When faced with his first challenge inside the Promised Land, Joshua went straight to God instead of trusting in his experience. He knew God had told him to take the land, but it was the “how” that Joshua needed help with.

God instructed Joshua to command his army to march around the city once a day for exactly 6 days. On the 7th day, they were to march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing their trumpets on the last lap. When Joshua’s army gave a shout of victory, that was God’s cue to take down the walls of Jericho. No architects, no city planning committee, no permits and no heavy equipment needed. Joshua and his army were to simply obey, even when it didn’t make sense, and God would do the rest.

Sometimes the only thing standing between you and the fulfillment of God’s promise is a simple act of obedience. God gives you something simple to do in order to test your obedience and show you His glory as you move forward together, step by step toward the promise. The wisdom of God will at times challenge your logical reasoning, but like Joshua, when you choose to simply trust God and obey, you will see Him move in a powerful way.

Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city. Joshua 6:16

Merry Christmas and a Blessed and Prosperous 2009 to you and your family!

Sarah and Abraham, in an attempt to help God (and themselves), came up with their own plan to have the promised child. It was not until they placed their trust in God, waited with patience and entered into His rest that they obtained the promise. It was only in God’s strength and ability that they received Isaac, the promised child.

Based on Sarah and Abraham’s experience, you too can choose rest or restlessness. One results in problems, the other in promise. In reality, it is God’s job to fulfill the promise. Your part is simply to trust and obey, taking steps as He leads and directs you along the way. If you find yourself busy scheming with plans and ideas and lacking peace and patience to see the promise fulfilled, it’s time to place yourself and the promise at the cross once again.

Keep watching, keep listening and keep obeying God’s direction. As He did with the Israelites, He will lead you to the promise by the shortest route you’ll allow Him to take you. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (Hebrews 4:11).

Faithful is He who called you and He will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

What Does It Really Mean to Worship God?

Some people believe that if you’re reading your Bible every day, praying and being a witness for Christ wherever you go, you have all the successful ingredients for the Christian life. But without the kind of worship God truly seeks, we are missing the opportunity to know God on a deeper level and be sensitive to His leading in our everyday lives.

What Does Worship Mean to God?

Jesus said that the Father was seeking the kind of worshipper that would worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:21-24). That kind of deep, intimate worship can only come by extended time in His presence. Thanksgiving takes you through the gates, praise takes you only to the outer courts, but worship brings you straight into the Throne Room of God. The Father seeks such ones that worship Him. He longs for us to be with Him in this way.

How Do You Worship?

There will be days you don’t feel like worshipping God. Worship is a sacrificial act. The woman who wept at Jesus’ feet didn’t sing of her love for Him, she didn’t even say a word, but with a humble heart, she simply laid herself at the feet of Jesus as her personal expression of worship (Luke 7:36-48). Have you set aside a daily time to worship God? If you will take time (or rather give your time) for daily worship, your relationship with God will go to a new level of intimacy that you never thought possible.

Even when a believer sins, 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sin, God is just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we are free to come before God with boldness and assurance that He will hear our prayers.

Righteousness with God gives us the authority not only to ask Him for what we need, but to go beyond ourselves and see His will done on earth as it is in heaven. Yet without a Biblical understanding of righteousness, you will tremble in the face of adversity and be pulled under by the tide of circumstances.

Confidence and assurance that you are in right standing with God gives you the kind of authority that causes demons to tremble and mountains to move in ways you’ve never seen before. So by God’s grace, take the authority He has given you and impact your world the same way the average believer did in the Book of Acts. Because with God, all things are possible!

Unity in the Church is as critical today as it was on the Day of Pentecost. Yet, contrary to popular belief, unity does not mean compromise. We don’t need to compromise our values and convictions for the sake of unity, but for God’s greater purpose, we join together in agreement on the unshakeable essentials.

While there will always be disagreement on the non-essentials of our faith, choosing to focus on the big picture brings us into alignment with God’s will for unity in the Body of Christ. Only then will we see His promises fulfilled in our lives, in His Church and in the world He loved so much He sent His only Son to die for.

God is already doing great things around the world in these last days. It takes maturity on the our part to selflessly put aside our own agendas for the sake of unity. Where there is division, strife and lack of unity, there is always a selfish agenda at work behind the scenes.

In John 17, Jesus prayed not once but three times for unity among believers. He wanted the life and love of His Church to exemplify the perfect unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

An environment of pure, undefiled love for one another is the perfect setting for God’s blessings to flow. In fact, the Word says that unity commands a blessing! I pray that the world might see His Church in perfect unity, glorifying the name of Jesus throughout all the earth.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! …For there God commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. (Psalm 133)

In chapter one, James encourages all of us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Then, in chapter 3, he instructs us that “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”

But there is a wisdom that is not of God, one that we see at work in the world around us. This kind of wisdom is self-seeking, and marked by envy, strife and division. It is based on selfish motives to satisfy the desires of the flesh, rather than seeking the best interest of others. Nothing positive can result from this kind of wisdom because it is completely self-centred.

When our motives are unselfish and we seek the wisdom that comes from above, we will reap a harvest that yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness, resulting in God’s best for everyone involved.

Purify my heart
Let me be as gold and precious silver
Purify my heart_Let me be as gold, pure gold
Refiner’s fire
My heart’s one desire is to be holy
Set apart for You Lord
I choose to be holy
Set apart for You my Master
Ready to do Your will

I sang that song as a heartfelt prayer countless times over the years and as a result, I’ve been through more fire than the average fireman. While I am thankful for the refining work of the fire and the fruit that has come of it, I think it is better to pray, “Your will be done.” That way, the trials, tribulations and persecutions are within His perfect will, rather than asking for extra helpings.

As believers - especially those who answer the call to preach the Gospel, we need not ask - we will go through the Refiner’s Fire. There is simply no avoiding it in order for there to be more of Him and less of us - it is the fire that burns away all that is not pure within us until all that remains is pure gold…

While you’re waiting on God, many things are happening. You’re praying, you’re watching, you’re listening, you’re being stretched and strengthened in your faith as you expect great things from God. There will even be times when you’re tempted to give up on the promise. Disappointment and discouragement will come, but the prophet Habukkuk encourages us, “though the vision tarries, wait for it, for it will surely come.”

Growing in intimacy with your Father in Heaven is inevitable as you continue in prayer, thanking your Father and rejoicing in the fact that not one of His promises has ever failed. You can be vulnerable with Him and trust that He knows what He is doing, no matter how your circumstances appear.

While you’re waiting on God, allow Him to do a work in your heart. He may show you things that need to be changed, renewed, removed or replaced with something better. When you finally get what you’ve been waiting for, you won’t be the same person that you were at the beginning. Though the wilderness can be hard to bear for a time and a season, it will all be forgotten when His promise is fulfilled.