Dr. Jim Richards

Reconnecting to God should never be driven by the hope to get back to where you were. It should be about connecting to God in a way you never have before. We’ve got to have the hope and expectation of connecting to God in a way we never have before. If what we had was so good we wouldn’t feel distant and isolated. The Hebrew language draws a picture of mercy and goodness pursuing us to draw us to the heart of God; not a mere forgiveness and blessing, but a restoration and renewing, that like the prodigal son, will be better than we ever imagined. Join me this week as we explore what it really looks like to connect heart to heart with God!

The story of the prodigal son reveals much about every person involved in Kingdom living. The elder brother is self-righteous and doesn’t want the younger brother to get better than he deserves. The younger brother finally comes to his senses, repents, and returns to his father’s house. Then, there is the loving father who is patiently waiting for his rebellious son’s return. God is always waiting for our return, not to scold and condemn, but to restore us to our place in the Kingdom. Join me this week and come out from under the guilt and shame keeping you from returning to the love and protection of the waiting Father.

I know God says He’ll never leave us, but what good is it if I don’t feel it? The truth is: that which we cannot feel or experience is of no value in this life. We are emotional beings and our capacity to enjoy life is all about what we feel and experience. Ironically, God has made a way for us to connect to Him and others. It is one of those truths hidden in plain sight. The only thing that keeps us from seeing it is we are so sure that what we think should work, we can’t admit when it doesn’t, and we cannot perceive the simple solution that’s staring us in the face. Join me this week and begin to bring your connection to God alive in a way that you can feel!

I do so much for other people and it seems so unappreciated. One of the great deceptions about giving and sacrificing for others is the idea that it will cause them to love and value us more. There are situations when that is true, but few people know how to identify those who will be grateful and those who will take us for granted. The truth is giving and sacrifices don’t make others value us more, it makes us value them more. When we give to or sacrifice for others it is our emotional bond to them that grows deeper. Join me this week and discover how this Biblical insight can work for you or against you!

Help! I have an incredibly difficult time emotionally connecting. We were created to be social, emotional, relationship-oriented beings. Any number of familial, cultural, or social factors can make it difficult, however, for us to actually make emotional connections. The rise in the need for drugs, alcohol, physical and sexual activity could in part be due to the rise in people who are desperate for emotional stimulation. One thing is sure: you can develop the ability to connect with others relationally without substances nor inappropriate physical stimulation! Learning to shut down and close ourselves off emotionally may have been a survival strategy we developed as children that no longer serves us today. Join me this week and begin to develop the capacity to connect emotionally to people and to God, and enrich your every relationship.

What if I told you I knew the secret to bringing love into your life, to attracting and keeping true love alive in your life? Would you do it? Everyone says they will; they say they’ll do anything to save their marriage and have passionate love. I’ve shared this secret with hundreds of people in personal counseling sessions. The ones who applied it never failed to find true love; those who didn’t continued doing what they were doing and found themselves alone and angry. Join me this week and I’ll share the secret of having a lifetime of passionate love.

Whether we realize it or not unforgiveness keeps us under a burden; it violates our conscience, it corrupts our righteousness, but possibly the worst factor is it makes us vulnerable to temptation. Join me this week and we will explore Jesus’ teaching about lifting the burden of unforgiveness from our heart and living free from temptation.

The most basic concept of prayer is when the believer makes a determination based on the finished work of Jesus and then uses his or her authority to reconcile any situation which is incongruent with the finished work of Jesus. Instead, we often beg God to do what He has already done through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Join me this week and equip yourself to take actions of authority: the way Jesus taught it and the way Jesus modeled it!

Before Jesus taught us how to pray, He taught us how not to pray. Reciting prayers as a formula was one of the ways He taught us not to pray. Prayer has to be from our own heart, spoken in our own words, with our own beliefs, expressions, and emotions. But more than anything prayer has to be approaching God based on our relationship. The only cure for formula-based, ritualistic prayers is an intimate relationship. It has to be based on a relationship where a child is approaching his or her loving, generous father. Join me this week to move past formula-based prayers.

Jesus gave us another issue that must be resolved before we begin to actually pray. Sanctify God’s name in your own heart. Sanctification is the process of making something holy. God’s names reveal His character and nature. We know God will never act contrary to His name, moreover, He will always uphold His name. If we have made His name holy in our heart, praying in His name takes on an entirely new dimension. Join me this week and let’s discover a process that establishes our heart in faith in His name. Psalm 91 tells us He will answer and set on high those who know His name.

What most of us call prayer is more like beggars pleading their master for bread crumbs, unsure of what His response will be. That’s why Jesus taught that before we enter into any of what we call prayer, we should experientially connect to God as Father. Sons are not just legal heirs; they are joint rulers of their Father’s kingdom. They know their Father, what He wants, and how He gets things done. In other words, he knows the Father’s will without having to ask. Jesus modeled what it would look like in our lives if we really experienced and knew His will. Join me this week and discover an approach to prayer that is based on knowing God’s will and knowing what to do with complete confidence.

There is a door in our heart that gives entrance to the Kingdom of God: a place where we can access all the resources of God. We have been provided the key that opens this door. It was a free gift, but too often we don’t use the key we have been given. We attempt to use a key that our pastor gave us, our parents, or one we created ourselves. Millions of believers stand outside, baffled and discouraged when their key doesn’t open the door. Join me this week and I will help you find the key Jesus Himself has given you. It will open a door to a life of resources that no man can close.

The scriptures tell us that God’s mercies are renewed daily. In our limited concept of mercy we see that as God merely forgiving us for what we have done wrong. What we fail to see is that mercy has so many more dimensions. It is also a shelter that provides protection and provision; it is a hiding place where we can experience God’s creative power. It is a place where we can have revelation, and more. Every day God’s mercy is ready to transport all of us to the place in our heart where we can start over without the limitations of past failures. Join me this week as we explore God’s capacity to start over with no limitations!

The world desperately needs to see the glory of God. For centuries we have believed that more signs, wonders, and miracles would bring the world to Jesus, but it never has and never will. The world needs to see what we have all seen by looking at Jesus. They need to see God portrayed in the lives of people who are one with Him. The more we yield to Christ in us, the more we magnify God in the earth. When we love, people see God as loving; when we forgive, people see God as merciful. The more we choose to be like God the more the world sees the glory of God.

Jesus showed us the glory of God by revealing exactly who God was. His teaching, the way He treated people, and all of His miracles were expressions of the true character and nature of God! But in John 17:22, He says, the glory you gave me I have given them. In other words, He didn’t share any of His personal opinions; He didn’t make up new doctrine; His every action was an exact representation of God. If we want to see the glory of God, all we need to do is look at Jesus. Because He only revealed God, we can see that He and the Father are one. Christ in you is the clearest picture of God’s glory in the earth!

Most people look for some outward sign to see the glory of God. After all, that’s what religion has taught us. Religion never wants you to realize that God’s greatest expression of Himself is what happens in us. God’s glory was perfectly manifest in His Son Jesus. Today His glory can only be perfectly manifest in His children who yield to Him. Your Father, like any father, experiences His greatest joy when His children look like Him. The more we look like Jesus to the world the more the world will see the glory!

The scripture tells us when we behold the glory of God we are transformed into that glory! For thousands of years mankind has longed to see the glory of God. The children of Israel saw the cloud by day and the fire by night, which led them on the wilderness journey, but it didn’t transform them. While these were definitely expressions of God’s glory and goodness, they were not actually the glory of God. God wants to reveal His glory to you in ways few people have ever recognized. His glory always delivers the power of transformation Join me this week as we discover how to behold the glory of God!

Every believer is told to consider every path before choosing to walk it. Determine if it will lead in a way that ends with your heart in harmony with God. In this path there is no destruction, chaos, or fear, only peace. Join me this week as we gain insight into walking the path of peace!

It is a little known fact that God calls the New Covenant the Covenant of Peace. In this covenant Jesus is our peace offering. It is by His death that we have peace with God. As we celebrate our peace through Him our heart not only connects to Jesus, but it also connects to all the provisions of the Kingdom of God. Join me this week and connect to Jesus as your peace offering.

The ultimate celebration of the Hebrew believer was the peace offering. It was not an offering given to get something; it was a celebration of the fact that there was peace between God and the believer. In that connection the believer not only experienced God’s peace that passes all understanding, they experienced the acute awareness that all God’s resources were available to them. Join me this week and discover the intimate link between experiencing God’s peace and participating in all His benefits.