Robert Morris - Passing the Power Test
All right, we're going to continue our series entitled Dream to Destiny. Every person has a dream, and every person has a destiny from God. But we have to pass character tests along the way to be able to have the character to fulfill the destiny God has for us. And so we have done the first six, and so we have now seven, eight, nine, and ten, which will be the next four weeks. I'll do these four in a row. So, this week, and then I'll be in the pulpit the next three weeks. Okay? So, I just want to remind you where we are in the series.
The first test was The Pride Test. And The Pride Test is how do you respond to the dream? That's the first test you're going to take, and obviously you'll continue to take it, but how do you respond to the dream? The Pit Test is how do you respond when Satan and others attack you? Joseph and his brothers, his brothers threw him in the pit. How are you going to respond when that happens? The Palace Test, how do you respond in stewardship? How are you going to steward? Jesus said in Luke 16, "If you can't steward what is another man's who will give you what is your own"? So some of you want to have your own company one day, but you're not a good employee now, so you've got to pass this stewardship test before your destiny will come to pass.
The fourth was The Purity Test. How do you respond to the test of moral purity? Again, these are tests we take all of our lives. The next test, the fifth, was The Prison Test. How do you respond when you suffer wrongfully? Joseph did the right thing and yet suffered the wrong consequences, and that happens to all of us. The Prophetic Test is how do you respond to God's Word? Are you going to allow God's Word to be the standard for your life? And now we're in The Power Test.
Let me say one thing, though, about God's Word. I always ask you to vote. I believe as Americans, we should vote. We are in a society, we are a republic with a democratic process, in case you didn't know. And so, a republic means we're governed by our constitution. The democratic process means that we have the ability to elect leaders who will uphold the constitution. You understand? It's different from a simple democracy or a simple republic. It's actually the best of both worlds. But if we don't vote as evangelical Christians and then complain about the decisions that are being made, we're the ones to blame. And so, I'm asking you to vote. The midterms are coming up. It's very important. There are local, national, and state elections.
And I want to just say something to you, when I talk about The Prophetic Test, about the Word of God is our standard, I want you to notice that I have never, ever said, "Vote your conscience". The reason is, I'm going to say this kind of directly, okay? So, everybody get ready for it, and don't get upset with me. I gave you the disclaimer, okay? I really don't care what you think is right or wrong. I really don't care. And neither does God. So, I never say, "Vote your conscience," because your conscience could be wrong. That's from the... Josh has taught us a lot about this. That's eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, your knowledge of what's good and evil is not the tree of life. So I never say that. Here's what I say. Vote biblical principles, not what you think is right and wrong. Vote what the Bible says, biblical principles.
So, I just want to remind you, it's important that we vote, and it's easiest to vote early. All right? Okay. So the power test is how do you respond when you get some power? Now, what you might be thinking is, "I've never been able to take that test. I would love to take that test one day". but you will get some power one day. Let me explain power to you. Another word would be authority. But let me explain authority to you. It's responsibility. Any time you're given responsibility, then you have power when you fulfill that responsibility. Or if you don't fulfill that responsibility, then you don't have that power. All right?
So, I want to show this to you in Joseph's life. We're doing Joseph, which is Genesis chapter 30 through Genesis chapter 50. I'm going to have to skip around a little bit in Genesis 41 so that we've got enough time for the message. Okay? The first seven verses, though, of Chapter 41, are two dreams that Pharaoh had. Pharaoh dreamed there were seven fat cows and seven lean cows. And the seven lean cows ate the seven fat cows. Then he dreamed there were seven full grains, or heads of wheat, and there were seven lean, or parsed heads of grain, and they ate the seven full ones. Okay? So, then we picked it up in verse eight. "Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled", that's talking about Pharaoh, "and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt".
This is actually where we get the word magi from. And I've explained that in a Christmas message. So you have to go back to hear that. I don't have time to explain it now, and they came from Balaam. I don't have time to explain that. I just, just hoping you'll get hungry and say, "I think I'll read about that later". All right. "And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh. Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh", remember, Joseph interpreted a dream for him in prison, "and said, 'I remember my faults this day.'" In other words, "I remember that someone interpreted my dream, and I was supposed to tell you about it". But it's been two years since then.
Verse 14. "Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly", I just want you to notice this because the power test comes quickly. You can be called into the boss's office one day with one position and walk out of his office with another position. So it can come, the power test always comes quickly. Now, what I mean by that is you're saying, "Yeah, but it's been seven years I've been waiting for this". I know that. But one day it happens just like that. That's the point. Okay? "...they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh". Obviously, he needed a shave and new clothes. Okay, chapter 41, verse 37. So, he interprets the dreams. "So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, 'Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?'"
Notice again, unbelievers recognized a wisdom that Joseph had they attributed to God. "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.'" So this is the power test. Now, let me say something. The Pride Test is how we respond to the dream. The power test is how we respond to the destiny. To give you another one, using another test. The Prison Test is how we respond when bad things happen. The power test is how we respond when good things happen.
So let me say, let me just help us again where we are. Joseph is now 30 years old. He has not fulfilled his destiny. He has just started his destiny. He has been given power. Now we're going to see how he handles that power and that authority. One day, you will be given power and authority, if you haven't already been, wherever you are or whatever God has called you to do, but please hear me. It is a huge test, and I'm going to call it something other than the power test just for a moment so that we get it. It is the test of success. It has been the hardest test I've ever taken. It was much harder than taking the test when I couldn't pay my bills. Success is a huge test that we all go through. We get success in some area, and there's a test.
In other words, what's amazing to me is like, someone says to us, "Hey, I'm going to be out of town next week". And it's our group leader, our small group leader. "Would you teach the small group next week"? You say, "I couldn't do that. I never taught the small group. I can't do that. It's not my gift. You're going to have to ask somebody else". And it'd be funny to me if he says, "Well, I asked everybody else because I thought of you last, but you're the only choice I have now". But let's just say he said, "Well, I really believe, I prayed about it, and I believe God told me that you're supposed to do it". And so you reluctantly agree, and then you're scared all week. You're scared to death.
You work real hard, you teach, and God puts His hand on it, and you even are thinking to yourself, "Wow, this is coming out really well. Thank You, Lord". And then people come up to you and say, "That was fantastic. You did a great job. You could probably lead a small group for yourself one day". And on the inside you think, "Yeah, I knew I'd be good at this". You just failed the power test. Do y'all understand? Are y'all following what this test is? This test is that you get asked to do something, or, let's say it another way, you get promoted and you've been thinking for years they should promote you. And then after a few years of doing the job, you think that they're lucky to have you. You failed the power test because you started out saying to God, "I can't do this without You". But after a few years of being successful, you say to Him, "You can relax. I've got this. I know what I'm doing now".
And sometimes He'll actually let you do it on your own, and then you go back to, "Okay, I can't do it without You". So, power comes quickly. He goes to sleep one night and wakes up in the prison. The next day he wakes up in the palace. That's how quick it is. Some people have a real humble spirit until they get promoted. Some people have a humble spirit to get promoted, and it goes away as soon as they get the promotion. Let me give you an illustration. Let's say there's a guy, it's a smaller church, and he says, "Pastor, I just want to help in the parking lot parking cars". And the pastor says, "That'd be great because we have the gravel part we haven't been able to pave yet, and we've got some people, and there's some holes out there and places we haven't been able to fix, and boy, if you could help, that would be great". And he just does a great job. He does a great job.
So the pastor says to him, "Hey, listen, I'd like to make you the parking lot captain". And the next week, he shows up with a vest, a badge, a bullhorn, and a lightsaber that looks like it belongs in a Star Wars movie. He's failing the power test. Does everyone get this? Has anyone here ever failed the power test? Never mind, because if you don't raise your hand, you failed the lying test. Okay. So, here are my three points, and I phrased them in questions. Number one, From where does power come? From where does power come? Thomas and I are grammarians, and so we talked about this. I had to use correct grammar, but for some of you that are thinking, "What does that mean"? "Where does power come from"? That's another way to say it. Okay. "Where does it come from"? All right, but I can't end the sentence with a preposition, if y'all don't mind. Okay. From where does power come? Anybody have an idea? God, obviously.
Psalm 62:11. "God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God". This next verse, I've told y'all this before about other verses, but I say it all the time, is the funniest verse in the Bible. So I say that a lot, I know, but a lot of verses are funny to me. John 19:10. "Then Pilate said to Him," that's Jesus, "'Are You not speaking to me?'" Now, here's the funny part. "'Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You"? Can I remind you that He's speaking to the Creator of the universe? But watch what Jesus does. "Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.'"
All power comes from God. There must come a recognition in us that even though we work hard, it's God that has blessed us. This is the balance. There's a balance between, "It's just all God, brother," and "I've worked very, very hard, but God has blessed me". And then the other side of, "It's just all God," is. "Well, I know God has helped me in my church life, but in my business, it's been me". or "It is I," if you want me to use grammar. Okay. All right. There's got to, in Christians, in believers, we should say, "I've worked very hard, yet God has blessed". In other words, a farmer would say, "I plowed, I tilled, I planted, but God made it rain". There's got to be that there. Let me just address for a minute the, "It's all God," because I really don't think we have people mainly that watch me, that say, "No, it is all I. I did it all". Okay, we got the, maybe, "It's all God," some folks.
So there's a friend of mine named Steve Green. I actually have two friends named Steve Green. One is of the Green family, Hobby Lobby, and he oversees the Bible Museum. If you haven't been to the Bible Museum in DC, You need to go. It is phenomenal. And so Steve is a good friend. But then there's a Steve Green who's a friend of mine that's a multi-award-winning artist, musical artist, singer. And so, Steve and I have been friends for maybe 40 years or so, 35 or 40 years, back when both of us were young. But we were having lunch, like 30 years ago probably, and he told me this story. He said, "Robert, God convicted me of false humility". And I said, "I've never even heard of false humility. Please help me with that". He said, "It's where we get to the place where we say, 'It's all God.'" It's like if someone, if you come up and say to me, "That was a good message". My response should be, "Thank you," because I worked hard on it, but yet God blessed it. It shouldn't be, "It's all God. It was just all God". That's false humility, which is still pride.
And so what happened to Steve one time is he did a concert, and he walked off the platform, and he'd gotten in this expression of saying, "It's all God". "It's all God". So he walks off the platform. There's a guy standing there, and he comes up to him and he says, "Brother, that was good". Like that. And Steve said, "Well, brother, it was all God". And the guy said, "Well, it wasn't that good," because there are a few notes your voice cracked on and a few notes you went flat on. No, he didn't say that. But the point was, if it's all God, are y'all hearing me, It'd been really good. It'd been incredible. But we have a part. So, that's what I think Joseph understood. So, I promise you, you will take this test.
Now, here's something else you need to know about power. There is actually a God-given, righteous desire for power, and I'll explain that in the next point a little more. We were created by an omnipotent God; all-powerful. God has power, so power is not bad. So, you actually have a God-given desire for power. When I grew up, one of my favorite TV shows, this shows how old I am, was Bonanza. Hoss, Cartwright, Little Joe, okay, okay. But I loved Ben Cartwright. I wanted to be Ben Cartwright when I grew up. My dad was like Ben Cartwright in our little town, because people that couldn't get a car loan, he loaned the money for it. People that couldn't get a home loan, he loaned the money for it. When I had given away my 15th car, he had given away 15 houses. So I wanted to be like that when I grew up. I wanted to have the power to bless people because someone would be trying to take somebody's little, bitty ranch, and Ben Cartwrigt would come in and say, "You get off this land, and I'll pay his note at the bank". Do y'all remember?
Okay, if you haven't seen it, watch it. Just go wherever you can find it. If somewhere. And you'll love Ben Cartwright, too. Okay. That's good power, that he used his power to help people. But every person has a desire for power, and it's not bad. Jesus even said, "If you desire to be first, then be the servant of all". Timothy and Titus said, if a person desires the office of an overseer, that's the word for bishop, an overseer. In other words, to have power. He desires a good thing. In other words, he's desiring to have power, even in the church, so that he can help people. Is everyone following me? That's not a bad thing. But if you don't believe that we're born with this desire for power, watch the youngest child in the family if you get a dog because the youngest child now has someone to boss around. That was Elaine in our family. When we got dogs, "That's my dog". Because she wanted to tell, because she got told what to do by mom, dad, Josh, and James. And that's true, isn't it? Josh, do you know what they told us?
It's fun when your kids get older because they start confessing, because they know they can't get grounded anymore or spanked. Josh and James, when she was young, would hold her head in the pillow and say, "Pray about it". I'm sorry. This great Bible teacher. That's the way he was when he was young. Just want you to know. He needed to get saved. Okay? We had dogs all growing up. Some of them I hate, I despise. We had a demonized dog. I don't know if you ever had one of those, like when Jesus cast the demons into the pigs. We had a dog that had demons. He was demonized, so we gave him to some friends. We had a dog that had Alzheimer's, I think, personally. And I'm not making fun of the disease at all. I'm just saying, every time I'd walk in the room, the dog would bark at me. I'm like, "Really? Come on. I mean, I come in here every day. You can't remember my name"?
You know. Then we had the funniest dog we had growing up, was Glacier. Glacier is like a white, 'cause she was all white. Her father was an Alaskan husky, her mother, a full-blooded wolf. She was a great dog. She killed everything within a mile of our house. She was wonderful, wonderful. We didn't have to worry about squirrels getting in our roof. We didn't have to worry about cat... Oh, I shouldn't have said that. But we did see posters around our neighborhood, "Missing: Fluffy". And we knew what had happened to Fluffy. She dug a den under the foundation of our house. So, I bought her a doghouse, and she dug a den under the doghouse and slept under the dog house. There was a guy coming to do work in our backyard one time. He's opening... we had a chain-link fence. He's opening the fence, and he said, "Does your dog bite"? He's doing like this. And I said, "No, she doesn't". I said, "But actually, she's half wolf". He went right back to this. and I said, "I said my dog is half wolf". He said, "Uh huh. You know, you could have said your wolf is half dog". "I'm not going in the back yard until you put her in the house".
So she was a wonderful dog. All right, the point is, from where does power come? It comes from God. And there is a good desire for power, if you want to use it to help people. And that's the next point. So, to whom does power come? It comes to the humble. James 4:10, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up". Let me say it another way, exalt you, or give you power if you're humble. 1 Peter 5:5, "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you", old and young, male and female, "be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'"
And I want to come back to word, "grace", "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you", lift you up, give you power, "in due time". But let me give you, there's what grace is, and what grace does. Grace is unmerited favor, but what it does is, another one of the definitions of it is enablement. And you go to the root word of that in the Greek, and it's power. Grace gives you power to overcome sin you never had power to overcome. So He gives grace to the humble. He gives power to the humble. It comes as a result of humility.
So, one time I was with this friend of mine who actually does presbytery every year at Gateway Church. So he's very good at it, and he is a great man of God. He's an elder at a sister church in another city, and he's a great man of God. He's a great man of God. He's pastored for years. And so anyway, wonderful man. So I'm not saying anything negative. He and I laugh about this story, but years ago, probably 30 years ago, I called him and said, "Hey, I'm doing a presbytery in Arkansas and I'd like you to come and be on it". He said, "I, I, I, I can't do that". That's where you prophesy over people you've never met, and so I don't know how many of you would volunteer for that either, publicly. And I said, "No, I think you'd be great". So I picked him up, and we're driving there. We're not flying. We're driving.
So, we've got a long drive, hours ahead of us. They whole way, he's asking me questions about prophesying, and he said to me, "And I just want you to know something, I'm not prophesying over anybody the first night. Nobody. I will not prophesy the first night. I'm going to sit, and I'm going to learn. The second night, I might do one. The third night, I'll try to do all of them, but I will not do anyone the first night". First night, we get up, couple comes down, kneels down, he jumps up immediately, goes and prophesies. But it was a great word from God. I mean, it was right on. God was all over him. Every couple that came up, he prophesied over. Then we had a time where we call people up like we do here, and give them words in due season, comes from Scripture, about a word spoken in due season. And so he was prophesying to people. I'm talking about, I mean, it was just, God was all over him.
Now, before we go on with the story, let me ask you, why was God all over him? He was humble. He knew he couldn't do it without God. So, let me give you another word for humble: Scared to death. He was scared to death. "I can't do this without God". That's a good place to be. So we go to the pastor's home for dinner after the service. It was a small church. We didn't go to a restaurant. Probably, I think the only restaurant in town, we laughed about it later, open was Waffle House. We went there one night. We said to the teenage girl working there, "What do you eat here"? She said, "Oh, my mother won't let me eat here". So, just a joke. Not saying anything bad about Waffle House. I'm just saying, maybe that particular one. So anyway, we're sitting on the couch in the living room, and the pastor sitting across from me, okay. I'm here, he's there.
So the pastor and I are talking. This is after the first night when he just prophesied the heavens down, okay? The pastor said to me, "When you get a word from God, do you sense an impression or do you actually kind of hear words and sentences in your mind"? And he's looking right at me. This guy who had just prophesied said, "Well, I'll tell you," and he put his hands back on the couch like that, "I'll tell you", and he went from novice to expert in one night. The next night, first couple comes up, I looked at him. He said, "I don't have anything. I don't have anything. You have to go. I can't hear anything, Robert. I can't hear tonight. I can't hear a word. I don't have anything". The whole night, I had to encourage him. So afterwards he said to me, "Why was it so easy last night and so hard tonight"? I said, "Well, last night you were humble. Last night you knew if God didn't come through, you couldn't", are y'all, everyone following me?
So, power comes to the humble. Let me give you one other thing about being humble. Have you ever met someone who has had great success, let's say, in whatever he or she does? And after talking to him, you come away very attracted to the person's spirit and demeanor because he or she has tremendous humility? It's attractive, isn't it? You think, "Man, that person was just a regular person, and yet she's done this and done this and done that". I can remember... Well, never mind. Anyway. I can get off on... The older I'm getting, the more I have divine rabbit trails, but they're funny. So anyway, you meet someone who's done a lot for God, or a lot in business, who's humble the person's attractive to you. Have you ever met someone that's been very successful who's prideful? It's repulsive, isn't it. And then I'll tell you something. Have you ever met someone that's never done anything and is prideful? That's just stupid. That's foolish. Okay?
So, my point is that pride looks foolish. So let me give you my illustration, now. Back in the 80s, I was in my 20s then, and for some reason I wanted to be, again, my father was successful growing up. I wanted to be successful. I had the desire to be successful, and to appear successful to people. It was an insecurity that I had. And so at that time, for some reason, some of you remember this. Men who were successful wore lizard-skin shoes. That meant you had made it. Okay, I didn't have any lizard-skin shoes. I had second hand shoes from Salvation Army, but I wanted lizard-skin shoes because I wanted people to think I was successful.
Well, I had a friend who was successful, bought some lizard-skinned shoes. They were too tight on him, so he gave them to me. I wore them everywhere. I mean, to my kids' soccer games, I wore lizard-skinned shoes. And truth be told, they were too tight on me, but I wore them anyway. So one day I decided to take our Ford Fairlane. Some of you don't even know that Ford used to make a car called Fairlane. They're now collector's items. Back then, nobody collected them. That's how I could afford it. And so I drove it to the car wash one Saturday to get it washed, but wore my lizard-skin shoes so everyone there would think actually, the Mercedes was mine going through the car wash. And it's one of those where it had the long hallway and everyone would stand at the window watching the cars go through. You know those? But at the front of it, at the front part, was a place you could get your shoes shined, so I got my lizard-skinned shoes shined.
And then as I was walking down the hallway, people standing, watching the cars come through would do this. They would turn, and then they'd go, and I was thinking, "They think I'm somebody. They're seeing these nice shoes, and it's just amazing what these shoes do for me". What I didn't realize was when I got down to the end of the row, I thought, I'm going to look down because they must look very nice shined. What I didn't realize was the guy had rolled my pants legs up like this. And so I was walking, my point is that pride looks foolish. Did I make my point? Okay.
All right. Here's point number three, and it's quick. Why does power come? I told you I'd get to it on point 2, But it's actually point 3. Acts 10:38. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him". Why does God give power? So you'll do good and help people. Deuteronomy 8. It's quoted a lot, but I've even asked people because it says it's God who gives power to get wealth. So, we'll read it in a moment, But I've asked people even, "And why does he give wealth"? And many people can't answer that. Now, Steve Dulin can because he teaches about this and has talked for many years about this.
Deuteronomy 8:17, he says, when you enter the promised land, that's where we're coming. He's basically saying, Don't say in your heart, "'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day". When God gives you financial blessing, it's that he may establish his covenant on this earth. That's why He gives power. That's the only reason He shares His power, is so you can help people with it. Let me just give you this illustration. Here's God with all of the resources in the world, well, actually all the resources in the universe. He actually owns Mars, If you don't know. When Elon gets there, it'll say, "Property of God".
So here's God with all the resources. Over here are all the needs, all the hurting people, all the churches that need to be built, all the poverty, all the difficulties, all the sex trafficking, all the horrible atrocities that sin has brought into the world. Another way business leaders, to say this, is here's all the supply, all of it, and here's all the demand. Have you ever thought about what's in the middle? You are. Let me say another way. God is looking for distributors. He wants to get all the resources over there. He just needs a distributor. So He'll give you power and see how you handle it. The world says power is for self. The Bible says power is for others. Are y'all catching that? I know that was a quick statement, but it was a powerful statement.
All right, so let me give you an illustration and then we're done. When our church was smaller, and I've lost touch with him, so I don't know whether he's still a member of the church, and we just haven't talked in a while, but he's a very busy person. But we used to go to lunch a lot, spend time together. It's a man named Juan Hernandez. So Juan has run the presidential campaign for many presidents, probably over ten, in Central and South American countries, to be elected. And he's Dr. Juan Hernandez. But he's a political strategist that every liberal is afraid of in Central and South America because he's a strong believer. He won, the first presidential campaign he ran was for Vicente Fox, and he led him to Christ, and then he led 13 out of 24 of his cabinet members to Christ.
Okay, and now, every time I've talked to him since then, and we have talked, I just don't know where he is. I haven't talked to him in the last year or so. But he's in some country running a presidential campaign, and the presidential campaign can be in last place. And the thing they're scared of is if Juan Hernandez comes in to run the campaign because that's how, God is with him. He's like a Joseph. You following me? Okay. So, after a Saturday night service when the church was smaller, I was standing, greeting people, and this couple came up that I knew and said, "Hey, we want to introduce you to so and so". She and her husband had been missionaries to Mexico for 40 years. And I'm just overwhelmed. I think, "Wow! I'm meeting saints right now". I mean, missionaries for 40 years. And I said, "Oh, it's so wonderful to meet you". I said, "I just feel like asking you, is there something that I can pray with you about"?
And she started to cry, and she said, "Yes". She said, "My husband is still in Mexico. We have a one year furlough, and I was released, but there's a problem with his visa, and he's been there two months. We've been separated two months, and it's two months of our one-year furlough. And we've tried every avenue, and we don't know what it is". And I said, "Well, we have a guy in our church named Juan Hernandez who knows a lot and has helped, even he knows the president very well". So I said, "Let me get your name and number and talk to him to see if he can do something to help".
Next service, I'm standing down at the front talking to people after service, this guy comes up and said, "Hey, I wanted to introduce myself to you. I haven't met you yet. We're new here at the church". And his name was Jose something. I don't remember his last name. He helped translate one of my books into Spanish. And he said, "I'm Juan Hernandez's cousin". And I said, "Oh, I want to get in touch with Juan, because I told him about this lady and about her husband". And he said to me, "I will take care of it". And I said, "Okay". I said, "How will you take care of it"? He said, "I'm the Minister of Immigration for Mexico". And so because it was my first time to meet him, I was trying to not impose on him. So I said, "Well, hey, listen, if you run into any problems or something, then just like..." He said to me like this, "I will not run into any problems. I will take care of it".
On Monday, he had his visa. On Tuesday, he boarded a flight and came home , the missionary. The missionary organization extended their furlough so they'd have a full year, and at the end of the year, the man passed away and went to be with the Lord. But he got to spend the last year of his life with his wife. You know why? Because a man had power, and he knew what that power was for. It was to help people.
I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes, and in a moment we're going to have a time where you can come for prayer. I shared with you a few weeks ago how important it is at the end of a message to come to the altar and let someone agree with you in prayer. And I want to say something to all of you right now. All of you, every campus, online, I want you to hear me. Many of you are going through a difficulty right now. It's a big difficulty. It's a health crisis, it's a financial crisis, it's a marriage crisis, but you're going through something difficult right now.
I really believe God told me to give you a prophetic word. And the prophetic word is, "I will not run into any problems. I will take care of it". Because He's not a man in whom he invested power. He is the omnipotent Ruler of the universe, and He's going to take care of it. But if you do have a difficulty right now that you're going through and you need someone to pray with you, we want to pray with you. Every campus, we want to pray with you. There are some Gatherings that have people that can pray with you. So if you need prayer, please don't leave without letting someone come and agree with you in prayer.
Lord, I want to tell You thank You, that You share Your power with us so that we can establish Your covenant on this earth. In Jesus' name, amen.