Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for today's installment of Power Walk with author and speaker Reverend Paul Cannings.

Guest (Female): This conference has exceeded my expectations. I've met some amazing people and I've heard some great presentations.

Guest (Male): As it relates to Power Walk Ministry, Dr. Cannings, for over 33 years, it began with him personally ministering to me in my home and then in our church, teaching me the basics of leadership. I began traveling with him around the world with Power Walk Ministry, helping other pastors globally to implement the principles that Power Walk Ministry stands for. So it's been beneficial to me and our ministry. And as I've traveled again around the world with Dr. Cannings, we've seen the benefits in places like Rwanda, in places like St. Maarten, the Bahamas Island. So again, Power Walk Ministry has been a great blessing to me and I pray it continues to be a blessing to many other ministries around the world.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I am so excited about the conference coming up April the 23rd to the 25th. I really am ecstatic about it. Pastors have come together on a committee and helped with the process moving forward. We were excited about our first conference last year, but this conference this year is going to be greater. There's like 40 classes here.

Let me give you a taste: The pastor and deacons functioning under the leadership of Christ; a biblical approach to resolving conflict in the church; traits of successful biblical leaders; cultivating a healthy and productive team environment; overcoming the stagnation in the church; discipling leaders; and dealing with how we grow people and do evangelism at the same time. Despite all the difficulties churches are facing, we can find a powerful, effective way forward. A lot of teachers are coming to teach. They're well-trained, well-educated, practicing these principles within their church. Come be a part of April the 23rd through the 25th. Go to powerwalkministries.org so that we can move forward together for God's glory. Look forward to seeing you. You will not be in any way disappointed at this conference.

Guest (Male): This week Dr. Cannings continues teaching on the series Broken Not Defeated. How do we keep our faith and keep hoping when it seems like God is silent or when our prayers seem to go unanswered? Through today's message, Dr. Cannings challenges us to keep hope alive. Let's listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I'd like to spend this week with you going through what I prayed that the Lord, the Holy Spirit, would guide us through in understanding the scriptures as it relates to the pain that many people have experienced and have gone through. Families are trying to figure out how they're going to make it through this time in providing for their family, finding a job, and finding work within the field they were once in. This can sometimes be stressful since some people have been laid off from jobs they've been on for years, and to recoup that salary at their age is so difficult.

The lack of responses as you send out resumes is hard. Some people are going through depression and some people are considering suicide, and that's sad. And that's the reason why I want us to dive into the scriptures and look at what the scriptures teach us. In the midst of all that we are going through, the scriptures will never leave us; they will always lead us through it because He is saying these are the last days. And if we're not careful, our love for God will grow cold, as Matthew chapter 24 teaches us.

Keep obeying Him; that's what that love means. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." He would talk about that relevant to the disciples when He says, "You will know my disciples by the way they love one another." So, in the midst of all that is taking place, we could end up just doing church or just not really reading our Bibles the same way, not praying the same way, because we've been praying for God to help us to overcome the pain. We may have a smile on our face, but there is a big old rock in our hearts that's weighing us down.

I pray that we will walk through this passage together this week so that you will see God's heart and mine in it because He promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He promises us that He'll provide for all of our needs according to His riches and glory. He tells us all these promises, 7,000 promises in the Bible, and I don't want us to get to the point where they don't mean anything. But He says to us in 2 Peter chapter one that when we learn the truth, it will provide us what words we would need for life and godliness in every aspect of our lives.

Let's dive in and find out what He has provided for us for this time. The story we come to is the story of Jacob and Joseph and Joseph's brothers. It's a story where you find Joseph has recovered but has not gotten over the pain, but his father is in absolute despair and wishes he could die. You have a comparison here that we will look at this week to see how this comparison that once ran parallel eventually merged.

I pray that in that process we would see what God is teaching us about this whole aspect of dealing with the pain of losing loved ones, the pain of losing people that are extremely dear to us. I still miss my mom. I still miss my dad. I still miss my brother. I still miss my sister. I still miss them. He didn't say to stop mourning; He says just don't mourn as those who have no hope. He's not against mourning. He says, "Mourn with those who mourn." He didn't say mourn with those who mourn and tell them to quit. No, He didn't say that. He says mourn with those who mourn.

So mourning is not a sin. There needs to be a perspective in it. He says the same thing in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13. He says don't come to this time as if you're not educated about what's taking place. He says he doesn't want you to come to it uninformed. Come to it with a sense of understanding, but come to it willing and ready and open to mourn. He wept with Mary. He saw a mom coming out losing her only son, which is despair for a mother who's in an agrarian society. And she is crying out at the loss of her son, seeming hopeless, and Christ stopped and took her son up from the grave. Out of that coffin, He raised him out. Christ understands this pain. Somewhere during the course of His life, His dad passed. So it's not like He's not sitting at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit representing our groans of our heart, and there's no intercessor that has not walked this life? Oh yes, He has. He talks about this mourning and He says it's okay, it's not a sin, it's not wrong.

Let's keep a perspective in it. What is this perspective that we must keep? He teaches us this when we come to Genesis chapter 37 and we look at the fact that Joseph's brothers, they have come back with this big lie, this huge lie. They're going to prosecute this lie, this big lie. They're going to put this lie together so they are going to kill a goat, tear up their brother's cloak that their father made specially for him so that it looks like a wild animal did it. So they put time and energy and mindset into it, put the blood of a goat on it, and bring it to their father.

The father doesn't even need them to say what happened to his son, because the father is literally interpreting what he believes happened to his son by looking at the clothes and looking at how torn up it is. And they know their brother is sold thanks to Judah and Reuben. The son is sold, but they would have left him there to die. They would have killed him, but thanks to those two brothers, he is sold to the Ishmaelites and Midianites and he's gone down to Egypt. There's no, "Oh man, let's change our mind," or, "You know what, Dad, let me confess this, we messed up and did wrong, let me just go and search around and see if I find Joseph." None of that is in their hearts.

They come, they perpetrate this crime, and then they turn around and bring this lie before their father, who is devastated. His imagination took the best of him. In Genesis chapter 37, verse 33, it says, "And he knew it and said, 'It is my son's coat, and an evil beast hath destroyed him; devoured him.'" Just no point going and looking for him. He's devoured. Every piece of him is gone. And Joseph is without doubt rent into pieces.

In verse 34 it says, "And Jacob rent his clothes." He's gone smack into despair. Jacob rent his clothes, put on sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. What he's doing is putting on this scratchy, uncomfortable material for days upon days, just totally uncomfortable, not taking a bath. He says in verse 35, "And all his sons and his daughters rose up," because there was a 30-day mourning period. He went way past that, and they rose up to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted and he said, (here he goes smack into depression), "For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning." Thus his father wept, not cried, wept for him.

He is screaming. He is loud. His face shows how dramatic this process is for him. He doesn't care who sees him. He doesn't care about the sackcloth. He does not care how uncomfortable it is. He doesn't care how uncomfortable it is for how long it's going to be. He is moving towards depression. See, many times when we are there, that's what the scripture is talking about. We get to this point where we don't even want to open up the blinds. We don't want to get up off the bed. People may go to work and smile, but they go home when nobody's looking and drink themselves to bed.

People will isolate, not return phone calls. People will get to the point where they are just in the dramatic process of tearing their clothes and putting on sackcloth. To me, that represents how many times people's hearts are just torn into bits and pieces and they don't care how they look anymore. They don't care what anybody has to say about the clothes they wear anymore.

You would think that oh, he got past this after a while. No, not so. Not so at all. When the brothers come back, the brothers come back to say, "Hey, Joseph wants for us to bring Benjamin here." And the father responds this way. He says to them in verse 36 of Genesis chapter 42, "And Jacob their father said unto them, 'Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. All these things are just going to take me further down into the grave. Are you serious? You are not taking Benjamin. I am not losing another son.'"

What is he saying? "Okay, I've lost Simeon. I've lost Joseph, but you're not taking Benjamin. You're not going to take me any further down in this grief." The grief wasn't over. The grief was still around. It's interesting how Joseph responds after a while. It is different than how his father responded. There was a moment in his life where Joseph, in Genesis chapter 41, verse 51, "And Joseph called the name of his firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. And the name of the second son was Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."

Joseph had come to a point where Joseph says God has given me a wife, God has blessed me to be second in command, God has blessed my children to come from my wife. So God has fixed my circumstances. Now I'm going to go about doing the job I need to do. How did Joseph get there? This is how we can learn this week how we can find peace. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings, for that timely encouragement when we're faced with situations that don't make sense. Friend, if you're listening today and you're looking for hope, and you might have questions about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then please call us at 281-260-7402. Again, that's 281-260-7402. To learn more about our ministry, go to powerwalkministries.org.

As always, we value your prayers for our ministry as we serve not only in our community but nationally and internationally as well. Again, that's powerwalkministries.org. And now remember, Joseph did not stuff his pain, but he processed it in order to genuinely love once again.