Pastor Gail – Welcome
1. From what I understand it is extremely cold on the islands. I have already received message from those that receive our sermon. They’re freezing. So, I am really glad to be in this building here today, that’s nice and warm. Isn’t it wonderful to gather together. You know I love the Scripture that talks about where 2 or 3 gather together, the Lord is already there with us.
2. For those of you that are online, and for those of you that are in the building we want to encourage you to look in your paper bible, please. We’re encouraging that, because people get a bigger picture of the whole passage.
3. We’re reading from Hebrews 4:14-16, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are —yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
4. Our heavenly Father, we thank You for the amazing privilege to be able to boldly come before Your throne, it’s quite humbling that You invite us, to come to the throne room into Your very presence. Who are we, but Lord, You call us, Your sons and daughters. You call us Your children. Lord, today, we also thank You, Lord as Abraham, we are a friend of God. So, today, we worship You, knowing that as we are here in this place, whatever we are going through, whatever we have gone through and whatever is before us, that Lord as we give it to You, we know You will make a way, where there often seems to be no way. So, we give You praise, and honor, and glory, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please stand.
5. Praise God, You know I love. America has a president, France has a president and a prime minister, Greece has a president and a prime minister, I don’t know what South Africa has, just a president. What does Australia have? But you know what, we the people of God, are the only ones that the King doesn’t get voted out. He’s forever King. Oh, my goodness, Hallelujah. People worry who is going to be the next president for four years. I know One who reigns forever. Sing and praise the King, Amen.
6. Well, it’s so good to see you today. You look wonderful. And I give you lots of claps from me, that you’re here on this cold day. The weather has been really difficult, hasn’t it? Do you like it? Oh. No, we need to pray for Angelo. So many people have been sick and are sick, and I’m really glad to be here. I’ve been sick close to 8 days. First time in years that I’ve been sick. Pastor Brian was sick. I know Anton has been sick and Eva-Lena has been sick. It’s time for this sickness to stop.
7. So, I want us before we proceed this morning, I’ll ask pastor Brian if he’ll pray for healing, we exalt Him even if we’re not healed. In the waiting we keep exalting Him.
Pastor Brian – Prayer
1. Lord, this morning, we do come to You, with the declaration that You are our healer. We appreciate the fact that You are attentive to our needs, including the needs of our health and that we know that there are many who are sick and struggling, but we know that Your Spirit is greater than the air of sickness, God, around us. We know that Your hand is stronger God, than the hand of the enemy that would try to bring illness to us Lord. God, we know that in Your grace we stand and as we come to You, we can rest assured God, that Your hand is on us and that Your Spirit is with us. And Lord, we just declare this morning healing over all of those that are struggling with these flues God, and healing over all those others who have other illnesses God, as those who have been hospitalized, those God who are going to clinics throughout the week, God, those who are experiencing many different things. God, we resist the prince of the spirit of the air, God and we declare that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. And we sing to that King this morning. We declare that King this morning, God. Lord we just reach out in faith this morning, believing God, that we will hear the testimonies of Your touch and God, we will praise You and declare You in each and every circumstance, in Jesus; name Amen.
Pastor Gail – Announcements
1. Two of my favorite people just came in. Heidi, Ole. Hi Hedi, be sure to introduce yourself to Heidi and Ole. We’re very, very blessed this morning, one of our original members of our local church, Gianni Vellis, is with us this morning. Gianni, will you waive your hand. Gianni, we are so glad to have you here and if you haven’t met Gianni, you need to introduce yourself. He continually, from Santorini, supports this local church with prayer. And we actually have Shushan with us. I have no idea if she’s going back to work there or not. Yes,
2. Does everyone know about Santorini? There are continuous earthquakes, tremors. So, Father in the name of Jesus, we declare right now, stop the tremors, stop the earthquakes. Protect the people there, protect their homes and their investments. Greece had suffered much. We pray, and say this is the hour for Greece to be blessed.
3. So, I think it’s awesome to have Gianni and Shushan with us, and that they’re able to put their feet on that island to be the messengers of Jesus there, Amen. So, we’re glad that you’re here today. We need the Lord, don’t we? I don’t know about you, but because I’ve been so sick this last week, I always know I need Him, but it seems like it was extra reminder. So, I would like you to greet someone and say, ‘We need Him. We’re glad He’s with us.’ Can you just greet someone and say that.
4. Oh, and I didn’t introduce Maalin. Brian and I are very good friends with Maalin’s mom and dad. He pastors in the outskirts of London. We’re very blessed to have him here for some months in Greece. So, be friendly, make him feel welcome, alright? Oh Lord, I need You.
5. One of the most wonderful things about Jesus, I don’t have to lay hands on you or anyone else. Where you’re standing right now, you can just say to Him, ‘I need this. I need help. I believe, I’m trusting You right now.’ Wherever you are right now, whatever need you have, would you just put it in your hand and lift it to Him. ‘Lord, I need You to take care of this. I need You Lord.’
6. Can we pray right now. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I thank You, You see the need I’m giving to You Lord. Each one of us in this room. Lord, we lift our needs to you. Lord, I lift my son to You Lord, oh Hallelujah, how great You are God. Everyone here Lord, I place them before You, and You are the God of answers, that is who You are because You’re here. We thank You, Lord. In the name of Jesus. Greet someone, tell them you’re glad they’re here. And be seated.
7. If we haven’t seen you in a while or this is your first Sunday here, we’re so glad you’re here. We welcome you and we hope you’ll feel right at home with us. It’s just a building. But we believe we’re family gathered here today. So, we hope you’ll feel like family today.
8. We’re getting ready to give the Lord our tithe and offering. I’ve been hearing all this last week a lot of financial reports. Countries that are making it more difficult to send aid in to help the believers. But believers are continuing to serve the Lord, trusting God will miraculously meet needs. I think sometimes we forget, that we’re not just putting money in a bucket, but we’re giving it to the Lord. Every time we’re giving in the offering or our tithe, sure, humans are blessed, but it’s because we’re giving it to Him, and we trust Him to use it where it needs to be used. Anton, would you mind coming to pray for our offering today. Thank you.
Anton Beukes – Prayer
1. Let us pray. Father, thank You that we can call You Father, and know Lord, that ever thing that we are and every thing that we have, every blessing come from You. Lord, You provide everything that we need, and you even provide things that are more than we need, and we are so grateful Lord. Grateful for Your presence here with us, grateful for Your guidance, grateful for Your peace, grateful Lord that we can come and worship You, with something from our lives, something that You have gives us. And so, Lord, as we give this morning, we give to You. For Your glory and for the advancement of Your church. Lord, thank You that we can be used to build Your church, and we pray, Lord Jesus, ‘Build Your church here on earth through us and in the lives of people, all around this city, this country and around the world.’ We glorify You and we give with grateful hearts, because we know that You have given us more than we need. Thank You Lord Jesus that we can pray this in Your beautiful name. Amen.
Pastor Gail Announcements
1. I just want to make a few announcements. This will be on the bulletin bord at the back. Ladies, mark it on your calendar, Saturday March 8, there will be a gathering of women from the city of Athens, for a lady’s day. You can call the offices for more details.
2. For the next few Wednesday nights, there will be Bible study, and prayer. How many of you will come on Wednesday nights for Bible study? Good, I like to see hands. Anton is preparing a survey, but I would like to know if there is another night of the week that is easier for some people. It’s a wonderful privilege to be able to freely, without the government stopping us, being able to study the Word.
Pastor Gail – Main Message.
1. Well, it’s good to see you this morning. I am believing that the Lord has a Word for you this morning, and for me. I’ve been thinking about this Word for about 4-5 months. For those of you, that this is your home church, or local church, the Lord has spoken to us, that this is the year of prayer.
2. We will ultimately will not be able to succeed with anything really, unless we have a foundation of prayer. And today, this is the last day in this particular series as we begin our year. We will begin to look at giftings that we have, and speak about that.
3. But today, I want to talk about each one of you becoming a giant. I don’t know if you know it, but each one of you have a giant inside of you. But you’re never going to know it, until you become a prayer person. I’m not even going to call it ‘Prayer warrior’, because prayer is not always being in a war. But when we learn to be a giant in prayer, it has different seasons and different ways that we worship and enter into the presence of the Lord.
4. I feel like today the Lord wants to encourage us, that whatever we go through, that the Lord is with us. Today we sang songs, ‘Show me Your way’, ‘Draw me close to You’, because ultimately, He’s the One we need above anyone or anything else. And I believe that the Lord is trying to call us, to every single day, be in His presence, to be with Him.
5. So, Lord, I pray right now for this Word, let it be alive, let it not just be words from my mouth. I pray Holy Spirit, that You will be our teacher. You are the One that lights up the Word, the ink on a page. So, we give You praise and thanks, for what You’re going to do today.
6. It is the time for us to know, we are to be a praying people. Maybe some of you are not interested this morning, you’re fine just coming to church on Sunday morning. You love having a church family. You like it when Leto calls and says she’ll bring you food when you’re sick. You like it when I send you a birthday greeting. But that’s enough. You don’t need more.
7. Because you know, if you pray, it’s a little bit of work. So, you don’t really want to hear today about becoming a giant in prayer. But I’m asking you this morning, please listen. Don’t take a pass on the word this morning. You see the God that we know, He already knows what’s in your tomorrow. He already sees those things. And He is able to give us vision to walk into those situations with victory with His presence.
8. The Lord wants to enlarge His Word in our lives, so we see through His eyes to become a mighty victorious people. Honestly, when you feel the least like a giant, but you begin to pray and come into His presence. That’s the beginning of moving forward. Being able to go forward, depends on communion with God.
9. I don’t have a PowerPoint this morning, because it crashed before I left for church. If you would like to open your Bibles to Psalms 4:1. I’m first going to read from one English translation. “Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” Another translation says, “My faithful God, answer me when I call to You. Give me rest from my trouble. Show me favor, hear my prayer.” But my favorite is from the Message translation, “When I call, God give me answers. God, take my side! Once, in a tight place, you gave me room; Now I’m in trouble again: grace me! hear me!”
10. We sang a song about grace, ‘Amazing Grace’. I’m not going to ask you to raise your hands if you know what grace is. Instead, I’m just going to tell you. Very simply, Jesus went to the cross, He gave His life, so that we could be covered by His life’s blood, His offering that we may freely, because we know Jesus, can enter into the throne room, in the very presence of God, and to receive the riches of our great God. Grace is because I know Him. Because of Jesus. Because of what He did for me. I receive the riches of God. Grace amazing.
11. But we have got to learn to pray to enter into that more. In this particular verse, David is saying, ‘I’m in trouble, God. But I remember, I was in a difficult place, but You enlarged my place, in the time of trouble.’ Hallelujah. I love it. In the Hebrew, it doesn’t say, ‘You will have an answer’, it says ‘You will have the answer’. You have the answer in God almighty because of Jesus.
12. When we pray, not just words, but when we communicate with God, He invades our world with His presence, Amen. And He makes us know in Him, we’re mighty, we’re bigger. We’re bigger than the problem, because He’s bigger than the problem. Amen. I love this picture of God. It’s like God is saying, ‘When the enemy wants to make you feel like you only live in trouble’, ‘Lord, this verse here, Your Word, You promised me, that You would make room in my thinking, to receive what You’re saying about who I am in You.’
13. Do you understand that? The enemy tells me, ‘You’re defeated, Gail.’ But I pray, I talk to Him. And God says, ‘Don’t think little, like that. You are more than a conqueror.’ When God invades our thinking, we are built up to receive the power of the Word of God. When times are difficult, God wants to enlarge our hearts to believe, that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that our God cannot do.
14. That means I have room to believe for miracles. Some may say, ‘Well, we pray and pray and pray and we see nothing’. But when I believe, I keep praying, because I know as I keep praying, my faith gets greater; my faith is enlarged. I do believe that we are going to be walking in Glyfada one day, many of us, and people will be sick, but the shadow of the presence of the Lord will be so powerful in us and on us, that we’ll just walk by somebody and the cancer will fall off. Amen.
15. Come on, it’s true. No! It’s true. That’s the mercy of God. We don’t deserve it. But because of His grace, He wants to be merciful and give us the riches of heaven. His mercy says, ‘I will come; I will answer, because I already have. I answered when every victory was won on the cross.’ Amen, Hallelujah.
16. When Jesus went to the cross, I love it. Jesus says, ‘Father, forgive them.’ I didn’t know I was crucifying Him. Did you? You didn’t know. But when He gave His life, and He came out of the grave, He looks at each one of us and says, ‘You’re My child. You belong to Me. You stand in Me by My sacrifice, Hallelujah. So, because you’re covered by Me, when you call, I hear and I answer.’ Well, I call a lot but I don’t hear Him answering me. It’s because He knows the right time to answer.
17. I love this example so much. Remember Mary and Martha whose brother Lazarus had died and Jesus waited three days. Well, Jesus that seems kind of selfish. Were You tired? Did You need a snack? Why didn’t You come? Because He could have immediately come and Lazarus would have been immediately raised from the dead. But you know what happened? Because Jesus waited. If He had immediately come, only Mary, Martha and Lazarus would have known about the miracle. What happened during those three days? The crowd grew. They were grieving for Lazarus. But when Jesus came, it wasn’t Mary, Martha and Lazarus only, but the Lord wanted the many to see that God raises people from the dead, Hallelujah.
18. You see, our miracles aren’t always just about us. And I understand, I’ve been sick for seven days and I wanted all of you to feel really sad for me. Not really. But we get that way, we think about ourselves. But for God so loved the world, you and you and you, me and each one of us, He doesn’t answer just for the one. He answers that all men may know. The Lord wants us to know today, ‘When you call, I hear and I’ll answer just at the right time.’ We have to fight for this truth every day.
19. McDonald’s has, in Greece maybe not, super-sized meals, or it just an American or Canadian thing? Super-sized means like the hamburgers are four times bigger, four times more French fries, and huge cokes, you know super-size. And God wants to super-size us. He wants to know in Him, how great we can be in Him, Amen.
20. Because I don’t want to keep you guys here till tonight, although I would like to, I’m not going to read the whole chapter. You might turn to Genesis 34; I’m just going to kind of tell the story in Genesis 34 & 35. And just out of curiosity, don’t be embarrassed; is there anybody in this room who has never ever read those chapters? Would you mind? Thank you. Anybody else? Well, they’re interesting chapters. I don’t have time to read them but we’re going to look at them today.
21. This is the story of Jacob. Abraham is the father of the faithful. He had a son named Isaac. And God promised to Abraham and then to Isaac and to third son Jacob, ‘You’ll become a great nation. I will be with you.’ Jacob’s name, in case you don’t know, was actually changed to ‘Israel’. He becomes basically the father through his 12 sons, of the nation of Israel.
22. We’re going to look at this story, Jacob is facing a very critical time. And we’re going to see how God deals with Jacob, because God will also work with us in the same way. How did Jacob become a giant? God wants us to become giants.
23. Did you know, our enemy, he will try to push us out of the place where we’re supposed to be. I’m sure all of you have had situations where you knew, this is for me, but so many difficulties came, it was like the enemy was trying to keep you from being and doing what you needed to do.
24. When you hear from God, things will begin to change. But we can expect opposition. In the entire chapter 35, the name of God is not mentioned. You need to remember that. I hope you’ll go home and read these two chapters. Again, Jacob is a patriarch, he is a father over all. He is the son of Isaac, who is the son of Abraham. And Jacob’s name is changed to Israel.
25. They are now in the promised Land, the land that the Lord promised would be theirs, and they should be there. Now, these twelve brothers, have a sister, her name is Dinah. And the story says, she went out to see the daughters of the land. She went to visit the girls. You know, you have a little tea, a little crumpet, you know cookies. So, while she was over visiting the girls, that were not of her tribe, but they were Canaanites, or enemies basically. While she’s visiting them, she gets raped by one of the king’s sons.
26. The man’s name was Shechem, and his father’s name was Hamar. And as you read this story, it seems kind of strange, but after the violence, after he raped her, the Bible says that the young man delighted in her and wanted her. He tells his dad, ‘Get me that girl to be my wife. I really like her.’
27. Now, I’m going to throw a little thing just for you to think about. It may have been the custom of those people. We don’t know for sure. To rape a girl that a guy wanted. It might have been a custom; we don’t know, in wicked societies. But in Genesis 34:4, Shechem says to his dad, ‘Get me that girl.’
28. Verse 5, Jacob learns that his daughter has been raped; she’s defiled. Jacob closes his mouth. He keeps his peace. He and his 12 sons meet together, and his sons are very, very angry. They want satisfaction for their family. So, a motive is born in their hearts. And we are going to see that they begin to deal deceitfully with the people of the land. We want revenge. You shamed our honor. It begins to be about honor, and emotions get all confused.
29. Have you ever been there? Where someone has shamed you? Especially publicly. And you want them hurt because of what they did to you. That’s very human. But God is working to make us giants in Him. The enemy will try to work and manipulate. So, the story continues.
30. The men of the land, Shechem and Hamar, the king and his son, they have an idea. Oh, give us your daughters. Get married with our people. Let the peoples intermarry. You give us yours and we’ll give you ours. We’ll share; we’ll trade; we’ll intermarry. So, they’re minimizing the situation to get their way.
31. Keep reading the story. Shechem says, ‘I really want this girl. I will give you whatever you ask.’ So, the 12 sons say, ‘OK, do it our way. We’ll give you our daughter and we’ll do whatever you want.’ By the way, she’s not their daughter. She’s, their sister. But isn’t that interesting how he manipulates our thoughts and our conversations. Our daughters they said.
32. The sons of Jacob begin to answer very deceitfully. It sounds like a great deal. The children of Israel, the men, those 12 sons are going to present a compromise. When we compromise with pain, with sin, with wrong choices, the devil will always work to bring confusion. Especially when the stakes are very high.
33. As children of God, we don’t have to deal with the enemy. First of all, God had already told them, ‘This land is yours’. God promised it to the children of Abraham. They should not negotiate with the enemy. But anytime the enemy wants to get you to compromise, he will try to minimize your decisions.
34. These 12 sons are out of order. They start talking to the enemy. OK, we’ll let you have our girls, we’ll take your girls, we’ll be equal. OK, satan. I’ll give you this, and I get to keep this. I get to keep that bad feeling in my heart, and you just punish that other person. We got a deal satan, we make compromises. We treat him as an equal, we begin to talk with him. We begin to want what he wants.
35. Our thoughts shrink. Our thoughts become demonic. They become thoughts of the world. Our heart gets really tiny. How many have ever seen the Grinch? The Grinch at Christmas, yeah. Remember there’s a little picture, his heart is really, really tiny. And that’s what happens to us, our heart almost disappears.
36. The enemy is not your equal. Jesus defeated him on the cross. He went into the bowels of the earth, He preached to people who were captive, He set them free. Amen. This morning, I challenge you, to begin to say, ‘I’m in distress, but I know I’m not smaller. God in me is greater. I am a giant in God, Amen. I am more than a conqueror. Lord, enlarge my thoughts. After the thoughts of heaven.’
37. Too often, the enemy tries to confuse us. Especially where there’s pain and our motives get mixed. I’ll be honest, I think many young people in the world today, that are coming to know the Lord, and even older people that are coming to know the Lord, unless they give those things they want revenge for, and their hurts and pains to the Lord, they are not going to grow. They will remain spiritual babies.
38. And I’m telling you for Glyfada, I see giants in the room. Are we going to do it all perfect? No! Will I hurt you sometimes? Yes, I will hurt you at times. Will you hurt me at times? Yes, you will! Have you? Yes! You have. Have I? Yes, I have. But giants, giants, say to the Lord, ‘Change the way I think, oh God. Give me the thoughts of heaven. Change me oh God. Create in me a clean heart oh God. Help me to love the unlovely.’
39. Thank God, this has never happened here. But I’ve been in churches, where this side of the church, won’t talk to the people on this side of the church. They turn their back and go out to make sure they don’t have to see your faces. I don’t see any giants there. No giants. Itty bitty worms. I want to be a giant.
40. Oh, my goodness, stop and think about it. How many years do you still have on the earth? Don’t tell me. I think I still have 50 or 60, but I don’t. But what is that? But what is that compared to eternity? They spit on Jesus. They beat Him till you couldn’t even recognize who He was. And yet He said, ‘Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. I’m here, I’m here to be with you in all your ways.’
41. We sang that. Show me Your ways, that I may walk it with You. Help me to enlarge my thoughts. Thoughts of You and not of the enemy. These men were determined to have revenge, to have their way. Their sister, which they called their daughter had been taken by force and raped. She was in a place where she didn’t belong. She was in the enemy’s camp.
42. I was thinking about this yesterday. This is a picture I think about what the enemy tries to do with the children of God. And sometimes with our own children. He tries to capture the heirs, that have an inheritance in the Lord and they forget what God has given them. But I’m telling you today, satan may have my son right now, but God knows, he’s an heir and he’s coming home, Amen.
43. Satan thinks he’s going to win; absolutely not. With God we are able to run through millions of enemies. Yes, there will be times when things will come against our thoughts. But when the doubts come to us on the inside, don’t let the stampede run over your thoughts. I do hope that you’ll go home and read this story.
44. So, the sons of Jacob have talked very deceitfully. Give us your daughters and we’ll give you ours. We’ll all be together and become one people. The sons of Israel are not to be compromising with the world.
45. For the men, you’re going to feel this next part more than the women. If you will circumcise yourselves, we’ll give you our girls, our daughters. So, what do you think they did? They circumcised themselves. And the Bible says, after 3 days, when all the guys were in a lot of pain, the 12 sons of Jacob, they ride into the camp of Shechem and Hamar, and they kill them all.
46. Now that wasn’t a very nice thing to do. Not very nice. See what happens when we begin to think like the world? We act shamefully. Harmfully. We go against the Word of God. They didn’t fix the situation. Oh, Lord, help us. They killed all the males.
47. In Genesis 34:30, “Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
48. Jacob says, ‘I’m going to stink to everybody in the land. They’re going to gather against me and destroy me and all of my family.’ This is a very dark chapter in Jacob’s life. His house was out of control. He may have thought, ‘I don’t see any way forward, we may have to leave.’ Maybe he thought, ‘How can I trust the promises of God. This is supposed to be our land.’
49. It’s the same when there’s deceit in our hearts, how can we trust God at the same time. I our own homes today, sorry but it’s true. Many of our family members have wrong relationships; they go to the wrong places. Our husbands, our wives, our children are driven by pride and revenge. These things will tear your future away. When we take the Word of God away, when we take the prayers and thoughts of God away, we end up in situations like this.
50. Let’s jump quickly to Genesis 35:1. Let’s watch Jacob and the decision he makes. I don’t think he felt like a giant; in fact, I’m sure he didn’t. He said, they’re going to destroy us. I stink to these people. “Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
51. Jacob had nowhere to go, except to maybe run. And he thought, ‘How can I even pray. Look what my sons have done.’ But I wondered if Jacob wasn’t thinking, ‘God, You are the only One that can help. You’ve got to enlarge my thoughts.’ And we here see in this passage, God is speaking to Jacob.
52. God wants to say to us, don’t give away your confidence in Him. Don’t give away your inheritance. Don’t give away the ground on which you stand. Don’t make peace with the devil. Instead, lift up your eyes. God says, ‘Go to the house of Bethel. Go to the house of prayer.’ God has said that, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’
53. It’s not just a place we gather on Sunday. It’s a house when we learn to pray, and stay in prayer, it becomes a place of power. God wants to meet you in your darkest place. He wants to enlarge you there. It may seem like all the enemies of the land are coming against you, and your family is falling apart.
54. But remember what David prayed in Psalm 4:1, “Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” I don’t know what a lot of you personally what’s happening in your lives. Maybe you think there’s no answer, and we’re leaving these prayer altars out here for a while. Because the Lord says, ‘Build Me an altar.’
55. I think about this sometimes, it’s very easy to stand and pray, and it’s easy to sit in a chair and pray. But there is something, very humbling when you come and kneel at the altar before the Lord. And you say to Him, ‘Enlarge my heart God. I lay it all down. I need answers only You can give.’
56. Did you ever stop to think, Jesus was buried in a borrowed grave, you know why? He wasn’t going to stay there. We don’t have to stay in those situations that kill and hurt and destroy. Jacob heard the voice of God. He arose and he moved forward to the house of prayer, to Bethel. He knew what he needed to do.
57. If you keep reading in Genesis 35:2 look what it says, “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.” Put on the righteousness, the victory of Jesus Christ.
58. When you pray in distress, I want to remind you and encourage you that God hears and He will answer. There’s nothing He cannot do. He thought he was only going to see revenge from his sons, but as you read the story, he went to the place of prayer and he became a giant.
59. God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. Oh, God help us. They didn’t pursue him. They did not run after him. The devil is a big loudmouth and he may think he’s won. But do you know today, he is defeated.
60. The church is open, Tuesday to Friday. Every morning at 10:00. We’re here to pray. Just come in. And if you need to come in at a different time, let me know and we will open the church for you. This is the year of prayer. God’s calling us, ‘Beloved, come away with Me. Beloved come near to Me. Come away with Me, My beloved. You are Mine.’ We are His bride. You’re all I want. You’re all I need. Would you stand with me.