At the Feet of Jesus

Just remember, if God has placed you in a “wilderness” season or time, then it is for a reason. If you were here last week, we looked at the main reason for His placing us in, or leading us to these uncomfortable and usually undesirable points in our lives.

God, because of His great love for us, will allow us to go through these seemingly DESOLATE places, so that we can be removed from everything and everyone that competes for our attention and distracts us from hearing His voice and learning His will for our lives!

If you have ever gone though a “wilderness” place or time in your life and you have sought after God and listened to Him and waited for the sound of His, “still, small voice”, then you know, that after that experience, you are much more equipped for adversity and trials in your life!

The “wilderness” takes away our self dependency and forces us to place all of our trust and faith and belief in and upon Yahweh, the ONE TRUE GOD!

I believe that many of us are stuck in a holding place in our lives and we are not moving forward with our walk with the Lord. I believe that many of us are stripped of our power and authority that we should be walking in through Holy Spirit in our lives, and many, many times, it is because the enemy uses your past and the thoughts and memories of your past, to hold you back and keep you stuck in the same weak and painful place!

The wilderness is a place that God takes you to get your mind and your focus off of the past and all of its mistakes and shame and condemnation that the enemy of your souls keeps in front of you and at the fore front of your mind! God, within the WILDERNESS place of your life, will place your focus on Him and His delivering power for your life and thus allow you to move forward and break free from the shackles of your past!

A woman saw a very large and powerful elephant at a circus that was restrained by a small chain. The woman knew that the elephant could easily break the chain if it wanted to, but every time the elephant came to the end of the chain, it just stopped and did not even try to break free. The trainer said that the chain was the same one that was used when the elephant was little and at that time the elephant tried and tried to break it, but could not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

So, the elephant learned at that time, that it could not break the chain and he still remembers that. “You see”, said the trainer, “it is not the chain that holds the elephant captive. But it is his memories that hold him captive!”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Sadly, this is true for so many of us, our memories hold us captive and we do not experience the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus!

If you will listen to Holy Spirit as you go through these desert/wilderness areas in your life and keep your focus on the Father, then the only tool that the enemy has to hold you captive with (your past and its memories), will be severed and loosed and your mind will be renewed as you look to the author and finisher of your faith!

“Taking every thought captive to obey Christ!”

You know, as Suzanne was sharing with us about the amazing the miracle in Haiti with the rice, it compels me stop and focus on the miracle of Jesus feeding the multitudes that we read of in the gospels, both in the account of the 5,000 as well as the 4,000.

What was the catalyst that allowed these miracles to take place? What happened that allowed the 5 loaves and 7 loaves and a few fish, to feed thousands of people?

And not just feed, but feed to the point of the people being made full and then having leftovers collected?

Or, what was there about the missions work in Haiti that allowed the rice, (that should have only fed around 350 people), to keep going until it had fed around 800 people?

Here is the thing, here is the reason that these miracles happened and that they can continue happening in people’s lives every single day.

They were entrusted into the hands of the Lord.

With the multitudes that Jesus fed, He took the food and blessed it and thanked the Father for it and then, in complete FAITH, He began to hand it out!

When the hands of Jesus take hold of the little that we have and we entrust it to Him and give it to Him out of love and gratitude, then you can rest assured that the little that you have and that you may even count as “insignificant”, can explode into an abundance!

Look here, when Elijah was told by God to go to the land of Zarephath and that God had already prepared a widow there who was going to feed him during the drought, Elijah went and expected that what God had said was going to happen.

The widow was told by Elijah to make a cake of bread for him FIRST and then one for her and her son and in doing so, the jar of oil and of flour (which only had enough left for one serving when Elijah arrived), they would never run out until the drought was done!

And that it exactly what happened. Every day, the almost empty jars of oil and flour would be replenished with enough for that day!

Jesus taught us to pray to God and ask and thank Him for each DAY’S daily bread.

Elisha, the prophet, was approached by the widow woman who told him that her husband was dead and that there was a creditor who was coming to take her two children as his slaves for payment of their debt. Elisha asked her, “What shall I do for you?”

He asked her what she had of value in the house and she said that all she had, was one jar of oil.

He told her to go and borrow as many empty vessels from people as she could and then go inside her house and close the door with her sons and start pouring the oil into the vessels. As one vessel was filled, get another and fill it.

Finally, when all of the vessels were full and there were no more empty ones, the oil ran out and stopped flowing!

She came outside and told Elisha and he then instructed her to go and sale the oil and pay of her debts and keep her sons and they would be able to live off of the rest of the monies that were earned from the sale of the oil!

How many here today, know that God is not a God of “lack” or of “almost” or “close” to meeting the need?

HE IS THE GOD OF ABUNDANCE! He is the one, “that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us!”

When Jesus turned the water into wine, it came after the wine was depleted and there was a need for more during the wedding celebration. Jesus’ mother came in faith and asked Him to provide and then said to the people, “Do WHATEVER He tells you to”!

Is there a need in your life today? Are you struggling just to keep your head above the water and joy seems to be the spiritual commodity that you are devoid of?

Are the vessels of celebration empty in your heart and you need the NEW WINE that can come only from the HANDS of Jesus?

John Piper, in an article entitled “The Present Power of a Future Possession,” said, “The cost of food in the kingdom is hunger for the bread of heaven, instead of the white bread of the world. Do you want it? Are you hungry? Or are you satisfied with yourself and your television and your computer and your job and your family?”

Likewise, as Mr. Piper spoke of the hunger for the bread of heaven, the cost of that NEW WINE, that better and more perfect wine that satisfies as nothing else and that replenishes the joy of the broken spirit and soul, is the cost of being THIRSTY!

Are you thirsty? Do you want something more, something perfect, something that satisfies even to the depths of your heart and soul? If so, when you come to Jesus you have come to the right place, for he is the God of abundance and life. He gives extravagantly.

And to receive this wine you have to come to Him with your thirst!

And then as you stand there with your need before Him, adhere to the words that Jesus’ mother spoke at the wedding in Cana, when she said, “Do whatever He tells you!”

And if you do, then something amazing will happen........A MIRACLE will come forth, a breakthrough in your life! The chasm of brokenness and emptiness will become FLOODED with inexpressible JOY by the Holy Spirit of abundance.

Like Paul said in , “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

How many people here this morning can say that they are OVERFLOWING with confident hope and joy through Holy Spirit?!

He is here today and ready to fill you.......... right here.......... right now with His power and abundant joy, if you and I will simply do what He tells us to do!

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

“how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

CAN SOMEONE IN HERE SHOUT AN AMEN!!

When I pray and have a need (not a want, not a selfish, worldly desire), but I have a need and I go into my prayer closet, or my bedroom, or my car or wherever it is that you or I go to and seek Jehovah, I am told to go and ask Him in FAITH and BELIEF in whatever it is that I am asking Him for.

TELL OF THE BARREN FIG TREE IN , .

Mark 11:12–14 NLT

The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it.

Mark 11:20–25 NLT

The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!” Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”

Did you catch that part of the passage, “But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours”?

tells us,

James 1:6–7 ESV

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

Friends I am telling you this morning, that there should never be any true child of God, who walks daily, devoid and empty of the true and abiding joy of Holy Spirit!

His abiding peace and His joy and His power is never ending!

To the believer, it should be like the miraculous feeding of the multitudes in the Bible, or the feeding with rice in Haiti, or the widows oil; IT SHOULD BE CONTINUOUS and always enough. Never leaving you devoid and hungry!

But where do we go and how do we find this unlimited source of peace and joy and inner strength for our souls?

In order to point you in that direction, I am going to go back to a verse that I mentioned a couple of minutes ago and look at where the Apostle Paul said the source of it all comes from.

Let’s look at ,

Ephesians 3:14–21 NLT

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

This verse is like a treasure map and if you look closely, in the middle of it, you will find the key to greatest treasure that has ever existed!

In verse 19, Paul says, “Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

But when is “THEN”?

In other words, what is the condition that make us complete with all the fulness of life that comes from God?

Well, if we go back and look at what the Word says in this passage as it speaks of God’s unlimited resources for us, we find that answer.

“Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.”

“Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

The LOVE of God within the believer is the greatest treasure that has ever existed since the foundations of the earth were formed and before and throughout all time and eternity and it remains the source of all inner strength and contentment!

And where was and still is the greatest outpouring of the LOVE of God that mankind and all of creation has ever known?

IN JESUS!!!! Paul said that we should understand the width, the length, the height, and the depth of God’s love. And right behind it, he says, “May you experience the LOVE OF CHRIST, though it is too great to understand fully!”

Guys, you can go travel the globe searching far and wide, high and low for it, you can spend an exuberant amount of time reading and listening to the greatest minds that have ever existed and their thoughts and beliefs on true peace and joy and LOVE. You can do all of this and more, OR you can simply go to the source!

Once you have found it and tasted of its goodness, from the source, then you will not be moved from it and you will desire only to stay in that ONE PLACE, just like those that we read of in the Word, who found it and where we read of them sitting at!

In we read of the account of Jesus going over to the area of Gerasenes to set a man from the legions of demons that he was possessed and tormented by. The Bible tells us this after Jesus set him free, “People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.”

In we read of Jesus healing and cleansing the 10 leprous men and of how the ONE who was truly healed, came back and the Bible says this, “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done.

In , Jairus fell at the feet of Jesus on behalf of his daughter and her illness.

In this same chapter, the hemorrhagic woman fell to her knees, at the feet of Jesus after her healing.

And finally, my favorite and the most known and remembered of all of these accounts in the Bible, is found in and and .

In this account, we find Jesus as He is at the last week of His ministry before He is to be crucified, staying in the town of Bethany. (TELL OF THIS ACCOUNT)

Remember this, there is no other place where you will find complete peace and joy and comfort, than at the feet of Jesus! There is no other place of provision and overflowing and where miracles abound in the natural and the supernatural, than at the feet of Jesus. And the closer you get to Him here and more often you spend in His presence now, in this life, the more sweet and victorious it will be in the moment that you stand before Him for the first time in heaven.

It was the disciple that was closest to Jesus and that was recognized as the beloved, John, whom we find at the last supper with his head resting on the bosom of Jesus, because of his great love for the Lord. And yet, this same man who sat with his head on the chest of Jesus, and rested in His presence, upon seeing Jesus in His eternal glory in heaven, as we read of in , John said, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead.”

That is where you and I need to return to in our lives right now! Humble yourself and come back and sit at the master’s feet and soak in His presence as His Spirit renews your spirit and soul!