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!

Right now you and I can embrace the perspective which says, no giant of sickness and disease, no giant that comes against the living God, can exist in the presence of the One who lives in us, who believes in us, and who goes about doing good and healing all who are oppressed of the devil.

Jesus said in John 6, “I am the bread of life, and whoever comes to me will never hunger, and the one who believes on me will never thirst.” Have you pulled up to the table today? Have you taken hold of the promises that God has for you?

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!

Many have found Jesus as Savior, but are not aware of His healing power. God said in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Even today some church leaders are offended by miracles, saying that miracles have long passed and are no longer part of the Christian life.  That could be true if God has changed or Jesus has changed, but the authority of God’s Word says that neither one has changed. In fact, God says of Himself, “I am the Lord and I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

Jesus knew His mission. He was set to go to the cross, and on that cross He would pay the price for our sin, for our peace, for our sicknesses, and for our diseases. He took upon Himself all our punishment on that cross.

Remember, the miracle of salvation occurs without a touch. What happens to the body when the Spirit of God, Who created the whole universe, fills it? Our bodies need life just like our spirit needs life. When we respond to words that heaven backs up, then Life infuses our system and oftentimes, without even a prayer, transformation occurs. Scripture tells us that the same Spirit which raised up Jesus is now making our mortal bodies alive (Romans 8:11)!

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!

A Presbyterian evangelist named Charles G. Finney, who lived from 1792-1875, successfully popularized the altar call. Finney referred to the altar call as coming to the “anxious seat” or to the “inquiry room,” and began using it in his evangelistic services in about 1820. Evangelist D.L. Moody took Finney’s altar call and refined it, and in turn it was passed on to its modern champion, Billy Graham.

In Finney’s time, most denominations were not preaching a gospel that allowed you to publicly call on the name of the Lord for your conversion to Christ. They were preaching a gospel of predestination, which said you were predestined to be born again so you would eventually find Christ on your own.

Finney was willing to challenge the status quo, and he preached his emotional messages with altar calls in all the churches. Of course, he was highly criticized for challenging the accepted Christian theology of the day. He faced many difficulties because the religious hierarchy didn’t believe you could stand up on the platform and call the people down front and have them call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Yet, undeniably his preaching ushered in one of the greatest revivals ever experienced on the North American continent.

To comprehend our position on miracles, like Charles Finney, we must challenge the broad understanding that it is ok to ask Jesus into your heart, but not ok to ask Him into your heart and expect healing at the same time!

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.

Have you ever watched wicked people enjoying success? As a believer it can be challenging to your faith, but you don’t need to compromise your faith to prosper. The devil will always tell you that faith in God is for losers, and that you might as well just give up being “good” and play things the world’s way instead.

But we don’t want temporary prosperity. We don’t want prosperity today that we’re required to pay dearly for tomorrow. Wrong actions and attitudes have no future. Sin brings pleasure, but only for a short time. God is not mocked, we all reap what we have sown. No one sins and gets away with it.

We should never envy ill-gotten riches, because we don’t want the price tag that comes with the lifestyle. God has called us to a long-lasting prosperity and reveals that following Him is the key to our inheritance. We belong to the Lord and the whole world belongs to us.

Take comfort in the words of David if you see others taking shortcuts and moving ahead through deception or manipulation:

“Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give

you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:1-5).

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.