Well, the first scripture I'm going to read is actually a
description of this, which some call the menorah, but is the
golden Candlestick according to the scriptures.
It says you shall also make a lamp stand of pure gold.
The lamp stand shall be of hammered work.
A shaft, its branches, its foals, its ornamental knobs and
flowers shall be in one piece. All six branches shall come out
of its size. 3 branches of the lampstand out of one side and 3
branches of the lampstand out of the other side.
Now in the class that I'm writing for the fall, I want to
talk about this for a minute because it's where the Lord has
me right now in looking at all the history of Mount Zion and my
walk with the Lord. Because I believe the Bible is a
book about Jesus walking with his people to the place that He
has called us to. It's a very long story.
I talk it about in my book about the eternal purpose, because God
has always had a purpose. God will fulfill his purpose
because no purposes of God's can be withheld from him.
But also he has had fellowship with his people to make all
these things come to pass. And so it's very important for
us to recognize this. That's why when Jesus was
speaking to the people who were rejecting him as the Messiah, he
said you search the Scriptures for in them you seek for eternal
life. But they also talk about me.
And unfortunately, so oftentimes we approach the Bible to look at
it and say what's in it for me kind of.
And then in that case, miss the primary focus that God wants us
to have. Oftentimes Christians do that
today because we're always teaching people about
Christianity being about how to get to heaven and how to get
saved. And that's a component of our
message, no question about it. But in reality, it's about being
reconciled to God, having a relationship with God, and then
walking with God in this earth. I'm glad I'm on a journey with
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Church, Jesus said to his disciples, if you want to be one
of my disciples, you have to deny yourself.
Take up your cross and follow me.
Now, if you just read that scripture from the discipleship
perspective, you think it means behave, you're going to have
some problems, but just keep following.
But really, when they followed Jesus, they walked with him as
well. It wasn't like they were always
behind him. He talked with them, He
encouraged them, He instructed them, and that's the same kind
of relationship God wants to have with us.
He wants us to go on a journey with him.
And so I love the journey. I've been on this journey a long
time and I tell you it just gets better and better to walk with
God and experience the goodness of the Lord in your life.
Today I wanted to put this image in front of you because I think
it's very good to have a image in front of us when we're
talking about something. They say a picture paints 1000
words, at least in a song. But in thinking about that, it's
important for us to have visuals from time to time in order for
us to think about what exactly it is that the Lord is speaking
to us. And I read to you a scripture
out of the book of Exodus. When the children of Israel were
walking with God, he told Moses to instruct them how to worship
him. And so Moses had built a
Tabernacle. There were three courts to it.
An outer court where people would come and bring their
sacrifices and offerings to God. An inner court where the priest
would go and minister to the Lord.
And then the Most Holy Place, where once a year the high
priest would go in and make atonement for the sins of the
people. But in the holy place there was
this thing called the golden Candlestick or golden lampstand
that God told them to build. And of course, the tent as they
constructed a beginning in the days of Moses.
And also the Tabernacle, as you go into the presence of the Lord
in the inner court, there wasn't natural light shining through a
window or anything like that. You needed a lamp, you need a
light. And this is exactly the light
that the Lord had for them, and He did it for a very specific
reason that He could teach them, something that He could build on
in history as He's done with the Bible and showing us some things
that are still at work in the earth today.
But keep in mind, God wants us to walk in the light.
How many know we need to walk in the light of the Word of God?
Amen. We have to hide the word of God
in our heart, the Bible says, and walk in the light of the
Word that He has for us. So this light is very important.
And I put here a Candlestick plus 6 because if you notice,
there's a main shaft going through the middle and then out
of it come these other branches all together, 7 but flowing from
the first branch or the main stem immediately.
Now the reason this is important to understand is it's also
spoken of all the way to the end of the Bible in the book of the
Revelation. Remember, the book of the
Revelation is when the Lord comes to the apostle John and he
says, John, I want you to come and I'm going to begin to show
you some things. And we call it the Revelation,
but the full name is it is a revelation of Jesus Christ.
And so as he saw the revelation of Jesus Christ, he saw some
awesome things that are really images for us to see today in
here in chapters four and five, I picked 2 verses where he
actually goes to the throne room of heaven.
And these are the things that he saw in his vision.
First of all, chapter 4, says Him, from the throne, which is
the seed of God's authority, came lightnings, thunders,
voices, and seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne,
which are the seven spirits of God.
Going into chapter 5, he says, And I looked, and behold, in the
midst of the throne of the four living creatures, and the midst
of the elders, stood a lamb, as though it had been slain.
In this case, having 7 horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Now of course, if you were just to read the Book of Revelation,
you might say, oh, God has seven spirits.
No, we know from reading the entire account of the Bible that
God has revealed Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We don't have 7 spirits, but we will see here how there's seven
aspects of our relationship to the Holy Spirit that God wants
us to know about. But the word 7 in the Scriptures
is symbolic of completion. First example of that, in the
book of Genesis, the Lord spent six days, created the heavens
and earth, and on the 7th day he rested.
And so when you read through the Bible, there are many references
to the #7 speaking about completion.
And our New Beginnings class, our foundation classes, we
talked about the six foundation stones and then going on to
maturity, the same kind of a concept there that God wants us
to understand and the completion.
And that's what Word 7 talks about here.
So he's not talking about literally 7 different spirits,
but the fact that the Holy Spirit is a sevenfold spirit in
operation for each and everyone of us.
And if you notice that Jesus Christ and I, again, we have to
know the Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus coming upon
us. Because Jesus said I'm going to
go away, but I'm going to come again.
And when I come, you're not going to be orphans, but I'm
going to come and we're going to come and live inside of you
speaking about himself and the Father.
But the important thing that we see here is how the Lamb who's
sitting upon the throne has seven horns and seven eyes.
The horns always represent power.
So how many know Jesus has complete power?
The Bible says at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess, because Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of the Father. But it also tells us in Hebrews
chapter 2 that we don't see literally everything under him
because God's been working in this process.
And it's important for us to understand we're involved in
that process. But all power is in the throne
and spread out to the nations. But I want to emphasize today
about the seven eyes because Jesus had full spiritual
perception, which is really in fact what He wants each and
every one of us to experience it.
How do I know? Well, we'll go now to the book
of Isaiah, Chapter 11. There shall come forth a rod
from the stem of Jesse, and her branch shall grow out of his
roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, speaking about the anointing that was upon
Jesus Christ, and then describing as it talks about the
things that come out of it. It is a spirit of wisdom, is a
spirit of understanding. It is a spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge, and of what the fear of the
Lord. His delight is in the fear of
the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor
decide by the hearing of his ears.
Now when Jesus Christ was here on the earth, how many know that
was the manifestation of God's perfect wisdom?
Everything that God had was embodied in Christ.
He was the visible image of the invisible God, and wisdom was a
part of His walk and work here on the earth.
And so in Him we see the perfect completion of wisdom.
And so we experienced that. And it's something that God
wants us all to experience as a part of the Pentecostal
movement. We used to always talk about
being baptized in the Holy Spirit and quoting.
And you shall receive power after that.
The Holy Ghost has come upon you.
And the word power there speaks of from a Greek word, dunamis,
which is kind of like dynamite. And so we would basically say,
hey, you can have some dynamite power from God.
And that is true. Amen, Sir.
But we thought of it in terms of power.
So we think about, well, the Holy Spirit gives us miraculous
abilities, but we don't notice oftentimes that when we think
about the Holy Spirit, we should also think about it as the
source of what knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
Knowledge is information, or facts, if you would.
Understanding is the ability to see those things and have a
comprehension of them. And wisdom really speaks about
the application of those things that we know.
And so these are all a part of the things that God wants us to
have. And with God himself, through
the Holy Spirit, how many are we going to have a spirit of
counsel from him? I know when I'm in prayer, I'm
always talking to God about things that are concerning to me
about myself, the church, or people's lives.
And I know that the Lord, through the Holy Spirit,
counsels with me. And I thank the Lord for that.
And I'm also thankful that God equips us to be a counselor in
the world in which we Live Today, because the church needs
to be a counselor to the world. Amen Church.
And then of course it talks about the fear of the Lord as a
part of that because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord
is what the beginning of wisdom. And there is might in that which
speaks about the fullness. And so when I see this golden
Candlestick, I see how in the very beginning God starting a
process of making us understand his eternal purpose.
And that is, I want my people to know I give light and I want
them to walk in that light. I want them to receive that
light, and then I want them to become children of the light.
Can you say Amen to that? So God is calling us to a whole
new dimension in him. I believe this is a time of
transition in the world. I've been reading about history
all my life and I'm like, looking at what's happening now,
I'm like, wow, it's obvious this is a time of transition.
I can see it both in the church and I can see it in the world in
which we live. And I can see it in the way
people are responding because change is not the easy thing for
people to have to face. That's why they say the teens
were the greatest difficult part of your life for most people
because that's when you went through the most change because
it was physical as well as the circumstances of your life.
But we have to understand that change is a normal part of God's
process and working with planet earth, if you would.
And he not only wants us to be able to embrace change, but he
wants us to be catalyst for change.
Amen, Church. And so this is such an important
time that God is calling us to a new level in him, and we have to
understand that there is a perfect wisdom that he wants us
to walk in and be a full partaker of.
Now, what I want to talk to you about today is the difference
between spiritual perception versus prophetic insight.
Now, as I share with you the things that God has taught us
over the years and what we went through as a church, always keep
in mind that when I'm repeating these things to you, there's a
very good chance that in my time of prayer, the Lord was
repeating it to me, counseling with me so that I could look
back and see what I've experienced, where I am today
and where it is that He's taken us.
And one of the stories that often shares, around 1980, as a
church, we were getting ready to get a mortgage on our church,
and we were ending up the 1970s, if you would.
Our church actually started in 1978.
In the 1970s. It was a very difficult time
financially or economically, if you would.
Prevailing as a description of the times was a word called
stagflation, which means we had inflation, but the economy
wasn't growing. So it was stag inflation if you
would. Usually when you have inflation,
it's because things are growing or vice versa.
But this was an odd time that we went through.
I, as a kid worked in a grocery store.
We used to make changes on prices there in the early 70s.
First of all we had a whole day, then it was every day and some
things we had to change quite frequently because inflation was
such an unusual thing. And then also, as we were
preparing our church, we were starting our change at a time of
great financial struggle. Now, at the time, I wasn't that
aware of economics and stuff. It wasn't an extreme interest
for myself if you would, but I had to face some realities when
we went to the bank and they said, well, we can give you a
mortgage, but the interest rate is 21 1/2%.
How many of that's mind boggling to think about.
Now people are complaining about home mortgages because they're
almost 7%. When I bought my first house, I
was all excited because the interest rate went down to 11
1/2 percent. It had been 14 times sure have
changed and it's important for us to understand that there's
times of economic distress, there's good times, bad times,
whatever. In the journey of life, all
kinds of things are going to happen.
And when looking at the world those days, most of the experts,
because I certainly did watch the news, we're talking about
the fact that we were in a very difficult time.
And there was this idea that we were on a trek downward, if you
would. Japan was the major power and
competition with us at that time.
And everybody thought, wow, look at Japan.
Look how they manufacture, look what they do.
And all the sudden it seemed like they were the rising star
of the East, if you would. And everybody was talking about
how the United States was going down hill.
And I remember then as well that most of the Bible prophets, if
you'd call that scriptural prophet, says Bible prophecy.
People were always looking for bad things to happen because
that was the sign of the end. And they were sure Jesus was
going to come because things were so bad.
But when I prayed, the Lord spoke to me and said, don't
listen to the voices because they're all kinds of voices
saying all kinds of different things.
You need to understand I'm sending the time of great
prosperity upon the land. And I want you to be prepared
for the time of prosperity. But I also want you to know it's
going to be just like it was in the days of Solomon.
And in that time he began to speak and say now you need to be
prepared because when this time of blessing comes, it would be
like in Solomons day. He was a man of great wisdom.
So the Lords, like the church needs to be a place of wisdom.
And I literally have all these things in the very first book I
wrote going back to 1991 about the house being a House of
wisdom and what God has for us as people.
But it was so important to understand that as well in
thinking of Solomon, as we'll read today, and I also read to
you in the opening Scriptures, Solomon with all the blessing he
had, he fell from grace with the Lord.
Now God talked to me about this prosperity in the late 1990s.
He said, I want you to know this is the Lucene of the four
horsemen of Revelation. There's going to be a time of
shaking. It's going to shake because
everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken.
He said about a year to know that.
And this is what you're to tell the people basically, which I
have been. Don't look at things to fall
apart. It's going to be shaken.
So we have to be strong, but don't look for things to fall
apart at that point in time. And so since that time, why I
wanted to share first, the very first week He gave me that on a
Monday, our stock market dropped the highest level in many, many
years. Everybody is all upset about it.
But by Friday that week had it come back and the Lord spoke to
me and He said no, That's what I want you to look at as a picture
of what it's going to be like shaking, seemingly falling, but
always put back together again. And that's been kind of like the
premise of the last 25 years. There was a very big tech of
fall downfall, if you would, in the stock market, around 2076%
of its value because everybody was investing.
It's kind of like it is today a bubble because everybody's
excited now about AI. Back then it was about the
Internet, the possibilities that were involved there.
It it, it was a difficult time, but guess what we've recovered.
There was the 9/11, 2001 disaster that was a shaking
economically and O seven O 8. They called it the Great
Recession. They said it was the worst time
since we had since the Great Depression.
So we've had a lot of shakings, but how many know we recover and
quite quickly actually, when you look at it from a historical
basis. Now, one of the reasons we have
recovered, fulfilling that second prophecy is because of
the government has taken a very activist role.
Whether it's Congress or whether it's the Federal Reserve or
whatever. There's somebody trying to
manage all this by printing money, expanding the money
supply, if you would, or sometimes lowering the interest
rate to make it easier to buy and to keep things.
And during O seven O 8, they were a lot of different
companies that were going bankrupt and the girl rescued a
lot of them. There were certain ones they let
fall apart. And that's a part of the shaking
time as the governments getting more power and they're deciding
oftentimes who's going to succeed and who's going to fall.
And so when I look at all the things that are happening now,
I'm thinking, Lord, this has to end.
This has to end. Because to me, when I look at
the increase of government power and I see irresponsible
finances, I think, oh, it's all going to fall apart.
So I was actually praying quite a bit in recent years.
Lord, is there another word I'm supposed to get now?
Because things don't look good. I'm sure everything's going to
fall apart or something. And that's when the Lord began
to speak to me what I'm going to share with you today.
And that is I don't want to people that know ahead of time
what's going to happen so they can prepare for it.
I want to be a have a people who can respond to every situation
that comes their way. So it isn't about what you know
is going to happen. It's how you going to handle
where you are right now. That's the difference between a
spiritual perception and prophetic insight.
And when I share with you how this is a part of my process as
well. I have a YouTube site where I
talk about prophetic insight. And that's when the Lord said,
now you're getting ready and I have you ready to begin to
launch in a whole new level. But I want you to change that
name to spiritual procession because the Bible says he that
is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no
one. That's in the book of First
Corinthians. And so the Lord said we need a
people who have spiritual perception in the earth, not a
people who feel their security about knowing what's going to
happen, because how many know? Everybody's trying to tell you
what's going to happen. People are saying buy gold, the
money's not going to be having any value or better than that,
buy Bitcoin or some of the kind of currency.
Everybody's come up with ideas. But I have a word from the Lord,
and that is give me the ability to teach you and give you
wisdom. It doesn't matter what situation
is in front of you, you're going to know how to navigate it, says
the mighty God. Give the Lord a praise on that.
And the truth is that's our testimony as a local church.
In our 47 years, we've never had a crisis financially.
We've always weathered the storm.
If you would. I talk about the storms and I
know people that we've ministered to this, excuse me,
have been impacted by the storms.
But we have to understand that in all of these things, our God
is faithful all the time. And that's why I love being on a
journey with him because I like to look back and say, God,
that's amazing how you work that out.
And then I can look to the future and say, God, I know
that's going to be amazing how you're going to work things out.
Amen. Church, we serve a living God.
In First Corinthians chapter 1, verses 19 and 20, it does say
this. For it is written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise, Where is the
scribe, and where is the disputer of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
You can be sure that all the wisdom of this world is going to
be challenged. That's why we've got to be
prepared to understand and also to walk not in the world's
wisdom, but God's wisdom church. And it's so easy for us to walk
in the wisdom of the world or to think, well, this is what God
says. So this is what I do as a
Christian or when I go to church.
And this is everyday life. Now the Lord says every day I'm
going to walk with you, says the mighty God.
And as you allow me to give you wisdom, says the Lord, you will
be able to navigate the waters even when the wisdom of this
world is being challenged. You will be able to walk in
godly wisdom and say to the world, God is able to take care
of his people, Amen. Because we're planted on the
rock, Christ Jesus. Amen.
Jesus said if you're on the rock, and this is how he
described himself to his disciples, if you follow these
principles that I'm telling you about, when the storms come and
the winds are blowing, you're going to be able to stand on the
rock and not be shaken. But if you're not following the
principles, when the storm comes, it's going to be like you
built your house on the sand and when the winds are blowing, the
storms are raging, you're going to fall with the wind.
So God is challenging us to understand how powerful His word
is and how wonderful His word can be to us when we have that
confidence in Him and understand the full manner of wisdom He's
called us to. Now going back to our story, it
says that Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream
by night and said, Ask what shall I give you?
Now, O Lord my God, You have made your servant king, and said
of my father David, but I'm a little child, do not know how to
go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst
of your people, whom you have chosen, a great people too
numerous to be numbered or counted.
Therefore give to your servant an understanding heart to judge
your people, that I may discern between good and evil.
For who is able to judge this great people of yours?
Can you imagine God appearing to you and saying, ask, what do you
want? How many of you know you'd have
a lot of thoughts on that one? Lord, just give me the Super
Bowl lottery of a billion bucks and I'll be taken care of.
Lord, just do this and this will happen.
I'll be OK. But Solomon, when he has this
opportunity to get something from God, he's not thinking
about himself. He's thinking about the
responsibility that he has for the people of God because he's
made a king. His father, David was a great
king, very beloved by the people of God.
And he's looking at David, his father, and he's looking at the
tacit in front of me. And so when the Lord says, ask
for something, he says, Lord, I want you to give me an
understanding heart in order that when people come to me and
I'm facing the issues of life, I'll know exactly what to do.
And I think it's so important that we would understand that
true wisdom does indeed come from the heart, Amen.
And Solomon had the right heart before the Lord.
And because of that, when God gave him an opportunity, he
asked, I believe with all my heart, God's bringing the church
into a new level of authority in prayer.
But we're got to be mature in our place in order for us to be
given that kind of blessing. Amen, Church.
And so God says, get ready by preparing yourself to walk in
wisdom and have an understanding heart, says the mighty God.
So God gave Solomon wisdom, exceeding great understanding
and largeness of heart. Like the sand on the seashore,
the Solomon's wisdom excel the wisdom of all the into the east
and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men
and men of all nations from all kings of earth who had heard of
his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
Wow, what a blessings God's gift was.
He gets wisdom and the Bible says he also had largeness of
heart, not just understanding of heart.
So he's very generous. You can see, like the queen of
Sheba, she comes and sees all the things that Solomon has
built. And the Bible says she literally
fainted when she saw how perfectly everything operated in
the administration of his authority.
And yet she brought gifts. But guess what?
Then he gave her gifts back because he's like, you're not
going to outgive me. I'm going to give back to you.
So he was a man of wisdom. He was a man of generosity.
And it was something that this Scripture tells us was
recognized by all the nations of the earth.
Kings and leaders were coming because they're like, we got to
find out what's happening there in Israel.
I'm sure most of them didn't give the credit to God, but
Solomon would have had the responsibility to tell him just
that. But what was followed and
received of God actually became a demonstrated wisdom that the
world could see. And I believe that's what God
has in store for His church. That's why I'm still as
committed as I ever was to Isaiah 2.
In the latter days of time, the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established on top of the mountains, exalted above the
hills. People are going to say, come
and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the
God of Jacob. He will teach us of His ways.
We will walk in His path. For out of Mount Zion shall go
the law, because we saw what those people have experienced in
God. And we want that church.
We're going to see a great harvest in this day, man.
Unfortunately, For it was so when Solomon was old that his
wifes turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was
not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father
David. For Solomon went after Asterisk,
the goddesses, said Nonians, and after Milkham the abomination of
the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of
God and did not follow the Lord as did his father David.
And again, this is the story that God brought to my
remembrance way back when. He said just be careful.
In the days of prosperity, there will also be a time of wisdom.
The world's going to have its wisdom and knowledge.
And with AI, it's going to be mind boggling.
I'm just amazed at some of the things that you can accomplish
with artificial intelligence. But I also know that God says
I'm going to do something in the church that's going to parallel
and be a light to that says the mighty God, and you're going to
see what I'm going to do because God's going to show his glory
through his people in this day. And that's why we are committing
ourselves fully to the vision. And I'm so grateful that God has
given me the opportunity to walk in this journey and to learn
these things so that I can impart them to this next
generation because I believe with all my heart, God's raising
up the generation of Jacob, the generation that's going to seek
him. And that's what they're saying
in all the reports. If you read them, they're saying
something's happening in the younger generation.
There's a hunger for God. And for so many years they were
talking about declining church attendance and declining
interest in God. And now they're starting notice.
Wow, something's changing. How many know gods at work right
now in the earth? Amen.
Cherish. Unfortunately, he had a failure
in the secret place. And that's why I mentioned here
because I was praying about that.
I'm like, Lord, how could somebody with Solomon, he was
the smartest guy in planet Earth.
How can he turn from you? That's not too smart.
That doesn't demonstrate a lot of wisdom.
And it's mind boggling to me. And that's when the Lord spoke
to me and he said, well, Lauren, basically he fell into the same
thing. That's very common in the human
experience. And that is it's very easy to
have a public life and yet not match it in your private life.
And you can see that all through the world.
A lot of times, you know, growing up out here, people say,
oh, Christians are hypocrites. We live in a world of
hypocrites. Amen.
What do I mean? Well, most people have two
things. It's very common in the human
condition. I'm talking about people.
And social studies is always one of my favorite subjects.
I'm a observer of people. And you'll know, often times
you'll talk to somebody who has knowledge that they're operating
in perhaps professionally or in some level.
But then when they go home, they kind of take off that hat, if
you would. And in their private life,
things aren't so well, You may have went to a doctor before and
he'd tell you about nutrition. And you're looking at him and
thinking, you don't seem to follow that advice.
Are you a smell? And you're like, wait a minute,
did you have a cigarette before you came and see me?
It's very common for people who are telling you how to be
healthy to be unhealthy, just as it's very common for people who
are in counseling to tell you counsel and it can actually be
good counsel, but they don't follow the same counsel
themselves for whatever reason. It's a part of the human
experience. Unfortunately, we've seen a lot
in the body of Christ recently because guess what?
We're finding out there's a whole lot of people who had a
public ministry, but when they got home, I guess they forgot
who they were walking with. Amen.
That's why I call it a failure in the seeker place and why you
have to understand the key to his success was his heart, but
it also was the key to his failure.
The Bible says he that dwells in the seeker place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge.
He is my help. He's a present help in a time of
trouble though 1000 fall on my right and 10,000 on my other
side. He says it's not going to come
near me. Why?
Because the Lord is my refuge and my strength.
What is that talking about? Well, abiding in the secret
place of the Most High. And it goes on to say he knows
me by name. I know him by name.
And if your heart is where it's supposed to be, church, God will
give you the ability to navigate every situation.
And that's why it's so important for us to realize that the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus that comes to us can help us
navigate the waters of our life. But we have to start with the
most secret place of all, which is not your personal life, but
your heart. And when he dwells in that heart
of ours, He can give us help in our marriage, in our child
rearing, in our careers, and everything else because it flows
from that. And even when the crisis of life
comes or the struggles come, you're able to still navigate
properly and you're also able to take the knowledge that you
have, whether it's a professional knowledge or
something that you learned on your own.
And He will make you strong enough to be able to walk in
that. But the key is giving God your
heart, letting God dwell in your secret place, and you also
allowing yourself to have a secret place in the Lord.
I have found it to be a strength for me.
And I'm so grateful that I can share a testimony with the
younger people and say, you know what?
I've been serving a long time and guess what?
I found out He's a faithful God. He's able to do exceedingly,
abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think.
But when we're facing a crisis that we don't understand or
we're in a world that's seemingly falling apart, we need
to know where our help comes from.
Amen Church. And that's where we begin to
learn how that God can give us the spirit of wisdom and
understanding in the knowledge of him, the spirit of counsel,
the spirit of might, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
And we can find success in every situation.
It says King Solomon love many foreign women as well as the
daughter of the Pharaoh when them the Moabites, Ammonites,
Edomites, Hadonians and Hittites from the nations of whom the
Lord had said to the children of Israel, You shall not intermarry
with them, nor are they with you.
Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.
And so Solomon kung to these in love.
It's so important that we'd understand the simplicity of
keeping the word of God. And that's why we're offering
all these Bible classes and so many different settings and so
many different opportunities because church, you have to
understand there's power in the Word of God.
And when we started our church, we started by teaching a class
called Understanding God. And it was 32 weeks class.
And from that we took 45 people to Detroit to be baptized.
And that's been our foundation all along to teach people how
important it is to have a foundation.
That's why we continue to have our new beginner class and we we
make the classes shorter than they used to be, but we offer
more classes because we want you to get a taste of it so that you
can say, you know, I've tasted the Lord.
It's good. I want some Amen church.
Commit yourself to the Word. Go to the website and find out a
way that you can get into a Bible class or Bible training
opportunity or one of the book studies because it's all about
keeping the Word. And Solomon forgot what God had
told him. That's why it doesn't hurt to
take a class over again. One day I was reading one of my
own books and somebody looked at me and laughed as you read your
own books. I said, I have to.
I can't remember what I wrote way back then.
That was a long time ago, but I do the same thing with the Bible
as I'm reading it. I just read it all the time.
Guess what? I'm just amazed I can read it
and I'll go, I didn't know that was there, or I'm looking that
whole different perspective. And so walking in the Word with
a heart that's open to Him, that's key if we want to stand
in the time of trouble. Amen.
And that's why I put up here also knowing the Word.
And we're only going to know the Word because we study the Word.
Then someone built a high place for Shimas, the abomination of
Moab, on the hill that is the eastern Jerusalem, and more like
the abomination of the people of Haman.
And he did likewise for all his foreign wives who burned incense
and sacrifice to their gods. Now I want you to note I put up
here that he was following his need.
I would like to quote the scripture.
It says and God will supply all of our need according to his
riches and glory. We can only turn to God when we
have a need. And I'm not just talking about a
financial need. Often eyes people have
motivating needs in their life. God can satisfy your need, and
once you get past that point, you can go to the next Scripture
that says delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you
the desire of your heart. You see, Solomon was not a
influencer. He was somebody who became
influenced. And we have to be very careful
in this time because there's all kinds of people out there who
want to influence us. It's a new thing on social
medias. People want to be influencers.
Well, you have to understand from the connotation of these
words that when it comes to your life, you have to know who's
influencing you. Amen.
And we have been called by God to be influencers in the world
in which we live. And unfortunately, what happened
to Solomon has became misdirected.
Now, when you read how that he had 700 wives and 300
concubines, which was kind of like a second Clutter girl wife,
you might think, wow, that guy was really liking he liked
getting married. I mean, it must have been the
ceremony or something. But in fact, the truth is, and
it wasn't the honeymoon. It was something more than that,
believe it or not, when he married his first wife in the
Bible records that it was one of the princesses of Egypt, because
that's how they used to make alliances back then.
You would marry a daughter or a relative of a king of another
country, and that was kind of the way that you would secure
contracts. And so there was a political
reason he would have did these things.
And it seemed in his mind, I'm sure to be a right thing because
that's what everybody was doing at the time.
But in the end he became misdirected by that and he, he
came under the influence of those that he was allowing in.
And I'm sure because he was doing it for contractual reasons
that there was a part of him that could have justified
saying, well, I better let all these wives worship their own
gods because after all, they're only here because we're making
an alliance. Whatever.
There's all kinds of reasons he could have justified the
situation, but in the end he became misdirected and missed
out on the opportunity to experience the blessing of God.
So the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had
turned from the Lord of God of Israel, who had appeared to him
twice, and it commanded him concerning this thing, that he
should not go after other gods, but he did not keep what the
Lord had commanded. Therefore the Lord said to
Solomon, because you have done this and have not kept my
comment in my statutes which I commanded you, I will surely
tear the Kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
Can we all please bow our heads? Close your eyes for just a
moment, Church. I believe this is a very
important moment in the times and the purposes of God.
I covered a whole lot of history and a whole lot of message, but
simply this. Will you let God into your
secret place? Will you open yourself up?
Some of you used to have a secret place and you donated
more. Get back to your secret place.
You need time between you and Jesus.
You need to know who He is, and you need to let Him know who you
are. Of course, he knows you, but he
wants you to willingly show him who you are.
This is Pastor Lauren Coverbius from Mount Zion Church.
We thank you for joining us today and invite you to connect
with our church family by visiting mountzion.org and
following us on social media. God bless you.