Wells and Altars – How We Steward Heavenly Encounters | Abigail Collins | Faith Church

It's so good to be home. That's how it feels

when I come here. Lord, we just pray for your

presence to be near, so near. Lord, that my words

wouldn't be mine, but they would be your words

to your people. Encourage hearts tonight, Father.

Refresh hearts. Speak to your people. We just

invite you to linger, Holy Spirit. We don't want

to be in a hurry when we're in your presence.

Would you stay and linger with us? Linger with

us, Lord. I'm just curious. How many of y 'all

were here last year when we were here? Okay.

Okay. I want to have a little confession to make.

The Lord began to stir my heart. Coming to Illinois

was one of the first ministry trips I took with

dad or otherwise last year. And he began to stir

my heart when I was here about altars and wells.

Half the time, I don't remember what I've said,

so I don't expect you all to remember, but there

was this word that the Lord gave about re -digging

wells. I think someone made a t -shirt. Cammie

messaged me after I left, and one of the interns

had made a t -shirt of, dig another well, dig

another well. And the Lord has not let me go,

has not let that go since last year. And I don't

want to be redundant or try and, you know, there's

a saying about in Texas, everything's about horses

in Texas. But, you know, we don't want to run

that horse too far. But when I tell you the Lord

hasn't relented all year, speaking to me about

altars and wells and altars and wells. And there

have been the coolest testimonies and signs that

have come. I was speaking at a church in Cleburne,

Texas, back in November. And I was speaking,

but the Lord gave me this word for the pastor

and his wife. And all of a sudden, I looked down

from the pulpit. I began to prophesy from that

same word about Rehoboth when Isaac is redigging

the wells of his father. And they keep being

contentious, and he has to dig another well,

and he has to dig another well. And I looked

at him and I said, and there's going to be a

broad place and it's time to dig another well.

And the pastor's just looking at me. And I'm

thinking, okay, you know, the Holy Spirit's touching

him or something. But he just looked like, and

he looks at his wife and he says something and

he looks back at me. And I'm like, what's happening?

We had lunch after. He said, you don't understand.

We just came into this property. We just came

to this building. And we're on well water. And

we share a well with our neighbors. And legally,

the well is ours. But our neighbors came this

past week angry and contentious with us, angry

about the water in the well. And legally, it's

ours. And I was thinking of fighting them over

the well. And as you were prophesying, I leaned

to my wife and I said, honey, we're just going

to dig our own well. And so they're now literally

digging a well. I had no clue what was going

on. So I tell you, like, the Lord has not let

this thing go. And we were also in Nebraska a

couple months after we were here. And I won't

go into all the details, but there has just been

these redemptive wells, particularly across the

Midwest, that I feel the burning and burden of

the Lord to redig. There are revival wells hidden

in the plains that the Lord is redigging. And

there are altars of sacrifice and worship that

the Lord is rebuilding. I'm going to go through

several scriptures, but y 'all thought y 'all

finished the reading through the Bible today.

You didn't know it was just practice for me tonight.

I have a few messages, but I mean a few scriptures

to get through. But I want you to hear this message.

not just as an expository on the word, but as

a prophetic message to your church, to the Church

of Lincoln, to the Church of Illinois, that the

Lord is looking throughout the earth. He's seeking

those that will stand in the gap. He's seeking

those who will rebuild the ancient altars and

re -dig the ancient wells. It's a time of rebuilding

and redigging, rebuilding and redigging, rebuilding

and redigging. So hear it in your spirit tonight.

The word does not return void, but hear this

as a prophetic commission, if you will. If I

had to title this message, it would be Altars

and Wells, How Do We Steward Heavenly Encounters?

I want to go first to... Elijah in Mount Carmel.

So I'm going to go. Lord bless Nick. We just

bless Nick. I have my falling apart binder with

scribbled notes, and he was very gracious to

try and put them up here in a second. But in

1 Kings 18 and 30, when I tell you, let me just.

Let me just preface what I'm about to read. I

looked for a good week. And when I tell you I

love a good bunny trail, rabbit hole, whatever

you want to call it, sometimes you follow them

and sometimes you fall in them. I have friends

in this room who can vouch for that fact. I was

like a dog with a bone, as they say. I wanted

to find out. Did I hit something? What am I doing?

Okay. why the altars were torn down in the first

place. We all know the story. I'm probably going

to read it somewhat quickly, but I believe we're

all familiar with the story. I don't want to

take that for granted necessarily, but knowing

many of you in the room, I'm confident. So turn

with me to 1 Kings 18. And, you know, we've got

Jezebel and Ahab. It's not a good season in Israel's

history. They're worshiping Baal. They're worshiping

idols. They've torn down the altars of the Lord.

And Elijah challenges Ahab. He says, bring your

prophets. Bring the prophets of Baal. Bring all

these to Mount Carmel. Meet me there. And bring

all the assembly of Israel. Call everyone, all

the nation, all the people. Bring them. And we're

going to see who's God, the God of Israel or

Baal. And we're going to put it to a test, right?

We're familiar with the story. And I love the,

how can I say this? I love the feisty confidence

of Elijah. He is literally teasing the prophets

of Baal. Oh! Maybe your God's napping. Maybe

he's gone on a journey because they're crying

out. They're doing all the things. Again, we

know the story. Baal does not answer. He's not

a living God. We serve the living God. Amen?

Amen. So I'm just giving a brief review of that

for us to bring us back into the context of the

story. But I want to start in verse 30. So after

Baal has failed to answer, Elijah's taunted the

prophet, says, then Elijah said to all the people,

come near to me. Again, hear this in the spirit.

So all the people came near to him, and he repaired

the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And

Elijah took 12 stones for each tribe, excuse

me, of Israel, and he rebuilt the altar of the

Lord. I spent more than a week trying to find

out when and why was this altar torn down? Lord,

how did these things happen? And I don't know

why I was so fixated on it. I was Googling. I

was asking biblical scholar friends with 40 -plus

years in the Word and MDiv. And I'm just, what

is it? And the Lord, all of a sudden, it was

like he just came up to me in my quiet time and

he said, I'm more worried about the rebuilding.

than why they were torn down. And I suddenly

had this moment of realizing how often do we,

I can speak for myself, but I feel like in America,

in the church, we We're watching the news, and

we're trying to analyze. I see parents, they're

so worried about their kids and trying to figure

out, what happened to my kids? How did they walk

away from the Lord? What should I do? How can

I fix them? Why has America turned from the Lord?

Why is this happening? And there's wars and rumors

of war, and we get so caught up in, Lord, what

has happened to our nation? We were built on

biblical principles, and we get so caught up

in... Why was the altar torn down? What's happened

to our society? What's happened? And I had felt

that in my spirit all week. I'm like, I want

to find out. If I'm going to preach on rebuilding,

what happened in the first place? And it was

like the Lord was like, honey, that's not the

point. It's the rebuilding. So again, I want

to challenge us to look up, to look forward,

to look onward. There's a rebuilding taking place.

And he rebuilds the altar and the Lord answers

with fire. I think we get immune to some of these

stories if we've grown up in the church. The

Lord answers with fire. And I just want to say

he's still the God who answers with fire. My

God, our God, the living God is still a God who

answers with fire. And I've seen him do it. And

you can't convince me otherwise. He's a God who

answers with fire. Now, I want to point one thing

out before I move to the next scripture. When

we're fixated on the problem, we want to lay

blame and we want to do all the things and we

want to find our own solutions and we'll look

later at how that does not work. But it does

say that Elijah called the people. There's something

to be said about the people in our sphere of

influence that witness our lives. We don't just

contend for breakthrough closeted away. Yes,

we pray in the secret place, and he who hears

in the secret place will himself reward you openly.

I'm not contradicting that point, but there is

a place of holy moment, of holy boldness that

comes in moments of history on the body of Christ,

and I believe we're on the threshold, and there's

this call of the Lord and the Spirit for us to

be bold once again and say, no, come watch what

my God can do. It's not a time to hide away in

the caves. It's not a time to tuck tail and run.

It's not a time to simply survive. It's a time

to call the people and say, oh no, I am so confident

God is going to come. I am so confident he is

going to answer. Come watch him do it. Won't

he do it? Won't he do it? I want to say one other

thing. Elijah, in this instance, he did this,

but he got a little bit in his head after. Sometimes

we have these bold moments, and then all of a

sudden, we realize, what did I just say? What

did I just do? Jezebel's pursuing, he's going

to die. And he gets a little in his head, and

he goes and he's hiding. And he's convinced he's

the only one left. And the strategy of the enemy,

when God wants to pour out breakthrough, one

of the strategies is always to try to isolate

us. And if there's ever a time for unity in the

body of Christ, it's now. We have to model that

for the world. Where else are they going to see

it but in us? And when we try to isolate ourselves,

when he was hiding and being fed by ravens, and

the Lord comes and speaks to him, and it wasn't

in the fire, it wasn't in the wind, it was the

still, small voice. We know the story. He said,

Elijah, what are you doing? He said, well, I've

been zealous for your name. I've been zealous.

The people, they tore down the altars and they've

killed the prophets and I alone am left and they

seek my life. The enemy can get us so trapped

in our thinking that we literally think we're

alone. God does not call us alone. He sets us

the orphan in families. So if anywhere in your

life, I just, I feel this in the spirit. I don't

know who this is for, but I think there's a few

people in the room that need to hear this. This

was not in my notes. Well, some of it, but not

this part. You're not alone. I feel the Lord

wanting to break isolation off people tonight.

You're not alone. Because when we get in that

place, it renders us in hiding, fearful, and

is often accompanied by a self -righteous, escapist

mentality. If we were to have a list of the churches,

I could say in America or the globe, and you

wanted to put a checkbox by how many that described,

I believe it grieves the heart of God. We are

not meant to survive and hide away in isolation.

We are not called to walk this life of faith

alone. So I encourage you, plug into community,

plug in, reject the lie that you're alone. Okay.

I gotta keep moving, because yes. The other thing,

is though that when we build altars, it affects

nations and generations. It doesn't say that

the people that he called to watch helped him

build it. He obeyed the Lord and he built it.

Though none go with me, still I will follow.

But they saw it and it drew an entire nation

back to the Lord. The simplest, smallest acts

of obedience are always met with a heavenly response

and an outcome beyond what we could ever expect.

It's not about us. It's about God working through

us. And when we walk in obedience, great things

can happen, and it affects nations and generations.

All right. I want to look in also in Genesis

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

chapter 26. Now, I know I shared part of this

scripture passage last year, but I want to revisit

it again. In Genesis 26, I'm going to start in

verse 15. You guys still with me? It's too quiet

in here for me. See, I'm from the South. We like

interactive preaching. So if I get an amen, sister,

I will feel right at home, okay? All right, there

we go. Okay. All right. The Philistines had stopped

up all the wells which his father's servants,

so this is Isaac. He's going to be re -digging

the wells that Abraham dug. Again, this is multi

-generational, altars and wells. It affects generations.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now the

Philistines had stopped up all the wells which

his father's servants had dug in the days of

Abraham his father, and they had filled them

with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away

from us, for you are much mightier than we. Then

Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent

in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. And Isaac

dug again the wells of water, which they had

dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the

Philistines had stopped them up after the death

of Abraham. He called them by the names which

his father had called them. I want to pause.

I grew up traveling all across the Midwest with

my family. I have personally seen miracles in

this state. I have personally watched more miracles

and salvations and deliverances than I literally

have. If we took the rest of tonight and tomorrow,

there are more than I could convey to you. And

I have seen it. I have touched it. I have witnessed

it from my earliest years. I think I was about

five years old when we started coming to Illinois,

and I am now 36. So 30 years of miracles I've

witnessed in your state. And the enemy would

love nothing more than to fill those up with

the things of this world, with the earth. And

the wells and the rain and the water and the

river that Pastor Darren was singing about earlier,

the move of the Spirit of God all throughout

Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, we see

water used as analogy, if you will, by God of

a moving of his Spirit and of his presence. And

the enemy would love nothing more than to stop

at the wells. In my own soul, spring up, oh well,

David says. We each have a well of living water

inside of us. I don't care if that sounds crazy

and Pentecostal or whatever to you. It is in

scripture, so you cannot argue with me tonight.

Okay? You have a well of living water in your

belly. Look at your neighbor and say, you have

a well of living water living in your belly.

Now just look at them and say, spring up. Spring

up a well. Spring up a well. Speak to your city.

I encourage you regularly. Speak it as a declaration

over your schools, over your city, over your

family, over your place of business. Spring up

a well. Spring up a well. There are redemptive

wells that the Lord has in you, but also we know,

again, through Scripture, there are... If the

blood of Abel can cry to him, the blood of innocence,

how much more the redemptive well of the spoken

promises and covenant of God, how much more are

his ears listening and attending that cry of

the things that he has been waiting decades to

break loose in your heart, in your family, in

your state? So he called them by the names which

his father had called them. So see, when we dig

wells, we don't rebrand it and say, oh, renewal

was wonderful. I'm saying nothing against the

things that happened in the past, but we're not

going to just live in an old wine scale, an old

wine skin and slap a new label on it. What does

scripture say about that? Does it work out? Well,

no. He called them by the names his father called

them. We honor the testimony, but the testimony

of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Last time

I checked, the prophetic moved forward, not backwards.

Are you hearing me? We are, when we lean into

the testimonies, when we re -dig the wells of

what he's done, we're saying, God, do it again.

We're not going back to relive in the past and

call it the present. So he called them what his

father had called them. Also, Isaac's servants

dug in the valley and found a well of running

water. It's significant. It's living. It's living

what is running water. When water doesn't move,

it becomes filled with disease. Water was meant

to flow. I served under a pastor. And he said

something I'll never forget. He said, you know,

in the more charismatic things, we always like

to talk about the river of the Lord, the river

of the Lord. Most of us are just sitting in jacuzzi.

So we just like it to stir the waters around

us and come and hit. Oh, that's the spot. Oh,

yes, Lord. Just come. Just come move on us. Move

on me, Lord. Oh, move on my friend here that

I like and actually get along with. Oh, and then

come move on me again. And then, oh, that felt

so good. Would you do it again, Lord? and there's

not an outflow. We are meant to be rivers of

living water, not stagnant jacuzzis called churches.

I might not be back next year, so love y 'all.

Okay, good, there's laughter. I might see you

again. Okay, all right. I get a little feisty

sometimes, just a little. It was running water.

But herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac. It's

a good thing I wasn't here this week. I can't

pronounce stuff. Quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen,

saying, the water is ours. I'll never be able

to read this without thinking of Cleburne again.

So he called the name of the well Essek, which

means quarrel, because they quarreled with him.

Then they dug another well, and they quarreled

over that one as well. So he called its name

Sitna. which means enmity. And he moved from

there and dug another well. And this is what

I was hearing the Spirit last year, it's time

to dig another well. It's time to dig another

well. See, when disappointment happens, we dig

another well. When offense comes, and surely

they will come, that's one of the promises of

the word that you don't hear preached very often,

we are warned, we are told, offenses will come.

We dig another well. When church hurt happens,

we dig another well. When we don't, when there's

contention, when the enemy tries to still kill

and destroy, which is his very purpose, do we

get distracted? Do we get discouraged? Do we

stop and just be satisfied? Well, we'll just

survive with what the generations before us.

We'll just settle. We'll survive. There's enough

water. If I just get a little taste of his presence

every two, three months, I'll survive. We're

not meant to survive. He kept digging wells.

Hear me in the spirit. When Isaac came back to

this place, the generations had multiplied. What

was enough for generations past is no longer

enough. If you want more than just you to survive,

if you want the well of God, the move of God

to stop with you, if you are satisfied with that,

then be prepared to watch as the generations

fall. I'm not trying to speak doom and gloom

here. I'm just telling you what is at stake.

He needed more wells because there was more need.

Nothing in the kingdom of God ever shrinks. Of

the increase of his government and peace, there

shall be no end. If it's not increasing, test

it and see if it's real. If it's not increasing,

is it really God? If it is stagnant and there

is no life in it, if it is stable and survivist,

test it. Test it for life. Check for a pulse.

Is this really God? God is always, he is triune

in nature and he is the God of generations. He

is always so far beyond what we could think or

imagine. He's thinking 10 steps ahead. He's thinking

a thousand years is but a day to him. He sees

the bigger picture. And we have to, if we're

going to partner with him, we have to expand

our hearts and our vision. And he moved from

there and dug another well, and they did not

quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth,

which means a wide or broad place. Because he

said, for now the Lord has made room for us,

and we shall be fruitful in the land. Then he

went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord

appeared to him on the same night and said, I

am the God of your father Abraham. Do not fear,

for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply

your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake.

So he built an altar there and called on the

name of the Lord. And he pitched his tent there.

And there Isaac's servants dug a well. Surprise.

I'm not through with this passage yet. There's

more. But wait, there's more. So he digs another

well. And then we see through verse, I'm not

going to read it all, but from verse 26 down

through about 30, 31, Abimelech, the king that

had said, get out from here, you're mightier

than us, go out, go out. The same king whose

servants had filled those wells comes and says,

make a covenant with us because you're mightier

than us and we don't want you to destroy us.

The Lord will set a table before us in the presence

of our enemies. But they come and they say, oh,

cut covenant with us because we now fear you've

become a great nation. But here's what I want

you to hear. At the end of verse 25, it says,

and there Isaac's servants dug a well. After

his enemy comes and is like, hey, you're more

powerful. Then they come back. After that, he

finds out. that they say in verse 32, at the

end of verse 32, it says, we have found water.

And so he called it Sheba. Therefore, the name

of the city is Beersheba to this day. The Lord's

already providing more resource before we even

recognize it happens. When our enemies are like

recognizing, wow. God is with you. Don't hurt

us, please. The Lord's already, when he was faithful

to start digging again, the Lord was already

ready with more and more and more wells, waiting

before he even had a chance to see them. Okay?

I'm not going to turn there for time, but I just

want to say, back in Genesis 46, verses 1 and

Genesis 46:1

5, I've been looking at so many scriptures, and

I just want what I feel prophetically to come

across right, so bear with me. But Abraham, when

he first dug those wells, before they had been

stopped up. This is scriptural proof that the

Lord can use dysfunctional families because Abraham

lied about Sarah being his wife and Abimelech.

There was a whole issue of it and he says, you

know, get out from us. And he goes and he digs

wells. And Abimelech again says, You're too great

for us. Hey, cut a covenant with me. And he cuts

a covenant with his enemy. Then Isaac does the

same thing. He goes back and he's there with

Abimelech. He lies about his wife. Gets in trouble.

He gets kicked out again. Okay, so what's my

point? My point is we can pass on generational

sins or we can pass on generational wells and

altars. If we don't, if we cut unrighteous, If

we get friendly with sin and tolerate it and

make friends with it, okay, you don't hurt me,

I won't hurt you, we'll just live in this stalemate,

it's going to come back to the next generation.

And even if we, in our own strength, try and

dig a few wells, if we're not willing to deal

with the things that God wants us to deal with,

they're going to keep coming back and haunt our

children. So Isaac had to work double hard to

re -dig those wells and then dig more because

they had been making friends with the enemy.

Are you hearing me? And an interesting thing,

too. It says Abimelech and the commander of his

army, Philco, came the first time. When they

come back to visit, with Abraham, when they come

back to visit Isaac, they bring another friend.

So what do you want to multiply in your legacy?

Enemies or wells? Again, I'm not trying to be

doom and gloom tonight, but I feel this word

so strong in my spirit because my dad's a gardener.

I grew up doing weeds with him. And every spring,

we have, it's always a surprise and a joy to

see what blooms again. Oh, it lasted the winter.

It came. Its roots are deep. We've nourished

the soil. It's good. It's come back. There's

fruit that's coming back. There's also weeds.

And when you pluck up weeds, you don't break

off the head, you pull it up from the root. And

there's things that as we dig, the Lord wants

to uproot. Yeah. So, I'm going to come in for

a landing, but a beautiful thing that we see

is So we see Abraham dug the well, Isaac redug,

he dug more. And at the end of Jacob's life,

when Joseph has called his father from Egypt

and he's bringing him home, the Lord speaks to

Jacob, Aga Israel, and says, hey, stop, stop,

he stops at Beersheba. And the Lord begins to

speak to him. It says in a night vision, your

young men will have visions, your old men will

dream dreams. He began to dream a dream, and

the Lord began to speak promises over the generations

after him. So by the time that generation had

come, there was just living water coming out,

and it was a place of life and encountering the

Lord, and where generations past then would be

blessed. Yes. Thank you, Lord. How are we doing?

I meant to bring my phone up here for a time.

All right. So I'm going to blow through just

really fast a couple more. So are y 'all still

with me? We got 10 more minutes? Five more minutes?

Okay. Okay. All right. I told y 'all the whole

reading through the word. It was just practice

for tonight. Really quickly, in Genesis 28, I'm

going to breeze through this one because, again,

I believe we know the story. When Jacob comes

to Bethel. Oh, I just saw it there. Sorry. Thank

you, Nick. Thank you. Because y 'all can't see

this, only I can see my messy notes. He's fleeing

for his life. He's deceived. He's lied. He's

fleeing for his life. This is for someone here

tonight. If you think you need to go to Bible

college and have your life together and then

come, have had the perfect day, your coffee tasted

perfect, everything worked out, no one cut you

off in traffic, and you're going to come and

the Lord's going to meet you. I don't see that

very often in Scripture. Every single one of

the places I've referenced so far. The Lord meets

us at our most desperate. And it's raw and it's

messy and it's counter to our mind. But he meets

us at our worst and our most desperate and he

encounters us with his presence. He's a God of

redemption. He's the God of the but. But God,

nothing of our own merit. We are saved by grace.

He comes and he encounters us with love when

he knows we need it most, before we even know

we need it. So he meets Jacob, later to be called

Israel, there at Bethel. And one of the words

that stuck out to me that Jacob says is, I was

unaware. Surely this is the house of God and

the gate of heaven, and I was unaware. Now, watch

with me how this grows in our walk of faith.

I want you to think about your own walk with

the Lord. I can look back at when the Lord first

encountered me. I can tell you the story of when

I gave my heart to Jesus as a seven -year -old

girl. I can tell you when I got filled with the

Holy Spirit. I can tell you how the Lord encountered

me in water baptism. I could tell you, I could

spend days, we could have a week -long conference,

not have enough time for me to tell you the ways

the Lord has encountered my heart. In deep brokenness,

in deep sorrow, in deep joy and blessing. In

every moment of my life, he is faithful. He's

faithful to encounter us. But he's always moving

forward. And so he said, I was unaware, I was

in awe. And he names the place Bethel, which

in Hebrew means the house of God. And we know

he flees to his uncle Laban. He gets married,

he works. Again, dysfunctional family. He works

14 years, gets married twice. It's a whole thing.

And then the Lord visits him in Genesis 31, and

he says, I am the God of Bethel. Get out of this

land. And the Lord will speak to us. I've had

the Lord speak to me of, hey, remember, remember,

I'm the God who sees you. Remember. Lean back

on that testimony because I want to launch you

from it. Remember. Remember. You love me because

I first loved you. Remember how I first loved

you. Yeah. I just want you to be aware this coming

week. I believe the Lord has encounters waiting

for all of us. For so many of you, I feel specifically

just like it's heavy in the atmosphere. He wants

to encounter you. So just be aware. Be attuned.

Let him remind you. and then dig new wells. In

Genesis 31, he encounters him, and he says, I

am the God of Bethel. Get out of this land. And

then he meets him again. He meets him again,

and when he wrestles with God, again fleeing

for his life, worried about Esau coming, he's

meeting his brother again. He's walking back

into the same scenario he was in before, but

he's now a different person. Still a little freaked

out. Still walking in a bit of fear. But he's

moving forward in obedience to the same thing

he ran from before because God has transformed

him. Transformed him. And I promise I do speak

English. And he wrestles with God. See, we need

to never stop wrestling with God. Because as

long as there are things in us that resist, that

need to be melted away, we have to keep wrestling.

He wrestles with God and God changes his name

from Jacob, deceiver, to Isaac. And after he's

changed his name, after he's brought him his

own personal transformation, he brings him back.

In Genesis 35, he comes back to Bethel. And do

you know what the man whose name God changed

does at that place? He changes the name of the

place. from Bethel to El Bethel. And there's

a transformation the Lord continually wants to

do in our hearts from, oh, this is the house

of God to the God of the house of God. El Bethel

literally means the God of the house of God.

He wants to take us from a place of being unaware

of his presence to being aware of his presence.

And he wants to take us from being aware of his

presence to how his presence can transform us

to change our very identity. He wants to change

our identity and then let us walk in obedience

to go where he says to go regardless of circumstances

and whether it was painful the last time and

whether or not we're still fearful. He wants

to call us into obedience. And in that place,

then he wants to fix our eyes on him and say,

it's not about just my presence and coming in

and feeling my good presence and being aware

the Lord is moving. Seek the God of the movement.

As he transforms us, our focus should ever more

be transformed to seek the God of the house of

the Lord. There's continual, continual transformation

on offer. There's more I want to share, but we

have. We have tomorrow. So I'm going to bring

it in because I feel in my spirit that this is

what the Lord wanted to do tonight. To remind

you that you're not alone and that he's the God

that transforms. And it's the God that transforms

hearts. If he can change a single heart, why

not a city? Why not a nation? God, we just want

to say we're open and we're hungry. We want to

rebuild and re -dig, but we don't want to do

it. For ourselves or for survival, we want to

do it. We want to become ever more just captivated

by this God who changes names and changes nations.

Lord, would you shift our eyes off of ourselves

and onto you enough that we could be catalysts

That we would be confident catalysts in a nation

that is so hungry for transformation. God, I

ask that you would speak to each heart here.

Speak identity, God. Speak identity, Father.

Your word says that our lives are hidden in Christ

as we become ever more captivated and in love

with you. Would you tell us more of what our

purpose is here on this earth? Lord, would you

share the secrets of your heart with us and let

us run with the message and proclaim it boldly

in whatever sphere you call us to, whether it's

our next door neighbor. or a nation we don't

even know how to find on the map. There's transformation

on offer tonight. I just, if it's all right,

I just want to say, if you're, if you want to

build an altar tonight afresh, an altar of consecration,

I just want to invite you to deal with God wherever

and however that looks like for you. If you want

to come to the altar, the altar's open. And you're

saying, where do I even start? What do I begin?

What do I do? What David said, who is said to

be a man after God's own heart, he says, I will

not give to the Lord that which cost me nothing.

If you want to know where to start, ask God.

What in me has any value that I can give to you?

What cost me something? If it's my reputation,

you can have it. If it's my trust, you can have

it. If it's my money, you can have it. If it's

my obedience, you can have it. What cost you

something tonight? It might be the widow's might,

but God sees it. Moses had a stuttering lisp

and a staff in his hand. God used it. The widow

had a little oil and a little flour. God used

it. We don't hold anything back tonight, Father.

Papa, we trust you. You're a good father. You

only have your glory and our good in mind. We

don't have anything of value that we could barter

with you, but we just have, what we have is on

offer. It's not that it has any value, but to

you, it's just the sacrifice that matters. The

five loaves, the two fishes, we bring it, Lord,

we bring it freely. God of transformation, would

you meet us at the altar? and transform our simple

sacrifices, the little bit we have to give, and

would you make it something that honors and glorifies

you, Lord?