My Text reading: 1 Sam 1:1-2, 6-7, 19-20
Elkanah had two wives: You know there’s going to be trouble right there.
The name of The one was: Hannah (Grace-favor)
And the name of the other was: Peninnah: (Jewel, ruby, precious, valuable)
Hannah (Grace, Favor, was unfruitful, unproductive, barren, her womb was dead).
When Elkanah gave out portions he gave to Peninnah and all her sons and daughters portions.
But to Hannah he gave a worthy portion: Double portion
Elkanah had come to the conclusion that it didn’t matter if Hannah ever bore him any children because Peninnah was very fruitful.
So Elkanah was adjusted to the situation and so was Hannah, Hannah was satisfied with the circumstances because she knew she was the favored wife, she had Elkanah’s attention, and affection.
Everything was fine: they had an arrangement; they had it all figured out (anybody ever been there?) You thought you had everything figured out, you had all your ducks in a row, it wasn’t perfect but you knew you could make it serve your purposes.
Then out of nowhere (Wham, Something happened that messed everything up, all your plans and schemes, and working, and tweaking, and playing just ain’t working anymore.)
Peninnah starts to provoke Hannah over her barrenness, her words are harsh and hateful filled with resentment and jealousy and her words are like arrows that stick in Hannah’s heart.
At first they just seem to bounce off and have no effect, but Peninnah does not let up, and eventually it becomes clear the arrows have hit their mark.
Now we see that Hannah is now disturbed over the fact that she is barren and has not borne any children to Elkanah.
But Elkanah tries to pull her back, and get her to settle back down and just enjoy what they have.
Am I not better to thee than 10 sons? He asked.
But Hannah has been awakened (she has become uncomfortable and dissatisfied and discontent with things as they are.
And now discontent and discomfort and frustration change into a desire and a craving and expectation and a need for more.
Hannah begins to realize: there’s more than this, I was created for more than this.
Now she looks past Elkanah, all the love, all the favor, all the material blessings cannot satisfy her, they cannot open her womb, they cannot meet her need.
I came to tell you tonight: there is a cry from the spirit of every true believer for a life that is higher than money or popularity or worldly success, higher than religion.
Inside the womb of every true child of God is a cry for the miraculous, for signs and wonders and miracles, a cry from their spiritual womb for the manifestation of the power of God, to be fruitful, to birth souls into the kingdom.
I believe tonight somebody is looking past Elkanah, (he represents the love the blessings the favor,) and they’re going to cry out to God and contend with God for the glory and for the power.
In other words: somebody (maybe not everybody, but somebody) wants more out of life than to just go along and get along.
(Somebody is wanting a life of maximum impact)
I wish I had at least 30 people in here that would stand up on your feet and let the devil know that you’re a force to be reckoned with, and let the devil know that you are contender, that you want more than just to be blessed, you want to make a maximum impact.
The whole mission and operation of the Holy Spirit and the assignment over the fivefold ministry is to bring every believer to the place of maximum impact.
Eph 4:11-13 and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelist; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints; for the work of the ministry till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
In other words to bring every believer to the place of Maximum Impact
Maximum (means greatest in quantity or highest in degree attainable, the most the best)
Impact (means affect, influence) (the force of impression of one thing on another)
This is the aim and goal of the Holy Spirit, the church and all of her ministry’s:
To bring every child of God to the place where not only do they make it to heaven but where they are living their lives at Maximum Impact.
Living the Christian life at the highest degree attainable, experiencing and manifesting the best and the highest and the greatest and affecting and influencing others with the force of maximum life.
I love you tonight and I want you to like me, but my goal in ministry is not to be your buddy: it is to push you to your destiny.
I have discovered that a lot of people in the church are very comfortable and satisfied right where they are and don’t like to be pushed.
So if you come by and push them even if it’s in the right direction, and even if it’s good for them and it’s in their best interest, if you push them you will not be their favorite person.
But I love you enough to keep on pushing, to take the flak to take the criticism to take the hostility and keep on pushing even if you think I’m a pain in the neck, because I want you to experience a life of maximum impact.
In fact you might even say the same thing about me that Hannah said about Peninnah.
(she is my adversary, a thorn in my side, she makes me uncomfortable, she irritates me, in fact I can’t stand her)
Peninnah provoked Hannah over her barrenness:
The point is Hannah had more in her but she was satisfied to have the love of her husband and be blessed and favored and never reach for more or believe for more or expect more.
(Until She was pushed, until she was Provoked)
I didn’t come here tonight to make friends I came here to push somebody and to provoke somebody.
I’m here tonight as an adversary
*I’m an adversary to status quo religion
*I’m an adversary to Luke warmness and indifference
*I’m an adversary to settling for crumbs when you can have the whole loaf
*I’m an adversary to sitting in the church and never reaching for more, never contending for the baptism of the Holy ghost, or never reaching for the gifts of the Spirit, never casting out a devil or laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover.
*I’m an adversary to a form of godliness that denies the power thereof.
*I’m an adversary to a religion that can be satisfied just knowing you’re saved while the rest of the world goes to hell.
*I’m an adversary to self-righteous snooty nosed Christians who want to sit in the church and pass judgment on everybody that don’t meet their standards.
Somebody said: preacher you’re making me mad.
Praise the Lord
I hope before I’m finished I make everyone of you mad
M (Motivated) A (Against) D ( the devil)
Motivated against the devil.
I don’t know if Hannah and Peninnah ever became friends, but I know this: if it weren’t for her adversary, if it weren’t for Peninnah Hannah would have lived her entire life with a barren womb.
Blessed but barren
Favored but barren
Comfortable but barren
Graced but fruitless
Somebody provoked Hannah: to believe for more to reach for more to expect more and to produce more.
And the Bible record testifies that Samuel; one of the greatest prophets that ever lived came out of Hannah’s womb because somebody provoked her.
Remember what I told you Peninnah means? (It means jewel, precious, valuable).
In other words what I’m saying tonight is; the most valuable thing in Hannah’s life was the thing that provoked her to cry out to God for more.
Elkanah loved her but he wouldn’t push her, he wouldn’t provoke her, he didn’t want to upset her. (It’s nice to be loved and appreciated and pampered) but sometimes you need somebody to provoke you.
The jewels in your life and the most valuable things in your life are the things and the people that push you and provoke you to become the best that you can be.
I am not the man of God I am today because, my spiritual leaders and teachers always patted me on the head and agreed with everything I did, and never corrected me or rebuked me.
No sir, no man, If it hadn’t been for some men and women of God that told me the truth, and corrected me, even when it made me mad, I would have spent my life just going through the motions, holding on and hanging out waiting for the rapture bus.
But thanks be to God I had some people that loved me enough to tell me the truth, and instruct me in the way of righteousness and provoke me.
So if I disturb you or agitate you or aggravate you it’s all worth it, if I motivate you.
I learned something a long time ago:
The people who get up early to go to work appreciate the rooster who crows at daybreak.
But the people who are lazy and have no ambition and no goals and no dreams and no expectations, (they hate the rooster) and they want to kill him.
But I have decided whether you love me or hate me I’m going to keep on crowing and with the help and grace of God I believe I’m going to provoke somebody to get up and get moving and start walking in their destiny.
Somebody here tonight listening to my voice you’ve been like Hannah, you’re saved you know God loves you, you’re favored you have the grace of God on your life.
And you’ve become comfortable, satisfied, adjusted, settled.
I believe tonight God has sent this word to stir you up, to wake you up, to provoke you to get up and get moving, to get in the press and contend for his presence and his power and his glory.
Let me say it this way:
God sent me here to push you and provoke you because there’s more in you.
(Shut up in your spiritual womb are resources that have never been touched.)
There are ministries, songs, books, gifts, and talents. There are anointings, dreams, and visions that are locked up in your belly.
(And God is here to open your spiritual womb)
There’s something about God that hates to see waste, God is disturbed when he sees so much potential lying dormant (going to waste).
I believe somebody tonight realizes there’s more in you:
Somebody tonight is making the decision to leave the comfortable and the convenient. Somebody is leaving the low lands of good enough and headed for the high places of excellence and greatness and Maximum Impact.
I’m talking to somebody tonight who up until now you’ve been satisfied just to splash around in the fountain of blood knowing that your sins are washed away and that you’re going to go to heaven when you die, and that was enough.
But I believe something has started stirring in you and you are feeling something moving in your belly.
*There’s a Samuel in there trying to get out (there is a prophetic anointing trying to be birthed)
There’s an apostle stretching on the inside of you that’s why you’ve been uncomfortable that’s why things that used to satisfy you don’t satisfy you anymore, that’s why you’ve been irritated and agitated.
There are evangelists and teachers, and deacons, and missionaries and authors, musicians and singers, and youth leaders and businessmen and businesswomen in your womb trying to get out.
*the greatest sermons have yet to be preached
*the greatest books have yet to be written
*the greatest songs have yet to be sung
*the greatest musicians have yet to play
*the greatest works have yet to be done
*the greatest churches have yet to be built
why? Because they haven’t been born yet they are still locked up in your spiritual womb
But somebody has felt it (even while I’ve been preaching, you’ve felt it stirring) you know you were created for more.
(There’s more in you)
I wish somebody would push your neighbor and tell them: there’s more in you, you were created for more, you were created to make a maximum impact.
The Bible says: 1 Samuel 1:19
And they rose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord and returned and came to their house to Ramah; and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.
Then the next verse, verse 20 tells us that Hannah conceived and Samuel was born.
What I’m saying in closing tonight is this: it was through worship that Hannah’s womb was opened.
Worshiped tapped into those hidden resources.
Through worship she broke the curse of barrenness.
Through worship her womb was opened.
Through worship she became the instrument God used to birth one of the greatest men and prophets that ever lived.
You don’t even know the full potential that God has placed inside of you, but through worship we become a channel of blessing to the world.
I believe tonight as we spend time (not) praying, (not) asking, but just worshiping God.
Some spiritual wombs are going to be opened; some spiritual births are going to take place.
I am believing (ministries are being birthed tonight)
Somebody is giving birth to a song tonight.
Somebody else’s giving birth to a book, it’s been inside of you for a long time but as you worship it’s coming into manifestation.
Somebody is giving birth to a new vision (as you worship: God is bringing clarity and understanding).
New levels of anointing are being birthed.
New passion for souls, and a burden for the lost is being birthed
Just as worship opens the heavens, it also opens your spiritual womb. And your spiritual womb becomes a door on this earth through which heaven is manifested.
(Did not Jesus say: out of your belly, out of your innermost being, out of your spiritual womb) would flow rivers of living water.
Worship him saints:
You were created to worship him
And as you worship him you will discover there is more in you than you ever dreamed.
And you will begin to move, and you will begin to experience a life of maximum impact.
Somebody tonight: you’re not leaving here like you came, somebody under the sound of my voice has heard the spirit of God speaking to you and you know that you were created for more than just going to church, and waiting for Jesus to come.
And tonight you’re deciding for the rest of your life that you choose to live a life of maximum impact.
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