You Have An Appointment With God.....By Pastor Charles C Elliott
We have been given an appointment with God… we just need to show up! …….This is a one-on-one with God Almighty, that each of us must have! So, it’s important that you don’t miss your appointment….
A man named Bill, had finally made it to his doctor's office for a long overdue neurological exam. The doctor said, "You're over a month late for your appointment, Bill. How can I get you to understand that nervous disorders require prompt and regular attention." "Well”, Bill said, “I was simply following your orders, Doc". "Following my orders? I gave you no such order." Said the Doctor….."Oh, but you did, Doc, you told me to avoid all the people who irritate and upset me". Delay is a form of denial… and often we delay the inevitable to our own harm… that’s why so many folks have ended up a day late and a dollar short….
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; *…3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. 3:9 Otherwise, what is the profit for the one that works or the one who labors? 3:11 But, He has made everything beautiful in His time: also he hath set the world, so that no man can find out the work that God performs from the beginning to the end. 3:12 I know that the greatest good, is for man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. 3:13 And that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. 3:14 I know that, whatever God does, it shall be forever: nothing can be added to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God does it, that men should stand in Awe, before Him”.
You have an appointment with God….Yes, you do. It is there, written indelibly in eternity. In fact, God wants to meet with you on a regular basis, because of all those appointments He has made for your life….Maybe God is saying… “I tried to talk with you, but you have been so busy. You talk on the phone, you text everyone, you email, you write your Face Book friends…..But, What about Me”?....
Remember how Adam and Eve had an appointment to walk and talk with God every day in the Garden of Eden? God would drop by the garden in the cool of the evening. One day, they missed that appointment because of sin. God showed up and He asked, "Where are you?" I wonder if the Lord would ask some of us, what he asked Adam *…..and Eve…."Where are you? Where were you? I have been looking for you. I wanted to speak to you. I want you to walk with Me, and I want to just hang out with you."
Just imagine, the Creator of the Universe wants to spend time with you. Is there any appointment that is any more worthy of keeping than that one?
James A. Garfield was the only president of the United States who was an ordained minister. After his inauguration, a member of his cabinet insisted that a meeting be called at 10am on Sunday to handle a matter which he felt threatened our country’s national security. President Garfield refused on the grounds that he had another appointment. The cabinet member then insisted that the national matter was of such importance that the president should break whatever other appointment he had. Garfield refused. The cabinet member remarked, “I would be interested to know, sir, with whom you could have an appointment so important that it cannot be broken.” Garfield replied, “I will be as frank as you are, sir. My appointment is with the Lord, to meet Him at His house and at His table at 10:30am, and I will be there.”
It is imperative that we keep our appointments with God… if you’ve made a promise, keep it. If you’ve made a vow, honor it!
We Have An Appointment For Ministry
.... if we could just imagine ourselves as the small, insignificant pieces of bread and fish, that Jesus multiplied and fed the multitude with… (so little compared with such an immense need)…but that bread had an appointment with the master… like the bread and fish, we are insufficient in ourselves, compared to the challenges we face every day….I’ve shared with you that The Holy Spirit told me one day, to pray a simple prayer, and to imagine that I was the miracle bread and fish which Jesus used to feed the hungry multitude and that I was so insufficient to meet such a great need….. *……It’s what I call the “multiplication prayer”. *……“Lord, Take me, break me, bless me, and give me away!” (let’s all pray that prayer right now)…. You have an appointment to release miracles….. God will take you at your word, When you declare His word that you have simulated and allowed to become part of who you are… all kinds of supernatural appointments will begin to show up as you yield to Him…. You are only, one person, one phone call, one meeting away from something incredible!
Sometimes we would like to be somewhere else, doing something else, even be someone else! Be yourself… everyone else is already taken!
It is you, that God placed where you are, doing what you’re doing, being who you are, so that you can touch lives as no one else but you can…. touch in a way, only you can!
At times we have been in situations where we weren’t sure what God was doing in the experience we were going through… and I have mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again…..the Holy Spirit told me to pray the prayer of Peter, when I was in those situations that I wasn’t sure how to pray. I opened my bible and read *…..Matthew 14:28 “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” I asked, how do I pray that in my situation? He said “stop looking at what you’re going thru, and look at Jesus… then ask to be where He is…
Where He is, the answer is, where He is, the power is and where He is, God’s will is. His will is exactly where we want to be. No matter what it looks like in the natural… it is always about ministering to people.. Every situation you are in, Holy Spirit said, is about ministry first and everything else second! Sickness, is about an opportunity to minister to someone else through the sickness, after that, the healing comes….! Folks delay healing because they fail to discern the opportunity for ministry. If you come to where Jesus is, then you are in a place to minister to others so that your miracle can be released. The quicker you find out why you’re in a situation, the quicker you come out and move on to the next thing!
We have an appointment to harness the situation for Ministry.
Even though sometimes, it looks like your appointment is An appointment with disappointment! God doesn’t make mistakes, so He never has to backstroke when He brings us into something or allows a certain situation…. *….A fellow was crying crocodile tears, while writing a note to his fiance’…… My Dearest Sweetie, the love of my heart. I’ve been so desolate ever since I broke off our engagement. I am completely and totally devastated. Won’t you please consider coming back to me? You hold a place in my heart no other woman can ever fill. I will never find another woman quite like you. I need you so much. Won’t you forgive me and let us make a new beginning? I love you so. Yours always and forever, John….. P.S. Congratulations on winning the state lottery.
Abraham and Sarah could have no children, yet God had said that nations were within them…their appointment with disappointment became the path to their appointment with God’s grace….
and BAM! Isaac came right on God’s schedule! *…Manoah, and his wife (her name is not given) were childless, she was barren and their great yearning became the signal to the angel messenger, who transformed their disappointment into an appointment with God’s grace which….
BAM! produced Samson, the mighty deliverer of Israel! *…Zachariah, the High Priest and his wife Elizabeth, both righteous before God and advanced in years, could have no children, yet their disappointment prepared them for their appointment with God’s grace
and BADA BING! John the Baptist, who would prepare the way of the Lord, was born right on schedule! Your area of greatest disappointment may well be the catalyst for your own appointment with God’s grace, in His perfect timing…
Isaiah 65:24 “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. (Now go back and look at the rest of this scripture) *…Isaiah 65:19 And I will rejoice and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. v20 There shall no more be an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for they shall be blessed to an hundred years old. v21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and enjoy the fruit of them. v22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. v23 They shall not labor in vain, nor reap trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring as well, with them.
We have an appointment with Prophetic Breakthrough….
God has declared that in the last days we will see an oppressed church - an ineffective church, THAT WILL BE transformed into a glorious, powerful church, that has a global appointment with God! The church of Laodicea represents the state of the church before Christ returns…Scripture gives us the description….
They were Poor, naked, deceived, religious, compromising and powerless…. Yet, He gave a challenge to that church…. *…Revelation 3:18 to… “buy” (ag-or-ad'-zo….acquire, attain, secure, receive) of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, so the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with (spiritual) ointment, that you may see….
We read more about this in Joel…. Joel 2:25 “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar (the butterfly is inside but it needs to get out), and the palmerworm….. v26 And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. v28 And it shall come to pass, in those days, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: v29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit”. SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE’S GETTING READY FOR A BREAKTHROUGH!
Why does God want so intensely, for me to have a breakthrough?”
The answer is because He watches over His Word to see that it is performed. He doesn’t just speak into your future… He’s been in your future and speaks from that future place of your breakthrough, and He’s hovering over every word He’s spoken into your life by His Spirit!
Breakthrough, is when the spiritual wall or partition, is broken down and removed, that has been keeping you from occupying or possessing the promises of God regarding the harvest of your seed, the fruit of your labor, the increase of your investments, and the breaking of curses from off your life!
It is the restoration of your peace, your health, your family, your finances, and a returning to the place where the free flowing Spirit of God is made available so that we are repositioned to receive all that our covenant God has made available for us.
Allow me to tell you a story about a seventy-two-year-old minister named Charles McCoy (not the same man as the former mayor of Key West). McCoy was pastoring a church in a little town in, New York, when at age seventy-two he was required by his denomination to retire. A lifelong bachelor, he had cared for his mother for as long as she lived. In his spare time he had earned seven university degrees, including two Ph.D.’s—one from Dartmouth, the other from Columbia. But now, at age seventy-two, he was being forced to retire from the ministry. He says…. “I was depressed. I just laid on my bed thinking that my life was over, I’ve been pastor of this church for so many years and nobody really wants me —what have I done for Christ? I’ve spent an awful lot of time working for degrees, but what does that count for? I haven’t personally won very many people to the Lord.” A week later he met a Christian pastor from India, and on impulse asked him to preach in his church. After the service the Indian brother asked him matter-of-factly if he could return the favor. Since he had preached for McCoy, would McCoy come to India and preach for him?
McCoy told him that he was going to have to retire and move to a home for the elderly down in Florida. But the Indian minister insisted, informing McCoy that where he came from, people had great respect for a man when his hair turned white. Would he come? McCoy, after much thought, and prayer, decided he would. Dire predictions were made. The chairman of his board of deacons asked, “What if you die in India?” And McCoy told him “it’s just as close to heaven from there as it is from here.” He sold most of his belongings, put what was left in a trunk, and booked a one-way passage to India—his first trip ever out of the United States! When he arrived in Bombay, he discovered to his horror that his trunk was lost. All he had were the clothes on his back, his wallet, his passport, were all gone, but he had the address of the missionaries, he had written down before he left . The missionaries welcomed him warmly, but told him that the man who had invited him to come to India was still in the U.S.A. and would probably remain there indefinitely.
Having come this far, and having made the commitment…. McCoy said he would try to make an appointment with the mayor of Bombay. They warned him that the mayor was very busy and they had never been able to get an appointment with him. McCoy set out for the mayor’s office the next day—and he got in! When the mayor saw, the paper work, listing all his degrees, he reasoned that McCoy must be someone very important. Not only did he get an appointment, but the mayor held a tea in his honor, attended by all of the officials in Bombay! Dr. McCoy was able to preach to those leaders for half an hour. The director of the National Defense, invited McCoy to preach at India’s West Point Academy.
So it was, that at age seventy-two, a brand new, sixteen-year ministry was launched for Dr. Charles McCoy. Until he died at age eighty-eight, this old man circled the globe preaching the gospel. There is a church in Calcutta today because of his preaching and a thriving group of Christians in Hong Kong as well. He never had more than just enough money than to get him to the next place he was to go. He died one afternoon at a hotel in Calcutta, as he resting for a meeting he was to preach that evening. He had indeed found himself as close to heaven there, as he would have been at his church in, New York, or in a retirement home in Florida. (tell someone Keep the fire burning, and throw on another log)
We have an appointment with God’s Grace:
Look at some Of the apostle Paul’s comments About Grace
Galatians 1:15 – “He has called me by His grace!” ....Ephesians 2:8 – “For by grace are you saved through faith!”....Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Grace is God doing for us what we do not deserve….In the Bible, grace and mercy are like two heads of the same coin. Grace is God giving to me blessing and favor, that I do not deserve, Mercy is God keeping judgment or evil from me, that I do deserve…. Romans 5:20 – “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”.....Romans 5:2 – “We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand!”
Paul –is saying “I don’t stand before you as Saul of Tarsus, my name was changed, because I’m not the same man since God’s great Grace came into and upon my life……Neither do I stand before you in my own goodness as Paul the Apostle. I stand in the extraordinary grace of God! My identity and my destiny is in Him! I didn’t deserve it, there is nothing good in me, but God called me by His grace, He saved me by His grace, He sanctified my by His grace, He justified me by His grace, now, I stand in and live each and every day in His grace and mercy!
If we ever wonder how we’re doing in the area of the working of Grace in our lives… *….we can check ourselves against the list God has given us in Galatians 5:22 &23… We have commonly referred to this list as the “Fruit of the Spirit” but for the sake of our consideration today…
I want to call this list, “The evidences of Grace” in our lives….
Galatians 5: 22&23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and temperance. There is nothing that can be effective against these”.
These Evidences of Grace, have to do with God reflecting and projecting His Divine nature through us! Just as this projector is shining images upon the screen that are in my computer… so grace reflects on the screen of our lives, that which is in the nature of God!
Let’s look at these for a moment….. (1) Grace is reflected by Love….. Jesus Himself, said that love is *…the greatest thing! It is the unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the well being of another and is the foundation for all the other graces. Jesus said Love is greater than the impact of faith and hope… That really is quite a statement! Without love, faith is boastful and without love, hope becomes selfishness.
(2) Grace is reflected by Joy….. I was in a fast food restaurant and after I ordered, I told the guy to be sure to mention to the attendant at the drive through, that she had a beautiful smile, her smile, brightened up the entire place and made a hum-drum experience into something special!
Joy, is about being joyful, cheerful, rejoicing, and celebrating, with a deep, abiding, gladness of heart. I read a quote recently that said….”Until further notice, celebrate everything”!!!!
(3) Grace is reflected by Peace….Jobs are no longer as secure as they used to be.. Over half of all marriages are still ending up in divorce. We are all forced to constantly live under the threat of future terrorist activity…It can all attack your sense of peace.
Peace is a sense of well-being, fulfillment and tranquility of soul, which results in rest, harmony and the absence of agitation or discord. *
(4). Grace is reflected by Patience…. Folks get impatient waiting in any kind of line. Road rage is still a major problem on some of our highways. Look at someone the wrong way and they will want to try and take your head off. Many people have been killed or seriously injured because someone lost his temper over something that was very trivial..
Satan’s best strategy is to divide and conquer. He wants to separate us from one another and from the principles and values of God’s word, and get us to believe something will happen, when it won’t and believe that something won’t happen when it will!!!
Impatience is a battle between the wills, our will and God’s will.. Patience is endurance and steadfastness in the face of adversity and suffering by the surrender of the will… (not my will but Thine be done, Oh, God)
(5) Grace is reflected by Kindness…it’s really about honor.. treating others with respect and consideration. We can’t give honor to God, and not give honor to folks around us. Kindness, is caring from the heart, hospitality, compassion in action with no thought of return. Concern for the welfare of others.
(6) Grace is reflected by Goodness… it’s not so much about how much of the Spirit of God you have, but how much of you the Spirit has.. You can see it and you can feel it when you are around God inside-minded people… It is a “less of me and more of Christ” way of living.. John said “I must decrease and He must increase” *…Goodness is that flow of Divine virtue which produces a purity of motive and action, manifested in the character and personality of a deeply surrendered life.
(7) Grace is reflected by Faithfulness… it’s that resolve within the soul, that there is no turning back, from a commitment that has been made. It is unswerving trust, first in God and then loyalty to your spouse, to your children, to your parents, to your good friends, to your boss and your employee and so on….
A true friend will stay by your side for life, when all around you, folks are bailing out of their contracts and agreements. *…Faithfulness is about integrity, fidelity, dependability, loyalty and stability. Someone who is true to his promise, faithful to his task and worthy of trust.
(8) Grace is reflected by Gentleness… So many people have been beaten up and hurt in their dealings with other people – that just a gentle word, a gentle touch from another Christian can really open up the door for that person to be able to receive God’s healing, saving and delivering power into their lives. *…Gentleness is controlled strength, it is fair and considerate….it is power under discipline… it is about someone who rules their spirit and their passions well….. When grace rules, peace reigns!
(9) Grace is reflected by Temperance… We all have a certain amount of character flaws operating in our personalities. The Bible says that our spirits and our flesh are at war with one another. Our flesh wants gratification, while our spirit knows that some things must wait or have no place at all! We live in a very self-centered and materialistic world, that has caused us to neglect developing will power…..We want to learn how to really walk in the Holy Spirit, but we also want to obey the lusts of our flesh. We will have very little victory, without resolving this important area of spiritual maturity.
Temperance is the restraint of natural impulses, the mastery of personal desires and passions…. It is discipline exercised over behavior… It is being in the world but not of the world.
In a comic strip, Charlie Brown is playing with the football, when Lucy comes in and announces she wants it. Charlie asks her why she thinks she can just come in and take whatever she wants, since he had it first… Lucy makes a fist and says “these five fingers”! Charlie gives her the football and leaves the room feeling like a whimp. He stops and looks at his five fingers, and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”
The extraordinary grace and mercy of God, have a way of compelling us in a way that even “Lucy’s five fingers, cannot”!
It is impossible to have a situation too big for the God of covenant and grace to handle. He has gone to great lengths so we can experience the height, the depth, the breadth, and the width of His grace…
All of us, have all the extraordinary grace we will ever need.
YOU REALLY ARE AT THE RIGHT PLACE, AT THE RIGHT TIME, FOR A BIGGER PURPOSE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE!
Let God’s Grace re-fire you and bring back into your life, things that He is still desiring to fulfill in you…. You see, you are right in the middle of an appointment with grace. The extraordinary grace of God is above, beneath, around and within you right now. Grace has been waiting for a meeting with you today… You have a very important, life changing appointment with grace….The more broken, dented and messed up our lives are, the greater, the display of His grace will be towards us….
We make appointments with the mechanic, the plumber, the phone and cable company…why not make an appointment with God’s grace….He’s waiting to fix you up with what you don’t deserve, and cancel out all those things that you do deserve… that’s what grace is waiting to do for you!!!
