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Just want to say hello to my brothers and sisters in Christ in Brazil.
I want you to know how much daily, me and my wife, our family, our ministry continue to be in prayer for what God is doing in Brazil.
It is so awesome to hear the feedback that I get from Pastors,
specifically Pastor Paul on what is going on in the hearts and the lives of yours in Brazil.
I am excited at what God is doing in and through your lives.
I have to tell you that I miss you and I care about you all so much
I have thought about this in the last few months about the time we have been away I thought about the way that Paul felt when he was away from the church at Corinth
he was thinking about it and the different churches that he was with. I miss you all.
I want to encourage you to stay in the fight, stay true to what our God is doing,
own your relation with him, own what he is doing yielded and available.
In a few minutes I want to share just three things with you about what God can continue to do in and through your ministry
and what can be the cornerstone for Him to really bring revival across Brazil.
I want to give you a little update.
Prayerdonor is going wonderfully God is using Prayerdonor around the globe to touch lives in only ways that he can.
I want to take a moment to praise our God together for what he is doing.
Prayerdonor has now reached over 29 different countries, we have seen over 46,000 prayers offered up to our Lord and God.
We have seen husbands come back to marriages,
we have seen people walk away from suicide,
we have seen God do miraculous things in and through his people because they are taking him at his word and inviting him,
just like he said, where two or more are gathered there I am also.
That is happening daily on Prayerdonor.
There is no secret to Prayerdonor, but there is a promise that Prayerdonor is using, that the person who made the promise, GOD is delievering.
That is the exciting thing that we can always know if we will build our Churches, if we build our houses,
if we build our relationships around prayer and interacting with God this way God will change the lives this way.
So I am excited that you are a part of that.
I am so glad that God took us to Brazil first to launch Prayerdonor because he brought it to a people who are in love with Christ alone.
I want to compliment you for being available and obediant to do what God has called you to do.
I hope in these next few days and you guys have this time together as Pastors, as brothers and sisters in Christ
that you will sharpen each other, that you will encourage each other because we are all in the battle.
And it is a hard battle, but God will continue to renew us through each other and through himself if we will continue to meet, continue to encourage and continue to lift each other up.
Our God is faithful, one hundred percent of the time he is faithful.
I want to share a little thing with Prayerdonor, we have had some tragedies in the last few months with Prayerdonor.
But, I know this that there is not a moment in these tragedies that we have gone through that God has never left our side.
So I don't know where your at in your ministry, but I want to encourage those who may be having some trials or struggles or tribulations in their ministries I want to encourage you,
because I want you to understand something.
God is not leaving your side.
What he has called you to he will finish and you take heart to him thats made the promise because he is the one who is called faithful.
God is King!
He has called us to grow in him, to know him and to continue to help others to know and grow in him.
I want to share with you just a little bit here at the end on three key elements
on how revival can continue to take place in and around our ministry, in our Churches and our family.
The three things I would like to share with you today is Available, Yielded and Engagement.
Let me say that again Available, Yielded and Engagement.
These three things happen each time we see Christ go and invite one of the apostle's to come and join him.
We understand that as we are doing ministry the first thing that we need to always do
and the first thing that we need to help others in our Churches understand is Availability.
Being available to the Lord.
So many times I think of Matthew and he is sitting at his tax collectors booth and the first thing that Matthew had to do was go I am available.
He had to get up from his stand and get ready to go, leave it.
In our walk, in our faith, in those people that we are witnessing to that we are sharing with,
that we are seeing on Sundays, that we are seeing on Wednesdays,
that we are seeing on Fridays or Saturdays outreach.
We need to help them understand the first step in all these pieces is Availability to our King.
The second thing that we want to be able teach and harness and grow and help inspire in and through our people is a Yielded spirit.
So many times I see as I travel and I preach and I teach
I see people trying to live the Christian walk, their faith on their own power.
So many times we do not understand that we can have Christ in our lives, but not on the throne of our lives.
Thats where yieldness needs to happen.
That's one of the things in the second step in having revival happen in and around our Churches,
and our ministries and our families is that the second step has to happen.
We have to be yielded.
I think of it so many times, I think of it like a cube or a coffee cup,
yielded means I am now taking the things out that I have of my self and I am replacing them,
just like John 3:30 says I am becoming less and less, that my Christ may be come more and more.
I must empty my self, I must yield my self in order for God to fill me up with His riches,
with His blessings, with His grace, with His love, with His salvation.
I become, I understand Grace in a whole new level when I am emptied of what I think of Grace
and I allow His Grace to be down in side of it and out through me I understand Grace at a whole new level.
Because I was available and because I was yielded for His Grace to flow through me.
And God can use you, God can use you.
The last phase and the third step I would encourage us to really develop and grow in our families,
grow in our churches and grow in those around us is Engagement.
Engagement, we can become available, we can become yielded,
but yet we can still become lukewarm if we don't realize why I still have breath on this earth
and thats to win others to knowing Him to being able to have a relationship with Him.
Thats why we are called.
This time that we have left, until our God calls us home is to be engaged in the battle.
Lukewarm means that we have stopped being something.
We are willing to go its ok, I got him, I am in to heaven, but I really don't want to go any further.
How many times have we seen our members in our churches or members in our ministry go I'm tired,
I can't keep fighting and it is easier to be without the battle.
See thats the interesting thing, sometimes we portray today
the peace and Grace and those moments that we feel good are the moments we are not in the fight.
But, I will challenge you as I challenge myself that the true peace, the true love,
the true moments is knowing that I can be in the fight and
I can be getting beaten at times but I know that Jesus is in the boat.
You see the storms will happen and true peace is being able to engage in the storm knowing he who is faithful is alongside us.
We are not greater than the teacher.
Just because we are absent of the battle that is not peace.
So many times I think back to when David was going out to see his brothers on the battlefield.
You see this is the interesting part, when he got to the battle field the lines were drawn.
When he got to the battlefield his brothers were in their armor,
they were ready to fight because they had their armor on.
But, they were willing not to be in the fight because they didn't want to engage.
Saul was sitting in his tent because he did not want to engage.
They were content to have the armor on but not be in the battle.
I challenge you, I challenge myself, folks there are lost people around us that are going to hell everyday.
Because we have not got to them with the saving Grace of our Lord and Savior.
We have to engage, who else will engage them with the truth of our Lord if we do not.
We don't have moments in this lifetime to be lukewarm.
If we are called as his children to really bring the truth
we don't have moments in this lifetime to be lukewarm.
What does that tell the world when we are willing to have the truth but not share the truth.
This engagement has been a huge thing that the Lord has been working on my life
in the last six months, going when will we engage.
I challenge you, I hope you will challenge each other,
you will hold each other accountable to go I need to visit one more home this week.
Because that one more home might be the one that says yes to Jesus.
I need to pray for one more person that I know is falling away from God,
because that prayer might change the heart of that person,
that family or that person would be restored to Jesus.
We have to get engaged in the battle.
We have to realize the true reality of what we are doing.
What we are called to. What we are equipped to do.
We can not hold back.
And the burden is easy, God is asking us to be available.
He is asking us to be yielded.
He asking us to be engaged.
It is all three of those things are asked upon our will to be surrendered to his.
You see He is going to give you the truth, He is going to give you the equipment.
He will equip you to do what He has called you to do.
It is total surrender,
absolute surrender that all three of those things are linked in to.
He says my burden is lite, the burden is lite when we will be available,
when we will be yielded and when we will be engaged.
We can be His children.
We can be united like He and the Father were united.
I believe that the best is still yet to come for the Church.
I believe that He still empowers His people to do what He has called them to do.
I believe that He still works miracles.
And I believe that He can still make the sun stand still.
The key is will we be surrendered in an absolute form for Him to do it through us.
That will be the story that is written of our lives.
I pray that my son and my daughter know that when their father goes to be with their King,
they will know that their father gave up everything to be surrendered and to be used to bring people to Christ.
That is the greatest thing that we can put everything in to.
I want you to know I love you.
I want you to know that I am praying for you.
I want you to know that it will be worth it.
One day we will all be in heaven standing before our Christ
and He will say well done good and faithful servant.
Let me pray for you as we go.
Father God, I thank you for who you are.
I thank you for the way you call us and you want us to be a part of these things,
you want us to be a part of what you are doing on this earth.
Father now we invite you down now in these next times,
Father in these next few days as these men and women meet together for the purpose of growing in you that they might share you anew.
I pray that you would put your arms around them,
I pray that you would put your spirit around them.
I pray that you would move in a mighty fashion in their hearts and in their minds.
I pray Father that you would bring a wellspring up in their lives of your peace,
of your joy, of your compassion, of your love and of your faith.
Father we love you, we praise you, we thank you that we were just able to celebrate Easter.
Father that same power that walked out of that tomb,
is the same power that in available to each of us today to touch this world,
you have empowered us in that fashion.
I pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ join them in your spirit,
make them one as you and the Father are one.
Use them mightily to spread across that country and beyond those borders
that the name of Jesus would be lifted high that others might come to know you.
We love you, we praise you,
we ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
I love you and I look forward to the time I can be back with you.
God Bless You.