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Many people find it difficult to think of God as a loving father. They see him through eyes clouded with pain from their past experiences with an ungodly father or stepfather. Thousands of Christians do not believe God loves them because their earthly father abandoned, wounded or grieved them badly. I pray that this message will speak not only to them but also to those of you who have not yet discovered the depths of the heavenly Father’s love. Many of us know the scriptures and the theology behind God’s great love for his children. However, very few of us...

The prophet Isaiah provides us with an example of how we can heal our tongue. 1. Isaiah drew near to the Lord and prayed for a vision of God’s holiness. “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up” (Isaiah 6:1, NKJV). Anyone who wants to live a life that pleases God must constantly go into his presence until he sees God’s holiness. All healing, true blessings and victories begin at his throne. That is where we see God in his holiness! 2. While standing in God’s holy presence, Isaiah was deeply convicted for having unclean lips....

I believe God has to accomplish a work in us before we can lay claim to any covenant promise. What is this precedent work upon which all others depend? Jeremiah tells us. “I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me” (Jeremiah 32:40, NKJV). God’s foundational work of the covenant is to put his fear into our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah is speaking here of the provisions of God’s new covenant, not the old one. God tells us very clearly how this first work of the covenant will...

God describes himself this way: “I taught Ephraim [Israel] to walk, taking them by their arms; but they did not know that I healed them” (Hosea 11:3, NKJV). In the original language, this verse reads more like “I came to them in their despair and tenderly nursed them through foul, rugged places. I held them in my arms as a nurse.” However, Hosea 11:7 says, “My people are bent on backsliding from me.” The word ‘bent’ here means “hanging in suspense, hanging in doubt.” Israel was not sure of the Lord’s love and tenderness, and God was saying to Hosea,...

Joseph was in one of his darkest hours; he was lonely, downcast, about to give up his dreams and questioning his place in God. Suddenly, the call came from one of the king’s guards, “Joseph! Get cleaned up. Pharaoh is calling for you!” In that moment, I believe the Spirit of God came mightily upon Joseph, and his heart leapt with excitement. He was about to understand what it was all about. As Joseph shaved and trimmed his hair, he probably thought, “This is the beginning of what God promised me. Now I know I heard from him. The devil...

Does our heavenly Father favor certain individuals among his children? Doesn’t the Bible say God is no respecter of persons? When it comes to salvation and his wonderful promises, God treats us all alike, but he also puts his special favor on those who respond wholeheartedly to his calling and yield their lives to him entirely! Job said, “You have granted me life and favor, and your care has preserved my spirit” (Job 10:12, NKJV). David said, “For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favor you will surround him as with a shield” (Psalm 5:12). Our heavenly Father...

Numerous Christians, including pastors, have told me they are continually harassed by former sins. They say, “if you only knew what I once did, you would understand why I’m so down. My sin still hangs over my head, and I battle constant guilt over it. I believe the Lord has forgiven me, that his blood is sufficient to cover my iniquity, but I don’t have the peace that comes from that knowledge.” Others tell me, “I believe I’m forgiven, but my mind is continually bombarded with hellish thoughts. It can happen anywhere, even in church, and it makes me feel...

There is an old gospel song we used to sing that goes like this: Send him on down, Lord, send him on down Lord, let the Holy Ghost come on down We need him, Lord, send him on down! The truth is the Holy Spirit is already here. He came down from heaven at Pentecost, and he never left! Jesus promised, “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that he may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; but...

Moses had a disposition like many of us today, so there was only one way for him to stay in victory. He continually communed with the Lord. “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11, NKJV). I believe the secret to holiness is very simple: Stay close to Jesus! Keep looking into his face until you become like the image you behold. “But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). The Lord makes his dwelling with his people who are worshipping; and where the Lord is,...

When Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me,” he wasn’t speaking about self-flagellation. The cross is the Holy Spirit showing us how to live through the mind of Christ. It is a lifelong process of shedding our need for control and daily giving our will to God. Say you’re a new Christian and are hit with a serious adversity, a life-threatening illness, tragedy or financial loss. Not only does it hit, but it begins to drag out. “This isn’t fair,” you might say. “I’m a little mad at God for allowing this to overtake my life.” We’re so...

God shows us how we can live without fear. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…” (1 John 4:18, NKJV). In short, if we are living in fear, we are ignorant of perfect love. John is not saying, “Perfect love for God casts out all fear.” He is saying that perfect love begins with abundant and generous love for one another. It is a fact beyond doubt that we love God, but consider what John says about perfect love earlier in the chapter. “If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love...

“We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:16-17, NKJV). Note the last part of this passage. John tells us we are now living as the Lord lived, forgiving and loving our enemies. There is nothing left in us of revenge, grudges or racial prejudice, so we can now fully...

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Comforter.” It is one thing to know the Holy Spirit as our comforter, but we must also know how he comforts us, so we can distinguish what comfort is of flesh and what is from the Spirit. Consider the person who is overcome with loneliness. He prays for the comfort of the Holy Spirit and expects that comfort to come as a feeling. In fact, he imagines it as a kind of sudden breath from heaven, like a spiritual sedative to his soul. This feeling of peace may actually come to him, but the...

Everybody loves the story of God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. We’ve got all of the plagues and these dramatic signs of God’s power, then nearly two million slaves are set free. The pharaoh of Egypt changes his mind about letting them go at the last minute and chases them to the Red Sea, then God splits the sea in half, and his people escape through it only to have these walls of water smash in on the Egyptian army pursuing them. There’s an important verse before all of that, though, which we often miss. “Now there arose a...

A triumphant church is rising up today, coming out of great trials of faith. This last-days church is emerging from long days of affliction and adversity. The Holy Spirit is at work bringing his people out of a reliance on themselves so that he can show himself strong. Even if you’ve been walking with Jesus for years, you may today be facing a time of severe testing in your life. Things coming at you seem to be overwhelming, things that only God can do something about, and you realize that only he can bring you through. This is exactly where...

We can find dry spells plaguing the lives of godly men and women throughout the Bible. This low period in the spirit comes mostly to those whom God intends to use. Indeed, it is common to everyone he trains to go deeper into his ways. As you look back on some of your own dry spells, ask yourself if those times followed a renewal of the Spirit in your life. Maybe you had experienced a fresh awakening, asking the Lord, “Touch me, Jesus. I feel lukewarm. I know my service to you isn’t moving forward as it should. I’m hungry...

In Galatians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14, ESV). The crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord is the unique, incomparably central point for all of mankind and all of history. All of history is split before Jesus and after his work on the cross. It radically changed the whole world. However, it not only changed the world, it also radically changed us. So for how many of you is...

Abraham didn’t stagger in his faith. Rather, he was “fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform” (Romans 4:21, NKJV). He recognized that God is able to work with nothing. Indeed, our Lord created the world from a void. With just a single word, he creates. In the same way, he can create miracles for us out of nothing. When all else fails, when your every plan and scheme has been exhausted, that is the time for you to cast everything on God. It is the time for you to give up all confidence in...

No matter what crisis we face or what sorrow may come, our blessed Lord is leading and caring for us every step of the way. The economy could tank; our health could collapse, or our dreams could be derailed. No matter the trouble, our God is in front of it and is preparing the road ahead for us. The children of Israel couldn’t wrap their heads around this level of faith, and God finally had to disown those he delivered out of Egypt. Why? Because they doubted and limited him after having been so miraculously delivered time and again. It...

The Spirit has made it clear to me that all my praying is in vain unless I pray in faith. I could weep, fast, intercede, agonize and travail in prayer and still make no impact with the Lord at all unless I am doing it with simple, childlike faith. God will not act on our behalf without faith. Scripture says, “Let not that man [the doubter] suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:7, NKJV). Despite this, we often have very little confidence in God, so little faith in his willingness and desire to answer our heart’s...