Destiny in Process

Okay, we're going to go to the Lord first. Father God, I just thank you for the time that you have given to me to be able to be a vessel for you, Father. I ask that your anointing come forth, that everything that goes forth that needs to be said will be. I pray, Father, that anything that is of me will just be washed aside, that everything that is of you will be received and will be remembered in the name of Jesus. So I thank you for it, Father. Amen. Okay, so I was praying about what the Lord wanted me to share with y'all today, whether a testimony or to give a word, and this is what he showed me. He said, tell them about the process, because we're all in a process. And so that's what I'm going to do today. So we all have a journey, a process, which really is our preparation and our equipping time. So how many of us right now, wherever we're at, whether we're behind bars or we're in life outside, how many of us have to battle and overcome or don't even recognize the disappointment that comes at us with our process? How many times does the lie of the enemy come to try to tell us that where we're at is because we missed it? That what we're in is because of all of the things that we've done and the condemnation that comes in. You all know better than anyone how that feels on a daily basis to wish and want to be somewhere else, but yet stuck in this process. So it's really what we do with our process. Amen. Faith, Hebrews 11.1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Many of us know that, right? But as Priscilla Shire states in her book, Elijah, she says, faith is committing to God's

process and that really got me thinking because sometimes we forget about the commitment that is involved in walking in faith. We can all quote the scripture, but where's our commitment in the process? She also says that we all remember the highlights of the stories of Noah, Jonah, Moses, Elijah, many, many others, but we all too quickly forget the process that they had to go through to get the happy ending. And let's talk about some that never saw the happy ending, right? God took them before they ever got to fully see what all of the things that they did and went through for the Lord brought forth. We many times remember and strive for the good part, the happy ending, and we should have hope for that. There's nothing wrong with hoping for that. We are to look for the light at the end of the tunnel, the light of Jesus at the end of the tunnel that we are in. We are to do that. In 1 Thessalonians 1, 3, it says, we remember before our God and father, your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to have hope, but we are to have hope in him, which also means if we're in a process we didn't really want, our hope still in him, not in what we wish we could have done, not in where we want to be, but in where he has us every time. Every time. Noah, let's look at Noah, Genesis 9, 29. It talks of him being 480 years old when God asked him to build an ark. How many of us moan and complain? We're this, we're this old. I hear women say, you know, I'm 30 something years old and I haven't even had a child yet. Or how many times that we complain about the aches and pains in our bodies or where you're at, right? Your sentence, the things that you hear in your mind, what you feel like is your destiny.

They don't know your destiny just because they tell you on paper how long you're going to be there. They don't know what God's going to do with your process and your destiny. We have to silence the lies that come at us and come against the disappointment of when we think we missed it and realize we don't have to miss it when we just surrender and say, whatever you want for me, Lord, is what I will do. Even right here, even right now. He was 600 years old when the flood came. So God allowed mankind to live for 120 years while Noah built the ark, 120 years. This man who loved God went around pleading with people, pouring out his heart to them to try to understand and know and accept and choose God. 120 years and they didn't. How would you feel? How do you know what it is? We on the outside know too, right? When we are praying with someone, how many times have we prayed for someone's salvation and then, and then they die? Or people that we love hurt us, do things to us that are inconceivable, right? That we can't even imagine, right? Imagine for Noah, his process. It was hard, long, it required much perseverance, work, obedience, and faith. He was mocked at, laughed at, misunderstood, rejected. Could he have lost hope in 120 years? I mean, sometimes we lose hope in a week, right? Right? Can you imagine what it looked like for him? Closing the doors of the ark, after 120 years of trying to make a difference, and the doors closing, knowing what was coming some,

but not really knowing how long it was gonna be in his process? Those doors of the ark closed, the floods came. Can you imagine the dead bodies? Can you imagine people that he loved, seeing them, and all the things he's worked for? How many times do we focus on everything we've lost, instead of looking at what is ahead and what he still has for us? 2 Peter 2, five through 10 says, if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless, for that righteous man living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard. Don't you think that's how Noah felt? A little tormented, 120 years, and you still won't receive God? If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh, and despise authority. Do not waste any more time despising authority, and rebelling against the authority that God has put in your life. When you push against his process, you are pushing away him. How many of us are called holy rollers, preachers, pastors, evangelists, people that have been coming into the prisons, praise God, we are believing they are gonna open again, and we are believing they're gonna come back. They're coming in the form of this way now, right? How many of you know people, maybe you, who have thought, oh, that's just a holy roller, oh, they don't understand, they don't know, right? Who feelings that we're in judgment and condemnation, there are some that are. I am not dismissing that. There are some people, many people of God that misbehave badly, that sin, that fall short, we all do. But you know what? Those that are laying down their line for the call that has been put upon them, we know the truth. It says right here, the righteous man among them living day after day was tormented in his soul by the lawless deeds

he saw and heard. We know the truth. We know what is better. We know that you have a choice. We are living our life, we are doing this right now to give you the hope that there is a different way. Stop looking at the detours and stick and commit to the process of what he has for you. Look at Jonah. Jonah 1, one through three, and I know many of you know these stories, so please don't allow the enemy to come and distract because the word is alive, right? And the Holy Spirit can bring life in a way that maybe you didn't hear this story before. Jonah 1, one through three. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for the port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. All been there? We all ran from what he was telling us to do once or many times, right? Jonah hid on the ship, right? God sent a storm and Jonah went to sleep. How many of you are sleeping through your process?

How many of you are choosing when that person comes and says, hey, we've got this to listen to or here's a book or hey, let's read the word or God, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right where you are, wanting to have time with you, wanting to help you see that he can get you through this process in a much different way than you're in. And how many times do we choose? To hide and sleep. Now the Lord provided a huge fist, verse 17, to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And this is what I love, his prayer. It took him to be in the fish first, right? We know that God had to do it a different way, right? God had to allow a different kind of consequence to come so that he could truly see, truly get it and quit pushing. against His process, right? Then Jonah prayed and said, I cried out of my distress to the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of your presence and your sight, yet I will look again towards your holy temple. If you feel that God turned His back on you, that's a lie.

He never did. Turn, turn from what you feel. Put your eyes back on Jesus, who's waiting for you right now. The waters compassed me about, even to the extinction of life, the abyss surrounded me. The seaweed was wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottoms and the very roots of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever, with its bars closed behind me. Y'all. Yet you have brought up my life from the pit and corruption, oh Lord, my God. When my soul fainted upon me, I earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you and your holy temple. Your holy temple is wherever you and God are. Those who pay regard to, he was in the belly of a whale, and he was calling his holy temple, right? Those who pay regard to false, useless, and worthless idols forsake their own source of mercy and love and kindness. But as for me, I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation and deliverance belong to the Lord. Salvation and deliverance belong to the Lord. He's waiting. He wants to set you free in a different way

than the freedom you're waiting on. Nineveh, Jonah 3, nine through 10, and the word came to Jonah a second time. Second chances, hallelujah. Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you. Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. And then it says, when Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with a sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. And this is the proclamation of the Lord. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh. This is the king. He didn't have to think about it. He didn't have to have 15 more people come and tell him. Right? He knew, he knew that he better listen, he better surrender, and he better obey. So that he cannot have to be in a different process than the one that God wants him to be in, right? By the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals or herds or flocks taste anything, do not let them eat or drink. He gave the order. God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways. He relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

He's waiting for us to surrender. He's waiting. He wants to lift off of you every burden that you are carrying. It is not yours to carry anymore. He has your family. He has your hurt if you'll give it to him. Jesus already died for it. He's just waiting for you to let him have it. Romans 12, two, it says we must choose him over the things of the world. In Romans 12, two, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. His will, his will, you must die to your own will in order to embrace the process you're in for his will and his finishing hallelujah moment at the end, right? The testimony, it's the testimony. Then we know about Moses, and we know we can't go through every single one of them. I wish I could. But we know that Moses, right? Exodus three, nine through 10, I have indeed heard the cry of my people and I see how the Egyptians are oppressing them. Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt

so that you can lead my people out of his country. How many people where you're at need to be led out of the bondage that they're in right where y'all are at? How many of you feel there's no way he could be calling you to do that? Insecurity, Moses, Moses was insecure too. God, I can't speak. I have a problem speaking, right? Faith, perseverance, commitment. It was 430 years before the Israelites were freed from Egypt. That's more than your life sentence could be. For more than 30 years. Some people have two life sentences, right? 430 years. They had to wait, right? Moses was faithful and committed to the process and God moved. We don't have time to go over it all, but we all have a testimony of our process, right? It took 27 years. for Abram, 22 years for Joseph, 13 years for David to become king, seven more before he was king over the whole nation, and 14 years for Paul. Many of you can relate as you're doing the extended amount of time behind bars, but what are you doing with this time in your process? Process develops our character. Character is what people will remember about us most.

What do you want people to remember about you? When God sets you out of there, and when he uses you right in there, what do you want people to remember about you? Even with a good testimony, because we all hear lots of testimonies. Even with a good testimony, if it didn't change us for the better, if we don't have the character and integrity of Christ, and be a living, walking example of Christ, then what will they remember? A story. There's enough stories. There's enough yuck being spoken out there. We need the true testimonies of Christ, and we need to hear how we handled it in the process, and how he got us through it. Only him. Are we willing to pay the price that it costs to get to the other side of our process? Are you willing? Are you willing to do what he's calling you to do? No more detours. Choose right here, right now, to hold on to the hope of your calling in Christ. Do not let your process be for nothing. Don't let what you've been through be for nothing. Be the one who makes the change for others, instead of letting others change you, and for them to be the highlight at the end of your story.

Only him. Don't push against your process. Embrace it. Seek and trust God during it. Commit to it, and watch what God does through it. Don't lose hope. He has a plan for you. You are called, and he wants to use you right where you are. Ephesians 118, I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. Father God, I just pray, Lord, that you allow your Holy Spirit to move upon them for as they process their process, and I just thank you, Father, that you please forgive us for any time we ran from what you wanted us to do in this process, from any time we hid, from any time that we stayed asleep. Father, forgive us for that, Lord. Thank you that your mercies are new every day, and today, right now, is another chance to not push against you but to embrace you and to commit and trust in you for the process of where you have us and where we're going. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.