Catch The Fire Church Raleigh

Strengthen Yourself in the Lord | Jess Ninaber

This week Jess Ninaber brought a powerful message about strengthening yourself in the Lord. Looking at 1 Samuel 30 we see how David set a beautiful example of seeking God’s wisdom and strength during difficult times. By running to God, remembering who we are in Him, and practicing obedience, we can transform even our worst days into victorious ones. Be encouraged this week to spend time in prayer and worship, practice gratitude, and lean deeply into the love of God to strengthen ourselves in Him.

Duration:: 42m
Broadcast on:: 02 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Catch the Fire Church podcast. We're so glad you're joining us and we hope you're encouraged by this message. - Well, this morning, I'm gonna be speaking to you about something that has really been a lifeline to me over the last several years and is really a message that I feel like as believers, we need to grow into more maturity around this subject and the title of my message today is strengthen yourself and the Lord. And I was thinking about this this week and the Holy Spirit dropped it into my heart as I was preparing and you guys ready for some real this morning? Okay, so there are some moments where this week, I was like, God, what do I have to give this week? What do I have to offer? And I just heard the Lord say, strengthen your heart in me, strengthen yourself in me. And he dropped this verse, the scripture passage that we're gonna read together in first Samuel 30. And it is all about how we strengthen ourself in the Lord. We are part of a culture in a society that self-medicates and self-preserves and uses all sorts of coping mechanisms to fulfill the ache and the pain and the emptiness that we have in our lives. And when we feel sad or depressed or anxious or afraid, we can often turn to, as Gabe was sharing, things that don't actually satisfy us. Things that are temporary, that make us feel good in the moment, but then leave us feeling even more empty than we started. Things like pornography and the addiction to that isolation, withdrawing from people, withdrawing from others, not wanting other people to see the life that we think is in shambles and we push people away. Maybe we wanna turn to control and we have disordered eating and we try to control what we eat or we're binging or we're addicted to sugar and to food and we comfort ourselves with that. Maybe we turn to entertainment, our phones. We disengage from our families and our friends by engaging in entertainment that is fleeting and just for a moment. And all of it is in hopes to somehow remedy the internal turmoil that we are facing. We're not willing to face what we're going through. We're not willing to run to the Lord but we run to other things to satisfy those parts of our hearts that are aching and longing. And often we can set up comfort as the goal of our Christian walk, but the Bible never promised us that. The Bible didn't promise us as believers, a comfortable, safe, white picket fence walk with God where nothing happens and we poop rainbows and in fact, John 1633, Jesus says, when you face trials, when, not if, when you face trials take heart for I have overcome the world. See, that shows me that it's not a when, it's an if, or sorry, it's not an if, it's a when, it's that we have trials, we face trials, however Jesus has overcome, however Jesus is with us in the face of it and in the midst of it. And somewhere along the way, us as believers in the general sense, there is the temptation for us to forget what it means to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. And we strengthen ourselves in what our flesh needs and what what not what our spirit needs. So if you would, please turn with me to first Samuel 30, we'll have it on the screen, which today we lost a faithful member of this team who's been serving for years, our right projector who passed away this morning. That was Jacob's joke, I stole it. 'Cause he didn't say it in second service. This very morning, he died. So this is the story of David who has not become king yet. He has been anointed by Samuel to become king, but he has not become king and he is living in exile from King Saul who is trying to kill him. And for the last over a year, he has been living in Philistine territory in a town called Ziklag, which was given to him by King Aikish, or sorry, yeah, by Aikish, who was the king of Gath. And the Philistines are now preparing to war against Israel. And after over a year of living with the Philistines, the Philistines decide that they do not trust David and his men and they do not want him to fight alongside them because they are fearful that he will turn on them in battle. And so they send them back to their town in Ziklag and this is where the story picks up. David and his men reach Ziklag on the third day. So this was estimated to be about three days of walk, or well, it says here on the third day, three days about 25 miles of walking, okay? So they've been walking for three days back to Ziklag. And it says, now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag and they had attacked Ziklag and burned it down. And it taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old, they killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way. So picture this, how many of you have been on a long, long journey before? I know Santa over here has just come back from Zambia and it is a long, long way. And there are moments where you're traveling for days and days to get back to where you're going. And the only thing you want is your bed. The only thing you want, there's nothing like your bed. Like it could be lumpy, your pillows could be not that great, whatever, but it's your bed and you just want to get there so bad. This is where David is. He's ready to go home. He's probably feeling weary, tired. He's probably like, what are we going to do now? We just got rejected by the Philistines. We can't be part of their army. And they probably saw their town and to their horror, they saw smoke coming from their town. Can you imagine that sight? You're driving into your house. You've been traveling for the last three days and it's burning in flames. Verse three. So when David and his men reached Ziplag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taking captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. That's a lot of crying. They have no strength left to cry. They've cried their hearts out, they've cried their eyes out. Here they are in such great anguish, distress. Their children are gone, their wives are gone, their home has been burned to the ground, they have nothing left. And David's two wives have been captured. Ahinoham of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him. Each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. There's now an internal mutiny happening where even his very men are starting to wonder, why are we following this guy? Look at what's happened. We want to kill him, but David found strength in the Lord, his God. For us, we might look at that dire situation and we might think, where is the good that could come from this? There is no good to be found. I can see no silver lining in this, but that place where you're at the end of yourself, where you're completely desperate and dependent on God is the best place that you can find yourself in. And David in this place of desperation, he finds strength in the Lord. Let's keep reading verse seven. Then David said to Abi author, the priest, the son of Ahamilak, bring me the Ephod. Abi author brought it to him and David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them? Pursue them, he answered. Now David, he goes to the priest. He's asking God, God, what am I to do next? What am I to do? And God says, pursue them. You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue. David and the 600 men with him came to the Bessor Valley where some stayed behind. 200 of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other 400 continued the pursuit. They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. See, this is God right here. They gave him water to drink and food to eat. Part of a cake of press figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights. David asked him, who do you belong to? Where do you come from? He said, I am an Egyptian, the slave of Ahamilakite. My master abandoned me and when I became ill three days ago, we raided the Negev of the Karathites, some territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb and we burned Ziglag. This Egyptian was there. He was there in the war. When they just, he was there in that battle where they just destroyed David's town. And David asked him, can you lead me down to this raiding party? He answered, swear to me before God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master and I will take you down to them. He led David down and there they were scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and to Judah. I love this. He's looking out and he sees the people that just destroyed his home, that have his children and his wives and he sees them partying. But David fought them from dusk until evening of the next day and none of them got away except 400 young men who rode off on camels and fled. David recovered everything the Amalakites had taken including his two wives. Nothing was missing, young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back. He took all the flocks and the herds and his men drove them ahead of other livestock saying, "This is David's plunder." Then David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Bessar Valley. They came out to meet David and the men with him. As David and his men approached, he asked them how they were. But all the evil men and troublemakers among David's followers said, "Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we've recovered." However, each man may take his wife and children and go, "David replied, "No, my brothers, you must not do that "with which the Lord has given us." See even here, David is recognizing that his victory, everything that he has is because of the Lord. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us. Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All we'll share alike. Sounds kind of like an older brother thing of like, "Why does he get everything?" He ran away. He deserves nothing. Such a good God. But David made this statue in ordinance for Israel from that day to this. When David reached the glag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah who were his friends saying, "Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord's enemies." David sent it to those who were in Bethel. Verse 30, "To those in Hormah, Bor, Ashen, Athak, and Hebron entered all those in other places where he and his men had roamed." Wow. What an incredible passage of scripture here. Where we see the fruit of David strengthening himself in the Lord and the victory that he ends up having over the Amalekites. We see David posturing himself in a place of strengthening himself in the Lord. What does this look like? What does this mean for us? I don't know exactly what David did to strengthen himself in the Lord, but I can look back and I can see different ways throughout the Bible where we have examples of what does it mean and what does it look like for us to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. So the first thing, number one, is run to God and not from God. David had every reason, every reason in this moment to blame God. God, why did you anoint me as king of Israel? Why did you anoint me all these years ago, only for now, for Saul to be trying to kill me, for me to have to turn to my enemy, to the Philistines, for the Amalekites to come and destroy my home, destroy, take my kids, take my wives, take everything from me. If there's anyone who had any reason to blame God, it's David right here in this moment. But David turns to God and does not run from God. There are so many people that I've watched over the years, especially over the last four years, of people who have blamed God for what is happening in the world, the hurt that they've had at church, the hurt that people have done to them, people who have lost loved ones and who have blamed God and cursed God. And there's an opportunity for us as believers. There are moments in our lives that are defining moments to us, that show us the maturity of our heart, that show us the strength of our heart, that show us the depth of our trust in God. And those are moments where we have the opportunity to do something with them. They're tests that we get to pass with God, where we show him that our heart is for him, our heart is towards him, that we trust him. And we get to say, "God, here's my life, "do something with it." And David, he runs to God, even when he's in this dire situation, when life feels too hard and too painful, he runs to God. And as I was studying this too, and I was talking this over, I actually would dunk in this week, I looked back at 1 Samuel 27, and this is kind of where things went a bit, pear-shaped for David. See, over the last several chapters where David is running from Saul, each time he has to go to a new place and find a new hiding spot, because Saul has figured out where he's hiding, and he tries to come and kill him. It says, "David inquired of the Lord, "and then God showed him where to go and where to hide." And then in 1 Samuel 27, verse one, it says, "Then David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul, "there is nothing better for me "than I should escape to the land of the Philistines." See, in this moment, David no longer inquired of the Lord what to do. David was weary. David gave up. David was trying to make the outcome out of his own strength, and not in what God was speaking and what God was saying. See, this is kind of like an Abraham and Hagar situation, right? Where God promises that he's gonna make Abraham into an incredible mighty nation, and he doesn't believe that it could be done through Sarah. So he tries in his own way to have children through Hagar, his slave. And that was completely out of the will of God. And now David here, he's in a similar situation where God, God has promised that he's gonna protect him, that he's gonna be anointed as King of Israel, and he's given up hope of what is God doing. Why am I still on the run? Why am I trying to hide? Why, there's nothing left for me. The only safe place I have is to go into the hand of my enemy. Do you remember who the Philistines were? Only a few chapters before David cut off the head of Goliath, the Philistine. He's now turning to the enemy for his self-preservation. There are so many moments where we don't see the victory in our life, in that moment. And so we try to make it happen for us in our own way. That's completely outside of the will of God. And rather than inquiring of the Lord, we do, we say it in our own heart. We make the decisions for ourselves. And this is where David went wrong in that moment, but he redeems himself in chapter 30 because he doesn't let his circumstances change who God is in his life. And he again, it says, he inquired of the Lord. David returns to that place and that posture of strengthening himself in the Lord, in waiting on the Lord, and he runs back to God to hear his voice, to get direction, to get guidance for where to go, for what to do next. See, disappointment makes us run from God, disappointment is our unmet expectation of God, where we let our doubts overcome our lives. So the first thing is run to God and not from God. The second thing is remember. Remember who you are, Simba. Take that, remember that. You will remember that forever if you use that analogy. Remember who you are. Do not forget the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord sustains us. The word of the Lord is enduring. It's steadfast. Do not forget who you are, what he has spoken over you, what he has called you to. Isaiah 55, 11 says, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. See, when God speaks a word, it doesn't come back empty. It doesn't not happen. God's word fulfills what he says it'll do. So if he's spoken a word over you, like he spoke over David, right? See, David, David in this moment, he had to remember who he was. He had to remember all the way back to when he was a shepherd in the field of his father's sheep. And remember that God used Samuel to anoint him and call him as the future king of Israel. David had to remember who he was in this moment. And there's been incredibly hard moments in my own life and seasons in my own life where I've questioned my identity. I've questioned who I am. I've questioned what my calling is, what my purpose is. Do I have anything to offer? Am I even worthy of this, God? And I have to remember the words that have been spoken over my life, whether that was from God directly or that was from other people who have spoken words over my life, that I am called, that I'm anointed, that I'm chosen. I've chosen to be preached, I've been chosen to preach the gospel. I'm a mighty woman of God. I am Jesse faith. I am God exists. I'm a woman of faith. That is who God has called me to be. And there are words that have been spoken over your life, that God has spoken words over your life, that you have to remember who you are. Because it's not the, yes, the victories sustain us, but it's the word of God that actually sustain us. It's a word of God that burns within us, that will get you through, that you will remember his word. You will remember what he's spoken over you. Do not forget. Do not forget. Surround yourselves with people who remind you of who you are. See, for David, this was Jonathan, Saul's son, his best friend. God used him to strengthen him when he was weak. Turn with me to 1 Samuel 23, verse 15. See, even Saul's own son knew that David was meant to be king of Israel. And in a dark moment where David is in a dark moment in 1 Samuel 23, he's hiding in the wilderness from Saul. And Jonathan comes and meets him and he says this to him. And Jonathan's son Saul, or Jonathan Saul's son rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, "Do not fear, "for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. "You shall be king over Israel, "and I shall be next to you. "Saul my father also knows this. "David needed a friend to remind him "that he was called, he was anointed, "and that he was gonna be victorious. "Surround yourself with people who will do that for you, "where you are weak who will call you higher. "When you're weary, they will remind you "of what God has done in your life "and what he's spoken in your life. "And David, he could remember the times "where God had brought victory about in his life. "He remembered those fields where the lion and the bear came. "And God was faithful in using him to kill them, "where God was faithful to use him to kill Goliath "with just a stone. "Where God had carried him through the wilderness "at each hand of Saul who was trying to kill him. "David had to strengthen himself and remember "where God had delivered him before. "The power of your testimony in your life is so powerful. "Raise your hand if God has transformed your life. "Don't forget those moments, don't forget, "don't take for granted the good news in your life. "Don't take for granted every moment "where God has carried you through. "Look back, remember, meditate, thank him for it. "And if you haven't had one of those victory moments in God, "surround yourself with people who have. "Let them rub off on you, let their faith rub off on you. "Grab onto their story and say, 'I want that from my life.'" Come on, it's so important. It's so important we remember all that God has done for us. And on those days where we're doubting, we're doubting his goodness, we're doubting his faithfulness, we're doubting his existence even, we're doubting God, where are you? Like, are you even there? Are you even listening? We can look back and be like, no, God is real because I saw him and I heard him and I saw what he did and I saw how he set me free and I saw how he healed me or he healed my friend. And if he's done it before, he's gonna do it again. We have to strengthen and anchor ourselves in the very nature of who God is. Say this with me, God does not change. God is the same yesterday. No, you don't have to repeat. But God is the same. God is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. He is, he's the same yesterday. When he reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush, he says, "I am who I am." Who is I am? What? It's okay. No, but who, I am, who is I am? It's, he is Yahweh. And in Exodus 34, God shows us who he is. Verse six, says the Lord, the Lord. A God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding, instead fast love and faithfulness. Keeping steadfast love for thousands. That is who God is. God is a merciful, gracious, kind, loving God, who is faithful, who is enduring. That is who he is. Do not let your circumstances change who God is in your life, because he never changes. He's gonna be that, he was that yesterday. He's gonna be that today and he's gonna be that tomorrow. And forevermore, and forever and ever and ever. This morning on the way to the church, we were singing holy forever in the car. And I turned and I said to my, I didn't turn. I kept my eyes on the road. I said to my six-year-old and my four-year-old. And I said, we're gonna be singing holy, holy, holy. Holy is the Lord God almighty. Forever and ever and ever and ever with the angels. And my six-year-old says, but what if I get tired? What if I can't stand up anymore? What if I have to go to sleep? It's okay, baby, God's love. God will sustain us through all of eternity, no. But we have to know him. When you know someone, you trust someone. When you don't know someone, you don't know how to trust them. And if you don't know God, it's not a surprise that you don't know how to trust him. And this is a challenge for each and every one of us. Know God, spend time with him, cultivate relationship, cultivate intimacy with him. Get to know who he is, so that you can trust him, so that in the face of your ziklag, you don't waver in who he is, because you know his nature and his character. See, none of those things are personality traits of God. They are who he is. It's not God is loving. No, God is love. It's not God is steadfast. It's no God, God is steadfast. It's not God is, it's not God is faithfulness. It's God is faithful. God is goodness. Number three, obedience. God gives David instructions to pursue his enemies and he listens and obeys. I don't know about you, but if I had been journeying for three days and I had been weeping until there was nothing left of me to weep, and I was heartbroken and devastated, thinking about all the things that my enemy was doing to my wife and my children. Jesus, what? Yes, he did. I don't know if I would have the strength in that moment to be like, now God, you want me to fight all night against my enemy? I'm exhausted. I'm weary. But God, God tells him to pursue the enemies and what does David do? He pursues them. He honors God, he obeys God. Your obedience is better than your sacrifice. God will always honor your obedience. He will always come through for you in those moments. And he brings David and his men into victory. So as a result of his obedience, we see God's faithfulness. Not only does it say that everything was returned and everything was restored back to David and his men, but it says that there was extra plunder. There was spoils. That means there was extra of everything. See, what the enemy meant for evil in your life where he tried to steal in your life, God saying, I'm not just gonna return everything back. I'm gonna return everything back and more. There's now more than enough for David to give the plunder and the spoils to all these other cities and tribes. And God, when he restores, he is an above and beyond God. He doesn't just give it back. He gives us more than we could ever imagine back. Everything that was lost, everything that was stolen will be returned and more. Come on. (indistinct) There's an invitation as well for us to partner with God in it. See, David didn't just sit in Ziklag staring at the smoke and expect God to just bring his wife and children back and the whole city back. No, he had to partner with God to see victory. And there has been passivity that has come over the church where we sit back and we let the enemy come and actually just walk right in and steal. We have to remember our power and our authority that we have through the Holy Spirit because of Jesus Christ, because of the cross, we have to remember the resurrection that we live in, that we were raised to life with Jesus Christ. Say that over yourself, I was raised to life with Jesus Christ. (indistinct) And I'm now seated in the heavenly places and the enemy can come nowhere near me. This past week, my son was in bed and he comes out like shaking and he's like, I can't go to sleep. I'm scared that Satan's gonna come in my room. Does he come into little boy's rooms? Does he come into kids' rooms? He was genuinely terrified and I had to say to him, you have the light of the world on the inside of you. Darkness doesn't come anywhere near your light. And yet we think that the enemy can come and steal from us. He can't, he can't. See, the victory is in Jesus and thankfully we're in Jesus. So come on, the next time the enemy tries to come, you say, no, not my family, not my children, not my house, not my job, you're not coming for it. (congregation applauding) Hallelujah. We have to walk guys in the power of the authority of Jesus Christ, in the supernatural, the supernatural kingdom of heaven that we live in and we walk in. And that actually reminds me, I wanna introduce some people that are here at Stewart and Lindley, can you guys stand? Let's give them a hand. These guys are actually, they're amazing, they're on the opposite sides. But they're from, they are the senior leaders that catch the fire in Auckland, New Zealand and they work for Catch the Fire World where the mission of Catch the Fire World is we exist to multiply healthy and supernatural churches, missions, ministries and networks so that the world can encounter God's transforming presence. And these guys are leading the healthy and the supernatural part of our ministry. And I feel like it's so important for us as churches to operate in the supernatural and for us to walk healthy, whole, healed where any area of our heart, so welcome Stewart Lindley, we're so glad you're here this week. But when we see the enemy at work in our lives it's an opportunity for us to search our hearts and ask God, God, where is an open door where I have let the enemy come in? Because I wanna shut that door, I wanna shut it. If there's bitterness, if there's unforgiveness, if there's resentment, if there's judgments, if there's ungodly beliefs, God, search my heart and show me God because I don't want the enemy to have any more power in my life. That's another sermon for another day and we'll get there. But there's an invitation that God is inviting us in where we allow him to strengthen us. And if you're someone who thinks that I can do this on my own, I'm strong, you can only do it for so long. You can try, you can try. But there comes a point where you need the strength of the Lord to sustain you. Romans 8, 28 says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purposes. All things, say it with me, all things. God works all things together for the good of those who are called according to His purposes, for those He loves. I was researching this week 'cause I was preparing, what are the Psalms that came from this moment? See, we read the book of Psalms and we just read it like that. But often it was out of chronological order. And so I was wondering what Psalm did David write after this moment? Psalm 18 is a victory Psalm that David wrote after chapter 30 and 31, where he defeats the Amalekites and he defeats Saul and he writes this passage. And I want you guys to go home and read the whole thing 'cause I'm just gonna read parts of it. But this is what it says. I love you, oh Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompass me. The torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of shield entangled me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord. To my God, I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears. Let's skip down to verse 46. It says, "The Lord lives and blessed be my rock "and exalted be the God of my salvation. "The God who gave me vengeance and subdued people under me "who rescued me from my enemies. "Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me. "You delivered me from the man of violence. "For this, I will praise you, oh Lord, among the nations "and sing to your name. "Great salvation he brings to his king "and shows steadfast love to his anointed. "He's reminding himself to his anointed." To David, he writes about himself in the third person. To David, his offspring forever. Come on. David, from his victory, he praises God. He reminds himself of where he was and what pit he was in and how his enemies were surrounding him. But God was the victor in his life. And then he praises him and thanks him and reminds himself of who he is and what God is gonna do for his life and his generations. That is what we are called to be as believers. Not wimpy, sorry, not wimpy, cowardly believers. We are called to be people of boldness, of faith who remind ourselves of who we are in the face of what the enemy meant to harm us. So how do we do this? How do we strengthen ourselves in the Lord? What does this look like practically for us? Number one, we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit. Nothing. It is the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our life that actually gives us the faith, gives us the grace, gives us the anointing, for us to even turn to him, for us to find our strength in him. We can do nothing in our own strength. It's only the Holy Spirit that strengthens us. Number two, prayer. It's one of the most crucial things in our walk with God. It's where we're communing with him. We're pouring out our laments. We're talking to him. We're listening back. What is God saying to me? Pray. Study the word of God. The word of God is like a double-edged sword and it pierces through. Pierces through the lies of the enemy. Meditate on this. Even that Psalm, Psalm 18, that's something that you can meditate on when you feel like the enemy's coming in and closing and encroaching upon you. Read that verse. Declare scripture. Declare the truth. Declare the word of God over your life. Worship him. Worship regularly. Whether that's privately on your own. I love to worship in the car all the time. Worship with corporately. Like how we did this morning. Engage in worship. Worship is, it's beautiful intimacy with him. And one thing I love about worship is it takes my eyes off of myself and it lifts my eyes to him. Where I'm looking inward and I'm, woe is me and my life is so hard. I turn and I look to him and I'm like, God, you're so good. God, you're so faithful. And I worship him. Practice gratitude. Cultivate a heart of thankfulness. Thank him for what he's done in your life. Thank him for what he's gonna do in your life. Prophecy to your future self. Prophecy what he's gonna do in your life. Thank him, cultivate thankfulness. Live in a place of surrender and trust. That's really hard for the control freaks in the room. To lay down our control and to rely on him. Where we don't know the outcome. We don't know what's gonna happen, but God, I trust you. God, I look to you. God, I surrender my life to you. Engage in different spiritual disciplines like fasting. Like I said, prayer, deepen your spiritual intimacy with God. You will learn to discern his voice. You will learn to discern the voice of the enemy versus the voice of God. Seek God's will. Just like David did, seek his will. What is God saying? Where is he calling me? Where am I to go? What is his will for my life? Not what I want to do. 'Cause sometimes they line up and sometimes they don't. But seek the will of God for your life. Have fellowship with other believers, surround yourself with other people who will encourage you, uplift you, edify you. Just like David did, how we needed Jonathan. Persevere in trials, lastly. James 1 verse two says, "Count it all joy, my brothers. "When you meet trials of various kinds, "for you know that the testing of your faith "will produce steadfastness. "And let steadfastness have its full effect "that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. "I want to invite you to stand." If you've been in a place where you're either A, you're facing your own zic-lag moment where it feels like, I just had someone come up to me as well and said, that message was for me in the first service. I just lost my job. There was another person who was struggling. And maybe you feel like you've lost so much. Maybe you've lost a loved one. Maybe you're in a place where you've been trying to, you've been trying to figure it out by yourself. You've been trying to figure life out by yourself. You haven't been listening to the voice of God or seeking his will. You haven't been dependent on him. Or maybe you just want more of the Holy Spirit in your life. Maybe you're like, I just, I want to see more of the Holy Spirit and the oil of the anointing at work in my life. I'm just hungry for more of God. He's the one that sustains me. He's the one that brings change in my life. He's the one that encourages me. I just want more of him. So wherever you are in that, if you just want to receive a fresh impartation this morning of God, of the Holy Spirit of his presence, I just want to invite you forward. We're going to have our ministry team who's going to just walk around and lay hands on you. But I really feel like there's just a fresh invitation this morning for the Holy Spirit to really come and minister to you, to strengthen you in your spirit. (muffled speaking) So please come forward. Don't be shy. Just receive what God has for you this morning. It's all about him right now. Don't look around at anyone else. If you have kids and you're not receiving, I'd like to ask you to go relieve them from their classes as we're running behind this morning. But just come and receive more of the Holy Spirit. Let's just listen and wait on him. What does he want to say this morning to you? Maybe you need to repent and just say, Lord, I'm so sorry that I haven't turned to you. I'm so sorry that I've tried to strengthen myself and self-medicate and self-preserve. God, would you forgive me for any way that I've tried to do it on my own? And I just want to say I need you, God. I'm desperate for you. I wait on you. I need a fresh touch of your presence this morning to sustain me, to propel me forward, to call me higher. Thank you, God. Thank you so much for joining us. There are so many opportunities to grow, connect and be encouraged. To learn more, visit TTFRolly.com and follow us on social media. Thank you so much for being part of the family. We are so thankful for you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)