When The Days Were Accomplished

Luke 2 and verse 1: "It came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. This taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was one of the house and the lineage of David." Verse 5 says, "To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the end."

Verse number 6, I'm going to take my title from these words: "The days were accomplished." And so I'd like to preach to you today on this title, "When the Days Were Accomplished." Amen.

Father, I thank you for the powerful move of your spirit. I thank you for this great church family. I thank you for what you're doing in this local body. Lord, I know what you've spoken to me. I know what I feel. And I'm asking now that you would help us receive what the spirit would speak. I pray that there would be a sovereign demonstration of your power today. You're already among us. We felt you're moving. Now talk to us and confirm your word with signs following. In Jesus' name we pray. And would you shout an amen under the Lord. God bless you. You can be seated.

I know many of us are probably familiar with the story today, but it would do us well to just remind ourselves of these few details. An angel comes to a young teenage woman by the name of Mary. He pronounces to her that she's found favor with God, that her womb is going to carry the Messiah who will come and bring salvation to the world. As you might expect, that is a grand assignment, one that she is seemingly overwhelmed with. She's a little perplexed at the magnitude of this miracle that is pending in her life. And she does what probably any of us would do. She asks, "How?" "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" What she's telling the Lord is, "I understand a little something about biology. There's only one way this happens. And I, being a virgin, intend to remain a virgin. So, you just explain to me how a virgin can be with child if she's unwilling to surrender her virginity. I believe in the prophecy. Oh, yes. I, I'd love to participate in the process of prophetic fulfillment. Absolutely. But I'm not willing to surrender my purity in the process."

But to her reassurance, this angel lets her know that God is not bound by human logic, that this is a distinctly supernatural experience. It's going to happen when you're overshadowed by the power of the highest. And so I would submit to you today, Mary's questions not so much rooted in unbelief. I think she wanted to be a part of what God was doing. It was simply a means of her trying to understand, how does this happen? And so, I know it's not overly complex. It's not very detailed. If you're a left brain individual and you want to be able to make sense, and you want three pages of explanation to know how, it might not suffice for you today. But I've got to tell you the same thing the angel told her: you want to know how? It's going to happen by the Holy Ghost. That, that's really your answer today. Whatever you have need of, for every how in your life, I've got the answer for you today. It's the Holy Ghost. You got trouble in your marriage? You need the Holy Ghost. You got trouble with your children? You need the Holy Ghost. Are you battling in your finances? You need the Holy Ghost. Trouble on the workplace? You need the Holy Ghost. Are you sick in your body? Are you weary in your mind? This is what you need today. You need an encounter with the Holy Ghost. And so, the angel tells her in Luke 1:37, "For with God, nothing shall be impossible." So, whatever obstacle seems to surround you today, you just know this: it's not so much a question of the possibility; it's simply a question of presence. Is God with you? Is God here? Is God moving? Because his presence brings power. And if his presence is here, then it is most certainly possible.

But there's some details too easily overlooked in these verses. I trust you remember this, but maybe you don't. But there has been a prophecy hovering the earth, hundreds of years in the waiting. The prophet Micah said in chapter 5 and verse 2, speaking of the coming of the Messiah, that he would be born in a place called Bethlehem. And so, it would seem to us today that if this woman, who is found with child of the spirit, carrying the Messiah, she should know. The prophecy said he's going to be born in Bethlehem. And so, if the time of delivery is drawing nigh, and she wants to be in alignment with the declared will of God, she should be in Bethlehem. Yet, the scripture tells us that is not so. In fact, the only reason they find themselves in Bethlehem is because the governor of the land called for a census. It is their citizenship, their national obligation, that has beckoned them to return to the town of Bethlehem. And now, here, the scripture would tell us, "while they were there," it just so happened.

Now, you would think today, if, if she was really persuaded of who this child was in her womb, and had she most certainly would have known what the prophecy from Micah 5 said, that she would have come here on intention. She would have come here with plan. This would have been a carefully crafted plan in alignment with what God had said was coming. But the scripture seems to indicate to us something contrary to that fact. She's only there because of circumstance. Her national citizenship, their duty to the land, at the beckoning of a governor who's called for a census, has caused them to journey back to this place. But now, while they were there, the Bible says, "The days were accomplished."

Now, I know in my mind they, they should have known what the Bible said. They, they should have known what the prophecy declared. They, they should have been there in attention. The, the hotel room should have already been booked. Transportation should have been secured. But, my friend, it was not so. In fact, I would tell you this today, it was the circumstance that they were seemingly forced into that actually positioned them for the fulfillment of prophecy.

Here's a little something I learned in the past couple years. We often view our circumstance to be in conflict with our prophecy. Oh, we look at the trouble and the trials and the trauma in our life, and we think, "Well, there's no way God is working. I'm so far from the fulfillment of everything God spoke to me and every promise I've been carrying in my life." But I rise today to tell you that, quite contrary to that idea, is that God actually uses the circumstance in your life to position you to bring about his will. So let me preach to somebody today who's got bad mistakes in your life. God isn't bound by your bad mistakes. He's not limited by your lack of finances. He's not trapped by the test or the trauma in your life. He's not held hostage by the overwhelming hopelessness you feel. The mess you find yourself in today doesn't stop him from helping you with the miracle, because prophecy works through circumstance.

I know we know what the Bible says, but I think sometimes we forget to live like the Bible says. Paul said in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good. He didn't say all things are good. The fact is, sometimes the circumstances you find yourself in are anything but easy, anything but pleasant, anything but enjoyable. But the fact remains, even in those trying moments and even in those long, wearing seasons, that circumstance is in the hand of God. And God uses that circumstance to position you for the fulfillment of his promises in your life.

And so while they were there — while just, it just so happened, while they were there — those blessed contractions start happening. I got three sons. Let me just tell you that I'm, I'm glad I'm the dad. And I know the men want to say amen, but you're just afraid what your wife is going to do to you when you got home, so. But about that time they find themselves rolling into the city of Bethlehem, something starts working in her belly. As she looks at her soon-to-be husband, she says, "Joseph, I, I, I think this baby's coming." And so now he does what any good man would do. He says, "Well, we, we, we got to find a place to stay." But the fact is, the scripture would tell us, they laid him in a manger. Contrary to our idea of some wooden structure laying out in a field, more than likely it's a crevice, a, a hole and carved into the stone or some hillside. And here they are out in the wilderness, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Somebody explain to me how this is possible, because God had told them hundreds of years before where the child was going to be born. She had been visited by an angel. She knew the child in her womb was coming in 40 weeks. She knew he was the Messiah. They knew it had to happen in Bethlehem. So how in the world do they find themselves on the threshold of a promise of God, on the fulfillment of a prophecy that had been, had hundreds of years in the waiting, and they have no place to stay? 'Cuz they hadn't been preparing for the fulfillment of the prophecy.

And now they come to the innkeeper. Like when we pulled up to the hotel last night, sitting in the truck with your pastor, hotel had a, a computer paper stuck to the door that said, "Sorry, no vacancies." I watched an RV pull up, a man got out, walked to the door, read the sign, turned around, and walked away. No room for them in the inn. The fact is, life was going good for this innkeeper. He was busy. Business was booming. But I've got to preach to you today: it's possible to be busy but not spiritual. It's possible to be busy but not busy with the right things. And sometimes the busyness in our life occupies the space that Jesus needs. I don't know how we do — we get busy running here, running there, doing this, doing that. And the fact is, this innkeeper could have made room for the most life-altering opportunity he had ever experienced. He could have — he could opened up shop and made a little space, and he, he, he could have let the Messiah come into the world in his hotel. But he was so busy. And I know from one perspective it looks good. Business is booming and life is great. But the fact is, he missed the greatest opportunity that had ever been extended to him.

And so I ask you today, certainly in the context of even this serve Sunday, will I stop being busy for myself so I can be busy for him? Because the fact is, there's some old promises in some of your lives. There's some old prophecies on this church. And we've got a decision to make. Are we going to plan our present and move towards our future on the basis of what God has declared is going to happen? The prophet said it. The angel told her. They should have had that hotel room booked long before they got there. But the fact is, they show up at the mercy of their circumstance, and they find themselves without a place to stay, evidently because they were ignorantly being moved about at the circumstance rather than intentionally preparing their future on the basis of the prophecy that God had spoken. Here this Philippians 2 and 20. This is what Paul says. He said, "I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own, and not the thing which are Christ Jesus." Paul says, "Oh, I would love to send somebody to you. I would love to be able to help you, but the problem is, I have no man like-minded. I have nobody who thinks like I think. I have nobody who will work like I work." And he said, "I have nobody who will naturally care for your state. They're consumed with seeking their own." Matthew 6:33 tells us, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." And I know it seems so simple, but it's so simply overlooked. First means first. It means first in priority. It means first in value. It means it's first on my calendar. It's first in my finances. Church, in the kingdom, is not the second, third, fourth thing I do. No, it's first. First. It's not up for debate. It's not up for question. There's no room for wiggle here. It's got to be first. I have to seek first the kingdom.

And the fact is, she finds herself giving birth out in the wilderness, in the most unpleasant of environments, for this reason only: they didn't prepare in accordance with the prophecy. And now they find themselves in an environment that's governed by hustle and bustle, and the business is booming. But the fact remains, there was no room for him in the inn.

I preach to you today, "When the Days Are Accomplished," because I stand in this pulpit today to tell you there's some promises on your life, and there's some promises on this church, that are a lot closer to coming to pass than you realize. I know what you do. You look at the circumstance in your life. You look at the pain and the discomfort and the displeasure, and you feel like you're being tossed to and fro. You're at the mercy of unjust circumstance. You're at the mercy of sickness and poverty and struggle and, and trouble on the job, and you feel like everything is against you. So I rise on this Sunday to tell you, even your circumstance works in the hand of God, and it's through circumstance that God positions you to be in, in the place where that prophecy will come to pass. But the question is, are you going to make the accommodation that's necessary for God to have room in your life?

I've learned in my 15 years of ministry, we take this thing for granted. We just come out of routine and tradition, and we're not much different than Mary and Joseph with that 12-year-old boy in the temple in Luke chapter 2, when they get a day's journey out of Jerusalem, and they're walking home, and they come to the realization their child is not with them. Can you explain to me how any parent leaves their child, let alone knowing your child is the savior of the world? If you really believe that 12-year-old boy is one day going to shed his blood that heals all humanity and that washes all sin, how in the world do you get a day's journey out of the city before you even come to the realization he's not with you? I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you how. You do it out of tradition. You just come Sunday after Sunday out of tradition. You come Wednesday after Wednesday out of tradition. There's no real reverence. There's no real hunger. It's just a routine of tradition. And then when they realize he's not even there, the Bible says they start looking for him among their acquaintances and among their family, as if to say, "I didn't assume my responsibility, but I'm hoping you picked up my slack." I've got to tell you today, we can't come with the expectation that somebody else is going to do it for us. Each of us has to answer to God for ourselves. Each of us has got to make room for ourselves. Each of us has to do the diligent care and the heart work and the prayer and the worship to make sure he's with me. 'Cuz the fact is, prophecy is simply God's declared intention. It's his divine invitation. It's not a guarantee that it's going to happen, or at least happen with you. But it's God saying, "If you'll do this, I will do this."

So sometime ago, as I was in prayer about some things the Lord had promised to me and had dealt with me about, God spoke to me and he said, "You know, you have to know this." He said, "Unfulfilled prophecies are never my fault." We look at the unanswered prayer. We look at the promises yet to come to pass, and wonder sometimes, "God, where are you? What are you doing?" But you got to know this about a perfect God: it's never his fault. That's why Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, he said, "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy and with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." "Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all." That word "neglect," it comes from a Greek word that literally means to be careless of, or to make light of. Timothy, you were given something by God. There was a prophecy spoken over you. Hands were laid on you. There was an impartation you received of the Holy Ghost. Now, Timothy, you have a responsibility toward God to be a steward of that prophecy. You can't live careless anymore. You can't make light of it anymore. In fact, Timothy, you've got to meditate upon these things. You have to be diligent in your care or your concern of the things that God has spoken to you.

Or God knows just how much trouble to send to your life to move you to where you need to be. You don't believe me? Just ask Israel. There's a land flowing with milk and honey. Oh, you're not moving there at the speed you need to move there. No problem. I'm just going to put my finger on the heart of an Egyptian Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's going to send his military. And 'cuz you weren't moving forward by faith, I'll send fear up the rear, and I'll move you towards the destination you need to be by using an Egyptian army. That's how God does this thing. Just ask Mary. "Why aren't you in know that's where you need to be?" No problem. I'll just put my finger on the heart of an earthly governor to call for a census, and it's your citizenship that will beckon you to that city that your spirituality wasn't sensitive enough to bring you to. Just ask the book of Acts church. God said it's going to start in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but this thing's not staying here. It's going to the ends of the earth. But they got comfortable where they were. They weren't moving at the speed God said you need to move at. So, you know what God did? God said, "I'm just going to let a persecution rise up." And when passion didn't move you, when vision didn't move you, when spirituality didn't move you, persecution moved you.

I'm telling you today, God knows how to use circumstance in your life to move you to the place you need to be. God knows just how to use a little pressure and problems and tests and trial to move you in the direction you need to be in. 'Cuz I know what we do. We, we, we, we get comfortable. We do. We just, we do it out of tradition, and we start being coming careless about the prophetic reality, and we start living by the calendar, and we start living by earthly influence, instead of saying, "Wait, this is what God said to me." Unless you think I, I, I, I'm preaching to you something I've not lived, that's not so. I was a 20-year-old kid that God spoke to go to a city, and we went there and started a church. I worked three jobs for 10 years right after we got full-time, and our church moved into a million-dollar complex. God spoke to me to sell everything and move across the world. So I took my wife and three kids, sold everything we had, packed it in suitcases, and moved to Europe. Spent 2 years there until God started speaking to me about moving back and coming to America. I'm preaching to you something that I've lived. I've not made my life decisions based on career. I've not made it based on comfort or earthly accolade or ambition. I really try to live with the sense of aligning myself with the prophetic reality. God, if you spoke it, if this is what you said, then I know it doesn't make sense. And I've had a lot of people criticize me. I've had a lot of questions I couldn't answer, 'cuz they didn't have the word that I had. They didn't see what I saw. But I'm preaching to this church today, you're a lot closer to some promises being fulfilled than you realize.

So you hear this preacher, you got to make some room in your life. You got to make room. I know you're busy, and you can be busy with a lot of good things, and you can be busy with things that bless you. But I'm telling you, when God shows up, when the Messiah shows up, and he says, "I'm trying to birth a promise in your life. I'm trying to bring something to pass in your life," you would kick out whoever you need to kick out. You'd get rid of whatever you need to get rid of. Come on, there's places all over this country that are memorials to some figure that lived. Elvis Presley's house, and this guy's mansion, and you go to — you, you go to Los Angeles, and they got sidewalks with stars and names, and all this novelty about earthly figures, just 'cuz somebody walked here, and somebody stayed there, and somebody did that. What might the life of the innkeeper have looked like if he could have put a plaque on the front of his building and said, "The Messiah was born in my hotel"? But he was busy. And sometimes our business gets in the way of prophetic reality and the promises of God coming to pass.

I'm telling you, some of you were a lot closer to God doing what he told you he was going to do a long time ago than you realize. Why is everything hard in my life? I'll tell you why. It's 'cuz you're not fighting based on where you are right now. You're fighting based on what you can become. Here's Mary and Joseph with a little 2-year-old boy running around their living room, and word comes to them that Herod has issued a decree for the slaughter of every male child two and under. Why in the world would an earthly king with a military at his disposal be so threatened by a 2-year-old child? So threatened by one child that he'll kill them all? Because he knew there's a prophecy on that child. There was this old prophet named Isaiah a few hundred years before who said, "Oh, he's coming as a child." But there were these prophetic words that said, "The increase of his kingdom and government there shall be no end." Doesn't matter how big you are, how strong you are, but one day that child's going to become a boy, and that boy is going to become a man, and that man's going to assume a throne, and that throne's going to have power and dominion over everything in this world. Herod wasn't scared about a 2-year-old boy running around his mommy's living room. He wasn't worried about that little boy that mommy was rocking to sleep at night. I'll tell you who he was worried about. He was worried about that prophecy coming to pass. He was worried about that boy growing up. You know why you're fighting? You know why there's so much struggle and distraction and opposition in your life? It's not 'cuz where you are right now. It's 'cuz where God wants to take you. It's 'cuz what you could become. But the problem is, you judge the fight you're in right now based on where you are and not where you're going. You look at where you are and all the opposition. You think, "Well, I don't know if it's really worth it. I don't know if what we have is worth all this fight. I don't know if it's worth all this obstacle. I don't know if it's worth all this opposition." But you can't judge the opposition based on where you are. You have to judge it based on where the prophecy said you're going. I know it doesn't make sense to where I am right now, but the enemy's not fighting me right now based on where I am. He's fighting me based on where I'm going, when the days are accomplished.

And so I have to tell you today, God is going to do everything he said he was going to do. I don't care how long you waited. I don't care how long you've been fighting. I don't care how weary you are. You hear this preacher? He's going to do everything he said he was going to do. Joshua 21 said, "There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel. It all came to pass." Jeremiah 1:12, "Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it." Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." You hear me? He's going to do it. I know it's been a while. I know it might have been hard. I know there's been a process, but there's a process to every prophecy. There's a process to every promise, and you just need to make sure in the process you don't give up, but instead you align yourself with the predetermined outcome that the promise declared, that the prophecy said was going to happen. I'm telling you today, he's going to do everything he said he was going to do. But you got to resist the temptation to try to take control of the circumstance and manufacture your outcome. You've got to submit to the process and let God do everything God said he was going to do.

We went to start that church. I was a fairly new convert, had the Holy Ghost about 3 years. I had racked up a substantial amount of student loan debt and recklessness when I wasn't serving the Lord in my first year of university. I battled a lot of condemnation. Because why would God take care of me when I made my own mess? In the summer we moved to start that church, the Lord gave me a promise. He said, "Like a seed, you have to fall into the ground and die. But when you do," he said, "provision's going to come from the north, south, and the east, and the west, and the mountain of debt will be no more." Wow! I like that kind of promise. But then I learned there's a process to every promise. 10 years of grueling bi-vocational ministry. Two, sometimes three jobs at a time. Working night at a hotel, getting off work at 7:30 on Sunday morning, going home and getting my wife and kids out of bed, driving to a storage facility, loading up the vehicle full of church gear, driving to a hotel, setting up a conference room, driving back to a hotel when we finish, or the con, the storage facility, packing all that stuff back up, getting lunch, going home by supper time, sleeping for 5 or 6 hours, and then going to work for 11:00 p.m. again. It wasn't easy. It wasn't pleasant. And there were two times in 10 years I sat across the desk from, from some very well-to-do career people that offered me a good paying job, more money than I've ever made to this day. And I'm telling you, it looked good and it was tempting, but I knew, if I say yes to that job, I will align myself with a future that is contrary to what the prophecy told me was going to happen. So, you know what I did? I just worked two minimum wage jobs week after week and year after year. And I had people say all kinds of things to me: "Why don't you go back to school? Why don't you go get a degree? Why don't you go get a real career?" And I wrestled with it in my flesh, but when I would get alone with God and I'd say, "God, I need you to give me some insight here. I need you to give me some wisdom," the Lord would just bring back to memory that promise he had spoke to me so many years before.

And then God comes to me in 2019. He says, "All right, Dan, it's time to move. This is where you're going. You're going to live there for the next 12 to 18 months." And I start telling God, "All right, God, I'll sell everything I own. I will do all we can to get rid of this debt, but I'll go anywhere you want. I'll do anything you want. But I'm telling you, God, I need you to come good on your promise. I need you to get me out of this hole. I need you to remove the mountain like you said you were going to move it." I had it all figured out, 6 months of travel planned before we were going to move to Europe. Well, we sold everything we owned, moved our few possessions into my parents' basement. I was trying to be as frugal and sacrificial as I could. I was going to deal with that mountain of debt. And then this little thing called COVID showed up. Talk about circumstance. In a matter of days, I went from having a calendar that was full to having a calendar that was empty. I was sitting in — we didn't have a home. We didn't have a place to go back to. I flew back to Canada from the state of Arkansas to my in-laws' house in Ontario. And here my little family of five is living in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom townhouse with my in-laws. My two older boys are sleeping on the top bunk of a bunk bed, and my youngest is between my wife and I on the bottom bunk. And that's where I spent the next 3 months.

I'm telling you it was anything but comfortable. It was not pleasant. And I wrestled trying to manufacture an outcome, trying to figure out, how is this going to happen? But when I'd get alone with God, and I'd say, "Lord, I need some help here," God would just remind me, "Dan, did I not tell you, if you fall into the ground and die, I would send provision from the north, south, east, and the west?" I'm telling you today, I've lived at the mercy of circumstance. But I've also learned that my circumstance is still in the hand of my God. I'm telling you, I had literally thousands of dollars of plane tickets that I wasn't getting reimbursed for. It wasn't intentional. It was just people were overwhelmed. And here I am with thinking, "God, how am I going to get out of this? God, what am I going to do? I've got no income. I've got all these tickets I'm not getting reimbursed for." That's the price you pay for buying the cheapest one. They're non-refundable. And I'm telling you before God, in the next — the first 60 days of COVID, I literally watched the windows of heaven open. In 60 days, God put a hundred and ten thousand dollars through my hands. And I know you get to that part of the story, and that's where people like to say, "Woo, that's awesome. I'd like that," yeah. I waited ten years. There was a ten year pri- and it was super, now I'm telling you, it came from everywhere. It came from people who weren't even in the church. Hey, it came from people, people that we had baptized five and six years before, that I hadn't talked to for three and four years. Hey, it came from people I knew from my childhood that I hadn't talked to. I mean, it came from everywhere, literally the north, south, east, and the west. And you know what I did? I could have gone out and bought myself new clothes and nice car. We could, we could have, we could have got a little house, but no. I had a destination to get to. I had a prophecy that — but you know what I did? I took God's provision and I removed that mountain of debt, and I gave larger offerings than I had ever given in my life. And we had savings in our bank account for the first time in our marriage.

I'm telling you today, I know what it's like to live at the mercy of circumstance, but I also know what it's like to get to the threshold of the fulfillment of a promise and a prophecy that you've carried in your womb for years. And there were moments I wrestled, and I could have tried to manufacture my own outcome. I could have tried to figure it out. But when I got back to the altar, God would just remind me, "Did I not tell you I would take care of the mountain? Did I not tell you it would come from the north, south, east, and the west? Your responsibility is to be like a seed and die. My responsibility is to provide." And so I'm preaching today, God's going to do everything he said he was going to do, but you're going to have to submit to the process, and you're going to have to choose to make the decisions in your life not based on what's happening, not, not, not based on what's look right, but based on what that prophecy declared. If God said do it. If God said wait. If God said go. If God said stay. You've got to do whatever God said do. 'Cuz what you're going to find out is that circumstance is actually in the hand of God, and it's just moving you to the place where that prophecy comes to pass.

Would you lift your hands to the Lord right now? Oh God. Come on, somebody, somebody in this house whose kid is far from God, but you got a promise about it. You've been praying about it for years. Hear this, preacher. God is good on his word. Stand together with me. I'm telling you today, God uses the circumstance in your life to get you where you need to be. But you need to hear me. There's some things that are a lot closer to coming to pass than you realize. And what was said of Mary will soon be said of you, "when the days were accomplished." She'd been waiting 9 months, but the world had been waiting thousands of years. 'Cuz the prophecy that came by an angel to her came by God in a garden a long time ago. God said the heel is going to crush his head.

I'm telling somebody in the Holy Ghost right now, you need to open up your spirit and receive the word of the Lord. You've waited, you've wondered, you've worried, you've tossed and you've turned, and there's a turmoil in your heart. But even your circumstance is in the hand of God. I preached a funeral of a preacher who was done wrong many years ago. He was an elder. He was done wrong. It was a bad deal. He was kind of blacklisted, and it was a church I preached at many, many times. And when I chose to preach that man's funeral, that church didn't want nothing to do with me anymore. And the wrong that was done became a seed of offense in that family. The kids started backsliding. His wife started backsliding. It's just been a mess. But I know the nature of this God that I serve. He's a lot more merciful than we realize. God had give me a word many years ago about these backsliders. I started preaching this church, it was on the verge of revival, 200 people going into a building program. It was explosive. And that little situation took a church that was on the threshold of the greatest season they had ever been in. They still went ahead with the building program. They scraped by, they made it in there. That 500 seat sanctuary had 50 people in it. 'Cuz it just decimated the church.

In the fall of '21, the Lord opened the door for me to go back there for the first time in several years. And God began to speak to me about restoration. And I preached to that church, "When the Withered Hand Is Made Whole." I started talking about backsliders coming home. Started calling them by name from the pulpit. Well, that man's funeral that I preached, his, one of his daughters called my wife last week. Sent her a message and she said, "Hey, would you sing some songs and just send them to me?" So Haley started singing some songs just acapella on her phone and sent her the recording. She wrote back and she said, "Yeah, some, something really, really neat happened recently. I'll have to tell you sometimes." Haley called her right away, and they get on FaceTime. She said, "I was so hurt and so messed up, drinking and drugs, and from what was done to my father, and the hurt and the offense." She said, "I couldn't, I couldn't even think of God. To even hear the word church was such a trigger to me that I just be overcome with anxiety." But she said, "I felt so empty." She said, "You have no idea how often all of us who left church would be sitting around drinking in a living room, and we talk about how we miss the church people, how we miss God." She said, "You have no idea how much we talk about that." She said, "I felt so empty." She said, "So, about a year ago, I, I wanted to pray." But she said, "I couldn't even pray, because it was such a trigger for my anxiety." She said, "So, I started meditating." She said, "I got into this new age stuff." She said, "I would literally sit on my floor and cross my legs, and out loud," she said, "I would say to the creator of the universe." She, I start, she said, "But it, it didn't do anything for me." She said, "I felt so empty." She said, "So, about a month ago, I started reading my Bible." First time, she said, I've touched my Bible in years. And she said, "After reading my Bible for a couple weeks," she said, "I woke up one morning and I had a dream." She said, "In the dream, I was walking through my living room." And she said, "My father was sitting there, and he was speaking in other tongues." And she said, "And I turned, and my mother was sitting on the other side of the living room in the dream, and she was speaking in other tongues." And she said, "When I woke up, for the first time in a long time," she said, "I felt the presence of God." And she said, "For the first time in a long time," she said, "I said his name, and I started worshipping him." And she said, "Haley, I started speaking in other tongues." It's been a decade! Been a lot of pain. She said, "I had my Bible out the other day when my brother walked in the room, and he looked at me like I had four heads, and he said, 'What are you doing?'" She said, "I'm doing research." She said, "I went to swear , I went to take the Lord's name in vain." And she said, "I said, 'Gee.'" She said, "I covered my mouth." She said, "My sister looked at me," said, "What are you doing?" She said, "I've been born again." And she's telling my wife, she says, "I don't know what to do. I don't feel like I can go back there. I'm so hurt and such a trigger for me," but she said, "I know he's real." You know what that was? It was an old promise that God had put in the spirit of some people, that they've carried in prayer. And the Lord showed up at the end of that young lady's heart and started knocking.

You might have to kick some stuff out. You might have to put the bottle away. You might have to say goodbye. But oh, what goodness there is when God shows up. And so I'm telling this church today, and some families in this church, you've been carrying something in the womb of your spirit. And I know you don't realize it, 'cuz you just feel like you're at the mercy of the circumstances. You feel like your life's been dictated by your career and your sickness and the struggle and the fight. But I'm just telling you, God has a way of using circumstance to position you. And you just need to hear me. The days are soon to be accomplished. And everything God said he was going to do, he's going to do. Come on, give him praise right now.

The Bible says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness." The New Living Translation says, "The Lord is not really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he's just being for your sake." He's patient. He's long-suffering. But don't you believe the lie of the enemy that just 'cuz he's patient, he's not powerful. He's going to do everything he said he was going to do. So if you're here today and you got a promise in your heart, if you got something you've been waiting on, and when you look at the landscape of your life it seems so far from coming to pass, be of good cheer. 'Cuz he's using the circumstance to get you where you need to be. If you're a parent in this house with a backslidden child, I wish you just step out of your seat and make your way to this altar right now.

I got a family member. Oh, he was successful in the corporate world, executive in a great big company, beautiful home at the foot of the mountains, making six figures, money that I've never known in my life. High-functioning alcoholic, got hooked on cocaine. Sitting across from the desk from his boss one day, his boss says, "How you doing?" And he couldn't bear the weight anymore. He broke down crying, "Doing terrible." "What do you mean?" He said, "I'm an alcoholic. I'm hooked on drugs." His boss couldn't believe it. "How? How in the world can you be a high-functioning alcoholic and hooked on cocaine, and be managing construction sites worth 40 and 50 and 60 million dollars? How? 'Cuz God's long-suffering." What would most people do? They'd fire you right there. You'd be packing your office and heading home. You know what they did? They sent him to a live-in Christian-based rehab facility, and continued to pay his salary while he was there. Talk about God. His counselor said one day on the phone, he said, "I've never seen somebody with this kind of chemical addiction get free so quickly. It's not so much the chemical addiction that he needs to work through, as it is the emotional pain that led him there." Tell you, God uses circumstance. He's moving the right direction. He's not perfect. He's not, he's not where he needs to be, but he's moving the right direction. You know what he's finding out today? We're teaching him a Bible study on Zoom every week, talking about the scripture, talking about the things of God. You know what he's learning? He's learning that when you come to yourself in the pigpen, and you just turn your face towards the Father's house, you don't have to get it together. You don't have to change your clothes. You don't have to get it clean. You just have to turn towards Daddy, and Daddy comes running to you. It's not my notes. I'm just telling you what I feel today. There's a whole lot of broken families, and a whole lot of lost children, and a whole lot of backsliders that God is still reaching for. I'd venture a guess today that if just those of us in this house could reach the backsliders we knew, could be a place of safety and healing and restoration for them, we'd already be starting a project to put a balcony in this house. I'm pretty confident there's probably enough people that have been baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost in a 30-mi radius of this church, that if they just came back to Daddy's house, we'd start that building this week.

I'm telling you what I know from God. There's some prophecies in the womb of this church that are a lot closer to coming to pass than you think. Come on, just lift up your voice. Lift up your voice. Do you have a promise today? Do you have a promise of healing? Do you have a promise of restoration? Do you have a promise of deliverance? Do you have a promise of provision? Do you have a promise of a call, of a dream, of a vision? Come on, lift up your voice. If you feel like God's working in your heart, if God's talking to you, would you just step out of your seat and make your way to this altar right now? And when you get here, I want you to lift up your voice. Come on, we need a roar of prayer. We need a cry of prayer. We need a travail to rise in this sanctuary right now. "When Zion travails" — I'm telling Center Point Church today, I'm telling this great body, it's time for you to get in the birthing room. It's time for you to cry out. It's time for you to intercede. It's time for you to travail. It's time for you to pray. You can birth something in and by the spirit. Come on, that's it. Just give yourself to prayer right now. I know you want to make sense of it. You want to be able to figure it out. You want to be able to make sense of the plan and the process. You're not going to be able to. You just need to know it's going to happen by the Holy Ghost. The spirit of the Lord is going to overshadow you. It's going to do the work. I know it's impossible with man, but with God, all things are possible. Ah, he can amass a heart, and a heart, and a heart, and a heart, she can know your heart, and a heart.

Let me have your attention for 1 minute. I want — we'll give you some direction and prayer, and then I'm done. The worship team can begin to sing and can pray. Pastor will come. This wasn't in my notes, and it's just, I'm telling what I feel. There's a restoration that God has for some people. But when you're carrying that promise in the womb of your spirit, and those contractions start coming, it indicates to you the days are soon to be accomplished. What you've been waiting for. What you've been carrying. What you've been hoping for. It's coming. But the closer you get to the moment, the more intense it becomes. Come on, some of you parents know what I'm talking about. First time father, I thought — I thought the first time we had contractions, I thought, "Well, man, this ain't that bad. We're going to get through it all right." Yeah. But when the time came to be accomplished, I realized, this is a lot more intense process than I thought. I'm telling you what I know from the Holy Ghost. Some of you in this room need to turn up your spiritual intensity. You need to make room. I know you're busy. I know you're doing good. I know you're present. But your spiritual intensity, your fervency, your inquisitiveness, and your care for the promises and the prophecies God has — you got to become more intense about it. I remember, I remember being in that birthing room, and you're so overcome with pain that, that, that you get out of sync with the process. And the nurse would start saying, "All right, Haley. All right, you got to push now. You got to push now. Okay, breathe. Okay, push. Okay, breathe. Push!" Because in the heat of the moment, the overwhelming pressure and pain of the circumstance, you get out of sync with the rhythm. And I'm telling you, there's a rhythm of the spirit God has for this church, and you are closer to this than you realize. But you have to turn up this spiritual intensity. You've got to pray more. You've got to fast more. You've got to sacrifice more. You've got to serve more. And I know you're doing good. Don't take me wrong. I'm not trying to be hard on you today. I'm just telling you, God has some great things he wants to bring to pass, but if you're going to birth it in the intensity of that moment, you have got to get in rhythm with the spirit. And you breathe when you can, but then you push. And I'm telling you, this is a season to push. It's a season to pray. It's a season to fast more. It's a season to sacrifice. It's a season to teach more Bible studies, 'cuz God is going to do what he said he would do.

And so just for a moment — they're going to worship in a moment, but before they do, I'm asking you, I want you to lift your hands, and from the depth of your heart, I want you to let a cry come out of you. Come on. You — I'm talking about a cry that would birth something. That would birth a, a Bible study. That would birth a new family. That would birth a revival. That would birth another daughter work. That would birth another ministry. That would birth restoration. Come on, that's it. That's it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's happening. It's happening.