Hungry For Hope

Romans 5:1-5 tells us tribulation produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character produces hope. But what do we do when it feels like our hope is slipping away? Be not dismayed! God is using this pivotal moment to develop a different version of you while transforming your hope into something you could never imagine! Don’t just sit and stare, waiting to see if His promises will come to pass. Look away with faith, and let hope catch you by surprise!

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…….

Isn’t this what we came for?
After all? It wasn’t about the preaching. It wasn’t about the lights.
It wasn’t even about coming to the Potter’s house, Dallas as incredible as it is.
There are some of us in this room purely for the presence.
And you gotta know when you’re in the presence, you gotta know when you transition from just having church to stepping into the presence of the Lord.
Somebody’s spirit just shifted. You don’t even know what happened, the presence happened, the glory fell, the presence is always around, but we’re not always aware of the presence.
And so when worship brings us into the awareness of the presence of God, depression will lift up off of you.
When worship brings you into the presence of God, cancer will get out of your body.
When worship brings you into the awareness of the presence of God, then all of a sudden what was a burden is not a burden anymore?
Because I, somebody carrying this with me. I got somebody covering me. I got somebody in there seating for me.
What my neighbor could do. The presence can do, couldn’t do, the president could do what The Jack couldn’t do.
The president did some things that nothing but the president could do. The doctor would fix it.
I, he would change it. But the presence made the difference. The presence broke it off of me.
The president called me home. The presence, the president, my soul.
It’s got to dwell in the presence. It’s gotta dwell in the presence.
I feel like somebody just took authority over where they dwell. I think somebody just served themselves an eviction.
Notice I can’t live in this space anymore. I gotta move into the presence.
Holy Ghost. Have your way.
Holy Spirit fled this place as only you can do.
Oh Let my grief have a confrontation with your presence of my pain.
Have a confrontation with your presence.
What I love about the presence of God, we got dressed up to come to church.
The presence doesn’t require you to dress anything up.
You get to come just as you are angry, frustrated.
I don’t have to pretend like I may have to pretend with other people stressed out, upset, confused, lost.
I don’t have to change anything about myself to get into the presence of God.
I just gotta be hungry for it.
And when you get in a room with other people who are hungry for the presence of God, it changes things when you inconvenience yourself to get into the presence of God, it’s cold, it’s early.
Somebody is watching on the other side of the country.
It’s in the middle of the night, but the presence will make you inconvenience yourself because it’s just that good.
Is anybody glad to be in the house of the Lord? Can we just take 30 seconds?
And thank God for being God.
I know we were thanking our families and thanking God for turkey and dressing and chitlins and stuffing.
But can we take a minute in the spirit of gratitude? And thank God for being God.
I thank you for your strategy. I thank you for your faithful. I thank you that you never gave up.
I thank you that you work things out on my behalf. I thank you that you went ahead of me.
I thank you that you protected me. I thank you that it didn’t take me out. Come on somebody.
Am I the only one who’s grateful to God for being God.
There is no one, no one like him. Yeah. Hallelujah.
Thank you Jesus. You know, I am.
Imagine my father being on vocal. Rest was gonna be a lot different than it’s played out.
I thought to myself that this would be my opportunity to finally use some of the things they said to me as a child on him.
Did I hear you say? I thought, I thought God was releasing a spirit on me.
Uh uh uh watch your mouth, watch your mouth. I thought, I thought that’s what was gonna happen.
But um I don’t know if it’s like brainwashing as a child, my spirit wasn’t released to talk to him the way that I wanted to talk to him on this vocal season because I thought he can’t say nothing back.
Now. Is your time to at him?
But it hasn’t been all of what I had thought it was gonna be.
But can we just thank God for a minute? Not just for bishop.
Let me tell you how legendary Bishop is.
Even though he is on vocal rest, his work is not resting.
Oh Man, that means that even though he’s taking a moment to rest because God went ahead of him, he’s already has strategy for how to move his work, his ministry, his legacy.
Even while he takes a break, you see, you guys must not know that on December 1st, Amazon Freebie is going be the first platform that Bishop Jakes is on in which they are making room for faith.
And Amazon, this is a historical deal and he’s doing it on vocal rest.
You better celebrate because God’s saying I’m gonna bring you, you better watch who you’re connected to.
I’m gonna bring you into a season where even when you’re resting, that you’re working things out.
Your gift is going ahead of you on December 1st. I need you all to mark your calendars.
December 1st, Bishop Jakes is gonna be on Amazon free. It’s gonna be streaming on all of your devices.
This means that Bishop is gonna be in 100 and 80 million homes.
That means the very word that you inconvenience yourself to be a part of is gonna be reaching 100 and 80 million homes.
That means that this word is literally going into the world.
And so Bishop, I thank you so much for your heart to serve for your heart to continue working, sending emails, making sure the best of the best is available.
Y’all gonna have Jerry Curl, bishop, bearded bishop, black hair, bishop all on Amazon free.
It’s gonna be so much content and I have to tell you I’m gonna get to the word.
But um one of the things I prayed for as a daughter, the more that I saw my dad really building this church is that God would call people into his life who would help him bear the weight, hold up his arms.
And I see our incredible staff, our team, our worship ministry, our ministers, our elders.
Thank you all so much for the work you do because you believe in the grace and the anointing that’s on bishop’s life.
Thank you for covering and protecting and all of the many ways that you continue to serve.
And what I love about God is that as my dad has gone into new spaces, God gives him new support for that new space.
One of those structural systems that God has in place is Pastor Mike Phillips and today is his birthday and I just wanna take a moment and thank you for answering the call to be a part of helping bishop to take what’s in Bishop’s heart and in his mind and bringing it to manifestation.
Pastor Mike Phillips is part of the reason and why the Amazon deal came through because he heard bishop say something and felt like he could add his gifts and talents to a part of it.
Pastor Michael. We thank God for the gift of you, the gift of your life, the gift of your mind, your creativity, and for everything you do as a brother for dad.
Thank you. We appreciate you. Can you help me love him? Pastor Mike?
Well, John 19, John 19 verse 26 I have two text.
I would like to introduce. First one is short. We find Jesus on the cross.
He has completed his ministry on the earth.
The Roman soldiers have done the painful grueling, defeating task of taking his body and wounding it for our transgressions.
And as He’s on this cross, he does something that I always found to be unique.
I believe God gave me some perspective about this moment on the cross that I’d like to share with you John 19 and 26 Jesus is literally hanging on the cross and Jesus looks down and he sees his mother and the disciple whom he loved John because at this point, some of the other disciples have found themselves either denying him betraying him or staying as far away from him as possible.
But Mary and John are there at the cross and Jesus and all of his pain, his Brokenness, his weariness looks down and he sees John and Mary, my text says, when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loves standing by, he said to his mother, woman behold your son.
And verse 27 continues, it says that after he says, woman, behold your son, that he looks to the disciple and says, behold your mother.
And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home.
Let’s skip over to Romans 51 through five. Romans 51 through five is not unfamiliar.
It says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And not only that, but we also glory and tribulations.
Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character, and character. Hope.
Now, one thing to know about hope is that hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us spirit of the living God, what a precious God you are and all knowing only loving God that you are God, we welcome you further into our hearts further into our minds.
Further into our issues, our problems, God, some of us, our mind is racing worried.
We trying to make sure we’re covering it all. God. We need your presence more than we need anything.
And so God, we invite you to give us clarity, to provide us with peace, to fill us with your spirit is only you can do God settle us in an unsettling season, establishes in the middle of the shaking.
I’m talking about doing what only you can do. God. I’m not asking you for the impossible.
I’m asking you for what is only possible through you. God.
Look past our issues, our circumstance, our excuses tear down our wall, God and let your glory fall so deep inside of us that it becomes an anchor and we cannot leave your presence.
We can leave your church, but we cannot leave your presence because your presence will be alive inside of us, come alive, come alive, drop bones.
God. I thank you that the year may be coming to an end, but some of us are gonna be birthed ane in this season.
I thank you God. That is happy new year already because there is new me that’s gonna leave out of this place.
I thank you God in advance for glory. I thank you God in advance for breakthrough.
I thank you God in advance for healing. I think you got in advance for strategy.
I think you got in advance for families coming back together for peace, being released for joy. Coming back.
I thank you God in advance because I recognize that that is what you desire for us.
So God, let this word be clear. Let it be prophetic.
Let it be none of me and only you to the extent that lives would be changed forever.
For your glory in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
May um subject for today is hungry for hope, hungry for help.
We’ve got um six Children for those of you who don’t know my husband and I, we are a beautiful blended family and we have six Children and ok, thank you.
I appreciate. Yes, thank you. We’re doing the best. That’s a man who understands.
We’re doing the best that we can out here.
Um I won’t even get into everything that I could get into with that.
But what I will say is this, we are experiencing basically every stage of parenting all at the same time.
We’ve got a six year old all the way up to a 26 year old. Yeah, pray.
Um So we’re not like all the way empty nester, even though some of our older Children are preparing to leave the home, one has already left because we’ve got an a beautiful six year old who’s wide awake.
So I’ll make sure that I tread lightly there.
But uh she we’ve got this six year old as well who still at an early stage, we still got time to serve there.
And, um, the thing about experiencing these different stages of life is that our desire, our focus as parents vary depending on what stage the child is in.
So, with the six year old we’re still discovering her personality.
She’s, um, she’s, um, oh, uh, she, she’s, uh, Jesus, what is that word?
Um, I’m trying to gentle parent so I can’t just say, you know, she, she’s spicy a little bit, you know.
Um I don’t know where she got it from, to be honest, but um, we’re still marveling at like the things she said.
It’s like, can you believe that?
She just said that like she had on some shorts the other day, it’s cold here now in Dallas, I’m like, you can’t wear your shorts.
She says, hold on. I’m gonna go negotiate with dad. I’m like, wait a minute. Who are you talking to?
Like, can I talk to your supervisor?
You know, I’m like, he’s the head of the household and stuff, but he not like my supervisor but let me know what he says because she was already gone.
She gets to her dad and she goes, dad, we need to negotiate, negotiate.
I don’t even know about her shorts and she goes, ok, we’re gonna negotiate, you keep your $100 and I get to wear my shorts.
Like, what are we even talking about? So we’re dealing with her.
We’re understanding her personality, our other Children though. We have a pulse on their personality. Mckenzie.
She’s 13 and her personality is now being introduced to the world.
And so we’re helping her to understand her personality and how it fits into different social settings and how it fits in with her friends and her peers and her adults.
And so we’re still in that personality stage with our younger Children.
The older ones are 20 and up, we’re wondering less about their personality and now we’re putting the finishing touches on their character.
There’s this parenting transition where it’s less about, oh my gosh. Can you believe what they said?
And more about who are they?
And how does, who they are stand up to the world that awaits them.
We’re putting the finishing touches on their character, their work ethic, their integrity, how they communicate.
We’re helping them to understand that there are some things about character, having good character that will set you up for the rest of your life.
It’ll determine what or not. You have promotions, it’ll determine whether or not you stay married.
There are character things that, that don’t have anything to do with personality.
You can have a good personality and have bad character. We don’t really talk about that much.
You funny but you lie through your teeth, babe. Like jeez, that’s a personality trait.
But that character part is so important. Personality versus character.
I was reading this article by a doctor in psychology today. He was talking about personality versus character.
He says that personality traits are often hereditary.
If you got all of the family in a room together, there would be some similarities because they were raised in the same culture, the same household.
And as a result of that have similar personalities.
But if the people in that family could talk, they would tell you we have similar personalities, but we have difference in our character.
Yeah, we just survived Thanksgiving where we had similar personality.
As long as we could talk about one thing we were ok.
But when we started talking about mental health or politics and what’s important to us now, we’re getting into some character fundamentals.
And as a result of that, there can be some division, not based on personality, but based on character personality.
They say changes very easily. You could be in a room with someone and think that, oh, they don’t talk much and then you get them alone and they awaken their personality, release their personality because in this room, I couldn’t be myself.
But now I’m here and I can release my personality. But character is not that way.
Character doesn’t change, depending on the room you’re in.
Character is the same regardless of where you put it because character is not rooted in likability.
Character is rooted in a belief system. Personality is likability.
It’s whether or not you can engage with people. Can you strike up conversation? Do you wanna strike up conversation.
Do you like to be alone?
But character is rooted in a belief system and a belief system is rooted in conviction.
Help me, Lord. Character is rooted to a belief system.
Let’s talk about some examples of a belief system that produces character.
Think it’s important that we see character as neutral. Sometimes we tell people that they don’t have any character.
But the truth is that character itself is actually neutral. It is neither good nor bad.
It just depends on the belief system connected to it. So character could be good or bad.
The belief system that produces the character is what ultimately determines whether or not the fruit of that character is something worth passing on for generations.
Ok, let’s give an example. There is someone who has a belief that no one can be trusted and so their character makes them skeptical, skepticism has become a part of their character because they have a belief that they cannot trust people.
We say it’s just how they are.
No, that’s a part of their character because it is a part of their belief system.
Someone doesn’t believe that it is possible to get out of their community.
Someone doesn’t believe that it’s possible to really start a business and have a successful business.
And as a result of that doubt is now one of their characteristics, it’s a part of their character trait.
It’s not just who you’re upset with who they are, it’s not just who they are.
There is a belief connected to why they are and that’s why it has become a part of their character.
There are some people who believe no matter what I do, I’m gonna do it with excellence because I believe that everything I touch is important no matter how big or how small it is.
And that’s why they bring the character that they bring to whatever the work they do.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a Potter’s house volunteer, they would think that they went through some type of CIA training.
They take this thing so very seriously.
If you don’t believe me, try and run up on here and take this microphone all of a sudden there will be ninjas coming from anywhere and they don’t do this from 9 to 5 every day.
But they do this because they believe that what they do, it should be done with excellence and that is a part of the character and the fabric of who they are.
I don’t really care what colors you like. What I am more interested in is your character.
It takes time to really get an impression of someone’s character.
I could tell you that I like you when we leave, but I cannot commit to you until I get to see your character.
I wanna see how you treat people who you don’t think you need. I wanna understand.
Do you feel like people are opportunities or do you feel like they are actually gifts from God that should be valued?
I gotta see your character. I went for personality before it took me to a dead end.
I had to choose differently. And when I decided to choose differently, I started building friendship based on character.
I started hiring based on character.
I need to know who you are and I’m patient enough to wait and see your character.
I am not so desperate that I will fall in love with your personality and miss out on the reality of who you are.
I will hold my heart back. I will hold my money back because I wanna understand. Are you responsible?
Do you have work ethic? Are you faithful?
Your character matters and in a world where you are celebrated for being a personality church, I wanna encourage you to still dig into having character because you can be an incredible personality.
You can have hundreds of followers. You could be the most popular in the world.
But if you do not have character, God cannot trust you just because someone has a crowd, it doesn’t mean they have any power because power is based based on trust and trust can only come from character and character is when you have integrity.
You say what you do, you do what you say you’re gonna do.
If I say it, I’m gonna show up and I’m gonna stand in the moment. I’m gonna see it through.
Character is a little old school. I’ll admit that because we have a transactional generation.
But at the end of the day, character is the only thing that will stand, that will with stay in the test of time.
My parents have been together for 40 years. I used to think it’s because they were so in love.
I used to think it’s because they just saw the sun and stars shining out of each other’s eyes.
Now, I realize that they had the type of character that said I committed 40 years ago and because I committed 40 years ago, I’m not gonna change my mind just because things get tough.
You want the position? But do you want the character required to maintain the position?
Do you have the integrity? Can you communicate? Can you draw a line in the sand? Do you have boundaries?
Can you express those boundaries without wounding people? Do you take care of the people? God sends in your life?
Are you making sure that you are a good steward of every opportunity?
I know you wanna be so somewhere else.
But right now here is all you got and if you discard here, you’ll never get there.
So I gotta honor here like it is there because I got the character for where God has placed me.
Oh, I feel something on that.
I feel like somebody’s gotta be reminded that this isn’t gonna change because of your perspective.
This isn’t gonna change because you get another opportunity this is gonna change because you put your character in it.
God, help me, help me, helped me to have character, the kind of character, character that makes me worthy of having weight placed on me.
Oh, I gotta figure that out.
Character. I want my insides to be tight.
I want my insides to be strong.
I want to understand that there’s a certain level of resiliency required for where I’m headed and because there is resiliency required for where I’m headed.
I gotta take it seriously. I don’t wanna just be likable. Likable is cheap.
I’m sorry, I’m supposed to move on from this point.
But I feel like we need to really embed in this conversation. The vital necessity of character.
Anyone can be likable. You could go online and learn how to strike up conversation.
You can go online and learn how to win a room.
But character can to not be taught in a 30 minute class.
Character is when God deals with you about you. God, I think I’m manipulative. God.
I think that I might be hurting the people who come into my life.
God, I’ve got a belief system that is souring my character. So God, I need you to change my beliefs.
I need you to change my conviction so we can show up in my character.
God help me to be the kind of person who looks like Jesus so that I do not take on the character of my trauma so that I do not take on the character of my fear so that I do not take on the character of who everyone else thinks I should be of my heartbreak of my pain.
I need to take on the character required for who you’ve called me to be.
And if you are not asking yourself God, what is it about my character that needs to be developed?
Then maybe you’re just asking God for things and God wants to make you a being.
Oh God, help me.
When Adam and Eva in the garden and the serpent ask Eve, did God really say?
It looks like in that moment from her perspective?
I imagine I wasn’t there that maybe she’s just engaging in dialogue.
What she doesn’t understand is that the enemy is after her belief system.
Because if the enemy can get her belief system, the enemy can change her character.
And if the enemy can change her character, the enemy can change her actions.
The enemy can change what she believes is possible. The enemy can change her Dominion.
Oh You think that this attack is over your finances? You think the attack is over your family?
You think the attack is over your book.
The attack is not over your ministry, it is not over your family.
The attack is over your belief system because if He can get a hold of your belief system, then it will change your character.
And if it changes your character, you will not walk in power, you will not walk in authority.
You will not walk in boldness because you will have a belief system that says, I cannot trust who God says.
I am. I cannot trust what God says about me.
And if I cannot trust it, then I won’t step out on it.
So if the enemy can change your belief, the enemy change somebody’s belief.
But I’m gonna prophesy in this room tonight that the same enemy that changed your belief system is gonna have to get the hell up out of your beliefs, out of your belief system so that heaven can make way for what God said.
I hear God saying, belief systems may be hard to change. But the impossible is possible with God.
I wish they would turn me up in the microphone because I got a devil to chase out of a belief system.
I got a devil to chase out of a marriage.
I want hell to hear me because we got some devils to chase.
We got a belief system to change because I got somebody to be and I’ve got somewhere to go and I know I can’t be there unless I believe that I can do what God says, I can do and I can do what God says, I can do.
I can say what God tells me to say. I got a belief system working against my destiny.
But I got a God that says I will go ahead of you.
So God, I give you full permission to get in front of me, but mess up what you’re trying to do through me and change, change my beliefs.
So it changes my character.
If you don’t believe you can be a husband, you ain’t gonna never be one.
But if you believe that if God brings the right person into your life, that you have the character and the integrity and the discipline to treat someone like they are a gift from God.
Then God says, now I can trust you.
I feel God on this if you don’t believe you deserve it, if you don’t believe you can do it.
It’s not just living in your beliefs, it’s showing up in your character.
So you think you, that everything is ok, but everything is not ok because that belief system that you’re nursing is showing up in your character, who you are when you believe it’s different than who you are, when you have disbelief.
When you oh man, there comes this moment when I’m preparing for a message the first time I hear it, I’m like, oh Lord, I’ll be praying that the glory falls low key.
I don’t have to preach most of the time when I find out I’m preaching, I’m sitting at home with no wig on, no makeup on and I’m like, why would anyone want her to get up and preach.
But then I start studying and I get the word and something shifts inside of me and I start believing that maybe this opportunity exists because I have the character to stand up to the opportunity.
Maybe some of you have talked yourself out of it because this version of you cannot do it.
You were right about one thing but you were wrong about another thing.
You are the one who can do it, but you are wrong because this version of you cannot do it.
But God is never gonna call you to something that he won’t give you the belief system and character to back up.
You don’t have it yet but you do have access.
You don’t have it yet, but you do have the heart to change.
You don’t have it yet, but you do have the hunger for something different. You don’t have it yet.
But if you have hunger, hunger is better than anything you can possess because hunger will make sure that you have the appetite for where God is calling you.
I don’t know who you are, but there are some big rooms assigned to your name.
I don’t know who you are, but there is some destiny assigned to your name.
And I hear God saying, if you’re looking at who you are now, you’ll sit down.
But if you start looking at who you can become, if God gives you the character for where you’re headed you will start opening up your mouth and prophesying in a way that doesn’t even sound like you because it will be the voice of God working on the inside of you.
I wish I had about two or three crazy believing people in this room.
Because if we believe it, God’s gonna meet us from the level of our belief.
If we can have faith for it, God’s gonna give us the power for it.
And yeah, I love to see somebody sowing into a word because when someone sows into a word, the enemy knows that person just marked the spot, that, that place where they experience pain, that place where they experience disbelief has now been marked by the oil.
It has been marked by the word. It has been marked by the anointing.
Let’s go. Let’s go. Who are you? What is God put inside of you? You are not random.
You are not just sitting here to nurse your wounds and to nurse your disbelief.
You are here to wage war with hell.
And if you don’t start believing that you got the character for the fight you in then move out of the way.
I’ll fight for you until you can get in your position because baby, when you take your place.
Oh, uh oh, uh, oh, somebody getting in position.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, somebody is showing like they believe they’re coming out of this. Oh, oh, be careful.
I hear God saying for everybody sowing. You won’t have to wait for harvest.
I hear God saying, I’m gonna accelerate the seed.
I hear God saying before the year is up, you’re gonna get harvest because I’ve been waiting for somebody who was hungry enough to finally start putting their faith where their power is.
Oh Yeah. What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? What’s up?
What’s up? What’s up? Hell, world can’t go to hell on my watch.
I got the character to establish the kingdom of Heaven. I got the character to change a generation.
I got the character to build a business. I got the character to start the ministry.
I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe it.
God said it and I believed it. God said it and I caught it.
God said it and I come into agreement with who God says I am. I come into agreement.
Hell, you gotta get off of me out of this.
Yeah, this, this ain’t a devil issue.
This is a character issue.
You don’t believe you have the character for it.
You don’t think you’re strong enough to build it.
You don’t think you can take another hit.
You don’t think that you have the communication for it.
You don’t think you have the talent for it and because you don’t believe it’s showing up in everything that you do.
But I bind the spirit of disbelief in this room in the name that is above every name, the name that is above the name that is above despair.
The name that is above weariness. I bind it. I send it back to hell where it came from.
And I say come forth in the name of Jesus, I say come forth Dr Dr Dry bones, bones, Triones bos, dry bones, bos drones, strip bos.
I’m calling every trip the back back to life. Shall these bows live?
The prophet says, God only you know God said, if I asked it, I expect it.
And because God has been asking your dry bones to come to life, I’m come into agreement.
But if God asked it, yeah, that’s what Deliverance looks like.
Keep jumping sis. I heard God say you’re gonna jump into the next dimension. Keep going, sis.
I heard God saying you’re gonna swing your arms and look up and they’re gonna be wings.
I say God hallelujah. Hallelujah.
What we preaching about? Hallelujah, where are we going? Family? You are the church.
You are the answer that the world needs. I know you’re tired of hearing about shootings.
But God says every time you hear a headline, I want you to hear the call up underneath it.
The call is saying, if you don’t get in position, then we might lose another soul.
If you don’t get in position, we might not be able to save these babies.
You can know somebody else to do it. God said I’m calling you to be a part of it.
I can’t do this thing without you, but my God, if you would do it with me, we don’t even need everybody.
One can chase 1000. What 60,000 of us gonna do in this thing?
They say it’s nine million people in this country. What are we gonna do about it?
Yeah, that’s all right.
That’s all right. That’s all right.
Hallelujah. Break loose. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
We’re standing under an open heaven said Miranda and I dare not jump back into my notes when somebody just got what they needed.
Oh God, if you’re here, oh God, if you’re breathing, oh God, if you’re moving, oh God, if you’re transforming, oh God, if you’re changing, take pain, take my rejection, take my pandemic issues, take the spirit of less stuff off of me.
Remove me from this addiction, take the taste out of my mouth. I’m hungry for it.
Hallelujah Romans Romans five gives us a formula for hope.
Says tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope.
What makes this formula problematic for me?
Sometimes I get stuck, persevering.
As a matter of fact, we have a culture that commences staying stuck and perseverance when I’m not at my best and I’m being petty, we call it the struggle Olympics where everyone wants to talk about how they’re stuck, persevering.
And without knowing it, we have a belief system that tells us that perseverance is the award.
So we don’t even have to move into character and then to hope because right now, perseverance is where we build community and connection.
But perseverance is supposed to be a phase, but sometimes life gets you stuck and perseverance, man.
I’m just trying to make it.
I’m just trying to make it Jesus.
I don’t even know if I can move to a space of having character and integrity and faith and dependability because right now my only focus, it’s trying to make it.
I’m almost finished because y’all really rearrange my notes.
But um I enjoyed this text with Mary and John, not just for what happens in the moment, but because I look at the fools picture of her life, I look at the moment when we find Mary and Luke one and the angel of the Lord says to her blessed, are you highly favored amongst women?
He says, don’t be afraid.
You see what happened is that God introduced a word, a belief system that Mary was initially afraid of.
She didn’t believe that she had the character for who the angel of the Lord said she was.
And so she battles with this angel of the Lord.
It’s not the kind of battle that we think it is.
She didn’t fight him, but she allowed the thoughts of her inadequacy to have a confrontation with the word of who God says she is.
And because she has that battle, we see a different Mary when the conversation is over in Luke one and 45.
It says blessed is she who believed?
When I write my Ebonics version of the Bible, it’s gonna be blessed.
Is she who changed her belief system? Because she was willing to change her belief system?
There was a fulfillment of the things which were told her from the Lord thinking about her where she starts in Luke one.
But where we find her in John 19, he says, the angel of the Lord tells her he’s going to be the king of kings and of his kingdom, there will be no end.
He gives her hope but something does happen in Luke two.
When baby Jesus is only a few days old, she takes him to the temple as is the custom of that time.
This hope that went from a word to a womb, from a womb to something she could hold.
She’s finally holding on to the hope of that word and she takes the hope of that word into the temple and, and one person sees the baby and then they celebrate it and they’re like now I can go on and see the Lord.
But this man Simeon says to her something that reveals that there is a dark side of hope.
Simeon says in Luke 2 34 he blessed them and Mary and he says, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against.
Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul. Wait a minute, wait a minute.
No, no, no, no, no. He’s gonna be the king of kings of his kingdom. There will be no end.
You got the wrong one. He says, no, he is destined for the rise and fall of many.
But in the process of that hope being manifested, there’s gonna be a dark side of it and in that dark side, it’s gonna feel like a sword is piercing through your own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Can I tell you something?
There’s a dark side of hope.
There’s a persevering side required to really access hope.
And if I don’t tell you this, you’ll think that there’s something wrong when your hope is under attack, you’ll think that maybe you lost it.
You’ll think maybe I don’t have the character for it.
You’ll start to lose hope.
So when I see Mary and John 19, I see a woman with a, a sword piercing through her soul.
33 years ago, somebody told me to expect my hope to be pierced.
I can imagine seeing her son there slipping away her hope, slipping away that she can hear.
In that moment. A sword piercing through her own soul is not happening to her.
It’s happening to the things she hoped for.
It’s not happening to you.
Not necessarily, it’s just happening to the thing I hoped for.
I hoped that the marriage would be different.
I hoped that the business would be different. I hope that my mother would change that.
I hoped for something. And now hope is slipping away. Jesus. Jesus Jesus.
I’m running out of time. I’m running out of reason.
I’m running out of strategy. I’m running out of passion. I see.
Hope slipping away and all I can do is sit back and watch it.
All I can do is sit back and persevere. I don’t know what to say.
I don’t know how to fix it. I can’t stand in front of it. My hope is slipping away.
Jesus, her hope looks down at her and says, behold, you’re looking at your hope, slip away.
Behold is about what you’re looking at.
Jesus gives her permission to look away from where her hope is slipping away.
Some of us can’t look away because we think that looking away and giving up are the same thing and they are not.
You’ve done all that you can do.
You’ve taken me as far as you can take me.
Mom, God’s got it from here. You’ve taken that thing as far as you can do.
But I’m gonna tell you mom don’t lose hope. He doesn’t say turn and leave me.
He says, woman, behold your son. You’re still a mother.
Oh God, I love this text because Mary already had Children.
It’s not like she was gonna be without Children.
But for some reason, Jesus says, I need you to remember what it’s like to be called to motherhood.
I need you to remember what it’s like to be called to something that seems impossible.
I need you to not lose hope in the character that brought you to this moment even though you feel like what you hoped for is slipping away.
So Jesus calls her back.
No, Jesus calls her away from persevering and then to character because he sends a word that demands a different version of who she is.
A version she once was. But she got stuck in persevering.
But the same word that changed her belief system in Luke one gives her permission to look away in July 19th, my Texas that after jesus’ woman behold your son and son, behold your mother that they left that very hour.
This is hard because some of us are so busy babysitting God that we can’t look away to see how things are gonna change.
To see if things will change. We can’t move into a space of character.
We can’t move into a space of calling.
We can’t move into a space of purpose and intentionality because I wanna sit and watch how this thing works out.
But Jesus has to send her away so that the work can be completed.
Because when she looks away, that hope gets to have the ultimate transformation, she thought her hope was dying.
She doesn’t realize that it was actually transforming. Oh I’m almost finished, I promise.
But she had to let go of the hope of a mother to have the hope of glory enter the world.
You can hold on to your hope for as long as you can.
But there may come upon a moment when holding on to your hope keeps God from introducing the hope of glory into your life.
So you have to be willing to do the hard work of releasing the hope of what you thought.
It would be the hope of how you thought it should turn out the hope of what you wanted it to be and trust that God can transform your hope to be something that you never could have imagined.
Because when Mary sees Jesus again, he is not that boy who was beaten and wounded on that cross.
He is not that boy who said, why has thou forsaken me?
He’s got holes in his hand, but the holes don’t make him. He’s walking in a new being.
He’s walking in a new power, new authority.
So she had to get out of the way so that God could have his way.
When Mary finally got to a place where she moved out of the way, when she got to a place where she said, I’m gonna look away.
But when I look away, I’m trusting that God’s gonna keep his eye on the situation.
I’m gonna stop controlling it. I’m gonna stop manipulating it.
I’m gonna stop watching it and protecting it and trust that if God brought it to the cross, then that same God can take it to the tomb.
And if God takes it to the tomb, then God can transform it until there is resurrecting power for the place that I felt hope was dying.
I’m sorry. But I feel the holy ghost calling somebody’s hope out of a tomb.
I hear the holy ghost say your hope is not dying.
You’re just hungry for the wrong hope.
My wig is slipping. Y that’s all right.
Hungry for the wrong hope.
You got your hope competing with God’s hope.
So you need to look away and trust that. Maybe I can’t trust my hope.
Maybe what I’m hoping for is too small.
Maybe what I’m hoping for won’t allow a person to change.
Maybe what I’m hoping for is lost, but it’s not dead just because hope is lost.
It doesn’t mean that hope is dead. Sometimes hope has to be lost so that it can be transformed.
And I wanna talk to somebody who lost some hope this year and I want you to understand that the best thing you can do.
Let’s not get stuck and perseverance.
But to step in the character, the character required to fulfill the word that still applies to your life.
I believe that John 19, you can stand. We’re going home.
I believe that John 19 is evidence that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance does produce character.
And the moment that Mary steps into character, the character of mother, the character of Destiny, the character that changed her life, the first time that it released hope it released room for hope to do what hope was gonna do anyway.
I wanna pray for you.
I wanna pray for somebody in this room who was stuck, not just in perseverance, but you’re stuck persevering and you have a word that, you know, you need to step into.
But you’re afraid that if you step out of perseverance, that it’s giving up hope, that things will change.
Oh, I wish I could say this the way I feel it in my head.
You’re afraid that if you abandon where you’re losing hope that you’re gonna give up hope altogether.
So you haven’t been creating, you haven’t been producing, you haven’t been being who you’re supposed to be in the Lord.
You haven’t been serving, you haven’t been being called, you haven’t been open because right now, all of you, all that you can focus on is where you’re losing hope.
But I wanna invite you to this altar as a sign that you’re moving away from perseverance and trusting that God’s gonna cover where you were while you move into what he’s been calling you to be.
I wish I could name every circumstance in this room.
But you know who you are, where you’re shrinking to keep struggling, you’re shrinking to stay loyal to a struggle.
But there is a part of you that feels like I do feel like I should maybe start that ministry.
I do feel like maybe I should begin to start operate, start operating from a place of healing even though my family is not ready for that healing.
There is a part of me that feels like I need to abandon the perseverance, but I don’t wanna abandon the perseverance and feel like I changed and feel like I started thinking bigger of my myself and I ought to.
But the truth is God’s calling me to be a different character at this time in my life.
God’s calling me into a different season and I may not be as busy as I’m used to being.
I may not be as impressive as I’m used to being, but my character has to be developed.
Maybe I’m not as available, but I am being developed.
You staying Mary, staying there at the feet of Jesus on the cross was not going to change the outcome.
It was only gonna keep her from being where she needed to be so that she could receive the news that our hope was being transformed.
I want hope to catch you by surprise.
I want you to look away with such faith and such focus on what is within my control.
That hope ends up tapping me on the shoulder and saying, I know you thought it was, oh, I feel that for somebody that feels like prophecy.
That hope is gonna tap you on the shoulder and say, remember that thing you had to give up on.
Remember that thing? You had to turn away from baby. I transformed it. It’s better than what you left behind.
Baby. I transformed it. It’s more healed than what you left behind. I transformed it. It’s a better job.
It’s a better spouse. It’s a better child because I let God do what only God can do?
I moved out of the way and I got hungry for a different kind of hope. I’m hungry for glory.
I’m hungry for the power of God. But I was hungry for what I wanted.
Hungry for what I could hold. But now I’m hungry to behold. I’m hungry to behold. I’m hungry to behold.
I’m hungry to behold. Holy, holy, holy, holy, I wanna behold something different. Holy, holy, holy.
I wanna behold something besides pain. I wanna behold something besides struggle.
I wanna behold something besides anger besides Holy, holy, holy God. Shift my focus.
So I look and the thing that I thought was ending was actually transforming.
Yeah, guy says I can change it better than you can.
I can change it better than you can.
But I need you to have an appetite for what God is hoping for.
Over what you’re hoping for.
Lift your hands like you’re receiving something and in your own way, in your own way like Mary and Luke one, I want you to start admitting where you have doubt where you’re struggling with belief, but I want you to do it in the presence of the call.
Blessed. Are you highly favored? Fearfully and wonderfully made.
Yes, I called you an author. Yes, I called you a chain breaker.
Yes, I called you. I called you to integrity.
I called you to sobriety. I called you to compassion.
Calling you the discipline. God. We hear you calling, we hear you calling.
But how could this be? Don’t you know who I am? How could this be?
How could this be? Hallelujah.
I don’t know.
Yeah, laying down my hope.
Oh God, I’m gonna look away. I’m gonna look away. I’m gonna look away.
I’m gonna look away from what’s not going the way I thought it should go. God, I’m gonna look away.
But God, please keep your eye on it. God, please keep your presence over it.
God, please keep watching over that child. God, please keep watching over that marriage. God.
I don’t think there’s anything else I can do, but this is a job that only you can do.
So God, I’m turning my focus to you.
I’m turning my focus from you to what you’ve called me to do to you and then to where you’ve called me to be God.
I thank you Holy Spirit that you are a full coverage.
Holy Spirit, you got enough coverage to cover me and them, you got enough coverage to cover me and the marriage God, you got enough coverage.
God where I’m feeling like I don’t have enough coverage. You have more than enough coverage.
And I hear God saying I’m gonna restore you by allowing you to focus on what I’ve called you to do and I’m gonna cover where you’re spread thin.
I hear God saying maybe you’re spread so thin because you’re covering what I should be covering.
But as you come to this altar, I want you to abandon your post so I can get on my post.
Because when I get on my post, I know how to get everything in line.
I know how to take the nails and get them out of his hands.
I know how to take a crucifixion and turn it into resurrection.
But I can’t do because you’re on the job.
But if you would get out of your post, I can show you what I’ve been planning all along. God.
We give you full authority. God, we give you full power and God, we have complete faith.
Your ways are not our ways, your will is not our will. And thank God for that.
Because if I had it my way, I would have smaller, I would have kept things less powerful.
But because I’m willing to let go when you let go, God flows.
When you let go, the spirit can flow. When you let go, there can be breakthrough.
When you let go that’s where the rivers come.
I see you Jessica with rivers of living water coming out of your belly.
I hear somebody just broken into a flow.
I feel like somebody just released something that allowed them to start breathing again, that allowed them to start functioning again.
I feel like there’s a breakthrough in this room.
It’s gonna happen when you let go, it’s gonna happen when you let go.
I hear God saying, let it out. I hear God say, release a roar.
I hear God say, release the ribbon. I hear God saying that if you release it, I’ll flow in it.
If you let it go, I’ll break open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing.
You don’t have room enough. Mary didn’t have room for another son.
But when God spoke a word to her, it stretched her capacity. I hear God saying you got more capacity.
You got, you got capacity that you don’t even know about you getting ready to tap into.
Oh God. I feel like prophesy.
She went from persevering to capacity for more than she thought she had room for.
Mary probably thought I’ll never have another child again. I have another son. I’ll never go through this again.
God says you won’t, but when I structure it, you’ll do it again because you have enough room to take on whatever I assign you to.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s an assignment.
It’s an assignment. God’s got another assignment for you.
God’s got another assignment for you. You can’t be tired yet. You can’t give up yet. You got another assignment.
You got another race to run. I know you think you in your latter years.
Good because your latter days shall be greater than your former days.
Where you at in this room, you think it’s time for you to get ready to die.
God saying it’s time for you to have life and to have it more abundantly, you’re too young to be thinking about death.
I got another assignment for you. I got another work for you. I got another stage for you to build.
I got another soul for you to save.
It ain’t over until God says it over, it ain’t over until God says it’s over.
Mary thought it was over. Jesus said absolutely not.
You just getting ready to start again, you just getting ready to breathe again.
I’m supposed to be praying.
But there’s somebody at this altar, there’s somebody in the balcony.
I don’t know who you are, but there’s somebody in this room who was down to their last.
I’m trying to stop what I’m gonna say is this and Mary didn’t view this properly.
She would have thought that somebody took something from her, not realizing that God allowed them to hold it so that his work could be done through the betrayal.
Oh God, I gotta say it the way I feel it in my chest because somebody thinks that somebody took something from them but they don’t realize that I’m just transforming it.
You didn’t steal nothing from me. You made it great than it was before. You didn’t take nothing from me.
You made me stronger than I was before. You didn’t take my faith. You didn’t take my hope.
I thought it was dying. But my God sent a word and when he sends a word.
Yeah. Yeah. Look, that’ll make me preach my wig off at the potter’s house.
Dallas Dex. Don’t make no clips of my wig falling off.
But baby, if we’re in a fight, we’re in a fight, baby. If we’re gonna go, we’re gonna go.
What’s up? Baby? We got a generation, we got a generation to change.
We got a kingdom to establish. We got businesses to build, we got books to write.
We got Children to raise, they killing our babies and we losing hope. Bind the devil.
I bind the devil. I bind the devil. How you gonna bind him?
I’m gonna step into my call. How you gonna stop him? I’m gonna step into my anointing.
How you gonna break it? I’m gonna get the character for where I need to go.
I Alaska, I got the heart for this.
And you do too. You got the heart for this.
You got the heart for this.
You got the character for this. Yeah. What’s up? They got it over there.
They got it over there. You can do it because God’s gonna equip you and teach you.
You’re not gonna do it on your own.
You’ve been doing it on your own a long time and I know you don’t wanna do it on your own anymore.
The car’s got you.
The Holy Spirit is gonna be with you and great grace.
It’s gonna fall on you.
Colossians one and 27 to them.
God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles.
This is the mystery Christ in you.
That’s the hope of glory Christ in you.
The hope of glory send you so Christ, we receive, you are fresh.
Some of us receiving you for the first time.
Others of us receiving you in our worst time.
Someone else receiving you in a fresh time, the first time, the worst time, the first time, all gathered under this word under this heaven, more inspired and empowered than we have been in a long time.
We acknowledge God that you sent a word for us.
We acknowledge God that it is true that you see us.
It’s true that you understand that we’re tired of just persevering.
Thank you God for permission to look away.
Yeah. Thank you God for permission to focus on our own development while you develop where hope is dying.
I speak a special blessing over every area and their heart and their mind and their lives and their finances and their business where they’re watching Hope die.
God, it is on life support. There’s no gas sliding there.
But God, I thank you that death is never the end with you.
And so God, I ask that you would stretch their perspective so that they would hunger for hope beyond their preferred outcome and instead settle on a hope of glory.
And as they work out, as we work out, as we work out, the development of making our character become more like Jesus.
I thank you that as you’re transforming us, you’re also transforming our hope.
I thank you God that we’re not at this altar as one person, everybody here has their own area where hope is dying.
So God, I pray that you would make us more compassionate to one another, that we would have more grace that we would not need to know every detail to know that everybody is looking at their own cross.
And so God, I come into agreement with every person connected with this word you’re watching online.
I come into agreement with what you’re hoping for, that hope for glory, that hope for transformation, that hope for change.
I come into agreement because God, I don’t want the hope to just happen for me and in me, I want it to happen for every person connected to me.
And so God, I praise you in advance that my neighbor is going from perseverance to care, character and from character to hope.
God I thank you in advance that my marriage is going from perseverance to character and from character to hope God.
I thank you that when my neighbor takes her spot, when my neighbor takes his position, that my world is gonna be better.
God, I thank you that I’m standing next to a role model for my child.
I thank you God that I’m standing next to the person at the bank that’s gonna help me get the loan together.
God thank you that I’m standing next to another kingdom, citizen.
And if they establish the kingdom, I’m gonna benefit from their growth. So God bless them in every way, imaginable.
God heal their heart in every place that it is broken.
And then God, if you would please set them free, like never before God help them to see that they’ve still got wings.
God help them to see that they still have purpose.
God help them to see that you’re still open and not that you’re still healing the sick that the gospel is still setting people free and that they are the hope of glory and God as we leave this place, let hope overflow, let hope flood.
May it follow us home? May it follow us into our job? May it find us on social media?
And may it change us forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
I speak and prophesy rational hope in this building, I prophesized that just as generations lead this ministry.
That generational hope is your inheritance.
I thank God for your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren.
And what they’re gonna do for my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren.
May this be the beginning?
And may there be no winding until the trumpet sounds?
And the hope of glory is looking at us face to face.
And may we be able to say that we did business until you came back?
The kind of business that prepared this world for your interest in Jesus. Name. Amen. I love you.
Church.