Carolina Revival | September 18th 2021 | Saturday PM | Hope Chapel Batesburg, SC

[Music] your light overtakes the darkness your love is breaking through kings and the kingdoms all bow down to you zion's gates are open new jerusalem city of our god is finally coming down your light overtakes the darkness your love is breaking through kings and the kingdoms all [Music] these things [Music] here right now [Music] nations are turning and hearts are burning for the man of grace and truth nothing can't stop him there are no limits to what our god can do nations are turning and hearts are burning for the man of grace and truth nothing can stop [Music] kingdom coming down on earth right here right now [Music] the brokenhearted [Music] healed and mended sons and daughters are restored we are the image of the father a ray of light breaking forth [Music] the broken hearted healed and mended sons and daughters are restored [Music] we are the image of the father a ray of light breaking cold [Music] the kingdom coming down on earth right here right now [Music] god is moving my god is moving [Music] science gates are open [Music] peace are never afraid you are home home to me you are patient and kind [Music] you are peace peace to me you are never [Music] [Music] i was alive in you before my eyes were opened before my tongue could speak before the bond was broken between you and me you are home to me in you are home [Music] home to me you are patient and kind you are peace peace to me you are never failing your home you are [Music] peace [Music] like a house out in the country like a boat out on the sea like a river going somewhere we [Music] [Music] beneath my feet i like the way i've always known how close you are [Music] you are patient [Music] peace [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] you are never [Music] [Music] let our eyes be filled with wonder let our minds [Music] of jesus lead us back where we belong [Music] we have journey [Music] and let our hearts be filled with sun and let the way of jesus lead us back where we belong to where we belong here [Music] let the way of jesus lead us let the way of jesus lead us oh back where we belong back where we belong [Music] oh you are where we all have come from you are where we long [Music] let our eyes be filled with wand and let our lives be filled with song and let the way of jesus lead us back where we belong you are where we all have come from [Music] but we are coming oh we're coming home we're coming home yeah [Music] we're coming home we're coming home we're coming home [Music] we're coming home we're coming home [Music] [Music] cause you are home to me you are patient and kind you are peace peace to me [Music] you are never afraid you are never failing you are never feeling [Music] you're never fail you're never failing [Music] come and lead us jesus come and lead us jesus [Music] come and lead us jesus [Music] come and lead us come and lead us [Music] [Music] oh [Music] jesus you are the way the truth alive come and lead me [Music] me you jesus come and lead me [Music] i surrender to the shepherd i surrender to his way yeah i surrendered to the shepherd i surrendered to his way [Music] you restore my souls [Music] my soul my [Music] my soul [Music] take your time take your time lord we're all ears your time take your time take your time lord we're all ears and we're all here take your time take your time take your time lord we're all ears and we're all here what are you speaking what are you saying we're all [Music] ears we're all ears so open my heart so i can know you open my heart so i can know your jesus open my [Music] what are you singing we wanna know [Music] what are you singing what are you saying [Music] what are you saying what are you speaking we want to know [Music] so open my ears our ears so we can hear you speaking open our ears so we can hear open our ears so we can hear you speaking open our ears so we can hear you open our ears so we can hear you speaking open our ears so we can hear [Music] we wanna know [Music] me um [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you can let your guard down and you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running running [Music] you can let your guard down and you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running running [Music] running [Music] running running [Music] my arms are wide open and i was just hoping you would fall into them just like you used to do my arms are wide open and i was just hoping [Music] you would fall into them just like you used to do you can let your guard down and you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running running you can let your car down and you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green already running running [Music] always forever and a day that's where you'll find me i'll always be smiling always beyond the grave that's where you'll find me i'll always be smiling so you can let your guard down [Music] down and you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green [Music] so tape [Music] so [Music] so take me back to the beginning when i was younger [Music] so take me back back to the beginning when i was young running through the fields [Music] running with you [Applause] with you [Music] when i was young running through the [Music] when i was [Music] the younger with you [Music] all the way back [Music] let me jump in just for a minute here [Music] i feel so much stirring inside me over these last few minutes i i really feel like that i'm talking to a lot of people one-on-one tonight there's something about live stream that makes these meetings intimate and i just feel i really feel like i feel like the heart of the lord tonight in terms of wanting to take you back to a place where you had your innocence your freedom and to reintegrate what you had then now but i believe the journey there so you can come back here better prepared to go there is gonna require something of every one of us and i felt it so powerfully when michael started singing that song a while ago and i heard it first as a summons like let your guard down but that really wasn't what he was singing he was singing you can let your guard down you can make a new sound you see the flow you see the invitation let your guard down so you can make a new sound then there's a deeper word of encouragement there you can let your guard down and if you can let your guard down there's going to be a new sound coming out of you a sound that will incorporate a journey all the way back and all of the pieces that he has so carefully crafted into your heart but i feel like some of you are in a now where the walls have gotten built up again i could just start ticking off the conditions of the heart that that i'm feeling as i'm talking one-on-one to some people and you don't have to be prophetic to feel this stuff but i feel it tonight you know discouragement disappointment those two are real big i feel that real big tonight discouragement disappointment disappointment in people disappointment people that you put a lot of value in a lot of stock in and it's caused you let me go step further not just people but disappointment in outcomes some of you were listening to the live stream tonight and you you never dreamed that in your journey to this place and i'm talking about the place of this now moment i'm not talking about geography although i could be that you never anticipated that when you said yes that you would be sitting and encountering what you're encountering right now never in your wildest imagination and and i say that that that's not in a good way in other words it's back to that discouragement disappointment i could almost feel like somebody tonight has gotten the wind completely knocked out of them and you're debating on making a decision based on discouragement and disappointment based on being guarded and i feel like you're this close to a new sound because i don't think anybody who's listening to this tonight is intended to stay in the place where you are but there's something new there's something added there's something more that is crafting together but it's going to require a vulnerability of heart that may be very very difficult for you but i felt a while ago as i was just kind of walking back and down the wall over here and michael when you first came out with that you can let your guard down i just started weeping from this deep deep place and i knew it i knew it wasn't weeping for me but i could almost see myself in that moment looking into individual situations and feeling this burden this this this yearning to say to you let your guard down i could almost hear the lord just crying through me let your car down let your guard down because you've you've gotten you've gotten hurt you've gotten frustrated and underneath some of those angry emotions is this deeper disappointment and if he's truly trying to get us to a place called home which is where we began you know 40 minutes ago then it all hinges right now on letting that guard down offering once again your heart so i want to invite you into a moment of real vulnerability i don't think we can go any further i don't care if we don't go any further that's the beauty of these meetings they're real organic but i i just think there's an invitation right where you are in fact i feel this some of you are going to hear this invitation tonight but you're going to have to come back again tomorrow morning in order for him to to really take down that place that's gotten guarded fortified i i even feel like some of you you can't even see it clearly but but there's just a little bit of ping inside of you around this whole call here but i also want to offer this encouragement you can let your guard down again yes you can you can let your guard down you don't have to live guarded you don't have to live behind that wall you don't have to live in self-protection you don't have to stay at a distance you don't have to pretend you don't have to fake it until you make it [Music] you don't have to hide behind religion you don't have to hide behind formulas and cliches i want to say to you tonight you can let your guard down and when you let your guard down and you let yahweh do whatever he wants to do when that wall is down i'm here tonight to say you can make a new sound and in fact that new sound is a necessary thing it's a vital thing in fact on the other side of the laying down of the guarded heart may just be the sound you were always intended to make and tonight listening to this live stream feeling jaded and disappointed and discouraged and maybe even just numb you can let that guard down there's a new sound for you there's a new sound locked on the other side of the guardedness so come on i want to i want to invite you into a moment of letting your guard down [Music] come on your future may hinge on your decision tonight and your response to this tonight let your guard down you can do this let your guard down you can do that you must do this you've got to do this so much is hinging on your unguarded heart there are places he cannot take you that he wants to take you because your heart has gotten guarded again so let him take you back let him take you wherever he needs to take you to say that right there in that moment of chronos clock time is where you built a guard you built just a little fortified place and said to yourself i'm not going back there i'll stay right here i'll get a little closer but but i'm not going to go that far i'm not going to let myself be that vulnerable come on come on i want to challenge you at the level of that decision tonight you can let your guard down you've got to let your guard down come on [Music] i see your futures hinging on your unguarded heart i see some of your children hinging on you saying okay i'm gonna do it again come on let the tears come let the vulnerability come you've got to let your heart let that guard down let that guard down [Music] so [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] you can let your guard down you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running running you can let your guard down and you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green but running running my arms are wide open and i was just hoping you would fall into them just like you used to do my arms are wide open and i was just hoping you would fall into them just like you used to do [Music] [Music] so you can let your guard down you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running running you can let your guard down and you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running running always forever and a day that's where you'll find me i'll always be smiling always far beyond the grave that's where you'll find me i'll always be smiling [Music] so you can let your guard down you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green fields are bright and green my arms are wide open and i was just hoping if you would fall into them just like you used my [Music] fall arms them like you used to do [Music] so you can let your guard down you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running and running you can let your guard down you can make a new sound the fields are bright and green for running running [Music] running running running [Music] running running [Music] running [Music] i don't want to move from where we are i just keep hearing the word vulnerability over and over that whole invitation around letting our guards down i want you to stay in that vein stay in that flow stay in that invitation because if we're here tonight it's an invitation and it's also maybe uh i keep hearing the word correction but maybe it's just like he's doing a little bit of heart surgery and and just saying i need you i need you vulnerable i need you i need you open [Music] so let him let it let the sound come there's a real gentleness to take you into the place of the unguarded heart and i know some of you are afraid of getting hurt all over again i can't i can hear again that argument i hear the argument in your in your i hear some of you saying i'm fine i'm really fine i can almost see somebody in their kitchen right now watching and you're kind of pacing back and forth and you're you're doing other stuff as you're doing this and you're really kind of hoping we might move along here [Music] or not not going anywhere he's talking to you i don't know why i'm saying this but i want to say this hey baby hey baby he's talking to you [Music] he's talking to you he's trying to meet your eye right now come on be still one two while too long ago and you said lead us besides still ward us to restore our soul that was before michael came in with this intrusive word this let your guard down deal so i i want to say to whoever stop what you're doing right now stop stop stop stop just just sit down be still open your hands up he wants to take you into a still place to get your gaze back and to allow him to look into the place that he has to look in order for the new sound give me a second to go grab the passion i want to read something i feel this i feel the real gentleness of the lord tonight i feel it in my voice i feel it in our pace um in hebrews chapter 12. and and i it's hard to to put this into context but but this this sentence stands on its own even though it's in a long context it the context is in the great cloud of witnesses and and the roll call of faith and then then dr simmons translates part of verse one in this way so we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into could it be that there's a struggle with sin that you're falling into because you haven't let go [Music] of every wound see the guardedness is insulating your heart but it's preventing your heart from getting its necessary nourishment from your shore by virtue of being unguarded so this whole thing about letting go of every wound that has pierced us as i see the guard coming down i see the wounds underneath and behind the guardedness and that's got to be dealt with so just let this gentleness come let this gentleness come even us right here tonight we don't we i want to free y'all from any pressure to perform okay and to miss this moment i in fact early in the service even you guys andrew i know you're running the camera alton i know you got your head in a thousand different directions you know with sam um you as well blake you're back in the back i i don't want you guys to miss an opportunity tonight to feeling like okay you got to go on with a show and miss miss a moment where he's trying to recalibrate it's been happening to me the last two days and i didn't know we were coming when you said that tonight it was like everything else got kicked into neutral and that there's he wants our hearts he cannot do in us what he wants to do without free access to every place in the heart this is so fundamental this is so basic and so i want you just to allow yourself to have that open posture to say search me and try me see if there's any anguished way see if there's any bent way any twisted way [Music] no this is not navel gazing this is not introversion this is simply him saying i need your guard down because i'm all about a sound coming out of you that you've never heard a sound coming out of me that i've never heard but the only way that can happen and and again i'm going to go back to where a few minutes ago that sound apparently is very important to him [Music] and that sound coming out of you may be a piece of what you were put on this planet to emit but in order for that to happen see this is the big deal that's why we can't go any further tonight there are there are postures of guardedness that have to be dealt with now already in my mind i've heard some of you forming an argument but does not proverbs 4 23 say above all else guard your heart yes it does but the guarding that proverbs 4 23 is talking about is not this defensive posture of hiding not this not this posture of you having been disappointed or hurt or discouraged so therefore you've retreated into a guarded posture oh you're polite you're cordial you've got the game face on see but again now in this moment of intimacy tonight he wants that that's not what proverbs 4 23 is talking about in fact tuck that verse away i'll speak on it on another day it's one of my favorite verses the guarded heart is this and he's saying tonight let your guard down and and i want to say again because michael worded it you can let your guard down there's grace tonight for this to happen and when that happens it's going to allow his tender hand to come and place his hand on the wounded places that have created the need for guarding and i'm talking about also some new stuff there's been some stuff that's happened to many of you recently like in the last year the last year and a half maybe since you moved here maybe since you started dialing in and started believing and trusting matt reminded me tonight of the wonder years back in 2017 i believe it was when we first over there and some of the t3 meetings got called into wonder got called back into laughter and expectancy but now in the face of new pressures new issues new things that have popped up to the surface it's caused you to step back and like a gate that automatically closes you've put a guard up and tonight he's probing believe michael you said something earlier about not being in a hurry and so here we are again that's the second time you've done that weeks ago you've come out he's not in a hurry may have been on a wednesday morning but we're not in a hurry here tonight because i feel like we're standing in a crossroads tonight let me just talk to like i'm talking to you one-on-one that you you're at a crossroads tonight i'm at a crossroads because i'm standing here tonight and i'm and i'm going i don't feel a current issue right at this moment but if that invitation came from him then there's there's still something there he's going to go jd in order for us to create the new sound you've got to stay unguarded and that that that's the crux of what i'm hearing you've got to stay unguarded got to stay open you got to stay vulnerable takes courage to to be open and unguarded it's been one of the hallmarks of this movement has been vulnerability i can remember the days when damon distinguished between susceptibility and vulnerability remember that how we confuse that when you're vulnerable it doesn't mean you're susceptible in fact man i feel this when you're guarded you're susceptible that may be a part of the sin that so easily entangles i'm going to go ahead and say it because i just saw it some of you are drinking too much alcohol again we don't have a legalism in this family about alcohol and i i may tell you right now i'm not seeing a face and i'm not responding to anything that's been said to me that popped into my spirit out of nowhere some of you are drinking too much alcohol and it is an entangling sin whose roots is in a wound that's not been dealt with and or has recently happened and it's caused you to be more susceptible to that comfort that brings may not just be alcohol but that's what i saw and that that that's that's not i'm not talking to an alcoholic i'm not talking to somebody who's had a drinking problem no i'm talking to somebody who's entered somebody says it's more than one who's entered into a new freedom but in that freedom there's a wound that's feeding the propensity for you to get comfort through alcohol in a way you should no longer do you're going to have to let your guard down you're going to have to put that down in order to let him process you and and hear me loud and clear don't give in to the to the thing that says well you're not talking about me i'm good that that that's the typical alcoholic response hear me hear me hear me hear me it may even be so i'm seeing stuff tonight it may even be somebody who's watching a live stream you got a beer in your hand right now [Music] maybe a glass of wine and i'm allow the i don't want religion to make you feel guilty because i'm not speaking out of religious spirit but i want the holy spirit to go he's talking to you and this propensity is going to lead you into an entangling sin and the root of it is a wound that's being hidden behind a guarded heart [Music] wow can we stay there a few minutes come on let him let him let him convict you i i feel that that imminent danger is going to be averted by your heeding the call and you had no idea this was an issue until right now i feel that thing expanding and and i feel it [Music] with with this this pattern anything that you're rationalizing right now a certain behavior in fact i saw somebody the moment i mentioned alcohol i saw somebody have a real religious response and you were doing this not in the room but you were doing this and in your heart you were going amen brother it's about time you talked about that kind of stuff and i want to say to you you're in danger as well because that's a judgmental spirit and that also protects a wound you see the the person who's judgmental is up on their perch looking over going uh-huh uh-huh yeah it's about time we talk about that stuff gotcha don't say that ugly this just he got you [Music] come off that high horse there's no high ground and low ground here this this is all of us being being pierced by a living two-edged sword it's already happening to you right here in the room tonight and you may come up in a few minutes and speak about that i can feel it and feel it happening to me just just let the two-edged sword of love come in and begin to cut and peel away and expose i feel it i feel in the room now jump in if you you feel anything i someone i want to stay in this prophetic flow see i didn't see this coming tonight it all started when you said let your guard down you can let your guard down and back to the back to the to the alcohol thing you can let that guard down you can let that guard down [Music] just let his word penetrate right now the living breathing active vibration [Music] of his love let it let it come in and let it begin to to bring to the surface where you're nursing some wounds that have gotten covered up so to speak because you've guarded your heart so well in fact some of you are so good at this you're watching this tonight instead of being a participant i i i want to take what he's saying tonight literally that that everyone who hears my voice tonight myself included that there is a new frequency there's a new vibration this whole thing about it there's a new sound there there is a there is a there is an another layer another piece another dimension of the frequency of love that he's wanting to engraft into your being but that thing will bounce off in fact man in fact the sounds he's wanting to engraft incorporate that's the word i'm looking for to incorporate in your inner being are very specific and they're tailored to you [Music] this may sound a little flaky but i when i heard taylor taylor i said this is for taylor i know we got a number of tailors watching this tonight there could be 25 tailors but if your name is taylor pay very careful attention i'll just go ahead and get specific taylor ballinger i see you taylor martin i see you bryn's taylor i see you and there are others just this is tailored there's a tailored frequency of adjustment a tailored sound that's wanting to be incorporated that's going to require a new layer of vulnerability a new layer of open a new layer of your willingness to be pierced by the vibration [Music] of love that's the living active word it's it's the vibration that's coming through this gathering tonight through the sound but it needs entry points it needs vulnerability it needs vulnerability [Music] a lot hinges on this tonight a lot hinges on your response my response and us honoring this moment a lot of hinges if you feel like you need to jump in come on you feel like you need to jump in come on we just kind of go ebb and flow here come on matt [Music] we're just going to yield to each other here tonight so i want you to dial in as as matt comes up and jordan perhaps after him johnson said something earlier and it reminded me you said uh get off the high horse and it reminded me of the story of saul on the road to damascus and you're talking about how that religious finger of accusation just pointing and some of you even tuned in not to participate but to judge what's going on and uh i just feel a grace from the lord for encounters tonight for you and you tuned in to point a judgmental finger at what's going on and to tally up all of your questions and all of the things that you could find wrong with the way things are going here and and maybe you're even a part of this family and uh coming from a background of being rooted deep in religion and performance and thinking of myself more highly than i should i feel the grace of the lord tonight for you specifically for you and i just feel johnson that i'm to pray and i really feel like it's some folks in our family i really do i know there are other people that are connected and when i say our family we have an extended family but i i mean people who live here in this community and you and i get it man if anybody gets it i get where you are i know i know how being so such so ingrained religion being so ingrained in you that you just have this way of thinking that you don't even realize you're doing it you're doing it though and and and abba has come in his love and his son jesus has come in his love tonight to i believe encounter you right now i want to read that story real quick i you you know most of it but i was reading it up on the stage as johnson was saying that and um it is so powerful i'm not going to read the whole thing you know the story but i'll just read until i feel like i'm supposed to stop it said says this is acts chapter nine during those days saul full of angry threats and rage wanted to murder the disciples of the lord jesus so he went to ask the high priest and requested a letter of authorization he could take to the jewish leaders in damascus requesting their corporation and finding and arresting any who were followers of the way saul wanted to capture all of the believers he found both men and women and dragged them as prisoners back to jerusalem that's the religious mecca of the day he said so he obtained the authorization and left for damascus just outside the city a brilliant light flashing from heaven suddenly exploded all around him falling to the ground he heard a booming voice say to him saul saul why are you persecuting me the men accompanying him accompanying saul were stunned and speechless for they heard a heavenly voice but could see no one saul replied who are you lord i am jesus the victorious the one you are persecuting now get up and go into the city where you will be told what you are to do and you know the rest of the story he was he was blind from that moment and i just feel like the grace of the lord has come to blind some of you that is his grace and that that is a word i'm even you know how you speak things and you realize it's for you that is a word for me even in this moment the grace of the lord has come and he has blinded me right now and i can't see and i don't like that and some of that that's you tonight you're sitting and you're watching this and you can't see and you don't like that but i just want to declare to you that is the grace of the lord and and the story goes on three days later there's a man named ananias that comes and and he has the answer to paul's blindness he lays hands on him and he's able to see and you know that story paul becomes one of the greatest witnesses um in in throughout scripture but i feel the grace of the lord coming and even putting blinders on your eyes you're wondering why you can't see you're wondering why you have all these questions that's the grace of the lord so i just want to pray over you and then i'll turn it back over but father i thank you for that grace i thank you that you encounter us on on the on our high horse i thank you that you knock us from those positions and you totally disrupt the things that we think uh should happen and and the way we think things should be you come and you totally dismantle all of that and i thank you that you're dismantling our religion i thank you that you're dismantling my religion and the way i see things and the way i see you and the way i see others i thank you that in your grace and the light and the love of your son jesus is coming and it's dismantling my whole world and i'm thankful for it lord i don't like it but i'm thankful for it it is uncomfortable and i'm thankful for it it's painful and i'm thankful for it and i just speak grace over this family specifically this local family i speak grace over you to rest and receive the grace of the lord even in a moment where you feel like you can't see he's gonna he he's going to give you your vision back but it's going to be totally different than what you you're going to see things totally different than the way you saw them before religion has a number of different masks and you may even the one that's sitting there holding the holding the the drink holding the wine holding the uh bottle of beer tonight you may say well at least i'm not the religious but i'm here to tell you that religion can be inside of that and so father set us free from our religion set us free from our religion i want to know who you are i want to know who you are strip away every thing that hinders my vision of seeing you for who you truly are every religious thing in me i give it to you abba we give it to you all but we surrender that to you come and show us the real way come and show us who you are jesus it's what we want it's what we want so [Music] so i just um i was texting johnson this morning and just some stuff i felt like the lord was showing me and even tonight with everything that's been said letting your guard down and myself sitting in here allowing that to happen and knowing that johnson had asked me to potentially share something tonight and just kind of asking the lord like number one feeling emotional because just this season we're in right now and to be right here i feel so privileged like unbelievably privileged and i felt like i was just asking what you know why am i here what a what do you you know i feel some things maybe you want me to say why do you want me to say anything because i don't feel like i'm the most well-suited for this to be in an empty room with these ridiculous lights in my face and talking to a camera is about the pinnacle of me being uncomfortable so i'm like why am i here why am i doing this and i really felt like he said i really need you as a part of what the spirit has been doing here and a part of this even local community to just go and be vulnerable for a minute and as i'm thinking that you guys start saying all this i was like okay and i really feel like if it's okay i want to share what i texted you this morning but i i feel like i need to talk a little bit about even stuff we've talked about weeks ago just things i have been experiencing over really this year but specifically the last few months so that's okay i feel like that's kind of maybe what i'm supposed to do and if if you don't mind just keep playing that makes it a lot easier it's a lot easier to talk when somebody's playing a piano you can you can stop talking for extended periods of time and not feel like it's awkward because something else is happening so i just um this has been the most bizarre season of my entire life by far from covid to even here locally where we're at it's just been it's been very different and i think i my wife and i we we had a baby in march and she was born about a month early but was totally fine she was completely healthy and when you have a baby you obviously receive some rather large bills from the hospital specifically when they're born premature and i have one other child who's about to turn three so i i kind of knew how this deal goes i'll i'll call them all you know just chip away at it put make some payments on it no big deal well something happened where i was required to pay ridiculously large amounts of money each month and it initiated me really coming into a tailspin of just i kept calling it the avalanche of punches it was just like it initiated something where i felt like thing after thing after thing was just hammering me and my wife and i really want to talk to i know so many people watch these but i know lately it's been a lot more our local people that are watching these live streams and so i really want to i feel just such a compassion for all of us who live here it's like tonight i could see the the couple who through this whole season your marriage has been struggling and you don't have the church service to go to and come to the altar together and to get wrecked and it's been challenging and people dealing with health issues in their body and you don't feel like you have the community to lean on and i just feel such a compassion like i get that so when when we receive these bills my initial thought is well that doesn't fit in the budget here but you know what we'll just do it we'll see what happens so after that you know how the story goes the dryer breaks the air conditioner quits working you get it fixed it's working again our air conditioning quit working four times this summer out of nowhere my face started hurting so i go to the dentist you need the root canal right now oh by the way it's gonna be several thousand dollars and we need it today we're not gonna do it i was like oh my god so it the avalanche just coming down and it created in my life really for the first time a physical response from the stress that it created to the point that a couple a couple months ago i get a call from the hospital and they say you missed a payment now you have to pay us two payments or we're sending this to a collections agency and you're gonna have a delinquent account i didn't miss any payments i i am very organized i was trying to explain to them that's not right and in the middle of dealing with all that this culmination of all that just hit me and my chest started cramping like crippling chest cramps to the point that i was like am i having a heart attack like i'm 29 years old what is going on so we have a doctor that comes to revival sometimes that a lot of us know and i called him and i'm telling him and he was like man anytime it's your chest is cramping you really need to go probably to the er or at least in urgent care and so i was like okay so i'll go to an urgent care so i'm driving there and my car automatically started playing a song and it was this song called when i lock eyes with you and it just started playing and i just broke finally just from all the stuff and so i'm laying in an urgent care for seven hours this day they're running every test and unsurprisingly they're like we don't know what's wrong everything looks fine and it was like in that moment i really felt the lord saying like this is a this is a heart thing that has become so significant that it is affecting your physical body and i struggled with that and i actually even sent a text to pastor johnson was like i'm gonna need to talk to you about some stuff i'm dealing with how many times have you gotten that text so i text johnson and i get home that night after being at the urgent care all day and my wife savannah she is like amazing she i would say she's watching but she's probably not because we have a toddler and a newborn but i get home that night and she i literally sit down in our kitchen table and i put my forehead on the table and i just started sobbing and she was like what is going on and i was like i don't know i feel like i'm falling apart and she just sat across from me and she just put her hands on me and started praying and as she was praying i felt like i heard the word of the lord through her and she just kept saying surrender surrender surrender and it was you know when you hear those words that just aren't piercing you surrender and so my wife and i began to walk out this process of learning to surrender to let go and to trust if somebody asked me to give a definition for the word trust i would say let go that to me is the essence of trust it is a letting go and we really started to experience this this over the course of weeks where we began to really feel an inner fortitude start to develop and it's where when the next thing would come down and punch us it was like we were laughing about it like we were like yeah of course of course that happened you know that would happen of course but it was like we really got to a place where we didn't care and i remember there was this one week where the whole week i was like i haven't felt stressed i feel awesome like i'm not getting frustrated at stuff easily i'm just i feel like i'm really getting to the other side of this so that same week i had called the hospital about these bills and i was like somebody's gonna have to help me out and work with me i can't keep doing this and they're like well basically your only option is you can fill out this form the hospital is allowed to for tax purposes right off for charitable reasons certain uh hospital debts in any given year and they basically made it sound like to me it's essentially a lottery it's kind of a crap shoot you never know like they they kind of said it to me like maybe like you can do it so i was like okay i'll do it so i fill it out and after i savannah and i are in this place where we're just really trusting like i'm hearing stuff like the lord saying like i'm like lord i don't know how we're going to pay that hospital bill this month like what you know what are we going to do and him say but have you ever not had exactly what you need and i was like you know what i've always had exactly what i need so i'm not going to worry about it well at the end of that week the hospital called me and said actually i called them to check if they got my application in the mail and she was like let me look and she said okay yeah we we actually got it last a few days ago and um you've been 100 accepted and i was like okay i was like what does that mean like and she was like well she was like that your your new balance is zero dollars and i was like what do you mean it like so what balance what what are you talking about she's like all of the bills from your wife spread pregnancy and birth your new balance is zero dollars you do not have to make any more payments and i was like okay thank you goodbye just blown away there's something to be said of when you are doing all the striving and when you are trying to put together the plan to figure everything out there's like it's almost like matt was saying he will put the blinders on you it's like you will come to a place where you literally can't do that anymore and it's on the other side of that trust in letting go that the door is open for breakthrough to come into your life so johnson calls me the day after that happens and he's ready to he's ready to have like a sozo with me like all right this this poor boy i need to help him so he calls me and i was like well i'll be honest a lot of the stuff i was going to talk to you about i feel really good about right now and i was telling him about it and we got to talking and i was just telling him everything and so he starts talking to me about what a lot of you have probably heard him talking about just this breathing thing that he's been in lately and he was telling me how he would go he's been going and just just picturing jesus sitting in front of him and just allowing jesus just to breathe on him and and i felt it so strong i was like i need to do that like that's a word of the lord for me so a couple days later i woke up really early and i have this awesome property that the lord gave me my my whole life i've always i love walking like when i used to live in town i would just walk up and down the street because i just like walking and thinking and clearing my head and praying and i'd always ask the lord lord whenever i buy a house i i'd love for there to be like a really long driveway so i could just walk up and down it and then when i got my house if you see it it's it's like two-tenths of a mile long it's like hilarious looking it's this long paved driveway and so i love to just get coffee go out there in the morning walk up and down the driveway and just pray and so a couple days after johnson and i talked i got up really early and it was still kind of dark it was actually kind of cold that morning so i had a jacket on it was like in the 50s and i'm just walking i felt like dora's like go get your lawn chair and like let's do that let's sit i want you to breathe and i was like okay i normally don't like doing that i don't like having to sit still i feel like i can't focus but let's let's do it so i go i get my fold-out chair and at this point it's still pretty dark and i have these huge pine trees that surround my property and so the even when the sun comes up it's usually 8 or 8 30 in the morning before it actually comes up over those trees and starts shining on my driveway and so i'm walking in the dark and i go and i get this chair and i'm sitting there and i'm just breathing and as i'm breathing i start to become aware of all the little sounds happening around me so i hear the 18-wheeler coming from down the street i hear birds i hear bugs i hear my dog behind me he's chewing on a deer antler and i'm like i start to get frustrated at all these noises i'm like champ get out of here like i'm getting mad at the dog like i feel it's just like frustration trying to sit there and i felt like the lord in that moment was like that's it like you and i could i could i could almost physically feel it right here at the same point of where that cramping had been happening it was like you're too easily frustrated you're too easily stressed out by things and then it was like i want you just to breathe and i want you to see yourself almost scooping that off and that was the word i felt just scooping that off and just surrendering it to me so i'm sitting there and i'm just breathing and i'm i'm literally just seeing myself scoop this off and i'm saying lord i just give you this i give you this stress i give you this frustration that i feel so easily i don't wanna i don't wanna live my life being easily frustrated i don't wanna live my life kicking the dog you know and and after doing that just for i don't know 10 or 15 minutes i don't really know how to explain this other than and i don't want to use like cliches because this was anything but common it was he took me into an experience that i had not ever felt before and he took me into this encounter and he showed me from out of nowhere three memories from my past and i know these memories they weren't ones i had forgotten and the moment he showed me everything in me started to cringe at these memories just oh god and guilt shame embarrassment at the thought of these memories and my initial reaction was like move on forget about him push him away he was like no no no there's a place in me i've called you to go and you can only go so far before you'll bump into these every single time it's time to deal with them and so it was painful it was panic it was anxiety embracing almost these memories that's so counter-intuitive especially if you've grown up in this pentecostal or especially like a word of faith expression because anyway if you know you know but i i just the same way i had been giving him and surrendering that that feeling of frustration and stress to him and he was like just start to just start to do that with those memories i know it's i know you feel anxiety i know you feel guilt i know you feel shame when you think about these but just start to give that to me and one by one it was like jesus himself was taking me back in time to these moments and he was saying i want you to talk to you then so i'm i'm one one of them is when i was a little kid one of them was when i was a teenager another one was when i was you know after high school age and he just one by one started to walk me through these and say now this is what i think this is what i was thinking in those moments and i could feel myself being set free from the cringing of those memories and you know you know what i'm talking about those memories that when you think about them you immediately cringe and you're like oh god i don't even want to like just try to forget about it and move on i would challenge you in this season that we're in as counter counter-intuitive and even theologically if you feel like it's wrong to embrace those it felt it went against my religion to embrace something painful and i and i felt the lord telling me be vulnerable tonight so i want to share i don't want to talk forever because one i just don't want to talk forever but also because for the sake of time i just want to share one specific memory and what's what's funny is i texted johnson that this had happened and he said now the challenge for you will be every time those come up to not cringe to get to the point where you never cringe again and still working on that a little bit but with this particular one i feel even tonight being in where i am currently speaking and a massive measure of freedom so i want to share it with you and i hope that um there may be four people still watching this live stream at this point there's no telling but to the four people watching i know taylor martin's watching taylor and carson y'all are watching love you guys i talked to him 40 for 45 minutes and i was like man you gotta pray for me john i told johnson some and now he's like well you know you're gonna probably have to say that that's that's a that's a word of wisdom to the people who live here if you ever feel something really strong and you tell one of these jokers they don't want to be here either so they're going to make you come up here and do it and here i am so i want to just share one of these just be vulnerable share one of these memories with you just kind of what the lord did in me so i used to be a part of a church and at this church they would have these prayer meetings and at these prayer meetings it was very they wanted it to be loud they wanted it to be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much like that was a coined phrase of the prayer meetings like be fervent be loud and i mean i can remember at times like sitting there praying like this and a leader coming and tapping me on the shoulder and being like you need to pray and me being like okay okay yep and in my head being like man i really i thought i was but they they wanted the performance they wanted the you've seen it the karate chop the pacing back and forth the yelling and so at this particular morning i was praying and one of the leaders came up and tapped me and they were like hey i want you to i want you to pray in a second like in front of everyone like on the microphone like i want you to pray i think they even said like will you pray about this or something i was like and immediately i'm like oh god i don't want to do that but they pass me the microphone and i remember i had my eyes closed and i was like i'm just gonna go for it so i'm like i'm like yelling into this microphone not my personality i'm like just trying to do the the thing and i can remember in that moment i heard the two leaders who were there off to the side laughing and mocking me while i did that and as i heard it i just stopped dead in my tracks and was like done and from that experience he took me back to it as painful as it was and said that was the point that initiated you feeling like you didn't measure up in a ministry setting and so at this point i'm in the lawn chair i'm crying i'm like yeah like i don't i know this memory i think about it i push it aside and i'm like okay so what are you jesus what are you saying to me right then and number one i felt like he was like well first of all you don't even know that they were actually mocking you or making fun of you but the reason you may have even thought that was because you were performing and if you had been fully yourself and fully authentic in that moment it would not have mattered if they were you were not designed for the performance and every time you felt like even people in this community you step into this building and you hear a damon thompson or a dutch sheet start to speak and you feel like you'll never measure up you are not called to be damon thompson you are not called to be dutch sheets we were talking before the service some someone who has delivered me this year is i've been watching heidi baker and she says anytime she preaches in the west for years she said the lord would physically not allow her to stand and speak and so i watch heidi baker and i'm like she don't care and now who is heidi baker she's the lady who lays in the floor and cries and laughs that's just who she is and i feel like the words like maybe you're the guy who you know gets on his knees and prays and that's all you ever do and so he just starts telling me these things in this moment and i feel the cringe leaving i feel that embarrassment leaving and and realizing of course that felt embarrassing of course that felt like i didn't measure up i was not being who he designed me to be i was not being my authentic self i was performing buying into that lie that i needed to perform opened the door for me to then have that wound come inside of me and affect the way i talk about jesus in front of people for years and so i feel him in this moment just that was actually the third memory that he took me into and i'd probably sit there for an hour i'm crying i'm just like oh my god this is amazing like i can feel my soul being made whole and healed through this encounter and as i'm just sitting there crying i hear abba say this to me he was like he's something to the extent of the healing light of my love is coming into your past and all those dark shadows are being retracted and i am not lying to you as i heard that the sun burst up over the trees at my house and hits me right in the face and i i had this jacket on i felt the warmth and the light of that sun hit me in the face as he said that and i was like he is in control of every second of my life orchestrating where i'm supposed to be down to the very moment that when he tells me that word at the culmination of this encounter that the sun would actually come up over the trees and hit me right in the face just as a little confirmation for me i am doing this you are on the path and so i want to tie that to what i texted you earlier a little bit i think all of that came when i was in that place of breathing that encounter came out of that place of surrender and breathing and i've been aware of that for the last several weeks that that was the result of that breathing allowing him to breathe into me and surrendering so this morning i get my blue lawn chair i set it up you couldn't pay me a million dollars for that blue lawn chair right now and i'm sitting there this morning and this happens to me a lot i will get and putman can attest to this i will get the most random song in my head all the time and i have this thing with the lord where i'm like i'll find it and i'll listen to it so almost almost every morning i have a random song in my head and it it may not be a worship song but most the time it leads me into exactly what he's wanting to say to me that day so this morning i wake up and i have this old jesus culture song in my head i have not heard it in probably 10 years and i think it's called surrender all it's like chris qui lala however you say his name and um it's like i surrender all all to jesus and just kind of says that over and over i don't particularly like that song but i was like so for a while for a while this morning i was like i'm not gonna listen to that today i just don't want to hear that old jesus culture stuff finally i just kept hearing i was like all right i'm gonna do it so i sit in my lawn chair i hit play i had it on my phone from years ago and i'm listening to it and as i'm listening to it i felt like he said okay i want you to go read john 15 13. john 15 13 is what you might call a life verse for me like if if you were to have randomly come up to me last week and said what's the most important verse in your life i would have said john 15 13. and then the passion says for the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all and this great love is demonstrated when someone sacrifices their life for their friends or sacrifices his life for his friends so when he says john 15 13 i'm like i know it i have it like it's memorized i felt like he was like i want you to read it and i want you to look at the actual like concordance the the words i used there and i it kind of hit me i was like man as much as i've read that verse in my life i've never done that i don't actually know and so i get on the app on my phone and i start looking and i'm like for the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all and that great love is demonstrated when someone sacrifices his life for his friends i get down to the word life that great love that agape is demonstrated when someone sacrifices his life for his friends and i would have thought it would be is it bios i would have thought it would be biased because when you read that verse you know jesus is talking about what he's about to do he's about to lay down he's saying i'm not calling you servants i'm calling you friends he's saying i'm about to show you that by laying by sacrificing my life for my friends it's suke that's how you say it didn't it okay suke and that word literally means either breath or soul essentially for the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all and that great love is demonstrated when someone sacrifices their breath so i was like whoa that's i don't know what that means but that's really cool then i start looking at the word sacrifice i think you pronounce it tithame tithamay right something like that see i cheat i cheat on my app it has an audio button and you have a guy that sounds like john kilpatrick he goes strong's ge 742 tithamay so i listen to that i'm like i write down how it sounds i'm like tiff uh the word sacrifice there is tythamay and it means to lay down it can mean to kneel down and it can mean to surrender and then it obviously can mean to sacrifice maybe i'll just read it that might help me and i'm almost done this is the last thing i'm going to say and then johnson you can put a bow on it or correct it all whatever you want to do john 15 13 for the greatest love of all this is love himself talking first john multiple times god is love love is a person this is the person who is love telling you what the greatest love of all is think about that he's telling love itself is telling you what the greatest love of all is the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all a love that tithemay all and this great love is demonstrated when a person lays down or surrenders his life for his friends life suikay tithame suke the greatest love of all is when someone surrenders their breath and think about the encounter of mine that i was telling you about love himself is telling me the greatest love of all is surrendering is laying down your breath or your soul what is your soul to simply put it your mind your will and your emotions right you've probably heard that a million times the greatest love of all is the laying down of your mind the laying down of your will and the laying down of your emotions the greatest love of all love himself is telling you the greatest love of all is for you to surrender your mind your will and your emotions what did jesus do on the cross he sacrificed his very last breath he laid down his mind his will his emotions completely and fully what then is our response to lay down our lives our breath our souls completely the the the tithame suke that phrase occurs another time in the gospels it's matthew 12 18 when he's quoting isaiah and it's when the father is talking of jesus and he says i will put my spirit upon him man i i feel what about what i'm about to say jesus in matthew 12 18 is quoting isaiah who is the father talking about jesus he says i will put my spirit upon him it's literally the tithame suke many of you this is the damon thompson ministries youtube channel and facebook page that you're probably watching this on so i'm assuming you have heard damon talk about the pericaresis the circle dance the perfect love that exists between the father the son and the spirit the father in matthew 12 18 is saying of jesus i am going to lay down my soul to jesus and jesus is saying i'm going to lay down my soul to the father and now i'm going to lay down my soul to you and i'm gonna invite you back into this swirl where we're laying down and we're surrendering our souls over and over we're sacrificing our mind our will our emotions to one another over and over and over what happens where what is the beginning of our existence as human beings dust breathless laying down in a garden and what does the father come and do to us [Music] in the garden it was a lot more than he was breathing life into us the father was standing over us looking at this thing he just created he says he didn't just breathe on it he says i'm about to surrender my soul to you i'm about to lay down my mind my will and my emotions who who are we who are we who am i i hope all that makes sense it makes sense in here to me we [Music] do not take this season for granted do not let criticism remove you from the season we're in criticism will remove you from this it will remove you i have lived here seven years now and i have seen it and i don't say that pridefully i say that with a limp i have seen it i have seen people dishonor johnson dorne and be removed i've i said it to you years ago i said i feel like the lord told me you're a screen door and that if people are unable to honor you they're not going to make it in this move of god don't squander who he has designed us to be you were made for where he wants to take you [Music] so maybe i'll just pray or do you want to add something to this or what do you think okay i'll just pray and then i'll hand it over to you and do what you will so i know it's i know it's tough sitting there at home my wife is at home right now with a two-year-old and a newborn so i get that it can be difficult to engage i remember years ago damon preaching in chattanooga and me sitting at my house in memphis i didn't live here yet and desperately wanting to be there and watching a live stream alone in my house and they start singing a song i'm ready to be wrecked to go deeper than before the way it's always been won't do it anymore where are we at tonight but i remember them playing that song and i'm watching at home by myself and i'm lagging in the floor sobbing getting wrecked it's one of the most significant encounters i've ever had was on watching a live stream it wasn't even damon let he who has ears to hear it was some random dude that i don't know his name and i've never seen him before in my life singing a song playing an electric guitar and i'm getting smoked so i know it's challenging i know this season is frustrating i don't want you to think that you're a special case here this is something abba is using to do significant things in our hearts and i don't want any of us to miss it so abba man we are so grateful all of our lives hungering to be a part of a move of god come on i can remember the days where i did not even feel like i had a church to go to god i refuse to take this for granted so whatever you're doing right now in this season i want to surrender my soul to you so all the things that i think in my mind are correct but i surrender them to you even if i know they're correct i'm laying them down abba and i'm giving you permission to change my paradigm [Music] i'm laying down my will i'm laying down my emotions to you come on just at home just start to say abba i surrender take those deep breaths i'm glad that we're not having services because what he's doing right now will only be accomplished at home in your blue fold-out chair [Music] say yes to that [Music] feel no judgment for me out of a vulnerable place where i don't like standing here and saying all this tonight feel permission to at your home begin to experience the same measure of encounters that you felt in this building that's available so abba we just say yes jordan thank you so so so much just that was perfect matt um i'm not going to add one thing to that i just want to say that tonight is a very very very important night and if you're listening to this right now or next week or six months from now what's been said in here tonight is crucial for where we're headed so i feel no pressure to add to that other than i hope and pray you will take heed what's been said tonight what's been presented what's been challenged and let this moment let this moment reform what needs to be reformed we'll be unpacking tonight for a while we're really really well so we're going to send you home you know how to give uh you can follow the prompts on the screen and all of that all of the links are there so we just thank you for that and encourage you to do that stay dialed in for where we go from here we're gonna follow the cloud and go week by week as you said we may not want to be here but we're here so we're going to surrender we're going to yield to that and i just pray you will join with us in that so we love you we bless you thank you and good night

Channel: Damon Thompson Ministries

Views: 2,711

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 1aktMZ-Fjjs

Length: 131min 58sec (7918 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021