Faith: Positioned for Breakthrough - Pastor Rob Urban

Welcome to Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you weekly.

We pray that what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.

Enjoy the message.

May be seated.

Hallelujah.

Thank you.

Praise and worship team.

As usual, just do such a wonderful ministry.

The Lord and it's really, really wonderful.

You know when we're talking about Israel and invading armies that there's no army like

Israel in the world.

Do you know that?

None have ever been like this one.

Because as Trevor and I were speaking before that this army has God himself involved.

And I don't think any invading army has factored that into the equation.

And be rest and be in peace because the same God who defends Israel is the same God who

saved us and is the same God who delivers us and the same God who comforts us and the

same God that loves us and cares for us is the same God.

The same God.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Thank you, Dale, for the communion and Pastor Rowley last Sunday for the incredible word.

So encouraging.

It was just great.

And I believe Pete, last week, your communion dovetailed in as usual with the preacher and

it's just lovely to see.

It's just so wonderful.

Holy Spirit, I thank you for your presence here.

And I just ask that you would move through me as we, in a sense, partner together to

share the incredible word of God, the life-changing word of God.

And Lord, I thank you for your presence here right now and the anointing to do what we're

called to do in the name of Jesus.

We said, amen.

Amen.

And you know, I'm fully aware that many of us, if not nearly all of us, if not all of

us, at some stage in recent times, or currently, are going through some challenges in life.

And the big word is life.

It's life.

Things happen.

And it's not trying to eliminate things happening.

I mean, Apostle Paul tried three times, he prayed, Lord, that you would remove this from

me.

And Jesus didn't answer his question.

He just said, but my grace is sufficient for you.

And he actually had the revelation that our strength in God is perfected in our weakness.

And I want to speak today about faith, how it positions us for breakthrough, but also

that it's okay to not know what to do.

Hang on to that.

It's okay in times in our life when we don't know what to do.

It's not a sign of weakness.

It's a sign of strength in God.

And when we call out to God and ask for a direction, when we say to Him, God, I don't

know what to do, but You do.

And our mission is waiting on God for His direction in our situation.

And when He gives us that Rhema word or that direction, we embrace that because that's

all we got.

He's not going to give us plan B and plan C. God only has one plan.

And so we can try and counsel ourselves to try and secularize the ways of God, or we

can try and explain away the unknowns and implement things that we understand and think,

oh, well, I'll walk in that realm of what I understand.

But can I say, thanks of God, that when God gives us a Rhema word, when He gives us a

direction, more times than not, it's beyond our understanding.

And it needs to be that way.

So I want to encourage you today that our faith, faith that God has birthed in us, will

position you for a breakthrough.

He is an amazing God.

And I want to use Abraham, Abram, as an example.

In Genesis chapter 12, I find this so incredible.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I remember not long after I was saved, I read this and I just thought, man, this dude's

just like Noah.

You know, when you just say you don't know anything about the word and you read these

characters, I like finding key characters.

And I did then, and I still do now.

And I study the key characters as you find there's something that they have that is relevant

to what we need today.

And the traits that were not so good traits, we can identify the same in us.

And so we can learn from these patriarchs, we can learn from these incredible men and

women of God in the Bible as to what they did, what they could have done, what they

did right, what they didn't do right.

And we can learn from those things.

But when I read this, I'm going to read the first three verses of chapter 12 and it reads

here, now the Lord had said to Abram, now the word, you know, we're saying is this the

same guy as Abraham?

And yes, it is.

But when that promise came, I believe I've got the timeline right in this, when the promise

came and he accepted and the H, Abraham was indicative of the Hebrew language and culture

as far as being a father, that Abraham was fatherless, but he's name changed.

And there are many in the Bible that have name change.

Saul and Paul, Jacob, Israel, when there was a change of heart in God, God gave him a change

of name.

God said, I'm not identifying you with the old person.

I'm identifying you now as this person.

And the same is with us.

If ever you are struggling with past sins of your previous life and the devil wants

to throw it in front of you, you've been given, if you like a new name, you've been given

an incredible privilege to be called a child of the living God.

And Christ in you, your hope of glory is so amazing.

Now, the Lord said to Abram, Abram, get out of your country from your family and from

your father's house to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you.

And in all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now I want you to imagine that you're Abram right now.

And God says to you, get out of your country and from your family and from your father's

house to a land that I will show you.

Could you imagine Abram when he was on his journeys and people say to him, what are you

doing here?

Oh, well, I heard a voice because no one really knows for sure how Abram and God connected

in the first place.

I haven't found it and I spoke to others and they said, we haven't found it.

But God saw something in Abram.

He saw a man with a heart to believe to take God at his word.

And however their connection happened, I'm sure it was good.

But God said to him, I have something for you.

I want you to leave.

The people in his travels, what are you doing here?

Well, I heard a voice.

He say that today they'll give you some tablets and they think that, you know, but

God spoke to me.

So what did he say?

He said, I've got to leave my family, the ancestral side of things of witchcraft and

all of the old things.

He said, what did he say?

He said, well, he's going to take me to a land that he will show me.

So where are you going?

I don't know.

What do you mean you don't know?

You've just forsaken everything that you know, your security, everything that has been you.

You've heard a word from God and you're on your way and you don't know where you're going.

Yeah, that's right.

You're nuts.

And I think the world today, by and large, would say the same thing.

But I know today, like you do, like we know, like we know that God speaks to people today

and He's giving direction to people today and that God, whether it be in a dream or

prophetic word or through His written word, that God is leading His people and He does

it at a corporate level, on an individual level.

God just does it and He's always about leading His people into green pastures.

He's always about letting us know what the future holds, but we, on our part, we just

got to position ourselves to be able to identify the voice of God, the leading of God.

So Abraham had no idea what the future held.

All he heard was that, well, He's going to show us a land.

He's going to make a great nation out of him and all the nations in the world would be

blessed so He's been called into an international global ministry.

He's just like, are you kidding me?

And you believe that?

Oh yeah, I do.

Do you believe the call of God on your life today?

Do you truly, truly believe and accept that if God called you to do whatever it is that

God has then anointed you and appointed you to do it?

The answer is yes, He has.

And so we can explain away, I'm just using this as an example, how faith positions us

for breakthrough and Abraham had an incredible breakthrough in his life.

He goes off and he knows, but you'd already known by then that he couldn't have children,

that his wife Sarah was barren and God's saying to him, on this journey that I'm going to

take you on that I'm not telling you until we get there and all these things of the unknowns

and from your wife that's barren, you're going to, in a seed, the seed will be sown and you

are going to multiply, your seed will multiply over the face of the earth.

Now who's going to believe that?

That's why it says that Abraham was a friend of God, that he believed God and it was accounted

to him for righteousness.

And that's all he had.

He had an ability to believe God at his word.

Did Abraham have any faults?

You better believe it.

God is not about selecting perfect people.

I can tell you now I wouldn't be here if he was, just ask my wife.

But God sees what's in you.

He knows what's in you.

And each and every one of us have been given a measure of faith.

And so you have it, I have it.

And so maybe there are times in a smaller way, he's not as great as this with Abraham,

God's placed this impression on your spirit to do something.

I remember years ago a new Christian came to me and he said, Rob, I am confused.

I was at the shop the other day and I had this knowing like this inside of me that I

had to give somebody in the shops $50.

He said, I reckon it's the devil.

And I felt like asking him, have you got polished the sand?

I had the same deal.

I said to him, what did it feel like?

He goes, it's just, this is a new Christian.

He said, it's, I just knew it.

I said, what did you do?

I ain't given my money to nobody.

And I understand that.

I remember when I got saved, I went to church for the first time and when you're used to

drinking a lot and they take up an offering and an open basket with a $50 note, I'm like,

who gives a $50 note?

But I saw two cartons of beer going past me going, bye.

I mean, God changes us in the process, right?

Well, I hope He does.

And so, faith, you see, this guy, I told him, I said, look, I know exactly what you're talking

about, being there, done that.

I said, if God ever does that to you again, just do it.

Just do it.

And it was, I don't know, I can't remember how much longer he came to me, just so happy.

He said, you know what?

I had another opportunity and he said, I think it was God, I'm not sure if it was, but I

did it anyway.

I said to him, what harm can it do?

So he gave.

He gave this money.

You know, in the period of about 12 months, because this man was broke, he was unemployed,

he was looking for a job, his family was shot to bits and he realized that I'm going to

make a difference in the lives of others as much as I can.

Within 12 months, this man had a job, he was financially stable and God was working in

his family.

And I'm not saying it was because of money, I'm saying it was because of his obedience.

Whatever that might be, what is in your hand?

What have we got?

What can we do?

What gifts do we have?

And so this is this, with this faith being positioned for breakthrough and that's what

he did.

And so, Abraham, you know, go to the land that I'll show you and Abraham obeyed God

first before knowing any of the details where he was going.

It's kind of like Chantelle and I on a road trip.

Where are we going to go?

I don't know, we'll find out when we get there.

It takes the adventure out of it.

And some nights we're towing this caravan around going, where are we going to stay tonight?

We should have planned it.

But no, it's part of the adventure.

In that time of need, we need a word from God.

It's as simple as that church.

It is as simple as that.

And it's okay when you're faced with a test or a trial to say, I don't know what to do.

It's perfectly okay.

And we know that in the late 80s and 90s and therefore and so forth with the faith movement

took a branch that went further than what the Bible ever intended it to go.

To the point that you wouldn't go to church if you had a toothache or a cold because people

say you don't have faith.

And if you're going through strife or trouble, well, where's your faith?

If you had faith, you wouldn't have this happening in your life.

What's wrong with you?

Who remembers that?

It was like, really?

I thought we're on the same team.

I thought we're doing this together.

I thought we were doing life together.

That's how it should be.

And so that's why I'm saying that it's okay in the company of your friends to say, I don't

know what to do.

We're better off saying, I don't know what to do before God to say, God, I know, I'll

sort this out.

I'm a man of faith.

I'm a man of the Word.

I'm a man of prayer and I'll work it out in Jesus' name.

And oftentimes we can take a direction guessing we might get it right.

But if we get it wrong, how many people do we take on that path?

And this is why I'm saying it's okay to say, God, I don't know what to do.

There is nothing wrong with that.

I believe that need, that will bring healing in the lives of some people today.

It's okay.

I want you to know it's okay to say, I don't know what to do.

We got that?

We all good?

I can move on from that?

Okay, I'll bring it up in a couple of more paragraphs.

So we need a word, a direction from God and then we need to believe it and we need to

stick with it.

God will give you an impression.

That's who He is.

He's our heavenly Father and when we say, God, I don't know what to do, please show

me.

What is it that I need to do?

And sure it will be that you will have this witness in your spirit, you'll have this knowing

or God will speak to you.

And when we hear it, I guarantee you many times it's not what we were thinking.

I had a word from the Lord in a situation about a year and a half ago and I knew the

Lord wanted to speak to me and I thought, this is going to be great.

And then I got the word and it's like, it's not what I was expecting.

That's hard.

How can I do that, God?

What I see now more clearly today than I did that time back then, you know why?

It's because God was giving me wisdom for the future that what He already saw, He was

giving to me back then that He wanted to prepare me.

He wanted to position me for breakthrough.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

God already knew the whole time what was going to happen and sometimes we can base and it

can be a mistake, base our decisions based upon what we see today.

But God's saying, don't do that.

Let me show you what's coming so that I will forewarn you and prepare you so you already

be in front of what's coming.

But when God shows us, do we accept and embrace and believe what He's showing us?

Sometimes that can be the challenge.

Even if Jesus came to you in a time of need that you've been praying and you're in a situation

and you're saying, Jesus, I need you to intervene.

I need a word.

And then Jesus in a time of need, He appears before you and says, this is what you need

to do.

Here it is.

If you do this, it will work for you.

Would we do it?

Would I do it?

I would like to say yes.

If we read in God's Word that the Word says what we need to do or gives direction, would

we do it?

And the reality is, is that whether it's written in the Bible or Jesus says it to us personally,

it's the same thing.

It's going to be the same.

Would we do it?

And when we get the inner birthing of that divine direction in our life, that inner persuasion,

the impression or the message that we get from heaven or we get from Jesus Himself or

we get from the Word of God is not going to be any different at all.

It's the same.

God does not change.

He's not going to give you counsel contrary to what is written.

And so, faith is natural to the spirit man.

You are spirit.

You have a soul and you live in a body.

And our spirit man that came alive to God through the new birth really came alive to

God in the new birth.

And so, your spirit person, the real you, was connected with God spiritually.

And it's almost like, remember those remote control cars that you can...

I remember I bought Gus one for Christmas when he was only about this high and I wouldn't

let him have a go.

That was so much fun.

I crashed it and broke it and so you never got to go.

I had fun.

But it's just like God sending us that signal.

And are we tuned into that signal to respond to what He's showing us?

I believe that's how simple it is.

Faith in God's not hard.

It's about us being positioned for breakthrough.

Just like Abraham, he just simply believed God.

Where are you going, Abraham?

I don't know.

God didn't tell me that yet.

Oh.

So when are you going to get there?

I don't know that either.

And here's my wife, Sarah.

Sarah, she's barren, we can't have children, but that same voice told me we're going to

have children.

And you believe that?

Yep, I do.

Because there was an inner persuasion.

I want to take an example from the Bible before I close, and no, that's not the first close

for the message today.

The example of Jehoshaphat.

My Lord, what an incredible account.

I don't like even calling it a story, because it's just like once upon a time, there was

a man called Jehoshaphat, and three invading armies came.

It makes it sound like a kid's story.

It's not a kid's story.

This really happened.

This really happened, and it's incredible.

So I'd like to turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

I'm going to read that passage, which to me is absolutely incredible.

If you're going through a situation in your life, or if you know of somebody that's going

through whatever it might be, read this passage of Scripture, because there is life in this,

there's direction in it, that it shows us exactly what we need to do when things come

against us and we are faced with the impossible, but yet we serve a God with whom all things

are possible.

So how do you reconcile the two?

It's all in here, all in this chapter.

And so out of all the examples in the Bible, a person or a nation was under extreme danger,

under extreme persecution.

There was no way out.

It would have to be these guys in my opinion.

And so it's quite a long bit of a read.

So if you happen to notice your neighbor nodding off, falling asleep, give him a rib, give

him with the elbow on the rib, and say, wake up, the preacher's reading.

You need to hear this.

Amen?

Praise the Lord.

You know I'm joking, kind of.

Second Chronicles chapter 20.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

And it happened after this that the people of Moab, the people of Ammon and others with

them besides the Ammonites came to battle against Jehoshaphat.

Then some came and told Jehoshaphat saying, a great multitude is coming against you from

beyond the sea, from Syria, and they are in Hazazon Tamar, which is in Ngedi.

And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout

all Judah.

So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord.

And from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before

the new court and said, oh Lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?

And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations?

And in you, sorry, and in your hand, is there not power and might so that no one is able

to withstand you?

It's a good word for Israel today.

Verse seven, are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your

people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever?

And they dwell in it and have built you a sanctuary in it for your name saying, if disaster

comes upon us, sword, judgment, pestilence or famine, we will stand before this temple

and in your presence for your name is in this temple and cry out to you in our affliction

and you will hear and save.

And now here are the people of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir who you would not let Israel

invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy

them.

They are rewarding us by coming to throw us out of your possession which you have given

us to inherit.

You see, one of the things that I know that the devil desires to do is to try and dispossess

you of the promises of God.

That's what he tries to do.

Verse 12, oh our God, will you not judge them?

We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know

what to do, but our eyes are upon you.

Now all Judah with their little ones, their wives and their children stood before the

Lord.

And the spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benanyah,

the son of Jehi.

What happened to Jack, Frank and Bill?

The son of Mataniah the Levite, the sons of Asap in the midst of the assembly.

And he said, listen, all you of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and you, King

Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this

great multitude for the battle is not yours, but it's God's.

Tomorrow go down against them.

They will surely come up by the ascent of Ziz and you will find them at the end of the

brook before the wilderness of Jeruel.

And you will not need to fight in this battle.

Imagine yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you.

Oh Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed.

Tomorrow go out against them for the Lord is with you.

And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground and all Judah and all the inhabitants

of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.

Then the Levites of the children of the Koalites and the children of the Korites stood up to

praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.

So they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa.

And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, hear me, oh Judah and you inhabitants

of Jerusalem.

Believe in the Lord your God.

Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established.

Believe his prophets and you shall prosper.

And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the

Lord and who should praise the beauty of his holiness.

As they went out before the army and were saying, praise the Lord for his mercy endures

forever.

Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord sent ambushes against the people

of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir who had come against Judah and they were defeated.

For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly

kill and destroy them.

God is able.

And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped each other to destroy,

sorry, and they helped to destroy one another.

So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude

and there were their dead bodies fallen on the earth.

No one had escaped.

I often wonder, did the last person commit suicide?

No, he probably died of wounds.

But when Jehoshaphat and these people came to take away this spoil, they found among

them an abundance of valuables of the dead bodies and the precious jewelry which they

stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away.

And they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much.

Let me tell you something about this.

When the battle's done, don't be afraid to collect the spoil.

In the face of a battle, already claim, devil, you're going to pay back everything that you've

taken from me.

Claim it.

Speak it.

Declare it.

Be bold about it.

It's like you do so much work, so much prayer and time and seeing and getting a breakthrough,

but how often do we declare in our prayer, I declare and decree in the name of Jesus

that the devil repay and pay back everything.

By the way, Alex, George, I wanted to acknowledge you guys before and I just saw you there,

pastors from a church in West End.

Lovely to have you with us.

Praise God.

So claim it, not only get your victory, get your spoil.

Get back what belongs to you in the name of Jesus.

And on the fourth day, they assembled in the valley of Barakah.

For there they blessed the Lord, therefore the name of the place was called the Valley

of Barakah until this day.

Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, which Ahosaphat in front of them

to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies.

So they came to Jerusalem with stringed instruments, harps and trumpets to the house of the Lord

and the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the

Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.

It has a good word for Israel again today.

And then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet for his kingdom, God gave him rest all around

the kingdom.

I want to go through a few points here, bring some things out that I think are extremely

beneficial and then we'll call it quits for the morning.

Praise the Lord.

But I know this is going to encourage you.

In verse three, Jehoshaphat took the time to seek God.

He presented the situation before the Lord.

We need to do the same.

When situations are coming against you, not working out or you feel like you're between

the Red Sea and the invading army and mountains either side, just like the Exodus.

Let me say this, that you need to present your case to the Lord.

We need to bring it to Lord, to petition God and just saying, God, this is what I'm going

through.

This is what's happening.

Lord, I'm bringing it before you.

And this is what Jehoshaphat did.

He was a man of God.

He took the time to present his situation to the Lord.

He set himself before the Lord and he proclaimed a fast.

Incredible.

You imagine, you're going to get a whole nation to fast.

How do you police something like that?

But verse 12, I want to go straight to, and this is powerful.

Oh, our God, will you not judge them?

For we have no power against this multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know

what to do that our eyes are upon you.

Here is, he says, a man of God leading the people of God, a God-fearing man, the pressure

and the weight of responsibility and leadership on his shoulders, not only before God, but

before millions of people.

And he makes this statement that is so profound.

As a leader that people look to, that's supposed to have all the answers.

He says, Lord, I don't know what to do.

That was his breakthrough right there.

If he did not, before God, say, I don't know what to do, our eyes are upon you, I highly

doubt God would have spoken through a prophet to give him the battle strategy.

And this is why it is so important that I'm back to this again.

Not only is it okay, but it's entirely necessary that we can be honest and say, I don't know.

I really don't know what to do.

That's when God begins to shine his strongest.

You see humility, he says that we have no power, nor do we know what to do.

A powerful principle, humility precedes God's best.

It is not a sign of weakness, church.

It's evidence of strength, of good leadership.

I don't know where we've got this from, how we've developed leadership skills that the

leaders got to know everything.

Let me tell you, a leader does not know everything.

But God does, and he knows what to do.

And it's totally okay, I say it again, to admit when we don't know what to do, it's

totally okay.

In James 1.5, it says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God.

So we're in situations where Pastor Rollie was there last week, that we were confronted

with a situation that the reason why we're asking God for wisdom is because we're saying,

I don't know what to do.

But help, I need some direction, I don't know which way to go.

I could guess, but I don't want to guess.

I need a word from God.

I need an impression from God in my spirit.

I need that.

And when we get that, we embrace it and go, I know that's God.

I don't understand all of it, but I know it's God.

I'm embracing it, and I'm going to believe it, and I'm going to walk with it.

Now, let me tell you one of the first things that happens when you get a word from God,

He gives you direction, and you embrace it, and you believe it, and then comes the serpent.

Did God really say?

Did God really say that?

And send people along your path to say, well, that's absurd.

Yes.

How could that be?

We're back to Abraham, aren't we?

So when we lack wisdom, we're actually saying, well, I don't know what to do.

And it says here that, let him ask of God.

God wants us to ask him for wisdom, to involve God in the situation, to involve God in the

picture is a very, very important part of our Christian walk.

And it says, he gives to all liberally without reproach.

In other words, he's not going to braid you for it.

He's not going to get mad at you.

He's going to rejoice and say, Rob, ask me for advice, some wisdom.

And now I can help him.

Now I can show him which way to go.

How good is that?

How good is that?

All right, I think it's pretty good.

Thank you, Ryan.

It's great to see Ryan back again after a period of time away with family.

So when we don't know what to do, ask God, he will give you a realm of word, a direction,

in birth faith, insurance, inner persuasion, lead you to the word or whatever it might

be.

And you know like, you know like, you know like, you know right away this is from God.

We embrace that.

And as I said, it may not make a lot of sense at the moment, but God already knows the future.

He knows the end of the story and he gives us that information, how to position ourselves

in the beginning.

So why not ask God what to do?

He knows all the answers.

However, if we are too proud to admit that we do not know what to do and we don't ask

God for wisdom, we set ourselves up to fail as well as others that are following us.

And we need to be aware of that.

Very important.

We don't know what we don't know what we don't know.

And that's a common saying, isn't it?

We don't know what we don't know.

So if you don't know something, you don't know that you don't know it.

If you're totally confused right now, join the queue.

But it's true, we don't know what we don't know and it's okay to be honest, if we don't

know what to do, then we don't know what to do.

Is that message coming through clear today?

He's saying, Rob, we get it.

Move on.

But I feel that this is a major part of the journey of breakthrough.

I feel it's been a missing ingredient, at least maybe for me, maybe for all of us.

Pride inhibits teachability.

If we desire to grow in God, we need to maintain a teachable spirit.

It's impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

Can I say that again, it's impossible for a man, for a person to learn what he thinks

he already knows.

We learn nothing from life if we think we are right all the time.

Hello.

I like this one, he who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.

Interesting, isn't it?

He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.

So we may have a good database of knowledge in that, but there's still more that we don't

know.

And we're not expected to know everything.

And so then when we don't know what to do and we don't know everything, why don't we

reach out to God who does know everything?

And then embrace it, believe it, and hold on to it.

We are forever learning, hindsight is always a good teacher, right?

It's always a good, I should have done that, I should not have done that.

It's the Lord's wisdom that prevails.

We may seek the counsel of man, which at times we can get good counsel.

But we really need to be seeking the counsel of God first.

That is our first port of call.

Amen?

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.

But God knows everything.

The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, but the man who does not ask is

a fool for a lifetime.

So what does that mean?

You may feel foolish saying, Lord, I don't know what to do and God's going to help you

and get you through and you're going to prosper.

But those who don't ask, they don't change.

And they stay stuck in their position.

So what if the Lord says to do something, would we do it?

Or if the Lord says to do nothing, would we obey?

Because we may feel we're related to Mr. Fix-It.

Is there anyone here that you have Mr. Fix-It in your bloodline there somewhere that we

feel we've got to fix everything?

Come on, you can put your hand up.

I've got mine up.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Lord, we'll have an altar call later for the others that didn't.

We do what God calls us to do and He'll do what we can't do.

It's as simple as that.

This part I believe is just being honest with God, I don't know what to do, is such an important

part of our walk of faith.

Amen?

So if we say that I've got a word from God, I know what to do, we need to make sure we

do have a word from God.

We really need to just, I do have a word from God.

And if you have a word for somebody else, you need to make sure it is a word from God.

Because we don't want to discourage people.

Sometimes a word can be given as an encouragement out of sympathy or concern, but it's given

only on what we understand of this part.

We never know the rest of what people are going through.

And that's why it's so important, if we do have a word from God, let's make sure it is

a word from God.

Because the person that you give it to, if it's not a word from God, are at their most

vulnerable point right there.

So if it is a word from God, it'll encourage them, if it's not, it'll put them down.

So that's just a heads up for me, for anybody else.

We do have a responsibility as members of the body of Christ to ensure that if we say,

thus saith the Lord, that it is a thus saith the Lord.

And I don't want to discourage anyone from trying either, but it's just, we work together

on all these things and do our best to get it right.

Because we do care for people, love people, and the reason why we want to give people

a word is because we care for them.

Verse 12, our eyes are upon you, not the problem.

Very important, keep our eyes on God, not the problem.

God answers Jehoshaphat's humility and his quest for direction.

Verse 14 to 17, just read quickly here, then the Spirit of the Lord came upon, yeah, we

went through all of that before.

And so Jehoshaphat, I don't know if you read it as I read it, he got a word from God.

He got direction from God exactly how to do this.

Exactly, nothing missing.

And so God spoke through a prophet and delivers divine direction, divine assurance and faith.

And he also said, don't be afraid, this battle is not yours, but it's God's.

I wonder how many battles we have fought and engaged in over the years that wasn't ours

to fight in the first place.

I wonder, I wonder for me, but you won't need to fight in this battle.

But the prophet gave a word.

Now can I say something without anyone getting offended or hurt or just say, oh the pastors

doesn't like prophets, I do.

I admire the prophetic, I think it's important.

It definitely has a place in the New Testament church, it's so much needed.

It's part of the fivefold ministry gifts.

If it wasn't needed, Jesus wouldn't have appointed people to be prophets.

It's just as simple as that.

But we don't go running to a prophet to get a word.

We still here this morning?

We run to God first to get a word.

A person one day said to me, I'm confused.

I went to this prophet, that prophet and that prophet with the same situation and I had

three different directions from each prophet.

If you knew as a pastor how many times I see that, it would make you shudder.

And I think often, I just feel the Spirit of the Lord going this way.

I think often the prophetic is so misunderstood, it's so needed, it's so powerful.

But the devil knows that he's got to shut that big cannon down.

So what does he do?

He brings in something similar, a counterfeit.

We need to be discerning.

That's why I never recommend to anybody to go to a prophet first, seek God first.

And if you're in a church and you have leadership and a pastor speak to them, Paul said to Timothy

that those that you know, those that have shown the fruit of their ministry in your

life, trust them rather than someone that you don't know.

Now they may be entirely accurate and they could be.

But from where I'm standing and any other person that's been in ministry long enough

to see how many people have followed a word that wasn't from God and that has destroyed

families, businesses, ministries and so forth, it's really, really wrong.

And I believe many times we can get a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom and be so accurate.

You know, a word of knowledge, something that's going on in a person's life and God gives

you a word and you tell them, they go, yeah man, that's what I'm going through.

And you pray for them and they're encouraged or a word of wisdom is, you know, saying,

no, I see this as what's going to happen out of this.

And then it happens and people say, oh man, that was so accurate.

Thank you, you gave me the advice in advance and this sort of thing.

Then that person that gave these words goes, I'm a prophet.

No, they're not.

You see, the gifts of the Spirit have been given to every single believer and the Spirit

of God expects every single believer, would like every single believer to operate in those

gifts for the benefit of the body of Christ.

But we can't go put a prophet hat on and go start a ministry and write a book and sell

books, get a name up in lights and say, I'm a prophet now.

It's a five-fold calling.

I don't know why I felt in my spirit that, okay, I'm going to close.

There are some things that he said, he positioned yourselves, position yourselves, be immovable,

motivated by God's promise, stand still.

I want to just close on those two words, position yourselves and stand still.

This is all related to the word that was given through the prophet.

Now that you've received this word, this direction from the Lord, you've got it.

You've got your word.

You've got your direction.

Now stand still, position yourself.

In other words, embrace yourself, fortify what you've just received that this is not

open for debate.

This came from God and this is where we're going.

We're not moving from this.

And stand still.

In other words, be single-minded.

It's not this today and that tomorrow and we're back to this today and back to that

tomorrow.

It's either the word that God has given you or it's not.

And Jehoshaphat, he embraced it and he took it seriously.

And you notice that when you get a word from God, a word for you in a given time, you know,

it's an amazing thing because when we hear it, we believe it, we identify with it and

then we embrace it, it causes great joy in your life.

What did Jehoshaphat do?

He fell on his face and he worshiped the Lord.

What a relief I can hear him saying.

And then what did he do?

He got the praises.

He got the worshipers.

And I could just imagine, you know, the Lord said to them, hey, you're still going to have

to go and front up, but you're not going to fight.

So what they were doing was they were singing this song and praising the Lord.

Was it saved that they were singing?

It says, praise the Lord for his mercies and jewel forever.

What a powerful faith statement that is.

They were singing because they were sold.

They would believe, they caught the vision, what God wanted to do.

And they knew, this is our bit here that we have to do.

God doesn't want us on the battlefield.

He just wants us here, praising God and worshiping God.

We can't have our eyes on the problem if our eyes are on God, worshiping him.

And the results of that, it says that you will see the salvation of the Lord.

Is there anyone here today that you'll believe in God to see the salvation, the deliverance

of the Lord in any given situation?

Maybe you're believing God for someone to come to Christ.

Maybe I know there's a few people here this morning that you're believing for loved ones

to come from overseas to be accepted and, you know, get their PR and all that sort of

thing.

You're in a battle.

You are believing God for something that's not yet happened, but don't give up.

Get a word from God, get God's strategy and embrace it and hold onto it and position yourself

and go, this is it.

And stand still.

We're not, you know, floundering here and there and everywhere.

The Bible says in James chapter 1 that a double-minded man will receive nothing from the Lord.

James 1 · chapter mention

So we need to be single-minded.

Amen?

Praise the Lord.

I just want to say this as I close.

You can come out for prayer later on if you like.

That's good.

But I want to say this.

We can, I'm trying to find a really gentle way to say this as I close.

Oh, help me Lord.

Let me point it at me.

This is the best way.

There was a time that I was believing God for something and it just wasn't happening.

And the Lord made it very clear to me.

You can have all the prayer from the best preachers, from the most anointed people.

But if you do not take that step yourself to say, I'm believing God.

If you don't do that, they can't do it for you.

We can't rely on their faith to get us through.

God's given you a measure of faith, given me a measure of faith.

And it's okay again to say, God, I don't know what to do.

And I feel in my spirit, there's some of us here today, you know what?

I'm hearing what you're saying and it's resonating in my spirit that I need to hand whatever

it is you're going through, hand it over to the Lord fresh and new and say, Lord, I've

been trying to take care of this and it ain't working.

I'm here today to say, God, I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do.

And ask God for him to show you what to do.

Church, it's that simple.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us.

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See you next week.