If a brush fire was coming your way as you stood in an open field, there is no way you could out run the fire. What would you do to avoid the flames? The only thing that you could do would be to start another fire and burn an area of land for you to stand on—because burned land cannot be burned twice! You would then have to stand, unmoving, on that scorched land as the brush fire’s flames passed around you.

This is what God has offered. When we stand in Jesus, we stand on sacred, holy ground already burned by the fire of judgment. Jesus took on the sins of the world and has already gone to hell for us. Therefore, the land cannot be burned twice!

I do not want to stand before God as my Judge and be found lacking, so I stand today before Jesus as my Lord. My identity is not just a positive thought of how I would like to be. No, my identity is forever established in heaven as righteous, redeemed, holy, washed, and new—because of Jesus’ finished work here on earth!

“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!

I first met Jesus in Sunday school in the basement of a Baptist Church when I was about 5 years old. I remember coloring and the teacher was telling us the story of Jesus. As I sat there coloring, all of a sudden I understood that Jesus was real, and that He loved me.

But as life went on and I approached college, I allowed rebellion to enter into my heart. I had been a star athlete, a great student…some people would call it a charmed life. Things always seemed to go right for me. Foolishly, at the age of 17 I told God that I was busy and not to bother me, I had things to accomplish.

Why? I knew there was a great destiny in my heart and I didn’t see it in “religion.” Religion kept telling me that God might hit me if I get into trouble and mess up, and then who knows what might happen? I figured I probably couldn’t please God or serve Him enough anyway, so I told Him, “Lord, I’m busy, I’ve got plans. I know I’ll be ready to settle down when I’m 35 and retire as a multi-millionaire after travelling the world…by that time I’ll have my family, and I know everything I’m supposed to do and how I’m supposed to live. But until then I’m busy. I have things to do.”

Well, a very, very short time later I started college and found myself living with one roommate that was on drugs, and another that was manic depressive and suicidal.  Our dorm room was painted bright yellow with a rainbow, and AC/DC was playing all the time. There was no peace!

Then, one day I was playing basketball and laid down in practice and couldn’t get up again. I couldn’t walk! I went into months and months of rehab, my grades fell—still no peace in my world anywhere.

I went home for summer break, and on one particular day I recall walking into my bedroom. There was a shelf at the end of my bed, and on it was a bible that my dad had picked up from a hotel. On the front of this bible was a sunrise, and that day it seemed to leap off the shelf at me. I walked over and picked it up, and it fell open to John chapter 1, “In the beginning was God…” I stretched out on the bed and began to read.

Suddenly an intensely bright light filled the room, and once again I encountered Jesus. I was instantly healed and my mind came into complete clarity. I jumped up off that bed and declared, I will serve the living God forever!

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!

Folks in the West are not accustomed to waiting. At a stop light I leaned over for 2 seconds and the person behind me laid his horn on me so hard I thought someone must be about to run into me. But no, it was just him letting me know that I didn’t jump fast enough on the green light.

Wait has become a four-letter-word in a society where convenience is king. But the word wait is often found in scripture with meanings of pause, rest or “attaching oneself to.” When we wait on the Lord we attach ourselves to Him and His plans.

The prophet Isaiah tells us:
“He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind”  Isaiah 40:29-31 (Message).

Let’s be like the eagles. We hang in there with our wings spread until a new wind blows and we rise up on that wind to soar above the current location to a new view and new place in life!

There is no need to worry about ability, equipment, talent, or a changing world. When we were born into this world we were marvelously designed to handle life on earth. We were gifted with organs to process all the food available. We were given digestion, nerve, respiratory, reproduction, motor skills, balance and equilibrium, as well as an amazing sensory network to gather information on smells, noise, sight, touch, and sound. We also had all this information gathering instantly connected to a giant computer called a brain that no machine can compare to, so instant decisions can be made about the information. Everything to start a wonderful, productive, successful adventure on earth…we get all of it at birth! It just needs to be developed.

What happens at our re-birth? The Bible says that those who believe in the substitution of Jesus Christ, that He became our sin so we could become God’s righteousness, experience a born again reality.

Is it real? What does it do? It IS real and it should equip everyone on earth with the spiritual ability to navigate the challenges we face that our five senses have no answer to.

Growth in your spiritual life will do at least as much as growth in the physical for this world experience, and much more for the world to come.

Enjoy the journey!

We should always desire to breathe deep of the wonder of life. Science tells us that deep breathing is the best guarantee that every cell gets oxygen in our body to keep it healthy. I always want to pray for those I see walking around with an oxygen tank and tied to a machine.

I see so many people tied to the machine of television and computers and cell phones. It has become their oxygen life-line for inspiration and meaning. Playing football on a computer is not playing football, it is playing on the computer.

Don’t make the mistake of living a virtual life. Learn to breathe the breath of God deeply and experience what life is really all about…Euphoria!

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!

Scripture says that “all who touched Jesus were healed.” So, is God willing? We see in the story of the leper whom Jesus put forth His hand and healed that yes, He is willing.

The Healer who walked 2,000 years ago among the people in the villages of Judea is today the very same — alive, willing to come into your world and heal you now. Is God willing? Yes! He is reaching out to you today!