I Know Better

God’s Messages

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

Can you take a minute if you sit beside a mother, just tell her Happy Mother’s Day.
Happy Mother’s Day. We’re so grateful for you. We love you.
I really, I wanted to get right into the word.
But God put this on my heart and I wanna do it.
It might be a little weird but um mother’s Day isn’t always easy on everyone.
Sometimes your mom has gone on to be with the Lord.
Sometimes your mom is in the world but not in your world. A mother’s day can be hard.
You can be a mom but not have your mom and still feel the ache of that motherhood wound.
And if that is you, I wonder if you would for a moment, just allow us to love on you.
If today is not the easiest day for you and you didn’t know where else to go, but to be in the presence of the Lord, would you just wave at us so that we could love on you?
Oh If you buy someone who’s having a hard time, will you just give them a squeeze?
Let them know God’s got you.
You’re not in it on your own God allowed you to sit next to them, to minister to them in this sensitive delicate day.
We see you. We know it’s not easy, but we’re grateful that you trusted us to be with you on such a hard day.
We love you, we love you. That’s what family is about.
That’s what church family if you’re watching online and today is a hard day for you.
I want you to drop in the chat.
You are not alone, you are not alone so that someone reading it has a reminder that when your father and mother forsake you, that the Lord is still gonna be there with you.
You’re in the right place to receive love, to receive healing, to receive comfort in the place that you need it the most.
Luke one verse 57. This is man.
Most of this text when we read about it centers around Mary receiving word from the angel of the Lord that she has been chosen to give birth to the messiah.
That is not gonna be my focus today.
Because before Mary receives this news, the angel of the Lord comes to visit Zacharias, a priest.
And he says to Zacharias though you are old in age, though your wife Elizabeth is barren that I am going to allow you all to conceive and who you conceive will be a prophet.
We know him as John, the forerunner of Jesus.
And while we do mostly focus in Luke one about the miraculous messenger that allowed Mary to re conceive by the Holy Spirit.
I wanted to take a moment and focus on Zachariah and Elizabeth’s experiences.
I believe that the Lord has revealed something to me that is meaningful for where we are at this time in our lives.
When we enter into the text, Elizabeth, this woman who was barren and older in age has given birth to John and all of the women in the city have gathered as is the custom of the time to celebrate this monumental occasion where the Lord has allowed her to give birth even though it seemed that it would be difficult.
My text begins, it says now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered and she brought forth the son.
When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
So it was on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias.
His mother answered and said no, he shall be called John.
But they said to her, there was no one among your relatives who was called by this name.
So they made signs to his father, what we would have him called.
And he asks for a writing tablet, John and wrote saying his name is John.
So they all marveled immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke, praising God.
Then fear came on all who dwelt around them.
And all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea.
My subject is I know better spirit of the living God. I need you.
I wanna see your face. Let this message be a song to you.
Harmonizing with the needs of the people in this room, harmonizing with what your spirit would have us to receive God.
You know, every circumstance, every destiny, every wound, every purpose, you know everything that you are reconciling within us.
And so God, we lay ourselves out before you and we say speak Lord, your servant is listening, speak Lord in a way that only you can do speak Lord until we become what you had in mind.
When you formed us in our mother’s womb, let this be an intimate moment between creator and creation that allows us to become one step closer to what you have in mind.
God. I thank you that there will be no nerves for me, no fear, no anxiety that I will decrease, that you may increase and that it will be evident and obvious that it is no longer I who speaks but you who speaks through me have your way.
Great God that you are in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Yeah, Genesis one begins, it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep and the spirit of God hovered over the waters.
As we continue reading throughout Genesis, one we see over and over again that the earth goes from being this without form and voice space into something akin to what we experience.
Now, the sea was filled with life. The sun was placed in the sky and over and over again.
As God is creating the earth, we hear him in those moments of creation with and it was good.
It was good over and over again.
God said, let there be light and then there was light and God saw the light and said, it’s good.
Genesis one continues to tell us all the way through Him creating humanity, how it was good, what he created.
And then in Genesis two, he let it, he lets it be known to humanity.
This is man and woman at the time as they had not received names until later on in Genesis three in Genesis two though he tells them I set this up to be good for you.
Everything in it should function the way that it is supposed to function.
The sun is not gonna fall out of the sky, the day is gonna be day, the night will be night, the fish will stay in the sea, the seed will continue to bring forth fruit season after season.
It’s all good. The only thing you have to do is not eat from the tree.
Of life or from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
If you will obey this, everything will stay intact. Your obedience seals the deal.
God says I did my part. Everything is good.
But if it’s gonna stay good, you’re gonna have to be obedient.
Your obedience will ensure that everything in this system will continue to function in the way that I have designed it to function.
The only thing you have to do is just to be obedient.
The only thing you have to do, you may not understand how it’s gonna function.
You may wonder in one season, will the tree bring forth fruit the way that it did in the last season.
God says, you don’t have to worry about any of that.
Just be obedient to these rules, be obedient to what I told you to do in this season.
And your obedience is like shaking the hand of a deal. That’s you.
God’s way of saying this is what I’m gonna do for you. Will you obey?
God says, I’ll take care of all of the rest.
You just be obedient and they had it made baby.
They had it made. Ok? I believe Eve had all her edges.
I believe she never had to worry about a lace front, betraying her.
I believe that they had a six pack anointing.
I don’t believe that they even had to worry about the scale. What is acne?
I believe they had it made their Children was gonna act right.
I believe God set it up for everything to be good.
They weren’t gonna be worried, there wasn’t gonna be any depression, everything was gonna work out well.
But then Eve and Adam, Adam and Eve people just be bored.
We are people, we just are supposed to act. Right.
But we just be bored like everything’s gotta be an adventure. Like let’s just see what happens.
And now look at us fighting for every edge we got.
God didn’t want that for us. Can’t turn down chick fil a.
We need it to be closed on Sunday.
Now, carbs have a stronghold on me.
I was meant to eat fruits and vegetables. That’s how God set it up.
I didn’t even need the bread of life at that time. I had everything I needed.
I always wondered why is it that God did not want them to eat from the tree of life or from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And then I recognized in studying that God in his gracious, generous wisdom and love for us did not want us to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Not because He didn’t want us to know good because Genesis one makes it plain that everything he created was good.
So I, I don’t mind you knowing what’s good.
I don’t even mind you knowing what’s God.
As a matter of fact, the only thing I want you to know is good.
And God, the way I set this system up, that’ll be the only thing you even have a point of reference for is good.
And God, but if you eat from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you’re gonna have knowledge of something that I never wanted you to know.
The knowledge of good and evil.
It wasn’t necessarily just the knowledge of good, But it is the reality that when you have the knowledge of good and evil, it can be difficult to distinguish between the two.
Talk for a minute about the knowledge of evil that God never intended for you to know.
It’s hard for us when we think about the generational disappointments and the generational struggles that are all that we have ever known to come to a place where we can separate our experience from God’s intention.
Because when we learn to separate our experience from God’s intention, then we begin to recognize that it was never God’s intention for me to know this evil that I now know this was never God’s intention.
That’s why we ask things like where was God in the middle of this?
The truth is that God is in the middle of it now because of the way that we acted out his plan.
But the truth is that in God’s original intention, you were never supposed to know betrayal in God’s original intention.
You would have never known heartbreak and God’s original intention.
There would have never been mass shooting in God’s original intention. The headlines wouldn’t cause discouragement and God’s original intention.
There were, there was no broken family and God’s original intention.
There were no abandonment issues, there were no rejection issues. This was not God’s intention.
And so I try to be careful not to place the blame on God for what humanity did for what evil did because I recognized that in God’s original intention.
It was never meant for me to know this. I was never supposed to know this level of Brokenness.
I was never supposed to know this level of depression.
I was never supposed to know this level of insecurity and the fact that I know it is a direct reflection of what happened in the garden where I was receiving the knowledge of good and evil.
You were never supposed to know it and it broke God’s heart now that you know it.
Oh, so well now that it’s in your blood line now that it’s in your family.
God says I never wanted them to know that, but God is so good that he says you can’t unknow what you know man.
Oh I feel like ministering in this place.
I wanna talk to somebody who wants to unknow what they know.
So you gotta know some things that you don’t wanna know to even understand what that sentence means.
But I wanna unknow that this type of betrayal can exist in someone I wanna unknow that this type of weakness exists within me.
There are some things that I know now that I wish I could unknow and sometimes I’m stuck because not because of what I don’t know, know I’m stuck because of what I do know.
I do know that people will leave you.
I do know that you can get in a situation where your pride makes you fall.
I know some things that have kept me stuck.
And God says, I can’t unknow what you know, but what I can do is cover what you know.
So in the garden, God comes down and he’s asking Adam and Eve what happened when he recognizes that they’ve eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It says in my text that immediately when Adam ate from it, that his eyes were open and he saw that he was naked when God created him naked.
God said it was good. He ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And now he sees his nakedness as evil.
That’s why I said it’s difficult to distinguish between what’s good and what’s evil because now you have this knowledge and what you’re calling good.
God might be calling evil, what you’re calling evil. God might be calling good.
I think that’s why the palma says it was good for me that I was afflicted.
I don’t think he stumbled into that, I think he sat back and waited long enough to see that.
What I thought was an evil affliction was actually God making all things work together for my good.
It takes someone crazy to look at what the enemy meant for evil and say actually I think God may have meant it for good because now what I thought I needed was something that would feel good.
I thought I needed something that would make me better.
But maybe what I really needed was something that would afflict me enough that I understood who my friends were that would afflict me enough that I started praying differently, that would afflict me enough that I started worship differently.
Some people thank God for what he did and how he blessed them.
Sometimes I think God for what he didn’t do.
And there were tears streaming down my face and I was crying and I was heartbroken.
But then I waited about six months and I said, you know what God, it was good for me that I was afflicted because I now I know you’ll never leave me nor forsake me.
Now, I know who’s really with me and who is against me.
Now, I know what’s on the inside of me.
Now, I trust the gift of God that you placed on the inside of me and I wouldn’t have gotten there unless I was afflicted passes.
I’m gonna cover you. You weren’t supposed to know it.
But I’m gonna cover you. You weren’t supposed to see your nakedness as evil.
But now I gotta get down on your level of thinking so that I could grow you up into who I want you to become.
If you’re calling it evil, I’m gonna cover you right here.
But I’m also gonna make sure that there is a plan that takes you from the way you think.
Now into the discovery that your ways are not my ways and your thoughts are not my thoughts.
And so you think it’s evil?
And so I’m gonna allow you to on the level that you think, oh God, help me to say this the way I feel it in my spirit.
Sometimes God gets down on your level so that he can speak the language that you’re speaking.
I know you’re mad. I know you’re angry. I know you’re upset. I know you’re lost and you’re confused.
If you think God only speaks on a high level, then you miss out on the whole reason why we’re here.
The whole reason why he got in Mary’s womb, wrapped himself in flesh is because sometimes there is a job that requires, I get down on your level.
You serve a God who knows how to get down in depression. Sometimes we pray depression away.
Sometimes we say God, if you could meet me in this depression because it feels like it’s stronger than me.
So I need you to get down on my level to break this thing off of me.
That is why God gets down on your level because sometimes you cannot fight this devil on your own.
And while you’re busy trying to get up, I was trying to get down with you so that I can help you fight on a level.
You didn’t even know what’s possible so that I could breathe my words of wisdom in a way that helps you to understand that if they left you, you didn’t need them.
If they walked away, let him walk.
If they kept on moving, so that you could keep growing, sometimes you just gotta thank God, but you gotta allow him to get down on your level with it.
Adam serves a guy who doesn’t mind getting down on his level.
Adam and Eve are in this garden having to distinguish now between what’s good, what’s evil and what’s God man and in the process of them trying to determine the difference between what’s good, what’s God and what’s evil?
They recognize that God has the ability to take what they are attempting to make good and teach them and train them so that it could actually become the good that he had in mind.
Isn’t this why he gets upset with Kane?
And he says to him, why did you kill your brother?
Did you not know that if you would have leveled up?
I know you thought you had a good sacrifice, but it wasn’t good enough, but I’m not just gonna leave you in the area of it, not being good enough.
God says I’ll also get down there in there with you and teach you how to take what you thought was good and make it better.
God knows how to take good.
God knows how to take evil and turn it into good.
I had to use the word. Turn it.
Pastor Phil pointed out something in Genesis 50 and 20 that we always say the enemy.
You meant it for evil, but God turned it for good, but that’s not what it says.
It says you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
There were two intentions that were happening at the same time.
So when we say that God turned it, it makes it seem like it did start off evil, but then God turned it around.
No, no, no Genesis 50 and 20 actually points out that it’s not that God turned it.
It’s just all while they thought it was evil. I actually thought it was good.
I’m reminded of Jesus on the cross when he said forgive me, father for, they know not what they do.
They think that they’re doing something that’s good.
But I actually know that it’s gonna be even better because when you get finished with it, they think it’s evil.
But when you get finished, they’re gonna see that it was actually good.
There is something powerful about knowing that there are two intentions moving at the same time.
And so I wanna know Potter’s house, which narrative are you gonna buy into?
Are you gonna buy into the narrative that the, that they meant it for evil?
And there’s a period on what they meant for evil and that if God’s gonna change it, he’s gonna have to turn it.
Or are you crazy enough to believe that God doesn’t even have to turn it that even oh God, I feel like I know you mean one thing, but God means another thing so you can keep your intentions.
God doesn’t have to change it. You can mean it for evil.
God still means it for good.
You can talk about me all you want to, but God still means it for good.
I didn’t have to get the job.
It felt like it was evil that I didn’t get the job, but God must have meant it for good.
It felt like it was tragic that I went through the breakdown, but God meant it for good.
I gotta hang on to this truth that God meant it for good because my mind is trying to convince me that God meant it for evil or that God was not in it at all.
But I am reminded because of who he is that He knows how to allow the weed and the tea to grow up at the same time.
And it is not until harvest season with the threshing floor. Make the difference.
The threshing floor is when we will separate what you meant for evil. My God meant for good.
You thought I was gonna stumble but God says I’m gonna pick you up. You thought it would kill me.
But God says I know CPR, you’re right. It took me out but he’s got a resurrecting power.
You meant it for evil snack.
It’s not even what I’m preaching about.
What’s up.
God. Yeah. Yeah.
I don’t even know what that’s about, but it feels like somebody got breakthrough.
It feels like some, I’m trying to keep it tight because we got a journey to go on.
So I’m gonna give somebody about 10 seconds to thank God. That is two intentions happening at the same time.
You’re right is evil. But God said you’re also right. It’s gonna be good. You’re right.
That is terrible, but it’s also gonna be good. You’re right. That is painful, but it’s also gonna be purposeful.
I got two things working at the same time. You’re right that you’re at the end of your rope.
But God says I’m about to give you some wings. I got two things working at the same time.
If you don’t break down, I can’t build you up. I got two things working at the same time.
Who?
Yes, OK.
What happens?
Not just one.
God allows what the evil, what the enemy meant for evil. He means for good.
What happens? Not when the evil turns out to be good.
What happens when what’s good starts to look evil?
What happens when I felt like God was in it?
God was on it. I know he was in it.
How could it be that it could start off this good and end up looking this evil?
Yeah. Told the truth. But now everything’s on the line.
I thought it was good. This is, this is why he didn’t want us to have the knowledge of good and evil.
Because now what was good has evil consequences? What was good has a consequence?
That makes me feel like maybe I should have kept it to myself. Maybe I should have just stayed.
Maybe I should have never moved. Maybe I should have never trusted.
Maybe I should have never did the therapy that maybe I should have never spoken up. It started off good.
My heart was in the right place. I knew that God was in it.
I knew that he was gonna see me through God.
I stepped out on faith and it felt like it was good, but now it feels like I’m sinking and I’m drowning.
God help me to understand how could good turn out to be evil.
God, you told me you’d bring my people to me and now my people are walking away from me.
God, you told me that you would prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
But now I’m hungry and I’m starving and I see my enemies eating God.
How is it possible that it started off good?
Now, the business don’t look good.
If the marriage don’t look good, the Children is not, it’s not looking like what you promised.
I know we at church and everybody wanna act like God is good all the time, all the time.
God is good. I know. I know. I know. But sometimes it’s hard.
I’m reminded of the widow when first kings 17 who is preparing to die with her son, they’re in a drought.
She’s down to her last as it relates to food.
And God sends a prophet, he sends the prophet Elijah and Elijah says, go grab me a drink and she does that and he says, also get me some bread and she says, actually, I only have enough for one cake and me and my son were gonna eat it and then we’re gonna die.
Elijah says, go ahead and make the cake and as much as you make it, it’ll never run dry in every area that you think you’re gonna end up running out.
God says, it may not feel like it’s overflowing, but I’ll make sure that there’s just enough that should never run out and all of a sudden it looked like what was meant for evil has become good.
And the text doesn’t tell us that the woman celebrated.
It just suggests that she settled into good.
But then we read a little bit further and her son dies.
Now, wait a minute, God, you saved me when I was ready to die.
You gave me a taste for more. You gave me an expectancy that there was gonna be more.
And I started adjusting to the reality that I could trust what was good.
But now Elijah, the prophet is here and my son is dying.
How could something good end up looking like it was evil?
And she is mad because she doesn’t understand.
Did you not come into this house to bless me? Only for the tables to turn?
And now I’m in mourning God. How did you allow this to happen?
She’s begging the prophet to make a difference and the prophet doesn’t really know what to say to her.
But he takes the body of the boy into the upper room of her home and he gives us insight into what we need to do when we are questioning God, how could good become evil?
The question is not, is it still good? The true question is, is it still God?
Because I cannot trust the knowledge that I have of good and evil?
Sometimes I can’t ask God, is it good God? Is it evil?
Because my definition and your definition may be two different things.
So maybe what I need to be asking instead is God, are you still in it? God?
Are you still here? Because at the end of the day.
I don’t wanna be outside of the will of God. I don’t care how good it is.
If it ain’t God, I don’t want it. I don’t care how, how much money it is.
If it ain’t God, I don’t want it. I don’t want to just settle for good. I wanna know.
Is it God? I can’t trust my knowledge. My knowledge has been skewed.
My knowledge has been hijacked by the culture.
My knowledge tells me that sexing and drinking is the way to join.
I can’t trust this knowledge that I have. But God is it still good? Is it still God?
Is it still God? Are you still in it? God? Are you still in it? God?
Because if you’re still in it, I’ll still build it. God.
If you’re still in it, I believe you can breathe life into it.
God, if you’re still in it, I believe that you can make all things new God.
If you’re still in it, I believe you’ll give me strength to see it.
God, if you’re still in it, I believe you’ll give me vision. God.
If you’re still in it, I believe you’ll give me innovation. God.
If see, you gotta understand what happens when God is in it.
When God is in it, it never runs dry. God, if you’re in it, then miracles can happen. God.
If you’re still in it, I’ll know better than what I see.
This is how I know that the whole reason why this woman went from good to God.
The only step in between was affliction. It was good that she had meals.
But then her son dies.
But first kings 17 and 24 says that when Elijah brings her son back to life, that she gets a revelation.
The revelation is that then the woman said to Elijah.
Now by this, I know that you are a man of God.
I didn’t know you were a man of God when things were just good.
But when I got finished going through my affliction, I understood that you are a man of God, not because of the way you provided, but because of the way you made a way out of nowhere.
Now by this, I know because you brought a dead thing back to life.
Now by this, I know because you could have left him dead, but you took him up to the holy of Holies.
And when you took him up to the holy of Holy, you made a demand on God too.
Now by this, I know I don’t know who you are in this room, but I feel like God wants to take you to another level of knowledge.
I don’t want you to just know good or evil.
I want you to know that everything that I allow to happen in your life is gonna be on assignment to help you get a revelation of who God is.
You want an outcome, but God wants to give you a revelation.
And if you hang on to the outcome, you missed the revelation that if I brought you this far, I’m not gonna leave you.
If I allowed you to build it for 20 plus years, I’m not gonna let nobody tear this thing down.
And now by this, I know that my God is who He says. He is.
Now by this, I know that no weapon formed against me will prosper. I thought it was good.
But now I know it’s God. No, no, no. I thought it was good.
But now I know it’s God. I thought it was gonna be good.
But God says I’m gonna take it to another level because if you know it’s God, you won’t depend on Elisha because Elisha’s gotta move on with a woman.
But when Eli Elisha moves on, I want you to understand that the same power that allowed Elisha to bring your son back to life is the same power that I’m gonna use to take you from season to season to season.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He had to allow that affliction to happen because Elijah was gonna move on in the next chapter.
But before he moves on, I don’t know who you are.
But I hear God saying if you only depend on a man, you miss out on the fact that it was God moving through the man.
It was God moving through the job. It was God moving through the God did it.
God did it. God did it. Y’all can give your time if you want to.
I get my times because I know God did it.
I know who signed the check but I know who actually signed the check.
I shouldn’t even be here but God did it.
I know better than to know that a prophet is anything that God didn’t release him to do first and if God did it then he’ll do it.
Same God, same God, same God, same breakthrough, same healing, same miracle, same power, same guy.
Yeah, the same.
It’s the same guy. He’s the same guy.
Y’all gotta stop with that music because it sounded like a battle cry and I’m trying to move into my text but something happens when somebody starts recognizing that they got more arsenal than they think they do.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God for the pulling down a stronghold.
Ok. Ok. All right. Calm down everybody. Ok.
Alright. Alright.
And Luke one and Luke one.
Zacharias stuck between good.
I was gonna say good and evil, but I gotta be honest with you.
He’s not just stuck between good and evil.
He stuck between good and can I trust better?
Yeah.
And be honest with you when all you’ve ever known is disappointment.
It is hard to trust better. We see it in relationships.
We see it in work cultures when you have been set to only expect disappointment, it’s hard to trust better.
It’s not what we’re talking about in this text though.
There are moments when you are already in a good place where you’re already further out than anyone in your family could have ever anticipated.
But if you’re honest, sometimes it’s hard to trust that it can get any better than this.
Start thinking I’ve gotten as high as I can get.
I say that he’s stuck here because in Luke one, when our text begins, Zacharias is serving as a priest in Herod’s temple.
To understand the significance of this.
You have to understand that when Herod had the temple rebuilt because it was so sacred and holy to the Jews at that time, that only those of Jewish priesthood could be a part of rebuilding the temple at the time that the temple was rebuilt, there were over 1000 priests.
I know you’re like, what is this?
It is significant that with 1000 priests that it had become Zacharias turn to serve in the temple.
It is a once in a lifetime opportunity, one priest, one week out of the year for a full week goes in and burns incense in the temple.
There’s only 52 weeks in a year and 1000 priests.
When the angel of the Lord comes to visit Zacharias, he is as what many would think at the top of his game he comes from a long righteous family.
He and Elizabeth, this is the ultimate honor.
And the angel of the Lord comes to him and says to him, you and your wife Elizabeth are going to conceive.
Can I trust this God?
I’m already at the top of what I thought was possible.
This is already an honor of a lifetime that I could serve in your temple.
But now you’re gonna bless me in a way that I don’t even think that you should be able to bless me.
See, we talk a lot about impostor syndrome, but let’s talk about what happens when we don’t trust that God could do any better than He’s already done.
I know you so safe and sanctified that you say God can do the impossible.
But when the impossible is standing in front of your door, you begin to think God, well, I got the spouse or I got the job and I built the business.
Maybe I shouldn’t trust God for anything more.
Maybe I shouldn’t step out on faith and continue to breathe out what you’ve placed on the inside of me.
And Zachariah has settled into good, but God says I can do better than that.
I wanna talk to some people in this room who struggle to believe, not just that it can get better.
They’re struggling to believe that what God actually said, God, you said this, but I don’t trust it because I don’t feel worthy of it because I feel too old for it because I feel too young for it.
And yes, God, you said it. It’s not anything about what you said.
It’s about me becoming the person who believes that I can step into what you said. Zachariah doesn’t believe it.
The priest who was burning incense in the temple who should have the most faith out of anyone at this time doesn’t have faith that God can show up for him in the area that he’d given up on.
Ok. It’s not just self sabotage.
God told me it’s destiny sabotage.
If you don’t learn to trust what God said over what you believe.
If you don’t learn to trust what God said over your disappointment, over your own insecurity, over your own inadequacy, you, if you aren’t careful, your therapist will tell you it’s self sabotage.
But if you get into the closet with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will let you know.
No, no, no. This is destiny sabotage.
If you were just sabotaging yourself, we know that you would sacrifice you because we’ve seen you sacri Christ, your own needs your own will your own dreams for everyone else before some of you are willing to lay down on the altar of self sabotage.
But God told me I needed to add some gravity to this to let you understand that this is destiny sabotage.
That this is the destiny that God has for your life.
This is the destiny that only God says you can fulfill.
So if you don’t learn to receive it, your destiny is on the line.
I’ve always wondered, I’m almost finished.
Listen, I always wondered, Mary and Zachariah actually have similar responses when the angel of the Lord visits them and tells them that they’re gonna have Children.
Um When the angel of Lord visits Mary, Mary says, how can this be?
Because I have not known a man. Zachariah doesn’t quite say, how can I be?
How can this be? But he questions it too.
But Zachariah ends up mute when he questions God and Mary ends up free.
The difference between what they asked though was Mary said, how can this be?
And Zachariah says, how can I know this one is about technicality?
The other is about an inner knowing that I need to have in order to trust it.
I wish I could say that the way God gave it to me.
Zacharias wants to know, how do I turn a word into a knowing?
How do I take a prophecy into a knowing? How do I walk this thing out with confidence?
How do I do it with certainty? Mary just wants to know how are you gonna do it?
Zacharias says, I wanna know this thing in my soul. I wanna know it.
Does anybody wanna know in this room? I wanna know that no weapon formed against me will prosper.
I don’t wanna be afraid every time I see a weapon, I don’t wanna be afraid any time I feel like I’m losing, I wanna know that you’re faithful.
I wanna know that you’re righteous. I wanna know that you are a deliverer.
I wanna know that you got that child. I wanna know that you got that marriage.
I wanna know that you have that business.
I don’t wanna just have the feeling I wanna know down in my soul because who I am when I have a knowing is different than who I am.
When I’m sitting on the fence wondering when I walk with a knowing, it doesn’t matter what anyone says about it because I have a knowing that God is not a man that he shall love.
I’m not talking about something that God told me he might do. I’m not talking about something that God says.
Maybe we’ll see, maybe we won’t when God gives me a word, I wanna possess that word.
I wanna take that word and I wanna work that word with confidence and power and strategy and innovation because I know if I do my part that God says the rest of it is already taken care of.
I wanna talk to somebody who’s been walking around second guessing what God said, trying to understand how can I know this thing and I want you to know you gotta know it.
So the angel of the Lord says, he doesn’t walk away from them He doesn’t say I give up on you because you don’t know it.
I give up on you because you don’t have faith on it. That’s what people do.
That’s not what God did. God says.
I am gonna make you mute though because if I make you mute, you won’t be able to talk over me.
If I make you mute, you won’t be able to sabotage the everything I’m trying to place in your life.
And while you’re mute, he positioned Zacharias to be mute.
But watching, he said, how can I know this?
If you wanna know it? I’m gonna tell you.
The first thing you gotta do is you gotta be mute. You gotta stop talking about it.
You gotta stop second guessing it. You may not be able to speak faith into it.
But the least you could do is shut up. I know we’re not supposed to say that.
But what I wanna talk to somebody who is speaking their fears into a season that only requires faith.
I want you to understand that.
If you cannot add that, how you do it, then you are subtracting from it.
So the least you could do is be quiet. Sometimes you gotta bring your fears into the mute season.
Sometimes you gotta bring your circle into a mute season. I can’t let just anybody talk into this.
I gotta go mute. That word mute. It means involuntary silence, involuntary stillness.
That means if you’re waiting on them to be quiet so that you can have the faith that you need to produce what God says.
You’re gonna miss out on the moment. So you’re gonna have to put them into an involuntary stillness.
They won’t even know that we don’t talk about it anymore because the moment you bring it up, I change the subject.
You gotta go mute on that. That’s my destiny.
We could talk about the weather, we can talk about what’s on TV.
But you can’t talk about this child because I’m trying to, oh God’s trying to do something in this child.
And if you start speaking while God is working, then I may miss out on what God is doing.
So you gotta stop talking, girl. Did you see that?
No, I didn’t see it and I don’t wanna hear it either.
I gotta make sure my circle is nude enough that I’m not distracted when it’s time for me to be watching.
God says it’s time for you to watch.
And Zachariah starts watching what God said become what God is doing because Elizabeth starts sewing.
Elizabeth starts showing.
God says, if you’ll get mute, I’ll show you.
If you get quiet, you can get quiet, but open your eyes, you see most of us get quiet and we shut our heart out and we shut our mind out and we shut our spirit out and we say, I don’t want it anyway.
I don’t want it anymore. Anyhow. But God says you can get mute but keep your eyes open.
Because if you keep your eyes open, you’ll start seeing what I said is gonna start showing up in your life.
God says, all you gotta do is be quiet.
Start watching, want you to start watching.
God tell me that would be somebody’s word that I’ll tell you.
I got one more point.
That word that was translated mute and Luke won in the earlier part is the same word that Jesus is used that Jesus uses when the storm is raging and he’s on the boat.
When Jesus says, peace, be still.
That word, peace is the same word that was translated mute.
When the angel of the Lord tells Zacharias that he’s gonna have to be mute.
I’m gonna have to bring you to a place of peace the way that you turn a word into a knowing it.
When you come to a place of peace, I’m not gonna let myself talk myself out of this.
I’m not gonna let you talk me out of this.
I’m not gonna disqualify what God said based off of what you see, what you think, what you feel.
I’m not even gonna let science disqualify what God said.
If God says I’m healed, then I gotta bring my heart to a place of peace.
Because if God says I’m healed and I don’t believe I’m healed or I allow you to project your fears onto me I can, can’t concentrate with the word.
Oh God, I feel like somebody’s got to take that word and bring it into a season of concentration so that it doesn’t lose its potency with opinion so that it doesn’t lose its potency with disappointment.
I gotta let it be concentrated.
And sometimes the only way the word can become concentrated is if you’re a force to concentrate the whole point of this message.
When we get into our text, Zacharias has come to the point where it is time for him to name John.
We’re in Luke 1 57 Elizabeth has given birth and he’s seen at least 10 months of God taking a word and turning it into something tangible.
He still mutes. He gives birth though and he still mutes.
So it wasn’t just about when she gave birth, then he would finally be able to speak again.
He’s still mute this moment in the text when he goes from being mute and able to speak again.
And I recognize that part of the reason why this moment matters so much, this moment where he must confirm what John’s name will be.
It matters so much because he has to make sure that that word that has been concentrated, that word that received depth, that word that was perfected in him over time.
We gotta make sure that when it’s time for him to actually release it into the world, when it’s time for him to release it into his community that he doesn’t shrink it in order to fit in that he doesn’t get so prideful that he starts saying, well, I made it to this side now I take over.
No, I gotta make sure that you stay mute long enough to make sure that when you open your mouth, your mouth reflects what I said.
That when you release your gift, that that gift reflects what I said.
I know some of you have been waiting to be discovered for so long.
And you’ve been wondering God, why is it that my voice has been silent?
Why is it that I’m not the one who is out there doing it and I see other people doing it.
But I hear God saying because I gotta make sure that when I release you, that you release what I gave you and not what you wanted it to be, that you release what I gave you and not what they said.
It should be that you release what I gave you and not what your mama said.
It should be and not what your cousin said. It should be.
I wanna make sure that you don’t lose what I gave you when it’s time for it to be released.
And it is important that Zacharias does this well, because Zacharias is John’s forerunner, somebody ought to preach this for Father’s Day.
But it talks about the role of a father in this text to set an environment for his son to be all that he can be.
This is the moment that everyone is waiting for because what God gave him is gonna shock the community.
What God gave him is gonna shock the culture.
And if he doesn’t set an atmosphere for his son to step into it, he’s gonna make it harder on his son than it has to be.
But because he has decided, but I’m gonna do what God told me to do.
He didn’t even realize that his obedience was gonna pave the way for his son to not have to work as hard as he had to work for.
I wanna talk to somebody who needs to understand that it’s bigger than you who needs to understand that the generations are coming after you.
It is not just about you and your mouth and your praise.
It’s about the generations that are coming up behind you.
And the oh God, when I was studying this text, God told me trying to stop hollering.
God told me that Zacharias had to get to a place of knowing.
Yeah, he had to get up to a place of being solid and steadfast because what John was gonna do in the earth would be foreign and unknown.
He would look like a wild man to everyone else.
And if he didn’t come to a place of knowing, he could not invade, he could not allow John to invade the earth with the unknown God help me to say this, you gotta know it because when it comes out of you, it’s gonna look foreign, it’s gonna look unknown.
It’s gonna look strange. It’s gonna look weird.
And if you don’t know it, then somebody will mess around and say you don’t deserve it.
If you don’t know it, then someone could convince you that there’s no space for it.
But when you know that you know that you know, it doesn’t matter what happens.
It may be unknown to you.
But it is known to me, it may be unknown to you that I would be up here.
But it is known to me because God placed a knowing down in my spirit.
Everyone else can be surprised when the baby graduate.
I’m not gonna be surprised because God told me that when that baby was in kindergarten, that that baby was gonna make it to the other side.
Everyone else can be surprised. I made it to the other side with my mind.
But I’m not surprised because God gave me a knowing.
God told me I’m gonna call you into the unknown and it’s gonna look weird to everyone on the outside.
Look again, but it’s not gonna be weird to you because you’re gonna have a deposit of what is known about you.
I hear God saying, I’m not surprised that that came out.
Oh God, everybody else was surprised but God John Zachariah and Elizabeth were not surprised because they had been in the secret place.
They had learned to get still enough with the word that God gave them that even though it shocked everyone else, it was right on schedule for them.
They didn’t know that God had already named this child before the child took its first breath, that God had already named that business before you had the first employee that God had already named that house before you even applied for the loan that God had already named that deal before they even came up to you and presented it to you.
And everyone else could be surprised, but I knew it was coming.
I know we don’t like to preach about pride for messages and this isn’t about pride.
This is about a knowing. I hear God saying, let it catch everyone else by surprise but you stand by and you see the salvation of the Lord because I knew it was coming.
Knew you were gonna do it. I knew it was gonna come through. I knew you were gonna release me.
I knew you had a place for me.
I know better than to believe that my last days are gonna be bit worse than my former days.
I know better than to believe that this evil is gonna have the last say.
I know better than to believe that though. He slay me. I can’t trust him. I know better.
I know better. I know better. I know better. I know better than you leave me.
I know better than depression will have the final say. I know better than I’m gonna lose my mind.
I may be damned because I know he’ll come find me. I know he’ll keep me.
I know he’ll make a way out of nowhere. I know him.
I know it. I know it. I know better. I know better. I know better.
I know better. I know better. I went through hell. But I know better. I went through hell.
But I know better. I had to fall off the grid but I know better.
I was silent but I know better. I’ve been crying but I know better.
I’m glad you did it because I know better. I know better. I know better. I know better.
I know better when I know better, I move better and when I move better I say hell oh no and no better.
It’s me. I know better. I know better.
OK?
I know better. I know better.
This is Zechariah’s moment to release what he knows into the earth.
And I have a prophetic declaration for somebody in this room that it is time for you to take what, you know, and release it into the earth.
It’s time for you to take what you know, and let it confuse some people who didn’t know.
I know better than, you know, it’s OK.
It’s time for you to take what you know, and start releasing it. Into that marriage.
It’s time for you to take what, you know, and start releasing it into that business.
It’s time for you to take what, you know, and start releasing it into that church.
It’s time for you to take what, you know, and start releasing it into that music, release it into a movie.
I know better than to believe that the wealth of the wicked. It’s just gonna stay stored up.
I know better. I know, I know better. I know better.
The business collapsed. But I know better. They walked away from me but I know better.
I know I should be out of my mind. I see you waving baby but I know better.
OK, I know better.
So, all right, we’re going home be going to brunch.
I’m gonna just say this when Zacharias finally releases what he knows.
My text tells me, oh God, I feel you that when he released what he knew that this boy name is John and they marveled at this and fear came on them because he was doing something unknown with his knowing he was doing something unknown to them, but it was known to him.
It says immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loose and he spoke praising God.
This is my final point.
There was something that happened to his praise when he released what he knew that allowed him to begin praising God.
And I am crazy enough to believe that he wasn’t just praising God that his tongue was loose.
I believe he was praising God because God took a word and turned it into a knowing and he had enough fuel in the tank to help him raise a child who would go on to be the forerunner of Jesus Christ.
You got enough knowing for generations to walk through what you’re going through.
You got enough knowing to pave a road for someone coming up behind you. You got enough knowing.
I want you to know that you went through hell. But God says, I know you went through hell.
That’s why I know that you’re gonna pave a road. I know that you’re gonna carry breakthrough.
I know that demons tremble when you wake up in the morning. I know.
I know that I know that I know.
No, I know there’s a praise that can only be released when you know, you got to praise when you want.
You got a praise when you kinda believe.
But there is a praise that is released when you know that I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken and that seed begging for bread.
I know. Know it, God, I know it, God, I know you’re better than me than I deserve.
I know you’re faithful. I know you’re righteous. I know you’re a healer. I know you still do miracles.
I know you still heal marriages. I know you still deliver. I know you still set free.
I know I know.
K no.
OK. Dad told me I’m gonna bring you to a place of knowing, I’m gonna bring you to a place of knowing no more insecurity.
No more second guessing. No more doubting. No more disbelief.
I’m gonna bring you to a place of knowing confidence and what you know, I’m going to allow the overflow.
Yeah, until it becomes someone else’s knowing, someone’s gonna know by proxy because you know, for a father to affirm a son and his identity means that this son doesn’t have to question himself the way that he would question himself if he only had the ears of other people.
But because Zachariah went through this process, there is a knowing that he can give to his son.
This is Mother’s day.
I want to talk to some people in this room who were robbed of a sense of knowing because somebody wasn’t able to do the work, receive the revelation, do the healing that would have given you the knowing that you need.
I wanna talk to someone feels like they’ve been working at a deficit because no one deposited in me a sense of righteous identity.
I got to a real sense of salvation.
I don’t really know who I am and you’re in this room and God’s given you a word about what he can do through you and with you and for you.
But if you’re honest, sometimes you just don’t know, just don’t know if he can do it.
I don’t know if it’s still God because it got hard and what you want more than anything is to know better.
I want to know better. I wanna silence the doubt.
I wanna silence the worry. Want to silence the pain.
If that’s you, would, you just wave at me no matter where you’re, hey, hey, God knows.
God knows. God knows. God knows. God knows who you are.
God knew they couldn’t give it to you. God knew that you would want it.
But God says I can cover what they couldn’t give you.
I can feel the areas that they left in with that they left empty.
God says, I see it. I see it. I see those empty places in you.
I see you wonder and I see you question.
God says, I wanna bring you to a place of knowing but it can only happen by my spirit.
I know you got your affirmations. I know you reading all the books.
I know you got all the podcast because you’re just trying to know better. You’re trying to know better.
But I hear God saying the knowing is in the connection, the knowing is in the trusting, the knowing is in the walking, the knowing is in the watching.
The knowing is in the trusting, the knowing is in the faith to believe that even when they didn’t know you, God knew what was in, you lift your hands.
I wanna pray with you. Mm Holy Spirit. Oh God.
God. I thank you for truth.
I thank you for vulnerability. I thank you God.
That for maybe the first time in a long time that someone in this room doesn’t feel less than because they don’t have what they think they should have.
I think you got that you created this opportunity, whether emptiness could be revealed, not to shame them, not to condemn them, but so that you could feel them.
The Holy Spirit, I ask the spirit would begin to fall that they would even feel a weight in their hands, that they would feel a fire in their hands, that they would feel a fire in their hearts.
God, I pray that your spirit would begin to follow them in an intimate way, not just where they hear it, God, but let them feel it somewhere in their body.
God let it stir up the gift of God that’s on the inside of them.
God let your presence, touch them on their shoulder, let your presence be with them right now.
In this moment, God as a sign that you know, I know it hurt me.
I know you’re worried. I know you’re concerned, but God says, I know better.
I know a better way. I know a better path. I know a better future.
God begins to whisper in their ears as only you can do what you know about this circumstance, what you know about their identity?
What you know about their gifts, their talents, their family, what you know about them? May they hear?
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. May they hear that they are your beloved?
May they hear that you have a purpose for them? May they hear that depression is not the end?
May they hear that their enemies may have meant it for evil but that you mean it for good?
May they hear that you will never leave them nor forsake them?
May they hear that you are a healer and the way maker? May they hear that?
You see the tears they’re crying. May they hear that?
You see that the dream that is inside of them is about to explode and they’re worried that there’s no one who can handle the birth of what’s coming through them.
May they hear that you have midwives on demand that the moment they start to push that someone’s gonna catch it.
God, may they hear that they are exactly where they are supposed to be and nowhere close to where they will be because when you get finished with them, you’re going to transform them.
God. There’s somebody in this room and they stop trusting you.
They couldn’t tell what was good, what was evil. What was God God today?
They’re making a silent commitment to trust you again.
Maybe it’s baby steps, maybe they trusted you in every other area.
But in this one particular area, they’ve been holding on to it, God, I thank you that they’re gonna give it back to you.
They’re gonna trust that you have provision and that you have wisdom and strategy that is waiting to be released.
I thank you God that you still still do miracles that you’re still making ways out of no ways that you’re still leading and guiding.
And so God, I pray that this whisper of your spirit would continue to be with them.
There is no such thing as sealing this moment because we just took the seal off.
Let it flow.
God, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, let rivers of living water start flowing through them on God and may it saturate everything connected to them.
We release you to be you in every way that you can in Jesus name. Amen.
Can you just praise for me? Can you lift up a praise like Zachariah did?
Can you come on? Can we do better than that? I know we gotta go.
But can we do better than that?
I’m gonna tell you before you go.
I’m just gonna tell you this is the kind of word that I would sew into if I were you.
And if you’re looking for a direction on how to sew, I’m not gonna make a big deal out of it.
They can put instructions on the screen. You can drop a seed into the PM T S bucket.
But what I will say is this is that it was on the eighth day that Zacharias released what he knew.
And so if you were gonna give, I highly suggest that you give a seed that has a connection with 8 $80.88 dollars, 808 8888.
It means new beginnings. And on the eighth day when Zacharias released what he knew a new beginning started not just for him but for the generations that were gonna come through him.
And so I want someone who has decided that this is where I am going to mark the spot to.
So in the 88, whatever your increment of 80 is into this word.
Let it be an offering, let it be a sacrifice and thank you guys.
I love you Happy Mother’s Day.