Challenge The Shadow

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.

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I hope you're blessed today.

All right, I want to do something today a little different than I normally do. Give you my title and my subject, and then I'm going to sit you down and tell you a story from the Bible that I don't think you've ever heard before.

It's what I call a deep cut.

Sometimes I like these Bible stories that we haven't heard a million times, like Moses in the Red Sea and David Nglet those are good too. Jesus getting up from the Grave, that's the best one. But there are these little stories. And there's one little story that I've been living in for the last few weeks and I want to share it with you.

But first let me tell you.

What we're going to talk about today is something that the Lord told me to.

Tell you, a charge that he wants me to give you.

And today I want to teach you how to challenge the shadow. Challenge the shadow, and just give your neighbor that title. On your way to your seat, say challenge the shadow and put it in the comments. If you're online, you may be seated. Challenge the shadow, and this is going to help us today. Challenge the shadow. In Second Kings chapter twenty there is a story of a king named Hezekiah. He was the greatest king since David in the time where many of the kings were wicked.

It wasn't perfect. No human king is.

That's Jesus' job when he comes onto the scene in the Book of Matthew. But Hezekiah did pretty good, and God helped him in a great way. He accomplished a lot, He defeated and subdued a lot of enemies. But the Second King's chapter twenty verse one, just after God has given Hezekiah a great victory, something kind of crazy happens, and I want to tell you about it today.

The Second King's chapter twenty verse one.

The scripture records in those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amas went to him and said, this is what the Lord says. Put your house in order, because you're going to die. You will not recover. Thanks a lot, Prophet Isaiah appreciate that. Can we get another prophet in here. How about Micah Nahum, how about it zephy Andiah. But this word from God comes through the prophet. You're gonna die.

Remember, Lord, how I.

Have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him. Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, this is what the Lord, the God of your father David says. And Isaiah's like, I already told him, he's gonna Die've got to get his estate planning done.

Now go back and tell him.

Go back and tell Hezekiah, I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you on the third day. From now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. Now I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the King of Assiri. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David. And then Isaiah said, prepara poultic of figs, and they did so and applied it

You choose, And.

God might be saying to somebody today you choose. You might be praying about something, and crying about something, and wondering about something, and God might be saying to you today you choose. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps? Or shall it go back ten steps? It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forwar? Or were ten steps, said Hazekiah, Rather have it go back ten steps.

Can do anything. Yeah, he can do anything.

One of the things that I'm trying to learn in my life is the difference between times where I'm supposed to accept the way that it is and face it, and the times that I'm supposed to reject the way that it is and change it by faith. We have a workout room in my house, and all over the walls of that room I have written different quotes over the years. Lived in this house for ten years, so there's a lot of little things on the wall, and

I think you made that up. I give Chunks credit where credit is due. He's a genius and he's a fiscal therapist. Now.

One of the things that it says on the wall in the Pound, it says, no challenge, no change. You know when I wrote that up there, when Elijah started working out with me. My oldest son turns eighteen in just a few weeks. He's in Orlando. Shout out to Elijah b Verdict, my workout partner. He's been lifting with me down there in the pound for three years. And you know, he used to get in there and do ten reps when he could do fifteen. He'd do fifteen

I don't read them. I really don't put a lot of stock in that kind of stuff.

And so I guess I'm a challenger if I'm challenging the validity of a personality test. But she says that my son is also a challenger, and he is. I'll tell you how much a challenger he is. When we first started bench pressing in the pound, he said this actual sentence. He said, I don't think I don't think bench really works your chest.

Let me explain something to you, ladies.

There is no more time honored principle among men than that a bit press will grow your chest and become the ultimate expression of your value as a human being.

That that number is so significant.

I was so excited for him the other day he hit two twenty five on bench.

Y'all want to see the video. I pulled it right before I came out.

He was he was actually in Florida this a few weeks ago and they were out there for a trip.

Shown the video there's my boy.

Off count down my way, that way, that way.

So he's he actually made the beat that went behind that video too.

So he's really really a.

Manifold accomplishment, and I'm so proud of him, Like, hey, yeah, you got into college.

Put your bitch to twenty five. Ask my boy.

You love Jesus, but you bitch two twenty five is to plates is kind of a big deal. It's kind of ride a passage for all men.

No challenge, No Change.

The most significant part of that repetition was the part where he wasn't gonna get it and then he got it, and all of that testosterone in the room and the video camera going I'm sure helped him to push through. No challenge, No Change, the boy who didn't believe that bench press worked your chest is now benching two twenty five plate by plate. And sometimes, you know, using just a stupid example from the weight room, our lives can encounter situations where we are making decisions we don't even

Challenge the Shadow.

I thought that was a unique title that God gave me because in our passage of scripture today, the king Hezekiah is experiencing the announcement of the end of his life. And I don't mean to make light of that or to put it on the level of trying to exercise your body. The fact is there are some listening to me today who have heard a bad report in an area of your life. It may not be the end of your life, but just like the prophet's word came to signal to Hezekiah, this is the end.

There is a parallel in this scripture. I don't know if you noticed it.

But when God wanted to give Hezekiah a sign that he was going to heal him, even though at first the prophet said it couldn't happen.

But Hezekiah challenged.

What the prophet said, God gave him the sign of a shadow. And I promise you this is significant because in this day they didn't have fitbits and roll exes, so in order to tell what time it was, they would have kind of a sun dial system, And as the sun would come up over the temple, then the shadow would go down. The lower that the sun got, the later that it got in the day, the shadow would go down the steps of the temple as the

Can you picture it.

It signifies that the day is drawing to a close, just as the shadow in the passage LinkedIn's on the steps to announce that you're running out of time. The prophet comes to announce to Isaiah, you're running out of time, or to Hezekiah the prophet Isaiah.

They had a partnership.

Now I want to talk about this partnership between the prophet and the king, because it's one thing when your enemy tells you that it's over. It's a different thing when your buddy. These guys were tight. They had to be because when an opposing king would come to fight against Israel, the prophet would come and tell the king

And that didn't always happen.

In the nation of Israel, and so they would get invaded and they would get defeated because.

The king wouldn't heed the word of the prophet.

The prophet would say, put your idols away, and the king would keep worshiping idol.

Or the prophet might say.

You really need to turn to the Lord and not fight this battle, but let God fight it. Can go into battle anyway, trying to fight his battles and his own strength, and he'd ended up dying. But when it was right, the relationship between the prophet and the king was a special thing. And Isaiah and Hezekiah have this kind of relationship. So while Isaiah is over prophesying. Hezekiah is dying of a sickness that we learn results in boils all over his body.

This is a humiliating disease.

A painful disease, a progressive disease, and in his urgency and desperation, he finally says, go get Isaiah, he's my dude. In chapter nineteen, Isaiah prophesied the defeat of Senecareb, who was an enemy of Israel. And Senekareb didn't even get into camp because Isaiah said, he's not coming in here. This is God's battle. You are God's king, This is

And it's like that until verse three until verse three. Actually some in verse two where it begins.

Where it says, Hezekiah did something that I want to know, would you be willing to do today? Verse two, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. Now I don't know who this is for, but I really didn't come up here to talk about Hezekiah today.

I mean I did, but that's a history lesson.

I didn't come up here to talk about a bench press record today. Although I'm glad to be able to brag about my boy. You know, I could be putting up pictures of him. He's in prison, y'all, pray for Elijah to get out. I'm pretty proud that he's bench pressing and he's at uthex instead. But I didn't come up here today to talk about those things at all. I came up here to use it as a lesson today that whether it's the worst news of your life, or whether it's the setback that you're facing and you're

There is an opportunity for you by faith in this.

Moment, should you choose to receive it, and should you choose to enter into it, to take.

The situation as it has.

Been present to you, and bring it before the Lord for further consideration. A lot of us are stuck in what we call acceptance, but it has become apathy because sometimes you just have to accept the way it is.

But sometimes you will feel something in.

Your heart that will say, wait a minute. The prophet said I have to die. But even the prophet has a boss. And I don't know if you've ever been on a customer service call and you realize you were talking to somebody who was an employee but not the owner, and maybe in that frustration you said something like this, I'd like to speak.

To your supervisor.

So imagine this your hazekaya and you are dying, and you're a husband, and you're hurting, and you've turned to people, and you've turned to a therapist, and you've turned to a bottle, and you've come to a doctor, and you've run to.

A well and that well ran dry.

But I feel somebody turning their face to the wall today is saying, God, it's me, the one you chose, the one you called, the one you raise, and I need you right now. Can I speak to a supervisor? And he prayed, he prayed about it, and he cried about it. Now here's where we have to get into the imagery of the techtile. This is so good. Okay, okay, okay. So the prophet comes to announce it's over. The best thing you can do is just go ahead and accept

Haskaia said, remember Lord, how I have walked.

With you faithfully in wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. But then the next part is important because it says that he wept bitterly now mark this down. You can weep bitterly and still pray faithfully. You can weep bitterly and still wait expectantly. You can accept what it is but still believe that.

It can be something greater.

I'm looking at some people today who have accepted some things in your life as all that they can ever be. And when you accept the announcement of the shadow, you neglect.

The presence the source. Let's talk about the Biblical image of a shadow.

It is mentioned in the Bible, both literally, like the shelter or the shadow that Jonah sat under. It is mentioned metaphorically many times in a positive sense. One of my favorite scriptures says he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. You know that verse. Love that verse. It lets me know God has me covered. It means protection. It means that His presence is my protection. Write that down and go back to it this week when you

The shadow.

Perhaps one of the most famous Biblical images of the shadow comes through David, who said, yay, though I walk through the valley, now, this is a different kind of shadow. He said, I walk sometimes through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That's an amazing verse to me because it lets me know that what David was going through in that moment felt like death, but it wasn't death.

It was the valley of the shadow of death.

Sometimes what you're going through it feels like the end.

It is a valley. But one thing you got to remember about a valley.

The only way there can be a valley is that there is a on either side of it. That is the very essence of a valley. So the thing that you're going through right now in your life, while the enemy would love to use it as evidence that God has left you, it is actually the evidence that God has something ahead of you. In the meantime, we must believe God in the shadows to be who he told us he was in the light. This image of the

I'll never have to be ashamed.

I would never have to like stay away from God because oh he might see who I really am. I would never have to go well, I could pray about it, and I would pray about it, but I can't pray about it because I have these things in my life. The things in your life are the things you need to pray about, So you drag it out of the shadows and into His presence. Quick tip next time you're in church and we're singing and you're like, man, I can't sing that I trust in God because I'm doubting.

Out of the shadows.

And the Devil's like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, please don't bring it in the light.

If you bring your doubt in the light, your doubt will.

Disappear in the presence of a God whose.

Name is greater than anything.

You can name, any disease you can name, any disorder, you can name anything a doctor can diagnose you with ha no, a PhD ha no, perfectly holy dny no, A great God who can.

Raise you up. Kezekiah said, I don't want to.

I don't want to. I don't want to have a conversation with you about I've got to pray about this one I've got to turn.

My attention to a higher authority.

I've got to get my focus off of what was spoken, even though the prophet wasn't wrong. Y'all is hard enough not to believe the enemy when he tells you you're gonna die. What would you do if it was Isaiah?

It is not the lies that the enemy.

Tells us that keep us in defeat. It is the things that get whispered to us that we secretly believe are true. Oh God, but sometimes God will call you to accept it.

My dad died.

Of als and no amount of prayer reversed it.

Some Oh, As a matter of fact, every time we die, it's just a matter of when.

It's not like Hezekiah lived to be three thousand and ninety three. He died, but he didn't die here because God had.

More for him to do.

Sometimes you let things die too soon in your life. Sometimes you let dreams die too soon in your life. Sometimes you let relationships die too soon in your life because of what you won't work through, because of what you won't pray through, because of what you won't face. And God sent me today to give you this message that some of the stuff.

That you have been allowing in your life.

I'm not saying that if you have sickness it's a lack of faith.

That's not my belief system.

I don't believe you can support that from the Bible or from life. I am saying this that sometimes what you accept as the consequence of a hardship is actually the opposite of what God intends to give you through the hardship, so that sometimes you go through the breaking, but you don't get the benefit. Sometimes you go through the problem, but you don't access in that problem the power that you could have if you learned what I want to teach you today.

Because what I want to teach you today.

Is no matter what has been spoken over you or inside of you, if it does not align with the assignment.

That God has placed on your life.

The moment you decide to focus your faith and drag.

It out of the shadows and into the light. Things change.

Things change, say it out loud, things change. Things change. They really do.

Things change. They really do.

People still do get married in their forties, They really do. People still do live after experiencing the worst tragedy.

Things change.

People who formerly were so depressed that they couldn't even get out of bed, go on to found companies.

They really do.

People who get fired from jobs for being incompetent later get celebrated for being innovative once they find their fit.

Things change. Say it out loud. Things change, They really do. Things change. People who once struggled with sin.

To the point that they identified themselves as a recovering alcoholic become mentors for other recovering alcoholics.

Things change, they really do.

Families where nobody ever went to college, families where nobody ever really got out of high school go on to produce some of the greatest leaders that you've ever seen.

Things change, They really do.

I don't know who this is for because it's not in my nose, but the Holy Ghost got a hold of me to tell you things change.

They really do. I'm not preaching fairy tale. I'm not preaching sweethearts. I'm not preaching Papa promise, get a blessing. I'm preaching that when.

You turn your face to the wall and turn your attention to the heavens and walk away kind of the shews of what has been there is a lie. God said, let there be light, and there was well.

I reckon whatever he speaks still worse.

So if he says, let there be joy, get ready to get happy.

If he says let there be be, get ready to see.

The storm start to be still? Five three people say things change? They really do. You're standing next to a living witness that things change. You're standing next to an exhibit a that things change.

You're standing next to somebody who one time thought I wasn't gonna make it.

But hey, Hanzakiah, I say, get back, puse. God says you're over rule the set up, can't have.

You yet, Hey, I say out, get back here. God said I can.

Look.

Hey, I say, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying God change his mind. I'm just saying I'm said, by faith, there's a wisdom to die. I should warn you, as I preached this, that i'm preaching to you what I have walked through.

You say, Pastor, we didn't hear that you had boils on your body? No, No, not talking about boils on my body. I'm talking about beliefs that I carried. Oh God, oh God. I mean these beliefs. They were painful, they were progressive. There were times that I believed things about myself that I was beyond love. There were times I believe things about myself that I was beyond help. There were times I believed things about my thought patterns that

And there were times I believe things now. The thing about.

Believing the thing that isn't true is that you don't know what it wasn't true, because once you know it wasn't true, you don't believe in it anymore. So you don't know that it isn't true while you're believing it. The moment you know it's not true, you stop believing it. That's why I love this passage. Because the devil didn't tell Hezekiah you're going to die.

The prophet did.

And this is where we have to get more sensitive to the Holy Spirit than we are to our senses. Even if the sickness doesn't go away in your life, through your suffering, God is going to be glorified.

More than you could ask her imagine.

And I know that that doesn't really like get the same kind of relief that it does. When Isaiah tells them to get some figs and rub that what they call it the poultice. Did you see that word from verse seven? I thought that was a crazy word. And then Isaiah said, prepare a poultice a figs. I had to look that one up. It's an ointment. That poultice is annointment. But that I thought was powerful too, because for the healing that we need in our lives, it's

Think about it. Go with me.

Can you go with me back in history just a few hundred years, go back and see that shadow stretching down the steps and see the prophet's word coming to announce it's over for you, Azekiah.

And I wonder have you felt.

That shadow stretching over an area of your life lately, And has God brought me to your life today.

To give you a prophetic word for that situation.

That you think can't change.

Even if the situation doesn't change, the way.

You see it must.

That is the first step, not that the situation would change, but that the way you see it would change everything.

God gave me this one time too.

He said, everything you're praying about today as a burden, you were thanking me for as a blessing before it got heavy, Everything in my life that I was praying about as a burden. Oh God, this is so hard, This is so heavy. What's something God gave me that I asked him for? It was just growing bigger. Everything has to start with how you see it. That's what a prophet does.

He's a seer. Is say, I had the ability.

To see hundreds of years into the future where he prophesied the birth.

Of Jesus Christ.

So how just Hezekiah and his tears and his prayers stop a prophet as powerful as Isaiah? In his tracks, Isaiah is walking back, He's all the way to the middle court. He's like, well, God, I really didn't want to tell him that, but and he can't take another step, got something arrest him.

Now he doesn't know what it is yet.

All he knows is I told Hezekiah he was gonna die. I turned my back, I went back to go home, and something stopped me. What he didn't know was at the moment. I believe at the moment that Hezekiah's tears were hitting the pillow, his feet got heavy, and he couldn't take another step.

Now, what are you saying, pastor Stephen?

Are you saying that if I cry enough, God will change my situation?

Or that if I just pray.

This prayer, Can we pray that prayer from Hezekiah and get it back and get it restored?

And can I pray this prayer from Hezekiah and get everything that was in my life that was missing put back together again. I do not believe that.

It was the formula of his prayer that brought healing.

I believe it was the change of his focus.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I believe that when he wept bitterly and he prayed fervently, when he chose to rehearse truth through tears.

Everybody say truth through tears.

That is a valuable valuable, valuable confession. It is one thing to quote truth when you have evidence that absolutely supports that truth, but truth through tears is a completely different level of trust in God, and that kind of trust in God. Will say to the shadow, hey, you say it's over. God says, it's a new beginning. And I believe that's what happens in our life when we really make the shift into faith, is that God shows us that what we've called an ending.

Is a beginning. Do you believe that? Because if you don't, you're not a Christian.

Because that's all the Resurrection was was a redefinition of what men call endings. I know that you've been worried about it. I know that you've been burdened by it, bothered by it, broken by it. That is not the question. The question isn't will you cry? It's what will you confess as you do? Because I think there are times in all of our life when the shadow comes to announce it's over, but.

The shadow is not the source. Will you challenge the shadow? Imagine this.

They rubbed this ointment all over Hezekiah's body, and he says, okay, I need a sign that this is gonna work, and Isaiah, you gotta get in this.

Get in this image. It's so cool.

Isaiah goes, all right, you want to sign, I'll give you a sign because you don't really believe it yet. So the shadow is gonna move so God can show you that you've got more time. Shall I go forward ten steps or shall it go back ten steps? Now, let's work work this out real quick. The sun comes up over the temple, The shadow goes down the steps. That is the natural pattern of things.

I said.

If the shadow keeps going down the steps, that's what's supposed to happen.

How will I know.

That God can do it if it goes exactly how it's supposed to.

Maybe this is why certain things in our life.

Don't go exactly how they're supposed to, because how would you know that it was God if it just went how was supposed to. If people just recognized you like they were supposed to, how would you know that it is God.

That promotes you? If everybody supported you and endorsed you, that was supposed to support and endorse you, How would I know it was God? If the shadow just did what shadows do.

I got another one for you. If it happened when you wanted it to, you would have thought it was you. So God said, I got to do something real quick. I gotta make the shadows stretch out so that you get in a position where you won't say, oh, I was really smart, Oh I was really clever.

Oh I was really faithful.

Notice while Hezekiah was talking about his faithfulness, Isaiah kept walking. But when he cried a tear and said, God, if you don't.

Do it, it will not get done.

Isaiah said, WHOA, that's faith, roll, that's trust. WHOA, that's somebody who has come to the end of himself. That's somebody who has seen the shadow but will still come back to the source. What y'all looking at? He loves good preaching. You see people stand up in a football game. This is better than a football game. This is a church of the Living God. Thank you Jesus. They think it's crazy when we get excited about the Word of God.

A ball into a hoop.

I think I can get excited when the Word of the Lord comes to me and starts telling me this shadow is not going to consume you. Yes, Lord, Why are you scared to praise God? Why are you scared to give him glory? Why are you quiet when you come in here? You better get rydical about this thing.

Tom's running out.

Baby. You can't afford to sit there and wait for a feeling.

This is a Lord and a feeling. This is the worst of Almighty God. If you don't cry out the rocks.

Well, if you don't cry it out, am I saying?

Somebody released the sound of words of the will, the pumping.

In his fast and say get back here, I'm on.

Whooo all right, go all right, I thought.

Somebody say I'm back, I'm fast. Now Watch the shadow, Watch the shadow, Watch the shadow. Verse eleven. Isaiah said, Okay, you need a sign. The shadow is going to stop going forward, and it's gonna do something that will always prove the presence of God. You're ready to shout over this. You're gonna love this. Verse eleven. He said, he made

That's just how it is, or that's just how I am.

And we never challenged the shadow by coming back to the source, It's just gonna keep going down, down.

Down.

Have you been depressed, have you been discouraged? Have you given up on your dream that God put inside of you? Is the shadow going down the steps in your life?

Challenge it.

Whatever that looks like for you, God will reveal it by his spirit.

I hear God saying challenge that. I wish I had a.

Flag like they have on football, so I could throw the challenge flag on some situations in your life.

So stuff you're complaining about, hey.

Stop complaining about stuff you can change. Stop complaining about stuff you can change.

All right, all right, let's do it. Let's do it.

Let's get practical. Let's get practical. Holly loves it when I get practical. She's very literal. I'm very figurative. I am a songwriter. She is a teacher. She taught school while I was learning to write songs. So I'm like, challenge the shadow, and she's like, hallelujah, howe, how many I need some help with hallelujah? How Like I feel y'all believe you? Okay, okay, okay, what are you saying?

No, I've never done that in my life. That's not the kind of faith that I have. But I do have this kind of faith, and this is a practical faith.

It is the ability for me to see that sometimes in my life when I am complaining that I don't have something, it is a product of the way that I see something. So challenging the shadow could be as simple as this, in the last week, raise your hand if in the last week, and I would have you close your eyes and just like for privacy sake, but we're gonna do it. Looking all around, you have said I do not have enough time. Say it, raise your hand.

But Jesus only lived to be thirty three and saved the world. Yeah, but that's different. It was Jesus. Yes, different. Jesus didn't even have a car and he still did it.

Jesus couldn't even get an airplane and he did it. You don't have time now. We just compressed so much stress into a shorter time spend that we have no ability to prioritize. So sometimes challenging the shadow is this mentality that you have when you wake up any given day and you go, I'm not going to be able to get it all done. No, not with everything that you do that nobody told you to do. You do not have enough time to do your job and Bob's

I learned. If I take fifteen minutes.

And seek God first in my day, the whole day gets longer.

It's almost like the shadow.

Goes up the steps if I seek him first. But if I'm not focused, then I'm gonna end the day not enough time. I'm gonna start the day, not enough sleep.

And the shadow will swallow me. How about this one? Wow, we're at it. I feel like I need to put on some rubber gloves, so I go this deep. All right, this is this crazy stuff right here. Boo.

This is a big one for a lot of us. It's the idea that it's too late for me. Now, how about that one? Anybody? Anybody? He said, that's real? No, it's a shadow feels real. It feels real, especially in this day in time, man, because they are trying to wheel us to the nursing home when we're forty five?

Am I right? Have you said? The other day?

Mom? If you die, can you write right down to the boys and let them know I'll take care of your closet.

She is killing my wife in the prime of her life.

I mean, I'm still buying holly clothes and jewelry, and Abby's already claiming it because she'd ride on the doorstep of death and tell you what. And that's funny until it's not. I remember a guy told me one time songwriting is a young man's game.

He was forty, and in a sense.

He's right, because most people who write pop songs and all different kinds of music, they write it when they're in their twenties or even younger than that. And he had kind of resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't gonna write any more good songs.

He went on to write a few good ones.

But I bet you're somewhere in him dealing with that because he was saying that out of his own fear he was over forty.

I bet somewhere in his fear of that.

He had to turn his face to the wall and ask, got is that really true? Because normally, yeah, people do their best work early, but this is not the NBA.

Why have we let our culture turn into this. Once you're over thirty, you're worthless. The devil is a liar, y'all. Here's how much I don't believe that.

I won't even I won't even let them put my sermons online that I preached when I was thirty because I did not know anything when I was thirty.

And I'll probably take this one down.

When I'm sixty because I intend to keep living, and I intend to keep learning, and I intend to keep contradicting myself as long as it takes to grow. So if God shows me something different, the shadow can roll back. I can admit my ignorance and go, I didn't know that. Then I'm growing.

Now. Why have we given ourselves no grace to grow?

Why do we define what can come next by what has already been?

Is that not a step?

Was it? Every mistake that you made up to this in your life a step toward wisdom?

So watch this if you can receive it.

Everything you thought was a step down from God's vantage point, it was a step up. That's what it means when God makes the shadow go backward. But you've got to challenge it.

You've got to get in the face of your failure and say, oh, guess what you are failure? You are a foundation.

I saw something online the other day and said, you're not starting over, You're starting from experience.

How about that?

Young people, all my forty three year old senior citizens make some noise with me.

I'm a pert pid mom.

It's so crazy, how quick we give up on what might have been the greatest season of your life. I declare, your grandkids need you to grow into it. If for nobody else, do it for what's coming after you.

A girl that worked for me turn thirty.

I said, congratulations, She said, oh no, please, don't speak of it.

I said, speak of what she said. I can't stand to think about it. Turning thirty. Imagine that.

Imagine that the enemy is so good at getting us to die that we just stay stupid. We won't learn, We won't challenge anything. We won't challenge a prejudice. We won't challenge a preconceived notion of ourselves.

We won't challenge an insecurity. We won't challenge a hobby, we won't challenge an interest. We just live in it.

Because Hezekiah called the prophet back with his tears, I reckon, you can rebuke the enemy off of your life with yours. It changed my life when I realized that the God said let there be light. Verse also points to the fact that the God who said let there be light also controls the shadows. The author of truth is the controller of time. I just speak this message today from my heart to yours, that sometimes you need to stand in the shadows and speak to the source. Isaiah sa.

What was supposed to stay down, He's gonna go back up. Now.

I don't know what brought you down in your life, and I can't know what's bringing you down in your soul. The promise of God is not just limited to some obscure old Testament king. As a matter of fact, this whole story isn't really a story. It's a shadow. The prophet said, in three days you will arise. I read my Bible some I seem to remember another thing about three days.

And rising.

You remember anything in that Bible about three days in rising? You remember in John chapter two where Jesus came through the temple and he was like, this is all out of order, and I feel God going.

Through somebody's temple today and clearing.

Out everything that doesn't belong and wiping out every shadow that has tried.

To eliminate your purpose and your peace.

And those gathered that day said, what will be Look at this in John chapter two, verse E. You're going to love this verse He said, what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do this? Nineteen is all the answer I need. Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple and I will raise it. You already there's about to be a resurrection.

Destroy this temple.

Take away my good name, Jesus said, Hang me up on a cross, call me the king of the Jews. As you mock me with the crown of thorns, plunge a Roman sphere into my side.

You can destroy it, but if you do, you.

Should know I will raise it again in three days.

That's why he died to challenge the shadow.

That's why he rose to challenge the shadow.

That's why he ascended to the right hand of God. To let you know that even the grave and even the keys.

Of dead in hell or in his.

Half, Why would I die in the shadows.

When I know the source? Here's the source of my strength. He is the strength of my life. Hey, has Akiyat, you shall not die.

You show live, live, live, he live out of the shadows, into the light, out of the past, into the promise.

You shall live.

Because the one who controls the sun and spoken into its place can certainly bring the shadows back. The one who sees you and that pit can certainly pull you out.

The one who gave.

You your unique composition as a child of God can certainly bring you into your purpose. No matter how much time has passed.

Even Isaiah had.

To turn around when Hezekiah cried, Even the prophet had to turn around and say, there is a better word. Even God waits for your faith, no challenge, no change. If the shadow just went down the steps and it was easy, you wouldn't know he was God. You were in this moment, in this season of your life. Not only because life is hard, that's one reason. Not only because bad things happen, that's another reason, but because God

I thought, what would that be like to watch something that looked like it was over.

And all of a sudden, step by step come on get your feet moving.

Onward, Christian soldiers, step by step.

Wait a minute, Shadows don't walk up steps. They do when God speaks, stone stone, roll from full graves they do when Jesus speaks. Sins can't be forgiven, the past can't be undone.

The record can't be a raise, it can't win. The blood speaks.

I need everybody who's believing for a better word, to stop the prophet in his tracks right now.

And begin to praise God.

When you praise him, the shadow falls back.

When you brace him, the shames fall off. When you praise him, the darkness.

Starts to scatter and disciminate and disappear.

I declare, it's coming back. It's coming back.

It's coming back to you now to wait on the Lord, so remove their strength.

It's coming back right now. It's coming back with every step. It's coming back with every brace, It's coming back with every breath. It's coming back with every tear. Come back, come back, shit back here. I say, yeah, speak the word that day. Say listen, this.

Should not come with.

You're not done with me, You're not.

Done with me.

I don't know what you're suffering from, but I say, room, listen I.

Don't know what's your valley.

Shot, but I know the luth of the other shine calls out bread you hear up time with me.

It's not done with you.

You're not done with me. You got fit see years pay.

So much.

His life?

Who hear it in that setting? With walking?

Yok it? Walk in it?

F Kennedy. Walking t't a robbing you're rather.

Foot step can't to lift this your side that it's your signal.

This is your step, this is your word.

Step away you make the true he's coming. Yes, he's gone. Can you look back? We talk about the step and the room? What the lord to?

What the hood?

Can't you?

He's gonna down, So set away, make it through.

He's gonna lett be like he's coming.

Who let them be? Let to me?

It's passigle. You got pors on. Anything is PASSI this is the table lord.

That's man.

Anything is possible, I will retorted, hide s.

Did die with the normal. I'm coming out to.

Anything is possible, anyth Anything is possible.

What's that design? Anything? Anything? It's possible? Who went by? She did die with thee? Anything is my stiffer he gets you?

Anything?

Anything is possible? Who went by to did die.

What the.

It's turning around? He's turning around. I say, it's turning around. He's turning around. Somebody says, turning around, it's turning around. Us three people tell him it's turning around. It's turning around. It's turning around.

It's turning around. It's turning around. Come on, move a little bit. It's turning around. It's turning around. God said his turnaround.

Time.

What you're gonna do with the base you have left? What you're gonna do with the wisdom you've got?

Now?

What are you gonna do with the breakthrough he made? What are you gonna do.

With your open door?

It's time.

It's time.

It's time to find out why you're still alive. It's time to pray.

Say while you're still got breath, I mean for the sun goes down.

Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available. I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of Elevation, whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or just share these messages. It's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part

God bless you.