John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” To give is defined as to hand something over, present a gift, or transfer possession to someone else. Wow!Jesus was the promised gift to the world from God the Father. God gifted his Son to us! How? Once you accept Jesus into your heart, you now possess Him for your very own! At the Last Supper, before Jesus is crucified, He tells his disciples in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you anotherHelper, that he may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” Then in Acts 1:4-5, the risen Jesus commands His disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift hepromised, as I told you before.” A gift is something given voluntarily. It also means a legal transfer of property. The Father wants to give us another gift! Wow! Again the Father is going to make a legal transfer–the Holy Spirit. So when the Father gaveJesus, He gave us legal possession to Jesus’ salvation, to be saved. Now the Father is gifting us legal possession to the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit!

Jesus says in John 14:12, “I tell you this timeless truth: The person who follows me in faith, believing in me, will do the same mighty miracles that I do—even greater miracles than these because I go to be with my Father!”

Do more?! So many people ask, “How can I do more than Jesus?” I love Pastor Benny Hinn’s response: “The Holy Spirit is Jesus without limits!” Meaning that Jesus in the flesh was limited to a human body, bound by space and time. But the Holy Spirit within us is unlimited! All we have to do is activate His power and authority, and that’s what the baptism of the Holy Spirit does. In Acts 19 the apostle Paul baptized some believers in the name of the Lord Jesus. Verse 6 reads, “And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

Jesus gave his disciples temporary authority in Matthew 10:8and told them to, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” This is the power and authority we are given through the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, also the working of miracles. So the Father’s full intent is to gift us with the legal possession of the Holy Spirit. If the Father has gone to such lengths to gift Him to us, shouldn’t we earnestly desire Him as 1 Corinthians 14:1 tells us, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit…” Accept them, embrace them, activate them and use them! As I wrote last week, just being aware of them and not using them would be like receivingGod’s gift but choosing to only play with the box and not open the gift! 

So today receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and His gifts! Pray like this: “Heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. I am a believer, and I am thirsty for more of Your presence. Your Word says that You give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Lord Jesus, I ask You right now: baptize me with the Holy Spirit and with fire. I receive Him by faith right now. Fill me to overflowing, give me the power to be Your witness, and let me speak in new tongues as the Spirit gives me utterance. Thank You, Lord. Amen.”

Start using the gift that has no limits! Enjoy!!

-Emil Liko 8/28/26

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

My wife Karen and I enjoy watching the birds with our morning coffee. We have a wide variety of birds at the seed feedershanging on our deck. We have four hummingbirds that we love to watch, too! One day Karen showed me a video on her birding app of someone who made a hummingbird swing! Yes, a swing,and the hummers love it! “I can make one of those,” I thought. So I went to the store and bought a wooden dowel and colorful shoelaces to hang it on. It was a cool little project! Then I hung it between two feeder poles, and we waited in anticipation for the tiny birds to discover their new little swing. But the hummers did not use the swing! Instead they sat on the shoelace holding the swing in place between the poles! So I tried a variety of materials trying to find a combination that our little guests might enjoy. Time after time they chose to sit perched on the line holding the swing–whether it was a leather lace, a shoelace or even a zip tie–but never the swing. So yes, I did! I bought a “professional” hummingbird swing online for $8.00. When it came, I used a piece of thin wire to hang it from feeder to feeder and again we waited, excited! It is a lovely little swing, made of black ornate wrought iron on top with colorful beads up and down each side and a beautifully sanded wooden perch to swing on! And yes, they love it! But no, not the swing, but the wire holding up the swing! All four hummers love taking turns sitting above the swing on the mounting wire! While I sat watching, greatly annoyed, Karen couldn’t stop laughing and sending pictures to her bird-loving friends so they could have a good morning laugh, too—which they did! I finally said to the Lord, “I have tried everything I know to do to entice these little ones to just try it! I know if they did even once, they would absolutely love it! Lord, there isn’t anything more I can do for them!”Without hesitation, the Lord said, “I totally understand! Like when you buy a child a gift you know they will love, yet they spend all their time playing with the box it came in!” I ponderedwhat the Lord said and started thinking about the Lord’s gifts to us! In Luke 12:32, Jesus says, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

So how does the Lord give us the gift of the Kingdom of God? Through the giftings of the Holy Spirit! “Now about the spiritual gifts (special endowments of supernatural energy), brethren, I do not want you to be misinformed,” the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:1. As the Lord led me through the followingverses, I became aware of the magnitude of the gifts the Lord gives to His people. Through the Holy Spirit we have the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, revelation, power, authority, signs, wonders, miracles and more! The Lord has gifted these to us to enjoy and to use, so why do so many people know about these gifts, yet are content to play with the box, so to speak, instead?Many people believe these gifts are given only to special people who earned them. No! These are gifts, not rewards! Playing with the box means knowing the gift is there, like the birds with the swing, but choosing to stay away from it! Possibly looking at it, discussing it, but never delving into it. The Lord desires us to want His gifts because He loves us. And we should desire to have His gifts because we love Him and want everything He has for us. 1 Corinthians 14:1 tells us to “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit…”

So much more to the Christian life is wrapped up in the activation of these gifts! God calls us to live supernaturally natural lives (John 14:12), meaning the Christian life is to be exciting and awesome, using the gifts on His behalf to bring healing or deliverance or salvation to those in need. People get to experience His love for them personally as signs and wonders are performed through us through the gifts of the Holy Spirit!It’s as exhilarating as riding in a convertible with the top down on a beautiful warm spring day! Joy beyond words! So how do you start experiencing this? Continued next week!

• Emil Liko 8/21/26

When you think about Jesus, what comes to mind? The Lamb of God, the Son of God? Kind, loving, honest, forgiving, patient,peaceful, and good? Yes, the One who would put His arm around you to comfort you, who would let you recline on His chest as John did. In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” A voice of love, actions of compassion, a heart of mercy. John the Baptist cries out in John 1:29, “Look! There he is—God’s Lamb! He takes away the sin of the entire world!” I find greatcomfort knowing that God never uses my past against me.

Nowhere in the Bible between Genesis and Revelation, nowhere upon His manger or upon His cross, was there ever a sign posted that read “BEWARE OF THE LAMB!” Or was there? We get a tiny little preview of the wrath of the Lamb in Matthew 18:1-5,“The disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?’ Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, ‘Unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.’” He continues in verse 6, “’But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the sea.’”

It’s true, Jesus was kind and gentle as the Lamb, but God is Holyand cannot tolerate the sin that Adam and Eve brought into the world when they agreed with Satan’s lies over God’s love. Jesus came to the earth to save us from our sins. How many times does He say throughout the first four books of the New Testament, ‘Your sins are forgiven,” or, “Go and sin no more”?And as we know from John 3:16-18, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn [it], but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Jesus goes on to explain in verses 19-21, “This is the condemnation, that the light [Jesus] has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil…Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” You see, the love of God and the light of God expose the hidden things of evil and draw out hidden sin, pushing it to the surface to give everyone the opportunity to repent!

Now let’s look at the end of the Bible, the end of time, Revelation 6:12-17, “Behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black…and the moon became like blood…the stars fell to the earth…the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is ableto stand?’” This is the day of the judgment of the Lamb, when the Lamb says, ”Enough! I’ve given you every chance to repentand you have refused every opportunity to receive My forgiveness.”

Few phrases in the Bible seem more contradictory than “the wrath of the Lamb.” Wrath means ”fiery passion.” The wrath of the Lamb is not beastly rage but His fiery passion against all who rejected every invitation given by Him, the Son of God. It’s hard for us as Christians to imagine the terrifying wrath of the Lamb, so fierce that people would rather die horribly than faceit! But God prepared a way of escape! He offers the greatest sacrifice, Jesus, to us and when we say yes and choose to believe, we go from the wrath to forgiven! All it takes is one brief encounter with the Lord! Pray this simple prayer, “Jesus, I ask You to forgive me of my sins and to wash me clean. Come into my heart and write my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life so that when I close my eyes for the last time, I will instantly open them with You! Thank You for saving me! Amen.”

Emil Liko 8/14/26

Last week I addressed misconceptions about sheep and talked about their relationship with their shepherd. Today I am looking at misconceptions about God and His relationship with His followers, the “sheep” Jesus is actually talking about in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” After 23 years of taking “Free Prayer” to the roadside, Karen and I have found that a great many people are full of wrong beliefs about God and His character. When we share the truth about Him, they are thrilled to find out that He is good, that He knows all about them and loves them, that He wants to be a part of their lives to bring about the best for them, that He wants them to live with Him in heaven forever.

How do people form wrong beliefs about God? That He is condemning, punishing, untrustworthy, unknowable, unreliable, indifferent? Not from the Bible, not from someone who knows the Lord intimately! You can’t find out what God is like by listening to someone who doesn’t know Him. The book of Job is a perfect example! Many people base their theology on what Job DIDN’T know about God. They believe that when bad things happen, God caused them. You’ve probably heard, and maybe even said yourself, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away,” referring to Job 1:21. Do you know that God never said that? Job said it! It conveys the sense that God will do whatever He wants to, that He set up Job and so, He may very well set you up too! But how often do you hear someone quote Job 42:5-6 in which he repents to God? The Message reads, “I [Job] admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.” At the end of the book, Job admits he spoke out of ignorance, repeating and believing things he’d only heard about God.

I believe many people today know more about the sounds of their cars than they know about the sound of God’s voice. People hear a sound in their car and know immediately something is wrong! If you don’t know God’s voice, you can easily be deceived into believing something that isn’t true. A woman came up to me once after I finished preaching, a visitor to our church, and said, “Pastor, your sermon was in error.” I asked her how? She said, “You mentioned Satan and my pastor says that Satan is never mentioned in the Bible, so you are in error.” I showed her in Genesis where it says that Satan fell like lightning. Then I showed her where Satan tempted Jesus on the temple roof, then took her to Revelation where Satan accuses us before God’s throne. You would think afterwards, she would be mad at her pastor. But instead, she got mad at me! We must read the Bible for ourselves and false teachers will be no match for us!

Today we often hear, “God doesn’t speak to me and I can’t hear His voice!” The truth is we can all hear His voice if we will read the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word! Hebrews 1:1-2 says that in the past (the Old Testament), God spoke through prophets but since He sent His Son Jesus into the world, God speaks through Jesus! When we read the words of Jesus in the New Testament, we can “hear” God’s voice and God’s heart and know what God is truly like. How can you know God’s character and thoughts unless you read His book? How will you recognize if it’s Him or someone else speaking to you? If someone says, “God told me to kill my neighbor!” would you believe him? Of course not! The 6^th Commandment spoken to Moses, “Thou shalt not kill,” still speak to us today. God never violates His Word or principles. That “voice” does not belong to God. The more of the Bible you have inside of you, the less you can be deceived or misled.

The sheep who know Jesus and belong to Him, the Good Shepherd, have an intimate relationship with Him. So familiar with His voice, His words and how He speaks to them, that even if a different voice, a stranger, calls to them, they won’t follow him (John 10:5)—they will only respond the One who always lovingly leads them on the right path. So what am I trying to say? If you don’t know His voice, you don’t know Him. 

-Emil Liko 8/7/26

Today I’m addressing sheep misinformation! Sheep and shepherds play a big role in the Bible. Most people are familiar with the 23^rd Psalm which begins, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and for believers in Jesus, He IS the Great Shepherd. Jesus Himself calls His followers His sheep and says about us in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Sheep often get a bad rap. They have a reputation for being mindless followers. In fact, Karen and I saw what seemed to be this very thing played out years ago on an Arizona desert highway when we couldn’t believe what was happening before our eyes! We were traveling along a miles-long fence when suddenly ahead of us, we saw just one sheep out of a huge herd find a hole in the fence and jump through it, quicklyfollowed by another one, then another one and another one in single file. Soon the whole herd became aware and every onefollowed, jumping through the hole and bursting out all over the highway! Out of the safety of the fenced pasture! It was a pretty comical sight and we laughed and shook our heads, “Dumb sheep!”

However in my studies about sheep lately, I have begun to see them differently. In fact, staying together in a group is the best way to avoid predators. I read that sheep are actually quiteintelligent and possess very surprising mental abilities. Here are a few examples. They have an incredible memory: Sheep can recognize and remember up to 50 individual faces, both of people and other sheep, for over two years. Sheep have an amazing ability for figuring out problems they face: They can find their way out of intricate mazes and figure out how to open gates or latches. Sheep are highly emotional: People don’t realize that they have very deep emotions and feelings. Sheep feel fear, anger, and boredom. They establish strong bonds with other sheep in their flock and are known to feel grief when a friend is lost. Maybe you saw the recent movie, Sheep Detectives, and saw some of this in action! It is more true-to-life than you think!

Sheep have an incredible ability to recognize individual human voices and sounds and distinctive calls. In places like the Middle East, shepherds from various villages still corral their different flocks in public fenced-in pastures where they share a single pen overnight. In the morning, each shepherd calls out to their specific flock, and only their sheep will get up and follow them out. The rest of the sheep don’t even look up or respond.Because flock sizes are large and the well-being of the flockrequires absolute trust, sheep form a deep bond with their shepherds who raise, feed, and protect them. This means that if a stranger or a different shepherd tries to whistle or call out, the sheep will typically ignore them or even flee. In fact, Jesus refers to this arrangement in John 10:3-5, “To him [the shepherd of the sheep] the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Sheep are not driven like cattle. They are led and actually follow. They have an intimate relationship with the shepherd. They are so familiar with the shepherd’s voice that they recognize his face, his whistles and other noises, even his words and how he speaks to them! They know him as protector, guide, and rescuer. 

Over the years on the roadside, we have been accused of being dumb sheep who blindly follow. Is that true? Absolutely not! Why not? Let’s end this where we began, with John 10:27, and apply it to people! Specifically, the followers of Jesus! The ones He was referring to in the verse, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Why? Because the sheep know who He is. They belong to Him. They recognize Him by the sound of His voice and they trust Him. One thing we hear all the time is, “But I can’t hear His voice!” But…you can! Tune in next week to learn how!

-Emil Liko 7/31/26

Revelation 4:9-11 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”

I want you to close your eyes and picture yourself sitting at the banquet of the Lamb (Luke 14:15). You are seated at a hugetable. The angels come up to each saint (us) at the table, one by one, and place a crown upon each head—you receive your great reward! James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” The trumpets sound and we all stand as the Lord enters the banquet room! Suddenly as you see Him face to face, the crown upon your head seems to lose its value. Why? Because you realize that although you were rewarded for faithfully following our Lord, you followed Him because of everything that He did for you! We are nothing without His grace, without His Mercy. The Lord does not remind us of our past sins, but we recall everything He did to rescue us from our sinful life, to rescue us from going to hell. He saved us, which gave us the right to follow our amazing Lord, to have a seat at the banquet, to walk the streets of gold, to live in a mansion He prepared for us, to wear pure white robes, washed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We received the right to live with Him for all of eternity in a place where there is no sun or moon because the glory of the Lord radiates His light in all heaven. Yet we are rewarded for following Him!

Romans 5:8 Amplified “But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.” Jesus didn’t wait for us to straighten out our lives. He accepted us “as is,” just for the asking! He loved us, cleansed us, and called us His own. Wow, what an awesome God! As the crucifixion scenein “The Passion of the Christ” was being filmed, Mel Gibsonwas zoomed in on the hands of the actor holding the nail and hammer, about to nail Jesus to the cross. He stopped the filmingat that moment. He had suddenly recalled the Bible verse, Isaiah 53:5 Amplified, “But He was wounded for our transgressions,He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him,

And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed.” He said, “I couldn’t film it. I instead came out from behind the camera, and I had to film my hands nailing my Lord to the cross. After all it was my sin that put Him there!” It was my sin, too. But our sin did not keep Him on the cross. When Jesus rose from the graveand exited the tomb, He left my sin and your sin dead and buried, never to be remembered again.

Psalm 103:8-12 Passion Translation “Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail you! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults, just so that you can hold a grudge against us. You may discipline us for our many sins, but never as much as we really deserve. Nor do you get even with us for what we’ve done. Higher than the highest heavens—that’s how high your tender mercy extends! Greater than the grandeur of heaven above is the greatness of your loyal love, towering over all who fear you and bow down before you! Farther than from a sunrise to a sunset— that’s how far you’ve removed our guilt from us. The same way a loving father feels toward his children— that’s but a sample of your tender feelings toward us, your beloved children, who live in awe of you.”

OI end where I began, Revelation 4:9-11: we give them all back, casting our crowns at His feet! Because even though He gives out rewards, it’s not about us at all. All we have comes from His hand, and all we are is because of Him. Our natural reaction when we see Him is to give it all back: our crowns and our lives. For He is worthy!

-Emil Liko 7/24/36

We were set up on the roadside with our Free Prayer trailer. A woman stopped and after we prayed with her, I asked her if she would like to ask Jesus into her heart to be her Lord and Savior. Her answer floored us! She said “No! I don’t believe in middlemen! I don’t need Jesus! I go straight to the Father!” WOW! There was no reasoning with her. Her mind was made up, but she couldn’t have been more wrong! Without Jesus, there is no going to heaven. Without Jesus, there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is also God! 

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus said that! “No one comes to the Father except through Me!”Meaning: No one! There is no way around Jesus. Maybe some of you are thinking, but isn’t Jesus a mediator? Yes, 

1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

What is a mediator? According to the New York Courts website,“In mediation, a person called a ‘mediator’ helps people in a dispute to communicate with one another, to understand each other, and if possible, to reach agreements that satisfy everyone’s interests. The mediator does not take sides or decide who was right or wrong (sins) in the past. The mediator helps people to make their own decisions and focus on the future.”

Jesus is the mediator because He bridges the gap between a holy God and sinful man. He is also the only bridge to the Father and to eternal life in heaven, because He is both fully God and fully man. Because of this, He is the only one who can represent both sides. By Jesus offering Himself as a blood offering to pay the ransom for sin, He became the bridge to resolve the separation between us and the Father. Why is this so important? Two years ago, during the flood, we lived north of Sioux Rapids. When the bridges flooded, there was no way to cross to the other side. We were stuck! It created an impasse. It is the same way with Jesus. He is the bridge and without Him in your heart, there is no way you can get from earth to heaven. It’s impossible!  

Jesus said of communion in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, “This is My body, this is My blood…Do this in remembrance of Me!” Why does Jesus want us to remember? Jesus never wants us to forget that He redeemed us when we accepted Him into our heart to forgive us of our sins. He wants us to remember the price He paid to give us the right to be saved and the right to go to heaven. He wants us to remember that He loved us while we were still sinners. And Jesus wants us to remember the words he spoke to the thief on the cross who wanted to accept Jesus as His Savior. Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in paradise!”And He wants us to remember that we too will be with Him in paradise if we have Him in our hearts!

Remember I wrote a few weeks ago about my experience of dying and going to heaven? The first person I saw in heaven was Jesus. I have come to realize that because Jesus is my bridge into heaven, His arms were the first I got to experience to welcome me home! If you haven’t asked Jesus into your heart,do so today. Romans 10:9 says, “IF you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raisedJesus from the dead, you WILL be saved!” I hope to see all of you in heaven!

-Emil Liko 7/17/26

Genesis 16 is the full story of Hagar, but I want to focus only on verses 11
and 13-14. The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant,
and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord
has heard of your misery.” She [Hagar] gave this name to the Lord who
spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now
seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi…

Beer Lahai Roi means, “well of the Living One who sees me.” Hagar was a servant in the house of Abraham, the servant of Sarah, his wife. She fled into the wilderness after being treated harshly. Alone, pregnant, and afraid, in one of the most difficult times of her life, she was not looking for God, BUT God was looking for her. God saw her in her distress, a “seeing” of limitless love. After He let her share her heart with Him, she said, “You are El Roi, the God who sees me”. She is the only person in the Bible to give God a name, and He gives her the name for her son. Why? Because the name Ishmael in Hebrew translates to “God will hear” or “God listens.” From that moment on, every time she would look at her son or call his name, she would be reminded that God hears her.

There are times in your life when you go through situations that are hard and difficult. You wonder, “Lord, where are you?” You struggle and feel like the Lord really doesn’t care. As you cry out to the Lord, have you noticed there are times when you run into someone, and it annoys you because you just want to be left alone. But this person takes time to speak into your life, comfort and love and peace! Have you noticed in some of your darkest times that your phone suddenly rings? You look at your phone and groan, “Lord, I need you NOW!” Someone felt impressed to call you and check on you! Maybe you say, “Yes, but where was God? Doesn’t He care? Doesn’t He know what I’m going through? Why doesn’t He show up right now?” Again, your phone rings and you don’t want to be bothered! As in the story of Hagar, God sent an angel to speak to her for Him, to comfort her and to give her guidance and direction in a time she was lost and overwhelmed! God speaks through people. When you got saved, did the Lord Himself show up to lead you to into repentance to accept Him? Or did He send someone to you?

I know from personal experience, times when I was in a bad place and crying out to the Lord, and suddenly my phone rings from someone I haven’t heard from in a long time. My first reaction is “No! I’m not in the mood for you!” But often I came to realize the Lord had sent them! It reminds me of a story of a man trapped in his home during a monumental rain. The waters kept rising. Soon the man was in his second story window watching the water rise. He prayed, “Lord, please rescue me!” Some guys with a ladder showed up and said, “Come down the ladder and we will get you to dry ground,” but the man said no. Later a man in a boat came up to his window and said, “Get in! I’m here to help.” The man said, “No, I’m waiting for the Lord to save me!” Next the man was on his roof and a helicopter came and the men called out, “Climb into the basket and we will save you!” The man again said no. The man drowned and showed up in heaven where He asked, “Lord, didn’t you hear me? I cried for help, but You didn’t come so I drowned!” The Lord said, “I heard you! I sent a man with a ladder, a boat, and a helicopter but you said no! I tried everything to help you!” This is important: when you cry out to the Lord for help, don’t decide ahead of time how the Lord will help you! Take who he sends to you! And you will thank God more often than complain to Him!

It is in a personal encounter like Hagar’s that we see God and in seeing Him, we know Him and understand His love for us. He is the Living One, the living water who gives us life and sustains us. Seek God, and you will encounter Him in such a way that you feel seen and feel known. God sees me and hears me. God sees you and hears you. Because He absolutely loves you!

-Emil Liko 7/10/26

Genesis 3:17-19 To Adam God said, “Because you listened to your wife and
ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

This was more important than most realize. Up to this point, God walked with man. God loved man and man loved God. Sin and pain were not present in the Garden of Eden, God’s garden. But then man chose to listen to the words of Satan instead of the words of God. What happened next? Once man sinned, he suddenly feels compelled to hide from God! Why? Because now guilt, shame, condemnation and fear entered the relationship between man and God. But what fear entered? Man suddenly became fearful of God! Man, Adam, suddenly knew he was separated from God because of his own doing. Fear which God never instilled into man was now present in man. Not just that but when God said, “Why are you hiding?” man replied, “I am naked.” He was now clothed in shame! But even more happened. When God asked, “Did you eat of the tree I told you not to?” now the spirit of accusation appears! Adam blamed God, “Yes, God. But it’s not my fault—it’s because of that woman You gave me!” Now the lying spirit shows up! “God, I was righteous, but it’s now Your fault I am no longer sinless!” God asks the woman and again, accusation, “It’s not my fault. It’s because of the snake. It’s his fault.”  The Lord says, “I did everything for you, and I gave you everything. Now you are going to have to work for it. You are going to sweat your head off to provide for your food. The ground will be full of thorns and thistles to make your work even harder!” So for centuries, man suffered the consequences of his sin through the sweat of his brow from the ground that was cursed, causing the curse upon man. This lasted for centuries!

But did the curse remain? Has it ever been broken? Yes, it was. In the Garden of Gethsemane. How? Luke 22:44 “And being in anguish, Jesus prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground!” Before He went to the cross, Jesus sweat blood! Where? On His brow. And where did it fall? On the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane. The blood of Jesus took the curse placed upon man’s brow and it then fell on the ground, breaking the curse of the ground which cursed man. Jesus broke the curse set upon all mankind. Then His blood was shed upon the cross, where He took upon Himself the sin of the world. Jesus didn’t forgive our sins and leave the curse. He reversed the curse by taking away the original sin of rebellion and disobedience which caused the curse! You might say, “But wait! The Bible says His sweat was like drops of blood.” The blood of Jesus was mixed with the sweat in His own body, so it was watery blood. Jesus’ anguish of sin produced blood mixed with his sweat, just as man’s anguish as he worked the ground through “blood, sweat and tears,” as the old saying goes. Remember the thorns the cursed ground produced? A crown of thorns was placed on Jesus’ head, and the soldiers pushed it into his head producing more blood on his brow. Now the thorns were covered in the blood of Jesus and the curse was officially broken! Remember the Bible says, “Cursed is He who hangs upon a tree” (the cross).

1 Timothy 2:6 The Message “Jesus…offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free.”  Now the curse is broken, sin is forgiven, and there is no longer a separation from, or fear of, the Lord! Is it now time to make Jesus your Lord?

-Emil Liko 7/3/26

This is a true story. This is my story, continued from last week…I cried out, “NO! NO! I’m NOT done!” Jesus looked at me so incredibly lovingly and said in a voice of compassion, as He motioned with His arm downward, “Well then, go back.”

I said immediately, “Yeah! Yeah!” and I started going back down. As I did, the light got a little dimmer, the song got a little quieter, the blue began to fade, the billions of people began to leave, and the hole into heaven got smaller and smaller. Suddenly, I was back in my body and immediately aware something was wrong! It took everything in me to speak, and a really deep voice that felt like it was from a mile-deep black hole in me said, “I…don’t…feeeeel…gooood.” The startled dentist looked at me, then at the gauges on the tanks of gas I was hooked up to. In a panic, he jumped out of his chair and dove over me landing on the other side in front of the tanks. He frantically turned the dials on the gauges, turning off the gas and turning on the oxygen. He yelled to his assistant, “You forgot to turn on the oxygen! You were killing him!” I was getting only the nitrous! He then put his hands on my shoulders and yelled, “Don’t move! Just breathe! Breathe!” Turning completely white, they both slumped back in their chairs. After a short while, I assured them that I was ok to continue and he shakingly finished the work.

I did not share my experience with them because I was still so full of awe and joy, I could hardly speak to even put it into words. I just walked out to the receptionist, paid my bill and left! As we got in the car, Karen asked, “How did it go?” I replied, “Good. I died and went to heaven.” “You what!?” she gasped. And I replied, “I’m so sorry, honey—but I never once thought of you! I was so consumed in Jesus, I couldn’t think of anything or anyone else but Him!” By the way, one thing people want to know—”What was the song you were singing along with heaven?” I wish I could remember, but I don’t!

I had always been afraid of dying, of being judged for past sin and regrets—things I wish I would have, could have, should have done. Amazingly, while I was dying, I had no thought of sin in my life at all. I never once thought of sin, of regret, of disappointment! No guilt, no shame, no condemnation—none of that! I wasn’t even aware that I was dying. I felt only liquid love! I was still in my body but I could see heaven, I could hear heaven, I could feel heaven, and the intensity of love and joy that came was something that I can’t express. I wish I could have kept that feeling! They say God’s Word doesn’t fall void, and it’s true—every prophetic word, every word God had spoken to me, everything we were doing and everything the Lord told us we would do—all came back to me at one time. Jesus stopped me and asked so lovingly, “Do you think you’re done?” Think of it! He gave me the choice! If I had said yes, I would be in heaven right now! Jesus Himself let me decide.

Romans 8:11 “And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal [short-lived, perishable] bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.” Why am I sharing this story after 16 years? The Lord said it was time! You see, for Christians, those who have asked Jesus into their hearts, this world is the most hell they will ever know! But for non-Christians, this world is the most heaven they will ever know. That’s scary! If you’ve never asked Jesus into your heart, I hope today is the day so you too can experience what I did when it’s your time to meet Him!

-Emil Liko 6/26/26