Tune up Your Anointing Theology

Watch Reinhard Bonnke shatter traditional teachings about the anointing, “double portions” and fresh fire by visiting anointing.charismamag.com.

Rise of the Hispanic Evangelical Church

Samuel Rodriguez, a leading voice for Hispanic believers, offers a snapshot of the growing Latino evangelical church and explains what it means for America as a whole. To learn more, visit Hispanic.charismamag.com.

Growing Great Kids

Watch an exclusive Charisma interview at kateb.charismamag.com with Kate Battistelli as she discusses key principles needed to raise godly children.

A Guaranteed LIFE-CHANGER

Watch Jim Cymbala share miraculous stories of how the Holy Spirit’s power has dramatically changed lives (including the life of renowned “Son of Sam” serial killer David Berkowitz) at cymbala.charismamag.com.

Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. —1 Thessalonians 5:12

Showing gratitude must not be done only to God. We all need to remember to show appreciation to people. Paul said, “I am obligated to both Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome” (Rom. 1:14-15). He showed gratitude by what he did. His ultimate gratitude was, of course, to God, but he was not unaware of how God used people to bless him. Read Romans 16. It is largely written to thank people! Paul wanted to show how grateful he was by his actions. We are all obligated to people who have helped us. We may not always be able to show it to the very people, however much we would like to, but we can act upon what they have given us and do good to others.

I am very grateful to preachers and teachers in my past. My first pastor was Rev. Gene Phillips. He could not know how his life impacted me during the first few years of my life. I could go on and on naming people whose lives made me want to pray more. And yet I thank these men best by living a life that honors them.

It has been my practice to thank people, then, if I can, when they are still alive. People like compliments. I know I do. Do you? Tell people when they are a blessing to you. It may be the first time anyone has taken the time to speak a blessing to them. Your kind word of appreciation may come to them when they have had a bad day and lift them up!

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

I admit it: I love technology. It’s the air I breathe. I tweet. I post to Facebook (you can find me there often—but not right now; keep reading!). I keep my Android smartphone with me at all times and live on my “big” computer for hours every day. I have multiple monitors. I have multiple email accounts, which all forward to one another to ensure I always get my messages, which are also synched to my phone. I own a Kindle. I own an iPad.

So—I get it. I understand the pull, the excitement, the fun of the digital forms of technology. And I am a true believer in harnessing their positives.

But I’m also a counselor and an addiction specialist, and some of what I see in digital media is deeply alarming. Kids age 8 through 18 spend almost 7-1/2 hours every day awash in media, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study. Factoring in their ability to multitask (listening to music while browsing Facebook, for example), their media exposure rises to almost 11 hours a day—every day. Teens spend as much time (or more) with their media as parents do at work. Add in school and sleep, and it’s amazing how little time is left for a family to be a family.

This technology is powerful stuff. It’s easy to get hooked on it. And that’s exactly why, if you aren’t careful, you’ll find out that what you start out controlling has a way in the end of controlling you.

Since I know this to be true, I can’t overlook technology’s pull in my own life, nor can I overlook it in my kids’ lives. As a parent, I need to be aware of the influence I have on my kids through my own use of technology. What am I saying to them about what I consider important, valuable, and worth my time and effort? When I give my kids technology to use for one purpose, how can I prevent it being used for something completely different, something I can’t approve of? 

Unless a parent wants to become surgically attached to their teenager, it’s very difficult to know—let alone control—what and whom their kids have access to. They have the power to connect in a multitude of ways, all from the comfort of your home.

The Parent Trap

You might think teens are leading this technology charge. They aren’t. Parents are.

“It is not kids who have brought the widespread use of technology into the home; it is us [the parents],” concludes a 2011 Barna Group study titled The Family and Technology Report. Parents in the study used their cellphones even more regularly than their kids did. They were also more apt to use a desktop computer and equally apt to use a laptop or notebook.

Parents, we are the ones who bring all these devices and technology into the lives of our families—and then decry the resulting lack of relationship we have with one another. It’s no wonder our kids consider us hypocrites. 

We tell them to get off Facebook, but we spend hours at night handling email. We set rules about texting at the dinner table, but we leave the TV on during the meal. We track and limit the time they spend on the computer, but we leave the television running even when no one is watching it.

When I grew up, parents held the keys to access—literally. Before I was street legal, if I wanted to see my friends, a parent had to drive me. And there were all sorts of conditions for when I could see them. 

Access to my friends was limited, and I could have it only when I’d fulfilled duties like homework and household chores. I couldn’t even talk on the phone for long because there was just one line.

Now we have the oh-so-common cellphone, and parents no longer have such tight control over access to friends. Some 72 percent of teenagers have a cellphone, according to a study on teens and mobile phones by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. But teens do a lot more with their phones than just talk. The study found that: 

• 83 percent take pictures
• 64 percent share those pictures
• 60 percent play music
• 46 percent play games
• 27 percent go online
• 23 percent access social networks.

Moreover, 88 percent use their phones for texting. I live in email; most of us parents do. Not so for younger people. Texting is their new email. For them, it’s easier and more convenient than talking. Teens say they will actually avoid answering their cellphones to train people (including their parents!) to text them instead.

Your teenager may not be able to physically leave the house, but he or she can be connected to friends on the phone, by texting, on Facebook and over the Internet.

So if you’re in the throes of adolescent parenting right now, you’ll definitely want to consider all the ways technology is interacting with your kids. Here are some exercises to help you gauge their media usage compared with their other interests. Use these to determine: 

1. How much time your kids spend with forms of media. Estimate how much time your child spends with each of these in the average week: television, Internet, social networking, DVDs, cellphone, game systems, iPod or MP3 player. Total and compare this amount of time with how long you observe your child spending with schoolwork. The Kaiser study showed that the more media that kids used, the lower their academic grades.

2. How much time your kids spend with you. Compare the amount of time your kids spend interacting with media each week with how long they spend interacting with you. Please note: Interacting doesn’t mean “in the same room.” If you spend an hour with your child while you’re watching TV and he is texting or posting on Facebook, you are merely spending time near each other, not with each other. Do not count this sort of time “together.”

3. How each device works and how it can be used. Do you know how each of your devices operates? Do you know how each of your child’s devices operates? How much time have you invested in learning what it does and how it works? If the amount of time is less than the time it took you to buy it, wrap it and give it, then consider becoming more familiar with it yourself.

4. What the consequences are and how you can change them. Look first at your technology use and your children’s, then ask yourself these three questions: What are three negative consequences you’ve experienced? What are three positive consequences you’ve experienced? What are three changes you believe would turn some of those negatives into positives?

Recover Your Digital Domain

In a family unit, each person’s use of technology intersects and affects the others. So how do you know if your family has crossed over that line from use to obsession, from controller to being controlled? Perhaps the answer lies in calling for a family tech detox, a voluntary reduction in your use of technology.

Detox is a shortened version of the word detoxification, a common medical term that means to remove harmful substances that have built up in the body. It means willingly giving up something that you’ve come to rely on. The more things you’re hooked into, the harder this will be and the more anxiety it will produce.

However, when conducted in a thoughtful, prepared manner, a tech detox can help your entire family release some of the negative buildup of your technology use and give you the break you need to make better choices going forward. Here’s how I recommend approaching this:

Plan your progress. Include the entire family in the planning process. Be prepared to move to the positive side of compromise and not concede to your 12-year-old who can’t imagine life without texting for a week. Note how, when and how long those in your family use technology, including you and any other adults.

Start small with a digital break. To start small, ask every family member to self-
designate a reduction in use and jointly come up with an activity to reduce that affects the entire family. For example, one family member may limit texting to one hour per day. Another may limit computer games to one hour per day. Another may agree to restrict work emails to one hour per day. Then the entire family may agree to a no-tech zone during dinner. Allow each family member to offer his or her contribution to the detox, and work together to come up with an acceptable joint restriction.

Don’t just reduce or remove; replace. Help each family member come up with not only a reduction or a removal but also a replacement activity. Ideally, these should include family time and activities instead of reverting to self-isolating choices.

Clarify your goals. Jointly clarify individual goals and family goals. Try to articulate the agreed-upon goals as pithy, memorable phrases so you can encourage one another with why you’re doing this in the first place. Attach a list of the goals to the refrigerator so everyone can see them.

Be clear on the detox rules, and stick to them. Because you are the one setting this in motion, you’re going to come under intense scrutiny, and any cheating on your part could be used as an excuse to cheat by others. Make sure the rules are clearly understood and agreed upon by all.

Determine the consequences ahead of time. Because there are multiple people involved, you’ll want to have agreement on what the consequences will be and who will enforce them. Allow other family members to make suggestions first and hold your own opinion until last; you may be surprised at how reasonable others can be. If there is a breach in the rules, bring everyone back together to deal with it.

Take advantage of what you’ve learned. Because the tech detox will often be front and center in the minds of your family, you have a built-in conversation starter. Touch base with each person during dinner or at another joint family time to gather feedback and share insights. Plan to come together at the end of your family tech detox for a family debrief.

Take the next step. As part of your family detox debrief, encourage each family member to move from knowledge to application. Ask each one to think of ways to take what was learned and put it into practice with each person’s use of technology. This discussion need not end when the family detox does. Use this experience in the future when another technology is introduced.

I hope I’ve helped you become cognizant of how amazingly in-sync so many of our kids are with technology. We have to be aware, as parents, that when it comes to technology, our children are mirrors, reflecting our own values, concerns and priorities. Their significance, value and worth are not measured by the gadgets they own, their quantity of online friends, how often they’re retweeted or how quickly someone returns their texts.

And, Mom and Dad, neither are ours.

If we tie our own personal happiness and ability to function to technology rather than to God, then we elevate technology to idol status, and our children ultimately mirror what they see in us. Here’s what God, through the apostle Paul, has to say about this age-old pitfall of misplaced worship: 

“My dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say” (1 Cor. 10:14-15, NIV).

Because we are able to live our lives in separate little compartments, it’s tempting to think that God sees or cares about how we act in only some of those boxes. It can be easy to delude ourselves into believing we get to choose which boxes are secret and which are accountable to God.

That, however, is not the truth. Proverbs 5:21 says, “For your ways are in full view of the Lord and he examines all your paths.”

Paths, boxes, zones, spaces, compartments: They’re all words pointing to the same personal choices. And through all of them, God sees and examines what you and I—and our children—do with technology.

This is made clear in Hebrews 4:13: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Simply put, we are accountable to God—both for our own actions and how they affect our children. So let’s be sensible, as Paul admonishes. In your family, keep technology in its proper place. And acknowledge God in His.

Greg Jantz, Ph.D., is the founder of The Center for Counseling and Health Resources (aplaceofhope.com) in Edmonds, Wash. He is a nationally certified eating-disorder specialist, a state-certified chemical dependency counselor and a licensed mental health counselor. He is the author of more than 20 books, including his latest, #Hooked (Siloam).

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. —Hebrews 13:15

Praising God when I am sad pleases Him. It shows I trust His Word and that I love Him without His doing everything that pleases me. It is a wonderful opportunity for blessing—just to believe!

It is also called a “sacrifice of praise” (Heb. 13:15). We sacrifice feelings, we sacrifice pleasure, we sacrifice time—just to praise God. And when we don’t feel like it—when we are at a low point, we then really show a sacrifice of praise. In fact, the lower we are, the greater the opportunity to demonstrate a sacrifice of praise to God.

The Epistle to the Hebrews has a lot to say about sacrifices. They mostly refer to the sacrifice of animals. This is because the sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament pointed to the Ultimate Sacrifice—when God gave His one and only Son to die on a cross (John 3:16).

But sometimes the word sacrifice is used with regard to what we give up. Although the primary meaning of sacrifice refers to the slaughter of animals to appease God’s justice, it also means to give up something for the sake of something more important. Hence Paul said, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1). David said, “I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:17).

When we take the time to praise God, we sacrifice time. We all can think of things we ought to be doing. It is easier to watch television than it is to take the equal amount of time to praise God. To praise God for thirty minutes is a sacrifice of time, of pleasure, of our basic wishes, and, possibly, of our temperament.

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

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. —Hebrews 13:15

Praising God when I am sad pleases Him. It shows I trust His Word and that I love Him without His doing everything that pleases me. It is a wonderful opportunity for blessing—just to believe!

It is also called a “sacrifice of praise” (Heb. 13:15). We sacrifice feelings, we sacrifice pleasure, we sacrifice time—just to praise God. And when we don’t feel like it—when we are at a low point, we then really show a sacrifice of praise. In fact, the lower we are, the greater the opportunity to demonstrate a sacrifice of praise to God.

The Epistle to the Hebrews has a lot to say about sacrifices. They mostly refer to the sacrifice of animals. This is because the sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament pointed to the Ultimate Sacrifice—when God gave His one and only Son to die on a cross (John 3:16).

But sometimes the word sacrifice is used with regard to what we give up. Although the primary meaning of sacrifice refers to the slaughter of animals to appease God’s justice, it also means to give up something for the sake of something more important. Hence Paul said, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1). David said, “I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:17).

When we take the time to praise God, we sacrifice time. We all can think of things we ought to be doing. It is easier to watch television than it is to take the equal amount of time to praise God. To praise God for thirty minutes is a sacrifice of time, of pleasure, of our basic wishes, and, possibly, of our temperament.

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

I thank my God every time I remember you. —Philippians 1:3

God has a perfect memory, and yet, if we are to believe the psychologists, so have we. Psychologists say we never really forget. Well, you could have fooled me, but that’s what they say. We do forget, however. When we look back on our past we remember things that were pleasant. Yet it is one thing consciously to remember things; the sad thing is there are some things we don’t forget, especially if something is pointed out to us. One of the things that will make hell, hell is that you will have a memory in hell. In Luke 16:25, Abraham said to the man who was in hell, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”

But even on this planet, sometimes even as Christians our memories have to be jogged. At the Last Supper Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). One of the reasons for the Lord’s Supper is to jog our memories, to remind us how we know we are going to go to heaven. For when we eat the bread and drink the cup, there before us are symbolized the body and the blood of Jesus.

The first time the word remember appears in the Bible is in Genesis 9:15-16, where God said to Noah, “I will remember my covenant. … Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant.” Sometimes it seems as if God is slow to remember. Sometimes we come to Him and cry, “O God, remember!” The question is, we ask God to remember, but do we remember? There is one thing God appreciates, and I cannot stress this too much, He appreciates being thanked. Remember to thank Him.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).

Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. —Daniel 3:17-18, KJV

A sweet old lady stood up in a prayer meeting in Alabama, only to exhort: “Do you have the ‘but if not’ faith?”

It is absolutely true that we must be willing to serve God whether or not He blesses us. That was part of the reason for the Book of Job. Satan questioned whether Job, a wealthy man, would serve God if he wasn’t blessed materially: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9). Job’s suffering soon followed—with God’s permission and purpose. Job later said: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face” (Job 13:15).

Likewise Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—the three Hebrew young men living in Babylon—were commanded to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold under the threat of being thrown into a furnace. They wouldn’t bend. They wouldn’t bow. And they didn’t burn. But they were willing to die. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to know why would people like these three men refuse to do a simple thing like falling down before his image of gold.

The “but if not” faith! God is able to bless us, but if not, we will not bow down to idols. God will bless us when we give, but if not, we will give anyway. God will bless us when we worship and praise Him, but if not, we will worship and praise Him anyway.

We must not only be willing to be vocal in our thanking God, but we must also do it all the time—whether we feel like it or not. Whether He blesses us or not.

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

God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. —Psalm 83:1

Oswald Chambers once asked a provoking question: “Am I close enough to God to feel secure when He is silent?” In other words, must I have constant two-way communication with God to feel approved and loved by Him? We must develop a maturity that does not panic “between the times”—to use a helpful phrase from Richard Bewes. In season is a time of refreshing when God clearly manifests Himself. Out of season is when He seems to hide His face from us, those times when He is silent.

God wants us to learn as much from His silence as we learn from His absence. For example, often we learn more about ourselves when God hides Himself than in times of conscious blessing. His silence is like taking an examination in which we must demonstrate how much we have learned about His “ways.”

An intimate, unique experience of some kind with God is important for each of us to have. It can be the best thing that can happen to us—but it can also be dangerous. After such an experience we can express a spiritual arrogance and pride that exalt us, in our own eyes, above other “less special” believers. If that happens, perhaps the only thing that can bring us back to a humble awareness of our spiritual position is for God Himself to desert us momentarily.

People who suppose they have this sort of relationship with God lack in both teachability and accountability. They sometimes think they are spiritually superior to all who try to help them. The only thing that will possibly help them is for God Himself to “stay behind” while they carry on in their presumption.

It happened to me as I described above. It hurt very much, and I couldn’t understand it for a while. God appeared to betray me. Not that I noticed it at first.

It happens, I believe, to nearly every person who has had an authentic experience with the Holy Spirit. God hides His face—suddenly without notice. No apology. Just silence. The explanation comes (usually) much, much later.

Excerpted from The Sensitivity of the Spirit (Charisma House, 2002).

And Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who turned back to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” —Luke 17:17-18, NAS

You and I are like Samaritans. We don’t deserve to be saved. God notices gratitude—and ingratitude.

The truth is, we need to realize that we should be deeply thankful for what God has done for us—whatever it is—as was that Samaritan who was healed of his leprosy. We must remind ourselves that we are simply unworthy and in no position to bargain with God.

The longer I live, the more amazed I am over God’s goodness and mercy to me. For too long I was like the nine who went on their way. God has given me the chance to choose to be like the one leper who returned to say, “Thank You.”

That Jesus would say “Where are the other nine?” tells me how much God notices gratitude and ingratitude. It certainly encourages me to show thankfulness to Him, and it truly scares me—now that I seem to know better—when I think of how ungrateful I have been for too many years.

The moment we say “thank you” to the Most High God, we have His undivided attention. Therefore, whenever we sense God is hiding His face from us, it is a precious opportunity not only to get His attention but also to please Him more than ever. It is truly a “sacrifice of praise” (Heb. 13:15) when we manage to praise Him in adverse circumstances. Moreover, it is then when we make the greatest spiritual progress in our Christian life.

So, do you want to get God’s attention? Have you had difficulty getting His attention? Here are two things you can do: (1) Ask for mercy when you approach the throne of grace, and (2) say “thank You” when God answers prayer.

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

God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome to Him. —Acts 10:34-35, NAS

I find it interesting that in 1 Corinthians 9:25 Paul refers to strict training and in verse 27 to the body being tamed: he says, “I beat my body and make it my slave.” So our bodies are given to us as a trust from God. Our bodies are also a spiritual temple (1 Cor. 6:19). They are also referred to as “instruments of wickedness” (Rom. 6:13). And last, the source of the tongue (James 3:6), which is considered “a world of evil among the parts of the body.”

The Corinthians were in danger of missing out on the prize. The question is: Are we? What grips me, and I pray it will grip you, is that Paul believed in God’s ruthless impartiality. Let that grip you. At the judgment seat of Christ Paul knew that his own present intimacy with God did not mean that he could tell God what to do. Paul’s intimacy with God did not result in an over-familiarity with Him, whereby he says, “Well, it can’t happen to me.” Paul did not have indemnity because he was an apostle; preachers do not have indemnity because they seek conversions; high-profile Christians have no indemnity; your years of Christian service are not going to guarantee that you get the prize.

Martin Luther said, “When I get to heaven, I expect to be surprised three times. There will be those in heaven I thought wouldn’t be there, and there will be some missing I thought would be there, but the greatest surprise will be that I am there myself.” But could I paraphrase that one more time? I suspect there will be three surprises: some will receive the prize I thought would not, some will not be rewarded that I thought would, but the greatest surprise will be if I receive it.

And I pray that we all do.

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