Does Willpower Play Any Part in Awakening?

Dr. John Maxwell states, “Encouragement is the oxygen to the soul.” Meditate on that statement for a moment. It means when you encourage someone you are literally breathing life into their very being. What an amazing thought.

The ability to lead is a characteristic that is missing in many churches today. When asked what is a leader, most people will give answers like; someone in authority, someone that sets the course, or makes the decisions. While all of these should help describe a leader, they are not the core qualities the Bible uses to define Godly leaders.

This article uses the Old Testament Tabernacle to show what proper thanksgiving, praise, and worship is to God. It also tells of the danger in have the wrong perspective of each.

The Universal Law of Increase applies to more than material things and to prosperity and abundance. If you are focusing on not being able to trust Divine Source of providing for you, then you will manifest many ways in which lack is the harvest of increase.

We are chosen to live at The Tree of Life, which is the finished work of Jesus Christ. Our only other choice is The Tree of Knowledge, and this is where problems arise. The first is focused on Jesus, the second on us.

As human beings presently living down here on earth, most of us have become habituated to the daily humdrum of our lives. For example, we wake up in the morning, salute our family if we have one, and then proceed to get ready and go about our daily duties. In the evening or late afternoon we generally have dinner, followed by firmly planting ourselves in front of the television, internet, or both at once; while concurrently attempting to spend some time with family and/or friends.

There’s a method for living life when things get tough, and we know it’s not about giving up. And no matter what life throws at us, from the numbness of loss, to being overwhelmed by the sheer load of things, we can learn so much from the psalmist (‘of David’) in this Psalm, about the faith to hold on in the midst of tyranny. Maybe the toughest of situations is handled here; to be falsely accused, and for that accuser, the one responsible for great travesties, to be calling for our demise on every angle.

Venturing personally, sick of our loneliness, wanting the wholeness that others have attained, we sense an opportunity – not in rejecting our despair and bitterness and disappointment, but in embracing it on a slow, often painful journey. Yet, wholeness is surely there to be claimed; but not without stepping through the process.

In a life that forces us to choose between going forward or receding backward, the Gospel way presents the only viable answer for growth against the threat of recession. Even upon recognition that life is a constant struggle there’s the cosmic, eternal hope…

Could it be that our grandest test of faith is how we treat each person and each situation at love – holding to the Greatest Commandment? (Matthew 22:37-39) If we were true to this test we may quickly shun many of the things we instinctively say or do or give approval to; where divisions are caused – in ‘the name of God’, no less.

Regularly, though not as often as I would like, I wait until the business of the day is gone and the sky has darkened and I go out and sit in my backyard. It is quite dark though the small, dim backyard lights from my yard and the yards of neighbors soften the darkness and off in the distance I can see reflections of the downtown lights in the night sky.

The Mayan prophecy for 2012 was not for the destruction of the Earth. It was for the destruction of the Old Age of Pisces and all it out dated energies and institutions. The new age of Aquarius will herald in new energies and new ways to do things.