Waiting on God: Why Does God Make Me Wait?

 Waiting on God: Why God Makes Us Wait. 

✅What Happens as We Wait? 

✅What Happens When We Don’t?

⏳ Ever wondered why God makes us wait?

 In this episode of Every Spoken Word, we dive deep into what happens in the waiting—how God refines, prepares, and reveals purpose in the process.

 ⏳ Podcast Description:
In this episode, Dana Young shares a heartfelt and Spirit-led message on what it truly means to wait on the Lord. Through Scripture and personal reflection, she uncovers why God sometimes delays His promises, what He’s producing in us through the waiting, and the dangers of moving ahead of His timing. This message will strengthen your faith, renew your hope, and remind you that God’s “wait” is never wasted.

 
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#EverySpokenWordPodcast #WaitingOnGod #WhyGodMakesMeWait #GodsTiming #TrustingGodsPlan #WhyWaitingOnGodMatters #FaithInTheWaiting #GodsTiming #ChristianPodcast #Encouragement #HopeInChrist #PurposeInTheWait #TrustGod #SpiritualGrowth #DivineProtection #DelayedNotDenied #LoveOfJesus #MercifulGod #WhyDoesGodMakeMeWait #WaitingInGod #TrustingGod #GodsTiming #AuthorityOfChrist #Miracles #Testimony #MiracleIntervention #JesusRescuedMe #JesusSaves #SpirtualDiscernment #WordofGod   #FaithPodcast #ChristianEncouragement #HopeInTheWaiting #EverySpokenWord #SpiritualGrowth #RootsInGod #SowingSeedsofFaith #Lonliness #Lust #Surrender #TestimonyAndTransformation #ChristianPodcast #PurposeInTheWait #JesusIsFaithful #FaithOverFear #GodIsWorking #ChristianWomen #FaithJourney 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Every Spoken Word podcast. I'm so glad that you're here with me today. Um, I've been praying for you, and I believe this is such a timely message that the Lord has just so laid upon my heart, and I have never wrestled with something as hard as I have wrestled with this one. Um, but I know that I know that the Lord is calling me to step out in faith and share this with you. And I pray that it meets you right where you are, and that you hear the Lord uh speaking directly to you in your situation, and that it encourages you and gives you strength to grab a hold of his word and to grab a hold of his truth and to stand firmly in it and to know that he will bring you out and that he has good plans for your life. So I am praying and believing that the Lord will move through this mightily. So let's jump right into prayer. Let's just start out with prayer and get right into it. Father, we thank you for your presence, Lord Jesus. Father God, I just thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. I thank you for this precious time that we have together, Lord God, to come boldly before your throne. You said in your word that you know the need before it's ever made known. But we're to come boldly before you in expectation of you to move. And Lord, you know right where we are. You know us by the hairs numbered on our head, you know uh our thoughts and you know our hearts, and you love us still. You know when we get out of your will, you know when we get ahead of you, Lord God. And although those things make a mess and they're destructive, Lord, you are merciful even in those things. You are never caught off guard. You knew the mistakes we would make before we ever made them. So, Lord, I pray tonight in this podcast that you would let your Holy Spirit run rampant, that you would let the anointing of God fall all over this podcast, all over this message, and let not my voice be heard, but the voice of the Lord be heard. Let them hear you, Lord Jesus, and what you would have them to hear. Let them feel your presence, Lord God, and be strengthened and renewed by your word and by this time together, that they would feel your presence, comforting them and know exactly what you would have them to do. Like the word says, you will direct us in the way that we should go, whether we should turn to the left or to the right. Lord, we can hear and discern your voice when we spend time in your word, and when we spend time in your presence, Lord, we know your voice. You said that you are the shepherd and your sheep know your voice. So I pray in Jesus' name that you would give your people a supernatural spiritual discernment in the name of Jesus, that they would recognize your voice over the voice of the enemy, that they would hear your voice clearly, and that they would know the way that they should go, and that they would be able to walk in the authority of Jesus Christ, that they would grab a hold of the word of God, stand firm on it, that they would designate time to meet with you every single day, to have an intimate and personal relationship with you, Jesus, and that you would use the word of God to transform their minds and their lives and their hearts, Lord God, and that you would speak to them personally and intimately in that relationship with you, Jesus, that they would have a supernatural hunger for your word and a supernatural hunger for your presence and a supernatural hunger for the things of God. And Lord, if they don't have a church home that's Bible-based, anointed, Holy Spirit filled, and I'm not talking about just any church, I'm talking about a church where the Holy Spirit is alive and well running, rampant through that church, where the anointing of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit is present, because without that, Lord, it's we can't make it. We need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The conviction of the Holy Spirit brings us to repentance, causes us to cry out from our hearts and to turn from our sin and to get transformed, our hearts transformed, our minds renewed in your word. And God, I just pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, that you give every one of us a discipline to meet with you every single day. Like the Bible says in Ephesians, with the putting on the full armor of God, we would never leave the home undressed. We would never leave our home undressed. I hope we shouldn't leave the home unprepared for the battle. We shouldn't leave our homes unprepared. And so I just pray over this, over this time together, that you would use this time to draw every heart near to you to speak what you would want to speak, to bring healing, to bring deliverance, to bring supernatural resources. And Lord, I just pray that you would have your way, that your glory would be revealed through this, and that we surrender it all to you. I pray that every heart would be open to what you have to say right now in the name of Jesus. I pray that the eyes would be open, the scales would be removed in Jesus' name, the plugs would be removed from the ears, they would hear what you would have them to hear in Jesus' name, and that their hearts would be softened, Lord God, and they'd have a supernatural will and hunger to obey you and to walk in that. Lord, I just pray that the soil of their soul would be receptive to what you have to say in this message, Lord Jesus. Let it penetrate and pierce what it needs to penetrate and pierce, and let deliverance come forth, let healing come forth, let strength come forth, let your blessings come forth, let salvation come forth, peace, joy, and all the fruits of the Spirit and all the things that you have stored up for them, all the goodness and mercy and grace that you have for them, the victory that you already won in Jesus' name. Give them the supernatural ability to walk in the authority of Jesus Christ and to walk in victory in Jesus' name. And we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for this and what you're going to do through this. We thank you and praise you for it now in faith, in Jesus' mighty name we say. Amen. Hello, friends. I just wanted to go ahead and get started and cover this set time we have. It's so sacred, it's so special. But we need the Holy Spirit, we need the help of the Holy Spirit in anything that we do. And so I just wanted to start there. I wanted to come to you. This has been on my heart for a while, and I have been praying because I don't take this subject lightly at all, but I've been praying and really spending time just dwelling heavily in the presence of the Lord. You know, the healing is in the presence of God. And as we spend time in the Lord's presence, you know, we seek to know Jesus intimately and personally. We when we read the Bible, we're not just reading his word to check it off the list. We are reading it to know the very nature of God, to know who he is and what he says, and to know his word, to know the truth over the lies of the enemy, to recognize the voice of God over the voice of the enemy, and to be able to use the weapons that you gave us, the Lord gave us. So as you meet with the Lord and you spend time in his word and you begin to just dwell in worship and dwell in his presence, you get healed, you get delivered, you get set free. And as you're walking out this Christian walk, there's going to be lots of temptations and lots of opportunities for the enemy to cause you to try to become weary and to tempt you to not wait on the Lord. And that's what I want to talk about, what why it is so important to wait upon the Lord and what does that look like? What does waiting on the Lord look like for a Christian woman, a godly woman or a godly man? What happens when we wait on the Lord? And so we're going to talk about these things. Uh, I want to tell a testimony of how the Lord rescued and redeemed me and how and why it's so important to wait on the on the Lord's timing. There was a time in my life where I got ahead of God. And if I'm completely honest, I I think we do it a lot. And as a humans, as in this flesh, I think that we have a tendency, if we're totally honest, completely real, to think that we know better than God. And maybe it comes from a place of fear, and that's what the Lord was revealing to me is that sometimes it comes from a place of fear. It's a subconscious fear where maybe you're not so, it's not an obvious fear. Um, it may not be as obvious as some of the other things. I'm doing a Bible study right now for October, and if you're interested in that, let me know and I'll direct you to it. But that Bible study is writing out the scripture for the plan of October. And so I chose one on fear because the Bible talks about do not fear over 365 times. So the Lord knew we would battle fear, but some of the fears the Lord was as I was dwelling in these scriptures, writing the scriptures down for this plan for October, the Lord was reminding me that some of the fears we face are not as obvious as others. And I thought that's powerful, you know, because I think sometimes fear is driving the decisions we make. If you've ever made a decision and it's contrary to the word of God and it's contrary to what you're believing the Lord for, and yet you find yourself making that decision anyway, as you start to pray and seek the Lord, He'll reveal what's behind that. For me, it was a fear and coming out of agreement with the Word of God and believing the lie of the enemy. It was fear was driving the seat, and I was determined to have my own way, and I was determined to get ahead of God and to help God out in a sense. And when we do that, anytime we get ahead of the Lord, we make a mess of things, and destruction is clearly ahead of us. But I was so determined to completely help God out in a sense, or just kind of impatient, tired of waiting. And like I said, there was a fear driving that. I was I was a single mother. Um, I'd been saved. I was in my 20s, mid-20s, late 20s, serving God, didn't date, you know, just completely raising my children in church, uh, working, going to school at night. And so I had been single for about five years, and um, and I was just at this point where I feel like I believed a lie. I caved into a lie that if I didn't make this decision now, my boys were going to grow up without a father figure, or they weren't gonna have a godly man to emulate, which was a lie because God is his arm is not too short, and there's no distance in the spirit, and he can use anybody and anything. And in fact, he was. We were in a community in Florida and we were surrounded by people of God. In fact, the men of God in the church were actually stepping up and doing things and helping my boys, especially the oldest one, um, and kind of mentoring them, ministering to them. So the enemy was just lying, and I and I completely think that in my selfishness and my flesh, I got ahead of the Lord because I became impatient, waiting. And and like I said, I let that fear win. But I was basically determined to do it my way. And I it nearly cost me my life. But when I tell you Jesus stepped in and he rescued me when I couldn't rescue myself, and in a moment, in that moment, I realized he is so good and he's so loving and he's so merciful, and he wasn't finished with me. His mercy reached down deeper than my mistakes ever could. But there in this time, the Lord had spoken to me about this relationship that I was entertaining, and the Lord had given me dreams and visions, and he he I was very close to the Lord. I had a personal relationship with him, I would hear him clearly, I knew his voice, I read my Bible, I prayed. Um, I wasn't perfect, but I was surrendered to the call of the Lord on my life. And this is about 20, 2011, and yet and still I'm discerning that something is not of God, but I fall into some sin and temptation. And I cave again to, like I said, to the fear of it's never gonna happen. And I just believe the lies of the enemy. You've waited all this time, it's never happened, it's never gonna happen. And then that the devil is deceptive, right? He's the father of all lies. So he's speaking these things, and I start to get in God's way, and I start to entertain this man that is not God's choice for me. And this relationship was, you know, not of the Lord, and the Lord is speaking to me through the word, he's giving me dreams like he has done since I was in my late teens. Um, dreams that come to pass or dreams that are warnings, and I would wake up and have to rebuke and bind it up and pray it down, and and the Lord would intervene. And I knew the voice of the Lord, and I knew the Lord was telling me, but guess what? I had already gotten ahead of God. I had already made up in my own mind that I was going to do this, that this was what I wanted. And I'll tell you, I got outside of the will of God and got outside of his covering, and yes, he was still merciful. There's a consequence for sin, but the Lord's mercy was still present. But what I tell you that to say is because I put myself in a position to sin, I became attached to a person and it grabbed hold of me. So the enemy had already pulled me into that, and I had already given into that temptation, and now I'm attached to this person that God never designed me to be with. So through um warnings, dreams, prophetic pastors, and my pastors were in Alabama at the church that I've grown up in and out of, the church I talk about all the time, and they were even telling, you know, the Lord is even speaking to them, warning me not to marry this man who was not the Lord's choice for me. But I was so emotionally tied to him, fear of being alone forever, and fear of my children not having that. So it caused me to kind of come in agreement with that law, and instead of trusting God's perfect timing, this was actually the beginning of destruction because we know that faith and fear cannot exist. They can't coexist. So we're believing one or the other. We can't serve two masters, we're serving God or we're serving the enemy. So we can't, it was like having that one foot in and that one doorway where it seemed to be the snare. The enemy always, I was strong and I'd be so strong for so long, maybe three years, maybe five years, maybe whatever that looked like. And that one loneliness, that one temptation, I would give in and let somebody in my life that the Lord never designed to be in my life that way. And that's that little foothold to the enemy became a an a complete avalanche. And for not for the grace of God, I wouldn't be here. Um, possibly my children not be here to tell you about it. So glory to God in this situation. Um, instead of you know, waiting on the Lord and trusting him and and believing what the word says, not what my feelings were saying, and that's important, we'll get to that um later. But I I allowed those emotions to lead me. And so I made this decision to marry um this man outside of the will of God and outside of the warnings that the Lord had given me. I did not yield to those warnings and I did not stop in that behavior, and it led to uh me marrying an abusive, destructive uh relationship. And so what should have one night um claimed my life, the Lord Jesus had me cry out the name of Jesus. He intervened supernaturally and miraculously, and he rescued me and he stopped the violent attack of the enemy that was about to claim my very life right in front of my little uh young children watching, and this is all happening in front of them. And so there was a severe consequence for this choice, and and I say that to say not that I'm proud, I'm I'm telling this to help somebody else who feels maybe lonely, or you feel like you've waited long enough and you can't be alone, or you feel like you gotta get ahead, you gotta do it now. And listen, the Lord's no is not mean, it is it is protection over you, over your children, it is protection because he sees what you can't see, he sees what you don't see, he knows what's ahead. And when somebody's charming and nice and you might have all the discernment of the of the Holy Spirit, but if you're playing with sin in any form or fashion, if you're letting the enemy through any of those doors, you're clouded, your discernment is off. And even if you can feel that it's wrong, because I could the Lord was so good that he was still allowing me to hear his voice clearly. No, no, no. But it was already attached to me. Why? Because I had already sinned and let this man in in a way that I should never have entertained him, and so there was a bond that shouldn't have never been there, and there was a stronghold that was demonic and it was a force of hell. But the Lord was so good and so merciful that even as I went against him, even as I wasn't strong enough to break that and stop that, um, and and get out of that relationship, he was there in the midst of that moment when I cried out to him. And what comes to me is that scripture, I stand on the scripture, it touches me so the scripture, what Psalms 121 in my distress, I cried to the Lord and He answered me because what I didn't realize as I was getting ahead of the Lord was that this destruction was obviously the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But the Lord God Jesus came that we would have abundant life. And when the Lord tells us no, it's for our good, because he knows and he wants what's best for us, his ways are higher, his thoughts are higher, so he can be trusted. Um, and so I just want to give God glory and honor and praise for the fact that in his mercy he intervened and in his mercy he kept us, and in his mercy, he ended that and stopped it and protected us, and and it taught me something. The reason it is so important to know why we wait on the Lord and to know what happens as we wait on him. First of all, it's for his prote it's for our it's not for our rejection, it's for our protection. When we wait on him, he's working in ways that we can't see. His love is patient, his plans are good, his timing is perfect. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40, 31. As we wait on the Lord, we discover God's will for us. So waiting isn't passive, it's an act of faith, it's an expectation. It's us choosing to trust that God is working even when we can't see it. He's moving behind the scenes, he's moving while we wait, he's working while we pray, he's designing things, he's putting things in order. But also Romans 8.28 reminds us that God works all things together for the good of those who love him. And as we wait, we grow closer to him, we learn to listen to his voice and we learn to align our will with his. We get to walk in intimacy and obedience to his word. And let's be honest, like it's in those moments where we're subduing our flesh and we're crucifying that flesh and we're laying down our will to do his, we're growing and we're being prepared for what he has for us. And the Lord is good to those who hope in him, to those who seek him. Lamentations 3 25. Also, another thing that happens while we wait on the Lord, why it's so important, is we receive supernatural strength. He gives strength to the weary and he increases the power of those the weak. And it's Isaiah 40, 29 through 31. When we wait on God, he infuses us with divine and supernatural strength, y'all. Like we we stop striving in our own effort, we begin to walk in his power and authority, and in the waiting, our endurance is developed, our faith is maturing, we're becoming, we're we're getting fruits of the spirit because we're learning how to press and persevere, and we're learning how to die to self. And it there's a cost to serving God. I know a lot of people will say things that are not in line with the Bible, but I always encourage you anything you hear, um, no matter who you hear it from, always take it to the Bible, always take it to God in prayer. And if it it needs to align with the word of God, and listen, the Bible tells us there is a cost to serving Him, but it's worth it. It's worth it. So we're gonna go through things, we're gonna suffer because Jesus suffered, but some of the suffering we cause ourselves in this situation right here. I caused that suffering, I made that choice. God didn't cause that, was the one that I didn't have to walk through. But even in that, the Lord was so merciful and so good. And I'm telling this story so that you don't have to walk through that. And if you find yourself in that situation, then I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that you get out and do it with the leading of the Holy Spirit in a way that is careful and quiet, and the Lord lead and guide you, look for resources, reach out for to um the resources that are available to you, but don't stay in a situation where the enemy does not fight fair, and the Lord has purpose and plan for you, and you don't have to settle for what you think you deserve, and you don't have to settle for what you can see and what you can put your hands on. You can trust God that He has a good and perfect plan for you. But another thing, a part of reason why it's so important for us to wait, is when we when we are waiting on God, we're winning battles by trusting his timing, right? Because when we rush and we move ahead of God, we make a mess of everything and we actually get out of the alignment of the Lord. When we wait on the Lord, God fights for us. He fights for those who wait for him. It allows his protection, his strategy to unfold perfectly. It's every victory is born from the patience that carries the peace and every battle is fought, and it leads to exhaustion when we try to do it in our own strength. It leads to chaos and confusion when we're moving in our flesh and in our feelings. But anytime we find ourselves getting anxious or ahead of God or wanting to get ahead of God or tempted to get ahead of God, whether we're lonely or we're just tired of being alone or we're starting to believe that it's never going to happen, that's where we have to rebuke the enemy. And we have to remind ourselves who we are and whose we are, who God is and where he sits on the throne and what does his word say. And we rebuke the devil and tell him to get behind me, Satan. You use the word of God to combat the lies of the enemy, and that's why it's so important for us to stay in the word of God, to designate time and his word every single day. First thing in the morning, putting on the armor of God and renewing our minds in his word, because why? We don't know that we're being lied to unless we are in the word. The Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You can't borrow someone else's faith. You can't borrow someone else's salvation, you can't inherit it from your parents or your family. It has to come from you walking it out, you digging deep, you pressing through, you crying on your face to the Lord. And if you know nothing else to say, you say the name of Jesus because there's so much power in the name of Jesus that the devil has to flee. He has no power, no place, and no authority over you. And you're a threat to the enemy's kingdom of darkness when you rise up in the authority of Jesus Christ and you take up that authority over the enemy by speaking the word of God. And how do you have that confidence to speak the word of God? By you spending time in the Lord's presence, by you spending time in the word of God with an intention to meet with the Lord, to hear him, to know him, to recognize his nature, to recognize his ways, to hear his voice clearly, and to get direction for your life. The word of God is a weapon. It is a weapon of warfare, and it's not a carnal weapon, it's powerful, it's alive and active. So you need the word of God. We need it every single day. And we need to spend time in the Lord's presence in prayer. But as you begin to really pay attention to why the Lord's telling you to wait on him, you'll start to see the fulfillment of your faith. Those who hope in me will not be put to shame. Isaiah 49, 23. That's powerful when we know that God has a purpose and a plan. And when we put our trust in him, he's not going to forget us. He's never going to forsake us. His delays are not denials, they're divine preparation. And if he gave us what we prayed for before we were ready for it, it could destroy us. It would crush us. The Lord's so good that he's not going to allow us to have something that would destroy us. And in the process of waiting on the Lord, we're preparing for what we're praying for. We're preparing for what he promised us. So it's going to come to pass. We have an hopeful expectation in the Lord to fulfill that promise, but we're willing to trust his timing and we're willing to do the work and to be about the things of God, to be about the things of God that are near and dear to his heart. And how do you know what those things are? By reading your Bible, by getting in a church that is Bible-based, Holy Spirit filled, flowing in the gifts of the Spirit. So you can be plugged in and on fire where there's a Holy Spirit conviction, where you get delivered, where you get set free, where you feel that conviction that turns you and causes you to cry out to the Lord in repentance from your heart. And you can't play church in a church like that. I'm just being gonna be real. There are churches that are beautiful and great and they have everything under the sun to make you feel great and entertain you, but they I don't feel the Holy Spirit conviction when I'm in there. And I could honestly feel like I could live and kind of go to play church in a little bit. I'm not saying everybody does that, but I know that that's a possibility for many of us because why? We are in this flesh and we have to constantly work out our salvation with fear and trembling, the Bible says. So we need to be in a church where the conviction of the Holy Spirit is present to where we don't feel like we can play church and go to church. We don't feel like we can just be living one foot in sin and one foot in the world. And I've been there, I've done that, I have failed more than I've ever gotten it, right? But the biggest stumbling block is also the biggest burden of my heart for ministry, is women and young girls settling for a love they think they deserve instead of waiting on the love that the Lord has for them. Because why? They don't understand, and I didn't understand, and we we have to fight to understand, like get fight in faith, fight to be alone in the presence of Jesus, to get into that intimate relationship with him, to really understand the depth of his love, how wide, how deep, how vast it is. Because when we really fall in love with Jesus and we truly sell out to him and surrender to him, and that becomes so personal and so intimate, and we're in love with him, it hurts you to hurt him. So it's harder to fall into that temptation and sin regularly. Why? Because you don't want to hurt somebody that you love, you don't want to break the heart of somebody you're in love with. So when you pray like that, God help me to fall madly, deeply in love with Jesus. You don't want to break his heart. So it kept me for so long. But also, we should pray that we have a hatred for sin, not for the sinner, but for the sin itself, because the sin, the Bible says, separates us from God. And a lot of times we just want to be comfortable. We want to be comfortable in our sin and we want to feel good, but we're not caught. That's not the that's not how we get set free. The truth sets us free. And the Lord loves us, and he's not going to leave us stuck the way he finds us. He loves us so much that he desires that we be set free. And he died, he sent his son to die for us in our place so that we can become right standing with the Lord. So we don't have to stay bound and walk around in that place. But there's purpose in even in the mistakes, even in the missteps. And I'll say this: it part of the problem was, you know, allowing that feeling when that moment of loneliness hits and that the fear and deception tries to creep in, that's where we have to go into our prayer closet. That's where we have to fall on our knees and fall on our face. If all we can say, if you have your prayer language, speak in your prayer language. And that's this the gifts of tongues, and that's where the Holy Spirit is praying through you. Utterance is unknown to us that the Lord is just he's speaking right through you, right to the heavenly throne. But you have access to the throne of God and he sits on the throne. And if you think about who God is and what he's capable of, and what he's already done, and you just thank him for who he is and what he's already done, and how he's moved in your life, and how he's merciful, and how he's powerful, and how he's loving, and how he's good, and you really fix your eyes and your mind and your thoughts on who God is and what he's already done and where he sits. And what he's capable of. You're reminded as you praise him from that place of thanksgiving, you're reminded of his power and his authority. And it's like a fierceness rises up in you and you rebuke the enemy and you go on about your day. But a lot of times we don't do that. Why? We let that thought stay. We left it, it's not that the uh weapon won't form, it's that the Bible says it won't prosper in Jesus' name. So the bird's gonna fly over, but we have the ability to say no, to cast that thought down, to tear down every stronghold that represents itself against the Lord. And we have the ability to take every thought captive to the word of God and make it obedient to Christ, like the Bible says. So we have to know the word first in order to stand on it, to stand firm on it. We have to get it down in us. And when we're waiting on the Lord, I also want you to know that the Lord is working on our behalf. While we wait, he's working and he's aligning things in us and he's bringing his plan to fruition in our life, but he's moving in our hearts and in our minds, and a lot of times he's revealing things to us that he couldn't reveal to us in situations where we're surrounded by people. Why? Because it's in that isolation, in that isolation period where it's just us and the Lord, and we may feel super lonely, and it might be hard, but God is with you. You're never really alone. The word of God is clear that the Lord is with us and we're not really alone. And in that moment, the Lord is revealing things about us to us, He's revealing things about Him, He's revealing things about His purpose and our lives, and it's such a powerful season. But the enemy would love for us to believe that it's a wasted season and it's not. It's sacred, it's beautiful, it's holy, it's preparation. It's so that we're prepared for it because honestly, Jesus has to be that foundation. He has to come first. God is a jealous God, He's not going to let anything come before him. And if He was to give you that relationship, give me that relationship before it's time, then I would ruin it or it would ruin me. Because why? We're not prepared for it. We would put it before God. We would allow ourselves to kind of expect that person to satisfy us in ways that only the Lord can satisfy us. And that's the point is that we have to fall in love with Jesus first, and He has to become that foundation. And it kind of reminds me of like, I was thinking about it as I was studying the word on this, and it was God was reminding me of how the person is planted like a tree by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, Psalms 1.3. But also how the Lord was teaching Jesus in the Bible, he was teaching a parable of the sower and how he was often he used imagery of planting and harvesting and um the earth and things like that because they were in a place where um that was there was a lot of farms and there was a lot of um those things where it was easy for that person, uh the people in that crowd being from Judea, most of them were around that everyday lifestyle, so they could imagine and understand the visualization of what the seed, what happens to the seed as it's planted. And if we think about that and we think about the seed being planted, right, it looks like it's being buried, right? It's being buried in the dark, and it's all alone. And that's one perspective of it, but that actually is it's it's underground, it's buried, it's unseen, it's surrounded by darkness, but it's not dead, it's actually developing roots, and the soil is where God grows it, your roots. It's where you get the stability and maturity, like spiritual maturity and the strength that you can withstand any storm, so that when the wind blows, when the storms of life come, when the promises of God come forth, the wind will blow and the storms will come because the Bible says it rains on the just and unjust alike. You're going to suffer. But you know what? God's with us through that suffering. And when you have those roots, those deep roots in the Lord, you don't get tossed about to and fro when the storms of life come raging. You have a supernatural strength in the Lord that can only come from this period where you have been alone with the Lord and built this intimate relationship with him, with just you and him. And so there's no avoiding the process, there's no jumping ahead of the process. And a lot of us try to cheat the process. We try to jump ahead of it. We feel like we can't take anymore. But the Lord is faithful and good to sustain us and to keep us and to give us what we need. And so I just encourage you to trust him and trust his timing and to wait on him. It is so vital because the Lord doesn't want anything bad to happen to us. He doesn't want us to go through destructive things, he doesn't want bad things to happen to us, but he knows the future from the end and he knows the beginning from the end. He knows the heart of man, he knows the intent of every heart. And so I always tell my kids and everybody that I know, we're to pray that the Lord would give us um supernatural spiritual discernment to know the in and to show us the intent of every heart towards us, even friendships, even coworkers, even colleagues, because why? Everybody's not your friend. And yeah, you don't want to hate them, you can pray for them and and you can keep it moving and you can be a blessing, but you you don't want everyone in your inner circle. You, you know, the enemy plants people in your life just like God does. And he sometimes there's people have destruction in their heart and deceitfulness, and the enemy wants to use them to try to stop the things of God in your life or to wreak havoc and cause chaos. So the Lord will reveal to you the people that are not really for him and not for you. They're not in that you just love them and keep moving and keep your distance. So I always say, pray for that, pray for that supernatural discernment and think about the word of God as it is you're thinking about the seeds and what's happening with that seed. Imagine that seed being planted, right? And it's growing those deep roots and it's about to bear good fruit, like really good fruit, but you get impatient and you you can't see anything happening. So what do you do? Because you can't see it moving, you can't see it changing, you dig it up really fast before it's it's too soon, before it's uh had time to actually prosper and come into the harvest. Well, you would destroy what was growing underneath it. You would you would abort that process, and that's what impatience does. It uproots what God is preparing to bloom. So Galatians 6.9 says, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. You may not see growth, but it's happening. The waiting season, it's rooting season, and it's where you are being established, rooted in Christ Jesus, established, strengthened, and prepared for the fruit to come and the fruitfulness of the season ahead of you. You are being prepared to walk in that now. And just like that Matthew 13, where the parable Jesus is talking about, the parable of the sower, it's gotta land that seed, it's gotta land in good soil. So, in good soil, when we say let the soil of our soul be fertile, we want a surrendered, teachable heart. Jesus isn't looking for your perfection. He's not asking you to be perfect, he's not asking you to focus on how you can change this about yourself, how you can change this. No, it's it's really about a surrendered heart. He wants your heart because he knows that when you surrender your heart and you spend time with him intimately in his presence, and you cry out to him in worship and you cry out to him and you talk to him like a best friend and you're real with him, but you also listen and you yield and you uh are willing to do what he shows you and what he says in his word, and you walk in obedience to that. You have a teachable heart and a willing spirit, and in that the Lord is preparing you to carry the promise because he knows that the promise won't destroy you, but he can trust you with that, he can bless you with those things, and he can use you to help other people. So there's purpose in it, and it's never wasted. Um, one of the another very important thing is is that we have to take up our authority as intercessors while we wait because it's so much bigger than us. It's it's so much bigger than what we can see, what we think, what we feel. And so when it's so tempting for you, and it's like, wow, this is coming out of left field, because that's not what it would feel like for me. I'd be like, I, God, I have served you faithfully. I know your voice, and I've seen you do miracles. I mean, I've seen you heal cancer. I've I've seen you save and deliver people like me from a teenager to who I was in my mid-20s, was a supernatural miracle. And people that knew me from high school were like, if God can save you, he can save anyone. And that is true. There's no shame in that because I was broken and hurt as a child, and that hurt that was unhealed turned to anger. And I think that when we don't deal with hurts the right way, like the Bible tells us, and righteous anger, and we don't get that deliverance in the word of God, and we don't actually get the you know, the resources and counseling and things we need as a teenager, it was rebellion and deception. And when the Lord set me free, he just gave me such a tender spirit and such a soft spirit and a soft heart, and only the Lord can do that. And so for me to know him that way, for me to see him and experience him personally and see miracles take place the way I'd seen miracles, I couldn't understand how I could get ensnared like that fast. Like how I can serve you all these years and make that one mistake and it feels like it's all in vain. You know, it's not. That's a life in the pits of hell because God knew I would make the mistakes before I made them, but that's not justification for it because there's a consequence for sin and sin separates us from the Lord and and it it derails us and it just gets it just it's not good. There's always a consequence for it, but the Lord is merciful and he loves you, so there's no condemnation in it. But my point is is that I couldn't figure out where that was coming from, and the Lord was telling me the trigger is when that when there was something happening that feels like it was out of my control or it is out of our control, right? But this would be something like feels kind of really shaky and devastating. And if I felt like I couldn't, if I didn't see the way out and I didn't get in the word or grab a hold of the Lord's promise and just start standing on the word of God and fighting in faith, then almost without thinking, there was a habitual thing to reach out to something that felt like it would comfort me. But it was a it was an idol, right? And so it could be a relationship, it could be whatever that looks like for you, it could be a habitual habit of sin, it could be a relationship, it could be um seeking validation from a person or a relationship, it could be alcohol, it could be drugs, it could be whatever that is. But for me, that was the snare, and it was a trigger that I didn't instead of recognizing that I was reacting, I and praying and walking in the word of God on it, I would react to that. So the Lord revealed that to me, and I was so thankful. But while we wait on the Lord, y'all, we have the ability to walk in the authority that Jesus Christ gave us. So God doesn't just prepare us for the blessings, he trains us for the battle, he's searching the earth. The Bible says, I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, so I would not destroy it, but I found no one. Ezekiel 22 30. Let that sink in. That's what we're called to do. We're called to be intercessors, to stand in the gap, to be the breach, to repair the wall, to stand watch on the wall, to pray over our cities, to pray over our homes, to pray over our communities, to pray over our our workplaces and our world and our government, and to pray and ask God not to allow destruction to come, to pray and ask God to intervene, to speak the word of God with authority, to stand firm on God's word, to know he is who he says he is, and he will do what he says he will do. He is searching the earth to and fro to find someone who will stand and pray, whose heart is fixed on him, y'all. And that's what it is. It's literally taking God at his word. And so while we're in this place of waiting, if we're reminded of the impact we're making, people are watching us and and there's people around you that don't know him, and you have the authority to be an intercessor, to stand in the gap and pray for others and to prevent the destruction of the enemy over their life, to speak the truth in love and to pray and believe God to move in their lives. We're called to rise up and to bind up and rebuke the enemy, to take our authority in Jesus' name. We're not powerless and we are not helpless. No, we are not. We are powerful in Jesus' name. We have a divine authority. The Lord has given his people the right to take up the authority. The same power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead is alive in us. And that authority we wielded against the schemes of the enemy, and we can cancel evil plots and schemes of man. So if you ever have a dream and you wake up thinking that's a bad dream, listen to me. You get up and you pray and you bind it up and rebuke it. You say, I rebuke that in the name of Jesus. I bind that up in Jesus' name because the Bible says whatever we bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever is lucid on earth is lucid in heaven. Lucid in heaven is lucid on earth. Sorry, it's been a long day. But the I'm telling you that because it says in in Matthew 16, 18 through 19, I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, will not prevail against it. That I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be lucid in heaven. So we have that authority, and we can take it over the enemy. We have the ability, 2 Corinthians 10 4 tells us that the weapons we fight with, they're not weapons of the world. Oh, on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10 4. And I encourage you to look up scriptures, to take up your rise up and take up your role and seat yourself in the presence of God and grab a hold of his word and stand firm on it. The Bible says that the Lord knows the need before it's ever made known, but that he wants us to come boldly before his throne in expectation of him to move. He counted Abraham as righteousness because he held him to his word. You and I are no different. We can come before him and hold his word up to him, not because he needs to be reminded, because we have to remind ourselves, God, you said in your word. Why? Because we're silencing the enemy as number one as we speak out the word of God. Over the circumstance, we're speaking the word of God, and that is our victory. We're fighting from a place of victory, not fighting for victory. Jesus already won. We know the end of the story. So the devil is underneath our feet. And the Bible says that God gives us power over every power of the enemy. We're not battling flesh and blood enemies, but principalities of darkness and evil in high places. So we have to remember who we are, whose we are. We are children of God and we're called and chosen, that he doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. He's not expecting you to be strong. It's in your his strength, your weakness, it's made perfect through his strength. So he he wants us to know that we can't do it without him. He wants us to recognize that it's his strength and he delights in showing himself strong. He delights in showing up in opportunities where if he doesn't come through, it can't be done. He gets glory from that. And he is willing and he is able and he is more than enough. We just have to settle that in our hearts and minds. So just know this today that the enemy's goal is to distract us, right? Derail us, to destroy us. He will do anything in his power to do that. And when he can't get you to go down the same old path, whereas dating a man outside of the will of God, having sex before marriage, or partying and clubbing and doing whatever you used to do, right? If he can't get you to go that direction, he'll try to distract you. He'll try to wear you out. He'll try to tempt you to be discouraged, or he'll tempt you to speak out the lies that you feel, or he'll tempt you to come out of alignment with the word of God, or however he chooses to do it. But we have to, we have to stand and believe the word of God. And he's terrified. The enemy is terrified of a believer that doesn't just go to church and and believe in God because the devil believes in God. He knows the scripture. So if that's all it takes for you to be a Christian, then you could say Satan's a Christian, right? But that's not true. The real the truth of the matter is, is that when you walk in obedience to the word of God to the best of your ability, okay, you are surrendered. Your heart is surrendered to the Lord, and you repent quickly. When you do get off balance, like I fell short and I recognized that this was outside the will of God and I deserved what happened to me, but the Lord was so merciful and he kept me. And he's merciful over you too. But when you fall short, like the Bible says we all do, there's no condemnation in that, you repent and you get it back under the blood, and you get right back up and keep going. You don't lay down and let the devil condemn you and say, I knew you would feel no, you say, I rebuke you, Satan, get behind me. For it is written, and you just stand on God's word. And when you feel tempted and you feel weak and your knees are shaken, you stand on the word of God because God's word will never change. It's unfailing, it's unchanging. He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. It's us that change, right? It's us that falls short. It's us that falls weak, but he never changes. But he's good and he's longing to be right, he's right there with you. He's going to carry you through this season. And in this, as you crucify your flesh and I crucify my flesh, and we wait on the Lord and we walk in obedience, he pours his spirit on us. We become vessels of his glory and his honor. And we have an anointing on our lives that comes from that sanctification process. Where we are purified through the blood of Jesus. We cannot earn this grace. We could never do anything to be good enough. But listen, when you're walking in obedience to the word of God, there's blessings tied to it. So don't let any Christian tell you that's not true. You are called to obey the word of God. What you can't do is try to base the Lord's love on your works because it will never work. I think a lot of times where we get hung up is we start to focus on how can I change this sin? How can I change this? You know, Paul had this thorn in the flesh and he kept crying out to the Lord and crying out to the Lord, and God's been dealing with me about this scripture for the last six months, and it keeps coming up over and over, and probably for the last year, to be totally honest, but the Lord was reminding me that Paul was crying out to him and he said three times he asked for it to be removed and cried out to the Lord, and the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for you, that he was not going to remove it. And this was because he was giving Paul such revelations and the Lord, he was using Paul mightily, and part of that was he wanted him to know that it was all God and not of himself. And so it kept him humble, it kept him crying out to the Lord, it kept him seeking the Lord's face, that he never got was able to get prideful and feel like he was so good and puffed up in the word because he knew there was a a frailty there. There was a human issue that he had no power to subdue. The word of God could subdue it, and that's the thing. Some of these temptations don't go away. Some of these things don't just disappear. They don't, the tent even when God sets you free and heals you of something, it still tries to come in that old familiar spirit, and you have to bind it up and rebuke it. You have to take authority over it, you have to command your flesh to lay down and die and let your spirit man rise up in the name of Jesus. And you have to pray that over yourself, and you have to take authority over your emotions. You don't have to take things just as you see them. We don't have to take things just as we see them, things just as we hear them, or we don't have to just accept what we see, hear, feel, or think. The world loves to tell us this is the way it is, this is the way it'll always be. But we have the word of God, and the word of God has the final say. The Lord's word is what I'm gonna repeat, the report of the Lord is what I'm gonna speak out. That's what I'm gonna cling to. My hope is in Jesus Christ, and it's in him, and it's in his word, and it's in his promise. And I'm gonna speak that over the circumstances, and that's what we're called to do. We have the authority to command our emotions to line up with the word of God, to command our bodies and our health to line up with the word of God, to speak to our minds and speak to our bodies and speak to our flesh and to crucify it every single day. And you say, What does that look like to crucify my flesh? Die to self. We are called to die to self, to not continue to justify our sin and say, Oh, the Lord understands. He meets us right where we are, but he never intended us to stay there. He never intended you to stay there. He didn't intend you to stay bound in it, and he does not justify it. When he met the woman at the well, in fact, he knew exactly what she was involved in. He just made a space for the conversation and the relationship, and that was the love, and the truth came with that. He didn't shy away from telling her the truth. Why? Because he cared more about her soul than her comfort. He was more concerned with her being set free and walking in the purpose he created for her, for her to stay bound, then her staying bound in that sin. And so that's the difference, is that the Lord calls us out of it so that we can be used by him, filled by him, and we can go and help other people come out too. So you crucify your flesh by every day laying that down and dying to self and saying, Okay, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. Lord, help me as I study your word to recognize how I can apply this word to my life. Show me the areas where I need to change, Lord, show me the things that I need to do, but instead of focusing on the things that you want to change so heavily, like the things that you do wrong and the things that you wish you weren't doing, I instead of that, focus on spending time with the Lord. Focus on his presence, dwelling in his presence, crying out in worship, praising him from your heart, like separate everything else, turn everything off, designate time with him, and sit there and just praise him for who he is, thank him for who he is. Fix your mind on the God of the universe. Like he is God Almighty, he is Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords, King of kings. Think about where he sits on the throne. Think about what he's capable of. Think about how good he is and how merciful he is. Think about what he's already done and how good he's always been and how faithful he is and how loving he is and how powerful he is and how sovereign he is. And when we fix our mind on who God is and where he sits and what he's done and what he's capable of, our countenance shifts. We lift up our heart, our thoughts go heavenly. We we're not thinking about the problems, we're not thinking from a carnal perspective. We start to think with a heavenly perspective. We start to align our thoughts and our mind with the word of God, and God is not a God that he could lie. He is going to honor his word. He's not a God that he would lie, he will bring it to fruition. It may not be the timing we thought it should be, it might not even be the way we thought it should be, but you can get you can rest assured that the Lord is with you through every season and he will bring his promise to pass. We just have to give him the opportunity. He's not going to force himself and he's not going to continue to go against us. Like if we continue to go against him, he's going to pull back and allow you to, like I did, to get yourself into that destruction. And it's not because he's mean or vicious, it's because he lovingly warned and told me over and over and over in his love that was not for me. And so hear me today. If you are young and single and you are wanting to build a family, wanting a relationship, and you're just eager to have that part of your life, but the Lord has not brought that to pass. Surrender that to the Lord. Cry out to him from your heart. Pray for your future spouse every day. Pray for your future husband. Write down prayers, write down what the word of God says, stand on his promises. But right now, let your focus be more about spending time with Jesus, intimately in his presence, instead of thinking about the things you don't have. There's nothing wrong with praying for your future mate. I think that's a beautiful thing. I think that's actually putting action behind your faith. But the most important thing you can do is build that relationship with the Lord. And as you focus on who he is and you spend that intimate time in his presence, your heart and your desires change. So you're no longer craving that thing that you used to get so stuck with, that thing that you used to do all the time, and you would repent and cry out and be so convicted about it. Conviction is a good thing, y'all. Conviction means you're hearing the Lord's voice. It means your conscience is not seared, as the Bible says. Because when we continue to go against the will of God, go against hand of God, go against God's word, go against God's word, over and over and over, eventually he pulls back from that. You don't feel that. You feel, I mean, your heart becomes hardened. Like the Bible says this. It's true. And you don't, well, that's a scary place to be. So you want to thank God that you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that you can cry out to him, um, and that he is speaking to you, and that he does love you and have good plans for your life. And as you focus your mind on who he is and what he's done, um, and and just loving him, falling in love with him, and ask him to give you a hatred for the sin and give you a holy boldness to share the love of Jesus and to talk to everybody you can about the Lord and share your testimony, share the love of Jesus, but pray, plead the blood of Jesus all over your family, plead the blood of Jesus all over your mind and your thoughts and pray his word all over the people in your circle, the people that in your atmosphere, whether it's your work and colleague or church family, you are called to pray with authority to cover those around you and to pray with discernment. And when the Lord wakes you up in the middle of the night, pray and ask the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit, sit up and ask the Holy Spirit who needs prayer, because there's a there's an intimate walk with the Lord where the Lord will start to wake you up out of your sleep at after midnight at 2 or 3 a.m. And that is a warfare hour where there is an intense war going on, and it's the most crucial and dangerous time not to be fearful because there's no fear in love, perfect love cast it all fear. We don't have to be fearful, but what it is is the the that's a time where you want to get up and grab a hold of the word of God, where you want to pray, and it's not in your strength, it's not by your power or your might, like Zechariah 4.6, it's by the Holy Spirit. So it's not in how loud we pray, it's not in some profound words, it's it's literally the word of God and what and what the Bible says, the prayer of the righteous availeth much. There is power in your prayer when you're walking in tune with the Holy Spirit. So you ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, to speak through you, to reveal things to you, to give you supernatural wisdom and discernment, to guide you, to direct you, and to speak to you and reveal things to you. And when you start to people start to come to your mind and your thoughts, you pray over them. So surrender your your timing to the Lord's timing. Wait on the Lord and choose to let Him strengthen you. Ask the Lord to reveal to you areas where fears have tried to drive your decisions instead of faith. And let the Lord strengthen you and give you roots, deep roots in this season. Um, ask the Lord to give you the receptive soil to let the seed fall on fertile ground so that you can grow and prosper as your soul prospers, um, to give you a supernatural hunger for his word and for his presence. Um, and so I want to close this time out with prayer, but if you are in a situation that is dangerous. I pray that the Lord would guide you and be with you and get you out, but also that you would reach out in a safe way, that you would get out of that situation without making it obvious. Just be led by the Holy Spirit. Be very careful. There's resources, there are places, and please reach out if you need prayer. I would love to come in agreement with you for God to cover you. And I know he sends his angels concerning us. He commands his angels to go before us and behind us and on every side of us. And there's nothing the Lord can't do. He is Jehovah Rapha, our healer, and he's our provider, and he has supernatural, unlimited resources. So there's nothing impossible for God. There's no excuse. You don't have to stay stuck and you don't have to keep living in sin and you don't have to stay bound in something because you feel like you have no other way. Because we have a God that has endless resources and he can cause it to happen supernaturally. And he delights in showing up and showing out to show his strength and to reveal his glory and to show you and the people watching you how much he loves you and how much he desires to have that closeness with you, to be your provider. If you give him the opportunity, he will. And so we don't serve him for the things that he'll do, but it's a promise. It's a part of the promise that we inherit as we do. So, Father God, I just thank you that we have this opportunity to come together. And I thank you for the seasons of waiting that purify our hearts, Lord Jesus, and prepare us for your promises, Father God. I pray that you would teach us to rest in your timing and to trust in your plan, even when it doesn't make sense, even when it looks like nothing is happening. Lord, you are always moving behind the scenes. You are faithful to fulfill the promises you make us and you can be trusted, Lord God. I pray that you would help us to resist the fear, impatience, and doubts that would cause us to come out of alignment with your word. And I pray healing over every wounded heart, every wounded mind, every person who's been through any kind of destructive relationship. We just curse that uh pain and any of those symptoms in the name of Jesus. We take authority over those things right now in Jesus' name. I plead the blood of Jesus all over every person listening to this. And I pray that our roots would grow so deep in your word, Father God, that we would stand firm on your word, even as the winds are raging around us and the storms are raging around us. We would have a supernatural peace inner knowing that we were held and we're kept and we're covered as we are surrendered to your will, laying our will aside. Give us a supernatural strength to do your will, Lord God, and to crucify our flesh every single day, knowing that you're working even when we can't see it. And we declare that we will walk in faith and walk in obedience, and we will watch you bring forth the fruit in your perfect timing in our lives. And if there's anyone in the sound of my voice that does not know you as Jesus, as personal Lord and Savior, I pray that they would pray this prayer with me. Lord Jesus, I repent for my sin. I don't want to do life my way. I need you, Jesus. And I receive you. I ask you, I repent of my sin. I renounce my sins. I ask you, Lord Jesus, to come and make your life inside of my heart and in my life, Lord. Be the Lord of my life and help me to draw close to you, to live according to your word. I receive you in my heart, in faith, in Jesus' name. And I pray that you would bring transformation to their heart, transformation to their life. I pray you would bring superfight supernatural hidden resources, Lord God, from your unlimited resources for them, Lord, that you would provide and meet every need and draw every heart near to you, Father God. I pray that you would pour out a fresh anointing on every person that's listening to this that breaks the yoke of the enemy. And I bind up every force of hell that is coming against your people in the mighty name of Jesus, the spirit of confusion, the spirit of chaos. We curse the spirit of chaos and confusion in Jesus' name. We curse the spirit of rebellion and deception in Jesus' name. We curse the spirit of anxiety and depression and loneliness in Jesus' name. We thank you, Father God, for the fruits of the spirit. We thank you, God, for the supernatural strength that comes from your presence and your presence alone, Jesus. We thank you for the anointing of God that breaks the yoke of the enemy, that there's no force of hell that can stand against the power of God Almighty. And I thank you, Lord, that you bring deliverance to them in Jesus' mighty name. Through your mighty, outstretched right hand, you're more than enough. And they're more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who strengthens them. So I pray that you give them a supernatural hunger for the things of God as they wait on you. It's not passive, it's active. It's pursuing the things of God. It's having a fire in their soul and a burden for the lost and a burden for those who are hurting and bound. And Lord, I just pray that you would move mightily through their prayers and mightily through their life, that you would get all the glory in everything that we do, Lord God. Let it bring honor and glory to your name, that you would bring healing and deliverance and strength and give your people the ability to trust you, to seek you, to know you and to hear you clearly in this hour. And Father, for all of this, we give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Thank you for hanging with me. I know this is a little bit longer than usual, but I just felt a supernatural press upon my spirit in such a way that I couldn't wait any longer to share this with you. And I pray that it blesses you. I pray that if you know someone going through something similar or you think that this message would bless them, I pray that you would share it with them. Please connect with me on social media. Um, and if you need prayer, I would love to come in agreement with you. Um, there's nothing impossible for God. So be encouraged, stay in that place, take up your position, stand guard on the wall, and do not allow the enemy to silence you or to make you feel like you don't have the ability to pray or you don't have the ability to stand firm in the word of God because of your past or because of things you've said or done, because that's so untrue. If that was the case, none of us would be used. Look at all the people in the Bible that were used mightily by God. Look at the mistakes they made, but their heart was after the Lord, and that's what he's after is your heart. So you have a purpose, you have a plan, and God's going to bring that to fruition. He's going to get glory from all of it. Stand faithful, stand firm, and stay connected to the word of the Lord. I love you and I look forward to meeting with you again. Thank you so much. Y'all have a blessed day.