A dramatic legend about an ancient Jew named Honi, who saw God miraculously move to save a generation, is the backdrop of Mark Batterson’s new book, The Circle Maker. Batterson explains how God showed up when Honi drew a prayer circle around himself, refusing to move until he saw God change his circumstances. Batterson builds on three tenets of prayer-circle drawing: dreaming big, praying and thinking long. “Despite what skeptics may say, God is not offended by your big dreams or bold prayers. He is offended by anything less,” Batterson writes. 

When it comes to warring in the spirit realm, who said anything about women being the fairer sex? Certainly not Robin Kirby-Gatto, who releases her second book of the Glory to Glory Sisterhood series, Princess Warriors: Engaging in Spiritual Warfare. Kirby-Gatto teaches key principles for winning the spiritual battles for your family, church and community. Through in-depth studies on fearing the Lord and engaging in warfare, she shares how to master sin and simultaneously walk in the spirit.

What would prompt more than 30,000 young adults to pass up the usual year-end festivities and head to Kansas City, Mo., 

for a conference? Nothing less than an encounter with God. And at the International House of Prayer’s annual onething conference (Dec. 28-31), that’s exactly the focus. Onething leaders say they’ve stripped away the extras from their gathering to allow for extended times of worship, Bible teachings and, of course, the presence of God.

Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife, Grace, aren’t afraid to talk about sex and marriage in down-to-earth terms, hitting issues most Christian couples rarely address in public—much less in a book and interactive, DVD-based study kit. Real Marriage challenges spouses
 to judge their marriage not by their wedding day but by what their last day together will be like. Will it come prematurely through divorce or will it be filled with regrets at the funeral of a spouse? Or, by God’s grace, will the last day be one for rejoicing in a life lived together? In this study, couples will reflect on Scripture while using the Real Marriage book and video conversation-starters. Homework and group sessions will help couples tackle the tough issues.

In an effort to speed up the Great Commission, the Call2All movement has joined large, missions-focused groups with major prayer ministries. This
month, Call2All’s Global Congress in Los Angeles will wrap up its Nov. 29-Dec. 3 meetings with speakers who represent the ministry variety, such as Lou Engle of TheCall, Reinhard Bonnke of Christ for all Nations and Steve Douglass of Campus Crusade for Christ. The conference docket reveals no easy feats: For one, the group plans to strategize ways to simultaneously expand prayer movements and plant churches in every area of the earth.

Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” —Genesis 42:36

Self-pity is feeling sorry for yourself. You feel that you are the object of unfair treatment, that you have had to carry a load that few, if any, understand or appreciate. You perhaps feel you were unlucky with having the parents you had, the environment you grew up in, the education you received. You may have been abused by an authority figure, lied about, rejected, and discriminated against. Whenever you get a chance to excel, something happens to derail what had possibilities. The future looks bleak, life is passing you by, and there is little to live for.

Speaking to none other than God, Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. … I am the only one left, and now they are tying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:14). First of all, Elijah was not the only prophet left and should have known better. Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hid them in a cave—and Elijah knew that (1 Kings 18:1-15). There were a good number of prophets around. But owing to persecution he was feeling sorry for himself. He took himself too seriously.

Once before Elijah had stated publicly that he was the only prophet left and uttered thoughtless words before hundreds of the prophets of Baal. It shows he had completely dismissed those one hundred prophets that Obadiah preserved. He thought he was a cut above them, that he was the only true prophet.

God is so patient with us when we utter foolish comments like that. Had God required sinless perfection before Elijah could be used, God would have interrupted the proceedings at Mount Carmel at once—and called the whole thing off. God could have thundered, “No, you are quite wrong”—and stopped the whole thing. But He let Elijah continue.

It was some time later that God said, as it were, “Oh, by the way, Elijah, you might like to know that I have reserved seven thousand who have not bowed down to Baal.” (See 1 Kings 19:18.) God patiently waited for the right time to deal with Elijah. So too with us.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” —Exodus 14:15

You will know it is time to move on when circumstances have coalesced in such a manner that you just say, “I can see there is only one thing to do.” It is when God takes things out of your hands. Do you know what Christian conversion is? It is when God has caused things to happen in such a way that you really had no choice. God has sent one signal after another, and you know that the only way forward is to move on. That’s what I am challenging you to do now—to make the step.

Look at where you are and all that is there—famine—that which gives you no hope. Now look at what lies ahead: God promises life, and He will take care of you. Consider the possibility that one day you will go to heaven and you will see Jesus face-to-face. You will discover exactly what He looks like, what His voice sounds like, how tall He is. You will see Him. You will enjoy complete security: there will be no worries about employment, about where your next meal is coming from, about having to take exams, or having to prove yourself in some way. In heaven there will be eternal security, peace, and joy, no tears, no pain, no sorrow.

So I ask you, which do you prefer? Do you choose to go to heaven or live on this earth for another year or two of pleasure? How much time do you have left? Do you really want to cling to that habit, that lifestyle, that viewpoint, which have brought you near to ruin when the alternative is going to heaven?

I would challenge any Christian reading this to spend your time in prayer without seeking for a thing. Instead spend the whole time thanking the Lord. Sacrifice what you would like to ask Him. Sacrifice the time: just give it to Him, and be thankful. You have so much cause to be thankful.

From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. —Jeremiah 30:19

When the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1620, the Pilgrim fathers were full of expectancy. Months before they were addressed by the pastor, John Robinson (c. 1575-1625), who said to them, “The Lord hath more light and truth to break forth his word.” The future looked so bright once the Pilgrims landed, but they fell on unbelievably hard times their first year, when many actually starved to death.

Why did God allow such unexpected adversity to a group of people who sincerely thought they were glorifying God in their venture? I do not know, but I know this: once they had begun to experience God’s bounty they determined to be grateful. The result was Thanksgiving Day.

The original Thanksgiving of the Pilgrims was ordered after the first harvest in Plymouth Colony (1621). Special days were often appointed in New England for thanksgiving or fasting. Beginning in Connecticut in 1649, the observance of an annual harvest festival spread throughout New England by the end of the eighteenth century. George Washington proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving in 1789. With Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863, it became an annual observance. By an act of Congress in 1941, Thanksgiving Day is the fourth Thursday of November. Sadly, few Americans know this history, and not many care. Although it is America’s favorite holiday, it is sadly known largely now for eating turkey and watching football. Few go to church to thank God on that day.

I believe that the falling of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, was a wake-up call to all the nations of the world. Ungrateful nations will be judged—sooner or later. Ungrateful leaders, the rich and the poor, will be judged—sooner or later.

There’s a great day coming! Are you ready? The best preparation for that day is to be found in repentance, thanking God.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. —Revelation 3:19

Dr. James Dobson has a phrase: “Love must be tough.” Tenderness is central to Jesus’ nature, but so is toughness. Jesus is God, yet Jesus is man. You can’t reconcile the two, but they are both true. Jesus is tender, yet Jesus can be tough.

Jesus tests us to this very day because He wants to know how we feel about His Father. Let me tell you something: there is a lot of talk from people who say, “Jesus I can accept, but I don’t like the God of the Bible.” However, they need to understand that the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament. Not only that, but the God of the Bible is the Father of Jesus. You may think that you are endearing yourself to Jesus by saying, “Jesus, I can take You, but I don’t like Your Father.” But that will incur His anger. You could not have said anything worse.

Before you are saved, you have to be reconciled with God, the Father of Jesus. There is no way you can avoid the God of the Bible if you are going to go to heaven. Jesus makes it clear that His Father is the God with whom you must come to terms. He wants to test you. He wants to see how you are going to react, how you feel about His Father. Perhaps years ago you became disillusioned with God; you felt He let you down, that He hurt you in some way. You believed then that your feelings were justified. Jesus wants to know how you feel about God now.

How do we know about the toughness of Jesus? Take, for example, when Jesus saw His disciples on the Sea of Galilee in a storm; they were rowing but making no headway as the winds were so strong. Jesus saw them. He could have gone to their rescue immediately. He didn’t. He waited. That meant He had to be tough, even though what He wanted to do was to go at once. So love is tough. And He will test you, too.

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

Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. —Hebrews 13:13

Going outside the camp means to leave the traditional structures or establishment, the way of thinking that is common to you and your friends (or enemies), and even the people who may be hopelessly conservative. It is leaving them behind, and that is a painful thing to do. Those Hebrew Christians probably had it much tougher than anything you or I will have to endure. They broke from an ancient tradition that preceded them by over 1,300 years; they were also outnumbered by tens of thousands of Jews who stuck with the traditional way of worship. Talk about leaving your comfort zone! They really did this, and those who went outside the camp lost all credibility.

It hurts when people no longer believe in you: they do not trust you, and you have lost credibility with them. But Jesus has been there, too. In the early part of John 6, Jesus had to escape the crowds because they were determined to make Him king (vv. 14-15), but in the end they didn’t believe in Him at all (v. 66)! Jesus lost credibility in their eyes.

What causes us to lose credibility will largely be what we believe and those with whom we associate. When what we believe is unfamiliar territory to our friends, they quietly tiptoe away, and we wake up one day with the realization that these people aren’t behaving the same way toward us.

God has an amazing way of causing us to lose credibility in order to get our attention and make us want His opinion. When everyone believes in us and wants to “crown” us, it is not so easy to value God’s approval of us. But when they back away and distance themselves from us, we are more likely to seek the praise that comes only from Him. He allows situations and circumstances to develop in such a way that drives us to our knees to seek His face.

Excerpted from Pure Joy (Charisma House, 2006).