Jesus Lives Videotaping.

I'm finishing the editing for the Jesus Lives videos. I'm just so in awe of what God has done to bring this Bible study to life. I'm so grateful to everyone who played a role and participated in it. May God reach people with the truth of who His Son is and the Savior of the world. May He take it to the people that He wants to know Him!

Drawn to Jesus

Drawn to Jesus

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”

Matthew 4:23-25

While my friend Wilma and I were talking the other day, she told me that she was preparing her heart for Resurrection Sunday through a devotion book. She said she had been thinking a lot about what drew people to Jesus. Before we could go any further, the church service started, and our conversation had to end. However, God would not let that go in me. He asked me to start preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and to meditate on the people’s attraction to Jesus.

Jesus traveled from town to town preaching the good news. I imagine His arrival caused quite a racket. A crowd followed Him as He traveled throughout the region. He had captivated their attention. People stayed for days on a hillside to hear Him teach – forsaking their work and neglecting their need for food. Of course, they need not worry about a thing in the presence of Jesus. He provided a meal for thousands of them on two recorded occasions.

When He entered a new town, most people were probably going about their daily chores. Then someone may have shouted something like, “Jesus is coming. The Healer is on His way.” “Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, everyone,” or “The Prophet Jesus is here! He is here!” The people laid down their tools and set aside their cleaning to rush to hear His words and see Him.

He was a friend to any sinner; the nature of the sin, social position, race, or ethnicity didn’t matter. He demonstrated this best when He met the Samaritan woman at the well and asked her for a drink of water. A Jewish man would never speak to a Samarian woman and make Himself unclean – especially if he knew what kind of woman she was. Jesus didn’t point His finger at the town’s scandalous woman. The Living Water filled the dark recesses of her soul and rescued her from bondage. She said to the people that she brought back to meet Him, “Come meet a man who told me everything that I have ever done.” She was not just amazed that Jesus knew her before she met Him, but she was also amazed that He still treated her like she was valuable and worthy of meeting the Messiah.

People were also attracted to Jesus because He genuinely cared about them. Jesus showed compassion on the paralytic (Mark 1:40-45). The Greek word for compassion means that He was moved from deep inside of Him. He forgave him of his sins and made his crippled legs walk. In the funeral procession for a widow’s son, Jesus saw him being carried out of the city gate. When He saw her, His heart went out to her, and He comforted her by saying, “Don’t cry” (Luke 7:13). Then He raised her son from the dead.

Jesus also attracted some religious leaders who understood that He must be from God. When Nicodemus, a religious leader, came to Jesus by night, he said to Him in John 3:2-3 (The Message), “ ‘Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it.’ Jesus said, ‘You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to--to God's kingdom.’ ”

People were also magnetized to Jesus because of His teaching. Many times Scripture tells us that when Jesus finished teaching the crowds were amazed “because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:29).

Above all His kindness, compassion, authority, knowledge, teaching, and power, the overwhelming reason why people were attracted to Jesus was that He was the answer to all of their needs. Whatever problems they brought Him, He could solve. Whatever issues that lay deep in their hearts that they may not be able to identify, He could see through the complexity of the layers and bring healing to their souls.

My friend, Jesus is still the answer today for whatever it is that is bothering you. For whatever miracle you need. For whatever stronghold you need torn down. For whatever sin you need forgiveness. For whatever fresh revelation of the Father you need, Jesus is the Answer! Hallelujah! Let’s seek Him like those people sought Him and followed Him wherever He went as He traveled throughout the land. He is the ANSWER!

Pray with me: Oh, Jesus, You are compassionate and caring. It was not Your will to turn anyone away who had a physical ailment or who was already dead! You reached out to all, and You demonstrated Your authority to heal the sick, to forgive sins, and to teach with power. You removed shame, sorrow, and grief. The entire time You pointed the way to God and revealed the Father to us. You showed us the kingdom of God. We praise You for that!
You are still the answer today for any problem that any of us have. We bring You our troubles, our worries, and our ailments. We stand in awe of You like the crowds did and worship You. It’s in Your Name, we pray. Amen.

Copyright ©2009 Christ Compels

Poured Out

Poured Out

"Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."
John 12:3

In the first story about Mary in the Bible, she is found sitting at Jesus' feet while He is teaching. Her sister Martha is distracted by the preparations and complains to Jesus that she is not helping her. Luke 10:41-42 says, " 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.' "

In the last story - which includes today's Scripture - about these two sisters, Martha was giving a dinner to honor Jesus six days before the Passover. The week before, Jesus had raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. Since Martha had just witnessed the greatest miracle of her life up to that moment, she was celebrating by serving dinner while the men reclined at the table with Jesus. Then Mary took an expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. She poured out the most expensive thing that she had. It may have been the treasure that she was saving for her marriage dowry. Nothing else would have held more value than that. She broke the ornamental jar and poured the perfume on Jesus' head (Mark 14:3) and His feet (John 12:3). It was costly to her, but she had decided that she must pour it out to her Teacher, Messiah, and King.

People's attitudes toward Mary and Martha have always bothered me. We have compartmentalized Martha to be the type A personality. If you want something done, then you go to a Martha. We think if we had more Martha's in the church that we would get things done. In our fast-paced world filled with a list of to-do's that could never be accomplished in our lifetimes, many of us relate to the "Martha" stereotype. Bible study gets put on the side while we get done our "have to" responsibilities. We collapse into our beds in exhaustion only to wake up in the morning to the alarm clock and be right back in the race.

Mary is known for lying around at Jesus' feet and taking in a good Bible story and being uncaring and inconsiderate to her sister's hard work. We think the Mary personality just attends Bible study and never serves in the church. She just brings her kids to the nursery for care and lets the Martha's tend to the kids. She shows up for the fellowship dinner and socializes while the Martha's work in the kitchen.

But I believe these two ladies were much more complex than the "get it done" girl and the "lazy, social" girl. I don't think Mary's choice was easy to sit at His feet or else Jesus would not have praised her.

A true Mary who has sat at the feet of Jesus, who has seen Him demonstrate His love and power in her life, will not just go to Bible study and suck in all the Word that she can and leave the service to the Martha's. An authentic Mary is like a mighty rushing river that cannot be held back from ministry for the kingdom. You can't stop her if your life depended upon it.

She will worship with no concern for how others may react to her. In fact her worship is unbridled! When you and I serve God out of the "Mary" in us who has chosen the better part, we will never find ourselves more alive. Our ministry may not be stress-free, but less stressful, because we are acting out of the Holy Spirit flowing out of us. We find fulfillment and significance. We uncover what we were created to do.

I can't help but wonder if Martha had prepared enough beforehand that she, too, found the release of her soul as she served the dinner that night. As she waited on them at the table, did she find the joy that she had been lacking on the prior occasion? Did she find that her natural compulsion, when under the rule of the authority of Jesus, was also her passion?

I'll be the first to say that writing is not my natural compulsion. However, when I write for you, I feel like the real "me" is being released. I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of the Shirley I will be in heaven. I feel closest to God when I pour out my heart for you through what He has shown me in His Word. If I am robbed of the time to do it, I almost feel like a part of me is dying like someone moaning in agony on her death bed dying a slow death. When I do it, my spirit is alive. I believe it is because I am in unison with the Holy Spirit playing a divine symphony in the heavenly realms. Just as the aroma in that room that night pleased Jesus, so I believe that when you and I serve out of the Mary within us that we please our Father. When we cannot stop ourselves from pouring it all for our God, we have won the ovation of our God and Father. Beloved, there is nothing sweeter in all of life than that!

Pray with me: Oh, God, You are life! You are our strength and our shield! You fulfill Your promise to never leave us! You are worth all sacrifice! Release Your Spirit through us. We want to serve You with the unbridled passion that Mary had. Show us the ministry thing that makes us feel like if we don't do it, then we will die! We will just die! Disobedience is not an option because we cannot be stopped from doing it. When we serve You, either in the kitchen like Martha that night or on center stage like Mary doing the wild and the crazy, may we always do it for Your exaltation and never self-exaltation. May we become physically ill at the thought of ever receiving glory that is due Your Name. We serve for the applause of One, just for You, Lord. It's in the Name above all names, in Jesus' Name, Yeshua's Name, I pray. Amen.

Watchmen for Israel

Watchwomen for Israel

“He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’ ”

1 Chronicles 16:15-18


In Matthew 24, Jesus tells His disciples the signs of His return and the end of the age. In the Bible study DVD Jesus Lives Session 7, I teach you these signs. I so passionately desire for you and me to be women who know how to look at current events from God’s viewpoint. We must be alert because these signs are happening in our lifetime. We need to recognize them. Then, we need to know what to do with them. There is a cost associated with laziness and inattentiveness to not knowing the signs of the times. We cannot be deceived. We have to stay in tune with God through prayer and Bible study and watch what goes on in the world around us.

One of the main signs that Jesus’ return is very near is Israel. Isaiah 66:8 tells us the prophecy that Israel would be born in one day, “Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.” On May 14, 1948, the United Nations decreed Israel was a nation. This nation was born in one day! It happened 2,000 years after Jerusalem was destroyed. God’s Word is full of prophecies that He would restore Israel, and they are being fulfilled in our day.

God made an everlasting, irrevocable covenant with Israel. Israel may have been unfaithful to God for some periods in history. However, God has never and will never break covenant with Israel. In Hosea, God calls Himself a husband to Israel (2:16). He says He will be betrothed to her forever (2:19). Everything God does is based on covenant, and Israel is in covenant with the Living God!

When a nation or a people rise against Israel, they have provoked God. In Zechariah 2:8 in the Amplified Bible, God says of Israel, “For thus said the Lord of hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you--for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye.” The New Living Translation says it this way, “After a period of glory, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me against the nations who plundered you. For he said, ‘Anyone who harms you harms my most precious possession.’ ” Whoever touches Israel is touching the apple of God’s eye. She is His most precious possession. Or said another way, whoever touches Israel is sticking his finger in God’s pupil. This is the only nation on earth that has God’s heart.

Israel is also the only nation on earth that has God’s great prophecies that have and are coming true. Israel is God’s prophetic time clock. Matthew 24:32-34 tells us that when the fig tree is in season that we will know the end is near, right at the door. Scripture refers to Israel as a fig tree many times. The day after the triumphal entry, Jesus put a curse on a barren fig tree which symbolized that Israel as a nation would not accept Jesus as its Savior. Some people accepted Him but not the whole nation. The fig trees lose their leaves in winter while most other trees in Israel do not. They bloom in late spring – many of the other plants bloom in early spring. Jesus chose the fig tree for these specific reasons. The second coming would be late, as the fig tree buds late and the world would wait a long time for His return. When we see the twigs tender and the leaves come out, then we know that the end is near

God’s Word tells us repeatedly that in the end times the entire world will focus on Israel. We cannot go a night on the evening news without hearing about Israel. Some of us are desensitized to it because Israel has not had rest since she became a nation in 1948. In the end times, the Israeli military will be restrengthened. Because the troops are constantly defending themselves against their neighbors, their military is one of the strongest in the world.

The evil one has manipulated the terrorists who have sworn to terrorize and destroy Israel. They have taken back pieces of the land from Israel and used it as a launching pad for their rockets to shower the people with fear. They will use innocent civilian people as human shields. They seem to have little true concern if Israel hits their bases because when civilians are killed, they win the war for the precious commodity of public opinion and political pressure on Israel. When Israel defends herself against the terrorists, she is called the aggressor, unjust, and war monger.

We should be relentless in our prayers to our Father about Israel. If it were not for the divine restraining hand of God, Israel would have been destroyed. God loves Israel so much that He assigned His archangel Michael to be Israel’s great prince and protect the people (Daniel 12:1). One of the most convincing proofs that the Bible is true and that God is who He says is that Israel remains a nation today. O, precious one, this is the burden of my heart. How is your heart toward the nation that God has chosen to be a husband to? Are you praying for Israel? Are you praying for the innocent people – Israeli and Palestinian – whom the evil one has targeted as a necessary casualty of his prime objective to provoke and hurt God? As the church, we must rise up together and pray for God’s chosen people. Join me in passionate prayer.

Pray with me: Almighty God, I know how You long to bring peace to this planet. However, You cannot bring peace to a people who do not desire peace and reject You. I know it breaks Your heart that innocent people live in terror and are being killed – both Palestinians and Israelis. I cry out for the world to see that we need You, Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, the Husband to Israel.

I pray against the evil one who is sticking his malicious finger in Your eye. I pray that You will, by Your great Name, stop him. Thwart his treacherous plans. May Your enemy have no victory. May the battle damage be minimized. Bring a miraculous healing to those who have been injured and terrorized.

Lord, help us to be a people who know the signs of our times and stand as watchmen on the wall. Give us spiritual sight into the spiritual realm so that we understand that the battle raging in the Middle East is just a mere shadow of the war in the heavenlies for Israel. May we respond as the warriors that we have been called to be, and may we pray like no other generation that has ever lived. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come! It’s in Your Name that we pray. Amen.

Copyright ©2009 Christ Compels

New

New

“You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? ‘From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.’ ”

Isaiah 48:6

At the end of last year, God said one word to me over and over. He asked me to meditate on this one little three letter word, “new.” In Isaiah 48:6, God says that He will tell the people new things, things that were never done, nor seen before, things that were unknown to them. Then He showed me some wonderful things. I felt His presence over the message that He gave me. I knew this was His message to me and to His bride for this year. I’m so excited to share it with you.

He brought to my mind some other Scriptures with the word “new” in them. The book of Ecclesiastes is fascinating as Solomon discusses the meaning of life as well as the meaningless things in life. In Ecc. 1:9, he says, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Essentially, he was saying it has all been done before. Things may take different forms, be packaged differently, or the names changed, but there really isn’t anything new.

Now let’s contrast this with some of God’s final words in the King James Version of Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new.” Oh, my! I can’t help but say that with a bit of power in my voice mixed with some authority. You see, God isn’t under the sun. He is over the sun! He created the sun that bows down to Him. He can change the rules of this world any time He wants to. If He wants to create all new rules, He can. If He wants to do things differently, He can. If He wants to paint the world purple with pink polka dots, He can. If He wants us to inhabit Pluto, a comet, or the bottom of the ocean floor, He can. He can completely change the order of life into anything He desires. Nothing is restricted from the One who can make anything new.

However, God doesn’t go with the latest fad or His most recent whim. He is methodical. He is always true to His character. He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He doesn’t change His mind, make corrections to His plans, or come up with new ideas. What wonderful assurance we have that our God’s character remains a solid Rock on which we can rely! We can allow our desire for exploits and escapades to be released to discover the God Most High, the Lover of our Soul who is for us and not against us because He is always true to His perfect character!

Many of us have practiced the same level of relationship with God for many years. We are committed to it. We would say it is the best part of our lives. We may have a quiet time and prayer time with Him that is consistent, same time, same place, every day. However, the problem is that we have not let Him show us anything new in quite some time. We have not given the Holy Spirit full freedom to reveal more of the Father to us. Somewhere along the way, we stopped letting the veils of heaven be removed and getting glimpses of our God who can take our breath away! We stopped longing for the mysteries of who God is to be revealed to us. Perhaps we have begun to think that this is all that we get of God on this side of heaven. Perhaps it is because we look as spiritually strong as the others in our generation instead of dreaming that God wants to raise up people in this generation who are stronger than any other generation in history because we believe Him! We started taking ordinary, maybe even baby, steps in our walk of faith instead of leaping off the cliff into the unknown with God.

I want you and me just to try something for one year. Let’s ask God every day, “Show me something new about You, Lord.” I believe God wants His bride to boldly ask Him for new things this year. I believe God’s Spirit is being poured out in a time like no other. We will see new things happen that have never before happened. As the spiritual warfare increases, so increases God’s anointing on His people. He is looking for His people to believe Him that new things are being handed out on the kingdom calendar. I believe this year that for those of us who are in tune with His heart and the times that we will see spiritual growth unlike any other time in our lives. The door is wide open to even more things happening that are beyond what we can ask or imagine. New things will be done this year unlike any other time. Are you willing to participate? If so, join me on your knees, and let’s cry out to God together!

Pray with me: Oh, Lord, show us something new about You. We want to know unknown things. Reveal to us hidden things. Tell us of new things. We have barely tapped into the knowledge of who You are. You are more majestic than we can imagine. You are more willing than we understand. You are bigger than our minds can handle. However, we just ask for more times to have glimpses of who You truly are. We want the veil of heaven just to be pulled back a little bit more so You can break through in our lives. We don’t want the same old relationship with You but a deeper relationship where we learn new things about You. You are a mystery to us; yet, we are assured and confident in Your character. We need this security in this relationship. It allows us to take the leap off the cliff with You into the unknown, into things never experienced by any other person. So help us to not be committed to life as we know it but to be committed to following You, the Giver of life, and life more abundant! It is in the mighty Name of Your Son Jesus, Yeshua, that we pray. Amen.

Copyright ©2009 Christ Compels