Steve Trexler & Family Ministries

Steve Trexler & Family Ministries

stevetrexler@yahoo.com

2016—The Year God’s Promises Manifest in Your Life!

Every year Christians in the charismatic camps run to hear what their favorite mega-star minister will have to say concerning the prophetic emphasis for the New Year. I’ve got good news for you God has already told us in His word what 2016 can be like for your life.

Job 22:28 (MEV) says, “You will also declare a matter, and it will be established unto you; and the light will shine upon your ways.” God tells us we can declare a matter in harmony to His Word and it will come to pass in our lives. That means you don’t need a mega-star to give you a new year’s word to cling too. What you need to do is open up God’s Word and look at His promises and decide what you need for 2016. God’s Word is full of wonderful promises, get in His Word and decide to decree what you need for 2016 and stand on God’s Word.

In 2003, as a young pastor of a newly planted church, I felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to decree and declare that 2003 would be year of Psalms 23 for my life and ministry. I didn’t grab hold of something a mega-ministry star had spoken; I grabbed hold of what God Almighty has spoken. I’m telling you, I witnessed Psalms 23 manifest in my life and ministry. It was 2003 that we discovered my wife already owed 2.5% of the land we were purchasing to build our church on. That discovery helped us build our new church and move into a new home. In 2003 we owned and managed for four locations. We transitioned from our starter home into our dream home. We transitioned from our church’s rental facility to our own church property. We simply grabbed hold of the promises in Psalms 23 and decided they belonged to us. Our church and ministry needed a Psalms 23 year and we decided to make a decree and stand on God’s word and we saw it come to pass.

What do you need for 2016? The mega-ministry star might be able to pronounce a word that tickles your ears, but what do you need from God this year? What ever you need, God has already spoken it in His word and God never misses it.

Numbers 23:19 (MEV) says, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He spoken, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? God also tells us in Isaiah 55:11 that His Word shall not return back to Him void, but it shall accomplish what He pleases and it shall prosper in the place He sends it.

I don’t know about you, but for 2016, I’m going to grab hold of God’s Word for my life. I’m going to open up the good book [Holy Bible] and find the things that I need and decree and declare what God has said. I know that I can’t go wrong with what God has said, because God can back up His Word, all I have to do is put my faith in what He has said. In Jeremiah 1:12 (MEV) God says, “Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well. For I will hasten My word to perform it.”

In other translations it says that God will watch over His Word to perform it. That means all you have to do is find His Word on what you need, but your faith in it and make a decree for it to manifest in your life and God is bound by His Word to watch over it and make sure it comes to pass in your life.

Whatever you need from God, find it in God’s Word and declare you will see it come to pass in 2016 and God will watch over His Word to perform it.

May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

pour out blessings over your life in 2016.

Published in Charisma Magazine Online - Dec. 2015

http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/supernatural/25112-believe-it-angels-are-here-to-protect-and-serve-us

Angels—Not Just For Christmas

In the Christmas story we find angels in several different scenes. In the gospel of Luke’s account of the Christmas story we see an angel telling Zacharias that he will have a son and to call him John. (Luke 1:13) In Luke 1:30-31, we see an angel telling Mary she will give birth to Jesus. In Luke 2:11, we see the angels telling the shepherds about the Christ child being born. The Christmas story is full of angels and heavenly hosts communicating to the world about the wonderful birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Angels are a wonderful supernatural aspect of the Christmas story, but angels are still here today to serve us. In fact, angels should really be a normal part of our Christianity. Hebrews 1:14 (NKJB) says, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” Psalms 8:5–6 (NLT) says, “Yet you made them [man]only a little lower than Godand crowned themwith glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority.” That means angels are under our authority through Christ. Angels have been created by God to help us, assist us and protect us on this earth.

My wife and I had an amazing angel encounter when we were in our 20’s. We had traveled to Seattle in order to attend Christian Faith Center with Pastor Casey Treat. On the way back from church, we decided to drive up Mount Saint Helens to see the destruction from the volcanic eruption of 1980. We drove probably 3 hours up to the look out point that over looks into the crater of the mountain. As we hiked up to the highest viewing point, I noticed a man who had several cameras. He got my attention, because I wanted to get a picture and I didn’t have a camera. I said hello to him and after spending an hour or so on the look out area, we hiked back down the peak and the man was still there and seemed to be waiting beside his car. I go over and struck up a conversation with him in hopes of a photo. As I spoke to him, I suggested he visit Christian Faith Center if he got a chance. This man says to me, “I’m glad to see you’re involved in church work, now.” I heard what he said, but, it didn’t really register in my mind. Then I looked around and noticed, everyone had left the parking area and it was starting to get dark. I was so engrossed in the whole experience, I wasn’t thinking about driving 3 hours back down the dark meandering mountain road. So, the man says, “why don’t you follow us down the mountain?” His wife was with him in the car.

As I followed his car down the mountain, I felt so much peace following those tail lights down that mountain. Every time he would brake, those lights would brighten and I knew there was another turn up ahead. As I followed his car, it came to me! The man in the car in front of me said, “I’m glad to see you’re involved with church work, now.” I had been a rebellious pastor’s son who strayed from my faith and my calling and he spoke as if he knew that. Why did a stranger tell me that I pondered? How would a stranger know I’m involved in church work now? See at the time I meet him, I was going through the struggle of answering the call of God for my life and ministry.

After coming down the mountain, we decided to take another road and leave the couple that we were following. An hour later, my wife and I pull into a restaurant and guess who is sitting in the restaurant? That’s right, the couple we had met earlier, who helped us down the mountain. We sat down and ate dinner with that couple and talked about the goodness of God.

Hebrews 13:2 (NLT) says, “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it.” I believe we experienced an angelic visitation that night as that couple served us, protected and watched over us.

Angels were a wonderful part of the Christmas story, but angels are still here, protecting us, serving us and helping us through this life.

Published in Charisma Magazine Online - Nov. 2015
http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-warfare/24921-is-the-act-of-playing-favorites-in-the-church-a-sin
Dangers of Playing Favorites
Have you ever known a parent who played favorites with their children? Have you ever felt like someone was favored over you? Maybe you’ve felt the pain of not being the favorite. Playing favorites is not something new. In fact the first family of faith has a legacy of playing favorites which caused all kinds of conflict and problems. In this article, we’re going to look into the dangers of playing favorites and see how it can cause conflicts in our churches, in our families, in our businesses and on our jobs. Playing favorites in the body of Christ causes a lot of people a lot of unnecessary pain and heartache. I believe playing favorites will unfortunately cause Christians to backslide or to become disillusioned in their faith. Playing favorites will cause those in the Christian ranks to strive against each other in order to be accepted into the favored group. Playing favorites will cause the favored ones to shun and humiliate those who are not recognized as the ministry favorites. Playing favorites is clearly not God’s best and I pray that conviction will touch the reader and changes will be made in the body of Christ.
In the book of James, chapter 2:1-10, God deals with the subject of playing favorites in the church. In James 2:1 (NIV) God says, “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism.” In James 2:9, God says, “If we show favoritism we commit sin”.
Playing favorites in the body of Christ is causing division, strife, offenses and many to become disillusioned and walk away from the church. When we preach, God is no respecter of persons and then treat church attendees like lower class citizens we are sending a mixed message and causing spiritual confusion. When we train our ushers to cater to the rich, successful and influential and neglect the ministering to the saints, we are actually hurting our own ministries.
In James, Chapter two, God gives us a command to treat all of His children with the same respect and to honor them all in the same way. But because some have become so desperate for jet fuel and an insatiable desire to have the biggest ministry, this command is often overlooked.
I was in attendance at a charismatic camp meeting in the southern part of the United States when I actually overheard a young minister ask another minister, “How much will it take for me to get a front row seat?” The older minister’s response was, “You don’t want to know!” I guess that meant it was going to cost him several thousand dollars and a lifetime subscription to the big givers club in order to have special seating. The young minister who asked that question came from a small, but wealthy Texas church and he was willing to use the offerings of his local church in order to have preferential treatment at a special meeting. What he was really asking is how do I become one of the ministries favorites? How can I get an invitation to green room? How can I get a seat at the ministers table? How can I get on the influential list of approved guest speakers? That minister was willing to misappropriate his church’s funds in order to pay for special recognition. I witnessed that young minister began to give his way into a position of prominence in that particular camp. What a horrible lesson to teach a young minister, that you can use money to promote yourself; when God is the One Who promotes the faithful (Matthew 25:21–30).
In the book of Acts, Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, so he offered money to purchase the anointing and Peter’s response was, “Your money perish with you” (Acts 8:19–21). Peter went on to say that Simon’s heart was not right in this manner. Leaders, our hearts are not right in this manner.
But, unfortunately today, we have ministries selling favor, selling seats, selling favoritism, gathering groups of deceived givers, fleecing them, and calling it a sons and daughters meeting. Of course we know the Bible teaches us the love of money is the root of all evil and it’s the lust for bigger and bigger offerings that is causing us to create this system of favoritism. Those who haven’t broken the alabaster box and poured their life savings on the feet of the anointed are shunned and become disillusioned in their faith. Leaders—don’t take God’s holy offerings and turn it into a charismatic pyramid scheme.
Remember, Sarah coerced Abraham to prefer Isaac over Ishmael, we still see that seed of bitterness in the terrorists who attack us today. Isaac continued this pattern as he favored Esau and Rebecca favored Jacob which led to hatred, betrayal and division in the family. Jacob continues the family trait of favoritism as he chose Joseph to be his favorite. This caused Joseph to be hated and despised by his own family and they faked his death and sold him into slavery. Joseph probably thought being the favorite was great, until he hit the bottom of the pit.
I watched a pastor lose his entire church after he made one man his favorite spiritual son, only to have that son betray him and destroy his work. Church, wake up, playing favorites is not the love of God in action; it’s the demonstration of corruption in the heart of a man. Whatever you receive from playing favorites, is not worth it! God commands us in James, Chapter 2, don’t play favorites!
Be encouraged if you’ve been on the bad side of one of these situations, that God looks at the heart of man and God promotes faithfulness (1 Samuel 16:7). Keep your heart right before the Lord—give as unto the Lord—serve as unto the Lord and the Lord who sees in secret will reward you for your efforts.
Steve Trexler is a minister and a writer for Kenneth Hagin Ministries in Broken Arrow, OK. Steve is the author of Gathering God’s Promises, Name Droppers and God’s Personality Test which can be found at his web site, www.fhctn.com.

Steve Trexler & Family Ministries

stevetrexler@yahoo.com

Steve Trexler & Family Ministries

Published in Charisma Magazine Online - Nov. 2015