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
Adjusting Your Receiver
If it feels like your prayers are going unanswered, the issue may not be God’s silence but your spiritual reception. In “Adjusting Your Receiver,” we learn how small, often overlooked interferences—like unforgiveness, misaligned desires, or neglecting rest—can block the manifestation of God’s blessings. Just as fine-tuning an antenna sharpens a blurry signal, making subtle spiritual adjustments can powerfully improve your connection with God. By aligning your identity, attitude, and priorities with His voice, you position yourself to receive what He’s already provided. Breakthrough comes not through striving, but through alignment.
Just reach down and pick up our Bibles and lift them up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Let's just say this together Say Heavenly Father, so glad to be here today. I come expecting a word from heaven that will change my life, it will develop my spirit, it'll grow my faith. I want to please you in all things. That means I have to walk by faith, not by what it seems like, and this word is the key to it, and the Holy Ghost shining his light on it for me today. In Jesus name, amen, you can be seated and turn in your Bibles, first of all to Mark, chapter 11. And then also Song of Solomon, chapter 2. We'll start with Mark 11, 24.
Speaker 1:Very familiar verse for us. Word of Faith, folks, Mark 11, 24. Jesus is speaking and he said when you say when you pray, or when you say whatever you desire, when you pray, when you say, believe that you receive them and you shall have them, when do you do that? When do you believe you receive them? When you pray, and having comes later, having comes down the road at seed time, because faith is based on the word, faith is a seed. The word is a seed and it's only right to expect that the seed has to germinate and develop, and it typically doesn't happen instantly. But you believe, when you pray, you believe you've received. This is Jesus talking. You believe you've received them, you shall have them.
Speaker 1:And then, song of Solomon, chapter 2. What in the world could that be? Well, you're fixing to find out. Song of Solomon Right after Ecclesiastes, verse 15. Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes, or in other words, little foxes spoil the vine. That's where we get that saying. It's a truth.
Speaker 1:And so today, I wanted to share a message entitled Adjusting your Receiver. Adjusting your Receiver, wanted to share a message entitled adjusting your receiver. Adjusting your receiver. You know 2025 is a year of milestones. You know God has got great things in store for us. It's here. We are almost halfway through the year. We've got all about half the year in front of us, and if your milestones have not yet occurred, they're on their way, but you might have to adjust your receiver.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know this is a year of exceeding abundantly above. Maybe it hadn't happened yet. This is a year of grace upon grace. Well, maybe you hadn't seen it. Well, we walk by faith, not by sight, but on the other hand, though, you know, sometimes, when things seem like they're not moving in the direction that we expect, our faith and patience now inherit the promise. We need patience that, after we've done the will of God, we'll receive the promise. We need patience, all right, but yet, on the other hand, you know, sometimes it's necessary for us, in order to receive, to adjust our receiver, make adjustments, and the Bible says it's the little foxes that spoil the vine. Sometimes just a little minor thing I mean we would even just so silly, I mean, what in the world? Just a little adjustment.
Speaker 1:Most of you know Gladys has been overcoming for months and we had to make an adjustment for living them apart. I mean, she's been in assisted living now for eight months and she's coming home Tuesday. She's coming home. Thank you for agreeing with us. It didn't happen instantly, did it Didn't happen If you were here, she. It didn't happen instantly, did it Didn't happen she. You know, if you were here, she walked in today and most of the time she wheels in. But now she's walking in and she's going to get better, and she's going to get better and she's going to get better, but recently, you know she was.
Speaker 1:She was suddenly just began to have symptoms of nausea. She just just I'd go to see her and I have symptoms of nausea. I'd go to see her and I'd just feel terrible nausea. So I gave her something for that and it would help, but it didn't take it away. And so they suggested there they have a nurse and they suggested, well, I think really just to be safe, we ought to take her to the emergency room. I thought to myself there ain't no way I'm going to the emergency room for nausea because there's no telling what they will put her through and set her back. She's going to PT. I had you know three times a week. Now we're going to have to put that off and we're going to just get in the way of a bunch of.
Speaker 1:I just didn't have peace about taking her to the emergency room. I'm not I listen, I've I've had to go to the emergency room. I mean, you know it's good to have one if you need one, but this, I just didn't feel like this was right. I said, lord, just, you know, I just need, we need an adjustment in our receiver. What are we doing? And the Holy Ghost thank God for the Holy Ghost. He said get her off of Advil. So she takes for pain. She has some level of pain. It's not terrible, but some level of pain and I have a lot of times. If it's more severe then we'll put two Advil and one Tylenol or two Tylenol and one Advil. I'm not a doctor not prescribing that for you, but that's what we've done and I'd rather have that than I would mess around with this.
Speaker 1:Opiates and all these heavy duty drugs that alter your mind and make you see double and make you confused, and all of that. And she hasn't had any of those really since I guess probably the last of those was September. So she's been away from all of that. But you know the Advil. So the orthopedic surgeon says I prefer Advil, don't be giving her Tylenol. Advil is what she needs. Well, that's what we did. And so hey, it didn't work.
Speaker 1:The Holy Ghost said get her off Advil. And I mean instantly that left. Just make an adjustment. Make an adjustment. Everybody say I'm adjusting my receiver to receive my milestone. Everybody say I'm adjusting my receiver to receive my milestone. So you know you just you can't receive from God just based on your status as a born-again believer. You know you can't just receive his healing, his deliverance, his provision. It's not going to just fall on you like cherries out of a tree. Sometimes you've got to get in position. You know, I noticed the Houston Texans are having mini camp right now. It's optional and I remember last year and the year before we had an all-pro.
Speaker 1:Laramie Tunsil was our left tackle, who's the most important guy on the line because he's protecting our quarterback's blind side, the movie blind side. So the left side is when the quarterback is right-handed. The left tackle has to protect his blind side because guys shoot in there and do the sack. And he was a good pass blocker. He was a lousy run blocker. He's a financial genius. He negotiates all of his own contracts and what he is is he's a financial genius. He doesn't even. He negotiates all of his own contracts and what he is is he's a businessman that plays football for a business and he doesn't really care that much about about winning and I never saw anybody jump off sides more than him.
Speaker 1:I don't know how many drives he killed in his career at Houston, but I mean we would be running down the field and he's flagged for illegal motion. Don't you know? The snap counts you idiot. I'm so glad they traded him. They made an adjustment and guess what? He would never come to any optional anything. He was a leader and he led guys down the road of just sit back and smoke your cigar.
Speaker 1:And this is just a job. This isn't a team. This isn't really. This is just professional. You know what? We don't need people like that. We need people that are excited about winning. We need people that are excited about being out there, being better than they were last year, because they were crummy last year on the line. The line was horrible. So I noticed that everybody showed up. They got rid of that guy and brought some people in that are excited about playing and they made an adjustment and I believe they're going to do better this year than they did last year. That's a. That's my houston. Uh, texans, houston, texas.
Speaker 1:You know the problem. If there is one is not on God's side, I think it's God's already released everything you need. That's hesed. That's our covenant. Jesus paid for the. He paid for your healing, he paid for your deliverance. He paid. He was made poor that you might have an abundant supply. So it's not. The problem is not with God, withholding God, punishing God, teaching you a lesson? No, if you're not receiving a lot of times, we're just not quite in the right spot and we need to make an adjustment. Position is another idea of thinking about. It is position you have to be positioned to receive. Though years ago I tell this little story, another little illustration about adjusting.
Speaker 1:Years ago I was nine years old when we moved from Galena Park, texas, to Refurio, texas, south Texas, and I'm going into the summer before my fourth grade year, texas, and I'm going into the summer before my fourth grade year, and we hit Refurio and my parents rented a house, you know, and it's not a whole lot available there, you know. And but they, they found a house they could rent, 113, delmar, I still remember it. It was. It was kind of a maybe a little bit of a step down from what, where we'd come from, but anyway it was there. But you know, you're in Refurio.
Speaker 1:So you're, you know the TV stations are in Corpus Christi there's three, three TV stations. Later there were four. So you had, you know, abc, cbs, nbc and Fox later. So you're, you're 50 miles at least from the tower. So you know, you've got your 50-style television sitting in and we had a television. We'd just gotten one a couple of years before. I remember, you know, before that, huddling around the radio in the living room. How many of you remember listening to the radio before TV? See, I mean that's what you did for entertainment. And they had that, you know, footsteps and the door opening and closing all the. I mean they had to make it feel like it was live, you know. But then we got the TV. Wow, you know, and in Houston you're not very far from the.
Speaker 1:You know reception and sometimes you could get rabbit ears. Most of the time just a little antenna outside the house, but not in Refurio. No, you needed an antenna and the antenna had to be the size of the center section right there, and it's on a 30 or 40 foot mast on the side of your. I don't know how much my dad spent, but he went out and got the entire works and it's sitting out there on this rent house sitting up in the sky, big old antenna, and on the on. The antenna has got this motor, it's got a cable that runs to us, a thing on the top of our TV set so that you could turn the antenna electrically. You could turn it to tune it to the distant signal that's coming in, because the signal for ABC is not going to work for CBS or NBC. So every time you change the channel and you got to, you got to get up and you've got to turn the little knob on your set top and then the antenna would go click, click, click, click, and it would turn and you would fine tune so that your receiver could get a clear signal. See, do you need a clearer signal about what God wants for you, what God has provided for you? Do you need to make some adjustments? Amen, that's what we're talking about today. Everybody say I'm willing to adjust my receiver to receive God's best.
Speaker 1:The summer of 1994, some 31 years ago about right now I was building homes and my last house that I wound up building I didn't know it was going to be my last house, but it turned out to be. The last house I built was in Southside Place, which is another little city, adjoining West University Place, close to downtown. It was three or four miles from downtown Houston. Even at that time it was a very exclusive neighborhood and I paid $175,000 for a teardown house, you know, just to get the lot. So that shows you. You know, back then $170,000, you could build a nice house in the suburbs for that house and lot. But out there you bought an old house, tore it down and I built a three-story 5,000-square-foot house. Nobody wanted it and it stuck in the mud.
Speaker 1:This is kind of a recurring theme with me and that summer I'm kind of heavy because it's not selling. I can't pay the $4,000 a month interest on it. I'm having to go to the bank and say what do you want to do? I can't pay any more of this interest. I'm out, I'm not paying myself. The company just cannot do it. What do you want to do? Oh, we'll just let it ride. They let it ride, but I still don't have any money. The company can't pay me a salary.
Speaker 1:So I made a deal with a guy that I knew and he was going to hire my company and my company was going to pay me and then I could kind of act as his construction superintendent. I could watch over his construction. He was a build-on light guy he had. He had houses all over five, really had houses in five or six different counties. So we had struck a deal in June but Brother Osteen had called me and said hey, I'm going to do a pastor's conference in Paris, would you? Would you go with me? And I just had peace about going, even though all they have is loose ends and I hadn't started working for this guy yet, and I mean I just I just had very little in the bank to to float on. But I said, yeah, we, it's just a short trip, we'll be gone a week, all right.
Speaker 1:So we went and, uh, in Paris I'm just getting on his rave length, he gets up at 5 o'clock, he's getting over jet lag, you know, and so I just had my schedule with his, and so one morning we get up at 5. We got there about two or three days ahead of the meeting so he could get adjusted to the time difference. It's only eight hours in Paris, but it's enough to where you feel kind of dragged out Paris, but it's enough to where you feel kind of dragged, dragged out. So, uh, we got up and he said let's go out and get on a boat. Let's go up and down the same river, get out in this bright sunshine, fresh air, let's get over this jet last, it's sure let's go. So we're standing in line to get on the boat and, uh, and I never would share my trouble with those things.
Speaker 1:That was not my relationship with him. I'm always there to support him, to encourage him or serve him, do what. I just did not Tell him my troubles. But that morning I was so heavy because I brought heaviness with me on the trip. You know the pressure of this and it's just like it's this, it's like this is you're going through this all over again. See, this is kind of a recurring theme for me and I'm trying to cast that down. And so I just blurted out while we're standing there. You know I'm sick and tired, brother Osteen. I'm sick and tired of lack and I'm going to get back to Houston. I know the word works. If it's not working for me, it's on me. I'm going to find out what I've missed. In other words, in so many words, I said I'm going to get back and find out how to adjust my receiver. I didn't say it that way, but that's, that's really what I meant, and he just kind of looked at me. He was kind of surprised. He didn't say anything. And so the next morning, you know it's 5 o'clock again and he's up and this is the morning we're going to go and start preaching to the preachers to the minister's conference.
Speaker 1:Raj Rajeev, the pastor there in Paris, is an Indian guy and he's been to see me right here at this church. Back when we first opened in this building he came by to see me. He's in heaven now. But so we're going to go and it's his conference and he's got these. Pastors come from all over places, mostly like in Africa. A lot of them were African pastors, different ones, not very many French were there. Most of them were mission. He's a missions pastor in Paris, so we're a little bit later we're going to go.
Speaker 1:But he stands up and I got our coffee. I made coffee in a little coffee maker. We're in this little tiny room. Paris, france, man, you go to any hotel there. The rooms are about the size of a postage stamp. You can barely you can barely go by each other. We had two little single beds with a little thing in between, and I had my coffee maker there. I made the coffee, gave him his cup, I had my cup. I didn't even get out of bed. I'm just propped up in bed with the covers up to my neck and I'm sipping my coffee.
Speaker 1:While he's, he said, john, I got a word for you. And he said, john, I got a word for you and he had his Bible and he had some notes and he said Jeremiah John 31, 16. Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded. There is hope in thine end, john. I'm telling you, you've sown your seed now. Now you've got a harvest coming. Now there's hope in your end. So he read Jeremiah 31, 16 and 17.
Speaker 1:How would you like to have pastor Osteen, or anybody like that, stand at the foot of your bread and give you a word from heaven? I mean, you know, I mean I received it, I needed it. It was an encouraging word, it's an encouragement from my pastor. I received it. I thank you. And he preached that to the preachers when we got there. He didn't waste it. He preached it to all those guys and gals that were there. Amen, are you with me now? So I get back.
Speaker 1:By the time I get back, it's just right after July the 4th and I start working for this builder and I'm driving. I'm going all over 300 miles a day. I'd leave early in the morning, drive down the road to Humboldt and then I'd go from Humboldt to Crosby and Crosby to Mont Bellevue and from Mont Bellevue to Alvin and from Alvin to Baytown and sometimes back through West Judah to check on the only house I had, even though it was finished. I'd go by and make sure it wasn't vandalized, make sure it was okay, and get back home 300 miles later. I mean all day long.
Speaker 1:And I and you know one of the things that I had got had to adjust with my joy level. I was under pressure and I was not praising God enough. So I spent my time praising God. I'm telling you, I'm in that car and I'm steering with my knees, I've got both hands up. I don't, you know, I don't, you know, recommend that way to drive, but country roads, you know.
Speaker 1:So just a couple of weeks later, august, very early August, might have been the last of July I got up and I and I wasn't really I'd prayed a while and then I had to leave. Uh and uh, the Holy ghost everybody say the Holy ghost spoke to my heart. He said, son, you're a minister of the sanctuary and I mean, I knew exactly what he meant. So he's talking about adjusting your receiver. I had to hear who I was. See, god didn't see me as a home builder. He didn't see me as a lay preacher. He didn't see me as a part-time this or a part-time that. He saw me as a minister of the holy things. Sanctuary means holy things.
Speaker 1:Hebrews 8.2. Did we just get through preaching on that verse? You know, for several weeks Talking about Jesus, the high priest, who was a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched to, not man. I mean, I looked that verse up. I went in the bedroom. I woke Gladys up. I said, honey, god spoke to me and he told me, son, you're a minister of the sanctuary. Honey, it's just time We've got to get rid of the unholy things that we've been dealing with home building business. We need to start our church. We know God's called us to do that and I just put it off and I've ignored it. Really, a year and a half before that I almost committed to doing it, but between my partner and Gladys, both neither one were eager to do that.
Speaker 1:I mean you know it's a big change to when you're in transition and you're moving from one city to another, or when you're you're going to change everything. I mean you know that's a good time to find out what God says about it when you get an offer from your corporation to move to Timbuktu, you better find out whether that's God's will or not before you say yes. Well, I don't have any choice. If I don't say yes, you do. You can obey God and not man. That's what you can do.
Speaker 1:And you know, even though my wife I know it's important for me to walk in agreement with my wife, but I didn't pray, I didn't say no, lord, I need a word. I just don't have peace about starting another house. We were cleaned out, we had sold all our inventory, we owed no man, anything. We had no debt and my partner won't let me. He did oh, we can't quit. Now I'm down. I said well, I told you, I warned you before we started, you might not make any money and you didn't have any debt. Nobody's going to be knocking on your door. He just wouldn't leave me alone.
Speaker 1:And Gladys wasn't real encouraging about starting a church, and so what I needed was a word from God. If I'd have got that word, then I could have gone back to my wife and said you know what God told me? He said I'm a minister of the sanctuary. We need to start that church now and not mess around with building anymore and I could have told my partner and he could have, just, you know, the fear of man. Are y'all with me now?
Speaker 1:I didn't know all that immediately, but you know, over a period of time you start to, you start to look back and you begin to learn from your mistakes. I didn't adjust my receiver until I got in great trouble. Don't wait that long. I said, don't wait that long. So I mean I landed in the book of Jeremiah because my pastor had given me that word and I started there in chapter 31. And then, you know, I just I read my Bible as normal, but then I extra on Jeremiah and I spent time Jeremiah 31, jeremiah 32, jeremiah 33. 31, jeremiah 32, jeremiah 33. And uh, you know, I, I picked up some information out of Jeremiah that that the Holy ghost used as Ramo words to me to let me know that it was him that wanted me to start a church in Houston.
Speaker 1:And uh, how do you explain that? Well, I can explain that the same way that Flora last week gave her testimony about believing God for glaucoma, she had high blood pressure in one of her eyes that she had had surgery on and all the doctors were ready to operate. They had prepared the paperwork, they were trying to get her to pay the copay up front and she said no, no, no. And God gave her a word out of Proverbs that doesn't have anything to do with healing. It says the generous eye or the bountiful eye that helps the poor shall be blessed. And she's been involved with helping the poor for years. She works in charities that helps right now poor Israelis that need help. She's involved in that. She helps us as a consultant for my God Votes as well.
Speaker 1:So God used that verse a little bit out of context and it was revelation to her. I've got a generous eye. God wants to bless my eye. My eye's got to stay clear, my eye's got to have eyesight in it in order to be bountiful Proverbs 22. Come on, lift your hands.
Speaker 1:I mean God can turn a verse of scripture around that doesn't really mean what it looks like it means, and he can make it mean something to you. That's what he did in the book of Jeremiah, and when I got to Jeremiah 33, I mean I just couldn't get past it. It says in verse 10, "'thus saith the Lord again, there shall be heard in this place, which you say is desolate, without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah'". And I just saw this area of town and in the streets of Jerusalem, in the streets of champions. See, I can't explain it, but it just, it came off the page that way. And let me know where the church was supposed to be, houston's huge. Just because I live out on this side of town doesn't mean that that's where my church is going to be.
Speaker 1:But the Holy Ghost, Is this helping you? I mean, I'm turning my antenna and I'm tuning in to God's frequency to hear I don't want to see any ghosts, I don't want any fuzz, I don't want any snow in my picture. I've got to have a crystal clear communication. Are y'all with me now? They call it crosstalk radio. You know you can tune in and you're not quite on the station and you get two stations at once and you can get interference. Are you with me now, praise God. And you get two stations at once and you can get interference. Are you with me now, praise God.
Speaker 1:And he said you know, in these streets, without man, without inhabitant, without beast, the voice of joy, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever, and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise unto the house of the Lord. See, I could see our church. I could see that people were waiting on us to start this church, that people were just ready to burst out in praise that we would be here in this neighborhood, in this area of town, for I will cause to return the captivity of the land at that. First saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts again in this place, which is desolate, without man and without beef. See, he let me know that people were desolate, without a local church, without the message that God had given me. All the cities thereof shall be a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, in the cities of the south land of Benjamin and the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them. Saith the Lord.
Speaker 1:The word tell means number. That's a shepherd holding out his rod, and that's how they would count the sheep. The sheep would file under the shepherd's rod and he would be able to count them. Because if you had a hundred sheep and one was missing, how would you know it was missing? If you didn't know you had a hundred, you got to count the sheep. You've got to know they're here, we count. We count when you're here. We can't we do a count to find out how many people were here Sunday morning. Sometimes it's real high, sometimes it varies all the time, but at least why do we count? Well, not for any other reason, except that God told me to count. Know who's here, know the state of your flocks. Are y'all with me?
Speaker 1:Now I'm talking about adjust your receiver. And so in that I was able to find out who I was, and then, as I kept in the book of Jeremiah and other books, I just kept on praying. Eventually, you know, I got my blessing from brother Osteen. Here we are, all those years later. Aren't you glad that we? I mean, if I hadn't adjusted my receiver, I'd probably be in heaven by now. A lot of people never do adjust their receiver and they wonder why they die young, amen. Everybody say I'm willing to adjust my receiver. So God's already given what you need. All you need to do is adjust your receiver to get it. So I've got three things here just to think about and help you.
Speaker 1:If we keep reading here in Mark 11, it says and when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any. A lot of times we just read Mark 11, 23 and 24, we leave off 25. And so he lets you know. You know, yeah, you can, you can have what you say. Yeah, you can move your mountain, yeah, you can, you can believe you've received and you shall have.
Speaker 1:But however, however, there's another thing that you have to put in there with it when you stand praying or when you stand saying, forgive if you have ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. And if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. Talk about interrupt your signal. So the first thing on your list when you're wanting to adjust your receiver, make sure that you're walking in love. Love is our only commandment. First, corinthians, chapter 13 in the Amplified. Just read it in the Amplified and you'll probably figure out that you're not quite measuring up. And let's measure up to the commandment. That's not a suggestion. The quickest way to get out of the will of God is to start holding grudges, to be envious, to be jealous, to not rejoice with people when their breakthrough occurs. Yours hasn't occurred yet and instead of rejoicing you're kind of jealous and kind of well, yeah, yeah, I had a 1981 Mercedes diesel 300D that had 300,000 miles on it.
Speaker 1:When we started the church it was wintertime and that car would not start when it was cold. You can forget it. It won't start because it's so worn out. A diesel does not have an ignition system, electrical ignition. It doesn't have spark plugs, it's compression ignition. In other words, it's got to have compression, enough compression in the cylinder for the cylinder to fire and that's how it starts. And it was so worn out it didn't have very much compression, it smoked, and so you know I'd wait for everybody to leave the services and we'd be the last to leave. Then I'd go outside, pop the hood and I'd spray ether down the air intake and turn the key and turn the motor over and it would explode, bam, like that. It would take an explosion to start the diesel. Y'all are laughing at me.
Speaker 1:One time I was at Lakewood. I had that same car at Lakewood and you know I had my own parking space. They honored me, they gave me a parking space in the staff parking lot and after we left Lakewood they had to declare that a government cleanup had to come out and clean up the oil that was all down in the bottom of that man. It was grimy, greasy, nasty looking place. Anyway, I was called on to pick up Benny Hinn and his bodyguard at the airport and take them out to Channel 14. And I pulled into the parking lot in the terminal there it's intercontinental and I just left the motor running because I knew it wouldn't start when I came back out. There's no way it's not going to start. I just left it running, locked it and left it running.
Speaker 1:You ever wonder why diesel trucks just keep running. They just keep running. I mean, when they get cold they're real hard to start. Some of them won't start. So I had to disguise that whole evening. I mean, you know, I had to take him here, take him there. And finally I got caught red-handed leaving it running and he had this mafia-looking guy that was his bodyguard. You know, a real muscled-up Italian guy. I wondered what his other jobs were, but anyway, hook-nosed Louie, you know. And uh, he said why'd you leave it running. I said it won't start otherwise. He just started laughing. I said well, don't tell brother. Uh, pastor Benny, that preserve my dignity as best you can walk in love.
Speaker 1:No one forgiveness, the little foxes little. You know, dodie, when she was diagnosed with metastatic cancer of the liver, she sat down and wrote letters to countless people, just thinking that maybe I've offended them, I might've, I remember something, and you know they might've, they might've been offended. I'm going to ask for forgiveness. And she would just went down the list and of course, nobody, nobody was offended at her, you know. And she wrote one lady that used to run for her in grade school when they would play baseball, dodie would swing the bat but she couldn't run the bases because she had a polio leg that was shorter than the other, and so this other girl would always run the bases for Dodie. Dodie would swing the bat and get a hit and this, this girl, would take off running for her and she said, oh, please forgive me, I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have even played baseball and take you. You didn't get the bat, you were busy running. She said, dodie, I considered it a privilege. I thank you. I was just so proud to be able to do anything to help you. See, that was. But on her side, see, she is making sure that she's walking in love. She can't afford for anything to get between her and what God's supply is for her health, amen.
Speaker 1:Number two make sure your desire is God's will for you. Let's look at first John, chapter five, verse 14, first John five, 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire to them. So when you flange that up with Mark 11, 24, what Jesus said, what things soever you desire when you pray, well, that desire needs to be from God. In other words, god's got to be the one that let you know that this is permissible.
Speaker 1:Not everything that's God's will for you is written in the Bible. It wasn't written in the Bible for us to start our church on January the 29th 1995 at 6827 FM, 1960 West Houston, texas, 77069. It wasn't in the Bible. How did I get it? The witness of the spirit and rho words, that's how I got God's will. Are you with me now? So make sure that what you desire is God's will for you.
Speaker 1:Faith begins where the will of God is known. You can't, you can't believe God by faith on something that you don't know. You're not. You don't have confidence that this is God's will for you on something that you don't know. You don't have confidence that this is God's will for you.
Speaker 1:I heard Brother Copeland say this years ago, 40 years ago. He said you know, in my experience, most Christians just go off half-cocked. They pray too fast, they just pray too quick. And let me tell you what I mean by that. He said you know, they just have a need and they just start praying. They don't pray about whether that's God's will for them. They need to pray more about what God's will for them is before they actually.
Speaker 1:And then, when you make your prayer, make it a legal instrument, make it legal. That's a legal. You're filing a legal paper with the king of kings and the God of creation. Don't just throw these shotgun prayers up. Yeah, god, give me this, god, give me that. They don't mean a thing in the world. I mean you, you got to have a prayer connection with God until you know in your heart God's got this thing for you when he told me who I was that gave me the courage to start this church, and I'm going to tell you it was.
Speaker 1:I mean, everything was against us. I said everything. Our finances were against us. I had that house that never did sell. It just sat there and sat there accumulating $4,000 a month in interest until January the 3rd, when the bank finally took it and foreclosed and that partner that was so worried about losing some money lost the rest of his money because he was on the note. So was I on the note personally? But they didn't. They didn't take anything from me. I didn't. I mean, they didn't come get any more because I'd already lost a lot of cash and my partner lost cash. Other investors lost cash, and so they were. They were kinder than they had to be. They never. They could have come after me and file suit and all that, but they didn't. I had favor.
Speaker 1:But we started this church with nothing in the bank. It wasn't on our money, it wasn't with it, wasn't that? And then people say, well, you know, brother Osteen? No, brother Osteen, he didn't write us a check. We wrote him a check Within three months. We were supporting missions through Lakewood. We started in January and by April we were writing $2,000 a month checks out of this church, two months old, to Lakewood Church, and then they would turn around. I did it to honor my pastor and he would turn around and send it where he wanted to send it to India.
Speaker 1:Are you all getting this now? So make sure that what you desire is God's will for you. John 16, 14,. The Holy Ghost will take. Jesus said this about the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will take of mine and show it unto you, and whatever's Jesus belongs to you. Are you with me now?
Speaker 1:All right, the third one Make sure you ask God to lead you to the area of your life that you need to adjust in order to receive. Make sure you ask God to lead you in the area of your life that you need to adjust in order to receive. Make sure you ask God to lead you in the area of your life that you need to adjust in order to receive. John 15, 7,. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. So shall you be my disciples. You'll bear much fruit.
Speaker 1:See, that's God's plan, but we can't just have pie in the sky, we can't just have an imagination. Oh, that would be nice. I'm going to ask for that. No, let's find out. Where do I need to search for God's plan? See, that's what I did when I told Brother Osteen I'm going to get home and I'm going to find out what area. And guess what? My pastor told me what area to search in. Search in the book of Jeremiah. See, the book of Jeremiah wasn't in my normal reading. I wouldn't have gotten to the book of Jeremiah. I don't know how long it would have been. But when he gave me that word, it just fast-forwarded me into the area that God used to just bring all these rhema words. I tell you, god is so good. I'm telling you he's going to lead you. If you'll let him, he'll show you.
Speaker 1:In my case, part of it was joy. I had to get my joy lit back up because I was under the gun. You know, when he gave me that, he said dry your eyes, refrain your voice from weeping, your eyes from tears. See, I was tempted to have a pity party. I didn't, but I was tempted in that area and my mouth was closed. I wasn't speaking, I wasn't rejoicing Boy, I got adjusted.
Speaker 1:And then I got in the book of Jeremiah and God began to open things up and on the road, every day I mean I was praising God, I was getting songs in the Spirit, I mean I tell you we had a Holy Ghost. We had a Holy Ghost revival every day in the car. One time I had an old Oldsmobile and 86 and it had, I think, a hundred and it had 270,000 miles on it at this time it was almost as old as the and right before I started some houses, you know I had to get that had to believe God for another car. But anyway, I got in it one day to take off and go to work, you know, and I just I had my one hand on the steering wheel and I backed out of the driveway and headed down the street to leave the subdivision. I had my hand up praising God and all of a sudden, it sudden, everything just went dark. I thought the glory had fallen, but then I realized it was the headliner. The entire headliner of the car turned loose at one time and blocked my vision. I almost had a wreck right there at the end of the subdivision. I headed out to Louetta Road and all all of a sudden. I can't even see. I mean it was weird, how could that happen all at one time? And so I had to hold it up, you know. And I got back home and I don't know what I I sprayed a bunch of adhesive up in there and took a staple gun. I mean I. But I got joy. That was an adjustment I had to make.
Speaker 1:You know, the more you grow in mature maturity, see, god can show you things that maybe you know. God told the disciples one time. Jesus told him. He says you know, there's a whole lot of things I'd like to share with you about the Holy ghost, but you can't bear them now. That's the way we are when first start getting saved. We have to grow and you grow and you keep growing. If you ever have a plateau and you quit growing in the things of God, then you're going to not hear the things you need to hear for the next season of your life. God's got some things planned, but you're not able to bear them. He's got them there for you, they're deposited for you, but you're not going to be until you keep growing. You got to keep growing. That's why you got to keep praying and you got to keep reading your Bible. You have to have a word life and a prayer life and if you don't do it, then you're the one that's cheating yourself because you're not going to wind up with what God has for you.
Speaker 1:So, uh, I think about, uh, brother Ed Dufresne. He's in heaven now, but he used to come to the church on a regular basis, prophet of God. I'd known about him for years and then God opened the door for me to meet him one time at a meeting in Shreveport, louisiana. I went up to him. He was the main speaker and I told him I really admired his ministry and a pastor in Houston, would you ever come? Yeah, I sure will. So we lined him up, start coming. He was a blessing and I liked it because he would just transparent, he would share with the congregation things that he'd learned.
Speaker 1:And he said you know, a few years ago I found out I had cancer and I went to the Lord. I fasted, prayed and went to the Lord. He said you'll be all right, everything's going to be fine, I'll be with you through this thing. And he said well, I have to say I mean, this is a surprise. Is there something that I'm not doing. That allows. See, adjust your receiver. See, he had interrupted his receiving of life, abundant life, super abundant quantity, superior in quality. Health healing Healing doesn't just fall on you. You don't just walk in health automatically. The devil is going to try to steal it. Little foxes can eat the tender grapes off of the fruit of your life. So little foxes had snuck into his life and allowed him to get cancer.
Speaker 1:And so, and he fasted and prayed and found out what the adjustment needed to be. He said rest. You're not resting like you should. You on the road, seven days a week, months at a time, come home, to quote, unquote, rest. And you don't rest. You are involved in real estate deals, you're involved in your cars, taking your, getting your cars fixed. He was had a car collection antique cars, hot rods and stuff, and he's just always working. He's like Brother Osteen.
Speaker 1:Brother Osteen didn't know how to relax. I don't ever know him to have ever taken a vacation. As long as I knew him in 15 years, I never knew him to take a vacation. Well, man, everybody needs rest. Everybody needs to take a day off at least. That's why God took a day off. We need to rest sometimes, work all the time, work daylight to dark, work, work, work, work seven days a week. And so, in his case, he had to make an adjustment.
Speaker 1:He got his healing, praise God, hallelujah. So as you adjust your receiver, you will strengthen your prayer connection with God. Healing will come, finances will come, breakthroughs will occur will come. Breakthroughs will occur. Milestones You'll discover the milestones. Adjusting your receiver, you'll experience more and more of what God has for you and his kingdom blessings. Come on, lift your hands and receive today, father, we thank you, we thank you, lord, that we're all willing to make adjustments. Hallelujah, we don't have our feet set in concrete, but we're standing on the rock, not in the concrete. Amen, amen, praise God, did you get anything out of this? Did it help you today? That's my, my job is to help you, help you stay on God's blessing pathway. Amen.