The Lesson To Learn From This Story
Those of us who are in covenant relationship with Yahweh God – we who are chosen and who live in the power of Yeshua’s resurrection – we have great authority through Yeshua to do amazing natural and supernatural wonders for the purpose of building God’s kingdom and glorifying his name.

What Happened Before This Story
Let’s set the stage. (I like telling stories in present-tense form. I think it makes it feel more exciting ). Elijah has already been taken up to heaven and Elisha has been given a double portion of the Elijah’s spirit (possibly an allusion to the Holy Spirit?). Already, Elisha has shown that Yahweh is with him – he has purified a town’s water supply, brought a dead boy to life, and healed the Aramean army commander of his leprosy. (see 2 Kings 2-5)

As we can see, Elisha is walking in the authority that Yahweh anointed him with. That’s how he was able to do the miracles, signs and wonders that he performed. He is in covenant relationship with Yahweh God: Yahweh promises to provide the power and authority, and Elisha promises to use that power and authority to honor Yahweh and build his kingdom. By the way, that’s the same covenant relationship we who are in Christ have with Yahweh God today. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s the story…

The Story, Summarized
The king of Aram wages war with Israel, but Yahweh protects the Israelites by sending warnings through Elisha, telling the king of Israel when and where the Arameans are positioning themselves against Israel (remember: Yahweh protects his anointed ones!). When word gets out that Elisha is the supposed “culprit” of this leakage, the king of Aram orders that Elisha be captured.

In the morning, Elisha’s servant notices an army surrounding the city. It’s the Arameans! But Elisha simply asks Yahweh to show his servant the Army of Yahweh. Then Elisha asks Yahweh to blind the eyes of those in the army that is against him (remember: according to the covenant, Elisha has permission to request this of Yahweh). Now unable to see, the army is led by Elisha into the city of Samaria. Now surrounded by the Israelites, the Aramean army’s eyes are then opened and they realize where they are.

Fully capable of having the entire army slaughtered before his eyes, Elisha instead asks that they be fed and then sent back to their master. That act of Godly compassion and forgiveness demonstrates how Elisha was using his God-given authority to build up Yahweh’s kingdom. And it worked! The Arameans stopped pestering the Israelites, and the story was recorded to permanently testify of Yahweh’s goodness.

A Lesson In Kingdom Authority
I’ve seen some people get defensive and offended when they are told that they have been given great authority through Yeshua the Messiah. They act is if authority is bad, but authority is only bad or good by the way it is used. Sure, we can use authority abusively, but that profits no one! Our God-given authority was given to use for the purpose of establishing the Kingdom of Yahweh here on earth, as it is in heaven.

Ask youself: What is it like in heaven? Is there sickness, is there abuse, is there pessimism, is there poverty? Obviously not. These are the things we see in heaven: wholeness of health, bountiful joy, kindness and compassion, positive thinking, praise to the King of Kings, wealth beyond measure, and much more. Yahweh, in his infinite love, chose to involve us in the process of restoring shalom (peace, wholeness, wealth) to this world.

And get this (this is really cool)… If you have dedicated your whole self to Yeshua, then you are now in covenant relationship with him, just as Elisha was! Maybe it’s not your calling to blind an army and then feed them. But maybe it is. Your calling may be to heal the sick through miracles, or to nurse the wounds of the injured, to comfort those who need hope, to teach those who need instruction, and so on. Your calling may take many different forms, but no matter which form it takes, it is founded on your God-given authority to bless and not curse. And as all of us disciples of Yeshua come together and flourish in our own individual callings, then we all together can fulfill the desire of Yahweh’s heart: to build up his kingdom here on earth, as it is in heaven (see Matthew 6:10).

So, brothers in sisters in Christ, let us not waver in lack of authority. No, but let us rise up from the ashes and stand empowered with Yahweh’s authority and anointing. Let us press forward in strength and vigor, utilizing every bit of our God-given authority to bless Yahweh, to bless his children, to bless ourselves. And by doing these things, we shall build up and further establish the wonderful Kingdom of our Savior Yeshua.

Now, go forward in confidence, established in Yawheh’s eternal love, and ready to use your God-given authority to bless. Thanks for reading, and come back again for more Godly inspiration and teachings!

Shalom,
Jonathan Hostetler

That’s an excerpt from one of Daves Highway’s newest songs “The Brightness of Jesus.” If you’re not already familiar with this young group of talented singers, check out their website DavesHighway.com and their YouTube channel, too.

And then watch them sing “The Brightness Of Jesus.”

Enjoy, and God bless,
Jonathan Hostetler

The first way that a mindset of abundance effects you is by enabling you to adapt to major life changes more easily. All of us go through changes, and some changes are more dramatic than others. Getting a new job, moving to a new home, or developing a new friendship can all be major changes that require us to adapt. In these situations, having an attitude of abundance means that you know there are plenty of opportunities, more than enough grace from your Father God, and a wealth of wisdom available through the Word of God. Having that level of confidence can really make you enthusiastic about working through major changes, instead of dreading them.

Having an attitude of abundance also helps us let go of possessions and thought pattens that are no longer necessary. Think about this: lack makes us want more, abundance makes us want less. It seems counterintuitive until you think about how merchandise is sold many times. “Limited time offer,” “Only while supplies last,” and “Closeout sale,” are all ideas used in sales to get customers to want to buy right away. It plays on our desire to not be in lack.

But when we know that a particular offer (such as a discount) will never expire, we tend to feel less urgency about owning that product, and many times we just never get around to buying it. That’s kind of how the attitude of abundance makes us operate. When we know that God has great plans for us, and there are so many opportunities in our future, we tend to move forward with enthusiasm and eagerness, instead of with urgency. Urgency can make us feel stressed; enthusiasm and eagerness makes us feel happy!

And finally, having an attitude of abundance usually causes us to become deeply grateful for the good things that Yahweh is doing in our lives. It is only when we are distressed about difficulties we are facing that we become dissatisfied and many times ungrateful for what Yahweh has already done to help us get to where we are now. But as we begin to recognize the kindness and mercy he has shown us in the past, we realize how much we are loved by our Father. As a result, our mindset shifts from being ungrateful and distressed to being filled with joy and abundance.

There is more than enough wisdom, more than enough of Yahweh’s favor, and more than enough of Yahweh’s blessings to help us be enthusiastic about Yahweh’s work in our lives. Choosing to adopt that attitude of abundance will help you enjoy changes as they come, to be content with what you have, and to be grateful for what Yahweh is doing in your life. If you shift your thinking to this abundant mindset, you will see a dramatic improvement in your perspective of yourself, of other people, and of your life in general.

Enjoy life, and watch Yahweh work,
Jonathan Hostetler

It’s a story of two men who are given the job of carrying water from a well to their village. They start out with the same strategy: carry buckets of water back and forth as quickly as possible to make as much money as possible. But soon, one guy has a different idea, and it makes him rich. Find out what he did by watching this video…

It illustrates that many times it pays off to think smart, instead of just working hard, although hard work is essential.

Special thanks to my friend Jean Claude Gregorio for sharing the video with me.

How are you going to think smart? If you’re looking for wisdom, ask God and he will give it (James 1:5).

Be well,
Jonathan Hostetler

• Total project cost: $10 (to register domain for 1 year)
• Revenue goal: $10/mo or more
• Monetization through Google AdSense and Amazon affiliate program
• 18 hours of work, from start to finish (beating my previously held 20 hour record)
• Project completed by 1pm Thursday, Nov. 17
• 6 content pages on website
• 2 articles submitted to the article directories (2 unique articles, rewritten twice to make the equivalent of 6 unique articles)
• I wrote all the content myself; no ghostwriting
• Low-search keywords (most keywords get less than 500 searches per month)
• Got over 40 unique visitors in the first 9 hours online (looks like someone shared it on SumbleUpon – cool!)
• Google spidered all pages of website in less than 24 hours

You can visit my new website at FlipFlopShoppingTips.com

So, website #7 is finished. Just 33 more to go to reach my first goal of 40 websites!

Thanks for listening,
Jonathan Hostetler

But Yahweh has since taught me that music cannot be judged by its style or rhythm. The words of the song give the song its meaning. That’s why I no longer dismiss a song or a band just because of the way the music sounds. I take time to listen to the lyrics, and to get to know the vision of the band and its members.

From the little I’ve learned so far about For Today, I can tell that the band is anointed by Yahweh to do His work. Their vision to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ through music is awesome and inspiring!

My favorite song by For Today is titled Seraphim (a Hebrew word meaning “burning ones”). Mattie, the lead vocalist of the band, explains the meaning behind that song, as well as a bunch of other songs they’ve written, in this video (skip to 4:15 to hear the meaning of the song Seraphim)…

Just as the seraphim in the Bible (see Isaiah and Revelation) worship God and declare His holiness around his throne in heaven, so we too worship and praise him on earth, shining the light of his love, as his “burning ones” (seraphim). Some of the lyrics from the song are…

Burning ones, arise! Come forth!
Take your flame, ignite the world.
We are the only hope
for a hopeless world
to see the face of the living God.
Take your flame, ignite the world.

And here is that song, Seraphim…

Hopefully that song has blessed you and encouraged you to shine brightly for the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. If it’s not your style of music, that’s okay. You can worship God with whatever style of music you like. The point is that we Believers are all brothers and sisters in Christ, serving the King of Glory together as one.

Let us build His kingdom together. Go on, burning one! Ignite the world with the fire of God burning from within you.

Peace,
Jonathan Hostetler

Then, just recently, I came across AdSenseFlippers.com, two guys working together to build a massive empire of websites and a flood of monthly income. They share their formula and tips on their website, so I decided to apply them and make a website based on that formula.

And so I created my newest website, based on what I gathered from studying their formula. Please welcome my 4 day old website…

EasyGumboRecipes.com, a simple but useful 5-page website offering a few gumbo recipes.

The whole project consisted of writing 5 articles, which compose the website itself, and also writing 2 more articles which I then distributed to a few popular article directories. Altogether, this project took me about 20 hours to complete. That includes everything from brainstorming to figure out what keywords could be profitable, to actually writing the articles, to designing the website itself.

My goal is not to simply follow other people’s formulas. I’m trying to find my own style, but I’ve found it very helpful to learn from other people’s successes. I know that I want to build a larger-than-full-time passive income from websites, and I know I want to do it as quickly as possible. I’m just finding my way as I go. So I feel good that I’ve made another step by building another website. But it feels like this is just the beginning. A re-launch, of sorts. More is to come.

I’m just going to keep building more and more websites and see how many it will take to achieve my desired income. Can I do it with just 40 sites? Maybe. Will it take 100? More? Possibly. However many it takes, God and I will make it happen. With God for me, nothing can remain standing against me.

So what’s the take-home lesson for you? Know what your goal is, and find your own way to achieve it. But don’t be afraid of following in the footsteps of people who have achieved what you’re working for. God will help you find your own way.

Only believe,
Jonathan Hostetler

Receiving is just as much an attitude as it is an action. What gives receiving its value and its meaning is the attitudes attached to it. If you were blindfolded and a wrapped gift was placed onto your lap or into your arms, you would not experience much emotion, even though you just experienced the act of receiving.

However, if you were given a suitcase of hundred dollar bills, or something of extreme value to you (without being blindfolded), then you would experience some very strong emotions. Point being, the emotions experienced during the acts of giving and receiving determine the attitude we have as we receive.

It is those who learn the fine art of receiving who go on to do great things in life and to bless so many people in meaningful ways. For no progress can be made until we learn to receive. The very breath you breath is a gift from Yahweh, and each time you breath you are receiving his gift to you. The clothes on your back had to be received by you. Sure, you gave your money to the store that sold you your clothing, but after you did so you had to receive what you purchased.

Many people have learned the art of giving, and that is a good thing. For Yeshua himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35 KJV). With such a blessing attached to giving, it’s no wonder so many people have learned to give. Don’t get me wrong – giving is a very important art as well, but that is a subject different from the one I am addressing now. To receive takes guts. It takes a boldness that must be learned before it can be fully appreciated.

Here is one of the best ways to learn and practice the attitude (or art) of receiving: appreciate the giver and the gift. Appreciating the giver completes their blessing, for it makes them feel good about their generosity. Appreciating the gift completes your blessing, for it makes you feel good about being thought of.

We all desire to be known, to be recognized, to be thought of. So when we choose not to appreciate the gifts we have been given, we deny ourselves our deepest desire – to be known. That is why it takes guts to be a good receiver. It requires that we come face to face with our desire to be known, to be loved.

But watch what happens when we rise up and choose to be a good receiver: we first of all acknowledge our desire to be known, and once that desire is fulfilled, we are open to fully appreciating our gift. With our desire fulfilled and our gift appreciated, we then are able to fully and completely appreciate the giver. So the truth of the matter is: the measure of blessing bestowed back upon the giver is directly proportional to the measure we receive (i.e. appreciate) the gift.

The fact that someone gave you a gift means that they desired to bless you, to make you feel special. And when they know that it has done just that, they experience a blessing far greater than the mere act of giving a gift. I think this is why Yahweh made receiving such a foundational part of the gift-giving experience. In order for the giver to fully experience the blessing of giving, the recipient must receive the gift in a meaningful way.

Side note: If you give a gift, and the recipient does not show the appreciation that they should, you still have a blessing. Yahweh sees your kindness and thoughtfulness, and he will bless you. It’s just much more meaningful if the recipient expresses gratitude.

What I hope you’ve learned from this study of the art of receiving is that we should learn to be good receivers for two reasons: 1) to most fully bless the giver, and 2) to most fully receive the blessing.

So the next time you are given something (a gift, or even a kind word), think about how you can be a good receiver. And make sure the giver knows you appreciate both the gift, and more importantly, the giver.

Wishing you Yahweh’s best now and always,
Jonathan Hostetler

And here’s a typical view by the side of the road…

I had the privilege of spending some time with the youth group of the Nakuru Happy Church. They were very welcoming and a pleasure to be with. Here I am with the group…

We even had some time to visit the Lake Nakuru National Park. We saw baboons, zebras, lions, antelope, and rhinos.

I made a new friend, Jamo. He’s a musician and worship leader at his church, and he was so helpful in driving us around town wherever we needed to go…

My favorite food that I had in Kenya was ugali (aka “gumbo” or “boul”). It’s very similar to a meal eaten regularly in Chad (where I was born). It’s basically corn flour, salt, and water, boiled into a paste that can be dipped in numerous things, such as chicken soup, sauce, or other meats.

On my final day, on the way to the airport, this double-rainbow graced the evening sky. A simple reminder that we can fully trust all of God’s promises…

Mungu akubariki (“God bless you” in Swahili),
Jonathan Hostetler

In Psalm 87 is revealed Yahweh’s heart concerning Zion and his people. Zion is referred to many times throughout the Bible (over 150 times), and it has a couple meanings. David’s city, Jerusalem, was referred to as Zion (see 1 Kings 8:1). Zion is also referred to as the place of Yahweh’s people (see Isaiah 30:19, among others).

The Hebrew meaning of the word “Zion” can be described as a “landmark in the desert”¹ (thus is the term used “Mount Zion”), or “place of dryness”², not meaning a desert place without water, but rather a place where the ocean does not exist.

This last definition of Zion as being “a place where the sea does not exist” is particularly interesting in light of Revelation 21:1 which says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.” (NIV)

What’s so great about there being “no sea?” Before the flood, in the garden of Eden, paradise existed with “no sea” (not that sea did not exist, but that it was not exist in the Garden itself). And how did the earth supply the water needed for life? “Streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground!” (Genesis 2:6 NIV)

Now, this is just my own thoughts, but I think they hold some truth. If we merge these two facts/ideas: 1) Zion is/will be a spiritual place without sea, and 2) The original “Garden of Eden” paradise was nourished with water from streams or springs from the ground…

…then Psalm 87:7 has a deep and beautiful meaning when it says, “As they make music they will sing, ‘All my fountains are in you.’” (NIV) And the God’s Word Translation says, “Singers and dancers will sing, ‘Zion is the source of all our blessings.’”

Chris Tomlin’s song “All My Fountains” talks of an “everlasting stream”, a river that “carries me home.” This stream is nourishing, filled with the Life of Yahweh, providing strength, rejuvenation, and eternal life to all who drink of it. What a beautiful image of Yahweh’s enduring love and perfect salvation, giving life to all who live in it.

Here is Chris Tomlin’s song “All My Fountains” with the lyrics below it…

This dry and desert land
I tell myself, “Keep walking on”
Hear something up ahead
Water falling like a song
An everlasting stream
Your river carries me home
Let it flow, let if flow

Verse 2
A flood for my soul
A well that never will run dry
I’ve rambled on my own
Never believing I would find
An everlasting stream
Your river carries me home
Let it flow, let it flow

Chorus
Open the heavens
Come Living Water
All my fountains are in You
You’re strong like a river
Your love is running through
(back to Intro)
All my fountains are in You

Bridge
Come on and rain down on us
Rain down on us, Lord

And here is Psalm 87 in the World English Bible…

“His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God.
Selah.
I will record Rahab* and Babylon among those who acknowledge me.
Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia:
“This one was born there.”
Yes, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one was born in her”;
the Most High himself will establish her.
Yahweh will count, when he writes up the peoples,
“This one was born there.”
Selah.
Those who sing as well as those who dance say,
“All my springs are in you.”

May the fountain of Yahweh nourish you today, this week, and throughout all of eternity. Peace in his name,
Jonathan Hostetler