Dr. Jim Richards

On the cross God reconciled the world to Himself. The word reconciled means to buy back, or to exchange one thing for something else. Jesus took our sin, sickness and disease, death and suffering; He offers us the opportunity to take His righteousness, life, health and healing. Paul said, we are ambassadors for Christ; we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, 2 Cor. 5:20. Faith in...

The power of salvation is based on our beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection; the aspects of salvation we experience are based on what we believe about the resurrection; and every New Covenant promise is based on what Jesus obtained through the resurrection! Therefore, our top priority for living by faith should be to learn everything we can about what Jesus accomplished through the resurrection. Join...

We are all called to live in resurrection life. This is the power that worked in Jesus to raise Him up conquering sin, death, and the devil. When your faith is rooted in Jesus’ resurrection it is that same power that will work in you to raise you up over all your circumstances. We attempt to win our victories with a general kind of faith, simply believing the promises. True faith trusts what Jesus...

Every battle Jesus won for us on the cross and in the grave was won by His faith. He faced mental and physical opposition. After all, He had taken on our every mental and emotional pain and sickness. But He continued to believe and acknowledge God’s promises to Him in the face of all opposition, and He overcame it all! The resurrection power that worked in Him is the same power that works in us wh...

How long was Jesus in the grave? When asked that question almost every believer would day three days and three nights, because that is what Jesus said. But then if you ask them when Jesus was crucified the great majority of Christians would say Friday. Since the first day of the week began on Saturday afternoon at Sundown, this would mean that if He were raised on the first day of the week He woul...

Fake news isn’t anything new; it’s been around since Lucifer made his appearance on planet earth and told Eve a partial truth. The thing about a partial truth is this: it usually appeals to our logical mind; it’s close enough to the truth that we stop searching for the truth, and we accept the circumstances created by a partial truth as acceptable. The partial truth about Jesus’ death, burial, and...

Religion talks about the resurrection of Jesus, but never really tells you the real news about the resurrection. Exactly what happened on the cross? What happened for three days and three nights in death? What happened at the resurrection? And most importantly, why did those things have to happen? Without answers to these questions we limit our faith and the degree to which we can experience the r...

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had determined certain miracles that they said only the Messiah could perform. Jesus performed all of the Messianic miracles and they still didn’t follow Him as the Messiah. But then Jesus performed the one Messianic miracle foretold in the scripture and still they refused to believe. Jesus gave them the sign of Jonah, which He offers to every human being. He of...

Reconnecting to God should never be driven by the hope to get back to where you were. It should be about connecting to God in a way you never have before. We’ve got to have the hope and expectation of connecting to God in a way we never have before. If what we had was so good we wouldn’t feel distant and isolated. The Hebrew language draws a picture of mercy and goodness pursuing us to draw us to...

The story of the prodigal son reveals much about every person involved in Kingdom living. The elder brother is self-righteous and doesn’t want the younger brother to get better than he deserves. The younger brother finally comes to his senses, repents, and returns to his father’s house. Then, there is the loving father who is patiently waiting for his rebellious son’s return. God is always waiting...

I know God says He’ll never leave us, but what good is it if I don’t feel it? The truth is: that which we cannot feel or experience is of no value in this life. We are emotional beings and our capacity to enjoy life is all about what we feel and experience. Ironically, God has made a way for us to connect to Him and others. It is one of those truths hidden in plain sight. The only thing that keeps...

I do so much for other people and it seems so unappreciated. One of the great deceptions about giving and sacrificing for others is the idea that it will cause them to love and value us more. There are situations when that is true, but few people know how to identify those who will be grateful and those who will take us for granted. The truth is giving and sacrifices don’t make others value us mor...

Help! I have an incredibly difficult time emotionally connecting. We were created to be social, emotional, relationship-oriented beings. Any number of familial, cultural, or social factors can make it difficult, however, for us to actually make emotional connections. The rise in the need for drugs, alcohol, physical and sexual activity could in part be due to the rise in people who are desperate f...

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

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

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

Before Jesus taught us how to pray, He taught us how not to pray. Reciting prayers as a formula was one of the ways He taught us not to pray. Prayer has to be from our own heart, spoken in our own words, with our own beliefs, expressions, and emotions. But more than anything prayer has to be approaching God based on our relationship. The only cure for formula-based, ritualistic prayers is an intim...

Jesus gave us another issue that must be resolved before we begin to actually pray. Sanctify God’s name in your own heart. Sanctification is the process of making something holy. God’s names reveal His character and nature. We know God will never act contrary to His name, moreover, He will always uphold His name. If we have made His name holy in our heart, praying in His name takes on an entirely...

What most of us call prayer is more like beggars pleading their master for bread crumbs, unsure of what His response will be. That’s why Jesus taught that before we enter into any of what we call prayer, we should experientially connect to God as Father. Sons are not just legal heirs; they are joint rulers of their Father’s kingdom. They know their Father, what He wants, and how He gets things don...

There is a door in our heart that gives entrance to the Kingdom of God: a place where we can access all the resources of God. We have been provided the key that opens this door. It was a free gift, but too often we don’t use the key we have been given. We attempt to use a key that our pastor gave us, our parents, or one we created ourselves. Millions of believers stand outside, baffled and discour...

The scriptures tell us that God’s mercies are renewed daily. In our limited concept of mercy we see that as God merely forgiving us for what we have done wrong. What we fail to see is that mercy has so many more dimensions. It is also a shelter that provides protection and provision; it is a hiding place where we can experience God’s creative power. It is a place where we can have revelation, and...

The world desperately needs to see the glory of God. For centuries we have believed that more signs, wonders, and miracles would bring the world to Jesus, but it never has and never will. The world needs to see what we have all seen by looking at Jesus. They need to see God portrayed in the lives of people who are one with Him. The more we yield to Christ in us, the more we magnify God in the eart...

Jesus showed us the glory of God by revealing exactly who God was. His teaching, the way He treated people, and all of His miracles were expressions of the true character and nature of God! But in John 17:22, He says, the glory you gave me I have given them. In other words, He didn’t share any of His personal opinions; He didn’t make up new doctrine; His every action was an exact representation of...

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

The scripture tells us when we behold the glory of God we are transformed into that glory! For thousands of years mankind has longed to see the glory of God. The children of Israel saw the cloud by day and the fire by night, which led them on the wilderness journey, but it didn’t transform them. While these were definitely expressions of God’s glory and goodness, they were not actually the glory o...