You've Been Here Long Enough Pt.1 Series

YOU’VE BEEN HERE LONG ENOUGH

DUETERONOMY 1:1-8

I started out last week by saying that we are in a season of challenge—and that God is challenging His people in an effort to show those whose hearts are truly towards Him

I said last week that these are strategic times in the Kingdom of God—and that it’s a time to discover what we were born to do

Now I want to begin this week by saying that I believe that God is ready to shift the wine skins

The old is out and the new is in

Now before you start getting nervous on me, what I’m referring to is Old Mindsets

One of the greatest challenges to change and taking new territory for the Kingdom of God is resistance

Old Mindsets will always resist anything that is either unfamiliar or uncomfortable

Now I believe that there ought to be some form of structure—however, structure is not something that the church should fit into; but rather structure should somehow fit into what God is currently speaking

I said all that to say this; that God is shifting us—He’s shifting us as a church body, He’s shifting us in our mentality—and if we don’t allow God to shift us, we’ll find ourselves living in cycles of redundancy that bare no fruit.

In Deuteronomy 1:6 tells us that “The LORD spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mountain:

Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountain of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.

Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give unto them and to their seed after them.”

(Turn to somebody and tell them, “It’s time to leave the comfort zone!”)

When we constantly find ourselves caught up in cycles, going through the same battles, recovering the same territory; it is then apparent that the plan of God is not being followed

If any of you would be honest in here this morning you’d admit that over the past 2 years, 5 years, or maybe even ten years or more; you’ve found yourself dealing with the same old demons, facing the same old challenges, experiencing the same limited breakthroughs, and running from the same giants—and you keep saying “here we go again”

But I stopped by to tell somebody this morning that if what you see in your windshield is the same thing you see in your rearview mirror……HONEY YOU’RE ON THE WRONG ROAD!

The reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror is in order for you to be more focused on where you’re going than where you’ve been.

It’s imperative for us to recognize this morning that God is wanting to break us out of cycles where we continually go through the same highs and same lows

In Hebrews 12:1 we are told to “Lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you

It’s not a whole lot of things that causes us problems; we more often than not get tripped up by the same thing

Jesus said to His disciples one day that if you have the faith the size of a grain of mustard seed than you can say to “THIS MOUNTAIN” be thou removed.

Most of us are worried about everybody else’s mountain when its

“THIS MOUNTAIN” that keeps standing in my way—and I find myself walking in circles.

The children of Israel walked around the same mountain for forty years

(Tell somebody that “That’s too long for anybody to be caught up!”)

Now when they first went to the wilderness it was to worship the LORD and to receive instruction from God while being protected and provided for

(watch this now!)

But what often begins as a blessing—ends up as a curse

And it ends up as a curse when we stay longer than we should have.

Egypt began as a blessing……when Joseph first invited his father and brothers to Egypt, it was because of a famine in the place that they were

But what started out as a blessing, 430 years later ended up as a curse

There are situations that occur in our lives and God blesses us to come through them, but in our hearts through unforgiveness and in our minds through dwelling on the past causes bondage to occur out of what should have been freedom

Often times even a great move of God is met with opposition and resistance……and the only thing that’s opposing it is what God had done in the past…..people wanting to stay where God was rather than where He is