After You Get Up Off Your Knees......

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Good afternoon and welcome to Healing Stream Waters Daily Dosage. I'm praying and hoping that you are okay in the best of health and spirits. It's a privilege and an honor to be sealed in the land of the living. And so today I'm going to be reading from the first chapter of 1 Samuel. And I'm going to begin at the ninth verse of to the 19th. So, and it's going to be in the message Bible. It's a little bit more uh explanatory. It's more easily to understand. But you can read it in whatever version that you would like. But today, for me, I'm going to be reading out of the message Bible. So Hannah ate. She pulled herself together, slipped away quietly, and entered the sanctuary. The priest Eli was on duty at the entrance to God's temple in the customary seat. Crushed in soul, Hannah prayed to God and cried and cried inconsiderably. Then she made a vow, O God of the angel armies, if you'll take a good look, hard look at my pain, and if you'll quit neglecting me and go into action for me, by giving me a son, I'll come, I'll give him completely, unreservedly to you. I'll set him apart for a life of holy discipline. So it happened that as she continued in prayer before God, Eli was watching her closely. Hannah was praying in her heart silently. Her lips moved, but no sound was heard. Eli jumped to the conclusion that she was drunk. He approached her and said, You're drunk. How long do you plan to keep this up? Sober up, woman. Hannah said, Oh no, sir, please. I'm not, I'm a woman brokenhearted. I haven't been drinking not a drop of wine or beer. The only thing I've been pointing out is my heart. Point it out to God. Don't for a minute think I am a bad woman. It's because I'm so desperately unhappy and in such pain that I've stayed here this long. Eli answered her, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel give you what you have asked of him. Think well of me and pray for me, she said, and went her way. Then she ate heartily, her face radiant. Up before dawn, they worship God and returned home to Ramah. El Kanah sat with Hannah, his wife, and God began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she had asked. And so my topic today is after you finish praying. Well, we know that nothing just happens. There's only one immaculate conception in the scriptures that I know about. And that was of the Virgin Mary, whom the angel told her that she was going to conceive a child. And she wanted to know how am I going to do this, being that I don't know a man. And so she was told that the Holy Ghost was going to come upon her and was going to impregnate her. That's the only immaculate conception. Because Mary's baby wasn't born of a natural man, he was the son of God. And so his seed came from God, came from the Holy Ghost, because there had to be a special seed, one without blemish, one without sin, one without fault. But in Hannah's case, this was a journey that they took uh yearly going to the temple. But Hannah, while everybody else was partying, she slipped away quietly and went into the sanctuary. Well, how many of you know that in the sanctuary, in the sanctuary, it doesn't have to mean it's church, it can be that sacred place. Um, the Bible says, who can abide in his holy hill? The 91st Psalm says, If we abide under the shadow of the Almighty, so it's a particular, a specific place. It can be in your bathroom, it can be your kitchen, it can be in your basement. It's that place wherever you set your altar at and you hollow it, make it holy. This is a place, this is the altar that I'm making to the Lord, to where I'm gonna come in at like a tent of meeting that I come in where I plan to dedicate and to meet with the Lord. So Hannah slipped away from the noise, from the celebrations, because she wanted something from God, and it wasn't where the people were, it was in as Tam LaMan says, this place, it was a place set aside for God, for the things of God, and she made a vow. God, if you see me, if you feel my pain, if you grant me my petition, and her petition was she wanted a child, not only a child, she wanted the son, a son, and she told God that if you give me this son, I will give him back to you, I will set him apart, he will have a special diet. You do grant my prayer request, I'm gonna turn him back over to you. The Bible says it's better not to make a vow if you can't keep it. Don't do that, don't promise the Lord things when you're in dire straits, when you need him to come through for you. I'm gonna turn my life over, I'm gonna turn my child over, whatever it is. Don't make a vow if you're not gonna keep it. And then Eli, who was on duty, he saw her, he thought she had come out of the congregation of the ones drinking, and he told her, You're drunk, sober up. When are you gonna stop? But Eli, just because you're looking at a person, you don't know what a person is going through. The Bible tells us to judge not according to appearance, judge righteously. She had to tell him, I've had no wine and no beer, my heart is just broken, my my wound is barren. I want a child, and God, if you can do this, he didn't know this though. So everybody that is looking upon you don't know what it takes for you to come up out of your situation, they don't know your life story, they don't know where you come from, so we can't judge a book by its cover unless we take the time to find out what's the matter, how long someone has been in this situation, what are you crying for, don't pass judgment and don't give advice if you don't know. And so after she told him, I'm not drunk, he told her, go her way and may the Lord answer her prayers. Number one, God is the only one that can answer his prayer. He may consign you as part of the answer, but only God can do it, even when the children of Israel was in bondage, in slavery, under hard taskmasters, God knew he knew the cause, and he sent Moses. So God will send you, as the scriptures say, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings. How can you hear unless you hear a preacher? But how can they preach except they be sent? When you are sent, that means you're coming with the goods. God's not gonna send you just to uh pump people up, make them believe in something. That's what fairy tales do, that's nursery rhymes. God will send his word because he is his word, he will send his word to heal, he knows exactly what you need, he knows how to handle it. It's nothing that he is hid from him. So the priest told her, Go thy way, and may the Lord answer her prayers. And so she rose up the next day. The Bible says she ate heartily, she was happy. She didn't he didn't know what she was praying for, and she didn't tell him. But just with that word of knowing that God was going to answer her prayer, she in turn told told him, Pray with me and for me. We need people in our corners, uh, that's gonna pray with us and pray for us, and but sometimes, um, as the book of James says, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. We can't always have these secrets. You can't be helped if you won't be honest, if you won't tell the truth. I'm not saying to tell it to everybody and anybody, but find you somebody that you can tell your secrets to that will not only uh pray with you, pray for you, they won't judge you, won't hold it over your head, because we as believers ought to bear the infirmities of the week. So, no matter what position you're in, we are to be helpers one to another. So that next morning she had received enough strength, enough hope that her and her husband was going back. And when she got home, the Bible says that her and her husband went into her, they had intimacy. There is no other record of immaculate conception, so when she got up off her knees, when you get up off your knees, there's still a work to be done. No babies are conceived unless there's intimacy. You have to do something, and the Bible says that once she did that, God went into work. He started um preparation for the prayer that she prayed. He had to touch her wound, he could, he was the only one that could do it. She was barren, and that was in God's jurisdiction. He's the only one can bring plentifulness out of barrenness. So when you get up off your knee from whatever you are praying for, faith without works is there. Find the works that's conducive to your prayer and start working. Salvation is not about works, but that thing that you want, you gotta work for. If you want a job, you gotta go look for one. You got to fill out applications, and not only that, don't fill out an application for a job you have no clue about. You have to know something, unless in the job description, they're gonna give you on a job training. This is not osmosis, this is not throw it up against the wall and hope that it sticks. This is not the king minus touch, it's none of that. Faith without works is there. She had to do something. So once you get up off your knees from praying, you need to go find your works that's conducive to what you're asking for. You're gonna be a part of your deliverance. There is an answer, there is a specific answer for you, and God is that answer. He will show you where the fish mouth is, he will show you how to accomplish what you need to accomplish, but you got to be willing, you got to be ready, you got to be able, you must show up to the uh to the party with your stuff, you must show up to work with your two bags in hand because you're gonna be a part of your own deliverance. After you get finished praying, after you get up off your knees, there is something you still must do. Again, this is your daily dosage from healing string waters. Go in peace. God loves you, I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it.