The Spirit is here

Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.

You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.

We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the

cross. Now let's join the service.

Struggling past few days especially seem like everybody

struggles I know that but I my blood pressure has been all

messed up. It's been really, really low and

had this medication doctor put me on it's diuretic.

And so it's clearing everything out and I'm getting dehydrated

and I'll get woozy and I'll, you know, the other day I was over

there and in Paris with Bev and I had already moved to the

passenger side instead of the driver's side because I told

her, I said, in fact, at one point I opened my eyes up and I

said, where are we 'cause I can't see anything.

You know, all I could see was a little bit of structure from the

gas station nearby. Just, you know, that covered

area, you know, that little thing, it's got the big tall

columns, you know, and I can figure that out.

Well, that's the gas station. But I didn't know where we were

at, couldn't see anything. But why?

So anyway, been struggling with that.

And but it it reminded me of something.

You know, in John chapter 4, Jesus met this woman at the

John 4 · chapter mention

well. He said I'm the one that's the,

the, the water that you need, you know, and if you drink of

this, you won't. Well, there's a lot of people

that are allowing the world to pull out of them the water that,

you know, it's it's coming out, but they're not letting it come

back in quick enough. They're not they're not abiding

where they need to abide and they're not letting the water

come in. OK.

And their vision is all messed up.

Doesn't take too long. You start seeing things wrong.

I thought, you know, may we stay with the, the water wherever

we're at. They would be seeking him.

And yeah, there's storms and they they last a long time.

Sometimes seems like the storms of life or well, they just don't

hardly ever go away. And the riding it out, sometimes

it seems like, you know, it wasn't just a matter of, of

riding it out. You've been riding it for a long

time and you're still riding it. In fact, some of you nearly felt

like just giving up because you didn't see the answers that you

were looking for. So yeah, I've prayed, I've

bawled, I've cried my heart out. You know, I've laid it all out

before the Lord. I believe that there was going

to be something different was going to happen.

It's the same old thing. Nothing's changed.

Not that I can see with my eye. I want you to take a look over

in Isaiah chapter 6. And I know some of you are well

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

familiar with that passage, but maybe you never really put it to

a place like I'm going to try and deliver it this morning.

Isaiah chapter 60. We'll probably read the first 9

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

verses or so. In the year that King Uzziah

died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and

the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had 6 wings.

With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet,

and with two he flew, and one cried to another, and said,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who

cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of

unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean

lips. For my eyes have seen the king,

the Lord of hosts, and one of the seraphim flew to me, having

in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from

the altar. And he he touched my mouth with

it, and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity

is taken away, and your sin purged.

Also I heard a voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and

who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me.

And he said, go. Well, there's a lot there that

I'm not necessarily going to dwell on, but I do want to talk

about the first part of it in particular in in verse one at

the very beginning of this, you know, I don't read the King

James Version a whole lot. I do go over to it, like I go

over to a lot of other translations and check things

out and see what the wording was in the translation because it'll

vary. But I get a little bit, I don't

know, cross eyed with the old English and whatever.

And I, you know, it just doesn't really, it doesn't work as well

a lot of times for me. And there are people that, you

know, say, hey, the King James is the only way to go.

Well, if it is, then you go with it.

At least you're going with the word, you know.

But but I do look back and forth and I noticed that most all the

translations were worded without a particular little word that

the King James uses. In the King James Version, he

says that in the year that King Uzziah died, which is what he

can see about him, I saw. But in King James it says I saw

also. OK, now a little word also is

important 'cause he's not just saying I saw and he's not saying

I saw this and this he's not saying, yeah, I saw this thing

and I also saw this. OK, It's, it's, it's there to

show the contrast, OK, Where I see, and I've been singing for

years because Isaiah had reigned for 52 years when he died.

OK, So it wasn't something where that Isaiah saw something that

he had never seen before. He'd been seeing some problems

with the nation for years. Because see, during his eyes

reign, there was, he had a personal devout loyalty to the

Lord for a while, but he allowed things to take place in the

nation that shouldn't have been there.

He allowed the, the high places and the mountains and so forth

where that they would go up and they would offer sacrifices to

other gods. Now these were Jewish people.

They were God's people, sort of. But they would go up there on

the mountainside and they would offer to this God and to that

God. And then they would come back

from their paganism and, and try and do the rituals on those days

that they would have with the the church, with the Jewish

faith and honor the real guy. So it's just kind of a mix.

And I'm sure that that troubled Isaiah because along the way he

could see that the nation wasn't going right.

And then this king of his eye, I don't know how much you know

about him, but he was a real mastermind at military and that

type of thing. So he was able to build up their

defenses and make a strong military of over 300,000 people.

I've read before a few places, something like that.

So he had a strong military, he built up the border and he did a

lot of good things, created a lot of prosperity in the land

where the people had a lot of money and where they're living

pretty good. OK.

They kind of liked having him for the king, but he kind of

liked being the king too. And so pride comes along because

of prosperity. And then when you add pride and

prosperity together, well, what's Scripture say about pride

in the 1st place? It's going to lead you to a

fall, right? So he sort of put himself over.

He thought too highly of himself, and he did some things.

I mean, he was God's man. He's in charge of the Kingdom,

right? So he made a few exceptions so

he could do a few things that he thought he wanted to do that God

said you're not supposed to do. Sometimes we have a tendency to

do that too. I've been going to church.

I know the Bible. I'm tied with the Lord.

It won't hurt if I do this one little thing here.

There's one little thing there, but it hurt him.

It caused him to have leprosy, and he had leprosy and had to be

isolated from the palace into into a place where that, you

know, he wasn't going to expose everybody else to the disease.

And his son came after him and was actually reigning or ruling

even though Uzziah hadn't died yet.

OK. I mean, you couldn't say that

Uzziah is dead. So he was the his son was the

king. But somebody has to run the

place, right? And so that was the situation.

And Isaiah has seen this develop over the years and he's

realizing, you know what? I have prayed about this and

I've prayed about this and I've prayed about this, and it's not

getting any better. In fact, I thought for sure that

God would have healed him by now.

And he's been tucked away in that hold out in that isolated

isolation area for however many years, 7 + 7 years, anyway,

maybe 10. He's been put away.

And now I find out that our one hope, and this was not just his

feeling, but I'm sure it was the feeling of a lot of people in

the land. Our one hope is dead.

And we've been praying about this for a long time.

Well, you know, why didn't God send revival?

Why didn't God just heal our our king and, you know, get a hold

of his heart and turn him around and, and, and then heal him and

everything will be great again. And now what do we've got?

We've got nobody really on the throne.

I mean, he's got his son there, but he probably wasn't even

sworn in or whatever they did back then.

OK, But he wasn't really officially the king yet.

All he saw was. And it isn't working out.

It's not supposed to be going this way.

I've prayed about it and I've prayed about it and I've prayed

about it, and I'm going to go pray again.

And so he goes to the temple, and he cries out to the Lord,

because while he was there, he also saw something.

And that's the way it works. If you stop crying out to the

Lord, you're not going to see much again.

In fact, your vision will get all messed up, right?

It's when that water's flowing and you're communicating with

the Lord, that's when you're able to see.

And so he goes back to the temple, to the House of the

Lord, and he cries out to the Lord.

And he also sees that the Lord was high and lifted up, that he

was not concerned about all the little things that are going on

down here that we take the heart and think are huge because

they're not big to him. Let me say it again.

All those problems you've been dragging around for years

worrying about and praying about, and you hadn't seen

anything change. And you're about to give up and

say, well, maybe there is no God after all.

Maybe he's just abandoned me. Maybe he's hard at hearing.

It starts sounding a lot like, you know, the Mount Carmel

whenever you have Elijah going up there, you know, kidding

those other guys about their gods, right?

Hey, maybe he had to go to the restroom.

Can't hear you, right? That's how we can feel too

sometimes. Especially if your eyes focused

on the problems that are around you and the things that you

think are so terrible. Instead of being focused or

fixed on Christ, now you got to have your eyes focused on

Christ. So in the midst of Isaiah's

emptiness and his natural hopelessness while he's in the

temple, he discovers a few things.

One is that the situation that we face here on this earth,

whatever that storm is that we're singing about and

listening Brother Lance talked about a minute ago, those

situations are not a struggle nor a worry for the King of

Kings. He's the Lord of Lords.

He's the alpha and Omega. He's the Ancient of Days.

There is nothing they can, they can trouble him and him go, oh

Gee, what am I going to do? I mean, he doesn't do that.

With him, all things are possible.

And you say, yeah, I know that. That's why I've been praying for

it. But if you didn't see a change,

just keep on praying and keep on going and keep on trusting the

Lord and keep on putting your eyes not on the things of the

earth, but the thing, you know, raise them up.

Look up. All right, Look at him.

When trials abound, you go up before the altar of sacrifice

and you draw near to the Lord and he will draw near to you.

You say, well, I, I, I don't feel him.

Sometimes I've tried and I've I've found my prayer closet and

I've tried to pray and I don't feel any presence of, of the

Lord. But if you go back and read the

word in James chapter 4 verse 8, it says something.

James 4:8

It says if you'll draw near to me, I will draw near to you.

And that's not a lie. He's not a man that he should

lie. He's not son, a man that he

should retract his word and go, oops, that wasn't something I

meant to do. I was supposed to have been over

there. I forgot about you.

He hadn't forgot about you. He knows right where you're at.

He knows where your eyes are focused.

And if they're not on him like they should be, he knows that

too. There's another thing.

Whenever Isaiah came and called out to the Lord, there was

revelation that came. See, God revealed something to

His people, and I may be getting ahead of myself, I don't know,

but I'm going to tell you this anyway if I can.

I've seen the cupped hands of God above this place.

I have seen God's hands above you and I've seen in His hands

that there was milk and there was honey.

It's the same thing that his children were supposed to be

going to whenever they wouldn't go the first time and it took

him an extra 40 years because their eyes were on the wrong

thing. Their eyes were not focused on

him. Their eyes were not saying we're

going to trust in the covenant promises of God.

Their eyes were on how big the problem was and they wouldn't go

in and get it. And now God says, hey, I'm

holding honey, I'm holding the milk, I'm holding the blessings

that I want to give to you, and I'm holding revelation in my

hand and I'm going to give it to you if you will.

But look at me. If you'll keep your eyes focused

upon me, if you will look, not look back, but you'll look

forward and look to me. He desires to pour out upon you

the, the blessings and the revelation.

And some of you say, well, I've been seeking that for a long

time. Keep seeking it and look to him.

Sometimes all we do, we think we've been, we think we've been

in the right spot because occasionally we've prayed about

something. But just going to the church

once in a while to pray about something or every now and then

throwing that in your prayer list isn't the same as day by

day seeking the Lord with all your heart and keeping your eyes

focused and fixed upon him. There's a difference.

So I mentioned the children of Israel a while ago and you can

look at Numbers 13 and Numbers 14.

You can look over and Deuteronomy chapter 1 and you

Deuteronomy 1 · chapter mention

can find how that they allowed just what I said their eyes were

were fixed upon the problem instead of fixed upon him.

You know, if you're walking with the Lord and he's not only with

you, but he's in you, you got no problems.

You really don't. He said, Oh yeah, I do.

I got this. Not really.

I mean, life's short. It goes fast, right?

And what David say, he said it's like a, you know, a passing

shadow or a fleeting vapor and and you go, well, during that

time, you know, I'll go. No, you don't.

Just keep your eyes on him. You'll be out of this before you

know it. You know, remember that he is

your peace. And if you're not looking to

him, you got no peace. And you said, well, I do run

over there occasionally and I pray and I try and call on his

name. Well, good.

Don't make it occasional. Make it a daily habit.

It's an ongoing thing. Scripture said, well, Paul said

in Thessalonians, what do you say?

He said pray without ceasing. And he also said you can rejoice

that way too, because, hey, if you're praying without ceasing

and you're walking with the Lord, and he is the Lord above

all others, and he's able to take care of all things, then it

doesn't really matter ultimately what happens except for that,

that you're connected to him because he's going to see you

through. That's how you ride that storm

out, right? Yeah.

But then there was another occasion that I remember

whenever they've kind of blew it too.

And this time over in First Samuel Chapter 17, you've got a

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

little guy named David. He wasn't a little guy in a lot

of ways, but he was a young man, I guess, a teenager.

And you know the story about the Valley of Elah, and you have

Goliath on one side and you got David on the other.

But before David ever got there, what did you have?

You had Goliath on one side with the full army of the

Philistines, and on the other side you had every man basically

that was of age to fight. And the Hebrew nation in that,

in that land, they were there doing what?

Hunkered down, you know, going, oh, gosh, oh, I don't even want

to look. Oh, crap.

Look how big that sucker is. Oh, man.

And if you don't believe that's true, you go read there.

And when he defines or it tells you in Scripture how big

everything was, how tall he was and how big his armor was and

how much it weighed, you know why that's there?

It's to let people know that. Yeah, we were busy looking at

that, You said. Well, you you got to know your

enemy. Well, no, you know, not as much.

You got to know the one that can conquer your enemy, OK.

And so keep your eyes focused on him.

Now I get to thinking about that.

It wasn't much difference than in that case than it was over

there in numbers 13 and 14. Whenever the children of Israel

are trying to go into the promised land and get the

blessings, the milk and the honey right.

The the great things that God wanted to give unto them, they

weren't able to get because they were too busy looking at the

problem instead of the one that takes care of the problems.

They didn't believe in the promises they had received.

And some of you have received promises in your heart.

You've prayed for something before.

Maybe it's a grandchild, maybe it's a brother, or it's a wife,

or it's a husband. And in your heart, boy, that

storm's been brewing for a long time and you've been praying

about it for a long time. And I know he told me that that

something was going to change. And yet you're going and I don't

see any change, but I'll just keep on going, I guess, you

know, and, and after a while, if you're just floating downstream,

you're not going to end up and where you want to go.

You've got to keep your eyes focused upon him and you got to

draw close to him and you've got to not worry about the problem

that seems so big in your life. You can realize that he's big

enough to take care of that and hold that as well as you.

So they let the enemy seem enlarged because their focus was

on the enemy, was on the problem.

And the more you look at something, the bigger it gets to

you because you'd have been looking at it for so long,

right? And and the same is true if

you'll just put your focus on Christ, enlarge him.

You can't say enlarge him, brother, that you can't do that.

And how can we enlarge God? Well, you enlarge him in your

heart, in your mind, in your life, because you are focused

upon him. And the more you focus upon Him

and realize that He is, always has been and always will be,

that He is the one that can do all things and without Him we

are nothing. All right, If you realize that

this is the one, that's Jehovah Rapha, he's the healer, He is

Jehovah Jireh. He's your provider.

He is the great I am. And that wasn't just for Moses.

That was for all of us. You know, I was thinking about

give you a little bit of advice on a side note here because

we're talking about David, but David did two things in that

chapters, a long chapter. But if you look around, I don't

know, it's around 34th verse or so.

There's a, I'll just read it. There's 3 verses here, 3 or 4

I'm going to read starting with verse 34 and first Samuel 17.

It says, But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep his

father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear came

and took the lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and

struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth.

And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and

struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both

lion and bear apparently multiple times and this

uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has

defiled the armies of the living God.

Now listen to this verse 37. Moreover, David said the Lord

who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the

bear, he will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.

OK, So what did he do? He reminded himself.

He gave a testimony of what the Lord was doing and had done

right. OK.

And I'm sure that that builds your faith.

That's my experience. The other thing is that he was

giving glory to God. So yes, he had had had problems

along the way, but guess who fixed him and and guess who had

to go up against the lion? He did.

Guess what? You may have to go up against

the lion too. When God gets ready to give you

something, a lot of times the enemy is trying to take it from

you and keep you from getting it.

That's why you got to fight. I guarantee you if you've ever

tried to minister too much to people, you've had a fight.

It might be back at your house when you're trying to prepare

because I'm telling you it happens to I, I can tell

whenever the Lord's going to move in somebody's life because

it's a bigger fight that day than it was the day before.

But I'm telling you that, you know, if you don't give glory to

God, if you don't remember the things He's done for you and

remember the promises that He's made to you and rest in that

instead of trying to take it upon your own self to fix the

problems, well, that's not going to work out too well for you.

So the first thing I want you to remember is remember where He's

brought you from. The second is give glory to the

Lord. OK, Next thing if you drop down

to verse 45, verse verse 45 through 47, there's another

point here that needs to not go unnoticed.

Says then David said to the what?

To the Philistine. Who was he talking to?

The Philistine. He was talking to his biggest

problem at the moment. OK, he was talking to Goliath,

and he says to Goliath, you come to me with a sword, with a

spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of

the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you

have defied. This day the Lord will deliver

you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head

from you. And this day I will give the

carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the

air and to the beast of the earth, that all the earth, why,

that all the earth may know that there is a God in His.

That's true. Then all this assembly shall

know that the Lord does not save with sword or spear, for the

battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands.

Now what did He do? This is the second thing anybody

writes anything down. This is the second thing you

need to remember to do, besides what George already talked

about, and that is he spoke to the problem.

He didn't too often. We act like sniveling, whiny,

troubled kids and and and we will come sort of to the Lord,

but we come like he doesn't even want to do anything for us.

He doesn't really have anything blessed, any blessings in his

hand that he wants to pour out upon us.

He not really going to do it because I've prayed before and

it didn't really. And we we almost don't even go.

And then when we do, we beg and we're talking to him about the

problem. He knows about the problem.

He allowed it. Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, a lot of times that's true.

He, he allowed it. Why does he allow problems?

Because it will strengthen you. And, and the quicker we learn to

to keep our eyes upon him, keep our focus stayed upon him, and

and to not let the problems rule our life, the the fear dominate

our minds, guess what? We'll be a whole lot more

peaceful and we'll be a whole lot more successful and we can

enjoy life and we can sing. Hey, I'm just riding out the

storm because I'm going to be here for a little while and then

I am out of here, Jack. I am going to where my

citizenship is and it's not here.

It's not in commerce, It's not in Hunt County, OK?

It is in heaven, praise God. Right?

So that's that's the focus. Now.

I want to move to Isaiah chapter 64 real quick.

Isaiah 64 · chapter mention

In Isaiah chapter 64, Isaiah recalls a place called, well,

Isaiah 64 · chapter mention

you most you probably know it is Mount Sinai.

It's also known as Horeb, but he remembers back at a time

whenever God descended. Now you got to remember at this

point, he, he'd already had this other experience where God kind

of pulled the heavens back and exposed himself in the temple

and said, hey, guess what? You know, you might have

problems all around, but you also got me filling this place.

I'm right here. My presence isn't a distant God.

I'm not in some faraway planet. I'm right here where your

problems are. Don't worry about it.

Right? That he had that experience, but

he also remembers this other experience when God came down

and he, he came down and manifested himself often.

It's been a very powerful way upon this mountain.

And when he did, there was lightning and Thunder and you

see, it's pretty intense. And, and guess what?

Anybody that's carelessly came upon that mountain, that wasn't

the thing to do because they die.

Because after all, he's a holy God, right?

He's holy and righteous and the people are sinful people.

Romans 323 says that we've all sinned and fallen short of the

glory of God and and without the covering that Christ brought

later, what happens? You die.

You can't. Nobody that knows, not Jesus can

expect to go to heaven and enter the presence of God and live

there forever. And we got a whole world of

people going. What?

Hey, well, thank God. Well, you know, at least he

doesn't have that cancer anymore.

He's he's gone to heaven. Well, probably not.

I'm just saying that's what the word of God says.

Probably not. It sounds good.

It makes you feel better. But guess what?

We have the truth, and the truth says what?

What does the word say? It says that that abroad is the

road to destruction and most people aren't on it.

OK. And he's remembering back to

this time and the first 3 verses.

These are the words we find Isaiah calling out to the Lord

saying, oh, that you would rend the heavens.

What's that mean? It means tear them apart, open

this heavens up because there's this barrier between where you

seem to be at and where I'm at that you would come down that

the mountains might shake at your presence as fire burns

brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known

to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your

presence. So he was calling on God to come

down so that God could be glorified and people would come

to know him, right? And he goes on verse 3 says,

when you did awesome things for which we did not look, you came

down the mountain, shook at your presence like Isaiah.

I believe there's those here who've cried out to the heavens

to the Lord and said, Lord, we're in the heavens.

Tear those those clouds back, whatever it is the separate, I

don't feel your presence and I want to know your presence.

And there's good things that the Lord gives you whenever you're

rightfully are able to get into his presence.

But I got to thinking about this, you know, here he is

praying this thing. And yeah, there have been

experiences in the past, but there was 1 still ahead because

there was one day whenever the Lord decided, OK, the fullness

of time has come and I myself, I'm going to go down to where

the people are AT. And he came as a man that he

might. It wouldn't be the before it was

the men that got on the mountain with the Lord and they weren't

ready. They're dead now.

It's the other way around. He comes down to be with the

people and he's going to give, he's going to die.

Why? So that we might live and we

wouldn't have to die, right? He was coming with blessings in

His hand. He was coming with eternal life

in His hand. He was coming with the greatest

of all blessings, that you might be able to enter in to the

presence of Almighty God without hesitation.

Because up to that point, and even at the time that Christ was

here, guess what? In the temple there was a place

called the Holy of Holies, right?

And in that temple, the Holy of Holies, there was a divide.

You remember that you can't just walk back in there to where the

presence of God is. And I got to thinking, because

Jesus Christ died on the cross, because he took what wasn't his.

He took our sins, the whole world sin, put it upon himself

and nailed it to a cross and gave his life and took it back

up again. That picture of that heaven's

being rent, That's exactly what happened.

The heavens were torn apart. And if you don't believe it,

take a look over in Matthew chapter 27 verse 51.

Matthew 27:51

It says at that moment, at that moment, what moment?

The moment that he gave up his ghost and he said it's finished,

right, OK. At that moment, the curtain of

the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth shook and the rocks split.

Even the hardest of places in the rocks, even the hardest of

hearts, they can break before an almighty God if they will get

their eyes focused on him, right?

And and because of that, there was blessing, there was

revelation, because now we can have enter into a a new

relationship with God that they couldn't have before we can get

nice and personal. And that's why over in Hebrews

in chapter 4, it says in verse verse 16, Let us therefore come

boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and

find grace to help in time and need.

You can just go right on up there like you would your daddy

and jump in his lap. You can in fact, in if you go a

little bit further and dig into the Scripture, you'll find out

that Christ who died for you and ascended to the right hand of

the Father is already seated by the Father, right 'cause he's at

the right hand of the Father and we are seated with Him in

heavenly places there. OK, why is that or how is that?

Because the same Spirit that's in him is in US, right?

If we've accepted Christ, we've accepted his Spirit into us.

We are part of the body of Christ.

We are part of the bride of Christ.

That's what Scripture says. We're one with Christ.

Think about that. Whenever somebody gets married

down here, whatever we say. Well, and they, the 2 become one

flesh. Yeah.

Well, guess what? When you marry the groom, you

become one with him, right? And if you're really married to

him, you should be looking to him, not to all the other staff

that goes on in this world. There's plenty to get riled up

about and worried about. But why?

You're married to the groom. You're one with him, and he can

do anything. That's right.

I'm going to say this real quickly.

In Psalm chapter 24, verse eight, you don't have to turn

Psalms 24 · chapter mention

there particularly, but in Psalm 24 verse 8, it says who is this

Psalms 24:8

king of glory? This one that Moses said, let me

see your glory, right? This one who Isaiah said rend

the heavens that I might see. He wanted to see the glory of

God. Who is this king of glory?

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Who is this king that Isaiah encountered and what glory is

there for him? Now think about this real

carefully. What glory is there for him?

If one, we never encountered a storm or an enemy, if you never

encountered any problems like you'd kind of like, I'm kind of

that way too. How much glory is he going to

get? Because it's not real evident

that he was able to conquer any problems.

You never really had any, right? Just saying.

Second thing is what glory is there for him if the enemies

that we conquer are so weak that we can conquer them?

If, if the problem that you face is within your ability to fix,

what glory does God really get if it gets fixed?

I mean, you could have done that, right?

So naturally, when we should be expecting that if we're going to

give greater glory to God, we should be facing all kinds of

hardships. We should be facing all kinds of

problems, you know, whether it's financial or relationships or,

or whatever it is health. I don't know what all you're

facing. I'm telling you one thing

shouldn't be some big shock. You shouldn't be all down in the

Molly Grubs or whatever. You thinking?

Well, I guess you just forgot about.

He hadn't forgot you. Scripture says that his eye is

constantly going to and fro across the earth, that he might

strongly support those whose heart is wholly his.

Your heart can't be wholly his if your heart is all wrapped up

in this problem and that problem and this thing you love and that

thing you love instead of the one that you should be loving

on. OK.

Yeah, when you think about that. In our weakness we are made

strong not because we are strong, because we are weak.

But what happens whenever we realize that we are weak.

We call upon the one that we know is strong, and the one

that's strong works through us right and changes things.

For though we have an adversary, the devil, and in first Peter

5/8 it says the devil goes around like a roaring lion

seeking who he can devour. Right.

OK, let me say that again. The devil runs around as or like

a lion seeking who he can devour.

But Jesus is not like, but is the lion.

He's the lion of the tribe of Judah and he is our strength.

In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, you might recall this a real

Genesis 3:15

quick light, but it's the the fall's taking place, right?

And God comes over to talk to him and he looks over at Eve and

Eve says, what you know, or no, actually it was Adam.

And Adam says, hey, Eve gave it to me.

So then he looks over at Eve and Eve says, well, yeah, that was

the that serpent over there. He, he told me, you know what?

I just fell through the trap or whatever.

OK. And and while this is going on,

there are curses that are pronounced because of their

disobedience. It's always a good idea, even if

you don't understand what's going on and it seems like

there's a storm in your attention that seems to want to

drift away. Stay in obedience and I, I will

put enmity. This is verse 15, God speaking,

he says I will put enmity between you and the woman and

between your offspring and hers, and he will crush your head and

you will strike his heel. OK, he will.

That word seed is singular. And so there's really only one

who was able to crush the enemy that we can't conquer ourselves.

His name is Jesus, right? OK, he's the one.

However, that word is not only singular, it is a collective

noun. Now, if you remember from back

in, you know, middle school or whatever, when they ever had

English, a collective noun represents a whole group.

So it's kind of like saying I've got a fish.

You know, you can say fish, and it means singular, right?

Yeah. But you can also say I've got

fish. And what's that mean?

It means you got a bunch the same word, but it means a lot.

It's a collective noun, you know.

So what I'm telling you is that not only is has Christ crushed

at the cross, the head of the enemy that wants to keep you

bound, OK? And Christ has already set you

free. You just got to accept that

That's one of the blessings that coming to him.

OK, but here's the other thing. If you get the collective noun

part, that means that we who are in Him are also able to crush

the head of the enemy, not because we're so big and strong,

because we're weak, but He is strong.

He is our strength. OK, And if you think, oh you're

making that stuff up, just look over in Romans chapter 16 in

Romans 16 · chapter mention

verse 20. In Romans chapter 16, verse 20,

Romans 16:20

it says the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your

feet. Now this was Paul writing.

He was writing to believers. He wasn't talking about Jesus

going to crush it under his foot only for if we are united with

him, then it's under our foot too.

He, the enemy is under our foot. All those problems that we face,

we can just put our foot on it and say, Hey, my, my, God's

bigger than that problem, right? I'm in him and I don't care

about anything else. I know I've got victory in him.

Now it seems to me that plenty of people can take this idea or

these thoughts that I've brought and then say, yeah, those that's

good things. We we need to fix our gaze on

him. Yeah, that's right.

We need to speak directly to the enemy.

Yeah, that's right. But you'll walk out of here and

routine and habit and ruts that we've allowed to develop.

A lot of times it seems like we'll hear from the Lord and it

doesn't impact us. You know, it was good for a

moment, but I know better. No, you don't.

That's the problem. A lot of times

the Lord wants you to know he's still in control and he's still

on the throne. He's still alive, nothing has

missed his sight. There's nothing he can't do, and

he loves you. And last week I was sitting in

here and the Lord gave me a word last week about this church.

That's why I've seen things this week about this.

I'm talking about you, OK? And then the guy next to you, if

you're in this church, I'm talking about you.

And the Lord told me. He said, I am.

I am the God that heals. I am the God that delivers.

I am still the Ancient of Days. I am still the one who rules and

reigns, right? That's what he's saying.

And he says, I've got blessing in my hand and I am going to

pour it out upon them. If they will continue telling

you to look at me, if they'll fix their eyes upon me, if

they'll let the problems of this world go to the side and focus

on me, I've got good things for them.

I've got revelation that they've called for and they've cried in

their hearts and said, oh, would you just split those heavens

apart, Lord, and come and reveal yourself?

I've got that in my hand and I am going to let them have that.

But there's got to be a storm. There's got to be a trial.

There's got to be something that looks big that because in the

process, if you're facing that storm, realize this, he's

allowing the storm to happen to get you refined.

It's a refiner's fire. If I am in pottery and I'm going

to make something better that I've been working on, and I

don't expect it to last very well, what do I have to do with

it? I got to stick it in the kiln.

Some of you have been in the kiln a long time.

You're probably tired of the kiln.

I don't blame you. Keep your eyes on him.

He's the one that's going to pull you out of the kiln.

He's the one that's going to see you through, right?

Yeah. I hope you're hearing what I'm

saying. God bless you.

He will continue to bless you if you'll continue to look to him.

Brother, come here. This guy here, he knows about

the kiln, He might not tell you about the kiln all the time

because his eyes aren't fixed on the kiln that his eyes are fixed

upon the Lord. And the Lord's going to pour out

blessing upon him and cause him to multiply and grow.

He'll see strength that he is not head, and he will walk in

ways he's never seen before, and revelation will be his portion.

And I believe this with all my heart.

I thank you, Lord, for it. And I ask Lord that you would

use him, my God, each day to draw these people closer to you,

to focus their attention upon you, that their eyes might be

fixed and stayed upon you. And may this church thrive, and

may it grow. And may the power and presence

of the Holy God move in a way that has not happened in the

past, for there is yet a tomorrow when the kiln door is

open. In Jesus name I thank you, Lord,

I thank you. Thanks for listening to the

Cross Power Church podcast. May you know that true hope,

peace, and salvation can only be found in Jesus.

If you're near Campbell, TX, we would love for you to join us in

person. You can find service times at

crosspowerchurch.com.