Passion & Compassion

How sweet it is, when you know that you're doing God's will. It is so precious when the Father gently whispers to your heart, "You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."      The Father spoke those words over His Son when Jesus was baptized by John at the Jordan river. It’s interesting to note that as yet Jesus had not healed anyone, cast out any demons, or preached the gospel to anyone. All He had done to that point in His earthly walk was stay at home, take  care of His mother, and love His Father. And yet the Father says, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I  am well pleased.” In terms of kingdom business Jesus had to that point done absolutely nothing, and  yet the Father was “well pleased” with Him.      Applied to our lives, this truth reveals that God’s pleasure over our lives has a very little to do with the kinds of exploits we’re doing for Him. If you are seeking to please Him by working real hard for  Him, you are missi...

Waiting on God in Prayer In Leviticus chapter 8 we are given description of the process of ordination for the office of priest for Aaron and his sons. The process involves washing of their bodies, being cloth in beautiful priestly cloths, sprinkled with blood and oil and at the end God gives the following command: “Do not leave the entrance of the tabernacle for seven days…remember you must stay at the entrance of the Tabernacle day and night for seven days…” Leviticus 8:33-35 As we’ve been involved in prayer ministry the last 7 years we have come to a realization that God is much more interested in what He wants to do in us, transforming us into the image of His Son than what He can do through us. Part of that process of transformation, developing and growing in passion for God involves the process of WAITING . Waiting is never easy, is not fun, if feels contra-productive, it goes against everything that our mind and body tells us but here are our few thou...

Passion:     Jesus lived for the pleasure of the Father. He lived to please the Father in everything He did. He said that He came to do the will of the one who sent Him and out of love for the Father, Jesus does what the Father has commanded Him. Delighting in the embrace of the Father was all that He longed for. The Bible tells us that early in the morning and late at night He would be alone with the Father. The heart of Jesus was passionately in-loved with the Father and He was abiding in the Father's love. Jesus revealed His passion for the Father at age 12 saying that He had to be in His father's house Luke 2:49.      In John 17 Jesus reveals his passion when He prays for the disciples: Father I desire for them to be with me and see my glory...that you have given me because you loved me.... The passion of Jesus is the glory of God the Father, His presence, being with Him, beholding Him face to face....this was the ultimate passion of Jesus! ...

                                                                 Passion:                                God the Father is passionate God, passionate Father. First: God the Father is passionate towards His son Jesus Christ. In both Matthew 3:17 during Jesus baptism and Matthew 17:5 the mount of transfiguration we hear the voice of the Father saying about Jesus: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. With other words the Father is saying: this is the one whom I love the most, He is the most excellent, He is abo...

Last year in May our MakHOP ministry was hosting a team from States and on one occasion we were in the park, playing guitar, singing to Jesus and praying.  As I was standing on the side and kind of observing what was happening a thought came to my mind which I believe was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The thought was: Igor, worship was always meant to be PUBLIC. The thought came as a surprise not to say a shock to me as I was trying to figure out what does that mean. Wrestling with my own questions the thought continued: Igor, God is a public God, who wants to be known, seen, experienced and whenever you worship Him in public that becomes a public declaration and manifestation of who He is. Declarations of His greatness, beauty, glory, power and majesty... As I was trying to process all of this Holy Spirit quickly reminded me of many places in the Bible where worship was public and corporate. In this post I will mainly be focusing on public corporate worship and just briefly ...

Double standard is something that I've been thinking about for a while now and in this blog post I would like to address this issue as best as I can while still trying to fully understand it and get rid of it from my own heart. Let's start with two definition of what double standard is: "A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for similar situations" "A set of standards that applies differently and usually more harshly to one group of people or circumstances than to another"        The definitions are very clear and self explanatory but let's give few examples from our everyday life to get better picture: 1. When someone says that Russia has occupied and annexed Crimea without admitting and saying that EU, NATO and USA have done the exact same thing with Serbia and pronouncing Kosovo as independent state is DOUBLE STANDARD. Same goes other way around. 2. When EU demands from Macedonia to recognize the ri...

In Revelation 1:2 John says that he is a witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. In the verse 9b he repeats the same thing by saying that he was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. In between in verse 5 John describes Jesus as Faithful Witness. In Revelation 19:13 says about Jesus that His name is Word of God. John 12:49-50 "For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. John is seeing and describing Jesus as the faithful witness. Faithful witness to the Word of God, for He, Himself is called the Word of God, Jesus is a faithful witness...

  The Visit of the Wise Men Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to  worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where  the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will  shepherd my people Israel.’ ” Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, tha...

       As the old year was finishing and new one was starting me and my wife set our goal for this year: To give ourselves to the reading of the Word of God, grow in the knowledge of Him and teach the Word out of that place of revelation. We both felt led to start with the book of Ephesians and we set apart the first month and a half of this year to read and meditate on one chapter each day. In addition to that during our personal time with God we were not just reading the Word but praying the Word and we would come together afterwards and we would sing every single verse allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us even in those moments. Our small experiment was/is live changing. Our hearts has been transformed and changed, the way we view the church has changed and this blog post is just short expression of the revelation of the beauty and the glory of the church of Jesus Christ.        I love my wife's introduction to this book as a book ...

“That night Paul had a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia pleading with him;  Come over to Macedonia and help us”. Acts 16:9-15           While meditating on this text almost 2 years ago now I've noticed something that I haven't notice before.  Paul in his vision saw a man but when he went down to Philippi he met women who according to the Bible were gathered at the place of prayer.  I'm sure Paul was surprised :) While I was laughing about what Paul might have been thinking I felt that God was highlighting 2 things:           First: I believe that God wants to restore the worth and value of the women in Macedonia and He wants to restore the place of women in every sphere of society in Macedonia. I believe that God wants to give and release new revelation in the hearts of the women, new revelations about their value, about their worth, about their place and position not just in their homes as wife’s and mo...

Many years, they’ve tarried long, Working for no earthly crown. This call to prayer they did not create,  The human heart so much resistance, it cannot take. Others fathom not, they cannot understand. Perhaps they themselves sometimes sit in  bewilderment. What are we waiting for? Why do we tire? Sitting on our knees hour after hour? Have you really called us to build a kingdom yet unrealized at this hour? All of their resources are gone, Nothing have they left Intellect says stop... Emotions say give up... Yet they hold on, anchored by a hope  He has provided as enough. The dark hours have passed, come into the light. There is more than enough of Me to continue the fight. New troops have arrived, drawn to My banner held high. Band now together, you are stronger than a horde of lies. You underestimate the power of light. As the hours add up, the darkness takes flight. Be encouraged O hearts! Y...

Fog in Skopje        After two summers in a row coming to beautiful and all around the clock sunny Lapland it was inevitable to come and experience the other side of Lapland, winter and darkness :) It wasn’t something that I was very excited about but after our family in Finland so gracefully paid for our trip I was left with no excuses and no choice.        For few days our trip to Finland was clouded by very tick Macedonian fog which left the Macedonian airport in complete lock down, no flights in, no flights out. But on the day of our flight the weather cleared just enough that we could fly out.         After a night in Stockholm we continued early next morning up north to our final destination Kemi, Finland. On our landing the captain informed us that there is “light snow on the ground and the temperature is 5 Celsius” followed by slight correction from his side, “that is -5 Celsius”. Finally we were in a ...