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Do you understand that everyone has a sense of presence? You notice a certain atmosphere when you enter a room full of people and if you are already there you notice changes when others enter. Have you found that some people have the effect of overwhelming domination, being ‘full of themselves’ and others bring an appealing sense of acceptance and love? You can be aware of this even before anything is spoken. This presence is a part of a person that accompanies their body. Do you understand that I also have a presence with you? I promised to be with you always, but I want you to actively seek and cultivate a sense of my presence. 

“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself” (1 Corinthians 14:4). Dr. Carl Peterson, M.D. conducted a study at ORU in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Being a brain specialist, he was doing research on the relationship between the brain and praying or speaking in tongues. He found that as we pray in the Spirit or worship in the Spirit (our heavenly language), the brain releases 2 chemical secretions that are directed into our immune systems giving a 35 to 40 percent boost to the immune system. This promotes healing within our bodies. Amazingly, this secretion is triggered from a part of the brain that has no other apparent activity in humans and is only activated by our Spirit-led prayer and worship!

Perfect love doesn’t keep reminding you of its expectations.

So God even when we’re having a wonderful back and forward conversation with you, we can still be miles from what you want us to be doing in the big areas of our lives?

Yes Mark. That’s what I’m saying.

Do you normally think of a journey as a round trip, departing from home and returning there? If you change your permanent residence from one place to another you call it a move. Yet in a spiritual sense your journey with me is a one way trip. Do you find this unsettling, to know that you are passing this way but once, and will not return to those familiar things from the past? Do you recall my promise that I was going away to prepare a place for you, and would come back to receive you to myself? Those who have hope in the land of promise are willing to leave behind things that are familiar but inferior that they may press on to better things not yet revealed. 

We have learned in this blog that we must abide in kingdom emtions if we want to walk in kingdom power. Jesus moved by compassion healed (Matt. 14:14). All of life flows out of an intimate loving relationship with God and with others. Lyle Thomas, breaks the 36 "one another" commands in the New Testament down into 5 categories: honor, serve, encourage, build unity and don’t judge. As these five attitudes are expressed effectively from our hearts, kingdom power is released to heal and set others free (Isa. 61:1,3). 

This last February, I spent two awesome weeks in the Andaman Islands off the coast of India ministering to adults and children, leaders and everyday people, men and women, in city and country areas. It was amazing and historic! God moved in ways I had seen before, but also surprised me with new tests and new concepts at the same time. It was an incredibly full two weeks.

Do you prefer conversation or dialogue? You may consider these terms to be synonymous, but conversation can be light and superficial or while dialogue implies a deeper level of engagement. You can control a conversation and steer it in the way you want to go, but a dialogue has a life of its own that neither party has control of and to truly engage in it you must be willing to go where it leads, even in unexpected directions. Is this a scary prospect? Yet it is the way to explore new ground and grow, and those who value it will seek out others who also want to engage in it. Come and let us reason together. 

So I was sitting across the table from a good friend of mine at the local Bdub’s.  That’s Buffalo Wild Wings for those of you who aren’t down with the lingo.  It was probably a year or so after my wife Kara had confessed (read about that here) and already we were seeing God do some amazing things in our individual lives and marriage.

It’s quiet. It’s early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming. In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of the solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met. For the next twelve hours I will be

Do you enjoy travel for the sake of travel? I have called you to follow me, and so you are. I want you to enjoy the journey, but also to realize that it has a destination. For I have told you to seek my Kingdom which is above, a city whose builder and maker is God. So you are traveling and looking for something at the same time. As a result you appear to others to be on a wandering path. Yet I see the same path as the strait and narrow way that leads to life. Others may be on a path where the shortest distance is a straight line.