The Mighty Hand Of God

So let's lift our Bibles up, right where you are, right there in your living room bedroom, wherever you're watching, and let's just wave the Bible around and let's say this together say, heavenly Father, I may be sad, but I'm not gonna stay sad.

I'm making a decision to be glad.

I say I'm glad in the Lord and I'm strong in the Lord and the power of His might, and I'm able to face every situation with the Word of God and the Holy Ghost on the inside.

I've tuned in tonight by divine appointment and I have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to me tonight and I'll be a doer of the Word, not just a hero.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Peter, chapter five, and we'll read in verse five Likewise, you younger submit yourselves under the elder.

Yay, all of you be subject one to another Obviously Peter's talking to the saints and be clothed with humility.

Think about that.

Put humility on like a garment.

Be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care on Him, for he cares for you.

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, has a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished, and your brethren that are in the world.

And so I want to look at that verse there it says the humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, Hold your hand out.

The mighty hand of God, and that's what I want to talk about tonight, the mighty hand of God.

You know, man's hand is one level of strength, but then God's hand, what are you touching things with?

We have the opportunity, as believers, to be engaged with the mighty hand of God and not by might.

I like Zechariah 4-6.

Not by might, nor by power or by army.

Not by might, not by army, but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord.

And so the Holy Ghost upon a person is the mighty hand of God that makes all the difference in the world.

I mean when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you start walking in the spirit of God and cooperating with Him, and God is able to make His hand manifest in the earth through normal people, and this Bible here is the record of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Why?

Because the mighty hand of God came upon them That'd be another way of saying the Holy Ghost came upon them.

And just, I think about the prophets, and you know, elijah, in first Kings 18,.

He went up on Mount Carmel and Ahab was down there too, and it was time for the judgment to end and he had prayed that it rain again.

See, it hadn't rained for three and a half years.

He had stopped.

You know, the prophet had stopped the rain at the command of God and there was drought.

And so here he is with it.

They'd killed the 400 prophets of Baal and showed them up.

Showed up, you know, proved the false religion of the day was bankrupt.

And then, up there, then that rain came.

He said, oh, I see a cloud the size of a man's hand.

You better get down, don't let the rain catch us, it's gonna flood.

I've been to that place and they have flash floods out there.

You would never believe it, but that is the most arid, the most desolate looking place.

But sometimes rain comes in there and they get water flowing through there, 10, 15, 20 foot deep flash floods.

And he knew that.

So he said, hey, we got to get out of here.

And the Bible said the hand of the Lord came upon him and he outran the chariot of Ahab all the way to Jezreel, which is about 20 miles.

Praise God, the hand of the Lord can come upon you.

And so then, another example in 2 Kings 3, 15, the prophet Elisha was called by King Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, and he was conferring with a King Jehoram who was Ahab's son.

And they said come over here and give us the word of the Lord.

And Jehoram was trying to get him and he said listen, if it wasn't for King Jehoshaphat, I wouldn't even look at you, I wouldn't even look your way or regard you, but because of him, you know, bring me a minstrel.

And so a minstrel came and started to play and the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha and he said dig some ditches.

And this was a desert place, there was no water anywhere.

But he said dig some ditches, for thus saith the Lord, and he began to prophesy those ditches would be full and that they would defeat the enemy, because the enemy was coming against Israel as a nation and even though Jehoram was an evil king, the Lord granted a word by his prophet after the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha, and the next morning water came and it filled those ditches and when the sun rose, the Moabites were hiding in the hills and they were looking down on the encampment of the armies that were there with two different kings, kings of Judah, the king of Israel and they looked down on that and they saw it looked like blood.

The sun was reflecting off of the water and he says, oh, it's blood.

They've all been killed.

They killed each other, let's go at once.

And so they ran into an ambush and the two armies desubated Moab and chased them all the way into another country and spoiled them, just according to what the word of the Lord had come on Elisha, when the hand of the Lord had come upon him.

Praise God, in other words, the anointing.

Say the anointing, the anointing.

Thank God, we have the anointing within us, but we have the anointing that can come upon us and that anointing, I believe, is coming on the church.

In these days, right now, in the time of where things are so mixed up in our country and so divided politically, it's so bad.

I mean, they're talking about unity and on one side of their mouth and on the other side the unity is only if we do everything we're told by the left, otherwise they're gonna cancel us out, they're gonna take us off of social media.

They're gonna get rid of us.

That's what unity means to the left.

Well, praise God, they don't have the final say.

They don't.

And then another time we see this in Ezekiel, chapter 37, verse 1,.

Ezekiel 37:1

The hand of the Lord came upon Ezekiel and he said oh God, can these bones live?

And he prophesied to the dry bones.

And the dry bones got sinned on them and they turned into creature living men.

And I believe that's what they were living in.

I believe the church is rising up, and just a few years ago the church was fat and sassy, not paying much attention to anything.

And now the church is paying attention more than ever before.

And since God told me 21 years ago to wake up the church, I've never seen it like it is right now.

I see signs that the church is rising up.

The church is awakening.

The church realizes, hey, we've got to do something.

Our rights are being stolen from us and they can see the end of their rights to preach the gospel.

And so they're beginning to rise up and resist, and I believe it's gonna.

I believe God's got this all under control if we'll just listen to the Holy Ghost.

They've been so the hand of the Lord, the hand of the Lord came upon him.

And so there's another aspect of the hand of the Lord.

Sometimes the hand of the Lord has come upon and come against certain things and certain people.

For instance, when we read our Bibles in Exodus 9 and 3, that was when Moses was saying let my people go and Pharaoh wouldn't.

The Bible says in Exodus 9 and 3, that the hand of the Lord came against Egypt's cattle and their horses and they died of the plague and pestilence.

And so you know, when the church prays, the hand of the Lord can come against certain things.

Let's not rule ourselves out Just because we happen to be disappointed in the election and the aftermath of the election.

Let's hang on to what we have.

We've got the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Spirit is alive and well.

The hand of the Lord is active.

And then in Deuteronomy 2.15, it says remember, moses is talking to the second generation.

These are the children of the people that were supposed to go in and possess the Promised Land.

And they said oh, they had the 12 spies.

10 of the 12 brought the evil report.

They said we'd be not able and they persuaded Israel's men of war.

See, they had men of war.

They were all counted at 20 years up and up, and they already knew how many men that they had.

It was a lot of 600,000, I believe that Moses had counted 600,000 soldiers.

They were a strong army and God called them the army of the Lord.

And because they believed the evil report in Deuteronomy 2.15, moses said that the hand of the Lord came against Israel's men of war who doubted, and they died in the wilderness, not all at once, but over a period of time.

Every one of them died in the wilderness.

God saw to it that not one of those guys made it into the Promised Land.

The hand of the Lord came against them.

I tell you, unbelief angers God.

Unbelief, doubt and unbelief have consequences, and I know that's Old Testament, but it still has.

It has consequences today.

God wants us to have faith and patience.

And then also in Judges, chapter two, verse 15, it talks about how the hand of the Lord came against Israel.

Because of their idolatry.

They were practicing the same sins as the Canaanites and God's hand came against them and many of them were plagued and many of them died, and he gave their enemies power over them.

They were defeated in battle.

So it's that's a high passage to all Old Testament.

Well, let me give you one in the new.

Okay, let's look at Acts 13.

This is real interesting.

Everybody say the mighty hand of God.

I'll tell you, man has a hand, but God's got a mighty hand.

All right, acts 13.

And Paul and Barnabas are out preaching and they come across this governor and their verse seven, the deputy of the country, serges Paul, is a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God.

So here he is as one of the nation's leaders, but Elimus the sorcerer for so his name is by interpretation withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.

Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, on this Elimus the sorcerer, like a.

You know he's an occult.

He had them, he had a had cast a spell over that whole region.

He had a demonic hold, even over the guise, even over the governor, and he did not want the gospel preached, he didn't want these people to leave the kingdom of darkness.

And so Saul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and he said come over here, brother, and let's sit down and talk.

I'd like to, I'd like to tell you about Jesus.

No, he didn't say that, he didn't even try to get him saved, he said.

He said, oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord.

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season".

See, not permanent blindness, but the hand of the Lord is pronounced.

Judgment over this warlock, you could say Pronounced judgment on him, is that you're not the hand of the Lord's coming upon you and you're not gonna be able to see anything for a season.

And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.

And then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.

I think in our American Christianity, our westernized ways, I think we have kinda drifted away from the true Jesus and through the true anointing.

And I believe, in the season that we have right in front of us, we're gonna begin to see the hand of the Lord come against some of these people that are seeking our harm, that are lying, that are doing wicked deeds.

I don't know when it's gonna happen, but I believe it's gonna happen.

I believe that's gonna be part of the end time equipment the church is gonna tap into and it's gonna cause people to get saved.

It's gonna cause people to repent and judgment is gonna fall on the wicked and the evildoers Amen.

So when we look here at 1 Peter 5, let's go back we see some keys here to having the mighty hand of God operate in our life, and the first one that I see in verse six humble yourself, be clothed with humility.

So when you humble yourself, that's not thinking less of yourself.

Oh, I'm just a weak worm of the dust.

Oh, I'm just so unworthy Now.

That's not humility at all.

That's false humility.

Really, humility is not thinking of yourself, thinking less of yourself.

It's thinking of yourself less.

In other words, you're not the center of the universe.

You're more tuned in to other people.

You're more aware of their needs and more sensitive to people around you and do they need what you have, or you're willing to minister at any time.

We've got a lot of people out here coming off of this COVID.

Now suddenly I hear some of Biden's people are saying oh, we've gotta get back to work, we've gotta.

They actually some of the news media, even in the New York times I think it was buried way deep in the paper but they said you know, we need to get back to Trump's economic policies and get the country back to work.

Suddenly that their guy got elected presidency.

Suddenly Trump knows what he's doing on the economy, and I think the Washington Post said something very similar.

So these liberal rags certainly they realize that people are upset and they're not gonna go forever by being locked up behind closed doors.

They've gotta go back to work, they gotta go back to school.

We gotta have life, go back to norm.

We have to live life like we always have, and so but true humility is reaching out to these people that are coming off of this terrible pandemic.

They're afraid.

They're afraid of all these.

The news media is slanted in one direction.

We have no represent, almost no representation of Christian values out there at all, and much of the institutional churches are just religious and, frankly, worthless.

I mean, I believe that God already took the candlestick out of most of them, and so people don't have access to the truth.

And so, hey, you're one truth giver, you can help people.

I mean, be sensitive, see, that's true humility is not just always thinking about yourself all the time, but being sensitive to others so that you can minister to them.

That's true humility, right there.

It's not pride to know that you've got something to offer people that are afraid.

It's not pride to know that you're anointed to help others.

That's not pride, that's reality.

And so it says here in verse five another thing God resists the proud, but he lifts up and gives ability.

That's what it means to give grace.

He lifts up and gives ability to the humble.

So humility is not what we thought it was.

It's not being all hang dog and silent and hang your head and try not to say anything.

No, that's not humility.

God resists the proud, he works against the proud.

He will set things and set you up for failure if you're proud.

But he gives grace and lifts up and gives ability to people that are bold.

That'll offer the solution to someone's pride.

Can I pray for you please?

Or let me just say what the Bible says.

You know, just minister to people.

It doesn't have to be a big dramatic thing.

People need the word, people need the Lord.

That's what they need.

People need the Lord right now and we ought to be giving it to them.

So, and then, in verse seven, it has another aspect.

It says casting all your care upon the Lord, for he careth for you.

Casting the whole of your care.

I like to amplify it Casting the whole of your care once and for all.

See, casting your care is not done every day.

You don't get up in the morning and say, oh Lord, I cast my care on.

No, you cast your care.

You make a decision.

You see, a quality decision is a decision from which there is no retreat.

So once you've made this decision that you're never gonna worry again, oh, I have to worry.

That's my part of my DNA.

Well, you can change, because the Bible says don't worry, cast the whole of your care upon Him once and for all, for he cares for you, he watches over you.

So when we allow ourselves to worry and to fret and entertain all these tormenting thoughts, then really that is a form of pride.

I'm hearing some of you say this out loud.

What did he say?

Pride, worry is pride.

Yeah, worry is pride for the Christian.

Oh, wow, wow.

Well, because you're saying to God you're not good enough to watch over me, I've got to do it myself.

So move out of the way, god.

I mean, I know you said you'd watch over Him, but I don't see any evidence.

And I'll tell you what I think I can do a better job.

Isn't that what it?

That's exactly what you're saying.

You may not have intended to send that message, but that's the message you're sending and so when you look at it the way you should, then it's easy.

Then, one time you make this decision, one time I made my decision years ago when I got, when I heard some of this teaching at Lakewood Church, john Osteen brother, pastor John Osteen teaching this.

I mean all those years ago 40 years ago I guess is when I decided I'm never gonna worry again.

I've been tempted, I've been tempted to worry, but I don't let myself worry.

I mean, when I catch that, I catch my thought life, I catch my confession.

And am I perfect at Well?

No, but I'm better at it than I was when I started.

So it's a one time thing that you do.

I'm never gonna worry again.

That God told me not to worry.

I will not worry, and that's the ultimate pride.

God, you're doing a great job watching over me.

I'm gonna go to sleep at night Now.

We were in our first building and I'd been pastor in a few months and we had this couple that were coming on regular on Sunday and sometimes they'd come on Wednesday night, but they were mostly coming on Sunday.

And I don't know how he got my home phone number, because I didn't hand out my home phone number.

We had an office phone.

We answered the phone during the week, but I mean I try to keep my privacy and I mean I can't just answer the phone 24 seven.

You know, that's not my role, I'm not the prayer line.

And so somehow he got my.

He got I don't know who gave it to him.

Some people have my number, but I mean I try not to pass it out for this reason that I'm about to tell you.

And so here was a Saturday night, okay, and I'm taking my shower, I'm in bed, it's about 11.

And I'm just dozing off in the phone rings and it's just this guy.

Oh, pastor, you got to pray for me.

My daughter was supposed to be home 30 minutes ago and she's not home yet.

I don't know.

I think she'd been in a car wreck and he was just speaking all this stuff.

I said, like, wait a minute, cat, calm down, calm down, let's take a deep breath.

And so I interviewed him a little bit, you know, and I said well, let me ask you something.

Has she ever, you know, stayed out later than your curfew?

Well, yeah, a few times.

I said well, how old is she?

Well, she's 16.

I said, well, it sounds like she's a typical 16.

It sounds like she just stretched in the limits of your patience.

And I said I wouldn't just immediately assume that anything bad is gone.

You're talking to me and I'm talking to you and I don't feel any alarm in my spirit.

So I just pray this prayer.

Will you agree with me?

Will you listen to me pray, and will you agree?

Oh, yeah, so I prayed a prayer, you know, and I told Glenn.

I said well, there you go, we're going to go back to sleep.

I said I hate to say this, but I'm pretty sure he's going to call us back to tell us when he gets home.

An hour later it's 1230.

Oh, she finally got home.

She's okay.

But see, he's a baby Christian.

He doesn't know how to cast his care upon the Lord.

Praise God.

See, he could have gone to sleep.

He could have, you know, he could have.

Well, I don't know, I might not have gone to sleep.

I might want to hold her accountable when she comes home that late.

I might want to be a teachable moment for her.

To lose her privileges, that's back before cell phones.

But in today's day she could lose the keys and lose the cell phone for a while.

You know, oh, praise God.

So he is caring for us, the whole of our care, once and for all on him.

So Just to wrap this up and to kind of reiterate About the mighty hand of God, and it goes in two direction.

It goes, it comes upon us and then it can be used against, and we don't want to be the one that used against.

Okay, so when we want the mighty hand of God to come upon us, then we need to clothe ourselves with what humility?

Let's, let's, let's humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

Always.

Give God all the praise and the glory for good things that happen.

Don't take any of the credit.

Give him all of the credit, because he deserves it all.

If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have any success.

So all success is because of him.

So be be, be vigilant.

That's humility.

And then the Other thing, the mighty hand of God comes upon.

Faith and patience, see I, because faith and patience inherit the promises.

Not not just faith, but patience and Patience is.

Is that powerful Existence where it's not just sweating bullets, patience is you know you have that thing and and you're pay and you praise God until it shows up.

That's patience, faith and patience.

And that's when the mighty hand of God Can come upon you, so that, even in a situation where it takes a while for that to manifest, the mighty hand of God will sustain you, the anointing will sustain you and you can and you won't run out of strength.

You want, you won't be worn out, waiting.

You'll be excited when it comes, but you're just as excited today, before it came.

See, that takes the mighty hand of God.

And Then the last way to get the mighty hand of God on you is praise.

Notice when the prophet needed.

He needed the mighty hand of God to come upon him to prophesy and to give an answer to the king.

He called for the minstrels.

And I say in this church, many, many, many, many, many times I be Sitting down there and the worship team is, is in the middle of praise and worship.

Sometimes it's on a praise song, may, sometimes it's on a worship song.

But the Holy Ghost will follow me and I'll have a word that I know is for the congregation, or I'll have a.

I'll have a, something that I know the Holy Ghost wants to accomplish in the service.

I'll tell you, music is and praise, and all of that is so integral with a mighty hand of God.

So we ought to have a song in our heart all the time.

You ought to be singing to the Lord, making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Praise will bring the mighty hand of God upon you.

And Then the mighty hand of God comes against pride.

So when we're praying for our government leaders and they're filled with pride, the way that they often are so arrogant, arrogant enough to lie to your face, they know, you know they're lying and they lie anyway.

See, that's pride.

And and I tell you what, I have no problem Pointing that out to the Lord and letting the hand of the Lord come against these people.

So pride, and then another, another.

The mighty hand of God will come against worry and impatience.

Worry and impatience, oh, I wonder, wonder, when it's gonna happen.

Oh, I don't know.

Why has that happened?

They worry and impatience, the hand of God, hand of the Lord's, coming against you.

You're gonna find a lot of difficulty in life.

If you'll just turn that around and have faith in patience, god's hand will come upon you and not be against you.

Amen.

We think the devil is well, sometimes God.

You know we forgot that God.

God has has ways to make his, his will very attractive to us, and sometimes he has to just put his hand up and say you know what they're not ready for, what I have for them.

I'm just gonna stop them right there in their tracks until they figure it out.

You know he will be inquired of you if you find yourself not making any progress.

Why don't you find out what's going on, fast and pray you know that's always a good thing to do.

Find out what's going on.

And then the last one the way to get the mighty hand of God working against you is complaining, complaining.

I've never heard so much complaining about Trump.

All four years of the left wing has complained against him, falsely accused him.

Let me tell you something I believe the mighty hand of God is against these people and let's just, let's just not get all bent out of shape over what we have facing us here in the next while.

I know it looks a certain way, I'm not even gonna say how it looks.

But I'm gonna tell you we're not we.

We're not going by how it looks, we're going by what we believe and we know that that our God is on our side and when we do things his way, his mighty hand is upon us.

So let the mighty hand of God be upon you to do great things for the kingdom of God.

Amen, the mighty hand of God, come on, lift your hands and receive tonight.

Praise God, amen, cooperate with him and you'll get the anointing Amen.

I trust that that helped you tonight, encouraged you.