Fathers Day Celebration Service - Dave Food - From Orphans to Heirs

Thank you morning, Church. You're a wonderful people. I say that,

and I'm looking at you. I'm saying, you're a wonderful people.

Believe it, not because of the way you made your

face up this morning, not because of the way you

did your hair, but because God created you.

Yeah.

Sometimes we look in the mirror and we go, you're

looking a bit grea today, Dave. You're looking a bit

wrinkly today, Dave. But God still loves us. God still

loves us. On this Father's Day, I want to speak

to a subject about cultivating a generous spirit. Cultivating a

generous spirit, you're probably thinking what he's got to do

with Father's Day? Okay, if you've got a purse, if

you've got a wallet, I'd like you to get it

out now, and I would like you to wave it around.

Or if you've got a coin or a pound or

a note in your pocket, I'd like to wave it

around now. Okay, Because I'm not talking about your money,

so you can put it all away again, I'm not

when I when preachers start talking about a generous spirit,

it's often just before a giving time. It's often before

a special offering, and they kind of say, come on,

get your wallets out church. The Holy Spirit today is

not teaching us about giving, but our identity, our freedom,

about warfare in the spiritual realm. This is not a

message about money, so you can all relax. This is

a message about yours and my heart. I want to

expose three spiritual realities to get us started. Number One, God,

who's the best Father, has a generous spirit, the spirit

of sonship.

We sang that in that song this morning. But do

you know what we also have in the world. We

have a spirit of poverty. Now.

The spirit of poverty stands up against the spirit of generosity,

and it's a lying spirit rooted in fear. And then

there's another spirit I also want to talk about now,

which is really prevalent in the world today, and that's

the ortan spirit. The often spirit is destructive. It causes

us to question our identity in Christ and consequently we

wonder who we are as children. So I want to pray,

let the Word of God speak to our hearts today.

Let the Word of God touch us, change us, move us.

That flowing from the father heart of God would be

his generous spirit. If you want to if you want

to walk into the second classroom down the steps on

the world toilets.

You'll see there's a few cupboards in there. You know.

When I asked the college could we have some storage

they space, They went, sorry, Dave, we don't have anywhere.

So for the last seven months.

A whole bunch of people have loaded up cars and

moved stuff from Virginia, lodgter here and back again afterwards.

It's been quite a big job. I took a picture

this morning as we Ariis and I walked a cupboard

through Egghum.

This morning.

We walked this big cupboard all the way and I

was just thinking, I wonder what people are thinking, but

I don't care because it's part of God's plan. I

took a picture this morning of seven cupboards in that room.

We did not pay for one of them, not one

of them. God gave us them all, which means, apart

from some things we have to take backwards and forwards

each week, some of the big boxes, we were down

to one half a car. So praise God. Let's give God,

Give God thanks and praise.

Amen. Amen.

So God's got a generous spirit towards us. It flows

from him. Generosity is not just about money. What else

have you got to give? If I said put your

money aside or your pockets were empty, what could you give?

Time? Yeah? What else? Love? What else? Life? Yes? What else? Food? Yes?

What else? Salvation?

Yeah? God gives us salvation. But we also give our attention.

We can give our skills all of those things, and

we don't even have to put our hands in our

pockets to do any of those things. Same with the Father.

Sometimes we pray that. Sometimes we have a problem with money.

You know, there's a there's a bill that needs to

be paid, and we don't quite know how we're going

to do it, and we, in our small mindedness, pray,

God give me the money.

Actually, what we need.

To say is God, help me to pay the bill,

because He may not pay the bill by giving you

the money. He might pay the bill by get canceling

the bill. That's happened. That has happened. There are people

in this church whose bills somebody said, don't worry about it.

It's happened to us as a church, even in this

last year. You know, some people who wanted a bill

us for something said don't worry about it.

Thank you.

God's a generous God, and we don't just have to

give him our money. We need to give him all

are all. God's interested in all of us. Do you

know what? Sometimes you'll find headlines in the newspapers that

talk about born again churches, churches full of the spirit

ask their members to give ten percent or more. You know,

the tithe is just a starting point. It all belongs

to God. It all belongs to God. So I want

to reflect the heart of the Father. Matthew seven, verse

eleven says this, If you, then, though you are evil,

know how to give good gifts to your children, how

much more will your father in heaven give good gifts

to those who ask him. A generous spirit lives from

a heart full of abundance. Not what's in our bank account,

but what's in our heart. Two Corinthians, Chapter nine, verses

six to eight. Whoever sews sparingly will also reap sparingly,

and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. God loves

a cheerful giver, and God is able to bless.

You and me abundantly.

I want you to notice here it says not God

might or God will think about, but he is able.

He is able.

The generous spirit gives time gives honor, gives forgiveness, gives encouragement.

You know, one of the things we miss in the

world all the time is encouragement. That the world is

full of discouraged people. People do a good job and

nobody even says thank you. I don't know how many times.

Try this next time you're out sometime this week, stand

somewhere as you're going into shop or going into a building,

and hold the door open, and stand there and hold

the door open, and just count how many people actually

even acknowledge you. Number one, how many people say thank you?

And then how many people look at you. They're all

different ways of acknowledging us. And I'm not I'm quite

happy to hold the door open. That's not the problem.

But just you know what I want people to I

want to encourage people to encourage one another. And I

did this once. Where was I I think I was

in stains and I held the door open. There was

there's a crowd of people who walked through. I think

I had seven or eight people who just walked through

the door head down, didn't even notice that I was

holding the door open for them. So when the last

person went through with a big voice, I said thank you,

and some of the people looked around. I've made them jump,

and then they smiled, and then I think they realized

they hadn't said thank you. Okay, So that's the spirit

of heart of God. Our God is generous towards us.

I want to talk about something that's counter to all

of that, and that's the spirit of poverty. You know,

I believe there's a stronghold in mankind, in life, possibly

even in the Church, that we allow a poverty mentality

to creep into our thinking. Let me give you a

simple example. You know, sometimes of the fellowship feasts will

have people who bring food, and people say, I don't

want to bring too much because I don't wander it

to be wasted. And I say, but I want to

be generous. I want to be able to feed five thousand,

five thousand turn up. Five thousand turning up would be

an interesting challenge to have, wouldn't it. We'd fill the

whole of the field outside. We had a fantastic thank

you for everybody who came to the picnic last Sunday.

There was some really good dancing that went on at

the end, and there's video evidence of the dancing too,

So but do you know what, five thousand people would

fill that field. So I'm just giving you some scale

when we talk about feeding the five thousand. But you

know what, sometimes we have a poverty mentality that says, oh, well,

I'll just bring just enough because I don't want to waste. Well,

I understand that from a planet point of view, we

don't want to waste. But do you know what, we

can be generous. And one of the things I love

at the end of the fellowship feast is when I

say to people, please take something home, Please take something home,

and some people go, oh, I can't, I'm watching my way.

Do you know what what I want to say to

you is that food could be your outreach tool. Could

take a plate full of cookies home and instead of

eating them yourself, and what you could do is take

them home and go and knock on a neighbor's door

and say, hey, we had some excess at church on

this afternoon, I'd love to share it with you.

Would you like a few cookies?

And they might say, oh, yes, please, why don't you

come in and have a coffee with me and we'll

share the cookies together. Now you've got a chance to

talk and it all started with a few cookies. Do

you know what, Sometimes we can kind of think about

just feeding ourselves. But do you know what, The world

out there needs to see a generous spirit. The world

out there needs to say, a generous church. The world

out there needs to see a generous God. In Revelation three,

verse seventy, it says you say, I am rich, I

have acquiet wealth, and do need a thing, do not

need a thing? But you do not realize that you

are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. That's a really

strong scripture. But you know what, just because we look

good on the outside doesn't mean that we're rich inside

at all. You can have some very you can have

people who walk around in thousand dollar suits. They look

just right, but inside they're crying out, they're lonely, they're

sad and that. Yeah, you know, And I'm sure you

could think of places where you've been as well. But

I had the privilege to be at do a number

of places in the world where.

They don't have a football.

And so they screw up a piece of paper and

stick it up with sticky tape, and then they kick

this ball of paper around. You know, there are children

I know who if their football went flat, they go,

what am I going to do now? And there'd be

other children who still be kicking the flat football around

because they're having fun.

You know.

Sometimes we can allow a poverty mentality to creep in.

There's a danger with material wealth. How do we think?

How do we trust? How do we live? When we

look at something which requires financial and we say, oh,

I don't know whether I've got enough. Sometimes the father

needs to say I want you to give because my

storehouse is full and I can give to you. Poverty

mentality will reveal itself with things like fear of loss.

Sometimes we won't invest because we're fearfull of loss. We

like to hoard rather than to sew. There's a proverb

that talks about this. Walking through the desert, a gentleman

comes across an oasis, and in this oasis is a

porl is a pool, and it's empty because it's dry

because the sun is beating down. And next to the

empty pool is a water pump, and the water pump

has a leather valve that dries out in the sun.

And next to the water pump.

Is a jar full of water, a big jar full

of water with a screw top lid on, and the

instructions say, please please empty all the water onto the

leather so that the leather will be supple, and then

the pump will work. Please do not drink the water

from the jar. Please empty all the water onto the

leather so that the pump will work. And then when

you've finished, please fill up the jar again for the

next person.

Now, just imagine walking through the desert.

Walking through the desert, you're really parched and dry, and

you come to this pump and you think, oh, it's dry,

and then you see this jar of water. Your natural

instinct is to go, oh, I'll take a drink first.

But if you drink all of that, there is no

further water, there is no further supply. And so the

wisdom says, pour out all that you have so that

I can give you more. When we run out of ourselves,

we run into God. If I just look at what's

in my pockets, and all that's in my pockets today

is inkerchief, you know I've got nothing to give. And

I've told you this story before now, but do you

know what it taught me? Something that still sticks with

me forty fifty years later.

As a student.

I was at our church, at the church I was

going to at the time, and came to the time

of the offering, and I put my hand in my pocket,

one pocket and took out my offering ready to put

it in the offering bowl. As the offering bowl was

coming around, and I felt the father say what's in

your other pocket? When that's my bus fare? He said,

I want you to give everything today. And I'm not

saying that's what God's saying to you. I'm just giving

you an example. So I took both. I emptied both pockets,

put it all in the offering with my mindset, Okay,

I'm walking home today, thirty forty minute walk, not a problem,

but you know, thirty forty minute walk. So I emptied

my pockets because God's a generous god. End of the service,

one called Harry came up to me and he said, Dave,

what are you doing for lunch? I said nothing, I'm

going to be going back to my digs. And he said,

why don't you come and have lunch with me and

my family. And me and another student went and had

lunch with Harry and his family. And then when the

meal had finished, what do you think he said, can

I give you a lift home? Yes, I'm in the

bus company. He got less money out of me, but

I got a lunch and I got blessed too. You know,

if we have a poverty meant I to this day,

I still think maybe Harry wouldn't have invited me if

I haven't vmpted my pockets.

I don't know.

I don't know because I can't repeat the experiments. I

can't repeat the experiment. But do you know we're fearful

of loss. We hoarde rather than so we keep enough wheat.

Think of this, we keep enough wheat in the barn

so they we've got enough food to feed us, rather

than thinking about the next season and sewing for the

next season. People are suspicious of generosity. Yesterday we gave

out one hundred and well the previous week we gave

out in the seven hundred and fifty pastries. Yesterday we

gave out about one hundred and sixty pastries and cookies

on Eggham High Street, and quite a few people who

were standing there going would you like a free pastry?

And people say, oh, I'd like a pastry? How much

can I pay? We don't want you to pay then

they kind of took a little step back from me

and went, so, what do you want then? So I

don't want anything. I just want to bless you, be blessed. Oh,

thank you, And some people came back for a second.

One.

I said, take a double portion. That's okay, there's nothing

wrong with that. But you know, people are suspicious of generosity.

But you know what, the culture of God's Kingdom is

different to the culture of this world. So generosity comes

and hits the spirit of poverty. And you know, the

spirit of generosity, if we keep on allowing it to flow,

will wash away the spirit the impact to the spirit

of poverty.

Do you know what.

There's also another thing which I want to call out now,

which is sometimes people are resentful, resentful towards people who

are blessed. People say, oh, wow, maybe God's given you

something and you share it with somebody else, and you

see them kind of kind of cower a little bit

and say, oh, it's all right for you, isn't it.

You've got the blessing. But I want to celebrate your blessing.

I want to celebrate your blessing. Let's share blessings with others.

In Hagi verse, one, chapter six, And we don't often

read from Haguy, so let's enjoy it whilst we can.

You have planted much but harvested little. You earn wages

only to put them in a purse with holes in it. Yeah,

Bible is sometimes so clear. Why would you put money

in a purse that has got holes in it? Why

would you even keep the purse that's got holes in it?

What I know, it might be a precious person, it

might be a really old poke, it might be hundreds

of years, but it's not functioning as a person anymore.

You know. Here's the ouch.

I think sometimes the church and you and me will

operate in a spirit of poverty because we believe that

God is limited in some way. God is constrained in

some way. God is not able to do. Scripture says

God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask

or imagine. Now, my imagination is pretty big. How big

is yours? So if God's able to do immeasurably more,

that means unmeasurably, you know, Well, that's that's miles miles

you can measure, hundreds of miles you can measure, so

immeasurably more than you ask or imagine. Then we kind

of have an independent spirit that says, well, old man,

I'll manage with what I've got, rather than saying I'm

managing with what he's got. We've got to get to

trust God. We've got to get to trust God. There

are people in this room I know who are walking

through stuff at the moment, which means that your current

physical capability, your current financial capability, your current physical situation

limits you right now. But you're believing God for more

and I want to stand with you in prayer. We

want to stand with you as church in prayer and

see those things come through. Because our God's a generous god,

so let's not view him as a small minded god.

One of the challenges I think certain in the church

in Britain has is we believe God's a bit like

a Victorian father. And today on Father's Day I can

talk like that. You know, Victorian fathers would say children

are there to be seen and not heard, so you

would stand to attention, You'd be dressed in your Sunday

best and you wouldn't say anything until you were asked

to speak. That would have been very much the culture.

But do you know what I think. God loves children,

He loves you and me, He loves us to run

into His presence say Daddy help. I've had the privilege

of teaching lots and lots and lots and lots of

little children, and I love the moment when they're playing

on the floor doing something in a classroom and you

can see that they're struggling, maybe struggling to assemble some

bricks or build a tower or do something, and you

can see them struggling, and you want to join in,

but you also want them to learn. And the moment

when they turn and say, can you help me? Yes,

of course I can. The Father is looking to you

and to me and to those at home and saying,

I'm just waiting for you to ask me to help you.

There's also the spirit, the orphan spirit. It's a spirit

of insecurity. It's a spirit that's all over the place.

To be honest, spirit says I'm alone, and it affects everything.

It affects our attitude in relationships, it affects our ministry,

it affects our worship, it affects our leadership. If we

think we're alone and we're doing it on our own,

and I think everybody in this room at some point

you found a moment when you're doing something for somebody

else or something or an event or something, and you

find yourself doing it on your own, and the orphan

spirit kicks in and goes, see you're on your own.

You might even do that this morning as we set

up church for those people. You might find yourself in

a room on your own doing something. If the ofphan

spirit kicks in, see you're on your own. No one's

helping you. Do You know what gets my mind away

from that is who I'm doing it for. I don't

put chairs out on a Sunday for you, although practically

I do. I do it for him. Arash doesn't put

the flags up at the back for you.

It's for him.

Jonathan doesn't stick lots of wires in lots of different

places for you, although that helps for all of us

to hear and for those to join us online. He

does it for him. And one of the greatest ways

of dealing with the orphan spirit is to recognize who

our father is. I'm not talking about your biological father.

As Julia said right at the beginning of the service,

someone has some very fractious and difficult relationships with our parents.

But John fourteen, verse eighteen says this, I will not

leave you as orphans. I will come to you. The

father promises he won't leave us as orphans. Many of

us can act like elphins. There are people who in

the church who will act like worlphans. And we'll try

and do it on our own. We'll try and do

it our own way. And how we might recognize that.

Here's some of the things and you might recognize some

of these things in yourself that we compete for attention, me, me, me, me,

look at me, look at me, look at what I'm doing.

Or maybe we're desperate for approval. We're waiting for that.

No one loves me, no one appreciates me. Do you

know what? We've got to get our eyes off looking.

And that's why encouragement is so important. Encouragement continues to

to move that in those kinds of directions. Sometimes we're

afraid with the orphaned spirit of being rejected, of getting

it wrong. Sometimes you won't even start something because we

might get it wrong. One of the things that church

needs to grow up to, and we need to grow

up to it RCF is giving people space to get

it wrong once.

In a while.

It's okay to get it wrong, Julia corrected me. I

can't remember how many months ago it was, but I

started talking about the garden of Eden. I was talking

about the garden of guestsemone or the other way around.

I can't remember which way around it was. But you know,

we all had a laugh and I felt a bit embarrassed.

But you know what, So what, sometimes we don't even

start because we're fearful of rejection. And here's the thing

that really kicks in around the Father.

Is sometimes was.

Suspicious of authority. I know people come from backgrounds where

maybe authority has done wrong things in your situation and

your circumstance, and as a consequence, you don't trust the police,

or you don't trust government, or you don't trust any

authority figure. And so we as church, we as leaders,

need to be humble. We need to be more like

the Father, and we need to say come, come, be

part of the family. Come and be part of the

bigger family. Romans, chapter eight, verse fifteen says this, the

spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that

you live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received

brought you about about your adoption to sonship and by him,

we cry, Abba, Father, Abba, Father, one of those things

that I really love, Abba, father, Daddy, Daddy. We need

to learn to rest in the father's love. One of

the things that deals with the orphan mentality is recognizing

who our father is and resting in his presence, resting

in his love. Sons and daughters give because they trust

trust in him. Trust in him is his willingness to

be generous. How can I say this, you might say, Dave,

how can you say these kind of things?

Galatians five, Verse one.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourself be burdened

again by a yoke of slavery. Stand firm because Christ

has set us free. He's paid the price. So let's

consider some steps we might take to step into generosity,

to step away from poverty, and to not be often minded.

Number one, repent of the lies. Sometimes we accept lies.

I've heard people say I'm no good at this. So

what makes you say that, Oh, because I've never been

any good at it? Well, what makes you think that?

Do you know? The what? And the questions?

Wonderful questions do you get annoyed when little children go,

so why is the sky blue? And then you give

some kind of explanation, they go, so why is that true?

And they keep on asking why. I remember a precious

son of a friend of ours who wanted his bedroom

painted tomato red. Because his mum was the kind of

mum who wanted to go with the flow. She said, Okay,

I'm going to paint your bedroom tomato red. The room

got painted tomato red. He walked in and she said,

what do you think? And he said, where are the pips?

It is exactly his question, exactly his question, where are

the because tomato red was not just tomato red, it

also inside of the tomato. Do you know what? So

then so let's think through this question. So why do

you say you're not good at it? Well, because and

actually you'll probably get back to somebody said something, maybe

your mum, your dad, your brother, your sister, a teacher.

Somebody said, so you never any good at languages? And

it sticks and we build upon it because we keep

on repeating it, we keep on declaring it, we keep

on speaking it over ourselves. I bless her irens now

with the Lord. But I remember Irene would say, you

would say something like see you next week, Irene, She

sayd the Lord willing her future was always in God's hands.

You know, if I'm able to do, I will help you.

Now it may not be in my skill set, but

I don't need to rubbish myself by saying I'm bad

at it. I say that I'm willing to help you.

Know.

I can open the bonnet to a car and I

can look and go, yeah, it's an engine. That's about

the limit of where I get to. But I can

still look. So let's repent of some of these lies

that we believe that maybe we keep on repeating. Let

me give you a few examples, because I really want

to make this very practical. But number one, there's not enough. Okay,

we can pray. How did the feeding of the five works?

I don't know whether it's people put in their pockets

or God actually genuinely multiplied the food. It doesn't matter.

They got fed. Another lie. I'm on my own and

the biggie I can't trust God. Second thing would be

to receive the spirit of adoption that's spoken about in

Romans eight, verse sixteen. The Spirit himself testifies with our

spirits that we are God's children. So rather than thinking

of ourselves as orphans, let's say, Daddy, Abba, Father, thank

you for creating me. Thank you that you are there

for me, thank you that you are listening to me.

Thank you are moved by my prayers. Let's receive that

spirit of adoption. Release what's in your hand. Remember I

talked earlier on about sometimes we just talk about holding

on rather than sewing and reaping a generous spirit. A

generous mindset breaks the power of poverty. Giving affirms our

sonship as we show we trust the Father. How do

we do this well? We can forurth thing to renew

our minds. Daily Romans, Chapter twelve, Verse two, do not

conform yourself to the pattern of this world, but be

transformed by the renewing of your minds, and finally walk

in relationship, not in religion. I heard a few times

in conversations yesterday people were saying, I don't I don't

do church, I don't do religion, And I heard the

answer coming back from various different people, Yes, neither do I,

because I've got a personal relationship with Jesus. And that's

the key. So the question today is not whether God

is generous. It's whether we trust him. I'll say that again,

it's not whether God is generous, it's whether we trust

him with our future, with our current situations, with uncertainty.

God will never leave you, nor for sake Joseph when

he was in prison, do you think he probably kind

of got close to thinking, where are you God, I'm

in prison now you gave me that dream, Now look

where I am. Or maybe he looked a little further

and said, God, despite the fact that I'm in prison,

You're still on the throne, Despite the fact I'm in poverty.

Allow me to ask of you for the riches of heaven.

We are not poor, We are not orphans. We are

not abandoned. Your sons and daughters of the Living God.

Whether you're at home, whether you're listening later, whether you're

in the room, you and I are children of the

Living God. And it's really our choice as to how

we relate to our mum and dad, our father in heaven.

I'm going to close just with a little bit of

a testimony. But you know, my parents didn't get on

and I used to sometimes end up standing in the middle,

being defending my mum. Maybe that relates for some of you,

and so I really didn't like my dad very much.

He left, and I had a mindset about my dad

that he'd left me. It was my fault, like many

children do, many teenagers and children will do, even though

it's nothing to do with them.

The children go, oh, well, it's my fault.

That daddy's not here or mummy's not here, whatever the situation,

it's my fault, and so we walk around with that mentality.

I'm all on my own.

I can't talk to mummy or daddy about it, because

you know, they're the one that's remaining. They're the one

that's looking after me. I don't want to end up

on my own. What happens if I scare the other

the other parent away? So we get isolated, we get bitter,

we get twisted. That's where I got to. I used

to go upstairs sometimes and play music. I just just

to lose myself. Wasn't a healthy place. There's certain bits

of music today I still can't listen to because there,

for me, are places that I go to that would

make me feel sad and disappointed and take me back

to that place. I don't need to go there anymore.

And for some of those pieces of music they've changed.

God's got to turn it around for me. But do

you know what I had to rebuild my relationship with

my dad. I had to look at him differently. I

had to look at him through a different lens. My

heavenly father needed to give me a different lens to

look at.

My earthly father.

My mom passed and I had the privilege of being

at my dad's wedding, being part of my dad's wedding

when he got married again. I'll tell you what. My

attitude to my dad was different then when I preached

at his funeral. You know, my dad was a different

dad to me. I'd got a different lens. I was

looking through the rubbish of the past. So, Church, I

want to declare a few things. Number One, God's a

generous God. We need a generous spirit. We need to

leave behind often mentality, and we need to leave behind

poverty too. And it's a poverty mindset. It's not you

know I talked about people playing with paper footballs. You

know you can still have fun with very little. So

I'm going to pray. So I'm going to close. I

want to encourage you to close your eyes and I'm

going to say to you, you know, if one of

these things has touched you right now, if there's something

you need to leave behind, if there's a a if

there's a spiritual mindset that you need to step out of,

if there's a fruitfulness you need to step into. Would

you stand right now. We're going to keep our eyes

closed for those at home. If you want to stand too,

that'll be fine. No one's going to see you. But

I just want to stand and acknowledge that Lord, I

need you to help me out of where I am

to where I need to be. I need to let

go of some of the stuff that I'm holding onto

because it feels safe, secure and normal, and I need

to step into and lay hold of the things that

you have for me. And I've got a picture even

as I'm praying right now, even as I'm just talking

of somebody who's not able to lay hold of something else,

because your hands are full of the past, and the

Father just says, put the past down, Just put the

past down. There's certain bits of it you will pick

up again, but you need to get hold of me

again first. Once you've got hold of me again first,

then you can lay hold of some of the bits

of the past that I still want you to hang

on to because they're good and they're pleasant, and they're

wonderful things. Father, I thank you for everybody standing. Father,

I thank you for those who've been touched Lord as

you've spoken today, Father, I pray that you'd break the

poverty mentality in Jesus' name, would you break Would you

break open the oil of worship and anointing?

Father?

Would you release the sense and smell of your presence

in this place today?

Lord?

Would you cause us to walk with a new sprightness

and spring in our step?

Father? Would you cause us to look up rather than

look down? Father?

Would you cause us to look to you rather than

to our own resources?

Father?

Would you help us to be men and women of faith? Father,

Where we have chosen and laid hold of an orphan mentality? Father,

help us to see the big family around us, the

family that is a heavenly family. Help us to see

you as the loving Father God that you really are,

and help us to walk into your embrace. Help us

to lay hold of who you are. Help us to

touch Lord God, who you are. We pray in Jesus'

name and Father, I pray that you'd release your life

your spirit to us right now. Release your life and

spirit to us in Jesus name.

Amen.

Okay,