Normal… what is that, exactly?

Timely, still.

Esther's Petition

(Reprinted from 2008, still appropriate, unfortunately.)

Sick. Broke. Conflicted. Unhappy at work, at school, at home, at church. Is that normal for a Christian? Where’s the prospering and being in health, as your soul prospers? (See III John 2.) Food multiplying? Storm stopping? I think there’s a clue in that “as your soul prospers” phrase…

Years ago I experienced miracles, instant answers to prayer and faith healing as an integral part of my everyday life. I took them for granted. I was part of a small church where this kind of God-life was taught, expected and experienced from the smallest toddler to the eldest senior. Due to many factors that church disbanded and the members found other church homes across the region, but the life in the Spirit we had experienced didn’t seem to move with us.

Why should we settle for living like the world lives? Curling into ourselves…

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You said Yes.

“Thank you,” I said to the Lord while praying this morning.

“Thank YOU,” he answered.

“For what?” I asked, wondering what he could mean.

“You said Yes. That’s all I needed.”

Suddenly I knew he was referring to the summer day in 1972, when I asked Jesus to be my Manager, Lord of my life. He had been my Savior for many years, but Lord? No, not really.

On that particular day I had told him, “I’ve tried to manage my life my own way for a long time and it’s not working. Please come in and manage it for me.”

Several times over the years I’d heard him call my name, in a small still voice, “Bette.” I would just ignore it, shrug it off to my imagination and not respond. In the very back of my mind somewhere I was probably thinking, “Later.”

But now I was so desperate! So sad, so disappointed, so disillusioned with my life. That afternoon when he called my name, I answered. And in a split-second everything changed… (See https://estherspetition.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/all-things-became-new/.)

Blinking back some tears as I looked through my kitchen window, I had to look again. The grass looked greener! The pine tree was browner, the canna lilies were orangier — nothing was the same!

Amazed, I walked out to my back yard to look at everything up close and slowly recognized that the grass and tree weren’t new. I was new.

Rubbing my hand over the trunk of the pine tree, I realized that verse was true: If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature. (2 Corinthians 5:17) I was a new creation, with a new life, a new challenge, a new assignment, and a new identity.

Indeed, nothing has ever been the same since that day. Fifty years worth of images ran through my mind this morning, people and places, events and answered prayers. Healings. Deliverances. Callings…

So many things I would never have known or experienced, had Jesus not become Manager that day, Lord of my life.

I’m still thinking about what the Lord told me this morning, “You said Yes. That’s all I needed.” I’m so, so glad I finally did. I wish I’d done it much sooner.

(Also posted today, please see https://estherspetition.wordpress.com/2022/09/20/after-being-delivered-from-fear-of-their-faces/)

After being delivered from fear of their faces…

The rest of the story; to be continued, I suspect.

20 September 2022

Lately I’ve been thinking back to all the people I’ve talked to since being delivered from “fear of their faces” in the summer of 1972.

(See https://estherspetition.wordpress.com/2014/06/28/fear-of-their-faces-2/)

All the Bible college classes I’ve taught. All the Sunday School classes. The public addresses (teaching, preaching, or speaking on a variety of subjects) to small and large crowds, even whole congregations (GOP, Christian Coalition).

The personal interviews I’ve done with new business clients (Executive Services and S.C. Family Memories), civic group and club addresses to talk about the need to preserve family histories for our children, grandchildren, and future generations. Television interviews given for the same reason, with a host I’d never met before.

I thought about all the on-air interviews I’d done with guests from every aspect of the business, social and political world here in South Carolina, on my very own talk radio program (Talk With Bette; my husband Tim was my program director). Hospital presidents, college presidents, businessmen and women, chairs of civic clubs, representatives of state organizations, candidates for political office or elected officials themselves.

Then there are the many interviews I did while serving as a volunteer with OM Ships, talking with total strangers in two foreign countries (Iceland and Germany), as well as on board two ships operated by OM Ships (Logos II and Logos Hope).

I campaigned for (and won) a position on the South Carolina Commission on Women, where I had to appear for confirmation before an argumentative SC Senate Committee Hearing. Some people didn’t want me confirmed because of my pro-life stance on women’s issues. I also campaigned for an appointment to the SC Board of Education, not as complicated to win but not automatic either.

The formal meetings of both those groups were with people I had never met. Discussions could be heated and lengthy, so many issues were far from simple!

I ran twice and won twice for the office of First Vice Chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, when our current Governor was Chairman. I had opposition from another faithful (but not pro-life) GOP member. Campaigning was active, meeting and persuading many GOP representatives from across the state to support me. I was nominated and campaigned to serve as a Presidential Elector in the 1996 Presidential election for the SC 6th Congressional District. I won that election also — I had no opposition!

During all those years Tim and I helped to recruit and then assisted other candidates to run for office, requiring many working committee meetings, emails and phone conversations with newly-met people.

Then there were the non-profit organizations that Tim and I founded and ran, including one against legalizing video poker in SC (won that one), another opposing a South Carolina lottery (lost that one, unfortunately). Both required talking to a great many people one-on-one or in groups.

Most of all those were people I had never met before. While making a number of new friends along the way, there were many I would never see again. But being with them I experienced no shyness, no panic attacks, no fear of any kind! Sometimes I’d have a little “nervousness,” a feeling that I soon came to realize was actually the anointing of the Holy Spirit to do a work he had called me to do. And has called me to keep doing!

Teaching, preaching, sharing, caring (and writing, too) are callings of God. Assignments that require listening, hearing, understanding, and obeying that still small voice that first whispered my name as a little girl. “Bette,” he would call. For years I ignored him, put him off, tried to explain it away as merely my imagination.

In 1972 I finally answered that voice, asked him to be Lord of my life, and things have never been the same since!

Who are we in Christ?

We were created by God in his own image to be his own child, to do what He wants, when, where and how He wants, in order to get the results He wants.

And He made us with free will to choose to be and do that, or not.

Since starting this study, almost every day the Holy Spirit brings me another scripture with another facet of our identity in Christ to add to my notes. The following is in sort of a haphazard order, despite my attempts to make a logical step-by-step list.

I’m sure there are other descriptions and scriptures that could be added so I’m not going to publish this as “all inclusive.” Now and then He tells me, “It will ALL be helpful, you’ll see,” so I keep listening, keep studying, keep praying, and typing.

(If you get bored with this long list, just quit reading, but please don’t quit thinking about this subject, or asking the Lord for yourself: WHO AM I? He’ll find a way to answer you.)

How we live our daily lives, how we share God’s word, how we witness, even how we pray and intercede, are all related to that one essential question:

Who are we in Christ?

• “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
• We are in Christ, everything else is derived from that truth. “For in him we live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28, John 14:20
• We are also inhabited by God: (1) by the Father, (2) by Jesus, and (3) by the Holy Spirit, John 14:17-23. All the Trinity make their home inside us.
• We were created in God’s image, Genesis 1:27
• Chosen, (1) He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, Ephesians 1:4; (2) God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13; (3) you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, 1 Peter 2:9
• Forgiven of all sins, Colossians 2:13-14
• Free, not condemned, Romans 8:1-2
• Saved by grace, God’s free gift to us, Ephesians 2:8
• … through faith, also a gift from God, Ephesians 2:8
• … faith that comes by hearing and believing God’s word, Romans 10:17
• … his own faith was offered by Jesus to the disciples and to us, Mark 11:22
• We are now the righteousness of God, 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Made an entirely new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Sons of God, adopted; also led by the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:14-16
• Heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, Romans 8:17
• Made one spirit with Him, I Corinthians Cor. 6:17
• Friends of Jesus, John 15:13-15, also see 2 Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23
• Taught by the Holy Spirit, who will also bring back to our remembrance whatever Jesus taught us; He will also show us the future, John 14:26
• God’s workmanship, Ephesians 2:10, also see verse 8
• Being changed (metamorphosized) from glory to glory, 2 Corinthians 3:18, also see Colossians 1:27
• Unfinished; God began a good work in me and will continue to perform it, Philippians 1:6;
• A life-long learner; I am continually learning and adding to what I have received and know, 2 Peter 1:3-8
• God’s workers to do what he ordained for us beforehand, Ephesians 2:10
• Co-laborers (co-workers) with God to do those things, 1 Corinthians 3:9; also see 2 Corinthians 6:1
• As Jesus is, so are we in this world, I John 4:17
• Imitators of God and of Christ, the word “followers” is literally translated imitators, Ephesians 5:1
• Imitators of Paul as he imitates Christ, I Corinthians 4:16, 11:1
• Seated with Christ in the heavenly places, Ephesians 2:6, also see 1:20-23
• Spiritual warriors, 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; in a war, whether we know it or not
• Armed and armored, Ephesians 6:11-17
• More than conquerors, Romans 8:37-39

What is our assignment?

• Replenish planet earth, subdue it and have dominion over it, Genesis 1:26-28
• Seek the kingdom of God, Matthew 6:33, Luke 12:31-32, which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” Romans 14:17
• Because “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:31-32
• Reign with him on earth now, in this lifetime, Romans 5:17, Revelation 5:10; 20:4-6; 22:5
• Do what Jesus did, i.e make disciples, teach them to observe what he commanded the first disciples: (1) preach the kingdom, (2) heal the sick, (3) cleanse the lepers, (4) raise the dead, and (5) cast out demons; Matthew 28:18-20
• Do even greater works, i.e. deeds, than Jesus did, John 14:12-13
• Do the works ordained by God for us beforehand, Ephesians 2:10
• Be co-workers with him, I Corinthians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 6:1
• Be ambassadors for him, 2 Corinthians. 5:20
• God is in us to will and to do his good pleasure; allow him to do that, Philippians 2:13
• Do everything in love, I Corinthians 16:14 (agape, God-kind of love)
• Walk (live, behave) in love, Ephesians 5:2
• Give thanks in everything – no matter what happens around us, there are always things to be thankful for, I Thessalonians 5:18
• Offer the sacrifice of praise, Hebrews 13:15
• Pray without ceasing, I Thessalonians 5:17
• Pray in the Spirit, Ephesians 6:18
• Pray with all prayer and supplication, Ephesians 6:18
• Pray God’s will and then we know we have what we requested, I John 5:14-15
• Receive answers to prayer, thus receiving fullness of joy, John 15:11, 16:24
• Note: many scriptures instruct believers to pray. None say pray for the sick, however, except for James 5:14: a sick person should call for the elders of the church who will anoint him with oil and then they pray over him. Jesus commanded disciples to heal the sick, not pray for the sick.

How can we do that?

• Know God and Jesus, John 17:3
• Be led by the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:14-16
• Receive faith, Mark 11:22, Ephesians 2:8, Romans 10:17
• Live by faith, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Galatians 2:20
• Receive the baptism (and thus God’s power – dunamis) of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:8
• Be being filled with the Holy Spirit; this is a continuous verb, not a one-time event, Ephesians 5:18
• Be a co-laborer with God, not a “lone ranger,” 1 Corinthians 3:9
• Know who we are in Christ, know who God is and who the enemy is, John 10:10
• Know our authority on the earth, Matthew 10:1, Luke 9:1, the same as the original disciples / apostles, Matthew 28:18-20
• He gave them power and authority, Luke 9:1, 10:17-19, the 70 returned in joy; he gave them authority over all the power of the enemy; also applies to us
• Fight the good fight of faith, 1 Timothy 6:12
• Submit to God, then resist the devil, and he will flee from you, James 4:7
• Resist the devil steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world, I Peter 5:9
• Desire all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I Corinthians 12-14
• Covet the best spiritual gifts (i.e. most appropriate for the need) I Corinthians 12:31; especially covet to prophesy, I Corinthians 14:39
• Expect Jesus to manifest himself to us, John 14:21
• Abide in him, allow his word to abide in us; then we can ask and it is done, John 15:7
• Be transformed (metamorphosized) by the renewing, i.e. renovation of the mind (Greek word nous, way of thinking and understanding), Romans 12:2
• We have the mind of Christ, his way of thinking and understanding as he is in us, 1 Corinthians 2:16
• Take advantage of the information, training and equipment available in God’s word, 2 Peter 1:3-8
• Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, Ephesians 6:10
• Be spiritually armed and armored with the whole armor of God, Ephesians 6:11-17
• Realize that we can do all things through Christ, Philippians 4:13
• Allow the fruit of the spirit to grow and develop in our lives, Galatians 5:22-24
• Allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, John 16:13
• Live and walk (act, behave) in the spirit, Galatians 5:25
• Continue living and acting by the spirit, not by keeping the law, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:1-3
• Be patient after doing the will of God, Hebrews 10:36
• Let patience do its perfect work so we will lack nothing, James 1:4
• Be patient with joyfulness, Colossians 1:11
• Be anxious for nothing, Philippians 4:6
• Do not be troubled or afraid, John 14:27, 1 John 4:18
• Let the peace of God rule in our heart, Colossians 3:15
• Be humble, 1 Peter 5:5-6
• Don’t think more highly of yourself than you should, Romans 12:3

Also see:

Paul’s prayers, good examples to pray for ourselves and others:

• Be enriched in utterance and knowledge, 1 Corinthians 1:4-8
• Have the spirit of wisdom and revelation, understanding the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints (Christians), Ephesians 1:16-19
• Be strengthened… comprehend… filled with the fullness of God; read entire passage, Ephesians 3:14-19
• Know and understand God’s will, Colossians 1:9,
• Be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, Ephesians 5:17
  

Faith is also a grace

Esther's Petition

Thoughts about grace…

God’s essence and character are love.

Love is expressed to the object of love.

Grace (gift, favor) is an expression of God’s love.

You can’t truly separate out just one aspect of God’s character from all the others.

Consider a red delicious apple – color, shape, aroma, texture, juiciness, flavor, peeling, seeds. It takes all those to make that particular type of apple.

When God extends his word, which contains his creative life, to me – an act of his grace – all his character is wrapped up in that word. (Does he believe his own word? Does he have faith in his own word?)

God’s own faith comes too.

Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God —not by works, so that no one can boast.

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A little learning is a dangerous thing!

Esther's Petition

What you don’t know will kill you.

    You know?
    What do you know?
    Who do you know?
    How do you know?

Everyday phrases like those seem to abound about knowing something. But what about NOT knowing something?

“If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.” (I Cor. 8:2 NASB)

Knowledge is defined as facts, truth, information, data; skills acquired through experience. Are those things important? Sure. More important than intuition? More essential than gut feelings? Yes and no.

When authentic (God-defined), knowledge has to be the foundation of our faith, set firmly in place before intuition or gut feelings can be depended on. The Holy Spirit can and does inform, lead and guide by what we might call intuition or gut feelings, but his advice relies completely on God’s word.

If you were…

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Not everything that happens is God’s will

“Woe unto them who call evil, good, and good, evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”           Isaiah 5:20

A few years ago, the Sunday School class I attended was studying the account of Jesus and the disciples, the boat and the storm. (Matthew 8, Mark 4)

They were all in a boat headed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee when a bad storm came up. Jesus was taking a nap and the panic-stricken disciples woke him up, saying “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38)

Jesus got up, rebuked the storm stopping it in its tracks, and then rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. (They could have stopped the storm themselves, without waking him up.)

One of the class members commented, “God must have been trying to kill Jesus with the storm, but then Jesus cancelled out God’s will by stopping the storm.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I asked her, “You don’t believe Jesus was God?” “Well, yes,” she said, “but everything that happens is God’s will, isn’t it?”

She looked puzzled when I strongly disagreed. The notion that everything bad and evil happening in the world is God’s will, his design, his doing — is calling evil, good, and good, evil.

God created man to have a will of his own, gave him authority to use it, and has never taken that authority back. God did not force Adam and Eve to disobey a direct command. He doesn’t force me, or you, or Hitler, or Jeffrey Dahmer, or a child rapist, or a terrorist, to commit evil.

It is not God’s will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, (2 Peter 3:9), yet some people do perish.

We are instructed to pray for leaders and government authorities, because it’s God’s will for “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:4) But not all people will be saved.

People have a free will of their own and some use it to make the wrong choices. The devil didn’t make them do it, and God didn’t make them do it.

If everything that happened was God’s will, why bother to pray? Just let “Whatever will be, will be.” But then some other scriptures would have to be torn out of the Bible…

Like Ephesians 6:2, “Honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.” That’s number Five of the Ten Commandments, quoted from Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16.

Well, maybe the Ten Commandments don’t apply any more? Or maybe they don’t apply to everybody?

Or maybe they don’t apply in any real sense, just in a wishy-washy sense that only applies to some sort of group dynamic? Not to individual persons, just the whole of mankind that will survive while some individuals are slaughtered at God’s whim?

Hogwash.

Many “if” statements are found throughout the Bible. If you do this, that will happen. It’s the eternal law of sowing and reaping.

Long life is one of those “ifs.” Deuteronomy 6:2, “… that thy days may be prolonged.” Deuteronomy 11:9, “And that ye may prolong your days in the land…” If they obeyed God’s Word, that is. But they didn’t, and their days weren’t prolonged.

What about bad things happening to good people? If God isn’t behind everything, then is he powerless? NOT omnipotent after all? Couldn’t he do something to stop it, if it wasn’t his will?

Yes, if God wanted to change himself, become an Indian-giver and a liar, he could. But he gave control of some things over to people.

We have an enemy, Satan, who hates God and us. He’s real; a real liar and a real murderer. He will kill us if he can, steal from us whatever he can take and destroy anything he can’t take. (John 10:10.)

Satan is the accuser, the liar, the deceiver, the murderer, and the leader-astray, but he can’t make us do anything against our will. He can certainly suggest sin, demonstrate how to do it and promise to reward it, but in the end he will be destroyed. Those who side with him will be destroyed, too.

Creator God told us to do certain specific things. He made promises and provisions to those who are in Christ. The global, spiritual warfare is real, the devastation is real, the pain is real, but God’s power is even more real. He loves to demonstrate that power through the lives of his people. If they will let him!

If prayer was useless and “que sera, sera” was true, why would we be told to pray so many times? If faith was powerless, why did Jesus urge the disciples to have God’s faith? If death and disaster was God’s will, why did God send the Holy Spirit and gifts of healing and miracles?

The choice to believe is ours, and I choose to believe God is good, his mercy endures forever, and his Word is true. Mark 11:23-24 is true. Mark 9:23 is true. Matthew 17:20 is true.

The problem isn’t in God or in his Word. The problem is in those who fall for the “que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be” nonsense and won’t pay the price to believe. Faith is ours for the taking, but it comes with a responsibility and a job description.

When somebody gets sick and dies, it’s easier to say it must have been God’s will and excuse unbelief, than to take responsibility for failure. The disciples failed, after all — they tried to cast out a demon from a sick child and failed. (Mark 9:14-29)

Jesus came along, took care of the problem, then explained to the disciples what they needed to do differently. Pray with fasting. Do you suppose they ignored Jesus after that and simply quit praying for the sick? I don’t think so.

Jerry Savelle came to Florence many years ago for a series of meetings about healing. He recalled an incident when a man complained to him, “Brother Jerry, you prayed for brother so and so, and he died!”

Jerry explained, “Everybody I pray for will die sooner or later, but that doesn’t excuse me from praying for him or for the next fellow,” and it doesn’t excuse us either.

(This article is from the Archives; originally titled Que Sera)

Angels are walking around Washington, DC

21 July 2022

As I was praying tonight, the Lord began describing his angels on assignment in America right now.

If you could see them in the spirit, he said, they would look like soldiers – marines, infantry, seals, paratroopers, etc., fully armed and armored.

But if you see them in the natural, you will think they are ordinary tourists, visitors, workers, men and women of all ages, youngsters and teenagers, all races, all economic backgrounds and ethnic groups.

They are walking around NYC, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Houston, San Diego, Los Vegas, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit and many other major cities. You’d never know they were angels, to look at them. They have specific assignments to do and they are busy doing it.

In Washington, DC, they are visiting every national monument, the Supreme Court, and getting in lines at every bus stop and subway station. They are walking the halls in Congress with all the tourists and visitors, walking the halls of the White House and the Congressional Office Buildings, looking for all the world like ordinary human beings.

But they aren’t. They may have on sneakers and jeans or slacks and dress shirts or dresses; they may have cameras, back packs or brief cases, like anyone else that visits DC every day of the week.

Anywhere ordinary people may be, every business, every museum, every attraction, but especially every place members of our government may be, they are there. More than any other time in our history.

Some are visible and can be plainly seen, but you’d never recognize them for what they really are: Watchmen. Guards. Protectors. Spies. Physical bodies to interfere or assist other physical bodies, keeping someone from being hurt, attacked, robbed, keeping someone from doing the hurt, attack or robbery.

God’s spiritual intelligence agents looking like your next door neighbor, your grandma, your teenager, your mailman or insurance agent. Observing, listening to instructions from the Holy Spirit, casually going about their “business.”

In places where the general public can’t go, they are invisible, but they are there. In every lobby, every elevator or staircase, every conference room, every hallway, every place committee meetings take place, in the House, the Senate, the office buildings, and in the White House complexes, in every place the general public is forbidden to enter, including the Oval Office and the private residence, they are there.

Why are they there, in greater numbers than ever before, right now? I asked the Lord.

They are carrying out the designated work begun by the intercessory prayers of God’s prayer warriors in recent weeks, months and years, he said.

They are doing the work, speaking the words, interfering with ungodly acts, inspiring godly acts, and physically doing things that you’d really not notice, generally speaking. Moving things around. “Losing” some things. Delaying some things, speeding up other things.

Throwing money wrenches. Creating disagreements and clashes between ungodly allies. Creating havoc and chaos in anti-godly agendas, plans, schedules, meetings, phone calls, text messages, video calls or appointments, in general doing what the Holy Spirit is assigning each one to do to get His will and purposes done.

All the while the Holy Spirit is also busy giving people ideas, good ideas of things to say, people to see, calls to make, texts and emails to write, making connections and getting things done with ease that would have been very difficult just a few days ago.

Many of those people are believers but some aren’t, they are just patriots who love America and want to see good values returned. Some of the invisible angels are serving as extra guards for those specific people, added protection to be sure they can actually accomplish those ideas without interference from the enemy.

Things are going to start happening faster and more suddenly than ever in the near future. Natural and supernatural things. Lots of activity is happening even tonight, and some unusual events may be reported in the media, but whether it is or not, it is happening.

Why are you telling us this? I wondered. His answer should have been obvious — it’s so we don’t quit. So we don’t get tired or discouraged or distracted by the stuff of living and just quit.

So that we will keep listening to the Holy Spirit and keep the prayers going that he inspires.  They are the engine that enables the change God wants, the outpouring of his Spirit, the harvest of souls, and the rescue of the special nation He designed and created for his purpose on the earth – to be a supply house for evangelism and harvesting of souls around the world.