Mark Virkler's blog

People are imperfect. They have their own agendas and fears and goals. I have heard many horror stories of authoritarian pastors damaging people’s faith as they abused "their" authority. Some have told their people that God doesn't speak today nor does He give dreams or do miracles. I even had one young lady in my class who was told by a prophet who she had to marry! One person who spoke to me had quit journaling because his pastor told him God wasn't speaking. Wow! We know what Jesus' thoughts are about those who damage a child's faith (Matt. 18:6 - better to be drowned).  

"I don’t mind submitting to God, Who is perfect, but to submit to people? No way! I wouldn’t submit my life to the counsel of any other person. It is my life and I am to take control and responsibility for it. Besides, others do not understand me well enough to have that kind of authority in my life. People are imperfect." I used to believe the lie that I should not trust the counsel of others.

Ten years into my Christian life I learned to discern God’s voice within my heart. The conversations we had made me feel like I was walking with Jesus and the disciples on the Emmaus Road. As Jesus opened the Scriptures to me, I could feel my heart burning within (see Lk. 24:32). Following is one of the conversations we had.

Jesus, I have believed from my youth up that I am to live out of the Bible. There is no way this can be wrong.

Jesus spoke: But it is.

This testimony is from Karen Smith, a graduate-level student at Christian Leadership University:

Even though I had been through the training on 4 keys to hearing God’s voice before, I am so glad that I took the Communion With God course on the graduate level! 

It was Jesus Who spoke these confrontational words, and He spoke them to the religious leaders of His day. Do you think He would speak them to the religious leaders of today? Let’s find out.

I had the privilege of interviewing Joshua Mills last week to discuss his excellent new book, Creative Glory - Embracing the Realm of Divine Expression. His passion is to help Christians access the limitless creativity available to them through the Holy Spirit's anointing.

Joshua points out that our heavenly Father is introduced to us in Scripture initially as Creator. Genesis 1:1 tells us that, "In the beginning, God created...." Now God could have introduced Himself to us with any one of His hundreds of attributes, but creativity was the one chosen. While many of us know the Lord as Savior, Healer, and Deliverer, in this season He is inviting us to know Him more intimately as Creator, allowing His Spirit of Creativity to flow in our hearts and out through our lives, transforming every sphere of society. 

Intercessors For America always has great articles guiding us in ways to pray effectively for our nation. Today's article strikes me as something I really needed to pass on to all my readers. It is titled "World's Largest Satanic Gathering - in the U.S."  

Now that we've grown up we realize how serious life can get. We see the evil, feel the weight of responsibility and challenges and stresses. It is so easy to decide it is time to set aside the childhood hopes and dreams and joy and fun, and get serious about life. Or maybe we just need to remain childlike... Following is journaling from Ruth Morgan.

If I fill my mind and heart daily with the evil taking place around me, I become fearful, angry, and depressed. This removes my Kingdom emotions of joy and peace (Rom. 14:17). The emotions of joy and peace turn on my immune system so I can walk in divine health. Fear, anger, and depression turn off my immune system so that cancer and other horrible diseases can develop, which I do not want!

Journaling submitted by Ruth Wilson

Ruth: Lord, my friend Dani died!  I thought she was being healed!  Lord, we saw visions of her running, and fully healed, and she was making wonderful progress physically!  Her cancer was confirmed gone!  But what happened?  Did we not pray hard enough?  Did I let my friend down?  How did I miss something?

I see Jesus - His eyes are blue and like diamonds.  His smile is HUGE.  Jesus is happy that she is with Him.