Charisma Magazine

My husband and I are privileged to lead a church that has experienced revival many times down through the years. We have seen thousands changed by the power of God. But I have discovered from personal experience that revival does not begin in the church; it starts in the depths of our hearts.

In a marriage, finances are often seen as a place where you can win or lose. Many women spend a great deal of time trying to wield the upper hand in this area because they don't understand their husband's financial philosophy and don't appreciate the way he manages money.

Whether you see your husband as a cheapskate or a spendthrift, you may think it seems logical to counter his approach in order to balance him out. If you decide to beat the cheapskate by talking him into buying something or to conquer the spendthrift by nagging him into saving, your celebration is likely to be both lonely and brief.

During times of discouragement, if answers to prayer are long in coming or not what we had expected, we can begin to lose hope and even doubt that God will answer our prayers. To help us through, God sometimes encourages us by dreams or visions.

He did this for me and my husband shortly after I gave birth to a son with a facial birth defect. A woman who lived 45 miles from our home had a vision of a baby with socks on his hands and feet. She began to pray for the baby even though she did not understand the vision.

Some say Joel Osteen's sermons are too soft and that he doesn't address the reality of sin. But Osteen, pastor of the more than 30,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston, says he will remain true to the message of hope given to him for this generation. He is taking his ministry to the streets with upcoming stadium events where he will inspire attendees and lead them to Jesus. To discover why he's unwilling to change his compassionate approach to reaching others, listen to the podcast below.

Let no woman dream that the question of what career to pursue will ever be adequately answered except by her own heart. No time is more uselessly employed than in listening to advice on this subject. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared, “The soul’s emphasis is always right,” and I would add that the emphasis of any soul, the decision of any mind except one’s own is far more likely to work disaster than to bring satisfaction or success.