I bet you’re wonder why I got lazy this morning and reposted yesterdays video instead of making a new video for today!
Here is why I’m asking you to RE-WATCH yesterdays video and RE-READ yesterdays written blog: because it’s too GOOD and too MUCH for any one of us to effectively process in ONE DAY!
Really, when I powered up my computer this morning, that video was still on the screen, staring me down! So I figured, what the heck I’ll watch it again… and WHAM, I realized THAT VIDEO was BETTER TODAY than it was yesterday!
Try it and you’ll see! Watch it ONE MORE TIME! This time, actually intend to follow its suggestions!
For the past two weeks, I’ve been attempting to lead this tribe towards a life of FAITH instead of FEELINGS.
“If you’re looking for another year of hard toil and little results… than BE EMOTIONAL… and keep fighting your own battles, with your two fists and your big fat brain! If you want to try one more year in your own human strength… and you’re not yet sick from all the tossing about… then keep on striving and negotiating!”
I said we have become:
Far more spiritually engaged in our circumstances!
Far less dominated by our shifting feelings!
Far more forward propelled, by learning how to LIVE BY FAITH!
I started to explain HOW a person can actually live by faith on a practical level.
By SEARCHING for specific verses concerning your unique circumstances!
By MEDITATING on the word of God until these specific verses become a tangible part of your lives!
By STANDING on the substance of scripture, despite how you might initially FEEL!
By GENERATING emotions out of your spiritual position… to FEEL as you believe, rather than to FEEL as things appear to be going!
By HAMMERING through your obstacles with FAITH, and biblically inspired actions… until circumstances shift in your favor!
Yesterdays 7 Step Best Week Plan was a practical follow up to that teaching. It’s a simple 7 step formula for getting into a position of FAITH.
This morning, I wrote the following Facebook status update… and received a very powerful reply from Jamee Rae Pineda! Check it out!
Chuck BalsamoUsing the principles I’ve been teaching to remain in forward momentum! Living every day by faith instead of my shifting feelings. Let’s have a great day everyone!
What a schedule I have today! Really, this could be the busiest day, and then the busiest weekend of my life… the busiest of 2010 FO SHO! I woke feeling very stressed this morning… hmmmm, I better pray until this emotional slump recedes…
Did I tell you guys, tomorrow is our annual Washington DC Feed the Homeless Outreach? We’ve done this EVERY YEAR for something like the past 17 years… one of my favorite things to do in this life! Here’s a photo of some of the packages we’re taking on the tomorrows outreach!
gerald & phyllis mayhan
I thank God for Evangelists Gerald & Phyllis Mayhan… that they keep on leading our teams every year. There is not another man in all the earth more adequately equipped for such an outreach!
Gerald was a point man in Vietnam, two purple hearts… lived 18 years addicted to heroin and cocaine, living on the streets of Washington DC… and his wife waited for him and PRAYED for him until GOD reached down and pulled Gerald out of the lowest gutter.
Gerald is one of my very best friends and the greatest evangelist I have EVER MET! Check out his ministry website when you get a chance!
If you would like to make a donation to Gerald Mayhan’s Ministry, you can give today, here on this website by clicking the donate button… and we will bring Gerald a check tomorrow! There is no greater cause I can think of!
inspirational stories from last year!
Here’s a clip from last years homeless outreach blog… you can check out the entire blog and all the comments with photos by following this link: From the Streets of Washington DC
This year (2009), even more than previous years… I really experienced the enormity of what took place! There are so many hurting, lonely people in our earth. And while so many well to do humans point the finger down at these bleeding ones, God compels us to come to their aid!
God cares about each one of them… not desiring to lecture them about the series of wrong turns they made that led them down into the gutter… He possesses us with his compassion and sends us to kneel down beside them… He gives us a message to speak… He asks us to read them a love letter… And we go with his love and his tears. He embraces them with MY ARMS… and I can feel HIM IN ME making his appeal through MY HEART.
This year, we took a team of 35+ into the frigid streets of our nation’s capitol. All day long, we gave HOPE to the HOPELESS. Even more than the message we gave them was the message we asked them to tell us. We gave them our ears… we listened to them like they mattered… and they FELT OUR LOVE FOR THEM! Their tears and ours flowed like rivers all day long.
One man, “Alfrado”, explained how he came to America from Elsalvador… it took him 3 months to get here, dreaming that this would be a place of new life for him. And there he was sleeping on park benches and eating food from the trash containers. Alfrado said that some nights, it’s so cold he is scared to fall asleep… that he may freeze to death and not wake up.
Another lady, “Pricilla”, said that she just got released from prison a year ago after being stabbed in her spine during a prison brawl. She grabbed me and made a puddle on my shoulder as she wept about how scary it is living on the streets at night! She talked about being raped and beaten over and over… and told me that she is not built for this kind of life!
Then there was “HANK”… the happiest homeless man on the face of the earth. We all left Hank wondering if we had met an angel! Just like Hank, so many of these destitute men and women gave us back so much more that we gave to them!
Throughout this day, we distributed hundreds of sandwiches, care packages, sweaters, sweatshirts, blankets, and everything else we could get into their hands. More than these… we gave them Jesus… and they took him happily into their hearts!
Every single person on our team stepped out with a fearless kind of faith… they shared their personal life stories, prayed like seasoned ministers, and gave LOVE as if God himself was right there in physical manifestation!
Please pray for this same level of success at tomorrows outreach! That it’ll be like Jesus himself is walking through the blistery winter streets of Washington DC. God bless you all with a most triumphant Friday… thanks for being here… please leave a comment and help us expand this tribe in every creative way you can dream up! Love you all…
I got so carried away with yesterdays message, that I forgot to tell you guys something VERY important! Yesterday was a HUGE DAY for Emily and I! February 17 ring a bell? Come on you guys… some Chuck and Emily trivia!!
Ok, I’ll just go ahead and tell you. On February 17, 1991 @ 10:45pm, Emily and I invited Jesus into our marriage, our home, and every single small and big part of our lives! This happened 19 years ago, yesterday… so happy SPIRITUAL birthday to us!
Instead of me trying to tell the story from memory, let me give you a FUN clip from my coming book, Make Me A Legend! It’s taken from the middle of chapter 8, Get a Dream!
Eventually, those high winds of passion and romance would blow over us young and restless kids one more time! Just after my High School graduation, Emily came begging for me to take her back! (ha ha-hey, this is MY book Emily! If you want to tell your version, write your own book! lol) Really, the sparks of attraction were flying… and we were sweltering for each other!
Time had been cruel and we both carried way too much emotional baggage back into this tender, rekindled, volatile fling! We did some things unmarried people are not supposed to do and ’somehow’ Emily became pregnant! She was only seventeen, and I was just turning nineteen… and we were having a baby!
So we were married in my Grandparents back yard, standing on top of an old creek bridge on August 11, 1990… and we lived happily ever after! Well, not exactly… because neither of us had been to rock bottom yet. And little did we know just how close from disaster we really were! It wouldn’t be long now; we were falling out of love and into hate… sliding into the divorce of no return at breakneck speeds!
With Emily having to move from Richmond to finish out her senior year (with child)… in a new town, while going to hair school at nights and working as an apprentice hairstylist, and making time for all the doctors appointments, and cooking dinner and everything else that goes with having your own home… and then me having to find ‘jobs’ paying enough money to support my new family… the pressure was unbelievable!
So the honeymoon didn’t last long… and just before our first Christmas, tears were falling, love was lost, and we were looking for the fastest way out! Emily got an attorney and we were going our separate ways. Neither of us really wanted to be apart, we just couldn’t find a way to end the fighting.
During those days, I remember watching Little House on the Prairie and thinking, “If we could just get a little religion in our home, maybe we could work things out.” Looking back now, I know it was God who planted these thoughts. He was reaching out to both us in so many ways… and we were just about to reach back!
There were three primary forces impacting us positively at that time. First was a group of kind and loving volunteers at the local Pregnancy Help Center. After the free pregnancy test, a girl named Amy gave Emily a free Bible and started sending handwritten letters of encouragements to both of us.
Then there was our bold redneck neighbor Dale… the guy who smothered us with his great big Jesus smile every time our paths intersected. Dales niceness was so profound, I actually wondered if the guy was on feminine hormone pills!
Besides Amy and Dale, there was one old high school buddy of mine… he really made the difference! Just as soon as my heart started opening up, Kevin is the first person I thought to call! I had not forgotten that unexpected September day when Kevin first came into school claiming he “found Jesus” at a summer youth camp. None of Kevin’s friends were happy about his apparent experience. I’m betting I was the unhappiest! In fact, I did everything I could to lure Kevin off that straight line he walked so well.
Here I was just two years later, pitifully humbled… and on the phone begging for Kevin to show me the way! Thank God he stood his ground in high school and did not weaken in the face of all that peer pressure. Thank God for people like Kevin, who willingly forfeit friends and reputation and everything else-to live their faith right out in the open for all of us to see. It was about one month into my near divorce experience, while on the telephone with Kevin that Emily and I welcomed Jesus into our hearts! It was the night of February 17, 1991. 10:45pm EST to be exact!
We we’re so excited that night! Emily was on one phone and I was on the other, both sporting our puffy wet cheeks. I remember when we got off the phone, she ran from the bedroom and I met her from the living room… and we hugged for what seemed like hours, crying in each other’s arms!
Our experience was the real thing! At last, when it seemed as if there was no help for us, God dived headfirst into our blazing inferno, scooped us up in his loving arms, and blasted us out the other side of rock bottom. What new confidence had that night, knowing that our lives had finally taken a turn in the right direction!
That’s a small piece of our amazing story…
Here’s a video that best expresses my heart at this moment! Love you all!!
I hit a BRICK WALL with my WRITING yesterday afternoon… it was so painful, felt like vessels were popping in my brain! I almost buried my computer in a snow drift and walked away from this mission, just a few weeks from the finish line! Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but it was the worse writing DAY ever, following the best writing WEEK ever.
I suppose this creates the perfect opportunity to blog about BALANCE!
burnout
You see, riding on the heels of 30 days back and forth to Richmond while my wife went through the process of losing her dad… and working to implement a new year for Destiny Family Center… and fighting off the pressure created by the most challenging financial year of our lives… and after working 7 days a week, 18 hours a day for a few weeks, even through the recent snow storms… with VERY LITTLE REST… yesterday was INEVITABLE!
imbalance
I reasoned that I could throw my life out of balance for ONE MONTH, so I could finish my book… then I would REST. After all, I’ve done this before… and very successfully. My family was fully supporting the plan… they were cheering me on… everything was working perfectly… until my mind SHUT DOWN yesterday morning!
rest
So I took the evening off, picked Emily up from work at 3:30, exercised with her at the house to Jillian’s Biggest Looser Last Workout Video. Watched Amelia… boring moving in my opinion. Ordered pizza, watched the winter Olympics… fell asleep, well rested. A perfect diversion… we’ll see how much it helped as I move into my demanding day!
Oh and I forgot to mention that enjoyable phone call with Kim Zahren! What a friend he’s been over the years! In his 40s, Kim has been accepted into LAW SCHOOL! Something I’ve always dreamed of doing… and MAY do after I receive my doctorate this year! I’m so INSPIRED by his ENERGY!
Kim’s family is offering us their Grand Cayman paradise for as long as we desire to stay… all we need is air fare and food money. Maybe after the book is turned over to a publisher and things are a little different for us… check out the video and pray we will be able to go before their property is sold.
the high cost of imbalance
The cost of getting out of balance is not always immediately recognizable! Sometimes, neglected people suffer in silence. Sometimes, we achieve a desired goal at a cost far higher than the value of that goal! WOW, thats a quote CHUCK!
Sometimes, we achieve a desired goal at a cost far higher than the value of that goal! -Chuck Balsamo
In other words, we have to keep moving each of our nine life equities FORWARD with proportionate dedication!
other great quotes on balance
“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” -Monk Thomas Merton
“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves” -Frank Herbert
your life is a song
I think that just as with any great song… there are times when ONE instrument plays more than all the others… there are times when specific life equities have their SOLO moments in the song of our lives… but we have to pay attention to the balance, order, rhythm, and harmony… we have to FEEL THE WAVES!
Here’s another quote… the perfect ending to a very powerful message:
“Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.” -Brian Tracy
Yesterday, I wrote page 334 in my book, Make Me A Legend! Only 25 pages to go and we’ll be on way to the editing and publishing phases! 360 Word Document pages should translate into approximately 250 book pages… the perfect size! I’m writing at a rate of 4-5 pages per day right now… should be finished by the end of next week, definitely ahead of my March 15th goal!
No kidding… my eyes water 10-15 times a day, just thinking about the profound series of events getting ready to unfold for my friends and me!
Yesterday I worked on my final chapter, Untame Yourself… here’s a very sloppy clip, about the making of Gods greatest legend! It’s a lead-in to my final few pages: the wild is calling!
For 40 years, Moses existed as a regular guy with the perfect, average life! Fourty years of hard labor & living in the sandy cocoon of Midians desert wilderness… the untaming of Egypt’s Prince! God worked on him and worked on him, and even though Moses must have went about the routines of his meager daily existence unmindful to what was happening… he just had to know, deep in his heart, that God would return for him again someday!
During those four long decades, when it would seem as if Moses had been forgotten, God was doing his greatest work! None of this time was lost time, for God was creating his greatest legend of all time! 40 years, of uprooting, tearing down, destroying, and overthrowing every weak and vulnerable place in Moses! 40 years of welding and banging and forging into creation, Gods epic reprisal… the LEGEND MOSES, Gods vengeance on the destroyer of his beloved children!
When the time was right! On that day of no turning back! The restored instinctive Monster nature of Moses heard a howling on the distant hills! Perhaps, when the time is right you and I will hear it too… the call of the wild! Aaaooooooowwwwwwwww!
Have you ever felt like this before? Like you’re a could-have-been legend, sitting exhausted on a trash pile of wasted decades?
Then, you MUST know deep inside your heart… God WILL return for you again someday! When the time is right! After the welding and banging and forging into creation… on that day of no turning back! God will come for you!
We’re all made for something GREAT. We all try hard and fail miserably. And as long as we are still ALIVE, then there is still a reason for our unique existence! We have a heavenly calling, a divine purpose… an eternal destiny! We’re all called to rescue somebody…
Perhaps, when the time is right, that restored instinctive Monster nature within YOU and I, will hear a howling on the distant hills!
Perhaps that time is now!
Aaaaooooooooowwwwwwww! Moses, Moses… I have heard the cries of my people… and I am sending you…
There you have it! Encouragement for the seemingly forgotten ones! I just finished praying for you all… have a most triumphant day!
Had an excellent weekend, excellent Sunday… how about you guys? Would love to hear about it!
I don’t want to get weird on you guys, but I was on Fox News dot com this morning and noticed the following advertisement. Why am I posting this random image and what the big deal with this Nation Wide Insurance advertisement?
Well, first because: society seldom uses the term “in the wilderness”… and second because: I wrote and spoke about moving away from the middle ground of the wilderness yesterday! Talk about the bizarrest confirmation of all time! Just thought you guys might get a kick out of this!
Very cool story!
Speaking of confirmations… well, as you read on Saturdays blog: I had a most triumphant writing week, laid down something like 27 pages of the best material I’ve ever written! The last thing I wrote about on Saturday… came from the final chapter of the book, Untame Yourself!
I read some of it to my assistant, Kristin Via… and we both agreed that I had pushed the envelope WAY TOO FAR… maybe the most INTENSE and PROVOCATIVE literature I’ve read in my life! So intense, it felt like my book was turning into the manifesto of a revolution!
In fear of isolating myself from some of the mainstream folks in our nation and world, I sought to tone it back… and it was like my arms and fingers FROZE UP SOLID… I could not make a single change! For to do so, would directly violate the purpose of that chapter.
An unedited clip from that chapter:
This is our nation-this is our world! Our youngest generations have never seen a better way! They are born into the earth during a time of unprecedented Christian repression; oblivious to the fact that this is not how their forefathers wanted things to turn out! They hear us talk of yesterday’s awakenings like we’ve crafted the fairy tale of something that can never really be.
Today’s kids can hardly understand why it is not natural for a man to marry another man. Or what is wrong with sex before marriage. Or what’s the big deal with using drugs and still claiming a heartfelt relationship with God. They live in a world without boundaries, a world lacking a moral compass and a spiritual conviction… a world when self is god and anything that feels right is perfect.
Up until now, you and I have reasoned: that to revolt would be far too costly. So we’ve chained our passions and toned our standards down… we’ve silenced the John the Baptist voices among us. We’ve chosen rather, to coexist in unevangelistic compromise with Islam and the other false religions of our era.
We’re cowering in the face of radical liberal agendas. We’re tolerating the immoralities of our day, increasingly vexed in our righteous souls as we switch through the channels on our televisions and move about in public places… somehow, we just know that tomorrows better world is a very real possibility, but we just don’t see how… because we have become the minority voice!
Give me a sign!
So I finished up Saturday, writing a segment from the life of Samson: the original hulk! And I prayed, “God, if this chapter is far too radical, please give me a sign. If you’re smiling on it, and if you are giving me these goose pimples and teary eyes… then confirm it in some strange way!”
I woke up Sunday morning at 4:45am, got up and gathered my belonging to head for the office. Emily leaves the television on all night long, every night. Before bed every night, she presets a bunch of channels for the entire night.
So, when I woke @ 4:45am Sunday morning… the television in our bedroom was on some kiddy channel… and it was airing a bible cartoon! Anybody wanna guess which Bible character? It was a cartoon of SAMSON!
Talk about a strange approval! I remember looking at the TV and chills shot across my body… and I thought to myself, “What are the chances of this HAPPENING!”
Thought you might like to hear this goofy story of mine.
The bigger the impact of a potential action, the more confirmation we should seek. There are many ways to seek Gods direction for a potential action. The bigger the decision, the more of the confirmations I seek out. Here at the Destiny Campus of Life Christian University, we teach about developing your own confirmation system.
Here’s a sloppy version of my personal confirmation system!
Prayer: We must develop the ability to listen, hear, and follow the voice of God in our lives. Jesus promised, “My sheep LISTEN to my voice; I know them, and they follow me!”
Peace or the absence of Peace: Philippians 4:6-7 promises that the peace of God will RULE in our hearts. That word rule is the same word we would use to describe an UMPIRE in baseball. What does the UMPIRE do? He shouts, SAFE or OUT or FOUL BALL, etc. So I pay attention to my heart AS I AM IN COMMUNION with God.
Gods Word: according to 2Timothy 3:16, the Bible is PROFITABLE for all things! God never leads contrary to his written word. Many times, if we are reading our Bibles often (as we really should be), God will reveal his will to us through the repetition of certain principles, through our thoughts concerning certain verses… by arresting our attention as we read and listen to our Bibles.
Wise Councel: If my intended course of action is really from the voice of God, then it will be able to withstand the scrutiny of wise councel. Psalm 33:11 talks about how the councel of the Lord will STAND! In earlier years, I surrounded myself with people who always told me what I wanted to hear. Today, I surround myself with people who are: truthful, bold, but not controlling… compassionate, passionate, teachable themselves… people who are not afraid to INFORM me with a strong opinion, and then still humble enough to let me make my own final decision.
Supernatural: dreams, visions, angels, and prophecies.
Circumstances: open doors, closing doors… this one is dangerous, because we do not want to be tossed all over the place by good and bad circumstances. The Apostle Paul talked about a WIDE DOOR of opportunity OPENING UP IN FRONT OF HIM… and he went through it! There were other times when he did not go through what SEEMED to be an open door. Not all good things are God things.
Thats about it for today… I almost feel as if I’ve given my readers INFORMATION overload. Sorry, I just got carried away! I pray todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives… I love you all so very much!
A great week, horrible Friday… gonna be a super weekend! I wrote more than 20 pages in my book since Monday, while leading DFC and having a very productive week in my office. It was almost the perfect week until yesterday.
Too much to mention… had a terrible Friday morning (please don’t make me remember)… prayed through that, and by 10am I was back in the game, back on the mountains pinnacle!
Later, Heaven wrecked our suburban into a new toyota in the subway parking lot. Everyone was fine, but plenty of vehicle damage and insurance claims! We handled that very well… had another very productive hour, went to go home and my vehicle would not start. Maybe the battery… it’s still sitting outside my office. Should I whine anymore? lol
I’m happy to report, that Fridays freakish events did not steal my JOY!
You know why? I went to THIS blog site and re-watched yesterdays video!!! Really, I was SHOCKED at how much that video LIFTED me right back up! It was like I had recorded that video blog for MYSELF, and then sent it into my future with the power to save a day!
And how glad I am for blogging EARLY yesterday morning, before the storm hit!
Today is Emily’s birthday… HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!! So I’m going to sign off early and go cook her a breakfast in bed! Then we both work till 5pm… and who knows what for the birthday girls evening!
I hope your Saturday is amazing… tomorrow is church, after three weeks of not seeing some of my church friends! I’ve never been this excited about going to church before!
I can’t do video this morning, because I’m not going to able to shower before the birthday breakfast… and you DONT want to see little Chuckys MORNING FRO!
Since this has been my very first week of video blogging and it’s a bit of a historical moment for us… I’m reposting each of the videos, from the earliest to the most recent. Maybe you missed one… or you need to do what I did yesterday! God bless you all… SEE YOU TOMORROW!
I’m a little tired this morning, but I’m hyper with LOVE and HAPPINESS! This has been one of the most productive weeks of my life! I know right? Even through all the snow delays… God seems to have GRACED me with a new kind of FAVOR, and it looks like it may be sticking around for a while!
Finances are still a little scary, well more than a little. Very underfunded this past year and especially these days, as you can imagine. But, I’m not falling apart with fear as one might expect. On the contrary, my FAITH is soaring!
You ever had this wonderful kind of thing happen to you before?
You know, in the Bible, there are two kinds of FAITH.
Natural Heart Faith
The Gift of Supernatural Faith
Natural Faith…
I’m not talking about faith in the sense that society may use the term. This is more than the power of positive thinking… it’s a spiritual faith… it’s faith IN GOD.
Natural faith grows in a person by reading the word of God: Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Really, even natural faith starts out as a gift from God… he plants it in our hearts when we hear his word, and it grows and develops in us as we walk with him.
As we read the Bible, our faith GROWS… and we are more able to BELIEVE God for bigger and better things concerning our lives.
Natural faith also preserves us in times of persecution and enables us to stand firm in our convictions in a ever darkening civilization.
Faith is not HOPE…
Hope is the dream, the wish, the desire… for something that we don’t yet have. Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the confidence that WHAT WE HOPE FOR will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
Hope says, “Gosh, that sure would be nice! (or) I wonder if I could become this or that? (or) I bet God wants me to be better off than this… I bet I can grow and improve and make a far bigger difference with my life!”
Hope is the DREAM…
Once we have HOPES, we need FAITH to materialize these HOPES. Faith says things like this: “I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me… and nothing is impossible for them that believe… and God is able to do: exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all I can ever thing or ask… according to Gods power WORKING IN ME!”
Faith says… lets go get these things! Faith MATERIALIZES our hopes! Faith is the vehicle that drives us from our dreams to realization of those dreams!
Fear is the Opposite of Faith and the Enemy of Faith…
People who live in fear, live in paranoia of the bad things that MIGHT happen to them. Fear causes a person to LIVE IN THE PAST… instead of focusing on the limitless potential of WHAT CAN BE IN OUR FUTURE!
Fear is: False Evidence Appearing Real!
Fear empowers the force of destruction just like FAITH empowers the force of BLESSING. Fear is a FORCE just like FAITH is a force. Fear is CONFIDENCE in the devil, just like FAITH is confidence in God!
Job said, “The thing I FEARED, has come upon me!”
Faith Moves Mountains!
Matthew 17:19-21 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief;for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Did you see that? These disciples were not able to cast out a demon, because of their UNBELIEF! The question for us then, is how many things are NOT casting out… how many things are we not knocking down… how many obstacles are we NOT blasting through, because of OUR UNBELIEF?
Nothing will be impossible to the person of FAITH!
There is a Supernatural Gift of Faith!
This week, out of nowhere… I found myself BELIEVING for victory in the face of a million obstacles… it is like I cannot NOT BELIEVE… EVEN IF I TRY! This is a prime example of the supernatural GIFT of FAITH!
1 Corinthians 12:7-9 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, TO ANOTHER FAITH by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, etc…”
I believe God gives us a supernatural ENDOWMENT of FAITH for those times when our natural faith runs out… or when our natural faith is just not developed enough for something we are facing.
And that is what’s happening to ME this week! God has GIFTED me with a supernatural endowment of FAITH to BLAST THROUGH the obstacles before me! And WHAT A DIFFERENCE THIS IS MAKING IN MY WORLD!
Here is your assignment for today!
Practice dreaming (hoping)… stretch your dreaming muscles!
Eradicate your fears… stop empowering destructive forces!
Supersize your faith… expand your concept of God… read your bible, fast and pray!
Ask & believe for the gift of supernatural faith… the grace to believe for EPIC things beyond your natural faith!
Thats it for today… just a little something to HELP YOU SPANK THOSE LOFT MOUNTAINS! I just finished praying for you all… have a super Friday!
Did you watch the 700 club yesterday? If you did, then you saw me on television! Well, not really… it was only for about 3 seconds when we did a reenactment of the August 18, 2002, salvation of Mark Brooks! CBN filmed the documentary on location @ Destiny Family Center. The story is AMAZING… check it out!
Did I ever tell you guys that I lived with Mark Brooks for a few months when I was 17! Yeah, it was after a big fight with my parents, Mark gave me a bedroom at his ANIMAL HOUSE apartment! The story you watched on that video is a TRUE story… every piece of it!
Zechariah 3:1-7
Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua.
And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. THIS MAN IS LIKE A BURNING STICK SNATCHED FROM THE FIRE!”
Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”
Then I said, “They should also place a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the Lord stood by.
Then the angel of the Lord spoke very solemnly to Jeshua and said, “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: If you follow my ways and carefully serve me, then you will be given authority over my Temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk among these others standing here.”
Snatched From the Fire
And this is the story of Mark Brooks: A BURNING STICK SNATCHED FROM THE FIRE! Just in time! At a place called rock bottom! Mark really was pulled out of the flames… and today, just like the priest (Jeshua) in Zechariah’s prophecy: Mark also has a ministry in the Temple and in the courtyards, and he is WALKING WITH THE MEN OF GOD IN HIS DAY.
I will never forget that Sunday morning on August 18, 2002! It was the official grand opening of Destiny Revival Center (later renamed Destiny Family Center). I had preached a decent message (pretty spectacular of course! lol) and got right up to the point of inviting people to receive Christ… and before I could call anyone forward, the electricity went off throughout the entire building! This never happened during a service before or after that day!
I remember saying something like, “Wow, the devil must be fighting hard for one of you today! But it’s too late NOW, because I’m giving this call anyway and somebody’s going to find a NEW LIFE today!” And I continued with the call and counted to three for people to respond… and Mark Brooks jumped up out of his chair and came to the front as fast as anyone has EVER done it! I think he even knocked someone down on the way!
Mark has not wavered in his faith for even one day since that miraculous conversion.
Philippians 1:6 And I am certain that God, who BEGAN the good work within you, will CONTINUE his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
Do you know a person like Mark? Some hopeless soul in your circle of friends… too far gone for any real shot at breaking free? Do you know a person like Lori? Some suffering wife longing for a change in her marriage and family?
Time and time again, starting with my own far fetched conversion (and my beautiful Emily)… I have watched tens of thousands of lost cases FIND NEW LIFE in Jesus Christ! People who the world gave up on… seemed like they were trapped forever… until God swooped down like a superhero to the rescue!
I hope this Mark and Lori Brooks story inspires you all… to pray and believe that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE TO THEM THAT BELIEVE! Today, I thank God for the joy of remembering how God used me to make a small difference in Mark and Lori’s lives. It’s what every minister lives for… FRUIT THAT REMAINS!
Having a super Labor Day weekend? Maybe this new song from Desperation Band will help… (watch the video and then proceed)
Here’s what I love about this message: It paints a picture of WHAT IS POSSIBLE… if followers of Jesus will MAJOR on the Great Commission! We can be the GREAT LIGHT OF THIS MODERN WORLD… and the moment is perfect for us to rise from the obscurity of our own slumber.
Up from the ashes of yesterdays awakening… perhaps the fading embers of yesterdays awakenings… could it be? that hope will flash out one more time… and for now, the whole earth groans… waiting… for the dead wood church to fall upon the unchanging mission of Jesus Christ… waiting for this generation to catch the HEART of Jesus, and be obsessed with his obsession to seek and save the lost… and should we fall face down on this ENLIVENING mission… perhaps we will burst into holy flames… and become the GREAT LIGHT OF THE WORLD… ONE MORE TIME!
I want to live in this light always… I want to carry this light… I’ve tied a white bandana around my head, I’ve cut covenant with others who share my holy obsession… civilization groans from the dark places… she waits… for the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord”… let this last awakening begin in me… let it begin in you… let it begin NOW.
Bizarre writing style this morning… don’t try to proof it, just FEEL IT. Watch the video again… and FEEL the passion of Jesus until HIS PASSION becomes your passion too.
Luke 19:10For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was LOST.
The Apostle Paul explaining his high calling to King Agrippa in…
Acts 26:15-19 Then I asked, “Who are you, Lord?” ’I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them TO OPEN THEIR EYES and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ ”So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.”
I hope todays blog evokes a sense of destiny… I pray it drives each of us closer and closer to the Great Commission. More to come… at Destiny Family Center, 10am TODAY! Come in person or catch the LIVE broadcast… have a super day everyone!
Here’s what I love about this message: It paints a picture of WHAT IS POSSIBLE… if followers of Jesus will MAJOR on the Great Commission! We can be the GREAT LIGHT OF THIS MODERN WORLD… and the moment is perfect for us to rise from the obscurity of our own slumber.
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