In our lives, we have many relationships, casual and sometimes intimate. But the most significant ones to the kingdom of God are “divine relationships.” In every call, whether secular or ministerial, God sends divine relationships to help strengthen your walk with Him. We may have many casual relationships, but divine relationships are very few. They can usually be counted on one hand.
-Culled from God’s Generals
Not being able to fully understand God is frustrating but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending. What a stunted, insignificant god that would be! If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger.
—FRANCIS CHAN
If they wait to see a work of God without difficulties and stumbling-blocks, it will be like the fool’s waiting at the river side to have the water all run by. A work of God without stumbling-blocks is never to be expected.… There never yet was any great manifestation that God made of himself to the world, without many difficulties attending it.
—JONATHAN EDWARDS
We are not called to give up. We are called to obey God at whatever cost and to let success answer our critics. If it seems you have hit a hard place in your life or ministry, don’t whine and complain. Don’t offer your reasons for it. Pray! Explanations and excuses rob us of strength and power. Don’t shake your head and run. Use the authority that has been given you through Jesus and overthrow the demonic powers that blind the people. Through prayer, take authority and make a clear path for the Spirit of God to minister to the hearts of the people. Sister Etter groomed her spirit through prayer producing invincible strength. She was known as a revivalist who could break towns open.
-Culled from God’s Generals
The name Catherine Booth may not be familiar to you, but perhaps you have heard of her husband, William Booth—founder of the Salvation Army. Due to the nature of their ministry, William and Catherine found themselves traveling a lot. Even though this woman heard some of the greatest sermons from some of the most notable pastors and leaders, she still cried out: “Burning words! That’s what I’m looking for. I travel all around, and I hear oratory; I hear clever preaching. But what I’m searching for is something that will burn my heart like the men on the road to Emmaus.” They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24: 32) As you read the insights, testimonies and Scriptures contained in this book, I pray that your heart would burn. More Christian rhetoric is not the solution for this urgent hour—burning words are. We need words that ignite our hearts to relentlessly pursue and experience the more of God.
(Culled from the Book Ask for the Rain).