A life where there’s no believin’ is a life where there’s no livin’.
Have you noticed lately that the things worth believin in are quickly disappearing?
Sadly, many marriages and romances are vanishing. I’m not talking about Hollywood’s shallow relationships but marriages of our friends and family members. I think marriages fail because people, once in love, stopped believin in the important things.
It’s not about the type of groom we were during the wedding. That’s the easy part. That day was fanciful, romantic, and ceremonial. It’s the kind of man that we’ve become in the crucible of marriage, and while the ceremony has long since faded, romance and passion are still alive and well. That’s the sign of a good marriage and of a good man. We need more good men and healthy marriages these days.
A good man brings out the best in his woman. Likewise, a good woman does the same for her man. A marriage becomes ugly when we forget those things.
I love the movie “Secondhand Lions,” starring Robert Duvall. It’s a movie rich with quotable dialog.
“… True love never dies. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. A man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believin in.”
True love never dies. It’s certainly true of our faith, isn’t it? Christ’s love for his Bride will never die, neither his love for you, if you believe in those things, and in Him, because, “those things are worth believin in.”
As a matter of fact, it’s Christ in us, which makes us into a good man and a good woman. And, the trinity of Jesus, a man, and a woman together as one creates an unbeatable marriage.
The reason why so many good marriages fail is when one or both walk away from Jesus as the center of their individual lives and the center of their marriage. The reason why the world hates marriage is because it is the physical manifestation of the Holy Trinity. It is a Living example of Christ loving the Church and giving up His life for her, His Bride.
“I’m Hub McCann. I’ve fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I’ve seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I’ve won and lost a dozen fortunes, KILLED MANY MEN and loved only one woman with a passion a FLEA like you could never begin to understand. That’s who I am!” The movie, “Second Hand Lions”
Who are you?
What kind of Man are you?
What kind of woman are you?
When you have no firm identity, you have only weakness against the things out to destroy your love for your wife or husband. You have very little strength to fight the enemy of your relationship with God.
So goes your relationship with God, so goes everything else!
A good and lasting marriage vitally depends on your relationship to God through Jesus Christ. Remember? It’s the three-fold cord of Christ Jesus, a man, and a woman. That’s your superpower against the enemy of your marriage.
Don’t settle for the passion of a flea. Have the passion of a ferocious lover, willing to surrender and sacrifice your life for the one you love and for God, the Lover of your soul.
I know that so many of you, even my close friends, have given up on their marriages and God. You’ve walked away searching for meaning, significance, and identity. You’ll not find it in another lover if you never had it with the one you left.
You’ll only find meaning, significance, and identity in God. Not in sex, romance, and one-nighters. Turn back to Him, and turn back to your First Love.
“These are the things worth believin in.”
So, don’t be a flea brain! Believe in the things worth believin in.
Over the past three decades, I have been curious to learn about the wounds I’ve suffered during my youth and formative years.
It’s not what will happen to you that will change your life, I spoke out one night of lecturing, but rather, what happened long ago has already changed your life.
The words we speak or shout at our children forever become their inner voice. It changes a child’s psyche, distorting their inner soul and eating away their future. Harsh words from mom and dad have tremendous prophetic meaning to a child.
The words we speak or shout at our children forever become their inner voice.
And because of those words, you’ve been living a different trajectory. You’re living out a life that you were not meant to live. You’re living a cursed life.
While young and innocent, most of us knowingly or perhaps unknowingly have made life-changing vows or agreements while amid abuse, whether emotional, psychological, or physical. While eliciting powerful emotions of hate, anger, bitterness, or rage, these past hurts or wounds can conjure dark agreements with the Father of Lies.
John 8:44 says that all lies come from the Father of Lies, who is the Devil.
The devil’s strategy is to get us to make these dark vows and live from them. He uses the most important people in our lives to originate these lies. Some of these lies are:
You’re no good. You’re unloveable. You’re too ugly. You’re too fat. You’re too skinny. You’re too stupid. You’re a loser. No one will ever want you. You’ll always be a failure, etc.
And one that I heard all my life growing up was:
“What’s wrong with you?!?”
The list can be pretty long, and the voices of others soon become our voices, echoing self-deprecating and ugly curses over our hearts and minds—eating away at our future.
Unknowingly, our parents can speak the devil’s curses and lies over us at a time when we were mythical, fanciful, and magical of heart. Because children can believe the unbelievable, curses and lies become part of their identity and belief system. They end up living them out like prophecies written in ancient manuscripts. These “prophecies” direct their lives, careers, and relationships.
To bring healing to these past wounds and nullify the agreements is a path that only a few have taken. Even though freedom and wholeness are possible, many of us prefer to live in the seclusion and cover of darkness and duplicity. We’ve come too far or lived too long with our false persona; the mere thought of dismissing or exposing our poser-selves is too frightening.
So, we pose, playing hide and seek at work, home, and church. The longer we play this nightmarish game, the more hardened and sadistic we become to our wounded hearts and souls.
This process continues until we become addicted to sex, drugs, alcohol, and lies. Or, perhaps our drug of choice is our reputation or religiosity. Maybe we’ve masqueraded for so long that we’re lost even to ourselves!
The stress of chronic fakery is as deadly as a heart attack and a silent killer, just as hypertension and high blood pressure can kill you. Why, we’re simply a walking time bomb of contradictions, lies, and hypocrisies.
Oh, my dear friend, there is such hope, so I am writing to you. Please read on.
Isaiah has said, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20.
Jesus said, “… And if the light you think you have is darkness, how deep that darkness is!” Matthew 6:23.
I know all about this. This was and is my life. It is both my past and my journey. There is a redeemer and a healer. He is pursuing you, not to judge you, but to redeem, heal, and restore you to who you were meant to be!
Your True Father wants you back. As the late Brennen Manning has so often quoted:
“God accepts you as you are and not as you should be. Because you’re never going to be as you should be.”
The Good News is that it’s God’s responsibility to transform you as you should be.
Transformation is not your wife’s job, boss’s, or best friend’s — it’s not your pastor’s or priest’s job or any self-help guru’s to change you. It is the job of a loving God, who’s waiting for you to call out to him; “Abba,” “Papa,” or “Daddy,” or even “Father-God.”
The only way to the Father is through the Son. And it is the Son, Jesus Christ, who’s taken upon himself all the curses and dark vows ever spoken in any language and tongue against us, so that we may be loved rather than destroyed.
Do you see this? God can make your life awesome, if you allow him to take away all the crap, hurts, wounds, and pain inside of you.
Oh, and it can be taken away! All the guilt, shame, and self-loathing—all the self-hatred and hatred of others can be removed. All the self-doubts and doubting of others, all the lost trust of self and others, and the cynical and diabolic distrust and suspicion can, and will be gone!
Just say this prayer out loud, or even in a whisper:
Dear Jesus Christ, I stand before you, exposed, scared, ashamed, and afraid. I have lived a sinful life and have hurt myself and others. I confess to you my wrongdoings, my mistakes, and my faults. I acknowledge my need for forgiveness from you and my need to forgive others. I also forgive myself for the harm that I’ve done to me. I believe in your Word of Truth and that you lived a sinless life, died on a cross of suffering because you took upon yourself all my sin, all the curses spoken over me, and all my wrongdoings. You were buried in a tomb and were raised to life on the third day, making it possible for me to be forgiven and to have a new life, new hope, and a future. I believe these things in my heart, and I confess and acknowledge them with my mouth to be saved and redeemed. I am now your true son or daughter, and I can now call you my Abba-Father as you have put your Spirit into my transformed and purified heart forever and ever. Thank you for my salvation and healing in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now, live a new life and understand that you now belong to God as his child, and you’ve become his responsibility. He is no dead-beat-dad. He is a Mighty God, an Everlasting Father, a Wonderful Counselor, and the Prince of Peace. All authority is upon his shoulders, and His Kingdom shall know no end.
Welcome home to a loving God and an incredible Savior!
The danger is to do nothing. Doing nothing is to remain in darkness and under curses and false agreements. Do something with your new life and truly live! No longer agree with the dark voices in the back of your mind. Instead, reject their curses and evil thoughts in the Name and Authority of Jesus Christ!
Give the Father of Lies an Eviction Notice and cancel all your curses!
Doubt is the gravitational force that keeps you from piercing through the atmosphere of the impossible.
Doubt is a killer of dreams and all that gives your life meaning.
Your faith is the rocket fuel that allows you to violate the forces of nature, doubt, and even physics.
Faith destroys doubt despite fear.
Faith in the ability and will of God can only win when you reject all other options. The more primary your faith becomes, the more God can do through your faith.
Are you asking God how? Author John Eldredge has written that “the question how?” is faithless. The question “how” can cause a failure in launching your faith and your ability to break through the gravitational forces of doubt…
… God wants your immediate obedience because this shows how much you trust him for all the unseen details.
When you break the gravitational forces of doubt, angels gather in excited anticipation, and demons become unsettled and defeated.
Now, do what you’ve been called to do. Sometimes, the equipping and provisions are developed during the journey, and this, too, will cause your faith to soar.
What are you waiting for?
You already have permission from God’s Word to do the impossible. When you step out to do the impossible, God shows himself in each impossible step. His miracles become the breadcrumbs for others to follow and a testimonial to your faith and to God’s faithfulness.
Doubt is a killer of trust and belief. Doubt keeps your relationships shallow and creates distance between you, God, and eternity.
You will never enjoy life to the fullest or know the depth of God until your trust becomes bigger than your doubt.
Break through the gravitational force of doubt. Until you do, you’ll never know your true purpose in life—You’ll never see the impossible happen.
When Toni and I were called to do the impossible, the doubters came out of the woodwork! Not because they were afraid for us but because they were afraid of us. Doubters love doubters, but those who break free from the gravitational force of doubt are a threat to their excuses.
Many years ago, August 4, 1984, to be exact; God called Toni and I to Youth With A Mission (YWAM). We needed $4,500.00 tuition for the Discipleship Training School and traveling money from California to the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, some 3,500 mile distance.
We embarked on our cross-country journey with our two small children, Josh and Jordan. Toni and I had only $300.00 cash and a gas and oil guzzling, 1973 Chevy station wagon. Needless to say, we were over $5,000.00 short. Yet, we truly believed that God would provide.
On our way to Canada, and after driving all night, the following morning, an 18-wheeler hit our car clocked by a Nevada State Trooper doing 90 miles per hour! The truck burst into flames on impact, skidding 600 feet before it exploded, catapulting debris 100 feet in the air! The impact to our Chevy station wagon thrusted us while inside our large vehicle, up the steep embankment, some thirty feet!
The truck driver jumped out safely, seconds before his rigg exploded! Later, the State Trooper told us that the truck driver had dosed off, which was why he collided into our car. Miraculously, none of us were seriously hurt, even though our Chevy station wagon was totaled. Our trip to Canada appeared to be cut short.
I put my family up in a Motel 6 in Elko Nevada, using part of the $300.00 we had started out with to cover the hotel expense. Yes, my wife and I were confused and dismayed, but soon experienced God’s peace over the crisis.
Within 24 hours of the accident, we received a knock on our hotel room door. It was an insurance adjuster, representing the trucking company responsible for the accident.
The adjuster wrote Toni and I a check for $25,000.00! At that time, it was more money than I had ever held or seen! Way more than enough for our YWAM tuition and traveling expenses!
Since our car was totaled, we took a bus ride to Salt Lake, Utah, to eventually catch a flight. While staying at another hotel, It was the next morning that God took me to a passage of Scripture:
“Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, you must bear the consequences…’ — Ezekiel 23:35
This verse popped up three times within 24 hours! It took me a while, but I began to understand what God was saying. Because we had received such a large sum of money that our faith and trust shifted, ever so slightly, from God to the money. In other words, we put our trust in the gift and not the Giver.
Later that morning, I lost my wallet with all the money in it! That Ezekiel verse kept echoing in my mind. Fortunately, I had kept part of the $25,000 settlement in the form of a certified check for $4,500.00, the rest in cash. But the certified check was also in my wallet!
You see, it is so easy and subtle to shift our trust and focus in God to other things. Because God loves us and that he’s a good and faithful Father, he won’t leave us in our sins. He corrects every son and daughter he loves.
Two weeks after we had arrived in Quebec, Canada, the Salt Lake Police Department in Utah sent me a letter, asking me to call or write back and describe the wallet’s contents. I want you to know that I didn’t have time to file a lost wallet report, and nothing in my wallet could’ve led the police to our temporary stop in Quebec. I still have this letter!
It was an absolute miracle that the Salt Lake Police Department found Toni and I while staying on a dairy farm in Quebec, Canada! I still, to this day, do not know how they found us!
Everything was still there in my wallet, except the $20,500.00 cash. Fortunately for us, the Canadian exchange rate in 1984 was 130%. Turning that certified check from $4,500.00 to $5,850.00! Because we had repented and adjusted our hearts, God gave us back just enough. As a matter of fact, because of God’s faithfulness, we were the only students who paid the required tuition in a lump sum!
When God calls us to obedience, he also provides the essentials. For us, his essentials came after each stage of obedience. The miracles were His way of rewarding our faith. Just like a father rewarding his son for doing a good job—God delights in our obedience!
I want you to know that when God calls a man, our response is critical. If we ignore His purpose for our lives, He sees this as rebellion—as stubbornness, which, God can be quick to show His displeasure. Just like He did for me, when I shifted my focus to money and away from Him.
Author and speaker John Eldredge has written that God wants you and me to become His “intimate ally.” He invites you and me to join Him in an adventure—a mission, if you will—a divine purpose that He uniquely planned for us. His mission is so critical for us that He planned it in every detail before He laid the foundations of the earth!
Dudes, did you just hear what I said?
Whether your name is John, Gary, David, or Steve, God thought of you, planned for you, and created a unique purpose for you outside of space, matter, and before time began! Let that sink in for just a moment—you matter so much to God, that you were, and are, in His thoughts, before He created the world and before you were even a twinkle in you parent’s hopes and dreams!
What will you do with this information? Don’t you want to connect with God’s mission for your life and His glory?
I can promise you this; when you do discover God’s divine purpose for your life, it will blow your mind so powerfully that your only response is to weep, tears of deep satisfaction and humility!
That’s what happened to me, I know God wants it to happen for you, too.
When I was twenty-one, my father-in-law, Gary Waltz, took me out to lunch to depart some fatherly wisdom into me, as I was about to become a father. One of the things he spoke to me didn’t make any sense at the time. He said, “Tom, you may never become a good speaker, but you will become a great writer.” By the way, I also became a public speaker!
Honestly, being a speaker or a writer wasn’t even on my radar. I was about to become a father, and that in itself was terrifying enough!
So, in 1981, my father-in-law spoke over my future, and in 2006, over twenty-five years later, it became true! Let’s take a look at a passage in Romans:
“As the Scriptures say, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is true before God, the one Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and speaks of things that don’t yet exist as if they are real.” Romans 4:17
God used my father-in-law to plant a seed of mission and purpose into my heart and soul. This mission was planned by God, our Creator, before He created our world!
So, back to the year 2006, around Spring time…
… I was about 46 years old when I had met a few people at a ministerial conference. I was there because my brother-in-law, Dwayne DeFount, known by most of you; he and I had started a men’s ministry titled Call To Courage. It was for that reason I was invited.
One of the individuals I had met was an editor of a bi-monthly publication titled America’s Good News, newspaper. We discussed nothing more than brief pleasantries and answered a few questions about our new men’s ministry.
A few days later, I received an unexpected call from a staff person from the newspaper. They invited me to become a columnist and to join the newspaper as a regular writer! I was shocked! I spoke to no one about writing, nor was it on my mind! I acted like I knew what all this meant. The staff-person explained what type and size font to use, how many words to include in each article, and the submission deadlines. Then the call ended.
As I hung up my phone, I placed my face into my hands and burst into tears! Tears, not of fear or sadness, but tears from an unexplored depth within my heart and soul! Those tears were of great humility and of purposeful fulfillment.
God had united His divine purpose and mission, for which He had planned before space, matter, and time existed, to be His writer! Now, do you see why it was so important for my father-in-law to plant God’s seed of mission and purpose into my life, so many years, prior? My father-in-law didn’t have a clue what and why he said that I was to become a writer, but God did.
Remember Romans 4:17?
“… Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and speaks of things that don’t yet exist as if they are real.”
That is exactly what God did to me. He spoke those “things that were not yet, as if they are real!”
And this is why I’m here, speaking with you young men and even the older men here today. God has planned a mission or missions for you, too. I know this as I know the sun will rise in the East and settle in the West.
No man here today, in this place, at this moment and time is missionless or without divine purpose. As a matter of theological fact, you being here tonight was so ordered by God! This message was crafted, especially for you! You were and are in the mind and heart of God before He spoke the world into existence. In His timing, the seed He planted into the depths of your heart and soul is either being watered or harvested in you this night.
God longs for you to join Him in His adventurous mission for your life and for you to become His trusted and intimate ally. God trains the stouthearted during the journey. He looks for men, like you, who’ll not ask the faithless question about how? but will be brave enough to ask, when?
When God? I am willing. I know you are able. Prepare me as you have done with the men of Scripture. So that one day you will say to me, “… we’ll done my good and faithful servant.”
Oh, and remember to never trust the gift more than the Giver! Amen
Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Apostle Paul
The years 2024 and 2025 are promised to be filled with unprecedented crisis and political and social upheaval such as this country has not witnessed. How will you stand during such infamous days?
Picture our nation’s birth pangs and struggle during its war for independence of 1775 through 1783. Remember America’s Civil War of 1861 through 1865. Recall America’s Great Depression of 1929 through 1939 and two World Wars, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In spite of all these calamities and crises, our nation still stood its ground and overcame.
No, these historic events didn’t happen in the space of time of your favorite sitcom or blockbuster movie. These struggles took years and even decades to reach their climatic ends. All of these events caused an incalculable loss of life, loss of comfort, ease, and prosperity. But, still, America overcame.
How about today, tomorrow, and next year?
Will you be an overcomer or be overcome with fear, anxiety, and panic?
It is likely that as many watchers, prognosticators, pundits, and forecasters have predicted, we’re in for the greatest economic and societal crash of all times. Economists and financial experts that accurately predicted the Great Recession of 2007 through 2009 are predicting financial crises exponentially greater than the Great Depression of the late Twenties and Thirties of the twentieth-century.
I’ll ask again, how will you stand in such perilous days ahead?
Is your trust in government, politicians, police agencies, the FBI, CIA, Home Land Security, and our borders?
Tens of thousands of Americans in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida have recently learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene that FEMA was late to the seen, ill prepared, and unfunded.
Hasn’t all of these institutions failed us with broken promises, broken policies, bad operators, and bad agencies? Do you sense, as many people do, that our once trusted institutions have become weaponized?
If all hell breaks loose, where will you go, and to whom will you trust?
Now, not later is the time to ask yourself, am I an overcomer, or will I be easily overcome by chaos?
I’m not trying to scare you, but to prepare you! I’m reminding you that all we once placed our faith and confidence in is gone. Yes, you heard me, it’s all gone! We’re all on our own!
Just look at our nation’s largest cities in red and blue states. New York, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, Dallas, Huston, San Francisco, and Oakland, just to name a few. How about all those smash-and-grabs? They have now become crash-and-grabs, using stolen vehicles to crash open storefronts, allowing not just a few looters but mobs of them in and out in a flash!
We’re intrigued by watching movies displaying crazed dystopian societies, with brazing lawlessness, cold-blooded murder, mayhem, and continuous looting.
Folks, we’re living in it!
If the recent debate between Biden and Trump wasn’t unsettling, how about the Whitehouse’s cover up of President Biden’s stage five dementia? Did you enjoy being lied to by all mainstream news outlets?
It’s here, not just in Hollywood’s latest blockbuster, but in many of our communities, cites, schools, and shopping centers. You don’t see it because you’ve been enchanted by MSM; lying politicians, bureaucrats, and technocrats.
I believe that Hollywood has purposely desensitized us by its endless portrayal of apocalyptic and dystopian doom. You see, Hollywood’s programming has programmed the masses to accept chaos as near normal. It’s an age-old tactic called, “normalcy bias”
“Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings. Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects. The normalcy bias causes many people to prepare inadequately for natural disasters, market crashes, and calamities caused by human error. About 80% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster.” Source: Wikipedia
I want you to understand that the surest way to defeat an overcomer is to normalize calamity, i.e., lull you into unpreparedness, which, in turn, sets you up to be easily defeated.
And that is exactly where we are today!
We have been propagandized and programmed through an elaborate PSYOP.
“Psychological warfare involves the planned use of propaganda and other psychological operations to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of opposition groups.” Source: RAND Corporation
If you’re a true conservative, patriot, Bible believing, child-rearing, faithful American, black, white, red, or yellow, a certified “basket of deplorables,” then you’re their “opposition group.”
We’ve all seen what public pandemonium looks like, either on the streets during riots or in blockbuster movies. No one really stands out, as everyone is in a state of shock, and all are overcome by panic and fear.
You see? Unpreparedness robs you of the mentality and fortitude of an overcomer.
Do you know how Jesus Christ withstood all the torture and the ignominious death on the cross?
He was prepared!
Jesus was zeroed in and fully cognitive of what he was to suffer. The Holy Scriptures says that Jesus set his face like a flint. Which, means, Jesus could not be detoured. This is because he had the spirit of the Overcomer before the ordeal of the cross.
“For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” – Isaiah 50:7
My friends, we must be strong in the power of God’s might; understanding the days in which we live; be rock-solid in our faith and with full determination, preparing ourselves to pierce through the darkness!
If you understand anything, understand the utmost confidence that Jesus Christ had in God the Father to vindicate and honor him in his death and resurrection.
That, my dear, brothers and sisters is the Overcomer’s spirit that you must believe and secure deep within your heart and soul, now, and not when all hell breaks loose here in America!
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:2
And that my friend is how you become an overcomer and stand during the evil days ahead! Your family is going to need you to show them how and all those that have allowed themselves to be programmed by the programmers.
“Let your light shine like that in the sight of men. Let them see the good things you do and praise your Father in Heaven.” – Matthew 5:16
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, They did not love their lives so much that they were afraid of death.” – Revelations 12:11
The world needs more overcomers to help those who’ll soon be overcome with grief and despair.
We can’t live a happy life with an unforgiving soul and a stubborn heart.
When we refuse to forgive ourselves and others, we split our identity. One part loaths the offender, and the part hates self. It is the inner voice of self hatred and toxic unforgivness, which curses the outer self of life and the inner self of peace.
I know you know what I’m saying. I’m not trying to gulit you, but to help you!
I don’t want you to end up with two personalities in one body. That’s a horrible way to live!
One world is real, full of life, hope, and dreams. The other is false — filled with lies, masks, and illusions. Sure, you can survive in your false world, but you were made for so much more than surviving…
… and I think you know that!
You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong. You don’t know what it is—you feel trapped inside—imprisoned by offense. Maybe you feel like a hostage, only it’s you that holds the key to your own prison cell.
In the movie The Matrix, Neo asks Morpheus a question:
“If you’re killed in the matrix, you die here?”
Morpheus:
“The body can not live without the mind.”
The book of James puts it this way:
“The splinter of a divided mind shatters your compass and leaves you dizzy and confused.” —James 1:8
Do not yield to thoughts of condemnation for others and hatred of self, for the end of such thoughts are self-destruction and death. You need to yield to, and desire wisdom from God, who understands both the body and the mind. But if you reject his wisdom and truth, your inner thoughts, no matter how untrue and false, will become reality. For either the wisdom from God and the belief of self-hatred are both initiated by faith. You see, faith activates the power of both truth and lies.
If you believe in the truth and wisdom from God, you will live and thrive. Conversely, if you believe in self-hatred and unforgivness, you will become lifeless and die. For the body obeys the mind, and a double minded person is unstable, confused, and lost.
I don’t want you lost—I want you found and freed!
The standard of God’s Word, Wisdom, and Truth never changes, so anchor all your thoughts, fears, and doubts on him, and you will find your way again.
This very moment, you are standing at the crossroads—as Jeremiah puts it:
Yet the Lord pleads with you still: Ask where the good road is, the godly paths you used to walk in, in the days of long ago. Travel there, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, “No, that is not the road I want!” —Jeremiah 6:16 (TLB)
Don’t yell an angry, “NO!” Cry a humble “yes,” and find rest again.
If you will not turn to God, The Holy One of Truth and Wisdom, not even your loved ones can help you. Until you’re willing to expose your false self and cease your fake salvation, you can’t be helped. Until you ask to be rescued, you’ll continue to drift further and further away.
Unrelenting unforgivness hurts no one but yourself. The one who offended you is unharmed by your hoarding of anger and offense. They’re free, but you’re not!
I plead with you, turn to God and be honest. Be brave. Be loving to yourself again and live! You may not realize it, but you’ve had the keys to your own prison all along.
“… You will weep no more. He will be gracious if you ask him for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries.” —Isaiah 30:19
Jesus Christ died that you may live and was raised to life that you may never die.
For there is no peace and no rest in wasting your life being unforgiving. There is life and peace in Jesus Christ.
Here, please read Psalms 23 — it’s a beautiful passageway to life!
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” —Psalm 23
Trust Him—He will give you rest for all your weariness and heal your splintered mind!
Maybe you’ll be restored enough to even feast in the presence of those who once hurt and offended you.
A while ago, I was awakened in the middle of the night, deeply troubled about the potential results of the 2024 elections. I got up to use the bathroom, and on my way back to bed, I distinctly heard a voice say:
“And this too must come to pass.”
I wrestled with those words for a few moments. And then I understood what the Lord was saying. If you truly trust and believe in my Word, then you must understand that these things must come to pass.
While nothing more would please me, and possibly you as well, would be a change in the moral and economic condition of this great nation. Even if for just a few years of reprieve, so that some of us can get back on our feet again and reengage the “American Dream.” Or perhaps finish our education and land a career. Or enter retirement with a full nest egg and an adequate 401k.
Now, as it must prophetically roll forward, the future seems unclear. But is it as unclear as we think, or have we forgotten, as we so easily do, what the scriptures have said?
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” –Mathew 24:6
“If you examine the past, you will find direction for the future,” has always been a reliable saying. However, we must examine our future and God’s promises to understand the times we live in and the days in which we’re all heading. Then we can understand what the Spirit is saying to the Churches:
“And this too must come to pass.”
This is our greatest opportunity to meet the tremendous needs unfolding before us. As our forerunners of old, we must declare that the Kingdom and the Economy of God are at hand. This hope must replace the hope we have in our politicians—in the American dream—in our careers and in our retirement. All these things are mere shadows of the bigness, brightness, and expansion of the Kingdom of God! Don’t we want this to come to pass?
The Kingdom of God is where all our hopes and dreams should be focused!
It is, and always, will be necessary for us Christians to engage in our civic duties and be good citizens of whatever country God has placed us in. But we must remember that we are also citizens of the Eternal Kingdom and a better place called Heaven. Our lives must reveal our eternal hope in God’s promises and the future he plainly marked out for us in his Holy Word.
If we truly live as citizens of Heaven and declare to this needy world that the Kingdom of God and its glorious economy is here, now, then we’ve lost nothing but have gained everything!
I love politics. I love to watch its unfolding — the potential of good vs. evil. I love to see good men and women statesmen stand against evil and the injustice of our time. These are the vanguards of our society, suppressing the evil power against the weakest among us. But wokeism, Leftest ideologies, and the sexual exploitation of children are too much to bear.
“And this too must come to pass.”
I don’t like this—not one bit! But again, God’s word and his promises drive us all forward and set the stage for what will soon be. If we engage our citizenship of Heaven, what lies ahead is to be welcomed—not feared!
I say, let us be like the people of Whoville; while Christmas had been stolen, they still gathered as a village and celebrated Christmas anyway, and even to the Grinch’s shock and surprise:
“How could it be so? It came without ribbons!—it came without tags!—it came without packages, boxes, or bags!”
Rise up, O People of God! Rise up! “Greater is He within you than he in the world!” Act like a people whose God is the Lord and declare that a far better political order has arrived! It is The Lord God Almighty, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace! And the government shall rest upon his shoulders, and his kingdom shall know no end.” This is our true heritage, our future, and our true identity!
We may fail with political might. But, let us succeed with true spiritual power by loving each other so that the world may see and hear the True King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and President of Presidents!
Let us welcome all of it and fear not but rejoice because nearer are the days of our Lord’s return than when we first believed.
Remember and have faith, as “this too must come to pass.”
Somebody hit the dimmer switch in the Church on the hill, and I think we all know who that “somebody” is.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” – 1 John 2:15
… And so, for worldly lovers—it’s lights out!
The light of the Gospel shining brightly from your inner life must be fueled by a fierce and unquenchable love for God and others. This light, filtered through your brokenness, will displace enough darkness for the blind to see.
I’m not speaking of physical blindness, mind you, but that of spiritual blindness.
“In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.” – 2 Corinthians 4:4
“Although your people live in darkness, they will see a bright light. Although they live in the shadow of death, a light will shine on them.” – Matthew 4:16
We who call ourselves by God’s name must shine like beacons as the daylight is dimming and darkness is coming.
“You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like beacon lights…” – Philippians 2:15
Can a nation be darkened in a day? Can the brightly lit torch of freedom be snuffed out without notice?
Yes, it happened while we were asleep in the light. All the while, consuming “Turkish Delights” and worshiping false gods and false teachers while sitting in enchanted chairs of passivity.
In the sixth book of C.S. Lewis’, The Chronicles of Narnia, titled, “Silver Chair,” the witch had placed a curse on the silver chair, so that when anyone sat on the chair they’d fall under the chair’s enchantment.
The Silver Chair was a magical device constructed by the Queen of Underland (also known as the Lady of the Green Kirtle), designed to keep Prince Rilian bound to a cursed enchantment…
“Every night, Rilian sat down on the chair to renew the manipulative magic. It made him susceptible to the witch’s lies and caused him to forget who he truly was.”
I think this is what’s happened to much of Western Christianity; we’ve become enchanted by worldliness, which has made us susceptible to the devil’s lies, and so, have forgotten who we truly are. And our forgettablness has ushered the world into darkness.
The Church was never to be about the “church,” but about Christ for the Nations, burning brightly as the light of God’s love and power over darkness. We were never meant to be bound to chairs, orbiting cathedrals, separated by a great divide between the clergy and the laity.
We’ve lost our place of influence because we’ve lost our identity, and in losing that, we’ve lost our mission! We have lost our identity because we’ve exchanged our First Love for second-hand worldliness. We have purchased the lie that if we look like the world, the world will come to us. How utterly foolish!
“If you belonged to the world, its people would love you. But you don’t belong to the world. I have chosen you to leave the world behind, and this is why its people hate you.” – John 15:19
Many Churches look so much like the world they have little to offer except a Savior without saving, a Lord without lordship, and a king without a kingdom. Who’d want to follow after that?
Somebody hit the dimmer switch in the Church on the hill, and I think we all know who that “somebody” is.
Our churches need to do what Motel 6 has done successfully over the decades:
“We’ll leave the light on for you.”
We need to rekindle our first love into a firestorm, recapturing God’s intended glory for the Church. Even our lives must reflect the glory of Christ and his good news! If you and I can do this, maybe we can light up the world again!
I can’t think of any other time than now to pause and reflect on the God of the universe. Isn’t our country; for that matter, the entire world being overshadowed by abnormal politics and abhorrent behavior?
The spreading of evil in our world is beyond rumor—it’s boldly flaunted in our faces.
Where else can we go for wisdom and truth other than to God? All other institutions have failed us. Indeed, they’ve failed God and country!
But, there is still hope!
Did you know that God is wirelessly available at this very moment? He is, and he has unmatched bandwidth from Heaven’s Throne!
God has infinitely more knowledge than Alexa—more wisdom than Siri and has far greater influence than TikTok!
God does desire your worship of him, but worship is not an end in itself; it’s not the pinnacle of what you have to give the Eternal Lover of your soul. He’s after your heart. Your heart is what he wants from you. For without it, your worship is empty and unpleasing to him.
God is not happy with only raised hands, bowed heads, and pretty choruses—he’s not impressed with your Sunday’s best and part-time devotion!
He’s poured out all his pent-up wrath against sin on His very own Son so that he can pour out all his love on you! He’s found a way to make you his very own and desires to be the sole occupant of your heart. He wants your desire to match his Son’s desire to be in him so that together, Father and Son, may dwell within you!
What will it take for you to cut out and remove what is useless and self-destructive to your precious heart and soul?
Is not your life hard enough—empty enough—lonely enough that you’ll go on without God?
You want all these things; all the answered prayers and open doors, but are you really pursuing God, or simply what you want from him?
He’s not behind the doors for which you so wearily push against; earnestly seeking safety, comfort, and security. He’s not playing hide and seek with you. He wants to be found as your One and Only Lover and Everlasting Father.
Only in returning to him will you find everything you are truly seeking and desiring.
Pray to receive him. Climb over every obstacle to find Him, and not what your flesh cries out for, which by the way are only temporal remedies of an eternal desire. God’s promise is that he will be found if you seek him and him alone with your whole heart.
But perhaps you haven’t done so, at least not with all your heart and strength, or else this note you’re reading wouldn’t be speaking so deeply to you. To honestly and sincerely turn towards God is, my dear friend, the only change and the most important decision that you must make at this moment—at this very second!
All other passions, concerns, and worries must be trained on the heart of your fierce Lover and only Healer of your heart and soul. All other methods are simply medicating you. Worldly tips and techniques are not healing you but masking the pain. “Time does [not] heal all wounds,” God does! God wants you restored and made whole—not medicated.
You want to talk about hands-free devices?
Did you know that God is wirelessly available this very moment with unmatched bandwidth from Heaven’s Throne?
God has infinitely more knowledge than Alexa. He has more wisdom than Siri and far greater influence than TikTok! We 21st-century Christians are so distracted, not with idols made of wood and stone, but with artificial intelligence (A.I.)!
We crave Idols that talk back and that hear our every word and answer our immediate questions. Yet the God of Creation, the very One who knows you by name, has counted every strand of your hair and has collected, like diamonds and precious jewels, every tear you’ve shed, is waiting patiently for your devotion and your “signing in.”
He has far greater connections than LinkedIn and has more excellent opportunities than Ziprecruiter. He wants more than your market share and algorithms—he wants all of you—body, mind, and soul, but especially your whole heart.
God can fill your heart and soul, but the Internet, well, it leaves holes in your heart and never absolutely never fills your heart as God can. The internet is designed to keep you empty, shallow, and alone, causing you to need and crave things more and more.
God is not after your money. He’s not marketing you—he’s trying to love you as you’ve never been loved before! He wants to update and download into the center of your being and fill your memory with images of Heaven that you’ll never find on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or WhatsApp.
Did I mention how much I needed to hear this?
My name is Thomas Koester, and I’m addicted to A.I. too. I need more than I’d like to admit the words I’ve written in this article. I, too, am convicted!
Close this post. Log off Facebook. Shut down your devices. Lower the lights and open your heart to God. Log into Heaven’s Throne, and tune into His presence, scroll up to His homepage so that you may truly see and understand. God is far more exciting than X! He has exceedingly more to offer than Amazon, eBay, or Temu!
God is live right now, and his live feed is where you’ll find real life and all that you’ve been longing for…
What stands between many of us and the life we’re supposed to live is our ability to bullshit.
No, this is not a treatise on global warming or climate change or the negative impact of cow flatulence on our environment—far from it!
This is about fleeing pretense and duplicity and becoming the real you. It’s about breaking down the fake areas in our lives and being honest with ourselves and others.
Wholeness can only be achieved by utter and complete brokenness. This is a universal principle. This is also the opposite of what the world thinks.
I like what Jerry Maguire said in his moment of a breakthrough:
“… Two nights later in Miami at our corporate conference, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a mission statement for my company. You know—a Mission Statement—a suggestion for the future. What started out as one page became twenty-five.
Suddenly, I was my father’s son. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job, how I ended up here out of law school, the way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the field… And suddenly, it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Caring for them, caring for ourselves, and the games, too. Starting our lives, really. Hey, I’ll be the first to admit it. What I was writing was somewhat “touchy-feely.” I didn’t care. I had lost the ability to bullshit. It was the me I’d always wanted to be.” —The Movie “Jerry Maguire”
You see a breakthrough, I mean, the kind of breakthrough we know we really need is always preceded by a breakdown. And, when we lose—no, rather, when we refuse to bullshit ourselves and others, we’ll become the people that we’ve always wanted to be.
You’re divinely purposed to become a living act of God’s love and glory. You can’t become what your Creator has intended until you surrender your own mess. That is, your constant self-effort to holding the broken pieces of your life together. Living in fear and dread that your secret life will be exposed at any moment to a live audience.
Living life on constant defense and acting co-dependently, or as a self-enabler, justifying the actions of your false self at the expense of your true self. This is the definition of what I’m referring to as a “mess.”
You can not become assembled in body, mind, and spirit, all the while holding everything together. You are robbing yourself of the very strength and energy you need by wasting it on supporting your falseness and phony facade. Stop being driven by voices inside your head, echoing the curses from your mother or father, or from the other significant persons in your life.
These curses are the voices of “false coaches,” driving you to repeat a cycle of self-destruction and family dysfunction. These curses are carcinogenic to your desire for wholeness and wellness. They are the cancerous agents eating away at the divine purpose for which God has created you.
“Gloria Dei est vivens homo,” wrote Saint Irenaeus, which means:
“The glory of God is a living man.”
The glory of God is you fully living, and not your daily self-destruction and learned dysfunction.
In the human body, you can not build muscle without first tearing down the muscle you have. Tearing down the muscle requires a determination to submit to the pain and deny yourself comfort. Likewise, you must have a willing determination to submit your very life and comforts to God.
James says it this way:
4-6 “You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”
7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God, and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.” —James 4:6-10 (MSG)
Pride is self-destruction, low esteem, self-loathing, and such, is what’s been behind your self-effort of “holding it all together.” This is why pride always precedes a profound fall. There is nothing good in this kind of a fall because it’s always a fall from grace and not towards it.
Do you want God’s grace? Become truly humble. Oh yes, it is painful to stop your self-salvation and accept the truth, and act on it. But the light, which will come flooding into your darkness, will bring the wholeness and wellness you’ve been searching for.
The problem with bullshit is that it is no respecter of person, race, religion, or age—it flows from all of us! Far too many of us hide behind B.S.
“Men love darkness, rather than light,” this is true. But you can not become the man or woman you were meant to become all the while remaining in darkness. Just as painful as it is to build muscle, is it painful at first to step out from darkness into God’s marvelous light!
The gain from the pain of coming into the light is worth the life of wholeness and holiness.
Did you know that embracing your brokenness rather than hiding it will cause collateral beauty?
There may be a divine and strategic purpose behind your brokenness that, when shared with others, may cause a chain reaction of hope and healing in you and in them.
At this very moment, you’re standing at a crossroad—at a turning point; your next decision can create a paradigm shift of unprecedented emotional and spiritual change.
“The Lord said to his people…
“’You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. If you do, you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not follow it!’” —Jeremiah 6:16 (NET)
Stop hanging out with the “We will not follow it” crowd!
You no longer belong to the crowd who refuse to follow the right path.
Stop staring at the crossroad in front of you and follow the right path. Stop saving yourself and fall into the grace, mercy, and love of God, and you will become the man or woman you’ve always wanted to be. After all, God put the desire to be his love and glory in you so that you may be fully living, fully alive to a world content with dying and taking you with it.
A breakdown is always before a breakthrough. God is waiting if you are willing. Open up to God or find a trusted friend to help lead you to God’s grace.
God can turn the ugliness of your brokenness into something beautiful!
May I be honest and a bit crass?
… It’s my prayer that you’ll lose your ability to “bullshit!” – Amen
Call To Courage 