Today as international travel plans unfold, our team is remembering the goodness of God in covering all of our personal, travel and outreach costs.

Several years ago Kevin and I were involved in a grueling yet very rewarding Tent Outreach schedule in Eurasia. At the end of these events most of our extra capital had been expended. We were tired, not realizing that we needed a rest and that God had a great surprise in store for us.

To fully develop this story I have to digress to a prayer meeting conducted in our US office in early spring of that same year. Often during staff prayer meetings the Lord will unfold strategies for reaching into new territories with the Gospel. On this particular morning as we prayed a name kept rolling up out of my heart, Cabos San Lucas. I remember thinking, that’s in Mexico somewhere. I’m not going to Mexico. We’re busy in Eurasia launching this 100 Tent Project! So we continued about our schedule and logged this thought in our memory for some day in the future.

After finishing our Eurasian summer tent schedule Kevin headed to the US to meet with partners, while I stayed in Moscow to review outreach results and prepare plans for the coming months. Late one evening a call came in from our office in the USA. It was one of the women who had been in the staff prayer meeting that day. She said, “Leslie, one of our partners called and would like to know if you could catch a plane to Cabos San Lucas. They aren’t able to use their vacation property and would like to give you the week for free.”

WOW! What could I say but yes? But how would I get there? Tickets must be expensive at the last minute, and I’m in Russia and would only touchdown before needing to change planes and head on to Cabos San Lucas. Well, as you guessed, God did another miracle and provided free airline tickets through the diligent efforts of an agent that had been born again through missionaries at an outreach in Belarus!

I share this story as a reminder to myself of the goodness of God, our partners, and friends just like you. Who could have guessed that after a very busy ministry schedule where we had been living in appalling conditions, working in radiation zones, etc. that God would open up such a magnificent door of blessing, and that He would partially reveal this months before it happened.

Folks, this is encouragement to all of us to stay strong in the face of adversity, and know that the goodness of God rests upon us! In the coming year, make it a priority to grow in intimacy with Him and experience His reassuring hand sweeping life’s obstacles from your pathway!

“Early in the morning will I seek thee…” (Psalm 63:1).

This familiar line is an encouragement as we embark on a new year. As you begin this year remember the awesome things that God has done for you. For each one of us who are born again we have ‘super’ living in our natural!

The supernatural is Christ indwelling our natural flesh. The greatest miracle of all is the miracle of salvation! What is this? The reality that we may call on Jesus and He will forgive our sin, wash away those things which have bound us and fill us with His new life. This NEW LIFE is available to each one of us!

What do we say to these things? “YES LORD! This year I receive your NEW LIFE!”

Freedom is never a reality until it is tested.  In the Constitutions of most countries you will see flowery words of individual rights and freedoms but they mean nothing until they are attempted by individuals in that society.  Freedom of speech, freedom to travel, and freedom to work are assumed rights, but they are often challenged by controlling people.

At the turn of the century America’s freedom of religion was tested by a foreigner named Alexander Dowie.  He came from Australia with a healing message for this country which prides itself in its freedoms, and he was arrested over 100 times for all sorts of reasons, like practicing medicine without a license or disturbing the peace.  All those arrests were illegal, but someone had to pay the price to test the system to see if the freedom written in the books was in reality a freedom you could experience.

Egypt kept Israel in bondage for 400 years.  It was long enough to make them forget how a free person thinks.  When they had an opportunity to be free men they wanted to return to the security of the chains in Egypt.

If a Christian is in bondage it is not because the devil is so strong, but rather their will to walk free is too weak.  They will need to continually hear that Jesus has set them free and that they can stand in that freedom, until it gets down in their spirit and reprograms their thinking.

After the Emancipation Proclamation first ordered the freedom of over 3 million slaves, they were given the opportunity to become legally free if they escaped the control of their slave masters.  However, many died on those same farms under the whip of the owners because they were afraid to risk failure as free people.  Remember, who the Son sets free is free indeed!

If we could get God’s perspective of people then we would win the world, but we see people through our own eyes. We like to keep records on people and hold the books.  We know who is a sinner and who is a saint.  God looks on the heart while we look on the outside, but we still think we know people better.  We look at a prostitute, an addict, or a hardened prison inmate and label them with a big sign that says, “Sinner.”

Have you ever asked how much that ‘sinner’ is worth?  How much God paid for him or her?  It was the price of His Son.  How much are you worth?  The same.

There is no difference in value between the criminal and the evangelist. The mafia boss is called of God as much as a pastor, and probably is a pastor but just doesn’t know it!

All are already paid for. The only difference between them and you is that they don’t know it and you do.  When we truly understand this, we will be motivated to tell them.

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!

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!

Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church and tried to capture the idea of what God has done for them.  He was grasping for the best idea to convey how God saw them in the earth today, and of all the ways he examined, he decided that the best description of a Christian would be that of an Ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Wouldn’t it be strange if the American ambassador to another country was afraid to stand up and say, “I represent America”?  What would the American government do if the ambassador was afraid to state its point of view?

An ambassador is the sent one of the U.S.A.  Do we think he or she is being arrogant if they declare that they are sent to a certain country on behalf of the U.S.A.? No!  That’s a good thing and we expect them to do that! So why do people in Christian circles accuse others of being proud or arrogant when they do the same thing acting as an ambassador of heaven?

As an ambassador I have a right to speak for the Kingdom as long as I am speaking the message of the Kingdom, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are the words of my country.

The devil knows you are an ambassador, and God knows you are an ambassador. When are you going to realize that you are an ambassador?  In Acts 19:15 the demon spoke to the seven sons of Sceva, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?” The devil will know you if you take a stand.

An Ambassador does not have to pray to act as an ambassador.  He does not need to pray to exercise his or her authority.  All they need to do is act like who their government says they are.  They don’t need to pray to get their passports stamped or have their visits approved.  No, an ambassador has the power to act and they don’t wait around to do their job.  Don’t wait on heaven anymore.  Act today!

There is a debate as to whether Jesus always knew who He was. Some think that Jesus was all knowing in the flesh, but think for a moment.  He was born a baby and had all the limitations of a baby.  For 30 years you only hear of Him once and that was in the synagogue talking about scripture.

Jesus was born a man and had to grow in wisdom like any person.  Did God have to give the revelation to Jesus, or did He already know it?  Scripture says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which GOD GAVE UNTO HIM, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Revelation 1:1 author’s emphasis).

I believe that God had to give the revelation to Jesus of who He was, just like He has to give it to us.  He had to discover it in scripture, and He challenged the religious people to search the scriptures for they speak of Him.

Jesus found Himself in the Word, and you can find yourself in the Word.  Accept the letters to the church as personal letters to you.  Examine the lifestyle of Jesus in the Gospels as an example of your own lifestyle.  Read the commission to Jesus as God’s commission to you, because the world is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

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!

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John yesterday, have now become the Gospel of you today. Christ in human flesh in the Gospels has become Jesus in your flesh today!

Much of the modern church would think this is an extreme goal that is too lofty for humans, but how does the unseen God reveal Himself to humanity? God is revealed in flesh.

There is too much wasted prayer for God to come down and reveal Himself. He will not. He is in heaven with many wonderful ideas, but He needs flesh to reveal those ideas. He needs a voice. Christ in you is what He needs.

As I travel the world and speak to multitudes who do not speak English, I need an interpreter. My ideas are without power until they are heard, received, and acted on. In that way I am like God. He needs a voice. This is an awesome responsibility that God has entrusted us with; the message that saves humanity! If we don’t do it, God can’t do it!