Rick Joyner Rick Joyner has authored more than fifty books, including The Final Quest Trilogy, There Were Two Trees in the Garden, The Path, and Army of the Dawn. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of MorningStar Ministries, a multi-faceted mission organization which includes Heritage International Ministries, MorningStar University, MorningStar Fellowship of Churches and Ministries. Click here to take a look at Rick's latest Rant #ricksrants

Discerning the Times, Part 14

The year 2009 will bring extraordinary growth in faith and peace for those who serve the Lord. One major reason for this is because it will also be a year of extraordinary unity. There will be a coming together in the body of Christ this year in ways that we have probably not seen in our lifetime. The result is going to be a release of even more power and light, which will result in ever-increasing faith and peace with His people. 

War in Heaven

This week we will begin a study of the “man of sin,” or the “antichrist,” which is prophesied to come and dominate the world for a time. The “man of sin” is the personification of the sin of man in its deepest depravity, and its greatest power of corruption. We are told about this in Scripture so we can be prepared for it, and which is why we are doing this study.

A Family Resemblance

This week we continue our theme about how the Great Commission was to “...make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). As discussed, the “nations” here represents ethnic groups, not political entities.

So how do we recognize nations? How do we baptize them? How do we teach them to observe all that He commanded us? In Acts 17:26-28 the apostle Paul says:

Koinonia - The Great Commission, Part 9

     Continuing with the commission to make disciples and connecting it with how spiritual authority is founded upon love, one way we will know who we are called to help disciple is by a love that God gives us for them. If I don’t feel a special love for a person, I won’t try to disciple them. I will consider that God has called someone else to help them. The same is true of nations.

Day 121 - Seeing His Work

Jesus used His heavenly powers, but never to fulfill His own human desires, or to testify of Himself as Satan tried to trick Him into doing. When Jesus used the power of the heavenly realm, it was in obedience to the Father in heaven and as a witness of the Father. Because He gave Himself to be a witness of the Father's love, the Father sent the Spirit to witness of the Son. The power of heaven is never used selfishly. That is why selfish ambition can be found at the root of almost every ministry that falls.

Prophets, Teachers, and Revelation—The Book of Revelation

         To understand biblical prophecy, we need the mentality of a poet rather than that of a mathematician, or that of a prophet more than a teacher. Many theologians and theological schools are mathematicians more than poets. They have trouble understanding, or even giving credibility to, a language for the heart more than the mind. Although necessary when establishing doctrine, this doesn’t work when applied to prophecy.

Day 73 - God's Heart

       "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;
       I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me,
       and didst love them, even as Thou didst love me" (John 17:22-23).
 
These two verses are worth a lifetime of study and contemplation.

Day 25 - Openness

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed (Genesis 2:25).
 
God established the relationship between men and women in a way that would help to preserve and enhance their relationship to Him and each other. All relationships are built upon trust. Trust is the bridge over which meaningful interchange takes place. The stronger the bridge, the more weight that can be carried across this bridge.