Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Hello friends, thanks for joining us once again for this edition of Power Walk. The title of our current series is Brokenness. There is much brokenness around us, and some situations go so deep that many of us are just existing or surviving.

Well, Dr. Paul Cannings has been addressing this topic in a very practical and forthright manner, leading us to gain new perspective on how to persevere in our trials and come through victoriously. Dr. Cannings is the founder of Power Walk Ministries and senior pastor of Living Word Fellowship Church in Houston, Texas. Let's listen as he concludes this series with part three titled "Let God be God." Dr. Cannings.

Dr. Paul Cannings: In Genesis chapter 50, Joseph's brothers are scared. Look at verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him?" And they sent a message to Joseph—not that they didn't come, they sent a message—"Your father charged before he died saying..." Do you think this father would have brought the sons together and worked it all out? No, he didn't. He talked to the sons to say, "This is what you do when I die."

"Thus you shall say to Joseph, 'Please forgive me, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, and that they did you wrong.' Now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the Lord of your father." They got real righteous: "the servants of the Lord of your father." I mean, we're hooked up here. And Joseph wept. Now, Joseph, this is the time when you beat them down like a dog. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then Joseph's brothers came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for I am in God's place."

In other words, I didn't get here by Joseph. I got here by God. So the place that I'm in is God's place, and I can't make this God's place messed up. So I still have to do what God says, even though right now as Pharaoh, I don't need to get a court hearing or anything; I could take you out. It's still an issue about what does God say I do? The people we call great in the Bible, they decided just to do God. They didn't decide to solve all their problems, didn't decide to fix everything. They just decided, "Let me do God." Daniel, "We're going to kill you." "All right, I've got to pray. I'm just going to do God."

"You've got to worship this idol?" "Can't do that. I've got to do God." "You've got to eat this food?" "Can't eat that food. God tells me I can't eat that food. I'm just going to do God." They never fixed anything. When did Daniel cause them lions to shut their mouths? When did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego decide to have an air conditioner in some hot fire? Think about the people we call great in the Bible. What did they actually do? Nothing. Moses, get these people across the Red Sea. Put the stick over there. They didn't do anything but obey God. They didn't do anything. We tend to look at those people and call them great. No, the only thing about them that was great was their faith.

That's it. Joshua was as afraid as ever. Every time when you read Joshua chapter 1, He keeps telling him, "Joshua, stop trembling. Stop being afraid. I've got your back." Yes, he was a man that stood by Moses. Yes, he showed a man of courage, but deep down inside God knows he was scared to death. "How could I fill Moses' shoes?" God says, "I've got you, Joshua. Joshua, let the priests put their feet in the water." When did Joshua put the water back? When did he tear the walls of Jericho down? Joshua didn't do anything but God. That's what brought his success. It wasn't how great the person was; it's how great their faith was. No matter how dark it looks, what is God telling me to do?

We're too busy solving things when God is saying, "Do me." God never fails us when we trust Him and remain faithful. Never fails us. Now, it may look like He fails us, but He never does. And here's a key reason: anytime God is testing our faith and we're committed to obey Him, He's working out a plan. Not only do we give up on God, we give up on the plan because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. God's word is a plan. God's word doesn't sit down. God's word is living. It's always executing a plan because God's word is living, moving, and powerful. So there's no way you can do God's word and not come up with a plan. So it can't fail. That's why it doesn't return void.

I'm going to tell you all something. I don't tell you these things because I've heard all the criticism of "I think I'm this" and "I think I'm that." So sometimes I don't say anything because in my heart, ain't none of that stuff. It's just that when God works out something—and this is a good lesson to use it at—because I don't see myself as achieving anything. My greatest achievement in my life, the only one thing I could be proud of in life that the Bible says I could be proud of, is my kids. Technically, there's nothing else I could be proud of. Nothing. You go through the Bible, a man cannot be proud of nothing but his kids. Nothing. That's the only thing he can take pride in. And that's all I take pride in.

Everybody that evaluated Paul Cannings said, "Don't plant Living Word in what they call this area, semi-hood. You don't speak the lingo, you're too educated, and you ain't from America. So go plant it in the suburbs and you will do well financially because you'll probably attract an educated group of black people or white people." I'm serious. I wish I had kept that. But I chose, I said to God, "You took me around as a juvenile probation officer showing me pain. And you gave me a mother that constantly taught that you never disrespect anybody. It doesn't matter how poor, how uneducated, they are human beings. It doesn't matter, okay? You help people."

And she always took me to the Bible and said, "Who did Jesus help?" By the time He finished putting His disciples together, what did they call them? Uneducated men. And then in the hood, I don't know why my boss sent me to the hood, hood, hood. I mean where you go in some apartment complexes and the security guards are carrying sawed-off shotguns. They aren't walking around like security guards with nothing with a little badge on. They've got sawed-off shotguns. I would go in those communities and I saw the worst. It was so bad one time, I jumped in my car in the middle of my job, drove all the way to East Dallas, and hugged my parents. For the first time, I saw the value in my parents being there. I took them for granted basically.

What I'm saying is starting Living Word here was supposed to be failure. I'm not saying there is success because I don't know what a successful church looks like, honestly. There's no biblical process for a successful church. The Bible doesn't call a church successful to be short about it; it calls a church healthy or unhealthy, but it doesn't say success. So I don't know what that is. But Living Word was supposed to have failed. It wasn't supposed to develop something that—you know something is healthy when it gets sick sometimes, but it keeps recovering. So I said, "Okay, what I'm going to do is the word, because it never returns void."

So whatever decisions are made must come out of the Bible, and that's where the name Living Word came from. I'm not saying I'm perfect. Don't go there. I've heard all the stuff when I use these examples. I'm not perfect. What I'm saying to you is that you have to come to a point in your life when God is your everything. The more you try to be what you think the world has designed you to be is the more frustrated you become, but the more you do God is the more blessed you become. But He takes you in some dark places only to show you who He is and who you are and how much you need Him.

He will take you there. He'll take you in places like lions' dens. He'll take you in places that are like twenty-five years waiting for a baby to be born. Got to rescue Lot from all of Sodom and Gomorrah. He's going to take you in dark places because until you're there, you don't know the level of your faith. Because we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. He is the one working on us. We don't really know the work we're doing. So we have to accept that wherever God takes me is irrelevant. It matters that He took me there; I didn't take myself there.

Joseph did nothing. Absolutely nothing. He didn't do anything. He went in jail; God got him out. He was in a well, getting ready to die. God sent his cousins by, the Ishmaelites. He did nothing. He went on a slave market. He is there on a slave market, goes to Potiphar's house. God uses his hands to mature him to be over the house. Joseph only did God. He is there, he interprets dreams. Here is the butler, but God says, "No, the butler ain't going to work. He's going to be in the kitchen. I need the cupbearer. So you're going to die, you're going to live."

So when he's standing there, forgot all about Joseph. Who is closest to the Pharaoh? A cupbearer. Who put the cupbearer in the same place with Joseph? God. Who helped the cupbearer to remember Joseph? God. Who gave the Pharaoh such a dream that even his wise men couldn't interpret? God. So Joseph could be the only person that interprets. Joseph did nothing but God. He didn't solve anything, he didn't fix anything. All he did was God. "I love You so much, God, that wherever Your commands take me, I'll go. It doesn't matter what it costs me to suffer, I'll go. God, I don't love myself no more. I just love You. So if Your commands take me to a lions' den, so be it, I go."

If Your commands take me in front of a Goliath, I go. If Your commands take me, Lord, being shipwrecked a bunch of times, I go. If it takes me being beaten five times, thirty-nine lashes, I go. It doesn't really matter where it takes me, it just matters that I am doing what You say. The Bible says when we get to heaven, those people are going to have on a crown of life. I'm going to reward them for sticking with Me through trials. Why is that huge? In the last days, there will be pain and suffering, plagues and suffering, heartache and all this stuff. So if people can't love God like that, we wouldn't make it in these days.

Wouldn't make it. We'll give up on God. Our love for God will grow cold. We'll turn our backs on God. We'll become agnostics: "I believe in God, but He don't care about me. Look at what I'm going through. He's blessing everybody else." We'll become like that. Why? We're comparing ourselves with other people rather than just running the race He set before us.

Guest (Male): For such a young man as Joseph was, we see how he conducts himself through all of the wickedness affecting him. Friends, it's a comfort that God is waiting to handle things for you just as He did for Joseph. Now, if you're listening today and you want to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and trust in the God who also looked after Joseph, then please give us a call at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the hardest things in ministry is not actually doing ministry when God has blessed you to be this equipped, but it's to get the resources to get it done. Oh folks, that's the hardest. We've stepped out in faith because we believe that. But we pray that God will touch your heart to partnership with us, and you could do that simply by going to our website. It's a secure website, and pressing the donate button. And on that button, you will be able to become a partner with us and we will seek to bless you for being a blessing to us. I pray that God will move on your heart to be our partner. God bless you.

Guest (Male): For ministry resources, please visit us at powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. Now as we leave you, remember, it's a deliberate choice we make to take our minds off of fixing our problems to entrusting ourselves to God Himself. He'll never fail you when you put your trust in Him, and He'll remain faithful to the end.