Seeing Through The Eyes Of Faith

You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

We pray that you enjoy the message.

One of the things that I really want to get across to you

tonight, something Lord's been putting on my heart and just

stirring for this and this season here that you're in, is

that no matter where you are right now, no matter whether

you're at the best part of your life you've ever been at, or

maybe you're at a part that youth feels very transitional.

Maybe you're at a low those seasons and those areas that

you're in, that's not all that God has for you.

And so sometimes we can look at great places, the high places in

life, and we can say, hey man, I think I'll finally have arrived,

right? Like I actually started a church

from scratch. And do you all use the word

scratch here? OK, if it's if that doesn't make

sense, let me know. Just wave at me and say I don't

know what you mean. But we started a church and a

season of our church. We met in a hotel.

And so this reminds me very much of our church.

Matter of fact, the Lord dealt with me to go and plant a church

in Lafayette, LA. And we had no money.

We had no team, we had no building, we had nothing but

faith and vision. And when we got there, it was

evident that all we had was faith and vision.

And I remember those seasons in prayer before we launched out

and stepped out into what God called us to do.

I saw so many people in my spirit.

But then I get up to preach and there'd be 3 people.

Four people, 7 people, right? And I remember I, I had a

conversation with the Lord one night because we had our opening

night, 28 people showed up. I was so excited.

I was like, wow, 28. So I thought, man, next week

we're going to, we're going to have more.

And I realized that 24 of those 28 were friends and family that

traveled from out of town. And so the next night or next

week, we had four people in our church.

And I remember my wife, she looked at me wondering if I was

going to be upset or if I was let down and I wasn't because to

me, it was such an honor that four people had chosen what God

had called us to do, that we chose right.

So I remember having a conversation with God and I said

this. I said God, I promise you these

will be the four fluffiest sheep you've ever seen in your life.

Like I'm going to love them, I'm going to, I'm going to pet them.

I'm going to pick ticks off of them, whatever I have to do.

I'm going to be there for their birthdays, their anniversaries,

I'm going to be a part of their life.

And God, when you come back and you ask me to present these 4

sheep to you and you're going to be so impressed, I'm going to

ask you for 8. And sure enough.

And the Bible says if you're faithful with little, God will

make you ruler over much. So little is never an insult.

Little is an opportunity. It's it's a pathway, it's a

start towards much. And so no matter what that looks

like in your life, maybe little to you right now is in your job

or little to you right now is in a relationship.

We're not just talking about a church, right?

You are the church. And even though this church has

come here and it's established this season of this church has

an expiration date on it, you won't always be in this hotel.

Can I hear an Amen? Hey, man, you will not always be

in this hotel. And there's seasons in your life

right now that have expiration dates.

They're not to be the longevity of all that.

You see, it's funny to me that as as a kid, I think we all had

had always seen ourselves growing up.

We always, you know, you ask people, what do you want to be

when you grow up, right? It's like age.

We can always see us leaving the age, right?

Like how many you know you're not going to be the age you are

right now forever. And while we always see

ourselves, like when I was 8, I wanted to be 12, when I was 12,

I wanted to be 16. And when I was 16, I wanted to

be 30. And when I became 30, I wanted

to be 12 again, right? He just want to go backwards.

But I remember that mindset didn't always go with me in the

seasons of my life. Sometimes you'll go through a

season and the devil will lie to you and tell you this is all

you're ever going to have, right?

Or he'll tell you things like you've already experienced the

best that you're ever going to experience, and that's not true.

And maybe you've had setbacks, maybe you've had mistakes, maybe

you've had shortcomings, but that doesn't mean that you've

wrecked the future. God is faithful and just that if

you'll trust him. And listen to what Pastor Max

said this morning about the the imagination and just using your

imagination. I'm going to touch a little bit

on some of that tonight, but I want you to understand one

thing. If you can find it in God's

Word, you should be able to find it in your life.

If there's healing in God's Word, you should be able to have

healing in your life. If there's peace in God's Word,

you should be able to have it. And not just in your life, but

in your relationships, in your marriage, in your family, in

your finances, in your body. You should be able to see the

Word of God show up in those areas of your life.

Because it's not just there for us to read as literature and to

get educated. It's there for us to read as an

identity and something that we rightfully possess by faith.

Amen. So tonight I just want to share

with you a few things that I believe are going to help you

get from where you are to where I believe God wants you to be.

Now I mentioned that, you know, my wife and I, we travel all

over the world and, and I'm so blessed to be able to, to serve

Pastors Mack and Lynn in, in what we're doing with global

church planting. And Ireland has a big place on

our hearts because you're here and we want to do all we can do

to help you and help your pastors.

And, but you know, God has something in store for you

beyond just your attendance at a church.

And it's important that when you are in attendance, that who you

are is constantly evolving because you are the church,

right? Like imagine if you had a child

or, or someone you're in a relationship with it every time

you were with them, they acted different or they were going

through something different. It would be hard to have a

conversation. It would be hard to build on

that relationship because you wouldn't know the climate on

that meeting to the next meeting.

And I remember pastoring, sometimes I would walk into the

same 4 sheep or the same 12 sheep or the same 15 sheep.

And even though there's the same people that were there last

week, they were going through a different set of problems this

week. And so it's like I was talking

to an entirely different group of people because they were

going through something different.

So while you do gather, it's important that you understand

who you are and where you're going because every time you

come, you bring a supply to this church.

We're not just trying to get you to usher and greet and sing or

or whatever. We're trying to get you to grow

and mature. I'm a father of five kids.

I've been married almost 24 years, and God has blessed us.

And my wife, beautiful wife, beautiful children.

But one thing that I have learned as a father is it's

important that my children grow up right?

And the older that they get, you wish they didn't grow up.

You're like, oh, man, I was on the plane right up here and I'm

looking at photos of my daughter and I'm like, man, I wish she

was this big again. And right.

But if she stayed that big, while it sounds cute, it's not

right. It's not God's design.

And you were never meant to stay in the condition that you're in

right now. You were never meant to stay at

the level that you're in right now.

God desires and designed for you to constantly grow.

I'll never forget when my wife and I got married.

I fell in love with my wife when I was 13 years old and she

didn't pay attention to me until I was 17 and I got engaged at

18. I got married at 19 and I

planted a church at 26. So everything happened fast for

me. And there's a reason behind

that. I think one, God's timing.

But 2, I had gone through a bunch of things in my life at an

early age that I had to make a pretty drastic decision.

Either I'm going to serve God 100% and we activate this now,

or there's a chance I might not even be here anymore.

And you go through things in your own life.

And I don't know your testimony, but I know mine very well.

And at 13 years of age, my 22 year old brother died in a car

accident. And you know, you go through

those things and you think, man, I don't know that I'll ever get

past this. It's like you freeze frame in

that moment. You ever been in a thing in your

life where it's like you just, it's like everything froze And

the devil tries to do that. He tries to put you in a moment

that you never get past. You'd be, you'd be shocked how

many times in a meeting like this you end up laying hands on

people afterwards. And you're going down the line

and you're praying for people and word of knowledge will come

and you'll be speaking to a 65 year old woman, but yet you're

speaking to a six year old woman or a six year old kid on the

inside of that 65 year old woman where life froze.

Time stood still for her, things that happened that she couldn't

get past, and she's taking it with her through her whole life.

And what the devil tries to do is he tries to paralyze you at

moments and seasons in your life.

Because if you're not careful, that fear that paralyzes us, it,

it, it kind of dilutes the things that God wants to do that

only faith can mobilize. And So what God does is he

brings faith into your life to reactivate those things that the

devil was trying to stop. And you've had a story that I

don't have. You've gone through different

seasons and walks of life that I have.

Not everyone in this room has a story and has a part in writing

to the story that God's building here in this church.

You have a piece of this story here.

But listen, the devil will try to to sign off as the author of

your life and the the tragedies and the nightmares and the

seasons and the mistakes and he'll try to sign that and say

that was what I did to you. But listen, God wipes those

things away. When you come into a church like

this, you're able to have pastors who teach the word,

teach who you are in Christ, teach faith, teach

righteousness. Are y'all getting that here?

Amen. They teach that and it helps you

grow out of that tragedy and into someone who now has

authority as a believer, can walk on their own 2 feet, be led

by the Spirit that God designed them to be led by, and have an

intimate relationship with the Father God.

And that's just plan. Not that you sit and just be a

consumer and take notes and hear the Word.

We're to be doers of the very word that we hear.

And so my brother died at 13, and I didn't really know what

was going to happen with my life after that.

So I'll give you a very fast version of what happened.

At 14 years old, I was caught up in drug addiction and alcohol

addiction and running with gangs, and my life was not where

it should have been. I ended up moving out of my

house at 14 and lived with different families for a while

and then had a radical encounter with God, got filled with the

Holy Ghost. Come on, man.

It changed my life. I got radically filled with the

Holy Spirit, changed everything about me.

And I thought, man, this is it, this is great.

I, I was called to the ministry. I knew I was called to the

ministry, but the problem was, is what happened before.

I thought that I was called all these things through drugs and

alcohol and abuse and all those things gave me a reputation with

man that I felt I'll never get past.

So I remember as I would try to follow the things of God, I

would have the enemy telling me, yeah, but you did this.

Yeah, but you're the kid who did this.

And yeah, but that's what happened to you.

And so sure enough, you know, my my church story and and my

church relationship was not the best.

I was the kid who got kicked out of youth group.

I was the kid who was asked to leave Sunday church.

And then when I got my life right, when I came back, then I

basically had two ushers assigned to me.

Anybody service usher here in the church, you, you would have

been assigned to me. I couldn't go to the bathroom

without ushers going with me. It was that intense.

It shouldn't have been that intense, but they thought it was

worthy of that type of intense behavior.

And so there's no reason why I should have ended up in

ministry. I could have been everyone else

to say, you know what? The church is nothing but a

bunch of hypocrites. You don't want me in there.

And but I remember there was a season where I was on fire for

God and then I just couldn't stop.

It's like the natural default was to go right back into the

flesh and go right back into the things of this world.

And this, none of this was my plan tonight.

I don't know why I'm sharing this, but I feel like I'm

supposed to. And I would, I would do good for

God and I would do good for God. And then it's like I would just

go right back. And I remember it was like this

yo-yo of and the devil convinced me like you're only good with

God for three months, Caleb, right.

So go ahead and do your three months with God.

And then you're going to go six months for me and you're going

to do 3 months for God and six months for me.

So that led me to 17 years old, homeless, living on the streets

and a drug addict. And I remember one night I was

on like a two week binge and I found myself in a motel.

I don't know if y'all know the difference in a motel in a

hotel, but there's a vast difference with just two letters

of the alphabet. I found myself in a motel and I

looked at myself in the mirror for the first time in two weeks

and I did not like what I saw. And I remember just listening to

the devil telling me this is all you're ever going to be.

But there was a voice on the inside of me that that it was,

it was fainter than it used to be, but it just began to say,

don't you remember I've called you to ministry?

Don't you remember I've called you to preach?

But I'm looking at 105 LB drug addict and I'm thinking, there's

no way. My church kicked me out.

My parents kicked me out. My youth pastor doesn't want me.

My pastor doesn't want me. But you're telling me you've

called me and I'll never forget. I, I sat there and I stared in

the mirror and I said, OK, God, if you can find a way to get me

home, I'll give you 365 days of my life.

That was just where I was. You know, I, I gave my whole

life to him. But what I committed was I'll

live for you without fail because it's been 3 months on

and three months off. I'll live for you without fail

for one year. But God, if you can't do this

for me in one year, I don't know that I'll be here.

That's just where I was. I didn't know if whether I would

take my own life or somebody else would take it.

I walked out of that bathroom making this, God, if you could

get me home, I'll go declaration.

And I walked out of the motel and when I closed the door

behind me, there was a truck parked in the parking lot.

And someone called my name. And I looked up and it was an

electrician that worked for my father, and his name was Mark.

I said, Mark, what are you doing here?

He said, Caleb, I've been praying.

He said for two hours I've been praying in the Spirit and the

Lord told me to come find you, that you you were missing.

And he said, I've been driving around for two hours and the

Holy Spirit said, pull into this parking lot.

He said, when I pulled into this parking lot, I put the truck in

park. You walked out of that door

right there. It was crazy because I was just

in the bathroom going, if you'll find a way for me to get home,

God, I'll go home and I walk out.

And isn't it crazy if you zoom out for a moment and you think

about that? Here's Mark driving around the

city. I'm walking two hours before

that in a ditch and somebody finds me on the side of the road

and says, do you need a ride? And they drop me off at a motel.

I bummed some money. I got a room and here's Mark.

While I'm in the bathroom talking to God, driving around,

finding his way into a parking lot, let me tell you something.

You think you're going to a hotel church?

You're not going to a hotel church.

God is divinely guiding you to get you in the right spot at the

right time for what He wants you to do.

You think it's just coincidence they came and started a church

here? You think it's just coincidence

that Pastor Mac and Lynn decided to start planting churches all

over the world? God is a strategist.

God will make sure He aligns everything He needs to just for

you. I love John 316 for God so loved

the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

I love that scripture, but sometimes I like to play, you

know, like edit with some of the words in there and just take the

word world and remove it and just put my name right there for

God. So loved Caleb, God would do all

of it just for you. God would move heaven and earth

just to get to you, to show you how valuable you are because

listen, he didn't want to just set a 17 year old free from drug

addiction. He didn't want to just set

someone who might have been 17 but was paused at 13 from the

loss of his brother. He didn't want to just deal with

my hurt and my pain. God had a call in my life that

was going to activate things that would go into motion that

would get me here tonight. God has a bigger picture for

you. It's not just about you joining

a church and serving at a church while that is amazing and you're

doing that, but it's about you being able to be led by the Holy

Spirit and surrendered in the moments of vulnerability to say,

I know this doesn't make sense God, but I'm going to do it.

And so here I was giving my life back to the Lord.

Fast forward, I go home and my parents let me back in the house

and there's a whole nother story behind all of that.

But I can tell you this. It led to me at 18 years old, 17

I, I ended up meeting my wife and my life was never the same.

18 we got engaged and 19 we got married.

And I remember when we got married, the Lord began to deal

with me about ministry and, and a ministry beyond where we are

today. And this is what I want to kind

of share with you is sometimes where you're at, that's all you

can see, but God has something for beyond where you're at right

now. My wife and I got married and

we, it, it almost like slowed us down because when we got

married, we really just wanted everything.

We're like, OK, we're married now, let's have babies, right?

Like, and everyone's going, Caleb, chill.

Like you're so young. You know, I didn't think I was

so young. I was 19.

I was very young. Anybody 19 in here?

No, but I remember being 19. So, you know, you think you're

older than you are. And so we, we decided, OK, we're

going to wait. We're going to wait a few years.

And so we did. We waited a few years.

And when we finally got pregnant, my whole life was

like, this is all I've ever wanted to do Now this is going

to be the greatest thing. And then my wife came to me

about six weeks later and she said, I think I'm having a

miscarriage. And so there's another moment in

your life where things just kind of pause.

And so, you know, we went through that challenge and then

ended up getting pregnant again, had another miscarriage.

And it seemed that that was going to be the norm.

And the doctors even said, we don't know that you guys are

ever going to be able to have children.

Well, if you heard what I said earlier, that's a lie.

We've had many kids. I think we've had too many kids,

honestly, if, if I'm going to put that in there.

But I remember when we, we finally got pregnant with our

third pregnancy and that became our first child that we gave

birth to. And my whole life was changed.

But before that happened, I had to change my mindset like what

Pastor Mac was talking about this morning.

I had to change the way I saw things because the devil was

giving me an image. The devil was giving me a

glimpse of what he wanted me to believe.

So I'll never forget sitting there with my wife one night and

she asked me. She said, do you think, you

know, as a, as a Word of Faith couple, we try to keep each

other in faith, but every now and then it's good to have

somebody that you can just talk to and be real with.

And she said, do you think this is going to just always happen

to us? And I said, no, I don't.

I believe by faith your womb will not only conceive a child,

but will give birth to a child. So I said, here's what I want to

do. I want to start sowing seeds for

our future. And so this is what we did.

A friend of ours actually had a baby.

And so I called my friend and I said, hey, I know that you guys

probably want to date night, so why don't you bring your baby

over to our house? And it's like, I couldn't even

get off the phone before I heard like knocks on the door, you

know? And so they did.

They brought their baby over. And so they brought the baby

over and brought the baby inside and, and then like tires

squealed, they were gone. They went on a date night.

We actually paid for their date, gave them some money to go to

the restaurant and free childcare.

So here I am, I'm looking at this baby in a car seat.

They didn't give me any instructions.

They just dropped the baby off. And so I'm looking at the baby

and I'm looking at my wife and I'm looking at the baby.

And so I'm like, well, I guess I'll take the baby out.

And so I kind of start moving the, the straps and I picked the

baby up. And so I'm kind of like looking

at it and I just gave the baby to my wife.

And so she's standing there holding the baby.

And so I just stepped back and I said, that looks good on you.

I said, Hey, babe, hey, like walk around and do what moms do,

you know, like just bounce your shoulders or whatever.

So she's like, what am I just do it, Just walk her.

So she's walking around and she's doing this and I'm like,

wow, babe, that looks so good on you.

Like give it to me. You know, so she gives me baby.

I'm like, how does it? You know, I'm walking around and

I'm like, so I said, Hey, let's go.

Like where are you going to where are you going to sit when

you rock the baby? And so we're setting up them

like, sit down, let me just let me see it.

I'm, I'm making myself see it. And I remember just looking at

her and thinking that that is what I'm going to see.

Is this not pretend? This is not like dress up and

baby dolls and this is going to be my future.

And so when they came back to get their their baby, I asked

them, I said, Hey, can we do this every week for you?

Pick a night. Y'all go on a date?

And we did. We watched their baby every

week. It was not long after that that

my wife had gotten pregnant with my first son, Jayden.

And it wasn't because I watched a baby that we got pregnant.

But it was because I was determined that if I could see a

different image than what I was seeing in my now, that if I knew

my present condition is not my future destination, then God

could do something through the hope on the inside of me, the

expectation on the inside of me that when my faith and hope

collide. Hebrews says that evidence,

right? There's evidence, there's

substance that shows up in those things in your life.

Well, I'll never forget it worked.

And I was like, OK, what else do we believe in God for?

We were believing God for a house.

And so we begin to drive around again.

I was 19, you know, I was young, I didn't have any credit.

I didn't know I didn't have any money.

I didn't have anything. You know, my, my dad was a

Carpenter. And so we grew up blue collar.

We worked for everything we had. And if we didn't have it, we

just kept working until we could figure it out.

Sometimes you worked hungry, sometimes you worked late,

sometimes you just kept working. So I remember there was one guy

on staff at our church that had the only staff member that owned

a home everyone else rented. And so a good friend of mine

named Profetto Esquibel, Profetto Pastors now in Dallas,

Fort Worth. And so I went up to him one day

and I said, Hey, hey, Profetto. I said, would you mind telling

me how much your mortgage is? And he's like, man, you don't

ask another man that. I'm like, no, I know my dad

taught me, you know, you don't ask people that.

I said, but I just want to know how much your mortgage is.

And so he told me. And I was like, oh, I said,

well, he's like, why? I said, well, I was going to pay

one of your, your monthly notes, but man, you got a high

mortgage. And it really wasn't a high

mortgage, but to me it was a very high mortgage.

So I said, man, I can't afford that.

I said, but here's what I'm going to do.

I said, my wife and I, we're going to come over to your house

and we're going to clean your house.

Now, if you know my story, my, my wife's father was his boss,

the pastor of the church that we worked at.

So he's like, there's no way the pastor's daughter is coming to

my house and going to clean my house.

But that's what we wanted to do. So I remember we went to the

house and I'm outside and I'm mowing the grass and cutting the

hedges and doing all of these things.

And my wife's inside, she's wiping mirrors and wiping

baseboards and cleaning. And I'll never forget as I was

mowing his grass, I would just mow the grass and I would say

this is what it's going to be like one day when I'm mowing my

yard. And then when I finished mowing,

I went to him and said what's next?

And he said, well, now we got a weed eater.

So I grabbed a weed eater and I'm weed eating and I'm edging

and, and I'm sweeping and I'm going, this is what it's going

to be like. He had a pool.

So I'm sweeping the pool and I'm going, man, this is what it's

going to be like one day when I sweep my pool.

I'm going to have my own pool one day.

And it wasn't too long after I had a realtor call me about a

week later. And she said, Caleb, I don't

know why, but I feel like I should call you.

She said, are you and Alicia believe in God for a home?

And I said, yeah, Crazy thing is, is we don't know where

there's one that we could buy and we don't have any money to

buy one. And she said, well, something

just came across my e-mail and it hasn't made it to market yet.

And I felt like I was supposed to call you.

Why don't we go look at it? So we did.

We drove up there that night and when we walked in or walked up

to the house and we were looking through the door, the door

opened. And so it kind of freaked us

out. And the guy who owned the home,

he said y'all looking for a house.

And my real estate agent said why, why yes, but we can call

and schedule appointment. And he said no, no, no, come on

in. So we come in and he looks at me

and he his jaw drops and he just starts crying.

And he said you look just like my son.

I could smell alcohol from where he was all over his breath.

He just began to weep. And I said, well, you know, I

tried to make light of it. I said he must be a really good

looking man, you know. And he said he was.

And I said, what do you mean? He said I'm selling my house.

My son died in a four Wheeler accident just a few weeks ago.

He said I can't, I can't stay in this house.

And I could, I could relate to that.

I understood that type of pain. And as I stood there, he said,

you want this house? He said I won't sell it to

anyone else, it's yours. I said, Sir, I don't have any

money. I don't, I don't even know if I

have an approval. He said we'll figure it out.

So he tells the real estate agent.

He said write the contract right now.

He said you have furniture and I said no.

He said you can have these couches.

He walks me into the bedrooms. Do you have drapes?

Nope. You have lamps?

Nope, you can have these. You have a refrigerator?

Nope. He said keep it.

He said you have washers and dryers.

No, I don't. He said you can have mine.

Walks me outside into his shed. He goes, do you have Rakes and

shovels? I said no, because you have a

lawn mower. I said I don't have anything,

dude, I'm like 19 years old, you know?

And he said you can have it all. He said this house was meant for

you. Now, when I was cutting my

friend's grass, all I was doing was just saying, God, I know

that I'm not going to rent an apartment the rest of my life.

God, I know there's something bigger for me than this season.

What I didn't know was how God was going to do it.

All I had to do was give God something to work with, with my

faith, my imagination, my expectation.

We got that house. Fast forward.

I can't tell you the things in my life that God has done time

and time again where it seemed impossible.

And you go to the time where I planted a church and all I had

was four people. I watch God take every moment of

my life that look like it was stunted in growth.

It was stained by mistakes. It was never going to measure up

to man's opinion, my reputation, my ability, my lack of

resources. It never made sense.

The fact that I'm even married to my wife makes no sense to me

in my brain because I remember when people said she will never

date you. You're a Moran.

And I'm going. Well, yeah, but I mean, I can't

help who I am. But that's the reputation that

we had. I don't know what's happened in

your life. I don't know the things that the

devil may have lied to you or stole from you or maybe

convinced you that you just are where you are and you'll be

there for the rest of your life. And sometimes people, you go

through different stages when you're 20, when you're 60, when

you're 70 and you can think it's over for me.

It's never going to be any different for me.

Let me tell you something, 365 days from now will not look the

way that it does right now. I promise you that if you'll put

your faith and your hope and your trust in God, you'll see

things turn around. I'll share this, this last

tidbit with you and then I want to give Jen some time to to

speak and minister to you. But I've spent a season of my

life not only just in ministry, but I've spent a season of my

life in the marketplace. And so I do a lot of leadership

training. I do a lot of coaching.

I do a lot of helping people start businesses.

I do a lot of consulting with churches to grow and develop,

and it's a passion of mine to walk into something and see it

for not what it is, but for what it can be.

And I see that tonight in this room.

I see you for not who you are or what you are, but for what you

can be. But it doesn't matter what I

see. You've got to be able to see

that. Well, I started studying these

billionaires with AB billionaires and, and what was

so unique about these billionaires that was different

from millionaires? So I came across a documentary

that actually interviewed like, I think 15 or 20 different

billionaires, but they spotlighted one man and they

they made the whole documentary basically about him and they

asked him, they said, So what was it that you did different

that got you into where you are today?

He said, it's very simple. He said, I just dream a lot.

And they said, what, what do you mean?

And he said, I, I see myself doing very much like what Pastor

Mac was saying this morning. I see myself doing the thing I

want to do until I see myself doing the thing that I want to

do. And so he said, he said,

actually, you know, in a home you have a kitchen.

That's where you cook or you eat.

You have a bedroom. That's where you sleep and you

have bathrooms and you shower and you have closets for your

clothes and garages for your cars, he said.

You have rooms intentionally built for everything in your

life. He said.

But I built a dream room. He said.

I go into that room every day. And he said, and I will sit down

in a dream chair. He said.

I put together a dream playlist. I have my dream headphones.

I turn off my light and he said, and for an hour I see myself in

my future. Now he didn't say anything about

God. He just understands.

He's tapping into something that God designed the power of the

imagination. How much more when you put God

in it? Well, you see this very story in

the Bible in Genesis chapter 30, where the Bible says that Jacob

Genesis 30 · chapter mention

worked for Laban for a while until he wanted his own flocks.

He wanted to quit making somebody else's dream come to

pass, and he was ready for his own dream to come to pass.

I can tell you this, your future and your dream is always tied to

serving somebody else's future and somebody else's dream.

Everything God has ever done in my life didn't happen because I

was willing. Everything God did in my life

happened because I was willing to serve somebody else who had

submitted to him. What I'm doing right now with

Pastors Mack and Lynn, if this is the final chapter of their

life, he's 82 years old. If this is the final chapter of

his life, I'm honored to hold the pen while he writes it.

That's my part to play. It doesn't have to be about me

at all. But as I serve a vision, God

begins to give unto me eyes to see from my own vision.

And that's what God does in a local church.

He puts you in a place where it's not about what can you give

me, it's what can I do to help this local church and the vision

that God has here. And as your roots go down in

this church, the fruit from your life begins to sprout out and

God begins to show you the gifts and the talents.

Because as a little 8 year old Baptist boy, I never saw myself

as a tongue talking Pentecostal preacher, right?

But God knew that was my future. And so I had to see myself not

as a drug addict. I had to see myself not as a man

who wanted a child, but as a father.

I had to see myself. The Bible says God calls things

which be not as though they were.

Even Abraham, who had no children, the Bible called him a

father of nations. And I don't know what the devil

has identified you as or labeled you as or what you've believed

about yourself, but I can tell you this, The purpose and the

passion that God has for you is only going to be found when you

mix faith and expectation for what the Bible says is available

for you. You might be dealing with

symptoms in your body. My youngest son was diagnosed

with with cancer at the age of 3, was given four days to live.

He's 11 today. I didn't see him as someone who

only had four days to live and when he relapsed a year and a

half later and it became way worse.

I didn't see him with someone who was not going to find a

transplant or or someone to give him bone marrow.

I saw him as someone who had a purpose and a call on his life.

You can't just see yourself as someone who comes to this church

and attends a church. You have to see yourself as

someone who God has a divine connection and you don't just

sit and wait. No, you start doing.

I started babysitting babies because I wanted to be a dad.

I started cutting grass because I wanted to own a home.

You know how many people I bought tanks of gas for their

car because I wanted a new car? I couldn't afford to pay the

note on their car. I couldn't afford to buy them a

new car. But it started with a tank of

gas. And God has blessed us to a

place where I have bought cars for people.

Now I have done things for people.

Now, beyond those small steps, but you start where you are.

God has given you what you have right now.

And if you're faithful, what you have right now, the Bible says

He'll multiply it and He'll make you ruler over.

Much the same goes with the vision your pastors have.

As they're faithful with the vision God's given them, He's

going to give them more. But as you're faithful to help

with the vision, God's going to bring more, and your life will

be affected by it. So tonight, I just wanted to

encourage you that no matter where you are, that's not where

you're going to be. And no matter what you have,

that's not what disqualifies you for what's available and what's

in store. God has more ahead of you that

if you can see it and you can stay consistent in seeing that

that's your future. You will walk right smack dab

into that thing. Let me pray for you, Father.

I thank you for each person that's here, Father, and I thank

you for the ministry that's that's coming from Jen tonight.

Lord, I thank you that you have a word in due season and you

have ministry for this, this group of believers here tonight.

God, what an honor to be able to minister tonight.

But Father, I thank you that we are not frozen in time with you,

Father God, that there is a divine reset tonight happening

for people's lives. People are being activated,

people are being sprouted up, people are shifting into

position. And Father, I thank you that you

have something in store for each individual here tonight, that if

only one person came tonight, Father God, you have something

for them that's beyond what they're experiencing.

And so I speak to those symptoms in the body.

They have to be removed. I speak to the relationship

issues. It has to turn around.

And I speak to those hurts and voids tonight.

And Father God, you're ministering to those places,

into those people. God, we honor you and we thank

you tonight, Father God, that each and every person that's

here has a place in you. In Jesus mighty name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

Praise the Lord. Well, aren't you thankful that

you came tonight? Don't worry, I am not going to

preach another message at you. That was a full course dinner

and it was so, so good. I am really honored to be with

you just to be a part of what God just did in this room.

And this morning, as pastor mentioned, I had the honor of

going to Bible college with your pastors and you just always kind

of knew with these two they were going to go change the world

and, and here they are doing it with all of you.

And it really is special just to be in the room.

It's really profound, really. And to be a part of something

that has such movement. There's the ground is moving

under your feet and it's so, so good.

I appreciate so much what Caleb ministered to you.

I've been really just count him and his wife Alicia's dear

friends of mine and haven't been their friend for the whole

journey, but watched a lot of that and watched what God does.

And that's really what we do as the body is.

We watch each other walk out the miraculous one step at a time.

That's the joy of being part of the body of Christ.

So you know, I'll just tell you, I spend my time as a full time

minister traveling around the world.

I've had the honor of doing that for over 25 years now and and I

would just say that typically when I find myself in a

gathering, how many of you know, God works through us all in

significant ways, in different ways.

And, and it's just seemed to me really as long as I can

remember, but in my relationship with God, what has always just

come to me naturally is a sense of what God was doing in the

moment that I happened to be in. It was almost as if I came into

the world to help tell time. And and when I said yes to the

call of God, that just seemed to be a profound part of it.

And so I found it interesting that as I was preparing to come

to your nation, to Ireland, that out of nowhere, and to be honest

my mind was on packing. But as I was preparing, suddenly

the word of the Lord came to me and he said he said it's

Ireland's time. He said it's Ireland's time.

And then he said, he said the wheat has grown with the tares,

but it's harvest time for both, meaning that this is the time

for a great harvest of souls here in Ireland, but it's also

the time of God for dealing with things that have to be dealt

with, that there are many those that don't walk with God and

they are the ones that are the aggressors.

And when God's bringing in harvest, he also deals with the

oppression and says enough is enough.

And so harvest time is really a powerful time for the good and

the bad. And, and so really in your

nation, God's called you for this time because of what God is

doing in this moment right here in Ireland.

See, I believe there's a real specific plan on your nation

and, and so I can say to you something like God says it's

time for a mass harvest in Ireland.

And maybe you would say to me, Jen, what you don't know is it

couldn't look farther from that. I mean nothing, nothing could

look farther from that. But that's why the Lord brought

you a word tonight to tell you about what?

Living by faith in relationship with a God who does the

miraculous. That's why he has taken the time

this morning and tonight to like an artistic master paint a

picture, because he's calling you.

He's going. Come on, believe me.

Come on, come on. Trust me.

Come on, Church, will you take me at?

I know it does not look anything like this is harvest time, but

would you take me at my word? And would you trust me?

Would you step out? I know your life doesn't, but

would you? He's calling you out, isn't he?

And, and I believe that he's bringing you these things at

this time on purpose. Now, I just learned something

recently about the time that we're all in right now, in the

month of December. Now, you know, the Hebrews have

their own calendar for every month of the year, and each name

of each month means something. Well, the the calendar year

December for the Hebrews is the month of miracles.

It's this month of what they call high expectation.

December is the month where God seems to take special joy in

pulling back the veil on the realm of the Spirit and say you

see all this, Come believe me for this.

It's not just a month where we celebrate a visitation of heaven

that happened over 2000 years ago.

It's actually a time that's marked by God doing special

things. So I want to just give you this

verse and then we're actually going to kind of shift and wrap

up in prayer and minister to some people.

But I want to show you this verse that marks this in the

book of Isaiah. How many of you know that that

prophetic words all throughout Scripture there for us today,

right? Aren't you glad for that?

But do you know that there are prophetic words in Scripture

that are just now coming in to their moment, like they're just

now coming into the fullness of time?

And I believe that this Scripture in Isaiah is one of

those, because I bet you, I'm going to bet nobody in this room

has ever put their eyes on this before.

Because there is a prophetic scripture in the book of Isaiah

that talks about God putting a Christmas tree in the middle of

a desert. Anybody would take me up on that

bet. OK, well, you're out of luck.

I want you to look at this verse.

This is the book of Isaiah. Now this is what God's been

ministering to us this morning and tonight.

Isaiah 41 in verse 15. Now, church, this, this verse

we're going to get into, this is talking about you.

This is triumph church. He says triumph church.

Behold, look, I will make you a new, sharp, threshing instrument

having teeth. The mountains.

In other words, you will carve through a mountain like it's

nothing, and you will beat a mountain down to a small thing,

and you will make hills like dust.

Verse 16. And you will fan them out, and

the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter

what was a mountain, And you will rejoice in the Lord, and

you will glory in the Holy One. Verse 18.

And I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in

the middle of the valleys. And I will turn the desert into

a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs.

And I will plant Cedars in the wilderness, and acacias and

myrtles and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the

desert, and fir trees I will plant together.

There's our Christmas tree there, verse 20, so that all may

see and know and may consider and understand that the hand of

the Lord has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created

it. Triumph Church, you are living

in a divine moment of invitation to step over a threshold of

faith and come into a place of supernatural breakthroughs, just

like Caleb talked about of supernatural revelation, where

you have vision in one minute for what you didn't have vision

for before. Where you come into this place

of the miraculous where all of a sudden God is doing supernatural

things in a time where it doesn't even look like it's the

season for it. How many of you know if you were

stuck in the hot summer desert and you walked upon a Christmas

tree, it would get your attention?

And God is saying, would you trust me?

I'm the God that puts Christmas trees in the desert.

I don't know what your desert is and I don't know what your

Christmas tree is, but he does. And I know this.

I know that Ireland is primed and ready as God sees it, and

he's just looking for a remnant that will take him at his word

and take hands with him and say, come on God, work with us, come

on God, do it with us. This is the last thing I'll say.

This is exactly what Jesus was talking about when he looked at

Peter and he said, who do you say that I am?

And Peter said some say you're this.

And Jesus said, no, no, no, Who do you say?

And what did he say? He said you are the Christ.

You're the Son of the living God.

And Jesus decided that was the moment to make a monumental

announcement. And he said this, you're right,

Peter. And upon the revelation of who I

am and who I am and you, I'm going to build my church.

Only Jesus didn't say church. He said I'm going to build my

ecclesia. Well, when he said that that

word ecclesia was something, everybody in earshot knew

exactly what it was, because the ecclesia at that time was a very

specific group of people. And at that time, Rome was the

superpower of the day. And they would send in their

their superpower military into a nation and they would easily

defeat it, wipe, wipe out their military.

And as the Roman military was pulling out, the Roman Ecclesia

would be moving in. But you see, the ecclesia was

made-up of teachers and carpenters and songwriters and

judges and blacksmiths, and they were just what we would call

everyday working people. And they would move into that

newly conquered nation, those cities, and they didn't move in

to visit, they moved in there to stay.

And they would help them rebuild.

But as they rebuilt the schools, they would teach them all Roman

ways of educating. And as the carpenters would

begin to help them rebuild, they would infuse and influence them

with all Roman ways of building and architecture.

The songwriters would start writing songs.

The creators, they would start creating.

But everything they wrote and they created was infused with

all Roman ways of thought. And in hardly any time at all

they would have rebuilt, built a new life.

But in this time, not by imposing, but by influence, they

thought and talked and taught and worked always Roman because

it was a better way of life. And this was what Jesus said

upon the revelation of who I am in you.

I'm going to build my ecclesia. Triumph Church.

You are the ecclesia of the Lord Jesus Christ right here in

Ireland. I fully believe with all my

heart, just as been shared throughout this day, that this

is one of many. I believe that Triumph Church is

going to have church campuses all over Ireland and beyond.

I believe the ground that you have contended for all these

years in Ireland was not just about the planning of this, it's

because this is precedent setting for all the other ones

that will come. You are contending all at one

time for the whole thing. That's why you can't get weary

and well doing and go man, how long is this going to take if

it's taking this long to get one?

No, you got to understand in the Spirit, you're tilling the

ground for campus after campus after campus.

Come on. When you're praying into the

plan of God for this place, when you're sowing, you're sowing

into campuses and city after city after city.

We got young people back here working the sound.

You guys are sowing seed right now for a whole generation just

like you. This is going to come to a place

like Triumph Church and find out who God always called him to be,

Jesus. Jesus.

And So what I want to say to you tonight is this is what time,

Triumph Church, this is what time you're in right now.

You're in a miraculous time. You're in a Christmas tree in

the desert time. And you have been issued an

invitation tonight to say come on, come on, work with me.

Come on, dream with me. Come on, believe with me.

Come on, imagine with me and I believe that in your nation we

will say that we can see here how the kingdoms of this world

have become the kingdoms of our God, that when we say Father,

let your will be done on earth in Ireland as it is in heaven.

That's just not something we say that it's something we say

because we imagine it becoming a reality.

Amen. Hallelujah.

You know, I've, I've just as Caleb was ministering, I just

kept feeling in my heart the phrase that kept coming to me

was a demarcation line. I don't know if that makes any

sense here. It's it's like the the line that

you come up to where everything that has been, you've gone

absolutely as far as you can and you're either going to stay

there and go no further or you're going to take one step

over that line and you're going to continue on into all of what

you don't know. But something just tells you, I

just can't stay. I just can't stay where I have

been anymore. And it's not because you know

exactly what it's going to look like.

You just know I can't stay here. Caleb mentioned at the beginning

of the service about sometimes you're on the mountaintop, but

sometimes you're feel like you're living in transition.

Anybody felt like you've been in living in a transition space?

Yeah. And I sense that that jumped in

my spirit. And so I feel like tonight in

the corporate anointing, it's like God says, just go ahead and

just step over that line into what's next that resonate in

anybody's heart. You say, well, how does that

work? Well, we're talking.

These are spiritual truths. And so we do this how by a

spirit, we do it by a spirit. So I'm just going to do what

we've been talking about and, and what I saw in the

imagination of my heart, what I saw in my spirit is all of us

that have been in that kind of place where you're up at that

place and you can't go any further.

I just saw us actually laying hands on you and praying over

you, not because of who we are, but for the release of the

Spirit of God. And this is what I heard in my

heart, that His Spirit, when hands are laid upon you, will be

like a wind at your back that will just take you over into

that next place. Amen.

So if that's you and you're here, we would be so honored to

just pray for you. And so I'm going to invite you

to come. Is that all right, Pastor?

Those of you that would like hands laid on you, we're not

going to take a real long time to do this, but we'd be so

honored to pray for you. Thank you for listening to the

Triumph Church Podcast this week.

If it was a blessing to you, share it with someone you know.

For more information on Triumph Church, you can visit us at

www.triumphchurch.ie.