Faith Producers International Podcast

IN THE STORM HOLD TIGHT TO THE PROMISES   I love the sunshine and hate the rain. Whoa, what am I saying I live in the north west where we have four seasons in the year. We have two days of spring four days of summer and attempt at a decent fall in a long, dark winter. Well, of course I'm exaggerating but not much. We used to tell everyone it rained all the time and Northwest just to keep them away. Put the secret got out that the storm clouds that rolled in brought rain, and the rain brought luscious green hills and rushing rivers. So you see without the storm clouds, we would live in a barren land. Show me years ago our church here was visited by some brothers from Arizona. The thing they complained about was, they couldn't see the hills. Our hills are green, and filled with trees. Their hills are brown, and filled with dead grass and such.. Jesus told us storms would come. He referred to them as trouble.. However, he was clear about the fact that he would never leave us in the trouble, but he would take us

SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT UNTIL WE EXPERIENCE COMPLETE FREEDOM How much of the word of God do we, as believers, really believe? I'm speaking about the general body, including myself, at times, as I have learned to walk by faith and not by sight. Most of what we know comes from our mentors, those who raised us in the gospel. Like a natural family, the spiritual family passes on its excellent and bad traits.  We learned how to pray by watching our elders pray around the altar, especially in the early days when we did the same. We have learned to worship and sing the songs of praise because we watched others do it and followed after them. So I ask you again, how much of the word of God do you believe? You can tell how much we believe. By the way, we pray and the way we worship.  If you're still begging or asking God to do something for you, you may need to dig a little deeper into the revelation that God gave to Paul in the book of Ephesians. If you're still worshiping in your public services, hoping God shows u

OPEN DOORS, OPEN HEAVENS   The 10th chapter of John is an amazing revelation of Jesus as the door to eternity and heaven's glory. The Passion Bible says it this way in the ninth verse. (Jesus said) I am the gateway; to enter through me is to experience life, freedom, and satisfaction.   Nicodemus came to Jesus in the dark of night because of his reputation as a spiritual leader. When he asked Jesus how he did the miracles, Jesus told him that to understand, you have to have a new spirit and be born from above. Being a religious man, steeped in the traditions of the elders, Nicodemus could not catch the depth of what Jesus was teaching him that night. Jesus was talking about entering another world, a doorway that you can enter by faith through his name. When that takes place, you are reborn from above. Because of that, you can understand spiritual mysteries and walk in the lord's ways. As believers in Jesus Christ, we face many doors on our journey, all of which will open by the same action of faith that the f

KEEP GOD ON THE THRONE AND JESUS AS THE DOOR   How far can we go with the revelation and insight that we get from dreams or prophetic words that we receive from the Lord? What is the rule of thumb, as they say, to judge whether we are hearing from God or having a vain imagination? Most often, someone will answer that question with this statement. If it's not in the Bible, it's not true, so we must throw that revelation away. As we have this thought today, let's keep in mind that most of what we do in life is not in the Bible, at least in the detail that some say we need.  For instance, there is no chapter and verse for who you will marry or what job you should take next. When I was pastorimg with my Father in Sacramento as a teenage preacher I was challenged by a Hyper spiritual teenager that I shouldn't drive a car because Jesus didn't drive a car. OK, you've got the point. Some things have the principles in the Bible but not the exact details.  Concerning dreams and prophecies, let's also keep in mind that

IDENTIFY THE THIEF AND GET IT ALL BACK   Among the many lessons I've learned while walking with Christ is that this experience is multifaceted. Nothing in the spiritual world is built or works on a set of principles you can carry in your notebook and pull out when needed.  The Christian Life and the mysteries of this beautiful, supernatural world are like the computer. It's all there, ready to go, except you need a password to make it happen. The key or password is not simply faith or belief. If that were the case, anyone could manipulate their own Life by training themselves to believe. The key to Christian Life is believing in Christ, his finished work on the cross, and his resurrection. When that happens, you step into his world and become joined with his Life, so when you identify a thief, you have the authority to get it all back. We tend to want a formula of faith that we can use without a relationship with our Father in heaven. Remember, Jesus did nothing but what he saw his Father doing. This Christia

HAVING A HEAVENLY CONVERSATION WITH JESUS   Some years ago, while traveling through the East Coast in ministry, we visited Williamsburg, Virginia. Williamsburg is one of our history's essential places where our forefathers gathered and formed our early America. They have replicated or restored the old town to look like it did in the 1700s. All of the workers in town are dressed appropriately for the age they represent, so it turns out to be a fascinating and fun place to be. At one point, our tour guide pointed to a second story on a building across the street. She said those who gathered would go there after dinner and have a good conversation. I thought to myself, what would it be like to converse with the type of men with the wisdom and intelligence to form the first nation of freedom in history? Then, I added several other people I would like to have a good conversation with. People of renown, inventors, preachers, etc. Then, I was brought to the meeting that Nicodemus and Jesus had in John three. Nicodem

DO YOU TRUST HOLY SPIRIT AS MUCH AS GPS?   Guidance is the main issue of life. From our earliest memories, someone is trying to tell us where to go and what to do. Obviously, in a well-structured home that God placed you in, your mother and father are the first instructors. They tell me that young children learn what they will do 95% of the time in the first five years as they grow older. They also say that training happens at their mother's knee. In the early Jewish tradition, the young sons were trained by their mother until they were seven, and then their father took over to teach them a trade they would do for life. So guidance is a big deal in the life of the believer, you, and those who have given themselves to Jesus Christ. Yet, in all of the years I have pastored, the most repetitive question I got is," What do you think God has in store for me." Or a variation of the same question concerning life's journey. Learning to hear the voice of Holy Spirit, and trusting to be obedient to what you hear is a m

YOU DON'T DRINK POND WATER   Jesus said, If you drink from Jacobs well, you'll be thirsty again, but if anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never be thirsty again. For when you drink the water I give you, it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, flooding you with endless life! ( John 4:14) p/b This may shock you when I say that reading the Bible without the Spirit of God, anointing the words you read, is like drinking stale pond water. This is the reason they can use the Bible as a textbook in the universities without the results you would expect.  In other words, scripture reading only can become vain repetition. Believing faith is what turns that stale pond water into a living river that will give you endless life. You cannot act on the scriptures to obey them without the Holy Spirit, inspiration, and drawing you to the Father. This is the mystery of salvation and the grace of righteousness given to us freely. Unless the Holy Spirit speaks to you through those scriptures, you will

AND IT CAME TO PASS-THE SEASONS IN OUR LIVES   Happy New Year, everyone. Here we are in 2024, and we have no idea how we got here. It seems just like yesterday when much of the church was all concerned about Y2K and the end of things. The hotels were all sold out in and around Jerusalem, expecting Jesus to break through the Eastern gate. The secular world was concerned about the computer crash because of the change in the century date. Satellites were going to fall out of the sky. Elevators wouldn't work in the giant towers, and the stock market would crash because of the Computer failures. And yet here we are 24 years later, listening to the same rhetoric of doom and gloom and damnation, destruction, death, failure, and hopelessness. Brother, that sounds like good news. Not! The good news is that all of these have been seasons in your life to prepare you for the days ahead that God has promised and will fulfill. If you think the Holy Spirit will fail in doing what he has been commissioned from the Father, th

THE ALTERNATE WORLD WHERE YOUR SPIRIT DWELLS?   Forty-five years ago, I brought my young family to a small farming community 60 miles north of Seattle to pastor a fledgling church. Our town is in a valley nourished for centuries by river water overflowing and depositing an excellent rich soil. 95% of our industry is farming. We grow a wide variety of vegetables, including fruit trees and various grains. However, we are known Worldwide for our tulips.  For centuries, the nation of the Netherlands dominated and controlled the tulip industry. At one point in their history, at the height of a "tulip bubble," one bulb sold for the price of a house. With worldwide migration, some tulip growers found their way to our small valley. For the last three decades, we have been competitors to the Netherlands, sometimes passing their output of tulips. Every year in the month of Easter, 250,000 people drive our little country roads, taking pictures of tulips and buying sacks of bulbs to take home. The point of this trip down

SANTA CLAUSE VS SANTA JESUS- WILL THE REAL SANTA PLEASE STAND   HOW DO WE TELL THE REAL SANTA? ( Santa= righteous and holy) Both Santas are jolly. Both Santas love children. Both Santas give good gifts. Both Santas can fly. Both Santas have an expected return. Both Santas have people looking for their appearing. Both Santas have a massive group of servants. And both Santas love you unconditionally. Whoops- hold it a minute. If I remember right, Santa Claus will love you and give you gifts if you're nice. However, if you are naughty, heaven help you. And here's where Santa "Jesus" comes in. With the real Santa Jesus Christ, love is not conditional. Romans 8 declares that there is nothing that will cause Jesus to stop loving you. Plus- you received his love even before you loved him. Santa Claus never gave his life to redeem you from death. Jesus did! Santa Claus never rose from the dead to give you the gift of eternal life. Jesus did! Santa Claus never went to your heavenly Father to prepare a place for you to

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED   When you look back on your personal life and our national life, you recognize a number of nights that we could call "our night before" when everything changed. There's an old familiar statement we often make when we say, "It's always darkest before the dawn." What we mean by that is that before a miracle happens or our situation changes, we have plenty of opportunity to be in despair and fear. Each of us has memories of our turning points, soon good, some real good, and also some not so good—the night before you board the plane for your planned vacation to the Bahamas. Or the night before, you have to face the judge in the courthouse. These are the nights that you remember because it's in these times that your character and strengths are strengthened and formed. Look at Paul and Silas, as related in the Book of Acts, in jail at midnight. It was their night before God's miracle happened, and they were set free supernaturally. Take a snapshot of Peter as he's in c

JESUS CAME TO THE WHOLE WORLD AND FOUND ONE OUTCAST WOMAN   We just sailed through another Christmas season, celebrating the coming of the savior of the world as a baby in the manger. But there is a reason why the Bible does not record the adolescent years of Jesus, except for one episode, when he was 12 in the temple. We jump from that description of that young 12-year-old and the priest he interchanged with to a 30-year-old man walking up to John the Baptist to start his destiny God sent him to fulfill. As interesting as it may be to know the daily schedule of a five-year-old Jesus, the Holy Spirit excluded that on purpose so that we would focus on the main reason that God came in the flesh in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. John 3:16 tells us that God's only begotten son came to redeem the world and everything God created.  We spend the next three years watching Jesus through the eyes of the four gospels, healing the sick, raising the dead, and feeding the hungry. Jesus came to the whole world and found one

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED   When you look back on your personal life and our national life, you recognize a number of nights that we could call "our night before" when everything changed. There's an old familiar statement we often make when we say, "It's always darkest before the dawn." What we mean by that is that before a miracle happens or our situation changes, we have plenty of opportunity to be in despair and fear. Each of us has memories of our turning points, soon good, some real good, and also some not so good—the night before you board the plane for your planned vacation to the Bahamas. Or the night before, you have to face the judge in the courthouse. These are the nights that you remember because it's in these times that your character and strengths are strengthened and formed. Look at Paul and Silas, as related in the Book of Acts, in jail at midnight. It was their night before God's miracle happened, and they were set free supernaturally. Take a snapshot of Peter as he's in c

THE DOUBLE STANDARD-DID CHRIST COME IN THE FLESH?   Fifty years after Christ's ascension, the apostle John set pen to paper and gave us the first, second, and third John in the Scriptures. This is the same disciple who leaned on Jesus's breast during the Last Supper. This is the one they could not kill, so they put him on the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the revelation of Jesus Christ. In first, John the fourth chapter, he's dealing with a crisis that is happening in the Christian church. In a short five decades after Jesus ascended, 50% of the church did not believe that God actually came in the flesh. The teachings and revelation that the apostle Paul had 50 years previous to this had been taken over by perversive teachers that entered into the bloodstream of the church. We often use this passage of scripture in our modern situation, challenging an evil spirit or a person who may be under the influence and bondage of an evil spirit. We ask them if they can confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. It's

THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM SOLVER   What was the original sin that separated humanity from fellowship with their creator? Was it, not the fact that Adam and Eve stepped away from the rules of life that God had set for them? The key to harmony and peace in the heavenly kingdom and in the world that Adam lived in was obedience to the rules of life. Those rules of life were very clear. Obey what I say, and you will have success. Disobey what I say, and you will find trouble. As quoted in the book of Genesis, the serpent in the garden came into their life of tranquility and peace and beguiled them. The word beguiled means to bring confusion to the point of changing your opinions and understanding. What happened was that Adam and Eve became their own counselor and, in a real sense, their own God. From that point on, it was "game on." Who among us needs God? We can be our own problem solvers. So here we are after all of these centuries that have passed, and we have come up with a new brilliant idea called artificial inte

WISDOM GIVES LIFE   It's the first day of a new week, and we look forward to the challenging yet adventurous days ahead of us. Because life is not always guaranteed to work out the way you thought it would, we trust the Lord to guide us through the pitfalls and the snares that it may offer. To do that, we prepare ourselves by studying and meditating upon the word of God for wisdom. Godly wisdom comes only from the spiritual realm in which God lives and from the spirit of wisdom herself. To receive godly wisdom, we have been given the ability by God himself to have Faith and belief. The Scriptures tell us that he has given every person the measure of Faith. God's Faith is planted in the spirit of every created human so they can believe in the Lord Jesus and find their way home to the Father. We have been given clear instructions on receiving the spirit of wisdom and the gift of life. The apostle Paul told his spiritual son Timothy to study the word of God, and it would prove him to be a faithful servant. Jesus

THE KEY TO ETERNAL JOY   We used to sing a song in the church: "It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the half has never yet been told." And another song was:  "Joy bells, ringing in my heart, Joy bells, ringing in my heart, Take the savior here below with you everywhere you go, You will have the joy-bells ringing in your heart," Joy and a life of peace have always been the theme of the Christian message, as well as the lifestyle of a believer in Jesus Christ. That's one of the reasons we sing about it and teach it from the word of God. So, what is the key to eternal joy? How do I, as a believer in Jesus Christ, maintain a lifestyle that is void of depression, fear, and downright unbelief? The Scriptures tell us that in the presence of the Lord, there is fullness of joy and that his right hand pleasures forever more. ( Ps 16:11) It's my experience that you can't dwell in depression and be in faith at the same time. The scriptures tell us bitter and sweet water can't flow from the same well. I also know

WE CAN WALK ON WATER IF WE KNOW WHO IS CALLING US TO COME   Among the many questions that I have been asking as a pastor is the one concerning the will of God for their personal life. "Pastor, do you think it would be God's will that I move to Cincinnati?" "Pastor, should I Mary Jane? Is that the woman that God has given me?" The desire to know that God favors what you do makes all the difference in the outcome. When Peter stepped out of the boat, he was in and started walking on the water. It was the result of one thing and one thing only. He knew it was Jesus who had called him to come. The storm was thick enough that he couldn't make out his features, but he recognized his voice, and when he did, he made history. So the key to that miracle story is knowing Jesus so that you trust and rely on him when he says come to me. To know someone requires a certain amount of intensive personal relationship with that person.  Doing that comes from a desire or an appetite to understand and learn what they know and expe

RESTORATION-HOW FAR DOES IT GO?    I'm sure you've heard the gospel song pleading with God, asking if he could just make it in. Listening to it, we get the picture of someone diving through the gate of heaven, catching their coat tail as it closes. A person with that in their thinking lives a life of high anxiety, hoping and wishing that somehow God would have mercy on them and let them into his heaven. Much of the protestant church, in its early formation, taught that you would not know you were saved until the end of time when you either went to heaven or hell. It was the influential evangelist in the early 1800s by the name of Charles Finney who brought out the mourner's bench. He invited people to come forward and kneel at that bench, and when they got up, they would know they were saved. He was persecuted and ran out of town and, In some cases, lied about and accused by the old guard who didn't believe you could know you were saved. When that revelation of restitution and restoration came to the church,