Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] James, chapter four and verse 13. Are you there? This is what it says. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills. Everybody say if the Lord wills.
[00:00:35] If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or we'll do that. Now, if you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. Yikes. Therefore, to him who knows to do good but does not do it, to him, it is sin. Wow. Well, we need the Lord to help us with this word today. So come on, let's pray and let's ask his anointing on it. Lord, I thank you for what You've already done in this service, but I pray now as we open Your word, that you would speak to our hearts and you would change our lives. I pray, mighty God, that Your word would accomplish all that you desire it to. It brings correction and encouragement. It strengthens us, it builds us up, it gives us direction. And Lord, I pray that it would. Come on, can you help me pray today, church? Pray for a mighty anointing to be released. Pray, Almighty God, for an anointing to be upon Your people, that you would give us eyes that see and ears that hear, a heart that perceives what your spirit is speaking. I pray. Jesus, even as you were anointed to preach the Gospel Jesus, I pray that same spirit would rest upon me, giving me authority to declare Your word as I ought to, and I resist the works of the enemy, he who would seek to distract, to distort, to confuse, or uproot Your word as it comes forward. Lord, I pray, give us liberty in receiving Your word today. In Jesus name, I pray. And everybody say amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:11] I I get great encouragement as I read through these passages just to kind of review and maybe put some of this in context for us. You may recall in the last week, since we've really been in chapter three of the Book of James, it's kind of been in this entire theme, like, listen, you can have the wisdom that the world, that demons, that sensuality brings, or you can have the wisdom of God. How many of you want the wisdom of God? Hallelujah. And really what it comes down to is, are you going to be so proud that you think, I can do it my way? Or will you be humble enough to say, Lord, I need your wisdom? The Bible says if you ask for it, he's faithful, he has it in abundance. He'll give it if you just simply ask Him for it. The Bible talks about all of these conflicts that arise and how most of it really comes down to selfish desire. I want to be seen, I want to be known, I want to be recognized, versus I desire to lift other people up. I desire to glorify God again. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, let me ask you, how many of you would rather be a receiver of God's grace rather than to be resisted by him? How many of you? I want God's grace. Hallelujah. Me too. And the Bible goes on and on. I mean, we've dealt with a lot of topics. We've dealt with sin. We've dealt about how leaders are raised up. We've dealt with grace. We've dealt with so many things friendship with the world. And the theme is the same all throughout pride versus humility. I'm going to lead my life my way, or I'm going to consider God in all things. And what we come into today is a text really dealing with, well, am I going to handle my business in my finances, God's way, or am I going to handle my business and my finances my way? And to give some commentary, I'm going to help you with some of this. The text today, in verse 13, it says, come you who say today or tomorrow we'll go to such and such a city, spend a year that we're going to buy, sell, we're going to make a profit.
[00:04:32] You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. What is your life? It's a vapor. It appears for a little time, it vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live. We will do this or that, on and on. Now, here's what I want you to understand.
[00:04:46] The Bible does not condemn having a business plan.
[00:04:52] The Bible is not condemning having a plan for your life.
[00:04:58] What it is condemning is having a business plan or a plan for your life without consulting him.
[00:05:09] That's the problem.
[00:05:11] Pentecostals. I love the pentecostal. Chaos. I love being spirit led. But let me just tell you, I feel like we're worse at this than most other groups. Steve Hill was the one who pointed this out to me. You notice you never see Pentecostal hospitals. You never see whatever, I don't even know. Hospital is probably the best example.
[00:05:37] You see Methodist hospitals, you see Catholic hospitals, you see all these different why don't the Pentecostals? Well, we're too busy being spirit led. We don't have a plan.
[00:05:48] Preachers one thing that will make me just come unglued, I will start smacking people. You don't study, you don't pray, you don't prepare. Well, I'm just going to be led by the spirit. I'm just going to be led by the spirit. No, you study to show yourself. Approved life group leaders. If you preach in one of our ethnic ministries, if you preach in our youth ministry, friend, you study to show yourself. Approved. You get the word of the Lord for the people. Whether you're ministering to hundreds or whether you've got a handful of people you're about to take on a hike, you seek the Lord for what he does. Now, I believe in being led by the Spirit, but there's preparation and there's planning. Include God in your plans. Include God. Lay out a business plan, lay out a financial plan, but remain in the place. God, I don't know what lays before me, but I'm submitting this to you. And if you want to blow it up, you can. I shared in the first service about an occasion that for the first time in my life, I began to build a vacation fund. Hallelujah.
[00:06:58] I've never done that before. I've had savings and investments for other things, but I'd never built a vacation fund. And so I think this was three years ago, maybe, I put together this, and I had almost $2,000 in this savings account. Now, that's not a lot of money for most of you here, but for me, that was a real feat. Okay? That was amazing. And so we always submit everything to the Lord. Well, here's a tip for you. If you don't want your savings account to get emptied out, don't go to prophetic services.
[00:07:33] We went to a service. I say that jokingly. Get in the prophetic services. Get in the flow of what God's doing. We went to a meeting with a man of God named Gustavo Paells. You guys ever hear of Gustavo? He's a minister for Dr. Morocco. I'd love to get him out here sometime, but this guy, he's crazy. He's the kind of guy who tell know you grew up in your grandma's house. This is the address. This is the color of the house. This is your credit card number. This is your phone number. This is your social I mean, I'm not even kidding. He'll get those kinds of details. In fact, he goes and he's prophesying over another young man. His name is Oscar. He's been here. He's played drums with us for us a few times. I think he's coming for our youth conference. He's prophesying over Oscar, and then he's like, who's your pastor? And before he answers, he says, Jacob. And I'm like, okay, great. He comes over and he gets Mariah, who's here, up in the media, and he's like, he doesn't know her name. He looks at her and he says, I see a mountain Moriah.
[00:08:44] For those who don't know, Moriah is a mountain in scripture is what we name. It's where the Lord provided the ram for Abraham. It's where they built the temple. I mean, everything has happened from there on Mount Moriah. And so she is she's named after a mountain. Hallelujah. He looked at her said mountain moriah. Gives her a prophetic word, gives Gabriel a prophetic word. And then he turns to my wife and I, and I said, oh, here it comes, he says, you have a savings account?
[00:09:15] And I'm like, no, we do not.
[00:09:19] No, I didn't do that.
[00:09:21] And he's like, I think he even said, it's a vacation account. You're planning a trip.
[00:09:26] And I said, okay, how much do you want? No, but really, truly, we took an envelope right then and there, and we wrote out, I think it was one $800 or something like that, and we wrote out every dollar of that, and we gave it this is in October, end of October. We were supposed to go on a trip around Christmas, just before Christmas. And so we did. We gave everything.
[00:09:50] Why?
[00:09:52] Because my plans have been submitted to the Lord. I have a financial plan. But if the Lord steps in and says, do this yes, sir.
[00:10:02] Yes, sir. Why? Because he's my lord. He's my God. So my wife and I, we gave hallelujah. And I'm telling you guys, the most incredible thing began happening. Random blessings through random sources. We ended up being able to take our vacation. I mean, it was the best vacation I think we've ever had. We went to Washington, we went skiing. We stayed in a a we were able to give gifts to our family. I mean, it was amazing.
[00:10:33] We brought in probably triple the amount that we gave in that moment. Why? Because we were obedient.
[00:10:40] We were obedient. Where so many people miss it is they just presume god, I've got this plan. And they don't for one moment consider what the Lord might speak to them about that plan. We have to be so sensitive. So sensitive, lord, yes, I have a plan. Yeah, I'm saving up for college. Yes, I'm going to do this vacation fund I'm going to set aside. I'm going to do the Dave Ramsey thing and have a what do they call that, the emergency fund. Do that stuff. But if the Lord speaks to you, you obey him.
[00:11:16] So we continue on. And the Bible says, what is your life? It is a vapor. Everybody say vapor.
[00:11:25] Now that's you say, what is a vapor? It's not the thing that the kids are using to smoke today. That's not what it's talking about. But it's a similar kind of idea. Vapor is the idea. It's like when you're breathing out in the cold and you see that mist come out of your mouth, right? Or it's like the idea of having a cup of coffee and you see the I'm ready for coffee. You see the steam coming off.
[00:11:51] It's there for a moment, but in an instant, in a second, it's gone. And God is looking at our lives and saying, your life is a vapor. Your life is a vapor. And here's the point in all of that. God knows what lays ahead of you. You don't have a clue.
[00:12:09] I did not know when I got called into ministry 20 years ago that Kona was anywhere on God's radar I had no idea.
[00:12:19] But as I look at how God has directed our lives over these years, it's been absolutely mind boggling. There's a time Dr. Morocco shares. I've been working through his books, getting them all on audiobooks and all that, and he shares a story about how God spoke to him. Buy every property that you can, because there's coming a time where you won't be able to buy every property. So when we started a church, the very first thing that he would do is look for property. He's not renting a school, not renting a movie theater. No, let's find something to buy. And you look a couple things have happened. Real estate, especially in Hawaii, has gone so high that it's a miracle for every building we own today. This is one of those miracles.
[00:13:08] Other places what is amazing is when you look at these last three years, you realize what happened in Hawaii throughout this whole COVID season, especially on Oahu. Do you know that most 90% of churches that are meeting on Oahu rent their facilities? And when all that COVID lockdown stuff happened, every church that was meeting in a school, in a theater, in a civic center, every one of them had to stop. Even if they wanted to continue, they were not allowed to continue to rent that school. But guess who was able to stay open? King's cathedral and chapels. Why? Because God spoke to the man of God years ago. Buy property, don't rent. I know it's easier. Buy properties. And we were one of these praise God. Our church exploded. We were still everybody's still wearing masks and all of this, but we were having hands on prayer meetings. We were doing fire tunnels. Praise God. You say, what's a fire tunnel? That's where everybody lays hands on everybody. It's wonderful. And we tried to do this like social we didn't do social distancing, because you got 150 people that are all crammed into this little room. It's just not possible. So we said, you know what? We're going to sit by families. We'll sit by families. This is my sister in the Lord, and my brother in the Lord and my brother and then my sister.
[00:14:36] We just couldn't do it, you understand? And I praise God. He brought us Jonathan. Is Jonathan in the room today? He's probably on security duty. But Jonathan jonathan's got this gift. He's gracious, but he's authoritative. And so we'd have police officers. This happened on Easter Sunday, 2020. We were holding service, and no, 2021. I think it was Easter Sunday, jampacked in here, multiple services. And we had the police officer show. The stage was right here, and I'm looking out the window here, and I see all the police officers show up. And Jonathan goes out there and they say, can we come inside? And Jonathan says, no, officer, I'm sorry, we're in the middle of our service. He's like, okay, are you guys social? Distancing. And are you seated by families? I said, we are seated by families. Hallelujah. Brother in the Lord, sister in the Lord.
[00:15:34] Thankfully, we weren't in the middle of an altar call all crammed down here together.
[00:15:39] But then Jonathan says, listen, officer, I appreciate what you're trying to do. I know you're doing your job, but this is private property, and so I'm going to have to ask you to leave. And the officers did. Now, why did he have the right to do that? Because we own this property. We own this property. If Dr. Morocco had not listened to the word of the Lord years ago, friend, this church would have been shut down with every other church on the island. But because he heard the word of the Lord, there was a place in the midst of a dark season where people could come and receive hope and receive prayer, and we did not forsake the assembling of ourselves. Together we came together and we heard the word of God. Together, we grew together. And look at what the Lord has done over the last few years. Hallelujah. Somebody better thank Jesus for what he's done.
[00:16:33] This is what it is. Now, I want to give you a couple ideas.
[00:16:40] This actually comes out of a book that I wrote called God's Will. And really the heart of this, my wife and I received a prophetic word when we were first launching into ministry. And the prophetic word was this you will never miss the will of God. That's a good word. The word continued. It says, you will never miss the will of God. You will never miss a door that the Lord opens to you. The only question will be, do you have the guts to step through it?
[00:17:12] I have stood on that word, and I'm telling you, friend, for the last 1819 years, I truly, honestly don't feel like my wife and I have ever been out of the will of God. We've been right in the center. We know when doors are opening. We know when doors are shutting. We know when seasons are changing, when God is moving. We know I walk with confidence that I'm in the center of God's will. And so that's why I wrote that book, because it's one especially in spirit filled circles. I don't know why it is we get so I don't know what God wants me to do. I don't know where he wants me to go. I need help. I need a word from the Lord. It's like you're just waiting to slip on a banana, fall on a map. And now I know where I'm supposed to go, friend. I've never fallen on a map. I've never moved because an angel visited me. I've had angels visit me before, never telling me what the will of God was. So how do I know? How have I done the things well? Do you want to know? Do you want to know, I'm going to help you. Okay? So God in a few places says, this is my will. This is the will of the Lord, and I'm going to give you a number of those today. First Timothy two three. I'm going to go quickly for the sake of time because I still want to pray for people. One. Timothy. Two. Three. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Number one, God wills that I be saved. Everybody say saved.
[00:18:44] You can know with all confidence and assurance god wants you to be saved. He wants your life surrendered to him. If you're questioning God, what is your will for my life? Do I take this job or that job? Should I marry this girl or not? Should I move to this location or not? If you're wondering what is God's will, the first thing you need to check, am I saved? Am I right with Jesus today? Because if you're not surrendered to him as Lord friend, you're going to miss it everywhere else.
[00:19:18] You can receive all the prophetic words in the world, but if you're not saved, if your life is not surrendered to the Lord, those prophetic words will mean nothing. I'm just telling you God wills that you be saved. Now the second one, I'm going to give these to you quickly. They're all pretty simple. Ephesians 517 says this. This is the new American Standard Bible. It says, So do not be foolish. What's another word for foolish that starts with an S?
[00:19:51] Stupid.
[00:19:52] Don't be stupid. Now, parents, if you don't let your kids say stupid, I'm sorry, you can repent to them on my behalf, but it is but understand what the will of the Lord is. In other words, do you realize that the Bible says, it is stupid to not know what God's will is? If you're walking around confusing, it's like, I don't know what God wants me to do. I don't know where I'm supposed to go, friend, that's stupid. You say that's harsh, Pastor Jacob. That's the Bible. Don't be foolish. Know what the will of the Lord is. And he gives us a hint in how we can know that. Verse 18, it says, do not get drunk with wine. That is dissipation. That's empty, vain living, prodigal living, but be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the spirit.
[00:20:42] Turn to your neighbor and say, Shundai.
[00:20:46] Be filled with the spirit.
[00:20:51] Friend, if you're getting drunk, smoking pockalolo and you wonder, why am I not hearing from the Lord, don't be filled with junk.
[00:21:03] Don't be filled with junk.
[00:21:05] There's a reason you can go by. In fact, I remember my wife even pointing out we were driving down Molokai where she grew up, and there's a liquor store on the island that says Wine and spirits. And she's like, I remember even as a young girl wondering about that sign. Wine and spirits. Now, I know there's probably some fancy wine drinking term for why they call it spirits, but I could tell you the pentecostal reason they call it spirits, friend. Now, you don't understand what you open to influence you, and you start messing around with that world.
[00:21:43] Be careful.
[00:21:45] Be careful. Be filled with the spirit. Be filled with the spirit. Now, I know my wife and I, people always ask me, well, what do you think about drinking my I drink wine for my blood pressure, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
[00:22:04] Call it a sin or not, we've set a standard in our home. We're not doing that. We're just not doing that. My history of addiction, we're not opening that door. I don't want one area where the enemy could come in and for half a second begin to influence me. Now, if you feel like you've got control to do that, I don't even want to say go for it.
[00:22:29] I'm not.
[00:22:32] Don't be foolish.
[00:22:35] Be filled. You want to know what an alternative is? Be filled with the spirit.
[00:22:41] Hey, Pastor, I like the way it helps me relax. You know what helps me relax?
[00:22:47] Shay tay alabasa kotara manbasi. You know what brings me peace? You know what helps me sleep at night? I read my Bible, I lay down, I pray in the Holy Ghost, friend, I don't like the minute that you begin I'm getting too fired up about this. Now, the moment that you begin to ask, how close can I get to the line and still be saved, how much is too much? The minute you begin asking that, your heart is already in a horrible place. You should be asking questions like, god, I wonder how close I could get to you before I die of glory overdose. That's what I want to know. I want to know how close to Jesus do I need to be before my shadow starts healing people? That's what I want to know. I'm not asking how much perversion is lust. When do I cross over the line to grieve the heart? You're asking the wrong question. Is it okay if I make out with my boyfriend asking the wrong questions. How much wine until I'm drunk? You're asking the wrong question. How close?
[00:23:54] How close can I get to like, how much glory was John seeing when he fell on the ground as though he were dead?
[00:24:03] That's where I want to be.
[00:24:06] So I pray in the spirit. I pray a lot. My wife reminded me. She's like there's times that I wake her up.
[00:24:15] Imagine you're sleeping at night.
[00:24:18] Peace is in the house. It's three in the morning.
[00:24:22] Shout tara dabasi kiyalamandasa. I've woken my wife up like that on more than one occasion. In fact, I was having a healing meeting in my dreams and I wake up the whole house. You're healed. You're healed. In Jesus name. You're healed. You're well, get up and walk.
[00:24:40] And then I usually wake up and realize I'm sitting up in bed. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake everybody up. And I go back to sleep. This is what friends if you're single and you're praying about marrying someone, going into ministry, I'm just telling you, if they're full of the Spirit of God, that'll be one of the that's not a downside. That's wonderful. Why? I'm full of the spirit. You watch Pastor Jacob walking around. You watch me riding down the road on my motorcycle. Chances are you're going to see me. It looks like I'm talking to myself. What am I doing? I'm praying in the Holy Ghost. I do it all the time. I do it all the time. One of the reasons I don't struggle with the will of God is I want to be continually saturated by the Spirit of God. In every step of the way, he's leading me and directing me. And that's where you need to live. You need to be saved. You need to be filled with the Spirit. Everybody say spirit filled.
[00:25:35] Now, next is number three. First thessalonians four three. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. Everyone say sanctification.
[00:25:47] That means that you're consecrated, that you're purified, you abstain. It says from sexual immorality. Hallelujah. Everybody say amen. We're going to be sanctified. That means you look more like Jesus today than you did a month ago. A year ago. I look more like Jesus today than I did when I first got saved. And that's going to be your story, too. That's your test. You look more like Jesus. That's what it is to be sanctified. He's continually working in you. The Bible says in Galatians 220 that you are to crucify your flesh. The Bible says in Romans twelve one, to present yourself as a living sacrifice. The Bible says in One Corinthians 927, discipline your body, make it your slave. Romans 611 says to be dead to self and alive to Christ Jesus. One corinthians 1531 says I die daily. And so here's the point. You either kill your flesh or it will kill you. It's very simple. You either kill your flesh or it will kill you. We need to be sanctified.
[00:27:00] I want you to understand how this is working. Hey, God, I want to know what your will is for my life and you begin to work through this list. Is my life surrendered? Is Jesus my Lord? Is he my savior? Am I saved? Am I filled with the spirit? Am I being led and controlled by the Spirit? Or do I have other influences leading me around? Am I being sanctified? Am I doing my best to respond to conviction when the Lord speaks to me? Don't do that. Don't go there. Don't say that. Are you responding? Are you being sanctified? Here's number four. Are you still with me?
[00:27:32] Some of you still offended about the wine thing. Get over it. One peter 213. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether the king as supreme, or to governors who are sent for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of those who do good. This is the will of God, that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. So what's the will of God? He wills that we be submissive.
[00:28:01] Everybody say submit.
[00:28:04] I know that's not a good word in the Christian world today. That's like a swear word. He wills that I be submissive, that you submit to the authorities that God has put over you, friend. I have sought out the blessing of my spiritual coverings in every transition that I've ever made.
[00:28:28] I sought the blessing of my pastors and my parents before I married that woman of God. Even though the Lord had spoken to me about marrying that woman of God. I sought the blessing of Steve Hill before I took that first church. And he told me, you go take that church and this is what you're going to do. I sought his blessing when God was speaking to us to start a traveling ministry. I never forget telling Leah, we're sitting in the driveway. God had spoken to us. I'd had an encounter from the Lord. He had given us the strategy. He built the relationships. But I needed the blessing of my pastor. And I told Leah, if our pastor says no, we're not doing it.
[00:29:08] You say pastor, that's crazy. God had already spoken to you. He'd already given you the plan.
[00:29:14] Do you think that God, who is speaking to me, can't deal with the leader that he's put me under?
[00:29:22] This is where people get messed up. I've watched people get in so much trouble because they just go do their own thing, because they had an idea and they did not seek the blessing of their pastor.
[00:29:34] God will deal with them. Let me give you an example.
[00:29:37] Dr. Morocco comes to the staff and he says, I have a desire to start churches on the Big Island.
[00:29:45] And then he asks if there's anybody who'd be willing to go and check out the land and check out buildings and all of this. And Lee and I, we're like, yeah, we'll go. So we go. We go to Hilo. We come here to kona. I remember we found some things that looked good. In fact, I think we identified, even on that trip, this building. And we stayed with Minister Adele. And I'm standing on her front porch, and I called Dr. Morocco, and he says, did you find any buildings? What do you feel like? And I said, Dr. Morocco, I feel like it's going to be Kona before it's Hilo. And I feel like Leah and I are supposed to come and be the pastors. You know what he said? No.
[00:30:24] I can't lose you on Maui. I need you here. And. That was the end of the conversation.
[00:30:30] God had already begun to speak to me. He'd already showed us where to go. We were already establishing a team. But my pastor said no.
[00:30:40] So you know what I say?
[00:30:42] Yes, sir.
[00:30:44] It wasn't a week later, he calls me again into his office. He says. Pastor Jacob, I had a dream.
[00:30:54] I saw you starting churches all over the Big Island. Is it still in your heart to go? I said, yes, sir, it is. Then I think we need to make steps to get you over there as soon as possible. And that's what happened. God dealt with my leader. God spoke to my leader.
[00:31:13] I'm remaining submitted. Listen, I've never done anything without this woman of God's agreement. I've had people come to me.
[00:31:23] We've got people in this church. Let me just tell you, some of you think, well, my husband isn't saved. My wife isn't saved. I think my pastor's backslid, and I don't know what the situation is, but again, do you think when Jesus said to submit to authorities that he was only talking about if they're perfect, if they got all their stuff figured out? No. He knew you'd be dealing with blockheads. He knew that you'd have an unsaved heathen of a boss that he's asking you to submit to and honor. He knew that he wasn't going to be asking wives who have jerk husbands. He knew what he was asking.
[00:32:01] Had a lady come to me. She's saved. She's a part of this church. She's a giver in this house. And her husband began to push back. Her husband's not saved. Husband doesn't love the Lord. And he started complaining to her about her giving.
[00:32:14] And so she comes to me, Pastor, what do I do? And I said, Listen, you're doing the right thing by tithing, but you need to pray that your husband will be in agreement with what you're doing. But he's not saved. Well, let's pray.
[00:32:27] That week, her boss comes to her and gives her a bonus that she was supposed to have received years ago. Not only did she receive a bonus, but she received a huge pay raise compensating for all the COVID times. She got, like, a three year raise all in one moment. And within a week, her husband came to her and says, you know what? Maybe this giving thing is actually doing something, and gave her full liberty to continue to be a tither.
[00:32:55] God will deal with some of you like the husband I'm just going to tell my wife to do, and she has to submit and listen. That's a dumb idea, friend.
[00:33:04] That's a dumb idea.
[00:33:07] Bring up that first Peter verse. Can you bring it?
[00:33:10] Husbands elbow your husband.
[00:33:14] Likewise, dwell with them with understanding. Talking about your wife giving honor to your wife. Everybody say, honor your wife.
[00:33:22] As to the weaker vessel, praise God. I help my wife lift things and as being heirs together in the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered? Do you realize if you mistreat your wife, you hinder God's ability to answer prayers? You literally shut the heavens over your you can be praying, god, what's your will? God, what's your will? God's, what's your will? And God's saying, dummy, I already told your wife what to do here, but you're dishonest. I don't know if God calls you dummy. Maybe he just does that to me, but he will. He'll speak to her. And there have been times where God has dealt with me, he's dealt with leaders, he's given me vision, all of this kind of thing, and she's not yet on board. So I'm not moving.
[00:34:08] I'm telling you, God, I've not yet missed the will of God. We've truly gone from glory to glory to glory. And it's been a wonderful thing. This works if you'll walk it out. It works if you'll walk it out and you say, my spouse isn't on board, or my boss isn't, whatever, friend, pray the same god who's laying out these principles, he'll work with your spouse.
[00:34:35] He'll work with those authorities. All right, I need to continue. I'm getting too excited. Can you tell? I get fired up about this stuff. I just love it. God is so good. So God wills that we be saved. Everybody say saved. Wills that we be spirit filled. Say spirit filled. Wills that we be sanctified. Say sanctified.
[00:34:56] He wills that we be submissive. Say submissive. And here's the last one first, Peter 317. It is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing it's the will of God. Here's the last one. Number five. You must be willing to suffer.
[00:35:18] Willing to suffer. And what that sounds like is a prayer that sounds something like this.
[00:35:26] God, I will go anywhere, and I will do anything you ask me to do, even if it's hard.
[00:35:36] Even if it's hard.
[00:35:39] Can I just tell you there's a couple lies I want to dispel.
[00:35:46] Lie number one god will never ask you to do anything that's hard. God will never ask you to do anything that's bigger than yourself. God will never ask you to do anything that's too big.
[00:35:58] Lie.
[00:36:01] Lie.
[00:36:04] God will only ask you to do things that are bigger than you. You want to know why? If you only do things that you're able to do that you got money to do, that you got relationships to do, that you got the education to do, then guess who gets all the glory when it's done? You do. Praise be to you.
[00:36:22] But if you do things that are impossible, I don't have the money. I don't have the experience, I don't have the relationships. I don't got nothing. I don't have the anointing for this, then guess what? When the Lord fulfills the vision, he gets all the glory. He gets all the glory so you can't be freaked out. Here's another lie. And I know I'm going to lose some of you on this one, but I'm okay with it. I lost you earlier in the service already. I know.
[00:36:51] If it's God's will, you'll feel a peace.
[00:36:56] Lie.
[00:36:59] Lie.
[00:37:01] What in the world are you talking about? Past. This was a pivotal moment for me. I was minister. Would you just come and get on the piano?
[00:37:12] I was 21 years old when I was asked to pastor. Our first church.
[00:37:16] Church had split sideways, ugly. So much division in that city. And I was asked to come in. They had broke off of their denomination. So I'm 21 years old. They asked me to write the Constitution and bylaws they asked me to write their statement of faith and to take over this broken congregation as their senior pastor. And I was terrified. I was terrified. That's scary, friend, to do something like that. I don't know if anybody who's 21 in the house today. You guys all right?
[00:37:50] Senior pastor, do you want to go write constitution by law, statement of faith, all this stuff? That's what they asked me to do.
[00:37:57] And I remember sitting down with Steve Hill and said, Pastor Steve, I feel like this might be God's door that he's opening to us in ministry. I just graduated Bible school. I feel like this might be the door, but I don't feel a peace about it. And he looked at me like he wanted to punch me. I'm just telling you, this guy was intense. He's like peace.
[00:38:21] What are you talking about? Peace?
[00:38:25] He said, do you think that a soldier standing on the edge of a battlefield knowing that his commanding officer has said, go fight that battle. Take that land? Do you think they feel peace?
[00:38:41] No.
[00:38:43] But he said, if the Lord has called you to do it, you say, yes, sir. And you walk with confidence, knowing this is what God has asked me to do. Friend.
[00:38:54] I know there's strongholds, there's demons, there's people, there's challenges, there's financial burdens. All of these things come with every new assignment. And it was a lot, and it was scary. But I walked into that thing knowing I'm following my marching orders. I'm submitted to God, and I will do what he asked me to do.
[00:39:21] It freaked me out. When Dr. Morocco came to me, he hand me a stack of papers about this big he called me into his office on the day that he was calling the bank that financed this building and this property. He wanted me to be a part of that process.
[00:39:36] $6 million.
[00:39:38] And he hands me all the documents after we'd finished signing. He says, $6 million. Pastor Jacob, read every page of this. I want you to know what's in it. Welcome to the big leagues.
[00:39:50] And I'm like, it scared me. Freaked me out.
[00:39:56] But I'm not being led around by peace, by what I feel? No. I receive marching orders. I receive the word of the Lord, and it freaks me out every time, every step that I've taken. It's not been easy. There's been sacrifice three times. My wife and I have sold everything that we have left, people we know because God asked us to do something.
[00:40:25] God, I'm willing to do anything that you ask me to do.
[00:40:29] Anything that you ask me to do.
[00:40:33] You know what I told Leah on our first date?
[00:40:37] I said, Listen, I'm only going to date you with the intention of marrying you if you're not in for that. I'm not just trying to have a good time, but you need to be ready to give birth to our children on a dirt floor in a mud hut in Africa if that's what God asked us to do. She's like, okay.
[00:41:02] And she was in for it.
[00:41:05] Willing to suffer, willing to do whatever. That's how I knew. First date. Valentine's Day. That's how I knew. I can go with this girl.
[00:41:16] We can run together because she's willing to do anything.
[00:41:21] My are you saved?
[00:41:28] Are you filled with the spirit of God?
[00:41:31] Are you sanctified? Are you being responsive when he brings conviction in your life? Are you properly submitted to the authorities that God has placed over you?
[00:41:42] Are you willing to suffer, to do anything that he would ask you to do?
[00:41:47] If you go through that list, god's will is very easy to discover. I'm going to set some of you free right now. You say, okay, Pastor, I'm all of those things. Maybe, you know, I need to work on something over here.
[00:42:01] But if you get those things in order, how do I know the will of God? What do I do now?
[00:42:07] You do whatever you want.
[00:42:12] For real. You do whatever you want. Because if you live that way, god puts his desires on the inside of your heart. He's leading you. He's directing you every step of the way. You're going to be right in the center of what he wants you to do. You want to know why? You want to know why I was drawn to Leah? Why I felt like she was my wife? Because I thought she was hot.
[00:42:37] I'm not kidding. I didn't see an angel floating over her. I didn't have a visitation from God. That's your wife? No.
[00:42:45] I was attracted to her physically, and there was a desire in me to be with her. And as I began to pursue her, I was living right with the Lord. We stayed in purity. Hallelujah. And as we did this, the Lord began to confirm over and over and over and over again, this is the one for you. You want to know why I moved to Kona? We were sitting out there watching Emil play volleyball. We didn't even know him yet. We're sitting here, and I wanted to live in Kona. I'm like, I like this town. I like this people. God, would you ever maybe let us live in a place like this?
[00:43:23] And God opened the door, and he began to speak into a desire. God speaks through desire.
[00:43:31] As you go through that list and you live in that surrendered place, what do you want to do?
[00:43:40] What's in your heart to do that's God's will want you to stand?
[00:43:50] Oh, my.
[00:43:52] Now, I'm going to pray real simple today.
[00:44:00] I don't have a lot of time, and so I can't pray for everybody. We already prayed for everybody here once today, so hallelujah. But here's what I do want to do. If you're here today and you're like, you're in a valley of decision, I don't know if I'm to go this way or that way. I do want to pray for you, that God would give you great clarity in that. If that's you if you're in a valley of decision, it might be a business decision, it might be school. I don't know. You fill in the blank. If you're in the valley of decision and I desire to know God's will, I want you to come down here right now and I'm going to pray for you, okay? Hallelujah. Just come and I'm going to pray the same grace, the same grace that my wife and I have walked in now for almost 20 years will be over your life as well. He's going to speak to you. He's going to put a desire there's going to be something I'm telling you, if it's not there already. And you're going to have to check everybody within the sound of my voice. You're going to have to run yourself through that list that I gave you today. Are you saved? Are you filled with the spirit? Are you sanctified?
[00:45:05] Are you submitted where God has asked you to be, and are you willing to suffer? God? It's not a matter of I want to do something easy versus something that's hard. No, I'll do anything.
[00:45:17] I'm going to pray for you. And here's what's going to happen. Things that are not God's desire for you are just going to fall away. It's not going to be so resounding in your heart anymore. And all of a sudden, the desire that God has over your life, it's going to burn in you to such a degree that man I cannot rest unless I do this.
[00:45:43] Hallelujah.
[00:45:47] Hallelujah.
[00:45:50] Lord, I thank you for every individual who stepped down here right now. Leah, would you help me pray? This grace is upon you as well.
[00:46:02] Lord, I pray that even as I lay my hands on these, I believe, O Lord, that the same grace that my wife and I have walked in is going to be upon each and every one of these. I don't know the decisions that lay before them, but I thank You, Lord, that the same grace my wife and I have walked in now for almost 20 years is coming upon them.
[00:46:28] You will never miss the will of God.
[00:46:34] You will never miss a door that the Lord opens to you.
[00:46:39] The only question is, if you have the courage, do you have the guts to step through those doors? And I declare, by the authority of God and by his word, you will have the courage, you will have the anointing. You will step through and fulfill all that the Lord has asked you to do. You will be in the center of what he asks you to do. In the name of Jesus. You will be in the center of his will. In the mighty name of Jesus. Confusion ceases in Jesus name. It ends today, no more. In the name of Jesus, you will know and you will walk in the fullness of what the Lord has asked of you. So, Lord, I pray for your grace to come now your grace to come now upon your sons and daughters in the mighty name of Jesus. Now, everybody across this place, I want you to lift your hands as a sign of surrender.
[00:47:44] Lord, I'm praying.
[00:47:46] These who are still out here, they may not be in the valley of decision, but I declare the same word over every person, every person within the sound of my voice. You will never miss the will of God. You will know when he's opening doors to you and you will have the courage to step through them. In the name of Jesus. Lord, I pray. If we are not saved, if we are not submitted, if we are not being sanctified, if we are not filled with the Spirit, if we're not willing to suffer. Lord, speak to us about areas in our life that you need to correct that. You need to bring us in alignment so that Lord, we can do all that you have called us to do. O Lord, I bless every man, woman and child within the sound of my voice. You will do and you will fulfill every assignment that the Lord has for you. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen and amen. Come on. Praise God as he's doing it. Praise God like he's doing it. Hallelujah.
