Relentless

I want to talk about this thing called being relentless.

And before I go into what we should be relentless about,

I want to give you an idea of certain post-COVID things that we need to prepare for.

And so here are some of the post-COVID things.

Once Derek grabs me a pen, I'll start on it.

Because the rest of the world is preparing for what post-COVID will look like.

And so the church needs to be aware of certain things too.

And so, hey, can you check my bag? Maybe there's a pen in that.

So one of the things that will happen once things begin to lift,

and it will happen starting in the next few weeks,

is there will be ruthless self-preservation.

There will be ruthless self-preservation.

This sense where people who talked about staying calm, being kind, and stuff like that,

will suddenly go into a different mode.

It's the way the world works.

Ruthless self-preservation.

Second thing that will happen is the weaker, the older, and the poorer will be dispensable.

The weaker, the older, and the poorer will be dispensable.

It's unfortunate. It happens after each of these situations, things like this happen.

Why am I telling you this?

Because as a church and as churches across the earth,

we have to be aware of the things that will happen after COVID.

The weaker, the poorer, and the older will be dispensable.

Do you know that there are 40 million migrant workers at present?

There are homeless, shelterless, and foodless in India.

Now 40 million is 6 million more than Canada's population.

But in a country of 1.2 billion, it isn't much.

And the third thing that will happen is great loneliness.

People who have been itching to get back to meeting one-on-one

and being able to shake hands and actually be with people in person

will find that it was much easier being kind and desperately willing to help people.

And desperately wanting relationships when they were on social media.

That once they get to meet each other, nothing has changed.

You cannot become what you never were.

Great loneliness.

That aside, by the time this begins to shift and change,

the earth will be in such a grip of fear, greed, and pride

that fat nations, and why do I call them fat nations in Ezekiel 34 verse 18?

Ezekiel 34:18

Ezekiel talks about fat sheep and lean sheep.

And fat nations will trade souls for seed.

Fat nations will trade souls for seed.

What do you mean by that? If you go to Genesis 47, 13-20,

Genesis 47, 13-20,

I was really wondering whether I needed to say these things because why talk about it?

And I felt God saying, nope, mention it because these things are going to happen

and the church needs to hear it.

Genesis 47 was 13 onwards, 13-20.

It's a surprising passage and when you read it,

I mean I used to like Joseph but sometimes I don't like Joseph.

Genesis 47, 13-20.

And it says there,

And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.

When that year was over, they came to him the following year and they said,

we cannot hide from our Lord the fact that since our money is gone

and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our Lord except our bodies and our land.

Why should we perish before your eyes, we and our land as well?

And they said, we cannot hide from our Lord the fact that since our money is gone

and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our Lord except our bodies and our land.

And our land as well. Buy us and our land in exchange for food.

And we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh.

Give us seed so that we may live and not die and that the land may not become desolate.

So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh.

The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields because the famine was too severe for them.

The land became Pharaoh's and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other.

And that's one of the things that somehow God wants us to know that in the grip of fear, greed and pride,

fat nations will trade souls for seed.

And you'll be surprised at how in bondage the world can be once post-COVID is over.

This is to say that this is what is afoot.

And why am I saying this?

And we'll talk about that.

The other thing that will happen, particularly in churchianity,

is that golden calves will suddenly be set up in church because of the prolonged nature of this pandemic.

Because I have a feeling that in most nations churches will be the last place that will be allowed to meet in large groups.

And that's why I'm saying that we need to be prepared to meet in large groups.

And so as the time gets prolonged in church, we begin to make compromises and set up golden calves.

Act 7, verse 40 talks about it where Stephen is recounting Israel's history and he says,

Hey guys, because Moses took long, you started building yourself a golden calf.

And so as the time gets prolonged, in church we begin to make compromises and set up golden calves.

And then in 1 Kings 12, 28, there's another king, I think it was Jeroboam,

who besides having political reasons says to the people of the land,

Why go all the way to Jerusalem to worship?

Let me set you up a golden calf here in Dan and here in Bethel so you don't have to go very far.

And so be aware of that, guys, that golden calves that compromise the church and its affection for Christ will begin to take root during this time.

And the way it will feature most strongly will be through disaffection, a disaffection for giving,

a disaffection for gathering, a disaffection for reverence, a disaffection for the way a people should function.

We'll talk about that another time, but I just want you to be aware of it.

Here's another thing that really bothered me.

Surprisingly, this bothered me most from the list that God was giving.

There'll be a spike in sexual exploitation when COVID begins to lift.

There'll be a spike in sexual exploitation.

There'll be a spike in child labor.

And there'll be a spike in abortions.

And it's bothersome because the shedding of innocent blood will cause this earth to convulse.

I mean, just imagine toxic wastes being dumped into, say, the freezer.

A point comes where when you dump toxic wastes on a land or into a river, the earth itself begins to shrink and convulse.

Imagine if toxic waste can do that.

What will happen when innocent blood is shed?

There'll be a spike in sexual exploitation.

There will be a spike in child labor.

And there will be a spike in abortions.

You watch in the next about three months from now the number of abortions that will happen and the earth will convulse.

And when the earth convulses, things begin to happen on earth that will just complicate the situation.

By the way, just on the side, this is not to diminish any death,

but there have been about, say, 250,000 deaths that are COVID related.

And that's an exaggerated number that I am giving you because it's lower than that.

But the strange thing is since January 1st to today, there have been 13.5 million abortions, 13.5 million abortions,

at the rate of 125,000 babies that die without being born every day.

Odd, eh? One is sanctioned and okay, the other is not.

All to say that the church needs to prepare for some of these things that are about to happen on the earth.

And when we say prepare, a response can be, man, this is so pointless.

This is going to happen anyways, so why prepare?

Guys, the thing is whenever God says that this is where things are going, guess what happens?

The spirit begins to intercede. The spirit begins to intercede.

And when the spirit begins to intercede, he expects the body to intervene by joining him in both prayer and action.

And then once he expects the body to intervene, what then happens is evil is interrupted or mitigated.

And so one is not to be fatalistic and just throw up one's arms and say the earth is anyways going down the tube, so why bother?

No, there is need to bother because we reflect a God who bothers.

And so what I said to you is what I believe is the intent of the systems of the world and satanic systems to bring an irreversible change to the earth in ways that are crippling.

And so what we need to realize is that the spirit of God is interceding.

And when he intercedes, he expects the body to join with him in prayer and in action so that the body can intervene.

And when the body intervenes, then evil is interrupted or mitigated.

Thousands are saved and irreversible changes are decelerated.

And every time there's a deceleration of evil, there is a population of heaven.

So the next question then becomes, I mean, let's put it this way.

Jesus said in John 16 33 that I know that you will have troubles and tribulations on earth and there is an end to the earth as we see it now.

But do not worry. I have overcome the world.

We live in that kind of tension.

And don't think that because Acts 29 is only 80 people or because H.O.F. Vernon or H.O.F. Bahrain is only 70 people or 90 people.

Don't think that because we are a small number that it doesn't matter.

Because when a people agree with God, Jesus transforms hundreds of small daily decisions into a powerful tsunami.

When people agree with God, Jesus has the ability just because he is absolute sovereign ascended Lord.

He has the ability to transform a thousand small daily decisions into a tsunami that becomes very powerful.

I mean, I was just reading this passage about when the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, I think.

In a period of 48 hours, 800,000 East Germans crossed over into West Germany.

800,000 East Germans.

And guess what?

Each of them had either a hammer or a chisel or something that would carry on their hands.

And as they crossed over, they would take their hammer or chisel and just hit the wall.

And it would break off a little piece till in a matter of days, there was nothing of this evil wall that was left.

Because 800,000 hammers rained on it at least once or twice.

I was reading that and I thought to myself, man, I know how you do this of God.

And that is human effort.

This is just God becoming the majority of one-minus people agree with him.

This is what I wanted to set up for you before we go into talking about why be relentless.

Any questions?

Guys, different churches have different roles at times like this.

So there are churches that may be teaching how this time is a time of Sabbath for life and land.

And that is a role they have been given.

There are other churches that might be teaching you how to be socially aware and work with people on the front line.

That's the role given to them.

The role given to us as a church is to come against the satanic systems that are trying to cripple or affect the earth irreversibly.

That's the role that's been given to us.

So there is a view that we are approaching these weeks and these messages from.

And I guess you already know it, but I just thought I'd let you say that again.

So coming back to this idea of being relentless, in present times, we have to be relentless.

And to be relentless is not robotic.

So I'm not saying we need to be robotic because relentlessness can be like a conveyor belt where you have a hand going up and down continuously, relentlessly.

No, it's not robotic. It's very deliberate.

It's very deliberate because it sees the beginning.

It sees the end from the beginning.

It sees the end from the beginning.

There's a rhythm of godly perseverance to what we do.

There's a rhythm of godly perseverance to relentlessness.

There's a knowing of the end from the beginning.

And there's a seeking out of or a hunting of what we need to affect, what we need to affect.

So it is a thoughtful relentlessness.

It's not a thoughtless, robotic relentlessness.

God is asking us that in these present times, guys, I want you to be relentless, but it has to be deliberate.

It has to be thoughtful.

It has to know the end from the beginning.

It should seek out or hunt that which needs to be changed, seek out good things that need to be affected and hunt out bad things that need to be undone.

And it has to have a persevering.

It has to have a rhythm that of godly perseverance.

That is a sense of relentlessness.

And so regardless of imposing odds that might be facing us during a time like this, where it seems nations are crippled and they don't know what to do,

in the face of those odds, how do we stand with relentlessness?

How do you be relentless?

And to be relentless, I have to get a grasp of his presence because his presence gives me courage.

So through this time, ever since COVID started, one of the things I've been doing with others, both in the church and in different parts of the world,

is know his presence so that from his presence I'll know his thoughts and what he wants to do through us.

And if I know his presence, that he is endorsing or validating what is being said or is behind what we are trying to do,

then it gives me courage to keep doing it because we are small fry.

Who are we?

It gives me courage.

The second thing, if you want to be relentless, you have to grasp his presence which gives you courage to persist.

It gives you courage to persist.

And then you have to grasp his permission.

You have to grasp his permission.

Because once you know he is permitting you to go down a certain pathway, it fuels your passion.

It fuels your passion.

As in, God's given me permission to go down this route where when famous people, famous churches, famous preachers are talking about a Sabbath to the land,

some talking about judgment of the earth, God is saying no, rage against the systems of the world and satanic demonic forces that are trying to cripple the earth.

Man, if I didn't know that this was permission given by God, I'd be walking in presumption, I'd be leading you into presumption.

Permission then fuels, oh sorry, permission fuels, permission fuels passion.

There was one word that I was looking for.

Permission fuels fearless passion.

Fearless passion.

Permission fuels fearless passion.

And then the third thing I need to grip or grasp is that I need to grasp his purpose.

What's your purpose in all this?

I need to grasp his purpose.

What is his purpose for us as a people during a time like this?

What is his purpose for us as a people during this time like this?

Because once I know his purpose for me or us, then I'm able to forge discipline or habits.

I'm able to forge discipline or habits, meaning every day, regardless of the fact that we are working from home or not able to go out,

we develop habits that help God accomplish his purpose through us.

And so this is basically what relentlessness looks like.

And I want us to be relentless in four areas that I believe God is leading us to.

Four areas and we'll go over those four areas.

The first one is... Sure.

Don, could you help?

This, by the way, is Don. He finds some excuse to come and help me every time so that you see him.

All good? Okay.

Hey, Josh, I can't hear you eating today. Is everything okay?

Okay.

So there are four areas I want us to be relentless in.

And guys, this is not a rehashed message from five, six years ago.

So I really think that God has desires for us.

So four areas that he wants us to be relentless in.

One is relentless in pursuit of him. Relentless in pursuit of him.

And why is he telling us these things?

I would say to you that he's telling us these things so that we can be well poised,

well prepared in the right place with the right attitude when and as COVID begins to lift.

Because of all the other things that I said await the earth.

It's strange how before every famine he already prepares and sends a Joseph.

Before the famine struck, Joseph, through extremely odd methods, was sent to Egypt.

First as a prisoner, then in Potiphar's palace and then as Pharaoh's prime minister.

And so much before of famine, God sends Joseph.

And so he tries to prepare and then position them so that they're ready when the famine comes.

Yeah. So relentless in pursuit.

And then the second one is relentless in loving kindness.

Because the earth will need it, eh?

The third one is relentless in contending.

And the fourth one is relentless in justice.

These are the four things we'll talk about.

And then after that, I want us to respond with a particular song.

So when I finish the teaching, don't switch your hearts and minds off, but we'll get a chance to respond.

Yeah. So relentless in pursuit. Let's start with that.

Guys, the wonderful thing is an appetite for God has been awakened.

An appetite for God has already been awakened in our hearts.

And the strange thing with appetite is when you have an appetite,

it draws your attention towards a certain food item, draws your attention.

And once your attention is drawn, it draws your affection.

And once it draws your affection, it determines your direction.

That's the cool thing with appetite.

And I'm so thankful that over the weeks, one of the things that happened, that's happened to us is that

most of us have had an opportunity to encounter God in the burning bush.

And once an upgrade like that happens, something clicks within you.

So an appetite has already been awakened for God.

And that begins to then draw your attention.

It begins to shape your affection and it begins to determine your direction.

In fact, I don't know whether it was Piper or someone else who said that the strongest Christians are the hungriest.

The strongest Christians are the hungriest.

And the strange thing is Jesus said that God satisfies them.

The strongest Christians are the hungriest.

When I said that, Don is looking at Derek.

So the strongest Christians, I was looking at Jeevan.

The strongest Christians are the hungriest.

And so, and the strange thing is according to Matthew 5.5, God satisfies.

Because he said, blessed are those that hunger enters for they shall be satisfied.

And Tozer put it this way, when you are most satisfied in him, he will be most glorified in you.

When you are most satisfied in him, he will be most glorified in you.

And yet, to be satisfied, one must have hunger.

In fact, what you hunger for reveals your heart.

What you hunger for reveals your heart.

And I'm sometimes appalled at what I hunger for.

When I become obsessed with something other than God.

Because anything that I'm obsessed with other than God becomes an enemy of what God wants to do.

So when we started, for instance, when the video and stuff was going wrong,

I suddenly realized that I was becoming obsessed with getting the live stream or the online thing right.

And so I walked away.

Because here is Jane saying, hey, focus on the courts of God where the action is.

Focus on Christ and the Father.

And so why should I then become so obsessed with the live stream where I miss out on the one who this live stream is about?

That's Josh's problem.

And God has a certain grace for Josh in that area.

So what you hunger for reveals your heart.

And the strange thing about hunger, guys,

we're talking about relentlessness in pursuit.

For pursuit, you need hunger.

But the strange thing is, most of us haven't experienced this.

Perhaps Jeevan has from the stories he's told me.

Hunger is painful.

Hunger should pain you.

Hunger should pain you.

Hunger should pain you.

And if it does not pain you, then somehow we haven't reached a place of that kind of hunger.

I am grateful for the times when hunger pains me.

I get desperate.

I go, I remember in August last year this happened.

Things were going really well at Acts 29.

Church was doing well.

My trips were working out well.

God was doing great things.

But inside me was this gnawing hunger saying this isn't enough.

I remember going to Chad.

I remember going to Pastor Mike.

I remember going to a couple of other people and saying to them,

if something doesn't change, I will die.

Because it should be that painful that you must feed it.

If you don't feed it, you cannot live happily.

And I'm saying this to you because this relentlessness in pursuit must increase.

And so here's then the problem.

If I don't have hunger, what do I do?

Guys, ask for it.

This is a strange God.

You can go ask him for hunger.

Ask him for hunger.

Ask God to replace the hunger you have for anything besides him.

Ask him for hunger and then ask him to replace anything that you hunger for besides him.

Once he begins to do that work, discipline your body as it says in 1 Corinthians 9, 26 and 27.

Paul says, I will not disqualify myself by eating or drinking.

I will not disqualify myself by not disciplining myself.

I will buffet my body so that I may be able to run this race properly.

And so there is this idea of disciplining your body once you ask God to replace what you used to junk on.

When you ask him to replace it with true hunger, ask him for it.

If you are satisfied, ask him for hunger.

Because the strange thing about the relentless pursuit of God is it can never be satisfied because he is infinite.

And so here's the progression.

Hunger, ask for it.

Once you ask for it, it will cause you to locate the source of food.

And in this case it's God.

Once you locate it, you will fight.

Don't stop sending text messages and pay attention to the teaching.

Once you locate it, fight your way through to the source.

Fight through distractions.

Fight through the crowd.

Fight your way through the source and sell anything you need to get what you know will satisfy your hunger.

Sell anything.

If your job is in the way, if other distractions are in the way, sell it.

Do whatever it takes.

And then once you get to that source where you know your hunger can be met, engage it.

Wrestle with it.

Engage and wrestle with it.

What happens then as you do that?

You begin to eat his presence.

You begin to eat his presence.

Really? How does that work?

Jesus actually talked about it in John chapter 6 where he said, eat my flesh.

John 6 · chapter mention

As in, come guys, come into my presence.

Take from me whatever you want.

I am the bread of life.

Eat his presence.

People were put off when he said this in John 6.

Eat his presence.

That then satisfies your hunger.

But I would so suggest that the way you need to progress from there is to now pour yourself out

because you are now full so that you can begin your pursuit all over again.

This leads to a virtuous, relentless cycle of pursuit.

What a cool God, huh?

You can ask him for hunger so that he can satisfy it.

And then you pour it out so that you can start pursuing again.

It's like kids who once you show them a game,

My God, you're stuck because they want to play it 48 times.

You just have to keep repeating it again and again and again.

But what can you do?

Once this child starts enjoying it, even though you want to walk away,

every time it comes to a certain point in the game,

the child just starts laughing and there's nothing as magical as a child laughing.

And what do you do again?

Even though you want to walk away, you do it all over again.

And a father can't resist it when you are hungry.

He is drawn to hungry children.

He is drawn to someone who hungers.

Which is why Jesus had to say what he said,

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for they shall be satisfied.

Other times in Psalms, I don't know which Psalm it is,

he says, I wish you would have opened your mouth because I would have filled it with good things.

Any questions, guys?

You have to be relentless in pursuit of him at this present time

because God is preparing you for a world that awaits

and will need ones who eat his presence before they go out.

The second thing, guys, is relentlessness in loving kindness.

Be relentless in loving kindness.

Be relentless in loving kindness.

Be relentless in loving kindness.

You know the word loving kindness is hardly seen in the newer versions of the Bible

like NIV or ESV or any of those versions change loving kindness

usually to mercy or compassion and stuff like that.

But the NKJV still translates the word hesed

which is the Hebrew word for it and it actually means loving kindness.

So some of the scriptures I'm quoting,

you will only see the word loving kindness if you're looking at the NKJV.

And so this loving kindness of God,

be relentless in loving kindness both in receiving it

and in pouring it out.

This is critical in the months that lie ahead of us.

Critical because the earth is going to get ruthlessly self-preservative.

Ruthless in their self-preservation.

You know, it always bothers me that whenever someone dies,

the first three or four days people gather around them

but then after that they're left on their own

and they go through some really lonely patches after that.

And that's what's going to happen to the earth

where there'll be a lot of stay calm, be kind.

But once things start getting back to normal,

people will try to hoard and go back to ways that they were.

Guys, you can never become what you never were without God.

Things will return to a place where it used to be only it'll be worse

because we'll be in the vicious grip of fear, greed and pride.

I'm not a doomsday prophet.

Guy who's trying to say we shall change times of doom

into times of the intervention of God with winds of refreshing.

Which is why we are talking about this.

So we position ourselves as God plans.

So relentless in loving kindness.

One of the first places you see God's loving kindnesses

in Genesis chapter 3 verse 9

Genesis 3:9

where God immediately seeks out man

who was trying to hide and cover his shame and guilt.

You want to grasp the essence of loving kindness?

Look at Genesis 3, 9.

Here is a man who has turned his back on God,

who he used to walk with.

Here is a man who defies God.

Here is a man who makes an alliance with the arch enemy of God,

the serpent.

Here is a man who chooses a serpent above the living God.

And the first thing that God does in an act of amazing loving kindness

is God immediately seeks out the man who was hiding

and trying to cover his shame.

And once he finds him, God immediately slaughters an animal

and takes the skin of the animal to cover his external shame

and begins the process of restoring his internal dignity.

And what started then culminates on the cross and it still goes on.

What kind of God is this man?

This is the nature of loving kindness.

And as you hear it being said,

you have to on one hand receive it

and then also think along the lines of,

this is what I have to give.

Immediately seeking out those that are trying to cover their shame and their guilt

and then doing what is necessary on the external

and then beginning the work on the internal.

And when you talk about the loving kindness of God,

these three things interact.

One, his strength.

Two, his steadfastness.

And three, his love, his loyal love.

These three interact.

The word hesed or loving kindness,

if any of these are missing, then it ain't that.

There's a strength of God, meaning

he does something with his loving kindness.

It's not mush.

He does something with it.

There's strength in it.

There's steadfastness in it, which means then

that we need to have the same kind of loving kindness

towards the earth as these days ahead come.

Because otherwise what will happen guys,

is the flood will be over,

the nations will start rebuilding again,

and the Tower of Babel will be rebuilt.

Not rebuilt, will be built.

That's what happened after the flood.

These are three powerful components of loving kindness.

This is how God reacts with you.

And so here is something that I'd suggest

you try out this week.

In Psalm 143, verse 8 from the New King James,

Psalms 143:8

it says that I hear his loving kindness in the morning.

Try that, eh?

What a way to start the day.

Isn't that how every child that has good parents

starts his or her day?

I hear his loving kindness in the morning.

I hear his immediate desire to come to me

with his strength, his steadfastness, and his loyal love.

I hear him walking to cover my shame

and my guilt from the previous day.

Hear his loving kindness in the morning.

We need to, eh, because we've become dull

to the 24-7 kindness and love that God commands

and directs our way on a daily basis.

It says so in Psalm 42, verse 8, again in the New King James.

Psalms 42:8

It says, God commands or directs his loving kindness to me.

And it's a 24-7 attitude on nature that he has.

And perhaps I need to begin to hear him in the morning.

And once you recognize it, you're able to receive it.

And if you can receive it, you can release it.

And it's important to release it,

because one of the greatest things that you can do for the father

is to be kind to someone else made in his image.

One of the greatest things that you can do for the father

I'll get there a little later.

Let's listen to the question first. There's a question.

What's the difference between loving kindness and mercy?

Hesed is the word used for loving kindness.

Raham is the word used for mercy.

This is the compassion that is born

out of a mother's womb for a child.

And this is defined as this.

In both cases, it's undeserved, unbidden generosity.

But the words are different.

One is Raham, as in the compassion a mother has for the child

that is born out of a womb.

And then there is hesed, which is strength, steadfastness,

and the loyal love of God that comes to wrap you up,

cover you, change you outside and inside.

And so one of the greatest things we can do for the father

is to be kind to people that are made in his image.

This is the idea of being relentless

in now showing people loving kindness.

Not Christians, showing anybody made in the image of God.

This is the idea of being relentless

in now showing people loving kindness.

And that means every person on the face of the earth.

Matthew 25, verse 37, the people who showed kindness to the prisoner,

Matthew 25:37

who gave water to the thirsty, they come to Jesus and they say,

when did we see you naked?

When did we visit you in prison?

When did we give you water?

And Jesus' response was, as much as you did to the least of them.

And there is this thing that really is a sweet-smelling offering before God.

The grace of God is in the water.

The greatest thing you can do for the father

is to be kind to others made in his image.

Because loving kindness requires that I be tender-hearted

and demands of me an unbidden or unasked for generosity.

And the earth will need it.

The earth will need it.

I pray God that somehow this teaching goes to different places.

That you take it, learn it and make it yours and then spread it.

And we will have to show this kind of loving kindness and generosity

and tender-heartedness in the face of indifference and sometimes hostility.

Because this is the kind of loving kindness that turns people's hearts towards God.

Because it says in Romans chapter 2, verse 4,

Romans 2:4

that it is the kindness of God that causes people to change.

It is the kindness of God that causes people to change.

And so Abin Dari said,

It is the kindness of God that causes people to change.

And so Abin trying to practice this over the last week in different situations

where can I show unbidden generosity, unasked for generosity?

Can I be tender-hearted?

Can I be loving and kind in the face of indifference or even hostility?

Because it is this kind of kindness that people will need going forward

and it will turn their hearts to God.

And if I become like this, God will begin to intertwine my life with the life of others

and it will help change them.

It will dismantle the oppression of the kingdom of darkness.

Hey, I'm telling you man, I wish I could share with you some of the things I've seen

but that sounds so anecdotal.

So I won't go there but the point is,

there is a darkness that wants to wrap the world in its cloak

and make darkness seem normal, as if it wasn't before all this began.

But this will be a dismal, hard to fight against, veering darkness

where we will accept as our fate that which is not normal for humans.

And this kind of kindness dismantles this darkness.

It's a part of what we need to do.

I mean, you take these two stories of father and son.

You take the father and the father is David.

And David now has Mefi Boshet come before him.

Mefi Boshet is the son of the same man who was trying to kill David.

And he says to Mefi Boshet in 2 Samuel 9,

that from this day on you will sit at my table, you will eat at my table.

And it is a story of tremendous kindness showed by David to the son of an enemy.

And then you go to David's son Solomon,

and you see a completely different picture in 1 Kings 12

where people come to Solomon and they try to say,

hey, can't you be kinder to us?

And Solomon doesn't take the advice of the elders.

He takes the advice of his young friends.

And he turns to the rest of Israel and he says to them,

if you thought my father Solomon,

no, this is Rehoboam, sorry, the grandson of David.

Rehoboam says, if you thought my father Solomon was good,

I will be worse than him.

And he begins to be really cruel to Israel and Israel walks away.

Kindness makes a difference, man.

There's a script in Jeremiah 2,2 where God turns to Israel and he says,

hey, I remember the kindness of your youth.

So here's a question I want to ask you before we go on to the next section.

What does God remember of your kindness from last week?

What does God remember of your kindness from last week?

What does God remember of your kindness to him directly

where you were kind to God?

And what does God remember of your kindness to others from last week?

How can you be kind to God?

The same way you can be kind to your wife, to your children,

to your friends, acknowledging, speaking, saying,

mouthing words, expressed from your heart.

Man, it's so easy to be kind to God.

Relentless in loving kindness.

Any questions?

Can you make sure I'm in the frame because I'm walking around a little?

Okay.

The next one is relentless in contending.

Relentless in contending.

I'm going to read it out loud.

I'm going to read it out loud.

I'm going to read it out loud.

This is relentless in contending.

Relentless in contending.

And this goes to the passage that Airy was reading.

Relentless in contending.

Relentless in contending.

And when you look at 1 Kings 18, 36-46, which Airy read,

one of the things we need to realize is that we need to contend in this present ravage.

I see COVID as a ravage.

As a ravage of the poor, the weaker, the older.

As a ravage that changes the nature of nations.

As a ravage that depletes, that compromises.

Contend in this present ravage against the deviance of Ahab,

who is supposed to be protective, but ends up being a victim of the current ravage.

And who ends up being deviant against the sorcery of Jezebel.

Contend that the rains come and that people return to Yahweh.

That's why I had Airy read that passage.

And so in this idea of being relentless in contending,

one of the things that we, I mean, if we were just to look at that story

Elijah goes up Carmel and he begins to pray for the rain.

It's odd how Elijah does something that most Hebrews wouldn't do.

Most of them would either stand up with their arms lifted up and pray,

or they would kneel and they would pray,

or they would lie before God right on the floor and pray.

But Elijah takes on this position that you will not find anywhere in the Bible

where his posture is that of his head between his knees literally as he begins to pray.

And in relentless contending, there is an unusual posture that one must take

that births, that one must take that births or delivers Heaven's desire or intent on earth.

Guys, it's not just contending. There is this word before it.

Relentlessness is this decision not to back off till what has been started is completed.

It's that idea of Isaiah 62, I think, verse 6 and 7, where it says,

where God says to the watchman, hey, do not give me rest.

You do not rest and do not give me rest till what needs to be accomplished is accomplished.

So in 1 Kings 18 42, you see this unusual posture that Elijah takes in praying,

which is very different from the normal Hebrew ways of praying.

But the intent is that when you want to relentlessly contend,

you have to take a posture that will help birth what Heaven desires.

Or sometimes it's not Heaven's desire, it's Heaven's judgment.

Regardless of what it is, one must take an unusual posture of I am relentless in this.

In relentless contending, supplication follows declaration.

Supplication follows declaration.

In the sense, Acts 29 and churches like Acts 29 can easily walk into declaration

where we declare the intent of God.

And that's fine, you can declare the intent of God.

But when it comes to this kind of contending, the declaration is made in verse 41.

And the declaration is, hey, Ehad, you better start going down the mountain

because I can hear the sound of rain.

But that declaration is then followed by strenuous supplication

where he goes up the mountain and he begins to bow down and he begins to pray.

He begins to pray.

And this is hard work.

The great thing about declarations is you know the will of God and you declare it, you speak it.

But here, when it comes to relentless contending, supplication follows declaration.

It is this idea in 1 Timothy 1, 18, where Paul says to Timothy,

and depending on the version you read, it says,

War with the prophetic word.

Yes, the prophetic word has been spoken over you.

Now wrestle, grapple, war with it so that it can shape you.

This is the kind of praying that we need to do,

which is partly why we are sending these series of Open Up Your Ancient Doors videos

once every two or three days.

I'll send the next one Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

But the point is that we are supposed to take these prayers that are being asked that we pray

and really work at it, eh?

Why? Not for your sake, but for the sake of the earth around you.

Third, in relentless contending, time is not a factor.

Time is not a factor.

Meaning it doesn't matter how much time it takes.

Elijah didn't care how long it took.

We think that Elijah asked a servant to go and look at the fifth-sized cloud for seven times.

But we are assuming it was an actual seven times.

Often seven was just a number of completion.

God only knows how many times that servant went up and down.

The guy must have wanted another job.

Time is not a factor.

And the strange thing is you don't even need to see things, eh?

You don't need a line of sight. You don't need to see things.

What do you mean by that?

See, I don't know why Elijah couldn't go and sit in a place and pray

where he can see whether there's a cloud coming or not.

He sits in a place where he cannot see the ocean, cannot see the water.

Every time he prays, he has to send a servant to another spot to look out at the sea

and see if there is a cloud rising up from the sea.

In relentless contending, time is not a factor.

You are not bound by time.

Nor do you need a line of sight because you realize that

just because someone says there is nothing here does not mean there is nothing happening.

Every time the servant comes back, you see it in verse 43 of 1 Kings 18,

every time the servant comes back, the servant says there is nothing here.

And it doesn't bother Elijah at all because when it comes to relentless contending,

there is nothing here does not translate into there is nothing happening.

One is different from the other.

There is nothing here. You can come and tell me as many times as you want

because I know there is something happening.

And it's only a matter of time.

That is what relentless contending looks like.

When we've been contending for nations, when we've been contending for lives,

when we've been contending for certain things to change during these last six weeks,

I've been fascinated by how it has changed.

But when you pray, there's absolutely no sign that anything is going to change.

One day we'll tell those stories.

Perhaps not on live stream because they involve people and governments and nations.

Always remember guys, the route of any enemy or any evil in a season

is determined by the violence of your contention.

The route of any enemy or any evil in a particular season

is determined by the violence of your contention.

It's determined by the violence of your contention.

Matthew 11 verse 12, it says,

Matthew 11:12

the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.

There is a violence that is required for things of the kingdom to break upon the earth.

In 2 Kings 13, 19, it talks about Joash and Elisha saying to Joash,

why did you only strike the ground thrice?

Why didn't you strike it five or six times?

You could have completely routed them, but you would only strike it two or three times.

The point being that when it comes to relentless contending,

the route of the enemy or the route of evil in a particular season

is determined by the violence of your contention.

My hope was through the videos that we can teach how to wrestle a blessing on the land

and how to overpower demonic forces from ravaging life.

That is the intent of these videos and I hope you take it to heart.

Because these are things man that we learn at times like this that will last us a lifetime

that may affect the next generation because we learned it well.

Or we raise up another generation that does not know what it is to war

and then God will have to take them through times where they become seasoned.

I cannot bear the thought of leaving the earth without raising a generation of ones who know how to do this.

I cannot bear the thought.

I have zero interest in raising a big church.

If it becomes big, praise God, I will get a private jet.

And even that does not help nowadays because you could fly out,

but you would have to come back and quarantine yourself for two weeks.

That does not help much.

Anyways, moving on.

The last one is relentless injustice.

Relentless injustice, which is a relatively new place for us to go to,

but which is important given the times that await us.

It is super important.

And so we can just begin to dig the ground up so we can start planting.

Relentless injustice.

Any questions about the private jet? None came in?

No? Okay.

Relentless injustice.

So there is a need to be relentless in justice.

And what does that look like? Go to Isaiah 58.12.

Isaiah 58.12.

Isaiah 58.12.

And this is what God says,

God says,

So one of the things God desires is to work through us to repair,

to restore, to raise up generations and foundations.

Let me read that verse again.

So how do we go about this?

How do we go about God's idea of being relentless in justice?

One of the first things we have to do is recognize,

recognize that people have rights to their own lives.

And that is what God wants us to do.

And so we have to be relentless in justice.

Recognize that people have rights

because they are made in the image of God.

And when I say people, it means every kind in terms of sexual orientation,

ethnicity, status,

criminals, model citizens, women, children, slaves,

those that have challenges,

the old, the dying, the vulnerable, the marginalized,

the drug lord, the drug addict.

It's just limitless.

Yeah.

Come Josh.

This is Josh. This is the guy who drums and then,

this is the guy responsible if you ever mess up on a video,

he's the one responsible.

This is also the guy who hides cookies in his hands

and eats and makes a noise.

We're going to ask a question.

This is from Kevin.

Kevin asks, when we are contending,

is it good to expect encouragement from God or other believers?

The fear is praying after a cause or for a place

and not living up to what God has called me.

Yeah. So to answer that, I would go back to the idea of being relentless

by grasping three things.

One, presence.

And so that then gives me the courage to persist

because I don't go out and contend from a Jacobish point of view

or Jacob's strength or Jacob's present ability or Jacob's knowledge,

which is how the world contends.

The world contends based on what one presently knows

or one's present strength.

But when it comes to contending for God or with God,

presence is critical.

Otherwise, you can't contend because the idea that God has when it comes to contention is

I can do this on my own with you.

Now, it'll be a lot of fun because you'll know what I'm like.

We become a majority of one.

And it doesn't matter whether there are a thousand with you or it's just you.

I'd love to have you contend for this here on Earth.

And so the first thing I would need is presence

so that it gives me the courage to persist.

And then it doesn't matter that I might be the only prophet left on Earth

hiding in a cave or where there are 7,000 others.

It doesn't matter because you're the majority of one

because you are with God.

The second thing then would be besides presence is permission.

Has God given me the permission to enter into contending

where I am at present walking?

Because if He hasn't given me permission, then I'm walking in presumption

which then is fraught with all kinds of dangers.

So if He has given me permission, then it fuels fearless passion.

It fuels fearless passion.

There is nothing like knowing an enemy who is scared of you.

So when the commander of the armies of Israel gives Joshua permission

to take Jericho and tells him that,

listen, Jericho is shut up because of you and I am the commander of the armies of Israel,

at once Joshua knew that victory was his

because he was operating from a place of the outcome, not a place of the process.

He didn't care what the process was because he knew the outcome.

And third, if I know His purpose for me or His purpose for us,

then it forges discipline or habit.

It forges discipline or habit where this is where I begin to train

because I know that I must fulfill His purpose.

Because training is required.

Next year I'll be better than where I'm at this year.

So I hope that answers you.

Yes, so the question is how do we raise a generation

that begins to pray like this, fight like this, contend like this?

What are some practical steps towards it?

And so it's always relational, generational, and revelatory.

So whenever you want to raise another group of people

who can be what God wants them to be,

you have to do it relationally.

It has to be generational.

So that the next generation gets it.

And it has to be revelatory.

Meaning you have to get your directions from God.

Once you get the directions from God,

you have to build relationship and invite people into what God has shown you.

And once you invite people into what God has shown you,

and you train them month after month, year after year,

as hey, do you want to see how to pray?

Let me not teach you a prayer, let me show you how to pray.

Jesus could have so easily given the Lord's Prayer to them and said,

all right guys, you're ready for prayer.

No, they would watch as he would disappear.

They watched him in the garden of Gethsemane.

They watched how he would be up in the mountains during the day.

They watched him in Mark chapter 3 or Mark chapter 5, I'm not too sure.

Mark 3 · chapter mention Mark 5 · chapter mention

It says, and he called 12 to himself so that they could be with him

and they could learn of him before he sent them.

And so one of the only ways to learn is to be relational

after you know what God is revealing to you

so that what you give is fresh manner, not old strategies.

It has to be new wine for every generation.

Otherwise, if I teach them what I learned 30 years ago,

we'll still be assuming that salvation happens

when you step into the ark and float upon the waters.

And so what is it that at present is required

for people right now and for the next generation?

How do I teach them? By imitation.

Because we've talked about this before.

When you associate with people, you give them an opportunity to imitate you.

And when they imitate you, Christ is formed in them.

So there's association, imitation, formation.

Christ is formed in them.

And so you better make sure that you're imitating Christ.

So going back to the justice issue.

Yep.

How do you know you have God's permission for something?

How do you know you have your boss's permission for something?

How do you know you have your boss's permission for something?

Your boss comes to you and begins to ask you,

hey, do you think you can do this?

And then you begin to say, yeah, yeah, I've done this before,

I've done this before, I've done this before.

And then the boss says to you,

but you haven't gone the way I'm taking you.

And you say, you could try me out,

but I'm not going to do this.

And then you begin to respond the way I'm taking you.

And you say, you could try me out.

And then that begins a process.

So whenever permission is given,

it is God who comes and first begins to lay the groundwork for it.

And then as you begin to respond,

he shows you how impossible it is to step into what he's giving you permission for.

And then you get afraid and you say, no, no, no, this is not a good idea.

Every commission that God has given on earth accepted Jesus,

and then you began with, hey, I have called you for this.

And the immediate response was, no, no, no, no, don't call me, call Aaron, call Joshua, call someone else.

And then once permission was given,

God would have to now take time to fit you into the mold that was required for stepping into the place.

So Moses took 40 years, David took a few years running as a refugee,

Joseph took many years as a prisoner until he became Prime Minister,

Paul spent 14 years in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Damascus.

There is a time when God says, here, I'm giving you permission,

but now that you have taken on this permission,

let me begin to train you so that you fill the shoes that will allow you to walk in the permission that I have given.

So contending injustice, we said Isaiah 58.12 is where we start.

And the first thing we do is we recognize that everyone,

and I mentioned that list of people, is made in the image of God.

In Deuteronomy 27, verse 19, God gets quite upset and he says,

Deuteronomy 27:19

I will curse those that do not take care of the orphan, the widow, the immigrant, the alien.

If you treat them badly, I will curse you.

He's that particular about people being treated fairly.

And so recognize that people have rights as his image bearers,

and these are people made in the image of God.

And it doesn't matter what their sexual identity is.

It doesn't matter that they may be criminals.

It doesn't matter that they may have challenges.

It doesn't matter that they are the drug lord.

It doesn't matter that they are the drug addict.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because they are made in the image of God.

They were made to represent him.

Their image is distorted, but God hasn't rescinded his intent when he made the earth and man,

that you are my deputies.

You will deputize on my behalf.

You will steward the earth on my behalf.

That hasn't been rescinded.

And so recognize that people have rights.

What rights?

We'll talk about it next Sunday and the Sundays after,

but the same rights that are given to you, the right to be loved, the right to be secure,

the right to freedom of will, the right to be taken care of,

the right to be warm when it is cold, the right to be cold when it is hot,

the right to be fed, the right to be shown kindness,

the right to be lifted up, the right of dignity,

the right to be protected from harm.

The very rights that you would rise up for when it comes to your own family

are the very rights that belong to every person,

off, made in the image of God because God is their father.

They don't know it.

So justice at the end of the day is rendering to people those rights.

Justice is rendering to people.

And by people I mean anybody, those rights.

And injustice is depriving people,

is rendering to people those rights.

And injustice is depriving people of those rights.

Our problem as a church and as churches is not that we deprive people of their rights.

It is that we do not speak up for people whose rights are being deprived

and they do not have a voice anyways.

And in our silence we become complicit.

And in the ravage that awaits the earth,

if the voice of God is not heard through the people of God,

then who can speak it clearer?

And like I said, my voice doesn't count true,

but when my voice joins with a thousand other voices,

it is fashioned by Jesus Christ into a voice that breaks down a wall.

God expects His restored community of image bearers.

All of us bear the image of God.

We were all made in the image of God.

But we, as believers, are the restored community of image bearers.

God expects the restored community of image bearers to render justice on His behalf.

Hey, you want to see how serious God is about this?

You don't even have to look at the New Testament.

You just go to the Old Testament.

Read the Book of Leviticus.

You will see the justice God wants to prevail.

Read the Book of Isaiah.

Isaiah is so much about justice.

We see Isaiah as a prophet, but he's a prophet who begins to seek justice.

Those are just in the Old Testament.

Leave alone how Jesus walked.

So that's the first step.

Recognize that people are not just the people of God.

So that's the first step.

Recognize that people are made in the image of God.

The second step is awareness.

Once you recognize that, then you have to become aware.

And how do you become aware?

Guys, please don't switch off.

I want Jeevan to come and talk about Nandigama.

What changed his heart about the people at Nandigama?

He had come to Canada.

He was here now.

Life was good.

What is it that drove him to raise up things for people in Nandigama?

He'll take a few minutes to talk about that.

But don't switch off yet because this is important.

Awareness.

Awareness of, oh God, which is the desolate heritage that you are turning our attention to?

In Isaiah 49, it says you will restore desolate heritage.

Inheritances that have been ruined, that have been robbed, that have been completely made desolate, destroyed.

Oh God, which is that desolate heritage in Vancouver or in another nation that you are asking us to become aware of?

And once you become aware of it, then the question arises, how did this get to where it got to?

It now requires that I research or find out how did we get to where we got.

This is the use of our gray cells.

And then the third part of awareness is now how do I resource a solution?

How do I resource a solution?

I got five bucks in my pocket.

How do I multiply this five so that the oil and the flour ends up paying off what is required?

How do I resource this?

How do you go from a $10 sewing machine that Jeevan picked up from Coquitlam and took all the way to India,

how do you go from that to six other machines that the ladies at Richmond Pentecostal gave,

to machines now that are massive and that can spin off 40,000 pieces in a matter of days?

How do you go from $10 to $50,000 worth of machines?

How?

And then the third part, which is a part that I really want us to get to, the action.

So there's the recognition, there is the awareness, the recognition of people made in the image of God,

an awareness of, oh God, which desolate heritage are you calling me to restore?

And it may differ from people to people, church to church.

And the third one is action.

And what is the action? Where does the action begin?

We'll just take one point in terms of where the action begins.

The action begins, the first response of God, sorry, the first response of God's people throughout the Bible is lament.

Lament is lament.

It is individual lament and corporate lament.

It's an expression of grief and sorrow and frustration and indignation.

That's something that you know is so ungodly that it becomes unbearable.

And if lament doesn't grab my heart, then I will do things once or twice a year or I'll cut out checks or I'll join some GoFundThing or I will do something.

But it does not grasp my insides. It doesn't do anything to me.

And it is strange how every time a prophet or a people had to do anything, they had to be just caught up in lament.

So what is the desolate heritage that you begin to feel a spirit-induced lament rise in your insides?

Once that begins, guys, and I pray that we are given a desolate heritage to restore as a church.

Let it be here in Vancouver and it be in some other place.

Where lament is not a forcing of emotions, guys, even though I may be emotional right now, it's not a forcing of emotions because emotions can come and go.

But it is this deep expression of grief, sorrow, frustration and indignation at a certain injustice or something that is desolate that people are being robbed of and they can't speak about it.

It's not an emotion, but it prepares our heart. It prepares our heart to respond as a prophetic people.

It prepares our heart. Lament prepares your heart to respond as a prophetic people.

Lament prepares your heart to respond as a prophetic people.

And what do I mean by a prophetic people? A people that prophesy? No.

A people that are so eager to bring the values of a future kingdom into the here and now.

Into the here and now.

And these values are physical, they are spiritual, and they are eschatological of future, from the future.

Or from when heaven will finally reign on earth in its fullness.

And so let me show you three scriptures to kind of explain what I mean.

Go to Job chapter 29. I've always been so impressed by this scripture.

Job 29 · chapter mention

I remembered it yesterday. Job 29, verse 11 to 17.

Job 29:11–17

This is how we should be.

If there are three righteous men that God always pointed out, it was Job, Daniel, and Noah.

And here is what Job used to function as. Job chapter 29, verse 11 to 17, and here's what it says.

Job 29:11–17

Powerful.

And so that is how we are supposed to walk, because the earth that awaits is not an earth.

If the earth is not an earth, that will be conducive to that. My God, but when the church arises.

You want to see the spiritual side of it? Look at Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 4, verse 18 and 19, when Jesus goes into the synagogue and he picks up the scroll and he begins to read.

Luke 4:18

Luke chapter 4, verses 18 and 19, starting at verse 17.

Luke 4:18

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written.

The Spirit of the Lord is the one on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Then he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

And then if you want to see how it will all end one day, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, go to Revelation 21, verse 4.

Revelation 21:4

Can I have a tissue someone? If there is one around. Revelation 21, verse 4.

Revelation 21:4

I asked for a tissue and Derek, oh my God!

This is what happens when a girl gives you a tissue.

My nose shudders as I take this tissue to it.

Yeah, Revelation 21, verse 4.

Revelation 21:4

A day is coming, guys, a day is coming.

Now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things that's passed away.

Guys, I know that that awaits us in the future.

But if we are supposed to be a prophetic people who are moved by a spirit induced lament,

then what happens is we begin to have this eagerness to bring those values of Revelation 21, verse 4 from a future kingdom into the present.

Revelation 21:4

That is what this looks like.

Let me just call Jeevan and ask him this simple question.

What is it that caused him to take up the cause of these girls in Nandigama?

And then I'll return to just the last point before we sing and close.

Hey guys, my name is Jeevan.

When I was 17, I saw a young kid behind a bush drinking and smoking and I saw him in the middle of the night and that broke my heart.

I went to home and then I couldn't sleep the whole night.

I was crying because I know who God is.

I know what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and then how he has changed my life and how it gave me strength and the value and the identity to live.

And then that's when I started to go to villages and started to talk to kids.

And then Sunday school started to happen and there are hundreds and hundreds of kids coming from different villages.

And then after four years, I started to understand something.

The girls, especially the girls, are super excited in Sunday school.

There's a girl, her name is Rajkumari, and she's 14 years old.

She is actually a Sunday school teacher for one of the villages.

She's the leader of the Sunday school.

She always goes out and she brings her friends to Sunday school.

And then one Sunday she brought eight of her friends to Sunday school and then eight of them gave life to Christ.

And she's like such an energetic and such a wonderful leader.

And then the next Sunday I went to Sunday school and then I couldn't see her.

I thought maybe she was sick.

I thought maybe she went out.

She went to her relative's home for a holiday, but she didn't come back.

And I went to her parents and then I found out that 14-year-old girl and then parents forced her into marriage.

And that broke my heart.

The cultural bondage, the cultural social bondage, and then financial.

And it's not just the parents, it's the enemy that's working.

And for thousands and thousands of years, the bondage is after bondage.

And the entire communities have become enslaved to that.

And that broke my heart.

I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know who to go.

I didn't know what to do.

I went and told my parents and told my friends.

And then we all come from that same background and it's normal to us.

And then everybody's like, yeah, that's how it works.

That's how the world works.

And then I came to Canada and then one person gave me a menstrual hygiene kit.

And then that night I started to pray about it.

And then God spoke to me to go and then search for a sewing machine.

And I was student at the time.

I didn't have any connections.

I didn't have any money.

I only had $10.

And then I found one port coquette.

Took a bus for two hours, 40 minutes.

Went there and then got the sewing machine.

And then I came back.

And then when I went to India, I took it along with the kit.

And I gave it to my sister.

And then my sister, she came back the next day and then she said,

Jeevan, this will change the lives of the girls.

I didn't know how.

And she didn't know how.

She's like, I know this will change the lives of the girls.

She started to make more of those kits and then started to meet girls right in their homes.

When the girls were able to go into the places where they shouldn't go.

Because these girls are supposed to go and then work.

Like 16, 17 year old girls.

They're supposed to go to school and then enjoy the life and then plan for the career.

But their lives are in such a slavery that they had to go and work for the whole day under the sun just for $2.

And then their lives get worse by worse day by day, day by day, day by day.

And that's when we started to go and started to meet them.

Because if we know who God is, because I come from that community and I know that I believe that's normal.

That's how it should be.

But then God brought me out from there and then I started to understand who God is and what God can do.

And just like what Jacob said from Luke, it's like if the Spirit of the Lord is upon us and then he has anointed us for a certain reason.

And that's what triggered all of our hearts.

Not just mine.

They're like our team, our family, everybody.

We started to go and then one after the other, one after the other.

Yesterday I got a call from one of the girls who works at our ministry.

And because of the COVID, they were all locked down.

They cannot come out and they cannot do any work.

So they started to stay at home.

And then she started to call me and then she said, three girls from the company.

They said three of their brothers now accepted Christ because of the change and because of the lives that they are living.

And because of the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

They started to preach the gospel.

And then now they started to the entire family started to come together.

And this is catching one family after other, one family after other.

And that's the power of God.

When we stand up and that's how God does amazing miracles.

All we got to do is stand up, take an action.

And I also want to say, I also want to tell you one more thing before I go.

You need to let God break your heart.

You need to let God break your heart towards the things that God has prepared you for.

So many times that we run away from it.

And then I would say, go face it, open your heart and lament and go to God and then cry and then have this, have this.

You can't understand this feeling, but struggle with it.

And then out of that bonds the anointing.

I pray God that lament grabs our hearts at Acts 29 so that justice will flow from this church.

That kind of justice is, like I said, not just physical.

Like Jeevan was saying, it begins to affect you spiritually.

Where people are set free, not just in their physical condition, but they're set free forever, for eternity.

Spirit of God, I just pray, I just pray that you would do this for us, please.

Oh God, it's an area we haven't entered into and I'm pleading with you for the sake of the earth ahead, in the months ahead, for our own sakes, so that we can reflect the nature of God.

Let justice begin to flow from this church too, from our lives too.

Let lament for desolate heritages grab us corporately and then also grab us individually, whether it be downtown Eastside or whether it be a nation somewhere far away.

Please begin this process, Holy Spirit.

Ignite so that our treasure, our time, our talent and strength,

will now be used to live out Micah Chapter 6 verse 8.

Micah 6:8

And this is what God requires of you, church, that you act justly, that you love mercy and that you walk humbly with your God.