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Welcome to Global Harvest Calgary's podcast, where faith becomes real and purpose comes alive. We pray that today's message helps you recognize the hand of God in your everyday life and discover the unique purpose He has placed inside you. Our heart is that you don't just hear a sermon, but truly experience his presence, his guidance, and his love in a personal way. Whether you're in a season of searching, rebuilding, or stepping into something new, you're not here by accident. God is closer than you think, and your purpose is greater than you imagine. Enjoy the message.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

As I was preparing, there's a particular scripture, you know. Anytime you are going to a women's meeting, you can almost open your Bible to that and just put your bookmarker before you get to the meeting. You know you are going to that scripture. Hallelujah. You know, so I know you know the scripture I'm talking about already. We are going to Proverbs 31. But don't worry, we will not. If you're like me, I'm thinking, so we are going to be measuring ourselves against this impossible woman once again. Hallelujah. Because if you think like me, if you take that scripture literally, I don't know why you should go and collect your goods on the sea. You come home and cook food. And then when everybody's sleeping, you are spinning cotton into bed sheets. Please, what happened to Walmart? Hallelujah. So we are not measuring ourselves against an impossible standard, but we are going to Proverbs 31 all the same. We are going to Proverbs 31. And um, we won't be reading through all the scriptures. We'll just read um verse 17 and then verse 25 for starters. Um Proverbs 31 and verse 17. Says she guards herself with strength and strengthens our arms. And then verse 25 says, Strength and honor are her clothing. She shall rejoice in time to come. If you look at the whole scripture, it talks about we know all those things. It talks about her mates, she's feeding them, she's clothing them, she has businesses, she's buying, she's selling, you know, her husband is at the city gates. I read a post one time and somebody was saying, please, what is that man doing at the gate sitting down when the woman is up and down? But in the man's defense, really, he's uh he's an elder statesman, he's he's a leader in town, he's a man of honor, he's leading the town, he's guiding the town and all that. So he's not an ideal man, he's just not sitting at the gate. Sitting at the gate means that he's a leader in the town, he's a governor, prime minister, or something. So they are they're a power couple, hallelujah. So, but that scripture generally just talks about someone that is connected to source, talks about a woman who is living out the full potential that she has. Um, she's one who has the life of God and she's expressing it to its fullest in every dimension, hallelujah. And of course, that looks different for different people. Amen. It looks different for different people. She's someone who understands the true meaning of life beyond living for herself because she's out there making impact, she's out there bringing in resources, bringing in um gains, and then she's using the Bible says she's open, she opens her hands to the poor, she's feeding the poor, she's making impact in the community. So she's going out to conquer and coming in to be a man of a person of impact. Hallelujah. So she's someone that understands that life is beyond living just for herself. She understands that if it's just live for myself, what do I need? I don't need to do much. But she's out there doing so much. She has goods on the sea, she's buying vineyards, and it's not just about herself. She's feeding other people, she's making impact, she understands generational impact. Hallelujah. And like I said, that looks different for different people. So don't be pressured by what one person is doing. That person that is their own impact. What is your own impact? Define your own impact and live out the fullness of your potential. Hallelujah. The Bible talks about we are looking at the strong woman this morning. Did I say that already? We are looking at the strong woman, you know, and the two scriptures we read talk about her strength. But I want us to look at verse 30 because it talks about all those wonderful things about her, and then we come to verse 30 and says, Charm is deceitful, and beauty is passing, but the woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. I want us to look at it in TPT, if you have it, and then amplify it. Um can be misleading and beauty is vain and so quickly fails. But this virtuous woman, that is, this woman that I've been talking about, you know, that you've been wondering how is she doing it? He says, This virtuous woman lives in the wonder, awe, and the fear of the Lord. She will be praised throughout eternity. This looks like the secret to everything that we have seen. Amen. If you guys in Amplified Version, it says, Charm and grace are deceptive and superficial, duty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord, it now breaks it down, reverently worshiping, obeying, serving, and trusting him with all field respect, he shall be praised. Hallelujah. And so we see in this simple verse the secrets to all the things that we have read from the beginning of that portion of scripture. Amen. A woman she reverently worships, obeys, serves, and trusts the Lord. And as I look at those attributes, I just wrote here, I said she has childlike faith and trust in the Lord. She acknowledges her weakness and the strength of God because she trusts in the Lord, she relies on God. So she knows where her strength ends and she knows to switch to the strength of the Lord. Amen. And we'll just look at three three or four examples of women in the scriptures that embody these attributes. Very quickly, let's go to um first Kings chapter 17. The whole scripture is 16 to 18, but I I won't bother reading all that scripture. But let's just see the beginning. 1 Kings chapter 17, from verse 18. Sorry, from verse 8. Verse 8 says, Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This is to Elijah, arise, go to Zeraph, Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. We know this story. It's interesting. When I was reading it, the Lord said, I have commanded, he said he has commanded the widow, and the widow is not even aware. Hallelujah. The widow herself is not aware, but the scripture says, Yeah, I have commanded a widow to feed you. And we know the story. He went there. The woman said, All I have is just to cook for myself, my son, and then we probably are going to die because there is famine in the land. Amen. And Elijah said, Go and do as you said, make for me too. And he said, You will not run out. Hallelujah. This was someone that she had her last. She had, of course, she must have had more than that before. You know, but as they were going, it got to a point she knew this is the last. Amen. And the Lord came on the scene, gave a word. And as she obeyed, the Bible says that if you go towards verse 16, let me see if it's verse 16. Let's take from 15. Where okay, so she went away and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and her, she and he and her household ate for many days. The bean of flour was not used up, nor the deja of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to Elijah. This was someone that trusted in childlike faith in God. She knew where her own strength ended. She couldn't have gone that far without God. She could have decided not to obey. I'm sure if it was in present day, you will do calculation and say, Who are you? Where are you coming from? Who spoke to you? You know? Because in our own present-day wisdom, you know, you want to calculate everything and you think I'm saying something is not enough. You are telling me to no, but she had childlike faith in God, obeyed that word, and God's strength kicked in when her own strength finished. Hallelujah. And she ran on that strength throughout. She never went, she never went broke. There was no lack, there was no report of her running into trouble until the famine was over. Hallelujah. She trusted in the Lord. Um, let's look at the Shunammite woman, 2 Kings chapter 4, from verse 8. It's also a long read, but we won't read everything. It's 8 to 37. If you want to write it down, I encourage you to go and look at it again when you get home. The whole reading is verse 8 to 37. Well, it's the this time it's Elisha, and um let's just read verse 8 to for context. It says, Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was as oft as he passed by, he will turn in there to eat some food. So this was a woman, the Bible says she's a notable woman. She was a woman of strength in her own self. She was not a small woman, and you will know because when Elisha called her and said, What can I do for you? Can I speak to the king? She said, I'm among my own people. And as in meets, I have mouth among my people. You don't need to talk to anybody for me. So she was a man of strength, a woman of strength in her own self. And but what one thing I noticed when we talked about reverently fearing the Lord, honoring the Lord, she honored God by extension towards Elisha. She knew that this man is a man of God, you know, and she said, Let us make room for because he just told him, Come in and eat, and then he will come in and you know, like he would they will host him. But they went ahead and made it made a place for him. It's like they made a penthouse and said, Let the man of God abide with us anytime, you know, let's make room for the man of God. And that is a sign of reverence, that is a sign of honor, because he understood that this is a servant of the Lord. You know, sometimes in in a in a in this walk generation, we try to downplay honor for the servants of the Lord. And the truth is when you honor God's servant, you are honoring God. And it is never it is never going to go out of fashion. We should never get woke to the point where you will not honor God's servants to you. Praise the Lord. You cannot draw from someone you do not honor. Um look at the story of let me just divert a little. The woman with the issue of blood. This was someone because you know, someone with the issue of blood cannot be in the community. So she, I'm sure it was her first encounter with Jesus, right? She had been away because she was not allowed, she was unclean, so she could not be out. But there were a lot of people because the Bible says she came in the crowd, she pressed. That means there were a lot of people around him. Everybody was around Jesus, they were all touching him, but these are people that are used to him. In fact, I'm sure there will be conversations that will say, Did you touch his robe today? He was wearing the purple one. That one he wore last Tuesday. I told you now that that is a very nice one. He bought it from uh Alex Lower. Sorry. You know, they will just be talking about because I I like that material a lot. Honestly, if I get, you know, and they were all touching him, they are used to him. But this was a woman she had heard about him, she knew what he was capable of, and he she came with honor, you know, to touch the same Jesus everybody was touching. She drew something different because she had a different impression, she had a different perspective, she came in reverence and she knew what she wanted, and she was able to draw from him because of how he she held Jesus in um in her own in our view. Praise the Lord. That's just a diversion, but it tells us let us continue to honor, let us not get to the point where you get too used to the servant of God that is speaking into your life, to the point where you are not able to draw virtue from them. Hallelujah. So maybe that's just a diversion anyway, but I'm sure it's blessing somebody. So they got to that point, you know, she made a house for me, and she the Elijah called him and said, What can we do for you? And she said she doesn't need anything. And the truth is that she does not have a child. If you if you read the whole story, I don't want us to because we don't have so much time. She doesn't have a child, but she said she doesn't need anything. I'm sure she wants a child, but what I see there is someone that has reframed her disappointment as contentment, and a lot of us are there. There are things you want, there are things you've believed God for in times past, there were things you were excited about and you believed they were going to come to pass. There are dreams and visions that the Lord has shown you, and you have gotten to a point where you can't see them happening. You've been disappointed at a point that you shifted from disappointment to say, I am okay, I don't want to think about it anymore so that I'm not disappointed. So she said she doesn't need anything, but she wanted a child. Hallelujah. But God went ahead and gave her a child anyway. Hallelujah. God went ahead and gave her a child, but that's not the end of the story. At that point, I'm sure by the time she now got the child, maybe her faith was renewed, you know, she was happy, but something happened. She lost the child. But this time, because before then, she had gotten used to her, the boundaries of her own strength. I am famous among my people. I can call one, ten will answer. You know, those are the things she can get by herself. She has learned to be comfortable around them so that nothing will disappoint her. The ones she cannot control, she had learned to let me not trust God unnecessarily so that I don't get disappointed. Let me drop this dream. Maybe it's not going to happen anymore. So she's happy with that, you know, that space. She's learning to manage her strength so that she's not, she's not stretching beyond what she can get by herself. She doesn't want to go to a point where she has to lean on somebody else. Praise the Lord. She honored God, but she was not ready to lean on him to that extent. She put a limit. Hallelujah. But this time, by the time she got a child and she lost the child, she had learned. And how do I know she has learned? She sent a message to her husband. She said she wants to quickly, she said nothing. The child had died. She put the child on on the bed, on Elijah's bed, Elisha's bed, rather, and sent, said, get me a horse or something. I want to quickly get to the man of God. She said nothing about what happened. Is everything okay? It is well. She said it is well. When um they saw her coming from afar and they asked Elijah. Um, Elisha was like, this is this woman, what is happening? She said it is well. She went straight to the man of God. In those days, they had no direct connection with God. They leaned on the prophets in the house to contact to connect with God. So indirectly, she went straight to God. I have opened up to you. I leaned on you. You did this thing, and now I know that you are the one that will sustain it. Hallelujah. So she went there and she would not let go. Even when Elisha said Gehazi should go with his um um rod and touch the child. She said, I mean you, we are here together. I'm not leaving you. Now I know you are the source. Talking directly about God, you know. I'm going, I'm gonna stay. And of course, we know the end. The child came back, but she had between that first time and the next time, she had learned something. She had learned to trust God, and God does not fail when we trust Him. Hallelujah. He did not fail her because that child came back. You know, in in when Elisha called her, when Elisha heard that she did not have a child and called her to give her the word that by the time of life, the Bible said she stood in the door. It means something. She was saying, Don't draw me in. Don't I don't want to be disappointed again. I don't want to come near. A lot of people, you are still in church, but you have you have you are managing your expectation between you and God. You come to church. In fact, you come because you know how will people see it if I say I'm not coming again. But in your mind, you you are in the door, you don't want to be disappointed, you don't want to lean on him too much, you don't want to raise your expectations, you don't want to dream too big.

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Praise the Lord. But God is speaking to us this morning. Lift the door, draw closer, I won't disappoint you. Amen. Let's look at Sarah very quickly.

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Genesis chapter 18, verse 12. We know the story of Sarah as well. Sarah had a child after waiting for so long. The last thing we had about Sarah before she had the child was in verse 12. He says, Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure? Shall I have pleasure? My Lord being old also. So this was before the next time we heard about Sarah was in um um I think three chapters after, maybe Genesis 21, verse 1, when she already had a child. Yes, and the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. But we don't know what the last time God spoke, she laughed in utter disbelief. And then the next thing we see here is that she already had a child. But if we go to Hebrews 11:11, you will see what happened in between those two scriptures. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 11. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. So we see what happened before between the time she laughed and the time that the child came. She got to a point where she judged God faithful. And what is the result? She received strength to conceive. Of course, this is talking about a physical child, but there are so many things we carry in ourselves, there are so many dreams, so many desires, so many hopes, aspirations that you have lost the strength to continue to carry. But the Lord is saying, if you will judge me faithful, I will fill you with new strength to bring that child to the world. I will fill you with new strength so that you moves from the realm of dream to reality. I will fill you with new strength to move from the realm of just in your thoughts to something you can handle. Hallelujah. If only you will judge me faithful. Finally, let's look at Joshua chapter 2, verse 19 to 13 is the whole story. But again, I won't read everything, just write it down. It's about Rahab the Hallot. I love that woman. I love her because they did not change her name. They kept calling her Rahab the Hallot. You are the one that thinks you need to repackage, you are the one that thinks you need to rebrand for something to happen. It's it's so funny. Um let me just read the beginning. Say, so it shall be that no Joshua 2, 9 to 13. Let me tell us the story. Of course, we know the story. She um the spies went to check, and um, I need I need to read somewhere there. Let me um from verse 9, okay. And she said to the man, I know that the Lord, yes, verse 9. And she said to the men who had come to spy, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. Go ahead. For we have heard of how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sion and Org, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard that we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. She declared the Lord as God. She declared his lordship, she declared the things that God has done. She said, I have seen these things, and I believe that the Lord has given you the land. That was all she did. She gave she acknowledged the hand of God and she took sides with God, and we all know the results. They said, anybody when we are coming to destroy the land, anybody in that house will be spared. This is an international halot. Our house, our office, our office was in the gates. She was a woman of valor. In that you nobody in that town will not know her. Because our office is right on the on the on the fence. You know, she was very well known. She everybody knew her. But even at that, she acknowledged the Lord and she was saved. And because of that, twice in the New Testament, the epistles are stories that teach. How we should live, and she was mentioned twice, and they still call her Rahab the harot. You don't need to go and clean up, come as you are, you don't need to rebrand. Hallelujah. Just acknowledge the Lord. Look at Joshua chapter 6, verse 25. I want to see something interesting when they came, when they came to uh and Joshua spared Rahab the harlots, her father's household, and all that she had. Yes, and all that she had. So she dwell, so she dwells in Israel to this day, then, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Hallelujah. There was a particular situation where Joshua called for her. Well, maybe another transition. She, while they were there to destroy, Joshua had to acknowledge, call that woman. The Lord is calling you as you are.

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Amen. As you are. Her label did not change, but it was not enough to disqualify her.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

None of us is disqualified. Your stories are, we all have different stories. Your story does not have to be straight. We all have we all have different turns, different curves, different versions of how we got to where we are today. We all at different faces, we all have different desires, but in all, the Lord is calling you to acknowledge Him, to know where your strength ends, and to open up to Him. To let go of that label that you think is disqualifying you or holding you back. As you are thinking of yourself, as mention your name, for me D. You know that D that you think is disqualifying you. So it is not enough. Think about it. Whatever it is that comes to your mind when you mention your name, it is not enough.

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It is not enough to disqualify you. The Lord is calling you. Amen.

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As we round up this morning, there are a set of people that the Lord has, you know, it has been on my mind as I was preparing. You are like that woman who is in the door. In fact, you have said, I am tired a lot. You have found yourself saying I'm tired a lot in the past few, maybe months or in the season, you know, and it's not because you had a long day. You feel overwhelmed, and it's not because the week was hectic. You just feel overwhelmed. You are tired, you are in the door. In fact, you the way I see it is like you are afraid to check yourself and see where what you think about God's faithfulness because you are afraid of what you will discover. You so you just want you are looking away from that side. You are not thinking about it. Because you know, if you think about it, you will come to a negative conclusion. So you decide to just not think about it. So you are in the door, you don't want to draw close, but you don't want to go away completely. And the Lord is here this morning to minister to us, we'll be praying with us. If we are like that at all, I'll invite Pastor Tolu. Yes, ma, please. Let's yeah, yeah. We invite Pastor Tolu to pray with us. You feel tired, you feel like it's not gonna work. You said I'm tired a lot, you are overwhelmed, you are overwhelmed. Well, here this morning, the Lord is speaking to you. Yeah, yes, you can. So there's this song that God put in my heart, and um I I spoke with Pastor Um Sister Tolu about it. Um, and when my heart is overwhelmed, please lead me to the you know, as she sings that song, if you fall in that category, please. Pastor Lou is here, I shall be praying with you. We will be praying with you. I don't know what he will do because I know that if I know what you are thinking of, maybe I will doubt like you're doubting. But let's just come as we are. I am not here to promise you anything, but God is here to meet with you. I don't know what the outcome will be, but I know when he steps in, things change. Hallelujah.

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Thank you for joining us today. We pray this message didn't just speak to your mind but truly ministered to your heart. May the word take root in your life, producing faith, clarity, and boldness as you walk out the purpose God has for you. If this message encouraged you, be sure to share it with someone who might need it. And we'd love to connect with you, join us in person, and become part of what God is doing here at Global Harvest Calgary. Until next time, keep experiencing God and walking confidently in your purpose.