You're listening to the Miracle Word Podcast. We believe that the Word of God gives you the power to experience never-ending increase in every area. If you're ready for revelation that will take you to the next level, you're in the right place. Here's your host, evangelist, author, and founder of Miracle Word University, 10 Shuttlesworth Jr.
Don't fall for this trap. One of the benefits of being able to travel everywhere, and thank you guys for sharing it as you're coming on. For some reason, I'm not seeing comments from YouTube or X. I don't know if that's a glitch on my side or if I'm just missing it.
But if you're on YouTube, drop a comment in because I'm not seeing any from YouTube on my side for some reason. I don't know why. One of the benefits of traveling all over, not just in this nation but in other nations, you get to see similarities of things that are taking place in the body of Christ. You get to see similarities about how God's moving in people, how the enemy attacks certain people.
And what you realize is the devil has no new tricks. It really becomes the same few things over and over and over among different people. And this one that I'm dealing with today is extremely common, extremely common. So I'm shining a light on it today and so that it never becomes part of your story.
We're exposing it so that you never deal with it. And when you do encounter it, you recognize it right off the bat. And so I want you to go with me to 2 Kings, Chapter 5, 2 Kings, Chapter 5. And I'm already there, but I'm going to read you.
This is a pretty familiar passage of Scripture. It's a miracle that took place through the prophet Elisha. And I want you to see the principle and I'm going to give you actually four areas of your life where this trap can harm you. Same trap, but I'll show you in the Bible how it could have affected four different areas of any person's life.
And so this is the first one. Second Kings, Chapter 5, I'm going to start reading with verse number 9. Listen to this. The Bible says, actually, let's start reading with verse number 8 because it sets it up.
So glad you're watching from Australia. Started following you after hearing you at next level conference in Orlando. So glad you were there and I'm so glad you're on with me. I'm going to be with Stephen Gina on the Zoom this coming month in September.
And I'm looking forward to it. I'll see you there. Verse 8, But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes? Let him now come to me that he may know there is a prophet in Israel.
Verse 9, So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. Now what happened was, uh, Naaman had leprosy. If you don't know the story, Naaman was dealing with leprosy.
This was the prophet's instruction. Go to the Jordan River and wash seven times. Verse 11, But Naaman was angry and went away saying, behold, I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord is God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are you not a bonna and far farther rivers?
He said, are not a bonna and far farther rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. But here's the key.
Watch this. His servants came near and said to him, watch what they said. This is awesome. My father, it is a great word.
The prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, wash and be clean? We went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.
That's powerful. Now I want to break that down for you and I'm going to look at it again with you. That was the ESV. I want to break some things out in the, the NLT real quick.
So again, if you're just joining second Kings five and let me pull up the NLT. Listen to this reading in two different versions. When the, when Elijah the prophet heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent his message to the king. Why did you tear your clothes?
Send him to me so that you may know there's a prophet in Israel. The name and came with his horses and chariot stood in the doorway of a lysus house. A lysus sent out a messenger who told him, go and wash seven times in the Jordan. Your skin will be restored and you'll be healed.
Name and win away angry and said, look, I thought for sure he'd come out, stand there and vote the name of the Lord, wave his hand over the area and cure the skin disease. The rivers of Damascus and the Abana and the Abana and Far Far are better than any of the waters of Israel. Could I not wash in them? So he's saying, you know, number one, they're better and they're of better quality water than the Jordan.
I've heard some teach that the Jordan was a very muddy river. I'm sure you've heard that too, that the Jordan was a very muddy river. And so it kind of put this man out. This was a very influential man.
I've got more quality waters at the Far Far Far at the Abana. Both of those rivers have a better quality. Right? That's what he's saying.
And so then his servant comes out and says, I love this master. If the prophet had told you to do some difficult task, you'd have been willing to do it. It seems you should be happy that he simply said, wash and you'll be healed. So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times as the prophet instructed.
His skin became smooth as a young child and he was healed. So notice this. Here's the issue that I want to deal with and I see it all the time. The trap people fall into that keeps them from receiving is the trap of convenience.
I want you to write this in the comments today. Convenience is a killer. Please write that in the comments. Convenience is a killer.
This is a vital lesson to learn for everybody. Convenience is a killer. It will literally keep you back from what the Lord's plan for your life. The reason that Naaman brought those other rivers up is because they were more convenient for him.
They're more convenient. There's no question about that. Well, they're cleaner. They're my rivers, right?
Those are the ones I prefer. I like those better. Here's one that we could actually use that happens to those people. They're closer to my house.
They're closer to those rivers are closer to my house and it's convenience and convenience is a killer. There are people who literally do what's convenient in their life and it keeps them from what God has planned for them. I see it happen all the time. Here's how it functions.
People get a word from God like this, man did. I told you I was going to show you four areas of your life. This first area dealt with healing. The only way he was going to receive his healing is by obeying the word of the Lord.
That was it. Obaying the word of the Lord. So healing is the first area. There are people who get a word from the Lord in their life and then they start to follow it and then they fall into the trap of actually just doing what's more convenient.
No, Don, this is live this morning. They start doing what's more convenient versus what was commanded. So I want you to write in the comments like this, commanded versus convenient. Commanded versus convenient.
When you just do what's convenient, it actually makes me laugh because you'll hear people. You'll hear people say, yeah, the Lord told me to do this, this and this. And then they realize once they think it through, wow, that's going to take some effort. Or wow, I'm going to have to actually press in to do that.
They just do what's convenient. Convenience is a killer. I've talked to people. They're like, you know, would you pray for us?
You know, the church that we attend is kind of dead. And then you get to talk to them. They really want to be in a Holy Ghost church. But you know, all right, so I'll ask them, why are you in the church right now then?
Well, you know, it's only like five minutes from our house and it's just easy to get there and we know what the kids in the morning and everything. It's just, okay, so you went there because it's convenient and then you want me to pray and believe with you that you'll find a Holy Ghost church. You could have already been in one. You're just more interested in what's convenient.
You like it because it gets out in an hour and 30 minutes, hour and 15 minutes and I can get to brunch with my family. And you know, but it's not what we're used to. It's not, you know, there's no move of the Holy Spirit and we're kind of frustrated about that. You know, it is close to the house and, you know, their services aren't that long and, okay, you're frustrated because you chose convenience over anything else.
You chose convenience and then people are upset. Hey, pray for my daughter. How come your church won't pray for your daughter? Oh, you know, they don't pray for people there.
They don't lay hands on people. All right. Well, that's because you chose what was convenient and now you're not happy with it because it doesn't have what you're believing for, but you like the five minute drive and you like getting out in time to go to, you know, first watch for breakfast. So you've traded what the Lord actually had for you for a short, a short drive and some million dollar bacon.
That's literally how people live their lives. They live based on what's convenient and they miss out on what God's commanded and then they're what they wonder why they're frustrated. It's because convenience is a killer. Faith takes effort.
You actually have to do something that's in it. It's not convenient. It's inconvenient. Faith takes effort.
Faith takes, you know, one of the things you'll realize you're the stories that I'm going to show you today, it was inconvenient for name and to dip in the Jordan River. He didn't want to do it. He was upset about it. But there was a specific command to receive his healing specific command to receive his healing.
And he didn't want to. It was his servant that talked him into doing it. There's things the Lord's spoken to people to do. They've just refused to do it.
And then, you know, it's funny is, I'll show you another way that it manifests. God calls somebody into the ministry and, you know, they feel called to go to Bible school or to start traveling as an evangelist or whatever it might be. And then you get, you catch back up with them like a year later and they're like, is like, how's it going with Bible school or how's it going with ministry? Well, you know, I decided to just kind of study on my own while I'm working at Starbucks and, you know, I just, I, I thought it would be better to just kind of stay around my parents, like where my parents are at.
And, you know, it's just, it's just better because I'm able to be a help and it's like, what happens is God speaks to people and then they analyze it and figure out all the areas that are uncomfortable or inconvenient. Then they modify what the Lord told them to do to fit their comfort zone. Faith, faith doesn't live in a comfort zone. I'll say it again, faith doesn't live in a comfort zone.
If you're taking notes, I would write that down. Faith does not live in a comfort zone. I've told you my testimony many times. The Lord moved me out of Virginia, which was comfortable, especially where I was located as an evangelist, the way my evangelistic ministry functioned back then.
I actually told the Lord, like, you know, in prayer, like, what's going on? You've heard me say before, you're moving me to the southern tip of Florida and I drive to all my revival services. You know, that's inconvenient. I'm going to have to drive a full day just to get out of the state of Florida before I had somewhere else to some other state to preach.
You're adding an entire travel day. Of course, the Lord is just planning to promote me. But see, you think of it, you try to analyze it first with your natural mind and then you're upset. That's inconvenient.
I can't do that. Totally inconvenient for what I... But what you realize is the instructions of the Lord, they don't just bring blessing. They bring promotion.
They bring healing. They bring all the things God has set aside for you are inside of His commands for your life. It's so funny because people, and they do it to their own detriment. People will find a way, let me talk about this because it's convenient to be lazy as well.
It's very convenient to be lazy. And let me tell you, if the Lord gave you an instruction to do something or to go somewhere or whatever it might be, and you go and you're supposed to be producing fruit like the Bible says, and you choose to produce no fruit because it's easier. It's more convenient to be lazy. You can't then say, well, I guess it doesn't work out when God calls you to do something and there's not always provision.
No, you're just lazy in your assignment. You're lazy. The word of God works if you work it, you have to work it. You have to work it.
And laziness is a part of convenience. It's convenient to just sit around and do nothing. It's so convenient for your flesh. It's so convenient for your flesh to just sit around, take it easy, don't step out too far, don't ever do anything that takes effort.
That's anybody can do that. Anybody can do that. But that's not where the blessing is. And then people start changing their theology to wrap it around their current circumstance.
Well, I may have missed what God said. You didn't miss what God said. You just didn't want to do anything. You wanted to hear it and think it put your life in autopilot and thought you were just going to fall into cloud nine.
It doesn't work like that. And people find out quickly it doesn't work like that. God hates laziness. That's a good quote, Ben.
I'll quote you Ben. Ben Foll said the couch is so much louder than the gym. The couch screams to you so much louder than the gym screams to you to come. That's a great quote.
If that's a Ben Foll original, we need to put it on a shirt. The couch is so much louder than the gym. It's convenient. It's right there too.
It's right there. Whereas the gym, I got to get my clothes, I got to get my shoes on, I got to get in the car, I got to drive. It's, you know, I don't know. There's always people on the machines I want to use.
Maybe tomorrow. Because the couch is right there. I can literally just walk to that. I can actually just jump from my chair and land on the couch.
It's true. And convenience, you know, technology's made a lot of things convenient in our modern day. And I'm happy about that. I'm happy that it's convenient.
You know what I mean? Think about what's happening right now. I don't have to get on a horseback and, you know, take a long seven month trip to get to where you are that are watching this broadcast right now. You know, think about it.
I didn't have to travel to your town to speak to you today. I can literally just jump on this technology and speak to you. It's convenient. It's convenient.
There are things that technology is done to make it more convenient for us to do the work that we're called to do, but we still got to do the work. But convenience in your life with your lifestyle, it will cut off the blessings of God. It would have cut name and ceiling off completely. He'd never been healed.
He would have died of leprosy if he'd have not done it. He would have absolutely died of leprosy if he'd not done what the prophet commanded him to do. There's no question. Let me give you another one.
This one's for your family, the widow in 1 Kings, chapter 17. This is number two. God has things for your family. But you have to obey a word.
God has blessings for your family. But it comes through a word. He leads you by his spirit. Everything that you need to do in your future and in your life is not found in God's written word.
So you need God's word, spirit to lead you by what he speaks to you internally. Romans 814, the Bible says, as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit will lead you in your life. He'll lead you.
He'll tell you what to do. He'll tell you what to do for a job career. He'll tell you where to go to school or if to go to school. He'll tell you who to marry, where to live, where to go to church.
The problem is when the Lord speaks, it's one thing to listen. It's another thing to obey. It's one thing to listen. It's another thing to obey.
And the widow, the Bible says that Elijah went there during a time of a famine. But it's interesting to me because God said, I've already commanded a widow woman in that area to sustain you. He already talked to her. So when Elijah showed up at her house, it's not the first time she heard it.
God already talked to her according to the Scripture. I've commanded a widow woman there to sustain you and Elijah arrives at her house. What are you doing? Just gathering some sticks.
You're going to make a small fire. I have a little meal left. I have a little oil left. I'm going to make some cakes.
My last meal, then me and my son are going to die. He said, all right, make a little bit for me first. That's inconvenient, especially when you're on death's door, ready to starve. He said, oh, you only have a little bit left to just make a meal for you and your son.
Make me a little bit first. It takes faith to do what's inconvenient. It takes faith to do what's inconvenient. Margaret said, I thought I moved to Florida three years ago for my kids to pursue their dreams playing golf all year round.
Not true. God moved me to Florida to be closer to him and to join Miracle Word Church. It's powerful. It's a powerful testimony.
There's others that have that testimony and God spoke to them. God did it for me. God did it for me. By the way, if you're just jumping on, please share the broadcast this morning.
It takes faith to do what's inconvenient. Caitlin, it was great seeing you and your husband in Indiana. I actually brought his Miracle Word sweatsuit in this morning. We're going to get it nailed out to him.
He'll be rocking the pasture, Ted Purple. Love you guys. Don't forget to send me that thing that I asked you on the sand. Don't forget.
And so it takes faith. That's another one. I was looking at Sean Caitlin. They drove all the way.
What did you guys say it was? Two and a half hours? One way. It's not convenient.
It's not convenient. But they received a word from the Lord. It's not convenient to do that. To go get an Airbnb with your family, spend extra money, leave town for a couple of days, drive five hours around trip.
That's not convenient. But then when you find the Lord has something for you, the Lord has three and a half hours, three and a half hours. And then you go back and drive it again. It's not convenient.
It's not, but God has something for you. And so it takes faith to do what's inconvenient. And then you find out there's a blessing on the other side of your obedience. The devil wants to dangle convenience.
You know what they could have said? They could have said, well, you know, they livestream all these revivals. And so we could easily just sit on the couch and watch the live stream and just chill, take it easy. They didn't do that.
They didn't do that. They got in the car. They packed it up. They drove seven hours around trip.
Got an Airbnb to be an in what God was doing in Indiana. And they got a word from the Lord. Power of God. Let me tell you, it takes faith to do what's inconvenient and it's inconvenient to do what takes faith.
And so here God wanted to bless this widows family, but it was inconvenient for her to make the profit a cake first. But God had a plan to not only sustain her, keep her alive, but to bless her throughout the entire famine. What did the prophet tell her after she obeyed the inconvenient instruction? He said, your barrel of oil will never run dry and your barrel of flour and your flask of oil.
They'll never run out. They'll not run out. As you've obeyed the inconvenient word, they'll never run out. They'll never run out.
You got to look in your life. What is inconvenient but takes faith that God's led me to do? What is inconvenient? It's amazing to watch God move in America.
Oh yeah. And people think, wow, you know, it would be easy for me. Somebody called me yesterday and we were talking about ministry. It would be easy for me to just like preach one time a week, show up Sunday morning at Miracore Church and preach and go home and you know, come into the studio every day and whatever, but that's not what the Lord's asked me to do.
So is it convenient to be on the road nonstop? It's not convenient. It's a command. Command are never convenient that they always take faith to be running night after night, six weeks straight, going through the fall, constantly going and I'm excited to do it.
I'm happy to do it, but it's not convenient to be gone from home 250, 270 nights a year. Trust me, you're not, you're not going to ever hear me complain about it. I love to do it. But if we're talking about the difference between obedience and convenience, it's not convenient to travel.
You know, we went up to to chief and for one service, one service. You know, we spent $2,000 just to rent a sprinter van with a driver that would take all 13 of us up and back because it's a five hour trip. You know, we took five hours up, had a Holy Ghost service in chief and then jumped right back in the sprinter and all 13 of us, you know, five hours back. I think we got back to South Florida, like four in the morning, got home at four in the morning.
That's not convenient by any means, especially you got team that woke up at 5 a.m. You know, 430 a.m. It got moving to get Miracore Church going on Sunday morning. So up at 430 up at five running all day, set up, you know, going, traveling, preaching, serving back.
That's a 24 hour day almost. Think about that. Yeah, the results were wonderful. The results were amazing.
But think about it. That's a 24 hour work day about 4 30 a.m. So about 4 a.m. coming back to your house and we work.
And so yeah, it's powerful to see the results, but it takes inconvenient work. And my hat is off to such a phenomenal team doing great work. I thank God. I thank God for running, you know, all of these last weeks, especially last week.
And then Lillia was in here doing prayer every morning, did a phenomenal job. She did prayer every day. And then Sunday night she while we were up there ministering, she preached in the youth group, Lillia preached in Miracore, a miracle or church at last gen youth. And so we're running.
Yes, we're running. It's not convenient, but man, the blessings are compounded as we're obedient. And this woman here, the widow at Zarephath, she got her whole family blessed because she did what was inconvenient. Inconvenient.
Let me show you another one. I'll show you about personal provision. John chapter 6, there was a young boy that came to hear Jesus preach and see the miracles that he would do. So many thousands of people had followed Jesus out into the wilderness.
This boy was one of them. And he said not thinking about what it was for, what the reason was, he just said, I want Jesus to have my lunch. And here's a boy that came far from home. You know, it's not easy.
You're trekking out into the wilderness in the Middle Eastern heat. And then he just simply says, rather than me eat. I would rather Jesus have my lunch. And so took five loaves and two fish and gave it to Jesus.
He said, rather the Lord have my lunch than me have my lunch. This is supernatural provision. The Lord now that's not convenient. That's inconvenient to walk all that way out into the wilderness and then decide I'm not going to eat anything today.
And listen, stay here. Jesus preach. Watch his miracles and then walk all the way back with no food. That's inconvenient.
But he did it. And one boy's obedience blessed a multitude of people, 5,000 men plus the women plus the children. It's interesting that when, you know, you read John chapter six, have you ever thought about this? The little boy who gave the lunch to Jesus was not numbered among the 5,000 that were fed.
That was only the men. The women and children were separate. So who knows? I mean, there could have been 10,000 people there, 12,000 people.
Who knows? But this little boy gave his lunch to Jesus an inconvenient act. And Jesus took it, multiplied it, fed, not just a little bit until they were full, the Bible says, fed the 5,000 and plus women and children. And then when they were done, there were 12 baskets of leftovers.
Now, if you go by the biblical principle of sowing and reaping, who were those leftovers for? Who was the extra for the excess? The harvest goes to the boy who sowed the seed. Do not be deceived.
God is not mocked whatsoever a man sows. That will he also reap. And so that would have gone to that boy, supernatural provision that came through doing what was inconvenient, supernatural provision coming through doing what was inconvenient. It's supernatural.
Let me give you one more. I'm going to kind of hang my hat on this one and talk about this before we pray. Isaac, the story of Isaac in Genesis 26, this is really about your life's purpose. When the Lord leads you to a place, it's about your life's purpose.
I don't take it lightly. You know, Sundays like we had this last Sunday morning, I don't take it lightly. We kicked it into overdrive, but I'm telling you, the hand of God is on miracle word church. The hand of God, it's so wonderful, so wonderful to see the anointing flowing, flowing.
These days are ahead for us. And I just, I was so happy to see what took place on Sunday. Hungry people, impartation of double portion. We're getting ready to have testimony.
We've already got some and they're coming in. We're going to continue to have thunderous testimonies, six months of thunder. God's going to do it. So in Isaac, in Isaac's story, in Genesis 26, it's very interesting because God leads him to go live in a land that's in the middle of a famine, jarar, or garar, depending on how you want to pronounce it.
And in Genesis 26, the Bible says that God leads into a land that's in a severe famine. And he said, don't go where your father went, go where I lead you. I'll be with you there. I will bless you there.
Well, let me tell you, when you've got a family and servants and livestock and all the rest of it, it is extremely inconvenient to go move everybody and everything into a land that's filled with famine. I mean, that's crazy. Why would you make that move in the first place? You know why?
Because God said to. That's why God said to do it. And so he moves everything into garar. The Bible says in that year, not after the famine was over, not years later, in that year of famine, he sowed in that time, which is also crazy, but he's just being obedient with an inconvenient instruction for what God has planned for him, inconvenient instruction.
So's and the Bible says, and in the same year, reaped 100 fold in that land. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. And he got so blessed.
In fact, let's go to it real quick. Genesis 26, he got so blessed, according to scripture, that the Philistines envied him, the Bible says, the Philistines envied him. The Bible says in verse 12, this is Genesis 26, 12, and Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year, 100 fold, the Lord blessed him. Verse 13, and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.
He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. Keep going. Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father servants had dug in the days of Abraham, his father. And Abimalek said to Isaac, that's the king, go away from us, for you are much mightier than we are.
Good morning, Sean, go away from us. You're much mightier. So watch this. God moved his man into foreign territory in the time of a famine.
Bless him so much. Catch that. Bless him so much that the Philistines envied him and begged him to leave and go somewhere else because they had become too mighty for the Philistines. That's a next level testimony.
You become too much. When you obey on inconvenient instruction from the Lord, you'll get the kind of blessing that can only come from inconvenient obedience. I want you to write that in the comments, inconvenient obedience, inconvenient obedience. This is next level.
This will help you forever. Don't ever judge what God's leading you to do based on what's convenient. It's never worth it. The trade off is never worth it.
Ever. Not ever. Convenience is an enemy. It's a killer to God's commands and his blessings.
Inconvenient obedience. That's it. Put it in the comments. Inconvenient obedience.
It's never a blessing. It never turns out well, you know, we're just going to do this because I watch it. I watch people do it and I laugh to myself because you know what's funny? It's like people can't connect the dots.
This is what's so funny to me. People can't connect the dots. They don't do what the Lord says or commands in his word or by his leading. They don't do it.
They're lazy about it because it's inconvenient. And then they struggle and then they complain that they're struggling. And then they get upset that they're struggling like God doesn't care about them or that faith doesn't work. And there's no, that's not what's up.
What's up is you've gone for what's convenient over what was commanded. And as a result, there's a struggle that comes with that. It's never worth doing what's convenient. It's never worth it.
You know, I've had to like get back to the place of you get on the road and you start traveling and stuff. It's very easy to eat very poorly and to not take care of yourself. So I've had to like put some checks into place recently, you know, to get back to a place of, you know, where I'm doing what's right. And, you know, it's common.
I mean, I read this years and years ago, but you know how they tell you to like, to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, you know, they tell you to do that. It was interesting because I was reading a post by a guy on Instagram, this doctor that I follow. And he says, people don't eat healthy because they say it's too expensive to eat healthy. It's too expensive to eat organic or eat healthy or whatever.
He said, and then he was breaking down the numbers. He was like, cancer costs $800 a month. Diabetes costs about $600 a month. He said, you can pay $200 to $300 extra a month to eat healthy and take care of your body.
Pre-emptive taking care. And they tell you, you know, to shop the perimeter, eat produce, eat whole foods, whatever, whatever it is they say, you know, and it's not convenient. You know what's easy and convenient? That's why the majority of America, you know, it's easy to reach for something that's, you know, in a bag, whatever.
Chips are easy. You pull them out of the, I could crush a whole bag of chips, a whole bag of Doritos. It's easy. You don't have to cook them.
You don't have to prepare them. You don't even have to put anything on them. You just open the bag and sit on the couch, which is calling very loudly Ben. And you just sit there and before you know it, crush a whole bag of Doritos.
Is it good? No, it's not good to do. It's not good to do. Things that are filled with preservatives, all those things.
It's easy because they're very easily accessible, easily accessible. They're right there in the pantry. You could kill the Oreos. You could kill the Doritos, bowls of cereal, all that stuff, all the stuff that has preservatives, all the stuff that's processed.
It's very easy rather than preparing something that's inconvenient, but it's better. It's better. Lillian said it's inconvenient to get up early five days to listen to Miracle Word and tell ourselves we're a junior, but I can truly say I've been blessed. But I'm showing you the natural side of it.
You know, it's convenient. They've made those things easy to grab, easy to eat, right? Because it's convenient. It's quick, but it's rarely worth it.
In the long haul, it's not worth it. But you can see the same is true for your spiritual life. The same is true for your mind. You know, is it better to continually become a student for your whole life, reading, continuing to read, study, all those different, all those different things or to mindlessly scroll your phone?
It's easier and probably more enjoyable in the moment to just scroll your phone and just scroll through reels for two hours than it is to open a book and to study and to read in the whatever vein you live and work in, become a continual student. Well, it's obviously more convenient to just scroll your phone and just consume real after real, right? Then it is to turn the phone off, to open up a book, what ebook, whatever, studying something. It's much easier to do one than the other, but which one's going to pay off more?
Obviously, it's going to be studying. It's going to be putting yourself in position for greater production, fruitfulness. There's no question about that. No question.
And the same is true in your spiritual life. Oh, it's more convenient. People think to not give, not tithe. It's more convenient to not be faithful to church while I can just chill at home and they think it's more convenient.
But if you look just in the same way, it's true with your eating, your lifestyle, your study, your mind, it's far easier to do those things, but far more detrimental, far more detrimental. In the long haul, you'll be very sorry you did what was convenient versus what God commanded. And I'm telling you, the reason I'm sticking on this today is because I've watched and watched and watched and watched as people have been taken out by this one trap of convenience, that's destroyed people's lives. And then you get, and let me tell you, life is moving quickly.
You get, I was just, my cousin shared something, a picture of a crusade that I was there and did with him. His first festival of life crusade in Philadelphia. And he posted this was 10 years ago. Today, I was like 10 years ago.
It doesn't feel like it was 10 years ago, but time flies. That was a decade ago. It feels like it was just a short time. We were in Philadelphia.
Nice town park. 2015, it's 2025. Insane, insane, but time flies by and you can get caught up in the stream of just doing what's convenient and find yourself a decade later wondering where in the world you are. How did I get here?
How did I end up here? Did what was convenient for a decade instead of doing what the Lord called you to do, commanded you to do and seeing the benefits come from it. And so I'm encouraging you today. I'm encouraging you.
Don't do what's convenient. Get your instructions from the Lord. We have instructions in the Word of God. Get your leading and guidance from the Word and from your leading of the Holy Spirit.
And do what takes faith. Do what takes actionable. These actionable steps, they're always going to take faith, but they're always going to take effort. Remember that faith takes effort.
Doesn't mean that life becomes hard. Faith makes things easier, but it still takes effort. I'll give you one last example before we pray. Remember in Second Chronicles 20, when three armies united to fight against God's people and the Bible says they went out against them.
God said, you're not going to sit home while I go fight your battle. So tomorrow I want you to go out against them. And Jude 1, praising, singing songs, playing instruments. You're not going to sit home in your tents while I fight against your enemies for you.
You're getting up. You're going out against them. You've got a part to play. Inconvenient.
I'm sure it seemed insane to be like, yeah, and we're not giving you weapons. We're giving you instruments. Get out there. You're the first ones to go towards your enemy.
That's inconvenient. But God said, I'm not allowing you to stay back and hide in your tents. It's going to take effort on your part. You will, I'm not working for you.
I'm working with you. Remember that same with the disciples in the book of Acts. The Bible says, and the Lord worked with them and signs followed. Faith takes effort.
You know why? Because as James said, faith without works is dead being alone. Faith without works is dead being alone. And so today I'm encouraging you to look at, is there any area of your life that you've fallen into this trap?
And so, yeah, I've been doing what's convenient versus what God called me to do. I've just literally been doing what's easy versus what I know the Lord spoke to me to accomplish. Don't do it. Don't do it.
I had a guy come to me in the church one time. He was an older guy. Would you pray for me that the Lord began to use me? I said, sure, what are you talking about?
He said, God called me to preach about 30 years ago. And I believe in He's just going to open doors and I'm thinking to myself, 30 years ago, and you haven't started. And I could guarantee you without even asking Him. The reason He never started is because it would have been too difficult for Him to step out by faith and to just obey what the Lord called Him to do.
But there's blessing in obedience. There's blessing tied to your obedience. And so we're going to pray. But as we pray today, we're going to pray and ask the Lord that He'll give us a faith.
A faith to obey what seems inconvenient. Because let me tell you, when you do, the windows of heaven open over your house, you know, it's not convenient. Number one, to operate by wisdom. Number two, to gain the wisdom necessary to operate.
It's like people say, well, I'm doing everything I know to do. That's the problem. You don't know what to do. You don't know what to do, either because you don't listen or you don't study what's necessary.
You don't apply yourself. So I laugh when people are frustrated because they're not, they're not having what God said is theirs. And then they say something like that. Well, I'm doing everything I know to do.
That's the whole point. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know what you're doing. So find someone who does know or get a book or grab a podcast or take a course and figure out what it is you are supposed to do and then do the thing that's inconvenient and watch it work.
That works. If you don't know, God's willing to give you wisdom, but then you've got to seek out answers and apply them in your life. Takes, takes work to live by faith, takes work to live by faith. We're going to pray.
As we pray today, I want you to prepare yourself for what God has in these final four months of thunder, six months of thunder we've been declaring. We've got four months and about a week left in this year and we've got testimony set aside. So we're going to pray. I want you to join me.
We're going to start by praying in the Holy Ghost and stir up your faith. Get yourself in position to receive what God has for you. This is a time of expectation. And I will pray.
I'll pray for miracles. This is a time of expectation like we've never known, a time of hunger like we've never known. Trust me when I tell you, things are swiftly changing for God's people. Now that's the stuff leaders should be made up.