This week, I have a special treat for you. I was
so blessed by Bishop's message this week that I typed up the notes and I
am sharing this with you tonight. I know it will bless you.
God gives us
symbols and celebrations that are historic that we need to remember. But
if we just remember some historical event, it loses value. We need a
current day revelation. It’s not enough that we celebrate Christmas.
It’s a great event but we have to know that He is in our heart today.
We celebrate
Easter, but we need to have Resurrection Life--power in our life today.
We need current day revelation.
It’s very
important that we understand Rosh Hashana. That’s why I wanted Rabbi to
share bout it and I want to share about it—to bring it to modern day
revelation. What makes Rabbi so powerful is that he brings it to a
modern day revelation. We don’t just read the stories in the Bible but
learn what it means to us today.
Chuck Pierce
talked about Rosh Hashanah this year being the clash of swords and I
want to talk about this today.
ØRosh
Hashanah literally means head of the year---(the year where you
take authority).
I don’t have to wait till January 1st to celebrate
the New Year, I can celebrate it today. It’s New Year now—a spiritual
year, not just a calendar year.
I have authority TODAY!! Take authority.
It’s significant to celebrate the
Feast of Trumpets this year. This is the year to take authority.
ØRosh
Hashanah is found in Leviticus 23:24-25; Numbers 29:1 (NKJ)
Leviticus 23:24-25
24Say to the Israelites, On the first day of the seventh month [almost
October], you shall observe a day of solemn [sabbatical] rest, a
memorial day announced by blowing of trumpets, a holy [called]
assembly.
25You shall do no
servile work on it, but you shall present an offering made by fire to
the Lord.Numbers 29:1 And in the seventh month, on the first day of the
month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary
work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets.
Why is it significant to celebrate the Feast of Rosh
Hashanah?When we celebrate Rosh HaShanah, we’re making a sound.
Don’t be offended but it’s important to have a day to honor
God.
ØRosh
Hashanah means to celebrate the creation of the world
So how do
you celebrate creation? You celebrate by being creative. This year I
determine to get more creative than I ever have. This year I will
celebrate the God of creation. This year I will not complain about my
problems but Do something about them—and being solution oriented.
How would I celebrate the 4th of July? Not just by
fieworks and picnics but by celebrating my freedom. By voting. By taking
advantage of my freedom to speak freely and freedom to worship.
So if I am going to celebrate creation, I do so by being
creative—with the creativity that God gave me.
Most of the
problems you’re in are just the manifestation of God working to try to
force you to use His creativity. You can’t do things without it. You
won’t be able to get by.
ØRosh
Hashanah also celebrates God as judge, the one who dispenses mercy
and justice
The minute we say “judge” we have a negative connotation.
Here’s the
beauty of the year of judgment. In this year, GOD, your DAD is the
judge. He will dispense mercy and justice. If we’ll do what God
wants us to in this day, He will loose His judgment on this earth and
the wicked will not get away with it anymore. He’s just looking for a
standard and He says “if I can find 10 people, than I’m going to judge
this city.”
GOD is
looking to vindicate you. Judgment means you get vindicated.
Wrong has been committed against you, things that are unjust. and you’ve
suffered for things you didn’t really do. You were just part of a system
and you had to suffer because of that. God is going to vindicate you.
This is the year for it.
The first
Rosh Hashanah is believed to date back to this story in Genesis 22. You
know how Abraham waited so long for the promised child and then the
promise came. Now, God is telling him to sacrifice that son. We need to
understand that we are stewards—not owners. We’re just taking care of
the blessings God gives us. If we understand this, then God can pour out
blessings through us.
ØThe FIRST Rosh Hashanah (Tishri) is found in Genesis 22:11-12
11But the Angel of the
Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered,
Here I am. 12And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything
to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not
held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son.
Principle:In the midst of doing for God, we must still listen for God
What if Abraham had missed this word?
We often get so caught up in “doing” that the Holy Spirit can’t break in
and say “do this?” You can’t get caught up in the format of life. Where
is God in that format—when He says “I don’t want you to do it that way
today?”
Genesis 22:13 Then
Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and
offered it up for a burnt offering and an ascending sacrifice instead of
his son!
Always look
up first, then look around... because the view changes.
When you
first look at the problems around you, it’s overwhelming and seemingly
impossible—until you look up and see how awesome God is and how
powerful. When you look up, you don’t see like mere man sees, you
see like God sees. You see the power of the Holy Spirit and the angels.
You see that Jesus as gone before you. Then, you look at your problems
and they will see things completely differently.
“I will look unto the
hills, from where my strength comes from”
When he
looked up while he was trying to make his sacrifice, what seemed to be a
distraction was God providing the ram. God told me to tell you today
that what seems to be the “distractions” in your life can very well be
the miracles in your life.
Here is a shofar, a ram’s horn—it is what is blown on the
Feast of Trumpets.
It represents authority.
So, Abraham
hears this huge ram and sees that he’s got his horns caught in the
thicket. When God sets you up and you do the right thing, you don’t have
to chase your blessing down, you get your blessings whole and you don’t
have to chase after it.
If you
listened to Bishop Bismark’s sermon last week you know he said that,
this year, we at Hope are coming into a time when we will not have to
work so hard for everything. It’s just God’s time to bless you.
God will
provide it whole and you can just get it. He will bless you –the ram is
caught in the thicket.
The ram’s horn always symbolizes authority.
Don’t let your authority get tied up in problems and circumstances
rather than destiny. Be a good soldier. Don’t be caught in the cares
of this life. You’re using all your authority to rebuke the devil in the
circumstances that beset you—your car, your job, your kids, etc. Don’t
get your horns caught in a thicket. God made the horn. He made your
authority to go say “I’m taking this school, this business—for Jesus!
This is the year of Authority!
Cast all
your cares on me. What is a thicket? Just briars and thorns. You can’t
eat or rest in it. Why do you go to it? Stay away from thickets. God
gets you out of one thicket and then you get caught in another.
So
Abraham gets the ram and what does he do first? Bless God. That
should be the first thing we do when God blesses us. God knows your
heart. If your heart is just after getting more stuff, then it won’t
work well for you. It will be “more money—more problems.” Some of the
most unhappy people are those with the most money.
Let God
be able to bless us with more so we can bless God. We can say “Oh I
can’t wait to give this tithe to God.” That’s the kind of person God can
really bless.
If it’s
going to take 50,000,000 to build the church and the ministry to do what
He wants to do in this city (to change lives) do you realize that
50,000,000 is going to come through YOU and that God is going to have to
give you 500,000,000 in order for your tithe to be that much?
The first thing Abraham did was sacrifice the ram. What’s left after he
burns the ram? The horns. What do you think Abraham thought about every
time he saw a ram’s horn or heard the ram’s horn blown?
HOW GOOD
GOD IS. HOW HE PROVIDED.
When a new
problem comes, sound the ‘shofar’ of your victory from your last
problem.
I remember
the things that God did for me. The last victory—when there looked like
there was no hope and then God gave the victory to you. What sound is
the earth going to produce.
Genesis 22:14-18 14So Abraham called the
name of that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this
day, On the mount of the Lord it will be provided.
15The Angel of the Lord
called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16And said, I
have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that since you have done this and
have not withheld [from Me] or begrudged [giving Me] your son,
your only son,
Some of you give, but you begrudge giving. That’s not good enough. You
say “oh not again”. You blow it when you do that.
First day
obedience is hearing direction and being obedient. The second day
obedience is when you get rewarded. The third day is when
God blesses and multiplies your descendants---your seed will possess the
gates of their enemies.
Third Day is your seed and nations get blessed.
God didn’t
put you on this earth just to get your blessing. God put us on earth to
bless the earth and change nations and cities. We change change things.
Genesis 22:11-18 17In
blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your
descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the
seashore. And your Seed (Heir) will possess the gate of His enemies,
18And in your Seed
[Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and [by Him]
bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My voice.
Provision is
a place!
And you
shall call THIS PLACE The Lord will provide. Because God provided there.
What did Abraham do that made it that place? He held nothing back and
said “it’s all yours God.”
The second
word is the reward
Trust and obey is first Day. Second Day is reward. A ram was just his
offering. He got nothing out of that. Because you obeyed, your seed will
be rewarded.
Now we get to the clash of swords. The Word of God is a sword. The devil
doesn’t have a sword.
The enemy
tries to wrestle the sword away from you. Like the devil tried to do
with Jesus on the Mount of Temptation. He tried to twist the word but
Jesus would not let him. He tried to wrestle the sword away from Jesus
but he couldn’t.
Satan
can’t destroy you but he can get you to destroy yourself. He doesn’t
have the authority to do it himself. Don’t let him take your authority.
IT’S YOUR WORD AND DON’T LET HIM TAKE IT FROM YOU.
He will try to make you just lay it down. Don’t lay your life
or your sword down.
Or he tries to keep you from knowing the Word.
CLASH OF THE
SWORDS: It’s a clash of words.
ØThe Sword is a symbol of war (Hebrews 4:12 amp)
Ø
THE
SWORD IS THE TRUTH!
Hebrews 4:12 For the
Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active,
operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged
sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and
[the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of
our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very
thoughts and purposes of the heart.
Don’t try to
be politically correct; be Biblically correct. You have the sword—the
truth. Satan can never prevail over the Word of God.
Ø
The sword is a symbol of divine judgment
Psalms 149:6 Let the
high praises of God be in their throats and a two-edged sword in their
hands
But He has to first judge us—first the shepherds,
then the house of God.
God will judge the leaders first. But, if our
judgment is that we are good, He vindicates us in the site of others.
ØThe sword is a symbol of power and
authority.
Deuteronomy 30:19 19 I
call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set
before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore
choose life, that you and your descendants may live.
But YOU
have to separate what is life and what is death. This is a new year.
Choose life
that you and descendants may live. I love the New Year.
WHY WAIT
UNTIL JANUARY 1,
YOUR NEW
YEAR CAN START TODAY! Let’s celebrate the New Year.
HAPPY NEW
YEAR!
Why is it
going to be happy? Because you’re going to choose life. Because you’re
going to use your sword. Because you’re going to be creative. My God is
the Judge of everything. There is a clash of swords but in actuality,
only WE have a sword unless we give it over to the enemy. Don’t make
yourself vulnerable. Today I wish you a Happy New Year.
We’re
walking in authority. This is the Head of the Year; Rosh Ha Shanah. Who
carries the sword? YOU DO!
Don’t lay
that sword down. There is a sword coming from earth. Let it be the sound
coming from all those victories you’ve had because you are about to walk
into a season of great victories and great prosperity because this is a
