For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV)

Today I want to pick up where we left off last… talking about the Prince of Peace.

Isaiah used some interesting language in describing the coming Messiah. The Child would be born, yes… and that’s why this passage comes to mind at Christmastime. And while Jesus would carry the “identity” described in this passage at His birth, clearly no government can rest upon the shoulder of an infant — even if He is the Son of God. Thus, it’s important that we let these words describe to us the man Jesus, and not just the baby.

Prince. It’s a nice term we use to think about someone who is the son of a king. And yes, Jesus is the Son of The King. But it’s also important to realize that in the 1500s and 1600s as the Scriptures were first being translated into English, it was perfectly normal to refer to the Sovereign Himself as “Prince.” In fact, the translators of the King James Bible wrote a letter to King James in which they referred to him as “Prince.” By then, James was certainly on the throne of England and was ruling as King. It was a reverential term ascribing to him the highest levels of authority in the land and it conveyed their deepest respect of him and his power. I assure you it was no slight… or it would’ve meant their heads.

Thus, when we see this word appearing in Isaiah 9:6, Jesus is being referred to as the King of Peace — the Sovereign Ruler whose life and reign would produce and be characterized by peace. It echoes back to Melchizedek who, in the time of Abraham, was referred to as the King of Salem. “Salem” is from the same Hebrew root as shalom, which is the word used here by Isaiah

Receiving Him as King of Shalom

Receive the King of Shalom

Both words refer to something that we need today… the real peace that Jesus promised and gave to His disciples. The concept is one that goes much deeper than we may realize. Jesus is the King of peace — the kind of peace that rises up, violently even, to overwhelm the onslaught of trouble, stress and anxiety that assaults a person whose life or livelihood is threatened.

The gift of this kind of peace means that we have completeness. It is utterly and entirely disconnected from circumstances and outward appearances. Regardless of what is going on around them, a person experiencing this type of wholeness is confidently assured of their security, safety and soundness. They understand that what they possess is greater than anything life may throw at them, and they draw from a deep well of resources that enables them to look fear in the face and overcome it.

Today, I believe the Body of Christ needs a renewed understanding of this powerful, precious, valuable gift of peace. When Jesus commanded his disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid,” He wasn’t giving them an impossible directive. He was saying to them, “Here is My peace. It’s the peace you’ve seen Me use and will watch me use to overcome sin and shame on the cross. It’s yours to use so that you can keep your hearts from being overwhelmed by the great difficulties that are coming your way. Use it as I use it. Overwhelm your circumstances and dominate them. You are and will be complete in Me. Here is real power for you today and for always. Let this peace overwhelm you, and extend my reign of peace and wholeness into the lives of everyone you encounter.”

My friend, receive peace today. The power and promises of God are yours. You have real ability to conquer any circumstance, challenge or obstacle in your path. Look to Jesus and allow Him to teach you how to use it by His Spirit. It’s a powerful component in His plan for you to overcome.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27 NKJV)

Hundreds of years before the Baby whose arrival we celebrate at Christmas time, Isaiah declared about Him:

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV)

There’s much to be said about the deep meaning contained in these prophetic words. But today I want to focus on the name, “Prince of Peace.” It sounds so nice… and in the context of the Nativity, where we imagine a “Silent Night” of tranquility as a newborn baby sleeps in a manger, it’s easy to attach the words “Prince of Peace” to a meek, humble and lowly figure who walked the earth 2,000 years ago.

But that’s where I believe we miss the point. Yes… Jesus was meek and humble and certainly lowered Himself to interact with mankind. But we miss the deeper, more powerful and even violent nature of the Prince of Peace.

“Violent?!”

Yes… violent.

You see, through the economic turmoil of the last few years, if there’s one area that has been shaken in the lives of believers… and shaken hard, it’s in this area of peace. You may have lost a business, lost a job, lost a home, maybe your marriage… or perhaps you’ve danced dangerously close to the brink of one or more of these. No one may know the level of anxiety, distress or perhaps even despair you may have felt. You may even yet be feeling it right now.

I had lunch a year or so ago with a friend and client who had been on a visit to Israel. He wasn’t going to see the “Holy Land,” per se. Rather, as a Jewish physician, he was visiting not as a tourist but as someone who has a deep connection to the inhabitants of Israel. He told me about his visit to a border town called S’derot. This city is situated 1 kilometer from Gaza and has been constantly bombarded by rocket fire for years. He told me something that really shocked me: virtually every child living in S’derot suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I’m no expert on the topic of PTSD, although my father and other veterans have told me plenty about it. One thing I know to be true — it affects every part of your life. Your brain is re-wired and your life is spent trying to protect yourself from whatever might come next. You quite literally live waiting for another bomb to go off.

If you’ve experienced or come close to experiencing a life-altering event in the last few years… or even if your life has merely been disrupted by the fast-paced level of change in our society, then you may know something about living under extreme stress. Perhaps you’re living the way those Israeli children live: shell-shocked and waiting for the next bomb to go off in your life.

I certainly don’t mean to trivialize the experience of people who live in a real war zone, but I believe that many of us who have faced a disruption in our livelihoods or have been on the brink (or over the brink) of disaster find ourselves in desperate need of what Jesus told His disciples He was leaving with them: peace.

It was clear He was leaving them with a tangible gift. It wasn’t just a nice fuzzy feeling as they sang “Silent Night.” Rather… something they could use to overwhelm the difficult circumstances He was telling them were on the way. I urge you to take some time to read John 14-16 and see the entire context. Jesus was telling the disciples that their lives were going to be in jeopardy. Not only was He leaving, but after perpetrating a brutal execution on Jesus Himself, the rulers of the synagogues were going to be coming after them. And it began to take place only a few weeks later (in the book of Acts).

Jesus used the words, “Let not your hearts be troubled,” repeatedly. He made it clear that they were not to permit their real, tangible internal peace to be rocked regardless of what was coming.

What kind of real peace can overwhelm circumstances that would shake anyone to the core? What could rise up inside a person and cause them to be able to keep their heart from being troubled when not just livelihood or lifestyle, but actual life and limb are being threatened?

That, my friend, is what Jesus gave to us.

This is probably going to be controversial. Any time “the Bible” and “money” show up together, all kinds of feathers get ruffled.

But you know what? I’m tired of God’s people not having enough money. And I’m willing to stir up a hornet’s nest if necessary and even shake you up a little bit if I can provoke you to do something big for the Kingdom.

I know that we’re all trying to have a good heart and not be greedy. I get it. I really do.

But after appearing recently on Christian television, my office has been flooded with phone calls and website inquiries. Time after time, my staff and I have spoken with people who have a desire to do something big. They’ve got ideas. They’ve got “million dollar ideas,” even.

Some of them want to support missions efforts — overseas and at home. Some of them want to fund other ministry efforts, including feeding the hungry or creating financially strong private schools so that options other than State-run Godless education will be available.

But nearly every one of these people lacked one thing.

Yep. You guessed it… the money to get it done.

I’m tired of it! I’m absolutely finished with God’s people — the ones inhabited by the very Creator of all things — not having enough to do what He’s called them to do. He’s placed destiny in their hearts… and we as the Body of Christ haven’t trained them to go get the resources that it takes to fulfill their God-given destinies.

So… to start things off, I’ve just created and released a free e-Book.

But consider yourself warned: it is controversial. It will shake up your thinking.

Go get your copy. There’s a $10 free gift inside. No strings attached.

In our last message, we talked about how God hides things from us… for us. But what about the times when God Himself seems to be hiding?

Where is God in my darkness?

He made darkness His secret hiding place; as His pavilion (His canopy) round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. (Psalms 18:11 AMP)

If you’ve walked with God any length of time at all, you’ve had seasons where this seemed to be the case. Where is God in my situation?

What I love about this passage is that the psalmist penned these words after witnessing first-hand how God delivered him from his enemies. Reading this verse in its context, you discover that God hid Himself in the darkness while bringing victory over enemies to pass in David’s life.

Are You in Distress?

It seems like so many of the Psalms were written in and about difficult times. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that David spent an enormous amount of time under threat from enemies. And in some ways, it can be hard for us to identify with David. Today, most of us — at least in the Western world — don’t have enemies that chase after us hoping to take our lives.

But we do face real enemies. There are real enemies that work to steal and to kill your dreams. Perhaps your #1 enemy is on this list:

• debt
• financial lack
• poverty mindset
• apparent lack of abilities, skills or training
• sickness
• relational challenges

Whatever enemy is staring you down today, consider David’s words:

In my distress [when seemingly closed in] I called upon the Lord and cried to my God; He heard my voice out of His temple (heavenly dwelling place), and my cry came before Him, into His [very] ears…. The Lord also thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, amid hailstones and coals of fire…. He reached from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated and abhorred me, for they were too strong for me. They confronted and came upon me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay and support. He brought me forth also into a large place; He was delivering me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me. (Psalms 18:6, 13, 16-19 AMP)

These words may seem poetic… or somehow disconnected from reality, but remember that David, “spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.”

If David were somehow able to reach out to you today in your distress, I believe he would tell you to place your trust wholly and completely in the Lord. He would tell you from his personal experience about battling a lion, about challenging Goliath, about supernaturally dodging Saul’s spear, about miraculously overcoming enemies that he would be the first to admit were too strong for him.

Listen, friend. I don’t know how God will deliver you from your distress and from your enemies today. You don’t either. In fact, if you knew how He would do it, I’m convinced He would come up with some other way to do it just to keep you guessing.

But remember this: God hides in the darkness of your darkest night. Why He doesn’t just show Himself to us is a mystery that I’ll probably ask Him about when I see Him face to face. Perhaps He chooses to do it because He knows that for us to make it in this life, we must walk by faith. But know that in the darkness — when it seems as though your deliverance is furthest away — He Himself is escorting your answer to You. He personally goes to war against your enemies.

Many people give up in the darkness… and in so doing, they disconnect themselves from their help when it’s most critical… and when it is closest. Place your trust in Him. Rely upon him completely. Allow Him to speak to you and to work in you. You’ll have a story of your own to tell when your enemies have been completely eradicated. And I can’t wait to hear it!

In this episode of the Nourish The Dream Podcast, I’m posting audio from a message I shared recently in the pulpit of my good friend, Jesse DiMartino of the Freedom Center in Sarasota.

If you’ll forgive some local information and a brief personal story, you’ll hear the real heart behind the recent post, Cultivating a Heart that Listens to God. I’ve become convinced that despite all of the bad news in our economy, we’ve not yet heard — nor experienced — the worst. There’s more to come.

At the same time, if we will focus our energies on digging a well deep enough to retrieve the sustenance we need — out of relationship to God — we will be properly positioned to come through this season and the next.

(For the record, the story of the motorcycle accident was told to me as completely true story by someone whose word I trust. Please don’t try to use motorcycles as a weight loss program.)

Special thanks to Jesse DiMartino, Jacob Owens, J.R. Yoder and Andrew Owens… as well as to the entire Freedom Center family.

It seems like the bad economic news just keeps coming. Last week’s jobs report reflects the worst numbers in the entire lifetime of Generation X. Hopefully the recession hasn’t impacted your business or family personally, but even as I write this line, I know that the likelihood is that it has — or at least some of the people in your life.

You may know by now that I’m not a “doom and gloom” guy. I’m about as positive and optimistic as they come. That being said, I don’t think that the worst of the economic news is behind us. Things are changing very rapidly, and will continue to do so. In fact, I believe that what’s ahead of us is different than we could’ve possibly imagined.

The Importance of Hearing God

A Listening Heart

Back in March, God began to call to my mind the time in Isaac’s life when God spoke to him about starting a new business during an economic crisis. The passage is in Genesis 26, and it’s worth taking some time to study. Here are some of the highlights:

• God spoke to him not to move to Egypt, where the economy was better off (he was considering it).
• He and his “tribe” of people were nomadic. Raising crops was not part of their livelihood.
• Farms all around were going under — there was a famine. When this happens, it means that if you’re considering going into farming, now’s not a good time.
• After listening to and obeying God, Isaac plants crops. His harvest was 100x what should’ve been expected from the amount that he planted. One… hundred… times…

You may have heard preachers refer to this story in the context of an offering — as though Isaac gave money to a ministry or to a prophet or priest or man of God. Nope. His “sowing seed” was the beginning of a new (albeit temporary) business.

Countless Promises

The Scriptures are full of promises from God for provision — even during economic hard times.

“I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.” (Psalms 34:1-10 NKJV)

The problem is this: if you’re dealing with financial pressure, worry, anxiety, concern — either because of focusing on your own situation or due to the fear of what might be coming your way given the constant barrage of economic bad news — then you’re successfully distracted from listening to God. In times like this, it may take additional effort, energy, discipline and focus to silence your soul and dig deep enough to hear from God.

But it’s critical…

and worth it.

“Moreover, by them [the words of God] is Your servant warned (reminded, illuminated, and instructed); and in keeping them there is great reward.” (Psalms 19:11)

No one — not the best Wall Street analysts, the most qualified business consultants, the academicians in the ivory towers, nor the people attempting to pull the levers of the economy and our society — can predict what’s coming.

But by hearing from God, we can be

• warned
• reminded
• illuminated, and
• instructed.

If your life has, in other seasons, deceived you into thinking that hearing from God wasn’t critical or essential, then this season is one of those that will serve to teach you that it cannot be overlooked.

Had Isaac not heard from God, he wouldn’t have received the abundance that came his way during the famine of Genesis 26.

I don’t know about you, but right now, I’m working hard to cultivate a heart that hears from God. My life depends upon it.

Recently, we began talking about A Believer’s Response to Bad Economic News. There’s so much more to talk about along these lines, but today let’s focus on the question we asked:

Does what we believe have the ability to produce what we need?

The starting point for this is that we do believe that God Himself has the ability to supply what we need. This isn’t in question.

Are you in crisis?

But… will He produce and supply it for us?

This can be the harder question. Again, it isn’t just “in Whom” I believe — it’s what I believe about Him that will affect the results that I get…

In the book of Ezra, there’s a moment in Israel’s history that I’ve gone back to again and again these last few months. It’s not the most popular book of the Bible for sermons, so a little background may be useful if you haven’t read it recently.

Ezra was a priest during Israel’s captivity under the Persian empire. He began to search out God’s Word and eventually went to King Artaxerxes and, with great favor upon him, requested — and got — permission and funding to go back to Jerusalem and re-establish the temple and the sacrifices.

He hit a snag, however, when he and the several hundred he recruited to make the journey to Jerusalem with him set out. They had a very dangerous road in front of them, and the trip would ultimately take several months.

In other words, he had a dream. He had discovered his God-given purpose. He had some of what he needed to succeed, but he had a major area of lack — security and protection in his case.

Here was his response:

“Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a straight and right way for us, our little ones, and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy along the way, because we had told the king, The hand of our God is upon all them for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.”
(Ezra 8:21-22 AMP)

This passage strikes such a strong chord within me. Where do we turn?

Notice that he and the others needed to know how to proceed because their lives, their little ones, everything they owned, and their God-given purpose was all at stake. This wasn’t a time when a nice-sounding prayer and a religious platitude would help.

Their faith had to manifest a result. Period. End of story. We quite literally wouldn’t be reading this story if they hadn’t received their answer. The risk was real — enemies on the road, uncertainty, failure.

Are you in that kind of situation today? Does your relationship with God have to manifest what you need?

To be continued…

It always happens in an election year — some kind of upheaval. But this year it really seems to have teeth. Banks failing, huge drops (and gains) in the stock market, businesses closing, layoffs, etc.

As believers, how do we respond?

I’ve spent a lot of time studying this subject this year. With ups and downs in my own business and perhaps more personal financial pressure than ever, a serious question emerges:

Does what we believe have the ability to produce what we need?

Notice the question does not address the One in Whom we believe. His character, His love, His ability and His goodness aren’t even remotely in question.

But what I’ve learned is that it matters what we believe about Him.

If, for example, I don’t believe that His help is available — whether it’s because I’m unaware of it or because I haven’t built up trust in Him through relationship and experiential knowledge — then I won’t seek it out. If I do seek it out, I might choose not to do what He leads me to do.

And guess what? That means that I don’t get the result that He promised. It’s that simple.

In today’s Proverb is this verse that caught my eye:

“Every word of God is tried and purified; He is a shield to those who trust and take refuge in Him.”
(Proverbs 30:5 AMP)

With the storms of economic bad news raging around us, it’s time to “trust and take refuge in Him.” You may be surrounded with wreckage in the midst of this economic storm. You may have even taken some personal blows in your business or your family. But now’s not the time to leave the battlefield. It’s time to surround yourself with the shield and take refuge in it.

It occurs to me that shields are unnecessary if you’re not getting fired upon or attacked.

More on this in the days ahead.

Your thoughts?

Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
(Proverbs 16:3 AMP)

Last time, we talked about anxiety, stress, and a foreboding that can sometimes overtake our hearts and leave us flustered. As I said, that had happened to me.

In reality, it hadn’t “happened to me.” I had permitted it. This is what we must begin to comprehend. We have in our lives what we permit to exist. In my case, I needed to take some aggressive action — which I did — in order to banish anxiety and worry from my mind and heart.

What’s unfortunate is that these kinds of things have a way of becoming self-fulfilling prophecies. When our minds are occupied with the possibility of a negative outcome, then our creativity becomes hampered, our vision becomes less clear, our focus becomes diverted, and we miss opportunities.

But the Scriptures make it clear that we are in charge of our minds. And in fact, the passage I quoted above from Proverbs gives us one way to handle foreboding thoughts. The picture is of a beast of burden which is carrying a load. In fact, when a camel is “loaded up” with its burden, it kneels down and the load is quite literally “rolled” onto its back. This would’ve been a familiar word picture in the time of David and Solomon.

Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.
(Psalms 37:5 AMP)

The thing of it is… when a load is “rolled” onto the camel’s back, there’s absolutely no way for anyone or anything else to carry the weight of that burden.

Yes… what God is saying to us is that we have not been built to handle the mental and emotional stress that we try — particularly in today’s society — to carry. We must roll the load off onto Him and refuse to take the weight of it back upon ourselves.

I won’t kid you. This is a discipline. It takes diligent, attentive effort to ensure that we are not burdened down in this manner. But this is a form of trusting God — not a passive, nonchalant, “Oh well…,” kind of trust.  Instead, it is an active trust. It is an engaged trust. It is an expectant reliance upon Him.

This brings up the tension that exists between what I am to do and what God is to do. There’d be no way to cover that in this setting. However, suffice it to say that engaging God in this manner and actively looking to Him for guidance regarding what we are to do is key.  Too many times we take action out of fear and end up in trouble. The action that God would have us to take will many times be quite different than our instinctive reactions.

Either way… if you’re dealing with an inner storm today — particularly due to financial stress — it is time to decide what you will tolerate in your life… and what you will not. You’re in charge.  What will you do?

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” — Thomas Paine, The Crisis

Anxiety. Worry. Concern. Fear.

All too often, these are the “norm” in times of crisis. Perhaps even worse, they are the norm in times of perceived crisis.

Regardless of whether you’re facing a very real and authentic crisis right now, we live in an environment in which the talk of financial difficulty and stress is all around us.  Terms like, “economic downturn,” “slowdown,” and, “recession,” can be found on the pages of nearly every newspaper and fill the teleprompters of the news media.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve let it affect me this year.  It “dawned” on me this morning that for some time now — days, possibly weeks or even months — there’s been an overarching sense of impending doom that has hovered over my mind and heart.

Why?  I’m not really sure.  But the notion that somehow everything could unravel and leave us (my family and me) “exposed to the elements” of financial disaster has somehow become a daily companion of mine.

It’s a subtle thing.  We’ve watched as a neighbor family packed up all of their stuff and moved out of their house, turning it over to the bank with no warning. We’ve seen other homes in our community go into foreclosure. We hear stories of industries that are suffering and men and women who go scrambling to find work.  Initially, it never even crossed my mind that we could be affected by it.  But somewhere along the way a creeping fear made its way into my mind.  Had it shown up all in one day, I’d have recognized that it wasn’t from me and wouldn’t have tolerated it.  But, like the proverbial frog in the kettle, my thought life has gradually accepted this growing anxiety.

It occurred to me that this was the case today when I read these words:

“The reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it rests satisfied; he cannot be visited with [actual] evil.” (Proverbs 19:23 AMP)

Reading, “…he who has it rests satisfied,” I felt like a drop of cool water had landed on my parched tongue.

“Resting” and “satisfied” both seemed so far from my current reality that it really made me stop and think.  I’ve re-read this verse any number of times since then, and I’ve decided that it’s time to calm the inner storm. When the disciples awakened Jesus in the boat during the raging storm, he let everyone know — including the natural environment — what He was going to tolerate.

Since He’s not here (at least in the physical sense), it must be my job (like the disciples whom He rebuked — apparently for not taking charge of the situation themselves) to deal with this storm.  And so, that’s exactly what I’ve done.  And you can, too.

More on this next time…