Pay the Price to Finish Well!

March Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Hello, Friend!

Have you ever been tempted to just quit? Of course your answer is yes, for discouragement pays a visit to all of us at one time or another. You begin to think, I don’t know if this was a good idea after all. Maybe I’m not equipped for this job. Maybe I don’t have what it takes to do what is in my heart. These kinds of emotions and thoughts are normal, but we are not called to just be normal. We have a supernatural calling from God to do supernatural things. Therefore, we must walk not by our feelings and thoughts, but by our faith.

If God has put it in your heart to do something, and you get discouraged along the way, you have two options: 1) You can press forward with all that is within you — past all your emotions screaming that you are going to fail — until you experience victory, or 2) you can listen to your negative thoughts and emotions, fall out of your race, and fail to complete the assignment God has given to you. That’s why I want to talk to you today about the attitude and commitment that is required in order to finish what God has put in your heart to do at all costs.

Let me bring this teaching to the level of a child. I remember when I was a teenager, I was learning to sew. Oh, I loved to sew! I made so many beautiful outfits for myself. I even considered myself to be quite a good designer. I would lie in bed at night and think to myself, What would that kind of sleeve look like on that dress? What if that sleeve was puffy — puffier than anyone else’s sleeve? I would just lie in bed and imagine.

But one day while I was sewing — I remember this day so well — I messed up and sewed a sleeve onto my dress going the wrong direction. I knew that in order for me to finish that garment, I would have to take out all those stitches by hand and then sew on the sleeve the correct way. So do you know what I did? I put that dress aside, and I never picked it up again. Instead, I started cutting out material for another outfit. At that time in my life, I just didn’t have what it took to finish what I started.

You may say, “But Denise, you were just a child! That is a normal response for a child in that kind of situation.” But here is my point: At that moment, there was a choice to make on my part, and I decided, This situation has gotten too hard, so I will quit.

This is a mindset that often starts in childhood and continues throughout a person’s adult life. But this mindset should not be in the people of God!

Let’s look at a few examples of people in the Bible who were given very specific and difficult assignments, but refused to quit.

What about Noah, who kept building that ark for 100 years?
Think of Moses as he led three million rebellious and complaining Israelites through the wilderness.
What about Esther? What if she had decided, “This job is too hard! I’m not laying down my life for my people”?
Finally, consider Jesus, who suffered all the way through the Crucifixion and then took our punishment upon Himself in hell. What if He had said, “This is getting too hard — I’m going to quit”?

Sadly, this mindset of quitting when things get too hard has made its way into the Church. Too many Christians say, “It can’t be God’s will for me to suffer like this, so I am changing my plan.”

Consider these statistics:

The average pastor in the U.S. stays in one church for only three to five years.
The average marriage in the U.S. lasts only 8.2 years.
In the United States, only 79 percent of youth finish high school.

Something has happened in our modern mindset that has caused us to become unwilling to pay the price and finish the job at hand.

Luke 14:28-30 and 33 has something very important to say along this line:

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it — lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?… So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

I have read this passage many times before, and I can honestly say that I really didn’t understand what Jesus meant. I wondered, Why did Jesus talk about finishing a building here? What did that have to do with giving up everything to be His disciple, as it says in verse 33? But after meditating on this passage for a long time, I began to understand that Jesus was talking about surrender and counting the cost. He was asking each one of us, “Are you really serious about what you want to do for God? Are you willing to pay the price that is required in order for you to accomplish this assignment?”

For example, let’s talk about marriage. It is too difficult for couples to build a healthy marriage these days because of their busy schedules and all the temptations that constantly surround them. As a result, a marriage can become anything but “days of Heaven on earth” as God intended (see Deuteronomy 11:21).

What about you? Are you willing to pay the price of loving, forgiving, serving, and correcting your own attitude in your relationship with your spouse? Are you willing to make the changes you need to make rather than focus on trying to change your husband or your wife? Are you willing to pay the price required to have a marriage that is truly like “days of Heaven on earth”? Is it worth it to you to die to your own selfishness so you can have this kind of relationship with your spouse? I know these are hard questions, but they are questions we all need to ask ourselves.

Now consider this subject of finishing what you start in light of your responsibility to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Do you want to pay the price to the best of your ability to give your children all they need to live fruitful, godly lives? Are you willing to develop your patience and longsuffering — to cook, clean, teach, pray, correct, discipline, and believe in them until they grow to adulthood and are able to finish their course?

Your health is another area you need to consider in light of this principle. We must count the cost in this area as well. Our bodies are not our own. We are bought with a price — the precious blood of Jesus — and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit Himself (see 1 Corinthians 6:19).

Ask yourself, Am I treating my body wisely so that it will carry me to a victorious finish on my life course, or am I mistreating my body in a way that will cause a weakened state of living in my older age?

A few years ago, I visited a room filled with people receiving dialysis and was shocked to find out that most of those receiving treatment were not elderly but between the ages of 30 and 40 years old. There were even children included in the group! Twenty years ago, diabetic kidney failure was diagnosed primarily for the elderly — but now there are thousands of diabetics who are children and youth! No doubt, some of these cases are hereditary or induced by a medical condition that’s not lifestyle-related. But diabetes in young people that’s caused by unhealthy living has become an epidemic!

How are you treating your temple? As you live each day, you must make choices, counting the cost and doing the right things for your body so that sickness cannot rob you of a healthy finish in life.

No matter what assignment God has given you, this is the question you must answer: Do you want to pay the price required in order to see it to the finish?

You see, it’s easy to start something. But it isn’t so much how a person starts that counts — it’s how he or she finishes. For example, it’s very easy for a man and a woman to get together and have a baby, but it is another thing altogether for those parents to raise that child into an adult who obeys God and is a blessing to society.

Here’s another question we must ask ourselves as we count the cost and determine whether or not we are going to finish our race: Am I willing to do whatever it takes to die to the laziness in my life that is stealing from the call of God and His purposes for me? Every effort we make to finish our race is worth whatever price we must pay. There will be a day of reward. Some reward we will receive on this earth. But there will also be an eternal reward waiting for us in Heaven that will last for eternity — and the brilliance, worth, and value of that reward will never fade.

Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” In other words, it’s going to take all that is within us to lay down our lives and finish the things that God has assigned us to do.

The most important ingredient to fulfilling our call in this life is our utter dependence on God. God will never quit. His mercy will never run out for us if we fear Him and humble ourselves before Him. For us to fully finish our course, we must depend wholly on the Lord, for we just don’t have what it takes to finish by ourselves.

I am writing this letter to you because the enemy is pressing on so many believers to try to stop them from finishing their course well. The Bible says that the devil wants to “wear out” the saints so they will become discouraged and quit (see Daniel 7:25). But as we call on the One who is our supreme Example and Intercessor, God will give us His strength and help us press on until we complete the assignment He has given us.

Any price we pay to finish our course is well worth it, for the reward is eternal.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

— 2 Corinthians 4:17,18

Friend, my encouragement to you today is this: Check your heart today and count the cost — the price you must pay in order to fulfill all that God is asking you to do. Make sure you’re committed to staying faithful to the end. Stay willing to go through any and every difficulty in order to finish your God-given assignment. Depend on the Holy Spirit to help you and to teach you how not to just start your “building” but to erect every wall and lay every brick until it’s complete! If you do these things, one day you will hear the words you have longed to hear from the Master: “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (see Matthew 25:21).

Thank you for spending this time with me. If you need prayer, please know we are here for you! I invite you to call our prayer team at 1.844.473.6637 or email prayer@deniserenner.org. Our heart is to stand in faith with you and help you reach a flourishing finish in your life!

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner

The Agape Love of God

March Teaching Letter from Rick Renner

Dear Friends,

It’s already the month of March!

As I write to you, Denise and I are wrapping up our time of ministry in the United States. She and I are thankful that so many people were able to attend our meetings in various places across the country. We are so grateful for what the Holy Spirit and Word of God did in so many people’s lives during those meetings. But now our trip is coming to an end, and on March 4, we will celebrate the official launch of our newest Russian TV channel that God has put into our hands!

As I told you last month, this new channel (which is in addition to our international satellite channel) is specifically designed to reach across all of Russia and potentially into nearly every home. God has entrusted us to do some amazing things over many years, but this is one of the most important assignments He has ever given us, and we are thankful that He has trusted us to do it. But please pray for us, as we still need finances — especially for this first month of launching the channel. We also need continued divine favor to keep expanding our reach to as many Russian homes as possible!

In my last few letters, I wrote to you from the prophetic word the Holy Spirit gave to me for our friends and partners for the year 2024. Here it is again.

The year 2024 will be visited with turbulent episodes across the entire globe, especially in the realms of finances and politics and in the nations. These episodes will be of a sort that they will potentially cause those who are not rooted in God’s Word to be deeply disturbed. But for those who stay in faith…stay in peace…stay in love…stay in fellowship…and keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity — they will experience a supernatural power that will cause them to be unmoved, unshaken, well provided for, and to walk in a much-needed divine assurance, divine peace, divine power, and divine and supernatural victory. Yes, those who stay in faith, in peace, in love, in fellowship, and keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity will be blessed, empowered, joy-filled, and sustained, and they will miraculously thrive even if the world around them is tossed with a tempest.

I want to draw to your attention that the word above says those who stay in faith…stay in peace…stay in love…stay in fellowship…and keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity — they will experience a supernatural power that will cause them to be unmoved, unshaken, well provided for, and they will have a much-needed divine assurance, divine peace, divine power, and divine and supernatural victory.

One purpose of prophecy is to help us wage a good warfare. I wrote last month that Paul told Timothy, “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). So just as Paul told Timothy, we, too, need to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit has specifically spoken to us to help wage a good warfare!

Last month I also wrote to you about what it means to stay in “peace,” and today I am moving to the next part of the prophetic word for 2024, which is about staying in “love.”

What It Means To Stay in Love

In the New Testament, there are primarily two words for “love.” The first is phileo, and the second is agape. Let me give you the meanings of them both and then show you the difference between these two kinds of love.

The word phileo means to love like a friend and describes a reciprocal kind of love that is shared between two or more people. I call it the lowest kind of love because it can be forfeited if it is not reciprocated as expected. This phileo type of love says, “I’ll scratch your back as long as you scratch mine, too, but the day you don’t return the favor by scratching mine is the day I’ll be done sowing into this relationship!” Thus, phileo love has strings attached to it.

Unfortunately, this is the type of love that most people know in many of their relationships, including marital relationships, parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and relationships with friends. Because this type of love is looking for a response, if the correct response is not returned as expected, it usually leads to disappointment and often even to the end of a relationship.

But there is a higher kind of love that is referred to in the Greek New Testament as agape, which is the highest and finest kind of love that exists.

The Greek word agape describes a divine love that gives and gives, even if it’s never responded to, thanked, or acknowledged. This lets us know that God’s agape love has no strings attached to it, and it can never be offended. God’s agape love occurs when an individual sees, recognizes, understands, or appreciates the value of an object or a person. Furthermore, agape causes a person to have an irresistible love that is so profound it knows no limits or boundaries in how far, wide, high, and deep it will go to show that love to its recipient. It is a self-sacrificial love that moves the lover to action. Clearly, agape love is unlike anything we could generate in our own strength.

The word agape describes the highest level of love that exists in the world, and it is the level of love that God wants every believer to walk in. It is a love so completely different from what the world offers that it is the word always used to describe the love of God. Indeed, it is a divine, supernatural kind of love that is both unconditional and sacrificial.

You may be thinking, I just don’t know if I have it in me to love on that level. But the truth is, you do because the Bible says, “…The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5). The word “love” in this verse is the word agape. That means, according to this verse, the agape love of God has been shed abroad in the heart of every believer — including yours if you’ve been born again. The words “shed abroad” describe a pouring forth, a spilling out, or something that is dispersed in abundance. In other words, the moment you surrendered your life to Jesus and made Him your Lord and Savior, God liberally and lavishly poured this agape love into you — and since you have it in you, if you’ll ask, the Holy Spirit will help you tap into and walk in this high-level love in all your relationships.

Let me give you an example of why you need this agape love to be operative in your life. Paul describes why we need it in First Corinthians 13:4 where he says that this kind of agape love “suffereth long.”

The words “suffereth long” are interpreted from the Greek word makrothumia, a compound of the words makros and thumos. The word makros means long and may indicate something that is long or of long duration. The word thumos means anger, but it also embodies the idea of swelling emotions or a strong and growing passion about something. When these two words are compounded to form the word makrothumia, it pictures the patient restraint of anger and, therefore, longsuffering. It can also describe forbearance and patience. Thus, “suffereth long” or “longsuffering” describes something that doesn’t easily give up or bow out.

A good, practical example of the word for “suffereth long” — the Greek word makrothumia — is a candle that has a very long wick. Think about it: A candle with a long wick is equipped to burn a very long time. You might say it is ready to forbear and patiently wait until a person finally comes around and sees the light. Someone who “suffereth long” is forbearing and patient with a person until that person finally grasps what is being communicated or taught.

The illustration of a long-wicked candle helps us see that a person who suffereth long does not easily give up or bow out. Instead, he keeps steadily burning and burning and burning. Spiritually speaking, he has a very long wick and has made the decision to hang in there and not give up — even though the other person is unresponsive and showing no signs of change.

Taking into account the original Greek meaning of this word, here is the Renner Interpretive Version (RIV) of this part of First Corinthians 13:4:

Love patiently and passionately bears with others for as long as patience is needed and does not easily give up or bow out….

Unlike frail, human love, which eventually says, “I’m sick and tired of waiting for this person to change. That’s it — I’m out of here,” God’s agape love never throws in the towel. The longer the struggle, the more committed agape love is for that person. It is totally supernatural! First John 4:16 tells us that “…God is love.” And the word “love” here is the Greek word agape, which means God Himself is pure love — that is, the highest and finest kind of love — and that explains why God has never given up on you even when you failed to reciprocate love back to Him as you should have done! Aren’t you thankful that God’s love has no strings attached!

As we sail through the end times, we may occasionally experience disappointments with others. Maybe we expected more of someone, or we were disappointed by someone’s failure to do something we thought they would do. But it is vital that we do not allow disappointment, hurt, or offense to cause us to move into isolation where the devil can defeat us. We need each other, especially in these times. So if you feel disappointed in someone, I think a wise approach to dealing with it would be to say, “Lord, if I’m backing off from someone because of disappointment, I acknowledge that it means I’m moving in a low level of love…for if I were moving in agape — Your kind of love — I would be more longsuffering. Please teach me to release the high-level agape love of God from my heart into all of my relationships and to love with no strings attached.”

God’s Spirit will speak to your heart and show you how to release bitterness and hurt before it becomes deeply rooted in your soul. This divine pleading is God’s grace trying to help you overcome the situation before it becomes more serious. Don’t ignore that work of grace!

God has shed His love abroad in your heart, and if you’ll tap into it and release it, the Holy Spirit will cause that agape love to rise up and pour out of you and make you more steady in your relationships. But your cooperation is required in order for God’s love to accomplish its full work inside you. God’s grace will set you free from the disappointments that have plagued your past relationships and will produce a divine love inside you that has no strings attached — the highest and finest kind of love — the same kind of love that God has repeatedly demonstrated that He has for you.

Don’t allow the devil to drive you into hurt and isolation because that is a trap that can be very difficult to get out of. If God has placed a relationship in your life, it means you need that person. Of course, the devil will try to bring disappointments to sour it, but God’s grace and love will produce a current of divine love so strong in you that you’ll stay steady in love and be unaffected regardless of what others do.

If we’ll obey the Word of God, we will experience a supernatural power that will cause us to be unmoved, unshaken, well provided for, and to have a much-needed divine assurance, divine peace, divine power, and divine and supernatural victory.

Next month, I’m going to write you about the importance of staying in “fellowship” in hard times. But the first step to staying in fellowship is not allowing disappointments to knock you out of the relationship and drive you into isolation. And to be freed of the temptation to break and run, you’ll need the agape love of God to operate inside your heart and soul.

Let me pray for you:

Father, I pray in Jesus’ name that you will enable my precious friend to release the agape love of God that has been shed abroad in his or her heart by the Holy Spirit. And just as You demonstrate longsuffering with each of us, I ask that this divine agape love will produce in each of us a love that has no strings attached and that is not moved by what others do or do not do. I pray this in Jesus’ name!

Thank you so much for letting me minister to you this month on this important subject that affects all of us. Please look for my letter next month when I will talk to you about what it means to stay in “fellowship” in turbulent times.

Please pray for Denise and me, our family, and our team as we continue doing what Jesus has commissioned us to do. Thank you so much for being the partner you are and for all you do to help us. We are here to do the work, but your prayers and gifts put “fuel” in the tank so we can keep moving forward. We are so thankful for the financial fuel you put into the tank of our ministry. I know it ultimately comes from the Lord, but He uses you, and for that reason, we really want to express our thanks to God and to you!

Please let us know how we can pray for you! We are always here. Just call us at 1-800-742-5593 or write to us at prayer@renner.org.

We are your brother and sister, friends, and partners in Jesus Christ,

Rick and Denise Renner

along with Paul, Philip, and Joel Renner and our entire ministry team

P.S. Click here to view the new interactive Ministry Update page or click here to download the printable pdf flyer.

How To Stay in Peace

February Teaching Letter from Rick Renner

Dear Friends,

Greetings in Jesus’ powerful name!

As you receive this letter, Denise and I are doing meetings across the United States. In February we are speaking in Tennessee, New York, Arizona, Oklahoma, California, and Florida. It’s going to be a very busy month of ministry, and — if you live near any of these places, we would love it if you could attend one of our meetings. You can go to renner.org/speaking-schedule to find details about each event.

This is an important month for RENNER Ministries because we are also preparing for the big launch of our brand-new Russian channel (different from our international channel) that will start airing programs on March 4! Please pray for us as we press forward toward this date. This is God’s channel, and we are trusting Him to provide all the finances needed this month so that we will launch on time with no bumps. This new channel will have the ability to eventually reach every Russian home, and it is a huge development for God’s Word going into people’s lives who are so hungry to receive it!

I want to say thank you for the way you pray for us and support this God-ordained work. When I think of what you and all our God-called partners do, it nearly leaves me speechless. All of what we do is possible because of precious partners like you who have joined hands with God and with us to bring the trusted teaching of the Bible to people around the world. First Corinthians 3:6 tells us that one plants and another waters, but it is God who gives the increase. It takes all of us working together with the Lord for the transformative Truth to change people’s lives. And today I want to especially express how thankful I am for your part in this great Gospel work!

In last month’s letter, I wrote to you about the word the Holy Spirit gave to me for our partners for the year 2024. Here it is again:

Last month I also wrote to you about what it means to stay in faith — but today I want to speak to you about what it means to stay in peace. Remember, the prophetic word says those who stay in faith…stay in peace…stay in love…stay in fellowship…and who keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity — they will experience a supernatural power that will cause them to be unmoved, unshaken, well provided for, and they will have a much-needed divine assurance, divine peace, divine power, and divine and supernatural victory.

One purpose of prophecy is to wage a good warfare using the sure words of God that you receive from Him. Paul told Timothy, “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). So as Paul told Timothy, we need to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit has spoken and wage a good warfare with it.

What It Means To Stay in Peace

First of all, I want to draw your attention to John 16:33, where Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Notice that Jesus said we can have peace even if we are in the midst of tribulation. I want to go over both of these words so you’ll really understand what kind of peace is available to you when you experience tribulation or turbulence in life!

The word “peace” that Jesus used in this verse is interpreted from the Greek word eirene, which depicts the cessation of war and the putting away of conflict. This remarkably means that when “peace” is ruling a situation, it causes conflict, strife, and warring in relationships (or things that are waging a fight in the soul) to be put away.

But wait…the word “peace” that Jesus used in this verse also pictures a time of rebuilding and reconstruction after war has ceased. This means that when peace is ruling a situation, it becomes possible to start rebuilding instead of tearing down!

But hold on…the word “peace” that Jesus used in this verse also depicts a time when distractions are removed, prosperity is initiated, and a rule of order replaces chaos. This means that when peace is ruling a situation, it supernaturally eliminates what is a distraction, opens the door to prosperity, and is so strong that it brings order into the midst of chaotic situations!

There’s even more! The word “peace” that Jesus used in John 16:33 speaks of a calm inner stability that results in the ability to conduct oneself peacefully, even in the midst of circumstances that would usually be traumatic or upsetting. This means that when peace is ruling a situation, it doesn’t matter how big the turbulence you’re experiencing is, that divine peace enables you to conduct yourself peacefully, even in the midst of circumstances that would usually be traumatic or upsetting!

Finally, the word “peace” that Jesus used in this verse is from the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom, which expresses the idea of wholeness, completeness, or tranquility in the soul that is unaffected by outward circumstances or pressures. This means that when peace is ruling a situation, it brings wholeness to those who would usually be negatively affected. It also brings a dominating and supernatural tranquility to the soul that is unaffected by the outward circumstances or pressures that are trying to shake you up!

Next, I want to bring your attention to the word “tribulation” in John 16:33, which is interpreted from the Greek word thlipsis. It depicts pressure so great it would usually be crushing, and it speaks of a horribly tight squeeze or a situation so difficult it would usually cause one to feel crushed, pressured, squeezed, or stressed.

You see, Jesus said when His peace is ruling your heart or any situation you are in, it supernaturally removes conflict, puts an end to strife, enables you to rebuild, removes distractions, initiates peace and prosperity, and brings order to whatever was chaotic. This peace is so supernatural that it produces a calm inner stability that results in your ability to conduct yourself peacefully, even in the midst of circumstances that would usually be traumatic or upsetting. Indeed, Jesus said this divine peace will fill you with shalom — with such supernatural completeness, wholeness, and tranquility that your soul will be unaffected by circumstances or pressures!

It’s no surprise that Jesus added the words “be of good cheer!”

The original text could be interpreted this way: “In light of this, it’s time for you to cheer yourself up!” This is Jesus’ instruction for times when we hit turbulence in life. Rather than be shaken up by it, we are to grab hold of God’s divine peace and cheer ourselves up because Jesus has “overcome the world.”

The word “overcome” in that phrase is interpreted from the word nikao, which describes a champion, conqueror, master, overcomer, or victor. It depicts an overwhelming, prevailing force! This word is so power-packed that it pictures Jesus and His power as being a phenomenal, walloping, conquering force. That is the kind of power Jesus possessed and the victory He has to offer to us even when we hit turbulence in life!

In fact, Jesus went on to say His power has overcome the “world.” This word is interpreted from the Greek word kosmos, which describes the earthly realm where Satan is the “god of this world” (see 2 Corinthians 4:4). But no matter how powerfully he tries to project himself, because of the resurrection of Jesus, Satan has been stripped bare of his authority to rule over you (see Colossians 2:15). Jesus has completely prevailed over him — and now Jesus gives you His divine peace to rule you, even in situations that would usually be upsetting!

But for that peace to rule your heart and situation, you must decide to yield to it. The apostle Paul referred to this “yielding to peace” in Colossians 3:15, which says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts….”

I especially want you to notice the word “rule” in this verse. It is from the Greek word brabeuo, which, in ancient times, was used to describe the umpire or referee who moderated and judged the athletic competitions that were so popular in the ancient world.

Paul uses this word to tell us that the peace of God can work like an umpire or referee in our hearts, minds, and emotions. When detrimental emotions attempt to exert control over us or try to throw us into an emotional frenzy, we can stop it from happening by making the choice to let God’s peace rise up from deep inside us and work like an umpire or referee to moderate our emotions. As we do this, we will be kept under the control of that divine peace as it rules in our hearts. When this divine umpire called “peace” steps into the game, it suddenly begins to call the shots and make all the decisions — rather than fretfulness, anxiety, and worry.

Colossians 3:15 could be translated:
“Let the peace of God call the shots in your life….”
“Let the peace of God be the umpire in your life and actions….”
“Let the peace of God act as referee in your emotions and decisions….”

Even though it’s true that everyone runs into turbulent moments from time to time, if you’ll stay in peace — as the Holy Spirit has urged us all to do — you won’t have to surrender to emotions that try to steal your joy, disturb your relationships, and rob you of your victory.

If you feel overwhelmed by problems or emotions that are hitting you from every direction, just stop a moment and deliberately set your heart and mind on Jesus and the Word of God. As you do this, the wonderful, conquering, dominating, supernatural peace of God will rise up from within your spirit and take control — enabling you to stay in peace in 2024!

Wow! I can hardly wait to share with you next month about what it means to “stay in love” as you walk through 2024. But right now, if you are dealing with any kind of turbulence in your life, Jesus’ peace can rule your heart and the situation! So if you would like us to pray with you, we are waiting to hear from you right now. You can call us any weekday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT at 1-800-742-5593 or send us your prayer need at prayer@renner.org. We will get into agreement with you in prayer for God’s divine peace to rise up and, like a mighty umpire, rule your heart and emotions, bringing shalom to you and your situation. So please let us know how to pray for you, and we’ll release our faith with yours for God to move mightily in your situation or in the lives of those you love!

Please pray for us too! We are giving our best to do what Jesus has asked us to do, and obeying Him is our top priority. Your partnership is such a vital part of everything RENNER Ministries is able to accomplish, and we are so thankful for you and our other amazing God-called partners!

We are your brother and sister, friends, and partners in Jesus Christ,

Rick and Denise Renner
along with Paul, Philip, and Joel Renner and our entire ministry team

P.S. Click here to view the new interactive Ministry Update page or click here to download the printable pdf flyer. Click here to read Denise’s February Teaching Letter.

God Has a Miracle for You!

February Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Hello, Friend!

In my last several letters, I’ve mentioned how near and dear the subject of healing is to me. So much so that God placed it on my heart to write a book about His desire to heal, and, more importantly, His desire to heal YOU! I’m excited to announce that my new book Jesus Is Your Healer is now available at renner.org.

I’ve shared excerpts from Jesus Is Your Healer with you over the past several months, and I will share even more insights from my book in this very letter. But this Holy Spirit-inspired book contains more information than can fit in just one letter! You will often refer to Jesus Is Your Healer and share the good news of this miracle-working power with your family and friends. It can and will change your life! I pray you will continually be blessed by the wisdom found within the pages of my new book and in my letters.

Be assured, Jesus is your Healer and He has a miracle just for you. Since Jesus was a Miracle Worker 2,000 years ago, He is still a Miracle Worker today. He’s not just the One you read about in the Bible who healed people. Jesus is your Miracle Worker because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (see Hebrews 13:8)!

A miracle is something that happens instantly. In one moment, the natural circumstances are what they are — but then something supernatural happens, and everything is completely different in the next moment.

God performed miracles in the Old Testament and Jesus performed many miracles in His 33 years on Earth. Today, you can see all around us how sickness and disease steal from our lives. But Jesus’ miracle-working power reverses sickness and disease and gives us our lives back! Oh, what a wonderful Savior!

Testimonies of the Miracle-Working Power of God

I remember a doctor saying to me, “If you leave that physical issue alone and don’t do anything about it, it will just get worse.” That is the course of nature, but a miracle happens when the power of God interrupts the course of nature!

My own husband Rick experienced a great miracle that interrupted the course of nature when he was just a young teenager and new to the things of the Spirit. Rick was born with his kidneys conjoined (sometimes called “horseshoe kidneys”) and situated on only one side of his body. This was beginning to cause young Rick physical problems. But he went to a church meeting where the Word of God was being preached and the power of God was moving — and everything changed in a moment!

During the meeting, Rick answered the minister’s invitation to come forward and have hands laid on him. Rick didn’t say anything to the minister, but God knew his condition. The minister simply touched him, and immediately the power of God went through his kidneys and recreated them. In an instant, Rick’s kidneys became completely normal! From that moment on, Rick has had two healthy kidneys!

I’ve told you about my testimony about my face many times. For 13 years I suffered with that skin disease, going from doctor to doctor, being rejected and made fun of by my peers, and suffering continual pain and embarrassment. But one night, I went to bed just as I had done for 13 years, and when I woke up the next morning, a miracle had happened in the night and my face was completely healed. That is the miracle-working power of God!

I remember one woman in our church who suffered an injury at birth, and she couldn’t stand straight. During a church meeting, there suddenly came a word of knowledge about God straightening out someone’s legs. At that moment, the Spirit of God touched that woman’s hip, and she was immediately healed! Her life had been one way for 30 years. But in one moment, her life changed to another way as she stood straight and tall and healed, praising the Lord!

I also remember a friend who was really suffering from COVID. The medical staff was about to put him on a ventilator, and he was waiting in his hospital room. Suddenly a cool breeze came into that room, and the power of God touched that man. He went home from the hospital the very next day — miraculously healed!

It’s Time for Your Miracle!

Again, I want to stress to you that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His power is extended to you right now. Jesus walked the earth as the express image of the Father. Everything we see Jesus doing in the gospels was an expression of the Father’s heart.

Through Jesus’ beating, crucifixion, and death, He continued to express the will of the Father. Jesus carried blindness on the Cross. He carried cancer on the Cross. He carried heart problems on the Cross. He carried skin problems on the Cross. He carried every disease known to man on the Cross so that He could bring your miracle to you! That is His will for you right now as you read these words.

What do you need from God? Do you need His healing power to touch your body? His power is right there with you right now. Just put your hand on your body where you need His healing touch and receive it by faith!

Oh, I urge you to reach out to Jesus and receive His power for your healing right now! Believe Him for whatever you need! Healing, peace, freedom — all of this is Jesus’ heart for you. That is His love for you. As He suffered on the Cross, He took upon Himself whatever condition, sickness, or struggle you are dealing with.

You can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus not only can heal you, but He absolutely wants to heal you. He is a miracle-working God, and He has a miracle for you!

My friend, it always thrills my heart that you invite me to spend this time with you. I want to remind you that you can find even more truths about God’s provision of healing in my book Jesus Is Your Healer, which is now available. I also want to let you know I will be in the Tulsa area for a Women’s Meeting on Friday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m. CT. We will meet at the Abiding Harvest Church in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, so be sure to gather your girlfriends and join us for this special evening of ministry and miracles. You can go to RENNER.org and scroll down to Speaking Schedule for more information. I hope I will see you there!

In the meantime, I invite you to join me for my program TIME With Denise Renner on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. CT on YouTube and Facebook. You can also find me on the following:

• GospelTruth.TV — Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. CT
• PTL — Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. CT
• Spotify, Apple, and Google — Mondays at 5:00 a.m. CT (new audio podcasts)

Please don’t forget that our prayer team is waiting to hear from you! Just call 1.844.473.6637 or send us an email at prayer@deniserenner.org. We look forward to joining our faith with yours for the abundant, miracle-working power of God to be released into your life.

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner

Staying in a Place of Faith

January Teaching Letter from Rick Renner

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the year 2024! I declare that right from the outset of the year, JESUS IS LORD over every moment and every event — all the way to the end of 2024!

As we begin this new year, I want to start by saying THANK YOU for being a partner and friend with our ministry. Just minutes ago, Denise and I prayed for you — and for all our partners and friends — as we do every day, often multiple times per day. Today I am going to be sharing more deeply about what the Holy Spirit has told me about 2024, but first, I simply want to express my thanksgiving to God for you!

After multiple occasions of the Philippian believers sending financial offerings to help Paul with his ministry, he told them, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Many Christians today claim and confess this verse over their lives, but it is important to understand that Paul wrote it as part of a letter to his partners — it actually applies to those who are ministry partners.

Therefore, Philippians 4:19 applies to you, too, because of your partnership with RENNER Ministries! And just as Paul said to his partners, I am saying to you that based on this verse — and because of what you do to help take the Gospel and the trusted teaching of the Bible to people all over the world — I know my God shall supply all YOUR need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

The Renner Interpretive Version (RIV) of Philippians 4:19 says, “But my God will supply your needs so completely that He will eliminate all your deficiencies. He will meet all your physical and tangible needs until you are so full that you have no more capacity to hold anything else. He will supply all your needs until you are totally filled, packed full, and overflowing to the point of bursting at the seams and spilling over!”

Wow! It is amazing to see what God does when we make getting the Word of God to people a priority! I encourage you to reach out by faith and declare Philippians 4:19 for yourself and your household in 2024. Denise and I want you to know that we are praying for mighty blessings to be released in every realm of your life, and I want to say again how thankful we are for everything you do to join hands with us in fulfilling our God-given assignment!

In last month’s letter, I wrote to you about the word the Holy Spirit gave to me for our partners for the year 2024. Here it is again.

In this month’s letter, I want to elaborate on this word from the Lord so we’ll know how to embrace it, cooperate with it, and enjoy the fullness of His provision for us despite what’s going on around us.

The Holy Spirit specifically said that those who:

Stay in faith…
Stay in peace…
Stay in love…
Stay in fellowship…
Keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity…

Will experience a supernatural power that will cause them to be:

Unmoved…
Unshaken…
Well provided for…

And they will have a much-needed:

Divine assurance…
Divine peace…
Divine power…
Divine and supernatural victory.

One of the purposes of prophecy is to wage a good warfare using the sure words of God that you receive from Him. Paul told Timothy, “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). So as Paul told Timothy, we need to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit has prophetically spoken to us and wage a good warfare with it.

In this month’s teaching letter and in upcoming letters, I want to expound from Scripture about what it means to stay in faith…stay in peace…stay in love…stay in fellowship…and keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity. But today we will begin with what it means to stay in faith.
What It Means To Stay in Faith
The King James Version of Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

To be honest, for years this verse seemed very abstract to me and hard to understand. So I dived into the Greek New Testament to search for a more accurate rendering of it, and this is where I want to begin sharing with you today. We will look at four key words found in Hebrews 11:1 that give a better understanding of what this verse really says.

First, the word “faith” in Hebrews 11:1 is translated from the Greek word pistis, a well-known word that comes from a root that means to persuade, to trust, or to believe. It also pictures a “divine spark” given by God that enables you to believe. In ancient times, the word pistis referred to a guarantee or warranty of something that was sure.

Importantly, the Greek word pistis also depicts something moving forward, like a force that is propelled forward and is moving toward a goal. Faith is like a bullet shot from a gun — once it has been released, it moves forward and never stops until it reaches its goal. To be clear, that means real faith is never in retreat. So if you are in retreat, you are not moving in faith!

Second, let’s look at the word “substance” in Hebrews 11:1 — a word that is derived from the Greek word hupostasis, a compound of hupo and histimi. The word hupo means by, and the word histimi means to stand. Literally, it means to stand by something. It refers to the attitude and actions of one who has determined to stand by something promised and refuses to budge from it. It pictures a fixed decision that one has made to be unmoving and to stay or stand by the promise that he is believing will come to pass.
You might say the meaning of the word “substance” is a lot like a bulldog that has found the bone of its dreams and has locked its jaws around it, refusing to let go. It doesn’t matter how hard anyone pulls on the bone or tries to retrieve it, that dog is not going to let it loose. In the same way, when you’re in faith, you relentlessly stand by what God has said in His Word, and like a bulldog clutching its bone, you continue to tenaciously hold on to His promises until they become a reality in your life.
As an example, let’s say you have been standing by God’s promises for healing and have chosen you’ll never let go until your healing is manifested. Or let’s say you’ve been standing by God’s promise for financial provision or the restoration of your relationships. And just like a bulldog who refused to let go of his bone, you are holding on to and standing by God’s promise! In other words, you have decided that you will NEVER let go of that promise until it is manifested in your life! THAT, my friend, is an example of what the word “substance” means in Hebrews 11:1.

Third, let’s look at the words “hoped for” in Hebrews 11:1. These words are translated from a form of the Greek word elpidzo, which DOES NOT picture a “hope-so” kind of hope, but rather pictures a confident expectation of something. In other words, it does not mean, “I hope this will happen,” but, instead, it means, “I confidently expect this to happen!” Although it has not happened yet, there is an active expectation that it will take place. The tense of the word elpidzo here is continuous. Hence, it is something continuously being hoped for, even if the manifestation has not come yet.

Fourth, let’s look at the word “evidence,” which is translated from a form of the Greek word elegchos, a term regularly used in a court of law. When used in a positive sense, it means to convince someone of something. Thus, when you are in faith, you have a very strong conviction that what God has promised is undoubtedly going to happen.

If you consider all four of these Greek words in Hebrews 11:1, it tells us that:

FAITH is a “divine spark” from God to believe.
FAITH is a force that propels us forward toward a goal and it is never in retreat.
FAITH stands by and never lets go of what it is believing God for.
FAITH is a strong conviction that what God has promised is going to happen.

If you put all this together, it means Hebrews 11:1 carries this idea: “Faith belligerently stands by what it is believing for; it continuously confidently expects it to come to pass; and it is convinced what it is believing will happen!”

Then Hebrews 11:6 goes on to say, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Most people think the words “without faith” describe an absence of faith, but the word “without” is translated from the Greek word choris, and it means without, as being outside of a specific place. For example, you can be inside your house or outside your house, or you can be in the city or out of the city — but you can’t be in both places at the same time. This word choris — translated here as “without” — describes faith as a location that you can be in or out of. That means faith is a place, and you can be in faith or out of faith.

So what does it mean for you to be in faith or to “stay in a place of faith?” It means to continuously stand by and stay with the calling or promise that God made to you. That calling or promise is your assignment — it is the location where you need to be. You can stay in it, or you can move out of it, but to “stay in faith” means you have made the decision to be unmoving and that you will not budge from the calling or promise God made. It means you are going to belligerently stand by it until you see its manifestation!

To be “without faith” means to be outside of faith — to move out of or to leave your assignment or promise — and Hebrews 11:6 says when one abandons the assignment or promise of God, it is impossible for him or her to please Him in that place.

To stay in faith means to stick with the assignment, calling, or promise God gave you — it is your place of faith! If you want to bring pleasure to God, you have to stay in that place. That means you have to stay in alignment with what God has called you to do or stick with what He has promised you. You must be determined to stay there until you have received or fulfilled what God has said. And Hebrews 11:6 says that when you stay in faith in this way, you please God!

But then Hebrews 11:6 goes on to say that God is a “rewarder” of them that diligently seek Him. The word “rewarder” is the Greek word misthapodotes, a word that describes money, salary, or a payment that is due. It can also describe a recompense, reimbursement, settlement, or reparation. It depicts being reimbursed for an expense a person has paid out of his own pocket in order to get his job done; a full and complete recompense. In this verse, it denotes the one who pays, rewards, or gives what one has coming to him or a paymaster.

This lets us know that when you get into agreement with the promise God has given you, and you choose to “stay in faith” — which includes staying in the place He has assigned you to be or sticking with the promise God made to you — a moment will finally come when God, the Great Paymaster, will richly reward you with His rewards. And He will fully recompense and richly reimburse you for everything you have invested along the way — as you stayed in your place of faith!

Wow! The full message of Hebrews 11:1 and 6 is the following:

You must believe what God has said…
You must stand by it, stick with it, and never budge from it…
You must know that a payday is coming when God will reward you for staying in faith!

What is the assignment or calling that God has given you? What is the promise of God’s Word that you have been standing on? If you will “stay in faith” and refuse to move away from what God has told you or promised you, His power and promise will be released! In spite of anything going on around you, this will cause you to be unmoved, unshaken, and well provided for. And this kind of bulldogged faith will produce divine assurance, divine peace, divine power, and divine and supernatural victory!

Today I’ve written to you about what it means to stay in faith, and next month, I’m going to write about what it means to stay in peace. It’s going to be encouraging so be sure to watch for my teaching letter next month!

If you say, “Rick, staying in faith can be hard,” I promise that I understand. Denise and I, our sons, and our whole ministry team have given our all to stay in faith for many years as we have done the will of God. And just as God has promised, we have experienced His rewards for sticking with the assignment, calling, and promises He has given us. I assure you that even if it feels difficult at the moment, when payday comes, you’ll be so thankful you never surrendered and moved out of faith!

We understand exactly what it means and what it takes to stay in faith, so if you need someone to pray with you who truly understands, we would be honored to pray with you! When you reach out to let us know how to pray for whatever it is you are believing for — or about whatever you are facing — we will stand in faith and believe with you for God to move mightily in your life. Never forget that we are here for you and that you can call us any weekday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT at 1-800-742-5593 or send us your prayer need at prayer@renner.org.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter today! I pray it has encouraged you. Please remember to pray for RENNER Ministries as we press forward to stay in faith with what God has asked us to do too!

We love you and thank God for you!

We are your brother and sister, friends, and partners in Jesus Christ,

Rick and Denise Renner
along with Paul, Philip, and Joel Renner and our entire ministry team

P.S. Click here to view the new interactive Ministry Update page or click here to download the printable pdf flyer.

The Power To Control Our Emotions

January Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Editor’s Note: In this month’s Teaching Letter, we’re presenting an adapted excerpt from Denise’s newest book Jesus Is Your Healer, which will be released next month. This book will illuminate you concerning Jesus’ great willingness and ability to heal you and make you whole — and this excerpt will encourage you to take hold of that divine ability today and let Jesus love you!

Hello, Friend!

Happy New Year! I pray you had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior and are looking forward to 2024 with a sense of renewed hope and expectancy. In my last few letters, I wrote to you about divine healing, and I would like to continue teaching along this line. This subject is so close to my heart that I wrote a book called Jesus Is Your Healer, and I am excited to share with you another excerpt from it.

Our emotions play an important role in our health and wellness, and emotions also play an important role in being able to receive the healing that is ours. If you need healing in your body (or know someone who does), I pray this letter is a word in due season.

Things are happening in our world that tell us the time is near for Jesus’ return. Never has it been more important for us to keep our spirit man strong and in control of our emotions.

You have probably seen someone in your life who absolutely lost control of his or her emotions. Maybe that person yelled, screamed, or even cursed at someone you loved, and you said to yourself, I don’t ever want to be like that. Or maybe you were that person who got in a situation where you lost control of your emotions and then felt terrible about it later.

Emotions are a gift from God and a blessing, but it has never been His will that we would be controlled by our emotions. God has provided wisdom for us to learn how to control our emotions, which is a vital part of what we need to do to receive our healing and live in divine health.

We Can Control Our Emotions

The Bible says that we were created in God’s image (see Genesis 1:26,27). God has emotions, and so do we. Emotions in themselves are not bad; it’s what we do with them that makes them good or bad.

Many people have a false picture of God painted in their minds. They assume that He is often angry and out to destroy us. For instance, society has a term for natural disasters, such as tornadoes or hurricanes, that can wreak havoc on the earth: They are often called “acts of God.” But that’s a lie of the devil, because those weather events are not initiated by God.

God does have emotion. Zephaniah 3:17 shows us that He experiences joy.

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will
save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet
you with His love….

God has so much gladness and joy that this word “rejoice” in the Hebrew includes the meaning of spinning. God doesn’t just rejoice over you; He dances in delight over you! That’s how much He loves you. He feels great joy and compassion when He thinks of you.

So we know from God’s Word that there is nothing wrong with our emotions; however, we don’t want to be controlled by them. The Bible says be angry, but to sin not (see Ephesians 4:26). So anger in itself is not a sin; it’s what we do with that anger. If we yell and scream and curse at someone because we are angry, then we have allowed this emotion to move us into fleshly action. Emotion has great power, and it can move us to do the wrong thing.

Anger is normal, but we need to control it because controlling our emotions is vital to our physical health.

You might be saying to yourself, I can’t control my emotions. I listened to my mother scream for so many years of my life. I heard my father’s angry cursing throughout my years growing up. Now I’m just doing what my parents did. I can’t help it.

If you’re saying that, I want to tell you that it’s not true. You can help it. When God says, “Be angry and sin not,” He’s telling us what to do. He would never tell us to do something that He didn’t equip us to do, because He is just and completely fair. God has given us the equipment we need to control our emotions.

How To Keep Your Spirit Man in Control of Your Emotions

So when our emotions are knocking at the door, how can we answer the door in a way that brings light and help to us? How do we ensure that our spirit man stays in control of our emotions?

Let’s consider what we can do when we’re angry. We can either speak to ourselves, or we can listen to that emotion and allow it to move us to an emotional state that isn’t good. We might start yelling and screaming at someone, or we might block our heart from that person, telling ourselves, I’ll never forgive him (or her) for this. If that’s the choice we make and we allow that powerful emotion of anger to move us and cause us to sin, I guarantee you that this kind of reaction will have a detrimental effect on our bodies.

But there’s an answer for those of us who are Christians. We’re not supposed to be led around by our emotions or to allow our emotions to control us. We shouldn’t be screaming and yelling at people. We are not at liberty to give people a piece of our carnal mind or to threaten people with negative consequences for not pleasing us!

So what is our answer? We are to take the time to ask the Holy Spirit who dwells within us for wisdom.

The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the
mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.
Proverbs 15:28

Do you see the two choices in this verse? We either study how to answer, or we pour forth out of our mouths what is evil. The Holy Spirit is so personal, and when we fall into these kinds of emotionally upsetting situations, He is there to give us the help we need if we will take the time to ask Him for that help.

Overcomers Even in Tribulation

We won’t have perfect lives while living on this earth. We will face obstacles that we will need to overcome by faith, and at times those obstacles may include physical sickness or infirmities. But in the midst of it all, Jesus gave us these powerful words of encouragement to sustain and to strengthen us:

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may
have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of
good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

Now, that is a powerful promise. In this world, we are going to have tribulation, but in Jesus, we have peace that surpasses natural understanding (see Philippians 4:6,7). As we face situations that seem impossible, it might take us a little while until we experience His peace. Things that we simply wish weren’t happening can press on our minds and hearts. But what can we do? Jesus told us in that verse. He said, “In Me, you can have peace.”

My life is not a perfect life, and, yes, at times I’ve had to deal with physical and emotional challenges. But one thing I know — it is in Jesus that I find my peace.

After Jesus promised us His peace, He went on to promise something else: “…In the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33). Why is Jesus promising us this? Because He knows something about this world. He knows something about people. But even though Jesus says that we will have tribulation in this world, He also says, “…Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

As we serve Jesus faithfully even through a time of experiencing tribulation, we’re showing the strength of our faith. When everything is going great, it seems like we don’t even have to use our faith. It’s when we’re in those hard places and we might be tempted to give up that the real test comes.

We have to let our spirit man rise up and take control of our emotions in those times. We have to look to Heaven and say, “Jesus, I’m not giving up. This trial isn’t easy to go through, but I know this: You are good, and You are faithful. And no matter what I’m going through, I’m trusting You to bring me out on the other side!”

Always remember these words of Jesus, because you’re going to need them in this life. Jesus said that tribulation comes to everyone, which means you and I are not exempt. But He also said that in Him, you will find strength in His abiding peace. And then He said, “Cheer up — because here is the bottom line: I have overcome the world, and that overcoming power is in you!”

That overcoming power comes in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who promises to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ever ask or think. He works in you with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (see Romans 8:11; Ephesians 1:19,20; 3:20). That means you are well able to take control of your emotions so that they work for you and not against you. Wholeness in every area of your life — spirit, soul, and body — that is the will of God for you!

My friend, I count it a great privilege that you decided to spend this time with me, and I hope you’ve found hope and healing in these words! Together, we’ve sat at the feet of Jesus with our eyes and ears fixed on His Word. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” And Proverbs 16:24 reminds us, “Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.”

If you would like more sweetness for your soul and health to your bones, I invite you to join me for my program TIME With Denise Renner on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. CT on YouTube and Facebook. You can also find me on the following:

• GospelTruth.TV — Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. CT

• PTL — Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. CT

• Spotify, Apple, and Google — Mondays at 5:00 a.m. CT (new audio podcasts)

Do you need healing or have a special prayer request? We have a team of Spirit-filled prayer partners who are just a phone call or email away. Call 1.844.473.6637 or send us an email at prayer@deniserenner.org to connect with the power of agreement. Healing is available to you, and we would be honored to be a part of the miraculous work that God wants to do in you.

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner

Receiving the Bread of Heaven

December Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Hello Friend,

Thank you for choosing to spend this time with me! In my last two letters, I wrote to you about divine healing, and I would like to continue teaching along this line. This subject is very close to my heart — so much so that I wrote a book called Jesus Is Your Healer, and I am so excited to share with you an excerpt from my book today! I pray you will be encouraged and strengthened by these words. Jesus is the Healer — and He’s your Healer!

Rick and I pray for our partners and friends every single day, and this month, we’re praying that you’ll have a peaceful Christmas filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the confident hope that God gives to those who trust and look to Him. Merry Christmas! And may your new year be one of steadfastness, growth, strength, and fruitfulness for you and those you love!

Here is the excerpt from my book, which will be released in February. I believe this book — and this passage — will illuminate you concerning Jesus’ great willingness and ability to heal you and make you whole. Be encouraged to take hold of that divine ability as you read and let Jesus love you!

I want to show you a powerful example of God’s mercy and compassion in action. When a Gentile woman came to Jesus with a desperate plea for help, she had the faith that wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He answered her not a word.

And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Matthew 15:21-28

Partaking of the Bread Provided for Us — the Whole Loaf!

This woman was seeking Jesus for deliverance for her daughter. After Jesus seemingly rejected this desperate woman for the third time, saying, “…‘It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs’” (v. 26), this woman’s response revealed what she believed about Him. It was a response of faith which He is always listening for. She said, “…‘Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table’” (v. 27).

To this, Jesus replied, “…O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire…” (v. 28). And the girl was healed and delivered that very hour as a result of her mother’s faith.

Isn’t that amazing? One word from Jesus was all the woman needed and all she desired to hear. But she didn’t hear that word immediately. She asked and asked again; and she was seemingly rejected several times. But she just kept asking until she received that one word from Jesus that she was desperate to hear: “Let it be to you as you desire.”

That’s the word we want to hear from Jesus as well: “Let it be as you desire.” But sometimes we give up too quickly. We think, Well, I’ve been asking for two weeks for my healing, and I’m not healed yet. I’ve been asking God for the finances I need for two months, but the money hasn’t come. And then we stop pushing through to our miracle.

But not this woman. She was “rejected” over and over again, but she kept pressing in. She was saying, in effect, “I know that I might be seen as a dog in this culture, but even the dogs are given the crumbs. Please, Lord, help me. You can give the whole loaf to Your children. Just give me a crumb, and it will be enough to heal and deliver my daughter.”

The woman’s simple faith touched Jesus so much that He said, “Your faith is great! You can have what you desire.” And her daughter was healed in that same hour.

I love the moment when the person who so desperately needs a miracle suddenly receives that miracle. That’s what happened to me the night I went to bed still in my seemingly unhealed condition, having suffered 13 years from a skin disease, and I woke up the next morning with no disease.

That’s what happens when someone who, having received a diagnosis of cancer, hears the doctor’s dire prognosis but decides to trust God. And then a day comes when the doctor says, “I don’t know where the cancer went — there is no trace of cancer in you!” A believer who experiences that moment didn’t just receive a crumb — he received the whole loaf that is provided for His children!

Oh, that we would take hold of all that God has given us! Jesus said that He is the Bread of Heaven (see John 6:51). Jesus is God, who came to earth in the flesh, and He said, in essence, “Take of Me. I fed My children manna in the wilderness, but now I’m feeding you with Living Bread that is never going to pass away, because it represents My very self.”

In that divine loaf is your financial provision, your healing, and your deliverance from oppression, from depression, from drug addiction, from family turmoil — from any and every bondage that comes from the kingdom of darkness. God has laid out His life through the Person of Jesus Christ, and He offers to you and me the whole loaf!

The Bible says Jesus didn’t come to condemn but to save (see John 3:17). He came to earth so that He could give Himself to you. He is freely offering Himself — His great healing power and His mercy and compassion — to you right now. You simply have to receive it by faith.

My prayer is that you would take these words to heart and continue to “hold fast to the confession of your hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful!” (see Hebrews 10:23). He is always looking for our response of faith!

Again, I am so glad you decided to spend this time with me. If you would like more encouragement from the Word, I invite you to join me for my program TIME With Denise Renner on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. CT on YouTube and Facebook. You can also find me on the following:

• GospelTruth.TV — Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. CT
• PTL — Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. CT
• Spotify, Apple, and Google — Mondays at 5:00 a.m. (new audio podcasts)

We’re believing for you to experience the fullness of God’s blessings in your life — including the healing power that is available to you today

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner

Blessed, Empowered, Joy-Filled, and Sustained

December Teaching Letter from Rick Renner

Dear Friends,

Greetings in Jesus’ powerful and wonderful name!

Whew! It’s already December! The year has passed so fast — and now we are getting ready for 2024.

Usually in this month’s letter, I would write something related to Christmas, but I have received a word from the Lord for our friends and partners for the year 2024, and I sense this is what the Holy Spirit wants me to share with you in my letter today.

But first, if you have not ordered my book Christmas — The Rest of the Story, I do want to encourage you to go online at renner.org/store to order yours today. It is available right now at a wonderful 25-percent discount. I know you and your family will be so blessed by this book, not only through the holiday season but throughout the year! At just the right time, God sent His Son Jesus to the earth as a Babe in a manger — what a miracle in itself! But God performed so many miracles to preserve Jesus’ life until it was also just the right time for Christ to give up His life for you and me. From the bottom of our hearts, Denise and I and our family and team wish you a very wonderful, meaningful Christmas and an amazing new year — and I’ll get to that subject in just a moment!

I also want to say THANK YOU for your amazing support this year. We are reaching more people than ever before, and the year 2023 has been the best year in the history of RENNER Ministries. God has graciously empowered us to do what He has called us to do. And God used YOU and our other friends and partners to help us advance! As a result, we are reaching people all around the world who are crying out for the trusted teaching of God’s Word. Here’s an example:

I recently received an email from a man in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, who wrote to me to express how thankful he is that our program reaches him in Manila every day. And we’re not just reaching people in Manila but people all over the world. The list of nations of the people who write to us every week is simply astounding. It reminds me of the verse God gave to Denise and me in the earliest beginnings of our ministry: “…Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” (Romans 10:18).

When the Holy Spirit gave Denise and me that verse many years ago, we had barely traveled beyond the borders of Oklahoma. But today, this ministry is literally touching people all around the world. And because we now own our own Russian-speaking satellite network, we are reaching Russian-speakers across the globe 24/7. That is truly miraculous!

It is because you are a huge part of this ministry that I want to make sure you know how deeply grateful Denise and I, our family, and our team are for everything you have done and for all you will do in 2024. And when I tell you that we are praying for you, I sincerely mean we are praying for you. You are important to us, and we want to see you experience the fullness and goodness of God on every level! And when I tell you that we want to know how we can specifically pray for you, I really mean it!

But in my letter today, I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to tell you about an experience I recently had while traveling. As Denise and I were flying on an airplane to a certain destination, I was praying to see if the Holy Spirit had a specific word He wanted me to communicate to our friends and partners for the year 2024. Immediately, I heard the pilot announce, “We have been informed that we will encounter heavy turbulence on this flight, so please remain in your seats and keep your seat belts fastened. We will arrive safely, but we request because of the turbulence that you stay seated with your seat belts fastened.” It was then that I suddenly heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and say:

From what the Holy Spirit said to me, I see that the year 2024 will see a tempest on many fronts around the world — especially in the financial, political, and national realms. Those who are not rooted in God’s Word could possibly be deeply disturbed by these events, and this is another reason why we must keep teaching the stabilizing, strengthening Word of God to as many people as possible. Again, I thank you for being a partner who is helping us do this!
But from the word I received, I understood that the world will likely be “bumpy” in 2024, so we need to buckle our seat belts and stay in faith, stay in peace, stay in love, stay in fellowship, and keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity.
When I received this word, I thought of what Jesus said in Matthew 24 and 25.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

According to Jesus, if a person builds his life on God’s Word, it means he is solidly built on a rock, and his life is built so firmly that he can withstand rain, floods, and turbulence of all kinds. This is why we must do all we can to help people get established firmly on the foundation of God’s Word — and this is why you must stay grounded in God’s Word!
But the prophetic word I received also made me reflect on Jesus’ words in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

The words “ye might have” are from a Greek word that means to have, hold, or possess. It means Jesus wants YOU to have, hold, and possess supernatural peace even in troubled times!

But wait — let’s look at that word “peace”! The word “peace” is from a Greek word that pictures a cessation of conflict and a time of rebuilding and prosperity, distractions removed, and a rule of order in the midst of potential chaos. It speaks of a calm, inner stability that results in the ability to conduct oneself peacefully even in the midst of circumstances that would normally be traumatic or upsetting. This word is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom, which expresses the idea of wholeness, completeness, or tranquility in the soul that is unaffected by outward circumstances or pressures.

By using this word, Jesus promised that we can be in peace regardless of what is going on in our personal lives or the world around us. That means even in turbulent seasons, we can supernaturally remain peaceful, tranquil, and unaffected by outward circumstances or events! Regardless of what kind of turbulence the world experiences, we can move forward in peace! Jesus promised it, so it’s yours to claim!

But in John 16:33, Jesus referred to “tribulation.” This is from a Greek word that depicts pressures. Jesus stated that as long as we are in the world, there may be moments when we feel pressures, but He went on to say that we should “be of good cheer.” The words “be of good cheer” actually mean be bold and take courage! The reason we can be bold and take courage is, Jesus has “overcome the world”!

The word “overcome” means to completely conquer, and the word “world” depicts all the systems and events that are occurring in the world around us. We are living in crazy times, but regardless of what is going on, Jesus has completely overcome every bit of it. That is why we can be bold and take courage in every season of life! Again, this promise is yours to claim — so reach out and take it!

But the Holy Spirit specifically told me that in 2024, those who:

Stay in faith…
Stay in peace…
Stay in love…
Stay in fellowship…
Keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity…

They will be:

Unmoved…
Unshaken…
Well provided for…

And they will possess a much-needed:

Divine assurance…
Divine peace…
Divine power…
Divine and supernatural victory!

In the first months of 2024, I will specifically write about what it means to stay in faith, stay in peace, stay in love, and stay in fellowship, and keep sowing seed for the sake of eternity. Starting in January 2024, I will be writing to you about these important points!

But in response to what the Holy Spirit said to me about 2024,
I have been faithfully declaring:

I declare by faith that in 2024, I will stay in faith, stay in peace, stay in love, stay in fellowship, and keep sowing seed for eternity. I expect the Holy Spirit’s power to cause me to be unmoved, unshaken, and well provided for in every realm of my life. I proclaim that I walk in divine assurance, peace, power, and supernatural victory. Regardless of any tempest, God’s Spirit will cause me to be blessed, empowered, joy-filled, sustained, and to miraculously thrive in 2024.

Today I encourage you to grab hold of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit and to make this your faith declaration as well. We are called to be here in this season, and we are anointed for it. God wants to use each of us to help others, so let’s take hold of what Jesus has promised and march forward by faith this month and in the coming year to help those around us!

This is the Christmas season, and you’ll be seeing a lot of people — so this is your opportunity to share Jesus with them and to speak a faith-filled encouraging word to those you encounter. Let’s make the most of every opportunity and not lose a single moment to be a voice of hope and strength to others this month!

I told you this letter would be a little different for December, but I want to let you know that in 2024 — in just a few days — we are anointed for whatever we need to confront in the new year. We are not victims; we are victors through Jesus! And He has promised us that we can overcome the world — and He has told us to be bold and courageous — so let’s do it!

As I close, I want to say that if you have a prayer need of any kind, we would be delighted to pray with you. If you’ll let us know how to pray, Denise and I, along with our team, will take that need before the Lord and He will hear and answer us according to Jeremiah 33:3. Again, I want to say how thankful I am for your partnership with our ministry this year and in the coming year. Together, as a team, we are making a difference in the lives of people all over the world!

Denise and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year!

We are your brother and sister, friends, and partners in Jesus Christ,

Rick and Denise Renner
along with Paul, Philip, and Joel Renner and our entire ministry team

P.S. Click here to view the new interactive Ministry Update page or click here to download the printable pdf flyer.

Keeping Our Words in Agreement With God

November Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Hello Friend,

I have had the topics of thankfulness and praise on my heart lately, and because it’s November, that is what I would like to write to you about today. But first, I’d like to say how thankful I am for the responses and comments I’ve received from many who are watching my programs and reading my emails. I read every comment and I want you to know how much it means to me to read how God is touching lives through the truth of His Word. I give thanks and praise to God for each one of my dear friends.

An Attitude of Thankfulness and Praise Shows Our Agreement With God

Adopting an attitude of thankfulness and praise is so very important — not only because it helps us maintain a posture of faith and positions us to receive from God, but because He deserves our praise! When the storms of life come, we can have confidence that we will be kept in perfect peace as long as our minds are stayed on Him (see Isaiah 26:3) — and the way we keep our minds stayed on Him is by using the words of our mouth to agree with God.The principle of keeping our words in agreement with God is key to our living a victorious life in Him. It is essentially what the writer of Hebrews meant when he wrote, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). To receive from God, we must keep our words in agreement with God without wavering.

For instance, let’s say that the flu season comes and you start saying, “Well, flu season is here. I’m probably going to get sick.” Or perhaps you say, “My husband [or wife] has the flu, so I’m likely going to get the flu, too — and then my children will probably get the flu.”

There is a big problem with that kind of speech! The words we say carry within them our expectation and faith, so when you use your mouth to say such things, you’re exercising your faith in the wrong direction! You’re actually saying, “I’m using my faith right now to believe that I and my children will get sick. I expect to get sick!”

Now, I know that’s not really what you want, but the principle of God’s Word is still true. You might say, “Oh, I’m just speaking the facts. The flu is contagious!” But, friend, I encourage you — don’t underestimate the effect your words have on the world around you. The Bible is full of scriptures telling us that our words have authority. Think about this — how did God create the world? He spoke. You were made in the image of God and that same power lives in you (see Genesis 1:26). How did you get saved? You confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Your mouth has so much authority and power; that’s why you do not want to use your mouth to confess things that actually bring destruction on yourself or others.

What we do want to confess is what God has said in His Word about the matter! We must get in agreement with Him and speak words of life over our situation: “By the stripes of Jesus, I am healed. I take authority over this virus in the name of Jesus! I hold the blood of Jesus over myself and over my family. Lord, I confess before You that You are our Shield!”

You see, that is using your mouth to bring God’s will on the scene. That is employing the authority of your confession of faith! Solomon warned us in Proverbs 18:21 that “death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” When we live with a positive confession of faith, the truth of God’s words in our heart and our mouth begins to work in our favor rather than for our destruction.

What You Say Is What You Get!

I want to tell you a short story about confession. Many years ago, Rick and I were living in the U.S., and we were out of God’s will. We had started a church that He hadn’t told us to start, and we were “eating the fruit” of doing things our way. We were so poor. We had very little heat in our house — absolutely no heat in the kitchen — and our refrigerator was empty.During this difficult and very lean season of our lives, I came across a book entitled, What You Say Is What You Get by Don Gossett. So I started reading this book about the power of my words.

I particularly took note of one story that the author related. It was about a man who was having a very hard time financially. He wasn’t able to adequately provide for his family, and his refrigerator was empty. So he decided that every time he passed by that refrigerator, he was going to do something different than he had been doing. Instead of saying or thinking, Oh God, what are we going to do?, this man decided he would look at his empty refrigerator and shout, “Praise God! Hallelujah!”

So from that moment on, every time the man passed by the refrigerator, he faithfully shouted, “Praise God! Hallelujah!” — and within a week, someone had blessed him and his family with groceries, filling up that refrigerator with food!

Well, as I said, our refrigerator was empty too. So when I read about that man’s testimony, I thought, I’m going to do that! From that moment on whenever I passed our refrigerator, instead of thinking or saying, “Oh, what are we going to do? Our refrigerator is empty!” — I just started praising the Lord! I’d say, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” and just keep on walking!

Well, the Bible says He inhabits the praises of His people (see Psalm 22:3). When we give praise and thanksgiving to God, we also give Him the opportunity to work in our lives.

A week after I started using my mouth to praise God and thank Him for His goodness to us, one of our church members called us out of the blue and said, “You know, God has put it on my heart to buy groceries for your family.” Then this person went out and bought so many groceries that our refrigerator and our cabinets were full!

Why did that happen? Because within my confession of praise was expectation and faith! Rather than use my expectation and faith to reinforce what I saw in my circumstances, I took God at His Word and agreed with Him. I got my words in line with His. And because I chose to point my faith in the right direction, my family and I experienced the promise of the Lord’s provision and saw His goodness performed in our lives.

The good news is that mine was not a “special case.” God wants to prove Himself faithful and perform His goodness in your life as well! He has given us “exceedingly great and precious promises” for every circumstance in life, and He wants us to be partakers of His divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4). I encourage you, dear friend, to search God’s Word for those promises and determine in your heart and mind to agree with Him. The choice has been set before us all (see Deuteronomy 30:19), so rather than speak death, let’s speak life by keeping God’s Word — and thanksgiving and praise — in our mouths!

Thank you so much again for spending this time with me. I pray it has been a blessing and encouragement to you! If you would like more encouragement from the Word, I invite you to join me for my program TIME With Denise Renner on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. CT on YouTube and Facebook. You can also find me on the following:

• GospelTruth.TV — Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. CT
• PTL — Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. CT
• Spotify, Apple, and Google — Mondays at 5:00 a.m. (new audio podcasts)

Will you let us know how we can pray for you? If you need healing or you have a special prayer request, one of our prayer partners is just a phone call or email away. Call 1.844.473.6637 or send us an email at prayer@deniserenner.org. We are believing for you to experience the fullness of God’s blessings in your life — including the healing power that is available to you today!

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner

Developing Thankfulness

November Teaching Letter from Rick Renner

Dear Friends,

GREETINGS in the precious name of Jesus!

Right now, people are getting ready to celebrate THANKSGIVING — so this month, I want to encourage you from God’s Word about how to develop thankfulness every day of your life.

But before I dive into this powerful theme, I want to express my own thankfulness to God for you and all you do as a partner with this ministry. When I call people partners, I mean this very sincerely — what we do is completely connected to what you do. Together, as we obey the Great Commission, we are working to take the liberating truths of God’s Word to people all over the planet.

I often remind you, along with all our partners, that there are scores of people who do not have available to them what you have available to you. They live where there are no good churches to attend, and they are famished for the sound teaching of God’s Word. When we send them the Word through this ministry, it is an answer to the cry of their hearts!

Proverbs 10:21 says, “The lips of the righteous feed many….” This verse tells me we have a God-given responsibility to feed others God’s Word. That is what we have dedicated our lives and our ministry to fulfill. And we are thankful that God sent you to help us! We are doing it with you! Denise and I want you to know how thankful and grateful we are to God, and to you as well, that you are a part of our partner family!

Years ago, I made a personal decision to develop thankfulness in my life and to practice being grateful to God in everything (see 1 Thessalonians 5:18). When people ask me, “Rick, how are you?” I nearly always answer by saying, “I am grateful!”

You see, there is always something we can be grateful and thankful about, but we must choose to develop a grateful and thankful attitude.

In Second Timothy 3:2, Paul said that in the last days, “…Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful….” Since we know that being unthankful will be a temptation people will be prone to fall into in the last days, we must determine in our hearts to instead run in the other direction and be known for being thankful and grateful!

Let’s look at what the word “thankful” means in the original Greek language of the New Testament. The Greek word translated “thankful” that is most often used in the New Testament is charistos. The word charistos is a derivative of the word charis, which is the word for “grace.” However, when the word charis is transformed into charistos, it more fully expresses the idea of one whose heart is thankful, grateful, or appreciative for various reasons.

The Greek word charistos depicts an inward awareness of having been fortunate or well-treated. Thus, the word “thankful” — translated from charistos — projects the deep inward feeling of one who is thankful, grateful, or appreciative for what he has received or how he has been treated.

But let’s look at those three words “thankful,” “grateful,” and “appreciative” for a moment. The word “thankful” is concerned with a person’s attitude toward his good fortune rather than his feelings toward anyone responsible for it. It suggests that someone is relieved or pleased about a situation or turn of events.

But someone who is grateful realizes that someone else has helped him or treated him kindly, and he has warm feelings toward that person. Thus, the word “grateful” suggests more of an impulse to thank someone than the word “thankful” does.

Last, the word “appreciative” shows that a person recognizes the merits or appeal of something and expresses his or her recognition of it.

All these words — “thankful,” “grateful,” and “appreciative” — are included in the word “thankful, translated from the Greek word charistos, and are the expressions of a person who is thankful that he has experienced blessings in some form; is grateful toward the person or people who treated him kindly; and wants to express how appreciative he is for the kindness that was shown.

Now let’s look at what the Holy Spirit is referring to in Second Timothy 3:2 when He says society at large will become unthankful in the last days. The word “unthankful” is the Greek word acharistos, which is charistos with an a affixed to the front of it. In Greek, that little prefix a has a canceling effect. Thus, acharistos describes a person who was once thankful, but something occurred, and his thankfulness has been canceled. That person who was thankful has become unthankful.

The meaning of charistos — the Greek word translated “thankful” — is radically altered when that little a is attached to the front of it. It literally changes the meaning from thankful to unthankful.

Again, the word acharistos signals that although a person’s thankful attitude previously prevailed in his life, somehow the same person has lost his thankful, grateful, and appreciative attitude and is now unthankful. Thoughts of unthankfulness, ingratitude, and unappreciativeness now fill his heart and mind. This person is not thankful for the good he has experienced or for the blessings he has received. He is not grateful toward the person or people who have treated him kindly. He has become unthankful, filled with ingratitude, and unappreciative of what others have done for him.

Put simply, the Greek word acharistos pictures an ingrate.

Although we’re talking about developing an attitude of thankfulness, gratitude, and appreciation in our lives, the word “unthankful” is profoundly important. It is imperative that we understand what Paul was prophesying concerning a last-days age in which people will become so unthankful, ungrateful, and unappreciative that they feel entitled to everything.

When a person feels entitled to everything, he loses his thankfulness for nearly everything. Why would a person be thankful when he feels he’s entitled to everything he has? This sense of entitlement is destructive to individuals, and it leads society as a whole into a state of unthankfulness — exactly what the Holy Spirit prophesied would emerge at the end of the age.

Many people today are seeking their own rights and ways, and it is leaving them dissatisfied, empty, and disillusioned. Although those who fit this description are on an endless quest to please self, they have found true, lasting pleasure to be ever just beyond their grasp. As many things as these people own — and as many benefits as are heaped on them that they didn’t have to labor for — they don’t feel thankful, because they feel entitled to it all. They have never learned the spiritual law that happiness is only obtainable where there is a thankful heart.

Unthankfulness is so wicked that in Luke 6:35, Jesus connected it with evil. He said, “…Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” Jesus’ words position the characteristic of being “unthankful” in the same category as being “evil,” which tells us that an unthankful attitude is evil in God’s sight. The way God sees it, it is, in truth, spiritually criminal not to be thankful for what we have in life, even if it seems like we have little compared to someone else’s blessings.

Even if we believe we’ve worked hard and earned what we have, we still should be profoundly thankful that all we have was given to us by God. Our jobs and opportunities could have been given to someone else, but they were graciously given to us.

Others who need a job and a salary would be thankful to have your position and your income. There are people all over the world who do not have shelter, warmth, or clean water, but you likely have access to these blessings every day. When you remember that, it will help you to be thankful for what you have and for every blessing that comes your way.

The Bible commands us to “be ye thankful” and to “in every thing, give thanks” (see Colossians 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:18). Even if things seem to be going wrong all around us, we can stop to count our blessings! We may feel besieged by need at the present moment, but the fact is, we each have many reasons to be thankful. This is why I have chosen to be grateful and thankful every day of my life!

Perhaps you have already adopted this mindset in your own life. But to help you in your desire to be even more thankful and grateful, I want to give you several Bible verses concerning “thankfulness” that you can meditate on.

Colossians 3:17
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

This verse encourages you to give thanks to God in whatever you do or are asked to do for Him.

1 Thessalonians 5:18
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus concerning you.

This verse says you are to give thanks to God in everything — not for everything.

Psalm 26:7
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving,
and tell of all thy wondrous works.

This verse says that we are to “publish” with the voice of thanksgiving. Maybe you don’t publish books, articles, or blogs — but when you make your posts on social media, make sure you publish posts that show you have a thankful heart to God and to others!

Psalm 34:1
I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise
shall continually be in my mouth.

Would others say your mouth is continually filled with praise and thankfulness? Make it your aim to be known as a thankful and grateful person!

Psalm 89:1
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth
will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

Do you express a thankful attitude to God before your children and grandchildren as this verse instructs you to do? What do your children and grandchildren predominantly hear you say about your blessings and your attitude toward God who gives those blessings?

Psalm 92:1,2
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises
unto thy name, O Most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness
in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night.

Do you start your day by expressing your thankfulness to God for His lovingkindness? Do you end your day by expressing your thankfulness for His faithfulness?

Psalm 100:4
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise:
be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

This verse indicates we’re to maintain a lifestyle of thanksgiving. Does God see you as a person who is continually thankful and grateful — or as someone who is always griping and complaining about something?

Psalm 103:1
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits….

Do you take time to remember all the good things God has done for you and to let Him know how thankful you are for all of it?

Psalm 105:1
O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known
his deeds among the people.

Do you give thanks to the Lord by telling others about all the wonderful deeds He has done in your life? According to this verse, God longs for you to make known His deeds to others!

I understand this letter is a little longer than usual, but since people are going to be gathering soon for Thanksgiving Day, I wanted to encourage you this month to make a decision to be more thankful — and to give you some Bible verses to help you cultivate these characteristics of thankfulness and gratefulness in your life!

As our own family gathers around the table for Thanksgiving this year, we will each take a moment to express what we are thankful and grateful for — and it will include thanking God for connecting us with you! WE ARE SO GRATEFUL TO GOD FOR YOU!

Before I sign my name to this letter, let me say that if there is anything we can be praying with you about, please let us know. Just call us at 1.800.742.5593 or email us at prayer@renner.org. The moment we hear from you, we’ll release our faith for God to move mightily on your behalf!

We love you and thank God for you!

Rick and Denise Renner
Along with Paul, Philip, and Joel Renner and our ministry team