When Push Comes To Prayer

Hey, we're in a series in the Book of Acts. We're going through the Book of Acts. Who's reading the Book of Acts? Mainly because we're in a series in the book Acts.

Thank you for that hand. Appreciate that. Amen. You know, that's where we are. We're going to be in the Book of Acts.

You can look at it, you can meditate on it. You can go, where are we going to be next week? Let's get into it. Let spirit speak to me. Get into the Book of Acts together, and you don't have to just wait for Sunday till I share a bit.

You can be meditating on it all week long and just going, whoa. You can send me an email. So, Pastor, in chapter five, did you see this? This is so great. And then we can come together and just.

Just bask in the revelation of Acts, chapter five. That's next week. That's next week. Say Acts, Chapter five. You can do it.

It's really small. And you know what? Acts is so fun to read. Once you start reading it, you don't want to stop because it's just so exciting. And then what happened?

And then what happened? And it's so amazing. And to read the Book of Acts. So we're calling it Drench. Drench.

Because that's really what it's all about. It's an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And God wants to drench, saturate, fill. He wants every aspect of this world to be permeated with his glory. His glory is the nature of himself, his goodness.

He wants every aspect, every cell, every atom, every single quark, every small item. He wants this whole world to be saturated with his goodness. And it's the Church, because He has a plan for that. He created the church. So we've been talking about heavens and earth.

God created the heavens and the earth, but God created the heavens and the earth. Not to be dissimilar, but to be a very exact representation of each other. And the fact right now that heaven doesn't look like earth, God wants to reconcile that. He wants to redeem that. And God's purpose is to unite heaven and earth.

See, God doesn't want to get you to heaven. He wants to get heaven into you and then through you. He wants to flood earth with the very revelation of God's goodness and glory, Grace. So he is on a mission right now to get every single person established in his kingdom, in his glory and in his place. And we are the church to bring about that Full expression and manifestation.

Amen. Thank you, Jen. The conference is still called ROAR. ROAR 2025. And then we're gonna have ROAR 2026.

We actually are getting the website called the Roar Conference. We're on a website. We're going to build it up, we're going to blow it up. We're going to start to do ROAR conferences all over Canada. We're going to roar everywhere through this nation.

And we're going to start in October. Suddenly, just a commercial right in the middle of my preaching. So amazing. The intersecting realms. God's working to restore the union of heaven and Earth.

Luke 19:10. For the Son of man came to seek and to save that. Say that. It doesn't say them or those. It says that.

What is that? What is that? That was lost. He's come to seek every single thing in this earth. He wants to bring reconciliation and restoration to everything that was lost.

The word literally means that which has been lost. And it hints of the whole of God's created order. That's out of the Bible dictionary. I didn't make that up. That some smart theologian took that Greek word and said, it's not just people, it's not just a person, it's everything that's broken in the cosmos.

God wants to restore that. Amen. So good. So heavens, earth intersecting a realm. When you come to church and you interact with the body of Christ, that is a place where it's heaven on earth.

That is a place where as it is in heaven is in manifestation. Jesus said, I want you to pray like this on earth.

Sorry, on earth. Really? That should be your standard. That should be our point. That should be somewhere.

It's our default setting. So we started with community forum. The fire came and identified and baptized this community with his presence. The community began to move out. They began to go out in the name of Jesus.

And people got touched, people got healed. They used the name for the first time. Boom. And I mean, it was boom, everybody. Whoa.

Who are these people? Then the community shared a message. After that fellow was healed and raised up, a whole crowd gathered. So Peter said, wow, another opportunity to preach. And he preached an amazing message of restoration.

And today we're gonna talk about. The community meets resistance. The community meets resistan. So there's again, just want to show you the picture of the fellow got healed. That's the guy right there.

That's an actual rendition of him. He looked just like that. So he got up, he was lame. And now he was walking. Everything was restored.

His legs were all atrophied but boom, instantly there was muscles and strength and power came into him and he jumped around. He leapt and he rejoiced. And it was so exciting to see what God could do. So Peter preached the good news message of repentance and refreshing and restoration. God grants repentance.

God grants times of refreshing. And God's purpose is to bring everything into restoration. That's the message of the church. Amen. Align yourself with the good news of his kingdom.

Align yourself with that. Let refreshing come from his presence and overflow your life. And let restoration be the result of this wonderful good news in every single sphere of who you are. Acts 3, 6, 26. The end of Acts 3 says, God having raised up his servant, Jesus sent him to bless you.

God having raised up his servant, Jesus sent him to bless you. He sent him to bless you in turning every one of you away from your iniquities. Our sins forgiven, our sins obliterated, our sins removed, that bent towards sin in our life being broken. Jesus blessed you to break all those things in your life and to bring restoration. Then we go into Acts chapter four, say Acts chapter four.

Acts chapter four, three, four. And they laid hands on them and they put them in custody until the next day. For it was already evening. However, of those who heard the word, they believed. And the number of men came to about 5,000.

So Peter preached his first sermon and 3,000 men came into the kingdom added to the church. He preached his next sermon and 5,000 people were added to the church. How many think that's awesome? I think that's really, really good. Aren't you looking forward to that?

Where does the Holy Ghost just moves on people's hearts and just streams of people are coming into the kingdom. So 5,000 people. A.W. tozer, a gentle alliance preacher. Lovely man.

Wrote so many books such as. Such an incredible author. But here's what he said. He said, a Christian is a holy rebel loose in the world with access to the throne of God. Satan never knows from which direction he will come.

A Christian is a holy rebel. A holy rebel let loose in the earth with absolute access, living under an open heaven, bringing in the manifestation, the purpose of God to destroy the works of the devil and align the earth with heaven and bring into manifestation the purpose of God. That's who we are. We're not people who are waiting at the bus stop. Get us out of here.

Hurry up. Quick. It's getting messy down here. No, we are here to transform things. We are here.

He's building his church and the Gates of hell will not prevail against it. So we are here to bring radical and thorough change in culture and society.

Amen. So you got to look at this. Chapter four, Chapter four, the political climate. What was the. This.

This written in a context like you should understand when you're reading something in the Bible, understand when it was written, who it was written to, what was the time of it, what was going on. So here it was. Israel was under the reign and the rule of Rome. But Rome let areas have their own autonomy. As long as they didn't rock the boat, they could run their own affairs.

But if things got weird, they would come in and crush anything that would come against the rule of Rome. So the Romans were over everything, but in it, you could run your own local governments or national governments as long as you aligned yourself with Rome and the peace of Rome. So here in Judea, in Jerusalem, in Israel, there was a ruling party, and it was a religious party. It was the Sadducees. And they didn't like that Jesus was alive and risen from the dead.

And that's why they became sad. You see, it's an old one, but it still works. So they were the party of the Sadducees. So these are the people who arrested. They had Peter and John arrested, and they put them in jail.

And then they called the ruling families, Caiaphas, the high priest, and the family of Aeneas. And they all came. And these guys were like a crime family. They were like a mob. I mean, they ruled the whole place.

And they had such incredible authority. They were the supreme court of the land. And they could bring anybody in, accuse anybody of anything. And then they would convince the Romans that these people are evil, do away with them. And it's this same group of people that did that to Jesus, they called Jesus in, had a trial, and then they told the Romans, he's evil, he's ruining all our laws.

He's caught causing a massive disruption. You need to get rid of this guy. It's this group. It's this place. The political crime, the Sanhedrin.

Not just a religious council, but the Supreme Court of Israel, holding judicial and religious and political weight under Roman oversight. The timing, the timing. Now, this is just weeks later, say weeks. This is like, you know, you remember June? Does anyone remember June?

Does any remember July? And then there's August. I mean, we're just talking a few weeks. Remember a few weeks back? Well, a few weeks back, Jesus at Passover, Jesus got arrested and he got tried and he got taken out on the hill of Golgotha.

And he was crucified. And he was murdered by the Romans and the Jews. Put them up to them and said, you got to kill this guy. He says, he's God. That's just causing havoc in our place.

You got to get rid of him. So Jesus was murdered just a few weeks back, just a few weeks ago. And all the disciples, they were terrified. Peter, he went to the trial. He was in this place where the trial was.

And Peter was there looking in and said, hey, you're one of them. I BLEEP and am not BLEEP and leave me alone. Then somebody else came and said, hey, aren't you one of his buddies? I BLEEP and bleep and bleep, bleep, bleep. And another guy came and said, or a little girl, she goes and says, oh, yes, I saw you.

I saw you with him. Hey, what's the. And then he's caught Jesus eyes. Jesus looked at him, and the rooster said, cock a doodle doo. And Peter knew.

Oh, wow. So this guy is the one who's preaching these sermons. Thousands of people come into the kingdom, like in June. In June, he cussed everybody out who said he had anything to do with Jesus. But this same guy, a few weeks later, a few weeks later, he got whacked in the Holy Ghost.

And all of a sudden, he's standing up, preaching the good news. So the very same place that Jesus was taken to be tried is the very same place where Peter and John now walked in. That very same room that Peter looked in terrified. He's in that same room, as bold as ever. Just a few weeks later.

Just a few weeks later, he went from I don't know him to he's my Lord and he's my King. Hallelujah. All right, so that's the time. In the same power structures that collaborated to crucify Jesus, they're now trying to shut down the church and shut down the movement of God. So here we are.

Things aren't always easy. Does anybody know that? Has anybody ever gone through a hard time? Has anybody gone through difficulty? There's places in the world right now where you can't have a Bible, you can't do church.

It's illegal to be a Christian. There's places in the world where that happens, and there's a lot of it. There's a lot of believers being persecuted today, a lot of them. But the amazing thing is mostly in those areas where the church is being persecuted, the church is growing faster than anywhere else in the world. So it's amazing how the church grows through persecution.

I'd rather not have persecution. I'd rather grow without it. So please reach your neighbor, because I don't want that to happen to us. But, you know, I was just looking in Montreal. They had a Muslim group that were praying in front of the.

The iconic Catholic cathedral there, and they started complaining about that. And so then the. The government, very, very secular place in Quebec. The government decided that, you know, any type of public prayer is wrong. Nobody should pray.

If you've got some religion or whatever, you should keep it behind closed doors and you should never share it with anybody else. And prayer is a private thing. We don't want anybody praying in public at all. So they even took it to the place where you. And this is really true.

It's shocking. You can be accused of praying in public if you're in a restaurant and you said, lord, bless my Cheerios. That's how far they want to take it. How ridiculous is that? We're experiencing things where people are trying to shut down, you know, worship experiences in private places like this.

This is not a public place. A church is a private institution, and we have authority to do whatever we want in here. And yet they think they can walk in and start to tell us when we can hold services and who we can invite to speak and what can go on. Well, that's not going to happen.

So we don't know. We really. I've grown up. I've never known persecution. I've never, never struggled with any of those things.

But I'll tell you, there's some creepy rumblings out there. There's some creepy things going on out there where it's become popular. So those stupid Christians down in the States, they had a tragedy with somebody shot up a Catholic church while the children were in there. And then somebody said, hey, our thoughts are. And prayers are with you.

Then everybody, prayers. What good is prayer? They were already in church praying. What good did it do them? You're there in church praying, and you got shot.

There's your prayers for you. There's a real pushback and attack against faith, against Christianity, against belief, against those values. So. But I tell you, in that culture where they were, the Jewish Judaism ruled over everything. And this upstart sect where they were saying this Jesus who they killed was now alive, and they're doing things in his name.

We have to shut this down right now. So they arrested them and they brought them in. And it says in Acts 4:10, here's what Peter said, let it be known to you all and all the people in Israel, right in that same place where a few weeks ago Jesus was tried and beaten and whipped in that same place where he was in absolute fear to even be identified with Jesus, in that same place he was boldly testifying of the name of Jesus, something happened in his life to let it be known to all of you, all the people of Israel, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, who God raised from the dead by him. This man stands here before you. Ha.

I mean, I'm telling you, you got to get your head around that. That is a radical shift from the guy who was a few weeks ago, running away from the scene. So here he is. That's what he cried out. That's what he cried out.

In verse 13 he said. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men. Let me give you the Greek word for that. Idiotus. That is the Greek word.

They basically said, these guys are idiots. You know, sometimes people think that of Christians, you, you guys are weak. You lean on some fairy tale of a God who created everything, you know, you pray, oh God, help me. There's nobody gonna help you. Well, I tell you, there is a God.

He's a wonderful God, He's a good God, and he will help you. He really, really will. He really, really. Well, they perceived, they saw this boldness and they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus or are now with Jesus. And seeing you say seeing, it's very hard to come against something when you've got the man that everybody knows.

We all know. We've all seen him for 40 years. He's been lame from birth. We all know this man. It's pretty hard for us to come against these guys when proof is standing right there.

And when they seeing the man, they're like, gosh, what are we gonna do? Everybody saw this. Everybody knows what happened. How are we gonna shut these people down? Everybody is marveling and amazed at what these people are preaching.

They're saying, Jesus is alive and in Jesus name, the risen Christ. They're doing these things. And yet there it is. What are we gonna do? There it is.

There's the evidence right now. What are we gon see? It's very hard to speak against something when the evidence is so absolutely, totally clear. And folks, if the evidence isn't absolutely, totally clear in our lives, it's because God's holding out on us. No, it's not.

We've got to take God's word and believe it. We've got to insist that my experience lines up with my theology. We got to insist on it personally. You got to put push back when what's going on in your life, and I know it's hard sometimes because I don't know about you, but sometimes things going on in my life don't look at all like heaven. But that doesn't mean I compromise and start to make up a different religion and design my own Jesus.

Well, my Jesus, you know, there's only one Jesus. He's a wonderful Jesus. He's a powerful Jesus, and he's a good, good God. So I'm not gonna align myself with something false. I'm not gonna align myself even with my own contradictions.

I will curse my contradictions and I will insist that God be manifest in my life. That's very hard because sometimes the contradictions are violently manifesting in my life. But I will never change the fact. He is my redeemer. He is my Savior.

He is the restorer of my soul.

Amen. Seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. Verse 19. But Peter and John answered them and said. They said, what we want you to do.

They went and talked about and said, look, let's just tell them to shut up and don't do this anymore. They're gonna get in trouble. So he said, look, you're gonna get a lot of trouble if you keep on doing this. And here's what Peter and John answered them and said, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God you judge. For we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.

So you may be trying to shut me down, but no way I will not keep silent. I'm gonna bless God, praise God. I'm gonna test the testify of his goodness. I'm gonna roar.

A conference in October. It's about roar verse 24. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord. Now they went back to their own people, went back to their own company. They got released and they were just.

They were happy about what they went through. They were thrilled about the miracle. They were thrilled about this guy was totally healed. And when they got rebuked by these people, they didn't give a rip. They went back to their own company and they said, guys, we better keep it down for a while.

Everybody's upset. The guys who killed Jesus looks like they want to kill us now too. So we better chill. Maybe we better go have the church services out in the woods somewhere. Because it's getting tough out there.

That's not what they did. Please. That's not at all what they did. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord. What did they do?

When they started to get pushback, what did they do? You know, there's a phrase called When Push Comes to Shove. You heard that? Well, I titled the sermon When Push Comes to Prayer.

When Push Comes to Prayer. When Push Comes to Prayer. So when they heard that, they raised their voices to God in one accord. Say One Accord. One group of people just raised up their voices to God together.

Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie Ten Boom. Actually, when I was a kid, Corrie Ten Boom was. Was still alive and would do the full gospel businessman circus. But she was someone who went through the Holocaust.

Her and her family used to hide Jewish people and try to get them out of. I think it was. They were Dutch families. So they were trying to get them out of Holland and get them safe and get them in places. And they got found out.

They got found out that they'd been hiding Jewish people and trying to get them away from the Nazis. And when they got found out, they put them in the camps and treated them just like the Nazis. So her whole family went into. Into these nasty camps. She lost her sister, lost her family, lost everybody there.

But she survived. And Corrie Ten Boom said. They said what was going on there? What were you experiencing when you were there? And she said this.

This phrase, which is so cool. She said, there is no panic in heaven, only plans. There's no panic in heaven, only plans. Even when you go through things that are difficult. Even when the way doesn't seem to have gone the way you had hoped it would.

Even in that, God is able to work all things together for good. There's not a situation that he can't turn around. Don't let the situation. Don't let the disappointment. Don't let that contradiction become a fixed place in your life that now governs everything you do going forward.

You know what? There's no panic in heaven. No matter what you've gone through, what loss you've experienced. There's no panic in heaven. There's only plans.

There's plans for you. I love that. I just love that verse here. We're going to talk about maybe three things today. I was gonna say four, but let's do three.

All right? Because this prayer is an amazing prayer. So I wanna go through this prayer over the next couple weeks. All right? So the first thing they prayed was, lord, you are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.

Now, Mercy. Mercy's here. Where's Mercy? Is she here somewhere? She came up to help take up the offering, so.

But thank you, Mercy. The one thing about Mercy is she comes to prayer on Fridays, and there's a pattern that is always expressed with Mercy. When she begins to pray first is there's a rumble, there's a shoot.

And just there's a rumble, something going on. I realize there's something going to blow up there in a minute. But when Mercy begins to speak, the first thing she says in her prayers is, God, you are mighty, you are powerful. You have never failed us. You are our refuge.

You. And she just continues to confess. You are awesome. You are great, you are mighty, you are glorious. And it just sets you up.

You just go, oh, my goodness. And you realize the one we're talking to is the Almighty, the Creator of all things, the One who, with the Word, commands things to come into existence, the One who holds the whole universe in the palm of his hand. God. That's the one that we have absolute access to, the one I have come to petition today. He is mighty.

He is awesome. He is for me, not against me. He's a big, big God. And, you know, in this prayer, that was the first thing they did. They said, lord, you are God.

You made the heavens, you made the earth and the sea and everything that is in a God. You are God. I'm not approaching something that I hope will do something. I'm approaching the one through whom all things are, Please settle down. And that's very, very important.

When you're going through a trial, when you're going through a struggle, are you going to magnify God? Are you going to magnify the problem? Because you got a choice right there that this situation is going to become the elevator music in my head. This is constantly going to drone out every other voice. I'm going to let this dictate to me the way I see life, the way I see others, the way I see God, the way I see my future.

This will now dictate everything going on in my world. And see, that's what the devil wants you to do. The devil wants you to get stuck into a narrative of pain, of disappointment, of frustration, of depression, and he wants to shut you down. But the first thing you got to do is you gotta lift up your voice and say, God, you are great, you are wonderful, you are mighty. You are above all things.

You are seated in heavenly places. You're the Father of lights, the giver of every good gift. You have blessed me with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. You're Lord of all. You gotta fill your mouth with those things.

That's my God. Is that your God? That's my God. He's a big God. So that's what they did.

Always begin by flooding your mind with the greatness of God. Psalm 34. 3, 4. David got chased by Saul, chased out of Israel, and he ran all the way to Gath. So he's easily there under one of the kings, one of their enemies.

And he's there. And they said, oh, my goodness, this is David Guy. Well, David prayed. David prayed. And this is the psalm that he prayed.

And in that psalm, he said, oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. He starts off by saying, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I sought the Lord, and he heard me. And he delivered me from all my fears.

Oh, come and magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord. Come on. And that was David in a very hard time, a very difficult place.

He begins everything with, I will praise the Lord when it feels good. I will praise the Lord when things are going right, I will praise God. When. When I feel like praising God, I'll go to church. When I'm not too tired, I'll go to the house of God and shout, glory to Jesus.

When it feels good to me. David said, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Amen. That's why I love that song. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul.

Yes, yes, yes. You know. You know why that song feels great? Because the Spirit's on it. Because you were designed to do that.

I will bless the Lord at all times. Praise the Lord. Chronicles 6:14. When Solomon prayed for the dedication of the temple, he said, lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like you, who keeps your covenant of mercy. You begin by declaring, there is none like you.

Oh, God. There is none like you. Asa. A million Ethiopians came over the horizon. He was a good king.

And yet all of a sudden, this massive army came to attack, and he's God. There is no one like you to help the hopeless against the mighty. There is none like you. There's nothing too Hard for you. You begin to declare how incredible God is.

And I love this. He says, who are you? You're the God who keeps your covenant and you keep your mercy. He's a good God. He's a merciful God.

Does anybody need mercy today? I do. I tell you. Aren't you glad? God delights?

And so Nehemiah 1:5, he's praying. The whole walls are broken down, the city of God is broken down. There's despair everywhere. And Nehemiah starts to pray. And he said, I pray, Lord God of heaven, oh, great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and your mercy.

I mean, you declare, you establish yourself, you dress yourself with a consciousness that I am coming in bold faith to a God who can do everything, a God who is ready to act on my behalf, a God who I have a covenant with, a God who I've been asked to come boldly, a God God. You. You. You can change this situation. You're mighty above everything.

I approach you who nothing is too hard for. I come with an expectation that you will manifest your lordship over this situation. So we gotta just come and make sure that you are a big God person. Matthew, chapter six, verse nine. Would you teach us to pray?

Jesus, teach us to pray. We see you praying. We see what you do. Would you teach us to pray? Here's how he started something radical.

He said, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You got to start right away. I love that he reframed. He reframed for them in a massive way. Who was God?

He's your father. He's your provider. He's your source. He's the one who was there for you. For you.

He's where you came from. He's the one who cares for you and watches over you. Hallowed, sanctified, set apart, holy to be revered and awesome is your name. That's how Jesus said you should start out your prayers. You.

If you're in a trial, if you're in a difficulty, you gotta change your mind. And you gotta make God bigger than your circumstances. You gotta make God bigger than your circumstances. Not because he's not, because. But because your head is broken and you don't think he is.

So you gotta bring your confession in align with his reality. Can I get an amen? Amen. All right. All right.

My dad. Do you ever remember when you're a kid and you'd start arguing with somebody, say, well, you know, my dad gonna come and take you out? Oh, yeah? Well, your dad's gonna have to deal with My dad? Yeah.

Who's your dad? Well, my dad, this little group of kids, you know. You know, talking about their dads. And one guy said, well, your dad's nothing. My dad, when my dad goes to work, he's got five men under him.

Oh, so what? When my dad goes to work, where he works, there's 50 men under him. Then the other kid said, ah, that's nothing. My dad's got 7,000 men, women, people under him every day. Wow.

Really? He said, yep. What's your dad do? Well, he cuts the lawn at the cemetery.

It's a big. It's a big cemetery.

My dad. See, I was a kid, they'd talk about your dad's hay. My dad's lower. He makes lots of money. He goes and writes little decisions and stuff like that.

Charges people hundreds of dollars and. Wow. My dad's a doctor. I mean, he does surgery. Different things.

He gets. He gets paid by what? My dad's in sales, sometimes one contract, well over a million dollars a contract. Just amazing. I said, you guys are nuts.

That's nothing. My dad does these little things called sermons. He does a little sermon on a Sunday and it takes five people to go pick up all the money.

Winner, winner.

Our Father.

Wow, that was a weird turn, wasn't it? Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. My dad's a great dad. My dad's a great God. And he is.

He is able to provide everything. And he to. Is able. Nuts about me. He is nuts about me.

Number two. Say number two. Number one. Come on, make God big. Magnify God.

Magnify him above everything in your world. Magnify God. Make God big. Because he is big. He is overall, and he can operate in any sphere.

And he knows how to help you in any situation. So magnify God. Next thing is reframe your threats. Reframe your threats. Sometimes I'll have people come into me and they're going through stuff and houses, and I said, let's get out a piece of paper and let's define what it is we're really working with.

And often in these sessions, when we actually try to define what it is, by the end, it's a little bit embarrassing what it is that's got us jumping around so bad. And when you actually reframe it, you put it down and don't let it have a narrative of its own. Actually reframe it. What really is the problem? And sometimes when you just pull this out and you really reframe, what is the Threat, really.

It's amazing how you can get a handle on it and you can choke that thing and you can dumb it down. And often I've seen people kind of embarrassed at the things that are making them run around and chase their tail. You gotta reframe your threats. Verse 25. He said, why do the nations rage?

And the people plot vain things? So you have to take the circumstance that you're in and you have to frame it with two things. Frame it with what does God do? Say, and frame it with, what does God do, What does God say, and what does God do? All right, reframe your threats.

In that they said, why? Why did the nations rage? Doesn't matter what anybody is trying to put together. Doesn't matter how anybody or anything is trying to come against me. It's a vain threat.

It's vain because why do they range against the Almighty God and his anointed one. Amen. So what does the word say? Psalm 2:4 says, he sits in the heavens, and. And he laughs.

The Lord shall hold them in derision. When you look at God, and they brought a problem to him, what does God say about that?

God, that's a real problem. I'm bringing you there. Why are you laughing at that? It's really not a big problem. You know, the interesting thing about proud people is when you laugh at proud people, they don't take it very well.

But you know, when you laugh at the devil, boy, does he get freaked out. And the joy of the Lord is your strength. And sometimes, you know, oh, wow, I lost my job.

Your job's not your provider. The Almighty is. And you know what you just got to say next? You just stay sweet and you say, thank you, Father, that you are the one who blesses me. You will open doors.

You will give me strategies and systems to get better off than I was before. Because whatever this is, it has no power to take you from my life. And therefore it has no power to wreck the blessing that is flowing from the throne of God in my life. So you got to reframe the threats. You got to reframe it.

He sits in the heavens. He laughs. Now, Ephesians 2:6 says, he raised us up, made us alive, raised us up, and we are seated together with him in heavenly places. So where are you seated in the middle of your difficulty? Difficulties?

Where are you seated in the middle of your problems? Where are you seated when things are going difficult and hard for you? Where are you seated? You're seated with him in heavenly places. So listen, when he starts laughing, you need the laugh too.

Even if you don't get the joke, you just gotta say, haha, Lord, I'm having a real problem here. Well, that's horrible. All God's doing is laughing at my problem. God wants you to step into the joy of the Lord, the goodness Lord. And God wants to to bless you and prosper you.

And you need to align yourself with him. The joy of the Lord doesn't give you strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. It really is. So you're seated with him.

Where are you? You're postured with him. Isaiah 54:17, a great verse. These are ones you should always have on, recall really quickly. You should have a little file on your phone where you pop these out and Read these.

Isaiah 54:17. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And their righteousness is from me, says the Lord.

You get a bad report, you get anything that's coming your way, you need to subject it to the word of God. You need to make it align with that. And you need to shake yourself and say, not today, Jack. Because nothing that is formed to harm or cause damage in my life, nothing that is framed in the gates of hell, nothing. No word, no boss, no anything, no situation, no climate, no culture, not Donald Trump and the tariffs, none of these things.

There's not a single thing that's fashioned in this earth that can separate you from the goodness of God. It's your heritage to walk in unprecedented blessing. And it's the heritage, it is your inheritance. It is something that God has graced you to be with. And your righteousness is from him.

The front row has to stay. The rest of you can go.

There's no panic in heaven. There's only plans. There's no panic in heaven, there's only plans. When you hear a nasty word, a windy word that is trying to cause panic in your life, you need to stop. You need to honor God and you need to listen.

Because there's no panic in heaven. But there are plans, and there's plans for you. There's plans for you. Third John 2 says, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. So what does God plan for you?

God's plans for you are prosperity and health. It's not my word, it's God's word. Like, get over it. I mean, just submit yourself to blessing and life just Say yes. Just.

Yeah, okay. Yes. And you know what? Everything is coming against you. You gotta push back.

You can't yield to that. You gotta push back and you gotta say, not today. Jeremiah 29:11. I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future. Who's got a hope and a future? Who's got a God that's for them? Who's got a God that has plans that are God good for them, even if what's happening right now is a great big mess. God has a plan right now.

He has a word for you. He has something where he wants to speak into your life. He is ready to open doors. He is ready to give you wisdom and understanding to break you through into another level. This is not shame to harm you, but this is a platform for me to go to another level and demonstrate God's goodness in my life.

Take a breath. Take a breath. Verse 27. First for truly against your whole holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. What?

They're saying, they're reframing it. Says they're trying to attack us now. And this is such a joke because a few weeks ago they tried to take out Jesus. How did that go? I mean, how did that go?

I mean, we thought it was awful. We thought, oh, no, but you know what? God will always resurrect your dreams. God will always resurrect his purpose in your life. You know, you may think this thing died, but no, you were set up for God to resurrect that and bring something in your life that is so much more, more powerful than you could have ever imagined.

If you yield and you give it to God and you trust him and you speak life over your situation, God will resurrect that thing into something that is way better than you could have ever planned.

Thank you. Thank you, man. Appreciate that. They tried to silence Jesus, but God raised him from the dead. So you know what?

God has plans for you, too. So we got to take testimonies. How many. How many of you heard really good testimonies? How.

How, you know, man lives, were trying to be destroyed and all those kind of things. But then when you came to Jesus, you recognize that none of that matters. I mean, God just wipes that all out. All those things become rubbish and dung. I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Behold, all things are new. And I'm walking on a path now on the blessing of God. And on that path, you may have some Trials here on their path. They were the church of God, baptized in fire, power and authority. And yet the powers of the day came against them.

And things will try to come against you, but when they do come against you, how big is your God? And what do you say about your God? What do you know about the word of God? What do you know about his? What have you heard?

Have you not heard? Have you not heard? Has anybody ever healed a cancer? Have you ever? I know, Raymie.

Right back there was healed of cancer. I know Remy had a heart attack. They said he's gonna die. He walked out of the hospital. And that was years and years and years ago.

And that heart's still pumping, and that heart's still beating, and he's still serving Jesus and loving God. Has anybody got a story of God's healing power and deliverance in their lives? They're all over the room. I mean, you had a ski accident where Glenn went down a hill and fractured his back everywhere. Had him in a full body cast, and he wanted to go to Africa to see a Reinhard Bonke crusade.

He went, wow, this isn't good. That's not great. But people walked into the room and they said, in the name of Jesus, we command your back to be well. And crack. Poop, poop.

Boom. You take off that thing, go, oh, my God. He got a brand new back. The whole back on. He's right there.

He's not in some storybook. It's not something I. I heard about a guy. He's right there. He's in your church. He's right here.

It happened to him.

I mean, by now that accident should have had him in a wheelchair, crippled up and all messed up, but no, glory to God. I mean, I go golfing with Glenn, you see him whipping a golf ball. Frightens me.

It frightens us all. There are so many testimonies in this room. You know, God didn't do it just for a few people because they're special. God did it because God's special. And God loves you.

And that special God is nuts about you, and he wants to transform and touch your life. All right, all right, all right. Number three. Say number three. I'm only gonna do three.

We'll pick up the rest next week. All right, Number three. You got to put a demand on God's boldness. Say boldness. Who doesn't love boldness?

Wow, that was really good right there. Put a demand on God's boldness. Amen. Verse 29. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant say Grant.

Grant to your servants that all boldness, I love that doesn't say just boldness, but all boldness, Lord. Now we've had these threats and these people look like they're serious. We saw what they did to Jesus, but we saw what you did to Jesus. So we're gonna, right now, we're gonna stand against that, we're gonna come against that and we're gonna be your people. But here's what we want you to do, Lord.

Now Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness. What does boldness look like? What does all boldness look like? God, grant us. Grant us.

Grant us. Impact people. Grant us in this season that we're entering into God, no weapon fashioned against us is going to prosper. We're going to go, we're going to prevail. We're going to see people set free.

We're going to see your kingdom established. Glory to God. And I don't care who tries to come against us. Because if God before us, who can be against us? And I know you're for us.

So God, here's what we want entering into this new season. Would you do this? Would you grant us all boldness? Settle down. All boldness now.

Boldness. Listen, I'm going to pass on that because, you know, I don't want to look stupid. What is all bold? All boldness doesn't look like something. All boldness is something from God.

It's his very bold nature. It's the spirit of Christ coming upon you. And you're going to be flooded with it. You'll manifest it similar to your own nature. It could be a little bit more than what you're manifesting now.

But I do want to say this. Boldness is not optional. It's not like I'm buying a Ford and they said I could have power windows. But you know, who doesn't like the roll ups?

I'll take the power windows. Do you want the heated seats? Yes. Do you want the cooling seats? Yes.

Then they tell you the price. Go. Could I have the roll up windows?

But listen, with God, boldness isn't optional. You gotta walk in boldness. It's mandatory to be a child of God that you gotta be bold. Romans 12, 11. Never be lacking in zeal, never be lacking in fire, in passion.

Never. Do not burn, but keep your spiritual fervor when you serve the Lord. This is not an option. This is a direct command that servants of the Lord. How do we serve?

How do we. How do we usher how do we greet people at the door? I mean, how do we do any type of ministry? How do I manifest God to the people I work with? I'm telling you, when you're serving God, the only way to serve God is on fire.

Here's a really crazy verse. You ready for this one? First, Thessalonians 5, 19. Do not quench the spirit. That's a crazy verse right there.

Crazy for a lot of reasons, but crazy for this reason. I can quench the spirit like I can say no to the spirit. I can say no to the third person, the Trinity. I can say, chill out, Holy Ghost. Settle down over there.

I can do that. I wouldn't be commanded not to do it if I couldn't do it. It don't do it. Don't put out the spirit's fire. Fire is how you operate in the Kingdom.

Fire is how you serve God. Passion is mandatory. If you're ever going to do anything, you're going to do it with half your heart. If you're going to do anything, you're going to do with all your heart. Now they said, father, we're going to go.

In the face of this opposition, just. First of all, grant us all boldness. Grant us all boldness. Isaiah 59, 17. He put on the garment of vengeance for clothing, and he was clad with zeal as his cloak.

What's that? That's a prophecy about Jesus. It's a prophecy about the Messiah. What did he look like? Well, this is one of the things that he manifests like a garment.

He was surrounded with zeal as a cloak. That's Jesus. Look at the zeal I love where Jehu. Jehu said to Jehonadab, I think it was. He said, come with me and watch the zeal I have for the Lord.

I just love that verse. Come and see the zeal that I have for the Lord. When did you say that to somebody? Recently. Hey, you know what?

Come over here. Come and watch me operate in the zeal of the Lord.

Conference on the 17th and 19th. Roar.

It's mandatory. It's mandatory. Clad with zeal. Exodus 15:3. The Lord is a man of war.

The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. The Lord is His name. The Lord is a man of war. I know.

We sang that song. Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah, Shalom, Jehovah. All the nice ones, eh? Jehovah Nisi. He's my banner.

Jehovah Rafa. He's my He, Healer. Jehovah Nisi. All the Nice ones. Why didn't we sing Jehovah Gabor?

He's a man of war. Jehovah Gabor. He gives me boldness. Jehovah Gabor.

I don't like the roaring God. I like the gentle one. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord of hosts is his name. Psalm 24, 4, 8 and 9. Who is this king of glory?

This is Jesus when he's ascending and he's coming. He's coming with his blood, coming to put it on the mercy seat before the Father. And he's ascending with a. With a whole bunch of people. He ascended with all these folks coming up to the throne of God.

And the angels are crying out like, who is it? They're, they're guarding the gates of heaven, who is it? Who is it? And they cry it out, who is it? The Lord, strong and mighty.

The Lord mighty in battle. The Lord, Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory.

Am I seeing a vision or what's going on? He is the Lord of glory. The Hebrew words here are Gabor and Sabah. Sabah, Gabor and Sabah. Gabor means mighty and brave, and Sabah as he goes forth to war.

The Lord is Gabor. The Lord is mighty and the Lord is going to war. Amen.

Anyway, like a good fight. I want a nice, quiet, peaceful church. I want a nice church where we just got everybody chills. Kumbaya, Jehovah Gabor. The Lord is a man of war.

And they prayed, the early church prayed in the face of opposition. Grant us all boldness. Amen. Amen. So we're going to make God really, really big.

We're going to reframe all our threats. We're not going to let our threats define us. We're going to define our threats. We're going to subject them to the glory of God. And then we're going to ask God, grant us boldness, because we're going to get out there and we're not going to shrink back.

We're not going to be starters. We're going to be finishers. Hebrews 4. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in a time of need. So we're asked to come boldly.

You're asked even to come for grace. If you need grace and you need mercy. Who's that tiptoeing out there? I don't know. Who's that running in here, fire breathing, screaming, oh, it's Carl again.

Here he comes. He has bold access to my presence. Boldness First John 14. First John 14 in the Amplified. And this is the confidence, the assurance, and the privilege of boldness.

This is the assurance that you have when you approach God. This is the privilege of boldness. When you come to God, you got to come in faith. Anyone who comes to me must first believe that I am and that I am the rewarder of those who diligently seek me. You can't come to God with hope.

So although he's really, really good, and he'll overcome even your lack of passion, he'll do it for you anyways, half the time. But, boy, does the Lord love bold approaches. Look what it says. It is the privilege of boldness which we have in Him. We are sure that if we ask anything, make any request according to his will and in agreement with his plan, he listens to us and he hears us.

Or another translation says, we have what we have asked for. The privilege of boldness is answered prayer. And so if we're going to go and we're going to do God's purpose in this day, we need to go with boldness. We need to go with zeal. We need to go with his strength, his manifestability, and his power.

Can I get an amen? Amen. All right, I want you to stand up.

I want you to stand up now. I got some words going up on the screen there. And I want all of us to speak these words. I want your neighbor to hear you. I want the person behind you to hear you.

I want you to hear you. I want you to use your outside voice. I want it together. It says they came together and they prayed in one accord, in one soul, in one mind. They declared things.

I want you to think about the season we're coming into, that we are believing God. Grant us boldness, grant us strategies, grant us plans that we can see this whole region totally delivered from the power of darkness. We want to see that. And, Lord, we're going to go do that. And if opposition comes our way, Father, we're going to stand firm and we're going to stand strong.

So listen, we're all going to pray, and you're going to pray this together with me. I'm going to read it. You're going to read it with me, and we're going to say it with our outside voice. Can I get an amen? Okay.

Can I get an amen with your outside voice? All right. Because we're going to make together corporately, through this little prayer that I've written, we're together, corporately going to make a bold approach to the throne of God. And we're going to ask for these things to be manifest as a group. We're going to say, God, do this with us as a people.

Are you ready? All right. One, two, three. Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. We face pressures in our own time, but we know nothing can stop the advance of your kingdom now.

Lord, consider the threats against your people. Grant us boldness to speak your word. Stretch out your hand to heal, to save, and to show signs of your power. Let miracles confirm the name of Jesus in our generation. Fill us afresh with the Holy Spirit.

Shake this place, Lord, and shake our lives with your presence. We ask boldly in your name, the name of the Lord, of the armies of heaven, in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. I wanted to make that about 20 slides longer, but my wife said no.

How many felt something good in that? How many felt something good in that? Amen. Praise you, Jesus.