From What If To What Is

unbelievable these nights. Don't want to miss So if you're in Glendale, Arizona, Las Vegas, Sacramento, California, Eugene, Oregon, Seattle, Oakland, California, San Diego and La or anywhere near those areas, we want to see you. Elevation Nights dot com. Don't miss it. Elevation Nights dot com. Get your tickets Elevation Nights dot Com. See there, let's go to the message today. I want to have a conversation with you about a conversation that

God had with Moses in Exodus chapter four. You know what, I just got to jump in right here. I was going to back up and catch a little bit of chapter three, but I want to be a little bit conscious of the time. I don't want to be obsessed with it, but there is parking issues at Valentine. Sometimes I got long winded during COVID and I never fixed it. So y'all can pray that the Lord would help me

get back to these forty minute thirty minute messages. Okay, y'all are sweet, But for the sake of time, let's jump into Exodus four. Verse one, Moses answered, what if they do not believe me or listen to me and say the Lord did not appear to you. And then the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? A staff? He replied. The Lord said, throw it on

the ground. And Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it, because that's what you do, no matter how much faith you have. Some stuff you should run from. Boom pull sermon, go home. See you be blessed. Some stuff you should run from. But then, in most encounterintuitive way, the Lord said, in verse four, reach out your hand, take it by the tail. So reach for what you were just running from. So Moses reached out, took hold of the snake, turned back

into a staff in his hand. This said the Lord is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. Give me my two key verses on this big screen real quick, and let's work on this for a moment. Versus one and two big screen. Moses answered, what if they do not believe me or listen to me and say the Lord did not appear to you? Verse two. Then the Lord said to him, what is that in

your hand? A staff? He replied, We're gonna work on this a little bit today. Give me my next slide. I want to talk about from what if to what is. We're gonna go on a little journey today, from what if to what is? Spirit of God, have your way in Jesus' name, Amen, you may be seated. From what if to what is? The Lord said, We're gonna deal with this spirit of what if that has been making you an insomniac, that spirit of what if that has been running the show in your imagination. The Lord said,

We're going to deal with it today. In the Word of God. I confess to you that I am a world class what if, a world class what ifer. In the beginning of this ministry, it worked for me to say, Man, what if we started a church in Charlotte. What if by faith we launched a worship ministry. What if we did a second campus, What if we did a third, What if we did a fourth. What if we dropped

eggs out of a helicopter on Easter? What if? What if we baptize people and had bathing suits and toothbrushes and tooth paste and sports bras so they had no excuse and we called on them and said, get baptized right now, Not after seventeen weeks of class, not after you memorize Augustine and Spurgeon, and not after you can quote the Book of Romans, but right now, get up here and get baptised. What if what if you just did it? What if you just got up today and

gave your life to Christ. What if you just raised your hand in the middle of the prayer that they pray at the end and said, I'm coming just as I am. What if it's kind of a recklessness that can serve you well in certain seasons before you know all the reasons to answer what if with a whole lot of why nots? And I now find that what if is a weapon that the devil uses to keep me from doing things that I know good and well in my spirit. God has called me to do so.

For the five people who are like me in church today, and this what if thing has been really grinding in your mind, we are going to have a talk just me and the crazy people. The rest of you will have more Bible verses by which you can pray for us when we're finished with this twenty two minute sermon.

But I went all the way back of the book to the Book of Exodus and introduced this character named Moses to talk about what to do with the what ifs, just so I can see if I heard from the Lord or if I was off track this week when I was praying, how many of y'all been wrestling with some what if scenarios that have been messing with you? And how many of you feel like it's getting worse the older you get. Because Moses said, watch this, He said,

what if they don't believe me? And he had good reason to ask that, because chances are they won't because God just appeared to him in a bush and said, I want you to go tell the most powerful person on the face of the earth, the Pharaoh of Egypt to let my people going to release his entire slave labor, which will decimate his economy, and do it. Do it, by the way, while you while you're at it, do it at age eighty and most said, well, if it don't work, and I get it, because it probably won't.

I mean, by human standards, right, this is not gonna work. So what if? What if? What if? Now? Holly, Holly is a great I'm gonna just say this, She's the best person I know, No, for real, She's just she's less petty than me, she has more energy than me,

she's more definitely more optimistic than me. When we were going on our twenty year trip, we went to northern California and she was like, can we just make a rule before we go on this trip that whatever happens will just make it a part of the journey and you won't like freak out too much because our whole trip was to go, you know, drive to pch and

get out there and see stuff. And she's like, and we're probably gonna get lost, and I need you to commit to me before we buy these plane tickets that that's gonna be okay, and we just be lost together, and that'll be part of the day, is that we got lost, and be part of the story later that we got lost. Yeah, but what if what if we get where there's no cell signal? What if we can't get unlost? What if we starve out there? Did you see that movie Wild with Reese Witherspoon where she got

out there? What if my feet get banged up in my shoes? And what if I can't walk? And what if you got carried me out? And what if you're not able to do that? And what if you get a hernia trying to carry me out? And then we have to tell the whole church that you're the new pastor, but you have to pastor with a hernia? What if? And she's like, can we can? We just go and we'll figure that out, because horrible, because I can't even let my phone get below eighty percent. I have issues.

I always pray before I preach, you, God, help me tell them enough where I can be relatable, but not so much that they've become distracted by how ridiculous I am and can't receive the word that I'm going to preach. And so you know, you read about Moses and you hear about the great things that he did. And I want to take this apart for just a moment today, because you know, God has been speaking to Moses for an entire chapter of scripture about all the awesome things

that he will do. Not Moses, but God. He said, I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard their cries, and I will compel Pharaoh to let them go. If he doesn't let them go, I'll put a plague on him. If he still doesn't let them go, I'll put another plague on him. And if he still doesn't let him go, I have more plagues than Pharaoh has patience. I'll kill everything that matters to him until what matters to me he is accomplished. I will do it. So Moses is like, all right, well who are you?

Because we hadn't heard about you much since Jacob and Joseph and since a pharaoh died. Who didn't you know who you were? And the pharaoh that rose now doesn't really understand who you are. And God said, I am that I am, that you are that I am. So this is an amazing conversation. You know, you got Moses, who's eighty hearing from a God who's eternal about something that God has seen, that he has promised to do, that he will do, not might do, not thinking about doing,

not flipping coins. He's gonna do it. Somebody shout, He's gonna do it. Shouted, like you're convinced about it. He's gonna do it. Now. I'm not talking about somebody that you work with. I'm not talking about I'm talking about somebody who started this whole thing called the human experience, who speaks into what he starts to tell you what he intends to do. And Moses is like, cool, but what if? What if? And I want you to notice something very key. He doesn't really doubt God, he says

Verse one. Moses answered, what if they do not believe me or listen to me? And what if they say the Lord did not appear to you? Oh this is so good because most didn't say what if you can't do it? What if you aren't great? What if you run out of plagues? What if you run out of strength? No, it's not it's not about Moses's doubt directed toward God. He said, what if they Now, as I was studying this text, it was very interesting to me that Moses is afraid of the Israelites, and he has called to

deliver the Israelites. And he said, what if they? Who are they the Hebrews? Who is he afraid of the Hebrews. Who's he supposed to help the Hebrews? Who is he delivering the Hebrews? Who does he doubt the Hebrews. Isn't it interesting how the thing that you're most afraid of can be a clue to the thing that you're assigned to think about it the deepest insecurity in your life reveals something about the assignment that God has given you.

The thing that the enemy resists most about you is often the greatest thing that God has put inside of you. I feel like preaching, but I need to teach a little bit so you can underst stand what I'm hollering about. He said, what if they? What if they? This is the crazy part about life. Not wondering about what if God can't or what if God won't, but what if they don't. What if the thing that you're speaking to me about doesn't want to hear what I have to say?

What if the thing that you're calling me to? Now, this is something I've come to believe that when God calls you to something, he sees everything about it at the moment that he's speaking to you about it. So there is nothing that God did not see about you when he spoke to you. There is nothing that God does not know about you when he placed you where he put you to do what he called you to do.

So when we doubt our capacity to do what God called us to do, it is not us we doubt, but it is God who made us and placed us that we doubt. But we don't want to say we doubt God, so we say what if? They? What if I can't do it? But it's not really me that

I'm doubting, because I didn't manufacture me. And if I really, for one moment, believed that God made me how he wanted me, gave me what he wanted, did inside of me what he wanted to do inside of me, put me where I needed to be, planted me by what I needed to be planted by. If I believe that for one moment, it would kill my What if before it got out of my mouth? Any view of God's sovereignty that does not make room for your struggle is a false claim. Any view of God's will that is

not wide enough to accommodate your mistakes. It's too narrow. Any any belief about God that you have that is not big enough to take into account all the flaws inside of yourself is too small. Certain times, asking what if can be productive, But then it gets past the point where you're making plans. I mean, there's good thing. I'm just breaking down real quick, like before I come out. I have a whole check all right. What if my

zipper is down? Okay, let me check that. What you know, I got my undershirt, so I put my hands up. I don't want anything to be showing that's not supposed to be showing. You came here to see the Lord's glory, all right, not to see nothing else other than the Lord. So I gotta get this down. Okay. What if? What if my mic isn't on? Okay, Okay, I gotta turn it on. What if? But then it comes to a point where I stop solving problems and I still shrinking God,

cause I get caught up in my what if. What if I get up to preach this and they don't like it. What if I get up to preach it and it doesn't go good? What if I get up there to preach it and I forget what I'm supposed to say. It takes faith for me to preach. I preach because I don't look at notes. I mean, I guess I could. I don't think the Lord would strike me with anything if I looked at notes. I don't think it's bad to look at notes. But I want to be in the moment with you, and I want

to see what God has to say. And it takes faith because what if I forget? What if I get to a point I can't even maarif I'm preaching on Moses or Abraham. What if I say something in this sermon and they clip it and they put it online and take it out of context to make me look like I said something I never said before. Oh, that would never happen. That doesn't happen. Now, I gotta get up here and think about not only what I'm gonna say. It's not only what if I don't hear from God

and say it to you? What is I hear from God? I say it, somebody takes what I said, puts it where I didn't say it, says something around it I didn't say it. It's enough to make you want to stay back there and suck your thumb and sing Waymaker by yourself. Then, But I gotta get through the what if so I can get to what is and what is today. Let me remind you if somebody is here who is going to hell if they don't give their

life to Jesus. Somebody is in here who is living in hell and they have given their life to Jesus. Somebody is in here today who doesn't really feel like going on next week and their life might be on the line. So the big question isn't what if I got up here and preached and said something wrong? Is what if I didn't give you what God gave me and you didn't make it because I didn't show up? Well, what if I do it and fail? That's what God gave you grace for to begin with. That's not the

real fear. See, the real fear is it what if I fail? It's what if I'm not enough to recover? What if they the moment Moses said they, he's in trouble. Because there are few things in life that you can't control. The weather is one, and just put your hand on the shoulder of the person next to you real quick would you do that. That's another one. Uh huh uh huh mm hmmm mm hmm. But you had faith to drive here. You had faith to drive here with all

of the bad drivers that you passed on the way here. No, not you, the other drivers. That's what you tell your kids when they're learning to drive. It's not you I'm worried about. It's the other you know, good and well. It is them that you know. I have no business driving. But I want you to think with me, because what if is a game that you can't just play a little bit. Once you start playing the what if game, and I mean, you get in, you get in that you know, well, what if? Let me think of one

from your life this week? Okay what if? Okay, okay, I got one. I got one. Uh. You text somebody. They start texting back, and you see bubbles. The bubbles go away. What happened? Aren't they mad at me? You go back and read the text. You start looking maybe I should have put hard after the text. I'm not going about that. Then you start sending a follow up text to make sure you start learning at lol. Haha. They hate me? I think they hate me. If they hate me, if they never text me back, but nobody

ever texted me back. Well, if I die alone right here in this, in this, it's been three minutes, it's been five minutes. And the more you love something, the more opportunity the enemy has to get in it and make you afraid about it. This is why every parent wave at me. This is why at some point we got we got to give our kids to God. No, No, I know you got seven steps to raise in a world changer, and I want you to do all of it. Man,

I promise you'd like. I think all the time about what experiences I want to give my kids, how I want them to be a parent, I mean, how I want them to be, how I want them to talk about me. Not when I'm dead, but when they're a little bit older. I'm dead, I don't care I'm gone. But I think about even more than what I want them to say about me, what I want them to see in me, What I want them to see in me that they can emulate later in their life when

they have their own struggles. The other day, I was parenting one of them and the thought came to my mind, what if you're being too easy on them? You know you need to prepare them. The world is hard if you don't come down on them. A prison warden is going to one day like, is it really this serious a prison warden? Yeah, because my mind, I promise you. It's that quick too. It's that quick. My kid is not doing their homework. They're in prison all in the

space of three seconds. It don't take long. And then so I went and then corrected him. I left, and the same voice that said to me, what if you're too easy, I'm said, what if you were just too hard on him? What if you just scarred them for life? I'm not going to be emotionally available to their own children one day. The other day, Elijah was going fishing, and I was like, God, I saw I never taught him to fish. Now his friends are having to teach him to fish. What if because his dad didn't teach

him to fish. What if he finds comfort in the wrong friends. You know, what if those same friends that introduced him to fishing introduced him to hard drugs, Like what happened just now that my kid went fishing. What if the same way that the hook was in that fish's mouth, what if there's a hook from the enemy and my child's knowing why he's fishing. He's happy. Pray for me, Pray for me. It happens that fast. What if what if you said too much in your sermon today?

What if you didn't say enough? What if you mess it up? If you know what you go? What is? What is? What if? What if? What if? What if God is bigger than any of the things you just listened? What if Moses, the man who God called to deliver his people, is a murderer who's been a fugitive for forty years? What if God picks that? God? You know how you can tell if you have what it takes to do what God called you to do. If He called you to do it, you have what it thanks.

I don't know. It's kind of if he's not. If he nor if he God's not iffy. Let me tell you why God chose you. He had no other options. Yeah, God was scraping the bottom of the barrel. He said, who shall I send and whom shall go for us? I guess Eric will do? You are shrinking God to the size of the scenario that you can understand because because watch God, God, Watch God? What's God? God? God says? He says what if they will listen to me? And God says, what is that in your hand? Now, this

is this is what got my attention. In the text, Moses says, what if God doesn't answer him because they're not gonna listen to him, right, because they're rebellious, because they're stubborn. Now here's what God will not do when you start worrying. He will not calm you down by saying, Oh, nothing bad is ever gonna happen. That's not gonna happen. Just just trust in me. Nothing bad is ever gonna happen. You're gonna You're gonna go to the right place, You're

gonna meet the right people. You're never gonna get it wrong. You're never gonna make any bad decisions. There's always gonna be angels clearing out of parking space so that you will never have to walk even when you go to the gym to exercise. God is good. Instead, give me my two big verses again, because this is the lesson. Moses says, what if they don't believe me or listen to me? And then the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? So here's what the Lord

will do to help you break this cycle. If you will let him. If you want to stay in what if, you will wander in the wilderness. If you want to say what if? Hypothetical scenarios will have hypothetical baby scenarios, and you'll have hypothetical baby, grand baby, grand baby, grand baby, grandchildren scenarios. God moves Moses from what if? To what is? Is that good? Isn't that good? God gave it to me just that simple. This week, he said, I want

to move you from what if to what is? None of your stress is in the present moment what if? Now Moses is having a conversation with God, and he's thinking about people. He's already playing out why this is not going to work. Some of you are in church already thinking about what comes after this today, and it's fine. I'm not here to rebuke you for that. I'd be doing the same thing I already told you. I'd be wondering is that his color? Does that really match your

skin tone? I'd be thinking a thousand things if I were you. But you are not going to receive what you could receive if you will not be fully where you are. Moses is in Midian. He is in Midian because he made a mistake. He made a mistake by killing an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew. It was an honest mistake. He had a passion in his heart, he had a calling in his life, but he had to flee when he was found out. He's been hiding for forty years and God shows up one day and tells

him you're gonna do something great. Now it's time. I want to use you. Now it's you. And Moses said what if? They and God said, what is that? I love it. It's two mentalities contrasted your mentality what if? And God's mentality? What is? God to bring you back to what is when you find yourself lost in what if? A couple months ago, my nephews and nieces came over

and they taught me a game. We were swimming in the pool and they took a watermelon and they put vasoline all over the water melon, and they said, the object of the game is to get the watermelon with vasoline on it from one end of the pool to the other, and we're going to do it in the deep end, and everybody in the pool can try to stop you on the other team, and then you can

pass it to your teammate. You know, that's about what it feels like to try to get a word from God about your life and then navigate the deep waters of your real life experience. You ever felt like you're holding onto something but slippery by design? And look, the watermelon was already heavy when I'm trying to swim with it. I don't need it to be heavy and slippery. And I certainly don't need people clawing and scratching and climbing on my back trying to drown me. This is not

a game anymore. This is a lawsuit. I think like that too. I know they're my relatives, but I don't mean they won't sue me. I need you all to sign a waiver before we play. I mean, there's more to worry about now, especially with cancel culture, y'all. Especially. You know how much I think about when's gonna be the day I'm gonna say something in this pulpit and everybody's going like, all right, we're out. You shouldn't have

said that. And yet at the same time, it is not you or them that I really need to fear. The fact of the matter is, now, receive this for yourself, If God be for you who can be against you, if God be for you, if it really came from him, if this is really God speaking to Moses, that question is irrelevant. What does it matter what they say? When the Great I Am is the one speaking to you, What does it matter what they think about it? God said, that is not The important issue is what they say.

I'm not even gonna answer about what they say, because it is not about what they say. It's not a the problem that you're up against. It's not about the age or the stage of life. It's not about any of that. It's about what is that in your hand? What is the thing that God has given you right now? And will you trust that when you get to the next challenge of your life, it will be enough, because

He is enough, it will. God said, I know you got some doubts, so let me do a little product demonstration. You have been seeing this stick as a staff to shepherd sheep, and that's what it has been up until now. But throw it down on the ground and watch it change into something else. The moment you let go of it is going to transform. The moment you release it, it's going to become something you've never seen before. The moment you take it out of your hand, I'm gonna

turn it into something. God is doing a product demonstration, you see, Because Moses doesn't even know who he is yet. Moses doesn't even know what he can do yet. You hadn't even seen what God put inside of you yet. You haven't even met your gifted self yet. You haven't even met your free self yet. You haven't even met the leader inside of you yet, because you've been wandering in the wilderness of what if? What if they leave me? So now you won't love anybody because what if they

leave me? So I'll withdraw my love from them before they can take their love from me. So I'm living in what if. And I'm lonely in what if. And I'm dying of thirst and what if? And I'd rather be in changed in what if because he as comfortable. As long as you're worrying, you're still the one controlling it. You think you can plan enough, and do enough and fix enough. But the real things that hit your life

you won't even see coming. The moment, the moment that Moses focuses on what is in his hand, God starts dealing with what's not in his hands. Here's the word, Give it to God and he will give it to you. Give it to God. That situation, Give it to God, that issue. Give it to God and he will give it to you. The strength you need, the direction you need. Yeah, that next step that you're asking him about, Give it

to God and he will give it to you. I'll tell you where you won't find your strength in the wilderness of what if but that staff man if Moses only knew that staff was something else. I want to appreciate this to you, but I want to prophesy it to you. So let me just say it. Your staff is something else. Yeah, your staff is something else, common object. But put it down and God will show you something else. And pick it up and God will show you something else.

I almost wish God would have done it like they do when we bought the Rainbow vacuum cleaner, when we bought the knives that time, when we were buying it, they bring it in and show you everything it could do. This man came in my house to sell me some cook where he did a whole demonstration. He was cooking stuff. And God only showed Moses one thing his staff could do. God didn't even tell him about Oh, Yeah, once you get the people out of Egypt, they're going to have

to cross the Red Sea. But what is that in your hand? See, when you need it to be something else, it'll be something else because I am that. I am, So when I need that staff to part water, it'll part water because I am that. I am. Moses said, what if they? What if it? What if I can't? What if? What if? God said? What is now? What it is right now is not all it's going to be. Stop measuring your future problems by your present strength. When you get to that stage, you'll have strength for it.

When you get to that challenge, you'll have strength for it. God didn't make the staff part waters. Moses didn't need it to part waters yet. If it hadn't happened yet, it didn't have to happen yet. You gotta get out of the future and get into his presence and say, God, what is it my hand? This is the same stick that's gonna make water come from a rock. This is the same stick that's gonna hydrate in nation. This is

the same stick that's gonna be something else. When you get to the next stage from what if to what is? And if all of that fails you. And what is isn't enough? Remember who is? Y'all want to have church for a moment, follow me all the way to the wilderness. Moses has led the people out of Egyptian slavery. They're coming upon a journey that's only supposed to take approximately two weeks, but they're gonna get stuck for forty years. And I'm gonna show you why. And I'm gonna show

you why you've been stuck in your own head. And I'm gonna show you why you've been stuck in your last missa. And I'm gonna show you why you can't give God the last two years so you can't walk into the next two years. I'm gonna show you why you've been worrying about things that you have no control. I'm gonna show you why the devil keeps making you put a down payment on problems you're not even gonna face.

Watch this. In the Book of Numbers, Moses sent out twelve spies to see about the land that God had called them into. You know this story. Ten of them come back talking trash, not about God, not about Moses, but about the people they have to defeat to take the land. That God promised. So they start talking. I want you to notice something about this speech. Give me numbers. Chapter thirteen or is it fourteen? They came back to Moses and Aaron, and the whole is their like community.

You ready for this this thing. You've heard this before, But there's something you never noticed. They reported to them, and the whole assembly showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this acount. We went into the land which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey. Here is this fruit. But the people who lived there powerful cities, are four to five, very large, and not a word of a lie. Nothing they said wasn't true. We even saw the sentence of anak there.

The Amalekites living the Thegether, the Hittites Jepuzides, Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites lived near the sea along the Jordan. And Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take it, for we could certainly do it. But the men who had gone up with them, so we can attack those people there stronger than we are. They turned a two week journey into a forty year wilderness. You know, Why because nobody in all of those verses that I just read

you said one thing about God. Not one time was his name mentioned, not one time with his power considered, not one time with his arm invoked, Not one mention of God. I'll read you the whole thing again. Put the scripture back up. Let's go back through it. Make sure I didn't miss it. They came back, showed them the fruit. Next verse, we went into the land which you sent us it we you it milk, honey, fruit. But the people who live there and the cities are

fortified and very large. We saw descendants of anac keep going, keep going, Malachis, hit ties, Jesusides, amrids, cellulites, canaanitis. And then even Caleb, look, man, he had great faith. He got to inherit the land. Caleb's a bad dude. But even he didn't have the good sense to say we should go up and take possession, for God is with us. He just said we, and that wasn't enough to convince him to go. Where is God in your What if? Where does God factor at? Where is the great I

am in your? What if? You know? I understand all that? What if my kids meet the wrong friends. What if God loves your kids more than you do. How about that? What if I get up to me say I can't say it? What if God shows you what to say? What if God gave you the weakness to show his strength. What if God knows stuff you don't know. What if God sees something you don't see. What if God has something that you need but you don't need it yet. What if the staff is going to park the waters

when you get there. What if the thing you're worrying about is already taken care of. Where is God in your What if so God said, we got to interrupt this thing today before it stops you from go I went into what he promised you. We got to interrupt this cycle today all this. What if at least Moses was having a conversation with God when he said, what if most of us have that conversation with ourself. And so now you're in the wilderness, the wilderness of what

if or or the wilderness of what was? And God says, what is that in your hand? In other words, I gave you what you need for now. Oh that's not me free just now when I said it, because I keep thinking about what I'm gonna need for later. I keep thinking, I think it's going to take us. I don't know, the official staff one hundred and ten billion dollars to retire by the year twenty thirty. With the way inflation is going to go up, I think that's

going to be the target retirement. But you're not retired yet. You're not retired yet, so now you're working on something out here or you're resenting something back there. And the Lord said, I want to take you from what if to what is? So when I was at I'm not going to say in the name of the person, but I was at their house and they had just they had just lost as There was a son who had just lost his father, a wife who had just lost her husband, and I wanted to give them some counsel

to say how to get through this. And all that I could think to tell them is the only responsibility that you have right now is to take the next breath. That's it. That's it. You don't have to make peace with what you lost, you don't have to feel okay about it. Just keep breathing. I left that day. I felt so inadequate. I said, God, they needed a word from you, and all I could tell them was keep breathing. How I failed them, God, How I wish I could

have told them something. How I wish I had an experience I could have drawn from that would have been more helpful. And I saw him again two years later, and they said, remember when you told us just keep breathing. That got us through. I said it did. They said yeah, because it just kept bringing us back to We're still here. We're still here. When my dad was diagnosed with ALS, I thought he was going to kill himself. He got very angry with us. His medications were out of whack,

was out of his mind. And I called a professional Christian counselor and I said, I think he's gonna kill himself, and I don't think I can stop him. I'm scared to death he's gonna kill himself and I'm not there, so I can't do anything about it. And he asked me a question that sounde callous. He said, what if he did? I said, I couldn't take it. To know that I couldn't stop him. I couldn't take it. And he started to tell me that even if the worst thing happened, God would be with me in that too,

I'm gonna do everything I can to stop it. I'm gonna do everything I can to change it. But see, even if it happens, I am it is still with me that look at me, look at Him. That is an unshakable faith. The enemy cannot defeat you when your faith is built on the foundation of nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, that even in I, like Paul, Paul said, what shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Shall height, shall death, shall,

angels shall demons, shall the present, shall the future? Shall any other power? No, none of these things shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. So I came to tell the enemy God can and he will. But even if he didn't, he still God. Even if they gets seven times hotter. He's in this furnest too. Give God the what if. He knows the future. You don't. Give God the what if. He'll show you where to partner and where to shut up.

Give God the what if, and he'll show you what's in your hand and what's not in your control. So God, Everyone's standing God, whoever it is today, who needed to release something. I pray they won't wait another second to do it. Remind them that you've got this, Remind them that they got they got what they need on the inside, that you're going to bring them what they need on the outside. That they will never meet as see that your power won't be able to park. They will never

meet a giant that your spirit can't bring down. And Father, I thank you today for the promise that we have in you to be with us even if. Now, Lord, by the power of your spirit, today and in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, we declare that there will be freedom in the hearts of your people from everything that has been terrorizing and tormenting them and destroying their joy, and destroying their peace and making them wonder

if they're going to make it. We declare that nothing will be able to separate them from the love of God that is in Christ. I want to pray a special prayer for those of you who have been wandering around into what if. And I want you to lift both of your hands. If that's you, Father, you see your kids, You see their stretched hands, you see their open hands, you see their uplifted arms. I thank you for a fresh feeling of your grace. As you lift your hands right now, just be giving it to God.

Be giving it to God. Give it to him right now. Give it to him right now. If you made a bad decision, given that, ask him to redeem it. If you did a dumb thing, give it to him right now. If you fell back, you were walking forward and you fell back, give him your setback right now. Give it to him right now, and he will give it to you. I receive your strength, Lord, I receive your wisdom. I receive your power. I receive it by faith, not working

for it, not striving for it. I receive it. Somebody say, I receive it right now in the name of Jesus. It's mine. It belongs to me. God gave it to me. It's a supernatural peace. Peace over your life right now. Peace over your mind right now, Peace over your business right now, Peace over your decisions right now. I speak peace, the peace of Almighty God, the presence of God the Great.

I am Jehovah, Jirah, your provider, Jehovah sid Canoe, your righteousness, Jehovah Nissi, your banner, Jehovah Shalom the Lord give you peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, not panic peace, just breathe in the peace of God. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,

and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.