Why God Allows Suffering (Most Churches Won't Say This!)
In this message by Richard Lorenzo Jr., suffering is presented as a tool God uses for transformation, not just something to remove. Trials reveal the true condition of our hearts and strip away self-reliance, drawing us into deeper dependence on God. Not all suffering is from the enemy—some is allowed by God to refine, mature, and prepare us. Looking at Jesus Christ, we see that suffering can have divine purpose and lead to greater glory. Ultimately, God does not waste pain—He uses it to produce holiness, authority, and intimacy with Him.
Come on, let's stand up. Let's stand up and let's just, let's just focus our heart real quick on Jesus. All this, this, uh, this entire evening, we've been focused on our heart on Jesus and worship. Lord, we're just here tonight to just, to just experience you Lord. You're here tonight and you've made that evident Lord through experience and father, we ask that the light of revelation, that your light would change us father, that it wouldn't just be information, but revelation that takes us to new levels of faith and glory Lord. May this word change us father, transform us, metamorphose the word, may it transform us Lord, change us internally Lord in Jesus name and the church says together, amen. Come on, let's get into this. We love you Jesus. We love you father. We love you so much Lord. Thank you for being here God. Thank you that you're here God. Thank you dad. Hallelujah. Come on, let's get into this message. Take out your, um, your pen, your paper, your notepad, your phone, whatever you're going to be taking notes with. We're going to get really, really, um, deep tonight. It's going to bless a lot of you. Amen. You guys see the new garbage can Jesus is Lord. They brought their books and burned them. Right? Acts 19, 19. No other gods, no other gods. So this is going to be the trash can that we throw idols in. Hallelujah.
As many as we can for all the first timers here, anybody watching online, what's been happening is God has been bringing a lot of, uh, people here to get delivered, saved and give up all this witchcraft and all the idols. And it's beautiful, man. We see vapes here that are lined up one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Yeah. you're dealing with addiction to vape, marijuana, cocaine, cigarettes, any type of drugs. You can bring it here if you want to give it up and we'll discard of it. We can't burn it like we would love to, because if we do that, it'll be, um, you know, not abiding by the governing laws of the land. And um, so, but we will discard of it and we have this beautiful trash can where we're going to throw all the, the, the idolatry, the addictions, everything in here. And you can come to this altar, repent and give this stuff up. If you're in witchcraft, whatever it is, Santeria, brouhaha, new age, a cold yoga, Reiki. I don't know. There's so many out there. It's all, it's all the same stuff. Nothing news under the sun. It's the worship of demons. And if you want to give up that worship of demons, Islam is the worship of a demonic spirit Buddhism, worship of a demonic spirit, Jehovah's witnesses, Mormons, all these things is the worship of, of a different Jesus than the Jesus of the Bible. And if you want to give those things up, those, those false textbooks and all these things, and you want to bring it here and throw it away, this is the perfect place. Cause not only will you be able to discard of it, you'll get prayer for deliverance, for healing. You'll leave set free. We do baptisms every service where you can get dunked in that water, die to yourself, rise a new creation, right? Beautiful.
Get filled with the Holy spirit. This is the house of God. And it's a house of prayer where you can receive everything you need, all your breakthrough. I feel like a spokesman for, for Jesus. So like an ESPN commentator for the kingdom of God, Hey, you come here, give up all your stuff and get filled with Jesus, man, for real. So let's, let's go over these things. So who brought the witchcraft to the front people, persons, one, only one person. Come up here, come up here. We're going to interview you. If you gave up the witchcraft, come up here. All right. How you doing? What's your name? Sierra. Rich. Nice to meet you. Hello. Nice to meet you. So that's yours. This stuff over here. Okay. This stuff. All right. So we got some, some cards over here. This is tarot cards. Yes. All right. It says like, I am the creator. I am intelligent.
All these are like manifestations and stuff like that. So talk about it. Like when did you get that deck of cards? Um, well, I didn't get it. My mom actually got it. And you know, it's been in the house. She kind of gave it to me. So I just thought it was best to bring it here. Um, inside the containers, actually some Santa Ria stuff. Okay. Which container? This, this one? Uh, this plastic one over here. Okay. Let's, let's open it up. So the Bible says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but expose them. Amen. And this is darkness. And this, by the way, I saw someone asked this on one of the videos, Florida water, right? Is the Florida water demonic? No, it's Cologne from New York. It's Cologne. What they do in witchcraft is they use this on the floor to light it up and do rituals. And you'll see that you'll see that it'll look like, Whoa, they're, they got fire on their body. That looks crazy. They just got Florida water and they're, they're lighting it up on fire and it's, it's, it's more safe, I guess.
But it's using this for witchcraft. That's demonic, right? Same thing. Look, sage is, is, is sage chicken demonic. No, if you wanna use it for flavor, go ahead and use it. But when you use this, as you can see, is this yours? It was yours, you used to burn it for protection. So I used to do the same thing. I would burn it in my house and think, all the negative energy and negative spirits are gonna, right? And then it never really went away. It would actually increase because what you're doing is creating a demonic atmosphere with idolatry. And you didn't know, just like I didn't know until God revealed and took the blinders off of our eyes. So amen, that's demonic. And then as you guys can see, and here we got a bunch of Santeria. These are, this is, which God is this? Or which false God? I think it's like Ilegua. Ilegua, yup. These are all like, are these like from the ocean and stuff like that? All from the lake. All from the lake. So did you have them in the lake or you got them from the lake? A little bit of both.
A little bit of both. Yeah, there's literally, as you guys can see, I'm not gonna take it all out. There's rocks in here. There's all types of idols, holding up a snake and fish. And this is all idolatry. This is all the worship again of demons. And God's power is far more powerful than every other power, right? I'm gonna say this too. Hallelujah, we give God praise. Is there alcohol too? Yeah, but that's for them. Yeah, that's good. Now tell me about that. Cause people don't know about that. So I asked her if this was her alcohol, the Amsterdam vodka, right? And she said, yes, but it was for them. So talk about that. What did you use that for? So I got, I'm only 18. And I got kind of into that at 13. So I was very young. So I'm not able to tell you too, too much. Cause I don't even want to even learn about it no more. But for what I do know is that we would have to like almost feed them and you would feed them whatever they'd ask for,
whether that was sacrificing of animals or if it was like alcohol. And you would sometimes have to pour the alcohol by the altar or even drink it, right? Some people would drink it. I experienced the same thing. And it's wine and spirits. If you go to a store, right? It's no coincidence. These are spirits, like not the alcohol, but the spirit that can enter you through the demonic atmosphere in your temple. When you drink these things that kill your body. Drunkenness, right? Which goes against the word of God. Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And what does Satan want? Us to be drunkards. When we work iniquity, we give Satan power. When we are slaves of righteousness, we give glory to the king, right? So Satan wants us to do the opposite of what God wants us to do. You not knowing being taught at 13, you thought it was maybe tradition, whatever. And now God's taken the blinders off of your eyes. And that's amazing that you brought this to the altar. So I just wanna say that these demons have no power over you. Because I remember when I came out of witchcraft,
I was going through a lot of attacks. And one of the main attacks was that they're gonna come back or they have influence over us. And especially if it's generational, oh, they're gonna come back. And no, they've lost. Like they lost when Jesus died on the cross, right? It's the truth, it's the truth, right? And now what it is, is not only a testimony, but it's gonna make you stronger. And if you do go through spiritual warfare, which you will, regardless if you came out of witchcraft or if you didn't, spiritual warfare is actually healthy for a Christian. And that's what makes us stronger. It's a sanctification process where God uses these lies, right? He's not a liar, the devil's a liar, but he allows it to happen to strengthen us in truth. Because when the devil comes with lies, God brings the truth so that we can really know this is really a lie, lie. Like I really believe this is a lie so we can have that strength, that scar tissue, right? To go and actually help other people get out of the same situation. So is there anything else you wanna say about it or? Ever since I really truly got convicted and gave my life to the Lord,
there's been actually atheists and everything who just start conversations about God. It's like they're attracted to me. And it's like, the more I'm in my word, the more knowledge I'm able to help them out. And I think it's beautiful. Come on, you're an evangelist. That's it, that's the anointing. If you lift up the name of the Lord, he'll draw all men onto you. So you're lifting up his name in your heart. You're getting in the word, you're probably preaching the gospel. All these things that he's gonna draw people to you because he can trust you. And your testimony is gonna continue to break chains, the gospel, and man, you're gonna be surprised what God does in a few years, all right? So, Santeria, all that stuff, everyone say, the devil loses again. The devil loses again. Thank you, God bless you. All right. Hey, so that's yours right here? The bowl or the pot? This is mine. Oh, the Santeria book, okay, that's yours. Okay, and there it goes. I love this, that we can expose this because you see this a lot.
So this was her stuff. So you were in Santeria. You guys see all these beads? So this is a good evangelism lesson. When you see these beads around people's necks, look, make sure the camera gets it. When you see all these different colored beads around people's necks, blue, red, all this stuff, it usually means that they're in witchcraft and what they think is. That it protects them that them by them wearing this that their spirit guide which is a demon Protects them when really it's an altar in the spirit realm through idolatry that allows the demonic spirit to oppress them And you'll see the same color beads and gangs It's the same color because it's the same spirits It's witchcraft. So you were in this How many years were you in santeria? um I want to say Like seven years. Okay, bring it up. Say seven years seven years in witchcraft and santeria. What got you into santeria? Um, my ex-husband he was trying to save our marriage And he was doing anything and everything But he forgot one thing the most important thing was jesus jesus. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow Wow That's unfortunate Yeah, you'll see in santeria. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. This is also palo palo mayambe or this this right here, right? Yes So what so when for this stick, what would they do with this stick or what would you use this stick for? Um, it was used to like ward off spirits because I was being attacked Like left and right because when you bring that into your life, you will always have that in your life
Yep, and if one comes off Seven comes more it keeps coming. It just keeps coming So it's like they make you think that you're actually warding off spirits, but really you're inviting them Yes, and you're opening more doors and more doors. Come on. Let's go. Come on. Amen So how long you been saved? Um, I got baptized february 22nd this year. Let's go. Come on Good Yeah, a bunch of witchcraft guys a bunch of witchcraft bunch of Santeria coconuts and and shells seashells and coconuts are not demonic It's when you use them to to think that they protect you or whatever it is. That's when it becomes demonic, right? Yes, so now that you've been saved, where'd you get baptized? Uh kingdom culture kingdom culture. Cool. Yes, praise god. And ever since you've been baptized, how have you felt? Free free. Amen And and you felt comfortable to bring this here, right? Yes, because you know, we're gonna get rid of that thing. Yes, and um It was a third person who came to me And my holy spirit spoke to me and said I need you to come here. Wow so All to his glory. Amen I'm here. Come on Come on now she has a powerful testimony. You're gonna bring a lot of people out of this You're gonna be operating in a lot of deliverance ministry woman of god, so god bless you. Thank you for testifying Praise god man who gave up the vapes so she could just raise your hand if you gave up a vape Oh, come on. We got another vape. Come on. Let's go Let's go. Come on expose the enemy man. You don't need it. You don't need it All you need is jesus. Come on who else gave up a vape raise your hand Where y'all at right there right there? Come on. Hey stand up if you gave up a vape and testify just say Just let everybody know It's a moment to to rejoice man to celebrate so, yeah
How about this? Let's let's get rid of it. Let me get somebody. Where's the pastor. Come on me out, man We're gonna we're gonna openly embarrass the enemy some more All right, you ready you can hold that open. This is our first time using the trash can the anointed trash can All right. Yeah, we're gonna get rid of all this in the name of jesus hallelujah Yeah We don't need it we don't need beads we don't need seashells and coconuts We don't need We don't need that and that and that and that We're gonna get rid of all that. Go ahead. You can go ahead. Toss that thing out and this I guess we got to cut it up this this stick And and burn it so amen Jesus is lord. No other gods. Hallelujah. Thank you, bro And then we can get all that out of here. We can get all that out of here. Someone help pastor benji out Tomorrow help pastor benji out get the stick out too All right, hallelujah man god is so good All right Let's get straight into this message Um, I believe a lot of you are going to be equipped. I believe this is a message that a lot of you have never heard before It's gonna really uh, it's gonna help empower you strengthen you. Amen Again, I want you to take notes It's not a popular message, but it's a necessary message. You don't hear it preached too much Because again, it's not popular. Amen But it is necessary. This message is extremely necessary because it is part of our walk in christ so First I want to say this the only way that god's people can go can can grow Is through sound exegesis of doctrine you cannot mature And motivation alone. Is this powerful when we see witchcraft?
brought to the front, people delivered, all that's motivational, amen, but you have to grow by the word of God shining light on your heart that transforms you. Revelation, not information, amen. Exposure without encounter produces information, so you can be exposed to truth, but if you don't encounter the truth in your heart, you will not transform. But encounter with the living God through his word produces transformation. Everyone say transformation. When you transform, you change, and in this walk in Christ, you are supposed to be transforming from faith to faith and glory to glory, all right? We're going to start off first in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18. We're going to get straight into the word, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. So the word transformed is the word metamorpho. It means to change into another form, a complete inward renovation, and this is where we get the English word metamorphosis. It's not a behavioral modification. Again, transformation by God's word is not a behavioral modification. It's not you being a better person. Catch this. The word of God is not for you to become a better person. It's not behavior modification. It's for you to be transformed, amen, which naturally will produce you being a better person, and the vehicle that often carries you from glory to glory is not comfort but suffering. Amen. The vehicle that takes you from faith to faith and glory to glory through transformation is not comfort but suffering. Hallelujah. God does not waste a single tear. Every season of pressure is leveling up in the spirit to the next dimension of glory. How many are right now been suffering? That means you're going to new levels of glory and faith. Suffering is a prerequisite for more glory and more faith. A Christian who doesn't suffer is not really walking this walk out in Christ. That's why, you know, in America, we've seen a false gospel that's been preached to be comfortable for everything to go perfectly, and by it being perfect and you being super comfortable, God is with you. But if that doesn't happen and everything is not going well, it means that something is wrong with you. People have been taught that they need to be comfortable and feel good in Christ in order for you to be a Christian, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit gives you comfort through uncomfortable situations, that the Holy Spirit gives you peace through suffering, that the Lord gives you joy when you shouldn't have it. That's when God's power rests on you, which is proof that God is God in your life. Amen. I want to break down Psalm 23. Amen. How many of you have memorized Psalm 23?
Okay, good. We're going to break this down. I want to talk about it because I feel like a lot of you will catch more revelation of what Psalm 23 actually means. So David did not write this Psalm from a place of theory. He wrote from the trenches of lived experience. When you read the book of Psalms, it's a book of David's experiences with the Lord. It's David going through suffering and experiencing God in the suffering that took him to new levels of faith and glory. Amen. He faced grief, betrayal, wilderness seasons, people trying to kill him for no reason, being accused for no reason, and this is where we get the book of Psalms. Experience with God through unfavorable situations of suffering. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. All right. Again, it's not a popular message, but you need this to make it on this wall because it will happen if you're following Jesus. Psalm 23 verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. And look at this. And he restores my soul. Something restored means it was lost. Look at this. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. If he's leading you in the path of righteousness, that means there's other paths that you could be led on. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. As a Christian, will you walk through the valley of the shadow of death? That's a prerequisite for a Christian. You will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. through the valley of the shadow of death but what david says here is that because god is with him he fears no evil for you are with me through that valley your rod and your staff they comfort me through that valley you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies what does presence mean in the hebrew it's the word nekesh that means face to face so you prepare a table for me to eat face to face with my enemy so when the enemy's attacking you when you're going through unfavorable situations when you're going through suffering face to face with darkness the lord will prepare a table for you so that you can eat in his presence in his word when the enemy's face to face with you so does god keep you away from the enemy or does he bring you face to face with the enemy to prove his power come on are we going to be taken away from the enemy or brought face to face in battle going through trials and tribulations but eating through these sufferings hallelujah look at this you anoint my head with oil my cup runs over the oil of gladness surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever was david talking about a physical house
was david talking about the tabernacle or the temple david here was speaking of a different type of tabernacle the tabernacle of god's presence the tabernacle of god's glory that through trials and tribulations in the cave of adulam through through saul trying to kill him multiple times david still face to face with his enemy was given oil on his head to have gladness and revelation revelation and strength and courage to even go to saul and and rip his garment or take his spear or even in mistakes when he partnered with the wrong philistine nation the same the same very nation that goliath was from that he slayed when he went because of fear of saul went and actually began to fight with this philistine nation god still was with him and even afterwards when he left that the philistine nation by the grace of god and they captured the woman and the wives the wives and the children of him and his brethren when his own brethren wanted to kill him it says he was strengthened by the lord in those times the tabernacle of god's presence and glory was his his dwelling place his shelter that no matter where he went because he knew the lord was with him that revelation of face to face with god no matter what situation popped up even when it made no sense david however had a different type of protection a different type of revelation a different type of atmosphere and experience psalm 23 is a whole breakdown of that so as christians we're going to go through unfavorable situations we're going to go through times of suffering when things are happening in our life where it looks like the devil's winning but that's god allowing these things to happen face to face with the enemy so that his power can rest on you so that others can see that god is with you because if the only way people see that god is with you is your life looking perfect people will see you as god but when people see you going through unfavorable situations of suffering but still maintaining the the oil of of gladness that joy still fighting the good fight of faith not giving up even though you're going through this and this and this but you still begin to praise still continue to praise god and still serve serve him and seek him and go even harder for the lord it shows that god is real hallelujah some of you again have been suffering you've been going through so much trials and tribulations so many and you feel like man why aren't things being answered why isn't god taking this away from me it's because god is strengthening you he's preparing you for greater glory look at this i want to go back to verse three where he says he restores my soul that word restores in the hebrew is the word shub it means to turn back to return to bring to the original condition look at this it carries the image of something again that was lost broken or depleted being brought back to its original design
and fullness so when your soul is broken when you feel like you've been lost when you feel like god is not there and you and you get before his face in prayer or you get in the word or you get in his presence and worship he restores your soul to be strengthened Like nothing ever happened and that is only by the power and the strength of God there's no other way to do this we cannot do this in our own might and strength hallelujah look at notice what David does not say he does not say God prevents tribulation he does not say God removes the valley he says God restores his soul in the midst of it and through it the valley of the shadow of death is not a detour off the path of righteousness it is it is actually on the path David walks through it not around it so restoration does not mean the absence of the valley it means the presence of the Shepherd in the valley hallelujah hallelujah Jehovah rah and look at what follows the valley a prepared table an anointing an overflowing cup and goodness and mercy that actually pursues you the feast is always on the other side of the fight hallelujah now here's the revelation that changes everything a man can be revived so that he can revive others I'm gonna say it again a man can be revived by God so that he can revive others when God is with you through the valleys he's not just looking at you he's looking at the people who are gonna be revived by you the people who are gonna be strengthened by what you've been through and overcame by the grace of God 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us look at this in all our tribulation everyone say all that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God hallelujah come on so through your tribulation God comforting and strengthen you and some of you your tribulation has not just been two or three months it's been years wondering why your son or your daughter's not saved a chronic illness and seeing others being healed in front of you but you still are dealing with it a significant other a spouse who for 10 15 years has not given their life to Christ and you've been suffering through the valley but God's been with you think
about the people that God has brought in front of you for you to strengthen because of what you've been through to these tribulations think about the people who have been encouraged and even came out their tribulation while you're still going through it God knows that you'll go through this valley and that you'll depend on him and what's coming on the other end is greater glory stay in the fire stay in the suffering and rejoice because what's being produced is greater than any blessing that you can receive from the world the world says that success means money success means fame success means status success is when everything looks perfect that's why social media is so deceiving people paint the perfect picture when really they're going through the to the worst of the worst things but they can't let people know but in Christ we are called to boast in our weaknesses we are called to boast in our infirmities we are called to boast through our sufferings that the power of God can rest upon us and so that others can be strengthened just because you're going through something doesn't mean you're wrong or that you're in sin or that you're this terrible Christian no that's a matter of fact it means that you're saved and that you're alive in Christ that you're going through what Jesus went through when we look at the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John when we look at the Gospels and we see the eyewitness testimonies of Jesus Christ when he walked this earth we don't see Jesus having a perfect life we see Jesus going through persecutions sufferings betrayals abandonments rejection demonic attacks times where he was weary and needed to be strengthened times where he even wanted to give up but said let your will be done father the fullness of God bodily God himself in a body showed us the pattern he was the beaten he was he was mocked and flogged and he was he was scorched he went through suffering to show us that if we follow him we will go through the same things but we will also experience the same glory so this prosperity Gospel that everything not just money because we think prosperity gospel we think money No, the gospel that says everything's gonna be perfect. And if it's not perfect, it's your fault It's a false gospel
The Bible talks about sufferings all throughout the New Testament even the old and that suffering produces something That perfection can't produce that a perfect life can't produce Suffering produces oil being pressed produces anointing Look at this Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ The father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation I'm gonna say it again that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with the comfort with The comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God There's a comfort that will come upon you through suffering that God will use to comfort others as well It's what you've experienced the revelation that you've experienced through suffering that other people will begin It will be able to experience without having to go through everything you went through How amazing is that Look at this comfort in the in the in the Greek, it's a it's a calling alongside. It's encouragement. It's Consolation its exhortation. It is the same root as pericles the name Jesus gave the Holy Spirit the one called alongside to help When God comforts you he is literally calling himself alongside your pain When God comforts you he's calling himself alongside your pain and suffering Everyone say thank you God for always being there So God comforts us in all our tribulation not so we can simply feel better But so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble and the word that is a is a purpose clause Your suffering has a divine assignment Your suffering has a divine assignment Embedded inside it there are things that God allows a man to go through and while it is it is happening He is looking beyond that man to those who will benefit from his experience like I said earlier David said in Psalm 23 that he restores my soul not that he doesn't allow tribulation But again that through the tribulation which David regularly endured he restores the soul your restoration Is not just for you again, it is the arsenal for someone else's battle your experience will comfort others to keep ongoing Your suffering is never in vain, and it's never only for you The testimony of your endurance becomes the theology of someone else's survival
Our suffering is never in vain. It is and it's not only for us It's it is a seed sown into someone else's harvest hallelujah Let's talk about the promise of tribulation look at this Jesus did not leave us guessing. He told us plainly what to expect in this world John chapter 16 verse 33 I Love this Is the Lord speaking he says these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace In the world you will have tribulation me read this again These things I have spoken to you that in me in Christ You may have peace in the world Which we're in you will everyone say will Have tribulation, but look what he says I love this, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world Come on Jesus Christ overcame the world so that in him we will have peace That even through through tribulation in the world in him We could be of good cheer because he overcame the world and there's nothing that you can go through in this world That he hasn't went through he's overcame everything So because he's overcome the world there's nothing the world can throw at you that will dismantle what God what you have in him Just think about this You go through a death of a someone close to you is it is it unfortunate does it suck where you suffer yes? But in him you can have peace You go through a sickness where you've repented where you've forgiven where you've been to a bunch of altars to be prayed for and the Sickness is not gone, and you have asked God what's going on and you and you believe in the word But the healing hasn't come yet the Bible says that in him you can have peace because he's already overcame that sickness hallelujah I want to talk about this because decades ago, there's a powerful movement called the word of faith healing movement. I believe in the word of God and I believe that we should have faith in the word and I believe in miracle healing. We've seen it here at the rock, but there's also a false healing gospel that was preached
that if you did not get healed, you didn't have faith that you not being healed was because of you. And that's a false gospel. Can Jesus heal? Yes, he can. Does healing come sometimes through forgiveness or repentance? Of course. But we see in the scriptures that even a man who was sick was healed so that God's glory could be manifest in front of everybody. He wasn't even sick because of sin. He was sick so that God's glory could be brought to earth. And people were discouraged and people were let down and people thought that the reason they weren't healed was because they weren't, they didn't have enough faith in all these things. No. The suffering through anything we go through produces oil and not every time is our thing is going to be a miracle. Not every time is there going to be an instant healing or instant breakthrough with your finances or instant breakthrough with your marriage or instant breakthrough with your children. Sometimes these things are going to take time and through that time, God is going to produce something in you that will help many people. And the problem is that people don't go through the suffering. They grow weary and they walk away and they get discouraged. And the very thing that was supposed to be a victory to encourage and strengthen others becomes discouragement. This is why we need the word of God because through the scriptures, we see that Jesus says we will go through suffering. We will go through tribulation and not every situation looks the same. God can heal you miraculously.
God can heal you through a doctor or God can heal you in heaven, but God is still a healer. Amen. I've been learning so much of this myself. I came to Christ. I want to give you guys a testimony. How many are ready for a testimony? And I'm going to be transparent. This was so hard for me, so hard for me for years and the Lord broke me out of this recently and really just revealed so much and gave me so much strength. When I first got saved, I was for nine years before getting saved, let me backtrack, I had an incurable disease. I had a hiatal hernia that was, they said was generational. There's nothing you could do about it, that I would have acid reflux, bad acid reflux for the rest of my life, that I would have to take protein pump inhibitors, which caused dementia and all these things. And I was nine years trying to get any type of healing through naturopathic medicines, through alkaline water, all these things that would suppress the symptoms, but never, it would never go away. If I drank coffee, if I drank anything acidic, it's coming up. It was terrible. I suffered. I come to Christ, three months later, go on my first three-day fast and get miraculously healed. And I had no faith, no belief, just enough to go into that prayer closet and be obedient to what the Lord said when he said, go in there and pray against that spirit of infirmity. And it came out of me and I coughed it up and I remember not even believing then. And then a few weeks later, realizing I haven't taken another pill. This is someone who went through three endoscopies in the military where doctors said there's no cure and I'm miraculously healed by the Lord Jesus Christ with no faith. Hallelujah, Jesus, you're a miracle worker.
And I'm on fire and I'm casting out devils and I'm healing the sick and I'm winning souls and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a zealous and a year goes by and I start realizing I'm getting very fatigued, very tired, uncontrollably tired. Then I start realizing I'm, I'm, I'm using the restroom, peeing too much. What's going on? There's something wrong with me. And I'm telling my wife, I don't know what it is. I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep praying. I'm going to keep fasting and I'm doing all these things. And so one day I remember I came back from California, we were out there preaching the gospel. I came back and my wife's like, you need to go to the hospital. And I go to the hospital and they check my blood and my sugar level was over 500. And I remember being in that hospital like, what? I don't believe this. This is not true. Yeah, you have, you, you, you might be a type one diabetic. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not a type one diabetic. This can't be. God healed me already. I've seen healings. There's no way. And I remember I told the doctor, I'm not coming in agreement. And I remember walking out of that hospital. I remember walking home, declaring, God, thank you that you've healed me with all the faith in the world, not believing in this thing. And when you go through diabetes, you have what's called a honeymoon phase for about
a year. And I'm fighting this thing. And I remember I'm going to cut out carbs. I'm going to be healthy. I'm praying and I'm crying. i'm on my face and i'm and the levels are going up and down and up and down and i'm gonna tell you something i had an encounter with the spirit of death i was in my house i was sleeping and i remember i encountered this demonic spirit i remember in the physical getting out of my sleep and seeing this demon and rebuking it and i remember jesus came down and the thing left and i remember crying wondering why did i just encounter the spirit of death and i remember initially i thought this was the spirit of rejection this was and as i grew and i just just in prayer and speaking to more seasoned people in the lord they said that what you encountered was the spirit of death that black cloak that that feeling that you felt that was the spirit of death and i remember that season i started losing weight i went from 220 all the way down to 170 and if you see some of my old pictures i got skinny i got real skinny and i remember people asking me my mom and people i love people close to me are you okay and i remember i still was fighting in the field evangelizing still winning shows like declaring the word of god over my life and going home and weeping and crying saying god what is it i repent of this i repent of that is it this is it this is it this trying to make things right with people even if there was nothing wrong i would just go to this and good and there's a lot of great things that happen in this season don't get me wrong but it got to a point where i was again i was dying what i was going through could have killed me and i remember hearing the voice of the lord saying no you're gonna go and you're gonna get
insulin and i went to the doctor and i remember feeling defeated i remember feeling i had like i had no faith it's my fault what did i do wrong getting the insulin feeling so much better months go by i gained my weight back i'm feeling good and saying god what's going on and i started reading books on healing and i'm reading these books on healing increasing my faith and and god that he's a healer going to revivals seeing people getting healed of of incurable diseases miracle signs and wonders and i'm still taking insulin and i'm preaching wondering if my sugar's gonna drop low needing that talking to pastor joel pastor carlos pastor benji i need help make sure that my sugar doesn't go have this candy just in case and and 30 revivals when my sugar's dropping and i'm like and i would keep preaching and need to go to the back and drink a gatorade i'm talking about real life stuff that was happening the entire time sitting there wondering why i've seen people who said they were healed of diabetes and i'm and i prayed for them and in my in my heart saying god they're healed and i'm not what's going on and i remember the lord taking me through this season of understanding understanding what it means to boast in weaknesses to boast in infirmities and then guess what happens after that my wife gets diagnosed with breast cancer and i'm home thinking again in my prayer closet i'm diagnosed with type one my wife's now diagnosed with breast cancer what's going on lord do you want me to stop ministry do you want me to stop everything i'm doing am i in error am i wrong god i'll stop everything but then there's more fruit coming more souls being saved god continuing to
to manifest his glory and services and my wife's diagnosed with breast cancer wondering is it an issue with her what's going on and we go through the same cycle repentance forgiveness and again these things were beautiful and i i believe god but god worked on our heart and through these seasons we needed it to this very day where i'm still dealing with the same thing and my wife's still dealing with the same thing have we seen miracles yes have you guys seen healing miracles of this service we've seen miraculous things happen with us still dealing with these things and the lord was speaking to me all week and he says son all these things you're going through what has it produced what does it produce through you and your wife the faith that's increased the oil that's been that's been produced through crushings the souls that have been saved the people who have been delivered and healed what does this produce and do you trust in me do you trust in me that i'm still gonna come through like i've always told you i would and it's just i just feel like this week god just broke me he just broke something off of me i used to be scared to talk about this i used to be scared that if and if i said this i was giving glory to satan and people wouldn't be healed because they wouldn't believe in god i remember saying no i can't say this because the word says i'm healed even though there's a sickness i'm still gonna say i'm healed going through these stages of confusion but god and all these weaknesses and all these situations In these trials and tribulations, being there to strengthen me, being there to empower me to keep preaching the gospel. My wife going to the doctor and, and, and thank God, you know, thank God for doctors and thank God that God's revealed so much to us about just, just our health and our temples and man, you have no idea how we've changed through this tribulation and how it's blessed so many people.
And my wife on that last stage of this journey with a tumor reducing 70 to 80%, look at this, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a boasting what God has done through this, having two daughters with hormone driven breast cancer. When you have a daughter, the hormones go three times more than a boy. The doctors looked at her and said, you're not supposed to be alive. That through even my wife saying, no, I'm standing on the word. I'm not going to get surgery. Having two girls, even a miscarriage before the two girls where she should have been dead because her hormones are wet, having no fighter T-cells and all this bad blood work. God still worked through it and kept her alive, reduced the tumor 70, 80% man, I'm just being, I'm being real. And I'll never forget about a year ago, my wife going on a 20, a 20 day fast, we went to Puerto Rico for our honeymoon, I believe it was right. Mother's day, we went to Puerto Rico and I remember like we had a, again, an encounter with a demonic spirit that came into our apartment and we just started praying. And then my wife, every, she had a lot of pain, a lot of pain and she was crying. I'm talking about, it was just out of nowhere it hit and the Lord telling her you need to go on a 20 day water fast. My wife, I think before that only went like on a three day max. She was one of those that'd be like, I'm not going past three days. And she stayed faithful. And through that, that 20 day fast, God revealing so much to her and even her having an encounter with the spirit of death and overcoming that demon by the grace and the power of Jesus's name. And she could tell her testimony is powerful. We both went through the valley of the shadow of death for real. And people think that this just came out of nowhere, that we just got lucky, that it just came through social media, that it just came through videos. Y'all have no idea the type of valleys that me and my wife have been through over these last years of starting a ministry.
This is what comes with more glory, sufferings. And I'm not saying everyone's going to get sick. Not saying that. What I'm saying is that you will go through sufferings if you follow Jesus. You will go through situations where you don't understand why this is happening. And God is still a healer. He's Jehovah Rapha. And every morning my wife and I, when we pray together, we still declared that he has healed us by his stripes and that he's Jehovah Rapha. It doesn't stop. We still pray for the sick. They still get healed. But this is like Paul said, a thorn. This is something that we've been going through where we know God is still going to come through and he's still going to come through in his perfect timing as we wait on the Lord. But I feel like some of you here tonight, I feel like this is a message for some of you here in person and online. You've been going through a suffering and you've been wondering why it hasn't stopped. How many of you is that in here? May this encourage you, the strength that God has given me through these trials, encourage you to keep going. Encourage you to know that God is still good and still all powerful. Because through these seasons, and it's not just the sicknesses, we've been through persecutions, falsely accused many times, betrayals from people close to us. I mean, man, we've been through so many different things, but God kept us through it all. And the scriptures that I'm reading tonight have come alive in our life in such a way where we know that God is good and he's going to get us through it no matter what. It's a comfort. It's a literal knowing within our heart that even though as someone that's dealing with type one diabetes or breast cancer, that God is still a healer and will come through
in his perfect timing and we will glorify him and testify. But even though he's not healing us right now, doesn't mean he's not a healer. For some of you, even though your marriage has not been restored yet, it still doesn't mean he's not a restorer. Even though your children are not saved and other children are getting saved, doesn't mean he's not a savior. Are you guys Catching what I'm saying No matter what you go through he still is who he says he is And just think about this if Abraham for all these years waiting on a child Could wait and staying in faith and the child come at the right time Think about the strength That he acquired through that tribulation that gave him the ability to even sacrifice his son That gives us strength to keep on going and even give up idols when we have idols if it wasn't for Abraham's testimony Some of us would still have idols in our life But Abraham's testimony is a testimony that we can't keep any idol before God Like when we read the scriptures we see testimonies all throughout and it's easy to read and be like wow, that's powerful But think about the person who went through it all those years suffering think about David Confused for 12 years wondering how he's anointed as king almost being killed so many times You don't think he went through times where he thought I'm never gonna be king. This was all fake is God even real Just think about Paul The thorn in his side calling upon God three times nothing happening But then boasting in his infirmities because in his weakness his strength God's strength is made perfect Think about what kind of radical Christian he had to be to experience and think about it And he says that God gave him that thorn Because of all the revelations and experiences with God that he had so he wouldn't become prideful God Is all-knowing and sovereign and in our walk There's gonna be a time where we get many times where we get to places and roadblocks Where the only thing we can do is trust in God's sovereignty where nothing makes sense, and that's when his power could be manifest
That's when the test comes That's when the testing comes when nothing makes sense and all you can do is trust that God is who he says he is That's the walk of a Christian is to trust in God fully amen and Again, this is not a popular message because people want perfection as humans people want I want everything to be perfect, and it must be perfect and if it's not perfect Something's wrong with me, and maybe I can work my way into perfection But my brothers and sisters as you grow maturity where the compromises and all that starts to fade away And it's and it's it's it's it's Jesus I'm telling you that's when you're gonna your faith is gonna get put through a fire And you're gonna get those those those more mature tests where things to get real in the field And I was telling my wife. I say they think about all the things that we've experienced in Christ so early on that allowed us to have the faith to go through what we're going through now and How we've depended on God all the times of us crying Running to the secret place consecrating spending time with God Realizing that it was never about the sicknesses. It was always about Jesus and God he allowed these things to happen to draw us closer to him so that we wouldn't be taken away by the by anything else And I thank God for these sufferings. I boast in them because I've experienced God so much hallelujah How many y'all feel encouraged? They're going through amen good Good Satan's assignment is for you to interpret your experiences as evidence that God is unfaithful Satan's assignment is to for you to interpret your experiences as God not being faithful Do not give him that narrative It is very dangerous for a believer to walk through unfavorable seasons uninformed Because the outcome of that season could either discourage other believers or the victory could encourage other believers You are not just fighting for yourself your response to your trial is being watched by people who are waiting to see if God is real I Believe there are people in here tonight
Who again who have been crying who have been weary who feel like giving up? But this is a word for you to reinterpret what is happening in your life That heaven is not silent. God has not forgotten you the pressure you feel is not punishment It is preparation for something bigger And I'm gonna tell you something I want you to look at me I know that this is preparation for something bigger the things that me and my wife are going through. I know it Because even through sufferings and confusion God always will send a word through his Scripture through another man or woman of God through whatever it is to encourage us and keep us Right above the water to keep going To keep us right holding on to his garment To keep us connected to keep on going And I wouldn't take none of this back for anything. I Thank God for what he's allowed us to go through and that he's gotten us through it But have there been attacks of us of the devil trying to get us to give up. Yes Has it worked at all? No He Keeps on losing Witchcraft being brought up think about this be honest. When have you seen that at a church regularly happening? When have you seen souls getting saved at a church regularly? like this is the fruit of crushing of Crushing And I say this before the Lord himself If it takes these things to keep on happening in order for his glory to come to earth For heaven to be manifest through our lives. May it continue in Jesus name. Hallelujah. May it continue Look at this Proverbs chapter 24 verse 10 If you faint in the day of adversary your strength is small Adversary Here in the Hebrew it means distress trouble anguish it comes from the root Tazar which means look at this I want you to listen to bind
To be narrow to be in a tight place. So look at this Adversity is not a single event. It's a season of constriction of being hemmed in So there is going to be a day of adversary the goal of the believer is not to pray that day away I'm gonna say this again. The goal of the believer is not to pray the adversity away The goal is to have strength that when the day arrives We do not run from battle Adversity speaks of continual difficulty struggle Hardship persecutions on this walk in Christ No matter what you try to do or pray for you will encounter seasons of discomfort that you cannot control Where you need his strength not just knowledge Information will not carry you through the fire only the inner man Fortified by the Spirit of God will sustain you Ephesians chapter 3 verse 16 That he Jesus would grant you According to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man this is the Apostle prime Apostle Paul praying for the Church of Ephesus and This word strengthened in the Greek means to be made strong to be empowered to receive dominion level strength This is not natural resilience. It is supernatural Fortification from the Spirit of God deposited into the innermost part of your being That strength can't come from knowledge it only comes from God You're gonna go through Adversities where the only way you'll make it through is if you're strengthened by the Spirit of the Lord in your inner man And it comes through intimacy if it wasn't from our intimate relationship with God, we would not be standing here I would not be preaching today. I would not be here It's through intimacy being on my face and in my word and in worship daily that has kept me here today Where I'm not confused where I'm not going back to the things of the world where I continue to not just stand ten toes But keep walking through the valley of the shadow of death with a table prepared for me in the presence of my enemies face-to-face
being anointed with the oil of gladness Where I can rejoice and continue front lines for the kingdom of God It is only by the Spirit of God that strengthens me in that secret place This is encouragement for you children of God. You need to be connected to the vine if you're not you can't make it on this wall Because through adversity if you if you grow weary and you go away your strength is small That means your intimacy what God was lacking Strength only comes from the Lord And you're gonna go through seasons even though everything might be for some of you everything might be going Fine and dandy right now and well, there's gonna be seasons of adversity and you need to be strengthened by the Spirit of God in that secret place so when these things come your strength is not small and Even I always say this even through the fire you still bear fruit I say this I've been telling my wife this even through the trials. We still will bear fruit Even through the trials we still will glorify God Real praise is praising God when it makes no sense Real praise is when everything seems to be falling in your life and not going the way you thought it was supposed to go But you still can't shut up about how good he is Our praise and worship to God should not be circumstantial when things are going good Let me worship and praise but when things are not going good Let me cross my arms and just stand here and be and be mad at God Let me wait for somebody to come and ask me how I'm doing What kind of strength do you have? It's small You're lacking It's true that the Bible says through tribulation you're supposed to rejoice Now when everything is looking perfect How are you gonna get through that that that that ex-person you cut off new person in Christ You just came to Christ and you cut off that ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend and you fleed from fornication You will not be able to stay strengthened if you don't connect to the vine. I Seen it a million times on both sides. I Seen people with powerful testimonies of coming out of crazy darkness Who have been strengthened through intimacy with God who are still in the faith today, but I've also seen those who could have crazy
Testimonies because they don't connect to the vine because they're performance driven and they're in Christ for their benefit and they don't die to themselves When the adversities come because their strength is small they go back to the world They go back to the dope back to the ex Back to the rebellion back to the vapes back to the witchcraft Don't ever think that you can do it in your own strength. Don't ever think that you can outsmart the devil. I Seen music artists anointed on fire for God Go back to the world and fall back into compromise and even say I'm not a Christian anymore because their strength was small They made music for God But it was for them This is why I preach intimacy so much because without it you can't make it on this walking in dirt to the end And I've learned this through this these trials Again, it's not just that the diabetes or the cancer. We've been through much more things many more things We constantly go through seasons of adversity With all these things happening in this church. You don't think there's warfare You don't think there's warfare you think everything's fine, and then you know there's warfare Going frontlines in darkness. You don't think there's gonna be retaliation But the weapons of my warfare are not carnal They're mighty to God through God And I will boast in these weaknesses where God's strength can rest upon me where I I don't know what to do Where I I don't know what to do and I get in his presence and I get into prayer in his word And he strengthens me to come out with no worries With peace that makes no sense With joy that makes no sense Where I'm so dead to all the issues that I want to go win a soul Where I want to go preach the gospel Where I want to spend time with my wife and children and have a great time at the park Where I'm not tormented in my mind by Satan
Because even in the valley Jehovah my shepherd He covers me he protects me and As I play with my children and push them on the swing and have fun and laugh and all these things happen Satan watches me as I eat as I go to the field and souls get saved He watches me as I cast out devils and God's oil drips on my head And it can't stop me Everything that Satan does cannot stop me because of the strength that comes from God We boast in our infirmities no matter what we go through Without Jesus we can't make it we must connect to the vine This is to encourage you guys This is to encourage you That even in those valleys He's there man. I don't know what you're going through And I'm not trying to simplify your trial like it's nothing don't look at my trial and be like man He's when he's going through his worst. I'm just a failure No your trials the severity of your trials, you know in God knows it might be a relationship that you're not going to be able to get out of Where you you genuinely want that person so bad that it's literally tormenting you I don't downplay what you're going through But i'm here to tell you that through christ You can be strengthened and that thing can be ripped out of you and not only ripped out of you But you'll be stronger than you were before to help the youth Who god is touching in this end times the youth who need true? pure christianity holiness Where we come out the world for real or we're not scared to tell someone to stop fornicating Where that's not normal to be a christian and fornicate every now and then no to where we know Fornication we flee from it for real
But how are you going to help another young believer if you're still you're still doing the same things? We gotta disconnect from the world and connect to the vine amen Everyone say connect to jesus Look at this isaiah 40 28 Have you not known have you not heard look at this The everlasting god the lord the creator of the ends of the earth. Look at this. He never faints Nor is weary never everyone say never Even though we faint sometimes and we grow weary. He doesn't his understanding Is unsearchable He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might he increases strength Even look at this. I love this. How many of y'all are young in here and you feel great you feel strong Look at this even the youths Shall faint and be weary And the young men shall utterly fall but those look at this. This is us. Everyone say this is us But those who wait on the lord shall renew their strength They shall mount up with wings like eagles They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint Hallelujah The word in the hebrew for weight is the word kava it means to look eagerly for to hope But the root meaning is to bind together by twisting Like the strands of a rope those who wait on the lord are not passive They are intertwined with his strength the longer you wait or bind yourself to his strength the stronger the cord becomes God does not faint and does not grow weary He will renew your strength when you're exhausted when you're discouraged when your body fails and your mind Falters the promise is not that you will never be tired. The promise is that he will renew you in the weariness Even jesus grew weary Mark chapter 11 verses 12 to 14 speak speak of jesus being hungry
And he came to a fig tree Looking for fruit to eat and when he found nothing but leaves he cursed the fig tree The tree withered from the roots and this reveals something profound Exhaustion does not cancel. Look at this exhaustion does not cancel spiritual authority Jesus was physically depleted yet His words still carried the power to uproot barrenness at the source God is not impressed by leaves without fruit He is looking for faith that bears fruit and uproots barrenness at the root But it goes deeper look at this luke 22 42 In the garden, right? When jesus sweat blood look at what he said He said father if it is your will take this cup from me nevertheless, not my will but yours be done pain Pressed the sinless son of god so deeply That he voiced the weight of the cup before him. This is god in a body and so much pain that even he If he could wanted to get out of it He his sweat became drops of blood falling to the ground yet in the same breath Look at this. He revealed the greatest victory of obedience when he said nevertheless The highest form of faith is not the absence of wrestling with god it is the surrender that chooses his will after the struggle There will be times where you're like god, please heal me of the sickness You know how many times I pray god Heal me of the sickness, but nevertheless Let your will be done And your timing lord When the enemy would attack me with thoughts that my wife is going to die That i'll be left alone with my children And he would attack me right before I go to Preacher right before a revival or right before I go to evangelize and all I could do is say nevertheless
Let your will be done It's a surrender in my heart. That's so deep and so dependent on God It leaves no room for me to know what's gonna happen or for me to be like I understand. No, it's me saying I don't understand. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I trust that God nevertheless Let your will be done and you and Jesus name, right? And it's so beautiful again what God has been doing through all this with me and my wife The three Hebrew boys They were told to bow down They were put before that fire where they were supposed to burn alive Even them they said they weren't gonna bow down that God would get him out of there. But even if he didn't They weren't gonna bow down So that faith you're gonna get through this he'll get us through but even if he doesn't I'm not bowing down That's the heart posture of a Christian going through a trial I Believe you're gonna do this Lord. I believe that you will heal my wife and she'll be a powerful testimony That's your power will rest on and people will be saved around the world. I believe it father But even if you don't I will not go back to the world You see you see how real it gets you see how real it gets Some of you are looking at me like oh my god, yes, it gets that real And the Lord wanted me to testify about all this I've been keeping this in for a long time Not wanting to paint the full picture because I didn't want people. I thought God I don't want people to be discouraged I don't know what's gonna happen and I've had everybody and their mother come to me I'm praying and the Lord says it and I've had all these prophetic words But my wife still is not fully healed Where all I have is Jesus Nothing wrong with the prophetic word and thank you for all those who prayed But this is personal and even in the valley my wife and I still stand strong and We've seen God move in so many Mind-blowing miraculous ways that you wouldn't the testimonies that we've been Experienced to what we've been through it's
Increased our faith in ways that we couldn't have happened if we didn't go through it Intricate personal Kairos moments regularly happening Where we know I know that my wife's gonna make it through I know she is but again Even if she doesn't I will never go back to the world and bow down to Satan and And listen to this that's the life of a Christian because people think coming to Christ is everything's gonna be Candyland You want to fight for your faith you're gonna be put through trials where you don't know what to do What are you gonna do when adversity comes will your faith or your strength be weakened you go back to the world Because you didn't get what you wanted Because you prayed for something that didn't happen when you wanted it to happen So you go back to the world because you didn't get the breakthrough relationship you wanted Because the person you wanted to be saved didn't get said how about this you didn't get the raise or the financial breakthrough that you were coming for Your situation didn't change and your timing so now you go back to Satan's camp I Thought we come to Christ to die to our lives I thought we come to Christ to live for Jesus to be living sacrifices What happened to the gospel? It's Western Christianity that has been as turned this this is false gospel Which is that's bringing people to the to say to the synagogue of Satan Where it's be blessed and have everything you want yes, God blesses us, but blessings are experiencing him. It's not the worldly things man Knowing him and experiencing him is the best blessing you could have Through these trials how we've experienced God is something that it's you can't take it from us Whatever happens happens, but the one thing that Satan can't take from you is experience Okay, but you've experienced God he can't take that from you He could try to do whatever he wants He could try to do whatever he wants Accuse you petition against you look at Job Job thought I mean Satan thought that Job was gonna was gonna curse God Cuz he had everything
Did Job ever curse God and then we say we're going through Job seasons Are you really going through some people go through bro, not even a job season and they curse God God didn't give me the money. I wanted I curse him and I leave and I go to the world God didn't give me the Wife or the husband that I wanted in two or three months or a year So I'm going back to the world to get to get my husband and wife Like what are we in Christ for look if you're performance driven and you're in Christ for anything other than Christ You will you your heart will be exposed This is why we have to go to in the presence of God and get sanctified and get and get cleaned up because bro We have a lot of gook in our hearts All of us including me where we need to get cleaned, bro Sister you got to get in that presence and be real with God and say God This is what I'm feeling it. It ain't right and I need you to clean it out and you need to stay there You to pray those crazy prayers where you say God put me through whatever you got to put me through to get this out of my heart You gotta want God This is real Christianity the early church was willing to die about it They were they were thrown in lion's dens eating alive. They were put upside down on crosses. They were burned alive for not bowing down to Caesar The early church Christians went through real persecutions a A video being posted about you online with accusations is not persecution. The early church went through real persecution Family members being killed people right now in Iran that that because of Islam the things they went through the underground church people in Pakistan This is real persecution in Africa real persecution Their wives their husbands their children Being decapitated for the God because of the gospel because of Jesus would you still keep following God? But in America we think persecution is our family members saying Jesus isn't real come on We got to get tough in America in the spirit and it's not gonna happen through a false gospel The real gospel comes with suffering Where we're gonna go through things?
And because of his strength he will not grow weary. Amen. He will stay in his spirit man. Come on. Look at this 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7. I Love this one The Apostle Paul speaking unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations A thorn in the flesh was given to me a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I be exalted above measure Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me and He said to me Jesus said to him My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is Made perfect in weakness. This is what Paul says therefore most Gladly, I rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in needs in persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then I am strong Hallelujah everyone say amen So in the Greek the word thorn is the word scopolos It means a stake a sharp-pointed object driven into the flesh in ancient usage It could refer to to an M in play and a stake being driven into the flesh Paul's thorn was not a minor inconvenience. It was a piercing relentless affliction Designed to keep him dependent on God and that word in the Greek Buffett means to strike with the fist To beat repeatedly so this messenger of Satan was beating him repeatedly. This is the same word Used for the soldiers who struck Jesus in the face during his trial Paul's thorn was not a one-time event. It was a continual beating a relentless assault on His flesh, so let's break this apart first Paul received an abundance of revelations God had shown him things that no other man had seen he was caught up into the third heaven. He heard inexpressible words and because of the magnitude of what God had Deposited in him a thorn was given to him not to destroy him, but to keep him dependent The greater the revelation the greater the requirement for humility God will not entrust glory to a vessel that cannot remain low
Second Paul pleaded with the Lord three times three times The same the same number of times Jesus prayed in that garden before he went up on the cross This was not casual prayer. This was agonizing facedown desperate intercession and God's answer was not removal. His answer was my grace or my empowerment is sufficient for you Sufficient means in the Greek to be enough to ward off danger So God was telling Paul my grace is not just enough to endure it is enough to protect you to sustain you and to make you victorious and the very thing that's afflicting you and Then third God says my strength is made perfect and weakness Made perfect the word in the Greek it means to be complete to be brought to its intended end to reach full maturity It comes from the word the Greek word telos Which means the ultimate purpose the ultimate purpose for consummation God's power does not merely appear in weakness It reaches its full expression its highest potency its most complete Manifestation when it operates through a broken vessel. I Love this God's power does not merely appear in weakness. It reaches the full expression through a broken vessel It reaches the full expression through a broken Vessel so again, how many are suffering? Praise God God's power can be made manifest to your life if you depend on him through your suffering And this is why Paul shifts from pleading to boasting and says that he'll boast in his infirmities And that the power of Christ may rest upon him and that word for rest upon him in the Greek means to spread look at The word rest upon in the Greek is the word is the word Emma Emma snow Well, look at this is what it means to spread a tent over So when when it says that God's power would rest upon him is to spread a tent over to tabernacle upon to take up Residence. This is a direct Illusion look at this to the Shekinah glory the presence of God Look at this Look at this the presence of God that rested on the tabernacle in the wilderness Paul is saying when I am weakest the glory of Christ pitches its tent over me. My weakness becomes the dwelling place of his presence So good, bro
So through weaknesses and sufferings his glory becomes a tent over you Because you're broken independent The most powerful encounters with the Lord in the secret place Are the times where I'm the most broken the most contrite Where I don't know what's going on That's when I've experienced his Shekinah the most weighty But think about when you get in this in the presence of God or when you get into prayer and everything's going perfect. What happens? You're thanking God. Of course, you're loving on God, but you're ready to I'm ready for the day God. It's been amazing Everything's everything's going well, and there's no problem with that I have those days too where I'm in I'm in the presence of God. I'm in prayer I'm joyful and everything's going great and I just feel amazing and and I'm not I'm not in that broken state and God still meets Me there, but the most weighty encounters I've had with God is when I'm the most broken When things aren't going the way I thought they should go When I'm suffering the most is when I experienced the most glory and that's what the Apostle Paul's teaching us here Your thorn is not your tomb. It is the tent peg that anchors the glory of God over your life It's the tent peg. It's the tent peg. Your thorn is the tent peg that anchors the tent of glory over your life Everyone say dependence So Paul concludes with one of the most counterintuitive intuitive statements in all the scripture for when I'm weak then I am strong I I Love this because that word strong is the word do not toast which means powerful Mighty able from dunamis the explosive miracle working power of God so when Paul says I am strong He is not describing resilience. He's describing the invasion of supernatural Wonder-working power into his natural weakness. I'm gonna bring this home now So again some of you are in the valley right now, and the pressure is real The affliction is real though. The weariness is real and you've been asking God. Why won't you remove this? But tonight God is answering that my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is being perfected in this very thing. You're trying to escape David walked through the valley and came out anointed with a table prepared in a cup running over Paul carried a thorn and became the dwelling place of God's Shekinah glory Jesus sweat drops of blood in that garden and said nevertheless and three days later conquered death itself
You are not being destroyed You are being positioned for the greatest demonstration of God's power that your life has ever carried. So stop trying to escape the process. Stop interpreting your pain as God's absence. The shepherd is with you in the valley. The father of mercies is comforting you so that you can comfort others. The power of Christ is tabernacling over your weakness right now. And when you come out, and you will come out, your testimony will not be about how strong you were. It will be about how faithful he was. And that testimony will revive someone who is about to give up. A man can be revived so he can revive others, and that's the economy of the kingdom. And you were restored to revive. You were comforted to comfort. You were strengthened to strengthen. Nothing you have walked through is wasted, and every tear is a seed. Every trial is a corridor, and every nevertheless spoken in the dark becomes a shout of victory in the light. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Hallelujah. We give you praise, King Jesus,
that through these trials and tribulations, your strength will be made perfect, Lord. Your glory will tabernacle over us, Father, that we will rest in your presence, Lord, when it makes no sense. Hallelujah. I wanna give people a chance right now to respond to the gospel. The gospel is the good news message. And before I preach this gospel, I just wanna say this. I really want you to catch this for whoever's coming to this altar tonight. The gospel is not that your life will become better. It's that your life will actually die. If you give your life to Jesus tonight, you're literally signing your death certificate to die to yourself and be risen again, to be born again, to live for Christ. Some of you gave your life to Jesus not knowing what the gospel meant. Some of you, at one point, you did give your life to Christ, but because your strength was little, you went back to the world. And God is saying tonight he's gonna give you strength, a fresh baptism of his spirit, a fresh filling of the Holy Ghost, new strength, amen. And there will be miracle deliverances and healings tonight. And God will move, like he's been moving all night. But all these things, healings and deliverances and all these things,
they're amazing. But the greatest miracle is salvation. That's the greatest miracle. That's the whole point of God moving is because he wishes that none would perish because hell is very real. It's very real. Hell is not a figment of our imagination. It's not a maybe. It's not, oh, that's just in the book to make us scared. No, hell is a real place. It's not a dimension. It's a place that people are in right now and eternal for the rest of their time. For the rest of time, they'll be suffering and cast it into the lake of fire where God's presence is not there. They can't experience God. Where they're in, imagine this, 24-7 torment, where there's no love, where there's no talking, where there's no chilling. It's a real place that I know is very, very real. And it was never created for humans. It was never created for those that were made in his image and likeness. It was made by God for the fallen angels. But if you decide to follow the devil and his world and his plans, you will naturally walk right into hell yourself.
God doesn't send people to hell. They decide to go to hell themselves. God gives us so many chances and he tries to draw us. He tries to draw us and draw us and draw us. And it's very simple. Everyone say repentance, which is a gift, man. So many people theologically debate this. It's very simple. Repentance is changing internally in your soul, changing direction to follow God and naturally that will produce you changing from what you're following. When you repent, you're changing direction to follow Jesus. You either have people who are slaves of righteousness or slaves of sin. When you come to Christ, you're no longer a sinner. I mean, you no longer are practicing sin. And there's a lot of Christians, and I'm gonna say this because it's the truth, who claim to be Christians that practice sin. I go downtown Orlando all the time. And these are people who go to church on Sundays that that still on Saturdays and Fridays are in the clubs and they're getting drunk And they're getting high and they're fornicating thinking it's all good because they've never been preached the true gospel some of them aren't even saved and They've been lied to The true gospel is you turn around you follow Jesus He said I'm the way I'm the truth and I'm the life and no one comes to the father, but through me What does it mean to go through him? It means to follow his pattern and go through what he went through to pick up your cross daily and die to yourself To hate the things of the world to
love the things of God and when you do fall you care and you get back up and you repent and you turn to Jesus and You ask for him to strengthen you so that those things that you've been falling into don't keep happening. They're supposed to be growth You're either growing or you're either dying When have you ever seen a branch on a tree that wasn't either growing or dying? Branches are never just at a standstill They're either growing and producing fruit or they're cut off and they're dying It's the same thing in Christ. We're either growing because we're connected to the vine or we're dying because we're connected to the world There's no in-between there's no point in growing because we're connected to the world purgatory and salvation It's either we follow Jesus or we don't and some of you are here tonight and you have not been following the Lord You've been following the world. You've been following yourself. You've been followed whatever it is and you've even lost that conviction of sin You've lost the care and the desire to even repent and God is saying tonight is the day Where he wants to strengthen you he wants to help you his arms are wide open like the prodigal's father Where he's saying come home He will embrace you in his love But following Christ comes with a death certificate to the world and a marriage certificate to Christ and That's what baptism represents you go under that water you die to yourself You die to this world and you divorce Satan you rise a new creation clothed in his righteousness married to Christ and This life in Christ is worth everything You don't just come to Christ so we can make it to heaven even though that is that we do receive that We come to Christ because we get to experience God now We get to experience his goodness Where him him is enough Jesus is enough you ever heard that saying Jesus is actually more than enough When you're connected to Jesus he he makes your life worth living for in him To the point where you can go through all types of stuff and still keep serving him because you've experienced him that much Where people who have not experienced them will look at you like you're crazy
That is the life of someone who's following Christ That's why the early church went through what they went through and never bowed down to Caesar Never bowed down to bow never bowed down to the golden cap never bowed down to the world While they were able to that's why people in Africa and Pakistan and all these places are going through all these things and they still Are not bowing down to Islam that Antichrist religion I'm gonna have to fight in this end times If you can't get over the compromise and truly follow Jesus you won't be able to actually enlist into the kingdom of God Are there plenty of churches that will take you then just be like you know what sit here and do whatever you want and just Come and sing a few songs kumbaya and go home. Yeah, there's plenty of those. That's the majority of churches in America and Those churches will lead you straight to hell I'm not any denomination. I wasn't raised in the church I've experienced God I've experienced Jesus. I've experienced the enemy. I know how real this walk in Christ is and it's not fake I'm not up here preaching for anything else other than him Following Christ is the best thing I've ever done. I'm never given up by his grace and strength But I know what it means to walk for the enemy and it leads to destruction So tonight, you know, you need to surrender to God for real Or you need to give your life either back to Christ or for the first time. He's up here waiting in Love with you with his arms wide open and for everybody online same thing for you wherever you're at around the world You can experience God in your house in your car in your apartment God will meet you where you're at. He'll touch you All he wants is your heart to be surrendered. The Bible says believe in your heart and confess from your mouth. I Think the biggest thing we've been missing is the belief in the heart a lot of confession from the mouth a lot of The Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is not a problem, but a lot of confession of the Jesus being Lord, but in their heart far from God So if you want to give your life to Jesus I want you to stand up and I want you to come to this altar so we can pray for you Come on up and if you're watching online, you could put a one in the chat put a one in the chat
Let's give Jesus some praise. Come on I Don't know your man I Know that was a pretty deep message. It was pretty a weighty. I Don't want to scare anybody or discourage anybody. Okay, I Want you how many are encouraged? Good. I don't want you to be discouraged. I Want you to be encouraged them and you don't know you're probably not gonna go through the same thing as me God knows All I say is that if I can go through it and be strengthened by God you can too His strength is real and it's tangible It's supernatural And all you at this altar this this gospel message is important for you to know. It's a good news message The good the good news is that Jesus the fullness of God bodily entered this world Born of a virgin And live the life that we couldn't live I'm gonna take it back to the garden with Adam and Eve the first two humans were created to experience God and Only God and only his goodness To eat from the tree of life and not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil But because they wanted to be like God and they were deceived by the serpent Eve and she convinced and deceived Adam They disconnected from the tree of life because of sin Connecting to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is them judging what's good and what's evil themselves instead of letting God guide them in life and because of that humanity fell an Expiration date was put on our bodies. God never wanted an expiration date to be put on our bodies He never wanted death. He never wanted sin
He never wanted the the fruit of what sin produces depression and suicides and all these things We see around the world that we tend to blame God about When it's really us and our sin our free will collectively as a human race and Satan came in and took authority And began to use humans to build his kingdom here on earth This is why we see so many so many things produced that that are gonna have to burn one day God's not coming to save the world He's coming to save the people in the world and the world is gonna have the actual the globe the earth is going to burn When the scriptures say for God so loved the world. It's not talking about planet Earth. It's talking about the people After Adam and Eve fell death was allowed in the world sin we see generations and generations of People that rebelled against God that went to the world to idols to Satan instead of serving him and him loving the people so much That he would go and rescue them and correct them and and constantly back and forth because he loves us so much the children of Israel and Jesus came to rescue the children of Israel and also the Gentiles and The only way it could be done is if if one human Knowing good and evil never sinned Because sin produces death and Satan knows that because that's the Word of God one sin produces eternal death one everyone say one Eternal death eternal separation from God and Satan and all his fallen angels they have no plan. There's no plan of redemption for them. There's no repentance They're doomed. They're damned to the lake of fire and they know this and they want to take as many as they can with them and when Jesus came to the world and Satan realized that the Messiah the Savior the Son of God was finally here. Yeshua ha Moshiach Satan and the demonic kingdom thought that Jesus was coming to judge them and cast them to the lake of fire But little did he know that Jesus was coming to rescue us At the age of
30 he was baptized in the Jordan River By John the baptizer the Prophet John came up spirit of God came upon him like a dove The father spoke Jesus went to the world and is tempted by Satan beat him by the Word of God came out in power Began his ministry for three and a half years going from city to city Casting out devils healing the sick preaching repentance the kingdom of God is at hand letting people know that finally the Messiah was here and Proving it fulfilling messianic prophecies that were spoken about him thousands of years before he came And finally when it was time he gave himself in To take the punishment for our sin like I said sin produces death and we've sinned so many times But Leviticus says that blood is life and all of our blood has been tainted by sin But there's one human fully God fully man who lived on this earth that was never tainted by sin Sinless and that's Jesus the fullness of God bodily So the only way that the sins of the world could be wiped clean that debt Collectively the spiritual debt of the sins of the world would be if one human Live this game of life knowing good and evil, but never sinning and that's Jesus 33 and a half years a whole generation sinless gives himself in To take punishment for something he didn't deserve and the entire time the demonic kingdom thought We kill him. We don't get judged the pride of Satan But Jesus knew they kill me I rescue them Because the Word of God Will not return void and if Satan Was to kill a sinless man The blood would be on him and the sins of the world could be wiped clean and that same curse would be wiped away By this by the blood of the only perfect human Jesus Christ So Jesus allowed himself to be beaten flogged whipped lashed scorched betrayed everything that we could ever go through that none of us actually could go through he went through it and Took the physical beating the spiritual torment of the sins of the world being placed in his body The the guilt that sin produces the heartache the the suffering the spiritual suffering that sin produces
Jesus experienced the sin of the world in his body and he stayed silent and he never gave up because the entire time He knew that it would save us He said it's finished And he gave up the ghost and the Bible says that when he died on that cross every principality in power the demonic kingdom was disarmed and made a public spectacle a public humiliation Because Satan and the demonic kingdom who pridefully thought And these vessels and these human vessels we kill Jesus we win Finally realized when he died, we just killed a sinless man. We're defeated now now his blood can save the world and Because he overcame sin he overcame death. He overcame the grave By the power of the Holy Ghost he rose from the dead on the third day And he breathed on his disciples to give him power And After 40 days of being with them He rose ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father and sent the Holy Spirit so that we can not only be Saved by his blood and sins wiped clean but be empowered to have power over all the power of the enemy Over all the power of the world over all the power that the flesh produces by the Spirit of God that strengthens us. Hallelujah The Good news the gospel message is if you believe that Jesus is Lord You believe he rose from the dead and you repent you'll be saved But break those three things down to believe that Jesus is Lord means that you believe he's the highest power You believe that he's God Lord of Lords King of Kings. There's no other way. There's no other religion. There's no other way. It's only Jesus You believe that he's Lord he's God And you submit to him as Lord when you believe someone is Lord. There's no democracy debating It's a kingdom where it's his way and no other way Submitting to the Lordship of Christ is so important believe that he's Lord and To believe he rose from the dead means you need to believe he died on the cross
And in Islam, they don't believe in this and that's why they it's a false antichrist religion because it takes out the gospel They don't believe he died on that cross They'll tell you he rose in his body to heaven. He's even coming back to fight the Antichrist They will not tell you that he died on the cross. They will not tell you he shed his blood as a perfect man. They will not tell you he rose from the dead. They take out the gospel. That's why we know it's a satanic religion. The gospel message, the most important message. Jesus, Lord, rose from the dead, and then repentance, like I said earlier, turning away from practicing sin, from following the world and saying, God, I'm turning to you. It doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect. It just means that you're gonna depend on the one who was perfect and will always be perfect and is perfect, Jesus. You're giving your life to him to follow him. You're making a commitment. You're getting married to Christ. There's no perfect marriage, but in a marriage, the only way you lose is if you decide to give up. We don't give up on Jesus because he never gives up on us. So what you're saying today at this altar is you're giving your life to Jesus. You're getting married to Christ. And some of you got baptized as a baby. Some of you got baptized when you were younger,
thinking it would make your life better or whatever. No, that wasn't the gospel. The gospel is you believe this good news message that I just preached. You give your life to Jesus, and that's after in your heart you believe these things and confess it after this prayer, you go under that water and you die. The Bible says you go under that water and you die with Christ and then you rise with Christ, a new creation with your conscious cleansed, amen. So everyone at this altar, giving your life to Christ, everyone online, I want you to close your eyes. And I'm gonna say this too. If there's anyone in the sanctuary that feels like, man, I need to give my life to Christ, come to this altar, come up here. You've been feeling the conviction. The Lord's been touching your heart through this gospel message. And you know that's you. I want you to come up and nobody's judging you. And even online, if you wanna put a one in the chat, you can too. Y'all ready? I want you to say, Jesus, I believe you are Lord. You died on the cross for my sins. You were buried and rose from the dead on the third day. I surrender my life to you, to follow you. I repent of practicing sin, following the world.
And I follow you, Jesus. Thank you for your grace that empowers me and your mercy that wipes my sins clean. I'm fully forgiven by your blood. I want you to say it again. I am fully forgiven. Say, I'm completely forgiven. I'm your child. Say, Jesus, you're in love with me and I love you too. Say, teach me and reveal to me more of your love. Say, I wanna love you more than life itself. Put that desire in my heart as a living sacrifice for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Hallelujah. We love you, King Jesus. Thank you for souls that were just saved, Lord. Hallelujah, Jesus. All right, so who needs to be water baptized here tonight? Yeah, amen. Come on, man. I want you guys to go towards that exit sign and go ahead and get baptized. Congratulations, come on. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Man, God is so good. And for everybody online, I just wanna say congratulations too. And if you're watching online,
get plugged into a local church. You can join us on the School of Revival, but I always say get plugged into a local church, into a community of like-minded believers where you can be a part of the revival. Like-minded believers where you can be discipled somewhere you could be rooted so you can grow. Everyone say discipleship. The Bible says to make disciples, not converts, disciples. My heart is that all these people and even online become disciples. But is that always the case? No. A disciple is someone who not only repeats this prayer and gets baptized, but actually walks this walk out. A disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ. The Bible says the path, the narrow path, the path, His path is narrow and not many people will find it. But the path to hell is broad. How many of y'all love Jesus and are following Him for real? I Want to take communion tonight, but I want to take communion with Revelation Amen And we're gonna have an altar call after communion where you can come up to get prayer for anything you need How many y'all need prayer? We're gonna have this altar so you can get whatever you need whether it's just a prayer for us to stand in the gap with You for something you're praying for interceding for where there's deliverance healing
Anything you need you even if you came with somebody and they're just kind of hesitant You should bring them up here and we'll pray for them. All right But let's take communion with some revelation tonight. Let's let's let's let's allow the Holy Spirit through faith in our hearts to reveal some new things Amen So take out your communion cups guys, and if you don't have one put your hands up or we'll get it to you Hallelujah as the cups are being passed out. Can we just praise the Living King? Can we just praise the Living King? Come on, can we give him glory? Can we glorify the King? Hallelujah, we thank you King Jesus and we love you so much We love you King Jesus and we bless your holy name. We thank you Thank you for tonight and thank you Lord That right now through communion Lord You're just gonna pour our fresh revelation Hallelujah, we just bless your holy name and I thank you for what you've done for us. I Thank you for rescuing us. I thank you for saving us my God. I thank you for your everlasting mercy We praise you and together we all say Hallelujah Amen So I want us to do something as we take communion As we take communion I would like for us if we could all just please stand Can we all just please stand for this holy moment? One is to stand if you can And before we take communion, I just want to Just explain the serious and the weightiness of communion because communion We do it in remembrance what Jesus Christ did for us So in that remembrance It's very serious and communion should not be taken in an unworthy manner So if you know that there's something and You know what it is. Whoever it is. If there's anything in your heart that you have not yet released Let go of whether it be unforgiveness
Whether it be bitterness Whatever secret sin, whatever that you're holding on to I Want you to take time in This brief moment of silence to lay it down at the altar release it. Let it go And if you right now are unable to are unwilling I would ask that you refrain from taking communion So we're gonna have a brief moment of silence So that you can release and lay everything down before the feet of Jesus I Want to share with you guys a verse from 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 26 It says for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes So communion is not just remembrance. It's proclamation a participation in a prophetic declaration. You see, as Paul is explaining this and as he releases this, Paul is trying to get us to understand that every time we as children of God take communion, three dimensions are happening at once. Past, present, and future. You see, communion proclaims the victory of the cross. Past, when we eat and drink, we proclaim the Lord's death. We publicly declare and announce, preach his victory. Communion is literally a sermon in physical form. So when you take and you eat of the bread and you drink of the cup, you are literally preaching and declaring and proclaiming to heaven. You're proclaiming to earth and hell and even your own soul that Jesus' sacrifice is enough. You see, the enemy consistently tries to accuse us children of God, us believers, but communion says the debt has already been paid. The debt has been paid. This is why the Word of God says in Colossians 2 verse 15 that Christ disarmed all powers of darkness and he made a public spectacle when he went upon that cross. He humiliated the enemy. So every time you take communion, you know what you're doing my brothers and my sisters? You're re-announcing Satan's defeat. You're proclaiming Satan's loss and you're preaching the victory of Jesus Christ, the testimony of his blood, and the testimony of his body being broken. Participation that's present, that's the word,
kanonia. Everybody say kanonia. It means consistent fellowship. It means everyday sharing. It means union. So when we believers take communion, we're also reminding ourselves of the present, the now reality that we are entering into the reality of what the cross has accomplished. Because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, you have direct access into his presence every single day. The Word of God says that his mercies are fresh each morning because of his sacrifice. So each morning you can wake up and say, thank you Jesus. I love you and I know that you love me. I know that you see me. Each morning you are reminded that you have consistent daily participation in unity and union with Christ. And lastly, future. Communion prophetically declares that death has been reversed. You see, a lot of people miss over this in the scripture where it says, you proclaim the Lord's death. But here's the mystery. We proclaim his death not his burial. Why? Because Jesus Christ's death destroyed death. Jesus entered death and he overthrew it from the inside. This is why when Jesus Christ died, almost like the Revelation with Jonah, when he was inside the bellies of the beast for three days, Jesus entered death to destroy death from the inside out. That's why Hebrews 2 verse 14 says, through death he might destroy him who hold and had the power of death that is the devil. So communion is the reminder that death no longer has the final word. The cross looked like defeat but it was actually the moment the kingdom of darkness collapsed. So I want us to hold up the bread because we are victorious because of the blood of Jesus. God confounded the wisdom of the enemy. He thought he was smart. He thought he was wise. But my God said, I will make you foolish. And he broke his body so that we could have life and life abundantly. So I want you right now to break the bread in half because I always say this, through hearing that cracking, it reminds us that Christ went through the excruciating pain and agony of his body being broken for us. And the Word of God says that he did it with joy. It pleased him to do it. So Heavenly Father, right now we thank you for sending your only begotten Son, King Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our Master. Right now we just give you all the glory, we praise you because you broke your body
in half for us. You breaking your body in pieces to feed the entire world. Because you said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and you are the word. You are the word made flesh. So we thank you, Lord, that you gave us life and life abundantly. And we take and we eat this in remembrance of your body being broken for us. In Jesus' mighty name, you may now take and eat. Hallelujah, now everybody please open up the cup. Now with the blood, just here the Holy Spirit was just ministering to me about the blood. And he told me something, you know whenever you go grab anything in life, one of the first thing that they ask of you is your signature and you sign off with your name. And before they even get paid, they take your signature and they run to the bank and they pay them, whoever it is, solely because you placed your name on that document. And so the Holy Spirit was just ministering to me. You see, through our participation and through our willful agreement to want to be independent of God, we signed our name on a legal contract that bind us to sin. We made that covenant through our participation. We willfully made that covenant. And so it was legally binding. Just like when you sign something, you can't break out of it because you have legally binded yourself. So there was no way of escape until the Savior of the world said, I will enter and I will come down and I will take that contract that was legally binding through the participation of humans and I will sign my name on it and I will release them from the powers of sin. I will release them and I will do it through my blood. My blood right now will free them from every legal contract that they made through willful participation, through the willful disobedience, through turning their back on me. I will free them by my blood. So what Christ did, the reason why it's so important that we understand how powerful
the blood is, is when he shed his blood, it was almost like that blood erased your name from every legal contract that the enemy thought he had to accuse you. It was the blood of Jesus that erased your name from every single legally binding contract that you made willfully. And God said, no, I will free you and now you are freed and now you will serve me. And this is why he says, choose this day who you will serve, choose who this day you will serve. So because of the blood, we are free and we no longer have obligation to serve sin anymore. But now we are obligated to serve righteousness. We are obligated now to serve the King of Kings, the Lord of hosts, the true living God. So I want everybody right now to raise the cup. And I want just everybody right now just to say, thank you, Jesus, for the shedding of your blood. Thank you, Jesus. Right now, we lift up this cup in the air because as we lift it high, my Lord, this is a sign of a toast, hallelujah. We proclaim Lord, Father God, your return. We know that you're coming back and we stay hopeful and we are faithful and we thank you Lord that it is finished. Everything is finished already because of the shedding of your blood. Because of your sacrifice, it is finished. No longer does shame have grip on us. No longer does anxiety have any grip on us. No longer does depression have any grip on us because we have been freed from it because of the blood of Jesus that wipes away our name from every legal binding contract. So I thank you that every accusation right now that Satan brings into the courtroom of heaven is noiling void and is thrown out because we have a judge and a lawyer that intercedes on our behalf. We thank you King Jesus and we bless your holy name and we take this in remembrance of your sacrifice. You may now take and drink of the holy blood. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Can we make this house rumble with praise right now? Come on. Can we truly glorify the King and can we make this house shake with
praise knowing that you have been freed, knowing that you have been liberated by the blood of Jesus. It's nothing that you've done but it's everything that he's done because of the King of Kings, because of the King of Kings, the Lord of hosts, you are free and you are victorious. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. So we're gonna open up the floor for any prayer. We're gonna have the prayer warriors come up. They're gonna line up and we're gonna open the floor for anything that you need, any prayer that you need. We're gonna pray for you and before we pray for you, before we open up the floor, I just want us to close out as a family. So can we all just lift our hands up to the sky. Heavenly Father we just thank you Lord. We lift our hands up because it's a sign of victory and we receive that victory from above. We thank you for what you did tonight and we thank you Lord Father God that our hearts were pierced through the word. We thank you that transformation is our portion. We thank you that healing is our portion. We thank you that deliverance is our portion. We thank you Lord that we receive everything that comes with salvation so so. Thank you my God for what you're doing continuously within us all and I pray Lord that we will continue to be living sacrifice every single day. That we will trust in the process and we will not try to skip the process. That we will be faithful through the process and that we will be faithful in the fire. Knowing that we are not alone in the fire but there's a person in the fire with us. Hallelujah. And we will come out not even smelling like smoke. We bless your holy name Jesus. We love you so much and we thank you for what you did tonight and we thank you for what you will continuously do in our lives individually and collectively. We love you so much and together we all say amen amen and amen.
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