Journey through Revelation and Prepare for Jesus’ Second Coming

Transcript

0:00:00 – Tammie Southerland
You see, Jesus is called the faithful witness. That’s who he is. In Revelation 1 1. Do you know why he’s the faithful witness? Because he gave us life. You see, the true and faithful witness Will hold to that testimony until they become the testimony. And you see, this is something that we don’t, really we don’t look at this. But in Revelation 5, see, jesus is the faithful witness. He’s faithful and true, right he. He took the testimony all the way to his death. So I want you to know just a little bit the way that I flow and you guys back there, they’ll they have some notes, but hang with me because I really listened to what he said and I followed his lead.

Whenever I minister and have something prepared, but even as we’re worshiping, like I’m listening and I’m saying what are you saying, what are you doing? And it’s always like there’s people online, there’s people in the room, the word always begin to show me like, what do you want to say to the specific people? And I Love that. Over the past few, what month Jeff’s been, you know, preaching and teaching on the end of the age, and that’s a message that we don’t hear a lot. And here’s the crazy, amazing thing this is the message that God has actually burnt into my DNA long before you know, people started talking about it. I took a lot of flat for preaching on the message that would prepare people to stand firm and the day that Jesus would return. And and Over the years, like I, sometimes I got kind of hidden in the cave and I’m like, okay, I must stop preaching that so loud. And then sometimes I’m just like I’m gonna hit it hard. And, and recently I have noticed that more and more pastors and leaders and speakers are Stepping up to the plate and they’re not just saying, hey, jesus is coming, they’re actually teaching the scriptures to prepare an entire generation For the return of the Lord in such a way that people’s hearts are actually coming alive and they’re grabbing a hold of this word.

And for somebody like me that’s been they’ve been saying Jesus is coming, jesus is coming. You know, for close to 20 years I mean honestly, since I was a little kid, I was just been intrigued by the end of the age, by, intrigued by the book of Revelation and Daniel and Ezekiel. You know, I’m like talking about like six, seven, eight years old. Okay, and I’m seeing now like Lord, you really are bringing something into alignment, because people are actually their ears are open. I don’t know if you guys realize that people’s ears haven’t been open. People’s ears have really largely been shut. They’ve they’ve a largely been like the, the, you know the naysayers that would say, you know, like in the days of no, it’s never rained before. And people are certainly like, wait a minute, maybe it’s gonna rain, and so that’s very, very exciting for me. I’m gonna pray and then we’re gonna talk about.

We’re gonna talk about how do we respond? How do we respond to all of this? This teaching of Jesus is coming. Who are we in the scope of that thing like? Do we have a message, do we have a part to play? And and how do we do that? How do we walk it out?

So, father, I just thank you for the opportunity to be able to be your mouthpiece, to be your messenger tonight. God, I’m asking you that you would mark us as a body, as a spiritual family, that you would make us messengers. Lord, I’m asking you tonight that you would open my mouth and that you would speak and then I would just get out of the way, because you truly are worthy. You truly are worthy of Of the truth, going forth with power. You truly are worthy of an entire generation of people who would be marked with fire and Prepared to be messengers at the end of the age. Jesus, you’re worthy of the demonstration of the gospel. Jesus, you’re worthy of deliverance. You’re worthy of healing. You’re worthy of us understanding. Jesus, speak, speak and open our hearts Tonight, in this room and on the live stream, wherever we are, in Jesus name. So I titled this message the call of an apostolic witness, and I’m gonna explain that in just a minute.

We’ve talked about five-fold ministry, right, and we have talked about the, the Lord’s return, and in, what the events look like as they unfold at the end of the age, and a lot of people are just like you know, okay, that was a lot to swallow, right. But how does that play out for us personally? How does what does that look like whenever we’re looking at the, at winder, and we’re looking at Drug addiction, we’re looking at abuse, we’re looking at a spirit of poverty, you know? And what does that look like in our, in our, in our state? What is it like in our nation? And what does it look like in the nations of the earth?

Well, god is raising up apostolic witnesses At the end of the age. And so what that? What? Let’s, let’s just take that very simply. What that means is just there’s different ways to talk about the five-fold ministry and to talk about the apostle, the gift of the apostle. But this word, up the apostolic, this word actually means Someone sent or commissioned, that is, a sent one, and it’s it’s a word that kind of encompasses being a messenger, it encompasses being on a mission, and Then the word witness, translated in the Greek, actually translates as the word martyr. Did you know that?

And so we’re taking these two words, apostolic witness, and we’re putting them in the light of the end of the age. And when, then, we’re looking at everything that’s going on around us, right, the, we’re looking at what is truly the birth pains of the entire earth. That earth is groaning. Did you know that? It says that in the book of Romans, chapter 8, that all of creation groans. And so there’s this, this imagery of a woman in labor, and it’s saying that creation itself is like a woman in labor. It’s panting and crying out and groaning, and we’re gonna look at this more closely for the sons of God. Well, here’s the second part of that the sons and daughters of God, we’re actually groaning.

We have an inward witness. Do we know who? The inward witness is? The Holy Spirit. So the inward witness of the Holy Spirit within us is causing us to groan, us to pant us, to cry out for the son of God. And so you have, almost like, the symphony that’s taking place at the end of the age has been taking place of actually all throughout creation, ever since Adam and Eve made the decision to take of the fruit of the tree and they fell, creation started groaning, man started groaning, it started longing for justice, it started longing to be set free from its captivity.

And so, in the scope of things, this is what we’re dealing with, and as it gets closer and closer, I know that whenever I went into labor, specifically with one of my kids, I was like I had been back and forth to the birth center. We had all these false alarms. And whenever I was in labor with my youngest one, I was like I will not go back, I will not tell Damon, we’re not going to say anything until I know that. I know that, I know that I’m going to have this baby, because I don’t want to look like a fool again and see. The truth is, that’s kind of the place we are in as believers, as the body of Christ Like there’s this end time groaning.

The contractions are getting close together, but there’s been a lot of messengers that have gone forth and said he’s coming, and so there’s trepidation, there’s concern, there’s fear that, like, are we going to miss it? Is it okay to really be preaching this right now? Well, whenever I went into labor with Adley, I was literally laying on the couch and I was looking, I was timing the contractions. I told Damon to go to bed and the contractions were. They weren’t exactly like the two minute mark. You know, you know the textbook pregnancy is going to be like every two minutes, right, and then every minute. Well, that’s not what was happening. But they were getting more intense and it was so intense and so painful that I was actually on the floor and the Spirit of the Lord I had a timer set up on my computer where I was timing the contractions the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and he said don’t look at the time, look at the intensity. And when the Lord said that to me, I was like oh. And then I was like okay, I think I should go, wake Damon up now.

And the long story short. We had to drive 45 minutes to the birth center and by the time we got there, 30 minutes later, I had a baby in my arms. We, if the Lord wouldn’t have spoken that to me, I probably would have had a baby in the house or in the car, and the way Damon was driving I was afraid I was going to have a baby in the car. But that’s where we are. These birth pains are getting stronger and the witnesses, the messengers, are getting sent, and so there’s this groaning on the inside of us, this bearing witness with what all of creation’s saying, and it’s time for us to come out of the cave. It’s time for us to go, come out of hiding and begin to understand that things are getting more intense, and we don’t know the day or the hour and we don’t know the timing, but we’ve got to listen to the intensity, we’ve got to pay attention because we’re being set to watch. So first I just really like I just quoted this scripture.

But Romans 826 talks about the groan. It talks about the wordless prayers with a Holy Spirit praised through us. Groanings that can’t be uttered, right Words that can’t be uttered. So I want to look at that first, and then we’re going to jump into some of the stuff on the notes. I promise I’m going to get to the notes guys a little bit. I won’t promise I get all of them.

And so I’ve been stuck in Romans 8. Oh my gosh, for like years, okay, you can’t, you can’t eat the word slow enough sometimes. I want to say that you don’t have to like, you don’t have to consume the word at record rate. You can chew on it, you can, you can ask him for revelation on it. And so he’s been unfolding this Romans 8 to me, this groan to me, probably for four to five years.

I was struck with this, this groan, this awakening, when I was in Israel several years ago and I said, lord, I want to understand what is that, what is this unspoken, what is this wordlessness? And so this is the first part of it. It’s the first part of becoming a witness. It’s the, it’s the witness of his spirit inside of you that says yes. It’s the groaning, it’s the longing inside of you that causes your heart to line up with the spirit. And where it says in Revelation 22, 17, the spirit and the bride say come. So there’s this divine alignment that starts taking place.

So if you look specifically at Romans 8 26, it says in the same way the spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but he himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. It says he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, and he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So if you were to look even further back in Romans 8, it talks about, in verse 11, that the spirit of him who raised Jesus for the dead, the whales and you. And so if you study out Romans 8, you know that this particular part of scripture is telling you your identity of sons and daughters, and it’s also telling you that you have the witness of the spirit on the inside of you. And so when we’re born again that’s that is literally step a it’s the Holy Spirit that draws us. It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgment. It’s also the Holy Spirit that causes us to know and understand that we are sons of God. And then it’s also the Holy Spirit that prays in and through us when we don’t know what to pray as we should.

So what does this have to do with the end of the age? Has everything to do with it, because the beginning step a is learning how to get in sync with him. It’s learning how to say what he says, pray what he prays, fall in love with him. Listen, it says in Revelation I think it’s chapter two, where it’s talking about the church at Laodicea is at two or three, three that they’ve done all these things well, but he has this one thing against them that they’ve left their first love. And here’s the thing, the first love longing comes from being fully yielded into him all the days of our life. It’s step a in identity, it’s step a in hunger, is step a in the Christian walk is leaning into his witness.

And the word witness, I’ve told you, in the Greek means martyr, but it’s also a term that is a courtroom term to a judicial term. So a witness sits on the witness stand and identifies that they have both seen and heard a particular event and they’re they’re agreeing or disagreeing with the accused right. And so the beginning part of being a witness is the Holy Spirit in you is saying yes, you’re a son, yes, you’re a daughter, yes, he died, yes, he was raised up, yes, he’s coming again. That’s the beginning, and so if we don’t understand that part, then we won’t understand the rest of it, because it starts there. It even says in church of Latter, see, they lose their lampstand if they don’t return to the first love. And so we’ve got to step a, understand that we can do all the things, but if we’re not abiding in him, if we’re not gazing on him, if we’re not lovesick for him, then we’re literally going to be. Listen, that’s a scary thing, but are literally the light, the lamp, the fire of God will be taken away because we’ve neglected the very point, the very reason in which we were saved.

I posted this to them on Facebook today. It started in a garden and it’s going to return in a garden. Right, if I had time to tell you the whole garden encounter, the garden of Gethsemane in Israel. He’s very interested in the garden, he’s very interested in that encounter. He’s very interested in intimacy with you, since started with a tree and it ended with a tree. It’s all about love, and so I’ve been very, very intrigued by this word witness and how it means martyr.

And so how do we find ourselves at the place? How do people find themselves at the place that they’re willing to lay down their lives? Because I really don’t think that people go out into the mission field and that, or they live in nations where they’re being persecuted, that they’re laying down their lives as martyrs because it was just a good idea. I really don’t think they got zealous enough about their religion to where they were willing to lay down their lives. It says that they were led in the beginning of the new church, the early church, and we will be too. They were led as sheep to the slaughter. Sheep, humble, lowly. How do we get to that place?

So Joan of Arc is one that has really kind of like God’s kind of brought her to the forefront for me. I don’t read you this quote. She said it’s better to be alone with God. His friendship will not fail me, nor his counsel, nor his love, and in his strength I will dare and dare and dare until I die. I want to read. Can I read that again? It is better to be alone with God. Listen, it is better to be alone with God, for his friendship will not fail me, nor his counsel, nor his love, and in his strength I will dare and dare and dare until I die.

She was 19 years old when she was burned at the stake. She was tried as a witch. Do you know that? The reason that they burned her at the stake is really because she said that she saw visions and heard the voice of God, among all the other things that this young girl did. Her true witness is that I’ve seen him and I’ve heard him and I know him, and you can’t take that away from me.

You see, it’s the love-sick reality, I guarantee you. There was the inward witness of the groan of the spirit on the inside of this young girl that said there’s nothing, nothing in this earth that you can take away from me, that even can compare to being with him in the glory, to looking at him, gazing on him. It’s that kind of passion, that kind of love. It’s seeing beyond the earthen realm. It’s knowing that we’re sojourners in this earth. It’s knowing that this is not our home. It’s seeing so far above that, knowing that Ephesians 2, 6 is true. We’re seated with him in heavenly places, fully understanding that we are sons and that we’re daughters and we’re on a mission in this earth, that we were born for such a time as this and that his presence comes near and he will not leave us and he will not forsake us, no matter what happens in the earth or the nation that we live in. It’s that kind of hunger, it’s that kind of understanding that would cause someone to truly be a witness unto the death.

So too often people start well but they don’t finish well. You ever thought about that? We’re a generation of good starters. I confess I try to spin all the plates, I try to do all the things and I’ve found that that condemnation will come on me whenever I realize, like I’ve dropped this ball and I’ve dropped that ball and we do really, really good, especially in the generation of social media. We do so good at saying I’m doing this and I’m doing that and I’ve got this vision, and we start well, but very few finish well. And listen, I’m gonna say this to you prophetically right now, this generation is in more danger of not finishing well, probably than any other generation that has walked across this earth. We’re in heavy, heavy danger, and I’m not just talking about the kids sitting over there, wherever they are, the teenagers. I’m talking about our generation, the people on this earth. We’re so in danger of not finishing well.

But at the same time, the grace of God, the witness of the spirit, the outpouring of his spirit, the drawing right now is at an unprecedented level. So it says in 2 Corinthians 4, 17 to 18, for our light and momentary afflictions is producing for us an eternal glory that is far beyond comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. This has to become real to us. Where are your eyes fixed? What are you gazing on? What are you a witness to? Have we become witnesses? Have we stayed at level one of the Holy Spirit? You’re a good son, you’re a good daughter. That’s a good message. He’s a good father, but that is the milk. That is level one. What are you witnessing? What are you gazing on? What are you thirsting for? Because it says that if we fix our eyes on what is unseen, that what we see and what we endure really doesn’t have a bearing on us.

So John the Baptist probably is one of my favorite characters beside John the Beloved. To be honest with you, john the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord right. We know his story. We’re very familiar with him People. We said we’re the John the Baptist generation, but the truth of the matter is that God is calling us to be a generation of people who prepare the way.

And so John the Baptist actually was in the lineage of the priesthood. He could have worn the fine clothing, he could have served in the temple, but he was set apart, he was consecrated and so he actually became a Nazarite. He was one of the Essians. He lived out in the wilderness I’ve been there in Israel. Like it was hot, it was gross. He wore camel skins and Jesus refers to John as the greatest man born of women.

And so, just before John was beheaded, he trembled and he called for Jesus and he wanted to know like are you really the one? He found himself in a moment where you know he prepared the way. He was filled with the spirit from the womb. He found himself in a place in prison, when he was about to lose his head, where he was calling for Jesus and saying can you please tell me one more time, can you confirm to me one more time? John was a true witness. He’d seen, he’d heard, he had the feeling of the spirit, he had all of these things, but when the pressure came on. He wanted to know one more time. I want to know are you worth it? Is this true? Because if it is, I’ll lose my head. And Jesus responded. I love how Jesus responded, because everything on the inside of John cried out he’s coming, he’s here and I’m preparing the way. And that’s the true witness. That is the apostolic messenger. The apostolic messenger will go out of the comfort of their home, out of the comfort of the church, out of the comfort of you know, whatever you know you may think you have due to you and throw all that to the side to preach one message he’s coming. But I love how Jesus speaks of John the Baptist. It says in Matthew 11, 7 to 10,.

As John’s disciples were leaving, jesus began to speak to the crowd. I love this because he did confirm to John who he was. But then he turns to the crowd. This is the man that’s questioning, right? He says what did you go out to the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in the king’s palaces. What did you go to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you more than a prophet. This is the one of whom I’m written. I will send my messenger ahead of you and he who will prepare your way before you.

Jesus confirms John and, in the same moment he’s confirming himself, he calls this man who is shaken, who has laid down everything, who’s about to lose his head, the greatest man born of woman. Because there was an intimacy between the two of them, there was a witness between the two of them. And then he turns, he confirms to John the signs and wonders and miracles that he’s seen. He confirms his witness and then he turns to the people and he was saying who did you think he was? You see, god’s gonna raise us up as messengers. He’s gonna raise us up as witnesses at the end of the age, and we’re not gonna look like they thought we’re gonna look. We’re not gonna sound like they thought we’re gonna sound. Listen, it’s not gonna come in the package that we thought it was gonna come in and listen, it’s gonna be signs and wonders and miracles. And it’s gonna be suffering and it’s gonna be pain and it’s not gonna be pretty, but at the same time it’s gonna be glorious. And people are gonna look and they’re gonna say is he really coming? Is he really who you said he is?

If you’re laying down your life, and Jesus will come and he will confirm to us who he is, what we’ve seen and what we heard, and in the same breath he will confirm who he is. You see, he doesn’t leave us orphans. He’s not changed. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. I love how you even drew the parallels between how he was the same in the wilderness whenever he removed the Israelites from those bags, basically their plagues, their bowls of wrath. In the same way he will do for us. You see, we have to love, not our lives, even if it cost us our lives. And it’s only by the witness of the spirit that we find ourself in that place.

And so I’m skipping over some stuff, guys, because I wanna get to the power of this witness. You see, jesus is called the faithful witness. That’s who he is in Revelation 1-1. Do you know why he’s the faithful witness? Because he gave his life. You see, the true and faithful witnesses will hold to that testimony until they become the testimony.

And you see, this is something that we don’t really, we don’t look at this, but in Revelation 5, see, jesus is the faithful witness. He’s faithful and true. Right. He took the testimony all the way to his death. He could not sway him, satan could not offer him enough. He could not be changed. He stood firm and stood steadfast and he’s faithful and true. And then we see him in Revelation 5 as the embodiment of the message. When we see the lamb, the slain lamb with the seven horns and the seven eyes, who’s the only one worthy to open the scrolls. You see, when we become, when we begin to walk out what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard, we actually begin to be transformed by the message that we actually become, come to a place where we find ourselves being the message, because you can’t undo what you’ve seen and what you’ve heard. So it’s a definite change there.

So Jesus said in Acts 1, 7 to 9, for you do not know the times of the seasons that the Father has fixed upon his own authority, but you will receive my power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, and Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. And after this, they watched and he was taken up and a cloud hid them from her sight. We think about and I think I’m kind of pushing this point, but a lot of times we think about witnessing or we’re going to knock on doors, right, we share the I mean everybody remember the Four Spiritual Laws, that’s what I cut my teeth on. I was Methodist, baptist, pentecostal-ish, all of the things right. But we think that’s witnessing. But you can’t truly witness unless you’ve been endowed by the Spirit and you’ve seen and heard and see Jesus actually pours out his Spirit upon them and then he sends them into their region, into their basically in our terms, into their region, into their state and into their nation and to the ends of the earth To bear witness to what they’ve seen and heard.

How many of you know that the witnesses, or the disciples, all but John, became martyrs? They all laid down their life for what they had seen and heard. And so the witness becomes. You transition from the inward witness to the historical. You could tell the story. You have history with God. You’ve identified with. You know you’ve had some time that you’ve walked with him, you’ve seen him do some things. And then that final stage is that ethical, true witness that we see Jesus walking in. It says that Jesus was this fateful witness because he went all the way to his death.

Revelation 12, 11 says that those at the end of the age will love, not their lives, even unto death. We don’t will ourselves here. I think that’s what I’m driving home with us. We can’t will it. We can’t be good enough believers, we can’t study the scriptures enough, we can’t quote enough scripture, we can’t be bold enough. We don’t get ourselves to being in that place where we lay down our lives, where we become the message because we did good enough. We find ourselves in that place because we’ve actually found ourselves completely molded into him. We’ve leaned ourselves completely into him. We found our identity in him.

And here’s something I want you to hear, this the key difference between Peter and I love Peter. I’ve been about a lot with Peter, I’ve wanted to slice the ears right and John which, john the beloved. I’m not talking about John the Baptist, john the beloved, he was the son of thunder, he wanted to call down fire. But the key difference between these two is how they spoke of themselves before Jesus. See, peter had all the zeal. He says I’ll die for you, I’m going to fight for you, I’m going to do you know, this is who he said, he who he was. I’m the guy with the zeal, jesus. I love you. Jesus, I’m the burning one.

When John the beloved said I’m the disciple who Jesus loves, he identified himself about how Jesus felt about him instead of how he felt about Jesus. And I’ve walked through this personally in my life. It’s been like I will do the thing, I will die. I’ve got the grit, I’ve got the grind. Send me to the mission field. You know, he said to me. I said, lord, send me to the mission field. I want to die on the mission field, I want to die as a martyr. I will go do the thing. You know what he said to me get married, have kids, die there. Probably not completely dead yet, but that’s, that’s who he’s called us to be. He’s called us to transition from the place where we identify ourselves with all that we are and that’s okay.

That’s the maturity process. So we would begin to say, listen, I don’t have anything to offer. I have begun to understand fully the older that I’ve gotten, the more passionate that I’ve gotten, the less that I don’t know anything. I am actually very immature. I really need help. Jesus, I am your beloved. Jesus, I’m your beloved Because, if I can shrink back to the place where I know that I’m the beloved. And listen, that sounds arrogant, doesn’t it? But it’s actually the most humble place to be. It’s more arrogant to say I can do all the things.

And what did Peter do before the rooster crow? Right? He denied him three times. Where was John? Where was John the beloved and the women? By the way, john the beloved and the women were at the feet of the cross. He was the only one of the 12 that found himself at the foot of the cross, the one whom Jesus loved.

Peter was restored, but I believe that there’s something key there that carries us from being zealous and passionate. And listen, I will be zealous and passionate the rest of my life, and that may kill me one day, and that’s okay. But before I’m that zealous and that passionate, I want to know who I am and him, and I want to know how desperately in love with me he is. When I fail, when my faith fails me, when my strength fails me, I draw on his faith. I draw on his strength. Listen, even before I got up here, god, I’m praying. Lord, give me your faith, strengthen my faith, strengthen my faith, strengthen my faith. Jesus, you’re worthy of burning souls. Jesus, you’re worthy of messengers going forth into the earth. Jesus, you’re worthy of healing. I’m not. I’m not worthy, but because of him I’m beloved.

Does it ever boggle your mind why our Savior would lay his life down as a bridegroom and literally hand the kingdom to a bunch of broken messed up? Don’t nobody even know who he is, people we don’t even know him. And he was like here, go take the world. And we’re like a bunch of two-year-olds, we don’t have a clue, but he does it anyway. So Romans 8 has been so powerful to me because it talks about the revealing of the sons of God. It talks about the revealing of the sons of man, son of man. So it’s again that syncing together the spirit and the bride they call. And so the apostolic witness grows and matures throughout a journey with him.

As we receive more messages and more understanding. We see more of the birth pangs, we see more of the reality of his coming. We begin to get emboldened to preach the message. We actually get that face-like flint and at the same time we’re beautifully compassionate and he’s able to move through us as we grow and we mature in him. He actually makes us the message. We become the messengers because we’ve learned how to abide in him, we’ve learned how to gaze on him, we learn how to take the word of God and we read it and we pray it like it’s our lifeline, like it’s sustenance, like it really is our daily bread, instead of checking our religious box.

When we begin to mature into that place, we’re actually answering the groan of all creation. And listen, the fullness of that will come whenever he returns. But the groan of all creation is that you and I would wake up and understand who we are, because the calling of an apostolic witness, in the truest sense of the word, is to grow up in him and to go out into the earth and to manifest the presence and the beauty and the wholeness and the message of God, not because of who we are, but because of who he is. Did you know that we can actually find ourselves in a place and listen, it’s abiding in prayer, it’s chewing on the word, it’s finding ourselves lovesick. We find ourselves in that place where we go so low that he fully overtakes us and listen. I believe this. It says go into all the world and heal the sick and raise the dead and cleanse the lepers. He says freely, you’ve received. Freely give. I believe fully that this is not an if, and it’s not for some people. It’s literally for all of us to find ourselves in the place where we’re so in love with him that all we want to do is be with him, that when we walk out into the highways and the byways, they are literally compelled to come in. Listen.

I texted my niece today and I was like listen to. The Lord is talking to me about her. And I texted her and I was like you aren’t supposed to be Jesus to anybody, you’re supposed to be his friend so you can manifest him. You can’t change people, but he can. It’s not your job to be Jesus, it’s your job to be in him and he and you and you’ll bear much fruit, but without him you’ll do nothing. How do we become a warrior? How do we lay down our lives? We find ourselves lovesick.

We go back. Listen. Faith that works is dead. Do the works. But we go back full circle. Remember when you first fell in love, remember when you got born. Again I do. I was so unbelievably grateful that he would wash my slate clean and then, daily, I try to remind myself I was so, so messed up. I’m so not worthy to be standing on this platform. And then I remember See, we got to go back that remembrance.

And when the power of God I heard Bill Johnson say this when the power of God moves and the sick are healed, the dead are raised, or somebody gets saved or somebody’s encouraged and they say I’m so thankful for you, you can receive that gratitude. But then you go into your inner room and you get on your knees and you take the honor and you say this belongs to you because we’re not going after false humility. You just take it and you lift it right back up and you live in this posture and this lifestyle and you become a witness of him. You seek him, move. You have become one who’s seen and heard.

And then the ethical witness, the true witness. What is ethics, morality, right, ethics is like I’m going to stay in line with the thing that I’ve been told to do, taught to do an ethical witness. Actually, they have laid down their life. I’ve witnessed that Jesus laid down his life, so therefore I’m willing to do the same. That’s how someone finds themselves at that place. They don’t theologically understand that. I’d say Joan of Arc didn’t have a clue. If you really study this girl out. She just loves sick, she just believes she saw and she heard and she gonna do it because she was a teenager and that’s what he’s calling us to.

I’m gonna look at this. I’ve kind of flipping through my notes a little bit here and there. So so it at the end of the age and even now, whether or not it’s all the things are coming down. We’re gonna face opposition. We’re gonna face people who are gonna be like you know, scoffers, you know say like this scoffers are gonna scoff. Right, we say haters are gonna hate, scoffers are gonna scoff, mockers are gonna mock. We’ve got to know how to stand in the face of that. So let’s look at second Peter 3, real quick, verse 3. Actually I don’t think I want to do verse 3. I think that’s what y’all have. Let’s look at second Peter 3, first 12.

For the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Who is there to harm you? If you prove zealous for what is good? Listen to this. This is your character. Your anointing will crush you. If you don’t have character, he’s putting as anointing on us. Who was there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.

Yet, with gentleness and reverence, I’m gonna stop right there. I’m totally just following the fear right now. This is key. With gentleness and reverence, not with a spirit of accusation, not with a spirit of chrism. When mocking comes, when, when accusations come, you’re characters going to come into question, you go low. You become emboldened by the spirit of God and you speak the truth Without fearing and trembling, but in your heart, you go low.

If you go back to what we were talking about with John the Baptist to begin with, he knew how to go low. He taught us to go low. He is the one that prepared the way of the Lord. As the generation comes forth right now to begin to prepare the way of the Lord, you will be emboldened by the power of the spirit. You’re gonna see signs and wonders and miracles, but you’re gonna come, accusations are gonna come against you. Listen, we love I do media ministry. We love the platform we love to be, to be able to reach masses of people at once. But most people are not prepared for what comes after you, after, whenever you go and you reach masses of people, it’s hard enough to reach five, because people are going to be offended, the spirit of accusations, satan will come and he will put Accusations in their mind against you. The very one you’re trying to reach will come against you.

And listen, we’re talking about persecution and laying down our lives. This is how it happens. This is the, how it says at the end of the age that brother will betray above brother, even under death. And so if we don’t know how to go low, if we don’t know how to ride, listen, it’s gonna sound like it doesn’t make sense. We’ve got to go low.

In our heart does humility? But rise above the warfare and sit with him in heavenly places. We gaze on him. We say what are you saying? What are you doing? Jesus, help me to bleed love. Jesus, helped me to be like you, walk like you, be humble. Jesus was the humblest, kindest man. You see the power of the living God that flows through a faithful witness, an Apostolic messenger at the end of the age, is the one who was willing to go low and not come into agreement with any Thing that is like Satan.

Listen, listen, jesus said that Satan had nothing in him. There was nothing like Satan in Jesus. Therefore, jesus was able to conquer death, hell in the grave, and we are called to go low and come out of agreement with anything that looks like Satan. The spirit of accusation will point the finger at you From the head listen, then the someone’s head that will come up with complete, total bunk, right, craziness, and you are going to want to go low and you are going to want to defend yourself. But God is calling you to rise above that and Sit with him in heavenly places, get his heart, get his desires, get his word.

I have practiced doing this on a daily basis in seasons. Literally. I can hear in this some of what God has given me as a spiritual give, that I can hear accusations and I will go before the Lord and I will say, Lord, I come out of agreement of every whisper, every lie, every Accusation that’s come against me and anything in my heart where I am agreeing with accusations to get someone else Listen. It’s not just an action that you do, it is the power of God that it will be released upon you to be able, as you bless those who curse you, to be able to transform lives. I Don’t have time to go into it, but when my daughter, my art, my daughter, almost passed away this time last year, she’s covering her face. She hates when I tell the story. She’s okay.

God was teaching me this process. Rise above it. Rise above it. Rise above it like on a daily basis. Rise above it. Rise above it. Rise above the accusation, rise above the lies. Come and sit with me. Do what I’m doing, say what I’m saying.

I was teaching on it online. I was teaching on the spirit of Leviathan, and Jaden ended up in the hospital. Long and short of it is God like, gave her a new heart, new kidneys, new lungs. She is an absolute miracle. But I had begun to learn how to sit above the chaos before we ever walked into that hospital room. And Then, whenever I was at a conference I don’t know, several months ago, a Person that you guys would probably know, but he comes up to me and he says you know that the key reason, and I don’t want to formulate miracles, but he said one of the key reasons that you’re seeing the miracles in your life and in your family is because you’ve learned how to rise above accusation, accusation, okay.

This is why this is so important. If Jesus is a faithful witness, even under death, and he dies for those who are accusing him, how much more so do we take up that cross and Deny ourselves so that we can walk in the power of the resurrection? But go back to verse 14. But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts and be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. Yet, with gentleness and reverence, and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you were slandered, those who revile you, your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. You don’t have time to go through all of it.