Keeping Our Moral Compass

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Welcome to A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and friends.

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We share good news and godly wisdom to empower you to be salt and light in every season of life.

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Doug recently shared on keeping our moral compass in the midst of all the noise pollution and

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distractions. He points to the scriptures that keep you focused on rectitude and righteousness.

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Listen to this timely and inspiring message that reminds us of the importance to be tethered to God

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and His Word to withstand the storms of the day. After the episode, consider leaving a review

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and follow us on your favorite streaming service. If you've gleaned anything from this podcast,

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consider paying it forward with a gift at somebodycares.org. Now let's join our host, Doug Stringer.

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How do we keep our moral compass in the midst of all the noise? And I remember waking up multiple

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times and just kept hearing the same thing over and over. It wasn't audible, but it was that strong

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in my spirit. And I kept hearing the Lord say, find me in the stillness. Find me in the stillness.

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You know, scripture teaches us to be still and know that He's God. But I realize with all the noise

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pollution and all the distractions and all the things that could really pull on our hearts,

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we need to find Him in the stillness. That's what I've been trying to hold on to. So greeba

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what I'm hearing on the news and just little clips I'm seeing and then the burning of the US flag

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and then thinking about my mom when she became a naturalized citizen. As you know, I was born in

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Japan. My mother was Japanese. But when she became a naturalized citizen, she was so proud of her

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little Pledge of Allegiance thing. She turned into a like a flag tent and put her flag that she was

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given rather than millen. Stay on the TV. You know, those old wired TV things, you have those

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rabbit ears. We could not touch her Pledge of Allegiance and flag. She was so proud to be an

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American. And so I began to think about the burning the flags and the continued desecration of our

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monuments and history and thinking about all these people riding on the streets and campuses

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and universities and in such conflict. And I realized that we have left our moral compass.

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We've left direction. We become untethered. All day I kept thinking about the Pledge of Allegiance

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has become a declaration for so many years and millions and millions have declared in the Pledge

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of Allegiance, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The reality is

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we're not indivisible. We are divided. And the reality is we're not one nation right now. We're

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so divided and conquered. There's so much lack of civility in our public discourse that we're not

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that one nation because we're not under God. One nation under God. We're not one nation because

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God is not Lord over us anymore. We've left and become untethered to God and we've lost our moral

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compass. And I kept thinking over and over as almost a form of intercession, the song God Bless

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America. No, I'm not saying that as a Christian that my first allegiance to this country, it's not.

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I belong to another kingdom. But I am called in Scripture to bless the land in which I dwell.

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And I am a beneficiary as an American of Asian descent. I'm a beneficiary of this nation and the

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foundations that were laid and the sacrifices made and the price that's been paid for me to have those

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liberties. So I show appreciation and honor for that because how can we build if we have a faulty

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foundation? I want to respect and honor the foundations that have been laid for me. It's not

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been perfect, but it's been the greatest foundation that any nation has in the sense of giving all

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people an opportunity to benefit. Just like with the covenant of Abraham, when God said to Abraham,

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when he was Abraham go, and you'll be a father of nations, the fact is it's God's intent that we,

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the church in this country would be a blessing to the nations. I remember a kind of a daily thing

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we would do the 40 days of Houston prayer mountain. We kept saying, give us Houston, give us the nations.

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And we really believe that God was going to use the church of Greater Houston to touch nations of

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the world. And back then we were not the most diverse international city in America. We just

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felt like that was what God was saying. And to fast forward to where we are in 2024, we are the most

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diverse city in America, the most international city beyond New York, beyond LA, beyond Chicago.

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We are the most diverse and more languages spoken in this region than anywhere else in the country.

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So when God touches the church in the region, the nations are already impacted. So that's our mandate.

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That's what God's called us to do. But how can we do that if we're divided? God bless America,

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the land that I love. And I realized how many first responders and people I've talked to over the last

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few years. And I've been on the border many times with border patrol on both sides of the board of

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talking to people and police chiefs and mayors who call and leaders who are just overwhelmed.

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When I was an Eagle Pass last year and meeting with the county judge and the mayor and the police

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chief and others that were there, regardless of their political persuasion, which was interesting,

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because the media plays one thing politically, but the reality is on the border speaking to people

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from Democrats and Republicans all overwhelmed. The county judge who happens to be a Democrat

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said, my whole life I would have never thought we'd be in the place we are today. The reality is

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that there has been a perfect storm and a Pandora's box has been open, but has been exasperated since

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the advent of COVID and social media. All these things have exasperated these things and created

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a perfect storm for us to see anarchy and lawlessness. But the thing that breaks my heart is to see the

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division in the church. We're to cross our racial to nominational generational lines,

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meaning at the cross of Christ. My first commitment is not to the party of the elephant or the party

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of the donkey. I belong to the party of the lamb and the lion. So my ultimate goal is seeking

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first the kingdom of God, being an ambassador for Christ. So I'm not ethnocentric first. I'm not

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political centric first. I'm Christ centric. I want to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, the author

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and finisher of my faith. I did an article for a magazine on the Christian samurai and you might

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be surprised. I know there had been revivals in Japan over the last few hundred years and actually

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over the last thousand years there had been revivals and then there was the blood of the martyrs

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because even the Christian samurai were persecuted and came out of that period what would they call

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the Bushido Code. And the Bushido Code became known as the way of the warrior and is now even

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though there's no summarize anymore, the Bushido Code has become a way of life in an honor code

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in the Japanese culture and they don't even realize that much of it is biblical. So much of the

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Bushido Code though have given credit to Shintoism and Buddhism. If you look back historically all

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those Bushido Codes or the honor code was established through Scripture and I choose to believe and I'll

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have to do more research that a lot of that was introduced by the Christian samurai because that

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became a way of life and so one of the ways we reach the Asian culture, the Japanese and others

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is to show them that the Bible that was already written long before the samurai, long before their

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honor code, long before the Bushido Code, long before the way of the warrior were biblical scriptures

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that dealt with the very things that are part of the values of their country. Wouldn't it be better

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for us who are Christians to live by our standard because we're the ones who introduced many of these

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standards through Scripture and that's what's important that we would represent the kingdom

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in such a way that people are attracted to the kingdom of God. So one of the Bushido Code,

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I won't get into the whole thing, but one of them is rectitude, that they live by this place or code

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of rectitude. It's a place of respect and honor. It's a place of moral compass. They have a value

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system. We have a moral compass. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, fix your eyes on Jesus,

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the author and finisher of your faith, who for the joy set before him. The point is that we can only

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be people of moral direction if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus because the Scripture says in

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Colossians chapter one that all things are made two through four and by him. Every kingdom, principality,

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rulership, dominion, all these things are under his authority because he's the preeminent one, the son

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of God's love. So I think it's important for us to get back to our being tethered and back to our

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moral compass. And you know, I like what a friend of mine, Bishop Dale Bronner in Atlanta once said

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and I've borrowed this, but he said, you know, think about the word compassion. It's got two main

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words in compass and passion makes compassion. So for me to have moral rectitude, for me to have

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moral bearings, for me to have a moral compass is for me to also understand that the conflict

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in the flesh you can't fix. But this idea that God can give us his passion. He can give us his

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compassion, but it's directed passion. It's directed moral compass. It's a direction that God gives,

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but we can only get if we are fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

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Go to me to Hebrews chapter 11. And while you're doing that, some of the other main

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honor code or the Bushido code, the way of the warrior is not just rectitude that you find in

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various scriptures, but courage, benevolence, respect, honor, honesty, and loyalty. These are

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all biblical principles that we as Christians need to represent and emulate. Second, that's only

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chapter two says that we will be given over to strong delusion if we don't have a love for the

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truth. There's so much anarchy and lawlessness around the country and around the world that

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it's overwhelming. And people have been given over to strong delusion because they lost their love

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for truth or their moral compass, because God is no longer first and preeminent in their lives.

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And when we allow that to happen, of course, we're going to see all these things unravel

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and all the opinions and ideas and personal preferences will never fix it. Even the next

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election cycle, this next election, this or that election, that or if we keep focusing on

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institutions and we are responsible to go out and do our, you know, be responsible to vote and

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vote our convictions. But the reality is that our hope is not in man. Our hope is in the Lord.

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And so when I see it's reminiscent of the 1960s, when I see all this happening around the country

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and all the burning of the flag and, you know, back when I was in eighth grade, I actually was asked

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with all the eighth graders of my junior high school in National City, California, suburb of

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San Diego and Chula Vista in that area, we were all asked to write an article and present it to

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the American Legion on what is American patriotism. And so to the amaze when everyone, when the

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gold medalist was called, I was called up to receive the gold medal for what I wrote. And

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they were like, oh, it's an Asian guy, you know, Vietnam War. So, you know, Doug Stringer, but

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looks like Asian anyway. I get that a lot. Been left in airports because of that. People just

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don't expect to have a John Wayne kind of a name from Texas looking Asian. But that's a whole

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another story. I have to have a t-shirt and I says, yes, I am Doug Stringer. But I wrote about the,

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what I'm saying is reminiscent today of what I saw back then was the rioting, the campus rioting

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and the fires or burning of the flag. In the midst of that, regardless of what you thought about

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the Vietnam War, to disrespect and spit on those who had been called up to go represent our country,

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to come back into such shame and being rudely spit upon and being tormented because they had

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been honorable to go fight for their country, regardless of people's opinions. So we saw the

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anarchy. So what we have today is reminiscent of those days. I want to talk about two quick things,

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faith and divine warnings. For us to understand this, we have to get back to realizing we have to

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keep our moral compass, keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. In the midst of all the noise and all the

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heartbreak and all the lawlessness, to know that we find him in the stillness, to find him in the

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stillness, to be still and know that he's still God. That if God can do it then and then and then

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and then he can do it now. And we're about to see an outpouring of God's presence. Hebrews chapter 11

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verse 1 says, talking about the definition of faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for

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and the evidence of things not yet seen. For by the elders obtained a good testimony, by faith we

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understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were

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not made of things which are visible. They were formed by the word of God. Here's the sad thing

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where we are today that we have to pray into and we have to declare through prayer and through

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intercession, through singing to the Lord corporate worship because there's a corporate attack on

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the word of God, a corporate attack on his church. So there has to be a corporate response of corporate

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agreement in prayer and worship because when worship goes up authentic, I'm not talking about a lot of

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the worship of worship and worship of celebrity. I'm talking about authentic heartfelt worship

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that goes before the king that brings his anointing and his anointing does what? Breaks the yokes of

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bondage. Now faith is not necessarily just envisioning something or believing for something. I want

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this or I want that. But faith is trusting in God's promises and his word even when circumstances

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look overwhelming and impossible or not the way that we expected. This whole chapter we some have

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called it the chapter of faith or the heroes of the faith and it goes through every one of these

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different examples and it says and for others that were even written by name here. Faith is a

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substance of things hoped for and evidence of things have not yet seen and remember faith is not

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about just what we can get or believing for but it's holding on to the promises of God and it's

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trusting him because with one mustard seed, Jesus said with a mustard seed faith you can move a mountain.

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Have you ever seen a mustard seed size? It's like nothing. So it's not an issue of just having faith.

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God gives us those elements of faith. It's an issue of trusting God. How many of us have ever

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been to a place where we can believe for someone else but it's a hard time trusting God for us?

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And you can pray, you can speak words over people and you see them come to pass but it's another

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thing when believing for yourself. It's an issue of trust isn't it? I found that to be true for me.

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If we don't become tethered to God and staying tethered it's easy especially when the storms of

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life come because there are divine warnings that I believe God has been giving us. In fact,

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there's quite a few in the book of Hebrews itself but let's look at just this one. Verse 6 it says,

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but without faith in chapter 11 it is impossible to please him, please God. For he who comes to God

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must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Now verse 7,

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by faith Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, lubed of godly fear, prepared an ark.

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So by faith Noah by divine warning had the faith to trust God. Now can you imagine not a rain cloud

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in the sky, there's no body of water anywhere and can you imagine how silly that must be

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and God's telling you build an ark and the people saying what are you talking about? We don't have

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any water. Build an ark here, build a big ship here. What are you talking about? For the moment he

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got the word to the time where the floods came was 120 years. So who knows how much time before we

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actually started and had to process. God is that really you? I can't be God. Is that really you God?

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And so it could be anywhere from 70 years, 75 to 120 years but the moment he got the word to the

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time when the floods came was 120 years. But can you imagine going through a promise, holding it

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with a promise, beginning the process of saying God I look silly here but yet God by faith gave him

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a divine warning of things to come. Today I believe that God is giving us a divine warning. He's

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giving us a clarion call. He says stop pushing the snooze button because by divine warning this

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time not to destroy the world the way that it was done before but he's calling us to be a people

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who create an ark of refuge. A place when the storms come because you know I remember it was

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Winky Prattany I think that told me this one time. He said you know it's fun to get out there and do

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the windsurfing and you know and enjoying all the waves and or the surfers that like to find storms

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and get out in the waves because the waves are better during the storms and but when the storms

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begin to come and they're relentless you better be close to an ocean liner. Better be close to

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being tethered to something that's solid and I think there's so many people been windsurfing

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even in the church world going to one conference to another conference. Conferences are great but

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going and worshiping this new style of worship, worshiping that movement but it's time for us

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to stay tethered. Create an ark of refuge of stability because when all the things come and go

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and the storms increase you better be connected to something that's stable. Deep in the plumb

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line or plumb bob of God not being swung by the pendulum swings of what goes on around us.

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Be connected. Be part of something greater than yourself. So by divine warning he ended up obeying

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God. The things I wrote down and have written about over the years but I really feel like it's a

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good thing to revisit is the things that hinder us individually and corporately from a real

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move of God or making sure that we look at these areas of our lives and I won't get into all of

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them. I'll give you some scripture references but the book of Hebrew says that it's a failure to hate

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sin. I think part of the delusion is coming if we no longer have a love for truth and so now

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we don't have a hate for sin. We want to call it other things. Oh you know it's just a problem.

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Look when I got radically saved I wasn't justified by excuse. I was justified by faith in Christ.

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God do whatever you need to do to change my life. I was in the fitness business running

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fitness centers and I used to say no pain no gain. Now I say God make it hurt so good.

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God do whatever you need to do. Help me Lord to build up those spiritual muscles so I can handle

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what's coming. It's the failure to hate sin. You can look at Hebrews in chapter one, chapter 12

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and also in chapter 13. Number two is negligence. That's Hebrews chapter two verse one and three.

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Number three is the hardening of heart. How many of us have ever been wounded to the point that we

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end up hardening our hearts and we don't even realize that we leave a relationship or we go

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through one area brokenness and take it into another relationship. I remember one time God had

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to give me a kind of a redirection on something because I like helping homeless people and drug

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addicts and at-risk youth. I like helping people and that's what we do. It's the compassion part,

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the compass passion, the compassion of what we do. What we call compassion evangelism becomes

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tangible so other people who reject the gospel their hearts are open to receive the message and

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change their minds. So it's a tool by which God uses us to impact people that normally would never

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hear the gospel. One time I was driving by and you know I don't know what it is about me. I'm a

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magnet to homeless people. Learning that the part of the process is I don't just give money away,

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I'll take them to go get something to eat or I would begin to ask them questions and follow

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up with those questions and before I would actually pay for them to have a bus ticket or

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pay for them to have something to eat or pay for them to stay somewhere for the night until they

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can get into a longer term place. I wanted to find out more about the situation if they were just

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trying to lie to me and lie to God. One time somebody came up to me and was giving me all this

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spill and same spill I've heard many many times. I said look I'm going to give you the money for

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the gas but I want you to take me to where you say your car is broken down where you need the gas

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because if you're lying to me I just want you to know it's blood money. I'm going to give it to you

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no matter what but if you're lying to me it's blood money because this is God's money. Oh no

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well you know really technically I don't really... we have to be wise stewards but God began to speak

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to me when the scripture says guard your heart for out of it flows issues of life. I've always been

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believed that was watch out for your heart don't let the world impact your heart but how many times

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is it also where we harden our heart because we bring it back to an experience we had. So now I no

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longer am sensitive to the one out of the 99. I'm not sensitive to the one who's legit because now

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I've just been burnt and taken advantage of so many times I don't have a tender heart in this

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situation. So God was saying what I'm saying is don't let your heart become so hard that's not

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pliable to every new situation. It's one thing to use wisdom it's another thing to become hard to

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heart so we are not to have a hardening of heart. The other thing is unbelief and then the next is

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prayerlessness you know it's it's what we do in private determines the power of God a lot of it in

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public. Our private posture our need time is so important I believe our need time is more important

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now than every board that's where our battles are done. We will either battle on our knees for the

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souls of men or we will be in literal battles ahead as the storms come. The other is dullness of

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hearing. Whenever I'm in a car or turn on the radio to hear the news or listening to music

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and somehow it's not coming through their static I don't call the radio station. My first thing to

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do is try to adjust my radio because I realize more than likely it's not the transmission it's the

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reception. And many of us it's not that God's not speaking it's that we're not listening we're

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filtering it's filter trapping. The next is insulting the spirit of grace as Hebrews chapter 10 verse

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26 through 29. That's one of my classic lifelong scriptures for if you sin willfully after receive

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the knowledge of the truth there remain a fearful expectation a fiery judgment because

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you have trampled underfoot and called it a common thing the blood of Jesus and you are profanating

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the spirit of grace. So we claim grace but we want to live in sin but when you habitually

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continually sin against God that the three types of sin in the Old Testament is Hatha, Pasha and

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Avon. Hatha that means missing the mark it's like you're going shooting a gun or doing archery by

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missing the mark that's called missing the mark we Hatha Hatha Hatha all day long I miss the mark

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all the time. The second kind of sin is Avon. Avon means iniquities and sometimes iniquities

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aren't not exposed because they're hidden in the heart or in the thoughts but when pressures come

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and pressure magnifies those iniquities come to the surface it's like what's in comes out.

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It's a good thing in some ways if we're willing for God to do that work in us

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and so we all have iniquities the heart that needs to be exposed. The third though

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is like Hebrews chapter 10 26 through 29 it's called Pasha and Pasha is where we willfully do

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wrong when we know to do right. It's rebellion. Rebellion against God is like the sin of witchcraft

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so when we knowingly willfully habitually choose to sin actively against God that's a place of a

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different judgment people say well God hates all sin that's true but the consequences of sins are

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different some are sins to the body some are sins to the death so we have to be cognizant of the fact

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that God covers all sin but he doesn't wink at sin so we don't want to insult the spirit of grace

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and then the next discouragement you've heard me speak on that many times discouragement is a

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powerful drug because as a tendency it calls us to compromise our convictions because we become

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disillusioned with people things situations discouragement is we need to be encouraged in

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the Lord not discouraged Hebrews chapter 6 verse 11 through 12 19 and 20 verse 35 through 36

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harboring unforgiveness and bitterness. David Wilkerson said in a book if you felt like giving

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up lately he wrote it's always the wrong person on the cross Jesus didn't say take up my cross

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and take up your cross and follow me he already went to the cross he paid the price for us

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I was talking to some people just a couple weeks ago and I said look God doesn't owe us anything

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he's done everything so don't sit there and keep saying give me give me give me my name is Jimmy

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I'm sorry for your name is Jimmy give me give me give me it's like we expect expect expect and if

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he lets us down we become discouraged get mad at God we point our fingers at God but the reality is

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God doesn't owe us anything he's already done everything I want to be grateful for everything

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David Wilkerson said that when you get wounded and hurt you stay stuck on that cross while the

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people that have hurt you or slandered you or broke your heart they've gone on with their life

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they're living life so you're the one that's suffering by being stuck in a moment by harboring

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unforgiveness and bitterness you don't become better you become bitter but every situation in

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circumstance is an opportunity for God to help us become better not bitter and I think we're in

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that place we have to say God I want you to remove all the vexations all the things out of my life

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I don't want to be held to the past I want to be who you called me to be today so I release out of

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my spirit any unforgiveness and bitterness and wounds so I can be who you've called me to be

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that's Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 and 15 and then finally refusing the Lord when he speaks

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Hebrews chapter 12 verse 25 to 27 I think of Jeremiah when God's people came up to him and said

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look we're going through it we've been rebellious against God would you seek God on our behalf

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and whatever God says to do we will do it so Jeremiah seeks God comes back and says well

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here's what God said they go oh that can't be God you're a liar how many of us have already

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predetermined what we want God to say because part of faith is trusting him that he knows better to

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close the doors that need to be closed open the doors that need to be open I've always said

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say God there's so many things that I could be doing but I need to know when the doors are open

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I don't want to just open the door because it happens to be open take me by the hand leave me

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in the paths of righteousness take me through the door you want but make sure you close the doors

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that need to be closed so that way I know it's you leading me and not me just going oh here's

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another opportunity what a great time it is to live right now for us to be that lighthouse in

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the midst of the storms of life to be that lighthouse in the midst of the fog and it can get pretty

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foggy can't it it can be very disappointed to see what we're seeing and look I want to turn my pain

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in intercession because I am grieved at what I see you know my mom would say she was still here

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she would tell people burning the flag if you don't like it go somewhere else

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if she do like this what's up out of you you don't like a country then go somewhere else

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see what's like live somewhere else it's about you look I'm not worshiping a flag but that flag

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represents a lot more to me and I've been around a lot of people that I've watched their pain

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military given their lives made sacrifices for us to have the freedoms we have I get calls on a

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regular basis to have a lot of opportunity to minister to a lot of people in those places that

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are disheartened one city went from thousands of police officers down to hundreds and they're

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desperate for help there is no age limit with God God's looking for all of us Psalm 110 verse

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2 and 3 says that throw in army of volunteers for the day of his power this is a moment for us right

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now like never before let's not let the enemy lie to us let's not let the hindrances the personal

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corporate revival keep us let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finish of our faith

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let's draw near into his presence and be in his presence through the stillness of his presence

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the stillness find him father I thank you for my brothers and sisters I thank you lord that we have

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been raised up with a different standard that we are not like the world but lord we have the

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privilege and the honor of being a part of the kingdom of God Lord would you help us to be a godly

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example in the land in which we live that we can also be a blessing to the nations of the world

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God we are asking you to do what only you can do and Lord just like in the 60s and so many other

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times difficult times you poured out your spirit God we're ready for another outpouring but Lord

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we also know we have to prepare for that outpouring by being an arc of refuge for those who are the

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storms of life many souls will become pause persecutors shall become advocates god I pray right now

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that you would open the eyes of the blind but start with us Lord that our hope is restore the altar

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of worship in you for our faith that our trust is in you by divine warning you giving us wisdom

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and direction and guidance to prepare for those storms ahead in Jesus name

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we hope you enjoyed this episode of a word in season with Doug Stringer and friends

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and ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the ministry at somebodycares.org or by texting

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your donation amount to 805-422-7348 please join us again for a word in season with Doug Stringer and

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