Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] You ready to get into the Word this morning?
[00:00:04] God's presence is wonderful. I do have the notes in the Bible app, if you like to use that. The you version. I think they've got a QR code that'll come up here and you can scan that. You can access the notes. I've got more than I'll be able to cover, but I think it'll bless you there. Would you stand as we honor the reading of God's word? And I want you to turn with me to the book of Habakkuk.
[00:00:32] Habakkuk?
[00:00:35] It's towards the end of the Old Testament, Habakkuk Chapter 2. We began a series, I believe, three weeks ago. Pastor began talking about vision. Everybody say vision.
[00:00:48] And we are coming out of a very famous passage regarding vision out of Habakkuk Chapter two. I think it'll come up here on the screen and I'll read it and we can follow along together. Here it is. I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart. I will watch to see what he will say to me. I will watch to see what he will say. How do you see what somebody says? Well, we'll talk about that and what I will answer when I'm corrected. The Lord answered and he said, write the vision.
[00:01:23] Make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it?
[00:01:29] For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak. It will not lie, though it tarries.
[00:01:39] Wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Tarry is a like a King James word for wait.
[00:01:48] Though it waits, wait, it will not wait.
[00:01:52] And if that's not clear, we'll make it clear in just a moment. But this is God's word and we believe it to be true. You may be seated.
[00:02:05] This is a very famous passage when it comes to presenting vision, casting vision, walking out vision.
[00:02:12] And that phrase always kind of confused me. Though it tarry, it will not tarry.
[00:02:19] Though it waits, though it seems to delay, it will not delay. It will come right on time.
[00:02:25] And I got a profound revelation listening to a great theologian by the name of Gandalf the Grey.
[00:02:33] He's a Lord of the Rings character for those who may not know. And he said, a wizard, He's a wizard. A wizard is never late, nor is he early.
[00:02:42] He arrives precisely when he means to.
[00:02:46] And I feel like that's a good picture of how the Lord operates. God's not early, nor is he late. We may feel like he's delaying, but God is right. On time when he delivers a vision. Amen.
[00:02:59] That was pretty weak. All right. Well, amen. The Bible, not Gandalf. That's fine. I'm not offended.
[00:03:04] We're growing in our understanding that God has called us.
[00:03:09] And part of this call. He shows us things, he calls us, he reveals things to us, but ultimately he sends us. Everybody say sends.
[00:03:19] Pastor talked about the word Apostillo.
[00:03:22] We've talked about how the church is sent. In fact, one of the things that Jesus, you know, he spends years with these guys. He's called them unto himself. He's depositing himself in his disciples. And then at the end, he sends them, he releases them. But one of the things that you should know from the forefront of this message is that when God sends us, he goes with us.
[00:03:47] It's the very thing that he tells them, I'm sending you. Go preach, baptize, make disciples, heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead.
[00:03:58] And I'm going with you.
[00:04:01] That's why we call it the Great co Mission. We're going together. It's not the Great Mission. It's not just a life assignment or merely a life vision. Now go and do it. No, he's going with us.
[00:04:14] Someone say, thank you, Jesus.
[00:04:17] So part of the challenge that we have in all of this is actually becoming aware of what he has called us to.
[00:04:27] What is the vision that you have for us, Lord, where are you sending me?
[00:04:32] And how do I keep that vision in front of me? Even when challenges come and trials hit me and the enemy tries to distract me or confuse me, how do we keep this? But here's an important principle. We must understand.
[00:04:49] What you see with your faith, you will see with your eyes.
[00:04:55] If we can receive a vision, if we can behold, like we've been talking about, if we can see that which the Lord has called us to, then walk it out by faith, then you will see it with your physical eyes. It will come to pass.
[00:05:10] So I want to give you three points that you're going to see applied various times throughout this message, all coming out of Habakkuk. We must, first of all, see the vision. Everyone say, see, I must see. The vision says, clear vision of God. I must see him. I must know Him. I must discern what he is saying, that I might see what he says. Secondly, we must write the vision, say, right, we're going to write the vision. This means he told Habakkuk, make it plain, put it on tablets so people can read it and they can run. This is why we put up a A puzzle piece board. This is why we've got, you know, core values up around this entire campus. We print it on Bibles. We want people to see the vision that we can run with it.
[00:05:58] And then, well, there's the third one right there. We're going to run with the vision. Everybody say run.
[00:06:05] So we're going to see, we're going to write, and then thirdly, we're going to run. We must continue to see. By the way, keeping the vision is essential in all of this.
[00:06:15] You can receive the vision, but part of writing it, I'm going to come up with a plan. I'm going to have a strategy. I'm going to identify some goals in my life that's keeping the vision in front of you. But as I go, as I'm running, as I'm under the anointing, the unction of the Lord, stepping into what I know, he's called me, God, you're sending me. And I'm going to keep that vision front and center until I fulfill the assignment you've given me.
[00:06:42] Is this making sense?
[00:06:44] You will have what you believe. For so remember, remember the 12 spies in numbers 13.
[00:06:53] There were 12 that were sent into the land that the Lord said, I'm giving you. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. I will dispossess your enemies. I'm going to give you this. It's an inheritance for generations.
[00:07:05] And so 12 go in to check out the land.
[00:07:09] 10 come back with the report.
[00:07:12] This land is going to devour us. This land is going to eat us alive.
[00:07:19] Two come back with the report. We are well able. God is going to deliver this into our hands. In fact, one of the things I find fascinating, they actually say it truly is a land flowing with milk and honey. And it talks about how they brought back grapes that they had to carry on poles.
[00:07:37] Not only were there giants, but there was such an abundance of God's blessing. I mean, can you imagine grapes that would take multiple people to carry back?
[00:07:47] Some people saw the abundance. Some people saw the vision that God had promised. Some of them saw, God is well able. Others declared, no, that land is going to devour us.
[00:07:58] And do you know, three chapters later, hundreds literally had the ground open up underneath them. They fell into the earth. They were literally devoured by the earth.
[00:08:12] What they believed for, they received.
[00:08:16] So don't believe for things you don't want.
[00:08:20] But we do this, we get in this negative mindset. It's like what Pastor Jim was talking about in the offering a moment ago.
[00:08:26] I'm never going to have enough money. Gas prices are out of control. This economy, I could never make it. If that's what you believe for that is what you will rece.
[00:08:35] But if you change your declaration and begin. Thank you. Thank God I have a car. Thank God I have a job that I can put this expensive premium gas in my wonderful car. Thank God I have a job to drive to. Thank God and you will have what you believe for.
[00:08:52] So don't believe for things you don't want.
[00:08:55] Come on, this is some good faith preaching right here.
[00:08:59] This applies to every person within the sound of my voice. You'll understand that course Trinity. We as a church have a vision. Things like, can you imagine? Things like baptize Cedar Hill, baptize Dallas. That's a vision. The idea of jubilee. We're going to be debt free. That's a vision. Cancer free zone. That's a vision. I see it. We're going to walk it out. We're going to receive that. Amen. I mean, I'm telling you, there's going to be a time where it's more unusual for somebody to leave with cancer than it is for somebody like, I don't understand. Everybody gets healed of cancer.
[00:09:34] That's going to become regular foster and adopt ministry. Could you imagine if there were no foster kids available in Dallas county or in Dallas or in the state of Texas because of what God is doing through the redeemed people of God, bringing them into saved, spirit filled homes, discipling him in the house. There's no more foster kids.
[00:09:53] You're going to have to get on a waiting list for a foster kid to become available. That's a reality. That could happen.
[00:10:00] We've heard of churches that adopt that type of vision and entire counties don't have foster kids.
[00:10:05] What a vision.
[00:10:08] Maybe a part of a ministry, you know, in prayer. Right now we're contending we're going to have 318 armed and trained prayer warriors. We believe for this. That's a vision that came out of Genesis 14:14.
[00:10:22] I heard the young adults. We're going to have 30 small groups or the women's, we're going to have this many. That's all vision.
[00:10:29] Everybody say vision.
[00:10:31] We all operate by vision, whether we know it or not. I'm just talking to all these graduates and they may not know how to ride it, make it plain. They may not know how to run after the vision. But you talk to these graduates, every single one of them has a dream for their life. Talking to somebody just before service. I'm about to finish my master's degree and then I'm going back to school and I'm going to get my doctorate.
[00:10:52] That's a vision.
[00:10:54] And he's telling me, this is what I hope to do with that. That's vision. You have young people. I'm going to get on this baseball team. That's vision. You have people. I'm going to marry this girl. That's a vision.
[00:11:05] You understand?
[00:11:06] And so we have these moments where it's like, well, I have this desire, I have this goal, I have something that's in front of me and I'm going to go after it. But one of the things that separates the believer from every other goal setter in the world, the fact that you and I have been invited to see God's vision, that he has a plan and a purpose for you and I. And we can see it and we can know it and we can ride it and we can run after it and we can be sent into that vision under the power of God, knowing that he is with us and well able to fulfill what he has shown us.
[00:11:46] Ephesians chapter two is a great life version. Verse right here we are his workmanship. Verse 10.
[00:11:53] Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
[00:12:02] Another translation takes that word workmanship and it says, you are his masterpiece.
[00:12:09] You realize that's how God saw you before you were ever born, before you ever got born again, before you made a decision to go hard after God or showed up at Trinity Church. God had had plans and purposes for your life. From the very foundation of the earth. He saw you and he said, this one's a masterpiece and I'm going to use them for my glory. They're going to be a blessing and they're going to love and encourage other people. I'm going to use them. Another translation takes workmanship and says you are of God's making.
[00:12:40] Probably my favorite, this goes to the original language. It's the Greek word poema which could be translated poem or work of art.
[00:12:49] You are a work of art.
[00:12:52] You are God's masterpiece. He is writing your story, even right now. And the joy that we have as people of God is that he desires to show us the vision that he's laid out for our lives.
[00:13:06] He's going to do this as a, as a church. He can do this for your business. He can do this for your home and your family name. He can do this for you as an individual, show you things.
[00:13:17] So how do we receive God's vision so we can see it, we can write it, we can run with it.
[00:13:24] How do we receive it? Well, I've got a couple ways for us.
[00:13:28] First of all, we can receive God's vision through the Bible.
[00:13:32] Everybody say the Bible.
[00:13:35] I would encourage you read the Bible.
[00:13:41] It will encourage you. As one of the great pieces of counsel. I was weeks old in the Lord, coming to Bible school, fresh off of drugs and fresh off of the out of the world. And I started Bible school. I figured I'm either going to teen challenge or I'm going to Christ for the nations. And thank God. The first week of school I got, the devil broke off of me.
[00:14:01] So I've stayed the course. Hallelujah.
[00:14:04] But one of the encouragements that was given from day one was read the Bible every day, three chapters a day and five on Sunday. That was Ms. Freda Lindsay. She said, you read three chapters a day and five on Sunday. You'll read the entire Bible in a year.
[00:14:20] And I thought, that's a good vision. I'm gonna receive that. And so from that day, I began reading the Bible every single day. And it has transformed my life.
[00:14:30] See, I'll read things, and I've told you before, I have on my iPhone background, I've got different verses and different promises, things that I'm believing for. Because what will happen is I'll read in the scripture things like, lord, you told the children of Israel that you were going to give them houses they didn't build and vineyards that they didn't labor for. That's businesses we didn't start. And, man, I'd sure like to receive that. You said that you would prosper everything that my hand. That what that their hands touch. But God, you also said that I've been grafted into these very promises. And so when I see something that I like, I get a vision for it. So I make it plain. I put it on my iPhone background. I'll even put specific numbers to it. Lord, I'm believing that you're going to increase my storehouse of. Of resource. So I can be generous on every occasion. But I put a goal to it. This is what I'm believing my income to be. And I want to be a tither. And. And then I want to be a double tither, give 20%. I heard one guy say, I want to be a reverse tither.
[00:15:31] What the heck is a reverse tither? Said I want to give 90% and live on 10%, but I want my household income to be 300,000 so that means I got to be making 3 million.
[00:15:42] That's a vision.
[00:15:44] And this guy's going after it, and he's on his way to doing it.
[00:15:51] This is the kind of thing you can take the word of God. And there's so many promises. I'm going to be a witness. Acts 1:8. I'm going to tell people about Jesus. That's a vision that you can grow into. I'm going to be a godly parent. Hallelujah. Proverbs 22:6. I'll raise godly kids.
[00:16:08] I'm going to be a godly spouse.
[00:16:11] Amen. Ephesians 5:25. These are just some ideas I'm going to Love more deeply. First Peter 4, 8.
[00:16:19] Going to walk in forgiveness.
[00:16:22] Amen.
[00:16:24] Ephesians 4:32. I'm going to live a life of integrity. Galatians 5:16.
[00:16:31] You know, I had another thought in between services.
[00:16:35] I've had this cough that has just been irritating me since, like, January of this year. It just doesn't go away.
[00:16:44] But. But my wife was reading, and she says, you know, the Bible says that if you take the leaves of fig and drink it, it'll heal your body.
[00:16:56] So I ordered fig tea, and I have been drinking that for about two. This is Bible. And I started drinking fig tea, like, literally, I didn't know fig tea was anything but you can get it off Amazon.
[00:17:08] And so I ordered fig tea. I've been drinking this thing, and for the first time in, like, literally months, I don't have this cough driving me crazy. That's a Bible promise. That's a vision right there.
[00:17:21] So you had a cough. We're going to give you bags of. I was actually giving away bags of fig tea last week because, you know, I heard, like, innocence were sick. And here, drink some fig tea. He'll heal you.
[00:17:34] It's a vision number two. You can receive vision through other people.
[00:17:39] You can receive vision through other people. You need to get around people that see more in you than you see in yourself.
[00:17:48] That's how I got saved. I mean, I have people that yell at me about hell. If you keep on doing drugs, you're gonna go to hell.
[00:17:54] That's probably true, but that's not what changed my life.
[00:17:58] What changed my life is when this evangelist shows up and he says, I see the call of God on your life. He starts prophesying beauty, starts calling out the treasure. In my life, you're going to be a lover of people. You're going to be a preacher of the word. You're Going to do exploits for God. And I began to get a vision for God's purpose on my life. And I began, okay, well, what do I do next? And I began to orchestrate my life. It's led me to this very place today.
[00:18:24] People see more in us.
[00:18:28] You see, you can think like, I'm on fire for God until you get around some people that are really on fire for God.
[00:18:35] You ever think you're a good worshiper until you get around, like, a really, like, extravagant worshiper?
[00:18:40] Like, I think I'm doing good in worship until I see Domino here on the front row, and I'm like, I don't. I don't even know how to worship. I don't think.
[00:18:49] I thought I loved the church. I'd preach in churches until I met Pastor Jim for real. I watched the way he cared for people. I'm like, I didn't think that a pastor of a big church could actually love people.
[00:19:02] I thought, that's the reason you went to big churches, because you didn't have to care about people.
[00:19:10] But he broke that.
[00:19:12] I began to realize, oh, wow, you can love a lot of people.
[00:19:20] I thought I was generous until I met my wife, why don't you ever buy me flowers?
[00:19:26] Did you give 10% in that offering?
[00:19:29] She started asking me these questions. I thought I was a giver. I thought I was generous. And I realized that I was stingy. But she helped me. She gave me vision for something greater. I thought I had style until my kids start telling me that I don't got style.
[00:19:44] Can anybody relate to that?
[00:19:47] I thought I had faith until I met these pastors from Singapore. I'm like, you know, I remember meeting these guys from Singapore.
[00:19:54] My wife and I had planted a couple churches by this time, and I'm feeling like, well, man, I'm a. You know, I'm a church planter, and I got a lot of faith. You meet these guys who planted 5,000 churches, and you're like, I don't got faith for nothing.
[00:20:08] I don't even know if I'm saved.
[00:20:13] Meet these pastors from Nigeria.
[00:20:15] You know, there's churches in Nigeria. The biggest church building on the planet just opened in Nigeria a few months ago. 4 million members in that church.
[00:20:24] They're choirs bigger than this entire room.
[00:20:28] You think Trinity's a big church until you get around some people that stretch your vision. You're like, we haven't seen nothing, friend.
[00:20:35] This is a Sunday school class in certain. In certain nations of the world. But you get around people that begin to Stretch your vision and God. You can do bigger things than I ever thought or dreamed. And I'm at. That's vision. You get around people, they can stretch your vision. Thirdly, I need to move more quickly. I'm having too much fun with this. Thirdly, you can receive God's vision through desire.
[00:20:58] Everybody say desire.
[00:21:01] Psalm 37, verse 4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
[00:21:08] This is another great life verse, does not mean that you know, God's just going to give you all the stuff you want.
[00:21:16] But literally, as you love and pursue the Lord, he's going to begin to plant desires on the inside of you. All of a sudden, you find yourself caring about the things he cares about.
[00:21:29] You start finding yourself loving the things that he loves. I never cared about this nation until I encountered the Lord. I never cared about this people group. I never had a burden for the homeless. I never cared about, had a concern about, you know, whatever it may be. And you'll find all of a sudden things come alive in your heart as you begin to love the Lord and delight yourself in the Lord, he begins to give you desires of your heart. So pay attention to your desires.
[00:22:01] Pay attention to your desires. It's a great way to discern the will of God in your life.
[00:22:06] If you have a desire. I need to write a book.
[00:22:10] That desire remains.
[00:22:12] Then write the book. It's probably a God vision.
[00:22:16] You'll have other things. You know, I'm watching Shark Tank at times, and I'm like, man, I could create something like that and be a millionaire. And then as soon as I turn off the TV show, I forget about it. The desire leaves.
[00:22:28] It's not a God vision. That's not God's purpose for me. But it might be for you. Some of you, God's put that entrepreneurial thing in you, but going to start a business, I'm going to create something. I'm going to write this song. And if the desire comes and it remains, I'm telling you, this works in every area. You want to know why I pursued Leah?
[00:22:48] It's because I was attracted to her and I had a desire for her. I didn't have some open vision. I wasn't in a worship service. And a beam of light came and rested upon her. I saw the angel of the Lord coming a light upon her. No, I thought she was hot, which I don't know if people say hot anymore. My kids said no, they say she was the Huz.
[00:23:16] That's your new phrase for the Day, I guess. So that sounds weird. They're like, no, everybody will get it. Okay, so.
[00:23:26] But, you know, this wasn't a perverse thing, you know, but truly, I had a desire to be with her and around her. And then God began to speak and he began to confirm. And you'd have pastors that were blessing it and my leaders that were blessing it. And then she has a dream, and then I have a dream, and God begins to show us, this is a vision for your life.
[00:23:43] So we pursued it.
[00:23:45] Just a couple weeks ago, we celebrated 19 years that we've been married.
[00:23:49] It's been wonderful.
[00:23:53] We're still on our honeymoon. It's great.
[00:23:56] God gives you a vision. Now, the fourth way that God gives vision is so we'll spend the remainder of our time together. Everybody doing good, just helping you. I want you to be able to receive God's vision. I want you to see it so you can make it plain, write it down, make a plan so that you can understand God. This is where you're sending me.
[00:24:15] This is a call you placed on my life. And I'm going to keep this vision. I'm going to go after it the fourth way.
[00:24:22] I think it's especially fitting here.
[00:24:25] You can receive God's vision through the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:30] You can receive God's vision through the Holy Spirit. This has been in my heart for quite a while.
[00:24:36] This pastor and I kind of got our calendar mixed up. We both thought that this was Pentecost Sunday until like two weeks ago, we realized it wasn't. So I've been preparing a great Pentecost message, which is what I'm preaching to you today. So we're going to talk about Holy Spirit and what comes through the Holy Spirit. Acts, chapter two and verse one says, when the day of Pentecost had come, they were with one accord, in one place, Homothumadon. They were burning together, praying together. Same vision, passion, desire. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind. It filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire. Everybody say fire.
[00:25:18] Literally. To be baptized means to engulfed, to be overwhelmed with, to be consumed by. I don't think these guys had cute little flames like candlesticks over their heads. I think. I think they looked at one another here in the upper room, and they saw a flame of fire.
[00:25:34] Fire on each of them there appeared divided tongues as a fire. One sat on each of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and. And they began to speak with other tongues. As the Spirit gave them utterance. And then something happens. There was this mighty rushing wind. There was this uproar that was going on. It obviously was impacting the area because a crowd begins to gather, and the tongues are being heard by the listener in their own language. There were many nations that were there. And I'm hearing the wonders of God. The Gospel of the Lord, my native language.
[00:26:13] It was a wonder.
[00:26:14] And Peter begins to explain exactly what was going on that day. Acts, chapter 2 and verse 17.
[00:26:20] He said, it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, that I will pour out of my spirit. I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh.
[00:26:31] Do you have flesh?
[00:26:33] If you've got skin, that means you're a candidate for the Holy Spirit.
[00:26:37] Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, Are you a son or daughter of somebody? You're a candidate again.
[00:26:45] Your young men shall see visions. Are you a young man or a young woman?
[00:26:51] Hallelujah. Okay. Your old men shall dream dreams. Any old people in the house today? Hallelujah. Oh. Some of you raising your hand, Amen. You're a candidate. Young or old, men or women. And then it says, on my menservants and my maidservants, that means whether you are old, wealthy, or whether you are poor, you are a candidate. And he goes on to describe tribes and tongues and peoples and nations gathered, and they're all candidates to receive the very same power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:27:21] So it doesn't matter. Man, woman, young, old, rich, poor, doesn't matter what color your skin is or what nation you come from. You are a candidate to receive the Holy Spirit.
[00:27:34] And here's what I want you to understand. This is maybe a revelation, but it's coming out of this study with Habakkuk.
[00:27:42] I want you to notice. He says, of these who receive the Spirit, you will see visions.
[00:27:49] You will dream dreams, and you will prophesy.
[00:27:56] Now, as I was watching Pentecost sermons from this last Sunday, all across the nation, everybody's talking about tongues, the initial physical evidence. And I believe in that, believe we all ought to pray in tongues. I don't know how people go through life without praying in tongues. And, you know, you have people ask the question, well, do I need to pray in tongues in order to go to heaven? My response is, dude, you need to pray in tongues in order to go to Walmart.
[00:28:24] I don't know how people go through life without the help, the constant edification, receiving the mind of the Spirit. Romans 8. I. I don't know how people go through life. I don't know how people keep the faith unless they pray with the Spirit. Jude, chapter one.
[00:28:39] Contend for the faith, pray with the Holy Ghost. It's very important to receive that prayer language and to pray with the Spirit.
[00:28:47] However, that's not what Peter said would be the mark of Pentecost.
[00:28:53] That's not what he said would be the sign that would follow.
[00:28:57] He said what would follow is the people of God will begin to see visions and the people of God will begin to dream dreams and the people of God will prophesy, which means you can hear from the Lord and you can declare what he is saying.
[00:29:16] All of these are visionary.
[00:29:19] All of these are dealing with being sent as a witness, commissioned by.
[00:29:26] In fact, you'll notice with Habakkuk, his entire vision begins Habakkuk1 1.
[00:29:32] The burden.
[00:29:34] I want you to pull that up. The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.
[00:29:41] This is verse one of chapter one. The entire book I would submit to you was not a word from the Lord, but it was a vision from God, from the burden, the weighty message which he saw.
[00:29:58] He is seeing what God is saying.
[00:30:02] And as we highlighted last week, some of the most famous passages in the Bible. The glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. What is that? It wasn't a word that he received. It was a vision that he saw.
[00:30:17] And the just shall live by faith he talks about. He receives. He sees from the Lord how to receive and how to present vision. It's the very foundation of what we're preaching about in this series.
[00:30:31] The book of Proverbs shares that without vision, people wander aimlessly. In fact, one translation says they lose moral restraint.
[00:30:43] Ultimately, they perish.
[00:30:46] I believe one of the great ways that we're going to stay on the straight and narrow, personally, individually, get a vision for your life.
[00:30:55] I don't have time to waste and I don't have. I cannot compromise what God has called me to because I know I'm walking out a vision that God has for me. And if I get busy doing what he has called me to do, if I'm running after this, I don't have time to be foolish on the side over here.
[00:31:12] They lose moral restraint when they don't have vision.
[00:31:18] I hope you understand the idea that God can show us and speak to us and send us.
[00:31:24] This isn't just for Trinity Church, not just for Pastor Jacob or Pastor Jim or whoever you're, you know, Reggie Dabs or whoever.
[00:31:36] This is a vision for every single Person who has come into the kingdom of God under this new you've been washed by blood and you've received of his spirit friend.
[00:31:46] You should be expecting God given dreams and visions that he's releasing over your life.
[00:31:53] You should expect it.
[00:32:01] We talk about, in fact, one of the beautiful things that I love about Acts chapter two wasn't just Peter the apostle, wasn't just the 12, the elite.
[00:32:13] They all got a fire that day.
[00:32:16] Fire rested on each of them.
[00:32:20] And before you know it, that fire had spread to over 3,000 people.
[00:32:25] And then that fire spread. By Acts chapter four, the church is over 20,000 strong.
[00:32:30] Then you lose count of how many because they began to multiply. In various locations all around the world. Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, the fire spread. And they all received the fire.
[00:32:43] Not just Habakkuk, not just a prophet, but anybody who's a son, a daughter, man or woman, young or old, tribes, tongues, peoples and nations. Fire came on them all. Now, I need to pause for a second there and say a lot of people like, what in the world is fire?
[00:33:03] What is fire like? Thank you. It is the Holy Spirit. I agree with you. I came into the church and I, you know, I sat under a pastor who's kind of famous for just, you know, he'd pray one word prayers over people, they come down to the altars and he'd go, fire.
[00:33:21] And you'd watch the power of God hit him. And I'm like, wow, that's cool.
[00:33:25] Never seen anything. I grew up in a Baptist church. We didn't even do altar calls. So when I see people wave their hand and say, fire and just bodies go down, I'm like, wow, this is some real power.
[00:33:35] And so I began to ask the question, what is fire? And the answer that I got was, oh, it's the Holy Spirit. Oh, it's Pentecost, Pentecostal fire.
[00:33:47] I'm like, yeah, but what is it like?
[00:33:51] I get that. But what is fire?
[00:33:56] And as you begin to study the scripture, you get glimpses into the throne room like we were singing about a moment ago.
[00:34:03] And you get glimpses of God himself. In fire is one of the most frequent descriptors of God in his nature. You see, God appeared to Abraham as fire in Genesis 15, and he appeared to Moses in a burning bush. That's fire in Exodus chapter three. And he led Israel through the wilderness as a pillar of fire. In Exodus 13, when John saw the resurrected Jesus, he saw eyes that blazed with fire. And the Bible says, that his very countenance was as radiant as the sun, which is also fire.
[00:34:41] The book of Hebrews says that our God is not that he has, not that he resembles, but that he is a consuming fire. Hebrews chapter 12.
[00:34:52] In fact, my son told that said I needed to share this.
[00:34:56] The entire reason that I'm preaching this message.
[00:35:00] I had a dream.
[00:35:02] And in the dream I was in the church. And I knew that I was supposed to preach. I knew that I was supposed to get to a meeting room. But I didn't have my notes. I wasn't prepared. I didn't even know where I was going.
[00:35:16] But then the elders of our church began to come alongside me. One of them handed me my notes that had been prepared. And I remember I took my iPad and I saw this. Visions of God in the fire of Pentecost.
[00:35:29] And the message had already been prepared. And there was a text out of Daniel, which I'll read in a moment.
[00:35:35] And then another elder came and said, we've already prepared the slides for you. And this is where the room is where we're going to meet. And I went up there and another, another one of our elders had prepared the room, set the lights, got the screens, everything was going. And then we went for it.
[00:35:50] And as I began to read the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter seven in verse nine, this is what it says.
[00:36:00] I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated. His garment was white as snow. This is talking about Jesus. Old Testament prophecy, looking forward vision.
[00:36:12] The hair of his head was like pure wool and his throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire.
[00:36:24] And a fiery stream issued forth and came from before him. And a thousand thousands ministered to him. 10,000 times, 10,000 stood before him.
[00:36:38] This is very nature of God. What I believe is happening on Pentecost is that the very nature of God, that which surrounds and flows from his throne, is coming to the earth and resting upon his sons and his daughters.
[00:36:55] In fact, I felt like the reason that I was to share this is years ago I had a dream and it. It absolutely transformed my life.
[00:37:04] I've never shared it in a service until like two weeks ago when I had this dream.
[00:37:11] Because every time I'd think about it, I'd just lose it.
[00:37:16] I remember, I mean, the dream was very simple. I won't exaggerate it, I won't add anything to it. But I had this dream, and this is probably five, six years ago.
[00:37:28] I saw Jesus on his fiery throne.
[00:37:33] And it was so glorious. What was Coming. Truly radiant as the sun. It was nearly blinding. And still to this day, every time I read these passages or I close my eyes and I pray, I can still picture what I saw in that vision.
[00:37:50] I remember it was a Sunday morning that I had that. And I tried to share it that morning, but I got up to preach, and I couldn't even speak words because I was so. Just so stirred in my spirit. And the power of God began to move without anybody saying or praying or doing anything.
[00:38:10] That night, again, I tried to minister on the heart of God because I saw also in that. In that picture the fiery, burning heart of love that Jesus had.
[00:38:21] And I began to share about that. And I remember I was so overwhelmed by what the Lord was doing that I didn't even get a quarter of the way into the message. I break down crying. I couldn't get the words out. I remember I hugged my son and a number of other people, and it was just like this incredible love. And I'm trying to. I remember we went to Denny's after the service, and I'm trying to explain to my wife what I. What I've seen and what I've experienced. But the most moment I begin to open my mouth, I just. I can't even get it out. I just begin weeping and crying. And it's so simple.
[00:38:56] I saw the lord.
[00:38:57] Probably wasn't 10 seconds, but it has absolutely changed my life, the way I pray. You want to talk, Rodney, about beholding the Lord?
[00:39:09] Beheld the Lord, and this is not something that is unique. What Pentecost tells us is that God's desire is not just for Habakkuk or Ezekiel or Isaiah or Pastor Jacob, but it is something he desires to release to every single person within the sound of my voice. He wants to be with you. He wants to show you his glory. We can behold him as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. And it can transform you into his glorious image.
[00:39:44] I want you to see something.
[00:39:47] Dreams and visions are by far the number one way that the Lord spoke throughout Scripture.
[00:39:55] Not through angels, not through traveling prophets, not through other encounters, audible voices. I mean, all of those things happened, but they were far and few between.
[00:40:08] But the most frequent way that the Lord spoke in the Bible was through dreams, through visions. Even to unbelievers, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, even to new, immature individuals like Joseph. He would speak. He would give dreams. Peter, Paul, Mary and Joseph. Just in the. In the Christmas account alone, there's over 20 references to dreams and visions that God gave.
[00:40:34] But Strangely, I've heard sermons about angels.
[00:40:37] I've heard sermons about the voice of God. I've heard sermons about all kinds of different things. But I. I don't know if I've ever heard somebody on a Sunday morning preach about dreams from God.
[00:40:49] But he said, this is what's going to happen at Pentecost. Dreams, visions, prophecy. For all that the fire comes upon, we ought to expect this.
[00:41:05] Ezekiel 1:1. I would submit to you that most of the prophecies that you read in the Bible were not words that came from the Lord, but visions from God.
[00:41:14] Ezekiel 1:1 says it came to pass in the 30th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month. I was among the captives by the river Chabar that the heavens were open, and I saw visions of God.
[00:41:28] He saw what the Lord was speaking. In Isaiah 6:1. He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. He's writing out this famous passage. We sang a song out of it. Today was out of a vision that God had given him. Revelation 1:10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. And I heard behind me a loud voice as a trumpet. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.
[00:42:01] What you see telling you, Start reading the prophets and the prophecies. It's everywhere, what you see, Write in a book. Send it to the seven churches which are in Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. And then I turn to see the voice that spoke with me. How do you see a voice, my friend? He was having an encounter with God.
[00:42:28] He was having visions of God, like Isaiah, like Ezekiel, like Habakkuk.
[00:42:37] And Acts says that if you have flesh, if you're a man or a woman, if you're young or old, you can receive the spirit of God.
[00:42:51] And you will see visions and dream dreams.
[00:42:57] Prophesy.
[00:42:59] I want to close with a couple stories.
[00:43:05] Worship team will come.
[00:43:09] I believe this is important for us to grasp for a number of reasons. First of all, it was the very first thing that Peter preached about.
[00:43:18] Might be good for us to pay attention. What is this Holy Spirit stuff all about?
[00:43:24] See, I can have a vision that's birthed out of my desires. And God can give desires that bring vision.
[00:43:31] But you get the life beat out of you.
[00:43:34] You can give up on that vision.
[00:43:37] Desires can drift with emotions.
[00:43:42] I can have someone instruct Me, even out of the Bible and tell me, show me. Walk this way, do this. Here's a vision for your life. And I can believe that it's a word from the Lord. But you walk through a season of hell, and all of a sudden you're like, I don't know if that guy knew what he was talking about.
[00:43:59] That preacher doesn't know what he's saying.
[00:44:02] Am I the only one who's ever felt this way?
[00:44:07] But if you have a vision that's birthed out of an encounter with God, You can walk through hell and have people backstab you, and you can have people naysay, and you can have people challenge you. But, you know, I know what I received from God. I know what the Lord spoke to me. I know that was not an emotional thing. I have seen the Lord, and I know what he's asked me to do.
[00:44:36] In fact, to quote Pastor Jim, he said that encounters are invitations to partner with God's vision.
[00:44:42] And I believe that when we have revival night or we have altar moments, or you have an encounter in the time of prayer, you have these encounters with God. I want you to begin to search and ask the Lord, lord, what are you showing me?
[00:44:56] So that you can grab that vision, you can make it plain, make a plan, and begin to run after it, share a vulnerable moment. The reason I'm passionate about this today, My family moved here in 2012.
[00:45:16] It was a challenging thing. We'd had a great season, six years of ministry, pastoring a wonderful church in Illinois.
[00:45:24] And we were in a conference, and the Lord gave me a vision.
[00:45:29] And I knew that because of that vision, it was time to hand the work over to a pastor that we'd raised up.
[00:45:36] Pastor's still there today. He's doing a great job.
[00:45:40] And I knew that we were to begin to travel, do evangelistic work.
[00:45:46] So that's what we did. We sold everything, sold my motorcycle, hallelujah, sold vehicles, sold all our furniture, sold everything.
[00:45:55] And we took a step of faith, began to run. After the vision that God had sent us into, we decided in that time to base out of Trinity Church.
[00:46:07] Pastor Jim had started a Saturday night service, and so that's where we began to attend. I was preaching other churches a lot of Sundays, and so could come worship on Saturday night. And it was great for me and my family.
[00:46:19] And during that time, I mean, I'm preaching, and I've heard evangelists say that it's either feast or famine.
[00:46:25] And that was true. It was mostly famine for us.
[00:46:29] And we.
[00:46:30] I was volunteering teaching a class at Christ for the Nations. I was volunteering, teaching a class here at Trinity, and I was volunteering for another evangelistic ministry out of the North Texas district.
[00:46:46] Pastor Jim, to be fair, actually offered to give me offerings for teaching on Wednesdays. But the Lord had spoken to me to just serve the church, so that's what we did. We had no money, no income, so my wife took a job, and then she took a second job because of a vision, And.
[00:47:09] And then I be. I took a job working at nights.
[00:47:14] I've been in just about every school in Dallas Fort Worth, from, you know, elementary schools all the way through high schools, because every night we'd go and we'd install soap dispensers in all of these schools. I'd literally walk the hallways in almost every classroom of nearly all the schools here in Dallas Fort Worth.
[00:47:35] And a year goes by, and God gives us the opportunity. Pastor invites us. You know, the evangelistic work here in the church had really taken off, and I had a heart for some other things. In fact, he wanted me to take over that Saturday night service that had blessed us.
[00:47:51] And so he wanted me to join the staff here.
[00:47:55] And I went and I shared that with the evangelistic ministry.
[00:48:03] There was a prophet, and this guy's a notable prophet. If I said his name, many of you would know him.
[00:48:08] I'm not going to tell you his name because I.
[00:48:11] I don't have nice things to say about him, but I forgave him a long time ago, so don't worry.
[00:48:17] I was telling him that I was going to leave that ministry. And he's like, why would you leave?
[00:48:22] This is what God has called you to do? And I'm like, no, I'm volunteering here. And God's opened a door over here. He's like, well, why do you believe that that's God? I said, well, I had a dream, and my wife had a dream. We were there on a evening service, and Leo was having a vision, standing on Pastor Becky's shoulder, Standing on her shoulders. And then in that moment, she helped me clarify some of the details. In that moment, Pastor Becky, for real, turns around, lays hands on my wife, and says, leah, fan to flame. The gift of God that's on the inside of you.
[00:48:58] She had this vision, and I had a dream of running with this church and running with Pastor Jim. And so I'm responding to this prophet saying, well, my wife had a dream and I had a vision, and we had it. And this is his response to me. He said, dreams and Visions don't pay the bills.
[00:49:17] This was from a hero of mine, the one who I had learned to prophesy, from the one who I had learned to discern the voice of the Lord. And here he is crushing this vision. In this dream that I've had, we chose to step away from that. Anyway, I'm going after the dream and vision, even if it means I can't pay my bills.
[00:49:37] Because I felt that God had spoken to me and we've lived that way.
[00:49:43] I could go on and on sharing stories about how we pursued what the Lord has shown us. In fact, healing began to come. I bout shut out the prophetic entirely until I met Tommy and Miriam. And then these guys start coming around and they're healing my heart and healing me in regards to prophetic ministry and getting visions from God.
[00:50:01] And then I got mad at Tommy because he came to me one day. He said, I had a dream about you.
[00:50:07] Okay?
[00:50:08] Said, I saw you being taken up in a whirlwind and you were dropped on an island.
[00:50:13] Great.
[00:50:15] Not even a month later, we get an invitation to go and begin church planting work in Hawaii.
[00:50:20] And God had already spoken through a dream, through another person.
[00:50:24] He confirmed the word. We did that in seven years. We ended up planting 12 churches.
[00:50:31] We were doing the work of God.
[00:50:33] In fact, many of you know the story about Kona.
[00:50:39] Leah had a dream about a building. She saw it.
[00:50:44] We had a little Bible study at the time that was going on. But we began to drive around town and we pulled into a shopping center. We looked, took one look at this building, ugly building.
[00:50:53] But she looked at that and she says, that's the building right there. That's what I saw in my dream. I saw that hallway, I saw the shops that were there.
[00:51:04] We began going around to those shops and asking around, do you guys know who owns this shopping center we'd like to buy? It wasn't for sale.
[00:51:11] We couldn't find anybody who knew the owner.
[00:51:14] Well, I go to bed, I have a dream.
[00:51:18] In the dream, Pastor Jim comes to me and he says, you're gonna buy that building out of Coconut Grove.
[00:51:23] I wake up and I tell Leah, Pastor Jim came to me in a dream, so we're gonna buy the building out of Coconut Grove.
[00:51:30] She's like, you know where Coconut Grove is, right? Said, no.
[00:51:34] She says, it's this area where the sand volleyball court is. There's a coffee shop, there's that restaurant that we like to go to. Said, get dressed, we're gonna go.
[00:51:43] Receiving vision and we're running with it.
[00:51:46] So we go down there to that coffee shop and we order a coffee. And I asked the girl behind the counter, I said, this is maybe a strange question, but do you have any idea who owns the shopping center right down the road here?
[00:52:01] She looks at me and she says, yeah, the same family that owns this coffee shop owns that shopping center. And I'm like, could I have their number, please?
[00:52:10] We end up calling this guy because of COVID He was from Korea. He had come over to close out a deal in that shopping center. It had all gone sideways because of the pandemic. He was excited to sell us his building.
[00:52:25] He wanted out of that thing entirely. In fact, he got stuck there because South Korea was still closed. He couldn't even go back home. The guy was never in the States, never in Hawaii, but he was there when we were there running after God.
[00:52:40] So we asked him, we meet him there and he says, yeah, I'll sell you this $6 million.
[00:52:47] I look at him, I don't have any money.
[00:52:52] But I say, sounds like a good price. We'll do it. And we begin to move forward on this thing. You know, I don't have time to tell the whole story. It's already time to close this service. But God through so many means. In fact, Trinity Church partnered with us to the tunes of hundreds of thousands of dollars. God empowered us to be able to purchase that six million dollar building.
[00:53:15] We planted a thriving church that exploded, is still doing incredible today, Running after dreams and visions.
[00:53:30] In fact, the reason that we moved back here was because Pastor Jim had a dream.
[00:53:35] Calls me one day, Pastor Jacob. I had a dream that I was giving an altar call to the church and the power of God, the glory of God was moving. And then I handed you the microphone and I think you're to be a part of what God's going to do here. In this move of God, we began to pray. And I could detail dreams and visions and prophecies and all the various ways that the Lord began to confirm exactly that.
[00:53:59] Again, like the 10th time, we sold everything, got rid of everything and, and we took a step of faith, not knowing where we were going to live, what we were going to do.
[00:54:11] Today God's given us a house that we never could have bought on our own.
[00:54:15] Today I've got a great motorcycle that I get to ride around. Praise God. I've got a wonderful yard, almost a full acre full of poison ivy that I get to take care of. Hallelujah.
[00:54:28] To spend time with you guys and walk out the call of God. It's the greatest joy of my life.
[00:54:36] I'm here to tell you that prophet. Maybe a little bit. He won't ever hear this.
[00:54:44] Dreams and visions do pay the bills.
[00:54:49] Dreams and visions pay the bills.
