Eagerly Desire Gifts

Pastor Stan Mons

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Sermon Transcription:

Church, I'm excited for this service — not only because my youngest brother and his wife are visiting from the Netherlands, but also because every single one of you is here. Amen.

And I know that ever since I gave my life to Jesus, I've never run into a coincidence ever again. Every day has been spent purposeful — not by me, but by the Lord who orders our steps, who has a plan for each and every single day. I remember when the Lord first taught me the remembrance that He made this day: This is the day the Lord has made; rejoice. And I was reminded because so many of my days seemed to almost have been made by the devil for his purposes. But the Word tells us that the Lord made this day for His purposes in our life. Nothing about this day has been designed or is subject to the powers of the enemy to give you a horrible day.

I like to remind myself to never say, “I’m having a bad day,” because my Jesus designed this day for me to overcome some stuff, to get through some stuff, to encounter Him, to understand more of His Word — to understand more of who He is when I come to prayer. That’s what He had in mind when He made this day. So no matter what I may be going through, it’s going to be a pretty good day. I want to remind you — last week we had our first part on Daniel: what we can see about Christ, and also what we can see for our lives today in the life of Daniel. This week, we’re going to have the second part. I’m only with you two more Sundays before I have to go and minister at Summit International School of Ministry. So I may squeeze in a different sermon that has been burning in my heart before I go there. The Daniel series may be interrupted, but today we’re going to do part two: Eagerly Desire Gifts. Eagerly Desire Gifts. Daniel, Part Two.

Let me give you that key verse, and then I would love to pray with you once more before we get into the Word. 1 Corinthians 14:1 — Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. Let us pray. Lord God, I thank You, Jesus, that You have shown us by Your life how we should begin to behave and try to follow Your example — to seek the Father, to trust the Father, and to walk out the plan of the Father over our life. And Jesus, I pray that You send Your Holy Spirit upon each person that is with us online, each person here in the house, Lord, that we may understand Your Word, Lord Jesus, and that Your Spirit may provide the wisdom to put that understanding into practice, Lord God. That we may walk out and live out all that we have been forgiven and saved for, all that we have been called for, Lord — that we may live out a life of divine purpose, Lord God, that wounds the plans of the enemy and brings forth the purposes of God by the power of Your Spirit everywhere Your people go, Lord Jesus.

That there may be hope everywhere, Lord God. That we may leave behind hope in every place that we come. That life, Lord God, may come to pass in the hearts of people. Lord, I pray that You anoint every single one of Your people to give out life in the name of Jesus. Lord, in Your name we pray. Amen.

I’ll read again to you 1 Corinthians 14:1: Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. Now, it’s a one-sentence verse in this translation, but there’s a lot to be said about it. Most churchgoing believers — people that are full of sin and have come to the place where they realize they need a Savior, and they cry out to Jesus Christ — He washes their sins away, He gives them a whole new life, He makes them part of the family of God. Church people. Most church people really agree that they should love one another, and even, as the Bible says, love their enemies. Very few church people hold on to offenses and grudges, and when they do, they’re in a sticky place scripturally. But we generally quite well agree that the people who follow Jesus should be a people that give out love and live a life of love. That is not what we are talking about this morning. We’re talking about what comes next: Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.

Now, let me say something about that last little bit of the sentence, because it’s been confused, abused, and misunderstood so much that it can almost make a little tingle go up your spine when it says, especially prophecy. There’s a lot of “prophyling” in the church of the living God. We used to say when I was in Bible school — I believe it was Brother Nick, maybe Pastor Hector has heard this too — there’s a lot of bad pizza going around. People getting all kinds of wacky dreams at night after some bad pizza, and the next day they’re prophesying.

Even the Bible talks about people going around saying they have a word from the Lord when the Lord has not spoken. That’s why we can never weigh the words that come from a person’s mouth — no matter how called they may be — as heavily as when we are reading the Bible. We always have to test all things by the Scriptures, especially when someone claims to have a word from God directly for you, directly from heaven, without you having to go into your Bible or go into prayer. You’re just getting it served on a platter. We call that fast food.

Now, if that’s true — that’s awesome. It does happen. But you better make sure it’s not McDonald’s food, because if it is, eventually that’s not going to be good for your spiritual health. Amen? Amen. So, there is definitely some testing that needs to go into that. But in the New Testament, when the Word speaks of prophecy, you see it time and time and time again. There are miraculous moments where something is foretold — and this is absolutely true. But those are the minor ones. These are the fewer cases throughout the New Testament. When the New Testament refers to prophecy, it’s really speaking, in most senses, of someone who knows what is on God’s heart, who knows what is on God’s mind, and they’re speaking it into someone’s life who isn’t living it yet. Someone that is hopeless — and you begin to speak hope toward them, reminding them of what is possible in Christ Jesus. Someone that doesn’t yet believe in the forgiveness of their sins — and you begin to speak truth into their life about what is possible because of Christ Jesus, and what will be theirs if they turn from their unbelief and put their trust in Christ. And when they do, all of a sudden these things now also come to pass.

All biblical, New Testament-time preaching, in my book, should be that biblical definition of prophecy. It should be for your life today, and it should add something to your life that causes you to seek after Jesus more eagerly — to be more intimate with Him, to trust Him more. What happens is that the Holy Spirit uses the words of a weak human being but causes them to have power in your heart to bring about a change. Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit. That’s what we’re really going to talk about. That was my little prophecy disclaimer. But we’re going to talk about eagerly desiring the gifts, because most believers have no problem agreeing that they should love all people — and that sometimes it’s hard, but they should still do it. A lot of people have no problem agreeing that when a biblical, prophetic word comes forth — one that feeds the soul, causes encouragement, brings hope, and provides good direction for your life — that’s something to be desired.

But very few believers live a life of eagerly, eagerly desiring the gifts of the Spirit. Doctrinally, they will agree. But when you dissect the life — are we really, in every situation, eagerly desiring the gifts of the Spirit? When a problem comes up, do I eagerly desire a gift of the Spirit to face this? Or do I revert back to my natural ability or my natural talents? Let’s get into Daniel chapter 2. Eagerly desire all gifts. We’re going to start in verse one. We’re not going to read every verse of this chapter, but we’ll read quite a bit, and we’ll go into what we can learn from the life of Daniel right here in chapter 2. Verse 1: In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His mind was troubled and he could not sleep. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me, and I want to know what it means.” Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: if you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut in pieces and your houses burned into piles of rubble.”

Now, what happens next is that these wise men try to argue with the king — that the king is being unreasonable. At this point in the story, if they were that wise, they probably would have realized this was not going to help. Here’s verse 11 — the astrologers speaking:“What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.” Now here comes one of the main points in the book of Daniel. This belief in the wise men of his generation was that God does not live, does not dwell with men. They said, “They do not live among humans.” And I believe with all my heart that God — not only in that time but also pointing forward to your and my life — is going to make a difference by first putting and allowing Daniel into a very pressured, very difficult situation. Because Daniel was counted among the wise men that the king had spoken over: “If you don’t do this, your house will be turned to rubble, and you yourself will be cut in pieces. Your going to be killed.”

It’s no different in our time today, where so many do not feel, do not believe, do not sense that God still dwells with people. And difficult, sometimes nearly impossible situations will come our way — as a generation, as a people, and even personally, individually. Difficult and nearly impossible situations will come your way, as the heart of the generation around you says, “This is impossible. These kinds of things are impossible. It’s impossible to have peace in the midst of this trouble. It’s impossible to remain composed when these things are going on all around you and in you. It’s impossible to live without anxiety. It’s impossible not to worry. It’s impossible not to plan every detail of the future. Only God could do this — and He’s not here.” People feel God does not speak to us today. God does not provide His Spirit and His giftings of heaven today. God is not present in my situation to do a miracle today. God is not with us.

What you are asking of us — what we are supposed to be walking out right now, the challenge, the difficulty, the pain, the pressure that I’m facing right now — is impossible. This is asking too much of me. Only God could do this, and He’s not here to do it. Now, as church people, we don’t literally say that. But when we look at our hearts and our behavior toward our challenges and our problems, very often our behavior says it. When we try to put all of our strength, all of our influence, all of our network, all of our finances toward a problem, by very definition we’re already saying, “I need to try and fix this, control it, subdue it, and conquer it — because only God could really do this, and He’s not here to do it.” So we go to every self-help book, group, or program that’s accessible to us to try and change our character, our sin struggle, or whatever challenge we may be facing. It’s so easy for us, as people of flesh, to say, “What can I do within my strength, my ability, and my influence to handle this problem?”

Then things grow beyond what we’re able to deal with, and we get discouraged, worked up, and can even start to feel like God is being unfair. Why would You allow this into my life? Why am I in a situation where death — in Daniel’s case — is already proclaimed over my future? Why are unreasonable things being asked of me? If God orders my steps, why am I going through this stuff? Here is what Jesus tells you and me about that issue of God dwelling with people — John 14:23: Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” The Lord tells us that it’s completely different — that the wise men of Daniel’s generation didn’t get it right. But here is what we learn from this story, church: God may allow some very challenging situations into your life at times. And in many cases, especially when they’re painful, it’s really hard to understand that God may very well intentionally be allowing this thing. But He does it because the people around you don’t believe God dwells with man.

There are so many people around you — at the job, in your family, in the places where you set your feet — who don’t believe that God comes to live inside of people’s hearts. They don’t believe Jesus has made it possible for the Spirit of God to come and live inside of us and to do for us and in us what we could never change ourselves — what we could never fix in our own hearts, in our marriages, in our minds, in the way we handle finances, or in the way we live life.

We could never do it. And God knows that there are people all around you who don’t even believe that God would care enough to come into that situation — that He would heal, that He would restore. So God will send you into a generation that thinks like that — a generation that says, “This is too much. Only God could do it, and He’s not here.” And God will send you into a situation like that.

He’ll send Daniel into a situation like that. He’ll allow you to get into a whole heap of trouble — even when you didn’t cause it. And the pressure gets turned up. What is God seeking to do? He’s seeking to break that mindset off of a generation that’s slipping into hell. He’s seeking to break it off of a generation that doesn’t know Him. And through you and me, He wants to show that Jesus Christ is indeed Emmanuel — God with us. God cares, and He is present to deliver. Amen. Often when pressuring situations come your way, God seeks to deliver through heavenly gifting. When the pressure rises, it’s not just about your endurance, perseverance, or faithfulness to the gospel — though those matter. Sometimes we take all that weight on our own necks, trying to fight through and make it to the end. But no — He’s calling out to our hearts: “Eagerly desire all gifts.” Because by My gifts, I’ll do what you cannot. By My gifts, I’ll accomplish through you what could never be done. Because people all around you don’t believe that God is with humanity — that He has come to engage in every challenge humankind faces.

My little brother prayed it before service: “Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, God, that nothing we do here we have to do without You.” Thank You, God, that there’s nothing in our lives we have to do without You. But so many around you can’t see that. When trouble comes, desperation sets in. Desperation says to the heart, “Only God could do it — and He’s not here. Only God could fix it — but He’s not interested. When I pray, He doesn’t answer. When I open the Word, He doesn’t speak.” It’s the same as saying, “Jesus hasn’t come to make all things right.” Its doubt toward the love and redemptive power of Christ Jesus. And church, God will send you into it. You have to understand: when the trials of life come — and sometimes when it pours, it really rains — God is still working. There are seasons of rest, but then the Lord, caring so deeply for the people around you, allows His own children to go through pressure so that others may see that God actually comes to live inside people. And when God lives in people, they are not crushed. They are not torn apart. They are not broken beyond repair. They don’t grow bitter. They don’t grow offended.

They have power. They have hope. They have joy when nothing makes sense, and peace when life is falling apart and everyone else stuggles with fear. All of a sudden people are moved to question, and believe, “How come? What’s different in your life? How did you get there?” And the people of God get to say,“Emmanuel. Jesus Christ came into my situation. I did nothing — all I did was let Him in. I believed that He desires for me to be forgiven, to be changed, to be washed — and that He Himself would do the work.” And when I gave myself into the hands of Christ Jesus, this is what He did. Oh, He’s still working on some areas, let me tell you — but there are things He’s filled in my life that are unshakable. Gifts from heaven. Let me read verse 11 again:“What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods — and they do not live among humans.” This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued to put them to death — and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. We see this desire grow and its never been different church. This desire always grows driven and fueled by the kingdom of darkness to somehow remove the people that could counter the thinking of the absence of God.

Gods people that filled with His spirit whether you are walking a decent alk or you are really stuggling today. When God has filled you with His spirit you are a target for the enemy. Because you have the potential in Christ to change peoples minds about the fact that God would actually love to dwell with people and take residence no matter what youve done no matter the sin no matter your prayer life. Or you're reading the Bible, that God, because of what Christ has done, would love to come and live in your heart and do in you and through you what could not be done by gifts you never earned—gifts you may have never asked for, gifts you could have never explained or understood you would ever need them—but God placing them in your life to do through your life something that causes people to see that God actually is present in your life.

There's always a plan to remove people that have the potential to change the mind of a generation about the absence of God. And in many cases, that's you, church. There are friends, there's family in your life, and you are a danger to the devil's plan over their life. And so he'll stir them up, and he'll make them say harmful and hurtful things to you, because he's just trying to get you to take a little offense—take some distance—say, "I have to put up with this. I got to love you, but I can love you from afar." And I just keep walking away from that person while they're in the grip of unbelief, on their way to hell. And the enemy is just trying to set up a boundary around that person so that nobody's close to them that could counter the belief that God is not with them, for them, or interested in their situation.

God will send you into a difficulty, church. You can set your watch to it—that's a Dutch expression. You can count on it that God will send you into a difficult situation. He’ll be there, right there with you. He’ll fill you with His Spirit. The giftings will be ready—ready for you to spend them. But He’s trying to show somebody that cannot believe that Jesus would have been sent from heaven to be with people. They can’t believe it. And God is trying to show it through you. You have to understand, church, that there is a plan of persecution developed in hell to remove the people that can counter the belief that God is not with us. It is a strategy. It's planned out. And when the devil can't get at you, he just wants to protect whatever he thinks he still has. And he puts barbed wire around these people.

Think of it for a moment like that—he will make that person so prickly, he will make them so negative, he will make them so annoying to you, that you, who have the potential to show the light and the power of Christ present in your heart, are slowly but surely moved, removed from that person—moved away from that person. But there’s a purpose. Verse 16: And at this, Daniel went in to the king—didn’t run away—and asked for time so that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven. He prays—it’s all recorded right there in Daniel chapter 2. And here we see that the pressure, the death situation, the painful, hurtful, stressful, worrisome situation Daniel finds himself in—this situation here begins to turn around the moment Daniel begins to walk in heavenly gifting.

The moment Daniel doesn’t run, doesn’t come up with a plan, doesn’t try to spin the king a story, doesn’t try to explain away why the king is unreasonable and Daniel shouldn’t be going through this—all of a sudden, when Daniel turns to God and says, “Lord, You actually can do a miracle in this situation. You actually can extend gifting into this situation”—this is where it begins to turn around. Verse 25: Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what the dream means.” The king asked Daniel, also called Belteshazzar, “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?” Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these: “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to the things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.”

Now ultimately, church, if you’ve got to boil it down to one sentence you take home as to what you and I learn for our lives today from this historical account in the life of Daniel, it is this:

There are death situations—things you cannot fight. They’re going to overpower you. They feel like they take you by the throat. You can’t get rid of the fear. You can’t get rid of the anxiety. You can’t deal with the problems at hand. There are death situations that only the giftings of God can turn around. There are death situations that only the giftings of God can turn around. You won’t be able to run to your savings and turn it around—it won’t do it. You won’t be able to run to your support system that you’ve surrounded yourself with in your life, no matter how great it may be, and turn it around—you won’t be able to do it. People won’t be able to carry out the deliverance for you in that season. You won’t be able to refer to your intellect and your wisdom and try to deal with the problem, manipulate your way out of it, or control people. You won’t be able to use your strength and just work really hard until you get past this hump and make it through. You won’t be able to fix the relationship. You won’t be able to conquer the very things that God may be allowing in your life.

Only the giftings of God can turn that situation around. Only the giftings of God. So that’s why the Word tells us: walk in them. God is alive in you, and you are the plan that God will send into situations. It’s going to hurt you. It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to cause some pressure. But here’s the gospel: The Lord freely gives gifts to those that ask of Him. That’s why the Word says, “Eagerly desire all gifts.” They are sent. The gifts of God are sent into your life to do what you cannot do. Don’t run to people. Don’t run to other solutions. When life falls apart, eagerly desire all gifts. And I’m not just talking—just in case your mind goes there—I’m not just talking about making a list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s not wrong to do that, but we’re talking many, many, many more gifts that God gives. There may be gifts that He gives for that specific moment, and you may never walk in that gift again. There may be gifts that are not necessarily listed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but they may be gifts of deliverance—where God delivers you out of your troubles.

There are so many ways that God will give when we turn to Him, when He allows us to get into a storm. And if you belong to Jesus, and He has filled you with His Holy Spirit, I can promise you this: there will be storms. There will be times God loves the people around you so much that He gives you up for a second out of the peace and calmness of life and allows some difficulty in His children’s life—not because He doesn’t love you, not because He doesn’t care about how you’re feeling—but you have been rescued from hell. And there are people around you—no matter who talks to them, no matter what you say—they just will not believe that God comes to live in the hearts of people because of what Jesus Christ has done. They won’t believe it. And there will come times that God says, “Okay, I’m going to allow some difficult things in your life now. Ask for My giftings. Come and run to Me,” like Daniel did when life closed around him from every side.

Eagerly desire the gifts. Eagerly desire them. Daniel continues speaking to the king: Verse 39: “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours.” (He’s explaining the dream.) “Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.” Verses 44–45: “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Here it comes—nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” Church, giftings are not to give you a pleasant life. God’s giftings that He gives to your life—gifts that He gives to conquer the difficulty, sometimes the sin, sometimes the challenge that is in your life—the giftings of God always point somewhere. They are like a road sign for the people around you to notice and to understand where they should be looking. The giftings always point somewhere.

Right here Daniel could have just been done interpreting the dream, but he’s showing the king that there’s something more than just a dream. There’s something more than just Daniel being able to step up to the plate and have an answer when no one else does. He begins to show that this is something God is going to do. God is going to set up a kingdom that can never be destroyed. God is going to come into this world and be with His people. God is going to be present with the people that belong to Him. God is going to do something that governs over every single one of our problems. And we know that Isaiah prophesied it: the government will be on His shoulders. Whatever trouble, whatever problem, whatever storm comes your way, Jesus Christ will govern your life, and He will watch over it. He will provide the giftings for it. He’ll provide the strength to walk away from sin. You won’t have to do it—by now, you’ve proven that you can’t.

God will send gifting that restores relationship. God will send gifting. I remember when God, so kind and so lovingly, began to teach me how to say sorry. He taught me that the Holy Spirit—He showed me that the Holy Spirit—can teach you to say sorry in a way that repairs more than you broke with your bad actions. That’s gifting as well. The Lord is present in all of your situations, ready for you to flee to Him and receive heavenly gifting that begins to have such power and such work in you and around you that people around you begin to believe again that Jesus has actually come into the world—to give His own Spirit, alive in every heart that flees to Him and runs to Him—to give them the strength they don’t have to live an honorable life, to give them the strength they don’t have to stand up when everyone else kneels. We’re going to get into that story of Daniel in the future weeks. Giftings—remember this—always point somewhere. That’s why it’s so important that we walk in them, that we use them. They’re road signs for the people who are watching your life. Giftings always point somewhere. Here it comes, verse 45: “This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of the mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true, and the interpretation is trustworthy.”

Daniel’s prophesying now. He says, “There’s a Rock coming. The Rock of Ages is coming. The Cornerstone is coming, and it will tear people out of every nation, out of every kingdom that has ever existed. And God will make Himself a new kingdom. He will make Himself a new people. He will make Himself a people that belong to Him. He is King over their life. He will govern their life. And to this kingdom, there will not be an end. There will never be an enemy that can conquer this kingdom. There will never be a season or a failure in economy that can break down this kingdom. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future.

And church, you’re living in that time. You’re living in that time where the Rock of Ages is available to you—to be hidden in Him, to be hidden in the cleft of the Rock—where nothing can get to you, nothing can crush you, nothing can tear you down. And the giftings of God—not yours, not your talents, not your resources, nothing of your good effort—need to be able to conquer the challenges at hand. He says, “Come to Me, ask of Me, and I will give you freely.”

Eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit: God with us—Emmanuel.

Daniel 2:46–49: “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, ‘Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and the revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.’” Here’s what it brings to pass, church, when you walk in your gifting: those that couldn’t see before now see that God is not only real, but that God is in relationship with people here on earth—that God cares about the challenges and the death situations that all of us face, ultimately providing for all of His children eternal life, so that even death itself is not a thing anymore that terrifies His children, nor does it put fear in them.

God has taken away the power of death. Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Moreover, at Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.

Now, there are seasons—and these are the seasons we all love. There are seasons that, because of the call, because of the nearness of God, because of the giftings of God, we might call the mountaintops. They are the easy times—the times of favor and blessing.

But I believe with all my heart the Holy Spirit wants you to hear this this morning: when those times are not there, and you’re facing a death situation, a death threat, when you’re facing a situation you cannot overcome—something unreasonable, painful, and full of pressure—nothing’s wrong. Nothing’s wrong. God has sent you into that place with all of the giftings of heaven available, the presence of Christ available to you, because people are watching your life. They’re waiting to see if God actually has made a way through Christ Jesus to come into the lives of people who don’t deserve it—people who have sinned too, people who make mistakes too. Is this really real? And He’ll send you into it.

If you would stand with me for a moment—for those that are with us online and all of you in the house—this is the altar call this morning. You realize that there are battles in life that you have been fighting, challenges that you have been facing, and impossibilities that you have been trying to work through. But now you’re realizing these death situations can only be turned around by the giftings of God—the giftings of heaven. If that is you this morning, what you need is a very simple way of repentance—simply realigning yourself with how God thinks about your situation. All we do is we confess toward the Lord, we humble ourselves, and we allow the Holy Spirit to minister to us. God is not trying to harshly correct you. God has been trying to make a way for you to become okay with the fact that He wants to give you giftings for free. Jesus paid for them. Jesus made a way so that your strength, your resources—whatever it may be—nothing that belongs to you needs to be able to deal with this situation or conquer it.

God is ready to give giftings. And to say to Him this morning: “God, I’ve been trying to conquer it by working hard. I’ve been trying to rely on the flesh. I’ve been hoping that the right people would open the right doors and get me ahead or get me through this. God, I’ve been trying to fix my impossible situations with money, or I believed that enough money would fix it. I’ve been dealing with my problems as if God is not dwelling with men. Lord, I repent of that thought, and I turn to You, Lord God. I eagerly desire gifts for my situation, that those around me may be convinced that Jesus made a way for me to be free and for God to come and live in my heart.

Lord God, have Your way in my life.” If that is you, I want to invite you to come forward at this time. And if you are with us online and you say, “That’s me,” I want to just ask you—if you’re with someone online—let them know: “This word is for me. I need to change the way I fight my battles. I need to change the way I trust. I need to realign myself with the way God sees my pressure, my situation, my pain—the things I have not been understanding, why in the world they are being allowed in my life.”

It makes no sense, and all of a sudden, this morning, I seem to be able to make sense of it when I look at it from God’s perspective. “But God, would You now teach me to eagerly desire Your giftings for this area, Lord—that through Your resources, Lord God, there may be deliverance; that through Your resources, eyes may be opened all around me; that through Your resources, Lord, worship may arise for Your holy name; that through Your resources, Lord God, this story of my life may continue and prove that God dwells with men.” I want to invite you here at the altar and online to take a moment. Take a moment between you and Jesus. Tell Him the things that you’ve been trying to do in your own strength or your own resources, and simply say: “Lord, I turn from doing it my way. I’m turning from doing it this way. I’m going to eagerly desire Your gifts for every situation of pressure I face. I’m turning to You, Jesus. Lord, You know what heavenly gifts You have designed to conquer the blindness of the people around me. Lord, have Your way—not my will, not my way, but Lord, Your way now for my pressure, my pain. Lord God, have Your way.”

-Pastor Stan Mons