When I receive Jesus into my heart, He lives in me — His Spirit, His holiness, and His righteousness live in me. When I walk, He walks, and when I talk, it’s like He’s talking through me. When I heal or I lay my hands on someone, it’s like He is touching that person through me.

According to Colossians 1:27: “Christ now lives in you.” So where is the presence of God? I’m not looking forward over here or looking backward over there, or begging for it up there. I am relishing the abundance and living in the glory of His love and His life and His Spirit in me, right now.  I come boldly to His throne of grace and receive what I have need of from Him. I recognize that He lives in me, I live in Him, and His presence surrounds me.

This is one of the foundational premises for our miracle life, practicing and recognizing the presence of God!

God’s original dream was to start a family with the potential to walk and behave like Him. Adam failed. He disobeyed God and did not fulfill God’s dream. But God sent Jesus, whom Scripture calls the last Adam, and He did not fail. Jesus is the model for us to follow.

How do we model ourselves after Jesus? Do we wear long robes with long hair and beards? It is interesting that in the four Gospels the writers did not talk about His appearance; His nose, the color of His eyes, His muscles, his height, His posture, or His hair. This is how popular writers describe their heroes in the books written today, but the Gospels are different. They are full of His words and His wonders. He is our model in response, action, compassion, authority, wisdom, purpose and power. We duplicate Him through the power of the new birth! The new birth is the ability to become God’s children. To as many as received Him, He gave power to become the sons and daughters of God. Paul tells us to put on this new man that is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him.

All the potential of Jesus as the Son of God was placed, in seed form, into you as a child of God!

There is nothing better than a good piece of toast with coffee in the morning, but our daily bread is much more than that. What is our daily bread? In the story of the Exodus as the children of God were deciding whether or not to cross the Jordan River and fight, Joshua shouted out to those who were backing out of the idea. He said the call of God to possess the land made every giant in the land as BREAD for them.

“Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Numbers 14:9

There was no protection for their enemies as they pursued the will of God!

With this truth on our side, we in the 21st century can look at the giants that stand before us and say they are bread for us.  We are not to be worried over as problems, mountains, or impossibilities. We eat them as bread!

Our victory nurtures us for future conquest. Your giants are nothing before your God! Your God lives in you, so there is defeat in the heart of your enemies who stand before what God wants to accomplish in your life. Rahab said to the spies that they had dreaded the day when the children of God would cross over. Defeat was already in their enemy’s heart.

We are seeing Europe and the republics and regions of the former Soviet Union experience a great revival through bold evangelistic tent meetings, and we continue to expect the grace and favor of God on all who make those giants as bread for these dynamic evangelists!

Is there a difference between Saturday and Sunday? There doesn’t have to be. What makes Sunday feel different is the act of sitting under a Word of God that fills you up. For 22 years I sat under a Word that made no difference between Saturday and Sunday, but once I saw that the Word was alive, Sunday became much more heightened experience.

Why isn’t every day a refreshing, exciting, stimulating, creative experience? The problem is that we are all CRACK POTS. In Bible words, we are vessels of clay that are leaking; so Scripture tells us that faith comes by hearing and not by what we have heard in the past. Maybe that’s why you need church. The Holy Spirit infilling is not just a moment, but a daily fill up.

Is life designed to be a struggle followed by the ultimate loss thru death, only to get your victory in the next life to come? No, that’s NOT God’s plan for you! When He called the children of God out of Egypt it was not to experience the desert. They were not just called out of bondage, but they were called into a promised land! The desert was not the plan, but mankind has a way of making their own choices.

The only way to change your desert experience is allowing the water of God’s Word to turn it into a garden of hope and dreams. Take time today to refill that old cracked pot of yours. Speak to yourself in hymns and songs and find the melody in your heart. There is a promised land with your name on it!

Our bodies were designed for activity. I can’t sleep in bed more than eight hours. After that period of time my back begins to ache and my mind cries out for activity.

Nature is in constant activity. Bees are an excellent example. A professional beekeeper came back from work one day full of bee stings, with eyes swollen and puffed. The beehive he was in charge of had not been emptied in a long time. The bees could put no more honey into it and became very idle and restless. With nothing to do they were agitated and attacked him. Why would a calm colony of bees become vicious? As long as they were busy they never bothered him, but too much free time turned them on their master.

Loafers in the church can become vicious toward either leadership or other members. Loafers on a job site will look for faults in others, as well as bring down the productivity of a whole organization. Idleness is a subtle but deadly poison, and its affects are seen in every area of society.  Diligence in work keeps your dream in focus and brings joy to the process of fulfilling the desires of your soul.

If you think you’re working for a person, then you’re allowing a person to hold back your potential. You could easily slip into destructive attitudes of doing only what is necessary instead of what is right. You could end up being a men-pleaser or a clock-watcher. This creates mediocrity, and mediocrity is not rewarded with promotion, increase or new opportunity.

There is no average person in the Kingdom of God. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now dwells in you with His resurrection life force inspiring and directing (Romans 8:11 paraphrased).

In God’s eyes you were destined for success the moment you became born again!

Industrious work is essential to self-esteem and dignity. Several years ago we were ministering in Brazzaville, Congo, preparing for a national leadership conference and crusade. At that time the unemployment rate was 95 percent. The Congo had just experienced ten years of civil war and no building was untouched by mortar fire. No family was untouched by bullet or tragedy. They were in total need.

We laid out our strategy for the upcoming meetings and told them that they would partner in this event. They would pay for it. At first they resisted such an idea. No evangelist had ever said that before! No one in the country had ever paid for a foreigner’s event, especially a preacher from rich America. With gentle persuasion we challenged them to take this responsibility, encouraging them that they were able.

At the end of the crusade, after experiencing crowds reaching over fifty thousand, the leaders came to us saying, “Thank you so much for pushing us to sponsor this event! You have given us back our dignity. Now we know we can do it! We don’t have to wait for foreigners to finance our work!”

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Diligence in life means that we are working with all our heart, with total commitment. How do you put your whole heart into your work, school or your home? Recognize that what you are doing is unto the Lord and not unto man.

A halfhearted effort receives halfhearted results. That’s not prosperity! To prosper we need to work with a diligent attitude! There are some deceptive attitudes in Christian circles that are often disguised by religious terminology:

• “Whatever happens is God’s will so my input doesn’t matter.”
• “I don’t like my job.”
• “My ungodly boss doesn’t deserve my best.”
• “My job is only temporary so I’m not going to give it my all.”
• “I’m not one of the lucky ones who are gifted so I’ll just slide by.”
• “I tried the Bible way and it didn’t work for me.” 

The Blessing comes as you work. You will never escape poverty’s hold without good, old fashioned hard work. The river-life of continuous blessing comes through your hands, your mind, and your effort.

Blessing is God’s business. Finding what He can bless is your business!

In Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, the servant who hid his talent had a wrong perception of his Master. He said “I knew you were a hard man.” The ruler only asked for a minimum increase. In other words, just do something with what I give you. He was not making it hard. He was making it fair. A wrong perception of God causes fear, and fear causes wrong actions that result in destruction.

God is for you! He understands the fallen environment you live in and has given you gifts to overcome in this environment:

He gave you the gift of eternal life so you would have peace of mind about your future.

He breathed into you part of Himself so you would have awareness of His presence.

He gave you the name of Jesus so you would have authority over all evil spirits.

He gave you His promises for every area of your life so you would know His best for you.

He is not hard, He is benevolent! Right thinking will bring right increase!

Where is the place you can go to obtain “maximum increase” in your life? God designed church so that the maximum number of people could gain benefit with a minimum amount of effort.

God directs a man or woman to prepare a message and preach it with anointing, so people can sit and listen and their lives will be increased and inspired. The result is a burden-free life with God’s ideas filling your mind and faith filling your heart to do the impossible.

This is the rich soil for increase that God designed for people, but many see it as an intrusion into their lifestyle. Only when famine comes do they run to the pastor for a quick fix, a drink of water for their parched ground.