THROUGH: The One Who Overcomes

If you're new here, you're visiting today and you brought your kids. We do have kids church available. It's downstairs. Just go down the steps and you'll find it.

Oh, and nursery? Yes. Especially nursery. Let me say that again.

We have a nursery. And so if you have a baby and you feel comfortable, we would love for you to take your baby to our nursery. We will care for that baby with the utmost care. And we'll make sure that he or she are taking good care of.

I just see a lot of people making my heart jump. I just want to tell you that we've had several healings over the last two weeks. We want to celebrate what God's doing physically in the lives of people, restoring bodies. I know Whitney didn't share her testimony, but it was a 17-year condition that she was miraculously here love about a week or so ago.

We just celebrate what God's doing and several others as well. Well, I don't know that I could actually thank everybody for 10 years that we're celebrating today, but let me just say this. It's been a team effort. I look around this room and I see fabric that's woven on.

You know those old things women would make in the olden days like make a rug or like a loom? I just see the lives of each and every one of you that have been woven into the fabric of this ministry to really create something beautiful, each person individual and unique in your own right. But brought together, we collectively make the body of Christ something beautiful in this community. And only together will we grow.

You can't grow in isolation. And only together can we effectively reach people for Jesus in this area. That we can do more together than we would ever do alone. And so I just want to thank you.

I don't know if it's behind me or mission or new mission. We launched a little over not quite a year ago, but is that to equip the one. We're an equipping church. We're here to equip you that already know Jesus, to go out and reach the one that needs Jesus.

Because everybody needs Jesus in their life in one way or another. The unsaved person needs Jesus. The sick person needs Jesus. The broken needs Jesus.

The one in bondage needs Jesus. The married couple needs Jesus. They really need Jesus. I've been needing Jesus now for 32 years in my marriage.

I still need him. And so what happens is too often we go out and try to reach people unequipped. And when we reach people from a place of being ill equipped or self, we can get drug into the very thing we're trying to pull them out of. And so we want to bring maturity to the body.

We want to equip you and activate gifts in you and send you out to do what God's called you to do. Whether that's here in this church, locally, globally, whatever that might be. So I just want to say thank you. It's been an honor to be here.

It's been an honor to serve alongside numerous pastors and families that have been part of this church for this many years. And I expect that the next 10, 20, 30 will only continue to get better. It's kind of like acceleration due to the speed of gravity. Like as you drop in gravity, the speed, the acceleration is not constant.

You're speeding up at an increasing rate. And that's what I see happening with this church is instead of gravity, whatever the opposite of gravity is, it would be that because we're not going down, we're going up. But it's the inverse speed of gravity. We'll say that.

There's probably a term for that. Up draft. OK. We'll be in that it's St.

Patty's Day tomorrow. Up draft could be something completely different. It might be green. Down draft.

The up draft goes down, I guess. That's what happens. So a couple announcements. Let's see.

What do we have? Oh, my wife said she forgot to tell everyone. We have lunch afterwards. It came out for lunch, right?

All right, lunch. We're going to have Castillas afterwards. We got all kinds of lasagna, chicken, parm, salad. will be a great Italian meal.

So we invite you to stay with us afterwards. And just a little bit of fun. Did everybody get a mug when you came in? OK, so if you didn't get a mug, we have 150 mugs.

If you didn't get a mug, see somebody at the back after church and you can get a coffee mug. There's still mugs. OK, so see a mug or see a mug. I heard a term this week.

Phil used it. He said a mean mug. I didn't realize that mean mug was a scally face. And as he's telling me this story, I'm thinking was it a coffee mug with an angry face on it or an emoji?

I'm like, Phil, what are you talking? He's like, a face. I mean mug. I'm like, I have no idea.

But we have mugs. So if you want a mug, get a mug. So if you're sitting in rows two all the way to the back, I apologize to those in the front row in advance. But in the little offering flap or note flap right in front of you, reach in there and see if you find anything.

There's some hidden gems. And there'll be some giveaways for some sweatshirts. And also, what else? We have some gift cards, hats, T-shirts.

All right, everybody's glad nobody sat next to them now. I already see people like boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm going to clean the whole aisle out. All right, so if you pull something out of there, God bless you.

We're glad to give it away. See, Kristin, after church? No. Oh, somebody, whoever somebody is.

Oh, OK, go to the donut station. And then you'll get your gift at the donut station. Everybody can find the donuts. All right, just a couple things coming up this Thursday.

We have Thursday's, which is our equipping and activation night. So if you want to come out to that Thursday at 6 o'clock, we're working through the book of Ephesians. It's been great. We've been bouncing around as to who's teaching.

I'm not going to tell you because I don't know who's teaching this Thursday. But I know it's not me. So I taught last Thursday, but it's a great night. It's very open.

You can ask questions. We can study God's word together and really go into all the gods called us to do. Palm Sunday, which is next month. Palm Sunday, so if Palm Sunday and Easter coming up, Palm Sunday will have communion.

We'll take communion as a church. We'll pray for the sick that day, probably along with that, I assume. And we'll celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. And also on Easter, we're going to have baptisms on Easter Sunday.

So if you would like to be baptized, if you've never been baptized before, you don't have to regularly attend here. You do have to have accepted Jesus as your Savior. You do need to be a believer. And if you'd like to be baptized, starting next week, I'll say, yeah, we don't need to do it today.

But starting next week, we'll have to sign up. Or you can just see Pastor Seth. I'm going to do the Larry Bird bounce pass the Pastor Seth. When I don't know, you get it, Seth.

All right, I think that's it. So I was really praying over the 10 years. I tried to back into something for 10 years. I searched every word about 10 in the Bible.

And I just frustrated myself at the point. I'm like, well, God, obviously you have something. But I'm not finding it for whatever reason. So I kind of put it on the shelf.

And yesterday morning, God spoke a word to me, having to do with a crew that just went to the International Space Station. Is anybody familiar with that? All right, so I get that that whole thing's been a little politicized. And that's not the point.

I don't want your thoughts on that to affect what God has to say to us as a church. So if you know anything about the team that's currently at the International Space Station, Crew 9 went to the space station about nine months ago. They were supposed to be there for an eight day mission. But because of the ship that they went in, had some faulty issues with it, they had to send that ship back vacant.

And they've been stuck in space for just about nine months. So imagine going into space, being ready, equipped, and you get launched into space. But now nine months later, you're just stuck circling the globe. You have an eight day mission that turns into nine months.

And so I don't think it's coincidental that Crew 10 left this weekend. This is our 10th anniversary. So God told me that within Crew 10 is something He wanted to speak to us. And Crew 10 left Friday night at 7 PM.

They arrived this morning at midnight. And at 1.30 this morning, they opened a hatch into the International Space Station to actually have contact with those that have been stuck for nine months. And I said, God, what do you want to say through this? And he said this.

He said, there are people that were connected to city reach, that were part of the former mission. They launched into space. They were equipped. They maybe even participated in the supernatural.

They were an integral part of the mission of the church. But then for some reason, they got stranded in orbit and have lost their effectiveness in ministry, either due to offense or hurt or poor choices or feelings of being looked over or any numerous number of things. The reason's irrelevant. But what's relevant is there are people that were an integral part of this ministry that didn't transition into the current mission.

And what God said to me, He said that in year 10, Crew 10 is reconnecting with Crew 9. And that those people that were formerly part of it were an integral part of the ministry before are now being reconnected to the ones that now are. And what you're going to do together will be greater than what either did separately. The three words that he gave me were reconnection, recalibration, and reactivation, reconnection.

God is putting back people, relationships back together that the enemy has separated, that the thing that should be between us, and I will publicly apologize if I have ever been the cause of offense that has moved you away from this body. But God is reconnecting us in this season. God is recalibrating us as a unit in this season. He's resetting our focus.

He's resetting our direction. He's giving us a new direction to start to go in to reach people in very unique ways that haven't been reached before. And he's reactivating gifts in those that are very gifted among us. Actually, you're all very gifted.

But he's reactivating gifts that have been shelved because you've been stuck in orbit for this many years. And there will be a release of joint synergy as the current and the former are reactivated at the same time. And God's going to do all those things in this next season within our local body. And I'm excited.

So I just want to bless that, Father. If that's you, if that's you, I just want to say I love you. I'm excited for what God's going to do. Father, we just bless your word.

Lord, we just speak that now. And we believe the word of the Lord for this church. And Lord, I thank you what you're going to do. We received that in the name of Jesus.

Amen. All right, we're on a series called Through. It's actually the Word of the Year that our pastor Seth came up with. I don't know.

He didn't come up with it. The Lord gave it to him. But it was kind of funny because he says, he goes, I don't really even like this word. But this is the word God gave me.

And isn't that true? Sometimes did you ever get a prophetic word that you don't like? Yeah. I've had those words.

I've actually had words. And I'm like, God, can I just go to the next one? Can we just? Is there like an Uno game where I can just say pass?

I just want to skip. Skip, yes, skip. But sometimes, as we talked about last week, that until you walk into the revelation in obedience to what God's instructed you to do in this season, the light's not there for the next. And even though sometimes words are hard, whether it's a prophetic word, whether it's God's word, whether it's Holy Spirit drops in your spirit, you have to walk those out.

See, last week, when we looked at Ephesians 1, verses 18 and 19, I said that there's no difference. I'm sorry, there's only difference. The only difference between the defeated believer and the victorious believer is this. Because here's the thing.

The defeated believer and the victorious believer have both had the same hope. We both have the same inheritance. We both have the same power. It's his hope, his inheritance, and his power, but he shares it with us.

And the only difference between a believer living and defeat and a believer living in victory is your submission to your obedience to and your engagement with the revelation that God's given you on that. See, you've been victorious. You are victorious, but not everybody's living a life of victory. See, spiritually speaking, you are victorious.

You are more than an overcomer. As I explained that several weeks ago, the word actually means to run up the score. It means that we got the victory, but now we're gonna put some points on the board. We're gonna run the score up.

But see, it bothers me as a believer to see every single one of you that saved as victorious as Jesus, but not living as victorious as Jesus lived. Which means there's a disconnect. But what's possible is you could live just like Jesus lived. That's what's possible.

And so today I wanna talk to you about the one who overcomes. The one who overcomes. We're gonna launch from 1 John chapter five versus one, four and five. And I really wanna compare that to Matthew chapter 16.

So we're gonna go through that kind of fast. I wanna get to the story of Gideon today, which I ended up not preaching on last week, but I really wanna get to that today. Because I believe that today God's gonna give you several keys that will help you anchor your thoughts in the heavenly realm so that the life you live experientially matches the life that you have positionally. That you can actually walk out by experience the reality of what you have.

Thursday night, I don't wanna go there, but I'll just mention it. Thursday for Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, the words God gave me were transferred, but not transformed. Which say this from Colossians chapter one verse 12, it says, thanks be to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the saints in light and who has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of his love. That God has transferred each and every believer spiritually into his kingdom.

And most believers live their entire life transferred, but never transformed. And so transformation is what's gonna happen today. As the word goes forth, you will be transformed today. You're gonna be conformed into the image of Jesus today.

And I'm excited that every person's gonna leave here better than when they came in. You're gonna leave here better. If you're unsaved, you're gonna leave saved. If you're saved and unfilled, you're gonna leave filled.

If you're sick, you're gonna leave healed. Because that's the victory life that Jesus provides. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

And then it goes on to say in verse four, for whoever has been born of God does what? Overcomes the world. And this is our victory, even our faith. And then John asks a question, he says, who is the one who ever comes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God?

Two things in this verse that obviously it says that our faith is the key to victory. But it's not just this, come to the altar one Sunday morning and get saved faith. Like we all need to have that experience of salvation the day that we say yes to Jesus. But this isn't ongoing, it's an abiding, it's a trust that's the way you live your life.

That you can get saved and tap into the saving power of Jesus but still live a defeated life. So there has to be a faith that's actually an abiding faith, a continuing faith. And John says two things here, he says, the two things you need to believe are this. In verse one it says, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, and then in verse five he says, whoever believes that Jesus is the son of God.

So he highlights two things, believe that Jesus is the Christ and if you believe he's the Christ you'll be born of God and if you're born of God you'll be an overcomer. And then he said, who is the one that ever comes? It's the one that believes that he is the son of God. So when I was reading this it really reminded me of the same thing that Peter had revelation from the Father when Jesus asked the disciples, who do men say that I am?

It's the exact same two things. So when Jesus says in Matthew chapter eight or 16 verse 13 it says when he was in a region of Caesarea Philippi says to his disciples, who do men say that I the son of man am? And they said, well, some say you're John the Baptist, others say that you could be Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. And he says, but who do you say that I am?

And Peter chirps up and says, just kind of like blurts out, like probably doesn't even where I came from. He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. You say the same two things. The same two things.

John said that you have to believe that he is the Messiah. You have to believe that he's the son of God. Peter releases those things. In a moment he says, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus says, blessed are you Simon Bargeona for flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And he says, upon this rock, I will build my church in the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So he's saying upon this rock, the rock being the revelation knowledge that realizes that I'm the Christ and it realizes I'm the Son of God. He said, I'm going to mobilize my church.

I'm going to build my church. But you know, Jesus isn't here building a church today, himself. He builds his church through his church. See, the whole purpose of the fivefold ministry gift is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building of the body of Christ.

Ephesians chapter 4, 12. And then it goes on in Ephesians 4, 6, and it says this, that the body eventually begins to build itself in love. So the purpose of the equipping is to equip you to do the building. And then once you learn how, then the church becomes the catalyst that actually builds the church.

And so, but if we don't understand these things, we'll actually not be able to tap into what God and wants to do today in his church. And he says, I will build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. He says, and I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

If you're a King James, or this is a terrible translation. I like the new King James, but this is a terrible translation of these verbs. The verb tense is more accurately defined in the new American Standard, which says this, whatever you bind on earth shall be that which is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be that which is already loosed in heaven. So that when we bind or loose something on earth, heaven is not working in response to what we do.

We're actually working in response to what is already the reality in heavenly places. That if it's bound to there, we can legally bind it here. If it's been loosed there, we can legally loose it here. Heaven always becomes the model of what God wants to do on earth.

What happens, Peter? He gets a little gloat in him. Like if Jesus said to you, blessed are you, Simon Bargeona for flesh and blood, hasn't revealed it to my father in heaven. Like it's the first time somebody had this kind of, where Jesus says, the Holy Father through the agency always bare just opened your mind up to something you couldn't have known, and you're blessed because of it.

And what happens? I think Peter got a little pride. See, it doesn't tell us, it's the next couple verses, but it could have been the same day, it could have been a couple days later, but it says that Jesus began to tell us disciples, all that was gonna happen in Jerusalem and how he was gonna have to suffer and die and down the cross and be resurrected the third day. And Peter takes Jesus aside Jesus.

I'm the anointed revelatory prophet of the disciples now. Let me tell you what you're not gonna do. And he takes Jesus aside and said, far be it from this will never happen to you, Jesus. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but you're mindful of the things of man.

See, once you've been transferred into the kingdom realm spiritually, that's why it's the most important to seek the things that are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father, because that's where you're sitting, and Colossians 3, too, is gonna say this, set your mind on things above. Not on things of earth. Next slide. Where your mind is anchored has a direct influence on whether you operate as an offense to Christ or an overcomer through Christ.

Peter, in one moment, is open to the work of the Holy Spirit, receives supernatural revelation and releases the very thing that's required for victory. To believe that Jesus is the Christ and to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. But then in another instant, he renews his mind to the things of this world, and Jesus calls it demonic in nature. He said, you are an offense to me.

Get behind me, Satan, you are an offense to me. You are a stumbling block to me. So what can happen? You can be a believer that is a blocker to what Jesus wants to do, or you can be a believer that's a builder Jesus wants to do.

And depending on where your thoughts are anchored is what will influence as to whether you become somebody who is an offense to Christ, or you're an overcomer through Christ. Any takers are an offense to Christ. Anybody wanna be an overcomer through Christ? Yes, right?

That's what we want. And so today as we look at these keys, I wanna give you several keys from the story of Gideon that will help anchor your thoughts in the realm that you can't see that will actually allow you to believe for the thing that can't be seen, but in the van it'll transform your life and allow you to live the life that Jesus wants you to live that your life will actually be a visible expression of what he's paid for. Like who doesn't want that? So let's, if you have your Bible turned to Judges, chapter six, and I'm not gonna read the whole, we're just gonna read verses 11 through 16.

Anybody remember what faith? Faith comes by what? Hearing. And hearing by the word of God.

Other translations say the word of Christ. Either way, it's the spoken word of God. So faith comes by hearing. Faith, and you notice the present tense of that word hearing?

It's that we're always listening for what God's saying. So as God's releasing something today, I want you to hear what God's saying today. I want you to hear because when we look at these three things that the angel of the Lord spoke to Gideon, this was actually Jesus in an Old Testament, what's called a Christophany or a Theophany. It's a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.

Before He came as a baby, sometimes He would appear in the Old Testament. And in this instance, it says the Lord said, so I want you to see that the three things we're gonna look at today are the word of the Lord to Gideon. So let's read through these. Now just a little backstory.

The Midianites are oppressing Israel, right? And every time that Israel plants a crop, every time they begin to grow things, the Midianites come in and they wipe it all out, they steal it, they take it, and then Israel's just left with nothing. And so this has been going on for seven years. This isn't something new.

So they kind of got into this rut of they grow, and then they try to protect, but then Midian comes in and takes it. And here we find Gideon and says, he's threshing wheat in the wine press. So that he's taking the crop, and he's hiding the crop, and he's threshing it in a place that's meant to crush grapes. And so in verse 11, it says this.

It says, the angel of the Lord came and sat under the pterodence tree, which was in Oprah, which belonged to Joash, the Abba's right, and his son Gideon threshed wheat in the wine press in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. Gideon said to him, oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us, and where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about saying? Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites.

And then the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. How have I not sent you? So he said to him, oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

And the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. Three things I wanna talk to you about today that will anchor your thoughts in the realm that you actually live in. Number one, the prospect of your prophetic destiny. If you're taking notes, the prospect of your prophetic destiny.

Number two, the power of probing questions. We're gonna, this story gets a bad twist sometimes. I wanna bring some light to something else today. The power of probing questions, and then number three, the promise of your partnered victory.

The prospect of your prophetic destiny. The power of probing questions, and the promise of your partnered victory. Number one, the promise, no go back. The promise, oh there we go, yeah, I should know what order they are.

The promise of your prophetic destiny. Gideon is in the wine press, threshing wheat. The angel of the Lord comes and sits, and he sees him, and he says to him out of the blue. Now here's a man, Gideon, who is, he's fearful, right?

He is fearful in the Midianites, because he's hiding while he's threshing wheat. We would find out later in Judges 6, when God calls him to tear down the idols, he's fearful of his family, he's fearful of the man of the city. And then when he eventually goes to the battle, in Judges 7, it says that he's scared, he's still scared of the army of Midian. Says because they were as many as Locust.

And so here's a guy that has liveless fear. He's also a guy that he says, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh. We actually are a bunch of weaklings. And he says, I'm the least of all my father's family, I'm the youngest, I'm the most insignificant.

And so when God speaks to you, he doesn't speak to the you that now are, he doesn't speak to the you that was yesterday, he speaks to your prophetic destiny. He speaks to what he's called you to be. And so he doesn't say to Gideon, he doesn't say, hey, you scaredy cat. He doesn't say you big wussy, you big weakling, you, you, you, I don't say that word, you, they just, the old me just comes out periodically.

He doesn't say you weakling, he doesn't say you insignificant piece of poo. He says, you mighty man of valor. God does not speak to what you were. God doesn't speak to what you are even today.

God speaks to your prophetic destiny. Gideon was anything but a mighty man of valor. That's not what he was. He was a frady cat.

He was hiding. He had a poor self-image. He came from the least of all the tribes of Judah, or of Israel. He was the youngest, most significant.

And yet God speaks into his destiny and says mighty man of valor. The word mighty man is this. Mighty man is used to describe giants. If you remember in Genesis chapter six, when it says the sons of God looked upon the daughters of men and they came down and they had relations with them and it said they became the giants, men of renown.

That's the same word, giants. It's the same word in 1 Samuel 1751 that describes Goliath. It was called the champion. The word champion is the same word as mighty man.

God's saying you champion. You mighty man of valor. Valor means efficiency. It means strength.

It means wealth. It's also used to mean the word army. He's speaking to this little young weakling with a poor self-image and says you're a champion, you're a man of valor. Well, I think it's interesting to anybody who ever hear the virtuous woman, Proverbs 31 10, a virtuous wife who can find for her value is far above what?

Women, rubies. A virtuous woman. Did you know the word virtuous is the exact same word as valor? When God called Gideon, you mighty man of valor, it's the identical same Hebrew word as virtuous wife.

And I believe God's speaking something to the women of the house, you women that have contended as valiant warriors for your marriage. That you are champions in the kingdom because you've contended for something that the enemy has tried to pull apart, but you have contended by faith. And a lot of times we think of a virtuous woman as oh, this pious old woman and she's so, and it's all that. But it's a champion woman.

It's a valiant woman. It's a woman that says I'm not gonna let my husband go. I'm not gonna say yes to the enemy. I'm gonna stand in faith and believe that everything God spoke over my husband's life will come to pass.

So when God's speaking to Gideon, he's not just speaking to mighty men of valor, he's speaking to virtuous women who are women of valor as well. The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. See when God speaks to your destiny, it's because that's his character, that's his nature. He's the God that calls things that be not as though they were.

Like God doesn't call the thing that be as it is. He doesn't call the thing that was as it used to be. He calls the thing that be not as though it were because in his world, if he said it, it already is. So when he speaks something to you, he speaks something over your life, either through the voice of a prophet or through his word, through his Holy Spirit, it's as good as done.

It's the same way when God came to Abraham and he said to Abraham, you're gonna be a father of many nations. Now can you imagine being a hundred years old, I mean I'm 55 and I can't imagine, because let me just say things slow down a little bit. I can't. I can't.

You know what? The 89 year old man just trumped me. You've got a caliber anointing on your life, Dave. You're gonna take the mountain.

But you know, things go by, his wife has been bearing her whole life. He's getting older, but when he was. And so it says it, there we go. It says in Romans chapter four, verse 17, it says, as it is written, the father, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of him, whom he believed God, who gives life to the dead and calls the thing not as, as though it weren't.

Here's what I'm showing in verse 18. Who contrary to hope, in hope believed so that he became. He believed so that he became. In hope he believed so that he became.

Do you realize hope is a confident expectation of good? It's a, it's a, it's that in the future, what's gonna happen is gonna be positive. It's gonna be favorable. I have confidence that it's gonna be good in the future.

And he says that even though it didn't look like it in the natural, he had a prospect of his prophetic destiny. He had a, he had a, he could see with his heart what he couldn't see with his eyes. That God gave him revelation knowledge to see the thing that didn't exist in the natural realm. And even though it says against hope, he believed in hope.

Like it looked miserable. It looked devastating, but he had a word from God about his destiny. He had a word that said, you're gonna be the father of many nations. And it says, in hope, he believed and therefore he became.

And what did he become? He became the father of many nations, according to what, what was spoken. See, when God speaks something over your life, it's just not going to instantaneously manifest. It could, and I never rule out the fact that God could just do it.

But the norm is this, you receive a word. You have to see the thing that doesn't exist even though it's not in front of you. And when you begin to see that thing, and you have visual, spiritual concept of it, I now start to believe the thing that God said. And when I believe it, all of a sudden I become the very thing that he spoke.

See, some of you have received words that you've actually put in a box. You wouldn't even know what they are anymore. You need to get them out. You need to renew your mind to what was spoken over you.

You need to renew your mind to what God's word says about you. What God's word says you are, who you are, what you have. And knowing it's one thing, but if you don't believe it, you can't become it. You're gonna become what you believe.

Next slide. The version of who you are today is because you became what you believed in. Either the truth or a lie. See, some of you have no trouble believing what's spoken over.

You're just believing the wrong story. You're believing a lie that's rooted in the earthly realm. You're believing the lie that somebody spoke over you when you were a kid. You're believing a lie that somebody in your job spoke over you and all of a sudden you've believed the lie and you've become the thing that you believed in.

Why would I tell you this? God's word is the truth. What God says never fails. David says forever, oh Lord, your word is settled.

It's settled in heaven. That if God says something about you, if you would dare to believe it, you can actually become it. So Gideon had lived his whole life thinking on the weakest, on the youngest, on the most scared. God didn't even address it.

God didn't even tell him to forget about that. He just spoke over him what was true. God speaks to your prophetic destiny. Number two, we'll skip the next verse.

The power of your probing questions. Now when we read this, a lot of times, and I've read this in the past, I read it differently this time. I read that when God says to Gideon, he says, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor, and Gideon says, well, if the Lord is with us, then why? Why is all this happening to me?

If I'm a Christian, why am I going through this? If I trusted Jesus, why is this happening to me? But I don't see it that way. And where are the miracles?

Why is this happening? And where are the miracles our fathers told us about? The next verse is the key. Because after Gideon says, if it's true, the Lord is with us, then why is this happening to us?

And where are the miracles that our fathers told us about, if you're with us? Because if you're with us, then things shouldn't be the way they are. And if you're with us, miracles should be an everyday occurrence, but they're not. And so God releases something in the Gideon in this next verse.

He says, go, no, no, go back. Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the millions. This is not the anointing of the Holy Spirit. What God is answering the Gideon, he says, because you have the audacity, because you have the wherewithal to question, the thing that isn't, when in my word says it should be, that's power to you.

That there's power in asking probing questions. That there was a time in your life when you used to have more than enough. But now you don't. Ask why.

No, don't ask me why. You got it. You got to ask God why. Well, there was a time in your life when you were growing in the things of the Lord, but now you're not.

There's power in asking why. God, I know your word says this, but I'm experiencing this. And what I'm experiencing doesn't line up with what your word says. And I refuse to bring my level of experience, my belief down to the level of my experience.

So something's disconnected. And I'm asking why is it like this, when that doesn't line up with your word says this. And why are we not experiencing the miracles? Because your word says if you're with us, then there should be miracles.

And so God says, go in that might. There's might, there's power, there's strength in asking the question that nobody wants to ask. See, most believers are just happy with the status quo. Most believers when things don't go according to God's word, well, it just must be God's will.

I guess I'm just supposed to be sick. It is what it is. Well, it must be the devil working against me. Maybe it's not.

Maybe it's not. See, to ask the probing question of God means you've got to look in the mirror. You've got to be willing to hear the answer that he's going to give. Recently, if you remember, and I just want to honor Rebecca, because you guys remember when Ben Armstrong was here in October, Ben had our prophetic activation night, and then he preached here, we began to operate in prophetic words because of that.

Rebecca's the one that set it up for us. So thank you. Me, who never gave prophetic words, I began to give prophetic words because Ben actually, through the Holy Spirit, he activated something in me. And then all of a sudden, I was telling Seth this last week, I'm like, where have the words gone?

And so I had to ask God, your word says this. My experiences with is this. Why? You know what he said?

He said the words stop because you quit giving them. Because I never stop giving them. You just quit releasing them. You've got to be prepared to handle the answer.

But there is power in asking the question. See, when you're having success, you've got to ask, why am I successful? Why is when I just prayed for this person and they got healed? What just happened?

You need to know the dynamics of the spirit realm to the degree. You need to be a student that learns from the miraculous. Now you're like, some people, well, there's a miracle. OK, big deal.

And then three years goodbye, they don't see another one. Well, it must not be God's will. Don't accept that. When things don't line up in your life, that God says should be, you need to go to God and say, why?

Why are we going through this? Because that's not what your word says. Where are the miracles? Because that's not what your word says.

See, it was no different when the disciples were asked to cast the demon out of the little boy the Father calls the disciples. And Jesus and Peter, James, and John are up on the amount of transfiguration. And when they come down, they see the kid, he's wallowing. And the Father says, have compassion on us.

If you can do anything, have compassion. And cast the demon out of my son. He said, I brought him to your disciples, and they couldn't cast him out. And so Jesus, you know the story, he heals the boy.

And then what did the disciples do later in the story? Go to the next slide. Well, go to two more slides. It says, they went to Jesus, and they asked Jesus, why could we not cast him out?

They were the most educated, the most anointed, the most practiced and seasoned demon castor-outers on the earth at that time. Nobody was better. They had a prophetic word from the Lord that says, I give you power and authority over all the power of the enemy. But then they failed in their assignment.

See, when my experience doesn't line up with what God has spoken over me, I need to go back to the Father and say, something's missing. I know it's not you. But what is it? Teach me.

Teach me. Jesus made a promise in Matthew 7. He says, ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find.

Knock, and it will be opened unto you. For everyone that asks us to receive it, and everybody that seeketh findeth, and everybody that knocketh, it shall be opened unto you. See, sometimes you're sitting waiting for an answer. But you never ask the question.

Why do you think you deserve an answer when you never ask the question? The question is the seed for the answer. See, when you ask the question, you've just given God permission to give you the answer. But it's not just asking the question.

It's asking the right question. Asking the right question becomes the seed for the right answer. I encourage you to ask God if it's not working the way you see in scripture, ask, there is power in your probing questions. God loves questions.

He's got more answers than you have questions. Imagine that. He wants to answer them. We'll wrap up.

Let's go to number three. We'll skip through that. The prospect of your prophetic destiny. You've got to see.

You've got to expect. You've got to hope for the thing that God has spoken over your life because he speaks to where you're going, not where you've been. He speaks about the direction he's sending you. He speaks about the things that he has created you in eternity past to live out today is what he speaks over you.

The power of the probing question is that when things don't work the way God spoke, then we've got to know why. I've got to know why God if you're with me, why am I going through this? Is it a lesson? Is it the enemy?

Is it my stupidity? Like more often than not, it's the consequence of a bad decision. Or it's a lapse in judgment. Or it's that I forgot to renew my mind to what his word said.

But you've got to ask if you want to know. And when you ask, you'll receive. You'll get it. I promise you.

And then the final one is this, the promise of your partner victory. Here's the thing. God says to get it and he says, surely. Everybody say that.

Surely. Surely, not surely. I can tell what state you're from if you say surely. I live there so I can say that.

Surely goodness and mercy. No, it's not surely. Surely. I will be with you.

What's that sound? That says certainly. You can count on it. I will be with you.

See, when God's with you, it not only equips you for the impossible, but it guarantees the victory. He says, I will surely. I will be with you. And surely, you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.

Now that doesn't mean that he's one man. What that means is that the Midianites, who are as numerous as locust and have camels to the number of the sand of the sea, he said, you'll defeat all of that as if there was only one person fighting against you. That's what it means to win when you're partnered with him. See, it's not just winning.

It's winning at a high level. It's winning to the point where we inherit his victory, but now we run the score up. Like we keep the first string in the whole game. I don't care that we're ahead by 100 points.

We're going for 200. Like, we're going to rub the enemy's nose in it. We're going to get in the end zone, and we're going to do a little victory dance. Right?

We're going to let him know. I know you wanted to have that on video, but oh, shoot, it's on video. If there was ever a gift of prophetic video, Seth has it. He's the kind of guy that can pull the camera out at the instant that the pastor takes his golf club and says, not another freaking time.

I know he played the video for you all year ago. I didn't lose my temper the whole round. Until one shot, then it all came out. I rebuke that spirit in the name of Jesus.

This is the same, look, the promise that God gave to Gideon is the identical same promise he gave to Moses. It's the identical same promise he gave to Joshua. He says to Moses, I'll certainly be with you. And this will be a sign to you that I've sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt.

Victory. He says, I'm with you, and you're going to know it when you have brought them out. See, sometimes it doesn't feel like it doesn't seem like God is with me, but he is. But when you get the victory, then you'll know that you know that you know that you couldn't have done it without him.

He says to Joshua, he says, no man. He shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I'll be with you the same way I was with Moses. The same way that you led them out of Egypt is the same way you're going to lead them into the promise land, Joshua.

And just like I was with Moses, I'll be with you. That was old covenant. We have a new covenant relationship. We have the Holy Spirit living in us.

We have more than they had. Like it was great that God was with them. God was upon certain prophets and certain kings and priests. But today we're all priests.

Today God lives in every one of us that have accepted him. We have so much more than they ever had. If they were victorious just having God with them, how much victorious, more victorious could we be having God in us and upon us? Like it's a no-brainer.

It's a greater promise to us. It says, what shall we say to these things? Paul says, if God is for us, is he for us? If he's for us, who can be against us?

It's a redundant question. Paul says, I love how he calls these things who's. He doesn't say what. He says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, shall distress, shall famine, shall nakedness, shall peril or sword. He says, no. He says, in all these things, anything you're going through, in the midst of it, you are more than a conqueror. You're not just winning.

You're winning at a high level. It doesn't matter if it doesn't seem like it. You're a winner. You're winning.

You have to see that at the end it's going to be good. You've got to have a favorable outlook that in the end God works that thing out for good and that it's going to be better than you ever thought, that you're more than a conqueror. I want to close with this. Now we're going to pray.

How do we not do all the shenanigans earlier? I'd have been closer to being on time. I want to read to you from Isaiah 8, just a few verses, written to Jewish people. But Isaiah speaks to the enemy.

He speaks to the people. I want to leave you with this today because the context in which he says this is about, he actually uses the word Emmanuel, a few verses earlier. We're not going to read that. But the context is God with us.

And so Isaiah 9 verse 13 says this, this is what he's speaking to the enemy. Be broken. You peoples. And be shattered.

Listen. Where's Autumn? Listen. Autumn's favorite word.

Listen all remote places of the earth. Get ready, but be shattered. See saying you can get ready all you want, but you're going to be destroyed. You can talk all you want, but you're going to be shattered.

He says, devise a plan. It will fail. Stay to proposal. It will not stand.

Why? Because God is with us. See when the enemy brings a scheme to you, when the enemy brings a strategy to you, when he begins to try to weave in and out of your marriage or your kids, you can say, you can do all you want, but it's going to be shattered. You can devise a plan, but it's going to fail.

You can submit a proposal, but it ain't going to work. I'm going to take a big red stamper and say, reject. Right on that proposal. Now, here he speaks to the children of Israel.

He says this. He said, the Lord spoke to me with the mighty power instructed me to walk in the ways of his people saying, you are not to say. Here's what he says. Don't say this.

It is a conspiracy. Man, I could go 100 ways on that one. But he said, when you see something, don't say, oh, my God, another conspiracy. It's a conspiracy regarding everything this people call a conspiracy.

And you are not to fear what they fear will be in dread of it. It is the Lord of the armies who are you regardless of holding. He shall be your fear. He shall be your dread.

I'm going to get to. This is it. Last verse. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for say this.

Signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of armies who dwells in Mount Zion. God's intention for you is that your very life is a sign and wonder. Like so often we go chasing signs and wonders and I'm all about seeing them. I love signs and wonders.

I love to see God do the miraculous. But did you know God says that your life is a sign and a wonder? That your life will be lived in such a way that people when they look at you and they know the things that you've been through and they see that how you came through it and that you were victorious in the midst of an impossible situation, that that sign and wonder will actually point them to Jesus. Your life will be a sign and a wonder.

It's the last lot. You're going to type over there and say you will experience such victory in life as a result of his presence with you, that you and your family will be a sign and wonder. Amen to that. Amen.

See, you will never become what you don't believe and you'll never believe what you don't see. See faith is a substance of things hoped for. You've got to be able to see the unseen. You can't see it with your eyes but you begin to see it with your heart.