The hit miniseries The Bible is setting records on cable television for the History Channel, with as many as 13 million viewers tuning in for the blockbuster. But certain aspects of the filming were even more remarkable, as producer Mark Burnett reports highly unusual occurrences behind-the-scenes that he labels miracles.
The epic five-part series, which runs through Easter, is the most-watched entertainment program on cable television, according to ABC’s Good Morning America.
The show has many celebrities following it, including rapper and actor L L Cool J, actress Lisa Rinna, and even Oprah, according to ABC. Oprah tweeted throughout the most recent episode several times, particularly about Samson: “Samson distracted by Delilah. fatal flaw,” she noted. Oprah’s interest and involvement may boost the ratings even higher.
R & B superstar Cee Lo Green’s musical addition to the production is also attracting a younger audience, giving a fresh new feel to a time-honored story.
The making of the TV behemoth was filled with strange happenings that Producer Mark Burnett can’t quite explain. When the actor who portrays Jesus told Nicodemus “The Holy Spirit is like the wind,” a strong rushing wind that felt like the exhaust behind a 747 almost blew the set over and sustained for 20 seconds, Burnett told Entertainment Weekly.
“Everyone just looked at everyone like, ‘What just happened?’” Burnett said.
The production – filmed in Morocco — also hired a ‘snake wrangler’ to make sure that dangerous reptiles did not get near the actors, and he usually found one or two snakes each day.
However, on the day the momentous crucifixion scene was filmed, the snake expert found an unprecedented 48 venomous snakes crawling around their re-created Golgotha – the place where Jesus defeated Satan, who is often depicted in Scripture as a snake.
When the baptism of Jesus was filmed in a reservoir, the producers were alarmed when part of the actor’s unique costume came off and floated away.
“Four days later, a kid showed up from many, many, many miles away, who had been seeking us through the desert to return this to us,” Burnett told Entertainment Weekly. “He didn’t know what it was why he should seek us, but he felt he had to return it.”
The series will air its final installment on March 31, Easter Sunday.
Usually I put a song each weekend, but this short story really touched my heart about a young child’s perspective towards loving their parent. If only we would come to God like little children. Family is important and it is so important for us to understand that God cares for each one of us because we are all a part of His family. As children who love our Father in Heaven, so too does our Father in Heaven love us little children. We must not forget the Father’s Love.
Just a disclaimer: I am not the original author of this story but I saw this on my facebook and just thought it would be great to share here on my blog.
Please Read and be blessed by the story Everybody!
SON: “Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
DAD: “Yeah sure, what is it?”
SON: “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?”
SON: “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “If you must know, I make $100 an hour.”
SON: “Oh! (With his head down).
SON: “Daddy, may I please borrow $50?”
The father was furious.
DAD: “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.
The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?
After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think:
Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $ 50 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.
DAD: “Are you asleep, son?”
SON: “No daddy, I’m awake”.
DAD: “I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier. It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here’s the $50 you asked for.”
The little boy sat straight up, smiling.
SON: “Oh, thank you daddy!”
Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.
DAD: “Why do you want more money if you already have some?”
SON: “Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do.
“Daddy, I have $100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”
The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness. It’s just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $100 worth of your time with someone you love? If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.
It has been a while since I last posted so today’s post is more a thought piece.
For the past few weeks I’ve been reflecting on what it means to walk into destiny and the Lord pointed out to me that the only way to reach our destinies in life is by learning to understand your purpose in life.
Do you know what your purpose is in life?
How does one understand their purpose?
Do you know that we are all a solution to a question that hasn’t been answered?
We tend to figure out who we are by recognizing what makes us tick, what inspires us, what moves us, what makes us want to act on something and we tend to find the answers to these questions by looking out for things that we want to change. The desire to change something and make something better is a clue as to where our destiny lies.
Sometimes as we grow up we have an idea of what we want to be, but the full picture isn’t always clear until God reveals to us what our true purpose is in this life. I sometimes look within myself and wonder, what am I here for? Each day I see areas that I am a solution to different problems.
I’m convinced that we were all created to heal this broken world. In fact, we are all ordained and set apart (sanctified) to heal this broken world. We may all operate at different capacities, however, we were all created to give glory to God through our talents and abilities. Although we are all born with various talents and abilities, not everybody is walking in their destinies because they aren’t walking in the right direction. When someone isn’t walking in the right direction, they walk away from what God intended them to be because they are lost. Unfortunately, there are a lot of lost people in this world and that is why it is so important to seek to do God’s will as Christians. Understanding God’s will helps us to understand our purpose in life which leads us to walk towards what we were destined to be; a solution to a broken world that doesn’t know Jesus Christ is the answer regarding their identity. The one thing we must do is entrust our destinies in the Lord’s Hands. We all have dreams, but only God can help us make these dreams a reality. The focus here is to trust God with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our soul. We cannot move forward without believing in the Author and Finisher of our destiny (Hebrews 12:2). When we understand Jesus, we can then learn to understand ourselves and our purpose. So we must seek to understand our purpose in order to walk with a purpose.
Those who understand their purpose have the ability to steer others who are lost to find their purpose. When you have a clear vision of who you are in Christ, you are able to draw others towards Him by the very nature of God’s presence that resides in you to be a fisher of all men and women (Matthew 4:19). The only way to understand your purpose is to learn to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF because God already Believes in YOU. In the same way, we must put our Trust in God for our lives because He is the one that guides us to our purpose. So Today, focus on leaning on God to Understand your Purpose, because purpose is tied to you believing in God for your destiny so that you can walk in it.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
I have a song here to bless your spirit today by VaShawn Mitchell feat. Kierra Sheard called I Will. May it bless you abundantly everybody!
“BeforeI formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
We were all in the mind of God before He even spoke the world into motion. He knew how we would look like before we were created. We were part of God’s imagination before we became His manifested creation. We can never know the mind of an artist until they translate their thoughts and ideas into something tangible, into something we can see and experience just like how you can never know the mind of a writer until they put their thoughts into writing so that you can read to understand their thoughts and ideas that are translated into words written on paper.
The Lord has been showing me how incredible we as people really are. In the Word we are described as “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”(Psalm 139:14) and even though this is true, as Sons and Daughters of the Most High God, we still struggle with an inferiority complex. We still don’t know who we are in Christ Jesus because we simply do not believein God’s Word and what He says about us.
God Thinks, therefore I AM a Child of God created in His Image and Likeness.
How many of us reallybelieve that?
Did you know that Miracles are a substance created from Hope that is rooted in Faith that comes from the thinker who decides to simply BELIEVE?
When you believe something is…it becomes your reality.
God has been speaking to me about guarding your mind as you build up your Faith. What you believe is what you become. It is important to guard your mindbecause even though there is power in spoken words, those spoken words first come from the heart of the thinker who believes in what they are saying.
Whatever philosophy that you hold onto as Truth, inevitably becomes your reality if that is what you choose to BELIEVE.
So the question is: “What do you believe?”. Whose report do you Believe? Do you believe in the Report of the Lord?
I believe that in the present time, we have to prepare our hearts to believe that what may seem impossible to us can become possible if we put our Faith and Trust in the right place which is in God’s Hands. If you believe in your heartthat whatever you have need of from the Lord and believe that God is able to meet that need, your thoughts will translate your faith into something that will become a tangible reality. If you believe that you are healed, your healing shall become so according to the proportion of your Faith. If you Trust God to break the bondages of poverty, sickness, divorce, abuse, addictions or whatever need you have of the Lord, and believe that He is able to break the chains and these reoccuring patterns of curses operating in your bloodline/generation, then your freedom will become your reality if you just believe that God is able.When you allow doubt to enter into your mind….that is when your belief system is crippled. Negative thoughts prevent people from seeing and receiving miracles because miracles are birthed from Faiththat is rooted in ones belief.
Some people have a “Doubting Thomas” spirit that needs to “see things in order to believe”. Thomas was one of the disciples who needed to see the physical manifested resurrection of Jesus and touch his wounds as proof in order to believe that Jesus did in fact rise and is risen from the dead in fulfillment of the scriptures.
[ Seeing and Believing ]24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Thomas did not believe in the miracle of Christ’s resurrection until he could perceive things with his own eyes. This is something to take note of because he totally missed his chance for his miracle that would transform his destiny just because of his doubt. Before meeting Thomas, the other disciples met Jesus and were commissioned to become apostles while Thomas was not there with them to witness this great miracle of Jesus’ Resurrection. The LordJesus breathed on the disciples who believed and they ended up being the ones who received the fire of the HOLY SPIRIT.
21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them,and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
What you receive from the Lord is attached to your level of Faith and Belief.
Thomas missed his chance to receive the Holy Spiritin this way just because he was stubborn in his DOUBT.
This event spoke volumes to me because it tells me that we need to have an already built-in expectation of Faith in order to receive a miracle. If you prepare your heart and choose to believe, you will see what you believe before it even happens. Those who doubt do not prepare to receive and therefore, it is no suprise that when a miracle does occur even in their midst, they that doubted often are the ones who miss out on their blessings.
So How Do We Go About Preparing for a Miracle?
“How does one prepare for a storm?”
Sometimes weather forcasters tell us to prepare for hurricanes and other types of weather. You’ll have some people the will hear the report and believe in the report and will act on what they believe by preparing to stock up on food, boarding up and reinforcing their houses and whatever property they have to ensure that they are secure before the storm hits.
What was demonstrated here? FAITH IN ACTION.
The people first hear the report, believe in the report and act on it by preparing for what they believed in. Wisdom is also demonstrated by those that don’t yield to doubt and hold on to Faith. Such people don’t need to see the storm in order to know that they need to prepare for it before it hits.
At the same time, we will have people that will hear the same report and will choose not to respond to it simply because they do not believe in the reportof the weather forecasters. They will choose not to prepare for it because in their mind they think the storm is highly unlikely to hit them and even if it were to hit, they will be convinced that it wouldn’t necessarily affect them or create real damage. Such people and their DOUBT causes them to miss out on the opportunity to prepare for the storm. By the time the storm hits, it is already too late to prepare to shield yourself for the onslaught that the winds bring as damage ensues from the rage of the storm.
This analogy is the same for miracles.
Just because you don’t see the storm doesn’t mean it won’t hit. A gentle wind can turn into a furious toronado filled with power given the amount of time and pressure required to gather momentum. If you are warned before hand to prepare for a storm, you will be prepared to handle what it brings if you respond to the report. However, for those who ignore such reports because of their heavy-seated doubts, they end up potentially being robbed of their chance to preserve their belongings as everything is taken away by the storm.
In the same way, those that believe in a miracle are the ones who prepare to receive one when they choose to BELIEVE IN THE REPORT OF THE LORD. If you doubt God, you won’t receive your miracle because you failed to prepare your heart to build up your faith so that you can believe in what He has for you.
Belief in God is required in order to receive your miracle. It’s as simple as that.
Seeing is not believing, believing is seeing.
You have to prepare your heart so that it is unwaveringin order to receive a miracle. Undaunted faith releases that which you hoped to receive. If you allow room for doubt, you will miss your blessings. I sense that the Lord wants people to prepare their hearts to believe so that we can receive that which we hoped for as the rain of miracles will rain down in due season. If you don’t believe, you won’t receive and you will miss opportunities just because you didn’t prepare your heart and build your Faith. The time is NOW to prepare your heart and build your faith because the latter rain is going to be greater than the former.
So People of God…. Pursue to Build up your Faith in order to see the tangible manifestation of your miracles that God has waiting for you. Confess your doubts and ask God to give you more Faith. The more faith you have, the greater the miracle that will be released; however, God is searching for mustard seed Faith in the Body of Christ because there is such a stronghold of unbelief that is locking up people’s miracles. Be encouraged and seek God to increase your Faith, today! God bless you everybody!
Here’s a song by Darwin Hobbs called He’s Able. May it minister to your Heart today and clear any room of unbelief, Amen!
I just have to give God the Glory today! My sister found this song that I have got to share here today. It’s so uplifting and I know it will lift your spirit today. It’s by Anita Wilson called All About You. Right now this is my anthem. Love this song. May it bless you this Sunday Everbody! God Bless.
Wow…what a snow storm we had yesterday! I don’t know how people fared in the U.S. but I hope everybody kept safe and indoors. Today, there is this awesome song I just want to share with you by Bishop Paul S. Morton’s cd called Flow to You. It is such an intimate song that really touched my heart and I just had to share it here as a weekend worship song. May this song bless your spirit this week as you think upon the goodness of God in your life. Let our worship rise and flow to our God. Lift your worship up to Him and praise His Holy Name. Glory be to God Everybody!
I haven’t been able to type up much for the past few days because there’s been sooo much on my plate, but I just wanted to drop by and bless y’all with a powerful song by Tasha Cobbs called Break Every Chains. For the most part, I am blessed with the fact that God is so powerful, He can break every chain that keeps us captive in the Name of Jesus.
Until now you haveaskednothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
All we’ve got to do is ask in Jesus Nameand these chains that keep us from progressing in life can be broken if we move by faith. We have to claim our freedom by faith.
Faith isn’t a passive force, it’s an active force that moves impossibilities to become possible.
This means that we all need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Faith isn’t a mere “feeling”, it’s a decision one makes that is translated into action. The truth is, we decideif we want to get healed or not. Like no one can force you to see the doctor…the Holy Spirit won’t force you to seek your healing or deliverance that is available to you today. YOU decide if you will have faith or not. Jesus can give you that which you need. If you need faith…ask for it. Remember….you don’t have to be the “Until now you haven’t asked nothing in My Name” -type person…. you should decide to be the asker.
Those that Ask from the Lord, often are the ones who end up receiving from the Lord. Faith is a decision; it’s a choice that produces a result. Faithlessness doesn’t require anything…except for you to decide not to decide to have faith at all.
The famous saying that goes… “All evil needs to triumph is for good men(and women) to do nothing”. In the same way, your captivity is determined by you deciding to do NOTHING. Faith takes you places and breaks the barriers that keep you from moving forward. Faithlessness keeps you in bondage with all your problems. Captivity can be a choice if you decide to accept that as your status quo. I say…. NOT MY PORTION!
What will you decide is your Portion today? Seek to increase your level of Faith and you will see amazing things happen.
Happy Sunday! I just found this cool video to inspire and encourage your spirit. It’s Time for the Church of Jesus Christ to rise is it’s main message. It’s a spoken word type of poetry and it just is amazing. I’m sure you’ll be blessed by it as it also blessed me.
Consuming fire of God – The Lion of Judah (Judah means Praise)
I hope everybody is having a wonderful Friday! So lately, the Lord has been impressing upon my heart about fueling a Church so that it is always on fire. As we all know, fire is a powerful heat source filled with energy that if not monitored or contained properly, it has the potential to go out of control and destroy everything in its path and at the same time if it is not properly fueled, it can also be quenched.
When I first got saved, I came to believe that we as people can become as powerful as the apostles in the Bible that could drive out demons, heal the sick and have a trail of miracles working in our lives. I have not changed my opinion on this matter. I believe that if the Bible says we can have the same authority, then we should be able to do the same thing. However, such things only work according to the proportion of our FAITH(Romans 12:6).
So the question is…. How much FAITH do we have regarding such spiritual giftings in the first place?
I believe that Churches should be so filled with the Holy Spirit that people don’t need to enter into the Church building to get their healing…they can get healed and delivered in the parking lot…they can get healed and delivered on their way to church…they can get healed and delivered by proxy. The signs and wonders that we want to have following us as Christians can only be witnessed by others through Faith demonstrated in Power by the unction of the Holy Spirit. The Power of God and the authority we all have in Christ should be so powerful that we should even have the kind of faith like the Centurion that didn’t need to “see it to believe”in the Power of Jesus…all He needed to hear was a Word that it was done and that’s all the faith we need to see healings take place in our lives (Matthew 8:8). In that very hour, the servant of the centurion was healed (Matthew 8:12-14).
People of God, we are the mystery of God’s glory waiting to be revealed to the unbelievers — Christ in us the hope of Glory.
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, thehope of glory.
Unbelievers need to see Faith being demonstrated by the Church of God in order to believe. However, I think to some extent… the Church of Jesus Christ is rather complacent…rather unbelieving… If God did it once before…He is well able to do it again. However, do we believe that??????? I admit that there are areas in my life that I still tackle unbelief, but the whole point is, we need to make room for Faith to increase in our lives if we want signs and wonders to follow the Spiritual Warfaring Church.
This year the Lord has been speaking to my heart about building up my Faith. Sometimes when you go through trials, your faith can get shakened, but that doesn’t mean that it gets extinguished. All your flame of faith requires to grow is fuel to make it burn ablaze. I feel like the Lord is revitalizing my faith. He is making me increase my cup. I don’t believe I have enough and that is why I seek more faith. I want a greater dispensation of God’s glory to be revealed; however, faith is required to make it manifest. I experienced a lot of hindrances last year…but God has always been my cheerleader to keep pressing on, to keep going….to not look at what it looks like right now….to not give up….to not worry about other people’s opinions of where you are going (or not going in their opinion). He (God) taught me to focus on His leading…focus on His direction…focus on His instruction and guidance….believe in the Word…believe in the Holy Spirit and do not lean onto your own understanding. As people we have limits but God is limitless so we must yield to the one that is able to break the barriers, to break the chains, to break the limits off and tap into the uncharted territories. Trust God and He will take you through your trials and provide for you as you continue in your undaunted faith.
The Church requires undaunted faith…unmovable faith, unshakeable faith to be a powerful Church. I remember praying a couple of days ago and the Lord spoke to my spirit and said “I’m going to teach you how to walk by faith this year”. I know that at my present capacity…I need to do things I’ve never done before…pursue greatness and not settle of less than the best. The vision I have for the powerful Church requires me to upgrade my knowledge and my understanding of the Word. God has given me some projects I need to fulfill before the year is done. I’m doing a lot of things that are stirring up the reverential fear of the Lord in me. God says, “Do it even if you are afraid…this will teach you what COURAGE is about”.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And leannot on your ownunderstanding; 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct[a] your paths.
I believe that as believers, our faith in God is experientialmore than just a set of rules and guidelines we all follow as dogma. I experienced the bondage-breaking power of Godin my life from demonic oppression in my dreams, suicidal thoughts and actions, and suffered issues with sleep-walking when I was growing up. The power of God is real to me…and these examples are but a few reasons why I believe God is real. God taught me that I can take authority over my nightmares and over some demonic experiences that I can’t really explain very well since there were various incidences…but for now, I’ll just call it spiritual oppression and that I could bind these forces and tell them where to go in the NAME OF JESUS and they would flee. The peace I experienced from being set free by this level of oppression fueled my faith in Jesus Christ. If God can set me free, I believe He is more than able to set other captives free.
God is saying…”I want my Church to demonstrate their faith in POWER and in the authority I have already given them through my Son Jesus Christ”.
So Church, keep believing…keep trusting God, be bold, be daring, be courageous, believe in the authority that the Lord gives. We are only as powerful as our Faith allows us to be.
Until now you haveaskednothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
If you have a small proportion of Faith, then seek God to increase it. You have not if you ask not (James 4:2), so ask and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together and running over! HALLELUJAH
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, presseddown, shakentogether, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
I believe that God wants His church to rise up and be a warfaring house operating in the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The same God of Yesterday, Today and Forever is looking for vessels that will be bold and courageous. Are you one of these that will step out into the deep like Peter who walked on water believing as he fixed His eyes on Jesus? If we want to do great things, we must fix our eyes towards the Author and Finisher of our FAITH(Hebrews 12:2). Let the Lord Jesus fill your cup of Faith today as you ask in His Holy and Mighty Name, AMEN!
Demons tremble at this mystery, that YOU have Christ in YOU the Hope of GLORY. Glory be to GOD Everybody!
I have two songs here from Fred Hammond called Glory to Glory to Glory & Show Yourself Strong. May these songs bless your spirit today Everybody!
"I feel my purpose in life is to help others," replied the young massage therapist I encountered at a salon. She seemed sweet, happy, and content with where her life had taken her.
So I inquired, "What do you mean?"
"Well," she continued, "I am an Indian healer and I feel as if it is my purpose to help those in need.
God is saying…”I want my Church to demonstrate their faith in POWER and in the authority I have already given them through my Son Jesus Christ”.
Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Spanish
