“Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” Joshua 3:5
In order to see amazing things from God, we have to be consecrated!
What does it mean to be consecrate?
It’s to be dedicated to a sacred purpose. It’s to be separate from the things of this earth, and be ready to receive spiritual things!
It’s like a connection! (Ex. Microphone and speaker)
Consecrating yourself to the Lord means being disconnected from this world, your desires, your plans, and it’s being connected to heaven, connected to God. (All connect …)
After Moses’ death, people were mourning, in deep sadness. It was a crisis time! And God raised up Joshua to lead the Lord’s people, a huge crowd through the wilderness.
Joshua would be their leader and it was necessary for him to be connected with himself, with people and to be connected with God.
Be ready! In time of crisis, God will raise up you to guide people, to solve problems, to be an ambassador of Jesus on earth!
Do you want to live it? Be ready for crisis! In crisis we can experience God. In time of trouble you can se wonderful deeds, miracles!
Do you want to see God’s power? Get in trouble! Throw your life of the boat and try to walk on the waters like Peter, if you wanna see God’s deliverance, go into the furnace like Daniel’s friends, if you wanna experience more from God, get in trouble! Look what happened in Joshua’s life:
Joshua 1 God said:
“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”Joshua 1:6-9
In this time of crisis, God wanted to connect Joshua with his own heart, God wanted to Joshua to know more about himself, God wanted to connect Joshua with all the people and to connect Joshua’s life with God.
How did God connect Joshua with himself? How did he make Joshua self aware?
Be strong and courageous
Joshua had to know his own fears, his weaknesses and deliver them to the Lord to be a strong man, a brave man!
What do you know about yourself? Who are you? Are you self-aware? What are your weaknesses? Where are you failing?
We have to know who we are. What kind of things we think, how we see life, how we deal with crisis, hard situations… We have to be connected with ourselves and listening to God to be changed, transformed by his power. You have to listen God’s voice telling you: You are my son, my child!
God is calling you to know more about yourself, and He is inviting you to be strong! There is a commandment to you.
How did God connect Joshua with his people?
You will lead these people
God told Joshua: You will lead these people. These people belong to me and I am giving them to you, to take care of them, to lead them closer to me.
God said: You will lead these people to inherit the land I swore your ancestors I would give them.
Do you know you have a crowd to lead? God called you to lead many people around you!
You might think: I am not ready to be a leader, I’m not ready to be a reference. But, God gave you a family to be guided by you. God gave you a wife, a husband, children to be inspired by you.
God gave you friends, co workers to be enlightened by you! Did you know that! You were called to be a leader! This means, you have to be connected to people.
How did God connect Joshua with heaven?
Meditate on the bible
These verses speak about what kind of connection God wants.
The bible says: Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
My brothers, if you want to be connected to God, to heaven, we have to follow the bible. The bible teaches us how to be connected to God.
Today, we’re gonna learn How to be connected to God in time of Crisis!
The best way to connect to God is by fasting and praying.
By fasting and praying we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, separate ourselves from this world, and we can experience great things that come from heaven.
We are preparing for our 21 days Daniel fasting (from 03/02 to 24/02/20) and we need to have great expectations about this time, so we can get consecrated to the Lord and be ready to see wonderful things among us.
Look at these verse:
“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel 2:12
-When Nehemiah heard of the situation in Jerusalem, of how the wall was broken, how the people were in disgrace, look what he did:
“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah 1:4 (Time of crisis)
-When Esther heard of the plan to destroy the Jews, look what she did:
“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16 (If we have crisis, we have an opportunity to experience more from God)
Gather all people together, and fast! There is a way if we want to be connected with God. It’s by fasting and prayer.
The last example about fasting and prayer:
Daniel was praying for Israel, to set them free from the exile. He decided to connect himself to God.
Look:
“At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.” Daniel 10:2-3
Did you see in all these verses we read that fasting was done in time of crisis?
In time of crisis we have to fast and pray, to be consecrated to the Lord!
Look in Joel 2:12 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
First lesson
– Return to me with all your heart
In that time of Joel’s life, People were away from God. Even though they said they belonged to God, and offered sacrifice to Him, they were the chosen people, but their hearts were far away. I call this a crisis! And how do we fix it?
By prayer and fasting!
How is your heart today? Your heart means the Centre of your emotions, your relationship with God.
Perhaps you’re here, but your heart is far away from God. Your ears are open to listening to this message but your heart is closed to the Holy Spirit’s action.
This is a crisis! You have to consecrate yourself to God! You have to declare a time of prayer and fasting coming to your life! It’s a time to weep, to mourn, a time of humiliation.
By prayer and fasting we will return to God!
God is waiting for you to give your full heart to be controlled by the Holy Spirit!
If you let this happen, you’re gonna be able to experience more from God, more of his power, his love, his ways!
Return to God with all your heart by prayer and fasting.
Second lesson
-Rebuild The walls! Nehemiah 1:4
We read it. Nehemiah heard about the hard situation of the Jewish people. The city was destroyed. The walls were broken, the doors were burned. When he heard of these things, he saw an opportunity in the crisis to see God moving among them, so he decided to fast and pray. When he did it, God inspired him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, to make his people great again!
Nehemiah consecrated himself to God! God answered him and gave him wisdom, strength, skills to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and bring to his family, security, faith and confidence in the Lord again!
What’s going on with your family? How are you managing your family’s crisis? Do you feel something is wrong with your marriage, with your kids… What are you doing to fix it?
Today we learned from Nehemiah how to fix family crisis.
We have to declare a time of prayer and fasting!
Go to Jesus’ feet! Cry out for your family! Ask for forgiveness, help, direction. God is able to prepare you to rebuild the walls of your family! Look, the fight is not over yet! You are alive! You can fix whatever problem it is! God will help you!
What is impossible to Man is possible to God!
Ex: Message living by faith, write desires and deliver them to God, family was restored by God.
Start to restore the walls of your family through prayer and fasting! God will lead you to do the right thing to fix it.
Third Lesson
-Bow down before the King of kings!
“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16
Esther heard about the evil plan to destroy her people. It was a man of the law who wanted to destroy them. She would need to go to the King and ask for help.
Before she goes to an earthly king, She went to the King of kings! Hallelujah!
The bible says: “In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.” Prov 21:1
Esther understood it. She knew that God could lead the king’s heart to whichever place he wanted! God is thinking of kings, Lord of the lords! He rules all nations!
Esther called all people to fast and pray before she went to talk with the king.
My brothers, Do you need an answer from this government? Are you waiting for a paper, documentation, some help from the authorities? Are you having troubles in your job? Or With someone, with you boss?
Before you go and ask for help from Men, please, bow down before Jesus. Go to Jesus, by prayer and fasting! Reach out to God’s heart with your consecration, ask him for help, touch the king’s heart and move it to the best place to bless your family, bless God’s kingdom!
So, gather all your family, your cell meeting, ask them to help you in prayer and fasting and whatever you need, be it documentation or whatever else, the answer you need will be given to you! God is the king of kings! it’s time to conquer the rulers of the nation by prayer and fasting! Go and bow down before the king of kings!
Fourth lesson
– Time to experience the supernatural in prayer!
Daniel cried out for his people, and at that time, he had a vision and started to seek God to understand that, to get full revelation!
“At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.”Daniel 10:2-3
Daniel saw a problem with the people and while he prayed He had a vision. The he started to pray and fast until his answer came. For 3 weeks he ate no food, no meat, no wine, he just prayed, fasted and consecrated himself to God. The time came where he was visited by an angel and He received what he wanted. Look:
“Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.” Daniel 10:12
My brothers and sisters, it’s a new year, a new time to experience God in a supernatural way. Are you satisfied with what you have from God? Are you ok with the relationship you have with the Holy Spirit?
It’s a time to experience more from God! A time to be visited by angels, a time to see God’s power among us, a time to see God performing miracles, a time to be used by God to see Monaghan free, to show Jesus to this world! The time Has come to experience more from God!
And this time starts with fasting and prayer!
There is no other way to live it. We have to consecrate ourselves before God! We have to be connected to heaven by prayer, to listen to God’s voice, to do what is right, to cry out for our family, to reach out to the king’s heart by prayer and to experience more of God, more of his power, of his supernatural way!
In time of Crisis, return to the Lord, don’t forget your God, what he has done for you, seek the Lord with all your heart.
In time of crisis, rebuild the walls around your family! Protect them by prayer. In time of crisis, bow Dow before The king of kings, He will take care of you and be ready to experience a new supernatural way from God.
We read Joshua called all people to consecrate themselves to God, because they would see wonderful things.
People heard Joshua and after that, Taney crossed the Jordan river, it was a great miracle. The river was divide and Israel walked in the middle from side to side! There is who God is! Way maker, miracle worker, Promise keeper, light in the Darkness, there is who he is!
In time of Crisis, seek the Lord and be ready to walk for a new path!