The sweet life is simple when you’re sincere. It’s wonderful to be doing something today that I started doing 30 years ago, enjoying it more today than ever before. It’s a wonder to wake up every morning feeling like there is important work to be done on the earth, knowing every bit of your energy will be needed. You get cleaned up and ready to go for Big Kingdom Business every day.

God has done a marvelous thing for human beings! He has attached His eternal value to everything we do. We are not measured by others opinions of what we do…only by our attitude in a desire to please Him and serve others as we do it.

The top industrialist can carry this attitude as well as the most humble street cleaner. The most popular TV preacher can do it as well as the quiet country pastor who no one may know. When connected to deity, Jesus said even the giving of a glass of water is not unnoticed. That energizes me to think that everything counts. Jesus is not looking at what you have… but what you do with what you have.

Today as you start off with your first cup of coffee, don’t start complaining about what you don’t have. Don’t put off life until a future time when you look more blessed. Enjoy the moment! Make the most of it with a sincere joy in your heart that you have another day on earth to do good, knowing that it counts for eternity!

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19).

In Central America scientists have discovered a four eyed fish. The upper part of its eyes have air lenses, while in the bottom part of its eyes it has water lenses. This helps the fish see everything above the water as well what’s going on under the water.

I think that leaders should be like this fish. Serving people, but acting when we are guided by the Holy Spirit and not just pushed by needs. We need to see the situations in the spiritual world and hear what the Father says to do, while at the same time seeing the earthly realm and being sensitive to other people’s needs. We must have a vision—both of heaven and of people!

James is telling us to have a supernatural response when he writes, “My brethren, COUNT IT ALL JOY when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4  NKJV emphasis mine).

There is no joy in bills that are not paid.

There is no joy in supply lines that look cut.

There is no joy in sickness or pain shouting for attention.

This is when we COUNT IT ALL JOY. We decide to give a different response than the natural mind wants to give. We decide to laugh when others cry, to sing when others moan, and to expect good things when others just see dark clouds ahead. What can produce this type of response?

You know something the world does not know. You know that God is greater than the fallen, broken world. You know that God is good and a friend to those in time of need. You know that you have a name above every name that heaven responds to. You know that you have a destiny on earth to fulfill and a place far greater you are going to. You know you have a promise recorded in a book for all to see that guarantees God’s presence in your life and a witness within you that He truly does live in you.

You have a supernatural experience called the new birth when your sin nature was removed and God’s very Spirit and nature was given you. This happened when you decided to believe what He had said concerning His son Jesus. This miracle was just the beginning of a miracle lifestyle based on His Word, His sacrifice, His plan, His presence, His power, and your decisions.

This is how you can COUNT IT ALL JOY when you face the fallen world full of defeat, destruction, and despair!

This life where God has fused us to Himself overrides all the limitations of life in every sphere. This is the same life that Jesus demonstrated for us to live. He came out of heaven and for 3 ½ years showed what God in flesh can do.

Then He remarked, “As the father has sent me, I also send you” (John 20:21 NKJ).

THIS LIFE SUPERSEDES NATURE – Have you ever stopped a storm?  Jesus did in a boat when all thought life was lost. He spoke a word and the storm obeyed Him!

THIS LIFE SUPERSEDES PHYSICS – Have you ever healed an incurable disorder? Jesus did when a woman with an incurable blood disease was healed when her faith drew the power of God out of Him!

THIS LIFE SUPERSEDES THE LAWS OF DEATH – Have you ever seen the dead rise? Jesus did when He spoke to dead Lazarus and called him out of the tomb!

THIS LIFE SUPERSEDES THE LAW OF GRAVITY – Have you ever lifted what has fallen? The Bible records the story of a young boy who had fallen out a third story window and died. Paul lifted that which had fallen and restored life to the boy!

Can Jesus be the same in you in the 21st century that He was in a Jew in the 1st century? The answer to this big question is what unlocks your limitations!

“However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities” Luke 5:15 NKJV.

Put yourself in the crowd when Jesus walked the earth. Empathize with the people who came in contact with the Son of God. It says that vast crowds came to hear Him preach and be healed of their diseases.

We have been in these types of crowds, where people sell their chickens to buy bus tickets and a few loaves of bread to come and sit on a field for a week to experience the supernatural.

They come to hear a word that will give meaning to their life. They come to experience a physical change for a disease that has no known cure. They come with a hope that God will do something.

They are not in a rush. They are not coming as just spectators or critics, but with a dream that they will be changed, lifted, healed, inspired, and visited by the Creator!

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” Luke 4:18-19.

Jesus found Himself in the scripture and read from it to the people in the synagogue, afterward declaring, “This day this is fulfilled in your ears.” This day. What did He announce? “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me…”

I have a question for you. Have you found the place where it is written of you, and have you announced to your home, your community, your city, your family, your workplace and all that you put your hands to that the Spirit of the Lord is upon you to deliver good news?

Take the word “preach” out, and instead insert speak, communicate, bake an apple pie, do an act of kindness…but do it and let them know why you’re doing it. We don’t need to hide it!

Have you found where it is written of you? I have!

In 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 Paul tells us that we have been called Christ’s ambassadors. What does that do for me? I don’t know if you travel, but I travel a lot and when you cross that national border there’s always a line that says, “Ambassadors.” They get to go through the front line at customs and security, they’re always treated special, and they move through first.

So when I hear him calling me “Ambassador,” I put my shoulders back and stand a little taller! You see, I don’t have to cower and bow my head and look down because I’m a Christian and everybody seems to be against Christians…no! I lift my head high, I put my shoulders back and walk with a spring in my step because I know in Whom I have believed.

And even more, I know the One Who has believed in me. The Apostle John says in 1 John 4:19 that it’s not that we first loved Him, but that He first loved us! Hallelujah!

Do we dare imagine that we possess the same ministry and doctrine as Jesus?

Let’s step up to a higher level in our thought patterns so we won’t limit God’s power in our lives. Let’s go beyond reading the Bible as a history book to seeing it as a living, personal letter from God to us, to be applied to our lives today.

Then it was the ministry of Jesus in a Jew. Now, it is the ministry of Jesus in you.

Our ministry is not different from Jesus’ ministry; it is a continuation of His ministry, His doctrine, and His results!

This new way of thinking will set us free from religion. When we realize that the Kingdom of God is within us and Jesus rules through us, then our posture and language are different, and our purpose for living takes on new dimensions!

Most people are dead while they are alive. Their dreams have died. Their drive is dead. Their desire is dead. Their destiny is dead. They are just going through the motions of existence, many times turning to drugs to deaden their thought processes so they will not look up anymore into the world of their own perishing possibilities.

It’s like an eagle’s egg that has been mistakenly dropped into a chicken coop. The eagle hatchling gets so used to seeing how chickens behave that he starts acting like one—until the day he sees a bald eagle soar overhead. Then he can begin to dream again!

If he dares to believe, he will spread his wings and flap. When he takes that first step he will discover that he was destined and designed to fly. He was not meant to live as a chicken!

Remember the days of your youth when your imagination knew no boundaries? It is a gift of God to make your days on earth a heaven, and a way for the life force of faith to bring dreams to pass. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a sign to every human that they can live a resurrected life. We are NOT captives of our past, our circumstances, or the opinions of the people around us. We are destined to soar as we embrace the destiny of our Creator and act like Him!

The message of the Gospel is new life to those who are dead. Cherish this new life. Fight for it. Stand in it. Let it take you places you never dreamed possible!

Jesus was not ashamed of the fact that He needed miracles to validate His ministry. He said, “If I do not the works of My Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in Him” (John 10:37-38). There is no stronger statement that He made concerning the need for miracles in ministry. The church has settled for something far less.

A good example would be the old Wendy’s Hamburgers commercial where the woman demands, “Where’s the beef?!!” The church has settled for a knowledge of the miracle worker without the miracles! Where are the works?  Have we settled for a meatless hamburger?

If Jesus needed miracles to validate His ministry how much more do you need miracles to validate your ministry? Why should someone of another religion leave their religion and accept your Jesus as the way and the truth? They have a black book and you have a black book. They have morals and you have morals. They have a history and you have a history. What do you have that they don’t have? The answer is a living Jesus and the proof of that is miracles!

Christianity is the only form of worship in the world that can be validated by miracles which no witchdoctor or psychologist can duplicate. The whole history of God’s intervention in the affairs of mankind as recorded in Hebrew scripture is that of miraculous intervention. Jesus continued the tradition of miracles and we, His followers after Him, are to continue in the same way!