Book Review: Following God’s Plan For Your Life :: Rachel

This book was the first book that I have read by Kenneth Hagin.  Based on how much knowledge he has, I knew that his books would have a lot of wisdom as well.  It’s always refreshing to refill your mind with biblical thoughts and ideas.  But just reading books that are filled with God’s Word, isn’t enough.  Application is what really matters when it comes to becoming more like Christ through what you’ve read.  This book was a run through of how God can and will lead us.  The book was divided up into 7 parts with various topics such as running our race, obeying God, and being examples to others through Love.  Here are a few of my highlights from the book:

• Running Our Christian Race – Hebrews talks about running the race that is set before us, and throwing off anything that easily entangles us.  I have heard this before, but what stuck out the most is where it talks about the “great cloud of witnesses”.  I always have thought of this as how Christians should be examples of God to others so we must live our lives according to Christ since others are always watching our actions.  Although this is definitely a good way to view this, Kenneth Hagin puts it another way.  He says that the witnesses mentioned are actually a “grandstand of people” including Bible heroes, cheering us along as we run our race.  This really excited me to think about how Abraham, Paul, and Moses are cheering us on from above while we live our lives for Christ.  I had never thought about it that way before, and I thought that was awesome!
• Find your own personal race – God has a specific plan and purpose for our lives and we should run the track that God has placed us on.  Don’t compare your race to someone else’s and try to copy how they are living their lives.  God had a uniquely-made race that fits you perfectly and it’s our job to do our best and follow his special plan for us.
• Be Willing – God has so much potential for us, and for us to limit God and not be willing to do the task he’s placed before use, we are disobeying God.  In order for God to develop us, we must be willing to do anything for God and not ignore what he has asked us to do.
• Being Recognized By Our Glow – Because we are Christians, we are being recognized whether we want to be or not.  If we are living a true Christian life devoted to God, His light will shine through us onto others.  But if we act differently around different groups of people, His light in us will diminish because we are ashamed of being an example.  This glow in us is recognizable and it is important for us to maintain the glow by reading God’s Word and spending time with God everyday.  This way that light won’t burn out but stay lit because we are doing our part.  Let God do the rest, and make sure you don’t limit His light from coming out of you.

Those were just a few things that I thought were great take-aways from this book.  If you would like a refresher on how God leads and directs us, than this is awesome book.  Make sure that you don’t read a too much at once because there is a lot of information to soak in.  This was an overall good book and I would rate it an 8 out of 10.

Thankfulness: Just like David Did :: Lisa

“Amen! Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”   -Revelation 7:12

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! -2 Corinthians 9:14

God is the Creator of the Universe and the Maker of all of the Heavens, and He still spends His time thinking about you. God is so good to us and has blessed us beyond measure and we sometimes forget to thank Him for all that He does.

Being thankful is not an act but an attitude. The best example of a thankful attitude is David’s. All throughout Psalms, David praised our Creator and expressed his feelings in a way that we should try to imitate. He knew that God deserved credit and appreciation for every good thing in his life. In the Bible, praising God and having a spirit of thankfulness is stated close to 450 times. We can infer then, that part of leading a passionate life for God majorly includes being thankful.

Every day, I encourage you to pick out at least 3 things that you are especially thankful for and write them down in a thankfulness journal so when you look back years later, you can reflect on how blessed you truly are. Sometimes when we are having a bad day, we forget the good things we have in life, and keeping a journal like this one can help remind us to give thanks to God everyday!

Book Review: Following God’s Plan For Your Life :: Ariel

Following God’s Plan For Your Life by Kenneth E. Hagin is definitely a book I would recommend.   It covers all the major areas about following God.

Some of the things that really stuck out to me were:

• It doesn’t cost to obey God, it pays! It may cost you sickness and disease, but it will give you everything you need.
• You need to pray not only about what His plan is, but also about when and how.
• If you know what God wants you to do, don’t wait around for more spectacular guidance.
• What is happening in your life, good or bad,  is a result of what you have or have not prayed out.
• Maintaining  a Spirit-filled life will affect you in every area of your life.
• Lastly, I learned about love (Love the Ultimate Commandment).

I would definitely suggest reading this book.  It will help you learn how to follow God’s plan for you and help you in ways you did not even know it could.

The Next Generation Leader (Book Review) :: Anna

Am I the only one who admired Mulan as a child? I mean, she was pretty, a master with chopsticks, could sing, and had enough courage to be a man and fight the Huns. Wow.  After reading the book “The Next Generation Leader” by Andy Stanley, I can categorize someone like Mulan as a next generation leader.

What do I mean by that? Well, this book is targeted toward people taking the reins from their predecessor to guide the next generation. The book includes five ways that these leaders will be effective, and I have used Mulan to show these principles in action.

1) Competency – These leader focus on what they do best, though tendency is to “do it all”. (Mulan knew she wasn’t meant to merely conform to society, but found her place was to be a warrior, and becomes a heroine.)

2) Courage - When a leader sees a problem, they are bold and act. Opportunities come to ones who act in spite of fear. (Mulan, though afraid, went courageously into war with the disadvantage of being a girl in the midst of strong, experienced men. She never let dangers stop her.)

3) Clarity – The leader knows or is clear about their direction while the outcome is uncertain. (Mulan is set on helping her father and finding herself, so she risks everything and goes into the unknown)

4) Coaching – The leader has a trustful person that helps them see their potential and take them higher. (Hey, Mulan had Mushu to help her.)

5) Character – One must never let their behavior be outside of their beliefs, n0 matter the cost. (Mulan does the right thing again and again despite the possibility of rejection, failure, or even death)

This book expanded me as a leader, and now I can be like Mulan. I recommend this book (and the movie Mulan) to anyone God has called to lead.

Book Review: Following God’s Plan For Your Life :: Michael

I liked this book because it helped me to know the main ways the Holy Spirit leads believers. The 3 main ways are: through the inward witness, the still small voice, and the authoritative voice of the Holy Spirit. This is a good book for any one that wants to learn more about the Holy Spirit. Another thing Kenneth Hagin said was it doesn’t cost anything to obey God it pays. If you don’t obey him, it may cost you dollars and cents. It may cost you sickness, disease, and premature death. Over all this was a good book and I would recommend it to any one how wants to grow in God.

Patience & Prayer :: Anjelica

32 Better to be patient than powerful;
better to have self-control than to conquer a city. ~Proverbs 16:32

Lately, God has really been showing me a lot about being patient and waiting for His timing. There’s a lot of times in life that we’re going to have to wait and be patient when we don’t want to. As teens and young adults we want immediate results but in most cases that won’t happen. Recently I got my whole life stolen at Cedar Point (as most of you know) well not my life, but my phone, sunglasses, digital camera, and coach wallet filled with my identity (license, soc security, insurance, cash..) I was seriously shocked that the last ride of the night someone jacked my stuff! Speed sprinting from the Maverick to the front of the park security is not fun, let me tell you. I became so impatient with the security officer and was having the hardest time keeping the mind of Christ. I felt like I was going to blow up on him at any minute. Not to mention i wanted to tackle every pedestrian carrying a blue draw-string bag on thier back. That night I got over it. Yes, being phoneless sucked and whats the point of having a purse with nothing in it? But I got over it and gave it to God. I know He cares for me and wants me to be happy, so why did a Lord-loving girl like me get stolen from?

I believe this was a lesson of patience for me. I waited on the Lord and trusted Him. I spoke positively over the situation and kept reminding myself that material things can be replaced and no one can steal my identity or stalk me because God is always protecting me, and everything evil bows to Him. How awesome is it to have authority over our lives?! Almost 3 weeks later I recieved a package in the mail from CP. Enclosed was every belonging that I had lost except my phone and cash in PERFECT condition. God is sooo amazingly good and His power and love never ceases to amaze me! Prayer and patience can definitely change any situation, no matter how long the period of waiting will be, just trust your Father and worship Him. He’s already pulled through for you!

It kinda reminds me of the song While I’m Waiting” by John Waller.
While i’m waiting, I will serve you while i’m waiting…
I will worship while i’m waiting…
I will not fade I’ll be running the race…even while I wait…

A Difficult Journey :: Cianna

Recently in my life, I have had to deal with my self-worth. My whole life I  always compared myself to other people and was jealous of what they had. When you’re small, that’s not really a big deal. But as I have gone into my teenage years, it developed into something I’ve had to deal with.

For over two years I tore myself down day after day. I would go to school and compare everything about me to my friends; my stuff, my personality, how I looked. I began to feel insecure to whether people liked me or not. At first, I didn’t notice and neither did my family or friends; but eventually I developed a negative attitude towards everything and could find nothing to make me happy for a long period of time. I started to isolate myself from my family and friends, and shyness would overtake me in situations I never had a problem with before.

It was like I had taken my confidence and made it disappear. But I covered up what was wrong so well, it was a long time before I was made to deal with my thought life. It started with my parents, they pulled me aside and told me that they were worried. That then led to a long period of time where I had to come out of denial and really look at the way I was viewing myself, and it was not easy.

It was then that God dealt with me about how I was looking at things. He showed me that I was looking to people for my worth, not Him. He sees me wonderfully and perfectly, and that is the way I should have been looking at myself. Verses started to pop out at me that I never noticed before. He showed me his love through people in my life that poured into me and helped me through what I was dealing with without even knowing it. He opened my eyes to how ridiculous and superficial my thoughts were.

There are still so many times that I go back to my old ways of thinking, and once again I have to look to Him to correct myself. I’ve had train my mind to process things a different way, and it still gives me trouble. But finally after two and a half years of hating myself, I feel peace. Peace that His love gave me.

Song of Solomon 4:7- You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.

Genesis 1:27- So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Psalm 139:13-14- For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Impartation 2010 :: Cianna

The Impartation meetings that were held at Victory Family Church at the beginning of June really impacted my life. We had the priviledge of having Pastor Doug Jones and Pastor Keith Moore minister.

Pastor Doug Jones ministered to us about the subject Healing. In my own life, healing has not been a huge issue. But I have had to trust in God in many areas of my life and this really helped me.

In healing, you have to know more about God than your issue. Many people try using faith, but they go into it knowing all the bad things about their issue, and not enough about God’s Word. Most of the time, ignorance is the reason people do not follow through with their faith. Also, you have to be fully persuaded about your faith; and confessing things that do not line up with what you are beleiving for will not help your situation.

This helped me so much in my own life because I have been beleiving for some things and he gave me the keys to what I have been missing.

Keith Moore ministered to us in the evening services. His sermons focused on walking in God’s light. He explained how it pays off in life and how walking in darkness is detrimental to anything you do.

I know that this is something every Christian has to evaluate at points in their life, and it really changed how I looked at things and the way I act.

Impartation 2010 really brought some light to my life.

Impact! +ed ’10 :: Nathan

This was Revolution’s first year at Impact and it was the jam! Josh Joines, Associative Pastor and Creative Arts/Media director of Faith Family Church threw down the word at Impact 2010.  His primary message was on love and making an impact in the world around you.

Night 2 of ISC Josh pointed out that “Loving God and people should be who we are”. Everything and every person was created out of one thing; love, it’s the only reason we exist and will continue to exist for eternity.  1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love”.  God IS Love, God sees us always with a sort “love filter” in front of his eyes. So what if we saw the world through God’s eyes? God’s eyes see people! If our heart is so lost in his we will have the vision his heart has for us, which is people. Our job is to go out and make an Impact through love in the lives of every nation.  It is what we are called to do.

Josh said that “Your life won’t be acknowledged on what you’d like to do, it be on what you did do”. We are called to make a difference, with passion and talent that God has put in us. I’m going to change the world! What are you going to do?

Masterpiece :: Ariel

At some point in time most people struggle with self-image.  We need to realize that we are exactly who God created us to be.  We are not a mistake.  God loves us unconditionally if we will only realize it and accept his love!

Eph 2:10 God has made us what we are.  He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.

Psalm 139:17-18  How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God! How vast in number they are! If I try to count them, there would be more of them than there are grains of sand When I wake up, I am still with you.

We need to take the time to let God show us just how much he loves us.  We are an original! We are the only copy of us.  Just like an art masterpiece like the Mona Lisa, you can not compare two totally different things.  We need to start looking at ourselves the way God sees us.  God will always be there, and he will always love you.  He is always ready to tell you how beautiful you are!