Charisma Magazine

By John Eckhardt | Charisma House | softcover | 240 pages | $14.99

John Eckhardt, the overseer of Chicago-based Crusaders Ministries, sees a church lacking fire and power, which he attributes to a lack of prophetic gifts operating in many congregations. Aiming this book at church leaders, Eckhardt spends much of his time building a strong case for prophecy, the spiritual gift Paul said to desire more than tongues.

Well, today is the first day of the rest of your life, right? Let's invest the remainder wisely.

If you are reading these words, know this, we have already been, and will continue to be praying for you, our readers. No hollow promises or lip service. No good intentions unfulfilled. You can absolutely count on it.

Now let's talk about what I want you to consider right this minute. But do me a favor, in the busyness of your day, please find a way to engage your heart, otherwise, with your mind alone, you will miss what I am saying - guaranteed. Reading this would then just be another mental exercise, part of the blur of another seemingly average day filled with too much information. Hearts engage!

You have deep within you a desire to make a difference - a positive, meaningful impact with your life - to matter - because God put it there. And you do matter, simply because God loves you and created you. He has plans, great plans for you. Even if you don't fulfill them you are still precious to Him. Unfortunately, though, most of us find it far trickier than God ever intended to recognize His specific plans for our lives. There are many reasons for this, but at the top of the list is bad doctrine from popular culture and even from many Christian leaders, that overly influence our thinking.

"Vision" is often made into this well meaning but me-centric kind of an exercise. We are made to believe that we can sit down when we feel like it and then we can toss out a few prayers and we write down our vision and goals systematically, try to be a good Christian along the way and all is well. This stinks because part of that is helpful, but part is mixed with poison that produces serious problems in our lives.

Think back for a moment. Regardless of your particular childhood, the ‘ideal' household handled things something like this. Mom and Dad would sit down with little Johnny at some point and say "Johnny, don't let anyone tell you any different. You can do anything you put your mind to." And wow did that help Johnny, for real. It seemed to brighten up his future so much. It freed him to think bigger thoughts and dream bigger dreams which are both great. He wasn't going to be held back from accomplishing significant things like so many others. This is a sincere desire to help Johnny.

But this is deadly, half-baked thinking. The subtle deception woven into this well-traveled philosophy leaves out that the Bible tells us:

Eph. 2:10 "We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." (NIV)

So while it's possible to decide to do whatever you want and ask God to bless it, that leaves out the other important part - the fact that God has prepared some things in advance for you to do. Many sincere Christians waste so much time and energy on ‘other' works and asking God to bless those (and He does to a point) - it is truly staggering.

There is no place for you and me like the will of God.

Now please don't be offended when I tell you that we do this with our kids, because we are all childlike still, at least hopefully in our walk of faith with God. One of our family values, which we stress in our regular family meetings, is that Hubbells have B.I.G. Dreams. But we ain't talkin' about the kind we so often hear about in our culture and even in many churches, yet they are incredible dreams. Here is the nature of B.I.G. Dreams:

B - Beyond Human Ability

I - Inspired by God

G - Generation Serving [the kind that when we complete them it may be said of us "_________(your name) fulfilled the purpose of God in his or her generation"] -just as it was said of David.

Rick Hubbell is a writer, speaker & seasoned consultant who knows how to build ministries and also businesses built on God-inspired ideas. A former full-time pastor, he is committed to the role of local church and also deeply involved in the marketplace - a bridge-builder between the two. His passion is for the Kingdom of God and its King. Rick's company, Ti-MC (The Innovative Marketplace Christian) provides concrete "how to" information for Kingdom-minded professionals. Rick lives with his wife and 3 children in Idaho. To contact him for speaking or consulting: e: rickh@ti-mc.com, p: 408-828-7430, visit his blog: www.ti-mc.com/blog.

Patients often ask me if God wants humans to be vegetarians. The answer is yes and no. Originally, vegetarianism was His design for all people and animals (see Gen. 1:29-30). That plan changed when the Lord said to Noah: " 'Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things,

even as the green herbs' " (9:3, NKJV). The only exception was this: " 'But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood' " (v. 4).

Do you know how much God really loves you? Do you think you have to earn God’s love? Some people think so. But God’s love was never based on our behavior. His love is based on His own nature. God is love. As love, God loves us. How much does God love us? He loved us enough to give His Son to die that we could live. How much does God really love you? God is so in love with you that He spared no expense to show you how much. How much does He love you? He loves you as much as He loves Jesus (see John 17:20-23). Wow!

In humility of mind, realizing that God is truth, you must accept what He says. Don’t fight it. Don’t debate it. In loving reverence to Him, accept it. Worship Him. He is indeed worthy. Seeing that the Father loves us so, should we not respond to Him in humbleness of mind, realizing that He invites us to walk with Him because He really wants us to? He wants to share His life with us and wants us to share our lives with Him. Let us walk with Him and walk closely to Him.

The utmost danger to the person who desires a close and intimate walk with the Lord is pride. God does not walk with the proud, but with the lowly of heart. Because pride is such an enemy to our relationship with God, we must by all means eradicate it from our hearts and minds, for we dare not lose the touch of God due to its unholy presence. Yes, beloved, pride is unholy.

But what is pride? How can we recognize it in ourselves and in others that we may be cleansed of it, avoid it and aim to help others do the same? Permit me to say that pride has infiltrated itself into every area of our existence. Pride is not a respecter of persons. It will cause anyone to fall and be destroyed who does not master it and demand of himself or herself the attitude of true greatness and strength, which is true humility of heart, the fruit of love.

There are those who will display attitudes of so-called humility by doing external things so that people may think they are humble. Our Lord spoke of this manner of people and called them hypocrites, that is, pretenders (see Matt. 6:1-18). True humility is a condition of the heart toward God and others and not merely an external façade.

Pride is an attitude that is displayed by various characteristics, such as independence (which seeks to do things alone, without the assistance of God or others), ingratitude, arrogance, haughtiness, intolerance of others, heady, high-mindedness, lack of concern for the welfare of others and unteachability.

Please do not think that this is only the condition of a person that does not know God, for there are some that name the name of Christ and still refuse to come under His Lordship by humble obedience to His will. They believe that when one tries to share with them the importance of obedience to the written Word of God, which is the perfect law of liberty, that particular individual is trying to bring them into bondage. Outside the boundary of God’s Word, you are in bondage. You can be in bondage to yourself. You can be full of yourself. This is pride. God’s Word is the truth that makes us free (see John 8:32).

Pride is also shown through ingratitude. We cannot do without Him. Let Him take from us what He has and is giving to us and we would cease to exist. May we learn to show gratitude to God the Father and all those who have helped us along the way.

A prideful person is an arrogant person who feels superior and speaks down to others. The truly humble person never looks down on people and aims to see people as the Father sees them.

Perhaps one of the greatest characteristics of the proud is that of an unteachable spirit. The ability to be and remain teachable is a mark of the humble soul. To be teachable means we listen with the intention of gaining wisdom and knowledge and then practice that which we are taught.

The Father has set up the body of Christ in such a way that makes us dependent not only on Him, but also upon one another (see 1 Cor. 12:13-25). God has called, anointed and empowered every one of His holy people so we can learn from one another and grow into perfection in Christ Jesus. This will not happen unless we see our need for one another. I need you and you need me in Christ Jesus.

The proud do not acknowledge this. They think that they are always right and believe they know everything. Sadly, there are those in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ who are of this mindset. But, this kind of attitude is wrong. Pride is evil. We need God, and we need one another. If we want to live a passionate life for Christ we must accept this truth and eradicate pride from our lives.

Adapted from Humility and the Honor of God by Sheldon Newton, copyright 2008, published by Creation House. In this book the author breathes new life into the topic of humility and helps you identify complacency, pride and even a false sense of humility so that you can live a transparent and passionate life for Christ.

When recording artist Norman Hutchins sensed God calling him to pray every day at 5 a.m. in early 2006, he didn't know why. But when complications from a delicate eye surgery left him completely blind that same year, he soon discovered the answer.

"The Lord said, ‘Norman, no matter how gifted and talented and anointed you may be, you are no good to Me if you don't take care of you.'"

Hutchins, 46, is referring to his battle with diabetes, a disease he was diagnosed with years ago. The singer said for six months he depended on his wife, Karen, and others to escort him to his pulpit where he preached every Sunday during the ordeal. He says loosing his sight forced him to repent for not taking care of the body God gave him.

At this point in history believers are caught in a tug of war between a demonically inspired blanket of fear designed to neutralize us on the one hand, and the time of our lives in joy and power on the other. Negative prophetic words fail to address the real issues and actually weaken us when we need to be strengthened. Now is the time for us to rise. Now is the time of the fulfillment of promise. Now is the time for our destiny and purpose to become real.

We must pray that our new president will honor the God of our fathers and seek counsel from His prophets.

The hearts of millions of Americans were stirred on Tuesday as we watched Barack Obama place his hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and swear to uphold his duties as president. The cynicism and divisiveness of politics gave way to civility for a few moments as Obama stood on that massive stage in front of the Capitol and spoke of a “new era of responsibility” that he hopes to initiate.