BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

The phrase “all these things...will be given you” in that verse refers to all the BLESSINGS of God that are required to live a heavenly life. As the surrounding verses make clear, it includes food in abundance, clothes as beautiful as the lilies, and supernatural supplies from heaven’s storehouse. Everything we need to live a pressure-free, worry-free life. God doesn’t want us to live under pressure like the world does! The only pressure He intends for us to experience is the positive kind that comes from pressing toward Him. The press that comes from what Hebrews 4:11 calls laboring to enter God’s rest. What exactly is laboring to enter God’s rest? It’s pressing in to hear His Word, believe it and act on it. It’s being diligent to obey Him and to keep His words in our hearts and in our mouths, not just when we go to church on Sunday but seven days a week. In other words, it’s laboring spiritually to do whatever it takes to keep our heart turned 100% toward Him. Sadly, many Christians never commit to that kind of labor. They just listen to a few messages on faith, pray a few prayers and give maybe 1% of their time to God. Then, when they don’t see heaven instantly breaking out in their lives and taking over their affairs, they turn aside to other things and give up. They don’t understand God’s heaven-on-earth program isn’t a 1% thing. It’s not even a 10% thing. It involves going all out for Him. Making Him the first One we seek when we get up in the morning. The first One we turn to when we need help or answers. The One we desire to please above all and submit to as the final authority in our lives. GOD WILL ONLY TAKE WHAT YOU GIVE HIM Second Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect [or 100%] toward him.” He’s always searching for those who will go all out for Him and open the door of faith so He can move in their lives. He isn’t like the devil. He won’t barge into people’s lives and take over just because He wants to. He’ll only take what we give Him. * * * * continues on p. 30 * * * * ____________________________ ____________________________ VICTORIOUS LIVING Separate Unto Him by Kenneth Copeland ____________________ “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” Isaiah 58:6 _____________________ The fast God is talking about here has very little to do with simply going without food. This fast is a lifestyle. It is a commitment that says, “I’m breaking the hold of wickedness on my life. I will not partake of the things of the world that have kept me bound. I’ll turn off the television, and I’ll turn on teaching CDs instead. I’ll put down the newspaper and pick up my Bible. Instead of sitting down at the table, I’ll get down on my knees and pray until the sin is burned out of me and I’m 100 percent committed to Jesus. Then, once I’m free, I will give myself in intercession for others so they can get free too!” Do you know what that kind of fast will do for you? It will heal you. It will cause the light of God to shine from your life. It will cause the glory of God to be your total covering! In the words of Isaiah, it will cause you to “be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11). If you want to see an example of the kind of glory that accompanies this kind of life, all you have to do is look at Jesus. He went out, led by the Spirit, into the wilderness for 40 days. While He was out there, He fasted, prayed and interceded just as Isaiah described. We know He did because Isaiah 59 tells us that when God could find no one to intercede in that way, He sent “His arm.” In other words, He sent Jesus. When Jesus left that place of fasting, His ministry exploded into power. What did that power look like? From the earthly perspective, it looked like people being healed of sickness and disease. It looked like the dead being raised. It looked like people’s needs being met in supernatural ways. But in the world of the spirit, it looked like a dam had broken and a flood of spiritual power had been released. Right now, God is calling His Church to the same place of fasting that He called Jesus. He’s calling us to a fast of separation to Him that will give us such a hunger to know Him and walk in His Spirit, that we’ll not be satisfied until we’re raptured. Don’t wait another moment. Answer that call right now. Get down on your knees and say, “LORD, I’ll do anything You want me to do. I’ll be everything You’ve made me to be. No matter what it takes, I want the rivers of Your Spirit to flow through me.” In the ears of heaven, such prayer sounds like a symphony of triumph. In the ears of hell, it sounds like the rushing mighty waters—a thunderous announcement that, despite the best efforts of the devil, the dam has broken and the flood is on the way. V 29 : BVOV

• Cover