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Now, Father, you have prepared this word and
I need strength.
I ask the choir to pray before the
service that helped me preach, and that's to
just pray that God would cause the word
to find its place in hearts.
Holy Spirit, I need a supernatural touch from
you, and we give you this word.
Speak clearly to us now, I pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.
Would you turn to Psalm 77, please?
Psalm 77.
God has not forgotten you.
I'm going to start reading at verse 1,
Psalm 77.
I cried unto God with my voice, even
unto God with my voice, and he gave
ear unto me.
In the day of my trouble I sought
the Lord.
My sore ran in the night and ceased
not.
My soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God and was troubled.
I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.
Thou holdest mine eyes waking.
I am so troubled I cannot speak.
I've considered the days of old, the years
of ancient times.
I call to remembrance my song in the
night.
I commune with my own heart and my
spirit made diligent search.
Will the Lord cast off forever or will
he be favorable no more?
Is his mercy clean gone forever?
Does his promise fail forevermore?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his tender
mercies?
And I said, this is my infirmity, but
I will remember the years of the right
hand of the Most High.
I will remember the works of the Lord.
Surely I will remember the wonders of old.
Have you ever known depression?
Have you ever known what they call the
blues and you don't know where they came
from?
You can't pinpoint it.
It's not just one issue.
It's not one thing.
It's just so many things hitting from all
sides and you can't explain it.
I'm not talking about a lifestyle.
I'm not talking about somebody with a bipolar
problem or some longstanding mental problem.
I'm talking about Christians especially who have these
experiences.
It's not something that is constant, but it
comes to you.
It's just a depression.
It's a despair that comes upon you.
Now, I thank God that I don't happen
to be living in that and that's not
how this message was birthed in my heart.
But I've known these times, these sleepless nights.
Has anybody here had that where you were
so worried, you were so perplexed, you were
so concerned about things that were happening around
you, you couldn't sleep at night?
That's what the writer of this psalm was
talking about.
He said, God, you're keeping my eyes open.
I can't even close my eyes.
And he said, what's happened to me?
He said, he could not even be comforted.
No one could comfort him.
He was beyond comfort.
Nobody could say a word.
Nobody could speak to him because of what
he was going through.
His name was Asaph.
Now, Asaph was a musician.
He was a singer.
And he was David's choir director, a man
of prayer, a true man of prayer, a
man who sat under godly teaching and preaching.
Asaph sat at David's table.
He heard David give his heart to all
of his staff.
He heard David say, the eyes of the
Lord are upon the righteous.
His ears are open to their cry.
This is the kind of preaching he sat
under.
David said, I sought the Lord and he
heard me.
And he delivered me from all my fears.
This poor man cried.
The Lord heard him and saved him out
of all of his troubles.
Now, we know that Asaph was a praying
man because he said, I cried unto the
Lord with my voice.
We just read it.
And he gave ear to me.
He heard me.
He said, I know that God hears my
prayer.
Did a survey.
Someone did a survey in the United States
about prayer.
I believe it was in the New York
Times magazine section.
The majority of American people believe that God
hears prayer.
But only a small number believe that he
answers.
Asaph is a man who is in a
condition now of depression.
Something has come upon this praying man.
This man who sat under divine teaching.
A man who taught others.
Now, Asaph wrote 11 of the Psalms.
And you hear him in chapter 78 when
he's talking about Israel.
He's correcting Israel.
He said to Israel that you have troubled
the Lord.
You have prayed and you have sought him,
but you have not seen his answers.
God has not been answering you because of
sin.
He corrected them.
He sang about God answering prayer.
Surely, as a choir director, when David was
given a song of the Lord, he was
given a new song and he handed it
to the choir.
Surely it came into the hands of Asaph.
Because the scripture says, this is the name
of the song.
He heard my cry.
This is the 40th chapter of Psalm, verses
1 and 2.
He brought me up out of a horrible
pit, out of the miry clay.
He set my feet on a rock and
established my goings.
Now, Asaph was given that song.
He led it.
He sang it.
He directed a choir singing it about the
faithfulness of God answering prayer.
Surely he heard David talk about his battle
running from Saul.
Surely he heard about the time he had
to run to Gath, a city called Gath.
And there, as he entered the city, they
said, this is the same David that we
sing about or we've heard Israel sing about.
They were about to take him captive and
kill him.
And David pretended to be a madman.
But God delivered David and he came out
of it.
And this is the song that he was
given.
He heard my cry.
He brought me out of this horrible pit,
out of this miry clay, set my feet
on a rock and established my goings.
Now, get the picture, if you will, please.
This is not a sinful man.
He's not a wicked man.
He's a godly man.
He's a man of prayer.
He's a man who loved the Word.
But now he is in a terrible depression.
It's come upon him and you'll see it
as it unfolds here.
See, this is that strange.
The Bible said don't think it's strange when
this fiery trial comes as though you're going
through some strange thing.
He said it's common to all people.
And you may think you're going through something
that's very, very unique.
But there's not a story that could be
told here tonight.
Not one believer that could give a story
that hasn't been told time and time again
over the centuries.
Your story is not new.
He said there's nothing new.
It's common to all flesh.
I read the stories of godly men.
Now, I study, I pray, I seek God
for messages when I preach here or anywhere
in the world.
But my recreation is reading the stories of
the Puritans and godly men.
I have their life stories.
I collect old books, for example.
My daughter helps on the website and brings
me stacks of these old books.
And, of course, they cost money.
They're not free.
But that's my recreation.
And I read the stories of great men
of God, praying men, men who fasted and
gave their lives.
You wouldn't know them.
Most of them, I don't read books unless
they're at least 100 years old.
I read some, but most of my books
have been written over 100 years ago.
And these are men like Andrew Bonar.
Here's a man who was so constant in
prayer.
They said there were marks by his bed
where he knelt year after year.
A man who was known all over Great
Britain.
One of the holiest men that ever lived,
according to his friends and those who knew
him.
When he died, his daughter published some of
his notes from his journals.
And I was reading it this past week
when I was preparing this message.
This is a godly man.
See, what I'm trying to tell you, godly
people go through these kind of tests.
And the more you pray and the more
you seek God, the more eligible you are,
the more probable that you're going to go
through tests like nobody else goes through.
And listen to what this man says.
He's in his 80s now, and he spent
the last 30, 40 years on his face
before God.
I read through his journal.
The whole journal is about Jesus and his
walk with the Lord.
But you find these places, you find experiences,
incredible experiences of what they called melancholy in
those days, which we now call depression.
Listen to what he said.
I'm falling behind in my heavenly race.
God is not using me in conversion of
souls like he used to.
I need to be free from the shadow
of fear and uncertainty.
Some of my nearest friends no longer seem
to sympathize with my needs.
Shame and sorrow fill me because of my
unholiness.
Oh, God, what have I lost?
My heart sinks in me.
I'm rebuked by the holiness I see in
others.
There seems to be a cloud between me
and the son of righteousness.
I think I hear the Lord say sometimes,
I don't need you anymore.
You listen to John Fletcher.
John Fletcher was called by John Wesley, who's
the founder of the Methodist movement.
And John Wesley said, the most godly man
on the face of the earth is John
Fletcher.
I have two of his books written 150
years ago.
This man went through the most horrifying, incredible
test of this melancholy, this something that came
from nowhere.
And they asked him, where are you?
He couldn't explain it.
There are a number of reasons that he
couldn't explain it.
His friends listened to at least five of
those occasions that were so horrible.
A man of God, a praying man, a
precious man who spent hours, when he walked
into a room they said everything, whether you
were a sinner or a believer, everything went
silent.
He just exuded the presence of Christ.
Holy, some people are almost afraid to talk
in his presence because the Holy Spirit and
Christ came through him.
And yet this man, this man went through
terrors at times in his testing of despair.
And every book that I read, I find
the same thing that Paul experienced.
Godly men and women.
Paul in Corinthians said, trouble came to us
in Asia.
We were pressed beyond measure, beyond strength, so
much so that we despaired of life.
That word despair in Greek means we could
not understand what we were going through.
We were near the point of death.
In other words, he was saying we desired
to die because we couldn't understand.
And really, the inference here in the Greek
is we couldn't comprehend why God allowed it.
We couldn't understand what we were going through.
We were pressed beyond endurance.
I don't know who I'm talking to.
And I speak it in the Spirit.
I don't know who in the annex you
hear.
I don't know who I'm talking about who's
being pressed now.
As though the Holy Spirit has come and
just taken my words and my heart and
my mouth and speaking directly into your heart
and telling you, you're at this place.
You're at this place even tonight.
Or maybe you've been experiencing it for a
number of weeks.
Some commentators say that it was because so
many of his friends had turned against him.
And they were speaking against him.
They were defaming his name.
Some say that this was a physical sickness
also at the same time, a real hard
physical attack.
And some say they pinpointed also to a
time right after shipwreck.
But you take all of these things, and
Paul, he goes over a whole list of
things, but this still doesn't explain everything that
was cast upon him.
He said, I fell into an agony.
I didn't think I would survive.
In fact, I thought it would kill me,
he says, in so many words.
Pressed beyond endurance.
Jesus himself is our example.
Jesus speaking to Philip and Andrew just before
the cross.
He's facing the cross.
And he said, my soul is troubled.
And in the Greek, it's agitated, disturbed.
He said, there's an agitation in my heart.
He's a covenant Christ.
Before the world was created, he was in
covenant with the Father, with the whole plan
of salvation, including the cross, reconciliation with mankind.
It was all in God's plan.
Christ knew the meaning of the cross.
But he was also a man.
Touched with our infirmities, our physical problems.
And he went through it.
Folks, if Jesus didn't go through this, we
could not relate.
The Bible would lose so much of its
meaning.
Touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
And he said, I'm troubled.
There's an agitation in me.
And it finally led to him saying at
the cross, Lord God, why have you forsaken
me?
Now, that's pain.
Jesus said to those who came to take
him to the cross.
He said, this is your hour and the
power of darkness.
He said, this is the devil's hour.
This is a moment of test.
And you can be sure that what you're
going through is the work of the devil.
The Lord doesn't come to put depression on
people.
I don't care what you call it.
Call it the blues.
Call it despair.
Call it what you will.
That it can be because of finances.
It can be because of marriage problems.
It can be because of career problems.
Sometime you just can't explain.
Jesus himself said, what can I say?
What shall I say?
Those are the very words of Jesus to
his disciples.
I've come to this hour.
This hour, the power of the darkness.
But what can I say?
I can't fully explain this to you except
that God has allowed, the Father has allowed
this moment, this hour of darkness.
He knew the glory was going to come
out of it.
But he said, what can I say?
Have you ever been to that place where
you can't?
Somebody asks you, why are you down?
Why are you going through what you're going
through?
You say, don't ask.
I can't tell you.
Sometimes you may be a wife, you can't
even tell your husband.
Your husband, you can't even tell your wife.
They can't probe the depths of what you're
going through.
Folks, recently, this past week in fact, I've
been here 17 years in this church now.
I think it's 17 going 18 years.
And I've got stack after stack.
I save all the messages.
And they're in notebooks.
And I start pulling some of them out
from the ears and just gazing through quickly.
And so many times, the same with Pastor
Card, Pastor Neal, Pastor Patrick, every pastor and
everyone's been in this pulpit.
Over and over and over again, God's talked
to us about, and it's Pastor Neal today,
preached about rejection.
How many times we have preached this?
And I said, God, in fact, when this
message was prepared, I went back and said,
Lord, I preached this kind of preaching for
years.
When do we get it?
But you see, what happened two weeks ago,
two months ago, just as sure as you
have to go to the table and eat
every day, hopefully at least two times a
day you eat.
We have to be fed.
And God has to remind us because what's
happening to you now is a present situation.
And sometimes you can't remember all that we've
been taught.
We forget these things.
So the Lord brings it back because he
knows exactly who is in the building.
And sometimes he'll let you sit through a
message that doesn't apply to you.
Of course, if this doesn't apply to you
tonight, I recommend you get the tape for
next month, next week.
Now, see, we're not talking about people who
are living in sin, who love sin.
Some that walked in here tonight may be
so attached to your sin.
You have lived for yourself for so long.
You have ignored everything about God or Christ.
We see people come in here, just look
around.
They don't know what's happening.
They get so confused because of that.
But you see, I'm not talking about that
kind of person because sin brings depression.
Sin is the most depressing thing in the
world.
You see people coming out of these theaters
and it's supposed to be a comedy.
You see, many of these are coming.
They look like they come from a funeral.
There's no joy.
There's no victory and it lasts just for
a moment.
And this favorite saying in Hollywood, is this
all there is to it?
Is this all there is to it?
I think I told you this story when
I was, a number of years ago, speaking
in London at Royal Albert Hall.
There are five balconies, five or six balconies.
It was full of young people.
And while I was preaching, a group of
skinheads came in.
They were sitting in the second or third
balcony.
And it's a gang.
And bald-headed and all dolled up.
And they were throwing spitballs, mocking, making fun.
And they looked like the most carefree, nonchalant,
noncaring young men I've ever seen.
They really disturbed the meeting.
And after the service, I had to go
down the basement where their parking garage to
get through, so I didn't have to go
through the crowd to get to the vehicle.
And I was walking down beneath the auditorium.
A young skinhead jumps out from behind a
pillar right in front of me.
And he said, Preacher, I've got to talk
to you.
And he had his head down.
And there was a tear in his eye.
He said, I need help, man.
I'm sick.
I thought he meant physically.
He said, I'm sick.
I need God.
I said, well, you were there mocking me,
making fun.
He said, you laughed all through my preaching.
He said, you don't get it.
Words to this effect, you don't understand.
That's to cover up what's going on inside.
It's a cover-up.
He put on this facade.
And he said, I don't want the guys
to see me.
And I prayed with him, and he gave
his heart to Jesus.
But, you see, all the time I thought,
what a hard guy this is.
But he's something inside the Holy Spirit.
Now, that's the kind of person God can
reach that is open to say, I may
not understand, but I know I'm hurting and
I need help.
God understands that.
I'm not talking about that, but I'm talking
about godly people who don't understand what they're
going through.
What troubled this man so that he couldn't
sleep?
I cried to the Lord, he said.
I pray into the night, and I know
he hears me.
But what he concluded, finally, was I see
no answer to my prayer.
We just read, I pray, I cry out
to God, and I know he hears me.
I cried unto God with my voice, even
unto God with my voice, and he gave
ear to me.
But he concludes, when you read the context,
he concludes that God doesn't answer him.
God answers David, God answered Israel, God answered
others, but for some reason, God is not
answering my prayer now.
And I tell you, there's nothing that adds
to despair than to think that God hears
you, but doesn't answer you.
He hears, but he does not answer your
prayer.
What a horrible condition that is for a
man.
He goes on, he said, I remembered God,
and I was troubled.
I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed in
me.
And I considered the days of old, and
I remembered my song in the night.
And he said, I keep remembering my walk
with the Lord.
I keep remembering the songs that I've sung,
and I remember all of the times I've
spent with the Lord.
And I remember all the good things he's
done for me in the past.
But he still can't pull himself out of
this moment, because he's remembering these past experiences
and other hard testing times.
He remembers, I've been here before, I've been
through this, but now he's in a situation
now that is so far beyond anything he's
ever known.
Beyond any test he's ever been tested with.
At the end of his rope, and this
is what he said, I complained.
Will the Lord cast me off forever?
Is he never going to be favorable to
me again?
Has his loving kindness ceased forever?
Has his promise come to an end?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger withdrawn his compassion from
me?
Then he adds, this is what grieves me.
God has changed.
That's in the original Hebrew.
He said, there's a problem.
I have a feeling that for some reason,
maybe because it's my failure, something I've done
that I've grieved God.
And he doesn't answer me now.
He hears me, but he doesn't answer my
prayers.
In the original Hebrew, the word grief means
a variation in God.
He has variated.
He's changed his attitude toward me.
I was so close to him, and I
walked with him, and I knew such communion
with him.
But now, there's something set in his heart,
and he's saying, God, where are you?
Why?
What's the reason?
I told of a man in this church
who used to sing in our choir years
ago when we were down in the other
theater.
He was going through a test when he
told it to me.
It was a very fearful thing that he
was going through.
And after he told me, he said, Brother
Dave, you keep saying there are lessons in
this.
He said, I don't want to go through
this kind of thing again.
I don't want to go through this without
learning something out of it.
I don't want to spend all this.
I don't want all this hurt and all
this pain unless something good is going to
come out of it.
Thank God the Lord answered his cry.
He said, God, this changed.
I'm not going to preach long, but I
just want to try to answer the question.
How do we come out of this kind
of dark hour?
How do we get to victory out of
that?
Of course, David came out of it.
Aesop came out of it.
And multitudes of godly saints, all godly praying
saints, God brings them out.
But there are secrets to this thing.
Asaph and David came out by remembering God
was their rock, Psalm 78, verse 35.
I remembered God as my rock.
David said, I remember the days of old,
and now I meditate on all his works.
I muse or I contemplate his ways.
Asaph said, I will remember the works of
the Lord.
Sure, I'll remember the wonders of old.
I'll remember his deliverances.
Moses said to Israel, you shall remember all
the way the Lord brought you.
Beware that you don't forget.
Now, folks, that's wonderful.
That's commanded, to remember all the battles we've
gone through.
Now, that helps, but that is...
See, Asaph, when he came out of it,
could not explain why.
He couldn't explain anything about his battle or
the depression that he went through.
In fact, he comes out and he said,
this is after he came out, God's way
is in the sea, his path is in
great waters, but his footsteps are not known.
His footsteps are not known.
You see, that's the Old Testament.
He couldn't come out and tell us.
He can't give us a single reason or
purpose of what he went through.
But Paul the Apostle, you remember this.
He said, but now the Holy Spirit has
revealed these things unto us.
For without the Spirit, these things of God
could not be known.
The Holy Spirit has come down in these
last days and he gives us a reason.
And you cannot endure.
Folks, believe me.
What you're going through is because you want
God.
It's because you've been praying to get to
know Him.
It's because you have a hunger and thirst
after Him.
And you, don't be afraid of it, folks.
Don't ever be afraid.
Say, well, I'm not going to seek God
then if I'm going to have to go
through that kind of an hour.
No, God has a divine purpose.
And when you understand the purpose, it pulls
the pain away.
And it's the path to total deliverance.
Where the enemy cannot shake your faith again.
And when you finally, finally get it.
When you finally say, I see it.
And the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to
why He has allowed this.
He didn't cause it, but allowed it.
He allowed the enemy to come with his
hour of darkness.
Because in the last days, he's not going
to need well-known evangelists.
He's not going to need great preachers.
The testimony of the last hour, when the
whole world is in distress.
When the whole world, the Bible said, men's
hearts are going to fail them for fear.
Of seeing those things coming on the earth.
And when everything that can be shaken will
be shaken.
It will not be Billy Graham types.
It will not be evangelists who are well
-known.
It is going to be those who have
gone through the hour of darkness.
And have been tested.
And understand their test.
And come out and give the testimony to
the world.
I want you to go to 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians, the first chapter.
And I'll show you the reason before we
close.
I want to show you why you're going
through what you're going through.
Now that means if you are praying, trusting
believer.
First chapter, 2 Corinthians.
Begin to read in verse 3.
Blessed be God, even the Father, O Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies.
The God of all comfort.
Who comforted us in all our tribulation.
And that includes depression, despair.
Folks, let's stop for just a minute.
Don't read anymore.
One thing I must tell you.
Some of you say, Brother Oaks, I'm not
depressed.
I trust the Lord and I know He
hears and answers my prayer.
But I'm talking about a disappointment.
A disappointment.
Something has totally blown you away with disappointment.
You don't understand it.
You have no concept.
Why?
There is deep inside a disappointment.
Not with God.
But just a human disappointment because, say, Lord,
after all the seeking and trusting and praying
and going through so many battles.
Now you bring this.
I'm just disappointed.
We don't blame God.
We try to analyze it and figure it
out.
Folks, quit trying to figure it out.
It's right here.
Go back with me now to 2 Corinthians
1 chapter verse 4.
Who comforted us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which
are in any trouble.
By the comfort by which we ourselves are
comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in
us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
The more suffering, the more comfort, in other
words.
Did you hear me?
The more of the suffering, the more you
are a candidate for a consolation and comfort
of the Holy Ghost.
And whether we be afflicted, why, it is
for your consolation and salvation.
Oh, my beloved, can you hear that in
the Spirit?
People's salvation depends on it.
People's eternal future hangs on your seeing and
understanding that God has allowed this to bring
you out as someone who understands the Holy
Ghost comfort.
How God is able through a simple trust
and standing still saying, yes, the boat may
be rocking.
I don't understand, but my God is faithful.
There's a reason for this.
He is trying to make me one of
those tested coming out of it with the
gold and faith.
Faith is pure, or more pure and precious
than gold.
And whether we be afflicted, it's for your
consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the
enduring of the same sufferings which we also
suffer.
For whether we be comforted, it's for your
consolation and salvation.
And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing
that as ye are partakers of the suffering,
so shall ye also be of the consolation.
For we would not rather have you ignorant
of our trouble which came to us in
Asia.
We were pressed out of measure above strength,
so we despaired of life.
We had a sentence of death in ourselves
that we should not trust in ourselves.
And there you have it, folks.
We never trust in ourselves that we should
trust but God that raises the dead.
And here we close.
Who delivered us from so great a death
and does deliver, and whom we trust, he
will yet deliver us.
He will deliver us.
I close with this simple illustration.
You know, two years ago, my daughter Debbie
and Roger lost little Tiffany, 12 years old,
brain cancer.
And this past year, Debbie was in a
mall and there was a woman, tears going
down her cheeks.
And Debbie went up to her and said,
can I help you?
And she said, oh, you could never understand
what I'm going through.
And in so many words, Debbie was saying,
try me.
She said, well, I've lost a child to
cancer.
And there in the mall, God just opened
up Debbie's heart and told of her hour
of darkness when she laid her little daughter
down.
And out of that came the sweetness.
Pastor Carter preached her funeral and he mentioned
about the sweetness that came out of the
jawbone of the ass.
And that was fulfilled, the prophecy was fulfilled
to the letter.
And now Debbie has a ministry and I'm
ministering to those who write to us from
around the world who have lost children, a
child drowned in a swimming pool, all kinds
of problems.
And Debbie can talk to them.
I can't.
But Debbie can.
And some of you are going to be
able to talk to people no preacher in
the world could talk to, could never minister
to because of what you have gone through
and you believe what the Scripture said.
The Lord says, I'm teaching you how to
comfort by you finding comfort through the Holy
Ghost in your own life.
I can say like Jacob, it's been test
after test after test.
I tell you one thing, God's never once
failed me.
Never once has he failed.
There were times I thought I would have
to quit.
There were times I would say I can't
take it anymore.
That's when Debbie was rolled up in a
fetal possession, cancer, and then a hole in
her stomach.
And I got in the hall and said,
God, no more.
But God delivered us time after time after
time.
Now I can put my arms around Debbie
and comfort her.
And that's what this is all about.
Don't despair.
I'm going to close.
I'm going to ask you to stand.
Do you understand that this may be just
for five or six or a dozen people
here?
I don't know.
But my part is just to obey the
Holy Spirit and preach what he tells me
to preach.
So, if you're here tonight, and I sense
in my heart, and this will be short,
I sense in my heart the compassion of
Jesus tonight reaching out to you and saying,
don't let the devil lie to you anymore.
Don't let him lie that God is not
hearing you.
God is answering in his time and his
way.
If God says no to what you prayed
for, it's because he knows it would destroy
you or hurt you, and he's going to
do it in another way, and at the
end, it's going to come out right.
It will come out according to the mind
and the heart of God.
But for those who are hurting tonight, those
who say, Pastor Dave, something you said tonight,
it came from God to my heart.
I want to ask God to use me
to help lift this from you.
If you don't get anything else, please understand,
it's God at work.
It's not the devil at work.
It's the devil who tries to initiate these
things, but it's God who turns all of
these things around.
He turns it all around for good.
Let him comfort you tonight.
If you're here in this message, if you
come and we will pray together in the
annex, just go to the lobby.
They'll show you how to get down here.
You come down this.
Up in the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side and come down.
I'd like to pray with you and believe
the Lord.
If you don't know Christ or you've walked
away from Jesus, if you've been slipping away,
your heart's grown lukewarm or cold, I want
you to come and join these, and we'll
pray with you now.
You can leave this house tonight changed by
the Spirit of the living God.
The Holy Spirit just gave me something for
somebody here tonight.
I don't know who it is, but the
message is simply this.
What you fear is my plan.
What you fear, that which has brought discouragement,
disappointment to you, is all a part of
my divine plan for your life.
And there's nothing to fear but fear itself.
Nothing.
You have no reason to fear.
You have no reason.
Folks, there are gospels being preached in America
now that if you really are walking in
the Spirit and you really know Jesus, if
you're walking by faith, you don't suffer.
Well, folks, that's contrary to everything in this
book.
It's contrary to everything in this book.
And, folks, when those people who live under
that kind of gospel and preach that and
try to practice it, when hard times come,
when somebody dies in the family or sickness
strikes, they fall apart.
There's nothing there.
The Lord's saying to you right now, please
understand, He's not mad at you.
No, no, no, no.
He has never loved you more than He
loves you now.
In your struggle and in your pain, He's
never loved you.
But you're going to have to open your
heart right now to receive that love.
You're going to have to let Jesus embrace
you tonight.
And I'm going to ask that you would
take a step of faith right now.
There's a scripture in the Bible that says
that we're to thank God in the time
of affliction.
We're to give Him thanks even in the
time of hard affliction.
Would you just lift your hands?
Pray with me right now.
Lord Jesus.
I thank You for everything in my life
that You have allowed.
And I thank You for the promises that
You're with me in the trial and through
the trial.
And You said You would take me through
the fire, through the floods, and You would
deliver me.
And I would walk free.
Cleanse me, Jesus.
Touch me tonight.
And I believe You for healing, for deliverance.
And thank You, Lord.
I will not be afraid.
You've not given me the spirit of fear.
And I say to the whole world and
to Satan and the powers of hell, Jesus
is in me and with me, and He
shall not fail me.
Now give Him thanks.
Just give Him thanks.
This is the conclusion of the message.