The greatest threat to a new move of God is what you think of the last move of God. Did you embrace it so tightly you can’t move on to the new thing He is doing?…

Though miracles are great and you should go after them when you need them, they are not the best way for God to prosper you. Needing a miracle means you have a problem you can’t solve, so God must step in.

You see, when evil comes against us and we have to take refuge, the blessing is that we taste the goodness of God. This is not naturally speaking. It is practically speaking. Our ability to know and experience Jesus just got a major upgrade!

You see, spiritually, your mind is a reproductive organ. It’s true! Twice, (Ephesians 6:13 and 1 Peter 1:13) the Bible refers to your thinking realm as the “loins of your mind.” Now don’t go off the deep end here! This is what God is saying….

The first time we see goodness in the Bible is in the creation account. At the end of each day, in the midst of darkness and chaos, God said, “It is good!” While everything was messy, unfinished and in a state of deformed transition – while nothing was as it should be and everything was half-formed, God declared His goodness right there on the spot!

For most of us, not only does the act of moving forward look like a train wreck, the circumstances which we are stumbling through are even worse. It’s hard to believe God is happy with you when you are stumbling along in a place that does not honor or glorify Him…

The Bible records 36 miracles, though his disciples said Jesus did many more. So many, in fact, that if they had written them all down, there would not be enough books in the world to contain them! And remember, Jesus didn’t just do miracles when He was on earth 2,000 years ago, He still does them today for you and me because the Bible tells us He is the same yesterday, today and forever!

We believers need to be intentional to not make a big deal out of the devil. I say that having seen darkness and evil that, for lack of a better term, is impressive. Really scary stuff that, if I wasn’t careful, could become toxic to my kingdom advancement…

Let’s get this out in the open – I don’t want your house. I don’t want your woman, your anointing, your ministry, your connections or your relationships. I don’t want your success, your job or your money. What do I want?

Before you were knit together in your mother’s womb, God was hard at work creating an identity and purpose for you. Know this: it is magnificent and He trusts you to go after it….

We live in a fallen world of our own choosing. So choose well. Choose to use your blessings to extend God’s mercy. Choose to rejoice with those more victorious than you and extend compassion to those who have less…

Are you ready for a true gem of wisdom? Here it is: the ministry you respect, is the one that changes your life. It’s the one you will model yourself and your ministry after….

You see, I don’t want to stay the same and neither should you. Anyone who gets close to God should catch a holy fever for moving forward, increase…upgrade. I’ve got it. I’ve got it bad!

I remember the late John Belushi of The Blues Brothers standing on the edge of a stage in a white-hot spotlight singing, “I’m a soul man!”  As much as I love that song, I don’t sing it anymore and I’ll tell you why: it’s a bad testimony…

Many times, it takes pain for us to have compassion. Take for instance the witch I met on my first mission trip to Costa Rica. I was with two local boys who had been saved and baptized the night before we trekked into the jungle in search of this notorious spiritualist…

Many believe this enemy to be a brilliant strategist. This is not true. He may be one of God’s most beautiful creations, but his hatred and pride have taken his power and morphed him into something pitiful and ugly – a relentless opportunist – a schoolyard bully, if you will…

Let’s talk about things worth fighting for. While there are plenty of good things in this life, not everything is of God. People confuse the two and Satan loves that…

Here is a concept I need you to understand: In the Kingdom of God, you do not fight for victory. You fight from victory…

We rocked the area and handed out thousands of pounds of free food to people without jobs or hope. It was fun, powerful and unpredictable. Jesus loves to bless the rejected and the messed up.

Know this: Sometimes, you are just called to endure some things. You are called to tough some things out, but for every midnight experience, Jesus has a morning waiting. As sure as the sun will rise, your joy is coming.

One thing you must learn on your quest for upgrade, is to trust in the heart of God and in the power of His grace. Why? Because He is not prepared to punish you for mistakes made in your attempts to move forward and receive your upgrade. Anyone who tells you different, doesn’t know God’s goodness!

There is a balance that needs to be taught concerning miracles. As much as I love miracles, I understand that most of the time, a miracle is a short-term solution to a long-term malfunction. Miracles only happen in the most desperate times and places…

I got into a fight with my friend that day. I was young and didn’t know how to handle myself, but I did know this: in all the times we had driven through those ritzy neighborhoods, it had not occurred to me, not even once, to hate the people who had nice things, or even to want those things. They didn’t belong to me…

Beware of being fixated on your past. It can be toxic. When this happens, your fight for greatness gets replaced with a fight for preserving history, and living it out over and over again. That’s where it really gets ugly!

Now, my kids weren’t the most artistic bunch. They brought me a lot of unflattering large circles with heads on them. “Daddy, it’s you!” they would squeal. I told myself it was not because they saw me as fat, but because they were at an early stage of development…

It’s easy to say “no fair” when people who are more spiritually mature than you, are walking in victory when you’re wading waist deep in defeat. It’s easy and it’s wrong…

No matter how messed up you are, this I promise you: there is always someone who’s more of a malfunction than you. I know what I’m talking about because when you start taking steps toward upgrade, God will bring you some of the most colorful characters to practice on…

“Troy,” he said, “when I see you, the Lord shows me something really off-the-wall. I see you catching a great big fish somewhere and when you catch it, the Lord is saying it’s a sign that your ministry is not going to be a little bitty ministry, but a great big ministry.”

“You argue over everything! Only you have the answer. Your opinion or idea is always best. People are tired of always having to fight with you. They’ve stopped listening to you because you don’t know what hill to die on — you die on them all. You need to learn to choose your battles!”

Jesus commanded His followers to “make disciples of all the nations.” Yes, you’re to tell others about the greatness of Christ. In doing so, you go after your own greatness — your upgrade to the next level of Jesus Freak. Does God want this for you? You bet He does!…

Know this: progressive people get more progressive. Learning people get more power to learn. Generous people get more power to give and loving people get more power to love. Awesome is the the power of momentum!…

It is a lie from the pit of hell that God doesn’t want us to feel pain. In fact, hoping to help unbelievers make a decision to follow Jesus, many well-meaning Christians resort to false advertising. They actually tell people that once they become a believer, their problems will vanish and Jesus will make everything great…

I’ve had lots of prophetic things spoken to me through the years. Some by people of God. Some by the devil himself. This is the true story of one of Hell’s prophets. I was invited to speak one-on-one with several inmates in solitary confinement in a prison just outside of Huntsville, Texas. When I went to introduce myself to one individual, he interrupted me and said, “I know who you are, Troy Brewer. You are going to die a horrible death and blah, blah, blah…

The goodness of God is not just seen in the past, but is calling from the future. People who fight for what can be, understand that God says their destiny is much greater than their history. Fear of the future and a fascination with the past are the enemies of upgrade. It was the same way in Jesus’ day. He turned to the religious folks of His generation and called it like Babe Ruth pointing to the sky behind left field before hitting it out of the ballpark…

One thing the Bible makes clear, and my experience backs up, is that evil is “less” – it is toothless, venom-less and defenseless. It is clearly less than good. Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger and even Pablo Escobar were all feared as being unstoppable evil. They were also rounded up and shot by Texans who were not afraid to hunt them down and put an end to their reign of terror…

It’s amazing to me that some of the smartest people on planet Earth aren’t very wise. Take this quote from the talented artist and songwriter Terry Riley for example: “The incredible thing about the human mind is that it didn’t come with an instruction book.” …

Religion trains us to think the worst thing that can happen is to do something wrong — to fail. But Jesus teaches the worst thing that can happen is for you to do nothing at all! Are you ready to fight through this with me?

Sept. 15, 1999 was a typical Wednesday. As our little church was gearing up for mid-week service, one of our members ran in and told me there had been a shooting at Wedgwood Baptist in neighboring Fort Worth.
I immediately knew what church it was. Reports were foggy. At that point, all anyone knew was a gunman had walked into the church and started shooting. It was feared some were dead…

Remember, God doesn’t ask a question because He doesn’t know the answer. He asks for our benefit. So we’ll be forced to know and own the answer to our messed up thinking, especially where pain and suffering are concerned.

The power of upgrade moves you from the cheap seats to box seats in a given area of your life. This is in direct proportion to your willingness to move forward within that arena. The key to upgrade is that when God grants you a breakthrough, you must be prepared to go to the next level again and again and again without stopping…

What? Are you kidding me? Really? That’s the personification of all things evil? Why, he’s a weakling! He’s no more powerful than the wizard behind the curtain of Oz….

Our lives are fulfilled by having a vision for something better, then finding ways to achieve those goals so you can live in that better place. That’s your promised land and it’s a lot better place to live than from miracle to miracle. It takes hard work, but if hard work alone meant prosperity, every coal miner in West Virginia would be a billionaire!

There are two major myths about your mind. The first, is that your brain didn’t come with an instruction manual. The truth is, it did – the Bible. The second myth, is that you are not responsible for your thoughts. 
That line of thinking says you are an animal, akin to a smart ape with a cool thumb, and animals are not responsible for their thoughts. They are ruled by instinct and so are you. Who told you that?

Here’s a truth that is unpopular, yet it’s truth nonetheless: Behind every great person of God is great affliction.
I dare you. Pick your favorite Bible person from any of the 31,175 scriptures and see if you can find one man or woman – no matter how close they were to God – who did not have pain.
 

For many, it’s a revelation that miracles are not God’s best for you. In fact, just needing a miracle means you are neck deep in a mess. God would much rather prosper you by rewarding you for your hard work and generosity.

Wouldn’t you rather live in a house that is paid off than prosper in a miracle while your house is being repossessed and sold off to someone else? 

Have you ever been facing north on a southbound train? I have, and it’s pretty strange. 

From my seat, I could see where I had been, but not where I was going. All I could perceive was what had already passed me. You know a lot of people sit just like that through their Christian lives. They are so fixated on their history, they forget to look for their destiny.

I have a lot of respect for the Demoniac of Gadara, whose story is told in Mark, Chapter 5 and Luke, Chapter 8. I even dedicated my book Soul Invasion to this man who, in so many ways, is like us today.

SOUL FOOD AND SPIRIT FOOD

Like John at the last supper, people who live their life with their head on the chest of the Lord, in rhythm with the heart of God, are people with great revelation.

People who are after revelation are bold, childlike and prepared to go wherever He sends them.

I have noticed that there is a balance to be taught concerning the working of miracles.

Hear me on this: just because God does a miracle, does not mean it’s His stamp of approval over somebody’s life. Nor is the lack of a miracle God’s stamp of disapproval. God’s mercy is revealed in all sorts of ways, miracles being only one of them.

When my kids were taking their first steps and they fell after only a few inches, I didn’t scold them and tell them not to fall down again. No. I clapped and cheered, celebrated and shouted, “Check that out. He took a step. He’s moving forward! Isn’t that amazing!”

For many years, I was pushing 400 pounds. Not quite there, but still, it was closing in. 

Then, on a trip to Jerusalem with Leanna, we met a couple who pastored a church in Enid, Oklahoma. These people, it turned out, were not your ordinary pastors. He was a doctor and a college professor, and they were both gifted in the area of physical training in a way that glorifies God. 

One of my favorite songs was written by my good friend, Pauline Wick of a band called The Wicks. At the doctor’s word that her father would certainly die from a fatal heart attack, the Lord gave her another word that said, “It’s not that big of a deal.”

The goodness of God overcame the evil of the heart attack and the song “Paper Tiger” was born.

I believe with all my heart that a lot of Christians are seeing the best part of their lives corrupted, dishonored, degraded and ruined simply because they don’t know how to confront the beast within — their soul. Instead of being led by the Spirit of God, we tend to be driven by terrible thinking patterns that need to be invaded by Almighty God.

If you ask 100 people to define the days we’re living in, you’ll get 100 different responses. For the unemployed, they are fiercely competitive days. For those in the military, they are troubling days. For the businessman, they are likely days of opportunity. Ask any Bible thumping Christian to describe the days we’re living in and they’ll likely tell you “the Last Days.”

There was a time in my life where the importance of upgrade was not on my radar. I was busy running a church, a food bank and flying all over the world on mission trips building water wells and orphanages. While I thought I was on the right track, God proved that He didn’t….

It is no exaggeration that my buddy Jamie Cashion and I both would have lost our lives today, along with 8 others, if it wasn’t for the miraculous power of the Lord Jesus Christ. A TRUE MIRACLE TOOK PLACE TODAY!

Financially, I’ve never been a rich man. In fact, there were years where our ministry was small and struggling, and my wife, Leanna, and I didn’t have glass in our windows or electricity in our fixer upper. 

Yes, I’m talking years. My beautiful bride stuck by my side through some truly thin times and did more than make the best of things. Leanna made poverty into a party…

On October 7th, 1995 Waylon Jennings returned to Clear Lake Iowa the same way he left 36 years before – by bus. More than 2,000 fans packed the Surf Ballroom to see a world famous performer, initially made famous by not being on the plane that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. It was something that Waylon had avoided doing for more than three decades.

I travel a lot. Having orphanages on three continents, I’m on a plane almost every month. One thing I can tell you, I always know when we’re over U.S. airspace. I know it sounds crazy, but over the past few years, I get a sick feeling in my gut coming home to America. The atmosphere is ripe — anger, bitterness, violence –– I can literally feel it 2,000 feet up.

Turning on the news or looking at Facebook, it seems the wheels are coming off our society. America has seen some tumultuous times, but what we’re experiencing today has a truly ugly vibe.

The boys at NASA have done it again. They have gone and blown our minds with another giant discovery about the universe.

May 11, 2016: “Kepler scientists announce a major increase in confirmed exoplanet numbers.” Yes, the smart guys here on planet Earth say they have found 1,284 new planets using the Kepler planet-hunting telescope. They are speculating many of them could be inhabitable…..

In 1982 a bunch of my knucklehead teenage friends and I swarmed onto my mother’s house like a cloud of locusts. We ravaged everything in the refrigerator, fell onto the couches and turned on the tube…

There are some really smart people in this world. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. I am however, aware of stupidity which might make me a little higher on the cerebral food chain. Maybe not, but my lack of being able to comprehend real smartness, probably allows me to think so. My stupid detector went off at an airport in Uganda on one of our mission trips.

1989 was an exceptional year, I think. Not just because Taylor Swift was born, but because of things like The Berlin Wall came down, the world wide web flickered on, and I began a crazy cool marriage to the love of my life. 

Back in the day, two guys in Nashville joined with some songwriting buddies at the famous eatery called Tavern on the Row. They ate a bunch of food, drank a round of drinks, and threw song ideas back and forth, as you would if that was what you did.

I had been giving away little Bibles at prison and found out they were using the super thin pages for rolling paper. So I began to make them promise me something. “If you promise me you will read this before you use it, I will still give it to as long as you promise me you will read every single word and read it out loud.”  One young brave man said, “Yes, Sir. I promise.” I told him to smoke his way through the book of John…

I really like Francis Ford Coppola. The Francis Ford Coppola Winery near Geyserville, California, is one of my favorite places to visit in that part of the world. His movies, such as Patton, The Godfather and The Outsiders, have helped shape American culture,but one of his most successful movies was one of the worst in terms of filmmaking disasters….

For more than twenty years I have often visited the shrine of Texas independence on the date of the anniversary of the final siege. It means a lot to me. I especially appreciate the anniversary service that happens just before day light. A somber ceremony with bagpipes, women holding thirteen candles, speeches in both Spanish and English, and rein-actors from the San Antonio Living History Association.

The drought that affected Texas beginning somewhere around 2008-2009 crept up on us through the years like a slow cooking brisket. It was terrible. Our creeks dried up, our ponds went dry, the rivers quit flowing, and our lakes, well, I had never seen anything like it.  You could drive your car on the dirt road that used to be your favorite fishing hole. Farmers had to send to other states for hay. I remember in 2010 passing hundreds of flat bed trucks in Georgia with round bales headed west…

Abraham Lincoln was 6’4” and with his stove pipe hat he was a seven footer. You can imagine how he was considered to be gigantic to people who didn’t leave the farm very often.

When addressing a crowd at Niagara Falls he mentioned real giants saying, “When Columbus first sought this continent- when Christ suffered on the cross- when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea- nay, even when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker- then as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now.”