Eagles don't live to make impressions on others; they ARE impressive.

I met someone the other day that understands me fully. Finally! ...someone who
really understands me! He told me to tell you that he understands you fully too.
He also told me that he wants to hear from you more often and that he loves to
hear your voice and see your face. He said he will listen to you intently and
compassionately. He also said you will feel better after sharing everything with
him. You've just got to meet my new friend! He is truly awesome. Now that I think
of it, I guess the reason he said he fully understands you might be the fact that
he also created you.
God likes noise! He created it and He wants it to come back to glorify Him! As a
matter of fact, He loves it! So God is a noisy God. Heaven is a noisy place. And
He wants His people to be a noisy people of praise. The local church ought to be
a noisy place where great crescendos of musical instruments are heard, where
saints are yelling out shouts of victory at the top of their lungs, and where swells
of corporate worship resound in the ears of God. God values noise and volume.
He cherishes it so much that the Bible is copiously replete with His commands to
"make a joyful noise!" Understand this: God places a Premium on any child of
His that will defy their natural personality to getting noisy in His presence. God
likes our noise!
Psalm 100:1-2 KJV - "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the
LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing."
Psalm 33:3 KJV - "Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise."
Psalm 98:4 KJV - "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud
noise, and rejoice, and sing praise."
There is great power in a believer's shout!
Ezra 3:13 KJV - "So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of
joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a
loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off."
It feels better to shout than to pout! Go ahead and let it rip! Let out a holler for the
Lord! And another.

Could it be that there is innate power in The Shout? Perhaps there is an endless
reservoir of supernatural power yet to be discovered. Maybe that reservoir can
only be tapped into through The Shout. Maybe there really is life and power in
anything God has commanded us to do. You reckon?
We need to get louder yet!
We have not yet begun to praise Him. The world ain't seen nothin' yet!
In the Bible, Jesus is called "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah!" Judah means
"praise" in the Hebrew. And the last I heard, lions still rrrrrRRRRoarrrrr! The
picture we get here is that of a lion roaring out praise! And since Jesus is our
Lord, that makes us of the Tribe of Praise too. So we ought to be roaring out His
praises without shame or embarrassment. Everybody ought to know who The
King Of The Jungle really is. And it is our roaring praises that will remind them
that The King is present indeed.
Praise invokes God's felt presence. Then His presence invokes our true worship.
Then our worship ushers in His manifested glory! And finally, His manifested
glory causes us to be awestruck in the presence of a holy God that could love us
so.
It all starts with praise. Praise gets us THERE. Then worship keeps us THERE.
And THERE is where He is, where we belong, and where we are gloriously
changed! THERE!
O Lord, please drastically change me. Radically alter me. Marvelously transform
me into Jesus' likeness, I ask. Go for it, God; I trust You with my whole life, the
darkest recesses of my mind, and the deepest places of my inmost self. Go
ahead, Father; Father me! Make me holy, HOLY Spirit. Don't leave me the same.
In Jesus name!
Someone has said, "No one has ever yet drowned in their own sweat!"
Someone else said, "How do you spell ministry? W.O.R.K."

God cannot bless laziness. God blesses "hard work and smart work." (Diligence)
When a Christian won't labor in the work of the Lord, he is demonstrating that he
has little respect for the work Jesus did for him on the cross.
Grateful saints get involved working for the Lord. Selfish saints won't lift a finger.
Withholding the tithe proves a person is ungrateful to the Lord.
Thankful people want others to experience Jesus too, so they tithe and they work
in the house of God.
Ungrateful people won't give to the Lord and they won't work for the Lord. They
are so unthankful to the Lord for their eternal salvation and for all their blessings,
that they could care less about anyone else but themselves.
Mike Murdock: "What you are ungrateful for, you will not respect. What you do
not respect, you will not attract. And what you don't attract, you cannot have."
Christian living is NOT boring. Far from it! If you are bored, there is a recent
instruction from God that you have failed to obey. When you are walking in
obedience, there is a natural excitement that occurs within you. When you are
doing what He tells you, life turns into an adventure. So if boredom has set in,
examine your life and ask the Lord to remind you again of the last instruction He
gave you which you may have failed to carry out. God does not like to be
ignored. He really does expect us to obey Him fully. We cannot neglect His
leadings and promptings any more than we can neglect His Biblical commands.
When we fail to obey, there is an equal and opposite reaction that occurs in our
hearts called boredom, also known in Biblical terminology as "leanness of soul."
Psalm 106:15 KJV - "And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their
soul."
I wish I could count how many times I have asked the Father to "POUR HIS
WINE AND OIL INTO THIS SITUATION OR INTO THIS PERSON" and have
witnessed such marvelous results from such a simple prayer. "Father, I ask you

to pour your wine and oil into..." Amazing! To receive such awesome answers
from such a short request! How gracious and kind and merciful is our God! O
how I love Him! Maybe it's not how long we pray, but just how sincerely we pray.
Could it be that the Lord treasures simplicity? Maybe He's not looking for deep
theology, but just a heart who cares enough to breath a simple prayer over
someone else, or a heart that is humble enough to ask for His help in their own
situation. Or perhaps He is saying, "JUST ASK ME!" "Father, I ask you to pour
Your wine and oil into..."
Apostolic pastors (founders, pioneers and flaming visionaries) will always draw
more attack than the average pastor because they are on the front lines where
they are more of a threat to the devil and where they are also more vulnerable to
attack. The wise apostolic pastor knows this, so he stays in the Word and prayer,
rebukes the devil, forgives the vessels used by Satan, and then just "keeps on
keepin' on," chalking it all up as just going with the territory!
Some people have spirits attached to their lives whose mission is to wear down
and wear out pastors by draining them of their focus, time and attention through
chronic repetitive disorder in their lives that has to be addressed again and again
by the pastor.
Other people have spirits attached to their lives whose mission is to directly
attack and destroy pastors with their mouths.
Still other people have spirits attached to their lives whose mission is to trip up
pastors by methodically setting them up to make a mistake or to take a fall.
Sweet Release only comes after Sweet Surrender! People tend to want the
Sweet Release in their hearts, but don't want to spend the time in God's
presence to surrender to Him first. One must YIELD FIRST... BEFORE one can
experience a release.
PRAYER: "PLOP, PLOP, FIZ, FIZ, O WHAT A RELIEF IT IS!" Plop that problem
over onto the Lord's shoulders. Fizzle over with trust and praise, and enjoy the
blessed relief!
If I don't step out and obey God, God might have to find someone else who will.
NO THANKYA! AIN'T NOBODY GONNA STEAL MY BLESSING!

Only offer steak to those with an appetite for it. Don't waste your time trying to
force-feed those with no appetite for the message you're offering. Identify the
hungry, and concentrate on ministering to them. Those who repetitively fail to
discern the value of what you're serving them and who refuse to be faithful,
disqualify themselves for further investment of your time and energy. They also
disqualify themselves for certain privileges like access to your counsel and the
right to offer suggestions as well.
If God loved me enough to give me His best, how much more will He take care of
the rest.
Closure is a gift from heaven, even if the results weren't exactly what I had in
mind. Living in a state of lingering limbo, in almost any context, can be very
unhealthy.
God is not the author of limbo, but of decisiveness.
Jesus the Pastor and Leader surrounded Himself with concentric circles of
support groups, from very close to not so close. The closest circle was the Three
- Peter, James and John. Then the twelve. Then the women who traveled with
them and ministered to him of their substance. Then the 70. Then the 120. Then
the 300. The last circle, but still to a certain degree it was a support group, was
the 500. And finally there were the crowds that listened to him. Every leader
needs rings of support persons surrounding him with varying levels of intimacy,
input, and feedback. The wise leader needs to view these concentric circles of
people around his life not only as sets of people to whom he is to minister and
mentor, but also as various people who have differing levels of access and input
into his own life.
You only possess authority in those areas of your life where you have discovered
a personal gifting or developed a specific skill.
You must be in your element.
To be successful and happy, you must discover your unique giftedness.
You must throw yourself into your calling and giftings.

When you are operating in your unique gifting, there is a flow, a rhythm, a
continuity, and a deep sense of fulfillment in your life. When you neglect your
gifting or if you fail to discover it, there will be a leanness in your soul because
you feel unfruitful.
Your gifting is the answer to someone else's need. Your unique anointing is the
solution to someone's problem.
Your gifting is not for your own entertainment or to send you on an ego trip, but is
simply a part of God Himself that He deposited in you for the purpose of serving
others.
Giving more and more attention to trying to fix your weaknesses is an exercise in
futility. Instead... Give yourself to your strengths more zealously, and your
weaknesses will begin to wane.
WHERE you do what you do best is just as important as WHAT you do best.
Orange seeds are best at growing orange trees. However, they won't grow in
Alaska. My favorite flower is the Wisteria vine, but it cannot flourish in every soil,
every climate, and every geographic location. So if you don't mind, let me state
this again... WHERE you do what you do best is just as important as WHAT you
do best!
Though your emotions and your situation(s) be screaming at you, "There is no
help for you in God" and, "Aha, where is your God now?", The Blood on the
mercy seat of Heaven and sprinkled in your heart is screaming louder still, "But
thou, O Lord, art a Shield for me, my Glory, and the Lifter of my head!" Go ahead
and set yourself in agreement with The Blood, and boldly proclaim the same out
of your mouth!(Read Psalm 3)
I'd rather fail stepping out than succeed staying in.
If as a local church, we grow His kingdom, God will grow our church.
If as a local church, we add souls to God, God will add saints to us.

If as a local church through world missions we increase the size of God's family,
He'll increase the size of our local church family.
If as a local church, we stay focused on winning others outside, He'll reach inside
our church anytime our "body" needs a chiropractic adjustment from Heaven. Dr.
Jesus knows just what our body of believers needs. The body must focus on the
Lord and His work, and let the Lord focus on the body.
It's alright to have Stuff, as long as your Stuff doesn't have you.
The only Stuff we can take to heaven is the Stuff we send ahead of us with by
our generous giving to God's purposes.
Wear your Stuff like a loose coat and don't get too attached to any of it. God
reserves the right at any time to ask you to transfer any of the Stuff he has
placed at your disposal. Besides, Stuff has a way of wearing out, or disappearing
over time anyhow. Stuff only gives us a short-lived buzz too - the newness of
Stuff wears off pretty quick! Moreover, Stuff just isn't eternal; only souls are! Stuff
is just tools to meet the needs of humanity on this side of The Curtain. After all,
God's Word teaches that all our Stuff is one day going to melt by a fervent heat,
and God will fold up this earth as we know it and all the Stuff in it, like a worn out
piece of cloth.
Have some FUN today!
Consider writing a note or email of thanksgiving and praise to one significant
other in your life, once a week. Perhaps you could start today. Fertilize your
friendships. Polish your relationships. Keep the love connection open and
flowing. People need to be told and retold how much they mean to you. They will
be encouraged and you will feel refreshed as you express yourself to them in
writing! Your note might just revolutionize their day!