Beth Moore — It Is Finished
And I wonder today, just so we can get on the same page mentally, what is it hanging over your head? What is it, that project, that thing that you started? For somebody listening today or watching -- it is a book. Something -- there's like chapters of it and it just keeps sitting there -- just sitting there. And you just keep saying, "I'm waiting on the Lord." And the Lord is up there going, "I'm waiting on you." Anybody?
I'm not saying that's necessarily your situation, I'm saying, you need to check and see. Is it him we're waiting on or is he up there going, "I'm waiting on you. I brought you into this." But you've come to a pause and you've stopped what you'd started. I want to talk that through with you. It could be all sorts of things -- a vow that needs fulfilling, a project that needs finishing, a Bible study series, maybe.
I ran into somebody here recently that said she keeps getting to chapter eight of Breaking Free and she stops right there. I said chapter... I mean it's ten, it's ten chapters of homework but she gets to eight. She goes, "I started over and I get to eight every time."
I said, "But nine! Nine is the most important chapter of all. Start now at nine."
What is it we keep getting stuck on? We can't get past it. It keeps hanging over our head. For some of us it is our income taxes. It's just like -- there is just... how many extensions can we possibly file? And there is this wonderful verse in Second Corinthians 8:11. I'm going to paraphrase it a little bit that says this: Now finish the work. There comes a time when you just flat out got to finish the thing. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
Look at one another and say, "You've got to finish the thing."
Just so you will know that you are in good company so you do not turn that off, I just want to see some hands right here... I want the cameras -- how many of you have something that really could see finishing? I just need to see your little hand.
Yes, Lord! We're in very good company here because there is something about it.
As Hebrews 10:36 says: We need to persevere so that when we've done the will of God we will get what he has promised. You've got to persevere through it. And here is what really landed on me in the last couple of days as I was thinking toward this message, that the enemy's favorite thing to do would be to threaten the person. Now we believe strongly because of what the Bible says that there's a real live enemy. There really are powers of darkness.
Let me tell you, if you'll be true to yourself, I think you probably think that too. I do! Even though we might not want to philosophically and verbally disagree, when we look around the world, shootings and just this unexplainable -- when minds go to a place where you think, what normal thought process goes there? Who in the world would walk into an elementary school and open fire? Who?
Something tells us there is an evil that is beyond what is human flesh and blood. The scriptures tell us that that is an absolute fact. Not once, but we're told that many times in the Word of God from Genesis to revelation. So he is all about threatening the person. But if he's having trouble threatening the person, if you have a pretty good idea of who you are in Christ and your identity in him, then here's what he does: He threatens the process. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
He threatens the process because you may not be going for the threat of the person but okay, all of the sudden you cannot get done what you have been called to do. It's on you. It's in your bones but it is somehow not coming out of those hands, not coming out of that mouth and we're just paused on it and it is time we're going to get off pause and back on it.
I've got to tell you something because I saw it resonate with a couple of people in here when I said it a moment ago and so I want to say it because that tells me there have got to be many more on the other side of that screen. When I mentioned "book" a moment ago, I got some faces in this room and some reactions here. I want you to know something.
My dear, dear friend, Priscilla Shirer is with me today. I don't want to point her out but she might be somewhere -- somewhere over here but I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable. She may or may not be on that side but she is such a dear friend of mine. I think she would echo the same thing.
Any long term project, so don't just think book, think long term project, particularly if it is where you were called to bear much fruit. Now remember, that's where the process is going to get threatened. So in a long term project like that, never one single time have I not got into the middle of it and thought you know what? I've lost steam for it.