When you start to feel the lies creeping in, call on your helper and friend, the Holy Spirit, and ask Him to give you everything you need to believe the truth. He will meet you there and whisper the truth: that He sees you, loves you, and is for you. We lack nothing; He is everything—the only thing that will ever satisfy.

We become like what we behold. All are invited to come and behold the glory of the Lord. However, even if we aren’t beholding Jesus, we are all beholding something. By nature, we are worshippers. Even though we were created to worship Jesus, if we don’t worship Him we won’t stop worshiping. We are called to worship God because He deserves it, but it’s also because we are called to become like Him.

God promises that He will be with us (Hebrews 13:5), He will protect us (Psalm 91:11), He will be our strength (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10), He will answer us (Jeremiah 33:3), He will provide for us (Matthew 6:30-33), He will give us peace (Philippians 4:6), and NOTHING can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39).

Are you willing to give yourself fully to Jesus? Are you willing to lay aside anything that hinders intimacy with the Father? The Holy Spirit led me to this very question for my own life. For many years, I was not willing, and I reaped the consequences of my actions. I missed out on deep intimacy with the Father.

The more you gaze on the face of Jesus with the eyes of your heart, the more you see who you are becoming. Your passion for Jesus and conviction give you momentum to pursue this one thing, from which all other passions and purposes flow. Your pursuit attracts Heaven to bring you into that destiny. “I am alive to burn for God. I am alive to make Him known.”

How do we learn to live for this Kingdom that is contrary to what we see? How do we not get swept up in the self-absorption, self-preservation, and self-glorification that has completely infested our society?

While Balaam’s story is as dramatic as it is funny, it underscores a great lesson: God’s dealings with us, though far beyond our comprehension, are undergirded by great patience and compassion. Otherwise, if He marked our transgressions, who would stand? If the Lord kept a record of our sins, who could survive? (Psalm 130:3)

Does your life reflect the greatest commandment that we are instructed with — to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and mind? Jesus tells Martha that only “one thing” is necessary. This “one thing” is fellowship, oneness, and closeness with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What if we lived every day from the perspective that it is a miracle that Christ lives in us and we live in Christ? That it’s a miracle that we get to commune with Him while we live on earth? That we have the opportunity to live in union with Christ, to know the Holy Spirit, and listen to him as he guides us on the path of life?

Jesus at the forefront of our minds looks like surrendering the idea that the end goal is to obtain anything this world has to offer. We must shift our perspective to the end goal being to glorify Him and share in the inheritance and salvation He promises to us.

God made us in His image and gave us the ability to speak as well. It’s a wonderful mystery and an absolute gift. It’s what sets us apart from the animals. With this ability comes great responsibility because “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

Western Christendom tends to lull us into thinking our faith journey ought to always consist of mountaintop experiences. That’s a fallacy. The Bible is replete with heroes of faith whose fame germinated out of the soil of intense pain and suffering. There are no exceptions: those that would drink from the cup of Christ’s glory, must also drink from the cup of His suffering.

Jesus is not looking for another church-goer. He is looking for a follower who will abide, love, and surrender everything to Him. Are you willing to lay down your life to follow Jesus? Are you willing to surrender your image and pride to follow the One who created you? Jesus is calling you to a life of a disciple.

In The Final Quest, author Rick Joyner says, “often what makes men kings on earth is the greatest stumbling block to being kings in Heaven.” We are simply stewards of the things given to us on earth. We must stay sensitive to His voice to be ready and quick to give, open up our homes, go meet with this person, and to be faithful with whom and what He has put in our lives.

When you are abiding in the Lord, you will be stirred to encourage others in Him, because, after all, when you receive encouragement from the King of Kings, you can't help but pass it on. Who can you encourage, today?

The more I uncover the lies and schemes of the enemy in my own life, the more I realize how powerless Satan is compared to the power of the Holy Spirit inside of me. The only reason we have the ability to overcome the lies, schemes, and fears from the enemy is because God overcame him first and has given us His victory.

The key to greatness, both individual and national, is to identify with God’s purposes and God’s people, and that means the people that God is restoring and bringing back to their land, to their city, the people of Israel and the church of Jesus Christ.

The mark of the early church was that the Apostles knew the reality of Jesus; they had been with Him. They had been reoriented and experienced a revival. Psalm 85:6 says, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

Every hard circumstance that we walk through, every conversation with a friend, every scripture we read, every word that comes from Him is preparing us for the path that lies ahead. When God calls you to something, He will always equip you for it. With the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we live empowered, unafraid, overcoming lives.

We have God’s DNA. It’s him who gives us the love and grace to parent well. He is a beautiful parent that loves, protects, and plans well for His children.