I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19 Have you ever wondered what God’s will is for your life? Let’s pretend a friend of yours was going away for an extended holiday. Before going, she gave you a big bunch of keys and told you to feel free to use her house, cabin, car, boat, and everything else opened by those keys. She gave you the keys and the authority to use them, right? So you have the right to access every item controlled by those keys. How silly would it be if you phoned her up and asked …

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). John 10:10 (AMPC) Some of the old hymns we sing are absolutely beautiful. On the other hand, some of them seem to contribute to a culture I hate. The lyrics I’m talking about make it seem like we’re living in a world of woe, taking it one day at a time, doomed to barely get by as we plead for mercy drops to fall around us, just holding the fort until Jesus comes back. This kind of attitude creates a victim mentality and causes people to think they’re locked in to the life …

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 When God made mankind, he created a family for himself. He’s our Father, and just as human parents don’t want to control their adult children, he doesn’t want to control us. Kids are mis-managers in general. They don’t know how to manage their teeth, their clothes, their bedrooms, their diets, or even going to the washroom at first! But with time and a lot of training, they learn to manage these things and more. We teach them how to drive, how to walk and talk, how to handle people, how to obey the law and, as believers, how to understand who they are in Christ. And we do …

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 (NKJV) Do you know what God’s original intentions were for the human race? According to today’s verse, he wanted us to have dominion. Many of us have picked up the opposite belief. We think that we have very little control over our lives, and have learned to just accept things the way they are. Often this is because we’ve been told that God gave us limitations, and he had a purpose for doing so. But …

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19 “Can you imagine if…” is such a great way to start a sentence! It leads to all kinds of possibility thinking. Without possibility thinking, life can make you feel trapped—like you are just a pawn in the chess game of life. You can begin to feel as though nothing you do matters, and that everything is out of your control, but it’s not true. Your life has not been predetermined for you. Never fall for the lie that you are destined to be poor, sick, depressed or unhappy. That is not …