Don’t forget to share “THE GOUND SHIFTING” Sarah Jakes Roberts with a friend, and be sure to subscribe for ongoing inspiration and encouragement.
hey family
i’m pt pastor toray roberts i’m the lead
pastor of the potter’s house at 1la
and denver on behalf of my wife pastor
sarah and myself we want to welcome you
to our channel and to this word i cannot
wait
for you to hear what god has for you in
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further ado let’s get right into this
word god bless you
i’ll see you soon
i’m going to get into my word
i’ll be speaking from the subject the
ground
is shifting the ground is shifting
come on somebody did you see that
it shifted right now when you came up
and got prayer it shifted when you
walked into the room it
shifted when you decided that i’m gonna
make my way i don’t care how many people
are there i don’t care how much
traffic i have to go through the ground
shifted when you
broke off that relationship the ground
shifted you thought you were just
doing what you were supposed to do but
you were shifting the ground so that
breakthrough could happen
the ground the ground is shifting
so i’m speaking out of exodus 3
verse 4. and it says
so when the lord saw that he turned
aside to look
this is moses having an encounter with
the angel of the lord
and he is walking the sheep
and he turns and he sees a burning bush
and my text says so when the lord saw
that he turned aside to look god
called to him from the midst of the bush
and said moses moses and he said
here i am then he said do not draw near
this place
take your sandals off your feet for the
place where you stand is
holy ground moreover he said
i am the god of your father the god of
abraham the god of isaac and the god of
jacob and moses hid his face
for he was afraid to look upon god
and the lord said i have surely seen the
oppression of my people who are in egypt
and have heard their cry because of
their task masters
for i know their sorrows so i have come
down to deliver them out of the hand of
the egyptians and to bring them
up from that land to a good and large
land to a land flowing with milk
and honey to the place of the canaanites
and the hittites and the amorites and
the pressurites and the hivites
and the jebusites now therefore behold
the cry of the children of israel has
come to me
and i have also seen the oppression with
the egyptians
who which the egyptians oppressed them
come now therefore and i will send you
to pharaoh that you may bring my people
the children of israel
out of egypt but moses said to god
who am i who am i that i should go to
pharaoh
and that i should bring the children of
israel out of egypt
so he said i will certainly be with you
and this shall be a sign to you that i
have sent you when you have brought the
people
out of egypt you shall serve god on this
mountain
on this mountain the same mountain where
you felt unqualified the same
mountain where i interrupted your rhythm
and gave you a word from god it is on
this mountain
that i am going to prove my word
to you spirit of the living god
invade this place
if you don’t do it god it cannot be done
but if you do it strongholds could come
down
and chains could be broken if you do it
you can change hollywood to holy ground
you could change
la brea the holy ground you could change
martin luther king jr boulevard
to holy ground that’s the kind of god
that we serve because when you step into
a room it automatically becomes holy so
god i am giving you
full reign let there be nothing off
limits that you may move in this place
and send a word that changes the lives
of your people
so god i ask that you would give me
wisdom that you would give me clarity
that i would have no nerves no fear no
anxiety that you would just do that
thing that you do when you sit in a room
so that lives can be changed for the
glory of god
in jesus name amen
amen
[Applause]
so one of my
favorite things to do from time to time
when it’s like partly cloudy outside
is to stand still in one spot
and look up and when you look up
when it’s partly cloudy you can see that
it looks like the sky is moving but
those of us who understand geology
recognize that it’s not actually the sky
that is moving
it’s the earth that is moving it is the
ground that is moving but yet the only
time we realize that the ground is
moving
is when we look up because our lives are
in rhythm
and in motion in such a way that we
don’t always realize that the ground
underneath us is shifting
and yet this is a part of life
everything is constantly moving
i remember playing a game as a kid we’d
play freeze
and if you could be completely steal
like a statue
you would win the prize and the truth is
we were all
lying because we were all moving even
though we were trying to be still
because it is just
the natural way that our bodies function
that we’re
always moving our muscles are always
moving our
eyes are twitching everything is always
in circulation
and so we have a responsibility as we
navigate this earth
not just physically but to recognize
spiritually when things are shifting
to recognize in business when things are
shifting there are people who
study finance every single day and one
small
change in the stock market represents a
major shift that is taking place
because we recognize that everything is
connected to something
and so as i was studying and asking god
what is it that you would like for me to
say tonight because lord knows if you
don’t give me anything to say we’re
going to sit up here and look at each
other
so i asked god what is it that you want
me to say
and he told me that the ground is
shifting again
that um god uh
that the area that we have become
familiar
walking in is shifting
and that everything is going to look the
same but it’s really not the same
because the ground has shifted
and i think it’s important that we know
that because there’s a certain
perspective that we have when we
recognize
that the ground is shifting i mean like
the tables
are turning i mean like our mindsets are
shifting
i’ll try to break this down for you have
you ever realized that the ground has
shifted like
after the fact it’s like um when you’re
talking to someone who you used to be
friends with
so close to and they haven’t changed
but for some reason you’re not able to
connect the way that you used to because
because you’re standing in something
different now the ground has shifted
i i’m just standing in something
differently the same
music doesn’t move me anymore i don’t
get excited about certain things anymore
because the ground has shifted i’m
standing in something different it takes
a little bit more to move me than it did
before
i’m not the same person that i used to
be it’s not
you it’s me the ground has shifted
underneath me
i just gave somebody the words they’ve
been looking for
to cut some things off i i could tell
that something was different i just
didn’t know how to express it the ground
is shifted my priorities have changed my
dreams have changed my attention is
focused on something different
it’s not you it’s me it’s just the
ground is shifted i’m trying to
build something that cannot be shaken
when everything
else is being shaken and it takes a
certain level of
dedication and commitment in order for
me to do that it’s not you it’s me the
ground
has just shifted from underneath me i’m
counting my money differently i’m
dreaming my dream
differently it’s not you it’s me we used
to vibe when i was standing on a certain
ground but now that the ground has
shifted underneath me
what makes the ground shift a word makes
the ground shift when i receive
a word that penetrates past my
insecurities and past my fears
it shifts the ground that i’m standing
on the ground could shift right here in
this room and you’ll walk out of this
place
a totally different person and
everything will be the same
same cars same shoes same life but a
different me because the ground has
shifted
i see opportunity where i once saw lack
i see open doors where i once saw closed
doors
i see god making a way out of no way so
sometimes i need to pray
that god you would do nothing but just
shift the ground around me that it would
go
from being that which i am familiar with
to holy ground
i need to shift this ground
into holy ground and
this part in our text is so interesting
to me because we’ve got moses who was
literally about to go from standing in
what is familiar to him
into holy ground
i really think moses is one of the most
interesting characters
in the bible he was born in a time where
all of the hebrew males were supposed to
have been
thrown into the river what i love about
that is that he was thrown into the
river
but the ground shifted a little bit
differently when he was thrown into the
river
because he had someone who had enough
foresight to build a raft i’m going to
still
throw you in the river but i’m going to
do it with the hedge of protection
around you
so that it looks like i put you in
danger but in reality i taught you how
to navigate danger
that’s
[Applause]
and so he’s found though by an egyptian
so you guys know the story
y’all saw the prince of egypt 20 years
ago like i did i mean you read your word
every single day
i got confused
but we’ve got this hebrew baby who was
thrown into a basket in the river
and then he’s picked up by the very
people the very group that was looking
to persecute him
and i really love moses story because
time after time we see him being a
stranger
in familiar territory
and so if i may just set up this text to
give you context about where he is
i want to share that at this time he has
been living in midian for
about 40 years why did he move to midian
from egypt
i’m glad you asked well because one day
and this is where my ebonics version of
the bible comes together
because it’s it’s gonna be a little
raggedy but i’m gonna get us there all
right
okay so our boy moses
was born a hebrew right but he grew up
in pharaoh’s household
but he knew he was hebrew well one day
he’s walking around
egypt and he sees that two hebrews
are having an argument they beefing all
right that’s what was happening
okay and so when he sees it these two
hebrews are having an argument he tries
to interject like hey yo what’s up like
let’s all get along like i’m
one of you you’re one of me and like
we’re supposed to be doing better than
this and they was like
oh so now you want to be one of us let
me back up on off for you before you
kill me like you killed the egyptian
last week and moses was like
what y’all heard about that was it on
the shade room
um it’s
phonics stick with me i’m gonna bless
you
okay and so when he realizes that it is
not a secret anymore that he killed this
egyptian
and he killed this egyptian because
because he saw the egyptian beating on a
hebrew
now this is very interesting because
there was something about him
witnessing the egyptian beating on the
hebrew that brought up anger down on the
inside of him
and we have these moments in our life
where we cannot fully be hebrew
and we cannot fully be egyptian
and when we try to pick a side we don’t
really know what side we’re on until
life
thrust us into something i gotta
break that down because it is this
juxtaposition of him being hebrew
and egyptian that he hasn’t quite dealt
with that
ends up sending him fleeing out of the
place where he was raised
and it is also the juxtaposition of him
being hebrew and egyptian
that god uses to call him back to the
place
where he once fled
because all of us are not entirely one
thing
and we don’t know exactly which one we
are until we’re placed in a situation
where the greatest version of us has to
rise up
and handle it and depending on which
version rises up that determines what
god has to deal with down on the inside
of us
i’m going to work this thing on out with
y’all
so moses flees because he is conflicted
within
because sometimes it is easier to run
from a situation
than it is to figure out why we are
conflicted
and it would be so easy to penalize him
from running away from that situation
but the reality is that we cannot always
figure out who we are
authentically in the environments that
produced us
so you think you came here for a gig or
you think you went somewhere to go
off to school when in reality god sent
you there so that you can figure out who
you are in your core
i thought i’d share my own testimony i
thought that i was coming to los angeles
because i fell in love with an
incredible man and his beautiful
children
and i did but i also came to los
angeles because i was going to sit under
this ministry
and this ministry was going to awaken a
gift that was down on the inside of me
you have to understand that i haven’t
even been preaching for five years
but god put me in this ministry and when
i started really feeding and digesting
what i was receiving from this ministry
i grew and developed in such a way that
i could be a teacher and a student
at the same time you see because god
will accelerate
what he places down on the inside of you
so i think we should just celebrate one
more time that 18 years ago on this day
that god answered a call from a man
named taray roberts and that it birthed
greatness down
on the inside of us because every time
hale gets nervous when people come into
this building
and it started 18 years ago because one
man said yes and if i could just preach
his life real quick
i wonder what you were setting up today
that 18 years later from now
will have an inheritance that eyes
haven’t seen
and ears haven’t heard
[Applause]
just real quick just real quick this
ain’t even in my notes
but pastor turay birthed the ministry
before millennials were even
in church and leaving the church but god
started him
18 years before the millennials would
leave the church
so that he could stand guard as they
were leaving to say wait a minute
i got a way to translate god in a way
that you can understand
i got a way that you can know god
without politics and without
scandals and all of these other things i
found a way i wonder what god is doing
in you right now that the world
hasn’t even taken notice of i hear god
saying the ground is shifting baby
that you don’t even see it yet but
you’ll look
back 18 years from now and though
wow i thought i was just getting it for
myself
but i was getting it for people who were
connected to me
if you’ve never been to activate la we
make room for god to do whatever he’s
going to do on a thursday night
[Applause]
and sometimes we let him just sit in the
room for a little bit
so that he can chase out fears and chase
out insecurities and
chase out second guessing because the
ground is going to shift whether you
move or don’t move
but if you would dare to move with the
cadence of what god is doing in the
earth
then you can partner with him and get
ahead of the curve
and get ahead of the breakdown and get
ahead of the recession
[Applause]
[Music]
and when everyone else is afraid i am
confident because i recognized that the
ground had to shift to make room for me
to take my place
you see my lane couldn’t be created
unless the ground started shifting
god created a cry in egypt that were
coming out of the people and he
the hebrew people at the same time that
moses was somewhere minding his business
i gotta say that the way i studied it
god produced the cry
before he produced the solution
which means that when we see the
headlines all we see is a cry
but what god is doing is producing the
cry
so that when the ground begins to shift
that there will be a solution
already being raised up so the more that
the earth starts crying
the more that god’s people starts
getting in position
because we recognize that when the earth
is crying out for the glory of god
that it’s really crying out for his sons
and daughters to take their position
and i came here on a thursday night i
only need 10 minutes with you
to say what god has already told me and
i hear god saying
it’s time for you to take your position
it’s time for you to stop pretending
like you don’t got what you got
because when you know what you got and
you know who gave it to you
you can walk down to the very place
where you fled
and say that i am that i am sydney
i am that i am has a word and that word
is that strongholds are coming down
that word is that generational curses
are broken
that word is that the criminal justice
system
has got to get its life together the
industry’s got to have integrity
the abuse of power will not be tolerated
[Music]
[Applause]
because the ground is shifting
and it’s shifting in our direction
[Music]
and it’s going to take us
recognizing
[Music]
that we’re standing in a holy moment
and you won’t even realize that it is a
holy moment if we’re so busy taking in
social media and headlines
that we’ll just scroll our finger at the
government shutdown and think oh lord
what is this world coming to
not recognizing that the ground is
shifting this is a
this is a holy moment and god is looking
to raise up some people
who don’t mind answering the hard calls
the kind of cause that means you have to
go into places where you once fled
and looked foolish and you have to go
back to reintroduce yourself
armed and equipped with the knowledge of
who god has called you to be
the ground is shifting the ground is
shifting and i hear
god saying it’s holy ground and what
keeps so many of us
from recognizing the power of the holy
ground we’ve been standing on i feel
this
prophetically for somebody you’ve been
standing on holy ground the only problem
is you haven’t yet
taken your shoes off
you see god told moses
you have to take your shoes off
you have to take off every
piece of dust and dirt that brought you
into this moment
it was symbolic that when you step into
a holy moment you can’t
step into it the way you step to
everything else
so i gotta be willing to take my
shoes off what does that mean that means
that there are experiences
that have made you believe that if i
step into this i may
lose like i lost last time if i step
into this i may be
made fun of like i was before i can’t
step
into this the way that god is calling me
to because it risks too much
vulnerability it risks me being
my authentic self you see moses had
found a way to live authentically in
midian
he wasn’t worried about whether he was
hebrew or egyptian he could just be
himself
but the true test of authenticity is not
what you can do
when you are isolated the true test of
authenticity is will you still be
authentic
when you have to go and present yourself
to where you used to be
so do we only worship and live for god
when we’re in this environment but then
when we leave where someone else who are
you
really if the ground is shifting then
you have to recognize that you can shift
the ground
but you cannot shift the ground if you
are pretending to be someone you are not
you can only shift the ground when you
do it armed and equipped with the
knowledge of who god has called you to
be
because it’s going to take the same
power
that allowed a bush to burn and not be
consumed
for you to go into that boardroom
for you to go into that relationship for
you to go into that business
and maintain who you are
so the ground had to shift moses had to
go
from walking in a familiar land into
holy ground
because god was ultimately going to ask
moses to go somewhere and shift the
ground there
and i love this because the burning bush
got his attention
but it is when the burning bush started
calling his name that he had to turn and
look
and he had to engage with what would
have been considered dangerous but
because it was
calling his name that was his fire
there is a fire burning
and it is calling your name
and it has been calling your name for a
very long time it says write the music
it says take the job it says you can do
that
make the move it says that you can do it
get the help that you need there’s this
burning
bush that has been calling your name for
so long
and until you respond and begin to
engage with that i mean it’s been
burning for years i don’t know who that
is this isn’t just no
new fire this bush has been burning down
on the
inside of you since you were a little
boy and it’s been telling you that you
can do it and it’s been telling you that
god is going to send you
but you have not yet turned and looked
at that burning bush
and moses simply said
here i am
i hear you calling me i hear you asking
about me
i hear you telling me that i’m supposed
to step into this thing
but so many of us are like moses and
we’re
afraid and we say who am i
that you would send me to pharaoh who am
i that you would send me to deliver
these people
who am i that you would send me into
this city who am i
who am i who am i and god never answers
the question he just says that i’m gonna
be with you
because it was never about who you were
it was about who god is and as long as
you make this thing about you
you’ll have countless questions about
why you can’t do it i feel the glory of
god in this place
i feel like what shifts the ground is
when we recognize that we gotta look
up and not down i’ve been making this
thing about me i’ve been making this
thing about my relationships
i’ve been trying to figure out how i can
calculate this miracle how i can
formulate this movie how i’m going to be
able to put it together with what with
what i’ve been working with
and i hear god saying this thing was
never about you
[Applause]
i want to break the spirit of you out of
this room
[Applause]
i feel it like it’s heavy in this thing
like you get in your own head and start
talking yourself out of the very thing
that god
called you to do and i want to break the
spirit of you
out of this room the spirit of what you
say you can do the spirit of what you
think is possible
i want to break the limits off of what
god can do in your life
i want you to remove some of the
barriers off of what god says you can do
yes you i’ve been talking to you with
the drug addiction i’ve been
talking to you with the broken home i’ve
been talking to you from foster care
i’ve been talking to you over and over
and over again
i know who you are i know where you’ve
come from
i know what you had and what you didn’t
have and i still
chose you nobody can do this thing like
you
nobody can bring deliverance like you
nobody can bring
my glory to those people like you and
i’m waiting for somebody to recognize
that the ground is shifting and i’m
waiting for
somebody who doesn’t mind taking off
their shoes
and stepping into the next dimension of
who they call to be
[Music]
i’m just trying to see who god put in
this room
just
[Applause]
no more running
no more coaching your fears on how to
talk to you
no more giving someone else the power to
stop you
no more longing for distractions
it’s time to step in the holy ground
it’s time to step into another level of
surrender it’s time to actually
activate what god has placed down on the
inside of you
and god doesn’t tell moses that hey
listen if you’re going to do this you
got to have faith
i wondered i wonder time after time
again i said god
like you know abraham was the father of
faith and david had so much
courage and you used this guy moses who
didn’t even want to be used who didn’t
even think that it was possible
why did you use him
and i feel like part of the reason why
god chose moses
is because moses didn’t mind bringing
his fears
along for the journey
that moses didn’t think that he had to
have it together in a certain way before
he could step into it
but he said i don’t feel qualified and i
don’t know why you’re going to choose me
but god i’m going to go anyway and the
more that he walked the more room he
gave god to show up
and the whole people of
the hebrews the israel the children of
israel were
placed on his shoulders the shoulders of
someone who didn’t feel like they had it
all together
but they knew without a shadow of a
doubt that they had a word
from god
i want to offer us
an opportunity
to recognize
[Music]
and receive that the ground has shifted
in our life i feel the presence of god
in this place
i want to dare you
to see your life with a new level of
consecration
to take what you do each and every day
so seriously
that you have no choice but to take off
your shoes
and say god i cannot afford to walk into
this day carrying the residue of
yesterday
but god if you would create in me a
clean heart
that if you would purify my hands if you
would
allow me to become what you had in mind
as i step into this day
i will recognize that every situation
every opportunity
every relationship is holy ground and it
is holy ground because you are with me
and if you are with me anywhere we step
is holy anything we connect with has got
to be holy
and that takes intentionality
to say i’m not just in hollywood i’m not
just
in minnesota i’m not just in atlanta i
am
standing on holy ground
this is not the kind of decision that my
bank account can tell me what i can do
this is not the kind of decision that a
job can tell me whether or not i can
handle
this is the type of situation that only
holy ground can dictate
and i’m trying to build a life on holy
ground
and if you know that one of the only
things that has kept you
from really stepping into holy ground
are the experiences of yesterday
that you carry with you into each new
opportunity
until you literally self-sabotage
a blessing that god wanted to give you
freely
door after door after door they don’t
just close in my face i just
do something that i know i shouldn’t
have done but because i didn’t see
myself worthy
and because i didn’t see myself able to
finish
i decided to back out before i could
mess it up
but because i’m stepping in the holy
ground i recognize
that this is going to stretch me and
this is going to stretch
my faith and this is going to stretch my
identity
and this is going to stretch everything
i ever thought i knew about myself
but i’m really ready to be stretched
because staying the same
size has not been working for me and if
there is anybody in this room
who has decided that it’s time for me to
answer to this stretching season
i want to give you 10 seconds to send up
a praise to god so that he knows that
someone has just made their heart holy
ground
i’ve just made my mind holy ground
i’ve just made that job holy ground
i gotta forgive i gotta release i gotta
let go
cause i’m making room for holy ground i
used to have
all kinds of ground but now i only have
room
for holy ground there’s a
there’s a battle i gotta fight