Don’t forget to share “The Tutor & The Test ” – 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
this message i want to tell you a few
things really quickly
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so without further ado let’s get right
into this word god bless you
i’ll see you soon
is anybody in need of revival
as we were listening to that worship
song i just started thinking about all
of the areas of my life that are
experiencing revival you know one of the
beautiful things
about revival is that it kind of creeps
in
right no one knows when revival is
coming it comes on
suddenly suddenly there’s this moment
where everything has shifted and
everything has changed
and yet if we are not careful we will
bring the yesterday’s rhythm
into a revival season and so while we
often talk about
needing a revival somebody’s standing in
revival right now i want to prophesy
over your life before we even get into
the
message somebody is standing in revival
right now
it doesn’t look like it yet you don’t
feel it yet but i hear god saying that
if you would just take a moment and
recognize what i’m doing in your life
that you’re not thinking the way that
you used to think that you’re not
dreaming on the same level that you’re
used to dreaming and yes it feels
awkward
and yes it feels uncomfortable and this
is what revival is revival is when
what was once dead comes back to life on
the inside of you
and there is a god-size dream a god-size
vision a god-size faith that is coming
back to life
you my friend you are in revival
and that declaration about pouring it
out is exactly where i find myself
in this moment god if this is revival if
it’s new
and uncomfortable and yet i have more
revelation than i’ve ever had before
and i have more prophecy and vision than
i’ve ever had before then i’m asking for
you to continue to pour it out
because i don’t want my old ways to stop
the momentum of revival revival has
momentum when we look at
the toronto blessing that revival had
momentum when we look at what happened
in los angeles in the 20s that revival
it has momentum and sometimes the only
thing that keeps us from experiencing
revival that withstands the test of time
is that we get in the way and so my
prayer for you tonight activate
is that you would not stand in the way
of revival
that you would find a way to say to
yourself god pour it out
pour it out i trust that this revival is
coming from you i trust that this
new is coming from you and so teach me
how to stand up in the face of revival
i’m praying that this message helps you
to can to maintain the momentum of
revival that you are experiencing
if you’re like it doesn’t feel like
revival where i am yet i want you to
just grab that word like it’s yours
anyway because i believe that this
message is going to help you walk into a
season of revival to walk into the
awareness and knowledge of revival
how could we not be in revival after
what we’ve gone through over the last
year
and some change do you think that we
went through what we went through to go
back to the way things were i certainly
do not i believe that we’ve gone through
what we’ve gone through because at the
end of the day
god wants to bring us to a season of
revival and my job is to just serve and
what god is doing in your life and that
is
my favorite thing to do i’m going to be
in mark
6 mark 6.
i’m going to start in verse 47.
i’m in the new king james version
my subject is the tutor and the test
the tutor and the test verse 47 is going
to begin
after jesus has been with the disciples
and they’ve been with the multitudes and
they’ve had a very long day of doing
what
jesus has been called to do in the earth
and jesus says i need a little alone
time come on soul care come on jesus
saying i don’t have time to fool with
y’all right now i need a minute by
myself
he says i need a little bit of self-care
but you guys go ahead
on i’ll meet you in the next town and so
the disciples are on a boat
headed to their next mission and jesus
has taken some time away
that’s where we find jesus in mark in
mark
6 verse 47. and it says now when evening
came
the boat was in the middle of the sea
and he this he is jesus was alone on the
land
then he saw them straining it rowing for
the wind was against them
now about the fourth watch of the night
he came to them
walking on the sea and would have passed
them by and when they saw him walking
on the sea they supposed it was a ghost
and cried out for they all saw him
and were troubled but immediately he
talked with them and said to them
be of good cheer it is i do not be
afraid
then he went up into the boat to them
and the wind
ceased and they were greatly amazed in
themselves beyond
measure and marvel
god you know this word much better than
i do
i feel that tonight’s message is meant
to be
prophetic that it is meant to just flow
and so father i pray that you would help
me to remove the idea of
structure and flow and instead
make myself available to be used by you
in any way and capacity
this is your moment these are your
people
i am but your servant and so i pray that
you would fill
my plate that i may hand it over to the
souls that needed the most
and that when we handed over father that
they would not see me
they would not hear my speech but that
your spirit would connect with their
spirit and that there would be change in
transformation
we honor you in jesus name
amen you know you gotta type amen in the
comments or the prayer didn’t happen
if you don’t type amen in the comments
nothing happens
uh you know this has been i’ve been
sharing over and over again how this has
been such an
interesting interesting season for my
family and i
and as if to just put some icing on the
cake my daughter mackenzie had
surgery she’s fine it was minimally
invasive
it was outpatient but this was the first
time she’s ever
experienced a surgery like this this was
the first time i’ve ever had a child in
surgery i’ve never had a child go under
general anesthesia and be carted away
to be under the care of a physician
and so when she came out of surgery and
she was groggy and i was telling her
you’re drunk you look drunk and you look
dusty i was
joking with her she had this moment even
in the midst of the haze and the
cloudiness of the anesthesia when she
said mom thank you for taking care of me
then she said it over and over again i
would put on her socks and she said mom
thank you so much for taking care of me
i’d pat her head and kiss her on the
forehead and she said mom
i’m so glad you’re here then i told her
i was like mackenzie
you keep thanking me but like this is
what moms do like
this is what i am supposed to do and one
day you’re going to have to do the same
for me you got to change my diapers one
day she was like girl i am not changing
your diapers i’m like oh you don’t know
what you’re ever going to have to do
because what i know for sure
is that as a parent and as an adult
child that there are moments when the
roles
certainly reverse and suddenly
the person who was taking care of you
now needs you to help take care of them
mckenzie doesn’t know it yet because
she’s just 11.
but this experience is really tutoring
her
for her it feels like a test but what i
know is that if god is gracious and
allows us to see the decades unfold
together
is that she’s going to pull from this
moment
and recognize how to stand up when she’s
really
in a test it’s no different than when
my mother would care for me as a child i
knew what to do
in that moment with my child because my
mother had tutored me before
of course in the context of life it
doesn’t feel like we’re being tutored it
just feels like an experience
but we’re actually being tutored for a
test that is to come
i remember when i had my daughter ella
and my mother would wake up in the
morning and take the older children to
school and she’d come home and make us
breakfast and she’d take the baby so
that i could take care of myself
and i was finding myself much like
mckenzie saying mom thank you so much
mom thank you so much
and then one day she told me this is as
much for you
as it is for my mother because my mother
did the same thing for me
she was tutored on how to show up for me
so that when the test came she knew how
to pass it
my subject for today is the tutor and
the test because there is this
interchangeable position that we are
always experiencing when we show up in
life
and i wanted to really emphasize this
word tutor because there are so many
moments where we think we’re standing in
a test
i’m standing in a test you already know
this too shall pass it’s
just a test god is just testing me god
is just
testing me he’s trying to test my faith
he’s trying to test my patience he’s
trying to test my love
we use this word test so cavalierly that
we miss out
on the moments and experiences
experiences when god is not just
testing us he’s actually tutoring us
god is tutoring us with experiences if
we don’t
unpack our experiences then we will
think everything is a test and we will
miss out on the reality
that there are some things that were
actually just tutoring us
and when we find the disciples in this
text
what they are standing is in is a test
but it is not a test that they have not
been prepared for before
the difference between a tutor and a
teacher
is that a tutor is only responsible for
depositing information
i’m not going to test you on this later
i’m not going to grade you on it i’m
just going to deposit this information
for you let’s separate these two ideas
for a moment
and focus on the moments when life is
tutoring us
when you find yourself in a circumstance
or an experience that you’ve never been
in before
you have no example nothing has gone
ahead of you you have to see that
experience
as something that is tutoring you this
is not
testing you oh god i feel god on this
i’m tutoring you on how to handle this
business
i’m tutoring you on how to communicate
better you don’t have an example you’ve
never been there before
and yet you’re standing in a moment that
is making a demand on knowledge you do
not have what you need to know about god
is that god is never going to test you
in something he hasn’t tutored you for
god is never going to test you in an
area where he hasn’t first prepared you
so if you’re standing in a moment that
you don’t feel prepared for you have to
see it
as an opportunity to be tutored because
i’m going to be tested on this later
i got this revelation a few weeks ago
because i kept feeling like there are so
many things coming
at me from all of these different
directions things on the family side
things on the business side
things just kept coming my direction and
i felt like man i’m being tested
and god says no i’m tutoring you so that
you can become who i’ve called you to be
you see you’re not going to be able to
pull from faith you’re not going to be
able to pull from experience you’re not
going to be able to pull from wisdom
unless you go through some experiences
that put that down
on the inside of you everything is not a
test there are some things that are just
tutoring you to teach you how to handle
it when you’re standing in a situation
where you don’t have anyone to pull from
all you have to pull from is what you’ve
already gone through i feel god on that
for somebody
that i’m putting you in a situation
where i’m tutoring you because there is
going to be a moment
where you don’t have anyone to ask when
you don’t have anyone who you can pick
up the phone and call but what you are
going to have
are the resources and experiences that
god has already brought you through
and there’s going to come a moment i
feel this for somebody you have been
tutored for the moment you’re standing
in
you feel like you are ill-equipped you
feel like you don’t have what it takes
but i hear god’s saying
before i put you there i tutored you for
this you’re ready for this
you’re armed for this and it’s time for
you to pull from what you’ve gone
through i hear god saying that you’ve
got to stop
separating your life thinking that there
is no connection between all of the
things that you’ve gone through
and recognize that not only is there
connection between everything you’ve
gone through but
everything you’ve gone through was
tutoring you for the moment you’re
standing
in right now you’ve been tutored for
this
you’ve been top for this you’ve been
equipped for this and now my only goal
is to understand what is it that is in
my past that i can pull from that can
show up in my present
you’ve been tutored for this you’re
ready for this
you’re equipped for this if you haven’t
been tutored for it then you’re being
tutored for it right now
but i hear god saying that the holy
spirit’s job
is to tutor you for where you are to be
headed
the holy spirit’s job is to whisper into
your mind
what you need to understand about this
moment i’m trying to bring clarity to a
moment for someone
you feel like you don’t have what it
takes but god says if you would tap into
the holy spirit
then you would hear the holy spirit
trying to tell you what to pull from
that you’ve already gone through there
are so many things in our past
so many things in our experiences so
many things that we have survived
and we talk about bearing our scars
but when you learn from your scars you
recognize that my scars are
tools to help me recognize the wisdom
that i’m going to need for my present
my scars serve me back first they hurt
me then they serve me
i want to talk about our scars for a
minute first they hurt me
first they wound me but then they serve
me because they become the wisdom in
which i build my life
with i want to talk to some people
who’ve been hiding your scars
you’ve been hiding your scars and you
don’t have any wisdom
because you don’t recognize that the
wisdom is connected to the scars
and the holy spirit says i can show you
how to extract the wisdom from the scars
and leave the shame behind some of us
don’t want to confront the scars because
there’s so much shame connected to the
scars
but i hear god saying i can teach you
how to extract the wisdom without taking
the scars and the shame
and the in the pain that came with those
scars with you
i can show you how to move into the
wisdom
and to move into the next armed with the
lessons of your past
your past is dangerous baby and it’s not
just dangerous because it can tear you
down
it’s dangerous because god says i can
use it to build it up
i can use you to build up your purpose i
can use it to build up your next i can
use it to build up your identity
and now we wonder why romans 8 and 28
comes up romans 8 and 28 talks about
making all things work together
that means that when i get finished
working it all together you’re going to
see that it is working together for your
good and so
we have a responsibility to our
experiences
to not hide them or to not pretend that
they did not occur
but instead to confront them recognizing
that this experience was a tutor
and it’s got a lesson that i’m going to
need for my present
when i find my disciples
in the text in mark 6 they’re on a boat
in the middle of the storm
most of us know about mark four
when they were on a boat in the middle
of a storm
if i can give you homework my homework
would be for you to go back to mark four
and to study mark four so that you can
see the moment in which
the disciples are on a boat with jesus
and the storm is raging
and they wake jesus up and they say
jesus do you not
care that we are perishing and jesus
says to the storm peace be
still and then he says to them oh ye of
little faith
and just a couple of chapters later now
we are in mark 6 and they are
in a boat in the middle of a storm again
mark 4 was the tutoring mark 6 is the
test
when we talk about getting insight into
the character in the mind of god we
recognize
that first he was with them in the storm
and now he’s watching them from a
distance
in the storm sometimes we want god to be
in the boat with us but the moments when
god is not in the boat with us it is a
sign to us that he has already prepared
us for the moment
we’re standing in but that doesn’t mean
that he has turned his back on us
it doesn’t mean that he is not watching
us it just means that he has so much
so much trust in what he placed down on
the inside of us that he doesn’t have to
be there where we can see him i wish i
could
say that the way that i feel it but
there are some moments when we feel
angry with god because we feel like god
you should have been right here with me
and god is saying but i put so much
in you that if i would have been right
there with you then you would not have
pulled on what i already placed down on
the inside of you
i hear god telling somebody that you
don’t need me to be there with you the
way that you think you need me
what you really need to do is pull from
what i place down on the inside of you
you want someone to tutor you 24 7 but
all of a sudden we see
jesus transition from being the tutor to
the teacher because now it’s time for me
to test what i put down on the inside of
you
you have been praying and you have been
preparing and you have been tutored
for this moment that you were standing
in right now and i hear god saying the
only way that i can make you draw on it
is if i put you in a situation where you
feel like you’re standing in it by
yourself
but i hear god saying you’re not in it
by yourself you’re armed with wisdom
you’re armed with experience you’re
armed with resources you’re armed with
tools you’re armed with knowledge
i feel like somebody needs to type in
the comments pull from it pull from it
pull from it
pull from what you’ve gone through pull
from what you’ve experienced
pull from what your mother taught you
pull from what your father taught you i
hear god saying that you got more fight
in you than you realize
and there are some moments where god has
to fight your battle but there are some
other moments where god gives you a
slingshot
when god gives you five smooth stones
and he says you got this one i just need
you to pull from what you’ve already got
pulled from it
pull from it pull from it pull from it i
want to talk to your spirit from a
minute
because i need you to pull from what’s
down in your spirit i need you to pull
from all of that prayer you’ve been
praying
i need you to pull from all of those
messages you’ve received you posted it
for other people to see but what about
your
own life you posted it for other people
to experience but what about your own
life i hear god saying you can encourage
everyone else
but you can’t encourage yourself it’s
time for you to pull from the very thing
you’ve been giving everyone else
it’s time for you to pull from that same
belief that same faith that same courage
that same wisdom
that you believe god can do in everyone
else’s life but you don’t apply it to
your own life it’s time for you to pull
from it
pull from it it’s testing season school
is out for the children but for the
grown folks we don’t get summer break
school is out for the children but for
the grown folks we got to take tests in
summertime
we got to take tests when everyone else
is on break we got to take a test when
everyone else is on vacation
because god knows what he placed down on
the inside of us so i’m going to put you
in a position
where you feel like i could be
unqualified or i could be the best
person
ever for the job because i got something
to pull from
i don’t know who you are but i want to
prophesy over you right now
that god gave you something to pull from
when it came to raising that child
god gave you something to pull from when
it comes to keeping that marriage
together
i gave you something to pull from for
that job you are not who your fears say
you are
you are not who your insecurities say
you are you are not who your anxiety
says you are
god says when i gave you the holy spirit
i gave you something to pull from
and you want to talk about a well that
will never run dry
that’s exactly what happens when we get
into the flow of what god wants to do in
our life
he gives us something to pull from i’m
standing in a moment where i need some
strength god says pull from it
i’m standing in a moment where i need
some faith i hear god saying pull from
it
i need more love pull from it i need
more peace pull from it
how can i pull from it in the middle of
the storm you’ve already been tutored
for this
somebody needs to know you’ve been here
before you’ve been here before you’ve
been nervous before
you’ve been afraid before you’ve been
wondering whether or not you’ve had what
it takes before
and look at you still standing look at
you still moving
look at you still dreaming you’ve been
here before
this ain’t your first rodeo baby
you’ve been here before the disciples
the disciples have been here before i’ve
been in a boat
in the middle of a storm before and last
time i was on a boat in the middle of a
storm
jesus questioned my faith and said i had
nothing to be afraid of
so now that i’m in a boat again in the
middle of the storm i’m pulling from
what i’ve gone through before
and we see the disciples in the boat and
they’re pulling this boat forward even
though the wind is blowing
they’re pulling this boat forward even
though the waves are roaring
they’re pulling it forward anyway
because they recognize i’ve been here
before
my text tells me that evening came
and the boat was in the middle of the
sea is
testing this is the environment of the
test
the boat is in the middle of the sea and
jesus is
alone on land alone but still watching
alone but still seeing so on one hand it
feels like they’re in the storm by
themselves but they don’t know that
jesus is watching from land
and my text tells me that jesus saw them
straining it rowing for the wind was
against them
there’s somebody you’ve been straining
trying to keep this boat moving
even though it feels like the wind is
against you
oh but i feel god’s saying that there’s
a fresh strength that you have that you
would not have had had you not survived
the
last storm you were in it’s not that i
don’t see the wind
it’s not that i don’t see the waves but
i already know that god is with me
it’s not that i don’t see the trouble
it’s not that i don’t see reasons to be
afraid but i know that god is with
me so i’m gonna keep growing even if it
means i’ve got a strain
i’ma keep rowing even if it means i have
to do it sometimes afraid
because there’s something in my knower
that shows me that the last time i was
in a similar situation that
i finally made it to land you see the
enemy doesn’t want you to remember
your previous experiences because if you
remember your previous experiences
what you’ll also recognize is that i
survived that too
and that i came out on the other side
i’m not saying i didn’t have a wound
i’m not saying i wasn’t scarred but i
survived that too i love this text the
text says that the wind is against them
did you know that it is possible for
something to be working for you
and against you at the same time we talk
about things working together for our
good we talk about things making us
stronger
but what we don’t talk about is in the
moment it feels like it’s working
against me even though i know it’s
working for me
when you’re out there running on the
treadmill and your heart is about to
give out
and you can hardly breathe your heart is
saying yes it feels like it’s working
against me but it’s also making me
stronger
i want to talk to what’s working against
you right now and i want to remind that
i want to remind what’s working against
you that it’s actually working for you
that i’m actually making you stronger
even as you strain
somebody’s got strength coming to them
as they strain somebody’s got
courage coming to them even as they
strain it’s working against me but it’s
working for me too
it’s working against me i don’t know how
the marriage is gonna work out but i’m
learning to understand that i can also
be alone with god
it’s working against me but it’s working
for me at the same time
i don’t have the tools i don’t have the
technique it feels like it’s working
against me but i’m up on my laptop at
night
trying to figure out what i don’t have
it’s working against me but it’s working
for me at the same time
i don’t know who i’m talking to but i
feel like you need to know
that just because it’s working against
you doesn’t mean that it’s not working
for you
that’s how god does math and if you
don’t know that that’s how god does
math you’ll think that it’s just working
against you
but god knows who you’re becoming on the
inside your
inner man your inner woman your inner
strength your spirit is being made
stronger
i’ve prayed like i’ve never had to pray
before the wind is against me but my
prayer life is increased
i’ve been dedicating my worship time
like never before
it feels like life is against me but
it’s also also working for me at the
same time
this moment in our lives this moment in
our experience
it’s teaching us it’s tutoring us
it’s giving us something to pull from
so here my disciples are my disciples
are in this moment
and they’re straining it rowing for the
wind is against them
but they keep on moving anyway
they keep on pushing anyway because they
know they know what they know
oh god i feel like god is raising up a
generation
this is a prophetic word and i hope i
can say it the way that it hit my spirit
we often talk about the generations that
came before us
and how they had unshakable faith
and how they were able to survive storm
after storm and season after season
and i feel like somebody needs to know
that the baton of faith is being passed
to a new generation
but in order for us to take that baton
of faith
that we are going to have to become the
type of people who
can withstand storms who can withstand
adversity
who can withstand challenges you have
all of these heroes
you have all of these people you admire
but you’re just looking at their
achievements
you’re not looking at what they had to
survive in order to get those
achievements and i hear god saying that
as this next generation of leaders
emerge
and i don’t talk i’m not just saying
leaders in ministry i’m saying leaders
in their communities leaders in your
family
that what you’re going to have to be
armed with is the history
of god being faithful and consistent
throughout the ages
god has given you history the disciples
have history
and they are on the fourth watch of the
night
four nights of not giving up
four nights on hanging on to that lesson
that they’ve had before
fortnite seems like a short time but i
dare you to get your boat
into the middle of the atlantic in the
middle of a storm
and see how long you can hold on
before feeling like god you forgot about
me their
faith was increased the first night of
the storm in mark
four they woke jesus up they’re on the
fourth night and they’re still straining
and they’re still rowing but they
haven’t given up yet
and then all of a sudden jesus comes
walking by the boat
then my text tells me that jesus would
have passed them by
the jesus saw them working saw them
straining
and would have passed them by because he
knew they had it
jesus doesn’t intervene when he knows
we’ve got it
he was going to pass them by even in the
middle of the storm he didn’t ask the
storm to stop
he didn’t give them extra strength for
for the boat and for rowing
he was going to pass them by because
what they had in that moment even if it
was a strain was enough to survive the
storm
sometimes we want overflow but what we
have to recognize is that there is
enough in this strain to still get us to
survival
there is enough in this stretch to still
get us to survival
and the only reason why jesus doesn’t
pass them by is because they think that
he is a ghost
and because they think he is a ghost
they cry out
the disciples were able to to pull from
the tutoring for the storm
but now in the middle of the storm
something has been introduced that they
don’t know how to handle
and in the process of them not knowing
how to handle it they cry out
i was reading this and i was thinking to
myself
can you imagine straining and rowing
all right god i remember last time
i’ll keep straining and i’ll keep
growing even in the middle of the storm
but that ghost that goes hit a little
different
okay you didn’t prepare me for this
ghost you didn’t prepare me for the
unknown
you didn’t prepare me for what i thought
was dead to come back to life
after all isn’t that what a ghost is
when something is dead that we feel has
come back to
life when the shame we thought we had
killed
when the insecurity we thought had died
starts coming back to life in the middle
of a storm
the storm is one thing but the ghost is
another
i don’t know how to handle the ghost i
thought this ghost was dead
i thought i’d finally overcome that i
thought i’d finally gotten to a place
where i had control of my mind where i
had control over lust
where i understood where my integrity
holes were i thought i’d overcome this
and now i’m in the middle of the storm
and i could handle the storm
but the ghost is trying to tell me that
i can’t handle the storm
the ghost is trying to remind me of who
i used to be the ghost is trying to make
me think that it’s not
actually dead it is the ghost that could
that took them off of their game
for somebody you’re listening to this
message and it’s not even the storm that
is coming after you
it is the ghost the idea that what i
thought was dead is not
actually dead that maybe that low
self-esteem is still there
maybe that insecurity is still there
maybe that neediness is still there
maybe that brokenness is still there
it’s not the storm that’s trying to take
me out it’s the ghost that’s trying to
take me out
and i hear god saying that sometimes you
need to see a ghost
because the ghost reminds you of what
has actually died
i wish i could say that the way that i
received the revelation
but there are two ways to look at a
ghost
one way is to say it’s coming back to
life
one way is to say that it’s haunting me
again
it’s taunting me again but another way
to look at it
is to say that this ghost is already
trying to show me what i’ve survived
this ghost is trying to remind me of
what i’ve overcome
when jesus starts walking on the water
they are afraid at first
but then when they realize that it is
jesus and he gets on the boat with them
they realize that what i’m calling a
ghost
is actually a testimony what i’m calling
a ghost is actually
evidence that i’ve already survived this
storm before
what i’m calling a ghost what the the
ghosts that have been haunting you in
this season
the ghosts that i keep showing up in
your life are trying to show you that
you were once inadequate
you were once deficient but you got into
your prayer closet you deepened your
spiritual roots
you went to therapy you got the help
that you needed and you overcame this
ghost in the past
so the next time the ghosts of your past
start talking to you
i want you to tell that ghost i thank
you for being a testimony
every now and then the ghost of my past
starts showing up and it tries to tell
me that i don’t have what it takes
it tries to tell me that i’m too
inadequate to take the position that god
has called me to
but what i see in that moment is god
reminding me of what i’ve already
survived your ghost is a testimony
your ghost is trying to show you what
god has already pulled you through
that ghost is trying to remind you that
you’ve been here before
that ghost is trying to remind you that
if you overcame this
then you can overcome that and now when
the ghost tells me that you’re a teen
mom you don’t have any business
ministering
i say to the ghost i am a teen mom and
that is exactly why i’m ministering
because if i overcame that
then god could put me in a position to
help someone else overcome what they’ve
gone through
that ghost is in your cheering corner
that ghost is working for you it don’t
even realize it’s working for you
i hear god saying that if you could
change the tone of the ghost
then you will see that that ghost is
anointed
to show you that you have survived
storms before
jesus gets in the boat with the
disciples
he was going to pass them by but when
they realize that it’s him and he tells
them you don’t have to be afraid it’s me
he says be of good cheer
it is i the god of my ghost
the god of my ghost is
you in the middle of the storm is you
trying to show me that after about
survived before it’s you
trying to help me see my own strength
i could have ended it there but as i
read a little bit further
i saw that jesus gets into the boat with
them
and the wind ceases and
then it says they were greatly amazed
in themselves beyond measure
why were they greatly amazed in
themselves
they weren’t just greatly amazed
at the fact that the wind stopped and
the storm stopped because they’ve
already seen that before
what i think as i was reading this text
is that they were greatly amazed in
themselves
for how they stood up to this storm
how they stood up to the test
how they used their previous experiences
how they used the
tutoring of their past for the test
in their present
jesus i’m glad you’re in the boat
but i’m amazed in myself
that you were willing to pass me by
because you had so much
faith that i had it
i feel like somebody needs to know
that you are not always going to feel
insufficient oh god
that you’re not always going to have
this false
humility that you are going to come to a
place where you are greatly
amazed in yourself
at who you have become because you were
led by the spirit of god
man whoever you are just feel like that
as you’re hearing these words that there
are tears streaming down your face
because the idea of you being greatly
amazed in yourself
feels so foreign and distinct and yet
it’s hitting your spirit in a way you
can’t fully describe
when god says i know the thoughts i have
towards you
those thoughts are not the same thoughts
that plague your mind
and there’s going to come a moment when
your thoughts towards yourself
and god’s thoughts towards you look the
same
and in that moment you’re going to be
amazed
that you finally abandoned the paradigm
of doubt
the paradigm of fear the paradigm of
worry
that has shaped everything that you’ve
ever done
the disciples are greatly amazed in
themselves beyond
measure and they marveled at this moment
where the experiences of my past finally
served in my present circumstance
this is a full circle moment if ever
there was one
this is a moment where the disciples are
able to say god i thank you
for how you gave me enough to pull from
and when i finally pulled from it and
applied it i saw my life
change
i was studying for myself first
and as i was studying for this message
one thing that i felt very clearly
is that what i have been calling a tough
season
was really a tutoring season
what i’ve been calling rough what i’ve
been thinking i i don’t know if i can
make it through this that i was willing
to throw in the towel and i was just
being tutored
and that this is the season this is the
moment this
is the time in which god equips us
so that he can pull from us later
i’ll say it like this this is the moment
in which we are receiving deposits from
heaven
the positive creativity deposits of
structure
deposits of innovation and it feels so
burdensome and it feels so heavy because
i didn’t realize how much i lacked
but god says i’m going to make a demand
on what i’m placing on you in this
season
and you’re going to mentor someone
through the very thing you’re struggling
through right now
it’s gonna be a test but you’re gonna
pass
it and you may have to strain to pass it
you may have to cry to pass it
you may have to wait four nights in the
middle of a storm to pass it
[Music]
but the tutor says you’ve got what it
takes
to pass the test i want to pray with you
family
i have to tell you this morning when i
was
preparing for activate i didn’t know i
didn’t know what god was going to do
with this word
it didn’t make any sense to me on paper
i just felt
all of these different things in my
heart and in my mind
but one thing i heard so clearly is that
some of us
are being tutored we’re receiving
deposits
the positive faith the positive strength
the positive strategy the positive
connection
and then others of us are being tested
and those of us who are being tested
have to recognize
that god’s not putting us in a test that
he hasn’t tutored us for first
i want to pray for both of us whether
we’re being tutored
or being tested because either way
we are not without god’s grace
covering and anointing
and some of us are straining but still
rowing
and others don’t have enough faith
but i believe that as we’ve come
together and god pours out his spirit
that he’s going to allow us access
to something to pull from for some of us
it’s going to be a memory a reminder for
others it’s going to be a fresh deposit
god i thank you for every every person
under the sound of my voice right now
god i thank you that we recognize that
life is an
amalgamation of experiences and some of
them make sense
and some of them do not father for the
experiences that we have pushed to
decide
thinking to ourselves i don’t know how
you’re going to make any sense of that
or it feels like i lost time that i
didn’t have anything to deal
from deal with in those moments
that you are setting us up
for us to realize that it is in the
examination of those experiences that
you were going to teach us
what those moments were depositing in
our spirit
god i thank you that as i’ve been
speaking right now
that someone has come come to terms with
what this season is
and as they’ve come to terms with what
this season is they’re getting renewed
strength
we need renewed hope renewed passion
recognizing
that i’m being tutored for what is to
come
or i’m being tested but i am not without
resources
father i pray that you would bring to
our remembrance every experience that
has prepared us for the moment we are
currently standing in
and that suddenly where we felt
deficiency we will suddenly feel like
we’ve got
everything we need to stand up to it
give us this day our daily bread that’s
what your word promises and that’s what
we believe
and father i come against the spirit of
torment right now
and i speak against ghosts that are
trying to whisper to us that we’re
headed backwards when we know that those
ghosts are only a testimony
of how we can move forward i ask that
you would restructure the way that we
see our lives that we will not see a
series of failures but rather a series
of lessons meant to
show us how to move forward
we receive your holy spirit your sweet
guidance your sweet presence
let it meet us in the areas where we
need it the most
and guide us to the place that you have
in mind
not our goal not our vision not our plan
but only what you have for us
may we breathe it in hold it in close
and then exhale any doubt that stands in
the way
thank you god for this time with you let
it marinate
let it produce fruit and may the
generations that come
benefit from this shift that took place
in this moment
in jesus name amen
activate family we love you so much if
this is your word
i want you to play it over and over
again i feel like there’s going to be
something fresh and new
that hits you each time make sure you
leave nothing on the table
we’ll see