Notes from Pastor Don Moore’s sermon preached 2/29/2010

This is the transcript used on TBN presentation, I slightly edited it for readability.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation responded to Pastor Don.

SAY AMEN 
SHOW 144
Enemies of Faith & Victory Through Faith Part 1
2/29/2010

Amen.  Amen.  Hallelujah.  We’re so glad to see your smiling faces today in the house of the Lord.  And we just want to greet you and we want to greet the people in TV Land and Radio Land.  And our God is still on the throne and He’s working great miracles. Today’s Bible study is for my wife, who grilled me with questions yesterday and the day before.  And, I decided, well, if she wants the answer to these, it would probably benefit you as well.  So you are permitted to listen to my wife’s Bible study as we look at the Enemies of Faith and the Victory Through Faith.  

There are many things that present obstacles to faith and if we’re going to fight the good fight of faith, if we’re going to live the life of faith, these enemies and obstacles must be understood in order to be overcome.  And what better place to go to understand than the Bible?  In the Bible, we have people’s testimonies of faith, but more importantly, we have the Lord God, Himself, responding when their faith failed. And responding when their faith was successful, telling them exactly what they did that made it work or telling them why it didn’t work.  [amen]  

So what I have done is I’ve gone through the scriptures, I’ve pulled out all of the examples of miracles, signs, and wonders, that the Lord did in his time on earth. This may end up being a two-parter, but I’m going to get through this Bible Study.  I want you to take notes, I want you to know that today this study was especially for you.  It is especially for you and for those of you that are listening and watching, I’m going to make it as clear as I can, cause we tend to think that things are deep and complicated.  No, it’s just that we are human and we don’t have all the answers.  I don’t have all the answers.  I’m not that smart.  But I know Who does  [amen]  have all the answers.  So, will you walk with me through the scriptures as we look at the enemies of faith, but also the victory of faith?

The first thing that is required to have your faith work is humility.  Can you say, “Humility?”  [humility]  You must have humility.  You are not God.  Therefore, if it doesn’t work, if God says, “Faith works.”  And you are in a situation where your faith doesn’t work, be humble enough to be teachable, because God did not make a mistake.  If you prayed for it, thought you were in faith, asked for it, and it didn’t happen, it is required that you be humble in order that God can teach you.  Prideful people are not teachable people.  Arrogant people are not teachable.  But the humble person can receive correction and thereby improve.  

And that’s why we take, that’s why when I’m in the pulpit, I say, “I don’t have all the answers.  I’m only human.  I make mistakes.”  I say all of that so that you can receive this information from me. For if I stood up here in total arrogance, even you know, and there’s a difference between arrogance and confidence isn’t there?  [yes]  And so we must remain humble of heart, that if what we think should work, the way we think it works, maybe we should open the glove compartment and look at the operator’s manual.  [amen]  And we’ve all been in that situation.  

All of us have gotten a car, we don’t familiar with, and we thought the radio worked one way, and we messed around with it and couldn’t get the station we wanted, then out of desperation, we finally open the glove compartment box and pulled out the operator’s manual and read in the table of contents, “radio”, went there, and then figured out, oh, this is one of those pre-set jobbies, where I have to pre-set the stations or I’m not going to get radio.  Anybody had that experience?  I have it every time I get a new car.  I get it every time I put in something for my wife, a new microwave, or refrigerator, or something. You have to know what makes it work.  Now, we’re going to take the first enemy of faith.  

The first enemy of faith.  We’re going to go to the book of Luke, Chapter 12.  Book of Luke, Chapter, what?  [12]  The Book of Luke Chapter 12… I just love days like this because I sincerely believe it is the will of the Lord for some people.  God told some people, “Get to church today,”  and they didn’t go.  Told other people turn on the TV, and they didn’t do it.  And that means that it wasn’t for them.  They will remain in their ignorance, while you are the intelligent ones who will get the food.  You’ll stay humble and get the food.  In Luke, Chapter 12.  Luke Chapter 12, hallelujah.  In verse 22, it gives us the first enemy for your faith.  DO NOT WORRY… Jesus said to who?  [His disciples]  ”…His Disciples….”  

How many of you want to be a disciple?  To be a disciple means a follower of Christ, a student of the Word.  ”….I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat;…” Nor what you will wear for your body, what you will put it on.  Life is more than food, your body more than clothing.  Consider the ravens, and He goes on and on.  Then He gets over to verse 29.  Verse 29.  Are you ready?  [yes]  ”And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink...” Let’s read it together.  ”nor have an anxious mind.“… Do not have an anxious mind… That means a mind that is bouncing off the walls, looking for something to worry and be concerned about.  Don’t be anxious.  Don’t anticipate with negativity.  Anxious is to anticipate with negativity.  Well, what do I do if… What will I do when?  What?   An anxious mind.  So write it down.  An enemy of faith is an anxious mind.  Everybody got that?  

Now, we want to go to Matthew, Chapter 6. We want to study the Bible.  Matthew, Chapter 6… Matthew 6, verse 30.  Watch the way He expresses it.  ”Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”… You of little faith.  

Now many of you have been here when I have taught you that mustard seed faith is very specific.  A mustard seed cannot be cross germinated with any other plant.  A mustard seed, though it is very small, grows to be a very large bush.  And in that bush, it says that the birds come and they can find shelter and so forth.  Your faith is not, now watch me carefully.  Your faith is not quantitative, this way.  Your faith is qualitative.  

You may have faith for one thing, and not have faith for another.  So, having little faith means, let me get right down to it.  Having little faith means you have faith for salvation, that you are born again.  But you can’t seem to believe anything else…. You can believe that God could save you, get you to Heaven, but you can’t believe that God can save you on the earth.  You’ll believe that when you die, you’ll go to Heaven, but you don’t believe that God can keep you from dying, from the disease that is in your body.  O ye of little faith.  You can believe God for a job, but you can’t believe God for a car… O ye of little faith doesn’t mean you need big faith.  It means you need faith specific to the circumstance you are facing at that time. Do you have faith to believe “X”.  Do you have enough faith to believe that your daughter is going to be ok?…  Do you have enough faith to believe that she’s going to be ok, that you raised her properly, there’s some good right and wrong in her, you have faith for that.  Specific to the circumstance.  

So, being anxious prevents us or stops us from following through and what does He say here?  Verse 32.  ”For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”  Come on, let’s read it together.  ”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  Then He says, “Therefore, do not worry…”  

The problem is, that when we think of that verse, here’s the problem.  Many people will read that verse and not have faith to believe that God said it and therefore it’s so.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and everything will follow.  And they go, “I don’t believe that.”  … And we go, “Did God say seek you first?”  If I go after the Kingdom of God, did He say, He’s going to take care of me?  Did He say that all the pieces of my puzzle are going to come together?  Do I believe that or not believe that?… Enemies of faith.  Worry and being anxious.  But to receive the benefit of faith, you must believe God… You have to believe God.  And you can’t believe just the parts you like… [come on now]  You’ve got to believe all of Sovereign God’s Word.  

He said, seek first the Kingdom and everything else’ll come.  He didn’t say, come to me and ask for anything you want, and you’ve got it… Some people don’t get healed because they won’t be a good testimony… They will not seek first the Kingdom of God, so God says, “If I heal you, who’s going to get the credit?” … And He says He will not share the glory with anybody else.  So you may have to get a medical healing, rather than a spiritual healing… I told you, today’s going to be good for you.  [yeah, laughter]  Moving right along.  

Enemies of faith.  Let’s look at another one.  Luke Chapter, what are we in now?  We’re in Matthew.  Right?  Let’s do Matthew 16.  Matthew 16. Just remind me to go back to Luke, OK.  Matthew 16… You there yet?  [yes]  In Matthew, Chapter 16, the Lord is having a verbal reasoning battle with the Pharisees and Scribes.  The Pharisees and Scribes are the teachers of the Law and the Sadducees kind of keep the written scripture going… But they have theological differences.  The Sadducees tend not to believe in anything really supernatural, they don’t believe in angels.  They don’t believe in ghosts.  They don’t believe in the supernatural aspect.  And the Pharisees are more literalists.  They believe kinda what the Bible says.  But they have their own twist to it because they reason in their minds.  So, let’s see what happens here.  

So, Jesus says then, in Verse 3. “…It will be foul weather today, for the sky is read and threatening.  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern...”  Look at this.  ”…the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah…”  In this case He’s talking about the sign that will be given will be three days he’ll be in the grave, and then he’ll rise again from the dead.  Then we go on, and we say, well what is the problem that Jesus has with these Pharisees and all?  In verse 5, He says, “Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven...” Now remember, leaven is a yeast agent that gets, it’s in the air, but it’s particularly in yeast.  And when you leaven the bread, put the yeast in it, it cause it to rise.  Everybody got that?  

So, He’s saying, there is something that the Pharisees and Scribes do that causes sin, doubt and bad faith, in other words, unbelief, to rise in them.  It is an enemy that kills faith.  Everybody say, “It’s an enemy that kills faith.” [it's an enemy that kills faith.]  Would you like to now what it is?  [yes]  The first one was, what?  [worry]  Worry. The first one was worry, having an anxious mind.  The second one here, watch this.  This is very powerful.  And Jesus says, “And they reasoned among themselves,…”  Circle reasoned.  [right]  Put an underline on it.  ”…saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”  But, Jesus, being aware of it…”  Meaning, being aware that they’re reasoning and reasoning wrong, He says, “…O you of little faith,…”  What has killed their faith?  He says, “…why do you reason…”  Underline it again.  ”…among yourselves because you have brought no bread?”  Then He hits them again.  ”Do you not yet understand,…”  And look at verse 11, He says, “How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? –but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees ….” Verse 12.  Look it, He tells it again.  And, “...they understood...”  They finally got something.  ”...He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees…” and scribes.  

So, what is this other enemy?  This other enemy is your own carnal reasoning and your own personal doctrine… Stay humble now.  Stay humble.  A lot of the things that you think are true are false.  A lot of the things you had reasoned in your head as to how you think God works are phony reasoning, bad, bad theology.  Bad doctrine.  But, because it’s yours, you think it’s good.  [amen]  And so you reason through your life.  You reason through solving things.  

You ever walk into a room and decide somebody didn’t like you?  Only to find out that they don’t even know you.  And they don’t even care about liking you or not liking you.  Cause they don’t even know you.  But you put together a reasoning plot between your ears.  And so Jesus is saying, the Pharisees and Scribes have reasoned through all of these processes as to how they think God should work.  How God should operate.  How God should heal.  But the reality of the situation was, they have established doctrine based on their intellect and it’s all wrong… They’ve reasoned wrong.  

And Jesus says, it is a leavening agent that will rise up and kill your faith… Can I give you a brainstorm?  [yes]  Can I?  [yes]  If you can figure out God, why ain’t you God? [that's right] … You ain’t God.  

You can’t even figure out what screw goes in what unless you look at the instructions.  [laughter]  I remember buying an aluminum shed and I’m going to put this aluminum shed together.  And I got all the parts, laid them on the ground and said, “I can do this.”  So I’m just screwing things together, I was just putting them together, and then at the end, I got the frame up, I got the outside up, and it’s all together.  And then it said, if you want it to hold together, you must first, before you do anything, put in this center support beam.  Now, my shed looked pretty good without the center support beam. [laughter]  But the way it was designed if you don’t put those screws in first, there is no way to finish the rest of the structure…[well]  I reasoned in my mind.  I’m trying to help you all.  

You cannot get to a problem, medical, physical, financial, and reason your way through it when you need supernatural help from God.  [amen] I’m sitting there with the banker.  The banker came to my house, a Christian man, and I was so, we were so far in debt and he said, “This will never fly.”  He said, “We cannot refinance your house, there’s no way we can do this.  I can’t help you get out of debt.  No way.”  The banker said to me, “Why don’t we pray.” …  [amen]  The banker… said, “Don, why don’t we pray.”  I said, “I’m good with that. Let’s pray.”  You know, God, in two days later, gave me a God idea that I never would have thought of, that the way to get out of debt was to build my wife a new and bigger and better house…. I never would, I never would have come up with that.  I couldn’t afford the house we were in, and God gave me a God idea to build a bigger and better house.  I called the banker back, and he says, “You won’t believe this.”  He said that $35,000 you owe on that bulldozer, didn’t show up on your credit report, and the bank will write you a loan.  But your, watch this, but the loan amount you’re asking for is too small… I said, “How about a big and new house?”  He said, “That’ll work.”  [wow]  

But we reason and we eliminate faith.  We take God out of the mix.  Jesus is saying, that the enemy and we just have to be humble.  Come on, say, “I’m humble.”  [I'm humble]  The reasoning of your mind is an enemy to faith.  Okay?  [yep]  

Let’s move on to another one.  Now in this one, in Matthew, in Matthew 16, I want you to notice that He says that they’re looking for a sign… Now this is just a little side journey but it will help somebody.  When you’re looking for a sign, and your attitude is God owes me a sign, [hmmmm]  I will believe You, God, if You da da da dah.  God if you will da da da dah, then I’ll serve You.  I’ll believe You.  I’ll know that You’re in this.  I know You’ll rescue me if You give me a sign.  Well, here’s what Jesus is saying.  Jesus is saying, “Wait a minute, if you’re looking for a sign, God’s not going to give you a sign.  But what you need to do is look at all the signs around you.  Look at all the things that He has done.  Look at all the signs that He has provided already.  If you will look at what He has already done, you don’t need a personal sign, for a personal sign is a demonstration of your lack of faith.  [that's right]  … Don’t pray with people, “I’m going to pray and God’s going to do a sign for you.”  [laughter]  It says, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek diligently seek Him… He’s going to reward those who are after Him.  Not those who are after a sign…

You know, I had somebody say, pray for a healing, and she kept saying to me, “But the,”  you know, “but the, the mark on my skin is still there.”  And I said, “Well, wait a minute now.  Didn’t we pray against the disease?”  ”Yeah. But, you know, I can’t believe I’m healed as long as I have this thing here.”  And I said, “Well, wait a minute, wait a minute.  Healing is a process.  If you can believe that you’re healed of it, what’s going to happen to that?”  ”Well it should go away now.” … “No. No.  The manifestation is that you’re healed from the disease, and then all of the signs or the leftover manifestations will eventually, in time, come.”  … [right]  You’re struggling with that.  

See, we’re so busy waiting for the manifestation that we forget that the manifestation is there as a result of something that is greater than what is being manifest.  [yes]  What is being manifest is not the greater thing, the thing that caused the manifestation is the greater thing.  Therefore, our faith removes the cause, and then, guess what, we don’t care that that’s there.  We go on and live our life and do what we have to do, knowing full well that’s inconsequential and that it’ll be gone.  And if we do it that way, guess what?  We look down there a couple of days later and totally gone.  [amen, yep]… [laughter]  …

But as long as you are sight controlled, let’s look at that.  I got one in here, go to Mark, Chapter 9…. Sight control.  Ok, so your reasoning is an enemy of faith.  Your worrying and being anxious of mind is an enemy of faith.  But watch this one.  Your seeing can become an enemy of faith.  You can see things through a positive or you can see it through a negative.  If you will see things in the negative, guess what?  You have an enemy of faith.  [correct]  Alright?  Now, let’s see, in Mark Chapter 9 what’s going on here?  What’s going on here?  In the 14th verse.  He’s with the disciples, the great multitude, and “Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed...”They ran to greet Him and so forth.  And Jesus asked, “What’s going on?  What are they talking about?”  One of the crowd said, “…Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.  So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”  …

Well, is that the truth?  [no]  No, that’s not the truth… Something happened.  What does this demon do when he takes power over this boy?  [he puts on a show]  He puts on a show.  He throws him down, foams at the mouth, and whatever, whatever… What did the disciples do when they saw it?  When they saw it, they says, “Ah, we couldn’t do it.”  We go, “It didn’t work.  We couldn’t do it.”  They saw it through a negative eye of failure.  In other words, we see a manifestation here, we see something in operation.  That means it didn’t work… Was that what Jesus does?  

Let’s see what Jesus does.  You all ready?  [yes]  Can you handle this?  [yes]  I can handle it.  I can handle it.  Let’s see what Jesus does.  In verse 19, Jesus says, watch this.  ”…O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him to Me.  Then they brought him to Him.  And when he saw Him,…”  Meaning, when the spirit saw Jesus, “…immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.”  Let me ask you a question.  Is Jesus upset that the demon is demonstrating?  Well obviously not.  Cause he goes on and has a conversation with the father.  So He stood there while the boy is wallowing and foaming at the mouth, doing his thing on the floor.  

Jesus in verse 21 says, “Oh guess what, how long has he been like that?”  [laughter]  He says, “I see a show going on here, how long has he been like that?”  And the father says, “He’s been like that since childhood.”  But the father’s probably doing this.  The boy’s laying over here and Jesus is here.  And Jesus says, “Oh, how long he’s been like that?”  And the father’s going, “He’s been like that since childhood.” And what are the apostles doing?  They’re going, “Oh, it didn’t work, it didn’t work again, Oh! It didn’t work, it didn’t work.”  Looking with negative eyes.  [that's right]  

Had somebody this week tell me, “But Pastor Don, I still have the symptoms.”  And I said, “So what.”  [that's right]  ”By faith we’re believing you don’t have the sickness, who cares if you still have the symptoms?  What does that have to do with anything?”  The boy is wallowing on the ground, and Jesus is going, “Yeah, he’s been like that since childhood.”  Now, you say, Jesus is God, how didn’t He know?  Well no, Jesus is the Son of Man and also He is also operating as a man and at that point in time He has to rely on information from the Holy Spirit or information from the father so that he knows what type of demon He’s dealing with.  And the type of demon He’s dealing with here is this epileptic type of demon, which is one of the harder ones to get out, and Jesus knows it’s one of the harder ones to get out.  Because why?  He got the information from the father.  But what else does He know?  He knows that this is a bully spirit.  [that's right]  The sucker’s a bully.  And it’s taken advantage of the child, watch me carefully.  Taken advantage of the child cause he’s young but also taking advantage of the parents because they are ignorant.  [that's right]  They saw a symptom and panicked and said, “Oh, our kid is possessed forever. Our kid has got this disease forever.  we’re lost.”  They did not know, that the demon was in there going, “Can I stay?”  

*****

I hope this sermon blesses you.  Sometimes I think it is good to do a faith check, to find out what is challenging our faith in God.  

Have a blessed day.

Heather

Transcript of sermon preached 2/7/10 by Pastor Don Moore, Living Word Chapel, West Hurley New York.

What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  

SAY AMEN
SHOW 143
POWER OF GOD’S WORD
02-07-10

But now that we’ve prayed, I want you to open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 7.  I want to share three passages of Scripture with you.  And I know that this will encourage you.   We went to the Holy Land in Florida.  We visited the TBN Holy Land in Florida.  We’ve visited the Holy Land before TBN had it.  And I can say unequivocally, without a doubt, it is improved.  TBN has done a wonderful, wonderful job.  And the prayer, the opening prayer that I gave was emphasizing the power of the Word.  

At TBN at the Holy Land, they had different dramas and presentations.  The one that they did on the day we were there was the Centurion.  And so they had the teaching of the Roman Centurion who had a servant who was ill.  And I think many of you know the story and we’ll just pass through it a little bit right now.  In it, they acted it out.  They had to change a few things in it, it wasn’t biblically perfectly lined up, but in order to make a drama you have to fill in the parts that weren’t there.  So they showed the Centurion and his relationship with his servant.  We know from Scripture that it was a close one.  And that he cared for this man and didn’t want his servant to die.  

And they’re going through it, and I’m sitting there with my wife and we’re watching this dramatization.  And I’m thinking to myself, well that guy there isn’t the Centurion.  But, you know, he could look kind of like this Italian boy running around up there on the stage, and he’s, you know, that’s not an authentic Roman uniform but it’s close enough.  It does look like some of the stuff they wore back then and then the servant girls were even more elegantly dressed than a servant girl would have been in Biblical times.  

And then this, we’re sitting there and here comes Jesus.  And He’s coming from the back going up toward the front.  And here’s this tall, long haired, blonde haired, six foot two, six foot three guy, [laughter].  I mean, he was huge.  If I was as tall as him, I’d still be playing in the NBA. This guy was huge.  I mean, he was tall.  Huge guy.  And so, they’re walking down the aisle with this pretend Jesus, you know, I mean he had hair, longer than his shoulders.  Had all this flowing long hair, and He’s got on this nice robe, and He’s smiling at everybody.  Coming in.  

And I go, that’s a pretend Jesus.  [laughter]  And so pretend Jesus goes up there with His pretend disciples, and they all sit down.  And the pretend Centurion comes over and the Word.  [hmm]  And they speak the Word as it is in Scripture.  And the Presence of God just showed up.  And I’m sitting there with tears in my eyes.  The power of the Word of God will overcome costumes, decorations, [laughter].  It just overcomes it.  There’s something about the power of the Word.  Let’s listen to the power here, of this Word…

In Chapter 7, “Now when he concluded all His sayings. in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum.”  Or Capernaum.  ”And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him to come and heal his servant.  And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.  Then Jesus went with them.  And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.  Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You.  But say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  And listen to this. ” “For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.”  When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”  And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.”  [amen]  

The power…is in the Word.  [yes, amen]  Let me say it again.  The power is in the Word.  [amen]  Oh let it be known throughout your heart and your mind that your words are of great importance.  [come on]  Know that the words that you speak are power.  They have creative force.  You are made in God’s image.  And the way that you’re made in God’s image, is you have the ability to create with your words.  [yes]  You can turn your situation around.  It is the rudder on the end of your life that will steer the boat that will turn it right or left.  Words are important.  But a word must be spoken.  Watch this now.  In conjunction with what God has already spoken. [Yes], and a Word must be spoken in obedience.   Not in doubt.  Not in excuse making or questioning.  

The difference between the centurion’s faith and the faith of the other men is in the simple phrase.  Are you ready?  Can you say it?  Yeah but.... [yeah but, oh preach, pastor]…. Yeah, but…. yeah, but….Look a little bit further in scripture, to verse 30… Verse 30.  ”But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.  And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like?  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying:  ”We played the flute for you,”  Yeah, but.  ”…you did not dance…. We mourned to you,...”  Yeah, but.  ”...you did not weep.”  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon.”  The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a wine bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”  

Well, what is the difference between these two groups of people?  The difference is that the centurion did not, “yeah but” Jesus, when he found out what Jesus could do.  He just said, “Yeah.”  [laughter]  Without the “but.”  [come on]  When Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees and the scribes, He is saying that your faith is terminated, your obedience is terminated, because you have a, “yeah but” that keeps us from seeing the hand of God in operation. I’m convinced of it, I’m sure of it that when God gave man free will, He gave us more than we really thought we were getting.  [amen]  In that we really forgot, we forgot some key things here.  

But the main thing that we forgot was that inherent, intrinsically in the Word of God, is free will and that free will can terminate and destroy the active desire that God wants to fulfill in our lives.  [amen]  And that, yeah but, oh my goodness.  And why is it, I get a kick out of this.  But why is it we feel, when we are questioning that we are somehow more intelligent than someone who is just flat out obedient?  [hmmm, come on pastor, laughter]… Come on.  Am I right?  [yes]  I missed you guys.  [laughter]  But, you know, come on.  We look at someone who is just flat out obedient as they’re stupid.  But somebody that asks a whole lot of questions and has a whole bunch of yeah, buts, we somehow accredit to them a higher value of intelligence.  

You know, while I was away on vacation, I was reading this book called, “The Disillusionment of Disbelief.”  And in it, he pointed out, and he did it by quotes.  I have always heard that Einstein was an atheist, or an agnostic, but that he did not believe in God.  Well, this guy did the research to go through different things that Einstein, one of the greatest minds, even the Bible Code, the Bible Code says, when you put in “Einstein” the Bible Code says, “a very smart fellow.”  [laughter]  See to God, he’s only a smart fellow, he’s not, you know, brilliant or off the levels.  You know.  God’s not impressed with him.  But he was surprised that he was a smart fellow.  

But, nonetheless, he quotes, he quotes Einstein and people that were close to him, and Einstein refused to be identified with the atheists.  He refused to be identified with the agnostics because through science, he had discovered the order of the universe is so well set that it could not have happened by chance.  [amen]  Glory be to God.  Glory be to God. Isn’t that wonderful?  So we have to recognize that being intelligent at a certain point, you, watch this now, you must, if you arrive at the higher levels of intelligence, you must arrive at the point where the questions stop, and faith kicks in.  [yes, amen]   cause there has to be a point at which you believe God knows more than you, God understands better than you.  The Word that God has spoken is more powerful than any word that has ever been spoken.  And therefore, when God gives you something that He wants you to do, or He speaks into your life, and it’s time to move instead of time to stay.  And it’s time to go and rather, than time to draw back.  It’s time to act rather than to sit idly by.  And God says, “Do it!”  Then it’s time not to say, “Yeah, but.”  But it’s time to get up and move as God has directed you.  [amen, hallelujah]  Somebody say, “Amen in this house.”  [amen]  Glory to God. I said, “Glory to God.”  [glory to God]  

Look at Luke, Chapter 6…. Verse 46.  We played the flute for you, yeah but, you didn’t dance…. We played a sad ditty for You to mourn, but yeah but, You didn’t mourn.  Well, why didn’t You?  Because you were questioning at each juncture what to do, than going, “Yeah, but.   Yeah, but.  Yeah, but.”… “Yeah but!”  [chuckling]  Now, that’s a good point.  Did you hear what she said?  She said, “Pastor Dona, was teaching and she said that whatever follows the but becomes greater than whatever preceded it.  [ooooh, yea]  If it isn’t greater, at least stalls the effectiveness of what preceded it.  Ok, everybody with me on this?  You understand where I’m going?  Or at least where I’m coming from?  

So Jesus is saying, what are we supposed to do with you people?  You know, we sent John the Baptist, he’s a teetotaler, and he’s out in the woods and he’s eating just honey and all, but you didn’t follow him.  You said, “Yeah but,” to him.  Now Jesus says, I come, I’m hanging out with the sinners and the tax collectors, and you go, “Yeah but” to that.  He says, so you have to realize, as a believer, the people that you want to lead to the Lord will yeah but you to death, because they have no vision, and they don’t have the Word of the Lord yet in them.  So how do you expect, you’re going to come up with something that’s gonna work?  [hmmm]  Huh?  Cause at some point, you just have to lay it down and say, “I’m going for it.”  [right]  I’m going for it.  I’m just going to do what the Lord says until I get, let’s see.  

Now Luke 6, verse 46.  It’s a very famous verse, you all know it.  He says, “But why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do the things which I say?  Whoever comes to Me and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:”  What’s he like, Jesus?  ”He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.  And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded….”  what?  [on the rock]  Say it again.  [on the rock]  One more time. [on the rock]  There, those are my people.  ”But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately.…”  notice it says immediately”…immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”  

But, what’s He talking about?  The ruin of the house was great.  He’s saying, Lord have mercy.  If we build it on a rock, if we build on the rock of the Lord who has spoken things that are true, truisms.  The problem is that when we go, “Yeah, but” to a truism, we treat it as if it is a falsehood.  [right]  Right?  [yeah]  You say, this will work for you.  

This will work for your marriage.  How do you know?  It’s in the Word of God.  That’s the way it is.  Well, then when you alter that, guess what?  You’re treating a truth as if it’s a falsehood. And therefore, you are standing on your question and your question  cannot sustain you.  [that's right] … The brilliance of your question cannot sustain you in the face of the truth.  Let’s do one more, now.  

Go to, in Chapter 6 go all the way back to verse 33….33… “I have to turn the page.  Are you there?  [yes]  He says, “And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.”  

Let me ask a question.  Is that the truth [yes]  Sure is.  And then, look what He says.  “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.  For He is kind”...He is kind to the unthankful and evil.  [hmmm]  ”Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful.” 

Now I just want, I just want to play with your head for a second…. What is that saying?  Jesus isn’t establishing these as maybe they work.  He is giving Spiritual truth.  He said Spiritual truth.  The Father is merciful.  Spiritual truth.  If you act like Him, and are merciful, guess what He’s saying.  You will receive, what will you receive?  [mercy]   Mercy.  If you lend without expecting to get it back, what will you receive?  [great reward]  You will receive great reward.  He isn’t treating those as if they are suggestions that might work.  He’s giving them, He’s giving them as tenets of truth that they definitely will work.  

Than why is it that even in the Church, when someone asks you to lend you something, you ask them, how much you going to pay me, and when are you going to pay me back?  [laughter]  [now, come on now] … Why do we do that?  And how about this one.  Well, I would have loaned him, but… I would have loaned him the money but what?  But I know he can’t pay me back, and I know.  I know he’s just a lowlife… We do that even in the Church.  And it’s not Gospel.  It’s just cheap.  [yeah]  …. So, what are we doing?  We are saying, “Yeah, but”  to the tenet of truth, which is, God is merciful, therefore be merciful like God.  God is giving, so be giving like God.  Don’t be judging.  If the guy can’t pay you back, then God is saying, “I guarantee you, that I God will pay you back.”  [amen]  That’s a truth.  [that's right]  I’m just trying to use that one because most of us might be guilty of that at some point in time.  

Cause I’ve done it.  I’ve had people, that I know can’t pay me back, ask me for something and I go, “Yeah but, you slime ball, I know you’re not going to pay it back.  So, I’m going to withhold this five bucks.”  As if somehow the five bucks is going to break me.  How many of you know that that ain’t going to happen.  [yes]  Yeah. Come on, elbow the person next to you and say, “Be giving.  Be merciful.”   [be giving, be merciful]  If nobody’s sitting next to you, do yourself.  [laughter]  Ok, that’s the truth, isn’t it?  [yes]  It is the truth.  So, let’s say it together.  God is generous.  [God is generous]  and so am I.  [and so am I]  

Let’s look at some “yeah but” situations.  I’m just, I’m almost about out of time.  But let me just help you with a few “yeah but” situations.  

King David is told not to take a census.  King David goes, “Yeah but.”  Cause he wanted to really know the size of his people, so he could put his chest out and say, “We have enough whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever.”  And it brought a curse upon him and upon the people of Israel.  And a plague broke out.  All because of his, “yeah but.”  

King Saul is going into battle.  King Saul’s going into battle.  And the priest was late coming to give the sacrifice.  [laughter]  And so, King Saul decides, “Huh, some of the people are leaving me.”  Is there anybody here, that you’ve looked around, you were going into a difficult situation, somebody promised to be there with you, and you looked around, and they are not there.  [laughter]  Has that ever happened?  [yes]  Yeah.  Come on, some of you wives know.  [laughter]  Some of you wives know.  He said he was going to go shopping with you, but when it came down to it, he found a way to get out of it.  [laughter]  Now, what I’m saying is, King Saul.  God has given him instructions, the king is to do what the Kings to do, and the Priest does what the priest does.  And the priest gives the sacrifice and the king’s not supposed to be involved in that thing.  And sure enough, he looks around, some of the soldiers are leaving.  He had his strength in the people around him, not in God.  [come on]  He was looking for somebody to do something about his situation.  

I love the President, the Congress, and the Senate.  But trust me, they ain’t going to fix this thing.  I’m not looking for them to fix this thing.  I’m putting my trust in Jesus Christ.  [yea, applause]  He’s the superstar here.  [applause]  He can fix it.  And He can fix my finances and look out for me.  

So, King Saul looked around and says, “Where, where are the trustees?  Where’s the army?”  And half of them were going over the mountain.  So he decides, he’s going to give the sacrifice.  Now the priest shows up…  The priest shows up and says, “Hey, yo, whatcha doing man?”   He said, “Yeah, but…”  [laughter]  I had to do something, yeah but.  Noooooo.  That was his “but.”  Wasn’t it?  [yes]  God snatched the kingdom away from him.  [that's right]  

You see, God has made provision for you and for your own greatness.  Can I preach to you for a second?  God has made provision for your own particular individual greatness.  He’s made provision for it.  He has set people in place to bring it.  He has timed it out.  He has a schedule that you’re going to reach point “A” at such a time.  And then be at point “B” at such a time.  He’s done it all.  But the only problem is your “yeah but”  will detain you.  Will get you off course.  Will hold you back from arriving at the place He has for you.  Where your greatest blessing is going to emerge and you shall have the victory.  But you can’t get there because your yeah but is keeping you on your butt.  [laughter]

I’ve been away for awhile.  I just save it all up for you guys.  But you know, there’s so much that we can, that we can learn from this so that hopefully, yeah but will get caught up in your mouth and you won’t be able to question it.  How many of you know, you’ve heard from the Lord at one point in your life, at least one time?  [laughter]  At least one time.  How many of you will admit it that sometimes that one time was answered by you with a yeah but.  [yes]  Yeah but Jesus it’s too big.  It’s too big.  How about this one.  It costs too much.  [yes]  You know, it costs too much.  I’m afraid of the price tag.  And you go, yeah but, I’ll buy it if it’s free.  [laughter]  I saw a bumper sticker.  It says nothing was free till nothing became nothing.  [chuckles, amen, oh yeah]  Nothing is free until nothing becomes nothing.  So, until it has no value, then yeah, nothing is worth anything unless it has a price tag on it.  And everything that’s worth anything has a price tag on it.  

The most expensive thing to me in this room is my wife.  [there you go, amen]  She’s the most expensive thing I have.  But she is also the greatest value.  [amen, that's right]  I got the best return on value from my wife.  I am way, way ahead for what I spent as a 24 year old man, to get this woman.  I am way ahead.  [applause] … What are you talking about?  What are you talking about?  She wanted a diamond.  Went and bought it with her own money.  [whoot, laughter]  Don’t tell me I’m not blessed!  [laughter]  I’m thoroughly blessed, come on.  We have to see something.  

Things of great value come with a great price.  But if you yeah but during the negotiations, how’s God going to be able to bring it to pass for you?  [amen]  Nothing’s free out here.  But your yeah but…  How many of you have ever had the Lord speak a word to you, and half way beginning you went, “Yeah but.”  

You know what we do in the Body of Christ?  We call it, I need a confirming word.  [laughter]  I need a confirmation.  I don’t think that was the Lord.  Why?  You didn’t think it was the Lord because it was going to cost you more than you wanted to pay.  But you took your eyes off of what the prize was going to be, and you forgot, wait a minute, if It’s God, if God’s in it, the reward is going to be greater than the sacrifice I’m going to make to get it.  [amen]  But my yeah but will do what?  Will withhold it.  It will do what?  It’s an excuse.  [right]  We need an excuse for our fear.  

Why I’d be faithful in Church but I know I got one of these days man, Pastor Don’s going to walk up and ask me to do something.  [laughter]  So let me practice my excuses.  What are you talking about?  If I ask you to do something that didn’t give a blessing of God is going to be on it, and you’re going to be more blessed than you were before you were asked to do it.  [amen]  What are you talking about?  What are you talking about?  

Excuses.  The other one, the yeah but will do is throw you a postponement.  [yep]… You know, you ever go to somebody’s house for dinner and sit awaiting for them to serve the dinner?  No, that doesn’t happen to you all.  But trust me, as a pastor, it happens.  [laughter]  You know, they invite you for dinner, and you sitting there, and they’re talking, and then you’re sitting there, and they’re talking, and you’re sitting there, and they’re talking and you’re sitting there, and they’re talking.  [laughter]  I lean over and say, “Was this a counseling session or dinner?”  [laughter]  Do we get to eat in between their talking?  [laughter]  They’re just postponing the meal.  Come on now, you all.  It’s like they’re afraid that if you eat, you’re going to run.  You know.  The sooner you feed me, I’m going to sit and stay.  But postponement.  

Do you realize how many times we postpone the blessing that God has for us.  He’s got something really, really good for us, but we postpone it because we’re yeah butting it.  [yes]  Does anybody know what I mean?  (singing)  Surround me, oh Lord.  Surround me, oh Lord.  Surround me, oh Lord.  Let your presence fill this place.  Oh, just invite Him into your heart today.  

This is a closed captioned  transcript from a Sunday Sermon preached by Pastor Don Moore on 1/8/10

I lightly edited it for.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  This sermon aired on TBN.

SAY AMEN
SHOW 142 
WATER AND SEED
1-8-10

Well hello my friends.  We’re so glad that you’re with us.  I’m Pastor Don Moore, and we don’t want to waste time talking, so let’s get right into the Word.  

Today’s teaching, I want to meld together an understanding of two words that Jesus talked quite a bit about.  One word is water, and the other word is seed.  And the two come together very importantly in terms of discussion of the receiving of the Word of God, but also the growing of the Word of God as well as surviving the onslaught that comes from our minds and comes from other people against the Word of God.  

Now, in the book of John, in the third chapter Nicodemus, who is one of the teachers of the Law, comes to Jesus at night, and this is a very powerful passage.  I want to read a little bit of it and then let’s get some clarification…. Yes.  Here it is.  And so, Nicodemus comes, “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  And then Jesus, in verse six, gives us a clear and interesting distinction.  He says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  And then in verse 8 He tells us. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  

So here we have a teaching that Jesus is saying that to be born again is by the action of the Spirit, and He says that when the Spirit moves in this way, we may not see it coming or see it going, but we know that it was spiritual, that the Spirit did something.  But prior to that, He tells us that the Water, He says that you must be born of water.  

Now, when I grew up, a young man in the Gospels and all, it was taught that that water is from the water that is in the belly of the pregnant woman.  That when her water breaks, that is the water, so you must be born of water.  The water, you know, that fluid that comes out.  But that can’t be so because it says flesh is born to flesh and Spirit to spirit.  So we have the flesh and we have spirit and therefore flesh is not pregnancy and the water, all of that, is that all not physical?  It is.   And so it is of the flesh.  

But He says something interesting.  He says you must be born of water.  Therefore, we must remember something.  The Bible is it’s own definition of its own terms.  The Bible, when it uses Bible terms, we must look into scripture to find out what it’s talking about.  And therefore, water here, is not referring to H2O, nor is it referring to pregnancy of the fluid, nor is it saying baptism.  This has been taught for a long time, that it is of baptism.  But isn’t baptism of the flesh?  Isn’t it physical?  It is a spiritual act that we are carrying out, but we are carrying it out in the flesh realm.  

We take our physical bodies, our fleshly bodies, and immerse them in physical water and we come up out of the water.  Is that not the flesh making a decision to go down and the flesh coming up?  And we know for a fact, many people, many people get wet but don’t get changed in baptism.  Therefore, it has to be flesh upon flesh, when what the Apostle is telling us, what Jesus, as an Apostle, as a Prophet, as a Teacher, as the Great I AM. Is He not saying that there is an experience from God of the Spirit causing change?  But there’s water.  What is that water?  So, if we’re gonna say it’s not the fluid.  If we’re going to say it’s not the water of baptism.  

We’d have to look into the Scriptures to find other places where there is mention of water and see if we can get what the Bible says this water is.  Now, when we look at this, we realize that, from the other scriptures, we have a number of passages that can help us with this.  One is in Ephesians, Ephesians 5:26  It tells us that Husbands should wash their wives in the water of the Word.  Washing them in what?  The water of the Word.   And then it also tells us in 1 Peter, let’s turn there.  1 Peter, Chapter 1, verse 22-23 and this is a very powerful passage that Peter gives us in Chapter 1, And He says, beginning at verse 22.  ”Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,”  And here it goes, verse 23, are you ready?  ”…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,…”  How?  ”…through the word of God which lives and abides forever,…”  So we can see from these passages of scripture that the Word of God is not only referred to as seed, but it is also referred to as water.  And we have the washing of water, through the Word.  

For you Bible students, you can also look up Ezekiel 26 verse 25 and Titus Chapter 3 verse 5.  These are also references to the mystery of the Word of God as being the Water of God.

Now, let’s take a look at the seed.  We go into the book of Mark, well, let’s go to Matthew first.  No, let’s go to Mark.  Let’s go to Matthew, let’s go to Mark.  Which do you want to go to?  Ok, we’ll go to Matthew.  So, in the book of Mark, I got a kick out of that.  I don’t know if that helped anybody, but that sure helped me.  

In the book of Mark, in the 4th Chapter verse 14.  The book of Mark in the 4th Chapter.  Jesus is talking about the parable of the sower.  And right away in verse 14, we want to look at that.  Verse 14.  Here’s what He says.  ”The sower sows the word.  The sower sows the word.”  So we have that the Word of God is also expressed as water, but we see here that Jesus is using it as an expression of seed.  And He says that the sower goes to sow seed.  

Now, in our culture, we don’t see many sowers.  But a sower was one, he’d have a bag over his shoulder filled with seeds.  He’d reach in and he would then spread the seed over the soil that had been opened up and prepared.  They’d dig in, grab a handful, and he’s sow it.  So He says, then, that the sower, which is a picture now of the believer, a picture of the saint, a picture of the teacher, a picture of the preacher, he takes the Word and he spreads it.  You, my friends, are also sowers, and you should be spreading the Word of God, sharing it with neighbors and friends, with your children and people that come into your life.  Spreading it about.  Believing that some of it is going to, like the scripture says, is going to fall on thorny soil.  Some of it’s going to be choked out by the worries and the cares of this life.  But the promise of God is, some of it will fall on good soil, and bring forth a crop, 30, 60, and even a 100-fold blessing.  

Now in seed, when we talk about seed, you know, pastors can’t help it, but to talk about sowing financial seed and bringing forth.  But in this particular parable of the sower, Jesus is talking about sowing the Word of God.  And then in Mark Chapter 4, if we look again, at this passage, as we follow it to its natural conclusion, He tells us something in verse 21.  He says, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?  Is it not to be set on a lampstand?  For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.”  A little bit later He says, “Take heed what you hear.  Take heed what you hear.”  He says, “With the same measure you use,…”  to hear  “…it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”  

This passage is not talking about money, He’s talking about hearing what the sower has sown.  Hearing the water of God, drinking in the water of God.  And so we get a better picture by realizing that a person who hears the Word of God, guess what?  His hearing will enlarge.  

Romans 10:17 says what?  “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  Doesn’t it?  Therefore, our faith is increased because we hear more of the Word, and if we hear more, then He says, more Word will be given to us, if we hear.  Now, let’s look at it in another further passage, in the same text.  In the same book of Mark.  ”And He said, “The kingdom of God...”  watch this.  ”The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.  For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”  

In this passage we get a lot.  Remember, the Word is the seed.  The sower sows the Word of God, the Water of God grows the seed, because faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.  The Seed is the Word we water the Word with more Word, and that Word brings forth more Word for those that will hear.  But He says something, sow the seed, not knowing how it’s going to sprout.  Too often we judge people that we minister to.  We tell them about Jesus and we expect that they’re going to be born again and on fire for the Lord overnight.  But He says, you don’t know the seed that you sow and that you water, you don’t know how it’s going to spring forth.  And Jesus tells us that at first it’s going to come up just a little bit, then a little bit more, then a little bit more, then it breaks forth unto the harvest.  

We get another clear picture, and I love talking about seeds.  But the mustard seed is the one that Jesus really nails down.  Let’s take a look at the mustard seed.  In verse 30, Jesus talks about the mustard seed and He says, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?  Or with what parable shall we picture it?  It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”  

Now you might be wondering why did Pastor Don have this big artificial tree here.  Oh I know, on TV it looks real, but trust me, it’s plastic.  But look at this beautiful picture.  Let’s say, if this were a mustard seed, we would be getting an example and we can understand the mystery of it.  He is saying that the mustard seed’s small.  If you shake out some pepper out of a pepper mill, the seeds are very, very small.  That’s how small mustard seeds are.  They’re just little tiny specks.  But a mustard seed would grow to a bush like this.  It would be big.  And it would have a lot of stuff.  And He says the birds would come, and notice we’ve got these nice artificial, can’t fly red birds here.  And they nest in it, and they find a place of shade in it.  

Jesus is telling us that faith, when we look at faith and the Word of God, watch this now.  The Word of God is water, it causes things to grow, seed causes what?  Something to spring up and be multiplied.  In other words, our seeds are Words of God, Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.”  If we will speak and sow the Word of God, guess what?  It will grow the largest, it will grow the largest of all things on earth.  In other words, it will cause growth that will be greater than doing anything else we could do, if we will have mustard seed faith.  

We need to know something about mustard seed faith.  Faith, described as mustard seed, Jesus is trying to tell us two things.  First of all, it has been told to me, that the mustard seed cannot be cross pollinated with anything else.  In other words, you cannot mix doubt with your faith.  You cannot mix unbelief with your faith.  You cannot mix wishing and hoping with your faith.  That your faith must remain pure.  And so, faith, though, mustard seed faith, means that it is pure, it is faith without doubt in it.  

And then, one of the greatest teachings of all, Jesus said, mustard seed, it can be small as a mustard seed and your faith can move mountains.  Well, what did He mean?  What was the mystery?  He is saying, that our understanding of faith has been wrong.  We’ve prayed for years, “Lord, give me more faith.”  Well, you can’t get more faith.  You can only get, listen to me carefully, either you have faith or you don’t. Mustard seed, small as a mustard seed, if you even have that much faith, you have enough to move a mountain.  You don’t need anymore faith because faith, my brothers and my sisters, it is qualitative, in the sense that you may have faith for sickness, but not have faith for salvation.  You may have faith for walking on water but not have faith for the common cold.  You may have faith for healing of cancer, but you may not have faith for blind eyes being opened.  

You may be like the apostles, who had faith for the multiplication of fish and loaves, but when they saw the water troubled, they were afraid and thought that they would die.  They did not have faith for that.  

So in conclusion, my brothers and my sisters, let us remember that the Word of God is the water of God, the water is the Word, the Word is water.  That seed, when He’s talking about seed, He is talking about faith that can come by the planting of the right Words.  And that Water and the Words are right.  And we are but sparrows, we are pictured as these birds that can hide in the tree of faith.  We are pictured as birds that can find the shade by faith.  We can find the secret place, a hiding place.  We can find a place of security.  We can be like the little sparrow, that the song talks about.  That if we keep our eyes on Christ, our seed faith will grow.  

The Word of God, the Water of God will pour upon us, cleansing us and provide for us, not just a hiding place and a place of safety, but also a place of power.  May this word richly, richly get down into your heart.  Be careful, make sure you’re sowing Word Seed.  

The money thing is true and it works, but your seed faith must also be the fruit of your mouth and the Water of God, and He says, that if you have that, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.  God bless ya.  

Let us now enjoy the music of minister Joy Fisher Pollard.  (Singing)  Why should I feel discouraged?  Why should the shadows come?  Why should my heart be lonely and long for Heaven my home?  Jesus is my portion.  My constant friend is He.  And His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  Let not your heart be troubled.  His tender words I hear.  And resting in God’s goodness, I lose all my doubt and fear.  Go by the path He leadeth, only one step at a time I see.  Still, His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  That’s why I sing, because I’m happy.  And I sing because I’m free.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  That’s why I sing, I sing because I have to.  Oh, I sing because Jesus set me free.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me….

(singing)  Oh Lord, there is no one like you.  Not in Heaven, or earth, or beneath.  You spoke the Word and formed the mountains, and you breathed your Spirit in me.  You are awesome.  You are marvelous.  You made the planets.  You made each tiny babe.  You are mighty.  You are wonderful.  Maker of Heaven and earth, and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth, and me.  By your Word you created the mountains, the stars as your story still stand.  By your love, you sacrificed Heaven’s Treasure, scribed my name in the palm of your hand.  You are awesome.  You are marvelous.  You made the planets.  You made each tiny babe.  You are mighty.  You are wonderful, maker of Heaven and earth, and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me.  You are awesome.  You are marvelous.  You made the planets.  You made each tiny babe.  You are mighty.  You are wonderful.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me…

(singing)  Hallelujah, hallelujah, you are Holy God alone.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, you are Holy God alone.  Jehovah Jireah, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi, Ts-idtkenu, You’re my Provider, You are my Fortress.  You are my Shield, and my Righteousness.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, You are Holy God alone.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, You are Holy God alone.  Jehovah Jireah, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi, Ts-idtkenu.  You’re my Provider, You are my Fortress.  You are my Shield, and my Righteousness. … 

I just finished an awesome book, thought you might like to see my review.  If you want, I would love for you to go and vote for my review at the following address:

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/view/4585

While you are there, consider joining the site and reviewing books.  It is an incredible site.

 

Have a blessed day,

Heather

 

Lazarus Awakening by Joanna Weaver

 

Joanna Weaver has a gift of taking a Bible passage and looking at it from new angles. In the passage where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, most commentators focus on Mary and Martha, but Joanna shows us that Lazarus plays a vital role as well. What did he do?  He died.  He never speaks in the Bible, never does anything dramatic, but when Jesus is sent for, they tell Him that the one He loves is sick unto death. We live in a performance-oriented world and it is hard to believe that God loves us and it has nothing to do with what we do or don’t do.  Joanna shows us how to live in His love and how Jesus can bring us back to life no matter how dead our circumstances and life seems. There is a resurrection awaiting each and every one of us if we reach out and accept His love.

 

Jesus rolls away the stones of our lives and commissions others to remove our grave clothes.  Lazarus Awakening speaks about how God deals with the stones of unbelief, unforgiveness and unworthiness that cover the tombs of our lives.  Jesus calls us forth from our tomb, but we need to take the first shuffling steps out.  With study guides that provide provocative questions, individuals and small groups can begin to look at what stones need to be rolled away and how to shuffle out of our tomb.  Joanna answers questions that we have most likely asked, such as, why did Jesus wait for so long to come to aid Lazarus?  Why do circumstances seem to repeat themselves in our lives?  Why is God taking so long to answer my prayer? This book provides answers that make it easier to trust in God and wait on His timing.  She points out that Jesus loves us so much that He is willing to wait until we are willing to die to ourselves so He can restore us.

 

Once out of the tomb, we do not grow spiritually in a vacuum.  Restoration is a process, but true restoration comes only after what is old and no longer working in our lives dies. One of the most helpful chapters for me in Lazarus Awakening was Joanna Weaver’s guidelines of things we can do to lovingly help others unwind the grave clothes that bind.  The one who is in charge of healing is the Holy Spirit but there are things we can do to help.  She also shows us how to avoid hurting others in our zeal to help them.

 

Besides the study guide, there are appendixes that provide websites and resources for resurrected living, reminding us who we are in Christ, hints for unwinding grave clothes, and recognizing strongholds in an individual’s life. I was so blessed by this book that I plan to purchase extra copies to give to friends that I know have been delivered from their own tombs.

 

I highly recommend this book.  To find out more about her and her other books, you can visit her website at www.JoannaWeaverBooks.com  

 

Waterbrook Multnomah books provided me with this copy of Lazarus Awakening for review.

 

This is a transcript of a sermon preached by Pastor Don Moore of Living Word Chapel, West Hurley, New York on 1/3/10

I have slightly edited it to make it easier to read – what is in [brackets] is what the congregation says. I made some of the major concepts bold.

SAY AMEN
SHOW 140
JANUARY 3, 2010 

Amen.[amen]  You may be and get your Bibles.  Let me see them.  Lift them up, come on, lift them up.  This is [this is]  the Word of God [the word of God] in my hand  [in my hand]  in my heart [in my heart]  in my mouth [in my mouth].  I love  [I love] the Word of God [the Word of God].  Come on, I love [I love]  the Word of God [the Word of God].  I love [I love]  the Word of God [the Word of God].  Amen.  

I want you to look at two scriptures with me.  And then we want to talk.  And I want you to start with Psalm 37.  Psalm 37.  If you don’t have a Bible, you can look under your seat or look on with the person next to you.  Psalm 37.  Are you there yet?  [yes]  If you’re there, say, “I’m there.”  [I'm there].  If you’re not, say, “I’m working on it.”  [I'm working on it].  Well, more people are working on it than are there.  Ok, Psalm 37.  

This is one of my favorite Psalms, and I’ve never looked at this aspect of it until yesterday when seeking the Lord, He said this was, this is a good topic, why  don’t you present this to the people for their listening.  So I want you to begin with me, we’re only going to read seven verses, but I want you  to hear it as the Lord speaks it.  

Psalm 37:1-7  ”Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.  For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.  Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.  He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”  I want you to read verse 7 with me.  You ready?  Come on.  ”Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”  

I want you to look at the first line of that passage.  In verse seven it says, “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him.”  Today I want to talk to you about that word, rest.  R-E-S-T.  As I went to sleep, I was thinking about it.  And in the middle of a dream, the Spirit spoke to me and gave me one of those things, you know, what do they call them when they put a letter with a word.  [acronym] acronyms for it.  So, I want you to write this down.  And we’ll go through it and be blessed.  Rest.  R-E-S-T.  

The first word, “R” is to RELY.  To rely.  
The next one, “E” is EASY.  
“S” is two words, SATISFIED and STILL.  Satisfied and still.  
And “T” is two words, TIME and TRUST.  Time and trust.  

Let’s go to the book of Matthew in the 11th Chapter… Matthew, Chapter 11.  There are two verses in Matthew, Chapter 11  that are of great importance to us.  We want to see if we can’t gather this in.  Verse 28.  Matthew 11, verse 28.  And it reads, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls…”

These passages speak of this rest that God has for us.  When we look at the long history of God speaking to His people, from Genesis to Revelation, we have to honestly admit that God, when He started the whole thing off, was concerned about rest from the beginning.  For He made everything and on the seventh day He rested.  Isn’t it interesting that rest in the seventh day, the number seven itself, echoes down through the pages of history, and tells us that that rest, Lord have Mercy!  That that rest is provided for us by God in that He rested also in His own day.  He got to the seventh day and He said, “Everything is now complete and my work is finished, guess what?  Let’s rest.”  

It’s interesting to me that at this time period here, in these quote, “Last Days.”  The one thing that the World is taking away from us is our ability to rest.  We are driven people.  We are so driven that we are never quite satisfied or at peace enough to rest.  I was speaking to a friend and I just asked him, you know, “Well, when’s the last time you went fishing?”  And he said to me, “Who’s got the time to go do that?”  

And I watch and I see that very seldom are we able to sit down and do nothing.  Nothing looks like this.  We get something to drink, get something to eat, sit in front of the TV, and find something that is stimulating to the point of excitation.  So we very seldom ever rest.  We’re usually looking for a movie that is dramatic or drama, is going to emotionally affect us to tears, or affect us to celebration, or is going to bring us to high blood pressure of battles, of life and death.  Or, we’re going to go on the shopping channel and look at what we don’t have, and get frustrated, trying to figure out how we can find it.  [laughter]  

And yet we would say, “What did you do today?”  We would say, “I rested.”  You liar!  You did not.  [laughter]  You looked for ways to get diversion and ways to get excitement.  

And what’s wrong with our marriages?  People don’t know how to rest in their marriage, so they look for some stimulant outside of it.  I actually had a woman sit in my office and say, “I want out of this marriage.”  And I said, “Why?”  She says, “Because it’s too peaceful.  There’s nothing going on.”  [Oh! What in the world?  Nothing going on?]  And I said, “Baby doll, do you have any idea how exciting it’s going to get if you divorce this man?”  [laughter]  

She said, “What do you mean?”  I says, “Well, you know, your economics are going to be affected.  Your sex life is history.”  I says, “You’re just going to go through a lot of turmoil.  Do you need that?”  ”Well, aaah, well aaaah, well aaaaa…he’s boring.”  I said, “Well train him.”  [laughter]  ”Teach him how to jump rope or something.”  [laughter]  I got a kick out of that.  [laughter]  

But we’ve forgotten the art of resting.  We look at recreation of, you know, let’s go to Disneyland and lose our minds.  Let’s run around and stand in line and, what is the excitement about getting on a rollercoaster so that you feel like you just lost your gut?  [laughter]  We don’t know how to rest.  We don’t know how to just do nuttin’  To just cool, you know, even some of the books.  I don’t see how anyone can call reading a Stephen King novel resting.  [laughter]  I’m relaxing.  Have you ever looked at these romance novels?  [laughter]  You know, Jesse, isn’t that his name?  Something.  I don’t even know.  I just see people reading these things and getting all excited.  But we don’t know how to rest.  

God gave us the Sabbath to rest.  So the devil invented Sunday football.  [laughter]  And when that wasn’t enough, they moved all the little league games on to Sunday.  Did anybody notice this?  [yes]  The devil doesn’t even want you in your church where you might just relax and go home happy.  Well, I’ve got to dump my Pastor.  Why?  He doesn’t get me excited…. You know, he’s not entertaining.  I leave church at peace.  It’s not the way it’s supposed to be.  I should be agitated!  [laughter]  What???  We should be able to rest.  

Men are a problem when it comes to resting.  They don’t know how to do that.  A lot of men have forgotten how to just play.  One of the joys, one of the greatest joys of my life when my kids were little was just sitting.  I would just go in the living room and sit on the floor.  And they would just come and roll around and we’d laugh, and play. And my wife would say, “What are you doing?”  I would say, “Doing nothing.”  And we were, we were doing nothing but it sure was fun.  [amen]  I don’t want to wrestle with them now cause they’re bigger and stronger than me, but you know, they don’t know that, though.  [laughter]  There’s just some things as a father you don’t tell your kids.  

So this word, rest… God has given us the Sabbath so that we would learn to rest.  He has given us salvation so that we would come into a relationship that we could rest in Him.  He’s going to give us Heaven so we can rest from our labors.  Rest is essential.  

They did a study many years ago, of giving a culture.  They developed a culture where people would not be able to rest.  They gave them an 8 day work week. And you know, the Beatles had a song about it.  Eight days a week.  What we have in this culture, they did it, they went to a village in Mexico and tried it.  And they didn’t give the people a seventh day rest.  Within 30 to 60 days people were having nervous breakdowns and mental struggles and all kinds of problems broke out because they didn’t know how to rest.  

I was a professional workaholic.  I worked seven days a week, all the time.  And I’m not bragging about it.  It was the stupidest thing ever.  Not only did I work seven days a week, but I worked two and three jobs during those seven days a week.  And I had all the justification for it.  I was doing it for my family.  They didn’t know who I was.  [laughter]  I’d come in sometimes to eat and they’d go, “Who is this guy?”  [laughter]  My wife would just make food and put it in a plastic container and she’d be standing by the stove, and as I was going out the door she would just, put it out.  

You know, there was a song in those days.  The guy’s in Boston, he gets on the train, and he’s stuck on the train forever.  [Charlie and the MTA]  ”Charlie and the MTA.” (singing) “He never returned, no he never returned, and his fate is still unknown.  Poor Charlie, he may ride forever, neath the streets of Boston, he’s the man who never returned.”  The guy got on the subway and didn’t have enough money to get off. So his wife would run down to the station as the train passed by, she’d hand him food to go through.  

You know, we have ridiculous scenarios like that that we do.  We’re working, we’re working for a reason.  We’re working for a goal.  We’re working for a purpose.  And we have to ask ourselves, is that what God created me for?  [there you go]  Did God create me to be a workaholic?  Did God create me to destroy myself?  Why do men and women have affairs?  It’s usually because they’re working so hard, watch this now.  They’re working so hard that they needed a diversion and distraction.  And then they make bad choices… Rest.  

“R” rely upon.  Who do you trust tonight?  Who are you relying upon?  There’s probably maybe only two people out of this vast crowd that’s here today that could possibly really say, “I have absolutely no financial worries.”  I absolutely have no financial need.  But for the most of us, most of us have needs and the bills are going to come.  And we have bills to pay on a regular basis.  We have rent or we have a mortgage.  And we have these needs.  I’m not saying that you don’t have needs, I’m saying that in the process of life, who are you relying upon for life?  Not just to meet your finances or your bills.  Who are you relying upon for life?  Who are you trusting in and relying upon?  Who are you placing the weight of your life upon?  

I can remember being younger and feeling that I had to be a success.  And that I had to be a success for the different reasons I defined, success.  And then I realized, wait a minute.  There’s something about this thing called Christ living in me… [hah, I know]  That if Christ is living in me, might it be that He wants to rest with me sometimes?  [come on]  I had a really hard time a few years ago when I realized that financially we were at the place where I could buy a boat.  And I really thought boats were really expensive, this boat was only $6000, which you know, you can get a used car for that.  So I bought a used boat for that.  You know, I felt guilty getting on the boat and doing nothing?… I could always think whenever I got on the boat in the water, I got this boat to rest and relax with my wife, and I’d get on there and just feel so guilty that I needed to do something.  

And then I began to look around the harbor, and do you know what I saw?  I saw everybody that bought a boat, they bought their boats to work on their boats.  And they’d be down there every weekend working on the boat.  After awhile, I would go down there and I would say, well maybe I’m supposed to work on the boat.  [laughter]  And so, I’d bought all the sponges and the sticks and all the other stuff, [laughter]  and I’m down there, and I’m scrubbing the hull of the boat, and waving at the people scrubbing the hull of their boat and looking over, and my wife is downstairs and she’s doing the carpet, and she’s doing the curtains, and she’s wiping down the cabinets, and she’s whatever, whatever.  

And it just dawned on me, wait a minute.  It took awhile not to feel guilty that I got it.  Now I’m feeling guilty that I’m not working on it.  And I says, “Am I crazy?”  I saw that I’m scrubbing, I saw this guy walking down, “Hey what do you do?”  He said, “I work on people’s boats.”  I said, “Good. Cause I’m through working on mine.”  [laughter]  ”Come over here.  Clean this boat, and I’ll see you later, because I bought it to rest on it.”  [amen]  

I’m talking to somebody here.  Some of you bought timeshares, and you don’t use them.  I had a lady say to me, “Pastor Don, I’m too busy to use my timeshare.”  I said, “Well, give it here.”  [laughter]  I’ll find a way to rest.  Because why?  At some point you have to say, “Who are you relying upon?”  Well, I want to rely on the LORD to get me through from point A to point B.  [amen]  I want to rely on Him to give me a God idea as to what I should be doing for money, or how to do it for money.  Who are you relying on?  Are you relying on the Lord to put you in position to promote you?  And give you God ideas to move forward with it.  Who are you trusting in?  Who are you relying on?  REST.  To rest means to rely upon God who is greater than you because He will lead you.  You all know that one about He’ll guide my steps.  What’s wrong with those verses?  He’ll light my path.  What are those all about?  Those are about relying on God to get a God idea.  

We sat around the table and there was a question around the table, and it said, “To discuss dreams and goals.”  Dreams and goals.  One young lady came up with a beautiful answer.  She said, “A dream is what you, a dream is what you think about or dream about or fantasize about, that comes up.  And a goal is what you decide to do about what you dreamed about.”  [amen]  I thought that was a beautiful thing.  But when you’re dreaming, what are you relying upon to bring you from dream to identify it as a goal? … Did I just lose you?  You’re looking at me funny.  

In other words, there are many things we dream about, but at some point, when does that transfer into this is now a goal?  Well I want to just offer.  How many are born again believers?  Guess what, the One who’s to point out if your dreams becomes a goal is God.  [yes, amen]  He’s supposed to tell ya, that’s a dream, but now go for it.  He’s the one that’s supposed to set your sail in the right direction and say, “Go for this now.”  Because why?  ”If you rely upon Me, I will bring it to pass for you.”  [hallelujah]  

The next one is “E” for easy.  Easy.  And I thought about it.  I’m in the middle of the night.  It’s 3:00 in the morning.  And the Lord is giving me, easy.  And you know what He said?  ”Take it easy.”  We need to lighten up.  [yes]  We are just too dog gone serious.  [yep]  We need to really lighten up and laugh.  I’d buy joke books.  I read them whether they’re good or not.  And the goods ones I tell you, the bad ones, I just go, ha, ha, ha.  I laugh at the bad ones too.  [laughter]  I laugh at them because they’re bad.  I get just as many laughs from telling a good joke good or a bad joke bad.  It’s true.  I just enjoy it.  

We need to take it easy.  We are really too serious.  [yes]  I mean, we’re just too serious.  I said, “We’re just too serious.”  [yes]  Some of you people who are working for your salvation, are the most serious, boring, hardworking, people in the world.  And you need to take it easy.  [amen]  I mean, take it easy.  Easy.  Take it easy.  Don’t take up golf if you want to relax.  That’s a bad hobby.  You can’t play golf and have it relaxing till you learn how to take it easy.  You don’t care where the ball goes, just as long as it goes.  [laughter, right]  Easy.  

How many of you have ever paid a bill?  [laughter]  Come on, raise your hands.  How many of you have ever paid a bill?  How many of you know for sure you’re going to have to do it again? [oh, yeah]  Take it easy.  Take it easy.  After you pay that one, there’s another one coming.  Why should you get upset?  I have two piles of bills.  Ones I can pay, the ones that I can’t.  And guess what?  I’m not attached to either pile.  [laughter]  I just put them up there and I put the other ones next to it, and they seem to get along fine.  [laughter]  We really need to take it easy.  

I’ve seen many people ruin their lives because they feel they should have this amount of money and whatever.  You know, a guy told me, “I can’t be happy.”  ”Why can’t you be happy?”  ”I don’t have enough money to retire.”  That’s a lie.  You have enough money to retire.  You have enough to retire!  Cause whatever it is that you’ve got, when you get ready to retire, that’s all you’re going to get.  [laughter]  So how can it not be enough?  That’s what you got.  

“S” – satisfy.  We need to reach a point where we just go, “That’s good enough.”  [alright]  That’s good enough.  The other day I was in a car, I was, one of the sisters cars.  I got in the car, it was a mess.  So I had to kick all of the stuff out of the way.  [laughter]  So I had somewhere to put my feet, and throw the stuff off the seat.  So I had somewhere to put my behind.  And I thought, I thought, it’s cool.  If she’s satisfied with that, I’m satisfied with that.  I brushed off my clothes when I got out the car, [laughter]  but you need to be satisfied.  

Sometimes you’re doing the best you can do.  You go to work, you’ve got kids to take care of, you’ve got meals to cook, you know, if you can’t afford to hire a housekeeper, train your husband.  [laughter]  Train your husband and then just be satisfied.  Some people will buy a bigger house, just because they need more room to put their stuff.  And then they go out and buy more stuff.  If I come to your house and I’ve got to walk through aisles between stuff, I’m going to get you committed and locked up.  But short of that, short of that, we need to be satisfied.  [amen]  

I don’t want to get up every morning and go to a job that I hate.  I’m going to tell myself I’m satisfied with the job till the One I’m relying on, opens another door. [amen]  Be satisfied.  I’m satisfied with my kids.  None of them are going to be President of the United States right now.  But I’m satisfied.  I’m satisfied with where they are in their lives.  And you have to be satisfied.  I’m satisfied with that.  

Still.  Still’s hard for me.  But I’ve really learned how to be still.  I want to ask you a question.  Can you sit down in your house and be still? … Cause if you can’t, you’re out of position to hear from God.  [right]  Learn to be still.  And don’t give me the kids thing.  Eventually the kids go to bed, and then you can be still with the Lord before you go to bed.  Or you can get up a half hour early or 20 minutes early and be still.  I have my chair.  And when I’m sitting in my chair, nobody bothers me.  My wife walks by, the children walk by, and I just get to sit there in my rocking chair, and be still… Can you say, “I can be still?”  [I can be still]  Some of you didn’t tell the truth.  But I pray you’ll work on it.  [yes]  You’ll get wonderful words from the Lord if you can learn to be still.  [amen]  

And then the last one, “T” , time. … Time. .If we’re going to rest in the Lord, we have to realize that time is different  You may set goals and so forth, and so on.  But we’re relying on God.  We’re going to take it easy, we’re satisfied with the way things are, and we’re going to learn to be still so that we can realize that God’s time is not like your time.  [amen]  There’s some marriages in here that, if they had ended 10 years ago, they would never have gotten to where they are now… There’s some of us, that if we had given up on our dream and the goals that God set, we wouldn’t be where we are now.  [that's true]  And we have to recognize that God’s got timing.  One of the sisters in the church, by the time she came here, she didn’t think she would probably ever get married. That it was probably too late for her.  That God’s not going to send the man.  It’s just a done deal.  I remember praying with her and saying, “Oh now, wait a minute.  He’ll give you the desire of your heart.  Give you everything you need.  Let’s just pray and wait for him.”  [amen]  Pray and wait… Pray and wait… Because God’s timing is different than our timing.  God’s got a schedule.  And His schedule is the best.  So we have to then, easy, satisfied, be still, God’s timing, and we’ve got to trust that timing.  God will bring you to the place that is ordained for you, if you’ll trust Him.  Really trust Him.   

I hope this teaching blesses you, it sure is something I needed to be reminded of.

Have a blessed day.

Heather

Taught 2/11/11

A question came up before we could get into our study of Isaiah.  The question was:  A person heard a teaching that said the Church is considered the Bride of Christ, and the Jews who will accept Christ after the rapture are considered the Bride of God.  Is this true?

We looked at a lot of long Scripture passages, I am going to include them for your reference.  This it is a Scripture heavy teaching.

Pastor Don’s reply:

The prophetic promise of God, that God recognizes us as a Bride to the Bridegroom.  Many people walk around with feelings of unworthiness, but we forget our status as the Bride.

In the Jewish wedding ceremony the Bride is in the village waiting for the Groom to come and take her to the Father’s house.  The Groom has gone to prepare a place for His Bride, and when the Father tells Him it is time, the Groom goes to collect His Bride for a seven day wedding feast.  

In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about the 10 virgins – five were ready, five were not ready.

Matthew 25:1-13  Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’  But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’  Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

This is a rapture scripture, of Christ coming to get his bride.  The Church today is asleep.  ”The all slumbered and slept.” 

The Groom in a Jewish wedding ceremony does not come by Himself, He is accompanied by the Friends of the groom.

Who were the friends of Jesus?

John 14:1-3  Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 

John 14:11-12  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 

We are to come and be with Jesus, for we are Jesus’ Bride.

John 14:16-18  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:26-27  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Jesus then speaks about abiding in Him.

Jesus, in speaking to his Disciples calls them His friends – we too are His disciples and friends if we are doing His will.

John 15:14-15  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

God called the Jews His Servants.  Israel means Prince with God.  Israel is a Prince, not a King.  The prince serves the King.  Sometimes the prince will take on the kingly role (but still is not the king) and serve in office in the place of the King.  

No one else was assigned to position of priest (servant of God). 

As believers we are priests and kings.

Revelation 5:9-10 And they sang a new song, saying:  “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” 

We are called to step into the offices of the five-fold ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13  And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,  till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 

Some are apostles, some are prophets, some are evangelists, some are pastors, and some are teachers.

Not every pastor has the teaching anointing.  Pastors are to be apt to teach, but not all are great teachers.

The Hebrew Children are the Servants of God.  The Apostles and followers of Jesus are His disciples, and those who were with him at the Last Supper, these are His friends.

King David was a prince in the office of King on earth.  David’s throne is God’s throne, and David was God’s servant.

John 15:13-15  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 

Jesus has made known to us what he heard from His Father, and we are not blind servants, but rather His friends.

John 15:16-17 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.

Jesus chose a set number, and when the Bridegroom comes, he will come with His friends and a wedding party consisting of the friends of the groom.

Those are the wise virgins who are prepared for Him.

Another parable of Jesus speaks of the end days too.  Pastor Don said that some are going to be surprised at who is in Heaven with the Bridegroom, for some will come in at the last hour and that will not sit right with some believers who have labored long in the field.

Matthew 20:1-7 For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.  And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’  They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’

The ones who were not hired by the eleventh hour are the ones who were lazy and not working, asleep, and waiting for others to do the work. But the Master will hire them.

Matthew 20:8-15 (bold is done by me)  So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’  And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner,  saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 

These workers were working in the vineyard as “friend”.  We are a friend if we make it to the table early on or in the eleventh hour.  All are given the same eternal life.

Matthew 20:16-19 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.” Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death,  and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”

All Scriptures that mention the third day are End Times Scriptures whether in the Old or the New Testaments.

Matthew 22:2-3  The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.

This passage mentions “servants” the Jewish people.  All the early disciples and even Jesus were Jewish.  

There will be an army – the angels of God war on God’s behalf.

The angels will be pouring out the the Judgments of God, and those who are on earth will still reject and curse God.  God is pouring out judgments hoping that it will inspire people to turn to Him, and instead they choose to reject Him.

Matthew 22:10-14 (I marked a word in bold)  So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.

All the Scriptures confirm each other.  Here we see that those who are not the Friend of the Groom are cast out of the wedding – notice the one not in the wedding garment, there are some who say they are saved, belong to Jesus, but Jesus doesn’t know them.  It is not just knowing Jesus, but a relationship with Him that matters.

These who do not know Jesus in relationship are like the five virgins without the oil, they are near the wedding party, but missed getting in the doors, and the doors were closed to them.

God is merciful and He is working hard to get the last of the laborers in at the eleventh  hour before the doors close. The ones left on earth have made the choice to reject Him.

Notice that it mentions friend – a friend is one who serves Jesus, knows Jesus, and can go with the wedding party.

Matthew 25:40-41  And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’  Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:’

God did not prepare the everlasting fire for mankind, but for satan and his angels – but it is the only place that God can send those who choose to reject Him and want nothing to do with Him.

There are some who claim to be born again, but they really have not accepted Christ in their hearts.  They tend to struggle with the same stuff over and over again, and do not turn to Jesus for help. They do not pursue their relationship with Jesus.  Those are the ones that Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”  If you struggle with the same stuff, but are seeking with God’s help to overcome the problem, you are known by God.  But some get saved, and then do not try to turn their lives around, and just go back to their same old stuff.  Those Jesus doesn’t know.

Matthew 24:45-47  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 

The faithful and wise servant does what God tells Him to do.

Matthew 24:29-31  Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The elect are those who operate by the Spirit.  They will get it right, and Jesus will gather them from the four corners of the earth before the Day of the Lord, for we are not to suffer the Lord’s wrath.  Jesus will come in the clouds, this is before He sets His foot on the ground.  We have not seen these days yet, for the sun has not been darkened and the moon doesn’t give the light – the stars are not fallen from Heaven.  This is a prophesy of future times.

We will not receive the punishment and wrath of God.

But we are at a time now where satan is testing the Church.  We are seeing many ministries crumble and fall, hidden sin is being revealed.  Pastor Don is warning that we need to get our lives in order, so that satan doesn’t stand a chance to shake hidden sin out of our lives.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

We are the friends of the Groom and we will be with the Groom at the wedding party, as will those who were with Jesus 2000 years ago and all the time between.  Those who sleep in Jesus (died in Christ) will be caught up and we who are alive on the earth will follow, being caught up to meet with Christ in the clouds, and then we will attend a wonderful Wedding Feast with the Groom.  

Transgression:

Matthew 15:1-3  Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”  He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

Jesus is speaking about Korban.  The Torah told the Jews to honor their mother and father.  That meant taking care of them in their old age.  To circumvent this, the men made a deal with the Temple that they would give an offering to the Temple of the money that really should be spent taking care of their parents.  The men would announce that the money was Korban, and that it would absolve them of their responsibilities to the parents.  That would mean that the parents would die poor and without proper care.  Most probably the men pocketed some of the money and gave a portion to the Temple.  The men were in error but so were the priests for accepting this offering.

We read the next passages from the Amplified which gave more information.

Matthew 15:4-7 AMP  For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother, and, He who curses or reviles or speaks evil of or abuses or treats improperly his father or mother, let him surely come to his end by death.  But you say, If anyone tells his father or mother, What you would have gained from me [that is, the money and whatever I have that might be used for helping you] is already dedicated as a gift to God, then he is exempt and no longer under obligation to honor and help his father or his mother.  So for the sake of your tradition (the rules handed down by your forefathers), you have set aside the Word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect].  You pretenders (hypocrites)! Admirably and truly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said:

Jesus pointed out the the scribes and Pharisees that their traditions kept them from obeying the Law of God.

Transgression is a revolt – national, moral, religious rebellion.  You know what’s right and go against it.  You cannot transgress by accident.

You know what you are supposed to do and you don’t do it on purpose.  It is an intent to disobey.  In another teaching Jesus will tell them that they tithe on their mint and cumin, the nickel and dime stuff, but disobey the heart of God.  Even with the tithe their heart was not right, they got the letter of the law, not the Spirit of the law.

Matthew 15:8-9 AMP  These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me.  Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men.

Jesus got in trouble with the Scribes and Pharisees because he disobeyed the Sabbath laws by healing people and casting out demons on the Sabbath.  The truth was that God gave the Sabbath to man so that man could have a rest and fellowship with God.  The Scribes and Pharisees concocted long lists of rules and regulations that made it impossible for the common man to keep, but these lists took the heart of what Sabbath was and destroyed that.  Jesus pointed out that if a sheep or another animal fell into a pit on the Sabbath the people would rescue the sheep, but why should a sick person be bound one day longer than necessary so that Jesus could wait until a non-Sabbath day to heal them.  He pointed out that a person was more important than an animal.

Iniquity

Iniquity is the propensity to sin, the perversity of our nature, the weakness of our character.  When Jesus talks to the Pharisees about Iniquity the Word He uses is lawless.  The word, lawless, is like the gentiles, not being subject to the law.

Jesus tells the people that they act like they don’t know the law, like they’ve never heard it before.  The Jewish tradition taught that the Messiah was going to come as a conquering Messiah first. Jesus did not come as a conquering Messiah, but as a Suffering Servant.  He chided them for not knowing the hour of their visitation.  The book of Daniel had the day the Messiah was to come down to the day – counting time from the order to rebuild the temple, 173,880 days – the exact day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey was that day.  The leaders were looking for the Messiah which is why they asked John the Baptist if he was the one. The problem was, Jesus did not come in the way that they expected, so they chose to reject Him and ultimately crucify Him.  

Sin

Sin in the Bible is the word that covers not only the offense but the penalty or sacrifice for the offense.  It has the same name.

We say, sin offering.  It is the sin and the offering.    The offense can be habitual or occasional.  

Sin is forgiven if it is atoned for.  Transgression, because it is a revolt, has a bigger cost.

Joy used the sons of Jacob for an example.  Jacob is prophesying over his sons.

Genesis 49:1  And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days:

Jacob knew what his sons did. This is a prophesy about the last days.

Genesis 49:2 Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.

The seed produces children and a nation that will be.  Notice both names are used Jacob/Israel.  Jacob is the old carnal nature, Israel is the name God gave Jacob and God uses it when Jacob is acting in line with God’s will.

Genesis 49:3  Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

Reuben was supposed to get the rights of the first born, which included the double portion.

Genesis 49:4  Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it— he went up to my couch.

He will lose his rights because he slept with the concubine of Jacob, this was not an accident.  He knew what he was doing, so it was a transgression.  This is defying his father, and he loses his standing.

Genesis 49:5-7 Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.  Let not my soul enter their council; let not my honor be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

Simeon and Levi lost the birthright because of their revengeful behavior to those responsible for the rape of their sister Dinah.  They promised their sister in marriage to the heathen (although they never intended to keep the promise) if all the men in the heathen tribe were circumcised, then when the men were in pain, recovering from circumcision  Simeon and Levi came in and slaughtered them.  This upset Jacob and caused Simeon and Levi to lose their birthright.

Genesis 49: 9-12  Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him?  The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

Judah is the fourth son, and because of the transgressions of the first three, he becomes the kingly line.  

Joseph, the last son, because of Ephraim and Manasseh gets the double portion.

When God makes us a promise, we don’t always know the way.  We need to walk it out.  Go up one side of the mountain to go back down.  This is encouragement for God’s children.  We may make mistakes and not do God’s best, but God will help us get back to what He has planned for us if we keep walking in Him.

Joy described our lives as a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and we don’t have the picture on the cover.  We need to figure out where the pieces go, and if a piece is out of place it will show.  The pieces have a set way to be placed in the puzzle and we may not see the whole picture until the puzzle is completed.

We get refined by heat, and anything that is not refined is brittle.  When steel is refined it is sent through great heat and the dross rises to the surface to be skimmed off, leaving a stronger, purer piece of metal.

Those transgressions of Jacob’s children are still with us now.  

When we sow seeds of sins, we need to pray for a crop failure.  Sometimes God grants that, other times, we need to ride out the consequences of our mistakes, even though God forgives us from our sin.

God gives His Name  to Moses in the following passage.

Exodus 34:5-7  Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” 

Notice it mentions all three:  Iniquity, Transgression, and Sin.

Iniquity is the propensity to sin. Made to sin, perversity, to be led to sin, weakness of character, and it gets passed down.  Workers of Iniquity.

Isaiah 59:1-4  Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth.  They trust in empty words and speak lies;  they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. 

Iniquity is the fruit of the conception of mischief, and it is not done by accident.

Isaiah 59:7  Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 

Isaiah 59:12-13  For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: in transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 

Things we allow, and not speak against or confront.  We are familiar with our sins.  We make excuses like, “Everyone in my family does _____”  or “I like doing _____ so much.”  ”He was never successful at _____.” 

We build excuses, rationalization and reasons for why we do what we do.  We say we tried to get ahead, but failed.  ”That’s just the way we are.”

We don’t confront these lies.  We got caught in the traditions of the church, and that is iniquity.

Psalm 119:133  Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.

We make our traditions more important than the Word of God.  Therefore we miss the important part.

In the Exodus 34 passage above, God tells us that He has made provision for all three, Sin, Iniquity, Transgression.

Romans 7:15-16  For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

The law was given to us as a tutor so that we would recognize that we couldn’t keep the law, thus we need a savior.

Joy gave a great example.  She spoke of carnival rides where they have a ruler put near the ride with an arrow stating that if you weren’t that tall you couldn’t get on the ride.  The law is our measuring stick, a standard.  We can’t keep the law in our own strength, we don’t measure up.  The law is good, and we know that we need a standard.

We looked at Romans 7:15-16 in the Amplified Bible   For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns].  Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

Jesus was upset with the Pharisees because they were condemning people because they did not keep the traditions. The Pharisees were not judging according to the Law.  The traditions were made by the Pharisees according to the level of accomplishment that the Pharisees could do and keep, but that defeats the purpose of the Law that God had, which was to show mankind that they did not measure up.

There is a conflict between the Spirit (please God) and the flesh (keep traditions).

Romans 7:24-25 AMP  O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death? O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.  

We continued reading in chapter 8 because there were no chapters in verses in the original Scriptures, that was put by man later.

Romans 8:1 THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.

There is a war.  Jesus won the war for us.  Jesus has conquered sin and death.  We have to agree with the Spirit and reason that He has overcome, so we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony.

Revelation 12:10-11 AMP  Then I heard a strong (loud) voice in heaven, saying, Now it has come–the salvation and the power and the kingdom (the dominion, the reign) of our God, and the power (the sovereignty, the authority) of His Christ (the Messiah); for the accuser of our brethren, he who keeps bringing before our God charges against them day and night, has been cast out! And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing].

The Blood of the Lamb washes any sin and our testimony throws down the enemy.  

Martyrs chose to spread the Gospel, even if it cost them their life.  They placed God over their physical well being.

In the book of Job, Job mentions that what he feared came upon him.  We are told not to fear, fear gives way to the enemy.

In the movie, The Last Unicorn, the protagonist is told to never look an immortal in the eye for it attracts their attention.

We should not speak our fears or worry, or look to see if they are manifesting.  Look to Jesus.

The rest of Romans 8 that I quote is from the Amplified Bible

Romans 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.

The Law of Spirit and Life (Jesus) frees us from sin and death.

Romans 8:3 For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],

The Law subjects our flesh, and we are not powerful enough to overcome our flesh.

Romans 8:4-6  So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit]. For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit. Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

If we focus on the mind of the flesh it leads to death.  If we are led by the Holy Spirit it is life and peace.  

If you are working for the devil, he always signs your paycheck “death.”   You have to quit working for the devil, he will never fire you.  

Retire from stupidity and don’t take a pension.

Romans 8:7-11 [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot. So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him. But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God]. But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you]. And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.

Righteousness is of God.  If it isn’t of righteousness it is filthy rags.

Romas 8:12-14  So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh. For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

The good news, if we are living by the Holy Spirit we are daily buffeting our flesh. We want to be led by the Spirit of God. We gain our strength in Him. Don’t squander your life in the flesh.

Romans 8:15-18  For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father! The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God.  And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory. [But what of that?] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us!

We have received the Spirit of adoption, and can say Abba, Father.  Praise God.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18  Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day. For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!], Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.

What we are experiencing here on earth is a dress rehearsal, not real life.  We are being prepared for God’s glory.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

God has a plan for us.  We are so earthly minded, so attached to the earthly realm.  We are to rise above our flesh.   We can get over the hurt, offense and sadness if we rise above our flesh.  If there is no flesh to crucify, then there is nothing to cause us hurt and offense.

We need to be kingdom minded, focused on God and God’s plan, not earthly minded.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

I pray your day is blessed.

There is a Eugene Peterson book give away contest at the following link:

The requirement is to write a 200 word post about a pastor who has impacted your life.  I just posted an entry for Pastor Don.  If you have a beloved pastor this is a nice way to complement them for their hard work for the Kingdom, whether you win or not.

Have a blessed day

Heather

Notes taken 12-31-10

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 

Part 1 discusses verse one in depth with a great description of the anointing.

Isaiah 61:2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, 

This seals what has gone on before in verse one.  It is linked to healing the broken hearted, healing lives, liberty, good news, easing poverty of mind/body/soul. Relief from mental captivity, depression, emotions.  

If you are in one of the four categories listed in verse one, poor, brokenhearted, captive, prisoner/bound NOW is the acceptable year of the Lord for your healing.  You are not unworthy or unacceptable to God. Notice, it is your acceptable year, not day or minute.  It is not like being issued a gift certificate that expires in 30 days, and you say, “Oops, I missed it.”  This is available to you.  Year implies season, time, 

In the New Testament, Jesus came as the suffering servant, not bringing the vengeance of God.  We did the math regarding the Jubilee of 50 years.  120 times 50 is 6000 years, and then the seventh day.   We are under the year of the Lord but one day there will be the day of vengeance. We don’t know the day or the hour, but we can tell the times and seasons and look at what is happening in the world. We can’t set a specific day like some cults have tried to do so.  Nor can we ignore the vengeance of God.  God is patient and waits, but will not force those who do not want Him to serve Him.

We will not be around when the day of vengeance occurs because of the rapture.  God has promised that believers will not face his vengeance.

We are acceptable to the Father because of Jesus.  No matter our sins we can come boldly into God’s presence because of Jesus.  There are many sects who believe Jews will not be saved, or that we will all face part of the judgments.

God will only pour out his vengeance on those who do not want Him, who hate Him, who want no part of him.  Matthew 24 and 25 give end time events that are occurring now and will be seen in the last days.  God has promised a way to escape for those who seek Him.

Pastor Don pointed out that events are escalating on the earth and the enemy is looking to grab up more and more power.  One example is with the wikki leaks, now there are people lobbying to control the internet – one of the last vestiges of freedom to share information.  They want the truth to be shut down so that it cannot be spread to others.

If there is going to be a trial for being a Christian, do you have enough evidence to convict you?

Pastor Don realized that Isaiah 61:2 is a rapture scripture. What he realized is the conjunction “AND”  is in there

Proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord AND the Day of vengeance of our God.

Jesus speaks about two in the field, one taken and the other staying, etc.

God will punish evil, but will not leave the saints to suffer.  God would never pour out His wrath and leave the saints.

God saves the righteous.

There are many Biblical examples.  Abraham and Lot, God removed Lot and his family from Sodom before destroying Sodom. 

God preserved Noah and his family before the flood.

Jesus spoke about the good steward and the evil steward – the evil is destroyed, the good is preserved.

God always saves the remnant.

Luke 17:27-30  They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.  Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 

Revelation tells us that Babylon will be destroyed in an hour.  Revelation 18:9-10  The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ 

There will be a conflict against Jerusalem, but God will preserve a remnant.

Zechariah 14:2  For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

There will be the remnant, and the 144,000 mentioned in Revelations.

God will give beauty for ashes.  Someone pointed out that ashes are left over from sacrifices.

Pastor Don spoke about how the Jewish New Year is not January 1st, like the Roman Calendar.  We may celebrate New Year’s then, but God’s plan was for Rosh Hashanah is the New Year.  God had specific feasts set out which have been obscured by the Roman Calendar, and if we meet God at His feasts, expecting Him to meet with us, God will meet with us.  We don’t want to turn aside from God’s perfect plan.

Isaiah 30:11-12  Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”  Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: 
“Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perversity, and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.”

Praying this blesses you.

Heather

Revelation of Christ and His mission, anointing, and calling.

We are disciples of Christ and we commit ourselves to be a follower.  

We need to be aware of what image and mission are we following, the Lord’s or the enemy?

Are we willing to suffer like Him (Jesus) and be empowered like Him? Everything we read in the Bible is available to us as a believer, for the asking and the taking.

Isaiah 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 

Yeshua, Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Him.  

Pastor Don shared that his father, who was a pastor for 44 years, before his father began preaching he always prayed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.

The word anointing implies smearing an anointing on something.  It takes contact, rubbing it on, willfully, equipping.

The Holy Spirit smeared the anointing and that anointing made it possible for Jesus to do what He had to do.

God absent ->God present

God is always present but when the anointing comes people are aware of His presence.  

Sometimes the Spirit anoints robes or clothes, cloths, aprons for a specific purpose.

Specific works are empowered by the anointing.

If you want to hang sheet-rock on the wall you can’t hold it up next to the struts and expect it to stay there. You need to fasten the sheet-rock with something.  You need a Black and Decker with screws.  If a carpenter comes along, he may loan you the Black and Decker and screws.  He may help you to hang the sheet rock but there is also work that you will have to do.

God tells us, “I’ve given you the drill so you can put it up.

Pastor had us laughing.  He said some men pray, “Lord, change my wife.”  God answers, “I did, I gave her you.”

The anointing is the enabling ability to accomplish the work of God under the power of God, at the time God wants it done.

You can’t do it in your own flesh, you need the anointing.

Pastor said, “The anointing can be felt and telt, but it can’t be seen by everybody.”  You can feel or tell people are anointed, but you can’t always see it.

People look at you through their own filters. If they are blaming, angry and resentful they won’t see the anointing because their filters will block their perceptions.

In Jesus’ time they did not see the fruit of His anointing, they crucified Him.

You can do the work of God and not everyone will cheer you on.  Jesus said that a prophet is not honored in His own home town.

The anointing is not discerned unless the beholder can see that aspect of the Spirit.  

When the anointing is on you, you won’t win popularity contests, they will do the same things to you that they did to Jesus.  They will take from you what they can gain from you, but not be willing to bless you.

The anointing is the ability of God to do something God wants you to do in His power.

No one has the anointing on them all the time.  It’s only on when God wants to accomplish something.

Pastor Don spoke that when he has the teaching anointing on him, he can communicate to you what God wants taught.  The teaching anointing is the supernatural ability to teach the Word and the supernatural ability to understand. 

The anointing responds to your spirit.  It is not on you all the time, sometimes you are just you.

All of us flow at something.  We shut off our mental gears and just flow.

We need to be aware of the anointing on others. Sometimes we kill another’s anointing and are a distraction.  We need to discern when we are killing an anointing and stop doing that.

Only God is capable of being in the anointing all the time, the human flesh is incapable of this.

The mind is the enemy of the Spirit. You have to turn off your mind.  God gave us the ability to speak in tongues to shut off our mind so we can be in the Spirit. 

Your body can’t rest if your mind is still grinding.  You can’t worry yourself well or worry yourself taller.  You can’t worry your problems away.  If you are worrying you are magnifying your problems. Worry is prayer for trouble.

Under the anointing the answer will come, and if the answer doesn’t come under the anointing it may indicate that you are asking the wrong question or it is something that God feels you shouldn’t worry about.  God is not obligated to answer the wrong problem.

When we don’t get the answer or the answer we want, sometimes we try to play God.

You can’t access the anointing but you can access getting into the Spirit. God knows your need and your ability.  In the Spirit let him take over and He will do what He needs.

Get in the Spirit, then identify the anointing and what the Holy Spirit is transmitting.

The Spirit of the Lord is inside us, but the anointing comes upon us.  You can be in the Spirit and not anointed.  You can have the anointing stirred up in you by the laying on of hands which transfers the anointing.  Jeremiah asked for a minstrel to get him in the presence of God so he could get the Word of God.

What matters to God is not the ability of the minister but the sincerity of the heart. Worship is not bound by limitations of carnal desire.  Worship of God is getting in the flow, disregarding your carnality. The Bible tells us that in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of Joy.

Christ’s anointing + the Purpose  The first is the anointing, and the purpose is what we do with it.

The purpose is to preach good tidings to the poor.  Good news to a pour person is that they don’t have to be poor. Poor is the absence of prosperity, substance, material, and the condition of all things of the heart that makes you feel a lack of empowerment.

Jesus teaches contrary to the feelings of impoverishment, and He brings good tidings.

Just because your Grandma and Momma were on welfare doesn’t mean that you need to be on welfare.

You can break the curse of poverty over your life – now that’s good news.

You can take the anointing as big as you make it.  God facilitates you as long as you stay humble and meek. There is value in meekness (which is not weakness) and God will reward you and send good coming your way.  Blessed equals happy and cared for.  Get off the idea that the only blessing is money, you can be impoverished in other areas as well.

Your blessing can be being happy and content, well provided for, healthy, wisdom, friends, family – and money, but it is not just money.

Lowly is only negative if you put negativity into it, meekness has positive aspects.  Jesus was meek but he wasn’t weak or a whimp.

Matthew 11:29-30  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Not prideful.
David was humble.  Moses was humble, and he was the Prince of the Egyptians.  Moses was humble to a fault for when God sent him to do his task he kept telling God that he couldn’t.

Pastor Don spoke about his visit to India.  He was laying hands on people and praying for them but the Indian pastors were only laying hands on people of their own caste or higher.  There are still remnants of the caste system among Indian believers.  Not all pastors are like that, but there are still remnants of the caste system in some pastors because the caste system is still well ingrained.  

No one is trash or rejected, as believes we are all equal to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In Africa it is a tribal system, and people look to see if you are “with us or with them”  Pastor Don’s behavior put him in a position of eldership and people would call him, “Uncle.”  

Good news is you can raise up from where you are.

Jesus told his disciples that the poor would always be with us, so we need to work to help lift them higher.

Heal the brokenhearted - It’s always hard for someone who has been through a difficult season or time to be healed. Zaccheus was short and when Jesus said, “I’m visiting you,” it was that that allowed him to rise above himself and make changes in his dealings with people.  

Jesus honors people that many do not honor, for example, tax collectors and women.  When Jesus raised the young man from the dead he was honoring the mother.  Without the son, the mother would have been impoverished.

One way to begin to heal from brokenness is to have compassion for others who are hurting. If you can get outside of yourself, then you can begin healing.

Proclaim Liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to those who are bound - 

You can be born again and filled with the Spirit, and still stay in jail.  The jail door can be opened but some do not walk out, they stay in their former prison.

Some of us are bound by traditions.  Others want everyone else to change but we are the ones who need to change and get a different vision.

Pastor Don spoke about how a pastor can get a sermon from the Spirit and preach it, and people think that he wrote it just for them. Sometimes people come up to him and speak about how what Pastor said read their mail, but Pastor never said what they said he said, they were hearing from the Spirit.

You don’t step in the pulpit and say, “I’m going to write a sermon to get to so and so.”  

You can preach the best sermon and unless people are receptive and hear it it falls to the ground.

You can hear a word of the Lord from an idiot. 

Proclaim means to say, to put people at liberty, to tell the prisoner he can come out.

Isaiah 58:6  Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? 

You can untie the cords that bind a person to the yoke, but they have to walk out of their yoke.  You need the anointing to help lift off the bonds. 

You proclaim the truth of God, and that helps to push out the old stuff.  

Jesus died for you and for me, and because of that we are free.  Bury what binds you and don’t take it up again.

The prison doors are open but it is hard to be free if we carry anger, bitterness and unforgiveness.  Are you ready to drop the baggage.  If I let go of the old, God can replace it with something better.

The opening of the door is the Word of Knowledge and the Word of Wisdom helps you to turn the key.  

The opening of the door takes the anointing and time.  We need to realize that God is on our side, He is not out to get us.  

Pastor, when he decided to step out of the music/entertainment world into ministry he asked God, “If I give up the worldly stuff is it going to be worth it?

He was giving up babes, money, drugs, popularity, groupies.

By giving up that stuff he found a better babe (his wife) and better promises. It was worth it.

I will continue Isaiah 61 tomorrow.

I hope your day is blessed, we are sort of snowed in here – weather man is saying 8 – 14 inches.

Heather