Build your faith like the kingdom castle it is meant to be. Pour yourself into the Bible every day. Visit a few minutes with your Charisma Podcast Network hosts Andrea and Ann Marie and the Fruit of the Vine podcast as they continue their conversation on all things God. 

Psalm 1:1­5 teaches, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; its leaf will not wither, and whatever he does will prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish.” As sinners saved by grace, we are accorded God’s richest blessings. But how do we access His blessings, power, equipping, joy, peace, and grace? We will continue missing the boat until we finally grasp for the last time that God’s Word is the direct line we have to God’s heart. What we consume in God’s Word we are accountable for. Press in to God’s Spirit by taking hold of His Word. Enhance your lifestyle by building your days around spending time in Scripture.

Isaiah 58 teaches, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high” (vv 1­4, KJV). What we consume in God’s Word we are accountable for. Press in to God’s Spirit by crucifying your flesh in fasting, a wonderful path forward to breakthrough and change. Invest a few of your minutes with your Charisma Podcast Network hosts Andrea and Ann Marie and the Fruit of the Vine podcast as they continue their discussion on fasting.

 We must speak life—turn from negative thoughts and dead-end words about yourself. Rest in the finished work of Christ believing in the hope and confident assurance purchased for us through the blood of Jesus on the cross. Fasting is our God-given way of peeling away the world’s distractions and leaving the battle to our Lord. That is because that battle already belongs to Him. The glory is the Lord’s. His victory is our victory when we seek His plan in the form of fasting.

Get closer to God’s Spirit by putting down your flesh. It is called fasting and it’s a wonderful way to press in to our Lord for breakthrough and change. Steward a few of your minutes with your Charisma Podcast Network hosts Andrea and Ann Marie and the Fruit of the Vine podcast while they discuss the who, what, when, where, why and how of fasting.

 Leave your flesh’s old ways behind using one of the most tremendous and powerful weapons God has ever given us, fasting. Fasting is not merely eating a bit less, choosing a salad or a smaller meal. It is a specific bypassing of meals and beverages over a set period of time. That period can be anywhere from three hours or twelve hours up to two days, three days, a full seven-day week or more. Forty-day fasts like Jesus did are always called forth by God, so it is prudent to seek Him in prayer to plan any fast longer than the usual few days.

When planning your fast, give yourself a few days at least for prepping. This will include tapering off your caffeine intake, your media diet and your sleep patterns. If you happen not to taper your caffeine you run a higher risk for large headaches under any sort of “cold turkey” abrupt stoppage of caffeine. And keep in mind that caffeine is in many of our favorite beverages each day, not least coffee and iced tea among many others.

Go forth confidently in planning the time you will spend with God in prayer and stilling your heart and spirit, knowing that the first thing our Lord Jesus did after His baptism was fast in the desert. He instituted fasting and as with all of God’s blessing delivered to us through Jesus’ blood, we can embrace fasting right now today, joyfully expecting the vibrant opportunity to humble ourselves, quiet our souls and hear whatever our Father longs to share with us.

Sanctification is not a pleasant stroll. We have to fight for our faith. Invest a few minutes of your time with the Fruit of the Vine podcast and your hosts Andrea and Ann Marie from the Charisma Podcast Network. Add to your wisdom about our Father’s renewing of each of us moment by moment through the rest of our lives.

We put on the new man and we are new wine in old wineskins, but we are not guaranteed peaceful moments into our future. The moment we’re saved is the moment the battle begins. The enemy of our souls puts each newly saved believer squarely on his radar. That enemy wants nothing more than to peel away anyone it can lay its cloven hooves upon and separate God’s children from their Father in heaven. 

And that is why we must fight for our faith.

 Pray all the time the way we’re taught in the Bible to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:16–18). But what is beyond that? Lift up in prayer every corner of your life’s foundation. Pray over your spouse, your children, your parents and siblings, your employer and your co-workers. Keep your fellow church members prayed up, believing for God’s promised grace and peace. In your prayers seek God’s Will and ask Him to unleash His Will everywhere through you. Know you are set free through Christ and charge forward in sanctified power toward God’s Will for your life.

Jesus is real. He is risen and alive to connect us home to our Father in heaven. So, why was he hanging on the cross? Enjoy a brief visit with Fruit of the Vine podcast hosts Andrea and Ann Marie from the Charisma Podcast Network. Learn the answers to the mystery Ann Marie spent her youth searching for arriving ultimately at salvation in Christ.

Ann Marie Kelly was brought up in a religious home. That should have given a young, Catholic Ann Marie enough of a solid foundation to steer clear of adolescent risks. But having been born to somewhat older parents, combined with peer influences that opened doors to dangerous distractions, she drifted down an unhealthy path. Unsavory habits including drug use and dabbling in occultism clouded the “good Catholic girl's" life from the end of grade school up through her early twenties. By the end of her teens, she was married with two children.

A chance remark during a conversation with her future sister-in-law opened Ann Marie’s eyes to reality of the presence of Jesus. She finally discovered she could go directly to God through Jesus instead of having to remain trapped beholden to mortal man in the person of a church priest. Never again would Ann Marie be left completely vulnerable to spiritual attacks from fellow astro-plain practitioners. God gave her revelation that all her seeking through dark spirits and drugs had been ever-deeper bondage to sin—but Jesus is the key that unlocks our prisoner’s chains and releases us to eternal freedom.

While the world grows colder, harsher, and more distant, there is refuge and peace waiting and its cost has already been paid. Invest a few minutes with Fruit of the Vine podcast hosts Andrea and Ann Marie from the Charisma Podcast Network, and unlock the secret to lifelong grace, love, and mercy already waiting for you.

We must be born anew in the Spirit. God is a god of reason and purpose, but He’s especially a god of more. Everything God does is exquisitely designed to lead to the following logical step. In our fallen flesh-driven existence, we remain the drowning man batting away the life preservers repeatedly as they’re offered to us time after time. Only sinful flesh could spit irrationally in the face of its logical God offering His infinite lovingkindness. His reason is flouted by utterly unreasonable sin-infested flesh. But only what any of us ever may do for the cause of Christ will last with eternal value.

Lay down every frustration and guilt. Leave shame behind. Embrace His peace by your side. Get into His Word and stay there. Renew your mind and don’t stop. Reach for the place where your innermost being says, “Thy will be done, Father,” and follow David’s example in Psalm 139 hungering for the Lord so search you and show you anything not of Him and that you have not let go of yet. 

God gave us Jesus so we could connect back to God. When we get connected to God, we need to stay connected. If we ever drift from God, we must remember that He never gives up on us, and we can continue in the Vine, our Lord Jesus, and reconnect back to God. Invest a few minutes with Fruit of the Vine podcast and your hosts Andrea and Ann Marie from the Charisma Podcast Network, and discover what it looks like to trust God through life-changing blessings. 

God is real and is changing lives every day as He works through us. Naomi learned this firsthand when her middle-school-aged daughter began having behavioral problems in class. An otherwise bright and successful student, Naomi's daughter also came from a solid and stable home, but one that did not have Jesus in its foundation. Naomi was an educator and knew what disruption a challenging student could cause in a school. Her daughter's Dean tried to help, but eventually a breaking point arrived. Naomi’s daughter purchased alcohol from a classmate. Naomi had enough. She packed her daughter’s belongings in a trash bag and took her to wherever they might find help. Finally arriving at a local church, she believed a solution was about to happen. But the church was closed. Naomi finally broke. She sat down on the church steps and wept. But she resolved to come back to the church the next Sunday morning. Naomi was returning to familiar territory, having grown up a pastor’s kid in the Pentecostal church. She was going back to church, believing “Come on God, help me do this.” After several weeks her husband began attending with Naomi and their two daughters. Little by little their household grew into a home seeking God and His wisdom. “The devil is not allowed, and we’re not going back to where we were,” Naomi declared. Her new church encouraged and nourished her.