Eagle Heights Cathedral

Bishop James E. Collins: Stand with me and turn in your Bibles to Joshua. Joshua 10, Joshua 10. So Joshua marched up to Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them. I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you."

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel. So Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.

As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the sword of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, "Sun, stand still over Gibeon and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."

So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies. As it is written in the book of Jashar, the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since. A day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel.

Father, I thank you for the reading of your word. And I also thank you that your word for then is applicable for now. And so Lord, even as you fought for Joshua and the children of Israel, may people who have great need of miracles in their lives have the kind of faith that says, "I'm sure that God will fight for me."

And Lord, I'm asking you to take this word, Lord. Let it become a seed and let our hearts be a seedbed, Lord. So that the word might take root and we might be changed from glory to glory to glory. And Father, I thank you for it in advance, for I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen and Amen. God bless you. May be seated in the presence of the Lord.

I was listening to a song as we were getting ready this morning and a new song that I never heard before. And the author of the song said, "Whatever you're going through, whatever you have need of, if God allowed it, then he let you have it because you needed it." You needed it to see how great our God is.

And if you have need of a miracle in your life today, I want to talk very slowly and very distinctly to you today because I want to tell you today that God is still a miracle-working God. And we left off at the first line in the second part that if you're going to have victory in the Valley of Aijalon, that being if you're going to receive a miracle, you must first embrace the reality of the Valley of Need.

Why do we embrace the reality of the Valley of Need? Because the moment you embrace that, you take the pressure off of yourself and you put it on God and God is big enough to take care of it. The second thing that you must do in the Valley of Aijalon is this: You must remember who God is. Exodus 3:13 through 14. Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me,' and they ask, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

And God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'" And let me add in verse 15. God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, he has sent me to you.'" He said, "This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation."

Here's what he was saying. He said, "Moses, you tell them that I am the self-sustaining, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I am the one who has always existed, who is faithful and true, who takes his people from glory to glory." And then he says this, "You tell them to call me by the name, 'I am that I am,' because I'm not going to be just the I Am that I Am for right now, but in the generations to come."

And so God is saying to you today that in the midst of your situation, you need to understand who I am. I am the I Am that I Am. I like to listen to Alistair Begg every once in a while. And he had this isolated thing that he would play. He would play the voice of Ted Kennedy. It was a mockery of his arrogance and Ted Kennedy would yell out, "Do you know who I am?"

And God is yelling to us today, "Do you know who I am?" And when you need a miracle in your life, you need to remember who God is. Let me just say something that Dr. Rutledge said. He said, "One thing I have learned is that just because the track doesn't run past your house, it is no proof that there is no such thing as trains."

And just because some of us do not believe that God is a miracle-working God and have never seen one, it does not negate the reality that he is still a miracle-working God. I want to say this over again because I want us to really grab this. The God of the Old Testament, he is the same God who calls the Red Sea to stand up and to open wide for the children of Israel to cross and then drown the enemy.

He's the same God who turned the Nile into blood and spoke word into a womb of a virgin and out of it came the gift of abundant life. He is the same God who is a miracle-working God in spite of the history of bankrupt theologians. I've seen with my own eyes that faith can teach you that God is an unceasing, unchanging, undiminished God who still performs miracles.

But Church, I want you to listen to me. If you do not believe that he is a miracle-working God, then you do not understand that miracles are very critical and crucial to who God is in the Bible. You remove the miracles and you change the God of the Bible, then you will leave yourself defenseless against the truth that the Bible is an inherent book.

It is a Bible that reveals the awesome God. And if you say he does not perform miracles, then you are saying that he is a God who violates his own words. For indeed, if he is the Christ of Hebrews 13 and 8, the same yesterday and today and forever, then today and tomorrow, he still performs miracles. But you've got to remember who he is.

Because listen to me closely. This happens to all of us sometimes. We rarely work out our theological position so finely on a more personal and practical level. Here's what I mean. We usually are not close enough to God that in times of trouble, we instantaneously embrace faith for a miracle, but rather what we do is that in the urgency of the moment, we unintentionally opt to forget in the stress of the moment who God is.

How many of you were going through something and instantaneously said, "It's all right because I remember who God is." Even though we have seen him to be faithful and powerful, some of us have even seen the miracles firsthand. There comes a time where in our lives, we look at a situation and we say, "This one is different. It's worse. It's more difficult. It's unstoppable."

And the moment you do that, watch what happens. The enemy floods your mind with doubts in the present that even though you've seen his wonder-working power in the past, I'm here to tell you today that the God of Joshua, he is alive and well. He does not sleep. He does not slumber. He is not senile and he has not forgotten you.

But today, you got to remember who God is because if you don't, the evil one will wreak havoc in your mind by bringing you to a place of feeling of gloom and doom. And your mind will begin to say, "Though I've seen God do great things, it has finally happened. The thing that I dreaded most." You will have the Job syndrome. "The thing that I dreaded most, it has happened." And your mind will say to you, "Yeah, God delivered me back there, but he's not going to do it this time."

Listen carefully. Somebody needs to hear this today. Remember who God was in your greatest time of stress in your life and remind yourself that he does not change. James says, "There is no shadow of turning or shifting with him." He's the same God today as he was in your past trials and he will be in your present.

But here's the third thing you got to do. You've got to unshackle God. What do I mean? Take the limits off God. It's a familiar scripture, but I want us to really listen to it and take it to heart. It keeps coming to the forefront of my mind, Psalm 78:41. "Yet they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel."

This was not one lack of faith moment for the children of Israel. Church, listen. It became an habitual thing for them to put limits on God and what God could and would do for them. Listen to verse 42. I'm going to qualify what I just said. It says, "They remembered not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy."

They remembered not. Please write that down. They remembered not. They remembered not. They failed to remember how he showed great signs and wonders in Egypt. They failed to remember how he turned the enemy rivers into blood. And the list of forgetfulness of the great things God had done for them, it goes on for 16 verses, not counting the 13 chapters, verses prior that speak of all he did for them.

And Church, when you read the whole chapter, what you see is that every time God was getting ready to deliver them all the way over into the promised land, they shackled him. They limited what God could and would do for them. Oh, if they understood and you understood Mark 10:27. Jesus said and looked at them and said, "With man, this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God."

Don't do what the children of Israel did in your time of need. No matter what God did for them, they could never get to the place where their faith rose to the level that they believed all things are possible with God. Now watch this. Why did they get in that condition? Go back to Psalm 78. Listen to the first three verses.

"Give ear, oh my people, to my hearing. Hear my teaching. Listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable. I will utter hidden things from the old things we have heard and we have seen and known, things our ancestors told us. We will not hide them from our descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done."

Notice what Asaph says. Asaph said, "Tell of the great things the Lord has done for you. Tell of the great things that your parents saw God do." Church, look at me. This is the weakness of the family and the greatest tool against the family today is that when we were growing up, at least my generation and some of those right behind me, you had an an assurance that if it wasn't your parents, there were grandparents who would tell about the goodness of the Lord and the generational things that happened.

But listen, we have fallen off. This Bible says, "Tell your children." And when you tell your children, they'll tell their children and they will tell their children, but about three or four generations back, we stopped telling about the goodness and the great things that God has done. And so now we are living in an earth where even church people no longer believe that great is our God and greatly to be praised.

And watch this now. The Bible says, "Rehearse them." What does it mean to rehearse? It means to say it and then say it again. Say it and say it again. Why do we say and talk about the good things that God has done in the past? Because Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."

The more I say something, the more I believe it. Why do you think we have these crazy people saying that there are certain things that are doing certain things? Because when you tell yourself a lie long enough, you even believe it. How much more so with the truth? So I brought my little black book in here today. This is not a black book with a list of people that I want to take care of if you know what I'm saying.

This is a black book that I use to remind myself of the goodness of God. And let me read some of it to you. Psalm 136, the psalmist says 126 times, Church, "His mercies endure forever." Are you hearing me? 126 times. Turn to your neighbor and say, "If you don't get it now, you're going to never get it."

Watch this now. His mercies are endure forever. Then A. W. Tozer instructs us that we should occasionally spend the day thanking God for his mercies toward us. Let me begin to share with you some of what I said to God. Thank you, Father, for saving my soul in my early life. Thank you, Father, for a faithful wife whom I love more and more each day.

Thank you, Father, for two wonderful daughters whom I love more and more each day. Thank you, Father, for parents who taught me your ways and lived the life before me. Thank you, Father, for ancestors who literally laid down their lives for us to have the freedoms we now enjoy. Thank you, Father, for allowing me to be born in such a time as this.

Thank you, Father, for the military men and women who have given and are giving their lives so that I might live in a country with such great freedom. I put my little black book down, then the next day, I picked it up again and started all over again. Thank you, Father, for the peace that passes all understanding. Thank you, Father, for giving me mercy and grace when I did not deserve it.

Thank you, Father, for running with me in times of pain. Thank you, Father, for a healthy spirit, body, and soul. I put down my little black book and picked it up again on the next day. And here's where I started. Thank you, Father, for this very day of my life. Thank you, Father, for food, shelter, clothing, a home, and all the things that are so easy to take for granted.

Thank you, Father, for peace of mind like none I have had for more than 14 or 15 years. Thank you, Father, for the specific time that I've been able to spend in your word. And I put down my black book, got up the next day and started over again. Thank you, Father, for this is a wonderful and beautiful day. Thank you, Father, for the wisdom of God that is mine today.

Thank you, Father, for the spirit eyes to see and ears to hear. Thank you, Father, for loving me. Why do I do that? Listen to me, Church, because when I get stuck, I remind myself that he's faithful yesterday. He'll be faithful today. And as sure as trouble comes in my tomorrow, he will be the same God yesterday, today and forever.

The fourth thing you got to do if you need a miracle. Listen to the voice of God. Joshua 10 and 8 says, "The Lord said to Joshua, 'Fear not, for I have delivered them into your hand. There shall not be a man of them able to stand before you.'" Now don't dismiss this. Church, listen, there is a distinct line between faith and presumption.

Watch now, the distinct line is found in the synapse where Logos, a general word from God, becomes rhema, a specific word from God. Now hear my spirit. It is there in the cleft of that rock where we hide from our own pride, yet we snuggle in safe from unbelief. Now focus and follow me here. The most strenuous of all theological disciplines is a dirty word the hyper people of faith don't like.

It's called balance. See this now, an unbalanced emphasis on personal faith can lead to the dangerous gnostic self-worship that elevates my faith to the throne and leaves an act of God out of the picture. It is this kind of error which believes that miracles, they will happen, but they are controlled by my hands and my tongue.

Watch this now. I wrote in my notes, "Father, please keep us from that fatalistic kind of faith." Then there is a false balance that puts hyper-faith on one side of the scales and unbelief on the other side. Please comprehend what I'm about to say. Unbelief does not balance faith, it dilutes it. The proper balance of faith is the sovereignty of God.

For I have seen many children of God for not waiting and eager as as saints as they have, as Thurber said, mounted up and ridden all directions. Church, listen to me. The key to Joshua's uncompromised faith at Aijalon was a clear word at Gilgal. The account is told of a group of young Korean believers some years ago.

They wanted an evangelistic mission who came to a flooded river swollen with impossible rain. Finding the bridge swept away and claiming the faith experience of Christ and Peter to walk on water, they plunged in only to be drowned. Hear me. While God wants to speak to us and we want to hear from God, please understand that God will never instruct us to do something where we move from the place of trusting God to testing God.

Here's another thing. You cannot make someone else's experience your personal experience. You got to know God's instruction for yourself. With that said, I want to tell you that God does speak to his children. I love Isaiah 30:21. It says, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.'"

But listen carefully. Those words will not apply to you or me until we develop a sensitivity and practice of listening to the voice of the Lord. Because listen, Church, our minds have been programmed to believe that when God speaks, it's always demonstrative. To believe that he thunders either through prophetic voice or through tongue and interpretation. Hear me now. God can, God has, and God will speak sometimes from time to time in a loud voice.

How many of you parents, you tried talking quietly to your children. And every once in a while, you had to raise the volume. God will do that if you're not listening, but listen up. We miss the voice and the directives of God so often because we're looking for the fantastical. In First Kings 10, Elijah is hiding out in a cave wanting to hear from God.

The story goes that there comes an earthquake and then fire and then a gentle wind. God was behind all three. He sent all three, but catch this, he was only in one of those. First Kings 19 and 12 says, "After the earthquake came the fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper."

We have got to stop believing that it's only God when it's over the top. Listen now. I grew up in a church environment where if people weren't jumping and shouting and if the singers weren't putting on a show like they were on Star Search on the platform and if the preacher was not spitting and wiping his forehead and 'hallelujah' in the pulpit, then we said God wasn't there and we didn't have church.

And the problem was that it developed in us the inability to be sensitive to the voice of God when he would whisper. Church, listen to me. I believe that most times when God speaks to us, it is not through the fantastical, but rather in the quiet soft voice where we are truly desiring his presence. Church, look at me. I love to dance. I love to shout. I love to raise my voice. I love to shout unto God with a voice of triumph.

But let me tell you what I have learned. Working ourselves up into a frenzy does not bring the presence of God. Don't miss this. Hearing is a key element that we far too often minimize. If there is anything I've learned about faith and I really hope you write this down. Faith is easy when you truly hear from God. You got to catch that.

Faith is easy when you truly hear from God. But many times we don't hear from God because even though God is there, we're not. Even though God is present, we're not present. And hear me on this. We can spend an inordinate amount of time with God, praising and worshipping and praying and yet not be present with God.

Let me use me for the illustration. Probably about a week and a half, two weeks ago, I was doing what I always do, most of the time. I got in my car and I was driving and I was praying and I was worshipping and I was praising. And all of a sudden, a frightening thought, a voice from God came into the car and I heard God say, "Listen, son, you are in this car with me. I am in the car with you, but you are not present with me."

And all of a sudden it dawned on me. I was on autopilot. Church, listen to me very closely. All of a sudden, I began to realize that my praise and my worship, my prayers were coming not from presence, but from practice. And so I was not flowing in the reality of his presence. And I thought about how often is it that I've quoted Genesis 28:16, where it says, "When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, 'Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it.'"

I want you to understand, that is not normal for me. Usually, when I'm in God's presence, I'm present with him. But that day, let me tell you what happened. I was so overwhelmed in my mind with everything that's going on in the ministry and in my family and with my mother and my father. I was so overwhelmed with that. I was so consumed with the issues that they hindered my ability to stop focusing on them and really focus on the answer.

Watch this now. And I like Jacob awakened and I told Lady Brenda, I think I told Pastor Lopez, I know I told Pastor Justin and Pastor Michele, I said, "You know what? It awakened in my spirit in that very moment that God was with me, but I was not there that moment." And as I was sharing that, Pastor Michele looked at me and he said, "You know, Bishop, you said that and you said it frightened you."

He said, "It frightened me that you said that because I've been there." And he started talking to me about this preacher that he heard say something that I want to share with you. I said, "Pastor Michele, send to me what that preacher said." Listen to what this pastor said. He said, "Last night, I hit a significant milestone. Day 733 on my streak with Duolingo."

"I am horrified and embarrassed as I take inventory on how little Italian I know. You know how much Italian I know? Piccolo." That means little. "I think about how much Italian I would know if I lived in Italy for 700 days. You drop somebody in Tuscany for 730 days, they come away fluent." Why? "The difference is saturation." Listen carefully.

"For some of us, we've been walking with God so long that we're not seeing what he wants to do in us." Then he says, "I would ask you, have you maintained your streak, but have not been walking with the Savior?" Here's the part I want us to grab. God wants you to be immersed in his love, immersed in his spirit. Abide in the vine, to walk with him, not just every day, "I did my little thing, I checked my box."

Then he said, "My problem with Duolingo is I skip the stuff I don't like. I'll say, 'Can't speak out loud right now,' and it's not because I can't, but because I don't want to. I skip the hard stuff." Please listen. Some of us follow Jesus like that. We follow him, but as soon as he tells us to do something we don't like, we skip to the next thing.

We can just immediately change channels the moment it gets hard. So the question is here, there, or wherever else is, "Will you just walk with Jesus?" To know the love of God, to comprehend with all the saints how long it is, how wide it is, how deep it is, how high it is, to be filled with the fullness of God, applying his great and precious promises everywhere you go, to live with the awareness that he's always in you, wanting to flow through you, where it's not huckleberry some things, but it's huckleberry everything.

For those of you who don't know what huckleberry means, I had to look it up because I didn't know either. It means, "Jesus, I'm your man. I'm your woman, Jesus. As long as what you desire for me is convenient." See it now. Meaning, "I want to be close to you, Jesus, but I just don't want you to ask too much."

No, children of God, listen to me this moment. Jesus wants you to be so connected with him, so intertwined with him, so saturated with his presence that not only do you do whatever he tells you to do, but you are so saturated with his presence that you will be sensitive to the voice of the Lord and you will be so sure that God is talking that when he says, "This is the way I want you to go, walk in it," you will walk in it.

Now, now, now watch this. There's a famous saying that we've all really exploded. I forgot. Let me talk to you. Studies are showing that most of the time, our problem is not that we forget, our problem is that we fail to truly listen. Let me talk to you. When we need a miracle from God, hearing is the key element.

Let me say it again. When you know you have heard from God, faith is easy until you do acting precipitously to force God's hand, it's not faith, it's dangerous. But when you know that you have heard from God, once you have the assurance you have heard from God's voice, number five, obey quickly and as specifically as possible. Obey quickly and as specifically as possible.

Being sure he had heard from God that victory was his, Joshua didn't wait for the victory to come to him. In that sure word from God, he went to it with confident and obedient faith. Don't miss this. He obeyed quickly, confidently, confidently, and energetically and completely. Now that last word is important, completely. Joshua 10 and 9. "Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night."

That word night is very important because we're scared of the dark, aren't we? Yeah. Watch this. As children of the most high God, far too often, though we are sincere believers and we have heard from God, we camp where we are and we wait for the victory to fall out of the sky. And don't mistake what I'm saying because I've seen us do it.

It is possible to race past God, to get ahead of God, but far more too likely, we sit and we stare at the sky like the disciples did at the Ascension. In Acts 1 and 11, two angels showed up and stood beside them and he asked this monumental question, "Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back the same way you have seen him going into heaven."

Why did the angel say that to him? Because before Jesus went into heaven, before he was crucified, or after he was crucified, he said in Matthew 28:18 through 20, "Since I'm going to go away, once I go away, you got to do this. All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always till the end of the age."

Church, look at me. They're standing and staring and Jesus already told them, "I have given you authority. I have given you the victory." So stay with me on this. The point is this, when you receive a clear word from God, quit waiting. Quit waiting for the miracle to drop on you. Obey him as quickly and as specifically as possible.

See, I wrestled with this point. I sat there going. It suddenly clicked with me. How many times I had to recognize that far too many times, I knew I had heard from God. And for whatever reason, I did not move as quickly as I should have. And I wonder how far along would I be in the ministry, how far along would I be in my personal life?

Let me say something that the softened Christians don't like. Look at me now. Most of the time, the promise of victory is followed by a command to attack. Matthew 11 and 12, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent take it by force."

I cannot wonder what would have happened had Joshua sat as the old saints used to say, "On the stool of do-nothing" at Gilgal, claiming victory by faith. Learn this, victory promise may not come if we sit on our hands and don't possess it. Like never before, I believe that we've got to understand that obedience is the key that unlocks the power of God in the Valley of Aijalon.

First Samuel 15:22. Let me break this down a little bit. In this passage of scripture, we find that Saul chose to disobey God. He disobeyed God by keeping alive Agag, the Amalekite king, Amalekite king, and he also took the plunder from the battle. Rather than destroy everything and everyone as God had instructed him to. I want you to hear me, Church, whenever God tells you to do something and you disobey him, he will confront you.

Now watch this. In verses 21 through 22, when Samuel confronted Saul, he said, "I did obey the Lord." Now right there, let's stop right there. When a man of God speaks to you and the Holy Spirit and the anointing is upon him, don't lie. Just tell the truth. Can I tell you how tired I am of Christians sitting right in front of me and lying right through their pearly whites?

Listen to me. I can see the smoke of hell coming out of their mouth because they're lying. He lied. He said, "I went on the mission that the Lord assigned to me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back King Agag." First of all, God told him to kill everything including the king. Let me say it again. When it comes to God and his kingdom, partial obedience is disobedience.

Let me talk to us for a moment. One of the greatest deceptions in the body of Christ that we have taken on an attitude from the world. You know what the world says? The world says that the world is gray. So the church says that the Bible is gray. No, listen to me. This Bible is black and white. There is no gray. When God says do something, he didn't stutter, he didn't stammer, he meant just what he said.

Secondly, when we fail to obey God, there is a propensity in all of us to put the blame on others. Saul says, "The soldiers took the sheep and the cattle and the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal." Samuel answered in First Samuel 15:22. Now watch this. "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much in obeying the Lord?"

"To obey is better than sacrifice. To heed is better than the fat of rams." And the question before us is, "Why does God say that obedience is of greater import than our acts of worship?" Why does God say that listen, obedience is better than you coming in here singing my songs today? Obedience is more important than you clapping your hands today. Obedience is more important than you giving the tithe and the offering and doing good to people.

Why does God say that those things, listen, they're important, but they're not as important? Here it is. The first thing is First Samuel 15:23 says, "For rebellion is like the sin of of divination." That's witchcraft. "And arrogance is like the evil of idolatry." Let me tell you something, you don't have to go to Salem on Halloween to find witchcraft. It sits right in church.

God considered his disobedience as rejection of God himself. And Samuel said, "Because you have rejected the Lord, the Lord has rejected you as king." God saw Saul's disobedience as act of rebellion, iniquity, sin and idolatry. The second reason God says, "Obedience is better than sacrifice," is that the second answer is offered in Saul's confession in verse 24.

He said, "I have sinned. I've violated the Lord's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men, so I gave into them." I want you to see this now. Saul fesses up and he admits that his sacrifice was a transgression and a sin against God's command. And he sinned because he was more interested in the approval of the people than the approval of God.

It seems to be this thing today in the ministry of wanting not only the approval of people, but pushing for fame that goes along with it. I told my Lord and my Savior and I told my lady the other day. I said, "Honey, I'm not trying to be famous, I'm trying to be faithful." And when you put the whole episode together, we see many reasons why disobedience to God is better.

Why obedience to God is better than making sacrifices or offerings. Gotquestions.org puts it in order. Number one, disobedience is rebellion. Secondly, disobedience is sinful. Thirdly, disobedience is a form of idolatry because it makes a God out of our will and our thoughts and our ways and we place it above God and so our thoughts become an idol.

Fourthly, disobedience disrespects God's Word. The fifth thing is that disobedience is based on looking good to other people rather than to God. So let me swing it into the 21st century, Church. In our human attempts to look good serving God, there is the temptation to perform certain religious duties rather than to truly obey God. Now this is really key to getting the miracle.

Even good activities such as giving to charities and bringing God's tithe and our offerings, attending church on the regular, serving in ministry are not as important as obeying him because child of God, listen to me, if we have true obedience to his commands, it will cover those things and everything else that God says to do. Jesus went off on teachers of his time for the same motivations.

In Matthew 6, he tells them, "Hey, listen, you guys fast, you like public prayer, you like giving, but the reason that you're doing it is wrong. You're doing it because you like for the people to look at you and think you're somebody." Somebody said to me one day, "We need to have buckets in the front of the church because African people like to bring their offering, they like to to be seen bringing it." One African brother said to me, "That's a lie. That's the devil."

I said, "You got that right because we ain't doing that again here." Jesus says, "Do what you desire to do because you want to glorify the Father." And so watch this now. So when you get a clear word from God, do it for the right reasons so that Jesus might be glorified and obey quickly and as specifically as possible. My friend, Dr. Rutledge was on a platform with another preacher.

The meetings had been blessed and the altar response was strong. Near the end of that service, the other preacher said, "I've heard from God that there's somebody in this room who's got a specific word from God and you need to obey God instantly." The other preacher urged him to speak what God had dropped into his spirit. And when he did, when he gave that word, the wife of a Methodist pastor came running up the aisle weeping loudly.

She wailed, "I need a miracle in my life." She went on to say, "As I was praying, God said, 'You have a diamond ring that you inherited from your grandmother. That is the most important thing in your life to you.'" I said, "No, Lord, you're the most important thing in my life." And God said, "Fine, then give the diamond ring away."

She said, "I had been fighting God this whole weekend over what? Over a diamond ring." And I'm about to miss my miracle because of not giving the diamond ring away. Just as she pulled the ring off her finger, the miracle miracle she had been been praying for happened. Her Methodist preacher husband came running to the front and stood right beside her and said, "I want to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. My wife has been witnessing to me about it, but I couldn't believe it was real until this moment. Now I know it's real. Pray for me."

Now stop and look at me. You would say, "How does that qualify for a miracle?" Well, you have to have relatives like mine who are Methodist. They just assume throw you in hell than speak in tongues. Watch this now, because here comes the greatest part of the miracle. Suddenly, the whole front of the hotel ballroom was filled with people weeping, crying, seeking God and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The preacher's obedience, watch now, unlocked that woman's which summoned her husband's, which in turn brought an outpouring of God's Spirit all over the room. Don't misunderstand what I'm seeking to drive home. Often the obedience that releases the greatest blessing, listen, Church, may be the most demanding thing that God tells you to do.

And here's another thought. Our obedience, when God speaks to us, we must understand that our receiving the miracle is not just about us. The miracle God does in our life has the destiny of others tied to it. Please see this now. The miracle is for us, but it's not about us. I was preaching in a church and I remember when I was out and I was telling Lady Brenda, it was a Sunday morning and I'm I'm getting ready, we're going to go to this church and I'm I got my sermon all laid out.

And I and I'm I'm going over it and I'm going over it. And about a half hour before we go to church, God says, "I don't want you to preach that. I want you to preach this." Now, I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of guy, I'm not big on surprises even when it's God. So I argued with God. I said, "God, I'm prepared to do this. Let me do this." And God, he always talks to me, "Boy, you going to do what I said to do or you going to do what you want to do?"

I went in that pulpit and I preached that message that day. I don't even remember what I preached. All I remember is this is at the end of the service, a young man came to me at the altar and he said, "I want you to understand, I came to church today and I had predetermined and I told God, 'If I don't hear something from you, I'm going to go to my car, I'm going to drive to the park, I'm going to pull the revolver out of the glove compartment, I'm going to put it to my head and blow my brains out.'"

He said, "Today, God spoke to me. He brought hope. He brought peace." Now I want to ask you a question. The question is before us. What if Joshua after hearing the voice of God, had refused to march through the mountains at night? Would God have still done it? Church, listen. Here's my last time. Many times, the darkest time in your life is when God says, "Move."

Because here's what we tend to do in the darkness. We get paralyzed. We stop. We don't move. Let me tell you why I get up so early in the morning to pray. Not just because I like to get up, which I do, but let me tell you why I get up so early in the morning. Because when I get up in the early in the morning, I can take my cup of coffee, I can use my iPhone to guide my way down the basement stairs to the Batcave, where I can sit down with my coffee in the darkness.

Nothing distracts me and I can feel his presence and I can see his glory. And listen to me, in the darkness is when I hear his voice most clearly. This morning, just sitting there in the darkness and talking to Jesus. He gave me instructions. And here's what I want to say to you, number six. Never forget God's purpose purposes for a miracle.

Secondly, in First Kings 20, watch this now. There was a secret meeting among the Syrians as they plotted revenge on King Ahab and the Israeli army for the slaughter of Ben-Hadad's army earlier. One of his advisors comes to him and he says, "Your Majesty, Samaria is on a mountain top. That was the cause of our defeat."

He goes on to say, "The God of Israel is a God of the mountains, not valleys. If we can but lure them out of their city down into the valleys and plains below, their God cannot protect them there." This is the stuff that is made of arrogance and it was good stuff and Ben-Hadad, it was like music in his ears. It was logical and strategic with a spiritual air about it that he really liked.

And in his mind, it's certainly this was right. And he thought a God of the mountains cannot also be the God of the valleys. And Ben-Hadad began to feel extremely confident about the upcoming campaign. He thought the campaign will be fought successfully in the valley where their God would be impotent to help them. The advisor continued, "Furthermore, your Majesty, let the kings be replaced by real military men."

Ben-Hadad said to himself, "This too is good and will have our advantage." He thought to himself, "This this advisor, he knows his stuff. I'll reward him greatly after the campaign." Listen, in their finite minds, they thought this was going to work nicely, but they had a problem that would seize upon them. And that being that an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God is just as powerful in the valleys as he is on the mountain.

And he was just as present in their strategic meeting as they were. He heard everything that was said in that meeting. No need to read the minutes and he was ticked. Hebrews 10:31 says, "It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." For when that happens, nothing remains but to feel the heat of his wrath and judgment. And God's response to their secret meeting was clear and prophetic.

King Ahab received a prophet only days before the Syrians concluded their war council. The prophetic word was succinct and powerful. Listen to First Kings 20:28. "Thus says the Lord, because the Syrians have said, 'The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys.' Therefore, I will deliver all this great multitude into thine hand and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

Watch this. God wanted a clear understanding to all involved, the Syrians and the Israelites, that he is the Lord of all that exists, the valleys and the hills. So listen, child of God, on the mountain tops, we are fearful about going down there. And once we're there, we doubt his presence and his power. But let courage, hope, and faith arise in your soul.

As we hear him say, "The Syrians are wrong and you, child of God, are wrong if you believe them. I am the God of the valleys." Ben-Hadad and the Syrians played into the foolish thinking of a presumed mountain-only God. And we Christians, that's what we we we think. When I'm on the mountain, God is good. No, when I'm in the valley, God is good.

Watch now. See this. This is the miscalculation of the Syrians. Let me remind us, when we embrace the valley as well as the mountains with the same faith we embrace the mountains, we unchain God. Watch what happened when they unchained God. The second battle, 100,000 Syrian infantry were killed in in one day by less than 10,000 Israelites.

Many fled into the city of Aphek. There a wall collapsed on them and killed 27,000 more of them. For the people of God, it was total victory, not a mountain top, but in a valley. Okay, listen now. When we hem ourselves up in risk-free comfort, we may live a life of ease, but we will miss out on discovering who God is in the valley.

And listen to me. You're going to go in the valley whether you want to or not. So some of you need to quit looking at me like I ain't saying nothing. You're going to end up like one guy came to me and said said, "Bishop, you preached a message two years ago. I didn't know I needed it till now." Let me say something. The hardest proposition for modern-day Christians to accept is that God may ever for any reason lead them out of a safe, secure city of refuge and down to a valley of struggle and pain.

But hear this, saints. If he doesn't allow that, we become soft and flabby and we lose one of the richest insights, the only ones we can learn in the valley. We must come to the place when in the Valley of Aijalon, we unshackle God, unchain him. Listen now, from our demands for wall-to-wall blessings and embrace the valleys as they come and they will come.

And when they come and like the children of Israel, he delivers you. Remember his reason. So let me give you his reasons and his purposes. The reason that God gave them the miracle and he gives you a miracle in the miraculous defeat of the Syrians, God made known his reason. It was because the Syrians have said, and that you shall know.

Because the devil has said and you shall know. Take this the way I'm saying it because doctors state the facts, but because the doctor has said, you shall know. Listen now. Here's what I want you to understand. God was not upholding the reputation of the prophet who spoke or of Ahab or of the Israeli nation.

He was vindicating himself. Every miracle is about God's reputation and no one else's. Please hear me. I pray that God uses me in your life to speak word into your life. And I pray that when I speak a prophetic word, it comes to pass in your life. But don't you stop and look at me and say, "You did it." No, you give the glory to God and if I take the glory, we have missed God's reason.

Listen now. Every life born into this earth is a justifiable reason for a broad use of the term. For when we look into the eyes of a newborn, we cannot miss the reality that life is a miracle. Yet in a more specific way, a true miracle is defined by being just that, miraculous. We have lost the wonder of what a true miracle from God really means.

A supernatural event which has no human explanation. A supernatural event which suspends natural law, an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. A miracle is not merely the wonders of nature or some truly remarkable physical feat of well-trained and talented athletes. To this very day, I am telling you that Michael Jordan is the goat of basketball.

I watch reels of him and he does some things. I just it's unbelievable. He almost seems to defy gravity. Michael drops 63 points on the Celtics in 1986 and Larry Bird said, "Oh, that's just God in disguise." Michael is unbelievable, Church. But the things he did on the court do not qualify as miracles. And subsequently, we have watered down miracles and the value of the word miracle the same way we have watered down the word love.

Let's stop telling people we love them until we really show we love them. I'm tired of people calling me brother. Love you, brother. When you really show me love, you can call me a brother. Till then, stop it. Number two, we must avoid two equal and opposite errors. Matthew 12:24. "But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, 'It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that the fellow drives out demons.'"

There are two camps that are equally opposite and equally to be avoided. The one is denying the miraculous, which is an attempt to make God conform to the shape of our intellect. People who don't believe in miracles, they're trying to bend God so that they can understand him. You're not going to understand God. Just submit to him.

The other is arrogantly claiming some man-centered theology that limiting the sovereignty of God puts miracles under our control. Please understand something. You can't stop God from doing a miracle and you can't make God do a miracle. Isaiah 42 and 8. "I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols." That's why God's not going to let you do a miracle. You're not getting his glory.

Psalm 115 and 1. "Not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name be glory because of your love and faithfulness." Yet with that said, we must never stop seeking God for miracles. Number three, God is never bound by physical laws or modern-day unbelief of man. Ephesians 3:20 through 21. "Now to him who was able to do it immediately, immeasurably more than we all ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, Amen."

I'm so glad that I've noticed that and knowing that God can do miracles and he's not bound by the thoughts of man. Number four, true miracles don't happen every day. Joshua 10:14. "There has never been a day like it before or since when God listened to a human being." Christianity is life in the valley of miracles, Church. But please remember this. There will never be a day like this. The sun stood still over Aijalon.

That's what makes it a miracle. The sun coming up in the east, and whatever and setting in the west, that's not a miracle because it happens every day. True miracles don't happen every day. Here's what I want to convey. We've got to slow down about shouting, "It's a miracle!" over everything and every everything, anything. Otherwise, we're going to be looked at by the world as a little church that cried wolf.

The last thing I want to say is this, number five. Ultimately, when the sun goes down over Aijalon, rejoice in the God who sees in the dark because five, God's sovereignty is abused when faith is not exercised. Please understand that Joshua's day does not disqualify you from having your day. You can have a day where people look and you can say, "There was never a day like your day and there never will be again."

Please come, musicians and worship team. We are not of the predestination group that takes the attitude that if God has already decided, why pray? You don't know what God has decided, but you might decide against what God has decided because you would not pray in faith. Numbers 14 and 11. "The Lord said to Moses, 'How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe me in spite of all the signs I have performed for them?'"

My prayer for you is Romans 15:13. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Last night at about 8:00, somewhere around in there, my phone went ding and I picked it up and I looked at it. Pastor Justin had texted me something.

Here's what I'm talking about about being sensitive to the voice of God. He texted me a clip from a song that gave me strength when I was growing up and I hadn't heard it in years. Next week, I'm going to repeat some of the words for you, but the song is, "Order my steps." Order my steps in your word. Lead me, guide me, show me your will.

Send your anointing, Father, I pray. Order my steps, come on, guys, in your word. Order my steps in your word. I want to thank you for joining us today and for watching this message on our stream. We are flowing now from the worship of hearing and receiving God's word into the worship aspect of giving into the Kingdom of God.

And as God has spoken to your heart, I pray that you're able to join us in giving and bringing him his tithe and our offering. I want to share a little piece that's very interesting, that you might even find interesting. People were asked, "How much money would it take for us to have enough money?" Remarkably, every person said, "If I could have a 10% increase, it would be enough for me to live and have a comfortable lifestyle."

I share that with you because it's interesting that God says, "But if you will give me 10%," in Malachi 3 and verse 8 and in verses all the way through verse 11. He talks about, "If you give me that 10%," he says, "You will have more than enough. There will be an overflow." So why is that number significant in your giving today? The number is significant in that in your desire to live and have a healthy life, you want 10%.

God says, "If you give me 10%, I'll make your 10% multiply in your life." And so as God leads your heart today, I ask you to first be obedient to the Lord and bring that 10%, that tithe. And then let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart as you give an offering above that. That will open the windows of heaven. I thank you in advance for your faithfulness in giving to the work of the Kingdom so that we might expand God's Kingdom.

Let me pray for you now. Father, I thank you for these that have committed this day to be obedient to your word. Because Lord, they understand that sometimes Thanksgiving is merely an act of obedience. And since we are thankful people, we obey you this day to bring you your tithe and to give our offering. We thank you in advance that you will open the windows of heaven, pour out blessing, we will not have room to receive. We will be blessed spirit, soul, and body. And this we pray and believe for in Jesus' name. Amen.

Just lift your hands where you are. Though you may not be in this sanctuary, you become aware that we have words on this wall that are not just words, they are the biblical words from the very throne room of heaven. Let me speak them over your life. May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. God bless you as you receive it.