Jentezen Franklin - Setting The Stage For Miracles
I want you to look with me in 2 Kings 3 and I'll being reading with verse 14: "And Elisha said, 'As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you'". And he's talking to the king of Israel and then there's the king of Judah, because Israel was split and there was two kingdoms. He said, "I wouldn't even listen to you and I wouldn't pay you any attention but because the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, is in this room I'll entertain your request". And then he says this in verse 15, "'But now bring me a musician'". Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. And he said, "Thus says the LORD: 'Make this valley full of ditches.' For thus says the LORD: 'You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals to drink.'"
I wanna preach today on the subject of Setting the stage for the supernatural. Setting the stage for miracles. I feel led to do this because I do serve a God who still is in the miracle business. The prophet Elisha said, "Call a musician. Bring me a musician, a psalmist, a minstrel the Old", the King James says. Which is someone who is not just a good musician, but they have a heart that knows how to worship and connect with God. "Bring him into this room". He didn't just start saying, "Thus says the Lord". He had to set the stage for what was about to happen, he was about to tell the people... They were in the wilderness, they were dying, the army of Israel, the army of Judah were in trouble, Jehoshaphat had made a league with Jehoram and he was the son, Jehoram, he was the son of Jezebel and Ahab. He was a wicked, wicked man and Jehoshaphat was a good man, but he had a weakness, he got linked up to the wrong people.
You know, you can be a good person but if you get linked up to the wrong people it's a matter of time before their battle becomes your battle. And they were out in the wilderness, and they were dying and they said, "Is not there anyone who has a word from God that can tell us what to do"? And they sent for Elisha. On the way, on the way there, when he arrived something happen. But when he arrived, he is so disturbed to see the wicked king of Israel in league with a mighty man of God, Jehoshaphat, he was angry and he says these words, and you just read it, "If it were not for the king of Judah," Which means praise. "If praise was not in this room, I would not help you, I would let you call on your gods of gold and silver and immorality and everything else. But because praise is in the room, I will receive a word from the Lord for you". And then he did something strange, he didn't just begin to do it, he said, "Call me a musician, call me a singer, a worshiper," A harp player would have been what it was. "And let him play," listen, "and set the stage for a miracle".
Many of you have never experienced the power of God like God wants to show you because you don't understand there's something we must do. Here's why it matters. He said, "I want a harp player. I want the man to come in and change the atmosphere. I want my emotions", because music touches your emotions. Our emotions affect our faith. And when you bring in that music, he said, "I'm setting the stage for the supernatural. But I can't just do it, the atmosphere", there's an atmosphere for miracles. There's an atmosphere for God to move, and you have to set the stage. Music creates a mood for miracles. Music has the ability, in 2 Kings 3 when the musician came in and started playing the very next verse said, "and as he played and as he was worshipping suddenly the Spirit of the Lord comes on the prophet and he says, 'Thus says the Lord: Dig ditches in the middle of the desert because what God's about to send is bigger than what you have to capacity to receive'".
Dig ditches. Don't just get canteens and hope they get filled, you need ditches for what is about to come, and I want you to get ready for it. But that word didn't come until the stage was set for the miracle through praise, through worship, through something that people, that a man did is why the miracle happened, because God inhabits the praise of His people. Here's the real story behind the story. In the previous chapter there's one of the most amazing stories in the Bible, I've never preached on it but I'm going to, I've got a sermon that I'm gon' preach on. And it's the story of the prophet Elisha, he was on his way to the place where he would call for the musician but along the journey there were some teenagers, some young people, the youth, some of the youth. I know they were teenagers because, I'm glad that it wasn't children.
Now, the King James said, "Children, Little children". And this is a bad story, the King James says, "Little children were making fun of the prophet". Saying, "Go up Baldy, Go up Baldy". He was bald headed, the prophet was bald headed. And what they were saying was, "Why can't you do like Elijah did when he went up in a fiery chariot if you're really a prophet go up". They were making fun. It was not children, it was teenagers. I'm convinced of that. And this is hard to explain, I mean, I don't understand all this stuff but the Bible said that when those children and those teenagers started mocking the prophet and making fun of him that it offended God in Heaven and God sent two she bears, they were not he bears. Why she bears? Because she bears are meaner than he bears! That's why. And the she bears ate the children, ate up 42 of the teenagers. How many would rather the bears eat teenagers than children? Amen. Any day.
How many of you have got a few teenagers you'd like for some she bears to at least chase a little while? I know the feeling. But watch this. Now, think about this. We just read this stuff, he's on his way, that happens, he had nothing to do with it, but he sees this horrible slaughter of young people, bears ripping them to pieces. The Bible did say, "Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm". So they had broken the law of God and instant judgement hit their life. And he heard the screams, he's messed up, his mood is messed up and then he walks into the room, he comes immediately from that episode and he walks into the room and he sees Jehoshaphat, a Godly man who has made a covenant with a wicked man. That his battles would be their battles and he's so upset and that's why he's kinda got an attitude and he says, "If it weren't for them I wouldn't even mess with you. You could perish, I don't care".
His mood was messed up. And then reason he called for a musician is he knew, "I'm carrying so much stuff from what I been through and where I came from that if I don't change the atmosphere and if I don't change the mood, and the way to do that is to bring me a musician and let him worship and let him change it. Just clear my mind and clear my spirit and set the stage for the miraculous. I'm too upset, my mood is wrong". But when they got the atmosphere and the mood right, that's the power of music, it has, bring me, not a jam session player. I'm not interested in his riffs, I'm not interested in that. I want somebody who can play and just with the chord that they're hitting they shift my spirit, my mood shifts. And there's a mood. There's an atmosphere that God looks for, for miracles. There's a wooing of the Holy Spirit. At that point suddenly there is the setting of the stage for the miracle. It's a Bible principle.
If you get in the right mood your faith goes up. Your faith is affected by your mood and when your mood is shifted and when you get in a worship atmosphere, when you being to worship, not watch people, not pay people to worship, not sit out there and say, "They're doing good". But when you begin to get into that kind of worship then suddenly you are setting, nobody can do it for you. You are setting the stage for God to say, "Thus sayeth the Lord. Here's what I'm going to do". But many believers, they're born again, they love God but they think that praise is not for them, it's unimportant, it's okay, it's entertainment. No, it's not! It's sets the stage for the supernatural. And for you to not do it means somebody may get something behind you and around you that you don't ever receive. It's a Bible principle.
In 1 Samuel 16 the Bible said that evil Spirits would torment King Saul. He was so tormented with evil spirits, distressing spirits tormented him, demon spirits of fear and depression caused his moods to swing. And one moment he was loving and the next moment he was throwing spears and violent and angry, demon powers had complete control of his moods and his emotions. And one of the servants said, "Listen, why don't we send", in verse 16 he said, "Why don't we send, there's a young kid out on the mountain tops, his name is David and he watches his father's sheep". But listen to the wording, "Seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. And it shall be that when he plays with his hand the distressing spirits that are upon him will be well and he will be refreshed". The King James says, "The demons will depart and he will be refreshed". He said, "I've seen a man skillful in playing. He's skillful, he's a cunning player of the harp".
And when David came into the palace, when the evil spirits were tormenting Saul and he would be sitting on the throne and everybody knew the atmosphere was one of tense and he's in one of those moods, he's in one of... the demons are taking over, the fear, the depression, he's hitting a low like you wouldn't believe. And in would come the worshipper, David, and when he would play it would break the spell of demonic powers and they would have to leave in the presence of anointed worship. It's really something. It's really powerful. When I was in college, I got ahold of that verse, it's very special to me, and I was majoring in music on the saxophone and at that time I had not felt that call to preach, although it did mess with me I had not accepted the call the preach and I thought my life would go in the direction of music. And wanted to be a performer and I wanted to play the horn, professionally.
And I read that scripture one day with a skillful, skillful, we're gonna find Jesse the son of, "Jesse's son, David and he plays skillfully, a mighty of man of valor, a man of ore, prudent in speech," Especially this part, "A handsome person". C'mon, call the things that are not as though they were. "A handsome person". I wonder why God put that in there. "And the Lord is with Him". That was the description of David. That's why it's so powerful when someone anointed begins to worship skillfully. And when the Lord is with them. Listen, it has the power to shift the mood, from doubt and unbelief and fear and worry and depression and grief and sorrow. Suddenly the mood shifts and the King of kings is in the room and your hands go up and tears are flowing down your face because you realize He's King, there's nothing greater than Him, there's nothing troubling me that He can't fix and He can't deal with.
So powerful is this kind of worship. The power of setting a mood for miracles is so powerful that in Psalms 33 it says, "Praise the Lord with the harp, praise Him with the instrument of ten strings". There is no ten stringed instrument. In music history I couldn't find a ten stringed instrument. The ten strings I believe are your ten fingers. "Clap your hands". Psalms 47 said. And create a setting for the miraculous. You set the stage for the miraculous. You know, even the Devil knows that the spirit world is activated through music. I'll give you Bible proof of that. Daniel chapter three. Nebuchadnezzar used music to set the stage for the demonic. The Bible said that he said that, "It shall be that when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, the symphony with all kinds of music"...
See, the Devil's got his music, he was the anointed cherub. A Cherub is a singing, ministering angel. He was Heaven's worship leader. And that's why the music of the world is so powerful, that's why the music of the world has such a draw and not all of it is demonic, not all of it is wrong by no means, but much of it is. When it's full of pornography, profanity, filth and lust and immorality it is not feeding your spirit and it's hard to pull up in the parking lot after you've listened to that. Your ears are not supposed to be trash cans. It's hard, when you walk in here you still got the mood of the world all over you. You been listening to filth, you been listening to uncleanness, you been listening. You have not set the stage for the miraculous! And it takes moments like this when a preacher gets up and he's under the anointing, and you can fight me all you wanna fight me but I paid a price for this anointing and the Devil can't have you but so long!
God is going to visit our families! God is going to save our children and our children's children! And if they won't set the stage for it we can do it! I can do it! You can do it, grandaddy! You can do it, mom! You can do it! Everybody praise the Lord! C'mon! I want 500 of you to get up on your feet and shout for a minute! Oh, we bless you Lord! You feel that? You feel the mood change, you feel the atmosphere of faith come! You can't make this up, you can't program this, this is the anointing and He breaks every yoke! Whew! I feel angels up here. I feel like God could do anything. I don't know who's watching me but you need to hear, cancer doesn't have the last word, Jesus said, "I am the death and I am life and I am the resurrection. I've conquered it. I've conquered it".
Now sit down, let me finish. Even the world, music is a part of almost everything. They know it sets a mood. You get on an elevator... Calms you down. You sit in the dentist office... They want you to just calm down. The sports world today, you're not gonna go to a sports event and not find music. They even hired DJs, basically, that when they're in a time out or the basketball team is over the side you start hearing... What are they doing? They're shifting the mood, they're getting the people into it, because they know if they can get the people into it, to cheering, that it would be an advantage to their team because their team is fighting resistance. But the people in the stands can become part of the battle on the field when they begin to pray.
Oh, you don't hear me. Too many of you been sitting in the bleachers. No offense, but you been sitting you there watching when God says, "I want you to set the stage for miracles in my house with your own personal praise". Music sets a mood. So, what I'm saying to you is, this stuff matters. I can't let me emotions rule. Bring me a musician. All over this room, you have a choice now, you can set the stage for miracles in your life and in your home or you can just keep doing what you been doing. This is gonna be a powerful year. We got one more year. The Lord said, "Give me one year".
And one of those things includes praise and worship. I want you to stand up on your feet. And I don't care if your Baptist, Methodist, one God, two God, three god, glory to God. I don't care what you are. I want you to lift up your hands all over this room, you've done it at every other event that you been to when they ask you to, let a preacher lead you into the presence of God. Open your mouth and begin to close your eyes and speak praise to your Savior. Set the stage for the miraculous. Set the stage for His presence. Set the stage with your own individual praise. If you're not saved, if you know you're lost just keep your hands up and just say:
Lord, wash me in the blood. Apply the blood to my sins and wash me and make me a worshipper. Today wash me and I'll worship, wash me and I'll worship. Oh God, cleanse me, get all the stuff, the bear attacks, get it all outta my mind. Things that have distracted me this week. I need your presence. It's been so long, I long for your presence. Oh God, I'd rather be a door keeper in the house of the Lord than live in the palace with the wicked. I'm coming after you today, Lord.