Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.” Matthew 19:26 (MSG) Desire is a powerful force. It moves you toward whatever you crave, so it can either move you toward faith or it can move you toward temptation. To move toward faith, you need to cultivate a desire for the right things. But how? Well, did you know that when you be- gin to expect something, that expectation makes your desire stronger? Think about it. Let’s say you work on a factory floor and a supervisory position becomes open. Every other time this position became available, you ignored it. You thought, I’m …

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 (NKJV)   We’ve begun a series about the keys to walking in the authority you have in Christ. These are keys to real change, and they will help you become who you really are: a born-again, power-filled child of God. We’re going to talk about the second key today: the desires of your heart. You see, desire is a powerful force that can move you either toward faith or toward temptation. Many Christians have been taught that you should never desire anything but Jesus. That may sound spiritual, but it’s not true. It’s okay to desire food. God put that desire there to keep you alive. In …

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Galatians 5:6 (NKJV) Negative motivation doesn’t work on its own. At first it seems as if it does because when someone is reprimanded or embarrassed, they try to change. But we need to look a little deeper. Let’s take parenting as an example. If you correct children and never show them love, they develop a negative motivation to change. Sure they might behave to avoid punishment, at least when you’re looking, but this does nothing to motivate them to want to do what’s right. While kids need consequences, they need love even more. They need to know you love them, believe in them and want what’s best for them. Then …

For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. Psalm 8:5 (NKJV) One of the greatest needs we have in life is to have self-worth. In fact, having great self-worth is vital if you want to walk in God’s promises and the authority you have in Christ. Self-worth is how much you feel you’re worth. It’s you feeling good about you. It’s feeling the love of God, knowing that you are important and that you aren’t lower than everybody else. And it’s vital because if you don’t feel good about yourself, you won’t live the life God has intended for you. Over time, you may have received criticism that caused you to feel as …

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19 (NKJV) When someone comes to work at our church, they are given a key. Each key has a different number, and each number opens doors at different levels of security. However, there’s one type of key that opens every door. When you have that key, you can walk up to any door in the building and open it. This reminds me of Matthew 16:19, where it says that Jesus gave us the keys of the kingdom of heaven. As believers, the type of keys we’ve been given don’t just open …