The Answer to Your Breakthrough Might Be: Discipline

November 21, 2011 by 19 Comments
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The Answer to Your Breakthrough Might Be:

“Discipline”

by Olga Hermans

 

 

 

What does it mean to be disciplined? Discipline can be described as “training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.”

I truly believe a disciplined life is a powerful life. Learning to be disciplined and to practice self-control will keep you from laziness and excess, and will help you stay focused and productive. It will require you to make an effort, but the reward will be worth the work.

Many people enjoy watching American Idol or the Super Bowl or some type of game or contest. We love to see people achieve something, especially when they receive a reward or a gold medal or something. I am not so much into sports, but I like to watch the end of the Super Bowl or the Playoffs. Discipline is the price of freedom.

It is the door to liberation. When we are not disciplined, we become slaves; we fall under the power of things that should have no control over us. For example, when we don’t discipline ourselves to eat healthy, we become slaves to fat, sugars, and other substances that are harmful to our health.

A few weeks ago I decided to not be a slave to caffeine any more. It took discipline to endure the a tremendous headache for a couple of days, but I did it. I grew up with the coffeepot brewing in our kitchen all day long, but I broke the habit and I must say it feels good to be free from it.When we do not discipline ourselves to get enough rest, we become slaves to weariness and we get a murmuring, fault-finding, complaining attitude which we learned last week; remember?

The one thing that I like to discipline myself in is that controlling and ruling my life by the Word of God.
I desire to follow the Word of God in every area of my life, whether in my finances, my relationships or my marriage. Today, November 21st, is our anniversary by the way; I have been married to the love of my life for 31 years! Thank you for all your congratulations. 🙂

But every area in our life needs discipline. Living a disciplined life means that we practice the Word of God on a consistent basis and the only way to do that is by doing what it tells us to do. As a result you will find yourself living right in the middle of God’s blessings. This is the only way to discover the life you were born to live.

It is the only way to live a life without regrets. Right now you might be thinking that being disciplined sounds like a lot of work and YES you are right, because it is. So many times we keep asking ourselves why things are not working as they should and we come to the conclusion that we don’t discipline ourselves to read the Word.

Getting up a little earlier before you get to work takes discipline, consistently every morning to read and pray takes discipline, but the reward is a closer relationship with God and wisdom for making decisions in life.

Taking time to read your Bible every day may seem like a chore at first, but the more you do it, the more revelation, understanding and knowledge you will gain from God’s Word. This will help you renew your mind and live a successful Christian life. There is a price to pay to go to higher levels in God, and discipline is that price.

We need to learn how to live the new life that is given to us the moment we were born again and how to align our thinking with the truth of His Word.

We have to be disciplined about it. God gives us great freedom; He allows us to choose what we want to think, say and do. Discipline is never fun when you are first training yourself to do certain things. Start thinking and saying, “I am a disciplined person and I use self-control.”

Then apply that discipline and self-control to all your thoughts. We need to discipline our mind because our thoughts and emotions can change so quickly. One day we might be calm and reserved, sure of ourselves, and confident in God. Another day, we might be worried, anxious, insecure, and full of doubt.

Our thinking directly affects our emotions. Some decisions seem to be very easy and we seem to make decisions quickly and stick with it, but then there are times that it feels like it is impossible to make decision  even though we try very hard and then we keep changing our mind.

Doubt and fear haunt us and we cannot make up our mind. Many people struggle with this lack of ability to concentrate and make decisions. We can easily feel overwhelmed by all the decisions we need to make daily unless we have the confidence to believe that we have the ability to make the right ones.

But if you will make a quality decision to live a life of discipline, Jesus Christ Himself will help you follow through on what you have decided to do (Phil. 4:13). It is not like you are going to wake up one day and all of a sudden you are disciplined; that ain’t gonna happen!

There is a way to follow God’s rules and living your life in line with the Bible; it takes work and it requires patience as well. It will take a quality decision and a commitment to become a mature Christian. It is fun to grow up spiritually, gain more wisdom and understanding of things; knowing that you are pleasing God and following His ways and not your own.

There is a reward waiting for you. You need to keep your dreams and your vision before you; you need to know where you want to be and what you want to become. This is the time of year that many people are thinking about their goals; set spiritual goals for yourself to give you something to work toward. 2012 is going to be a great year.

Make it easy for yourself to focus on your journey by having a clear destination in sight and it will also help you perfect a life of discipline and diligence.

There is lot of talent lost because people didn’t know how to make a decision. Many people will never see their visions and life purpose manifest because they lack discipline. We don’t want to talk about this critical aspect of life and try to ignore it by focusing on only the spiritual side of reaching our breakthrough.

But the truth of the matter is that you need to be disciplined in every of your life and in your daily habits if you want to discover the life you were born to live. It is impossible without discipline. I encourage you to examine your life and think about the blessings that may be blocked because you fail to discipline yourself in the things of God.

When you realize what it is, decide today to change, and watch God manifest His goodness to you. Becoming disciplined is a part of developing godly character and the very answer to your breakthrough.

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Joy Stealers; What Is That All About?

November 17, 2011 by 11 Comments
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Joy Stealers; What Is That All About?

by Olga Hermans

 

 

  In our previous post we talked about the fact that joy is not the same as happiness. Thank you so much for all your emails and comments. I really do appreciate them! A few months ago I watched a service online where Dr. Don Colbert talked about joy stealers.

Just like those happiness traps that we get stuck in, there are also joy stealers. There are attitudes, that when you have them, you will not be able to enter into joy. I always appreciate Dr. Colbert and I follow a lot of his advice, especially this one on joy stealers. That’s why I like to share these with you today.

1. A critical, complaining attitude. If you have a critical, complaining attitude, you can never sow seeds of joy and reap a harvest of joy. You can NEVER do that! Philippians 2:14 says: Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [against God] and questioning and doubting [among yourselves] Not some things, ALL things!

You have to identify this. If you have it or your spouse has it, repent and resist this attitude. We all know how the Israelites grumbled in the desert; they are a great example to us. They had a grumbling, faultfinding and complaining attitude.

They hated the manna that God gave them from heaven every day that had every bit of nourishment in it they needed to live free of disease for years and years. Numbers tells us that there were fiery serpents among them, they bit the people and many of them died. So, the people asked Moses to pray for the Lord to take the serpents out of their midst.

Did the Lord take the serpents away? NO! Here is why: If you are murmuring and complaining, faultfinding; guess what? You are going to be in trial after trial after trial, represented by the many, many snakes. God is not taking the snakes away; you have to deal with it with an attitude of gratitude.

God hates a murmuring, faultfinding, complaining attitude and if you have that attitude; repent, because you will never have joy with that attitude; ever. Here is the 2nd joy-stealer attitude

2. Offense. If you get offended easily, you will never have joy: impossible!

You might think that your situation is much different from any other because nobody can understand what has been done to you. Listen to what Paul said in Acts 24:16 … I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

He exercised to be free of offense, In other words, he worked at it and kept working at it. Every single day! A lot of people keep offense towards God when a loved one died because of a car accident. Do you know what unforgiveness does in the body? It causes the stress response in the body to become stuck.

Just like an accelerator on a car can become stuck, you can get stuck. You stir in your own stress juices and these stress juices were meant to save your life in the short run but they also will destroy your life in the long run when they are stimulated continuously! A chronic stress response is deadly and causes tremendous disease. It is at the root of most diseases.

The main thing that gets people stuck in that stress response is: offense, unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment. Forgiveness is that important! Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Eph 4:31 It says ALL bitterness and ALL anger, ALL rage.

The word ALL is very important. And it says to be kind to one another, tender-hearted and forgiving one another, just as Jesus has forgiven you. You might think that this is not fair. It is not about being fair, it is about being obedient to God’s Word.

God knows that if you don’t do this, it is going to eventually effect your health and it will eventually poison every relationship you are in and it is going to eventually affect your health and destroy your health; mentally, emotionally and it will also affect your relationship with God.

Many people cannot simply feel the presence of God; their prayers are not being answered and that is because they have a spirit of offense. They carry bitterness and they do not release the hurt. Let me tell you, if you don’t forgive them; you are going to pay the price.

Jesus said: If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15 That’s why proverbs says: above all else, guard your heart because out of it flow the issue of life.

We have to guard our heart, we cannot let bitterness in, and we cannot let offense in because it will destroy our joy and we will never be able to plant seeds of joy and have a harvest of joy. You will always wonder, why that other person is so happy and why can I never sense the presence of God? That is because of that poisonous root of bitterness that will always destroy and prevent happiness form taking root.

3. The person with stinking thinking. If you want to discover the life you were born to live, you have to learn how we can clean our thinking up.

Mark Twain said: I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

The majority of bad things we think are going to happen to us, never happen. Phil.2:5 says: “allow this mind to be in you”, which means that we can have the mind of Christ or allow this mind that was in Jesus to be in us, which means we can have the mind of Christ, but we need to get the word of God inside of us and we have to get the trash out.

We sometimes carry too many deadly emotions inside us and “somebody has done me wrong songs”. We have to allow God to change the way we think. Rom.12:2 Dr. Colbert also taught that we have a joy center in the brain, did you know that?

He came up with research after research, very interesting! He is writing a book about it, which will be released sometime soon. He said that when this joycenter is developed, it has executive control just like the president; it has executive control over the entire emotional system. Also, when it is developed, it regulates emotion, pain and immunity.

The joycenter, if it is developed, is able to override the main drive centers of food, sexual impulses, temper and rage. So, if you can effectively develop this joycenter, guess what? You’ll be able to resist giving into any cravings for food (even chocolate), sexual impulse cravings, affairs and pornography and sexual addictions. You can resist terror, and you can overcome it.

You can resist giving into rage; you can resist giving into blind rage or fury. You can control it. Because when you develop that joy center it is literally to exert executive control over every emotional center in your mind. That means it overcomes depression, fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, blame, etc.

Every single emotion has to bow before the chief executive which is the joy center. Well, I thought this was worth writing a post about, what do you think? I value your comments! You can subscribe to

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Joy versus Happiness; How Does That Work?

November 14, 2011 by 21 Comments
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Joy versus Happiness; How Does That Work?

by Olga Hermans

  A prerequisite for life is that you have to go through a few things and I can tell you that my husband and I have gone through a few things. The key is that you have gone through it and that you don’t get stuck in the middle. In this life, you do not have time to have a pity party.

Jesus told us that we would have tribulations in this life, but we should be of good cheer, because Jesus has overcome everything that we will face in our life and that makes us more than overcomers, right?

Jesus didn’t promise us a rosegarden without any of the thorns, but what He does promise us is that He would enable us to rise above it and become victorious.

You do not have to stay in victimhood from what you have gone through. When you are supposed to be focussing on one thing, the enemy will throw something in your path to distract you from what you are supposed to be doing. But when you are sold out to Jesus and He is the one that you have submitted your life to; you and God become a majority.

God is not a respecter of persons, what He has done for others, He will do for you.The difference is what are you willing to let Him do through you? That is the difference. All these things that we go through can cause a lot of stress. In order to slam the door on stress, we have to cultivate a fruit of the spirit and that is the fruit of joy.

When you cultivate the fruit of joy, you will slam the door on all stress. The devil is not mainly after your family or your finances or even your health, because he knows that if he can steal your joy; he is going to steal your health, many times your family and your finances.

Most of us as Christians don’t have the light of joy; they have no joy in their speech and no joy in their mannerisms and as a result, the world is looking at us and saying: “you are not any different than us.”

You are attracting people to you with your joy, or you are repelling people away from you. Joy is a fruit of the spirit. You need to know how to apply and grow and plant the seeds that will bring forth a harvest of joy. You see, everything comes forth through a seed-faith principle.

There are certain seeds of joy that you have to learn, practice, cultivate and grow in order to receive the fruit of the spirit of joy. You see, gifts are given, but fruit is grown by making the right choices, but most people don’t know what the seeds are. Once you grow this fruit, you are going to be insulated from the effects of stress.

The definition of joy is “a feeling of contentment and it comes from within. It is not based on external circumstances. It comes from within, from an inner sense of fulfillment. Happiness is different. Happiness is a feeling of pleasure based on external circumstances and what other people say and do.

The longer I live, the more convinced I become that life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it. ~Dr. Charles Swindoll

You have to learn and practice reacting with joy. Once you learn how to plant these seeds, then you are learning how to grow this fruit of joy that is going to insulate you from stress.

Happiness is also important. Happiness is many times an entry way to joy, but it is based on external circumstances. There are many things that can make you happy.

Anything that appeals to your five senses can make you happy. Anything that feels good or tastes good such as a delicious piece of chocolate cake if that is one of your favourite foods or if you like watching a game. A good massage could bring you happiness as well. But what happens if we let happiness have its way, it can lead to overindulgence, sin and addiction.

One piece of chocolate cake might be great, but two pieces or a whole cake is dangerous to your health. Sex within the marriage is good, but if you turn to affairs, or turn to pornography; it becomes a sexual addiction and then it leads to sin and that leads to a stronghold. Happiness is good, but if you take happiness too far; it is going to get you in trouble.

That’s why there are happiness traps. Happiness traps are simply money, materialism, power, prestige, careers, affairs, alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling. All these are happiness traps. Yes, they will produce happiness for a season, but in the end they will lead to stress and then you lose your joy, you lose your peace, you lose you sleep and you lose your health and eventually you lose your life because of it.

You have to identify your happiness traps: they go like this: “if I only had more money, I would be happy”. “If I only had a better job, I would be happy,” “If I could only lose 40 pounds, I would be happy,” “If I only would live in that beautiful home.” All those “only’s: a better husband or a better wife or…if I only had a relationship.”

These are happiness traps. Research shows, that possessions, things and circumstances at the most will only produce 10% of happiness; at the most! Isn’t that amazing? When you look at rock stars, star athletes, musicians and movie stars. These people have mansions, they have boats, they have jewellery and so forth, but you know what?

Most of them don’t have happiness, so they turn to drugs or they turn to alcohol. They turn to prescription drugs because at the most, these things produce only 10% of your happiness.

Most people don’t understand that people are chasing these things. They keep chasing and when they get to the very top of that ladder, they see that they wasted all of that time chasing all of those things and end up ignoring the very things that could have been producing their happiness.

Realize that your personality, your temperament, your genetics and your disposition account for about 50% of your happiness. 40% of our happiness comes from things that we think, our actions, our behaviour, our reactions, and it is simply things that we have control over according to some happiness research that was done.

Most people are going for that 10% happiness, not realizing that things, circumstances, careers, ambitions, materialism and money produce at the most only 10% of your happiness. Well, you have to come back for part 2, where we will talk some more about Happiness versus Joy. I hope you will!

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Discover Your Purpose, Let It Ignite Your Passion and Turn It Into Profit

November 9, 2011 by 18 Comments
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 Discover Your Purpose, 

Let It Ignite Your Passion and Turn It Into Profit

By Olga Hermans

 

Since the time that I connected with Sandi Krakowski online (definitely a divine connection), my life has not been the same. To me it is one of those divine connections that only God can bring. My life has bumped up a level into a direction that I could not have gone to myself. I had been looking for places to learn about blogging and marketing online, but only got confused by all their teaching.

At this moment I am finishing off the Gold Group where she coaches me through the process of blogging twice a week, setting up my auto-responder and especially how to relate to my readers. This January, I am going step it up and join her Sapphire group and am so excited about it. I can’t learn enough from her.

She has taught me so many keys and principles that only can come from an expert who has gone through it herself. My Alexa ranking has come down to 137,553 at this very moment from over a million within a few weeks time.

I am very thankful that she came into my life and I give her more than 2 thumbs up; it has been one of my best choices that I have ever made in my life.

 

Sandi keeps telling us: “IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU!” Ouch and ouch again. You know why? Because I want to tell people what I know, because I think I know what people want to know. But that doesn’t have to be the truth. Sandi keeps telling us over and over again “Listen to you audience, what are they asking for?”

I must say, that is not something that you learn in a day. It is a complete switch in my thinking and my approach to blogging. That’s why we have a survey on The Choice Driven Life, where we ask questions and our readers can answer them. You, who have filled in the survey have helped me so much. I gained so much insight. If you haven’t had a chance to fill in the questions, please do that now by clicking here.

Let’s get back to Sandi’s book. I met Sandi personally in Chicago last spring where she had organized an event with a lot people who are coached by her. I had known her for a couple of months and when I met her personally I knew one thing right from the beginning: she is the real deal. She is not someone who covers things up or holds things back. No, she is right in your face.

While I was listening to her, I kept thinking, “she is reading my mail” again and again. And then it dawned on me…this is what the book is all about. She encourages us in so many ways to get to know our readers more than our product.

God gave us one mouth and two ears, right? So, we have to double up our listening and slow down on our own talking. I made a commitment to listen to what you as my readers are going through in life and answer your needs the best way possible. THIS is one of the things that I learned from Sandi Krakowski.

 

 

If you desire to discover your purpose. Let this book ignite your passion and turn it into a profit. You will learn how to build a relationship with your family, your friends, your co-workers and your readers. You too, can build a relationship with your Facebook friends. It is fun and a good thing to do! This book might be for you; it’s FREE !!

You only have to pay the shipping costs; what a deal! Check it out!

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How to Walk in The Favor of God

November 7, 2011 by 14 Comments
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How to Walk in The Favor of God

by Olga Hermans


What does it mean when we talk about the favor of God? I can presume that we all have experienced favor one way or another in our life, right? What is that, favor? What does that look like?
And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands–yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it. Psalm 90:17 Ampl.

When the Father laid out the plan for your life, He lined up the right people, the right circumstances, and the right breaks. He has already released His favor in your life, supernatural opportunities and divine connections. The breaks you need have already been predestined to come across your path.

You need to stay in faith and go out each day and be a person of excellence and you will experience the many blessings that the Father has for you.

In 1993 we left Canada for economic reasons to go and live in The Netherlands. It had always been my husband’s dream to live Canada, so we didn’t take moving away very lightly. But we always kept thinking back to our time in Canada and started to think about going back to Canada again in the beginning of 2000.

When my son was 21 or 22; he came to us and told us that he wanted to go and study in Canada to live there. At that moment there was not much that was keeping us in The Netherlands. Both our parents had died; our daughter was living in England at that time and had plans to live in Australia.

But because we hadn’t been back to Canada for so long, we knew it would be very difficult to reinstate our residency.

So, we flew into Seattle in September 2004 and drove to the border at Peace Arch. As we stopped at the custom’s booth; the officer asked us how we would like to enter Canada. They gave us the option between entering as a visitor or as a returning resident.

This totally flabbergasted us and we said; is it still possible to enter as a resident? Then we had to go into the office where we stood in line to wait for our turn.  Then, another booth opened and that officer called us out of the back of the line and insisted we come to him.

We handed him our paperwork and after a few minutes he came back with our paperwork and said: I’m going to waive all the requirements! He stamped our passports with the required stamps and said: “Welcome back to Canada”! 

That was the favor of God; His approval and His goodness for sure. It was a great experience, which made us feel very special. He loves to bestow favour on His children.

When God gives favor; people favor us, and often for no reason they can even explain. Favor is actually a part of grace. In the English New testament, the Word ‘grace’ and the word ‘favor’ are both translated from the same word ‘charis’. So the grace of God is the favor of God.

And the favor of God is the grace of God; that which causes things to happen in our lives that need to happen through the channel of faith. His power is doing something for us that we can neither earn nor deserve.

Think about that! God wants to give you special privileges. His favor will cause people to go out of their way to bless you without even knowing why they’re doing it.

How does favor work? Things just fall into place. Obstacles disappeared. What happened? You just walked into the blessings of the Lord. They were already lined up. You just walked into them. Just like when we arrived at the Canadian border, God had it all lined up already and we just walked into that blessing. It was a marvellous thing.

Esther, Daniel and the Hebrew children, Ruth and even Jesus received favor from God that caused them to be accepted instead of being rejected in specific situations. They may have been rejected in some areas, but they were accepted regarding the things He had sent them to do.

Esther needed favor with the King. She was selected to bring deliverance to her people, who were in danger. She stepped out in faith and went into a place that was hard for her in the natural. He gave her the favor she was believing for, and she fulfilled His call on her life.

Ruth was a Moabite, so there was no way for her to be accepted by the Israelites without favor from God, because the Moabites were idolaters. But God gave her that favor because she loved and trusted Him. She did nothing special to deserve it, but her heart was right.

Ruth had gone though heartache and pain as a young woman. Her husband was killed in a battle. When her mother-in-law Naomi was moving to a different city, Ruth decided to go with her and help take care of her. There was a great famine in the land. Food was scarce. Ruth went out in the fields every morning to glean wheat left by the reapers. That is how she and Naomi survived.

One day, Boaz, the owner of that field, came to visit. His workers told him about the young widow Ruth who picked up what the harvesters had missed. Boaz told his workers to drop handfuls of wheat on purpose for Ruth.

When you walk into one of your favor moments, people will go out of their way to be good to you. Many times they don’t realize why they’re doing it. It’s simply because you stepped into a time of favor that God released into your life.

You see Ruth was just minding her own business, doing her very best and being faithful. All of a sudden she started seeing all this wheat lying in front of her. Think about it. She didn’t have to struggle any more. She didn’t have to search the field trying to find a little here and a little there. All she had to do was picking up the wheat piles left for her.

Extraordinary things began to happen for Ruth. She received blessings that she did not have to work for. That’s the way our Father is. All of a sudden you get breaks that you didn’t deserve.

Due to His favor, she married Boaz, “a man of great wealth”

Ruth 2:1, and their ancestral line brought forth David from whom Jesus was descended. Ruth no longer worked in the field. She and her husband (Boaz) owned it.

God’s supernatural favor flowing in your life is not based on your background, looks or personality. His favor is based on the Word of God and believing what it says about you. Favor can break through barriers set before you, and it is available to every believer.

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Why Tests, Trials, and Temptations

October 20, 2011 by 11 Comments
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Why Tests, Trials, and Temptations

by Olga Hermans

When it comes to LIFE, everyone must live it. David Horton

 

Did you read that profound statement? This might sound very obvious to you, but I think we sometimes forget this. We usually think that we are the only ones who deal with problems or experience tests, trials, and temptations.

Or on the other side, people think that there shouldn’t be any trials in life and when they arise they like to neglect them or deny them and live like an ostrich who puts his head in the sand and choose not to face the trials or challenges in their life.

Other people might feel guilty right away and think they left the door open to the enemy or that they missed God somewhere down the road and now they are out of the will of God.

The truth is though, that it doesn’t matter where you are in life or who you are; we all live on the same planet, we all deal with the same devil and we are all in the same boat.

Psalm 34:19 gives us a great perspective on this:

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

I had a mother in law who just never wanted to talk about problems; she just smiled and actually never wanted to acknowledge that there was a problem. She would say something like: Oh Harry (that was her husband) don’t be so serious, you should look at it from a different angle. There is no problem, what are you talking about?”

Do you also know people like that who never like to talk about a problem even to the point of never even acknowledging that there is a problem? Then there are people who always see a problem; every day of their life. And the only talk about why it is happening and how it all came about and so on and so on.

We have to know that crises of life come to everyone; we ALL will experience hardships. They are not a sign of an open door or sin in your life; they come to you because there is a devil out there who hates you and wants to destroy you. Let me give you a FREE tip: circumstances are never a sign of you being in or out of the will of God. If that were the case then the Apostle Paul must have never been in the will of God because his circumstances were always strenuous.

Here is another tip: when problems occur—and they will—don’t focus on the problem. Realize that it is never God’s will and God is never behind the problem.

When problems arise in your life don’t start asking why it is happening, because that will only lead you to discouragement. Situations like that are never easy, but you have to strengthen your back bone and start to focus on how to get out of the problem instead of focusing on how the problem came into your life.

This is the moment to use your faith for God to deliver you. How do you do that? Start with what you know. Think back on what Jesus did for you; He delivered you from it ALL! Every disease, every sickness, every calamity ….everything!! Every trial out there is already conquered. He made you more than a conqueror, remember?

It all depends on how you look at it

One more thing for your deliverance from your tests, trials, and temptations; you have to see yourself the way God sees you. The time we were in Bibleschool, they always taught us that if we were dealing with sickness for instance to never think of ourselves as a sick person seeking healing, but rather as a healthy person resisting the devil and his sickness. This is profound!

Many people think that tests, trials and temptations come from God. No!! The enemy is there to deceive you and to get you on another path and waste all your time. Have you ever had a bad thought coming in, one that feels good? Then you do as whatever that though was to only feel very bad because you did it? That is how he plays with you.

He gives you the bad idea and then after he come to accuse you and condemn you and tell you how bad you are and why you did such a stupid thing. And now you are all discouraged.

Many people believe that the tests, trials and temptations are what make us strong. As long as we think that way, we also think that God sends those trials our way. But the truth is that a crisis of any kind doesn’t make you strong. Of course you can use them to GAIN strength, but THEY do not make you strong.

Here is an example. A weight in and of itself is not what makes a weightlifter strong, he only uses the weight to gain strength, but the weight in itself doesn’t make him strong.

 I remember a friend discussing this with my husband, that nobody gains strength by just laying on a weight bench and having that heavy bar across his chest with those heavy weights on it. No, you have to lift that weight to gain muscle strength. You don’t gain strength by just thinking about getting strong and hoping and wishing you would gain strength. Of course not.

The moment when he starts taking that weight and starts pushing that weight away from himself, he becomes stronger.  The weight doesn’t make him strong – it’s what he does with it.

So many people have thought and still think that tests and trials make us strong, but that is not true. We all experience them because we live in this world where the law of gravity is at work. BUT when we use our faith and when we use our words to push them away, than we become stronger and stronger.

Don’t be reluctant, be bold and stir yourself up to become strong in your faith. Speak to that mountain and tell it to move in Jesus’ name. Don’t assume that God wants you to walk through the trials and temptations to make you strong. There are no trials in heaven, why would God want you to have them here on the earth? There is no sickness in heaven, why would God want you to be sick here on the earth? That doesn’t make sense, does it?

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What About 2012?

September 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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What About 2012?

 

Prophecy delivered by Kenneth Copeland
on November 10, 2011
Washington, DC Victory Campaign

“What about 2012? What does it hold? What’s in store? What’s in store for the nations? What’s in store for Israel and what’s in store for the Church? I have a great storehouse. Much more has been stored up in the storehouse of riches beyond your wildest dream that I laid up for you before the foundation of the world. Much more is stored up there than what the Church has ever called for. I never have held back on the Church,” saith The LORD and the God of plenty. “I’ve made it available to you. I put it in My WORD. I gave you a promise and stood behind it with the blood, precious blood of your Savior. But there has been a backwardness in My people about laying hold of the things that I have provided for you. But I will say this: There is a people in the land. There is a people around the world. There is a people strong and mighty, growing much stronger and much mightier and more bold to lay hold and put their claim of faith on the things that I have laid up for you and it thrills Me,” saith The LORD, “because it’s been yours all the time.

“Ah, but what about 2012? 2012 is a year full of surprises. Some surprises are going to shake people up. Some surprises are going to shake people down. But for those who are listening to My voice, those who have made themselves available to My Spirit and to My WORD, you’ll have surprises. Oh, not like the world and not like a lot of carnal-minded Christians. Your surprises will come as suddenlies. Like in My WORD when it said, ‘And suddenly there came upon them.’ And you’ll stand up with a big smile on your face and say ‘I just got a suddenly, didn’t I? Oh! Yes.’ But it’ll not take you by surprise because I said in My WORD I’d show you things to come. I said in My WORD what I speak the Holy Ghost will hear and He will speak it to you. And there are those of you who are seeking My voice and seeking My WORD and seeking My Name and looking at Me in My face while I’m looking at you in your face. And together we’ll walk in this and together we’ll walk through this and there’ll come a time when you’ll just smile at Me and I’ll just smile at you and you’ll say, ‘Ha. Ha. Ha. I knew that all the time. Praise God. My Father showed me that was coming and I was all prepared and it didn’t come on me as a suddenly. But this other surprise that came on me. Oh, what joy. Oh, what thrill. Oh, what goodness. I wonder what else my Father has in store for me. Hallelujah. Praise God.’

“2012? I’ll tell you about 2012. It’s going to be a year of great joy for those who know joy. It’ll be a time of marvelous breakthroughs. This is a time of victory. It’s a time when people begin to realize that My WORD is a living WORD, that My Spirit is the living Spirit, and that you are My voice in the earth. And your voice is the voice of victory. So rejoice and shout and understand that the breakthroughs that you’ve sought and watched over, prayed over, stood in faith for, ah, don’t turn loose now. Don’t turn loose now because they’re at hand. They’re right at hand. They’re right on top of you right now. Praise God. Hey!

“Have no worry. Do not be in fear about the United States of America. Don’t be in fear over the failure of this republic. This is not the time for this nation to fail. I’m not done with it yet. And it may come as a surprise to many; this nation is not done with Me yet,” saith The LORD. Hallelujah.

“We have a job to do. And this year will be like none other where this nation is concerned. And many will say, ‘Oh, woe is us! Oh, woe is us!’ And you know what? Oh, woe will be them.

“And there are others who’ll say, ‘Oh, we can’t win! We can’t win!’ And to them they can’t win.

“Ah, but to those of them who say, ‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. This is a time of greatness! America again! Oh, and it’s my nation and it’s God’s nation and we’re right where we’re supposed to be. He has us right where He wants us, and our future is bright because God is still LORD over the United States of America.’

“So rejoice and give forth a glad sound because The LORD of glory is still on the throne and prayer changes things and together we’re going on to greater victory.

“Oh yes! 2012 is a time of greatness Miracles that seemed as if they would not come but they’re here. There is an atmosphere conducive to miracles that’s been growing and growing and will manifest greatly in the first quarter of 2012 and continue throughout the year and on into 2013. I’ve been looking forward to 2012,” saith The LORD. “I know how it’s going to turn out. I’ve already dealt with it in My WORD. Your future is looking better all the time. But of course you’ll need to look at it through My eyes,” saith the Spirit of grace. “So as I said before, rejoice, for your time has come.”

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From My Heart to Your Heart

September 16, 2011 by 12 Comments
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From My Heart to Your Heart

by Olga Hermans

 

Do you remember I told you that you as my subscriber mean a lot to me? I am constantly thinking how to connect with you better and trying to find more than one way. People need each other in good times and in bad times. Today I just want to talk to you from my heart; I don’t want to teach something or promote something. Just to share my heart and I hope you will share yours.

These last years have been a little bit of a rollercoaster for me. 7 Years ago we came to Vancouver with 6 suitcases; we had left everything behind us. That is a whole story in itself, and I don’t want to get into that right now.

But it was a drastic change for us, because we had started a bibleschool in The Netherlands which had been very successful; we had great testimonies and God had done amazing things during those years. It was a wonderful thing to get to know God that way. So, we had given the bibleschool to a Dutch couple who are still running the bibleschool and are doing a great job. Actually, it had been our vision to start the school and then give it to one of the nationals and then move on to our next assignment.

Everything was prepared and then all of a sudden, doors closed with a smack right in our face. The situation went sour and there was not much left to do then just to move forward. God showed Himself strong on our behalf and opened the door to Canada for us, which was a supernatural miracle in itself.

So, my question is; have you been in situations that made you just numb for a while. The only thing you knew to do was let one of your feet make one more step forward. Some of you might have been in situations that your house was burned down, or one of your family members just died unexpectedy. I know that some of our readers have experienced the hurricane in Joplin. How do we cope with these situations? What do we do next? People like you and I go through hard times; Jesus warned us that there would be storms in our life.

The bible says that our life is just a vapour, but to us it is the most important thing that we have. What are we supposed to do? What does your life look like? If I look at my own life right now, I see that many things still have to come to pass and I believe they will, because our God is faithful.

But there is one thing that we have to do and that is to take action. How long do we keep tolerating our way of living as we do? If we are frustrated about things why don’t we stop right there and look at what we are doing and stop doing all those mindless insignificant things and start new things to build our life up again.

When I look at my own life, I have been sabotaging myself for way too long. What about you?  Wanting my life to look a certain way, but doing another. Just doing things that didn’t line up with the desires in my heart. Crazy eh? That is a destructive behaviour, wouldn’t you say? The moment I realized that I was doing that, I made some quality changes and at this moment I’ve started to see the fruit of it.

I want to encourage you my friends. If you are frustrated and weary of all your “well” doing, have a look at your life and see if your life would look the same within a year from now. If that is the case, you gotta make some changes, because you probably know the saying that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insane.

I want you to know that I am here to help you; we need accountability in our life. You and I need to love our life and be confident. We need to envision ourselves bigger than our fear that is holding us back to step out. Tell yourself that you are strong and that you are talented, and able. See yourself moving forward in whatever you want to accomplish.

Victory starts in our mind. When you know that God is for you and that He has a good plan for you, you will see yourself as He sees you, capable of overcoming that fear that blocks your way. I have heard it said that the road to success is paved with failures. Remove anything that creates a picture of failure in your thoughts and choose to see yourself succeeding.

There is no way to get through life without experiencing pain. But it does not have to be wasted. We wonder sometimes why God waits so long to come to our rescue or why He allows certain things to take place. We cannot always figure out what God is doing, or why He is doing it, but if we trust Him, He will make something wonderful from it.

Do you believe that? I do believe that.

I’d like to finish with some great quotes from Joyce Meyer, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

“Courage is fear that has said its prayers and decided to go forward anyway.”

“Put your expectations on God, not on people.”

“Our joy does not have to be based on our circumstances.”

“Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don’t live in a perfect world.”

“God doesn’t tell you to do hard things so He can stand back and laugh and watch you struggle. He tells you to do the things that He knows are gonna work out to your good in the end.”

Let’s hold each other accountable. Share your comments of the 1 or 2 new things you plan to put into action to bring change in your life. Thank you for doing that!

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Pressing Into New Depths of Prayer

September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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Pressing Into New Depths of Prayer

 

The following excerpt is taken from Tongues: Beyond the Upper Room by Kenneth E. Hagin

There is a moving out beyond time and beyond space into the realm of the Spirit that is beyond my ability to describe. Some have walked out into that realm of prayer only far enough to get their feet wet. Like children wading in the water, they talk about what they experienced, saying, “That was so wonderful! It was the ultimate in praying in the Spirit!” but in reality, their experience is prayer was barely the beginning!

These people have only touched the realm of the Spirit. They need to wade on out into the deep waters of the Spirit until it isn’t only knee deep or loin deep, but so deep they can’t possibly touch the ocean bottom! They can swim on out and enjoy the fullness of what God has for them in prayer (see Ezekiel 47).

However, it is important to understand that these things will not always come easy. For one thing, the flesh will do everything possible to hold us back. That’s the reason the Word of God teaches us to crucify the flesh. The mind will also hold us back, trying to make us focus on the realm of the physical senses and what can be seen. That’s one reason God tells us to get our minds renewed with His Word (Rom. 12:1-2). Once our minds are renewed, we’ll be able to move further into the realm of His Spirit through prayer.

But as more and more of us respond to God’s call to pray, there will begin to be greater and greater manifestations of His power and glory on this earth. The manifestation and demonstration of God’s Spirit will become as common and as real as everyday natural things are to us. This is what our hearts have longed for and what intercessors have prayed for so many years.

…God wants us to move out further in the Spirit and learn how to maneuver in that greater realm of prayer. AS we are faithful to obey His call to pray, the day will come when we move beyond the edge of space – further on into the Spirit – and reach the fullness of God’s glory!

I’ll tell you this much: Jesus is coming. There is no use splitting hairs about that truth, because it will happen, whether you believe it or not! SO let us commit ourselves to praying in the Spirit so a great harvest of souls can be reaped in these last days. People are dying, and the end is coming. The end of all things is at hand, and what we do, we must do quickly.

If you would like to purchase this book, you can do so by clicking here!

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I Refuse to Fear

August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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I Refuse to Fear.

 

I am not moved by what I see. 

 I am not fearful over my financial future. 

God is my source of provision.

He provides cars to drive, food to eat, clothes to wear, places to live
and everything else I need in liberal supply.

I am not subject to the times. 

I live in the household of faith, not the dungeon of fear. 

My household is thriving, and not just surviving. 

My household is flourishing and not failing. 

Every bill is paid, every need is met and every debt is wiped out. 

I walk by faith and not by fear, in Jesus’ Name! 

 

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