The IN-BETWEEN Places of Process | Dr. Hart Ramsey

in exodus chapter 13 verses 17 and 18 you know this scripture by heart you do you've heard it before the bible says when pharaoh finally let the people go god did not lead them along the main road that runs through philistine territory god did not leave them along the main road it says even though that was the shortest route to the promised land so from this text already what we see is that god would god will make you a promise but he will never lead you to the str on the straight route to promise so if i'm speaking to the right house today you are on the scenic rock to promise and you see with you you're thinking that god's faithfulness resides in his ability to meet your timeline no god's faithfulness resides in his ability to keep his promise [Music] you're thinking that god needs to meet the promise while your strength is strong is not yet debated while you while you're visionary while you're young well why all the parts are functioning and you don't know you haven't paid attention to the father of faith in scripture who's abraham when god intentionally waited 24 years after the promise he was already old when god called him but god waited 24 years to begin to work the plan and the bible says according to romans 4 that god was actually waiting for abraham to get old what are you going to do if god decides to wait until you are no longer functional to wait until you don't look your best to wait until that you no longer can do it your way to now say we're ready for the promise well god waits until you quit until you give up i can't do this anymore and god says now you're ready isn't it amazing that god needs you to give out a gas before you're ready for the trip here's what it says it says god did not leave them along the main road or the main route to the promised land so god said if the people are faced with battle see you think battle and struggle is the same thing the reason you're struggling is because you're trying to strong-arm guard to do things your way that's not a battle that's a struggle your will is your will has to die your will is trying to live that's a struggle a battle is when the enemy who cares nothing of your soul unleashes his forces against you and you have no natural way to withstand it that's a battle and so the bible says what god did here is he said god spoke and said if the people are faced with battle they might change their minds now understand this the purpose of israel's scenic journey was that god was concerned for their minds the reason that god is taking you the long way is that god is control god is concerned about how you think what you think why you think how you think everything is this is about your mind he says the lord was concerned that they would change their minds because god understands watches now god understands it's hard to lead a people whose minds are not in it he needs your mind in church we tell people god just need your spirit that is not true and let me tell you this and we into this big thing in our time about mental health the bible says that god is not giving us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and watches of a sound mind when you when you study this term sound mind it means a a mind that functions properly an intellect that is aligned with reality that is a good mental health the holy spirit is the governor of your mental health the problem is in our generation we've separated spiritual spiritual health and mental health they're the same thing if the holy spirit is not allowed to govern you and lead you and speak to you speak through you then your mind will always come under attack and watch this now this is so critical because the bible says now god was concerned that they may change their mind and not just change their mind but return to egypt because you don't know the difference between struggle and battle you think your struggle is a battle really what your struggle is just you you trying to be god watch this now so what what happens is god says if if they get engaged in a battle that's beyond them if they see philistine might you have to understand now they've been slaves for 400 years for 10 generations 10 generations of 40 years or generations 40 years they've been in egypt for 430 years 30 years in peace 400 years in slavery they were not a nation they were not a people they were literally slaves being transformed and it's easy to criticize them but i'ma tell you something when you've known something when your mother and your grandmother and your great-grandmother and your great great you go all the way back to ancestry and all you've known is slavery it's your default position and god was concerned they would go back to egypt because although egypt was hard russia's now is familiar yeah and what you tend to do you surpass it you just don't know i'm going through i can't get rid of this sin no it's not that you can't get rid of the sin it's that you've seen struggle you've seen battle that causes you to default back to your old lifestyle because you know your lifestyle it's the what's hard for you are the in between places [Music] so so the bible says in verse 18 so god led them this the i love this that god leads us you may it may not seem like it may not feel like god is leading you but god is leading you right now and sometimes when god leads you listen to this he will leave you in a place where what needs to be done i remember i remember when when i was younger or my mother you know she run the boys through the shower go take a shower but she'd take the girl and she'll sit them in a bath and they were just sitting there she put toys in the bath just sit there she was training how to take care of their bodies watch this friend we were like well i want to buy the mama's like go about your business get your shower get to bed you don't need a bath this is interesting sometimes god will sit you in a place where you watch this now because it's doing something to you you may be otherwise engaged he may give you an assignment but you need to be in a space we are too quick to say my season is up the voice the voice of of ambition will always fabricate an assignment the voice of ambition you want to be something you want to be somewhere that god has not called you to so you said the lord told me my season is up be careful of that season's of spirit because i'm telling you something when you are in a place where god set you you have something that we don't talk about a lot is the access access is a powerful like proximity is a powerful thing when you get to be close to the things that god needs you to to absorb some things aren't learned something some things we we get by osmosis just being in the presence just being in a situation and you may need a whole lot more of the thing that you than you think you do the worst thing in the world to do is go out and not be ready i'm big on the olympics i've been following the usr usa uh olympics for years and and i'm i'm big on two two teams especially the men's basketball team and the women's soccer team this year both teams were challenged i'm so custom of the usa women winning gold they're so good they always well put together this year they didn't this year they had to settle for a bronze medal and i'll tell you why because they just weren't ready it's amazing how we went through four years of hell politically and then a whole pandemic which we suffered through police brutality watch this and people were thinking it had no bearing or no effect on them and it doesn't show up till you get on the field the when the men the men's basketball team started teams they lost three out of four exhibition games unheard of what happened they weren't ready ambition is one thing watch this now looking the part is another thing but being actually ready is the result of good preparation i'm gonna tell you the the wonderful thing about the new covenant is every everybody has the holy spirit everybody can hear from god the terrible thing about the new covenant is everybody got the holy spirit everybody can hear from god you just missed that didn't you it's a double-edged sword thank god god could speak to everybody but in america come and say what the lord said and most of the times it is not the lord is the false self that you built because of what you want because you're looking at things that glitter do you know when the bible talks about i'm all over the place do you know what the bible talks about the love of money it's the translation of one word filigoria filagoria filigoria is we get we get a phrase from it an old adage that says all that glitters isn't gold it comes from the term filigoria it means the word gloria speaks of things that glitter the love feeler the love of things that glitter the lovely thing that shines the love of things that look good on social media or wherever you see them and so you think you said you you look out there you said in one place my god you and your church god set you it may not be a very sexy place to be but watch this it's where god set you the planting of the lord is a powerful thing so god god leads you he sets you stay here why because you can't bear fruit if you're not planted [Music] watch this now you can't grow if you're not planted the whole the whole premise of a plant is that a seed is deposited into the ground to see develops a relationship with the ground and then it pushes through the ground and comes up it's not qualified to be called a plant until it develops a relationship with where it's planted the problem is you're a member of a church but you're not planted there all it took to approach you was a pandemic you could feel disconnected and not be disconnected when you feel this can if you if you love what you have when you feel disconnected you make changes to reconnect no no this is important i'll tell you why because i learned over the years i've learned over the years we act like like you know modern sports i mean we try to build these these or daggone or what do you call these teams these super teams [Music] let's stay where god planted you here's why because god plants you for a reason and when you get to the place where you grow watches now he releases you the powerful thing about sending understand the leading of the lord the prophet thing about sending is you always have sponsorship when you're sent [Applause] the pharisees asked jesus for a sign jesus said i'll give you a sign if you answer this question here's what he said he said the ministry of john the baptist was it from god or was it for men they went into a huddle they said if we say it's from it's from men the people may stone us if we say it's from god then he'll ask us then why didn't we pay attention to it so they came back and said we didn't know we don't know and jesus said well neither will i do your son i'll give you i'll tell you where my authority is from watch this why did he ask that it was because john the baptist was the one that ordained him there is in the sending of god ancestry and the ancestry works like this if i could trace my ministry or my call back to a human being i speak of my father's all the time going to be with the lord now i'm a father in my own right you have to follow and be aware that god is leading you and there are times in your leading you will find yourself in these in between places where the bible says in verse 18 so god led them in a roundabout way a roundabout way you're like you say god you're playing with me he's not playing with you you have to understand something watch this he's protecting you remember the whole premise of this leading was he did not want them to meet the philistines yet why because you have to understand something but god saw in the future that the philistines will be a nemesis that they will not be able to get rid of for generations god understood that this battle this skirmish that was pending with the philistines is something that they would have to fight over and over again so god says they can't lose the first battle against them and right now they're not ready to fight you think you're ready to fight cause you could talk big because you know some scripture no you're not darling you're not ready for what is coming and so god takes you through a roundabout way through a place he calls the wilderness if you look at the word wilderness the first four letters of the word in wilderness spell the word wild because that's exactly what it is in the wilderness although there are a set of rules the set of rules do not apply to habitated spaces inhabited places have different rules and governance than the wilderness the wilderness place but it's all by its own rules as a matter of fact what you don't know is that when god led israel through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and pillar fire by night the rabbis who teach on this say it's an interesting concept it says that the cloud that went before israel wasn't just for visibility but it was also for security because the cloud when you look at a pillar of cloud we know what clouds look like but a pillar of cloud means that it came down to the ground like a funnel cloud but it was a straight pillar and the rabbis when you read the rabbinical writers what they said was that the cloud would go before them and literally sweep the ground in front of them listen to this listen to this because in the women are in the wild spaces there's serpents there's scorpions and all manner of things that are harmful so so the cloud would literally sweep the ground like a ground sleeper watch it's not in any place that was built up it would level it any place that was dug down it would make the cloud had the guard was in front of his people doing duty everybody say do on duty this is not just some aesthetic uh presence god is not just there to be seen he's doing some work and he's saying just that's that is why it was critical that they followed the cloud the only safe place was where the cloud was cleaning where the cloud was sweeping where the car was going it's important that we understand that that when god is doing something in our lives it's not just he's not just doing it because he's trying to be god or trying to no he it's all about you it's interesting that the israel or eight times in the old testament the bible speaks of a king's treasury two of the times it speaks of a physical king's treasury six of the times that this term is used is used for god's people he called israel my special possession or my treasury what's a treasury where i store all my valuables my goods so here's what god says he says the thing the reason i'm taking such protective care of you is because you carry something that belongs to me and i'm gonna talk to you about it you see you think this is about you and your purpose and your destiny and we've lied to you the pulpit has misrepresented for years what this is about this is not about you it's not about me it's about it's about what the lord has deposited on you and sometimes because of the way we've taught you when you read scripture parts of it don't make sense the name of the lord is a strong tower the righteous running and i say they that call upon the name of the lord shall be saved all through scripture the bible says we could hide behind his name we could and and you you know the name is jesus and we shout about it but we don't understand it so god led israel through the wilderness because although they were called to the promised land they weren't ready for it they weren't ready for the assignment they didn't even understand who they were he marched them out like an army the bible says matter of fact the rest of this verse says um he led them out in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the red sea i got it i got to speak on this i'm sorry i i was going to keep this short but you know red seas in our lives are very uh interesting places because god always corners us at the red sea so he could show the enemy what he's made of the thing is the thing is is that when we get to red sea we don't understand the purpose of this type of resistance so there are four words i'm gonna give you that you need to learn in process four words i'm gonna talk to you about in a minute but when you get to when god chooses watches now to lead you in a roundabout way and then point you to a place that he knows you can't cross on your own and he he allows you to be there while the enemy is coming up on you the the the purpose of this god told moses he said i will give glory on pharaoh today there are times some of your leading has nothing to do with your physical presence and it doesn't have to do with your prosperity your protection your direction none of it how you feel how you look it has to do with god getting glory on some losses on some threats and promises he made long time ago he would use you there are people who have been doing folk wrong for so long that they don't understand that god is not to be played with so god would pick you out of the crowd and god will say come and god will allow you to connect with this person just so they could pull the same junk they've been pulling before on you because you're different you belong to someone you have a name on you i'm gonna talk about it in a minute and you don't even understand how this works by the time they get to do you wrong gossip i don't need you to fight in this i don't need you to get involved i need you to stay neutral in this get divorce your emotions from what's happening because were you about to see what i'm about to do to this situation i want to see i want to get you to understand when you get to the they got to the red sea and they have to depend on god and at the red sea the things that you have to do and the things that god must be allowed to do uh moses prays god said don't talk to me this is not time for talking to me he says i've given you something i've given you a rod the word authority i've given i've given you authority watch this now here's what god says god says to he said when you lift the rod up the silver part god understood watches now that he can't park seas if you don't lift rods that's the way it works you do your part god does his part you can't participate but you lift the rod [Applause] [Music] you can't you can't send answers you can't send answers but you can say prayer watch this god god says you have a part in what i'm going to do the purpose of the red sea was to show you your partnership with god god was also at the same time establishing moses as their leader you have to you must understand these people had no leader the one leader they knew was a was was the um he was the government in charge of task masters and god had to show them moses a meek man a humble man and a man who god said i sent from me i sent him to you and so god put them in a position where they could see moses in partnership with god sometimes when god has you in a situation where you don't know what to do it's not even about you it's for what you see i was under a bishop nick holcomb he was my father in the lord before he passed away and when uh a war broke out i think the second gulf war the spirit of lord spoke to bishop hook and said um i want to make a deal with you he said if you would trust me he said not a single person from your church will die in this war now you must understand the odds are that the that he was going to lose a lot of people because his church is in killeen texas and the the military installation for hood was the largest it's the largest military installation in america most of the soldiers that deployed to that war came from fort hood and a good portion of them went to his church and i never forget the day the man of god stood before the church and here's what he said he said the lord said the deal is on and that was that was the theme for the deal is on and he explained to us line by line what the lord said to him that not a single person is going to die they will go and other people may die but your people won't i'm like i was sitting there thinking i said man oh god you put your whole ministry in the lineup how could you i was concerned how are you asking i said bishop um do you think that was the best approach to that and bishop says that's what the lord said and i watch this that whole in the entire scenario was not for him it was for us to see his relationship with god and one year passed nobody died everybody went came nobody got injured the second year passed nobody it was the only church in america who had members to leave and everybody came back up and his whole thing was a deep you you get up every sunday morning say the lord said the deal is still on the church will shout from that time from that time his sons among themselves started calling him apostle he was still going by bishop but we knew what he was sometimes god has to allow things to happen to show you who people are in your midst this whole red sea situation was about god showing them moses and about god showing them listen i will if you do this i will do that i'm almost done with this part and the bible says thus the israelites left egypt like an army ready for battle i want to point out that although they were not an army number one number two they weren't ready for battle but they left egypt like an army ready for battle see your problem is that people tell you you preach like so and so you prophesy like so so you you saying like so-and-so so you think you got to leave where you are because you like them y'all liking me today i wanna i wanna give you uh some let's go deeper i wanna give you some information i believe is gonna help you so god led them to the wilderness because although they were called to the promised land they were not ready for it one of the hardest things that a leader or parent or anyone authority could say to you is you're just not ready it seems like an insult but they have an option is to let you go and make break but it could tell you you're just not ready and so i want to walk you through this this litany of information in hopes that that i will say something that will shift your perspective forever the purpose of the wilderness is to prepare you for the promise if preparation wasn't necessary there would be no process if preparation was not necessary there would be no process if preparation was not necessary you will not be in process right now but you are because the word prepared means to make something ready beforehand literally the word a pear-p-a-r-e means to cut away when you when you pair peaches or you paint an apple or pair or a pair of pair for that matter you keep cutting away the parts of it that doesn't that are necessary unnecessary rather you don't need them so you cut them away and so what god uses the process to do is to cut away from you what is not necessary the extra stuff the mindsets the ambitions you got it the things that you think you need to be who you are supposed to be some of you think that you need money to get you have to understand something there's some things that don't require money not on the front end god could move you into a situation and have you uh um so much like living there and be in a situation without you any money you say well well not in this generation not in this world you don't know the lord you know i know at least two or three ministers right now that had literally proper keys handed to them talk to apostle stephenson people's people sending keys in the mail the lord told me to give you this problem this is no game so god knows god knows exactly what he's doing he's preparing us the wilderness is to prepare us the wilderness in this story listen to this word make note of this it's a liminal place liminal place have you ever heard the word liminal before put your hand up liminal one two three let me okay now let me explain to you what a liminal place is um the word liminal comes from the word lemon l-i-m-e-n it says it sounds like lemon but it's spelled l-i-m-e and lemon and and liminal is l i m i n a a liminal the wilderness in this story is a limited place this the word liminal literally means a threshold or the place in between the threshold is the gateways the entrance is the portal that leads to something else so so imagine this now um when you think about a limited place and why it's critical to our understanding is because many of the people i'm speaking to who are watching by the stream who are sitting here today you are in a liminal place you you're not there but you're you're not you're not back where you were but you're not where you're going you're in a liminal space the wilderness was a liminal space and here's the thing about liminal spaces you see things and hear things and learn things in liminal spaces that you can't learn there or here rather or there in other words the things that god could not teach israel in in egypt but he couldn't wait till it got to the promised land to teach them either but to teach it to them in egypt would have been too early and they had no authority to exercise it in slavery and to teach them in the promised land would mean that by the time they face the giants they will just die jericho don't come down with our 40 years in the wilderness [Applause] kadesh barnea which is the precipice of promise in other words right here is kness bondier when you cross this border you're in canaan it was 11 days journey from where they set out 11 days when they crossed the red sea they were 11 days away but god if you read the old testament god had as a central figure a place called mount sinai as a matter of fact god told moses he said moses like was basically asking well how would how would i know god says how you know for sure he says i'm gonna send you to get my people and when you get them you're gonna bring them back to this mountain to worship people don't understand this do you know that although god promised israel a land flowing wicked honey their destination when they left slavery was not the promised land initially god told moses you can bring him to this mountain to learn to worship before they go forward the idea was the plan was he was to bring them to uh sinai listen they were supposed to spend a year read your bible the plan was failed to spend a whole year at sinai to learn to worship why because they are to god a treasury let me tell you what god invested in them his name his name now this makes sense the second commandment is what he says first he begins the the old testament come out here he said thou shalt have no other gods before me does that mean we could have a god after him no it means that once you see me as god you will have need for any other that's the first the second commandment is uh he starts going down the list but then he goes i think his second or third commandment he says he says watch this he said thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain and you thought he saw my cursing had nothing to do with speech has nothing to do with verbiage it means simply i'm giving the short version don't say we're married and act single [Music] don't don't say that but that i'm your god and act like i'm not don't don't carry my name and not understand what it means for the whole year at mount sinai was designed to teach god's people in this liminal space who he is and i must say this to you the problem with most of us the church today don't really know the lord because we don't settle in liminal spaces we rush out of them we we fabricate assignment we say all kinds of stuff to get out of this middle place this middle this in between spot because from where we stand in our liminal space we could look at people ahead of us watch this we look ahead of us and they're doing great things that we won't do great things too or we can stand for the same in between spot and look behind us and we see people who need what we have we tell the lord settle here and god said i'm not trying to you settle here i settled when you said i was sick when you sit we need your presence guys i need you present understand how this is working what god is saying to his people is that you're treating this in between spaces liminal space like it's nothing but i need you to be here and the reason for it is this if you're not god says if i can't get you to understand what i'm doing you'll fight me every time yeah liminal spaces are critical they are because while you're in them they leave you without a true status yeah you you're out but you're not really in the israelites were no longer slaves in egypt but they didn't have a land to call their own either they were in the middle you know weddings are great examples of liminal spaces imagine this the couple comes to the wedding as fiancee they're gonna leave the wedding as husband and wife but in this liminal space of wedding pageantry for a day for a moment for an hour or two they become bride and groom they didn't come their bridegroom became fiancees spelled differently the extra e for the woman so we know exactly what we're talking about and then then at the end they're going to leave the the minister is going to say these words i now to not pronounce to you for the first time anywhere mr and mrs and and they they leave this liminal space watch just if they if they process the the wedding and listen to what was said and understood the whole pageantry of it they will be better off but most people here's what they do they spend their time in fiancee land it's called the espousal state they spend their time in their spousal state planning the wedding not preparing not planning the marriage planning the spending the money not on the marriage but on the watch what i'm saying to please hear the lord so you know what we haven't planned for the wet for the marriage we plan for the wedding we step across this threshold we're in the in-between spot called this limited place called it's the wedding everything is set everything's on point and everyone is so nervous and thinking ahead to the marriage that we don't even listen to the vows we make i'm telling you i i did enough weddings to know see see the vows you make there they are they're so critical to what's to come but in this we're so trained to treat liminal spaces like just a transition like a bridge it's just a transitional place it doesn't mean anything we just got to do this to get there no do you know do you know that the wedding the wedding the whole wedding ceremony the wedding feast isn't it a reenactment of a covenant meal yeah do you understand the wedding the wedding dinner let me explain something to you so so think historically the the man proposes to the woman with her father's permission he shows up with a diary what is the diary he pays the father for raising his wife let me either and you know how we said it you've been told like a uh uh what's it called a rehearsal dinner for what let me tell you see we sit that rehearsal dinner you know one side of the family is on this side oh historically let me tell you how that worked we were sitting there across the table from each other just to eat a meal we're sizing each other up no no you understand what it was about the covenant meal was about if someone breaks this covenant i'm looking across the table and see who i'm killing no no no you do understand that right the families are sizing each other up we break this covenant i'm killing you i could take this one i could take that one the women are looking each other crazy this was no this was no happy meal no we were sitting there this is covenant and if anyone breaks his covenant there's hell to pay that's what this is about do you know when the bride comes walking down the middle of the church no no that that wasn't you know we said here comes the bride that's not the way it was before the couple would hold hands they would put blood they would do the walk they'll walk through the blood they killed the animals they split them in half they put one one piece of the animal on that side one piece of animal on that side all the way up to the altar and they would take the blood and a sprinkle of blood in the middle and the couple will walk through the blood together signifying this is what happens to us if we break this thing [Applause] [Music] understand what i'm saying to you so what what we miss about liminal spaces and that is the most critical part because when someone is holding a dagger to your neck because you broke the covenant they're not pointing to what happened before they pointed to this liminal space it's in between space where you gave your word that you will keep your promise is this too much you all good yes how much time do i have okay so get this so weddings are great examples of living in spaces you're not who you are going to be i'll say like this you're not who you were you know who you're going to be but right now in this middle space you become bride and groomed for a moment after you walk away from being brought and grew your husband and wife that's a whole different step in watching this in the in the in the pre-marital state you i can say no i i'm not doing this it's my fact i want to encourage you stop using the espousal state to just be romantic and just to be to look at each other i know when you meet sit across the table from each other you're exchanging credit reports health records you experience oh no i mean i need to know how you are who you are let's talk about your parents i mean let's say mr pitcher your daddy and your grandfather okay that's where you're gonna look late later on okay i could handle that you know you got her picture this is okay which one is this you that's your mom okay okay and now that's that that's the pre-marital state once we stand before the man of god to get to exchange vows this is for real i'm not doing this for something to do the woman just ladies listen you're taking his name if if you're taking his name that means his name becomes greater than your daddy's name [Music] amen you can't be irresponsible why someone is carrying your name are you worthy for someone to carry your name that's what the lord said the lord said i cannot let these people get to kadesh barnard to face the enemies they're going to face they can't face the philistines until i teach them how to use my name the in-between places you say pastor i hate this process you hate this process because you don't understand that the purpose of the in-between places of process is to teach you about the name you're talking about oh we got there's no other name giving them to heaven among men whereby we should be saved the name of jesus and we no no it's more than that it's not what the name is or what it is what it means and you have to be sure that when you give a name that you understand what the name is the seven sons of skipper they thought it was a game the bible called them vagabond exorcists and we live in a generation of vagabond exorcists and because demons are more a more docile than they were before these demons won't run up on you back in the day they will beat the crap out of you and send you away naked beat the brakes off you just let you know listen i don't know who you are you know why watch this the reason the demons didn't know their name is because they didn't did not know the lord's name the demon said paul i know jesus said no but who are you paul paul carries the name jesus what's the name or is the name i don't know who you are in other words your name is not doc we don't have a record of you in hell that's someone we should fear so you need to leave right now you watch this are you trying to make a you try to make a name for yourself people watching you we are exorcists and the demons like we don't care what you're doing you need to get out of here i'm telling you leave us alone we're about to that's what this is about the middle spaces is for god to teach you how to fight demons at night and preach in the morning [Music] he's struck no no he's trying to he's trying to the lord is trying to teach you how to be overwhelmed but get people delivered he's trying to teach you how to be broke how to be wasn't you you could be broken a season of your life but content with it but you're touching people laying hands on them and they're getting rich he's he's trying to show you what's this is important how abraham could pray for the king's wife to have babies and he's his wife is still barren the in-between places are critical they they press you and stress your mind but they are so necessary so in liminal spaces we tend to become frustrated i'm going to talk about the word frustration in a minute because our effort can't speed the process frustration only happens listen to me the word frustrate literally if you want to see a word picture frustration it means i'm pushing and nothing is happening frustration i'm pushing and nothing is happening understand so it's saying to you is you can use all your strength all your might all the clever you've learned over the years and it won't work because when you're in a liminal space you're not in charge you're not the teacher you're the student you see let me get a great example i don't care once a woman gets pregnant all things be equal that baby gonna take nine months i don't catch you feeling the six months okay i'm ready now i'm ready let's go to the hospital oh no you're not in control of that in that liminal space that you're in what you are is the carrier you're burying the child you you you're actually you are the incubator you are the womb you you listen and you have to walk through this process until what's in you sends you the signal is time and that's exactly how is it how it is with the holy spirit the holy spirit is going to send you a signal and you said you said pastor i'm just tired i know you're tired can i can i give you a a good um remedy for that if you're tired stop trying to do it in your own strength if god is allowing you to be worn out it means you're using the wrong energy i don't use the word energy as in the modern uh um humanistic way i'm talking about you're using your own strength you're not asking enough questions i'm gonna give forwards i told you i wouldn't i don't know that i'll be able to finish this today but i wanna give you this statement that's gonna blow you away here it is well it may not blow your way but this might help you the more you wrestle with the notion of needing to be prepared needing to be trained needing to be polished or needed to be adjusted is the more difficult the liminal place of process will be for you the more you wrestle with the notion of needing to be prepared i'm ready the more you wrestle with the the idea of needing to be trained and needing to be polished needed to be adjusted the harder the process becomes do you know i've seen people just lose their temper whenever they get in a certain situation and the fact that they lost their temper said that the process must be extended because what god is sending you you don't have the luxury of losing your temper in some settings you lose your temper one time is over all those years of work i've seen people go to college for years to do something in the moment a fit of temper throw everything away can't even can no longer work in the area of the discipline because they lost the tempo once the whole idea of the in-between place was to get the team part of you yeah what about this the whole idea of the in-between place was to teach you to use money the whole idea of the in-between place was to show you who you are and who you're not the whole idea of the in-between place was to teach you how to bear the name so the lesson i learned over the years i remember people say well where are you from again i said i'm from the virgin islands through miami through germany for five years then through alabama a little place called dothan that was that i didn't even see on the map until until my church started to grow and my my church did a record then then the weather channel started putting dorothy on the map i don't know how to happen people say where is it again is is the gateway to panama city i still don't know what it is right that's where we were that's where we are that's where my ranch is where we live and i used to think i just say i know i need to be in a place my plan was to come to atlanta go to georgia tech my plans to get and god sent me to this little a little bitty place and in there in that liminal place god taught me how to dream he taught me how to see god taught me how to love people i became a pastor there in this little place where nobody was i threw away my big dreams and i began to engage with god put me and after a while i saw something shift i would show up to different functions they said where you from again are some doth and they say i heard about you i just don't know what dalton is after wherever i would go people would speak i heard about you i heard about you i started getting letters and stuff from across the sea how do you hear about a person from dolphin because in the liminal place when you embrace what god is doing god will prove to you that he's why the foolishness of god is greater than the wisdom of men i'm gonna give you these four things we've done the four words you must become familiar with in the liminal place in the in between space hear the words write them down real quickly number one distractions number two delays number three detours number four difficulty number one distractions number two delays number three detours number four difficulty number one distractions number two delays number three detours number four now you stand with me number one is come on what louder number one is what number two is number three number four put them in the in the uh comments for me number one is i say that out loud again distractions number two is delays number three detours number four if you learn how to handle these number one to identify them when they're happening and then number two know what you're supposed to do the biggest complaint i hear in the liminal spaces and the in between spaces of people as they say i just don't know what to do what the lord what does the lord want me to do most counseling most mentoring sessions that i engage has to do with people not knowing what to do when this when there's a standard answer for each one if you know why god allows it to happen and what god wants you to do in that in the process you'll be free while still waiting on god to deliver you to where you're supposed to be is this a lot sometimes i go i'm thinking i think i i threw too much on him did i think i gave him too much so so get this so an important part of this in acts chapter 14 verse 21-22 i'll give you this now and then um i'll probably return to later on sometime it says this after preaching the good news in derby and making many disciples paul and barnabas return to lystra iconium and antioch of presidio where they strengthened the believers they encouraged them to continue in the faith now be careful when some bible translations will translate the faith as your faith it's not the same thing when the bible talks about the faith it's speaking about the faith as opposed to the law you get that the faith the law the that's what the the early church called the new covenant with jesus christ in uh uh in god with jesus christ call it the faith defend the faith not the law okay so he says watch this they went back and they strengthen the believers encourage them to continue in the faith reminding them listen to this that we must suffer many hardships to enter the kingdom of god so let me explain this real quick when we're done the kingdom of god is not a geographical place first of all i thought the kingdom of god was heaven no it's not the kingdom of god listen to the terminology the term kingdom means the kingdom domain i've shared this with you before it bears repeating the us virgin islands belong to the us government the president of the united states authority extends to the virgin islands all the way in the caribbean sea next to the american virgin islands are the british virgin islands another patch of islands they're called the west indies the leeward islands so they're under different governments but the the main governments are not there on the islands they are in some territories on some continent but their domain the extent of the authority reaches even to there when the bible says if you want to enter the kingdom of god is speaking about you living a life where god literally is is um has dominion over you and his name in your heart and your mouth carries authority and weight if you want to enter into this situation with god this connection this relationship the bible says watch this you it comes with difficulty it comes with what like comes to what difficulty we're going to end up there but it comes with difficulty it means that you you can't just you can't just leave where you are i'll skip over the in-between place and get to a place where where you walking in dominion with god because you heard about it in church because i taught you something in church because it's in your notebook does not mean you're walking in it this in your notebook for you to meditate on anything for you to talk to the lord about it what i'm giving you right now is talking points with god but because you heard it doesn't mean you did you know it and because you heard it doesn't mean if you get up and preach it you own it [Music] here's something i'm telling you and the problem is is that we think because we could we could get up and parrot what we heard before that it gives us some kind of uh gravity in the situation no it does not we have to stop that listen to this four words that come with this difficulty number one is the word distractions whenever distractions come into your life how many by show of hands how many of you are experiencing distractions right now like they're everywhere okay this is this is a rule whenever distractions come in the liminal place in the in-between place it's for one thing god is telling you it's time to sharpen your focus it's the only message the message that comes to you if it watches if someone you say i mean i just i just entered into a relationship it's so distracting the only reason it's distracting is because your focus was drifting and you saw the thing when you focused there's something you just don't see listen to me they could be hitting on you are you so focused you didn't know they didn't know you your friend had to say you know he just hit on you no he didn't yes he did you didn't even know why because you you looking for him you have your mind set on something else come on y'all look young like sleep on me now right when you whatever distractions come it's the room is to show you that you lost focus on something and it's time to get your focus back number two is delays when the delays come delays are for the purpose of development when the thing that you that you thought was to come to you is delayed that is god saying to you that you're not ready yet and that is where you have to guard your heart because the not readies of god is sometimes offensive to us it makes us resentful towards god i've been waiting this whole time and everybody else has gone and here i am still waiting on you the lord is like since the problem waiting on me they're gone before you but some of them are left and there's no cloud before them sweeping the ground there's no fire at night to warm up to light this is going on their own they're just doing what they see other people do but what time you leave here you'll be ready delays are for the purpose of development they help you develop the more delay comes do not disengage when delays happen that's god saying to you you're not ready yet number three are detours detours are necessary experiences for your good and for god's glory when god takes you the roundabout way when god takes you to the detour you listen the detour in itself is anointed the detour right now that many of you right now you're in detours god did it and the reason that god did it is because you needed the detour for your development you needed a detour watch this out whatever god takes on a detour god's mindset is i'm about to get some glory out of this that's what god said when god took the children of israel to the up to the red sea god told moses when moses began to pray god said to him look watch this he says now i will get glory on pharaoh for all the junk he talked imma get him back i'm gonna get the pharaohs back for 400 years of slavery because god promised abraham he said of assurety your descendants will be in egypt for 400 years he said when the iniquity of the emirate is full i will come and deliver your people he said and i will punish the nation to enslave them yeah god said that so watch this so god now has to lead them on this detour wife to keep his work to abraham pharaoh would nev pharaoh would have never followed israel into the land of the philistines he didn't want that kind of that kind of war but he would fall into the red sea and god led them exactly what he knew it was a nice short trip for pharaoh god was trying to bait pharaoh when god uses you as bait just be still just be still get this now so number four is this difficulty difficulty whenever you experience difficulty it's time to trust and pray and you know you should ask the lord in times of difficulty just ask the lord father show me what i need in difficulty show me what i need because here's the thing we don't always know what we need although we think we do i just need this stop that's not what you need that's not the spirit of god that's your flesh talking you don't know how long it's been going on i i need no no no i need money no no you don't need money you need to learn questions now you may need to learn how to trust god for money i've battled sinuses from the time when god dropped me off in northern alabama i was allergic to a thing there's a thing that it's called the wire grass area why grass is ragweed i have a strong allergic reaction to wire grass and i can't tell you the nights that state of wrestling with sinus attack asking the lord if you knew that i was allergic to this place why would you send me here and he would not talk to me about that as many times and ask him for hours but when i say what am i teaching tomorrow then he starts to speak to me clearly he would totally ignore the difficulty i was going through totally ignore it and so one day i said why don't you talk to me about this he never answers and then later on i started to see something that people will come to me with cancers and i would know of a surety that god wants to heal him i was getting people healed from cancer and different things but i couldn't get healed of sinuses and that time i threw temper time to heal me now no you can do it what now in my life i get up in the middle of the night i say lord thank you my healer i'll go take away if i need medication i'll take it and i'll go back to bed i don't even talk to because that's i don't need that right now he whatever he's teaching me in difficulty in this liminal space is necessary what god teaches you at the wedding is necessary for the for the marriage what he teaches you at the wedding is necessary for you bearing his name so that you do not carry his name in vain when you walk into a situation and you say my name is so-and-so and i come from the lord it's a very real thing and people understand it and understand it and hell understands it and your very presence causes shifts to happen father in jesus name for all the people that heard this word for all the people that's listening today i ask you in the name of jesus to cause this word to sing deep down into their hearts that is not something that can easily let go something not something that could easily forget let today be transformative let's let today cause or questions that have been axed repeatedly not so much to be answered followed but to be accepted people accept this is the liminal space i mean this is the in between place and i accept it so what you say out loud to the lord say lord thank you for this in-between space something is happening here i can't see it yet but i trust you no no you see in the limitless place in the in between place trust is a of high commodity you need to trust god in this space right here and believe that what comes out of this is something you could never experienced never ever gained had you not walked to this for those of you watching by by stream i want to say this to you um what you heard the lord said to you today treasure it hold on to it pray over it look over the notes and ask god to give you more because there's more to be had god wants to do something amazing in your life in jesus name hallelujah hallelujah

Channel: All Nations Worship Assembly Atlanta

Views: 10,571

Rating: 4.9421687 out of 5

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Id: zcwWwzs2rbo

Length: 55min 28sec (3328 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 30 2021