When you have an encounter with Jesus Christ and surrender your life to receive Him as your Savior and Lord, it is not just an emotional experience. It is not just a rational, intelligent moment of decision. It is not just a cleansing of your past and passport to your future.

The seed of God has been planted in you in the same miraculous way that the seed of God was planted in Mary to produce the Lord Jesus!

You had to say yes to His will the same way Mary did. She did not understand but said, “Be it done unto me according to your will.”

Peter describes this phenomenon by declaring:

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.  1 Peter 1:23

You have a miracle in you! All the potential of Jesus as a Son of God was placed in seed form in you as a child of God, except for the redemptive nature of Jesus. All His purpose and power is now able to grow and develop in you. This gives special meaning when we celebrate His birth at Christmas!

If people are not your purpose then you don’t have God’s plan.

People are God’s number one concern.  God not only put eternity in our heart but a burden to share that eternal life with others.  I remember in 1991 when we were preaching on the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia and two Muslims received Jesus with tears in their eyes.  Their first thought was for their Muslim brethren in the city of Baku. They proceeded to take out their wallets to buy us train tickets so that we could go and tell this Good News to Baku.

Their first thought was for others, they immediately felt the need to let others have what they had.  They truly understood the value of what they had received.

Approximately 2,000 years ago Joseph was feeling very out of place, because he could not find lodging in Bethlehem for his pregnant wife. There is Good News for those who feel out of place in today’s world. Those who feel like they have misplaced their destiny, or replaced it with an ordinary “just get by” existence.

There is a place where nothing is impossible for you. There is a place where sickness cannot stay. There is a place where you are equipped with more than enough to answer every need of every good work. There is a place where peace, dignity and love rule in your daily walk. There is a place where you do as Jesus did.

Jesus is inviting you to stand in that place when you might be feeling out of place like Joseph. That place is not far from you. It is called the Kingdom of God. Jesus said it is at hand. Paul said it is within you.

When you call on Jesus He comes to live in you, and He makes you the place where all things are possible!

When your motive is love the world will listen to you. Love is the most talked about subject on TV.  Love is the theme of most movies in Hollywood.  Love is what the world is drawn to, yet they are looking in the wrong places. Jesus laid a foundation for our faith by saying it requires the right motive to get the right results.  Faith works by love.  Jesus said that if we love as He loved then all the world would be drawn to him.

He also said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all people know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34).

This type of love is not understood by the world, but the world is drawn to it because it comes full of forgiveness and acceptance.  This love believes in you and wants the best for you.

The world has forgotten what God is like, so God became flesh and dwelt among us and showed us what He is really like.  God needed flesh to show off His love.

Let’s give our flesh to God’s purpose—being examples of love.

We have received many testimonies of people who received their healing as they discovered the reality that Christ died for them.

How does this happen? When they call on the name of the Lord for salvation from their sins, they are united with their heavenly Father and peace enters into their hearts. This peace replaces the turmoil and stress that has plagued their lives, and when that peace enters in something happens…their bodies are instantly healed!

Many times they don’t even know when the healing happened. They only realize that the Prince of Peace now lives in them, their sins are forgiven, and peace is now reigning in their physical bodies!

Jesus came to reveal not only Who God is, but who we are! Here are a few revelations that the Scriptures give us about Who Jesus is and how much we—all of us—are like Him:

[Now] He [Christ] is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15 Amplified).

Jesus began a new species of god-men. He is the first-born so we are born of His family and likeness in the image of His Father who is now our Father.

“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). And when did our resurrection occur? The moment we were born again from death to life!

“…Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message).

We go from faith to faith, from love to love, from adventure to adventure!

Matthew 18:20 promises that where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus —He is there in our midst. When the Word is preached, His presence is preached, and His presence fills the atmosphere around us.

In Luke chapter 4 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to declare freedom for the prisoners…” Mark 16 says that He sends us to do the same thing!

Declare with me today, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me; His Holy Spirit is upon me.” When we speak His Word, His power and His incorruptible presence is in that Word.

When we are born again He dwells in us, His presence is in us, and we have the mind of Christ. He is there wherever two of us gather together. His presence is here in our midst and upon us, dwelling in us and surrounding us.

Now what does this mean to Christians? It simply means that we are not seeking to find a manifestation of God; we are living in the manifestation of His grace and His presence.

I no longer have to beg God for a miracle, because I am a miracle; He’s come to dwell in me! I no longer have to beg God to show up and present Himself, for I know the miracle of His presence exists in His Word!

Second Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ.” Hallelujah! He always causes us to triumph! Always! Always!

Not, “I win sometimes, I lose sometimes,” not, “well, I’ll see…maybe it will work, maybe it won’t work…” No!  Thanks be to God, who always causes me to triumph! Always! Always!

I don’t care what the government says, I don’t care what the people say, I don’t care what religion says, I don’t care what my finances say, I don’t care what the economy says!

Thanks be to God, who always causes me to triumph. ALWAYS!!

By faith you can receive your miracle from God. Confess God’s Word over your life, “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). In faith come to God in prayer and say, “Lord, in Your Word You said that by the stripes of Jesus I am healed. I believe and I receive my healing from You!”

You know, sometimes I don’t feel well either. For example, if I have a cold and my throat is sore and I can hardly lift my head off the pillow, my flesh wants to be sick and stay in bed too. But instead, I start proclaiming the Word of God, “In Jesus’ name, I am healed by the stripes of Jesus! I strongly believe in it and I thank you, Lord, that You are touching me with Your healing power! And now, body, listen to me…” And I start speaking to my body, head, throat and to all the symptoms. I proclaim that I simply cannot be sick because I am already healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ.

This is my faith. This is what Jesus calls “faith,” and it’s very important!

Christians should be the leaders in the field of science, where discoveries are made. They should be the leaders in the business community, where favor is needed. They should be the leaders in the stock market, where having a hunch is often the key to success. They should be the top surgeons in the medical field, where skill and insight are required.

Why? Because Christians have the Anointed One living on the inside of them, giving them knowledge of clever inventions and showing them things to come. “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him”(1 John 2:27).

We are not left to our own intelligence or wisdom in this life. We have a living relationship with God, Who has chosen to live inside the believer!