The Secret of Beholding

“A prayer that’s seeking passion should not be about manufacturing a better feeling or jostling up a better mood. It’s simply about holding out your open hands—in thanksgiving first, in gratitude for God’s faithfulness and His goodness and His assured, accomplished victory over the enemy. Then asking. Asking for what He already wants to give you. Then waiting (expecting) to receive the promise of newness and freshness from His Spirit as you go along, more each day—praying until, as the prophet Hosea said . . . He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. (Hos. 6:3)”
― Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer

Hello. Amen.
Hi y’all.
It’s good to be with you. I’m excited to share God’s word with you.
If you have your Bible, just hold it straight up in the air, your iphone, ipad, whatever you got your Bible on and say, speak Lord, I am your servant and I am listening in Jesus name, Amen and Amen.
You may take your seats. I love being here with you.
It is a privilege to be back with you.
I think this is the third time that I have been a part of color conference.
And so it is a privilege to be with you and to continue on this journey with you.
I do feel like I’ve just kind of adopted you all as our, as our family and we love coming and being a part of what God is doing here, Jerry and I are here.
I want to introduce him to you because you might have an opportunity to see me and be a part of our lives from my perspective.
But he is a real live guy who really does exist.
He’s probably one of the few chocolate flavored gentlemen that you’ll see walking around this weekend.
Jerry, would you just stand up so they could say hi to you and see your little cute ball head itself.
Look at that. He still does it for me.
It is our privilege to be here together serving you.
We’ve got a couple of our boys are here as well. Joining us.
They’ve been to London Conference with us but haven’t made the journey over all the way from Texas to Australia before and they’re here.
And so it is a privilege for all of us to be a part of the life of the Sisterhood, the Color conference.
And so thank you for, for having us.
Bobby, Pastor Brian and Bobby, thank you so much for continuing to include us in what God is doing here.
Um I, I also want to take a minute not only to honor Pastor Brian and Pastor Bobby, um And the entire team here, we just love what God is doing here, but any time she’s probably sick of it now, but any time I’m in a place where I am serving alongside of Miss Beth.
I count it as a privilege to honor her as well. And I’ll tell you why.
Not only because it is very clear to all of us, isn’t it that she communicates the word of God with power and authority and clarity.
And we’re so honored to be able to sit under her teaching. Amen.
But I will tell you that it is unfortunately a rare thing when you meet someone who is the same on the platform as they are, when they’re not on the platform who has the actual character and integrity to back up the gift.
And I guess it’s been about a decade or more now that MS Beth has been in my life as a, a friend, a mentor.
Do you remember? Laura sat up here earlier and talked a little bit about how it’s important that women that have gone before us that are already a stage ahead of us in marriage or motherhood or ministry that they are, they are willing to show back into the life of another.
And because she has been willing to show into my life, not only in ministry but as a mama to tell me how to raise these wild little boys that the Lord has given me and how to be a good wife to my man that the Lord has given me and how to prioritize what really matters because you have taken the time to, to do that in my life.
I honor you for that, Miss Beth. I honor you for that.
She and I have the opportunity to serve up actually quite frequently together in the States.
But this is our first time together internationally. And it’s a privilege to be able to serve.
I’ll tell you that I was coming.
Anyway, whether I was invited to speak or not, I was coming.
I was just going to be her armor bearer.
She didn’t know it, but I was going to be bearing her armor this weekend and I was just inviting my little old self along to be a part of what God is doing this weekend.
Anyway, it was already on my calendar to be here.
So it’s a privilege to be able to be here in this capacity and serve you.
I’m excited about God’s Word and what it is that God wants to say to us this evening in his word, I have was kind of sitting on the edge of my seat during our session earlier today because as I heard what Miss Beth was sharing with us, I was excited about how God in his own way.
He just kind of creates a theme for us over the course of a weekend that we’re spending together these days that we have that oftentimes it’s really not planned.
It’s just what he does. He has a way of preparing beforehand the message that He wants to give to all of us.
And if our ears are open, if we’re leaning in, if we’re engaged in what it is that he’s doing, we will not miss that message.
And so as I heard what was being shared today, I got real excited about what he was beginning to lay on my heart and seal and confirm that he wanted me to share with you uh this, this evening and I was reminded of a friend of mine.
Her name is Rachel. Rachel lives across the street from me uh back home in Texas.
And Rachel has been a friend of mine for quite some time. She is a graphic designer.
She’s also also a mural artist.
She’s a very creative, creative person and there is a piece of art that she created um for a major ministry that, that is based in Texas.
They have a humongous ministry huge lobby and they needed a piece of art to hang in this enormous lobby.
They needed her to come up with a design that would make this new lobby of theirs look stunning when guests would come and visit.
And so they contacted her to come up with something and she came up with, with an idea that she would create this monstrous piece of art that was 13 ft tall, 9ft wide to be the centerpiece in this particular lobby of this, of this ministry.
And, and I think we have a shot of it to show you.
It’s a, it’s a guy that is very clearly and very obviously worshiping God.
His hands are outstretched and he is standing, giving honor and giving glory to God or it’s a girl.
Excuse me. It’s a girl. She’s created a couple of these.
I text her just a couple of hours ago. It’s, it’s like 12 30 in the morning in Texas.
But I texted her and said, if you’re still awake, I need you to send me that photo.
And gratefully she was because I wanted you to see this.
So she sent me this one of this girl and here she is standing in water and her hands are outstretched and, and this woman it’s a great, big, huge picture.
I wish you could see it in person because it’s just stunning in the, in the lobby of this, of this ministry.
But what’s more intriguing about it is not just the beauty that you see when you’re looking at it from afar, but it’s what she used to create this picture.
You see this ministry said to her, we have so many people who have sent us a photo of themselves that are even, they either donate to this ministry or they are prayer partners for this ministry.
And what we would really love is for you to use these photographs in some way and whatever graphic design you put together.
Could you please use these photographs?
And so looking from far away, you just see this woman worshiping God or standing in waist deep in a pool of water.
But if you get up close and if you look very near and close to this, to this picture, you’ll be able to see that every single pixel of this picture is actually a photograph of an actual person that as you near it.
And as you get close, you can see the faces of individuals that are entrenched in this design that from a far away perspective, it just looks like a great big picture.
But when you get up close, you realize that folks faces are in there.
And as I looked at this and considered this graphic design, I thought, I thought to myself that sometimes we stand back and we look at the grand scope of our lives with the disappointments and the frustrations and the stuff we didn’t expect and the disillusionment and the discouragement that sometimes encompasses our lives.
And we forget that if we’ll just change our perspective and get up close, that the face of God really is in the details of our life that even when it seems like the big picture, he’s gotten lost in there somewhere.
And we just can’t like Mary Magdalene. We just cannot find out where he is.
If we’ll just change our perspective, we’ll see that he’s been there all along that his footprints that his handiwork that is his face is all over your life, my friend.
And I know that in a room this size, there are some of you who resonated with that message this morning because you’re wondering, well, where is he?
Because my marriage is difficult right now. Where is he? Because this is the valley here in my financial situation.
Where is he? Because I am struggling so much in my parenting. Where is he? Because I am single still?
Where is he? Because my ministry is not flourishing? The way.
I thought it would be. Where is he?
And I just think that the Lord wants to seal in you, remind you and seal for you, the fact that he is there and what a disappointment it would be if he was there speaking to us, wanting to encounter us, wanting to introduce himself to us in a brand new, exciting way.
And because we were so disappointed or discouraged or life wasn’t like we planned.
We missed out on that encounter that we were not aware of God’s presence with us.
And so Mary Magdalene was not the only person who had to take a second look in order to recognize that that that guy that was, that was there at the tomb.
That day was Jesus. There were a couple other people that were in that position as well.
And I just wonder if from the story of these two gentlemen who were almost about to miss the encounter with Jesus, who if it hadn’t been for the patience of Jesus Christ, they would have not known that they were in the presence of God himself.
I just wonder if in this story, you and I might find a few little secrets for the encounter secrets that will enable us to keep our eyes open.
So that even in the disappointments or frustrations of life, we can still see him that we won’t miss out on his face in the big picture.
So if you have your Bible and I know you do or your ipad, your iphone, whatever flip on over to Luke chapter 24.
Because in Luke chapter 24, there is a story of two gentlemen that after the resurrection of Jesus, just like Mary Magdalene were pretty disappointed or after the crucifixion were pretty disappointed because this is not what they had had planned.
When Jesus Christ had stepped on the scene, they had had a picture of what the Messiah’s coming was going to look like he was going to come in no doubt in a trail of glory in a blaze of glory.
But Jesus had come as the servant leader, this was not what they were anticipating.
And then they were even more disappointed because Jesus had been crucified on the cross of Calvary.
And, and here are these two guys so disappointed because while Jesus has been resurrected from the dead.
So this is kind of following up where MS Beth left off because Mary Male has already had her encounter.
And now there have been rumors of the fact that Jesus has resurrected.
But there are two guys who just don’t know if they believe that they’re just not quite sure that these rumors are true and they are leaving Passover after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
They are leaving the Passover and we meet up with these two gentlemen in Luke chapter 24 verse 13 and it says, and behold, somebody say, behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
They were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place.
And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them.
Here’s verse 16, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. Jesus was there.
They were in the presence of God himself, but they could not see clearly the face of God right before their eyes because of their disappoint disappointment, their disillusionment, their frustration, their discouragement about all that had just taken place.
They were not aware that presently currently walking with them, talking with them was Jesus the Christ.
And I just believe that what God wants for you.
And I, as we consider this, this revolution of peace, not only for the nations, but for our own hearts, the peace that He wants to bring to our own hearts.
If it’s the encounter with Him, that’s going to make sure to usher that in that if you miss out, if you don’t recognize God in the middle of your circumstances, I’m talking about the circumstance that you are dying to move out of so that you can be done with that particular person, that particular issue, that particular decision, that particular job, that particular season in your life, the very thing that you want to get out of.
I wonder if right there in it.
He wants to meet with you and show you himself and these guys were about to miss an opportunity to see Jesus.
And in their story, there are just a few little secrets that will help us to make sure our eyes are open and we can encounter him.
Secret # 1 is found in verse 13. It says that very first main word is the word behold.
You said it back to me a moment ago.
And really when we read over a word like this, uh it seems pretty insignificant like there’s nothing to, to really pay that much close attention to because there’s nothing really powerful to, to consider when we read this word behold.
But do you realize that in the uh this word behold was really specific and it was really uh deliberately used by a writer because it was an important marker that the Hebrew writer would use when they wanted to kind of start a new segment of a chapter.
It actually meant look exclamation point suddenly, exclamation point.
Or right now, it was an important indicator that was used to liven up the Hebrew sta narrative.
When a writer wanted to change a scene or emphasize an idea or call attention to a specific detail.
The writer would use this word behold.
In other words, they wanted to make sure that that the reader whoever laid their eyes on this page recognized the fact that after this behold, something exciting was about to happen.
That the reason why the writer would use the word behold in verse 13 was because he wanted to make sure that we didn’t get so hung up on verses one through 12 that we missed out on the fact that something exciting was about to unfold in verses 13.
And beyond how I wish we could have been there with these guys because you realize we have a privilege.
They did not have. We’ve got their story written out from beginning to end.
We know what they don’t get the chance to get. See. We know that Jesus is about to show up.
We know that while they’ve been so disappointed and discouraged because of what has happened in one through 12, that their story in verse 13 is about to shift and take a change.
How I wish we could have told them this first secret of the encounter.
And that is the secret of beholding of opening your eyes and leaning in and being aware of the fact that something is about to change in your circumstance and my friend.
Do you realize that the greatest miracle that God can do in your life and mind is not to change our circumstance.
The greatest miracle he can do is to change our hearts while we’re in the circumstance.
The greatest thing he can do for you and I is to open our eyes while we’re yet in the circumstance so that we see Him right before us in a place where we thought he couldn’t be because this is too hard or too difficult or too challenging or not what we expected.
It’s when God causes us to see glimpses of His glory and his grace and his favor right in the midst of those places that we’re experiencing the abundant life that he has promised for us.
In John Tinton, the abundant life is not when everything’s good And you’re experiencing the grace and the peace and the favor and the joy of God.
The abundant life is when in the midst of the road journey, like these two guys, Jesus shows up and your eyes are open and you see it, this is the secret of beholding.
It’s when you lean in and put your chin in your hands and expect that God’s getting ready to do something.
Even if you don’t see proof of it in your circumstance, you’re not expecting.
He’s about to do something in your circumstance. As much as you’re expecting.
God’s getting ready to do something in you that he’s getting ready to open up your eyes to see and experience Him in a way you have never seen and experienced him before.
This is the secret of beholding how I wish we could have been there to tell those guys.
Their story was about to change, to not allow themselves to get so hung up on one through 12 that they didn’t realize the change that was about to happen in verse 13.
And I don’t know what your one through 12 is.
But this, I do know that the only reason why the God of the universe would have planned for you to be here on these three days that we’re spending together to hear the word that would come forth, not only from those that are on this platform, but those that you’re running into in the line in the bathroom, the conversations that you’re hearing while you’re just standing in line to get a cup of coffee.
The only reason why the Lord would be buttering up us all up this weekend.
The only reason he would be seating you in this place to hear this word is if you and I were on the precipice of a behold moment is if he didn’t want you to miss out on the fact that one through 12 is not so bad that he can’t do something miraculous in verse 13 that no matter where you’ve been today is a brand new day, a brand new opportunity to see him in brand new ways in your life.
This is the secret of beholding. Do you remember Isaiah chapter 43 verse 18 and 19?
He said, listen, don’t concentrate so much on the past that you’re not aware fully that I’m about to do something in the future.
In fact, he said, do not call to mind the former things or ponder the things of the past.
For behold, I’m about to do something. New.
Behold, is the hinge that changes us and takes us from one place to the next place.
It calls us to lean into our lives to fully engage so that our spiritual eyes can be open, to detect the presence of God.
Do you realize that you have and are equipped with spiritual radar?
You have physical senses, you’ve got eyes and ears, nose touch, you have physical senses.
You also, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ have spiritual senses that is you have spiritual eyes to see the things which are unseen.
You have spiritual ears so that you can hear those things which are not heard with the natural ear.
You have an opportunity and I have an opportunity to have our spiritual radar in tune so that when God is moving, beep, beep, beep, we can pick up on God’s activity.
That’s why your heart burns within you.
When you hear certain things, that’s why your heart burns within you when you are called and beckoned by God’s spirit to participate in certain things.
That’s why our hearts were tugged.
These folks sat in these chairs to tell us what God is doing on the planet.
If your heart was tugged, my friend, it is not because you’re just here at the conference and you’re being emotional.
That’s the spirit of God inside of you resonating with his call on your life and on this is the secret of beholding.
It’s when you allow that spiritual radar to pick up on God’s activity and then you lean in to what it is that he’s doing.
It’s the secret of beholding. As I mentioned to you.
I have um a couple of boys that are with me.
We left the three year old at home with granny. He’s too young to know he got left.
And so we call him and Skype him, but we don’t let his brothers get on the phone.
So he won’t know. His brothers have left him as well.
We can’t get away with that for too much longer, but we’re milking it while we can.
So he goes with us on the shorter trips.
Australia was just too far to take the three year old on a plane.
But, but uh these three boys of mine, um I will tell you that, that, that they love coming on ministry trips with us and we love traveling with them on our ministry trips.
And unfortunately, I’m sure they will mature.
But unfortunately, right now when we travel with them, the question they have on their mind is, is, is not or they, they, they ask me is not mom.
Um What kind of ministry is going to be happening at the event we’re going to, that’s not what the nine and the seven year old and the three year old are asking me what they are asking me is Lord, our mom, what they’re asking me is mom, is there a swimming pool at the hotel?
That’s all they want to know. The boys love to swim.
And we realized this past summer the big boys are pretty good swimmer.
We realized this past summer they were swimming, Jerry got them some goggles so that they could swim underwater and look out underwater.
And so we noticed this summer they were swimming underwater, they had their goggles on, they were swimming.
And when they came up, my husband noticed in the goggles that their eyes were closed and he said to them boys, you do realize that the goggles equip you so that you can open your eyes.
You do realize that that’s the whole point is so that you can see clearly and open your, your eyes under water.
They say really? So they went down to try it again and they came back up after being under there for a few moments, they came back up and said, we can see it.
Do you realize that as a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been fitted with what is necessary so that when you are in over your head, you and I can still have our eyes open to detect the presence and the power of God.
I do not realize how people who have not placed faith in Jesus Christ, who do not have the hope that can only come from salvation, who do not have the hope that this is not our home.
I don’t realize how people who are experiencing what you and I are experiencing what we’ve seen on these screens depicted today that are dealing with the realities of this world.
How people who do not have hope can continue to live in any sense of sanity on this planet.
I don’t know how they’re doing it, but you and I have been fitted with what is necessary so that when we’re in over our head and my friend, if you’re in there over your head, if you’re already in over your head, at that point, it doesn’t matter how much deeper you go, you’re already in there, but no matter how much deeper you go, you’ve been fitted by the Holy Spirit with the hope that is required to keep your eyes, beholding the move, the presence, the power of God in your circumstance.
This is the secret of beholding of being aware of God’s activity in our lives.
In Exodus chapter 14, you don’t have to turn there.
This is when Moses, the Children of Israel, they um come up against the Red Sea Pharaoh’s army is all around them.
They have absolutely nowhere that they can turn to nowhere that they can go.
They are disgruntled by the fact that they have come out of Egypt.
They say only now to be killed by the Egyptians, that’s what they think.
They cannot believe this is happening to them.
And Moses says to these scared, frightened, angry people that are staring at the Red Sea.
He said to them in Exodus chapter 14, don’t fear, stand by and see the salvation of the Lord.
He says, listen, even in the midst of all this chaos that is surrounding you, would you keep your eyes open so that you do not miss the salvation of the Lord?
That is on the way. What Moses was saying is keep your eyes open and be watchful, not just for the parting of the Red Sea.
That’s the big miracle. You won’t miss that.
Keep your eyes open for the little miracles all along the way that God is doing while you’re on your way to the parting of the Red Sea.
He didn’t want the people to miss what it felt like when that east wind started blowing lightly, but then began to increase in intensity until those waters were parted.
He wanted them to see what it looked like when the floor of the, the river was completely dry so that they walked across with no mud on their sandals.
He wanted them to see what their the expressions were like on the faces of their friends and as family, as they all beheld what it was that God was doing.
He didn’t want them to miss any of the little miracles along the way.
And some of us have our eyes closed waiting on the big miracle.
And Moses says, see right now what it is that God is doing.
This is the secret of beholding so that you do not miss the encounter with God.
There’s a second secret for us. It’s also in verse 13, are y’all still with me? In verse 13?
It says, and behold, two of them were going that very day to the village named Amaia.
It was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
Now, this is interesting because it doesn’t say it within the context of this verse.
But scholars tell us that Almas was most likely these guys home. That’s where they live.
Now, remember they had in verses one through 12, they had been in Jerusalem at Passover, Jesus had been crucified, resurrected.
They are now leaving Passover. Thousands of people are dispersing to their homes.
These two guys are on a journey, the seven mile journey from Jerusalem to their home in Aus.
And as we read in the next few verses, this is when Jesus is going to come alongside them, invade their practical everyday living, walk with them on their journey home.
Very interesting. They were going home when Jesus showed up.
Now, they had been at Passover, one of the pristine religious events in all of the Jewish culture, thousands of folks gathered, thousands came from everywhere and gathered together.
But these two guys did not meet Jesus in a personal life changing way.
I mean, the kind of way that you write in your journal and you tell your grandkids about that encounter didn’t happen when they were with the thousands.
That encounter happened when they left the thousands and went home.
That means there’s not only a secret of beholding but my friends, if we want to encounter God and not miss it when he shows up in our life that we gotta know there’s also a secret to going home.
Would you look at the sister next to you and say girl, just go home.
Would you just go home? Just got it.
Now, lets you get confused as to my point tomorrow at the end of the day, you and I will be dispersing literally and uniquely in this gathering, we will be dispersing to all manner of corners on the planet, all over the globe.
You and I are going back to, to so many different corners of the globe.
And the reality is that our experience with God here should not trump the experience of God that you ought to be having personally intimately and individually, when you leave the gathering and go home, there ought to be some specific detailed things you can write down that God does for you, not in the corporate gathering as real and tangible as he is when we get together.
But the real personal highlights of your walk with God shouldn’t be happening in this room, my friend, they should be happening when you take what you’ve learned when you take what you’ve heard.
When you take what has inspired you and you take it on the journey home with you in the real practical everyday living aspects of your life.
When we say, Lord, I believe that my marriage at home can be touched by the life giving power of God that where there has been no passion, passion can be restored.
Lord, I believe that my health right here in my doctor’s office at home.
Lord, that it can be completely radically transformed by the miraculous healing power of God.
Lord, I believe not just that praying to you is good here in the gathering, but God, that your power works when it’s just me and you in the context of my bedroom.
And I’m on my knees because I just don’t know how I’m going to parent this teenager that you’ve given me God.
I believe that your power can invade this circumstance of my life as well.
And the problem with so many of us is that we expect our main experiences with God to happen in the gathering and we forgot forget that the reason why we have the gathering is so that the power of God can be transferred into the daily living of our everyday lives.
This is the secret of going home, my friends.
This is the secret of expecting God to invade the details of your life and this is what he wants to do.
This is on the heart of God and has been since the beginning of time, I’ve got to tell you that this is one aspect of our relationship with our God that mesmerizes me.
Any time I come across a passage in scripture, like the one we studied this morning where there’s this lone woman, uh maybe with a few others that are here at the tomb.
And that Jesus, you know, there were only 40 short days, by the way between the time he was resurrected from the dead and his ascension, this is just a little over a month.
That’s all the time that he’s got.
And he takes time to take care of this one woman who’s got tears falling down her to stop and just spend time with her to say Mary, it’s ok.
And it takes time to walk with these two disappointed travelers who were traveling these seven miles and to spend the rest of this chapter talking to them connecting with them being in fellowship.
The very fact that we serve a God who takes the time to care about the she in the we that takes the time to just, you know, he knows the details of your life.
Do you know that like the stuff that the stuff of your life that even maybe your spouse or your best friend doesn’t know.
This is the stuff that’s in the deepest recess of your heart and this is the stuff that cause the tears to fall from your eyes late in the midnight hour.
He knows all of that stuff.
And I’m continually blown away by the fact that we serve a God who cares that much because do y’all realize he doesn’t need us to accomplish his purposes on earth?
He doesn’t need us and yet he chooses to be in friendship and relationship with us even more than that.
He chooses to use us to use us to partner with him in accomplishing his test.
This is something about our God that completely and overwhelmingly stuns me every time I get to it in scripture like this where we see Jesus Christ God coming alongside an individual just to have connection and collaboration with them.
For a few moments, it completely stuns me. It could it stunned John as well.
That’s why in John chapter 1 14, he wrote the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Now you need to hear it as he would have written it.
He wasn’t just casually writing the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
We beheld the glory, the glory of the only God of the No, no, no. He was stunned.
He could not believe that the dog on word became flesh.
Stun and dwelt listen to him, write it and dwelt among us and we got to behold his glory.
The glory of the only begotten of the father John can’t believe it.
I got to behold the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and full of truth.
He is completely stunned. I love the message Bible translation of that.
It says the word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.
Jesus became flesh so he could move into the neighborhood. Y’all.
He wanted to move into the neighborhood of your life.
He wanted to get up close and personal with you.
Your relationship with God isn’t supposed to be about church on Sunday.
It’s not supposed to be about the color conference once a year.
It’s supposed to be about an ongoing connection and relationship and friendship between you and your God.
That’s the whole reason why he came so he can move into your neighborhood.
Do you know this theme of God’s desire to be close and personal and intimate with us?
This is, this begins from the most ancient of times way back in the very beginning when God was making that and establishing that very first covenant between um the patriarch Abraham.
He was establishing a covenant so he could create a nation of people that could bear his name, his chosen people, the people of Israel way back then.
We even see this happening in ancient times and hang with me for a moment because you’re going to love this when you hear it in ancient times, when there was a greater kingdom, a greater nation, a powerful nation that would oftentimes come alongside a lesser nation.
The reason why they would do that, they would cut a covenant, establish an agreement, a promise between the two nations.
The reason why they would do that is because this lesser nation needed the greater nation, the lesser nation needed military protection.
The lesser nation needed provision in times of famine, in times of thirst, they needed somebody who could take care of them.
So they would cut a covenant. And here’s the way they sealed, the covenant was always by blood.
The shedding of blood. They would sacrifice an animal and they would dismember the animal and they would lay it out so that the lesser nation could walk between pieces of the sacrificed animal.
They would walk between the pieces of the animal.
And as they walk every step they took was a statement of their loyalty.
The lesser nation was saying as I walk between these pieces, I am claiming my unadulterated loyalty to you because you’re giving me protection, you’re giving me provision.
What I’m saying as I walk between these pieces is that I will not have a covenant with any other nation.
You will be the one and only nation.
And as I walk between these pieces, what I’m saying is if I betray this covenant, I understand my nation will be torn apart.
Like these pieces have been, my own family will be torn apart like these pieces have been my own body and life will be torn apart because I have betrayed the covenant.
So when God decides to make a covenant with humankind, he comes to Abraham and he speaks in a language that Abraham can understand.
He says, I will tell you how you can bank on the fact Abraham that even though it doesn’t look plausible, I’m going to tell you how serious I am about making sure you know that I love you and will birth a nation.
I want you to go get me an animal. Abraham and Abraham gets that animal.
He says you sacrifice these animals and so sacrifices the animals and he lays the pieces out.
Well, somebody’s gotta walk between the pieces.
And it would seem that in this type of covenant arrangement when there was a greater Yahweh and the lesser Abraham who would be the one to walk among the pieces.
Abraham, he would be the Lester who would need to say I will be lo loyal.
I will have no other commitment to any other God.
You are the one that I will be committed to and I will walk among the pieces to establish that loyalty.
But just when Abraham may have been the one to walk among the pieces, adding his own works and activity to the commitment to the covenant Genesis chapter 15 says that Yahweh puts Abraham into a deep sleep because he doesn’t want Abraham to add any of his own works to the covenant that he was about to establish with humankind.
And it looks forward to the New Testament where the New Testament says it is for by grace.
We have been saved, not of any works of our own.
He doesn’t want us adding to the covenant so that none of us can boast that we had anything to do with this commitment we’ve got with our great God.
And so he puts Adam and he puts Abraham to sleep.
But the question still remains, who’s gonna walk between the pieces?
And in Genesis 15, in one of the greatest, the phonies in all of scripture, that is where God shows up in some tangible form so that people can see him and behold him.
Genesis chapter 15 says, Yahweh actually condescends to humankind.
He comes to where Abraham is and we see Yahweh, the God of the universe moving among the pieces of the sacrificed animal, basically saying to humanity.
Look, I already know y’all aren’t gonna be loyal.
So I will let you know I will be faithful even when you are faithless and he moves among the pieces of the animal.
And he also says that, listen, if either of us betray this covenant, even though I know I won’t.
Yahweh, even though I know I won’t.
If either of us betrayed this covenant, I’m making a statement that I understand somebody’s flesh has gotta be torn just like this animal’s flesh has been torn.
Somebody’s gotta pay the price if there is a betrayal of the covenant.
And Yahweh even then in the most ancient of times, he foreshadows the coven of the coming of His son, whose flesh would be torn because humankind would not be faithful to the covenant.
And so then Yahweh came down to where humans were to invade their circumstance and move into the neighborhood of their lives.
That’s how much He loved us. Fast forward to the year 2012.
And here we sit and our God comes down to meet with us to invade the details of our life.
I cannot get over the fact that we serve a God that is willing to go home with us that is willing to meet you right where you are.
This is the secret of going home.
It’s for any of us that will choose not to just leave all the inspiration and all the hoopla and all the fun in this room.
But who will decide, you know what I’m going home with this?
I’m gonna make sure that my life is different because of what I’ve heard.
I’m gonna make sure that my outward actions towards others are different because of what I’ve heard.
I’m gonna make sure that I’m not the same girl when I leave here tomorrow night that I was when I showed up on the first night that this word is gonna take root in me.
It’s going to change me and transform me.
There’s one final secret that I wanna share with you really quickly.
I’ll just tell you that um Jesus shows up, their eyes are prevented from, from seeing them.
I wish I had time to get into all these juicy details here.
But the bottom line is they talk to Jesus for the next 10 verses.
Now, can I just say quickly that there is a problem if Jesus is with you and you are doing all the talking, there is a problem if you are walking with God and you are talking more than you are hearing his voice because my friends, when we talk, nothing happens.
When he talks, worlds come into existence.
If I were you, I would want to hear his opinion over your opinion.
I would want to figure out what is he saying about the situation, even if it just seems contradictory to everything that I see happening in the situation.
And so these guys are talking and, and finally, verse 28 says, they approached the village where they were going and, and Jesus acted like he wasn’t going to go any further and look what happens.
They urged him saying, stay with us.
It’s getting towards evening and the day is now nearly over and look what happens.
Jesus goes in and stays with him.
They asked him, they invited him, will you come in and stay with us?
Jesus and Jesus king of kings.
And Lord of Lords says, sure there is a secret and beholding, there is a secret in going home and there is a secret in invitation in inviting him into your circumstances.
Now, remember these guys were already with them.
Remember they had been walking for seven miles with him, they had already been walking with him, talking with him.
They were already with him, but they invited him to come in even more intimately into their lives because now he goes home with them.
Now he’s all up in their living room. Now, he’s getting ready to have dinner with them.
He’s going to break bread with them and it’s while they’re reclining around the table in the inner sanctum of these guys’ lives in their home, right in the midst of their reality.
It’s while they’re there that Jesus breaks the bread and the wine and then it says their eyes are opened and they realized who they’ve been dealing with all this time.
And so I wonder if the reason why some of us are not recognizing God sometimes in our circumstances is not because we’re not with him.
I mean, we’re with him, we’re walking with him, but it’s because we haven’t invited him all the way into the details of our life.
There’s just this little corner that we’re holding back.
Lord, you can, you know, you can mess with all this over here.
But if you’ll just leave this piece alone, this relationship, this um this habit that I have, Lord, this lifestyle choice.
If you’ll kind of just leave this part alone, then we can cohabitate nicely.
But I wonder what would happen if there were a company of women who didn’t just say I’ll walk with you, but who then invite him to come in all the way and sit down at the table of our lives and commune with us in an intimate personal way.
You know what this story tells me?
It tells me that there are two levels of invitation, one for salvation and another where we say, ok, Lord, now I actually want you to sit on the throne of my life and make decisions, help me Lord to live a life that is pleasing to you.
And so these guys invite Jesus in.
And the neat thing is is that when you invite Jesus in any intimate places in your life or in mind, his answer will always be sure.
That’s just the kind of God we serve encounters with Jesus are what take a woman who is frazzled and uneasy and lacks peace.
Revolution of peace. That’s been our theme, not only for the world but in your own heart, your own home.
An encounter with him is what takes a frazzled, uneasy, unsettled, unsteady woman and causes her to have a surety and a confidence in a world that lacks both of those things, seeing him face to face, hearing his voice with your spiritual ears.
That’s what causes stuff to change.
There’s a woman in my church, you need to know that, that I go to the kind of church in the states where there’s still a little bit of the traditional African American experience in my church in the States.
Yes. It’s a beautiful thing.
I still got a few women in my church who wear that Sunday hat.
Does anybody know what I’m talking about? My grandmother?
For example, she sits down the road from me.
She’s got her skirt on, but she always has that little scarf.
You know, the scarf with the lace around the sides that’s supposed to be over your knees in church.
She has on a hat and the hat matches the scarf, the scarf matches the shoes, the shoes, match the purse.
And I go to the kind of church that when the pastor is preaching.
I mean, they talk back to you and if it gets real good to them, they might throw something at you a handkerchief or baby, anything might come flying at the stage.
And there is one woman I always know when she’s in church because she’s always saying mm, yes.
Amen preach it. I always know when she’s there. I love her.
She’s like kind of the mama of the church. She’s been there since I was a teenager.
I love just hearing her. She sits in the middle. I love hearing her there.
I love, she’s always been a worshiper, an overt worshiper.
She always just shouts out whatever the Lord is putting on her heart.
I love it a couple of years ago.
Um, her daughter that I grew up with in the youth group.
She went home to be with the Lord, her young daughter, 32 years old, a disease took her life.
And I remember being at the funeral, sitting with some other girls who I grew up with in the youth program.
We all sat together and we sat behind Mimi is the young lady who died.
Mimi’s mom sat right in front of us and we were of course, of course there to celebrate the life of her daughter, but also to just be a support to her to console her.
And I will never forget as we sat on that second row in the funeral, that day when there was a lull in the service, I think they were switching, people were coming to the microphone and they were switching um people at the microphone.
So there was just a quiet moment.
I will never forget when Mimi’s mother, the hat wearing woman from the middle section of the church that is always praising God.
I will never forget when she stood to her feet and in between the section of carpet that was between that casket and the front pew in the church.
She used that entire section to give the Lord the same praise she had been given him every other Sunday of her life.
She walked up and down that front section of the church in front of the casket of her first born child with her hands out stretched to God and said, Lord, I’ll worship you and I praise you even in the midst of this devastation, God, I thank you for this baby girl.
I thank you that she knew you a savior. I thank you that she’s in eternity with you.
I thank you that I’m gonna see her again.
Lord, I thank you that even in spite of this, you are who you say you are and you will do what you say you will do.
I thank you that you are good and you are kind and you are holy and you are powerful.
I thank you Lord. And I watched this mama whose heart obviously had to be broken.
I watched her still celebrate God.
What kind of hope does a woman have to have in the face of a hopeless situation?
What kind of anchor is holding her steady in the midst of such a joyless difficulty?
What kind of faith must she have?
I’ll tell you this is a woman who has had an encounter with Jesus Christ.
Her faith is not based on religion.
Her faith is based on the fact that she has seen him with her own eyes.
She has heard his voice with her own spiritual ears so that no matter what happens, nothing can shake her face.
Amen.
It’s peace in the midst of the storm and guess what it’s available for you and me.
So I wonder if there’s anybody in the room who is in the midst of the storm.
And you got to be honest, you are just riding with the waves. There’s no steadiness, there’s no surety.
You don’t have the confidence that you know, only and encounter with Jesus Christ can give.
I just wonder if there’s anybody in this room and what you need is for the Holy Spirit to shower upon you such a holy confidence that no matter what you’re going back home to, you recognize the fact that he is the anchor in the midst of all of that chaos, that there was a Holy Spirit inspired courage and confidence that keeps you standing up with your eyes pointed to the sky that you know that you’re going back home to circumstances that are not what you desire.
And yet you want to be able to walk into those circumstances as a woman who’s just left a gathering.
Yes. And there was confidence here in this room. It’s easy to have it here.
Nobody’s gonna give you a hard time in the room.
It’s when we all go home and you want to take home with you, the confidence and inspiration and holy courage that you know, only the Holy Spirit can give.
I want you to bow your heads with me.
Listen, if you have never placed faith in Jesus Christ, if you have never made a decision to serve him, if you have never made a decision to accept his blood shed on Calvary for the remission of your sins.
Then I promise you there is no way that you can have peace, not a peace that will last.
You might find little bouts of happiness.
But I’m talking about an a rooted rest and ease and peace in the midst of life’s difficulties that you cannot find apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And the reason why is because when you accept Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit of God comes to live on the inside of you.
Jesus said my peace. I leave with you. That was the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
I will invest and gift into your life.
And when the Holy Spirit lives in you, there is an anchor that holds you steady when nothing else in your life is steady.
So tonight, if you have not placed faith in Jesus Christ, but you need the peace that passes all understanding.
And so you want to invite him to be your savior.
I wonder if you might raise your hand wherever you are.
I’ll give you a moment.
This is a good night to accept Christ as your savior. Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.
Yes. And in the quietness of this moment, I wonder if there are any of you who are already walking with him.
But you know, you need to invite him in to the deep recesses of your reality.
Like these two guys had to, they had to, to invite him to come in and stay a while and you know that you have kept him on the outside of some of your circumstances, but you need to invite him in.
I wonder if you might raise your hand.
Yes, I want to pray for both groups of you, Lord Jesus.
Thank you so much for every single woman who is raising your hand.
Keep your hand up regardless of what group you’re in. Lord.
I thank you for each of these ladies that has raised her hand.
Lord, I pray for those first who are saying they have never accepted you as savior.
And I pray right now in the name of Jesus us Lord, that you would reveal yourself to them in such a real tangible way that they will no longer be able to refuse you.
I thank you that you are the hound of heaven that comes looking for us that tracks us down.
Lord, thank you. Thank you that you have tracked these women down tonight.
And so I pray the Lord, you will take up residence in them by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Can we all say these words together? Lord Jesus?
I accept you as my savior, take up residence in me, in the person of the Holy Spirit in Jesus name.
And then God, I do lift up to you every single person who also has their hand raised because they just need you to come in to the details of their life.
They want to go home with you Lord and encounter you and experience you outside of this building.
And so God, I am praying in the name of Jesus Lord, that you would cause them to experience you in the regular realities of their life after they leave this room.
Lord, would you invade their circumstances? God, would you show up in their marriages?
Show up in their health, show up in their parenting, show up in their singleness on their jobs in their ministries.
Lord, would you so show up that they will be able to point all attention to you as the one who is transforming their lives from the inside out God.
We pray that any assignment there might be that the enemy may have against these women, any of us, Lord and our families, our ministries, our jobs.
Lord, I pray that in the name of Jesus, those assignments would be canceled by his bloodshed on Calvary.
Lord, so that we might flourish under the umbrella of your love, your favor, your protection and your power in Jesus name.
All God’s women shouted amen and amen.