“The last week in September is coming up, and you know what that means,” she sighed. “Someone in my family is going to get sick.  It happens EVERY year. For the past five or six years now, at least one of us gets the stomach bug.  Last year, I thought we had made it through OK, but Gideon caught the flu at the end of the week.  It was a mess.”

There is power in expectation.  When we expect sickness, when we expect failure, when we expect rejection, it is more likely to happen. (That’s a scientific fact!)  Disclaimer: Expecting something does not guarantee that it will come, but it actually can increase the likelihood.

We must speak truth over ourselves, even if we don’t even believe it at first.  There is something so powerful about speaking life over ourselves, our families, and our homes.  Instead of speaking sickness over your family, let your words be “In the Name of Jesus, I declare that sickness comes nowhere near my family.”  Jesus’s death on the cross has given us that authority.  We belong to the victorious King Jesus, and He has defeated sickness and death themselves.  Abiding in Him gives us the same authority to command sickness and generational curses (like diabetes, cancer, suicide, etc) to flee.  Remind that disease who you belong to.  The Name of Jesus carries extraordinary power.

Expectations of sickness and depression lead to hopelessness.  But, expectation can be fruitful:  What if we expected God to show up on our high school and college campuses in big ways this year?  What if we expected God to provide the finances needed to pay off student loans? What if we expected God to restore our marriages?  What if we expected God to heal our neighbor lady of cancer?  What if we expected God to show us one person that we could share the Gospel with every day?  Imagine the lives around us would change.

As a challenge, commit to spending 10 minutes every day listening for God’s voice. But more than just listen, expect. Expect God to speak to you.

He wants to speak with you, to share His dreams with you.  He wants to meet with you, to tell you about the things that grieve His heart.  He wants to draw closer to you, to form a unique, intimate bond with you that no human could ever satisfy.  He wants to show you things, to give you dreams and revelations of who He is.

Listen to The Shepherd’s voice today, and wait before Him.  Wait with expectation.

Is There Hope for America?
By Ed Silvoso

We are witnessing a presidential campaign that ranks as the worst that any of us alive today have ever experienced-in which each camp vociferously curses the other in a no-holds-barred exposé of their misdeeds, errors and sins.

It has risen to a level that the headlines we read are pointing to the rise in tension and despair, even embarrassment, among American voters. Social media has further made this climate so pervasive that it is almost inescapable.

Is there anything believers can do? Prayers have been offered, but do they make a difference?

A deadline is quickly approaching. On January 20, one of the two top candidates, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, will walk through the front door of the White House as the newly-sworn-in US President for at least the next four years. The enormous burden of the Presidency, complicated by a rapidly-deteriorating world situation plus the enormous weight of personal baggage that each candidate owns is a load too heavy for any human to carry alone.

This is where you and I as Jesus’ Ekklesia (the true governing church), are empowered to play a decisive role.

When I watched Donald Trump’s recent apology for his sexual comments, I saw a man facing a firing squad. He was hopelessly resigned to having to live with something so shameful. But when I watched Anderson Cooper’s interview with Hillary Clinton, posted on YouTube under ‘Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight,’ I saw in her the same deep, despairing anguish as if she were saying, Is there a way out? Can I be redeemed? Will I have to carry these sins and their consequences for the rest of my life?

This is where hope must enter the picture.

Envision with me for a moment from God’s perspective. All that sin does is set the stage for grace, for “…where sin abounds, grace is ready to overflow” (Rom. 5:20). Can God use a murderer? Yes, He did more than once, the apostle Paul being the most notorious one.

Can God use someone of loose morals? Definitely! David, a man the Bible declares was “according to God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14; Ac. 13:22) previously committed adultery and murder.

In Jesus’ genealogy in the gospel of Matthew, the four Old Testament women listed as His ancestors all had “issues,” the most notorious being Rahab, the Harlot!

Can God use someone who shamefully schemes to make others lie for him? Well, the Father of the Faith, Abraham, did not emulate “Honest Abe” or George Washington when He forced his wife-the equivalent of his chief of staff- to lie so that he could gain political approval.

How was it that God was able to use them to accomplish such inspiring deeds in the Bible? Because they all had an encounter with God that freed them from the shackles of sin and its consequences.

That is what could happen in our present circumstances if we link arms, hearts and voices “to lift up holy hands, without wrath and without dissension” (1 Tim. 2:8) to offer intercession for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to have an encounter with God, like Abraham, Rahab and David did.

One of them is going to sit in the Oval Office soon and whatever decisions are made by President Obama’s successor will impact the world, for better or for worse, and at the moment, the indications are that it will be for the worse.

But we can change that. In fact, we must.

You see, up until now, many Christians out of frustration, disappointment and even anger have engaged in speaking evil of the candidates, the system and even the nation. Cursing binds its object and fuels the fires of the evil one. If instead of cursing and binding them through judgments devoid of mercy and faith to the volume of their sins on public display, we choose to bless them by speaking peace over them, will it make a difference? Absolutely! A curse can be broken any time in the Name of Jesus but a blessing can never be broken nor withdrawn because God is the source.

God wants to move mightily in these times! He is able.
Without Him we can’t, but without us, He won’t.
If not us, who? If not now, when?

Please, answer this call to watch, pray, speak blessing and receive hope! Let us take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Let us destroy every human speculation and come against everything that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5)

With hope for our nation and the ways God will work through His praying people!

In a world that tells you to refuse surrender at all costs, Jesus asks you to give up everything: to surrender not only your material belongings, but also your heart and your life.

Surrender comes to the forefront of Scripture in verses like Matthew 5:8, which commands us to “be perfect as [our] Heavenly Father is perfect.”

Supernatural Healing:  Not just for Bible stories.  Not just for the future kingdom of heaven.  For today.  Right now.

Although healing occurs over and over again throughout Scripture, many people believe that it is not God’s will for them to experience physical healing—on the spot—today.