Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. —Psalm 106:47

God loves a grateful nation. Just as an individual cannot “out-thank” the Lord—for God pours out His blessing more than ever, so a nation cannot out-thank God either.

Just as those individuals who praised God on Palm Sunday possibly did so selfishly, even ignorantly and for the wrong reasons—and God accepted their praise, so God accepts the praise of a nation that attempts to show gratitude to Him. It does not necessarily matter that every single person who participates in such thanksgiving is a faithful servant of God in his or her private life; God just notices a nation overall that makes any attempt to show gratitude to Him.

If this message were to get through to heads of state, even if they are not themselves born again, I believe most of them would still want to lead the nation to show thanks—if only for what it would do for that nation. God inhabits the praise of people. If any nation were to show thanks to the true God—the One who sent His only Son into the world, that nation would be so much better off.

We should be continually thankful to God (and remember to tell Him so) for laws in the land that outlaw theft, murder, and other crimes; for medical people, for the police, for firemen. God’s common grace preserves a measure of order in the world. However chaotic things may seem from time to time—whether through terrorism or natural disasters, the truth is that if God utterly withdrew His hand from the world, all hell would break loose and civilization as we know it would end overnight.

It is in the interest of any nation to show reverence to the God of the Bible.

Excerpted from The Word and the Spirit (Charisma House, 1998).

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! —Psalm 133:1, KJV

We all have our opinions, and we are sure that we are right. And right beside our opinion is our pride.

If I hold to a particular point of view and you don’t go along with me, then my pride is at stake. It is natural for me to want to be proved right, to have my opinion validated. So I want you to agree with me. If you do agree with me, I like it. But the fact that I want you to agree with my opinion doesn’t make it right.

That’s why the unity of the Spirit is a remarkable achievement. The unity of the Spirit is not natural, but it is supernatural; therefore, it cannot be explained naturally. What do I mean by that?

When we come across a person who is ambitious to achieve, we can understand this too, because this is natural. But unity of the Spirit is supernatural. It means that our natural ways, where we want to be heard and make our opinion felt, are not important, and we are willing to step down.

There are three observations that I suggest are important.

First, blessing is given where there is unity: “For there the Lord bestows his blessing” (Ps. 133:3).

Second, unity is what Satan fears most. He will come alongside like an angel of light to make you think something is of the Lord when it is not. The devil will remind you of every wrong in other people.

Third, unity of the Spirit is not an optional matter. Some of us have lost credibility with others because we have to have our way all the time, and people feel they are walking on eggshells because we are so difficult and so abrasive. What we need to do is to come to the place where the Holy Spirit is ungrieved, and we are willing to feel messy and not look so good; then the anointing will flow.

Excerpted from Higher Ground (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1995).

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. —Matthew 22:29, KJV

I believe that revival is coming—an unprecedented kind of outpouring such as was seen in Jonathan Edwards’s day, unlike anything our generation has seen. This Awakening will come when the Scriptures and the power of God come together. Another way of putting it is that the Word and the name of God are rejoined—remarried. The two ways God unveiled Himself in the Old Testament were through His Word and His name.

What is the Word? It is what Abraham believed and so was saved. “Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). It’s the way people are saved still.

What about the name? It was first disclosed to Moses in Exodus 3:6, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

Like many of us, Moses wanted a rational explanation for what was happening. We all have our questions; however, some things are too deep to be revealed this side of eternity. God said simply, “Stop. Take off your shoes. You are on holy ground.” (See Exodus 3:5.) And in that event, an event through which Moses would never again be the same, God unveiled His name—”I am who I am” (v. 14).

Unprecedented phenomena accompanied the unveiling of God’s name. There were signs and wonders that defied a natural explanation. It began with the burning bush. It continued with Aaron’s rod, which was turned into a serpent. It continued on with the ten plagues of Egypt, culminating with the night of Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea on dry ground.

How do we summarize the relationship of Word and name? The Word relates to God’s integrity: His promise, His grace, His inability to tell a lie. It is the way we are saved. The name relates to His honor, His reputation, His power, and His influence.

In this coming awakening, God will use most those who have sought His face, not His hand, who have searched His Word and stood in awe of it.

Excerpted from The Word and the Spirit (Charisma House, 1998).

But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. —2 Peter 1:9

The failure of the nation of Israel to be grateful is the underlying explanation for their missing the promised Messiah when He came. You could never have convinced the ancient scholars in Israel that Messiah—a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15)—could turn up and not be recognized by them. The problem with both the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus’ day was that they were arrogantly confident each would be the first to know it when that promised anointed One came.

But when He came—right under their noses—they missed Him entirely. They thought their judgment against Jesus was due to their brilliant minds, but that wasn’t it. It was because they were blinded by the God to whom they had not given thanks.

Sadly, Israel had a long history of being ungrateful. And that ingratitude ultimately resulted in their being struck blind. Saul of Tarsus, a remarkable exception, said so:

God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day. —Romans 11:8

The judgment of blindness upon Israel can be traced to their failure to be thankful.

If it is said that the people in ancient Israel dutifully maintained the sacrificial system, it has to be said also that they missed the point. In much the same way people can go to church in a self-righteous and dutiful manner and suppose they are worshiping God.

The final consequence of Israel’s failure to remember was that they missed the greatest promise ever given. The penalty for ingratitude is incalculable. This is true for an individual, the church, and any nation.

Excerpted from Just Say Thanks! (Charisma House, 2005).

“Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? —Malachi 3:1-2

Nearly all my life I have wanted to see revival. I am not sure when I first had an appetite for it, but I grew up in what was something of a revival atmosphere. In 1985, I introduced the first prayer covenant in Westminster Chapel. There were several petitions, and one of them was a prayer for true revival in the congregation. After five years we closed that covenant but revived the idea some years later. Then, instead of praying for true revival in Westminster Chapel, we prayed for the manifestation of God’s glory in our midst along with an ever-increasing openness in us to the manner in which He chose to appear.

The people in Malachi’s day prayed the equivalent of that prayer. Malachi tells them how their prayer will be answered, and I don’t think it is exactly what they had in mind. What they wanted was for God to come in the way He had done in the great days of Solomon, when the temple was filled with His glory and all the nations stood in awe of Israel. They were looking not only for the honor of God’s name to be restored, but also for the honor of Israel to be seen in the world. They sincerely believed that when God came that was how it would be. But things were to turn out very differently.

What is the difference? The difference is that praying for revival was, in a sense, setting a limit on God, and that is what these Israelites were doing. Praying for the manifestation of God’s glory is not dictating to Him what He should do. Why did we use the word glory? The word glory is the nearest we can get to the essence of God. If we only had one word to describe the God of the Bible, that word would have to be the glory. He is a God of glory. We prayed that He would manifest His glory, and we did not tell Him how to do it. What is revival? Revival is certainly one manifestation of God’s glory. Praying for such a revival is inviting God to be Himself. But we must not limit Him.

Excerpted from Between the Times (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2003).

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. —Colossians 3:16 Be filled with the Spirit. —Ephesians 5:18

If the Word and the Spirit come together in the church—both in emphasis and in experience—it will be the happiest event in many years. I believe this is God’s heart. Yet it is my observation that most of today’s church, speaking generally, emphasizes one or the other.

It can be argued that the two are always inseparable—for this is absolutely true. It is by the Spirit that we receive the Word; it is the Word that tells us about the Spirit. They cannot be separated.

But that is not the total picture. Jesus said to His disciples, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you,” yet He later breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 15:3; 20:22). This shows that there was more that they needed, even though they had the Word.

Jesus said to the Father, “I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them” (John 17:8), and yet He later told them to stay in Jerusalem until they had been “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Jesus Himself was the Word made flesh, but He too received the Spirit (Luke 3:22; John 1:33ff).

When we say that the Word and the Spirit are inseparable, we need to state what we mean. It is possible that one may have the full and undiluted Word but have the Spirit in less measure. That was the disciples’ experience prior to Pentecost.

Those who emphasize the Word are not without the Spirit, and those who emphasize the Spirit are not devoid of the Word. It is the degree to which one emphasizes the Word over the Spirit or the Spirit over the Word in one’s own ministry that is the issue. What is wrong with either emphasis? Nothing. Each is exactly right. But neither is complete. It is not one or the other that is needed; it is both.

What is needed, in my opinion, is a remarriage of the Word and the Spirit—the simultaneous combination of both the Word and the Spirit in today’s servant of Christ and the church. If the Word and the Spirit come together in your anointing and mine, then, as my dear friend Lyndon Bowring said, “Those who come to see [signs and wonders] will hear [the Word], and those who come to hear will see.” That is tomorrow’s anointing, my friend, and when it comes, the world will be awakened.

Excerpted from The Anointing: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (Charisma House, 2003).

If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. —1 Corinthians 3:14-15

What are the differences between the fiery trial below and the one which is coming, when the Day will be revealed by fire?

First, the trial below may be hidden from others. You can be in a trial and nobody know it, but God’s fire on that Day of days will bring us out into the open.

The second difference: the trial below is usually brought on by earthly pressures—people or perhaps our own stupidity. It may be persecution, it may be financial difficulty. But on that day the fire will be God’s fire, without the need of earthly pressures to show where we are.

The third difference: the trial below sometimes comes by way of satanic attack. If you are in a fiery trial now, the devil is not far away. The fiery trial may be the devil attacking you, but on the Day of the Second Coming it will be entirely the intervention of God sending His Son with fire and glory. The devil will have no part in that trial.

The fourth difference, and perhaps the ultimate point that needs to be made, is that the trial below exposes where you are in our progress, but there’s hope that when you fail, God will come a second time around and you will do better. But on that Day, it is final; there will be no repeats; that is it.

Do you see why James said, “Consider it  pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2)? It lets us know how we are doing. It is preparation for the Day of days. It shows where we are spiritually, and it is showing that God is still working to get our attention. Our work will be tested.

Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993).

You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?” —Malachi 2:17

You know the feeling of making another person tired, when you see that as you talk on and on they are looking bored and they want you to stop, but you are insensitive to it until the last minute and then you are so embarrassed. None of us want to do that to anyone. We don’t want to tire people, and we don’t want to tire God either. But how could we make God tired, especially as Scripture says, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary” (Isa. 40:28). According to that verse God cannot become weary, yet Malachi says that the Israelites have wearied the Lord with their words.

If I made God tired by my words I would want to know about it. When Malachi told them that they made God tired, they wanted to know how they were doing it. So Malachi gives two reasons: one, by saying that all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord; two, by assuming that the Lord is pleased with them and by demanding to know where the God of justice is.

First, Malachi does not say that we weary God by our praying. The most encouraging passage in the Bible on prayer are the verses that follow where Jesus encourages us to ask for the same thing day after day until our prayer is answered (Luke 18:3-8).

Second, we do not weary the Lord by confessing our sins to Him. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confessing does not just mean saying the right words in your head; it means being truly sorry.

Third, we don’t weary God by pouring out our hearts even if we are complaining. “I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble” (Ps. 142:1-2). That does not weary the Lord.

Excerpted from Between the Times (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2003).

You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives… —James 4:2-3

I have lived long enough, as far as I can tell, to thank God for every unanswered prayer. That is, prayers prayed in the distant past. To be honest, I have offered prayers more recently that have gone unanswered (so far), which makes no sense to me at all. But I predict that, in the end, I will have no complaints. God is not only sovereign, but He is also loving and gracious. No good thing does He withhold from those who sincerely try to do His will in everything (Ps. 84:11).

Unanswered prayer is still an enigma—that is, puzzling in the light of Jesus’ words, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14). God does not answer prayers that are not in His will. After all, John said, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14).

I can only conclude that asking in Jesus’ name must in some direct sense relate to God’s will. The enigma of unanswered prayer lies in the apparent incongruity between what seems good to us at the time and what God knows is good for us.

Sometimes our prayers, which seem so right, flow from a faulty theology. When we are in love with our theological assumptions—and can’t imagine they could be wrong—we tend to presume God surely agrees with us! The disciples asked the resurrected Christ, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). It had not crossed their minds that Jesus never once planned to do anything of the kind.

Although unanswered prayer is a mystery, there is also an explanation. It is only a matter of time before we will be given an explanation. But it comes down to this: God has a better idea than that which we asked for.

Excerpted from The Thorn in the Flesh (Charisma House, 2004).

Hollywood, Calif., isn’t exactly known as the hub for upholding traditional family values. So when Philip and Holly Wagner planted Oasis Church in the middle of Beverly Hills 27 years ago, the couple probably didn’t imagine their church would be the springboard to a national ministry whose forte is teaching about God-centered relationships, particularly marriage.

“I think most people aren’t equipped to weather the hard times,” says Holly, whose name is synonymous with the popular God Chicks book series. “In any relationship, that euphoric, cloudy and glow feeling disappears. Are you going to work on building a love that lasts or look for that cloudy, ‘in love’ feeling again?”

In addition to pastoring the non-denominational charismatic church, the couple leads webinars and speaks at half a dozen conferences annually, with Holly appearing at additional meetings targeting women.

Oasis Church also hosts an annual God Chicks conference, which typically attracts 2,000. Although best known for its relationship insights, Oasis maintains an active social justice program. Among its facets are 230 clean water projects in 17 nations and $3 million worth of missions contributions the past few years.

“Taking the focus off of yourself is the key to relationships,” Philip says of reaching out. “The healthier we get in our own soul, the freer we are to put genuine attention on others.”

Hollywood: Prayer Points 

• Pray for strength for Christians working in the entertainment field
• Pray for financial provision for God-centered releases
• Pray that revival would happen in Hollywood