I have been blogging about breakthrough.  This past two weeks we are seeing much more progress on our financing than we have seen for quite a while.   I believe this is because so many of you are praying for breakthrough!  Your prayers are making a difference.  Keep praying!!

If you are going through adversity, God could be preparing you for breakthrough in some area of your life.  Your Breakdowns Can Precede Your Breakthroughs!

Sometimes your breakdowns become the seed for the beginning of your breakthroughs. The adversity becomes the advancement and preparation needed for your transformation. Without breakthroughs in revelation and passion for what you are about to do, anything can hinder you. All breakthroughs begin to shift your perceptions, and fuel your passionate resolve. You are now passionately empowered to take risks, jump over hurdles, and break through the walls that would otherwise stop you or slow you down.

I feel that the adversity we have faced as we worked through our entitlement process has prepared us for the needed breakthrough in the area of financing.   The opposition has only served to strengthen our resolve.   We are at the moment of breakthrough!  

Josh 1:9: Yes, be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (TLB)

What an incredible statement this is! Be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt. This is the statement God spoke to Joshua after the death of Moses. God was calling Joshua to be bold and strong and to enter the promises of God. Evidently, Joshua was walking in fear and doubt: fear of all the problems that were before him; fear and doubt of the battles that were ahead of him. Have you ever had fear, and then so much doubt that you could not make a simple decision? I think all of us have had this problem from time to time. Fear is the beginning of doubt, and doubt is the beginning of confusion. How can we conquer fear and doubt? What is required for breakthrough!

In the scripture above, God tells Joshua to “be” so he can “do”. We first must “be what we are to be” before we can “do what we need to do”.    There is no breakthrough without first being bold and strong, and then we can banish fear and doubt.

If I will allow it I will lose my hopes, my dreams, and my joy. They can be banished: they can be destroyed by two enemies called “fear” and “doubt”.  These enemies want to place me in a state of confusion, which would ultimately lead me into depression. 

To banish someone or something is to require them, by authority, to leave a country. This truth is unbelievable!  To be in agreement with fear and doubt is to speak death to our hopes and dreams. Instead of our hopes and dreams being “banished” from the country of our lives, we must banish fear and doubt from our borders.

We must be bold and strong. God is giving us revelation, and then permission, to do this. We are to walk in our authority to banish “fear” and “doubt” and say, “Be gone ‘fear’ and ‘doubt’ by the authority that has been given to me in the name of Jesus Christ.” Then, let’s use this same authority and say, “Hopes and dreams, be alive in my life. I refuse to be robbed of them. Fill the borders of my life from coast to coast: from the top of my head to the bottom of my soul.”

After Joshua banished fear and doubt, he was reminded that the Lord God was going to be with him wherever he went. Yes, Joshua was going into the land that God had promised, but he did not have to go before God was with him.  On the door of my office someone posted the verse Joshua 1:3 “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.”

We need to banish fear and doubt.   We need to be bold and strong!   We are at the moment of breakthrough!!    Do not let go of your hopes and dreams, for God will accomplish His will in His time.

Be ready, He is speaking. Listen, He has a more excellent way for all of us, and His Kingdom will surely come, and will be done, through our lives, and to the glory of God.  2012 is the “Year of Opportunity”.

I have learned over the years that no matter how true a vision from God may be, it will never be fulfilled in the manner in which I have imagined.  All my expectations are incomplete. In fact, my very ideas often become the most subtle obstacles standing between me and my appointed future in God.  Thus, I must keep my mind open and submitted to God, for when God fulfills His Word, it is always “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20, KJV).

God has amazing plans for us.  We have a dream that involves many ministries - and ultimately to see revival come to the Central Valley!   It is a huge vision.  However there is no testimony without a test!  Each building in our project stands on the threshold of moving forward.   We have it all lined up but it just doesn’t move the final step to the signing of the documents and the release of the loans for the construction to take place.  We need to break through a spiritual wall the enemy has placed as an obstacle to the fulfillment of the vision God has given to us.  The greater the wall the greater the breakthrough!

He loves us just the way we are and He uses us just the way we are.  As we trust in Him He will bring the breakthrough we need. 

God will not cease in bringing His glory upon the earth regardless of our willingness to become a part of His plan.   Mordecaii tells Esther if you don’t do it than God will raise up someone else – but who knows if this is why you are here now.  Esther responds and God brings deliverance!

God is looking for those who are broken and humble enough to align their lives with Him. When God wants His will accomplished, He finds those who have come to the end of themselves and whose confidence is not in themselves, but only in their God.  Those who will say, “Here am I, use me!”

It is time to ask God’s people to take the initiative in seeking the Lord like never before.  We need prayer – we need a breakthrough!

And as we seek Him, we listen, and learning from Him, we become empowered to bring His transformational Spirit into this environment so that we become part of the needed breakthrough.  We rejoice in all He will do through our lives. God’s “Hearers” can truly change the world.  Listen to what God tells you to do and then step out in obedience to His voice.  

Be ready, He is speaking. Listen, He has a more excellent way for all of us, and His Kingdom will surely come, and will be done, through our lives, and to the glory of God.  2012 is the “Year of Opportunity”.

Michael W. Smith has a song that speaks to the great potential each of us has set before us in 2012.  Truly “2012 is The Year of Opportunity.”  He says:

Some people walk, some people race Some people vary in their pace
But God can use what you can give Within the mystery of His ways
Don’t underestimate…

One thing I know Everybody’s got a seed to sow

Let your heart of hearts Take you down the road

Everybody’s got a seed to sow

Each of us was born with an eternal seed – a God given potential for great things.  It is a reflection of God’s nature!  All of us were created in His image.

During 2012 that seed will become something special for you and our church.    That is God’s promise to us!  By His grace and mercy when you plant that eternal seed it will grow and produce an amazing testimony.  Ah, what a life He calls us to!

We hear a lot of misappropriated teaching on the “Abundant Life” the Father has given us, but the truth is, it is “Abundant Life”, and it is “Abundant Life” now, regardless of the circumstances or where you are on this amazing journey.  We can access heaven on earth in the NOW!   The seed is not the focus of some future event in heaven but it is ours to experience this year – during 2012.

The seed redeemed now, expecting now, looking for now, can begin the maturation process.  Now is the time to believe God for the fulfillment of His promise He has made to you.  Jesus taught us to pray to the Father to bring His substance to earth through our very beings. It has always been His original intent for ALL of mankind. His intent has always been to be a loving Father to His creation, and dwell with His people.

We also are all different in where, how, and what we are to sow for His glory -  as we sow seeds of His substance on earth as it is in heaven.  We were designed for love; we were designed to deliver His love to the earth.

I am determined to look at all people as part of God’s original design. To point the way to the Father as Jesus did.  And then as we seek after Him, we become sons in the image of Christ, FOR GOOD WORKS AND FOR HIS LOVE.

We are called to live as Father pleasers? What steps do we need to make towards being givers rather than takers? We are with you in all of this, and ask ourselves the same questions often. Lord what do we need to do to learn to love you more, and love others as ambassadors for you?

Everybody has a seed to sow, and a seed to grow. Father, by your Spirit, help us to grow, sow, and flow in amazing ways in loving and serving You and others.

Be ready, He is speaking. Listen, He has a more excellent way for all of us, and His Kingdom will surely come, and will be done, through our lives, and to the glory of God.  2012 is the “Year of Opportunity”.

Ps 44:3 “They did not conquer by their own strength and skill, but by your mighty power and because you smiled upon them and favored them.”  (TLB)

Can we really have the favor of God upon our lives in 2012?  Can we walk in divine favor from heaven?  I believe we can.  This year God has tremendous things in waiting for you and for Bethel.   This is “The Year of Opportunity” for all of us.  Join me in believing God for great things!

King David was just a man, a man like you and me. Some days he seemed to be a saint and other days a sinner. Have you ever felt like David did?  I know I have days when I feel so terribly unworthy.

David had times of despair and times of victory.  As David walked in the path of God his strength increased.  As we make our goals for 2012 to be His goals a true and healthy life can be experienced!  We have placed a help in setting your goals on our web page which you can go to by clicking HERE.

How can we walk in a continual state of the favor of God?  Life is full of challenges and crisis. Some days we are convinced that we are in a war zone of the mind.  How can we conquer the challenges of those days?

Ps 25:4-5 “Show me the path where I should go, O Lord; point out the right road for me to walk. Lead me; teach me; for you are the God who gives me salvation. I have no hope except in you.”

David knows where to go when he feels lost and defeated. He asks the Lord to show him the path that he should walk. He is confident that the Lord will point out the right road.

We know we can conquer our challenges and fears through the strength and skill given to us by God.  It is Christ in us that gives us this strength and skill to overcome.  The skills to slay these dragons of life are taught to us through the Word and by the still small voice of the Spirit.  Let me remind you of this strength that is within you when you accepted Christ into your heart and life.  God smiled upon you and has now given you favor because he loves you and wants you to be victorious and have peace and contentment in life.

This week I found myself relating to God with a new intimacy.   As I laid out my burdens to Him it wasn’t someone pleading with a far superior omnipotent power but the cry of a son to his Dad.  I was telling Dad how much I needed Him and in my heart was a strong realization that He had not only the means but the willingness to help.  I know how much my earthly father was there for me – how much I want to be there for my children and grandchildren – and I realized my heavenly Dad wanted to be there just for me.

Today is in the hands of our ever attentive Dad!   He makes this year for each one of us and for our church The Year of Opportunity!  2012 is filled with great opportunities!  We live in the favor of God!   Now is the time to rise up and lay hold of them.

I believe that God wants to make “2012 A Year of Opportunity” for you and our church.  You have just survived one of the most challenging years ever. If you feel like you are beginning 2012 recovering from the shell-shock of 2011, then be encouraged, as it was a year like no other. If you feel in a daze and confused about almost everything you thought you knew to be true – then just know you are in great company. It was a year of challenges for individuals, families, churches, cities, nations, and the world. 2011 was the most devastating year ever for world natural disasters- with a price tag of almost $400 billion.  At a national level it was also a record year for disasters. The United States experienced 14 disasters of over one billion dollars each, breaking the previous record set in 2008 by 5.

Now I want to tell you a few things that will not happen.  The world will not end in 2012!  The economy will not collapse in 2012!  Israel will not be wiped out by nuclear bombs!  California will not fall off into the ocean!

Are there things in your life that the Lord desires you to be free from in 2012?  He wants to give you the tools and use His influence to bring you success.   He wants the fulfillment of your goals in 2012 to bring Him great glory.  This is not your year to be possessed, acquired or controlled but you are free to live a Spirit led life of walking in His freedom!

2012 is the year the Promise Maker becomes the Promise Keeper!  In some specific supernatural ways, the Lord has recently reminded me that He delights in making promises and then keeping promises. We are to see Him as the Romans 4:21 God who is fully capable of performing that which He has promised.  He wants to encourage those who have grown weary in waiting.  This is a year when seemingly dead promises will come alive.  God will do great things in your life and in our church.

Many of us have had our promises aligned to the wrong vehicle of fulfillment; therefore it was impossible for the promise to come alive. Many of us have been stripped of the assumptions we have had of how God was going to fulfill His promises to us. If we will now hang on to the Promise Keeper, He will begin to raise our promises from the dead.  Many have lost jobs they assumed were the vehicle for promises to be fulfilled.  Many have lost relationships they assumed were key for promises to be fulfilled.  Many have lost the resources they assumed would fulfill the promises. You may have lost everything, including your health, over this last year. But, if you have not lost hope in the Promise Keeper, you have everything that matters!  So ARISE and SHINE because your light has come, and the glory of the Lord will arise and be seen on YOU! 

Now is the time to join the other members of this church family in setting goals that will allow God to fulfill His purpose in and through your life for His glory!  On our web page WWW.TULAREBETHEL.COM you will find our 2012 GOALS.  This is to help each one of us to take the steps necessary to see God fulfill His promises to us in 2012.  We need your response!!

You can also CLICK HERE to download the 2012 GOALS

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and your family!  May you have His favor in 2012 as the Lord draws you closer to Himself.  He knows what we need and He will be our provider. Trust in Him and let not your hearts be troubled.

I believe that 2012 will be a “year of opportunity”.  This is a year when God will do great things for you and for our church.  My prayer is that you and your family experience a deepening understanding of God’s love and care this year.

A verse that I am starting the New Year off with is Eph. 5:15-17 “Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.   Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

I believe that God is calling us, as a Church, to move forward in the year 2012.  However, I am strongly convinced that this spiritual advance will not be a result of a new program or a different paradigm of ministry … we must first press forward in a tangible and practical way in surrendering to God and allowing the Holy Spirit more control in our lives.

All of us would like 2012 to be better than 2011!   How will we make this year different from last year?  What is God asking us to do in walking out our faith in 2012?  To help us understand God’s will for our lives and to take this step of faith together in unity, last Sunday and again this Sunday, we will be handing out a pamphlet that will allow us to set goals for the year ahead. 

God’s kingdom is balanced. In His Word is contained a very balanced approach to life. It is not a pick and choose approach to life, where one could say: I will take this into my life, but I refuse that.  I will obey this but I choose not to obey that.  These thoughts lead to imbalance.  The Bible calls for full balance.  Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." (NKVJ)

I am asking each member of our church family to set godly goals (make resolutions – a course of action decided upon; a fixed purpose) that will bring God’s blessing upon us as individuals, upon our families, upon our church and upon our valley.  Let God’s will be accomplished in and through your life this year!  You are vital to what God wants to do!

Paul tells us how to do this in Philippians 3:13 “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal.”

Each New Year represents a whole new range of opportunities for each of us.   At the start of the year we can turn a new page and have new personal beginnings in a multitude of areas.   We need to be wise as we step through the door to set these goals.

He calls us to be like a runner in a race whose ceaseless personal exertion and intensity of desire helps to achieve the God ordained victory.  The picture is that of a runner with his body bent over, hand outstretched, eyes fastened on the goal, never giving a backward glance.  In other words, this runner is focused and determined.   He has a plan of action.  He has set goals!

Now is the time to join the other members of this church family in setting goals that will allow God to fulfill His purpose in and through your life for His glory!  We need your response!!

At Christmastime, there is an old story, oft-repeated and first told by radio legend Paul Harvey that reminds us why Jesus came called “The Man and the Birds.”

Now the man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man; generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed; and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound; then another, and then another; sort of a thump or a thud. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window.

But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it.

Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn.  He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. 

                He tried catching them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn. And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me; that I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them.  But how?

Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confused them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

"If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand."

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow. 

The man finally got it! Jesus came and modeled for us how to live, love and lead.  He came to give us real life.

Our prayer for you this Christmas is that you will be filled with the wonder of Him and let His light shine through you as you live, love and lead.

“Thank God for this gift, His gift.   No language can praise it enough!”  2 Corinthians 9:15 (The Message)

            This Christmas, as you consider all the awesome things that have come to you through Jesus, God’s perfect gift, remember that it is but a taste of all the good things that are yet to come.

The wonderful season of Christmas reminds us of the gift that God the Father gave - the indescribable, immeasurable gift of Jesus!

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; because by Him everything was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross -- whether things on earth or things in heaven.”  Colossians 1:15-20

We are honored that the Lord has entrusted us with spreading the good news that Jesus has the potential to transform the lives of those we love. Thank you for sharing in that dream with us!

May God, the giver of all perfect gifts, grant to you and yours all of the blessings of this marvelous season of love, grace, mercy and peace!

At Christmas we give gifts to those we love. It gives us an opportunity to tell others how much we love and appreciate them.  As parents and grandparents our joy is seen in the excitement and anticipation those gifts bring.  Our family celebrated Christmas early last Sunday afternoon (it was the only time everyone could get together).  Watching the absolute amazement and pure joy of Lucas (3 years old) as he got exactly what he wanted made it all worthwhile.

Christmas should be a time of awe and reverence.  It is a time when we celebrate that God took on Himself human flesh and chose to come live with us.  He is more than a babe in a manger – He is God.  And that fills our lives with wonder!   His very presence is the motivation of our celebration.

His birth has no precedent – His living with us has no analogy.  It places this event in a category we cannot explain.  In Jesus, God was born, lived in this world, died, rose again and ascended to heaven becoming the object of a lasting wonder to all.  How is it possible that this baby could be infinite and finite, mortal and immortal, omnipotent and yet vulnerable?

That explains why with great humility we need to lift our hearts in praise and worship to Him who is God, born in the flesh!  This Christmas let us acknowledge the greatest of wonders; that our salvation, our blessing, our life and our hope are made possible only because God in Christ Jesus was born in Bethlehem. 

God knew that we would never “get it” if He just sent the message of the kingdom to us.   So God came to bring His very presence to us.   God’s intention is to share His life with us and ours with Him. Christmas is all about Immanuel – “God with us.”

I pray that you and your family will be overshadowed in a fresh way by the presence of our Savior as you celebrate His birth.

The last few weeks God has been bringing us into a season of renewal!   Each Sunday the worship has drawn in the entire congregation.   We have experienced what it is to be in His very presence.  During our prayer time people have received personal direction from God.   Needs have been met – jobs have been provided, bodies have been healed and prayers have been answered.   As the Word has been ministered we have lifted up Jesus and been drawn into more intimate relationship with Him.   The more real Jesus has become in each of our lives the more of His peace we have experienced!

In the timetable of God we are being prepared to prosper in places that have been difficult.  It is a time of new beginnings and new life in our church body.   We are in the midst of a season of renewal.

One of the exciting things to watch is how God is using this to bring conviction and cleansing.   People are asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins and to come and live in their lives in a fresh and powerful way.   They are being “saved” and set free from their old lives and the habits that have bound them.

God is in the midst of turning around our circumstances.  We are passionate about our worship, prayer and God’s power.  God is giving us influence with those who are lost.   It is a season of great testimonies!

When we have a passion for God and His house things began to happen.   As we immerse ourselves in holiness we are cleansed by the presence of the Lord.   His peace displaces the fear in our hearts.

He gives us new hope.   Jesus stands ready to restore us – to meet our needs and change our circumstances.   Jesus loves us and gave His life to woo us into the intimacy of being His glorious bride.   He’s ready to remove our shame and cleanse us as we move forward.

Don’t miss out on this time of renewal.   Don’t sit back and wait to see what happens.   Give yourself wholeheartedly to what God is doing.   Express your love and worship to Him.   He is worthy of all the glory we can give Him.

Together we are moving into the atmosphere of renewal and great joy.  What a way to enter the Christmas season!