While so many folks today will be discussing the president’s accomplishments or lack thereof, and with good reason, I thought it might be good for all of us to look at our own lives and accomplishments in the last 100 days. With the economy being front and center for most of that time, let’s start there…

Since January 20^th, 2009, what have you done to impact your own personal economy that is different and/or better than what you were doing previously? Sure, the national economy is in a tough place and will likely worsen before it improves, but you don’t have to wait for the national or global economy to turn around before yours takes a turn for the better.

There is a huge transfer of wealth taking place right now, some of it by legalized theft, but much of it by simply recognizing the times we’re in and adjusting to them. Most of you know Cheryl who makes our office hum. She shared with me a simple observation she made at the local movie theater. Until recently, if you wanted candy, drinks or popcorn, you had to line up at the concession stand and point to the goodies on the other side of the glass case.

But recent studies at Ohio State University have shown a much higher sales rate of anything a customer touches or handles for at least 30 seconds before deciding. Well, not only have they removed the glass barrier allowing you to handle the goods first, thus allowing customers to gain a sense of ownership by handling the candy, and increasing the sale of overpriced and generally unhealthy snacks, but they also load up a cart with those same goodies and wheel them into the screening area before the movie starts to serve (tempt) those customers who originally declined or bypassed the concession stand.

They leave the screening area once the movie starts, but they sell those stragglers or undecided buyers lots of goodies they otherwise wouldn’t have. In short, their new strategy is working magnificently. They have adjusted to the times and done something different. What are you doing differently?

“Glen’s sister was crossing the street last night and was hit by a truck. She’s in a coma and not expected to live through the night. If she does live, they say she will be a vegetable the rest of her life. I know you’re a Christian. Would you please pray?” With those urgent words Glen’s sales manager left the office I worked from at that client’s place of business having done his best to summon help. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Must be time to pray!

Although I agreed I would certainly pray, I was in the middle of something and quite inadvertently let that request slip away. The next afternoon, the sales manager appeared urgently in my office again with an update. “She made it through the night, but now wasn’t expected to live through the afternoon.” It was down to a few hours.

I had been with Glen just a week earlier and had shared my faith with him. Neither he nor his family was believers. With his sister in a coma and about ready to slip into eternity, I came face to face with the fact that I didn’t really care that she was about to enter the gates of Hell. When that thought hit me, I fell to my knees sobbing and unashamedly pleading with God to have mercy on her, to not let her die and go to Hell. I prayed like she was my sister on her way to Hell. I pulled out all the stops, motivated by a love that welled up in me for a woman I had never met.

I received the news a few hours later… Amazingly she had awakened from the coma, was telling jokes and was expected to be released after a couple more days of observation. I learned something new about prayer that day and its intended role in our lives. That’s why I’m sending you this email. Never in our history have we needed a potent prayer life more than now. With that in mind, I’m inviting you to get one of the most powerful teachings on prayer I have ever seen, along with my audio series, Pathway to Prayer. Both are available for instant download now. Click here for details and thanks for praying for me this week!

I don’t want to leave the topic of adversity without sharing with you a very positive perspective. I have learned that adversity and opportunity are always - not most of the time - but always, joined at the hip! No matter what the circumstance, there is always something of high value that can be gained from it. The greater the adversity, the greater the opportunity.

When you find yourself in the grip of adversity, count it all joy knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. (James 1:4) The end result of adversity can be sweet fruit indeed.

Be purposeful. Look for the opportunity. Ask God to show you the potential reward. Those who solve problems are of high value to any society and oftentimes that value has even a financial benefit to it. When you get good at solving problems, look for others who have problems and ask God for how to solve their problems. That’s what good businesses do. They solve problems other people can’t or won’t. When you do that well, adversity can be a most lucrative opportunity for you.  Count it all joy.

I left off last time saying I would address the fact that if adversity is a test to reveal our strengths and weaknesses, then how can we prepare for the test so we can pass it and not be numbered among the ones Scripture declares as being small in strength (Prov 24:10)?

Well, to answer that question, let me ask you something… What do you do when a storm of adversity comes? Do you pray? Fast? Search the Scriptures? Get Godly counsel? Get in fellowship with other believers? All these are good things, but when the storm hits, it’s not the time to start putting a roof on your house so to speak.

You need to prepare now. Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice.” Was He just saying that or is it true? Of course, it is true. So, how well do you know His voice? One way I have found to recognize His voice is to spend lots of time in the Word. Reading His thoughts helps me recognize how He speaks and the kinds of things He would or would not say. Develop your prayer life now. Feed on the Word now. You will need it when the storm comes.

Several years ago on a sunny day in Tucson, my wife and I were in the pool when a whirlwind came out of nowhere sucking a float up high into the air and out of sight. Sand blasted us so we quickly got under water till it passed. When I inquired of the Lord about it, He showed me a number of things. One of which was there is a day of adversity coming that will come unannounced and pin people down so to speak. We need to walk in the fear of the Lord now or be very afraid of Him later. I choose the first. How about you? From that understanding, I created a new screen saver for my computer which read, “Beat the rush… Fear God now.”

Adversity: Nobody wants it - Everyone gets it. Proverbs says “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” (Prov 24:10) So what does that tell us about adversity? It’s a test. It’s not optional. You will be tested. The only question is how will you fare? How are you preparing now for the test?

To begin with, it helps a great deal to know that the test is coming. Accept the fact that you will be tested in the form of adversity. I don’t care what “religious camp” you are in, you will be tested. You can blame the devil, be mad at yourself or receive it from God. That’s another conversation. But rest assured, it will come and by accepting that fact, you are already positioning yourself to come through it.

Did you ever have a pop quiz in school? A test you were not expecting? Had you known, you would have prepared, studied, rehearsed, practiced and as a result, done much better. Well, here it is folks, you are about to be tested. I am about to be tested. Regardless of the source of that test, we are about to be tested. Take this warning seriously. And if we are about to be tested, then how do we prepare? I will make this the subject of my next post, but in the meantime; I invite you to post your suggestions and testimonies for the group to enjoy.

“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” (Prov 24:10) When we were in school, we had to take tests to pass to the next level. Those tests typically threw a lot of tough questions at us that we wouldn’t normally have to deal with in a similar period of time elsewhere. And yet, we were measured by them. More importantly, we were able to get a measure of ourselves, discover our weak points and realize our strengths.

So it is with adversity. It comes to test, to try us, to measure our strength. So how do you respond to adversity? Do you moan and complain or do you embrace the adversity knowing it is a tool to reveal both weakness and strength? Not that adversity is pleasant, but the fruit of it can be sweet indeed.

This verse in Proverbs transliterates into “If you slacken in the day of tightness, your firmness is as a pebble.” Imagine you are holding on to one end of a piece of rope and out of nowhere, someone or something grabs the other end and begins to pull - tightly. If you offer little or no resistance, you are at the whim of the circumstance. Your supposed firmness that you thought you had carries no more weight than a pebble.

Are you going through adversity now? Faint not. Hold on tightly to the rope, your lifeline, your faith in the Rock of Ages, who will anchor you safely and bring you through any and every storm.

What do you believe? And, where do you believe? In other words, is your belief merely an intellectual acknowledgement or do you really have it on the inside - in your heart? I am coming to the conclusion that we really only believe what we are able to manifest.  For example, we say we believe God will provide all of our needs according to His riches in glory (Phil 4:19), but that belief necessitates a stepping out and acting as though it were true. And most of us don’t want to step out until the need is met, which of course doesn’t require faith.

I don’t think we are manifesting in our lives much of what we say we believe. But we can change that. We must first be honest with ourselves and then align ourselves with God’s Word.

The Bible says the just shall live by faith and without faith it is impossible to please God. Impossible. And faith without works is dead - Empty talk. It may be impressive talk, but dead nonetheless. Kind of like a fresh bouquet of red roses that looks pretty, but is dead when not connected to the life source. I think a lot of us have that kind of faith - fresh cut roses. It looks promising, even smells nice, but can produce nothing but a warm fuzzy feeling.

We need faith that is connected to the heart, rooted and grounded in love, born of the Spirit, carried by His Word and tested by the circumstances of our life. We need faith that will move mountains. I’m ready for this and I am going for it.  Want to go there together?

I am writing this blog on our American Airlines flight back to Miami, having just completed our exploratory trip to Amazonia (the Upper Amazon Rainforest) in search of the amazing ways God creates abundance out of scarcity. We were also hoping to find a back up location for our business coach training. We stayed at the beautiful Samari Spa in Banos at the base of what has recently become an active volcano (something they failed to mention in advance, but added to the sense of adventure!)

As wonderful a facility as the hotel was, we have determined it is not the setting to facilitate our coach training due to the lengthy travel required over a three day period, first to Quito, then by bus to Banos, then by van to the rainforest. It’s an incredible setting for hosting any kind of retreat so I recommend you checking it out when you have sufficient time to allow for travel. We hope to use it for client retreats or other purposes in the future ourselves.

While the rainforest is full of amazing things and you never go hungry if you don’t mind eating fresh picked hearts of palm and the incredible variety of fruit that monkeys eat, it simply doesn’t equal the experience in Panama. The dugout canoes and the endless waterfalls make for quite the experience but believe me, unless we plan a 10 day trip instead of a 5 day trip, it will be too much wear and tear on the chicken!

I did learn something new about the Kapok Strategy for helping businesses wisely manage their human resources which I will be sharing in an upcoming blog. I want to do some additional scientific research to verify what the guide told me before I send it out to you, but if true, it is an important truth for anyone running a business in lean times.

Our last day back in Quito, we were treated to a wonderful experience with our new guide and taxi driver who is of the Quitu indigenous people. Their understanding of the movement of the sun and planets is nothing short of amazing. Quito means “half the earth” or the place where earth is divided in half. They pegged the line for the equator thousands of years ago and they nailed it more precisely than the French did in the 1800’s when they did their measurements and placed the official marker where it still is today, off by 300 meters!

It makes you wonder how apparently primitive people could determine the exact line for the equator and many other things that we are only able in the last 100 years to match. He shared with us other very interesting perspectives and deeply held, ancient beliefs of the Quitu people that pertain to the days in which we live, in particular the next 3 ½ years. Very interesting stuff.

All in all, we were glad to have made the trip. We went to check out a rainforest destination and learn more of the mysteries of God and came away with more questions than answers and plenty to lift before the Lord to gain His understanding and wisdom.

I understand from Cheryl at my office that many of you have indicated an interest in joining us on our next excursion to the rainforest to explore its treasures and the possibility of becoming a rainforest certified business coach. I am looking to lock down a time in June in Panama where we will be staying at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. It will be the trip of a lifetime and for many of you, the perfect opportunity to merge business interests with your desire to make a difference in the lives of others.

If this sounds like something of interest to you, then consider joining us in June to investigate what it would be like to build a coaching business with a group of like hearted Christians committed to changing the world.

To be considered for the coaching team, there are three initial prerequisites…

1. You have read Rainforest Strategy and the concept appeals to you.
2. You have read our vision and it resonates with you.
3. If the possibility of building a lucrative coaching business while changing lives and mentoring others appeals to you and if our strategic vision resonates with you and you see the power of the rainforest as a business model, then we would like to hear from you. Please email me at admin@RainforestInstitute.org and tell me how you believe God has prepared you to help others using our proven coaching platform in the business arena. Please share your business background and what about this opportunity appeals to you. I genuinely want to know why this resonates with you and what you bring to the table to help me build the most successful coaching business of our time.

Thank you all for your encouragement as we labor in love to transform the marketplace.

One month ago my wife and I were returning from Panama. We had just taken our first group of potential business coaches to the rainforest. We had an incredible time both during the conference meetings and in the primary rainforest. Many of them have launched in with us to bring the most sophisticated, professional, upscale coaching model we have seen, to the marketplace. It uses something God made - the rainforest - as a teaching tool and it uses the best online training venue on the planet to deliver the core material. (We will be announcing that to the world later this month.)

When we announced our desire to work with committed Christians with strong business experience back in December, we were expecting it would take several invitations to find twelve individuals who want to change the world with us. As it turned out, with one email, we exceeded capacity and had to make special arrangements to accommodate the group of 40 (including many spouses) who joined us on that epic journey.

Well, as we were flying home from that trip, a gentleman named Mario sat beside us. The plane was not full and I was tempted to ask him to move across the aisle so we could both have more room but the Holy Spirit would not allow me. We ended up talking the whole flight home. He was from Ecuador and has spent his life in tourism. He invited us to spend a complimentary 4 nights and 5 days at what looks like a remarkable place, nestled in the mountains of Ecuador. (It feels like God’s Providence to us, so we leave tomorrow.)

The purpose being to identify the perfect setting during the summer months to host another group of potential business coaches in a trip we are planning for June. The trip this week, besides confirming top notch facilities is to line up guides who can take us into the Upper Amazon and show the new potential coaches first hand the most amazing business model on the planet.

I believe God has something significant planned not only for this trip but for our upcoming trip in June. I solicit your prayers for my wife and me as we venture out in faith, following what we believe to be God’s leading. If things go as we suspect, we will be inviting you or perhaps someone you know to consider joining us in June to investigate what it would be like to build a coaching business with a group of like hearted Christians committed to changing the world.

To be considered for the coaching team, there are three initial prerequisites…

1. You have read Rainforest Strategy and the concept appeals to you.
2. You have read our vision and it resonates with you.
3. If the possibility of building a lucrative coaching business while changing lives and mentoring others appeals to you and if our strategic vision resonates with you and you see the power of the rainforest as a business model, then we would like to hear from you. Please email me at admin@MichaelPink.com and tell me how you believe God has prepared you to help others using our proven coaching platform in the business arena. Please share your business background and what about this opportunity appeals to you. I genuinely want to know why this resonates with you and what you bring to the table to help me build the most successful coaching business of our time.

Thank you all for your encouragement as we labor in love to transform the marketplace.