Hundredfold Podcast
Hundredfold Podcast
Waiting After The Storm
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In this episode, we dive deep into the biblical account of Noah, moving beyond the familiar story of the forty-day flood to explore the 375-day journey from the first raindrop to dry land. We discuss why the aftermath of a traumatic event often requires a much longer season of healing than the event itself. Using the imagery of Noah’s dove and the slow receding of the floodwaters, we examine how to navigate the "in-between" seasons of life—when the violence of the storm has passed, but the ground isn't yet ready for your feet. Join us for a message on patience, spiritual recovery, and learning to trust God’s timing during the long wait for restoration.
Originally recorded on April 26, 2026
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40 days and 40 nights represent something, but it does not represent the totality of the situation that he was in. 40 days and 40 nights represent the turmoil, the triumph, the trauma, and the tragedy. Everything that happened bad, violent, happened in those 40 days and 40 nights. So then why does the Bible go and take so much effort to say that it wasn't just that 40 days and 40 nights that we talk about 150 days here? We talk about birds seven days here, birds seven days. Why is all of that? Because 40 days and 40 nights does not begin to speak to how much it takes to overcome and get through a situation that's very traumatic.
SPEAKER_00Welcome. Come on in. Come on in. Welcome to the 100fold podcast, an extension of 100fold ministry with Pastor Vanessa Holland, where we seek to deepen our relationship with the Lord as we study his word and worship. We often focus on the 40 days and 40 nights of the storm, the trauma and the rain.
SPEAKER_01But what happens when the rain stops and the water is still deep? Today, we're looking at the days between the tragedy and the dry ground. It's time to talk about the long walk of recovery and finding the patience to wait until God says it's truly safe to step out.
SPEAKER_00This is waiting after the storm.
SPEAKER_01Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Hallelujah. Bless the Lord. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, for this day. We thank you for your wonderful love.
SPEAKER_05Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_01Your wonderful grace. Your wonderful mercy, God, that you are all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere at all times, God. We thank you and we bless your name because you are God and you loved us first.
SPEAKER_05Yes, Lord, God.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for loving us. Thank you for taking care of us. Thank you for embracing us, keeping us, holding us close in the midst of all the storms and all the situations, and also opening your arms and letting us see the sunshine and the wonderful, beautiful, gracious gifts that you've given us, the wonderful earth that you've created, God. We thank you, God. I pray right now that you please um work through me, flow through me.
SPEAKER_05Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_01Push down Daniel, the man, and allow for your word to flow through. I know that you look beyond all the faults that we have, all of the crevices, all the cracks, the sin, for your word to go forth, for you to be glorified. And I pray right now, God, that you will please allow for this broken vessel to be able to share the word, share your word with your people that it reaches somebody, it touches somebody, and allows for them to get closer to you, to have a better and deeper relationship with you and to draw more people into the kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_05Amen.
SPEAKER_01I'm so ever grateful at all times to be in the house of the Lord. There's no place that I feel more comfortable than to be in the house of the Lord. You ever had that feeling where you just go to church? Doesn't matter which church, you just walk in the doors of the church, and you're like, you know what? I'm glad to be in God's house. This is a great place. This is a wonderful place, and I'm glad to be in God's house today. Amen. I thank Pastor Vanessa Holland and Hundredfold Ministry. She has uh she works, she prays, she listens to God continuously, always trying to get closer and closer to God and bringing us along with her. She's not one to say, I'm gonna work with God right now, I'm gonna go off on the mountain. I'll see you guys in three years.
SPEAKER_05Amen.
SPEAKER_01She says, Me and God are going through something, so why don't you come along with you and you can bring your blanket if you need to? Amen. I'm thankful for uh all of the members of Hundredfold Ministry, in particular uh Pastor Cynthia Hill, who is a warrior for Christ, who who pours so much into every single one of our lives, whether you know it or not. But I know it directly for me that she pours so much into uh into my life. Even on this morning, as we were having a technical difficulty, she sent me a text message in the midst of, and I was like, thank God that Pastor Cynthia Hill is there because I missed it, and I and she was right there on top of it to let me know. And it's I'm grateful that she has placed me, placed her in my life. Um, and I'm just so thankful.
SPEAKER_05Amen.
SPEAKER_01This morning I wasn't necessarily expecting or planning for God to give me a word that would be presentable for everybody, and so I'm praying right now that God smooths out the rough edges. You know, like in uh I had this little toy when I was younger, it was like a rock thing, and you could make gems out of it. It was like it was basically this little tumbler, and you put some uh some rocks in there, you put some chemicals in there, you put a little water in there, and then the the little thing had a motor that would just spin the rocks over and over and over again for a long period of time. And if you keep spinning those rocks over a long period of time, you know what happens? The sharp edges of the rock start to get smoothed out, and you start to see all of a sudden, instead of having this little ugly-looking rock, you've got this smooth stone. As a matter of fact, this this situation happens in nature all the time. You go to a river and you look at the rocks inside the river, you'll see there's smooth stones in there. Those rocks have been there a long time, tumbling and allowing for everything to come over. And so I'm praying right now that God will please smooth out the jagged edges of me and my message right now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_03Amen.
SPEAKER_01God's been working with me recently and spoke to me earlier this week saying, Daniel, I need you to go through the scriptures about water and just the sea, not water, but just the sea and the ocean and stuff. If y'all that know Pastor Vanessa and myself, we we like the ocean. We like the water, we like to see it. You like looking at Lake Michigan and seeing out at all the water of Lake Michigan. I like looking at the Atlantic Ocean and seeing all the water that's in the Atlantic Ocean. You go on the cruise ship, and the first time I went on a cruise, I realized I don't see land anywhere. And then you look down and you see some of the bluest, the different, the most different colors of blue that you've ever seen before in your life. Sometimes when you're out in the deep, you can see the super darkest blue water. There's a really, really strong dark blue in turquoise. Sometimes when you go in the Caribbean, you see this bluish green water, it's light blue, aqua green water, and you're like, wow, that's amazing. So many different colors and amazing. We just love the water. And going down, we started snorkeling and we would go and see all the different fish from up above. We were on the top of the surface, learning how to bobble up and down with the waters and the waves, and then looking down and seeing all the fish down below, and then you know, getting to a place where um we scuba dive and going down not just to the surface level, but 10 feet, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 feet, and seeing all kinds of God's creation and creatures down there, and just seeing how the community comes together in that wonderful situation. And it's a blessing. But God said to me, Daniel, just read about the ocean and the sea summon. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna go and start reading about all the different times. I had some scriptures in the back of my head, but I'm like, I'm just gonna go and start at the you know, start through. So on today, um, I'm gonna start with Genesis chapter seven. Um we're gonna read through Genesis chapter seven, verse 11, and through chapter eight. And uh, if you're gonna put a title on this particular word, this message, it's called Waiting After the Storm.
SPEAKER_02Amen.
SPEAKER_01Um just some backdrop, and and as I think about just life in general, and I'm not gonna ramble too long here, but I'm just trying to work myself to where I remember and how I got to this place. You know, when you are watching the news and you see, you know, there are all kinds of natural disasters all over the place. And sometimes you see on the news the camera crews come in and you can see the storm coming. There's a hurricane that's coming to the community. You can watch it coming, and the people, the storm chasers go all to the community, and you're like, oh my goodness, the storm is coming, the storm is coming. And then the storm hits, bam, it's there. And then you see all the storm chasers and everything, the news cameras and crews come and they view all of the devastation. They put a camera on some of the worst-hit spots. They'll show all of the flooding, they'll show the damage to somebody's house, the roof collapsed, or the basketball fell over, the the the tree fell on somebody's house, and you see all of the devastation that's there, and then we don't really get the follow-up. You know, we see all the bad and the stuff and like that, but we don't we don't get a chance to see all of that. But but as a person who's been through a couple of storms myself, I know that there is follow-up afterwards. So let's go ahead and get into the words. So I'm not just talking about my life, but I'm talking about what God has to tell us today. If we turn to the book of Genesis, chapter 7, as a matter of fact, before I get to chapter 7, I wanted to read chapter 6, just a few verses of this. Chapter 6, verse 5. I didn't put this in my note, but uh it's kind of important. In Genesis chapter 6, verse 5, it says in the King James Version, it says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping three thing, and the fowls of the air. For it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Amen. So, right here we see the setup to what's about to happen, where the actual the meat of my text is God had created man. And as we remember from you know all of our Bible training from before, Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel and all of that, we we know all the story that kind of got us here, but then it says here that things were getting kind of bad, that man was being really bad, so bad that God was grieved in his heart at what was going on, so bad that he had to just go and say, I can't have this anymore. It's going to be destruction. But it says in the final verse here, but Noah found favor and the eyes of the Lord. And so as we continue to read through chapter six, I'm not going to read all this today because there's there's a lot of pieces here. God gives him specific instructions in terms of how to build the ark. Make it this big, make it this long, make sure it has a window, make sure you have space for this, use this type of wood. All kinds of very specific instructions about how to build this particular boat. And so what I actually want to get to was Genesis chapter 7, verse 11. We'll start there. It says in Genesis chapter 7, verse 11, In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened up, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, and the sons of Noah and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark. They and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth, and the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life of all that was in the dry land died. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark, and the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days. I'm going to continue reading another thirteen or fourteen verses here before uh before we actually get into what God has spoken to me about this. It says in Genesis chapter 8, verse 1, and God remembered Noah and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters eswashed. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters returned from off the earth continually, and the and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, and he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark, and he stayed yet other seven days, and again he set forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came into him in the evening, and lo in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth, and he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him any more. Verse thirteen and fourteen, and we'll stop. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seventh and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried? Amen. May the Lord add a blessing to the hearing, reading, and doing of his holy word. Now, why in the world would God have me read through all of this? Why would he have me go through all this? And more importantly, and specifically to your particular situation right now, why would he have me read it to you?
SPEAKER_03Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_01That's a great question, as my youngest son would always say when he comes across a question that he doesn't quite have quite have an answer to, but feels like he needs to fill the space with something. That's a good question. A couple of things immediately come to mind. You know, uh, as we're taught the Bible in our our younger years, our baby years, whether it's in Sunday school or we're just learning stories, we are taught stories, taught themes of the Bible, but sometimes those themes are a little bit incomplete. They're they're accurate, but not complete. 40 days and 40 nights is what I was taught about Noah in the situation that just had ensued. And it's true that it rained upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights, but that does not begin to speak to the totality of the situation that our dear brother Noah was in and how the situation actually transcribed. Because if you go back to Genesis chapter 7, verse 11, and let me just make sure I get it right, because I I tried to do the math quickly. If I had more time, I would have actually gotten it precise. But it says here in Genesis chapter 7, verse 11, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month and 17th day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened up. So the storm started on in the second month, in the 17th day of the month. So if Noah was born on January the 1st, just using my own terms, if the if Noah was born on January the 1st, then the storm happened on February the 17th. Are we generally in agreement on that?
SPEAKER_03Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_01If we're generally in agreement on that, let's turn to Genesis chapter 8, verse 14. I think is where I saw where I ended it at. In Genesis chapter 8, verse 14, it says, and in the second month, on the seventh and 20th day of the month was the earth dried. And our point of reference still was Noah's birthday, because it talked about his 601st year on verse 13. And so it says here, in the second month and the seventh, the seventh and twentieth day of the month was the earth dried. Again, this is the 600 and first year of his life. So if I'm thinking through this properly, we said that he was born, uh so the storm started on February 17th, and this is saying that it ended on February the 27th, because it says the second month, February, and the 7th and 20th day of the month, 27th. I'm just using he would he probably wasn't born on January the 1st. I'm just using our reference points, but I'm just trying to get something so I can understand. So it actually tells me that this storm, if the calendar is similar, is about 375 days from the time he started on dry ground and ended on dry ground. 40 days and 40 nights represent something, but it does not represent the totality of the situation that he was in. Why do you speak to that, Brother Daniel? Why are you telling me that the time was 375 days when we all know 40 days, 40 nights? Well, 40 days and 40 nights does represent something very significant and important in the life of us as Christians and people that walk on this earth. 40 days and 40 nights represents the turmoil, the triumph, the trauma, and the tragedy. Everything that happened, bad, violent, happened in those 40 days and 40 nights. The earth opened up. The rains came, it came from down and above in 40 days and 40 nights. That's where the destruction occurred. That's when the winds were blowing. That's when all the rains were coming. That's where you were feeling all of the pain and everything was actually being ripped and torn apart. If you were an athlete and you go through and have an injury, that's when you turned your ankle. That's when you twisted your knee. That's when the damage actually happened. 40 days and 40 nights represents that. So then why does the Bible go and take so much effort to say that it wasn't just that 40 days and 40 nights that we talk about 150 days here? We talk about birds, seven days here, birds, seven days. Why is all of that? Because 40 days and 40 nights does not begin to speak to how much it takes to overcome and get through a situation that's very traumatic. Anybody that's been through something knows that, okay, I got burnt. Okay, I got hurt. Okay, that happened. But then you go to the doctor. You go to the doctor, and the doctor tells you, listen, you had this happen. You need to get this fixed up. It's gonna take some remedy measure for this to happen. In this case, the waters had to abate. Everything had to come down from the violence so that everything could calm down. In your life, it could be you go to the doctor, and the doctor says, Oh, you sprained your ankle, you need to go, and for the next, for your ankle, your ankle's right here. You need to go, stay off your ankle for a while. You're gonna need to put some ice on it and switch between ice and heat. And you're going to need to recover. It's gonna take you a good three weeks of actually taking care of this for you to get back to where you were before. Well, your injury happened in a matter of seconds. But it's going to take weeks, months, sometimes days. It's going to take a period of time thereafter that is exceedingly longer than the period of trauma to get over what actually just happened and get you back to a place of where you feel like, okay, this is not what it was, but this is a lot closer to what I remember it being. Because in this case, our brother Noah, you know, was living a good life with his family, and God told him, Get you and your family together. Y'all are about ready to collect some animals, and you're gonna go on this boat that I'm gonna give you instructions on how to build. He was living a good life. For 600 years, he lived a life that was good enough that said God was gracious upon him in the midst of all of this bad stuff that was going on around him. It wasn't, and so God said, Look, you're going to have to go through some things, but I'm gonna take care of you. But that storm that was in the midst, the 40 days and 40 nights, interrupted what Noah was going through. Just imagine you're going through living your good life. Pastor Vanessa and I had a similar situation similar to this. We were just going about living our life. We were trying to please the Lord. We were doing things that honored God. We were going to church, we were serving a ministry, we were being good parents, we were taking our kids to soccer events, we were taking our kids, you know, to different kinds of things. We were learning how to live life, and we were doing it the best we could. And then some traumatic events happened, and it took so long, not just for the event to occur, but then the aftermath occurs. And it doesn't have anything to do with, well, were you bad? Was something bad happened? No, you just get yourself in your boat and you ride along the face of the waters until God tells you that it is time and it is okay. You know, one of the things that struck me first, because what I just mentioned to you actually came to me later. What struck me first was this dove. I like the dove. I like birds. Pastor Vanessa and I, well, Pastor Vess and I, she was sending me some messages earlier this week about some birds, and I have this app on my phone. It's a big bird out there. Uh I have an app on my phone that if I just hold the app in the air and and it and listens to all the chirps that are going on, and I can it can identify the chirps, the bird by the chirp, and it can show a picture of the bird, and you go and look at the picture on the on the phone, and you look up there, and you say, Oh, yeah, that's it. That's the that's that bird. Oh, I got a robin. Oh, look, I've got this type of you know, uh chirp or chirp chirp, you know, chingling bird, whatever kind of bird, all the birds, and so this this dove that we find about in Genesis chapter 8, verse 6, because this bird becomes significant. Why? After the storm, we read just slightly before that several days ark rested in the seventh month of the 17th day of the month upon the mountains of Arat. So the waters had already started going down. Okay, you ever get to a place where you start feeling a little bit better after something's going on, you can feel things getting better. The waters are starting to come down, they became down so much such that the ark was able to rest on the mountain. Now we know from the scripture it told us before that the the water was five cubits higher than the top of the ground. I looked it up and that that measure 15 cubits, that measurement represented essentially 50 about 20 feet above the tops of the mountain. So the water was already 20 feet higher than tops of the mountain, so it had to come down some. And so you know, whenever you start to feel some progress, you're like, okay, yeah, let's let's see what we can do here. God told Noah to put a window in the ark. He told him how to build the window. So Noah went, got one of the doves, and got the dove, and it says right here, I'm sorry, first it said a raven. Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and sent forth a raven, which went forth to and froze until the wires were dried up from off the earth. So his raven was just kind of scouting, showing everything. But then verse 8 it says, Also, he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. In this situation, Noah knew that it wasn't good enough to just start to feel things getting better. I need some kind of evidence that things are actually good enough for me to get out this boat. Because the last thing I want to do is have come through this storm and been through the 40 days and the 40 nights and watching the waters abate for 150 days to open up the door of this boat. And if I open up the door of this boat and the waters aren't done, then guess what? We're going down. If you've ever seen a hole in the bottom of the boat and what that can do to the boat, you realize that the boat will go down if you let water inside too early or prematurely. And so, what does Noah do? He gets a dove and says, Mr. Dove, why don't you go out? And so, what does it what happens when he sent forth the dove to see if the waters were abated from off the earth? It says in verse 9, but the dove found no rest for her sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark. This matters because God destroyed everything, all living things that had the breath of life inside of them with this flood. Everything that includes the birds. And so when I think about that, you realize that even the bird wasn't safe in the midst of this storm. Because it even said in the scriptures that all flying things would die too. Everything was destroyed. And so, if this bird wasn't able to find rest, that means there was no way for any living thing to continue to live once they got off this ark. The bird wasn't safe, could not find any rest for her feet. The bird's not dumb. The bird says, I flew out, I flew around, I'm getting tired. I need to lay down. You try and go down, nope, can't go up, can't find anything, comes back to the boat because the bird realizes I can't rest and I need to. It's too early to get off this boat because the one thing that can survive without touching the ground for a while still can't survive because it's not ready yet. Y'all understand that? Do y'all get that? That the thing that can survive in the midst of not having a place to put its feet on still can't survive in the midst of the aftermath of what's going on. We need to sometimes realize it is not safe enough for us to be able to open the doors of our boat because nothing can survive the aftermath of what's going on. We're not there yet. You're not at that point yet. You can get there and it might take some time, but not yet. We continue to study about this bird because the bird, I just was interested in the bird. Verse 9 says, But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark, and he stayed yet another seven or other seven days. So then that was verse ten. Then he pulled her in and yet stayed another seven days, and then it says, After semicolon, and again he sent forth the dove of the dove out of the ark. So the dove went, did his thing, it needed seven days. Noah waited seven days. The bird had took seven days' rest before he was able to send the bird back out again. Seven days of resting, seven days of activity, seven days of going. We know that seven represents a lot in the Bible. On the seventh day, we're commanded to rest. And so it took God six days to make to make all of this, and on the seventh day he rested. So he he gave the bird seven days to go and get there. So then in verse 11. Genesis chapter 8, verse 11, it says, And the dove came into him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. So when the bird went out this time, the dove went out this time, it flew around and came back in the evening. So it was flying around all day, but then it came back as it was getting dark and came back with an olive branch in his mouth. Her mouth, I guess, is what he called it. In her mouth is what the Bible said. It was a herd. It's a herbird. Maybe the herbirds are good at finding things. The herbs are the ones that go and get all the worms for the babies. Her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days. That's interesting to me. That tells me, okay, the bird comes back. The bird has evidence that there's a tree out there that's bearing fruit because it has an olive branch, an olive leaf plucked off. Maybe it's not bearing fruit, but it has an olive leaf plucked off. There's evidence of life out there, sustenance, but Noah doesn't immediately go and open that door yet. It says here he waited yet another seven days and sent forth the dove again. And then I'll read this last piece, which returned, and he stayed yet another seven days and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him anymore. Again, Genesis 8, chapter, Genesis chapter 8, verse 12. And he stayed yet other seven days and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him anymore. The bird, the dove, she went out, got the olive leaf, plucked, brought it back to him in the evening. Notice that the bird came back. That meant that the bird still could, I'm I'm assuming, because it came back, it could not rest its feet, because it came back to Noah. Now it could be because the faithful bird wanted show him to him, but Noah still waited seven days. Whatever we know is the bird came back. The bird came back after those seven days, and Noah still waited yet another seven days, sent the bird out again, and this time the bird did not come back anymore. And that was significant because now the bird who was capable of survival, the bird knew that if I go and I can't find nothing, I'm gonna come back because I at least have a place to rest. And so this time he sent the bird out, the bird went, and it was all good.
SPEAKER_05Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_01That's what leads us to verse 13. And it came to pass in the 600th and first year in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. That's really magical to me. Now, because this means after one year, because if you read the actual dates that it says here, the 600th and first year in the first month and the first day, using our January 1st analogy that we talked about at the beginning, and we thought in Genesis chapter 7, verse 11. One whole year later, that's when the earth was dried up again. It says the the face removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. Dry. So one year later, it took one year, 40 days, 40 nights, 150 days of abating, waiting, looking before you got to a place of wait, now the ground is dry. But the face of the ground was dry, and in the second month on the seventh and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. Two different distinctions. I don't know exactly what they are, but once I figure out the difference between the ground being dry and the earth being dry, we're gonna talk about that later. Because they are two different events that the Bible draws distinction from. Because after that, after we get the signal that the earth dried, that's when God spake to Noah again. After we get that indication, is when God told Noah, now go forth of the ark, thou and thy wife and thy sons, etc., etc. All of this to me, to Daniel, to Brother Daniel, as I'm reading through the scriptures, I'm learning, and I'm and I'm trying to get what God has told me from the scriptures, from everything. We go through things as Christians. God tells us, gives us indication. You know, in Genesis chapter 5 and chapter 6, what we are learning in those chapters about the lineage of Noah, how Noah was as a man. We're learning about the society at that time. Then we're also in chapter 6 starting to learn about how God was displeased with what was going on earth. God was displeased with everything that was happening, and so there was an indication that something was about to happen. As Christians, God talks to us, God lets us know: hey, some stuff is going on. And as a result, corrective measures are going to be deployed. We're going to have to fix some stuff in this. And it might not be painful, it might not be painless for all involved. You might need, we might need to go and tear down some walls. We might need to break down some strongholds. And yes, there will be some collateral damage for those who do not have the proper protection in the situation. If you're just lolly gallagagging, wilding about just being crazy, you were probably, you may get hit by something that's going to happen here. And so God instructed Noah, who he had favor, who was gracious, who was gracious upon. Look, Noah, I need you to get you and your family together, and you're going to have to go in this boat. Noah didn't talk about it and read in the Bible how Noah said, What, what, why are we gonna go through this? Why are you doing this to me? I'm good. Why can't you just shelter us up? And you know, God said, I'm making you a shelter that we'll survive this. I'm having a hypothetical conversation in my head. God's providing a shelter for Noah in the midst of the storm that's about to come because corrective measures was happening. Just as in your life, God can tell you, hey, some things are about to happen in your life. You need to be prepared for this thing. And I think God even told Noah that there was rain, there was a flood coming. I'm going to have to destroy some things. As a result, here's how I'm going to help you, Noah. And I need you to do these things. Noah didn't ask for any of this work that was being put upon him. But he all this work that was being put upon him, excuse me, him by God was also the work that was going to save him and his family from the storm. Because just imagine if Noah got that word, got that message, and was like, you know what, God, that's good, but I'm good. I don't need to do all that boat stuff. We'll be alright. We'll be fine. We'll just be praying. We got a good relationship with you, and it's gonna be good, right, God? Imagine if that was a path, because that's the path I've taken sometimes in my life. When you've seen certain things coming your way and be like, oh, you know what? I do see that. We're gonna pray our way through this, and it's gonna be all right, God. I know that you're supposed to take some actions and do this, that, or I need to go and make sure I set some money aside for this. God said, I'm telling you what to do. And if you don't prepare yourself in the midst of knowing that something's going to happen, well, when the storm comes, you you look around, you realize I should have done what I was supposed to do. I was told what to do. In my profession, I work in investments. And one of the most difficult things to have to take in and internalize for yourself as a person who deals with these decisions and making decisions all the time is when an event happens, it occurs, and you look at it and you say, I knew specifically that this was going to happen. And I didn't do anything to prepare myself for this actually happening. I, my training, my my whatever, my instinct, my intuition, everything that I know told me at this point in time, four months ago, that I needed to act on this piece of information. And I chose for whatever reason, there's lots of reasons. Some are good, some are not so good. Some just because I'm lazy, some of them because I don't want to ruffle anybody's feathers, some because, well, if I tell them this, they're gonna ask me that, and then I'm gonna have to go and do a whole bunch of work. If I had just taken hold of what was told to me back in the day, then the situation that I'm looking at right now, I could have been in a position where I could have protected some people or made money from something. It doesn't just have to be a bad thing, it could be a good thing. God could tell you something great's about to happen in your life and you need to get ready for this. And you'd be like, oh no, no, I'm good, I'm happy, God. I don't have to do all that right now. I'm happy, we're we're we're excited, we're happy, we're we're fine, God. God's like, no, no, no. Great things are about to happen. Get ready. Oh, no, no, I don't have to. It's gonna ruffle some feathers, and I don't want to make anybody upset with me or bothered. And if I do this, they're gonna ask me lots of questions, and I don't want to have to do all that. But if you had, then you would know, and you'd be like Noah, who heard the word, heard the message, built the ark, got his family, got the animals, got them inside, locked them all up. I would have loved to have heard them family conversation and family meeting with Noah and his and his sons and his and his family. Like, hey, we're gonna have to do this thing. Oh, okay, dad, we'll we'll do it. Or, all right, dad, we got it. You know, you don't you never know what people are gonna say when you when you tell them we're gonna have to go in the boat for a while. Um but all of that to say that when you're going through, God talks to you. As Christians, God can give you forewarning, God can give you notification that something's about to happen, and in that notification, God gives you instruction as to how to behave, how to act, how to respond, who to talk to, who not to talk to, how to get involved. Should I go over here? Should I go and buy me some new clothes? Should I go and do this? If we had known, how would I have structured my life differently before we were told that we're gonna have to move from Illinois to North Carolina to Cincinnati? If I had listened properly, if I had held on to what God was actually saying instead of what I wanted God to be saying and trying to make that happen in a different kind of way, how would things have gone differently in that situation? A lot of times when you're going through the storm, and I think this is where my Sunday school training failed me, was it feels like 40 days and 40 nights is the is the battle. 40 days, 40 nights is what's what's wrong. 40 days and 40 nights is very hard, it's very difficult. And whatever your situation is, that 40 days and 40 nights is not something that you want to have to go through ever because it hurts. 40 days and 40 nights of whatever your pain and affliction is, the thing that causes the destruction in your life, that is bad. That's getting the call at three in the morning, it's getting the call at whatever time that the bad things happen for you. And now you have to deal with the rips and the shreds and the torn-up pieces that's there. Now something bad has happened, and I'm in the trauma. Sometimes it's so bad, and the trauma in your body is so bad that you black out. You don't even know, you can't even say what happened. The accident, well, I don't know. I was driving along and then I woke up in the hospital. You don't know. The 40 days and 40 nights is the terrible thing that happens, but I guess when I start out the beginning, when I talked about the camera crews and chasing the storm and all of that, after that 40 days and 40 nights, there's a period of time of recovery. There's a period of time of release, there's a period of time of relief, there's a period of time that no camera can actually accurately capture.
SPEAKER_05Amen.
SPEAKER_01Because it's the emotional turmoil, it's the actual physical rebuilding of yourself, your body, the community, getting the hammer and the nails, and actually going and getting piece by piece, not just talking about it, but actually having to make yourself be in a habitable environment again. Actually going and putting ice on. I mean, that's that's hard when you think about it. You know, to have to put a timer on, you know, four hours now, four hours, 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off, 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off. You try and do that properly, you can't go to sleep right. You know what I'm saying? If you've ever had an injury like that, you can't really get your sleep right. If you had medication that you're supposed to take, take one of these every four hours, take one of these every Pastor Vanessa, or somebody had a medicine on these times where you had to take it once every six hours. I'm like, well, shoot, wait a second. Now, six hours. What's the right six hour spread that I should use? Should I do an eight, two, eight, two? No, I'm gonna have to wake up weird then. 12, 6, 12, 6. I guess I could do that. Like, that's the recovery is not easy and is not easily documented, if that makes sense. But it's incredibly important to go through that recovery. Why? Because if you just stop at the 40 days and 40 nights, you're gonna end up walking off the boat at the worst possible time to walk off the boat. After the 40 days and 40 nights, the waters were at their peak, they were at their highest. Oh, the storm is over. You get off that boat, all of a sudden, you're dropping down the waters 20 feet above the top of the mountain. I know lots of people that can tread water, but you can't tread water that long. So the 40 days and 40 nights is yes, that's it, but you got to recover. You've got to be in a place where, okay, I can just wait here and wait it out. Wait this storm out. Uh it's not the most comfortable, I understand. I'm used to having a little more land. If y'all have ever been on a cruise before, you know what I'm talking about. You get in your cruise ship stateroom. That room is not exactly how you would live in your life. It's a bit smaller, the bathroom's a bit tighter, your shower you got to wiggle around in. You know, you you have tight quarters, maybe you got a little balcony that you can go on to, but it is not, you know, your house. It is not all the rooms that we have, it's not the kitchen that you have. It might be a more cramped and difficult situation, a situation that you have, but it's still there for you to be able to make it through and make it out. So don't go and rush yourself out. And what I appreciate about our brother Noah in this situation was he saw he waited all of this stuff go down. He saw that the waters were abated. You could feel, okay, things are things are getting a bit better now. So let me just let me send the raven out first just to see what Raven does. Okay, Raven's gonna go fly and do Raven things, whatever ravens do. But let me send this dove. Dove, you know, is gonna go, and if something happens, he's gonna let me know. Dove went out, came back seven days. Nothing. Noah was patient and waiting for the right time and the right place to say, okay, it's good. Now it's good. That I can, oh, there's evidence of life. There's evidence that this bird can live, that when he goes, he can live, and when he didn't come back, great. What I learned from this particular message was a timeline was completely different from how I was taught it. The timeline of recovery was missing from what I knew about Noah's Ark. I even misplaced and I didn't go into this, who was invited into the ark. Because it was just Noah's family. Sometimes in TV shows or in Bible, you know, Sunday school, you're taught that Noah was to, hey, come with me, come with me, come with me. The Bible doesn't say that at all. The Bible says it was just no Bible, God came to Noah and said, Noah, get you and your family. There was no uh proselytizing or time to get everybody like, come on board, come on. There was no do you believe conversation that I I could be wrong. But when I read Genesis chapter 5, Genesis chapter 6, I only saw the invitation go into Noah and his family. And it lasted for a year. I love my family. I love my wife, I love my kids, I like my dog, even the fish, but only two of them could go, so it'd be a difficult decision to figure out which two would go because they're all all the same type. They're all fan-tailed goldfish, right, past Vanessa? Fancy, fancy tail, fancy goldfish. Only two can go. But for a year that we'd be looking at each other and just being us and the animals, that that was the prognosis, that was a sentence that God had for the people at that time was that look, it's gonna be 40 days and 40 nights. He talked about the rains and the floods and all that, but we got to know that we have to be prepared for the aftermath, be prepared for the after effect. God loves us enough to teach us how to be a um Christian, how to endure storms, how to love life, how to be who He has for us, how to be the person that God wants us to be. That we shouldn't be ashamed to hear from God's voice, we shouldn't be ashamed to know who God is. And if you don't know who God is, now is a wonderful time. It's a beautiful time to get to know and to reach out to him. And so if you don't know who God is, I want you to say this prayer with me together. We'll say it all together so that you don't feel like you're all alone. But we'll say this prayer so we can come together. So repeat after me, Lord, Lord, I admit I am a sinner.
SPEAKER_05I admit I am a sinner.
SPEAKER_01I need and want your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_05I need and want your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01I accept your death as the penalty for my sin.
SPEAKER_05As the penalty for my sins, and recognize that your mercy and grace is a gift you offer to me because of your great love, because of your great love, not based on anything I've done, not based on anything I have done, cleanse meanse me, and make me your child by faith, I receive you into my heart as the Son of God, as the Son of God, and as Savior, and as Lord of my life, and as Lord of my life from now on, from now on, help me live for you with you in control, with you in control, in your precious name, your precious name, amen, amen, amen.
SPEAKER_01If you prayed this prayer, we want to know about it, we want to hear from you, we are excited, we are rejoicing, we are celebrating. There is no greater day in the kingdom of God than when the person who was once on the other side came to be on God's team and can live in eternity with God. And we know we will see with you any see you when we get to heaven, and we will work together as Christians uh here on earth. Please reach out to us through our Facebook page at our Facebook page at Hundredfold Ministry. We have our YouTube page that you can go to and reach out to us. You can go to our podcast page and send a message even there on our podcast page. We thank God for you. You are a blessing to our life, and I look forward to being with you through everything that you go through. And if you have anything, please let us know. And now here's our wonderful pastor Vanessa as she brings the worship and worship ministry on today. Amen.
SPEAKER_03Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I thank you, Minister Daniel, for that wonderful word. Then our soul, our soul is blessed. Hallelujah. Um, glory to God, glory to God. Uh, children, please do me a favor and re-get your verses that you had earlier because I want you to read them for me real quick when you have them. Um, what a blessed word. What a blessed word. The um Noah's Ark. Uh I named my son Noah, so you know I love the story. I painted the big old Noah's Ark on the wall when he was um born and his nursery, and still the word was illuminated um in a new way that I had not seen before this morning. God bless you. Wonderful word, wonderful word. When we hear the word ark, we can't help but to think of the Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God. And in those times when you're waiting and God is like you looked like the bird was sitting out and wasn't ready yet and had to come back. Sometimes we're waiting when we're like, I want to be healed from this trauma, I want to be healed over this thing. You can fall, you can fall and spread something in until in a week or two. We've learned to wait for that. You can spread it in your hand or something, it takes two months. We've learned to wait even for that. When I had my babies, the body's never the same, okay? So I'm still dealing with some things, but the majority of things, it could take like maybe I don't know, maybe a month and a half, even up to four months, to wear it's like, oh wait, I'm regular again, I'm moving, my inside core is strong again. We've learned to wait for that. But you all, when the waiting becomes years, maybe uh death of a parent or a death of a child, maybe abuse when you were a child, when something was taken, a sudden loss of a job or a divorce, when those things happen where it's like, oh wait, now it's now is it years, but you think you're done, and it's still not yet. When the ground was dry, that first when the ground is dry, it's the surface level dry. When the earth was dry, it was entirely dry. Oh, am I entirely dry? Oh, wait, it's just the surface dry. We run to God, we keep returning to the ark, we return to God in Jesus' name because Jesus is the only way. As we go into worship, as we go into the presence of the Lord, love and sincerity and worship to the Lord is the quickest way to get back to the heart, to get back to safety, to let down those fists that say, God, I just want to be healed. I I don't want to keep going back and forth, I don't want to talk about it anymore, I don't want to deal with it. Okay, God, I released my fists and I turned it into upraised hands and I worship you, Lord. When you say, look at it and be healed some more, I will be vulnerable. When you say I'm not quite ready, I won't be so frustrated, my healing stops. I will release because I'm safe in your arms as we worship, make yourself vulnerable. I told you I had a stress-out week. I can't stand being like, oh, wait, I'm frustrated. Everybody can see my imperfections, but God loves it. He says, In your weakness, I am made strong. And when you're weak and you're vulnerable, and the thing you just don't like the most is all around, it's the perfect time to lift up your eyes to our perfect God and say, God, I'm with you. I'm in your presence, I magnify your name. I cried out to you, and you heard me and I heard you.
SPEAKER_00Amen. Thank you for joining us this week, and I encourage you to join our Facebook page where we keep you updated on what's going on. You can watch some past services, and you'll have the opportunity to see the whole family as we have grown and flourished in this ministry. You can also find us on YouTube on our channel at Hundredfold Ministry. Finally, if you feel led in the spirit to support our ministry in prayer, we accept your love and care. If you would like to support our ministry financially, we have ZellQuy at Hundredfoldministry at gmail.com and via Cash App at Dollar Sign Worship the Lord. We look forward to being with you next week. And just remember, God loves you more than anything.