[The below text has been machine translated and may contain errors. Please listen to audio for original and integral translation]
Let’s pray. Oh Father, we love you. We stand amazed time and time again that you would love us amidst everything we are and the foolish at times, foolish choices we make and you’re always standing there with arms wide open, ready to receive us because the love you have for us never, ever ends.It’s higher than the highest heavens. It’s deeper than the deepest sea and I stand amazed once again that you love to be with us, your children. So we welcome you into this house, oh God.Spirit of the living God, Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this house. Continue to teach us and to train us in the ways that the Father has purposed for us. Continue to guide us and to grant us revelation and not just revelation but a great hunger to walk out the revelation that we have received so that we can be all that you’ve called us to be and we can represent you well on this earth.So I thank you for your presence and I thank you for this morning and I thank you for this day. I thank you for the greatness of your love and I honor you, oh God, King of the universe. You alone reign and rule forever.Your kingdom has no end and you reign in beauty and splendor and might and power and all dominion and power and praise and glory belongs to you. Oh, how we love you. In Jesus’ name, amen.Amen. Oh, worship was so good. I just, I’m lost.I have to find my words again. Hallelujah. The word that I have for us this morning, the Lord has been, has had, he’s had this before me for weeks now and it’s something that I’m working on and I would love to tell you how successful I’ve been, but that would be a lie and I really fear the Lord.I’m not going to lie to you. I have struggled and I didn’t think that I would struggle with this because it’s a word that isn’t a hard one, I thought, but it’s intentionality. To be someone who is intentional about their walk with Jesus, intentional about their choices, day in and day out.I thought it was pretty intentional until I started recognizing because you know when the spirit of God kind of like opens up the curtain a little bit and you get to see further than you did before and you begin to go, oh, I guess I didn’t choose very good there, did I God? Oh man, I guess I could have spent more time with you on that, oh wow, I could have, oh I should have, I should have, oh I see, I don’t know about you guys, that’s my life and now it’s in my face and it’s not discouraging because I’m recognizing that God is bringing me into a new season so that I can step into the all that God has for me and I felt like he wanted me to share it with all of you because it’s something that’s easy to forget in our day-to-day life. So I’m going to read to you what intentional means. Living and acting with a clear purpose.Not, oh God, I am so tired, I don’t want out of this bed, please just get me through this day and let it go quick. Anybody ever pray that prayer? That is not living and acting with a clear purpose. Instead of reacting, you make a conscious choice that matches your personal goals and your core values.You make a conscious choice so that you’re living and choosing based on your goals in your life. It means knowing what matters most to you and letting that guide your daily words, actions, and time. Time is a big deal for me and I know it.I’ve known it for a long time. I learned it when I was, I learned it when I buried my father. Actually it was my mother, so it wasn’t that long ago.But I found my mother had kept in a chest all kinds of stuff. Moms can do that. I find sometimes I have to go through my pile and update it because life keeps going and the pile keeps getting bigger.But what I found in my mother’s treasure chest was every one of my report cards from school, starting in kindergarten. I thought, what a strange thing to keep, mom. I don’t know why she kept it.So I took them all home and you know, you’re curious. I remember kind of what I was like in school, but I didn’t care when I was younger so much. So what was I like? So I pulled out and I started looking at these report cards, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, all the way through sixth grade.And they had this section, you know, for your education part. And then there was a section like, you know, that you cooperate and get along well with others. You know, things like that.Well, when it came to the section that said, uses time wisely, I always got an N, like needs improvement. Year after year. Three, four report cards a year, every year.I had an N in needs to use time wisely. And I thought, my parents failed me. Because they should have seen that there was a problem here and they need to help me get this out.So that was my first excuse, which there’s truth in it, but I was being taught how to use my time wisely. I was just making choices because I did what I wanted to do when I could. And my parents were very strict, so, you know, when I could, I did.And the Lord has brought that back to me, off and on through the years. And once again, it’s in my face about how I intentionally use my time. I have the same amount of time as you.And I meet these people, Elba was telling us about this lady she likes to listen to at night. This lady’s like 80. And she does all this stuff.She paints, paints things, and she is artistic, paints things. She ministers to other people. She gathers with her friends.She’s with the Lord. She cleans her house. She does the laundry a couple times a week, like you said, for this bed and breakfast down the road.I’m thinking, oh Lord, I don’t do all that, and I’m not that old. Maybe it’s not my calling. I need to become intentional.And the Lord said he is waiting for his people to become intentional. That we become so aware of our destiny and the purposes and plans that he has for us, that we make our choices every day so that we get there. A doctor doesn’t get up, you know, doesn’t just wake up one day and have a degree in their hand.They’ve purposed it. They work hard to get there. They have a goal, and they have a purpose, and they have to learn what is hard, and they can learn what is easy, and they have to remember what is hard, and they can remember what is easy.And it doesn’t come to them naturally. They had to study, and they had to position themselves and be intentional about their studies and their time. And so the Lord was, as he’s been talking to me about this, he’s shared some things with me I’d like to share with you.And I need to do something. Excuse me. Okay.I did my paper, and then I decided it wasn’t organized enough, but I already organized the second paper. So now my second paper is first, and my first paper is second, and that’s really gonna mess me up. So I ripped out my second paper so I can make it first.Yes. Welcome to my world. All right.I can turn my page back where I need to be, because I’m looking for something I wanted to say, and I’m not seeing it. Sorry. These are my reading glasses, but I’m gonna try to go without them, because it gets a little confusing doing this all the time.I could get bifocals, but that would mean I’d have to be intentional to make a doctor’s appointment and get my eyes checked. Are you seeing a pattern here? Isn’t it amazing how much God loves us? Wait till he starts showing you your intentionalities. It’s amazing.So during worship, the Lord was speaking to me about intentionalities still, and he said to me, tell my children that I am intentional about them, that I intended them since before I put a star in the sky. You are in my every thought. You are in my plans, and I took great joy when I created you.Before your mother knew you, I knew you, and I implanted in you a destiny and a purpose, and I set you on this earth for such a time as this. I didn’t want you to be born. You were not my Adam, and you were not my Eve.I purposed them to be the first couple on the planet. Yes, I knew them. Yes, I knew their sin.Yes, I knew the outcome, and that’s why Jesus became the lamb who was slain before the foundations of the earth. The plans and the purposes that I have for you, my children, are far greater than you know because you limit yourself based on what you know and what you feel and what you see, and you forget to look beyond the now into the supernatural realm where I exist forever. I rule, and I reign.I know your yesterday. I know your today, and I know your tomorrow, and what you forget is I see it all at the same time. I’m not thrown by anything.I’m not disappointed by anything because I already know the outcome. And that’s why my Jesus came, my son, my only son, the son that I love so much, but I want you to know I love you too. That’s why I sacrificed him for you.He was the only one who could bring you into the fullness of your destiny, and I am so excited that you belong to me, and I don’t ever want you. Do not forget, my children, the love I have for you goes beyond what you feel. I feel good today.Great. I feel lousy now. Why? I feel stupid now.Why? We intentionally look at ourself instead of the Father, and he says stop doing that. Yes, we need to be aware of ourself. Yes, we need to be thinking and listening to what comes out of our mouth.Yes, we need to be intentional in our walk with the Lord, but do not ever forget that is just a fraction of what I am feeling for you, and the more you recognize how much I love you, the more you recognize how my redemption has wiped you clean. When I see you, I see Jesus. The more you understand the greatness that I have for you, the more you will be drawn into me, because it is your sin.It is your lack. It is your own perception that keeps you from running to me, because I have made a way for you to come boldly before the throne of grace for help when you need me. Wow, I didn’t know he was going to extend that word.That was really good. I received that, Father. Thank you.Thank you, Lord. I was telling a friend of mine last night that God whispered something into my ear about the times, and I was watching this little blip on, I like to watch His Glory, and he does this war report, and he’s added a little portion of the Bible in it, and he’s telling Bible stories, just little blips, like a couple minutes segment, and he had the first one I was watching, and it was on Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, and he did the little story on Cain and Abel, and it was done like in a cartoon type. It was just real basic so that even children can grasp it, and while I was watching it, the Lord whispered in my ear, do you know that I purposed Adam to be first? I know he did, in that he was, but I never thought about his intentionality of when he placed Adam on earth.He knew, but he placed him in earth then, and he brought David then. He purposed Saul and Paul, slash, Saul, Paul, then. He purposed when Jesus would come on this earth.He purposed when we would be here, and it did something to my thinking about how amazing my God is, that he would, and I know I’m here, and he timed my timing here, because I’m here, but I never thought about the bigger picture, but he sees it all, and I love it. I love that he has us now praying for our generations, and when I pray for my generations, I pray for them like it’s today, even though I’ve never seen them yet, because God is seeing them now, because he sees the beginning and the end all at the same time, so my prayer is a timely one. I’m praying for their now, even though they’re not born yet in my time frame, and that’s one of those things that God does that you go, whoa, this is amazing.What a privilege we have to pray into the future and know that it counts. I love it. I love my God.Okay, I’m a talker, so I’m going to go back to my notes. I want to give you an example in the Word. We have Exodus 33 11 will tell us about Moses, how he went to the tent of meeting, and Joshua went with him, and he would meet in this tent with God.When God’s presence would come, they would go in, and they would spend time with God, and Moses would get his directions from the Lord, and it doesn’t say anything about Joshua. It doesn’t say why he was there, but it does say this. When Moses left, Joshua stayed.I always thought that was so amazing. He got into God’s presence. He didn’t have the responsibilities that Moses had, and so he intentionally stayed.He could have gone out when Moses went out, and nobody would have thought a thing about it because that’s just amazing. He wanted to be in God’s presence, but he stayed. He lingered.He was intentional about his relationship with God. David in 1 Samuel 17, we hear about the story of David and Goliath, and I love the story not so much because this kid killed a giant because that’s amazing in itself, but what I think is so amazing is he was bold as a lion, and when the giant was hurling insults and trying to intimidate him, he spoke up, and he said, you don’t understand what you’re doing. This is my paraphrase.You don’t understand what you’re doing. You’re up here blah blah blah blah all about my God. What you’re not getting is this.I’m not going to take you out. God is. He knew who he was, and he knew he couldn’t do anything outside of God, but in God, he was available.I can’t do that, God, but if you need somebody, I’m available because I know you can. There was a mindset that David had, and it didn’t come because he had a supernatural moment in God. It’s because he spent his time.He was intentional as a child to spend time worshiping the Lord, singing songs and psalms and praises to his God while he was watching over the sheep. He didn’t have to do that. He could have done something else.I don’t know what you do in the wilderness with sheep, but he didn’t have to worship, and that’s my point. He was intentional, and that intentionality gave him a walk with God that was just far beyond so many that we hear about. He is the one that God said.He’s a man after my own heart. I didn’t say that about everybody, but God was intentional about David, and David was intentional about him, so he was a man who was just like God in that. He was intentional to get to know his God and to love on him just like God was intentional on David, and David didn’t go into it blindly because he had already had experience under his belt.I think you probably all know the story about the lion and the bear that he tore apart with his bare hands. He retrieved the lamb that was taken. He was intentional.He wasn’t just content to kill the thing so it wouldn’t hurt any other animals. He got back what the enemy took. He was intentional.Thank you, Lord. Daniel was intentional. Now, I’m not going to go through every intentional in the whole Bible because we’d be here for like so long, but Daniel, the part I’m bringing out because he was intentional all the time as well, but when the king was duped, King Darius was duped into making himself like a god, and so he signed the seal and said, okay, from now on, nobody can pray or ask requests of anybody but me because I’m it, but Daniel was intentional, and I love this about Daniel.He didn’t go in his house, close the door, and hide behind the bed and say, okay, God, you know I can’t do this or I’m going to get thrown in the lion’s den, but you and I are going to hide here. Nobody will ever know. He opened up the window that he always opened.He got himself positioned in front of the window, and he spoke to his God three times a day. He never lost, skipped a beat, never skipped a beat. He was intentional about his time with God.He was intentional about what God had called him to be, and he didn’t care so much. I mean, I’m sure he cared because, I mean, nobody wants to be devoured by a lion. I would be the first to stand in line and say, no, I’m against that.Daniel wasn’t stupid. He knew he couldn’t win over lions that were hungry, but he knew his God could, and he was intentional to make sure that even at my last dying breath, I am going to worship and praise my God. I am going to do what he has called me to do and fulfill my destiny.I kind of jumped around here. I’m back in Genesis now. Genesis, Abraham, the story of Abraham.When God came as the angel of the Lord, he and the three angels with him, and they visited Abraham, and he begins to talk to Abraham about Sodom and Gomorrah and what he was about to do, not because God had no one to talk to, not because he needed Abraham’s approval, but because he was God’s friend. Abraham was always intentional. God said, go.He says, where to? He says, just start walking. He goes, okay. God said, sacrifice your son.He got up first thing in the morning. He didn’t hesitate. He went so far as to lay his only son on the altar, bound and ready for sacrifice.He was intentional. He knew his God, and he knew his God was not a wicked God. What did he actually know? I don’t know.I think if I’m remembering right, forgive me, this one’s off the top of my head, but if I’m remembering right, we’re told in the word that he knew that God, even if he had to raise him back from the dead, was going to give him back his son. Of course, God didn’t let that part happen because he’s a good God, but Abraham was intentional. Here he stands before his Lord, and he says, this is what I’m going to do.I’m going to go down there to Sodom and Gomorrah, and I’m going to wipe them out. Abraham was intentional. He didn’t go, well, I guess if you have to, you have to.I guess you know everything, so I’ll just accept it. No. He said, well, what if there’s 50? I mean, you wouldn’t do that for 50.Why would he say that to him? Because he knew his God. He knew his God. He was intentional, and so he had a relationship, and he knew his God would hear him.He knew his God doesn’t take delight in destroying life because he is the life giver, and when he answered him and said, you know what? For the sake of 50, I won’t. Courage rises. Oh, wow.That’s a good report. Can I try again? What if there’s only 40? I mean, you guys know the story. He took him all the way down to 10, but you know the other aspect of this? Lot, Abraham’s nephew was in that area, and Abraham knew if everyone who was there was wiped out, that would include his family, and he stood in the gap, and he was intentional, and God in his mercy could not even find 10 but he spared Lot, his wife, and his daughters, although if you know the story, that didn’t go well for some of them, but God knew that, and that’s what I love.God knew. He knew that when he protected them for the sake of his servant, that the outcome was still not going to be the best, but he did it anyway because of his love for his friends. He said, I don’t call you servants.I call you friend. We’re his friends. We are his friends.I just love that. Elijah in Kings 17. He had spoken to Ahab.It’s not going to rain. You are a wicked king, and God is shutting off the spout to heaven. They had famine in the land for three years.Famine in the land. I’m not going to go into all the story because this happened, and this happened, and this happened, but I’m going to fast forward you too. Now it’s time for it to rain, and God said, okay, start praying, so Elijah prayed, and he prayed, and then he sent a servant.Go out and look over there. Do you see anything? Is there any sign of rain? The servant came back, said, nope. He got on his face again.He prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed, and when he felt like, okay, I feel good, told a servant, go check. Servant came back. Nothing.He did it seven times. Elijah was intentional. He did what God called him to do, and he did not stop until it was time to stop.Now, I don’t know about you, but I have times when I think, oh, God, I should have prayed just a little longer. Oh, God, I forgot about that need, and I’ve stopped praying, but please forgive me. Help remind me of that need so I can step back into prayer for that situation.He did not stop. He was intentional, and he did not quit until he got his answer. I am telling you now, do not stop asking.Do not stop seeking. Do not stop knocking because if you continue, you will receive. Galatians 5 tells us that, or Galatians 6, that we should know that we, let me say, I’m sorry, I’m jumping to verse 1. I don’t want verse 1. I think I want verse 9, where he talks about, do not grow weary of well-doing.Don’t grow weary of doing the right thing. I’m doing the right thing. I’m doing the right thing.I’m doing the right thing. I’m doing the right thing. God, I’m doing the right thing, and it’s not happening, but I’m doing the right thing.Paul says, don’t stop. Don’t stop. Do not stop because if you do not stop, grow weary and stop, you will receive, but you’re not going to receive just what you’re asking for.You’re receiving a harvest because our God is a God who loves to lavish us with good things, but he wants us to be intentional, to seek his face, and to fall in love with him. So Elijah, when he got to the seventh time, and his servant said, well, I see a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand. It’s coming.Now he has his evidence, and he got up, and he took his cloak, and he stuck it up his belt so that it wouldn’t trip him, and he ran, and I love it because the Spirit of God came on him that he outran the chariot. That is amazing. He was intentional.He knew the rain was coming, even though we only saw the beginnings of it. A little cloud the size of a man’s hand, but he knew that was the end, and he was ready, and I just love that. So I’m going to jump to page two, and I’m going to, this shouldn’t take us long.I’m not going to read scriptures. I’m just going to tell you this is what we are told to do. What can I be intentional about? This is what the Lord says.Our days are numbered. This is in Psalms 90, 12. Our days are numbered.