As a young person my father would often take us on hikes into the forest. I was always intrigued by the difference in the landscape of a northern and southern exposure on a hill or mountain. How could it be that this same mountain had such different types of vegetation or such different climates? Hiking up the northern slope was complicated because the paths were laden with slippery moss and wet rocks while the southern side was typically dry and easy to maneuver. As a child, I remember that I couldn’t wait to crossover from the hot, dry, southern exposure to the lush, cool, green northern exposure. It was refreshing and provided an entirely different perspective.

Embarking on a new opportunity may be like navigating a slippery northern slope. It’s worth the climb, but it will take concerted effort to enjoy the journey. Today, are you willing to stretch beyond your comfort zone? Will you take a hike up a different side of the mountain? You may discover a new exposure that lies just ahead of you!

Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob was a dreamer. In his heart he carried a vision beyond what anyone could see. Joseph’s dream was a God given idea that would take many years and much perseverance to obtain.

Dreams clouded by life’s circumstances may look like storms on the horizon. A wise old Proverb says, “Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick.” Only the God-factor keeps hope alive in the heart. Hope, the picture of what could be!

The scripture tells us that the Lord was with Joseph and greatly blessed him! Whether Joseph was in a pit, a palace, a dungeon, or in charge of an entire nation, he found hope in the GOD FACTOR – the One who was with him!

Today, I pray with you my friend that“the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Rom 15:13 NIV

“We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose” (Rom 8:28 AMP).

WOW! I get excited when I read this passage. God is a partner in our labor working things together for us! What a pleasure it is to trust in HIM knowing that he is working behind the scenes on our behalf. Today in prayer, I heard myself saying, “God, YOU are my partner and I have total confidence that you are bringing in the resources, people and establishing the plans in your time frame!”

Each one of are continually surrounded by change due to difficulties in this natural world; however, in this time of transition we use our faith and our passion to latch on to God’s will and the wealth that is available for transfer into the hands of those in the kingdom of God! We are not down, defeated without hope or alternatives BUT WE ARE UP, EXPECTANT AND DREAMING OF NEW POSSIBILITES IN CHANGING TIMES!

Thank you Lord for bringing in the people and resources and blessing all of our partners!

“Now…give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day…” Joshua 14:12a

The story of Caleb found in the Old Testament is an amazing picture of perseverance in the face of national disobedience and a 45 year wilderness saga. Only belief in the vision God had given Caleb kept him determined not to yield to the consequences of a complaining, disobedient generation of evil doers and an aging body that naturally would have weakened over 45 years.

Caleb was delivered from the hands of the Egyptians along with approximately 3 million Israelites. He saw God protect him as he partook of the Passover and saw this group of 3 million walk out of Egypt carrying the spoils of wealth.

Caleb had history with God!

Even so, when the children were on their journey to the Promised Land, something became very obvious. This group still carried the image of slavery in their hearts. When the opportunity to seize their promise arrived, they chose to remember where they came from instead of the One from whom they came…and they died in the desert.

Caleb, on the other hand, saw a land of possibilities, and although there were giants in the land, he understood that the God of Israel would deliver him once again!

What picture will you embrace today – the picture of your past or the picture of your possibility?

Hope always expects the next idea to make the difference!

Hope declares that despite all the contrary evidence, your future is secure!

Hope prepares for the unseen and unexpected opportunity.

Hope is the raw material of your faith. It is the laboratory where all great works of faith are incubated.

The greatest crime of an oppressive government is not the theft of individual wealth or the physical pain inflicted, but the stealing of a person’s hope!

HOPE exists because GOD exists!

There was a street sweeper named Boris in Far East Russia that came to one of our meetings. The doors had been open and he was outside the building sweeping in the bitter cold. He heard English being spoken and came in out of curiosity.

As he sat there listening he thought about the very serious decision he had made—the decision that today was going to be his last day to live. He had been thinking about all the Communist government had taken away from him, and then sent him to Siberia to sweep the streets. It was too much! “Who am I?” he asked himself, “What reason do I have to live? Today when I go home I am going to end my life.”

Then he heard the words being spoken to the crowd by my husband, Kevin. “Maybe you are a street sweeper, and maybe the government has told you that you have no hope, no future. But God has sent me to tell you that you have a hope and a future in Him!”

We didn’t know Boris was there, but we saw him at the end of the meeting when he came forward crying and smiling. He told us he was going to write books and be an author. “God told me today that I can write books!”  We both thought, that’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard—you come to receive Jesus and the first thing you say is that you’re going to write books?

Fifteen years later we ran into Boris on the metro in Moscow where he told us that he had gone on to Bible College. Since that meeting we learned that he has become the head of a very large ministry and has, in fact, written several books!

All you need is one idea from God to change your life. He says, come to me for my burden is light and my yoke is easy (Matthew 11:30). Stop working in the strength of your own flesh, and work in His strength instead!

Faith does not rely on feelings, but it absolutely does foster them. It is what we feel strongly about that happens in our lives. Only in the realm of strong conviction can we weather storms that arise. Our beliefs and our strong feelings must be intertwined to form a powerful seed for change.

Strong feelings could accurately be described as passion. Passion is a mixture of what a person loves and what he hates. Sometimes it’s a love of something that drives his passion to change the world, but at other times, it’s what angers or disappoints him about the world that leads to a passion to change it. All great achievements must be maintained through passion; otherwise, criticisms, setbacks, and pressures will eventually wear achievers down. In order for passion to exist you must be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right.

Without passion you will never stick it out when the going gets tough. It’s passion that keeps you going in the face of insurmountable odds, and it is the same passion that keeps one refusing to quit no matter how painful the journey to the top is. It is the energy that commits to a goal and stays with it.

God has given us all that pertains to life, and we have the answers (2 Peter 1:3). We have a source that cannot be controlled by other humans, economics, armies, or any powers.

People are excited when they hear the voice of God’s scriptures declaring that all things are theirs to enjoy. It is God telling them to enter the supermarket and fill up their basket as often as they like. They go into the store with joy, but they are dismayed when everything they want is packaged as bags of seeds. It’s not in the form they were looking for! God promises us apples, but He rarely, if ever, gives us orchards or even a single apple tree. He gives us apple seeds.

People want instant gratification. The seeds God gives will produce everything they want in life, but they must plant them. The seeds will produce the image they project. They will grow. They will multiply just like any other seeds. God’s words are self-fulfilling. Jesus’ words are pre-programmed to produce the images of you and your life that He bought and paid for. His words are self-fulfilling in your life.

A tomato seed is pre-programmed to produce tomatoes. It does not matter how much the tomato seed would like to produce potatoes or how long it tries to grow them. It can only produce what it was programmed for.

Whatever seeds from God’s storehouse we plant, we will have the same harvest as God Himself would receive if He planted them!

When I was in Moscow one winter, record setting freezing temperatures froze the pipes of the heater units and caused a real flood, as well as a dangerous freeze inside. Our director had the great idea of placing an old iron gas heater in the center of the main room to warm up the house until we could replace the whole system. The heater had to be turned off at night though, and the first thought in the morning was how to get that heater going again! A little spark was all it took, and everyone would gather round until the warmth began to spread.

Friends, don’t start your day without a spark. Yesterday’s spark will not do. The fire has to be rekindled every morning. What is that spark to you? You probably know how to find that java stimulant for your body, but it might take a little more time to spark the divine impulse within you that will lift you to a place of expectation and peace as you deal with the day’s issues. When you are warm then everybody around you gets to enjoy the warmth!

2 Tim 1:6 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

2 Peter 3:11 “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior…”

It takes skill to lift people up. You don’t have to put people down, the devil already does a great job of that. The body of Christ is supposed to be lifting people up and giving them hope!

There are a thousand reasons to feel ashamed every day. Your thoughts can put you down, your spouse can put you down, your neighbors can put you down. Your past can put you down. Something you did can put you down, something you didn’t do can put you down!

A number of years ago I was preaching in Crimea. After a week of preaching my interpreter turned to me and said, “Kevin, when I listen to you, I begin to hope again!” I was a little worried by that…after a week of meetings my interpreter was just now beginning to believe what she was saying?

I told her that I didn’t understand what she meant, and she replied, “You don’t understand what communism did to us. It’s worse than stealing your house. It’s worse than stealing your car. It’s worse than stealing your opportunities for education or opportunities for advancement. They stole our hope. We were people without hope, but now we hear you and hope is beginning to arise. The God that you’re talking about, He will hear me, He will hear me!” “I’m going to pray,” she stated firmly, and I asked, “You mean you weren’t praying before?” “No,” she said, “I had no hope. I could not expect God to answer prayer. But now, I can expect Him to answer my prayer.”

She continued, “I’m going to pray for two things.” I thought, ok, I help. I’ll pray with her. She said, “No, I don’t want you to pray.” Curious, I asked what she was going to pray for. “I’m going to pray for a tape recorder because I want to hear this message again, and I’m going pray for a telephone because our family has been waiting 40 years to get one.” I said, “Larisa, I agree with you. You go pray.”

A week later she came to me, “Kevin! Kevin! Good news! Somebody gave me a tape recorder, and I know a telephone is coming!” Now, this might not seem important to you, but if you’d waited 40 years for something, it would be a very big deal to you.

A month later, I got a letter. “Dear Kevin, I want to share this wonderful news with you. You know what I was praying for. Last weekend a lady was born again and joined our church. I started to help her and gave her a bible study. One day this week she asked me, ‘Larisa, what can I do for you?’ I told her ‘Nothing.’ She replied, ‘I work for the telephone company, do you need a telephone?’  Kevin, the next day we got a telephone!”

The gospel has made us something. Once we were without hope, but now we have a covenant. We have God, and we have hope!