Faith Producers International Podcast

FRESH BREAD EVERY MORNING   The scent of fresh, glazed donuts wafts through the windows of our church on Sunday morning. Suddenly, I was hungry for one of those beautiful creations. Hurry up, get through with your sermon, Dad, I thought as I visualized one of those sticky, sweet, luscious glaze donuts in my hand. As far as I was concerned, church couldn't get over soon enough. All these years later, I can still see that donut shop across the street from the church and smell those fresh morsels of goodness they produce every morning. My buddy and I would stand outside the open door and watch them bake and dip those donuts, just hoping they would have pity on us and give us one.  The moment the spirit of God dropped that thought in my heart today about fresh bread every morning, I was instantly taken back to Long Beach, California, at 1800 E. Anaheim. And that wonderful donut shop. Three decades later, Arlis and I and our little boy Tony were in Wilmington, California, on a tremendous pastoral team led by my un

 I AM THE OLD OX- I FEAR NO EVIL   King David said in the Psalms that he was once a young man but now was old. In that time, he had never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread. This was the observation of an old ox. During the Bible days, they would train a new ox in the discipline of pulling the plow. They would put that young 400-pound ox in the same yolk as a 2000-pound old ox. The old ox knew the system, understood the commands of the master, and was dedicated to the purpose that the master had in mind.  The young ox still had it in his mind to run and play. But now he was yoked to an old ox, much stronger than he. Now, instead of going, only the young ox had to do with the old ox was obeying the master's direction. This system of discipline continued until the young ox was trained to follow the direction of the master so that the job could be completed. I quoted David's Psalm when I was 20 years old, thinking that I had arrived at some plateau of wisdom, only to discover I was still t

DON'T ALLOW ANYTHING TO DIMINISH THE JESUS IN YOU   Some years ago, a man came to me in my dreams. Tapping on my forehead with his finger, his face very close to mine, speaking loudly, he said, Don't allow anything to diminish the Jesus you have right in there. Well, I paid attention, knowing that the Spirit of God was allowing that to happen to improve my sensitivity to Christ in me, the hope of glory. It's not unusual for us, current-day Christians, to consider ourselves more spiritual than the Israelites of old. We easily criticize how quickly they forgot the miracles of deliverance and supply that God gave them more than once. Yet, we find them complaining, criticizing their leaders, and even turning back to idols. For you and I to stay constantly aware of who we are and that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in you and I bodily takes daily exercise. When Paul referred to "dying daily," he referred to the sacrifice it takes to put down the old thinking and the religious view we formally carried. The Scri

I AM LISTENING TO HEAVENS CHATTER- AND IT'S ALL ABOUT VICTORY   In recent years, we have learned much about the ability of modern technology to listen to our communication systems. It can be a phone conversation or something we put out on the Internet. Some programs have been created to survey all types of communication and pick up certain words that would trigger investigations. When Solomon said there was nothing new under the sun, we could apply that truth to our age. We who are alive today have the same ability that the prophets of old enjoyed and listened to conversations through the power and grace of the Holy Ghost.  We all remember the story of the prophet who could hear the conversations in the enemy's planning room and would pass on that information to the king of Israel. In the World of believing saints today, many are listening to conversations on all levels through the Spirit of God. It is not uncommon for one of our well-known prophets to have mysteries and secrets revealed to them to stop it th

THEY WHISPER IN THE NIGHT-ANGELIC VISITATIONS   Be careful who you allow to speak into your ear. What you listen to will go into your spirit, and you will turn toward it. The Scriptures tell us to guard our heart, for out of it are the issues of life. When the heart is mentioned in the Scriptures, it refers to the very core of who we are. According to the word of God, words are the most significant influence that shapes and directs our lives. It's a common understanding that the purpose of sleep is to be refreshed and restored to our physical body. It gives our whole system time to re-group and even heal as we rest at night. However, the most significant purpose of that night's sleep is so that our soul and spirit are ministered to as well. Seeing that our spirit is the generator that keeps everything else on track, it's critical that we feed our spirit the right things for strength and wisdom. Among the many things that the angels have been commissioned to do, such as guards, guides, and defenders of the Sai

JESUS RIPPED THE HEAVENS OPEN WITH THE CROSS   I am suspicious of the school systems today on how much detail they give our students to our history and the development it took to get where we are.  How many of our youth, and even our adults, remember what the English Mag-na-car-ta was all about? In the year 1215, King John was forced by the land barons to sign a compact guaranteeing them more freedom, giving them the right to voice their opinions, etc. It was 100 years later when that compact went into force, changing the whole political and social climate in England. From the seed of that compact, we gained our freedom as an American nation and have enjoyed over 200 years of self-rule. What is part of the political confusion today is that a mass of our citizens have no idea what it means to be under the bondage of a dictator. The American experiment is one of a kind that has never happened in the history of the world. But another compact or covenant, signed and delivered, brought the entire world out of dark

THE TWO MOST INFLUENTIAL MEN IN HISTORY   If you said Adam and Jesus, you are absolutely right. The axis of human history pivots on both of these men. Both of them were given a covenant with a command and a promise.  In Genesis 1:26 and 27, God said, let us make man in our image and give them rulership authority over the creation. IN LUKE 418, JESUS SAID THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED TO PREACH DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERING OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THEM THAT ARE BRUISED TO PREACH THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD. The entire world was subject to sin when Adam committed high treason against God and was driven from the garden. The virus of sin affected every human because they were affected by the virus of disobedience. The reason Jesus is referred to as the second Adam is because he was sent to, first of all, fulfill what Adam did not finish. When Jesus was on the cross and said,

WHY DO WE PARTAKE OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF JESUS?   For those of us who have been longtime members of the community of faith, we understand the terms, the Lord's table, and communion. This practice has continued as long as the church has been functioning since the ascension of Jesus Christ. On the final night Jesus was with his disciples, he ate bread with them and commissioned them to eat his body and drink his blood. It's no wonder that in the areas where Christianity functions, they called them cannibals, assuming they were drinking blood and eating human flesh. I have participated in the communion ceremony hundreds of times over my life, yet each time I open up my spirit to this subject, I hear and receive more revelation. Take some time to read again John six, starting with the 51st verse. Then add to your reading First Corinthians 11, 23, to the end of the chapter. I am convinced that if you do, the spirit of revelation will open up some incredible new insight into what Jesus meant when he said, unless

JUDGMENT, WRATH, AND SEPARATION HAVE BEEN TAUGHT-YET JESUS REUNITED US AT THE CROSS    Where did the statement come from that reflects the attitude of too many people worldwide? "Hellfire and brimstone." If you were raised in most churches in the last century, you would know exactly where that came from. The picture of God came across the pulpits of our Christian world. Too many of us got saved because we didn't want to go to hell. Many more of us stayed away from the off-limits that the church had set for us because we didn't want God to cut us out of the family again. If you think that's extreme, then you're blessed. Religion of any kind that has been altered by man's idea of who God is puts on a burden that no one can carry for a long. As one raised in the church, I could say that I knew more about sermons on backsliding than sermons on who I was in Christ and overcoming. However, gradually, God begins to crack open the revelation of his Grace to us. As the generations matured, he revealed himself even mor

YOU ARE THE GREATEST IDEA GOD EVER HAD   Recently, on one of my ministry trips, I was in a house with corroded water pipes. You could taste it when you took a drink and often see the results in the glass. To solve the problem, we purchased a container with a filter so that when we drank our water, it was pure again. The Scriptures that are contained in our modern Bibles are referred to as the water of life. Unfortunately, those scriptures have come to us through vessels, i.e., pipelines, that can be contaminated by human reasoning and religion. The result has produced generations of Christians who only see God and the work of the cross through the filter of other men's opinions instead of the spirit of revelation. The result is that generations of believing Christians have a skewed picture of who they are in Christ and who God is as their Father. The emphasis of sin in the human race has been magnified to a place where its indelibility stained the believer, even after conversion.  Our Western theology repeate

MERCY IS OUR NEW CURRENCY-MERCY TRIUMPHS OVER JUDGMENT   I've got a question for you today. Why is it that a majority of the church seems to be so anxious for us to get out of here and go to heaven? When challenges come and bad things happen, outcomes the dusty sermons on the end of the EarthEarth, the coming of the lord, and the rapture. It's starting to pop up on the Internet again; prominent speakers in the nation are predicting the end of time and the church. They revive all the text proofs that have convinced them that there's no hope for us, so let's leave quickly. One of the advantages of hanging around for a while, as I have, is to witness this cycle many times in the last several decades. The antichrist has come and gone dozens of times since I was a kid. Yet here we are still, planting seeds and harvesting men and women with the gospel of Christ. What did David do when he showed up at the battlefield when Goliath had Israel hiding in caves? Did he say all is lost? Let's give up and die. No, he did n

THE BIBLE IS NOT THE MEAL IT'S THE MENU   A few days ago, on this program, I talked about looking through my old Bibles and being inspired by the notes I made in the flyleaf. In doing that program, I took a picture of 17 Bibles I've managed to keep from the 65 years I've been active in the ministry. Many of them are worn out, and pages are falling apart—some I set aside for a different translation.  I love the Bible. It is the foundation of our Christian life in our relationship with God. However, somewhere along the journey, I discovered that the Bible was not the meal but the menu. The Bible is a dead book without God's spirit involved as you read and meditate. The Scriptures tell us that the letter kills us, but the spirit makes us alive. Professors worldwide in various universities and higher learning centers teach the Bible through the eyes of the unconverted. To those professors, it is history or poetry, and most of it isn't very clear to them. Unfortunately, too many Christians read the Bible in somewh

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF PROPHECY?   Questions abound both in the church and outside of the church. What is the purpose of prophecy, some ask? Oddly enough, there seems to be more of an openness to the spiritual world, such as prophecy, than there is in the broad church itself. For those outside of the church, prophecy has another name; some call it terret cards. Another name would be Ouija board or a séance. All of these have to do with the occult world. However, the underlying attraction to this is a desire to look into the spiritual world and see what's coming down the road. Have you ever wondered why the human race desires to look into the spiritual? Every tribe and group of people in history has always had something spiritual that they looked into. They do because we have all come out of the bosom of God the Father and desire to return to where we came from: the spiritual world. When Jesus entered the human race, he came to reveal the Father and to show the world where the human race came from and where th

DARKNESS IS NOT A FORCE-IT'S THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT   Do a simple experiment with me. Go into a dark room and find the light switch. Now, Flip the switch and listen closely. Did you hear any resistance, any voices saying I am not leaving this time? No, you didn't. Because darkness is not a force, it's just the absence of light. Light has always been the dominant force since God pronounced it with his very voice. He said in Genesis One let light be, and light has been the dominant force ever since. Matthew's fourth chapter tells us that those who sat in darkness saw a great light when Jesus came into the world. Light constantly expels darkness. It's not unusual to hear teachers and authors magnifying the power of the devil and darkness to the degree that it overcomes light. Despite how the teacher and author intended that result, it still affects those who take it in. The record of Jesus's death and resurrection is well-established. The testimony of why he came to this earth to deal with death, sin, and separati

SPIRITUAL ADRENALINE   The starting gun fires with a bang, and 12 runners leap into the race. Plans have been made and carried out for years so that each individual here would be in this contest. Practice and practice again until the body is ready to run the race to win. After all that has been done to prepare, there's just one thing missing: an ingredient that will give them the ability to succeed. The missing ingredient is adrenaline. Adrenaline in the natural body is held in reserve until it is needed. The term that is used is "fight or flight." Both of those things need adrenaline to make it happen. That mysterious ingredient in the body kicked in when the gun went off, and the muscles fired off with superpower. So it is in the spiritual world and the life that you live as a son of God. It's called spiritual adrenaline. Jesus said to his disciples that they would receive power after the Holy Ghost came upon them. ( ACTS 1:8) that power is God's spiritual adrenaline called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit

TREASURED NOTES FROM MY OLD BIBLES   Walking with the Father through the life he has given us is a hoot. There's never a dull moment. I've discovered over these decades that I have enjoyed his fellowship and that he is a happy God. Some traditional theology has tried to convince the church that he is mad half the time, looking for something to crush us with. Nothing could ever be farther from the truth. The key verse that shows his attitude toward those he has created is John 3:16. Why would God start loving the world so much that he gave his son as a sacrifice and yet end up trying to find ways to destroy us? The fact is he is a happy God and loves to have fun with his children. Yesterday the Father said to me, let's have some fun. I want you to collect all of your old Bibles and go through the notes you wrote to yourself on the flyleafs because I want to speak to you from the past. OK, if you say so, Lord.  So I collected 17 of my old Bibles, the ones I could find on my shelf.  My sisters, who were evangeli

MANIFESTING YOUR HIDDEN TREASURE   The history of mankind is filled with stories of hidden treasures and the mysteries behind them. Even the mention of hidden treasure stirs something in the hearts of most of us. In every age, someone was searching for the secrets of those rich treasures buried somewhere on the map. From the supposed buried treasures of the Pirates to the rumors of Gold buried in the hills of Arizona. The thought of it drove men crazy, even to the point of giving their lives trying to find secret riches. The apostle Paul talks about a hidden treasure placed within you, and I called Christ himself or the light—second Corinthians. 4:5 gives us an insight into the meaning of that treasure called the light of God. Verse 6 tells us it was hidden there all the time. In Galatians 4:19, the apostle Paul describes a two-tier approach to the maturing of those he described as his spiritual children. First of all, he said that he birthed them through his gospel. The second thing he did, which is equally

THE SEED IS IN THE GROUND   I love to chew on the word of God. After all, it's referred to as milk, bread and meat. Those are natural things that provide nourishment and give us life-giving energy. So because the word of God is referred to as milk, bread, and meat, we can be assured that if we eat and digest the word of God in our spirit, it will give us life-giving strength. It's promised to give us life forevermore—eternal life. With that in mind, let me ask you a question. Have you taken a scripture lately or perhaps a series of scriptures and meditated upon them until it went from milk to meat? That particular pattern of studying is not only experienced by "super spiritual" people; it's meant for all believers to experience. Here's a scripture to consider meditating upon and asking the Holy Spirit for revelation. Ecclesiastes 12: 6-7. Today, in the video, I want to talk about the seeds God has planted in his excellent ground. There are two parables that Jesus gave us that are well known for teaching about

THE PURPOSE OF OUR DREAM LIFE   If you have been in the Christian World very long, you have no doubt heard someone make this comment about dreams. "Well, dearie, that's just too much pizza before you go to bed." That limited understanding of the Spirit World has caused the church to be so far behind in its revelation of how God speaks and deals with us. Dreams and visions are a serious part of God's tools for guiding and directing his children. As we journey through this experience we are having on Earth. When they are ignored or slandered, it puts blinders on the body of Christ to see their future and to have timely and clear directions from the Holy Spirit. Take note of these simple facts about dreams and visions connected to the scriptures and the human race. Every one of us experiences one to three hours of dream time every night. Just because you don't remember doesn't mean you're not experiencing it. We spent 3 to 10 years of our life dreaming. At 70 years of age, you have dreamed 76,650 hours. At 80 ye

THE OPEN DOOR TO HEAVENLY PLACES The mission that Jesus was assigned to by the Father when he came to earth had many dimensions. His mission was not just to die on the cross and rise from the dead. It was the first to fulfill the Old Testament covenant that Adam failed in. His earthly ministry reflected the fulfillment of the covenant that Adam had received from the Lord. That's what Jesus meant while hanging on the cross when he said, "It is finished. " Adam was given dominion and rule over the earthly things. He was to dominate, cultivate, and fill the earth with people like himself. When Jesus came as the second Adam, everything he did was under that covenant. He was not functioning as God. He was serving as a man following and faithful to his Father.  When he challenged us to pick up the mantle of faith and do greater things than he did, it was because we have the same connection to his Father. We were born of the same Father, with the same DNA and commission. When Jesus said he was "the way, the truth, a