Season Shift

I have a message today that came to me during the first service, so it's cooked inside. I had a different message prepared, some of you saw it on YouTube, but as we were worshiping in the first service, I felt to address something that I feel is happening in our church as well, in the spiritual life of many people here, and I want to speak into that. For those of you coming for the first time today, receive that, for if you're coming from our church, this will also be for our church, and I want to title this message, when an eagle stirs up the nest. In Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 11, it says the following, as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings. When a mother eagle gives birth to eaglets, she puts them in a nest. She covers that nest with feathers, with leaves, so that the eaglets could have a comfortable place in the nest, which is what every responsible mother would do for their children. There comes a time when these eaglets, who are fed, because mother eagle brings them food, they eat there, and they grow up, but they don't want to leave the nest, because kids don't want to leave nests. That's why some of you are 35, and you're still with your parents, because you don't want to leave the nest, you know, you're too comfortable. So maybe this message will help your parents to kick you out today in Jesus name. So an eagle, what the eagle does, is sometimes an eagle would fly over the nest, spread its wings, create a wind, where all the feathers will fly out, all the leaves would fly out, and the eaglets are left being poked by sharp thorns. So now they are crying out to the mama eagle, get me out, this is painful, this hurts, and now the mama eagle would take the eaglets, put them on her wings, soar, and of course the eagle is like, yeah this is incredible, selfie, you know, fly in the sky, this is amazing, but see they were not created to be on mama's mama's wings. So what she would do, is she would fly to a place, and she would drop them, and then they go from, our life was hard in the nest, to incredible sky, to mom, why do you hate me? Why did you drop me? And of course they're flopping, and falling, and yelling, probably crying, why did you do this? You don't love me, if you would love me, you would never let me, and right before they're about to hit the floor, and smash themselves, eagle flies faster than they fall. Always remember, God is faster than you fall. He, she would write, she would come down straight, and pick them up, and do that exactly same thing, drop them again, the goal isn't to punish them, the goal is to activate their wings. So they were never created, eagles were not created to live in the nest, they were created to live in the sky. But sometimes you get so comfortable in the nest, because there's so many feathers, that God stirs some things up, and things get painful, and hard, difficult, and challenging, the vicissitudes of life, the changes of life, confuse us. Some of us get sick when the weather changes. We get, because our body is not adopting to, adapting to it, and so when everything changes, we're like, Lord why did you take the feathers? But in reality, the Lord is preparing us, not for the nest, but for the sky. So then we go for a short season of enjoying God's favor, and God's blessings, but still we are living our life very much connected to our feelings, very much addicted to our mood, our happenings, and the Lord has to train us to live by faith, by once in a while dropping us. And I don't mean he forgets us, I mean where we stop feeling his presence. And we go through a spiritual, Christians call it spiritual dryness, and it's to develop us, and in us something that God wants us to have. The ultimate goal is that your Christian life is not supposed to be lived in the nest. You are not a turkey, you're an eagle. You are not a chicken, you are an eagle. That means you don't belong in the barn, you belong in the sky. You belong, you're supposed to live by faith, you're supposed to soar, you're supposed to live a life of victorious. It's within your DNA. It's not that it's what you want, it's what you were built for. Every chicken wants to probably fly, but a chicken cannot fly, it doesn't matter how many schools the chicken goes to. It doesn't matter how many prophetic words chicken gets, a chicken is a chicken. But an eagle has it within its DNA, within its structure and ability to fly. And my friend, my God is an eagle and he makes eaglets. He makes us in his image and likeness. He makes us like him to live by faith, to live in victory, and to walk the walk of love. Amen. So what I want to present to you in the next few moments is this shift I believe is happening right now. Five things that we must embrace or we must be ready for in this shift. If you're taking notes, write this down. We will go to Judges chapter 1 and verse 2. Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise and go over this Jordan, you and all these people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Now verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commended you? Be strong and be of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the your God is with you wherever you go. The shift number one where God is taking you out of the nest is this. People will leave your life. One of those feathers that I'm describing are your friends, even some family members, or a partner that you're with, or it could be a ministry friend, or someone even in the church. In our church it happened quite a few times, and I can track it where the shift took place, and the shift usually was connected with somebody leaving. When I was younger and somebody left the church, it freaked me out. I was always asking what did I do wrong, and sometimes it's because I did something wrong. But usually what I want to encourage you with is sometimes God himself transitions people out of our life, because he's getting us ready for a new season. The Bible says Moses died, and the Lord came to Joshua and said, now enter the promised land. If somebody left your life, if maybe somebody has said, now that I'm leaving your life, God's grace is going to leave your life. And sometimes maybe unfortunately, if you went through a divorce, and maybe a spouse that was not faithful or abusive, and you had to leave them, not you, they didn't leave you, you left them, because it was not, it was not a right place for you, for your children, it was not safe for you, it was not safe for your children. And a lot of times people will pronounce curses, and they will say, you will never make it without me. But I came here to tell you, first of all to cancel the curse, and to say the devil is a liar. God's blessing is not connected to those who left you, it's connected to you, and God's presence that stays with you. Moses was the guy, he had the power of God in his life, yet when Moses died, God tells Joshua, wherever you go, I will be with you. He didn't say whatever Moses went, that's what I went. God doesn't attach himself to people that left you, he attaches himself to you. And he says, the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe according to all that it says in it, that you will make your way prosperous. This is encouragement to me, because if sometimes people will leave, it does not mean that God left, my destiny left, it simply means that God either removed the scaffolding, because the wall has been built, and God is preparing me for a new season, that I'm about to step in. Amen. Some people come for a reason, some come for a season, and some come for a lifetime. Sometimes God removes people that are good, because he's about to bring people that are great for you. Those good people were not great for you, they were great for someone else, and God brings people that are great for you. Think of disciples, they were called to conquer the world for Jesus, but they couldn't step into their calling until Jesus left them. The spirit of God came only after Jesus left. They couldn't have Jesus in flesh, and the Holy Spirit, but Jesus leaves, and he says, it's better that I leave, because the spirit will come, and now you will go into the calling that I really have for you to be fishers of men. So not every person that leaves is bad, sometimes they're just not meant for the season that you are in. The reason why I'm speaking about this, is because you will notice, and you probably have noticed, even a shift at Hungry Gen, and you will notice the shift in your, in your own life, where there will be a transition of some people. Now this is not a moment right now to begin to say, who do I kick out of my life? No. What I'm saying is, if somebody chooses to leave, don't run after them, let them go. If God brings you that change, if you have a friend, and they chose to leave you, and they maybe have broken, and you feel so betrayed, and you feel so broken, and they were this crutch that you were leaning on, I want to encourage you today, pick yourself up. There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, his name is Jesus. Develop a relationship with God, lean on him, and step into your new season. Advance forward, don't retreat, in Jesus name. And everybody in the gym said, I love the fact that you guys said yes to the people in the gym, I love that. Number two, the second shift, and that is this, in Joshua chapter 5 verse 15, it says the following, Joshua 5 verse 12, I apologize. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land. And the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate food of the land of Canaan that year. The second transition, the second shift that happened, was that Israel did not have manna. God removed manna off of the menu. Now what was manna? Manna was a temporary provision from God, but it was not God's promise. God wants to provide for us financially. But please understand, God's dream for you is not so you make it. God's dream for you is so that you prosper. All right. God's promise for you is that you have overflow, not just that you have barely enough. Manna was this thing that would fall from heaven like a dew every morning, Monday or Sunday through Friday. Israel would gather it and they would eat it. It would sustain them for 40 years. But God never promised them manna. He promised Abraham not manna, but milk and honey, houses they didn't build, vineyards they didn't plant, and land, cities they didn't even build. So for 40 years they live on this manna. They enter the promised land and something changes. Manna stops showing up. And this wasn't because God was punishing, it was because God was pushing them into a new season where now they will eat the produce of the land. There are men and women sitting in this sanctuary and in the gym under the sound of my voice, who have a promise from God to run a business. But today you are eating manna. You are being blessed by God. You're being provided by God and you're experiencing the job you have is a miracle. It's an answer from God. It puts food on your table and you're grateful. And there are others that God shifts things in your life. And how does that happen? Sometimes is you lose the job. Company starts to cut people. You get laid off. And instead of being offended and saying, God, why did you leave me? I'm here to remind you that job was never part of the dream that God gave you. It was part of God's provision and a miracle, but it was not part of God's promise and your destiny. Now again, I am not here to encourage you to quit your job. You're like, hey man, I'm gonna go give my letter of resignation tomorrow. I'm gonna go after my dream. That is not my purpose. Well my goal today is to encourage you to dream bigger than your current job. I want you to think outside of your nest and to think of the sky. I want you to think outside of the limits that you've been experiencing. And I know those limits are comfortable because they pay the bills and you have a little bit toward your retirement and you're paying down your debt and you're just doing better than other people. And that is great. But God's calling and blessing for you is not just for you to pay your bills, but for you to provide for other people. So that one day you will have people working for you and that you will provide for their family by keeping them employed. There are people here God has given inside of you a dream and a vision to have your own business. But you are scared because the teaching that you grew up under is this, if you have a lot of money that means you're greedy. But see when a Christian has a lot of money they start businesses. And when they start businesses they employ people. And when they employ people they help people to provide for their needs. And when they have overflow they will sponsor kingdom purposes and kingdom finances. They will help orphanages, they will help widows, they will build centers for God, they will sponsor school projects. And so what the devil does not want is for Christians to have money. Yeah. You know who he wants to have money? Pimps and drug dealers. And people in the government who will take all of the money that we pay them through our taxes and funnel to spread garbage in our schools. That and those people don't have this thinking, yeah we shouldn't have enough money, we shouldn't have a lot of money, why? It'll make us greedy. They are greedy. And the church is afraid to dream of having greater resources. What if I fall into greed? What if I fall into materialism? My friend, I want to break that fear off of you and to let you know it is God's will for you to prosper. So that you can live with the purpose of raising your family, helping your children go to college, so you can sponsor the projects God puts on your heart, and so you can break the cycle of poverty in your family. Come on somebody in the gym, I can't hear you. Make some noise for God. So do not be surprised if God removes manna because he's preparing you for milk and honey. Come on somebody. In Psalm, the Bible says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In other words, I shall not lack. That's the stage of provision. It's when God provides for you and I believe God provides for us. The job I have is God's provision. So God is my source, the job is my resource. That's why I can get a paycheck from my employer and say, God thank you. The employer's like, well I gave you that. It came through you but it came from him. He gave me the strength to work. He gave me the strength to show up to work and gave me this the grace. So we're thankful to God for the provision. Can somebody say amen. Can you give God some praise for provision. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack. He makes me lay down at green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the ways of righteousness for his name's sake. So you're like, it's incredible. I'm being provided for, provided for, paying down my debts, putting some stuff into the uh retirement. I am paying off my house. I got my own car. This is great. I'm also being led by God. He makes me lay down at green pastures because I'm so stubborn and he leads me in the still waters. He gives me peace. Life is great until verse four hits. Yay! Do I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. What just happened? What just happened? Which devil is attacking me? But sometimes it's not a devil. It's a shift in seasons where I walk through the valley. Meaning I don't rent an apartment there. I keep walking. This is going to be temporary. Not only provision is temporary but poverty is temporary as well. Meaning I walk through it and the bible says I fear no evil. That means looking into my future I'm not expecting the devil to show up. I'm expecting God to show up. I walk through the difficult season of unemployment. I walk through the difficult season of maybe you know collectors are calling me and I can't make ends meet. Like God was here and seems like he left me but the bible says for you are with me in the valley. You are with me in the unemployment. You are with me in the financial struggle. You are with me when I cannot make ends meet. You are with me. You didn't forsake me. It's not because God is punishing me. It's not because some kind of a demon is taking it. It's just sometimes part of life of going through stuff of the valley. Verse four ends and then comes verse five and it says that you anoint my head with oil. That means God starts giving you new ideas. You make me eat in the presence of my enemies. That means that even though my situation doesn't change I'm already eating from God's word and the devil is like you're gonna die. You're not gonna make it. You're not gonna make it. You're not gonna make it and he keeps talking and you're like and you're eating and you're driving him crazy because you're eating and he's fussing. Starve him to death by keep eating the word. Keep eating the scriptures. Come on somebody and he's and you're not even you're like breathing. It's like you're completely blocking him up and the devil gets really mad when you ignore him. Have you ever been offended when somebody ignores you? It's time to give the devil a biggest black eye just to ignore. He says you won't make it. He says you won't make it and you just keep trusting God's word. You're eating in the presence of your enemy but it doesn't end there and the bible says and my cup runs over. So it started with my needs are met. I'm living in a beautiful quiet christian life. Hell broke loose. Where is God? I lost my job but God says I'm with you. God is beginning to give you new ideas. God is beginning to feed your spirit and then God wants to bring you to a place not back to the place you were. God does not take trips in your past. He wants to take trip into your future. He doesn't want you to have your past again. He wants you to have a future he has for you. God is always moving forward. Stop moving backwards. Stop praying for the job you lost. Start praying for the job God has promised. Stop asking God to send that joker back. He wasn't good for you anyway. Ask him for the man of God that he has promised for you. Stop asking for those things they used to be to come back. God wants to take you to the cup running over. Hmm come on somebody. That's the shift number two. It's when God removes manna because he's preparing milk and honey. Shift number three and this one is when God raises the level of our consecration because the place you're walking into you've never walked before. And we see this in Joshua chapter 3 and verse 6. It says the following. Verse 5 it says sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. But verse 4 the end of the verse 4 says this for you have not passed this way before. There are people here today you've never owned your home yet but you're about to. There are people here today you've never been married. You're about to enter. I feel that in my spirit this year into a season you've never walked in before. And you may say so how do I get ready? Yes you need pre-marriage counseling. Yes you need to help you know do that all this stuff but there's one thing the scripture tells us in verse uh the next verse the next verse it says that sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. Somebody say tomorrow. Come on those of you in the gym say tomorrow. Tomorrow I will do wonders in your midst. A shift is taking place and one of the ways that you know the shift is taking place where when God starts poking on your heart to raise the level of your commitment. Maybe you came to church regularly but you're kind of one of those you know maybe you come on Sunday you like the church when you can you come and then God begins to challenge you to be consistent in your church attendance. When the Lord begins to challenge you hey begin to pray every day. When the Lord begins to challenge you hey this whole giving thing begin to practice giving. Oh we announced the fasting the only thing I fast the only thing I do fast is the fast food. I ain't gonna be fasting that's that's for weirdo that's for Jesus freaks. Well the Lord is signing you up to be a Jesus freak. He's saying sanctify yourself honey because tomorrow you're about to walk into a place you have no qualification for. For tomorrow you're about to walk into a place you've always dreamed of but you have no experience in. God says I want to guide you tomorrow but today you gotta lay a foundation for your life by increasing your consecration increasing your dedication to God. What was permissible in the wilderness is not acceptable in the promised land. What was okay maybe in the seasons where you were complacent God is getting you ready and he's saying listen that's no longer okay. Why? Because you are stepping into tomorrow that has miracles. See the difference between me and the boxer? I can go through a drive-thru and get a big mac. Somebody who's gonna box ain't gonna do that. It's not because they're legalistic it's because they're in the preparation mode to fight something that most likely I'm gonna end up just watching. I don't want to watch somebody fight. I want to be in the fight but to be in the fight you gotta stop eating the big macs. To be in the fight you gotta learn to increase your consecration not so you can be I'm better than you. I'm holier than you. Oh look at how spiritual I am. No no no it's so that I can be fit for the fight that I am gonna enter. So I'm gonna be prepared for the miracle God is taking me for tomorrow says the Lord. I will do wonders in your midst. Therefore I look to my tomorrow with expectation because I have sown consecration. That's a good word right there. Somebody should tweet that. I look to my tomorrow with expectation because I have sown today my consecration. Amen. Today's prayer is tomorrow's power. Today's purity is tomorrow's pleasure. Today's fasting is tomorrow's breakthrough. Today's giving is tomorrow's prosperity. Today's righteous living is tomorrow's richest spiritual wealth and spiritual glory. Don't be discouraged if you sow today and nothing comes today. For your sowing today is a preparation for what tomorrow comes. That's why I am with expectation looking into the tomorrow because I see the seeds we're planting today. I see the seeds of prayer and fasting and I know tomorrow is going to be wonders and miracles and glory of God. Dreams coming true. Red sea being split. Dead bones coming alive. Marriage is being restored. Our conferences will touch people's lives. I am excited for the tomorrow of my family. I'm excited for the tomorrow of my marriage. I'm excited for the tomorrow of my health. But unfortunately I do have to warn you it works the other way as well. Today's flirting is tomorrow's fornication. Today's prayerlessness is tomorrow's powerlessness. Today's compromise is tomorrow's scandal. Today's messing around is tomorrow's bankruptcy. It's tomorrow's loss and defeat. In the story that I've read to you there were two people whose stories were parallel. One was Rahab who was in Jericho. Her profession was not good. She was a prostitute, a temple prostitute most likely, a ritual prostitute. She lived not in a good place. Yet she was hiding spies. At the same time there was a man named Achan who had a good thing going for him. He was a soldier in the army of God and he had a great future. But this boy decided to hide forbidden things and accursed things under his tent. And so it didn't look like anything at first. Hey whatever I'm just hiding some stuff. Nobody knows about it and nobody can find it. And it didn't look like anything that Rahab was just hiding spies. You know it didn't change anything in her life. But see her tomorrow was changed by whom she hid today. His tomorrow was changed by what he was hiding today. He lost his family. He lost his life and he got turned into a fire and stones were thrown on him because of what he was hiding one day. Rahab on the other hand still kept her apartment. The bible says when the wall fell in Jericho her apartment stood. She saved her family. She actually ended up marrying one of the guys. So not only she got a salvation, she got herself a husband. Come on somebody that's like a full package. The girl's dreams all of them came to pass. Tomorrow but it wasn't right away. So let me ask you a question today. What are you hiding today? Because tomorrow is being determined right now by what you're hiding right now. After work what do you do? Are you taking extra courses? On your weekends what are you doing? Are you building something for your tomorrow or are you simply chillaxing? Or are you simply entertaining yourself to death and you're simply numbing your boredom and your loneliness, drinking yourself to death, binge watching every single thing. You're like man I'm just, I just love my life. Yet today what about tomorrow? Today's dedication is tomorrow's destiny. But today's laziness is tomorrow's disaster. So I just want for those of you who are here and you're living, you're living like the devil. Just nobody knows about it. I'm going to give you a little bit of encouragement. The reason why God is not letting you get caught is because he's giving you chance to repent. He loves you so much he doesn't want a scandal. He doesn't want to see you broken. So what the reason why your sins are not catching up, it's not because you're smart and because your sins are not dangerous. It's that God in heaven is postponing the harvest as far as possible. He says I'm going to give him a chance to repent. But you on the other hand think like oh this is not gonna happen. The preacher said this is bad but it's actually really good. This tastes really good. This is awesome. This is not awesome. You're being fooled and God is merciful giving you a chance to repent. And for those of us, those of you in here who are giving, sacrificing, who are taking courses after, after work, who are literally improving yourself, getting yourself in shape, paying off the debt, you're literally living a life that you're not supposed to but you're putting yourself through the grind. I'm going to tell you something. The reason why God is not letting you have a reward right now is because first of all your reward is accumulating interest and God is preparing you for the blessing that's about to hit your life so that blessing doesn't crush you. So for some he is patient with you and there are people in this room he is preparing you. Either way it's a good news for both people whether you need to repent or you need to just be patient. I want to invite you today to put value on your tomorrow by not messing up your today. Amen. Everybody in the gym amen. Those of you on YouTube drop that fire emoji. Number four, the fourth shift that I want to introduce to you and that is this. In Joshua chapter 4 verse 7 it says, and you shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan the waters of the Jordan were cut off and these stones shall be a memorial for the children of Israel forever. So the fourth shift that I want I want us to have so not only we must remember if somebody leaves our life we should bless them not to be stressed out about it. If we lose a job we should be anchored in God not to be discouraged. I'm not saying that you sit and collect welfare checks but that you don't get you don't collect depression you don't collect stress but you trust in God. The third thing that I mentioned is that while you're sitting today be sowing into your future. Don't screw up your future. I mean don't mess up your future by casual, careless, compromising. All of those decisions will end up in your future and if you are making those decisions and you're not seeing any consequences and you think you got away with it my friend you did not get away with you're just accumulating your problems but God is giving a chance to repent. But there's a fourth thing and this is huge and I've noticed this with people who experience a vicissitudes of life transform changes in seasons and that is this. Let me give you the background story. Israel goes through Jordan river and God says as you go through Jordan I want you to take stones from Jordan and put those stones and make a memorial for you. So when your children one day says what is this dad you can tell them oh long time ago God did a miracle for us and he pulled us out supernaturally the Jordan river split. God pretty much is saying to Israel I want you to remember what I did and make memorials of what I did for you even for future generations. Now I think this is very important for Israel for a few reasons. One of them is Israel had a chronic habit of complaining. Now this is not just Israel's problem it's the Americans problem. It's not just Americans problem Hispanics also complain. Russians complain. Humans complain. Now this is the kind of the idea of complaining. Complaining usually comes from this God is not doing something that he's supposed to be doing. He's not sending me a husband. He's not sending me a job. He's not improving my situation. He's not doing something. So what we do is we build these monuments for our own peril of all the rocks that God has not done. And he builds a fence against God anger so we don't trust him. We're angry with him. We're upset at God. So what God does for Israel in the promised land he shatters that whole world and he says I want you to do something. I want you to intentionally build a memorial of stones of what I did for you in the Jordan river. Why? Because many of us forget things we should remember and we remember things we should forget. We remember our mistakes but we don't remember God's miracles. We remember the mysteries of why certain things didn't happen that God didn't tell us why but we don't remember the miracles. So guess what happens? We enter into a difficult season in our life and God doesn't speak anymore. We don't feel his presence anymore. We have these problems around us and we try to get this faith you know like positive attitude, positive outlook, you know this inner strength to get through and we're like we're reading the bible. You know sometimes people like man I'm just not getting anything out of it. We go to prayer. I'm just not, I feel like I'm not connecting with God. God isn't speaking. I'm gonna give you a secret. It's life changing. When the teacher does not speak in the classroom it's not because the teacher is angry with you. It's because you're taking a test. So what do you do when you're taking a test? Well one thing to do is what I did in school. Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson. I don't know the answer. Could you help me Mr. Johnson? And Mr. Johnson plays down. He doesn't come to me. He says I was tired when the teacher spoke all the time but now when I want the teacher to speak the teacher doesn't speak. Why? Because I'm taking a test. What do you do when you're taking a test? You have to put your head down and remember everything the teacher told you before the teacher stopped speaking. That's how you get the right answer to your quiz. Where do you get the faith when God doesn't speak? Remember every other time he has spoken. Where do you get the faith when you don't feel God moving and you feel like this is going to be the end of you? Remember when you went through your Jordan and God showed you through and God was there for you when you went through a divorce. God was there for you when you were abused and you thought it's going to be over but God pulled you out of that. He delivered you out of that. He gave you a new heart and he gave you a new life. Remember when you lost your job before and God was there for you. He's going to be there for you now. If he did it then he will do it now. When David was facing Goliath, he didn't get a word from God. We don't hear that. David, my son, my servant, the big bad boy Goliath, I anoint thee to go take that head off and defeat the uncircumcised Philistine. Nothing like that. You know where David got the faith that Goliath is going to fall? Saul looked at David and says, how do you know you're going to defeat him? He says, oh let me tell you about a few of my memorial stones. There was a situation with the lion, lion's dead. Situation with the bear, the bear is dead. He says, this Goliath, this is going to be the same thing. David extracted faith for his present battle from his previous victory. David extracted faith for his present struggle from his previous success that he had with God, from the previous move of God. If you're going through something and you feel like hell broke loose, God has abandoned you and you have no courage and strength to go through, remember the faithfulness of God. Remember what he did. Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all of his benefits. How he forgives your sins, how he cleanses you, how he heals your diseases, how he crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, delivers your life from destruction. I want to implore you and challenge you, wake up your memory. Some of you don't have a problem with faith, you have a problem with amnesia. You just forget things you should remember but you always remember your mistakes, you always remember your sins, you always remember the stuff that God has put under the blood. Forget those things and begin to remember the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God. He is with you. Remember the prophetic words he gave you before. Come on somebody, remember what God has done. Give God some praise. Come on everybody in the gym, give God some praise right now. If God has been faithful to you and I know he has. If he has seen you through and I know he has. If he has answered your prayer before and I know he has. If God has came through for you before and I know he has, give him some praise. And the last thing, the last thing is this. Israel, so not only they had to build memorials instead of monuments but Israel when they entered the promised land, they had to fight for everything that God has promised. God didn't give them anything for free. God is not a democrat and he does not run a social program. He does not write out welfare checks and he asks us to fight. He asks us to fight. In the Egypt, Israel were delivered from Pharaoh. In the promised land, God delivered Philistines to them. In the promised land, God asked them to fight. God made them soldiers. I want to challenge you today. When you enter into a new season, even after you get delivered, this does not mean attacks will stop. It just means you will now have the power to stop them by the power of the word of God in the name of Jesus. People who get delivered usually have this common thing is they they come back and they say man I am under a heavy attack. These demons are attacking me. I feel it in my heart. I feel it in my voice. I feel it in my head. What do I do? Pastor could you pray for me? And yes, we're going to pray right now. But what I want to encourage you today is to begin to exercise your authority as a Christian. Joshua went into the promised land and drove out enemies. Begin to go into your own promised land and drive out fear. Drive out evil things. Drive out evil spirits and begin to take possession of your land. You don't get what you promised. You get what you fight for. As Christians, we don't fight for victory. We fight from victory. But this idea that when I get demons out of my life, I will no longer have any struggles. Demons will no longer come on the outside and give me thoughts. That is not scriptural. Demons will still be our problem. But if we submit to God and resist the devil, he will flee from us. Behold, I saw Satan fall. Jesus says, I give you the authority to trample upon scorpions and snakes and serpents and nothing by no means will hurt you. Soon the God of peace will crush Satan from under your feet. Through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we can reign in life. God has blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply. Subdue the earth. Fill the earth and have dominion over this earth. God will allow the enemy to come within your vicinity so that you can walk in authority of Jesus Christ and commend that devil, that demon, that unclean spirit harassing you to get out and live your life. A sister came to me after the first service and she says, I've been coming to church and thank you for teaching teaching us this. She said, I went to a meeting yesterday and something someone said something. It started to, I felt she's like something that got on me and followed me home. Like this like evil presence followed me home and she's like, because I go to this church and I am taught how to fight, I am taught to be a soldier. She's a tiny little old woman and so she's like, I in my house, I out loud, I said in the room, whatever this is, get off of me. Go. And she's like, can I stop my foot like this as well? Just make sure that it's like crushed completely. I said, thank you so much for teaching us because she's like, this thing doesn't follow me anymore. Guys, God is building an army, not an audience. This is not a daycare. We're a boot camp. Okay. So for those of us, if you're just a brand new believer, that's completely not for you right now, what I'm going to say, but for the rest of us grow up, turn from a snowflake to a soldier, get a little bit of anger, get angry at the devil. Come on. Don't fold like a piece of paper. Stand your ground. Know that these sufferings come to everybody, but you can conquer. When the devil came against Jesus, Jesus says, get behind me, Satan, for you are an offense to me. You are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men. Jesus didn't just say, oh father, you see the devil is harassing me. Daddy, Lord, he's bullying me. Father, could you just get the devil off of me? Jesus didn't do that, nor should you. Don't let the devil bully you. Rise up. If you had a nightmare, when you wake up in the morning, shake off the dust, go into your prayer, talk to the father, say, Lord, whatever open door that I have had, please forgive me. Devil, unclean spirit, in the name of Jesus, I command you, get out of my house. Go to my neighbor's house. I'm just kidding. Don't send them to the neighbor's house. Go to my ex's house, you know, get out of my house, in Jesus name. And you stand your ground. Don't fold. When the enemy attacks you, this is not a moment like, oh, I need to just tell everybody to pray for me. That's okay if you're a brand new believer, but there's many of you, your sword is not dipped in blood. Spiritually speaking, your sword has never been on the neck of your enemy. That the enemy has to taste your sword. You got to use it once in a while. You got to use that thing once. I mean, how many sermons do we need before you will pull this sword out from your shears and begin to use it against the enemy? You come against the spirit of fear. You come against the spirit of pressure. Come on, Hungry Gen is not a deliverance church. We are a dominion church. We are a victory church. We are a church that believes that Christians can have victory. Christians can walk in overcoming attitude in their lives. This idea that we all, I just need more deliverance. You know what, I read a statistic. They said that 76% of US inmates wind up back in jail. I wonder if deliverance is the same thing for a lot of us as Christians. We get freed from something and instead of learning how to stand on our feet in God and handle these vicissitudes of life with God's word, what we do is we go back to the same place and we go back to the altar for the same very thing that you could stood your ground and tell that symptom that you got healed of, wrong house. You got healed of back pain. Three days later, the back pain came back. Instead of saying, oh, I didn't get healed. You can tell that back pain, uh, return it to the center. Meaning that's, that's the wrong address that I was healed. Get out. This doesn't belong in my, in my body anymore. Or you can say, oh, yeah, that's fine. Oh, he came back. He came back. It's like some kind of praise report that he came back. Oh, pastor, you didn't have enough faith because he came back. Well, of course it will come back. Pharaoh came back after Israel get out of Egypt, but Israel didn't let the Pharaoh to drag them back into Egypt. They simply said, bye-bye, bye-bye. We're leaving. And as they kept going forward, God drowned Pharaoh in the red sea. God will drown your Pharaoh in the red sea as well. If you go forward, come on, somebody, those of you in the gym, God will drown your fears. If you will go forward, God will drown that depression. If you don't give up, rise up a mighty man of God, rise up a mighty man, a woman of God, rise up a soldier of God. Stop taking the beating from the devil. Stop being bullied by the enemy. The enemy is afraid of you. Come on, somebody, be bold in Jesus name, like a righteous lion in Jesus mighty name. I don't want to build our church full of wusses. I want to build full of warriors. We have a daycare, but it's not here. It's for our children. Adults are soldiers. We're gonna fight for our families. We're gonna fight for our neighborhoods. We're gonna fight for our schools. We're gonna fight for our children. We're gonna fight for our health. We're gonna fight for our marriages. We're gonna fight for our finances. Now, does that mean there is no room for us to come and receive prayer? Absolutely not the case. When you come here, you will come and we're gonna pray with you. What I'm saying is when you go home, you pray for you. When you go home, you stand your ground. when you go home don't just talk to God. if the enemy is attacking you talk to the enemy. now I'm not saying you go all out bananas on him. like you know cursing him and all this stuff. no no none of that stuff. but you just rebuke him. just resist him and he will leave you. you like but I'm a tiny little Christian. trust me. have you seen tiny police officers? when a tiny police officer pulls me over I'm as scared as if like Shaquille O'Neal police officer pulls me over. because it's not about their size it's the authority and the badge they represent. so it doesn't matter how small you are. what matters is the Savior lives inside of you. what matters is the authority. you have the badge and you got them power.