RISE 2021 | Lisa Bevere

[Music] foreign [Music] i just want to say i believe that there's an anointing in this conference for you to speak directly to some things that you've been talking about rather than speaking to in the name of jesus so let's not just sing that song let's take that home and let's speak to those obstacles let's speak to those mountains let's speak to those problems and believe that because we are rising as one that we will have authority because i don't know if you know this but we have no authority when we are divided and divisive and so i am believing that i have a message for this conference about rising as one all right i'm so excited to be here i have so many of my friends you guys can sit down that i have got to be with over the decades and decades of john and i in ministry i want to show you my family i am a g mama okay so i'm going to show you my family this is my son alexander he is my only son that is not married so he is with a puppy but that's my puppy so he needs a wife then i have my beautiful daughter-in-law jessica who is married to my second son austin i have christian bevere who is married to my youngest son arden and arden is actually in the avail magazine his book is featured in the back of that then i have lizzie sophia there's my old husband of 39 years john bevere me my beautiful texas daughter-in-law my firstborn son then asher and august august is adorable he draws pictures of the holy ghost and he's been a little uncomfortable with the idea of a ghost so he says the holy ghost doesn't want to scare me he wants to love me he talks about the holy ghost obsessively it's hilarious but i want to talk about asher asher is my 11 year old grandson he is a 39 year old man trapped in an 11 year old's body john and i took him to disney world pre covid and the entire way there he sat next to me on the plane because john was working he had the brochure out and he was like gee mama is it going to be dark on this ride will they spin me around i'm okay with spinning around but i don't want to go upside down are people going to be screaming on this ride are you going to be screaming on this ride am i going to scream on this ride and so john pulled me aside and he said lisa we better start out slow with him he could have a meltdown on the very first ride but john is italian and i am sicilian which means we have a different approach to things italians will feed people sicilians are known for killing people so that is a little bit of a different dynamic so we have a different parenting style i said we are not starting out slow i'm going to find out what the scariest rides are and we're starting with those so i took a poll and it was the dinosaur ride so we went on the dinosaur ride i'm not gonna lie i closed my eyes two or three times and when we got off of it he looked at me and he said gee mama that was terrifying and that was fun welcome to being a christian in 2021 it is going to be terrifying and it is going to be fun but you were not made for it's a small world you were made for the avatar ride you were made for another time and another place and i don't know where any of us got this idea that we could be a hero without a battle oh you think having likes on an instagram post makes you a hero do you think people following you on facebook or i don't even know is facebook a follow i think just maybe twitter is anyway i don't know but that's not going to make you a hero having done all to stand standing there for is what makes you a hero i love what pastor sam said but i'm not indian i'm sicilian so i have a different advantage than pastor sam i actually like it when i get attacked when i get attacked i'm thinking hey what is so threatening about me that the enemy has launched a full-scale onslaught against me i take it as a compliment when i get attacked and i think that you need to get that mindset because you could have been born at any other time but in any other place but you are hand chosen for this time and for this place and you wouldn't have made it a hundred years ago but you're supposed to be making it now so i don't believe this is a season for us to whine but i do believe it it's a season for us to get some some get some issues right so uh i'm i just i'm so sorry like i know sam said be gentle but i have a lot of caffeine in my body uh i'm going to talk to you about a couple things i just feel i was so excited here i got to have leaders so i want to talk to you about some things that i am carrying in my heart as a leader that is a very deep concern for me so i hope i can just be really open and honest and if you're videotaping me please please uh just remember not everybody's in the room so let's be careful about what we put up there i'm going to quote zig ziglar to open up with because he makes me sound smart he says i don't care how much power brilliance or energy you have if you don't harness it and focus it on a specific target and hold it there you're never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants focus has the ability to multiply every talent and capability that god has given to us that is why the enemy is so engaged with distracting you see he knows if he can distract you that he can undermine that authority that jesus has given you he doesn't want you to understand where you are going in the spirit he wants you to keep looking back to where you have been and who you have been rather than lifting your eyes and prophesy where you are going how many of you know we have we're kind of like in a season where we're walking through a dark tunnel and too many people are reading the graffiti on the walls of the tunnel instead of saying i believe there is light on the other side of this tunnel and i'm going to prophesy myself and my family and my world into the other side we are god's people how dare we echo the narrative of this culture how dare we get entangled in their arguments when i have the big answer i should not be engaged in small questions nor nor should i be mean i'm sorry i have never seen so many christians be so mean seriously i'd spank them all if i could i was no way i'd let my my children behave the way that some of the children of god hey my sicilian mama said it's about it's about lowe's standard here but god has a standard and he says we're supposed to be holy as he is holy what does god do he gives us goodness to both the just and the unjust it was the goodness of god that led you and i to repentance you think your meanness is going to bring anybody into the kingdom of god we got to stop it we got to stop defending ourselves the bible says to agree with your adversary quickly hey we could be more living hey we could be more aware of racial injustice maybe we could be more aware of gender injustice maybe we've been blind maybe we thought the republicans were christians and democrats were heathens maybe there's actually good things on both of those parties and maybe there's bad things on both of those parties but see it's not about the election returns it's about the elect returning and i don't know if you actually really believe that because it doesn't matter who is in office when we have a king and so if we begin to bow our need to the king god says he will hear from heaven and he will heal our land we're a mess right now we need healing and it would it wouldn't be so sad but the church is a mess right now it's a mess we can't we got it we got to get our stuff together this is just not what god had planned for us hebrews 12 2 says keep your eyes on jesus who both began and finished this race were in study how he did it because he never lost sight of where he was headed that exhilarating finish in and with god see we finish in and with god we don't start with god and finish in our own strength we finish in and with god jesus was like i know where i'm going i know what i'm called to do i'm headed that way he said his forehead like flint he's like this is this is my goal in life is to fulfill the will of my father he said he could put up with anything along the way you don't know who unfollowed me on instagram last week you know what you need to get thicker skin we need to have tender hearts and thick skin we need to stop being a bunch of babies think we're trying out for a popularity contest what made you think being a christian would be popular you're going to have to decide do i want to be influential or popular because if you want to be influential that means powerful and you can be influential with god and unpopular with people you have to make a decision but in all you can't be unkind and all of that you can't be unloving all right sorry because i believe the church has preached the truth without love and when you preach the truth without love it's harsh and so our culture has responded by preaching love without truth and love without truth is a lie and so this is the dance we have to find ourselves in a time where we can preach truth with love in love because you know the opposite of love is not hate do you know that do you know that god loves everyone but because he loves everyone he can't love every thing and everything that god hates is about protecting who he loves so god hates the things that unmake us like greed and pride and slander service of the lord must not strive oh but i feel so good when i argue with people on instagram no no that's not what you're supposed to be doing he said he could put up with anything along the way cross shame whatever and now he is there in that place of honor right along side of god where you look is where you'll finish i used to ride a ninja motorcycle it was not one of my smarter choices but one of the things i learned in the motorcycle class was if you look down you go down so you look it's where you want to go and roundabouts are always the hardest because there's multiple exits and so you have to look through the turn and we have to be a people who are looking through the turns god is doing something but how many of you know that god always begins with his own house he always deals with his own people i heard people say i'm gonna flip over some tables well jesus could flip over the table because it was his to flip when it's your father's house you can flip the table but you don't go into other people's houses and flip their table and say you're jesus you flip your own table go ahead and flip your own table go ahead and deal with your own idols this is what i've been doing i've never spent this much time with my husband in my entire life i looked at myself i'm so glad i like you look at him he's so cute he's on the cover of a veil that's my husband so anyway i i just wanted to give a little pause there okay uh romans 12 2 says do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of god what is good and acceptable and perfect so do not be conformed but we have to be transformed and the renewing of our mind takes intentionality yeah i got a crazy mind i just went through menopause you talk about pre-menstrual that was nothing compared to menopause i know why so many women get divorced during menopause i was a crazy woman and i would have to say crazy woman crazy woman you don't get to have control you don't get to take me hostage i'm not going to listen to your craziness because i'm going to renew my mind i had to spend more time in the scripture going through menopause than any other time of my life i'm i don't i can't be yelling on the airplane i can't be doing that like you're they're like oh we arrived 30 minutes early sorry we can't find the jet bridge i want to be like who runs their business this way be like no evil woman you may not talk be slow to speak quick to listen slow to wrath god put a watch over my mouth you have to focus to renew your mind you don't renew your mind by going through instagram retweeting a scripture doesn't really count as reading it you need to read the word till the word actually reads you we need to be those people that we sit in the presence of god and let the word of god become a mere to us not think oh this would be a great post but say i am going to stay at my post until i actually have this word made flesh in my life because it's not how many scriptures you read it's how many you live it's how many you live the word of god is alive we're supposed to be living that out first thessalonians says in chapter 1 verses 4 through 6 it says it is clear to us friends that god not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special see i believe that god is saying to each and every one of us hey guys i know this looks like i'm not loving you but i'm telling you right now i love you a lot and i have put my hand on you in this season of gross darkness to do something special and then paul said when the message we preached to came to you it wasn't just words something happened inside of you we can make a choice that the word of god quickens us that the word of god draws us closer to the heart of god where it's not just hearing and hearing and hearing but we say okay something was awakened inside of me something happened to you the holy spirit put steel in your convictions you paid careful attention to the way we lived among you what what so it's not just what we preach but the way we live live among them i love that sam was saying people want to be in community they want to see you across the table they want to talk to you they want you to actually ask how they are and care not be like i'm sorry i can't handle that right now because i'm dealing with my own things no we don't get to do that people are watching not just what we say but how we live among them and determined you would live that way yourselves in imitating us you imitated the master although great trouble accompanied the word you were able to take great joy from the holy spirit taking the trouble with joy and the joy with trouble i'm just putting myself in check here i want to make sure when people watch me that i'm imitating the master that i'm not imitating somebody else that's popular on instagram or whatever i think it might be you know so i'm a boy mom you saw that i've just had females in my world recently which meant pretty much all of my movie examples come from boy movies and we were watching one of my son's favorite movies uh because one of them feels like he looks like him actually two of them think they look like him uh man of steel henry cavill and there's this moment where henry cavill is having a flashback to where he was a little boy and he's in a classroom i'm guessing he's like under 10 and all of his superpowers come into play and all of a sudden he not only hears the clock ticking he can see in his teacher he sees her heart beating he sees the lung he becomes overwhelmed he's on a sensory overload and the teacher is asking him a question that he actually knows the answer to but he can't answer it and so he runs out of the room locks himself in a closet they call for his mom and his mom shows up and he says mama the world is just too big and she says then make it smaller i'm here to tell you if you are being overwhelmed because you do not need superpowers to be on sensory overload anymore then you are the gatekeeper of your world and you can edit your world and you can make it smaller and you think i don't want less no no don't think that smaller is less smaller is more focused and when you are more focused then you are more capable you got to know what your focus is and not be distracted you cannot allow the words of random strangers on a device that you can hold in your hands to wound your heart you should never give anybody that much power you are not accountable to people outside of your home you are accountable to the people you have relationship with but too many people are more of a actual relationship to their virtual community i'm gonna say something encourage my virtual community today what about your wife what about your husband what about your children are you intentionally pouring into them or is it because you get so many likes when you do a post up here we got to remember god is calling us to be people who step outside and lift up our eyes and begin to count the stars and remember this god of wonder instead of this god that we bow our heads to every day on our phone i'm not going to allow people i don't even know to undermine the identity that christ has given me i'm not going to allow my critics to distract me or define me oh i'm great with them refining me i'm great with growing and thinking wow i could have said that better but i will not allow somebody that does not love me or know me to have intimate access in my life so we have to understand what's really important and what's really important is the most difficult people which is the people we see it's the people we do life with it's people that we're married to it's the people in our community that are hurting oh it's so easy to send money but it's hard to deal with something that's down the street so we have to be those people so we need to focus in on what's important i love that this conference is a collection of a lot of different denominations and i believe that god wants to actually bring us to a place where we can learn from one another and so i i love that i feel like this is an incredible gift for me that i get to speak to you i was born and raised in indiana little dinky town lost an eye to cancer when i was five lived in fear parents divorced twice and i never would imagine an encounter when i was 21 at purdue university changing my life and in that moment i realized that my entire life was on the wrong trajectory and i was born again filled with the holy spirit and healed on my very first date with my husband which if all that happens you might as well marry him so i had all that happen i was like that this is a great deal but how many of you know this amazing relationship i with have with my husband has been the hardest relationship dynamic i've ever had in my life not because john's a bad man he's not he's way more godly than i am but when you get two people is iron sharpening iron iron sharpening iron means they're sparks means that you're going to be a catalyst of one another's remaking and you need to have people in your world that will ask you the questions you don't want to answer and tell you the things you don't want to hear and you have to intentionally allow them that privilege now people that you don't know don't have that right but people that are your transformational relationships not your transactional your transformational relationships the people that are for your growth not just what they can get from you those transformational relationships have the privilege of being a catalyst for growth in your life your inability to connect with everything is not a failure it's actually a fail-safe and god is saying to his people come on i need you to pay attention second peter chapter 3 verse 1 says my dear friends this is now the second time i've written to you both letters reminders to hold your minds into state of undistracted attention what is undistracted attention focus it's time to focus people it's getting crazy out there we better focus in i had a young girl i was speaking somewhere and she came up to me and she said you know i just can't read books i just can't focus i can binge watch netflix but i and she did tell me that she's i just can't focus and i said see you have gotten out of the habit of what it feels like to have your mind held in a state of undistracted attention so many times i'll go to dinner with people and they're on their phones i'm like should i leave like i mean if we're going to be across the table from one another i'm going to look you in the eyes and we're going to talk i'm not interested in who just liked your post or whatever so we have to understand that god is saying listen up listen up listen up is it's going to get worse before it gets better i really believe that and part of the reason why i'm excited to talk to you guys is i believe that you guys believe in the gifts of the spirit but how many of you know that the church has almost been guilty of prayer my husband's gonna get really mad when he hears i said this maury please don't tell him how many of you know that we've been guilty of almost prayer and prophecy porn you think what the heck are you talking about okay what happens in my bedroom between my husband and i that's sacred i put it on instagram it's pornographic there are things that god wants to say and do in and through his church and when we put it out on social media okay there's a scripture that talks about that it says don't cast your pearls before swine what happens it says the swines trample them so you lose what is precious and then what do they do they turn and attack you we are being attacked because we have mishandled when i hear how many prophetic people were predicting things that were wrong i'm just going to say it out here the prophetic anointing is for having people return to the heart of god not for predicting the future and we have to be a people who hit our knees and begin to call for repentance in the house of god instead of going for divination to get a word it's a bunch of nonsense and i'm sorry i'm a grandma i'm just gonna say it y'all get mad at me i'll just retire we got a we got a text from somebody oh my gosh there's a prophet in alabama talking about you and john by name he's like why why wouldn't he just call us oh he's prophesying over you guys so they sent me the link i click it there's a man named john bever bavir he's italian and he's bilingual heck no i've been married to that man he barely knows english he still mispronounces things he's got a mother named joyce heck no his mother is not joyce she had a horrible car accident and john plays the piano none of that is true but he used our name and because he used our name and said he didn't know us everybody oh this guy's a prophet are you serious what is he doing what is he doing he's dropping names to validate himself i'm sorry if he had a word for us he should come to us then somebody came up and said oh there's a john and lisa bevere and they're ministers out of fort worth texas i'm sorry i live in colorado so i'm so confused by what's going on have people are so excited i'm like what did he tell me to do seriously did it draw anybody back to the heart of god or did they just think what they're watching him online i hope he calls me out by name listen jesus gave you his name you need to stop waiting for somebody to call you by name and you need to start using the name of jesus because that is the name that is above every name that can be named and i don't need somebody to tell me i'm anointed i've been in the ministry probably longer than he's alive it's nonsense the true prophetic will always remove obstacles and idols and the human heart so that the human heart turns back to the holy god and so we need to say what is going on when ezekiel says son of man if a person comes before me to inquire of the prophet and has an idol in his heart should i answer him according to my spirit because i know i'll answer him according to the idol in his heart that both the prophet and the seeker will be judged you guys we've been given the name of jesus do you understand the precious entrustment of the name of jesus do you know that we can't go out there validating ourselves with our super spiritual gifts and then being ugly online we need to be people who are getting it right in private before we put a lot of stuff out in public so i want to focus a little bit about the non-essentials and the essentials because we tend to fight about the non-essentials not the essentials so a non-essential in my mind is the gender of the person that's speaking the essential is that jesus is preached so that the non-essential is is that a woman wait a woman can't preach or a man can't preach a young person can't preach an old person can't preach is jesus being preached then that is the essential jesus said if they're not against us they are for us so we just have to go with that non-essential how we worship some people might be in here thinking this was really loud and there's a smoke screen i don't know if i like all that hey you know what what's essential is who we worship and people will be like you got to worship them in spirit and truth absolutely have to worship in spirit and truth i'm talking about style of worship is a non-essential whether you put your hands up hands down whether you open your eyes or close your eyes that is a non-essential but essential is that we are worshiping jesus not the person singing non-essential how we look essential how we live i remember when i first got saved at 21 years of age the whole church that i came in contact with was super trouble because i had double pierced tears they're like your ears are double pierced i'm like well sorry i double pierced them because first i was losing earrings and then i was like it looks unbalanced i'm gonna pierce both of them then i got saved you know what that's just silly what i look like is just silly if you guys are upset about women piercing their ears get upset with them coloring their hair how we look essential how we live how we live non-essential our achievements you know this is kind of funny i have a book that is a new york times bestseller do you know what happens when you have a new york times bestseller nothing absolutely nothing you don't get an email nobody shows up at your house they didn't send me a plaque i was asleep at 11 30 at night i heard a bang bang bang on my door my mom adrenaline kicked up i opened up the door and there were two sons standing there in boxer briefs and they're men they're men that was traumatic and they're standing there and they said mom you're a new york times best-selling author and they picked me up jumped up and down with me threw me on top of john in the bed and they left i called my publisher the next day i said is it is it true i'm a new york times best-selling author they said oh my gosh you are that's it what if i had lived my whole life thinking one day i'll be a new york times bestseller and then i will arrive there could be five of you in the audience and you don't even know you're a new york times it does do you think jesus is impressed with how many books i sell no actually he has a different economy system he's more excited about the ones we sell and today we have given away 41 million individual resources in 110 languages that is what jesus will celebrate okay he doesn't care about new york times okay our opinions non-essential you guys i have opinions i am sicilian i have strong opinions there are so many things i type that i never post and i just delete why because jesus doesn't care about my opinions he doesn't care about my opinions even when i think they're great opinions he's like no i don't i don't care about your opinions lisa what i care about is the truth and we live in a day in a time that says i can have a truth you can have a truth this section can have its own truth you can change your truth next week you can have a truth over here we can all have our own truth and we'll speak our truth oprah told us to do it you can have a story and you can have something that is true of you but the truth is not a what the truth is a who and jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except by him or through him he's the truth you can have opinions you can have an experience like my truth right now is i have four grandkids but that truth is going to change because i want more grandkids i hope the next time i come here my true of me is going to have 10 grandkids so true of changes true of me last time i was here with pastor tony and casey i had brown hair but then coveted hit and i said i just want to see how much gray i have i think i'm going to grow out my grade during covid so what was true of me two years ago is no longer true of me now we have to understand that truth is not a river it is not fluid it does not change with our culture it is a rock and jesus is that rock that we fall on and we submit our opinions non-essential issue our our identity and culture you guys you think like i i don't know i i think christians for a little while felt like really good like they were celebrities that's not happening anymore okay so you better not have the non-essential identity and culture it better be your identity in christ non-essential what we have essential is what we give non-essential is the unity of doctrine you guys my husband and i don't even agree on doctrine one of us believes in the rapture one of us doesn't believe in the rapture one of us believes if there is a rapture it's afterwards one of us believes if there is a rapture it's mid we do not have unity of doctrine we're never going to have unity of doctrine there's going to be people in this room that say women shouldn't speak there's going to be people in this room saying lisa is wrong we should all never pierce our ears unity of doctrine is always going to be a little bit sketch but unity of faith we should all have the same we have placed our faith in jesus christ the only begotten son of god that he was born of the virgin mary that we have a unity of faith because i don't know about you but i'd really love to see the prayer of jesus answered in my lifetime john 17 and i'm going to read it out of the esv this is jesus praying on the last supper he says but also for those who believe in me so he was saying i'm not just praying for these people present his 12 disciples but i'm praying for those that will one day believe in me that means that jesus was praying for you and i in this prayer he said because of them and their witness about me so he said there's going to be people that believe because of the apostles witnesses and all of the disciples witnesses and there's people that believe because of your witness and the goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind do you know one doesn't mean same one doesn't mean same my husband and i are one but we're not same we're not same actually we have to be different to be one because every person brings their portion and we've been talking to the same so long that we can't get one because if i only talk to people that look like me think like me act like me live like me i will never be one with people who don't look like me and act like me or live like me so we need to have more than just one type of the same people at the table we need to have all different types we need to have old and young male and female rich and poor people that work outside of the church and people that work in the church all of these people come to one table with one goal and that is to glorify jesus so we're not going to be saying we're going to be one and he said they have one heart and one mind with us not with each other with the father with the father then the world might believe so wait hang on listen this then the world might believe that you in fact sent me so until we become one the world is not going to believe that the father sent jesus i don't like that i don't want to hold that back it says so they will be unified and together as we are who the we is the father and jesus i in them and you and me then they'll be mature in their oneness and give the godless world evidence that you sent me and love them in the same way you loved me jesus came to reveal the love of the father and we are here to reveal the love of the father but what we are revealing is not love we're revealing anger we got our own church cancel culture going on listen we got to stop talking about people we don't agree with in ways that would alienate them from the kingdom of god i'm not asking you to endorse what they do kindness is an endorsement kindness is what opens the door to repentance so if we're just mean we're just shutting everybody out john 17 verses 20 through 23 and the message says and for their sake i consecrate myself that they also might be sanctified in truth oh wait i gotta do something so that other people can see and experience the truth yeah i gotta consecrate myself i gotta say lisa movie you don't get to post that lisa but you don't get to act ugly lisa bevere you don't get to be mean lisa bevere you don't get to act this way you got to consecrate yourself what does that mean it means i walk in such a way that people know that i belong to another place not this place that i'm passing through so i don't get entangled with this but i have empathy for this i have kindness towards this i understand that i have the solution towards this and how many of you know this world's messed up this world's messed up and how many of you know there's certain things that are never going to be made right here but that doesn't mean we don't live right that doesn't mean we don't act right that doesn't mean we don't love well i love that sam said it is well well means healthy well means growing it's not it is perfect it is well it is well and jesus i do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they all may be one just as you father are in me and i in you that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me i have given to them that they may be one even as we are one i in them and you and me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me you're not going to see the glory of god poured out until there's unity when there's backbiting and division and competition in the house of god we cannot expect god to pour out his blessing on that but i do believe we can be the beginning of that changing that god can find a remnant that says we're in one accord and we are in one place that we're in a place of humility that we are on our knees and that we have we are we're not going to be arguing with everybody but we're going to take it serious that our words can be destructive and that our words can create life or our words can destroy lives and we're going to understand the entrustment of god and we're going to speak in such a way that pathways are created for other people to come into the kingdom of god you know i i love doing act out stories from my boys when they were little i was raised i said catholic which meant we didn't touch the bible it was holy it was gold edged you know you just like you looked at it it was like opened perfectly and then there was like a red a red thread in the middle and anytime i tried to pull it down my mom was like no don't mess up the pages i had a little communion bible but it was so small print and i had a list of saints to pray for pray to when i got in trouble because i was in trouble a lot but but i did not know the word of god or even know that it was something that i could have the privilege of reading or praying or living until i was 21 and so i didn't want my boys to see it as frail fragile parchment sheets i wanted it to be alive for them so i would act out bible stories with them and one of our favorite stories was blind bartimaeus having one eye i connected with him and uh i would have my son sit on the bed he'd be blind bartimaeus and i played two roles i played the crowd and i prayed played jesus and here's it says so jesus had a big meeting in jericho it's his last hurrah before he gets crucified so he's had a big meeting and it says and as he was leaving jericho with his disciples a great and a great crowd bartimaeus a blind beggar the son of timaeus was sitting by the roadside and when he heard that it was jesus of nazareth he began to cry out and say jesus son of david have mercy on me and many rebuked him telling him to be silent but he cried all the louder all the more see i love people that when other people tell them to be quiet they cry all the more but sometimes i even wonder if they're mad about who he was calling jesus because it said that jesus of nazareth when he heard jesus of nazareth was walking by but he cried out jesus son of david and whenever they would say jesus son of david it meant jesus the messiah because the messiah was the son of david so here's a blind man on the edge of the road calling jesus messiah messiah have mercy on me and the crowd is like shh quiet and he's like i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm in the presence of the messiah i'm just going to get louder and jesus stopped i i loved it and called him he said call him and they called the blind man saying to him take heart get up he is calling you and throwing off his cloak he sprang up and came to jesus and jesus said what do you want me to do for you now can i just be honest with you i've always felt like that was a stupid question jesus he's blind like did you not see that this is a blind man why would you ask him what you what do you want but i think jesus wants you to ask him directly what you want and by barbados said that i recover my sight meaning at one time he could see things clearly and along the way he lost his focus and i believe that we in the church need to cry out jesus son of david have mercy on us and if the crowd's like quiet quiet don't bother him we don't argue with the crowd because the crowd doesn't have our answer you have been wasting time and energy arguing with people who do not have your answer jesus son of david have mercy on your church god we want to recover our sight i believe this is important because i believe that we have yet before us the promise of luke chapter 4 verse 18. the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the lord's favor and to announce this is god's year to act i don't care if the government acts i don't care if the election gets turned it doesn't matter none of what happens here affects what i do here i am a citizen of heaven passing through this land did i vote absolutely will i vote in all the elections absolutely it's my civil privilege but my civil privilege never preempts my kingdom authority and so i am going to say it doesn't matter what people are acting out it doesn't matter if everybody's acting up this is god's year to act this is the year of god's favor on his people when they hit their knees and stop making excuses and stop trying to impress people with our spirituality that ends up being turned back upon us we need the prophetic we need the spirit of god we need the strategies of heaven we need the words of heaven we need the wisdom of heaven people don't like it when god's quiet but god's quiet because he's asking his people to draw in here draw near and get his word in your heart draw near get rid of the idols and the obstacles draw near and let him anoint you afresh draw near and let him renew your vision in jesus name so i wanna pray over you guys can i do that can i get everybody to stand up i'm gonna pray for you what i prayed for my sons all four of my sons have worked with us in the ministry my oldest son wrote a book last year my youngest son wrote a book this year i see this as the redemption of god i also see it as god's favor on the faith of a mama that understood that she had no good thing to pass on to her kids except for the promises of god so i want you to lift up your hands heavenly father i thank you that they will see up close what other generations only saw in the distance father i thank you they'll speak out loud what other people have only dared to whisper father i thank you they'll lay hold of with their hands what other generations have only handled in prayer father we are not for isolation and division we are for signs and wonders and miracles we are disciples taught of the lord and great is our peace and undisturbed composure in a time of chaos and confusion and every degree say amen and amen [Applause] i always find it so easy to speak here there's just such a receptivity in the spirit i'm so honored to have been able to come i wish i could stay longer i have a book out there called godmothers uh how many of you know that uh long before cinderella there was godmothers there were god parents in the early church there were people that came and closed your gaps there were people that came and said i know what you're going through in this season but i'm just going to tell you that this is not the end of your story this is just a chapter we need parenting in the body of christ we need the people who have gone before us to look back and say i don't want you to have to make the same mistakes that i have already made so a godmother wants more for her children than she ever experienced herself and so i have that book out there how to be one and why you need one i believe we need to reach back and we need to reach up both ways and then my son arden's book redefined is out there it's about confronting the labels that limit us he did a poll of all of his millennial fellow beings and the gen z's and he heard all these labels like entitled and stuff and you know what it wasn't the parent saying it it was the children they've taken on these labels as their identity lost confused entitled doubtful and so he went into the word of god and he counteracted all of these different labels and peeled them off a generation see we can know as parents who somebody has been but only the spirit of god knows who they are becoming and can i close with this i i hope i can say this right and please be gentle with me i believe that god has an incredible destiny on the black people i know this is black history month but i just want to declare that i believe the destiny of god's people of color is greater than its history i believe that you're going to look up and i believe that god is going to anoint the people of color for the revival that is coming and i believe that is why the enemy is pushed and pushed and pushed on a wound but i believe that you're gonna get up wounded healers and that the spirit of god is gonna be poured out and you're gonna actually bring truth and goodness and healing to the very ones that wounded and hurt you so i don't want it to just i celebrate the history but i am more excited about the destiny in jesus name amen

Channel: citylife church

Views: 21,499

Rating: 4.9237437 out of 5

Keywords: ministry, citylife church, church, citylife, multicultural, diverse, kaci, pastor, stewart, Florida, fl, tony stewart, Pastor Tony, kaci stewart, tampa

Id: xDLWH_Kh4ec

Length: 50min 56sec (3056 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 03 2021