The power of faith (Part 2)

I want to invite you to look again in Second Chronicles, Chapter 20. Do you remember that we were there last Sunday in that text and we said that since we could not finish it we were going to continue with it today because it still has many lessons to give us and it stuck with me. half of the sermon in the inkwell, as they say over there, and I wanted to finish it because it is a very fruitful sermon, tremendously anointed, a lot of teaching. Remember that this year God has told us that he wants us to walk by faith, to walk in faith, to learn to be a people of faith, a people who believe in God. And I, my promise and my commitment is as much as possible to have a series of sermons that help us understand those principles of faith.

The Bible says, the just will live by faith or by his faith will live. That is, the essential structure of the Kingdom of God is faith, that is the basic energy, it is the basic mentality, it is the basic foundation, it is the paradigm for using a basic Sunday word of the people of God, it is faith. The man, the woman of God does not live life and does not process the events and circumstances of life as the person who does not know God processes them. The man, the woman of God, the son of God has to make a change in his mind, he has to change his way of thinking and then live life in light of principles that are very different from the principles that are used in the world. . And that is why they require what the Bible calls a renewing of the mind, a transformation, a change in the way of thinking.

In the Bible there is talk of metanoia, that is in the original Greek, meta noia, meta in Greek means change, and noia is mind, so one of the essential things, when one enters into the ways of God one has to change his mind. mind. It's like taking out the old hard drive from a computer and putting another hard drive in it. It's like, people who use PCs, personal computers, and people who use Apple, are like two different nations. People who like Apple computers swear they're better and it's like a different culture and so people who use PCs, Dell computers or Hewlett Packard computers or all of this, have another program, another way. They both do pretty much the same thing but they are like two different cultures. And so it is with the people of God, the people of God have a different computer and process the affairs of life in a different way, a different program. And that program is called faith. Now faith, it's a very complex thing. Faith has many layers and many elements within it. But the main thing is that we have to change our minds.

How many people enter into the ways of God and do not change their mind? They stay the same as they were, they are insane but they don't change their minds. And God wants that when we enter his ways we learn to function and think in a different way. And one of the most powerful texts in that sense is Romans, Chapter 12, I think it is, you don't have to look it up, look it up if you want, but it says there that you shouldn't settle, don't get used to this time in which you live, but rather, He says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, many people, many Christians never change their attitude and way of thinking, they are in the church but the church is not in them. So, when the problem in life comes, when the job offer comes, when the opportunity comes to choose a marriage partner, when the opportunity comes to define their way of doing business or finances, they use what the culture tells them to do. they must do and they combine life according to the rational, mental, secular patterns of humanity that does not know God.

Now, the son of God, the daughter of God, is supposed to understand when he enters the ways of the Lord that he is entering another dimension where there are different laws, where something seems to be an animal but it is a bird, and something else seems that there in that world two and two equal ten, not four. And so one has to learn a different math, a different arithmetic, a different science and many people do not make that transition so it is important that you understand, brothers, that as you enter into the ways of God there is a change that is expected. You no longer think like ordinary people think, there is a different mathematics and that mathematics is based on faith. There is mathematics that is based on the decimal principle, others are binary or whatever, we use mathematics based on the number ten, one to zero, one, two, three, four, nine, ten, and there it is repeated. There are different mathematics, that's how it happens too, there are different models. There is a model that is the biblical model, the spiritual model and God wants you to learn. And my desire in this series is to help even a little bit in your life and share with you principles that help you think in another way and that is that biblical way. And by examining these texts I hope to extract from them truths that can be applied to any universal situation.

A long introduction, right? Let's come to the text now, Second Chronicles, Chapter 20, and I'm going to just summarize it for you. You can read it while you listen to me. What did we see there last Sunday? A crisis: King Josaphat, a man who is, as I said, an ordinary man, normal, he is a king but he is not a spiritual giant, he is not a tremendously spiritual and consecrated man, he had his mistakes. But he was a man who believed in God and he had that, he had faith. And Jehoshaphat receives terrible news that a very powerful army is coming against Judah and that they are a few miles away and they are getting closer little by little and that army is so powerful that Israel does not have the strength to resist it, something supernatural is required because humanly there are no chances.

And Josaphat, what does Josaphat do? Cry out to the Lord, summon a great meeting on behalf of the people. He calls everyone to gather in the nation square and there they pray to the Lord and cry out to God. And in the meeting at the moment, to the cry of the people, God responds by speaking to a man who is there, a man of God named Jaaziel, and Jaaziel receives the spirit of God. I was saying last Sunday how important it is that we have faith to receive the spirit of God when it comes into our lives and that we can discern what God is saying to us, and that there is a people that believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit that They are for all time. Because if a church doesn't believe that God speaks supernaturally, you know what? God will not speak. But where there is a people of faith like this people who believed God and gathered to pray and a leader, or leaders who believe in God, there is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to speak.

God spoke through Jaaziel, God gave Jaaziel at that moment a prophetic word, and that is very important for what I am going to say. He gave him a prophetic word where Jaaziel told the people, you know what? do not look at this crowd, do not fear it, no matter how great it is, that is coming against you, look towards God and believe that God is with you. You don't have to fight because the battle is God's and not yours, Jaaziel told them. How important it is, brothers, that we undertake the struggles of life believing that we are not alone.

These are difficult times. How many know that we are living in difficult times? The economic statistics are negative, and there are warnings of drought and shortages in the air, and if you believe that it is only you against the world, there is every reason to despair. But if you believe that you are not alone and that the battle is God's and not just yours, that will give you strength and encouragement to keep going.

And I hope that you, my brothers, know that you are not alone. And the Lord has said, I will be with you wherever you go. And God did not say that only to Joshua, but He says it to every child of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, today I am here with you every day until the end of the world.

These are times, brothers, so that every child of God when they see that crowd that comes against them, knows that the battle is not theirs but that it is God's with you and that you believe the Lord. These are times for the people of God to learn to live by faith, to learn to live according to the principles of Scripture. God is giving us the privilege, brethren, that not many other generations have to live in times where it is going to become more important than ever that we put spiritual principles into practice and that our faith is tested and that we are forced to live by faith Because you know what? Many times we kind of live by faith, but just in case we also reserve another resource, in case our faith fails us and as we are binary and bicameral and we are a little bit of faith and a little bit of flesh and human mind. That is called being double-minded and the Lord says, look, whoever is double-minded, don't expect to receive anything from the Lord.

But I believe that we are living in times that are going to put people to the test and I do not believe that only with respect to finances, I believe that we are entering difficult times for humanity and in those times the truth will truly be said. just by his faith he will have to live. Where we are going to have to put spiritual principles to the test and where people are going to have to decide if they are of God or if they are of the world, where it is not going to be enough to have a layer of spirituality and religion but rather to have one to be genuine and authentic. Spirituality is going to have to go to the very root.

You have seen those woods today that have a good wooden top and cardboard below, there are floors today that you put on, those who are carpenters know that, today there are floors that have a millimeter of good wood and below is plywood or very cheap wood. Well, you know what? God, and that's how many Christians are, we have an evangelical layer on top, but what's underneath is cardboard or plywood. And God is going to test us by fire.

And the Bible says that when we are tested by fire we will see if there is straw, if there is wood or if there is steel and precious jewels. And God does not want people with an evangelical layer, God wants people who put a screw all the way down is good wood. How many can say amen to what I'm saying? I don't know, I like that comparison, I don't know if you liked it, I liked it. Because many times, as I tell you, we live with a religious layer above nothing else, but what we have below is carnality and humanism. And God wants us, in these times that we are living, to learn to be people of one hundred percent faith.

These people who were here were in crisis. Their army could not save them, their strategy could not save them, their economy could not save them, they had no allies who could come to their resources, they were forced to throw themselves at the feet of the Lord and say, Father, have mercy on us.

Hey, it's good sometimes to be against the corner because sometimes things come out there that we didn't even know we had. In times of trial is where God's people truly get what they have. The word of God says that your faith being tested like gold redounds in blessing and glory to the Lord.

And I believe that like Jehoshaphat and the people of Israel we are going to have to believe that God is with us because otherwise we are going to faint and get depressed. Look, and this maybe wasn't what was in my sermon but it's part of the sermon and it's part of that concept of living by faith.

Brothers, look, I was telling you about someone the day before yesterday, I had a conversation on the phone, this person lost his job, he is a very hard-working person, I have known him for several years, a very skilled person in his manual work that he does, and he has been very blessed and prosperous. In these days he has lost his job and is under economic pressure, and in our conversation we encouraged each other and I told him that ultimately, brothers, the final card that is played by the son of God, you know that there is a card that no one can take away from you, even though the whole world falls to pieces above you and next to you, there is a card and it is that you know that no one can touch your soul, the devil cannot touch your spirit and that you are a citizen of eternity, you are not of this world. And the word says that having sustenance and shelter we must be happy with that.

And you know what? When I think about our life, brothers, look, we are so full of so many toys in our life that are not necessary for life, we have toasters that sing to you when they finish toasting, we have beds that one moves and the other doesn't. feel, we have phones with 17 different sounds that you can put on whatever you want, and cars that practically open the door for us and invite us in and close it for us afterwards, and we have so many things that are not really necessary for life . And sometimes God removes all those scaffolding from us and leaves us in the center just to learn that look, I don't need so many toys, I don't need to eat chicken cordon bleue with virgin olive oil and this and that. Look, if God has given me an empty plantain with a little oil, a little onion with vinegar, I'm happy with that. You don't need so much for... who knows if God wants us to learn to go to the center of life for a while and to be happy with that, brothers. You don't need that much to live.

Look, three quarters of the world lives on one fifth of what we have. And sometimes we live like there that if I lose this, if I lose the other I'm going to die, I'm going to shoot myself. Look, you're going to find out that you didn't need it after all and some of us needed fewer calories anyway and that's great now we don't have to worry about being overweight anymore.

Look, ultimately, the Lord says it is sustenance and shelter, you need a roof over your head, a little food to eat and clothes to wear, that's all. The rest is icing on the cake, as they say, that is cream on the cake. And that is the letter that I finally say, look, at the end of the day I am a child of eternity, at the end of the day no one can take away the blessing of being a child of God. My destiny is assured.

Now, within that, I am going to fight for my blessing here on earth, but I am not going to cling to it. So I tell the brothers, look, what we have to do is do a mental exercise and think about the worst situation that could happen in my life and think, ok, well, let's say if I lose my house and I lose my car, can I go on living? And you will be surprised that the answer is yes. You can go on living. Ok, do that exercise in your mind, give it all to the Lord, and say, Father, what you want to give me back, give it back to me and what you want to take, take it. That's yours anyway, and guess what? God is going to tell him, don't worry, you lost that but I'm going to give you like Job ten times what you had. You can always start over.

If the worst happens, it doesn't have to happen, it doesn't have to happen, I'm not saying it's going to happen, but if the worst happens you're going to discover that even so you still have everything you need to be a happy person. The word of the Lord says, even if my father and mother left me with everything, the Lord will pick me up.

And I think it is important that we get rid of greed, vanity, materialism, attachment to toys from our hearts and that we learn to live in the Lord. The Bible says, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It is an invitation to the child of God to live in the principles of the spirit and not in the things of the flesh. The person who loves matter will never be free, they will be chained and enslaved to matter. The Christian who detaches himself from matter is then the only being who can truly enjoy it because the rest are slaves to matter.

Now, when you can live without matter then you can enjoy matter. That is what I am telling you is very deep, listen to it and meditate on it well. When you have freed yourself from material things and objects and money, then when God gives you money and gives you objects you can enjoy them, and if they are taken from you, better ones will come. How many of us live poor in our countries and we arrived here and God has blessed us and prospered us? And look, sometimes we were happier before than now because now all the things we have keep us awake about how we are going to retain them.

The Bible says that the dream of the worker is sweet, whether he eats a lot or eats little, it says, but the rich are not allowed to sleep because of their earnings, says the Bible, and sometimes we have so many earnings that we don't sleep well. And yet poor people lie down and put their heads on the bed and sometimes fall asleep immediately. They get up in the morning, pick a little herb, make tea and a piece of bread with a little butter if that's the case, and they're happy. And children grow up healthy and love their parents and it's not that I'm glorifying poverty, I'm telling you, I love the comforts, but I don't want to depend on them.

And that is why I say that at this time perhaps God is calling many of us to truly learn where your happiness lies, in what. It is an invitation to visit the essential and to live for the essential. They are taking away all the scaffolding so that we understand that we have to live by faith. And glory to God. Later I want to talk about that, about how one can live in times of drought and be happy.

And one of the things that I'm going to tell you here, although again, I'm straying a little bit, but no, this is part of the sermon. Look, one of the things that we are going to have to learn is to learn to live in community more. This is an individualistic society, each one fend for himself as he can, save himself as he can. Everybody on his own and each one independent. It is an atomized society where there is no true community compassion, camaraderie, family spirit, friendship, mutual support. And in these dry times God wants us to support each other.

Look, if you see someone you need and you have, share it. I hope there will come a day when we have to have a meeting here in León de Judá in the morning and bring everyone a little bit of food and share it all here as possible. Glory to God if that's the case, look, amen, it's a privilege to live in community. It is a privilege if you know of a job, as it refers to your brother. These occasions are occasions for communities to bond, for each one to become a brother's keeper, for us to invite each other home for a meal, to share resources we know, to encourage one another, to appreciate more moments of fellowship and conversation, that we love our families more, that we share our fears with each other. How cute is that.

He knows that in industrialized and wealthy societies what is lost first is that sense of camaraderie, people become selfish people, materialistic people, people who think of them, of their own. That is why this crisis has come to this nation, because selfishness has spread in corporations, finances, the government, that is why we are as we are, because that is not a good foundation for a culture and a community. The community thrives where there is compassion, where there is love, where there is camaraderie, where there is sharing of resources, where the strong help the weak and when the weak get stronger then they help the strong who may then be weak. That glorifies God.

And when a society flows according to principles of grace, mercy, love, truth, justice, compassion, that society is blessed. But when it flows according to the principles of the strong eating the weak, the one who knows more deceiving the one who knows less, the strong exploiting the weak, the poor suffering when the strong exploits and deceives them, that society is cursed and sooner or later ends up losing. . Trillions of dollars have been lost in this crisis. Because? is that when you build on sand sooner or later everything collapses. People delude themselves into believing that they are winning when they deceive others, but they don't know that it is simply postponing the disaster, and when the disaster comes they will pay with interest what they won.

He knows that this crisis has not only affected the poor, many rich people, millionaires and those who became rich at the expense, have also lost a lot. This country has lost almost half of its wealth in recent months and it is that God is very clear in his things. The world proceeds according to spiritual principles in the last instance, it is not according to material, rational principles. And we who are the children of God have the privilege of understanding that and the opportunity to live according to those principles of faith, of the spirit.

And I beg you, brothers, to see this time as a privilege in which God tells us, you know what? I am going to give you the privilege of dying to your self and your flesh and of truly living a legitimate and authentically Christian life. And that is a privilege. Even if there is war, it is a privilege. Because? What does a soldier ultimately live for? It is for those few times when war comes. When war comes, a soldier is forced to put into practice everything he has learned. Until the time of war comes that soldier is not a real soldier, he is simply a person who is training. But when the moment of war arrives, which is a moment of agony and struggle, that is where he enters his destiny and his true identity.

We as Christians have the opportunity to live even for a short time as true Christians. And I encourage you in the name of Jesus, do not be afraid, please, these are times for you to put on the full armor of God as the writer of Ephesians says: When the evil day comes, put on the full armor of God and having passed the bad day that you are found standing firm.

These are times so that you do not lodge anxiety in your heart, do not give room to depression in your spirit, do not let circumstances take your spirits away, do not stop talking, laughing, telling jokes, reading the word , to enjoy the important things in life. Say no to the devil when he comes to whisper depression or anxiety or fear.

Look, today I'm here for that reason, I always say, look, even if it's on a sled but I'm going to get to the church, if I can, because I have a war, look, I have a war to the death against fear, depression, adverse circumstances. I want to give glory to God and live by the spirit not by the flesh. I don't always achieve it but in everything I can I want to live life that way and as the Bible says, I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. The Lord does not know about difficult circumstances or difficulties, for him everything is yes and amen.

And we are his children and we have the same spiritual genetics that God has, we have, because he breathed his essence and his nature into us. So as he wins with the faith that he has, which is infinite, we win with the faith that he has given us as well. Whatever situation you are facing, I don't care what it is. There is power in the word of God, there is power in spiritual principles. Learn to live by faith. Learn to live according to the principles of faith. And that is what I want to share with you.

Josaphat was a man who, when the test came to his life, did not go into a corner to get depressed, but rather said, we are going to call a great meeting, we are going to gather the whole community and we are going to pray together and we are going to cry out to God because he is the only hope we have, and in that context of faith the program of God rained and descended. And God used Jaaziel and Jaaziel gave the word and that word came and look at verse 17, it is a verse that I say is a pregnant verse, it is a verse full of teaching. God's prophetic word was this:

“… There will be no reason for you to fight in this case, stop, be still and see the salvation of Jehovah with you. Oh, Judah and Jerusalem, do not be afraid or dismayed, go out tomorrow against them because the Lord will be with you….” Glory to the Lord.

Look, write that verse and put it on your fridge, find yourself a magnet and stick it there on the fridge. Every time you open the fridge read that verse because it is full of teaching.

The first thing he says, there are many spiritual principles here, as I tell you, I'm going to be sharing those spiritual principles of faith. He says, there won't be any for you to fight... it's revealing to me, in this case. Say everyone, in this case. Why did the prophet say in this case? Because in this case God was going to perform a resounding, clear and emphatic miracle. It was a miracle that Israel was not going to have to cut, as the Puerto Ricans say, it was not going to have to fire a single shot. God was going to do it all. All they had to do was worship the Lord and go to the battlefield there. And everything else God was going to do it himself.

And I tell you that many times, brothers, in the life of faith there are times when God will act like this, when all you have to do is adore the Lord, claim the word of God, declare with your mouth that God is faithful, and God will do the work. What's going on? On other occasions, in other cases, God will require you to gird your loins, roll up your sleeves, and work hard. And he is going to work through your efforts.

Unlike, let's say, a person who needs a job and is there in his bed with his friezes up to his neck, in the morning, oh Lord send me a job, I believe that you are miraculous, God, you are faithful. And God says, look, get up and find a newspaper, read it and call the phone and I'm going to bless you in that effort and you're going to get what you need.

There are cases where God says, look, believe me and declare my blessing and move by faith. In other cases, God is going to want you to stick to working hard and that you believe that in that exercion of energy the power of God is going to be with you. There are two models of life and sometimes it will be one and sometimes it will be another. Many times God has worked in my life through my efforts, now, I always give glory to him because I know that my efforts were simply the vehicle that God used to embody his power through me, because he wants me to be a strong and brave man just as he wants you to be a strong and brave woman. What's more, I would say that in most cases God wants you to make an effort and be brave and he says, I am going to bless you in what you undertake. If what you need is to educate yourself, I am going to bless you, but you are going to have to peel eyelashes and you are going to have to study, and you are going to have to fight, because I am not going to give you that A just like that, you have You have to do your part and I am going to bless you and I am going to give you that profession that you are looking for. I am going to give you that blessing but you have to dig, search, touch and ask.

And on other occasions, however, God chooses, look, there are times when before you open your mouth God has already blessed you. In this case God was going to give him a blessing almost for free, in other cases it will require effort. A first spiritual principle.

Second, the prophet says, stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah with you. Look where here is the other part of what I just said. There are times when, and what is more, I would say always, the believer has to learn to find what I call, it is like the fulcrum, it is, as I said, it is the axis, it is the central point, it is the fulcrum where you can stop It can be a word from God, it can be a promise, it can be someone giving you a prophetic word, but like we Christians have to learn to stand on what God has said and what God has declared. That is why it is so important that we learn the word of God well and that when God gives you a word for your life, or for a fight, or a quest, a journey, an adventure, that you find that word in the Bible that has to do with your drama that you are living. And when God gives you that word, you receive it and you kind of make a flag of that word and that word will be the motto of your battle.

Many times God speaks to me like this, while I am reading the Bible, as if a text takes on relief and acquires three dimensions and God tells me, that is the text that I want you to use.

When we were fighting here in the neighborhood to get permission from the city to start the process of building the sanctuary, there was so much fighting out there and the neighborhood was hostile because Boston is not a very good place for churches to try to build, and I don't have it lying around, I'm not going to stop unless I find it very quickly but God gave me a psalm and I put a note on that psalm which, again let me see if it's psalm 144. I wrote, I wrote this several years ago, that little thing here and I have it there in the place, in Psalm 144 it says this little note says, psalm of my battle for the construction of the new temple. I keep it there where Psalm 144 is, I have it there because it was a time of great struggle.

And look at one of the verses that God gave me at that time because we had to go to the city to the social agencies of the city, to the neighborhood groups that do not see our theological position with good eyes, and they had to release the blessing and stop fighting the permits the city had to give us. That psalm 144 in one of the verses says, blessed be Jehovah my rock who trains my hands for battle and my fingers for war. It says my mercy and my castle, fortress and my liberator, my shield in whom I have trusted the one who holds my people under me.

These words gave me my strength because I was fighting a battle and I felt that God told me, look, take that statement and go with it to the market and go with it to the fight. And I received that and made that psalm the motto of my fight.

On another occasion of crisis in my life God gave me another text some time ago, I think it is Psalm 40, if I am not mistaken, or 37 where it says, you have heard me quote it, I patiently waited for Jehovah and he bowed down to me and he heard my cry and made me get out of the pit of despair, from the muddy mud, he placed my feet on rock and straightened my steps, then he put a new song in my mouth, praise to our God, many will see this and fear and trust in Jehovah.

And I entered a time of trial, it lasted months but I clung to that word and each part of that text told me something and promised me something and the last thing that that text said put a new song in my mouth, and I felt that God He was telling me, when you have gone through this test you are going to be a different man, your ministry is going to have other qualities and I am going to put a new song in your mouth. And those who know of your battle and have seen the before and after, as it says here, many will see this and fear and trust in Jehovah. Because you know what happens, after you have gone through the tests there are many people looking to see if you are going to sink and there are many people waiting to see if God is going to get them out of trouble, or if they are going to sink. And there are others who want you to sink and we have a number of witnesses always around us and God says, do not worry that when they have seen your process and have seen how I put you on solid ground, on a safe rock, many will see this and they will fear and trust in the Lord.

Because when people see you go through the test and you come out smelling like roses and lilies, they say, wow, truly God is with him, God is with her, and they fear God and trust in the Lord, and you are a source of encouragement to others. That is why you have to find those texts and so I could tell you, God has spoken to me at this time, for example, he has given me texts for this stage of the process of building the temple and I believe that I am moving in those words. . Those texts speak to me and give me strength and I stand on them. That is my battle point.

When I use the sword I use it while standing in that territory because the blows of the sword that you give when you are standing on the word of God are ten thousand times more powerful than when you are simply standing on other things.

So, the prophet says, stop, be still. Look, many times, brothers, the most powerful place for a man, a woman of God is stillness, rest, because how many times does agony and anguish exhaust us. And I ask the Lord, Father, I do not want to live my life in agony and anguish, I want to live always renewing myself like the eagle, in the air, gaining new strength to be able to continue the battle.

Many men and women when they work and serve the Lord burn out and as the years go by, they get weaker. I believe that the child of God should be the opposite, the more he moves in the power of God and the word of God, and the more he processes the principles of the Gospel, the stronger he should be. And you must find more stillness, and you must be more economical in the use of your energies, and you can do much more while wearing less because you use less gasoline, your engine, your transmission becomes more efficient and then you consume less gasoline and you can do more because you are cultivating stillness.

Much of the gasoline that we use is due to anxiety and worry. We don't sleep well, we spend mental energy worrying and anticipating the disaster and we bleed out drop by drop, like a woman with an issue of blood: drop by drop we bleed out and weaken. And so it is with the children of God. Many of the decays are due to worry, anxiety, not because God wants it to be so. When one learns to be still in the Lord, that is your point of power.

What does the word say? You will keep in perfect peace the one whose thought in you perseveres. Be still and know that I am God. And so many other texts that speak to us about stillness.

He says, in rest and stillness you will be saved, in rest and rest will be your salvation. There is something in the stillness, not stillness like any stillness, it is a stillness in God, it is a stillness where the devil is raging around you, the storms are raging around you, they are whispering to you destruction is coming and you are still in the Lord, and you still like a master of Zen Buddhism, like a spiritual samurai, you center yourself and let the world revolve around you and you forget yourself and get into the center of God and find that place of stillness. That has incredible power.

Look at Jesus in the boat, the storm raging around, the boat looks like it is going to sink, the disciples are going crazy with fear and they think the boat is going to destroy and the Lord is there snoring freely. And they approach Jesus and say, Lord, don't you see that we are sinking, what's wrong with you, don't you love us? How do you neglect yourself like that? And the Lord wakes up and looks around and sees the storm and says, peace, that's all he said, be still. They say that immediately the sea turned like glass, everything calmed down and they were amazed. And the Lord said to them, why did you fear, men of little faith.

What allowed the Lord to be calm in the midst of the storm? He knew who he was, he knew that he had a mission to accomplish, he knew that he was God himself and that this storm had no power. As long as he was in that boat, that boat absolutely could not sink because he was standing in his identity as the Son of God.

And it is like that in life, brothers, we have to say, Lord, help me find peace in the midst of the storm, help me to stand on what you have declared, help me to silence the voices of fear and be still.

And you know what happens? When you stand on the word that God has given you, when you are still and find the axis of your life, then you have the opportunity to see the salvation of the Lord. And then the blessing comes to your life and it may take months, weeks, years, but you will see the salvation of Jehovah and meanwhile you are calm in the Lord, the voices are roaring but you are calm. He does not see what he says, see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or dismay. There are times when one has to tell oneself, do not be afraid and do not faint. There are times when anxiety comes into your life in such a way that if you don't take care of yourself, you will break into pieces from so much trembling that you have inside.

Have any of you gone through times of those early morning hours when anxiety comes and gets inside you like a demon and you say, how am I going to spend today, what awaits me on this day? What does one do at that moment, what does one do? You go to the doctor to fill your head with pills and make you look like a zombie and seek refuge...? Look, I tell you if that is the only thing that you can do according to your faith, if that is what you have to do, do it, I am not going to say no because there are people who may need that help, but I would say that there is a better way. manner. Take a pill of faith and God's power and God's blessing and promise. Test God first.

There are many times that all you need to do is learn two or three or four good psalms and recite them and you will see how the waters recede immediately, a few verses that you can throw at the devil in the forehead to destroy the giant. That is why it is important, memorize the word of God, have access to the word of God.

There are many people that the only time they have contact with the Bible is when they come to church and the rest of the week they never meditate on the Bible. I believe that the son of God, the Bible is his rifle, the Bible is his sword, the Bible is his weapon of choice and the Christian warrior has to, he is like a soldier who, if he does not learn to use the weapon, the weapon, what is it for, and what is the Christian's weapon? It is the word of God, it is the number 1 resource but many of us have not learned to use the word.

Y yo creo que mire, I speak to you Young people, young adults, please learn, the old people, I'm going to use that term respectfully, they have learned the word of God by heart, many of them, they know it , they have memorized it. Their bibles are full of markings and the pages are weathered and broken up because they use it. Please, learn the word of God.

Study the word of the Lord, young people, go on a bible diet and memorize the Bible because when the word of God lives within you you can take it out in times of need and then the blessing can come. There are times when if you know a verse or two or three, that is all you need for peace to come into your life. And there are many times that a word will come up in a moment of crisis and it will come out of your mouth, and you do not know where that word was but it comes out at the moment and that is the word that you can go to the bank with that word and there will be blessing for your life.

It is necessary that we are aware of the word of the Lord and that we say to our soul, soul, calm down, rest. For me there are texts that give me peace, they give me rest. Why are you dejected, oh my soul and why are you troubled within me, wait on God because I still have to praise him, my salvation and my God.

See, when I recite that psalm, if there is time for anxiety I can take the word of the Lord and enter into it and pronounce it as if it were me, my soul, speaking it, says, like someone wounding my bones, my enemies affront me saying every day where is your God. There are many times that the mind and people tell you like this, aha, look, you who say that God is so faithful and that he is so good, now, why are you in that situation? So there you have to say to the soul, why are you dejected oh my soul and why are you disturbed within me? Wait on God because it is still to praise my salvation and my God.

There is a time when you have to speak to your emotions with the word of God so that those emotions are tamed and assume their true position, which is the position of faith. So, he says, do not be afraid or dismayed, go out tomorrow against them. You have to go against the problem. Don't wait for the problem to come to you.

The Hebrews were waiting for the army to come and God told them, no, you go out and meet them on the road. That principle, I think I mentioned it last Sunday, don't let problems take control of your life. When a problem comes into your life, be it family, marriage, health, finances, emotions, whatever, don't let the problem have sovereignty and lordship over your life. Don't let the problem control you. Do not get so into the problem that all you see is the problem, but at that moment you have to go against the problem, you have to determine a strategy, you have to fast, pray, cry out, search, touch, remind the Lord what he has promised you, remember the times when he blessed you, if there are any adjustments that need to be made in your life, make them.

If there is someone you have to ask for forgiveness, ask for their forgiveness. If there is something in your lifestyle that needs to change, change it. If you need strength to break a bondage, go and seek it from the Lord. If you have to confess something, find someone discreet and tell them, look, I did this and this and this and I want you to pray with me and ask for forgiveness together. Whatever, if you need a job, pray that the Lord will guide you where you need to go. If you are going to lose something, give it to the Lord and now, as I said before, deal with your emotions. That is to say, there is always something that one can do because what the devil wants you to do is that you simply lie down to die, fear and faint.

What does faint mean? Let your guard down, let your arms droop and say, I can't take it anymore, there is no solution, destruction is coming to my life. God says, no, go out against the problem. Get into fighting the problem and don't give up. The child of God should never give up. That was what Churchill, Winston Churchill, said when the Germans came and it seemed that the Nazi machinery was completely irresistible and at the most terrible moment in the history of England, a tiny little island compared to that immense machinery, that Nazi, German mass that He came to destroy the English, he told the English people, never, never, never, never give up, never give up and if that could be said by a humane, carnal, secular man, how much more should the son of God say it .

Says the word, neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the future, nor the past, nor the things to come, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus . Those are words that are there that is why we cannot give up. He says, before in all these things we are more than winners, in all the situations that can come to life, the Christian says, you know what? I'm going to go through that meteor shower and I'm going to come out on the other side with my ship. And when the rain and the storm have passed, I am simply going to remove the boards that I put over the windows, I am going to open it to hear the birds singing again because I am not going to faint, I am never going to give up because Jehovah will be there. with me, with us

God is with us. I'm going to ask the musicians to come through here quickly. Brothers, I leave you with one last thought because this is so important, this is perhaps the core, the center of this word. When Jehoshaphat heard the voice of God through the prophet, he encouraged the people to believe the prophet who had said that word because the strategy that came through the prophet's mouth was so incredible and so difficult to accept that Jehoshaphat had to tell the people , believe what you have heard. Because who would think of first exposing themselves against a huge army, opening the city gates to go and find the enemy army, when what you have is a small group of people. The natural, the rational, the militarily correct would have been to bar the doors and stay inside and resist. But in this case the prophet tells him, no, you go out and then he tells them, look, don't worry about carrying weapons, rather take the priests and take the worshipers and put them in front. And when the enemy comes, worship and glorify the Lord.

Look, if you don't believe me, go there, look at verse 21, he says, and having consulted with the people, he put some to sing and praise the Lord dressed in sacred ornaments while the armed people came out and said, glorify the Lord because his mercy is forever. And when they began to sing songs of praise, Jehovah set against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, their own ambushes that came against Judah and killed one another.

The strategy was praise, glorify, bless the Lord and use the musicians, the singers, the priests and the word of God and that will be the weapon that you are going to use against the enemy. It was a crazy strategy. Look brother, most of the time the Lord's strategies are crazy and God usually uses weakness against strength.

What did he use on Gideon? When Gideon went against the…. Well, we'll see later, don't worry, whatever, they were enemies, the Midianites I think it was. How did Gideon win the battle? It says that they took clay pots and put torches inside them and a few men surrounded the enemy, 300 of them, and in a moment they all broke the clay baskets at the same time and shouted, for Jehovah and for Gideon and that was what they did. that the enemy was confused and they all killed each other, and a great battle was won.

In another case the walls of Jericho were completely… Who dares to do that today? And over and over again one sees that God's strategies, that's why I said, remember I started this series asking how will this be? One always wonders, how will this be done? Because when God tells you I am going to perform a miracle in your life and one sometimes thinks about the magnitude of the miracle, one scratches his head thinking how, where this blessing that God says is going to come from.

But you know what? Glory to God that the strategy is not yours, it belongs to God. God always has a strategy and his strategy is very simple, very easy because God is totally economical. He does not have to elaborate a very complete and complex mathematics, he has a simple answer. Sometimes one laughs at the solutions that God invents. And all we have to do is walk by faith, move by faith.

In this case, God told him, this is what you have to do, go, dress the priests, put them in front and worship me and I will take care of the rest. Now, this is why I came brothers, when Josaphat listens he encourages the people to believe. Because I'm sure that people, hmmm, that's not so easy like that, that's not going to happen that way, they started and then Jehoshaphat told them, look, look what he said in verse 20, part two:

Hear me Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God and you will be safe, believe his prophets and you will prosper. I am going to read it to you a second time: believe in the Lord your God and you will be safe, believe his prophets and you will prosper.

My brothers, what we want to do in the midst of a very powerful economic enemy is not only to remain calm and trust in the Lord, but to proceed aggressively to build and give. In the midst of this economic crisis, I am telling you prophetically, don't just save money, I am telling you, give to the Lord.

Now, I know from that silence I know that many of you do not believe what I am saying at this moment. Because of that silence, I know that many of you receive what I am saying with some fear, and it is natural, and even with some skepticism. This is some weird syrup seller telling me to buy it because my hair will grow if I use it. Look, I am speaking to you, brothers, this morning I said it and I will say it again, I am not continuing the construction of this temple as a pastor, I am continuing it as a prophet. I tell you like that in that way, you don't have to clap. I believe that I am moving in a prophetic energy. I believe that I am moving into something supernatural because I assure you that what I would like is to remain silent and wait, and simply say, we are going to close this store and forget about that dream and we are going to pass this so that nobody thinks that I am obsessed or that I'm exploiting people or whatever, and I would like to be calm in this time, but you know what? The fire inside me won't let me do that. I think that if I did not do everything possible to promote this, I would be robbing you of the greatest blessing that God has for this community. I sincerely feel that God has chosen this time to test us as the widow of Zarephath that I am going to preach about.

What we are living we are living in the text of the widow of Zarepta. I told you a moment ago that sometimes there are texts that God tells me, this is the text that you have to use for the battle. Well, the battle of the construction of this temple is in the modality of the widow of Zarepta, Elijah and the widow of Zarepta. That is the motto text where this widow had almost nothing to eat, she was going to die, she said, all I have left is a little flour and a little oil and Elijah goes to her and tells her, scandalously, give me First a little bit of food and then you and your son eat and I promise you that you will not lack food or oil all the time of this famine.

Listen to me, with what heart you say to a person who has almost nothing, give me something to eat first. They would put me in jail, they would take me out of the city like a charlatan. But God tells that woman, give me to eat first through the prophet and I promise you that through that sacrifice, that scandalous act, I am going to unleash the blessing in your life.

This woman believed the prophet and says that she and her son never lacked food while the famine lasted at that time in Zarepta. Because there are times when God asks you to do something outrageous to release the blessing in your life. I feel, brothers, that if we pass this test, the blessing will come to this community of León de Judá like never before and that God is testing us as he does so many times in Scripture and he puts you a riddle and tells you, if you You solve it, I'm going to bless you after it. If you give me what you love the most, he told Abraham, if you give me your son, your only son, what's more, he didn't tell him that he was going to give him anything, he simply said, give me your son, your only son . And Abraham was going to give it to him, he was going to put the knife himself and God told him, hold on, every one of you denied me what I asked of you, I am going to give you children in abundance, I am going to give you offspring, I am going to enrich you and you will be a blessing to others.

My brothers, when God asks you for something and that something is his and it is prophetic, immerse yourself in that word and you will be blessed. I don't know if I'm making myself clear. Believe the Lord and believe his prophets and you will prosper. Live in faith and live in the word of God.

Listen to me, I told you that this is a time when you have the privilege, as few times in your life, of living the word purely. In these times that we are living in scarcity, the only people who are going to be prosperous and blessed will be those who find the crack of the word of God. Those who find that word for their lives, those who move genuinely and authentically in the spirit, those who take all the dust off the top of the wood, and shine it, make it shine again and take out the rusty sword that makes years that have not used it and shine it and put oil on it, make it shine again and start using it. Those are the ones who are going to be prosperous and blessed. I plant you in the name of the Lord a seed, live in faith in this time of your life. Believe the Lord and you will see that you will be blessed and prosperous.

Let's stand up, brothers, let's give glory and honor to the Lord for everything we have received on this day. Put your heart there, what you have received and tell it, Father, I put it very deep, that seed very deep in my land and I declare it vivified and awakened within me. Help me to be a man, a woman of faith, help me to put everything on the table and live by your word in Jesus name. Rise up, Lord, a powerful people, a people of faith, a people that believe in their God and thank you that we have the privilege of learning to live by faith, Lord.

We adore you and we bless you. We give you our life, everything we have, everything we are, we put it, Lord, at your disposal. Be glorified, praised be your name. Thank you Jesus. Amen and amen. Glory to God.