Blogs

Do you want to be popular? Who doesn’t? There is a universal human longing for acceptance and validation by attention. Yet does it matter to you whom you are popular with? Again for most people this is a serious consideration. Wouldn’t you prefer to be popular with those who are themselves popular, attractive, wealthy, articulate, and funny? Would you be just as content to be sought out by those lacking these qualities? Yet as you follow me you may find that the poor are drawn to you because they are attracted to my life in you. You have my promise that inasmuch as you have done this unto the least of these, you have ministered unto me, and if you minister to those who cannot repay, great will be your reward in heaven. 

David Rocha has a video below where you can watch him pray with people on the streets of LA to receive healing. And even though he is praying through an interpreter, people are getting healed! This is amazing and exciting. This is what is going to sweep America and the world and you can become a part of it.

You might ask, does it take a special background to make this happen? Well, David served a 5 1/2 year prison sentence, and took Christian Leadership University courses during two of those years. So I think the answer is all it really takes is for us to believe the Bible and get out there and start praying for miracles. Watch his video and see if you don't agree!

Have you heard it said that the death of a new idea is the statement, ‘we’ve never done it that way before’? You may have heard this applied to business and commerce. Do you think it applies to spiritual matter too? Yet your faith is eternal and based on unchanging principles. I am timeless and unchanging, but you have much to learn and grow. Do not look at the current rituals of your faith as the final authority. They are wineskins for wine, and new wine requires new wineskins. You need organization and structure, but these are a means to an end, and when you receive greater revelation about that end you should be ready to move on to forms suitable for it. 

You know that you are saved by grace through faith, not of works. Yet my word teaches you how to live and how to conduct yourself toward others. You are to be kind and generous and love your neighbor as yourself. How strong a correlation do you see between good behavior and professed belief? Do you know some believers who are poor examples and some with no profession who are thoughtful and kind? Perhaps you see some whose behavior is better than yours. Once you trust me for salvation there is no going back. Concerning your behavior there is only going forward. You are not called to judge people and assign them to eternal destinations. You can observe and emulate the best behavior you see, for in so doing you are following me. 

What do you think is the primary distinctive between one person and another? Isn’t it in the choices you make about how to spend your time? A journey is a series of steps leading to a destination. The cumulative effect of every course correction determines where you end up. In like manner your life is the cumulative effect of your choices about what to do. Good choices lead to more good alternatives and bad ones lead to fewer and worse. Don’t despair if you have made bad choices, for I came to offer redemption and make all things new. Still I want you to use every opportunity to redeem time for righteousness. 

I had the unexpected opportunity to pray with a co-worker who doesn't know the Lord the other day that was really great.  My partner and I had just dropped our patient off in the hospital when my partner noticed one of our co-workers laying in one of the rooms.

Do you find that some people are good listeners and some are good speakers and some are neither? You can tell when people disengage from you, when they aren’t interested, when they are distracted. You crave the validation that comes from someone being attentive to you. Don’t you find that I am the best listener when you come to me in prayer? I am interested and attentive to you and never distracted. Perhaps you only know this by faith but you can know it without doubt. Are you willing to reverse the roles? For if you are attentive to me you will find that I am the best speaker as well. You have my promise that my sheep hear my voice and I have much to reveal to you by my Spirit. 

Do you strive for maturity, that you may put away childish things? Yet my word says that unless you be converted and become as little children you shall not enter the Kingdom of God. So children must have some desirable traits to make them fit for the Kingdom. Since everyone starts as a child it is implied that everyone had them at birth. What are they and how are they lost? Children acknowledge their dependence on adults. Whom do adults acknowledge their dependence on? I know the proud afar off, but I give grace to those who come to me acknowledging childlike dependence on me. 

Happy November! I had an idea tonight that I thought would be fun. Would you like to join me? Click here: http://www.juliiles.com/2013/11/28-days-of-thankfulness.html (Or copy and paste into your browser)

My word teaches you to care for the widows and orphans. How many of these do you know and support? Do you think it is the job of the state welfare agencies to care for them? Do you know more single mothers than you do widows and orphans? You may argue that these and their children do not fit the strict definition of widows and orphans, and even that their situations came about because of the violation of my commandments. Does this make it easy for you to disregard or even judge them? But in some cases the women are blameless and the children did not select the conditions of their birth. Blessed are those who minister to those in need without judging how they came to be in need.