I was studying this week about God’s promise to Abraham to give him the land of Canaan.

As a believer in Jesus I am an heir of the blessing of Abraham – Galatians 3.
Now I don’t believe that God wants me to go live in Israel right now, but He does want me to have my inheritance.

Jesus wrote His last will and testament and He rose from the dead to be the executor of his own will. In His will I receive blessings; even the blessing of Abraham.

I looked up in the Strongs’s Dictionary to see what Canaan meant. Its first meaning was “humiliated”, so I ignored that because I didn’t want to be humiliated. The next part of the definition was “merchant” or “traffic”. Well that was easier for me to see a blessing in. If you look at most of the Jews throughout the world you can see that they have an anointing for being merchants and it seems their stores have no lack of traffic. I believe that comes from the blessing of Abraham.
God wants His people to be blessed in business, to be prosperous, that whatever they lay their hand to its blessed.

One problem still stands in the way: the main definition of Canaan is not blessings but humiliation. As I was meditating on this this morning, I believe the Lord directed me to Psalm 37 about all the places in there where it says we will inherit the land.
V. 9 says that “those who wait for the Lord” will inherit the land
V. 11 says “the humble” will inherit the land
V. 22 says “those blessed by Him” will inherit the land
V. 29 says “The righteous” will inherit the land
V. 34 says “Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land;…”

Now just as there were different nations dwelling in the land of Canaan so the Israelites had to go drive them out, so it seems there are things trying to hold back our blessings. We are supposed to inherit Canaan land, which could mean prosperity in the marketplace. But there is something standing in the way, I believe a clue to this problem is in the name “Canaan”. The devil wants to humiliate Christians, make us look foolish and not worth anything.

To humiliate means to bring down to the level of dirt.

But God gives us a method that we can slide in right past that humiliation:
The Lord says in 1 Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”
In James 4:6 it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Now if we exalt ourselves we will be humiliated.
But if we humble ourselves He will exalt us to inherit the land.

Now one way to know for sure that you are not being humble:
If you get up in the morning and skip spending time with the Lord and think, “I’ll be OK. I can handle this.” That’s prideful. We need to spend time with Him. Humble yourself and ask God for help. If things are getting bogged down, it may be that you need to humble yourself and ask God for help.

Humility or Humiliation
Choose humility. You’ll like the results.
God bless you
Joe

Each of us has a gift. Some have several, some have few. But all of us are endowed.

So what are you doing with yours?

You may know what your gift is. If so, are you working it? Are you being faithful to the one who gave it to you? Are you bearing any fruit with it?

Maybe you don’t know what your gift is. Maybe nobody ever said to you, “Wow, you’re really good at that!” If that’s you, what you need to do is go to your deepest heart’s desires: What would you like to do? Or What would you like to be? Chances are your heart knows what you’re good at but you haven’t let it work its way out of you yet. Begin to pursue deep heart desires; not passionate, lustful, self-serving desires – but those that serve others.

In your pursuit of these things you’ll begin to find out what you’re good at and you may begin to get a glimpse of your purpose in life.

When I was first gave my life to the Lord my brother Vince gave me a Bible. I was so excited I told him, “I’m going to start at the beginning and read it all the way through!” He cautioned me to start in the New Testament, that way I wouldn’t get bogged down in some stuff in the Old Testament that I wouldn’t understand as an 11 year old boy. I remember the fervor I had and the diligence that lasted quite a while. But somewhere along the way other things of life seemed to crowd out my zeal.

I remember going through high school and frequently would hear this little voice in my spirit saying,

“Get into My Word!”

Sometimes I would obey it, more often, I would not. I was busy, you know!

But there were a few verses that I would keep coming back to me that seemed to sustain me(even in my distracted state):

1Th 5:16 Rejoice evermore.

1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I found that these three verses are really vital keys to life.

Rejoice evermore —-

“What are you going to do? Be sad your whole life? Put a smile on that face! Why spread unhappiness around? “

Pray without ceasing —-

“You need God. If you think you can do this on your own you have a warped view of reality. Our Heavenly Father is standing by ready, willing and able to help you. But you must invite Him to help you. He doesn’t show up uninvited.”

In everything give thanks —-

“This keeps you happy and on the receiving end of God’s blessings.”

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

It’s important to me to please God, I think He put that in my heart when I gave Him my life. So if I do these three things I’m assured that my life is pleasing to God.

Try it, I can guarantee improvement in your life.

Love ya

Joe

Back in 1996 when my father was dying of pancreatic cancer, I went up to visit him one afternoon. I sat down next to him on the bed and asked him to speak into my life. I remember being very comfortable by his side. Then he began to say: “I was always afraid you’d flower early.” Suddenly the thoughts started racing through my mind of all my failed attempts to do great things. I thought, “So you’re the one who’s been holding me back!”

He continued, “I was always afraid you’d flower early and I never wanted you to. I wanted you to grow up strong and tall like the cedars of Lebanon bearing fruit into your old age.” He said “Its time for you and Nancy to branch out and do new things, start a church. You’re ready.” I didn’t really agree with my father when he said we were ready. I knew I needed more preparation. I knew the call to stand strong and tall like the cedars of Lebanon takes a lot of undergirding; root systems that will help you weather storms.

Here we are ten years later. Tomorrow, Father’s Day, is the first day of the first new church we’re starting. We’ve been through a lot in the last ten years. I believe we’ve matured a lot. I believe, by God’s grace, we’re ready.

I think my father would be proud of us because we are loving and helping people. We’re not trying to build anything for ourselves. We know our Heavenly Father God has all of our needs under control. We’re trying to let our Heavenly Father build through us.

I do want to fulfill what my father spoke over me. I do want to stand strong and tall, like the cedars of Lebanon, bearing fruit into my old age. That’s what I want.

The fruit I want is children. We just had #7, JuliAnna, so our natural quiver is full. It’s time to bear spiritual children. We want to impart life, love and blessing into people. We want to help people find their way. We want to help people find out who they are. And succeed greatly at being who God’s made them to be. I believe this is what a father does. He helps the child unwrap the package of who they are. He speaks into their lives. He gives them restraint(which is really focus) and motivation(which is courage).

So many father’s don’t represent our Heavenly Father accurately. That is a goal of mine. I want people to really know who He is. I want to strive toward what Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”

Love ya

Happy Father’s Day

Joe

Decisions, decisions, decisions!!! You know, making decisions requires energy; emotional energy. Just like shopping, expert salesman will tell you that all purchasing decisions are emotional. That’s why impulse buying works. It draws you into your emotions as quickly as possible so that you act(buy) before you snap out of it.

Obey your vision!

If God put a vision in your heart for your life (see earlier posts to learn about getting a pure vision from God) then that vision will give you permission to say no. It will help you make decisions. My son wants to save for a down payment on a house. But that milkshake would taste soooooo good! Salesmen would work to magnify your current desires and minimize your long-term goal so that you buy now!

If you spend no time thinking about your life and your future then vision means nothing to you and you’ll just wait and see what kinds of cards life deals you. But don’t wonder if you end up nowhere. (Sorry if that sounded harsh.)

Can you write your vision? Is it clear enough to explain it quickly to someone? When was the last time you thought about your vision? Spend some time with your vision. Imagine yourself in it now. Take enough time so that your desire for your vision increases. If it does then when you make decisions you’ll decide in favor of your vision rather than your temporal desires.

Hope this helps.

Joe

Well we’re processing alot of things here. Trying to get things done. Keep us in prayer to succeed in all this. We know God’s hand of blessing is on us.

Classes
Currently Nancy & I are in two classes:
Growing Kids God’s Way – an 18 week class on raising kids – this is our 6th time through it, our third time to teach it, but we attribute much of our parenting success to this class. Also we’re taking Intercessory Prayer Training at our parent church Living Word Christian Center – this is a ten week class to help strengthen our prayer life, both personally and within the church.

Church Transition:
Our founding pastors at Praise Fellowship decided to sell the building, no longer have a congregation and use the proceeds of the building to help the new congregation and our missionaries. So we’ve started a new church: EMPOWER. We’re currently looking for new property, setting up everything, the web site, the new accounting, new organization and also helping everyone manage the change process.

Going On The Radio
Starting this coming Monday, June 19th, 2006 I’ll be doing a new daily radio show. Actually we take my Sunday preaching and along with announcements cut it into five 13 minutes segments. We’ll be setting these shows up as podcasts as well. The show will be aired at 7pm CST in Chicago on AM 1160 WYLL. On the web at that time at http://www.wyll.com. Nancy wants me to do recorded shows where I talk directly to the radio audience – I’m praying about that. Its more work but could be more fun and help reach more people.

Although this is a lot we wouldn’t decrease it at all.
If you don’t endeavor to do big things you’ll just end up watching – probably on TV.
Love y’all
Joe

Have you noticed how we can keep running through this life wondering where our next provision is coming from? We might need money, food, rent, mortgage, a job, favor with the bank, relationships healed. There are tons of needs. There are so many people that do without. But there is enough supply on this earth for everyone to be a multimillionaire. There is enough love in God for every relationship to be healed. Why go without when the God of all supply is right near you?

In the Old Testament one of God’s names is El-Shaddai. This name means more than enough, abundant supply, even the breasty one. Huh? Yup, that’s right, it wasn’t a typo. He is the breasty one. Recently our 7^th child, JuliAnna was born. She’s only 2 months and she hasn’t had anything to eat except milk. Nancy has an abundant supply. Every time Nancy draws JuliAnna to herself there is as much milk as JuliAnna needs. There’s always enough. Nancy got this characteristic from God. He’s the source of our supply, everything we need. He is more than enough. But you’ve got to learn to draw close to Him and learn to draw from Him. He loves you and will welcome you in. He’ll supply every need.

I love the verse in James where it says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

If you have a need, consider going to the source of all, the one who supplies and loves. Don’t be afraid to come near Him. Sometimes we don’t want to come near God because we think we’re too dirty. Nancy gives JuliAnna baths frequently. Come near to Him, he’ll clean you up. He’ll supply all your need.

Call on Him. He’s waiting to hear from you.

Love ya Joe

I had an extraordinary week. Life-changing. Huge changes. Exciting. But I can’t tell you about it for a few days. You’ll just have to wait. Sorry about that.

But I did learn something very important:
If you get to the point where you are so excited about something and think you know exactly what to do and you think you can “handle it from here” be careful! Slow Down. You might be on the verge of a big mistake.
I was going to do something in quick fashion. I was going to take control and let my emotions guide me to a wrong decision. I was spun up. My emotions were whirring. I was having a hard time getting centered on Jesus.

I love what my Pastor says:

Slow Down
Listen for God
Listen to God
Do what He says.

I have found this is so effective in getting to God’s will.

Last year I went on a missions trip to Honduras, I was leading a large team there to share the gospel. We were believing God to see miracles of all kinds. Well I got off the plane, got my luggage, trying to lead this large group, making sure everyone got through customs, finding our contact, meeting with him and making sure everyone was safe. There were lots of people around when suddenly a blind man being led by his son came up to me asking for help. Begging for money. This man wasn’t just blind, he had no eyeballs. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Because of all the activity I was wound up. Confronted with this situation I believed the Lord wanted to heal the man. Well instead of me doing what my pastor said:

Slow Down
Listen for God
Listen to God
Do what He says.

I just decided OK I need to pray for this guy. So I asked him if he wanted prayer, he agreed so I laid hands on him asking God to give him new eyes and restore his sight. This is not too hard for God, just too hard for us to believe. Well I didn’t see new eyes suddenly appear. They may have later – God is faithful to our prayers. But I didn’t see the miracle I wanted to see.
Later, I realized that I did that whole prayer on my own. I didn’t

Slow Down
Listen for God
Listen to God
Do what He says.

I just did what I thought to do. Duh! Look to God, He has the answers for us.
Don’t try to live this life on your own. You’re friends with the guy who has all the answers:
Jesus

Love ya
Joe

Lots of people are scared today because they think this day belongs to the devil. Some think something terrible is going to happen today because the date is 6/6/06. In the Bible in Revelation 13 is where the number 666 is spoken of. This passage below is from the revelation God gave to John the apostle about the future and the end of the world as we know it.

Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

If you’re worried about this stuff and how it all fits together and how it will affect you remember this one fact: if you don’t know Jesus it doesn’t matter. One way of looking at it is that Satan has already kidnapped the entire human race through Adam & Eve’s fall. But Jesus came as the ransom to buy us back. But there is one little caveat: The only ones who get to be redeemed are those who choose Jesus to be their ransom. If they don’t choose Jesus, they stay in the grips of Satan for eternity. If you don’t have this issue settled, I’d be way more concerned about that than today being 6/6/06.

I’m not trying to scare the hell out of you but maybe scare you out of hell. If God’s goodness has not caused you to come to Him, if what Jesus did for you has not caused you to love Him, if you don’t know that Jesus gave His life so your sins could be all washed away then maybe telling the truth about your future without Jesus will help you see that hell is not a place where you should consider taking up residence. Billy Joel said he’d “rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, ’cause sinners have much more fun”. I’ve never met a person who could laugh when their own flesh was on fire.

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever

Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Accept Jesus, pray to Him, ask Him to be your Lord. He’ll be your friend and give you eternal life.
Love ya, Hope to see you there(in heaven) when we die.
Joe

Think about these sayings for a moment:

Gimme, gimme never gets.
They’re always taking and never satisfied, no matter how much they receive.

“So, what’s wrong with you?”
When someone asks that question it puts your focus on “wrong” things.

Proverbs 15:15
All the days of the oppressed are wretched,
but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.

A cheerful heart does not look at negatives. They are focused on the positive.

A thankful person always has enough because they spend so much time counting their blessings they don’t have time left to focus on what they don’t have.

Be thankful.
Start thanking others for what they’ve done.
Start thanking God for what He’s done.

Giving thanks is kind of like giving a receipt to someone who’s purchased something.
You giving them a receipt says “I’ve received the money you were giving for this item.”
Giving thanks to God or a person is like giving them a receipt saying, “I received what you gave me.”

Being thankful is so much better than complaining.
Try you’ll like it. And so will those around you.
Love ya
Joe