Do You Want To Be Right or Do You Want To Be Righteous?

March 22, 2012 by Olga 10 Comments

Do You Want To Be Right
or Do You Want To Be Righteous?

by Olga Hermans

Have you ever been in a situation in which standing up for your rights meant stepping out of the will of God? People are crying out for their own rights in the streets. The western world has become a performance-oriented people. It looks like everybody is consumed with making sure nobody violates or breaks their own rights.

We should be very thankful that we live in a country where we can exercise our own rights and that we live in a country in which we are guaranteed certain freedoms by our constitution. But what do you do when you encounter a situation in which standing up for your own rights means stepping out of the will of God?

I believe that the time is coming where we as believers are going to be faced with such decisions; decisions that demand that you choose between “rightness” and “righteousness.” The choices that you will have at that given moment are going to determine for a great deal how your destiny will turn out in the time ahead.

It is important that you will embrace your destiny and pursue the righteousness which is of God, through faith rather than needing to be right all the time.

Do you know somebody in your own circle who wants to be right all the time? Someone who just keeps going until you and everyone else know that they were right all along? That’s what rightness is. On the other hand righteousness is a virtue and refers to uprightness. Righteousness holds the basis of your “rights” or “benefits” with God.

When you have God’s righteousness, you have the right to forgiveness of sin, the right to healing, the right to the presence and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the right to success and the right to security.

These rights were granted to you because God loves you that much and because of His mercy; you didn’t do anything to earn it or to deserve it. It’s all because God loves you and me; He gave it as a gift to us.

I have always wondered why so many Christians are not enjoying the benefits of their righteousness, which means that we are still ignorant of it. If that would not be the case, we would use all these benefits or promises to our advantage.

When we are ignorant of our righteousness in God, we don’t know about the promises to which we have a right. The consequence then is that we will make an effort to establish our own righteousness or rightness.

I have heard many people share a story of a situation where disagreement occurs with someone over a business transaction. The situation might be that you were cheated out of some money. God tells you not to worry about it and that He will take care of it. You have to make a decision at that moment.

Do you do whatever is necessary to prove that you are right? After all, you have been cheated! Or do you stand in the righteousness of God and trust Him to move on your behalf? The first choice is pursuing your own rightness and the second choice would be that you choose for righteousness.

When you choose for your own rightness rather than righteousness you are concerned with being correct in the eyes of the people around you. When you choose for righteousness; you are definitely concerned about what God thinks and the opinions of people around you don’t matter.

The first choice: rightness is mostly self-centered, because it is all about you. You think you have to defend yourself because you want to look good before man in order to feel good about yourself. You make it very difficult for yourself because you have to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong.

Rightness seeks self gratification and approval from God through good works. In contrast, righteousness recognizes that you are accepted based on what Jesus has done through the shedding of His blood on the cross.

Righteousness on the other hand seeks to please God rather than self and the only way to do that is by faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. When you keep choosing to prove your own rightness to other people, you leave God out of the picture and you’re on your own. At that moment your door is open for the devil and for anything that he wants to throw at you.

But when you seek God’s righteousness first and foremost, God is committed to back you up every step of the way. The first choice puts you in bondage to other people, while the second choice sets you FREE to serve a loving God who loves you so much more than you can ever imagine. He will take care of your reputation, He will back you up and your reputation will be stronger and better than ever.

A good reputation is very important. I’m just saying that you don’t have to run around trying to defend yourself when people accuse you falsely or tell lies about you. We all have enemies. Just don’t get your eyes on them. Keep your focus on the One who is sitting on the throne in heaven and know the Almighty God Who is taking care of you!

It is such a joy for us to be able to trust in the Lord.
Knowing that His eyes never leave us and that He is always there to defend us and fill our heart with excitement!
He has set us apart to bless us with His abundance and surrounds us with His favor as with a shield.
Psalm 5:11

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

Filed Under: Making Choices in Life Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, God knew you before you were born., home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, lifestyle, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Restoration, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What

You are a River of Living Water

March 19, 2012 by Olga 13 Comments

You are a River of Living Water

by Olga Hermans

On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover, Jesus poured out His Spirit on believers in the upper room, and they began speaking in a new language. Rivers of living water flowed out of them, and they prophesied. This experience – the baptism of the Holy Spirit – is available to every born-again believer.

The origin of the rivers written about in John 7:38, is the river that flows from the throne of God. It is the life of God Himself. As we worship God, His river flows. As we speak in other tongues, His river flows. As we prophesy, His river flows. As we speak the Word, His river flows up and out of us.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say that rivers of living water will flow once in a while from those who believe in Him. He said these rivers of living water will flow continuously. That living water is the Holy Spirit. In this passage, Jesus talks about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we have received if we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior – the Person and the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

The river of living water flows within you and me. It is not supposed to be stopped up, but it is to bubble up within us and flow out of us. Many people have never experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They have never let the rivers flow out of them. This experience was foreign to me as I was growing up, because I was raised in the Catholic Church. They also spoke a language that I couldn’t understand – Latin.

I remember very well the day that I got baptised in the Holy Spirit. Although I told people that I desired to speak in tongues, nobody told to me that I could receive this gift any time. My ideas about how spiritual things worked came from my upbringing in the Catholic Church. So I thought that I had to go to a certain service to receive this baptism. Knowing this, God told me to go to a certain meeting that was a two-hour drive away.

At the end of the meeting, they asked if there was anyone who wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I did, and received it gloriously, fluently speaking a language that I had never heard before. I jumped in, and that language suddenly came alive. I loved it.

When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you are filled with a power that affects your entire being. To walk in victory, you must release the refreshing rivers of the life of God that have been deposited inside of you.

In John 7:37-38 Jesus says, “If you’re thirsty, come and drink and I will cause rivers of living water to flow out of your innermost being.” You see, Jesus was talking about rivers and not just one river.

There are many, many rivers flowing inside of you. One of those rivers is the river of reconciliation which actually is a ministry and is entrusted to every believer.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 2Cor. 5:17-19

There are 3 things in this passage.

You have been made a new creation
You have a new ministry
You have a new message fit for a new creation. You definitely have become a new creation; something profound has happened to you.

I want to share a secret with you that my pastor shared with us. If you like to know more about this you can buy his book.
The more you yield to the river that is most prominent within your spirit, the more it will make exit from within your spirit for others in your life.

There are rivers of prayer, rivers of your destiny, rivers of full things that the womb of your spirit is pregnant with from Heaven; and when you begin to yield yourself over to the ministry of reconciliation, it will become the doorway to the destiny that God has for your life.

Isn’t that awesome? So, when you start to reconcile people to God, that river starts to flow on the inside of you to them and that river opens up other rivers on the inside of you and the door of your destiny will open up before you.

I like to encourage you to yield to that river of reconciliation. That river is on the inside of every believer, and this river is a river of life. You have life on the inside of you to give.

It is good to yield to the Spirit of God, to yield to that grace, and allow the Holy Spirit to control us. Have you ever experienced that God touched your heart in spite of you being hardened or stubborn? Maybe you realized that there was a change in your heart and that’s why you were able to respond to God? That was because of the grace of God that went into your heart.

The grace of God lives on the inside of you; in your heart and when you let it bubble up from within you, it will influence the rest of your life and your whole being and then is tangible for people around you to see it. THAT is your destiny!

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

Filed Under: 6 Your Destiny Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, God knew you before you were born., home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, lifestyle, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Restoration, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What

How To Keep It Simple

March 15, 2012 by Olga 5 Comments

How to keep it simple

by Olga Hermans

If ever God would be speaking about simplifying our life, it would be now. People wonder often why they don’t see God’s glory, His presence, or His anointing. They want to experience all the things that seem to happen to other people regularly.

The answer is very often that they need to simplify their life in order for them to understand what God says in His Word.
There is this transformational power in God’s Word; freedom comes and life comes in your heart when you read it. It penetrates your heart when you let it and positive change will happen.

Yet not enough believers experience these kinds of breakthroughs; let’s have a look at why that is.

The primary reason is that their life is too complex. Most people don’t enjoy God’s presence, God’s anointing, or God glorious plan because life is just too complicated.

Then there are people who sit in church or fellowship with one another and talk about the Word but never gain any insight. These people hear the Word, but the revelation of the Word never comes. They don’t seem to have the ability to absorb the fullness of God’s wisdom.

Psalm 119:130 tells us that the entrance of Your Word gives light and it gives understanding to the simple. So, when you would sit under the preaching of the Word, light should come and God’s revelations should come.

The word ‘simple’ doesn’t mean that you are not intelligent or whatever; it means that you are open-minded and that you live a simple life. Have you ever wondered why older people have so much wisdom? I think because they have the time to process life’s experiences. Their life is simple.

Complexity in itself doesn’t have to a bad thing. Our body in itself is very complex and works wonderfully. The reason people don’t know God the way they should is that their lives are just too cluttered and too complicated.

So, if you are born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, you can be sure that you have the ability to perceive the leadings of the Lord. The problem is that the busyness of your life and the noise of your flesh are depleting your spiritual life, which make it difficult to hear His still, small voice in your heart.

Your spiritual senses are overwhelmed by worldly clutter so they can’t function as they were designed to be.
I will picture an image here: let’s say that you are sitting in a room with your best friend. You are engaged in each other’s conversation and you can hear each other very well. You can pick up every variation of her voice; you know her so well that your communication gets more and more intimate.

Well, all of a sudden the room fills up with people who are all talking at once. Then TV goes on with a football game; people get so engaged in the game that they raise their voices more and more.

Your friend is still speaking and you can still hear her, but you can’t discern what she is saying as easily as you could when the room was quiet. You might miss a few words and misunderstand a few things.

Now they open the windows and all the sound of the street comes in; buses, trams and taxis are driving and honking their horn. You are looking at your friend and you see her lips moving, but you can’t figure out what she is saying. There is too much noise in the room; you are unable to distinguish the one sound that is important. You are unable to hear the voice of your friend.

This is what many people experience in their prayer life. Our flesh and our natural concerns of this world are making too much noise and are asking attention from us all the time. Too bad, because what God wants is right there to talk to us, but we have to get quiet before the Lord and give Him all our attention just like you would do with your best friend.

People keep waiting on the leading of the Lord; they think that He is not leading them right now. But that is not true; He is always leading us. But if we don’t obey those leadings, He won’t be able to take us any further. We find ourselves spiritually stuck and unable to rise up to higher levels where our heart desires to go.

It says in Psalm 46:10 that if we will be still before the Lord, we will be sure that we hear Him tell us how much He loves us and that you are a son to Him. Hearing Him say that will give you such a boost that you want to come back again and be still before Him and listen to that still small voice and hear some more from Him.

But if our life is too busy and too cluttered and has gotten a little too comfortable with the ways of this world, we won’t be able to hear Him. People think that it is ok to talk to God while listening to the noise of the world. If you talk to God while you go and do certain things, that is perfectly fine and it is a good thing.

But there should be times in your daily routine that you set yourself apart from everything around you and make time for God. Get your emotions and affection untangled from the earthly affairs.

It is time for us to set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth. It is time for us to get the worldly clutter out of our minds so that we can more readily hear and respond to the voice of the Lord.

We do that by purposely putting more time and energy into spiritual things. We do it by spending extra time each day worshiping the Lord, meditating on His Word, and praying. We do it by giving more of our attention to Him.

Filed Under: PRAYER Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, God knew you before you were born., home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, lifestyle, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Restoration, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What

It’s Time To Believe for The Favor of The Lord

March 12, 2012 by Olga 5 Comments

It’s Time To Believe For the Favor Of The Lord

by Olga Hermans

It’s time and you know it; it’s time to believe for the impossible to come into your life. God only wants us to go forward, never backwards. You can read in the book of Job where he says that “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.” But then in the end Job still believed and ended up with twice what he had before. God restored back to him double.

God is not a respecter of persons, what He did for Job, He will do for you! God not only wants to bring you out, He also wants to bring you out better off than you were before.

No, God is not limited by the economy. God is not limited by our education or our lack of it. God is not limited by the environment we were raised in. The only thing that is God is limited by is our belief. You need to believe that God is shifting things for you to your advantage. He is shifting things in favor of you.

Psalm 102:13 says there was a set time for favor. That means there was a set time for people to receive increase, a set time they would see blessings. It’s the same way today. God has seasons in which supernatural doors will open, seasons in which you will accomplish things you never thought possible, seasons in which you will see great things to begin to happen.

It is up to you to believe this; if you don’t believe this, you are going to miss out. This is for people who dare to rise up to their highest potential, for those who are pressing in to more of God. This is for those who have waited upon the lord and they know in their spirit that this is true. This is the time that God is doing great and mighty things even beyond our own imagination.

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to help the poor, to comfort the hurting, and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:19 says …. “This is God’s year to act!” Msg The ISV translation says: … to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.”

People had been in a very dry time before this was proclaimed by the Lord. There had been years of fighting and of judgment, but Jesus announced that things were changing from that time on. He said: “This is your season of favor.”

He declared it openly to all people and some took it for real and some didn’t want to believe it. It was almost that they couldn’t believe it because they were hanging on to their past; they felt they had sinned too much and that they never would accomplish their dreams or that they never would get healed or get out of debt or whatever it was.

By holding on to those thoughts they missed their season; they missed everything that God had for them, they missed their season of favor. Don’t let this be you; I urge to rise up and believe that this is the time to rise up and discover the life you were born to live; ignite it with passion and do something with it.

Maybe you feel like you are rowing upstream; life has been a constant struggle for you. You know what; you are not the only one. Many people feel that way; things have happened to them that totally got them off track and they are very disappointed. But God says, “Things are about to shift in your favor to receive the favor of the Lord.”

Sometimes when we look into our futures, we don’t see much. We don’t have a clue how we could ever get out of debt or get healed; we don’t see how our son or daughter could ever come home again. I know; I have been there. I just couldn’t see until my pastor started to talk about the goodness of the Lord and that all God wants to do in our life is bring restoration; that is the favor of the Lord.

It doesn’t matter what you have done, it doesn’t matter where you have been. God is able to wash you in the precious blood of Jesus and you are clean from top to toe and the best thing is that He will never bring it up again! So, why would you keep thinking about it and keep talking about it? Stop that and start believing the favor of God.

You need to be able to sense it before it arrives, which means that you start thinking that restoration will come into your life no matter what happens. God has promised it and that’s it. You see it coming; it might look impossible in the natural, but you know on the inside that it will come to pass. You sense it, you know it and you believe it.

Maybe your business is slow, sales are down but you can sense that the favor of the Lord will bring the necessary increase. You can sense that this is your year of favor; you sense that your best days are just ahead of you.

This is a season of change and of increase. You have to be perceptive and sense that the hand of God is upon your life; He has His eyes on you. The goodness of the Lord is at hand. The Lord has done some awesome miracles when He was here upon the earth to let us know that He only wants go around and do good things. Will you receive it when He comes your way or will you back away?

You won’t back away if you prepare your heart and you sense that the goodness of the Lord is coming your way. Receive it; this is the year for a glorious breakthrough in every area of your life. Listen to that still small voice on the inside of you that says: “I can turn it around. I can do what men can’t do. Will you let me?”

God is saying: “I have a new beginning. I can resurrect those dead dreams. Your best days are still ahead of you.” Are you sensing it? I sure hope so! Remember, the favor of the Lord is at hand!

This is Your Year of Increase

March 8, 2012 by Olga 5 Comments

This is Your Year of Increase

Do you know people who are stuck in a rut; it is a season in your life where you almost don’t expect anything to happen; you don’t grow and there is nothing in you that wants to move forward. Negative thoughts keep bombarding you and you think you have reached your limit and that you will never accomplish the dreams that are on the inside of you.

Those are lies from the devil and you know it. God is a God of increase; he desires for you to increase in every area of your life. He never wants us to go backward; only forward. He wants us to grow and go from faith to faith and from Glory to Glory.

Of course there always will be seasons when we don’t see a lot of growth, seasons where we have to dig our heels in and fight for what we believe God has put on the inside of us.

God’s plan for us is increase. Has your heart been calling for increase? I hope so, because that is what I believe for you. I believe I am writing to the right people. I believe that every spiritually healthy believer is hungry for increase these days.

People who are on fire desire to increase spiritually to rise up to higher places and shine for God wherever they are. They want to increase to live effectively and bear more fruit for the Lord and His Kingdom. Increase in overcoming things in their own life and gain the victory not just spiritually but physically, financially, and in every other area of their lives.

That is a good thing, but it is meant to be so, it is a God thing. He has put those desires on the inside of you; it is His will for you to increase on every side! When we increase, God gets more glory and His Kingdom advances.

Not to us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, for Your mercy and loving-kindness and for the sake… The Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children. Psalm 115:1,14

Increase is part of our destiny. It is God’s plan for us. Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t open more doors of increase for you? We all know how frustrating this can be and kept wondering why God doesn’t open more doors of increase for us.

I remember at times that my husband and I stepped through what seemed to be an open door of opportunity with our hopes high up but then our hopes got smashed on the ground. We could see the potential for increase right in front of us, things just didn’t work out. But that is no reason to give up oon our God-given dreams of increase.

On the contrary, it’s reason to press into them with even greater fervency with prayer. We need to persist and keep working with God; we need to continue to pray without giving up and the increase that is promised us will eventually come. We have God’s Word on it!

Prayer always goes before any work of God and prepares the way. When prayer goes before us, our labors begin to prosper. That’s if we want to increase, we must always make prayer a priority in our lives. Prayer prepares the way of the Lord!

Our prayers licence the Holy Spirit to go ahead of us and get our paths ready to walk on. They fill in the pitfalls the devil has dug for us and bring down the mountainous obstacles he has piled before us on our way to increase.
I remember the time when my husband and I were ready to move back to The Netherlands to build a bible school. We were sent out by Ps. Billy Joe Daugherty. We were so excited to go and of course there was this anxiousness in us if everything would come together for us.

The first weekend in Amsterdam we felt led to go to a church we had never heard about; I sat beside somebody and started talking about why we were in Amsterdam. Long story short; this man was a graphic designer and offered us to the entire website and all our graphics that we needed to be done, our brochures and catalogue for the bible school all for FREE.

Then the pastor offered us his offices to us to have the bible school in for FREE for the 1st year. Then another friend of us offered us to have all the copy word that we needed done for FREE actually for the entire 5 years we were in The Netherlands. Then we had a place to live for FREE; we lived there for almost 3 years and after that we lived in a very cheap accommodation until he left the country again. On and on, everything was provided. We believed for 50 students to come in the 1st year; they did supernaturally.

This all was because prayer had provided the way. When prayer has done its work, the plan of God unfolds right in front of us and the glory of the Lord is revealed for everybody to see.

Paul is a great example for us in, maybe I will touch on that another time. But he didn’t make it a secret that he prayed a lot and spoke with tongues more than everybody. 1 Cor.14:18

So, let’s follow Paul’s example. Let’s send our prayer out ahead of us. Let’s wait for God’s plans to unfold in every sphere of life. It is a way that God almost always works. As much as we want Him to, He doesn’t rid us of our problems at once. He doesn’t take us from rags to riches or from utter failure to 100% success overnight.

He usually does for us what He did for the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land. He drives out the giants little by little before us so that we can increase little by little and inherit the land.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

People’s Favorite Verse

March 5, 2012 by Olga 10 Comments

People’s Favorite Verse

by Olga Hermans

This week I somehow was into this thing of looking up the most favorite things for this and for that; have you ever done that? I was wondering what people’s most favorite Bible verse would be? Of course we have many; mine personally is: Psalm 16:11 “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of Your presence and the pleasures of living with You forever”.

Of course I have many others like Phil 4:13 and John 3:16 as most of you probably do. But then I looked it up on Google and this is what Bible Gateway said were the Top Five Bible Passages of 2011: 1. Jeremiah 29:11, 2. John 3:16, 3. Philippians 4:13, 4. Proverbs 3:5-6, and 5. Romans 8:28

They say they run these numbers every year, and that for the most part, the same Bible verses make the top-five list each year; they shift around in order but in general the list always looks familiar.

I must say Jer.29:11 is certainly one of my favorites, so let’s have a closer look at it.

I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out–plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. Jer 29:11 Msg.

God knows what He is doing; of course He does. He is the God of all creation. It is a verse that brings comfort when people lose their job. It is often mentioned on graduations from high school where of course it fits very well.

Just recently one of my dear friends lost her husband and this is one of the verses that came to mind for her. God knows; He knows what is going on and He knows what He is doing, He has it all planned out; He has plans to give you the future you hope for. We find comfort, hope, rest and peace in knowing that God has a plan for our lives. He knows the plans He has for us and His plans are good. His plan is not to harm us. His plan is to prosper us.

With that kind of news, it’s no wonder this Scripture ends up on our favorites list time and time again! If someone prophesies over us wonderful things in the name of the Lord, what they say to us may express the heart, the will, and the desire of God for us. But that does not mean it is going to happen just as it is prophesied.

This is because it cannot and will not come to pass if we choose to refuse to cooperate with God or to stay away from His will.
God has a plan for your lives, but we have to participate in that plan for it to come true. God is not likely to do anything in our lives without our cooperation. We need to cooperate with God every single day of our lives in order for our potential to be developed.
Every day we ought to learn something. Every day we ought to grow. Every day we ought to discover something. Every day we ought to be a bit further along than we were the day before and come to our fullest potential.

There is no other being on the face of the earth that can develop the potential that is on the inside of you. You are are the only one that must discover the gifts and talents that God has placed on the inside of you. God has a plan for each and every one of us. It is a good plan, the best plan; it is not an average plan or a mediocre plan; it is a divine plan.

This is GOD’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out–plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. “Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” GOD’s Decree. “I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”–GOD’s Decree–“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it. Jer 29:10 -14 Msg

God’s people had been prisoners and had been captive for seventy years when the Lord gave them the promise of a good future. The reason why the Israelites had been in captivity was because they had been unfaithful to God, they had been following the ungodly practices of the culture. They had been mocking God’s messengers and despised their words of truth. Because of their unbelief and rebellion they were led into Babylonian captivity for seventy years.

How does this apply to your life? Do you feel hemmed in or maybe imprisoned? Have you been in captivity? Did you walk away from a good marriage? Do you live in sin and feel like a slave of the devil? Are you following the ways of the world with its immoralities and corrupted values?

Maybe the Lord has tried to encourage you through a fellow Christian, but all you did was mocking their words and resisted what they were saying to you. Maybe you are in a situation right now where you feel this emptiness, depression, anger, anxiety, failure, poverty and destruction.

God is telling you that He knows what He is doing; He has it all planned out–plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. But when you read a little further, you read about your part, what you need to do. Your willingness to go to Him and to call on Him; knowing that He is your only source for everything that you need; seek Him with your whole heart.

He even says that He will make sure that you will not be disappointed and that He will turn things around for you; you can count on it!

Are you ready for a breakthrough? Are you ready to come out of that place of feeling abandoned and feeling rejected? Breaking out of whatever prison, captivity or bondage you’ve been living under? Why not get serious today and press into the Kingdom of God, and seek Him with your whole heart?

Get in that place where you become completely open before the Lord and talk to Him, tell Him how you feel, tell Him that you feel you have wasted so much time doing things that you wanted to do and that you feel like you missed everything that He had in store for you. Pour out your heart before Him, when you find the Lord in that intimate place, you will find His mercy, love, forgiveness, grace, favor and peace. He will turn your life around; He will order your steps into the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and give you a hope and a future!

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here

Your Destiny is Calling You

March 1, 2012 by Olga 7 Comments

Your Destiny is Calling You

by Olga Hermans

Life is beautiful isn’t it? Do you really realize that life is given to us the moment we were born? I remember the times that I lived life just as it came to me; one day at a time. I dreamed of big things, I desired to create awesome things and they were all so real to me. This of course was when I was this little girl without any idea what the future would hold for me. I only knew life as it was and the way I dreamed about it.
But then things started to happen, not all for the good. So, I had to grow up and become mature; grasping life as it was at that particular moment. My parents died when I was way too young, my two sisters got very ill and there I was, standing in the middle of my life and not knowing where to go or what to do.

I married the love of my life and we received two beautiful children; our family is quite close, we all have a heart for God and want to serve Him with passion and a purpose. What about you? Isn’t that what you want? Of course it is.

Your destiny is calling for you; are you able to hear it? Some people have drawn back from what they thought God was calling them to do, because at some time in their lives, they responded to it and things didn’t work out as they hoped. They jumped out to what they thought the Lord was drawing them to do and they ran straight into a wall.

If that’s ever happened to you, don’t worry about it. You’re in good company. Some of the greatest faith heroes of the Bible didn’t respond to God’s call exactly like He wanted them to at first.

You remember Moses? He was called to be a prophet and to serve as a deliverer for Israel. He sensed that call in his heart and wanted to get after it with everything in him and ended up murdering an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. That was of course not something that God had in mind. Moses had to be straightened out in the back of the wilderness; God helped him and everything worked out like God had it and Moses fulfilled his destiny after all.

Moses wasn’t the only one; look at Samuel. He had problems hearing the voice of the Lord; he thought he was hearing the voice of his mentor, Eli. God didn’t give up on him until he matured so fully in God that everything he said came to pass.

That is very encouraging isn’t it? It’s wonderful to know that no matter how many mistakes we make, if we will keep on responding to the leading and guidance of the Lord; He will keep working with us. God will stick with us until we get it right.

We can learn something from these two people. When you sense a direction, you have to find out from God the exact details. Don’t just go ahead and do something on your own (like Moses did) and don’t run to friends (like Samuel did) or read another book. No, draw closer to the Lord. Get His wisdom by fellowshipping with Him.

It is when we really take time to fellowship with Him that we receive the understanding of what He wants us to do. Of course, we need to be encouraged by others, but we can only get a clear picture of our destiny by coming personally into the presence of the Lord again, and again, and again.

I read somewhere that the Lord works with us almost like an artist who is painting a picture. He begins by sketching a few broad strokes on the canvas of our hearts. Initially, we might not even know what those strokes mean. But every time we get back to Him, He adds a little bit more definition.

He takes His Holy Ghost paintbrush and adds a few more details until, eventually; He has painted within us the most beautiful picture we have ever seen.

But here is what most people do; they give God a few scattered moments here and there and expect God to reveal their destiny to them. You don’t have to give Him great, massive quantities of time, but we need to give Him periods of undivided attention. Times when we focus exclusively on Him.

I have heard so many people say, “I guess if God wants me to do anything major for Him, He’ll tell me. After all, He knows where to find me.” Yeah, He knows where to find you alright: at the movies, at the football game, in front of the television or in the mall. But it is not His job to run after us and apprehend us in those places. On the contrary, it is our job to run after Him.

Will you do that? Will you take time that you are only focused on Him, will you set time apart to hear and recognize His voice? Instead of hoping and guessing that He will come running after us and saying things like: “God will get me where I need to go.” You press in to lay hold on what you know you need to do.

You press toward the goal to which God has been calling you already from the foundation of this earth. Will you do it? Of course you will let God unfold that beautiful picture of your destiny on the inside of you. There is only one way you can do that and that is to run fully after God!

What Does the Holy Spirit Want to Show You About Your Future?

February 27, 2012 by Olga 10 Comments

What Does the Holy Spirit Want to Show You
About Your Future?

by Olga Hermans

For several years I worked in the office of our bible school. One day, the office was full of people coming and going. There was an air of excitement, and everyone was chatting and laughing. Suddenly, a man in the middle of a walkie-talkie conversation came into the office. Even in the midst of the ongoing commotion of the office and static of the walkie-talkie, I recognized my husband’s voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie. I know my husband and I know his voice. That’s exactly how Christians should be attuned to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and receiving His ongoing guidance and direction.

Our future doesn’t need to be a mystery to us, if we remain connected to the Holy Spirit. He knows everything that is ahead of us. Jesus promised that the Spirit of the Truth, our Friend, would come and take us by the hand and guide us into all truth, telling us only what he has heard from God. He will order our steps, preparing us for what is to come.

How long has it been since you made the effort to sit down and be quiet, focusing all your thoughts toward the Father? It requires discipline to direct your thoughts toward God and ignore the random things that pop into your mind. You can be listening to God with one ear, as your mind makes a grocery list!

If we really want to hear from God, we need to focus on God, and only God, with everything that is within us. This will open our spiritual ears to hear what God has to say about our futures.

We know that God has a plan for us, a plan that is for our good. We also know that the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth (John 16:13). God knows that we need help to discern His plan for us, so He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell inside every Christian. The Holy Spirit is our Guide, our Teacher of Truth, our Counselor, and our Helper. He is also our Comforter.

God is not a respecter of persons, and He promises that we all are able to hear from God and experience the help of the Holy Spirit. He is always speaking to us, but we strain to recognize His voice because we are not familiar with it. We learn to recognize His voice in those moments that we are quiet before Him, patiently waiting.

Do you want guidance? Then be sensitive to the things that the Holy Spirit wants to show you, and then do as He says. As you learn to recognize God’s voice, you will know what to do. You will begin to act in faith as you experience the Spirit’s tug at your heart, or get an “inkling” or “knowing” about something to come.

I regularly watch the 700 Club. One of my favourite segments of the show is the testimonies of people who were Spirit-led to do something outside of their normal routines. For example, the person who is inexplicably compelled to drive a different route to work, only to discover that he missed a 10-car pile-up. Or the World Trade Center worker who sensed an inner witness to report to work late on 9/11. The Holy Spirit was protecting these people, guiding them away from danger.

The Holy Spirit has also given people hunches about making investments, and they have been supernaturally financially blessed by following through on His leading. It’s amazing to think of all the ways God wants to prepare us for our futures. But we must trust Him, step-by-step, to cover the big picture.

One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to guide and lead us into God’s will for each of our lives. I believe that we can release His plan for us by believing that He will let us know what to do in His perfect timing. We need discernment to do that, not mere head knowledge.
1Cor.2:14-16 tells us plainly that the natural man does not understand the spiritual man. Your spirit knows things that your head doesn’t know!

Because satan doesn’t want you to learn how to operate in the spiritual realm, he works hard to bring deception concerning these things. As a result, many people are actually afraid to believe that they can hear from God. They choose to remain in spiritual darkness rather than taking a chance on making a mistake.

Making mistakes is not the end of the world, but not learning from our mistakes is far more serious. We learn from life’s experiences as well as from the Word. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake. Be a person who has a pioneering spirit and is willing to learn.

God doesn’t always give the whole scoop of everything that we want to know, but He gives us enough information to make progress toward our destiny. He speaks in a still small voice. So I encourage you to seek God about your future. Focus on Him alone, listen and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here

Success begins on the inside

February 23, 2012 by Olga 1 Comment

Success begins on the inside

by Olga Hermans

How many times have you heard that success starts on the inside? Probably many, many times because it is true! Success begins on the inside, it begins in our heart. Do you like to read the Psalms? I do, and I also like to read Proverbs.

Psalms 120-134 give us great principles for success and promotion in life. King David wrote these Psalms and He has proven that these principles worked his own life. It doesn’t matter what you are, whether you are a mommy or a daddy; a pastor, a clerk, teacher or maybe a leader is some way or form. These principles work every time.

I am looking forward to meet David; he did many things wrong, but he had a very special place in the heart of God. He was promoted and he was famous; he had a great character and knew how to honor people.

He had made a terrible mistake with Bathsheba and a lot of other sins, but he was still called “a man after God’s own heart” Acts 13:22. How can that be? Do you want to know? I hope you do!

David knew a secret. The Bible tells us: “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart” 1 Sam. 16:7. God judges us by our heart; He doesn’t judge us by our actions “IF” we repent.

If it is all up to God, He would rather have our actions to be wrong and our heart be right, than our heart to be wrong and our actions right. I like that choice!! God rebuked many people in the Old Testament because they had hardened their heart.

The people said they loved the Lord with their lips and actions, but their hearts were far from Him, Isa. 29:13. But David was different; he kept his heart pure for God. He was quick to repent and seek the face of God. God chastened him many times because of his sins, but David always came back stronger than ever and became a better man and a better king than before.

David knew that sin begins with the thoughts you allow in your heart and not with what we do. If you keep a pure heart, you will keep your heart pure. Solomon was David’s son who wrote most of proverbs; he said:

Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust. Prov. 4:23-27 Msg.

You see, what most people don’t realize is that our mouth, eyes and hands are controlled by our heart. If our heart is pure, it is easier to keep our tongue from sinning and keep our actions on the right track.

David was a man that wanted to please God; not only did he keep his heart pure, he also kept it free from pride. We can read his thoughts about pride in Psalm 131:1 – MY heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in matters too great or in things too wonderful for me. Ampl.

We don’t need to be arrogant, we don’t need a blown up self-esteem. We all know what happened to Lucifer; arrogance is the very source of the original sin of Lucifer Isa. 14:12-14, Ezek. 28:16 and the source of all our personal sin. Proverbs 16:18 says, “First pride, then the fall– the bigger the ego, the harder the crash.”

An arrogant, prideful person feels they must always prove to everyone that they are better than others. They try to control every conversation and situation. They don’t want to recognize their own weaknesses and certainly not the strengths of others.

They don’t want to be taught themselves; but they want to show everybody else how they can do their job better. They think that are the best gift to the whole world. Arrogance is the one disease that makes everybody sick except the one who has it!

Then there are the people who are so confident and who are truly secure and know that God is their source. The self-confident person is the enemy of the arrogant person; they don’t understand someone who is willing to let everyone be themselves and have their eccentricities.

The arrogant and the confident travel two very different roads to success. Arrogant people will always try to work every situation for their own benefit. They have no respect whatsoever for authority because they are convinced that they would do a lot better. They lie often times about the ones in authority; they will always try to work both sides for their good.

We need to know where our happiness comes from; it doesn’t come from things like cheating and lying, being deceitful and stabbing other people’s back.

David was happy while watching over his father’s sheep, he was happy when he lived in a cave hiding for Saul and the armies of Israel. He was confident in God; he knew that his happiness came from the Lord.

David was a mystery to many in his kingdom who were striving for higher positions. Many people around him might have thought that he was simple-minded and ignorant of the true road to success. But David lived from his heart, he perceived the ways of God and had experienced some things himself that made him stand out from the crowd. Like fighting a bear and a lion and being all by himself in the fields.

Many people try to promote themselves into positions which only God can give; He knows the gifts and talents that are on the inside of everybody. We all have a place in the Kingdom; we don’t have to strive for a position or for attention. God will gladly show us what we need to do and where we need to go.

It is time to trust God and to be confident that He lives on the inside of you; always ready to give you the wisdom you need and lead you to the green pastures that He has prepared for you already before you were born. Just relax in who you are and whose you are and see your success unfold in your life like never before. It all starts on the inside!

Filed Under: 5 Your Character Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, God knew you before you were born., home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, lifestyle, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Restoration, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What does it mean, word, your life

8 Things That Deplete the Core of Your Being

February 20, 2012 by Olga 5 Comments

8 Things That Deplete the Core of Your Being

by Olga Hermans

Have you been struggling at times with the feelings of frustration that come with trying to be like someone else? You struggle to find out what your gifts and talents are, but don’t seem to get your breakthrough. There are many things that keep us from being the person we really are; we have a tendency to sabotage ourselves in many areas and when we do that, we keep going around the same mountain time after time.

I know what I am talking about; I have the T-shirt so to speak. So I’d like to help you in this as much as I can. Here are eight things that when you stay away from them you will be able to discover the life you were born to live. These eight things deplete your spirit from spiritual power, which you so desperately need to get closer to being in the right place at the right time to fulfill your destiny.

1. Spiritual power on the inside of you can be lost by being too busy and not spending enough time with God.

The busier you become, the more you need spiritual refreshment and replenishing. We all know that this is true, but somehow our mind pulls us away from our spiritual need into the business of life. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and emails keep calling us that we HAVE to answer right now or else…. You know exactly what I am talking about, but the truth is that those things deplete the very core of our being that needs to be filled up daily!

2. Your spiritual power is exhausted by being involved in worldly things.

Being involved in non-spiritual affairs wears you out and makes you tired; why? Because the atmosphere in some places is not beneficial for your spiritual growth and may even be anti-spiritual. You need to be able to get your soul quiet before the Lord and be renewed in your fellowship with Him. Most people don’t like to discipline themselves to find time for God’s Word and prayer. Many times hard working people are more blessed because they know what it takes to schedule in some time for different things.

3. Lack of unity with other Christians depletes our spiritual power.

David says that unity, like the dew from heaven, brings spiritual refreshment and blessing. Psalm 133:3. Disunity does the opposite. It dries the soul, shrinks your spiritual life, and evaporates refreshment and keenness. When you are critical or have thoughts of resentment, or any unforgiveness or bitterness of heart; your spiritual power is dissipated.

4. Lack of Obedience.

This is a biggie that we all know, but when we fail to walk in God’s light we can lose power in the core of our being which is our spirit. When we fail to recognize and accept God-given opportunities we lose power. God never demands anything from us; He only shows us opportunities and it depends on how much we love Jesus and how much we desire to please Him in being obedient to Him.

5. Self-centeredness and self-indulgence.

The Lord takes pleasure in our prosperity; He wants us debt free and He wants to take of every need that we have. BUT!! If we only want to have everything for the sake of ourselves, we are in the wrong and it depletes us of power in the very core of our being. The Holy Spirit will always show us the needs of others. Being self-centered is the opposite of being Christ-centered and Kingdom-centered.

6. Pride and self-sufficiency.

Pride comes before the fall. We are absolutely nothing without God. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will promote us to higher levels and show us things beyond our own imagination. I always liked this statement from Billy Graham: “If God should take His hand from my life, these lips will turn to lips of clay.” 2Cor.4:7 tells us that we are only earthen vessels and that all the power we have on the inside of us belongs to God anyway.

7. Too much humor can be too much!

This one might shock a little bit, but too much is just too much. Humor in itself is a gift from God to us, but if we use it inappropriately and throw it all over the place it depletes us of spiritual power. We need to use humor modestly; even too much wholesome humor can waste God’s power in the core of our being.

8. Sin ALWAYS depletes and destroys the power of the Spirit.

Thank God that we can always come to Him for repentance of sin and we will always be forgiven and cleansed. God always shows a way out and back to His favor, presence and His power. 1John 2:1-2. Remorse, regret and humbling ourselves before the Lord (James 3:7-10) can open the gate to God’s full favor and the flood tide of His power upon us again!