What lies ahead!

There will always be turmoil around anything that pushes forward the things of God, and anything that will be used for God. In the book of Acts, every disciple of God, with the exception of one, was martyred. You may be sitting there thinking, “That is not for me.” It very well may not be for you, but do you have a heart that is committed to the kingdom of heaven? I will be honest; unless you have that type of heart, I don’t know if your Christianity will work in the end times. I know that is a very serious thought, and I know that there is a lot of turmoil even around putting that thought out there. But I really don’t know if what we can stand on in the end times will be anything less than that.

I am not trying to scare you, but I do believe the kingdom of God will advance through your life if you will allow the Holy Spirit to work. Is this work that you can do in the natural? No! It is a work that He does by the Spirit of God. Will you allow that Spirit of God to lead you every day? That is the key right there.

Every day I am committed to a greater walk with Him. “Lord, let it be today. Search my heart.” “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139: 23-24 NKJ). “Lord, You change me and mend me. Make me into the image that You desire for my life.”

Many aspects of Christianity has lied to us. They said that in the sweet by and by, you can have these things. Just walk the way that you want to; walk carnally through life. Do you know there is a scripture that says “depart from Me for I never knew you” (Matt 7:23)? What is that all about? Have you ever asked yourself?

There may be some who have been sitting in church, but they are not going to get into the kingdom of God. That is the truth. There will be people who think they’re doing okay; they think that they are Christians, but they are not going to go to heaven. That is a reality. I know this is deep, and I know this is hitting, but I cannot choose for you. You have to choose. Yes, this is a provoking message and it is intended to be: I don’t want to see anyone perish. That is the heart behind the message of the kingdom of God. The message is that not one shall perish. We have so much that we can call upon -- we can call upon the Holy Spirit in our lives.

There is something about putting aside the things that so easily beset you. Cast off those heavy weighty sins and just enter into the presence of God by choice. Do you understand what I am saying? Do you know what? The devil does not like this message. He does not like it. Why? He does not like it because it provokes people to examine their lives. What is my job? I am here to trouble the comfortable and comfort the troubled. If I am not troubling the comfortable, then I am not doing what God has called me to do. Do you understand what I am saying? (This goes for me as much as for anybody else.) We are going to a new level. I will exhort you; I will encourage you, but I am not responsible for the outcome: you are. Do you want to go higher?

Moses and the Burning Bush “The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in aflame of fire out of the midst of a bush’ and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I” (Exodus 3:2-4 Amp).

Moses had a call of God on his life. How many years did it take before the activation came? It took eighty years. For some of us, it may take eighty years. A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. So, if it takes eighty years for God to get you to the place where He wants you to be, so be it. Even Moses said, “I can’t do it; I am not able.” That is a good place to be, even though you may be eighty. You need to understand that you are a work in progress, and there is hope for you. You may have thought, “I can’t do this.” Well, there is hope. Moses was eighty before he got activated. Do you want forty years? Are you holding out for thirty? “Lord just do it quick. Just do it, Lord.”

I wonder if, throughout all of that time, Moses ever wondered if God was going to come through on His side. We look at these guys in scripture and we think that they are way up there: they are actually no different than you and I. We think that everything was peaches and cream for them. We think that they had no financial issues in their life. We think that they had no relationship issues in their life. We just think that they were absolutely perfect. I’ve got news for you: have you ever heard of David? How about Abraham? He got so scared one time he even said his wife wasn’t his wife. Do you understand what I am saying? These were not perfect people: they were hit by fear, anxiety, and pressure. We think that they had a balanced cheque book in front of them where they could see the increase.

Have you ever slipped up? Can God use you? He absolutely can use you. It does not matter. God is looking for willing vessels. Here is the key to your victory and breakthrough: when your heart is to bring the kingdom of God forward, He will do it. I already made this point and I will make it again: it is not dependent on time: it is particularly not related to your time.

Is God able? That is the key. Is God able to do it? Is He omnipresent? He is able when it lines up to advancing the kingdom of God. He is able when it is not rooted in your own selfish desires. So, it is not based on how good you look today; it is rooted in the kingdom of God.

Why do we as a church, go to Israel? We go because we are advancing the kingdom of God. Do we really like to go and do that thirty-hour trip? Is there a sacrifice to advance the kingdom of God? Ask the people in the Bible if there is a sacrifice to advance the kingdom of God; ask the patriarchs; ask Abraham. Ask Jesus if there was a sacrifice to the kingdom. Ask the Lord if there was a sacrifice. Much of Christianity does not want to make a sacrifice. There is a walking in it that we all need to do. Make a decision that your walk will advance the kingdom of God.

We are learning about apprehending the kingdom of God. In Exodus 3:2-4, we read, “The Angel of the Lord appeared to him...” Can the angel of the Lord appear? Is this just in the past? Can angels appear today? In one of my trips to Israel, I just felt the first night to release a greater visitation of the angelic realm, and I believe that it is happening. Christianity is going to go ‘tilt’ over that. Much of Christianity still doesn’t believe in angelic visitations; they may talk about it, but they do not believe it. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flaming fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked and behold the bush burned with fire and yet it was not consumed. And Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight.”

Let me just stop there. Apprehending the kingdom of God is the message and it will always and on every occasion will be challenged, and there needs to be a turning aside by every Believer. Do you want the same old, same old? Do you want a greater release of the kingdom of God for your life? What has to take place?

As a human being, when the Lord shows up, we always need to turn aside. We need to turn aside, and for you, that turning aside may be different than the turning aside for me. Don’t think that when the Lord shows up, He will show up the same way for you that He does for someone else. He will show up in a way that is uniquely for you. You might believe in visitations of the Lord in your life, but as yet you’ve seen nothing. Let me say this -- you may have never had any yet, but put all of those experiences aside. Put them all aside, for they mean nothing to God.

Do you believe in divine intervention? The Lord can change things just like that. He can come with the power of the Holy Spirit. Much of the church does not believe in the Holy Spirit at work today. He is at work this day in your life. “He (Moses)wondered why the bush was not burned...” Here is the thing: He turns aside, but the Lord saw him turn aside. Moses had an opportunity to not turn aside, but because he turned aside, God said, “Whoa, he turned aside!” Do you understand that? Can you activate the power of God for your life? Yes! He is watching. He is looking for people that He can show Himself approved in. Is that true? Is He looking for you? He is looking for every one who call themselves a Believer. He is looking to see whether you will turn aside. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Moses. He responded with a heart of surrender through all of the opposition and all of the turmoil.

Do you know that God’s hand was on Moses from the very day that he was born? Even four hundred years earlier, God knew Moses would be born to be a deliverer. You have got to understand that God does not work in our thinking. They prayed, ‘Take me out of this bondage in Egypt.’ God heard the prayer. A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. I will tell you what the greatest abortion is -- it is aborting the plan of God in and for our lives because it didn’t happen in the time we thought it would happen. Do you understand that? The turning aside came after eighty years, but the Lord saw that Moses was ready.

Was he ready the day before his eightieth birthday? I would say, “Yes.” I would say he was ready two days before his eightieth birthday. I’d say he was ready, but there was a process and a refinement that was taking place on the backside of Moses' literal desert.

You may feel like you are on the backside of the desert today like Moses was on the day of his visitation. It is a very good place. It is where the greatest work of God is done. If you see yourself in a wilderness then, “Yahoo!” I am with you and so is God, if you allow Him to use you for the kingdom of God. If it is for the kingdom of God, He will come through. It is not in your time; it is in His time. “God called him out of the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses”, and he said “Here am I.” Will you be available at eighty? God is doing some good things. Will you look? I believe that we can have every attribute that Jesus Christ had. We can have everything. Jesus was a conqueror, and we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. The key here is ‘in Christ Jesus’. If it is for you and your own vain ambition, it is not for Him. When you are in Him, you are releasing the Holy Spirit for your life.

Can you have the Spirit of understanding, revelation, and wisdom? Can you be led one hundred percent by the Lord? None of us have arrived yet, but we are shooting for a higher realm. There is no one that is going to overshoot heaven. Do you know what I mean by that? No one will be too holy or too righteous; it is just not going to happen. You will not overshoot heaven, but if you believe in the kingdom of God, you can have heaven on earth even in the midst of great turmoil.

“Thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done.” If we couldn’t have it, He wouldn’t have put it as a prayer. Do you need a little more heaven on earth? Whatever area that may be in: relationships, finances, healing, or whatever you need. To activate the kingdom of God, the only thing we need to do is to believe and move forward, advancing the kingdom of God. God has planned great things. There will be turmoil, but we believe in a supernatural outpouring of the Spirit of God. Does that mean we know what we are doing? You never put your trust and confidence in your flesh. You put your trust and confidence in God and walk by the Spirit of God. Let us move out of the natural realm of thinking and doing, and trust God as we apprehend the things of the kingdom of God when everything looks so overwhelming in the world. He has this for you. Much love!