You may have suspected. After all, he or she has seemed somewhat distant for a while. But you never thought it would happen to you.

The moment you confronted them undeniable evidence, it was like being hit by a truck. She’s having an affair. Whether it is an emotional or physical affair, the betrayal is just as deep. How can so many emotions hit all at once? They flood in and out—anger, sadness, hopelessness, confusion, embarrassment, betrayal, and rejection. The truth is earth shattering.

The world that you know has been broken by an utter breach of trust by the person that should have honored it the most. If you have or are experiencing this now, I am sorry. You may be asking yourself these questions: What happened? Is my marriage over? Can it be saved? Do I even want to save it? There are so many things to confront, but the main question is, what now?

You Probably Want to Walk. Stop. Give It Time. This is understandable. He or she was unfaithful. However, don’t make a quick decision. Take your time working through the steps below before deciding anything. Do whatever it takes to save your marriage before walking away.

Carefully Consider Your Children. Remember that he or she is one of their parents. They do not need to know the details or even who is at fault. Do not put them in the position of choosing sides. It’s hard enough.

Tell them that, as a couple, you are having a hard time. Affirm your love for them and continue to spend as much time with them as you can. When all is said and done, you want to be able to look at them and tell them that you did everything you could to save the marriage and keep the family together.

Flush through Your Feelings. “Manning up” is not burying your feelings. You need to let them loose. Your feelings are legitimate. Putting on a good face won’t make them disappear. They will only surface later in the form of poison-filled bitterness. Feel deep, identify those feelings, and articulate them.

Then Confront Her or Him. If you have not already done it, confront them when you are under control. Be ready for them to place blame your way. Ask questions and gather as much information as possible. Calmly tell them exactly how you feel. Don’t hold back. This will take multiple sessions.

Get Some Solitude and Pray. You need to get away where you have quiet time to think and reflect. Remove distractions. I would highly recommend enlisting help and direction from God. Separating for a while may be healthy.

Take a Self-Inventory. They did what they did and you don’t have to own that. However, your marriage most likely got to an unhealthy place and that takes two people. Think through and identify the ways that you contributed. Own the part you played and what you can do different going forward. For more on this, read “How to Help Your Spouse Have an Affair.”

Resist Falling into Bad Habits. There is a deep pain and loneliness. The temptation will be to numb or distract yourself from it. Getting drunk, stoned, and/or looking at porn is certainly not the answer. You will find yourself with an even deeper loneliness and hurt. Put your energy into healthy activities.

Find a Trusted Friend to Talk to—Be Very Careful in Your Selection. You need a friend that you can be real with on every level. Choose this person carefully. Make sure they are a good listener, level-headed, and insightful. It will be easy to gravitate toward someone who will bash your spouse. You don’t need that person. You need someone (of your own gender) that helps bring sober clarity.

• 5 Places to Get Bad Marriage Advice

Seek Professional Counseling and a Support Group. Complicated problems need expertise to uncover. The issues you and your marriage are facing need professional insight and perspective. Even if you have no desire to reconcile, you should still meet regularly with a counselor for your own personal healing.

• 4 Ways to Know When it’s Time for Marriage Counseling
• Finding a Good Marriage Counselor: Stacking the Deck in Your Favor

Forgive Him or Her. This is the hardest part, but the most beneficial. It doesn’t mean all is forgotten or that you blindly get back into the relationship. And it certainly doesn’t mean everything is okay. It just means letting go of grudges, anger, and bitterness. It means you are ready for renewal, either in moving on or hopefully restoring the marriage.

Huddle up with your kids tonight and ask: “Why is it important to be honest?”

All Pro Dad is Family First’s innovative and unique program for every father. Their aim is to interlock the hearts of the fathers with their children and, as a byproduct, the hearts of the children with their dads. At , dads in any stage of fatherhood can find helpful resources to aid in their parenting. Resources include daily emails, blogs, Top 10 lists, articles, printable tools, videos and eBooks. From , fathers can join the highly engaged All Pro Dad social media communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

For the original article, visit .

Ever feel like you are on a roller coaster? Climbing higher during sermons on Sundays and then crashing into the pit of bland Christianity sometime around Monday morning?

Sometimes our faith can feel like a temporary high with feel-good emotions yet be void of the substance that keeps us going on Monday mornings—like a sugar rush, crashing when difficult things happen, laundry stacks or exams challenge our intellect.

Could it be that true faith requires daily nutrients, constant care and intentional feeding?

So, how do you stay unswervingly faith-filled, when (let’s face it) we can all be painfully busy? How do you prevent faith from crashing when you are at the water cooler Monday morning, at home refereeing screaming children, or required to study or work in an atmosphere that is anything but holy?

Even busy women don’t have to let their faith starve or their Christianity crash like a fast-going roller coaster ride going downward. Thankfully, through technology and our ability to access encouragement at our fingertips, our faith can daily grow stronger, although the world can pull at us and time can be a commodity we just don’t have enough of.

Although caring for our spiritual health can take a little conscious planning and intentionality, there are strategies that can keep you going throughout the week.

1. Care for body, mind and spirit simultaneously. Often we can compartmentalize our lives, but what if we merged exercise with challenging our minds and our strengthening our spirits? Try walking, running or going to the gym while listening to worship music, a downloaded sermon or an audio version of the Bible.

2. Utilize the time doing chores, errands and daily duties. Often while doing daily, mundane tasks, our minds can drift, and we can spiritually crash. But what if we listened to worship music, sermons or the Bible or even prayed over each person or task we were doing instead? How might our perspective change? How might our “ho-hum” mentality driving us into a pit of disdain turn to a spirit of gratitude and praise instead? What if we read the Bible to our kids, had worship music playing while cooking dinner or went to bed marinating in faith-filled books on CD instead of plunking in front of the TV each night? Wouldn’t we be closer to God at the end of the day?

3. Let the car be your sanctuary. It can be so easy to get stuck thinking we can just praise, pray or get close to God at church. But Scripture tells us we are the temple of the living God. Some of the best prayer times can be during our commute or while picking up kids from sports or school. Try audibly praying, worshipping or spending commute time listening to faith-filled books, the Bible or Christian books from our iPods or CDs.

4. Get Scripture texts or tweets. Go online and request Scripture be sent to your phone or email daily as texts or tweets. You will be amazed at how God will use these to speak to you daily.

5. Grab some earbuds. There are many excellent, encouraging and biblical e-books. Grab some earbuds and download the application to listen to some good teaching while you work, run errands or just plain relax at the end of the day.

6. Serve. You might be surprised at the benefits in service. Teaching your child’s Sunday school class, reading kids the Bible or choosing a Christian nonprofit to do service hours or an internship can ignite the flame of faith inside you. We often most grow our faith, become sanctified and connect with Christ not when we are “getting” but when we are giving our lives away.

Resources:
Free sermons downloaded online:  or .

Free Christian radio online:  or .

Free Bible Verse tweets: 

Free daily Bible verses for phone: .

Bible online for the hearing impaired: 

Audio Bible in 746 languages: .

Free audio Bible: 

Free Christian downloadable e-Books:  or click here. 

Reprinted with permission from Missional Women.

Jen Avellaneda and her husband have been married 20 years and have parented 15  kids and counting—12 foster, one adopted and two biologicals. Her multiracial family reflects her passion for unity, desire for faith without walls and missional mindset to share both the gospel and the power of redemption to a world desperately needing the hope found in Jesus Christ. Jen and her husband have led in a variety of ministries, including prayer, small groups, children’s and women’s. She advocates for the orphan as a board member for the nonprofit A New Song and loves doing missions work internationally, along with her family. 

“I’m sorry, Mr. Fazzina. If your body doesn’t respond to the treatments, you’ll be dead within months, possibly weeks.” The oncologist’s words were an ice-cold knife to my gut. This hospital visit would be the beginning of my family’s descent into the valley of the shadow of death.

It was summer 2002, and I was 27 years old. The doctors had found a massive, inoperable, cancerous tumor inside my chest. The diagnosis was lymphoma. The tumor was positioned just above my heart, and was larger than my heart. As it grew, it began crushing my pulmonary artery, starving me of oxygen and literally suffocating me.

What do you do when you hear news like this? It’s impossible to know what the “right” response should be. I felt a mixture of disbelief, shock and numbness.

The following months were the most challenging and glorious of my life, filled with doctors’ visits, prayer meetings, pain, prophecies, medical tests, visions, love and support. Being a Christ-follower since childhood, I knew I was God’s child and that He could heal me if He wanted to. It was in this season of my life that God taught me to completely depend on Him.

I remember being alone one night in my hospital bed, literally suffocating. I looked up to heaven and said a simple prayer: “Lord, I know I’m Your child. If You want to take me, I’ll go with You.” The Bible says that for the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8), and I believe that. I continued, “But if You want to heal me and let me live, I’ll do my best to continue to serve You and to share with the world Your goodness, love, mercy and power.” I was a broken man, totally thrown onto the mercy of God, praying like Jesus did, “Not my will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

In late December, I went in for my follow-up PET scan. It had been three months since I started chemotherapy, and this was the halfway-point diagnostic test to gauge the progress. The doctors were hoping (and my loved ones were praying) the tumor would be smaller and that the treatment was working.

Well, God really answered everyone’s prayers, because when I got the results, the tumor was not just smaller; it was completely gone! When I saw the pictures with no sign of the tumor that had so ominously threatened my life only months before, I looked up to heaven and with tears in my eyes thanked Jesus for His goodness and mercy.

Ironic as it may sound, God used a terrible, deadly disease to bless me abundantly. Here are a few examples:

• My faith in Jesus and the knowledge that He is in control of my life, no matter how bad things look, was made more real to me through my experience. “Head knowledge” was tested and turned into “experiential knowledge.”
• The faith of many people around me was strengthened after having witnessed the miracles that occurred during the crisis.
• Many relationships with friends and family were strengthened.
• My relationship with my girlfriend, Sahani, was strengthened. We were drawn closer together in prayer, and it helped to mature us in our relationship with each other and with God. Today we are happily married and so blessed!

I have been honored to share my testimony at many churches, on radio shows, even on Fox News, and on television programs such as The 700 Club and TBN’s Praise the Lord. I now host my own radio show called Divine Intervention, on which I interview others who have experienced miracles.

Many other blessings came out of my being ill, but it’s enough to say that the same Jesus who walked the Earth 2,000 years ago performing miracles and healing people is still alive today and still doing miracles. He is real, and He wants a relationship with you. I pray that you don’t take my word for it, however. I pray you’ll take a chance on Jesus, that you’ll give Him an opportunity to show you, and that you’ll experience Him for yourself. He loves you so much!

Daniel Fazzina is author of Divine Intervention: 50 True Stories of God’s Miracles Today and host of the radio program Divine Intervention, in which he interviews intriguing people who have experienced the Hand of God in amazing ways. With a bachelor’s degree in communication arts and a professional background in media production, he has hosted radio shows, edited music videos, and directed films and commercials. Daniel’s personal testimony of miraculous healings—one from a painful chronic back condition and one from the massive, cancerous tumor recounted here—led him to start the Divine Intervention radio show, which can be heard on its flagship station, WLIX in New York, on various other radio stations across America, and on the Internet at .

General Superintendent George Wood said the goal of the Assemblies of God Centennial in Springfield, Missouri, last week was to be a celebration, a revival and to establish a strong vision for missions for the Fellowship for the next 100 years.

For me it was all this and more. The conference’s speakers, from around the world including a pastor from Iraq, inspired me. The worship and the altar calls touched me. The effective use of multimedia in the services and the attention to detail wowed me. I’ll even admit that I enjoyed one evening where they sang the songs I grew up with such as “All Hail The Power of Jesus Name” or Doris Akers’ “There’s a Sweet Sweet Spirit in this Place,” “I’ll Fly Away” and many others.

I’ve written a lot recently online and in print about the Assemblies of God. But after coming home, I wanted to give this short report of seven reasons the AG100 event touched my heart:

• In a world where secularism seems to be gaining ground and the church seems to be on the retreat, it seemed that the Assemblies of God is growing (a new church begins every 39 minutes) and has vision for the future.  There even seems to be new life in the headquarters where the staff seems to have more of an attitude of service and focus on the vision to be the greatest evangelism force the world has ever known.
•  I was particularly impressed by an initiative coming out of the youth department called The Human Right emphasizes the need not only to fight for “human rights” in the traditional humanitarian sense, but for the “ultimate human right”—everyone has to hear the gospel.
• We had a booth and gave out copies of the special anniversary issue we did in August.  If you missed that story, you can click here to read it. It is long—over 5000 words. But it gives a Time-magazine type of journalistic look at the Assemblies.  Like any other writer, I was able to only evaluate what is going on from my personal perspective of being fourth generation AG and as an observer of the of the denomination as a journalist for more than half it’s existence.
• The opportunity to connect with some key Assemblies leaders like Doug Clay, the General Treasurer,  Sol Arledge, the headquarters’ COO, and Dr. Carol Taylor the new president of Evangel University.
• The chance to meet old friends such as David Grant (missionary to India) and friends of my parents going back to the 1940s such as missionary Doris Johnson (who at age 83 is still a missionary to Brazil)
• An opportunity to connect with ministries we’ve covered such as Convoy of Hope and my longtime friend Hal Donaldson, one of its founders
• A chance to make new friends like John Lindell, pastor of the largest church in Springfield—James River Church—and to attend a dynamic service.

On a personal note, my trip to Springfield was a homecoming. I spent my first six years in Springfield and this was my first extended visit in decades. I even attended a 3 ½-hour service at the church my father formerly pastored. It is now home to a Spanish Pentecostal Church called Mano del Cielo (Hand of Heaven).

I posted photos and videos of my visit on my Facebook page if you’d like to see more. Visit to sign up. I also have several clips from the Spanish service.

Steve Strang is the founder and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter at @sstrang or Facebook.

The pervasive image of Satan as a red guy with horns and a pitchfork, orchestrating all the evil in the world from his command center in hell, is nothing more than myth. The devil is not red with horns and a pitchfork. And while he does orchestrate evil, he doesn’t do it from hell. No, Jesus revealed that hell is the place prepared to destroy Satan and his demons, not their home (Matt. 25:41). In fact, the devil will not see hell until his final rebellion at the end of time when he is thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7–10). This all begs the question: If Satan isn’t in hell, where is he and what is he doing?

The Opposer

The Bible teaches that Satan spends his time roaming the earth, searching for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).

Like most names in Hebrew, “Satan” is more than a name; it’s a job description. It means “one who opposes or blocks.” Picture man-to-man defense in the game of basketball. As you move about the court, trying to make your best shot, the devil hovers over to block you. You feel his breath on your face, whispering things like “You can’t make this!” or “You’re no good!” Understand that Satan is your greatest opponent, and his goal is to ensure that you miss yours.

The Accuser

Satan has another role, too. And that’s as “the accuser of our brothers and sisters” (Rev. 12:11, NLT). In this, Satan works like a prosecuting attorney filing claim after claim of how we tripped up and why God can’t use us. These threats and accusations are the bulk of the spiritual warfare that we face and too often hold us back from our destinies.

Three Weapons

Thankfully, God has not left us powerless to Satan’s attacks. The book of Revelation reveals the three sure-fire weapons God has given us to silence Satan’s threats.

And they have defeated [the accuser] by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

—Rev. 12:10-11, NLT

The Blood of the Lamb

In my book, Silence Satan: Shutting Down the Enemy’s Attacks, Threats, Lies, and Accusations, I chronicle my own battle with Satan’s accusations. But just as I was about to walk away from ministry, the Lord opened my eyes to the words of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, ESV). This was a familiar scripture, to be sure. But in the heat of the warfare, I understood it in a fresh, new way. I saw that “behold” isn’t a quick glance, but a close study. In this verse, John the Baptist instructs us to meditate upon and look closely at Jesus in His moment of taking away the sin of the world.

With this newfound revelation, I fell to my knees and, through my mind’s eye, saw visions of the gruesome scene when He who knew no sin took on my sin (2 Cor. 5:21). I then tearfully positioned myself at the foot of the cross to be covered by His measureless amount of forgiving blood.

All the agony Jesus faced on the cross was meant to heal ours. This is what Isaiah prophesied: “By His wounds we were healed” (Isa. 53:5). See that the cross is the place of your victory. It’s the place where your record of wrongs was canceled, and thus, where Satan is dethroned and silenced in your life (Col. 2:14–15).

Your Testimony

Our testimonies are the stories of our struggles and how we overcame them through God’s power. These are extremely poignant because they build the faith of listeners to expect that God will also do the same for them.

Jesus’ Resurrection provides a pinnacle example of the power of testimony. Upon rising from the dead, he could have appeared with a redeemed body that erased all signs of the past. But instead, He kept the scars from the things He had suffered as evidence that there stood a man who should be dead but is now alive (John 20:19-20). His scars are His testimony, and they tell His story.

It’s important to recognize that scars are simply wounds that are healed. So just as Jesus modeled, the scars from your past are testimonies of the power of God in your life. They provide evidence to others that God still mightily heals and transforms.

The Crucified Life

The Bible uncovers the final weapon in our arsenal against Satan: “… and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” This describes the crucified life. If your past is completely nailed to Christ’s cross, then there’s no reason for shame or embarrassment. Your record of wrongs should no longer haunt you, and you should no longer fear the opinion of others.

When I arose from Satan’s attack on my life, it was like bursting forth from a tomb. The guilt and shame that attempted to keep me in the grave could no longer hold me down. The past had lost its influence. Rather than shut me up, I determined to speak up and tell my story, regardless of what anyone thinks.

Silence Satan and Live Victoriously

Satan’s threats are aimed to silence our voices from influencing the lives of many others. He knows that our stories have the ability to release the power of Jesus, and so he tries to mute them with accusations. But through the Blood of the Lamb and the testimony of its transformation, we have control of our pasts, and with it, the ability to silence Satan and live victoriously!

Kyle Winkler is founder of Kyle Winkler Ministries, a media and teaching ministry broadcasting on the Christian Television Network and various online outlets. Before launching his own ministry, Kyle served at Christ Fellowship, one of the nation’s 15 largest churches, and as vice president of an international apologetics ministry. He holds a master of divinity in biblical studies from Regent University. Arm yourself with daily encouragement from Kyle on Facebook and Twitter. His latest book, Silence Satan: Shutting Down the Enemy’s Attacks, Threats, Lies, and Accusations, releases in September.

After years of owning used cars—dealing with surprise breakdowns on busy streets and highways, being stranded, and scrounging for money for car repairs and maintenance—we were finally able to buy a “new” car. It was new to us and we felt blessed indeed.

It was a 1994 Taurus and we bought it late summer of 1995, so it had already depreciated two years before we drove it off the lot. But it was “new” and came with full warranty at an excellent price, and for several years we enjoyed its many amenities.

Then one summer the air conditioner went out. We live in central Florida, where this is a must-have—not a luxury. Based on past experiences we believed the dealership would charge too much money for repairs, so we opted to have an acquaintance look at it. He recommended a friend and together they worked on the repairs. They were veteran auto mechanics and although we paid a substantial sum, we thought we were being frugal because it was better than “what the dealer would charge.” We were satisfied that we were being good stewards and made the right decision.

The repairs, however, lasted only one week and since we could not afford additional repairs we were without air conditioning for the remainder of that summer. We drove it that way for another year and a half, come rain or shine. After all, we were used to making do with what we had. At the end of that time, I managed to convince my husband to allow the dealer to at least look at it for a diagnosis and estimated cost of repair. What did we have to lose?

My husband had originally refused to go to the dealer because he knew the cost would be prohibitive and air conditioning would not be covered under the warranty. But he agreed to give it a try and took it to the dealer at last. He also took our warranty with him in case it helped in some way.

The dealer knew exactly what to do. The mechanics quickly went to work to replace and restore, renew and recharge everything that was needed. Cost? Absolutely nothing. The unit had been under full warranty the whole time. All we had to do was bring it in and show the warranty. They would do the rest.

What a relief and what a lesson we learned that day! If we hadn’t been so quick to assume what we imagined instead of researching the facts, we could have been enjoying the benefits of our guarantee for years, without paying another dime. It was all part of the package.

How like our Christian walk sometimes! When we try to apply what we experienced in the past to our current situation without looking at the guarantee or consulting the “manual,” we risk closing our minds to what God has freely made available to us.

How often do we go through life following our old patterns of behavior just because it’s what we have been used to doing? We scrounge around trying to fix what only God can fix instead of appropriating what He has already freely made available to us. Have you ever done that?

If we had only read the warranty and checked the “manual” we could have been riding in comfort instead of sweltering heat for over two years. Ignorance is not bliss!

God has given us valuable guarantees. We just need to know what they are and how to appropriate them. We cannot rely on our past experiences even if they have been valuable because this is a new day with new challenges and new solutions.

Let’s make it a point this year to research God’s “manual” and read the guarantees. Let’s rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal His truth as we read. It is only then that we will know what we’ve been guaranteed and can embrace our lives appropriating His promises for today, tomorrow and forever.

PRAYER POWER FOR THE WEEK OF 01/21/2013

This week ask the Lord to guide you through His Word and take note of His guaranteed promises. Thank Him and begin to apply them to the situations in your life. Remember that He’s promised to never leave or forsake you, and to be your redeemer, provider, defender and everything you need for whatever challenge you face. Ask Him to continue to guide your steps this year and increase your faith in the process. Continue to pray that God would pour out His Spirit, bring revival and restoration to His Church, send laborers into His harvest fields and spread His kingdom around the world. Remember Israel and pray that our leaders would recognize our total dependence on God, seek His face and heed His counsel. James 1:5,6

I call them “baby dreams”—and these prophetic encounters have been a running theme in my life over the past decade. It seems God has been laboring with me to birth a new thing for nearly that long. Along the way, there was at least one Ishmael, a couple of near-abortions, and plenty of spiritual warfare. But God in His grace somehow worked all things together for good.

There were lessons in this series of prophetic dreams. When I put those principles into practice it caused what looked like a stillbirth to become a healthy baby. I still don’t have all the answers, but God has made one thing clear to me: Sometimes a small shift makes all the difference.

The First Dream: Surrendering My Will
The “baby dreams” started about eight years ago. I had a dream I was pregnant. I was not happy about it because it was going to turn my life upside down—but I knew I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to pretend it wasn’t real, but ultimately pretending wasn’t an option. The lesson of this first prophetic dream was that I had to be like Mary, who gave her will over to the Lord despite the trouble it was going to cause her in the natural. I woke up and committed in my heart to let the Lord’s will be done in my life and moved ahead.

The Second Dream: Birthing a Man-Child
About a year after that prophetic encounter, I had a second “baby dream.” This time, I was in the hospital giving birth. When the baby was born, it was like a man-child. It had the appearance of a baby, but it had the features of a full-grown man. Immediately after the baby was born, he started running toward his goal. Those around me said, “It must be nice to birth a full-grown ministry. That’s what you can expect.”

The Third Dream: Making Adjustments
Fast-forward another five years. I was in a very uncomfortable position, having the weight of a church plant unexpectedly fall on my shoulders. I didn’t sign up to preach, pray, prophesy and administrate the whole church but that’s what was happening. I was at a crossroads, praying about whether I should exit or continue to bear the weight—and the spiritual warfare—of another man’s vision or move on.

I went to sleep and had another “baby dream.” This time I was pregnant. I still wasn’t thrilled. I was hungry and the only thing available was some strange combination of eggs and pepperoni. My chair was too low for me to comfortably type on my computer. I had to change into clothes I didn’t like. I was thinking about how I could possibly hit the gym with all of this going on. I thought about how I’d be 60 before this kid was grown.

In other words, I was doing a lot of natural reasoning. Eventually, I changed my clothes into something that wasn’t ideal but still wasn’t too bad. I ate the eggs for the protein and skipped the unhealthy pepperoni. I got a taller chair so I could type more comfortably. Then I woke up. I told one of my friends involved in the church plant about the dream, including the eggs and pepperoni. I had never heard of eggs and pepperoni as a dish—but it was one of her favorites. (Go figure. God wanted her to bear witness to the dream.)

From that dream I learned that I had to make sacrifices and adjustments to do the will of God. In other words, there would be some aspects of birthing this ministry that were uncomfortable, but there were ways to adjust to the circumstances and plow through the pain to get to the goal line of God’s ultimate will. At first, I thought it was a message to keep bearing the weight of the church plant. But when the church planter manifested with wrong motives, it became abundantly clear that his vision wasn’t my burden to bear and God released me. He actually used the experience to push me into what He really had in mind the whole time.

The Fourth Dream: Shifting Your Direction
In the last “baby dream,” I finally got the message—and it changed everything. I was nine months pregnant but the baby had stopped moving. The baby wasn’t kicking or rolling or showing any sign of life. (This is about how I felt after leaving the church plant.)

In the prophetic dream I thought the baby was dead and I panicked. Then, suddenly, I had the unction to shift the baby’s position with gentle pressure from my hand. (I later researched this and discovered there’s a name for it: the Diaphragmatic Release.) When I did, I could feel the baby kicking again. I knew all was well.

Here’s the lesson I took away from this dream, which connected with the previous baby dreams: Sometimes things look dead but you just have to reposition yourself for life. It doesn’t always take much. Just one gentle movement in the right direction can cause God to breathe on that thing again so you can birth it and begin nurturing what God has given you to steward.

If God has given you something to birth, it may be time to pull an Ezekiel and speak to those dry bones. It may be time to pull an Elijah and raise it from the dead. It may be time to walk away from the Ishmael, refuse to abort and just reposition yourself to receive what God intended all along. You could just be in the wrong place or in the wrong time or with the wrong people. When you decide to obey, when you decide to reposition yourself into God’s perfect plan, the baby he has given you to birth will thrive in His grace. Amen.

Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma. She is also director of IHOP Fort Lauderdale and author of several books, including The Making of a Prophet and The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Jezebel. You can email Jennifer at @ or visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

 A Tennessee judge ruled that the state’s marriage amendment promoting “family continuity and stability is certainly a legitimate state interest.”

Roane County Circuit Judge Russell Simmons’ ruling comes amid decisions in more than a dozen states where United States v. Windsor has been used to overturn state marriage amendments, including the Fourth Circuit Court overturning Virginia’s marriage amendment this week.

Ruling that the marriage amendment does not violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, Simmons wrote: “The Windsor case is concerned with the definition of marriage, only as it applies to federal laws, and does not give an opinion concerning whether one state must accept as valid a same-sex marriage allowed in another state.”

He continued, “The Supreme Court does not go the final step and find that a state that defines marriages as a union of one man and one woman is unconstitutional.”

“[N]either the federal government nor another state should be allowed to dictate to Tennessee what has traditionally been a state’s responsibility,” Simmons added.

“The decision says what Liberty Counsel has been saying all along: ‘Marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival for the race,'” Staver said.

Promoting a stable family structure is a legitimate state interest, he said.

“When a child comes home from school to a stable, loving family, with a mom and a dad who are caring for his or her needs, that is in the state’s interest. When a child has a mom and a dad to help with homework or to provide medical needs, that is in the state’s interest. Any ruling against natural marriage is a ruling against legitimate state interest,” Staver concluded.

The Resurgence Conference is a big deal on the Seattle church scene—at least it was in years past. Mars Hill Church is cancelling the annual conference after some of the pastors scheduled to speak aren’t willing to step on the same platform with Mark Driscoll.

The Acts 29 church planting network Driscoll confounded cut ties with him last week, citing multiple allegations against his character—some to which he has admitted. Mars Hill issued a statement about its decision:

“The Resurgence Conference has always been born out of our love of Jesus and the church, and the desire to support efforts to grow leaders to grow churches,” the statement reads.

“Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this year’s conference due to unforeseen changes to our speaker line-up and other challenges we believe would make it difficult to provide the quality of conference people have come to expect from Resurgence. Anyone who has already purchased a ticket will be receiving a prompt refund. Thank you for your support of Resurgence and the ministries of Mars Hill Church.”

Can Mars Hill survive the scandal? Should Driscoll resign? Sound off.

Facebook has lately been flooded with videos of “ice bucket challenges,” but this father has issued a unique challenge, and it’s catching on.

“All right, I don’t really do Facebook videos or anything like that, but I guess since everyone else is doing a challenge, I figure I should do one too,” Kendell Smith said, referencing the videos of people dumping an ice bucket over their head to benefit ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. “So this is my challenge out there to anybody that wants to accept it. See if you can do this.”

He doesn’t reach for an ice bucket, though. Find out what unique challenge he issued in the video below. The video, titled “New Challenge… Only Real men can do this,” has been shared more than 80,000 times.

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