We were preaching in India a few years ago, and at the end of the service a young man rushed onto the platform with his mother. The mother was dressed in a black hijab covering her entire body. Suddenly, while standing there in front of tens of thousands of people, she ripped the hijab off revealing an elegantly dressed young woman who immediately began to preach to the crowd. She was full of faith, and pointing at her son she exclaimed, “This is my son! Look at my son, he can talk! Look at my son!  I know who the real Messiah is, I know who the real prophet and God is!” She gave the microphone to her son, and he began his story.

He related how he had been coming to the mass meetings for several nights, and each night as he watched and as we prayed with the people, he would see crosses come out of the sky and sit on the heads of people who were scattered across the field like a sea of faces. He began to notice that whenever the cross rested on someone they would begin to shout and  just a few minutes later they would be the one up on the platform testifying.

On the night this young man came forward, his mother told how he was hardly able to speak above a whisper and he struggled with fear in everything he did.  That night as he said the prayer all of a sudden the cross came to him out of the sky.  And as that cross approached him, out of that cross came the face of Jesus with His arms opened wide. “At the moment Jesus came to me, I was healed” the young man said.  “I am different, I am transformed!” He and his mother looked at that crowd and declared to them, “We know who the Healer is—this Jesus who went to the cross and who died for us!”

In Jesus’ day when the people saw Him hanging on the cross perhaps they remembered the woman He had loosed from a spirit of infirmity (Luke 13:11) or the lepers who were healed?  Most likely what they didn’t see as he hung on that cross was that every person who would ever look and believe was loosed from the spirit of infirmity that day! Maybe you’ve been watching from afar and wondering if Jesus would heal you! We want to encourage you that this same Jesus who died 2,000 years ago is appearing to His people today! He will come to you! Reach out and embrace the power of the cross today!

The name of the game is NO FEAR HERE!  Jobless rates, economic reports, apocalyptic projections abound from the secular press to Christian programming. What will our response be? Over the years Kevin and I have said we must plan like Jesus is never coming back but work as if He is coming tomorrow.

Allow the Lord to breathe His life and whisper His wisdom in your heart. COMMUNE with Him to pick-up on His signals. He has direction for you in the midst of difficult times!

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” 2 Tim 1:7 NLT

Rome did not fall because of war, but from boredom and avarice. Alexander the Great did not die in battle, but from boredom in a drunken stupor. We are not designed to live in the safe harbor, but on the high seas. The pastors and leaders of society that fall today do not do so in the effort and struggle to succeed, but in the boredom of their success. Do not allow the hardships you may face today to reveal a crybaby within you, but rise to the task at hand and discover the way to overcome.

The great businessmen of yesterday were not those who waited for retirement and watched a clock.  We don’t remember the great spiritual institutions of a different era, but we do remember and are inspired by the men and women who pioneered them in the heat of battle. There is no life marked solely by success, but by failures which rose to success.

Friends, do not dream of a safety net, but of a net that can catch fish. Your safety is in your courageous heart to pioneer new projects and new dreams. Some of you will be the tip of spear in the battle, and others will be the force behind the spear that gives it power to thrust forward. All the positions are important when you go to war.

Jesus did not pay a price for you to be weak.

Jesus did not become your substitute so you would fear.

Jesus did not fill you with His spirit for you to run from the battle.

This is your greatest hour. This is our time! Do not let the winds of adversity howl in your ears driving you to hide behind safe doors. The world is waiting to hear your voice speaking peace to the storm!

If I were to put a bunch of apple seeds into your hand, you would probably get a picture of what could be produced from them. The same is true if I filled your hands with turtle eggs.

If I were to put the seed of a human into your hand, try and think of the possibility!

We look at the Japanese bonsai tree and admire its artistically dwarfed size and shape. Most of humanity has gone through an unseen process much like the bonsai tree. Humans have been restricted, confined and twisted to a shape of another’s liking.

It may have been through religion, family criticism, personal inferiority and fears, or the example of others that you feel dwarfed and twisted, but Jesus came to set the captives free!

Each of us has an ability to dream of the possibilities in our future.  It is a risk to go beyond the parameters, but no one will ever know the height that you can grow to until you allow yourself to reach. God has put a future in you that reaches into eternity. Stretch for it today!

We are designed to fly! All our internal signals are like the cockpit of a plane equipped to give us lift in life and a sense of soaring over circumstances. All we need to do then, is release the weights that hold us.

Start with the first weight of your sin. We have the solution in the blood of Christ that speaks 24 hours a day. Sins past, sins present, and sins future are paid for by the sacrifice of the cross. That is true redemption!

As you begin to lift off you may feel the pull of other weights, like bondages, habits, and condemning thoughts. What frees you?

“For, though we are still living in the world, it is no worldly warfare that we are waging. The weapons with which we fight are not human weapons, but are mighty for God in overthrowing strong fortresses. For we overthrow arrogant ‘reckonings,’ and every stronghold that towers high in defiance of the knowledge of God, and we carry off every thought as if into slavery—into subjection to Christ” (Weymouth NT 2 Cor 10:4).

This battle to stay in flight is a battle in the thought life. Can strong thought patterns that have existed for years be removed? Can a strong tower be broken? Yes! One new thought, embraced and held fast, can transform a life!

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

Your free flight is on the wings of truth. How do you keep lies from landing you? Satan is the ruler of darkness. He cannot operate in light. That’s why every society that has gone down a dark, evil road started with controlling the information given to its citizens. When you see a dark area in your life, don’t give it strength by trying to hide it, bring it to light.

Let truth set you free today—it’s time for take-off!

Regardless of the state of the economy, I look to a different news report, one that is not tied to the stock market. It is God’s economy—one of listening and obeying.

Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written… so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go… (1 Kings 2:3 paraphrased).

First, we must walk. This indicates that regardless of how difficult the crisis is that you may be facing, continue! God will guide you in your everyday affairs. He is committed to you more than you could ever commit to Him!

Have you considered recently that He gave His Son to die on a cross so that you might be justified just as if you never sinned? This is amazing love.

Second, remember that you must keep His ways. God’s way is the LOVE way! What does love say? It does not remember a wrongful hurt. It does not seek its own. It is not easily provoked. It speaks no evil. Love does not envy. Love is kind. Love endures all things. Love is the force from which faith flows! No LOVE = no FAITH!

My faith works today because I have love. I do not have love because I have faith… I have faith because I love. I love because He first loved me!

Can there be a more important decision than the one that determines where we spend eternity? Every other decision seems trivial at best when compared with this one. Yet billions, myself included, have made assumptions about salvation that we would never make about any other decision!

Here are three mistakes you can make:

1. Not reading the contract for yourself. For 22 years I assumed that the leader of my church had everything under control. He read the contract for us and told us what to do. He read it but never signed it himself or had any of us sign it. We were never told what was required to guarantee a relationship with God and ensure us a place in heaven.
2. Not understanding the conditions. I was told I was a good guy, so I assumed I was going to heaven. I presumed that was enough. Millions of people compare themselves with others and believe they are not so bad, so they think they will make it to heaven. I belonged to a big church, so I supposed they could not all be wrong. I thought my church membership would get me in! This is folly. Without a relationship with the living God, you cannot be sure that you are going to heaven.
3. The third mistake people make regarding salvation is not knowing a clear path to God exists. My last assumption was that no one could personally know for sure where he or she would spend eternity. Now I realize that if you do not know, you will not go! My greatest moment in life came under an elm tree at Michigan State University in June of 1978. That’s when I made my connection with God. For the first time I knew my past was forgiven and my future in heaven was secure. If I never knew anything else, that alone was enough to enable me to die a happy man!

There is a choice to make.

The power of choice determines your future. Though God loves you and has provided you with a wonderful life on earth and in the time to come, accepting what He has provided is still your choice. Even though God knew you before you were born and provided a purpose and provision for your life, He cannot choose that for you. You must choose it for yourself.

This question can be one of the most informative or one of the most destructive questions we can ask. When it comes to discovery, this question has opened the door to fabulous inventions and modern technologies; however, when it comes to life and death the question “WHY” causes many a soul to sink to levels of depression never before experienced. Some aspects of the question “WHY” which pertain to death, dying and destruction will never be resolved until one day when we stand before the creator of humanity.

How do we come to grasp with these issues of “Why?”?  First, understand that God is not the creator of evil, but it issues forth from the heart of humanity that is separated from God by sin. Second, recognize that from the very beginning of time there has been a force of evil (Satan) determined to destroy the very creation that God holds as the apple of his eye. Third, realize that it was only the deepest love that created humans different from all creation giving us the faculties of reason, will, humor, imagination, words and decision-making capabilities—and with these abilities come great responsibilities for life, family, country and even our earth.

So today let’s turn our Whys in life into a Why Not?—turning the negativity of depression into the positivity of expression! If you’re down and don’t understand, choose to release this situation to the Lord and find the good that remains in the life or lives around you!

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Prov 18:21 NIV).

I can think of many testimonies where women have been delivered from the bondage of shame and fear. When I was in Kazakhstan we were conducting a very large woman’s conference, and at the end of the meeting this very little lady came up to me holding a gold chain. She grabbed my hand and put the chain in it saying, “Leslie, my husband is in prison for sharing his faith and I am all alone in my home. I have three small children and I have come from far away. I felt so ashamed and so alone—they closed up the church and the government is against us. I have always asked myself, what did I do to cause this to happen? What sin did I commit that might have sent my husband to prison?  But today you have given me hope and reminded me that it is the blood of Jesus that paid the price, and what my husband and I are doing we are doing because Jesus Christ has come to us. Now I know I do not have to be ashamed, I am not the cause of this! I now can come before God with an open face, and I am giving this chain to you to remind you that the women of Uzbekistan will never forget that they have been created in the image of God, and we can come boldly into His presence.”

She ended by saying, “Now I return to my country and I will lift up my head, for I am not ashamed that I am a Christian created in the image of God!”

For many, salvation through Christ means an escape from eternal judgment. Often as I stand on the open fields of world evangelism, whether I am preaching or standing among the crowd, I find myself declaring the salvation prayer as if it were the first time I said it. Why? Because I understand the value of this word – SALVATION!

I am not simply uttering a religious prayer, but I am making a proclamation of my deliverance from fear, my redemption from sin, my discovery of healing, and the reality of God’s peace! This most simplistic Salvation prayer opens my heart and my mind once again to the reality of God’s promises for me—HIS CHILD!

I vividly recall a time when I was speaking to our partners via the internet, and I sensed such a strong presence of the Lord as together we made this simple salvation confession. Not an elaborate religious prayer—but a confession of the heart and a trust in the reality of Jesus and what He promised for me and for you.

I cannot explain how such a simple prayer can transform people, churches, and even nations. YET—I can declare to you that I have seen God respond to a simple heart desiring to know Him as Savior, healer, protector, deliverer, and comforter time and time again!

Let’s not make prayer difficult! Keep it SIMPLE! That’s how He designed it! Religion is the extra ingredient of unbelief added to the simplicity of Christ’s cross. Faith is the simple confession of a heart trusting in what He has done for us!