fbpx

Posts by Gaspar Anastasi

woman looking at empty shelves

The missing ingredient

March 20, 2021 Gaspar Anastasi
1 Comment
Finding significance in life

The brain trust of Fortune 500 companies once did research to discover the reason behind the success of their top executives. They looked at each corporate leader’s education, family background and wealth, assuming their success was linked to their rank at the top of the class, coming from excellent family stock or wealth.

Amazingly, they found that 50% of the top executives finished in the middle of their college classes and 75% of all American presidents graduated at the bottom of their class. So what was the one common trait responsible for their great success?

They concluded that PASSION is the main ingredient that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary. Sadly, it’s the one ingredient missing in most of us today.

Identify your passion

I define passion as that intangible driving determination to see your dream or vision fulfilled. It is undeniable motivation that never gives up, no matter how bad or contrary things become. It’s the fire that seems to be shut up in a person’s bones that inspires them to “keep on keeping on” no matter what!

Let me ask you these two questions:

  1. Can you identify that one thing you are passionate about in this season of your life?
  2. What could you give as tangible proof that you’re passionate about that one thing?

Just saying you’re passionate doesn’t make it so. For instance, the average Christian would say they’re passionate about their faith. In reality, there is very little tangible evidence to prove it. I say this because our neighborhoods, our culture and our world would be radically different if Christians were truly passionate about their faith.

If you want to see passionate people, go to a department store when they announce the sale of a limited number of a brand-name item. There’s a good possibility you’ll get trampled by a shopper rushing to be the first in line! That’s what passion looks like: totally focused, willing to take a risk at all cost and undeterred by circumstances and obstacles.

Time, talent and resources

Real passion is evidenced by three major components: your time, your talent and your resources. When a person says, “I’m a passionate Christian” the first question to ask them is how much time, talent, and resources do you invest in your Christian walk? Is reading your Bible and praying every day a priority or do you spend more time on other things?

Do you give weekly tithes and offerings, making up for them when you miss a corporate gathering? Or do you save your money for other priorities? Do you use your talent to serve as a team player in a corporate body, advancing the kingdom of God in your region? Or are you in it for yourself, committed only when it benefits you?

Less than 20% of all Christians tithe. Many hop from church to church, and some don’t go at all. It’s no wonder we have churches on every corner, yet our culture grows more and more evil.

Turn the world upside down!

Examine where you spend your time, talent and resources to correctly identify where your passion lies. We’re all passionate about something, but in spite of what we think, it might not be our Christian faith.

Let’s move from being ordinary, Sunday Christians to extraordinary, passionate men and women of God, bringing change to our world for God’s glory. The church of Acts turned the world upside down because of their passion!

The key to that kind of power is found only in having a passionate love for Jesus. So if you truly want a successful Christian life, see if you are missing the most important ingredient. Then pray for the Lord to give you more passion for His Son!

We love to hear from you! If this blog post has been a blessing to you, please let us know by commenting below.…

+ Read More
woman runner

Don’t quit too soon!

March 13, 2021 Gaspar Anastasi
2 Comments
Finding significance in life

In Old Testament days, the anointing (the presence of God) rested on the priests, prophets and the kings.  The prophet Elisha carried such a strong presence of God that he did double the miracles of his predecessor, Elijah.

The story of how Elisha’s anointing impacted a certain Shunammite woman is recounted in 2 Kings 4:8-17. This woman is in the Bible because of her great hunger and thirst for God’s presence.

Stoke a hunger for God

This “notable woman”, as the Bible describes her, so desperately wanted God’s presence to rest in her home that she asked her husband to build a room for Elisha. That way, the prophet could stay there whenever he came to that area. She never selfishly tried to get things from God through Elisha. Simply and purely, she desired His presence in her life and home.

That should be the focus in our lives as well: A desire for His presence—not what He can do for us. He already knows our need, as demonstrated in this story.

Elisha was so blessed by the loving care this woman showed him that he asked her if she had any needs. She told the prophet that she was okay. But Elisha’s observant servant Gehazi saw that she was childless.

A principle to remember is this: If we make the Lord welcome in our heart and home, He will always meet our needs according to His riches in glory. And since His glory is His presence, we know that the key to having every need met is found in His presence.  It’s not that He doesn’t want us to ask. He does. But our priority is not to see what we can get from God. Our priority is to know Him and be known by Him!

Know the God of the impossible

This woman had buried her unfulfilled desire for a child so long that it may have been too painful to mention. She had put aside her dream. Fortunately for us, God never forgets what He places in our heart. He wants us to conceive the vision and bear fruit. 

Elisha told her that by that time next year she would have a child. The woman got upset, afraid of being disappointed again. She knew that both she and her husband were past the age of child-bearing. Therefore, Elisha’s prophecy was impossible in the natural.

God brings us to that place because He specializes in impossibilities. That is why we can’t give up too soon.  If God said it and we believe it, it will happen for us the way He meant it to. This woman almost gave up but, because she took care of God’s presence, He made her life fruitful. In verse 17, we read that she had her son exactly as Elisha had prophesied.

Yearn for His presence

Like the Shunammite woman, yearn for God’s presence and believe whatever He tells you. We all have a dream we can’t shake and Satan can’t steal. Natural circumstances make it seem impossible, but don’t give up! Yearn for more of God and He will fulfill His purposes in your life because His seed of greatness is in you. God will make sure you give birth to what He has invested in your life.

Psalm 37:4 & 5: “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”

We love reading your comments! If this blog has been a blessing to you, please take a moment to comment below.…

+ Read More

Remove the mask

March 6, 2021 Gaspar Anastasi
2 Comments
Making positive change

We all go through painful events in life; and our tendency is to sweep our feelings under the rug and ignore them—hoping they go away. However, failure to deal with our hurts and losses creates a perfect environment for depression and despair.

We may think that masking our true feelings protects our heart, but it doesn’t. Instead, it wounds our spirit, which affects every aspect of our lives. Hiding our hurts impacts our spirit, soul, thoughts, feelings and emotions, our physical health, our well-being and even our relationships. This emotional masking stunts our spiritual growth, emotional and mental maturity. It eventually hinders our intimacy with God and people.

We need to take off the masks and become transparent before God. Don’t be afraid to share your pain with Him. Bring Him your broken heart and He will bring His plan of restoration.

Let your Father protect you

In fact, when you are honest with God, He will protect you from making wrong choices. He will keep you connected to people whom He predestined to be part of your story and separate you from the rest.

Furthermore, He will give you wisdom and understanding. David told God in Psalm 51:6 “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.”

Enter into God’s joy, peace and happiness by embarking on what I call the Five D’s.

Practice the Five D’s

  1. Determine what sad experiences or significant losses from the past haven’t you faced. They can be things like divorce, death of parents, rejection, failures, false accusations, unjust criticism, thwarted goals or unrealized dreams. These feelings may be buried deep in your unconscious mind. But just because you don’t think about them doesn’t mean they don’t affect you today. They do.
  1. Discover the source of your masked pain through earnest prayer. Here’s an example: “Oh Father, let Your peace calm my troubled heart. Please make me aware of my need for healing and bring to my mind hurts I have masked and the circumstances that caused them.”
  1. Define your feelings with specific statements such as: “_________ made me feel like_______; I am grieving over________; I was so embarrassed when _______; I felt abandoned by_____; I was really hurt when _______; I determined to never let _____ happen again.” Pinpoint and define the hurts you’ve masked all this time. Let God take you out of denial and into inner healing. Make this your year to escape the heaviness you’ve been living with for so long.
  1. Decide to deeply and genuinely grieve your hurts. Release forgiveness to those who have hurt you and receive God’s forgiveness for holding anger or hatred. There is no justification for anyone with the nature of Jesus Christ to harbor these things. You may also need to forgive yourself for wrong choices that have perpetuated the pain. Ecclesiastes 3:1&7 says, “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:….. A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;”
  1. Deepen your dependence on God. Trust Him to give you emotional freedom. Allow the Holy Spirit to pray through you daily. He’s your physician, your medicine cabinet, and He has every antidote you need to make you whole. In fact, it’s His desire.

May the clouds of hopelessness and despair be lifted. May God’s wonderful plans for you be revealed. Remember, He supplied you with everything you need to accomplish them. But first, remove the mask.

Your thoughts are important to us. Please take the time to share your feelings on this topic by commenting below.…

+ Read More
ball and chain

How to get out of debt, pt. 2

February 27, 2021 Gaspar Anastasi
0 Comment
Uncategorized

Last week, I gave three foundational steps to get out of debt and break poverty over your life. Here they are in review, but for more details read last week’s blog.

1. Believe that God is a debt canceling God.

2. All poverty and debt is rooted in sin.

3. Review your spending habits.

4. Today I will start with step 4, which is tithing. Tithing is the key to having God’s provision released in our life. This godly principle is the one that Satan opposes the most in a Christian’s life. It pertains to the “law of the first fruits” which sim­ply says that the first part of any fruit you produce belongs to God. Tithing is part of that law. The first fruit of our income (10%) be­longs to God and the 90% that is left is ours.

In the book of Malachi, God promises that if we don’t rob Him and we give what rightfully belongs to Him, He will release His abundance, provisions and protection. Always remember: God’s ways are not our ways. If we expect God’s word to fit our logic and understanding, we’ll miss Him every time.

It comes down to these two questions about our tithes: Is Jesus really Lord over our life? Do we really want to get out of debt?

5. Break the curse. Poverty and debt are curses that won’t go away unless forcefully broken. Matthew 12:11 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers vio­lence, and the violent take it by force.” In other words, Satan and his demons must be forcibly removed from our life in the name of Jesus.

We can assume that we are under the effects of a curse if we experience a cycle of negative events repeating over and over again. We break free, only to fall back into the debt cycle again. Some­times expenses rise out of nowhere, our car breaks down, we lose a job, etc. If they happen consistently, it is a sign that a curse of debt and poverty is over your life. Here is how to break it according to God’s word.

Identify that it’s a curse. Galatians 3:13 and 14 tells us Jesus became a curse for us so that we could have the blessings of Abraham (in­cluding prosperity). 

Declare, “In Jesus’ name I break the curse of poverty, lack and debt over my life!” If you haven’t done step two from my last message, add it in this prayer and declaration.

Release the blessing of prosperity, abundance and multiplica­tion in the name of Jesus. This is a war that must be fought in the spiritual realm and the weapons of warfare are not carnal—they are spiritual.

6. Constantly renew your mind with God’s word. Remind your­self that you live in God’s kingdom, not Satan’s anymore. Your God is generous and desires that you live the abundant life Jesus pur­chased for you. He made provision for you to be prosperous for His kingdom purposes (if you are doing His works, not your own).

Ask yourself, “Why do I want to get out of debt and have poverty bro­ken off my life?” If your answer doesn’t include something like be­ing Jesus Christ’s representative, you’ve missed the whole purpose of your redemption!

By applying all six steps to your everyday life; deliverance from poverty and living in debt is a sure thing. The greatest challenge is to recognize that Satan doesn’t want you to be financially free because then he can’t control your life. This is war and you must be in it to win it! Stay in the fight and don’t give up. BECAUSE OF JESUS WE WIN!  …

+ Read More

How to get out of debt, pt. 1

February 20, 2021 Gaspar Anastasi
2 Comments
Making positive change, Success & victory

The way the economy is going, life is getting increasingly diffi­cult and the financial forecast doesn’t look very promising ei­ther. It’s obvious that things are about to get worse, but, how does God weigh in on all of this? Does He care about finances and does He offer any practical solutions to the problem of debt? Well first of all, Jesus spoke more about money than any other subject in the Bible. I know that’s shocking, but it’s true.

I believe Jesus highlighted the money issue because He knows that debt and poverty are manifestations of the kingdom of Satan. They are curses that are often carried down from generation to generation. Through money, the enemy attempts to control and hinder our lifestyles and ultimately our destiny.

It’s amazing how many of us are scrambling every day just to get enough money to live on, leaving us very little time for God. How ironic, since God is the true source of our lives! Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Let’s look at a few God-inspired principles to help alleviate debt and poverty in our lives. They are not in any particular order, but they point the way to apprehend God’s plan and strategy for us.

1. Believe He is a debt-canceling God. Mark 11:24 says,”Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” He cancelled all of our debts on His cross two thousand years ago. In other words, believe that God wants to deliver you from poverty and cancel your debt. Nothing happens unless we believe.

2. All poverty and debt originates from sin. Any time you or your ancestors trusted in money and wealth to meet needs instead of God—that’s sin. First Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sor­rows.”

Identify with the source of that sin, repent in the place of your ancestors and then repent for personal participation in that sin in your own life. Debt and poverty must be cut off at the root in order to break that cycle in your life. These two steps of identifica­tion and repentance are foundational to getting out of debt. For further explanation of this, please go to our website www.BreakingFreeCC.com and contact our office.

3. Review your spending habits: Is God in the decision-making when it comes to your spending habits? Many of us don’t allow God to be Lord over this area and we spend according to the lust of our flesh, not the leading of the Holy Spirit. If we examined our spending habits every day, we’d learn some shocking truths about our own heart.

List all of your spending for seven days, bring them before the Lord in prayer and ask Him if there needs to be any changes. If you’re sincere, you will probably see that radical change is necessary. That’s a good time to ask God’s forgiveness for your idolatry (putting money ahead of God).

These steps reveal your true desire to have poverty and debt broken over your life. A lot of us talk a good talk, but when it comes down to it, that’s all it is—talk. Getting out of debt requires a radical change in our view of money and our under­standing of God’s desire to be God (the only source) in and over our lives. We will continue this series next week.

We love to hear from you! If this post has blessed you, please let us know by leaving a comment.…

+ Read More

Seven times hotter

February 13, 2021 Gaspar Anastasi
5 Comments
Success & victory

Over the years, I’ve told a sad story about a doctor who took his wife and son on an African safari. After an exciting day, they did what they had done previous nights. They started a camp fire, intending to add wood in the middle of the night to keep the lions away.

However, exhausted from a long day, they never awoke to stoke the fire. As you can imagine, tragedy struck when the fire went out! A lion entered the camp and killed the son as he slept.

The lesson is this: Lions feed where the fire has gone out! In America, satan the roaring lion is ravaging our lifestyle and culture. Why? The church has lost her fire, passion and hunger for God’s tangible presence. And, as we sleep, Satan is wreaking havoc in our midst.

The answer is not in politics

We, the church, have lost the cutting edge that’s needed to make a difference in today’s world. We opted out of the mandate to influence our culture by our Christ-like lifestyle. Instead, we’ve left the influence that should be ours to politics and politicians.

You and I can’t expect the government to legislate morality, but we should expect morality to be lived out by the church, those who have been given the nature and power of Jesus Christ. We need to rekindle the fire of our passion and live for God. This fire must burn bright enough to keep the lions out of our camp!

I’m talking about the same fire that burned inside the three Hebrew boys, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego when they refused to bow to the culture in which they lived. That fiery passion kept them from accepting the status quo. As a result, they were thrown into a furnace that was heated seven times hotter than normal.

Off the charts passion

Run-of-the-mill, on-again-off-again love for Jesus won’t cut it in the gross darkness surrounding us. We must exhibit a passion that surpasses weekly “rah-rah” church services and our longing for the things of this world. Our passion for God must be off the charts!

Let’s stoke the fires seven times greater than we ever before experienced. We can’t work it up by ourselves, but the Holy Spirit can. (I strongly believe He is doing that even now.

Our human helplessness to change things is evident. We can’t stop perfect storms from devastating the nation. You and I can’t change our culture through politics. We can’t even stop the church from backsliding. The only thing that will prepare the way for Jesus’ second coming is our passionate fire burning seven times hotter! Yours and mine.

Expect a suddenly

Let’s start praying with abandon for God’s passion to consume us now—not tomorrow. Let’s not leave the upper room until a “suddenly” happens and we recognize God’s tangible presence in our midst.

His presence is the only answer to the ills America faces today. The church must say, “We will arise and shine for our light (Jesus) has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us (His church). Darkness shall cover the earth, but the Lord will arise over us and His glory will be seen upon us (His church). (Is. 60:1)” Now remember: YOU ARE THE CHURCH!…

+ Read More
1 … 14 15 16 17 18 … 30

Recent Posts

Categories

Follow us on

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com