Do You Know God? | Pastor Loren Covarrubias

Well, I want to open with the Scripture we've been talking

about for a few weeks around here, Ephesians 514 Therefore he

says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will

give you light. We've been talking about how

important it is for us to understand about an awakening.

the United States of America as a country has had four great

awakenings and one of the reasons our country is so

blessed. I would say certainly the

primary reason is it because spiritual awakenings that

happened in the church began to impact the nation.

I believe it's so important that we would understand about

awakenings. That's why I've been talking

about it, because I believe what Jesus said.

He said you are the light of the world, and if you have a light,

don't hide it under a bushel basket, but put it on a hill so

that everybody can see it. You are the light of the world,

so let them see your light by seeing your good works.

And also he said, you are the salt of the earth.

At Mount Zion, we have especially taken this to heart

as God has called us over the years as a part of our vision to

understand this is Christ's vision for the church.

It has to be ours. So an awakening is when the

church does arise and shine so the glory of the Lord can be

seen upon us and then impacting the world in which we live.

And so it's important for us to understand about awakenings.

Now this verse tells us something very important.

It talks about awakening and arising.

Now the Bible tells us in the book of Ephesians chapter 2 that

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

you were once dead in your trespasses and sins and then

what happened is Christ died for you.

And when you became a Christian, literally you rose from the dead

just like Jesus rose from the dead.

And that's why we repeat the scriptures baptism.

How do you know that when you're alive you have risen from the

dead? You are spiritually alive.

How many can say today you're spiritually alive?

Give the Lord a praise. If you're alive, you will clap.

If you're alive, you will clap. Come on, let me see you clap

your hands. O you people shouting to God

with the voice of triumph. We are a lot now.

Not only is it important for us to be alive, we have to

understand when you're dead, you really can't do anything for

yourself. So that's God's choice.

And then we have to just respond to God's choice.

Now, an awakening is a little different than that because an

awakening is when you are sleeping, it says, because

you're already made alive, but you're not fully conscious of

everything that God wants to do in your life or fully conscious

of how you can respond to what God has for you.

And that's when we have to realize this part Race, in order

to come to pass, requires us to respond to it.

So an awakening comes because people have responded.

Now, again, in American history, we've had four great awakenings.

And the first one was when they preached about being born again.

It really led to the birth of our nation.

Good outcome, Born again, Birth of a nation.

The Second Great Awakening happened in the 1800s and the

emphasis then was on a Christian lifestyle and how important it

was to let God stir you to the point where you would say I'm

going to not only believe in God, I'm not only made alive,

I'm going to respond and my life's going to show it.

There was a guy by the name of Charles Finney who was what they

called a revivalist at the time, who went around the country

speaking about revivals. He believed very strongly that

we have to recognize our responsibility.

And so we actually said to people, you know what, You can

create a revival. You don't need to wait around

for God to revive you. Recently in the news, there was

about a rumor or reports about a revival in a school in Florida.

And you hear about these revival reports from time to time.

People want to run to the revival.

And if you're dead, you need to be revived.

Amen. But an awakening is different

than that because that has something to do with us making

ourselves available to God and just responding to what he has

for us. And so although what Charles

Finney did was called revival, it actually was awakening people

because his message is you are a Christian, what are you going to

do about it? And so he created the atmosphere

for a great change to come to pass and that's what I believe

God is saying to us as a people today.

Two weeks ago when I was preaching last, I talked about

my generation, the Baby Boomer generation, because that was a

part of what was called the 4th Great Awakening in our country

that started in the 1960s. Now that revival and awakening,

if you would, did not really have the greatest impact on our

nation. In many ways.

It seems like our nation has got it worse in many different ways,

but God showed me how well what happened in that time is there

was an awakening and people began to realize how important

it was to make a choice to follow God fully, even if it

meant changing churches. And that's what really happened.

And I shared how that in the 1960s, fifty percent of

Americans who went to church went to what was called mainline

denominations. But what happened to a lot of

the mainline denominations? Many of them were influenced

what was called the social Gospel in the early 1900s.

And a lot of them got more into social gospel than they did the

gospel. And what happens is they left

the word. Well, guess what happened?

The baby junior generation left those churches.

And so now they represent only 10% of our church attenders, if

you would. And it's important to understand

that sometimes you just gotta make a choice.

I'm gonna follow God, Amen. And so the awakening was

actually something that happened among Christians to realize

we're not gonna let our church go in the direction, we're not

gonna preach the word anymore. Big impact in that time was the

charismatic movement. Literally 500 million people,

they say, have been baptized in the Holy Spirit in the last

generation. So that was an awakening where

people out of many different denominations realize, hey, we

need to have an experience with the Holy Spirit.

So it was an amazing awakening, A little bit different, but I

believe that God used all of those years to prepare us for

such a time as this. Now it's time for an awakening

that's going to impact our world church.

And God is calling it say man. And I believe this is such an

important time for us as a local church and for each and everyone

of us Christians to realize God saying it's time to wake up and

it's time to let yourself be woken if you would, so that you

can awaken to the power of God in a whole new way.

He said awake, arise, and Christ will give you light.

And so receiving the light is when you receive what God is

speaking. That's what happened in the last

generation. People were willing to follow

God for more of the Holy Spirit, follow God if it meant I have to

do this if I'm gonna go to church that preaches the Word.

And now God has the church set up.

A lot of people look at those statistics and say, oh, the

country is losing their spirituality.

No, we haven't. We just the serious ones know

who they are. Amen.

And it's so important for us to know that because God's saying

this awakening time is upon us and we need to respond as never

before to that which God is doing in the earth.

Now I have shared this many times and I want to repeat it

again. From Hosea chapter 6, it says,

Hosea 6 · chapter mention

come, let us return to the Lord, for He is torn, but He will heal

us. He has stricken, but He will

bind us up after two days. What will He do?

Revive us. So that's the revival.

But this is the third day, this is the new day, and on the third

day He will what, raise you up, that you may live in His sight?

Let us know. Let us pursue the knowledge of

the Lord. His going forth is established

as the morning. He will come to us like rain,

like the latter and former rain to the earth.

I believe that I've been prophesying this for a long time

so that we would be prepared for such a time as this.

And that's why I have up there. Let's do this.

Let's be a people of the third day.

Let's be a people that say, God, I'm alive, but I want to be

awakened. I want you to give me light.

Amen. Lord.

I want to see something new that I haven't seen before.

It's what the Bible calls being established in the present truth

so I can move fully into all the things that you have for me.

Now this move of God is about growing in the knowledge of God.

He said, I'm going to come to you like the rain, the former

rain and the latter rain together.

What's going to rain upon us is a greater understanding of who

our God is. And this is so important that we

would see this because there's something that you don't know

about God yet that God's going to show you.

I remember and I was just a kid hearing them say in church, you

need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So I'm like, Amen, I want to do that.

Well, in time I found out there were a whole lot of people who

responded to that by having a personal experience, but they

never built a relationship. Well, for me, the relationship

was everything and partly was out of need.

I needed God and I wanted every bit of him that I could.

And truthfully, I've been on a journey all these many years and

even to this day, I can say it's a growing relationship.

And I really believe there's something happening today that

wasn't possible for me or or anybody else.

But now God saying it's the day, it's the time, it's the season.

Stir yourself to respond to God and let Him raise up this next

generation that's going to be awakened and have an impact on

our country and our community and our families as never

before. It's the time church.

Amen. Growing in the knowledge of the

Lord, that's so vitally important.

In First Corinthians chapter 13 it says when I was a child, I

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a

child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Right now we see in the mirror dimly, but then what?

Face to face now I know in part and then I shall know just I

also am known and now abide faith, hope, love these three.

But what the greatest of these is love.

How do you know God is love? And that's important for us to

understand. And we have to know what Jesus

said. The whole sum of the law and the

prophets was love the Lord your God with all of your heart and

your neighbor as yourself. So there's a new dimension of

love that we're going to walk in, in our relationship with God

and also in our walk with each other.

Now, in order to get there, we have to lay aside immature

perception. Now, this is very important

because when you are born and you're just a little child

having no knowledge, no real experiences, your perception of

your world is certainly not exactly as it should be.

And often times that's why you're more motivated by things

like fear and security needs because, well, what do you know

about life? You just know that you need your

parents and you need somebody to take care of you.

But as you mature and you begin to grow in the natural, so you

become aware of the fact that life isn't like you once

perceived it, but as you grow and develop, it changes your

perception. Now, the same thing is true or

should be true as Christians. If you're growing in your

relationship, what is going to change is your perception.

The way you look at the world, the way you look at God and the

way you look at yourself. And this is very important

because what it says there, it says right now, and this is the

apostle Paul speaking about this a very long time ago.

He said, well right now you're looking in a mirror and it's

kind of like dim. One day you'll come to the point

where you'll see God face to face and not only will you see

him as he is, but you'll be known as you are.

Now. This is so important to

understand because when you're moving in God and your knowledge

of him begins to grow and you begin to see him more clearly,

guess what happens? You become more the person that

you were called to be, the person that you were known to

be. And so there's something that's

transformative in our walk with God, that's transformative in

our life, and that's what God is calling us to today.

And just like the scripture in Hosea talks about seeing God

face to face, something that you'll know of him, something

that you'll experience of him that you never knew before.

And that's why this verse in Daniel Chapter 11 is so vital,

Daniel 11 · chapter mention

important because it talks the top about a time of great

persecution and struggle for the children of Israel in this

particular case. And then he says those who do

wickedly against the covenant, he will corrupt with flattery.

In other words, there will be a king that's going to use his

influence to get the people to turn from God.

But the people who what know their God, this is very

important. Those who know their God shall

be strong and they will carry out exploits.

That means they're going to do amazing things, supernatural

things, church. That's where we're called right

now. Those are the people who

understand, shall instruct many, yet for many days they shall

fireball the sword and flame by captivity and by plundering.

In other words, it's going to be a desperate time.

But if you turn yourself to the Lord, you're going to be able to

know Him in a way that you've never known Him.

It's not only going to make you strong, but it's give you

understanding so much so that you're going to help other

people get through those times. And that's why I said in many

ways that the darkness of this time is quite dark.

But most importantly is we're in such a transformative time.

There's so many changes going on in the world.

And I believe that God is behind them because he'd said to me

many years ago, get ready because I'm going to shake

everything that's going to be shaken.

It can be shaken and it's not going to be the way it used to

be. So be prepared because I'm at

work, says the Lord. Maybe even in your own personal

life, there's a time of shaking. God wants you to know he is

still the Lord of your life. Amen.

And So what we have to do is look to him.

Now what I put up here is 2 words and that is knowledge

versus acquaintance. Now this is where the maturity

level comes in. You can have an acquaintance for

net many, many years and never really get to know them because

you might see their life, you might see their actions.

But if you're basing everything you see upon your perception,

you're not really going to get to know the person.

You're going to see them as you see them.

You'll see them based on your life experiences, based upon

your knowledge, and so they will be an acquaintance, but

everything you know about them will be from your observation,

and you might not even know the person at all.

That's just like when two people get married and they begin to

develop a relationship. How do you know?

You get to know each other over time and it's more than just an

acquaintance, although some people just stay distant from

other people. But God says don't just be an

acquaintance, get to know each other.

This is such an important word in the Old Testament.

The Bible says that Adam knew Eve and Shubar Cain because the

word know and knowledge in the Old Testament certainly should

be seen in the New Testament has to do with something that's more

about intimate experience. And with that comes

understanding. So we can have understanding of

God. We can have understanding of

ourselves, we can have understanding of other people,

but we have to be willing to allow ourselves to be taken to a

place that really is above where we are right now.

And the world needs you to be who God has called you to be.

The world needs Mount Zion to be everything that God has called

us to be. And I know we will because He is

faithful who has called us. Amen, Church.

And I know that just as God's working in Cuba right now, and

he certainly did in El Salvador, he has planted us in those

countries as well as Mexico. Because I tell you, there is

something going to happen in the whole world.

The greatest harvest we've ever seen is going to begin to come

forth. Amen, Church, But it's a people

who are strong and who have understanding that are going to

do the exploits that are so vitally important in this great

day of the visitation. Now look what it says here in

Genesis 1. Then God said, let us make man

in our image and according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds

of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over

every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in His own image.

In the image of God. He created Him, male and female.

He created them. I put over here, we are called

to be God's partners and we are, believe it or not, a perfect

match. Why is that?

We were created in His image and in His likeness.

God decided He wanted to have some partners and He created us

with a specific purpose so that we could be His partners.

To me, that's such an awesome thing to think about.

If you really do believe in God and recognize that He has called

us to be His partners and that we are a perfect match if we'll

let ourselves grow into it, God says we're going to see some

awesome things. Now it is important to note in

Genesis 1 it says in the day that He created them, He created

them male and female. Now the reason that's important

to understand is because both male and female attributes

represent to us certain aspects of who God is.

We don't have a lot of time today to go into it, but of

course, chapter 2 of Genesis says that God created Adam and

he was alone and God said I'm going to create a helper for

him. And so he gave him a helpmate by

the name of Eve. Now, when you go into the New

Testament in the book of Ephesians chapter 5, it tells us

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

that's a picture of a natural thing that can teach us a lot,

but it's also representing to us about how God wants to have a

people in relationship with him. It's a picture of the bride of

Christ. So as partners with God, there's

something that we do together, but there's also the aspect of

it that's relationship. I remember a few years back I

was reading a book because I tried to be informed with what's

happening, all the different moves of God in the world or

whatever. In the Church of Growth

movement, they said if you want your church to grow, don't talk

about relationships. Men don't like to hear about

relationships. Just talk about what you're

going to do. Don't talk about relationship.

Well, I hate to tell you, we're going to preach the Bible here

at Mount Zion and we're going to tell all Christians we're called

to be the sons of God. That's a male role if you would.

But we're also called to be the bride of Christ.

We're supposed to be lovers of God and partners of God.

So how, you know, we need the whole thing.

And so in order for us to walk in the fullness of what God has

for us, certainly we need to know God and who he is and need

to know he has made us as a perfect match if we will let

ourselves to fulfill his purposes in the earth.

Sometimes people think, well, I, I, that Christian thing don't

work for me. If you give it some time, it

will. If you let God show you who you

really are, it will. And if you let God show you who

he really is, it will. We have to make the choice.

Amen. Now having said all that, I want

to go to the opening scriptures from Genesis chapter 1 to share

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

with you something very important about God.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form, avoiding darkness was on the

face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the

face of the waters. Now one of the things, and I

talked about this one time last year, I don't even remember the

context of the sermon. I talked about the gap theory,

which is a part of that verse. In the beginning God created the

heavens and the earth, and then it says and.

There was it was filled with emptiness and void and darkness

was upon the face of the deep and God was hovering over that

situation. Now this was called the gap

theory and it's something I was taught when I took Understanding

God when I was 12 years old. It was a part of our book and it

was very common to be taught the school filled Bible, which most

everybody I knew as a kid who went to a Baptist Church had a

school filled reference Bible. And in the Pentecostal church we

often times had a date reference Bible.

And both of these taught the gap theory.

Now the gap theory is OK, God started creating.

There was a gap where he came and he's looking at the earth

and it's covered with water and darkness is upon the face of the

deep. And that's when God begins to

say, hey, I'm going to do something about this.

And that's when the rest of the situation takes place.

So the gap theory allows for the fact that the earth could be

very, very old. We don't know how old, but all

we know is, well, it's been around a long time and the Bible

doesn't tell us where in the beginning was.

Now, I was in the early 60s, I guess you would call it.

The time frame when it most happened is a guy wrote a book

on the Genesis flood, talking about the flood of Noah.

And he was a person who had scientific background, science

background, and he saw a lot of people being swayed by

evolution. So in his mind, we had to have a

scientific perspective of creation, and he developed what

was called the young earth understanding of creation.

Now, a lot of people believe this today, and they promote the

concept and they almost make it sound like if you're really

spiritual, you're going to believe in the young earth

theory because they think you believe in the old earth simply

because you have been swayed by evolution.

You want to be able to have the allowances for what the

scientists are saying about evolution.

That's not true whatsoever. The gap theory was the

predominant theory, I should say or understand of the Bible until

the 1960s when the young earth became a bigger of presentation

out there in the body of Christ. Like I said, I I learned about

the gap theory and understanding God.

I've lived through 4 trends late or editings or re issuance of

the book if you would, and the most recent actually has the

young earth description in it. And when we first got I thought,

well, it doesn't matter. You know, it's kind of like a

theory either way. But now I feel like God said,

no, wait a second. You got to understand something.

Because if you try to respond to science, to come up with an idea

to satisfy them, you might miss out on who your God is because

you need to know something about God.

And I'll explain why this is important to us.

And so I believe it's very important that we'd understand

there is an old earth. You want to disagree with me,

that's OK too. But there's something you need

to learn about God in which I'm going to share with you today

that I believe is very important.

But either way, the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God was

hovering over the waters. What was he doing while he was

contemplating, if you would, what exactly He was going to do?

As these verses unfolded, we understood what He did.

But I want you to know that God is a God of contemplation.

You could say that he's a thinking God, and we are created

in the image and likeness of God.

But how, you know, we also think too.

And I think it's important for us to understand how God does

indeed give us the capacity to think.

And he wants us to be a people who have a contemplation side to

who we are. So we're just really thinking

about things, but more than just thinking, using the word

contemplation as a dimension to it because it's not just about

out the mind, it's about the Spirit.

And that's where this next verse the Scripture comes in and

explains it more fully. First Corinthians chapter 3

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

says, For God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.

For what the Spirit Speaking of the Holy Spirit searches all

things, just the deep things of God.

So what's the Divas part of God's thought process and

contemplation? It is the Holy Spirit.

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the

man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things

of God except the Spirit of God. That's why it talks about the

Spirit of Lord hovering upon the face of the waters.

Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the

Spirit who is from God, that we might what know the things that

have been freely given to us by God and how are we going to know

them? The beginning says, well,

they're going to be revealed to us by the Spirit.

How many know? We need the Spirit to guide us.

We have the Word and we have the Spirit and we need to see them

both. Now this verse is telling us the

deepest part of God's contemplation is His spirit.

And we were created in His image and likeness.

We are bodies, soul in spirit. So we are triune in who we are

as well because we are body, soul in spirit.

But a lot of people don't understand how important the

spirit of man is. Most people are not aware of

their human spirit. But the Bible tells us in the

book of Job there is a spirit in man, the God Brother inspiration

of God gives him understanding. According to the Bible, the

deepest part of your thought processes should not be your

mind, but it should also include your human spirit.

And of course, that's a whole nother lesson altogether, but it

also should be with communion to the Holy Spirit.

That's why the Bible speaks in the book of Psalms, deep calling

to deep, because that's the level of communication that God

wants to have with us. It is a spiritual level.

It is a contemplation that God has given us the capacity for

that we need to really begin to tune into in this day.

So God is a contemplation, contemplating God, and we should

be that kind of a people because we are created in His image.

Now look what it says here. Then God said, let there be

light, and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was

good. God divided the light from the

darkness. God called the light day and the

darkness He called night. So the evening and the morning

were the first day. Now first thing I want to

mention about this is that God is a proactive God.

So after he's contemplating, he becomes a God of action and he

speaks, let there be light. Now I also want to point out

verse 5 because this is a very important understanding of God

because it says that God called the light day and he called the

darkness a night. Now this is a very important

observation because God is a God of decisive action.

But as we're interpreting the Scripture, how many know we

should see it through God's perspective and not our own?

Again, when it comes to young earth theories, a lot of people

get all tied up on the idea. Where were those six days of

creation literal days, or were they eras or whatever?

Well, there's one thing that that Scripture tells us is when

God decided what was the evening and the morning the first day.

His interpretation is a little different than ours because He

called the night or the darkness.

He called that night and He called the light day.

Now, of course we know about night and daylight, but that's a

different than our interpretation of this.

And that's why I want to point out this next verse of Scripture

because it says, and God said, let there be lights in the

firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night.

Let them be for signs and seasons for days and years, and

let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give

light on the earth. And it was so then God made two

lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light

to rule the night. He made the stars also.

So again, the evening in the morning were the 4th day.

But what was defined as the evening in the morning?

Well, if you'll notice here and you're reading this, how you

know, this is describing our solar system and it was created

and set in order on the 4th day. Now this is important to

understand because it gives us a deeper understanding about God

because God's sense of time is different than ours.

For you, a day is the earth rotates in a 24 hour cycle and

that's a day to us, it goes around the sun in a year's time.

So that sets our seasons and all the different kinds of seasons

that we have depending on where you're living.

But how? Let me understand that it wasn't

until the 4th day that our concept of time was even put

together. Can you say many of that?

I'm just reading the Bible because you need to understand

something that God's sense of time is so different ours.

And if you really want to know God, you'll let yourself learn

this. Think about Eve in the garden of

Eden. God told me not to be the true

of knowledge of good and evil. They disobey God, God kicked

them out of the garden. Then he began to speak judgments

but also hope because he prophesied even he said the seed

of the woman is going to put Satan under her feet basically

now how many know if you were even you heard that prophecy

you're like I'm going to have a kid.

I'm ready to put my feet on serpent.

So the very next chapter, her and her husband have a kid.

But guess what? Those twins were not the ones

who are going to be the seed that would put Satan under their

feet. As a matter of fact, that

prophecy wouldn't come to pass for 4000 years.

How do you know if he would have said thus?

Saith the Lord. You're going to have a seed

that's going to crush Satan under her feet 4000 years from

now. She's like, who cares what's

going to happen in 4000 years when Jesus Christ was on the

earth when he left, he left in a cloud and he said the Angel said

he's going to come back just the way he left.

And before that even happened, the disciples were saying, when

are all these things going to happen?

And Jesus like it's not for you. The times in the season, how do

you know if he would have answered that and said, well,

I'm going away. It's going to be at least 2000

years before I come back. They would have been a little

discouraged. Come on, even today people are

saying Jesus is going to come, Look how bad the earth is, Jesus

is going to come. How many know?

Everybody's wanting to get out of here.

And I was like, I have a job for you do is the job done?

But the important thing I'm going to point out that this is

God's time frame. I received the baptism of the

Holy Spirit when I was 17. Immediately I began operating

gifts of the Spirit, prophecy, etcetera.

And I knew I had a call in my life and I was really looking

forward and God was speaking to me some things he was going to

do. I was getting prophecies about

what he was going to do. And I'm so excited about it.

And I remember once hearing a sermon about Joseph.

He was 17 when he was sold into slavery.

He wasn't. It wasn't till he was 30 that he

became the second to the Pharaoh and the dreams that he had came

to pass. Now think about that.

So I was thinking about that. I'm thinking, OK, God, this

might take 13 years. I might be 30 before I see all

these things come to pass. I'll be an old man is what I was

pretty well thinking at the time.

Now, 30 is a kind of a funny year because when you turn 30,

all the sudden you look at your life and think, I'm not a kid

anymore, I'm a grown up. And so it's a kind of funny

time. And then of course, you're

moving through the 30s, so you're turn going to turn 40.

And usually when you turn 40, you think, Oh no, I'm going to

be over the hill. I had a 40th birthday party to

celebrate the passing of my life.

Hallelujah. A couple years ago, I had the

30th anniversary of my 40th birthday party and I'm still

here. Amen.

Hallelujah. But I want to tell you

something. When you're a Christian, you're

not going over a hill, you're climbing a mountain.

Can you say Amen to that church? And I'm still climbing that

mountain. And I remember when I was a kid

how God gave me promises and God spoke to me things in church.

Some of those things I'm still looking for.

But the most important motivation in my life has always

been I want to have everything in God that I can possibly have.

And so I'm going to climb. And I'm going to climb because

guess what? I know I'm still here.

So there's something more for me.

I'll be turning 72 in April and believe it or not I've been

excited about it lately thinking about wow just think I'm going

to be 72. I used to always hear people

talk about getting old, how they didn't like getting old.

And I always use the joke and say well you shouldn't mind

getting old when you concerned, consider the alternative.

Amen. I don't like to tell that so

much anymore because I know some people that have passed along so

I don't think it was funny as I used to anyway.

But I do feel with everything within me that God has me here

for a purpose. And I'm pressing on to the mark

of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And this Wednesday, and I'm going to be talking about a

mountaintop experience. I really believe that God says,

Zion, you're ready for this mountaintop experience.

And so I'm going to believe that God's going to do something

supernatural in our lives if we're willing to let ourselves

be awakened and move into a new level in God Church.

There's something happening and available right now that's never

been available before. Amen.

And that's why we've got to realize my time and his time are

not the same. But what I do need to do is I

need to keep pressing up and going up the mountain.

I remember years ago going to Yosemite National Park, and it's

amazing because you kind of go like through a tunnel as you're

going into the valley and all of a sudden you see El Capitan.

It's this amazing mountain that's solid rock.

And I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's a crazy, amazing thing.

Every year after that, when I'd go to the church to minister

that, I'd always take somebody with me because I'd said, you

got to go see Yosemite. It's an amazing place.

And you can look up there and there'd be little specks because

there's people that are climbing this mountain, getting all the

way to the top in church. Sometimes I feel like I'm at the

top of that mountain because guess what?

How do you know when you're at the top of the mountain, you're

going to be kind of wore out. You're going to be running out

of strength. But when you look back and say,

wow, look how far I've come and you look at the time to say,

wow, look where I'm going to keeps you moving.

Amen, church, because God's calling us to the mountain and

there's something on the mountain that God has for each

and every one of us. And on Wednesday I'll talk about

different people that make out the mountain.

It's time for us, church, to understand there's something in

God that we've never experienced before.

And that's why we have to know about God's time versus our

time. Can you say Amen and why We have

to realize that we serve a timeless God.

And because he's a timeless God, we do have to understand that

concerning him, but also realize that we just got to keep moving

up the mountain because awesome things are going to come to pass

as we do. And that's why I put up here his

Kingdom versus our world. When I was a young preacher,

really, I used to always share my testimony and say my great

testimony isn't not how big God is, but how that big old God

that we serve became small enough to come into my life

because I was a little introverted kid.

I was an anxious kid. I had a large family.

So to me that was the biggest world I needed.

I was just that kind of a person, small world thinking

whatever, until I received the Holy Ghost and God decided me

taking out of my small world into something different.

But that was always my testimony until one day somebody gave me a

word and they said, now remember your testimony.

It's a good testimony. But remember God came into your

little world to take you into his big world.

And how many know when Jesus came in, preached the gospel, he

said repent for the Kingdom of heaven was at hand.

He was saying to people, God has a world.

Do you want to get in his world or do you want to stay in your

world? Your world might be comfortable

and you might like some things about it, but God's inviting you

into his world church and it's time to move into a whole new

dimension in God. And that's why I say I'm still

on this journey because it gets better and it gets better.

And I see something on the horizon that's I've never been

able to see before. And I tell you, I'm filled with

excitement. Last night I woke up and I was

literally awake for three hours just thinking about the good

things of God and what he has for us to do.

And all I can think about is it's time.

It's time. And I actually did think about

the people that have passed on before me.

And as I was there contemplating that, the Lord says, may now

remember what it says in the book of Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

The earth is a theater that God has all the heavens looking at.

And when people die, they don't disappear.

They go from the stage to the audience.

It's what the Bible calls the COD of witnesses.

And I know that everybody that's been a part of this ministry

that has been here before me, they're in the cloud of

witnesses and they're saying, keep on going, Mount Zion, keep

on going, Lauren, go, Rubius, keep on going because God has

something for you that is so awesome.

And the cloud of witnesses is cheering us on.

Are we going to move on? I hope we are.

I said all that to say this simple thing.

Believe it or not, Ephesians chapter 1 says this.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has

blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in

Christ, just as He chose us in Him.

Now when did He choose you before the foundation of the

world, that we should be holy without blame before him in

love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ

to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to

praise, of the glory of his grace by which he made us

accepted in the beloved. And I put over this the first

council. And This is why I wanted to

point this out about the gap theory, because the Lord spoke

the Scripture to me and it was so awesome.

And he said, now remember, you have in the record of the

Scriptures the first council. And that's when my spirit was

hovering over the face of the deep, wondering how can I put

this world together and how can I put man on it.

They said, I want you to know there was a council before that.

It was when I was counseling, contemplating and thinking about

the future and looking through the telescope of time.

And I was seeing you, Lauren Corvubius.

And I said, that one's going to be mine.

I'm going to use him in a powerful way.

And he chose you, Church. And just as I said, God chose

Lauren Corvubius. You should be able to say the

same thing with your name inserted.

Come on, Can you imagine this? God's contemplating.

He's meditating, and he's thinking about the future, and

all of a sudden he's thinking of you.

Oh my Lord, that's amazing. You know what He was also

thinking? That you would be born during

this time when He began to do the most amazing thing he's ever

done on planet earth. What a privilege to know that

you were on his mind. But God has chosen you.

Can we all please bow our heads and close our eyes for just a

moment because I want you to let this go deep into your spirit.

I said this first service I'm going a little over today, but

remember, we serve a timeless God because this is such an

important time for you to know He chose you in Him before the

foundation of the world. This is Pastor Lorne Coverbius

from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us

today and invite you to connect with our church family by

visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.