How can God use us?

Second Kings chapter 2: the Lord has given me this message as a challenge for my life, and this afternoon it will be a challenge for you. The Word of God is a challenge this afternoon for you, for my life, for our life so that we are no longer the same, so that we are not comfortable, we must get out of that comfort. Paul said: "Do not settle."

The big problem many times for us is conformity. I already have my house, I already have my little house, I already have the Church, now. We settled. But this afternoon is to move us, to challenge ourselves, it is a challenge that I have come to give you through the message of the Word of God, through the experience of this man, we are going to see three things this afternoon.

The Book of Second Kings says chapter 2, verse 2, thus begins the experience of two men, two men; the master and the disciple. Second Kings chapter 2 reads like this: "Elías said to Elisha: stay here now because the Lord has sent me to Bethel; and Elisha said: Live the Lord and live your soul that I will not leave you, and they therefore descended to Bethel."

"And when Elisha came out, the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel said to him: do you know that the Lord will take away your lord from you today? and he said: yes, I know, be quiet."

"And Elijah said to him: I beg you because Jehovah has sent me to Jordan, and he said: Jehovah lives and your soul lives and I will not leave you. So they both went."

Verse 7 says, "Fifty men of the sons of the prophets came and stood far ahead, and they two stood by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his cloak, folded it up, and struck the waters, which parted to this side and to the other." , and they both passed through the dry."

Verse 9 says: "When they had passed, Elijah said to Elisha: ask what you want me to do for you before I am taken away from you; and Elisha said: I beg you that a double portion of your spirit be upon me." He told him "You have asked for a difficult thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be done so, but if not, no."

Amen, repeat: "difficult thing", amen, let's pray. We praise You Father and glorify You once again, how good it is to be in Your House Lord, glory to Your Name Lord. We beg you so that the Holy Spirit at this time can impart, share, minister to us, bless each one of us. We want good food from Your Word Lord, we are in the right place to worship You Lord. Oh God Lord glorify yourself and move like never before Lord. Speak to us this afternoon with all Your Power and Your authority, we rejoice to be here in Your House, Lord. Anoint us and bless us for Your glory, for Your honor, thank you Lord in Jesus Name, amen.

You can sit down my dear brother. Share with the person next to you and tell them: "God is going to speak to me this afternoon" amen, amen. See my dear brothers: why do we see? better said: I have prayed to the Lord and I confess that I have said to the Lord: Lord I want to be a blessing, I have come to this country to be an impact and I want to make an impact through the blessing of God and the Power of God in the hands of Him, of His Will, impact to win people for the Lord, I have a great passion to win many people for the Lord, I am always motivating the churches on Evangelism to win souls for the Lord.

So I want to tell you: but how is the Lord going to use us, how, in what way? and here we find, we are going to talk about three important points. First: we find the disciple named Eliseo and the teacher Elijah, Elijah is already going to leave, but then there is an attitude and here is the first point: we must be hungry and thirsty for God, a tremendous yearning for the things of God, so God will bless us.

Notice that God tells him here, rather the Prophet Elijah in verse 2: "Stay here now because the Lord has sent me to Bethel" and Elisha said to him: "Long live the Lord and live your soul that I will not leave you; therefore they both descended" . Look at his attitude: I want that too, I'm not going to stay here, I want what you want.

Look at his attitude, verse 4, which says: "And Elijah said to him again: Elisha, stay here now because the Lord has sent me to Jericho, and he said to him: the Lord lives and your soul lives and I will not leave you; so they came both to Jericho." Stay here, no, I also want Jericho, I also long for Jericho, where God is going to take you I also want this. The attitude of this disciple, of this man who saw his teacher, he had a hunger, a thirst for the Word of God, amen?

Arriving at the end of the day, he says: "Elías said to him: I beg you to stay here because the Lord has sent me to the Jordan, and he said to him: the Lord lives and your soul lives and I will not leave you; so they both went to the Jordan. " What passion, what desire, what nonconformity to have what he had, he wanted more and more, and more, amen?

This longing and desire for the Word of the Lord, for prayer, for fasting, for spiritual things, to know more about God, to know more about the Word of God, we must have this longing because there is much that God wants to give us to each one of us, amen?

When he was ministering the Lord's Supper, Pastor Isaías said: "there is enough of God, there is enough of Him" many times we are looking for little, and look at the climax of all this. Verse 9 says, "When they had passed by, Elijah said to Elisha: Ask what you want me to do for you before I am taken away; and Elisha said to him: I beg you that a double portion of your spirit be upon me."

What did you ask him? Look: he didn't ask like many times we want, right? "Oh, I want a car like the one my neighbor has, oh, I want a house like the one my brother has" no, he asked for double, I want more. There is a longing, a desire, there is a healthy ambition; Well, that word ambition is a bad one isn't it? but there is a healthy, holy ambition we could say like that of wanting more, of wanting more, and of the anointing of God that he wants a double portion, amen? Many times we are looking for only a little of God, a little prayer, a Bible reading nothing more, we do not look for Him, we must want more and more of God.

And notice an important thing in verse 9 that catches my attention, sorry verse 7, it says: "And there came fifty men of the sons of the prophets, and they stood before them in the distance" in the distance, let's repeat this word "to far away". I can understand that there are 52 prophets here, fifty from one group and there are two different ones, Elijah and Elisha. Those fifty we do not know their names, we do not know what they did but they were always far away, and I can imagine that they are far from the Word, far from the anointing, far from the Holy Spirit, but these two are different, they They want more, and more, and more. They are different, they marked, they made an impact in history, why? because they were close and wanted more of the Lord. They were not the bunch, they wanted more and more, and more of God.

Many times we are far from spiritual things, we settle for little, we are satisfied with little. See the first thing if we want to make an impact is to want vehemently, anxiously, just as David said, do you remember? "My soul thirsts for You" for God, for the Holy Spirit. And notice when he sinned, he didn't say, oh don't take my car, no, no, you know what He said? "Do not take from me Your Spirit", Your Presence.

My brothers that is the most precious thing. The Presence, the Power, the authority, the anointing, the blessing of our Almighty God and you have to want, you have to yearn for all this. We are not satisfied with coming just once a week, we are not satisfied with just reading a Bible verse, we are not satisfied with just saying a little prayer, we must seek with all our vehemence and I desire power and anointing, there is much that the Lord wants to give us, glory to God.

So, my brothers, when Pastor Roberto Miranda, when the board of directors, when the Church, when the vision of this Church, there are spiritual days, is that Pastor, right? spiritual journeys to seek, to know more about God, the Pastor is motivating us to seek more of God, how tremendous, we are on the right path, certain to be able to walk in what God wants to do in this community of the neighborhood, of the city , of the state, of the region, of the country and of the entire world, amen my brothers?

So I want to emphasize the first thing so that Elijah is a mighty man of God, Elisha is a mighty man of God. There is one thing that struck me about Elisha and that is that he asked for a double portion of blessing. Do you remember? double portion, and I read a commentator who said that Elijah as a teacher performed 16 powerful miracles, and obviously Elisha had to perform, how many if he asked for double portion, how many did he have to perform? 32. But it happens that when doing a study on the life of Elisha he alone, in life, performed 31 miracles.

But do you know what happened? It happens that after he had been buried, he was already dead, dead, dead, he had no flesh, only his bones were there, they say that some people were taking a corpse to bury it in the cemetery and then they saw some soldiers, and when they saw the soldiers dumped the dead man and they fled, obviously it was like that, and it says that when he was thrown away the dead man kept rolling, the Word of God says so, read this story, it is there, it rolled, rolled and fell into the pit where Elisha's bones were , and when that dead man touched the bones of Elisha, it says that he rose again, and performed 32 miracles, amen? the Word of God is fulfilled.

If you and I ask: Lord I want to be impactful, Lord I want to be used, I want you to give me Your blessing, I want You to give me authority, blessing, anointing, I want this longing, Lord I want more of You, God will give to you, it will bless you, amen?

Second place, brothers: note that Elijah tells you, verse 9: "When Elijah had passed by, he said to Elisha: ask what you want for you before I am taken away from you, and Elisha said: I beg you for a double portion of your spirit be on me, and he said to him:" what did he tell you? "difficult thing" Say difficult, but not impossible. He didn't say: wow, no, no, no, that's for me, Elias didn't say that. He told her the truth: a difficult thing.

Does this mean, my dear brothers, that you have to pay a price, it is not easy, it is difficult, you have to fight against the flesh, against sin, against some problem, against a bad habit, but it is possible when we are looking for the Presence, the Power of God yes it is possible and this is a practice that even God met this requirement, that you have to pay a price.

Do you know why today, Sunday, God has the adoration of millions and millions of people who are worshiping him on various continents, large and small churches, churches everywhere, do you know why? because He first paid a price 2000 years ago, amen? 2000 years ago He sent the best, He sent Himself, He sent Jesus Christ the Lord to die for my sins, for our sins, for His sins to go to the cross, to suffer so much for each one of us and mainly bear all the sins of the world and say: Father, Father, why have you abandoned me? but it was because I was full of sin bearing my sins, your sins so that we can find salvation through God's mercy, amen? He paid a price but now comes our holiness, our commitment, now he has our complete consecration, because he first paid a price.

And my brothers we have to pay a price. We have to pay an economic price, yes, faithful in tithes, we have to pay a price to go to collect people, invite them, we have to pay a price of sacrificing to evangelize, to win people, to pray for the needy, we have to pay a price, amen? It's a difficult thing, it does cost, it's very difficult but it's worth it, it's possible. We are going to move forward, we are going to impact this city, we are going to impact the economy, we are going to impact society, we are going to show that there is a different Hispanic people that rises up to proclaim the truth, to proclaim the good news that Jesus is the Lord, that there is a new way to live, amen?

And there is a Church here, León de Judá that is going to pay the price, we are paying the price, we have a Pastor who motivates us to excellence but with the purpose of expanding the Kingdom of Heaven, amen? So here we find a difficult thing.

My brother is difficult. To pray, possibly we get up and we don't even pray but you commit to get up 5, 10 minutes earlier, pray, seek the Presence of God, pray, intercede for your son, your daughter, your husband, to pray for our family, to pray against the forces that rise up against the Church, against the family, against marriages, to pray, to fight, to battle, to shed tears. Possibly this afternoon you have come and you are in a fiery furnace, you are in a desert, you are going through a valley of sadness, of tears but know that God is with you, God is going to help us, God is going to lift us up, God is going to lift you up because you are paying the price, amen?

There is a price to pay. And thirdly to finish, we see that I was asking the Lord: but why, why yearn so much for God, seek more of You, be hungry for You, why pay a price? do you know why? and the Lord made me remember a text. The Lord knew that He had to leave, He trained 12, He left 500, 120 remained, He promised a person called the Holy Spirit, amen?

John chapter 15 He promised the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said that: "He who comes will baptize with fire and power, I baptize with water", and Jesus Christ before going to heaven said: "And you will receive power", it was necessary. That Person of the Holy Spirit is going to give us power, he is going to bless us. He knew that the Apostles could not carry out the work of evangelization, the work of revolutionary impact through love, He knew that they could not carry it out alone, that is why he promises the Holy Spirit, they receive it and they are different. It is no longer those who are fearful, those fearful, those cowards, those closed in, now it is they who have all the spirit and strength, but not a psychological force, an internal driving force, rather it is the very Person of the Holy Spirit, using them to impact society and speaking of the fact that Christ who died is the only one who can impact and transform society, amen? that was.

So God was showing me: it is necessary, Jesus Christ knew that they alone could not do the job. Elisha knew, he couldn't do the job alone and he made a tremendous impact if you read his story: he's up against kings, he's up against powers of darkness, he's up against death, he's up against poison, he's up against so many things and with the Power of the Holy Spirit, he knew. Jesus Christ our Lord knew that the Apostles could not carry out the work alone, it is with the Holy Spirit. Today it is also necessary that we understand and comprehend, alone we cannot, we need the Presence, the anointing, the help, the Power of the Holy Spirit, amen? we can't do it alone.

We can have intellectual capacity, we can have gifts, we can have some abilities, but only who can transform, bless, touch is the person of the Holy Spirit, amen?

Three things I have spoken this afternoon. How could God use us? first having a great longing as Elisha had. I am not only satisfied with Bethel, I am not only satisfied with Jordan, give me more, I want more, I want a double portion, give it to me, I want all of Your Power. We have to have that yearning, don't forget my brother, my sister, we must yearn, desire and I like this word: vehemently, anxiously, with desires. Like when we are in love and we want to or like when we have a vision or a project, we yearn for it, we want it, weather, cold, rain, snow doesn't matter, the economy doesn't matter, nothing matters, we destroy everything because we want to achieve that, like this it should be our heart's desire for the Holy Spirit. That desire must exist in you.

Paul told Timothy: "stir up the gift that is in you." Fan it up, fan it up. We are responsible for that. Do not expect to feel or not feel "oh I don't feel like reading" no. Impose yourself, prevent fatigue, sleep, something like that from defeating you in the Name of Jesus. Let us read the Word of God more, in the Name of Jesus let us fast, let us fight at dawn, let us pray, let us battle, let us fight, there are spiritual forces.

Remember the story of Daniel, the angel told him: From the first moment you made your prayer it was answered but a prince of Persia, the enemy, appeared to me and delayed it, but it's good that Daniel continued fighting, praying, asking for Jerusalem , for a revival so that God forgives the city and there was a change in that city, and the answer came. There is a fight. Your prayer has already reached the Throne of God but you and I struggle, insist vehemently with strength, persistently until reaching what God wants for each one of us for His honor and for His glory.

My brother, there are spiritual forces. Demons rise up, principalities, powers rise up, it is important that we fight vehemently seeking the Presence of God, spiritual power, the Presence of God. I come to tell you that we are not satisfied with what we have. If you have already read the Bible once, read it twice, three times, if you spend a minute in prayer, spend 10, 15 minutes. Start interceding, start bringing people. Tell someone: look, I'm going to invite you at 4, at 5 in the afternoon a barbecue, Brazilian barbecue, and the friend will say: wow, let's go, with all my family, but first we're going to the House of God at noon. "Ta' bien" he is going to say and he comes here, and he hears a powerful message, and he converts, and he is touched, my brothers, let us yearn for souls, amen?

Second place my brothers, we have spoken: there is a price to pay, there is a price. Let's get out of comfort, let's not be satisfied with what we have. I read a book on economics, success, motivation by John Maxwell and he said: the worst enemy for economic success is the satisfaction of what we have already achieved, we are spiritually dissatisfied to want more and more from God. The third thing I wanted to talk about is: we need Him, we need the Holy Spirit, our Pastor is looking for more of God, let's continue looking for more of God, let's continue there.

And I want to continue with this illustration: last year I was at home and I told my children, mainly the youngest, his name is Joshua, he is more Hispanic than American and he is very disobedient, I told him: nobody bother me, I'm going to go to study, I don't want any noise, noise, nothing, everyone silence. And I went into my library and I was studying, for an hour like that, when I hear the lock: click, click, click, and he was there behind me, but I'm going to let him in, I'm not going to say anything to him and when he comes in, he I'll give two, I said so in my mind.

And well, he opened, chuck, chuck, chuck, he opened the door and I heard his footsteps, and when I was about to grab him like that he put his arm through here, put his little mouth here and said: Dad, I love you. I love you dad. Could it be that I hit him? No. I grabbed my son and sat him on my lap and he kissed me, and he said: why are you crying dad? and I told him: I beg your pardon, why? I apologize. And the Lord revealed a text to my mind at that moment: "If you, being evil," Jesus Christ told me, "know how to give good things to your children, whoever asks for bread will give them a stone, if they ask for food he's going to get a scorpion or a snake." If you are evil, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, if you ask him for the Holy Spirit, he will give you abundantly. He wants to bless us, He wants to baptize us, He wants to help us even when we are bad. I grabbed my son and prayed with him, and we had a great time.

My brother, I invite you to stand up. We have talked about how we need more of God and I want to challenge him: don't be satisfied with your spiritual life, let's not be more satisfied with what we have. Second place: you have to pay a price, you have to pay a price, I don't know what price you have to leave, there is a price to pay. Look, I command you to make an effort and be brave.

The Kingdom of Heaven, said the Lord Jesus Christ, belongs to the? brave who snatch It is important my brothers to have that attitude; I am going to pay the price, I am brave, I am a warrior, I am going to conquer, I am going to fight, I will not be defeated by sin nor will any demon defeat me because I have Christ, I have the spiritual weapons to destroy the works of the devil amen?

I invite my brother, my sister, to come here. The best place we have in the Church, do you know what it is? They are not those beautiful padded chairs, the best place here is the altar of God. Let's come to kneel, let's come my brothers, in the Name of Jesus come. God has told me that there is a person who needed to hear this Word, come, glory to God, come, glory to God.

We are going to come forward to tell him: I want more of you, I want more of you. Come on, glory to God for this marriage. Come, spend with your family, let's kneel this afternoon. Come, let us seek God, come in the Name of Jesus. If you are coming for the first time, you are the husband of a sister, you are coming for the first time, or you are a friend who has come, come, accept Jesus, it is the best we can have in our lives, young people, teenagers, accept to Christ as Lord and Savior, this is the moment. There are brothers who are going to minister to him, Pastor Roberto is going to be ministering here to all of us in the Name of Jesus, there is a price to pay, there is a price to pay.

If you, being bad, know how to give good things to your children, much more, much more. I invite Nelly so that she can come in in the Name of Jesus, come in in the Name of Jesus, there is room here, there is room here. Glory to God, glorified be He, exalted be He forever, oh God, You are so wonderful. Come on, there is a sister, a brother, stop nonconformity, let's get out of that life of apathy and conformism, say: my family is going to be different in the Name of Jesus, I am going to be different, let's come. I want to participate in the spiritual journey with Pastor Roberto Miranda, I want to participate with him, I am going to unite more, I am going to use my gifts, I am going to be a faithful tither from now on for the Church, I am going to use all my capacity to the maximum to bless and glorify the Lord.

Let all of us who are here repeat this prayer of surrender, of holiness, of humiliation before the Lord, let us all repeat, even those who have not passed, let us repeat this prayer out loud: Heavenly Father, I praise you and thank you because you are the The only God who sent Jesus Christ to die for my sins and this afternoon I submit to Your authority and I want Jesus Christ to be my healer and my savior, and I confess with my lips that He is alive. Make me through the Holy Spirit the person that You want me to be.

I want more of You, I long for more of You. Give me Lord a double portion, glorify yourself Lord through my life, may my life be for Your glory, be for Your honor, bless me Lord. Take out everything that You do not like, what You do not like Lord, I want to die for the flesh, I want to crucify my flesh, thank you Lord, blessed You are and use me mightily for Your honor in Jesus Name, amen.

Allow me to pray: Father, thank you for this beautiful moment that we have had, thank you Lord. Oh beautiful God in the Name of Jesus each brother, each sister with all our hearts we want to tell you: we want more of You Lord, more, more, more, pour out Your Spirit, baptize us Lord with power, with anointing, with gifts, with speaking in tongues, with manifestations of gifts as the Holy Spirit wants to use us, here we are on our knees, here we are telling you that You are the Lord.

Oh Holy Spirit come, come Lord. Take control of our lives, our minds, our families. Take control Holy Spirit and use us, oh God. There is a price to pay. We are going to leave what You are revealing to our mind and to our heart that we have to leave, we are going to crucify our flesh, our ego, our self, we submit everything, everything to Your authority, we no longer want to be the same. Take out this physical-material conformity.

Thank you Lord for the pastoral vision, thank you Lord because all this that we see here is because there are dissatisfied leaders, and thank you because they want more. Thanks for Pastor Roberto, thanks for the Pastors staff, thanks for the deacons, the leaders. Glory to Your Name Lord, oh God.

Take us to another rung, take us to another stair, take us to another level. We want more than Jericho, more than Jordan. We want Your Spirit, we want Your baptism Lord. Thank you Lord, praised be Your Name and blessed be You in the mighty Name of Jesus Christ, amen, amen. Give the Lord a round of applause, amen, amen, bless the Lord, glory to God.