When Faith Becomes a Transaction: Examining the True Source of Spiritual Power

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:07:09] this is what you need right now you've seen a lot of folk been to houses sat at tables some you didn't agree with some tried to strip something off of you that god put on you others tried to put something on you that the lord took away and you sometimes your faith just gets kind of wore out and just need to come and bask in the glory standing in the glory it was a little bit of talking about the blood
[00:07:56] just to remind you of who you are your identity in the blood your possessions in the blood your abilities by the blood see we are not a faith of philosophy we're not a faith merely of
[00:08:19] of conversations paul said i didn't come to you trying to impress you with my mouth i know some things and i can talk some talks but i didn't come to you with that I came with power why is that important because we're bound by power because we're bound in our
[00:08:39] head and our thinking our minds by power where I can't even sleep at night and then I can't get out the bed in the morning I can't eat till I find that I can't stop eating I hate being alone
[00:08:57] but then when I get with folk I don't do nothing but argue and it's a dark thing comes on me I ain't mad at nobody yet i'm mad at everybody mainly at the one in the mirror and i'm just

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:09:14] agitated worship i don't know what it's just it's called warfare you weren't sure you believed in it but i guess you do now nobody put a label on it for you you thought you was just going through
[00:09:26] some kind of change no you needing some kind of change but you ain't i don't mean to sound okay but every december i got to pray this off of you i'm not knocking nobody i'm not trying to be

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:09:48] critical but every december after we had all the fa la la la la's and the jingle bells and we sat down with folk that we genuinely love or they didn't show and they're making another statement

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:10:08] but we go into january feeling all beat up and wrestled out tore it up can't put two thoughts together if i can just make it to church i don't know i'm going to church and a man maybe you know
[00:10:20] what i said i got so many notes from people thankfully they're faithful enough to let us know when they're going to be gone but we had so many folks saying i'm not going to be a service
[00:10:30] sunday i told my wife i said i think we're just going to have sunday morning service in a sunday school class then i got here and i looked at my lord have mercy in the whole world and let me tell
[00:10:41] you who showed up for midnight mass the ones that cost the most showed up most them young families Them got that 9 month old Got that 18 month old

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:10:54] That one that's got that 32 year old Told my babies And they showed up They was all over this

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:11:06] Like they were 30 years ago Them 30 something Them 25 Them young families Young mothers Young fathers Small children Was it loud?
[00:11:16] Sure was We were at the house the other day

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:11:19] And Hadassah was screaming I was trying to read the Christmas story and I didn't have my Bible so I was trying to read it in the phone and that wasn't working

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:11:32] for her so I took the book she likes put it in my lap she was in my lap I took the phone and

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:11:39] laid it on the book and started trying to read the Christmas story she soon caught on didn't like it still and my daughter and her husband my son said I'm so sorry she's she's just so tired. I said, are you kidding? We waited years for this. Are you kidding me? I've been
[00:12:01] waiting to hear this noise. I'm sorry if her diaper's dirty. Are you kidding me? We've been waiting to change diapers for decades. Are you serious? So you're in the house now. What I used to always tell Yael, when we'd be busy doing all these things, I'd say, now Yael, go home to your

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:12:23] house with your family where life makes sense. This is where life makes sense. These folk might not have your last name but each one of your names is written in a special book it's called

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:12:45] the lambs book of life yeah i'm in there ain't coming out either i'm just i'm navigating because

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:12:58] i told the boys when when you started navigating just a moment ago about the blood amina started just ministering about the blood i said to laban i said quickly go to jesus blood makes me whiter
[00:13:09] so it's queued and ready to go and then i'm thinking okay is that where we're going i'm not sure maybe we won't maybe the band's gonna sing it after we leave have you ever heard him sing
[00:13:22] there's a reason you're ready to make a sound this is this is a different sound we're gonna make next week's is gonna be different as the first sunday this is whatever i got left lord

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:13:40] belongs to you sound this is through many dangers toils and snares I have already come the devil slapped me here and there but Jesus but Jesus really won don't you be intimidated I want you to get ready the ugly stanky stuff I'm talking about stuff that's still back in
[00:14:14] February you're having to reach back in March and in June I want you whatever's left Lord I'm about

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:14:20] to lay it on you pick up your crazy family and put them on the altar with me put them on the

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:14:30] altar when they cuss your god out and they cuss your bible out and they cuss your church out and all that it's okay i ain't ever going to that church honey you you don't know you've been in
[00:14:39] my church for six months i picked your sorry little self up laid you on the altar by faith and called on the name of the lord and said lord don't let my boy go to hell you're cute thinking
[00:14:51] you call the shots i'm your daddy i'm your mama i done picked your sorry hide up from your lying

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:14:57] lips and put you in the flames of the lord and say whatever it takes don't my baby go to hell so you about to release that kind of praise whatever's left lord here it is you ready
[00:15:11] here we go blow the trumpet in zion here it is lord here it is god whatever's left from our sons of God well let's just begin to praise him now I want you to sing with the praise

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:16:04] and worship team in the choir the singers you know this is so simple you barely need the words Jesus blood makes me whiter than so everybody say with me now's a good time 25 your sick body

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:16:50] your arguing family blood and sayings in you say it is your testimony into that praise when we sing

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:20:13] songs in this service sometimes the cameras will turn us off because they're owned by somebody

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:20:20] but let me tell you something i wrote this song and so anybody that's listening you ought to be able to hear this choir of congregation and this congregation of choir speak a testimony that says
[00:20:34] i once was lost in sin but jesus took me in because jesus makes me why didn't somebody testify

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:20:47] that you're free well let's sing about the church let's go to the next zone church i want to sing

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:22:00] one that i want to go to the one that um whatever that boy's name is he sings joshua this is the

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:16] world that we're living in right now a dark cloud is gathering oh filling nations with fear building up warheads the reason yes yet unclean leave the church this morning terror satan's diplomacy child ensues his global scheme gentle people of gentle lands fall slave to his regime
[00:23:12] For it's not with flesh and blood But with the powers of darkness That rule nations

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:23:25] To the side

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:23:56] Out is gathering over the land of liberty

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:24:35] As the prince of darkness Proclaims the lie Unborn children have no right to life, no choice to live or die.
[00:24:56] Satan's using pornography, aiding his fleshly wares.
[00:25:10] He's turning the hearts of men to animals as we complacent stay.
[00:25:20] But in the name of Jesus, let us bind the enemy of the soul.

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:25:33] I ask you something.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:28:10] I applaud.
[00:28:16] Has there been a moment in 2025 that you faced a situation that seemed like the big one?
[00:28:26] That's going to take you out, take you down.
[00:28:33] Your mind could not find clarity, couldn't find light.
[00:28:38] Everything was saturated in the darkest terms.
[00:28:43] Was there a time that the relationships that meant most to you had become the most contentious, difficult?
[00:28:53] It's as if you're engaging not just strangers, but mean strangers.
[00:28:58] people you never met before but those are your people has there been a time when you didn't have the money in the bank required to pay a specific bill and yet you stand here this morning
[00:29:14] and all of those things may still not be fully rectified but you stand here this morning in the most assured faith that yet I'm still going to serve you I'm still going to pray Has your faith faced the worst and yet stood in deepest assurance?
[00:29:36] I want your applause if you have a living, breathing testimony that he kept you, that he sustained you, that he healed you, that he reconciled and restored.
[00:29:50] What does your testimony sound like?
[00:29:52] Just applaud. You ain't got to do nothing else.
[00:30:17] Somebody's going to need to move towards the altar during this song.
[00:30:20] It's time for you to claim something that God's already assigned to you

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:30:26] something Happened to me I was but your love broke me free Me see hallelujah Hallelujah i am living my daddy yeah faith rising somebody something stands to me

[00:31:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:31:35] sandy paris who's over here today's her birthday drove herself to church today i need about another

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:36:27] 30 seconds for steve martin got out last sunday i need about 30 seconds for phyllis i'm so grateful to the people who visited her slung some oil over it declared some confessions over her phyllis if you're able to watch this is your house this is your home we're your people i'm
[00:37:10] your preacher god is good to you i mean in the name of jesus we're donna i get so used to seeing donna sitting down here when they tell us she can't come and she's sitting there and she ain't
[00:37:34] even sitting up i forget to even talk about her miracle take over here a ghost is laid on her seemed like at the beginning of the year everybody was having to have transfusions and so they got one and they're here this morning with the testimony for the blood
[00:38:24] increasingly this is going to be a house i'm going to talk i've been talking i'm going to talk about it some more about fasting we touch the subjects that chase folk away the same folk that wanted
[00:38:41] trans were the same ones that insisted you get vaccinated were the same ones now who don't like israel same people just a different so what you got to be able to do is know what the main thing
[00:38:56] is really the only thing and the word fasting is going to become more and more part of our vernacular we're starting a fast i'll talk about in a moment next week this congregation is going
[00:39:15] be known increasingly as a fasting people that will offend not because we are telling folk they can't eat but that they're choosing see we believe that fasting is pushing back and they've spent all their lives pulling towards i want that and i want that and i want that and pulling it's pushing back
[00:39:37] from the table for the sake of the altar and this is going to be a people they're not going to put two and two together this is going to be a people where we have crutches and canes and wheelchairs
[00:39:56] attached to the wall you know that fast in church yeah they're crazy i don't but i'm not sure i know which one oh you know those people they fast they don't eat that and they got all that stuff all
[00:40:06] over the wall they don't put it together i hope that god's goodness in your life becomes such a present reality that as soon as you shake a hand in the lobby or on the sidewalk the first thing
[00:40:29] you begin to do is share briefly succinctly but powerfully god did this for me and he's going to bless you even more don't take two hours take two minutes i want to sing this song again about
[00:40:50] testimony a living proof start working on your vocabulary healed that's one of my

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:41:05] delivered restored off meds something she came home happened to me he called me on the phone i was a prisoner i got the job your love broke me free we're back together work on your testimony put the words together practice it at home writing it down

[00:41:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:41:40] Repeat it every day

[00:41:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:41:43] Hallelujah I am my God Ain't nothing And then he came Faith rises

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:42:01] All the ladies testify together

[00:42:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:42:17] Something scandalous Happened to me Be clean Hallelujah

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:42:43] Steve said that's my favorite song

[00:43:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:43:03] To your face

[00:43:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:43:06] Buried us

[00:47:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:47:08] To us in 2025 we've taken some of it for granted and then there's those things we don't even know about those times that if we had been moving just a few seconds sooner or later we would have been hit head-on we don't even know the times God spared our
[00:47:30] lives this year I think about during the holy week of this year calling my dad I couldn't get him before church I couldn't get him earlier that afternoon afternoon. I couldn't get him after church. I started worrying, wondering. I called my sister
[00:47:44] and he's in the emergency room because he's broken his hip. My dad is going to be 88 in a few days.
[00:47:50] And if you know anything about him, he can't sit still. I get it honestly. And he's the oldest one in his neighborhood. His lawn is hand manicured. His house, he paints the walls every few months
[00:48:06] the same color just because he's got to be doing something. And so I know when he goes down and can't get back up, I won't have him long. And when I got that call and I knew he was down, I thought,
[00:48:20] God, is this it? But I, I just left his house a few days ago, celebrating Christmas. He still lives in his own house, taking care of his own stuff. He's walking around as if nothing happened.
[00:48:39] Y'all, God is better than we deserve.
[00:48:45] He's better than we ask for.
[00:48:49] He's been so good.
[00:48:51] Know what you need.
[00:48:55] There were so many years I was praying and believing God for a son-in-law.
[00:49:03] I was praying and believing God for a grandchild.
[00:49:08] And I would get to the end of the year and it hadn't happened yet.
[00:49:11] I could have sat that up on a shelf and thought maybe that's not for me.
[00:49:14] How many of you there?
[00:49:16] But Jesus said, keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.
[00:49:27] I hear you and I'm on the way.
[00:49:30] Help is on the way.
[00:49:33] And so when I have seen what God has done in my family, I'd be daggone if I'm going to stop now.
[00:49:41] I know too much.
[00:49:43] Listen, hope community, you're not like everybody else.
[00:49:46] there are people bracing for the new year because they know there's going to be challenges. There's a crazy world out there. The intelligent ones believe the crazy stuff. And that's what Jesus talked about in the last days, that there would be deception, a great falling away. You're looking
[00:50:03] at people that used to believe in him or they think they know so much they can't believe in him. The more you study, the more you research, you have to believe in him. It takes more faith
[00:50:12] to not believe in him than to, to believe in him. And you're watching a crazy world. And so I know too many people that are bracing themselves to step into this new year, not meaning to,
[00:50:25] but trying to survive a thing, trying to, to, to live on the defense. I am not going into 2026 on the defense. I know too much about my good, good father. He's been too good. I am living
[00:50:42] proof. I'm a walking, talking, living, breathing example of God's goodness. I'm going into 2026 with fullest expectation that God is for me and not against me. I shall fear no man. I shall fear no situation in him, I have the victory. That is the desire of God for his children. And so we step
[00:51:10] in. I dare not step in without him. We got a lot of crazy fools that trying to do that. I wouldn't dare step into this new year without him. But when he goes before us, I fear no evil for thou art
[00:51:23] with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. If I have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even there, he is with me. Bishop's going to be talking about it. I need to stop
[00:51:37] because he's going to be talking about it. Something that we're bringing next week, but I beg of you to take some time and you can't know where you're going. If you don't even know where
[00:51:45] you are, look back over this year, see what you want to stop doing, what you want to keep doing, what you want to start doing in God. We will have no dance classes this week, obviously,
[00:51:58] because we're going into new year's day we won't have midweek manna thursday but we come back the next week strong with dance classes with midweek manna all of it also as bishop said we're going
[00:52:10] to be starting the daniel fast next sunday listen for some that's a that's a huge deal and if you're in this house right now and you're thinking they're making me do what nobody's making you do
[00:52:24] anything you can come to this house every day for those 21 days and you're not going to be shamed so this if this is something that you voluntary you voluntarily step into but we hope that you
[00:52:36] do because you don't even know the benefits until you experience it can i say some people are saying what i might i want that recipe or i want that recipe feel free to share some of your recipes
[00:52:48] for a Daniel fast online, but I do caution this because Bishop has talked about it before. And we did this the first time that we went on a Daniel fast. You can concentrate so much on the
[00:53:00] foods you're going to be eating and the recipes that you miss the whole point. So we can help each other, share a recipe, share something that you have online. But the whole point, fasting is just hyper prayer Jesus said some things only happen through prayer and fasting
[00:53:19] and so it's really about stepping in more to him finding moments that you were listening to the news that you don't you turn it off and you're listening to worship music you're you're listening to a podcast about the scriptures or you're listening to the scriptures on um online something
[00:53:35] that you're doing to step closer into him so we begin that for 21 days beginning uh next week the girls are coming to dance oh phyllis miss phyllis is oh we have a new baby coming did y'all see on
[00:53:49] social media i woke up on christmas morning and found out they didn't even give us any forewarning thank you daniel and gladys where are they they're having a baby we're daniel and gladys I don't know what, but they're having a baby and we're so excited for them.
[00:54:05] Ms. Phyllis is being transitioned today from the rehabilitation hospital to Brickridge.
[00:54:12] And you know, the only reason that is happening is because of our Tatum Myers.
[00:54:17] And I'm so grateful to her for who she is to the people of this house indebted to her.
[00:54:25] So Ms. Phyllis is going to be a stone's throw away.
[00:54:29] we can get to her for the next 20 days worship with the girls when they dance to a song that says faith sees a miracle waiting for a home

[00:54:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:54:40] pause next sunday is the first sunday of the month we will gather around this altar

[00:59:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:59:36] and receive the body and blood of Jesus.

[00:59:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:59:41] And believe it by faith to be that living reservoir of healing, even greater faith for health that needs no healing,

[00:59:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:59:56] for deliverance that we might begin walking in dominion.
[01:00:04] Also, because it is the first Sunday of the new year, I'm asking you to prayerfully pursue the heart of god for his perfect will for your life and then begin to pray in the holy spirit
[01:00:25] about it because the apostle paul tells us that the holy spirit is already inside your belly if you are redeemed of the lord the holy spirit already dwells within you and when you pray in
[01:00:39] tongues you release the spirit the bible says the spirit already knows the will of the father in heaven for your life oh that's so huge the holy ghost who already abides in you i told y'all
[01:00:59] turn me up because i was gonna be quiet this morning i'm sorry your bible says that the holy Ghost who already dwells in the temple of the believer knows the will of God in heaven for
[01:01:20] your life. So when you're praying in tongues, you're activating God's will. So we are receiving the body and blood of Jesus. We are unleashing the Holy Spirit for the Father. I said the Trinity, the father the son the holy spirit all three are going to be activated in your life
[01:01:43] and as he begins to reveal to you his perfect will write it down my son my daughter my marriage my health my job whatever it is maybe three or four things write them down make it simple so
[01:02:00] you can look at it every morning write it on a piece of paper and seal it you're not going to give it to me and you're not going to leave it on this altar unless you choose to do so
[01:02:10] but instead while people are walking down the aisle to receive the body and the blood of jesus i'm going to be standing midway and as i see you holding in your hand the envelope or the piece of
[01:02:23] paper upon which you have written your petitions not begging god but prophetically prophet prophetically praising him I thank you Lord that my son my daughter who doesn't know the Lord in 25 but on this first Sunday of 26 I declare by faith in the God who can do all things and
[01:02:46] wills to bless his people I choose to believe my son shall call upon the name of the Lord and be saved my daughter will call home and say I've messed up I threw it away can I come back to
[01:02:59] my family. I'm going, I'm prophesying it now. I'm going to simply put my hands on it with oil on my hands and I'm going to speak these words. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I agree and decree. In the
[01:03:16] name of the Lord Jesus, I agree and decree. Also, next Sunday morning at midnight, we're launching together a 21-day fast it's not the kind of fast where we abstain from all foods instead it's called
[01:03:36] a daniel fast after the prophet daniel so it has a great point of reference where we choose the foods we're going to eat specifically most will refrain from meats sweets and bread now for some
[01:03:56] of you, you say, well, that might as well be everything because I don't know what I'm going to do without my Krispy Kreme for Jesus. He's bound to move heavy in my life. I can't eat no
[01:04:11] chicken or roast beef. I don't know, but God's bound to move in my head. Now, don't you dare let some little Billy Bob preacher or some church member that don't know the Lord from the backside
[01:04:27] out of a barn tell you that if you eat anything, it's not a real fast. I've stood before the Lord for 40 days in my life and eaten nothing. So I don't need you to try to tell me what a fast looks
[01:04:40] like. But it was Daniel the prophet who said, let me choose to eat particular foods and to abstain from your cuisine. And at the end of 10 days, I want you to do a thorough examination on my life.
[01:04:56] see if my mind ain't keener, see if my faith ain't stronger, see if my spirit ain't wiser, see if I'm not able to do more today than I was able to do before. Daniel the prophet was the one
[01:05:12] who specified what we would receive and what we would refrain from. The theme for the year, at least for the first part of the season is taking Zion to Zarephath now if you haven't been in these services
[01:05:32] that makes absolutely no sense what is Zion what is Zarephath I understand we'll talk about it a little bit in a moment I had no intentions of spending so much this happened this happened in 19 spent the
[01:05:46] first probably six months talking about first kings I am David all my life I've been David I dance before the Lord. I sing. I play musical instruments. I write songs unto him. I just lose
[01:06:00] myself. That's, I, that's why I used to say to Yael, I am not a bored person. I'm allergic to meetings. I don't want to talk about all of the, you know, those kinds of things. I just want to
[01:06:11] engage the glory of the Lord. I want to, I want to come into this space and somebody tomorrow or this afternoon, there was a spider crawling up there and it looked like he coming down a little
[01:06:30] bit so medina your baby may jump a little sooner than we plan i'm watching you you devil i'd love

[01:06:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:06:45] to put my heel on him right now huh what's goliath i don't like spiders and snakes and that is what

[01:07:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:07:04] it takes you don't even know what i'm singing from ray stevens back in the early 70s well i'll tell you something he's got on some church folk he ain't sleeping he's moving even in the church
[01:07:24] even while i'm talking about killing him all my bug people in here don't you take a picture of that thing right there don't let him out of your sight taking zion to zarephath then all of a
[01:07:50] sudden i see a spider named jezebel what are we talking about taking zion well zion is a part of zion is the word for jerusalem zion is a word is a name for all of israel zion is a name for the
[01:08:12] body of christ zion is a huge word pentacle the church was born on the day of pentecost in the upper room which was in mount zion and what we are looking at since the first of november i had
[01:08:26] no intentions of going that long and let me just share with you on the 21st of september yael was here had an extraordinary service it was the first time we had this wall in the screen all
[01:08:36] of it together just beautiful exactly a month later on the 21st of october i felt that i had completed the assignment that god had placed upon me so i resigned from the international fellowship of christians and jews and i love them more now probably than i did then i i'm in awe of all that
[01:08:53] god has done that was on the 21st of october on the 28th of october the lord said i want you to go for a 21 day fast of just water and i'm going to speak to you and in that starting on november
[01:09:04] the first, I began fasting for 20 days, 21 days of just, and I knew that he was, he was pressing me also to move aggressively in this book. And he gave me something of an understanding that I did
[01:09:16] not have in all the years I've been working on a book of fasting. He shared with me, I'm wanting you to put a book about hidden fasts, not the fast that everyone knows about Moses fasting 40
[01:09:27] days and Elijah fasting 40 days and Jesus fasting 40 days and 21 days and 10 days. Those are significant, these are profound, but some of the most prophetically pivotal moments of our lives and our faith and our history was when a man or woman in a hidden place was willing to push back
[01:09:45] from the table, not for a month, perhaps even just for an hour. Some of the greatest moments of your faith for your family, your life will happen when you're able to say no to one meal
[01:10:00] and you may go back and eat it later but for that hour that two hours you're willing to say no you are the redeemed of the Lord there's an anointing upon your life there's a certain
[01:10:15] word and spiritual gift he's deposited within your spirit man that you are to release that's what being Zion and going into hell itself Zarephath which is really where Lebanon is now Now, Zarephath was a haven of Baal worship, Canaanite religion.
[01:10:35] Jezebel was born there.
[01:10:36] She lived there before she was traded off for an international treaty.
[01:10:41] Each one of us, by choice or challenge, will be pressed into situations that are difficult.
[01:10:49] And we're going to have to unleash the presence and power and promises of God against every lying thing that seeks to raise itself up against the knowledge that Jesus is the Lord and Messiah.
[01:10:58] Last week, the Lord showed us something about hidden fasts that I'd never heard in my own life.
[01:11:06] That for heaven to become human, for eternity to become embryo, for the Son of God to become the Son of Mary, he chose, the Son of God chose, to relinquish, to take off, to empty himself of forever to flesh.
[01:11:30] He pushed back from the throne for the sake of the manger.
[01:11:35] He took off the glory and left it in heaven to receive it again at the end of his redemptive mission.
[01:11:43] God, we learn thusly, God was the first to fast.
[01:11:50] And the first fast was observed not on earth, but in heaven.
[01:11:56] Scripture says that Moses was the first to fast on earth.
[01:12:00] I'm convinced that God intended and even called Adam and Eve to fast in the garden.
[01:12:06] To concentrate, to consecrate.
[01:12:09] There was a particular tree.
[01:12:11] It was the first conversation about kosher.
[01:12:14] You can eat all of these blessings and fruits and vegetables of textures and colors.
[01:12:22] But there's one particular tree that belongs to me.
[01:12:26] Don't taste it.
[01:12:27] Don't touch it.
[01:12:28] It doesn't.
[01:12:28] Fast it.
[01:12:31] And all that we suffer in every misery today is because they failed to fast anything in the garden, so they lost everything in the garden.
[01:12:45] This week, there's something else.
[01:12:47] It came to me last night that the Lord has shown me of profound significance.
[01:12:52] These moments together now, we're talking about the witch and the word.
[01:13:05] The witch's name was Jezebel.
[01:13:07] She wasn't Jewish.
[01:13:09] she wasn't from Israel she was traded in a diplomatic arrangement between Phoenicia where she lived and the ten northern tribes of the new Israel she despised Israel and all things Israeli and Jewish especially Mount Sinai and Moses and the prophets
[01:13:31] and this is the Jezebel spirit that's alive and active in our world And in your life now, it's a demonic obsession to shut down a prophet or prophetic people.
[01:13:51] I said there are persons even now who want to shut down the believers on Brownsboro.
[01:13:59] They don't like how you sing.
[01:14:01] They don't like your spirit of submission.
[01:14:03] They don't like how you raise your hands.
[01:14:05] They don't like how you get up in the middle of a service and walk to the altar and present your offerings and tithes to the Lord.
[01:14:12] They don't like any of that.
[01:14:14] They despise you.
[01:14:17] They despise the, they want to silence the word of God to kill them or their influence in that.
[01:14:24] Nobody hears or believes, thus saith the Lord.
[01:14:30] My wife shared, was it 15,000?
[01:14:33] 15,000 churches have been closed this year in America.
[01:14:39] 15,000 churches every generation faces giants determined in the Jezebel spirit there were the Amalekites there were the Canaanites with Baal now it is Islam and while 15,000 church buildings are collapsing or losing their congregations many of them are being bought
[01:15:09] and remade for moss while we're not sure if we want to have children they're multiplying while we want to use this thing if i don't believe you need to get in politics they believe they need to get in politics and so they're running for office winning seats
[01:15:31] judgeships congresspersons mayors of cities you should know that there are persons and peoples who despise your Bible faith so vehemently, who hate your redemption and your blessed life.
[01:15:55] They despise your growing obsession for the presence of the Lord, your ascending sound unto God, your relentless covenant with his people.
[01:16:09] I mean, you got folk, they don't want the real word.
[01:16:11] They want me to preach on helping your baby teeth in jesus name they're drowning in the milk of the word and the moment you start to bring the milk the meat of the word they're offended as much as i love you i wrote some other things down i should
[01:16:32] have kept them maybe another time as much as i love you i'm going to face god for your soul whether you believe what i'm preaching whether you don't believe what i'm preaching if woe is me if i
[01:16:46] I preach not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[01:16:49] Despise your reverence for the table of the Lord.
[01:16:59] Your devotion to Israel.
[01:17:01] Your irrepressible confession of miracles.
[01:17:06] That if they could have destroyed you, they would have.
[01:17:14] Jezebel doesn't despise our music.
[01:17:17] She hums it.
[01:17:20] She doesn't despise our gatherings.
[01:17:22] She texts you off and on.
[01:17:24] She doesn't despise the familiar language of our faith They use it in their own conversations But it's your surrender And your submission to God She wants your oil She wants your sound She wants your tribe
[01:17:41] She just don't want you It's all about control and manipulation A lot of folk like your pews of people Some even like to preach every now and then but they don't like look at your altar would you please when I grew up I'm not even sure we
[01:18:05] called it an altar but the table that we had do this in remembrance of me mainly had magazines on it so I guess we were to read in remembrance of him and a little white church with a coin slot
[01:18:20] so we could give money to black people in Africa but God help if any of them walked in here I don't know you can tell I don't want to leave anything in 25 altar this prayer
[01:18:46] clause freshly anointed this morning with the oil of the Holy Spirit believing that if there's some situation in your life or somebody you love you can pick up this prayer cloth like they did in scriptures you can walk into a
[01:19:02] a broken room of chaos and confusion and the anointing of this moment in this space is unleashed and i'll chase a devil down the hall of a hospital that'll chase an addiction out your house that'll
[01:19:18] eradicate confusion and chaos from your family a prayer cloth there's insects so if you don't know how to praise him. We know how to strike a match and light a fire because the Bible says incense
[01:19:37] represents the praises of the people. There's a crucifix. Wait a minute. Where did my menorah go?
[01:19:50] Now? Midnight mass was Thursday. We've had three days to clean it and we got an Einstein idea to do it during service. Well, that's dumber than dirt. Why don't you take the crucifix and see

[01:20:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:20:17] if it needs work, welcome to 26. He can't even move no more. Why are you making a big deal over

[01:20:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:20:47] a menorah? Because this is what the fight is about. If you don't know that the people I just told you about, France, Germany, Italy, they were not able to have national Christmas celebrations because people they let in islam muslims came in and disrupted and destroyed christmas gatherings
[01:21:10] and if you don't know that the people who are after the jews are after us i cannot help you there's the great satan and there's the little satan according to them and but i'm telling you
[01:21:25] right now if you've ever marked me for anything you mark me for this we are going to stand with Israel we are going to stand for Israel if the church is not in the middle of Israel God is not
[01:21:39] in the middle of the church I said if the church is not in the middle of Israel God is not in the middle of the church if that offends you we'll miss you but not long I want your altar with a
[01:22:17] crucifix. I won't mind without a Jesus. That's how you live your life, no wonder. But you don't get the, the cross didn't save nobody. There were people dying on crosses all over those hills, but it was the Christ on the cross that changed my life. It wasn't the one on his left.
[01:22:51] It wasn't the one on his right. It was the son of God slain before the founding of the world, nailed to that cross, that's what changed me.
[01:23:02] That's what saved me good.
[01:23:04] That's what keeps me blessed.
[01:23:06] It's the Christ on the cross.
[01:23:09] I don't bless the empty tomb.
[01:23:12] I bless the risen Lord.
[01:23:14] Oh, hallelujah.
[01:23:16] We don't have the menorah over here just because we open and pluralistic and want to show how equal we are.
[01:23:27] we understand this is the root and this is the fruit they don't like your altar they just want flowers not fire they want sentiment not sacrifice they want incense but no blood in the coming and even now in places
[01:23:50] the vilest words spoken against you and me us the people of God the vilest won't actually come from the Jezebels who've never walked with God. Instead, the worst is coming from a Judas who saw Jesus shut down the storms, open the blinded eyes, multiply five loaves and fishes,
[01:24:17] raise the dead. The greatest criticisms against Brownsboro will not come from those who've never traveled down this road it'll come from those who sat on the front row sang in the choir taught sunday school greeted you but i've declared i'm in the midst of a people who said let the wind blow
[01:24:38] let the waves rock the boat i'm still joined i i i know who i am whose i am where i belong my assignment in life you got family who despise Elijah the prophetic and you're expected
[01:25:08] to despise Elijah too you're not allowed to be indifferent well it's I don't know I just go there because the children like it and the young people and I like the music and you've got
[01:25:25] according to them you've got to be as outraged and furious at Elijah and the prophetic as much as they are you got to be able to provide them an explicit example of why you hate Elijah
[01:25:42] what did they do what did they say that really hurt you because if you can't if you're going to remain at their table of contempt if you're going to keep your position in their ring of
[01:25:56] rebellion you got to have a problem with the house too if you don't know who you are and all you believe and where you belong I promise you all of it will soon be painfully destroyed if you don't know how to fight for what God's put in your
[01:26:17] hands you will lose it now that we've dealt with this line piece of which let's learn about the domino movements of faith it was may of 21 that the lord said to me these are going to be words you use a lot baseline dominoes and boomerangs this was in 21
[01:26:45] now let me just say this now i'm so grateful to see all of you but this word i'm preaching this morning is primarily for the prophetic people of this house not for non-kosher ravens who the bible calls unclean not for gentile widows living outside of israel in jezebel's
[01:27:08] backyard of putrid idolatry measure the oil on your life on this house by what you see but by what God said because the enemy's afraid of the word of God in your mouth not just the word of God you carry
[01:27:30] under your arm or the scriptures that you can quote but when it's in the living breathing mechanism of the temple of the Holy Spirit in your belly out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water
[01:27:43] and from the abundance of the heart your mouth's going to say something not when you're quoting scripture but when it's become a part of who you are and you're declaring the breathing word of god
[01:27:56] against every lying piece of snake hell is afraid of you now what are we talking about dominoes this this is some really important stuff we're going to be talking about for the next few minutes
[01:28:11] not long at all seldom does god ever give us the fullest revelation in one sentence watch this God, my daughter is just, I don't know what it is. She's just messed up. She's gone crazy. She's
[01:28:32] lost her mind. She's weirded out. She doesn't take my calls. I've tried to say, hey, I'll apologize for anything. Maybe I was, I don't know. As a father, I'm sure I messed up. I'm sure I
[01:28:47] didn't say something you needed to hear, or I said too much, or you saw. I don't know what it is.
[01:28:51] I'll own every bit of it and nothing's working God I need a big word and you're standing there waiting for a big word and it's not going to come instead it's going to be a little word
[01:29:07] listen watch this with a little gate and my willingness to walk up to the little gate with the little giant and deal with that devil then and there is going to cause a domino effect
[01:29:30] to where the first invitation where God says this is what I'm wanting you to do but God that's not going to give me the big success God said I'm going to give you the big success
[01:29:42] but it's going to be step by step I'm not going to put in front of you a massive gate that would intimidate you you'd fall on your face start crying and say lord i can never i'm not trying to do that i want you see that little gate see that little giant
[01:29:55] all i want you to do i want you to write baby girl a note and say i thought of you today i i saw a little girl today at three years of age and i'm telling you she was the spitting image if if if
[01:30:07] if she was you're the prettiest thing ever and and send it and don't don't ask for a response leave it alone your son's in jail messed all up got all kinds of problems send him a note
[01:30:21] that says I cannot go to sleep without saying to you even though you can't hear me I love you with my whole heart and send it and he may not get it or he may get it and not
[01:30:37] that's not the point to where you reach whatever the deal is don't expect the mountain move molehill by molehill there's a little gate I don't know about good that's going to do just and when you do the little thing the domino starts leaning against the next domino
[01:31:02] who got a bible give me my book right here thank you so that we so we got dominoes and god says i want you to just write a note that says i was thinking about you and that's all and that's
[01:31:22] bigger so it's now i'm going to a larger gate i got a bigger giant but i'm going to do something us a little bigger this time i'm going to say something that that's a little more am i getting
[01:31:33] this across to where don't don't try to win the war the domino leans so that's the principle let me read it again seldom does god ever give us the fullest revelation in one sentence there
[01:31:55] are ever-growing gates and giants to what god has for you he first extends the demanding invitation and our response to that first demanding invitation determines how far the conversation is going to go the first word God said to Elijah is
[01:32:14] get up from your bed your house in Tishbe but Lord there's a widow that's not your problem right now that's months away she's fine right now cause there ain't no drought there ain't no famine
[01:32:29] that woman's not a blip on your screen right now but I'm telling you get out your bed leave Tishbe. All right. I want you to go. Now, you know, the capital, the eternal capital city
[01:32:40] of Israel is Jerusalem. But when there was a crisis and Israel was divided, the 10 tribes no longer look to Jerusalem as their capital city. They look to Samaria. You remember centuries later, Jesus is at the well in Samaria. And that woman says, you people think the Jews are there. And
[01:32:59] And that's coming later.
[01:33:01] That's another hidden fast.
[01:33:03] But not right now.
[01:33:04] God says to him, he says, get up, leave Tishbe, go to the new capital city for this area now in Samaria.
[01:33:13] So the moment he stood up and put on his shoes, the moment he set his GPS for Samaria, a domino started leaning, going back.
[01:33:30] What are you going to do now?
[01:33:31] I'm going to walk 30 miles every step I'm praising God I don't know what I'm going to do now God says as he's getting there now you're going to walk into you're in Samaria you're going to walk
[01:33:44] into the capital you're going to walk into the throne room where the king Ahab and Jezebel the queen live you just walk this far now you're going to walk inside the throne room wow the throne
[01:34:02] room the throne room what am I supposed to do there when you get in there I want you to look at them and say as surely as my God first of all my name is Elijah now you got your Canaanite storm
[01:34:20] God called Baal Baal but my name is Elijah and if you don't know Hebrew because you from Phoenicia if you don't know Hebrew my name means Yahweh is my God so you can't even call
[01:34:41] my name so he goes in there what must do when I go in there you to go you to walk up to there and look at them and say as surely as God gives me breath to breathe
[01:34:56] I want you you good baby okay I'm watching everybody these day I'm telling making sure everybody's good I'm walking in that room and I'm saying as surely as the God of Israel lives, you won't see one drop of rain falling from heaven until it
[01:35:18] comes out his mouth through my lips. Did he do it? He did every bit of it. Your Bible says, now watch it. I got out my bed. I walked from Tishbe 30 miles. I got to, I got to Samaria
[01:35:36] and, and then I walked into the throne room and I looked at these two people who could drop me dead i don't know maybe i'll maybe i'll do it tomorrow our greatest temptation isn't to sin but to obey god later the reasons why he could have stayed in bed how he could
[01:36:09] have said not today not me here's some of the reasons i came up with you probably got some too lord you know i believe in the god of israel these dangerous times of violent idolatry
[01:36:22] People know I'm a prophet, so I'd better hang back and be quiet.
[01:36:27] Or, Lord, that's a violent word you put in my mouth.
[01:36:33] Ain't going to be no rain.
[01:36:34] That means there ain't going to be no crops.
[01:36:35] That means there ain't going to be no food.
[01:36:37] That means there ain't going to be no animals.
[01:36:38] That means there ain't going to be no children.
[01:36:40] That means there ain't going to be no mom and daddy.
[01:36:44] So people ain't going to like me if I speak what you're saying.
[01:36:48] They'll blame me for their drought, for their dead animals, their crying children, their famine.
[01:36:53] Lord, here's another one, word is Jezebel's crazy and she's put out a bounty against every prophet of Jehovah.
[01:37:01] Here's the final one.
[01:37:02] Lord, I'm called to speak your word, but I don't think we should get into politics.
[01:37:08] The Bible is the most political book you will ever hold in your hands.
[01:37:14] I'm sorry.
[01:37:20] But Elijah didn't hesitate with excuses.
[01:37:25] He went through the gate to Samaria.
[01:37:28] He went through the gate into the throne room.
[01:37:32] He went through the gate and prophesied to power.
[01:37:36] But just imagine the consequence if Elijah had remained in Tishbe.
[01:37:44] God would have found somebody else instead of Elijah.
[01:37:51] And Elijah would have died from starvation himself in Tishbe.
[01:37:57] Remember what Mordecai said to Esther You ain't got to obey God But trust me Somebody's going to obey God I'm telling the house of hope I don't know why he chose us I don't know why God's been so good
[01:38:14] I don't know why an omniscient Lord Who knows all things And knows our failures and weaknesses Chose to pour his oil on this people But he did And let every soul in this sanctuary declare, not only shall me and my house obey the Lord, but we're going to be faithful to the Father.
[01:38:38] Here am I, Lord.
[01:38:39] Send me.
[01:38:49] And if Brownsboro abdicates, there'll be another folk somewhere who may not have what you have or I have.
[01:39:00] But they got a willingness to be ridiculed.
[01:39:02] They got a willingness to be abandoned, to be ostracized.
[01:39:05] Ostracized and criticized they've got a willingness to lose everything just don't take your Holy Spirit from me immediately a Prophetic domino started to lean into the next word of God question how many of us wrestling and begging God for the great word
[01:39:27] When we wouldn't even leave our house and we hid behind the first gate verse 2 of 1st Kings chapter 17 Verse 2 says, then the covenant God of Israel, Yahweh, spoke.
[01:39:48] Then, then when?
[01:39:50] When he did the first word.
[01:39:55] Most of the time we have emergencies and we call out to God.
[01:39:59] We're asking him to do something at gate number 7.
[01:40:04] That wouldn't have been a problem if we had addressed gate number 1 and 2.
[01:40:14] The covenant God of Israel, Yahweh, spoke a word to my name is Yahweh.
[01:40:19] elijah there's coming a time when every one of us in this room gonna have to prove who we say we are now look they actually already think we're crazy so stop trying to be cute
[01:40:35] they already know they peeked in they're watching right now trying to figure why you're still sitting here and i'm screaming and spitting in tongues having an argument with a spider hanging from the ceiling folk wondering now i watched you and you got folk with their hands raised up why
[01:40:59] they don't know enough bible to know i saw folk rushing down the aisles and kneeling at the steps they don't know that's an extension of the altar they was weeping and crying not because they're
[01:41:14] tormented but because they're delivered but they don't know that we had dancers up here twirling and giving God the glory in the throne room of heaven.
[01:41:25] We had a choir up here pouring themselves out.
[01:41:30] You got folk watching and listening.
[01:41:32] And they heard some of you speaking in tongues.
[01:41:36] If you ain't done that, then maybe we could talk.
[01:41:44] They already think you've lost your mind.
[01:41:46] You're fanatical.
[01:41:47] You're an extremist.
[01:41:49] So while you're trying to hide your truest identity, both heaven and hell are targeting somebody who dares to be themselves in God because when you are truly who God says you are God will be to you who he says he is he don't pour no oil on the fake
[01:42:16] I'm gonna believe you honey wait a minute watch this wait a minute I was in a tough time and I was going through a thing and I said to God Lord if you get me out you ever have any of these
[01:42:35] emergency room situations yeah I tell you what one's even more you ever had to sit outside at the school in the hallway waiting to see the principal and your child is the subject of conversation that won't y'all my principal was Mr. Bullock in Sanford he'd say I'll be as nice
[01:42:55] as you let me be I'll be as mean as you make me be he meant it and I'd go up and sit down I I hated class I didn't like the teacher I didn't like the subject they
[01:43:10] didn't know me I didn't know them we didn't understand each other so I would do something stupid not vicious or anything like they're just stupid that I knew would get me kicked out of class and they would send me to the principal's
[01:43:20] office and I could sit for the next hour hour and a half out in the hall it was

[01:43:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:43:26] strategic if they just hadn't said nothing to my father now let me explain

[01:43:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:43:38] some of y'all grown up now you don't know what that means because your parents are the most scared ones in the whole conversation see i had a temper tantrum about 1963 and right after i had
[01:43:55] mine pop had his and we was both delivered facing something got one of my emergency room prayers ready oh lord if if you work this out i'm gonna start going to church don't ever say that look
[01:44:24] let's just be real you ain't never going to church because god bailed you out of something man that ain't gonna happen i wouldn't if if i'm gonna give this amount of money don't don't do
[01:44:39] that don't if you get me out of this i'm gonna don't don't because the problem is when you made those promises you got up god answered and you forgot about it but you see hell didn't so when
[01:44:55] you said i'm your child lord and i'm i love you and you know i'm i'm a prayer warrior and you know i fast you ain't fasted nothing but but you know i but your confession made a statement so the enemy
[01:45:07] locked in on your confession not your possession some of you are fighting battles right now you don't deserve you shouldn't be beat up the way you getting beat up because that kind of whoop That kind of is reserved for those who do what you say.
[01:45:31] Am I making any kind of sense of this at all?
[01:45:34] I said, your confession said, I love you.
[01:45:39] I worship you.
[01:45:40] I give my life to you.
[01:45:42] I'm going to keep my family in the house of God.
[01:45:44] That was my confession.
[01:45:45] But then I walked away from it and started living my own life again, started doing my own thing.
[01:45:49] and I left it there but the enemy attacks me as if I did if I was faithful to what I said so some of us right now are fighting devils that were that are reserved for a certain level of
[01:46:04] confession not possession you getting beat up not because you love God but because you said you love God you getting whooped you you getting a whooping from hell right now not because you tithe and
[01:46:18] given offerings, but because you told God you do. So, if you ain't going, don't say it. God specifically tells Elijah the name of his blessing. Your blessing is water and meat in the hidden place. You're going to go live there, not visit, not tour. If Elijah had hesitated, watch this,
[01:46:51] I'm in the throne room. I just told Ahab and Jezebel, it ain't going to rain. I'm a prophet of the most high God. I got up and I walked 30 and God's anointing is all over me. You got to feel it. You know what my name is? My name is
[01:47:04] Yahweh is my God.
[01:47:12] God said, get out. You got to know when and where to tarry and when and where to run.
[01:47:22] Watch this right here. If Elijah had hesitated in the throne room, he would have been executed then and there.
[01:47:36] only the hiding hovering of god kept him from the grip we're people of the word or we're we won't be a people at all some of your enemies who some of your enemies have a target in their hands
[01:47:53] searching for your brow so i'm gonna tell you real faith i'm gonna tell you real scripture i'm not giving you this little milky stuff the the arrows pulled back in the bow and they're ready to release
[01:48:07] it against you but they can't find now that don't mean they can't see you because i see everyone ever you see me in him right now but a divine confusion comes on them see god's not the author
[01:48:24] of confusion but he'll use confusion against your enemies not a desire to wipe you out not the resources to get it done they have the opportunity to make it happen but every time your name comes
[01:48:42] up in their mind in their mouth they get troubled chaos arguments and stuff just goes listen there's folk right now who want to take you out right now but your your name can just come on their lips
[01:48:57] and it messes them all up they see you but can't find you they see you but can't find you if if If you don't like what I'm preaching right now, just remember it for like March.
[01:49:25] Your obedience steals their oxygen.
[01:49:29] Don't tarry and try to fight.
[01:49:31] Walk away in a word.
[01:49:32] I landed in New York first week of August.
[01:49:39] I'd been in Syria.
[01:49:41] You might as well say Iran, but I'd been in Syria.
[01:49:47] IDF, Israeli Defense Forces convoy going to take food and medical supplies.
[01:49:57] In fact, the vehicle I was in, the officer said that he had sent ahead for drones to fly above because word was that Al-Qaeda or ISIS, one of them devils, was looking down, could see us in the mountainous regimes.
[01:50:19] I got on the plane and left to come back.
[01:50:21] Soon as I landed in New York, I only had my bag.
[01:50:25] I don't care how long I've gone, I've just got one bag.
[01:50:30] And I get a call, or there was a message, and I returned the call.
[01:50:35] A prophet of God I know very well, you know very well.
[01:50:37] I've brought him here from Nigeria.
[01:50:42] He said, Bishop, where are you?
[01:50:44] I said, I just landed.
[01:50:47] He said, where have you been?
[01:50:48] And I told him where I had been.
[01:50:50] He said, I'm on my way to somewhere.
[01:50:54] But before I did, I went by my church with massive thousands, and I met with a group of prophets.
[01:51:00] and had two of them come to me and say, Apostle, do you have access to Bishop Lanier?
[01:51:10] And he said, yes, I do.
[01:51:11] I'll send word right now.
[01:51:13] Tell him that there is a target on his forehead and on his back, and he needs to get home as soon as possible.
[01:51:25] Words and warnings.
[01:51:34] I hadn't attacked anyone.
[01:51:39] I had done nothing but the work of the Lord.
[01:51:41] That's what I'm hoping we are beginning to understand.
[01:51:46] You're not targeted for your failures, but your faith.
[01:51:50] You're not targeted because you're the enemy of God, but because of your intimacy with God.
[01:52:01] And if we don't begin to better understand spiritual warfare, what it looks like.
[01:52:11] Listen, here's the problem.
[01:52:12] here's the problem in this country in our faith we believe in being hospitable being kind being a friend and we don't want to believe that someone is going to take advantage of it or that someone
[01:52:30] will use our very laws to tie us up in knots before long they become our mayor before long they become our congressperson. Before long, they're able to tell us when and where or if we're allowed to worship. Had Elijah turned, had Elijah tarried in the throne room, the brook
[01:52:57] would have dried up. The raven would have never received directions. The word of the Lord stopped the rain from falling, but kept the creek rising for him. Hear that. They might be firing folk where you work but I declare a promotion in your life does that sound familiar I was saying it five
[01:53:21] years ago I said they might lay in folk your job but don't pack your bags but get yourself ready to move not back home but down the off they I've told you five years ago there is a promotion there
[01:53:40] is an office that has no name. There is a position that doesn't have a name. Did we say it? Did we say it? That God has a promotion for a job that doesn't even exist. They ain't even got the title
[01:53:57] yet for the position. They ain't even assigned the salary yet that you're going to get. But I'm a god i'm a believer who declares that faith is the substance of things hopeful the evidence of things
[01:54:15] not seen it didn't exist till you came along the check ain't been written till you got here it's your blessing it's your promotion it's your assignment i'm a hurry i'm a hurry Some of us are thirsty and hungry and struggling because God's next is held hostage by our hesitation.
[01:54:50] If you talk too much in Jezebel's throne room, God's throne room will be quiet.
[01:54:56] When Elijah spoke and stopped, when the Lord was finished, the prophetic domino, he got there and it happened.
[01:55:05] He said it and the next one happened.
[01:55:07] There's another word coming now, Elijah.
[01:55:08] If you stay in the throne room, the word is frozen.
[01:55:13] But if you come like I told you, you're moving something.
[01:55:16] If you step inside and say, you're moving something.
[01:55:20] Watch this.
[01:55:22] You also need to know that this moment is activating a process that's going to be replicated in the widow's life later.
[01:55:29] But I'm not dealing with that today.
[01:55:32] Elijah hides.
[01:55:33] God told him to hide at Cherith.
[01:55:36] Hide at the brook.
[01:55:38] Don't walk around with your water and your meat.
[01:55:40] Look at my, look what God's done for me.
[01:55:42] Be quiet.
[01:55:42] this is a year that you're going to have to be quiet with the blessings of God you can't be a show-off you can't be telling every test know how to testify amongst the saints but when you go out
[01:55:57] there be blessed and highly favored too many of us would have showed up drunk up eaten up packed up moved on he said stay there and hide what or who could talk you away from the cherith
[01:56:15] elijah waiting on a word waiting on a word by waiting in a word too many of us are waiting on a word outside the word when we learn to hide in the hovering god will release the next at the
[01:56:33] appropriate time maybe a year later or so verse 8 says then then the word then the word of yahweh came to him and said to him get up and go to zarephath a village in sidon and live there
[01:56:48] not visit not tour you're gonna stay there for quite a while i have ordered a widow there to provide for you there's a absolutely nothing in that whole verse that makes my flesh rejoice i don't want to get up he said get up i like it here i'm safe here i'm provided here years ago
[01:57:12] my wife and i were pastoring a people and for a while it was a joy we were there for six years we learned a lot we had a daycare which is one reason our kingdom education department now
[01:57:24] is what it is now is because of what she learned watching 120 children 170 i don't know what it was a bunch of babies what she learned i pastored 10 11 12 i preached to them but the lord was
[01:57:38] teaching us something then the lord started leaning on me to start doing something else but I didn't want to do it because I liked where I was living. It was quiet. My wife and I had a
[01:57:48] good life. God will turn your comfort zone into a danger zone and we'll never go farther than our willingness to go there alone. God said, not only are you to get up from this place, but you are to
[01:58:09] travel 90 miles out of israel into the belly of baal eight miles you're going to leave the borders of israel you're going to step into the enemy of phoenicia you're going to eight miles from
[01:58:21] jezebel's birthplace for i've commanded i have worded a gentile not a jewish a gentile widow who has nothing to provide for now lord i don't tell you something i don't i believe in miracles But you sending me into the enemy's camp to a woman who ain't got nothing including a husband and she's gonna be the one
[01:58:47] You better be ready in 26 You're gonna get everything you need God's gonna put every good thing in your hands But it's gonna come to you in ways you weren't ready to get If you can't handle Jesus coming towards you walking on the water and you say go away go away go away
[01:59:04] He'll go away and give it to somebody else But if you get to the point that you're able to say I ain't never seen you walk on the water But if you got a blessing in your hand walk on Jesus walk on Jesus walk on
[01:59:17] Jesus to my boat don't pass me by don't pass me by I'm looking for the Raven stop praying for the broke brook. He said leave too many of us are asking God to make It easier for us to disobey him. I want to stay here
[01:59:48] But the words off this place, it's now on a woman in another area.
[01:59:55] Had Elijah hesitated, he would have either been discovered because he blew his cover out searching elsewhere for food, or he would have died from famine.
[02:00:07] When you walk in the supernatural, what's natural to God becomes natural to you because the baseline of the blessed life is the breathing.
[02:00:16] why did jesus quote from deuteronomy man shall not live by bread alone but every word that's proceeding he's talking all the time all the time all the time but everything that's coming out his mouth verse 10 says so he went and the domino i got your word leave your house he starts walking
[02:00:44] and the domino starts leaning he gets there he speaks the word and then domino starts leaning and he starts moving towards Cherith and he says now I want you to go to Zarephath and he packs
[02:00:54] up and starts walking and another the big word didn't come it was word little by little step by step and the domino of the prophetic word leaned into the next it takes perhaps weeks for it to
[02:01:07] bump into the next word but there's two things I need you to know and I'm finished God tells Elijah there is provision at the brook God tells Elijah there's provision at Zarephath but God never says
[02:01:21] anything about provisions on the journey 80 90 miles no raven no water no person assigned could this be a hidden fast we haven't even arrived in Zarephath but I have to tell you the consequences of hesitation and the blessing of Hanini watch this Jewish rabbis say that
[02:01:59] the Gentile widow living outside of Israel had a 10 year old son. We know he had a son. We didn't know how old he was and we didn't know he had a name, but we didn't know his name. The Jews tell
[02:02:14] us that the boy's name was Jonah. Yes, that Jonah had just stayed. This is a mammoth miracle moment taking place. We ain't even in the story of Zarephath, but it's important for us to know
[02:02:41] what's at stake here. What happens if Elijah stops moving? If he had not left home for Samaria, if he had not left Samaria for Cherith, if he had not left Cherith for Zarephath, there wouldn't have been a hidden fast from the Gentile widow mother of a 10-year-old boy
[02:03:08] named Jonah. They would have died and there wouldn't be no hidden fast of three days in the belly. 120,000 Ninevites fasting and repenting in the gent. God sent him to a Gentile widow So her Gentile baby could watch his mama fast.
[02:03:43] So one day he'd be 20, 30, 40.
[02:03:46] And God would say, go to the Gentile city of Nineveh.
[02:03:51] And he says, I don't want to go.
[02:03:53] I don't want to.
[02:03:54] So a whale swallows him for three days.
[02:03:59] He can't eat and he can't.
[02:04:02] But it's a hidden fast under the Lord.
[02:04:04] so that the belly of the whale is opened while the belly of Jonah is empty.
[02:04:12] But Jonah comes out and says, if you'll repent, if you'll turn from your wicked ways, they fasted and they...
[02:04:21] That's a wow. That's a wow.
[02:04:39] But what does that mean to me?
[02:04:42] The little gate that seemed like nothing right now.
[02:04:47] All you're doing is taking a step.
[02:04:50] you don't know that years from now decades from now your obedience at the little gate is going to save 120,000 Gentiles because you knew how to fast because you went and taught a lady how to fast
[02:05:10] she taught her son how to fast he taught a city how to know when I get this book written but I know it's already changed my life don't you minimize the great thing God's doing in you it may look like a small gate if it was so small the enemy
[02:05:44] wouldn't be fighting against it so hard fill an assignment for your life wasn't so great he wouldn't try to keep you in the bed and stop you from getting he wouldn't have he would have done something to keep you from getting to
[02:06:05] Samaria and he would have had Jezebel take you out and he would have, somebody would have found you with Cherith and give you up and take your life and walk from 90 miles carrying that mantle on you
[02:06:22] if what you're about listen I'm talking to every person who's a part of this house, every person every person every person, don't you let the enemy make you feel like you ain't nothing but a small gator you just walk through that gate push that giant out
[02:06:51] the way because the next one's bigger and the next one's greater and the next one is more than you've ever imagined because there's something great greatness comes one step at a time but know this
[02:07:12] If you're a part of the body, whether it's small or large, the gates of hell shound.
[02:07:28] Thank you for a people with listening ears.
[02:07:49] I thank you for a people whose eyes are willing to look beyond the obvious to that which seems invisible.
[02:07:59] I thank you for a people who would declare your greatness with their lips in the midst of others who deny your even existence I thank you for a people who will make a sound when it looks silly
[02:08:13] who'll bring an offering when it's unreasonable who love one another beyond oh god I thank you for our people. I thank you for who you were to us in 25. We're going to need you more in 26.
[02:08:30] And we're going to give you more in 26. Lord, we come at you now. We understand what folk think when we take the body and the blood, but we're the ones they call when they're sick. If you're
[02:08:59] going to believe anything, believe the body and blood. You better have a made up mind because hell does and you can't demand a 24-hour God if you're going to be a once-in-a-while believer God bless you