The Spiritual Famine Has Come to an End by Elaine Tavolacci

The Spiritual Famine Has Come to an End 

by Elaine Tavolacci

Identity Network

The Holy Spirit showed me something interesting this week to share with you. Famines are mentioned several times throughout the bible, especially in the Old Testament. During a famine, people will eat anything that is available to them. In 2 Kings 6:25 the people were so famished that they ate donkey heads and doves dung. In verse 29 they even boiled a child and ate it.

In the book of Amos chapter 8:11-12, God pronounced a judgment on the land by saying that there was coming a famine in the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water but a famine of hearing the voice of the Lord. Many people today don't realize that this spiritual famine was for a season. We are no longer under the law of judgment, but we have entered a new covenant with Jesus and He now says, "My sheep hear My voice."

There is a great hunger and desperation in the church today. Christians have been searching for a word from the Lord any place that they could receive one. Many are so hungry to hear a personal word for their lives, families and ministries, but they don't recognize the fact that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to them personally. They don't realize that the famine is over and that the Lord is speaking to those who have ears to hear.

Align with Him and Be Sensitive to His Voice

The Lord is calling you to stay in alignment and spend time with Him so that you will be more sensitive to His voice. He will make His voice known to you. There is no longer a famine from hearing the voice of the Lord, but all you need to do is simply tune your hearing to His prompting. As many of you have been feeling spiritually impoverished, read His word. His word is your daily bread, His word is His voice and His word carries life. 

Be careful what you are feeding yourself with, as some things release darkness into your life. Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. This will hinder you from hearing His voice. His voice is intuitive and not always logical to the natural mind, but The Lord is faithful and His promises are true.

Isaiah 30:21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

John 7:17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.

John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

John 16:13-15 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Elaine Tavolacci

www.awordinseason.info

www.TheVoiceOfBreakthrough.com

www.TheVoiceOfProphecy.com

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Why Are So Many Christians Turning Into Atheists? - Jennifer LeClaire

Why Are So Many Christians Turning Into Atheists?

1/2/2015 JENNIFER LECLAIRE  charisma news

Former pastor Ryan Bell converted to atheism. (YouTube screengrab)

Pastor Ryan Bell made a strange New Year's resolution in 2014—he aimed to live a godless year.

Bell, no relation to universalist Rob Bell, kept a blog to chronicle his yearlong journey without God and even had a documentary crew on hand to film what turned out to be his transformation from a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor to a full-blown atheist.

"I've looked at the majority of the arguments that I've been able to find for the existence of God, and on the question of God's existence or not, I have to say I don't find there to be a convincing case, in my view," Bell told NPR's Arun Rath.

"I don't think that God exists. I think that makes the most sense of the evidence that I have and my experience. But I don't think that's necessarily the most interesting thing about me."

What? How do you move from accepting a call of God into full-time ministry only to turn your back on him and decide to exchange a close relationship with God to a "closer relationship with reality"?

From Christian to Murderer?

Maybe we should ask heavy metal Christian rock star Tim Lambesis, the former front man for As I Lay Dying. Of course, that may be somewhat difficult considering he was sentenced to six years in prison for hiring a hit man to kill his wife. In the midst of that drama, Lambesis admitted he's an atheist.

In another instance, a Methodist worship and teaching pastor who served God in ministry for 20 years took up a new post, at least for a season, as public relations director for the American Atheists. She said her move to atheism was "very, very gradual."

"Actually there's not really one single moment where I can look back and say, "Ah, that was the moment," Teresa McBain told The Christian Post. "It was kind of a slow progression."

There's a long list of Christians who turned to atheism on WikiPedia. And the Clergy Project, a secret initiative that's willing to foot the bill to get you out of your pulpit and into a new career, claims to offer a "safe haven for active and former professional clergy/religious leaders who do not hold supernatural beliefs."

What is going on? Is the church doing something wrong? Or is the culture wooing once-saved Christians to the godless side? Or both?

A WikiHow article actually spells out "How to Persuade a Christian to Become Atheist" and atheists are certainly campaigning hard for their godless view. At the same time, a Barna Group study conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age in 1997. Just 16 percent of non-Christians in their late teens and 20s said they have a "good impression" of Christianity. Common negative perceptions include that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), old-fashioned (78 percent) and too involved in politics (75 percent).

"We are far from becoming an atheist nation," says Barna researcher David Kinnaman. "There are tens of millions of active believers in America today. But the wall between the churched and the churchless is growing higher and more impenetrable as more people have no muscle memory of what it means to be a regular attender at a house of worship."

The Great Falling Away

What, then, is the root of Christians turning their back on God? I believe it's a sign of the times and may be part of the Great Falling Away. About two years ago, I asked the question: "Is the Great Falling Away Already Underway?". Jesus said that in the last days, the love of many would grow cold because iniquity will abound (see Matt. 24:12). When a God-fearing pastor becomes a godless champion for faithlessness, love has grown cold.

But there is hope. Mike McHargue is a Christian turned atheist turned follower of Christ. He says his time as an atheist actually made him a better Christian.

"Atheism doesn't pretend to have answers to every question. Losing God changed me. I no longer feel like I have to have answers to all the questions we face in life. I'm happy to look for an answer without finding one, and I'm comfortable with uncertainty. My faith is an act of simple trust now," McHargue wrote in Relevant magazine.

"What I know is less important than what I do. Knowing Jesus is not an abstract set of information or a construct of dogma. Being a Christian comes down to the simple of act of dropping my nets when I hear the words, 'Come, follow me.'"

I pray that every Christian-turned-atheist—and every atheist for that matter—would come to this same revelation. God is waiting to embrace you.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale and author of several books, including Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft, and The Spiritual Warrior's Guide to Defeating Jezebel. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed are solely the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Charisma Media.

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Big Picture. Full Picture. - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Big Picture. Full Picture.

- Now Think On This

by Steve Martin

“You're a fountain of cascading light, and you open our eyes to light.” Psalm 36:9 (THE MESSAGE)

You are surrounded by the forest. All around you is nothing except the dense foliage, with a few streaks of sunlight piercing the darkness. You can’t see much at all and you think this is it. This is the known world.

As the camera pulls back, the forest gives way to a winding river, and then majestic clouds as the view expands higher up. Moving quickly now, you see through the lens a large land mass, surrounded by a huge ocean. Then the round ball of earth comes into further view, followed by a galaxy with massive groups of stars. There is no stopping point to the vastness of the creation.

At times our world we move in seems nothing more than what we can see through the trees in the forest. The daily routines, work schedules, and the ongoing maintenance of life keep us from seeing the big picture. For some, our boundaries are the small confines we are familiar with, and it sometimes seems that is all we can handle. Keeping life simple, within that established and familiar perimeter, is ok within our world, we at times believe.

For many, the bigger picture is rarely seen, if at all. Just maintaining the day in, day out routine is enough for the typical person, seeking to make it through another week, another season, another year. What is happening elsewhere offers nothing that will touch our lives. Or so it would seem.

To have a world concept, to go beyond what we typically come in contact with, requires something outside of ourselves. It will push us to see more than we would normally want to see, to get involved within a sphere outside of our own. Having a world view will require more than the “me and mine” attitude, if we are to affect the world beyond our known borders.

At times I am content to keep within the confines of the world I typically walk in – to do well on the job, maintain the few relationships I have, and accept the routine I have grown accustomed to. It just seems good enough. And yet fulfillment lacks. More must be attained.

Seeking the Lord’s purpose and plan for our lives will bring the full picture in view, as we realize that His world, the one we have been called to walk in, is beyond ours. Having His vantage viewpoint gives us the opportunity to get beyond our immediate surroundings and expand our world view.

As time goes by, the zeal we had to change the world in our youth must not be replaced with a complacency and tendency to shrink back from serving His purposes. Rather than believing we have completed our assignment and can now sit back and let others do it, our prayer must be to have His passion and love for the world renewed in our spirit. It is a daily walk, one that by His grace we can keep pressing on to achieve.

The enemy would like for us to sit back and let the world go by, allowing “que sera sera” – whatever will be will be. But that is not what we have been given to do, and we must continue to walk by the guidance of the Holy Spirt, Ruach HaKodesh, to be overcomers in this life.

The big picture, the full picture, has the world in view. Our place in this world is to continue to bring His kingdom into that part that He has for us to impact and fulfill. Until He calls us home to our eternal reward, let us keep seeking the Lord so we can be instruments of His love here on earth.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Love For His People. Inc.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.

If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Go here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

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Now Think On This #165 - “Big Picture. Full Picture.” by Steve Martin 

Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (01.05.15) Monday at 9:00 am in Charlotte, NC

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on our newest website: Now Think On This

Does New Testament Back Israel's Claim to the Land?

Sunday, January 04, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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Christians

Pastor Ron Cantor of the Tel Aviv-based Messianic congregation Tiferet Yeshua addresses in the following video the oft-heard argument that nowhere in the New Testament is Israel’s modern claim to to this land reaffirmed.

Even among Christians who on the surface claim to reject Replacement Theology, many insist that God’s promise of this particular piece of land to the Children of Israel and their descendants as a perpetual inheritance is null and void under the new covenant sealed in Yeshua’s blood.

Cantor starts off by noting that the New Testament never reaffirms the concept of tithing, but nearly all Christian pastors and ministers hold that it is still a valid and even necessary practice. As such, the mere absence of a particular promise or concept from the pages of the New Testament is not enough to declare it invalid.

“Can God, who cannot lie, break His promise?” Cantor wonders. “I would think not. If so, our faith is on shaky ground.”

Even so, Cantor explores why the New Testament fails to mention God’s promise of the land to Israel, which was such a central theme during the centuries covered by the Old Testament.

Or does it? As Cantor explains, a number of passages traditionally misused and taken out of context in fact reaffirm all of God’s promises to the Jews, including those regarding the land.

This short teaching is worth a watch: Israel Today video

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Israel's Loyal Christians Gaining Attention Abroad

Sunday, January 04, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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• Christians in Nazareth Between a Rock and a Hard Place
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Christians

As Israel’s former ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, stated on several occasions, Israel has proved to be the one place in the Middle East where Christians can not only live without persecution, but can actually thrive.

It is no secret to the readers of Israel Today that a growing number of Israeli Christians, in particular a large group from Nazareth, are responding by volunteering to serve in the IDF and fully integrating with Israeli society as loyal and productive citizens.

This trend is increasingly gaining the attention of the foreign media, though in most places it is still sadly overshadowed by claims that Israel oppresses all non-Jews in the region.

In an example of the more positive aforementioned coverage, The Wall Street Journal last week published a piece on “Israel’s Christian Awakening,” which concluded that the changing attitudes of local Christians constituted a “notable shift in the balance of power among religious groups in the Middle East.”

Among those cited in the article were Father Gabriel Naddaf, Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum spokesman Shadi Khalloul, and former IDF naval captain Bishara Shlayan.

Subscribers to our monthly Israel Today Magazine will recognize those names as regular interviewees and the subjects of numerous feature reports.

Unlike much of the mainstream international media, Israel Today is committed to covering this exciting realignment of Christians coming alongside their Jewish brothers in the Holy Land.

Make sure you don’t miss out on what is happening - SUBSCRIBE NOW

PHOTO: Father Gabriel Naddaf meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem (Flash90)

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Our Mom's 80th Birthday Celebration

Back row: Janet, Colleen, Mary, Steve, Sue, Lynn

Front row: Tom, Mom, Rob  

Our Mom's 80th Birthday Celebration

On Jan. 3, 2015 in Charlotte, NC, our mother Lila Martin Parker celebrated her 80th birthday. All eight of her children were able to come and join in the celebration. As many as the spouses, grandkids and great grandkids who could also joined us.

We love our Mom!

Steve Martin

Love For His People, Inc.

 

Mom and her three sons (Rob, Steve, Tom)

Mom and five daughters (Colleen, Mary, Janet, Mom, Lynn, Sue)

 Mom and all who could come to her 80th birthday party

Mom with husband Bill, and eight children

2015: A Year To Spread Your Broken Wings - Bill Yount

2015: A Year To Spread 

Your Broken Wings

Bill Yount

Posted: 30 Dec 2014 

 "If your heart is broken, you'll find God right there; if you're kicked in the gut, he'll help you catch your breath." Psalm 34:18 The Message

 Broken: having been fractured or damaged and no longer in one piece or in working order. (of a person) having given up all hope; despairing.

 It seems no matter who we are and how much we love Jesus, there's still a broken area in our lives that God is still working on. I said to my wife recently, "Do you know anyone in the Body of Christ including us who's not broken in some area of their lives? Do you know anyone who is normal?" She said, "Bill, normal is the setting on the dryer downstairs."

 I'm In Your Brokenness  

I sense an urgent cry from God's heart. "Wait no longer. I'm in your brokenness. When things didn't go the way you planned and I didn't answer the way you thought I would. So broken, you felt like a bird with out wings. But I'm still here and you are under My wings.. Would you do Me a favor? Spread your broken wings one more time. Give me one more chance. See what I can do for I am breathing on your brokenness. Can you feel My breath? I've waited for you to cry to Me. Only Me. Let Me be your dream now and I will take you to My dream that I have for you. Try it. One more time. Spread your broken wings and see where they will take you. I will be the wind that carries you above the storms, pain and sorrow. It's your time to defy gravity. At first it may hurt again but it will not harm you now. You will laugh again, dance again and love again. Spread your broken wings and make history."

Did Our Brokenness Come To Define Us?

Nothing is wasted in the hands of our Redeemer. All things work together for our good to those who love the Lord. Even our pain, disappointments and things that don't make sense. Could it be that we've tasted brokenness in order to relate to a broken world and to have our heart break for it?

 Can you feel them? Broken hearts, broken dreams, broken hopes, and broken bones. Maybe we should take a year and weep with those that weep. There must be an ocean of tears somewhere bottled by God's hand ready to be redeemed. Lord, let this be the year. And let us find you. Where our dream that's coming true is You. So we can get over ourselves and heal a broken, dying world. Begin with me. Weep through me over Jerusalem .Weep though me for the lost. I wonder when we stand before You if we will regret that we didn't weep more on earth. Not for ourselves or for the things that didn't work out. But for those who didn't make it there with us. For we will have all eternity to rejoice and be glad. "Lord, is that tear in my eye mine or yours?"

 A Year To Hear Tears Falling

 "I'm opening the ears of My people to hear tears falling this year. You will hear tears splashing, hitting the ground so hard that they will erode mountains and make rivers out of deserts. If you run from them they will pursue you until you can hear nothing else. As the prophet Elijah told the widow to go borrow many vessels, I hear the Father saying, "Go borrow many bottles for there will be more tears than there are bottles on the earth. Tears from orphans pounding against gross darkness screaming, "Can anyone hear me?" You will hear widows plead in the night for their cruse of oil not to fail. Children imprisoned in sex trafficking with no more tears left to cry, staring into outer space. A tearless generation robbed of their emotions. Older people in rest homes weeping for the younger generations, that they might learn from their long life of taking the road less traveled by. "Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?" Job 12:12 You may need to visit them to hear their heart cry."

 Perhaps when we weep with those who weep our brokenness begins to heal and our broken wings want to fly again to those whose weeping is greater than our own. Our broken wings must fly not for our own sake but for God's sake. I saw a little bird recently flying high in the sky with strong winds blowing against it. I said to the Lord, "How can that small bird fly against those fierce winds?" The Lord said, "They were born that way. They were created to fly in winds of adversity. And so are you."

Have the violent winds of life knocked you down? Have you forgotten that you were born to fly in spite of them? They were blowing hard against you to go higher in God. Are you wondering where your wings are? They are beginning to grow now. By faith begin to stretch them. You can do it. Hear the tears of others falling. They need you now. Go ahead. Stretch your broken wings and change history.

Blessings,

Bill Yount

http://billyount.blogspot.com/