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COVER STORY

ALEXIS JONES

VOL. 2, ISSUE 2 • SPRING 2012 • $5.00

INVITING LOVEinto your life

Prayer Feature

Interview with PASTOR WALTER HARVEY

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BIBLICALCONVERSATION

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There may be times in your life when you just want to be on your own for awhile. Maybe you’d like to delve into your work, focus on yourself and enjoy life solo. However, when you return to thoughts of wanting to be in love again, it’s important to have the proper “Frame of Reference” to welcome love back into your life.

Consider these suggestions to ready yourself for love:

1. Let go of old resentments and hurts. You can only be accepting of the warm feelings love brings if you’ve done away with simmering resentments and aching hurts. Otherwise, they’ll keep bubbling up to the surface and boil away other positive and healthy feelings. Mark 11:25 tells us “…And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

2. Open yourself up to new people. If you tend to hang out only with people you already know, now is the time for a change. To invite love in, you’ve got to open the door. When you psychologically open up to new people, you open to love.

• Attend your local church services

• Attend a book discussion group at the library

• Try visiting new cafes, restaurants, and community centers

• Drop in to neighborhood gatherings you wouldn’t normally attend

3. Love yourself. Loving yourself makes you a more lovable person in the eyes of others. Although it’s admittedly a bit of a cliché, if you expect others to love you, you must first do so yourself. Dig deep to get in touch with all the things you like about yourself.

• Traits you like about yourself might include things such as: your smooth skin, your caring nature, your willingness to help others, or your incredible resolve to improve yourself each day. Find your unique characteristics that bring joy and comfort to you and to others.

• Genesis 1:27 indicates…“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” The word goes on to say that everything God created was GOOD. So, loving yourself is a great start to loving others.

4. Know your worth. When you discover everything you love about yourself, you’ll become more aware of your value as a child of God. Whether you cherish just one thing about yourself or a hundred, you begin to feel worthy. And when you truly accept your own value, love will find you.

You have the power to welcome love back into your life. When you let go of old hurts, open up to new people, and know your own worth, you’ll be ready and willing to truly enjoy a new relationship. Take the leap and invite love in! Trust God to be your #1 advocate.

By Nicholas Dillon

Inviting Love Into Your Life

www.nicholasdillon.com

Join Nick Dillon for networking and inpiration.June 21, 2012 - 5-7pm • War Memorial • Milwaukee

Greater New Birth Ministries | Spring/Summer 20124

By Shaye BeardenCONVERSATI N

PRAYER

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Conversation is the primary form of human communication. Formal conversation is defined as the oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas by representatives of governments, institutions, groups or individuals usually for the purpose of gaining knowledge, insight, or understanding. God, on the other hand, uses conversation to create. He already has knowledge, understanding, and insight. He is never at a loss or lacking wisdom. You will never find Him trying to figure out what would be the best option for the situation at hand because He already knows all things. Therefore, He does not use conversation as we would. When He converses, He is creating as His words contain the ability to perform the content thereof.

In the beginning, the world was created by God’s spoken word. He simply spoke and what He said came to be, but when He was ready to introduce mankind to His creation, God started a conversation. “Let us make human beings

in our image, to be like us” (Gen 1:26, NLT).

He consulted with Himself in order to establish precedence for the agreement necessary to cause manifestation in the Earth. The Amplified Bible identifies the “us” in this verse as the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit and we see nothing to indicate anything less than total agreement among the three.

The Son and The Spirit were brought in on a plan of the Father’s and neither of them presented the Father with any alternatives. Likewise, when we converse with God, we must agree with the Father concerning the plan that He has already laid out for our lives. 1 John 5:14 teaches that the “confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him” is that we are sure “that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us” (AMP). Now the question that always comes up at this point is, “How will I know what the will of the Lord is?”The answer is, you MUST pray. I guess you can say that you have to pray to find out what you should pray about.

When the Scripture says that the Lord will listen and hear, it is an implication that while listening to our words, He stands prepared to act upon whatever we say. The condition, however, is that what we are saying, must be His prescribed will. The implication here also is that if what we are saying is NOT in accordance to His will, He may listen, but He promises NO action. Therefore, we must talk to Him about what is on His mind if we want to see any positive response. Joining His conversation is going to require elevation.

Biblical conversation never referred to the mere exchange of words as we understand conversation to mean today. When the bible speaks of conversation, it is referring to the all-encompassing behavior of the person doing the speaking. In this context, a person’s conversation would be inclusive of his or her behavior, mannerism, attitude, and lifestyle in general. It also refers to the normal tendencies of a person or their usual way of approaching various situations. In keeping with this, the Father attempted to explain to us the communication gap that sometimes exists between us and Him. In Isaiah 55:9, He says of Himself that His “ways are higher than your ways.”

The word “way” in this passage is a translation of the Hebrew word derek {deh’-rek}, which literally means practices, actions, conduct, courses, directions, missions, paths, or impulses resulting from a previous conversation that set them in motion. Then, what He is telling us is that He is not motivated by nor is He talking about the same things that we are. This causes the direction of His prescribed paths to be much different than ours. He goes on in verse 11 to tell us that His words always produce fruit and accomplish their purpose in every place that He sends them. The requirement for this guarantee, however, is that the words spoken coincide with His “way”. So, in order for us to join the conversation and see manifestation, we have to begin to say what He is saying.

Greater New Birth Ministries | Spring 20126

5The Five Languages of Apology

FEATURE

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What is an Apology? A cry for reconciliation. The willingness to ask for forgiveness. The acknowledgment of wrong doing.

The need for apology permeates all relationships. Without apologies, anger builds and pushes us to demand justice. Don’t let anger destroy your marriage find out what your apology language is.

Take the quiz on the following pages and learn your language.

Why Apologize?Relationships are restored by apologies; you empower and build up your partner through your apology. You’re proving your love, respect and desire for your mate. Ephesians 4:32 says, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

The Languages of ApologyExpressing regret. “I’m sorry.”Expressing regret is most commonly expressed in the words “I’m sorry” It expresses to the offended person your own sense of guilt, shame, pain and regret. Expressing regret says that you understand that your behavior has hurt them deeply.

2 Accepting responsibility. “I was wrong.”For many individuals, the most important part of an apology is acknowledging that one’s behavior is wrong. Everyone makes mistakes, but the only mistakes that will destroy us are the ones we are unwilling to admit.

3 Making restitution. “What can I do to make it right?”A willingness to do something to try to make up for the pain I have caused you. This is evidence of a true apology. I really need to do something to make amends for what I have done.

4Genuinely repenting. “I’ll try not to do that again.”The person regrets the pain he/she has caused the other person, and he/she chooses to change their behavior. Genuinely repenting means more than saying, “I’m sorry; I was wrong, how can I make this up to you?” It is saying “I will never do this again.” The offending person’s repentance, then elicits the offended person’s forgiveness.

Requesting forgiveness. “Will you please forgive me?”When we ask for forgiveness you know that you cannot answer that question for that person. It is a choice that he or she must make to forgive or not forgive, and the future of the relationship rests in that persons hand.