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Resurrection from the dead is the "ultimate healing." I tried to share that glorious truth with the grieving parents of a five-year-old boy who had died just hours before of leukemia. They had begged God for the healing of their dear child. The whole church prayed earnestly. Friends had prophesied: "He will not die; he will be healed." One week prior to the little boy's death, the heartbroken father picked the fevered child up in his arms and walked him around the room. "God, I'll not give him up. Your promises are true. My faith has never faltered.

It was the night of the Last Supper, and Jesus was winding down his final conversation with the disciples. Everything he said that evening was with the knowledge he was about to leave them. So he concluded the gathering with an encouraging prayer about things to come: a church that would overcome and be triumphant; a people whose love for each other would be a testimony to the world; a divine power and authority flowing through his followers; and the glory of the Father resting on his people. These were all things Jesus would give to his church through the Holy Spirit.

A Fresh Call to Receive God’s Baptism of Love

This spring, I was in a hotel in Amman, Jordan, when I had an experience that changed me profoundly. I’ve written hints about this experience previously, but I haven’t shared it in full. I do so now because it has everything to do with our vision at World Challenge and our partnership with you in serving Jesus.

Using the Strength that God’s Spirit Has Given You

The apostle Paul exhorts us, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12, NKJV). Paul lived the kind of fight he describes. Near the end of his ministry, he could boast, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

We live in a time when biblical predictions have become visible realities. Paul wrote that in the last days perilous times would come upon the earth (2 Timothy 3:1). Right now things are taking place we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Who could fathom a fifteen-year epidemic of school shootings?

How different would your life be if you were walking in divine favor? Does God give favor, bless abundantly and lavish his grace on hungry, awaiting hearts? The answer is yes — and we find this illustrated in Luke 1, the story of Christ’s birth.

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward" (Hebrews 10:35). If you are a Christian, you are in a fierce war. In fact, you're in a lifeanddeath battle for your faith. Satan is determined to shipwreck and destroy the faith of all of God's elect. And the stronger your faith, the greater will be his attack against it.

Dit is hoog tyd om te praat teen Hollywood heiligheid en die vermaaklikheidsbedryf saligheid wat nou die huis van God besmet. Hoe hartseer moet die hart van God nou wees om so baie mense te sien wat hulleself Christene noem en hulleself besoedel en besmet by die duiwel se tafel. Daar is ‘n kanker van wêreldsheid wat in die kerk groei.

Job asks, “What is man, that thou [God] shouldest magnify him? And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?” (Job 7:17–18, my italics).

Hebrews 12:1 tells us that the world is encircled by a cloud of witnesses who are with Christ in glory. My question is, what does this great crowd bear witness to? And who is their witness meant for?

This cloud of witnesses speaks to our generation, by their lives and their words as recorded in Scripture. I believe they have three things to say to us:

Matthew tells us Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables: "All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 13:34-35).