Clash of The Kingdoms (Shield of Faith)

You're listening to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week, we hope you enjoy

this message from Justin Carpenter. I told Jay the next time she does transition,

uh, I'm actually gonna have her as the guest speaker. And she

just goes right on in for an hour and a half and be good.

No, that was good Wednesday, y'all. Wednesday, I came to the

church early and I had to come in here for something, and all of

a sudden, I saw a tangible fog of the presence of the Lord on

the front porch. And when I walked and when I got to the door,

I got hit with the power of God, and I got hit with

a knowing that we are very close to a suddenly of an intensifying of His

presence, and I mean like revival fire level, and I believe we're super

close. I think these moments we've been having over the last several months of

a increase of His presence is actually teaching us how to stewart his presence because

God doesn't want to visit. He wants cohabitation. That was the whole reason

why the Holy Spirit came. He said, I will not leave you as

orphans, but I will come to you the father, and I will make

our home in you, because he didn't want to just visit his kids.

He wants to be with his kids. And you have this amazing opportunity to

not just have these moments of touch points with God's presence. You can meet

with the Lord any time, day or night, because he's inside of you.

And I think you that if you'll remove your limiting beliefs that somehow you

have to be in a certain place at a certain time with a bunch of

people to encounter the tensity of his spirit, that that's limiting what God actually

wants to do and how he wants to meet with you. Where's where's that

young man? Is he still here? No? He had a hat you.

Hey, what's your name? Dustin? Dustin? I saw you like

a truck driver during worship And many times when you see things like that metaphorically,

it actually means that part of the ministry over your life, that God's

called you to be a supplier. So He's called you to be able to

move lots of things from point A to point B, to be able to

help things like resources. So that also means that God's called you to be

a connector in the Kingdom. And so God's going to begin to connect you

with more and more relationships specifically in the Kingdom. And then the Holy Spirit's

going to move on your heart and moments and bring people in front of you

and your mind's eye because you're supposed to begin to connect people. A big

part of the ministry that God has called you to is a resource ministry.

And I don't just mean with like literal finances. I'm talking about resources,

relationships, spiritual resources where people with certain giftings need to connect for destiny and

things of that nature. So bless you. Any of that makes sense,

I have, Okay, awesome, Well yeah, there you go. Very

cool. Yeah, it's it's it's legal to actually celebrate God doing something.

It's good. It doesn't have to stop because worship. You know, we

transitioned. I've got three pieces left on this series of Clash of the Kingdoms

and uh today is the Shield of Faith. And over the last over the

last couple of days, I've been able to to really dive in and lease

us out of town. And so I've been sleeping with my pillow next to

me the last couple of nights and she'll Yeah, I know you should feel

really bad for me. I will be She'll be back Monday. But you

know, I was setting outside last night, enjoying the amazing weather and sitting

by the fire and and looking at the stars and just spending time and praying

for y'all, praying for our leadership, praying for all the amazing things the

Lord's doing in this hour. You know, I know we've stepped into a

new calendar year according to the Hebrew calendar, and I I know there's been

a lot of talk about doors, which is their opportunities, right, but

also doors can be portals, like in Proverbs when it says wisdom stands in

front of the portals. It actually uses the word portals in ESV. Versus

the gate or door so many times gate door and portal. John in Revelation

says I saw a door that was an opening, and he was translated into

the throne room and had that crazy end times encounter. Right, but doors

of opportunity that are eternal will typically never come to you without warfare. Let

me say that one more time. Doors of opportunity, the doors, in

other words, your promotion comes in the battlefield, and if you don't get

used to being on the battlefield. You're going to miss a lot of promotions.

Typically, the bigger the battle, the bigger the promotion. When when

you find your come on, Troy, When when you find yourself being tested

in in the natural and ways that you've not been tested before, God is

trying to increase your favor and authority with men. When you find yourself being

tested and tried in ways. Spiritually speaking, God is actually increasing your authority

in the spiritual realm. And I understand that those those coincide, But you

need to pay attention. We need to understand the hour we're in, and

if I could take a snapshot of the season we're in, prophetically, it's

this, It's a Nehemiah hour. We have a hammer in a right hand

to build the kingdom, and we have a sword in the left hand for

warfare. And the doors that are in front of you, the opportunities that

are in front of you. If you don't want conflict in the violence of

the kingdom, they're gonna look like distractions and attacks versus an opportunity to be

promoted. Are you with me? This puny American Christian mindset is being crushed.

God is looking for champions, dread champions in this hour, and we

become champions by the battles we fight. So don't think it's a mistake that

God is actually increasing conflict, because God is the one picking the fight in

this hour. He's the one that has the last word. It doesn't matter

what the plans or men are wars, rumors of wars. It doesn't matter

what happens in the days ahead, the months ahead. In the big picture,

it doesn't even matter who becomes our next president, because it's not going

to stop the Kingdom of Heaven from advancing. He's been given a government upon

his shoulders without end. We are on the winning team, regardless of what

political preference people have. If you're in Christ, you already know the end

of the story. We know that there is a king that has resurrected from

the dead, who's deposited his spirit inside of us that guarantees the fact that

we will be resurrected, and he empowered us with his spirit, and he

has given us these tools and these weapons of warfare, which we need to

understand what our weapons are. You need to understand in this hour what your

gifting is. How are you gifted. How does your gift work through you?

How do you know when the Holy Spirit's moving upon you and wanting you

to actually minister to someone in that moment? That happens because you exercise your

faith, You exercise your spiritual senses to discern good and evil, and you

get well acquainted with the Holy Spirit. The hour of men doing ministry in

their own strength and their own wisdom and in their own marketing is done.

We are getting into an hour where people will call on their God and we're

gonna call on ours, and whoever answers by fire is the God. And

it's not in that moment. That's not the time for us to go,

oh, man, I just hope tomorrow works out, okay, that we

need to have history with God. We need to be comfortable with being stretched

beyond what we think we can be stretched. Anybody feeling stretched lately? If

all we do are things that we can accomplish in our own strength, why

does God get glory for that? We see over and over through scripture He's

like, all right, get in, Yeah, we don't need thirty thousand,

here's three hundred. All right, go say what you don't need the

world's resources you need God's resources, You need God's provision. This is the

God who opens your eyes and you take a drink from a well that nobody

else sees. This is the god who caused axe handles to float. This

is the God who took the prophet and levitated him by his hair, and

he went into visions. This is the God who Enoch walked with and walked

so close that he was no more because he took them. He captivated the

Father's heart with his passion and his love to such a degree he says,

I want you on this side now. So maybe your intimacy is a weapon.

Maybe it's not just peace. Maybe it's actually your intimacy. Maybe it's

your ability to not grow cold in this hour with your love. Maybe it's

your ability to become unoffendable because you know who lives in so of you and

he never stops loving. Yes, that's right, that's right. We need

to cry out that the Lord gives us eyes to see and ears to hear

in this hour, and that we're spending quality time with him in private where

we get like David and we say test me, m search me, try

me, because it says if you, if you, if you. If

you get tired running with men, how are you going to run with the

horses? And horses represent authority and power and can represent principalities and powers.

Your life in a pursuit of righteousness is supposed to declare to the principalities and

powers that Jesus's Lord. The very fact that you were baptized tells the principalities

and powers that Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior. That was your very

first act of spiritual warfare, after you said yes to Jesus you were baptized.

It was more than just getting dunked in water. It was a spiritual

act of warfare. You put yourself on the front line and the moment you

were water baptized and you said, Jesus's Lord, and I will follow him,

and I will declare the works of the Lord for my whole life.

I've never viewed church as a place to just feel good about myself. I've

always viewed us gathering corporately as a place to be healed, to be equipped,

and to be led into what I'm called to do. If we're not

seeing people wake up, get healthy and walk in the very purpose for which

God created them, then Cross Kingdom is absolutely failing in its vision and mission.

I judge everything by seeing hearts healed, the Saints equipped, and y'all

walking in your destinies, regardless of where that's at and with who that is

with. I think many of you are finding your weak points in this hour.

God is highlighting your fears, the places that you have successfully kept at

bay. God is intentionally poking in this hour because when you're on the battlefield

and there's cracks in your armor, that's not the time to find the cracks.

You need to know where your cracks are. In boot camp people,

I know some, there's some military people in here. Are you Are you

with me? Like like you want to know you have you want to have

a good idea where you're at during boot camp and if you're running a twenty

five minute mile, you're not ready. Are you with me? Paul understood

this, this issue of warfare better than probably any of us in this room.

You know when you are taught by the resurrected Jesus that you know and

I've said this before, Listen, please do not compare yourselves with Paul.

I've heard people, Oh, I've oh, I just I've got a thorn

in my side, just like just I got this thorn, just like Paul.

Y'all, Paul was given a thorn because of the great many revelations he

received. He was taught face to face by Jesus. Last time I checked,

none of us have been in the in the third Heaven, hanging out

with the resurrected Jesus and being taught. I'm not I'm not putting anybody down

here, my heart. I wish to God that we became such a threat

that we needed a thorn. I would love to have the revelation, the

intensity of revelation, of intimacy, I think, to a test of our

heart. When it comes to getting revelation from the Lord. What is our

first motive? What is our first response on the other side of the Lord

speaking to us. You revelatory people have to protect yourselves because when you're prophetic

in nature, you cry out for revelation. When you're evangelist, you cry

out for souls. Right when you're a shepherd, you cry out for shepherding,

so on and so forth. But one of the dangers is to simply

get into your prayer clauset long enough to get a revelation and then you blaze

and I and over the years I've been corrected in that, Like, Lord,

why aren't you speaking to me? He goes, because you're just gonna

leave if I do. I don't want to spend time. Yeah. See,

that's one of those issues of the motive of our heart that others may

not see around us, but he sees. He's the one that tries the

reins, He tries the motives of our hearts. So why why do you?

Why do you spend time with him? You know, the a sign

of maturation in your prayer life is you're going to find yourself praying for others

way more than your own needs. Let me say something. If God gave

you an assignment, it's his, not yours, not your I think this

is what I want to do, Jesus sprinkle it. But when it's really

him, it's his bill, and it says there's an abundance of provision attached

to the good works that he's called us to walk in. So we find

the good works he's called us to walk in, and then provision follows.

We don't have to manipulate, we don't have to triangulate, we don't have

to beg and plead and prod we can celebrate and give thanks that provision's on

its way because I'm doing the works of my father. And when you're when

you're in front of an impossible deal, y'all. Hello. We just went

from staring at four acres and I was like, that's good enough, Lord,

four acres, will put a seventeen thousand square foot building on there,

and we'll just build in the kingdom for years to come. He's like,

no, you won't. And then we go look at a property that's seven

hundred and fifty grand and I'm like, there's no way we can do this.

He's like, exactly. And in the day that the day that we

went to that property, I saw and the spirit the tabernacle of meeting on

the land and in an internal vision, and the tent doors were flapping in

the word and I and I knew the presence of the Lord was there.

So then when it said then, when we didn't get it that first round,

I was like, Lord, why'd you show me that? I was

like, I thought this was a property, why'd you do that? And

then all of a sudden, my wife has the Lord gives my wife a

vision. A couple of weeks after or a week whatever, and she goes,

I still think we're gonna get it. I said, no, we're

not. The Lord shut the door. We're done. We're just gonna hold

off for a little bit and just pause and we're gonna pray into this and

but that we're not getting that land. And uh, I didn't say it

quite that intense, but I was like, yeah, I don't think we're

getting it home. She goes, oh, I think we are. And

I'm like, she's been right and I've been wrong before. Hello, it's

called marriage, right, But no more than that, it's the Lord.

And in the midst of this, the Lord prepared the land, He cleared

the land, he prepared it for us, and he's like, Okay,

now it's time. And it's not about brick and mortar, y'all. He

told me from day one, you build the people, I'll build the church.

And my primary job as a shepherd is to feed and lead, and

I will always do my best in a place of humility, to lead out

front and to be heading into the direction, leaning into the place that God's

calling us, and not sitting back and telling y'all you go because we're pioneers.

And when you're in the midst of pioneering, you don't always see where

you're headed because you're in the woods. And as the woods clear out,

your vision increases. You know, you all know the story. The only

bird that is stupid enough to attack an eagle is what the crow. The

eagle pays no attention to the crow. When that happens, the eagle begins

to soar until the crow has no oxygen, and he keeps soaring, and

the crow passes out and falls to his death. So the next time the

enemy is jaw jacking you and your thoughts, just say, Lord Isaiah forty

thirty one, I'm waiting on you, because I'm going to mount up with

wings like an eagle. I'm going to soar. I'm going to get a

higher perspective, and I'm not going to worry about the enemy's plans, because

your plans are what matters. And up here you and I breathe well.

So out of all the pieces for your warfare, it's the shield of faith,

it says, it says, in all circumstances, take up the shield

of faith, which which you can, with which you can extinguish all the

flaming darts of the evil one. So what in the world is the shield

of faith? And how do you grow it? How do you strengthen it?

There are two Hebrew words translated shield in scripture, Second Samuel twenty two

thirty one. As for God, his way is perfect. The word of

the Lord is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in him.

He is a shield to Israel. First Hebrew word for shield is magaine,

meaning thick, scaly hide. Psalm three three. But you, o

Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the one who lifts

up my head. Psalms eighty four to eleven says for the Lord, God

is a son and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.

No good thing will he withhold from those who walk up rightly. What does

it say, some good things? No good things. It is a smaller

shield used in hand to hand combat. It's quick and easy to maneuver,

and it's tough. Its symbolic meaning is that God will toughen your skin when

it comes to personal issues with another. What they say will not hurt you.

Thick skin and a soft heart. Thick skin and a soft heart.

And when those fiery darts come at you, and you extinguish it with your

shield of faith. You're reminded in that moment that I'm not wrestling against flesh

and blood. My battle's not flesh. And the moment I lose my faith

and I believe my battles flesh and blood, I've lost the battle. The

second Hebrew word for shield is sin now, and it means to surround,

and it means to surround and pointed are prickly cactus like and Psalms five twelve.

For you a lord will bless the righteous with favor. You will surround

him as a shield. You know, for those of you that have gone

through a lot of betrayal, which is was one of the words of knowledge

earlier, you don't necessarily have a difficult time believing that God will protect you,

that he's in front of you. But you lose a lot of energy

trying to protect your back from betrayal. You're not convinced that he's your rear

guard. And so therefore you're going to find yourself yourself spending more time in

your past than understanding your present and looking to you your future, because you're

more busy about protecting your hide than you are advancing the kingdom, and we've

all been there. That's why it's so important that we get healthy. This

is also a large shield used for storming fortresses. This is the shield,

my friends, you need when the poop hits the fan. It is meant

to that's Hebrew for crapola. It is meant to keep massive numbers of arrows

or fiery darts from hitting you. It protects you from all angles. Its

meaning is that God will surround you, and if anyone gets near you,

they will gets near you, they will stabed or get prickled by God.

So in other words, He's got your back. He's got your back it

Psalm's ninety one, you understand, David writes Psalm's ninety one in the thick

of Battle. David's writing this, and he's being pursued by Saul for years

and years and years. Saul has broken his word over and over and over

and said, oh, you're a better man than me, and then the

next thing you know, he's pursuing him, and then he's pursuing him again.

And David, through that whole time, would never come against Saul and

take him out, even though he knew he could. There were moments where

in natural circumstances, even his own guys are like, take them. The

Lord has delivered him into your hand, and he said, don't touch the

Lord's anointed. The Greek word for shield is through ross, and it means

a large shield. Paul was telling us that in every circumstance of life,

God is what we need for every battle. It is very difficult to see

Satan's darts coming our way, and the shield protects us from that which we

do not see coming. God is both a large cactus like shield and a

thick, impenetrable shield for us, depending on our needs. Hebrews eleven to

one says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of

things not seen. So in other words, faith is substance, and the

shield is made of faith. So your shield will only be as thick and

strong as your faith. This is why David strengthened himself in the Lord by

remembering the names of God and the testimonies of God before he came to inquire

of God. Because it says we got to come in faith. Romans twelve

three says God God dealt to each of us a measure of faith and that

measure of faith that He's dealt to each of us is different than the gift

of faith mentioned in First Corinthians Romans ten seventeen. So faith comes by hearing,

hearing by the word of God. So if you want to build your

shield of faith, if you want to thicken your shield of faith, you

need to know the Word. You need to be well acquainted with the word.

You need to have a life of meditating and praying his word. Because

faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by his word. And so the

more you hear his word, the stronger your faith can grow. The stronger

your faith can grow, the thicker the shield of faith can be. That's

in front of you. They would take the shield, and Romans, like

the Romans, when they had their shields, they would take the shield and

they would soak it in water. So then when the enemy took the fire

arrols and shot it and it hit their shields, it would be extinguished.

Again, what does it say about water, Prophetically, it says be renewed

by the washing of the water of the Word. So you see all of

these metaphors tying back to faith in his word and faith coming from his word

David knew that he must come to God in faith, and that's why he

strengthened himself. For Samuel thirty six to seven, we walk by faith,

not by sight. Listen, y'all, if you don't have clarity right now

in this moment, if you have what you feel like is a tiny bit

of vision but a massive assignment with a lot of missing pieces, good because

that's everyone. Abraham against all hope hoped. Abraham went out being obedient to

the Lord to receive an inheritance, and it says he didn't know where he

was going. Promotion happens on the battlefield. Revelation happens on the battlefield.

Encounters happen on the battlefield. You want to encounter God like you read in

scripture, and you want to have these amazing encounters. If you're not walking

in obedience with where you are in this moment, the odds of these intense

encounters happening are very slim, because God is interested in relationship with you and

accomplishing something on this earth with you, not you just simply being entertained by

spiritual activity. Finishing my eight shots, I'm well acquainted with what time it

is. I'll be landing it in a couple minutes James five point fifteen.

It says, in the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the

Lord will raise him up, and if he's committed sin, ends will be

forgiven. There's there's I've said this more than once, but there's there's two

ways to deal with the scripture where the disciples couldn't cast the demon out of

the boy. There there, there's, there's. There's two different deals.

One was the focus of the type of the spirit, and the other was

the issue of unbelief. What Jesus said, and then he says, this

type only comes out by pur and fasting. We've if you've been around long

enough, you've heard me share about this before. He wasn't talking about the

type of demon that it only comes out by pra and fasting. He was

talking about the type of unbelief that kept them from seeing God's power flow through

them. Because the disciples said, what, why can't Why couldn't we do

this? He said, because of your unbelief. So keep things in context

scripture above. Don't don't fall into ice of Jesus. Keep your interpretive principles

correct and understand you have a context of scripture there, he said, because

you're unbelief. But this type only comes by prayer and fasting. You never

saw Jesus go, hey, boys, this is a really big flipping demon.

I'll be back in a couple of days. I'm gonna fast and pray,

and then then your head's coming off. No, he never did that.

Now, granted he had, you know, a lifestyle of fasting and

prayer, but there are there if you want to be totally rid of unbelief.

An unbelief in doubt will absolutely have an effect on the shield you have

in front of you. Fasting is not an option. When they got all

ticked off and the disciples of John were like, well, are just John's

disciples are fast and all the time, why aren't your disciples fast in Jesus?

And he says, how can they fast when the bridegroom's here? But

he says they will fast. He says they will fast, and we see

them fasting after Jesus was taken. This God, his way is perfect.

The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those

who take refuge in him. The Lord is my rock and my fortress,

my deliverer, my God, my rock and whom I take refuge, my

shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Y'all, we

have an entire diary of the life of David and the Psalms, and you

see him just going through the all. I'm going through the chronological order right

now of the Bible through a reading plan, and it's like you're you're in

Samuel, and then you're in Chronicles, and then you're in Samuel and Chronicles

and the Psalms. Then all of a sudden, one day you're only in

the Psalms and all those the chronological timeline of the scriptures. I love it.

And David, you see him pouring out his heart. You see him

and you begin to place these different scriptures and texts together, and you begin

to see a little clearer picture of those moments, especially when he is being

tried. The enemy did everything he could to try to take him out because

Saul knew. He told that. He told Jonathan, he goes, you,

son of a perverse, rebellious woman. Sorry, I always found that

funny. In the scriptures, he goes, do you not know, as

long as David is alive, you'll never be king? Saul knew Saul knew

the kingdom had been taken from him, and out of jealousy he opened to

a spirit of murder and wanted to kill David to try to keep the kingdom.

So the next time you fall prey to jealousy, think about it.

Probably not a good idea to stay there long, just saying saw, I'm

eighteen thirty five. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and

your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. The shield

of Salvation, Second Samuel twenty two to three, My God, my rock,

and whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my

salvation, my stronghold, and my refuge, my savior. You saved me

from violence. You know what's interesting. We hear all these amazing current day

testimonies, like I was just reminded of Surprise this book again when he was

at Out of Darkness. Was that the our surprise was the name of Surprises

book Voice in the Night. And you hear all these crazy encounters, you're

like, man, this is amazing, but did you forget the fact that

the dude's running for his life and there's a machete about to go in his

back. When he was transported geographically? Did you forget about so? In

other words, the intensity of the conflict in the battle matched God's hand in

his life. Don't expect to be transported geographically in your car because you're stuck

in traffic at a red light, all right, don't don't. Don't be

like I prayed for a parking spot and I have to walk. The favor

of God is lifted. It's not that way, y'all. Okay, I

just thought i'd give you that illustration. I'm landing now. He will cover

you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge. His

faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. You know. I've shared this story

and Lisa has too. But when she was seventeen years old, she was

a senior in high school and feeling depressed and not in a great place,

and was like on the roof outside of her house listening to nine inch nails,

which that's probably not gonna uplift your spirit in that moment, if you

know who that is. Then she was really questioning her faith and questioning the

Lord what was going on? And then you know, fleecing the Lord.

Show me a sign, you know, do something, Give me a shooting

star. Y'all ever been there where you're like, he has left me,

No one's left, and nothing happened, Just like with many of you,

maybe nothing happened either in that moment, you're like, she goes to bed.

All of a sudden, she wakes up and she sees all these fiery

red darts being shot at her, and then all of a sudden, from

the left side of her bed appears a physical, tangible wing that goes over

and engulfs her bed. She could see the details of the feather, of

the feathers, and all of a sudden, she even though all this attack

was coming at her, she was in total, complete peace under the feather.

Now give it, you know, little time passes, it dissipates,

and she's going, what in the world was that? And she's like,

I got a brilliant idea. I'm gonna get my bible. And then she

had to find her bible. Like maybe some of you don't maybe know where

your bible is. I don't know, hope not. But she didn't know

where hers was. It was collecting dust, and she found her bible and

she pulled what I call spiritual Russian roulette. Lord speak to me and open

the Bible. And she anybody been like, Lord, talk to me,

Uh, yeah, that's probably not the verse I should do. Uce let

me try that again, Lord. But in this moment, she opened the

Bible literally to Psalms ninety one, and she read Psalms ninety one and just

cried. And the Lord, men are there. And I mean there have

been times where I've opened unintentionally and it was exactly what I needed, and

that's what happened. But He's a shield. Behold our shield, O God,

look on the face of your anointed Psalm eighty four to nine. You

have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great

tewond Samuel twenty two to thirty six. Remember it is God, that is,

He's the one that gave us the faith. He's the one that gave

us the measure of faith. Everything comes from him and back to him.

And so we love him because he first loved us. So we're relying on

his strength and the measure of faith that he's given us. We simply stewart

that through intimacy with them. And I'm gonna, I promise, I'm landing

right now. This is what I want to finish on. What in the

world are the flaming darts? And this is only gonna take a couple of

minutes, And I shared this a little bit. Fiery darts were flaming arrows

tipped with flammable materials to be set on fire as a tactic of warfare,

intimidation and dread by saturating shields with water. Even those dangerous flaming arrows hit

they were extinguished upon impact by the wet surface of the Roman shield. But

what are these fiery darts? These are thoughts that come into your mind and

they burn. You feel like you cannot escape these thoughts when you're depressed,

suicidal anxiety, panic attacks. Those are fiery darts of the evil one that

have shot and they're burning in your mind. But we already have the answered

overcome. It's the shield faith that would extinguish it before it came. It's

knowing your identity, having faith in who God says you are, that extinguishes

that before it can actually have its way long term. And what are these?

These are lies of the enemy. It may be rejection, It may

be fear. What he wants you to fear, because he knows what you

fear you in power, fears faith in the wrong God. It's counterfeit.

Remember this isolation is the playground of Satan, the enemy. The very first

thing he's going to do is isolates you and get you alone, because then

he can take you out. When you're in a place of isolation, you

lose sight of who you are, who's for you, who's against you,

and you can open yourself up to vain imagination. That is not a good

place to be. Scripture is clear, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

We need each other. Your destiny is in people, it's not in

things. Your destiny is not in a building. It's in relationships. It's

in people. Some of you need to stop being frustrated with your destiny because

the people that you're called to influence have not arrived yet. And if you

show up before they do, who are you gonna have influence with? Okay,

let's stand and the Prayer Team, which I believe, responded to emails

and said, yes, it's time for you to come forward. If you're

on the Prayer team, please Now. I know we've had lots of body

ministry during the this time, and it's been amazing but if you're wrestling with

something, I want to encourage you, don't leave here wrestling with it.

The prayer teams are here weekly usually for a purpose, and so maybe you

maybe you were supposed to respond earlier, and all of a sudden, now

you feel the Holy Spirit saying, man I should have Oh Lord, that

would be your time to to be able to come up here and have have

agreement in prayer. So I'm gonna close us in prayer. Don't forget your

kids here Shortly, we have a volunteer meeting, so if you're serving in

the in the tribe, please stay. It's not be super long. And

otherwise, we love y'all, love each other, smile. It's a beautiful

day. You could be stuck in another state besides Texas people. Father,

I just ask for forgiveness on behalf of people watching from other states on the

live stream. We love you too. It was just a Texas joke.

Not everybody, can you know. Moving on, So Lord, I just

asked that we would look to the future, to the days in front of

us. Lord, with anticipation. Thank you for listening. For more messages

and other resources, please subscribe to this podcast or go to our website at

www dot Cross Kingdom dot org.