Does God still speak through dreams and visions?

The answer to this is yes.  God truly does speak through dreams and visions. It is not just an old testament thing for prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah. It is estimated that many people have between 1400 and 2200 dreams every year. Surely God is not limited to speaking one way. There are many ways in which God speaks. He can speak in an audible voice like he did with Moses in Exodus 3:4.  He speaks very often in nature or in creation. In Acts 10:9-16 Jesus speaks to Paul through an open vision about what is to come.  John (Revelation 1:2), "...who testifies to everything he saw-that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." The Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus and we can stand on that. He is the Rock the firm foundation and he is a creative God who is multi-faceted in the ways he chooses to speak. God can choose to speak through an angelic visitation. Mary in Luke 1 is visited by an angel who tells her that the coming Messiah is going to be through her line and her womb. Wow! How exciting yet so incredibly scary would that be. Sometimes we hear an internal voice of the Lord speaking to us. This can go along with the dreams and visions that we are having in todays day and age. In my life, I know the Lord reveals himself to me often through dreams in the night. I always know when it is a dream from the Lord because it is very vivid and I remember it easily. It typically ends with a voice speaking to me with scripture and is always biblically based. It is very encouraging when I receive dreams or visions because I know God is active in my life, it makes me feel his love and grace on my life. The truth is we are just like the people in the bible, every day men and women, who are graciously loved by the Creator of the universe therefore he will speak to us as in Acts, Jeremiah, and all of the books in the bible. If you are wanting an increase in the prophetic but are struggling, then ask the Lord and tell him your desires, he will be faithful to help you grow in this area.

Can you love Jesus and hate the church?

What I have observed is that many of the people in America and around the world say that they love what Jesus represents, but they despise the church and the people who dwell in it. To a degree, I can understand where they are coming from.  They expect perfection and they actually just get weak and broken people that are hurting and are in need of healing. There are a few important points we must remember though when thinking of the church and Jesus. First of all, you cannot love Jesus and hate the church. I am sorry, it is just not a biblical statement.  1 Corinthians 12:12 say, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.  So it is with Christ." When we are born again into the family of God, we are also born into the body of Christ which is the church. Remember that the church is not a building, a meeting, or the kingdom of God. The church is a corporate gathering of people the belong to Christ.  The church is made up of people who have experienced the thorns of this world and are aiming to walk a straight and narrow path towards Christ. No, they will not be perfect on this side of eternity, but generally Christians are looking to Christ in the midst of their pain. He is the hope we have in our sin, even for the church, and so when you look to the church, try not to look at the imperfections but at Jesus who covers all sins for every person, Jew and Gentile.

Is it important to you that Jesus was raised to life?

   The resurrection is so vital to understand and believe in our walk with Christ. Yet we rarely realize how much the resurrection means to us on a day to day basis.  Without the resurrection we would be dead in sin. If Christ can't conquer sin...then what can?  Think of the power and strength Jesus needed to have to carry the weight of an eternity of sin and punishment within three days. He has to be God in order to do this. Because of this power we are able to to be resurrected in our own bodies and become whole in our inner man.  We are able to become one with Jesus Christ at the end of the age and spend eternity with him.  We are adopted in to the kingdom of God as sons and daughters, and we share in the inheritance of Jesus Christ.  Not only this, but be cause of the resurrection we are able to heal, cast out demons, prophecy, and use the gifts of the Spirit by the Holy Spirit which is a testimony of Jesus blood being spilled and His resurrection. The resurrection gives us the hope of our calling as it says in Ephesians 1:17-19 and gives us a glorious inheritance.
  All this to say, the resurrection of Jesus means everything to me. My life would be completely different if Jesus had not raised from the dead. I would be on my way to complete separation from the One that my heart loves most. Praise the Lamb who was slain and was raised form the dead in three days so I can be with Him.

Did Jesus have to die?

  In my life, I have often wondered whether Jesus really had to die for our sins or not.  I mean, couldn't Jesus have just saved man kind with one word of His mouth?  Or did His blood truly have to be spilled? The answer is yes He did have to die. Another Adam, pure and spotless, had to come and be a sacrifice for our dirt and grime.  This is why they call Jesus the last Adam. Technically, Jesus did not have to save us and He could have left us here on earth to die in hell, but this is not in his nature to do.  In 1 Peter 1:20 it talks about how Jesus was "chosen before the creation of the world" to die for the atonement of our sins.  It was His mission before the creation of the world to save us. Also, He is all gracious, overwhelmingly compassionate, full of love, and rich in mercy. Because He is perfect in all of these, he cannot just let His Beloved(us) be eternally separated from Him. Another point that has tugged on my heart for years is what is the importance of blood? I have asked the Lord this many times and finally I feel He has given me but a glimpse of why.  My professor, Jono Hall said, "There is life in the blood." This is so completely true, our everything depends on whether our blood is flowing or not.  From the time of being in the womb of our mothers, our heart beats blood through our veins which is a sign of life. How much more can the blood of the holy, almighty, God save us from death in the depths of hell? Not only does the blood save us and cover us, but we become his son's and daughter's as if we were his biological first son, with no spot or stain. We get the full inheritance, the fullness of glory, and eternity by his side. This is not by something that we could have done but only by the life giving blood of Jesus Christ.

What is our purpose?

What is the purpose of mankind? I feel as though every human being asks this question in their heart. Why am I here? What is the point? What am I working towards? The fact is that the purpose that we have is so beyond glorious, yet many even christians don't know what their purpose is. It is simple. We were created by God and for God. (Colossians 1:16) It is not that God is in need of our love or affection, but He enjoys the Trinity so much that He wanted to invited his creation into it as well. God on His own is perfectly satisfied. This is the first thing we must know. But secondly, He delights in revealing himself to us and bringing us pleasure. When we enjoy his pleasure and presence His name is glorified.  This brings us back to the original purpose of mankind; to know God, to be known by Him and to glorify Him in that place.

Can you prove that God exists?

How can you prove that God really does exist? Is He the Creator that Christians say He is or just an imagined up God that has not ever been there?  I believe that yes, we can prove that the Lord Almighty is a three in one person who lives, loves, and interacts with mankind. It does not come typically through rational thinking but through the evidence of everyday miracles that take place. Albert Einstien once said, "There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle." Even if humanity sees the miracles of God on a daily basis they still will not believe. This was true for the Isrealites when they saw all of the signs and wonders on Mount Sinai, yet a whole generation died of unbelief. This is how it is today.  Let us broaden our self oriented minds and see the miracle in the small things. In Romans 1:20 it says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." I believe also that from the beginning of our lives we have a sense for God in our hearts. This is because Eccl. 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Not only is He omnipresent here in the whole universe, but He has left a mark in all of mankind and that is eternity. Every man longs for eternity, whether he knows this or not, but this is because it has been written on the human heart from the beginning. These are just a few ways we can see that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) really does exist. We just need to open our eyes.

Just when you think it will be easy...think again.

You know collecting mangoes is not as easy as it sounds. There are two people that are involved. One person has the roll of being the ladder for the other person and collecting the mangoes, then the other person is the monkey that climbs way to the top of a towering tree shaking the branches for the mangoes to come tumbling to the ground. Last time I collected mangoes, I was the ladder. As I struggled to get my sister Rose to the nearest branch, she swung her leg up with amazing grace. Now the person at the bottom...watch out...when the climber in the tree says heads up...MOVE! The mango is coming straight for your head. At this point in time, Rose was at the top and throwing mangoes down one by one. She would say, "Watch out!" and I would dodge as if it were the bombs of WW11. Picking up the mangoes was a stick mess. The juice slithers out on to your hand and makes them feel sticky and gross. After we had collected the delicious fruit, Rose on her way down said, "Oh gosh, I don't know where I am stepping, oh gosh I don't know what I am doing." The she finally made it to the starting branch as I am there arms full of mangoes waiting to catch her in case anything goes wrong. She ended up getting her foot stuck on a part of the tree and was doing the pretty much the splits. I can't remember when I last laughed that hard. She made it down with a plump and we both were exploding with joy and laughter. Its times like these when I say to myself, "Just when you think it will be easy...think again."