I wanted to share with you one of the most important life lessons I’ve ever learned: keep my head above my heart. It means to follow my intelligence rather than my feelings.

It’s very important to remember this because the opposite of that message is drilled into us every day. From Hollywood movies to celebrities, artists, books, the music you hear on the radio, even business people and entrepreneurs tell us all the time to: "Follow your heart. Do what your heart says. Listen to your heart." You've heard it all before. I’m sure you know what I'm talking about and have heard someone say this at some point in your life. You hear this all the time because it’s such a common saying.

The only problem with this train of thought is that our heart is deceitful. Like Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). Nobody really knows just how bad it truly is. Would you follow someone that’s misleading or deceptive? Would you follow someone without knowing how evil they were could become? I don’t think anyone in their right mind would do that. And yet it’s exactly what you do when you decide to follow your heart; it’s a true recipe for disaster.

Every Monday morning, against the will of every cell and molecule in your body, you’ve learned to wake up early, leave your cozy bed and go to work. You go against what you feel because you’ve learned that it’s the right thing to do. You need to go to work; so your mind forces you to get out of bed and do what you have to, no matter what you’re feeling.

This means that you already have the ability to put your head above your heart. You already do this every Monday morning and certainly in other smaller areas of your life as well. What you need to do now is transfer these skills to other, more important areas of your life and begin doing the right things whether you feel like it or not. It doesn’t matter if you're angry, sad, happy, if it feels good or if feels bad. Do what you have to do; it doesn’t matter whether you feel like it or if your heart feels like it. Use your head. Let your intelligence guide you and you’ll see how the fruit that you start reaping will be much better than the ones you’ve reaped thus far.

I wanted to share this lesson with you. I hope it helps. God bless you.

It's true. Sweat, blood and tears have always been a part of the Work of God. The path of faith has never been an easy one, much to the contrary—when it comes to a mega project like Solomon’s Temple, hatred that fuels the “natural man” burns even stronger. The conventions of society approve the costly construction of theatres, cinemas, soccer and sports’ stadiums, but when it comes to glorifying God, especially the Almighty God of His chosen ones, the answer is always: no. It's considered nonsense. It’s time consuming. It’s a waste of money.

“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Only those who have a degree of spiritual discernment can understand the importance that this temple has to the Christian faith. We aren’t simply talking about another church project, much less about a personal one. We’re speaking from a spiritual point of view about something glorious that goes beyond reason itself. It will no doubt awaken those whose faith has been dormant, cold or lukewarm, to create a revival across the nation, and even worldwide.

“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

I’m absolutely sure that the same Spirit that placed this dream inside our hearts will also touch those who are going to help us accomplish it.

Life on the altar demands sacrifice because an altar is a place of sacrifice. It’s all about denying one’s own life on behalf of others.

Jesus said to everyone, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). In other words, a Christian can never put down his personal cross. Neither can he count on others to help him carry it. The requirement to follow Jesus and enjoy the reward of eternal life is to deny oneself and depend entirely on God. Is it easy? No, it’s not! That’s why few are chosen.

To have one’s life on the altar means to die to the world and to sin. It’s not possible to live a life dedicated to God and to the world at the same time. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God will build a replica of Solomon’s Temple, with stones from Israel

The Bible explains that King David, during his reign, decided to build a temple for God because he did not accept the fact that he, a mere mortal, lived in a palace, surrounded by riches and comfort, whilst the ark of the Lord was kept in tents and tabernacles. However, the Lord, through the prophet Nathan, warned him saying that he could not build the temple himself, but his successor, King Solomon. So, David, before handing his throne over to his son, gathered as much as he could for building the Temple of the Lord—100,000 talents of gold and 1 million talents of silver—and he also gave his own special treasure of gold and silver: 3,000 talents of gold and 7,000 talents of refined silver.

One talent of gold is the same as 36kg of gold, and one talent of silver is the same as 36kg of silver. Therefore, King David offered 360,000kg of gold and silver, which is worth over US$5,6 billion.

After seven years, Solomon built the temple. And it was used for many years as a place where people worshipped and offered sacrifices to the Lord.

Despite its glory and impressiveness, in the year 587 BC, the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem and reduced the great temple to ashes. Decades later, the Second Temple was built in the same place, but it was destroyed too. Today, the only part of the temple that stands is the Wailing Wall, which is considered holy by thousands of Jews and Christians all over the world.

The Jews still hope that the Third Temple is built, so that the Messiah may reign with them. However, in order for this to happen, they need to count on some kind of natural catastrophe or governmental changes to have the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine built by the Muslims, removed from its place.

Following the guidelines contained in the Bible, the UCKG will build a replica of Solomon’s Temple in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It will be a mega church, measuring 126 metres long and 104 metres wide—dimensions that surpass those of an official football pitch and those of the biggest Catholic Church in the city of São Paulo, the Cathedral of Sé. It’s over 70,000 m2 of built-up area in an entire block of 28,000 metres. It will be 55 metres high, which correspond to a 18-floor building—almost twice the height of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, in Rio de Janeiro. The work, which should be completed within the next 4 years, will be a landmark in the history of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

There will be 36 Bible Schools with capacity for approximately 1,300 children, radio and TV studios, an auditorium with capacity for 500 people, and a car park with capacity for over 1,000 vehicles.

Designed to cause the smallest impact possible to the environment, the temple will be built with hi-tech recycled and regional materials that will allow rational use of energy as well as the re-use of water and heat.

In the area outside the temple, a memorial measuring 250 m2 will be built, which will also be used to hold expositions and events. The idea was to use the area not only to tell the story of the Church, but also to explain a little bit of the temple’s architectural engineering.

According to the architect and designer of the temple, Rogério Silva de Araújo, it’s a major undertaking, which uses the best leading edge technology, so that when people enter the building, they can travel in time and feel as though they were in the first temple, built by Solomon. “From the facade to the auditorium, we’ve created an environment that will take people back to the past. To achieve this, we’ve used leading edge technology associated with architectural common sense to avoid a clash of periods,” said Araújo.

Still inside the church, there will be an ark on the altar that will represent the Ark of Covenant. The aim is to produce a three-dimensional effect: when open, people will be able to see it inside, and its image will be reflected in the baptism pool, giving people the sensation that, during the baptism, they are being baptised inside the Ark. On the altar, there will be twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and there will be two distinct pillars, called Joachim and Boaz. The church will be situated at Brás (eastern region of the capital), with a seating capacity of over 10,000.

According to Bishop Edir Macedo, the temple will not be built with gold, but the richness in detail applied to every corner of the temple will be very similar to that of the old sanctuary. “We’ve ordered, from Jerusalem, the same kind of stones used by Solomon, because we want to cover the walls of the temples with them. We want people to have a beautiful place to seek God and also have the opportunity to touch these stones and pray,” said the bishop during a meeting in São Paulo. He believes that the place will not be limited to the visitation of UCKG members, but it will become a cultural and tourist attraction that will draw the attention of people all over the world.

According to the president of the World Zionist Organisation’s youth department, Persio Bider, the initiative will give non-Judaic Brazilians the opportunity to know more about Israel and the Jews, eliminating prejudice and anti-Semitism, still present in our society. “Only by getting to know each other will we be able to eradicate prejudice and discrimination, to work together, and to respect each other’s differences. We have a lot in common, and we need to unite ourselves and work for a just and more positive society, focused on coexistence and religious tolerance. And that’s the reason why I found Bishop Macedo’s initiative very interesting; he seems to love Israel and the Jewish people very much,” affirmed Bider.

Cinthia Meibach

Watch the video:

On the evening of the 13th of this month, The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God’s (UCKG) spiritual help center in Faro was vandalized. A man who appeared to be in his 40’s invaded and destroyed the church with a tractor taken from a nearby construction site.

Various media groups reported on this unfortunate event, raising questions about the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Some reported that the cause of this attack was that the institution was in debt to the man, while others said that he had sold some personal items and donated the money to the church. All of the information that was published or broadcast was hearsay, based solely on the opinions of the crowd that gathered outside after the incident.

The UCKG would like to thank the state and local police authorities for their immediate intervention, which assisted in the identifying and capturing of the man responsible for this act, which in our eyes was totally reprehensible.

Neither the church nor any of its representatives, both local and national, were contacted at any time after the break-in by any media organization or given the opportunity to explain or present their version of what took place.

The UCKG has been established in Portugal for 20 years. During this time it has been serving and assisting the Portuguese community both socially and spiritually, helping those who want to be helped. Giving a fair chance for all sides to state their version of what happened, before the spreading of any type of information, is the least expected from the media of this “free” country.

In this case, the published reports were based on unverified claims; this contradicts basic journalistic ethics for any media professional that seeks to report accurate, truthful and unbiased facts.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has no problem commenting on the situation, given that the man in question has no connection with the church. He was never a member, let alone performed any type of work for UCKG at any time.

This was an unwarranted act of violence, prejudice and fanaticism from a person who is clearly disturbed, who allowed himself to be manipulated by a media even more reckless than he.

We would also like to state that the church will press charges for case N° 999/10.9 PBFAR to sue the perpetrator of this crime for both criminal and civil liability.

On June 13th, at approximately 5:45pm, we noticed a strange man through our security cameras breaking down the doors of the UCKG church headquarters in Faro riding a tractor. In a fit of rage, he completely destroyed the front doors of the church’s foyer. We immediately ran and tried to stop him, but had no success. We called emergency services and requested police support. Meanwhile, assistant Cristiano Viegas, one of our radio station workers, happened to be there at the time and ran next door to the police station to ask for help.

But the man revved his engine and headed right at us. He managed to climb the stairs that lead into the church and burst through the automatic doors. He destroyed the security cameras, the walls and the ceiling. He laughed as he headed towards the altar and destroyed all of the chairs. But HE DIDN’T TOUCH THE ALTAR, WHICH REMAINED INTACT! He continued making circles with the tractor destroying everything in his path. Practically all of the chairs were destroyed as well as most of the floor.

Bishop Robson Gomes, who is responsible for the evangelistic work in the south of Portugal, and Pastor Warth Oliveira, who is responsible for the region of Portimão, along with their wives, prayed for help, deliverance and protection.

Even as police arrived on scene, the man was unintimidated. He continued to threaten the officers with the tractor and they immediately put him under arrest.

Despite the attack, THE ALTAR AND ALL OF ITS SACRED ELEMENTS REMAINED INTACT. NOT EVEN THE CUP HOLDING THE HOLY ANNOINTING OIL WAS BROKEN AND NOTHING WAS SPILLED. GOD’S SANCTUARY REMAINED PRESERVED, FOR THE HONOR AND GLORY OF OUR GOD!

"'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty." (Haggai 2:9)

Jana Gomes - Portugal

Even before I met my Lord, I already enjoyed the power of His name. I remember when I was young and had to endure Dad’s tough punishments. I would repeat to myself, “God is Great, the Lord Jesus Christ helps me.” This phrase/prayer has been my shield against the dangers and challenges of life. It has never failed.

Later on, its effectiveness was confirmed through biblical knowledge. Therefore, I advise all those who believe to try this “abracadabra of faith”.

Like God, the devil also works with words; he uses words or thoughts of doubt that cause fear and worries. As a consequence, people become emotionally unstable and they become vulnerable to harm. It’s a recipe from hell to kill, to steal, and to destroy.

There’s no medicine that can neutralise these attacks, but we have to set our minds on God’s promises and react. React immediately in our mind, through thoughts that are based on the Word. Faith’s counterattack combined with a good dose of trust and perseverance will make the devil run. That’s what it means to submit to God and resist the devil (James 4:7).

Good music, wise advice, a word of comfort, entertainment, or anything else is like taking an aspirin. It sooths the pain, but it doesn’t solve the problem. We must use the same tactics our Lord used when He resisted Peter’s emotional “advice”, saying: “Get behind Me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23).