WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:05.065 I'll say this about the election this is the primary election. 00:00:05.065 --> 00:00:06.988 Not everybody knows what the primary is. 00:00:06.988 --> 00:00:09.067 The primary is when we pick the candidates. 00:00:09.067 --> 00:00:12.785 Each party picks the candidates that they want to run in the general election. 00:00:12.785 --> 00:00:22.027 So this is the most important of the two, because once you pick your candidates to run, that's what you got to pick from, and so you want to choose wisely. 00:00:22.027 --> 00:00:24.987 And the voter guides that we're providing. 00:00:24.987 --> 00:00:46.966 I cannot, in godly conscience, good conscience, give you a voter guide where there are any Democrats on it, and not every Republican is going to be a godly candidate, but the Republican Party, the planks of the Republican Party, is the party that more closely aligns with God's word, and so that is where we're going to find the best picks. 00:00:46.966 --> 00:00:49.965 And that's what I got to say about that. 00:00:50.828 --> 00:00:51.408 But let's pray. 00:00:51.408 --> 00:00:54.429 Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. 00:00:54.429 --> 00:00:57.326 Thank you, holy Ghost, for revelation, knowledge. 00:00:57.326 --> 00:01:02.408 Thank you for giving me utterance, helping me to speak the words that you once spoke in tonight. 00:01:02.408 --> 00:01:16.030 I pray that everybody, under the sound of my voice, will hear exactly what they need to hear, words that will help them, encourage them, help them live a victorious life and obtain their promise, and I thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen. 00:01:16.030 --> 00:01:43.926 Well, it's been 20 weeks since we heard the prophecy that was delivered on Rosh Hashanah in 2019, september 29th 2019, on the evening service 20 weeks ago, and I'm going to recap that word that was given in the scriptures that prefaced that. 00:01:43.926 --> 00:01:55.805 The title to tonight's message is your Course of Action, and so I want you to be thinking about your course of action through the ministry tonight. 00:01:55.805 --> 00:02:04.909 God gave us something and he put something out in front of us, and there is a course of action that we've got to take to go get it. 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:13.367 And so September 29th it was a Sunday evening service, pastor Redd, out of Deuteronomy, chapter 11. 00:02:13.367 --> 00:02:35.721 In verse 10, it says for the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot as a vegetable garden, but the land which you cross over to possess is the land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord, your God, cares. 00:02:35.721 --> 00:02:41.788 The eyes of the Lord, your God, are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. 00:02:41.788 --> 00:02:51.707 And God said that night that we have a common inheritance and that each one of us has an individual inheritance. 00:02:51.707 --> 00:02:59.705 And God is watching over those inheritances and he longingly looks and observes our land and marks all that's in it. 00:02:59.705 --> 00:03:04.189 He brings it to its past as we speak and believe what he says. 00:03:04.189 --> 00:03:16.008 And he also said that he was releasing a fresh revelation as part of in the first part of the year, so that by the end of the year we could look back and say this is the greatest year of my life. 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:22.069 And then it went on to say God warned us. 00:03:22.069 --> 00:03:24.306 He said don't say how can this be? 00:03:24.306 --> 00:03:28.647 Things have gone on the same way that they've always gone. 00:03:28.647 --> 00:03:34.885 You don't understand my situation, you don't know what I'm going through, but God knows everything. 00:03:34.885 --> 00:03:40.045 He knows what you face, he knows what you're going through, he knows exactly what you're going through. 00:03:40.045 --> 00:03:50.466 And in the face of what you face, god said that this is the beginning of the greatest year of your life, regardless what you're facing. 00:03:50.466 --> 00:03:56.909 In the face of whatever you're facing, you say this is the greatest year of my life. 00:03:56.909 --> 00:04:01.670 So rejoice and be glad, except no other report. 00:04:01.670 --> 00:04:06.366 You're gonna get some other reports, but don't accept any other report. 00:04:06.366 --> 00:04:11.847 Only believe this word and you shall eat the good of the land. 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:30.790 And it continued on to say that some would be at some kind of a party event where other employees were coming up around them and they were saying their goodbyes, because you're leaving one place of employment and you're moving on to another, and it would be as if you went up three levels. 00:04:30.790 --> 00:04:41.367 And then there was more where he told us it's a time to add, it's a time to grow, it's a time to make room for growth and increase. 00:04:41.367 --> 00:04:57.048 That was 20 weeks ago and when God gives us something like that, that had a definite timeline on it, when we can, in one year's time, he said, you're gonna be able to look back and say this is the greatest year of my life. 00:04:57.048 --> 00:05:10.202 It's a critical thing to mark and to meditate on that word and to remember that word, to mull it over, to not forget it. 00:05:10.202 --> 00:05:12.149 Don't let these words fall to the ground. 00:05:12.259 --> 00:05:29.973 This is 20 weeks ago and there's a course of action that each one of us has to take and a course of action that this church is going to take, and we could make our way through this year and we could have hope that we're gonna have a measure of success. 00:05:29.973 --> 00:05:32.413 We're gonna have various measures of success. 00:05:32.413 --> 00:05:36.451 Some people are gonna take hold of this and run with it and have a high level of success. 00:05:36.451 --> 00:05:40.911 Other people are gonna take just a piece of it and have a smaller measure of success. 00:05:40.911 --> 00:05:49.250 But every one of us has potential to have success for this and we could hope that we're gonna have a measure of this, that a measure of it would come true. 00:05:49.884 --> 00:05:55.689 But there's a big difference between standing in hope and walking in faith A huge difference. 00:05:55.689 --> 00:06:00.007 Standing in hope will not bring about the plan of God in your life. 00:06:00.007 --> 00:06:01.487 It won't do it. 00:06:01.487 --> 00:06:03.471 Faith and action will. 00:06:03.471 --> 00:06:11.651 In fact, faith is a course of action to possess or inherit what God has already given you. 00:06:11.651 --> 00:06:14.411 There's a good definition of faith right there. 00:06:14.411 --> 00:06:18.610 It's a course of action to possess or inherit what God has given you. 00:06:18.610 --> 00:06:27.850 We learned that that word inherit in the Old Testament doesn't mean that somebody dies and because somebody died and left us in their will, that we get to inherit something. 00:06:27.850 --> 00:06:30.432 That word in the Old Testament is an active word. 00:06:30.432 --> 00:06:33.072 It means to possess by dispossession. 00:06:33.072 --> 00:06:35.752 It means to go in and take by force. 00:06:35.752 --> 00:06:44.894 It is not a passive word, and so when God says we're to inherit His promises, it doesn't mean that we stand by, hopeful that we'll get them. 00:06:44.894 --> 00:06:51.694 It means that we mix faith and action together and we go in on a course of action and take it. 00:06:51.694 --> 00:06:56.276 We don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. 00:06:58.125 --> 00:07:03.939 In Deuteronomy, chapter one, in 21, verse 21,. 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:06.189 Moses is speaking here. 00:07:06.189 --> 00:07:09.850 He says look, the Lord, your God, has set the land before you. 00:07:09.850 --> 00:07:12.211 God's put it right in front of you. 00:07:12.211 --> 00:07:17.454 Go up and possess it, as the Lord, your God of your fathers, has spoken to you. 00:07:17.454 --> 00:07:20.271 Do not fear or be discouraged. 00:07:20.271 --> 00:07:24.492 In verse 28 it says where can we go up? 00:07:24.492 --> 00:07:30.593 Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying that the people are greater and taller than we and the cities are great and fortified up to heaven. 00:07:30.593 --> 00:07:33.791 Moreover, we've seen there are giants in the land. 00:07:33.791 --> 00:07:39.435 Then Moses said do not be terrified or afraid of them. 00:07:39.435 --> 00:07:49.146 The Lord, your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt, before your eyes and in the wilderness, where you saw. 00:07:49.146 --> 00:07:55.973 The Lord, your God, carried you as a man, carried his son In all the way you went until you came to this place. 00:07:55.973 --> 00:08:08.154 Yet for all that, you did not believe the Lord, your God, who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go in the fire by night and the cloud by day. 00:08:08.154 --> 00:08:10.190 God did all these things for you. 00:08:10.190 --> 00:08:17.035 And yet here you are at the edge of the promised land, at the edge of walking in, and you're afraid to go in. 00:08:17.035 --> 00:08:21.309 You're saying it's too big, the cities are too big, the giants are too big. 00:08:23.185 --> 00:08:27.651 Just think for a minute about the logistics of moving three million Israelites through the wilderness. 00:08:27.651 --> 00:08:32.091 Not everywhere they walked was a good place to set camp. 00:08:32.091 --> 00:08:40.333 Sometimes they're walking through narrow type places and rocky places, but God led them in the way they should go. 00:08:40.333 --> 00:08:46.009 There wasn't one feeble among them when they left, and they left with all the wealth of Egypt. 00:08:46.009 --> 00:08:50.130 And God led them in the way they should go. 00:08:50.130 --> 00:09:01.993 He went before them a cloud by day, leading them along so that when they came to a place where they needed to rest, there was a wide open space where they could pitch their tents and rest. 00:09:01.993 --> 00:09:03.409 They didn't know where they were going. 00:09:03.409 --> 00:09:07.551 They would just be meandering through the desert and they wouldn't have any place to rest. 00:09:07.551 --> 00:09:14.971 But God cared for them and they said he carried them like a man carries his own son, and he carried them through the wilderness. 00:09:16.825 --> 00:09:20.873 Psalm 32.8 says I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. 00:09:20.873 --> 00:09:23.009 I will guide you with my eye. 00:09:23.009 --> 00:09:30.149 The Holy Ghost is our guide, he's our comfort, he's our advocate, our teacher, our strengthener, our help, our standby. 00:09:30.149 --> 00:09:31.628 He's fully dependable. 00:09:31.628 --> 00:09:45.994 Jesus said to his disciples that the Holy Spirit was coming, but the Holy Spirit would guide us in all truth and that he doesn't speak of himself, but he speaks whatever he hears of the Father. 00:09:45.994 --> 00:09:54.053 The Father gives him the things and the Holy Ghost speaks to our Spirit on the inside and we can know what the Father knows by the Holy Ghost. 00:09:54.053 --> 00:09:56.130 He will guide us in all truth. 00:09:57.465 --> 00:09:58.447 Now I'll tell you a little story. 00:09:58.447 --> 00:10:06.950 A couple of years ago we like to go down to Corpus Christi that's where I'm from and a couple of years ago our family went down there. 00:10:06.950 --> 00:10:20.734 We stayed near Port Aransas and I took Benziman fishing and we got on one of these bigger fishing boats where people pay money to come on and they provide the pole and the bait and everything and they take you out there. 00:10:20.734 --> 00:10:22.269 So there's a bunch of strangers on the boat. 00:10:22.269 --> 00:10:24.691 I don't remember how many people were on there. 00:10:24.691 --> 00:10:25.653 It was kind of a big boat. 00:10:25.653 --> 00:10:41.312 There might have been 60 or 80 people on that fishing boat and we got out there and we headed out and we were two hours out into the Gulf of Mexico and that boat moves at a pretty good clip. 00:10:41.312 --> 00:10:45.135 It's moving about 15, maybe as much as 20 knots. 00:10:45.135 --> 00:10:54.315 But we were 35, 40 miles offshore a couple of hours and the captain maneuvers the boat. 00:10:54.384 --> 00:10:56.110 You can't see anything out there, just water. 00:10:56.110 --> 00:10:59.673 I mean we passed way beyond where you can see shore. 00:10:59.673 --> 00:11:02.690 We went through all the oil tankers that were at anchor out there. 00:11:02.690 --> 00:11:03.626 We went to. 00:11:03.626 --> 00:11:05.947 You couldn't even see the last one that was out there. 00:11:05.947 --> 00:11:08.251 So there's nothing but water out there. 00:11:08.251 --> 00:11:11.210 Maybe there's an oil rig off in the distance, but there's nothing but water. 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:14.750 There are no landmarks out there, no water marks, no X marks, the spot. 00:11:16.304 --> 00:11:24.374 He's got GPS, he's got his experience and he's got a fish finder that sees where the fish are below the surface through sonar. 00:11:24.374 --> 00:11:38.370 But he went right to a particular spot out there and he maneuvered over it and then he put the boat in reverse and kind of spun it around a little bit and moved over about 30 feet this way and then back over. 00:11:38.370 --> 00:11:38.792 This way. 00:11:38.792 --> 00:11:40.250 I mean, he fine tuned it. 00:11:40.250 --> 00:11:43.909 He got that boat positioned precisely over a particular point. 00:11:43.909 --> 00:11:52.932 Something underwater, there was a structure, there was a reef, there was a sunken something under there, something that he positioned that boat directly over. 00:11:53.924 --> 00:12:04.288 And then he dropped the anchor and he backed down to set the anchor and killed the engine and he instructed everybody through the loudspeaker to go ahead and bait your hooks. 00:12:04.288 --> 00:12:14.214 And then there was a little giggle over the speaker system as he's talking on the radio and he says deck hands, get ready. 00:12:14.214 --> 00:12:17.691 And then he gives some specific instructions. 00:12:17.691 --> 00:12:21.551 He says everybody, you can go ahead and hang your poles over the edge of the boat. 00:12:21.551 --> 00:12:30.158 I want you to release the line, count to eight and then set the line right there. 00:12:30.158 --> 00:12:31.041 Don't go any further. 00:12:31.041 --> 00:12:34.293 You go eight to 10, eight to 10 on the count, don't go any deeper. 00:12:34.293 --> 00:12:34.794 And that's it. 00:12:34.794 --> 00:12:36.633 That can's get ready. 00:12:36.633 --> 00:12:46.419 And he laughed again and as everybody put their lines overboard, I helped Benjamin get his line over and we counted it eight and I helped him set the drag on that. 00:12:46.419 --> 00:12:57.256 And as soon as we did that, I grabbed my pole and I'm about to do the same and Ben's going, dad, as he's sliding to the rail of the boat and that pole has been over the edge. 00:12:57.950 --> 00:13:09.017 Everyone on the boat hooked up at the same time, everyone had a fish on at the same time and the deckhands were hopping to try to pull these fish on board the boat. 00:13:09.017 --> 00:13:12.419 And it was just a madhouse on that boat. 00:13:12.419 --> 00:13:14.096 I've never seen anything like it. 00:13:14.096 --> 00:13:19.933 In 15 minutes the boat went beyond its legal limit for the catch that day. 00:13:19.933 --> 00:13:26.197 Fish were flying over the edge of the boat Big snapper, big red snapper. 00:13:26.197 --> 00:13:39.476 So, ben, you know Ben's, you know at that time he was about that tall and that snapper was about half his height and so he's struggling in the picture to hold up this thing by the gills and it's about half as tall as he is. 00:13:39.476 --> 00:13:41.336 But 15 minutes we limited out. 00:13:44.070 --> 00:13:45.375 The Holy Ghost is our guide. 00:13:45.375 --> 00:13:48.857 He will position you and your boat. 00:13:48.857 --> 00:13:51.197 He will tell you how deep to go. 00:13:51.197 --> 00:13:53.697 He'll give you very specific instructions. 00:13:53.697 --> 00:13:55.956 God will fill your boat if you'll let him. 00:13:55.956 --> 00:14:03.599 I think it was more exciting than you'll let on. 00:14:03.599 --> 00:14:05.336 God will fill your boat if you'll let him. 00:14:05.336 --> 00:14:06.975 I got excited about those fish. 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:10.557 Think about the promise, what God said we could have. 00:14:10.557 --> 00:14:36.640 He will fill you up if you'll let him, but we've got to follow the instructions and we've got to have faith and confidence in his leading and guidance in two ways that his leading and guidance is one available for us and two, that it's good for us, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. 00:14:36.640 --> 00:14:41.076 There are plans for good, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 00:14:41.076 --> 00:14:44.916 God has good plans for us. 00:14:44.916 --> 00:14:52.578 In Proverbs 16, nine it says that a man will plan his way, but the Lord will direct your footsteps. 00:14:52.578 --> 00:14:55.654 It's not bad to have a plan. 00:14:55.654 --> 00:14:57.615 I think it's good to have a plan. 00:14:57.615 --> 00:15:02.336 Without a plan, you have no way to measure your success or your progress along that plan. 00:15:02.336 --> 00:15:08.436 Without a plan, you go all different directions, and so it's a good thing to have a plan. 00:15:12.049 --> 00:15:13.835 But what is your course of action? 00:15:13.835 --> 00:15:18.457 To obtain the promises or to inherit the land that he said we could possess? 00:15:18.457 --> 00:15:20.294 What is your course of action? 00:15:20.294 --> 00:15:21.793 What do you need? 00:15:21.793 --> 00:15:23.855 What would make this the greatest year? 00:15:23.855 --> 00:15:29.139 Yet If you're gonna look back on this and say this is the greatest year of my life, what is that? 00:15:29.139 --> 00:15:42.793 You know, we've got these red envelopes here where everybody's written down a description of what that looks like, so that we can go back and compare notes with what God said we can have and what we're looking back on, the testimonies of what we've obtained. 00:15:42.793 --> 00:15:44.975 And so what does that look like for you? 00:15:44.975 --> 00:15:46.134 What's your course of action? 00:15:46.134 --> 00:15:47.433 Do you need a house? 00:15:47.433 --> 00:15:50.974 Well, a good course of action would be to start looking for one. 00:15:50.974 --> 00:15:52.494 Do you need a car? 00:15:52.494 --> 00:15:54.254 Start looking for one. 00:15:54.254 --> 00:15:55.633 Do you need health? 00:15:55.633 --> 00:15:57.475 Start acting healthy. 00:15:57.475 --> 00:16:25.495 Doty Osteen, diagnosed with stage four cancer that was spreading through it was systemic, spreading throughout her entire body was given a death sentence and she got up every morning and prepared meals and prepared breakfast and did the house cleaning and didn't go to bed throughout the day, didn't go to bed early, she stayed up with her family and did all of her duties as a mom and a wife and she acted healthy. 00:16:25.495 --> 00:16:33.979 And it didn't come overnight, but it was a couple of year battle to get through that, but she won and she's healthy today. 00:16:35.669 --> 00:16:37.615 What do you need and what's your course of action? 00:16:37.615 --> 00:16:40.816 Whatever it is, it starts with seeking. 00:16:40.816 --> 00:16:49.159 If you're standing around waiting for God to do something, he's waiting for you to put faith and action together and do something. 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:51.157 Well, I suggest you start seeking. 00:16:51.157 --> 00:16:53.054 That's a good place to start. 00:16:53.054 --> 00:17:03.619 So I said it's a good thing to make a plan, but I also suggest that if you're gonna make a plan, write it in pencil and give God the eraser. 00:17:03.619 --> 00:17:09.516 Be willing to change your plan and bend to what God has for you to do. 00:17:09.516 --> 00:17:13.218 Okay, pencil your plan, but let God have your eraser. 00:17:15.054 --> 00:17:18.863 And I read a scripture this morning for the offering. 00:17:18.863 --> 00:17:23.058 I'll read it again right now in Philippians 2, verse 12. 00:17:23.058 --> 00:17:40.938 It says this therefore, my beloved brethren, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure. 00:17:40.938 --> 00:17:52.494 Another way to say that is to pursue salvation, or pursue what God has already provided for you, at the same time honoring God and putting Him first in your life. 00:17:52.494 --> 00:18:03.898 It's not that you're earning your salvation we don't get salvation by works but work out your own salvation or pursue that salvation, what God has already provided through His Son, jesus Christ. 00:18:03.898 --> 00:18:12.532 And in verse 14, it says do all things without complaining, no grumbling, no murmuring, no complaining about it on Facebook. 00:18:12.532 --> 00:18:19.955 Well, it didn't say that in the scripture, but that's included and without disputing. 00:18:21.750 --> 00:18:29.836 So that word disputing it does not only mean an argument between people, but it's an internal dispute as well. 00:18:29.836 --> 00:18:31.815 It's what goes on in your brain. 00:18:31.815 --> 00:18:39.836 It's where you think, yeah, god can provide a way, but is he gonna provide a way for me? 00:18:39.836 --> 00:18:41.316 Is he willing to provide a way? 00:18:41.316 --> 00:18:42.193 I know he can. 00:18:42.193 --> 00:18:42.916 Is he willing? 00:18:42.916 --> 00:18:45.317 So you can have an internal dispute over God's willingness. 00:18:45.317 --> 00:18:50.135 You can have an internal dispute over whether God is willing for you to have that thing. 00:18:50.135 --> 00:18:59.736 You can have an internal dispute about how God is gonna provide something, and it can generate all kinds of doubt and question in your brain. 00:18:59.736 --> 00:19:13.594 And so it says do all things without complaining, without disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. 00:19:13.594 --> 00:19:15.454 God wants you to shine. 00:19:15.454 --> 00:19:18.336 He wants you to be set apart and to be different. 00:19:18.336 --> 00:19:20.715 He wants you to be blessed. 00:19:20.715 --> 00:19:31.493 It is not a good testimony to people around you if they find out that you're children of God and you're not blessed. 00:19:31.493 --> 00:19:36.060 It is not a good testimony of the Father if you're not blessed. 00:19:36.060 --> 00:19:38.915 So he wants you to be blessed. 00:19:38.915 --> 00:19:46.596 And so sometimes that internal dialogue can keep you out of the blessing. 00:19:46.596 --> 00:19:53.894 It causes you to waver and to really not know, and so there are some things you can do about that not knowing. 00:19:53.894 --> 00:19:57.355 That will help you to know, and we'll talk about some of those things a little bit later. 00:19:58.869 --> 00:20:19.203 Whenever I'm faced with a decision, my tendency as an engineer is to make a spreadsheet, and sometimes there's a corresponding drawing or two that goes with that, and I will look at that data every which way I can and I will analyze that and I will overanalyze that. 00:20:19.203 --> 00:20:38.451 I was talking to another engineer here recently and I said I'm real good at making spreadsheets but I almost never make a decision because I think about it way too long and I look at it so many different ways and I can talk myself right out of ever making a decision, let alone a good one. 00:20:38.451 --> 00:20:50.515 I can talk myself out of making a decision, but the best way I know to make a good decision when you're faced with a big decision is to break it up into smaller steps. 00:20:50.515 --> 00:21:07.015 Whatever you're faced with, don't take it in one giant leap, because you might miss it and you might fall, but if you take a little step and kind of just put your toe in the water and then check your peace, because God will give you peace. 00:21:07.015 --> 00:21:23.280 Your spirit witnesses with the Holy Spirit whether it's right or not, and your spirit will never agree with something outside of God's plan for your life. 00:21:23.280 --> 00:21:29.451 And so that's when you're going to feel uncomfortable, the moment you take a little step and go the wrong direction. 00:21:29.451 --> 00:21:36.037 And it's no big deal because all you got to do is go back the other way and try another step in a different direction. 00:21:36.037 --> 00:21:38.695 God will help you and you can have peace in a direction. 00:21:38.695 --> 00:21:42.212 Don't worry about anything. 00:21:42.212 --> 00:21:44.219 Instead, pray about everything. 00:21:44.219 --> 00:21:48.538 Tell God what you need and then thank Him for what he's done. 00:21:48.538 --> 00:21:51.534 Don't worry about anything. 00:21:51.534 --> 00:21:52.837 Pray about everything. 00:21:52.837 --> 00:21:53.530 Follow peace. 00:21:55.309 --> 00:21:59.278 In Romans 8, it says that as many are led by the spirit of God. 00:21:59.278 --> 00:22:00.781 These are the sons of God. 00:22:00.781 --> 00:22:02.915 Are we not all God's kids? 00:22:02.915 --> 00:22:06.615 Do you have the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of you? 00:22:06.615 --> 00:22:08.710 Okay, then. 00:22:08.710 --> 00:22:10.616 We are spirit-led creatures. 00:22:10.616 --> 00:22:21.356 We can be led away by our brain, we can be led away by our emotions, but you'll never miss it if you follow the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. 00:22:21.356 --> 00:22:45.597 So here's an example of three people who followed God and did very unreasonable things Noah, being divinely warned by God, built a boat because there was a flood coming, and yet no one had seen rain yet ever. 00:22:45.597 --> 00:22:50.499 This was before the days of rain, and he didn't build a dinghy. 00:22:50.499 --> 00:22:55.397 He built a very big boat and spent a hundred plus years doing it. 00:22:55.397 --> 00:23:01.220 Abraham said to his wife pack up the house, honey, we're moving. 00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:04.357 Oh, where are we moving to? 00:23:04.357 --> 00:23:05.310 I don't know. 00:23:05.310 --> 00:23:14.618 Derek Coontz, that's not in the Bible, but this is a testimony. 00:23:15.769 --> 00:23:29.227 When he met Carol before they were married, he moved out of his apartment and into his athletic office and stacked up the boxes in the corner, acting. 00:23:29.227 --> 00:23:30.731 This was his course of action. 00:23:30.731 --> 00:23:47.593 He knew that he was going to marry Carol and he knew that she was not going to leave this church, and so that meant that he was going to have to come here to do it and that if he was going to come here to marry Carol, he'd have to have a job here, and so he expected to find one. 00:23:47.593 --> 00:23:57.396 When he got here, his course of action was I'm packing up the house, I have nowhere to live, I'm homeless and I'm going to live in my office, the athletic office. 00:23:57.396 --> 00:23:59.531 And I don't think he had permission to do it. 00:23:59.531 --> 00:24:07.141 His course of action led him here, and they've long since been married. 00:24:07.141 --> 00:24:13.186 That was God's plan for their life and he had to find the course of action. 00:24:13.186 --> 00:24:15.575 But it was a very unreasonable thing that he did. 00:24:15.575 --> 00:24:20.335 God doesn't do things according to our reason. 00:24:23.569 --> 00:24:26.496 Some unlikely people that did some things. 00:24:26.496 --> 00:24:27.719 They followed God's plan. 00:24:27.719 --> 00:24:35.221 God called Gideon a mighty warrior, and he called Gideon a mighty warrior. 00:24:35.221 --> 00:24:41.595 At the moment he was hiding from the Midianites, threshing a little bit of grain in a wine press where he couldn't be seen doing it. 00:24:41.595 --> 00:24:44.118 And God called him a mighty warrior. 00:24:49.150 --> 00:24:57.798 Gideon was the least of his father's house and they were part of the least tribe of Israel, and so he had plenty of excuses to present to God. 00:24:57.798 --> 00:25:00.897 Moses presented excuses to God. 00:25:00.897 --> 00:25:05.861 He was called the Deliverer, and yet he was a fugitive and a stutterer and couldn't speak. 00:25:05.861 --> 00:25:09.778 He'd been hanging out with the sheep all those years and all he could do was bad. 00:25:09.778 --> 00:25:13.355 He spoke sheep, but he didn't speak much else. 00:25:13.355 --> 00:25:29.084 Abraham and Sarah were too old, david was too young and he killed Goliath when all of Israel was afraid of Goliath. 00:25:30.190 --> 00:25:31.555 So those are unlikely people. 00:25:31.555 --> 00:25:39.603 Their natural state did not meet the qualifications to do what God had them do. 00:25:39.603 --> 00:25:44.459 It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says Lord. 00:25:44.459 --> 00:25:51.480 It's not in your natural ability or talent to do any of that, so just forget all of that. 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:55.078 Forget even making excuses about that, because it doesn't matter. 00:25:55.078 --> 00:26:02.833 Your lack doesn't matter to God, because what he has for you will help you accomplish his plan for your life. 00:26:05.109 --> 00:26:07.990 Here's one more unlikely candidate Me. 00:26:07.990 --> 00:26:11.373 My dad was a preacher. 00:26:11.373 --> 00:26:14.876 I've seen the people that he ministered to. 00:26:14.876 --> 00:26:15.592 They're crazy. 00:26:15.592 --> 00:26:19.994 I grew up with that. 00:26:19.994 --> 00:26:22.416 We had prayer meetings in our house. 00:26:22.416 --> 00:26:27.319 I was embarrassed to have friends over at the house because my dad might pray for them. 00:26:29.490 --> 00:26:31.517 I didn't want to have anything to do with ministry. 00:26:31.517 --> 00:26:34.035 I wanted to do anything else. 00:26:34.035 --> 00:26:36.894 I hated public speaking. 00:26:36.894 --> 00:26:50.223 I was terrible at it and I really didn't like people, especially groups of them, large groups of them in one place. 00:26:50.223 --> 00:26:51.412 I really didn't like them. 00:26:51.412 --> 00:27:01.990 Be careful what you say I won't do or I can't do, because we provide all kinds of entertainment for God. 00:27:01.990 --> 00:27:11.534 I ran away from God. 00:27:11.534 --> 00:27:18.398 That was stupid because he loves to play hide and seek. 00:27:18.398 --> 00:27:22.454 It's true he does. 00:27:22.454 --> 00:27:23.880 He says seek and you'll find. 00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:25.394 Okay, it's your turn. 00:27:25.394 --> 00:27:26.818 You hide and I'll seek. 00:27:26.818 --> 00:27:27.352 I see you. 00:27:27.352 --> 00:27:29.652 You can't get away. 00:27:36.690 --> 00:27:44.576 In 1 Corinthians, chapter one, I'm going to read this out of the message, and let me just apologize in advance if I offend you. 00:27:44.576 --> 00:27:48.673 Chapter one, verse 28. 00:27:48.673 --> 00:27:54.459 Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. 00:27:54.459 --> 00:28:04.998 I don't see many of the brightest and the best among you, not many influential, not many high society families. 00:28:04.998 --> 00:28:13.013 Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses? 00:28:13.013 --> 00:28:19.492 He chose the nobodies to expose the hollow pretensions of the somebodies. 00:28:19.492 --> 00:28:25.953 That make it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. 00:28:25.953 --> 00:28:34.112 Everything that we have, right thinking and right living, a clean state, a fresh start, comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. 00:28:34.112 --> 00:28:40.493 That's why we have this saying If you're gonna blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God. 00:28:44.226 --> 00:28:49.671 You know it's easy for us to have thoughts that say that we don't deserve something, we don't deserve this. 00:28:49.671 --> 00:28:50.674 That's not for me. 00:28:50.674 --> 00:28:54.278 I'm just a simple person. 00:28:54.278 --> 00:28:59.345 We grew up simple, I grew up simple, but that doesn't mean we have to stay that way. 00:28:59.345 --> 00:29:00.490 I don't need that. 00:29:00.490 --> 00:29:07.531 It's easy for me to be content with what I have, and we should be content with what we have. 00:29:07.531 --> 00:29:09.147 You know why? 00:29:09.147 --> 00:29:12.512 Because all of heaven belongs to us. 00:29:12.512 --> 00:29:15.855 That's a lot to be content about. 00:29:15.855 --> 00:29:21.450 We're not to be content with what's less than what Jesus gave us. 00:29:21.450 --> 00:29:24.614 We're not to be content with less than what he did for us. 00:29:27.285 --> 00:29:30.654 It's easy to give and sometimes it's hard to receive. 00:29:30.654 --> 00:29:36.332 At least for me it's been that way, because I don't feel like I need anything. 00:29:36.332 --> 00:29:40.413 I asked Ben the other day what do you want for your birthday? 00:29:40.413 --> 00:29:41.248 Wow, I don't know. 00:29:41.248 --> 00:29:46.512 He couldn't really articulate anything that he needed. 00:29:46.512 --> 00:29:47.667 He's blessed. 00:29:47.667 --> 00:29:49.910 I love my son, we love our son. 00:29:49.910 --> 00:29:50.732 We take care of him. 00:29:50.732 --> 00:29:54.054 Graham and Pop really go over the top and spoil him. 00:29:54.054 --> 00:29:56.971 That's why he doesn't need anything. 00:29:56.971 --> 00:30:00.211 That's why I have nothing I can give him is because they already gave it. 00:30:03.704 --> 00:30:05.451 But sometimes it's hard to receive something. 00:30:05.451 --> 00:30:12.891 When somebody wants to give you something, somebody wants to put some cash in your hand and you're like I don't need that. 00:30:12.891 --> 00:30:21.111 Well, just shut up and receive it and say thank you, because they might need to give it more than you need to receive it. 00:30:21.111 --> 00:30:25.313 It might not be about you and what you need or don't need. 00:30:25.313 --> 00:30:28.291 It might be because they just want to sow something. 00:30:28.291 --> 00:30:37.513 It might be because they see something in you and they want to sow towards that, because they want some of that in their life. 00:30:37.513 --> 00:30:42.731 So we have to learn to receive. 00:30:42.731 --> 00:30:45.854 We have to expand our ability to receive what God has. 00:30:45.854 --> 00:30:53.053 That's the biggest limiting factor right there, because what God wants to give us, we don't yet have the capability to receive it all. 00:30:53.053 --> 00:30:55.089 We haven't made room enough. 00:30:55.089 --> 00:30:59.528 It's not that we can't, it's that we largely haven't made room enough. 00:31:01.825 --> 00:31:11.250 Some people are just guilty and they feel like their sins from a past life, their past life of sin, are catching up with them. 00:31:11.250 --> 00:31:17.592 And I say that that is only possible for your sins of your past life. 00:31:17.592 --> 00:31:21.855 You know you were a sinner and now you are a new creature. 00:31:21.855 --> 00:31:31.133 And it is possible for the sins of your past life to catch up with you if you're standing in hope, because you're not going anywhere standing in hope. 00:31:31.133 --> 00:31:41.865 But if you're actively moving and walking in faith, if you're running your race and pressing towards the mark of the high call, those sins will never catch up with you. 00:31:41.865 --> 00:31:42.810 They can't. 00:31:42.810 --> 00:31:53.107 If you're stationary and stagnant and locked in one place and refusing to move, yeah, you might suffer some consequences, but if you're moving towards God, they can't catch you. 00:31:53.107 --> 00:31:59.532 In fact, there's one thing that can catch you, and that is the blessings of God. 00:31:59.532 --> 00:32:06.188 They will come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord, your God, at Adodara. 00:32:06.228 --> 00:32:06.891 I'm 28. 00:32:06.891 --> 00:32:11.671 You know I could scroll, scroll. 00:32:11.671 --> 00:32:13.127 This is paper, I'm not scrolling. 00:32:13.127 --> 00:32:18.971 I could skim through here and read some of the blessings Bless shall you be in the city. 00:32:18.971 --> 00:32:20.289 Bless shall you be in the field. 00:32:20.289 --> 00:32:26.209 The fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, your basket and eating bowl. 00:32:26.209 --> 00:32:29.228 Bless coming in, bless going out. 00:32:29.228 --> 00:32:54.550 The Lord will establish you as a holy people himself and he will grant you plenty of goods and the fruit of your body and the increase of your livestock and the produce of your ground and the land which the Lord's word of your fathers, the Lord, will open to you his good treasures, the heavens, to reign to your land in its season and bless the work of your hand. 00:32:55.125 --> 00:32:57.432 It's loaded with all kinds of blessings in there. 00:32:57.432 --> 00:33:02.134 So which one of these blessings are you not qualified for? 00:33:02.134 --> 00:33:06.791 Are there any in there that you are not qualified for? 00:33:06.791 --> 00:33:09.048 The answer ought to be no. 00:33:09.048 --> 00:33:14.054 You are qualified for it because you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 00:33:14.054 --> 00:33:29.648 Quit relating to yourself as the sinner and relate to yourself as the new creature, the one saved by grace, the one who's been made righteous, so that all of these blessings chase me down and catch up to me. 00:33:29.648 --> 00:33:33.311 My blessings are chasing me down. 00:33:35.744 --> 00:33:41.114 So we could just all agree that we're all unlikely candidates before we were saved. 00:33:41.114 --> 00:33:50.211 But now we are destined for greatness and we are fulfilling the destiny by inheriting God's promise. 00:33:50.211 --> 00:34:01.708 We are fulfilling the destiny by inheriting God's promise, but we've gotta follow that inward witness, the spirit of truth. 00:34:01.708 --> 00:34:05.131 He'll guide us, he'll give you the specific instructions. 00:34:05.131 --> 00:34:09.891 Sometimes you don't even get the instructions until you start going somewhere. 00:34:09.891 --> 00:34:17.251 You can't steer a parked car, but if you're moving a little bit you can steer it. 00:34:17.251 --> 00:34:25.190 So sometimes it takes us to be moving in a direction and be willing for the Holy Ghost to steer you a new direction. 00:34:25.190 --> 00:34:27.210 But put some action to it. 00:34:27.210 --> 00:34:29.271 Give God something to work with. 00:34:29.271 --> 00:34:35.474 The inward witness is the revelatory sense of your spirit. 00:34:35.474 --> 00:34:38.472 It is not a mental reasoning and it's not an emotion. 00:34:38.472 --> 00:34:49.074 It's the revelation where you realize what God wants you to do, what God's plan for you is, what your next course of action is. 00:34:49.074 --> 00:34:53.590 And so these are some steps to know your next course of action. 00:34:55.364 --> 00:34:57.211 Number one is feeding on his word. 00:34:57.211 --> 00:35:01.451 It is the spirit who gives life. 00:35:01.451 --> 00:35:03.010 The flesh profits nothing. 00:35:03.010 --> 00:35:07.552 Jesus said the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. 00:35:07.552 --> 00:35:16.414 And then he said man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live. 00:35:16.414 --> 00:35:32.309 Man shall not live, or man shall not just survive, man shall not just barely make it, but man shall thrive by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 00:35:32.309 --> 00:35:42.132 Ephesians 5, 17 says be not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 00:35:42.132 --> 00:35:47.650 It's a good idea to know what the will of the Lord is for your life. 00:35:47.650 --> 00:35:53.949 So we've got this written word and we live by this word. 00:35:53.949 --> 00:35:58.574 But we also live by the word that comes alive. 00:35:59.364 --> 00:36:11.431 You live by revelation word, the now word, the word that applies to your specific situation in your life, and that prophecy that was delivered 20 weeks ago is one worth meditating on. 00:36:11.431 --> 00:36:13.632 We ought to meditate on this written word. 00:36:13.632 --> 00:36:18.710 But God gave us something for now and it came from His word. 00:36:18.710 --> 00:36:25.117 But it was specific to us now, and so we ought to meditate on that. 00:36:25.117 --> 00:36:28.675 Don't let that one slip. 00:36:28.675 --> 00:36:43.876 Another step is pray much in other tongues, jude 20, but beloved, building yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. 00:36:43.876 --> 00:36:46.094 1 Corinthians 14-4,. 00:36:46.094 --> 00:36:48.681 He that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself. 00:36:48.681 --> 00:36:51.898 He that prophesied edifies the church. 00:36:51.898 --> 00:36:54.898 There was prophecy delivered and it edified the church. 00:36:54.898 --> 00:37:02.123 But we ought to speak in tongues and it edifies us individually. 00:37:02.123 --> 00:37:05.117 It helps us process the plan of God in our life. 00:37:05.117 --> 00:37:05.981 It helps us know. 00:37:05.981 --> 00:37:10.922 It helps get all the inward dialogue in your brain out of the picture. 00:37:10.922 --> 00:37:13.257 It helps get your emotion out of the picture. 00:37:13.257 --> 00:37:19.182 It helps get your reasoning out so that you can receive from the Holy Spirit directly to your spirit. 00:37:19.182 --> 00:37:24.518 And what your spirit receives will then come up into your brain and you'll know the course of action to take. 00:37:29.550 --> 00:37:31.036 I'd spent a long time on boats. 00:37:31.036 --> 00:37:37.402 On boats we communicate with each other with VHF radio and it's not always the most clear communication. 00:37:37.402 --> 00:37:44.250 Sometimes it's staticky, it's a line of sight thing, so if that antenna can't see the next antenna, that connection can be lost. 00:37:44.250 --> 00:37:48.250 And so sometimes if we're wanting to know do we have a good connection? 00:37:48.250 --> 00:37:51.269 Is there anybody out there that can hear us? 00:37:51.269 --> 00:38:00.998 Sometimes I would ask for a radio check and somebody would come back and I don't know where they were out there, but they would say I hear you loud and clear. 00:38:00.998 --> 00:38:10.269 Sometimes they would say I read you five by five, because loud was on a scale of one to five and clear was on a scale of one to five. 00:38:10.269 --> 00:38:14.269 So if it was perfectly clear and plenty loud, it would be five by five. 00:38:14.269 --> 00:38:30.422 Your radio communication was five by five, and then you'd want to know well how far away, what is your location, and you can tell how well your radio is transmitting and receiving, and so we need to be able to receive from God and we got to know how well we're receiving things. 00:38:31.606 --> 00:38:32.269 Is there turmoil in your life? 00:38:32.269 --> 00:38:33.936 Is there unforgiveness? 00:38:33.936 --> 00:38:36.677 Is there a grudge that you're holding against somebody? 00:38:36.677 --> 00:38:40.269 Get that stuff out of the way. 00:38:40.269 --> 00:38:48.284 Is there sin in your life that you need to say God, I messed up, I'm sorry, I repent, I turn around and get it right and put it under the blood. 00:38:48.284 --> 00:38:49.269 Keep a short account with God. 00:38:49.269 --> 00:38:52.820 It'll help your communication stay loud and clear. 00:38:55.213 --> 00:39:03.139 You know God does not lead from behind you ever try to push a rope. 00:39:03.139 --> 00:39:06.219 It doesn't work. 00:39:06.219 --> 00:39:09.269 God didn't push the Israelites through the desert. 00:39:09.269 --> 00:39:13.269 He led them by a cloud by day and a fire by night. 00:39:13.269 --> 00:39:16.250 That cloud was protection, it was comfort for them. 00:39:16.250 --> 00:39:18.077