Nothing Left to Lose – Sarah Jakes Roberts
Nothing Left to Lose
Have you ever felt like you had nothing left to lose, including your faith, hope, or the belief that better is available to you? You’re not alone! Catch this word and get ready to fight like a woman that refuses to lose anything else!
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…….
I’ve been praying and I believe that God has a word for us tonight and I’m gonna get into the word.
But I wanna pray spirit of the living God.
It is so evident that you are in this place.
And so father, I ask that you would bring me into alignment with what this moment is supposed to be in heaven, that you and I would become intertwined in this time and season.
And that you would allow your words, your anointing your glory to flow through me. There is nothing off limits.
And God, I believe that as we come together in this space, that generational curses would be broken.
I believe that depression have to flee.
I’m one of those crazy people who believe cancer can’t stay here any longer that when God steps in the room, that everything that is against Him has to go.
I believe that marriages are gonna be restored in this season, that Children are gonna be saved, that generational blessings are gonna break out and that creativity is gonna overflow.
I just believe that God is gonna do that thing that He does when he steps into a room.
And so God, I ask that you would just consume me and overflow is only you can do in Jesus name.
Amen. So my text is acts nine verse three and it begins, I’m gonna read through it quickly and then I’m just gonna share with you what I believe God is saying.
It says as he journeyed that he is Saul, who we would later know as Paul, as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
And he said, who are you Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
It is hard for you to kick against the gods. So he trembling.
And astonish said, Lord, what do you want me to do?
Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.
And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one then arose from the ground.
And when his eyes were open, he saw no one but they led him by hand and brought him into Damascus.
And he was three days without sight, neither ate nor drank because I was studying and preparing for this message.
I felt like it would be necessary for me to first have somewhat of an introduction because I know that we are just getting to know one another.
But I am your African American cousin who lives in Los Angeles. And um, I’m from Texas.
That’s why I sound a little bit funny. Um, more funny than I probably sound to you all already.
Um, but I thought that it was necessary for me to all.
Also let you all know just some things about me that are really the foundation of who I am and my ministry in many ways, I have a ministry called Woman Evolve.
And it’s all about women really evolving into the best version of themselves.
And it really started based on this revelation I had at a women’s conference.
So I’m at this women’s conference and they have on these t-shirts and on the T shirts.
It has Esther Mary Sarah squad goals.
I was like, you know, who’s never invited to be on the squad? Eve?
Nobody ever wants Eve on their squad.
And I know why we don’t want Eve on the squad because I mean, she did kind of, I mean, she had one job to be honest, Eve had one job.
I used to say that when I get to heaven, I’m just gonna pull Eve to the side of Pearly Gate Boulevard.
And I’m gonna say girl was the fruit that good because after that moment, the rest of us suffered for thousands of years, was it juicy?
Was it right? Because you ruined it for all of us?
Um But God told me that you can’t be petty in heaven.
So anyone who wanted to handle things in heaven, you gotta figure that thing out on the earth because he won’t let our petty make it into heaven.
So he told me that I had to forgive Eve.
So I forgave Eve because he reminded me of all the times that he gave me one job and that I didn’t do that one thing that he told me to do.
I don’t know about you.
But there have been moments in my life where I knew better but didn’t do better. Yeah.
And so God says to me, you should be able to identify with Eve more than any other woman in the Bible because of what you’ve gone through.
I was like, alright God, I don’t know about you but sometimes God can be like aggressive with me.
I don’t know if it’s because of my personality type, but he just gives it to me straight sometimes.
So I forgave Eve now even are kind of like friends like whenever I do something that I know I shouldn’t do.
I just blame it on the Eve that’s down on the inside of me.
It’s like Eve should work out five times a week. She doesn’t though.
And um I should not eat carbs, but when Eve starts eating on my behalf, I have no power in it.
I don’t want the french fries the Eve in me once the French fries.
And I can tell you ever since I’ve been in London, I’ve been feeling like I need to try all of the food just because out of respect for the nation, I don’t want to eat it.
But if I’m going to be a part of the family, I need to understand all the carbs that are available here.
It’s ok.
Um, because when I get back to Los Angeles, I’m just gonna get back on my diet.
I’m gonna work out. I’m gonna do the right thing.
Um, I like to say that my diet is like on a pregnant pause right now.
It’s like, I don’t know if you guys know that term, but it’s something that communicators use.
It’s when they pause for a moment to build um, momentum in their conversations.
I wrote down the definition and it says that a pregnant pause is a pause that builds up suspension, suspension in the listener slash viewer for a greater dramatic effect of what follows after the pause.
And if you would allow me, I would like to speak to you today from the subject of a pregnant pause.
I mentioned that, uh, when I get back to Los Angeles, my diet is going to no longer be on a pregnant pause.
Part of the reason why I can eat the way that I do right now is because I know when I get back home that there’s gonna be this dramatic swing in another direction.
I have an expectation in this pause season that is already building up to what I know my end is going to be a pregnant paws.
This notion is important to us as believers because it is for certain that we are going to have moments when we feel paused in life, we uh lose a job or the child that we thought was going down.
The right path, ends up making some difficult decisions.
Maybe our marriage is in trouble, maybe our finances are in trouble and it seems like everything was flowing in a certain direction.
And then suddenly there’s a pause.
The difference between a regular pause and a pregnant pause is the expectation that we have for the ending.
When we have an expectation for the ending, it changes how we handle the season that we’re in.
You may be paused right now.
But I felt like one of the things God wanted me to tell you is that this is just a pregnant pause that this is just a pause that is gonna set up an end that is gonna ultimately blow your mind that the ending is gonna be so much different than you anticipated it.
So don’t lose your expectation in the middle of the pause.
It is your expectation that is going to prophesy to your ending.
I know that that may sound crazy sometimes when you’re in the middle of a pause because sometimes we don’t wanna hope and we don’t wanna believe.
But it is our expectation that we must hold on to, that gets us to that expected end.
So when I am in a struggle and I’m having issues and, and maybe things aren’t going the way that I think they should.
I remind myself of the scripture where it says all things are gonna work together for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
I may be paused, but I have an expectation that when it’s all said and done, I’m gonna come out on the other side, stronger and wiser and better than I was before.
So I don’t allow the pause to knock me off of my relationship with God.
I know the God, I serve.
I know the plans that He has for me to prosper me and not to harm me.
So if something in my life is not flowing the way that it should be, then it must be a pregnant pause.
There must be something that God is building up on the other side.
God, who am I gonna become on the other side of this pause?
Who am I gonna become as a wife?
Who am I gonna become as a mother on the other side of the pause?
I don’t let the enemy make me believe that a pause is the end.
This isn’t it for me. This isn’t where my story ends.
This isn’t where I lose my child. This isn’t where I lose my mind.
I don’t allow other people’s formulas to make me predict my ending just because other people couldn’t make.
It doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna make it on the other side.
God gave me a promise and he is not a man that he shall. He is true to his word.
And if he said all things are gonna work together, then I’m gonna sit in the waiting position until things start working.
I’m paused, but it’s a pregnant pause. My marriage is in trouble, but it’s a pregnant pause.
We’re gonna be stronger after this. We’re gonna have more roots after this.
This is a pregnant pause and it dawned on me that the next few days that we are together here at focus is very much so a pregnant pause, we have suspended our realities and paused for a moment with the expectation that the ending that the following segment of our life, the following scene of our life is going to be more significant as a result of the pause.
So I want to challenge you those of you who are experiencing the inevitable causes of life to begin to open your mouth and prophesy over that area where you feel stuck or stagnant.
I’m prophesying over that pause.
I don’t see it now, but I know that God is not gonna leave me right here where he left me.
I know that God is not gonna leave me where trouble met me. I’m prophesying over this pause.
And so when we find Saul in this scripture and acts, he’s literally stopped in his tracks.
Saul has not been converted at this time and he’s on his way to Damascus.
And as he’s on his way to Damascus, he has an encounter with God that literally pauses him.
I love this. And it’s not really what I was gonna teach about tonight, but it was something that I thought was too beautiful to not share with someone as Saul was on his way to Damascus.
Damascus was just sitting there minding their business and as Damascus is just sitting there going through the motions in life, they have no idea that there was someone on the way to persecute them.
I’m sure like many of us in this room, they had their own issues and their own struggles.
But yet before a persecution could get to them, God intersected it.
Jesus stepped in and stopped that persecution from coming before it could even reach them.
So see where I’m from in Los Angeles, that’s where we would take what we call a praise break because it would be a sign to us that before God even allowed the persecution to get to us that he stopped it in its track.
There are people in this room who should be dead somewhere and in their grave.
But God stepped in the way and persecuted some things before it could get to you.
Somebody should have lost their mind, but God stopped it in the tracks. You can’t touch that person.
They’re dealing with enough, they have enough struggle going on.
So Jesus stepped in the miss and he said, why are you persecuting me?
Saul was trying to persecute the people in Damascus.
But when you pick a fight with me, you pick a fight with Jesus.
When you pick a fight with me, you pick a fight with God because he fights on my behalf.
He fights on my behalf before trouble can even get to me.
He steps in the way which means that the trouble that comes to me, I have been qualified to already overcome.
You guys are gonna have to let me be a church girl in here because remember I’m your black cousin from Los Angeles and we get loud and we get rowdy.
But I just wanted to let you know for a moment that that thing was good to me because if God allowed the trouble to get to me, that means that he already qualified me to overcome it.
So all I need to know now is God, what’s our angle?
Because if this problem on this issue, this struggle is standing in front of me.
It must be because you think I’m bigger than that.
So I just need about three people who know what it’s like to fight with a slingshot and five stones to get some noise to God.
That thing may be in front of you. But it’s because it’s a giant that you’re ready to slay.
It’s something that God wants to do down on the inside of you.
If you’re standing in front of me, I’m qualified to beat you.
I know that what the doctor said. I know what the principal said. I know what the school said.
But if you’re standing in front of me, God has equipped me and empowered me to overcome anything that the enemy throws my way.
I have been qualified to overcome.
I feel like somebody has to get that down in their spirit because depression and despair has been making them believe that they are gonna lose this battle.
And I hear God saying that I set you in front of that battle because I see something in you that you don’t see in yourself.
I’ll handle the big trouble, but I have faith that you will come out on the other side.
I’m gonna need a little bit more heat in the microphone because I’m gonna blow the roof off this place.
I’m I need a little more heat in the microphone because I didn’t come to play here.
I didn’t fly from Los Angeles to leave a devil here at Focus Festival.
When I get finished in this place, every devil in hell is gonna know that they got to back up off of you.
Every depression in hell is gonna know that it’s got to leave your family alone.
You got the right one for the job.
You’re qualified for this. You’re anointed for this.
You have authority over this. God gave you that child. God gave you that marriage.
God gave you that job because he thought you could handle it. Now, it’s time for you to boss up.
Now. It’s time for you to start walking and talking like God has equipped you and empowered you.
It only takes four or five of us to set this nation on fire.
It only takes four or five of us to change some things in this culture.
He’s gonna take care of the things that you can’t handle because He has faith that anything that you’re looking at you have the power to overcome, build the church, write the book, save the Marriage prophesy over this generation, make the curriculum known.
I’m talking to you. I’m talking about what God has placed on, on the inside of you.
I know it looks bigger than you.
But I hear God saying that I am bigger than that thing that you’re standing in front of greater is he that is in you than he, that is in the world.
I need some dreamers in this room to start acting like I got a God dream.
I got a God dream so big that if he doesn’t bless it, it can’t get done.
But if he blesses it, then generational curses would be broken.
If he blesses it, then revival would hit my house. If he blesses it, then my husband would be saved.
If he blesses it, then my business would be successful.
I got a God dream gotta, and I won’t allow what I can see to make me lose faith.
And what God said, he can see because God can see something and I can see something.
And if I start only trusting in what I see, then I’ll never stop to ask the question, God, what is it that you see that you would allow me to be in this city?
What is it that you see that you would allow me to be at this job?
What is it that you see that I’m in this marriage and in this family, God, what is it that you see?
Because my eyesight will disqualify me, but your eyesight will equip me.
Your eyesight will empower me.
Your eyesight will send me into rooms where I don’t know the culture and don’t understand the language, but your glory makes up the difference.
And so Saul is on his way to Damascus and he’s stopped right in his tracks.
This is where I got this concept of a pregnant pause.
It dawned on me that Saul if we remove all of our emotions and what we know about Him persecuting believers at that time out of the way that Saul thought he was doing the right thing by persecuting those who followed the way as they called it back then he thought he was doing the right thing.
But isn’t it just like us to think that we’re doing the right thing and then sometimes God shakes up our world in such a way to let us know that we have the right intensity but the wrong mission.
Oh, jeez. Yeah, Saul is operating with the right intensity.
He’s passionate about doing what he believes.
He’s moving in the direction that he believes is gonna accomplish what he thinks is right.
But he has the wrong mission.
And what happens to so many of us when we are pursuing something with the right intensity.
But find out that we have the wrong mission is that we acquiesce and we think that there was something wrong with the passion in which we were going after it.
I’ll never love like that again. I’ll never invest like that again.
I’ll never start a business like that again because the last time I started off with that much intensity, I failed.
But I felt like God wanted someone to know you had the right intensity, you just had the wrong mission.
And so if you take that intensity and throw it in the direction of what I’m doing, you cannot fail.
I wanna say that again because I wanna rebuke this spirit of failure that has been haunting and tormenting somebody in this room.
You had the right intensity. You were just throwing it at the wrong mission.
You had the I was thinking about those boys who were on the stage last night.
They had the right intensity. They just had the wrong mission.
Never mess with somebody who’s got the right intensity, but the wrong mission because God says I can use that intensity.
I just gotta get you in the right position.
If I get you in the right position, then that’s how we’ll build a church.
That’s how we’ll build a mission. Don’t kill your child’s intensity, don’t kill that intensity.
Just make sure we direct it into the right mission. You got the right intensity.
You weren’t wrong to dream the way you dreamed.
You weren’t wrong to write the way that you write, you just had to get it submitted to the right mission.
So as I studied that a little bit further, I realized that Saul’s goal was to stop those from converting to what we know now is Christianity.
Jesus says I want you to focus less on stopping and more on starting.
We know that Paul would go on to start many churches with that same intensity that he was using to stop something when he redirected it to starting something he established so many churches and ultimately was responsible for the gospel being spread throughout all of the world.
So if I stop focusing on what I don’t want to happen and instead focus on what I want to see happen, then I transitioned that intensity into starting something.
I’m not worried more about trying to stop people from talking about me.
I just want to start to have confidence that doesn’t need validation from other people.
I’m not worried about stopping people from doing things to me anymore.
I’m worried about what I’m going to start.
I hear God saying it’s time for you to start something to stop trying to control what you can’t control and instead focus on what can I start?
Every time I wake up in the morning, every time I go and I have the opportunity to speak somewhere.
I say, God, what can I start when I leave this place?
I don’t wanna just have this moment where we have an encounter and then I go back home and you’re living the same way that you’re living.
I came here to start something. I’m gonna be honest, I came here to start something down in your spirit.
I came here to start something down in your nation.
I came here to leave some seed in the ground because I don’t mind if I just start with one or two people, that’s all we need anyway.
Because if one can chase 1002 can chase 10,000, then my God.
If I just got five people on my squad and you hold down England and I’ll hold down the US, then nothing could stand in our way.
I came here to start something. I came here to start something for God.
I came here to start something for my generation. I came here to start something for my country.
I came here to activate something down on the inside of you that makes you stop wondering who you are and makes you step into something with some holy boldness, with some authority and with some anointing, you gotta start something.
You gotta start something. I’m stopping the bitterness. I’m stopping the unforgiveness. I’m starting love. I’m starting kindness.
I’m starting peace. It takes too much passion for me to eat. Be angry.
I wanna take that intensity and throw it towards forgiveness. You got the right intensity.
You’re just throwing it at the wrong thing.
If you took the intensity that it takes for you to doubt yourself and it says started to use it to build yourself up.
I wonder if the business would have been started by now.
I wonder if the book would have been started by now.
I wonder if the marriage would have been healed by now. I’m not worried about stopping anything.
I’m trying to start something. So Jesus has a pregnant pause with Saul.
He says I’m gonna stop you so I can start you.
But I want to start you with a new mission in a new direction.
I’m gonna stop you so I can start you with a new direction and a new mission.
I’m, I feel like I’m gonna stop you so I can start you.
It’s just a pause. It’s just a pause. It’s just a pause.
I don’t know who that’s for, but it’s just a pause. God didn’t just stop you.
If God was finished, he would have took you out of this earth.
He left you here because it’s just a pause. It’s just a pause.
I just stopped you so I could start you in a new direction. I know you wanted that thing.
I know you were counting on that thing, but I had to stop you where you were so that I could relaunch you somewhere else.
I hear God saying when the story is all told, when it’s all said and done, you’re gonna be grateful for that moment that I stopped you because it launched you into your destiny in a way that you could have never imagined you’re gonna be grateful that I didn’t answer some of those prayers.
I know you think I’m ignoring you. I’m not ignoring you. I just got you on pause.
Mhm Because what happens after this is gonna be so significant to who you are and what I’m doing in the earth that you’re gonna be thankful that I stopped you in the first place.
So Jesus is fixing Paul’s intensity and as he goes about fixing his intensity and getting him to shift from trying to stop something to starting something.
I recognize that his intensity is contagious and that’s why God likes to use intense people because intensity is contagious.
Oh I feel that for somebody that you being here is just enough.
I know you wanted other people to be here and I know you felt like maybe some members of your family should have come, maybe some friends should have come.
But I hear God saying that you being here is just enough because intensity is contagious.
And I feel like when you leave this place that somebody is gonna have their intensity back, that somebody’s gonna have their focus back, that somebody is gonna have their courage back and that they are gonna be so on a fire that anything that touches them burst into flames too.
I’m sorry, baby, I’m just intense. I went to the focus festival and something happened to me.
My intensity is now contagious. Everyone’s gonna be wondering what happened to you. Who did you talk to?
And you will know that I asked God to set a fire down in my soul.
And when he set that fire down in my soul, I became contagious to anyone who touched me.
Intensity is contagious and what happens in this room is so important.
But what is most important is what happens when you leave this room and go back into your world and back into your homes.
Because your intensity, the intensity that you receive here is gonna be contagious and that is what’s gonna bring revival to this nation and that is what’s gonna be re bring revival into this whole globe because intensity is contagious.
So now, Saul has to take that intensity and throw it in another direction.
I asked God, I said, God, why is it at this point in Saul’s life at this point in Saul’s mission that you chose to use him in this pregnant pause scenario.
God said to me, he said, Sarah, I had to get Paul to pause so that he could become pregnant with glory.
God’s glory is manifested in the moments where we had to pause.
God’s goodness becomes good, not when everything is going well, but when we are down and out on our very end, but he shows up anyway.
He said, I, I had to get him pregnant with glory.
He said I was putting a lot of weight on Paul.
I had a lot of expectations for who he was gonna be.
So I had to get him pregnant with Gloria at this stage.
And this age in his life, that moment where you feel paused is where God’s glory wants to show up that moment where you feel stuck where you feel like it’s out of my control.
And if God doesn’t come through, then it won’t be done.
God likes that because it allows his strength to be made perfect in our weakness.
I’m gonna tell you my story and then I’m going to land the plane.
As my husband said, my father’s a pastor in the States. His name is Bishop Jakes.
And because we’ve got, I guess what would be called a mega church in the United States.
But my father’s been in ministry for over 40 years and he was on the cover of Time magazine, a big magazine there in the States in 2001.
And they said, is he the next Billy Graham?
And that very next year, I would tell my father that as a teenager, I was 13 years old that I was pregnant.
I said to him, dad, I’m so sorry.
I feel like the black sheep of the family.
I feel like I don’t deserve to be a part of this beautiful righteous family anymore because I, I got stuck and I dealt with so much shame.
I, I got pregnant at 13, I had my son at 14 years old and I dealt with so much shame and so much fear and insecurity and anxiety that I felt like I would be stopped forever.
What I did not know that I realize now is that it would be that moment where my life was paused.
That God was not just impregnating me with a child.
He wasn’t just walking me through that pregnancy, but he slipped his glory in there as well.
And he said when it’s all said and done, I know you’re broken. I know you’re insecure.
I know you don’t feel like you’re worthy.
I know you think that you’ve messed up and you’ve gone too far.
But when it’s all said and done, you’re gonna look back on that pause.
And you’re gonna realize that that is the moment where my glory touched the cracks of your life that it touched your Brokenness.
And it would be from that place that I used you to preach literally all over the world, declaring the works of the Lord.
I got a pregnant pause as I was praying and I was studying, I said, God above anything.
I wanna know what it is that you want me to tell these incredible people at the focus festival.
And I feel like undeniably that what God wanted me to tell you is that you will be the one who carries His glory into all of the world.
And that it does not matter what you feel has disqualified you.
And it doesn’t matter those struggles and things that make you feel unworthy that God has said in His infinite wisdom.
If you throw your intensity at me, that I can make all things work together for your good, but you’re gonna have to be willing to trust me like never before my life changed when I stopped trying to control everyone’s narrative about who I was and decided instead to start really living for God in a way that was undeniable.
And I said to God, God, if there’s any way that you can use me broken as I am as insecure as I am, if there is space for me anywhere in your kingdom, then God, I want you to use me like never before.
And that was the moment where my weakness collided with his strength and glory broke out.
God’s glory makes up the difference. We wanna know how Saul became Paul God’s glory, made up the difference.
And I just wanted somebody in this tent to know that it is God’s glory that is gonna make up the difference.
I know you, the math isn’t up and you may not understand how you’re gonna get there.
But I came here as a prophet from Los Angeles to let you know that it will be God’s glory that makes up the difference.
It will not be by might, it will not be by your power, but it will be by the spirit of God that all things begin working together for your good.
I believe that revival is coming to your house.
I believe that revival is coming to this nation and that God’s glory is gonna make up the difference.
I want every broken person in this room to send up a praise to God because that Brokenness is where God’s glory is gonna shine through.
God says I don’t want the cute stuff. I don’t want the perfect self.
I want the place where my glory can come through, my glory can come through that depression, my glory can come through those insecurities, my glory, my glory, my glory, my glory is gonna make up the difference.
So if God is gonna set a fire anywhere, it’s gonna be over my dry bones.
If God is gonna set a fire anywhere, it’s gonna be over the areas of my life where I’ve been dying to have a touch from him.
If God is gonna touch anything, it’s gonna be the areas where I felt pass.
But this is not any ordinary pa, this is a pregnant pause.
This is the pause that only one can experience when God has plans for glory to touch their lives.
God, how, how do I get from a to be? I don’t see any steps.
I don’t have a mentor. Nobody’s ever done it for me before God said, my glory is gonna make up the difference.
I came to speak to somebody’s insecurities. I already told you I came to start something.
God’s glory is gonna make up the difference. I came to start a book or two.
I came to start a business or two. I came to start an organization or two.
I came to start a church or two. Not me.
God’s glory, not what I can do but what God’s glory can do when somebody finally surrenders.
The most important thing that Saul says in this moment is He says, Lord, what do you want me to do?
What do you want me to do?
God, I, I’ll drop it all if I have to, I won’t live the way that I used to live anymore.
But God, you gotta tell me what to do.
And I feel like that is somebody’s prayer in this room that they’re wondering to themselves.
God, I don’t mind turning away from those things. I don’t mind starting a fresh and starting a new.
But God, I need to know what you want me to do.
And I hear God saying, go blind, go blind, don’t go walking into the next, using your sight, but go blind Paul.
So loses his sight. And the only thing he can become dependent on is a, a word.
Well, I feel the presence of God in this place.
The only thing he can depend on now is a word from God. God.
I can’t function with my sight anymore. That’s how I used to function.
I can’t function based off of my bank account anymore. That’s how I used to function.
I can’t function based off of my marriage.
I can’t function based off of this notion that I have it all together. That’s how I used to function.
God. I need to know, what do you want me to do now?
God says continue walking down the path. He didn’t turn him around from Damascus.
He said, keep going the direction you’re headed in, but go with a different mission, go with a different expectation.
Expecting that as you go, that there’s a word waiting for you as you move in that direction that God has been.
I don’t know who you are, but God has been impressing something on your heart over and over again.
And the only reason why you haven’t moved is because you can’t see.
I hear God saying, you don’t need to see right now.
You just need a word and the next steps are waiting for you.
When you get there before he could even get there.
God had already started working and identifying who he was gonna use to help him in this next phase.
God’s got you covered as you step into this righteousness, as you step into this ministry, as you step into this new position and this new authority, you don’t have to have it all figured out.
That’s what we do in the natural realm.
But God has called you to supernatural things and supernatural things require that we be dependent on Him.
Because if I can figure it out on my own, I don’t need him.
But if I am dependent on him, then I know without a doubt that the glory will come.
I didn’t know what we would have in common.
I didn’t know what I would speak about when I came here.
But what I knew for sure is that I was gonna come with God and I knew that if I came with God, that his glory would make up the difference.
I knew that if I came with God, that he would prepare the hearts in advance, I trusted God to get here this 13 year old girl who was rubbing her belly and looking at her father preach, trusted that God would send me into rooms that were bigger than me and that he would be the one that would make up the difference.
God sent me here girls like me with issues like the ones I have never felt qualified for moments like this, but God qualified me not because I did everything the right way.
Not because my path was perfect like it should have been.
But because I dared to ask the question, Lord, what do you want me to do?
God, I see what you’re doing in other people’s lives.
God, I see what you’re doing for the pastors and I see what you’re doing at H TB.
I see what you’re doing at Focus Festival.
But what I have failed to ask you is what do you want to do with me?
Because I don’t wanna just be one of those routine Christians who come and worship and lift their hands but then go home and I’m not transformed.
God. What do you wanna do in my life? What do you wanna do in my marriage?
God, what do you wanna do in my house?
Because I did not come out here to the countryside to pitch a tent and then go home and be the same God.
If I’m gonna be out here struggling, you gotta talk to me, you gotta touch me, you gotta give me vision, you gotta give me clarity.
I need some direction. God, what do you want me to do?
And I believe that God is gonna answer you in supernatural ways.
I think for some of you right now, you just feel this sense of peace that you haven’t felt in a long time.
And that’s what God wants you to do.
I want you to trust my peace for some of you while I’ve been speaking, you’ve been feeling that urge to activate those ideas that God is giving you.
That’s what God is telling you. I want you to do that thing that I placed in your heart.
Somebody was a child when God gave them that idea.
But because they didn’t have support and they didn’t have the education. They’ve been putting it on the back burner.
I hear God saying, I’m gonna make up the difference.
Trust me, if you’re here and you’re in this room and you feel like as I’ve been speaking that God has been urging you that it is finally time for me to go blind, finally time for me to stop trusting my own site and trusting my own perspective and formula and surrender to the one who has perfect theology for my life.
I wanna ask you to join me as close as you can to this altar.
We’re gonna call it an altar. I want you to join me. I wanna pray with you.
I wanna pray over what God is activating down on the inside of you.
I have a thing for altar calls my husband and I both because I believe that there is something about stepping out of your comfort zone and stepping out of that place where you feel like tucked away and hidden and responding to God in such a way that you say you’ve been talking to me, God, I tried to deny it.
But the truth is I really couldn’t hide it because as she was speaking, something struck down on the inside of my soul.
And I’m curious now about what you want me to do.
I’m gonna pray in this room and without a doubt, the prayer will touch everyone in this room.
But like I said, there’s something about moving out of your comfort zone and saying, God, I’m coming out of this space.
I know you’re here with friends and family and maybe they think that you don’t have any issues.
Maybe they think that you have it all together. You’re a leader of one of the groups.
But God is saying, I want you to trust me with this.
I want you to trust me to move out of your space.
Listen, your intensity to come to this altar moment will be contagious.
That as you build the courage to come, that you are going to give other people permission to do so as well.
You’re not in it on your own.
You’re not the only one struggling to figure out what’s next.
You’re not the only one who needs to ask God to surrender in a fresh new way, as close as you can to the altar and in your own way, begin to acknowledge the presence of God in this place.
Maybe that’s through worship, maybe that’s through prayer, but begin to acknowledge that he’s been speaking to you.
Maybe you’re here and you’re like me and you have a not so pretty past and you weren’t even sure that God could use someone like you in His kingdom.
I want you to know that He does not make any mistakes, nor does he have any accidents.
He has kept you alive. After all that you’ve gone through.
It’s because he has already set down within his soul. I can use that intensity. I can use that story.
That person is gonna touch people that Sarah could never touch.
That person is gonna touch people that Nicky could never touch.
I know that it was hard when you were going through it.
I know you felt isolated when you were going through it.
But when it’s all said and done, you’re gonna touch people that I could have never reached because your story is different from mine.
And I’m one of those people who believe that we need every story in the kingdom.
I need every walk of life in the kingdom because I plan on making sure that the Kingdom of Heaven invades every part of the earth.
And I think that if we all link arms that we could touch somebody and reach around this globe and make sure that every eye has seen and every ear has heard about the Lord that we serve and I can promise you this.
He’s been too good to me for me to ever turn back around.
So as it relates to Los Angeles and Denver, my husband and I vow to you that your black cousins over in the States are taking care of their part of the kingdom.
And I need to know that on this side that you’re gonna be holding down your part of the kingdom.
And when we all get to heaven, we will rejoice for the many people that we were able to reach together because we all lay down our lives and picked up our cross and said, God, it’s not about me, Jesus.
It’s not about me. It is about you and the power that you have to literally raise people from the grave.
I love when they sing Glorious Day because I know what it’s like to be called out of a tomb of depression to be called out of a tomb of suicide and to come running out of that grave because he still knew my name.
I wanna pray over you. Father God, Jesus. You are so wonderful.
There is truly no one else like you.
I thank you father that you sent your son to experience every limitation that has ever held us back.
And that when he conquered death, that he did not just conquer death for himself, but that he conquered death for us as well.
And so father, I asked for every person, every business, every book, every dream represented at this altar that you would begin to give them supernatural strength.
Like never before God, they have come down to this altar to acknowledge that they don’t wanna do it by themselves any longer that they’re ready to do what you want them to do in the earth.
So father, I am asking for focus, vision, clarity and purpose.
Like never before I’m asking that you would stir up the gift of God that’s down on the inside of them.
And that this would be one of those moments that they mark that changed them forever that I lay down my life and said, Father, what do you want me to do?
And God, I just asked for my own behalf that whatever it is that you have them do.
God, let it make hell nervous, let it make demons tremble, let it make depression back up off of them.
Let it make suicide. Leave this country, let it make division, leave this country.
God start something down on the inside of them.
That eyes haven’t seen that ears haven’t heard that neither has it entered into the hearts of men or God, what you can do through them?
And God as they begin to start things, I feel that God, these are starters at this altar.
They’re gonna start some things in this nation. They’re gonna start some things in their family.
They’re gonna start some things in their generation that no one else could have done.
But them, Father God, you are the master creator.
And when you place them in this earth, you did it with intentionality and purpose.
God bring that purpose to the surface like never before and allow it to permeate everything that they do.
So father, we ask that you would remove an uproot anything that doesn’t look like you God.
If it’s bitterness, we don’t need it. If it’s unforgiveness, God, please remove it.
And God in its place, we ask that you would baptize us with your precious holy spirit that you would baptize us until we’re confident again, that you would baptize us until we can love again, that you would baptize us until we start things that we never thought we could have started God baptized us with your spirit.
And may we become your hands and your feet on the earth. We receive this word.
We receive this word, we receive this word, we receive this word over doubt, we receive this word over fear.
We receive this word over insecurity.
God, you are God alone and you will have the final say, you are alpha and omega.
You are the beginning and the end. We receive this word.
You know our in from our beginning, we receive this word, let it take root and produce fruit in our lives that generations eat off of that.
God would look back on this moment and you would say that was the turning point for your family.
That was the turning point for your business.
Because instead of concocting your own plan, you dared to ask me, Lord, what do you want me to do?
Can you guys just send up a shout of praise for our savior?
Can you do it? Like the victory has already been won?
I know that you guys are conservative, but just for me, can you give God a praise?
Can you thank God that he’s still in the business of healing, that he’s still in the business of doing miracles that he’s still in the business of saving and redeeming.
I don’t know about you, but I’m so glad that he still uses broken people to do incredible things in the earth.
I don’t know about you, but I’m so glad that he would look past my flaws and choose me.
Listen, focus festival. I love you and we’ll see you again.
- Moving Toward Maturity – Dr. Charles StanleyTháng tám 14, 2023