Yes, It's Worth it! - There is a New Day Dawning

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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

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life.

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There is a difference between worshipping the Lord and abiding in His presence.

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Doug shared a message reminding us that as we prepare our hearts for intimacy with the

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Lord, we must get rid of the weighty and unnecessary baggage we often carry on the journey.

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Let go of the hurts of the past and don't believe the lies of the enemy.

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You are called and destined for greatness in Him.

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After the episode, consider leaving a review and follow us on your favorite streaming service.

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If you've gleaned anything from this podcast, consider paying it forward with a gift at

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SomebodyCares.org.

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Now let's join our host, Doug Stringer.

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A few days ago I had asked Pastor Jeff to send me a quote that really is very prophetic

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and a defining thing that God spoke to Pastor Randy years ago.

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And I think it's very significant because we're coming into dwell 24 and that's even

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prophetic but there's a difference between visitation and abiding.

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Because you're living worshippers who don't want God just to show up in a visit, you want

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Him to abide in you.

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That's 24-7, 365, right?

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And I think there's something prophetic but here's what God spoke to Pastor Randy years

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ago.

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Is it alright with you if your highest vision is to be my dwelling place?

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This place you call Houston Worship Center, I call my dwelling place.

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There's a significant difference between worship and abiding.

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In abiding and the fact that it's a dwelling place is different than a worship center.

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We can come and worship, leave, be moved by the worship.

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Saul was moved by worship.

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When King David was playing, he felt the peace of God.

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But outside of that time of worship, he went back to being his old self.

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But when you have the abiding presence, when you dwell in the house of the Lord and it's

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His abiding manifest presence, it changes everything.

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And as I was watching worship today, because worship is awesome and because it's not because

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it's just entertainment, it's not a presentation, I've been appreciating that it really is about

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this humble posture before a living God and the awe of God.

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That God is able to do things that would seem supernatural to us but it's not supernatural

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to Him.

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It's not that He just wants to do it.

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He's a good Father.

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When we ask for a piece of bread, He doesn't give us a stone.

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If we ask for meat, He doesn't give us a serpent.

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He wants to give His best.

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When I was thinking on the way here, I was telling my wife, I said, Lisa, I can't get

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this out of my head.

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I'm doing the Jeff Needham thing.

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I just feel led to take this turn right now.

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That's been very helpful because my wife goes, what are you doing?

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I'm doing the Jeff Needham.

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I feel led, just trust me, honey.

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Just trust me.

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I'll get to the direction I feel like God wants us to go is to really help us understand

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that this is a new day dawning in a corporate sense.

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I'm not talking about just because it's a new year but I believe God doesn't move just

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in winter, spring, summer, fall.

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He moves in seasons but they're different than the seasons we think about.

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We are in a season where it's a new day dawning and God's about to do some exciting, powerful

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things but we have to let go of some things too because we don't want to be weighted down

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with the things of the past.

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We need to be free from what God wants us to be a part of now.

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I said, honey, but before I get into that, I just feel like you're supposed to look up

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a scripture while I'm driving.

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The scripture in John chapter 14 about in my father's house.

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In John 14, I won't read it right now, but in John 14, the first few verses it talks

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about in my father's house are many mansions.

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He says basically, confie in me, trust me.

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I know and I'm preparing a place for you.

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And then he goes on to say that I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No man comes to the father or the father's house but by me.

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Now we know in context that we're talking about salvation, eternity, but I want to bring

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it to a practical context for us right now.

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In my father's house are many gifts.

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I think about the gift of worship, the gift of servants' hearts.

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We were driving up and seeing Pastor Eric and he's out there with his vest on, parking

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cars.

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I'm thinking, talk about the epitome of washing feet.

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While men reach for thrones to build their own kingdoms, Jesus reached for a towel to

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wash men's feet.

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The epitome of not thinking I've arrived so I don't have to do anything anymore.

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In fact, I was just thinking about even what happens in worship is what goes on behind

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the scenes in the place of the posture of the heart.

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What happens all through the internship, what happens here at the 1224 coming up, what happens

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at 10C gatherings, what happens in all these things is not what you see at the moment,

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it's all that's building into those moments that takes us beyond those moments so we can

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all step into our moments.

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So in my father's house, it's something about dwelling in the presence of God, in God's

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house, that gifts are released, multiple things are released, and his manifest presence begins

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to do the salvation, the healing, the deliverances, the healings.

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All these things take place as a natural outcome of dwelling in the habitation or abiding in

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his manifest presence.

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How many don't just want him just to show up once in a while, you want him to abide

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with you?

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I know a few years ago I shared out of Luke 24 about that, about the manifest abiding

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presence of God, but it starts with an invitation that we say, abide with us.

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In our road to Emmaus, in our journey, God would you just abide with us?

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It's an invitation, God I want you to abide, dwell with us.

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And you've created that atmosphere here and that's why God is moving in some significant

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and powerful ways that's not just touching this congregation, this city, it's multi-generational,

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it's multi-ethnic, and what God is doing is touching now nations of the world as a result

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of that simple obedience.

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And pastor to hear that word saying, I don't want just to be a worship center, I want to

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be a dwelling place.

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And there is a significance, we can come to worship or we can say, God we want you to

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dwell, abide with us, we invite you to abide with us.

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And creating and allowing him to change everything, to restructure everything for that place of

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his environment, amen?

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And then something Pastor Randy said, well you're up here and it just struck me because

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I've been writing an article for a magazine, it comes out in February issue, but they wanted

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me to do a series and the first part of the series is Christian Samurai.

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And I was sharing with them, I said look, you know there were actually real Christian

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Samurai, not just a metaphor for us that we can be like, you know, Samurai servants, you

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know, for the king.

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And when they were persecuted they really had an internal conflict because their whole

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sole purpose in life was to serve and to protect the emperor, their lords over them, and they

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had a Bushido code, an honor code, or what we would even call the virtues of Christ when

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we think about it.

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When I look at the Bushido code, the ways of the warrior and all the virtues of the

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Samurai that they honored, even their enemies if they lived by certain moral codes and virtues,

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that most of those Bushido code virtues are biblical.

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And when I began to process and research I found out the huge Christian influence in

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Japan hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and that came before a lot of the Shintoism

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and Buddhism and all these things, that it came after Christ and so the influence of

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Christianity in a culture that they may not even recognize still lives out today in certain

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virtues of a culture.

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But one of the things when they had to go underground in some regard, when some Christians

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and Samurais were being persecuted because of a Shogun, you could tell them by the way

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they wore their Samurai garb that they were Christians.

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So they became known as Hanare Christian, and that means set apart, separated.

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And they knew that they had to make a decision to be first and foremost set apart to the

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King of Kings, separated for his service.

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And it was a difficult place because they grew up in these virtues of the Bushido code

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to honor the Emperor, honor the Shoguns, honor the different people over them, and yet they

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had to hold on to their virtues, but they had to redirect what those virtues represented

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into serving the King first, being set apart for the Lord.

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And that's really what you're about to enter into.

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You've been doing, but I think even times where we have a shot in the arm, it's a place

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to be reminded that we are set apart for the Lord.

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We're separated unto God.

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I'm going to be back in Australia in about a month or so.

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In the mid-1980s, I was speaking and God just showed up.

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A revival broke loose in the Bellarine Peninsula of Australia.

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I was a young whippersnapper.

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I'm still young, but back in those days, I was probably in my late 20s, early 30s, and

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God just showed up.

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But not in a typical way.

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It was because God began to move the words of knowledge, words of prophecy, acts of compassion,

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but also working in supernatural ways.

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And so we began to see Baptist churches, Assembly of God churches, uniting churches, Methodist

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churches, Church of Christ.

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God was doing something amongst them all that just happened supernaturally to where you

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couldn't even walk down certain roads in downtown areas of where I was without people knocking

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on the windows saying, please come in, because it was on the papers.

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I didn't know how to handle all that.

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I was just a young guy thinking, what is with all this attention and free Italian food?

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Oh yeah, I'll take some more of that.

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Speak to my staff.

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But I remember during that time, I also went through the season where I was going through

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a lot of spiritual attack.

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Have you ever been under spiritual attack?

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The devil starts to lie to you and say, is that even worth it?

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What are you doing?

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And I was thinking about that then.

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I remember going out to this beautiful place, the great ocean road, and there's a long road,

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and you have all they call the apostles.

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These pillars that they're standing out in the ocean there, and these big cliffs.

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And I remember one sunrise, I went out during a sunrise, and I looked up, watched the sun

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come up.

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I could feel the wind beating on me, standing on that cliff, looking down.

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And one thing the devil was trying to say, why don't you just jump?

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It's not worth it.

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Who cares anyway?

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I'm thinking, where did that come from?

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And I had no idea where God wanted me to go for the future.

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I was a young guy just trying to obey God.

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Just said, here I am, Lord, use me.

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And having to lead a guy to the Lord from Australia that was well known.

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And next thing I know, I'm in Australia, and God's moving.

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And I mean, that's a whole different story.

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But I'm standing there, and God's moving in some significant, powerful ways.

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To this day, multiple churches and the most significant, largest Christian television

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network out of Australia, all those were birthed out of those moments.

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And I remember standing there, and right when the enemy was trying to tell me, you might

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as well just jump, nobody cares anyway.

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Is it worth it?

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And I began to weigh out all these things.

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Well, at least back at home when I was in the business, I was making some money, and

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now it's all about faith.

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Trusting God.

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How am I going to pay for this trip?

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That kind of stuff.

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And I'm just forgetting the gloriousness of what God is doing.

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And I'm thinking more in terms of, how am I going to?

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What am I going to do?

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I was hoping that.

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Luke 24.

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And forgetting this incredible privilege of His abiding presence that was doing something

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beyond what I could ever comprehend.

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And who would have ever known that all these decades later, that it was still spreading

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across the world from those moments.

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In that voice telling me to jump, the winds blowing, you see the water and the waves and

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the oceans hitting the cliffs, and it was just a magnificent moment except for that

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part.

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And I began to look up and I saw the sun begin to come up.

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A new day dawning.

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And I'm sure you've had those moments where you've been to a beach, you've been somewhere,

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and early in the morning you watch the sun rise.

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And isn't it magnificent?

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The beauty of God's creation.

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And it gives you a sense of a new time, a new beginning, a new sense of what's about

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to happen that day.

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It's just something that wells up in you.

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I can tell you after 43 years of saying yes to God, it's worth it.

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It's worth it to have people come up and say, I just want you to know you don't know who

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I am, but I just want you to know I was the guy that was demon possessed that tried to

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strangle you in front of all those people at that crusade.

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And God used you to bring deliverance in my life and I'm serving God today.

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I just want you to know my wife used to be in a witch coven.

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And you prayed and you saw deliverance happen.

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Today I'm the pastor of such and such church in Australia.

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I just want you to know that's my wife.

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I said, you owe me, buddy.

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You see, sometimes we don't know it's worth it because we haven't had the track record

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of abiding with him and he and us to have those stories.

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But I have to encourage you, the stories are coming.

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The stories are there.

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And the more you fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, the Father's

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house is full of mansions and extra rooms and gifts and places and stories that are

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part of your life that you may not see right now.

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But there are multitudes of people being impacted by your agreement individually and corporately

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to be a house of his presence, a dwelling place.

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Go with me to Isaiah 43, a new day dawning.

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I think of Isaiah 43, but I also think of Philippians 3, 13 and 14 where it says, lay

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aside or put aside those things that are waiting from behind you and press in towards the reward

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that's before you.

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Press into the Lord.

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And this is that time I feel like it's important for us.

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It's a pressing in, not in a cumbersome way.

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I've been sharing the last few weeks, I really sense we're in a season of evangelism, but

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it won't be our typical way of having to be cumbersome.

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We're trying to being labor conscious.

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It's not something difficult.

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God's going to do the evangelism.

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He's getting everybody ready.

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And I believe we're in a season where scales are going to start to come off of people's

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eyes where you've been saying, don't they see it?

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I mean, evil has become good and good, is it?

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But I believe we're in a season where things are going to be happening, where God's going

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to start taking the scales off of people's eyes.

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They're going to wake up.

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They're going to want to get saved.

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And the question is, are we ready to harvest and disciple them?

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So it won't be the typical old school, like I was out in the streets all night long and

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talking to people and people spitting at me, punching me, shooting me.

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I've shot at two or three times.

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One time I was on a TV show as a guest and with another guest friend of mine and we were

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just talking and how I said, remember that time somebody shot a BB gun or something,

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went by our heads and we were at Lower West Timer and he goes, a BB gun?

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He goes, Stringer.

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That's my last name, Stringer.

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He goes, I pulled a 22 slug out from the place where your head was, right by your head.

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I go, you're kidding me.

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It's on live TV.

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You're kidding me.

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Thank God I didn't know at the time.

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I would probably be, you know, I'd try to act tough.

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I wouldn't be so tough at that moment.

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But we have to let go of even the good things.

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Let go of the weighty things.

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You know, when you think of Jack Lillane, when he was 70 years old, he pulled 70 boats

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with a person on each boat with his hands tied and he took them across the San Francisco

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Bay towards Alcatraz.

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He was like the exercise guru from back in the 60s, right?

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And so even every year in his 70s, he was trying to do something significant, a great

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feat.

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I thought doing, you know, the amount of pushups for my birthday every year was a big deal.

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I'm thinking, yeah, what have I done, you know?

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But here he is pulling 70 people, 70 boats with his hands tied, trying to just pull like

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this and he does it.

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It would have been easier, obviously, he was intentioned, but it would be easier if you

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start taking the weight off.

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And for us, most of us are carrying a lot of weight.

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And we're wondering why we're not walking in the fullness of his presence and being

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used by God.

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It's because we continue to pull the weight of wounds and hurts and unforgiveness.

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We're carrying the wounds of maybe what somebody has done.

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We carry the wounds of Ezekiel and Jeremiah where it says that the children's teeth are

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set on edge because the father's ate of sour grapes.

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And the point that God was making was saying, it doesn't matter what happened before.

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It doesn't matter what your dad or your parents or other people have done.

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Don't use that as an excuse for why I have you right now.

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Let go of all those, I wish that I could have done.

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If this and if that, I grew up dysfunctional because my family was dysfunctional.

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You can make all those reasonings, but in Christ, you're a new creation in Christ.

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It's a new day, Donnie.

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It's a new day.

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No matter what the devil's tried to do to lie to you that you're not good enough, you're

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not worthy enough, you're not smart enough, you're not good looking enough.

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We're always thinking of something that's going to make us better.

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Like the old adage, the grass is greener on the other side.

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We've got to get past those things and renew our minds, Romans 12, renew our minds by the

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washing of the word.

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The more we spend time in corporate times of worship, corporate agreement, because agreement's

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a place of power, that place of staying in the word corporately and privately, that we

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ask God's abiding presence.

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We invite that presence, not just a visitation.

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He's not a visitor.

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He wants to abide in us so he can work through us.

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And the more we do that, there is a corporate release that takes place.

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It's not what the weight of the past... And so many of us carry that weight, don't we?

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Even if we say that we're free, we love the Lord, we come to worship, but the reality

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is we hold onto a lot of things that keep us back.

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I like what David Wilkerson said in his book, Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?

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I can't remember anything else in this book that I read except for one main point.

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It's always the wrong person on the cross.

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Jesus was the wrong person.

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He didn't deserve to be there, but he went there for us.

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That we might be saved, healed, liberated, and delivered.

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But how many of us, when he says, take up your cross and follow me, he's not saying

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take up his cross, take up your own burden, take up your own cross and follow me.

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What he's saying is, follow me isn't always going to be easy.

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But he said sometimes we take our cross and somebody hurts us, does something to us, we

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get offended, and we stay at that moment on our own cross.

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We never move past that moment because we're still stuck in that hurt, in that lie, in

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that moment when God is saying, I sent you free from that.

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Let me deal with those folks.

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The very person or the people that hurt you, they don't even remember what they did.

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They've gone on with their life and then you start getting worked.

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You go, how can they be so sick?

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Look at them and I can't believe it.

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It's because they haven't lived their life in that moment where we have left ourselves

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there and never moved forward.

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It's a new day dawning.

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We have to let go.

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It's laying aside those things from behind the birds of the past, the weights of the

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past.

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Say, God, do whatever you do.

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Do work in me so I can move freely into what you have for me because God, I want to be

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a part of this harvest and this place of discipleship and I want to be a part of this corporate

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anointing of your abiding manifest presence because I believe I'm part of that generation

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that you have called upon for a time such as this.

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The Lord says, I shall do a new thing.

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Do not remember the former things or consider the things old.

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Behold, I do a new thing now shall spring forth.

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Shall you not know it?

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I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

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Dallas Holmes, I'm aging myself and Pastor Randy, but when his wife went through cancer

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and we ended up doing something with Reinhard Bunkie up in College Station and I remember

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Dallas Holmes got up and sang a song.

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He did a rendition of it and wrote it out of Psalm and he said, this is the first time

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I'm going to sing this song in a long time.

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He said, because when my wife went through cancer, I just could come to sing this song.

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This is before Reinhard got up.

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The song is based on I've never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed beg for bread.

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The reason we need his word, we need his manifest presence is because when the devil begins

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to say, who cares?

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Just jump.

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What are you doing?

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It doesn't matter.

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You have the word to hold onto that says whatever situation, we can let go of those burdens

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and say I'm not living there.

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I'm free to move on with God.

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I'm who God says I am.

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It's a new day dawning.

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Oh, magnificent.

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I was in Indonesia.

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We'd be in different places like Mount Bromo and doing different ministry after the riots

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and Asian economic collapse and I had a team with me and we'd wake up in different places

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early early in the morning to get moving and all of a sudden you'd look out and the sun

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would begin to rise in the Zimbabwe or Botswana, wherever in the world I've been, all these

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golly, 50, 60 nations I've had the pleasure and the privilege of being in these last 43

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years that I could have never done in my own imagination but God by saying yes to him,

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by being hanare, set apart, separated unto God, by asking him to invite his abiding presence

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not because of what I thought or what I hope but because I trusted him, confide in me,

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trust in me, believe in me, have faith in me and that's the most difficult thing is

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in our humanity is to trust God.

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We can have the faith of a mustard seed that can move a mountain but it's another thing

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to trust him as we set our hearts in order to say God this is a fresh time.

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I want to renew that place of being set apart for you.

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There we can say Lord I trust you because as we do we enter into this place free from

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our past moving into what God's got.

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If God's move is powerful as he has already think of what he's about to do individually

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and corporately as you enter into this corporate agreement together and dwelling in his presence.

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I'm not finished but I'm going to quit because I feel like the Lord has done what he wants

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to do but I'll leave you with this.

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Step into your moment, let go of the past.

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God has a moment we're walking into now a season, a hanare to be set apart for God and

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you don't have to compare with anybody else because in my father's house are many mansions.

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There are many gifts here at dwelling place.

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There are many gifts amongst you and the most significant influential things I've been able

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to be a part of is not on the platform.

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I'm probably not that gifted on the platform.

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I'm just an Asian forest gump.

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I show up in the picture and sometimes I get to share and I get the privilege of doing

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that but it's the unseen things that have been so significant to the people that God's

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allowed me to privately speak into their lives.

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In private that thing that God's given me to be able to share with them the journey

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I've had that helps them in their journey.

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The things I'll never write about, I'll never be able to talk about, that's where the greatest

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things are.

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It's not about the platform.

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The platform is an external expression of what we get to be a part of but it's what

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we do every day to be available, to be set apart for God, to be used by God, to let the

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waste of the past go so we can move into that place God has for us.

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Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, you are a chosen generation.

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You are a royal priesthood.

404
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You're a holy nation.

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His own special people.

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So that you may proclaim the praise of Him who called you, set you apart out of darkness

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into His marvelous light.

408
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Wow.

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Lord, thank you for the privilege.

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Lord, thank you for each and every one of us.

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It is a privilege that you have called us into this place and it's a privilege to say

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yes to you.

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We trust you Lord.

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We have faith in you God because you will not lead us astray.

415
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Regardless of what we've experienced, regardless of the things of the past, regardless of the

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disappointments, God you're bringing us into a new day, a new day dawning that in the midst

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of whatever we've been through, whatever we go through, whatever we might go through,

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God we know that standing on that cliff we can look up and see the sunrise, the marvelous,

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glorious sunrise of God, the brightness of the S-O-N of God, the Son of the Living God

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and you illuminate our lives God and your glory is manifested and we get to join with

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you.

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What a privilege to join with you with what you have already determined you want to do

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in and through us.

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We say yes God.

425
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We say yes God.

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We say yes in Jesus name.

427
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Let me ask you a question.

428
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I want to encourage you to pray some of the scriptures that I pray on a regular basis

429
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because I need it for me.

430
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:31,920
Here's some of the scriptures I pray pretty regularly because I want to keep a clean heart

431
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:36,640
and a right spirit and a sharp and stable sound mind.

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So I'm not going to ask you to read it right now but when you get a chance in your own

433
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devotion, how would you go back to Psalm 51 verse 1 through 15.

434
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It's where David's crying out and he says, create in me a clean heart oh God.

435
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Bring you a right spirit within me.

436
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Take not thy holy spirit from me.

437
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And so I'm going to break down a few points.

438
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I'm going to ask you to pray in preparation for Deutol 24.

439
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He says, blot out my transgressions.

440
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Wash me from my iniquities, my avans, the iniquities of my heart.

441
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Three, cleanse me.

442
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Four, purge me.

443
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Wash me.

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Make me here, and I put this in highlights for me, make me here joy and gladness.

445
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:21,200
I don't want the cuff half empty.

446
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I want the cuff half full.

447
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:24,960
I want it in the midst of whatever I'm going through.

448
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:26,240
I don't want to be a complainer.

449
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I don't want to be a murmurer.

450
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,120
I want to be one who sees the best in people.

451
00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:32,360
I want to see what the best through the circumstance.

452
00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:35,480
I want to see the best of God's provision in my desert times.

453
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,320
I want to be able to keep my focus right.

454
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Make me here joy and gladness.

455
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,760
Creating me a clean heart, oh God.

456
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Renew a steadfast or right spirit within me.

457
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:54,160
You know, I can... Asian culture, you have public face, private face.

458
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We can all put on a compensatory facade.

459
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:57,400
We can compensate on the outside.

460
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:02,000
We look like we're smiling inside, but I want my insides to be the same.

461
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,400
Renew a right spirit within me, God.

462
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,840
And I love this, I pray this every morning.

463
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,080
Restore to me the joy of your salvation.

464
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,760
In other words, I don't want to forget that moment.

465
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,720
Uphold me by your generous spirit.

466
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:17,640
God is extravagantly in love with us.

467
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,240
He's generous to us.

468
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,440
Uphold me by your generous spirit.

469
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:27,760
Deliver me from bloodshed so my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

470
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:32,200
Open my lips, oh Lord, and my mouth shall go forth with your praise.

471
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:38,240
Would you take time just to pray through Psalm 51 and also ask God to help you to let go

472
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:42,480
of the burdens and the weights that have kept you back from God's destiny for you.

473
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:43,480
This is a new day dawning.

474
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:45,360
It's a time to step into a moment.

475
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:50,440
It's time to step in to what God's about to do and you get to participate with God.

476
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:51,440
Amen.

477
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,680
I've never heard you share that story about the bridge before.

478
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,240
I've heard you a few times.

479
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:04,880
And we've been praying and there's been waves of just praying for people not to quit.

480
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:09,120
And then again, even in pre-service prayer, we prayed against suicide before you were

481
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:10,120
there.

482
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,880
So I just feel any of that heaviness, anything that would stop, even in my heart, I was carrying

483
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,560
that when I prayed against something that would stop people from worshiping.

484
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,840
But could you pray for that now too for us?

485
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:29,840
You know, each of us is a story that God is writing, a book, a movie, a kingdom film.

486
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:33,680
And there will come those moments where the enemy will lie to you.

487
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:40,160
And I want to encourage you right now, all these years later, and I'll still say it until

488
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:46,320
the day the Lord takes me to be in his presence, is that it's worth it.

489
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:51,040
And all the lies of the enemy have fallen to the wayside.

490
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:55,480
And the lies that will continue to happen, because I've learned in getting older, and

491
00:29:55,480 --> 00:30:00,320
hopefully a little bit wiser, that God has always been faithful.

492
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:04,360
If you've been going through discouragement, it becomes a powerful drug.

493
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,040
It keeps us from seeing clearly.

494
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:11,080
If you're going through discouragement, if you're going through these lies and the burdens

495
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:15,380
of the things of the past, or people have said things that you've held onto, I still

496
00:30:15,380 --> 00:30:20,400
have to laugh at things that were said to me when I was a child.

497
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:24,200
I had somebody tell me because my ears were flat against my head, I'd never get married.

498
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,560
You know, I actually believed that for a long time.

499
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:30,000
Thank God, at least I liked my ears flat on my head.

500
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,760
That's why I had my hair long for a long time down the middle of my back so nobody could

501
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:35,800
see my ears.

502
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:39,360
But it's the silliest things that we hold onto, that we imbibe into our spirit.

503
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,260
They're lies from the pit of hell.

504
00:30:42,260 --> 00:30:49,720
If you're going through a place of deep discouragement, depression, or even the lies that somehow

505
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:53,720
you can't do what God wants you to do because of the weights of the past, sins of the past,

506
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:58,120
or disappointments of the past, or even pain of the past, if you're carrying those things,

507
00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:02,240
would you just, with me, just in all honesty, without having to say what it is, would you

508
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,480
stand with me so I can pray for you?

509
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,880
That you need a breakthrough because you've been carrying this place of discouragement

510
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:15,240
and hurt, and you want to let those things go because God's about to take you to a victorious,

511
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:19,800
glorious, magnificent future as this new day dawns for you.

512
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:20,800
This is still your moment.

513
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:24,360
It's a time such as this that God has for each of you.

514
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,440
The ones that God wants to use the most, the devil tries to discourage the most.

515
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:33,320
So just remember when you're on your cliff, when you're on that place of challenge, when

516
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:39,080
the devil's lying to you, remind yourself that God has a greater plan, he's not forgotten

517
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:42,680
you, because he is a good, good father.

518
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:43,680
Would you pray with me?

519
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:47,760
Put your hand on your heart and just receive this as I pray for you.

520
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:52,760
Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you from my brothers and sisters.

521
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:59,320
And with empathy, I pray because there have been so many times in my life I wanted to

522
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,200
quit.

523
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:07,360
Times were when before I was a Christian, I tried to commit suicide through overdosing,

524
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:11,640
where I laid in the middle of highways, when I was doing crazy things because I'd had

525
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,560
that spirit of suicide and death in my heart.

526
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:19,720
But God, I thank you, you protected me and delivered me so I could be a part of the things

527
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:21,120
you're doing.

528
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:25,320
I'm praying that for my friends right now, my brothers and sisters, that whatever they've

529
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:29,360
been through, take off those burdens, those weights that have kept them back from being

530
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,920
able to swim freely, to be able to serve freely.

531
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:37,800
And God, those lies that spoke to them, break off those things we declare right now and

532
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:42,720
come against those lies that have ever been spoken in public or private or to them directly.

533
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,800
I pray for everything that's been weighting them down, that this is a new day dawning

534
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,720
for them, that they would sense the joy and the gladness of God.

535
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:56,120
They begin to experience that place of knowing that your manifest, glorious, abiding presence

536
00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:57,680
would never leave them.

537
00:32:57,680 --> 00:32:59,520
It will never leave them to forsake them.

538
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:01,400
God, that they don't have to be on their cross.

539
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:02,760
They can just follow after you.

540
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,920
They don't have to stay in that place of pain and burden.

541
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:10,680
But Lord, that they can enter that place of knowing the sun is rising, that the brightness

542
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:15,080
of your presence is in their lives, and they get to be a part of the glorious things you're

543
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:19,360
doing in their generation and for generations to come.

544
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:25,180
And everyone said, Amen.

545
00:33:25,180 --> 00:33:29,520
We hope you enjoyed this episode of A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and Friends,

546
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:34,680
and ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the ministry at somebodycares.org or by texting

547
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:40,760
your donation amount to 805-422-7348.

548
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:56,400
Please join us again for A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and Friends.