40th Pastoral Anniversary - A Divine Shift

we're going to turn to the book of deuteronomy this morning and we're going to read three four verses in your hearing friday night i spoke on a divine destiny yes i was thinking but it's those of you who are here um call it a mini-series call it a connection but i think you're going to see some familiar themes i just don't believe the lord's done with what was started friday night deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 6 the lord our god spoke to us in horeb that sinai saying you have dwelt long enough at this mountain chapter 2 of the same book verse 2 the lord said to me saying you have skirted this mountain long enough turn northward enough means there was a time and place for it when you say that's enough it means there was a need for it but there's no longer a need for it the purpose of the mountain has been served and now it's time to move

and finally in deuteronomy chapter 2 dropping down to verse 13. it says this in deuteronomy chapter 2 verse 13. now rise means get up cross over the valley of zadread so we crossed over the valley of zared by the help of the lord and i do mean that sincerely i want to preach to you about a divine shift a divine shift let's talk about this matter of movement amen man praise god

let's talk to the lord right now and ask him to help us father without you i can do nothing but with you all things are possible in the name of jesus anoint my mind anoint the ears of your hearers melt our hearts together for the spirit to accomplish what you have set out to do we trust you we love you we need you we bless your name in the name of jesus in the name of jesus praise god and everybody said in jesus name we got to do better somebody shout in jesus name how many love jesus who's the one that saved you who's the one that healed you who's the ones coming back for you there's no one like jesus there's no one like jesus come on let's exalt the name of jesus you are high and lifted up and your glory and your train fills the temple praise god hallelujah in the name of jesus

you may be seated a divine shift this matter of movement a divine shift is a supernatural move from one place or one position and direction to another you could quite simply say that i could shift my weight from one leg to another and that is a change in in weight but when you talk about things spiritually there can be in our life changes of spiritual positions and directions a divine shift is an advancement it's a supernatural advancement and or a change in your spiritual or your emotional or even your physical position in short divine is god and in short shift is movement back in the old days we used to sing you've got to move where am i do you remember that when the lord gets ready you got to move well you know what i'm going to do i'm going to preach the theology of that song when you look at the book of deuteronomy almost all of deuteronomy deuteronomy of course is made up of speeches by moses during the final months of his life before the israelites crossed the jordan river to enter the promised land of canaan and when you look at deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 1 right at the outset of the book it says these are the words moses spoke to all of israel in the desert east of the jordan and in verse 2 this parenthetical statement it says it took it takes 11 days to go from horeb again another name for sinai and to cades barnea by the mount seer road it takes 11 days but the scripture says here they are in verse 3 in the 40th year first day of the 11th month think about the incredible contrast between 11 days and that took 40 years to go to cades barnea the first sight of entering into that promised land what would have normally took 11 days took 40 years they tell me it was about 150 miles i did a little check going from here 150 miles could have been close to caduco paducah kentucky another town in missouri can you imagine for 40 years wandering around from here to paducah i could do it trying to find it but wouldn't be 40 years

it shows us and and moses is implicitly sounding a warning here that don't be slow to believe god again and so the bible says east of jordan here verse 6 he says you have dwelt long enough at this mountain and i want you and he's reminiscent at those early days they're now at 40 years but he's looking back and he's saying when this all started he said you were told to take turn and take your journey according to verse 7 and go to the mountains of the amorites and go to all of this terrain that he describes and he says in verse 8 see i have given you this land go in and take possession of the land that the lord swore he would give to your fathers to abraham and to isaac and to jacob i want you to look at this verse number 7 it says verse 8 sure i'll do it all right verse 8 it says i have given you this land are you hearing me it's a personal promise it's your land hallelujah but it is based on an historical initial promise that i gave to the fathers i want you to know the promise is good for every generation and he's saying go take some new territory that i am personally given to you based on what was given to your fathers and so the bible says drop down to verse 19 that we departed from horeb and we went through all the great and terrible witness wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains and then we came to cades bernie in verse 20 i said to you you have come to the mountains of the amorites which the lord our god has given and here goes again in verse 21. it ought to sound familiar see the lord has given you the land go up and take possession of it as the lord the god of your fathers told you do not be afraid do not be discouraged and just at the time they were about to step into the promise

what happens verse 26 moses is recounting it and he says but you were unwilling to go up you rebelled against the command of the lord and you grumbled or you complained in your tents and said the lord hates us so you brought us out of egypt to deliver us in the hands of the amorites to destroy us and then he said in verse 28 where can we go our brothers have made us lose heart they say the people are stronger and taller than we you know what they're talking about they're talking about the scouts that were sent ahead of don't ever forget the scouting was man's idea not god's idea god allowed it and they went and when they came back god never said i'm gonna let you go and come back and tell us whether we can do it or not the best i want you to do is strategize for your military but i never told you that you got to find out if you can do it i already told you that i've given you the land and so here they come back with all of this oh my goodness they are the walls are up to the sky and so he said in verse 29 don't be terrified don't be afraid of them the lord our god he's going before you he's going to fight for you like he did in egypt be before your very eyes and in the desert the wilderness there you will see how the lord god carried you oh he went on but the bible says in verse 32 in spite of this you did not trust the lord your god you can read it for yourself i always tell them in baltimore it is possible to continue a passage of study after i'm done on sunday morning it's just a thought i had i'm a revelatory person you can look at it but you know they're worried about their little ones that was going to take be taken captive and he said let me tell you they're going to take possession of the promise but as for you turn around and set out towards the desert the wilderness along the route of the red sea and bible says in verse 46 watch this they stayed in canis many days and then in chapter 2 verse 1

we turned back and for a long time they stayed in the hill country of seer on and on and if you look here in chapter two verse number three in the midst of the wilderness the first verse i read to you that was when they were supposed to walk into that promise now they're in the midst of the wilderness because of their unbelief and even in the wilderness there can be divine shifts it says you have skirted this mountain long enough turn and go northward then he kind of has a little interpolation here moses says in verse 7 he's talking now in real time he said the lord god's blessed you in all of the works of your hands he has watched over you in this vast desert these 40 years the lord has been with you and you have not lacked anything praise god but then when you look at verse 13 he says again now it's time to rise it's time to happen again here you're going to cross over the valley of zered and it says in verse 14 38 years passed from the time we left kadesh until we crossed this valley 40 years total and he said now i want you to rise and look at what verse 25 says this day i will begin to put dread and fear of you upon the nations upon the whole earth and they're going to hear the report of you and that was testified in jericho was it not and you they're going to tremble what i'm trying to tell you is in the midst of all of this ups and downs i see that israel had more than one divine shift to respond to and to move with and it's obvious what happened when they missed the moving of the divine shift it's obvious what happened but all along god was telling them it's time to move it's time to shift and what i'm believing and receiving in the day we're living in there is another divine shift that's among us that we must respond to the movement of god you say well what kind of divine shifts are you talking about it's interesting

that this subject was the last subject that i preached and had no idea that we would not be back in our church building in baltimore for about three or four months i think you would agree with me surely that there is a divine shift going on in our world you believe that and i think we have seen that things that happen in the physical world are reflections of the spirit world in other words what happens in the natural can be reflections and cues of what happens in the spirit i can illustrate that just like you and i have a physical symptom something's going wrong in our body and and it warns us of something internally that's happening that we did not know until we checked it out what about emotional outbursts that display hey there's something internally going on there's some kind of wound i'm telling you the same thing when we see things happening in the physical world that we're living in we've got to pray and be sensitive so that we don't attempt to address spiritual battles through carnal means or through natural means i gave you your bible study now let me preach to you i'm telling you there's a divine shift in the world that we're in right now and the bible says in his word the days are going to grow more and more evil and all that we have faced as a society in the last couple years just as an example are you understanding it's bigger than just opinions it's bigger than fighting this through politics and getting all caught up into those kind of things i'm telling you the unrest that we are experiencing it's a physical manifestation of the spirit of antichrist that's at work in our day but you don't fight it with the flesh you fight it in the spirit and when we pray i believe his kingdom can come to earth but ultimately we will not see that until that final day but here's what i do believe if we as a people of god can sense a shift spiritually in the atmosphere we can see the kingdom come in individuals lives we can take new territory in our jobs in our families in our homes there is a shift that's going on and we've got to respond to it correctly amen

i've seen divine shifts in local churches i know where we pastor in baltimore we've been there 25 years next year she was there the whole time that's why i asked uh but i can remember even one in uh 2014 prophetic things came that said there is a spiritual shift that's taken place in this meeting today and interestingly not too long ago a sister came to the front and prayed and she felt like the lord was saying there is a shift that's going on again i'm going to do my best to try to relay spiritual principles in practical ways i'm gonna try not to be spooky like my dad used to say okay sincerely if you're a guest here today i'm gonna try my best to help you in practical ways but what we have to understand is even in a local church there can be in 40 years this man and woman can tell you of divine shifts that's taken place through that time and i'm just telling you that the bible is helping us to understand that just as we need to be sensitive and aware and ready to move with a shift like israel did not or we've got to be in the world we're living in today i'll even say to apostolic pentecostal church you've got to be ready to move with a divine shift that's among us right now hi i know where i am i'm doing all right god is fighting for us god is in control god knows what he's doing hallelujah i've said it so many times i think a lot of times we're not waiting on jesus jesus is waiting on us oh lord help us he said oh lord help you it's time to understand that this is the day that the lord has made you can read deuteronomy chapter 3 and moses said i don't get to go over but let me tell you something god's going to be with joshua just as alexis he's going to be with me praise god so it can happen not just in our world it can happen in our local church

but let me tell you there can also be divine shifts in with your personal walk with jesus if you're a guest with us today there's no question that the lord may be shifting and changing your life and you may not even be able to pronounce it or identify it but like something is different that's going on let me tell you when we're in a personal divine shift sometimes it looks like chaos it looks like setbacks it could even look like defeat when all along god is saying you will understand why you had to go through what you went through because it's not just a divine destiny what's going on right now is a part of my plan but i'm also telling you that i am getting you ready for a divine shift in your own personal walk with jesus and it doesn't make sense all the time in fact i've come to believe if it doesn't make sense it probably is god because if it made sense why would you need god let me tell you right now and sometimes shifts that take place in order for god to take us into that position he's going to get us out of some conditions and that prevented the shift and what i believe here is that god is positioning you and i in this last days in this local church your part in it personally to do what i has not seen and ear has not heard neither has it entered into the heart of god what he has prepared for those that love him but that's not talking about heaven the next verse says but god has revealed it through the spirit what if you as a person got a hold of something that absolutely rather lies it revolutionized your walk with jesus see we've got to respond to the movement of god god's not the only one to move i've said it we've got to move i've thought about this a lot of times we want direction god wants movement i mean god at times will even motivate us towards movement because he's more concerned about movement than giving us direction

now it's not that movement isn't some type of direction i get that but what i'm trying to say is we want the final direction we want the end of the story but god's direction is often the next step and we want to know all the steps so what we do is we stay paralyzed in fear but god wants us to move into obedience doing what we all ready know to do what about mary and joseph god allowed them to simply move step by step rather than giving them the ultimate direction bethlehem was the place they needed to be to fulfill the prophecy but if they had not been in bethlehem they would not have moved to egypt every step of the way the question is not always where you're going sometimes it is but many times the question is are you moving the greatest step in your life is the next step god already knows what he's going to do he just wants to direct us you heard that axiom an object at rest stands tends to stay at that's right you heard the right answer an object at rest tends to stay at and an object in movement tends to stay in in movement everywhere we go never do you get somewhere in a straight line or as they say as the crow flies you get curves turns u-turns stop lights green lights bridges intersections and we make many turns and at times we go in the opposite direction let me let me tell you a story to illustrate that when uh christina i evangelized for six years we based out of donovan missouri and uh and and we use st louis airport so it was three hours and six minutes from our house to my parents house and god loved him everett wilford we had it down to a science didn't we sir he'd be waiting on me i'd get in the car and he'd take me to the airport i forever am grateful to you and that was a special moment for us maybe a trial for you but it meant a lot to me

one of those days i was going up highway 67 and i saw a public bus greyhound whatever it was and it was going opposite direction to me and the sign said it was going to houston and you know where i was driving to to get the airport i was going to houston and i thought isn't this strange same destination but opposite directions and both arrived at their destination at least i know i did but different ways of getting there and watch it the path of the opposite direction likely got me there about the same time as the logical or correct direction if not earlier than that i wonder if anybody's hearing me right now i'd love to preach to you about god's exponential power and i'd love to preach to you about god's economy because we view all this stuff through our own human lens and say oh my goodness it's look what it's done it's taken me 30 years to get here i don't have another 30 years why don't you put all those questions that was prophesied about today in your pocket and say god doesn't need another 30 anything he doesn't deal with time as we do god has exponential power and when it's time for him to shift you into your purpose he has the power and the means to do it he just needs you to move go to houston through the airport go to houston on the bus but just keep moving in the path of god does that make sense why don't you move your hand a minute here amen does that make sense because we're in many ways held by this captive of this thing called a path but if you continue the journey you will arrive at the purpose praise god and you know what i've seen both in the bible and i've seen it through other people's ministry there's a lot of times present opportunities and situations they they move us towards movement we got two missionary journeys because of a disagreement and god used it for movement and to continue his purpose i've seen things like no way would i get out of what i'm doing no way would i stop it but circumstances come

remember joseph and mary they had to move because of a decree from caesar augustus they had to move from bethlehem to uh egypt because of a madman named herod and there's things that happen in our life that we get so sideways about and get so upset about and why can't we just understand that god may be preparing me for a divine shift and something i've never seen before i'm trying to tell you in the holy ghost there is a divine destiny for everyone there's a divine shift that you're in the midst of and you just got to yield to god and his plan oh let's lift our hands of jesus right now let's lift our hands to jesus right now hallelujah here's what i'm saying god would rather you be busy doing something than be an idol he'd rather you be involved in prayer and seeking that's why we preach you've got to bloom where you're planted we can't let fear paralyze us and quit saying i'm praying about it that sounds so spiritual it's not spiritual it's a mask of you knowing what to do and you're not moving you ought to come up here it's rather uncomfortable but how many are really hearing me not just with your ear but you're hearing me right here oh my lord jesus because fear can it can be a cop-out it could be an excuse and there's just some times you just got to decide that i'm just gonna i'm just gonna move and when i move god can direct that movement if the car is moving it's a whole lot easier to direct it than when it's in park with the emergency brake on tis the season so let me give you an example i've always been intrigued by this i just saw it again the other day you seen that running back when he gets the ball and he stutters steps and he's looking for a hole huh and it seems like it's eternity like run do something and for a few split seconds he's looking to see what's going to open up well you know what that can really yield a lot of yards but here's the other thing

there comes a time when you just got to pick a hole and do the best you can baby you know why because you can't wait and get dropped behind the line for a loss of yards and maybe it's not everything you wanted but a couple yards is better than losing ground towards your purpose don't get immobilized waiting for the big game just say all right god i love you you love me all things work together for the good to those that are the call according this purpose here i go and your friend is saying just two yards i said hey what i'm headed towards the goal line i know where i'm going i know in whom i believe and he is able to keep that which i have committed against that day i'm telling you there's a divine shift going on and we've got to move when the lord gets ready come on come on respond right now talk to jesus right now talk to jesus right now hallelujah let's lift holy hands to a holy god right now i don't know what's happening to you personally if you're a guest with us today you didn't know it's an anniversary but i'm going to tell you right now god's saying you're making the right moves you've come to my house you may not know what's happening but i'm telling you what's happening there's a shift going on in your life and you just got to respond to it you don't have to understand it all come on church are you ready to position yourself in what god wants to do through apostolic pentecostal church are you ready to be a vessel in these last days into the kingdom of darkness and let the kingdom of his dear son become prevalent in the name of jesus hallelujah i was i know not everybody knows me but those who do

i was raised in the asphalt jungles of st louis i was a city boy so you understand when i say this it didn't come from my environment or my father anything but when i was in jackson mississippi for many years if you haven't heard they like to hunt down their mississippi and uh we'd go hunt the older we've gotten scott sister and i used to hunt and now we got older went back there we wouldn't last very long say come on we're not mad at those deer let's get out here but i can tell you that there was a day and i mean you asked what did you ever did you ever shoot a deer did you ever get a deer it's empty the answer is yes and no yes but i didn't know k-n-o-w it took a shot at deer uh we eat it i don't know who's what kind of ears you're listening with um and we looked and looked following the trail and we couldn't find the deer the next saturday we went back to the deer camp again and somebody said they found a deer and it was just a couple hundred yards past where i had been and where we stopped looking and you understand the emptiness that you know i didn't get to pull out of the woods didn't get to eat it and the reason i tell you that story is because i know in my life sometimes in my humanity i feel like i'm just on the brink of what's next i feel like i there's a divine shift something's happening in the world in our church in my life and i i just feel like i'm so close to it but if you want to be honest sometimes we fall a couple hundred feet short of where it really is and the same emptiness and the same asterisk caveat i've got to give you whether i've got a deer or not i don't want you i don't want this church i don't want where god has placed us in the kingdom are you aware that you and i could have lived in any era of time but god put us here and i don't want to fall a couple hundred feet short of what god has destined and purposed for us to be and to do how about it do you feel a shift in the air what's going on and i repeat it's so easy to misinterpret the divine shift it's so easy to resist change maybe not even resist it but misinterpret it not understand it you know change is the only permanent thing in life but what would happen if we would just sit in the spirit and listen what would happen if we put drama on a timeout and detach ourselves from the things that distract us and say jesus i'ma let go of what's holding me back i'm not gonna let temporary emotions cause me to make permanent decisions everything that is happening is shifting you into a position to walk into your promise

father i've done what i know to do i've said what i know to say i trust your word that will not return void i trust hungry hearts that are willing to move in obedience lord whatever response they have in this particular gathering i thank you for it but lord help us to see so much beyond whether we shed a tear or whether we came to the front any of those good things we may or may not do but what would happen lord if in our spirit we would say god i want this 40th anniversary not just to honor and look back at a tremendous legacy of leadership but i want to hear in the spirit what is happening help me to understand as a child of god this is not this is so much bigger than maybe someone changing in their ministry this is so much bigger lord there is something that's moving in the spirit and we want to be hungry and we want to be sensitive so that we can be a part of it yes our hearts today lord as a church as individuals lord god help us to play our part in eternity oh god help us to understand that this is the same kingdom that the the the people of faith in hebrews chapter 11 died not having received the promise we're a part of it we're playing our role in eternity right now god help us to be sensitive and not be distracted help us not to get caught up with the physical symptoms and look beyond it and pray the root of what you want us to pray thy kingdom come thy will be done in the name of jesus

are you praying right now hallelujah you can sit stand kneel walk come to the front i don't know what you want to do i'm going to submit to the leadership of this church but for these few moments right now why don't you water the seed of the word with the presence of god why don't you decide lord there's some things i want to talk about there's some things i want to pray about there's some things i want to fellowship with my brother and sister and discuss where am i lord right now there's a divine shift something's happening and i want to be a part of it lord god i know you're moving in the earth i know lord that you've set direction but lord i must respond to it more than i ever have before in the name of jesus in the name of jesus that's it come on all across this house all across this house from the back to the front you can sit stand kneel walk whatever you want to do but somewhere i'm ready to respond to a divine shift long enough come on church there's some mountains that you need to move from so that you can move to that's it in the name of jesus in the name of jesus yes yes in the name of jesus