A Man And God’s Mission – By Thomas J. Koester

Never trust the gift more than the Giver!

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

The All-Encompassing All-Consuming OtherWorldly Life – By Thomas J. Koester

Because God Dosen’t Holdback Neither Should We!

Full-Time Pastors are no justification for part-time Christianity. Neither is Christianity simply a vocation of the elite and educated clergy.

It is a radically new culture and community; a new way of life and living, it is not a compartmentalized life, whereby God is public on Sundays, but private on Mondays through Saturdays; not an alternate-parallel lifestyle–that is, one foot in Church and one foot in the world. It is an all-consuming, all-encompassing otherworldly life.

True Christianity is so radical, so alien that your only way to survive in it is to suit up in complete faith. Natural laws and physics are without limits and barriers; economy and dominion are infinite and ever-expanding. Sickness and disease are opportunities and victories for growth. For the believer, death is but a brief nap and an instant passageway from a lesser glory to full glory.

However, someone suggested that to reach the world, we must act like the world and, well, that’s backfired!

Somewhere along the way, we’ve become the world, and therefore the world has nothing to see; there’s no contrast. The world is left without a testimony. Jesus himself said before he ascended into heaven:

“When I return, will I find faith on earth?”

Let’s stop our part-time Christianity and make it our full-time life. Let’s not leave our Christian duties and responsibilities to our pastors, but all do the work of ministry.

Doing nothing to very little with our faith stunts our growth as a godly people. Serving others and doing the work of ministry causes us to flourish and reach maturity in the faith.

The world needs grown-up Christians and not another worldly-religious order.

There’s no doubt that tribulation can be a useful tool for the Refiner’s fire; purifying our body, soul, and mind. But, if we reject the Holy Spirit’s conviction of God’s Word, expect all pleasantries to disappear.

Worldly comforts are not a sign of godly favor. No sir—They are an indicator that you may not be a true son or daughter of God. True sons and daughters are purified by the things they suffer. They know it is the hour of chastisement, bringing about true repentance; so rather than pout and complain, they act with dispatch to be renewed and rejoined. They don’t get bogged down with shame, they get lifted with praise!

They become consumed in the life of Christ. He is the reason they triumph through tribulation and suffering. Their suffering is purpose-driven, that is to become closer to Jesus and the all-encompassing, all-consuming, otherworldly life He offers.

Final thought…

Remember, your pastor will not be standing in for you on your behalf at The Judgement Seat of Christ. Nope, it’ll be just you, and what you have, and have not done to the least of one of these.

You’re not saved by your works, but your works validate your faith. Faith without works is dead and works without faith and love is nothing at all.

I challenge you to show off your faith to the unseen world so that the world in which we live will see your faith and believe. Make your Heavenly Father proud, and give him many reasons to say: “Well done, my faithful son or daughter.”

When your faith lights up, it shows off the incomparable brightness and weightiness of God. Because God is all-encompassing and all-consuming, there is no room for worldly life.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE | FAITH AWAKENING – BY THOMAS J. KOESTER

Because asking “how” is the faithless question.

The correct question believers should be asking when it comes to obeying God is—is it impossible?

Would you happen to know why?

Because it’s rare. It’s a question that heaven rarely hears. But it is precisely the right question that we should be asking. The Word says in Hebrews 11:6 the following:

“… And without faith, it is impossible to please God,”

To start with, the impossible, I believe, is very stirring to the heart of God. When we approach God with faith enough to join Him in His impossible work, we say, “I trust you so much that the details don’t matter.” The challenges don’t detour me. The dangers won’t stop me. These “faith qualities” are what God is after in you and in me, too.

Here’s the rest of Hebrews 11:6

“… because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

So, start with the impossible—the most difficult, the most unlikely, and even the most ridiculous. Only be sure you’re following God’s Word and His will. God wants to reward you with each impossible step you take.

Faith is not what you can do but what you can’t do. It’s not where you can go but where you can’t go. Faith moves you towards the impossible, or it’s not faith!

How many biblical stories have you read whereby God sends his man or woman to face impossible odds?

God’s missions are not missions unless they are impossible by human standards. But you’ll never know until your faith meets your obedience to his will and purpose.

Belief in God is not only about his existence but more about your obedience to his calling on your life.

If we can not see the Father’s works, it’s because we’re too wrapped up in our own work- and yes, this can include “church work!” We may not need faith for our work, but we can only do God’s work by faith.

Christian populism and “the power of positive thinking” have diminished faith to mere “tips and techniques” or following “principles” without a relationship to the Prince of Peace.

His work often makes us risk our comfort and, sometimes, our safety. His will requires passionate courage to obey. Our work brings enslavement, sweat, and, at times, depression and boredom. Many of us are killing ourselves for a paycheck!

… Is that how you dreamt you’d live your life, running after a paycheck?

If we believe and obey God and join him in his work, we will no longer live as enslaved people but as free people.

“Wherever the Spirit of God is, there is freedom!” – 2 Corinthians 3:17

Freedom to move towards adventure and risk with God is core to walking by faith with him.

As noted, the author, John Eldridge, has penned;

“Asking God, how? … Is a faithless question.”

Obeying God and following his will means God has already worked out the ” how. ” Trusting God with the unknown details and acting on his will without knowing “how” is the definition of faith.

God’s will for us must become as essential as eating food. To move in faith, we must become vitality dependent on God’s will and preplanned purpose.

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” – John 4:34

“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” – Matthew 12:50

Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” – John 14:23

Faith and obedience lead to closeness with God. Asking Him “how” all the time before you obey shows you don’t trust Him. So, stop asking faithless questions! You can’t exercise faith apart from an intimate relationship with the Father and the Son. You’ll need the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit to do the impossible!

If you try and do things apart from knowing God, you’ll be in danger of practicing lawlessness or unauthorized acts of whatever you call “righteousness.”

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ – Matthew 7:21-23

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.” – John 15:5

Find where God’s Spirit is working and go there quickly and passionately. Only there can you do the impossible and find a real and meaningful life.

Ask yourself, do I need God to accomplish this? The answer may require you to do the impossible…

“… That is your mission if you choose to accept it.”

Be brave. God’s equipped you for the impossible mission!

Untapped Spiritual Power of The Resurrection – By Thomas Koester

The Most Powerful Event In All History, The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

It is undeniable that America is in a post-Christian era. The culture of death and darkness is everywhere. I truly believe the lack of preaching on the single most important event in history has created a vacuum for evil to flourish and death to prevail.

When eternal life is unoffered, uncelebrated, and relatively unknown, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ diminished to a mere annual holiday, overtaken by pagan ritual, the power of the resurrection becomes unknown and untapped.

Target, Walmart, Macy’s, and Hallmark are not to blame for the commercialization of the most powerful event in all human history. This is Christianity’s doing. For they are the arbiters of this most important truth, not department stores!

The sad thing about what this Sunday has become in many churches across America is summed up in one word, “powerless.” Matter of fact, the title Resurrection Day has been replaced with the title ‘Easter Sunday.” The Gospel replaced with Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, colorful baskets, pastel dresses, and shiny shoes.

It’s not the world offering Easter egg hunts. No, it’s thousands and thousands of churches.

In their minds, it’s the ends justifying the means. A marketing strategy, if you will.

However, I see no such market strategies in the Bible, by either prophet or apostle, preacher or evangelist.

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central theme of The Gospel!

For Christianity to impact the world and chase the demons and devils of death back onto the shadows, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ must once again become the central theme of The Gospel.

Immediately prior to Jesus’s crucifixion, he appeared as a failure; deserted by his closest followers, deceived by one of his disciples, and rejected by his own people that he came to save. Silent before his accusers, no one spoke on his behalf.

His Father let him suffer a naked and terrible death on a cross. He was buried in a borrowed tomb, which was carefully guarded by nearly a dozen Roman soldiers. He certainly was despised and rejected.

Yet, Christianity finds its roots in the single and most important act:

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“…and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach, and you have nothing to believe.” – 1 Corinthians 15:14

It is the power of Christ’s resurrection, which should both compel and propel churches and not budgets, charismatic preachers, or in-vogue programs, pageants, and parades.

“The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.” – Acts 4:33

The focus of a Church living from the roots and foundation of the resurrected Lord of Life is to seek and save the lost rather than a mausoleum of inactive Christians.

To the early Christians and First Century Church, the Resurrection was their main message. For us today its become an annual holiday.

“I want to know Him inside and out. I want to experience the power of His resurrection and join in His suffering, shaped by His death, so that I may arrive safely at the resurrection from the dead.” – Philippians 3:10-11

If you want a vibrant and alive Church, preach the Resurrection of Christ throughout the year.

If you want a dead church, stay with your religious tips and tricks, and keep following those mainstream, so-called Christian fads and fashions. You may get your numbers and budgets, but you’ll have no real spiritual power.

Without real spiritual power, you’ll have no real spiritual fruit.

The Church was founded and propelled by an Outlaw, and today, the Church is held back by its bylaws.

Get back to the message of Resurrection, and not just on once a year on “Easter” Morning.

Preach powerfully the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing will be upon you all.

The greatest critic and deniers of the resurrection of Christ are not disbelievers and atheists, but those who refuse to preach and live it.

True spiritual success still comes from the most powerful event in all human history…

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Do you believe this?”

If you did, you’d be full of life and full of power, and no worldly or spiritual force could stop your message.

Tap into it and live it and gain true spiritual power, power the Lost and the Broken are waiting for.

The Prodigal Father – Turning Your Heart Towards Your Children – By Thomas Koester

Don’t wait for your kids to find your heart, be brave and pursue theirs. It’ll change everything!

Before a nation collapses, the family collapses. Before a family collapses, the father collapses. Therefore, the fall of nations is the failure of fathers.

After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Toni and I finally went to a movie theater in Angels Camp, California, to watch the sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water.” We watched it in 3D at 48 frames per second. Wow!

The movie’s subtitle should have read, “The Way of Fathers.”

While the cinematography, special effects, action, and acting were all superb, the portrayal of the father’s role was unmistakable and powerful! Matter of fact so was the mother’s role. The importance of parents and family is something we rarely see in movies produced in Holywood.

While James Cameron wrote a fantastic story and script, the importance of fathers taking responsibility for their children was something to behold. Just like in the world of Avatar, our world needs strong, uncompromising fathers to survive!

I see the role and importance of fathers in the Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of the Book of Revelations. From the last book of the Old Testament, the final chapter, and the last two verses, and to the opening of the New Testament, in the Book of Luke, chapter one, verses fifteen through seventeen.

Malachi 4: 5-6 (Last Old Testament Book)

“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Luke 1: 15-17 (One of the First New Testament Books)

15, ff “…And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even in his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to their Lord God. 17, And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the unbelievers to the wisdom of the just men: to make the people ready for the Lord.”

John the Baptist was the second Elijah spoken about in the Book of Malachi. It was his job to stir the hearts of fathers to their sons and daughters. Otherwise, the mission of Jesus to reconcile the lost sons and daughters of Israel to his Heavenly Father would have met hardened hearts.

Our roles as fathers are not only the most significant societal and cultural role; it is the single most important relational/spiritual role our children can have here on earth. Malachi is pointing out that a father’s estrangement (absence) from his children has the potential of cursing our land and creating avenues of destruction throughout our cities and towns. Estranged and absent fathers make ungodly and rebellious children. It also hardens the children’s hearts against the love of God, his Heavenly Father’s role, and ultimately His plan of salvation for them.

Do you fathers understand your role and responsibility in God’s plan of salvation for your children? You will be held to account. Do you want to stand before God as a deadbeat dad?

There can be no more significant failure in a man’s life than to turn his back on his marriage and children.

The career is not worth it. An affair is not worth it. Money is not worth it. One more drink is not worth it. Your girlfriend is not worth it. Even your “ministry” is not worth the sacrifice of your children.

Suppose you’re on the fence about your marriage and your responsibility for your children. Suppose you’ve walked out of your marriage and your kids’ lives. Suppose you’re in an affair or about to enter one. Even the promotion in work or ministry could take you away from your wife and kids. Consider the impact on their lives and future and our culture before you walk off the cliff of selfishness. It is not worth it, men!

Go back home to the wife of your first love. Go back home to the family you’ve left behind. Go back home to the most extraordinary life a man can live. Rescue your wife, save your children and save your legacy!

Reconciliation becomes possible when fathers turn their hearts back towards their children, taking responsibility and becoming accountable for them. To reverse the curse, which is undeniably present in our culture, we fathers must turn back to God and walk in His ways so that we can again point our children to a greater Father to embrace, love, and walk with throughout their lifetime.

The success of marriage and unconditional commitment to our wives and children must exceed the failure rate of broken families and absent fathers. If this tide cannot be turned, then as Malachi has prophetically declared, our land will indeed become cursed and worsen rapidly.

Repair the breach, men! Turn your hearts back towards your sons and daughters. Repair your marriages and live up to your commitments. Turn your hearts back to God and walk with Him as your True Father and listen to His advice and wise counsel. After all, He is the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Wonderful Counselor, and Prince of Peace. God is everything we need as men to become the fathers our sons and daughters need and our land requires.

To those sons and daughters that have lost their fathers due to death, you can still turn your hearts back towards him. Forgiveness is your most significant path to a new life, to a new future, and to become healed from your heartache.

This is the only path to a cure; to reverse the curse and restore our great Nation through restored families! Get it done, men!

…It may only take “20 seconds of courage.”

Make this your New Year’s Resolution, a Revolution For the Love of your children.

Prodigal fathers, come home!

“Just Do It!”