6 Reasons Why We Can Believe in God to Keep His Promises - BECKY DVORAK CHARISMA MAGAZINE

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6 Reasons Why We Can Believe in God to Keep His Promises

12/28/2015 BECKY DVORAK  charisma magazine

On the news, whether the source is secular or Christian, you read or hear about how sickness, disease, plagues, pain and suffering are on the rise. (Charisma archives)

On the news, whether the source is secular or Christian, you read or hear about how sickness, disease, plagues, pain and suffering are on the rise. Have you ever wondered why these devilish things are increasing?

When we preach from human reasoning, instead of the truth found in Scripture, people suffer. When we put all our faith in what the doctor says, in place of the Bible, miracles cease. When we trust secular psychology, rather than heed biblical counsel, healing is hindered.

We suffer from unanswered prayers when we give in to the world's system of doubt and unbelief, but we can change the situation around and learn to believe again. In order to do so, we need a reason to believe. Let's look to the Word, find our reason and believe.

• He is truthful. "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He spoken, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Num. 23:19).
• He is just. "He is the Rock; His work is perfect; for all His ways are just. He is a God of faithfulness and without injustice; righteous and upright is He" (Deut. 32:4).
• He is able. "And being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to perform" (Rom. 4:21).
• He is willing. "Jesus reached out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I will. Be clean.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed" (Matt. 8:3).
• He is faithful. "Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it" (1 Thess. 5:24).
• His faithfulness is unconditional. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).

Why You Can Trust God's Word:

• It's alive and powerful. "For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).
• It is inspired of God. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

Benefits of Trusting God's Word:

• God's blessing. "Indeed, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it" (Luke 11:28).
• Freedom. "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free'" (John 8:31-32).
• Protection. "As for God, His way has integrity; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all those who take refuge in Him" (Ps. 18:30).
• Knowledge and understanding. "For the Lord gives wisdom; out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding" (Prov. 2:6).
• Life and healing. "My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their body" (Prov. 4:20-22).

If you will spend time and meditate on these Scriptures, you will find your reason to believe in God and His Word again.

Becky Dvorak is a prophetic healing evangelist and the Destiny Image author of DARE to Believe and Greater Than Magic. Visit her at authorbeckydvorak.com.

For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!

NEW from CHARISMA: Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here

LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE FEATURED BOOK

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Buy here: The Promise by Steve Martin

Throughout our lives, God keeps His hand on our shoulders and nudges us on to more than what we could ever realize. I am excited to share how He did it this with me, and am confident mine will be a story you’ll be able to relate to. 

As I unveil my story, think back to those times when you knew there was some¬thing more but you just couldn’t put your finger on it. You knew deep down that life wasn’t what the TV sitcoms portrayed it to be. In our souls there is the hope, the cry for more, that someday questions will be answered and promises fulfilled if we just kept plugging away at what we know to do. 

In The Promise I share my 40 year journey with you, and show you that dreams do come true. Though Peter Pan isn’t real, the Lord, the One Who created us, certainly is, and He has a plan in place for each one of us. When you are done reading this story, my prayer is that you too will know more of that good plan and His purpose for you.

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People

Be Free to Disappoint People ROSILIND JUKIC Charisma Magazine/Spiritled Woman

Pleasing people at the cost of pleasing God is stressful. (Charisma archives)

Be Free to Disappoint People

12/25/2015 ROSILIND JUKIC Charisma Magazine Spiritled Woman

Pleasing people at the cost of pleasing God is stressful. (Charisma archives)

I knew I had some really tough choices to make.

My plate wasn't just full, it was overflowing. It was cracking under the sheer volume of stuff I'd continued to pile on top of it.

I was a hoarder; a chronic "yes" sayer.

It wasn't so much that I wasn't in tune with how much I could do, it was more of a fear that I'd disappoint someone by saying no, or I'd let them down.

I am, by nature, a pleaser. If you want to utterly break my heart, just say these words, "I am disappointed in you." I almost will never get over hearing that.

I can't stand to disappoint!

And yet, I knew that something had to give.

Either I would disappoint someone now by letting go of the majority of the responsibilities I was carrying, or I'd disappoint everyone when I had a nervous breakdown and couldn't do anything at all.

It had truly come down to that!

My sanity now or my health later on.

It was a tipping point.

I sat down and made a list of every single responsibility I had in my life: from being a wife and mom to being a blogger and Bible study leader, to being a volunteer at my local church ... I listed it all.

Then I took some time to reflect on what I felt the Lord had called my family to do. Not just me — yes, that was included — but my family.

Where are we going?

What's our mission?

What's our goal as a family?

We plan our summer vacations better than we plan our families.

When we go on a summer vacation, we mark our route, we plan our hotels and meals, we plan our stops to sight see and our destination.

But what about our family's journey?

What is your destination? Where do you want to be as a family when your children are grown? What are you doing to get there? Are the choices you are making now helping you reach that destination, or are you just driving aimlessly down an unknown street hoping you will somehow arrive at your destination by pure chance?

Once I had a clear vision for our destination, I looked at my list of responsibilities and asked myself this question about each one: "Does this responsibility actively help me reach that destination or is it dead weight?"

If it was dead weight, it had to go.

But before I let it go, I had to do this one thing.

I had to give myself permission to disappoint myself and others.

In an attempt to please everyone around me, my plate was overflowing with other people's visions and other people's destinations. But where was mine?

Lost and forgotten down at the very bottom of the pile!

In essence, I was willing to disappoint God to please others.

"For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10, NKJV).

There are two kinds of expectations we meet in life:

Expectations of ourselves. If you are type-A, you likely have very high or impossible expectations of yourself. When you set a goal, you set it higher for yourself than you would ever set it for anyone else. We have to succeed ... every time. No failure. And we have to succeed better than anyone ever succeeded.

This is a trap. It keeps us in a constant state of stress because of our zero-tolerance policy for ourselves.

When it comes to letting go of extra responsibilities, we often have to give ourselves permission to "fail" at pleasing others first. This is a very freeing activity. Once you realize that you are simply incapable of succeeding every time, you are free! You are free to disappoint others. You are free to walk away and not allow that disappointment to eat at you for days and weeks.

---

Does it bother you a little that someone was disappointed? Yes, and it should. We can't walk through life calloused; but by bothering us, it doesn't have to eat at us.

Expectations from others. It is natural that people have expectations of others. There are those who have a vision to fulfill a certain task and then there are those whose mission in life is to help others fulfill that task. These helpers derive incredible joy from doing what they do to help others. Their vision is similar and they have the capability to help others succeed.

The problem is when we don't have the same mission or vision as the one who has placed an expectation on us. We don't necessarily have the capability to help them reach their desired destination and we don't derive any joy from helping them reach their goal. But we take on the task because we feel pressure.

Not only is their expectation dead weight on us, we're dead weight on them, too. We are unsatisfied in doing a task we were never meant to do, and they are frustrated because we lack the capability and drive to do what is expected of us.

The kindest thing we can do is to free ourselves to do what we've been called to do and free them to find the one who has been called to fill the role that will help them reach their goal!

When we look at expectations from this perspective, we realize that we're not really disappointing someone by saying no to them, we're freeing them to find the one who will serve them best!

We're free to give our best yes to the task that God called us to, and they're free to find the one whose best yes is meant for them!

This truth has set me free!

And as we are closing the chapter on 2015, I am amazed at what a difference one year can make. Only 365 days ago I sat here with clenched teeth, tensed shoulders, pulsating veins and giant cup of coffee to make it through my day.

Now I sit here with my feet up, a smile on my face, a heart at peace as I am satisfied because I am right where God wants me to be.

I am still serving others, but in the very role God cut out for me!

Where do you want to be on December 31, 2016?

What steps do you need to take to get there?

Rosilind Jukic, a Pacific Northwest native, is a missionary living in Croatia and married to her Bosnian hero. Together they live with their two active boys where she enjoys fruity candles, good coffee and a hot cup of herbal tea on a blustery fall evening. Her passion for writing led her to author her best-selling book The Missional Handbook. At A Little R & R she encourages women to find contentment in what God created them to be. You can also find her at Missional Call where she shares her passion for local and global missions. She can also be found at on a regular basis. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google +. 

For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!

NEW from CHARISMA: Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here

LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE FEATURED BOOK

In 2010 the Lord God of Israel, my Savior Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach), led me to start the ministry we call Love For His People. Its primary purpose is to share the love of the Lord with the nation of Israel, Jews around the world, and the people in all the nations as we can. 

For that end, through social media, writing and distributing books, and in person ministry, we are seeing the love of Jesus spread. We are grateful that He has given us much love in order to do just that. We often hear the word “love” spoken out loud, and written about, in many ways. It has contrasting meanings to the wide range of people that exist, as it is expressed in different methods through people. 

When it has all been said and done, there is an eternal love that will stand the test of fire. Because the biblical expression of love, laying down one’s life for his friends, has eternal value, this love from God the Father to His creation is the type that I most seek after and try to share. 

In these short chapters of Arms of Love, which is also the title of a song Laurie and I sang while leading various church worship meetings, and as the lead singers in our Ahava Love Band, I share some aspects of how I believe the Bible speaks of love. For you who are about to read this, my prayer is that your heart will be enlarged with His, and you too will become one, even more, to give love for His people, both Jew and Gentile, both saved and unsaved. 

I hope that as you read these chapters, you will become more inspired to spend time with the Lord, experience His heart of love, and share it with our fellow man. The world needs to know the love of God. 

Steve Martin 

Love For His People

Charlotte, NC 

Dec. 2015

Check here: Arms of Love Paperback $5.95 KIndle $1.99

When You're Not Ready for God's Calling - DR. KATHY KOCH - SPIRTLED WOMAN CHARISMA MAGAZINE

If you don't feel prepared to do what God has called you to do, you're not alone. Shyness and disease didn't stop this woman from a thriving public ministry. (Charisma archives)

When You're Not Ready for God's Calling

12/11/2015 DR. KATHY KOCH  charisma magazine

Have you ever kept ice cream in the freezer a bit too long? You know you have if you remove the lid and see tiny ice crystals before you see the ice cream. You can still enjoy the ice cream, of course. Believe me, I know.

The clouds I saw out the window last night while flying home from the Hearts at Home convention in Bloomington, Illinois, looked like they had a top layer of those ice crystals. They were especially beautiful and unusual.

Flying here and there is part of what I do. Many people know me when there's a microphone in my hand. Maybe it's my books or radio interviews that introduce them to the ministry of Celebrate Kids, Inc. But there's so much more to it.

I'm sometimes asked if I still enjoy traveling. Without hesitation, I can say, "Yes." Then I follow it up with this comment: "When God called me to the ministry, He called me to all of it."

Help your children understand that what they see people do—including you—is only a part of the action. There's so much that's often hidden or ignored.

In my case, God called me to a speaking and writing ministry. It's a privilege to influence so many people in these ways. It's fun. It's also hard work—exhausting, exhilarating and fulfilling.

Because I know it's a call and I know God equips us, I'm able to handle it all. To God be the glory!

Since I'm an introvert, all the one-on-one conversations and opportunities to autograph books fatigue me. Yet they're among my favorite experiences.

God equips us when He calls us.

Since I have a degenerative joint disease in my left foot, it almost always aches. Pain is frequent, especially at events like the one this past week that involved two and a half days in the exhibit booth, seven presentations and all the walking to-and-from.

God equips us when He calls us.

Airplanes, taxis, airport shuttles, rental cars, hotel lobbies, hotel rooms, many restaurants, getting lost, late flights, too much traffic ... It's ALL part of the ministry.

God equips us when He calls us.

Packing, lifting, unpacking, packing, lifting, unpacking, packing, lifting, unpacking ...

God equips us when He calls us.

Even yesterday's delayed flight and unplanned, extra time in the airport was part of the action. I didn't necessarily like it, and it's not how Linda and I would have planned the end of a beautiful few days, but it was part of God's plan. And we chose to not allow the interruption to steal our joy.

God equips us when He calls us.

God totally equips us because He calls us totally.

Make sure your kids know this, understand this and see this in the people around them. When people ask me how they can know God's call, I sometimes explain that joy and contentment are our companions even when things don't go perfectly. Even today, when I'm so tired I feel like a truck ran over me, turned around and did it again just to make sure, I wouldn't trade this for anything. Nothing.

Surround your children with people living in joy with contentment, so that they know these are possible qualities in the middle of a mess and seek them for themselves.

Believe God totally equips us because He calls us totally.

Dr. Kathy Koch is the author of Screens & Teens: Connecting With Our Kids in a Wireless World.

For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!

NEW from CHARISMA: Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here

Lord, Teach Me to Wait - RUTH L. WHITFIELD

Do you wait on the Lord or do you take matters into your own hands? (Stock Free Images)

Lord, Teach Me to Wait

4/27/2014 RUTH L. WHITFIELD  CHARISMA MAGAZINE, sPIRIT-lED wOMAN

One of my favorite Scriptures is Isaiah 40:31: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (KJV).

Years ago those words were put to music, and I sang them and taught them to my children. The song added the phrase, “Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait.” I loved that passage, and I loved that song. I sang it all the time.

But I didn’t think too much about what I was asking. Did I really want Him to teach me to wait?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like waiting. It seems like such a waste of time. I could be doing so much with the time I spend waiting! However, our heavenly Father knows there is a value in our learning to wait on Him, so He allows us to be placed in situations where we have no choice but to wait.

I remember the days when we had to wait for dinner to be ready. My mother would start cooking early in the afternoon. She made everything from scratch, and it took time to chop, cook, simmer and serve. She was a fabulous cook, so the end result was fantastic.

We can’t match the result of that effort today. We may try to duplicate it by popping food in the microwave or substituting one ingredient for another. We think we’ll arrive at the same end—but we don’t. Hurrying the process by taking shortcuts just doesn’t produce the same result. Some things just simply take time.

Waiting, however, is never easy. There is such a feeling of helplessness when we are forced into a situation in which we can’t do anything except wait! Back in 2001 our country was thrown into such a situation. People from New York to California watched and waited as the Twin Towers imploded and descended into a heap and the Pentagon burned. We held our breath as people ran for their lives and waited for word of lost loved ones.

We watched in 2005 as Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana and Mississippi coast and thousands waited to hear about their home and family members. We waited with them. More recently, Malaysian Flight 570 disappeared while en route to China. We continued to watch, pray and wait with loved ones and family members of those on board, only to see their hopes dashed to the ground time and time again.

Every day there’s a new turn of events on the news. We don’t know what each day will bring or what we will face when we wake up each morning. At this writing, we await news about those affected from the mudslides in the state of Washington. Many are missing and bodies are still being uncovered. People hope for the best while anticipating the worse. Across the world we watched in horror as a South Korean Ferry boat capsized taking hundreds of young victims into the cold murky waters below. There are few survivors and anguished parents are still waiting for the recovery of their child’s body.

Waiting is painful whether you are sure of the outcome or not. We need someone or something to hold us secure while we wait. That someone is the One by whom all things consist and who holds all things together (see Col. 1:17). He is the One who brings the comfort and strength we need, even in the face of great loss.

We must also remember that we are not waiting simply for an outcome; we are waiting on the Lord. And waiting on Him—no matter how long the process seems to take—will have the best results.

One definition Webster’s gives for “wait” is “look forward expectantly.” Those who wait upon the Lord stay in a place of confident expectation. We may not know what will happen tomorrow, but we know Who holds tomorrow. The promise Isaiah 40:31 gives is that if we depend on the Lord and look forward in hope and expectation, He will renew our strength. We will not fear or lose heart.

The Lord said that in the last days men’s hearts would fail them for fear (see Luke 21:26). Certainly, the events of 9/11 shook the core of our national and personal security. Surely Iran’s radical government poses a current threat to Israel, the U.S. and the European Union. Violence continues to escalate as Russia moves to capture previously lost territory. Some of our troops are still in Afghanistan and we wait for them to come home. Our nation’s choices to accept godless lifestyles as the norm have poised us for judgment. But God has not given us a spirit of fear (see 2 Tim. 1:7).

If you have given in to fear because you don’t know what’s coming, turn away from it and begin to wait—look with expectation—upon the Lord. He can turn things around and work them for good even in the worst situations. He will give you the peace and strength to step boldly into your future with the confidence that He holds the future and His results are best.

Prayer Power for the Week of 4/28/2014

This week, renew your strength by waiting on the Lord and meditating on His goodness. Thank Him that He is all knowing and all-powerful, and we are secure in Him. Thank Him for His faithfulness and ever abiding comfort even during the worst times. Continue to pray for those who have lost loved ones through various tragic events, those struggling with health issues and need of provision, and those who desperately need Christ as their Savior. Pray that God would send more laborers into His harvest field, and tell Him that you are willing to do your part to expand His kingdom. Continue to pray for the persecuted church, the peace of Jerusalem, and our national, spiritual and civic leaders. Isa. 40:31; Col. 1:17; 2 Tim. 1:7.

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Here’s Why Not to Give Up - HEIDI BAKER, Spirit-Led Woman

Heidi Baker

Here’s Why Not to Give Up

3/30/2014 HEIDI BAKER

Sometimes we feel foolish dreaming the sorts of dreams God puts in our hearts. Our truest dreams always look too big for us.

We may be afraid of how bizarre we will look trying to achieve them. We might start out trying to paddle a kayak alone to islands many miles away only to find the task much harder than we ever knew. Nonetheless, we can be confident that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion (Phil.1:6).

Scripture says Paul prayed for the church to have patience and endurance (Col. 1:11). Sometimes we give up too quickly. I might have given up when my kayak idea turned out to be laughably inadequate. I might have given up when our first real boat sunk and we found ourselves shipwrecked.

Never mind the boats—I might have given up on Mozambique in general many times before that. I might have given up when people shot at me or when gangs were chasing me. I might have given up when we were in deep psychological distress after friends of ours in the Congo were dismembered with machetes in a church. I might have given up when I was reported in the newspapers as a drug dealer because of mistaken results at a lab, where they were testing some vitamins that were donated to us. I might have given up on the fifth, sixth, or seventh occasion when crowds began to stone me for preaching about Jesus.

Most especially I might have given up when my husband, Rolland, got cerebral malaria and suffered a series of micro strokes that almost killed him. Though he was eventually healed, for two years he lost his short-term memory and was totally unable to function in ministry or administration.

The only reason I did not give up any of these times was because I know the One who placed His promises within me. When you know Him intimately, you never give up, because He is worthy!

You have to wait a long time for some promises. I was 16 when the Lord told me I had a destiny in Africa, Asia and England. It took me over 20 years before I reached Mozambique and began to step into that piece of my calling.

Truthfully, I am being overshadowed more now than I have ever been before. At times it is still very uncomfortable. There are days when I feel terribly stretched as God’s promises grow within me, but even those days are a joy because I long to birth what God has given me.

Continue to carry your promises faithfully. Nurture them as they grow. It does not matter how old you are. It is never too late. The Lord wants to take you beyond who you are and what you can do. God is the One who can take a barren woman in her old age and make her fruitful for the first time, just as the angel told Mary.

“Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:36-37).

Two things will come from being overshadowed. The first is a particular promise from God that is naturally impossible to fulfill. The second is a general promise from God that nothing is impossible with Him.

Our God is the God of the impossible. He can take a barren ministry and breathe His Spirit into it. Even in your old age, He can breathe over you and cause you to bear a ministry, a promise, or a revelation—a beautiful gift that will carry His glory to the ends of the earth. He can take the most barren and broken life—even the kind of life that has aborted its own promises many times—and in it plant a glorious new promise, along with all the strength needed to carry it to full term.

We have a mighty calling to carry God’s heart and to reveal His glorious love to the world. None of us can fully imagine or expect what the Lord has for us or what the journey to its fulfillment will look like. I don’t think Mary was expecting to carry a child before she was married or to give birth to the Son of God. She could never have anticipated the magnitude of the call or the price she would have to pay.

If we are wise, we will make the choice to say yes to God many times a day. We say yes to taking the time to worship, to having a positive attitude, to releasing people, to stopping for people when we might be in a hurry, to trusting God for a seemingly impossible financial situation. Our yes is a daily choice. There is a daily sacrifice and a daily joy as we participate in God’s dreams for this world. As we do this, we participate with Jesus in the sacrifices He too made for the joy that was set before Him. What an awesome privilege!

Adapted from Birthing the Miraculous by Heidi Baker, copyright 2014, published by Charisma House. In this book Heidi Baker weaves true stories from her life and ministry together with the biblical story of Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus to show you how to become a catalyst for God’s glory here on earth. Learn to believe for the impossible and watch God do the miraculous through you. To order your copy click here.

Prayer Power for the Week of 3/31/2014

This week choose to say yes to God every day. Declare that you will submit to His will in your life as He reveals and unfolds His promises. Thank Him that His plans for you are perfect and that you can trust Him to do the work He promised. As we enter the Easter season, pray that hearts will turn toward Him as His story is told through church services, television programs and motion pictures. Ask Him to use you however He can to carry His love and message to those in desperate need. Remember those who have lost loved ones, either through natural disasters such as mudslides and fire or the Malaysian plane crash. Pray that God would accomplish His purpose through Israel, the spread of the gospel worldwide and our own nation. Col. 1:11; Phil. 1:6; Jer. 29:11.

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