Are you who you want to be?
Dr Paul Taylor
I have sought the Lord since I was asked to speak at this conference. "God, what do you want me to share?" I am not into just preaching sermons. I want you to be a different person. Totally changed!
What I want to share you cannot receive with your natural mind. It can only be spiritually discerned, spirit to spirit! As Paul wrote to the Romans,
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Rm. 12:2
If we do not allow God to change our minds, we will continue to do what we have always done and we will continue to get what we always have gotten! Then we complain to God that nothing ever changes! Tonight be the change you want to see! Open your eyes, ears and hearts to understand what the Spirit is saying to you, the Church.
"So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust, ◙
My great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to shame.
27 Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.
28 "And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
Joel 2:25-28
This is what the Lord says, "I have restored what was lost, so that now I can pour my spirit out on all flesh and they can be what I created them to be." The word restored in the Hebrew is Shalam. It means to be safe (in mind, body or estate), to be complete. Shalam is the primitive root word of Shalom.
The familiar Jewish greeting and salutation meaning to be safe, health, prosperity, peace and favor! God prophesied over His people in captivity, "I will restore, make complete YOU!" You will never be ashamed again.
To restore something means that you have had to have it at one time! He didn't say I am going to give to you something new. He said I am going to restore what has been eaten away by the locust, the devourer, one who consumes and keeps you from increase! The one who causes you to look at what you have lost, rather than at what you possess!
There are four things that God wants to restore to each of us.
1. Intimacy
Or our relationship with God.
2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
The word creation means the original formation, through the idea of the proprietorship of the manufacturer. Why? So that we might be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and we might help others be reconciled.
Eternal life is not simply being saved. John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
2. Identity.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Gal. 3:26-29.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
- Marianne Williamson
When Jesus came up from being baptized God spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." He says the same thing to you when you have been restored! I AM MY FATHER'S SON!
3. Inheritance.
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
16For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Hebr. 9:15-17
Your inheritance is all that your Father has given to you, not what others tell you, you are!
4. Impossible!
Nothing is impossible with God! "With man things are impossible, with God all things are possible!"
God has restored you, so you can fulfill your created purpose! He wants to restore your Intimacy, Identity, Inheritance, and Impossibilities! Through you!
ARE YOU WHO YOU WANT TO BE?
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