The other day, while marinating in the Word and pondering the contrast between some of the things I say I believe but seem only to sporadically at best manifest in my life, the Lord helped me to understand the situation with a picture He gave me.

I want you to picture two adjoining fields. The one in which you live has some grass, a few trees and a pond. You can sustain livestock, plant some crops, work hard and get by. The one that joins yours is lush and green, stocked with fruit trees and teeming with life. Waterfalls, lakes and streams abundant with fish, dazzling in their beauty decorate the landscape like diamonds set in fine gold on a beautiful woman.

You live on the sparse ranch, but you have the deed to the other. You look longingly at the beauty of the one you don’t possess and know it is yours, but you don’t know how to enter that land. You have prayed, but the land didn’t come any closer, nor did the one in which you live improve much over the years. Some have told you that’s not for now… it’s for when you get to heaven. Others have scolded you for ever wanting to enjoy such things when so many have so little.

But this land of plenty is not the land of avarice. It is the land of provision. There is no lack, but there is no greed. There is always enough and generosity is the currency of the realm. So how do you get there? What separates the two properties? This is what I saw…

The two properties are divided by a thin shield of what looks like water. You can see through this wall of water. In one sense it was like looking through a bubble that insulated one side from the other. The watery shield had the toughness of a membrane. It took effort to push through. It was in texture like a veil of flesh that must be torn to enter into the spirit realm.

It looked like water, but was tough like flesh. Pushing against it did not work. You needed something sharp to pierce it. Immediately, came the verse from Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

We need the Word of God to pierce the watery, fleshly membrane. But how does that work? Well my wife quickly added that Deuteronomy 30:14 says, “The word is very near unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.” What word is in your mouth? Paul quotes that very verse in Romans 10:8 and explains it is “the word of faith”

As my wife and I discussed this, she pointed out that it is not enough to have the word of God in our mouth. Scripture says we must also do it. We must act on it. Faith without action is dead. So today I am taking in the Word that I might declare it as appropriate and then act as though it were true. I will cut asunder the tenacious membrane of my flesh, pierce through the watery divide and take up residence on the other side.

How long will it take to cut through the membrane? Depends on how gentle I wish to be on my flesh. Right now I am thinking things might get a little messy, but anything worth having is worth struggling for. Hebrews 4 tells us that we struggle against the flesh to enter the rest. I might need some help pressing through. Want to join me?

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“And the LORD said unto Moses, Why do you cry unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward: But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get honor over Pharaoh, and over all his host, over his chariots, and over his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten honor over Pharaoh, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.” Exodus 14:15-18

I am willing to bet that if Pharaoh had simply let Israel go and had not pursued them, after camping by the Sea for a few days they would have tried to hike north around the edge of the Red Sea instead of thinking for even a moment they could somehow pass through it. But God wanted to get honor over Pharaoh. He went so far as to set them up. He used them as bait. God told Moses to take the people to a place where Pharaoh would think they were trapped by the land, so He could entice Pharaoh to pursue Him.

It worked. Plus for good measure, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and the chase was on. Except Israel had no place to run - Pretty frightening. The mightiest (and angriest) army on earth where every soldier had just lost at least one family member, for which they blamed Israel, was out for vengeance. They wanted blood. Evidently, even Moses was crying out to the Lord for help and God responded by asking Moses why he was calling to Him? It’s like God was saying, “Moses… You have what you need. Just stretch out your hand.”

So here’s my point… Some of you right now are in the hardest place you’ve ever been. Pharaoh, or some similar evil, is breathing out threats against you. You are outgunned, out financed and outnumbered. You may feel like you have no good options. Bankruptcy may seem like your only option. Giving in and giving up seems reasonable. You have fought a long battle and it has brought you to this. It has come to a climax and victory is no where in sight. You call out to God and He looks at you and says… Why are you calling out to Me?

He doesn’t respond that way because He thinks you’re a lost cause. He is responding that way because He wants to get honor or glory over the enemy of your soul. He wants honor over your circumstances and honor over your life. He doesn’t want to share that honor, lest people mistakenly credit you and think you can solve their problems. If you are in that position right now, you are poised for the biggest miracle of your life. You may have made some foolish mistakes, but God is in control. He set the stage and He wants you to play your part.

What part is that? I say to you what Moses said to the Israelites… The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest. That’s your part. Overcome your fear, hold on to peace and remain at rest. If nothing else, it really frustrates the devil. But it is far more than that. It is the environment in which you hear His voice, discern His will and know what to do. You will not receive your miracle out of fear. You must get to peace. Peace in those circumstances requires faith. And faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Nothing shall be impossible to you.  To be continued…

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal 5:24 - 25)

I want to share with you a very personal viewpoint of the journey I am on.  I trust it will minister life to you as well as continue to grow inside me. Several weeks ago, my wife embarked on a Phase One diet as shared by Doug Kaufmann at www.KnowTheCause.com. It is highly restrictive for the first 30 days (or longer if you like) in that it prohibits sugar, grains, starches, etc. This is not a weight loss diet, although it is highly effective in that regard. It is to kill off the fungus in your body that you can’t see, but it is robbing you of vitality and in some cases, robs you of life itself. (He and others believe cancer is a fungus and with good reason too.)

Nonetheless, knowing this would be difficult to execute faithfully, I joined my wife on the same regimen as a way of practically supporting her choice. Of course, I experienced a marked loss of unnecessary body fat and weakening of the cravings to which I had become accustomed to feeding, but something more has emerged which I was not expecting.

In tandem with denying our flesh, we also studied the Scriptures together and discovered that as we got used to marginalizing the screaming of our flesh, we began to hear more clearly the gentle, soft voice of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures have opened up to us in ways we have not seen in all of our time on this planet. Revelation is flowing and we are entering into a higher realm of living. It seems as though denying my flesh its cravings for food, has also weakened its dominance in every other area it was used to getting its way. I did not expect that. Denying my flesh has helped me more easily walk in the Spirit. Not that I have arrived, but I am definitely on the “on ramp” to something better and I feel the anticipation and joy building in me.

I look forward to sharing with you more of what He has shown me in upcoming blogs. I believe it will help us all reap an abundant harvest during a time of famine.

Are you working hard, but producing little? Does your day seem to get away from you? Do you have a lot of things working, but very little coming to fruition? I’ve got some great news for you!

Scientists in the Panama Canal planted 35 pairs of young plants in an opening in the rainforest. They covered ½ of them with fine mesh to protect them from pests and checked back in 20 months. The ones protected from pests were growing 10 times faster and were already 5 ½ times bigger than the unprotected plants.

Pests… You know… the things that distract us and keep us from being productive… email, phone messages, coworkers, etc. Time magazine did a study and found that the average worker loses 28% of their time due to interruptions and, in fact, only gets an average of 11 minutes of concentrated work before being interrupted. What if there was a way to set up a No Pest Zone and keep the pests at bay?

If you knew the rainforest strategies for dealing with pests you could create significant blocks of uninterrupted time and accomplish far more than you presently do. In fact, you could increase your productivity by up to ten fold! But you’ve got to think differently and act differently if you’re going to experience a different result.

For that you need knowledge or information which is the rainforest equivalent of water. It’s a scientific fact that a tree given a constant drip of water can grow 13 times faster than one left to the elements alone. Combine good information with great pest control in your life and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Get a complimentary copy of Rainforest Strategy now and learn all about the best business model on the planet. All we ask you to do is cover the shipping and handling and consider the offer for our printed newsletter (The R.A.I.N. Report) when you’re done. But first get your copy of Rainforest Strategy

Are you short on cash? Do you really need something, but don’t see how you can afford it? That’s a great opportunity to learn a new way to transact business without using cash.

Listen, in this tight economy, everyone’s watching their pennies, but you can still transact business for big ticket items if you know how. You see, in the rainforest, every day monkeys help themselves to fruit hanging on many of the trees. Never once have I seen them drop a quarter in a slot at the base of the tree. Yet, the rainforest thrives more than any environment on earth.

Think of the rainforest as a system. It has very specific rules for producing abundance, but none of them include cash or debt. They trade value. The agouti, the rainforest equivalent of an oversized squirrel, takes something he has in abundance but costs him almost nothing – his energy and mobility – and trades it for something a Brazil Nut tree has in abundance – Brazil nuts! In return, he plants some of those nuts in the ground to grow more trees – something the Brazil Nut tree desperately needs.

They don’t establish a dollar value before trading. They simply trade what they have in excess for what they have a shortage of. If you find the right trading partner, you’ll be amazed at what you can get. Once I traded something I had in abundance – information – specifically my sales training – for something one of the largest business magazines in the world had in abundance – advertising space.

A full page ad was $63,000 and we traded a day of training for an ad that was to run for six issues. Instead of trading $10,000 worth of training for $10,000 worth of advertising, I was able to trade the value of what I produced for the value of their ad and got a much better deal!

Get a complimentary copy of Rainforest Strategy now and learn all about the best business model on the planet. All we ask you to do is cover the shipping and handling and consider the offer for our printed newsletter (The R.A.I.N. Report) when you’re done. But first get your copy of Rainforest Strategy

The good folks at Kingdom Business Journal have invited me to be a guest on this Thursday night’s teleseminar to share powerful strategies from the Rainforest Strategy book to help people survive and even thrive in the new economy.

If you haven’t already gotten onboard the Rainforest Strategy wagon train, you might want to check this out. It is this Thursday at 9:00 pm EST. Just click here to attend.

I hope you can make it!

Have you noticed the dramatic economic headlines the last few months? Have you felt the effects of the financial hurricane sweeping our country, but not known what to do?

I’ve got some great news for you! The rainforest is the most fruitful, abundant and diverse ecosystem on the planet despite having limited capital (poor, shallow topsoil) to work with. How it produces abundance from relative scarcity is what every business, every household, every entrepreneur needs to know. And now you can…

Think about this… the rainforest functions at the speed of peace. It uses no currency, yet it produces a super abundance of supply. On occasion, it may experience a storm, but it knows no recession. When a storm does come and blows down a few of the big canopy trees – that only makes way for a hundred smaller trees to take off like never before. That’s what’s happening in our economy right now. A few of the big boys have been blown over and it’s making room for the smaller guy to get ahead - Lots of smaller guys.

Are you one of them? Do you want to be one of them? Do you want your day of opportunity to open up for you? Well… it’s here - Right Now. Maybe you don’t see it, but would you like to? You’ve got to look at things differently if you’re going to experience a different result and looking at the rainforest as a business model or as a model for household management (which is the root meaning of the word “economics”) or as a model for thriving in times of change is a great place to start. Solomon studied trees and all of nature, learning from it and prospering. Why not you?

Get a complimentary copy of Rainforest Strategy now and learn all about the best business model on the planet. All we ask you to do is cover the shipping and handling and consider the offer for our printed newsletter (The R.A.I.N. Report) when you’re done. But first get your copy of Rainforest Strategy

Are revenues down? Are things tight right now? Are you feeling financial pressure like never before? The economic hurricane sweeping our country is leaving few people unaffected. And while the effects at first may seem devastating, crisis always brings opportunity. That’s the very nature of crisis. In the midst of crisis, you must learn to see the opportunity and seize it or it will pass you by and the thing you greatly fear will come upon you.

The economic crisis we’re walking through has with it great possibilities because adversity and opportunity are always joined at the hip. It’s the measure of the adversity that indicates the measure of the opportunity. Judging by what we read in the news and feel in our finances, we’re poised for great opportunity! But you have to have eyes to see it.

You see, what’s happening now is a naturally occurring process. In the rainforest it’s called Creative Destruction. It’s where something is destroyed and that destruction makes way for something new and creative. If all you see is the loss it can be depressing, but the very fact that the loss is occurring is proof that something new is on the horizon. A new door of opportunity has opened and you can walk through it!

Without Creative Destruction, the rainforest would never have become the most fruitful, productive and diverse ecosystem on the planet despite having limited capital, poor topsoil to work with. Creative Destruction drives the economic engine of the rainforest and if you learn its secrets, it can power your economic engine to higher levels of productivity and abundance.

Get a complimentary copy of Rainforest Strategy now and learn all about the best business model on the planet. All we ask you to do is cover the shipping and handling and consider the offer for our printed newsletter (The R.A.I.N. Report) when you’re done. But first, get your free copy of Rainforest Strategy.

Has business slowed down for any of you? Are you feeling the financial pinch like never before? Well, millions of Americans find themselves unwittingly living in the midst of the biggest financial storm of our lifetime. We’re experiencing a financial hurricane and almost no one told us it was coming, but I’ve got some good news for you.

A couple of years ago I visited an ancient rainforest in Tobago. I was looking for the really big trees but to my disappointment, there were none. The big ones had all been blown over in a recent hurricane, creating openings in the rainforest canopy, for light and rain to reach the many smaller trees beneath. And for the very first time, the little guys flourished!

Sound familiar? Do the names Bear Stearns, AIG, GM, Chrysler or Ford ring a bell? They’ve all been slammed by a financial hurricane that’s affecting our entire economy. But there’s good news. It’s also opening up unprecedented opportunity for those who have eyes to see. You can sit around and complain about the tough economy or you can seize the moment, reinvent your business, your job or your life and thrive in the midst of colossal change.

And just like the rainforest, when big trees fall, it creates an abundance of opportunity for the early adapters (the little guys). But you’ve got to see things differently. What used to work, no longer does. If you seize the moment and change, the opportunity is immense! To do that, you must receive the light and drink the water that was previously available in limited supply. In other words, receive the vision; the possibilities God is showing you - embrace them and then take in the information you need to help you fulfill the vision.

My job this year is to spend the bulk of my time helping you as best as I can to bring you water (information, revelation, know-how) so you can fulfill the vision God has put on your heart. I look forward to walking with you in 2009.

“But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.” (Acts 27:14)

America (and indeed much of the world) is experiencing an economic Euroclydon, a financial hurricane that is wreaking destruction on personal fortunes everywhere. But like all storms, it will subside. It is not the end of the world. It may however, be a category five hurricane. Time will tell. But the storm is not the worst of it.

Remember Katrina? The storm was over, but the situation worsened. No water. No food. No electricity. Sunny weather, but no relief. Katrina serves as a prophetic picture of the effects of an economic Euroclydon, the one that is upon us now. Long after the storm passes and the big companies fail, the bulk of society struggles for years to rebuild. Many businesses slowly dying for want of a drink of fresh water or a morsel of food. New Orleans is far from recovered some three years after the storm and may never fully recover.

So while we are all on the good ship America and most of us have no direct input to the course our nation is sailing, we can lighten our load, simplify our life, remove the distractions, hearken unto the Spirit, report for duty and get ready to assume new positions as we undergo the most sweeping changes seen in America in our lifetime. If you don’t know how to free yourself from the flesh now, God will help you, but it is better always to fall on the rock than to let the rock fall on you. Get my drift?

In 2009, the Lord will make His wine. He will take the grapes that are fat and plump and plush (that’s us) and squeeze the living juice out of them, to make His wine. Sound like fun? Probably not so much, but boy does that wine have some punch. It carries the force of His spirit, the determination of His will and it will accomplish what no amount of flesh can ever accomplish. Now that’s a life worth living wouldn’t you say? Beat the rush. Fear God now or be very afraid later when the ship hits the rocks.

Preparation comes in many forms, but the first and most necessary is spiritual preparation. Learn to hear His voice, heed His warnings and obey His commands. For some it will mean launching a new business. For others it will mean shutting down. Safety is found in His will. Read His Word. Know His voice and obey right away. It could make all the difference in the world.

If you want to join me as part of God’s cleanup crew in the business world for 2009 and beyond, join us in Panama next month. Click here for details…

Here’s to becoming fine wine in 2009! Cheers!