Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Battle Ready - Victory Minded
What if embracing a "Battle Ready, Victory Minded" mindset could transform your life by 2025? This episode guides you through powerful biblical promises, exploring Isaiah 43:1’s reassurance of divine protection amidst life's challenges. By channeling the courage of Apostle Paul and drawing inspiration from figures like Winston Churchill, we uncover how faith can equip us to face adversities head-on, accessing grace and victory through a positive mindset.
We're going to pick our Bibles up and wave them around. Let's get into the Word together and wave those Bibles around. You've been sitting a while so we can stand, stretch and kind of get ready to get woke back up. Hallelujah, let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm glad for 2025, the year of milestones. There's some milestones for many of us here tonight. I'm looking forward to my milestones. That's the history of my development. I'm looking forward to my milestones. That's the history of my development. I'm developing, I'm increasing, I'm going up. I'm not going under, I'm not going down, I'm going through, I'm going over, I'm overcoming. By this Word, by the Spirit, in Jesus' name, amen, praise God.
Speaker 1:All right, let's look in our Bibles to the book of Isaiah 43, verse 1. Isaiah 43, 1. Isaiah 43, 1. But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, o Jacob, and he that formed thee, o Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Verse 11,. I, even I, am the Lord and beside me there is no Savior. Glory to God. So tonight I just have an encouragement, a message entitled Battle Ready, victory Minded. Battle Ready, victory Minded.
Speaker 1:You know, life is a fight. We got over in the first Timothy one and then over in first Timothy six. You know, paul told Timothy, he just kept, you know, he told him, he had to tell him no, fear not. And the God's not giving you a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind. Second, timothy 1, 7. The apostolic is fraught with danger. It's fraught with battles, it's fraught with a constant you have to fight the good fight of faith. There's second, first Timothy six. He said fight the good fight of faith. How come? It's a good fight? Because we win if we don't quit. But it's a fight, but it's a fight of faith. It's not a fight of human struggle, it's not a fight of brain power, thinking. You've got to learn to drink more than think. Thinking will only get you so far. You've got to drink.
Speaker 1:And so in John 16, 33, jesus said in the world, you shall have tribulation, you shall have pressure, you'll have, you'll have trouble, you'll have things that come against you. But be of good cheer. And of course, king James says cheer. It means courage. Be of good courage. I've overcome the world, I've deprived it of its ability to harm you and conquered it for you.
Speaker 1:You go through, like some of you tonight, some of the things you've gone through with your skin or with your back or with any kind of infirmity or with any kind of situation financially, or with your family, with your children, with your, I mean, whatever the issue is, it just comes with the territory. We live in this world and we're not of it, but we're in it and we're gonna have Jesus said, you're gonna have it tribulation. But be of good courage, don't get so hung up on why. You know, sometimes it's just the devil attacking you. He, he's here to attack, he can attack you doesn't mean that you necessarily open the door for him to attack you, but then sometimes you can. We make bad choices. You can open the door for the devil to attack you by choices that you make. But I encourage you not to be concerned about the battle and why it happened. Just get hey, listen, win. I said win, regardless regardless whether you let the devil in or whether he just attacked you. I mean, you've got a promise, and what's the promise? He said there's no drowning, there's no burning, you're going to pass through. I like what Winston Churchill said I don't know that he was that big a Christian, but he probably went to high church, you know, church of England but he said you know, if you're going to go through hell, just keep on going. You know, don't camp out in hell, just keep on going through. Oh, glory to God, everybody goes through battles. I don't care who you are, what your name is, and so I've got five things for you to just keep in mind.
Speaker 1:Here early and here on, it's Groundhog Day. It's been Groundhog Day all day. I hope you didn't bring your groundhog with you tonight. I don't think we have groundhogs in Texas. We have possums. We were winding up this building, just hadn't even moved in. Here's a big old mama possum. She had baby possums. They were all in here. Man, I tell you I was not happy. I thought where are those babies? We don't want those locked up inside one of these walls and start emitting a terrible odor down the road here. First she went like that and then she played dead. She was so brave, but we got rid of her, you know, and the babies? Um, all right, five things, you know.
Speaker 1:Five's the number of grace, and this is a year of grace upon grace. He grace heaped upon grace. Praise god, we've got all the grace. And grace is what god's ability? But it's accessed by what faith. Faith is access, I mean grace is accessed. God's ability to face trouble is accessed by your faith, which is why I'm, you know, sharing this message battle ready, victory minded. You know, when we're in the battle, let's not be battle minded, let's be victory minded.
Speaker 1:So in these battles of life, we must, number one, keep our priorities straight. We need to enjoy God, no matter what, you know, god, we ought to enjoy God. Didn't you enjoy God tonight? Didn't you enjoy being in his presence? I mean man, that, that worship service with those songs, and I mean I, just I was enjoying God. And then when we hit to that one spot, you know the anointing hit me, man, I just uh, I just love the presence of God. And so Philippians, four, four, rejoice in the Lord. And again I say rejoice. I mean that's what we ought to be doing. We ought to rejoice in the face of battles, in the face of tribulation during the tribulation. Battles in the face of tribulation during the tribulation. I mean we need to learn to laugh at trouble.
Speaker 1:I got a call that day that that my granddaughter Thea was on her way in life flight to downtown. She'd been in a car wreck. I didn't get anything else, I didn't know anything. I didn't know what the symptoms were. I mean just just a quick thing. And I mean you know her parents knew more than I did. They rightly should you know they knew that she had the symptoms of traumatic brain injury from the man on the scene, the EMS on the scene, or sheriff I guess, was on the scene of the accident, right on 2920, right in front of their subdivision. I mean she's almost home, but all I got was she's on the way, live flight helicopter in gladys.
Speaker 1:I said honey, thea's on live flight, going back to the, going back to the medical center. And I said let's laugh. We laughed at the devil. And well, yeah, we prayed in tongues, did I? Did like laughing? No, I didn't feel like laughing, I felt like crying, but I laughed.
Speaker 1:Claire said, you know, I felt like crying. I wouldn't let myself cry. We laughed. We stood strong. See, you know, look, you've got power over your emotions. You don't have to fall apart when trouble comes, rejoice in the Lord. And again I say rejoice, and I mean Paul and Silas.
Speaker 1:I don't know if anybody had a right to cry and moan and groan. I mean they were beaten with many stripes, many stripes, and thrown into the inner prison and their feet and ankles were held fast in the stocks, locked in a prison cell. And the Bible says at midnight they prayed and sang praises, and they sang so loud. All the prisoners heard them, the devil heard them and he got so mad. The power of God I mean they called down the power of God into that prison, broke them out and all the other prisoners Hallelujah, come on, let's lift our hands right now. I tell you, praising God is so powerful. We just need to remember to praise Him. And I don't know what praise Him.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you don't know how to pray about something. You don't know what to pray. We didn't know what to pray exactly. I mean we didn't know what the deal was. I mean you know the devil will paint a terrible picture. I mean listen, they don't take you in the life flight just for a hangnail. Oh, she's got a sprained ankle. No, I mean they don't take you in the light flight helicopter just for nothing. I mean it had to be significant.
Speaker 1:And five hours later they sent her home With a Band-Aid and a Tylenol. I mean nothing wrong with it. Oh, glory to God. Glory to God, I'll be out at the assisted living thing with talking to Gladys, and she'll get on a track about wanting to go home, and she'll be now. When are you taking me home? I said, honey, you're not going home right now. Wime has to be here. I said, honey, let's just praise God, and we'll just get in there and start praising God. And that leaves her. You know that. And it's not a devil, it's just her mind is not where it needs to be. It's not demons. You know, sometimes we blame. You know we want to see demons everywhere, under every bush. Well, sometimes it's just there's a physical reason for it. Hallelujah, she's coming back, all right. So in these battles of life, we ought to rejoice. We ought to learn to laugh at trouble. Boy, it drives the devil crazy.
Speaker 1:I think about Brother Hagan. I mean there were times, you know, he was healed. He came off the bed of sickness, paralyzed for 14 months and couldn't walk. He's in a bed as a teenage boy and he had, I don't know a bunch of blood diseases, any one of which could have killed him, and then he had a malformed heart on top of that. We would have called him a blue baby.
Speaker 1:I had a cousin, charles Griner. He was my oldest uncles and aunts, lois and Uncle Art. Art was my daddy's oldest brother. He was the oldest of four brothers Griner brothers and they had a son that they had kind of late in life their only son and he was born what we used to call a blue baby. He had a blue cast to him because he had a heart defect and he did live into his 30s. I mean, they didn't expect him to make it that long, but he made it all the way into his 30s. He was always sickly. He died before I was born, so I never knew him, but I just knew of him. But that's what Brother Hagin had, I think something like that, when he was born.
Speaker 1:He was born so bad that his grandmother took him out back behind the garage and laid him in the back of the garage outside because his mother was so bad off from the birth. It was a terrible birth. I don't know if it was a breech baby or what it was, but born at home. You know, back in the in those days, you know, and uh, she was really so. She had to watch her daughter and had to be there and with the doctor and they, they weren't sure the mother was going to survive and the baby was already looked like he was dead. She thought he was dead. So she just laid the body back behind the garage and he wasn't dead, he. She went back there to check on him and he's breathing.
Speaker 1:Oh, I tell you, I mean, when you, god, got a plan for a child, I mean there's nothing the devil can do about it. Just think how much poorer we'd be if he hadn't survived. But you know, he was not normal like other kids growing up. You know, brother Osteen wasn't really that normal. He was the little, he was the run of the family. It's amazing when you look at some of these great preachers and how. You know, oral Roberts, he had tuberculosis, he'd cough up blood. He was about to die as a teenager and his parents got him in a healing evangelist meeting. God healed him and called him to preach. Oh, glory to God.
Speaker 1:Anyway, brother Hagin, you know it's one thing to get healed, and he did. I mean he took the word of faith. You know the Baptist preacher wouldn't even pray for him. Well, you know you need. It's outside his door telling his mother and his grandmother. Now y'all need to get him to accept that he's going to die. I mean he's not going to make it.
Speaker 1:Healing passed away. We don't. There's nothing they got. You know God's going to heal him. Healing passed away. And he's listening to all that but somehow inside of him he wouldn't accept that and he dug in there and found out how to get his healing. And he got his healing.
Speaker 1:But yet you know he had to battle for that healing for years. He didn't just walk out of that that bed and never have another symptom. That's what I wanted to get to you. I mean, you know, sometimes you're going to battle some symptoms in your body for a good part of your life and just because you have to battle, that life is a fight. And so one night, I mean he's already on the field. He's pastored for 12 years and he's on the field ministry. So he's got to be in his 30s, maybe 40s, and he's in the parsonage, in the spare bedroom of the parsonage of the church, where he's preaching and he's teaching God's people faith and he's got healing lines. And then, in the middle of the night, he's got alarming symptoms. Alarming symptoms, and I mean death fastened their hands around him.
Speaker 1:And you know what he did? He laughed. Did he feel like laughing? No, he didn't feel like laughing, but he just went. Ha ha ha ha. He kept on laughing, kept on laughing.
Speaker 1:This time you're not going to get your healing. Ha ha ha ha. After 20, 30 minutes of laughing. I mean, who would do that? Well, you know, you've got to have some discipline. He didn't talk himself. I thought I was healed when I was 16. I wonder what happened. No, he didn't do that. He just. This time you're not going to get your healing. Ha ha ha.
Speaker 1:Finally the devil comes back. What you laughing at? I'm laughing at you, devil. You said this time I'm not going to get my healing. I wasn't planning on getting my healing. Jesus got it for me. I don't have to get it. Jesus got it for me. Ha ha ha it. Jesus got it for me. Ha ha ha. That's what we did on that live flight flight.
Speaker 1:She hadn't gone very far, probably hadn't even flown up. Her parents saw it going over 290. They were on 290. Headed downtown, they saw that live flight helicopter go over. I bet she was already healed by that time. She had no symptoms when she landed.
Speaker 1:Come on, let's do a little laughing. You don't have to. It don't have to be holy laughter, it don't even have. You don't have to feel like it's funny, you just ha, ha, you laugh. The devil is so stupid he doesn't know the difference. Difference between the real laugh and just you laughing at him.
Speaker 1:All right, so number two here, in times of battle, the battles of life, being battle ready and victory minded, fear not, we must not fear, he said. Fear not, fear not. Verse five Fear not, I'm with thee. I will bring thy seed from the East and gather thee from the West. See, they're scattered. They're worried about being able to get back in their in Jerusalem, being able to get back in their homeland. They've sinned as a nation and this nation has sinned. We've gotten way away from God. There's a lot of things wrong in our country, but you know, things are beginning to change. Is there a lot, a lot left? Yeah, there's a whole lot of left. We've got a lot of battles to fight, especially right here in in in Texas and right here in Harris County.
Speaker 1:A lot, a lot of corruption. I'm watching to see if these uh scoundrels in the Harris County Lena Hidalgo staff members going to get off with nothing. See, I'm watching to see whether the new district attorney is just going to figure out a way for their. You know they stole. They had that illegal contract for COVID. They made money. They make money on all the federal money that comes in. They get a rake off, they put it in their pocket. And the water department.
Speaker 1:That woman I think she's plea bargaining this week. She ought to go to prison. For years she stole millions of dollars and didn't do her job and hired her brother and did all this stuff. And you're going to let her plea bargain out of it. See, this is what we've got. We've got a DA that's dirty with a crumb ball. You know when are we going to get rid of it? See, we're just going to keep on. Look, we've got work to do in Harris County. We've got those legislators in Austin. You know you go and you vote and you pray and you do all this and then they go vote with the Democrats. Well, you know we're going to get rid of them. We've got a plan. There's a plan afoot to punish them for doing that. You know they can all be censored and that's what we're going to make them wear that cooperation with the enemy party I mean here we have.
Speaker 1:The only reason you got elected is because Trump got elected the whole country voted for. Make America great and you're in there making Texas weak. I would do more than thump them. But anyway, wait, I pray God, fear not. You know John 16, we already read that. One you know he'd be of good cheer. Be of good courage, Don't be afraid, don't be, don't let fear grip you. One you know he'd be of good cheer. Be of good courage, don't be afraid, don't be, don't let fear grip you. Let's look at Isaiah 51. Fear not. It's so easy to get intimidated when you're under attack.
Speaker 1:Verse 12, I, even I, am he that comforteth you. Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die? Now look at the language that God is using. The Holy Spirit has inspired the prophet Isaiah to write this down, and he's rebuking the man that's fearing man. And he's saying who are you that you would fear? A man that's going to die? Man? And he's saying who are you that you would fear? A man that's going to die, and of the son of man, which shall be made as grass. What are you? How dare you fear a man like that and forget the Lord, your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and has feared continually, every day, because of the fury of the earth, and has feared continually, every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? See, god is saying where is he? What in the world are you afraid of a man? You, you need to fear God, you need to trust God. You have no right to to fear man.
Speaker 1:A lot of fear is just the fear of man, fear of what? Man's fear of man's opinions, fear of the fear of the opinions of men. In order to get where I'm at today, I had to get over that a long time ago. I had to. I had to get over what you know being worried about the opinions of others. People are going to have their opinions and some of them are just bold enough to tell you just exactly what they think. But I don't care. I've got one to please, and that's him he's. I'm pleasing him. I mean, I had that, I got that rhema. And when I was at Lakewood I stood up in the. You know, I got, I got the honor of being able to open the service and prayer. And I just opened the service one one time with that, with that verse, I said we have no business fearing man.
Speaker 1:Sometimes brother Osteen said, okay, don't share any scripture, just just pray. He'd change, he'd, he'd get me to. You know, he'd made sure that I was a man under authority, so I'd he'd give me a little bit of liberty there for a few months and then he'd shut it. And that's okay, don't share any scripture, don't preach, just get up there and just have everybody stop where they're doing, bow their heads and you start praying, you just pray. I said, yes, sir, and then he'd change it down. You know, another year later he'd give me some liberty to do a little here and I'll do a little. There are you with me now. Fear not. So in these battles of life, we have to rejoice in the Lord. Learn how to laugh at the devil. Fear not. Number three be willing to change. Be willing to change. We must, in the battles of life, be willing to change. Let's go back to Isaiah, chapter one. Get anything out of this. Well, it's a simple message, but you know we all go through things. It's good to have a little bit of a list of things that you can checklist to help you to respond to trouble, because trouble is coming.
Speaker 1:I heard some preacher one time had to be a woman preacher and I was new and my idea of the word of faith is if I could get enough faith I'd never have a problem. That's what I thought. I'd been going to Lakewood for maybe a couple of months and my idea of the word of faith was I'm going to build my faith up and when I get enough faith I'll never have any trouble. That's what I thought. I was wrong, but that's what I thought. And so somebody gave me this, this tape. I don't remember that who this lady was. She sounded like she had a real heavy Southern drawl, like she from Georgia or something, and she was.
Speaker 1:You know, I had put it in my cassette player in my car and I was playing the tape, you know, and she said put it in my cassette player in my car and I was playing the tape, you know, and she said you know, you'll just coming out of a bunch of trouble, a mess of trouble. Are you in the middle of a mess of trouble? Are you about to go into a mess of trouble? And I ejected that tape and threw it in the back seat. I didn't want to hear that anymore. I didn't want to hear that. I said I don't agree with that. That's a bunch of bunk. What kind of bunch of false prophet. How did that? How did I get there? And but I'm saying the same thing you were either just coming into a mess of trouble you were in the middle of a mess of trouble or you're going to have a mess of trouble, because that's what Jesus said was going to happen. I did.
Speaker 1:I hadn't, I hadn't discovered John, chapter 16, yet Isaiah one, have you found it All right? Verse 18, "'come now and let us reason together'. Saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing, you shall be able to do it. If you and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. One version said if you'd be willing and obedient, I'll make you rich.
Speaker 1:See, some people you know are kind of obedient, but they're not much willing. They're just not much willing. They don't, you know they're. They're just, they're obedient to the letter, but they're not much willing. I mean, they just you got to be willing to change. You know you make decisions that are bad and you've got to come back out of those decisions when you discover they're wrong decisions you've got. You've got to make an adjustment. You know, somebody said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sometimes we've got to change. In fact, all the time. We're the one God never changes. We're the one that has to change. We're the one that has to make the adjustment. We're the one that, oh well, you know, wonder what adjustments I need to make. I mean, let's be willing to change If you're in trouble, be willing to change, be willing to do something different.
Speaker 1:I didn't know why I was going broke. But all my houses, I couldn't sell them. I had five houses finished the interest I couldn't pay. I told the bank I can't pay the interest. Are you going to just? You can foreclose on them or you can let them roll. He said, well, we're not going to touch them, we're not going to foreclose.
Speaker 1:That bank later on went down, not because of me, but because they made some really stupid loans. Have you ever been to Galveston? And years ago there was this. There's this condo project out on East beach that sat vacant for like 25 years. You ever see that thing at concrete? Well, they, they made the loan to the shyster because that guy went to three different lenders and got three loans and closed three loans and got the money and flew to Europe, absconded with the money, and that banker, that that held my construction loans on those five houses, was on the front page. You know, when that guy hit town he was taking the bankers and he flew in a helicopter and he was one of the three lenders on that loan. Of course they lost millions. They like they didn't lose no money on me. I mean they sold every one of the houses and got every one of the loans paid back. And later on you know he'd resigned in, you know, in dishonor, and the bank was taken over by the Resolution Trust Corporation and the feds shut that bank down. It was over on Mangum and 290.
Speaker 1:Northwest Bank was the name of the bank. They're all Christians, rascals, what they were. But what am I saying? Well, you know I'm, I've got all those houses and they won't sell. And they and they got me all tied up. They put liens on everything that I own and I couldn't. I couldn't, I had no income. What am I going to do? So I went to the Lord and said Lord, what am I going to do? I, I, you know I'm doing the best I can. I finished the houses for them. They're totally finished, they're ready to move in.
Speaker 1:But they're not allowing me to maneuver. I've got a lien on my house which is illegal. You can't lean my personal house. That's illegal in the state of Texas. But they did it so I couldn't sell it. But I wouldn't have been able to sell it anyway because the interest rates were 14 and three quarter percent anyway. But that's neither here nor there. I mean, I just was all tied up. I said well, lord, you know, here I am in Houston, I don't want to leave here. But if I have to leave here and go someplace else, I'm willing to change, I'm willing to go somewhere else. And you know what? The phone rang 30 minutes later. Friend of mine in Corpus Christi, I wound up moving to Corpus with my family, got another job, I got a six-figure contract for one year. I mean, you know, god bailed me out when I was willing to change. It was hard to leave my building business and go into the developing business, but that's what I did for one year Until the depression caught up corpus. Then I had to move back. I had to change again. Everybody say I'm willing to change. All right.
Speaker 1:Number four, so number one in these battles of life, keep the priorities straight. Learn to laugh at the devil. Rejoice, and again I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice, philippians. Four, four, number two fear not, we must not fear, especially don't fear man. Number three be willing to change.
Speaker 1:Number four we must not waste time being amazed or being startled. You know that prophecy that we received on January the 5th. God said I'm tired of my people being startled about what the devil is doing. I'm going to startle people. I'm going to startle people all over the earth what I'm doing. Don't let yourself be amazed at what the devil is doing. I mean, don't waste any time being amazed.
Speaker 1:Look at 1 Peter 4. And I want you to get 1 Peter 4, verse 12 and 13. I want you to get it. Is anybody up there that can put it in the amplified, maybe I can get somebody to read it. Let's get the microphone here. I've got a microphone. I did have a microphone. Now it's landed on its head and I hope it didn't fracture its skull. So, somebody have. 1 Peter 4, 4, verse 12 and 13. Has anybody got a message Bible? You got an Amplified? Okay, amplified will do. Thank you, come on up and read it for me, because I don't have my iPhone with me. I could do it, but this is an interactive. This is an interactive service. I'm going to have some interaction here now. 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 12 and 13 in the Amplified. Here now 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 12 and 13 in the Amplified.
Speaker 2:Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire ordeal which is taking place to test you, that is, to test the quality of your faith, as though something strange or unusual were happening to you. But insofar as you are sharing Christ's suffering, keep on rejoicing so that when His glory, filled with His radiance and splendor, is revealed and you may rejoice with great joy.
Speaker 1:Amen, anybody got a message 1 Peter, 4, 12 and 13 in the message. It's really cool. Bring me my iPhone. I'll get it. Alright, joseph. Yeah, in the message.
Speaker 2:Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. There is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
Speaker 1:Ha, ha, ha ha ha. Spiritual refining process with glory just around the corner. Be glad, you're in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner. So don't be amazed. Don't waste time being amazed at what the devil's doing. Don't be startled at what he does. And then, finally, the last one we must conquer hurts and disappointments. Proverbs 18, 14.
Speaker 1:You get anything out of this, you know you get anything out of this. You know the spirit of man will sustain his infirmity. But a wounded spirit who can bear, a wounded spirit who can bear, you know you just have to. When you're going through trouble and you're offended or you're hurt, you're just going to make it worse. You got to deal with that. The Bible says to forgive. Let's look at Colossians, chapter three. Be a doer of the word. I mean, you know. Again, it comes down to going down the checklist of of of some of these things that will make your trouble worse and longer lasting. I mean, if you're just clean house, check your love walk.
Speaker 1:I just think about Dodie when she got the news that she had metastatic cancer of the liver and had really weeks to live. Is what they sent her home. There's not anything we can do. This was 1981 and they didn't have it and and you know, you know she went to the foremost cancer hospital, md Anderson, the foremost cancer hospital in those years in the country. I don't know if it's still that way, but it's one of the major ones and they sent her home there's. You know, there's nothing we can do for her. She's going to die within a few weeks unless she has a miracle. We believe in miracles, doctors, those things. We believe in miracles. She's going to need one, we're going to get one. And I mean that was their attitude. And she was 89 pounds, just skin and bones. We were there, you know, the rushes were there. Some of us were there. Yeah, we saw, we were witnesses and we saw her get her healing. It wasn't instant. She had to do battle and one of the things she did was she just started going through any way, shape or form, any kind of anything that that that she had done for someone to hurt their feelings. She didn't want to have anybody with negative feelings. She wanted to ask for forgiveness. And I mean she wrote notes to everybody. I mean you know, and people say, dodie, I did, she wrote notes to everybody. I mean, you know, and people say, dodie, I did, you've never done a thing, you've never done anything. She wrote a note to a girl she went to school with.
Speaker 1:Dodie had polio as a child and she had one leg that was shorter and weaker than the other, so she walked with a very pronounced limp. But when she was a little girl, I mean, you know, on the playground I mean, she got out there and played with the other kids. But she played baseball. She'd stand at the plate and swing the bat and hit the ball and she had this young girl that volunteered to run the bases for her and she wrote her a letter and says I'm so sorry, I robbed you of your chance to play baseball. I mean, you took my place on the base paths and I've just been thinking about all the people and I just want you to forgive me. Oh, dodie, it was my honor to get to run those bases for you.
Speaker 1:But see, that was her heart.
Speaker 1:She wanted to have that all cleaned out.
Speaker 1:She not only didn't want to have any bitterness in her heart, she didn't want anybody having bitterness toward her. If she had ever done anything to offend anybody, it's Colossians, chapter three, verse 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on agape, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness, praise God.
Speaker 1:So you've got to deal with and conquer hurts and disappointments. I mean, you just can't afford to be bitter, you can't afford to have unforgiveness, you can't afford to be wounded. A wounded spirit who can bear? I mean, you're going through a trouble. You don't need any of that baggage, because that's just going to make it worse. So when you're facing trials of life, we all do as you obey the word, you'll be battle ready and victory minded. Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight. Glory to God, hallelujah, amen, just simple, but it's right out of the word. Did you get anything out of this tonight? Well, hallelujah, glory to God. That's what we want. We want everybody. Victory with victory this year, no one left behind, praise God.