I want to thank You all from the bottom of my heart who took time to pray for the Steve Hill crusades in Estonia last week. God moved so awesomely. He really touched hearts and so many came for repentance and to get a new touch from God... and they got blessed.

I thought I was doing quite well spiritually until the Lord started to pour out His Spirit... THEN I understood in how deep a draught I had been for so long... actually our whole country has been in a spiritual desert for a long, long time. It had been so long since I felt such a refreshment from the Lord. It felt that for years I had been pressing and pressing spiritually... and now a break-through came... not a complete break-through yet, but God is working mightily. We sure have stepped into a new time! Wow! It is so awesome! I am so excited about what He has for us.

It has been awesome beyond description to praise the Lord and worship Him among thousands of Christians... worship Him for an hour! Ahhh... what can be better than that! The Word talks a lot about the power of praise and worship and thanksgiving. When we take our eyes off of our circumstances and our needs and put our eyes on Him in praise and thanksgiving, we break through... for God Himself is fighting for us.

No wonder the Israelite armies had worshippers in the front. They knew that in order to achieve a physical victory, they had to achieve the victory in the spirit realm first. They understood that they had to fight the spiritual battles first and only then could the physical victory manifest in front of their eyes. Also, they apprehended WHO was behind their victory - it was their God. How many times the Israelites had much smaller army than their enemies did... but every single one time they put their trust and hope in the Living God, they achieved victory over their enemies. They went out, DECLARING the victory in the name of their God... and God gave them according to their faith and their declarations.

It makes NO difference how much bigger our enemy seems to be... our God is vastly bigger than them all together. Not many even in the Bible grasped this Truth, but those who did, won victories. David was one of those who, when going against his enemy - Goliath, did not look at the size of his enemy, but looked at the size of His God, declaring the outcome BEFORE He went to do the battle... and he received the perfect victory for his people.

David declared: "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I COME TO YOU IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF THE RANKS OF ISRAEL, Whom you have defied. THIS DAY THE LORD WILL DELIVER YOU INTO MY HAND, and I will smite you and cut off your head. And I will give the corpses of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that THE LORD SAVES NOT WITH SWORD AND SPEAR; FOR THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S, AND HE WILL GIVE YOU INTO OUR HANDS." (1 Sam.17:45-47)

David knew it was not a battle between him and the giant. He understood that it was a spiritual battle before it was a physical battle. He knew his part was to go against the enemy "IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS" and to declare his faith... telling in detail what he was going to do.

Why was David SO bold and so confident in his God? ...David had used well the time he had spent tending the sheep. He took time to seek the Lord and to get to know Him. He had trusted God when wild animals had come against the sheep and now he was completely confident that this giant was no bigger than a wild animal... if God could win the smaller victories for him, He could win the greater victories too. David had experienced the faithfulness of God. That is where his confidence came from.

Psalm 91:14 can be said of David: "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness - trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, NEVER]."

David KNEW the power in God's name. David KNEW he could completely trust the Lord in everything. He had the personal knowledge of His mercy, love, and kindness. We too have to KNOW those things in order for us to have such boldness and confidence. But so often in our modern society we have so many options that we do not put our trust in the salvation of the Lord... and that is why we are so full of fear. We have not seen His deliverances and when we are truly in a spot where we have no other hope, we freak out!

Whatever are the battles in our lives, they are all first spiritual and only then physical or emotional. We win or lose our battles first in the spirit realm and only then we see the victory manifested in front of our eyes. The Lord has given us the weapons to fight our battles with: His Word, His Name and worship, praise, thanksgiving. When we have asked for what we need, we have to do what the Lord has taught us through His Word - to start praising and thanking Him for what we have asked for, believing that we have it already (Mark 11:24).

I think Psalm 51 is so beautiful as here the Lord lets us know that at times our praise and thanksgiving becomes a sacrifice. It is no longer just praise and thanksgiving... but it has become a sacrifice, an offering to the Lord. I believe this happens when we are deep in pain or trouble and praising and giving thanks is the last thing we want to do, but in spite of our feelings, we rise up by faith and start praising Him and giving Him thanks, declaring our victory... and victory comes! Verse 23 says:

"He who brings an offering of praise and thanksgiving honors and glorifies Me; and he who orders his way aright [who prepares the way that I may show him], to him I will demonstrate the salvation of God."

I remember a really powerful testimony of a missionary lady (in the beginning of past century) who decided to take care of another missionary who had smallpox (although she herself had not been vaccinated). She stood on a Scripture in Psalm 91 that no pestilence was going to come to her. But suddenly she came down with smallpox. Hers turned out to be a very severe case. She didn't understand. It seemed that the Word had let her down. So, she asked God what was wrong ....and God showed her two baskets - one basket was a basket of praise and another a basket of testing - a smallpox. God showed her that the basket of testing was full but the basket of praise was half empty. Then God told her to praise Him and give thanks to Him until the basket of praise would be full and overweigh the basket of testing.

The doctors put her into isolation and told her to lay down and be very quiet as she was so sick. But she started to praise and praise and thank God. She kept praising and praising and thanking God. She was so weak and so sick but she kept praising and praising and thanking God ...until God showed her the picture of her praise basket being completely full and outweighing the testing basket. Smallpox vanished from her body. She was healed. Although her doctors had told her that IF she would be healed through a miracle, her body would still be disfigured for life. But God does not do a half-way job nor give a half-way healing. The missionary lady was SO healed that there was not even a scar left on her body! God had brought her through the testing in perfect victory. Praise and thanksgiving had the power to bring her to perfect victory!

She did what God told her to do in Psalm 51:14-15: "Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving...and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall honor and glorify Me."

Notice that God tells us to first offer Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving... and THEN call on Him in the day of trouble and He WILL deliver us! Our baskets of praise and thanksgiving might well be half empty too, making us vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. How great it is that Americans have a Thanksgiving day and celebration. It is the time to fill our baskets with praise!

This missionary lady understood the principles of God. She did not wait until her healing manifested to give thanks to God ....had she done that she probably would not have even survived, but she gave thanks to God and praised Him for His Promise of healing before it manifested. We can learn from her. Whatever we have a need for in our lives, we shouldn't go to God and whine and cry before Him. He has shown us the way out. We should bring Him the sacrifice of praise. We should thank Him for our fulfilled need even before it happens.

Spiritual realm rules over the natural realm and we receive absolutely everything first in the spirit and then it will manifest in front of our eyes. Whether it is a healing we need ...or finances ....or restoration of our relationships etch. As soon as we start praising God for it, we will be putting things into motion in the spirit realm ...and it cannot but manifest in the natural realm. This is how things work. Also by praise and worship we allow our faith to grow until we grab hold of what belongs to us.

Praise and thanksgiving lift us into the spirit realm where we have the authority in the name of Jesus. We have a position of rulership in the spirit realm. We do not attain much when we "sit in the mud" feeling sorry for ourselves or trying to work things out in our own wisdom (that is stupidity to God!)... we only get deeper into the mud. We need to rise up, realizing that God has already given us promises that will bring us victory. We need His help. He need His wisdom. We get hold of it through praise and thanksgiving.

We all have a lot to praise and worship God for. Praise and thanksgiving in tough situations is a true sacrifice and offering in God's eyes and He honors it. He has given us powerful promises. Now it is our turn to take hold of them and praise and give thanks to Him for what we believe belongs to us. God loves it! ...or He wouldn't have said in Isaiah 62:6,7: "You who [are His servants and by your prayers] put the Lord in remembrance [of His promises], keep not silence, and give Him no rest." and in Jeremiah 1:12: "I am alert and active, watching over my Word to perform it."

Hey, lets take time to praise and give Him thanks! ..."for He is good and His loving-kindness endures forever!"

Many, many blessings and happy Thanksgiving to You next week,

I've shared with You since Spring about our tiny country needing prayers. Russia is brooding over us, seeking for an opening to come in and seize Estonia again. Their newest idea is to build a radar system on one of the islands that is very close by in order to keep their watchful eye on us. There is also much talk about Russian-German gas pipe-line that they want to build right by our border, then also having a good reason to have their troops to "protect" the pipe-line.

Those things have shaken us... but also in a good way - we, as the body of Christ, needed to desperately be shaken out of our comfort zones. We did. We had become lazy. We had become worldly Christians with no power in our lives. We confessed being Christians but there was not much difference between us and the world. I am sure God's heart was deeply grieved and hurt when He looked at our lives.

Of course it was not God Who brought those things upon our country in order to show us Who is the Boss. God never does that. It was the sins of our country that brought those things upon us. The sin had risen so high that it was screaming for judgment.

God has given us the laws to live by but if we ignore them, allowing sin to grow and flourish, at one point the judgment will break upon us like mighty waters. Will we allow ourselves to be shaken out of our comfort zones, surrendering our hearts and lives to Him anew, or shall we look upon those happenings as merely being political, thinking that we need to run to some other big country for help?

Whatever is happening in our lives has got spiritual roots and we will have to approach those things through the Truth of the Word of God. Many Christians were indeed shaken out of our comfort zones and started to pray like never before (though, there is still so much coolness and indifference among the body of Christ.) Also You, my dear friends, took to heart what was/is happening and started to intercede for our country. Thank You so much. Please do know that every single one of Your treasured prayers have moved things in the spirit.

I am so, so happy and so excited to report that last weekend we had Hillsong Australia visiting our country and leading thousands of Christians from all denominations in worship. THAT was party! Whohoo! Years and years ago I had this dream in my heart to worship the Lord with thousands of Christians... just worship and worship and worship. It has become reality. It happened last weekend.

Sure, I've seen it happen in other countries, but not in our tiny country. I mean, there is only 1.6 million (NOT 16 million!) people in the WHOLE country! So, to get thousands of Christians together at the same time to party and worship... that is something else.

But this outpouring of His Spirit has not ended there. This weekend the Lord has sent Steve Hill from Pensacola (through him started huge revivals some years ago during which about 4 million got saved), to Estonia. No one invited him to come. I don't think any pastor even had an idea to invite him to come, but the Lord put it on his heart to come to Estonia at this time. So, we are getting ready for the Miracle Crusades tomorrow and on Saturday. I just came from the prayer for the even! Whohoo! Powerful!

Through Hillsong came a message that our country will be shaken some more even this year and I believe God in His awesome mercy is preparing us for it. First, He drew us to Himself through the weekend of worship and now He is ready to deal with us. The Word also says that we come into the presence of the Lord through worship:

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!" (Psalm 100:4)

When we come into the Lord's presence, we need to come through praise and thanksgiving for this is the only way we take our eyes off of our own desires and wants and needs and we put our eyes on Him. If we don't come to Him through praise and thanksgiving, we won't hear His voice. All of our own desires just kill the still, small voice in our hearts. But when we take the time to just start worshiping and praising and adoring Him, we rise up from our little holes in the earth and we ascend to the heavenly heights, being able to hear His voice and His leading.

And not just that, but through worship and praise we rise up to our thrones in the heavenlies, taking the positions of rulership, rather than being ruled by our circumstances. When we ascend to our heavenly positions (in the spirit realm), then we are also able to start ruling and reigning over our situations and circumstances... even over cities, over countries. It is no use to start praying from the flesh... for the flesh wants to whine and cry when tough things happen. No, God has given each of us a position of authority and He fully expects us to step into our positions and start ruling and reigning. He is not going to do this for us. He has given us all the power necessary and now He fully expects us to do the work given to us.

So, it is no use to go to God and beg Him to change our circumstances... no use at all! He has not made us beggars. He has made us rulers with Christ! Oh, I've tried to whine from time to time... and the only thing I get is God saying, ok, are you done yet? Here is what I would have you to do in order to conquer. So, up I've had to get and start praising and worshiping in order to get myself out of the pit and back on the throne.

Listen to Ephesians 2:1-6, which is absolutely one of my very favorite portions of Scripture:

"And you [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins in which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God]. Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God's] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind. But God - so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation). And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."

Whohoo! Isn't this powerful! Especially this bit: "He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere."

Our right positions are in the heavenly sphere. We've been raised up together with Christ and now we have been given joint seating with Him. God fully and completely expects us to sit with Christ and rule with Him. Although we still live in this world, we no longer are the citizens of this world. We are the citizens of the Kingdom of God, for "[the Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." (Col.1:13)

We are the citizens of the Kingdom of God. We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, in the position of rulership. Listen to what kind of power we have been given in Christ... it sure should make us ashamed to cry and whine, instead of ascending to our rightful positions and rule and reign over what God has given to us... starting from our circumstances and our homes:

"[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones). And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places], far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come. AND HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET and has appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church [a headship exercised throughout the church], which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all [for IN THAT BODY LIVES THE FULL MEASURE OF HIM WHO MAKES EVERYTHING COMPLETE, and Who fills everything everywhere with Himself." (Ephesians 1:17-23)

Wow! What power! God has desired all along that we would finally "know and understand the hope to which He has called us, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints, us, His set-apart ones." God has desired all along "that we would finally know and understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of HIS POWER IN US AND FOR US WHO BELIEVE!" Think about it. God's power is right within You and me. God's power within us and for us is IMMEASURABLE and UNLIMITED and SURPASSING IN GREATNESS! There is nothing and no one in this world that is above God's power. No one!

Even though the devil has been able to lie to so many Christians, leaving us often with the impression that he is just as powerful as God, it is not so! The devil has power, yes, but most of his power depends on his lies. If he is able to make us believe that we better keep away from his path in order to be left alone, we will live without God's power. We will live in defeat... as so many Christians do! But God has put ALL things under Christ's feet, He has put ALL things under our feet in Christ. Can You possibly imagine the power He has given to us!

...but this power does no good until we finally grasp the Truth, understand the Truth and start using it in our lives! Hey, its time to wake up and become all that God has called us to be! Things are going more and more downhill and we can no longer depend on this world for anything. We need to learn to live on a different level. We need to learn to take the dominion given to us. We need to make a change in this world.

We are stepping out this weekend and expecting God to come and pour out His Spirit over our city. Dear friends, I am asking You for prayer-support. Please do pray for the Miracle Crusades that start in less than 17 hours. Please pray for the Spirit of God to draw people to the crusade and to Himself. Please pray for the Spirit to bring the body of Christ together in unity and shake us out of our comfort zones, giving us the message we need to hear at this time. Please pray that the Lord will be able to fully prepare the body of Christ (bringing thousands more into it this weekend) for what is to come. We covet Your prayers for we've had a short time to prepare!

Hey, if You guys have GOD TV at home, those events will be broadcast live on GOD TV on Friday and Saturday. It will be sometime in the morning in the States.

Thank You so much for Your prayers! I wish You many, many blessings and lots of Love... lets rise up in God's power!

Hey, I'm back in the book of Hebrews. I started to read it all over and again I had to camp in the 6th chapter. It is so powerful what God is telling us here. I mean, think about it: "In His desire to show more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan."

Who are those who are to inherit the promise? Every one of us who is ready to take God by His Word is the one who shall inherit the promise. How do we inherit the promise? We simply believe what God is saying in His Word and we receive it... we take it from Him by faith.

Since the beginning of the world, God has called every one of us to live by faith in His promises and not by sight. God's purpose and plan for us has not changed. He still expects us to live by faith... and besides, His promises will not be obtained in any other way.

God desired to prove to us more convincingly and beyond doubt that His promises work. When we are ready to take His Word by faith, it will start working in our lives. As long as we live by our own feeble wisdom - and compared to God's wisdom it sure is plain stupidity! - we will miss out on what God has put ready for us.

When we make up our minds that no matter what, we are going to take God by His Word and put His promises to work in our lives... You know what! They will work! For God says in verse 19:

"[Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whoever steps out upon it - a hope] that reaches farther and enters into [the very certainty of the Presence] within the veil."

Now we have God's promises as sure and steadfast anchor of our souls. God's promises "cannot slip and cannot break down under whoever steps out upon" them. Whatever promise we decide to step on and rely upon and hold on to, it cannot slip and it cannot break! It will carry us through whatever we are facing. God's promises to us never fail.

God has already done His part by telling us what He is willing and ready to do for us. Sure, if we are in any kind of trouble, it is us who has got us into it, but this does not mean God will not help us to get out of the trouble. So often even we, as Christians, think, I got myself into the mess, now I will have to get myself out of it. Basically what we are saying to God is, God, I don't need Your wisdom, I will do it on my own. Of course we do not mean it like that... but this is what we are doing when we reject God's wisdom. ...and sure, we will get deeper into the mess for we in our own human smartness just don't have what it takes to live in the straight and narrow lane of God's blessings.

Proverbs 1 says: "Wisdom cries aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the markets; she cries at the head of the noisy intersections [in the chief gathering places]; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: How long, O simple ones [open to evil], will you love being simple? And the scoffers delight in scoffing and [self-confident] fools hate knowledge?"

If we are self-confident, relying on our own wisdom, God simply calls us fools! He also lets us know that it is not difficult to find wisdom, if we only desire it. Verse 23 continues:

"If you will turn (repent) and give heed to my reproof, behold, I [Wisdom] will pour out my spirit upon you, I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you have refused [to answer], have stretched out my hand and no man has heeded it, and you treated as nothing all my counsel and would accept none of my reproof, I also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when the thing comes that shall cause you terror and panic."

We don't think that we act like that, but we do. Every time we choose our own way instead of God's way, we act exactly like fools. And we will get hurt. It is not God Who will "laugh at our calamity... and mock when the thing comes that shall cause us terror and panic." It is the Word of God that God has given to us to rely upon that will mock us... the Word that we have rejected in order to go our own way, do our own thing.

Verse 31 continues: "Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices, for the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, and the careless ease of [self-confident] fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkens to me [Wisdom] shall dwell securely and in confident trust and shall be quiet, without fear or dread of evil."

We are not backsliders only when we turn our backs on God... we are backsliders when we turn our backs on God's Wisdom... and such behavior shall slay us, and "the careless ease of self-confident fools shall destroy them." Every time we try to fix a situation or step out without asking God for His wisdom first, we are acting like self-confident fools... which will destroy us. When we are careless in our relationship with God and spending time in His Word, we are living as self-confident fools.

So often we, as Christians, do not even notice that our life-styles do not differ much from the world's. We still rely on the world's system and the world's wisdom much more than we rely on the promises of the Word of God. We still live by sight and not by faith. When we rely on our paycheck to get by, we are relying on the world's system. When we rely on our tithing and sowing to provide to us what we need, we are doing things God's way, we are relying on God's wisdom that works. When we rely on doctors and medicine to get us well, we rely on the world's system. Though, I am not saying we should not take medicine or go to doctors, but our hope and trust for complete health should still be in the promises of God. Proverbs 4 tells us what is our medicine:

"My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."

So, on top of taking medicine when necessary, we should treat the Word of God as our medicine. There are tons of promises of healing in the Bible. We should find them and meditate upon them and speak them over our bodies. God's Word brings us healing.

God's Word also brings us protection... and deliverance in difficult situations... It will save our marriages... and our children... It will actually do for us whatever we decide to rely upon and believe in!

I know we have managed to make it one foot in the world's wisdom and one foot in the wisdom of God, but it won't work any longer. We need to live according to God's wisdom in order to be well and to do well. It is the one and only thing in this world that is sure and immovable and won't every let us down or fail us!

God has given us the Sword of the Spirit to fight our battles with. It is time to take up the sword and fight our battles according to the kingdom of God way and not according to the world's way. The world has already proved to be in a complete mess. This should convince us that our only hope is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:17 calls us to "take the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God."

We need to find the promises that cover our situation and we need to meditate on those promises. It does not work to just speak those promises out of our mouths a few times. It is not the faith of our minds that moves the mountains. It is the faith of our hearts that moves the mountains. Mark 11:24 is very clear: "Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him."

So, we need to renew our unbelieving minds, filling them with the Word of God. When the Word sinks from our minds into our hearts, it starts working and moving away the mountains in our lives. The Word of God works every single time. It never fails. If there is failure, it is on our part. We have to make up our minds who and what we believe. If we walk one foot in the kingdom of God and the other foot in the world, we shouldn't wonder why the promises do not work in our lives! When we make up our minds to stick with God and His Word even when it seems to not work (as our hearts are not yet filled with faith), God's promises will start working.

We have a serious warning in Hebrews 4:2: "For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it."

We better believe what God says for He has elevated His Word and His Name above everything that exists and He has magnified His Word above all His Name (Psalm 138:2). Besides, God has put a good life ready for us... a good life even right in the middle of the disasters that are coming upon the world one after another. His plan has always been good for us. It has never changed, even right in the middle of disasters. He has given a promise: "whoso hearkens to me [Wisdom] shall dwell securely and in confident trust and shall be quiet, without fear or dread of evil." (Prov.1:33)

We can live right among this world, yet not depend on the ways of this world but completely depend on God's ways... and we won't be swayed to and fro with the world, but we shall "dwell securely and in confident trust and be quiet, without fear or dread of evil." Wow! What a way to live! It is up to us to take God by His Word and choose to live by His promises... by faith... as we were called to live, inheriting the promises!

Many, many blessings to You,

I have missed You all for the past 2 weeks... but now I am back from the country and excited to come and visit Your blogs.

As Autumn is one of my very favorite times of a year... though, to be honest, as soon as a new season arrives, it seems to automatically become my favorite... I can't help but grab my camera and escape to the country for a bit. I so love the yellows and oranges and reds and browns... and greens, adds my little 3-year-old nephew. Every time I mention the Autumn colors one after another, Arne adds, and greens. Green is his favorite color and it can't be left out by any means. I guess after a very green season of Summer, I am noticing all the other colors much more cheerfully. Though, Arne is right, there still is more green than any other color, especially on the island of Saaremaa that is full of needle-sharp-thorned evergreen junipers.

In spite of the colorful parade of golden Autumn leaves, I was truly inspired by the sea and the sky and the emerging of the two. There is something so calming in the sea. May be looking at the vast, infinite sky perfectly merging into endless water provides the reassurance that all is well indeed and it is time to leave the everyday issues behind and just allow to be swept into this extraordinary beauty. I love Autumn!

Though, with each Autumn comes also to the season of colds and flues. It seems like we attract them like sweet-smelling flowers attract bees. We even say, I think I am catching a cold! What an expression, when one starts to think about it! Why would anyone want to catch a cold. Don't catch it this year! Catch something more lovely and healthy, instead.

I believe we actually expect to be sick at some point during an Autumn. I mean everyone else gets sick, so, we guess we should get sick too. But we don't have to.

Though, the truth is that our bodies are the weakest and most prone to catching something unpleasant during equinoxes, the times when Summer turns to Autumn, Autumn turns to Winter and so on. About a week before an equinox we should start paying extra attention to strengthening our immune systems. For 2 weeks we should provide extra tender loving care to our bodies and we would be much less likely to catch a cold or any other fashionable bug that everybody around us might be catching.

Such "special attention" 2 week periods would be somewhere between the 15th and 28th of September, 15th and 28th of December, 15th and 28th of March and 15th and 28th of June. For those 2 weeks we do well to have some extra garlic or grapefruit-seed extract or ginseng or some other powerful natural remedy at hand.

Although I knew about equinoxes and the effect they have on a human body, I ignored it this time. I had 10 family/friends' birthdays coming up within one week period, the last week of September, which meant that all my attention was on birthday cards and gifts, rather than on my health. I must admit that although I wasn't expecting it, I did catch a cold myself. If You are in the same boat with me, I'd love to share some good old natural remedies with You that would kill any cold.

I so agree with Jethro Kloss about turning to natural remedies to heal a cold, rather than going with the modern and quick way of gulping down some quick fix remedy from a drugstore that might cause very serious health problems later on. I healed my cold the good old-fashioned way, with hot foot baths. I love what Jehtro Kloss says in his book Back to Eden:

"The wonderful results that can be obtained from water treatments that are properly given, especially when they are combined with the other true remedies for man's ills - exercise, proper diet, pure air, sunlight, rest, and trust in divine power - cannot be obtained by any other method. Hydrotherapy rarely causes bad side effects or debilitating complications, as many drugs do. Water treatments do, however, take a longer time to produce results, but when the body reacts, it does so in a much more natural way."

It took me about 5 nights of foot baths to feel completely rejuvenated. We shouldn't forget about those good old childhood-time remedies, exchanging them with fast-acting, synthetic ones. So, if You do not remember from Your childhood how to fix a hot foot bath, here is what You will need:

1-1,5 liters of just boiled water
some warm water to start with
"Vietnamese" balm or any other balm, combined of essential oils (like tea tree, eucalypt, myrrh)
a few pairs of warm socks
a basin

Start the foot bath with just warm water, adding hot water to it as Your feet get used to the heat. While You pour hot water into the basin, lift Your feet up, so You won't burn them. Little by little allow Your feet to get used to warmer water by sliding them in and holding in the water for a few seconds, then lifting them up for a bit of cool. When You can hold Your feet firm in the water, add some more hot water. Repeat the procedure until You have used all of the hot water. Dry Your feet and rub the healing balm under them. Also rub the balm in-between the toes. If You have a runny nose or sinus infection, rub the balm into the inner part of Your both big toes. Quickly put on a few pairs of warm socks in order to keep Your feet warm for as long as possible.

This remedy is great for colds and throat ache.

Herbs to heal the cold:

Herbs, when paired with nightly foot bath (for about 5 days), do help to heal a cold and throat ache quite promptly. Though, do allow Your body to heal for some days instead of expecting it to be in peak condition the very next day. Many synthetic medicines are designed to receive such fast results, but they do have side effects. So, if You want good health, do choose a natural way.

To chase away a cold, dr. Jethro Kloss suggests we stack our medicine cabinets with some of the following herbs: bayberry bark with yarrow, catnip, sage, peppermint, wood betony, angelica, blue violet, butternut bark, ginseng, lungwort, nettle, white pine, pleurisy root, prickly ash, rosemary, saffron, summer savory, sweet balm, tansy, valerian, vervain, water pepper, wood sage, yarrow, bloodroot, elder, ginger, gentian, golden seal, hyssop,, pennyroyal, sarsaparilla, saw palmetto berries, spikenard, wild cherry, horehound.

Kill fever with vodka socks:

Never heard of it before? This is another one of our good old childhood remedies! To kill the fever with vodka socks, You will need:

a pair of thin cotton socks
a pair of warm socks
2/3rds of water
1/3rd of vodka
hot herbal tea

Mix water and vodka in a bowl. Wet the thin socks in vodka-water and squeeze so they won't be too soppy. Put the socks on and cover with warm socks. Have a hot cup of herbal tea and a warm bed ready. Drink the tea and get under the blanket. Sweat the fever from Your system. It works!

Fast-acting natural antibiotics for viruses & colds:

My personal favorites to strengthen the immune system or get rid of a cold are garlic and honey. Read more about garlic at http://www.TheSpringOfLife.net/garlic.html . Grapefruit seed extract is a powerful and fast-acting natural remedy for viruses and colds. It is a natural antibiotic and we do wisely to keep some of it ready in a cabinet for an emergency use. 5-15 drops of it could be used daily for a period as an immune boosting supplement. Read more about Grapefruit seed extract at http://www.TheSpringOfLife.net/grapefruit.html

I hope You found something useful from those so simple natural remedies.

I wish You all great health, freedom from colds & flues and success in all Your undertakings,