places [them] in the crevices of Jerusalem’s Western Wall, a Jewish holy site that faithful believe provides a direct line to the Almighty.

What do you think about this use of Twitter? Is it “more prayer, more power” or does it remind people that they don’t have a direct line to God? Leave your comments below.

Often times, I lose my patience and try to do things on my own. Whenever I do, it never works out. I’ve learn that instead of taking things into my own hands, I need to trust God.

I’ll admit, this is the hardest part. I want things now. For example, I remember going on a speaking engagement that I really wasn’t supposed to do. It was on the Sabbath, plus I didn’t consult God to ask Him what to do (well, I couldn’t because it was Sabbath). I was strapped for cash and saw the four figure engagement as a “sign from God” that I must go. I mean, God wouldn’t put such a lucrative opportunity in my lap if it weren’t for me, right? God is a God of abundance, correct?

Despite my rationale, I never made it to city where I was supposed to speak. I had an unforeseen issue happen at the border and I sauntered home wondering why God was being so mean.

In the months that followed, I realized that I was wrong. I recognize now that I didn’t put God first. Instead of waiting for Isaac, I jumped the gun and went after Ishmael. Perhaps God was testing my obedience, perhaps he was testing my trust in Him. Whatever the reason, I know that I was wrong NOT to put God first in all my plans.

In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Proverbs 3:6

What are some of the reminders you use to remember to put God first while waiting for Him?

The pastor is the CEO. The clergy and/or staff is upper management. Evangelism is sales and marketing. The congregation is the clientele. And there is competition with other corporations (“churches”) in the same town.

But the corporation metaphor has a major problem. Not only is it glaringly absent from the New Testament, it does violence to the spirit of Christianity. Because from God’s standpoint, the church is primarily a family. His family, in fact.

How can the church be defined so it doesn’t use a corporate definition to define its structure?

When I was at a conference a couple of months ago, I used this church as a case study on how Seventh-day Adventist churches can use social media to engage people.

One man in the audience didn’t like what I was saying. Because it was a small audience, he interrupted me, saying:

I think that’s ridiculous. Using that thing would distract the church goers and I can’t possibly see how it can help.

I replied by saying that I’m not here to convince him to do anything. All I’m doing is opening the mind on how churches can stay relevant in a busy marketplace.

How do you feel about churches using tools such as Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools as a way to evangelize in today’s world?

As we were talking, he addressed with me his concern over my foundation. As I probed into his statement, he accurately assessed that I was beginning to rapidly put together a structure, but my foundation was not set. He further elaborated that I may even need to pull back the reigns on the ministry, because the monthly provisions for my family were not fully in place.

There was great wisdom in those words. A structure is only as good as the foundation it is built upon. The foundation determines to what degree and at what pace the structure can be erected. It also determines the longevity of what is built, and the types of adversity the structure can withstand.

This conversation has had me thinking about the following passage of Scripture:

Luke 6:47-49 (NASB)

47 “Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like:

48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood rose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

49 “But the one who has heard, and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

The greatest detriment to the lives we are building is the poor foundation work, we all too often settle for. We may hear the words of God, but how often do we fail to implement those very things into our lives. We know we are cutting corners, but we don’t think anyone will ever notice the shortcuts.

Unfortunately turmoil has a way of exposing our frailties, shortcuts and shortcomings. The places we chose to hear, but not obey become glaringly obvious as we watch the structures of our lives come crashing down on the shifting foundations upon which they were built.

Today, I encourage you to evaluate your foundation. Have you taken the time to dig deep and lay your foundation on the bedrock principles of God? If you have, the storms may be fierce, but they will not topple the things God has directed you to build. In the end the structure will stand, unmoved by the tempest, because the foundation never shifted.

Author Resource: Carl Willis is the Lead Pastor/Strategist for Simplicity Church Network and owns the ecommerce site www.healthmartxpress.com

And to be used to touch other people’s lives: Isaiah 61:1-3 – “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

As a life coach, the Holy Spirit gives us divine ideas, and inspirations. These we have to carry out, in order to be effective believers. Working with the Holy Spirit is a team work. The Holy Spirit is the team leader and the coach, but he needs us to manifest the plan, because he is a Spirit. We even need him more, in order to have fulfilling lives.

Divine direction saves time and energy. Peter was fishing without any harvest, until Jesus told him, where to put his net, for his harvest: John 21:6 – “And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.

We need to be spiritually awakened, because Satan, who is the thief, is trying to destroy us. And manipulate us from our place of authority: John 10:10 – “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

We cannot escape Satan’s strategies alone. Satan is a demonic force, and a spirit. We need the more powerful Holy Spirit, to keep him at bay: 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 – “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,”

The Holy Spirit is our time saving guide. He can save us from wasting our time and efforts, if we would pray to him before making major decisions. He can show us our purpose. We won’t have to do any unproductive and unfulfilling things, when we know our life purpose. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we will not be deceived: John 16:13 – “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

9 Ways The Holy Spirit Reveals Things To Us:

1. Sometimes we feel a burden in our heart for something, so much that we can’t wait to see it change.
2. Sometimes when we are reading the bible, and we start to understand what was not said. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through his Word
3. Sometimes we have a problem, and everywhere we go, people are preaching about it.
4. He reveals things to us in our dream. Although sometimes our dreams come from our unconscious mind, but this are usually things we have been thinking about a lot.
5. He speaks to us through our mind, although it takes some time to recognize his voice apart from other inner voices. We must pray for discernment.
6. We sometimes have flashes of vision in our inner man, especially during prayer or praise and worship.
7. He gives us great passion for something.
8. He gives us supernatural understanding of something. We can’t explain how we know it.
9. He convicts us to repent, do or change something.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com

A Life coach is someone that works with people in order to achieve self improvement in their lives. This is what the Holy Spirit does with us. A life coach helps people to works on personal growth. The Holy Spirit empower us, by strengthening our inner man: Ephesians 3:16 – “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

A life coach is someone who empowers people by motivating them, to chase their dreams. God want us to have dreams and goals, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have told us to ask. God expects us to make the first move, because he has given us the free will to choose: Matthew 7:8 – “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

The Holy Spirit knows our purpose and dreams. He is the one that is able to help us to achieve them. Our dreams must not contradict His Word but compliment our purpose and His will for us. God has a plan for our future; he doesn’t expect us to just go through the motions. He wants us to be a success: Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

The Holy Spirit coaches us through fellowshipping with him. He is able to change undesirable self limiting beliefs into empowering beliefs, when we allow him to strengthen us. The Holy Spirit moulds us till we become the authentic person that God made us to be. And not the self image we tend to belief. Self image is how we see ourselves, and not necessarily who God made us to be.

When we establish a close relationship with the Holy Spirit, He develops us into the authentic person that God originally made us to be: 1 Samuel 10:6 – “Then the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.”

The Holy Spirit is always in us, but when he comes upon us, people can physically see a difference in us. People can see the physical, as well as spiritual effect of God’s anointing in us. This is called the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The anointing sometimes make people cry, laugh, shout, shake, fall down, prophesy, speak in tongues, heal, do miracle e.t.c.: Acts 2:12-13 – “So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”

According to the teachings of Jesus you know a true prophet from a false prophet according to their fruits. Be careful of false prophets that come to you dressed as a sheep. Inside their hearts they may be similar to a ravening wolf.

A prophet of God, the Father in Heaven, will bring forth good fruit just as good trees bring forth good tasting and good looking fruit and a corrupt tree or one that is rotten will bring forth nasty looking fruit. By this, you will know which tree to eat from, and by the fruits (which are behaviors, words, deeds of people) you will also know which prophet to follow after.

Every tree that does not bring forth “eatable” fruit is cut down and destroyed. In this same manner will all false prophets, teacher, guides, and evangelists and so on and so forth will also at some point in time be cut off and destroyed.

Not everyone who thinks they will enter into the Kingdom of heaven will actually enter in on that final day. Only those people who have actually done the will of the Father will pass on through the gate to eternal life. It is predicted that many people will say on that last great judgment day, “Why Lord have I not prophesied in your name and cast out devils in your name as well.” “Lord have I not done many wonderful works in your name? In that hour, Jesus will tell them, “I never knew you, depart from me, you that worked iniquity.

But those people who hear the sayings of Jesus and do them, he is considered a wise man that built his house upon a rock. When the rain and the floods came, and the winds blew against this man or woman’s house, it didn’t fall, because it was founded upon a rock.

For those people who heard the sayings of Jesus, but did them not, he is considered a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. When the rain and floods came, and the wind blew against the house, it fell, and great was the fall of it.

When Jesus ended his sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. In the days of Jesus when these sayings were first delivered, the people felt as though his sayings were taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

The lesson we want to learn from these particular sayings of Jesus Christ is that the true wise men and women of this present world will be those who obey the laws of God. When their hard times come, when the temptations and trials of their life come in on them like floods of rain and strong winds, they will continue to stand steadfast, because their trust and their belief systems are founded upon the rock. That rock is Jesus Christ and all his teachings. They will still be standing on the great judgment day and will enter in to life everlasting.

By contrast, are the men and women who decide to turn away the laws of God and seek another pathway throughout their lifetime. Their final fall will be great, as I believe this to mean, the great fall of this type of man or woman will be to receive eternal torment.