Embracing Trials: The Power of Prayer and Forgiveness

You can tell the temperature of a church from the people who pray. I don't want us to be a church that's just a social gathering because the power of any—this is the way Jesus puts it, he was quoting, I forgot, Isaiah—he said my house shall be called a what? House of Prayer. That's what church is because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood because the forces that we encounter or we contend with on this Earth, they are not normal, they are spiritual agents. [00:58:18]

Regardless of who you are, you need help from time to time. I don't know how many of you watch TV, and you see this commercial that comes from St. Jude's Hospital. St. Jude's hospital is in Cleveland, and every now and again, they will show a family with a 2-year-old child, a three-year-old child, a 5-year-old child, a six-year-old child who had cancer, and parents, you see the mother, the father crying and said that when my child had cancer, my world fell apart. [01:05:10]

Pain comes to everybody. Listen to me, pain is the tuition you pay for the manifestation of your glory. The Bible says it says that our light afflictions are only for a moment. Do not despise your pain, do not trade your pain for Mally gain because your pain is necessary to prepare you for the place of Glory. Your tears are relevant in the presence of God. [01:12:21]

Joseph was thrown in the pit. Somebody has said that the pit in which he was thrown, the word pit is actually prophet in training. If you have found yourself in the pit right now, you are only undergoing your tutelage for elevation by God. Oh, glory to God. So we see that now Joseph had taken this giant leap to becoming prime minister, and that was what some people see. [01:14:42]

There is really, we say that all the time, but there's no magical single moment. There's no magical single—every magical moment is an aggregated magical moment. They are incremental magical moments, ordinary moments that were magical in their potential, preparing you for the magical moment that was extraordinary. Am I making sense? So your ordinary days, the days of your ordinariness that you look at, nobody's heralding you, nobody's celebrating you, nobody's applauding you. [01:19:16]

Joseph at that stage, he had already forgiven his brothers. That is why he did not say, my God punish my brothers, my brothers were the ones who sold me. He took away blame from them and said I was stolen from the land of Egypt. I want you to understand because when some of you need Divine help, you never—I say this authoritatively—you will never get Divine help until you get to a place where you expunge malice, bitterness, and unforgiveness from your heart. [01:23:22]

The reason why you are in a state of uncertainty, the reason why you are in a seeming state of stagnation is because the appointed time has not come. The word of the Lord was testing him, proving him, working on him. So you want to ask yourself the question, were the 13 years between the anointing and when he saw the vision of the stars and the moon bowing down before him until he became prime minister, were those 13 years necessary? Oh yeah, they were necessary. [01:31:10]

God was taking away the dirt that will stop God's intervention in his life. Number two, God was also creating capacity in his life to handle the Glory when the glory comes because some of you will not—you cannot handle the glory. So when the glory comes, it destroys you, but that will not be your story in Jesus' name. But some people can't handle the glory, and that's why you put a small man in a big position, the man just becomes—you know. [01:38:11]

The people that know their God shall be strong and they will do exploits. They shall be strong. The people that know their God shall be strong. How do you get Divine help? Number one, knowledge. Number two, a solid trusting relationship with God. Number three, an authentic life of godliness or a life of authentic godliness. It's a battle. Listen to me, it's not easy. Godliness is not easy. It's tough. [01:47:49]

Faithfulness in the little things God has given you, faithfulness. If you are parking cars out there, be faithful with parking cars. If you're cleaning, be faithful in cleaning. If you're an usher, be faithful in ushering. If you're in music, be faithful. Do the work as if it depends on you alone. Are you listening to me? Do it as if it depends on you alone. Don't do it as if, well, well, I don't care. [01:52:21]

The small step, the baby step, the little things—they did not kill you when they thought they would kill you. They wanted to give you an overdose; they did not give you an overdose. They tried to expel you out of the country; they did not do it. The small steps—they refused to give you the job, but God opened another door. Those small steps, they are leading to that moment when God will give you a Quantum leap. [01:58:11]

I want to encourage those of you who are not tithing. Pastor spoke about tithing when she was taking the offerings. Those of you who are not tithing, you know what tithing is. What's tithing? 10% of your income. What's income? The money that comes in. That's why it's called income. If you're a businessman and you started your business with $1,000 and you make a $500 profit, at the end of the year or the month, you make $1,500. [02:05:40]