Igniting Revival In You Life by Doug Addison

Igniting Revival in Your Life God is bringing a new movement to the earth and many prophets, including myself, are saying this is going to be the biggest revival in history! But before we can see a revival of this magnitude in the world, we need to experience a personal revival in our own lives. It starts by overcoming the things that have overcome us. If you have felt held down or held back, it's time for breakthrough in your own life! 1. Transform Your Thoughts to Transform Your Life Negative forces want you to believe bad things about yourself, such as: "I'm depressed. I'm worthless. I can't change. I'm stupid. I'm ugly. I'm such a failure"...the list could go on and on. But your negative thoughts are not who you really are. It is important to realize that your thoughts, feelings and behaviors are situational and can be changed. "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he..." (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV) Many of the thoughts and behaviors we battle daily have a root cause—something we have done, knowingly or unknowingly, or things that were done to us. Healing these emotional wounds can be a process, but there are new approaches that can dramatically cut down your healing and recovery time. If you commit yourself to the process, you can overcome them. It is part of your destiny to find healing and live a life of fullness. 2. Move from Judging Others into Blessing Others Sometimes judging others can hold us back from experiencing the breakthrough and personal revival we need in our lives. As we move from judging into blessing, we open the heavens over our lives to receive a full measure of revelation. This lifestyle enables you to hear God accurately and consistently. It is a strategy God has given me, and over the years I have lived this lifestyle of blessing and love. Check your own words as you go about your day. If you mess up, recognize it quickly and move on. We get lots of chances to start over and do it right the next time. Ask God to bless your mouth and to help you speak only life-giving words. Here's a prayer that I use: "If my tongue has cursed me, knowingly or unknowingly, I ask forgiveness." 3. Believe God Wants to Bless You with More than You can Imagine God has called you to something, even if it seems like your life has been exactly the opposite. In order for you to understand what God has called you to, you first have to believe that God wants to visit you. He wants to bring His loving presence and He wants to encourage you. The key to all of this is to not get disappointed or feel like you're less thanbecause God didn't move in your life the way you expected Him to. 4. Don't Get Discouraged! Release any expectations of what might happen or should happen. It would be good to renounce anything in the past that has wounded you. It's so important to clear the air right now. 5. Repent of any Unforgiveness You Have Towards Others If you do this, you're going to clear the spiritual atmosphere and be more able to hear God's voice clearly. We're going to see great things happen over the next few months. Get your hopes up! (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.) Doug Addison InLight Connection

The King Who Is Always With You by Matthew Guillot BF Prayer Team Leader

Have you ever superimposed your view of a worldly king to Jesus when relating to Him?  I know I have and often times without even realizing that I did.   Our paradigm of who Jesus is during our greatest weaknesses and struggles will often reveal how much of a worldly paradigm we have superimposed over Him as an authority figure in our life.  Do you see yourself walking on eggshells when you think of Him as your authority figure or King?  Do you see Him angry and displeased with you because of sin in your life?  Let's look at some passages out of scripture to gain some insight on how God sees you during your struggles. In Romans chapter 5 verse 8, the apostle Paul writes: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us In Isaiah chapter 53 verse 4, Isaiah prophesied about Jesus saying: Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Jesus actually carried our griefs and sorrows and took on the full weight and intensity of emotion that came with it.  In Hebrews 4:15-16(emphasis mine) the writer explains: For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus was tempted in every way we are tempted.  As the passage in Hebrews says, Jesus can actually sympathize or relate to our weaknesses and temptations.  He is not angry or displeased and actually encourages us to draw near to Him(His throne of Grace), in our time of need to receive Mercy and find the Grace He reserved for us in the moment.  In fact, Jesus actually increases the Grace in our lives as we need it as shown in Romans 5:20-21: The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Since God is the giver and distributor of Grace, this should cause us to think about the intentions of God towards those stuck in sin.  What does it say about God, that He would increase the Grace He is giving out when sin is increasing?   The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:   And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. The apostle Paul explains to us that God's power is perfected in weakness, and that he (Paul) is actually happy about (boastful) about his weakness.  Paul is obviously not endorsing that we feed into or off of our weaknesses.  He is trying to explain that it doesn't have to be a source of discouragement for us because God wants to fill in the gaps in our life with His overly-sufficient power.  This is good news!  This means God isn't in the least hindered or discouraged by our weaknesses.  This is reason enough to change the way we see and deal with our weaknesses.  Let God fully into these places of weakness in your life and watch God's power be perfected in your life to bring the Kingdom every where you go. If you are having trouble hearing God, do not be discouraged. A common pattern, that I have fallen into too many times, is to become discouraged or even upset with God I haven't seen an answer to my prayer.  The better way that I have learned is to re-evaluate what I am praying or the question I am asking Him.  God is not One who will allow Himself to be manipulated.  Am I asking Him for something out of my pain?  Do I expect Him to answer in the box I created for Him (my expectations of how God needs to answer my prayer)?  Do I need to be fixed inside before I can have relationship with Him?  Do I need to feel better, happy, or confident independent of Him?  I have fallen into these traps way too often.   I have learned that the goal of any interaction with God should be to cultivate intimacy with Him without any other agenda.  Since God will not manipulate you into coming closer, He will often speak silently to draw those who are hungry to be with Him.  With all of this being said, the compulsion will be to go into our brains and over-analyze or over-evaluate how we are going to change ourselves to think differently.  However, the real need is for us to silence our minds from any and all distractions and simply just be with Him.  As explained above, He is not waiting for you to get your act together.  He wants you to draw near to Him in your time of need and let Him be your help and comforter.  He loves you and simply just wants to be with you, no matter where you are in life.                                                             With heartfelt blessings and love,                                                                                                               Matthew

Trusting God's Heart Over Our Circumstances by Pastor Susan Fochler

When my husband, Russ, suddenly and unexpectedly became critically ill 7 years ago, every day for the next 64 days brought a storm of constant change.  He started out very sick, but then got much, much worse, and stayed that way for weeks.  Complications came like waves.  Finally one day I was told by the Intensive Care doctor that I needed a miracle…there was no more hope from a medical standpoint.  I can still clearly recall that moment; my thoughts immediately  zoomed in on how grateful I was to know the church was even then praying for Russ’s miracle.  Trusting God’s Heart, not His Hands I kept thinking, “if only I know how long this is going to last, I can do this”.  But I didn’t know, and no one could tell me,.  My medically trained brain tried so hard to figure everything out, while my heart fought to dial down and just be with Russ.  It was a journey learning how to not let the tubes and alarms and ventilator sounds distract me from simply being embraced by God’s love.  I had to stop listening to the whirlwind of each day and intentionally focus on His presence.  I needed to rest my heart in God’s heart, and not in what I believed He was doing.  It is a subtle but very real difference.   God’s Love Does Not Fail As I travelled back and forth from the hospital every day I listened to a Jesus Culture song: One Thing Remains.  The words spoke directly and specifically into my situation: No matter what is going on, no matter how tumultuous or uncertain the circumstance, Gods love will not fail.   I clung to those words.  And over time, as my heart surrendered it’s need to predict how this thing was going to go, I was able to relax and receive His love in a new way. Higher than the mountains that I face Stronger than the power of the grave Constant through the trial and the change One thing remains  This one thing remains Your love never fails, and never gives up  It never runs out on me. His Love is Always Bigger Yet If you are going through something that is bigger than you are, remember, His love is bigger yet.  Our problems look impossible when we are looking at them.  But when we look up into His eyes, we will always see Him overshadowing anything that overshadows us.   I pray that we all, no matter what we are going through, would have the grace to look up-and keep looking up as we lean back into the safe, comforting and ever-present arms of our Loving Savior.  That we would know beyond any doubt that He understands what we are going through more than we do.  We can trust His goodness and how He is going to accomplish the victory we need.  Every time.                                                                                          With much love,                                                                                                              Susan