“Where you’re going might not be what you were made for.” Anonymous eXtreme Tour artist

This same person wrote: “Why compromise for less than God’s best?/Just do what you do and don’t tell others./What you were made for is so much better than where you’re headed./Today is another opportunity to get it right.”

The moment you placed your faith in Jesus, the Father had a divine plan for your life (Eph. 2:10), which will include struggles and difficult times. Jesus’ life is our example.

The Father’s direction, however, will take us in the only direction that brings fulfillment now with lasting eternal effects. Any other direction, though noble and good, will never fulfill us the way the Father’s direction will.

Are you telling the Father your direction and asking Him to bless it? Getting your direction from others, even “godly” people? It doesn’t work that way.

Follow Jesus’ example. He listened to the Father and did what His Father said to do, even when His buddies rebuked Him for doing it!

Feeling frustrated? It may be that you are going in a direction for which you were not made. Maybe it’s time to slow down and lay out your direction before the Father and let Him tweak or change it completely.

Sound scary? What other option do you have if you want the Father’s best for your time here on earth?

It’s time to trust and put into action going His direction, the one He made you for. And guess what, each day is another day to get it right!

Tell people they are victims and they’ll act like victims.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a huge statement in both the seen and unseen world.

It told the unseen world they are delusional to think that they can ultimately win the war for this planet. Jesus took away their ultimate tool – the fear of death and the unknown of what’s on the other side of this plane of existence.

Jesus as God entered the world like all humans do – conception and birth. He grew into adulthood. Fulfilled His Father given purpose (Jn. 3:16). Was murdered on Passover; and then, rose again on the Feast of Firstfruits or Resurrection Day.

This is crucial. He died physically and came back to life physically, scars and all. He is alive and victorious. We now have physical and historical proof that there is life after death due to Jesus’ victory over death. The unseen world is defeated, though still delusional.

His resurrection also affects the seen world. His resurrection and life can bring dead marriages back to life. Give dead-end jobs purpose. Breathe life back into deflated dreams. And, bring hope where there is none.

The words you tell yourself each day have a huge impact on your attitude and your choices. You are not a victim!! Christ is alive and so are you! Jesus is victorious and so are you!

So start waking up each day with a victorious attitude. You can win today through the position you hold as God’s child due to Jesus’ victory over the grave. You can win today through resurrection power due to God living inside you. You can defeat the enemies in both the unseen and seen realms of life.

You are a victorious child of God. Think and act like it…today!

We ask for a map to deal with life. Jesus, instead, gives us a compass and says to follow Him.

Are you seeing a sunset or sunrise? It depends on what coast you’re on, west or east, and what time of day it is. 

I was looking at a sunset that confused me. I was on the west coast of the country and looking at water, which I thought was an ocean. 

I pulled out my compass to discover I was facing east! I was so disorientated. There was no way I could be facing east, but I was.

There are times when life disorients us. We have difficulties knowing whether we’re coming or going. This is why truth is so important. The compass revealed truth whether I believed it or not. I had to change to it, not it to me.

We live in a time that wants to change the truth/compass. If you let them win, you lose. 

Jesus is the truth that gives us purpose and direction. Stay in the Word and listen to and then follow Jesus practicing the truth in your daily choices. 

Enjoy the sunrises and sunsets of life! Jesus made them. 

It’s better to wait on God’s timing to pull everything together than to rush ahead where everything falls apart.  

This is the Pool of Siloam where the blind man washed away the mud Jesus put on his eyes in order to regain his sight.

All of what you currently see was covered by layers and layers of dirt and debris when I first came here in 1999.

Now, after 12 years of litigation in the Israeli Supreme Court, Israel has finally been able to lease the entire pool area from the Greek Orthodox Church for the next 198 years.

Every year I came back over the past 24 years, though, I was able to see more of the Bible come alive through new finds in this area. Think about that for a second.

Archeologists could have been sitting idly by waiting to have the entire area. Instead, they’ve been excavating what they could, while waiting on what they couldn’t.

The Father will accomplish His purposes in your life in His timing. The question is, “Are you doing what you can today in preparation for what He has for you tomorrow?”

It’s been said, “A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think and then happen much faster than you thought.”

Let Jesus remove useless dirt and debris from your life today in order to prepare you for what He has in store for you tomorrow.

Storms come to drive us to the only true protective shelter – God.

This pictures a torn down fortress built by Solomon at Arad in the Negev, most often called his southern fortress.

Problem, this fortress didn’t last any longer than the protective fortress David built around Jerusalem. Why? Solomon, through his numerous wives, introduced idol worship into both cities.

Solomon built a miniature temple replica in Arad, complete with a sacrifice altar. The people could worship God here in Arad, even though God instructed the Israelites to only sacrifice in Jerusalem. Whatever was easiest and felt good could be worshipped.

There is only one way to worship the Father if you want sustained victory; and that, is His way. Jesus reiterated this when He said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one gets to the Father except through Me.”

Scripture talks about God being our fortress, our protection against life’s storms (Ps. 18:2). Yet, Paul talks about fortresses we build in our minds (2 Cor. 10:4-5). The rationalizations, justifications and arguments we use to justify what we want to do when we want to do it. In other words, whatever is easiest and pleasurable to us. Sound familiar?

These strongholds, just like the one pictured, will not last any more than David and Solomon’s fortress walls. Only worshiping God through obedience creates a stronghold that can last against any siege or siege engine for God is the only one who can truly protect us.

It’s time to deal with your man-made ineffective fortresses. Today, let the Spirit show you the lies you are relying upon in order to refortify yourself for the coming storms.