What the Enemy Wishes You Didn't Know | Katia Adams | Expression58

thank you so much whoo okay just during worship I felt God speak to me for this community I don't know if you're familiar with the term saturation point but in worship God started speaking to me that a 58 is reaching saturation point and saturation point is a term in chemistry where the amount of a substance that is being injected into something it reaches the point that's the tipping point you can't physically get any more of that substance into that thing it's gonna start precipitating out it's going to start condensing out it's when you inject so much of a gas into the air that you cannot physically get any more of that gas into the air and it starts becoming liquid and precipitating out and I felt God was saying for this community that you are reaching a saturation point where your collective worship your collective expression of love for him has filled the air in this building and in this city to saturation point and you're gonna start seeing the condensation of the manifest glory of God in your midst in a new way and you're gonna start seeing the precipitation of the glory of God of the presence of God in a new way and you're gonna see an acceleration of the miracles that you long for and I know you're already seeing this but there's gonna be an acceleration and I feel like even as a sign even in this building you're gonna have strange condensation you're gonna start getting weird patches that's not going to create damage I'm not prophesying damage to the building but there's gonna be strange physical signs of condensation because you are reaching saturation point and there's gonna be watch and wait for it there's gonna be an acceleration of the manifest glory of God in this house and there's gonna come a shift and I know you've been praying for it and I know you've been talking about the spike here but I just felt this moment of God's saying you are so close to saturation point he is gonna be in your midst in a increase manifest tangible way watch and see what he wants to do okay so here's what we're gonna do this morning I'm gonna try to make sense I'm gonna try to keep to time and we're gonna speak this message that is actually one of my it's a life message this is something that I feel like God has imprinted deep into my heart and it's a message called what the enemy wishes you didn't know and I really believe this is a message that God has put on my heart for the body of Christ because if we get to grips with some of the truths of the scriptures that we're gonna look at today if we understand what God is calling us into our lives we'll be radical and we'll be miraculous wherever we go this is not a ministry message this is not a become a pastor message this is a message about how your life was created how you were given a pulse to change the world where you live in where you walk your workplaces your homes your communities this is not about come and gather at a church building this is be scattered servants to totally radically transform a city in a nation and so we're gonna look at the book of Esther together we're gonna look at the whole book pretty much so I'm not gonna read it to you because that would take all of our time I'm just gonna tell you the story if that's okay the book of Esther is in the Old Testament it's a unique book because it never explicitly mentions God and yet the fingerprints of God are all over the story and the story starts with the king of Persia who was the most powerful man on the planet at the time his name was a hazardous and he led entire Persian Empire and it starts with this pompous arrogant King wanting to prove his glory to the nation's and the way he does it is by throwing a party to end all parties this party lasts for six months every one of the officials of the Empire are invited in and all they do for six months imagine that if your government said okay we've just so glorious we've got this thing down so well that we don't need to work for the next six months we're just gonna eat and drink to display our glory well that's what they did for six months there was food in abundance and wine ever flowing and at the end of that six months unsurprisingly we're told that the men were merry with wine go figure and at the end of the six months a hazardous opened the gates of his kingdom to everybody in the kingdom we're talking millions of people and he opened the gates to invite anybody who wanted to come and celebrate at the Kings table and for one week the entire population was invited to come and feast and at the end of six months and one week the pinnacle of his glory the moment that he was just gonna say and this is it was that the king addressed his wife Vashti and commanded her to come and parade herself before him and his men and unsurprisingly Vashti decided that wasn't something that she really wanted to do or take part in and so she did the unthinkable in that culture in that generation she did the unthinkable and she said no so the king is humiliated after six months and one week of trying to prove how big E is he is humiliated by his wife who says no to him in front of the entire kingdom and so the king and his officials gather together they talk about the problem of Vashti what can be work done what are we going to do and the officials say to the king listen the problem isn't just that the queen has humiliated you by saying no to you but it's now that women all across the land will believe that it's okay to say no to their husbands and clearly no one can live in a society like that and so they talk about it what do they do and they deposed Vashti and she's thrown out of the kingdom she's no longer queen and they decide that they'll throw an empire-wide beauty pageant well there where they will find the new queen of the Empire and this is where Esther enters the story and at the beginning of her story we hear that she is an orphan who was raised by her cousin Mordecai she is a Jew and at the time the Jews were nobody in the Empire they were nothing they were the least and so she's a woman she's a Jew and she's a nobody that counts like that's it she means nothing but she's a beautiful virgin and the King's beauty pageant basically is this that the officials go throughout the land and they forcibly remove the beautiful virgins from their homes bring them into the palace so that they can be trained for one night with the king it actually is as sordid as it sounds and whoever the king is most pleased with will become queen and in this crazy miraculous adventure poor Esther who's forcibly removed from her home finds favor in the king's palace and ends up becoming the queen of an empire but before she goes to the palace her cousin sister don't tell anyone your background don't tell them who you are because he knows that that will put Esther at a disadvantage no one needs to know you're a Jew just don't say anything about it now this is where the story gets interesting one of the Kings officials is a man named Haman who hates the Jews and at this point in the story he concocts a plan to destroy the Jewish nation and he gets the King to sign off on it we're basically a law is written that the Jews throughout the land or to be put to death and Mordecai Esther's cousin hears about this plan and he goes to Esther and he says sir you've got to do something you've got to go to the king you've got to stop this from happening and Esther says are you kidding me I'm nothing in a nobody didn't you see what happened to Vashti when she tried to use her own initiative and her own brain you see a queen but the reality is a queen is still a nobody and Mordecai says to her you've got to do something maybe just maybe you were born for this very moment and he begins to speak words that put courage into her and we'll look at them again in a moment and as he speaks to her she finally agrees ok Mordecai you get your people praying I'll get my people praying in three days I'll go to the king even though I've not been summoned to him and in that culture if you went to a king without being summoned and he didn't want to see you the penalty was death and so three days later she goes to the king and the unthinkable happens because he extends mercy to her and he says asked her Wow what can I do for you and she understands the Kings love language that's important and she says I'd love to invite you to a party and so she invites she invites Haman and the King to a party and the next evening at the party the King says what's this all about what can I do for you and she invites them again to another party and at the second party the King says come on now Esther what's going on and she exposes Haman's plot for what it is and she pleads for the life of her people and in that moment the unthinkable happens where and nobody changes the course of an entire nation and the Jewish people are spared and Haman is put to death you know it sounds like a fairy tale except it's historical fact this is no fiction this is no Cinderella story as much as it may sound like it this is historical fact completely accurate of how a nobody named Esther changed the course of the Jewish nation in the Empire of Persia you can read it in history books and I believe that that miraculous powerful potential is in inside of every single human being because God cream hated human-beings to rule and subdue the world he created every single man and woman to influence every part of society and if you are a Christian the mandate on your life is to change the world sometimes we use that as a catchphrase it's not just a catchphrase or a gimmick it's not just a buzz phrase what it is is the truth you were made to change the world and this story of Esther is gonna be our springboard into some trees that I believe the enemy really tries to hide from us as Christians because if we get it we will be unstoppable and the first thing is you're better than you've ever believed the book of second Corinthians chapter 5 tells us that if you are in Christ you are a new creation the old has gone the new has come in fact if a few verses later it says Jesus who knew no sin became the very substance of sin on the cross so that you and I would become the very substance of righteousness now the enemy hates this truth he tries to make you and I believe that we are still an old sinner even though we are in Christ he tries to make us believe as Christians that the cross and resurrection of Jesus were like some kind of giant washing machine and dryer system what happens is you are really dirty as a non-christian and then you come to the cross and resurrection of Jesus you get put into the washing machine and you come out the same person but just a cleaner version of yourself because if he can convince you that you're the same person just cleaner than he can convince you that you can become dirty again he hates this truth that you are better than you believe because the Bible doesn't say that you're a cleaner version of your old self it says that your old self is now dead and you are a brand new creation you are not just a cleaner version of who you once were you are a brand new creation in fact the point of Jesus becoming the substance of sin and you becoming the substance of righteousness is that every Engels cell of your being has been transformed into the righteousness of God I want to tell you if you are in Christ in this room every part of you is brand new you are not just cleaner you are brand new every part of you is alive is sparking with Supernatural DNA even as you sit in your seat and you may look like the same person on the outside but I assure you you are a brand new creation the enemy hates this because he understands that you become like that which you behold and if you look at the mirror every day and speak to yourself as if you're that old person if you tell yourself again and again and again that you're just that old sinner and sometimes there's some old hymns that you know I'm just a worm I'm just a sinner I'm just a nothing that's a lie because that's true of your old person but it's not true of the new person who's sitting in front of me you are a brand new creation and you know sometimes in our churches we can I go here yeah I'm gonna go here cuz I think you guys will be happy with this yeah you're used to it sometimes in our churches we form groups that are centered around the old person which basically idolizes a lie and something that heaven does not declare over you rather than recognizing the new person and going for what God has put in you now and what I mean by that is sometimes we passed her around or old nature sometimes we create accountability groups around old nature and if you've been in churches for a while I've been a Christian pretty much my old whole life I've been in ministry for around 20 years of one form or another I've been in accountability groups like this and I've led accountability groups like this okay full disclosure right here where you get together and you talk about your sins you all gather around and then you say what things you did wrong that week and then everyone feels suitably guilty and then you feel ashamed enough to put enough fear into you so that you may be able to control your behavior for the next week and what happens is during the week every time you're about to sin you think oh no I'm gonna have to tell the group about this so you put again enough shame and fear into you to motivate you to control externally what cannot be controlled internally and that's how we do accountability and we wonder why we can never defeat sin cycles we wonder why these accountability groups have no end we wonder why we're never getting victory over these senses because we're focusing on the wrong thing you become that which you behold and if you convinced yourself you were still that dirty old sinner who might need to go into the wash again you will never defeat the cycle of sin you want to know how to overcome sin in your life and I say this from personal experience from having been in and having led these groups the way you overcome sin cycles in your life is coming into agreement with what heaven says about you it's consistently forming accountability groups and we were talking about this this weekend at the women's retreat forming accountability groups that chase after your destiny that pull out the gold in you I may have said this before here because this is one of my favorite things in the Bible but in Ephesians 4 it talks about speaking the truth in love to one another and what we've done as Christians is made that an excuse for criticizing one another well we've done as Christians and again if you've been in the church five minutes someone's probably done this to you hi I just need to speak the truth and love to you for a moment like what someone says that your heart sinks because you know they're about to smack you over the head but you have to smile and pretend that you're really godly and just thank them for their criticism but when the Bible speaks about speaking the truth in love to one another it's not talking about criticism because truth is not an idea he's a person and he lives inside of you and me and his name is Jesus so when we speak the truth and love to one another we're not given an excuse to criticize those who we don't like very much no it is giving us permission to see the Christ likeness and one another and pull that out to remind the people in our community who they now are as a new creation to keep saying to them I see the truth in you I see Jesus in you let me hold up a mirror so that you can see you you've been made to be and so that you can walk in the truth of you who you now are psychologists tell us today that behavior is not primarily driven by our desires but is primarily driven by our understanding of identity secular psychology says that you behave like that which you think you are this is why the enemy hates this because if you get this if you get that you're not a grubby little sinner but you are a brand new creation full of the supernatural DNA of God himself your behavior will manifest who you actually are you are better than you've ever believed you know the tragedy in the Garden of Eden is that the serpent comes to Eve and he says to Eve you know eat the fruit of the tree it looks really great if you do that you'll become like God and he thinks that's such a great idea I'd love to become like God and she eats of the fruit of the tree where was the tragedy it's that she already was like God she was made in His image she didn't know who she was and so she gave in to temptation to earn something which had already been given to her freely that's the root of religion that you earn try to earn what's already been given to you by grace it is crucial that you and I know who we are that we don't speak lies over ourselves in an attempt to be humble that's not a humility that's just calling God a liar and that's a really bad idea and this this lie that's crept into the church that somehow humility is playing it's small it's ridiculous to do that because every time you do that you're telling God he's not correct in his idea of you humility is not denying the greatness in you it's just understanding where that greatness comes from you are better than you've ever believed the second thing that I believe the enemy doesn't want us to know is that you're more than the world's estimations see Esther had fully bought into what her culture told her about herself she'd fully bought into she was a woman an orphanage ooh that meant nothing she fully bought into no one expected anything from her except what she could give of her physical beauty to a man that's all she thought was expected of her which is why when Mordecai comes to her and says you have to do something to save an entire nation she's just like well that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard clearly that's not gonna happen because she knows that what the world expects of her is so little and she's fully accepted that and assimilated that into her thinking as she cannot even conceive that God have might have more for her but I want to tell you you're more than the world's estimations just as Esther was more than her world's estimations and some of you might have been told you're nothing in a nobody but others of you might have been told you're almost there but not quite enough you know if you were just a little bit thinner just a little bit of a different color just a little different accent just a little bit taller the world consistently feeding you this narrative that you're almost there but not quite enough sorry but I want to tell you you are more than the world's estimations that what he has put in you is amazing is miraculous and is gonna surprise and shock wherever you go because you are more than the world's estimations I love Mordecai in this story because he's a picture of the Holy Spirit he speaks words of courage to Esther so that she will be able to stand up and be all that she has made to be now you know in churches generally the Holy Spirit gets a bad rep we make him out to be some kind of control monitor of heaven when he's running around telling Christians of their sin and making us feel bad enough to change our actions and we talk about it all the time in lots of different ways I was at work I was doing this thing I said this thing I shouldn't have I used a cuss word that the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said you shouldn't have done that and I felt suitably bad about myself and then I changed how I'm speaking and when we do that all we do is we reduce the Holy Spirit to some kind of grumpy policeman who's handing out fines to every Christian it's no wonder that every Christian is trying to run away from him because whenever the Holy Spirit is new you feel terrible you know the Bible doesn't tell us that the Holy Spirit comes to convict the believer of their sin the Bible tells us in John 16 that the Holy Spirit comes to convict the unbeliever of their sin to lead them to repentance the purpose of the Holy Spirit and the believers life is not to convict you of your sin every two seconds I promise you he's got better things to do with this time the purpose of the Holy Spirit and the believers life is to convince you of your sonship it's to convince you of your righteousness Romans 8 Galatians 4 he is the spirit of adoption it is by him that you cry Abba Father he is the very spirit of sonship his role in the believers life is not to make you feel bad about your sin his role in the believers life is to tell you who you are so that you will manifest who you have been made to be that is his role in your life Mordecai here is just a glimmer of what the Holy Spirit is like for you and me every second of every day because the Bible tells us the thoughts of God are more than the sand the grains of sand on the seashore which means in your lifetime every single second of every single day Holy Spirit is thinking something about you and he's thinking sonship and affirmation and greatness and destiny where Mordecai did here is exactly what Holy Spirit does for you and me he consistently reminds you that you were made for greatness he consistently speaks courage into you so that you will be all that you were made for you are more than the world's estimations what are you tuning into here because I want to tell you you're not just a little bit less or just a little bit more no you are the righteousness of God in the world you know the beautiful thing about the words of God the thoughts of the Holy Spirit towards us is that they're not just wishful thinking he's not like oh I just really hope one day maybe if you're good enough you know in the Gospels we see how Jesus spoke to those who were broken and he brought healing he didn't pray for the sick he commanded them to be healed he didn't pray for the blind man to see he said see and as he said that word power was released for the blind man to see he didn't say to the layman Oh Lord Oh father God you her in heaven maybe just maybe if today you're in a good mood would you heal this poor lame man said ba no he said get up and walk and as he said that power was released for the layman to get up a walk he didn't say to the woman caught in adultery go and sin no more as an insult after everyone's left just so that she didn't feel like she'd got away free no he said to her go and sin no more because as he said that power was released for her to go and sin no more it was a word of empowerment not a word of condemnation it's why when Peter is sitting in a boat and he sees Jesus walking on waves Peter had understood this by this point so he says to Jesus Lord if it's really you tell me to get up and I will come to you because it's as Jesus says come that power is released for Peter to get up out of a boat and start walking on the waves and it's just as the sound of the wind and the waves overcome the sound of that word come that he begins to sink when Holy Spirit is speaking words of affirmation over you I want to tell you it's not wishful thinking he's not just hoping one day maybe if you get it right now he is speaking words that in themselves contain the power to do the very thing that he says tune in to listen it's worth your while because his words in themselves have the power to create that which they demand you're more than the world's estimations number three you're not outnumbered you know the enemy loves to make us think that we're outnumbered it's like his favorite thing if he can make Christians believe that every demon of hell is against them and every poor little Christian you're so poor and so small and so insignificant and you're backed into a corner and the hordes of hell are against you if he can make us come really believe that then he knows we'll be paralyzed and won't be able to step into all that God has created us for you better believe that when Esther was walking down that corridor towards the throne room to go to the king the demons were saying to her turn around turn around you're one woman what on earth do you think you're doing you're about to enter a room full of guys we by the way guys is still very intimidating for lots of women today but anyway that's a different story read the book equal it's great anyway nice slipping that in but you better believe as Esther was walking down that corridor the lies were penetrating deep turn around bad idea really bad idea what on earth do you think you're gonna achieve you're so small you're so outnumbered but the enemy is a liar let's just do some maths together for a second I'm not very good at maths but even I can do this the Bible tells us that when the devil fell he took one-third of the angels of heaven with him that means if you discount God Father Son and spirit who I'm sure you'll agree or a majority in and of themselves but even if you discount God for every one demon around the planet there are two angels right so that means wherever in the world it is not you who are outnumbered just by simple maths it's the enemy that's outnumbered right wherever you are whatever circumstance you were in you are not outnumbered no matter how loud the enemy's voice is it is all smoke what he says he is lying to you when he tells you you are outnumbered and you better turn around don't turn around I love the passage in 2nd Kings chapter 6 where the prophet Elijah is standing with his servant and there's an entire army coming towards them and Elisha's servant is freaking out he's like oh my gosh what are we gonna do we're dead we're dead were dead we're dead were dead and Elijah's just standing there cool as a cucumber and his servant is thinking what on earth is going on and eventually Elijah has mercy on the poor servant he's about to pass out and says God open his eyes and as his eyes are opened he sees thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of angels everywhere way out numbering the enemy that's a description of your life you are never outnumbered you are never I don't whatever circumstance no matter how hard no matter how horrific no matter how painful I want to tell you you are never outnumbered as a believer you are never backed into a corner it's a case of simple maths okay let's keep going number four the best context for breakthrough is feasting and joy now I'm about to get a little bit cheeky here I'm really sorry well I'm not actually sorry about anyway before I get cheeky let me just say I love the Ministry of intercession I honor those who spend hours in interceding and prayer I love praying for people okay that's the caveat of this point but there is this thing that I think the enemy has kind of drawn some areas of the church into if the enemy can't get you to sin and so derail your destiny his next best thing is to draw you to do something that he convinces you is really spiritual but is an utter waste of time because in either case he gets to derail you from your destiny sin is his preference but distraction also works and you and I have got to have our filters up for this because sometimes we're so easily duped to accept things that sound spiritual and so make us feel like we're doing really good because we still haven't got our identities okay so we're still looking at affirmation from what we do but that's the secondary story and then we busy ourselves with doing something that is completely ineffective for Kingdom purposes one of the areas that this is true is in the area of intercession now this is a type of intercession that I'm gonna describe and some of you may have met people like this where we carry intercession like a very heavy mantle and we talk about it to people I'm an and you have to drop your voice when you say that you can't even say it like normal I'm an intercessor I can't even tell you the things I'm praying about it's so dark the days are dark the days are dark I have spent hours and travail before the Lord I have wept I have no more tears in fact I can't speak anymore is so dark depressed intersession depressed intersession is meaningless and is a waste of time because if you have no faith and hope for your scenario then you cannot possibly begin to speak the truth of what God is saying over that situation if you are praying from under a circumstance you cannot speak what God is saying because he is never under a circumstance he's always over it so for an intercession to be effective we must be praying from heaven to earth we can never be praying from earth up to the ceiling of our circumstance if you are a depressed intercessor god bless you but please stop praying I'm serious because the enemy is exhausting you and all the while that you're busy you're entirely ineffective you have to find hope and joy before you're able to intercede for anything Julian and I have an intercessors list we really love intercession and the people would choose for their that lists are the happiest people we know if your joy filled please will you pray for us because you know joy is not an emotion it's a fruit first of all and the book of Nehemiah says the joy equals strength the joy of the Lord is my strength if your intercession is devoid of joy it is devoid of strength stop praying because in a battle you need joy because in a battle you need strength and so many of us are walking around with anemic Christianity wondering why we can never get on top of the things that are conquering us why why when the scripture says I'm more than a I'm constantly defeated I will not ask you where is your joy because in a battle you're gonna need strength so you better be armed with joy and you know let's not be those Christians who say oh yes I am full of joy but it's so deep deep deep down inside of me that you will never be able to detect it you know we don't do that with anything else I have love for you but it's so deep deep deep down you'd never be able to detect it I have peace but it's so deep deep deep down that all you can see is anxiety that's nonsense but we do that about joy we do it with super spiritual phrases like joy isn't the same thing as happiness absolutely right it's more than happiness that means it supersedes happiness on your face okay I'm gonna start okay let me tell you a fun story have I told you guys the story of me at Bethel and joy before okay all right this is a story at my expense so you're all gonna enjoy it so when Gillian and I got married we've been married for six years when we got married his mom almost died on our wedding day so his parents are from South Africa we got married in the UK the week before our wedding his mum got sick they couldn't really tell what was going on she was admitted into hospital geniune didn't tell me at the time if you haven't met my husband Julian he's awesome and he's a prophet two weeks before his mom got sick he had a dream that his mother died on our wedding day he didn't tell me that but the week before our wedding she got really sick then she just got sicker and sicker they couldn't find out what was going wrong they just kept giving her antibiotics for different things none of it was working about three days before our wedding they started saying then something's really wrong they admitted her into intensive care the day before our wedding they induced her in it into a coma the night before our wedding Julian phoned me at 10 p.m. had just got into bed you know everyone's like just go and get your beauty sleep Julian phoned me to say I've just been phoned to go and say goodbye to my mum they think she's gonna die tonight I'm not sure we're gonna have a wedding tomorrow and then full disclosure cuz I should say this part being the lovely wonderful fiance that I was he said to me please just try to sleep well and I was like what do you mean sleep well I can't see nothing like I'm so sorry darling are you okay nothing from that totally like freaked out because I can't sleep well you just told me we're not gonna get married put the phone down anyway not my finest hour anyway we did get married the next day she didn't die she's actually alive and well today but she missed all of our weddings she was the whole wedding day we expected a phone call to say that she died we had to beg his dad to come to our wedding asking him and just saying please will you choose us over if she dies because Julian needs you today it was a crazy day and the weeks after that we kind of we I still stand all throughout our honeymoon she was still in an induced coma we phoned back every day to see if she was alive or not anyway we a couple of months after we got married we kind of had an extended break and as part of that we went to Bethel in Northern California which is a church there if you haven't heard of it and we went there for a conference and we were sitting down it was in the restaurant at the hotel where all the conference delegates were we were all having dinner everyone's eating like it's super normal and someone walked past me put their hand on my shoulder they were praying for me they put their hand on my shoulder and God hit me and I burst out laughing now I'm talking like not a sweet giggle I'm talking like like that okay so hard that it brought tears to my eyes and now I'm having tears streamed um everyone else is eating their dinner I am howling with laughter I laughed like that for the next hour and a half I laughed so hard that I couldn't walk Julianne had to help me to the car I laughed so hard that as we got to the church because we were about to go to the evening meeting Julianne had to help me get into the building if you've ever been to Bethel you'll know that they're really really mean and they do this thing that is a prayer line as you go into the building and if they see that God's already on you rather than kindly say Oh God give her a break they say more Lord which is what they did to me I fell down I couldn't even walk I was totally incapacitated my wonderful husband abandoned me and went and found a chair somewhere like completely ignoring me like he didn't know who I was I howled with laughter all through the meeting the first half of the howling with laughter the only thing that was in my head was Jesus stop it that literally and sir I don't understand what's going on this is humiliating I've just met all these people they now think I'm a crazy person after a while I realized he wasn't going to stop it he really didn't care about my sensibilities and when he's not stopping what he's doing is a good idea to ask him why he's doing what he's doing and eventually I got to that point and he said to me I'm teaching you warfare you've been in a battle and you didn't know what to do I am teaching you warfare next time you're in a battle this is what you're to do you're going to get so happy in God that you arm yourself with strength the following year we it was pretty much exactly a year after that we found ourselves in a battle much harder than the first and just at the point that I was giving up at the point where I was about to throw the towel in I remembered God saying to me I taught you how to fight so I wrote on a piece of paper just how hopeless this situation was just how much loss there was in our situation and I stood on that piece of paper and I put worship music on how I didn't feel like worshiping and for the next few hours I worshiped until I found joy and I want to tell you nothing in my circumstance changed but everything changed internally you know the verse that says he turns ashes into Beauty became tangible from me in that moment I want to tell you some of you who are facing battle and you haven't known what to do I want to tell you joy and feasting is the best context for breakthrough Psalm 23 says it's in the presence of my enemies that he prepares a table for me in the moment where the enemy is trying to get you to run around the city and pull down all the high places and whatever else he's trying to get you to do Jesus is preparing a table for you and saying sit down and eat because he prepares a table for you not in the moment of peace and victory but in the presence of your enemies I want to tell you joy and feasting is the best context for your breakthrough notice Vashti and Esther did very similar things but in very different ways they both defied the custom of their day but it was in the context of joy and feasting that breakthrough was seen joy and feasting is the best context for your breakthrough last one the Father is kinder than you dare believe you know even this evil king is a picture of the kindness and mercy of God as he extends unthinkable mercy to Esther and the enemy hates this revelation more than anything else because right from the beginning of time he's been trying to convince humanity that the father isn't as kind as he first appears but I want to tell you the enemy is a liar and your father is kinder than you can ever imagine there is no way on earth that you could ever over emphasize his kindness whatever you come up with he will trump with his kindness because he is always kinder than you can ask or imagine that's who he is well you imagine as kindness pales in significance to the kindness that is in the heart of the Father towards you and me you know in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 4 there's this beautiful moment where Jesus goes to the synagogue and he's given a scroll to read and he starts reading the scriptures and he reads from a prophecy and Isaiah and I'm gonna read it to you in Luke 4 from verse 18 he reads this prophecy the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and then we're told in verse 20 that he rolled up the scroll he gave it back to the attendant he sat down and with everyone watching him he said today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing it's a beautiful moment but if you know the prophecy in Isaiah it's a confusing one because he leaves out the last line of the prophecy because the Isaiah prophesy doesn't end with favor to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor sounds so great doesn't it but the Isaiah prophecy says and the day of the vengeance of our God why did Jesus leave out the last line of the prophecy because Jesus in himself swallowed up the day of the vengeance of our God he is the favor filled full-stop of heaven if you want to know what God is thinking about you it's favor if you want to understand what God's thoughts are towards you it's favor if you want to know what he wants to do in your life it Faber because Jesus proclaims the favor of God and swallows up everything else in and of himself God in Christ dying on the cross swallowing up any vengeance there is no punishment left the enemy will consistently tell you oh there is a little bit of punishment left oh you did something wrong just with a little bit of punishment because apparently according to the enemy the cross wasn't enough to take the punishment fully that is a lie the cross has swallowed up God in Christ swallowed up the day of vengeance of our God I want to tell you there is nothing from heaven towards you except the favor of God God is kinder than you dare believe in Psalm 23 it says surely goodness and mercy will follow me all of the days of my life not maybe surely not on the good days no all of the days not when I die and go to heaven as of death heaven is a destination out there somewhere heaviness actually coexist in reality but anyway not one day when I die and go to heaven but all of the days of my life every single day of your life surely goodness and mercy follow you if that is a lie then it's all a lie and we better go home because what we do as Christians is we treat some scriptures as completely true and others as iffy if it's one is alive all of it is a lie and so you've got to choose even now surely goodness and mercy follow you all of the days of your life choose now if it's true or not and if it's not let's turn the lights off and go home what are we even doing here but it's not a maybe it's a surely it's not in the good times it's in the worst moments to goodness and mercy are your ever-present companions goodness and mercy are your flanking sides goodness and mercy chase you down all of the days of your life I have a two-year-old and a four-year-old at home they are wonderful crazy too but wonderful you know personality-wise I'm an introvert I love alone time the funny thing is when you have kids they don't seem to care whether you're an introvert or an extrovert they're like what's your any gun number so that I can relate to you the way that will be comfortable to kids don't care you'd like alone time sorry for you my two-year-old and four-year-old follow me around all of the time in fact confession time sometimes I go to the bathroom to hide from them but it never works because I'm like just give me a little bit of space and straight away I've got their little chubby hands hitting the door mama let us say let us say let us say goodness and mercy are like my two and four euro they are chasing you down they are in escapable there is nowhere that you can go to lock a door that will deter them because goodness and mercy are your ever-present companions we're gonna do some ministry after offerings but won't you stand with me for one minute and then I'm gonna get you all to sit down again so we're gonna do a little bit of gymnastics but I want you to just repeat after me for a moment we're not quite finished yet we're just gonna have one more thing posture hone is gonna come up in a second but I just want you to speak truth to yourself today to preach to yourself whatever your circumstance surely goodness and mercy follow me all of the days of my life surely goodness and mercy follow me all of the days of my life surely goodness and mercy follow me all of the days of my life surely goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life surely goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life not just the good ones not just the ones where you fasted not just the prayer filled ones not just the ones where you were morally superior not just the ones where your bus is being kind to you surely goodness and mercy will be your ever-present companions wherever you go [Applause] I'm gonna pass it back to pastor hona but I'll be back up in a second I know I hit a few big things there and so I just felt like God wanted to do a little bit of lifting off hopelessness for those of you who've been in battle and an outbreak of joy for those who need strength and so however you want to receive from God we're not gonna do you know Holy Spirit is the best ministry team member you don't need anyone to lay hands on you right now because he's here and he wants to meet with you and so if you want to stand up whenever you're ready or if you want to stay sitting I really don't mind but if this is for you I I would really recommend that you just get into a posture of receiving from God that you engage with him in this moment and I'm just gonna pray in Jesus name I come against hopelessness and despair in the name of Jesus I speak against anxiety that's gripping people fear and depression that has crept in I come against the lies of the enemy that are saying you will never change it will never change it will never even now I feel like the enemy is whispering to some of you you've stood up for prayer so many times really you're gonna believe her for breakthrough now he's a liar he's a liar and in the name of Jesus I break the back of a hopelessness and despair over the lives and hearts of people and in the name of Jesus I speak in its place hope from the spirit I speak life from this spirit I speak joy from this spirit and I want to give you an an exercise if this is you sometimes you don't feel like laughing and sometimes we get a little bit nervous I don't want to laugh in the flesh well you have to use your body to laugh fYI there's no other way of laughing but sometimes we need to engage with the lie of the enemy and say that's so ridiculous I'm gonna laugh at you that's so stupid I'm gonna laugh at you you tell me nothing can be done from my situation well that's clearly a joke because God can do all things even in the grave he has the final word and so for some of you you need to go home and you need to write down the lies that the enemy has been speaking again and again over you and you literally need to look at those things and then laugh whether you feel like it or not put on some worship music and get a happy in God until you can recognize how ridiculous what the enemy says because I'm gonna tell you you wants to arm you with joy and even now Holy Spirit you who bear the birth of joy in our lives you who birthed that in our lives right now I speak the fruit of the Spirit that joy would be ignited over men and women there right now hey smiling muscles would be found again right now there would be laughter that comes out of people's hearts and minds that it would be overflowing that the back of depression the back of anxiety would be broken with laughter I'm not belittling those things by the way I'm just saying I know a Jesus who's really strong I know what Jesus who's better and kinder than what the enemy tries to make us believe and so I speak over you as a community joy and hope for Ness in Jesus name Amen [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Expression 58

Views: 5,972

Rating: 4.8984771 out of 5

Keywords: shawn bolz, bolz, cherie bolz, expression 58, expression58, e58, church, los angeles church, revival, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, jona toledo, bolz ministries

Id: WMri7aAGlwg

Length: 53min 45sec (3225 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 31 2019