- We just came off of 21 days of prayer and fasting.
- We’ve discussed weakness and winning in our weakness. We’ve also discussed how our glitch can be our gift.
- Our word for the year is stronger.
- This year, after prayer and fasting, Mike didn’t feel stronger… neither did I.
- We feel like we want to rest.
- You may have done the right thing, but not feel the results.
- You may not feel strong, but God may be saying that you really are stronger.
- It’s the sign of a maturing believer when you know something that you don’t believe.
- The majority of your Christian life, you’ll have to work on what you know, and not what you feel.
- It won’t be a feeling, it’ll be a knowing.
- Faithfulness is greater than feelings.
- You need to be committed to the resolve, and not the results. The resolve is greater than results.
- Our generation wants results.
- We’re not resolved; we want results and we let the results mess up our resolve.
- When looking at Adam and Eve, they listened to the enemy about the result of eating from the tree, and one moment of losing their resolve caused them to forfeit the paradise that God had for them.
- If you’ve been looking for feelings to make you feel better, know that this will not be a season of feeling. This will be a season of faithfulness.
- My resolve is greater than results.
- You need to be resolved that you’ll save money and be debt free. Resolved that you’ll stay pure. Resolved that you’ll work on your business. All despite negative outcomes.
RESOLVE:- Settle, decide firmly on a course of action
- You have to be at a place where your feelings no matter as much as you’ve allowed them to matter before.
- Your resolve affects your effectiveness.
- Always looking for the results can discourage the work.
- Many people in the body of Christ are stopping their physical, emotional, and spiritual progress because they don’t feel like their efforts are working.
- We can be so caught up in the result, but God wants us focused on the resolve.
- Glory doesn’t look the same in every season.
- There needs to be a greater stance of us killing, and not caring about our feelings.
- Will you give, serve, or love when you don’t feel it?
Today’s Message:
“I Know it, Even When I Don’t Feel It”
- What have we showed up for and then backed out of because we didn’t feel it?
- I am divorcing my feelings today.
- To get stronger, you have to divorce what you feel.
- People like to say, “you’ll know it when you feel it” — but it causes us to ignore themes and God when we feel something.
- Will your feelings keep leading your life? Or will you make a decision to be faithful no matter what you feel?
Scripture
Judges 6:11-16
Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
1. Stronger is a Prophetic Declaration from God, but it Has to be a Divine Decision by You.
God can speak something over you that you disagree with.
Many of us have been called, son, daughter, righteous more than enough, but we’re still saying not me.
God is showing up and asking you to keep your resolve and not consult your feelings or results.
Decide that you’re going to agree with what God has said.
God knows what he’s put inside of you.
Gideon was told/guaranteed by God that he could do it because the lord was with him, despite his own doubts.
If God be for us, then who can be against us? – Romans 8:31
If God called you to lead and be a father, who can be against you?
We try to convince God as to why it can’t happen. Gideon says, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
Gideon was still looking at his results.
Never look at your situation to determine your strength.
Your situation is never and indication of how strong you are.
God wants us to believe the word and he needs us to move on that. However, we try to convince God of otherwise because of our own feelings and thoughts.
The enemy suggests that you’re not strong enough to do what God has called you to do. But you have to remember what you know.
Your feelings and these suggestions are not valid.
Go back to what is known. I know that:
- I am the righteousness in Christ Jesus
- I know that my steps are ordered by the lord
- I know that if I would acknowledge him in all my ways, that he would direct my path
The only comfort you’ll have in this season of getting stronger is not what you feel, but what you know.
Our elders have said, “I was young, but now im old, and I know I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken. I have a feeling that everything is gonna be alright.”
There’s something that you have to know. Today as we progress in the stronger series, it’s important to know that strength first starts in your mind. Strength is in what you know, not how you feel.
The Lord turned to Gideon and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” — In other words, go with what you have. That’s all the strength you need. What you have, is just enough.
Just because you haven’t seen a successful marriage, or see finances managed well, God is asking you to go with the strength you have.
What he’s called you to do might not add up with what you have in the natural world, but God is telling you to go with the strength you have.
2. The Strength You Have Is Enough, So Go With That
What would happen if for the rest of the year, you stop making excuses and you went with the strength you have?
Go with the strength you have.
Declare that you have no more excuses in 2020.
This season of getting stronger will not be about how I feel.
Ask how im doing, not how I feel.
If you stop worrying about how you feel, you’ll get the results of being stronger. It requires doing something.
It requires discipline.
What is God trying to help you get out of, and get into with your purpose, but you just don’t feel it?
You don’t feel it, but you know it. Gideon knew that the lord was with him.
When looking at the scripture again, God says, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
Strength is directly connected to where you are sent. Do not get into something you were not sent to, then ask for God’s strength in it.
A lot of us are declaring what we’re about to do, and God is saying, “I didn’t ask you to do that, that wasn’t me”. You’re plying for plans that you made up.
Get in the place that he sent you to be.
Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
He bought into the lie of the enemy.
God gave him a word, and he still listens to the suggestions of sabotage. He
listened to his feelings.
Suggestions of sabotage come to us when we’re getting stronger.
Suggestions of Sabotage: FEELINGS
- Overestimate – he overestimated what he would have to do alone. He didn’t ask you to do it on your own. He will use you to make big changes, but we overestimate how much of it will be done alone.
- Compare – he then compares himself to stronger clans in his tribe. We can’t keep comparing ourselves to people who haven’t been called to do what God has called us to do. God chose you, he called you, go with the strength you have.
- Undervalue – he listened to the suggestions of sabotage and undervalued what God placed on the inside of him. He said the tribe was the weakest and he was the weakest in the tribe. God has placed what he’s placed inside you for the task ahead of you. You may not realize what training he’s given you that will cause the strength you have to be enough.
The Lord said to Gideon, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
Instead of listening to suggestions of sabotage, we need to know that God has us. When God says he’ll be with you, it means he has you.
He says you’ll be victorious.
Know that you’re favored.
I’m favored
Know that God has you. Rehearse the word of the lord because you’re not going to feel it while you’re getting stronger. Rehearse the promise:
- I know God’s got me
- I’m victorious
- I’m favored
- I’m getting stronger
Everyday.
Full sermon: https://youtu.be/c3soKNMfimw
