Daily Devotional for Monday September 24, 2012

Becoming More Like Jesus Each Day

(Acts 7:54-60)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, what is your view on Medical Intuitives?

ANSWER: Pure SCAM ARTISTS like the con artist "dead talker" John Edward. God is the great physician, and he usually works thru human instruments called...DOCTORS! I am not dismissing God may use a human instrument as a point of contact for healing, but these Medical Intuitives are NOT coming from a Scriptural position. At worst they are nothing but charlatans, at best, operating in satanic powers!

The ultimate goal of every follower of Christ is to become more like Him each day. We read about how Jesus lived His life. We study the way He handled different situations. We carefully dissect His words. The whole point is to become more like Him. The popular phrase "what would Jesus do" helps to remind us during our busy days that when we face decisions, we should stop and ask, what would Jesus do?

You see, Jesus came to this earth and lived as a man. He walked the same roads we walk. He saw the same things we see. He felt the feelings we have. While remaining 100% God, He was also 100% man and comprehends what we go through in our day-to-day lives. Because of His virgin birth, He was born without sin, and then proceeded to live His life without sin. He set the example for all of us to follow. He gave us the standard by which we all should be striving to live up to each day. By living like He did, we make our Lord proud of us.

Many see this as an unrealistic goal. While in our own strength I agree; however, when we are living in His strength...it becomes very real. You see, when Jesus left this earth, He promised a comforter...someone to come along side to help. That promise was fulfilled on the day we celebrate as Pentecost with the advent of the Holy Spirit.

One of the benefits of accepting Jesus Christ into your life is to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit give you power to live beyond yourself when you are yielded to that power. The Holy Spirit is what brings you under conviction when you are not living a life pleasing and acceptable to the Lord. It is the Holy Spirit that enables you to live a Christ-like life, thus making Jesus proud of you.

The person and power of the Holy Spirit has been the subject of much poor teaching. I am not going to get into any theological debates over this issue, and instead will stick strictly to what the Bible clearly teaches. At that moment of being "born again", you receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There are Biblically documented gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit now available to those who will allow the Spirit of God to rule and reign in your life.

It is the Spirit of the living God now residing with you that gives you the supernatural power to love your enemies, forgive those who harm you, overcome the trials of day-to-day life, defeat sin in your life, and know God's love in ways you never experienced before. It is the Holy Spirit that guides and directs you throughout the day, to keep you on the path God has chosen for your life. It is only because of the Holy Spirit that we can live like Jesus did, and make Him proud of us.

I love you and care about you so much. You will be in my prayers today as you think about these words. The most effective way to make Jesus proud of you is to live like He did. In today's scripture, we see Stephen being stoned to death and asking God to forgive those who were killing him. This is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. It was only because of the power of God living in Stephen that he was able to do that.

Was Jesus proud? There is no other place in scripture that says Jesus was standing. Search the Bible. It always says Jesus was sitting. Why was Jesus standing in this instance? I believe it was because He was so proud of his servant Stephan that He actually stood to welcome him into Heaven. My challenge to you today is to act like Jesus and make him proud of you.

***LIVEPRAYER HAS ALWAYS BEEN REMARKABLE IN THE FACT WE HAVE IMPACTED 10'S OF MILLIONS OF LIVES OVER THE YEARS, SEEING OVER 600,000 WE KNOW OF COME TO FAITH IN CHRIST, FOR PENNIES COMPARED TO THE BUDGET OF MOST MAJOR MINISTRIES. THAT IS BECAUSE WE DON'T OWN HUGE BUILDINGS THAT REQUIRE MAINTENANCE, HAVE HUGE STAFFS MEANING HUGE WEEKLY PAYROLLS TO MEET, OWN PRIVATE JETS OR MAINSIONS THE MINISTRY PAYS FOR.

OVER THE PAST 3 YEARS DUE TO THE FINANCIAL CRISIS, WE HAVE CUT EVERYTHING POSSIBLE DOWN TO OUR BASIC OPERATIONS, LEAVING US WITH A MONTHLY OPERATING BUDGET OF $40,000. THAT IS THE SAME OPERATING BUDGET MOST LOCAL CHURCHES WITH APX. 500 MEMBERS MEETING ONCE A WEEK HAS!

That includes our head tech and 2 assistants, down from 4, and their office in a special location for security. My office manager and accounting clerk. I have not taken any salary for the past 3 years, only basic living expenses. We have cut our fundraising costs down to just postage and printing each month. Our biggest expense of course is the bandwidth required to operated the Liveprayer.com and sister sites and support the thousands of audio and video files. Our main office is donated by a board member, our extra office work is done by volunteers, our audio/video production is now done by volunteers, and our legal and accounting services are donated.

This enables us to continue to minister 24/7/365 to 2.4 million worldwide, respond daily to 40,000 emails for prayer, and offer all of the unique daily audio/video content no other minsitry produces to minister to people in a personal way while bringing God's Truth into the marketplace most have abandoned.

This January, we have several financial backers who will be supporting the new Liveprayer 24-hour prayer channel on TV and available to people worldwide on every type of mobile device. The program will be a place for people to come 24/7 and find a "live" prayer partner to pray with them, in addition to the Liveprayer program dealing with the issues of the day from a Biblical worldview. It is the missing piece I have been praying for for years now, in order to have the presence to help turn this nation back to God and His truth, our only hope!

Those program will allow us to attract and entire new audience to Liveprayer, and will absorb our monthly operational budget of Liveprayer.com in addition to the TV program. For the first time in over 13 years, I won't have to worry each day about raising what we need just to go from one month to the next! I am asking you today to be praying. We still have $2,000 left to make up from August, the $40,000 we need for September, as well as the operating budget for October, November and December. That is $162,000 over the next 98 days. That is just 162 people making a one-time special gift of $1,000. Will you pray about being one of the 162???

SEPTEMBER FINANCIAL UPDATE: A huge THANK YOU to those who prayed, and those who were able to give this week as we are in the midst of a real financial crisis. Praise God we made up $8,000 of the $10,000 we are still short from August. I am praying that by the end of today, one person will be able to make a special one-time gift to clear that $2,000 balance so we can begin working on the $40,000 we need for our September operations. $25,000 of that is several weeks past due, so please be praying about what God is calling you to help me so that over the next 6 days we can end this month with all of our basic operational costs taken care of. GOD IS ABLE, will you help me? I refuse to allow satan to keep us from what God has called us to do, impacting lives for Christ 24/7/365 while bringing His Truth to the masses in order to lead this nation back to the Almighty and Biblical Truth! God has always helped us by moving on the hearts of friends like you because we have been faithful, have not backed down,compromised, or sold out the Truth for money, while walking each day these last 157 months by faith trusting Him alone! AMEN!!!

TO GIVE A GIFT TO LIVEPRAYER, you can use your major credit card on our secure server at: www.liveprayer.com under the "Donation" link, you can give using your PayPal account using my email address: bkeller@liveprayer.com,or you can mail your gift to: Liveprayer, 6660 46th Ave. North, St.Petersburg, FL 33709. All gifts to Liveprayer are 100% tax deductible.

Thank you for helping me, and know I am praying for you each day as we take our stand in these last days for the Lord!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller