Live according to your true identity

Second Timothy: 1, 3 to 7. The Apostle Paul is speaking and writing to his disciple, his mentee, his follower Timothy, a young pastor, church planter, a bishop who went to different churches that Paul had planted, discipling , establishing government and shepherds, etc. This man had a great responsibility and was a relatively young person for his time. And so, Paul writes this to him and we too can receive what Paul says to Timothy.

Paul says, “I thank God,” he begins with words of commendation and blessing on Timothy. "... whom I have served from my elders with a clear conscience that I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day..." Do you see how affectionate the Apostle is in writing to Timothy like this? "… wishing to see you." There you can see the humanity of the Apostle Paul. There was a man there pulsing within the inspired words of God. “I want to see you, Timoteo. I need you." "… wishing to see you. Remembering your tears,” perhaps at some point while Timothy was talking about the churches they were planting, the brothers who were suffering, whatever, Timothy would cry a little, perhaps simply in a time of worship, moved Timothy to tears. .

And Pablo was marked by that and he says, “I remember sometimes when you cried in a service or…” That blessed Paul. And we should not be ashamed either when God touches us and weep before Him. That is a great blessing. "... By remembering your tears to fill me with joy." So, here the meat of the passage begins, it says, “Bringing to memory the unfeigned faith,” in other words, the authentic, true faith, “…that is in you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois.”

This passage is so beautiful because it is a personal passage, it is human. Timothy had a grandmother, and not only did he have a grandmother, but he evidently had a mother named Eunice. And he says I remember your mother and your grandmother, and I am sure that the same faith that was in them lives in you too. And here comes the very center of the message, “…Therefore I advise you to fan the fire of the gift of God that is in you through the imposition of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind."

That is the program that God has installed in you. He hasn't installed a program with all kinds of viruses and nonsense, it's a beautiful, solid, balanced, rich, nuanced program, and you have to live up to it. God has put in you elements of power, elements of love, and elements of a sound and sound mind. That is what the word own domain means in Spanish. But in Greek it is sophronismos. When you want to impress your friends, tell them, "Hey, you are a person full of sophronisms." And they'll say, “Wow!” And you say then, "Ah, that's self-controlled Greek." And then you keep walking like you didn't say anything. Power, love and self control.

I love this passage because it is full of significance, full of teaching, and it reminds us of three things, listen to this. It reminds us of who we are in Christ, who we are, our identity in Jesus Christ. Number two, it reminds us and tells us what we have received from Jesus Christ, what He has given us, what He has imparted to us, the inheritance that He has placed in us. And number three, how are we expected to act and live in light of. So, what we are, what we have received and how we should act in light of our identity. And Paul begins, as I was saying, by expressing his affection for Timothy. This is a very tender passage, very personal.

Pablo says that his life encourages him, encourages him, inspires Pablo. And then he proceeds to express his connection and his admiration for his grandmother Loida and his mother Eunice, who evidently were great women of faith. You remember that Timothy was the son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother. Eunice was Jewish and his dad was a Gentile, we don't know if he knew the Lord or not, but evidently Timothy's spiritual genetics ran through his mother and grandmother. So, he mentions these two women that he evidently knew too. And he tells her, I remember the legacy, the spiritual inheritance that they gave you. And Paul is reminding Timothy that he comes from a distinguished spiritual lineage. He comes from a good race, he has good spiritual blood within him, and that spiritual race that he has imposes on Timothy a way of behaving and walking, and of following the Christian faith. This is the connection of those two things.

And we can't waste that because it's easy to go straight to, "I advise you to fan the fire of the gift of God, etc." But studying this passage recently I realized that it is also important to meditate on that connection because that is the lineage of where we come from, who have been our mentors, who are watching us many times and who have influenced our lives and what we should honor that too. We have to be aware of how we influence too. Perhaps Loida and Eunice would never have realized that two thousand years later in a city of Boston, Massachusetts, they would be talking about them. And that they were going to have such a great impact on the life of one of the most powerful men on earth, who was the Apostle Paul and his follower Timothy, that he was going to be so mentioned throughout history.

That is an important point, my brothers, to remember that we often leave a legacy to people without realizing it, and we leave a very important legacy to our children. And I was thinking about that this week, thinking about the time that we are living in a pandemic and how sometimes there have been these ups and downs in the entire trajectory of the pandemic. And that now we are in a time where the symptoms and things have risen and we hope that it will also be something that will happen and that everything will fall into place in due course. But how important it is that we are aware of the influence we have on others in the way we navigate this time.

There are many people watching us. The Bible says that we have before us a great cloud of witnesses, remember that? We are always living in front of others in the public eye. The church is important. And many of your co-workers are going to be watching how you behave during this time, if you chicken out, if you get scared into a corner, if you stop living, if you live full of panic or fear or if you live with a certain composure, a certain dignity and you suffer with dignity before others because your faith strengthens you. And how important it is that our children see in us something that inspires them for the future. Our children are going to be watching us at this time because the boys are always… do you know that they are always watching us and seeing how mommy and daddy work? Even sometimes without them knowing. And they are going to take their queue, their guidelines of how we… And one day they are going to remember that. As Timothy probably remembered his mom's faith.

And you have heard me speak many times about our mother's faith and how that impacted our lives greatly. And I assure you that you go to the Dominican Republic and among our uncles and Tonia's grandchildren, here in the church many people met Tonia, they know that she left a legacy and that she inspired many of us. One of the things that our mother bequeathed to us, I believe, is emotional health for our brothers. And both my mother and my father, my father was not as consecrated as my mother to the Lord, but both had a resilience. I spoke of that word before. When they suffered from failures in their lives or setbacks, they always stood up and moved on. They were very resistant people. And that, I think, helped us. That has been like a compass and like a steel rod within us that plumbs us and gives us firmness in life. Because that marked us. And we mark our children many times with what we show them.

And I say that not to put pressure on you, but to encourage you, because knowing that they are watching us often inspires us to be strong, because we are an example to others. And that happens with all aspects of life. We have to know that we influence others, and therefore we have to walk in a certain way. An officer in an army has to walk a certain way because his soldiers are always looking at him to see if they will panic [sic] or get inspired. And soldiers encourage each other in war, because they know they are being watched by their comrades and that then encourages them to be strong and courageous in times of fighting and danger.

And that is good because the Christian life is lived in community and we have to know that it is important that we encourage each other and set a good example. For me it has been important in this time of pandemic to try to live in a way that shows faith in the Lord, trust in the Lord, and security. Because for better or worse, many people watch their pastors. I imagine that some of you when you found out that the pastor had COVID. "Oh my God." Brother, that's not a big deal. I know that it can and does happen and there we have examples of that, but the truth is, don't get carried away by that, don't let your faith suffer because of those things, brothers. We have to stand firm in the Lord. Amen.

Our look has to be on Him. "Look at the one who says that he suffered such a contradiction of sinners so that his spirit does not get tired until he faints." The only one we have to look at is Christ Jesus, always. Forget everything else. But having said that, yes, we influence people and we have to be careful how we suffer. I have told you before that my mom had a terrible trigeminal problem. It is a nerve that touches the nose, eye, and cheeks. And they say that it is the most terrible pain that a person suffers. A lot of people commit suicide because of it. For years my mother suffered from this, and look, I can tell you that I always paid attention to the integrity with which she went through this. He never cursed the Lord, he never said anything bad about the Lord, he never let it distort his character. And that has been a great example for me. When I get a little headache that I want to complain about, I say, hey, what about Tonia? And that helps us.

So remember that, that your example is being watched by others. And I always say that the church of Jesus Christ in this time has to suffer in an exemplary manner and we have to behave in an exemplary manner, because our nobility obliges us. We are special people. Hebrews chapter 10, 24 and 25, says: "And let us consider one another," that is, let us observe one another, "... to stimulate us to love and good works." Go? We are always watching. Let us consider each other and just as you are considering me, I am going to consider you too. If I see that my church is declining and weak, that affects me as its pastor. When I see people well, happy, motivated despite their suffering, that gives me encouragement to keep going.

The Christian life is a life of interdependence, interconnections, we are a body and if someone's eye hurts, the rest of their being also hurts, because we are integral. And so, I haven't gone far from the passage, see? Pablo says, “Remember your mom and your grandmother that they were women of great blessing and use that for your own blessing and growth.” So one part of this passage says, we affect others and help them in the formation of their identity. But you know what? That we too have to react appropriately to the influence and inheritance we receive from our spiritual ancestors, our mentors, our teachers, our parents. When they have lived exemplary we have to imitate their good behavior, honor their example. And we have to express value to them, value what they have done for us.

And Paul says, “Timoteo, you come from a very distinguished lineage, mom and grandmother were great women of God. He lives up to that lineage.” How many know that we are royal lineage? It says that we are "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired by God so that we may announce the virtues of him who called you to his admirable light." You are of good knowledge, you come from royal blood, you are a priest, a king, a prince in spirit, and when you are tempted to act like a mere random person, say, “No, I am a queen. I am a priestess of the Kingdom, I have to act in a certain way. I can't flatten myself like the rest of the world." We have to act differently.

I always think, and I've alluded to that before, remember Nehemiah? When Nehemiah was putting up the walls and there was a lot of persecution of Nehemiah because the devil doesn't like it when someone is doing something good for the Kingdom. And the persecution began on Nehemiah. They began to persecute him, to slander him, to accuse him, and in one of those instances a man approached him, I don't remember his name, and told him, "Nehemiah, tonight they are coming to kill you, so run, get into the temple and grab the horns." from the altar,” because the tradition was that no one could be killed at the altar if they grabbed the horns of the altar. And do you remember Nehemiah's response? “A man like me, he says, am I going to go into the temple to hold on to the altar so they don't kill me? That never." And those words… because again, it is the humanity of a man, the humanity in his value, his self-esteem, his sense of dignity and respect, he says, “I am not going to embarrass myself by getting in like anyone, like a little mouse scurrying away And later I understood that he wasn't really saying this because it was true, but to scare me."

The devil many times wants to frighten us, he wants to whisper warnings of disaster in us. And we wake up in the morning and we feel that panic. I tell you that sometimes I have felt it, many times in my life. And what I do is that instead of succumbing to him, I rebuke him in the name of Jesus and I give him his name, Satan, and I cast him out of my life and say, "I am going to serve the Lord and I am going to continue forward walking in Him.” Never let the whispers of disaster in your life stop you from doing God's will. Live like a servant or a servant of God, like a princess of the Kingdom, like a royal lineage. That knows where you come from, starting with Jesus, let that be what governs the way you walk. Not your feeling, not your emotions, because many times your emotions will betray you. If you let your emotions... we have said it many times, brothers, if one lets one's thoughts or emotions rule one's life, one does not leave the house. He stays under a blanket all day waiting for death and disaster.

We are called to impose ourselves on our thoughts, on our carnal emotions and live according to every word that comes from the mouth of God. The principles of the Kingdom of God are the ones that should govern our walk. We have to exhibit the strength, the courage of those who know that their redeemer lives, that God is with us in every situation of life and that in all things we are more than winners. That is what the word has declared about your life. We are more than conquerors. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Many times we say these things but we do not understand how important that implies for our lives. We say it like that without intention. No, that has consequences for your walk and we have to keep that clear in our minds.

And the people around us, the ones who watch over our lives, will be inspired and encouraged by our genuine faith in the Lord. And if you don't feel that value within you, well, examine yourself. I'm not saying this to condemn you, but you know what? When we understand that I'm not up to that level, that should simply be a stimulus to, okay, why? What I need to do? Do I need to stick more of the word? Believe more in the endorsement and support of the Lord? Search deeper. And don't get anxious, don't be self-condemning, but, say, okay. There is work to do yet. I am the first to say it, there is a lot of work that God has to do in my life. And it is good that we examine ourselves, where we are, and that then we go forward in faith. But it is important that we know that this is what the Lord calls us to. That is the identity that God has imparted in our life.

So, look at this, the example of your mother and your grandmother encourages me. Now, Timothy, that faith is in you. And so, that's why he says, “For this reason – verse 6 – I encourage you to fan into fire the gift of God that is in you.” Therefore I advise you to fan the fire of the gift of God that is in you, by the imposition of my hands. Timoteo, you come from a very important background, very noble, very real, and for that reason, from your mother, your grandmother, who are looking at you from there, from heaven, if they had already died, now, walk and one of the things you have to do, fan the fire of the gift of God that is in you. Do you know what it is to fan the fire of the gift of God? Fan the fire. Fan the fathoms until they become a mighty flame. The gift of God is in you. God has gifted you, God has programmed you, God has instilled in you a number of gifts.

For this reason, for example, when we pray for Diego, Diego could be over there selling bananas in the Dominican Republic and he would not know that he has a terrible gift there. Thank God he has been developing it. But perhaps God has also called you to be a worshiper and to bless communities with your gift. So now you have to kindle that gift. You have a gift within you. When God calls you, when Christ dwells in you he gives you something, it doesn't matter where you come from, spiritually you are royalty. Listen to me, no one who is here in this place or who has Christ in his heart lacks something valuable, something to give to the world and something to give to his church. That's on you. Everything depends on you, that you enliven it, make it grow, develop it, and turn it into something powerful. Don't underestimate yourself.

Paul tells Timothy, "Don't let anyone underestimate your youth, but be an example to others." It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter how many failures you've had, it doesn't matter how illustrious your ancestors are, there is something in you that God wants to use to bless the nations. Make sure you develop that gift, because many people die without developing the endowment that God has placed in them. I believe that the vast majority of Christians die undiscovered. Ask the Lord to reveal to you, “Father, what do you want me to do? What is it that you have put in me? What is the gift? What is the call? And get to work. Many of those people that you see here in León de Judá doing feats and things, that is why, it is because they have affirmed the gift of God.

Our sister Rosi, I bless her and Meche and I always point her out. I don't know if she's here, but Rosi, wherever you are, you're listening. Rosi has a tremendous, aesthetic gift of decoration, and in many of the meetings that are held, she is always willing to give her gift and bless and decorate. And also that incredible gift of having children in your home, sharing your home to bless generations. She found her gift. Perhaps you have other gifts that you will discover over time. But so there are so many people in León de Judá who bless the Kingdom of God with something. Don't be passive, listen to me. God has called you to give and to create and to bless and mark the world so that when you leave the world feels your absence because you blessed.

Gino, there are some flowers there in front of your camera. Right now there is a void here in León de Judá. This man was there 15 years faithfully and now there is a void there. That chamber is going to have to be filled. You may have never seen Gino like that with your eyes, you never focused on him, but he blessed, he found something to serve with. God has given you an endowment. Live according to it. Fan the fire of the gift. And the gifts are revived by practicing them, exercising them. And Paul says, "Be strong." God respects people who make an effort and who work on their gift. And our mission is to bring our gift to full manifestation through our efforts and hard work. God gave a gift and now he expects Timothy to develop it in some way.

God puts amazing things inside of us. And we have to work it. God gave Joshua, “I have given you all…” God always speaks in the past tense, in the past tense. "I have given you all the land that the soles of your feet can tread on." Did it stay there? No, he said, “However, now I command you to be strong and brave because I have given you all the land that the soles of your feet can tread on.” Joshua had a call to go and lead his people and settle in the Promised Land. There were going to be battles, there were going to be challenges, and God tells him, “Look, no one is going to stand up to you all the days of your life. I have already given you a title that says victory, now, make an effort and be brave."

When you enter the Kingdom of God, God gives you incredible programming within you: victory, power, virtue, grace, wisdom, understanding, self-control, victory over all your appetites and everything destructive that is within you. Now, push yourself and be brave. Work hard to bring that to full realization. "May the rest of your life be a trajectory developing what I have put in you." Within you is beating the life of God, the call of God and you now have to put that and bring it to life. You are pregnant. You are pregnant with divine blessing. There is a divine embryo within you that God wants you to put to work and develop it to the maximum. God respects the person who works hard to develop their gift. God does not respect the person so much who is always making decisions and promises and never…

Do you remember that I said that last Sunday? God supports and blesses those that He sees who take it seriously and who commit to something and there, little by little, falling, getting up, failing, but they keep going until they see that gift realized. I have told you before that there are things that God speaks to us in our lives and they have not seen them come true for decades. But you persist and God says, "Since my son is staying there, I'm going to bless him." “And though the vision is late, it will come,” He tells Habakkuk.

James says that the double-minded man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. It is like a vane in the wind. But people who are people of promise, people of commitment, even if they feel discouraged, even if they are bored, they stick with it, those people come to what God has said about their lives. He knows that a good part of leadership and success is mastering the boring. I have told people many times that the one who learns to master boredom is a supernatural being. Because many dreams fall when normality comes to life. Many people come to church and while they are receiving attention and homage and people come, hug them, kiss them, introduce them to others, they are happy. But when they got back to normal and no one anymore... they greet him, "Hello, so-and-so," and move on, they feel like oh, yeah... And you see that they start to fade and don't go back to church, because they depended on that they were always giving them to the handle, rope, and when they stopped winding it, they didn't have their own rope and that's how they died.

God respects and honors the people of promise, of commitment, whether they like it or not, they are firm in the Lord, and even though trials and difficulties come, they remain, because what animates them is not man but that inner fire that they have, that commitment to God, that ability to prevail over monotony. That is leadership. It is not the other things that one often says. There is a part that is up to us, Timothy was endowed with the gift of God, now God tells him, "Fan the fire of the gift of God." Work hard, develop your gift, do your part to bring your gift to full maturity. God has invested in you. Now Timothy, now you who are listening to me, and I also who preach, live in the light of your gift and do the best you can to honor the investment that God has made within you.

And I am now landing, this last part of the passage. It says, “Because God has not given us,” do you see the connection? He says, “…for which I advise you – because your mother and your grandmother – for which I advise you because God has not given us a spirit of cowardice.” There is a chain, all these thoughts are chained to each other. Paul establishes a contrast first to reinforce what he is going to say later. It says, “God has not given you a spirit of fear,” but He has given you something very important. Remember that always. The gift that you have in you is not a gift of cowardice, it is not of timidity, it is not of conservatism [sic], it is a gift of adventure, it is a business gift, it is a daring gift, it is a gift of conquering the earth . That is the gift. God has not given you a gift so that you can sit there waiting for things to be done to you, complaining about the world and about life and what they did to you, what they did not do to you, what they told you, what they did not tell you, the abuse. Put that back and move on to the high calling Christ made on your life.

Don't let yourself... many times you get up depressed, again, and you already let that dominate you. No, the gift that God has placed in me is a gift to put on my lipstick, groom my eyebrows, and go out to work. Not me, uh, let's be clear. God has called you to dress in your best clothing. Go out, even if you are a little sad, discouraged, take your life forward. Because the gift that God has placed in you is that. The other is simply the carnal foliage of life. It is neurology that slows us down and that is going to be with us until we die. That is the faithful dog that neither lets us work nor leaves us. It's there always stuck to us all mangy and wet. Those are the emotions. We are not going to get rid of them. They are there, look at them and move forward in the name of the Lord.

Every time I am tempted to become conservative in the use of my energies, or to become negative, when I have a task ahead of me, I remember that word of Paul to Timothy, "God has not given you a spirit of fear," I He has given a courageous spirit. Keep going. Remember that identity that you have beating inside of you. What you have inside of you, your true identity is not that of a fearful, lazy, indecisive individual, but of a man, a woman resolved in the Lord, clear in his walk. Do not be like the unfaithful servant in the parable who took his gift and out of fear put it under the mattress, because he was afraid of what would happen to him... and if I go and invest this money and lose everything, they will give you 50 whippings. And he said, no, I better keep it there. But that was not what he had to do. I had to invest.

Have to work. If you let yourself be carried away by fear you will never do anything. If you let yourself be carried away by your emotions you will never get anything done. The writer of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes, one of the two, a wise people in the Bible says that "he who looks too much to the wind and rain will never sow." If you get carried away by estimates of failure in life and because it is difficult and because it cannot be done, you will never do anything. The true spirit that God has placed in you is an entrepreneurial, warrior, entrepreneurial spirit, and that is what should govern your decisions.

Finally, again, God has not given us a spirit of cowardice and offers the right alternative, but what? A spirit of power, dunamis, of love, agape, and of self-control, sophronisms. That's where I confused them, right? Sophronisms, and I'm going to tell you a little about that, right? That is to say, the spirit that God has given you is not a spirit of smallness, mediocrity, but quite the opposite, of greatness and excellence. And that greatness, that excellence is divided into three things, three components that I want to leave with you. The first part of the identity that God has given you is an identity of power to undertake and achieve things. The power, the dunamis that God has placed in us allows us to overcome the challenges and difficulties of life, it empowers us to be better every day, to go beyond the limitations of our culture, our environment, our family, our past. . The power that God has put in you allows you to be like that light of dawn that increases until the day is perfect, which we talked about last Sunday. That is what God has for you.

Power to any giant that is in your life, cut off his head, be it depression, be it anxiety, be it that you are missing a hand, be it that you have not studied, be it that you come from a family where there has been alcoholism or incest or physical abuse, divorce , homosexuality, whatever, whether you're struggling with some of those temptations and those internal mental struggles, God gives you power to decapitate every giant that stands before you. Can. Power to overcome, power to prosper, power to be a better husband, a better wife, power to be a good father, power to overcome the nightmares that torment you at night. Power to overcome your lack of money or education. God has put power to overcome within you. "You can do everything through Christ who strengthens you," says the word of the Lord. Whenever we hear that negative voice within us that tells us, "You can't do this, you can't do that," remember that God has given you a spirit of power, of a person who can do everything in Christ, who strengthens you .

Second component. Love. I have always wondered why God led Paul to put love in the middle of that trilogy. He put power in it, but then he puts love in the middle. Because when God gives you an endowment, he gives it to you perfect, comprehensive, balanced, and it's because love balances power. Love brings nuance to it. Brethren, power without love is something demonic. He's controlling. It's oppressive. It is dominant. It can even be cruel and is certainly self-destructive for the practitioner. Naked power is the most terrible thing there can be. It's like an atomic bomb, like radiation that burns you while you handle it.

Think Hitler. Hitler was… the German empire with all its glorification of power, the man, the superman. Look how he did so much harm in the world and destroyed himself. Hitler ended up committing suicide after having destroyed so many millions of lives and having destroyed his nation, wreaking havoc everywhere. Naked power without God is a destructive and demonic power. Satan is the exemplification of power without love. Satan is a being that only knows power, war, conflict, manipulation, lie, control. The demon empire is naked power. Power has to be tempered by love. Christ is the key example of power and love, his authority, his power over the devil, over death, over sickness, over storms. All. But he also took pity on the woman with the issue of blood, he told her, “Don't go lonely. I want to bless you before you go. You stole my power, that's true, but I also have love for you."

The Lord was so powerful and so generous at the same time. And brothers, we have to imitate Christ in everything. León de Judá has to be a church of power but also of love for things to balance. In the Pentecostal world people glorify power. Gifts, tongues, prophecies, healings, miracles, revelations, and they forget that there is also the fruit of the Holy Spirit: virtue, goodness, love, peace, joy, kindness, generosity towards others, humility, patience. And brothers, I believe that there is a crisis of this fruit of the spirit in the Pentecostal church. And the first challenge is for me. I have to incorporate elements of love and grace into my life because if all I have is power, I am the weakest person in the world. The devil knows how to deal with power, but he doesn't know how to deal with love, because love has nothing to do with him. That technology he does not know.

When love and power coexist in a human being it is something beautiful to look at, it is like a horse full of strength and beauty running in the desert and adorning the world with its verve, with its strength, with its beauty, nobility. When you see a person who has power and love it is delightful. Jesus exemplified both and so do we. I love Psalm 85 so much. Look, love is one of the greatest sources of health in the world. If you want to be emotionally healthy, love and be generous. And that will protect you from many things in life because again, love blesses those who practice it. And that is a very big defense for us.

Psalm 85:10, it said, look how that psalm says, it says, “Mercy and truth have met together, justice and peace have kissed each other.” How cute. It is a very beautiful poetic image. Because mercy and truth often do not coexist. There are people that everything is true. I don't mince words, and they insult people, hurt, say anything, hurt, because they deserve it, and you have to tell them because if you don't tell people the truth they won't learn. There are parents who are like that and weaken their children, they continually hurt. There are people in the church who are full of truth but do not know mercy. That's terrible. Ask the Lord to make you a man, a woman of truth and mercy, that the two things be there, shading each other. Justice, he says, and peace kissed each other. Poetic image because sometimes people are all justice, what you deserve. Thank God that he does not give you what you deserve because justice would demand that you receive what you deserve. But God doesn't give you what you deserve and gives you what you don't deserve.

It says, justice and peace kissed each other. Because these two energies often do not meet, much less kiss. And that is the balance of the Kingdom of God, grace and truth, justice and peace, love and mercy together with power. Yes there is power but you have to temper it with love. A person who has love and power within their personal repertoire is a truly admirable human being. And Paul says, so, Timothy, God has given you power and God has given you love. That's inside of you, my brother. Don't tell anyone that you can't change because God already made you that way. God did not make you like this, what's more, God gave you love and power. Find it if it's inside you. Dive inside yourself and find that dimension where the power and love of God dwells.

And finally, Paul tells Timothy, "He has given you power, he has given you love and he has given you sophronisms, which they have translated into Spanish, self-control." But that word in the original Greek means something very different. It's more of a spirit of sobriety, of precision in the way you think. Rather, it refers to a mind that thinks clearly. That is perhaps where this idea of self-control comes from, a person in control of themselves. But the word is much broader and more encompassing than that. It means that God has given us a mind that thinks clearly, thinks soberly, thinks accurately, a clear and lucid mind. So, you can understand, God has given you a very functional mind, a mind that sees reality for what it is, that does not allow other things to distort it, and that you see ghosts where there are no ghosts, that you see inferiority where there is more good. balance and grace of the Lord.

It is not a mind haunted by the wounds of the past or the fears that have lived in us since childhood, or the traumas or failures of the past, which distort our minds, our way of behaving, of seeing the world, of seeing ourselves. It is rather the mind of Christ. The logos that created the universe. The mind of a scientist who designed the tiny movements of the human organism, of the planets, of the cosmos. It is the mind that orderly created the entire universe. It is that clear, lucid, thinking, scientific, rational, sober mind. That is the mind that you have inside of you. The other is the carnal foliage of the world, of the fall. But when Christ called you and entered you, he gave you the ability to think clearly and logically. It is a realistic mind, a mind that does not allow other thoughts to distort the way you see yourself, see others, see the world, see life, see God's purpose in your life.

You have heard of bulimia and anorexia. These are illnesses that it often affects women and young girls, who look fat when they are skinny. Physically they can see but emotionally what they see is an inflated person and therefore, that is why they do not eat and spend. They don't eat, they vomit what they eat to always be skinny because they look like they're always fat. That to me is the classic of a dysfunctional mind that doesn't see itself as it should. But God has given you a mind that allows you to see yourself as you are, that allows you to see the world as it is, not to see it through the lenses of the distortions of your past, but to see yourself as reality is. That is the mind that you have inside of you. When you feel like life is tipping you toward depression, sadness, self-condemnation, panic, say, "No, God has given me a lucid mind, a thinking mind, a solid mind, a solid mind." sober.” That is the program that God has put inside of you. God has given us power, love and a healthy mind, a mind that thinks well.

That sophronism, that mind that Christ exemplifies is a mind of sobriety, self-control, self-control, mastery and mastery of our appetites, our impulses, it has no place for fear, panic, self-condemnation. It is a mind that thinks well. There is another place in the Bible where that word sophronisms is used. Romans 12, verse 3, says, "Let no one think of himself more highly than he should, but let him think of himself sensibly, with sophronism, according to the measure of faith that he has received from God." And that there you have exactly what is sophronisms. When the person, the Christian, does not have the sanity to see himself as he should see himself, sometimes he sees himself either bigger than he is or smaller than he is, or more gifted or more abandoned by the grace of God. . God says, "No, look at yourself exactly..."

In the Kingdom of God there is no place for false humility. There is no place to say, “Ah, I am worthless, I am nothing. I am a sinner who deserves nothing, a worm that God should not even deign to look at. Don't insult God like that. Don't look at yourself like you're worthless, but don't look at yourself like you're the last Coca Cola in the desert, the savior of the world, the messiah sent to save humanity. Don't underestimate or overestimate yourself. Make a healthy evaluation, a sound judgment of yourself and determine, look, God has made me for certain things, but he has not made me for others. And so, don't beat yourself up about it. Live according to God's endowment within you and serve to the extent that God has called you to serve.

There is a passage in Romans 12, I'll let you know my brothers, I don't overestimate myself thinking that I'm more interesting than I am, but Romans 12 says, “Therefore, having different gifts according to the grace that is given to us. If you have the gift of prophecy, use it according to the measure of faith. If you have the gift of service, use it according to the measure of serving. If you teach, in teaching, the one who exhorts in exhortation. The one who distributes with liberality, the one who presides with concern, the one who shows mercy with joy.” In other words, look, where God called you move there and serve with confidence in the Lord. Don't be envying the gift of the pastor who is preaching, "Ah, I would like to be like the pastor preaching every Sunday up there." You don't want that, I assure you. It looks very elegant but it is not. There are people who say, "No, I would like to be like those salesmen who are traveling all over the world and staying in fancy hotels." You know that after a while that's the most boring thing in the world. These people want to be at home, sleeping in their bed and bathing in their own bathtub.

And we often live envying others what they have and we do not appreciate what God has given us, and therefore we do not enjoy the moment. God tells you, “Look, what I have put you in, if you have already discerned your gift, serve in it, and serve with joy. Serve with excellence. If I have given you something, celebrate it and live in it. Don't go wishing for other things." How much time do we waste wanting the other person's gift. No, ask the Lord to put you in touch with your gift and use it and live in whatever gift God has given you. See yourself in the place where God has placed you. Ask the Lord to give you a sane and sober mind to know yourself. One of the things that God endows us with is to know ourselves. And you have to ask God, "Lord, help me not to see myself bigger than I am or smaller than I am." A healthy mind, a sober mind, a lucid mind, to see reality as you have called me. A mind that thinks well and calculates reality accurately.

Brothers, a person who lives with the power of God in the love of God, and using a logical and precise mind that God has given him, that is a little one, he is a very good reflection of God, of the Father, the Creator of the divine nature. I long for that and you also long for it tonight, this afternoon. Lower your head for a moment or raise your arm or whatever, and ask the Lord, "Father, impregnate me with these words and make them dwell within me." Perhaps there is a lot of material there that you will not be able to remember, but I declare that this life of God through his word will be within you. God is going to install all that we have declared in your spirit this afternoon, and that is going to be beating inside of you, even our beautiful young women up there. I declare it in the name of Jesus. I install that seed in your spirit beyond language, the divine material will be in it too and it will be in your life and it will be in the DNA of the Lion of Judah.

León de Judá will be a church, a community, a family of power, of love, of healthy and thinking and logical and sane and sober minds. León de Judá will be a church that will bless its community with its spiritual authority, with its love and its good works, and its generosity and gentleness, and mercy, and peace, and goodness, meekness. And it will also be a church of knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, science, good administration, good government, good systems, good maintenance of its physical plant, good employees, good leadership, cleanliness, organization. The mind of Christ, the sophronist mind that thinks well. I declare that genetics in the name of Jesus in this church. We will live it and we will realize it. Receive it in the name of Christ now. Tell him, “Father, fill me, make me pregnant with your life. Pregnant me with your anointing.” Hallelujah! Thank you Holy Spirit. Thank you.

Oh Lord, I declare this in this new year for our families, our children, to be functional youth. Father, let them be young people who are distinguished by working hard, being hardworking, not letting others influence them and distort their path. Father, blessed families, blessed marriages, oh God, exemplary leadership over this city. We long to give you glory and give you honor, Father to you. Your people need a visitation from your spirit. In this year, Lord, visit us with your Holy Spirit. Visit us with your fertilizing power, Lord. We aspire, Lord, your grace us. Do not allow the enemy to disgrace what you have put, either because of our indolence, or cowardice, for whatever, Lord, not only will we not die but we will live and we will leave Egypt to announce your greatness already in the land that you You have promised us, Lord. Take us to our homes with your blessing, with your promise within us. Hallelujah! We adore you, we thank you.

Blessed and praised be your name. Receive the word of God. Receive the promise of the Father. Receive his good intention for you. God has created you so that you fly through the air like a majestic bird, scaling heights, growing more each day, adorning the world with the footprints that you leave on the ground, leaving good deeds, a good example, a good reputation, leaving a legacy, leaving descendants. may they bless the earth and bless the generations. God has called you to honor him with your walk, so that others look at your life and see Christ reflected in you. I'm saying that with all certainty right now, brethren. How much the Lord loves you, you do not know, and how good are his purposes for you. He has not called you to fail, he has called you to have life and life in abundance. And He is committed to you until the end of the world to give you that full life, that excellent life, that life that adorns the earth. That is the call of God, that is the seed that is within you and you are going to carry it out in the name of Jesus. Thank you. Amen and amen. Thanks God.