When the Hebrews came out of Egypt, Egypt had been so ingrained in them, that Egypt had become their reference point for life. They physically walked away, but Egypt was walking in them everywhere they went. God spent 40 years in the wilderness,getting Egypt out of them and that was accomplished after a whole generation died in the wilderness.
We are like them in this way… when something traumatic, something negative that just goes against our grain happens in our lives, it makes a deep impression on our soul, and tries to define who we are at that point. It stops being what happened and it becomes who we are!! *…..Luke 6:25 “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks…”
It depends on what we are full of….(ask someone if they’re full of it)
If we spend more time talking about the quarantine that happened during the pandemic, and about not being able to get toilet paper, and hand sanitizer, and how stores were empty and the city was shut down, and it was a terrible time. If we invest more words and thoughts, talking about those things than we talk about how God saw us through it, and how we spent time with the family and got closer to one another, and how we learned that we could do just fine without a lot of things we were used to having…. How we took inventory of our priorities, and it caused us to realize that we take for granted the blessings we enjoy…. We appreciate more, the blessings like coming together in praise and worship, and going out to eat at our favorite restaurant, or dropping in on friends and family without a mask and gloves and social distancing….Whichwill we focus on?…
What we’re full of is what we speak and it’s who we have become….
*…… Sometimes we’re holding the littlest end of a big thing God has let down from heaven. (write that one down) You see, God had prophesied far in advance that Israel would be going into Egypt and for anyone who bothered to check, it was always part of God’s plan for the nation.
*……Genesis 15:14 reads, “But I will bring judgment on the nation (Egypt) that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. . . . And they shall come back in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
God showed me as I was looking at this, that they were in Egypt so that He could protect them and preserve them as a nation. (the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete) When the Jews were released, they were appointed to bring judgment on the Amorites who were in Canaan…. Egypt actually was appointed by God to be their caretakers until God was ready to release them.
*……Bad experiences can make you bitter or make you better. People may not like their job, but it provides them with a pay check to live on. When I was growing up in Bill Elliott’s household, as abusive and mean as he was, and as much as I didn’t like him and he was clear that taking me into his home was not his idea, he provided a place of safety and provision until I was on my own…..God chose an atheist to feed, clothe and house me, while the Lord was grooming me as a believer.
Bad experiences can make you bitter or make you better.
*……Things can cause you to put up walls, or they can cause you to have empathy for what others are going through. Walls to separate or steps to connect…. We can operate out of our hurts, or we can use those things to move in compassion that brings healing.
*…..Jesus left heaven, to be born in a stable, and be raised in a struggling Jewish home, where they didn’t have much of this world’s goods. He lived a humble life as a flesh and blood man, and He never said, “Man, what have I done, I had it all and now this, I think I made a big mistake here”…. But it does say, that He saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion…..
*……So, when Pharaoh finally decided to let Israel go, Where did Moses ask that he could be allowed to take them?…….(anyone?)
Moses didn’t ask if they could go to the promised land, no…. He asked in *……Exodus 3:18 “Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice and worship the LORD our God.” Why does Moses want to bring them to Mt.Sinai first before he even gives a thought to bringing them to the promised land?
*……Moses wants to bring them to Mount Sinai because Sinai is where the burning bush was, where he saw God’s glory and where God spoke to him and where he first met and experienced God.He wants them to meet who he met so they could experience what he experienced, and not get it second hand.
How many feel that way about a lot of folks you know… If they could experience the Lord the way you’ve experienced Him, youknow they would not turn Him away any longer…. (Spock did a mind meld, wouldn’t that be wonderful to do, just put your fingers on their temple like he does and bam, they have it!!) But preaching and witnessing, and living it before them, can only go so far, until the Holy Spirit allows folks are willing to experience God for themselves, first hand.
I regularly pray this prayer for my children. Holy Spirit, please reveal yourself to them. Be their God and not just their mom and dad’s God. Let them know your love and let them experience you for themselves just like we have experienced you. Let them feel Your presence, Your anointing, Your power in their lives like we have. As a matter of fact, scripture tells us that we should expect the next generation to experience greater measures than we have. Elisha received a double measure of what Elijah had received.
*…..Haggai 2:9 tells us “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts”. I remember at some point, when David was 15, Karen was 8, and Chris was 13, and everyone in our family had experienced the Holy Spirit infilling but Chris. He just couldn’t seem to break through. One Sunday night, after church, Chris was frustrated because he had come up for prayer and once again, had not received. So as we came in the door, I said to chris, tonight is your night. I want you to lay down in the living room floor and get comfortable and we’re going to gather around you and we’re going to believe with you, and we’re not getting up until you receive! We did and he did.
*…..There are times when you have to get to that Jacob mentality, when he wrestled all night with the angel, and said “I will not let you go until the blessing I receive”!!! That blessing was God’s presence.
It is so Vital that we know God for ourselves because God has no Grandchildren He only has children….
*……Gimme, Gimme, my name is Jimmie… is too common among the saints. What can you do for me, not how can I help you. Too many preachers have preached more about what Jesus will do for us rather than just focusing on who he is! This produces Christians that are always seeking God for what he can do for them and not because of wanting a relationship and a daily intimacy with the God of heaven. Their faith collapses when they’re not getting what they want. Just stick a pacifier in their mouth…. *…...So Moses is like “I want you to meet who I've met so you’ll know what I know and feel what I feel…so that's the first place where they go, to discover God for themselves at Mt. Sinai!!
Moses recognized that when you worship, you must acknowledge how big God is and just how small you are. We just aren’t capable of fixing all of our own problems in this life, let alone those that face us in eternity. You can’t worship and feel that you don’t need God at the same time. You can’t truly worship without coming into submission and dependence upon God. We’re acknowledging that everything we have has its source in God.
We recognize that none of us are self- made people. Moses understood that without worship, the people might come out of Egypt, but they would still be in bondage and fail to enjoy God’s freedom and blessing because of their abandonment issues and their trust issues. Their defensive walls, the quicksand of fear and unbelief and their twisted view of God, had to be re-aligned so that God was their total source in their new journey or they would never make it!
*……I just read that a woman was interviewing the director of a mental facility and asked how they determine if a person is ready to be released back into society. He told her that they fill a bathtub with water and ask the patient to empty it out. They have a choice of a spoon, a cup or a bucket. He asked the woman which would she choose. She said, “I would pick the bucket because it’s the largest”… The director said if you chose to pull the plug, we would release you…. Would you like an inside room or a room with a view….?
*…..So the first place Moses led the people was to the foot of Mount Sinai to hear from God and know that He was truly with them in this journey they’re on. When he went up into the mountain and asked God to show him His glory, Moses wanted all the Hebrews to see and experience the glory of God just as he had experienced it…..
When you receive a healing, don’t you just want everyone that is sick to *……experience what you did…. When I got saved as a boy, I wanted everyone I could find to experience the amazing feeling of having all my sins forgiven and the cleansing work of God to happen in them as well. I remember it so clearly, It was at a tent meeting in Victoria Virginia, in the middle of a field that had been deep plowed. I mean every row was like a gully. I walked across that field to a bar which was located just across the highway from the tent meeting, and I went in and found two drunks sitting at the bar. I told them I had something for them, and I led two staggering drunks by the hand, across the deep plowedfield, one on each side. It’s a miracle they ever made it. I took them down to the altar and said, now stay right here while I go get the preacher. He came talked with them and prayed the sinners prayer with those guys, and we all praised God together….I just had to tell somebody, and have them experience what I had experienced!
*……The Hebrews had to learn to be free, and how to function as a free people. The same is true today. We are dealing often with generations that have been without Christ. Children, and parents and grandparents, all without Christ. They need someone to walk beside them and example the Christian walk in a positive, loving, practical way….Satan is constantly planning the next trap he can catch you in, and take your freedom from you… your peace, your anointing and your power….
*…..So, Next, Moses had to turn these slaves into warriors and soldiers. If you don’t know how to fight the fight of faith, the enemy will do you in. They had lived as the conquered, and now they had to learn to be the conquerers….Walking with God is not for whimps! *……Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against all the schemes of the devil”. They were going to face enemieswho wanted to destroy them. They were going to have to stand and defeat the enemy or be defeated by them….So Joshua needed to turn a whining people into a winning people. He needed to show them that God wanted them to win in life, and to rule, not be ruled over by the world. To lead and not just follow the crowd. So he set captains over 10’s, captains over 100’s and captains over tribes…. The best way to learn to lead is to lead. The best way to learn to rule is to rule…
*…..We can stand around saying “I can’t”…when God is saying we can… we learn by doing it…. We always lead by example!!!We don’t want our children to grow up with an “I can’t” mentality because of what they’re seeing and hearing from us. We don’t want others who are looking to us as their example to say, “Well if they can’t then I know for sure that I can’t”……Where you are is where you start…
*……David started learning to be king, by herding sheep. He developed skills and knowledge which were later applied to leading people. The skills he developed as he guarded and protected the sheep, allowed him to kill Goliath and lead armies as God’s appointed.
*……Elisha started out as a farmer. He learned endurance, patience, and the virtues of hard work, which allowed him to trust God as a prophet, just as he had learned to trust God as a farmer. To understand the seasons, planting and reaping, seed time and harvest, preparing the soil, and pruning the trees and vines for a greater yield. Now it would be applied to kings and kingdoms under a prophetic anointing…. *…… Deuteronomy 28:13 “And the LORD shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you hearken unto the Word of the LORD your God, which I mandate for you this day, to observe and to do them.” See yourself as the head and not the tail….What if we all said “No matter what happened before, no matter what it looked like in the past, I’m believing God for a new thing now, starting with me. With God’s help, a new stream starts here, the curse is broken here, blessings begin to flow here with me. The curse of generations will not continue on my watch!!!
Israel was brought out of bondage and slavery so that they could be brought into freedom and blessing. They had been in bondage so long, that’s all they knew. They were born in slavery, their parents were born in slavery, 400 years and 6 generations later, they had known only slavery and bondage…. (what a family tree to have) But a new family tree was being started, a new stream was being opened that would bless the world.
*……In her book, Break the Generation Curse, Marilyn Hickey traced the descendants of two prominent Americans, Max Jukes and Jonathan Edwards. Max Jukes was an atheist. Some 560 descendants of his were traced. Among the descendants: 310 died as paupers, 150 became criminals, 7 of them were murderers, 100 were known drunkards, More than half of the women were notoriously depraved. The descendants of Max Jukes cost the US government more than $1.25 million in 19th-century dollars (that would be much more today).
But Jonathan Edwards, a contemporary of Max Jukes, was a committed Christian. He put God first in his life, married a Godly woman, and served his fellow man. Some 1,394 descendants of his were traced. Among the descendants: 1 was a US Vice-President (Aaron Burr) 3 were US Senators, 3 were governors, 3 were Mayors, 30 were Judges, 65 were University Professors, 13 were College Presidents, 80 were Public Office Holders in local government, 100 were lawyers, One was the chief financial director of the US treasury, 100 were well-known missionaries, preachers, and prominent authors.
Not one member of Edward’s family was a liability to the US government. They were all a blessing to our country.
The difference is as clear as black and white..
*……I believe that there’s a verse in Isaiah 53 that is talking about the healing of the family tree… healing from the past family history, opening a new stream of generational blessing. As we read Isaiah today, I want us to remember that Jesus came to bridge the gap, to close the chasm that was caused by the curse. He came to restore the fellowship that was broken through Adam and Eve. So as we read, I want you to see it as some new branches being added to the family tree…. I’m talking about your kids and your grandkids and on into the future…..
*……Isaiah 53:1 “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? v2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground”.
Dry ground, means that the odds are against anything coming from this. In the natural, it can’t happen. They’ll never amount to much, they’re too average, too incapable, too far gone….
Prophets had prophesied “Nothing good shall come out of Nazareth”…
But they discounted that what is impossible with men, is possible with God! When the Holy Spirit begins to move and work, anything is possible. We won’t be able to explain it, or figure out how it could ever happen, but there it is…. A new shoot begins to grow, a new thing of God begins to respond to His amazing plan. Listen, just like curses can flow through generations, blessings also can flow through generations
*……Also look at 1 Peter 2:9 “ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that youshould show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, For, once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”. *…..Then we have Romans 9:25 “As He says in Hosea: “I will call them My people who are not My people, and I will call her My beloved who is not My beloved,” Oh, these are powerful promises! We’re coming out of the Egypt mentality, the slavery mentality, and the bondage mentality….
Everyone declare…. “A root out of dry ground” Say it with me… “A root out of dry ground”….Call it forth….
Let’s make our confession….
Abraham’s blessings are mine in Christ Jesus. Therefore I pray now: Let every Abrahamic blessing which you pronounced on him begin to manifest in my life and those of my children and children’s children in the name of Jesus Christ. I invoke the powers of Heaven to cause the manifestation of fruitfulness in my life from today on, in the name of Jesus Christ. I invoke the power of longevity upon my life, my children, and grandchildren, and declare that none of us shall die young. We will fulfill our days.
*……Sudden death, you are suspended and uprooted from my lineage in the name of Jesus Christ. Abraham’s blessings include wealth. Therefore, I invoke the power of wealth upon my life, my home, my children, and my lineage, and declare that we live in abundance. I declare that my seed will never beg bread. What they put their hands to do will prosper and flourish. Frustration and begging is no longer our portion in the name of Jesus Christ. I decree that there shall be no more delays in financial prosperity in my life and family in the name of Jesus Christ.
*….. I declare that barrenness has no place in my life and my home. I decree that my seed will prosper and thrive in every place it is sown. I call forth everything that ought to be mine, known and unknown. I break powers holding all such blessings now, and command them to manifest and be released to me in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, make me a blessing to my children and my children’s children. My generational blood line now runs through Christ, therefore every problem, sickness, marriage breakdown, disunity, and all vices or weakness, cannot pass, and are cut off in Jesus name.
*……I declare that my entire household, including unborn children and grandchildren, are blessed and nothing can by any means reverse our blessings. I, declare today that we will never lack the glory of God in our generations, and we will grow old and fulfill the number of our days, in Jesus name. AMEN!!!!
GIVE THE LORD A SHOUT!!
