THE BATTLE FOR YOUR COVERING

Winning the battle for your covering will help you win all the other battles. Hence, there are two kinds of faith you must have to win the battles of life and to survive in this last days; faith in God and faith in the prophets of God (also known as your pastor or the covering over your life).

The Bible says in Gen. 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness: and let them have dominion…”. When God said let us make man…and let them have dominion, He actually divided the responsibility between God and man, and to achieve this, God sent us two helpers – the Holy Spirit and the Prophet He has brought into your life. Every man that was born physically was

Are you a Pastor or a Preacher? Part 2

Is there a difference between a pastor and a preacher? lets continue from where we stopped in part 1

Pastors must shepherd the flock. The pastor is a shepherd. “Feed” in both Acts 20:27 and 1 Peter 5:2 can be translated as shepherd. Peter goes on to say, “exercising oversight” (1 Peter 5:2 NASB). The pastor or shepherd is to be the primary overseer of the church and the elders under shepherds, with Jesus being the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4 and 2:25). The pastor is to exercise oversight over the body and all the ministries of the church, much of which may be delegated.

Are you a Pastor or a Preacher? Part 1

Is there a difference between a pastor and a preacher? Many churches have great preachers, but pastoring is more than just preaching. There may be many similar characteristics between the two, but a pastor’s heart is very different. All pastors should “study to show themselves approved” (2 Timothy 2:15), striving to be the best preacher they can be. However, the weekly service is only a small part of our ministry as pastors – there is much more to pastoring than preaching weekly church services.

How to be Faithful to God

Who can find a faithful man? This is what God is searching for among His people and it is a very rare commodity in our day. “Help Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men” (Psalms 12:1 NASB). “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy (faithful) man” (Proverbs 20:6 NASB)? “The faithful disappear from among the sons of men” seems to be a phrase coined for today if one ever could be. 

God is not looking for perfection or those who appear to have it all together. He is, however, searching for those who will simply be faithful. Will you be one of those He will find faithful when He returns? “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth” (Luke 18:8 NIV)? Here are some areas of faithfulness God is searching for in our lives:

How to Prepare for a Move of God

How do we prepare ourselves for a move of God? First, read Acts 2 to learn what was happening in the lives of the disciples. As a side note, always make sure the Word being taught is the real deal regardless of the source. Anyone can twist scripture to make it say what they want. Get in the habit of reading and studying the Bible for yourself so you will never be duped by false or misleading teaching.

                             To prepare Yourself and Your Church for a move of God
There must be unity in the Church (Acts 2:1). In order to see a move of God there must be unity in the church and in our families. Acts 2:1 says the disciples were “all together in one

Ten Marks of a True Christian

Introduction

References in the scriptures to false teachers, wheat and tares, those who “went out from us” (1 John 2:19) and… “depart from me, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23) prove there are both false Christians and true Christians within the Church. Here is a brief summary of the some of the key attributes that mark a ‘born-again’, ‘spirit-filled’ Christian. 


A true Christian:

1.     Believes that Jesus is Lord

This is the pre-eminent characteristic of a true Christian because salvation hinges on it (Romans 10:9; Philippians 2:11).

Marked by:

Please Watch

IS YOUR NAME IN THE BOOK OF LIFE?

Revelation 20:11-15
11.And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the BOOK OF LIFE: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

How to Personally Lead Someone to Jesus

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that every person must have an experience with Jesus through the Holy Spirit to be saved and enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NKJV). There are only two destinations for those who leave this life and enter eternity:

Heaven, where God dwells. Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be

Steps In Overcoming Masturbation

 Be assured that you can be cured of your difficulty. Many have been, both male and female, and you can be also if you determine that it must be so.

This determination is the first step. That is where we begin. You must decide that you will end this practice, and when you make that decision, the problem will be greatly reduced at once.

But it must be more than a hope or a wish, more than knowing that it is good for you. It must be actually a decision. If you truly make up your mind that you will be cured, then you will have the strength to resist any tendencies which you may have and any temptations which may come to you. After you have made this decision, then observe the following specific guidelines.

4 Ways to Pass Down a Spiritual Legacy

A legacy is inevitable. You will pass things down to the next generation. Even if you don’t have much materially to leave behind, you will instill character traits, talents, hobbies, skills and more in your children and grandchildren. But how valuable will your legacy be? Will you leave anything that has relevance and benefit for this life and eternity?
 
The most valuable legacy we can pass to our children, grandchildren, and other children in our lives is a spiritual legacy – the legacy of faith in Christ. Although every individual must make his or her own decision for Christ, there are things we can do to create an atmosphere where faith can thrive. When we consistently show them the value and relevancy of faith in Christ, that’s a legacy not easily tossed aside.

6 Steps for Unshakeable Faith When Life is Shaky

I’ve never felt the earth literally shaking beneath my feet, but devastating circumstances have caused my world to rock. What about you? We can build an unshakeable faith on our rock-solid God so when times of trial and difficulty come, we can stand firm.

Scripture tells us that trouble and trials will be a part of our life(John 16:33, James 1:2). But what do we do when they hit? What do we do when we can’t see God actively working in our circumstances?

In Psalm 71, the psalmist cries out to God for help. His troubles were piling up and he couldn’t see God at work. If you have time, read the entire psalm. It’s only 24 verses. Here, I’d like to share six things the psalmist did to stand firm on God’s truth when everything around him was shaking.

3 Steps to Create a Hunger for the Bible

The people on the street crowded in tight around us. They stretched out their arms desperately wanting to snag a copy for themselves. In just a few hectic days, our short-term mission team gave away 10,000 Bibles to the spiritually hungry citizens of Moscow.

That was September 1991, roughly two weeks after an attempted coup in the USSR. Bible distribution in the Soviet Union had been limited and closely monitored for nearly a century. Only a relative few enjoyed the privilege of owning a Bible. But many more hungered for God’s Word.


Do you long for God’s Word like that? If you didn’t have a Bible would you stand in a line for hours to own one?

5 Situations When Prayer is Vital

I recently did a brief study on Jesus and prayer. I examined His actual prayers recorded in Scripture as well as His teaching and practice of prayer.

As I searched the Gospels studying this topic, I began to notice the larger context of the instances Jesus spent intensive time in prayer. No doubt Jesus had constant, ongoing prayer with His Father. But, since the Bible also tells of specific times He withdrew to pray, these should be noteworthy for us.

Since everything in God’s Word is purposeful – and not accidental or haphazard – I realized that knowing the motivation and purpose behind Jesus’ purposeful times of prayer should be important for His followers’ prayer lives too. Let’s take a look and when and why Jesus prayed.


5 Purposeful Prayer Times of Jesus

1. Before an Important Decision (Luke 6:12-16) – The night before Jesus

The 5 M Plan to Develop Cell Group Leaders

An ongoing cell group study program can be a useful tool for discipling the people in your your church. Increase in biblical knowledge, spiritual growth, accountability, and fellowship are just a few of the benefits. But it can't happen without effective Cell Group Leaders.

For many churches, leadership can be one of the greatest challenges of their different ministries. Often, we lack enough trained, faithful small group leaders. And even if we have enough leaders now, we should be planning for the future by equipping people from the younger generation.

Your  ministry can have strong leadership now and in the future through purposeful leadership development. The 5 M strategy, which I have used to recruit and train my group leaders, could also be used with other types of leadership positions.

9 Tips for Spending Quality Quiet Time with God

I believe that this is a great time to renew our commitment to spiritual disciplines. Perhaps the busyness of our daily lives drew us away from quiet time with God. Perhaps we got so caught up in the problems and demands of life we drifted away without even realizing it.

Quiet Time Tips
Whatever the reason, we can start again. God is waiting for us to turn our attention and our hearts back to Him. The following 9 tips will help us not only stick to our daily appointment with God, they will also help us really connect with Him.

1. Establish a regular place and time – We are creatures of habit. If we know when and where we will meet with God daily we are much more likely to do it. Build it into your daily schedule. If this is new for you, start small, commit to it and God will grow it.

Why Holiness Matters

Over and over in the Bible, our holy God calls His people to holiness. “But, just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” 1 Peter 1:15. This call is echoed through numerous New Testament writers to God’s people throughout history. We must not only heed the call, we must encourage others to heed it as well.

This call is for our good and God’s glory. A holy life not only sets us free from the bondage and consequences of sin (Romans 6:22), it also paves the way for deep intimacy with God(Psalm 15:1-2). As we live holy lives, reflecting God’s character to the world, we become bright lights pointing a dark world to Christ (Matthew 15:14-16).


Three Steps Toward Holiness
Those of us in leadership should be leading the charge to holiness, urging those we influence to live holy lives. How can we do that? 


Here are 3 steps in the right direction.