Rick Joyner Rick Joyner has authored more than fifty books, including The Final Quest Trilogy, There Were Two Trees in the Garden, The Path, and Army of the Dawn. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of MorningStar Ministries, a multi-faceted mission organization which includes Heritage International Ministries, MorningStar University, MorningStar Fellowship of Churches and Ministries. Click here to take a look at Rick's latest Rant #ricksrants

Having the Mind of Christ

       But we have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16).
 
Note here that the apostle said "we" have the mind of Christ, not "I." No one person can have the whole mind of Christ, but each of us has been given a part. Therefore we must come together in unity to have His complete mind. The degree to which we are connected in fellowship with the rest of His church is the degree that we will have His whole council.

God's Heart

       "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;
       I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me,
       and didst love them, even as Thou didst love me" (John 17:22-23).
 
These two verses are worth a lifetime of study and contemplation.

Wearing Out the Saints

       "My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray,
       they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill,
       they have forgotten their resting place" (Jeremiah 50:6).
 
This warning from Jeremiah is just as valid today as it was when he gave it.

Taking the Land, Part 17

Many Christians have the simplistic understanding that the next life will be a matter of the reward of heaven and eternal bliss for those who accepted the Lord and a corresponding eternal punishment for those who did not. There is far more to the plan of God than that. Basic to understanding the...
3-12-06

Purified Wine

There is a remarkable warning in Jeremiah 48:11-12:
 
       Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
       neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
       Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall caus

Peace on Earth

       My eyes are continually toward the LORD, for He will pluck my feet out of the net (Psalm 25:15).
 
There is no trap the enemy can lay for us that the Lord cannot deliver us from. However, deliverance requires that we look to Him, not man, and not to our own devices.
 
One cannot live in this world without having difficulties. When the Son of God Himself walked the earth He suffered continual attacks from His enemies.

Intimacy versus Familiarity

Yesterday we discussed Amos 3:7 where the Lord said that He would not do anything without first revealing His "secret counsel" to His servants the prophets. We also see in Psalm 25:14 that "The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant." It is those who fear Him that He can trust with divine knowledge.
 
We may wonder how we can really be friends with Him if we fear Him, but it is the understanding of these divine paradoxes that the path of life is found on.

Friends of God

       Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7).
 
This Scripture is amazing. Why would the Creator of the universe obligate Himself not to do anything without first revealing it to the prophets? The reason for this is understood in His purpose for creating man. He created man for fellowship.

Fear and Love

In John 7:17, the Lord gives us a most basic principle for understanding truth, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself." If we are going to know the truth, we must be committed to living that truth. It is not those who just know the truth about the cross who are saved, but those who have had the truth of the cross applied to their lives. When this truth is applied to our lives, we are born again into a life of union and obedience to God.

A Special Grace

       Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found;
       surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach him (Psalm 32:6).
 
There is often a tendency in Christians not to really seek the Lord until we get into a crisis situation. Then we seek Him earnestly. We see this same pattern with Israel in the Old Testament. This is a primary reason why many stay in a seemingly perpetual state of crisis.