The circumstances that surround us want to put out the fire of the Lord

I want to invite you to open your Bible to the Book of Philippians, chapter 1, verse 12. The Lord always has a purpose for each of our situations or circumstances, so I would suggest that we learn not to complain about what we have experienced, but instead Let's learn and try to understand what the Lord really wants from us from that experience. The Lord always provokes something, always has a cause to generate an effect. The Lord always has a cause, always generates a cause to have an effect in the future. And this text catches my attention, a very interesting text. I read it in my devotional today morning and have been living it personally for the past few months. Says:

"...I want you to know, brothers, that the things that have happened to me have redounded rather for the progress of the Gospel..."

Amen. We close our eyes. Thank you, Lord, for this time of your word, for this time that you are going to allow us, Lord, to open our hearts and be able to be ministered to and blessed, Lord, by your word. Thank you Lord, because each one of us has the opportunity today, Lord, to know who you are every day, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

I don't know if you have faced difficult situations. I don't know if you have gone through difficult times. I don't know if you have had circumstances that have made you think and many times even doubt your faith. Sometimes it usually happens. We are human beings and our finite and limited mind somehow makes us put ourselves in positions where we are suffering beyond what we deserve. You have heard this expression, I know that it has not come out here but in many churches it can come out, why me? Lord, what have I done? Why me? Until when, sir? if I tithe, I offer, I go on Wednesdays, I participate in this in the other in the church.

Man has the mental ability to complain. When something does not seem right to you, when something is not in your benefit, we complain. We complain because we don't have a car and then when we do we complain that gasoline is so expensive, that we have to fix the brakes on the car. I no longer want to have a car. Then the Lord takes the car from you for a little while, Lord, give me back the car.

It strikes me that many of us must learn, and I include myself, do you know why? Because I have been experiencing a similar situation. The circumstances of life for each one of us are many, we are battling on different fronts when we are parents, when we are spouses, at work, when we are workers, when we walk in the street, as a citizen, when we are exposed to temptation , our weaknesses, the economy. Circumstances begin to surround us and begin to increase and I don't know if this has happened to you, but it happened to me, while circumstances revolved around me and I kept my position fixed, trusting in the Lord, at some point In these weeks, I realized that I was turning around with the circumstances as well.

So, how I got up, it was important how I got up because that day I was going to walk or with the economic problem, or with the ministry problem, or with the family problem, it depends on how I got up and what I was thinking about is how I was going. to turn around Circumstances, the enemy uses them to subtract us from recognizing that in God we have all things in control.

The circumstances that surround us want to put out the fire of the Lord that is in us or that there should be, at least. Circumstances, life experiences want to take us away from what God really wants to do with us through those experiences. The verse where the Apostle Paul writes this book catches my attention, do you know how he was? He was in prison. Who writes so happy prisoner? Thank you Lord because I move a place of 4 by 4, thank you.

You know, Paul had no reason to write this from a human point of view. But Paul also said, I no longer live, Christ lives in me. Paul's circumstances were not a reason for him to be sad, to be hopeless, to sit idly by, winking or wrinkling his forehead, telling him, Lord, I have carried your word everywhere, but on the contrary, it was not no matter the circumstance, the Lord wants to glorify himself through negative situations or difficult circumstances. He wants to glorify himself.

Tell your brother, the Lord wants to glorify himself in your circumstances. Let's not victimize ourselves. The Lord does not want victims, he wants the brave. The two things that write in short v. He doesn't want victims, he wants the brave. The brave take away the kingdom and the one who takes the kingdom takes away the benefits of the kingdom, health, prosperity, abundance, peace, the shalom of God is abounding, no matter what surrounds us.

Even to this day the enemy has wanted to slap me a couple of times. The enemy is too diplomatic to hit us today. But I affirmed myself, you know what? No matter what is happening, this must result in the fact that the Gospel of the Lord must be known to all, it must be positive for all and it must spread, it has not been able to spread. God is faithful. God is faithful.

Circumstances did not cause Daniel to deny the Lord. Circumstances did not cause Sadrag, Mesag, and Abednego to deny the Lord. No matter how many lions there were, no matter how hot it was, the glory was for the Lord. and if they died cooked, burned, if they died being food, it doesn't matter, God had to be glorified. It doesn't matter what has happened to me today, but this has to result in the fact that God through Christ in our lives must be shown to all people.

Hallelujah! what circumstances Gideon lived in the book of Judges, chapter 7. Gideon complained saying, Lord, you are the God that my parents spoke to me, who did so many things and look, the Midianites come and take away the little blessing we have. They expect us to hoard the blessing and they come and steal it for years.

But God was favorable to Gideon. They know, it doesn't matter how much the army that has risen in front of you. God needs a few believers who lift the name of the Lord high and declare and confuse everyone or everything that wants to take away your blessing.

What is the circumstance you are experiencing? What is the circumstance that your family is going through, your marriage? The divorce papers, well, once and for all, in the name of the Lord I sign it. No. Begin to look beyond how the Lord wants to glorify Himself in the midst of a crisis, in the midst of a difficult situation, in the midst of your illness, how many can be reached, in the midst of your financial situation, maybe you are going through a time of scarcity, God wants to show that he is your provider. He will not leave you, he will not forsake you, he will uphold you with the right hand of his justice. He is powerful. God is powerful.

The giant who gets up every morning, just like he did with David in the book of First Samuel, chapter 17. Some of us prefer to make friends with the giant at the end so we don't have so much trouble. Now so that the giant is not going to waste his voice, I better become a friend and we can talk more. The Lord wants us to face that circumstance that seems unattainable, challenging, threatening, and the name of Jehovah of Hosts.

Always in Sunday school they taught us that a little David, blond with blue eyes, just like me, a little shorter, not even in dreams, he said? I think that David never looked at Goliath from the bottom up, he always looked at him from the top down, that is why he was not afraid of him, because he looked at him from the heights of his Lord.

Now, physically he was tiny. He did not have the stature of Goliath. But Goliath did not have the stature of the Son of God. So when the giant rises up in front of you to tell you, these are your circumstances, you can't with that weakness, you can't with that temptation, you can't with that model of life. Look at him from above and tell him, I say what I can do.

Circumstances and life experiences do not determine who you are, the day you gave your life to Jesus Christ God determined who you were for the future. So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.

So neither people nor family, nor circumstances, nor situations define who you are, the only one who has the authority to define who you are is God and God has told you, you are my son. Let's spin the bad experiences and cause them to bring blessing to those who are watching us today. Let's not dance with experiences and circumstances, but let's stand firm on the rock that is Jesus Christ.

Psalm 40 says, I patiently waited for the Lord and he leaned down to me and heard my cry, he made me get out of the miry pit, out of the mud of despair, he placed my feet on rock, on stone, on rock, we stood on Christ and nothing can move us

There is a term that is used in apostolic movements, activate your faith. An activated faith will give you a new identity. Begin to activate your faith through the works that the Lord has to do around you and you will see how the Lord will be glorified.

When your blessing is on the other side of an obstacle, it's also good to acknowledge that God is in control. When the walls of Jericho were presented to the people to take what was theirs, how are we going to tear them down? No one had knocked that down, not a town had been able to cross to the other side. It was a fortified city.

Your blessing may be behind the walls of a fortified city and you can't look at that wall and say, Lord, thank you that you let me get to the wall, now I'm going back. You had to be crazy to walk around the wall every day, crazy people did a walk around the wall every day. And the last day, 7 crazy times, 7 laps. That was it.

Circumstances did not frighten the people, but they believed God. Look, something I learned this weekend, Christians are not driven by forecasts, like politics or the economy. We predict that tomorrow the Republican and Democratic representatives will sit down, in one they did not even sit down. We keep forecasting.

Weather, days temperatures are forecast. We're going 70, 60, heavy snow forecast. The children of God did not come by prognosis, we came by declarations of faith. That word struck me a lot. We always said, well, Lord, if it's up to you, Lord. That spirituality combined with some human fear. Let's not live by the forecasts. God is a faithful God who keeps his promises. He doesn't rise like us, he depends on the sun, he depends on the moon. He is God.

There is something impossible for God. There is something impossible for God. Is there something impossible for those who believe in the God of the impossible? For us there is nothing impossible if we believe in the God of the impossible. So, the height of the giant does not matter, the circumference of the wall does not matter, the army as countless as the sand of the sea does not matter, when God is on your side nothing will be able to confront you and this will redound and this will lead many to know that you are a child of God.

God is our first solution in all things. Lord, I did badly at the doctor, now I'm going to pray, to see if I do well with you. Lord, provide for me because my credit was not approved. They did not increase my credit card, Lord, I need… no, tell the Lord, Lord, close the card, I need you to cover me.

Let us rejoice in the Lord. Let us rejoice in it. I want you to know, brothers, that the things that have happened to me, no matter what is happening to it, Lord, have a purpose and the result will be caused by the Lord. the result he wants to glorify himself through what he is going to do through you.

He says, it has redounded, rather, for the progress of the Gospel. So whatever the Lord does with you, he's going to hit any unbeliever next to you and he's going to be tender for the Lord. Hearts of stone changed into hearts of flesh.

Romans, chapter 8, verse 28, does anyone know that text by heart? And we know that those who love God, all things work together for good, all things, this is according to what their purposes are called.

I want to tell you something, you have been called with a purpose from the Lord. Some of us have to preach, some of us have to sing, some of us have to do some things, but that is not the only thing, even this may not even be as relevant as what you can do. So you are called with a purpose, so no matter how the enemy flaps its wings, no matter how much dirt you want to raise around you, God has a purpose with you. And all things, whether positive or negative, will redound to a blessing in your life.

Hallelujah! Thank my Lord. How good is the Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! and in Esther, chapter 4, verse 16, Queen Esther, the first Miss Universe that Christians had. A women's conference is going, Queen Esther, as Miss Universe. I already learned it, the first Miss Universe that the Christian church had in the Old Testament was Queen Esther.

It doesn't matter what the circumstance was, but it makes a powerful statement, if I perish, I perish but I'm going to do what I have to do and God will be shown and God will be glorified.

So it doesn't matter. Do you think that Daniel and his friends didn't think the same, well, if I... someday the lions will eat caviar. But I will not deny the Lord. I will not deny the Lord. It doesn't matter if I die made of pork rinds, with the fire oven, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I die, if I perish, if I perish, it doesn't matter, but I'm going to do what the Lord wants me to do.

Circumstances will not define my state of mind. Circumstances are not going to define my quality of faith in the Lord. Circumstances will not define who I am. God defines who I am and by what he defines I do, by what he defines I say, by what he defines I believe. Glory be the name of the Lord.

Give the Lord a round of applause. Hallelujah! Philippians 1:28 says, uses an interesting word, intimacy. Let us not be afraid because the one who is with us is stronger than the one who is in the world and in him we are more than conquerors. How good is the Lord.

Close your eyes. I want to call your attention to any circumstance that you are experiencing, that no matter how terrible they are, God wants to show his power through it. If it is a disease, if it is a financial situation, if it is a family situation, relational with a neighbor, with a friend. Align that experience in the Lord's purpose and you will see how the Lord will bring you out victorious.

God is faithful. Lord, we present our lives before you and we present ourselves, Lord, just as we are, with all our weaknesses, with all our fears, but with all the desire in our hearts for power, Lord, to be victorious and that every circumstance of our life, Lord, be exposed before you as our God, as our Lord.

Let nothing that happens around us define how we have to do what we have to do and what we have to be, but rather that we maintain our identity as your children, children of the almighty God for whom nothing is impossible. Thank my Lord. Thanks for this time. Thank you for the opportunity to be in your house, Lord. We bless our brothers, we bless, Lord, the return to their home and that they can, Lord, transmit your goodness, your mercies to those who today need to hear them, in the name of Jesus. Amen.