Bishop John M. Johnson - We Are Walking in the Anointing of an Irreversible Blessing

[Music] father i thank you thank you for this another day that you kept us and you brought us together again god for all of your goodness we tell you thank you for your loving kindness and for your tender mercies god we tell you [Music] thank you now i don't want to twist your arm this morning but i just feel like somebody just remembered something that they should be thankful for [Music] out of your belly just tell him thank you [Music] if he's done anything for you tell him thank you [Music] now god speak to our hearts today not the words of a man but god you speak to us as only you can do then let no flesh glory in your presence but in all that we say and do you get the glory it all belong to you then let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord our strength and our redeemer and the people of god said amen and amen now do me a favor just before you sit down turn to a couple of people close to you say something real nice to them it's early in the morning [Music] all right you may be seated i give honor and respect to our leader the presiding bishop and chief apostle of the church bishop charles edward blake senior i give honor to the first and second assistant presiding bishops the bishop phillip aquila brooks and the bishop jerry wayne macklin i do honor individually and collectively the presidium of our church the general board god bless the general secretary of the church bishop joel lyles i bless the chairman of the general assembly of the church the bishop lemuel floyd thuston god bless the chairman of the board of bishops the bishop john henry sheared i want to thank god for all of my fellow bishops and this morning in particular the bishops of region 11. i want to thank god for the honor of serving the church at this time with my nephew the bishop jonathan logan of leo california we're thankful today for the tremendous leadership of mother barbara mccool lewis the general supervisor of the international department of women of the church of god in christ god bless the first lady of the church lady may l blake god bless the emeritus general supervisor of the department of women the mother willie mae rivers i want to take this time to thank god for my jurisdictional supervisor for missouri western second jurisdiction the mother mary kay sims [Music] i'm grateful to have with me today my wife and personal supervisor and she supervises me well lady charlotte johnson stan darling [Music] i'm thankful to have my family with me today tracy tamara my son-in-law could not be here lamar and my two granddaughters ariel yvette and isabel ilana thank god for the missouri western second jurisdiction where i have been given the wonderful privilege of serving as jurisdictional bishop last but certainly not least i am grateful for the wonderful church where i'm honored to serve as pastor barker memorial cathedral of praise located in kansas city missouri and now let's go to the word of the lord i want to talk this morning [Music] from the book of numbers chapter 23 verses 17 through 20. and when he came to him behold he stood by his burnt offering and the princes of moab with him and balak said unto him [Music] what hath the lord spoken and he took up his parable and said rise up they look and hear hearken unto me thou son of the poor god is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it or have he spoken and shall he not make it good behold i have received commandment to bless and he has blessed and i cannot reverse it i don't want to sound presumptuous this morning but i would like to speak a word of assurance to the saints the word of assurance is simply this we are walking in the anointing of an irreversible blessing now i want every child of god under the sound of my voice to make this a personal declaration i want you to say it with me i am walking in the anointing of an irreversible blessing the question has been asked did god create man in his own image and likeness did man create god in his own image and likeness it is my contention that the answer to these questions will never be ascertained through theological debate or philosophical speculations the answer to these questions will only emanate from the depths of a personal relationship with god it is only when we have gone to our own limits and acknowledge that our resources are now exhausted that we call upon god and say as the psalmist said hear my cry oh god attend unto my prayer from the end of the earth will i cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than i for thou has been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy it is only when we come to this point of realization that we truly know that god is not a man takes on the day makes the bold declaration that god is not a man and then gives two characteristics of man that we cannot attribute to the character of god these two characteristics are simply this god does not lie there is no deception in him and god does not change his mind concerning us but as for man we must admit that there are recorded incidents in which man has been known to be less than truthful he will lie first we must understand that a lie is not totally based upon whether the information and knowledge that we possess is true or false a lie is not even based on whether the information and knowledge is fact or fiction may i take my argument one step further we can not even come to the conclusion that facts which are true leads to truth it was a fact that mary was pregnant with child no denying it but it was not true that she had been with a man a lie has to do with intent as much as it has to do with content so then a lie is a lie not because of the facts but it is a lie because of the intent to deceive giving wrong direction does not necessarily fall under the category of telling a lie [Music] giving wrong directions may be the result of other unidentified issues maybe i'm confused about my right and my left maybe i need my hands colored coated maybe i just shouldn't be trying to give directions but one thing that you can count on is this there is no deception in god god is who he say that he is and he will do exactly what he says he will do we must confess that not only has man been known to lie but we have also been known to change our minds frequently and hastily but let me encourage somebody this morning that the fact that we have a challenge a test or a trial in our lives is not an indication that god has changed his mind concerning us do i have a witness anywhere we must understand that the challenge the test or trial is the process by which god refined and purifies us to inherit the promise we must understand that everything that is uncomfortable to us is not an indicator that something evil is working against us sometimes the uncomfortable place is the place where god is trying to get some stuff out of us so he can put the right stuff in us god not only uses our challenges and our tests and our trials to purify and refine us but god uses our challenges our tests and our trials to create a greater capacity in us so that we can receive a greater blessing now some of you are wondering why is the pain so bad why is the pain so deep let me say to you that's not an indicator that you have a low tolerance for pain that's an indication that god is creating capacity because he's got something greater for you in your life if you're going through anything this morning just wave your hand and tell him god i know you're creating capacity in me god is preparing us for something we are not ready for at this moment but if we are willing and obedient and just go through the process the end of the process will be something good in our lives therefore we cannot project the image of man unto our god because god is not obligated nor has any reason to lie and there is no variableness in him no variations no changing no inconstancy no turning in him james 1 17 says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and come it down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning of his own will beget he us with the word of truth and then the lamentations of jeremiah picks up the theme of god's unchanging nature by saying it is of the lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning so you know what it is somebody said with me great is thy faithfulness don't think ill of me this morning but i'm here to tell somebody we don't need the stale bread of yesterday nor the unbaked bread of tomorrow for his mercies are new every morning we've got to move forward in god we got to stop dragging our yesterdays and reaching for our tomorrows and stand firm in the moment and say no matter what comes my way i know you're on my side and i have new mercies sufficient for today that's why jesus taught us to pray give us this day our daily bread so in the text on the day we hear an interchange between balaam the prophet and balak the king of moab as the children of israel are journeying from egypt to the promised land they send messengers to zion king of the amorites asking for a peaceful passage through their land the king of the amorites does not simply deny israel's request for peaceful passage but he gathers all the people together and attack the children of israel oh what a mistake by zion because his decision to attack the children of israel was made from a sense of his own might zion did not take into his account the fact that the children of israel were not journeying in their own might and strength but they were journeying in the mighty strength of the covenant between god and their father abraham god made a promise to abraham that i will make thee a great nation i will bless thee and i will make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing and i will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed israel utterly destroys the amorites and possessed their lands so when baalith the king of moab see the anointing upon the lives of the children of israel he comes unglued comes unnerved and try to take matters into his own hands he makes a preemptive strike against the children of israel i i just wonder i know it's early in the morning wake somebody up real close to you and ask them when was the last time anybody thought enough of your anointing to try a pre-emptive strike so baylor comes up with a plan to have balaam who was called a prophet but in reality he was a little less than a prophet okay he really was a sorcerer to pronounce a curse on the people of god now the name bala means destroyer balaam came from a long line of destruction a lineage of cursing balaam's father's name was baal which means to burn or to consume king baylor said i will get the best curser that money can buy to pronounce a curse upon god's people balaam love money and the good things of life so baylor concluded that every man has his price so i will by balaam to curse god's people i got some news for you this morning some folks who are trying to curse you is not because they don't like you they really admire you and some of them wish they were you because you can always tell how strong you are by how strong your enemies are if you don't have nothing but a bunch of weak enemies don't worry about it but if the person on the 15th floor can't sleep at night about you down on the first floor something wrong with that picture i wish i had a witness in the house anywhere the problem is that too often people who are trying to curse you don't know how to deal with the anointing upon your life so the enemy will always say curse them but god touches this less than a prophet sorcerer balaam whom the bible calls an utterly perverse man and he says to king baylor i can't conjure up a curse upon the people of god so let's try another plan say well first of all king baloch go and build seven altars and prepare seven oxes and rams so that you can offer up a sacrifice on every altar the sacrifice was an indication of prosperity and glory i'm here to tell you that anything we sacrifice to god has to be of some value to us that's why i like when paul talks about when jesus led captivity captive he was quoting from the psalms where a conquering king would take the king that he had just defeated tie him to the back of his chariot drive down main street throwing out money to the citizens because when you are victorious you can afford to be generous i'm looking for somebody that's got your enemy tied to the back of your chariot you ready to drive down main street because you don't have no reason to hang your head if you're victorious just wave your hand and say thank god for the victory so god says to balaam not only do i want you to make a sacrifice but the bible said when he made a sacrifice to god god met him at his place of sacrifice i want to say to the convocation god is going to meet us at our place of sacrifice this week but he's going to meet us at our place of prayer he's going to meet us at our place of consecration he's going to meet us at the place where we seek him with our whole [Music] heart it's not the time for fingerpointing but it's time for us to say it's me it's me o lord i'm standing in the knee of prayer but not only does god meet him there but it's at this place that god put a word in his mouth i'm ready to go look down your row and just tell somebody god need to meet us this week [Music] i'm not just talking about with a new dance but god need to meet us [Music] we got children at home that needs god to straighten them out we need god to lead us here tell somebody on your road hey neighbor i didn't spend money just to come here to get your opinion [Music] and i can't go home the way that i came i need the lord to meet us here i need him to shake us again i need him to move us again we need him to feel us again somebody tell him love i need you to meet us in this place [Music] and when he met him at the place he put a word in his mouth and i'm just wondering is there a word from the lord is there a word that's going to change my life is there a word that's going to heal my broken heart is there a word that's going to change my family around and i hear balaam say yes there's a word from the law god is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent have he said and shall he not do it or have he spoken and shall he not make it good behold i have received commandment to bless and he had blessed and i cannot reverse it balaam didn't have an unction from the law balaam didn't have instructions from the law balaam didn't have a good idea from the law but balaam had a command from the lord and a command can't be changed i'm looking for a witness to say i'm walking in a new law that says i'm less my family is less my children of less my church is less and no matter what's done about it it can't be reversed the president can't veto my blessing congress can't override my blessing the supreme court cannot overturn my blessing i'm blessed and i'm glad about it just give somebody a high five and tell them i'm blessed just like that i'm blessed in everything i do i'm blessed in my walk i'm blessed in my talk everything about me is blessed and it cannot be reversed so blessed shalt thou be in the city and bless shalt thou be in the field blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle the increase of thy kind and the flock of our sheep blessed shall be thy basket and thy soul bless shalt thou be with our cometh in and bless shall i be without going out the lord shall call down the enemies to rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face they shall come out against thee one way and flee before these seven ways because i'm walking in the anointing of an irreversible blessing and i gotta go to my seat but i just want to tell the church of god in christ be not dismayed whatever be tied god will he'll take care of you god will he'll walk by your side yes [Music] come on take me up now look at your neighbor them by the hand and look them right in the eye and tell them i know this is the first day but i'm not gonna wait till the battle is over i'm walking in the anointing of an irreversible blessing and i'm gonna shout right now i'm gonna give god glory right now you

Channel: Albany's Internet Mall

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Keywords: Bishop John M. Johnson, We Are Walking in the Anointing of an Irreversible Blessing, 111th Holy Convocation, Church of God in Christ, COGIC, The Church Seasoning the World

Id: Y7rVg7W1h0I

Length: 34min 34sec (2074 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021