The kind of faith that pleases God is brave, but never arrogant. It is characterised by obedience and humbleness. Abraham was an example of faith, and his faith justified him because of his obedience to God’s Word. Only those who are obedient are humble, and only those who are humble are obedient. And so a faith that is supernatural, intelligent, and practical and produces blessings that are accompanied with humility.

That was the enormous difference between Kings Saul and David. Saul was not humble to obey God, and his disobedience cost him his life. The moment he saw that he was stuck in a life or death situation, he preferred to fall on his sword instead of seeking God’s compassion. The same thing happened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A man was going through financial difficulties and unable to cope with the humiliation and shame, killed his wife, his two teenage daughters, and then committed suicide.

David was absolutely sure that however dirty and miserable he was, he could always count on God’s compassion. His brave, yet humble faith saved him.

True humbleness, the humbleness of spirit, keeps the doors open for us to reach the throne of the Most High.

He promised, “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15).

The handwriting was perfect, the letter looked like it was all covered in gold, my eyes turned blue… The feeling was inexplicable! It wasn’t the letter that made it so special for me, it was the way everything happened from a simple trust in God. It was as if I was being rewarded for giving Him the upper hand in my life…

I immediately remembered my sacrifice in the previous campaign of Israel. It had been a ring, but not just a golden ring, my only ring. My father had given it to me as a birthday gift for my 15th birthday. It meant a lot to me, so much so that it was the only thing I had to sacrifice. I didn’t work, I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have any valuables.

After placing it inside the envelope, I felt proud of my faith somehow, as if I had finally done something with it all those years. I asked God for one thing in that envelope, I wanted to marry my first boyfriend, who would have to come from Him (and no one else).

I was the bishop’s daughter, everybody wanted to set me up with somebody… In their eyes, I was available. In my eyes, I wasn’t. I wanted God to set me up because I knew He’d choose someone perfect for me. He knew my expectations and so, it wouldn’t be anything less than those!

When Renato wrote me that love letter, out of the blue, not having met me or once spoken to me, it was as if God had written the perfect romance for me. I couldn’t stop smiling… and I have a feeling, God couldn’t either.

Cristiane Cardoso

These days it’s impossible to testify of the Lord Jesus’ resurrection only through words. The world wants more than long speeches, more than emotional rituals. The world wants proof of His resurrection. And to prove that He is alive, we need a life of quality and a character unlike any other.

It’s not only about having testimonies of miracles we received, but behaving in a way that is beyond reproach—first at home, and then everywhere else. Unfortunately, many “Christians” behave well among friends and strangers, but around their family, they act out their old nature. Others are “holy” when they talk about the Word of God, but when it comes to doing business with brothers in faith, it’s dog-eat-dog. They are selfish, mean, stingy, cunning, and so on.

God is Just. His throne is based upon justice. “Woe to him who causes one of My little ones to stumble!” says the Lord.

We know that perfection is almost impossible. But we should behave, as much as possible, according to our belief. After all, if our character does not testify of the Lord Jesus, what’s the point of speaking about Him?

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So, to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever.

The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were no longer fresh. And the Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer; however, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.

Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.

If people reach their goals too soon, they can lose their passion. That’s too dangerous! They might think that they don’t need to work so hard, and so they relax.

If you have already achieved your goals, then set bigger ones. Once your personal and family needs are met, give thanks to God and fight for bigger conquests. Never relax in your faith, put a shark in your tank!

May God grant victory to those who persevere!

Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lived a Chinese wise man and his disciple. One day, in their travels, they saw a hut in the distance. As they approached they realised that it was occupied in spite of its extremely poor appearance. In that desolate place where there were no crops and no trees, a man lived with his wife, three young children and a thin, tired cow. Since they were hungry and thirsty, the wise man and his disciple stopped for a few hours and were well received. At one point, the wise man asked:

“This is a very poor place, far away from anything. How do you survive?”

“You see that cow? That’s what keeps us going,” said the head of the family. “She gives us milk, some of it we drink and some we make into cheese. When there is extra, we go into the city and exchange the milk and cheese for other types of food. That’s how we survive.”

The wise man thanked them for their hospitality and left. When he reached the first bend in the road, he said to his disciple:

“Go back, get the cow, take her to the cliff in front of us, and push her off.”

The disciple could not believe what he was hearing.

“I cannot do that, master! How can you be so ungrateful? The cow is all they have. If I throw it on the cliff, they’ll have no way to survive. Without the cow, they’ll all die!”

The wise man, an elderly Chinese man, took a deep breath and repeated the order:

“Go ahead. Push the cow off the cliff.”

Though outraged at what he was being asked to do, the student was resigned to obey his master. He returned to the hut and quietly led the animal to the edge of the cliff and pushed it. The cow fell down the cliff and died.

As the years passed by, remorse for what he had done never left the disciple. One spring day, the guilt became too much to bear and he left the wise man and returned to that little shack. He wanted to find out what had happened to that family, to help them out, apologise, or somehow make amends.

Upon rounding a turn in the road, he could not believe what his eyes were showing him. In place of the poor shack there was a beautiful house with trees all around, a swimming pool, several cars in the garage, a satellite dish, and on and on. Three good-looking teenagers and their parents were celebrating their first million dollars.

The heart of the disciple froze. What could have happened to the family? Without a doubt, they must have been starving to death and forced to sell their land and leave. At that moment, the student thought they must all be begging on the street corners of some city. He approached the house and asked a man that was passing by about the whereabouts of the family that had lived there several years before.

“You’re looking at it,” said the man, pointing to the people gathered around the barbecue.

Unable to believe what he was hearing, the disciple walked through the gate and took a few steps closer to the pool where he recognised the man from several years before, only now he was strong and confident, the woman was happy, and the children were now nice-looking teenagers. He was dumbfounded, and went over to the man and asked:

“What happened? I was here with my teacher a few years ago and this was a miserable place. There was nothing. What did you do to improve your lives in such a short time?”

The man looked at the disciple, and replied with a smile:

“We had a cow that kept us alive. She was all we had. But one day she fell down the cliff and died. To survive, we had to start doing other things, develop skills we didn’t even know we had. And so, because we were forced to come up with new ways of doing things, we are now much better off than before.”

A very poor woman called a Christian radio program asking for help. A Satanist was listening to the program and decided to play a trick on her. He found out where she lived and decided to have his assistant deliver some groceries to her house. He sent her with the following message: “When she asks who they’re from, tell her they’re from the devil!”

When she arrived at the woman’s house, she was received with great joy and the woman quickly started putting away the food. The Satanist’s assistant asked her: “Don’t you want to know who sent you these things?” With all her faith the woman simply replied: “No, my child, that’s not necessary. When God commands even the devil obeys!”

DON’T WORRY ABOUT HOW YOU WILL ACHIEVE YOUR VICTORY BECAUSE WHEN GOD DETERMINES IT, IT HAPPENS… IT REALLY HAPPENS!

Be patient. It won’t happen according to your timeframe but to His. You’re vision is limited but God is able to see far ahead of us.

“My greatest proof that I have totally given myself to this Work is that none of my children were taught to wait for an inheritance, to be selfish or to serve themselves.”

I travel all over the world and I don’t know much of these countries that I see other than the natural beauty of each particular place that causes me to fall in love every time I’m there. My hobby is taking pictures and saving them on my computer, which, by the way, is always giving me memory problems.

I’m in love with my wife who doesn’t leave my side for a minute. Esther doesn’t need a lot of makeup, much less plastic surgery. I’m reminded of her beauty even with a simple brush of her hair! Our children are the fruit of our love. I love being with them, but they know not to expect an inheritance.

I don’t have anything and neither do they. Everything I have belongs to the Church and I say this with a pure heart. I do what I do for God, not for myself or for my family. My children know that if they don’t use their faith, all is lost!

When I married off my daughters, still very young and inexperienced, I did it by faith, knowing that because they were marrying men of God everything would work out. Today, I see my sons-in-law as if they were my own sons.

I practically live in an airplane. Esther has learned how to have our luggage packed in a couple of minutes. Just when we’re about to get used to the time difference, we have to travel again, and it’s at this time that our age catches up with us.

I get fired up with the thought of spending time with my colleagues in faith. They’re more than brothers to me. We have the same faith, the same goals and the same ideals. We’re all equal and share the same joys and sorrows because we’re one in the Lord. They know I’m a man like any other man and they still respect me. They respect me because they see the action of the Holy Spirit through me. We are simple, we are who we are, we like to be comfortable and wear comfortable clothes without worrying about name brands.

I leap like a child whenever I receive a revelation from God and I can’t keep it to myself, not even for 5 minutes. I call everyone to pass along my inspirations. I don’t keep anything up my sleeve. What God has given me I’ve passed along and will continue doing so.

We are idealists. The only thing I’ve asked God is to win souls for my Lord. In addition, to all those who believe, amen! Those who don’t believe … So what? I couldn’t care less about those who don’t want to believe.

My greatest proof that I have totally given myself to this Work is that none of my children were taught to wait for an inheritance, to be selfish or to serve themselves. I didn’t bring them up for my own glory but for the glory of He who called me for this Work.

Our lives are living offerings on God’s Altar.

God bless those who believe!

God made two oaths: one to bless and another to curse. He swore to bless those whose faith is constant, and He swore to curse those whose faith is inconstant.

Here lies the difference between Christians and “Christians”: those who truly believe continue believing whatever the cost and regardless of the battles and challenges faced in the deserts of life. There’s a strong conviction that makes them persevere until the end. In the book of Revelation, the Lord emphasises perseverance as sine qua non of victory.

But as for the “Christians” of an inconstant faith, all they can do is to reap the fruit of God’s wrath, like the rebellious children of Israel in the desert:

“So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.” (Hebrews 3:11)

(A perspective on the faith of Bishop Edir Macedo, by Bishop Marcelo Crivella)

Faith, revolt and sacrifice are the essence of a life with God. The prophet Habakkuk showed us a great example of faith, when at that time, Jerusalem was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar’s army and destruction was imminent. His book only has three chapters and begins with a question: Why?

Who hasn’t, at least once in their life, asked “why?” Why would a child be born with birth defects? Why would lightning strike and destroy a poor person’s home? Why would a stray bullet shot in a poor community kill an innocent child? Why?

While reflecting, Habakkuk received a brilliant and beautiful revelation deep in his heart that could only come from God: “The righteous will live by his faith.” What else could we possibly add to this?

In such an unfair world filled with so much injustice, only faith can guarantee a fulfilled life. Without it, we are overcome by worries and fears; we become doubtful, flavorless, neither hot nor cold, a leaf carried by the wind; the living dead.

Faith naturally sparks a revolt against all these things, creates a sacrifice and ultimately acheives victory. This straight and narrow path is what God planned for the birth of the Universal Church.

As a young man Bishop Macedo attended an evangelical church on the south side of Rio de Janeiro for about 10 years. His desire was to preach, but the leaders didn’t feel that he had virtue or talent worth noticing. He wasn’t even given the opportunity to serve as an assistant. Ten years is not 10 days. Anyone else would have given up. Anyone else would have gotten discouraged, but he didn’t. Faith was responsible for that.

Moved by the desire to serve God, he and two friends went to another church in the suburbs. I was just a boy at the time but remember the new pastor evaluated them to be all on the same level. After some time, his two other friends were consecrated as pastors, but not him. Once more he was pushed aside, belittled and put down; again he faced new prejudices, discouragement and frustration. Again, anyone else would have felt discouraged. Anyone else would have given up.

One day, I was having lunch at my grandmother’s house when he came in. And let me stop here to modestly pay homage to that very special lady. She was an exceptional example of selflessness, devotion and love.

The bishop was stopping by to tell us that he was leaving his job to begin preaching the Gospel. By this time he was already married, had a daughter and his wife was expecting their second child. This was an extreme act of faith for someone who had been discredited by everyone. For a humble family like ours a government job like he had, guaranteed a life free from unemployment.

My grandmother simply pondered: “Don’t forget to pay your taxes to ensure your retirement fund when you get old.”

When I now hear the degrading and ridiculous insults, the hatred, the relentless hounding, the flood of name-calling, slander and defamations written with great conviction that his plan is to exploit the poor leaves me deeply bitter, because I know that such things are being published due to misguided opinions of the bishop and the church. Certainly, they know nothing about the Universal Church or who we are and where we came from.

It may have happened in one of our churches in Brazil, Africa, Europe, Asia or anywhere else in the world, that someone, sometime, placed a similar sacrifice on the altar but none greater than his. He gave everything he had. He gave his job without any guarantees, without any expectations, just faith.

A month later, his second daughter was born and he went to visit her in Iaserj hospital that morning. She was born with a cleft palate, and babies with this type of birth defect are also very thin, with dark circles around their eyes and facial deformities. There was an open wound in her mouth. She was missing a part of her lips and the roof of her mouth, making it impossible to breast or bottle-feed because she couldn’t produce suction to drink, causing her to often choke. It was days, months even years of terrible suffering.

On the way back, all the way from the Red Cross Square until Glory Square, with every step along Riachuelo Street there was were tears falling from his eyes. Like Habakkuk, I wondered why? Why would a poor yet faithful tither, at a crucial point in his life, after deciding to leave his family’s only source of income in order to preach the Word of God, be awarded this, the worst kind of punishment? I don’t know if there’s any greater pain than when a father enters the hospital nursery only to find out that his daughter is the only sick, frail, suffering and crying child, while all the other babies are so beautiful.

As usual, during crucial times, my family would gather at my grandmother’s house. He arrived in the afternoon. He was obviously sad, but he said two things that I will never forget. The first was: “I’m going to like her even more than the other one.”

The other one that he was referring to was his first daughter, a beautiful child. I don’t think that you can like one child more than the other but there was a deeper meaning to what he was saying. It was much more than a father just compensating, protecting or venting his pain.

Later, I realized that the essence of those words would be reflected in the formation and function of the Universal Church, which is more inclined to help the suffering, poor and needy. From there we begin looking for the lost souls who are at life’s crossroads, in the slums, the centers of witchcraft, in mental wards, entombed by addictions, amidst the destruction of broken homes. This is when the assembly halls, auditoriums and theaters began to fill with the sick, poor, unemployed, afflicted and possessed in search of relief and deliverance. The people that once walked in darkness began seeing the light.

The second thing he said was: “I’m not angry with God. I’m angry at the devil. Now, I’m definitely going to invade hell to rescue lost souls.”

It was no longer a doubtful young man that stood before us. It was then that a leader was born. It was also when a nation was born, able to face the greatest of challenges and virulent persecutions. A nation of quality and strength that won’t turn back, won’t bow down, won’t run away from the fight or fear sacrifice. A nation with their eyes set on God’s promises to reach their perspectives in the horizon of their destiny; determined, formed and sealed by faith in God. This is all because; during the hardest, cruelest, most difficult moment a righteous man lived by his faith!

The Universal Church didn’t rise from the determination of an assembly of illustrious men, or a group of executives or a notable foundation, nor was it subsidized, sponsored, paid for by government funds or a generous millionaire. This church is a simple, direct and faithful answer of a God who honors faith, revolt and sacrifice.

The phrase, “I’m not angry with God. I’m angry at the devil,” marks the uprising of faith. If he became angry at God, he would have been rebelling. The result would have been an ocean of failures, a Himalayan-sized frustration. Rebellious people blame God for life’s misfortunes. Rebelliousness is subtle and can be manifested in many different ways. Some rebellious people challenge God’s commandments by their disobedience to Him with sins and crimes. Others are cold and indifferent with the things of God, making their lives a huge waste of time and a sad story of mediocrity. There are also the Pharisees, they are the rebels within the church, who know the Word but don’t practice it.

Abraham was angry while he was wandering in the desert, waiting for the promise to arrive. However, he never rebelled. Moses felt a sense of revolt at seeing his people enslaved just like Joshua wanted to revolt when he found walls and giants in the Promised Land, but they were never rebellious. David became revolted with the affronts made by Goliath. Job, the most revolted of them all, at the height of his suffering cursed the day he was born, yet never rebelled. Even after all this time, he continues to be the most powerful example of what a man can endure and overcome when moved by faith. It was because of his sacrifice that God restored his fortunes sevenfold.

To live a righteous life doesn’t mean you must live in a convent, a monastery on top of a mountain or be an absolute saint. It is a life of faith, where you have to face the struggles of ordinary daily life. You’re your virtues and imperfections, suffering injustice and persecutions like a sheep among wolves, when you may cry at times but know you’ll be comforted, when you hunger and thirst for justice but know that you’ll be satisfied. Simple humble people from the bottom of their soul. They are people who put their hand to the plow and don’t look back, whatever the cost may be, even if it hurts. Neither weaklings nor cowards, they are the sons of faith, revolt and sacrifice.

Many do not get results from their faith because of one of these two common mistakes:

1. He thinks he is not worthy because he’s so bad a sinner. He believes he does not deserve God’s blessings because he’s done so much wrong, he thinks his faith is too small, and so on. He puts himself DOWN before God.

2. He thinks he is so holy, so righteous, full of merit for being hardworking, honest, dedicated, kind, etc — that he thinks he will be blessed because he’s earned it. He thinks a lot of himself before God.

The problem is that God does not operate on either of these terms. He’s been known to bless prostitutes, murderers, and thieves. He’s also seemed indifferent to the suffering of many righteous, pious people.

Why?

The only thing that matters to God on the issue of blessing someone is if that person has acted his faith. If he believed and acted upon that belief, he gets blessed. If he did not believe, all he can do is suck his thumb.