How To Respond When God Speaks

Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 1 and meet me at verse 5, Luke chapter 1 and verse 5.

Luke 1 · chapter mention Luke 1 · chapter mention

And the word of the Lord says, There was in the days of Herod,

the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abijah.

His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and

ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years.

As I was reading this story over this past week, I want to let you know what

inspired me and what impressed me.

And I want to let you know who I want to talk to today.

I want to talk to someone that would be honest with themselves and that would

admit that maybe you feel insignificant at times.

Maybe you feel like you're stuck.

Or maybe you feel invisible. You

feel like no one really cares about

you or your existence You feel like

your plans haven't come to fruition You

feel like you're just spinning your wheels Feel like the vision that God has

given you is not ever going to come to pass Maybe there were some desires in

your heart that were placed there as a child And you haven't seen it manifest yet and you feel.

Hopeless. And I want to talk to you today because I've been there before.

I've experienced that before. And I want to show you that this man named Zacharias is an old man, elder.

We don't know how old he is, but he's extremely old to the point that he has

passed childbearing age.

And his wife, Elizabeth, is barren. She has never had children before.

And they've been married, and they don't have any children.

And it's amazing that we find out that Elizabeth's lineage is from the house of Aaron.

And how many of you know that Aaron is Moses' brother, and Aaron is a priest?

And so Elizabeth comes for him, a family of priests.

And so it's not weird to understand that Zacharias comes as a priest because

he's married into the family of priest.

And this man is the priest of the Most High God, and he's well advanced in age.

He feels like he's too old.

He feels like time is running out.

He feels like life has passed him by.

He feels like I have done everything right.

The Lord even said in this passage that he was blameless, but the desires of

his heart have not come to pass.

And we see in verse 8, it says that, so it was that while he was serving as

priest before God in the order of his division,

according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot failed to burn incense when

he went into the temple of the Lord.

Now understand there were lots that were cast to see who would go into the most holy place.

And to burn the incense of the Lord in the most holy place. And those lots that

have been cast are simply by chance.

And I believe perhaps that maybe this could have been Zachariah's very first

time being the one chosen to go into the holy of holies and burn the incense

in the most sacred place.

And verse 10 says, And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside

at the hour of incense, then the angel of the Lord appeared to him.

Now he's there praying, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him while he's

praying, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him in verse 13, do not be afraid, Zacharias.

It's amazing every time an angel

shows up, the very first thing the angel tells us is, do not be afraid.

So the angels can't be no little baby with little wings because that wouldn't scare us.

You know, the pictures that we have of angels that look so wimpy,

it wouldn't scare us if they look that wimpy.

No, we're talking about massive, large, enormous, muscular beings that fight

satanic and demonic forces. Somebody say amen to that.

And this massive being showed up and scared him.

In verse 12, it says, fear fell upon him. In verse 13, he says,

do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard and your wife Elizabeth

will bear you a son and you shall call his name John.

Now notice here, he is the priest going to pray in the temple on behalf of the people.

At this point, Jesus is not the substitutionary sacrifice for these folks.

The priest goes in and petitioned to God on behalf of the people because of all their sins.

And they had to a lot of times bring an animal without spot,

without blemish, that was perfect to God to sacrifice so that the blood of that

animal would cover the generation of people so that then they can have restoration

with God because of the blood covering the people.

So here, Zacharias goes into the temple, and he's praying on behalf of the people.

He could have been there about an hour.

And he's praying on behalf of the people. He's not going in there talking about himself.

He's not requesting of God of anything that he personally needs.

He's going in there on behalf of the people to say, forgive us,

forgive us, bless us, favor us, but forgive us. He's not talking about himself.

But all of a sudden, an angel appears and says, Zachariah, don't be afraid.

Man, your prayers have been heard. Okay, great.

Yes, God's going to bless us, and he's not going to smite us,

and he's not going to destroy us. He's going to bless the people.

And he says, no, your prayers have been heard.

You and your wife are going to have a baby.

Now, I submit to you that this man is an old man.

Past the years of having children, even past the years of considering having children.

He's not going in there praying about a child.

He's old. He's probably done with that.

It didn't happen, so I'm going to move on.

I'm disappointed, but I've moved on. It didn't happen.

He's not going into the most holy place on behalf of the people to talk about himself.

But God says through the angel Gabriel, he says in verse 13,

your prayer is heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall

call his name. Somebody say his name.

You're going to call his name John. Well, wait a minute. I haven't asked about

a son in probably three decades.

I ain't prayed about a son in probably four decades.

And here you are telling me my prayer is heard. That tells me God doesn't forget any of our prayer.

That tells me that even when we give up and quit, God is still answering our prayer.

That shows me that God is interested in answering the prayers of the desires

that he placed in your heart so that he can bring them the past at the right time.

How many of you know that my time and God's time could be two different time frames?

Because my time is I want it now. And God said, you're not ready for it now.

I've actually got a better plan for you. Somebody shout amen.

Say this after me. My prayers have been heard.

And so this man ain't talked about a baby in decades, but God brings up a prayer

he prayed decades ago and says, it's time for that prayer to be answered.

Verse 14, he says, you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his

birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.

He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb.

My God, that's powerful that he's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit when

he's being conceived on the inside of his mother.

Verse 16, he will turn many children of Israel to the Lord their God.

He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts

of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just

to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

The angel tells him, this is good news.

Matter of fact, this is great news. This is news that you're going to want to tell everybody about.

You are part of God's gospel plan for humanity.

Imagine the news this man is hearing. Your son is going to prepare the way for

the son to come into the earth and save humanity from all of their sin.

This is good news. Wait a minute.

I've been waiting so long, and here's why I've been waiting so long.

Because you had a bigger plan than I even had?

I want to talk to you that feel like God's not listening to your prayers.

He answered this prayer decades later. Even when Zacharias quit asking for it,

God still heard it and answered it.

And then the plan became bigger than he even realized. Your son is special.

I know we all think our children are special, don't we? I know all four of mine

are so special. They are, but this is really, really special.

Zechariah said in verse 18, now he just heard some good news.

How? Somebody say how. Shout out again, how? Say it one more time, how?

Shall I know this? Now, anytime you see the word how, let me finish it for,

I'm an old man and my wife is well advanced in years.

Anytime you speak the word how, you are literally doubting what has just been said.

This particular way of him saying how is, this is impossible.

Anytime you say the word how, you immediately crush a vision.

Because visions start in baby stages.

And you'll know your what before you'll know your how. I want to talk to you

if you've got big plans to go places.

You're going to know what God's called you to do before you know how He's going to bring it to pass.

And if you start trying to answer the how questions before you start developing

the what, you will abort the vision that God has placed in your heart.

In 2011, when the Lord told us to start True Life Fellowship Church,

We had no money. We had no team.

We had no location.

We went into a band room. Stinky, smelly, sweaty, nasty, hot.

High school band room. Imagine how that smelled. Well, we smelled it every Sunday.

Thank God we don't smell it anymore, praise God Matter of fact,

we got nice spray stuff that go on in here to keep it all week long Smelling good.

And if I started asking how questions Well, how are we going to get out of this fan room?

And how are we going to get to the next step? And how are we going to reach

people? And how are we going to get a team together? And how?

I would have never stepped out Because I didn't have any of those answers,

And when we ask the word question how, what we're really asking is by what means or in what fashion.

And if you've got a dream and you tell it to somebody and their first response

to you is, how are you going to do that?

Don't ever tell that person anything else again for the rest of your life about

starting something new.

Your friend should be saying, that's exciting.

First time you tell them, you know what, I'm going to start a bakery.

And if your friend says, how is that going to happen? You can't even bake.

Don't talk to that friend no more, okay?

Don't talk to that friend anymore. No, your friend should say to you in the

initial stages of a vision being declared, that's exciting.

I want to help you. I want to be here for you. Somebody say amen. Amen.

Many of you know I love airplanes. Since I was a kid, I just loved airplanes.

I love flying. I travel some, and I love airplanes.

And I start telling a couple friends, I'm going to travel private the next time I fly.

How are you going to do that? I said, I ain't going to tell them nothing else anymore.

You know what? I don't know how I was going to do that either.

But that was just something in my heart.

And you know, the next time I said it, that next time, I traveled private that

next time. Somebody say amen.

When I went back and told them, look at the pictures of me on this private.

They're like, oh, how did you do that? Look what the Lord.

And somebody, how much did you pay to do that? You know how much I paid to get on that airplane?

Nothing at all. Somebody say amen to that. You got to get your vision out there.

And Gabriel is from heaven, from the courts of God. He tells Zacharias,

this is what's going to take place.

And Zacharias says, how?

You know I'm old.

You know, my girl, she old too. What are we going to do with a baby?

Why are you lying to me like that, Lord?

I mean, I asked you four decades ago for a baby. You didn't bring no baby.

Now you're talking about a baby?

I'm in here praying about the sins of our people, and you want to talk to me

about a baby? How is this going to happen?

Now, Zachariah is, he's well-versed in the Scripture. He's heard about Abraham and Sarah.

They were old when they had Isaac. This is something he's heard.

Men and women, when they get together, it is not impossible that you get together and you have a baby.

That's not impossible for that to take place. but Zachariah is standing before

God because he doesn't believe anymore the word of the Lord.

He's asking how with negativity, disbelief, unbelief, and full of doubt.

How is this going to take place? Look at verse 19.

And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence

of God and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. This is good news.

I'm bringing, you know, the gospel means glad tidings or good news.

I'm bringing the gospel to you. I'm Gabriel.

I stand in the presence of the Lord and I'm bringing you the gospel,

but behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place. Why?

Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.

The angel said, now I'm going to shut your mouth because you ain't about to mess this up.

You know, the mouth is a very powerful tool that your body possesses.

This tongue, death, and life is in the power of the tongue.

The mouth is so powerful that it can literally cause things to open up or shut down.

You better be careful what you're saying and who you're saying it around because

your mouth can get you in a whole lot of trouble and it can,

listen to me, your mouth can supersede the plan of God for your life.

Are you kidding me? God has a plan and it's just going to automatically come

to pass? Absolutely not.

God's plan is for all of us to be saved. Every last people, every last person

on the earth, all the billions, that is his plan for all of us.

But it takes someone's mouth to connect with that plan.

They can reject it or they can accept it. But the plan is for everybody to be

part of the kingdom of God.

And so Gabriel knew, I got to shut this man's mouth up.

I got to close his mouth because if he gets to talking, he's going to stunt

the plan of God for the earth. So I got to shut him up.

But what made this such a severe punishment was that Zachariah had so much good stuff to say.

Think about the news that he just heard. Listen, Ray Ray, come here, Ray Ray.

Listen, man, I've been praying for this for 40 years, Ray Ray.

You know what I'm saying, man? Pookie, come on here, Pookie, you come too.

And I've been asking God about this.

And God told me that my wife is going to give me a son.

I've been wanting a son all my life.

God told me he's going to give me a son, but his mouth was shut and he couldn't tell the news.

All this good news that he could have been running around telling.

But because of his negativity, his unbelief, his disbelief, and his doubt,

that was his first reaction, doubt.

Because he didn't embrace the word with faith, the angel shut his mouth,

and he had good news to share.

Imagine having good news to share, but you can't share it.

I mean, some of you know how this feels anyway, right? I mean,

I know when somebody tells you, I got a secret to tell you, but you can't tell nobody yet.

You can't tell nobody. Wait till, oh shoot, I got to tell somebody,

right? You're struggling.

I got, I got, I got, I got to tell. Can I tell my wife?

You can tell your wife, but you can't tell nobody else. Oh man, hurry up, man.

Hurry up and tell somebody so I can start telling people this good news.

You know what I'm talking about, right?

Some of y'all can't even hold the good news. You're just going around just telling it all.

Telling somebody else's good news when they want to tell it.

No, hold it. He had so much good news to share, but because of his unbelief,

his mouth was shut. But here's the sad thing.

Many Christians would not consider this a punishment because they don't mind

keeping quiet about the good news of Jesus.

You would even think, well, God shut my mouth for three months.

Yeah, that's good because I talk too much anyway.

But you got good news to share about Jesus.

It should hurt your heart that the Lord said he was going to shut your mouth

for months and you can't share the goodness of God with people.

You should be crying. I can't share. My mouth got me in trouble.

I talk to my kids all the time. And, you know, all they have to do is tell mom,

okay, you know, moms, they do something okay. But they got a lot of mouth.

And then it's like, we were going to hang out, buddy, but your mouth, you got to go to bed now.

I wanted to hang with you.

But your mouth.

And he had to shut his mouth so that the plan of God could come to pass.

But many people wouldn't even be frustrated by their mouth being shut because

you don't even care about sharing the good news of Jesus. Meditate on that.

Let's pick up here verse 26. Y'all still with me?

Earlier this week, I had lost my voice earlier this week, and Tasha called me,

and she was like, Pastor, what's wrong?

I said, I couldn't talk.

But the devil is alive. I'm up here preaching the Word today, amen?

I said, I'll be ready on Sunday, amen? I'll be ready, even if I had to have

an amplifier right here.

I was going to preach the Word.

Look at verse 26. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel,

here go Gabriel again. This must be an important figure.

He was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.

This is the first time in Scripture we see the town called Nazareth.

So there's nothing significant about this town, except Jesus is from this town.

That's the only significance.

To a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. it.

The virgin's name was, shall her name? Mary.

And having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you.

Bless are you among women. Understand, Mary is a teenager at this point.

We don't know how old Joseph is, but he may be in his early 20s at this point,

because that was the age that they were getting married back then, very young.

And this Mary, chosen of God, is highly favored.

That's what highly favored means, really chosen. Highly favored.

Get excited. Celebrate. You are highly favored.

The Lord is with you. Glory to God. And you are blessed.

You're empowered to prosper. And you have been chosen among women.

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying. But notice.

And considered what manner of greeting this was.

So the first thing that she did

when she heard the miraculous news of the angel was keep her mouth shut.

She considered it. Whoa, what type of greeting is this?

I'm being told that I'm blessed and I'm highly favored and the Lord is with me.

What kind of greeting is this? So she mulled it over in her mind.

Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid. There he goes again. Don't fear.

You have found Mary favor with God.

Verse 31. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth the son

and shall call his name Jesus.

Now, at the time, Jesus is a very common name. So the angel tells us what's

going about to happen. He will be great. Okay.

And he will be called the son of the highest. Okay.

And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David.

Okay. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom.

There will be no end or no limit to his kingdom.

Verse 34, watch this. Mary said to the angel, watch this.

How can this be since I do not know a man? Let's contrast and compare the how.

How can this be since I do not know a man?

Zacharias had heard of old people having children.

Wasn't necessarily an impossibility. Nobody ever heard of a virgin having a child.

Never heard of. There were some prophecies in Isaiah about it.

Maybe Mary knew that, maybe she didn't.

But nobody had ever heard of that. So Mary's how is a question of wonder and amazement.

How can this be? I don't know a man.

Zachariah's question was, I'm old. He even said it. I am well-advanced in age, and so is my wife.

So this, how can this be, I am too old?

Mary says, how can this be, I ain't never been with a man?

And the angel heard faith in her how.

How can this be? I don't even know a man. The angel heard faith,

and the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore, also the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Now, indeed, Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son in her old age,

And this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.

She's six months pregnant now.

Verse 37, for with God, nothing will be impossible.

Pause there. The angel shared with Mary a bunch of stuff that Mary had no idea

what the angel's talking about. The Holy Spirit's going to overshadow me?

And the Holy Spirit's going to come upon me?

And I'm going to concede? None of that makes sense.

None of it makes sense whatsoever. And this is what's going to happen,

that the Holy Spirit is going to do these things, and then the Son of God is going to be in me.

And then the angel says, and this word in verse 37, he says,

for with God, nothing will be impossible.

One translation says, for the word of God is no, no, it says it this way.

No word of God is without power.

No word of God is without power. So the angel says to Mary,

nothing is impossible with God, but all of this overshadowing and odd,

weird, total conversation is going to happen.

It would have led me to say, I don't understand.

Right? But Mary didn't say that.

Mary said in verse 38, Behold the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her.

Notice how she received the word without full understanding was quick and,

and easy. Let it be to me exactly like you said it.

Let it happen for me exactly like you want it to happen.

Let it be so. Let it be done.

I'm your servant, and whatever you want to take place in my life, in my body,

in my family, in my community, in my home, at my job, whatever you wanted to

do, let it be to me exactly like you said it.

And when she said that, conception took place right at that moment.

The Holy Spirit overshadowed her. Conception took place. She didn't feel nothing.

Conception took place because the word is seed.

And when you receive the seed of the word, conception will take place.

And when conception takes place,

now you have a promise from God that's growing on the inside of you.

See, the problem is most of us are like Zachariah when we hear the word.

I can get up here and declare, this will be the best week of your life.

I heard from the Lord and the Lord said, this week is the best week of your

life. and you sit there and say, how in the world is that going to happen?

What's going to happen? Well, prove it to me. You know, I guess I'll find out

next week if it will be or not.

I mean, what's going to happen? How is that going to happen?

We sit back and I don't know how that's going to happen. And you know what?

You walk out the threshold of the door, you cut the live stream off,

and you forget even about what I declare would happen to you.

But if you were more like Mary, and I say, this will be the best week of your

life, and you say, be it unto me according to your word, immediately conception takes place.

A lot of word is being broadcasted.

But it's only being received by the people that will say, that's mine.

Be it unto me according to the word. I'll take that. I'll have it.

Let it be so. Let it be done in my life.

Let me tell you, in Mark chapter 4, Jesus gave us the parable of the sower.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

And three of the four scenarios, the word didn't work.

And the seed didn't produce, the word didn't work. You mean to tell me the word doesn't work?

Well, why didn't the word work? Because it fell on ground that did not want

to receive the word that was being casted.

And that ground is your heart. So 75% of the time, the word didn't work in a person's life Why?

Because the ground was too hard It wasn't conducive to receive the word So that

there could be conception that takes place And you'll begin to see something

after you receive the word,

Most people have this idea of word being broadcast whoo, pastor sure enough preached that.

What did he talk about? I have no idea what he talked about,

but he sure enough preached that. Conception didn't take place.

And then when I'm talking about conception, I'm talking about getting pregnant.

What were you talking about? Mary got pregnant because the word was broadcast to her.

She received it, said, let it be to me according to the word.

Pregnant took place, conception took place, and now she's carrying this Word

for the next nine, ten months. Praise God.

What happens in our situation is we don't receive the Word that's being broadcast.

I saw a clip a few months ago, and it was a college, and it was a bunch of college

students. Let's say it was 500.

They're all seniors. They're graduating. A woman stepped up on the platform,

and she said, all you graduating college students, I've just paid off all of your student loans.

Everybody shouted. They jumped up and down, shouted. They didn't know who this

woman was. Shouted, jumped. They had no receipt.

They had no email. They had no confirmation. They had no evidence except the

word that I paid off all of them. And they shouted.

If I get up here and say, you are going to experience the favor of God today

like you never felt before, thank you, Pastor.

Somebody's got to thank you, Ruth. Somebody's got to receive it.

Somebody's got to say, I'll take it. That's mine.

I'll have it. I'm getting pregnant with it. And I'm going to carry that word all week long.

But typically speaking, when we hear a word from the Lord because of disappointment,

Zacharias spent so much disappointment.

We start hearing new fresh words, and we entangle that same disappointment with the new word.

I got past disappointment and hurts, and things didn't work out like I thought

they should work out, and I'm just so upset, and now you're telling me something fresh and new, and,

well, I guess we'll see.

And in the faith realm, there's no such thing as we'll see.

You're going to have to believe it before you see it.

Something good is going to happen to you by the end of the day.

You got to take it. And then you got to hold on to it.

You know what pastor said, and I believe he hears from God, something good is

going to happen to me by the end of the day.

I told you the situation. I was texting a friend of mine and I shared with him

that I've experienced the goodness of God over the last few months that I haven't

experienced in a long time.

And he wrote me back, there's more coming. That was a word from God for me.

I said, I've been saying, I said all the time, there's more goodness coming.

I got pregnant with that word. There's more goodness coming.

And guess what? If you want a full term baby, sometimes stuff don't happen immediately.

Come on now. You know, do-do-do, and then all of a sudden, the baby pop out.

No, it takes time to grow, develop, mature, cultivate.

Lungs, got ears, brain, nose. Come on, somebody.

Sometimes the word that you've received may not happen by the end of the day.

Maybe it might take some time, but you got to hold on to the word.

You got to say, I received that word. You got to say, that's the word, that's for me.

You know, it's taken a long time, but today is the day it's going to come to

pass. And if it don't come that day, you say, you know what?

Today's a fresh and new day, and mercies are here today. So it's going to come to pass today.

When I was looking for Stacy, or you know she found me. Y'all know the story.

She hollered at me, okay? And so I used to say when I was dating,

today is the day I'm going to meet my wife. I said it all the time.

Today's the day I'm going to meet my wife. Well, I went to the next day.

Well, today's the day I'm going to meet my wife. I did that for years until

the day she hollered at me, all right?

And she met me. And then I didn't know if she was the one, you know?

Come on, somebody. Then I said, well, open up your eyes. This is what you've been praying for.

We're going to have to get our expectation up. Mary was expected. She said, you know what?

I'm the one the Lord has favored. Let it be to me according to your word.

And I believe this with all of my heart, that if Mary would have said nothing,

this is going to happen, and no word is impossible, and God's going to do this,

and Mary would just look like, I'm ready to go eat now. Let's hurry this up.

I'm going to go watch the game. I'm just ready to go.

Come on, let's wrap it up, Pastor. Wrap it up.

The angel would have went to and found somebody else.

To him who has, Scripture says this, more will be given. Why?

Because I believe God's trying to reach everybody.

Everybody has their portion that God has allotted.

And I don't believe most of us are tapping into it.

I think we're going to get to heaven, and God's going to show us a place to have.

This was all that I had for you, but you only tapped into this because you didn't

take the time to believe my word, receive my word, and begin to meditate it and apply it.

I have words from the Lord written down in my iPad.

Where are the words that have been spoken over you? Are they written down anywhere in your life?

I have them written down. I go back and visit them and read them.

This is what the Lord said.

And this haven't come to pass yet, but I'm believing that this will be the year it comes to pass.

Well, Pastor said that last year. Yep, and I'm going to say it next year too.

I'm believing for them. I've got it written because I am pregnant with promotion.

I'm pregnant with advancement. I'm pregnant with expectation.

I'm pregnant with good things happening. There's more goodness coming.

That was a word that I got pregnant with too.

I'm pregnant with it because I'm expecting and I'm hopeful and I'm ready for

God to perform what he said he's going to do in his word.

But if we don't take it seriously, and if we're like Zacharias and say,

this is impossible, I'm too old, this ain't going to work, I don't even know

if I want this no more, it'll pass you by.

But if you begin to take it seriously and say, you know what?

God said it. I believe it. And that's settled. When it happens, it's up to him.

You know, you don't have control over that when it happens. That's up to him.

But it will happen in due season.

It'll happen in due time. It'll happen when you think you need it the most.

Or like Zachariah, when you have completely forgotten about it.

Actually, that's when God does his most work When you just You're holding on

to it And you stand on the word But man, I'm not really thinking about that

And look what the Lord has done.

Hallelujah Look what the Lord has done I'll end with this story A friend of

mine Y'all have heard it before But you need to hear it again Friend of mine

Call me up He's a wealthy guy,

I helped him with something he said to me, I want to do something for you and Stacey.

Oh man, you got to do nothing. Now I want to fly y'all out.

And this trip was to Las Vegas. I want to fly y'all to Las Vegas.

All expense paid. I'm paying for everything.

Y'all go out there and have a good time and just enjoy. I'm going to cover it all.

Some of y'all say, what is pastor doing in Las Vegas? I ain't doing nothing dirty.

I can assure you of that.

There's a lot of good shows, a lot of good stuff happening and we wanted to

go. And he was paying for it.

Be careful, Pastor, you want to go to Vegas? Listen, I'm going to be all right.

I'm doing what God's telling me to do.

You say be careful because you're nervous if you go to Vegas.

You don't know what you're going to do.

I know what I'm going to do. I'm telling the truth, ain't I?

If you're concerned about you, you tell me what's going to happen with you.

And so he said, you know what, I'm going to pay.

And Stacey, at that particular year, had been believing God to go to Vegas.

That same year, she'd come to me in January. She said, I want to go to Vegas.

I said, Vegas ain't in the budget.

And she's like, well, I want to go. I said, you better ask God because it ain't

in the budget. And she said, I will.

And four or five months later, I get a call from this man said,

I want to send y'all to Vegas.

I mean, I remember where we were

when I went and told her. She was in her closet. I went into her closet.

I said, so-and-so said he's going to pay for us to go to Vegas.

And we jumped up and down in the closet, celebrated, high-fived each other.

I mean, we received it, started planning.

We need to get some outfits. We need to get a sinner. We need to do this.

We need to do that. Not one check was written.

Right? I had nothing written down that he told me this was verbal.

This is what I'm going to do. He didn't write no check.

No hotel was secured. No plane was secured. But we shout like it was already done.

This is how you're supposed to act when you hear a word from the Lord. Amen.

Amen. Paul, God's bringing increase into your life.

This next year will be the most increase that you'll receive than you've had in the last 10 years.

You received that. Take it. Take it. Take it.

Take it. Glory to God. Receive the word.

Get a word and get pregnant with the word like Mary. You see it in the scripture.

God shall supply all my need according to his riches and glory.

Let it be so. Let it be done.

I'm the maidservant of the Lord.

Let it be happening exactly like this verse says it.

And then you hold on to it. And then a bill going to come in and you say,

nope, the Lord said he going to take care of all of my need.

Amen. I want us to get serious about this word.

This is a bag of seed that you are planting in your heart.

And you hold on to it, and you develop it, and you cultivate it,

and you let the bag of seed grow, and it will produce, in Mark chapter 4,

Mark 4 · chapter mention

the last illustration was it produced a hundredfold,

a hundredfold of what they were believing for.

Three of the four times it didn't work for various situations.

But you get serious about this word.

You hold on to this word. You grab and you say, man, I'm just a believer and

I receive it and it's mine and I'll take it and it's mine.

Conception takes place. Now you hold on and you keep that baby healthy.

Are you listening to me? I'm talking to the men too. You keep that baby healthy, praise God.

That means, you know, hey, I'm going to cuss a little bit. Oh,

I ain't got time to cuss. I want to keep my baby. I'm going to smoke a little

weed. I can't smoke no weed.

I'm I'm protecting my baby Somebody want to get in some gossip.

I want less be and let's talk about our boss. She crazy She's a you know bad

word and this that let's talk about I ain't got no time,

To get involved in that I'm developing a baby on the inside of me.

Are you listening to me today?

Yeah, listen you won't you know what yeah, I'm mad too. I'm mad. You know what now?

Let's go out there and let's it Let's get 18 dozen of donuts and let's just eat them all.

No, that's going to affect the baby.

That's going to affect the baby, right? I'm working on something here.

No, I got to take care of that. I got to take care because I'm... Now you can play, Kirk.

Now I'm taking care because I'm developing.

The promise that God has spoken to me. And as I develop and cultivate the promise

of God, I will see what I've been believing for.

Mary eventually saw Jesus. It was a promise.

Elizabeth eventually saw John the Baptist. It was a promise.

Y'all want a little nugget here?

John the Baptist came from a family of priests.

Jesus asked John the Baptist to baptize him John the Baptist didn't want to

do it Why did Jesus ask him to baptize him?

Because John the Baptist was the rightful priest in that day Not Caiaphas,

John the Baptist And he needed the rightful priest of the day Because he came

from the family of priests to baptize him That's why he said,

so that things can be fulfilled,

just do this, John. John said, I'll do it.

God's got a plan and it's for you.

But there's an enemy that wants to abort your baby and you better fight with all you got to hold on.

There's a lot of hopelessness going on.

There's a lot of fear and anxiety.

Music.

Through right now I just declare this over you whatever you're

going through right now it shall pass

it's temporary it's subject to change the word is eternal but your circumstance

is temporary and it shall pass your trouble has an expiration date.

And all you have to do is fight until that expiration date ends and you'll be victorious.

Hallelujah.

There are two realities, church. Close your eyes. Just listen to my words real

quick. There are two realities.

There's the visible reality, things you can see, and then there's the invisible

reality, things you can't see.

Both of them are real spectrums.

The invisible reality, which is transferred through words, can supersede the visible reality.

Because what you see can change.

And what changes it is what you can't see, which is God working behind the scenes.

Hold on to the Lord. Hold on to the promises of God.

Hold on to the plan of God. Spend more time in prayer.

Spend more time listening to Him.

Spend more time meditating His Word. Spend more time with people that are going somewhere.

And you will see the manifestation of what you're believing.