How To Enjoy The Holiday Season with Your Family

December 15, 2011 by Olga 4 Comments

How To Enjoy The Holiday Season with Your Family

by Olga Hermans

The holiday season is a time to spend with loved ones. For some people that means that you celebrate Christmas with family members that you haven’t seen for a long time, or maybe spending time with some individuals that you have issues with. We all know how that feels and how much stress that can bring.

This Christmas, I encourage you and myself to celebrate Christmas by demonstrating agape love, which is God’s unconditional love. Make a quality choice to make a decision to give your family the best of yourself even if that requires a sacrificial offering of yourself, your time, and your undivided attention.

Maybe your first thing could be to turn off your cell phone and refuse to allow other commitments to distract you from spending quality time with your family. Let your family know that you want to be there for them and do something that they really enjoy by focusing on what makes them feel loved and accepted.

Find out what their plans are for the next year or their most treasured holiday memories; show an interest in what they love. Allow Agape love to guide you in everything that you do; giving the gifts, cooking the meals, and some fun things.

I love to spend time with my family members, the people that I love and that are closest to me. I like to make the holidays memorable by doing exciting things and setting aside time to relax.

We should not allow Christmas to be reduced to a time of materialism, selfish gratification, and stress. That is not what the Holiday season is for. Today, Christmas has lost its meaning because people don’t know the real meaning of Christmas any more. So sad. It is the most profound celebration of the year.

The other day I was listening to a classic Christmas song: “And men live for-evermore because of Christmas Day!” I always knew that song, but never really heard what the words in fact were saying. This is a profound message.

But today the hustle and bustle of gift-buying, shopping, and catching the best sale consumes the majority of people around this time of year. However, God’s purpose for the Christmas celebration is for us to remember and meditate on the most precious gift of all—Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. The gift that makes you live for-evermore.

Our Heavenly Father has given Jesus to humankind as the ultimate gift. We all would be doomed without Him. God loved us all so much that He gave Jesus to us. He came to die for all our sins so we don’t have to die; the ultimate sacrifice.

It is so easy for us to get all wrapped up in the receiving aspect of the Holiday season; our focus is on what we can expect to get from someone else. Let’s make a shift of focus by imitating what God did through giving Jesus. I believe that this shift of focus would meet everybody’s need; love would flow though our families like never before, and everybody would get blessed.

The blessing of Christmas is bigger than a tree, unwrapping presents, and getting everything on our wish list. It is really all about Jesus! He is the One who deserves the glory, honor, and praise for the awesome work He did on our behalf. He gave us the gift of salvation, something we did not earn or deserve.

Let’s make this Christmas a memory by focusing on other people and purpose to be a blessing to them, just like Jesus was and is, to us. Write down your family members and ask the Lord to show you what you can do to make their lives merrier. After all, it is a Merry Christmas! Find out what and how God wants you to give so He can demonstrate His love to someone through you. This is the true meaning of Christmas.

Please, don’t understand me wrong by thinking that I am against receiving gifts and experiencing the joy of getting something you really desire. God wants to bless you too! But in the midst of all that is going on around you, remember the reason for the season. Jesus is the One who gave us the gift of eternal life. Now that is something worth celebrating!

Someone wisely said:

If our greatest need had been information,
God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology,
God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money,
God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure,
God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so
God sent us a Savior.

Even if this has been a really tough year for you… perhaps a year of great challenges, we pray that you have a Merry Christmas. We have been redeemed unto God, and we belong to Him. Satan’s tyranny no longer reigns over us, we no longer sit in the shadow of death, and because of Christmas Day men live for-evermore. Think about that!

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Restoration Is Yours!

December 12, 2011 by Olga 17 Comments

Restoration Is Yours!

by Olga Hermans

Have you ever gotten out of bed one morning with a good attitude and a smile on your face, feeling great, looking forward to the day ahead and suddenly everything turns around? Or what about waking up in the morning thinking you can’t do this any more; everything is too overwhelming.

Let me encourage you to NOT give up and to NOT quit. It’s time to pick yourself up, rebuke satan and declare that there is something great about to happen in your life. You have to ask yourself, “Am I willing to wait for it?” No matter how devastating the attack might be, or how overwhelming things might look right now, God can turn things around and cause the blessing to equally overwhelm you.

The blessing can wipe out everything, seriously!! The blessing is no respecter of persons. Deut 28:2 says: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee … The Brenton Translation says it like this: “All these blessings shall come upon you and shall find you….The Heb. says: all these blessings shall reach you…”

There are times that we think we have missed opportunities or blown chances. We can look back and think, why did I spend all those years running with the wrong people, partying, when I should have been getting ahead?

It’s true that some of you missed out on opportunities because you were raised in an unhealthy environment or grew up in poverty. Whatever the reason, when things don’t go our way, it’s tempting to think that you missed all your chances and your seasons. But the good news is that God always has another season in store for you.

He says in Joel 2:25 that He will restore the years that have been stolen. I have experienced a lot of rejection in my own life and on top of all that both my parents died within 2 years before I was 20. My mother in law rather saw me going than coming. It always felt there was no break in my life with people around me that really loved me. But God brought my husband in my life that stood with me through thick and thin. I don’t want to relive my whole childhood, so I want to leave it with that for now.

You probably have gone through things that have you wonder, why am I here on this earth? Wasn’t that what Job asked God? After he started praying for his enemies God turned his whole life around; He will do the same for you!

I am sure that God can make the rest of your life so rewarding and so fulfilling that it makes up for lost opportunities in your past. There are times of restoration. You are entitled to it; it belongs to you.

Let’s have a closer look at Joel 2:25 “And I will restore to you the years…” It talks about years. God says that He wants to restore YEARS that have been stolen from you. Now, be honest, has the devil stolen anything from you over the last five years? Do you want it back? Are you entitled to it? Yes, you are! Let that sink in deep on the inside of you! Everything that the devil has stolen from you.

Start believing God for everything that satan has stolen from you sevenfold!

Joel 2:26 says, and you shall eat in plenty! This is your condition immediately after your restoration. See how your lifestyle will change immediately after God restores everything what the devil has stolen for years; you shall eat in plenty.

Plenty is the nature of God. That has been the plan for you and me since the beginning. It never was the plan of God that we live in the land of “not enough” nor the land of “just enough,” but God has always intended for us to live in the land of “”more than enough,”

Have you ever lived under the shame of not being able to pay your bills? I have and it is not the nicest feeling either! God says in that same verse of Joel 2:26: “My people shall never be ashamed.” The shame of not being able to provide for your family like you really want to. After a while you feel terrible when you can’t do something that you really want to do because you’re limited and restricted.

God said, “When I restore the years, you shall eat in plenty. You will be satisfied. I will deal wondrously with you, and you will never know shame again.”
It is time to make a choice to remove everything that holds you onto your past. You can’t drag your past around with you and expect to enter into God’s destiny for your life.

So let me encourage you and challenge you today. Whatever has been stolen from you, you can get it back – and then some. Don’t get offended by God; it will only delay you restoration. What’s the bottom line of Satan stealing from you? To get you offended at God and delay your victory.

Why? Because when you’re offended at God, you’re not in His presence. And if you’re not in His presence, then you’re not in position for restoration. If Satan can steal from you and get you offended at God and keep you out of God’s presence, then he doesn’t have to repay you.

God is saying to you: “If you will persevere even though it’s difficult and believe even though you don’t see anything happening, then I will step in and do what you can’t do. I will make up for lost time. I will propel you to new levels. I will bring supernatural opportunities. I will put the right people in your path at the right time.

God will make up for your lost time. Every opportunity you’ve missed, every chance you’ve blown, all those years you may have wasted, I declare over you: restoration is coming your way.

God will restore those years. Things are changing in your favor. Your latter days will be better than your former days; I declare the rest of your life will be better than the first part of your life. So choose to receive it by faith!

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Filed Under: 6 Your Destiny Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, lifestyle, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Restoration, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What does it mean, word, your life

The Privilege of Prayer

December 8, 2011 by Olga 10 Comments

The Privilege of Prayer

by Olga Hermans

Last weekend I watched the season of Survivor 22, where Matt Elrod the Christian guy was blindsided twice. Poor guy 🙂 I really liked his boldness about his faith in God though; he prayed a lot and still lost. Without any criticism on him I really thought it would be good to give a few thoughts on how to pray.

I heard somebody say once that all Christian failure is a Prayer failure. Actually it is very, very simple because the Word says: “You have not because you ask not.” “You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss.” In other words, when you are praying, you don’t know what you are doing. You might not be praying correctly.

The bible is very specific about praying in different forms and so forth. 1 Timothy says: first of all prayer, intercessions, supplications and petitions and with thanksgiving. Why do you think is it so specifically detailed?

God has put certain safeguards on the prayer system to keep the devil out of it. You can go to the bank having money in your account; go to the president’s office and lay there on the floor screaming and hollering and kicking to tell him that you need your money. He won’t give it to you, even if he may know you personally.

But until you put your signature in a specific manner on the line of a specific withdrawal document, you are not getting your money out of there, even if it is yours. God is not trying to keep your money from you, He is trying to protect you and your money from thieves.

And that is what is happening in the prayer system; there is a definite connection between the Kingdom of God in heaven and the Kingdom of God in the earth. And Jesus said: “If you seek first my Kingdom and its righteousness, all these things will be added to you”.

So, in that seeking are different forms and kinds of prayer. Maybe you don’t know what you are doing while God is trying to tell you what to do, but you might not be listening to Him. You might think that God never listens to you, but the fact is that He is not trying to make it hard on us; He is trying to make it hard on the devil.

When you and I follow God’s system that opens the Kingdom of God everything that is involved in it blocks the devil. This should not be a struggle. The struggle comes from a lack of knowledge. It starts by not knowing what the plan is in the first place. Faith begins where the plan of God, the purpose of God and the knowledge of God is known. We need to allow the Word to renew our mind concerning prayer.

Let me ask you a question: “What do you see when you pray?” I am asking you this because we don’t think in words, we think in pictures, images and patterns. When you talk to yourself, that inner conversation that goes on, on the inside of you; you are hearing the words, but you are seeing the images!

There is a way of thinking. There is a whole body of thoughts that got into you from the time you were born up to now, if there never has been any renewing of it. And this whole way of thinking, if it never has been renewed by the Word of God might be leading you in the wrong direction!

There is a way that seems right to men, but the ways thereof are death. They look good and sound good because that is the way you always thought. The only way you can trust to change those thoughts is through the Word of God.

Let’s say, you have made a decision to pray about something and you go before God and you go on your knees. Now, what do you see in your mind’s eye? Where are you? Do you see yourself at the feet of Jesus? You might not even be aware that you are seeing something, but let me encourage you to look at it when you start to pray, what do you see?

That image has been developed since the day of Sunday school; you have a place where you go in your mind. And you need that place to be what the scripture says, not what you dreamed up or had formed in Sunday school or when you were a child or whatever. Find out! That is very important!

We begin with the answers to the prayer, not the questions! When you base every prayer on the Word of God, then you will have confidence. 1John 5:14

One of the great things about praying is being able to do it with confidence. Most people don’t have any confidence; they wonder if their prayer got any higher than the ceiling. They wonder if they broke through.

Hebrews 4:16 says to come boldly to the throne of grace; so we can come before God with boldness and with great confidence and when you say “amen”, it means “so be it”. In other words, when you walk away from your prayer time, you walk away with confidence. You know He heard you and when you know He heard you, you know that you have what you asked for.

That is God’s attitude of prayer. God never intended for prayer to be guess work; He never intended it to be something like when you are finished, you walk away and you wonder if anything had happened. He intended that when you say “Amen” that you walk away with confidence, that what I just asked God for; I know it is on its way and I know that God began moving on my behalf before I even finished the prayer.

God’s attitude about prayer is always: obtain, have confidence, come boldly; in other words, He expects it to work! He expects you to achieve something and to accomplish something when you pray. God never intended it to be something that you try to do and hope something lands. It is that when you pray, you get results. That is the way, that He expects us to approach prayer. It is that it is an avenue through which our source of supply meets our needs.

Somebody once asked me: “why do I have to ask God?” If He already knows my need before I ask, why do I have to ask? Because that is simply how He put it in the book. He said: “you have not because you ask not.”

And then again, He knows what I need before I ask, but prayer is communication with Him. It is being able to converse with the Creator of the Universe and it being able to know that you have the right to stand in His presence and do it with boldness and then when you come to the conclusion of that prayer, you walk away with the attitude; “I believe I have received it”.

What a privilege!

You need a new mindset about prayer itself, because prayer is not just always going to God with a need. Prayer is communication with God. And when you get in that higher level where you don’t think about prayer that is something I need to do when I am hurting or when I am in need. Prayer is communicating with God; it is fellowshipping with God. And in the process your needs get met.

We have all been there and done that, but it is time for the new and especially since the New Year is coming; 2012 will be a different year.

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Filed Under: PRAYER Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Restoration, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What does it mean, word, your life

Get Ready For Your Restoration

December 5, 2011 by Olga 12 Comments

Get Ready For Your Restoration

by Olga Hermans

Has your life been devastated in some way? Has satan attacked your family, you marriage, your health or your finances? If so, then it’s time to get fed up, march into satan’s camp, look him square in the eye and shout, “Your time is up, devil!

You may be under the greatest pressure you have ever been under, but now is not time to give up and quit. Now is the time to make a quality decision to stand firm. It is time to get back everything Satan has stolen from you. Proverbs 6:31 It is time to start declaring restoration in your home.

It is time for you to get fed up with satan stealing from you. Nothing will change in your life until you get completely fed up with the condition that you are in right now. John 10:1o tells us clearly that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. Don’t take that lightly, because he is on a mission to destroy your life and he won’t stop until you make him stop!

Whatever you are going through right now, it is not too big for God to handle. There is no impossibility that God does not have a possibility for. You may not realize this, but God can only be as big as you allow Him to be. When you believe there isn’t any way out of your situation, God has just become smaller than your problem.

Take the limits off of God. He is able to deliver you out of all your afflictions. Psalm 34:19 He is bigger than anything you may encounter, and He will cause you to come out on top! God is able to work in any situation. He is able to turn any adversity around and cause you to triumph when things seem impossible.

God wants you to get every mountain of hindrance out of your way so you can possess your promised land, the mountaintop of God’s blessings in Christ. God has provided a way for you to become established in His Word and remove the barriers that stand in your way of possessing everything that God has for you in this life.

These are exciting times that we are living in. Read a prophesy by clicking here. Supernatural increase and restoration are in the air, and God wants you to be affected by it. He wants it happening to you. It’s happening to those who will get in the position to receive. This is a new day and satan is scared, because he knows that there is an army rising up in the earth today that is militant.

Last week I posted a prayer in our facebook-group, because this was swelling up on the inside of me.
This is my prayer for you as our readers as well.

Father God, I pray for this group of people, that you will raise them up to be mighty warriors to fiercely tread down the powers of darkness and set the captives free. Cause them to rise up and take authority over the forces of the enemy that have blinded the nations to follow the paths of destruction. Pour out Your Spirit upon them. Transform their lives as their minds are renewed. Strengthen them to walk as sons and daughters of God in the earth, in total victory, not ever overcome with evil, but overcoming evil with good all the time, in every situation, without fail. In the name of Jesus!

We need to become aggressive; we have to make up our minds. This is the time that people start making new resolutions; this should be one of them. Say: “This year 2012 is MY year”, this is a year where you will be debt free, all your bills will be paid on time and you have more to put in your storehouses to overflowing.

God has done absolutely everything that is necessary for you and I to live an overcoming life. Jesus does not have to go to the cross again for that to take place in your life. He has already gone. He has already made that provision. He has already given His Word. He has already shed His blood. The covenant is in effect, and all you have to do is get in position to receive, stand your ground, and don’t let the devil steal your blessing.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever had a blessing stolen from you? There are a number of ways that satan will attack you hoping that you will drop your guard so he can steal your blessing. The devil is stealing from everybody. Some people just give up and let him do it. They don’t even put up a fight. The devil is stealing blessings from us that belong to us, and we just sit there and let him get away with it.

God says, But if He be found, he shall restore sevenfold. Proverbs 6:31

There is a deceiver in the earth, and if you are ever going to get back what he has stolen from you, you are going to have to live by the sword. That sword is not a defensive weapon, it is an offensive weapon! If you are passive, you will never get your blessing back. You have to get militant. You have to become assertive. You have to get aggressive, or you will never get your blessing back.

This is what you need to confess: Devil, everything you have stolen from us I command you to repay us now sevenfold. I speak life to every area of our lives that you have tried to destroy. Click here for more.

You are not going to change your lifestyle until you are fed up with the way you are living. You have to be fed with your children being on drugs or with them not living for the Lord or whatever the situation might be. The moment you get fed up, things will change.

When you get fed up, you are going to take that yoke off your neck. When you get fed up, there isn’t any demon in hell that can hold you back! As long as you are still tolerating it, you’re not fed up! Don’t just accept your condition. Don’t make provision for failure. Instead of petting the problem, you need to make a choice to be fed with it! That’s the moment that you are getting ready for RESTORATION!

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Filed Under: 6 Your Destiny Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Restoration, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What does it mean, word, your life

Confession of Faith

December 3, 2011 by Olga Leave a Comment

Confession of Faith

According to Phil. 1:6, I let the communication of my faith become effectual by me acknowledging every good thing which is in me in Christ Jesus.

I am now releasing my faith by confessing this to be the greatest day of my life. This is the day that the Lord hath made: I will rejoice and be glad in it. I am a recreated being. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. I am created into His glorious image and likeness.

I am His workmanship and am complete in Christ. I am full of His Spirit and divine power. I have the fruit of His Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, temperance and faith. I am humbly submitting myself to the authority of His Holy Word for He and His Word are one.

I am obedient to His commandments and He enlarges my capacity to receive revelation knowledge, wisdom, understanding and ability in all things that pertain to life and godliness.

I am God’s property. I have been bought with the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I am free from the curse of the law. Sin, sickness, poverty, fear, doubt, worry, confusion, and all that Satan represents shall not have dominion over me. I am prospering in my spirit, soul, body and finances, for I am a liberated person.

Jesus said that I would know the truth and the truth would set me free. I am standing fast in the liberty wherein Christ has made me free. I am a disciplined person. I study God’s Word daily. I meditate upon its precepts.

I confess who Christ is, what He has done and what He is doing in and through me now. I am acting upon truths and I am expecting God to meet my needs and to do super abundantly above all I dare ask, hope, dream or desire in every area of my life.

I am a beautiful person full of God’s forgiveness and love. I forgive as God has forgiven me. I love as God has loved me. Therefore, His faith is working in me by love.

I speak directly to every mountain of satanic adversity in my life and command them to go in the Name of Jesus! They cannot stay, they must go in Jesus’ Name!

Through the abundance of God’s grace, I have received the gift of righteousness and am now reigning in this life by Christ Jesus. In Genesis 1:24-31 and Genesis 2:8-15, God has told me what it was that a righteous man was to reign over.

Praise God, I am a righteous person and I’m reigning over God’s creation now. “Christ has been made worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and blessing.” I am now a joint heir with Christ and as He is, so am I in this world.

He has made me worthy to receive all that Jesus represents. Praise God, I am everything that the Word declares that I am. I have communicated my faith by acknowledging every good thing which is in me in Christ Jesus.

I believe my faith is now working effectively and that all of my needs and desires have already been supplied by His riches in glory through Christ Jesus.

I worship with all my heart, soul and strength. I lift up my voice and hands in praise and adoration to His glorious Name for He is worthy of praise and He has made me worthy to praise His Name.

Filed Under: Confessions Tagged With: 2012, a home run, answer, answers, breakthrough, choice, choices, Christianity, decision, destiny, discipline, disciplined life, discover, dream, driven life, effective, excerpt of book, for such a time as this, future, God, home run, how to live a life, how to live life, ignite, increase, Jesus, joy, life, life choices, live a life, live life, money, passion, Prayer, profit, prophecies, prophecy, purpose, Right Place, Right Time, self control, step up to the plate, stress, supernatural, the answer, the calling, the choice, the life, the power, this is your life, to live, trouble, vision, What does it mean, word, your life

Choose Faith over Fear

December 1, 2011 by Olga 13 Comments

Choose Faith over Fear

by Olga Hermans

You know, images of fear are all around us and there is a fear of failure that is trying to get a grip on the hearts of many people. Especially a fear of financial failure with this economy and all the foreclosures that we hear about on the news. People are asking themselves: “what am I going to do?”

We must aggressively take our stand against financial fear and believe that everything is going to be all right. There was a prophetic word that had come forth through Kenneth Copeland in August 2010 that told us that: “Everything is going to be all right in the household of faith”. Don’t feed fear and trouble into your life and into your mouth. No! Quit living in that house. Get back over here in the household of faith. Feed on my Word and not on the bread of sorrow.

“Have no fear of this world. I have overcome it,” saith the Lord. “I left nothing, absolutely nothing, that faith won’t overcome. I left it no power. I left it no strength. It has NO-THING over you.”

Fear and faith are both expectations; faith expects the best and fear expects the worst. What are you expecting? Are you expecting the very best or are you expecting the worst?

Fear is nothing more than a feeling that causes certain manifestations. It may cause us to tremble, turn red or sweat or have shaky knees.

My brother almost always turned as red as a tomato when there was just a little bit of fear in him, when he started to turn red and then he feared that people would see it of course and guess what? He would turn more red and sometimes even sweat. He always felt sooo embarrassed and it really was embarrassing for him. He overcame it though; right now he is a teacher, which means he is standing in front of people and looking them in the eyes and keeping the cool.

Fear is a tactic that the devil uses to hinder your faith and keep you from accomplishing God’s will for your life, but you don’t have to give in. You are delivered from fear. Many people struggle with fear and insecurity. The first step to overcoming fear is to recognize where it comes from.

There are so many references in the Bible that tell us to “fear not”. One particular scripture that stands out is 2Tim. 1:7. If your financial situation worries you, you could say: “I have not been given the spirit of fear over my finances – but of power and love and of a sound mind”.

Faith and fear are magnets; faith is a magnet that draws provision and fear is a magnet that draws lack. That is how it works! I want to encourage you to make the right choice today. Don’t let fear keep you from moving forward in the plan of God for your life. Choose to exhibit faith and boldness and start enjoying the liberating freedom from fear. God has given you freedom to choose.

What would your life look like if you were free from all fear? In Who Switched Off My Brain? Dr. Caroline Leaf says that fear triggers more than 1,400 known physical and chemical responses, and activates more than 30 different hormones and neurotransmitters” and that fear is at the root of all stress.

The fear of failure prevents us from ever trying new things or stretching ourselves to do more than we feel comfortable doing. The fear of the future can cause us not to enjoy today. My sister in law has a fear of flying which prohibits her to discover and enjoy the beautiful places all over the world.

Fear always tells you what you’re not, what you don’t have, what you can’t do, and what you never will be. Remember that Jesus overcame that fear; He left it no power and no strength. It has NO-THING over you. You have to make a choice to be confident and to feel secure; God is on your side!

The devil hates it when we are confident that God is with us, and enabling us to do whatever we need to do in life. Say it out loud: “I will not live in fear”. It really helps when you keep thinking about it before you have to face fear. Make up your mind that you will not bow down to fear. You have already made the decision that you will not be afraid.

Fear is the opposite of faith. We receive from the enemy through fear, and we receive from God though faith. Fear is the enemy’s method of faith; it is his counterfeit. We do God’s will through faith in Him and we work together with the devil through fear. When we are afraid we fail to do what God wants us to do and end up doing what the devil wants us to do.

The enemy is the author of fear, not God. Fear and faith cannot coexist; where you have one, you cannot have the other. You need to choose. Deut.30:19 You have to develop a “zero-tolerance policy” toward any form of fear.

Here is something that you and I can do together; we are going to confess these confessions as long we need them. Here we go!

I refuse to fear.
I am not moved by what I see.
I am not fearful over my financial future.
God is the source of my provision.
He provides cars to drive, food to eat, clothes to wear, places to live and everything else I need in liberal supply.
I am not subject to the times.
I live in the household of faith, not the dungeon of fear.
My household is flourishing and not failing.
Every bill is paid, every need is met and every debt is wiped out.
I walk by faith and not by fear, in the name of Jesus.

I truly believe you will begin to feel different and more confident than ever before. You only have one life to live, so live it boldly and never let fear steal God’s best for you!

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The Right Place at The Right Time

November 28, 2011 by Olga 7 Comments

The Right Place at The Right Time

by Olga Hermans

Is there something like that? This is something that I confess many times, that I’ll be in the right place with the right people at the right time, do the right things and that I hear the right thing, because my steps are ordered of the Lord. That is a great confession to make. Could you be in the wrong place at the right time?

There is a place God has designed where opportunities find you, a place where the blessings overtake you. He has a particular place for each one of us, a place where each of us will find our highest purpose, where we will thrive and reflect God’s greatness.

You can tell your place of blessing by how it feels to you. Your senses will tell you, this is where I am supposed to be. I think I mentioned that already once that we played that game with our children when they were young. We would hide something from them and they had to go and find it. We would tell them they were getting warmer and warmer until they would be right there, when we would say “you are red hot”. If they went in the wrong direction, we would say, “You’re getting colder. Now you’re freezing cold!”

I like to encourage you to always move toward the places that feel warm to you, and move away from those that feel cold to you. You can make a choice. Freedom to choose is a gift from God.

God says the same to us as He said to the Israelites: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” Deut.30:19 We can choose our path but we cannot choose the consequences of that path. Those are already established.

In the Old testament, the children of Israel followed the cloud by day and the pillar by night. Sometimes the cloud remained at the same location for two or three months. They camped there until the signs changed. Sometimes, the cloud would move every day for a week. So when they rose each morning, the first thing they had to do was to check the cloud.

I am sure there were times when they wanted to move because they didn’t like the location or they were surrounded by enemies. But the cloud stayed, so they stayed. At other times, I can imagine they would wake up and they saw the cloud moving and didn’t want to move because they like the place where they were.

But they understood very well that their blessing was connected to being at the right place. If they wouldn’t move, they wouldn’t have the food, the supplies and most of all no protection they needed unless they followed the cloud.

They had to do their part and reach their place of blessing so they could enjoy God’s favor. If you miss the signs, whether clouds or pillars of fire, or just a nagging feeling deep inside, you could become trapped in a bad place.

Life is too short to waste time and live with regrets. Follow the signs to your best place. There is a sweet spot for you; when you find it, you will feel a deep sense of purpose and fulfillment. Search your heart and be sensitive to where it might be.

You need to put yourself in position to receive those blessings. If you will stay sensitive and responsive to the signs and those leadings, you will find that God is always talking to you. He is always drawing you into His plan. That’s why I like to encourage you to get in tune with Him every morning through prayer and your Bible reading.

He knows where you need to be. He knows what you need to do each day to stay on track. He knows the plan! Seek Him and you will see it too!

There may be times when you get to a plateau and you don’t seem to be going anywhere. When that happens, it is never God’s fault. He is always ready to help. So when you get to a place like that, just dive into His Word in a greater measure and ask Him to show you where you’ve missed it.

Sometimes we have to step back and regroup. We miss God’s direction now and then. But when you are in the right place, connected to the right person, that’s when God will release great things into your life. Look for the signs in your own life. Be determined to reach that sweet spot, the place of blessing for you. Search your heart. Make sure you are obeying and staying faithful.

Remember, your blessing is connected to being in the right place at the right time. If you make staying in God’s perfect will a priority, God will lead you and guide you. He will pour out His blessings and favor, and you will live that life of victory He has in store for you.

Right now you might be thinking, Well, all that may be true but I haven’t been listening to God and obeying Him. I have been doing my own thing for years and my life is so totally messed up, I don’t think even God can fix it. I think I’ve missed my chance to walk out His plan.

No, you haven’t missed your chance. All you have to do is make a U-turn. I heard someone say the other day, “God allows U-turns.” Instead of running away from Him, run to Him like you would run to somebody you really trust. Start going after Him with all your heart. God can take any life and any situation and turn it around. He lives to do that. He is just waiting for you to give Him the opportunity.

God knows your heart. If it is earnestly turned toward Him, He will immediately start treating you like you have always been obedient and start pumping His goodness into your life.

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The History of Thanksgiving

November 24, 2011 by Olga 9 Comments

Today, the United States of America celebrates a holiday like no other nation – Thanksgiving Day. Many of our readers are from the United States; I myself have lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 7 years where I learned about this great holiday. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on a different day as some of you may know.

But today I see it as an honor to give room to David Barton with this great article about the history of Thanksgiving. I truly hope you enjoy it as much as I do and you might want to read it to your children and maybe even to your grandchildren. This is history that should not be forgotten and that is the exact reason why I asked Wallbuilders, which is David Barton’s website, if they would allow me to post this article and they said, YES!!

So, please enjoy reading this great article and let us know what you think by placing a comment at the end.

The History of Thanksgiving

by David Barton

This month, America will continue a tradition begun centuries ago: the celebration of a Day of Thanksgiving. The origin of this tradition is commonly attributed to the Pilgrims in 1621, even though some Thanksgiving services did occur elsewhere in America as early as 1607.

While Thanksgiving celebrations became common in New England, they did not begin to spread southward until the American Revolution, when Congress issued eight separate national Thanksgiving Proclamations. Then in 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George Washington, America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to God under its new Constitution.

That same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which President Washington was a member, announced that the first Thursday in November would become its regular day for giving thanks, “unless another day be appointed by the civil authorities.” Yet, despite these early national proclamations, official Thanksgiving observances usually occurred only at the State level.

Much of the credit for the adoption of an annual national Thanksgiving Day may be attributed to Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. For thirty years, she promoted the idea of a national Thanksgiving Day, contacting president after president until President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving.

Over the next seventy-five years, Presidents followed Lincoln’s precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day. Then, in 1941, Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday.

Lincoln’s original 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation came—spiritually speaking—at a pivotal point in his life. During the first week of July of that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000 American lives. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous “Gettysburg Address.”

It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he explained to a friend: When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian.

When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Following is the 1863 Lincoln Thanksgiving Proclamation—celebrated shortly after Lincoln committed his life to Christ and celebrated while America was still in the midst of its Civil War. It was this proclamation which eventually led to the establishment of our national Thanksgiving holiday.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving by the President of the United States of America The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies.

To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of almighty God In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than theretofore.

Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. —Abraham Lincoln

David Barton,
Wallbuilders.com

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The Answer to Your Breakthrough Might Be: Discipline

November 21, 2011 by Olga 19 Comments

The Answer to Your Breakthrough Might Be:

“Discipline”

by Olga Hermans

What does it mean to be disciplined? Discipline can be described as “training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.”

I truly believe a disciplined life is a powerful life. Learning to be disciplined and to practice self-control will keep you from laziness and excess, and will help you stay focused and productive. It will require you to make an effort, but the reward will be worth the work.

Many people enjoy watching American Idol or the Super Bowl or some type of game or contest. We love to see people achieve something, especially when they receive a reward or a gold medal or something. I am not so much into sports, but I like to watch the end of the Super Bowl or the Playoffs. Discipline is the price of freedom.

It is the door to liberation. When we are not disciplined, we become slaves; we fall under the power of things that should have no control over us. For example, when we don’t discipline ourselves to eat healthy, we become slaves to fat, sugars, and other substances that are harmful to our health.

A few weeks ago I decided to not be a slave to caffeine any more. It took discipline to endure the a tremendous headache for a couple of days, but I did it. I grew up with the coffeepot brewing in our kitchen all day long, but I broke the habit and I must say it feels good to be free from it.When we do not discipline ourselves to get enough rest, we become slaves to weariness and we get a murmuring, fault-finding, complaining attitude which we learned last week; remember?

The one thing that I like to discipline myself in is that controlling and ruling my life by the Word of God.
I desire to follow the Word of God in every area of my life, whether in my finances, my relationships or my marriage. Today, November 21st, is our anniversary by the way; I have been married to the love of my life for 31 years! Thank you for all your congratulations. 🙂

But every area in our life needs discipline. Living a disciplined life means that we practice the Word of God on a consistent basis and the only way to do that is by doing what it tells us to do. As a result you will find yourself living right in the middle of God’s blessings. This is the only way to discover the life you were born to live.

It is the only way to live a life without regrets. Right now you might be thinking that being disciplined sounds like a lot of work and YES you are right, because it is. So many times we keep asking ourselves why things are not working as they should and we come to the conclusion that we don’t discipline ourselves to read the Word.

Getting up a little earlier before you get to work takes discipline, consistently every morning to read and pray takes discipline, but the reward is a closer relationship with God and wisdom for making decisions in life.

Taking time to read your Bible every day may seem like a chore at first, but the more you do it, the more revelation, understanding and knowledge you will gain from God’s Word. This will help you renew your mind and live a successful Christian life. There is a price to pay to go to higher levels in God, and discipline is that price.

We need to learn how to live the new life that is given to us the moment we were born again and how to align our thinking with the truth of His Word.

We have to be disciplined about it. God gives us great freedom; He allows us to choose what we want to think, say and do. Discipline is never fun when you are first training yourself to do certain things. Start thinking and saying, “I am a disciplined person and I use self-control.”

Then apply that discipline and self-control to all your thoughts. We need to discipline our mind because our thoughts and emotions can change so quickly. One day we might be calm and reserved, sure of ourselves, and confident in God. Another day, we might be worried, anxious, insecure, and full of doubt.

Our thinking directly affects our emotions. Some decisions seem to be very easy and we seem to make decisions quickly and stick with it, but then there are times that it feels like it is impossible to make decision even though we try very hard and then we keep changing our mind.

Doubt and fear haunt us and we cannot make up our mind. Many people struggle with this lack of ability to concentrate and make decisions. We can easily feel overwhelmed by all the decisions we need to make daily unless we have the confidence to believe that we have the ability to make the right ones.

But if you will make a quality decision to live a life of discipline, Jesus Christ Himself will help you follow through on what you have decided to do (Phil. 4:13). It is not like you are going to wake up one day and all of a sudden you are disciplined; that ain’t gonna happen!

There is a way to follow God’s rules and living your life in line with the Bible; it takes work and it requires patience as well. It will take a quality decision and a commitment to become a mature Christian. It is fun to grow up spiritually, gain more wisdom and understanding of things; knowing that you are pleasing God and following His ways and not your own.

There is a reward waiting for you. You need to keep your dreams and your vision before you; you need to know where you want to be and what you want to become. This is the time of year that many people are thinking about their goals; set spiritual goals for yourself to give you something to work toward. 2012 is going to be a great year.

Make it easy for yourself to focus on your journey by having a clear destination in sight and it will also help you perfect a life of discipline and diligence.

There is lot of talent lost because people didn’t know how to make a decision. Many people will never see their visions and life purpose manifest because they lack discipline. We don’t want to talk about this critical aspect of life and try to ignore it by focusing on only the spiritual side of reaching our breakthrough.

But the truth of the matter is that you need to be disciplined in every of your life and in your daily habits if you want to discover the life you were born to live. It is impossible without discipline. I encourage you to examine your life and think about the blessings that may be blocked because you fail to discipline yourself in the things of God.

When you realize what it is, decide today to change, and watch God manifest His goodness to you. Becoming disciplined is a part of developing godly character and the very answer to your breakthrough.

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Joy Stealers; What Is That All About?

November 17, 2011 by Olga 11 Comments

Joy Stealers; What Is That All About?

by Olga Hermans

In our previous post we talked about the fact that joy is not the same as happiness. Thank you so much for all your emails and comments. I really do appreciate them! A few months ago I watched a service online where Dr. Don Colbert talked about joy stealers.

Just like those happiness traps that we get stuck in, there are also joy stealers. There are attitudes, that when you have them, you will not be able to enter into joy. I always appreciate Dr. Colbert and I follow a lot of his advice, especially this one on joy stealers. That’s why I like to share these with you today.

1. A critical, complaining attitude. If you have a critical, complaining attitude, you can never sow seeds of joy and reap a harvest of joy. You can NEVER do that! Philippians 2:14 says: Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [against God] and questioning and doubting [among yourselves] Not some things, ALL things!

You have to identify this. If you have it or your spouse has it, repent and resist this attitude. We all know how the Israelites grumbled in the desert; they are a great example to us. They had a grumbling, faultfinding and complaining attitude.

They hated the manna that God gave them from heaven every day that had every bit of nourishment in it they needed to live free of disease for years and years. Numbers tells us that there were fiery serpents among them, they bit the people and many of them died. So, the people asked Moses to pray for the Lord to take the serpents out of their midst.

Did the Lord take the serpents away? NO! Here is why: If you are murmuring and complaining, faultfinding; guess what? You are going to be in trial after trial after trial, represented by the many, many snakes. God is not taking the snakes away; you have to deal with it with an attitude of gratitude.

God hates a murmuring, faultfinding, complaining attitude and if you have that attitude; repent, because you will never have joy with that attitude; ever. Here is the 2nd joy-stealer attitude

2. Offense. If you get offended easily, you will never have joy: impossible!

You might think that your situation is much different from any other because nobody can understand what has been done to you. Listen to what Paul said in Acts 24:16 … I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

He exercised to be free of offense, In other words, he worked at it and kept working at it. Every single day! A lot of people keep offense towards God when a loved one died because of a car accident. Do you know what unforgiveness does in the body? It causes the stress response in the body to become stuck.

Just like an accelerator on a car can become stuck, you can get stuck. You stir in your own stress juices and these stress juices were meant to save your life in the short run but they also will destroy your life in the long run when they are stimulated continuously! A chronic stress response is deadly and causes tremendous disease. It is at the root of most diseases.

The main thing that gets people stuck in that stress response is: offense, unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment. Forgiveness is that important! Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Eph 4:31 It says ALL bitterness and ALL anger, ALL rage.

The word ALL is very important. And it says to be kind to one another, tender-hearted and forgiving one another, just as Jesus has forgiven you. You might think that this is not fair. It is not about being fair, it is about being obedient to God’s Word.

God knows that if you don’t do this, it is going to eventually effect your health and it will eventually poison every relationship you are in and it is going to eventually affect your health and destroy your health; mentally, emotionally and it will also affect your relationship with God.

Many people cannot simply feel the presence of God; their prayers are not being answered and that is because they have a spirit of offense. They carry bitterness and they do not release the hurt. Let me tell you, if you don’t forgive them; you are going to pay the price.

Jesus said: If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15 That’s why proverbs says: above all else, guard your heart because out of it flow the issue of life.

We have to guard our heart, we cannot let bitterness in, and we cannot let offense in because it will destroy our joy and we will never be able to plant seeds of joy and have a harvest of joy. You will always wonder, why that other person is so happy and why can I never sense the presence of God? That is because of that poisonous root of bitterness that will always destroy and prevent happiness form taking root.

3. The person with stinking thinking. If you want to discover the life you were born to live, you have to learn how we can clean our thinking up.

Mark Twain said: I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

The majority of bad things we think are going to happen to us, never happen. Phil.2:5 says: “allow this mind to be in you”, which means that we can have the mind of Christ or allow this mind that was in Jesus to be in us, which means we can have the mind of Christ, but we need to get the word of God inside of us and we have to get the trash out.

We sometimes carry too many deadly emotions inside us and “somebody has done me wrong songs”. We have to allow God to change the way we think. Rom.12:2 Dr. Colbert also taught that we have a joy center in the brain, did you know that?

He came up with research after research, very interesting! He is writing a book about it, which will be released sometime soon. He said that when this joycenter is developed, it has executive control just like the president; it has executive control over the entire emotional system. Also, when it is developed, it regulates emotion, pain and immunity.

The joycenter, if it is developed, is able to override the main drive centers of food, sexual impulses, temper and rage. So, if you can effectively develop this joycenter, guess what? You’ll be able to resist giving into any cravings for food (even chocolate), sexual impulse cravings, affairs and pornography and sexual addictions. You can resist terror, and you can overcome it.

You can resist giving into rage; you can resist giving into blind rage or fury. You can control it. Because when you develop that joy center it is literally to exert executive control over every emotional center in your mind. That means it overcomes depression, fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, blame, etc.

Every single emotion has to bow before the chief executive which is the joy center. Well, I thought this was worth writing a post about, what do you think? I value your comments! You can subscribe to

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