The Russian Connection

The Fortune Of Your Future

 Doing the right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing.

 Life is all about timing.

 Strategic moves done at the right moment.

 Timing is so critical, because God has ordained different seasons in our lives for various purposes of learning specific things that we can only get by being there.

 Before you take any action, pray and make sure that you’re not moving ahead of God.

 A lot of times people will use a feud or a conflict as reason to say that they feel God’s telling them to leave a place. But be careful. If God’s called you to a place, it’s your job to stay faithful there and serve until He specifically gives you the release the move on to something else.

 In certain cases timing can either make you or break you.

Because when you move out on to something prematurely –you’re not ready for it and its effect can be devastating on you.

 But when you do things in the right order you’ll be prepared and things will go a lot smoother because you’re operating together with God in the grace of His timing.

All of a sudden….

The  unreachable becomes reachable.
The unavailable becomes available. And
The unattainable because attainable.

 Follow the inward leading of the Holy Spirit & trust that God knows best.

use it to cultivate & perfect gift and skills that he’s put on the inside of us.

   Today i embark on my 61st year!

It is my birthday and i am so grateful that God has allowed me to get this far and experience so much of His goodness in the journey, but I am excited because I know the best is yet to come!

Going to Haiti last week forever changed my life.

It was a trip that shook me from the very depths of my being, and has further poured fuel on the flame to keep spreading the message of Christ!

I came face to face with the overwhelming need for love, shelter, security, freedom and JESUS! People living the most unimaginable and harsh conditions on earth.

This has been an incredibly emotional year, with everything ranging from radiation treatments for cancer, to Marsha's foot being broken to all the disasters plaguing the world and uprooting the lives of so many people......

But yet through it all, God has been right there to show his faithfulness.

Today as we celebrate Memorial Day, I want you to remember and think on all the soldiers that are so bravely putting their lives on the line to not only protect this country, but the people that make it so great. They are true heroes.

If you can, spend it with your family, and make it a special time. 

 HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

 Isaiah 40:8

"The grass withers,

The flowers fade,

but the Word of God stands forever."

When all the beauty, glamor & glitter of this world fails, you can be confident knowing that the Word of God will never faulter, it'll never change regardless of everything around it.

• Even in the most hopeless and dire of situations God's Word does not cave under pressure or bow to the compromise of our society........

Fot its foundation is not upon man or circumstance, but on the faithfulness of almighty God.

If you put your trust in the things of this world, you'll be hopelessly dissapointed, because its colors fade, its sounds become dull, and there will always be an emptiness and void of true satisfaction.

If your pursuit in life is soley off of what looks, feels, sounds & smells good and not the eternal....it will be one of the bumbiest rollercoaster rides you've ever ridden.

Because in the world, there is no stability.

-There is no guarantee of tomorrow.

-There is no promise of life, or life more abundantly.

ALWAYS REMEMBER:

No matter what season you go through or what you face, when you cling to God and His word, fear no longer becomes an issue to confine you to doubt & worry of how you're going to make it through.

Because all of a sudden you realize....

that GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, THAN ALL THAT IS IN THE WORLD...and therefore you can enter into battle confidently knowing the Word of God has already won!

"NOT A 9 TO 5"

I believe that one of the biggest things we need to watch out for not just as Christians, but just in general, is falling in to a state of mind of complacency.

When things begin to get routine & ordinary in our life, we can in turn hit autopilot, and for lack of a better word, enter in to a mind-less existence where we're just going through the motions.

I want to put an urgency in you today to never ever let ministry or your Christianity take on a "Monday morning" or "9 to 5 job" mentality.

Don't ever loose your passion and zeal!

Don't ever let it become just another service or another Bible reading, but stay renewed in the freshness of God daily.

The cause of Jesus Christ is the greatest cause in the history of mankind. It is one of love, bravery, dedication and surrender to the things of God.

Luke 10:27

"LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND."

Consecration is not just measured in speech, but in action, obedience and dedication.

TODAY:

Shake up anything that's begun to settle in your heart...

remind yourself of who you are, who your God is, and what He's called you to do.

Don't let the comforts of life creep in to steal away from you the tenacity of pushing forward with God and seeking after His Kingdom in everything you do.

What are you waiting for today?

Many times life is about taking the first step.

For every dream, there is a goal.

In order to achieve any goal....there is a process.

And that process will never begin until the first step is taken.

We have to put our trust in the fact that when God has told us to to do something, He will be right there backing us up.

The call is never greater than the grace.

But God is able to make all things work together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.

Joshua 1:6,7

⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

 ⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.

TODAY:

Whatever you've had on your heart to do and feel like you've been procrastinating out of fear...step out and together with God,

JUST DO IT!

 

THE COACHES PLAY

Sometimes when we don't understand it,

choosing to follow after God's will and not our own can honestly seem hard....

--Because, our natural instinct is to act on what we hear, see, want and know right now. To act out of impulse many times.

But God is the Alpha and the Omega. Beginning and the End.

• He sees everything from a completely different perspective and knows all the angles of a situation. So He will always try to lead you along the best path, because He knows the results of all your different options, and He only wants the one that will work out the best for you

It's a decision we have to make
whether or not we trust Him enough to make the right call.

It's sort of like a sports game.

If you're not careful, the screams and shouts of all the different people in the stands, the parents and other teams players can confuse you if you don't know who your coach is and what he wants you to do. 

But you can always trust in that even when there are different options and decisions you have to make all around you, your coach always knows the best play and will keep you safe within the boundaries of the game if you just follow His leading.

Same thing with God.

When your soul, mind & emotions are screaming at you to do or feel certain things, you have to turn to God and let Him be the compass of your heart- to lead you in the right direction!

In any circumstance, Jesus- our coach, always knows what the best play to go with is!

 THE TONGUE GUN

Ephesians 4:29

“Let no evil word or unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Words are weapons.

--Weapons of either aid or damage.

They can either help or hinder, encourage or discourage, tear down or build up.

It's not just the words you speak to other people, but take notice of the words you speak to yourself too, because they are just as important.

What words do you habitually say to yourself?

What do you tell yourself about yourself?

Research shows that words have emotional, physical and spiritual impact.

They can cause physical changes in your body and change the spiritual atmosphere.

-God spoke words in the spiritual realm to make things happen in the physical world.

Proverbs 18:20

"Words satisfy the soul as food satisfies the stomach.
The right words on a person’s lips bring satisfaction."

TODAY:

Be PRAYING for people and not PREYING on them

  MY FIRST TRIP EVER TO HAITI!

On Tuesday I will enter the devastation and dysfunction of Haiti.

All of our hearts and minds have been overwhelmed by the loss of life and unending pain in the midst of hopeless poverty.

My dear friends Nick & Darleen Bruckner have been asking us for years for to be a part of what God is doing in this nation they love. They have partnered with  Pastor Eccliscias Donation in Cape Haitien, who is doing miraculous things for God and reaching out to His community and nation.

The church, Tabernacle of Praise, is anywhere from 7,000 to 20,000 in number and has meetings every day starting with prayer at 5:30 in the morning.

2 weeks ago, on a wednesday night service, 350 people gave their lives to Christ!

I am filled with anticipation.

I know my heart is going to be broken. This is a place that for years has been filled with darkness, over run by demons, and hated by the devil. Haitians are desperate for the love of God as spiritual darkness is one of its biggest problems.

On August 14, 1791, a group of Houngans (voodoo priests), led by a former slave named Boukman, made a pact with the Devil at a place called Bois-Caiman. They sacrificed a black pig in a voodoo ritual at which hundreds of slaves drank the pigs blood. In this ritual, Boukman asked Satan for his help in liberating Haiti from the French. In exchange, the voodoo priests offered to give the country to Satan for 200 years and swore to serve him.

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE NATION:

• Only 50 percent of Haiti population has access to safe drinking water.

• Some 55 percent of Haiti’s 9 million people live below the poverty line of US$1 a day.

• Rural households spend almost 60 percent of their income on food; the poorest groups spend more than 70 percent.

• Chronic malnutrition affects 24 percent of children under five, rising as high as 40 percent in the poorest zones.

• According to the CIA World factbook, about 50% of the population practice Voodoo.

Please keep me in your prayers next week!

Nick says that God is really moving powerfully since the Earthquake, and there's been an opening in the heart of the Haitian people for Jesus Christ more so now than ever before.

Miracles, signs and wonders are happening all over the church.

I believe that countless lives will be touched this week as a result of the Word going forth!

Thank you for standing with us,

-MIKEL

LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED...

Sometimes I wish there was white-out for life.

 

-That as soon as we make a mistake we could just go back and correct it, and it’s like it never happened..........

But the fact is, that there’s not.

We can always apologize and try to make things right, but those words will remain spoken and those action can never be taken back.

But thank God for His grace and forgivenes!

When we give our mistakes to Him and ask Him for forgiveness, He doesn't keep an account of all our wrongs, He doesn’t remind us of all the times we’ve failed and how we’ve messed up.

But 1 John 1:9 says

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

And then Isaiah 43:25 goes so far as to say this:

"I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Today:

If there is something bothering you, talk to God about it. Ask Him for forgiveness and how to mend as much of it as you can, but then give it to Him. Leave it at the altar, and don't go pick it back up again! 

Actually, don't even bring it up again, because God's already forgotten about it!

Have a great day!

 PEOPLE MAGNETRomans 2:4 says

"It's the goodness of God that leads men unto repentance"

I think sometimes we have to wrong idea when we try to bring people to Christ.

The Bible says it's because of God's GOODNESS that men want to repent and turn from their own ways.

Not through our judging,

not through us passing condemnation

not through our fingerpointing.

but through showing LOVE.

• Because it's when the world sees that God is different than the rest, that he accepts them the way they are, all of a sudden he becomes a safe place that they can run to.

Romans 5:8 says that

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

He loved us inspite of our downfalls and shortcomings.

Until we learn to see people the way Christ sees them, we will never be fully effective.

It's not our job to change people- that's the Holy Ghost's job.

TODAY:

Show the people around you the goodness of God!