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| Pastor Mathias | | Ms. Brunell - Executive Director | | Mr. Gaffney - Managing Director | | Ms. Helmers - Managing Director | | | |
| Mr. Flynn - Senior Director | | Mr. Bolton - Director | | Ms. Irwin - Director | | Mr. James - Director | | Mr. Levine - Director | | Ms. Radewicz - Director | | Mr. Rodgers - Director | | Mr. Shea - Director | | Mr. Widmyer - Director | | | |
| Ms. Avery | | Ms. Baird | | Ms. Baker | | Ms. Bray | | Ms. Burns | | Ms. Coffey | | Ms. Crane | | Mr. David | | Ms. Drew | | | |
| Mr. Dunlap | | Mr. Ewing | | Mr. Farley | | Ms. Finley | | Mr. Friedman | | Ms. Gay | | Ms. Hahn | | Ms. Hobbs | | Ms. Holder | | | |
| Mr. Horton | | Ms. Lee | | Mr. Maddox | | Ms. Perez | | Ms. Rollins | | Ms. Smith | | Ms. Smith | | Ms. Weslin | | Mr. Wilkerson | | | | | | M.R. Mathias - Ambassador |
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| |  | | | A.W. Tozer | HopeFaithPrayer | | by A.W. Tozer “Men may, and often do, pray without faith (though this is not true prayer), but it is not thinkable that men should have faith and not pray. … | |  |
| |  | | | A.B. Simpson | HopeFaithPrayer | | “His practice was to hush his spirit, and literally cease to think, then in the silence of his soul, he listened for the ’still small voice’ [of God].” | | |
| |  | | | Smith Wigglesworth | HopeFaithPrayer | | Smith Wigglesworth “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in … | | |
| |  | | | Texas Church Begins $1M Construction Project to Build Largest Cross in the US | Texas Church Begins $1M Construction Project to Build Largest Cross in the US
By Katherine Weber , Christian Post Reporter
Jonathan Fromm, New York member of Communion and Liberation, carries a cross on the Brooklyn Bridge during the 19th annual "Way of the Cross Over the Brooklyn Bridge Ceremony" in New York City, April 18, 2014. The ceremony, hosted yearly on the Christian holy day of Good Friday, includes walking from St. James Cathedral, over the Brooklyn Bridge to St. Peter's Church in Manhattan. The event attracts approximately 2,000 people each year.
Organizers of the Corpus Christie Cross Project broke ground in Texas this week as they begin their construction of the largest cross in the United States.
Pastor Rick Milby confirmed to local media outlets that construction for the $1 million cross began at the Abundant Life Fellowship campus in Corpus Christie earlier this week.
The cross is expected to stand 210 feet tall and 95 feet wide. Milby explained to KRIS-TV that the structure will be able to sway two feet back and forth in the wind due to its massive height and width. [More] | | |
| |  | | | Who We Are | Ligonier Ministries | Ligonier Ministries is an international Christian discipleship organization founded by theologian Dr. R.C. Sproul in 1971 to equip Christians to articulate what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it. Proclaiming God’s holiness is central to Ligonier’s purpose.
Ligonier produces Renewing Your Mind radio broadcasts, the Reformation Study Bible, Tabletalk magazine, books through the Reformation Trust Publishing division, and various teaching series. It also offers academic degrees through the Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies and Reformation Bible College. In addition, Ligonier hosts national and regional conferences, offers an online learning community through Ligonier Connect, streams twenty-four-hour Christian internet radio through RefNet, and makes available more than 8,000 unique resources online at Ligonier.org.
Four decades of proclaiming the holiness of God: [More] | | |
| | | | | What Is Faith? The Answer from Hebrews 11 | Maccabbean heroes who came after the Old Testament. By faith, they conquered kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, and became mighty in war. They endured torture and stood firm in the face of death. Together they proved that by faith a believer has everything he or she needs to triumph against the world’s worst opposition.
Hebrews 11 tells what God’s people did by faith. The thing to notice about these heroes is not their personality traits, their training, or their upbringing. We are not told that Abraham was a resourceful kind of person or that his personality made him suited for disappointment. The only thing that made him different from others was his faith, and by his faith what a difference he made for the whole world. How did a man like Moses turn his back in the prime of his life on the pinnacle of worldly power and pleasure and riches? It wasn’t because Moses was such a moral person. He did it by faith! Without faith, none of these heroes of Hebrews 11 would have lived for God in the ways they did. But by faith, they lived with a power the world knows nothing about and gained a salvation the world has ignored. Because of their faith, verse 16 says, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.”
Faith can do great things in anyone’s life. If you live by faith in God, no matter who you are and whatever else is true of you, you can make a difference for God’s kingdom. What really matters is not your strengths or weaknesses, your training or lack thereof. By faith you can be a spiritual hero. Why? Is it because of some power inherent to faith, or because faith will unleash your hidden potential? Not at all. Faith can do great things through you, verse six tells us, because God “rewards those who seek him.” Faith gains its power from its object, the saving God who gives grace to those who trust in Him.
If you look for these heroes of faith in the secular histories of the ancient world, you won’t find them. Why is that? Because there is something faith will not do. Faith will not give you fame and fortune as the world reckons them. These heroes of faith were worldly nobodies, but they were great in God’s sight. Their faith did not commend them to the world. Many of them were put to death because of their faith. As a rule, their faith earned them the world’s contempt.
But look at verse 2: “For by it [faith] the people of old received their commendation.” What commendation was that? By faith they were commended by God, and it doesn’t get any better than that. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for,” begins Hebrews 11. What better to hope for than commendation from God—not just to be forgiven and received by faith, essential as that is, but to really please God with your life. By faith you may be assured even of this.
What is it, then, that really matters in your life? Hebrews 11 says that what matters most about you, about every Christian, is your faith. Since that is true, nothing is more important than feeding and exercising and growing your faith. When you believe God’s Word and trust His promises in the challenges of your own life, you enter into this tapestry in which faith’s tale is still being told. By faith, you, just like Noah and Abraham and Moses, can do great things by God’s power and for His glory. [More] | | |
| |  | | | The Place of Prayer by R.C. Sproul | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org | What is the goal of the Christian life? Godliness born of obedience to Christ. Obedience unlocks the riches of the Christian experience. Prayer is what prompts and nurtures obedience, putting the heart into the proper “frame of mind” to desire obedience.
Of course, knowledge is also important because without it, we cannot know what God requires. However, knowledge and truth will remain abstract unless we commune with God in prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches, inspires, and illumines God’s Word to us. He mediates the Word of God and assists us in responding to the Father in prayer.
Prayer has a vital place in the life of the Christian. First, it is an absolute prerequisite for salvation. Some people cannot hear; yet though deaf, they can be saved. Some may not be able to see; yet though blind, they can be saved. Knowledge of the Good News—salvation through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—will come from one source or another, but in the final analysis, a person must humbly ask God for salvation. The prayer of salvation is the one prayer of the wicked God has said he will hear.
What do those in heaven have in common? Several things. They have all been justified, having put their faith in the atonement of Christ. They are all praising God. And they have all prayed for salvation. To be without prayer is to be without God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the hope and reality of heaven.
Second, one of the surest marks of the Christian is his prayer life. One might pray and not be a Christian, but one could not possibly be a Christian and not pray. Romans 8:15 tells us that the spiritual adoption that has made us sons of God causes us to cry out in verbal expressions: “Abba! Father.” Prayer is to the Christian what breath is to life, yet no duty of the Christian is so neglected.
Prayer, at least private prayer, is difficult to do out of a false motive. One might preach out of a false motive, as do the false prophets; one might be involved in Christian activities out of false motives. Many of the externals of religion might be done from false motives, but it is highly unlikely that anyone would commune with God out of some improper motive. Matthew 7 tells us that in the “last day,” many will stand at the Judgment and tell Christ of their great and noble deeds done in his name, but his response will be that he does not know them.
So, we are invited, even commanded, to pray. Prayer is both a privilege and a duty, and any duty can become laborious. Prayer, like any means of growth for the Christian, requires work. In a sense, prayer is unnatural to us. Though we were created for fellowship and communion with God, the effects of the Fall have left most of us lazy and indifferent toward something as important as prayer. Rebirth quickens a new desire for communion with God, but sin resists the Spirit.
We can take comfort from the fact that God knows our hearts and hears our unspoken petitions more than the words that emanate from our lips. Whenever we are unable to express the deep feelings and emotions of our souls or when we are completely unclear about what it is for which we ought to be praying, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Romans 8:26-27 says, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” When we don’t know how to pray or what to pray for in a given situation, the Holy Spirit assists us. There is reason to believe from the text that if we pray incorrectly, the Holy Spirit corrects the error in our prayers before he takes them before the Father, for verse 27 tells us that he “intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
Prayer is the secret of holiness—if holiness, indeed, has anything secretive about it. If we examine the lives of the great saints of the church, we find that they were great people of prayer. John Wesley once remarked that he didn’t think much of ministers who didn’t spend at least four hours per day in prayer. Luther said that he prayed regularly for an hour every day except when he experienced a particularly busy day. Then he prayed for two hours.
The neglect of prayer is a major cause of stagnation in the Christian life. Consider the example of Peter in Luke 22:39-62. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray as was his custom and told his disciples, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” The disciples fell asleep instead. The next thing Peter did was try to take on the Roman army with a sword; then he denied Christ. Peter did not pray and as a result fell into temptation. What is true of Peter is also true of all of us: we fall in private before we ever fall in public.
Is there a right and wrong time for prayer? Isaiah 50:4 t [More] | | |
| |  | | | Azusa Now What? Prophetic Perspectives on the Imminent Move of God — Charisma News | 100,000 believers gathered at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for 15 hours of worship and prayer to celebrate Azusa Now, the 110th year anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, the catalytic movement of the Holy Spirit that resulted in more than 600 million Pentecostals and charismatics today.
Thousands showed up as early as 3 in the morning to get in line. This was the same venue where the great evangelist Billy Graham preached the gospel in 1963 before 134,254 people inside the stadium, and more than 20,000 left outside. There was great momentum and expectancy in the atmosphere as thousands in America and around the world have anticipated this event for months, and more significantly, for another powerful move of the Spirit in our time and generation once again Lou Engle, leader of the TheCall and the event, opened up the meeting with worship and powerful intercession and declarations from Korean pastors and leaders for another revival and great awakening.
At the heart of every awakening is the cry for unity and reconciliation. The next several hours saw powerful acts of confession, repentance, reconciliation, acceptance and love from leaders of various denominations and ethnic groups.
You could sense the pleasure, delight and presence of God as these leaders chose to lay down their differences to embrace and prefer each other for the sake of Christ and for the kingdom. The power of unity cannot be undermined; it sets the stage for a great move of God.
The Azusa Street revival in 1906 was a restoration of spiritual gifts and a sovereign release of the power of the Holy Spirit. The next segment saw Pastor Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California, lead the charge for the ministry of healing. Significant healings and miracles took place. Accurate words of knowledge and prophecy were also released by Shawn Bolz, leader of Expression 58. The evening ended with Evangelist Daniel Kolenda, leader of Christ for All Nations and successor to evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, giving a provoking call to evangelism and salvation. It was a historical day in the body of Christ where declarations have been made, covenants have been forged, and heaven has been beseeched for another great move of the Holy Spirit in our land and in our time.
READ: The Nation-Shaking Prophetic Download I Got at Azusa Now
Azusa Now, What Next? [More] | | |
| |  | | | Reinhard Bonnke: God ‘Will Shake America’ — Charisma News | Elizabeth Simmons, a freelance journalist for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla., came to Orlando for the Christ for all Nations (CfaN) Good News crusade on her own dime and with a twofold agenda.
Not only did she want to help hundreds of thousands of Times-Union readers discover Jesus through her news reports Friday and Saturday, but she also came to support her spiritual mother, Elizabeth “Bebe” Brown, who came to Orlando with a friend from Tennessee.
Brown, whom Simmons has known for two years and credits with helping her turn her life around for Jesus, is physically blind and came to Orlando believing for her healing.
“Faith—it’s all about faith,” Simmons said. “We need to not limit God and start believing that He will do what He said He is going to do. I love God with everything I am and I have. I know He can save and He can restore, and that's what we're believing for."
Bonnke and his CfaN team held its initial Good News crusade on Friday night in front of more than 10,000 at the Amway Center.
Since 1987, 75 million souls in Africa have come to salvation through the ministry of CfaN. Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke says God is ready to pour out the same blessing on the United States.
“We have seen God do so many mighty things in Africa,” he says. “But I know that he is the same God, and He will shake America. America shall be saved. America will be saved, and this is the day of salvation.”
Bonnke isn’t naïve. He knows well the moral issues that America faces—abortion, same-sex marriage and discouragement, among many. He hears the negativity daily about how America has lost its soul.
But Bonnke isn’t buying it.
“This is not the day of damnation; this is the day of salvation,” he says. “Do you know what Satan hates about us as human beings? He hates the image of God in us. He wants to remove it and replace it with his own image. He’s got a big sledgehammer, and he tries to flatten the Spirit of God. So many people suffer under those hammerings of sin, and they don’t know how to help themselves.
“Drug addiction, alcoholism, immorality—it’s blow after blow after blow until the image of God is almost gone. But Jesus intercepted that hammer for us. He stops the devil if we seek refuge in Him. He will deliver you from bondages, compulsions, fears and tears ... only Jesus saves.”
CfaN President and CEO Daniel Kolenda says there is only one thing that can remove the spiritual darkness that has engulfed America.
“The United States will be saved only through a massive outpouring of the Holy Spirt,” he says. “I see the seeds of a movement of evangelism and the Holy Spirit that will sweep across the nation from sea to shining sea. Our nation is in desperate need of revival. The solution won’t come from the White House, and it won’t be fixed through the polls. It will only come from Jesus.”
And Bonnke unashamedly has a word for so-called “Sunday Christians” and backsliders.
“I don’t know why they always have to slide away from Jesus,” he says. “They cheat like the world, tell foul jokes just like the world—everything just like the world. I have a question for them: Why can’t you slide away from the devil? Jesus’ arms are wide open, and He’s ready to save you now.”
Grammy Award-winning artist Israel Houghton opened the crusade and brought those at the Amway Center to their feet with traditional favorites like “I Am a Friend of God” and “Mighty to Save.” [More] | | |
| |  | | | Christ for all Nations (Cfan) Ministry Surpasses Historic Milestone of 75 Million Conversions to Christ - Press Release Rocket | Christ For All Nations (Cfan) mission and its founder Reinhardt Bonnke have surpassed a historic milestone by leading more than 75 million converts to Christ in Africa and worldwide through its evangelical ministry programs.
ORLANDO, Fla. (PRWEB) March 22, 2016
Christ for all Nations (Cfan), a non-denominational missions organization known for its crusades in Africa, announced that it has surpassed a historic milestone of 75 million converts to Christ. Led by global evangelist Reinhardt Bonnke, who was honored last year at the 2015 Empowered 21 Global Congress in Jerusalem with a Lifetime award for Global Ministry, surpassed the ministry’s previous record of more than 73 million people who have “made registered decisions to follow Jesus Christ,” according to Christian Post Reporter Sam K. Martin. [More] | | |
| |  | | | Mike Bickle, Reinhard Bonnke Join Forces for This One Thing — Charisma News | While Gov. Bobby Jindal works to plan a stadium prayer event in Baton Rouge so intercessors can respond to a nation in crisis, Mike Bickle is holding a stadium event in Kansas City to help today's youth focus on one thing.
Thousands of young adults will gather for the International House of Prayer's Onething conference at the Kansas City Convention Center Dec. 28-31. Believers will gather to set their hearts to live with passion for Jesus through extended times of worship, teaching of the Word and ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit.
"The main theme of the conference is focused on calling people to a Joel 2 response in face of God's promise of a transforming national awakening and revival and a national crisis," Bickle, director of IHOPKC, tells Charisma News.
Speakers and worship leaders include Bickle, Allan Hood, president of the IHOP University and associate director of IHOP, Reinhard Bonnke, an international evangelist and founder of Christ for all Nations, Misty Edwards, senior leader and worship leader at IHOPKC, Kari Jobe, worship pastor at Gateway Church, and worship leader Phil Wickham.
Bickle will speak on this crisis and call to prayer on the first and last nights of the conference, Dec. 28 and Dec. 31. Hood will speak on the national crisis and intercession on Dec. 29. Bonnke will speak on revival on Dec. 30.
"We feel very urgent about the crisis in the America and along with our conviction of a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit," says Bickle. "People can join us by the web steam without any charge."
Click here to learn more about the Onething 2014 conference. [More] | | |
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M.R. Mathias 
