoughts on this.

First, although we might not be aware of it, God knows everything about us, even our thoughts and motives, (Psalm 139:2, Jeremiah 17:10). In fact, they concern him more than what we then say or do, for if they are pure and good, the words and actions that flow from them will be right.

Second, as we follow him, the Lord does not want us to 'quarrel on the way,' as the disciples had a tendency to do, (Mark 9:33). He longs for us to live in harmony and not acrimony with each other. Joseph loved his brothers despite what they put him through. As I read Joseph's words as his brothers depart for home, I hear an echo of another, 'As I have loved you, so you must love one another,' John 13:35. God bless you all.

The Sifting Process

- by David Wilkerson | July 16, 2001 -

 On the night before his death, Jesus sat down with his disciples to share the Passover supper. The group had an intimate time of communion together. Then, as the meal ended, Christ said solemnly, "The hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table" (Luke 22:21). What a horrible truth to be seen at such an intimate moment. Satan had audaciously entered one of Jesus' own disciples, Judas.
Another incredible moment had already taken place at that table. Jesus had taken a piece of bread, representing his broken body, dipped it into wine and extended it to Judas. The scheming disciple then stretched out a demon-possessed hand to receive it. It was as if Satan himself were taking Jesus' body into his hands to crush it.

You may wonder as I have: how was the devil able to possess Judas? No person could fall so far overnight. No one could suddenly be so overtaken by a sin that he would intentionally betray the Son of God, knowing it would lead to his death. Sadly, the truth was that Judas was an easy conquest for Satan. The gospels reveal that Judas had a history of covetousness. He secretly dipped into the group's treasury for himself. And because he harbored this spirit of covetousness, Satan was able to deceive him over time.

The same thing has happened again and again to Christians over the centuries....

Read more HERE.

Danielle Strickland - I see you

- From God TV Video -

 

In English

Danielle Strickland shares a conversation she had with a Muslim woman on an airplane and challenges us with the question "What are we expecting from the Kingdom of God?". 36 min.

--> See video HERE.

Only eternity can cure him....

From FSAOF blog:

The story is told of an English post-office clerk, whose job it was to handle letters that were inadequately addressed. He was at his desk on Christmas Eve, brokenhearted because death had taken his little son just a week earlier.

As he sorted through the post he came across a letter addressed in childlike writing to “Santa Claus, The North Pole.” Attached to it was a note from a postman giving the address where he had picked up the letter. The clerk was startled because it was his own address and the hand writing was that of his daughter. And the letter said: “We’re very sad at our house this year. My little brother went to heaven last week. You needn’t leave me anything. But if you could give Daddy something that would make him stop crying, I wish you would. I heard him say to Mummy that only eternity can cure him. Could you send him some of that?”

The good news is that God did send us “some of that” as we have a certain hope of a joyful reunion if we are one in Christ.

It´s Thursday - Reflections on Genesis (52)

'And this is what he(Joseph) sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey,' Genesis 45:23. 

Why, we might well ask, did Joseph send his father 'ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt,' if he was wanting his father to come as quickly as possible to Egypt(v 13)? Surely he could have set it all aside for when his father arrived? Surely Jacob and his sons were going to have to bring it all back to Egypt with them? So what was the purpose?

Well, when the brothers returned to encourage their father to move to Egypt, they might well have told him of all that they lay in store for him there, but to him it could have seemed far-fetched. However, seeing for himself some of the 'best things of Egypt' that Joseph sent would surely have given Jacob a convincing taste of what lay in store for him there? It is all very well and good being told something or reading of it in a book, even the bible, but whilst it may or may not be true, may or may not be convincing, how can we be sure? Surely, we can only be truly certain if we experience for ourselves what we have read or heard? As the people who sought Jesus in response to the Samaritan woman's testimony said, 'We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world,' (John 4:42).

In the same way as Joseph sent 'the best things of Egypt' from Pharaoh to convince Jacob of the truth of his sons' words and what lay in store for him in Egypt, Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit, not only to be our Counsellor and Helper, but to reveal the truth of his Word, 'When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me,' (John 15:26, see also 14:16 & 26 & 16:7). Dear reader, do you want convincing proof that Jesus is all that is claimed? Then seek him with all your heart and you will find him(Jeremiah 29:13). Wavering in your faith? Ask God to fill you with his Holy Spirit, that you might have the witness within yourself, (1 John 5:10) God bless you all.

Hell-Shaking Prayer

- David Wilkerson, December 2000 -

When the book of Daniel was written, Israel was in captivity to Babylon. And by chapter 6, after a long life in ministry, Daniel was eighty years old. The godly prophet and preacher had outlived two Babylonian kings, Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar. Now Daniel served under King Darius.

Through his many years of ministry, Daniel had always been a praying man. And now, in his old age, he had no thoughts of slowing down. Scripture makes no mention of Daniel being burned out or discouraged. It says nothing about him having a nest egg or a country cottage where he could spend his golden years without any responsibilities. On the contrary, Daniel was just beginning. Scripture shows that even as this man turned eighty, his prayers shook hell, enraging the devil.

By this time, King Darius had promoted Daniel to the highest office in the land. Daniel now served as one of three co-equal presidents, ruling over princes and governors of some 120 provinces. The Bible even says Darius favored Daniel over the other two presidents. He put Daniel in charge of forming government policy and teaching all the court appointees and intellectuals:"Daniel was preferred above the presidents...and the king thought to set him over the whole realm" (Daniel 6:3).

Read more HERE.