John Bevere: There is Purpose in Every Wilderness Season | FULL TEACHING | Praise on TBN

so whenever God is doing something in you you have to say to yourself wow he's going to entrust me with the ability to impact other people's lives in a profound way that I could never do and he's preparing me for the character to have it I love it and that's the way we need to view the Wilderness wow what are we talking about tonight and what are you going to be unpacking this entire one so I want to talk about this new book God where are you it's a very prophetic message and um what do you mean God where are you well let me just ask anybody watching right now have you ever been in your Christian Life and if you've been saved over a few months you'll know what I'm talking about in a situation where you thought God where are you where you feel like his presence is a million miles away and his promises these made to you is even further that's what we're talking about tonight and the thing that I'm going to show you in this program is that God is not far from you you have not been put on a shelf you are not in a negative place you're not being punished you are being prepared for something wow very important beautiful and so this is what we're going to talk about tonight because here's the thing when we understand the Bible says there's a there's a purpose for every season under Heaven if we understand the purpose then we behave correct likely the children of Israel didn't understand the purpose of the Wilderness so they behaved incorrectly the result was what was only supposed to be a one year short stint ended up becoming a Lifetime right and so what my passion right now is um I don't want to see Believers in the body of Christ I don't want to see them spend a lifetime in the wilderness you can't shorten A wilderness season but you can certainly lengthen it and I don't want to see anybody lengthen it longer than it needs to be it's a very important time that we're going to talk about in this program but if we don't behave correctly if we don't have the why the understanding we will because we'll feel like God's abandoned us and so that's what I really want to talk about tonight has it happened to you oh my gosh many times but the first two times I I I've gone through seasons of wilderness in my life okay the first two were both about 18 months long each and most of this book is written out of those experiences because I was so frust traded I kept saying God I don't get it where you know I I remember you know when I got saved you know I was raised in the church and um I didn't know God I had no relationship with God so it was very obvious so people are witnessing to me in high school right they're witnessing to me in college and yet here I am playing varsity tennis at Purdue University I'm playing Junior Davis Cup tennis the USTA I'm having my coach take me to mass every single week but I have no idea who Jesus is right and so this one guy who actually he left my room he told me after I got saved my freshman year of college he said in tears because I was not even connecting to what he was saying my sophomore year one in athletics was my life one of the most phenomenal athletes in Purdue University was in my fraternity he came up to my room one night why are you sharing with me I realize God really wanted to reveal himself to me personally that he cared about me deeply that he loved me uniquely that he actually wanted to make promises to me as a as a father would make to his children right that he actually had crafted a plan for my life well that night as he shared my eyes were open and I received Jesus and what was so amazing to me Lori is the presence of God um and it's a part of our Christian life because Jesus said I will manifest myself to you right so manifest means bring from The Unseen into the scene the unheard into the herd the unknown into the known it's when God makes himself real to our senses his his presence was like overwhelming and I'm like all the success I had in tennis the success I had in school the um the girls I dated the masses that I went to every week what none of that could fill he instantly filled with his presence so the first couple years I'm walking with God it's like I just whisper his name and he's there wow I'm going to services and I'm crying I remember watching a thunderstorm build in Raleigh North Carolina and I just started tearing up thinking my dad has created all of this and so this is hilarious one thing that the way he answered prayers was unbelievable one time I remember my cassette player in my car does anybody know what that is does anybody know what do you know what a cassette has it's it's a dinosaur right so I'm sitting there it broke so I can't listen to worship I can't listen to my teaching tapes and I'm like Jesus you said lay hands on the sick and I'll recover I put my hands on the cassette player right and I took him off I did it again and it started playing and it never broke again wow and but then all of a sudden after a couple years his presence became very elusive and he's not answering prayers quickly and it seems like I'm not moving towards promises I'm moving away from promises that he's made me and the overarching question in my heart was God where are you yeah and this is what I want to help people understand because the first thing you start thinking is what sin have I committed yeah okay that's where your mind goes immediately you're in trouble am I not reading the Bible enough am I not praying that is so ridiculous okay and I want that off your mind right now no you didn't commit a sin you are you know if you have you'll know confess it but I'm looking for something that's not there I mean with all my heart I'm living the best I can I'm In Love With Jesus and I'm like you're abandoning me wow so um I go through 18 months of this and the cries that I had in my heart I I just couldn't get it but then one day I saw what job said job said look I go forward but he's not there and backward I can't perceive him when he works on my right hand so he's working on job's behalf but job can't perceive it he said but when he's tested me I shall come forth as pure gold oh there's so much in this I mean I I could literally go for an hour on this but what God is first of all God has not put you on a shelf because God says don't waste time right he's the one that says in the Bible redeem the time so he's not put you on a shelf until he wants to use you he's not abandoned you because you've done something wrong he's not um he's not punishing you he is preparing you that's beautiful John you realize that you've kind of taken you know this subject and you've you've really flipped it um as it should be as it should be I appreciate that and and let me just tell you something what I'm getting so far and what we're gonna you know continue this entire evening but what I'm getting out of this is is if you think the Wilderness season which by the way um you know in the the we we Jonathan Khan on TBN here you know called it a mid bar and he was explaining that it's a holy place you know somehow we have we have never understood and you've explained it in this opening kind of monologue here that God is it's a preparation piece for you okay it's preparing you for something okay never before tonight could I have actually I even with Jonathan I would have called it a holy thing but it's a preparation piece and let me just tell you something that'll change the way you think about everything when you're doing this John you've really brought some Revelation out here and we need to jump into it well what I love about it is that he gives us tips for the journey right and and so first of all reading it um it made me think and no because I've ex I've had an experience that changed my life one day um and I won't get into it but this is what we do now is not we're the things we go through now isn't for us now it's for eternity and the decisions we make and and what we do is to bring the glory of God when we get right right it's also not just for eternity it's for two years from now it's for four years from now it's for five but everything matters everything that we do matters complaining matters if you look at Joseph when Joseph you know well let me say this God when he he does this with every child there's a three-step pathway to our destiny first of all he'll make us a promise okay he does it with every child he'll give you glimpses of where you're going right I have I have a file folder in my desk of things God showed me in 1981 that I didn't start fulfilling until I was in my 50s yeah okay so he'll make promises and if you're thinking out there well that hasn't happened with me I'm going to challenge you and it please understand I'm saying this out of a deep deep love for you the Bible says that God rewards those who diligently seek Him in faith the Bible does not say that God will reward those who casually seek Him and wonder in doubt right yeah so I'm I'm young I'm in college I literally this is going to seem stupid but it I believe it was smart I walked off the tennis team at Purdue University as a starter because I had no time for God because the studies were engineering and they were too difficult so I've never regretted that decision not once okay but what I did is I'm out you know near my fraternity on the golf course at night praying crying out to God and God's giving me glimpses once that happens he gives you a promise then comes the process the process is the Wilderness okay this is where he develops in you the character to handle the promise wow and then the third step is the promotion which is the promise fulfilled if you look at Joseph when he shows up in the Bible we you know he is one of he is my favorite he and Daniel are my two favorites in the Old Testament just I love them and I'll tell you why as I walk through this if when you look at Joseph when he shows up in the scene the second verse it says he told his dad some bad things his brothers were doing so he's a tattletale all right verse 8 verse 8 he is bragging about he's got the robe of Many Colors so he's proud right and verse 8 in a new living says it so well that he's speaking down to his brothers yeah so we got a tattletale a boaster and somebody and he's bragging about his dreams and he's talking down to people if God would have fulfilled the vision of that leadership at that time we would have had a very narcissistic insecure leader see Saul never went through a Wilderness David did Saul did not finish well he had this humility that looked like it was real but it wasn't I mean he's hiding in the equipment when he's called his name is called but if you look at his first major victory he builds a monument to himself so his humility was completely off the radar it was it was superficial yeah it wasn't genuine humility um so and and I think it's really funny if you look at Moses he goes through a 40-year wilderness and yet he writes in numbers 12 Moses was the most humble man in the whole earth I mean who writes there that they are the most humble man in the whole earth somebody who's truly humble because he understands what true humility is his complete utter dependence on God and His passionate love for other people but here goes Joseph and we all know Joseph's story so I'm not going to take time on this sold as a slave thrown in a pit which pit stands for preachers in training I'm sure you've heard that on TV then he sold us a slave for 10 years now what we don't understand in the Western World Is Back Then when you're sold as a slave to a foreign Nation you're going to be a slave the rest of your life your wife's going to be a slave your children are going to be slaves now it's one thing to be born a slave it's a completely totally different scenario when you've been born the error of a very wealthy man and you're the favored son and you have it all Stripped Away from you by your brothers and now you're in slavery for 10 years okay so let's let's think 10 years ago that's a long time ago right all right so he's God's always blessing you no matter where you were he's doing all right but something very bad is happening the Master's wife because he's in one of the king's officers home as a slave his wife gets the hots for him and she doesn't approach him once she approaches him every day okay now think about it this woman's dressed in the best she sent it in the best and she's got a seducing Spirit probably up to her eyeballs right she doesn't approach him just once she approaches him every day and I love how he obeys the word of God he goes no no he resists it every day now the thing we've got to remember is he doesn't have a connect group he doesn't have a pastor nobody knows who he is yeah yet he's still obeying God but now we're looking at 10 years we're not one ounce of the vision that God's given him has come to pass yet he's still obeying God this is what people do when they go into a desert time they go I'm they get passive aggressive and they say I'm going to take it out on God by not obeying you now none of us would ever say that but this is what the way people think deep down it's almost like I'm going to get a little Revenge because God you're not moving the way I think you should be moving in my life okay but he doesn't do this he obeys and I love what Paul says to the Philippian church he says in Philippians 2 12 as you have obeyed in my presence even now much more obey in my absence and work out your salvation with fear and trembling I love that so Joseph fears God which means you know that that's not Paul speaking of Philippians that's God speaking to us it's easy to obey God when we're in the conference the anointing's there somebody's worshiping we got tears pointing out our face but what about when you've been gossip out at work and you are losing your job or your kid is throwing up at midnight that's when the rubber meets the road and what Paul's saying is you have done so well and this is actually God saying you have obeyed even in my absence in the absence of my presence Joseph's in Egypt no church no Fellowship no Bible and yet he's obeying God he's he's resisting right so then she grabs him by the road one day they're in the house alone you know she's probably working it up she's got a little breast showing she's probably got a leg out one side of the slit of her outfit and she comes up and goes nobody's gonna know nobody is going to know come on I'm all yours my husband's away and I love what this man does he flees sexual immorality he does exactly what the word of God says what does it end up getting him it gets him in the dungeon Now in America our prisons our country clubs compared to a middle eastern dungeon right I just preached in the largest prison in the United States six months ago okay it's called Angola it's in Louisiana it's unbelievable so I've been in Middle Eastern dungeons they're usually humed out cisterns they're about they're about four feet tall and the Bible says they laid his feet in irons and hurt his feet with Fetters right they're four feet tall no sun it's usually damp because it used to be a cistern okay he's chained this is this is no there's no television there's there's no basketball courts he's in the round and they would give them the bread of Affliction which is this they don't want him to die because dying's too easy so they give them just enough bread and water to keep them alive because they want them to suffer so he's in this dungeon and then God brings the greatest test to Joseph now what's the greatest test and and by the way everybody's so down on tests why because of our midterms and our finals test is actually a good thing I flew over the ocean three nights ago okay I am so glad the pilot passed the test because he and I didn't end up in the ocean God said Israel I brought you out in this order so you could find out what was in your heart so anyway that's another story so God brings the greatest test to Joseph what is it he brings two men the Butler and the baker we all know that right right they just had dreams last night what's the test can Joseph Proclaim to them the faithfulness of God in a dream when he hasn't seen yeah one ounce of faithfulness of God in his life in regard to his dream in over 10 years yeah think about it God says your brother's going to serve you you're going to be a leader your brothers will serve you and even your mom and dad will be under your leadership and isn't see one ounce of it come to pass on top of that he just preaches the dream to get some of the pit in slavery he resists and obeys God and flees sexual morality and it gets him to the dungeon so the more he's obeying God in the wilderness the worse his life becomes wow now can he Proclaim to the Butler and Baker the faithfulness of God when he hasn't seen one shred of evidence in his own life for 10 years if Joseph would have been like a lot of us you know what he would have said you had a dream last night leave me alone I had a dream Once dreams don't come true wow leave me alone now if he would have done that he would have died in that dungeon and he already would have died saying God's not faithful he doesn't keep his promises wow when in reality God is faithful and God was using all this to prepare Joseph to have the character to handle because we see he interprets the dreams this guy obeys God when nothing is going right and and so the guy gets promoted and he forgets about him now he's in there for two more years think about being in that condition bread of Affliction chains in a dungeon for two more years seeing other people's dreams come true yes that his family is all having oh they forgot about him yeah so now one day we all know Pharaoh has a dream the butler goes oh my gosh I forgot all about the guy in the dungeon he gets promoted to number two in all of Egypt and really number two in the world because Egypt's the most powerful Nation so then we've got seven years of plenty and now we have two more years of famine short Robin 19 years and finally here comes the brothers so we we can see that the dream that God gave him it took 19 years and it said Joseph remembered and that word remember doesn't go oh I just remembered that word remembered means he kept it before him the whole way and that's what kept Him obeying God the whole way so now if he would have been in the dungeon saying if I ever get a hold of these guys I'll kill him God would have to leave him in the dungeon to rot too why because he would have killed 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel including Judah whom Jesus and David came through wow right but He blesses them yeah and he gives one of them five times so Joseph now has the character to handle this position of leadership so whenever God is doing something in you you have to say to yourself wow he's going to entrust me with the ability to impact other people's lives in a profound way that I could never do and he's preparing me for the character to have it you love it and that's the way we need to view the Wilderness wow John's book God where are you is available all the information is on the screen and occasionally John we get a brand new book like this we coordinate your schedule our schedule we create a brand new number all of this has been prepared while you were flying over the ocean the other night and uh and so that 800 number on the screen is specifically for this offer so the people that answer that phone are prepared to hear you ask them about this book it's really kind of fun that we get that all prepared it's available so now there's just so much that the necessary the necessary Wilderness but but okay so I have a problem sometimes which is that We complain and we murmur sometimes and you just go really God this is going to happen now I just got through this and now this and now this you know and you start questioning God where does that where does that get us the murmur thing terrible it's complaining and you talk so good about that in this book so one day I'm just reading First Corinthians 10 and I see the list that really keeps them out of their Destiny the children of Israel and I'm seeing sexual immorality I'm seeing tempting Christ I'm seeing building Idols sins and like that I'm like whoa those are serious and then the fifth one is complaining and I'm like okay God how can you put that in that list right wow and the Holy Spirit said complaining is a very serious thing and I said why he said it's a it's a it's the evidence of a lack of holy fear he said because complaining says straight to my face God I don't like what you're doing in my life right now and if I were you God I would be doing this differently he said it is an absolute disregard for the process that I'm preparing for you for if you look at the children of Israel well let me let me back up here let me let me since we just went through Joseph let me let me set it up this way if you look at Joseph's life you know what it shows us that no man no woman no child no Organization no devil can ever get us out of the will of God got it out of the destiny that God has prepared for us right I mean Joseph's brother said we're killing him and we'll see what becomes of this dream right they purposely tried to thwart the destiny of God on Joseph and yet they were the very ones God says because he God's not bound of time he knows the end from the beginning God says oh yeah you think you're going to thwart this I'm going to use it to put him into his Destiny so the only one that can get you out of your destiny is you got it so God intends the children of Israel to go into the desert for one year because he wants to train them to be able to conquer that land he said if I bring him this way they're going to be war I'm going to bring him to the desert so I'm going to train their character so they'll be ready right but they complain and they complain and they complain now here's the thing that all of us have to realize we have points in our life where we what I'd like to call their life defining moments if you look at rehoboam he's he's Solomon's son he's growing up going my dad's counselors are so out old-fashioned you know all this right so he's got this thing going right his friends they're making fun of his dad's counselors so now he's King in his life defining moment comes Israel comes says hey your dad was a little hard on us and his dad's counselor said give him Grace let loosen loosen the yolks and and then he goes to his friends those old fogies show them who's boss you know and he does it and he loses more than half of his kingdom he loses 10 of the 12 tribes if you look at Israel they got a pattern of complaining all right we're not of water you know they've just watched the Red Sea part it and three days later we don't have enough water right and on and on and on so now their life defining moment comes they don't know it's their life to finding Mommy it's when the spies return and they resort to their complaining God has brought us out here to kill us oh my gosh it was so much better for us back in Egypt right they get they get the rest of their life in the desert so the destiny God created for them what he promised them you will enter in your Promised Land doesn't go to them it goes to their children so I'm at the point you know when Lisa and I this is this is going to be this may sound harsh but this is becoming so real to me that we decided with our children we would discipline them for complaining like Rebellion wow okay so we we had a no complaining thing on our household okay so I'm I'm getting almost to the point where I'm proud because I'm not complaining no matter what I'm going through right and one day I wake up on this fast I'll never forget I was in the mountains of Georgia and I hear the holy spirit so clearly say as soon as my eyes open up I hear the complaining in your heart oh my goodness my feet didn't touch the floor I rolled out of the bed straight to my knees and I said God I'm so sorry and I realized that he hears our hearts Jesus knew their thoughts he said which is easier to say et cetera et cetera et cetera and I realized that that's really where it is that's where it counts yeah and and so the the thing and this is why and I'm not trying to sell a book okay this is a life message for me and can can you take from a guy who's turning 60 this year okay [Laughter] and I will I would call you young man from yes thank you Uncle yeah I've gone through a lot of wildernesses and I have made mistakes and I've prolonged probably some seasons and I don't want you to do that I need you to enter into your promised fulfilled promise because all of us have to get this job done we have Nations we have cities we have we have so many people that need Jesus but yet God loves you more than what he loves that you do for him so God wants this character in you so that what he wants you to do doesn't destroy you like he did with Saul and so I'm I'm looking at the body of Christ prophetically let me let me let me go to a little overarching here when I in the early 1980s I was a member of a church and I was the executive assistant to the pastor we had 450 staff members it was probably the best known Church in the United States we had four night seminars in these meetings we literally had a wall filled with wheelchairs you know walkers I would watch and I'm the executive assistant to the pastor so I know it's true I know it's not fake I'm watching a guy come in with a red and white I know he's blind because I know they're bringing him and he walks out seeing I watched the ambulance pull up and the paramedics roll a guy who has less than 24 hours left to live and the guy gets up and he's so healed he pushes his gurney out wow okay thank you Lord my pastor is walking down the aisle on a typical Sunday night and he's joking around and he looks at this guy and he reads his mail he was the Grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan he had his Grand wizard uniform under the seat and a gun under that and he said God if you're not real tonight I'm taking my life and you're gonna have to show me your reel he walks into our church with 4 000 people in the sanctuary and our pastor is joking while he's walking down the aisle and then all of a sudden goes you and reads his mail Jesus appears in one of our services with two angels 800 people on the right balcony scream okay simultaneous was like that leaves an imprint of his face on the wall that stayed there for a year and a half okay I saw it with my own two eyes so I'm thinking this is this is normal Christianity right and God speaks to me in the midst of all this because I'm the guy that's picking up all the guest speakers right God speaks to me in the midst of this and said I've given a thimble full of my power to my church wow he said to see how she'd handle it see if she's going to Market it make money off of it if she's going to use it to promote them use it to promote themselves he said he we didn't handle it well let's just leave it there half of those guys I picked up in the van I don't want to say half of many of those people I had to pick up in the van who the people got out of the wheelchair aren't even in Ministry my own Pastor is not even the ministry anymore today to my knowledge and the 4000 seat Auditorium was condemned and I I love that I love this man so deeply and I loved all these people so deeply but we didn't handle it well and with all due respect if I was in this position I would have done the same thing okay because I had a lot of character development that needed to be done so let's not be thinking about that okay let's let's look at what happened God spoke to me and said I'm going to bring my church into a Wilderness and he said when she comes out I gave her thimbleful when she comes out she will operate in the greatest amount of my presence and power that this Earth has ever seen thank you Lord now here's the thing the greatest attack against us in the wilderness comes just before we come out of it so if you look at Jesus he's in the wilderness being tempted I mean God affirms him you're my son publicly then the Holy Spirit leads him to the Wilderness to be tempted of the devil but he goes but Luke's gospel we all know this says he goes into the Wilderness filled with the spirit but he returns in the power thereof James says blessed is the man that endures Temptation after he's tried he'll receive the Crown of Life we're thinking Crown in heaven no no no no well yeah that's probably true but Crown speaks of authority with authority comes power so Jesus comes out in the power thereof right so God showed me the church is going to come out with such power because she'll now have the character to handle it but what I was sensing last year and I said to my team I said we need to get this book out as fast as possible is that these greatest attacks are going to come against the Harvest just at the end look at David 14 years he's in the desert but what happens at the very end the amalekites kidnap his wives and children and his men's wives and children they steal all their precious possessions and he comes back they find it and now the last 600 guys that believe in you on the earth want to kill you yeah so the greatest attack came just before he came out so I feel in my heart prophetically we have to be prepared and I believe this is a resource tool to strengthen us so that we don't become complainers and in our crucial life defining moment not not do what Joseph did will do what Israel did if that makes sense yeah and so that's why I feel so urgent about this message John while you were talking just now what if um tonight's broadcast is signaling that change what if we are as a collective Church coming out of some kind of testing okay so what if we're signaling that with with basically this this book could make us understand that so prophetically you got this book done in time we're sitting here now okay why don't you take an opportunity just look at the camp pray for the people that are watching here in this studio absolutely you know I know you don't even have to tell me I know you've been going through such struggles you're going through the same questions of God why aren't why does it seem like I'm going backward you've made me promises and yet I'm not moving towards them I'm moving away from them why is it that I'm having so much turmoil in my home on my job in the church whatever it is and you just can't figure it out I just want to pray I want to pray that God would strengthen you Peter didn't pray that Peter would avert the trial he prayed that his faith wouldn't fail right and that's what I feel led to the spirit to pray for you right now because listen to me well the most valuable times of my life are those wildernesses that I wrote about yeah I hated them when I was in the middle of them yeah I I absolutely couldn't stand them yeah but I looked back and I realized that is where God revealed himself to me John the Baptist was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation and what happened Annas and kyphus are doing their religious thing as being high priest but yet he meets God in the wilderness the word of the Lord came to him in the wilderness Moses on the backside of the desert but God reveals himself to him in a burning bush Joseph is getting dreamed how the the ability to interpret dreams in the middle of the desert I are in the middle of the dungeon I could go on and on the Wilderness one of the great things about it is where God reveals himself yes 90 of what I preach and teach today came out of the roughest times of my life Wow you will look back at this time if you continue to trust God if you continue to speak because Malachi tells us and I hope I'm not running out of time okay Malachi tells us Malachi is a prophetic book of not just the days of John the Baptist and Jesus it's a prophetic book of The Last Days since there's going to be three types of people there's going to be Wicked the wicked are the people that don't serve God there's going to be the complaining Christians and the non-complaining Christians the complaining Christians you know what they're going to say God said your words are harsh against me they're going to say what if we said harsh against you he said it's you you he said to them you have said that it is useless to serve me wow what profit is it that we've obeyed God because we look at the proud the wicked and they're blessed wow they're not going through the problems I'm going through and he said but then there's this group of people that fear the lord they're Christians they're going through the same trials as the complainers and those who feared the Lord spoke to one another they spoke to one another the Covenant of God and God said they're going to be mine in the days that I make them my Jewels Jewels refined in the fire if you look at gold job said after he tests me I shall come forth as pure gold pure gold is tender soft pliable 14 karat gold is not pure it's hard if you look at pure gold it has a counterpart called brass brass tarnishes because of the atmosphere pure gold can never tarnish so do you realize that when we come through these times we're not tarnished by the atmosphere of the world that we live in if you look at pure gold in heaven it's transparent you can see through it just like glass when God tests us and we come forth as pure gold now that people see the treasure in us not us wow they see Jesus beautiful that's my cry when they see these eyes let them see your eyes when they hear these words let them hear your words when I embrace let them feel your Embrace that's my cry that's your cry that's why God has privileged you to go through this time of training and when you see it that way see life is all about a perspective Jesus said the light of the body is the eye it's the way you perceive things if you see this as God you've forsaken me God you my family's going through this my I just got fired you have missed what God is doing wow you you've seen the glass half full support so to speak instead of the way it really is it's half empty and going to be full and overflowing yeah God has privileged you to go through this time because he's got something much bigger than you could ever handle with the character you had before you went into this season and so I pray that your faith doesn't fail father I pray for every man woman every young man and woman that's watching right now they're in a time they're in a time of testing and a time of testing is not negative like midterms and finals father it is a time where we will come forth as pure gold and I speak to the Demonic forces that have lied to you and I command them to stop their attacks against my brother and sister but this is what I most pray for them father I pray that their faith doesn't fail because Lord you said these trials that we go they show that our faith is genuine I pray that God shows you he knows your faith is genuine that you see that your faith is genuine and that you keep speaking his promises and don't forget what he has promised you because he is faithful to bring it to pass so Lord strengthen my brothers and sisters and may their faith grow stronger in this season in Jesus name [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay available numbers on screen so you said something a while ago that nothing and nobody can stop the destiny that God has except you yes so so that means you can't blame anybody right you can't blame anything you can't blame any person that they got that job they stole that job you know I was kicked out of that Ministry or there are no excuses complaining and excuses is the enemy to preparation for your future yes and that's what most people do is that is that kind of the main thing that we is that our go-to typically yeah yeah it is it's um they got the promotion all that you you'll manifest in many ways I mean I mean the very first Wilderness that I went through manifest so God yeah you manifest well I'm going to share I'm going to show you okay okay all right so um yeah I'm in a church that we predominantly speak this is that big church I was talking about we only taught on faith on Miracles right we didn't talk about character got it it just was never mentioned so I'm not praying one night Lisa and I have no children um oh actually we just had Addison he's like he's like six months old okay and God says to me I'm going to teach you to deny yourself take up the cross and follow me okay I'm going to begin to do a work of Holiness in your life and I was so excited I left the field because it was night time I ran back to the apartment that Lisa and I were living and I said she's taking off her makeup getting ready for bed and I said babe God just spoke to me he's going to begin to do a work of Holiness in my life I was so excited I said Lisa all this excessive TV I watch is going to leave all the sports I watch on TV is going to leave I said all the eating I do because I food was an idol for me I'd eat when I wasn't hungry just because I wanted to eat I said he's going to take it all out of my life and I said I'm going to be holy right so we never heard about this okay so the next three months I'm twice as fleshly I'm watching twice as much TV I'm eating twice as much so three months later I go out and I go God what's going on you said you're going to do this work of Holiness I I I've been twice as fleshly the last three months he said that's because you're doing it your way he said Holiness is not a work of your flesh it's a product of my grace he said Son now I'm going to do it my way so I'm reporting to the pastor right and they moved me closer because they love me so much they wanted me in closer proximity but it didn't work out so we had already hired somebody to take my other position so all of a sudden now they have to find a place for me to work in the organization and it was in Satellite sales those are the guys that called the pastors and tried to sell them satellite time for our four night conferences and so now I'm working for a woman who works to who reports to a man who reports to the pastor so I've been demoted three levels and haven't done anything and I'm going through all these trials like I can't believe so here's my response during this time I'm mad at my wife I'm even yelling at my son I'm mad at my co-workers I'm mad at my friends because my friends aren't giving me the sympathy I feel like I should be getting I mean I've done nothing wrong and I've been demoted three levels I'm really upset with my pastor I'm I'm upset with everybody and I'm I'm spouting off I'm angry all this so six months of this goes by and I go out and Pray Again in that same field and I say God where's all this anger coming from where's this bitterness coming from I said what do I bind what do I cast out lord said you don't cast out flesh you crucify it and I I remember I remember I said God I wasn't even this angry before I got saved where is this coming from I'm going backwards and and the Lord showed me my my ring on my finger it it was 14 karat gold which means 14 Parts out of 24 Parts is gold 10 parts as impurities copper zinc nickel now I've got an engineering background so he talks to me like this he goes if you put that ring in a furnace and heat it up a couple thousand degrees what happens I said it liquefies he said then what happens I said well the lighter Metals the impurities the copper zinc and nickel begins to surface right because they're lighter than the gold he said they appear right and I said here comes up yeah he said you didn't see them before it went into the furnace but they appear when it goes into the furnace I said yeah he said all this anger it's in you he said I knew it was there he said I'm letting you see it he said now if you uh if you blame your pastor your wife your co-workers your friends it'll all go back down and we got to start all over again he said or you can own it and he said if you own it you'll confess it and ask me to take it away and he said I'll Ladle I'll skim off those impurities right out of your life Wow wow so what was what was there you just got it I was a terror to live with and my friends were pulling away from me because I'm so grumpy I'm so I'm so I'm carrying I'm carrying around the Wilderness I'm wearing it see remember Jesus said you know don't appear to men to be this way you know it's one thing to have joy when everything's going great people like you can you have that same joy that same demeanor of I love God and love life when you're going through hell wow only people that have come through the Wilderness successfully have that Wilderness has been redefined yeah while we've been sitting here it's preparation if you don't complain you get to see what God took you to the Wilderness to show you and then you get to confess it walk away from it and be prepared for something new and can I say you it's it's accurate that you say it's redefined but I believe what it really is is we had a wrong definition yeah and now we're getting the true the true reality of what it is yeah and so our perception was wrong and now we're seeing it correctly and yes we must redefine it so I think the definition of redefine is what I said yeah yeah it is yeah so I mean wind the tape back because now can I said I just flew around the world and I warned you I said I pray to God I don't say anything stupid tonight I just wait a second is he correct okay but wait you just said what I just said about that so that's called jet lag so in the book you talk about the anger that comes up yeah then you then you give this and this is what I was reading to you today okay first Peter uh one six and seven so be truly glad there is a wonderful joy ahead even though you must endure many trials for a little while these trials will show that your faith is genuine yes and it is being tested as fire test and purifies gold though your faith is far more precious than mere gold so when your faith remains strong through many trials it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world I love that scripture I love that scripture and it and it reminded me of um an experience that I had I've told this many times on the air but I'll share it real quick I was in a restaurant with my kids and and were one of my sons and and Matt and overlooking a restaurant and um sitting there Matt got up to go to the restroom and I just with my eyes I was just watching him and all of a sudden my world just went Pitch Black so I'm sitting there and my it's like everything just went dark the darkest dark black I knew my son was sitting there I knew Matt was in the bathroom I wasn't having this out of body thing it was just there's no fear and it was I was in the presence of God wow even though it was the darkest dark I've ever and it was as if um it was as if I was the only soul that had ever been created and it was just me and God and I heard him say to me he said what do you have to bring me and all of a sudden my life just flashed before my eyes everything that I had done everything that I had experienced was like this world that really hadn't happened it was just like a vapor that Vapor thing was just like what I was watching and I remember that and this is horrible this is what affected me so badly is that I saw the times of struggle so I saw the times of wilderness of my life and I saw the fighting and I saw the complaining and I saw the struggle of life and the times that I had leaned into the negative and it was such wasted time and I felt that I thought oh my God I wasted those were wasted times that I worried that I fretted about things feared that I feared things it was just wasted and the only times that I had so so the only thing that I had to bring God was the times that I stood in faith wow and that I said who he said he was and in the circumstances that were just totally against me in my life and I spoke not out of fear not out of of of complaining or insecurity but I stood up and I said no that's not what the word of God says the word of God says I am healed the word of God brings me joy this is my peace this is my joy This Is My Rock who he said he is and that was the only thing that I had to give God when I got there wow and and the rest was such wasted time and I and I said to the Lord I said God let me go back when I get back and and again I have to State this I was I was raised Word of Faith and you had to be careful you watched what you said the words of your mouth meant a lot but it made me say in my heart to the Lord and this took a long time for me to say to even say it well say it the way we're talking about bring the Wilderness yeah you know yeah it was like God for the rest of my time on Earth [Music] bring it all bring this struggle bring those times that I have to stand in faith and be strong now I don't want that my flesh does not want that but it was like bringing on the moments that that I have nothing left but to stand strong in who you said you are so that you so that when I come back for eternity I have a armed load of faith to give you and praise to give you and that's the only thing that was asked of me from God that was all he wanted was the time that I stood for in faith and that's what you're talking about tonight to redefine a time and to speak who it is so that you get through this to accomplish something so what if we do that yeah I mean so that the glory and the praise that when he does come so I never put that scripture with that experience I said so I was reading today I was going that's that's that scripture he's written the scripture that goes with what I experienced Peter makes this statement he says as Christ suffered for us in the flesh arm yourselves also with the same mind for he was suffering the flesh has ceased from sin that is such a low description wow he was suffering the flesh has ceased from living a selfish life is what he's saying right so but what really gets my attention is as Christ suffers for us in the flesh arm yourselves can you imagine a military going to a battle with no guns no knives no bullets no tanks no planes it'd be ridiculous they'd be defeated in a day yet so many Christians are not armed when the Wilderness hits when adversity hits they go into a State of Shock a state of bewilderment a state of amazement and they react instead of act wow okay now who's armed let's talk about somebody who's armed the first person that comes to mind when I think of somebody who's armed is a commercial airline pilot every six months they have to go through recurrent training they put them into a simulator I've literally talked to some later operators and they look at me with sadistic smile and say we throw so much junk at those guys we throw everything at them they could possibly go wrong historically that we know with a plane and they may crash a time or two but then they get it so there was actually a black box recording back in the days before 2001 where a plane crashed and it was one of the smaller planes that didn't have a door between the pilots and the passengers when the catastrophe hit the pilot was like feathered the engines copied check pull up the landing gear check do this check they could hear the passengers they were screaming in hysteria the pilots were armed the passengers were unarmed many Aviation disasters have been averted because of arming those Pilots yeah a guy who saved it in the in the Hudson River remember okay what we're doing tonight with our friends is we're arming them thank you Lord by us talking about this by what you just shared that profoundly strengthened me to think even more I mean I literally when I face dark moments I'll remember this Vision that God gave you to share with the world it will it will strengthen all of us and that's what we're doing we're arming you tonight so that you correctly handle you're like the pilot you're not reacting you're acting yeah so good God where are you John you um we've got just a minute or two I kind of want to get your kind of final thought on this but I'm just telling you that um this subject survival um came at the right time for many viewing uh pick up the phone get this book get it for someone we all um I I you know have been through this yeah and what is what is so important for me to think about tonight is that you can think about a Wilderness experience not as a correction but a preparation and don't complain kind of your final thoughts John just in the last few seconds or final thoughts are I'm excited for what God has planned for your life because it's Unique to you it's Unique in the sense that it will impact people that you never could have impacted had you not gone through this time and allowed God to do the work in you that he wanted to do so many will thank you in Eternity for you going through that preparation time successfully finding strength and purpose in your Wilderness is the subtitle God where are you it is our offer right here right now John bevere thank you so much for being with us it's been a pleasure we'll see you next time

Channel: Praise on TBN

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Keywords: john bevere, john bevere sermons, john bevere fear of the lord, john bevere awe of god, john bevere sid roth, john bevere bait of satan, john bevere holy spirit, john bevere wilderness, john bevere driven by eternity, john bevere undercover, john bevere marriage, john bevere honor's reward, wilderness season, lisa bevere, stuck, why are you stuck, praise tbn, praise, tbn, tbn praise, matt crouch, laurie crouch, tbn praise the lord, P7R7A2I7S7E3, 7721473, EEJTKF123, 123TBN123, 8T2B6N

Id: ZW2ujQTTbnQ

Length: 52min 21sec (3141 seconds)

Published: Wed May 03 2023