2022 - Lifting Up The Standard 1

Let's get into the Word together this first Sunday of 22.

Amen, let's say this together Say, heavenly Father, you are so faithful to me, you're faithful to watch over your Word, to perform it.

It's the Word that does the work.

All I have to do is believe and speak.

Oh, what a covenant I have with my Almighty God that I can pick up your Word and say Inherit at the enemy and know he's got to obey in Jesus' name.

Amen, you can be seated.

Whoo, let's look at Isaiah, chapter 59, please, and we'll start reading with the first verse.

Isaiah 59 · chapter mention

I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but I'm assigning that as the homework on the first Sunday of 22.

Okay, I want you sometime today to read, you know, yeah, I don't.

I've got this.

Yeah, you've got time for the Word, read it all, but I'm not going to.

I'm not going to read the whole thing.

I'm going to read a pretty good portion of it.

Verse one Isaiah 59,.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear, for your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity.

Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue of muttered perverseness.

None calleth for justice, nor any pleaded for truth.

They trust in vanity and speak lies.

They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.

I know it's talking about Israel, but it sounds kind of like America in 2022.

I'm going to skip down now.

This is the part I want you to read later Verse 14,.

And judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth, afar off, for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter Yea.

Truth felleth and he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey.

And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor.

Therefore, his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness.

It sustained him, for he put on righteousness.

Now, how many of you know he's prophesying about the Messiah?

When no one could be found, jesus was sent to fill the gap.

He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head, and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak, according to their deeds.

Accordingly, he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies to the islands, he will repay recompense, so they so.

Shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun.

And when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, and the Redeemer shall come, design and unto them that turn from transgression.

And Jacob, saith the Lord, and as for me, this is my covenant with them.

Saith the Lord, my spirit that is upon thee and my words, which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed.

Saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.

Now let's look at verse 19,.

So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, his glory from the rising of the sun.

And then, when the enemy shall come in like a flood the new living translation says it this way the spirit, he will come like a raging flood tide driven by the breath of the Lord.

He shall come like a raging flood tide driven by the breath of the Lord.

And so today I wanted to give you a message.

22, lifting up the standard.

This is the year that we need to lift up the standard.

And lifting up the standard I mean I didn't really understand that until I got into the word yesterday.

Just give you a little background about this verse and how it came to me, because I'm going to pray this week.

I was going to go last week and the Spirit of God held me up, but between the holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas this song is my anthem.

I mean, I've been just giving thanks for my wife, thanks for my family, thanks for my ministry, thanks for this church.

That's you, and how faithful God has been.

Right, I think.

The week before Christmas the Spirit of God just whispered this little impression into my spirit and I lost it.

I don't look so innocent.

I mean you know that God has told you things that you lost and couldn't remember what he said.

But he whispered when the enemy comes in like a flood, he'll lift up a standard.

You know Isaiah 59-19,.

The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

And he said I've been a standard by your side and by the side of your wife and your family.

Why would you forget that?

I don't know.

I don't have any explanation or excuses, I just know.

It slipped out of my consciousness and I couldn't find it.

Have you ever lost something?

I lost a key one time.

I was living in Corpus.

At the time we were in Portland little suburb north of Corpus.

There were some houses in the subdivision near where we lived.

It was all foreclosures.

This is the mid-80s.

Builders from Dallas had come and they thought they were going to build what they built in Dallas in Corpus and it didn't sell and so they were sitting there, you know, and I saw this one house and I kind of liked it and I knew the president of the savings and loan that had the note on it they had foreclosed and had it listed with a realtor, had a lock box on the front door.

So I called him Because I'd done business with him when he used to live in Houston.

Now he lives in Corpus.

We had talked once before because I'm still in the real estate business.

I'm a developer now, not a builder.

But anyway I called him.

I said hey, I see you got this house listed.

I'd like to look at it.

I don't want to mess with the realtor, though I'm not going to go.

You know, whatever you do with the realtor is fine, but I'm just, I've seen the house.

I'd like to, you know, maybe look at it and see if I want to make you an offer on it.

Oh yeah, gave me the combination of the lock box.

You know, we went with friends over on a Friday afternoon, kind of late Friday afternoon, summertime it's kind of gets dark, late, you know, and we start looking through the house and it got darker and darker, went out on the side yard and they hadn't mowed the grass.

It was about a foot tall San Augustine grass and I lost that key and it's the only key to the house.

And now I'm going to have to leave the house unlocked all weekend and have to call the banker on Monday and tell him I messed up.

Oh, I was so aggravated and you know it didn't take long to start praying.

So when you lose something, you want to find it, don't you?

I thought about the woman that lost the coin and she swept and swept and swept the house.

Still, she found that coin.

She called all of them.

I found my coin that was lost.

We're having a party.

Glory to God.

I mean, I got down on my hands and knees and God is my witness.

I found that key.

Well, I found what God was saying to me yesterday and I was out on my patio First day of the year.

He just put it right back in my heart again, only a little more clearly this time, and I got a chance to study the Word of God.

You know how many of you believe lift up a standard.

See, all these years I've heard that verse for 40 years.

You know God's going to.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, god is going to lift up a standard, the Spirit will lift up a standard.

You think about a pole with a sign on the top, or maybe a flag?

That's what I think about Battle flag.

That's what I've always thought it was Lift up a standard, and.

But that's not what it means.

And then you know, word of faith, people, they just can't stand to give devil credit.

So they'd say, when the enemy comes, then they pause the comma there.

Then, like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard to get.

Well, it really, when you read the Hebrew correctly, it already says that.

It says he's going to, he's going to show up like a raging flood driven by the breath of the Lord.

See, you know, to me that sounds like a tsunami.

I said it sounds like a tsunami.

I mean, god's power is superior to anything the devil's doing right now.

He's brought a flood of evil.

He brought a flood of evil not for a few years, but for a long, long time in Israel, king after king.

That's where I just finished Chronicles, first Chronicles.

King after king after king, dead evil.

They did evil in the sight of God.

They did evil.

His son did evil.

They did evil.

They did evil, own and own and own, generation after generation.

And God didn't destroy them for a long, long, long time.

He kept talking to him.

He kept sending prophets.

They kept killing them.

Are you with me now?

He said all these years I've stood by you like a raging torrent.

No one could touch you.

That's really what he told me.

The night brother Osteen passed.

He said no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

As I was with Moses, so shall I also be with you.

And he's been with us.

He's been telling you I thank my God, he's been faithful to stand with us.

And so you know it was kind of an embarrassing that I had to tell my family on Christmas day I was trying to love on them and tell them how much I appreciated them and how much I lean on them and how proud I am of all of them, kids and grandkids.

But I couldn't remember this word to give it to them.

I'm late giving them the word, what God said about them, so it's better late than never, amen.

But this is a word for us this year.

Are you all with me now?

He's been with us as a standard See.

He's been with us as a as a raging flood tide driven by the breath of God.

So the devil brings a flood, but God sends a tsunami.

I said, the devil brings a flood, but God sends a tsunami.

So Isaiah 59 is a lot like America today.

They had evil then.

The God was so patient.

It was 740 years from Isaiah till when Jesus showed up in that prophetic word 740 years.

And during that time I mean you know the last 400 years they didn't even have a prophet.

God didn't even choose to talk to them anymore.

God gave up on them in that sense and didn't send a prophet for 400 years.

The only way they could ever get contact with God was through the prophet, and the prophet didn't have any till till John the Baptist.

He was the first one in 400 years.

Well, like you know, malachi to John the Baptist 400 years.

What was God Poutin?

No, he got tired of talking to ironheaded people that wouldn't repent.

That's why I know America's in trouble.

A few years ago, god said I want you to reorder all of your, your missions giving.

Your country is in trouble.

You're going to need to reorder some of your missions money.

And so we did.

I mean, we'd given and given to India for decades.

You know bunches of money, and at one time we were 80% of this one ministry's support, which, when I heard that, I thought, hmm, I don't like that because that means they're just depending on us instead of going out and raising more support.

And I know it came back to bite them when we ended our support.

But I had to obey God.

God knows better than I do.

I'm just the messenger boy, I am not in charge.

I didn't realize how bad off America really was.

I think we all realize now, don't we?

And this being a regional center, god told us to get our toe in the water.

God told us to get our attention back where it belongs, because it's just like in the airplane when the flight attendant says now you know if we shouldn't have a sudden depressurization.

That means a hole in the side of the airplane or maybe the door blows off or some nut job opens it.

We got a lot of nut jobs flying right now.

Well, there's gonna become a mask.

Fall from the ceiling.

Get that mask and put it on you first, and then take care of your child, your elderly parents, your seatmate.

You have to do yours first.

Why?

Cause you're gonna lose consciousness just like that.

You don't realize, but at 35, 40,000 feet, that oxygen is gonna be sucked out of your lungs.

It's not just that you get cut off, it's gonna be.

It's gonna be and you won't have any oxygen.

In just a few seconds You're out and that's it.

So that's why they instruct you to get your oxygen mask on first.

America has got to start breathing again.

Righteousness, who's gonna require it?

Well, god's gonna know.

God has a representative on earth, and who is that?

The church.

Amen.

It's beginning to make a lot more sense now why God called this church to do what it's doing, and I believe there are more churches all the time that are waking up and realizing we're not the only ones.

Amen.

So evil is flooding our nation.

Evil was flooding Israel, so much so that God said all right, you're not listening to me, no profit.

Then, right about the time, 740 years, the time of the prophet, the time of the prophetic word of Isaiah and other prophets, they all prophesied over the Messiah, israel so dead they couldn't even recognize their Messiah.

They had the word, just like we have the word, but they did not recognize him.

They had an idea of what he was gonna be like.

They just visions of grandeur.

He's gonna be this king, he's gonna be this natural person.

No, nothing like what they thought.

When he said he was man, they got so offended he didn't measure up at all.

So they had John the Baptist.

And let's look at Mark, chapter one, real quick.

I want you to see something Everybody say 740 years.

See, this is the Israel that Jesus was sent to.

They were backslid.

They weren't ready for him.

Listen, they didn't even care about him.

I mean, they want their version.

They want their version of the Messiah, not the real thing.

That's the way a lot of people are in America.

They want their version of God.

They want their version of Jesus.

They don't want the real Jesus.

They don't want the tongue talking church, the owl running church, the altar rolling church.

They don't want that one.

Oh no, that's not.

It, woo.

We hold them out of our church when they try, let's lift their hands.

Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.

Mark.

Chapter one, verse nine it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized with John and the Jordan In straight way.

Coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the spirit like a dove descending upon him.

And there came a voice from heaven saying thou art my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased.

And immediately the spirit coaxed him into the wilderness.

Tippi told him, into the wilderness.

This has always bothered me till yesterday.

Driveeth him into the wilderness.

What in the world is going on with that?

I thought the Holy Spirit was a perfect gentleman.

I thought that he would just lead us and that if we didn't want to follow he would just let it alone.

He'd just let us stew in our own juices.

But here it says the spirit driveeth him into the wilderness.

Other versions say to be tempted of the devil.

I mean, you know, the spirit wasn't a surprise to the Holy Ghost that the devil is standing around and can't wait to get his hands on Jesus, tried to kill him when he was first born, killed all the first born of Israel, couldn't find Jesus by that time.

Jesus is an Egypt.

I mean, he tried all kinds of things, he just wasn't able to get done.

So the spirit driveeth him into the wilderness.

It means cast violently, and really the same word that we use to cast out demons.

Same word Driveeth him, casted him out into another version, launched with a great wind, like a sailing vessel.

A great wind.

Think about the great wind.

Think about exactly what lifting up a standard means.

Lifting up a standard says I'm gonna send a raging flood driven by the breath of God.

I'm gonna lift up a standard against Satan and I'm gonna let him try his best to tempt my son every way he can.

And we know how that turned out, don't we?

Jesus said it is written he was tempted, but he did not fall.

See, if it wasn't a legitimate temptation, it wouldn't have meant anything.

He was tempted in our place, yet without sin.

I mean, there are preachers that are preaching that Jesus sinned.

What Bible are you reading?

The answer's none.

Just make it up as they go along.

No, we preach right out of the Bible, and when there's a troublesome word like driveth, I'm gonna look it up and find out what it means.

Same with standard.

I mean, I've been on all these for 40 years.

I thought standard was a metal pole with a flag on top, but no, it is a raging flood tide driven by the breath of God.

Woo, come on, let's lift your hands right now.

That's what Jesus was to the devil, that's what Jesus was to Israel and that's what the church is to America and the rest of the world.

Right now, it's time for the church to lift up the standard.

Yeah, glory to God.

Woo, hallelujah.

I confess, sometimes I scratch my head and say God, why'd you pick me?

Why do I?

Why do I?

Why can't I just have a normal church?

Well, this is his normal.

I mean, this is his normal.

What good is normal if it's not his normal?

So you know.

So just think about how many thousand.

You know.

I haven't done the math on how long from.

Let's just say how long from.

Let's count it from David.

How long is it from David to Jesus, some of you Bible scholars?

But it's a long time.

1500 years, huh, 14 generations, 14 generations, 14 generations, 14 generations, 14 generations.

And so God was already mad.

God was already mad in David's day.

Why?

Because they wanted his king.

He gave him the king.

Before that was Saul.

It infuriated God that Israel wanted to be like all the godless nations around them and have a king.

They wanted to emulate the godless nations that worship devils and they wanted a king.

God told Samuel to protest solemnly.

Tell them they're doing the wrong thing.

Tell them they're not gonna like it.

Tell them the king is gonna take all their money.

He's gonna take their kids.

He's gonna take their girls.

They're gonna take their boys.

They're gonna take their crops.

They're gonna take their best cities.

Tell them they're not gonna like it.

What do I do it?

Yeah, do it.

If that's what they, if.

They just warned them and he did, and they didn't care.

They wanted what they wanted, just like all those years later, 14 generations later, when Jesus showed up, they still wanted what they wanted.

Are you with me now?

How is it different in America?

The answer is it's not.

I wanna remind you that America's got a covenant with God, just like Israel had a covenant with God.

It's a land covenant.

The church has a better covenant than both of them.

With us, we have forgiveness and remission of sin.

But the covenant that America was founded on is a covenant that requires obedience, and if it doesn't have it, it has curses associated with it, which is what we have right now.

We have curses in our country.

We can sing God bless America every day, three times a day.

It doesn't matter why, because America has sinned nationally, as a nation.

I read the other day where the leading cause of death worldwide anybody wanna take a guess COVID-19,?

Nope, not COVID.

Cancer, nope, heart disease, nope, stroke, nope, abortion.

Leading cause of death all over the world abortion.

And thanks to Clinton and Obama, they exported abortion to all the nations.

I mean, these nations didn't like, most of them didn't like abortion, most of them didn't believe in abortion.

But it's all been exported and money has wrapped itself around killing children.

Listen, god's not any more mad at America than he is anywhere any place else.

He's an equal opportunity judge.

So I'm so glad that the church has been exempted from judgment.

Jesus took our judgment, but we have no excuse to stay asleep.

We have to wake up and start lifting up that standard and bring a mighty demonstration.

Are y'all with me today, pastor?

This is kinda uncomfortable.

Well, I'm just listen, I'm excited about what's gonna happen in 22.

Because I know there's blessings attached to obedience.

So, you know, here we go.

We've got, in many eyes, an illegitimate.

Well, we've got a resident, not a president.

Let's just put it that way.

He's a resident, not a president, and totally incompetent, as is his vice president.

I mean, they couldn't be two.

I mean, you know, laurel and Hardy, I don't know what you call them.

They're a laughing stock all over the world, even among liberals.

They just won't say it, they dare not.

They got a toe of a line.

So we think in that way, a lot of us are tempted to think oh man, I'm, this is really bleak.

I pick it up on my Facebook page.

People are really almost like hopeless.

Well, you know, god didn't surprise, they didn't catch him unaware.

I was.

You know, I used to love boxing until mixed martial arts showed up.

Then I had the best of everything.

I had wrestling, I had boxing, I had judo and jiu-jitsu and karate and all these different things and I just, I just enjoy watching.

It's a sport.

You might judge me Well, go ahead and judge me, but I'm innocent and I don't give a whole lot of time to it.

But I enjoy watching it, and so I was.

A couple of years ago.

I was watching a championship match between an American fighter and a guy from Ireland.

And the guy from Ireland is walking around like this it's, you know, real smart aleck and just dripping with pride and just I'm the hottest thing since and he was.

He backed it up in the ring and he was the champion at the time.

And this other guy had been around a long time, longer than him, and had more fights, but he had been beat up a lot.

But he'd won his share of fights and so they.

He had lost the first fight to him, the American challenger, but there was fight number two.

So it was hyped up pretty, pretty good.

And so the guy comes out and the first round was the Irishman.

He beat up on him pretty good.

But then the second round, this guy needed to get hit where he'd wake up.

I don't know why it was that I've watched him for years.

He needed to get a real good hit and start bleeding.

Then he would be ready to fight.

I don't know why, but that's what happened.

He got man, he got shelled in the first round, and so in the second round he came out and he started dishing it out and that Irishman didn't like being hit and he didn't like what he was getting.

And by the end of the second round he was on the floor and the American was on his back and choked him out and won the fight.

And the guy had to hit the mat, you know, to say I'm done, let me up, please, don't choke me out any further.

And so you know.

The announcer comes up, says how does it feel you were the underdog coming to this man?

Man, how does it feel you came in here and you beat the champion.

You're now the champion, the second, you lost the first fight.

How does it feel?

He said well, I wasn't surprised, stupid.

See, god is not surprised stupid.

He knows.

He knows what's going on and he has a remedy.

And his remedy is us, the church.

Oh, come on, lift your hands right now.

Glory to God, hallelujah.

We've got to get over this amazement.

We've got to get over this frozen place we're in, where we're intimidated, where we feel like we're just in the minority.

Listen, when God's on your side, you're the majority.

That's why we work so hard to get on his side.

When you're on his side, that's all that matters.

Are you with me now?

Glory to God.

So we're bringing a demonstration of the spirit and of power.

The devil brought a flood of evil, but we're bringing a tsunami of righteousness.

Now, one last thing I just want to remind you in September 2019, rosh Hashanah, right here in this building, god came in a very unusual way and laid out 2020, three months in advance.

He used the Jewish New Year as a launching point, and how many of you know God knows what he's doing.

He said you know, you're gonna look back when 2020 is this time next year, 2020's over.

You're gonna look back and you're gonna say this has been our greatest year yet.

Remember, greatest year yet, g-y-y.

So I challenge you to sit down and write down on a note card red envelopes, remember the red envelopes?

We had a big old bowl full of them up here and you wrote down what does your year, what is it gonna look like if it's the greatest year of your life?

What does it look like?

What health is gonna be there?

What finances, what relationships?

I wanted you to be specific.

What is it that you want to see so that you can say 2020 is the greatest year of my life?

Greatest year yet, and many of you did that.

And then I challenge you separately sow a seed, so we see it.

And Market GYY and many of you did that.

And see, was God surprised at the COVID-19 mess?

He gave us an inoculation before it ever happened, before anything was going on, before anything happened, we had this word from God September All right, then you go into the new year of 2020.

And the first inkling is right there, in January, and I start hearing about this virus because our mayor and our county judge, the Sandinista, go back to the communists anyway.

So they get out there and they're promoting Chinatown.

Oh, chinatown is really hurting.

Why?

Because, well, in China they've got this virus and people are afraid to come to Chinatown here in Houston.

And, oh, there's no danger here.

Y'all come on down here and get your Chinese food, get your low-main noodles, get all your Chinese food down here in Chinatown.

They were promoting Chinatown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They hadn't planned the Demic yet, but it didn't take long.

I'm just giving you a little history.

And then February.

By the time February rose around, what happened to February?

Well, somebody came and they made a trip to Houston to go to the barbecue cook-off at the Houston livestock show in Rodeo.

That's every year February.

Everybody knows that, and so it came from Mardi Gras.

Sick, one person, one person and the Sandinista woman shut down the Rodeo.

Shut down the Rodeo.

Do you remember that?

I'll never forget it as long as I'm.

And I saw people crying.

I saw people whining.

I didn't see anybody outraged like I was, and I don't really have a dog in the hood, I don't, I'm not.

I mean, my daughter got a scholarship from him a long time ago.

Go to A&M.

She won a scholarship.

President's scholarship there gave her scholarship money.

So I like that part.

I like the part where kids get their animals sold and they pay for their college and so forth and so on.

It's a good, charitable enterprise and it's a huge money maker for the city of Houston.

Millions and millions upon millions of dollars were thrown away over nothing.

God was not surprised, dummy.

I'm not surprised, dummy.

God is not surprised, he's not intimidated.

He has got the church in position.

Praise God, we're going to release a flood tide driven by the breath of God, and it's going to start hitting.

This year 22 is going to be a pivotal year.

It happens to be an election year.

I know God.

I haven't gone off and prayed.

I haven't got all the details yet of what God wants to do this year and I'm not going to share about it next week or the week after that.

So it's going to be a while, probably into February, before I have a chance to share more about 22.

Because we've got the Hankins coming at the end of the month on a Sunday.

Next Sunday and the Sunday after that we're having a special miracle Sunday.

I'm going to teach on Acts 19, how God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body handkerchiefs or aprons were laid on sick people and they were healed, and on people that were oppressed of demons and the demons left.

Special Miracle Sunday Are we expecting a special miracle to happen on that Sunday?

No, that's not what I'm talking about.

But I know one thing when you teach on miracles and you talk about miracles, you can have more of them, and a lot of you are new and you've never even heard of a prayer cloth.

You don't even know what that means.

Some of you might have been hit up by some preacher sometime.

You know, if you'll give me $100, I'll send you this holy cloth that came off the hem of Jesus garment or something like that.

No, this is not a gimmick, this is Bible and I'm going to teach on it and we're going to give you a chance to get you.

Bring some handkerchiefs and we can have some that we can give you little pieces of cloth, and you know it's just an extension.

In other words, I can't be everywhere at one time.

But you take a cloth I've laid hands on glad this is laid hands on and take it to someone that may not be open to come into church with you and have it hands laid on them, or maybe a spouse, or maybe a cousin or a friend or somebody like that, and you slip that to them.

Hey, a miracle can occur and happen.

So we're talking about that next week and the week after that.

But what I wanted to broach with you today about what God gave me, about lifting up the standard, is don't be intimidated, don't be surprised at what has happened.

God prepared us.

Amazingly, when I look back on what he said, it was the opposite, for millions, perhaps billions, of people on the planet had the opposite results.

Well, pastor, wasn't that good for me either.

I got the COVID and I yeah, you're still alive, aren't you?

Well, I got laid off.

Well, god's not finished with you.

Where's your faith?

God gave you a word let's get an agreement.

Don't throw it away.

It's the greatest year yet again.

Well, it can be a greatest year.

Listen, that word is really, it's all the time.

Every day ought to be the greatest day of your life.

Every day you wake up when you crack your Bible open and you start praying, it ought to be the greatest day of your life.

Right then?

Because?

Why?

Because you're walking by faith and not by seems like Walking by faith, not what it looks like.

Feels like.

Amen, praise God.

What did God do in 2019, that Rosh Hashanah, new year, jewish New Year, feast of Trumpets, ba-ba-ba-ba.

What did he do?

Well, he gave us his perspective on things.

His perspective was not panic.

His perspective was not intimidation.

His perspective is this is an opportunity and if you'll get my perspective on it, I will grant you my power and you'll overcome every obstacle that is gonna come your way because of this pandemic and all of the associated things.

Just look at all that we have faced in this nation and I just wanna remind you.

God gave us a power to overcome every bit of this.

It doesn't have to affect us personally.

And so then you've got perspective, power and then prominence, because when you start bringing God's power into a situation, you're automatically gonna rise.

You're gonna be promoted.

People are gonna see you, people are gonna know about you, people are gonna come to you.

Prominence is oh, I don't wanna be, I don't want anybody to know who I'm.

Well, that's not what, that's not.

You know You're not doing it for the purposes of being promoted.

You're just know that it comes with the territory.

What are you afraid of?

Are you afraid that somebody is gonna shoot at you?

Cause they will.

You'll be a bigger target.

They'll talk about you, the gossip about you, the lie about you.

They'll try to hurt you.

They'll try to disown you.

They'll listen.

When you get promoted, you're not everybody's friend.

When you have a financial breakthrough, not everybody's happy.

When you have your healing and you're able to testify, not everybody's gonna shout glory to God.

No, we've got we're.

God wants to promote us.

He wants to elevate the church.

Yes, lift up that standard and bring everybody to a place of choice.

Sylvia, if you don't mind, I'm gonna use you as a, as an example.

Sylvia was employed and they said she had to have a job, no job, no job, no job.

So we helped her and we've helped dozens of others with letters of exemption.

It's it's it's federal law that they have to give you an exemption and they, their legal departments, have figured out the way to stop it.

See, that's, that's just how they do, that's how the world does.

And so they tried to do that with Sylvia, and Sylvia was smarter than they were and had answers for every bit of it, and she got the chance to witness to her boss why she couldn't take the job.

Because I'm a Christian, because my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which I have of God and I'm not my own.

I've been bought with a prize.

Therefore, I glorify God.

It wouldn't glorify God for me to put an experimental thing into my body that we don't have any proof works.

I can't.

I can't do it.

Besides that, it's got a boarded fetus tissue in it Can't do it.

I cannot put that in my body.

They didn't have an answer.

They went right up the line and all of them looked at that argument and they got exposed to her argument.

In what's, in what circumstance would anyone have a chance to go up to the corporate top brass and witness to them about your faith in Christ.

Hey, our perspective needs to change.

I mean, let's not be victims.

Oh, they came back.

Yeah, okay, all right, but you got to be tested.

No, I'm going to be tested, I'll do this.

I'll do another test, but not the one up the nose, because it's carcinogenic, carcinogen on the tip of that.

It's not good, I can't do it.

So they went round and round.

Finally they did lay her off, but you know what?

God is picking her up, sylvia, I say, and right now I stretch out my rod, who else, who else has been laid off because of this?

I want you to lift your hand.

You don't stand up.

The camera's not going to be on you.

Father, I stretch out my rod over all of these that have their hands lifted up, that have been singled out for an unconstitutional punishment.

In the name of Jesus, lord, you will not let this stand.

Lord, you've got something better for each of them.

I thank you, father.

They're anointed with your favor.

I thank you.

They're going to find exactly what you've got.

I say God's got it hidden for you and you're going to find it, just like I found this revelation yesterday.

God is, you're going to keep looking and keep praying and God is going to show it to you.

Come on, right now, let's thank God.

Let's thank God for that, right now, let's thank God.

I mean, god will not be in your debt.

I'm telling you, when you lift up and you lift up a standard against this world system, god's not going to leave you in a lurch.

So, each one of these people that we confront with this standard, with this raging flood tide, each one is going to have to choose life or death, blessing or cursing.

They can choose righteousness, peace and joy and the Holy Ghost, or they can choose demons, disease and death.

That group, that group, that group, they all chose demons, disease and death.

You're going to watch it.

You're going to start seeing people.

You're going to see these CEOs kill over dead.

They're looking pretty sharp right now, but after a while, when they get confronted, when God's through confronting all these people with the truth, and they reject it, oh, I'm telling you I wouldn't do my heart any good to say that, but I'm saying God, since we're on His side, he's on our side.

So let's lift up the standard in 22.

Come on, lift your hands.

Lift your hands.

Glory to God, hallelujah, praise God, I'm excited about what God's doing.

I said I'm excited about what God's doing.

And listen your loved ones and your relatives.

They're watching what's going on, they're watching your attitude and when you refuse to knuckle and buckle under and get all sad and intimidated, you know that says something to them.

That says something to them.

And you know what.

You haven't been able to necessarily persuade them in words, just by your actions, and sometimes God can turn these things around.