Churches in Valdosta

“That long ago, I had to have a pretty intense conversation with somebody who was just just kinda they're not going on their own. Okay. Where are you going now? Because they'd come here for a while. I just wanna make sure you're going somewhere, you're connected with somebody. No. Not really. It's just me and Jesus. We're good. Not a good conversation. Because I've we've seen this before. And this person hears from the Lord, but we've had a ministry leader, some of you know, go out on their own and suddenly they're out in La La Land. Lone ranger danger. Okay? Gotta be very careful about that. We need each other. We need the supports. We need the checks. We need the words both of encouragement and of challenge. And by the way, it's not what you get from being here frankly. It's what you give to him.”

“And if a church is gonna be built as God wants it to be in to be built, it will not be by our might, our human might. It will not be by our power, human power. It will be by his spirit. And the reason for it is simple. Without him, we're nothing. Well, sometimes we forget that. Without Jesus, we're nothing. And folks, I hate to say it, but listen to me. I hope you hear my heart. Without Jesus in the church, the church is nothing.”

“Because the enemy is over there watching you build and the question is whether or not it's gonna go, okay, you began but you can't finish it. And I'm gonna huff and puff. Is your covering in place, is it well anchored? Are are you engaging that regularly? By the way, one of the things I learned from being in the doing remodeling on our own house and and doing it with with new homes, you have to put on something called hurricane straps. There are these metal brackets that connect. Right? So it's not just the nails connecting studs with it, but you're actually giving this other bracket called hurricane straps in case a hurricane comes and wanna lift your roof off. We all need hurricane straps. Do you understand? Because it will come and it will blow.”

“you see what the structure is in you now? Maybe a little bit. How's it looking? Does it need a little attention? Remember he is for you. Remember what he did with Israel in Jerusalem when Haggai gave the word, and they kinda had to snap him up. They heard it. He said, and they feared the Lord, and then they set to build. And the Lord comes and says, I'm with you. I'm with you. All you do is you just get started. And he said, I'm with you. And not only that, he stirs up the spirit. He gives him energy and enthusiasm and excitement.”

“I'm sorry, but I can't get by with one sentence conversation with my wife all week. There has to be a lot. Spend time listening. I ask about things, specific things. Okay? As a rule. I don't wait for her to tell me. I ask things because I want this to be a conversation and I need her to know that I'm interested. Okay? That it's important to me. What do you do? Do you ask God what's on his heart for you today? What's what's the conversation? What is prayer like? It can't just be one way you're throwing, you know, lawn darts up in the ceiling hoping something sticks.”

“Father, thank you for the words to Haggai and the wake up call. That we not get so busy with our own comfort, that we neglect to attend to your house that which you've said in us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. How stunning is that, Lord? How stunning. And we are building on a solid foundation. Lord, help us so that we can more fully and freely host your presence in us, and that you will just take great pleasure in it and be glorified.”

“Then here's the other question. What what is it that you have on the walls inside? What adorns the in what adorns the interior spaces in you? What that will typically refill what your focus is, your priorities, and your treasures. Did you understand? And the question comes, are they items or are they idols? Because, see, whatever we have in that interior place is built for worship. And the question is, we all will worship. It's what? Where do your thoughts go through go to automatically easily? You gotta be very careful. Typically, a lot of times that will flag an idol, folks.”

“Wait. Our foundation is Jesus. Right? Are there any cracks in it? By that, I mean, we have an issue many people with JP or JM. You know what JPJM is? JP is Jesus plus. That means it's Jesus, but, you know, you gotta do all this work stuff and legalism stuff, and you have an orphan heart. So you're really yeah. He died for you, but, no, you know what I'm talking about. You you gotta add this you gotta add this other stuff on. Hello? It's a JP. Jesus plus. Rather than really understanding, hey, it's now, do we have works and so forth yet that we do? Yes. But it's not part of the salvation. It's not the foundation. It's what we do in response.”

“If you had a dream tonight and the Lord spoke to you very clearly and said, I'm coming to your house tomorrow, And you woke up and you knew it was true and you weren't sure how we're showing up. What would you do with your house? How would you set it in order? How would you but would you be in dread or would you be in excited expectation? He's coming. He's coming. The king is coming. It's gonna be good. But you do it out of enthusiasm because you wanna please him. It's for his pleasure and for his glory.”

“So the wall was finished in fifty two days. Are you getting it? I mean, just I mean, get this. It was so heated in Nehemiah six, which, like you said, is is time step. By the way, right now, we're about in the middle of the fifty two days. It's finished like on September 7. So this is the time they're building. And by the way, they they weren't really focused, Kawaii, because they had a weapon in one hand and a a a hammer construction in the other. So they weren't like building whole wholeheartedly, know, wholeheartedly because they had a sword in their hand. They're having to fight and you are you listening to me? It was so heated, you know. And by the way, these were not skilled construction workers. You know, these were not that. These were normal folks. They didn't have no backhoes. They didn't have no automatic hammers and jackhammers and all this kind of they didn't have none of that stuff. This was God. This was God. It was it was a supernatural thing. Are you getting me? How big it was. And we see, there's a reason God time stamped it that false narrative that we've been buying into. We're buying into it no more.”