Christine Caine - There's Something About Mary
You know what they say about the best laid plans? Unfortunately, it's often true. We strategize, we consider all our options, predict the outcomes, and formulate a sensible strategy and then God happens. He has a habit of interrupting our plans for his higher purpose. And while we don't tend to build miracles and supernatural displays into our game plan, the good news is that he does and he shows himself to be so much bigger than we can imagine. I'm Christine Caine and I have a personal mission to Equip and Empower people like you to connect with your God-given purpose. I am so glad you're joining us today.
You don't fluke it for 30 years. It's pretty amazing. You could be seated. And I am so honored to be here. This is very much home for me. We had such a fantastic conference. I actually ran the community action, what used to be called back in the day the community action and evangelism faculty here for 10 years and was part of the Hillsong executive song but woven very into the fabric of all of this. 28 years ago, I walked in, on the last Sunday night in January, I walked into what was hills Christian life center in a warehouse in the back of castle hill. I grew up in Lalor Park and I was born in crown street women's hospital and I was a mess and I'll talk about that in a moment but the truth is somebody invited me to Hillsong church. I'd never been. I grew up in a very staunch Greek Orthodox home and I remember once, you know, I brought my mum into this environment and she was like, Christine, what is this, a disco or, this is just so far removed from what I grew up in.
And I walked into the building and I don't know what else to say but my life was radically transformed. I was 22 years old and an absolute mess. And if you knew me then, you would never believe that I'm doing what I'm doing today. But I am very much living proof, like so many thousands of us in this room, that you could start bad and you can finish good in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ, that he truly does transform our lives. So this is my personal 28th Hillsong and I want to personally thank Pastor Brian and Bobbie who are dear friends of ours but have been our pastors for 28 years. And they took a risk and believed in this crazy little Greek chick from the back of Lalor Park, mate on ya, and good things come out of Lalor Park. How many Blacktown Westies, Lalor Park people, come on. And you know, that God could take me and do what he's doing, we're gonna jump right in.
I met my husband at Bible college at Hillsong. We got married by then pastor mike Murphy who was one of the associate pastors at Hillsong at the time. I had my babies dedicated at Hillsong. We ought to thank God that we have got leaders around this place. You don't see this everywhere. I pretty much get to do laps of the globe and have a glimpse of what God's doing. It is so weird to watch history take place before your eyes. It's so weird to have gone into a warehouse, to dream those big dreams, and to go, God, it is happening, and to have watched it unfold, it is so amazing. For those of us in Australia that are part of it, we don't even realize that we've been part of revival for 30 years.
Some people don't see this many Christians in one place in their entire lifetime and won't until they get to glory. Let us never be a people that take anything for granted. Let us never be a people that take for granted the fact that God, out of the seed of this soil in this nation, has impacted the nations of the earth and we have not even started yet. So let's continue in Australia to be people that say, I'm gonna continue sowing in. I call this a reformation. I go, it's been 500 years next year, and I've got many of my Anglican friends here, 500 years in Germany next year. We celebrate the reformation.
I am gonna be bold enough to declare that what is God is doing now is as radical as what happened 500 years ago and that we are revolutionizing the face of church-going into the future right out of the soil of this nation so I'm pumped. But let me turn to the word. I'm both Greek and a woman so I only speak three ways, hard, fast and continuously, so you won't go to sleep. And I thought, since it's a chick up here, I'm gonna use a chick form the Bible. And guys, don't think it's a chick using a chick. I've been listening to guys the whole time so it is okay that men can learn from women in the Bible as much as women can learn from men in the Bible. How many think that might be a case right there? I love you all. It's so nice being home in Australia. You all understand what I'm saying. I don't have to repeat myself and go, awesome! We can all say awesome, everyone say awesome. Sounds fantastic, okay.
Luke 1:26, the Bible says, "In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy", oh no, she's not only a chick, she's starting with babies and pregnancy, this is getting nervous right from the outset. I'm going right there, let's just go all woman tonight. So, "In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name", bit of repetition here because they're trying to get a point across, "The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, 'greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you'. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be".
I think that's hilarious right there. "Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be". This suggests to me that just maybe this wasn't highly unusual to Mary because the fact that she didn't drop dead or have to go change the skid Marks on her undies, I don't know what would have happened because if the angel of the Lord came to you, if you were getting ready to come to Hillsong conference tonight and the angel of the Lord came to you, I promise you, you'd be changing your underwear. You would not be going, I am slightly perturbed. Whoa, what manner of greeting this might be. She was not freaking out that there was an angel there! I wonder whether maybe, just maybe, he might have turned up before. She was just freaking out at the way that he greeted her.
So it goes on and says that she was greatly troubled at his words, wondered what kind of greeting this might be. "But the angle said to her, 'do not be afraid, Mary'". I can laugh in a million levels. "You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus". I just think you could tell that this is a man that wrote this, Dr. Luke. It's just of course, only a man would say, like, you would conceive and give birth, like, that's all just happens, man, bang bang. It's not quite like that, just in case you're wondering. Anyone that's popped out a kid doesn't go, you would just conceive and give birth, ouch, okay. And to a son, and this is like pre-epidural, sweetheart, so this is painful.
So, "You will conceive, give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great, he will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever, his kingdom will never end. 'how will this be', Mary asked the angel". Did you fail biology, since I am a virgin? Not quite sure in 2016 that anyone really knows what that word means but I'm just putting it out there, just putting it out there, since I am. "The angel answered, 'the Holy Spirit will come on you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age'". Everyone say she was old. "And she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month".
I don't want you to miss that! "And she who was said to be unable to conceive". I'm not just talking physically, spiritually. When God's giving a promise to a young person, old people, don't forget, we're tied into the promise at the same time. This woman that was old and unable to conceive was given a promise. So she was old and barren and the promise at the moment is given to a young woman who is young and fertile. Let me just put this out there, whether you are old and barren or young and fertile, if you are gonna give birth to a God dream, you're going to need God power! It doesn't matter how fertile you are or how barren you are. It has nothing to do with your fertility or your barrenness or your ability or your limitations! It's got everything to do with the supernatural power of God birthing something through your spirit!
And he says to her, whether you are young and fertile or old and barren, a God miracle is about to happen. He goes on and says, "For no word from God will ever fail. 'I am the Lord's servant', Mary answered. May your word to me be fulfilled'. And then the angel left her". Tonight in the context of everything we've been speaking about, friends, I want to talk to us from the subject there's something about Mary. And I know that you're all so holy and no one's ever gone to the movies and so we're not even making any association between those titles right at this moment, I get that. But there is something about Mary because out of all of the people in all of humanity that God ever chose to birth his son through to this planet, the Messiah, the promised One, God chose this young unwed virgin teenage girl in the back of nowhere.
God picked a very ordinary girl through whom he was going to do an extraordinary act. And the thing that I've discovered is that God only ever uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. And I want us to say that there are many things that God wants to do on this earth but let me say, when he needed a Messiah born, he went to a woman. There are certain things that only a chick can birth, that's all I'm saying, and so he went to a woman and he went to Mary. And Mary carried God to her generation.
And the application for all of us whatever gender we are today is that you and I, if we are born again spirit-filled believers, have been called by God to carry him to our generation. We, too, like Mary are God carriers. We're talking about echo and come. If we don't go, they won't come! We've been talking in our spheres that we are to be the salt and light of God on this earth! The most important thing God did was put his Holy Spirit on the inside of us and then said, go into all of the world! Mary physically carried Jesus! You and I are carriers of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God and God has called us to birth him! God has called us to carry him to our world!
He turns up to this teenage chick. She's getting ready. She's thinking about getting married. She's thinking about Joseph and her wedding. God turns up and he interrupts her plans with his purpose. Because that's what God does. He comes and he's here at Hillsong Conference saying I'm about to interrupt your plans with my purpose, because his purpose is always so much greater than our plans. And he turns up to her as she's getting ready. Who knows what she's thinking about. And he says you have found favor. Mary, in fact, you're not just favored, you are highly favored.
Now that sounds awesome because if we were given that instruction by the angel of the Lord, we'd think, awesome. Awesome! I'm gonna go on a reality TV show. They're gonna pay for my honeymoon. This is like say yes to the dress. I have got highly favored from God, this is awesome! But her life was about to be turned upside down because favor is for purpose, not for status the scripture says. When the favor of God comes upon you it's not so, bless God, I'm so cool. Favor ain't fair, it's all about me. That's not what favor's for. Because the favor of God coming upon her life was about to mess it up. The favor of God was going to potentially ostracize her from her community, potentially make her fiance break up with her because Joseph knew what they had and had not done. She'd be like, hi Joe. I was getting ready this morning and like, an angel of the Lord came, and like, I'm pregnant.
You know, Nick desperately loved me when we were engaged but if I came back and tried that line on him, I don't think he was gonna go with it. You and I, we've read the end of the book. We know what happens. We know Joseph had a dream. She didn't know that was gonna happen. Because when God comes to interrupt your plans with his purpose, your life is gonna be turned upside down. Your life is gonna radically interrupted. Your life is gonna be radically inconvenienced. You're gonna be required to take risks that may cost everything. It could have cost her her family, her engagement, which would have cost her her marriage. She was in a society and a culture and a time where they could have stoned her to death.
I'm not talking about smoking dope. I'm talking about like throwing rocks. You're like, awesome, stoned to death. I'm gonna do... No no, no. There are many nations in the world where this still happens today. But the angel of the Lord said, "You're highly favored". You and I are highly favored, we get to carry God. Have you thought about that? How many ways God could have come up with to reach this world and he said, I might just put my spirit in my people and then send my people into the world full of my spirit. Not only my power gifts but also love and joy and peace and kindness and gentleness, long-suffering and goodness and self-control because they're gonna need it. And the world is gonna need it. And the world is popping pills and the world is watching movie or TV after TV or show after show or going through social media or doing anything to anesthetize our pain or to try to avoid reality and we carry what our world wants, what our world needs.
Our world needs love, our world needs joy, our world needs peace, our world needs kindness, our world needs goodness, it's in us! And God says, I'm asking you to carry me to your world. I'm asking you to pay the price, like Mary did, to go into the world so that they would see me through your life. But you're gonna have to be willing to have your life turned upside-down. You're gonna have to be willing to allow him to replace your plans and your dreams with his plans, his purpose, and his dreams. And a lot of us even as you're listening to me, you think, well Christine, I'd love to do that but you don't know my story. My life's like a write-off. You don't know what I've done, you don't know where I've been, you don't know what happened to me.
But the thing that we learn from this text, from this girl, is that God will and can and does use absolutely anybody. He always has and he always will. He's always used the foolish things of the world to confound the wise because it's not about the container, it's about what's in the container and it's the Spirit of God in us getting into a lost and a broken world. For those of you that don't know, and there would be many, I'm not in this nation much anymore, there would many.
When I was born in crown street women's hospital, I was left in that hospital unnamed and unwanted just 20 minutes down the road, 30 minutes. At 33, I found out that I was adopted, I had no idea. Imagine growing up your whole life thinking you're somebody and then finding out you're not who you thought you were. Your name's not what you thought it was, your history's not what you thought it was, your parents aren't who you thought they were. I was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted. I grew up in Sydney, Australia which I love this nation but I grew up pre-multicultural Australia when it was not cool to be Greek in Australia.
Now we have my big fat Greek wedding and we all love Greeks and we love feta cheese and we love olives. But when I was growing up, we did not like W-O-G-S's. And I was called one of those every day with another word in front of it that I can't say on a platform but anyway. Marginalized because of my ethnicity in a culture that did not esteem women. Never taught that a woman could dream. I was just taught a woman was a lean, mean, baby-making machine. And that was it, which I love that, done that, got married, had kids, it's fantastic, but there was more. Grew up with a wonderful family but in my extended world, not in my immediate family, my extended world was abused by several men for many many years of my life. It messes with you.
I never went from one stage of development to the other in any healthy way. My life was full of developmental wounding. I was full of anger, I was full of shame, I was full of bitterness. I was full of rejection, I was full of fear. I was full of unforgiveness. I had every reason to think that I was disqualified from the purposes of God as if God could use me. There'd be people sitting in this room, in my early days at church, I was one of the people sitting in this room. That used to think, how could God use me? I wanted to believe but if they only knew about my background, if they only knew what I'd done, then somehow this message wouldn't really really pertain to me. Because they don't know. They don't know what was done to me. They don't know that I'm used goods. They don't know that I have failed. They don't know that I've messed up.
Somehow thinking there's a disclaimer in the Bible that just says, well, God can use anyone except for people that maybe have been abused or except people that have maybe messed up really bad or except people. With all of us in this room or on the live stream, there would be thousands, I don't even need to be a prophet to work that out, that think, I want to believe what they're saying at this conference is true but if they only knew. And see, I was that person. I've come for that person tonight. I've come for that one of you that's sitting up I don't know where that thinks you've done the one thing. Or it has happened to you and God can't use you because of what's happened. I tell people everywhere, I fit every government funding category in Australia. I'm like a marginalized, oppressed, dispossessed, poor ethnic minority, abused, adopted chick.
Do you know how much money I could make on government funding? They fund people like me and they say, victim, come back next week and we'll give you money and we'll give you that label and come back and collect more money so we could keep labeling you a victim. But church, I read the book and my Bible says he's redeemed my life from the pit that I don't need to live as any kind of victim, but we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who strengthens us! And the day I discovered that God could use somebody like me is when I made a decision in an environment like this, in a conference like this, that I was going to make what Jesus did on the cross for me bigger than what anybody else had done to me! I was gonna make what Jesus did for me bigger than what anybody else has said to me, that I was gonna make a decision that the blood of Jesus that was shed at Calvary was going to set me free!
Some people say, Chris, you are just free because that's your personality type, you're just a high d. Let me tell you something. Freedom is not a personality type! Freedom is a blood type! It's the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! It sets people free! It sets us all free! So I don't know what your start in life is but I do know that your history does not need to define your destiny. I do know that Jesus Christ can use you. Whatever you've done, wherever you've been, I am living proof that no demon in hell and no person on earth can stop the plan and purpose of God for your life. The God that lives in you is greater than anything that has happened to you! Make Jesus bigger. Not only does he rescue you but then he uses your past to give somebody else a future. God takes all of the broken fragments of your past and he never wastes a hurt. He never wastes a hurt. He's able to use it, I'm 50 years old, in two weeks. Send presents.
Luke 1:26, the Bible says: "In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin, pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, 'greetings, you who are highly favored. 'the Lord is with you'. Mary was greatly troubled at his words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be". He says to her, fear not. Fear not, do not be afraid. Because fear is the greatest killer of destiny. Fear is what will take you out. I love when job prayed against the spirit of fear, and reminded us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. I think it's funny that the angel of the Lord said, "Fear not". I mean, this is like a thumping huge angel, it's not like a little dude playing a harp, it's not, don't have that kind of image.
And you know, he's just told her that she's gonna conceive and birth God, but he says, "Fear not". And then you have to get to a place, if you're gonna carry God to your generation, that you are gonna make what you do know about God greater than what you don't know about the future. See, a lot of us, we freak out, what if? And Mary could've done that: what if, what if Joseph leaves me? What if my parents abandon me? What if I'm killed or ostracized? We go, what if I go back to school after young and free? What if my friends ridicule me because I've decided, I've made some strong decisions? I've decided I'm gonna follow Jesus, and no matter what I've done before, from now, I'm gonna keep myself for Jesus.
For now, I'm going to live a life of integrity and purity. From here on in, I'm gonna live a life that my friends may ridicule me because it costs to follow Jesus. From a business person in this room, I'm gonna live a life where I'm not gonna compromise. I'm not gonna compromise in my work ethic, and what I say in my words are gonna be true. And even if it's gonna cost me deals and businesses, I'm gonna trust God that if I do it his way, and I don't cheat and I don't lie, and I'm gonna be the salt and the light of the earth, so when I tweet and when I Instagram and when I blog, I'm gonna understand that I'm an ambassador for Christ, so I'm not gonna be full of fear and doubt and negativity. And I'm not gonna be someone that's hostile and antagonistic and self righteous and judgmental, but I'm gonna be full of love and joy and peace.
This goes to social media as well. Love and joy and peace and kindness and gentleness and long suffering and self control. I'm gonna allow my Christianity to permeate every facet of my life because I'm a God carrier. I'm a God carrier. And some of you at this conference, this thing sometimes you're carrying, there was those early months, nobody would've known that Mary was carrying God, but she did. So nobody else understands why suddenly you're acting a little bit different, but you're carrying God. You're carrying God, you're gonna leave here differently. And then you begin to show, and that's when the naysayers begin to ridicule. But you have got to stay firm. And in the day and the hour in which we live, if we don't carry God to our world, I don't know who you think is going to.
It is the commissioning of the church: I don't know why we keep blaming politicians for being politicians, why we keep blaming bankers for being bankers, why we keep blaming lawyers for being lawyers, why we keep blaming the media for being the media. That's what they are, we are the church, not them. We are commissioned to take Jesus to a lost and a broken world. That is the whole mandate that we've been given. And so, she did that. What I do love though, is that when the angel of the Lord gave her the charge, what he asked her to do, it was not difficult. It was impossible. I need you to understand that. When God calls you to do something, it's not difficult, because difficult you can do. Impossible you can't.
So it doesn't even start to be God until it's impossible. Sometimes, oh, man, this is so hard! It's like, no, no, that's just hard. Difficult is just difficult. But pregnant virgin, impossible. Pregnant old lady with ovaries dried up, no eggs, impossible. And we need to get into that realm, and that's what the Lord's stirring at this conference. That realm where God, we truly believe that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond anything we could ever ask, hope or think. Where we believe that our eye has not seen, our ears have not heard, nor has it entered into our hearts, the things that God has for us. We need to get into that impossible realm.
I remember, when we started A21, when the Lord called me, you never feel ready. You never feel like you can do it. I was just, early 40's, I had just popped out my second kid, and I'm telling you, when you are over 40, and you have popped out a kid, you are not looking to start an anti-trafficking organization. You want a purple heart, and you wanna go sit on a Greek island, and drink Perrier. That's what you wanna do. I was not looking to start anything.
And I remember when we hired the consultants and sent them into Thessaloniki. And I'd already told them, we're not gonna be, no one is there, no one is in that region of the world, because it's not easy. And Greece, at the time, was at the verge of economic collapse, it was in 2008, since then, we've personally bankrupted the planet, you're welcome, but that was back then. And then, there was no legislation protecting the rights of victims. There was so much corruption, which has become evident to the world now. The church is so embryonic, there are fewer than 10.000 evangelical believers in a nation of 12 million people, so the light is so dim that there's not a whole lot of support from the church world, and there was just challenge after challenge after challenge.
And I remember when we sent the consultants in, and I had felt like, when Moses sent the 12 spies in, in numbers 13, that was the word that God has given: you're gonna start in Thessaloniki. And I sent them in, not to tell me if we could start A21 in Thessaloniki, but how we were going to do it. When Moses sent the 12 spies into the Promised Land in numbers 13, he did not send them in to say, is it impossible for us to do this? 'cause God had already said it was gonna be done. So if God said it, it was already going to happen.
Well, I was in the airport, in Frankfurt airport, and I was in the lounge, and I was going to get the next flight to Thessaloniki, I'd flown over from Sydney. And Nick called me 'cause he'd been with the consultants and it was three weeks in Greece, and they had been going through everything. It was the most comprehensive report you could ever see. And I remember, Nick called me, and he said to me, "Christine, are you sitting down"? And that's always not a good start, and then he said to me, "Christine, before you get on this plane to come to Thessaloniki, I want you to remember that you are a pastor. A Christian pastor", now when Nick says that, it's always because the default is that I'm a Greek volatile crazy person, okay?
So that was, he was choosing that. And he said, "I've got the document here". And it was a 100-page report and that 100-page report essentially said, do not start in Greece or eastern Europe or Europe at all. Start in Southeast Asia, you will, and then there is 10 times in this document, the phrase, it will be impossible. It will be impossible to start an anti-trafficking organization in Thessaloniki, because, and he would listed that the reasons, because of the corruption, because of the lack of legislation protecting rights of victims, because of the economic crisis, it just went on and on and on. Because of the mafia, and they like to kill people, it's a bit dangerous, it's like they just went through everything and I remember as I'm sitting in the airport at Frankfurt, I had my own little numbers 13 experience.
I stood up, and extremely inappropriately loudly, you know, the Germans are nowhere near as passionate as us Greeks, and so I stood up, and I yelled into the phone, I felt like I was like Caleb in numbers 13, I went, "Nick, you tell them that God told us to start in Thessaloniki, and if God said it, we are well able to take the land! We are well able to be able to go in"!
Well church, here we are, eight years later. 14 offices around the world, 12 countries, over 150 traffickers in jail, hundreds of girls and women and children rescued around the world. What is impossible with man, is possible with God! With God, all things are possible! And nothing is impossible with God, nothing! And only God would've known, eight years later, the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II would hit. 85% of all Syrian refugees, 85% of all of them would be crossing the border, 15 minutes from where our offices are. And by God's grace, and because of our credibility, we've set up aid camps in Greece. We work with UNHCR: we work with the red cross.
Let me tell you something, you know what? You can be Mary, and an angel of the Lord says that the Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and God will make possible what is impossible with man. You can be a chick that was left unnamed and unwanted, in crown street women's hospital, and God will just say, I might just raise up a global anti-trafficking organization. You can reach multitudes, I don't know who you are, and I don't know what God's called you to do, but all I'm saying to you is impossible is where God starts, and miracles are what God does. It's the currency of heaven. It's the currency of heaven. That's where it starts.
I've never done this in 28 years of ministry, and I have done this not in any public setting, but I thought this would tie in some of the what the Lord's been showing us because fur some of you God's going to awaken some things that he's spoken to you in the past. Now, you who know me know that I am a word girl to the tee. And if any word you have ever gotten is contrary to scripture, then it's not a word from God. God never contradicts himself, and God will never be contrary to scripture, but God does speak today. There is no doubt about that. God still speaks today. And here I've got a folder. I told you I've been at Hillsong 28 years, all of what I'm doing around the world today through A21, preaching, teaching, all of the different initiatives we've got are birthed in this soil, and anchored still to this day in this soil, always have been. Everything that I do.
And 20 years ago we used to have these nights over those 28 years, they were called ministry nights. And all these here represent on each different CD, these are just packets, you know on some of these CDs are 8, 9 and 10 words, that would be prophetic words and there are people in this room that is part of our Hillsong team that would give those on different nights, and 20 years ago of all the words that I've gotten and I'm one of those people that listens to them regularly, but one word that I've listened to probably not exaggerating at all if I say 500 times, it would be more, the word that has kept me on track for 28 years and... well, for 20 years since I got it, when everything in me was challenged, when everything in me just thought I want to give up, when everything in me wanted to walk away and disconnect as just being part of life, one word, Mary said let it be to me according to your word.
And I'm gonna play it for you, and the reason I'm going to play it is because it's all come to pass so you won't need to take Pastor Brian and stone him as a false prophet because it all has come to pass. And so it's nice to see it, and I got this one word which talks about most of the things I'm doing in life today, and I was youth alive director and I'm saying this because there's some people in this room, and you've had some words. And you've put them on the shelf or you've forgotten them and you feel like either Elizabeth and you're old and barren. You think it's over.
And some of you are like Mary, you're young and fertile and you don't know how it's going to happen. And I'm saying all of this to say how it happens is all the stuff we're talking about and what the very ethos of this conference is just stay connected and just stay planted and to let your roots go deep because all I did was this word 20 years ago have pulled it out, listened to it and listened to it and just stayed on track. And I want you to hear it. I'm hoping it's going to work. Let's see. It's going to sound really weird.
[quote]Still here. You're wonderful. Stand up, Christine. I'm gonna pray for you. Chris has the hand of God on her life. I think everyone knows Chris is a great preacher but there's more to her even than that. As a matter of fact, you could sometimes it's like a natural talent that you have, eloquence in speaking and so on, but I believe God wants you just not just to rest on natural gifts and natural ability even though God is using and will continue to use that and become even more powerful. I believe God wants to stretch and expand you in other areas of ministry, moving in the gifts of the spirit, reaching into people's lives. As you keep on the right course doing right things, I believe God's going to open powerful doors for you, and you're going to be mighty effective and you're going to be a woman that will impact your generation and you're going to be an example of the women's generation, and many are going to rise up with the challenge they've seen from your life and take hold and carry that bat and run in Jesus name. So take hold of that challenge to whom much is given much is required and I literally see as you run your life, others like in a relay taking hold of a bat and running with you, you know. And causing you to be an example for many, especially for women to follow.
Pastor Brian
[qiote]Okay. Why am I telling you all of this? Because 20 years ago, see, now we look at it and go well, of course. Look what's happened and look what God is doing and how God has raised you up and what God is doing with you with women and where you're going with a21 and your husband who was at the time not even in ministry, but in business doing all of that. You couldn't have picked that 20 years ago. If you had seen me 20 years 20 years you wouldn't have picked it, but the key in all of that was, you know what? God, let it be to me according to your word. Stay planted. Stay committed. Stay faithful. Stay loyal. The enemy will come and take you off track, but if you above all else make a decision that you are going to stay planted, that you are going to say God, you gave me that word, I am not disconnecting, I'm not going to try to make this happen on my own. I will look foolish to the world.
I am prepared to do whatever it takes to see this come to fruition. Some of you you need to take some words off the shelf and you need to begin to believe God begin. You need to believe to seek God, to activate something in your life again. You need to stop thinking it's impossible because you can't see it in the natural. Some of you have deviated and got off course because you said, you know what? It looks really ridiculous if I keep trying to do it this way. If I keep trying to wait for God. And God is saying, you know what? A little pregnant teenage girl she looked really foolish when she said I was carrying God. For 20 years I would come to these conferences and it looked ridiculous. Who would have ever thought that somebody like me from the back of blacktown that God would raise up to fulfill that word given 20 years ago.
But let me tell you something, no word from God or the Word of God will ever return void. God's word will always always always prevail and just as I end, I want to tell you this. And I love when pastor Paul received the offering because he said the whole thing was around, yes, I wanted to run a lap. Because the Bible says, look at this in the net Bible, this version in verse 38. If these guys will put it on it says of Mary that Mary said... Yes, I think it should be Luke chapter 1:38. I'm hoping it comes up. It will eventually. But what it said is Mary said let it be according to me according to thy word. She said yes.
Look at this. Mary said yes, I am a servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me according to your word. Some of you, you've gotten prophetic words and you want to blog about them, tweet about them, tell everyone about them, you want to do anything but go through the process to see that word come to life. And what happens is she can see, but it was still nine months until it was birthed. I might have gotten that word 20 years ago. It took 20 years for it to come to pass. You've got to not ever give up on the promise that God has put on the inside of you. No matter how ridiculous it looks, but God needs you to say yes. God needs you to be prepared to look ridiculous. Of the Bible is full of people from Genesis to revelation who said yes to God and who are prepared to look foolish.
When people would have overlooked them, people would have pushed them aside, people would have said no way, it's not possible. They hung onto a word, and they hung onto the word. And it came to pass. Noah looked foolish building an ark in the desert. Moses looked foolish with a little stick and a Red Sea in front of him. Sarah looked foolish at the maternity section in target at 90 ears old. The Israelites looked foolish Marching around the walls of Jericho. David looked foolish with a little slingshot and Goliath in front of him. Esther looked foolish going to a king when she was not called.
The lepers looked foolish Marching into Samaria. Caleb looked foolish at 85 choosing not to retire. Mary looked foolish as a pregnant virgin. The wise men looked foolish following a star. Peter looked foolish stepping out of the boat. The woman with the issue of blood looked foolish grabbing the hem of his garment. Paul and Silas looked foolish worshipping in prison. The little boy looked foolish with five loaves, 2 fish, and 15.000 people. And Jesus Christ looked foolish hanging on a cross as people looked at him and said ha, that's your Messiah? That's the promise? That's the king of Jews? He's the one?
Well, let me tell you if we have a generation that are willing to wait patiently because faith and patience bring the promise, and are willing to look foolish and are willing to defy the logic, and are willing to not get disconnected and willing not to look slick and cool and understand commitment in a culture that doesn't understand loyalty, in a culture doesn't understand submission, in a culture that doesn't... What would happen if the church did that because let me tell you something, because they said yes, and we're willing to look foolish this is what happened, Noah and his family were saved from the flood.
Moses saw the Red Sea part. Sarah did give birth to Isaac. The Israelites saw the walls of Jericho fall. David did defeat Goliath. Esther stopped the Jewish genocide. The lepers saw the Syrian army flee. Caleb got Hebron. Mary gave birth to Jesus. The wise men found the Messiah. Peter walked on water. The woman with the issue of blood she was healed. Paul and Silas got out of prison. The little boy's lunch fed 5 .000, and Jesus Christ got off that cross and he defeated hell, and he defeated death, and that same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives on the inside of you and me, and Jesus said go ye into all the world. Make disciples so they will come home. Let's be foolish for Jesus, in Jesus name.