I hope you had a good holiday season. Even though parts of mine were stressful (when you have a bunch of grandkids that happens), it was still a great Christmas and New Year. One of the highlights for me was a surprise gift from Margie, a longtime friend and team member. She showed up with a 7 week old Labrador retriever. Since he arrived he has been my sidekick 24/7. We get up together, eat together, play together, and he lays on my feet about 6 hours each day as I write the new heart book. More than anything else, he seems to enjoy lying here while I write.

     When I am writing I often start anywhere between 4:30 and 6:30 every morning until the project is finished. That’s not the result of great discipline, it’s great passion for the projects and how I believe they will impact the world.

     Those who have known me a long time know that I have refused to have pets for years. Most people thought I didn’t like animals, but that was never the case. I knew the lifestyle I lived was too unpredictable for pets. And to be honest, I didn’t want to be strongly emotionally attached to another pet. So much of my life and productivity depends on my ability to stay focused. So for the last 40 years I didn’t let anything or anyone in my life that I thought would distract me from my mission. And once I realized anything to which I was attached was taking me off course… it had to go! I know that sounds extreme, but from day one of making this journey as a disciple and servant I’ve had a sense of destiny that charted my course.

     You don’t have to feel a call to the ministry to have that sense of destiny. All you need to have is the awareness that you are following God into eternity and a commitment that along the way you want to bless as many as possible. Our sense of destiny rarely explodes on us in one “fell swoop.” Usually it is recognized as we make the journey. Those who wait for destiny never discover their life’s purpose. Those who choose a destiny and follow God get that and more!

     I know that statement is quite a paradox; but remember, all truth exists in a paradox. There is always that tension between man’s freedom to choose and God’s desire to lead. There is that which we believe in our heart and that which we put into practice because of those beliefs. God has this amazing way to fulfill our deepest desires by surrendering them to Him. We don’t lose our dreams and goals; they usually get fulfilled in a bigger way. You never lose anything by following God with all your heart.

     A scripture that has meant so much to me is Proverbs 16:9: A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. The person who is fully committed to following God can have a dream in his heart, but he doesn’t have to obsess over the fulfillment of that dream. God delights to give you the desires of your heart, but that only happens in a life-giving way when He first has your heart! God doesn’t want you to delight in Him because He needs to be in control of your life. He wants you to delight in Him because as you seek Him first then He is able to lead you into the best way to fulfill your dream within the greater purpose of His dream.

     Based on this scripture in Proverbs we don’t even need to know how to fulfill our plan, we need to know what we desire and walk with God. Having a dream or desiring to succeed – neither of these are evil unless they interfere with our full-hearted following of the Lord Jesus. But the great thing is you don’t have to get up every day and use your faith to make these things come to pass. You get up every day, fully commit yourself to Him, fully commit yourself to walking in love, and as you follow Him you will simply look up one day and realize you are at the place where that dream can come true.

     We simply cannot allow anything good or bad, troubling or rewarding, dream or threat to distract us from walking with Him with all our heart. When we become distracted we miss the subtle direction He is providing about the path we should walk. Even when we miss the way He gently provides course correction at the next turn. It’s sort of like the navigation system in your car. Once you enter the destination the computer charts the course. All we have to do is follow the directions provided. Thank God when we miss our turn the computer maps out the next best way to get to our destination. That’s exactly how it is when walking with God. But suffice it to say, the trip is always shorter if we make all the appropriate turns.

     In 2013 I want us to keep our eye on the eternal. Don’t get caught up in or vexed by what’s going on in the country, the world, or the media. We did everything we could to get people to make good political decisions. I don’t think that happened, but we still get course corrections. I only focus on politics or anything like that when I can do something about it. I am open to doing anything God leads but politics, the economy, nothing can steal our focus. Now that we’ve all taken what we feel to be the appropriate action we must guard our heart so we do not get our future boundaries established by the media. No matter what happens now, you and I have to be focused on the eternal.

     Last year on Facebook alone our message reached over 1,000,000 people. The final number is not yet in, but we started somewhere around 40 Bible Schools around the world. Tens of thousands watch our weekly broadcast. Leaders around the world are being trained by Ed Elliott, Dave & Bonnie Duell, Dennis & Denise Capra, Allen Speegle, and hundreds of others who are using our materials. And I can’t say enough about the selfless efforts of Bob & Audrey Meisner who provide a weekly program that reaches Canada and much of the world via internet. It is the collaboration of selfless, Kingdom-minded people that makes it possible for us to do what we do with such incredible effectiveness at such a low cost.

     Leadership is being multiplied over and over as thousands of pastors are building their churches from our leadership training materials. Grace and peace is the doctrinal cornerstone around which so many pastors are feeding their flock. All of these materials and other books are available online, in bookstores, churches, and other national and international outlets. Together we really are influencing the way millions of people see and experience God. Because we haven’t tried to control or manage what we do there is no way to even estimate the scope of this. Last year I released a book for this moment in time, Take Control of Your Life. Plus hundreds of thousands read the free eBook, America’s Greatest Threat. 

     I am not sharing these things to boast about our ministry, but because you need to rejoice with me in the difference that is being made in the world because you decided you wanted to change the way the world sees God! In 2013 we will reach even farther and become even more effective.

     Early this year we will release the long-awaited heart book. I am not sure what we will call it, but I am sure it will be a groundbreaking teaching on the heart that will revolutionize the lives of millions and change the way people connect to God! As soon as the draft is sent to the editor we will make a pre-publication special offer. This book will launch a revolution in connecting to God from the heart. We will follow that up with Leadership that Builds People Vol. 3, which is all about ministry that influences the heart. This will help pastors and leaders understand how to put this message into application in practical settings.

     The year is already packed with invitations that range from a possible appearance on an HBO special to a number of business conferences, church meetings, and a couple of Heart Physics seminars. It will be a full and productive year. And fortunately, by following God’s strategy and investing in other leaders, believers, ministries, and businesses this is not limited to what I can do.

     This year will provide a clear-cut map for our Heart Physics coaching program. Many of you will take this message to your ministry, business, or medical practice and touch lives I will never touch.

     As you know, we re-launched our website. I know this is frustrating for some of you. When we make these changes there are always bugs to be worked out and the learning curve of how the new site works. For years our developers promised to provide specific features that we knew would better serve our World Changer family as well as the people we seek to reach. But for various reasons, even though they were a wonderful company that has been so supportive and helpful, it just never got done. I felt I had made a commitment to you several times that was broken. I realize you knew it wasn’t me breaking my word, it was technical issues; however, I also knew we had to be way more effective at providing resources for those we are reaching who are new – either new converts or new to this message. By taking over the management of our site we can contract people to do  programming which is more specifically suited to our needs. When it is all worked out you will be so pleased.

     One new program we are adding within the next month is: Living Under Lordship, a discipleship program that takes a person from the prayer of salvation through our Foundations of Faith program. It is a very comprehensive program that will launch any new believer and help him find stability in just a few weeks that took many of us years to work out. This is based on the discipleship programs I developed in our local congregation over a period of 35+ years. It is proven and it is powerful! This program will be provided free to anyone who desires to take it. Actually, it would be an incredible value for any believer. Most believers struggle because they were never established in the foundational truths, goals, and values of the Kingdom. You are making this happen.

     I’m sure you’ve already noticed changes in the format of the weekly service/broadcast. We are making the teaching format shorter which does several things: The length of the broadcast makes it easier for i-Groups. This gives them time for worship, teaching, question and answer time, and still being finished in 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Also, people who are new to the broadcast will rarely even click to watch if the teaching is too long. Now we will be able to leave the program up all week so everyone can watch at their convenience. This will help so many people. We can also put it on iTunes and other resources since it will now stay up.

     Going to HD was a huge leap. It makes it a much better visual experience but HD requires a lot more storage space. We could not keep the teaching as long and leave it posted. By going to shorter programs we can have the best of both worlds. Then there is one more factor: we are considering putting the program on a few television stations. In order to do this we had to go to the shorter format.

     Our goal is to do what serves the people who want help in the most effective, economic way possible. The people who want to study the material in depth can always get the CDs or books that are designed for the more serious. But most people will actually get more they can use if they are not given too much at once. One unique feature we have added is the Mentoring Moment where I take just a little more than a minute and capsulate the one most important factor that you need to take away from the message if you want to put it into practice.

     When I sway we’re reaching farther this year than ever before I really meant it! we want to thak you for your patience as we make the necessary change to our website and store. By making this change  we already provide services on Roku, AppleTV, Vimeo, Hulu, our website, Facebook, and Youtube. Plus, we will be looking look into podcasts and all other available formats. We have stepped up to HD quality video. The broadcast side of things has drastically improved and will continue to improve. When these changes are complete it will be much easier for people to make purchases and be able to navigate the site seamlessly. Our World Changers will finally be able to get their discounts automatically calculated online, and we will have a private section for World Changers and iGroups. we have tons of free material for leaders, believers, and the lost that we will be able to launch and walk them through with automated services. We will finally be able to get our Heart Physics coaching program set up online, which will be huge. But the biggest thing, there are so many outreaches I have planned that we can only do when every automated function of the store and site work seamlessly! As painful as this process is, we needed to make this change and there was no painless way to do it.

     Some of these changes take time to circulate throughout the internet and as they are doing so you may come up with messages that the site is down or that it is ‘unsafe.’ We have the security certificates in place, the site is secure, but these messages may still appear as the changes cycle through. When this happens you can choose to mark us as a known site or you can delete your browser history, bookmarks, and cache and that may fix the problem also. Again, we thank you for your patience and encourage you to keep coming back and try out all the changes!  

     Another aspect of our expansion this year will be looking for more ways we can work with other ministries who preach this message. We will continue to work closely with all the ministers I mentioned above as well as hundreds of others, many of which are starting new Bible Schools. The two primary outreach/evangelistic ministries I want us to work with are Ed Elliott and Jimmie Bratcher. Be sure to check out their articles in this month’s Impact Magazine. Jimmie is doing a phenomenal job at reaching into prisons and getting into biker rallies and other “off the track” venues. He gets into places no one else could or would dare to venture. Likewise, Ed Elliott is doing a project to reach all of Africa that will take at least two years. He will start hundreds of Bible Schools and influence hundreds of leaders. These guys are incredible at outreach.  

I can’t imagine so many things happening at one time through so many people, in so many places, with so little stress or planning on my part. I’m not doing this alone. Hundreds of ministries, thousands of pastors, and our World Changer Family are doing what can’t be done. When I say, “Together we are changing the way the world sees God”… it’s really true.

Thank you for being there in 2012 and for making this journey with me in 2013.