Tighten the screws on us!

The word that I want to share is very much in tune with what our sisters Gloria was exhorting this morning, and it is simply a sermon that I am going to call a prophetic sermon and it is titled "Tighten the nuts", what do you think? Let's put it like this, Tighten the nuts on us. It is in Second Chronicles Chapter 20, and I say that it is a prophetic sermon, a prophetic word because you know how sometimes the only thing I have, almost like a verse, a couple of sentences in my mind and I even wrote some notes and I don't know where are they. I believe that the Lord took them from me so that I could simply trust him, what he wants me to say. It's very good like that.

Second Chronicles, Chapter 20, and you know the story of Jehoshaphat. I have preached on it a few months ago, several months ago and go to verse 13, Second Chronicles, Chapter 20, verse 13 and let me give you the background to that moment here in verse 13. Jehoshaphat king of Judah receives an urgent report , there is a crisis in Judah, the nation he leads. Remember Israel had been divided in two, there had been a civil war, there was the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom called Israel, although originally both were Israel, but now there were two kingdoms: Judah and Israel. The northern kingdom was called Israel and the southern kingdom was called Judah and Jehoshaphat was king in Judah, the southern part of the divided kingdom.

Jehoshaphat was a pious man, a man who feared God, a man who feared the word of God, he had worked hard for the people of Judah to straighten their paths, but news came to them that an army was coming against them, an army invader has entered Judah and is about to invade and possess the entire land and expel the Hebrews from their land, possess them, conquer them and give that report to the king. The king obviously worries a lot and knows that he does not have the strength as an army to be able to resist this huge enemy army that is coming against him, and that it is already within the nation. And so they call a meeting of the whole nation, a crisis meeting, a meeting to cry out to God because it's all they have left. His army does not have the solution, so he summons the entire nation, gathers them in a large public square and all the people gather, he says with their wives and children, to cry out to God and to ask him to perform a miracle and that release them.

In fact, the prayer that he makes, part of it, I am not going to read it all, I think it would be good for us to listen to it because it is a very beautiful prayer, very eloquent. For example, in verse 10 of Chapter 20 he says:

“…Now then, behold…., he is praying to the Lord publicly, the king is praying in front of all that immense multitude of his people while that army is getting closer, far away, but they are already inside the earth and they come to possess them . Then he cries out, leads the people in a public prayer and says: “…. Now therefore, behold the children of Ammon and Moab, and those of Mount Seir, into whose land you did not want Israel to cross when they came from the land of Egypt, but you told them to turn away from them and not destroy them. Behold, they give us the payment now, coming to drive us out of the inheritance that you gave us in possession….”

And then he cries out in verse 12 “… our God, you will not judge them because in us there is no strength against so great a multitude that comes against us….”

Look how cute that word he says, he says, “….we don't know what to do….” How many times have you found yourself in situations where you don't know what to do? I think that for a son of God, a daughter of God, sometimes that position is the best of all because that's when you give up and you say, you know what? I have already tried everything and nothing comes out of possible answer. I've done all the errands I can do, I don't have the answer. I have done my part and when I analyze this situation it is impossible to penetrate, I don't know what to do. When you reach the end of your strength, right? It is a good point for the believer because that is when many times God can enter into action, when we humble ourselves and recognize that we are weak.

So he says, we don't know what to do…. Unfortunately many of us stayed there. I don't know what to do and then we get depressed and we stop going to church, we stop serving the Lord, we get rebellious because God doesn't love us and he hasn't fulfilled his promise, but Jehoshaphat went one step further. says:

"... We don't know what to do and we turn our eyes to you...." He said it like this, publicly, Lord, I am desperate, this nation is desperate, we do not know what to do in this very difficult situation and therefore the only thing we can do is turn our eyes towards you and see if you extend your hand to us relief and help.

Then the word says that when he finished praying, he said, well, I'm done, I already told the Lord I don't know what to do, what else am I going to do. It says, look at what it says in verse 13, “….and all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their sons. That crowd was listening to their king pray and it's like the writer puts on a giant camera and runs the camera with that movie on the big screen, runs the camera and one can see on the screen that crowd of women with their children, their husbands on the sides, the young, the old, everyone is tense, silent and waiting to see what will happen. The king has finished his prayer, there is an expectation, and there is silence.

And I imagine that this silence lasted for several minutes. I imagine that King Josaphat became uncomfortable and all the people were also uncomfortable, what do we do, we leave, we stay, what are we going to do. Sometimes it is important to wait for the word of God, to wait for God to speak, so important. Many times we are talking, talking, talking and praying, and praying and praying and you say, shut up for a moment so I can tell you what I want you to do, to give you a word. It is important at times to be silent and rest in the Lord.

God has spoken to me a lot in this time about that, in the midst of crises, trials, difficulties, struggles, that your soul is not anxious because one burns many times for this, for not waiting on the Lord. You can work a lot, you can do many things, but you have to ask the Lord, Lord, let me be calm inside, quiet and sometimes take time to rest and do nothing because sometimes the most serious thing you can do in life is do nothing. That costs more than doing something many times. Sometimes the most powerful thing that a woman, a man of God can do is take a day off from work and that day stay at home waiting on the Lord and praying and crying out and fasting and reading his word and worshiping the Lord. Lord, and having a good party with God. Wow! If we did that from time to time, who knows what would happen in our lives. Because that stillness in the Lord, that rest in the Lord, that keeping a day of powerful rest in God, powerful stillness I call that. It's not the stillness of doing nothing, it's a stillness of just focusing on God and concentrating on him and worshiping him and doing things that glorify him. There's a lot to say about that but it's not the time.

But they just stood there, waiting, so it says in verse 14, “…. And there was Jahaziel, the son of Zacharias, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, he says, upon whom the spirit of the Lord came in the midst of the meeting, upon whom the spirit of the Lord came in the midst of the meeting….”

There was a man, a priest, it seems that he came from a very specific lineage of priests, he must have been a very special man and it says that the Holy Spirit fell on that man in answer to the prayer that Josaphat prayed. And that man prophesied.

It is important, brothers, that we ask the Lord to help us more and more each day to cultivate intimacy with the Holy Spirit and that we ask the Lord to help us to be a people united by the spirit and that we learn to flow in the gifts of the spirit. Listen to me well, it is very important, this is the time more than ever that we are filled with energy from the spirit, that we are a people that moves in the spirit, that when we ask God for something that we believe that he is going to do it , that if we pray to the Lord and say that your presence is in our midst, we believe that this presence will descend, because God has promised that if we ask him he will give it.

Then the Holy Spirit came upon Jahaziel and he prophesied and said, “…hear all Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat your king, Jehovah says to you, Do not fear or be intimidated before this great multitude because it is not yours. war but of God. Tomorrow you will go down against them, behold, they will go up the slope of Sis and you will find them by the brook before the desert of Jeruel..."

Look to see if God didn't know, he wasn't in control of the situation. He knew exactly where these people were coming from, where they were going that morning, he knew that not even the GPS could tell him more exactly where these people were coming from. Before there was GPS, the Lord had already invented it up there. He has a GPS that is not wrong. Mine has taken me to some weird places at times, but that one… the Lord was in control. What's happening? Many times there are so many things in life, there are so many situations that one goes through in life, there are so many enemies with which one fights, so many problems that come to one in life and one believes as if God forgot about me. , God does not know what is happening. And if it is happening to me, that means that God does not know what is happening because he is good and he is not going to allow…. But God knows, God is in control. God has a plan. What happens is that sometimes we have to look for that plan and we have to believe God and live a life that is capable of unleashing the mighty move of God.

Because if we live a messy, diluted and lukewarm life, God's purposes will not be able to be fulfilled in us, it is so important that we live a life of integrity before God and that in everything possible….

Jehoshaphat was a man who had his mistakes, he had his flaws but he was a man who loved God who had paid the price. And I think that's why when he cried out, God heard him and told him, look, he gave Jahaziel that prophetic word, he told him, don't worry tomorrow, go out against them. It's a huge crowd, it's true, but they're going up that place, wait for them there because I have a plan. God knows.

Our church is 25 years old, 27 years already in existence. I have walked with the church since it began in its first services and our church has gone through many different stages, many different processes and one kind of wonders, well, what does God have, what plan does God have for this church, With all the things that have happened and all the situations and the moves and everything, God has been with us and one feels like God has a very specific plan for this church. There is a purpose that he has with her. He knows exactly, and what we have to ask the Lord, Lord, teach us what is the plan that you have, what is it that you want to do with the Lion of Judah Congregation, give us a prophetic word, give us prophetic instruction. Not the instruction that comes from Pastor Miranda to make plans and sit down a group of people and, okay, what are we going to do, and speak in the flesh with the mind and the conjecture of the human brain. Otherwise, I believe every day more and more that we have to proceed according to the prophetic word, to the instructions that God gives his people.

That is what the people of God need, at this time in human history, what the church of Jesus Christ needs is the prophetic word, the word of God. Because? Because the time that the Christian church is living on earth is a time of great crisis where there are great enemies that are against the church and there is a whole system, and this is actually, this is the point of my sermon. There is a word here for the individual when he is going through a crisis, but in reality this is for our church, León de Judá, and also for the church of Jesus Christ in general, this sermon, this word that God has given me is rather in that level that I preach it.

But the church of Christ in the US, in Europe, in the Western world, and in many other parts of the world is in crisis just like Judah was. There is a very strong enemy against it, the media, the governments, look at this nation with a secular, rationalist government that does not have the wisdom of God in it. And there are things that are against the values and principles of the Church of Jesus Christ in this nation, in Europe, in many parts of the world, and I believe that the Church of Christ can say, as Josaphat said, we don't know what to do. and towards you we turn our eyes.

That is why in this time of crisis and pressure on the church of Jesus Christ throughout the world we cannot depend on the human word. In other times, perhaps the church of Christ can advance only with a generic prayer and with some illumination, but Jehoshaphat could not go to the book of the law and try to find a solution to that crisis there. That crisis required a word directly from the mouth of God to resolve that crisis, you could not depend on the other word that is also very good, but there are times in your life that you need God himself to send you a direct message from the throne and Say, this is what you have to do. You're going to go to this place, and you're going to apply, and you're going to knock on that door, and you're going to do something extreme, and that's what's going to solve your problem.

There are times when you can't go to the Bible and say, oh, Lord…. No, no, no, you need a word from God, born in the spirit, cultivated within you. That word that comes out of the mouth of God. And I believe that in this time of humanity the church of Jesus Christ needs a prophetic word, a clear word that tells it where to go to confront that enemy and to decapitate and destroy it and enter into the effectiveness and prosperity that God wants her to have.

And that was what Jahaziel told him. That's what God did, wasn't it? Go out against them. Look, verse 17, “…. There will be no reason for you to fight in this case, that is, you will not have to fight directly with the enemy, in this particular case you will not have to fight, you will not have to face him directly. There are other cases in which God is going to ask you, and he asked him, you had to take the swords and fight with the enemy, and cut off his head directly. But God said, in this case it will not be like that, the fight will be different. In this case, he says, you will not have to fight in this case, but, what does he say, look "... stop, be still and see the salvation of Jehovah with you..."

See what I say about being still sometimes and standing on what God has said. There are times, brothers, when God speaks to you and tells you something in your heart and gives you a prophetic word, all you have to do is stand on that word. That word has to become a carpet, a platform, the word that God gave you, you have to stand on it and stay calm on that word, that's all you have to do. As long as you are standing on that word and as long as you are moving on that word, you are invincible. That word that came from the mouth of God has to be fulfilled by obligation. Heaven and earth may pass away but that word will be fulfilled. You have to stand on that word, don't start looking for something else, don't start doing something else because if you get out of it, then you are in someone else's territory, insecure, uncertain.

That standing on what God has declared in your life has tremendous power and sometimes one has to be stubborn. If God has said something to you in your heart and you know it is truly from God, a genuine word from God, stand on it.

I could tell you that many times in my life God has given me a word, sometimes a verse of Scripture has activated it and that word is the one I have used and that verse has put up with me until I went through the crisis. Or it has given me a thought and I have had to stand on that thought and I have to believe that it is from God. And that is what has led me. That has been my flag while I have fought those battles. And God has brought me forward. Stop and be still.

That being still is like being still inside, taking a deep breath and not looking for someone to tell you. Do not be looking for advice from others, what do you think of this, and what do you think of the other, what do you think of what I am doing, that is good at times, brothers, but every day God tells me more and more , if I have told you something, believe it and do not be consulting there to listen. I really like the general advice of others, I try as much as possible, but there are things that God tells me more every day, what I have told you is what you have to do. Don't go around looking for other second opinions.

Someone has said if God put a period, don't put a question mark. If God told you something, believe it, be calm about it and then expect that you will see God's salvation. You will see the salvation of God. That's what God was telling me about the church in this time of Jesus Christ and all these kinds of things, don't worry so much, don't be….

A year or two ago I was very into and very active in all things New England looking for revival, church unity, gay marriage, a lot of things, fighting around here, going from one meeting to another, organizing things and you know what? And it has hurt me to have to reaffirm all these things because I honestly tell you I don't like to say these things, when I arrived, oh, Roberto arrived, the solution is already there. Let's do it. And it has hurt me, I have had to humble myself and distance myself from many of these things and people will think, I sometimes wonder, they will think that I disappeared from the map, that I was not consistent in what…., but God helped me He said, be calm, wait for what I'm going to do. And I am still, but inside it is also a different stillness, you know, I am waiting on the Lord.

And if God tells you to be still, don't be looking for other things, don't be, whatever they say, and until your mind says what it wants to say, obey what God tells you and wait on the Lord. And then God we will see…. He is God, he knows the problem, he knows what his church needs in this region, he knows what his church needs in this nation, so it's like he's surprised by what's happening.

My part, what I am saying is that I have to fill myself within with the power of God, I have to make sure that my life is right with God, that I am receiving the word of God, that I am eating good spiritual food and then How to draw the power of God from my position of inner health, pull the power of God and then when that power is inside he knows what to do. I think that is what one has to do when going through difficult situations in life. Fill yourself with the power of God and attract things to you, that you become a magnet that attracts things towards your spirit and that is what inner stillness is, of resting in God.

Then, Jahaziel said to him, see the salvation of Jehovah, O Judah and Jerusalem do not fear or dismay, go out against them tomorrow because God will be with you. Imagine if one hears that word, if you are a people with an army, if you have an army, Jehoshaphat had an army, and there is another very powerful army coming against you, and you have asked the Lord for something to do, and The Lord obeys that prayer, and gives a prophetic word to someone and says, hold on to your army, this fight is not like that, but go out tomorrow against them and stand in front of them and wait for them when they go out in such a place, because you are not those who are going to have to fight.

Brothers, the truth is that it can happen to one as it happened to Gloria: one says certain things, commits certain things and then when God tells you something, one backs down because what he says is contrary to everything he dictates. your meat. That is why I believe that we have to learn, brothers, to move by faith and in strict obedience to the Lord. Don't get carried away by your emotions. Do not even take your body because the body is the most spoiled thing in the universe and sometimes God will tell you, I want you to go to such a place to pray and cry out, go to church, not only on Sunday In the morning, I want you to go in the middle of the week and go to that special prayer meeting, and I want you to fast. And you are going to say, I am too tired, I have worked too much, as many say here in this church and in other churches. confess it. And we are too tired, too much, the body does not obey, but one has to obey the word of God.

And when one moves in the word of God that is where the blessing comes because neither the body nor the mind, nor the emotions are subject to what God wants to do. They are fallen things, they are things that are penetrated by sin, they are not good instruments to process what God wants.

That is why I learn more and more every day, I have to let myself be carried away by my spiritual understanding, not by what Roberto Miranda wants, says, fears, desires, but by what the word of God says, what the spirit says within one. If the spirit tells you, go to church, look, even if you have to crawl, go crawling and enter the church. If the spirit tells you to do this, find a crane to move your arm and take you to do what God said, but do it. Do not be put off.

It is one of the things that I tell you, my brothers, I speak to you now in the prophetic spirit, that many of you and I speak to you in the pastoral spirit too, many of you still do not understand what it is to live in the spirit and in the prophetic word. I do not say it in the spirit of accusation and condemnation, I say it in a very natural way, but I say it in a prophetic way, the Lord is speaking to you. And you have to learn what it is to live life in the spirit, what it is to truly consecrate yourself to the Lord and live for him and in him and for him. And what it is to enter that dimension.

I myself, at this stage of my life, discover that there are still things that I have to move in another modality for this time of my life. I have to tighten the nuts myself and so do you. And this church also so that God can do what he wants to do, that we can proceed with that integrity, that verticality, that security, that firmness, that reliability of the person who walks in the word of God and who does not let himself be carried away by their emotions, their appetites, their body, their depressions, their anxiety, sleep, whatever, no, that person walks in the word of God. All the word, all the advice of God. God wants such a church. God wants people like that. And God is speaking to us and will continue to speak to us in this way.

So when, notice why I'm saying this, because actually I haven't even gotten to the point of this word yet, I'm getting to it. So, he told her, do this and it seemed contrary to what reason would dictate. Reason would dictate, prepare to even die fighting, strengthen the walls where the enemy arrives, put people on the walls so they can resist. But God tells them, no, go out and expose yourselves and wait for them where they are going to go out tomorrow and the battle will not be military. The complete opposite of what reason dictated, good leadership, military strategy, good administration, everything... the word that God gave them was completely against reason, you see?

And then look at what Jehoshaphat said to him, well then he says, "... then Jehoshaphat bowed his face to the ground and likewise all Judah and the inhabitants of Judah fell down before the Lord and worshiped the Lord..."

What happened? They decided to believe that what Jahaziel had said was true or provisionally because you will see what Josaphat tells you later. They prostrated themselves, adored, said well, God has spoken to us, and went home.

It says, “….and the Levites arose, well, it doesn't say yet, and the Levites of the sons of Coat and of the sons of Korah arose to praise Jehovah, the God of Israel with a loud and loud voice….”

They also praised, they glorified the Lord, they thanked him for that word they had received. They received it, consecrated it, sealed it as the word of God. Ok, so it says that in the morning the day of truth has come. The prophet has told them what they have to do, very early in the morning everyone gets up. And I imagine that what happened again to our sister Gloria could happen; It's one thing when the emotion of service is on fire, everyone is jumping and enjoying and dancing and glory to God, a visitation, a prophetic word here, there, a beautiful thing and when we go out into the street, and We're on our way, the excitement has passed, and we're coming back again. The problem is exactly what we had. When we got to church and our feet got cold again, we began to doubt and ponder inside our heads, wondering, oh, that was it. emotion tells you the devil. Someone crosses your path and you say, two or three curse words and you already lost the blessing and you already forgot everything that happened at that moment, right? The devil is like that, he is an incredible cynic. Because he likes it and sometimes in the most blessed times is when you immediately forget that that's where the lash on the back comes from. He is like that.

So, look when they got up in the morning, went out to the desert of Tecoa and while they were leaving Jehoshaphat, standing up, said to them “… listen to me Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, here it is, this is the center of this word, believe in the Lord your God and you will be secure, believe his prophets and you will prosper….”

That is where I wanted to get to. That was what Jehoshaphat told them, believe in the Lord your God and you will be safe and believe his prophets and you will prosper. If you want to be even more in the center of the sermon, drop the first part and keep the second part just for a moment. Believe his prophets and you will prosper. That is the word of God for us at this time and for the church of Jesus Christ in the place where the church is. Believe the prophets of God and you will be prosperous.

That is what God is calling us to at this time. And in this time of the church, the Lion of Judah Congregation, God is telling you to believe the prophets of God and you will be blessed, you will be prosperous. Now, one cannot believe the prophets of God if he does not believe God first, that is why he said, believe God, Jehovah and you will be safe and as a consequence of you believing God, believe the prophets who he sends, and then you will be blessed and prosperous.

How do I apply that, how do I break it down? Brethren, I feel that this is a time absolutely in the destiny of this church. As I said, I have been walking with this Congregation for 27 years, 25 of them as its pastor, and God always speaks to me at times like when we moved here to Boston, it was crazy to leave a sanctuary that was ours, without paying a penny, don't worry. there, an exquisite neighborhood and God tells us, move to Boston and come eat dust and tear down walls and spend cold and bad times to make a sanctuary here in the city, leave your land and your family, almost literally, and leave it everything and come, leave that and start from scratch again because God gave the word, God gave me a word. I shared it with the people, the people received the word and with fear and trembling we set out brick by brick to build a new ministry. We moved here, we moved in '97 to this place, December '97 formally.

And we've been here and I think we've seen the glory of God, we've seen the blessing of God. God has not failed us. Brethren, I tremble at the thought that we might still be at Cambridge. What would become of us if we had stayed in Cambridge? A little church there still. Perhaps blessed, saying but our destiny was here, and it required a move in faith. And it required people who believed in the Lord because moving from a quiet, elegant, safe neighborhood to the decrepitude that was this neighborhood at that time, that had to be from God. And say, we are going to change our name from Iglesia Bautista Central to Congregación León de Judá, as we did.

Because I felt that the Lord told us, change your identity, and change your name too. And so many other things. Because? Because we proceeded according to a prophetic word. And when I have had the courage to listen. I remember when I was starting this church there in Cambridge, the first time, perhaps I have already told you before, the first time I stood in the sanctuary there in Cambridge to give a Sunday school class with 12, 15 people, I don't know. if they were 15, 20, no more adults, and I was there, I wasn't married yet, I was still engaged to Meche, and the first time should have been November because November was when we moved, November 1982, and I stand behind from the small pulpit to give Sunday school to the adults, and I get that strong feeling in my spirit that God told me, this church has been founded for you to shepherd and I tell them, what I did not have the slightest no intention or desire to be a pastor, happy doing my doctoral studies at Harvard, contemplating an academic profession, smoking a pipe and….. as a teacher, making tens of thousands of dollars, elegant and happy and writing books. And God tells me, this church has been founded for you to pastor. God used Reverend Juan Vergara to found that church and I don't know how they can take it, but God founded that church for me to pastor. And God used him because at that time I was not prepared, I was just a graduate student, I had never carried out my ministry and God used him as the sponsor. And God told me that, and I kept quiet, how am I going to tell him, how do you tell the pastor of the church that the church was founded for you to pastor.

That is a prophetic word. How did I receive it? I received it in here and then it transferred to my mind and I interpreted it. What I felt I interpreted here in my mind and told myself, that is the translation. And I shared it with Meche after we went to lunch that Sunday and she said, you know what? I received that I was going to be a pastor's wife. Meche was a Roman Catholic at the time, and I fell in love with her and invited her to be my wife because I knew that in time I was going to do the work before we were married, which I did. She was not a woman given to receive but that day God spoke to her also telling her the part that was her turn. We compared notes and then we understood that God was…. I stayed calm there, I didn't say anything, I myself wasn't sure if it was God's word or not, a strong impression that I felt an impression. About a year or so past Pastor Vergara said, I have to go to Puerto Rico, return to his wife. No one would have ever expected that he would have to return to Puerto Rico, we did not know that he had to return to Puerto Rico, they wanted to stay, they did everything possible, we did everything possible because we loved Pastor Vergara and we were in love with him, his wife Elsie, but it was not possible and he had to stay there in Puerto Rico, he tried to settle the issues with Elsie's University there, they wanted her, they were waiting for her there. And then I had to get into those waters and learn to be a pastor little by little. And I'm still learning to be a pastor, 25 years old.

But the issue is this, when you receive a word from God and then I had to leave my doctorate, thank God, God allowed me to finish it but I had to go pastorate, change my sense of identity, of the future, deliver something that I he loved so much and that he desired so much for something that was here, that God, that he could still well say, but how does he know it was God, if it was God or not. I cannot tell you one hundred thousand percent, but I believe it in my spirit, and up to now I have not seen anything that contradicts that it was from God. And I never regret having done it, on the contrary, I consider myself blessed.

But when one has to take steps of faith, to dare to do things, when you believe that God… I am not saying that, all the time that God spoke to me, God told me…. No, no, no, there are times when God tells me something and when God tells me something, I believe it and then I have to wrestle with it. God has told me, for example, I feel that God has told me, I want a temple there. I am struggling with that word, but I have to take steps of faith in that direction. And for years I've been there, putting one piece of wood, one piece of brick spiritually speaking on top of another, to make that possible. And there have been difficult moments like this economic crisis that seemed to deny everything I thought, but glory to God, God has blessed us and affirmed us.

But I continue with that because I believe that God said that, and I either believe or it would be better for me to get out of here and stop preaching that we believe God. Because you either believe God or shut up and don't preach certain things. So you have to continue with fear and with fear, and with doubt but you go ahead, because that is what you feel that God told you and you have not received another word, so follow that word. Stand on it.

And take one step a day, one step at a time. Brothers, what I am telling you is that this prophetic word, when God speaks to you, when God speaks to a Congregation, God spoke to a man, to a woman, you have to stand on that word and follow it, follow it, follow it.

Why am I saying all this? Brothers, this is a time, once again, key. I have been, all my life I have been waiting for a moment, a time when God visits the earth, God visits the world and I keep quiet about these things because they are something, they are very personal and very big and very serious things. I keep quiet and I believe that it is time, and I have to start talking about these things because if I do not speak about them I think I am saddening the Holy Spirit and saddening the call of God for this church and for my life. So I simply have to say what I feel in my spirit, what I believe God is saying to me and then I will leave the rest to the Lord.

What can a man do but say what he feels God tells him, and then he has to let it go. But since I am so conservative, so careful not to say things, I keep quiet and then I don't want the fruit to pass before I pick it from the tree. And I believe that this is the time that our church has to march according to a prophetic word from God.

God has a purpose for this Congregation. God prepares a visitation on this region and on the earth. And God needs this church as a well-prepared, well-organized, well-disciplined army, with people who march according to God's orders and who are not questioning the prophetic word of God, which comes through his servant.

Forgive me for being so clear on these things, but God has given me a prophetic word. I am a prophet of God, brothers. I say it like this, the first time in your life that you hear me say that. You know I never say something like that, but I think if I don't say it I'm dishonoring the Lord and then I have to speak things up because I think that by saying that something may be released that has to be released, has to be declared, because I I cannot be holier than the Pope, I cannot be more upright than God.

And up to here I have marched in my pastoral identity but there is another identity, another thing that God has given me and I repress it and I put up with it and I don't say it because I have so much respect for those energies. But I know that God has a purpose, he has a call, God has a move in this time of history and of this nation and of this city, and of this region and God wants his prophets to rise up, his Apostles.

This is the time in which the church has to walk by an apostolic word, it is not by a word of man, God has to raise up his apostles and his prophets. I believe that the people of God have discerned that God is raising up the Apostle ministry again and so the whole world today is called Apostle. But it is because there is a prophetic sense in the bowels of the people of God that yes, it is the time for the Apostles to walk the earth again, for the Apostle to walk the earth.

But not everyone who is called an Apostle or a prophet today is an Apostle or a prophet. You have to be very careful with that. But God is waiting at this time for Apostles to rise up, to give the church the orders it has to follow and what it has to do directly from God, sealed orders that come down from the throne of God and are received by the men whom God has set them to carry out their work. And those men then have to give that word to the church and the church has to decide whether to believe them or not.

Do you understand why the message? That message, I have preached that text several times but I have never touched that point and these last few months God is telling me, preach that. Believe his prophets and you will prosper. And I have repressed it but I have to say it.

And God has been doing some things these days, we have shared with the leaders. I don't know where all this is leading to, I don't see it specifically clearly, but I have to take steps of faith. And I urge you to look inside yourself, examine yourselves, let's examine ourselves, I have to examine myself, I have to go through my own process and I invite you to do the same. Are we truly prepared to do what God wants us to do?

Brethren, I tell you, frankly our church is not ready. We are a beautiful, beautiful, precious church, many people admire and respect us, but I can tell you with complete confidence, and with complete certainty, that this church is not prepared to go to war. And it is not because we are inferior to other churches, but we are not prepared for what God has for us. There are many people who are not soldiers in the Kingdom of God. No, they are not, they are not soldiers. They do not have the mentality of a warrior soldier and they need to acquire the mentality of a warrior in this time so that we can march as an army, as God needs us, there has to be a change of mind, there has to be a change of mind. There has to be discipline, there has to be seriousness, there has to be integrity.

There are people here who tell you, an usher approaches you and says, please, move a bench so that a visitor can come and sit down, and they give him a bad face. They don't know what it is to be a soldier of Jesus Christ in an army. There are people who are told by a parking attendant, please move your car there, and they make life miserable for that person because they don't know what it's like to be a soldier in an army.

There are people who, the pastor or someone tells you something and they slam a door, or give an ugly look, or rebel in their hearts, do not know what it is to walk according to authority. The pastor tells them to come to this meeting, the Lord wants to bless them, to do something, and that person listens and has the luxury of coming or not because that is their business. The pastor said it but that is not... they do not know what it is to walk according to authority and that is why they are not blessed, that is why they are not prosperous, that is why they do not enter into the spiritual maturity in which God wants them. That is why the word bounces off their mind and their heart and they do not receive the nutrients of the word of God. That is why they do not gain wisdom, that is why they never get out of the quagmire, because they do not know what it is to obey the prophetic word, they do not know what it is to walk in discipline, they do not know what it is to walk under authority.

If God is going to do anything in this church and through this church, through my life, both I and you have to learn what it is to walk in authority. You remember, I preached several sermons, God reminded me, that one preaches serious things and forgets him. And exactly one year ago I was in the middle of a series on authority. God spoke to me, sometimes one does things prophetically but does not understand them, and I preached on authority because God made me anxious to preach on authority. Those sermons are out there on the internet, several of them. And I would read them myself and say, wow, this is what I've been feeling.

And that is how God speaks sometimes. God speaks to us and we don't even understand what he is saying. Look for his sermon, they are there on the Internet, what's more, I asked Ernst if he did it, they are there at the very front of the page, you can, listen to them again in light of what I am saying.

If the church of Jesus Christ in this time of its history throughout the world is going to move as God wants it to move in authority like never before in the entire history of humanity, it needs to move according to the prophetic apostolic word. And when the Apostles and the prophets of God say something, the whole church has to unite as an army and march according to the orders of the Apostles and the prophets of God, listen to me.

The army cannot start questioning and pondering in its mind, it will be this, the other, oh, but I think that it should be better this way, that it should be…. No, you obey and move and if you believe the prophets of God there is prosperity and there is blessing. If they resist you there is stagnation, and there is loss. There is nothing like moving in the word filled with the power and spirit of God. That word is full of nutrients, if you eat it, you are strengthened, you are prosperous, you are blessed. If you don't eat it, you can't receive the nutrients that God is bringing down, understand that.

When a man or a woman becomes humble, simple of heart, like a child and responds to the prophetic word, that person is eating from his mother's womb, he is receiving direct milk that nourishes him and gives him strength and increases his endurance. You don't have to go for canned or bottled milk, you take it directly from the mother's chest because it comes down from God's mouth and goes directly to the person. And that person moves in all the power and all the authority of God. When you are doing it in your own thinking, in your own mind, that is inert, dead speech. There is no blessing, there is no progress, there is no authority. The person who is subject to authority, has authority, moves and is prosperous and blessed. While he is there believing that it is a great thing and that he can afford to believe or not believe, receive or not receive, question or not question, he has God's judgment on him or her.

And this is the time, brothers, in which God is telling this church, time is short, there is not much time left, it is time to go to war, and you do not want war to surprise you in that condition. Get ready and get well and learn what it's like to be a member of an army. Believe the prophets of God and you will prosper. Believe God, believe in this Gospel that you say you have received, believe it. And live it and accept it in its totality. Believe God and you will be safe. Believe his prophets and you will be blessed and prosperous. That is the word of the Lord for this Congregation. This is the time, there is not much time left for what God wants to do on earth. There's not much time left, listen to me well.

And the people of God need to prepare for what is coming, for the battle, to go against the enemy, to march as an army, to use the prophetic word, to use the spiritual instructions that come from the mouth of God. It takes a prepared and healed heart to move in humility and obedience.

You know what it says, the Lord has also spoken to me, if you do not become like children, says the Lord, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. You know that you have to be like a child, and many of us are so adults, we have been taught that we have to question everything, think about everything, and decide if we want to obey him or not. That is rebellion.

In another time, perhaps in this church, that worked but it no longer works. It can't work. Today people with the heart of a child are needed. You have to measure whether the people who serve you as the leader of this Congregation are people who listen to God and are people who have a servant's heart. And if they have a servant's heart and hear from God then listen to them, obey them and move according to God's directive.

When they tell you take discipleship, study the word, pray every day, seek the anointing of the spirit, do it. Read the word every day, pray every day, seek the anointing of the spirit. Don't be there thinking, I do it or I don't do it, oh, he said it but nothing, that was an announcement. I will, no, no, do it. obey. If God is saying to you, this is the time, get ready, tighten all the screws if you can, do it. Take seriously.

This is the time says the Lord. It's the time. It is the time for the church to move in authority, under authority, rules of authority, discipline, integrity, seriousness. Let's die to the world, let's take the Gospel seriously, let's be people who move according to the patterns of the word of God. That's the word. As long as you are just a person looking to see if they buy the merchandise like so many in this church, you will never enter into the blessing of God. Buy the merchandise and make sure you buy it and put it in your house. Don't be there seeing if they buy it or not. Those times are already passing, not to say that they have passed.

Believe the prophets of God and you will be prosperous, says the word of the Lord for our church and our time. Let's stand up.

Take a moment to meditate on what you have received this morning. Take a moment and think carefully about what you have received and ask the Lord to give you wisdom to interpret what you have received and ask the Lord that you can, that you be able to absorb it all and live up to that word and I ask the Lord to give me the ability to live up to what I have just declared, to preach.

This word is for León de Judá, it is for me, and it is for the church of Jesus Christ in general. Father, teach us to know you and your way and to discern your voice and to walk in obedience, Lord, to you, in subjection to you, in this key and delicate time, Lord, and risky of our life as a Congregation, as a ministry, teach us to discern your voice, that you want from us at this time, Lord. What do you want from us? You have invited us to meet you, say your word that those who have money or strength should not be proud of their strength or wealth, but rather be proud of knowing you and knowing your heart. And if you have said that, Father, we who are taking that seriously, we want to know you, we want to know you, we want to discern you, we want to know where to walk and how to walk before you, Lord. We don't know what to do and towards you we turn our eyes, Lord. We do not know in which direction to go and towards you we turn our eyes.

We believe that you are going to give us clear directions, you are going to give us instructions, Lord, because you are not a God who leaves your people in confusion or ignorance, Lord. When your people humble themselves before you, they say we don't know what to do, we don't know how to walk, we don't have the next part of this process clear. We trust that you are going to speak to us and give us clear directions, Lord. Your people listen, your people are attentive to you and we desire, Lord, and we need to hear from you in this time so that the glory is only yours, Lord, because we do not want to walk in our own conjectures, in our own reasoning, it is not about of this at this time, Father. We need a sure word from you, Lord. Teach us to move in that clarity, oh God. Bless your people, Father. Protect us from evil, protect us from our own personal lies and deceit, Father. Help us to walk straight in your revelation, Father, in your word, not the word of man, Lord, not emotional things but your word; Father, in this time of history, Lord.

Your people say we don't know what to do, towards you we turn our eyes. I know, Lord, that you will guide us to the safe place. In you everything is yes and amen, Lord. Thank you, thank you, Lord Jesus. Thanks, Dad. We adore you, we bless you, amen, amen, amen.

Brothers, go in the peace of the Lord. Go with the peace of the Lord. God is with you. God loves you. He has good purposes for his life. Meditate on this word, brother, meditate on what you have heard and keep it in your heart. Amen. Amen.