Approvecha el viento — a fuego lento — DawnCheré Wilkerson

Welcome. We're going to be in part three of our A Fuego Lento collection. This collection focuses on the idea that waiting is not a season, it's life. The question is, are we going to live in waiting? Let's go to Isaiah 40, 31. It's a verse that my parents gave me when I was born, in the hospital, like the verse for my life. And I have received it in every season of my life. The prophet Isaiah says, but those who wait for Jehovah will have new strength. They will raise their wings like eagles. They will run and will not get tired. They will walk and will not faint. And I want to tell you in the next few minutes, take advantage of the wind. Take advantage of the wind. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the people who hear my voice. I pray that right now you allow us to leave distractions and open our hearts to you. You are our creator. You are our father. We are known and loved by you. What our hearts long for, if we have difficulty waiting, we all want more of you. Reveal yourself to us. We love you. And in the name of Jesus, we pray.

And everyone says, we have beautiful things. The book is wrapped. That's why I'm going to put my notes. I don't know what you did your week, but as a mom of four, I spent my weekend organizing the boys' rooms. The clothes, the toys, the clothes that are no longer left for the next baby. He already has very good clothes for Wolfgang. We are organizing the toys. I have three boys and the two oldest. They love action dolls. They are obsessed with superheroes. And they all love the favorite. The one we have the most suits is Superman. Who knows that Superman is the best? He's the original superhero. But if you didn't know, Superman had the superpower to fly. That superpower was added to him. And he loved people so much that they never took it away from him. He stayed with that superpower to fly. So they play. Here they are flying, the boys. But when we look at Isaiah's text, God gave us a supernatural power. He gave us the ability, when we wait for him, to walk with our legs. Isaiah says that those who wait for Jehovah will give new strength. They will raise wings like eagles. Wings like eagles. I don't have wings.

I don't have wings like eagles. But when I wait for the Lord, I take advantage of the wind. I take advantage of his wind. Something we can't see can raise us to a new height. And there, in the heights, we can see something new. There is an invisible force of the spirit of God that raises us high and shows us a different point of view. It guides us. It directs our vision in the wait. We have new energies when we see something that God is doing. We see beyond what we can see with our only dimension when we are on earth. Because by the power of God, we can take advantage of the wind. And God says this same phrase to Moses many years before Isaiah. He says to Moses, you have seen what I have done with the Egyptians and how I have taken you and brought you to me on eagle wings. If now you lend an ear to my voice and fulfill my covenant, you will be my special treasure above all the peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. God is saying, you have seen what happens when you depend on me, when you wait for me. I bring a miraculous victory. You cannot get out of slavery, but I took it out in a beautiful and miraculous and extraordinary way. Something that could not have happened without me, says the Lord. This is what happens when you wait for me. Remember what I have done and keep waiting for me. And the perspective of how God took the people of Israel from Egypt was not the same way. of which the Hebrew people told the story.

You realize that we see things different from God. They saw the story, saying, you took us out of slavery to bring us to death. Why did you abandon us? Why didn't you do it the way we expected? God saw a miracle in motion, and they saw it as a dream that was dying. And because they were with the perspective of criticism, because they had a worn-out mentality, that stole the inheritance that was waiting for them. And at one point, God says to Moses, in Numbers 13, I sent some men to spy on the land of Canaan, which I am about to deliver to the Israelites. From each tribe you will send a leader to represent it. God sends two spies, one from each tribe, to spy on the land. Ten become full of fear, completely overwhelmed by what they saw. And they make the people also speak with fear and be overwhelmed. They are infected with that fear. The land is so beautiful, but the giants were so big that we looked like lobsters to them. Fear stole their focus. And all they could see through the lens of life were the giants that were in front of them. But two of the spies gave another perspective, completely different. They looked through another lens, the lens of faith. And Caleb said, let's go up to conquer that land.

I'm sure we can do it. What does the crowd say? He decided to take on the views of the ten spies, who say it's impossible, the giants. It's all we see, they're giants. We are like lobsters. So as the crowd adopts that mentality, they do not take possession of the land, but 40 years later. There is a whole generation that does not enter the promised land, what God had told them that was theirs. Because they doubted, because they did not trust that God was going to open the way. I want to tell you something. No matter where you are, when you have fear, when you feel that fear is filtered, I want you to know this. Waiting for God and rising with power begins with the decision to trust. It does not start with what you see. It does not start, definitely, with what you know. Rising with power, supernatural power that only comes from God begins when we decide to trust. What do you mean, Don Sherry, can you tell me? Of course they only see the giants, because they were seeing through what they could see in their infinite mind, finite mind. When you're standing, you're going to look up at a giant, and you're going to see only a giant. Of course you're going to feel small like a lobster when you

look at the mountains in your life. You're going to feel like a lobster when you look at the impossibilities that are in your life. But God says, no, you're going to mount eagle wings. Let me take you to a higher perspective, where the giants are not the only thing you'll see. But as you rise, the giants are going to look small. And you're going to see all the land that I said belongs to you. You're going to see a new landscape, because I'm not giving you the point of view that they can see from your feet. I'm going to take you where I see. My thoughts are higher, and my paths are higher. I'm going to give you a new perspective, a new view. How is it that I can capture a new perspective? How do you expect God? When the view is closed by your perspective. Lord, take me higher. Lord, take me to see how you see. Lord, allow me to trust. Let me trust in you. Let me not be, let me not see only the giants. Let me see the land that you promised me that is mine here and now. In a moment in my waiting season, my fear of having more pain as I went through those eight years of infertility and wondering if I was ever going to be a mother, my fear of pain made me raise the guard with God. I didn't want to end up disappointed. And I had confidence in my own self-control, and I was stubborn. I was stealing what God had reserved for me in the wait, in the here and now, and my effort to protect myself

was preventing me from doing what I had to do. I had to live in the wait with freedom and see a different perspective of that giant of infertility that was in front of me. And this is what I wrote in 2016. It's in the book. When I was in that mentality of trying to protect my heart. It's like taking a deep breath. It's like trying to recover the breath inside because even the idea that it happens is too glorious to express it with words. I stop my expectations to remember where it comes from helps me. It's like opening the door side by side and entering a room full of gifts, light, and wonders, and then closing it, remembering how happy you are in the hallway. Because, of course, the worst would be opening the door side by side, running into the room, and letting the wonder and joy flood you, flood your emotions and your soul, so that later they ask you to leave, to be accompanied back to the hallway. It's not the time yet. So I protect my heart. I'll experience that feeling when it's completely mine. Days after writing that in my diary, I had an encounter with God in a service like this. All of a sudden, my perspective changed. It elevated.

It elevated more than what I could see with my own eyes. In a moment of worship, God raised my perspective in the waiting season, and I saw a bigger picture, a bigger story than what I was telling myself. My story was written instantly, having the perspective from the top. After the service, I wrote furiously when I saw my waiting season in a different way. And these are the words that flowed. The invitation is called, wonder of your grace. And they never leave me out. They never listen to me or take me to another hallway. My perspective is my power. God says, breathe deeply. Stop holding your breath. Inspire me deeply and abundantly, with strength in excess. Breathe now. That's a word from God for someone in their waiting season. I want to tell you, in a moment of worship, in a moment of waiting with so many other people, in a community of faith, God gave me a new perspective of my waiting time. And it was rewritten so that I knew that I will never stay out of the throne of heaven. I will never be waiting to celebrate with joy. I will not wait to know that the eyes of God are on me. And you neither. You can breathe.

You can laugh. You can dance. You can sing. You can celebrate here and now in the waiting. God helps us to look beyond through our human eyes. He showed me that I was in a place of wonder and grace. What does He have to show you today? The giants may be great, but the earth is yours. The struggle is real, but the battle is of the Lord. He made a promise that you can trust. You will trust in Him enough to allow yourself to give your life in His hands, to put your life in His hands, and to take advantage of the wind that blows over you and rewrite your story. Let's go back to Isaiah again. 700 years after God took the Israelites out of Egypt on eagle wings, he says, but those who wait for Jehovah will have new strength. They will raise their wings like the eagles. They will walk and will not tire. They will walk and will not faint. He says, they will raise their wings like the eagles. Of the thousands of species of birds, why does God use eagles? Why does he choose the king of the air? Do you know that eagles have the extension of wings higher? They can fly from 5 to 8 hours without touching the ground, full of strength. They have a supernatural ability and a facility because their wings were designed by God in a way

that even the brothers Wright studied the wings of the eagles to create the gliders and start with modern aviation. You know what? The best engineer is God. The little birds have to flap their wings to keep flying, but the eagle rarely flaps its wings to keep flying and floating. They don't have to use so much strength and so much energy to stay up. The eagle can glide for hours instead of being exhausted. It catches the wind and uses the currents of the air to keep it in the air for hours. Eagles use the wind. They don't just flap their wings. That's how we are. When we wait for God, we take advantage of the wind. That takes us to a point where our willpower and our strength can't do it. You're tired. You're burned. The word says, come to me, all those who are working and loaded. I'm going to give you rest. It says rest. It's not that you put your head on the pillow. Sometimes rest is when you take advantage of the wind and without effort, you plan with the power and authority of the presence of God. Zacarias says, it will not be by force or by any power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of the armies. God is talking to you, looking for men and women who say, Lord, I want to wait for you and I'm going to take advantage of the wind of your supernatural presence. I don't want to run in front of you or fabricate the experience with the spirit or look for it with my own strength and my own wings and be exhausted. No, I'm going to wait here and now. You're in a place, flapping your wings, trying to use your own strength to go through this season of waiting. No, God has a different strategy. Don't push yourself. Get up. Wait for the wind in my house. I'm an expert at making paper airplanes.

I know all the models. My guys are obsessed with them. It's a free activity that keeps them busy for hours. I know how to fold them and they know which one of the planes flies the furthest. They know how interesting it is. It's a piece of paper. It has no hope in itself to fly because it's flat and it's on the table. Gravity keeps it on the floor. But in my hands, I know how to fold it, how to form it. And I throw it with my hands and take advantage of the wind that I wouldn't have experienced. I hope you see your life the same way. If you want to stay on earth, depending on your own strength, do it. But in my house and I, we will serve the Lord. We will be in the hands of God. He can form us as He wants. And when He throws us, we will rise to the current of the Spirit further than we could go alone. Someone who praises the Lord. If you trust in Him, thank Him for what He gives you day after day. We patiently wait for the Lord. We patiently wait and take advantage of the wind. The eagle faces the wind and perceives the change in the currents. Some birds can only use some currents. And some birds can only be limited in where they arrive. But the eagle can get where it wants because it understands the currents. And so we are when we walk in the Spirit of God. We are sensitive to the currents. It is not that we run doing the same thing over and over again, waiting for it to work every season.

But we look for the face of God. We wait for Him and perceive the change in the currents. And we let ourselves be led to what He is doing here and now. We see the power to trust in the power of the Lord when He gives the gift of the Holy Spirit. They were waiting for this to happen. while he was here. And then we see that there are men and women who go to that high place. He says, don't leave Jerusalem. Wait. I will send you the Holy Spirit. And they wait in the high place. They don't advance in that great commission in their own strength and their own abilities. They wait for the wind. And as they wait in the high place, the Bible says that there was a sound of a strong wind filling that room. And the fire comes over each one of them. And then they go to the streets speaking a language that they do not understand. But the people around them, who come to Jerusalem from different places, who speak different languages, suddenly they hear this group of men and women proclaiming the glory of God and the wonders of God in the language that they understand. And the gospel advances, not in a slow fire, but in the combustion of a moment that the Holy Spirit enters the new temple, which

is our body. And we see this beautiful image and the beautiful promise for our lives. The time that we give our lives to God, we are full of that power, the power that conquered death. We are full of the power and the presence of God. If you speak in a language that you do not know, I want to tell you that that gift is available to you. Yes, it happened 2,000 years ago. But there is an impartition that if you wait in God, words will come from your mind that you will not recognize. But when you express them, you will not be counting with your own strength, but you will be counting with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. I want you to know that there are spiritual gifts. Many of them, wisdom, discernment, will be in your life as a follower of Jesus, which you will be able to discern when the currents change. And you will be able to say, you know what? We have been here for a long time, but God is calling us to follow this other course. The current is changing and I'm going to take advantage of the wind. I don't want to do this myself. I'm going to go where God is moving. I want you to know that there is an understanding beyond your age. As a mother, as a father, as a university student, you don't have to listen to all the podcasts and all the books. There is a deeper source, which is the presence of God. In His presence, He will elevate you, He will give you knowledge for your work,

for your children, for your marriage, for your work, grace for each year. I'm talking about taking advantage of the wind. You can take advantage of the wind. When we wait in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit descended and filled the followers from that day until we saw Jesus face to face. Waiting in God leads us to discover things that we would not know. We see the eagle that sees food from above. When we focus and wait in God, we will see provision. Others see walls, but you will see a new way. Others see giants, but you will see the land that God has promised, like the eagle, which rises to protect its territory. We can also protect our homes with a new approach that the Spirit of God gives us, not only on Sundays, but day after day, waiting in His presence. The Spirit of God will help you identify potential threats. He will allow you to protect your home, as you could not do it alone. The eagle also flies over the storm, and so it is with us. When the storms come, God does not say, go and hide. God says, I'm going to take you over the clouds. When you look for me, you look for me in the secret place, there will be peace. You will be in the eye of the storm, but you do not have to flee the storm, son and daughter.

You have the ability to rise even higher, to use the winds of the storm to reach other heights that you had not reached before. God is talking, declaring strength, not to be admired for your beauty, as we admire the eagle. We admire the eagle, not only for its beauty, but also for its strength. for that, but for the force that you have received supernaturally, the way in which you have been designed. And God tells you, if you wait for me, you will rise with eagle wings. How many times do we have storms in life and our immediate reaction is to hide and say, oh, we have to land, but God says, no, if you wait for me, you will rise even higher. If you are like me, you can read the Bible, you know this, and they challenge you to wait, and it can still cost you to wait when someone writes you a text message, I have to answer right now. I can't believe they told me, maybe your husband, maybe your wife is your son, maybe a relative, and your little hands don't want to wait. I'm going to tell you what I think now. I'm going to put this in order quickly. We get the news and we want to respond with hardness or quickly. We let our emotions control us. We start that we have to react immediately to each situation. We try to accelerate, but sometimes we find the acceleration when we wait. We find that God makes us move forward when we wait for him. I can ask you, did you pray about it? Did you look for God? Did you invite him to that conference room in your house? Did you ask him to give you guidance, direction? Santiago says, they must be willing to hear, but be slow to speak and to get angry. It is a scripture for every season of our life.

It is a mark of maturity. As we follow Jesus, remember that trust is the starting point. We have to wait for him with that expectation. We are not just waiting for him to waste time, but we are trusting in him. God is doing something more than I can see. You are joining parts of my life in a way that I would never think of. You are preparing this and you do it better than I do. I want you to direct me. I want you to be the one to take the first step. I am trying to follow you. I am not trying to get ahead of you. Although I can run fast, I will be exhausted if you are not with me in this. When it is time to sleep this week, we go to bed. Wyatt is 7 years old. For him, age is so funny. The way he says it. Wyatt looks at us and says, you know, I am going to be 10 soon. I only have to wait 3 years. And I said, what a revelation for all of us. You are going to get out of this storm before you can imagine it. You are going to get out of this quickly. You are going to beat the giants in a short time. We just have to wait. And time will pass in one way or another. But what are you going to do while you wait? Who will you become while you wait? Who will you trust while you wait? Because time will fly. Very soon you will be in a new season. Very soon the opportunities will end.

In a short time your children will grow. In a short time the people for whom they work will no longer be in the next season. What will you do in the here and now? How are you going to live? Are you going to breathe? Are you going to laugh? Are you going to dance? Are you going to give them something? Are you going to bring a harvest here and now while you wait? What will your perspective be like? We can focus so much on the wait that we do not realize that God is the one who has patience with us. 2 Peter 3.8 says, But do not forget that for the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. But the Lord does not take long to fulfill His promise. He says that He is patient. Someone say, patient. Because He does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to repent. Maybe it's the wait that makes the Holy Spirit work in your life. Maybe if we change our perspective, that this wait can give you health, or it can shape your wishes and your dreams, and God can break things that are holding you back, and build, reinforce your trust that comes from Him. After God showed me that I was in the room of His grace, that changed my life, because there was a whisper in my heart that was like a scream, and it gave me a new image of my season of waiting, which was deeper than a thought. It was a whisper from God. It gave me the power not to choose fear, but to take advantage of the wind, and to look around me and serve others, and the day of the mothers. I have to go back, because I spent eight days of the mothers in my time of infertility. It had been 12 years that we were married, and I remember one day of the mothers when I was serving in the church of the parents of Rich.

We were in the pastor of Alabanza, and I was leading the choir, and after singing in different services, we would have prayer and celebration moments again, and after the service, I went to the choir room, and that Sunday I had been very aware that I did not have children, and I tried to make my wings fly, and there was no way, and it was not going to happen, but when I went back to that choir room, after a couple of services, and all the choir, who were so close, they shouted to me, Happy Mother's Day, Don Sherry, and they had flowers, and balloons, and a cake, and they were older, and I was the youngest, and I was deliberating. They began to express love to me, and honor me, and although I was the youngest, they had seen me in a way, they had seen me as a mother, that I had nurtured them, and I had prepared a place for them, and they began to form life in front of me, and you, you do not know how much that moment meant to me. I kept the cards as if they were made of gold, because I was not expecting that. I was not there to look for them with my own eyes, it was not something that I was looking for, or that I could have made, but the fire, the wind of the Holy Spirit came out of nowhere, and it surprised me completely, it gave me a new perspective in the middle of my wait. And so it is with each one of us, the miracle does not come in the way that you think it will come, but He will elevate your perspective, He will give you a different perspective, and you will not stay on earth, if you do not isolate yourself, if you do not hide in the storms of life, I want to encourage you, the wind of the Holy Spirit will encourage you, will elevate you, and will fill you in a very real way, He is faithful, He can do it. Let's stand up in every place here, let's stand up. The wind of the Holy Spirit brings unexpected fullness, unexpected perspective, unexpected blessing. I ask you, are you on earth now? Are you standing on your feet and in your own strength, and the only thing you can see are the giants that are in front of you? Are you looking up at those mountains or are you allowing the Spirit of God to elevate you with a new perspective? You do not need a prophetic word, you have to speak, open the Bible, the word of God, you have to speak with Jesus and you have to show your heart. He can heal your marriage, He can restore that lost love, He can let you know here and now that you have a purpose, you have a destiny. You are not excluded, you are not outside, you are in the room of His humanity. He brings His children to open spaces.

You don't feel restricted. Open your lungs. Breathe. Dream. Seek Him and you will find Him. And when you find Him, you're going to take advantage of the wind. You can't chase the wind, but you can wait for Him. He is here. And your promise to you, He is here for me. Those who wait for Jehovah will have new lives. Those who wait for Jehovah will have new strength. They will raise their wings like eagles. They will run and they will not falter. They will walk and they will not pass out. Let's close ourselves with the Lord. Let's close our eyes and open. Let's bow our heads. This is a moment for you to speak with God. I think there are people here who have walked with Jesus for a long time. Or maybe this year, and your life has changed, but you are exhausted. You only see the giants. The breakdown in your relationships. The limitations of your work. Your defects. You compare yourself. But friends, the Holy Spirit wants to elevate you. He wants you to see the promised land. He wants you to see that through Jesus, through the relationship you have with the Savior, you never stay out of His presence, but a loving Father makes you enter. Yes, He knows you intimately, but more than anything, He is the engineer of your life.

And today when I say, Don Sherif, I am tired of chasing the wind. Today, I trust in God. Lord, I wait for the wind. If that is you, on the count of three, raise your hand. One, two, and three. I am choosing to wait for the wind. I need more of Jesus. I need more of Jesus. I need more time with Jesus. I need His thoughts. I need the Word of God to shape my perspective. I need His promises to re-frame my perspective. Oh Lord Jesus, we come to You. And we surrender. We surrender our strength. And we know that when we surrender our weaknesses and our strength, Your strength comes upon us. Thank you that we can respond to You. Every hand that rises up, that responds to a deep need, something that we cannot give ourselves. Lord, we are desperate for You. More than ever in my life, Lord, I know that there is nothing in my life more exciting than when I perceive the wind of Your Holy Spirit refreshing me, re-accommodating me. Lord, restoring me. And let it be so here. Let it be so in City. Let it be so here in Design District and Miami Gardens, Lord. Let it be so in Homestead and Everglades. And all over the world, Lord, the people that are listening. Let it be the wind of the Spirit that we let enter our hearts. Oh Lord, work in us.

Revive the hunger for Your presence. The hunger to follow You, to know You. There is always more. Give us a new sensibility to seek You, Lord. In the name of Jesus.