You may recall that Jesus prayed to the Father that we would be kept from the world since we are not in or part of the old worldsystem and values any longer….

In one of the examples Jesus gave us, He said that you can’t put new wine in old flasks. If you try, the flasks will burst and the wine will be lost. When wine ferments, it expands and if it is in flasks that have already been stretched to their limit, they will burst. We likewise, can’t contain the new wine of God’s kingdom system and values, it we hold on to the old mind set. They are incompatible and unsustainable.

John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love [you as] its own. However, you are not of the world, and because I have chosen you out of it, the world is in opposition to you”.

John 17:11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they are in the world, and I come to You Holy Father, that you might keep them in Your name, that they may be one even as We are. v12 While I was with them, I kept them in Your name and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. v13 But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. v14 I have given them Your word; and the world has opposed them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. v15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. v16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. v17 Sanctify them in the truth, for Your word is truth. v18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world”. If you capsulized this prayer of Jesus, it would be…                                              “May they be Insulated, but not Isolated” …..

A submarine can't fulfill its purpose unless it is in the water. It must be submerged into the ocean before it can be effective. Even though the sub is surrounded by water, again, it can’t fulfill its purpose if the water gets inside the submarine. Being in the water without the water being in the sub, is all possible because before it went into the sea, it was insulated and all possible areas were sealed so the ocean would stay outside the vessel.

Astronauts can survive and fully function in the deadly void of space, because they are self contained. They have space ships and suits which are carefully insulated so that they can venture into the deadly environment of space, accomplish their mission, and return to the life sustaining environment of earth. They are insulated but not isolated.  

However, Monks would go to live in monasteries, far removed from everyone, high on some mountain top, where they felt they could be spiritual by escaping from "the world" so they wouldn't be tempted by it. But how could they be "the light of the world", which Jesus called us to be, if they were not in it?

One of the big accusations against Jesus by the Isolationists of His day, was that “He was the friend of tax collectors (or crooked people), prostitutes, and sinners”

Remember that he told the tax collector, Zacchaeus that he was coming to his house to have fellowship with him…. It really raised eyebrows!

And don’t forget, Lazarus, the friend of Jesus who was raised from the dead, well, he was the brother of Mary who was a former prostitute before she met Jesus. Matthew, who was chosen as an apostle, was a tax collector till he met Jesus. (and tax collectors were hated by the people, because they made money by taking more than was required for themselves)

When Jesus prayed for those He had taken out of the world, He knew that the pull of the former life would always be there trying to pull them back when they were discouraged, or facing heavy opposition. Like the Israelites when they left Egypt and whenever they ran into hardships, they started longing for what they had when they were back in bondage to the Egyptian masters. They saw the old ways and patterns as a comfortable place to land, but isn’t it interesting how they remembered the good and chose to ignore the bad which was why they left.

Jesus knew the danger of making new life decisions based on old world mind sets, like Peter when he denied the Lord 3 times….

Luke 6:13 “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and the world’s values.”

I like the account of a native tribe in New Guinea who transformed an old world mind set into a new life application… At one time, this tribe would have rituals, songs, and dances, where they worked themselves up into a frenzy which culminatedin what was called “the murder songs.” In this ritual, they shouted out the names of the people they wished to kill. When the natives became Christians, they retained these customs and that ritual, but with a big difference…. in the murder songs, they no longer shouted the names of the people they hated, but the names of the sins they hated, and called on God to destroy them. A pagan custom had been captured for the glory of God. 

That’s called in the world but not of the world…

Just think... if every Christian leads one person to Christ this year, then 100 million believers will be added to the Christian community this year! But the tragedy is that every minute, people go out into eternity without Christ. Every minute, people are dying having never heard the Gospel.

If you almost made it, then you didn’t make it…. If you almost did it, then you didn’t do it…. If you almost got there, then you didn’t get there… If you were dropping a nuclear bomb, almost hitting the target would be fine…. Anything close would do… But when it comes to salvation, there will be many that came close, but will be lost without Christ. It was King Agrippa who told Paul, “You have almost persuaded me”…. So, Agrippa died with an almost, saved confession upon his lips ….

Here’s some people who wouldn’t accept almost….                                                                   Johnny Fulton was run over by a car at the age of three. He suffered crushed hips, broken ribs, a fractured skull, and compound fractures in his legs. It did not look as if he would live. But he would not give up. In fact, he later ran the half-mile, for the U.S. in less than two minutes, setting a U.S. record for that time….  

Walt Davis was totally paralyzed by polio when he was nine years old, but he did not give up. He became the Olympic high jump champion in 1952.  

Shelly Mann was paralyzed by polio when she was five years old, but she would not give up. She eventually claimed eight different swimming records for the U.S. and won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.  

Lou Gehrig was such a clumsy ball player that the boys in his neighborhood would not let him play on their team. But he was committed. He did not give up. Eventually, his name was entered into baseball's Hall of Fame.

Speaking of almost, but not getting it…..

The preacher’s Sunday sermon was Forgive Your Enemies. Toward the end of the service, He asked his congregation, “how many of you realize that you need to forgive all your enemies”?Everyone raised their hands except Mrs. Jones. The preacher asked her, “Mrs. Jones? Aren’t you willing to forgive your enemies? “I don’t have any.” she replied, as she smiled sweetly.“Mrs. Jones, That is very unusual. How old are you?” “Ninety-eight,” she replied. “Mrs. Jones, would you please come down in front of this congregation, before we dismiss, and tell us how a person can live ninety-eight years and not have an enemy in the world.” The sweet little lady slowly walked down the aisle, faced the congregation, and said “I just outlived all of the old hags.”                                               (I believe Mrs. Jones missed somethingin the message)

This entry was found in Missionary David Livingston’s diary…                      “Send me anywhere, if You just go with me. Lay any burden on me, if You’ll just sustain me. Sever me from any bondsbut the bonds that tie me to Your service and to Your heart”.  

Jesus says we are in the world…. That’s ADAPTATION… we build relational bridges, we establish foundations, and we find common interests, but we are not of the world, because that’s about RESERVATION…. We have been reserved for another. Just as a wife or husband are no longer free range…. They are reserved for one another, they may be in a crowd with eligible wannabees, but they are not available…. I can mingle but I better not mate! I can scan but I better not smooch… I am reserved! That’s Adaptation with a Reservation!!!                   Mark 8:36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul, or what shall he give in exchange for his soul.”  

What if, after many years of marriage, someone came up to their spouse and said, “Honey we’ve had a great 60 years together, and I have been 75% faithful to you”… that person would probably feel that 75% is not being faithful at all. What if we felt that way about our loyalty to Jesus Christ. Well, Lord, You know that you can count on me to be 75% faithful.. I’ll obey you 75% of the time”

That’s not Insulation and it’s not reservation. 

Insulation and reservation are about boundaries in our lives…

The trouble we’re all in today, is because Adam and Eve ignored the boundaries God set for them in the garden. 

Genesis 2:15 “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. v16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, v17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die, or (death would come into the world)”.

When Adam and Eve ignored the boundaries God had set, it opened the flood gates for every manner of sin and wickedness. The dam which held Satan and his demons back, broke open and it took over 3800 years till Jesus came to reinforce the boundaries and offer believers the opportunity to get it right…

Noah came along 1700 years after Adam and his family were the only ones to escape the flood and give the earth a second chance because Noah, set boundaries. It wasn’t just the arc, but boundaries that insulated Noah and his family and spared them from the flood.

Scripture says that we are sealed, (that’s another word for insolated)

Ephesians 1:13 tells us that having received Christ, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That’s a consensual application by God’s will acting upon our will…. To protect, reserve and Identify us.  

Joshua was used of God to lead the people into the promised land, and was chosen as leader in place of Moses… But have you understood why he was chosen. It was because he set boundaries in his life and in his family life. He was insulated but not isolated….

Joshua 24:14 “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve the LORD Jehovah. v15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD”.

There is much controversy over the issue concerning our national borders. Many feel that protecting the border is not an important issue, others are chanting “Build that wall”… For me, the issue is not about keeping people out, it is about preserving and protecting America. Forces that want to destroy our country and our way of life, too easily cross our borders with evil intent… Our children and our loved ones deserve better than living at the mercy of those who would do us harm. 

We don’t have to be isolated from the world, to be insulated at our borders. Moses was willing to save all who would come into the arc, and for 100 years he issued the invitation but folks wanted another way…

Whenever we ignore healthy boundaries in our personal life, we are inviting forces that don’t have our best interest, to invade us freely! Those forces are coming to kill, steal and destroy! And to keep us from living the best life that God wants us to enjoy.   

“Let’s make this the best Christmas ever.” That’s what the sign said that was seen hanging in a store window as the Christmas season was approaching. (by the way, as of today, there are only 19 shopping days till Christmas)… Anyway, the message in the store window had that message. Underneath, a very insightful person had scribbled a legitimate question in large magic marker. 

It said, “How will we ever do better than the first Christmas?”

Jesus chose to leave heaven and refuse to be isolated, even though He was insulated, so that He might be in the world but not of the world! Philippians 2:7 “But [He] made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross”.        

If He had not made that choice, He would never have left heaven to come to this sinful world. Willing to experience all that affects us. 

He would have never touched a leper or spoke with the woman at the well. He would never have ventured into Solomon’s Portico where the infirmed waited for the stirring of the water. He would never have raised Lazarus’ decaying body from the grave. Hewould never have hung between two thieves on Golgotha! Nor would He have ever visited you or me with the invitation to come back home where we were intended to be!

Our Lord Jesus did not live in isolation and He did not ignore the problems of the world, but He engaged the world with His Gospelof truth, mercy and grace. He came to challenge the status quo of sin and the degradation of mankind. He came to transformpeople from hopelessness and helplessness to new life and God centeredness in Him.

We have a savior, a redeemer, an advocate with the Father, and a resurrected Lord and King, because He was insulated but not isolated!

What does this all say to us…. In the words of Jesus “As theFather has sent Me, so send I you.. My plan is now your plan”….

When a generator produces electricity, the current is sent from the generator to the receiving object through an insulated wire. If the wire loses its insulation, the power is shorted out and lost, so that the intended object never receives the benefit. If the insulation is maintained, the power is effective and dynamic.

The word “power” in scripture is Dunamis… which refers to not only the source or Dynamo, but also the application of the power as it is released. Jesus Christ has given us spiritual power for ministry, but that power flows through us effectively and efficiently only as we are insulated from the world and its draining and grounding influences.

In the world but not of the world, insulated but not isolated, adaptation with reservation.. that the power of Christ may rest upon us and that we might allow His power to flow through us to a very, very needy world.

When D.L. Moody was visiting England he heard Henry Varley say, "the world has yet to see what God will do with a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to the Holy Spirit." Moody would later write, "He said 'a man." He did not say a 'great man' nor 'a learned man' nor a 'rich man' but simply 'a man.' I am a man, and from the moment I heard that, I have tried my utmost to be that man."

Fritz Kreisler, the famous violinist, testified to this point when he said, "Narrow is the road that leads to the life of a concert violinist. Hour after hour, day after day and week after week, for years, I lived with my violin. There were so many things that I would like to have done, that I chose to leave undone; there were so many places I would like to have gone, that I chose to miss if I was to master the violin. The road that I traveled was a narrow road and yes, it was hard, but to do all that and fail at the violin, and not be true to myself, would be much harder to bear."                                                     After one of his concerts, a woman rushed up to him in tears and said,       "I would give my life to play as beautifully as you do." And Kreisler simply replied, "Young lady, that’s what I did."  

I want to close with Matthew 7:16 where Jesus tells His disciples, “By their fruit you shall know them”…. Wow.

We all know the account of Jesus cursing the fig tree. He had gone to Jerusalem on Sunday for Passover. He had returned on Monday, when he entered on what is known as “The triumphant entry”… and on His way back to Bethany, He was hungry, saw a fig tree filled with leaves, but no figs. He cursed the fig tree, in Matthew 21:19, and on Tuesday they see the tree dead, and He goes into the city and cleanses the temple, turning over the money changers tables and driving them out with a whip. 

Flash back to the fig tree….. Scripture says it was not the time for figs, and yet Jesus cursed the tree for not having figs. What we miss here is that Fig trees get figs before they get leaves.

So the tree missed it’s purpose by getting leaves without producing any fruit….

Again, hear Jesus…..”By their fruit (not their leaves) you shall know them. They had the leaves of a fig tree but not the fruit of a fig tree….

Jesus warned us that there would be those who had a form of Godliness but no power…

They had no insulation, so God’s power was shorting out in their lives, by being grounded out by the things of the world. They look the part, they even act the part, but why is there no fruit!!!

Oh God, may we bear fruit and not just leaves to lay before you….           May your power flow thru us in such a way that you will be honored and glorified. We desire to exalt you and lift you high, that the world may see and know, that you live in us and still save, heal, and deliver today!!!

All of us have been in the boneyard at some time, where we watched a dream die or something we loved and cherished come to an end. Hopes and expectations were shattered and we were reeling from the season of loss that we found ourselves in….

Ezekiel 37:1 “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. v2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. v3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” v4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”

We would all love to live in the mountain top experiences, in a cloud of glory, but the truth is, we all must come down into the valley. To be more accurate, we spend more time in the valley than we do on the mountain top. 

A couple of the most well known valleys in scripture are in Psalms, where the psalmist tells us “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art  with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”

The other valley is Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, where God is giving the people of Judah a look into the future. A look that says, no matter how hopeless it may seem, your future is full of hope, prosperity, victory and abundant life! 

In these two valleys, God’s message is clear…. There is no condition, no situation or circumstance, where God’s power is limited or diminished by what we see or what we think…

In both of these valleys, there is a resounding message of resurrection and restoration. 

We are never intended to just live on the mountain, because it is in the valleys that the work of God’s power is to be displayed in the daily izamsand schizims of life. It is in the valleys that we find the purpose for which we were made. The mountains bring us inspiration and charge our spiritual batteries, but the valleys build our character and present amazing opportunities for demonstrating God’s faithfulness. 

While the mountains are usually bare and bleak when it comes to growing things, the valleys are where things flourish and abound. 

We grow and flourish in the valleys. So then, I would submit that the spectacle of a valley filled with dry bones, and a valley called “the valley of the shadow of death” are really oxymorons or contradictions. 

If things flourish and abound in the valleys, then God is telling us that whatever it may look like, (the shadow of death, or dry bones) it’s supposed to be flourishing. What I’m saying is that inspiration may come from the mountain tops, but the valleys were meant for abundance. 

Your life may look like Ezekiel’s bone yard at times or like the shadow of death is hanging over everything…. But you need to stand and say “No, God does not intend for it to be this way, this valley was intended to be a flourishing place of abundance”.

RESTORATION AND ABUNDANCE, should be the norm, in the valley!

Ezekiel 37:7 “So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise , and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. v8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. v9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy breath (RO-USH spirit wind), prophesy, son of man, and say to the (RO-USH) breath, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.""'10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army”. 

Impossibility was written all over this situation.

Though your faith is only the size of a mustard seed it can move and shake the mountains! One shall chase a thousand and two shall put 10,000 to flight… For, little is much when God is in it…. Despise not the day of small beginnings….                                Little David said to Goliath, “You come against me with sword and shield, and this rock and sling aren’t much, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, and He shall deliver you into my hands!.... 

It was in the valley, that David slew Goliath, and God delivered the enemy host into His hands….

The world isn’t waiting for a new definition of the Gospel, but a new demonstration of the way God says it’s supposed to be in all the valleys of our existence.                  Hear it…in Psalm 23.. come on David…. “In the valley You restore my soul”!!!

“You are with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You have anointed my head with oil, My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the presence of the Lord forever”.

I love it when things get a little “noisy” at church services. But I don’t mistake commotion for consecration, rustlings for resurrection, volume for victory, shaking and trembling for restoration, or the rattling of bones for revival. It may be on it’s way, it may be coming because some things have to be shaken free first, but listen to the rest of Ezekiel’s story….

Ezekiel 37:7 “As Ezekiel prophesied over the bones, they began to rattle & stir. So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise , and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. v8 And I looked, and behold, tendons and ligaments were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them”. 

The church altars didn’t reach out into the family life, the job place, the grocery store, and the market place…. The message preached, never was carried past the front of the church, and the parking lot…. The tears shed, did not flow for souls to be saved and lives to be transformed….. It was all there, but there was no Spiritual life, breath, passion, power, overflow…. And no “go ye” to their gospel….

I believe this dry bone valley is declaring to us that God delights in takingbroken, poured out and used up things and demonstrating how He can take it, blesse it and restore and resurrect it so that it is better than before.

He took the little boys lunch and broke it, blessed it and multiplied it gave out a miracle…. He took the poured out oil of the former prostitute who anointed his feet, and allowed her to preach the first resurrection message on Easter morning, (He is Risen)….. He took the broken pride and Ego of Peter, who had cursed and denied him and then filled him at Pentecost and he preached, as 5000 men plus women came to Christ…. He took a group of fearful, terrified disciples in a locked room, breathed on them and sent them out to reach the world with the gospel….(and they did a pretty good job)

LORD DO IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN!!!

God gives us hope in the dry bone valley……                                                                       Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.

If you study the great history of revivals, you will discover that in the beginning of every great revival, there were deep moves of repentanceand consecration. 

It was so in the revival of George Whitfield in his day. It was so in the revival of the Wesleys in their day. It was so in the great Welsh revival as Evan Roberts preached throughout Wales…. It was so in the mighty revival which flowed out of California called the Azusa street revival…. The Cane Ridge revival in Kentucky, led by Barton Stone…. the Rodney Howard Brown revival from South Africa… and the modern day Pensacola revival with John Kilpatrick….. all were preceded sometimes by years of intercession and deep repentance…..

When you begin to see waves of repentance and folks drawn together in intercessory prayer across racial, denominational and cultural lines, then know that revival is upon us! 

Ezekiel’s prophecy is 2 pronged. It was initially addressed to the nation of Israel in captivity but there is a broader meaning for all of us. Israel wasthe dry bones spread across the valley…. In every sense in the natural, the nation was dead, they were over, done with, KAPUT! It would be an impossibility for them to ever live again. National life was gone, their authority was stripped from them…. Oh, yes, there is one word that made all the difference…. 

They were covenant people. They had a covenant with God. Even though all hope was gone, and they were dead as a nation…. God saw them through a covenant agreement. They may have given up, but He never did or will!!!

Friend, when you can’t stand on anything else, STAND ON COVENANT…. When faith is gone and hope is zero, STAND ON COVENANT… When it all looks dead and over,     YOU CAN STAND ON COVENANT…. God has a covenant with us for revival….

When Noah entered the ark, it was about covenant and that beautiful rainbow God put up in the sky was His covenant signature..

Genesis 9:9 “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you. “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations”.

When Abraham had no children, he had covenant (scripture says his body and Sarah’s body were dead) yet he dared to believe that he would be the “father of many nations” and his descendants would find a city whose builder and maker was God….                                             Genesis 17:7 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, I will be God to you and to your descendants after you. v11 Andyou shall be circumcised in the flesh, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you”. 

If you saw someone having a conversation with a skeleton, you might think he’s on drugs, drunk, or needs some time at the funny farm…. But God tells us to preach and prophesy to SKELETONS….. Some of you talk to your spouse, your kids, your co-worker, to your finances, your health, or to your situation in life, and it’s like talking to a skeleton!

Ezekiel was prophesying to folks who WERE DEAD….. THAT’S D….E…..A…..D!!!!! DEAD, Pushing up daisies, expired, done, overwith!!!

Our Covenant mandate given us from God, is to Speak life into dead things. Speaking the God breathed word. What Ezekiel discovered is that … the word of God we speak and prophesy with, that we declare and decree with…

contains the very “RO-ASH” or breath of God… That breath can do what you could never do…. 

That spirit breath went into a blind man’s eyes, and he saw, in Mark 10:46….. That spirit breath went into a leper and he was cleansed, inMark 1:40….. It went into a man who had not walked for 38 years and he walked, in John 5:5…

God’s covenant will bring things together that could not connect, it will arrange things that were far beyond you, it will flesh out things where you gave up and left off….. It will start new things in a new direction and a new way! It will put flesh on your skeletons….

Revival will come when God’s people are willing to become surrendered channels and conduits of His glory!!!

When revival comes, Christians will get a new love and excitement for God’s Word.  When revival comes God’s people will get a new spirit of prayer. 

When revival comes, Christians will get a fresh passion for lost souls.

When revival comes, Christians will live in the joy of the Lord.

The word “revival” is not found in the Bible. The Hebrew word for “revive” is found some 235 times in the Bible. In the New Testament the word for “revive” is found only 5 times.  The word “revive” is translated in Both the Old and The New Testaments to mean “to return to life or vitality”.

Let me amaze you with a truth that amazed me, about the great awakening in England….Charles and John Wesley along with George Whitfield were three Greek students at Oxford university who began to study the term, “born again.” They began preaching and sharing what “born again” meant. The churches did not want them.

George Whitefield went to Kingswood, a coal mining town. Coal miners, were mean spirited, hard men and bitter drunks who lived a hard life. No church was there so, Whitefield stood on a mound of coal and preached. 200 stopped and listened and when he finished, he didn’t know what to do next, so he just said he would be back on Wednesday.

On Wednesday 2,000 were waiting. He Preached again and again he didn’t know what to do next, so he said he would be back on Friday. On Friday 5,000 were waiting. He told them that Jesus loved them and that he had experienced this new birth and was saved.  He told them if they would repent Jesus would save them. He said he would be back on Sunday and 10,000 were waiting to hear the rest of the story. There was absolute silence. Even the dogs were quite. Trees were filled with people. He began to preach and was startled when tears began to flow down their coal-blacked faces. They all received Christ, and this was considered the beginning of the Great Awakening revival in England, which then spread to America. 

Charles Wesley went to Newgate Prison, where the same revival visitation took place among the prisoners there. John Wesley took a church and it started the Methodist movement, which was powered in those days by a Pentecostal experience…

What I think is so marvelous about this, is that these guys didn’t even know how to lead someone to Christ, but the Holy Spirit worked and moved through their simple obedience and passion, to touch tens of thousands for Christ, and usher in revival all over the nation of England.

God brought revival to Nineveh through a rebellious preacher who was angry at God for interrupting his plans and telling him to go to Nineveh. If most people in rebellion against God had been barfed up on the beach after being in the belly of a whale, they might have made the late night TV circuit with the “Whale of a tale” interviews….. or launched a reality show, or start a church called the “Whale Deliverance Center”… or maybe start a water theme park called “Jonah’s World” …. I mean, there were plenty of opportunities to get fame and fortune out of this…. But listen to what Jonah did…. 

Jonah 3:1-2 “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

OK, OK, I GET IT LORD, I NEED TO STOP RUNNING AND JUST OBEY! But here’s the kicker, Jonah preached and then sat down and expected no results, and no response. As a matter of fact, he got angry because these wicked people were visited by God…. Revival hit Nineveh and EVERYONE GOT SAVED, FROM THE KING ON DOWN!!!!

HEY, GOD WANTS TO SEND REVIVAL, MORE THAN WE WANT REVIVAL….. WOW!

The porch light is always on in the Father’s house. He is always ready to welcome the prodigal son home. 

Look at some things that we and Jonah learned through all of this….

1.​God doesn’t negotiate… He could have used anyone, but He chose Jonah…. 

2.​God wasn’t just reaching Nineveh, he used Nineveh to reach Jonah…

3.​God didn’t need Jonah nearly as much as Jonah needed God.’

4.​Little is much when God is in it.

5.​God never quits when it comes to revival and changed lives…

6.​God wants to save entire cities still today….

Now, listen, You’ve got to hear the entire message which Jonah preached!! … It must have been powerful, eloquent, compelling and brilliant…..RIGHT??

OK, here it is…

Jonah 3:4 “Forty more days and Nineveh will be DESTROYED” ……EIGHT WORDS!!…. No pleading, no being careful not to offend anyone, No emphasis on love, grace, mercy….. JUST “FORTY MORE DAYS AND NINEVEH WILL BE DESTROYED”….

And in spite of the fact that no one knew this man, he had a strange accent, and he had the strong smell of fish, 600,000 people, repented and turned away from their idols and wickedness and turned to God! (He said what God said)

Here’s what God wants us to know out of this, HE CAN USE ANY ONE OF US TO INAUGERATE A SOUL SEARCHING, SPIRIT BIRTHED, LIFE TRANSFORMING REVIVAL….. (CAN YOU SPEAK 8 WORDS?) YOU’RE HIRED!

I heard of this one young man who got a burden to see folks saved, so he just went out and started knocking on doors. The problem was that he stuttered very badly. So it went like…. HHHiiiiii, iiiiimmm, JJJJohnnyy. JJJeesssuuuss lllllovvvess yyyoooouu. wwwwoulldd yyyoooouu llllliiiiikketttooo rrrreccceiiivve hhhhhimm aaaaas yyyyyyourrrrr Sssaavviorrrr?

The pastor started seeing all these new people in church, and started asking how they happened to come. They told him that Johnny came to their door and asked them if they wanted to be saved, and they quickly accepted before he had a chance to say much more, and he gave them the church card and they promised to come if he would just finish his presentation.                                                                                                                                                                                                               Can anyone here dddddooooo at lllleassttt as good as Johnny?!!!!!

Anyway, the king of Nineveh upon hearing this eight word sermon, sent out a proclamation throughout the city, which went to every person in Nineveh….listen to what the proclamation said….                                                          

“Let us seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon”. (This is a heathen king and yet his words are inspired of God) 

Remember that Nineveh is one of the major cities of it’s day and the capital of the Syrian empire….

This account would be equivalent to, let’s say . . .Everyone in Tokyo believing in God. Everyone in Singapore repenting. Everyone in San Francisco becoming a Christian. Or maybe we should say it this way:

Cleveland turning to the Lord. Boston getting right with God. The whole city of Miami getting saved and becoming a center for the gospel!

It’s phenomenal, unbelievable, incredible…..And yet it happened.

Look at what Luke says about this, in Luke 11:32 “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here”. 

Many that God has used have come and gone and their voices are silent. And now, God is asking us, you and me…. Will you go, will you speak, will you tell them. 

Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then said I, “Here am I. Lord, Send me!”

Do we still truly believe that God can reach the unreachable?

Do we still truly believe that God can do the impossible?

Do we look around us and see how bad things are and say, “It’s hopeless"? 

Or do we say, “God still loves Nineveh”!

Jesus still touches the untouchable.

Jesus still reaches the unreachable.

An agnostic college professor visited the FiJi Islands and he remarked to the elderly chief who had become a Christian, "You're a great leader chief, but it's a pity you've been taken in by these foreign missionaries. They only want to use you as a statistic for their annual reports. No one believes the Bible anymore. People are tired of the fictitious story of Jesus Christ dying on a cross for the sins of mankind, we all know better now. I'm sorry you've been so foolish as to accept their story." The old chief's eyes flashed as he said "see that great rock over there? In that very place we once smashed the heads of our victims. Notice the furnace next to it? In that oven we once roasted the bodies of our enemies. If it hadn't been for those good missionaries and the love of Jesus that changed us from cannibals into Christians, you'd be our supper by now! You'd better thank the Lord for the Gospel; otherwise we'd already be feasting on you”. But revival came to a nation of head hunters and cannibals!!!

When all else fails, folks will know that God never fails…. And God knows that there are many who have tried everything and everything has failed to solve the problem, and has not given them the peace they long for…

I think of a school not long ago which posted a little sign outside a principal's office that read "In the event of a terrorist attack, a fire, or earthquake, the ban on prayer is temporarily lifted!"

THAT’S A CRY FOR REVIVAL, NO MATTER HOW WEAK IT MAY SOUND!!!!

When true revival shows up, the words of John the Baptist will be it’swatch words….John 3:30 “He must increase and I must decrease”.

When the wells of prayer and intercession are dug, the living river will flow, and the water will spring up in the most unlikely places…. And in amazing ways.

There have been great and transforming revivals but the world is about to have the greatest revival ever known, because all the mantles of previous revivals are about to fall on this generation, and it will usher in the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. We’re not going out with a whimper, we’re leaving here in the mighty roar of revival!

There are leaders that don’t even know it yet. There are workers of signs and wonders and miracles that don’t know it yet. There are prophetic voices that will shake the heavens and the earth, and they haven’t even been saved yet !!!

We have God’s covenant about this in Joel 2:28 “In the last days, It will come to pass, that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind (this is a global outpouring) And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. v29 “Even on the lowest and poorest, I will pour out My Spirit in those days”.

The master of ceremonies at the wedding feast where Jesus turned the water into wine, said "You have saved the best wine until last!" The greatest healings and miraculous acts of God are yet to come, in greater and greater measure. Multitudes of young and old will be summoned forth by the Spirit to demonstrate God’s power through signs and wonders and miracles. Heaven will be open and under this open heaven, a move of God like never seen before will transform millions who will also be sent forth. 

And the Presence of the Holy Spirit will be seen in our midst at a level we have never experienced.

We don’t want to watch it happen we want to be part of what happens… We don’t want to dangle our feet in the river, we want to plunge in and swim in it’s current!

POUR IT OUT, LORD, POUR IT OUT! 

DO IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN!!

Song…. (There is a river)…. “There is a river, that flows from deep within,

There is a fountain, that frees the soul from sin, Come to this water, there is a vast supply. There is a river, that never shall run dry…

God wants us to know Him and He wants us to tear down anything that keeps us & others from knowing Him in the way He wants us to. He knows that old patterns of thinking & behavior will keep us at a distance so we don’t enter in to all that He has promised was ours in Christ. 

That’s what a strong hold is… It has a strong hold on some area of our lives, so that we are prevented from walking in obedience to what God is asking of us. As a result, we don’t experience the full measure of freedom which belongs to us.                                                           

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into a man’s yard. He could tell from the collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.

The dog calmly came over to him, got a few pats on his head, then followed him into the house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep. Two hours later, he went to the door, and was let out.

The next day he was back, greeted the man in his yard, walked inside and went to his spot in the hall and again slept for a couple of hours. This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious about this dog’s strange behavior, he pinned a note to his collar, stating that he would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if they are aware that almost every afternoon their dog comes to his house for a nap.

The next day the dog arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: it said…

'He lives in a home with non stop noise and yelling, 6 children, and 2 under the age of 3 -                   he's just trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?                                               Strongholds will keep you from resting in the finished work that Christ has accomplished. 

Hebrews 4:1 “Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it (fail to enter in). 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not follow through in faith like those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said”…..

When the Hebrew children left Egypt and were finally ready to enter the promised land, there was a stronghold which blocked their way. They had to go through 40 unnecessary years of wandering because of their unbelief, but finally there they are, and all they went through has now brought them to the place where they were ready to receive. But now, Jericho blocked their way of entering in. It was huge, well fortified, and impenetrable… 

Let me suggest that Jericho was a symbol of what they had built through the 40 year pattern of rebellion and disobedience to God. Now they had to confront what their resistance had built. And it blocked their way, now they finally realized that God had beenright all along….God said, ‘This stronghold must come down”….

2 Corinthians 10:4 “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every imagination that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.

I find it interesting that Paul in this passage isn’t talking to those outside the church, but he is speaking to the believers who are in the church, but are struggling in their Christian walk….

The word “stronghold” here in the Greek, is (achurooma), it is a strong, fortified place.                            History is filled with accounts of invading armies conquering a foreign territory, and when they did, their top priority was to remove the strongholds of power. To fail to do this, would cancel out any real victory in theland. The problem came when an invader did not occupy every district in the land by setting up rulers in the occupied area, and as soon as the army moved through, the enemy in the stronghold could come back and reoccupy the conquered territory.

The Jewish people are celebrating Rosh Hashanah today as the day when God created Adam and Eve. It’s the Jewish New Year..Since the Jewish calendar is lunar, so it’s from sunset to sunset and the shofar is sounded at each sunset. So today I want to declare sunset on Strongholds, and Sonrise on freedom and new beginnings….  

Strongholds do what strongholds do ……Whenever we resist the inner voice of the Holy Spirit, which is letting us know what God would have us to do, no matter how much it goes against our desires and wishes, we are building a stronghold, and it’s hold on us will grow stronger and stronger, the further we go in disobedience. The building material for strongholds is disobedience.

Strongholds will take you where you never planned to go. Cost you more than you ever thought you’d pay. Keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and make sure you can never get back to where you started from….

Strongholds will keep you from reading your bible, they will keep you from prayer, they will keep you from using your gifts and talents in the ministry, they will keep you from witnessing and letting your light shine out to others. 

Strongholds will keep you thinking in a way that will cause you to go contrary to God, and it will cause you to shut your eyes and ears so you don’t have to deal with it….

Strongholds will keep churches from being effective, and generations will be lost… It will keep individuals from being effective and co-workers, neighbors and family members will face God, and hear Him say “depart from me, I never knew you”…

When the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the ditch together….

Strongholds will cause you to do the things you know deep down you shouldn’t and not do the things deep down that you know you should…

When people who once came to church, stop attending, there’s a stronghold they’ve built which makes it harder and harder to start attending again….

When folks who once contributed to the church, stop contributing, a stronghold is built that makes it harder and harder to start contributing again….

Strongholds are built in the thought life…. The place of our imaginations, our fears, our doubtings, our places of resistance and rebellion, our logic, our perceptions and reasoning….

Strongholds can be good things that keep us from the best things and cloud the truth so we don’t have to deal with it.

Did you know that everything you see starts upside down and then your brain has to adjust it and put it right side up. Let me say that again… What you see starts upside down and then your brain has to adjust it and put it right side up… Strongholds prevent your ability to turn things you see right side up….so you are prevented from seeing it as God sees it….THE RIGHT WAY!!! 

Galatians 5:24 “And they that are Christ's have crucified(dismantled) the flesh (the old life patterns) with the affections and lusts that are a part of it”.

There was a time when the South was a stronghold for slaveryand that stronghold was not broken easily. They quoted scripture to justify it and Southern Christians just accepted it as a way of life. It was just the way things were, don’t mess with it! In 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed in America. The word spread from Capitol Hill down into the valleys of Virginia, and the Carolina's, and evens into the plantations of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. The headlines read, ’Slavery Legally Abolished!’ 

However, the greater majority of slaves, in the South, went right on living as though there had been no emancipation. They went on living like they had never been set free. In fact, when one Alabama slave was asked what he thought of the Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, whose proclamation had gone into effect, he replied "I don’t know nothing about Abraham Lincoln except they say he set us free. And, I don’t know nothing about that neither." 

The Civil war was fought and 620,000 died fighting that war. A document was signed which stated that slaves were legally set free. Yet most continued to live out their years without knowing anything about it. They remained as slaves, though they were legally free. Even though they were emancipated, they kept serving the same master throughout their lives. 

Many today, have received Christ, they have accepted the great emancipator and savior, they have been set free, yet they have chosen to remain slaves to many of the same strongholds all of their lives.

The apostle Paul makes an interesting statement in 1 Corinthians 10:23 ”All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify”.

Society and local customs and culture may have no problem with things that are in conflict with biblical Christianity. And we begin to believe we are in great spiritual shape, without the mirror of God’s word to look into each day. 

Strongholds can be like people who are caught in a revolving door, fighting the same battles over and over. They never move beyond a certain point, because they keep getting off where they got in…..This happens because, the enemy is still occupying a part of their life, and unless these strongholds are pulled down, the battle will continue to rage and be the open door to let the destroyer come and go as he wants.

Until we stop making excuses, we will never move beyond these life controlling patterns. 

Strongholds will keep you so busy fighting alligators, you never drain the swamp!!

Strongholds are built on deception and intimidation…. When you avoid the truth, you end up embracing a lie and then you have to justify the lie, so you convince yourself that what you’re doing is OK, and the justification becomes, “That’s just who I am”…

But the real issue is, what and who does God say you are? A stronghold is sure proof that we have not seen ourselves as God wants us to see ourselves….

A lost dog strayed into the jungle. A lion sees him and says to himself "this guy looks edible, and I’m hungry, but I’ve never seen his kind before".

So the lion starts toward the dog with lunch on his mind. The dog starts to panic but as he's about to run he sees some bones and gets an idea and he says loudly "mmm...that was some good lion meat, but I could sure eat some more!".

The lion abruptly stops and says " woah! I guess this guy is tougher then he looks, I better leave while I can". A monkey has witnessed everything, and realizes he can benefit from this situation he figures by telling the lion about the deception he canget something for himself in return. So the monkey reveals what really happened and the lion is very angry that he let himself be deceived. "Get on my back, and we'll get him together" he says.

So they go rushing back to the dog. The dog sees them and realizes what has happened and starts to panic. But he gets anidea and shouts "where did that lying monkey go! I told him to bring me another lion an hour ago..."

Watch out for lying strongholds!

Our strongholds are not the final authority on anything!!!! They make things seem impossible, that can easily be changed if we didn’t have the wrong perspective….

If Jesus already won the battle, why are we still struggling?!

When you see what God sees, strongholds will no longer have the last word!

1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God! Who giveth (continually gives) us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”.

We must approach our strongholds from the position of victory!

When the people faced the fortified city of Jericho, and they sawhow high and thick the walls were, and heard the roar of the army within, but it didn’t drown out the voice of God speaking to them…. They could still hear what God was telling them…. The tense of the verb is important: 

Joshua 6:2 “I have given Jericho into your hand.” Then Joshua passed it on to the leaders and they passed it on to the people… I can imagine it echoing through the ranks, until every person got it loud and clear….

(walk around the people and speak it… “I have given Jericho into your hand”)

So God is saying the victory has already been won! All they had to do was claim it and go ahead and take it!

Jesus told his disciples, “I have overcome the world”…. Past tense….

God is telling each of us the same thing….. “I have given youvictory over this stronghold”….. It has controlled you long enough, now it’s time for you to be in control…. Claim it and take it, it’s yours!!!!

I think the words of Edgardo Silvoso allow us to see another aspect of strongholds….. He states:  "A spiritual stronghold is a mind-set impregnated with hopelessness that causes us to accept as unchangeable, those situations that we know are contrary to the will of God”.                                             Something happens or maybe a series of events happens, and you begin to believe a lie through those events, a lie that becomes your reality. Think of the ramifications of this…..Let me give you some examples…. 

.(How about) “My spouse is hopeless.  They'll never be saved”. (That’s a stronghold mind-set)                                        You see, 2 Peter 3:9 says “The Lord is not forgetful in keeping His promise, as some may think. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance”. 

(How about) “I'm just a weak person.  I'll never be free fromfleshly lust”. (That’s a stronghold mind-set)  

Doesn’t Galatians 5:16 say, “Walk by the Spirit, (make the word of God, your rule of behavior), and you will not act out the desires of the flesh”.

(Here’s another one) “I’ll never be financially independent!  I'll always have to struggle to make ends meet”. (That’s a stronghold talking)  

You see, 3 John 2 says “I pray that you may prosper and enjoy good health even as your soul is prospering”.

(One more) “I'm getting older. Feebleness and disease is now inevitable”. (That’s a stronghold mind-set)  

The bible says.. Psalm 103:2 “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits. v3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, v4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, v5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s”.(Does that make sense?)

Since God's Word is inspired truth, patterns of thought that are contrary to the word, are then a deceptive mind set and a stronghold….

You can see clearly that a stronghold is double mindedness…. And Jesus said that a double minded person would receive nothing from the Lord.  

The apostle Paul tells us that strongholds are constructed of arguments (with God), perspectives that are in error,  imaginations which have no value, and thoughts that are contrary to the knowledge of God.

The Greek word for these arguments with God and within yourself here is “logismos” which   is contradictory reasoning. The Greek word for “Out of whack” perspectives is “hupsoma”,or exalting our view over God’s view. The Greek word for imaginations, is “noema” or unsubstantiated reasoning with no substance…

Surrender is the key to successful Christian living, and victorious living. As we can see, all    the ingredients that make a stronghold are contrary to a Surrendered life. 

Two Pastors wives were visiting one another while they sewedtheir husband’s pants. The first woman said: My husband is just beside himself, he does not know what to do anymore and he is so tired and depressed, the people don’t care and he said he is ready to just give up and resign. The second woman said: I am sorry to hear that because my husband has never been happier.  Our membership is growing and we are out of our financial burden, we have such a loving congregation. Life could not be any better than it is right now. Oh yes, Did I say they were mending their husbands pants….That should tell you a lot, you see, the seat of the pants the first woman was mending were worn out, the knees of the pants the second woman was mending were worn out”.Come on, there’s a big difference between the seat and the knees!!!

One of the trademarks of those believers with strongholds is that they are strongly committed but their commitment means they are in control of what we are committed to. But surrender is different, Surrender means that we are no longer in control of the area of surrender!!

A person can be committed to carry the cross around Key West as a witness, and yet not be surrendered to the principles of the cross. In each area of our lives where we surrender to God’s spirit, we begin to break the power of strongholds in our lives. 

2 Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations [reasonings], and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, we bring into captivity (surrender) every thought to the obedience of Christ”

Jesus has always defeated Satan with truth, and He gives us that very same power, not only to speak it but to stand in it, and every time Jesus said “It is written”, Satan could do nothing but back down and shut his big accusing mouth….Light dispels darkness and Satan is the prince of darkness. The life of Jesus conquerors death, and Satan is the destroyer. God’s righteousness defeats the wicked one. Satan the author of sickness, affliction and disease is no match for Jesus the healer and deliverer… 

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”.

All that we have looked at before is vitally important, but there is an important word which needs to be inserted here, and it is “Persistence”…. I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase that “The greatest oak was a little nut that held it’s ground”….

The staying power of Persistence will allow you to walk in victory after the initial sense of euphoria, celebration and relief has long passed. 

Truth will get you to victory and persistence will keep you in victory!

That applies to the stongholds of bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, anger issues, revenge, and covetousness, fear and depression. 

For example, anger, depression and fear, like many of the others, can be sleeper strongholds, that jump up and take you by surprise. It leaves you wondering, “where did that come from”? We may call it “road rage”, “temporary insanity”, or “child and spouse abuse”, but it was a sleeper stronghold that was never dealt with…. 

We’ve had great friends we enjoyed being with, and suddenly something happened and we wondered, “who is this person” They had a side we never knew about…. A sleeper stronghold….

They end up in court facing charges, in prison serving time, or with their reputation ruined….

The suicide crises which plagues our country is another case in point. Folks constantly say, but they looked so great yesterday, and I would have never suspected this. 

They may have surrendered, and addressed their issues, but they didn’t persist into victory!

A man asked a friend to help him in making some renovations on a home. He needed to demolish a cement wall in order to enlarge a room. The contractor he hired for the job came with a sledge hammer and with the sledge hammer, he began striking the wall with blow after blow. To a casual bystander, it appeared he was wasting his time. Ten, twenty, thirty blows, and just a few cracks.  But, on the thirty fith blow, the whole wall was covered with cracks. At that point he proceeded to totally dismantle the wall, one blow at a time.

We all have run into stubborn strongholds that defy change -- worry, fear, anxiety, losing our motivation, lack, poverty, stubbornness and rebellion, disease, and so many others…..

We hear of someone else’s wall coming down and we are encouraged and we hit it again…. And we hear of another wall crumbling and we’re encouraged to hit it again… Someone else begins to praise God for their break through and we hit it again, and WALLA WALLA BING BANG….IT BEGINS TO FALL!!!

If Satan can keep you in the regions of the carnal mind, he’ll defeat you in every battle. But if you keep Satan in the regions ofGod’s truth in faith, you’ll defeat him in every battle!

Is anyone here excited about 2 Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of every strongholds”.

How about if we say it this way in a declaration of prayer……Let’s declare it together….

“I cast down imaginations and reasonings. I bring every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. If the thought doesn’t line up with the Word of God, I reject it. Now I believe andmeditate on what God’s Word says. Lord Jesus, I surrender my life into Your hands. I ask that You would place me into Your perfect will and plan. Lord, lead and guide me in the direction that You would have me to go. 

I apply the finished work of the cross as I receive Your freedom from strongholds and limiting beliefs that would hinder myrelationship and walk with You. I have been set free, that I may stand firm, and no longer be burdened down with anything that is not your truth and Your will. Deliver me from any distortedthinking , sickness, debt, sadness, hunger, pain, fear, oppression, conflict, and unbelief, for I proclaim Your rule and reign over mylife today.

I declare that You have come that I may have life, and have it abundantly. Equip and use me, as an agent of deliverance, and ambassador of Your love. Thank You for a new thing that isspringing up, as you make a way where there is no way. Allow me to walk in the grace, love and truth that gives purpose to my life.Give me the courage to be brave and steadfast and yet kind and compassionate that I may see the impossible made possible. In Jesus name, Amen.

God didn’t just save us from something, He saved us for something…..

We were not an after thought that God had, We were created to be saved, we were fashioned to be free, we were designed for a purpose, and the amazing life we were destined to live was in the heart and mind of God, before the world was formed…...

Let’s begin with a few scriptures to say this better than I ever could….

2 Timothy 1:9 For He has chosen us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before timebegan.

Matthew 25:34 Then shall the King (Jesus) say unto them on His right hand, Come, you that are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

.Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared well in advance as our way of life.

What an advantage it gives you, if you already know what is going to be, before you even start out!! Our identity determines our actions, because how we see ourselves, and how we see God, will determine to a great extent our ability to see the unseeableand know the unknowable…..

We’re closer than we think…..Often, the inner longings we have and the restlessness we feel, springs out of a deep sense within ourselves that we were meant for more, that we are capable of more, that we don’t have to sell ourselves short and come short of our greater purpose that was planned for us….

So many things that we feel are important, are about as necessary to our greater purpose and calling as a life guard at a jacuzzi……

But what would happen if we saw the God calling, and purpose and destiny within us, as much bigger and more powerful than the fear, the intimidation, the insecurity and poor self image we have at times! What if we knew it was impossible to fail. That instead of saying “What if” we said “Why not”!!! And what if we understood that every problem has a blessing embedded in it!

Usually life will divide you up into many things that are all running in a thousand directions, but what if we could grab all these threads, running everywhere, and weave them together to all point in a single direction to bring us to that amazing place we always knew was there for us. 

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

v14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We may be involved in many things but what is the one thing we are committed to above and beyond all else?… The chicken is involved when it gives an egg, but the pig is committed when it gives it’s piece of bacon!! We can be involved and yet be uncommitted….

There are many things which Paul could do but there was one thing Paul did, because His one thing, was God’s pre-ordained purpose for him. And he accomplished far more for God’s kingdom and his own divine design, by doing the one thing.

I was in the phone store to upgrade to a newer phone and as I was waiting, I saw that a number of phones were plugged in and ready to go, so that customers could check them out. I saw one phone that really caught my eye, so I picked it up to check it out and it was a dummy. It looked right, it had all the features, the buttons, the screen, the appearance, but it had no purpose. It was only good to look at but it had no substance….no use, and totally didn’t function….What is it in our lives that doesn’t fulfill our greater purpose?

Don’t judge your purpose by where you are now and what’s happening now. You’re still becoming and you’re still transforming… Once God revealed to Paul, what His plan was, he understood what he was called to be and do. He understood that he was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, or those outside the Jewish community….And he was greatly used of Godin advancing he kingdom, when he found his purpose.

God has a butterfly in every caterpillar. I believe John Lennon of Beatle fame, was designed by God to be an apostle to the music world, but he missed his calling and ended up being deceived and misguided….His gift was forfeited because he never understood his purpose….

I believe President Trump, thought his purpose was to be a great business man, but God created him to be president of the United States, and his business background was just a tool to give him unique insights into dealing with our government and foreign governments….

I believe you and I have done things that we thought were what we were put here to do, but they were all just tools that will equip us and help us as we arrive at our God given purpose….

And that purpose is to make Christ known in a way that others may never be able to do because that is your own unique calling and embedded design….

When you’re in the storm, avoid letting everyone else decide your purpose. This is not the time to follow the crowd, or simply do what everyone else is doing…follow your own God given path…

A guy was talking to a Chinese man and introduced himself, thenthe Chinese man introduced himself and said “my name is Abe Schwartz” He asked the Chinese man, how he got such a Jewish name. Did your mom marry a Jewish man?.. “No, he said, actually when I entered this country and I was standing in line at immigration, the guy in front of me was named Abe Schwartz, and when my turn came and they asked my name and I told them, Sam Ting…. And the rest is history!

So don’t just follow the crowd, because God has a unique plan for you!

Acts 2:16 “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

God created us all to be dreamers and visionaries. God’s spirit is the spirit of revelation which leads, directs and brings you to the appointments and connections which He has set for you. God knows that once you see it, you will be motivated to go after it. SoHe allows you by His Spirit to see the unseen, and hear the inaudible, so that you can believe the impossible! 

God has a dream, custom made for you. That dream comes to bring you to your destiny and provide a stairway so that you can access your new reality….What if the things you enjoy doing, are inside of you, in order to put you on a collision course with the gifts, the resources, the people, and the new reality that is yours and yours alone….

What if the things that are constantly racing in and out of your life are not random at all, but intentional and part of a higher plan…

.What if There is nothing in our lives that is by accident…

My biological mother did not kidnap me and my two sisters and then abandon us by accident. I was not born into the family of two alcoholics by accident. I was not taken to be raised by a woman who had just lost her 3 1/2 year old daughter who was the same age as me, by accident. 

You have not been through the experiences you’ve been through by accident. They have contributed to your wisdom storehouse and you’re lessons learned. You don’t live where you live and work where you work, and shop where you shop, and know who you know… by accident!!

Down deep inside, if we will take the time to process it, we all know that we are part of something far greater, bigger and more encompassing than ourselves and the niche we find our selves in at this juncture of our journey, is not by accident…

I heard Charles Swindoll say “We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it. And soit is with everyone... we are in charge of our Attitudes”.

Every woman I know likes a neckless and earrings and bracelets made of natural pearls. But every pearl is a pain with a purpose. A grain of sand enters the soft inner parts of the oyster. To ease the discomfort, the oyster coats it with the same material that lines it’s inner shell. It keeps applying coat after coat, until the irritation and pain of the sand is relieved, and WALLAH!!! A costly piece of jewelry comes out of a pain in the gut! (I could have said somewhere else!)

Sometimes God’s purpose will look more like suffering and sacrifice than anything else… but He knows how to transform it into something priceless and beautiful!

I like the illustration of the carrot, the egg and the tea bag…. They may all get in hot water, but they all are effected differently by it. The carrot goes in hard and is changed by the water so that it comes out soft. The egg goes in soft and is changed by the water so that it comes out hardened, The tea goes in the water and not only is it changed, but it changes the hot water that it is in.

We are called to be agents of change, in the hot water we are in, to do more than just go through stuff, but change the stuff we go through, because we went through it with the right purpose and the right perspective and the right attitude.

Sometimes we’re like this little girl trying to run from her shadow. Our problems are attached to us and no matter what we do, we can’t seem to get away from them….For a moment, let’s compare her shadow to the problems we all face….

Let’s Look at 5 purposes behind the problems we face….(tell someone “you have a pain with a purpose) It doesn’t look like a pearl right now, but He’s working on it!

1.God uses our problems to DIRECT us - . Proverbs 3:11 “Despise not the guidance of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction” If the Egyptians weren’t about to descend upon the Israelites in the desert, trapping them at the Red Sea, they would not have been willing to see the miracle of the Red Sea crossing….Problem solved!                                                                                                          Sometimes God has to light a fire under us to get us moving. Because it’s hard to steer a parked car. A parked car doesn’t take you anywhere. Problems often point us in a new direction and get us moving toward the changethat will bring us to success. Is God trying to get your attention? Sometimes it takes an uncomfortable situation to get us to change our direction.

2. God uses problems to INSPECT us - James 1:2 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, v3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. v4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. v5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you”.

People are like teabags if you want to know what's inside them, just drop them into hot water! 

Is God testing your faith with a problem? What do problems reveal about you? When you are passing through the storm, James tells us to be full of joy, because you know that the storm is testing your faith, and this will produce some lasting fruit when you come out of it. You will discover things about yourself that you didn’t realize before. Sometimes I lose my glasses and they’re right on my nose….Problems cause us to see what was right there in front of us…..  

3. God uses problems to CORRECT you - Psalms 119:70 “There are many whose hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in Your ways. v71 It was good for me to be tested so that I might learn Your intentions. v72 The words from Your mouth are more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. 73 Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn Your ways”.  

Some lessons we will never learn except through a few bumps and bruises. It's likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove. But you were driven to do it, cause you had to know for yourself, and you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something - health, money, a relationship - by losing it. It would be great if we could just learn from the mistakes of others, but we are determined to make them ourselves! (Tell someone “It was the best thing that could have happened to me”.

4. God uses problems to PROTECT you - Genesis 50:20 “They intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. v21 So then, do not be afraid.” 

A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something far more serious. I don’t even know how many times, , when I was delayed because of a problem, only to find out that we avoided something terrible if the delay hadn’t happened and my plans were not interrupted. But the Lord had gone before me and saw everything and He brought me through safely. Satan intended to harm me, but God intended it for good so that I might be encouraged by His oversight in my life.                              

5. God uses problems to PERFECT us. - Romans 5:2 “We boast in the hope of the glory of God. v3 Not only so, but we also glory in our tests and trials, because we know that they produce perseverance. v4 And perseverance builds character, and character produces hope. v5 And hope does not cause us to be ashamed, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. v6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still unable to help ourselves, Christ intervened for us”.

God is far more interested in building our character than He is in how comfortable we are.         Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity.

We can actually rejoice when we run into problems because they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it,until finally our hope and faith are strong, steady and reliable. 

Have you ever been driving and you got tired or distracted, and you drifted for a moment on to the “rumble strip” at the edge of the road. Suddenly the car starts rumbling and vibrating and you feel like you are driving a Sherman tank! You know you need toquickly adjust your wheels or you will be over into the shoulder. The “rumble strip” is there to protect you, even though it may not be comfortable, if you’re smart, you’ll heed it’s warning. God will send some “rumble strips” into your life that may not be comfortable, and they can shake and rattle you, but if you are willing to make the proper adjustments, you’ll arrive at your destiny and stay out of the gutter. 

Paul had himself a doosy of a problem…. He had been arrested and the orders were to bring him to Rome to be tried, but on top of that problem, the ship he was being transported on, hit a Northeaster and was sinking. (when it rains it pours) Notice that everyone else on board, was panicking and desperate because all they saw was the storm they were in, and it had their total attention, they could see nothing else. But Paul saw the storm as part of something bigger that he was part of, and he alone was able to see above the storm…. 

(ask someone, “can you see above the storm”)  

Look at the account….Acts 27:22 “I urge all of you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. v23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me v24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ v25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.”

While everyone else was panicking, Paul was getting a word from God about how this storm fit into the bigger plan for his life and the kingdom of God. 

They ran aground on the Island of Malta, and when the father of the governor of the island was healed, many others came for healing and the entire island came to Christ. Paul was on his way to one thing, but because of the big problem, storm, God accomplished something greater. 

David was on his way to bring lunch to his brothers and on his way to do one thing, something greater happened, he slew Goliath.

When Abraham could no longer remain in his father’s house making idols, he would never have imagined as he journeyed to Canaan, during this major transition in his life, that he would open a new stream that would produce the Messiah and the Christian movement world wide…..

How could the fishermen disciples have known that their bad day of fishing, which left them tired and disgusted, would position them when Jesus passed by, to be the apostles of a new Christian movement in the earth!

None of it could have happened without the problems that set them up for their destiny!!!

Don’t give up too soon! Joshua 1:7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions God has given you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go”.

Keep above the storm, as you understand that it’s not about the storm, but what’s beyond the storm that is God’s intentions for you…Storms will happen, but the real issue is, how will we respond when the storms come…..

In the account of Paul’s storm at sea, we are told that many gave up and left the ship too soon and they were lost. But all those who stayed through the storm, were saved. 

The storm Paul found himself in, lasted 14 days of constant pounding, constantly threating to wash them all overboard, constantly about to sink the ship…. 

When you’re in that kind of prolonged battle, it’s easy to give up and quit, if you aren’t attached to something greater than the storm.

Some of you here today have been in one of those storms that seems to have come to roost on your doorstep and you’ve hoped it would pass, but here it is, still raging, and still pouring.

In spite of all of your prayers……in spite of all you’ve done…that storm is still ragging and it doesn’t seem to go away.

…Storms can get in your home

…Storms can cause turbulence for you in your familyrelationships.

…storms can get in the church and toss it around and bring confusion and disunity…

…storms can affect our health…suddenly the doctor gives a bad report and it crashes upon you….

…storms can come into all of our lives, in so many Ways!

When Paul was in the storm at sea, they began to lighten the ship, and started throwing everything overboard that was extra weight which could threaten the ship. Are there some things thatneed to be thrown overboard in the storm. If it’s weighing you down, then you won’t float like you ought to float and you won’t make progress like you should. 

…There are some relationships that need to be tossed overboard….

…some habits … some lifestyle patterns.… some attitudes that need to be tossed….…because all they are doing is weighing you down!

When it comes down to it, the sacrifice is worth the outcome….

The biggest storm, can’t sink your boat unless it in your boat….(SO KEEP ON BAILING)

God told Adam he was going to give him a companion and it would be called woman.               She will be the total package, beautiful, sexy, and she would complete his life.

God said this person will cook for you and wash your clothes, she will always agree with every decision you make. She will bear you children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them. She will never nag you ,and will always be the first to admit she was wrong when you've had a disagreement.She will never have a headache, and will freely give you love, compassion and comfort, whenever needed.

Adam asked God what would a woman like that would cost him.

God said, "An arm and a leg."

Adam said, "What can I get for just a rib?"…And the rest is history....The storm cometh!!!

(don’t look for that in your bible, it will read a little different)

The words of Paul to those on board the sinking ship are my words to you today…..He said the angel told him “be of good cheer, and everything will be all right”. God always sees something better beyond each storm than you see…Faith, rooted in trust, will act like it before it sees it or feels like it!!!!!.

When you are in a storm you need to learn some storm songs you can sing. 

Here are some of the songs I love to sing while going through my storms…

“in the eye of the storm”… says “In the eye of the storm, You remain in control, And in the middle of the war, You guard my soul. You alone are the anchor, When my sails are torn, Your love surrounds me In the eye of the storm”.

And another storm song I love…. “The anchor holds”….

“And the anchor holds, Though the ship's been battered. The anchor holds, though the sails are torn. I have fallen on my knees as I face the raging seas, and the anchor holds in spite of the storm. I have fallen on my knees as I face the raging seas, the anchor holds in spite of the storm”.

There is an important key to your victory over the storm in the prayer of Jesus for His disciples before He left them….

John 17:14 “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. v15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one who is in the world. v16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it”.

We used to sing “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue”…but so many who used to sing that, have began to see their treasure on earth and it has captured their hearts. We stopped thinking like pilgrims passing through, and we began to think more and more like homesteaders, and our lives began to be captured more and more by the things of earth, and less and less by the things of heaven.

But we were meant for more than this… We were meant for streets of Gold, and gates of pearl. We were meant to live forever with Him in such glory that cannot be imagined or comprehended. . But so many are trading it for things that will pass away…

And it has begun to limit their vision and their mission and calling. It became about houses, and bank accounts, and social connections and entertainment. 

But we were meant for more than all this!

When this is all over, what will be important is who did we bring with us. Who did we witness to that can never say, “No one told me” as they stand before the Lord. It will be about, was there a “go ye” in our gospel or just a “hold the fort” mentality. It will be about how many tears did we cry and how much sleep did we lose as we interceded for lost souls. 

Let’s not allow the storms to take our eyes off the greatest prize and miss Him when He appears in the clouds of glory. Because if we miss that, we haven’t seen a storm compared to the storm that the tribulation is going to bring.

If we can’t pay the price, and count the cost to follow Him now. How will we be able to follow and obey when every Christian is gone, and the anti-Christ now runs everything, and in order to follow Christ, means you will lose your life. 

Friend, no matter how hard you have it now, obeying Him here and now, is nothing compared to what it will be like after the rapture.

The five wise virgins in Jesus parable, kept the oil, (The Holy Spirit) flowing in their lives. But the five foolish allowed all the things of life to distract them so they didn’t keep the oil flowing. They ran out and didn’t even realize it….

The price of vigilance is well worth it…

Because we were meant for more than this!!!

When God finishes with your storm, the plan He has is exponential and there is no way we could ever get our head around it all right now!

You were truly meant for far more than this…. So see above the storm… God will get you over it, under it, around it or through it, but He will get you there!!!!

Grab someone’s hand and let’s lift one another together. Let’s take a new look at the storm, and let’s see God’s great purpose and plan for your break through. 

In the valley, he anoints my head with oil, He brings me into His peace and rest, He prepares a table before me, surely goodness and mercy go with me, His presence sustains me, and glory awaits me….Hallelujah!

Song…. It will be worth it all!

                                                                                                                                                                              The call of God is imbedded With the promises of God and are God’s covenant with us. Answering the call activates His covenant….

Acts 2:39 “This promise is for you, your children, and for all who are far off—as many as the Lord our God shall call."

A call is for assistance, for sharing information, to express appreciation, to communicate a need or coordinate a plan…our scripture tells us that God is calling on each one of us….

In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce, played by Jim Carey, has criticized God, because he doesn’t think God is doing a very good job. He basically is telling God that he could do God’s job better.  So now, God is going after Bruce and He uses street signs. Heuses a pager. He uses a truck full of signs. And still, Bruce can’t recognize his call. He can’t recognize that God is specifically speaking to him. Finally, God gets his attention and his life changes drastically ….

God’s call to Moses’ was a burning bush….. His call to Jonah was a great fish…. He called Paul by knocking him out of the saddle….He called to Belteshazzar with the handwriting on the palace wall….He got Jacob’s attention by putting his hip out of socket…..with the disciples it was a boat sinking load of fish, where fish shouldn’t have been… with Balaam it was a talking donkey….and there are many more as well….

Those who are called by God have different ways of responding. Jonah walked away- and caught a ship in the opposite direction from where God wanted him to go.

Moses argued with God- because he said he wasn’t skilled, prepared, or experienced enough to do what God wanted him to do.

Paul didn’t understand what God wanted from him, so he started persecuting Christians, and God had to strike him blind for a few days….

Moses answered God's call by saying, "Who am I?" Gideon answered by making excuses, "I am the least in my father's house.". Zechariah answered by expressing his mistrust, "How shall I know this?" Isaiah answered, "Here am I. Send me." 

As I was looking at all of this I realized that a call is much the same as a prayer, it is a request for assistance, to shareinformation, to express appreciation, to communicate a need, or to coordinate and initiate a plan…

One day, when the reformer, Martin Luther noticed the way hispuppy would sit under the table, by his chair, completely focused on any scrap from the hand of his master. (Martin Luther) said, “Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches for scraps from my hand! He has no thought, care or wish for anything else." Oh that we might be so focused on the Father’s desires….

Jesus said to Peter…Luke 22:32 “But I have prayed for you, that your faith would not fail and when you are recovered (and come through the time of testing), strengthen your brethren”.

I want you to see that the Lord is calling upon Peter to be the answer to the prayer which the He is praying…. It’s an amazing revelation when you live as the answer to what God is petitioningin the earth for heaven’s sake….We are praying for the Bahamas, following the devastating hurricane, but there are those who are answering prayer, by providing boots on the ground, bringing aid in all forms. Their prayers went up before the Father, and became the Father’s call and petition to Florida and the nation to answer it….Silent prayers become shouted by heaven, back to earth to those who are called to answer…    

A dad took his son to the son’s favorite restaurant on the beach, and when the food arrived, the dad told his son that they would have a moment of silent prayer. Dad finished praying and then waited for his son to finish, and he waited, and waited. Finallythe son finished and his dad asked what he was praying for. The son said, ”how was I to know, it was a silent prayer”.

So, let me submit to you, that our primary mission, is to find out what God is calling for and then commit ourselves to answering the call!! Believe me, God can be anything but silent!!!

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. v8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. v9 For what man is there among you who, when his son asks for bread, will give him a stone, v10 Or if he asks for a fish, do you give him a snake? Of course not! v11 If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him!?”

It’s pretty clear that the call of God, comes with a father’s heart towards his kids. 

It has been well said that Jesus didn’t teach the disciples how to preach, but he did teach them how to pray….and He taught that prayer was the key that brought the kingdom to earth….

Do you ever feel like you’re in a no signal zone….And even when the signal gets out, there’s no signal getting back to you….In other words, if you have come to see prayer as a hit and miss thing…here’s how to increase your answered prayer results…You can begin to pray like you know God will answer….

So, let’s take a look at the prayers God will consistently answer.We have been given some patterns to help us and guide us, when it comes to praying more effectively….

We begin with praise to God for who He is….

Matthew 6:9 “After this manner therefore pray, Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your “.

We acknowledge and praise his authority and Lordship, His power, His holiness, His goodness, and righteousness, His mercy, grace, kindness, and willingness to forgive…. His redemption and salvation, His wisdom and knowledge, His justice, and His faithfulness…..We begin by hallowing His great name!

Next, in our effective prayer….We Should Pray for the Needs of Others… 1 Timothy 2:1,2 says to “offer prayer, supplication, intercession, and giving of thanks on behalf of all men”.

We should pray for Rulers and those in authority, For children and family members - for spouses, relatives, and marriage relationships, For lost sinners, For our enemies, and persecutors, For the sick and suffering, For pastors, deacons, evangelists, missionaries, prophets and teachers - 

And of course for all Christians who seek to do the will of God.  

Next, we should thank God for what He has already done….

Ephesians 5:20 “Giving thanks always for all things unto God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Just covering what the Lord has done in any given week could be quite a list to give thanks for…. That’s a lot of thanksgiving……We give thanks forall the things that we have already received. Give thanks for all the ways we are blessed and kept, supplied and protected.

Now with all that in order, it is time to make our personal request known to God….                                       1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you”.

Notice it doesn’t say “just come and whine to Him”…. This is not just about bringing petitions, requests, hurts, disappointments, struggles, and emotional release. It includes those things but needs to go much further… 

It’s also about decreeing things into the earth, about declaring and enforcing His promises. it’s about not finishing your prayer time until you get a word from God and you hear a response down in your spirit, that says “This is the way, walk ye in it”!!!! And you get up and go your way with peace and confidence!!

Many times we get to this point and we’re so caught up in His glory, that we forget to even ask Him for anything. And we discover that all we needed was there, in the glory anyway!!!

Ivan was a prisoner in a Soviet prison camp with all it’s horrors, the lack of food, cleanliness and abuses. One day he was praying very intently with his eyes closed, when a fellow prisoner noticed him and said in a mocking manner, "You’re wasting your time, all your prayers won't help you get out of here any faster." Ivan opened his eyes, and said to his fellow inmate, "I do not pray to get out of prison, I’m praying that I may do the will of GodUNTIL get out, not WHEN I get out."

On one occasion, the angel brought Peter out of the prison, but it was prayer that brought the angel to where Peter was until he got out of prison….

Paul put it this way,  1 Corinthians 7:20 “Let every man continue in the same calling in which he was called. 21 Even if you were a prisoner when called? Do not be concerned about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever. 22 He that is called as a servant of the Lord, is a free man. 23 Since you are now set free, return no longer to the bondage you were enslaved to”.

So, Paul is telling the church to make the most of where you are called right now!

We all have a call upon our lives, to be the instruments which God uses in the earth, to fulfill His plan and His intentions in the earth, right where we are. 

(tell someone, “You are His answer, right where you are”)

Helen Roseveare, answered the call of God as a missionary to Zaire, Africa. "A mother at the mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. She tried to improvise an incubator to keep the baby alive, but the only hot water bottle she had was beyond repair. So she got all the children to pray for a hot water bottle for the baby. That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children eagerly helped to opened it. Much to their surprise, sure enough, under some clothing was the hot water bottle they had asked for! They discovered that 5 months before they even prayed, a ladies' group, across the ocean had been led of the Lord, to include a hot water bottle in their missionspackage. FIVE MONTHS BEFORE THEY PRAYED!

The call of God flows from the love of God that cares about what is best for us.

The call of God flows from the wisdom of God that always knows what is best for us.

The call of God contains the power of God to accomplish what is best for us.

God’s call gives us a daily perspective… Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God”. 

Through out the day, we become responsible that God's will is being done in our lives …. that we walk in forgiveness….That we recognize and resist temptation….His will for Safety as we travel and care for loved ones….. for peace, courage and for boldness…. for Laborers in the harvest of souls…..For opportunities to witness and to teach….For a life pleasing to God – For the fruit of the Spirit in all of our dealings…. And for Unity…

Let me add…. We pray God’s word (For His word shall not come back void)…. We don’t give up and we never stop believing….Wecheck ourselves to see if we are in obedience….We walk in faith, not in worry or anxiety…

Johnny, a very bright little boy, wanted a baby brother more than anything and, he told his mom and dad, that he was willing to do whatever he could to help. His dad, paused for a moment and then replied with a twinkle in his eye, " I'll tell you what, Johnny, if you pray every day for two months for a baby brother, I guarantee that God will give you one!" 

Johnny was really excited and went to his bedroom early that night to start praying for a baby brother. He prayed every night for a whole month, but after that time, he began to get skeptical. He checked around the neighborhood and the older kids just made fun of him. You just don't pray for two months and whammo- a new baby brother. So, Johnny quit praying. After another month, Johnny's mother went to the hospital. When she came back home, Johnny's parents called him into the bedroom, and there was a little bundle lying right next to his mother. *……His dad pulled back the blanket and there was -- not one baby brother, but two!! His mother had twins! Johnny's dad looked down at him and said, "Now aren't you glad you prayed?"  Johnny said, "Yes, but aren't you glad I quit when I did?"

As we respond to the call and petition of God upon our lives, it’s a lot like throwing out a line from a boat to catch the docking poles, and then you start pulling. Are you pulling the dock to yourself, or are you pulling yourself to the dock? You say Pastor, that is a silly question,               *……but when it comes to the call of God, we want to pull God to our will, instead of pulling ourselves into the will of God.

Someone put a statement on Facebook, which was deliberately misworded and they asked if we had read it correctly. We all had read it the way it was supposed to be, not the way it was!

Often we see things happen the way we think they’re supposed to be, instead of how God sees best, and then we conclude that God didn’t answer our prayer….

But until we let go of what we insist was supposed to be, and accept what God says is best, we will continue to accuse God of not answering prayer, or doubt that He will….

May folks suffer unnecessarily and deal with needless anguish and anxiety because they hold on to what never was supposed to be, and try to make it work, instead of finding out what was supposed to be all along and watch God do amazing things !!!

Speaking of what’s supposed to be, A young boy called the pastor of the church which was just around the corner from their house,to ask the pastor to come by and pray for his mother who had been very ill with the flu. The pastor of the corner church knew the family and was aware they had been attending another church down the road. So the pastor asked, "Shouldn't you be asking Brother Simon down the road to come by to pray with your mom?" 

The young boy thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, but we wouldn’t want to take the chance that our own pastor might catch whatever this is that Mom has." (what a nice boy)                                 

If there was ever a time when we need to get prayer prioritiesright, it is now….

A pastor of some of the kids who were killed in the Columbine school shooting, stood before the Kansas Senate and prayed this prayer that created a firestorm when it got out to the public…..both positive and negative…                                                                                                                                  Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism. We have worshipped other gods and called it being inclusive. As a society, we have lost our Spiritual equilibrium and abandoned our values; We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle; We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery; We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare; We have killed our unborn and called it choice; We have become a lawless society and call it Civil rights; We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem; We have abused power and called it politics; We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it equality; We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression; We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Some senators walked out of the room and left the building……there was an outcry from others….          We tolerate what shouldn’t be so we end up living without what is supposed to be….                                                                     too often the church prays without ever weeping, we give without sacrificing, we live without obedience...so is it any wonder that we sow without reaping?!"

When the Lord says, “This gospel shall be preached throughout the whole earth and then the end shall come”… He is petitioning every believer to answer heaven’s call and draw ourselves into His program for planet earth… How amazing, to be the answer to God’s petitions in the earth… and that by our obedience, we are coordinating with Him to determine when His coming will be and when the end shall be…. See it for yourself….                            

2 Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no man deceive you by any means, for that Day (the coming of Christ) shall not come, unless there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, (the anti-christ) v4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. v5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things. v6 And you know what is holding him back, from being revealed. v7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains him (the believers) will continue to do so until He is taken out of the way (the rapture).v8 And only then can the lawless one (the antichrist) be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming”. 

Can I take a quick moment to make clear that the “appearing of the Lord” in the clouds is when the rapture takes place. The “coming of the Lord” will be at the end of the tribulation, when He comes back with the saints to overthrow the anti-Christ, put Satan in chains and set up the millennial reign of 1000 years of heaven on earth….At the rapture He comes in the clouds, to take the church to heaven with Him,  at His coming, He touches planet earth, to remain here for 1000 years. 

But the scripture we just read, tells us that we as believers are the force on earth, preventing the anti-christ and the demons of evil and wickedness, from just taking over the world. We are fulfilling the call of God upon us to hold back darkness and spread the gospel of the kingdom. 

There is a question that begs to be asked in my message today….and I ask my self this constantly                                                                    Have we done our part?….God always moves, when he finds a willing instrument….who is committed to participating in the kingdom process…. 

Speaking of praying effectively……Three preachers had agreed to go on a hunting trip together, and as they waited to start out, they began to discuss the best positions for prayer while their hunting guide finished the packing. "Kneeling is definitely bestfor me," claimed one preacher. "Oh No," another preacher said, "I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to Heaven." "Well, I don’t agree with either one of you" the thirdpreacher insisted. "The most effective prayer position for me, is lying face down on the floor." Their guide could contain himself no longer. "Hey, fellas, " he interrupted, "I personally don’t agree with any of you, the best praying I ever did was while running as fast as I could with a black bear breathing down my backside”!!! This guy knew that praying had to be combined with DOING SOMETHING!!! 

Jesus told us the Father would provide our daily bread, but we still must go out and get it….We can pray for wisdom, but we still need to study His word, which is where we will find it….He said that He was our healer, but we can’t continually abuse and neglect our bodies if we expect to have it…..We can pray that the lost be saved, but until we witness and teach and provide a godly example, we personally may not see it….                                                                                                                                 

In the movie Bruce almighty which I have mentioned, Bruce thinks that his life will get easier if God would just get more involved in his life, that somehow everything about his life will be wrapped up and just the way he thinks it’s supposed to be. If you’ve seen the movie, you know that being closer to the Godmeant Bruce had more problems, not less. He wanted to have itall without any personal responsibility or change.

There's a big difference between being sorry for your sin and just being sorry you were caught. There is a big difference between weeping because you don't like the consequences of your actions and weeping because you let the God of heaven down, Who loved you and gave Himself for you!

Contrary to the thinking of many folks, God is not our personal Genie. Genie’s don’t always have your personal interest in mind, or what is really best for you. Like one guy who found a lamp, rubbed it and when the “BIG BLUE THINGY” appeared, he wished for a million bucks, only to find himself surrounded by a million male deer!!! (I guess Genies have to be programed)

The call of God requires our full participation…..

If we pray without intending to be part of the answer, then we actually have not prayed in faith…. Jesus said the “prayer of faith, would heal the sick and the Lord would raise them up” The prayer of faith, goes the next step and participates in the answer however the Lord chooses or it is not actually the prayer of faith! 

There are many things you may do AFTER you pray, but there is nothing you should do UNTIL you pray! While others see difficulty surrounding every opportunity a person of prayer, sees opportunities around every difficulty.

Every miracle Jesus ever performed, started out as a problem or an impossibility! Our impossibilities are the opportunity for God to show us who He really is and what He can really do!!! It’s a chance to let Him be God….

While it seems the world is trying to pull God down to their level on their terms, God is trying to pull us up to His level and give us a bird’s eye view of the amazing world on His terms!                 Raise your hand if you have something big to pray about and you need God to move in a BIG way.  

Jesus’ invitation still stands today… Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.v29 Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the fullness of My grace. I won't lay anything on you that isoverwhelming or that is not my best for you. v30 Keep in relationship with me and you'll learn to live free and unencumbered."

Oh, church, let’s get set free indeed! To fully believe that who He calls He empowers…..

When Paul saw the light of freedom shining from heaven upon Stephen, it changed something deep inside of him…. When the crowd saw the anointing on those ordinary guys who came out of the upper room they had to have what they had…. When the disciples went out with the same spirit in them that was in Jesus, the lame walked, the oppressed were delivered and the dead were raised…. When John was boiled in oil and left on the Isle of Patmos, he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and brought the world the book of Revelation and we were able to look through that window into the future…

Romans 12:1 For this reason I make request to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you will offer your selves as an offering to God, which is the worship that is yours to give him. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 3 For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone who is among you not to think more highly of yourself than it is right to think, but to think {wisely}, as God has given the measure of faith to each one.".

So what does God call you…... You are accepted, a joint heir who shares in His inheritance, His Spirit and his life lives in you, you are His body in the earth, you are complete in Him, you are chosen of God, anointed with power, love and a sound mind, you are seated in heavenly places with Him, far above principalities, and powers, you have direct access, and you share His nature. He works in you and through you to accomplish what He wants you to do…

2 Timothy 1:6 “For this cause I put you in remembrance, that you stir up the gift of God,  which is in you by the laying on of hands”

Let’s just take some time to activate the words of 2 Timothy 1:6 and just break some things and clear the way for God to begin to stir up, and bring forth His gifts, His abilities through us, His demonstrations of His Spirit….

God is arranging, empowering, provisioning before you get there, He is releasing, over ruling, bringing forth, clearing up, shutting down, opening up, closing, raising up, confirming, making the impossible, possible, making a way where there is no way, healing, restoring, restraining, repairing and creating what has never existed before….

Fasting for me is a big sacrifice. I like food, and I like to eat at least acouple of times a day. So I do struggle if I interrupt that cycle… But my message today is going to deal with what fasting really is, instead of the act of fasting itself….Fasting is really all about obedience….That’s the bottom line….

God needs to train your brain by having you put things aside, things that you won’t die without…(believe it or not) The fasted life is a life that allows God to retrain your appetites and desires, and life patterns, not for a season but for the rest of your life. 

1 Samuel 15:22 “But Samuel replied, What is more pleasing to the LORD, your sacrificial offerings, or your obedience to His voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, (we could say fasting here) and submission to Him is better than all of your offerings”. (your good intentions)

It has been said we have not truly submitted to the Lord, until we can obey, even when we don’t agree….(and when I fast, my stomach definitely doesn’t agree)

When King Saul, was told by God to go and defeat and destroy the army of Amalek and their king, he went as he was told, but he did not destroy them, because he didn’t agree with God. So, he only won a battle when God wanted to win the war. He allowed their ruling power to remain alive. 

God knew that if the ruler of the kingdom, or stronghold was allowed to remain in power, the kingdom would soon be rebuilt and they would be back where they started.

So in the end, you can win a battle and lose the war…

To stay in victory, we must destroy the king who rules in whatever area thatwants to defeat us and rule over our lives, so we must throw down his kingdom. If we don’t destroy the ruling spirit of infirmity and disease, it will keep returning. If we don’t destroy the ruling spirit of deception and judgmentalism, we will keep being deceived. If we don’t cast down the power of our flesh over us, we will continue to be ruled by the flesh and it’sdesires….

In winning the battle, but failing to submit to God’s directive and destroy the ruler, Saul is actually in disobeyed and was told by the prophet Samuel… in 1 Sam. 15:23that his arrogance was the sin of idolatry because he placed his own desires and wishes above the desires of God. It was the Idol OfMyself….

In making God in his own image and likeness, Saul was committing idolatry. “I want, I feel, I like, I prefer, I would rather, I love, I know better… has led many down the path of destruction, when those things push aside the voice and will and plan of God!

I’m reminded of the Irish man who agreed with his two brothers that when he moved to America, at a certain time on each Saturday, they would go to the pub and have a drink together, even though they were oceans apart. Soeach Saturday, he would faithfully go to an Irish pub in New York, and order 3 beers, and drink one for himself and one for each brother. He explained to the bar tender what he and his three brothers had agreed on. But one Saturday he came in and said that he had become a Christian and had given up drinking. He then ordered two beers. I thought you said you had quit the brew, the bar tender said. Oh, yes, I have quit, but my two brothers haven’t!!!

Almost obeying is still disobedience. I did but I didn’t….. but we get to see King Saul’s rational for disobedience. It’s the deception of needing to be accepted….

1 Samuel 15:24, Saul is exposed by God, and we hear his confession…. He said,    “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them”. Saul admitted that his disobedience was against God’s command. And it was the result of seeking the approval of people above the approval of God.

The sharks of disobedience are always out there circling, waiting for an opportunity when you are distracted or off balance, to swoop in and attack….

So we have learned in this account in the life of King Saul, that disobedience is an act of rebellion, disobedience is a sin, disobedience is a form of idolatry, disobedience disrespects and diminishes the power of God’s Word in our lives, disobedience is about doing what is convenient not what is best, and disobedience is based on seeking the approval of people rather than the approval of God.

King Saul died as a tormented soul, because he had become double minded. We know that the only peace he had was when David played and sang for him. But he died, tormented by double mindedness caused by his disobedience. 

James 1:6 “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. v7 Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. v8 A double minded man [is] unstable in all of his ways”.

The fasted life will confront all of these issues, because it’s primary objective is about living a life of God’s choosing and not my own (to obey when I don’t agree, is the sacrifice which God always honors and rewards).

Obedience, is about a relationship with God that is based on trust.

I obey until understanding comes, I don’t always have the option of understanding before I am asked to obey.                                                                                                                 The power went off and the house was dark. The little girl called for her daddy, and when he answered, she rushed through the darkness to where he was. When she got to him, he said weren’t you afraid. She said, “Daddy I was afraid until I heard your voice and I wasn’t afraid anymore”…

We trust him more than the fear, more than the uncertainty, more than our own imagination, and more than the danger and the risk we’re called to take….

Jesus criticized the teachers of His time for three religious activities—fasting, public prayer, and giving to those in need— not because they werenot good and honorable activities, but because they did it for the approval of men, more than they did it for the approval of God. They had developed a system of spiritual activities that were all aimed at being applauded and elevated by the people. 

We must be careful about spiritual performances which are to impress people and promote ourselves, more than obeying and honoring God. Those who lead in worship, those who preach, those who minister, can easily cross over into performing for the people, instead of honoring an audience of only one…..

 Sometimes we have to choose to obey God or man…..This is why when the disciples were brought before the religious counsel and asked why they continued to fill Jerusalem with their doctrine, Peter gave them this answer….                                                 Acts 5:29 Then Peter and the apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

When we were younger, I remember in one job, I worked at a full servicemeat market, and the boss required that we put our thumb on the scale when we weighed the meat, or have a small weight that we slipped on the scale with the meat. I refused and he took me off the scales and put me in the processing area and taught me to be a meat cutter. He said he couldn’t trust me to do the wrong thing. That trade met our needs for 15 years until we got to Key West and got a salary from the church. 

Obedience is better than sacrifice!

The fasted life seeks above all to honor God….The fasted life will seek to honor the Lord in speech, in actions, in relationships… and in priorities!Before we do the things we do, if we can’t stop first and pray “Lord I ask you to bless this”, then we probably won’t honor God in doing it….

I heard about a minister who was speaking to a guy who claimed to be a Christian but smoked recreational marijuana. The guy told him that God wouldn’t produce something that wasn’t for our good. So it was OK to use what God had produced.      The minister took a handkerchief and picked up some dog droppings and said, based on what you have said, you need to light this up and give it a try..

King Saul heard the word of the Lord, but he thought he had a better idea….

The government usually thinks it has a better idea than God and we end up with socialism … Environmentalist usually think they have a better idea than God and we end up with climate change… Scientist think they have a better idea than God and we end up with the erroneous deception of evolution… Doctors think they have a better idea than God and we end up controlled by pharmaceuticals and health for sale…. The church thought it has a better idea than God and we ended up with religion instead of personal relationship….

Samuel said it best when he said….”Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission to Him is better than all of your offerings”.

One lady who had come into the revelation of a God centered relationship, said this..   I now know why I wanted my morality and good works to save me. If I’m saved by my good works, then like a taxpayer, I have rights and privileges. I’ve paid into the system and God now owes me a good and decent life. And there is a limit to what the Father can ask of me in that religious arrangement. But if I’m saved by sheer grace, then my life belongs entirely to the Father, I receive everything I don’t deserve, and He owes me nothing and there is no limit to what he can rightfully ask of me.”

Then I look at Micah 6:7 “Will the Lord be pleased with your thousands ofsacrifices and offerings? v8 He has shown you, O man, what [is] good; and what He requires of you. It is to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly (obedient) with your God”?

Jesus didn’t say, “If you love me, sacrifice for me.” Instead he said, “Anyone who loves me will obey me and My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

Let me tell you, when God makes His home with you, great things will begin to happen in your life! Things you could never have planned, could never afford, or even thought of !! But He may rearrange your stuff, He may change your schedule, and He may change your priorities…

Isaiah 48:17–19 “This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:  I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace, endlesslyflowing like a river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea. Your descendants will be like the sands along the seashore—too many to count! Destruction, will be far from you and your legacy will remain."

The fasted life is a life of obedience…. And the source… is Trust in God!                 When God led the Hebrews out of Egypt, it was a journey of trust in Him, a journey of obedience. When they obeyed and moved with the pillar of fire by night and the cloud of His presence by day, it went well, when they didn’t, they had nothing but defeat and destruction …

Family psychologist, Dr. James Dobson said once, “If you have a willful child, I’ll teach you how to raise him. If you have a teenager, I’ll pray for you.”                                                    Lack of obedience in the workplace is insubordination.

Lack of obedience in the military can be grounds for court marshal.

Lack of obedience in children is rebellion.

Lack of obedience to God is another word for sin.

What if A professional fire fighter comes to your work place. He tells everyone that if they find themselves on fire, to stop, drop and roll. Then he has everyone practice doing it. So sure enough you find yourself on fire, but you start running around screaming and end up perishing, when all you had to do is stop, drop and roll. With your solution available to you, you chose to disobey the thing that would save you and you pay the consequences.

The problem with disobedience is that Disobedience has ramifications far beyond ourselves. It has a domino affect which not only touches ourselves, but it becomes generational…. It is empowered by a spirit of lawlessness which is insatiable and it is not satisfied until generations are affected…. 

Jacob’s disobedience in stealing the birthright, was perpetuated in his sons who sold their own brother Joseph into slavery…. Adam and Eve’s disobedience was perpetuated by Cain who murdered his brother…. David’s disobedience was perpetuated in Absalom… Solomon’s disobedience was perpetuated in his son Rehoboam, the evil king of Israel… 

The apostle Paul mentions this cycle in Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”  

Paul addresses the generational cycle of disobedience, but then he says that through Jesus’ obedience a reset button was pushed, and His obedience set up a new generational cycle. He redeemed our legacy, He restored the God possibilities in the  family lineage!!!

My father ran a moonshine still in the hills of North Carolina, my mother was a promiscuous alcoholic, who abandoned her husband and her children. When I married this foxy lady, I made a covenant with God that a new stream of blessing was being opened and a new, Godly legacy, was being started! And I declared it based on…  

Deuteronomy 28:1 “And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe [and] obey His word, that the Lord your God will set you on high… v2 And all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you in the way you go, if you will hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God. v3 Blessed [shall] you [be] in the city, and blessed [shalt] you [be] in the field. v4 Blessed [shall be] the fruit of yourbody, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of all your animals. v5 Blessed [shall be] your basket and your storehouse.

v6 Blessed [shall] you [be] when you come in, and blessed [shall] you [be] when you go out. v7 The Lord shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to disappear from before your face: they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. v8 The Lord shall command Hisblessing upon you in all that you set your hand unto and he shall bless youin the land which the Lord your God gives unto you. v9 The Lord shall establish you as a holy people unto Himself, as he has sworn unto you, if you will keep the word of the Lord your God, and walk in His ways.

v11 And the Lord shall make you plenteous in goods, in the fruit of yourbody, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the Lord has swornunto your fathers to give you. v12 The Lord shall open unto you His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto your land in His season, and to bless all the work of your hand and you shall lend unto many, and you shallnot borrow. v13 And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shalt not be beneath, if you obey the wordof the Lord your God”.

Obedience has it’s own reward…. My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus…. Nothing shall be able to stand before you…. A thousand shall fall on your left hand and ten thousand on your right hand but it shall not come near you…. The path of the righteous shall shine as the sun on a new day… The enemy shall come at you one way and shall flee 7 ways…. God shall be your sword and shield….By His stripes we are healed….Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord shall deliver them from them all….etc…                                          Obedience transforms fear to faith, it replaces uncertainty with purpose and direction, it turns your pain into deliverance, and your obstacles become opportunities!  

Let’s say you are on the other side of a polluted river, where there is nothing to eat or drink and unless you cross the river where there is plenty, you will die… But you say, “I do not believe in boats or bridges, but I want to get to the other side” so you stand there, dying of hunger and thirst while there is a bridge and a boat, but you die, because you say you do not believe in that means of rescue, even though your salvation is right in front of your eyesyou perish.

Let’s put it another way… Let’s say that you know that if you don’t eat and drink, you will die. But in spite of this, you say “I will not eat or drink, but I still want to live”… Food and drink are placed before you, but you have made your choice, and you die with plenty of food and drink available to you…

Is that any different from a person whom God has told, “If you simply obey me, you will be blessed in every way”… but they insist on saying I don’t believe that, even though my life is a mess, even though my family is perpetuating my disobedience, even though things are all fouled up in my life… I insist on doing it my way, because I know better than God”!

What makes this even crazier, is that people ignore the solution they have been given, and their means of having the best outcome, and then they blame God for the results of their disobedience!!! Any sane person would say, that makes absolutely no sense at all!!!

At the end of life we will not be judged by many of the things we thought were important, like degrees or how much money we have, or how famous we were. But we will be judged by how well we obeyed the Lord.  

In the scriptures we have the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego who are threatened with a fiery furnace death if they did not disobey God. Daniel was told that he would be fast food in the lion’s den if he didn’t disobey God… In both cases, these men chose to obey God rather than men. They were going to lose a lot more than just their job, or their money, or their reputation…. And the outcome was miraculous and totally amazing! God honored them because they honored Him!

The bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of doing it your own way, receive His salvation, come under His teaching in obedience and you will be saved and blessed….

And folks still say “I’ll do it my way, I can handle this, I don’t need Jesus”

Listen, if any of us could do it our own way… why would Jesus ever leave heaven, with all it’s glory, leave the place of Deity and become a man, be rejected, opposed, abandoned and persecuted, then die a cruel death on the cross for our sins, if there was any other way imaginable!!!!

John 11:25 Jesus said unto her (Martha), I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. v26 Andwhosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this”?

When I was younger, I was in a hurry and decided instead of waiting for the red light to change like all the other cars, I would take a short cut through a gas station. I felt pretty good about my choice to get a jump on the traffic, until the police lights behind me told me other wise. I was given a ticket for avoiding a traffic light. As I paid the ticket, wisdom came into me…. DON’T DO THAT AGAIN!

The fasted life begins by making a quality decision to obey….

(the enemy uses our rebellious areas against us. He knows obedience is the key)

The fasted life begins by knowing what the Lord desires of us….                                                   ( The enemy may not read our mind but he knows what has captured our heart)

Someone has said that the brain is amazing, it works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and never stops, from birth until we fall in love….

The fasted life begins by forming habits and patterns of obedience….                                          (The enemy may not know our heart, but he knows our habits and patterns)…

The fasted life embraces the wisdom of God’s word…

(the enemy is a deceiver who hides wisdom from us)

The fasted life listens constantly for God’s voice….

(so the enemy confuses us with many voices)

The fasted life does what God says….

(the enemy will tell you like he did to Adam, that it doesn’t matter)

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, v2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God”.

The rewarder is there for us at the right hand of God’s favor…

The intercessor is there for us at the right hand of God’s favor…

The healer, provider and deliverer is at the right hand of God’s favor… 

The way maker and world shaker is at the right hand of God’s favor…

The peace that passes all understanding is at the right hand of God’s favor….

The one who never slumbers or sleeps is there, and He’s awake so you can sleep, He’s knows when you don’t know, He’s figured it out when you don’t have a clue…

Our part is to live the fasted life of obedience….

I want us to look today at Paul’s Grand Serendipity. We might call it his AH-HA moment, his defining cross roads encounter, his Epiphany season, and his transformative experience with God. There’s something we can all take home with us from his experience….

Acts 9:2 “Paul (who was formerly called Saul) was seeking letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that If he found those who belonged to “The Way”(the followers of Jesus), whether men or women, these letters would authorize him to take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 So Saul headed toward Damascus. 

The Roman government was ruling in Jerusalem and they had made a league with the Jewish religious leadership to snuff out the movement whose allegiance was to Jesus whom they had crucified. But instead of destroying the church, it only grew, the greater the persecution. (God knows how to stir the eagle’s nest when it’s time for the eagle to fly..)

Saul, was the hit man for the opposition and was tracking down the followers of “The Way” who had migrated to Damascus to flee persecution.

It wasn’t hard to find them because they left a trail of new believers everywhere they went….changed lives were in their wake, the healed, delivered and transformed…

Damascus was about 150 miles from Jerusalem, which would be like walking from Key west, to Coral Gables….that would be about 30 minutes by air. Three hours by car and most of a week if you were walking. So, Saul had all that time to scheme and plan his diabolical round up of the followers of Jesus, but God was way ahead of Him.

Listen if God said He’d be with you, He’ll be with you… If God said He’ll go before you, He’ll go before you….If He said He’d be your shield and sword, count on it…. He is the surrounder who surrounds and He’s rock that won’t roll and that rock is your foundation….                                                          

The church was out-numbered, it was out-financed, it was out-equipped and out-resourced…EXCEPT FOR THE GOD FACTOR….. ONE WITH GOD IS A MAJORITY….

Paul was about to get a lesson in “little is much when God is in it”….

The Damascus road is a road of confrontation, change and challenge. Paul thought he was the one on his way to confront the Christians and instead, he was about to be confronted by the very truth that he denied.

Acts 9:3 “as he (Paul) came near the city, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice speak to him. "Saul! Saul!" the voice said. "Why are you opposing me?" 5 "Who are you, Lord?" he asked. "I am Jesus, I am the one you are really opposing”.                                                                                                  Listen, if you’re living life the Jesus way, confrontation is inevitable! The very ones who are out to confront you, are about to be confronted! I’m sure Paul didn’t mind folks talking to God. But when they took it to the next level to say that God talks to them, then they’re crazy, and delusional nut jobs!(have you found it to be true)

Christians are supposed to be hearing voices… (Father, son, and H.S. and angels as well) God says to “Listen” to Him 331 times in the bible and He tells us to “Hear” Him 347 times. So, why would He say this if He wasn’t speaking something to us…..

The very word of God which we read, was mostly spoken by God to thosewho wrote as God spoke it to them by the Holy Spirit, but for YOU to hear from God in this day and age, is another matter completely for many folks.Think about it….

Yet, the scriptures tell us He is the same Yesterday, today and forever. He changes not, and there is no shadow of change with Him. 

God says in Isaiah 28:23 “Listen to Me and hear My voice, pay attention and hear what I say.

God says in Proverbs 8:4 “To you, O people, I call out, I raise my voice to all mankind”.

God says in Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: If any man shall hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and we will fellowship together with one another”.

Believe it Church, God is speaking to all mankind, but like Saul, they are being brought to a Damascus road confrontation, and to a defining moment of personal revelation. In Jesus’ name!!

That confrontation settles once and for all the feeble efforts of trying to explain away and understand the supernatural God with the natural mind.When that light hit Saul, there was no further argument. 

John 1:4 &5 “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not comprehend it.”                                                                                                 John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

The voice that Saul heard…was the same voice that spoke into the shapeless void and created the worlds

It was the same Voice that spoke breath into Adam 

It was the same Voice that spoke to Moses from out of the burning bush

It was the same Voice that spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The prophets, heard that voice, and those who stood around mount Calvary, heard the voice cry out from the cross, “It is finished.”

And all Saul could do and all anyone who truly hears that voice can do, is to bow and yield to the only true authority, the Lord Jesus Christ.

You may not see it but that same confrontation is going on all around you in the neighborhood, on your job, in your family…there’s a Damascus road happening….Divine confrontation is taking place….                                                                                                            We all need a vision check-upregularly…. I believe Christ blinded Saul and then healed his sight, to let him know that he wasn't seeing God, himself or others in the right way and he needed a major adjustment. 

When our resistance collides with His voice and His light, it is inevitable that change will take place at the core of our being….                                                                                   (have you checked your vision lately)

Paul himself, expressed it this way… 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old way has gone, the new way has come.”  

Paul knew the word, he knew the Scriptures, top to bottom, frontward and backwards, but it didn’t change him, and that’s because he never personally knew the Author. 

We are not complete, and cannot become all we were created to be without intimacy with God… That’s why the scripture tells us we have all come short of the glory of God… Even the goldfish can tell the difference in a person who has an intimate relationship with Father God…. 

The word “Yadda” in the Hebrew means “to have intimacy knowledge of”.There are folks who say they believe in Jesus, they say they are Christians (Christ followers) but they rarely if ever open up their Bibles. When you combine a personal intimacy with Christ and applied knowledge of the Word….BAAM…BAAM… Transformation takes place…. 

It’s like Power Rangers…. BAAM.. they step over into their power and are able to overcome the enemy, that they couldn’t overcome before! 

The old song says, “He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known”. THAT’S YADDA!

That Intimacy produces revelation insight into the Divine will, and understanding of your purpose and destiny. 

Hollywood loves a crisis… it’s the stuff that keeps folks hanging on in a movie or Television. They keep you on the edge of your seat, then go to commercial just to torture you. Crisis keeps folks reading to see the end of a story. There’s a crisis in the government, or in the health service, climate change, nations on the verge of war, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and oh yes the polar caps are melting and will flood the whole earth….. God was creating a crisis for Paul….because Crisis produces change….Sometimes when it looks like everything is falling apart, it’s really just starting to come together… When our plans are all coming unglued, God’s plans are getting fastened down and in place…. When Jerusalem was experiencing it’sgreatest persecution, it created the great dispersia, that sent the gospel out into the world as people fled from Jerusalem…. It was a crises that fulfilled prophecy… “This gospel shall be preached in all the world”….

What’s interesting is that the word “Crisis” originally meant “a turning point” or “change of direction” or a “Tipping point”.….

The Damascus road, brings confrontation that leads to a personal crisis, and that crisis presents all who walk it, with the Damascus road challenge. 

Paul found out that faith in Jesus, challenged everything in his life.

He is about to come under a new authority in his life….

Acts 9:6 (The Lord said) “Get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." v7 The men with Saul stood speechless, for they witnessed the voice but they saw no one there! v8 So Saul got up from the ground, but [although] his eyes were open he could see nothing. And leading him by the hand, they brought [him] into Damascus. v9 And he was three days without sight, and did not eat or drink anything”.

The next thing we read, in this encounter, is that when Paul got to Damascus, God called to a man named Ananias, and Ananias’ response was, “Yes Lord, here I am.” (Sometimes we have to say Yes, before God lets us know what we said “YES” to. Sometimes we have to sign the check, and let the Lord fill in the amount) So, when Ananias said “Yes Lord”.. then the Lord proceeded to tell Him that Saul of Tarsus was at a house on the street called Straight, praying. And God had to move because thousands of Christians were praying for this guy… (they were praying “HELP”) God told Ananias to go to Saul, lay hands on him and pray that he would receive his sight.

So, Ananias answered the Lord with that same calm, confident obedience, we all use when the Lord asks us to step up to the challenge and follow Him when He tells us something we just can’t wrap our head around!!!.

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR ETERNAL MIND?!! (or something like that)

I mean, Lord…Saul just finished whacking Stephen in Jerusalem and he’s killing believers and putting many in jail wherever he goes. And you want me to lay hands on him and pray. I lay hands on him he’s going to lay hands on me, and not in a good way.” “Trust me”…. (Ohhhh, wow, Is there anyone else up there, I could speak to)

It’s far better to let the Lord handle some things, or we may end up like the old retired gambler who was on trial for murder and if convicted, could spend the rest of his life in prison. He found out that a fellow gambler was on the jury and figured that would be the one who would take a bribe. He sent word to the juror that he would be paid $10,000 if he could convince the rest of the jury to reduce his charge to manslaughter.

The jury deliberated an entire week and sure enough, returned with a verdict of manslaughter. After the trial, the accused was given 30 days to turn himself in for sentencing. The accused had the juror come to his house, and told him what a great job he had done and paid him the $10,000. The bribed juror replied that it wasn't easy to convince the rest of the jury to change the charge to manslaughter. They all thought he was not guilty and, wanted to let him go!

(IT’S FAR BETTER TO LET THE LORD WORK SOME THINGS OUT!) 

So getting back, to the Damascus road… listen to the Lord’s response to Ananias….

Acts 9:15 “But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel”.

How would you like to be the person who obeyed the Lord and led Billy Graham or Pat Robertson, or Paul Crouch, or Joel Houston, John Kilpatrick or Reinhart Bonke to the Lord.

I have a friend who bought one of those metal detector devices and he goes out on the beach every evening and walks around on the beach when everyone has gone. He has found 300 buttons, thousands of bottle caps and beer tabs, and scores of broken sun glasses and false teeth. But he has alsofound diamond rings, gold bracelets, collector’s coins, and other costly jewelry. Buried treasure, lost treasure, that is there waiting to be found and given value once again. We need some “lost soul” detectors so we can reclaim the Lord’s lost treasures….

Luke 15:8-10 “Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”                                                                                Paul wrote 1/3rd of the entire New Testament, became the Apostle who brought the gospel to the Gentile world, and planted churches throughout the Mediterranean region. 

What a hidden treasure, God called on Ananias to recover!!!! Although we never hear of Ananias again he is one of the great heroes of the Bible. Everything Paul accomplished for the kingdom, there was Ananias’ finger print on it all, there at the critical juncture at the launching of one of the most powerful, influential personalities in the history of the church, was a man, waiting in the wings, Ananias.   

I can’t help but ask what hidden treasure The Lord is waiting for us to discover and recover as he asks each of us as he asked Ananias, “are you willing, will you go”?.

We serve a God who is in the life changing business….it doesn’t matter to Him which road to destruction they may have chosen…. The road of drug and alcohol addiction, or crime, or bitterness, or greed and covetousness or sexual addiction. 

COME ON NOW…. He changed us didn’t he….. that same Holy Spirit encounter can transform them as well!

I want you to notice something, Saul wasn’t saved on the road to Damascus because he had this amazing supernatural experience. He was saved three days later, when he called on the name of the Lord as Ananias presented Christ to him and baptized him.

There are many folks I have talked with who have had special encounters and experiences and some have had miracles, and they think they are saved because of these supernatural encounters. But they go on in their lives and live no different than they did before. What does the scripture say about this?

Let’s hear the Holy Spirit’s first message after the day of Pentecost, which was the launching of the church.

Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. v39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.” 

Now, water baptism is the outer witness of the inner work of repentance which opens the soul to the invasion of the eternal life which Christ gives by the Holy Spirit. (repeat that) Baptism is about a new walk of obedience to our Lord and Savior.

Without the work of the Holy Spirit, by faith, we go in the water dry and come out wet and that’s all that really happens….

Having a miracle in your life, or a supernatural experience, won’t save you… it is repentance of sin and receiving Christ as Savior alone, that brings salvation….

The Damascus road encounter got Paul’s attention and brought him to a different place in his priorities and values, but with only that, he would have missed the power within his life to transform and truly change his world view and save his soul. 

Paul is certainly speaking from personal experience when he says in        

1 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold, all things become new.”

One of the evidences of the reality of Saul’s conversion was his immediate identification with and joining together with the church.

Perhaps nowhere else is the radical change in Paul’s life more apparent than in his attitude toward the followers of Christ. Previously Saul had sought them out to persecute them, even kill them, but he now sought them out to worship and fellowship with them in God’s house.

And it was Paul, the transformed persecutor of the church, who wrote…

Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) v24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: v25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more, as you see the day approaching”.

Paul is saying “don’t neglect church attendance”… in the church building and outside of it!!!

We are told that from day one, when others stood back and were a little nervous about this former persecutor, coming to church…. Barnaba immediately joined himself with Paul and befriended him, and showed him true Christian love and acceptance. 

When many of the apostles stood at arms length, Barnabas defended him and stood for him. Do you think perhaps, Paul may have stayed with it and remained faithful because of the faithful friend he found in Barnabas. 

What if we marked on our calendar each day, “FGT” and make every day a FGT day. That stands for “Find God’s Treasures”.. and how about adding “BAF” to that which stands for Be A Friend to someone who needs a friend…..Be a Barnabas!

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…. God sees the apples on the trees in the seeds of the apples on all the apple trees for infinity…. 

The word God deposits within us is like that apple seed….It has the power to reproduce itself for infinity!!!

The bible is filled with little things that people gave and they did to make the big things happen….   

I can think of how Rahab the harlot, hid the Israeli spies on the wall of Jericho, saving their lives, and then let them down by a rope…just a little thing….with big results!

That guy who gave Jesus the donkey on Palm Sunday, just a little thing, to fulfill prophecy…but with historical results!

What about the little boy's lunch that Jesus miraculously multiplied to feed over 5,000 men, plus women and children. Just a little thing with miraculous results!

I also think of the little woman’s oil and meal that fed a prophet and supplied for an entire community in time of famine…. That shouts “little is much when God is in it”!!

It’s so true that One sows, another waters and we all rejoice in the harvest!!

To a childless couple, great news would be “You’re expecting”…. To a couple waiting for their mortgage to be approved, it would be, “You are now a home owner”…. To a teen-ager great news would be, “Here’s the keys to your new car”…. To the early church, it would be, “Saul has accepted Christ as his savior”!!!! He’s a believer now!!

More than two hundred years ago Adoniram and Ann Judson and Luther Rice heard God's call and left America to go to India. On arrival, they were baptized by William Carey. But were not allowed to serve in India, so Judson and his wife, went to Burma. Because their support would no longer come from the folks who sent them out as missionaries, Rice returned to America to raise money. Through his efforts the Judsons were able to continue on in Burma. The couple served for six years before they saw their first convert."

Henry Blackaby said: he visited (Burma) in 1999, and found that there were 700,000 who were the result of Judson efforts. Rice who raised the funds and the Judsons, could never have imagined that they would help start something which would reach so many for Christ!

In Bill Gaither’s song “Joy comes in the morning”, one verse says,           

“To invest your seeds of trust in God in mountains you can't move,

You have risked your life on things you cannot prove, But to give the things you cannot keep for what you cannot lose, is the way to find the joy God has for you.

Hold on my child, joy comes in the morning. Weeping only lasts for the night. Hold on my child, joy comes in the morning. The darkness now means dawn is just in sight.”

Each of us are on our own personal Damascus road today. It’s aroad that will bring crisis, which is a place of change in direction, a turning point, and a tipping point. Nothing will be the same again, because we will not be the same as we have our own encounter with Christ there.

I wrote a little verse while I was preparing this sermon that says…. 

“Where does the road you are walking lead? Do you know who has brought you there? Have you made the stops that He’s prepared? Have you gathered His treasures so fair? Have you heard His voice as you walk that way? Can you see it’s beauty so rare? When you enter that beautiful city, and the saved all around you appear, what a joy when someone comes up and says, “It was you who invited me here”.

Prayer…..Lord, we open ourselves to the fullness of Your wisdom and guidance. We receive the knowledge we need at this time in our lives that we might serve You and serve those around us. Our greatest desire is that we may bring glory to Your great Name. Forgive us for the times we have taken Your presence for granted on our Damascus road. Make us more aware of the One who made all things and holds all things together.

No matter what has happened, I know that beginning today, it can be different. Give me an understanding heart, that I may see the precious lives that you treasure all around me. Lord we cry out in behalf of the people, all around us, that their eyes may be open to Your truth so they might receive Your mercy and forgiveness. Help us, that as we walk in love, You would shine through us to dispel the darkness, so that   all can run into Your transforming light. 

Father, You are able to bring forth every kind of good fruit and bring our loved ones, friends and neighbors into the peace of mind and spirit, they so long for. Bring this city to revival and restoration. May we be strengthened with Your glorious power so we have the endurance and patience we need, to enabled us to share in the inheritance that belongs to all Your people.Shine through us and may Your light never dim. Christ with me, before me, behind me, in me, beneath me, and above me. Christ on my right, on my left, when I lie down, and when I rise up. To Him be all the glory, In Jesus Name…  

Usually “Nick Names” say something about a person….

so, speaking of “Nick Names”, here’s a few….

(this is your chance to participate)

What do you call a woman with a frog on her head? (anyone?) “Lilly”. 

What do you call someone hanging on a wall? “Art”. 

What do you call GUY under a pile of leaves? “Russell”. 

What do you call a guy who is in the water and can't swim? “Bob”. 

What do you call a Chinese man that gets on your nerves? “Anno- Ying”. 

What do you call a man who has a shovel on his head? “Doug”

What do you call a guy who is always carrying a pencil? “Mark”. 

What do you call a Chinese Billionaire? “Cha Ching”

Her husband affectionately called her Boom Boom. Just as the graveside service was finishing, there was a lightning strike and an earth shakingboom. The little old man, looked up and said, “Well, she made it, She’s His problem now”!!! 

Acts 17:29 – “– “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, shaped by man's devices” 

Has anyone ever had a picture that you would never show anyone, because it just doesn’t do you justice? If you have then you know what God feels like. God is saying that we should not make any graven images in His likeness, because no man can create a likeness that sums up all that He is. No picture would ever sum up or capture who He is! In the same way, no one name could ever express all that God is, so he has given us many names which still fall short of the inexhaustible, incomprehensible, all knowing, omni present and all powerful God!

However…. once God did take a selfie and when He showed it to us, it looked like Him, acted like Him, and it sounded like Him. It was Jesus! Jesus said that He had come to show us the Father. 

Now what is even more amazing, is that God created man in His image and His likeness. But man forgot who He was to look like, so God sent Jesus to remind us. Jesus showed us how to look like, sound like and act like the Father.

That didn’t happen with Mohammad. It didn’t happen with Buddah, Confucious, Sun Yung Moon, or any other religious figure ever born, but it does happen in the name of Jesus Christ! Because He is alive and moving among us today!!!

Archibald Ewing, was a successful business man in Glasgow, who went to China as a missionary. Through his intimacy with the Lord Jesus, his features became so radiant that the people there gave him a new name—`Mr. Glory-face'.

The name “Christian” is actually a Nick Name which means “Like Christ” which   is why I have named this message “Living up to Your “Nick Name”…..

It seems that “Christian” can mean just about anything today. To be called a Christian today, may not be paying anyone a compliment.

Mahat-ma Gandhi, the well known non-violent liberator of India, is known to have said “Christianity would be a great movement if it weren’t for the Christians in it”!!!

But names are important, they embody the nature, the agenda, the vision, the function and the intentions of a person or a thing….

A teacher for 4 year olds found that out that one little boy had showed up for her class for the first time without any name tag. She managed to get his first name, but couldn't find out his last name. She was told that the boy couldn’t speak well. "Brian, what's your daddy's name?" she asked. "Daddy," he replied. She tried again, "Brian, what's your mommy's name?" "Mommy," he answered. Suddenly she realized exactly how she could get the answer she needed. "Brian, what does your mail man call your mommy?" His face lit up. With a grin and a deep voice, he replied, "Hey lady, do something with your dogs!" (well that was no help)

They didn’t do Jacob any favor, his name meant “usurper and liar” so God redeemed it to mean “the prince who prevailed with God”….Abram’s name meant “Father” but God redeemed it to Abraham, which means “Father of Nations”….Saul’s name meant “to ask or question” but God redeemed it to Paul which means “Little by Little”…..And that’s how he won the gentile world… little by little….

Acts 11:25 “Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Paul v26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch of Syria. So for a whole year Barnabas and Paul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch”.

Everyone knows that there are good names and bad names….. Very few folks name their children “Judas” because it’s association with the betrayer of Christ… or how about Nero, who burned Rome….

This name they tagged the church with was a mocking term, spoken in a very negative manner by those who didn’t know what category to put these followers of Christ in, and since they didn’t have a name for them, and they didn’t have a label to put on the bottles which contained this “New Wine”, they called them Christian as a sarcastic put down.

You can see this as the Apostle Peter is specifying the charges brought against them… 1 Peter 4:16 “If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (the behalf of the one whose name we carry).

Notice that the church did not call themselves “Christian”, but the people in the city of Antioch saw them acting like, talking like, and looking like Jesus and they said “they are Christians”….. in their groping way, the antagonists at Antioch had put their finger on the fact that the one power that held this Motley mass together, the one bond that was the glue of this movement of 'Jew and Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free' into one vital unity, was a personal relation to a person who had died and yet they claimed was still alive!!!

We need to remember that Jesus was accused of being a fake and a fraud , a bastard child of Mary, a traitor against the king because He claimed to be a king, He was seen as a threat by the religious leaders since multitudes were following Him, they were saying that He did not rise from the dead and that the disciples had taken His body and hidden it…. So, this “Nick Name” which was given the church was not a compliment by any means….Notice it is not Jesus the Man they were “Nick Named” after, but Christ, the Divine office, that name which makes possible the foundation and the bond of the Church with a capitol “C”.

If they followed us around, would they observe that Jesus was alive and well!!

As Christ has revealed His power through the church over the centuries, this title by which the followers of Jesus Christ proudly call themselves all over the world, has become it’s banner and it’s anthem!!

It is a poor comment on your nick name, if, being Christ's followers, you can go through life unrecognized by your neighbors, your fellow workers, the store you shop at, and the crowd you hang out with.

It’s like the young man who was brought before Alexander the Great. When asked his name by the great ruler/warrior, he said “Alexander sir”… The general was impressed that he had the same name. He asked what the charges were against the young man. They told him that he fled from the battle field, in the midst of battle. The General rose to his feet, grabbed the young man and said…. Either change your behavior or change your name immediately”!!

If we are His, He should clearly and apparently be the center and the guide, the impulse and the pattern, the strength and the reward, the motivation and the priority of our whole life. And because of that, they called them Christians.

If the people who reside in the Florida Keys had to invent a name for you, as the clever folks of Antioch did for the early church there….. what name would naturally come to their lips, watching you, listening to your words and your actions…. would it be 'Christians,'? (like Jesus) If it would not, then there might be something that is still need to do a little work on.

Now, before they were called Christians, the names they were called are important, because this lets us see why they were tagged with the nick name “Christian”.

They were first referred to as Disciples. This name was common for the period of time and referred to the manner of mentoring, which involved a teacher, who was called the “Master”. This Master would choose a group of folks to impart his wisdom into. They would live together with their master, and day after day, life was their classroom, they would learn as they applied life principles being lived out around them.. When the teacher died, his students would continue to spread his teachings. So it was important that they understood the teachings of the master in order to share their truths. Discipleship may have revealed potential, but it did not guarantee transformation….

Other masters taught truths, but Jesus was truth come to earth that all people might experience transformation and life as God intended. What He says is truth, pure and complete. His utterance is the final word aboutany subject that He touches upon. His truth flows from an inexhaustible supply of wisdom and knowledge. The name, “disciple”, is used through the book of acts, and is not mentioned again after that….

We also see that they were known as Believers. This indicates atransformation at the core of your being. Belief is an action which is activated by a deep and abiding trust. This is where character is formed, life and goals are built, and the cycle of grand possibilities is set in motion.Belief is never passive but it is always indicated by how you live.

A disciple might approach life with the question, “what will help me reach my goals”… A Believer who has been invaded by the Christ, would approach life with the question, “What would You have me do Lord”?

They were also called Sanctus or Saints. To many folks, saints are football players who play for New Orleans…. To many others, Saints are Superhumans, whose feet never really touch the ground. But the name Saint or Sanctus, means “to be set apart for God”.. which means all who receive Christ and make Him Lord of their lives and make a commitment to obey and follow Him, are saints!                                                                                   Perhaps, we don’t refer to ourselves as saints because it means that life can and often will be difficult. It means that life can be sacrificial. It means that you can’t always put your own needs first, but often put others first. There aren’t normal and super levels of Christianity. We are all called to work at it in our own way in our own lives.

Sainthood is about training for reigning, to change the challenges into opportunities for God to get glory. To transform stumbling stones of life into stepping stones.  

And last, they were called Brethren.. Luke 22:32 Jesus said to Peter,  "When you have been recovered, strengthen the brethren".

The title “brethren” means to be “born of the same womb”. That’s what we are as believers. We’re “born through the womb of the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is brooding, incubating and birthing us into Christ.   

We’re all in this thing together through the good and the difficult. That’s why you’re here today, to strengthen the brethren through our common bond in Christ and allow others the opportunity to become brethren as well.

Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship (Koinonia), to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (house to house)                                             If the first communion had been in the south, it would have to include fried chicken, and if it had been in KW, black beans and yellow rice would have been on the table!!!                                                But we would say that this scripture is talking about home meetings….

1 Corinthians 12:25 “Let there be no division in the body (the church) so that there might be mutual concern (Koinonia) for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it”.                           When one hurts they all hurt, when one rejoices, they all rejoice..

Koinonia is a Greek word that occurs 20 times in the Bible. Koinonia’s primary meaning is “fellowship, sharing in common, and mutual concern.”                                                               Christian fellowship is a key aspect of the Christian life. Believers in Christ are to come together in love, faith, and encouragement. That is the essence of koinonia. 

The New Testament is a “one another” collection of books, Brethren have a “one another” focus, and the Church should be a “one another” place.

Brethren indicates a sameness…..Christ is our elder brother, and He has given us the same spirit. There are no Pastor Holy Spirits and Lay person Holy Spirits, there are no Evangelist, Prophet, Teacher, Apostle Holy Spirits. There are no children Holy Spirits and adult Holy Spirits… A child receives the same full fledged Holy Spirit that an adult receives. We all receive the Fully God, Fully Complete, Holy Spirit! But we all must grow up into Him at different levels, and callings, and the more we yield and obey, the faster we grow and cooperate with Him in our destiny. 

Webster’s Definition of a nickname is … “a descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing…. God’s Nick Names are a revelation of His character and what He’s willing to do and to become in our behalf…. They show us His nature, His intent and His willingness.

Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches”. And God sure did give us some good names to call upon Him with….  that are greater than material riches….

He is El Shaddai, the Strong One. 

¨      He is El-Elyon, God Most High. 

¨      He is El-Olam, the Everlasting God. 

¨      He is Jehovah Jirah, the God Who Provides. 

¨      He is Jehovah Rapha, the God Who Heals. 

¨      He is Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace. 

¨      He is Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. 

¨      He is Jehovah Shammah, the God Who is There.

¨      He is Jehovah Nissi, the Lord Our Banner. 

¨      He is Jehovah Roi, the Lord Our Shepherd.

      He is Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord Our Righteousness.          

      And He is Jehovah Shammah, the Lord who is there. 

Someone has said that there are 256 names for Christ in the Scriptures.….I heard of one small boy who had asked his parents about the name of God and after hearing a long explanation that God was called by so many names (and they went through some of them with him) He finally askedhis parents, “Could I just call Him Steve?”                          (and I’m sure He would answer that call) 

If He has called Himself “Healing” then He is now our very present healer….

If He has called Himself “provider”, then He is now our very present provision….

If He has called Himself “Peace” then He is now our very present peace….

When Isaiah called his name, he doesn’t stop at King or Lord, but lets us know that His name is ….Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. When Isaiah delivered these names to the Israelite people, they were exiled in Babylon at the time. These were dark times of slavery and servitude in their lives. But God was speaking through Isaiah to show them and us the shape of their new future, to reveal to them and us that the best of times are on their way, and to impress upon us the wonderful things that God is doing behind the scenes and will continue to do out in the open, among His people! (to impart hope, confidence and peace)

You see, God’s good news overwhelms the world’s bad news.

Colossians 3:17 And whatsoever you do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

The Greek phrase “In the name” Is “Exeusia” or “by the authority of”. 

When a policeman says, “stop in the name of the law” we know what that means. He’s speaking with the authority that’s been given to him and the law backs him up. That’s why people listened to Peter and John. They spoke by the authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said right before the Great Commission, “All authority or power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” And He delegates that power and authority to us….

Remember when Peter said to the lame man, “Silver and gold have I none but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Well, guess what happened? He not only stood up and walked, he went to church with them!... Now that’s what I call a church growth campaign!

Jesus is not only the name that gives power, authority and ability…. He is the name that holds it all together…. And holds it all up!!!

Acts 4:11 “This (Jesus) is the stone which was rejected by the builders, which is now become the chief foundation stone”.

Psalms 3:3 “But You, oh Lord, are my shield, my glory, and the lifter up of mine head”.

He lifts up the fallen, the discouraged, the downcast and the depressed….

He’s the foundation stone, that will hold marriages together, He’s the foundation stone that will hold body, soul and spirit together, He’s the foundation stone that will hold businesses together, He’s the foundation stone that will hold the church together, He’s the foundation stone that will hold nations together….                                    If He builds it, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it ”!!!!!

He’ll lift and sustain your peace, your health, your family, your business, your sanity, and while others are falling apart, and the world is going crazy all around you, you shall stand and having done all, stand and see the glory of God!!!

Satan knows how special that name is, that’s why he constantly tries to demean and defile it in the minds of our society today, by turning it into a curse word, or a explicative which is used as a by-word to express, frustration, anger or consternation.                     Friend, guard the sanctity of that name. When you’re watching a program and they start using “Jesus” as a curse word, change the channel, because you know that worse is coming. Someone using Jesus’ name as a curse word is a great opportunity to witness for Christ. Let them know that’s who loves them more than anyone has!

Romans 8:31 says, “If God is for us who can succeed against us.” Friend, if you’ve got Jesus on your side, you’ve got all you need. Share with that person, who He is and what He has done for them…By dying for their sins and giving forgiveness and all we have to do is ask. They’ll think about it because that’s Holy Spirit’s job, to make sure they do!!! Share out of concern not just to make a point. Let the Holy Spirit flow through you….

A missionary had finished teaching a group of new Christians on forgiveness, when a lady came forth to share the impact the teaching had in her life. He asked her what her name was and she gave her Mexicanname. He asked her what it meant and She answered, ‘It means “Child who takes the anger away.”’ When he inquired as to why she would have been given this name, she said, ‘My Mom and Dad had been forbidden by their parents to marry. But they loved each other so much that they married anyway. For several years they were cut off from both of their families. Then her mother became pregnant with her. And when the grandparents held her in their arms for the first time, the walls of separation and hostility came down. She became the one who swept the anger away. And that’s the name her mother and father gave her.’” “Child who takes the anger away.”

What’s in a name…..My name “Charles” means “free man”, Christopher means “To present Christ” and Elliott means “Spirit of Elijah”… That’s a tall order to measure up to!!! But I checked out some other names…..Mary ( a Wished for child)… Alan (Harmony)….Dara (Pearl of wisdom)…Winnie (reconciliation)… Craig (Strong)… Linda (Flexible)… Cherie (Darling)….Betty (given to God)….Phil (Lover)….Marsha (Warrior)…. Mae (Increase)….Esmeralda (to be envied)… Doris (The gift)…. Erika….(Ruler)….Ann (Favor or grace)….Landon (High places)….Danica (Morning star)…Scott (a Scottsman)… Cynthia (the hunter)

If I didn’t get your name in there, you can Google and get it…..

But my point is, that when we call out a name, we are saying something about the person that we are calling. My message today is about living up to our name.             So, first and foremost, we are called Christian…I believe as Christians, God calls us by our Redemption name. Look at what Jesus promised to all who believe in Him:

Revelation 2:17; 3:12 “I will give him . . . a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. . . . I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name”. 

What this stone is which is mentioned, we don’t know, but it will be ours and it will have our new name on it, God’s name, The city’s name, and the new name that we will know Jesus by. 

The bible tells us that Jacob came to a place called “Luz” and it was there that He saw a ladder stretched from heaven to earth with angels going and coming and this is significant to me, The place was renamed from Luz (the almond tree) to Bethel (the house of God) That’s what the vision of God will do to the place you’re at. Don’t let the place, the circumstances, or problem change you…you change the place…

Then in Genesis 32 … Jacob prevailed with God after wrestling all night with the angel… The angel asked him, “What is your name”… Sometimes we know where we are but we don’t understand our destiny. Jacob was where he was, but Israel was his destiny! His name was changed to Israel (Prince who prevailed with God)…

This is not just about putting lipstick on a pig and naming it angel…. This is about seeing a Jacob (usurper) changed to an Israel (a prince of God)….

Ephesians 6:10 “Finally brethren, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. v11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. v12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”.

We have not been called to fight with the world but to pull down strongholds, rulers of darkness and spiritual forces of evil in high places so that the world can change as we allow the Holy Spirit of God to use us to love it and reconciled it to God.

If we are faithful to live up to what God calls us, He will use us to be the instruments that He uses to transform places and people so that they are never the same.

Our three hinderances we face are COMPLACENCY, COMPROMISE, and LACK OF COMPASSION. If we don’t get victory over our broken places, we will be numbered among the hurting people, that are hurting other people…..

If we don’t overcome these enemies, the world will change our families and us instead of us changing the world….                                                                                                                                                                         Dr. S. M. Zwemer said “He who sets out to change individual lives is considered an optimist, but he who sets out to change society without first changing the individual is a complete lunatic.

Let me sum these three hinderances up in one word COMFORTABLE…..We have believed the lie that God has called us to be comfortable… This is the Americanization and Western-ization of Christianity.                                                                                        Comfort will keep you from winning souls, from taking the risk of being rejected if you take a stand for Christ, and from fulfilling your Divine calling…

Being too comfortable is how scripture tells us we can get passed up by God as He moves on to someone else who is willing to be uncomfortable….

Luke 14:16-24 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. v17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ’Come, for everything is now ready.’ v18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ’I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ v19 Another said, ’I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ v20 Still another said, ’I just got married, so I can’t come.’ v21 The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the Master became angry and ordered his servant, ’Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ v22 ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ’what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ v23 Then the master told his servant, ’Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house may be full. v24 I tell you, not one of those men who were originally invited will get a taste of my banquet.’"

A British vessel landed The Patons on the main island. They carried anarmed guard because the natives were cannibals and they stood guardwhile the crew built the missionaries who would be stationed there, a house to live in. Then they sailed away, convinced that they would never see the courageous couple again.

In just a short time Mrs. Paton died of a tropical disease that was swift and deadly. Her husband buried her, but the natives demanded her body for their feast. John Paton had to lie upon her grave, musket in hand, ten days and nights, aided only by his dog, until he was sure that his wife’s body was no longer edible. Only then did he return to his lonely house and began the translation of the Bible into their native tongue. For thirty years he labored among them. When the British Government visited the Islands to evaluate his labor, they reported that the `cannibals' of the New Hebrides had now become the most advanced and cultured of all the native tribes who lived under the British flag. In those thirty years the island had been transformed and redeemed by the God breathed Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word for transformation is —`metamorphosis'. It summons a picture of the caterpillar changing into the beautiful winged butterfly. It is a change of form and appearance, from limitations and bondage to glorious freedom, but it also a change of habits and life style. From eating leaves to feasting on nectar…From crawling through valleys of lack, want, and never enough to rising to another level and living life over and above…. 

Listen Our God has called and anointed us to transform our valleys into banquet halls, (David says that He prepares a banquet in the valley) Hetransform our pain to reveal the pinnacles of His glory and grace, Hetransforms our disappointments into displays of His power, He transform our hard rock pillows of Luz into Bethel (the house of God). Remember, the only Jesus that many will ever see, is the Jesus in you and me! So, let’s not show them opinions, our bad experiences (we all have them), or our dissatisfaction and disappointment with everything and everyone…. Let’s just show them Jesus, and that will be enough!!!

We’re going to conclude with a purpose filled time of calling upon the Holy Spirit, to create opportunity, and grant wisdom unto us to seize the moments which are made available to us….

People go to the gym and lift weights, do the treadmill, do push upsand sit ups, they ride bikes, they row boats, and they run, to get fit and keep off those extra pounds. They monitor their weight constantly as they hop on the scales to see the results of all the burn, baby, burn!!!

And then, there are some folks who are allergic to exercise….

Someone said, “We all know that mirrors don’t lie, but we should be grateful that they don’t laugh”!!

On the moon, I would weigh 32 lbs… on Mars I would weigh 74 lbs…on Neptune I would weigh 223 lbs… on Jupiter I would weigh 500 lbs and on the Sun I would weigh 5,360 lbs. (stay away from that sun!)

God is a weight watcher. I always knew God was watching me and knows my every thought and hears my every word, but watching my weight? The Bible says that God watches our weight and He sees that many people weigh too much! (I’m going to explain that one)

There is a scale in Washington DC that is so accurate that it can weigh smoke. It can tell the difference when a fly lands on it. You actually have to stand 10 feet away from it when someone is using it because the heat from your body can affect it. If this scale says someone weighs a certain amount, we can be sure it is accurate.But God’s scales are more accurate than that because His scales weigh motives and intentions. 

Someone in the Old Testament had an unpleasant encounter with scales.

There was a king mentioned in the bible who ruled over a huge mega kingdom of his day. His name is Nebuchadnezzar.

Let me read you a description…

Two million men were employed for the construction of the wall and principal works of the capital. The walls of the city were sixty miles in circumference. They were surrounded by a trench, which had been dug to provide the materials for the construction of the city. There were twenty-five gates of solid brass on each side of the square city. Between every two gates a great watchtower sprang up into the heavens. From each of the twenty-five gates, on either side, a street ran straight through, to the gate on the other side, so that there were fifty streets, each fifteen miles long, which gave to the city an appearance of wonderful symmetry. The houses were joined by bridges which ran from roof top to roof top and between them were lush gardens and shrubbery. 

A branch of the Euphrates river went through the city, over which a bridge of marvelous structure was constructed and under the river a tunnel allowed free access to the other side for those of high rank. To keep the river from overflowing the city in the flood season, a great lake was arranged to catch the surplus, in which the water was kept in a reservoir until times of drought, when it was sent streaming down to irrigate the land.

A palace stood at each end of the Euphrates bridge; one palace was 1 3/4 miles in circumference, and the other palace was 7 1/2 miles in circumference.

The wife of Nebuchadnezzar, grew up among the mountains of Media, and could not stand it in this flat country of Babylon, and so to please her, Nebuchadnezzar had a mountain four hundred feet high built in the midst of the city. This mountain was surrounded by terraces, lifted up by great arches. All the glory of the flowery tropics was spread out at that tremendous height, until it must have seemed as though the clouds were all in blossom and the very sky leaned on the shoulder of the cedars.

At the top of this, an engine was constructed which drew the water from the Euphrates, and made it spout up to irrigate this garden of the skies. All this to please his wife.

In the midst of this city stood the temple of Belus. One of its towers was one eighth of a mile high, and on the top of it an observatory, which gave the astronomers and priests great advantage, since, being at so great height, one could easily talk with the stars and the Gods. This temple was full of cups and statues and censers, all of gold. One temple image alone weighed one thousand Babylonian talents, which would be equal to fifty-two million dollars.

With all it’s wealth and power. With all the splendor that spared nothing to impress and overwhelm the senses. This city and it’sruling system, would fall in one day as Darius and his army broke through the river tunnel during a drunken banquet. 

Suddenly darkness fell upon the palace banquet room. The shine of gold is gone, and the powers that be are staring in horror as a hand appears and begins writing upon the wall. 

Daniel 5:25 “And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UFARSIN. v 26 This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. v27 tekel, you have been weighed on the scales (God’s scales) and found wanting.”

Scripture tells us that God measures the soul of man and He measures by the things of the spirit… 

A certain Christian was packing his suitcase before he left on a journey, he remarked to a friend: "There is still a little space left in the corner and I still need to pack a guidebook, a lamp, a mirror, a telescope, a book of poems, a scale, a bundle of old letters, a hymn­book, a sharp sword, and a small library, containing thirty volumes, in a space of about 8 inches wide and two inches deep." "I don’t see how you will ever do that” His friend said. “How are you going to manage this?" Oh, that space is where I’ll put my bible! It’s my lamp, my mirror, my telescope, my book of poems, my letters to the church, my hymn book, my sword, a 32 volume libraryand a scale. If you’ll apply it, it will weigh you….

Luke 12:16 And Jesus spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. v17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room to safely store all my harvest? v18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my goods. v19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. v20 But God said unto him, you fool, this night your soul shall be required of you, then whose shall those things be, which you have stored up? v21 So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God”.

Our God is weighing the principles, priorities and values in our lives, He’s weighing individuals, He’s weighing churches, He’s weighing kingdoms and nations.

He weighs us by what we’ve done with the opportunities He gives us, by faithfulness to the task, by who we brought to Him and who we did not. He weighs what we did with what we have been given, and if we had compassion, went the second mile, if we forgave those who He asked us to, and gave Him His portion.

How foolish to cut off the branch that’s holding you up….If we neglect winning souls to Christ, we will be weighed in the balances 

and found wanting. Our nation will be weighed in the balances and found wanting. When we kicked God out of the education system, made abortion legal, and violated God’s laws concerning marriageand the family (a person can legally marry their dog or their cat now, and children can divorce their parents) We’re cutting off the very thing that is holding everything together…

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, v2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. v3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds”.

The Jewish Bible says “lay aside every weighty impediment”

New living Bible says “let us strip off every weight that slows us down”,

New International Bible says “let us throw off everything that hinders”

Message Bible says “Strip down, start running - and never quit!”

God’s Word Translation says “get rid of everything that entangles us”

The Common English Bible “throw off any extra baggage”.

We all must ask ourselves,”what is it in my life, that fits that description”

Disobedience can weigh you down, unforgiveness, pride, envy, strife  covetousness, greed, selfishness and fleshly lusts can weigh you down.      

A psychologist took a glass containing water, and walked around a room while teaching. As she raised the glass, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she asked them all "How heavy is this glass of water?" The answers ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz. She replied, "Actually, it’s not the weight that matters. But it’s about how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each *…..case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." Having settled that….

She continued and said, "There are things in our lives that are like this glass of water. Carry them for a while and nothing happens. Carry them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you carry them all day long, day after day, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of being your best self." It’s important to remember to let go and stop carrying things that diminish and disempower you. Remember to put the glass down!                                                     

One of the spiritual extra baggage items is self-­-sufficiency. And a lot of pretty good people, and fairly successful people will be found wanting because they are counting on being good enough and religious enough to balance their own scales!

The greatest fear of the approval addict is rejection; the greatest fear of the power addict is humiliation; The greatest fear of the comfort addict, is suffering; and the greatest fear of the control addict, is uncertainty.

Religion is what we do, redemption is what He does. Believing and receiving is our part, impartation is His part. We are willing to put the glass down, He is able to lift it’s affects from our soul and spirit….

Jesus had to give the Pharisees and Sadducees new scales to weigh themselves. They were using the scales of comparison to weigh their righteousness. They looked pretty good compared to many folks around them, but Jesus put them on the scales of God’s impartial and universal truth and they didn’t like it!!!

2 Corinthians 10:12 “Comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise.”….     Mark 10:25 “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven”.                                                                                                     That means rich in ability; rich in resources; rich in self righteousness. (or Self-sufficiency) Throughout the gospel it is not only sin that keeps people from Jesus, but  self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. It’s not our weakness that keeps us from being used by God, so many times, it is our attitude that we can do it in our own strength.

Here’s some wisdom from God’s measuring scales…(check it out)                                                                             ----You will never change what you are willing to tolerate, because you have now mentally accepted that limitation as your standard.  

If you are living in a certain way and are unhappy you must make a decision that you don’t have to live that way any longer.

You will only attract, what you respect the most. 

By respecting something, you put value on it. Things you don’t respect will not stay in your life because they have no value. 

A mistake repeated more than twice is a decision….

If you don’t respect a person, you can never learn from that person.

What you make happen for others, will happen for you.

When you do something for someone else without expecting anything in return – you have operated a key of increase in the kingdom.

The habits that are your daily routine are constantly determining your future. They are setting you up for success or failure every day.

The problems you are willing to solve for others are the solutions which will come back to you. If you are creating problems, that is what will come back to you….(Learn from the past, plan for the future, and live in the present)

Your time, Your love, and your friendship are seeds that will cause a harvest to come back to you….

You cannot free someone who refuses to leave their prison.

When Daniel was summoned to the palace, to interpret the hand writing on the wall, Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t looking for solutions, he was looking for someone to blame for interrupting his banquet and raining on his Ego-parade.

He was surrounded by folks who only told him what he wanted to hear, and instead, Daniel told him what he needed to hear!

The last thing that Winnie wanted to hear, just hours after recoveryfor her hip replacement, was get up and let’s go for a walk. The physical     therapist didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear (leave me alone and just let me lie here and sleep) But they told her what she needed to hear, (get up and get moving, so healing can begin)!!We now have a therapist in town who is checking to see if Winnie is “weighed in the balances and found wanting”…. So far she’s doing pretty good!                                            When the writing on the wall is put in context of our modern lives, it would be a mandate about where our treasure is. What is it that brings you joy? Where is your pleasure center located?

Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. And Brother Luke goes on to say this… 

Luke 12:28 “If God so clothes the grass, which is to day in the field, and tomorrow is cut down and cast into the oven, how much more [will he clothe] you, O you of little faith? v30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knows that we have need of these things. v31 So seek first the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.v32 Fear not, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”.

We are being asked about what the true value of our life is….and what is it that we treasure? The stuff that we treasure may be owning us instead of us owning that stuff. (where your treasure is there your heart is also)

It’s not just about our stuff, but it’s about what it is that fills up our hearts. 

Matthew 6:19 “ Do not just lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  v20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”

We all need to lose a little weight….and we’re not talking about jelly rolls, or those late night snacks, and fewer desserts….This is not about calories…. We are being weighed each day, and the scales are calibrated by the word of God that we all must stand before and give an accounting. 

From the moment our feet touch the floor, till we lay down our head at night…our attitude, our gratitude, our obedient response to His will, and faith in his word and character are being weighed.

This is not to condemn us but to assure that by putting greater value there, we receive the greater reward and blessing the father has for us! He wants us whole, healthy and living life well!

Have you ever been in a situation where you were at the checkout counter and didn’t have enough money?  Or you forgot your checkbook?  Or the magnetic stripe on your credit or debit card didn’t work?  How about when you had less available on your debit card than you thought?  You just didn’t check your balance before you started spending. But then, someone steps up and says “It’s OK, I’ll take care of it, put it on my tab”… I’ve had that happen, at a restaurant, where I went to pay, and the person at the register said, “someone already paid your bill”…..

I am told that our weight should be in proportion to our height. I heard someone say that they didn’t have a weight problem, they have a height problem. They just need to grow to 9 feet tall to be the right weight…

What I’m getting at is that prayer is important in our lives, because when we’re on our knees we are so tall that we can touch heaven. So spending time on your knees can really help with your weight problem!

Dr. Rand Byrd was a staff cardiologist at the San Francisco General Hospital and a professor at the University of California. He conducted a ten-month study of 393 patients admitted to the coronary intensive care unit of the hospital. There were 192 patients, in the “prayed for” group, while the remaining 201 patients were not prayed for. 

Prayer groups around the country were given only the first names, diagnoses and prognoses of the designated 192 patients. The groups were asked to pray for each patient by name once a day. No other instructions were given. None of the patients, nurses, or physicians knew which group each patient was in. 

The results were startling. The prayed-for patients were 5 times less likely to require antibiotics and 3 times less likely to develop fluid on the lungs. None of these prayed-for patients required breathing tubes compared to 12 in the other group, and fewer of the prayed-for patients died. The findings were published by the American Heart Association. 

Dr. Byrd’s study showed conclusively that praying for others really does make a difference even when the patients don’t know they are being prayed for. Think what could happen if we started praying for others and ourselves about everything. Our prayers could change the world!

We Are All On God’s Scales…..When we honestly and sincerely ask Him what His values are and what He treasures in our lives, what happens is that He begins to balance the scales. 

Along with all the stuff that we may have accumulated, there are clearly things that God is looking for as we step on the scales…

He’s looking for Faith.  “For without faith, it is impossible 

to please God.”

He’s looking for Belief.  “He that comes to God must believe that He is…”

Salvation:  “Except a man is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom…” Do we weep over the lost?

He’s looking for His name….Where have we placed The Name of Jesus:  “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name given unto man which can save…”

What place do we give The Spirit of God:  But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. 

What about Holiness:  “without which no man shall see the Lord.”

And He’s looking for Truth:  “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

When you go to a doctor for your check-up, they will often begin to poke, prod, and press various places, all the while asking, "Does this hurt? How about this?" If you cry out in pain, then likely, there's something wrong, and the doctor will say, "We'd better do some more tests. It's not supposed to hurt there!" 

It’s the same way, when pastors preach and the Word reveals as the Holy Spirit is moving, it causes some discomfort, in some area. It may indicate that there's something wrong that needs to be dealt with in prayer and obedience before the Lord.

When I get on the big scale at Winn Dixie, I hold on to the rail until it indicates what I want to weigh… You too determine what you weigh… 

Set the thing down that you’ve been carrying too long, set the thing down that has been weighing you down….

David Livingstone the missionary Doctor, wrote…. “I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in its relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, then it shall be used to promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes for time and eternity”. 

You see, for the born again child of God, when weighing time comes, Jesus steps on the scales with you, and His righteousness, His holiness, His purity and sinlessness balances the scales! You’re on one side and His grace, His atonement, His compassion are on the other side providing the standard which brings us into God’s pleasure and favor…. 

And the verdict is “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more”….

Closing prayer

“As we come to this place in our journey,we thank You Lord that even when we did not feel Your nearness, we knew deep inside that you were always there. So constant in the minutes, hours and days, you were watching over us and keeping us in your love and grace. You said that we were always on Your mind and in Your heart. That truth brings comfort and amazing peace in every situation. 

Lord You have enabled us to persevere and hold on as we are strengthened and carried by Your Spirit. You are never far from any one of us, so Your ear is close when we pray and when we just want to talk.  

While we don’t know what the days ahead will hold, we thank you that every moment is in your hands, and part of the plan You have for us. So, we move forward in confidence, knowing You walk where we walk, and feel what we feel. 

Forgive us Lord, for allowing our hearts and spirits to be weighed down with the cares of life at times. Help us to lay aside all those weights that we might enter Your peace and run the race You have for us. We gladly yield our lives unreservedly to You, our Savior, and our Lord. Help us to be, and to go, and to do, as You would wish. It is our great privilege to serve You and to walk in obedience. We desire nothing greater than to bring You Glory and help others to know You better and for some, to know You for the first time. 

Open hearts that are still closed against you, and open understanding that in knowing, lives would changed and spirits made open. 

Holy Spirit, bring conviction unto righteousness, and draw those who are away from you to faith and to repentance.

Lord Jesus, as we lay aside all the weights that might hinder and distract us, may we join your multitude of harvesters in this end time harvest, as we wait for Your appearing. Continue to move upon our hearts to mold and shape us more and more for Your honor and glory we ask.

For it is all in Jesus’ name, Amen”.

A fellow got in a terrible fight and the next day a friend saw his cuts and bruises and commented on how terrible the man looked. The guy simply remarked “Hey, I won, you should have seen the other guy!!!….

Garrison Keillor wrote…..”It's a shallow and sterile life that doesn't give a person a few scars”.

Harry Crews wrote….There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, and the wound is closed and healed, and done with”.

Webster says a scar is “A mark left by a healed wound”.

Recently, as you know, we have been up close and personal with a scar, and I’m talking about a whopper. And the adventure continues.             They use glue now, instead of stitches or staples. The glue is made from protein and it bonds with the body tissue, then it is timed to dissolve when the tissue is healed. This greatly minimizes scarring… and there are no sutures or staples to remove later. 

How many know, that the Lord sometimes heals the body but allows scars to remain as a testimony of His power.

Let me give you an example…

When Jacob wrestled all night, with the angel of the Lord at Bethel, which means “House of God”… Jacob said, “I will not let you go, until the blessing I receive”… the angel touched his hip and put his hip out of joint, so that he walked with a limp, the remainder of his life. 

Every time Jacob limped, he was reminded of the night in God’s House, that he prevailed and received the blessing. His scar was not a reminder of defeat, but of victory!!! That scar declared Jacob wrestled through and prevailed in prayer.

So, for this season, Winnie will be defined and greatly influenced by her scar, that will always remind her that she had a God appointment which will forever change her life. And I want to say that all through this adventure, we saw the hand of God at work. 

From now on she will set off alarms at airport security, 

and she never wore string bikinis anyway, so that won’t be an issue. 

And just like with Jacob, God has used this scar to allow us to make connections we would never have made without it, and we’ve been able to witness to many people as a result of this experience.

That should be the purpose of our scars, that they would become a testimony we can use to share our relationship with the Lord and introduce others to Him so they can have that same relationship….

God will use whatever you allow Him to, as a tool to witness, and to demonstrate what He can do through your own experiences and with the scars which we all wear.

 John 20:24 “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. v25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” v26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace  a be with you.” v27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands, and reach here your hand and put it into My side and do not be unbelieving, but believing. v28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Some time ago, I wrote a verse which I call “Scars”…

It doesn’t matter who you are. 

It doesn’t matter where you’ve been. 

It doesn’t matter what the scar. 

It doesn’t matter what the sin. 

It doesn’t matter how you fell, somewhere along the way. 

There’s healing available for your life … beginning right now, today.

I remember when I was much younger, I wanted to get a job driving trucks. I heard how much they got paid and I wanted some of that! I didn’t even get an application. The guy took a look at my hands and said, You’re no truck driver, those hands are too smooth, there aren’t enough callouses and scars…My point in saying that, is that we know Jesus by the scars that he wore in our behalf! They are what identified Him to Thomas. It is what is special about Him still today…

Luke 24: 36 “And as they spoke, the resurrected Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. 37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38 And He said unto them, Why are youtroubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me have. 40 And when He had spoken, He shewed them His hands and His feet”.

(He’s been revealing himself to us all, but we think of Him as some kind of Spirit, but He’s real, I’ve seen Him several times, and I know. We need the covering removed from our eyes, so we can see Him) The word is still being made flesh today!

Paul declares that he would be known everywhere he went by the scars he wore…

Galatians 6:17 (MSG) “Quite frankly, I will not be bothered anymore by trivial disputes. I have far more important things to do. For I bear in my body the scars from my service to Jesus”.

We can see the list of scars that Paul bore (it’s quite a list)

2 Corinthians 11:23 “I have been been flogged severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 

I like the T-shirt that says “ If scars tell a story, then my body is a book”…..Every scar has a story. Some scar stories are really cool. When people ask about them, there’s a grand adventure to tell.

And then there are the scars that tell stories we don’t want told. Stories that are embarrassing. I have a scar on the back of my head because I’m an idiot. I tried to ride a pipe stuck between two 50 inch cart wheels down a steep hill while balancing in the middle with nothing to hang on to but a free turning bar. A story I usually don’t tell. 

There are scars that we hide or bury deeply in our psyche. The scars that bring up old wounds that we would rather just forget. Sometimes those scars have visible reminders. Sometimes they don’t. 

But they still make themselves known one way or the other. They still tell a story that we may not want to hear again. And they don’t go away because their purpose is that we might learn from them and grow wiser and stronger.

2 Corinthians 4:16 Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Tony Evans tells of two monks walking on their life’s journey. When they came to an OLD, ELDERLY WOMAN JUST SITTING THERE CRYING. She needed to travel to a city and there was a river between her and the city. There were no bridges to cross the river and the lady couldn’t swim.

So the first monk said: WE WILL CARRY ACROSS THE RIVER. The two monks joined hands and picked up the old lady and gently carried her across the river. When they got across the river they sat the lady down, she continued her journey and they continued theirs. The second monk started complaining endlessly. He said: Look how wet I am, I am cold now. Look at the mud that I have all over me. I have wrinkles in my clothes and they are dirty now. Then he added, and my back is hurting from lifting that heavy old lady. I am getting stiff. I am in pain.

The second monk just kept complaining and finally said “I DON’T THINK I CAN CONTINUE ON THIS JOURNEY”. Why aren’t you complaining, he asked the other monk? Doesn’t your back hurt?

Then the first monk said: WE DID A GOOD THING. YES MY BACK IS HURTING, AND I’M MUDDY, AND I’M TIRED. BUT I KNOW WHY YOUR BACK IS HURTING AND YOU ARE COMPLAINING SO MUCH. YOU ARE STILL CARRYING THAT OLD LADY. I SET HER DOWN 5 MILES BACK. YOU NEED TO SET HER DOWN TOO!!

Tell someone….. “SET HER DOWN”!!!

Scar tissue is always stronger than the tissue around it. I used to win, when I compared scars with Winnie, but I have never had a scar to compare with the beauty she has now!!! SHE WINS!!This is the Donely family who were so gracious to let us stay in their home during the surgery and the therapy. The Donelys were Winnie’s therapist as well as our wonderful hosts…

Through the “scar” experience that Winnie and I have walked through over the past weeks… We have been reminded again and again, that He took our place there at the whipping post when they laid open His flesh with the whip which was constructed with pieces of glass and metal woven into the leather strands,then they pressed a crown of thorns into his scull and brow….Then at the cross, they nailed His hands and feet and then drove a spear into His side. Those were our scars that He took….

All done and allowed by the Father so that He could take our sinsand bring healing to the memory and the emotions that are attached to our scars, and transform them for good and not for evil.

Isaiah 53:1 Surely He bore our griefs, and our v2 sorrows He carried, yet we esteemed Him stricken, v3 Smitten of God, and afflicted. v5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our v2 well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. v6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to be laid upon Him”.

There was a woman who said that God talked to her every day. Soa minister went to her house to confirm or disprove that God was speaking to this old woman every day. “If God speaks to you, then surely He can tell you what I confessed to Him in my prayers last night, I will come back tomorrow and you to give me the answer. Ask God what I confessed to Him and see what he says.” The minister left confident that he had disproved an old woman’s claims. The next morning, he returned and asked her what God had told her about his confession from the night before. She took away all doubts, as she said “God told me that He completely forgot what you confessed to Him.”

HALLELUJAH! Not only is He able to take away the memory of the scars, He completely forgets about it, never to bring it up again, or hold it against us…..He forgot it, so you can forget about it!!!

Every one of us, have a birth scar (unless you are an alien from outer space).. PLEASE DON’T GO CHECKING ONE ANOTHER!

That birth scar, where the umbilical cord was cut, is your birth mark. It is a constant reminder of the time in your life when you went from one stage of life and development to another.                                                                                                                Our scars are much like that, it is through them that we have grown and developed and learned to move to the next level in our lives.Every disappointment, every hurt, every emotional wound, every failure becomes the stepping stone that we use to climb up higher…                           Our scars are each a measurement of progress through the faithful blessings of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 28:2 And all these blessings shall run after you, and overtake you in the way you go, if you shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God.

And if we do hear His voice, we might hear Him say “yes”, or “no”, or “wait” or “You’ve got to be kidding”…..I hear many people pray and it sounds more like they’re giving God instructions than making a request”

Sometimes you have to press through the “no’s” to get to the “yes’s”

Satan tries to come around and throw your past in your face, the memories, the mistakes, the sins, the blunderings of your youth, but they’re under the blood, and Satan can’t touch what’s under the blood!!!!

If we don’t let Christ bury our past, and get it resolved, our past will bury us. We’ve all made mistakes and bad choices. If it’s true that we learn from every mistake we ever make…I should be a genius by now!!!

Water baptism is an outward testimony of an inner miracle where we testify that our past is now buried with Christ and He has risen to present the victory to the Father, and the sins of the pastare defeated and wiped clean and can no longer be held against us…Listen to Paul here….

Colossians 2:12 “We are buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through the working of God, who raised him from the dead”.

Sigmund Freud is world famous as a neurologist and psychologist. He is the founder of modern PSYCHO-ANALYSIS.He was a genius and a foolish man at the same time. His motto should be “Do as I say not as I do”….Life had left Sigmund a BITTER, HURT, DISAPPOINTED AND DISILLUSIONED OLD MAN. He smoked 20 cigars a day, which caused cancer of the mouth, he also had a cocaine addiction. He wrote a sad line in 1918, before his death “ I HAVE FOUND LITTLE GOOD ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS ON THE WHOLE. IN MY EXPERIENCE MOST OF THEM ARE TRASH…”

(kinda makes you wonder about your therapist) He also said…

“When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life”  

Sounds like Siggy was mad at God and the whole world! Siggywould tell you that everything happens for a reason, in the cause and effect cycle of things. But in his case it’s bad decisions and stubborn pride….

Luke 6:37 Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned: forgive, and you shall be forgiven:

Have you forgiven yourself….. That’s where the Healing starts….

A man was in prison for murdering a bank teller in an armed robbery. One night while in prison he asked God into his heart. Even though he had asked God for forgiveness, he continued to be plagued with guilt for his sin and so he went to see the prison chaplain. The chaplain asked him if he had asked God to forgive him, he said yes I have. The chaplain then asked if he had been able to forgive himself. He said, “what do you mean, I have to forgive myself?” The chaplain told him that in order for God to complete His work of cleansing through him, he had to forgive himself.

Let me ask you a question this morning, “Have you forgiven yourself, of the thing you asked God to forgive you from”?

It is then, that it is truly wiped away…. Don’t worry about the scars that are left as a testimony… they are only there to give God glory! The scar is a monument to the healing that has happened.      

Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. v13 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated [us] into the kingdom of His dear Son. v14 Inwhom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins.

IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT!

A little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house. He dove into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward him. His mother was looking out the window saw what was happening and she ran toward the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could. The boy made a U-turn to swim to his mother. But it was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him.

The mother grabbed her boy by the arms just as the alligator grabbed his legs. An incredible tug-of-war between the twobegan. The alligator was much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard her screams, raced from his truck, and shot the alligator.

After weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep cuts where his mother’s fingernails dug into his flesh in her effort to hang on to the son she loved.

The news paper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy didn’t lift his pant legs but he showed the reporter the scars on his arms. The reporters said, I was talking about the scars on your legs. “Oh, I have scars on my legs, but the scars on my arms are where my momma won and the alligator lost. My Mom just wouldn’t let go."

Jesus’ scars are your assurance that He will never let go. Jesus’scars are proof that you won and the Devil lost. They are proof that you are victorious and Satan is defeated. His scars are proof that you have survived but your toxic past has not! Satan meant it for evil, but God meant it for good!!!

Because Jesus just wouldn’t let go!!!!

One of the mysteries of Easter is that the Resurrection brought Christ back to life, but He chose to keep the scars.

When I was a boy, I heard a minister say that there is only one thing in heaven made by man. That is the scars in the body of Jesus, His hands, His feet and His side….

Whatever happened to you, that left scars on your heart, or your soul, or your body – Jesus went through it in the final hours of His life…

Were you humiliated? So was Jesus.

Were you abused? So was Jesus.

Were you betrayed? So was Jesus.

Were you done wrong? So was Jesus.

Were you falsely accused? So was Jesus.

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I have an abundance of scars from my life, like most folks. Many of them, really put a hurt on me, when they happened. The pain was severe and intense at the time. 

But I look at the scars now, and I remember some of those episodes, but you know what…. It doesn’t hurt anymore.

Jesus came to take away the hurt. The scar may be there, but the hurt, and the pain are gone, and we don’t have to keep reliving it or experiencing it over and over again.

If it still hurts, I want you to know with confidence today, Jesus has come to heal, restore, and take away the hurt….

The song by Bill Gaither says, “Hold on my child, joy comes in the morning. Weeping only last for the night. Hold on my child, joy comes in the morning. The darkness now, means dawn is just in sight”….

You can hold on because He is holding on to you….