Heat and Dorught of Human Life (part 2)

[Speaker 1] Trust in these religious sessions cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God will design a godly home. These are words of solution and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministries. May you be blessed as you listen. [music playing] [Speaker 2] Praise ye the Lord. Praise be our God. To Him be glory. To Him be honor. To Him be praise. To Him be adoration. To Him alone and alone be all glory and honor. As we come again together this evening, our brethren who are here physically, brethren who are connecting with us on Mixlr, brethren who are connecting with us on Telegram, you are all welcome again to our discipleship class for today. We trust the Lord again that as we search scriptures together, it will be a refreshing time in the name of Jesus Christ. Last week, which was our prayer week, the last Monday of the month of October, that was our prayer fellowship. We introduced the topic that we are starting after our last topic, and we looked at the topic a little, and then we went into prayers. So we will be continuing from there today to see how we conclude the matter. We introduced the topic last week, which is "Heat and Drought of Human Life." Heat and Drought of Human Life. So let us have a word of prayer as we start this evening. [music playing] We are here again. We are here again. Father, we are here again. Holy Ghost, come and take control. Oh yes, we are here again. Jesus, we are here again. Father, we are here again. Holy Ghost, come and take control. Lord, this is our prayer, that we are here again. Here again unto You. Here again to hear from You. Here again to fellowship in the scriptures. Here again, looking to You for mercies. Here again, looking unto You to attend to our situation. Here again, looking unto You to speak to our hearts. Here again, looking unto You to address us. Permit us individually at our points of need. Our brethren on Telegram, our brethren on Mixlr, Lord, we are just looking up unto You. Lord, meet us where we need You most this evening, in the name of Jesus Christ. Instruct our hearts. Instruct our hearts, Lord. Give us light and direction, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. So, "Heat and Drought of Human Life." In case you were not with us last week Monday, heat ordinarily, we defined it last week to mean situations of challenges, situations of difficulty, situations where there is a problem, there is something, things seem to be working against you, things seem not to be the way you want it. There is a fear. There is something troubling you. Heat and drought, that is how we defined them last week. Unfavorable conditions. Situations that are not pleasant. Difficulties and challenges. Problems. Trouble. Those are the things we used to define heat and drought of human life. And last week, we were able to see that we have been able to see from the book of Matthew, from the book of Isaiah, that actually heat and drought, they are inevitable. They are inevitable. Heat and drought, they are very much inevitable. They are part and parcel of life. But we noted last week that it is very, very important for us to note in the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk 3:17. Habakkuk 3 from 17. Let us see that scripture. Habakkuk 3 from around verse 17, the prophet Habakkuk was speaking, and he said something very important for us to note. He noted something that will make us to also see that it is in spite of the storm, not that there will be no storm. Now, from verse 17, he said, "Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the field yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength; He will make my feet like hinds' feet. He will make me walk on my high hills." You see that? When you take this in the—I want to read this very scripture in the Amplified translation. I want to read it from that verse 17. Amplified says, "Though the fig tree does not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the vict—of the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]." Hallelujah. Look at what this prophet, look at what they said. So you notice that we have been redeemed by God that, like we saw in Isaiah 43 last week. If you look at how God qualified Israel before He made that statement about the drought, in that Isaiah 43, you will see that if you look at—look at the credentials that God gave them. He said, "But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel." You know what that means? You know if not that God went to call their father Abraham, they would not have been Israel. Abraham was an idol worshiper. God took him from idol worship and said, "Go to a land that I will show you." So it was not only that God created them, He was the one that formed the nation of Israel. So, who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters." You see that? So, that God created an individual, that God formed the individual, that God called a person by name, that the person belongs to God—what that simply means is that in spite of trouble, God is there. It is not there will be no trouble. So when you look at these prophets who had very serious personal walk with God, you notice what they said about their life. They said even when this does not—is not there, that one is not there, this one is not there, that one is not there, everything seems to fail, everything seems to scatter, "I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be glad in the God of my salvation." He's trying to make us see the secret behind it. He said because why are they glad? He said the Lord is my strength, my personal bravery, my invincible army. There's an army behind us. There's somebody that is making us to be so brave and so courageous. He's working. He's our invincible army. He makes my feet like hinds' feet. He makes me to walk, not stand still in terror, but to walk and make spiritual progress upon my places of trouble, suffering, and responsibility. Hallelujah. So when there is trouble, there is a God who is our strength, our personal victory, our invincible army, who makes us to make progress despite our trouble, our suffering. That is the God that we serve. So we said heat and droughts of life is not something that believers are immune from. No. They are not immune from. And I want to make something clear still about that, to show you that there's a way God use—why then did God allow heat and drought to come our way? The first scripture I want to point to you—before I do that, there's one more scripture, Psalm 46. Psalm 46, trying to make us see the kind of God we serve. Psalm 46, look at what the Bible says in Psalm 46 again about God. It says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Hallelujah. So one name of God is Help in Trouble, Present Help in Trouble. So I'm trying to make you see that heat and drought are inevitables. They are inevitables in our Christian walk. That challenge around you, that challenge around your life, that thing around your career, around your marriage, around your finance, around your studies, around the academics—that thing, you may need to look around it again, you may need to look inward very well, because normally, God don't just allow heat and drought. God normally allow heat and drought for a purpose. God allow heat and drought. When God allows them, He's allowing them for a purpose. And so you must get yourself ready because when God allows those things, you can see what Habakkuk said. What Habakkuk said. Habakkuk said it, God will now make us to make progress. Have you seen it? So for us, the heat and the drought is not to silence us, it's not to finish us. It's to make us make progress. It make us to make progress. We make spiritual progress in our troubles, in our suffering. And that is why it is written, "The righteous fall seven times and he rises again. But for the wicked, the wicked, they fall only once and they're gone." Why the righteous will fall seven times, they will rise again. The wicked will fall only once, they will not rise. Why? Because behind the righteous, there is a God who is their strength, who is their personal bravery, who is their invincible army, who makes their feet like hinds' feet. You know hinds? That is deer. You know the feet of the deer? I don't know how to describe that now. But the way I can quickly say it is that once there is trouble, at the first sprint of a deer, the distance that deer will cover will almost bring it to safety. Just at that first—you know the way you get and say, "Hey!" When deer gets, when there is a danger and deer just—that first sprint, the distance it will take the deer from the trouble is amazing. That's why he says that He will make my feet like the hinds' feet. I will be able to sprint inside trouble. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That is the God that we serve. That is the God that we serve. And so, why is it that God allow heat and drought around the life of the believer? And like I established last week, I made something very, very clear. I'm not talking about heat and drought in respect of punishment for sin. I made that clear last week. Because sometimes believers get these things all confused. The Bible say when you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption. The soul that sinneth shall die. There is no peace for the wicked. There is a reward, there is a place of punishment for doing evil. There's a trouble that comes, there is heat and drought that comes as a result of disobedience to God. That's not what we are talking about. We are talking about the heat and drought that God has designed into our walk with Him to make us better people. That is why God is the God who said, "When you pass through water." There is a water that God have designed for your life. There is a fire you must pass through. Like somebody said, and it has remained with me till today, he said, "For the believer, when we obey God and we follow Him, there are crises in the future, but there are futures in the crisis." I don't know whether you can make sense out of that statement. So those crises are actually designed to bring a future. We'll still come to biblical example. So there are things that God package. They are packaged so that we can become better Christians, so that we can know God better, so that we can fear God, so that we can know Him. And that is why the life of the believer is not immune. God arrange all those things around our life. I'm trying to answer important question: Why are these things inevitable? Can't God just immune us from those things? If God immune us, we will not become better Christians. And I'm going to show you that from the Bible. I'm going to show you that from the Bible. You will notice that there is something that—why is it that God allow some kind of suffering in our life? Let's look at Hebrews 2:10. I'm beginning with the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:10. Let's see that scripture. I'll take it from verse 9 so that you can know who it is talking about. "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things [the almighty God] in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." In bringing many sons to glory. The purpose of God was to bring sons to glory. And let me tell you, it is also through sufferings that those sons are glorified. In bringing these sons to glory, He makes the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. And it is by that suffering that God also glorify those sons. That is, God—when I say glorified, God make them better and better and better people. Look at something about the ministry of Jesus. Hebrews 4:14. I'm just trying to make something clearer to you about the captain of our salvation, so that you can appreciate how He bears for us as believers. Hebrews 4 from verse 14. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." "Seeing that"—please note that. You don't—our captain of our salvation is already perfected through suffering. Having suffered and died, He purchased our redemption. By death, He conquered death. It was by—if Jesus did not die, death would not be conquered for everybody. So we who live in the fear of death, we have been set free. We don't fear death. If we die, we will resurrect. Death himself, death itself will be thrown into the lake of fire. Death has been conquered because we will put on immortality. That one—in glorifying Jesus, in bringing many sons to glory, because we have been held captive by death, we cannot resurrect. Jesus had to die. He was perfected. He became the perfect captain for our salvation by dying. It was by that dying that He conquered death. So it was by suffering that He conquered and He brought sons to glory. Now, the Bible says, "Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has passed through to the heavens, He has accomplished a task, He is now seated at the right hand of God, Jesus the Son of God." We don't need to be afraid. We don't need to be afraid. We have somebody who have done it for us already. Now look at it. Why should we not be afraid? It is because of the nature of the High Priest. What brought that nature? Look at verse 15. "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." So in our infirmities, in our—we are struggling against sin. We are saying no, I must continue with Jesus, He has begun this good work in me, He is able to finish it. We see some imperfection in our life and we are struggling to say no, Jesus is able to perfect me. We don't need to be afraid. Why could we not be afraid? Because we have somebody who have gone through that part, through that path of suffering. He has been tempted. He knows what it means to be tempted. He knows how—what it means to be pushed here, pushed there, pushed there. He did not sin, but He now understands what it means for us because He too have passed through that same kind of thing. If Jesus did not pass through those suffering, He will be a low priest, not a high priest. He wouldn't be able to bear with us. He wouldn't know how it is to be a man, subject to this nature. So He had to condescend and become incarnate as man. That Jesus that all the disciples were saying Master and John was laying his head—when John saw Him in revelation, he died. When he saw that Jesus that he was putting his—He condescended to become a man. That was a great challenge. That was a great suffering. Something to become and then subject to—tired, you know this, and then sometimes when some things happen to you and you are crying, Jesus understands because He too wept. Are there people tell you that it's women that cry? Men don't cry. That's not Bible. Some things can pain you and you will cry. But Jesus understands because some things pained Him and He wept. So I'm trying to make you understand the mystery: suffering as a ministry. It has a ministry. The ministry of glorifying the sons. The ministry of perfecting the sons. Because that is how the captain of their salvation was perfected. Hallelujah. That was how He was perfected. And don't forget, the student at best will be like who? Like his Master. He will be like his Master. Hallelujah. So, I'm trying to give the answer to why is this inevitable? Because sometimes people will ask. We say suffering has its own ministry. No, me I no go suffer, me I no go suffer. Maybe because we have not placed this thing properly for some people. So it looks as if we are saying that suffering we are talking about, evil happening to you. That's not what we are talking about. We are not talking about Christians wishing evil. A Christian don't wish evil to happen to him. What is the Lord's prayer? He says, "Deliver us from evil. Deliver us from the evil one. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil." That's the prayer of Jesus. When Jesus was going again in John 17, what was His prayer? He said, "I am going, but keep them in the world, they are in the world. Keep them from the evil one." So don't think that when we say the ministry of suffering, God wants evil to happen to His children. That's not what we are talking about. We must put the gospel in their correct perspective. It's because people just muscle up things, and then when you say suffering, they say, "No, God forbid, me I no go suffer." Because we don't separate these things properly for believers. So we must get them clear. We must get them right, the way they operate. There is a fire in your future. But there is a future in your fire. Hallelujah. There is a fire in your future. But there is a future in your fire. There is a fire in your future and there is a future in your fire. There is a fire in your future but there is a future in your fire. And I want you to just pray that for yourself. Pray to yourself: God, in all my fires there are future. I will get into the future that is in my fire. My fires are not designed to consume me. They are not designed to consume me. But the futures that are in my fire, I will enter into the futures in my fire. Joseph entered the future that was in his fire. Jesus entered into glory after His suffering. I will be glorified. I will be perfected. I will enter into the future that is in my fire. In the name of Jesus, I pray for you wherever you are listening in to me. I prophesy concerning your life, that yes, that fire, the future in your fire, you will enter into that future in the name of Jesus. No power of hell, no scheme of man will stop you from entering your future. You will enter that future, that future in that your fire, you will enter into it in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We thank our God. Let's look at this same thing again in 1 Peter chapter 1 and chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 1 and chapter 4. Let's see something there too about this matter of suffering. 1 Peter chapter 1, I want to read this from verse 3 so that you can get it. He says, "Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you." Something has been reserved for you. And I trust the Lord who reserved it for us, He will take us there in the name of Jesus. Now, verse 5: "Who are kept"—it's talking about us now—"who are kept by the power of God through faith." Please note that. The power of God keeps us but we exercise our faith. Who are kept through faith for the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Now, verse 6: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, have been grieved by various trials." Have you seen that? So if the need be, it is as God see the need. It is as God see it good for you. As God see it as part of things that will make you become a better person, God put different trials on our journey with Him. It's just like I ask students, will you want to keep taking lectures all your life without exams? 100 level, lectures for 14 semesters. 100 level again, lectures, another 14 semesters. How many years will you be in 100 level? But what happens? You take lectures for a while. What follows? Examination. What's the purpose of the examination? Even though it makes you to bend and bend, you see everywhere on campus will be silent. Students will not be anywhere again. Everywhere will look peaceful. As if there are no students. Why is that coming? By the end of the exam, what happens? You are going to another level. May you move to another level. May you move to a higher level. May you move to a better level. And I trust the Lord who have called you, He will move you in the name of Jesus Christ. So that's the way we go with God. He says, "In this we rejoice, though for a little while, if need be"—and I want you to know that—that you don't begin to say, "Oya, suffering come into my life. Oya, let me have a boss that will be difficult for me. Let me have"—that is not Christianity. We live our life trusting the Lord for favor, for goodness, for His mercy, because the Bible says you will eat the good of the land. We are living our life, we are expecting to move. But the reality is that if need be, God knows how to arrange it. When we see it, we are not afraid because we know that God have brought water for me to cross. I want to go to a higher level. That is the heart of the believer. That is why the Habakkuk said even when this does not produce, I will rejoice in the Lord. It does not affect our joy. That's why the Bible says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice." Why? Because once you see them, you begin to know that God wants to take you to another level. Now, why are those trials? Verse 7. Why are those trials? "That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus." Do you understand what that thing is saying? Do you know what it's saying literally? Let me explain, let me make it very simple. Gold is made from—where do you get gold? At the raw stage, gold don't come pure. It comes with ore, with dross, they are all around it. So to now make the gold to become real gold, what do they do? They put it in fire. They will begin to heat it. They will begin to heat it. When the goldsmith is heating it, just like the blacksmith, he will be checking it. He will be checking the temperature. There's a temperature that it must not exceed, and it must also reach that temperature. When it gets at that temperature, other things begin to melt away from gold, melt away from gold. And then at that point too, they gather the gold. Just like with the blacksmith, you will notice it, when they put the iron inside fire, maybe he want to make a hoe. What do you notice? He'll be watching it. When the thing get red hot, when he notice that it will get to a point that the thing will melt, he will withdraw it. Once he withdraws it, what does he do? He now take hammer—bam, bam, bam, bam, bam—shape it. If the shape is not complete, it will enter the fire again. He will be heating it, he will be heating it. When the thing is red and want to melt, he will remove it again and then bam, bam, bam, when he gets the right shape, it will not enter fire again. That's why I tell people you better begin to learn what God wants you to learn on time so that you don't repeat your fire. Because God must make sure you pass every exam. You have failed, we will leave you? No. Faithful is He who began the good work who will finish it. God don't have abandoned projects. That's why I tell people He said the righteous will fall seven times, he will rise again. God will carry the project. You are—I have redeemed you, I have called you, you are following Me. I'm taking you. The shape is not form well, put it again. Bam, bam, bam until we get the shape that we want. That's God. But what I'm trying to make you see is that you will notice that the heat is regulated and guided. Have you seen it? That is why we don't fear. Live your life as a Christian, live above fear. Trust in the Lord. Hold to your God. Understand God works around your life. I'm trying to establish why are these things inevitable? Because sometimes people will ask. Suffering has a ministry. God is glorified because in bringing sons into glory, He made the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. So the perfecting of those sons that are coming through glory will also be through suffering. Their perfecting, their glorification is through suffering. It's making you a better—it makes your faith, it grows your faith. Then it glorifies. It makes you to become more and more like God, able to dwell in His presence. When the Bible say all have sinned and come short of glory, it's not talking about money and riches. Don't mind some confusion that are going on in our world today. The Bible say all sinned and come short of God's glory. The glory we are talking about is not talking strictly about money. It was not money that Adam, that God missed in the life of Adam when he sinned. What was missing was the whole thing that being in God's presence, being in relationship, in fullness with God—that is what we call glory. Where God was the one who was his provider, his support, his light, his instructor. That is what we call glory. It is that glory that made every other thing possible. You will see it. That glory made God to bring a wife. That glory made there to be food. When you enter glory, you will discover that food, this, that, all those—they will not be your problem. They are part and parcel of the glory of being with God. But when you begin to reduce glory strictly to money, it's an unfortunate thing. That's not the gospel. There are several billionaires today who are not believers. So if glory strictly means money, it becomes unfortunate. Why are we in Christ when I can be glorious without being in Christ? So we need to get some things right. I have not said that Adam don't have all he needs. Adam was a prosperous man in that garden. Everything he needs was around him. But please don't reduce prosperity to strictly money. That is not the gospel. So suffering perfect and suffering glorified. As we saw in the life of our Master, it was how the captain of our salvation, that was what God did to bring perfecting, to bring that into His life. He glorified Him. In bringing many sons to glory, because we have been held captive by death, we cannot resurrect, Jesus had to die. He was perfected. He became the perfect captain for our salvation by dying. Look at how Apostle Peter put it for us by the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He said something that again call our attention to this matter. Let's see first Peter chapter 4, First Peter chapter 4. Look at what the Bible say. Look at what it says. It says, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange things happens to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's suffering, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, on your part He is glorified." Have you seen it? But look at how he now warn us. Verse 15: "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, as a thief, as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matter. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter." Have you seen it? So it's very, very important for us to understand that certain things are designed. Certain persecution are designed. Certain suffering for the truth. And that is—I put it another way, the way one of somebody who is like a mentor to us put it. He said we should be careful not to idolize comfort. One way to idolize comfort is to be afraid of suffering for the sake of your Christian life. He said that way comfort is becoming your idol. We must be careful not to idolize comfort. Honestly that word was a great blessing to me. It was a great blessing listening to him. That we should be careful about comfort. Comfort is not a bad thing. But when doing the will of God, doing the things of God, you don't want to suffer discomfort, you want to retain your comfort—be careful. You are idolizing comfort. And so suffering has a ministry. That's the point that we are making. You can see that it brings glory. God is glorified. Because in bringing sons into glory, He made the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. So the perfecting of those sons that are coming through glory will also be through suffering. Their perfecting, their glorification is through suffering. Hallelujah. Look at how Apostle James put it for us. Apostle James. Look at inspiration again from Apostle James. James chapter 1. Look at how the Holy Spirit speaking again through Apostle James draw the matter again to us. Look at how he brought the matter to us in James chapter 1. Now, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be complete, lacking nothing." When troubles come your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. Does that things to make sense? It has things to make sense. But the point is that when they put the iron into fire and the blacksmith want to make it into an instrument for himself, should the iron not be happy? It should be happy. He said, "Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow." Hallelujah. Some of you, you cannot endure anything. God need to break that thing in your life. So your endurance must grow. Resilience must grow. Indefatigable—those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount on wings as eagle. They shall run and not be weary. They will walk, they will not faint. They are people of great resilience. They are people of great determination. They are people that they will pass through things and you will see them they will come out. Fruit is a sign of maturity. So it's to make you grow. It's to make you grow into maturity. "So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character, ready for anything." Hallelujah. You will be strong in character, ready for anything. Ready for anything. You can face life with courage. You can face life with boldness. You can face life as a lion. The righteous they are as bold as lion. That's how we close the meeting today. We'll pick it from here because there's still something to note in the verse 5 and 6 before we go to Romans chapter 5. What Paul also said about this thing in Romans. We want to look at what these fathers said about suffering. We are concluding with that of James, but we have to get to James verse 5 and verse 6 is very, very important to get to 5, 6, 7 and 8 about the matter of this endurance so that you can—we can bring everything together. So let us close the meeting for today wherever you are. I don't know what the Lord has told you today but just start praying, start magnifying the Lord. Talk to the Lord wherever you are this evening. Talk to the Lord. How have you been seeing heat and drought? How have you been seeing challenges, suffering, difficulty? How have you been seeing them? Ask the Lord to strengthen you, ask the Lord to help you. Pray this simple prayer as we close today: "Oh Lord, I will become all that You want me to become." I want you to pray that simple prayer. That Lord, I will become all that You want me to become. Nothing will cut me short. Nothing will finish me. Nothing will destroy me. I will become all that God want me to become. I will become all that God want me to become. And I speak over your life as we close this evening: You will become all that the Lord wants you to become in the name of Jesus Christ. No power of hell, no scheme of man will stop you from entering your future. You will enter that future, that future in that your fire, you will enter into it in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We thank our God. Heavenly Father, we are grateful unto You. Thank You, Lord, for always being here. Thank You for Your word. Thank You for the healing, the instruction, the opening of eyes. Thank You for everything that You have done in the life of each and every one of us, meeting us at our particular point of needs. We are all listening seated. Our need differs. You know where we still need Your fire, where we need You. You know it all. Thank You for coming to us again. We give all the glory in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we go in the strength of Your word—the Bible say in this word, in Him there is life, the life that has gone forth by this word—this life will bring us out of darkness in the name of Jesus. It will bring us into light. Beyond this point, let light remain upon our heart. Let the light of God shine into every dark areas of our life. So that Lord God Almighty, we will arise and become what You want us to be in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray for Your son that You have used. We ask more of You, more of You in his life, more insight, revelation, more of Your purpose and counsel be established in the name of Jesus. He will finish well and finish strong in the name of Jesus. Thank You, faithful God. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. [music playing]