Be encourage with biblical encouragement and inspiration from Pastor Kevin Berry. Receive leadership tips to succeed in your work or daily life, follow along with daily devotionals, and receive practical steps to walk out your Christian life.
Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” – Genesis 16:13
In today’s scripture reading, we find Hagar who probably felt like she was invisible to the Lord. She found herself in a mess, treated unfairly, thrown into the middle of something she didn’t ask for. Have you ever felt like God must not see you? That for some reason He is not seeing your hurt or difficulty? If so, you are not alone. Hagar felt like God did not see her, but the truth is God saw her, knew what was going on, and knew what she didn’t know – she was pregnant with a son.
The truth is God sees you, too. He is aware of what you are going through. He knows what you don’t know—the dream you are pregnant with. And he knows what’s in store for your future. You see today… He sees your tomorrow. Be encouraged, my friend, God sees you! What happens when you begin to know God as the One who sees you?
But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you (Matthew 6:6)! Speaking of fasting, Jesus said, “And your Father who sees everything will reward you” (Matthew 6:18).
Your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8).
It doesn’t matter what injustice is thrown at you. God is watching and He is a shield to those whose hearts are true and right (Psalm 7:9-10).
I pray for you, my friend, that you, too, will know God as the One who sees you, the Father who looks at you with affection and determination in His eyes.
Happy Fasting,
Pastor Kevin
Martin Luther said, “Scripture is the manger in which Christ lies. As a mother goes to a cradle to find her baby, so the Christian goes to the Bible to find Jesus!”
Every day as we read God’s Word, we are discovering treasures… and the greatest treasure is Jesus Himself! The other day I was asked, “What’s the most important word in the Bible?” It’s hard to pick one word, so here are my top three that we discover in our Bible reading today.
It’s who you are near that can make or break you. That was Lot’s story. Lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plain (Genesis 13:12-13), and it cost him his wife. Who are you placing yourself near? Who you surround yourself with makes a huge impact on your entire life and future. I want to encourage you to make a decision to draw near to God this year. Like Noah, let’s choose to walk in close fellowship with God.
We read today that Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith (Genesis 15:6). Jesus said some amazing things about the power of believing:
Martin Luther said, “Faith is the ‘yes’ of the heart.” Faith says “yes” to everything God says. If God says it, faith says, “I believe it!” You cannot even be saved without believing.
But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm (Proverbs 1:33). “Listen” implies obedience. The child that is not listening to their parents is the child that is not obeying them. So here is the secret – listen and obey! Did you hear what was promised for the person who would listen? They will live in peace—they will be untroubled! Hey, in a world that is full of troubled people, to be untroubled sounds pretty good!
I pray today for you, my friend, that 2017 will be a year of you being near the heart of God. I pray that you walk in a new realm of blessing—because you dared to believe! And I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you ears to hear His voice… that your life this year would be ever listening.
Love ya,
Pastor Kevin
He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. Genesis 11:31
There he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord. Genesis 12:8
One of the first things we learn about Abraham is that when he was traveling with his father to the land of Canaan, they stopped at Haran and settled there. This may seem insignificant, but it’s never a small thing to settle. Why settle for less than God’s best for your life?
Is there an area of your life where you have stopped and settled? Maybe you have settled for an ordinary life when God’s best is an extraordinary life. Or perhaps you have settled for a distant, lame relationship with God when you could have a relationship that is supernatural and full of life.
Too many people settle for less than what God has called them to live. They settle for a life filled with business, things, noise, activity… when the Lord calls us to a life of worship. As we read about this great father of our faith, Abraham, there’s one thing you can’t miss – he was a worshiper. You’ll read about his conversations with God, about building altars of worship, about his thankfulness.
True worship is an outward expression of the inward reality of your love for God. I pray that during our 21 days of prayer and fasting this month, the inward reality of your love for God becomes an outward expression of a lifetime of worship!
Happy Fasting,
Pastor Kevin
This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone. Genesis 8:11
After over eight months in the ark, Noah sent out a dove to see if it could find a place to land. He wanted to know if his long time in the ark was about over. Is there something you’ve been going through that you would like to be over? All you need to see is a small olive branch.
When Pastor Billy Burke was at Mount Hope Church, he taught from this passage of scripture and pointed out the fact that when Noah saw the olive leaf in the bird’s beak, then he knew! He didn’t have to see the dry ground. He didn’t have to see an absence of water. All he needed was to see the olive leaf, and at that moment he knew the promise was on its way! He knew that what God had promised was about to arrive!
What has the Lord promised you? Healing in your body? Provision for your family? Here’s the bigger question: can you see an olive branch? You don’t have to see the entire answer fulfilled to have hope. All you have to do is see something small and you can take that as an olive branch! Then just as Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone, you can know that the season you have been going through is almost gone!
Father, I pray that you will allow my friend to see an olive branch. Show them something small that will let them know that something big and good is coming their way soon!
Happy Fasting,
Pastor Kevin
When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. Genesis 5:1
This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. Genesis 6:9
I love those words: “close fellowship!” That’s how God describes the potential of your relationship with Him. As we enter into a new year, why not determine you are going after the experience of God’s best—close fellowship?
A few years ago Renee and I were at a restaurant and I was blown away with how big the menu was… it was huge! It was like reading a novel, but inside that menu was everything that was available to me. I want to encourage you that close fellowship with God is on the menu for you. Enoch walked in close fellowship with God. Noah walked in close fellowship with God, and you can, too!
When you walk in close fellowship with God, you get the inside scoop on what He is up to. Before something bursts on the scene, God tells you about it. God told Noah about His plans to judge the earth and rescue mankind and invited him to be in the middle of what He was doing. When you walk in close fellowship with God, you catch His heart. Today in our Bible reading, we see Jesus walking in close fellowship with the Father when He heard Him say:
“This is my dearly loved son, who brings me great joy!” Matthew 3:17
When you walk close to God, you are able to hear His heart for you, His thoughts about you, His plans for you – and that, my friend, is life-changing! I pray that one of the results of this season of prayer and fasting will be that you begin to walk in close fellowship with God – a closer, more intimate relationship with the One True Living God!
Happy Fasting,
Pastor Kevin
Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master. Genesis 4:7
These are the first recorded words that God had to say about sin and its ugly nature. Sin is a control freak. Sin is always eager to control you – your thoughts, words, actions, and ultimately, your destiny. Your response to sin is never supposed to be passive. God said to subdue sin; instead of letting it become your master, you must become its master!
The question is how in the world do you pull that off? Is there a sin in your life that you want to be free from? That’s where Jesus steps into the picture! Just a few days ago we celebrated Christmas – the birth of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Do you remember why Jesus came as a little baby? Why He stepped out of Heaven to move into your neighborhood? The angel Gabriel declared to Joseph these words:
“And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
Jesus came to save you from your sins! And here’s the thing about sin… everybody has the sin problem. Everybody is in need of a savior! While we were still sinners, unable to save ourselves from the sin that so eagerly wants to have us, Jesus stepped in and did for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Bob Sorge in his book, Secrets of the Secret Place, said that the presence of God will be like radiation therapy that kills the sin cancer on the inside of us! The effect of radiation from the sun is not felt at first; you don’t notice until later that you have a sunburn. So the presence of God has a powerful effect on sin in your life! As you spend time with Jesus during this season of prayer and fasting, I want to encourage you that every time you meet with Jesus, He’s working in you. The Holy Spirit is transforming you more and more into His image and likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). He’s doing something on the inside of you that you could not do for yourself!
Love you and happy fasting,
Pastor Kevin
Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:3
In the beginning of the Bible you read these words over and over again: “Then God said.” There is such power in God’s voice that when He speaks, things happen! Something is created, something shifts, and there is activity where there was inactivity. I want to encourage you at the beginning of the year—God is still speaking! There is power in His voice. Have you heard from the Lord lately? Has He spoken a word to your heart? What promise has He spoken to you? You can be sure that when He speaks… things will happen!
Probably one of the most important words in the Bible is “listen.” Oh, that we would determine to listen more to the Lord this year. I want to live out this year in such a way that I’m “ever listening” for His voice. At the birth of Jesus that we read about today in Matthew, we see Joseph listening to the angel and then obeying. What’s your secret to thrive in 2017? Here it is: Listen and Obey!
There are some things that God wants to speak to you about this year—over your life, your family, and your future. There are some action steps He has for you to take. The secret to your abundance this year will not be found in your overwork but in your overflow. It’s the overflow of your relationship with Jesus. It’s hearing His voice and then acting on it!
I pray for you, my friend, that during the next 21 days of fasting and prayer you will become increasingly sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. 2017 is your year to stress less and listen more! It’s your listening and the obedience that follows that will bring about extraordinary fruitfulness—as you will see!
Have a GREAT day!
Pastor Kevin
Check out these resources so you can experience the physical and spiritual benefits that fasting has to offer:
By: Pastor Kevin Berry
America faces a moment of crisis, and at the same time there is a moment of great opportunity for the Church. My focus is on the opportunity, not the crisis—on the opportunity, not the difficulty. We are living in the last days the prophets have told about. This should not take us by surprise, as the Lord has told us in His Word clearly what is to come.
“In the last days there will be very difficult times.” 2 Timothy 3:1
In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.’ Acts 2:17
My friend, as you see the moral rot, the corruption, and the injustice in this nation, take heart, be strong, and be courageous—this is your time to shine! There is a shaking coming to America, a spiritual tsunami that will result in a great moment of opportunity for the Church of Jesus Christ. Here is an excerpt from my prayer journal on January 3, 2015. I pray it blesses you like it did me when I heard the Lord speak this to my heart.
“It’s imperative in this season that you are yoked to me. Things will get dark around you this year, but I have made a promise to my children. The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, it only gets brighter. (Proverbs 4:18) The sunrise breaks through the darkness for the godly! (Proverbs 112:4)
There will be a separation this year. It will become clear who is yoked to Me and who is not. As it was clear and undeniable that My blessing was on the Israelites and not on Egypt during the plagues, so it will be clear. Those who are yoked to Me will have:
• Rest. They will have peace and not panic. They will have this unmovable, unshakable spirit. There will be a shaking… every tsunami requires a shaking.
But they will be established, fixed, and unmovable. My children will shine brighter when it gets darker around them.
• A partnership with Me that will bring them extraordinary results, multiplication, and increase. I will carry the load so you don’t have to. In this partnership I will lead you— teach you—your role is to simply follow.
You get to work with Me, not for Me. You get to be part of what I’m doing in the earth today.
• Freedom from all bondages, yokes of oppression. This partnership requires that you take My yoke—it’s active and requires you to walk away from another yoke. I want My people to be free from striving, free from working, from endless labors to “try” and be good, trying to be right. I want them free from addictions, a poverty spirit and free from habits and the sin that entangles and hinders them.”
As I sat before the Lord recently I heard the words: “Wake up!” The Church is the hope of the world. This sleeping giant—the Church—is being called to wake up. It’s high time we wake up to the Christian agenda. The early Christians had a very clear agenda: Make disciples of all the nations of the world! This world as we know it is coming to an end and we have but a short time to:
• Bring the cure this world needs— Jesus! Your boss needs Jesus, your co-workers need Jesus, your neighbor needs Jesus, and your family needs Jesus. The reality is we will have all of eternity to worship, but we can only win souls today.
• Turn from our wicked ways. It’s time to stop all the finger pointing, stop looking at the faults and sins of others and instead look in the mirror—humble yourself before the Living God. We must turn from our wicked ways. It’s a call to raw repentance!
• Pray and seek God’s face. The destiny of America does not hinge on politics but on prayer! Its’ time to roll up our sleeves and pray.
• Shine as the salt and light this world needs. You are needed to shine in the marketplace, in education, government, and in the arts. Your influence is needed.
“For you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Romans 13:11.
There is a revival coming to the earth— another Grace Awakening that will shake the earth. Entire towns will be coming to Christ, there will be a tsunami of souls coming to the Kingdom in these last days. This coming revival is linked to our call to pray! The great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said, “The condition of the Church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings.” I invite you to join me every Wednesday night at 7pm in the Garden Prayer Chapel as we seek the Lord.
There is nothing more important we could be doing in this moment, and everything else we do will be of no value unless we are first a praying people. Come on, it’s our time to rise and shine! I love you and thank the Lord for you!
By: Pastor Kevin Berry
It always amazes me when I talk to couples that are preparing for their wedding. There is such a long, and at times, overwhelming list of things to do. There are flowers that must be picked out and ordered, invitations, dresses, tuxedos, a venue to secure, a meal to be catered, and the honeymoon to plan. Yikes. The crazy thing is that most people spend an enormous amount of time to plan the wedding, but they never plan for the actual marriage.
If you are thinking about getting married, if you’ve been married 40 years, or if your marriage feels more like a nightmare than a fantasy, you can experience the marriage of your dreams.
Here’s the thing—you tend to bring about what you think about. If you think about the negative things in your spouse, you’ll tend to bring out the worst in them.
There is a reason the Bible says that love keeps NO record of wrong. Love doesn’t stare at wrong, it doesn’t focus on wrong, it doesn’t hold onto wrong. Marriages that go wrong start in the mind with what you think about your spouse. Marriages that are great also start in the mind… they start with what you think about your spouse.
You can train yourself to focus on the positive. Remember the spies that Moses sent out to look at the promise land? Ten focused on the negative, “There are giants there, we look like grasshoppers, the cities are huge and walled in.” So they said, “there is no way this thing is going to work!” While two other spies focused on the positive, “God is with us, nothing is impossible, the fruit of the land is great.” So they said, “let’s go take the land!”
They all saw the same thing, the difference is what they focused on. There is both positive and negative characteristics in your spouse—the difference maker is what you choose to focus on!
You can begin to experience the marriage of your dreams by creating a good finder list for your spouse. List all the good you see in your spouse. Read it every day and then begin to praise the good you see. It’s not enough that you have it listed on a piece of paper, it’s not enough that you notice the positive.
Thank God for the good you see, and be sure to thank your spouse for the good you see, too! This constant flow of encouragement will be a breath of fresh air and a first step to living the marriage of your dreams.
I’ve said for years, you deserve what you tolerate. If you tolerate a critical attitude in yourself, if you tolerate negative words coming out of your mouth, then you deserve the results you will receive. You have to begin to see your critical attitude and words for what they are: toxic and deadly to your marriage.
I recently had to go through airport customs and I was reminded about a lady who came back from Mexico. She knew she was not supposed to bring back plants or food, but she had snuck a houseplant home and put it in her living room. She noticed after some time that the stem of the plant was swelling up and getting bigger with every day. It now had a huge bulge in it that began to pulsate.
One day when she came home from work, she was greeted to a house full of baby tarantulas that had hatched from an egg that was inside the stem of the houseplant which looked so harmless.
The negative thinking and speaking, that critical attitude, if allowed to stay in your home, will one day birth something ugly and dangerous in your marriage. Hey, when you see a critical attitude in your life, when you hear negativity coming out of your mouth… treat it like it really is—something toxic and deadly that has to go!
Realize that 85% of all communication is nonverbal. Louder than your words are your facial expression, the tone of your voice, and the look in your eyes. Wow! 85% of what your spouse hears you say has nothing to do with the words that come out of your mouth, and everything to do with the way you say those words.
Thank God we are not all the same. I don’t think my home, let alone the world, could deal with more than one Kevin Berry. Renee and I are very different, and I’m so grateful for that. As they say, guys are blue and girls are pink. We think differently, we process things differently, we see the same thing our spouse sees—but we see it differently. You can either let that frustrate you, or you can accept and thank God for making your spouse the way they are.
If you have been married for more than a week, you have discovered one thing for sure: you cannot change your spouse… you can only change you. Instead of focusing on the differences you see in your spouse that you want to change, do yourself a favor and look in the mirror. If you are going to change anything, let it start with changing yourself. Then, you can begin to step into the marriage of your dreams.