9/25/19 Miracle City Global
Brad Roney. Good evening everyone. How are you this beautiful Wednesday night? Welcome to those streaming and those here in house. This is the Lord’s house and we were praying earlier for a fully functioning house tonight. I believe the Lord is going to be using all of us in the house tonight. So be aware of what’s going on. Be attentive to what the Lord is saying and doing in this house, in this moment, tonight.
This is an appointed time so the Lord has a purpose for this time. It’s up to us to find out and identify what that purpose is, and be attentive and open to what he wants to do and say this evening.
So Father, this is your house and we give you free reign. We are your house and your tabernacle. Lord, we open the door and let you come in. You are welcome here. Do what you want to do. You’re the Master of this house. Have free reign.
Father, I call each and every one of us to full functionality in our gift mix. I call forth the gift and the talents and the abilities in each and every one of us to come out, to be active and be attentive to what you’re doing and your moving, your movements and your sound. Release your sound and your movement into this house and into each one of us, in Jesus name. Amen.
Kevin Long. As we focus on the Lord right now, I just want to remind us where our strength comes from, where our joy comes from. Right now, Lord, we just choose to cast off the care of the world and focus on you.
?Kevin. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of our God. He came and he healed me. He came and refreshed me. He came and he washed my sins away. So I will rejoice and be glad.
Michelle Chandler. Everything else can wait. I’ve come to seek your face. I’m here for you. I want to just be here at your feet. Here in your presence I am complete. Jesus, you’re all that I need.
Kevin. Blow mighty breath of God. Move upon this place. Won’t you come in power and grace. Let your fire fall. Streams of mercy flowing down. Light of heaven all around. Falling to the ground.
Lane Bass. I can’t get enough of your amazing love, Jesus. I can’t walk away for I have see your face. I just wanna be where you are, near your heart. There’s nothing like your love. Holy Holy. Jesus, I love you. Jesus, we love you. You can have your way tonight, with me, in this house, Jesus.
You can have it all, Lord. Every part of my whole world. Take this life and breathe on. This heart is now yours. Have your way in our midst.
There’s no greater call than giving you my all. There’s no greater love, no higher name above. I lay it all down.
Kevin. This heart is now yours. I lay it down at your feet.
Day and night, night and day, let incense arise. You’re worthy of it all, King Jesus. You deserve the glory. For from you are all things, and to you are all things. You deserve the glory. Let incense arise. Make me a house of prayer.
Jacob Long. Make us ready, to usher in your presence. Let there be oil in my lamp.
Holy Spirit you are welcome here tonight. Have your way.
Brad Roney. Father, have your way. That’s our declaration. Have your way. When we speak that, that is laying ourselves down and telling him he can have it all, all control. Every part of us is his, and we’re willingly giving it to him. Not only ourselves, but our time, our abilities, our talents, everything that we have. So Lord, this is your night. This is your time. Have your way. Amen.
I have two things I want to do tonight. I want to bring a word, something the Lord has been speaking to me in the potting house about faith, about the upcoming year, upcoming season. Not only the year 2020, but we’re about to step into 5780 this weekend. We will celebrate not only a new month, but a new year.
The Lord has been revealing to me about faith. He gave me a nugget I didn’t even realize that I want to share tonight. It’s not only a personal word, but it’s a corporate word for the body. But before I give the word, I want to give all of you an opportunity to participate and build your own faith.
I grew up in an Assembly of God church, and almost every Sunday night we had a testimony time. I didn’t realize this as a child, but what testimonies do is build our faith, each and every one of us. Not only the person who shares what the Lord as done. Reminds me of the song, Look What the Lord has Done. He healed my body, he touched my mind, he saved me just in time.
So I want to give you an opportunity and I’ll talk about faith after. We need a time when our faith can be built. We need to understand what everyone else has gone through and had victory in. In hearing that with our ears, I believe that will build our faith, the person sharing and those hearing it.
I might not have gone through what Lane went through, but he found victory. Kevin found victory. Wanda found victory. That means that if they had victory in whatever it is, I can have victory in whatever I’m going through.
Dottie Duckworth. Praise you Jesus. I have recently become an empty-nester for the first time in my life, and I’ll be 65 in April. It has come with some challenges I wasn’t ready for. I don’t know if you ever get ready for those. So I took a step back, took a deep breath, and gave myself some grace. It’s been a season of growing and learning, and not always having someone there to do something for.
I found myself staying at work late, not because I’m afraid to be by myself, I just don’t know what to do. One part of that has been getting used to a little boy not being there. God started showing me, You’re about go around another mountain. You’re about to put this precious one in a place where he doesn’t belong.
So it’s coming to terms with all of these things. Stacking up and stacking up, and then other circumstances, and my heart just being crushed this past week. And just waves of Lord, what do I do? I don’t know what to do anymore? I find myself just living for Wednesday night to get Kingston. I’m going to do this for this person, that for that person. And just not knowing what to do.
So last week I was just in a place. Lord, I just need to hear a human voice. Last Wednesday night I went home and just felt empty. I felt like calling Tara Conard but it was late and I didn’t. Next morning in my time with the Lord I’m struggling sitting still before the Lord because I want to be doing something, anything, it doesn’t matter. In my quiet time I’m crying out to the Lord, and I heard Tara’s voice.
She taught at Mary Martha one night on, The Lord is my Shepherd. And because the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want, and you go on down. But because it was on my heart to call Tara that night, it was a setup, (and he reminded me, He’s my Shepherd.)
Fast forward, I had been going through this struggle. This past week has been hard, and some things I was praying this morning sounded good. This is good. I started releasing what the Lord was putting on my heart and I had a vision.
I saw a train track and it switched tracks. And I felt this major shift. So the Nanny’s going to be okay. But it’s in those moments, and we’re all in a season, and I think it’s important that we understand that we’re all in different seasons, and we’re all in this together with Him.
Nancy Pitts. God’s just been faithful to me financially in so many ways. I have a new car—it’s over a year old now—but just getting the car was a miracle for me. Because provision came when I didn’t even know I needed it.
On January 29 I dreamed I had a new job and I couldn’t find my job. I followed this lady, and she would say, In an hour. In an hour. Wait an hour. Wait a minute. Just wait. At one point I lose her and I go back to my old house that blew away in a tornado years ago, and she’s in the driveway packing up her truck, and someone is helping her. She says, In an hour you’ll find your job. And she leaves.
I journaled it and didn’t think anymore of it. In March a lady came to me and said, I’m retiring and I’ve been offered a job. Why don’t you go because I’m not going to take the job. I said, Okay, that sounds great. Let me go see. It never occurred to me to quit my job. I loved my job; worked in the public school system 29 years.
One of the reasons I was called to the school was because I had a 5 year old in kindergarten. When I was an assistant in kindergarten, there was a child who every day for weeks and weeks and weeks on her pictures, whatever she drew, there was a little bitty hill with three empty crosses, and she would say, Ms. Nancy, you know why those crosses are empty? He died for you. And I quit being a Sunday Christian because of her. When the Lord called me to public school I knew I was in the right place and I stayed there with no intention of leaving, until the dream.
I went to the job interview and came home excited. Oh this is fabulous. One job was three miles from my house. The other was ten. But the Lord gave me a dream. And when I got to looking, I had worked myself out of a job. I was about to work ten years in public school without one dime of retirement to take care of me for the rest of my life.
Got offered a different job. I took that job and I still draw my retirement. Instead of my retirement being idle, this year they sent me a little note that says at Thanksgiving I get a check for $600. And that check next year will be $600 more, and $600 more… So instead of working a job for ten years without getting it, I got a new job; I draw my retirement; my cost of living raise starts going up now; so in ten years it’s a nice little chunk. It’s going to be nice. And I got a brand new car, bought and paid for.
Do not think for a moment that He does not care for your provision. He is more than enough. If you are faithful to him, He will be faithful. If you will listen to him, he’ll even give you the bright new car, won’t he, Dottie?
Lord, I thank you that you have given us provision. You have given us a place. You will lead us to a new job if we have a new job; you will lead us to where we need to be. You will not let us be left behind. If you’ve done it for me, you’ll do it for them. You are more than enough and you are more than willing. Lord, let us hear you and do that which you’ve called us to do, in Jesus name.
Brad. Don’t these encourage you, knowing that God is faithful in the small things and the large things, that he will speak to you either verbally or in dreams, or bring someone to you to bring the word you need to hear?
Brenda Eason. How many of you have ever received from God and you’re not feeling it? Sometimes I think we can be in a moment in our life and we can be down and all, but God just shows up and shows out.
Sometimes the burden gets heavy when you’re a caregiver, and you’re single, and you’re doing it. Sometimes your eyes can get off and get on your hard times. But God just has a way of showing up. Two Sunday ago I went to Mrs. Betty. I was down and I needed refreshing. I just wanted God to show up and tell me something. She prayed with me and said, There are blessings coming your way and you need to receive them.
I learned after going through so much that I’m not going to be dependent on anything, and that’s wrong, because God wants to bless us. Sometimes little blessings come, and because we’ve made up our mind, we block that blessing. And she said, You take it.
I had also been praying for restoration in my family. I still wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t all bubbly and this is good and yay God. The next day I go into work and someone walks up and hands me a package of gum with a $20 bill attached to it. I was, No, I can’t. But the Lord said, Yes, you can. It wouldn’t be big to some people, but God reminded me and I could hear what Betty was saying.
He showed me that, I heard you, Brenda. I know what you need. And I’m going to send it—maybe just in the minute that you need it—but you’re going to be dependent on me.
I worry about my Dad. I try to give it to God, but I carry my Dad. He’s the love of my life. I spent time with him Saturday. I leave and get a call that he’s had a bad seizure, so I went right back. Seizures are hard for anybody but he is 85. I instantly asked for prayer from my church family. His vitals were not good, and I started to pray. He came to and starting fussing, They got any coffee in this place? I knew he was back!
In the midst of this, I’ve had issues with brother, my sister. The devil comes to steal, kill, destroy, and divide. No devil, you’re not doing this. I’m going to have my family. I had been praying for that. This is the season of restoration. I let my sister know but my brother wouldn’t talk to me. He’s calling the nursing home and not me. I was so upset.
But Dad was better, so Sunday I spent the day with him. And it was like the Lord was saying, Brenda, I’m going to show you. Because my phone rang and it was my brother. He said, I called to check on Dad but that’s not the whole reason.
He said he had been to church and he said, I can’t do this any more. It’s killing me. He wanted to tell me he loved me and we had to work through this. I said, Brother, I gave this up a long time ago. I love you. You’re my brother. And this is our Dad and we need to stand together.
It was like God was showing me, whether it was the gum with the little treasure on it, or (the restoration of my family). I texted Mrs. Betty and she said, Praise God, it’s the season. I want to say that when I walked into that nursing home and was praying for my Dad, I didn’t feel it in my body. I wasn’t, Yay God.
But with faith and believing, the Lord knows our heart, and he’s not looking at our ‘feelings’ through the day. He’s looking at our heart and he knows how much we believe and he knows how much we love him. He knows how much we’re giving those things to him. He knew when I went to Mrs. Betty that I was humble and I just needed to hear from him. And he just loved on me in little ways.
So I want to say, If you’re going through something in your life, keep pushing. Keep believing and know that his word, his promises are Yes and Amen, and they will not return void, no matter what you feel, no matter how hard it gets, no matter who doesn’t call you, no matter what. God is in control and he wins in the end.
Michelle Chandler. I was kind of arguing with the Lord a little bit, but he always wins. I want to tell this properly because it’s his story. He did it. From the time I was 16 until about five years ago I had this yearning, this desire, to find my biological father, whose name I knew but I never knew him. I always felt like I didn’t fit, like I wasn’t normal. I would look around at people who had a father, and I would hear teenage girls complain about their daddy, and I would think, Girl, you just don’t even know what I would give to have a daddy.
But I craved a father, a daddy. Many times I did the research I knew to do to find this person, and I never was successful. Finally, I reached a point in my life where I gave it to the Lord, and you know what, Lord? You are him and you are enough. You are enough. You are the greatest Father, ever. And if I never find this person, I am okay. I even prayed, Lord, help me to stop wanting this more than I want you. Because I know the wanting was an idol in my life.
So I laid that down. I was going through an unexpected divorce and the effects of that had changed a lot of things in my life. I found myself in a Bible study with women when I was going to the Ramp in Hamilton, Alabama. About the second meeting, the leader said, I’ve been praying for you all and I really feel like the Lord is saying that he is about to restore things the enemy has stolen from our lives. I want you to have faith and I want you to write those things down on a piece of paper right here tonight.
Then I started arguing with the Lord because the first thing that came to my mind was my biological father. I felt him nudge me to write it down, and I said, No, I can’t write that down. If I write it down, it’s not going to come true, and there I’ve put God to the test, and I told him I don’t want this. I want Him more than anything. So I can’t put that down. I was disobedient and I walked out of the Bible study that night, and I didn’t make my list.
A couple of days later, the Lord nudged me hard to write it down. So I did. I wrote down four things the enemy had stolen from me that I was asking the Lord to restore, even though, forgive my unbelief. I didn’t believe number one could happen. I took a picture of that list and I texted it to the leader of the group and I confessed, I was disobedient and rebellious, and I didn’t do this when you asked. So here’s my list.
Time went by and I forgot about it, and I was okay. Then, through a series of events that only God could have done, in August of last year I met my biological father for the first time. As soon as all those things started to manifest, I remembered the note. And I knew this was the Lord, and there was no way I could ever have spent my life trying to make that happen. It’s was all Him. I had to repent again for my unbelief. He did it. He did it. He did it. There is nothing that’s impossible for him. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Lane Bass. I’ve been at Kim’s No Bull for almost a year now selling cars. And by the way, I was planning on getting out of sales last year in February. I lost my job in February of 2018. I was done with sales. No more sales. I’m done. Ended up driving for Uber and Lift for a while. It was like a detoxifying time for me, pressing into the Lord. Just do what you want to do. In that time, I was able pour into people’s lives that rode with me. Perfect strangers that just needed a touch from God. It was incredible.
To fast forward, at the end of that one year time, I found a job opening. We needed more income. The Uber and Lift markets were so saturated in Hattiesburg.
Lord, I don’t even know where to begin. I put in so many electronic applications as well as physical applications and resumes. No calls, nothing. All of a sudden, I found this job, and what is Hobbs Automotive? I had no idea it was Kim’s Toyota, Kim’s No Bull. I might enjoy that. I went it and applied.
Through the interview process, in my mind I’m thinking, I’m not going to do this. I’m not sure about this. The guy shook my hand and said, Welcome aboard. And I’m like dazed, okay. I was, I don’t know if I’m going to do this. I go home and talk to Kandi. I’m praying. Lord, what do you want me to do? And such an incredible thing happened. I said to her, I think I’m going to do this.
There was this sense that came over me. And I just started to sing out in the spirit. Heaven songs just started pouring out of me. Worship and praise and communion with the Father. It was like, This is right! To be honest and frank, in the natural it did not look right. In my flesh I would say, No way. But God.
So here I am. And he’s blessed it and he’s blessed me. He’s still blessed me to be able to minister to people. He’s given me favor with the people I work with and work for. He’s given me the ability to come most Wednesday night’s and minister, which I didn’t have before.
God worked it out and I’m thankful. That when I don’t think it’s right, and he knows it’s right, he puts that unction, that thing in us where our spirit just soars and says, You’re in the right place and the right time. So I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful for his hand in each of our lives and for how he guides us, even when we don’t think in the natural that it fits.
Rosemary Byrd. I just returned from vacation. I was so blessed to be able to go and see the ocean and all this new stuff. Getting in at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning and not really resting good, I was running late for church. And in my mind, I’m not going. I’m not going to be embarrassed. Here we go again, late. Laurie said, you’re going to church. Okay. I get here and it was like all of a sudden God’s glory came down, and the word, the worship with my family. Nobody noticed that I was late and it was okay.
It was me. It was the enemy trying to steal something Father was trying to work out in me. At that point it was like, Father, I make mistakes. I make bad choices. I fall down. And he said, Yes, and you get up, because we’re doing this journey together.
All week long, I’m like, whether my body says I’m up in the heavenlies, I’m going to remember what he says. It’s His words. I don’t have the musical talent like the Worship Team, but this morning going to work I said, I’m going to worship you. And I’m going to sing to you. And I hope you like it. I did, and one of the songs was sung tonight, Holy Holy Holy.
And he reminded me, You see my glory coming out? I said, Yes Daddy. He said, That’s what it’s all about. So when you don’t feel like it, you let that faith in you rise up, and when the whole world is down on you and bad things come up, he’s saying, Trust me. I’ve got you. I’m just so thankful. I said, Father, I want your fullness. And he said, Well then, you follow me and be faithful and just keep on.
Dottie. Wanda, I was wondering if you ever were going to get up there.
Wanda Sumrall. It’s an obedience thing. His mercies are new every day. And I have such joy in that. If you have known me very long, you know how odd those words are coming out of my mouth, because I could tell you everything that was wrong with everything. I was always very critical and judgmental. I was very unforgiving. you could ask me about anything and I could tell you the date, time, season, what was happening. My husband Terry can tell you that’s the truth. It’s a bloodline issue.
It seemed like hope was always illusive. Joy was not to be found. Being positive, no, I was a realist. I justified everything because I was a realist. God was working on me for a long time, years and years and years. I would say, Today I choose to walk in forgiveness. Today I choose to walk in Godly love. I would do this over and over for years and years.
But there is hope. I finally said, Lord, you just do this. We’ve been talking about yielding. Now it seems so easy. All those years of striving. I think I was trying to do it in my own strength. But just yielding to the Lord and saying, Lord, take this. I’m tired of this. I’m tired of not having joy. This is sin and in know this. I don’t want to have to rehearse this. I don’t want to have to remember this.
I always felt like I had to defend myself. The accuser convinced me that when I got accused of something I had to, Well, no, this is the way it really was. God is my defender and it took me so long for that to just be real to me.
In one of the businesses we have my husband lost his helper. The Lord woke me up really early. I usually stay up late and sleep in, and Terry gets up really early, like 3 or 4 in the morning. But that morning I told him I would go with him and help him. As we would make that 45 minute ride into Hattiesburg, the sun would come up. And suddenly joy started coming up in me. Your mercies are new every day.
As the sun was coming up, You have given me joy, for this day. You have given me blessings, for this day. This 24 hour period, Lord, you have given this to me. If you have unforgiveness, I encourage you to go to the Lord and get rid of it. It is not worth losing your joy and your hope, and not having that place of just being happy the sun came up. This is a new place for me, a joyful place. My whole world looks completely different.
We have shifted. I don’t think we’re stepping in. I think we have stepped in. I believe we are functioning in everything.
When we were in the midst of worship, I felt like we were one with the worship, like we were one as the music was coming. And I looked down and I saw my torso like a silhouette. Inside it began to be lines and I could see His wind blowing through me, and it was strings. It was like I became a stringed instrument that he was playing as His wind began to blow through me and I felt one with Him. I felt like that was happening with us all, and it was beautiful and it was glorious and there is joy.
So step out of whatever you’re in and step into this wonderful place. I’m excited. It’s just a beautiful place we’re in.
Brad. I’m serious. Everything y’all are touching on is what the Lord poured into me in the potting house, between faith and obedience.
Dottie Duckworth. Tagging what she said about the yielding. One of the visions he gave me this week was, he summoned me to get out of the boat. I said, Okay, I’m coming out of the boat. Then he said, Let go of the oars!
Praise God. Jesus take the wheel.
Brad. The common thread through this, everyone has been touching on faith, believing, regardless of what your eyes are seeing. Like Lane, that sales position at Kim’s No Bull looked like, I’ve got to get away from this. But in the spirit, it’s exactly where the Lord wanted you to be. He opened that door. And everybody else.
It’s walking by faith and not by sight, regardless of what our natural eyes or our natural senses are sensing; our sensing—eyes, ears, smell, our taste, touch. In the natural that can be very deceiving. But in the spirit, that’s where we need to be more in tune with our spiritual seeing, our sight; our spiritual hearing—What is the Lord saying? Not what the naysayers are saying.
It’s like with Nehemiah. He was called to build a wall. He had a lot of naysayers speaking in one ear saying, You don’t need to do that. You can’t do that. We’re not going to allow you to do that. He ignored them and kept working.
I’m a movie guy. I love movies, but besides Lord of the Rings, the Indiana Jones movies are probably one of my favorite. There’s a little clip in the third Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade, that stuck out to me when the Lord was speaking this week to me about what to share.
This is a good clip of walking by faith and not by sight. Our eyes can deceive us. Indiana Jones has to take a ‘leap of faith,’ and it’s across a cavern between mountainous rock walls. As he steps forward, his foot lands on a bridge made of rock, that to the eye had blended in with the opposite side of the rock wall.
As you can see, Indiana Jones himself and the audience didn’t see that bridge. We didn’t see the bridge until they panned around, or until he stepped off. He had to disconnect from his physical sight and step out in faith. He took that ‘leap of faith’ and that bridge was there, even though he didn’t see it. He just knew he had to get across, so he was believing there was a path. Somehow, I’m going to cross here. He took that one step forward, that step of faith, and his path was there.
As they panned around you saw the bridge. But it looked like the walls of the cavern. It’s an optical illusion. His eyes got fooled. Our natural eyes get fooled sometimes. But our spiritual eyes are so in tune to what the Lord is seeing and what the Lord wants to show us.
The first phrase the Lord has ever given me was for 2019, By Faith. I believe the Lord was preparing me for a greater level of faith than I’ve ever had before because he knew I was going to need it. For a good period of time, I thought I had a little faith. I had the works that would reflect on the faith that I had in God and what he was saying. But I would turn around. I would panic when, This isn’t happening when it needs to, how it needs to. Fear steps in. Then I avoid what the Lord told me to do, and did something else that I thought would fix everything. Guess what? It didn’t. It made things worse. I used my natural eyes and stepped out in something contrary to what the Lord said.
So I go around the mountain again. This comes around again. I’m not going to do that again. I’m straight in here with the Lord. My faith is strong. Guess what? I go around the mountain again because I do something stupid. The faith I thought I had, I didn’t have.
He showed me the key to this. Nita gave a word a few weeks ago about the jib sail. This Betty said to pray for a jib sail word that would point you in the direction and propel you to the next season, to the next year, to the new. I prayed half-heartedly for a jib sail word and didn’t hear anything until I was in Columbus with Betty and Anna and Michelle, and Betty was giving the word about the jib sail to everybody.
She pointed to me and said, Brad, do you have a jib sail word? Up to then I didn’t, until I opened my mouth and said, Yes, Obedience! Where did that come from? Because I wasn’t thinking that. That word was not on my lips, my mind, my heart, not anything. By Faith. Obedience. That same day he gave me another phrase for 2020. Trusting in His Truth.
So I’ve got By Faith. Obedience. Trusting in HIS Truth.
I’m thinking, Obedience is a hard word. Sometimes it feels like it’s easy to be obedient to what the Lord is saying for you to do. Sometimes it’s not. We’ve all heard the scripture, Faith without works is dead. Some people might misconstrue that and connect it to our salvation, that you have to have works along with faith to be saved. And that’s not true. That’s not what the Word says.
To identity how strong you faith is, it is basically judged by your works. Do you have a legitimate faith that you’re going to walk out? With obedience.
The Lord pointed out a story in the New Testament. Jesus went through town after town healing people—blind men, lepers, the lame; He raised people from the dead; He cast out demons. I was reminded he healed a lame person and said, Take up your mat and walk. The Lord asked me, What would have happened if he did not stand up and walk? If he just stayed there and laid there?
He had faith enough to call out for mercy to the Lord and identify Jesus as, Son of David, have mercy on me. So he identified Jesus as his source. But the Lord asked me, What if he did not stand up? Be obedient to my command. I commanded him, Take up your mat, get up and walk. What if he just laid there? What if he wasn’t obedient to the word?
That’s when the Lord said, Obedience is the works in this. Take up your mat and walk. Your obedience is an action. Works in this part can be a noun or it can be an action. The Lord was showing me, Your obedience is the works with your faith. If I told you that your family would be restored, do you believe enough to walk in obedience if I told you to go to a family member? We’ve heard stories tonight about restoration, about hearing the word, and actually, Now do this.
What would happen if you didn’t do it? If you were disobedient? If you didn’t have the obedience that was connected to your faith, that works?
Walking in faith is going beyond the natural or going beyond what we see and even feel in the natural. It’s that uneasy feeling that, I don’t know if I can do this, but you said, Do this. So no matter what, I’m going to do it.
This is something personal. Nobody knows this. It was between God and me, and then one other person. Four or five years ago on a Sunday afternoon, I was leaving work and on I-59 at the Pine Belt Regional Airport, the Lord told me to wash a certain person’s feet. What? I want you to wash this person’s feet. This is the last person I thought he would ask me to wash their feet. So I said okay. I didn’t think anything else about it.
Monday morning rolls around and I’m sitting at my desk. I’m working. I’m looking at slides on my microscope, getting my work done. All of a sudden, the Lord told me as clear as a bell, I want you to wash this person’s feet, and I’m going to tell you how I want you to do it. He started step by step. You think of it as a simple thing. The Lord added details. This wasn’t just for me. It was for them, too. This is something the Lord wanted to minister to this person through personally.
And he wanted every detail from the type water to use—distilled water, the purest water you can probably find. I had to look up the process of distilling water. It goes through a rigorous process to get to the purest form. He told me to get a red bowl and a blue towel to dry the feet. Use a white washcloth to actually wash the feet. He told me what kind of soap to use. To get Dove soap and Dove lotion because he wanted to wash this person’s feet in love and peace.
As he was downloading this information, I broke down. I never felt as much weight on words as this. I knew this was legit. I was not making this thing up. There’s no way I could have made this thing up. He finished telling me every detail, then he ended with this. I want you to ask this person if you can wash their feet. If they say no, don’t ask any questions. You say, Okay, and walk away. If they agree, commence to do what I told you to do.
Now I have faith enough to believe that the Lord is particular on what he wants to do. So this was my opportunity, whether I’m going to brush this off, because this makes me uneasy. I’m feeling like, I can’t do this. This person, for one thing, isn’t going to let me do this. This person will think you’re nuts. Even more nuts than I think you are. I said, I can’t make this up. This is not me. So I said, Okay.
Two days later I go to Walmart and get all the stuff, everything on God’s grocery list. I have it in my car. He said, Wait for the opportunity. So the opportunity presented itself and I came up to that person and said, The Lord told me he wanted me to wash your feet. He also said to ask you, not to tell you, but to ask you if I can wash your feet. Complete silence. I told them to think about it and let me know.
That was four or five years ago. I’ve yet to hear the answer. I don’t believe the door is actually closed. I believe the door is still open. I believe the opportunity is still there. Whether it happens or not, I don’t know, but the Lord showed me something. Whether the outcome happened the way I thought it was going to happen, I believe the outcome was exactly what God planned on happening. He was going to see if I would be obedient to what he asked me to do. And I was. I did exactly what he told me to do.
He said, Son, you did exactly what I wanted you to do. I know it was not the outcome you thought it would be. But you were obedient to what I wanted you to do. That was the key. I had faith enough to believe the Lord was going to speak to me. He did. I was obedient in what he said. I’m waiting for the opportunity. I’m still believing the opportunity will present itself. Obedience.
By Faith with Obedience, Trusting in His Truth.
This spoke volumes to me. James 2:14-26 Amplified.
:14 What is the benefit, my fellow believers, if someone claims to have faith but has no good works as evidence? Can that kind of faith save him? No, a mere claim of faith is not sufficient—genuine faith produces good works. If a brother or sister is without adequate clothing and lacks enough food for each day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace with my blessing, keep warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do? So too, faith, if it does not have works to back it up, is by itself dead, inoperative and ineffective.
:18 But someone may say, “You claim to have faith and I have good works; show me your alleged faith without the works if you can, and I will show you my faith by my works, that is, by what I do.” You believe that God is one; you do well to believe that. The demons also believe that, and shudder and bristle in awe-filled terror—they have seen His wrath!
:20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish, spiritually shallow person, that faith without good works is useless? Was our father Abraham not shown to be justified by works of obedience which expressed his faith when he offered Isaac his son on the altar as a sacrifice to God?
Think about it. What if Abraham was not obedient to what God told him? Abraham was finally seeing it. He got the promise. That first son of promise, that first seed, for the millions that are coming? Stars in the sky, sands on the seashore, that’s how it will be numbered. Lord, you want me to kill the promise? But he was obedient.
:22 You see that his faith was working together with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was completed, reaching its maturity when he expressed his faith through obedience. And the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this faith was credited to him by God as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God.
:24 You see that a man, a believer, is justified by works and not by faith alone. That is, by acts of obedience a born-again believer reveals his faith. In the same way was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works too, when she received the Hebrew spies as guests and protected them, and sent them away to escape by a different route? For just as the human body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works of obedience is also dead.
Faith and obedience working together hand in hand.
So Father, we thank you for this moment, this opportunity, that you have spoken to us. And I pray that our ears have heard what you said, and our hearts have received it. I just pray this evening has been a time that built our faith up, that we see you as who you are, a faithful God and a faithful Father. You will never leave us nor forsake us.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and through every part of us we thank you. Father, seal this word and this worship that we’ve offered to you as a sacrifice and as an aroma, Lord. Just seal it with your blood, Jesus.
As we go throughout the rest of the week, Lord build our faith. Just give us an urgency to obey what you’re saying, to hear what you’re saying, and obey even if it sounds ridiculous in our human ears. Lord, let us know it is you and we obey. We obey what you’re saying in the small and in the large, whatever it is. Give us that urgency to want to obey and not our own way.
Father, I pray protection over each and every one of us as we leave, and as we come back Sunday to celebrate your new year, the new month. And Father God, we come expecting. We are expecting this new year, this new beginning. Lord, I pray new beginnings for each one of us. I pray a new chapter being started, a new page being turned over, in each and every one of us. New horizons. Clear seeing. Clear hearing. In Jesus name. Amen.