It is evident there are many people in the Body of Christ who attempt to integrate their Christian faith with the pursuit of happiness. Some have even gone so far as to have a theology of happiness in which they obey or disobey Scripture based on what gives them the most happiness.Several years ago a prominent pastor in New York City divorced his wife and married someone else in his church because, he said, "God wants me happy!">> Read More ... >>>

In examining this subject I believe the reason for this belief is most likely a confusion of the concepts of joy and happiness. Joy is an inward sense of peace, contentment, and even ecstasy due to our righteous standing in Christ and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This state of joy should be present in all believers in spite of the circumstances or challenges one might be facing. Joy is a supernatural experience that cannot be explained outside of a supernatural act of God. As the song writer said, "The world didn't give us joy so the world can't take it away!"

Let my prayer be set before You as incense,

The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. - Psalm 141:2

Have you ever wondered about the scriptural tie between incense and prayer? Many of us weren't raised in cultures that use incense on a regular basis, and in fact, for some of us, the only reference point we have for the word might be the thin, rectangular packages we could buy at the local food co-op. When God says that our prayers "rise before Him like incense," many of us have no idea what that actually means.>> Read More ... >>>

Why would God refer to our prayers this way?

Foundations in Community Development School (End date unsure yet)

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 From 14 September 2009, YWAM Durban presents the Foundations in community Development School, with the specific focus on equipping volunteers working in developing communities to influence and transform all domains of society.  Grace Goeda, founder and director of Dignity Centre, will lead the school, which is a ministry of YWAM Durban that focuses on mercy, training and empowering different groups in the community.  Although this is a second level school of YWAM, it is our desire to open it up to anybody who is interested in community development and currently working in this area even if they have not yet done the entrance school of YWAM, the Discipleship Training School.

Church failure is directly related to congregations isolating themselves from the Kingdom of God and re-organizing according to their own ideologies. Failure is unknown in the Kingdom. Jesus promised the church that the "gates of Hell shall not prevail against it". Matthew 16:18. The New Testament acknowledges the reality of the church's persecution and pain but not her failure. She can expect tyranny and trial but not defeat; demonic attack will come but she need never surrender.

Jesus preached about "The gospel of the Kingdom," Matthew 24:14, "The mysteries of the Kingdom," Matthew 13:11, "The keys of the Kingdom," Matthew 16:19, "The word of the Kingdom," Matthew 13:19, "The heirs of the Kingdom," James 2:5. Jesus "loved the church, gave Himself for it," Ephesians 5:25, all the while He pointed men's hearts to the heavenly Kingdom. We are to love the church as Jesus did but our emphasizing segregated parts of the church independently of the Kingdom is a contradiction of His message. Denominationalism is an illusion, a phantom in the desert.

In the gospels, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom more than 130 times but made only 3 references to the church.>> Read More ... >>>

by Francis Frangipane www.frangipane.org

Since time began, the Kingdom of Heaven has been an interactive reality in man's destiny. God (and angels) spoke to man "from Heaven" (Gen. 21:17; 22.11; 22:15), the Lord gave man promises and blessings from Heaven (Gen. 24:7; 49.25), and when necessary brought judgments upon wicked men "out of heaven" (Gen. 19:24).

Indeed, the revelation of God's kingdom in the Sacred Writ is no incidental issue. The Bible records several hundred verses where Heaven or God's kingdom is mentioned in its various phrasings. It is this kingdom that I'd like us to consider, first as it is revealed in the Old Testament and then as it was manifest in power through Christ in the New Testament. Our focus will remain upon God, of course, yet we must also learn of that realm that surrounds the Most High: His eternal abode.>> Read More ... >>>

This realm called Heaven is not only "real," but it is "an everlasting kingdom" that "endures throughout all generations" (Ps. 145:13). Nations rise and fall, men and cultures emerge in pride and vanity only to disappear, yet God's kingdom abides forever.

by Martin C. Selbrede www.chalcedon.edu >> Read More ... >>>

24 Features of the "Kingdom of God" just out of His Word: >> Read More ... >>>

1. The Kingdom Of God is a mystery to the Undiscerning
Mar 4:11 And he said unto them, Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables: 12 that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them.

2. The Kingdom Of God Is Not Observable, It is Not Flesh and Blood
Luk 17:20 And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God cometh, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: