In the first part of this series, Pastor Gary Wilkerson looks at the life of Abraham. Terah, Abram's father, took his destiny into his own hands and ends up settling in place short of his goal. Such is the case when we strive to realize selfish ambitions in our own strength. Abraham on the other hand, hears a word from God and receives the grace to see the promises fulfilled. Release your life into God's hands and He is faithful to fulfill His promises—greater than we could ever hope or imagine.

Influence does not come because you go to church, it comes because you have the presence of Christ in your life. We do not bend before that which would dull us down to the point where we have no faith and no spiritual mind. For the sake of Christ in this generation, do what is right!

Family isn't something God created for our benefit. He always was, is and will be part of a family. It is a reflection of who He is. God's family doesn't show partiality, isn't judgmental or hurtful, but is accepting and forgiving. Jesus is our big brother; and through His redeeming, cleansing blood we are all adopted and grafted into the family of God.

Pastor Gary Wilkerson looks at three vignettes from the Bible showing how God blesses and people's response to His blessing. Through our obedience God will bless us, but we aren't to keep those blessings for ourselves. He blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

In our struggle to maintain and restore Christmas, we often get caught up in the politics and forget the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus. A new covenant Christmas is about celebrating the glorious liberty that we have in Christ. Gary Wilkerson reminds us that through him, we have eternal life and our accusers are silenced.

Many of us would confess to marital, financial or emotional mountains that need to be moved in our lives; but there is an even more important, negative and hindering mountain for many of us. It is an Old Testament mountain of law, rules and list-keeping. There is a new covenant mountain where we are free from sin and made righteous in Christ. Many of us have a foot on each mountain. We haven't fully trusted, or believed, Christ for the victory He won for us. God wants to shake the mountain of human effort from its foundations and remove it from our lives.

We are in a place now where we have arrogantly set our course against the ways of God as a people, as a nation. We have a window of opportunity and it will require the whole church, every denomination. It’s time to take everything and put it aside and go back to prayer, go back to the will of God. We have to go back to prayer.

Unforgiveness will rob you of the spirit of thanksgiving. It's one of the many reasons God commands us to forgive others. Whether releasing someone from the pain they have caused you is relatively easy or one of the hardest things you could do, Claude Houde calls us to act on forgiveness. Only till you have done so can you find a true heart of worship and thanksgiving.