In a Pit with a Lion

And when you allow the power of the Lord to come over you through his word, there is a power inside of you that can annihilate that lion, and you can stand over it. It'll never make another sound, But you can stand on it and testify to God's power. I know there are some struggles in this room because you have shared some of them with me. And because I love you, I'm not gonna say a word. But what is it gonna take for you to take those things that are hunting you down? [01:06:13] (39 seconds)  #StandOnTheLion

I don't know what it's gonna take for the believers in this world who are fully devoted followers to stop playing games, to just be bold, and to speak the name of Jesus where they stand and where they are. So can I encourage you? Be bold like Banaya. Go down into that pit of whatever the sin is in your life that's holding you back and kill it. And just kill it. Because guess what? When it's dead, scripture doesn't say that that lion rose again and attacked Manaiah. That lion was dead, never to move again. [01:05:29] (44 seconds)  #BeBoldLikeBenaiah

I'm I'm a weird generation. Like, I experienced a phone that was attached with a cord, but I also experienced a pager and a cell phone and the Internet. Like, I'm this weird age group. But the computer, you would click this defrag now, and it would go through this series of things. And the reason you defragged it was because it was fragmented with a lot of bad things. When you click defrag, it cleaned up the computer, and it was firing on all cylinders again. And so, Paul is saying, we need to have a defragmentation [00:56:37] (32 seconds)  #DefragYourMind

process happening in our minds. And there was a a test that was done by two doctors and the the performance that they asked a handful of people to do was a tapping exercise. So they sat there and they just tapped repeatedly. And they did this for six weeks. And they did an MRI scan of the brain as they were doing this. And then after six weeks, after the tapping, they did another MRI. Well, the place that the MRI showed of the tapping, it actually expanded and got larger like it had gotten stronger in just tapping these two fingers. [00:57:09] (42 seconds)  #TapToRewire

It makes no sense. But the mind is wired that way. God has set it up that way. And so that simple task, a finger tapping exercise, literally recruited a new nerve cells and rewired neuronal connections. When we read scripture, we are recruiting new nerve cells and rewiring neuronal connections. In a sense, we are downloading a new operating system that reconfigures the mind. We stop thinking human thoughts and we start thinking God thoughts. Let this mind be in you which is in that of Christ Jesus. How do we accomplish this command? Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you. [00:57:51] (49 seconds)  #LetTheWordRewire

So in that pit, Benaiah had no idea that that action would land him a job of David's bodyguard. So God is gonna use your past experiences, your past life not to condemn you or to make you feel worthless, but to empower you to say that season of life I gave you was so that you could do this job well. So you may not be doing the job you love right now. I get it. But this isn't the end. This is just a necessary stop. It's a necessary resting place so that you can advance to where God is in heaven with Jesus as the spirit abides in that place far greater than it is in this life. So the good news is you're not alone. [01:07:03] (52 seconds)  #PurposeInYourPast

I'll be honest. I get fearful at times, and the last time happened two days ago. We were in Sugar Land, and we were trying to burn some time. And Vicky had wanted to see this furniture store kind of in the Sugar Land area. And we walk in, and I only have three of my boys. So Eli and my two youngest, Seth and Roman. And we're playing on the furniture. And they said, you can jump on it. It's totally fine. I'm like, don't tell them that because they will jump on it. Some of these couches have speakers, subwoofers in them. They're really cool. [01:00:13] (37 seconds)  #HonestAboutFear

But as we were listening to the young lady tell us about the couches and how they're washable, all these things, another coworker had come in, and she's in a wheelchair. And I thought to myself, I wonder what happened. And so I'm not trying to be awkward or make anything obvious, and so we're still talking to the lady. And then the lady speaks up who's in the wheelchair, and she mentions an accident as she is talking. And she was done, and I was like, hey. You mentioned an accident. May I ask what what happened? If not, it's it's not a big deal. She's like, no. It's okay. She said I was shot, [01:00:56] (41 seconds)  #AskWithCompassion