When the Waiting Comes Part 2 | Jentezen Franklin

The first recorded battle in the Bible was when a man was willing to go to battle for his family. It is not a coincidence. It is not a happenchance. It is not an accident that the first battle in the Bible is not over real estate, over land, over borders. It is not between nation and nation. It is a man who saw one of his relatives who had been taken hostage by evildoers and something in his heart said, I must go fight for my family. Together we're inspiring people to live for Jesus. If you're looking for more in life, to live with purpose and peace, to make a difference for your family and those in need around the world, Jesus is the answer. And our mission is to simply point you to him. You're watching Kingdom Connection with Jetson Franklin. Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house to the land I'll show you. I'll make you a great nation. I will bless you. I want to go to the 14th chapter of Genesis quickly. Verse 12 says they took Lot. Abraham calls him his brother, but he's saying he's my blood. He was actually technically Abraham's. Abraham was his uncle. Lot was the nephew in the family relationship. And when Abram heard this, that his brother was taken captive, he armed 318 trained servants who were born in his own house and went in pursuit as far as Dan. Verse 16, they brought back all the goods, brought back his brother Lot, his goods, all the women and the people. Notice verse 17, the king of Sodom came out to meet him. King of Sodom came and it tells us in a moment that he made him an offer. And we also have the king of Salem, which was Melchizedek. It's our first introduction of him. I'm going to make sense out of all of this in a moment. And he brings him wine and he brings him bread. And Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I've raised my hand to the Lord God, most high, the possessor of heaven and earth, and I will take nothing, not even a shoestrap. I will not take anything from yours, lest you should say I have made Abraham rich. And that's where the story changes and the words come at the beginning of the chapter. Now, after these things, after he walked away from the life he was in, after he gave up all for Christ, after he went through, it looks like, loss after loss, after he turned down the big contract because he knew it wasn't God's

will for his life. He turned and after these things, it says that that night the Lord came in a vision and said, do not be afraid, Abraham. Watch this, when you give up stuff for God, I am your shield. I am your, everybody say the next three words, exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless? You know what he was saying? He was saying, I hear you and I believe you and you are my shield and you are my exceeding great reward, but you made me a promise way back there and I don't see it happening. I don't see it coming to pass, but after these things, I thought God was going to show up. After these things, he said, I'll be your great reward. What about the promise, Abraham said, and this is what I'm preaching on. What about that which hasn't been done that you told me you would do? He said, I've put everything in order. I've done everything you told me to do. Lord, how will I know? Lord, I believe one man said in the New Testament like this, Lord, I believe help thou my unbelief. It's one of those moments. How can you believe and be full of unbelief at the same time? I believe it's days of belief and days of unbelief. Really, when you're walking with God and you know that He's giving you a promise, there will be days of belief where you know it and you believe it. And I can remember like even with the raising of a family and stuff, there were days when I believed and then there were days when the enemy would hit so hard, everything would happen that was the opposite of the promise. And I would have days where I was honest, where I said, I don't know, God, I don't know. But deep down inside, I still believe, but help my unbelief because I'm wavering right here. There are days when you feel like it's going to happen and there's days when you wonder, where is God? How long, oh Lord, how do I know this thing is going to happen? If you believe He's not a man and He can't lie, I just believe you need to get a clap in your hands right now. That's how you know. You just have to settle it.

You just have to say, I don't care what you show me. I know God is not a man that He can lie. How will I know? God said, all right, here's your sign. And He tells him to take five animals. He says, take a ram and take a heifer, take a lamb, take a turtle dove and take a young pigeon. And He says, you take those three animals, not the birds, but take those three animals and cut them right down the middle and lay half of the animal on one side and cause me to have a middle ground and a path to come to you to confirm that I'm going to bring the promise concerning your family. Because you went to war for your family. I watched you go to war for your family. Now watch, I'm almost where I want to be. The scripture said that's when once he had done everything he knew to do, he sat down and he waited. I'm preaching today on when the waiting comes. He's waiting and waiting and waiting. The worship is not going to waste. The prayers that he prayed is not going to waste. The sacrifice is not going to spoil, but I need you to wait, wait. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They that wait upon the Lord shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint. Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart. And see Abraham, he's now prepared everything and done exactly with great devotion everything God told him to do. He's surrendered and given up everything and here he goes, deeply devoted. And instead of God showing up, guess what the Bible said happened? Buzzards and vultures showed up. They invaded the space and when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abraham drove

them away. Something in Abraham said, while I'm waiting, I am not about to let you steal the promise of God. I have sacrifices of praise laid out. I have prayers of sacrifice laid out. I have been obeying God the best I know laid out here and here comes not God, but right before the breakthrough comes, the vultures who are whispering it's dead. You know, they're only attracted to dead things. They show up, the vultures and the buzzards start flying in from all over the place. The buzzard of bad news says, you did all of this for nothing. The buzzard of bad report, the buzzard of a bad x-ray and it just says, just give up. The buzzard of a phone call that that child is in jail or that child is back on drugs. It's buzzards that come that say, give up now. It's not going to happen. It's too late. Forget it. You have to get to that place where the buzzards of doubt, the buzzards of depression, hallelujah. I'm going to drive them away this morning. The buzzard of fear. He has not given you the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. The buzzard of faith, hallelujah, in circumstances more than God. Drive it away. I don't walk by what I see. I walk by faith, not by sight. If you look up what to do about vultures and buzzards, I want to give you what they say will get rid of them. Number one, eliminate the perches. They won't stay anywhere. They can't find somewhere to perch. Remove anything they can perch on.

Prayerlessness is a perch. Pitiful little weak praise is a perch. Give no place to the devil. This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Hallelujah. You got to get rid of the perches. Some of you just let the devil come in your home and perch. He's all in the house. You have to say, you're not welcome here. I'm driving you out. My children are going to live for the Lord. I am going to see salvation in every one of them. I said that when I was fighting those buzzards, and they're all living for the Lord this morning. To God be the glory. No buzzard is going to perch on my house and my family. Remove the perches, and then listen to this. They said you need an effigy, E-F-F-I-G-Y. What is an effigy? It's something that looks like what you want to not come. You make something like a scarecrow, and you hang it upside down. It's what the native Indians would do when they caught a cowboy or something on their property. They would dispose of them and hang them upside down. Even in wars, the Japanese and Korean wars, things like this are well documented. They would hang a person, and it would say to the soldiers there to create fear that if you come here, the same thing that happened to them is going to happen to you. Well, you've got past victories. You ought to say to the present vultures that are telling you God's not faithful, you ought to hang up some of those past victories and say, I just want to remind you that the Lord

did it then, and He'll do it again. I'm not going to let you rule and reign. No, no, you're not going to come in with fear and your assaults, but I'm going to drive you out with the faithfulness of God. I'm going to tell you all my life He has been faithful. All of my life since He called me, He's been my provider, and I'm not going to fear now. Hallelujah. Oh, somebody who's got something from the past, you can hold up and say, devil, that's what you said last time. Look what the Lord has done. He fought my battle. You know, some of you have been sitting on your hands the whole service, but you wouldn't be here if God hadn't fought your battle. You have to hang it up and say, devil, you're a liar. The last time you tried to destroy me didn't work, and here's another one. You know what they said? They said, if you want to get rid of the vultures, you know what you need to do? This is the exact word they used, pyrotechnics. Get you some fire. That's what I want. I want a blowtorch. So if I see them up there on a Sunday morning telling me that nobody's going to get saved and it's going to be a dead, dry service at Free Chapel, I just want to have so much fire. Jesus said, I'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. That when I get up here and I sing and we sing and the praise team sings and we got, we need fire in our worship. We need fire in our preaching. We need fire in our relationship. We need a passionate, fiery relationship with Jesus. That's what the devil fears.

He took notice. them they had been with the Lord the Bible said that suddenly thick darkness came after he drove them away and a flaming torch started you it's like the invisible man was carrying it it was God and he walked between the sacrifices and all you could see was a flame of fire driving away the vultures of death and doubt and discouragement and God said this is it you will have a son his name will be Isaac and he'll have a son named Jacob and Jacob's name will be changed to Israel and I will do a work and I will save the world and it came because you knew what to do while you were waiting you drove away those vultures the last thing they said on the Internet that will get rid of those vultures is noise that's called praise that's called thank you Jesus and I don't know who I'm preaching to today but I know one thing that I am directed to do I am directed to tell every father every man in this house that you need to drive away the buzzards that are telling you to leave that home or leave that family or give up on that son or give up on that daughter and you need to say to every mother I say to every mother in this room today that don't you ever give up on your babies because you have great power to drive away that don't give those buzzards a place to perch get on fire this morning make some noise this morning be filled with the Holy Spirit he never comes with discouragement he never comes with unbelief and doubt he is the spirit of truth and he wants to fill us with faith for our families if your marriage is in trouble don't you let those buzzards set up of divorce run them off say Satan you're a liar the cost greater is he that's in us so if you're here today and you feel like the first battle in the Bible was for a man's family that ought to be first in your life my family if you'd say pastor I need God to do something in my family today I want that fire I want to be stirred up I want to drive the buzzards of death away in Jesus name if that's you I want you to get out of your seat come and stand in proxy for your family maybe a son maybe a daughter maybe a husband maybe a wife maybe someone that you love but they're on your heart and

even while I'm preaching you've thought about them over and over and over so come and come as families come as husbands and wives come as brothers and sisters come maybe there's just terrible division and all the things Satan thrives in and loves let's just drive those buzzards away drive them away with the praise don't come and be silent but come and lift up your hands and say God here's my family and here I am and I I need one of those Abraham blessings I've seen you move and I believe you drive that buzzer drive that buzzer off of your house off of your family off of your child Oh this is my let God restore your confidence he's still gonna do it your confidence that's a big word this morning a revival of confidence In God, not in you, in His promise. Every head bound, every eye closed, if you know God sent you here this morning and you're running from God, you don't know Him as your Lord and Savior, you don't know if the rapture took place or you died and went into eternity, that your name is written in the book of life, you can know that. You can know it without a doubt. You can be forgiven and cleansed. And I just defy the buzzards off of your life that say you have to be held hostage by the sin and the shame of yesterday. Jesus wants to pull you up and pull you out and give you life and give it to you more abundantly.

Pastor, pray for me, I need to get right with God. I want to know that I'm right with God this morning. If that's you, boldly lift your hand as high as you can right where you're standing. Wonderful, wonderful. Raise it high and unashamed. This is a powerful moment. At every campus, wherever you are, this is that moment. Now, if you see someone with their hand raised, just keep it up. Reach over and lay your hand on their shoulder just as an act of support and say, I'm standing with you right now. Everybody in the room, pray this prayer. Everybody. Words matter. Words are how you get, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you shall be saved. So pray these words. Say, Jesus, Savior, cleanse me. Wash me. Thank you for the blood that you shed. It cleanses me. And I come by your grace and receive the gift of salvation. I am forgiven. You love me and you have cleansed me of all unrighteousness.

I stand here today. I believe the promise that you are Lord, that you died and you rose from the dead and you're coming back again. And I'm going to be ready. Write my name in the book of life and I receive you as my Savior in Jesus' name. Oh, rejoice. Heaven just took a praise break. The angels just took a praise break.