Priscilla Shirer: You Go Through More Because You’re Called to More

“At the end of the day, the enemy is going to be sorry he ever messed with you. You’re about to become his worst nightmare a million times over. He thought he could wear you down, sure that after a while you’d give up without much of a fight. Well, just wait till he encounters the fight of God’s Spirit in you. Because . . . This. Means. War.”
― Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer

This is that when the disciples come to him tired, he does not say go away from me and get yourself together, come back and then I can use you.
He says come away With me.
My 38 year old cousin, 38 four small Children, the day is coming and you don’t know the day or the hour.
Neither do I.
When we’re gonna have to stand before him and give an account for how we handled what he had entrusted to us.
I’m asking you tonight, how are you handling your assignment?
Because young women, if you think that you’re young because of your age, listen to me if you’re 20, but you only have until 30, you’re pretty old.
If you’re 50 and you’re gonna live until 100, then you’re pretty young.
Age is just a number my friend and you and I cannot qualify young or old based based on our birthdate.
It’s based on our death date.
And since we don’t know when that day is that I implore you sisters by the mercies of God to walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called.
Because listen I don’t know about y’all, but when I see him face to face, I’m looking for a well done.
I’m looking for well done.
When I see him, he will not ask me how many Instagram followers I had.
He will not wonder whether or not folks liked my post.
He will not be interested in whether or not my selfies were perfectly lit.
He will ask me, did I know his son? And then I will give an account.
So the disciples, they come and they give an account to Jesus.
I wondered if there was a recipe for effective ministry because if these guys were willing to come and look Jesus in his face and give an account.
I figured there might be a recipe for us for effective ministry. I’m interested. Anybody interested?
There are three ingredients to the recipe.
Luke chapter 9: verse one, it says he called them, he called them and his calling superseded any personal ambition that they had, they laid down whatever they were going to do because they heard the call of God beckoning them to do something else.
The beautiful thing about that entire picture is that all of the glory of God, the Father, all of the glory of heaven was packaged in human flesh, Jesus one and so much God, the Father wanted so much to make sure that he could speak and so that humanity could hear that he left his throne and glory, put on flesh.
So that the disciples could hear us call.
And in the same way, he has given us the Holy Spirit so that each and every one of us have the privilege to hear the calling of God in our lives.
The conviction, the function, depressing the fire that is shut up in your bones, sending you in a particular direction.
Heed the call of God on your lives. Then they were not just called.
I love so much that before he skips to the third ingredient in the recipe, sending them, I loved that.
Before we get to the third one, there’s that second one.
He did not just call, but then he gave them power and authority.
It means that what he was calling them to do.
He was simultaneously equipping them with supernatural power to be able to pull it off.
So it’s good news for anybody in the room that you feel like you’ve got a dream that is way over your head.
You’ve been called to do something. You don’t have the money for.
You don’t have the time for you don’t have the patience for you don’t have the gifting for, you don’t have the talent for, you don’t have the connections for the good thing.
And the great thing about our God is that he does not call people who are already equipped.
He calls you. And then for the people that say yes, he equips them with what they need for the college He entrusted them with power and authority.
And can I tell you why this is important.
This is important because in order to accomplish, accomplish supernatural tasks, you have to have supernatural capacity.
In other words, you can be the most talented person in the world.
But if you go in your own strength and power, you still won’t be able to accomplish the God calling on your life.
It requires what it is that only God himself can give to you to accomplish the task o the enemy hopes you will go in your own power.
He hopes you will think you are flashy enough and savvy enough and talented enough and impressive enough so that you will no longer lean on God instead of leaning to your own understanding.
But it is not by power and it is not by mind.
It is by the spirit of God and some trust in horses. Other folks trust in chariots, but not us.
We trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
So he called them and then he entrusted them, he gave them some treasure and then he sent them.
He’s the one who did the sending resist the urge to send yourself to do something that it is not yet time for.
Because just as important as our calling is that is equally as important as the timing is in which that calling is outworked in our lives.
And if you go too soon, you might, if you.
If you give birth too soon to that, which God is trying to produce through you, you might abort what it is that he’s trying to accomplish in you.
The spiritual backbone, the fortification that he was trying to establish in you so that you could handle the spotlight wouldn’t hit you.
Because listen, that spotlight that you may be craving if it hits you and you have no character, it will burn you to a crisp.
So he called them, he entrusted them, he sent them out and they returned to him and gave an account.
They were tired. The disciples had been given it everything they had.
And I know there are some of you in the room and you would admit that you haven’t done it perfectly.
But man, you’ve sure been purposeful.
You’ve been intentional about this marriage, you’ve been giving it everything you’ve got, you’ve been intentional about that teenager.
You’ve been given that kid everything you’ve got this toddler that has this specific bent or this specific issue that you’ve been doing everything you can going to see every expert that you can reading everything that you can to be the best that you can.
As a mother, single mother, you’ve been giving it everything that you’ve got working, the jobs that you’ve got to work to keep food on the table.
You’ve been given that business, that ministry, that endeavor, everything that you have and you, the disciples are tired, the good news about Jesus is that when the disciples come to him tired, he does not say go away from me and get yourself together, come back and then I can use you.
He says come away with me.
In other words, listen, the cure for your exhaustion is intimacy with Jesus.
That’s the cure y’all. I’m saying. I agree.
Take the holiday, take the vacation, tell them you need a little sabbatical.
You gotta step back for just a little bit. You need a little margin in your life.
Take the holiday, but don’t take a holiday from Jesus.
Don’t take the sabbatical from your relationship with the Lord.
Prayer shouldn’t exit your schedule because these are your rest days.
You still need to be the deer that pants after the water.
Your soul has still gotta be replenished and can only be replenished when you have intimacy with him.
And you’re trying to figure out Lord, You told me that I was going to be replenished.
You told me that I was gonna refresh, you told me that you had something that you wanted to give to me.
Why would you take me here to this place where I’m being pressed down by a multitude of issues and concerns and frustrations.
There’s something overwhelming me that is bigger than what I feel like I have the capacity to handle.
Why would you bring me here?
This tells us that the story of the feeding of the 5000 is not just about the 5000.
It’s also about the disciples. It’s not just about the multitude getting fed.
It’s about the disciples being fed physically, spiritually, emotionally.
And it tells us that the five loaves and the two fish are the gift to the multitude, but it’s the multitude.
That’s the gift to the disciples because the multitude is what’s going to make them have to finally open up their drawer, pull out the treasure that they would have otherwise ignored.
Place it in the hands of a multiplying master who’s gonna show them what it looks like when he takes their little bit and makes it a lot.
There is no replenishing like watching God multiply your loaves and fish at T B N.
Our mission is to use every available means to reach as many individuals and families as possible with the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thank you for helping make the gospel of grace go around the world without you. We couldn’t do it.
God bless you.