Learn the five keys to changing your perspective in this sermon with Lisa Bevere.

i’m going to talk to you about the

things that i wish i would have known i

would talk to you about the things that

i feel like is key to this season right

now i’m going to have five points which

is pretty amazing because i normally

have no points i usually do something

random so this is this is a banner

moment for you i’m going to have five

points and the first point is

you got to know when you are

you’ve got to know when you are and a

lot of times when i say that people are

like bless her heart she is on jet lag

she meant to say where but i did not

mean to say where i meant to say when

when i came here i experienced something

called a time zone change and i live in

colorado springs which means normally

i’m going to fly through dallas or

chicago to get anywhere i want to go and

i do women’s meetings a lot but i also

do youth conferences a lot i think

they’re kind of like we don’t like thank

you they’re like we don’t want to talk

to our parents but everybody loves their

grandparents they’re like let’s invite a

grandparent to the youth conference so i

was taking my boys and we were all

running as one to dfw airport because

one time we did not run as one and one

of my sons got left on the other side of

the train when he was only seven years

old you talk about mommy trauma the door

is closed you’re like why were you not

holding on to him so i don’t make them

i’m running as one that means we will

all pee on the plane we will not pee

when we get on the line and we ran as

one and then i looked at my stupid phone

remember stupid phones they didn’t

change time zones and i looked at my

stupid phone and i said oh my gosh

we’ve got time to do barbecue

and so we go to dickie’s barbecue and

one of my boys that was smarter than my

phone said mom i thought you said we had

a tight connection i said but we don’t

and so we ate barbecue and i showed up

at the gate and because i’m sicilian i

always think i’m right i’m like y’all

get the wrong city up and they’re like

are you the platinum that misconnected i

said yes i am see i knew where i was

but i didn’t know when i was

and sometimes it is more important to

know when you are than where you are you

and i are alive in a time that is urgent

in a time that is perilous and a time

that is compressed and i can tell you

when we are by acts chapter 2 verse 17

and this is god talking he says this is

what i will do in the last days this is

something we have to do this is

something god’s going to do in the last

days i will pour my spirit on everybody

and cause your sons and daughters to

prophesy your young men will see visions

your old men will experience dreams from

god the holy spirit will come upon all

my servants men and women alike and they

will prophesy

now this is fascinating to me

because i don’t see people prophesying

i see people criticizing

on social media nobody prophesies

everybody criticizes but it takes no

faith

to criticize but you are not on this

earth to criticize you are on this earth

to prophesy you are on this earth to

speak what could be what should be you

are not here to point out what is not

yet you are sons and daughters of heaven

and you need to prophesy which means you

have to be more acquainted with the word

of god

than the word of man you cannot just be

retweeting you actually need to go deep

into the word of god because the word of

god has the power to remake everything

that you and i see and i cannot believe

that this nonsense that we have right

now is the end of the story so this

sicilian grandmother is going to stand

and prophesy until what i see outside

matches what i see inside we have a

chance to prophesy we need to understand

that we are agents of heaven walking the

face of earth

men and women visions and dreams

sometimes people are like well i don’t

think women are supposed to talk

remember how paul said in corinthians

that women were to be silent in the

church

well god says in the last days so i’m

not going to argue with god god says in

the last days i’m going to pour out my

spirit and your sons and your daughters

are going to prophesy and it’s almost

impossible to prophesy if you have to be

silent in the church so we are going to

prophesy because we understand when we

are we are last days people we’re not in

the last day but we are last days people

second thing is

you got to know who you are

you’ve got to know who you are

who you are

and this is such a confused thing right

now

people are trying to find out who they

are

by looking at what they do

or looking at their gender

i want to do something can i get all the

guys to stand up right now just stand to

your feet it’s going to be nice it’s not

going to be weird i promise remember i’m

a mom of men

i just want to say this over the men

because you know our culture right now

is really actually

attacking and demeaning

masculinity

and i just want to say be the man that

god created you to be i want to

celebrate you for being here in the

house of god on a sunday night because

you want to be a better son a better

father a better husband that you want to

know what it is to be a man of god be a

man of god and don’t allow the stigmas

of our culture that has done a broad

brush stroke and cause you toxic to make

you back down from your strengths god

calls you his glory god calls you his

son and we are here to celebrate you

because you are not in the company of

foolish women who think they get their

value by taking it from men we

understand that we get our value from

god so take your value from god and be

everything he created you to be right

now in jesus name

you guys can sit down we do it for the

girls all the time we do the girls so

all color you heard your beautiful

wonderful princesses with a purpose so i

felt like the guys needed to hear

something

in lifetime okay awesome

so you know we we’re trying to figure

out who you are now how many of you are

in here are millennials wave at me

okay all right i love millennials i love

them i birth four of them birth four

millennials my my firstborn almost

didn’t make it but he made i got four

full-on millennials and this is what i

have discovered about millennials

millennials are some of the most

well-educated

well-connected people on the face of the

earth

but they are also

some of the most confused

because they have so

many options

they are paralyzed

you know i’ve been married 37 years 37

years ago i had two choices

you want the christian guy with a job

or the christian guy without a job and

the correct answer is always the

christian guy with a job it was easy for

me

but if i was single now i would have 350

000 different options on instagram and

maybe i would pick one but then i’d be

worried that tomorrow there might be one

that was better for me and so i would

just freeze

but this is another thing i love about

millennials

they actually know

that god has his hand on their life for

something significant so they’ll come up

to me afterwards and i’ll say

i know

that god has this hand on my life for a

purpose

and i’ll say i agree

and they’ll say but i have no idea what

it is

well

i’ll tell you why

two reasons i think

the enemy is working overtime

to distract you

from who you really are he is so busy

showing you who you are not and showing

you who everybody else is kind of

because it’s all fake on instagram he’s

trying to show you who you’re not he’s

doing a constant comparison

what is it that is on your life that is

so terrifying to him

that he is distracting you

and he is minimizing you

and he is keeping you out of the

presence of god

because see you and i do not discover

who we are in the presence of people

we discover who we are in the presence

of god

in those moments of worship when we are

singing and god whispers something to

you and he begins to tell you who you

are you need to actually grab a hold of

it because in the presence of god

that’s who you find out and where you

find out

who you are

i also think millennials don’t know what

they’re called to do

because they’re called to do something

that has never been done before

and when you’re called to do something

that has never been done before you

can’t look at what everybody else is

doing i also think millennials are kind

of like hey guys thank you thank you we

got this now guess what acts 2 17 says

it’s going to be the old and the young

the men and the women the visions and

the dreams what is on you needs to be

helped with what is on me you need the

old and the young we need you to not

make the same mistakes that we already

made we need you to not pay the same

prices i’ve already paid you will have

your own things to pay you need another

generation do not push them aside push

them up let god give them a higher

perspective so that they can begin to

say you need to run straight away

there’s a fast turn you need the older

people in your life

and there is something about the

millennials that says no thank you

you need them there is so much wisdom

there is so much insight there is so

much experience that you should be able

to gain the benefit of

now i’m going to speak as an old person

because i turn 60 next year

yeah it’s true getting the big 6-0 59

june 6. let me tell you something

sometimes i see the young people get up

there

and they’re doing it so well

and i think wait a minute

why is it so easy for them

why do they just get up there

and they’re not sweating

and they’re cute

and everybody’s happy and they have good

music we had we got the joy joy joy joy

i mean like seriously you got to get up

and minister after that i mean like you

had a sacrifice of praise you guys don’t

have to sacrifice we had to sacrifice in

praise

and i’m looking at them i’m like why is

it so easy for them

and i heard the holy spirit say

are you angry because i am

answering your prayers

see i’ve prayed that my children will go

further

but then i don’t like it when it’s easy

so i got to deal with my own heart so

you got to help the older people you got

to say i need you i’m sorry i acted like

i don’t i actually don’t know as much as

i thought i knew and i need to know and

learn from you what i wish i would have

learned

both of my parents are gone and there’s

so many times i want to pick up the

phone and just ask them a question

that i didn’t think to ask in the last

season

identity

when you know when you are

you got to know who you are and this

issue of identity has been a

conversation for a long time matthew 16

i’m going to read it from the message

verses 13-19 it says when jesus arrived

in the villages accessory of philippi he

asked his disciples what are people

saying about who the son of man is they

replied some think he’s john the

baptizer on facebook some say elijah or

jeremiah one of the other prophets on

instagram he pressed them and said how

about you

who do you say i am simon peter said

you’re the christ the messiah the son of

the living god jesus came back and said

god bless you simon son of jonah you

didn’t get that answer out of a john

bevere book or from a stephen furtick

podcast my father in heaven god himself

let you in on this secret of who i

really am and now i’m gonna tell you who

you are

really are

see we all know who we’ve been

but only god knows who we

really are we all know who we are now

but we don’t know who we are becoming

and only god knows who you are becoming

and you will not know who you are

becoming until you have a revelation of

who he really is in the revelation of

who god really is

you find out who you really are but we

have a culture trying to find out who

they are

without a revelation of whose they are

because see when i know whose i am and i

have a revelation of who that person is

he’s not just my savior he is the christ

the messiah the son of the living god

not the dead god the son of the living

god when i have a revelation of all of

that strength then jesus said now i’m

gonna tell you lisa

who you are really are

my mom called me lazy growing up all the

time they called me rebellious i called

me all sorts of things

but see god knew who i really was

and i don’t know what you’ve been called

i don’t know what you’ve done i don’t

know where you are right now today but

god knows who you are

becoming

and most of us are known by a name that

is attached to our history

but god has a name that is attached to

your destiny and i believe that he’s

gonna call you forth by that name that

prophetic name i don’t know if you know

what i’m talking about but the book of

revelation says there is a stone

a white stone that is written with your

real name on it and it’s a name only you

and jesus know and we are alive right

now to grow into that name that’s

engraved in stone

so

go into it

go into it have a revelation of who he

really is and he’s going to show you who

you really are he said you are peter a

rock and this is a rock in which i put

together my church a church so expansive

with energy

that not even the gates of hell will be

able to keep it out

and then this is where late night

marketing got their ideas from it says

and that’s not all you will have

complete and free access to god’s

kingdom keys to open any and every door

no more barriers between heaven and

earth earth and heaven a yes on earth is

a yes in heaven a no on earth is a no in

heaven

who has complete and free access

you will have complete and free access

when you know who you are

you will understand what is at your

disposal

but if you don’t know when you are and

you don’t know who you are you won’t

know what to ask

why did he have to change his name from

simon to peter

simon’s the biblical name why does

column a rock

well it’s found in the meaning of simon

simon means to bend in the direction of

it means read like it also means to

listen

and to hear

peter

means a rock

and god is saying to this generation i

will no longer have you bend in the

direction of what you hear you can no

longer be swayed by every wind of

doctrine i need you to be peter i need

you to be a rock i need you to be

immovable because this is the kind of

church i can build on that is expansive

in energy that not even the gates of

hell will be able to prevail against it

we live in a time period where people

will tell us that truth is a river that

truth changes with time but truth is not

a what truth is a who truth is jesus and

jesus does not change because he does

not change you and i can change that’s

what the bible says the bible says in

the book of micah i am the lord that god

i change not

and then that’s a great thing because

the rest of the verse says lest i

consume you

god says i have set my heart on you i

have loved you with an everlasting love

and i am not going to change my mind

about you

so he is not a moving target

you could have a story i can have a

story but i can’t have a truth and you

have a truth there are things that are

true of like what was true of me

wednesday was i had about this much gray

hair but what is true of me right now

because i got my hair colored i don’t

have any gray hair now in a week i’m

going to have this much gray hair so

true of

changes

but not

truth

we cannot be shaken

but what’s happened is the church has

preached the truth without love

and the truth without love is harsh

so our culture has responded by

preaching love without truth

which is a lie

and this is the challenge of our day

to merge truth

and love

and how you and i merge truth and love

is we live

truth and love

people see it in the way we live

not in what we say we got to know when

we are we are in the days that are

perilous where it says that people will

heap up teachers to themselves that will

tell people what they want to hear

instead of what they need to hear that

is our day so you got to know when you

got to know who and then you got to know

what you got to know what you are now i

have a confession i have a danger gene i

don’t know if it’s a real thing or not

but i i want it to be a real thing

because

i have four sons my husband

golfs and plays tennis i ski

surf hunt had a ninja motorcycle until

one of my boys wrecked it if it can’t

kill you

it’s not fun that’s just the way i look

at it i’m like if you can’t break an arm

it’s not enjoyable so my my husband is

like lisa that’s dangerous so all of our

boys are alive still thankfully but i

love to recreate on the edge of death

and uh last year

we give away books last year we were in

thailand and we come a little early and

we had a chance to go to phuket have you

ever heard of phuket okay it’s like a

lake it looks like a lake and god was

like i’m gonna try something different

i’m just gonna drop bowling balls in the

water that’s what it looks like just a

bunch of islands and we were some

friends and they’re like let’s go to

james bond island i don’t even know it

was the thing so we come up on james

bond island as we realize it’s a tourist

trap we are not pulling in there so

we’re just kind of going around going

around and the little boat driver pulls

into this little teeny beach area and he

said you guys can get out and swim

but i happen to notice

on the other island just across a

channel from us there were these thai

guys free diving they were covered in

tattoos and i thought that looks like

fun and my driver saw me notice and he

said those guys are idiots there is a

dangerous channel between these two

islands i don’t know what happened but

as soon as i heard dangerous and idiots

i made eye contact with my youngest son

and we dove off the boat to swim to the

other island now my son is a gentleman

so he said mom i’ll go first because

there were jellyfish i think they’re

gonna put up a picture of the jellyfish

they were like 10 feet across i’m not

even lying okay but see that’s easy to

see right like it’s those little teeny

ones that gets you so we could see that

so i said yes my fourth born son you go

first into the field of jellyfish and i

will follow you and he’s swimming and in

my brain there’s like a dialogue i’m

swimming behind him and i’m thinking

nobody should tell me that i can’t swim

between islands i used to be on the

swimming team

when i was 18

kind of forgot i was 58 at the time so

now it’s been 40 years and we were doing

great until we hit the current and as

soon as we hit the current arden said

mom i’m going sideways i’m like oh my

gosh

i’m going sideways we’re going to die

but then arden remembered he’s six foot

three and he thought perhaps

this water is shallow put his feet down

and he was able to grab a hold of my arm

and pull me out of the current we come

up on the other side we’re like

i’m yelling at john bring the ball bring

the boat and john just looks at me like

you’re an idiot and he just turns his

back he’s like you almost killed our son

i am not i’m not coming for you

so this gets me in trouble sometimes and

a couple years ago i was invited to

speak in dubai now dubai is not

dangerous unless you like golf which i

don’t or shopping which i don’t so i had

to up the danger factor and i was

leaving the next day and my husband was

saying okay so you’re going to dubai

after you do propel i said yeah and he

said so when you actually start speaking

in dubai you’re leaving on sunday i said

yeah i

i start speaking friday and he said okay

why why are you going so early and i

said ah

did i forget to tell you

i’m just gonna go to iraq for a couple

days first and my husband was like what

i said yeah i’m just gonna i’m just

gonna go to iraq just for like a couple

days and he was like no you’re actually

not you’re not going to wreck these i

can’t believe you’ve hidden this from me

i’m like yeah it’s just it’s just it’s

just okay and he said who are you going

with i said well i’m gonna go by myself

i’m gonna go by myself to iraq but i

won’t be by myself once i get there and

he said okay who are you going to be

with and i said well these people i’m

going to stay in their basement and he

was like how do you know them i said i

direct to message them on instagram so

now john is like

having a fit he’s like i am so mad at

you right now and and so he tried to

change the fight but when you change

your outbound flight you’re in trouble

and so he comes back he’s like i can’t

believe you’ve done this i can’t i mean

he’s like so mad and i said look at me

look at me

i can go to iraq i look like them i will

just wear flowy clothes and be quiet so

i went to iraq and i found out pretty

quick i was useless i don’t speak arabic

i don’t speak kurdish i don’t speak

yazidi so all i did was follow around

the people that did speak those things

and everywhere i went i saw the same

scenario play out

the little girls would all come running

and the grandmas

no little boys

because when isis came through

he had the little boys take off their

shirts

and if they had hair under their arms

they shot them

and if they didn’t

they enlisted them unless they were way

too young to care for them so little

girls

and grandmas

i was with the organization called

preemptivelove

and

on the last day i was there

all the little girls came running out

except for one little girl stayed behind

and she was the same age as my

granddaughter sophia

and so i noticed her and then we were

all sitting in the back of an abandoned

semi-trailer that was now home to 14

people she was in the corner and i said

why is she alone

and jessica said oh

she lost an eye to a cancer tumor

and we’ve not been able to get her a

child size prosthetic eye and so she has

an adult size prosthetic eye and she

can’t close her eyes and it’s covered in

dirt

i said you bring that baby girl over to

me right now we’re going to put up a

picture of her on my lap she’s

absolutely terrified she’s like who is

this crazy american i tried to close her

eye i couldn’t close it

but see what they didn’t know was

that i had lost my right eye

to the exact same cancer tumor that this

little girl had lost her eye to

the exact same age tried to close it i

couldn’t close it i told her i said

i too have lost an eye she put her hands

on my face and she didn’t believe me so

i closed my eyes and she felt one

squishy one was hard y’all can check it

out after service

and

she was like oh my gosh somebody

understands

what i’m going through

then i opened up my ipad

and i showed her my husband

and i showed her my children

and i showed her my grandchildren

and i said sarah

you can be loved

sarah you can have children

sarah

you can be

whoever god tells you to be

and that night when we left i held hands

with her

as i walked out to the car

she was the only person i could think

about that night when i slept in their

basement

i knew i couldn’t bring back her dad

but i knew that i could get back to the

united states of america and get her a

new y

so we’ve got sarah afterwards with her

new eye there she is with her prosthetic

eye

and that’s awesome

but that wasn’t enough so go ahead and

go to the next picture we decided to

move sarah and all of these other girls

and their mothers into another location

where they could all get education

why am i telling you this

see you got to know what you are

you got to know what you are you are an

answer look looking for problems to

solve

i always felt like having one eye

was a problem

like having one eye meant that i would

never get up in front of more than two

people i don’t know if you guys remember

junior high and high school and how mean

people are i grew up being called one

eye

cyclops

monster

i never ever

wanted to do

what god has anointed me to do

but see god isn’t interested in

anointing the areas where you see

yourself strong and him as unnecessary

god is the one who anoints the areas

where you are weak so he can show

himself strong

god is looking for a people who will

face what they fear because when you

face what you fear you become fearless

this is what god is doing he is looking

for a generation of fearless people who

understand what they are the greatest

platform you will ever stand on is not a

hillsong platform as much as i love it

it is my life it is my life because the

way i live in private and the way i live

is more important than what i say from a

stage and so we need to be those people

that understand that everywhere we go

people are looking for the answer that

you carry

you are

carrying the glory of god in an earthen

vessel

and jesus is more than just savior he is

lord he is counselor and we need to be

people who are bold enough to preach all

of the power of the cross

because i want to see all of the crosses

power in operation i want to see people

delivered i want to see people healed i

want to see the power of god evident on

this next generation i want to see a

distinguishing

of the anointing of god on our lives

again i want the fear of god to come

back

on our own lives personally not that

we’re scared of god but that there is

something about us where people know

when they see us that you are not

a member of this earth you are passing

through and there is something

intangible on your life that my broken

life needs to connect with i need the

healing that’s going to come because of

holiness oh i know that’s a scary word

but holiness is not us trying to be good

holiness is about living in such a way

that people know that we are gods

we need to live in such a way that

people look at us and know who we belong

to you got to know what you are you are

a answer looking for problems to solve

next thing is you got to do you got to

write it down

you got to write it down how many of you

ever had god speak to you in the middle

of the night and it’s so profound you’re

like oh my gosh that’s so beautiful and

then you don’t write it down and then

you remember half of it or you remember

that he talked to you and you remember

none of it i sleep with my ipad in my

bed i do i sleep with my pet in my bed

and i type things out and sometimes when

i read them i’m like that’s

crazy menopause woman other times i read

it i’m like i think that might be god i

think that just might be god see

everything

that i’ve ever written

began as a whisper

that i just dared to write down

see there are songs that need to be

written there are books that need to be

written there are inventions that god

wants to speak to you in the night

watches do you know

that when you go to bed your brain

collates all the information you’ve

taken in all day do you know that your

brain is the most significant and and

amazing processor that there’s ever been

that’s why you can go to bed in

something you think it’s right and you

wake up the next morning and it feels

wrong because during the night your

brain has processed not just what you’ve

heard but what you didn’t hear like you

process all of it and so you need to be

sensitive to the holy spirit especially

in our time period where everything is

distracting you god wants to speak to

you in the night watches he wants to

speak to you in the dreams and visions

it is the language of the spirit and

we’re a prophetic people

i want you to start praying every night

before you go to bed god speak to me in

the night watches i give you my dreams i

give you permission to wake me up and

you can say whatever you want to say

create space for but then write it down

write it down habakkuk 21 says i will

take my stand at my watch post and

station myself on the tower and look out

to see what he will say to me and what i

will answer concerning my complaint

do you know that you have a station and

a watch post in the spirit and you need

to stay there you need to take your

stand my husband and i have learned

just by age

that there are a lot of opponents

you just outlast

having done all to stand you stand there

for you don’t give up ground you don’t

say well maybe god doesn’t do that

anymore or maybe that you need to stand

when god has told you something you

stand and you don’t go to the world with

your complaints you don’t go to facebook

you don’t go to twitter you don’t go to

instagram you go to god with your

complaints because god is the one who

has an answer for you and people will

only give you an answer according to our

culture but god will give you an answer

according to the kingdom and because

you’re a prophetic people you need

heaven’s strategies active in your life

so you’re going to write it down you

know this one write the vision and make

it plain

on tablets so he may who run who reads

it for still the vision awaits its

appointed time it hastens to its end it

will not lie if it seems so it always

does

wait for it it will surely come it will

not delay

one generation writes so the next

generation can run

and then my last point is

you need to have the right conversations

with the right people

write conversations

with the right people

i didn’t say same people

because see if i talk to people that

look like me

live like me

think like me

then i’m only talking to myself

and people that talk to themselves for

too long

go crazy we need the young and the old

we need the men and the women we need

the black and the white we need the

hispanic we need the asian we need

everybody we need the sacred and the

people that work to honor god in the

secular we need everybody from every

different

socio-economic bracket at the table

because everybody has a peace and god

wants everybody to bring their peace and

he’s honoring people that are gathering

people of diverse ages and diverse

outlooks at the table

not to argue but to lean in i’m going to

close this in scripture malachi 3 16

says then those whose lives honored god

got together and talked it over so you

could do this actually after service

tonight god saw what they were doing and

he listened in

a book was open to god’s presence and

minutes were taken of the meeting with

the names of the god fears written down

all the names of those who honored god’s

name

i believe that god wants you to have

conversations

that are worthy of notes that god is

going to listen in on conversations that

you have tonight we’re coming into this

season of hosanna palm sunday to jesus

dime let’s have conversations that honor

what we are believing for to happen in

our city let’s have conversations to

honor what we are believing for to

happen in our nation let’s have

conversations that jesus is going to

astound this earth let’s have

conversations that the church would be

one that the same glory and the same

power that jesus walked in would be

evident on his body let’s have those

kind of conversations can you stand to

your feet

i want to pray over you like i prayed

over my sons when they thought i was

just a crazy mom

lift up your hands

father i thank you that this is a

generation of signs and wonders and

miracles father i thank you they’ll see

up close what other generations only saw

in the distance father i thank you that

they’ll have the boldness to speak out

loud what other generations only

whispered father i thank you to lay hold

of with our hands what other generations

only touched in prayer father i think of

their disciples taught of the lord and

great is their peace and undisturbed

composure be glorified in our lives in

jesus name and everybody agrees say

amen and amen