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Holy and faithful God. It is you who make the wilderness glad and teach dry grounds how to sing. We stand before you not as spectators, but as participants. As a people positioning themselves for your arrival. Strengthen the weak hands among us. Stabilize the trembling knees within us. Silence fear that has outlived its authority. Open our eyes where confusion has lingered. Unstop our ears where discouragement has dulled our hearing. Release movement where paralysis has settled. And restore praise where voices of life have been silent. Break forth water in every wilderness. Transform turning sand into living ground. Build a holy way among us that we may walk securely. In the way that is the truth. Come, Lord Jesus Christ. Maranata. Father, we want our deserts to bloom. Father, we don't want the deserts adjusted. We want springs of waters to rise up in the desert. That the worlds may see and know that our God is the God that does wonders. We ask you to enter our wilderness. We receive your coming. We welcome your visitation. We align with what you are already doing. In the name of Yeshua, the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. The one in whom all things begin to come alive. Father, we know you are coming. We know you are here. We know you will manifest yourself. We open up to you. Mariner. Come, Lord. We love you. Holy Spirit, take control. Thank you for your people. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. I am old now. I'm 68. So I used to preach, shout, and scream and do the dancing, jump on cheers. But I decided a few years ago, nah, I'm not doing that anymore. I will talk as a as an elder. You know, I'll speak as an elder. But believe me, God is present. I decided that my whole current structure will be to mentor leaders and to talk to people. So today we have three passages of scripture. You don't have to read it, but when you go home, read them, maybe the Lord will speak to you. Isaiah chapter 35, Psalm 146. And the prayer and praise of Mary in Luke 1. So I want to talk to you like this. What happens when God comes? I'll begin by answering it. After my message, we'll pray for the sick. We'll pray for God to answer your need. I believe in miracles. I believe that God, when God shows up, something happens. When God comes, everything blooms. Everything. When God comes, there is no more death. And this is a hard thing for us, especially given what we are experiencing in life. We tend to think that when God comes, he leaves some things incomplete. Let's try like that. When God comes, everything blooms. When God comes, everything blooms. So let's begin with Isaiah 35. You know. Can I have can I have a check and see if my my eyeglass is there? My writings are a bit too small. Alright, so I want you to write because I don't have it on top here. Let's begin with when God comes, everything blooms. But how do we prepare for the coming of God? How do we prepare for the coming of God? According to Isaiah chapter 35, gladness must arise first before God changes the landscape. That's what Isaiah chapter 35 says. Gladness, I want you to write it down if you can. Gladness rises before the landscape changes. Okay, now I know you don't know Hebrew, but I do that deliberately because I believe that the Hebrew language, especially scriptural, affects us who know God in a very unique way. So it's not a show of it, it's just like I believe that when we read the text in Hebrew, those who are believing in Jesus receive something in their soul. Of all religions in the world, we are the only ones who don't read our text in its original structure. It's okay too, because the Holy Spirit works. But sometimes it's good to remind us that it's important to hear it, right? So let's come back here. So the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It is this that the evidence of the visitation of God always begins with joy. The joy is the first evidence of divine visitation. God does not wait until your desert has turned green in order to authorize you to be glad. God's not waiting for your wilderness to change, for your circumstance to change in order to do what? To authorize gladness or joy. He releases gladness as a prophetic sign that he has already entered your story. The wilderness becomes a sanctuary of expectation. If joy is rising while the facts still look dry, it is not self-deception, you are not deceiving yourself. It is your soul detecting the footprints or the footsteps of God, the sound of God's footstep. If you are in trouble and you begin to sense joy rising up, because sometimes when joy rises up when we're in trouble, we think I am I am a hypocrite. I am really a hypocrite. What's happening? This is not right. How can I be happy when things are this difficult? Am I pretending? But I'm here to tell you this morning that if your soul stirs in joy while you are in trouble, it is the sound of the footsteps of God. Somebody say amen. This is how messianic hope works. It's a sign ahead of sight. In the church fathers, for the stream down from Jesus, somebody, there's a church father called Origin. Origin says this says joy is the recognition of God's always visiting presence. In the African tradition, the Ethiopian church worship, they say praise must rise before deliverance. So this morning, if you were in my church in Los Angeles or in my team, I will make you stand up and I will read a word and you will respond to me. I will ask you what happens when God draws near, and you will respond, gladness rises in barren places. Can we try that again? Can we try that? What happens when God draws near? Gladness rises in barren places. As a corporate body, we need to make a decree. So stay with me, we decree holy joy in dry season. Say with me, God has entered my wilderness. As an individual, if I was in my church, I would say to you, Say with me, I receive gladness now. I only heard two people. Let's try it again. I receive gladness now. God is nearer to me than my thoughts. So which means that every time gladness arises in you, hear God coming. No matter how difficult it is, no matter if it looks like everything is impossible, your joy, now we can say, Oh, I hear God coming, but actually, the footsteps of God are inside of you. That rising of gladness, that rising of expectation within you. Those are the footsteps of God. Somebody say amen. That's just one. Number two, when God comes, God restores everything abundantly. God is not a minimalist. He doesn't come and trickle down abundance. When God comes, when you hear the sound of the footsteps of joy, it means that God is coming to restore abundantly. I like the Hebrew again. I'm gonna read it not because you know it, but because I want it to what? Reverberate in your soul. It says, So it says it says this, it shall talk about the your your wilderness, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy in singing. Do you realize that Hebrew is a religion of sound? See? I said that to the people in the church yesterday. Do you realize that your faith is a faith of sound? That your context and everything is changed by sound. If you say, I don't get it, the Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. Word, sound. Your religion is a religion of sound, it's a religion of voice. Are you okay? So, so so Hebrew is such an incredible, credible, incredible structure because when we get together, we read together, we make sure our voices are heard. We read text together so that the voices of the community is heard. Because we believe that the voice of a believer carries the signature of divinity. Okay, let me just keep going. So, so so so. What are we talking about? The messianic restoration that they are still waiting for, but we have that mercenary messianic restoration is not damage control. Like I said, he's not a minimalist, he's not trying to fix stuff when God shows up, he shows up in the fullness of who he is. It's funny talking about Jesus. The Bible says, out of his fullness have we received grace upon grace. In your presence is what? Fullness of joy. When God comes, it comes in an overflow. The word we use, which I just finished teaching the other day, is the word Shafit. Shafit is the overflowing from the word Shafar, is the overflowing abundance of God's inner nature. In fact, in the culture I came of, the universe was created by God as an outflow of God's inner fullness. So the universe you live in is an expression of the generosity of God. Amen. So it's an overflow. God is not returning to his people with a manageable plan. He's not coming so you can function in a survival mode. Isaiah's language is excessive on purpose. The one thing we get to get if you if you grew up in this where I grew up, we have an exaggerative language on purpose. I think that Jews are the first penterascals because we speak bigger. Exaggeration is the language of faith. Okay, now you didn't hear me. Let me talk to these guys over here. Exaggeration is the language of faith, because God is able to do exceeding abundantly. Oh, I don't have a church in here because God is able to do abundantly more than you can ask or think. I like the Greek word, who pair. You know, this if you translate it literally in English, it means God is able to do hyperbolistically beyond anything you can think. In other words, do you know how powerful your imagination is? You can think about things that don't exist. So God is able to top whatever your thought is. So your issue is: are you thinking? Are you asking? Because God needs you to think a certain way to think beyond your capacity so that He can top it. So, which means the measure of your reception is what is only bound by the way you think. I wish I had a church. Somebody said, Jesus. Hallelujah. I'm almost there. I'm looking, I'm checking my time. Okay, gather, gather, gather. So, so so the messiah whom you believe, the language of Isaiah said, is excessive on purpose. Blossom and blossom and blossom abundantly. The messiah restores this, the person you believe in, the Lord, the master, Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus the Christ, restores in a way that rebukes hopeless realism. There are a lot of people say, I'm just being real. Check yourself. Whenever you say I'm just being real, you're being hopeless. Can I say that again? Because your statement of reality means that you don't understand that God is able to do beyond your circumstance. Your description of your circumstance binds you to hopeless reality. Isaiah's language is what? Is what is excessive on purpose. But by realistic, the means you mean to be bound, you need to be bound by my view of limitation. Okay, the Messiah restores the idea of Jesus Christ, the Master being a restorer, is a rebuke to human hopeless realism. When you expected a small improvement, God announces a new ecology. Somebody say amen. I love Irene News because he's that guy who talks about the substitution, the recapitation structure. Ah come and that's we're not in school now. But he talks about what God came to do is to restore humanity into full life. We have it in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church calls it fullness of grace. The charismatic which you're part of calls it abundant life. And the African communities from which I came from talks about communal restoration, not just individual restoration. If I was in my church, I will make a call and response. How does God restore? I will ask you. Can I ask you that? Can I ask you that? How does God restore? Let's try one more time. How does God restore together? Okay, we as a church can say we declare the end of survival faith. Can we say it together? We declare the end of survival faith. You're not living in survival mode. Let's say one more time. We the end of survival faith. We call forth flourishing instead. We call forth flourishing instant. For you as a person, say to yourself, I step out of belly enough. Say it again. Say it again. Number two, when God comes, He restores abundantly, not minimally. Number three, when God Draws near weakness becomes strength and fear loses authority. Isaiah chapter 35, verse 3 to 4. Woo! And I'm gonna read that. That was a little bit too long Hebrew stuff, but it is there, you know. So it says, strengthen the weak hands, strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble needs. Say to those who are fearful of heart, be strong, do not fear. And he says, He is your God, he will come with vengeance, with recompense, he will come and save you. That's Isaiah 35, verse 3 to 4. What does this mean? Okay, this is the idea that divine visitation always produces two simultaneous effects. When God visits you, it produces what? Two simultaneous. Is my time right? Okay, that's that's right. All right, okay. All right, so okay, that it produces what two simultaneous effects. Weakness is now it now becomes reinforced power, and fear gets dethroned. Isaiah does not speak after deliverance. Watch this. Isaiah is speaking before deliverance, he speaks because God is coming. He doesn't speak because God has already come. But God coming is the same as God already come. Right? So weak hands and trembling knees. You ready for this? Weak hands and trembling knees are not evidence of failure. See the way we've taught our brethren and we taught ourselves is if you are fearful, then it's because you're failed. If your hands are weak, it's because you failed. If your knees tremble, it's because you have failed. But those are not evidence of failure, they are evidence of a people, of a person standing at the edge of something glorious. For believers, weak hands and shaking knees is not failure. Is your bones saying there's something glorious about to happen? There's an awe that is approaching me. It's evidence of your intricate and intimate relationship with the glory that is coming. You're standing on the edge of something incredible. Look at look at this. This is the passage that Paul quotes, by the way. When he says, When I am weak, I am strong. He doesn't say when I'm weak, then God makes me strong. You know, like he says, When I am weak, I am strong. So the weakness is simultaneously power and authority. I don't have a church in here, I don't have a church, I don't have a church. Because this is this is so important. When I am weak, I am strong. The command to strengthen the knees or to strengthen the hands is not modern psychological self-help. It's not a self-help book. Do three, four, five things and you'll be alright. I'm a psychologist, so but that's that's that's not how this works. You know, because we live in a therapeutic society, we think you can make one statement or move one step and heal yourself. But the Bible's not asking you to do that. The Bible's saying that inside of what you consider weakness is the presence of a power beyond anything you're experiencing. When it is what it's an alignment with the nature of God. When God draws near, human structures must be reinforced to carry his arrival. And the reinforcement has to do with you listening to the rise of divine joy, even in the midst of trouble. It has to do with you listening to God's footstep inside of you. Somebody say hallelujah! Fear in the book of Isaiah is treated a little bit differently. Weakness is strengthened, fear is dethroned. Fear is not engaged, fear is not talked to, fear is simply dethroned, because the only thing that sits on the throne of your heart that can replace God is your fear. So most people, brethren, us, because the preacher preaches to himself too, is because fear is what gets all of us, and the worst kind of fear is anticipated fear, fear that hasn't really happened. On the throne where God shows it. So Isaiah says fear should be dethroned. So all that warfare you're doing should be against the fear that's trying to take a hold of your heart. Hallelujah. Because when they're talking about Jesus, saying Jesus came into the world to deliver those who, by fear of death, were held bondage. Emphasis on fear. Every time Jesus came around to his disciples, the first thing he said was, What? Don't fear, don't fear. The first word of God to do to Josh to Joshua, to Yeshua is what? Do not fear. Be strong and of good courage. Don't fear. Lo yeah. Do not fear. Jesus. Fear is confronted. Isaiah does not comfort fear. One of our problem as children of God is when somebody is afraid, we begin to speak comfort. But fear doesn't listen to comfort, it listens to power. Come on, clap your hand for Jesus. Make somebody make yourself useful. Sound hallelujah. He commands it to stand down because fear feeds on absence. But when God announces himself that he's coming, there's no more absence. He is your God, he says. The declaration of God's presence carries judicial weight. He comes to set things right, to repay injustice, to save his people. So together, oh my God, we will preach this verse together because I'm about to stop. God does not wait for strong people to come, he comes to strengthen people and silence fear himself. Revival, therefore, is not hysteria, it's not you screaming and shouting about God is here. It is the people learning how to stand steady and fearless because God is actively arriving. And by the way, the word arriving doesn't mean that God is far away. Okay, because sometimes English language is funny. When the Hebrew says that God is arriving, it means that God is just showing himself to you. Doesn't mean God is far away because he's not on the mountain, he's not in the valley, he's not somewhere. God is always present. But here's the issue: the presence of God can be activated by the joy of the person who believes in God. And I'm not gonna preach that, but it has always amazed me that God will say, if you do this, I will be present, but He's already present. One of the most powerful things is joy and faith. It's so simple, but because we like to complicate stuff, I like to complicate stuff. I'm a philosopher, I like to make the things that God made simple very difficult. Because we think we are smart, you know, so I'm not different from you. And God has to say, okay, son, KSS. That's what keep it simple, stupid. God likes this like, okay, son, are you done? Are you done? Keep it simple, all right? So he's not cursing me, he's just saying, you think you're that smart? Keep quiet for a second. So God's arrival is not that God is coming from a faraway place, it's that God is asking you to act with Him to make you understand the presence that is already present within within the presentification of God who will always be present. That's very Jewish, don't worry. Call and response. You're gonna answer me because I got five minutes, right? What happens when God draws near? You must answer for yourself. Every time God comes, weak hands become strong. Every time God comes, fear loses its authority. Why? Because God is not there. Oh, by the way, I'm I always laugh when I blow when I see how that passage is translated. Oh sorry. Well, I see the way the passage is translated in the English, and they go, the God who is there, but actually, there in the Hebrew, it doesn't mean God is over there, it means the God who is completely present, an enveloping presence. Jehovah's Shamma actually means God who is here and present, not the God who is there. And the word Shamma means to be present, but it also means to hear. So for us as a corporate body, we must decree strengthening in the house. We must declare stability in the midst of shaking, we must announce fierce loss of power. God is here. Salvation is both present and emotion towards overflow. So you say to yourself, I receive strength from God, I reject fierce authority over my heart. God is here, I will stand firm in his arrival. Ah, because we are we are talking about some signs and wonders and miracles. When God comes, when the Messiah comes, perception is healed and life is released. The final point. Sorry, I like the Hebrew. But it's the English says, When God comes, the eyes of the blind are open, the ears of the deaf are unstrated, the limb leap like deer, and the tongue of the mute begins to sing. The messianic structure which we believe in, we believe that the messiah has come. I believe the messiah has come. Yeshua is the messiah. The messianic structure says it that salvation begins in the restoration of your perception, how you see the world. You now begin to see with a different eye. You see with the eye of God. The first law that Jesus, first may say Jesus actually preached in Nakedomus, says this, right? It says, Except the man be born from above. I mean, I like the word born again, but the Bible doesn't really say born again. It says, Except the man be born from above. The Greek is actually born from above. Except the man be born from above, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Right? Then he proceeds, except the man be born from above, he cannot see. So the first gift of a believer is the capacity to see into the realm. And the capacity the separate is the capacity to enter. That is the capacity to go back to where you were born from, to see into the throne when you were conceived and released into creation. You are not just an earthbound creature. So he says, it what it results in what? In the restoration of power of all of perception, and it culminates in the release of life. First, eyes are opened, ears unstopped. Before bodies lit, understanding is healed. This is not again. My word that I've been using with my friends is God is not a minimalist. Messiah does not return to the people so that they can survive. God releases a movement of praise, a sound that reaches at the cellular level of your body. Whenever we, I mean, I'm a revival preacher. So whenever we preach revival, we act like when people see the truth, that revival is about seeing the truth. Awesome. Let me tell you something. Revival is about leaving again. Revival is about God opens your perception so you can move forward and worship without restrain restraint. When the Messiah comes, confusion gives way to clarity. There are other things in the passage that God restores. When God comes, the atmosphere for the miraculous opens itself up. Anyone that feels, and I'll say this to you, anyone that feels that footstep within them is a carrier of the possibility of the miraculous. Because when God comes, the way he announces himself is by unlocking the movement of joy within you. And when that is unlocked, then your weakness becomes your strength. When it is unlocked, your perception changes. When joy is unlocked, it changes your way of seeing the world. More than that, it is God's way of telling you the miracle is not out there. The miracle is in here. Because I live in here.