"Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you." Isaiah 42:9
Last week, we looked at three things the Lord was speaking to the church concerning the present application of this passage. #1 God has already begun the change. #2 In the midst of your crisis, God is going to give you evidence the change is on the way. #3 Within yourself, you cannot receive the new thing the Lord is sending so the Lord is giving you the potential to receive, that you need not look to yourself.
I want to continue with point 4, for the Lord would tell you this morning that when He gives you the potential to not only receive what He is sending, He is also removing all hindrances around you that prevent you from receiving. We have visited the passage in Hebrews 12:1 a few times in the last month where we are instructed to lay aside every hindrance that so easily entangles us. We are to lay it aside, to get out from under it, to put it on the shelf and in doing so, God is going to remove the hindrance which has kept you from receiving over the years. What ever you do, and I am giving this in the way of instruction to you, whatever you do, condition yourself, position yourself, and arrange yourself to get in line for the blessing of God and the visitation that He is going to send in this hour. God is going to give you the potential to receive it. God is going to give you the power to receive it. He is going to give you a special endowment in your spirit where you have had problems in the past forgiving and unforgiveness has been a powerful entanglement in your life, God is going to give you such a wave of love in your life that you are right now going to begin to see the shackles of bitterness falling off. Church, He is coming in right now, and some of you are experiencing what He is doing. He is coming in and you are feeling a great touch of the Master’s hand, in fact, you are beginning to feel the move of the Spirit as you sit in your pew, and the move of God is bringing about a humbling of your spirit. And as you are allowing the Holy Spirit to move this morning, you are opening yourself up to receive the blessing that He has for you. The potential to receive is housed in your potential to lay aside every hindrance, every weight, and when you do this, the Lord is saying to you right now, its time to put yourself in line to receive a blessing from him.
Listen for a minute, the Lord wants you to have a spirit of expectancy. What am I talking about? It is time to quit your battling within the confines of your home. It is time to quit your battling within the confines of the church. It is time to quit your battling in your own personal life with petty sins that surround you, and that you have held onto because the Lord is saying to you in this hour, that He is going to give you evidence, you are going to feel His presence, perhaps like you have never felt and experienced before in your life. You are going to weep and cry, you are going to be broken up in your spirit, God is going to move on you, and He is going to give you the potential to deal with the hindrances, you are going to have the power to forgive. And I want you to understand this, God is not going to do it for you, but He is going to do it through you to as much as you yield to Him. Some of you have become so entrenched in bitterness, family squabbles, in-law squabbles, parent-child squabbles, church squabbles, and squabble squabbles but the Lord is saying to you, that He is going to send you a visitation a touch, a slight evidence in your spirit that you will be able today to release the squabbles of your life. And when this visitation comes upon you, you will turn your sorrows into joy, your tears into a smile. God is going to turn your fears into courage, your weakness into strength, your doubts into faith. Your eyes will be literaly open to see the transformation that will take place. It will not be just a touch, it will not be a passing blessing, it is going to come and rest upon you.
Let me just ask, How many of you have been praying for a change in your life?
There comes a place in every persons life when they face changes. We go through change in our natural growth, from being a baby, to a child, to an adolescent, to an adult. Where we once thought as a child, now we think as a mature individual. There is a stage where everyone comes to a place of change in their life. That is the place we are at this morning, a changing place. Let me show you this change in Acts 9:1-12 (READ)
I want you to hear this today, God has an Ananias He has sent your way. And for some of you, God has laid His hand on you to be an Ananias to someone else.
Did you follow this account. Here is a man, Saul, who is traveling to Damascus with one purpose in mind, to kill Christians. Saul is not being used of God, he is being used of the devil. On the road to Damascus, holding the decree that authorized his journey to round up Christians, Saul journeys with a face like flint toward the city where he is planning to do damage to the cause of Christ. While he was on his way, it was a normal day, an ordinary day, the sun was shining, normal people were around him, and while he was on his way, Saul came to a turning point in his life. You might be here this morning and be involved in things you shouldn’t be, but with the visitation the Lord is about to send into your life, today will be etched in your mind as a day of turning things around. A turning point in your life journey. God Almighty is knocking on your door, and it is going to happen suddenly. It may happen here this morning, it may happen on a Wednesday morning before breakfast, it may happen on a Saturday night before midnight. The Lord wants you to know that a change is coming upon your life suddenly.
Lets read a little further in Acts 9:12-18 (READ)
The change came suddenly upon Saul, who became the great Apostle Paul. There is a wind of change coming, how many of you believe it?
In the Old Testament is the accounting of the life of Job. Job has sores all over his body, the devil had been afflicting him, Job had lost everything. Some of you might have been there in your life. And Job had friends, advisors, who came to him with terrible advice, each time it seems they carried with them in their advice, bad news. Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. To do something to get him out of this suffering. Job responded by telling her, "Yet God slay me, yet will I serve Him."
Church, no matter how bad it gets, no matter who turns coat and runs and turns from friend to enemy, no matter who your enemies may be, no matter how much you lose in bankruptcy, no matter if you lose your home, your children, your wife, your husband, don’t let go of the hand of the one who can turn things around for you. Don’t let go of God’s unchanging hand.
Whether you are in good times or bad times. Whether you are living in prosperity or in poverty. God loves us whether we have friends or enemies, whether we are sick or well.
Why would you believe that when everything turns against you, that God would stop loving you? I can’t suddenly stop loving my wife. I can’t stop suddenly loving my children. I can’t stop suddenly loving the Lord and the ministry He has given me. And God is not going to suddenly stop loving us, but if we will be patient, if we will tie a knot in the rope and hang on, God says he is going to come and turn things around. So listen, don’t curse God, don’t curse the day, don’t curse the hours, don’t curse the minutes, don’t curse your spouse or your children, just tie that knot in the rope that you are handing onto, for a change is in the wind, it’s coming.
Look at this in Job 42:10-ff (READ)
Did you catch what happened in vs. 10? When Job prayed for his friends, then the Lord came with a double portion, a double blessing.
Church, you are helpless without God. It is God who gets ahold of us. You have no power to be saved, the Lord does that. You have no power to be healed, the Lord does that. You have no power to pray for your enemies outside of the day the Lord does that.
The Bible says the Lord turned the captivity of Job around when he prayed for his friends, and the kind of advice they were giving, we might go so far to consider them enemies. Lets consider these friends, when everything went sour for Job, here comes these friends and they accuse Job of having done wrong to bring calamity upon himself. When a person is down, they need friends who will come and encourage them, Job needed friends to lift him up, not let him down. You don’t need friends who come alongside and tell you how bad everything is. Wouldn’t it be something for me to make a pastoral call at the hospital, and say, "You know, you look really terrible. You might just as well die right now."
These friends came and gave Job bad advice. When Job needed their friendship, they were not there for him really. They came and brought bad news. The Scriptures say that after he had lost it all, when he was at a point where he should turn, the question was will he turn? Job had sores, he had been through rough waters, and he looks at his friends, and God gives him the capacity to pray for his friends. His friends meant well, but they did wrong, and Job makes the change and the Lord turns things around for him. What about you? Alter--call of prayer
