Money can be a hot topic in the church today. There is a small camp of Christians that take a vow of poverty—selling all that they have and viewing money as evil. The other extreme, and the most prevalent in the church today, is a vow of prosperity, in which abundant material blessing from God is seen as a testimony of His goodness. In Luke 16 we see a completely different view on wealth from Jesus. He doesn't focus on how much or little we have, but is more concerned with how we use what has been given to us.

No one starts life wanting to be amazingly average and live a life of no consequence. We are created to build something significant. God gives each of us abilities in which we are to operate, excel and increase. Jesus invites us to something truly amazing. It's time to stop the excuses and renounce everything that is not part of our calling.

In today's culture, most of us are too busy. Busyness in our generation is almost a badge of honor, but what if it's a sign of an overbooked, overcommitted and overstressed life? Moses taught the people of Israel to leave margins, or space in their lives; and we see this lived out in the life of Jesus. When we fully trust our time into God's hands and allow Him space to operate, we may actually find that more gets done with less exhaustion, stress and anxiety.

Nicky Cruz shares about God taking us from nobody to somebody. God doesn't care about your age, gender, race or social standing and often uses the weak and foolish of this world to confound the strong and wise.

Many today perceive power as a bad thing. The misuse of power by tyrants and others has corrupted our perception of it. We see in scripture though, that God has given us a spirit of power. It is a good thing! Now we must fan into flame that gift of God.

The Holy Spirit was an armor bearer to Jesus and He is our armor bearer today. The Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness, kept Him while He was there, and brought Him out in power. He does the same for us. A dry or tough time does not mean you are backslidden or that God has forsaken you. The Holy Spirit is with you in the midst of your battle.

Self seeking religion does not bring change. God is calling His church to come outside of the selfishness of this generation. If there were ever a time to stand for the testimony of Christ its now! Begin to pray Lord help me to care, today through my life help me to reach out to someone who has no hope and make it a remarkable day for them.

Christ not only sets captives free—breaking the power of sin and death—but He also gives us gifts. God wants to give His power to His children, to His church. There are some natural gifts like leadership and serving, but in 1 Corinthians we see nine supernatural manifestations of God's Spirit and power. We also see that these gifts sometimes require pastoring or boundaries. Left unshepherded, manifestations can actually be more from the flesh than from the Spirit. A true manifestation of God's presence will honor God and His holiness.