Hope Is Here

Come on, just keep your hands raised. The presence of the Lord is here right now. Come on, God is meeting with us today. This team has ushered us into the presence of God. There's something sovereign, something special here. Yes, yes, yes. Come on, what you've been looking for is here right now. What you've been waiting for is here today. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. I don't know that I will preach the entirety of my message today. We've already broken protocol. We're going to move from the schedule. But I do feel like I have a declaration from heaven that is in the vein of what the Spirit is doing in this house. You can stand, you can go back to your seat. I don't, we're just going to see where we end up. But Romans 15 and 13, it says, now the God of hope. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in

hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. I want you to look at your neighbor and tell them God wants to fill you today. God wants to fill you with hope through the power of his spirit. So this is my declaration, over your life, over this house, and over this city, is here. Wise man Solomon said that there are times of weeping and mourning. In at least 10 specific Psalms and countless verses and others, we find songs of lament, grief, pain, and heartache. Proverbs 13 says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. The inner turmoil, the anguish, the unanswered prayers, the dark nights and lonely seasons. But I come to this house today with the word for someone who finds himself in a trial in a season of struggle. To you whose days seem defined by tears and not joy. To you who walked in here today weary, but you still came to worship. The Lord's eyes are moving through this sanctuary in search

of the one who is distressed, who is diseased, and who is in debt. To you who has prayed but is still waiting for a miracle. To you who has worshiped here today but battles worry in your mind. To the one whose mind cannot find peace and whose heart cannot break through. To you the one whose marriage is under attack and whose family is eroding at the wave of worldliness. To the parent today whose child is far from God. And to you, yes you, you who came hungry but feeling trapped by your mistakes. I lift my voice with a sure declaration from heaven. Hear it now. Hope is here. Where, I'll tell you where, at 7849, Wabash Avenue at New Life Fellowship. Hope, hope. Some of you walked in here feeling like you were at the mercy of circumstance and storm. The writer of Hebrew said, we have this hope which is an anchor of our soul. And I am certain of this fact.

If we can tie ourselves back to the anchor of hope, no matter how dire the circumstance may be, no matter how long the battle has raged, no matter what weapon has been formed against you, hope is here. So listen, let me just give you a formula and then we're going to let the power of God meet with us here today. In Lamentations, Jeremiah is grieved over the state of the city. He preached and they would not hear. He prophesied and they would not repent. He sits outside the northern wall of the city of Jerusalem tucked away in a cave. Tears are rolling down his cheeks. He grieves over the state of the city and he would write in Lamentations 3. He said, even the things I've hoped for in God are gone. But then he says, this I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. This I recall to mine. He said, I just have to take a minute and remember everything

God has done to get me to where I am. He would go on and say that God's mercy is new every morning. His compassion's failed not and we are not consumed. Let me tell you, hurting is not a pleasant place to be. But the fact you're hurting and you're struggling is a testimony that you're still surviving. You say, where's God in my life? I'll tell you where he is. He's here. That's why you're here. That's why you've not been consumed because God is merciful. But you have to understand the pathway to hope. Jeremiah said, the Lord is my portion. You know what the word portion means? It means possession. He said, God is my possession. And that's why I have hope. If you want hope today, here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to possess God. He said, what does that look like? It looks like blind Bartimaeus. It looks like blind Bartimaeus. Jesus, have Son of David.

Have mercy on me. Is that really necessary? It is to a man who's tired of being blind. It is to somebody who's purposed in their heart that they're going to possess God. I declare to you today, if you're going to discover the hope that is here that can change your life, you're going to have to make up in your mind that the Lord is your portion. The Lord is your possession. Shakara mahatala mahiya. Several places in the Bible the word hope is the same word used for waiting. So I don't like to wait, no, but let me tell you this. Waiting for God is good because whatever God has is better than what you have. There is a sovereign move of the Holy Ghost in this room today that can set you free. There's people in this room right now that you need delivered. You need delivered from substance abuse and emotional torment and baggage from your past. There's people here today who

have never received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It is the will of God that you be baptized in the spirit today. If you've never been baptized in Jesus' name, we'll baptize you in Jesus' name. I just come to declare to you, hope is here! Hope is here! But if you are going to get that hope, now hear me now. When we talk about hope in an earthly sense, it is based on chance, future circumstance, uncertainty. But this hope that I declare to you rests on the moral certainty of God's unchanging character. It is not simply the desire, it is the confident expectation that when I call on His name, He might have just been passing by and I might have called out as a blind man and a beggar, but my hope makes the miracle possible. So here's what I need. I need you to be honest with yourself and honest with one another because the Holy Ghost is about to fall

in this room. I want you to turn around, find somebody next to you, ask them. We're going to take a minute here. This is in order. And I want you to ask them what they have need of. Turn around to somebody, ask them what they have need of. If you have never received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, ask them. Is it a miracle of the mind or the body? Now if they have need, if they don't have need, if they don't want anything, that's between them and God. But there's hope here today that your situation and your circumstance can change. If they have need, I'm inviting you out of your seat and I want you to press your way as close to this altar as you can. Come on, press in. This is the formula for finding hope in hard times. He said this, I recall to mind. If you're in this sanctuary today and God has ever healed your physical body,

would you just raise your hand? I want you to look around. What are you doing? I'm recalling to mind every time God has touched somebody else. Because if he did it then, he can do it now. And if he did it there, he can do it here. If God has ever worked in your family, touched your marriage, touched your children, why don't you just raise your hand? Come on, look around. Look around. If God's ever blessed your finances, if God's got you out of a hole, look around. Look around. What do you do? I'm trying to recall to your mind the goodness and the mercy that's been chasing you since the day you were born. But if you want what God has brought to this sanctuary today, the Lord must be your possession. You've got to pursue him the way you pursued stuff. You've got to pursue him the way you pursued money. You've got to pursue him the way you pursued a

career. The Lord is my portion. And because of that, I can have hope. So without the music for a minute, from the depth of your soul, I want you to lift up your voice and let a cry of desperation come out of you. Let that voice of prayer... Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Jesus! It's still early. It's only 11.21. But I feel some direction. I feel some direction to how we're going to flow in prayer right now. I want you to listen to me. If you are here right now, if you are a parent, if you are a parent with unsaved children, if you are a parent, a mother, father, even a grandparent with unsaved children or grandchildren, I want you to lift up your hand. You know what Abraham did? He hopped against hope! When everything was against him, when he had no reason to hope, he said, I'm just going to keep on hoping. Because my hope is not based in the

uncertainty of my circumstance, but a moral certainty of a God who doesn't change. Come on, that's it. You've got to possess it. Hear me now. Hear me. These are not moments. These are not moments to be passive. If you are passive, it will pass you by. If Barnabas had been passive, it would have passed him by, sister Anita. But he wasn't passive. He was going to possess it. Whoo! Shatayana Mahatayana. I lose strength into your body today. I lose miracles into your body today. Shatayana Mahatayana. Shatayana Jesus. Don't be passive. This is not an ordinary moment. Come on, Brother Grant and this team, let us into the throne room. We've got to act with boldness right now. Got to possess it. Come on, that's it. Reach out. Reach out. Shake yourself free from the pressure of your peers. Pursue him. Pursue him. Yes, yes, yes. Come on. This is about the moment that we can back off and we can relax. Or we

can just put our foot on the spiritual gas pedal and we can just press a little bit more. Press a little bit harder. Oh preacher, I don't know. My family is so far gone. Yeah. That was until you walked into New Life Fellowship. Because there's hope here. I don't know. The doctor said there's nothing they can do. That was until you walked in here this morning. Because the Holy Ghost said there's hope here. We're doing good. But I have got to press you. I am restrained of the Holy Ghost to press you right now. Perhaps the greatest enemy of the American church is that the luxuries of this modern life have caused us to become passive towards prophetic things like what is in this room right now. How many people lined the street that day when Bartimaeus got his miracle? How many people gathered on the city streets when Zacchaeus was singled out from the crowd? What summoned that kind of response? I'll

tell you what. A refusal to be passive. You know what Zacchaeus did? There was a crowd just like this. And he realized I've got to do something to distinguish myself from everybody else. Because everybody else is waiting till he gets there. But if I wait, it may not happen. I've got to possess it so he runs in front of the crowd and he climbs up on a tree. Do you think it's ironic that the Lord singles him out? No. It was because he had purposed the Lord will be my possession. Listen. It's easy in a moment like this to just say, well God met with us the days over. It's been good. Or we can say, you know what? I'm going to press a little bit more. I'm going to pray one more time. And I'm going to pray harder than I did last time. Why? Because the Lord is my possession. I'm going to pursue him. I will lay hold of him.

Listen to me. It's what he told Abraham. He said, I am thy exceeding great reward. He told the Levites, I am your portion. And now Jeremiah had to learn it for himself. Because seeking help and seeking God are not the same thing. And if you're just looking for help, you can look for help in all the wrong places. But if you seek God and you lay hold of God and you possess God you get all that God is and all that God has. So I'm challenging you. I know we've prayed and I know we've worshiped but I'm pressing you right now because there is a door in the spirit being open to you. There is a spiritual opportunity extended to us by the grace of God on this day and in this moment. Some pastor called me Friday morning. He said, I don't often do this but I feel led to give you direction. I hope that's okay. I said, you do whatever

you want. You're the pastor. I'll submit. So I spent a little time with the Lord yesterday and really all I had to tell you was that right there. I texted Pastor Anzer. I said, if you could make a graphic that looks like this because that's the picture the Lord showed me in prayer. You know what this is, right? This is a GPS locator at this properties address. Why? Because this is where hope is. What's going to fill the risers? What's going to keep the baptistry going? When Terrahot realizes? When Vigo County realizes that when the bottle didn't do it? When the counselor didn't do it? When the banker couldn't fix it? Listen, you know what Jeremiah said? He said I'm in a dark place. I feel like I'm hedged in and when I pray it's like nobody listens but when I started to remember all the things God did. When I started to recall to mind all the testimonies that God had done.

My God, I feel something on me right now. When I put my focus on 24 in a half years of God's unfailing compassion in His mercy that was new every morning. Something started happening in my faith. Hope was born but you got to possess it. Come on, lift up your voice one more time. Come out from the depth of your soul. I just got to do what I feel. I keep feeling the unction of the Holy Ghost and I can't ignore it. Sister Harris, come on up here. I want you to pray for her. You're one of those people that the Lord talked to me about. You came in here ready to worship but your minds consumed with worry. But the Bible says hope makeeth not a shame. If you can just stand with your hope in Him. The Bible said I will not shame. God will not shame somebody who lives according to their hope in God. Sister Lacey, I want you

to lay hands and pray for her right now. God's a bring about bring a shift right now. prays together prays together prays together Brother Wallace, I love you. A good man right here and I know it's easy for you to look at a man and judge the measure and the contribution of his life by what his earthly hands have touched. But you hear the Word of the Lord today. This is not just a man of business. This is not a builder of business. I prophesied to you right now that the next season of your life is about building people. There's a ministry of restoration that's coming on you because you have a deep love and a profound compassion. All the business is his God using circumstance to order your footsteps to those who did not find satisfaction in the things of this world. But you're going to have what they're looking for. You're going to walk them through the back door. I can

see it in the spirit right now. You're going to sit with them in that riser. They didn't know. But when they walk in here on a Sunday morning, hear what they're going to find? Hope! Because that's what lives here. Almost every time you find the word hope in the Bible. It's an adjective. And so it is connected to a preposition in or on. Because our hope is founded in God's Word and on God's character. Your hope does not rest in my Word. It rests on his Word. And it's based on that certainty. On a Word in a kingdom that cannot be shaken. That you plant your feet and you say, I know it doesn't look like it. But God's going to bring my kid home. I know it doesn't look like it. But God's going to bring my family out of this mess. I know it doesn't look like it. But God is about to deliver my mind. Come on. Hope makeeth not

ashamed. Hope makeeth not ashamed. If you can live according to your hope, God will not allow you to be shamed. You're going to stand on the sure foundation. The confident expectation that God will do everything He said He would do. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. What are you doing? We're just trying to possess Him. We're trying to lay His mercy. His mercy is made new every morning before you rolled out of bed this morning. He was already in heaven's kitchen preparing what would happen here today. He was fashioning mercy specific to your circumstance and your trial. And to this moment, you don't have to live on last week or yesterday. And you can't live in tomorrow. But there's something here right now. God made something special for you in this moment. And if Jeremiah in his dire circumstances he was in could make room for hope. And so can you and I. If you're here right now, and your mind is under attack,

you're battling prolonged cycles of anxiety and depression. There just seems to be an overwhelming absence of peace in your life. Would you just lift your hand? Keep it up. I want you to look around. Keep it up high. I want you to look around for one so you can realize that you're not alone. And two, so the body can pour virtue into you right now. Brother Sullivan, look at me. God wants to touch you right now. You've been asking. You've been waiting. But God brought something here today for you. I want you to lift up your hands. I want you to lift a little brokenness. There's going to be a little emotion that comes out of you, but that's the opening of your spirit to receive it. I'll let her video. That's it, right now, right now. In the name of Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, yes. That's it. I release the peace of God into your mind. Come on, that's it. Pursue it.

Possess it. Come on, there is a deep ministry of the spirit here today. This is a life-altering moment. Come on, you got to possess it. Set yourself apart from those who will be passive and let God know I want it. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Come on, that's it. Young men, pursue it. Pursue it. Possess it. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. I want you to hear me. I know this might seem crazy to you, but I just have to obey the unction of God that I feel. Listen, this church is gifted. This church is gifted. Brother Grant has a remarkable talent, but it's not just talent on this man. It might have felt like at moments you were hidden or overlooked, but I'm telling you it was ordained of God to protect you because there's been many with a gift like this that have ruined it for performance. But because you've stayed faithful, I'm telling you today that there is an anointing

of deliverance that's about to settle on your ministry. And when you walk to this pulpit and you lift your voice just like the psalmist would play and sing and it would drive spirits out, the deliverance that's coming through this house is going to come through your voice. And when you walk in this pulpit, you hear me because if you have need of it, when you feel it throwing through this man on a Sunday morning, don't you just sit back? Don't you just hang back? When you feel that unction of the spirit coming through the servant of the Lord as he's singing up here on Sunday, you get out of your seat, you make your way to this altar and you indicate to God, I want the deliverance that's coming through the psalmist. I've been here a year and a half. I've listened. This city is bound by hopelessness, small thinking, poverty, mentalities. Where does it come from? It comes from hopelessness. People who

think it's always going to be like this because it's always been like this. It's how my daddy was, how my mama was, how my grandparents were. Well, my parents lived in a house like this. This is the only kind of house. It's hopelessness. But I just come to serve notice today. I come in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to serve notice on a principality called hopelessness. This address here, what they have need of. I don't care how far gone they are. One of the churches I preach in almost every month in Fresno, California. I'm telling you, man, it's a spot. They've got probably half of their church is ex-gang members. I'm there and there's a man walking back and forth in the altar leading pre-service prayer. Listen, he's covered in tattoo from his neck to his toes. He was shot five times in a target parking lot. But his wife, she hoped against hope. She walked in that hospital

room speaking hope and she came to church every Sunday speaking hope. And there he is on pre-service prayer on Tuesday night, walking back and forth with the microphone in his hand, leading in prayer. Why? Because hope make it not a shame. You just got to keep hoping, keep speaking hope, keep praying on the basis of hope, keep worshiping on the basis of hope. Where's sister Doherty? I saw her over here a minute ago. As you walked up here a moment ago, it's like the Lord just flashed this picture in my mind. I've heard stories of the envelopes and I could see a hand reaching in that envelope and pulling it out. I don't know what one it is, but I'm telling you God's about to come good on some prayer very soon. Why? Because it's memorial prayer. It's somebody who just kept going back time, after time, after time, after time. When circumstance said it's not worth it. When the enemy whispered

lies and said you might as well stop, she just kept going back time, after time, after time, after time. Let's just wait on them right now. Come on, there's only one way to receive that and it's by going to prayer right now. Come on, let's close our eyes and lift up our voice and go to prayer. Let's not praise our way out of an invitation to prayer. Come on, that's it. Pray, pray, pray. It was the invitation from the Lord Himself. Pray, pray, pray. Pursue it in prayer. Possess it in prayer. Yes, let your kingdom come, your will be done. Purify our motives, God. Sanctify our interests. Bring our lives into alignment with you. Bring our passions into alignment with the purpose of the kingdom. Remove the unnecessary that we may give ourselves to what is most valuable. The hour demands it. The moment demands it. I want my life to count for the kingdom. Search me, oh God. Stir the gifts that

you've put within your body. I go to her. Daniel was in that prison and after 21 days that angel finally showed up. You know what he said? I would have come sooner but the Prince of Persia withstood me because Daniel prayed which is to work in the spirit. And so because he worked in the spirit, the answer came from the spirit. But the angel said, when I came into the geographical territory that you were in, there was a spirit that opposed me. God heard you on the first day. God answered you on the first day. But for 21 days there was a spirit that opposed me. But thank God Daniel just kept praying and just kept praying and just kept praying. And finally after 21 days of prayer what he possessed in the spirit showed up in the natural world. Listen, you might think I have three heads and I'm a little bit spooky but let me tell you how God works. You've

got to possess something in the spirit before you ever get it right here. And that's why some of you are still waiting. You come, you're God-fearing, you love God, you love this house, you're faithful, you serve, you love the worship. But I'm talking about possessing it. You've got to possess it in your spirit. You've got to chase after it in prayer. You've got to abandon everything else so you can pursue it. And finally after 21 days he came and you know what he said? Daniel, I am come for thy words. I'm only here because with your mouth you kept possessing it again and again and again and again. Some of you have prayed and asked and waited but your mind is under the bombardment of a hopeless spirit that governs this city. But here we are in a beacon of hope with a clear call from God that said my house has to be a house of prayer. Why? Because that's the

only way they're ever gonna know. Help us God. One more time. Would you lift up your hands? Come on, this could be a day. This could be the moment that you go home and you write this date in your journal. You make note of this on your calendar because this is going to be the day and this is going to be the moment that you look back to. What God told me this morning at 545 was he said if you can preach the resurrection of hope into their heart they will see the evidence of my work in their hand. If you can walk out of this building today with a firm hold on the anchor of hope then soon and very soon you're going to see the evidence of God's work in your hand. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!