The Russian Connection

RECOGNIZING A FAMILIAR VOICE

“He goes ahead of them, and the sheep will follow Him because they know Hisvoice. A stranger they will not follow but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

1 JOHN 10:5

There are certain people in our lives whose voices
have become extremely distinguishable.

For ex. It may be your husband/wife’s, family member or your best friends.

Even out of 100 other voices, I bet you could easily pick theirs out!

There is a familiarity that we find comfort in voices we know.
A certain level of security and trust from those we love and confide in.

• Just like we recognize those people, we can recognize God’s voice too!

He wants us to know His voice intimately
and be able to tell when it is Him speaking to us.

But the only way we will be able to get to know his voice like that, is to spend time with Him and spend time in prayer & worship.

When you become confident in hearing the voice of the Lord, you don’t fall for the counterfeit voice of the stranger trying to lure you in a different direction.

TODAY:

Don’t go looking for His voice, but just spend time in God’s presence and allow Him to speak to you as He wills! And at those times, is when your heart should be open and pure listening to what He has to say and wants to share with you!

I encourage you to start keeping a prayer journal where you can write everything down!

INNER VS OUTER

“CULTIVATE INNER BEAUTY, THE GENTLE, GRACIOUS KIND THAT GOD DELIGHTS IN...”

-1 PETER 3:4 (Message)

There are 2 different aspects to our life.

The inward part & the outward part.

The outer part is our reputation with people & the inner life is our reputation with God.

As far as God is concerned, the inward part of man is even more important than the outward.

He wants us to have a steady relationship with Him.
-That our motives, attitudes and desires towards things are right.

• Our inner life is our soul and our spirit, and when we become born again- it is God’s spirit dwelling on the inside of us.

But it also important that we line up whom we are on the outside to that which Christ has made us on the inside. How we live our life is a witness to those around us. It has nothing to do with being perfect, but with exemplifying the Spirit of Christ in everything we do. Living our life because of Him and for Him. 

We are always to love and forgive people, treating them the way we would want to be treated. Even when the circumstances don’t make us feel like it.

TODAY:

If you haven’t before, ask God to come and be a part of your inner man.

To let Him show you how to live a life worthy of your calling!

A Historical Celebration!

 

 On Monday night I returned home to Oklahoma and Marsha from the big 20th Year Anniversary Celebration in Perm, Russia for Edward Grabavenko's New Testament Church. 

We celebrated 20 years of God planting churches across Russia!

• Over 1,200 bishops, pastors and Assemblies of God missionaries came from eleven different time zones to be a part of the commemoration. They set up a tent, which seated more than 3,000 people, that at times had between 300 to 500 people standing outside in overflow.

For three days these men, Dr. George Wood, the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Rev David Wells, the General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and Bob Hoskins, founder of Book of Hope, along with other men of God, poured out their lives to help pastors, churches and believers to understand God’s purpose in the church in Russia.

•  In 1991 Russia had less than 100 churches, but as of today they have 1,800 and are growing steadily with 400 to 500 new churches going up a year.

 I was privileged to be one of this conference’s speakers and watch over 1,600 people respond to repent of their sins.

Thank you,
for your continued prayers and support for what God is doing in Russia!

*I want to give a special shout out to Bob Rhoden, Buzz Underill, David Byker, Robert Saunders and Murray Cornelius for their great participation in the conference!

What a success the whole thing was!

**SOME PICTURES**

 

(Dr. George Wood and Pastor Edward Grabovenko)

Deciding In The Cross Roads Of A Decision

  Hard decisions are usually the ones with the most critical outcome.

      -They require prayer, focus and wisdom.

Have you ever made a decision based off of your emotion?

I know I have, but it’s definitely of the most dangerous things we can do.

• Not everything that IS bad for you FEELS bad.

-And because of that, it can be hard to say no to our flesh when it really wants something.

Although we know that in the long run it would be best for us, the “now” tends to cry out so loud that the future is usually drowned out in the matters of our thought life.

A lot of good decision may not be easy, but they can end up benefiting your life more than you’ll ever know!

Sometimes decisions require you to act fast, and when that happens just consult the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. But when the matter isn’t so urgent and you have more time, don’t hurry to a conclusion, but take some time and really pray and seek God.

 TODAY:

Make your decision off of what the right thing is to do,

not your emotions!

JESUS IN ME

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

-Galatians 2:20

The life that we now live, is no longer based off the physical senses of what we hear, see and touch, but it is lived in faith.

Our old ways and nature of doing things have been nailed to the cross, and we are free to live unto God who loves us!

When we devote ourselves to Christ, it changes all the priorities in our lives.

We no longer put ourselves first, but we put Him first!

  That means His will.
                       His heart.
                       His interests.
                       His commandments.

                            All that He is, and all that He entails.

                           Think about that for a moment……..

                           ‘It is no longer I who lives, but Christ.’ 

The only way we could ever let God live through us, is by faith, because without it we would never follow Him when He leads us into new waters and territories we’ve never been to before.

• We have to trust God in order to live by faith, and that trust is only cultivated out of a relationship and friendship with Him.

Friendship brings comfort and trust. So you know you can rest easy in Him because He is the one on the inside of your in your spirit and directs you along the way of everything.

PACK THE BAGS OF GUILT,
AND SEND IT ON ITS WAY!

“There is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh but after the dictates of the Spirit.”

–ROMANS 8:1

Guilt and condemnation is usually mistaken by people as God trying to make them feel bad for what they’ve done. A sort of punishment I guess you could say. 

But God never condemns, He encourages!

• He encourages you that even when you fall and make mistakes, to get back up again, ask for forgiveness and keep on truckin’.

Satan is the one who loves to makes us feel bad about ourselves.

"He never tells us how far we have come, but rather, he constantly reminds us of how far we still have to go."

• None of us has arrived at the state of perfection. We cannot perfect ourselves to a state of holiness -only Jesus can do that!

The Bible teaches us that we have total freedom from sin and guilt by the blood of Christ.

                            -Because either He did the job at the cross completely, or He didn’t…. but the good news is that He did!!

There is nothing we can add or take away from what He’s already done.

TODAY:

Let the representative blood of Jesus do its job!

All you have to do is receive the forgiveness that Jesus died to give you by asking for it!

WHO DO YOU TALK MORE ABOUT?

“Looking away from all that will distract, to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith” –Hebrews 12:2

Who do you spend more time conversing about?

Your problem, or your God?

The devil loves for us to sit around and think and worry about our problems. He wants us to spend all of our time and energy talking about it and trying our best to reason it out.

-because when we do, we get weary and upset and end up getting our eyes off of the Lord.

But God wants us to spend that time that we would worrying,with Him instead, reminding ourselves of His faithfulness and spending it in the Word!

• You have to keep your heart set on Jesus and allow yourself to trust in Him, because otherwise its easy to get confused and frustrated by any issue.

No problem has power of us, but if we dwell on it, we can easily magnify it above God in our own minds.

The more attention we give it and the more we feed it with our thoughts and fears- it grows!

TODAY:

Forget about your problem.

Hang out with God instead, and spend your time fellowshipping with Him rather than dwell on your trouble!

“Without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must believe that God exists and that He is a rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him.”  -Hebrews 11:6

Have you ever gone looking for something.....and never found it?

I think we can answer yes to the question somehow or another!

But what’s so great about God, is that He has told us we’ll never have that problem when it comes to Him.

He has said that He is a REWARDER of those who come after Him, and has promised that when you do seek Him, you will find Him.

God isn’t hiding from us by any means,
but I believe that He wants to be the desire of our hearts.

He wants us to see Him being worthy or pursuit….
just like He pursued us out of love.

• When you truly find God and invited Him into your heart, you find all that He is, and all that comes along with Him.

-Love, Joy, Peace, Sound Mind, Creativity, Hope, Light, Life and so much more. We become partakers of the nature of God. (2 Peter 1:3,4)

TODAY:

Pursue God and He will reward you with all that He is!

PUT IT BEHIND YOU

“….forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”

Philippians 3:13

I love how God has divided up the days and nights. It makes me feel like no matter how difficult or challenging a specific day may be, the breaking of dawn always brings new hope.

God’s mercy is new every morning. (Lam 3:22,23)

Each day we can find a fresh place to begin.

There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.

God wants us to regularly put the past behind us and find a place of “new beginnings.”

You may be hurting from an emotional wound. The way to put the past behind is to forgive the person who hurt you. Forgiveness is always involved in putting the past behind.

• God has new things on the horizon of your life, but you will never see them if you live in and relive the past.

Thinking and talking about the past only keeps you trapped in it.

REMEMBER:

Every day is a new day.

Don’t waste today by living in yesterday!

IT’S ALL ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE

“You have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power & authority.” 
-2 Colossians 2:10

One of the most liberating phrases in the entire Bible is “In Christ”

It means that our life is lived not just with His help, but together with Him, IN Him.

Everything we are and need is found ‘in Jesus,’ In Him we are redeemed. In Him we are complete. Our wisdom, strength, peace, and hope are in Him. Our everything is in Him!

Many believers live a life that is too hard, because they try to take it all on themselves, instead of living life through God.

They have an identity crisis because they simply don’t know that they are supposed to be “in Christ.”

"For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.” –Acts 17:28

Begin to confess and believe your place “in Him,” and your feelings and situations will catch up later.

SAY THIS:

“Because I am ‘in Christ,’ I am a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17