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hey family i’m pastor torre
i’m pastor sarah and listen you’re
getting ready to hear an incredible word
for the lord i believe it’s going to
bless you
i believe it’s going to be timely do me
a favor
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not only helping to spread this message
but to be a part of our outreaches
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to use the information here in the video
to support what we’re doing we’re being
a blessing not just people spiritually
we’re being a blessed people practically
we love you get into this message
and change your life
i’m going to be speaking out of judges
16
verse 16.
my subject for those of you who like to
take notes is tight rope
tightrope and god willing that’s going
to make more sense when this is
all said and done but i’m going to start
in judges 16 and 16 and my text begins
it says
[Music]
and it came to pass when she
pestered him daily with her words a
little background
so this is samson and delilah and you
don’t even have to be a bible scholar to
understand this samson is like
the popeye of the bible okay the guy was
strong
okay but there was a secret to his
strength
and this woman was trying to figure out
the secret to his strength
and you know it’s not nice to say that
people are
dull of wit but samson strong as he is
is not the
sharpest knife in the drawer and so this
woman has tried at this point in the
text she’s tried three times
to figure out what the secret is to his
strength
and this moment is when she’s going to
finally get the answer from him
so verse 16 it begins and it says and it
came to pass
when she pestered him daily with her
words and pressed him so that his soul
was
vexed to death come on somebody knows
what it’s like to be vexed to death
that he told her all his heart and said
to her
no razor has ever come upon my head for
i have been a nazarite to god from my
mother’s womb
if i am shaven then my strength will
leave me and i shall become weak
and be like any other man when delilah
saw that he had told her
all that is in his heart she sent and
called for the lords of the philistines
these are his enemies the enemies
who’ve been trying to figure out the
secret of his strength she calls to the
philistines saying
come up once more for he has told me all
his heart
so the lords of the philistines came up
to her and brought the money in their
hand then she lulled him to sleep on her
knees
and called for a man and had him shave
off the seven
locks of his heads come on dreadlocks
then she began to
torment him and his strength left him
and she said
the philistines are upon you samson so
he awoke from his sleep
and said i will go out as before at
other times and
shake myself free but he did not know
that the lord
had departed from him spirit of the
living god
we receive your presence
we receive that there is a nugget in
this word perhaps we’ve already begun to
see that you’ve been speaking to us in
the worship
but father we believe that this is a
divine moment for you to speak and so
father
i pray that you would make me the
perfect vessel for this moment
that even in my imperfection even in my
insecurity that you would make me
perfect in this moment
because your oil your grace your
anointing is going to flow
through me it’s going to flow into
africa your anointing it’s going to flow
over to the east coast it’s going to
flow
into the west coast it’s going to flow
into brazil it’s going to flow into
australia
because your anointing your grace your
word cannot be
distanced by location father but when it
inhabits the earth
you said that it will not return unto
you void and so father i pray that
whoever this word is for
will be open and empty enough to receive
it
to stand in it and to allow it to become
flesh on the inside of them god i thank
you
so much that you are consistent in
showing up
and that you’re going to do exactly that
in this moment
in jesus name amen
you know pt has been speaking to us all
the latter part of 2020 about the vision
for 2021 for us as a church first of all
i have to tell you
being a part of a church that has vision
is something that we cannot take for
granted
when our pastor is talking to god about
who we are to be and how we are to
navigate in the earth
god gave him a word and that word was
bridges and so he’s been talking to us
about how the church is going to be a
bridge how we are going to be a bridge
how we’re going to be meeting
the the we’re how we’re going to be
building a bridge that will allow us to
overcome
problems and to solve problems that have
been taken
place in the earth and i’ve been
meditating on that because i have to
tell you when i
heard that i was so very excited about
my opportunity to become a bridge
you see when you receive a word it’s one
thing to just receive it in the moment
but
i know so many of you take notes and you
say to god god how do i
apply this to my life and that’s one of
the things that i was doing god you’ve
rece
you’ve given me this mandate from my
covering you’ve given me this mandate
from my pastor you’ve given me this
mandate from the community that i
am a part of and so father i’m not going
to sit back and watch someone else step
into the word that you gave to all of us
god i’m asking you how do i respond to
the word that’s something that we’ve got
to get down in our spirit
when we receive a word don’t just be a
hearer of a word
of the word but be a doer of the word
what is my response to the word that i
received
and so i’ve been praying god if my role
is to be a bridge
what is my responsibility and my
response to that mandate
and as i was praying i heard god saying
there are so many bridges connected to
your name
i feel this for somebody i don’t know
who you are that god has
ordained you to be a bridge in so many
different
areas in your community for your family
in your industry
he’s going to make you a bridge he’s
going to give you the ideas he’s going
to give you the creativity
he’s going to give you the vision
connected with how you’re going to build
this
bridge and i felt that for me as well
and one of the things that he told me
the first thing i want you to master
though are the bridges that exist down
on the inside of you
you see sometimes we focus so much on
the bridges we want to build
outside of us i want to bridge faith and
fashion i want to bridge
non-profit services with the people in
my community
i want to bridge ministry into the
culture we focus so much on the
outer impact of our bridge but i heard
god saying
that we’re working on the outside
without focusing on the inside sometimes
and i want you to make sure that while
you’re solving the problems on the
outside that you’re also paying
attention to the bridges that you need
to have
on the inside i wish i could preach it
the way that pt preached it
but in the message when he was telling
us about the infrastructure of the
bridge
he was telling us about the bottom part
of the bridge the bridge that isn’t even
seen
and that is the area that is most
important because it is what allows us
to have
weight on us and so if you will allow me
for this thursday night activate
i would like to draw your attention to
the bridges
or lack thereof that are are required
for our insights
when we talk about bridges this is where
our discipline and our
integrity and how we’re going to show up
in the world begins to play a role
because we cannot go from where we are
to who we are supposed to be in god
without building a bridge we can’t go
from bitterness to forgiveness unless we
build a bridge
we can’t go from angry and easily
angered into someone who’s
patient and kind unless we’re building a
bridge god i know where i am supposed to
be but how do i build a bridge from
where i
am to where i am headed and i heard god
tell me in my prayer time and in my
study time that we
have to see the connection between our
choices
and where we are headed our choices
are the bricks and the tools that build
the bridge to where we are headed
i can tell where you’re headed by the
choices you’re making today
your choices are building a bridge you
may not
know that or maybe we don’t think about
it in the moment because we see the
choice is something that is singular
and isolated but the reality is that
every choice is laying a brick towards
a bridge and you have to ask yourself do
i like the bridge of where this is
headed
it’s not just a hey big head text it’s a
choice and me responding to that text
message is a choice for me to be
entangled in something that i know is
less than me it’s not just a one-time
thing i’m building a bridge
and we have to ask ourselves am i going
to like who’s on the other side of this
bridge is god going to rejoice on who’s
on the other side of the bridge
it’s not just one night it’s a bridge
i’m building something each time i make
a decision i’m
building something each time i pick up
my phone and i ingest information i’m
building something each time i read my
word
i’m building something there are some
people who have made some decisions
about 2021
and in making those decisions they are
making different choices because they
recognize
that the only way i’m going to get to
who god has in mind in 2021
is if i make a decision today i can’t
postpone it
i have to make a choice today that’s
going to get me there i want to become
closer to god so i don’t just turn on
churches something that i have to do as
my to-do list i dig into the word
because i want to get closer to him
my choices are building a bridge come on
somebody if you have made a decision
that you are going to be building this
bridge i want you to type in the
comments i’m building something i’m
building something i’m building
something
my choices are different i’m not the
same person who i used to be
my choices are building something you’ve
never seen before
yes i’m acting a little funny but my
choices are building something
yes i had to isolate myself but my
choices are building something no i
don’t have time for that any longer
because my choices are building
something what are your choices building
my choices are building a bridge to who
i am supposed to be
my choices are building a bridge to who
god has called me to be
my choices are going to build that
ministry it’s not just going to happen
because you got on instagram
your inside choices are gonna determine
how you get there
i’m building something in my marriage i
gotta make a different choice
i’m building something in my business i
gotta make a different choice
i’m trying to buy that house i gotta
make a different choice my choices are
building a bridge
god told me responsibility is a part of
my mandate for 2021
so the area where i was being
irresponsible i’m making a different
choice because i’m bridging it to
responsibility
the area where i didn’t have integrity
i’m communicating on a different level
because i’m trying to build some
integrity so you have to understand that
we’re not just going to wake up and have
it
we’re going to have it because we built
it we’re going to have it because we
took the word that god said
and we started applying it to our
decisions we started saying god what do
i need to
change in order to build that’s what we
need to start asking god
is what do i need to change about how
i’m functioning today
so that i can build something that has
your glory on it tomorrow
what do i need to change about how i
engage so that i can build something
that has your glory on it tomorrow
god teach me how to build wholeness i’m
single and i’m lonely but i need you to
teach me how to build
wholeness in this season because i want
to show that it’s better to be lonely
and it’s better to be single and by
yourself than it is to settle for
something that doesn’t look like you
so god show me how to build my life as a
single person
show me how to build my marriage god
show me how to raise these children
i don’t want them to be broken in the
same way i was broken i’m trying to
build something that i’ve never seen
before
so god if you give me the words i’ll let
my choices lay the bricks
and i’ll end up where you decided
because you are the chief architect
of the bridge i’m trying to build inside
of me
and so when we come to that realization
and we allow that to become our mandate
we recognize that the connection between
our choices
and the bridge that we are building are
going to determine our destination
there are some choices that we have made
that we wish we could undo
if we’re being honest here i’ve made
some choices
that built a bridge that now feels like
an
island yeah
yeah you’re saying pastor i understand
what you’re saying about choices
leading you to destinations but now the
place that i’m on it feels like an
island as in i don’t know how to move
from here regret would tell us that
what you need to do is go back to where
you started
but faith tells us that if you feel like
you’re on an island
and you’re ready to move from where you
are to where you know you’re supposed to
be in god
then maybe we should stop looking for a
bridge that looks like the brooklyn
bridge
maybe we should stop looking for a
bridge that looks like the san francisco
bridge
and instead we should start looking for
a rope a tight rope
you see there are some bridges
that don’t look like bridges at all
because they are so small and the line
is so
finite that you have to become someone
you’ve never been before
to cross that bridge yeah
i want to talk to you about walking on
a tightrope because i heard god telling
me
in my own prayer time that in order for
me to move from where i
am to where i am supposed to be that it
may not be as easy as just
walking without having to be careful and
it may not be as easy
as walking without sensitivity because
there’s so much infrastructure and
confidence around me
that it may look like walking on a
tightrope
can you imagine what it’s like to walk
on a tightrope
in those moments yes this is
a bridge but there’s so much fear and
anxiety connected to this moment
and yes i got across it anyway
when i’m innovating a new path that’s
never been done before and i’m trying to
do this
without the degree and without the help
and without the support
it’s not as easy to be a bridge when
you’re walking on a tightrope i want to
talk to some people who are watching
today
who god says i’m going to ask you to
bridge
something but you’re going to have to do
it with the tight rope if that’s you
i want you to say that’s me that’s me
that’s me god’s asking me to do this on
a tightrope the bridge to who you are
supposed to become and god may look like
a tightrope the purpose that is
connected to your life the forgiveness
that wholeness it’s going to look like a
tightrope and that’s why
god brought this story of samson
into my mind when samson tells
delilah that since birth he was a
nazirite
what he’s saying to us is my strength is
is connected to my ability to walk the
tightrope of being a nazarite
and nazarite is an israelite consecrated
to the service of god
under these vowels they abstain from
alcohol
they let their hair grow and they avoid
defilement by contact with corpses
that’s even
family members or whatever they’re not
able to engage with corpses
they have to allow their hair to grow
they don’t celebrate the way other
people
celebrate they don’t cut themselves in
the way other people cut themselves
because they have to live on a tightrope
sampson has been living on this
tightrope
since birth and his strength
is connected to his ability to stay on
that tightrope
your strength oh god i feel it your
strength is not going to come because
someone else came and give and gave you
something
it’s not going to come because you were
able to outsmart the people who are
around you i hear god saying that your
ability to make it to this next
dimension your ability
to walk in the favor and promises of god
your ability to hate to shake earth up
in a way that makes heaven rejoice is
connected with your ability
to navigate this tightrope that you have
to live on
i hear god saying that you cannot defeat
enemies
and walk on a tightrope at the same time
unless you’re walking on the tightrope
that god has given you god help me to
break this down the way that you gave it
to me
when we see samson in this moment he is
confident about who he
is he is confident about the strength
that he carries
because he’s learned to live life on a
tightrope when i think about my husband
and i think about how god has blessed
him
how god has transcended him from where
he started to where he is now
it’s what i hear at night that moves me
the most it’s not the books though i’m
proud of that
it’s not the messages though they have
moved me and changed my life
it’s about who he said he had to become
on the inside
the integrity that he had to carry on
the inside i had to learn to walk on a
tightrope
i had to learn to make sure that i
wasn’t falling in with the same crowd
that kept pulling me down
i hear god saying that you want to fit
in and walk on a tightrope at the same
time
and that’s why nothing has moved in your
life yet but i hear god saying if you
would surrender to the fact
that the only way you’re going to be
strengthened in this season is if you
learn to walk on a tightrope i hear god
saying i do always provide
and i most certainly provide for those
who are willing to sacrifice their
comfort
and sacrifice the way they have always
done things and dare to get on the
tightrope
the tightrope that says god this is who
i am even if i have to do it afraid
god i’m going to make this marriage work
even if it means i have to walk on a
tightrope what does that mean
that means i communicate when i want to
suppress that means i pray when i want
to be bitter
why am i doing this because i gotta make
it to the other side
you see as long as you have options you
may not get on a tightrope but when you
decide god i don’t want to do anything
if you’re
not in it and god i don’t want to be
anywhere if you’re not on the other side
of it
god says but can you follow me on the
tightrope i’m thinking about the virgin
mary when she heard that she was going
to become pregnant with the holy spirit
in order to do that thing in order to
carry the spirit of god
god said you’re going to have to learn
to walk on a tightrope you’re going to
have to hide away
sometimes you’re going to have to give
birth in a barn but baby when i tell you
i’m going to be with you
i hear god saying that what you don’t
understand about the tightrope
is yes it’s scary and yes it’s lonely
and no you don’t always know if you have
what it takes
but he always provide who is the he that
i am talking about
it is the great i am who told me i’m
going to be your safety net when you get
on the tightrope
i’m going to make sure that it’s got
enough slack in it to give you breaks
when you need it i’m
i’m learning i’m learning how to walk on
a tightrope when peter had to build the
church he had to do it on a tightrope
when moses had to save the egyptians
when he had to save the hebrew children
from the egyptians
he had to learn to walk on a tightrope
i’m neither hebrew nor
egyptian but i’m learning to walk on a
tightrope i hear god saying that you’re
in the world
but not of the world what does that mean
that i’m in the world but i’m walking on
a tightrope
that i understand that my role in this
world is to make sure that heaven
touches earth
i wish i had some people in this chat
room who would give me about 30 seconds
to thank god that he’s still going to be
with us even when we get on tightropes
that he’s still going to be with us even
when i lose my balance
i hear god saying you think you’re going
to lose your balance if you try
so you haven’t even stepped into it yet
but i hear god saying if you would just
take
one step if you would just get yourself
in position
then i would allow for my grace to show
up and show you how to make it the rest
of the way
some of us won’t get on a tightrope
because we’re not sure we’ll make it to
the other end
god says that’s good if you get on the
tightrope
you’re going to have more faith than
you’ve ever had you’re going to pray in
a way you’ve never prayed before
god says you want to know how it ends
and i want to know when you’re going to
get started
you want to know how it’s going to turn
out and i hear god saying if you would
just
take a step take a step take a step
take a step take a step take a step take
a step it’s
going to be hard but you got to take the
step anyway it’s going to cause you to
become someone you’ve never been before
but you got to take this step anyway
that you’ve got to want what god wants
for you and bad is just as bad as god
wants you to have it
you’ve got to have what god wants for
you down in your spirit so heavy
that it makes you do crazy things
like instead of falling into hustling
you decide now is the time for me to
pray and center myself
because when the gun is fired
i got to make sure i’m in position
samson has been living on a tightrope
for so long that his strength
is his confidence
and yet what this text reveals to us
as though he has mastered living on a
tightrope since birth
that maybe what looks like a tight rope
on the outside is just his norm
that means that what would have been
hard maybe when he explained it to
delilah
about his strength was actually not hard
for him at all because it’s all he’s
ever known
some of us were born on a tightrope
and we learned to live on that tightrope
and to navigate that tightrope the
identity between
our calling in our communities our
calling and our families i’ve been
living on a tightrope i recognize that
that is my distinction that is what
makes me strong
and samson is now so confident in his
ability to navigate that tight rope that
he doesn’t recognize the other areas of
his life
that are going to sabotage his strength
you see samson has a weakness
and this particular weakness is for
women and this woman is a part
of his enemies camp
and because samson is so used to walking
on this tightrope he hasn’t dared to
evaluate the other areas of his life
where he could stand to tighten up a
little bit if he was in church i would
say tag your name and say tighten up
tighten up but since we’re not in church
i want you to
type it tighten up tighten up tighten up
samson
needs to tighten up
you see because one of the things that
we have to learn from this
and one of the things that is important
to us as we
study this scripture and as we study
this story
is the connection between samson’s
weakness
and his strength i feel like a lot of
times we compartmentalize our weakness
and we think i’m weak here but i’m
strong here
and somehow that balances things out and
so we don’t focus
on how we need to get that weakness on a
tightrope so that it can eventually
become
a strength and so instead
samson is so confident in who he is and
where he is now
that he thinks that he is strong enough
to handle
the casualties of his weakness
have you ever been there where you feel
like you’re strong enough to handle the
casualties of your weakness
like maybe there’s a toxic relationship
that you know is a weakness but you feel
like you’re strong enough
to navigate it at arm’s length
maybe you’re trying to save a certain
amount of money maybe you’re trying to
build a business and you
indulge in things that you know are a
weakness but you feel like you’re strong
enough
to handle that weakness at arm’s length
that’s what happens when we see samson
in this text
he’s learned to walk the tight rope but
he hasn’t dissected the air
other areas of his life that need to
come into submission to that level of
discipline
and because he has failed to do that his
weakness is now sabotaging his strength
that’s somebody’s word right there
you’re compartmentalizing your
weaknesses but what you need to
understand
is that your weakness is going to
sabotage the area of your strength
that is not just going to be separated
that if you become so comfortable with a
weakness that has become
unaddressed that god is not going to
allow you to just continue to
keep flirting with your enemy while he’s
also trying to raise you
up to be something that’s different than
what you’ve seen before
samson’s greatest issue here is not that
he’s
a nazirite his greatest issue is not
that he’s had to walk on a tightrope
his greatest issue in this moment is
that he hasn’t dissected the other areas
of his life that need to come into
submission
your weakness is going to sabotage your
strength
what i wrote in my notes when i was
study is you can
you cannot flirt with the behavior
patterns rhythms
that you’re trying to kill that you
can’t be trying
to kill it and flirt with it at the same
time
that you can’t come to a place where you
think that you have your weaknesses
under such
control that you don’t understand that
it’s going to sabotage
your strength so to overcome his
weakness samson would have to get on a
different type of tightrope
and this type rope may require him to be
lonely
this tight rope may require him to to
have his confidence in something other
than who he slept with and because
samson
did not get on that tightrope he became
known for his
weakness instead of his strength
family if i could talk to you for a
minute
what i would say to you is this
no matter how well we master walking on
one tightrope it doesn’t mean that we
have mastered
every area of our life that needs to
come into submission
the bridge to get to who we are to where
we want to become in god
it may look like a tightrope in some
seasons
and when we master it we have to be
willing to look back and say god now
what is the next area maybe it was my
wisdom in one season
now it’s my discipline in another season
maybe it was my discipline and now it’s
my integrity
but i am constantly looking for areas of
my life where my weakness is going to
sabotage my strength
sometimes we feel like the sabotage is
going to come outside of us and we talk
about our haters
and we talk about someone who’s sleeping
on us and we’re talking about someone
who doesn’t understand just how
incredible we are or someone who was so
jealous and envious of who we are
but what we need to recognize is that
the greatest enemy is not outside of us
the greatest enemy is the weakness that
is unchecked on the inside of us
and until we are willing to examine
ourselves and say what are my
own patterns what are my own thoughts
what are my own fears what are my own
insecurities that are going to sabotage
my strength then we’re going to be
looking outside of
us when the real enemy the real culprit
is inside of us
samson is forced to take this look on
the inside of him
because his weakness is now what he’s
known for
because when the philistines finally
attack him and figure out the secret to
his strength they
take his eyes away they strip him down
to nothing they cut his hair off
and now he is less than just any other
man now he has handicaps
that have made him almost
almost useless in their eyes
and yet what they didn’t know that we
know
is that god can start from anywhere
remember when i was talking earlier
about making choices that lead you to a
place that you don’t always like
that’s exactly where we find samson in
verse 28 as this text continues
his choices had left have led him to a
place
that he doesn’t even like that he
doesn’t even understand
he didn’t recognize that his weakness
was sabotaging his strength
and now he’s wishing maybe that he could
get back on that tight rope and that he
could live
his life differently and what we know
now though is that god will never leave
you nor forsake you but
samson in that moment had to do
something crazy
samson in that moment had to do
something that maybe some of you were
going to do when we’re about to pray
he had to call out from god from the
place of his weakness
you see what the philistines thought is
that if they cut his hair
that he wouldn’t be strong anymore but
what they didn’t realize
is that even when they cut his hair that
god was going to grow his hair
back our text tells us in between verse
16
and verse 28 that though they cut his
head that his hair
started growing back they were beating
him in chains and they
stripped his eyes out but his hair
started growing back what is the word of
the lord when that
in that moment the word of the lord in
that moment is that even when
life is tearing you up even when your
decisions have put you in a position
that feels like defeat
that at the end of the day your hair
your strength is still going to grow
back i need somebody to know
that you are not still here because god
wants to display what you could have had
you are not still here so that god can
show you how if you would have done
things differently this could have been
you
god is not interested in making you be a
participant in the museum of the
highlights of other people’s life
god wants to show you that if you are
still here then something can still grow
on the inside of you
and if something can still grow on the
inside of you it may start off looking
like a tightrope but when it’s all said
and done you’ll become a bridge again
you’ll defeat the enemies again
you’ll be looking like who i thought you
were in the first place again
i hear god saying that somebody’s
strength is coming back to you
i know 2020 was hard on you i know 2021
may have not started off the way that
you wanted to
but i hear god saying your strength is
coming back to you
what is your strength your strength is
the confidence that i am gonna be with
you
your strength is the confidence that i
have not departed from you
and in verse 28 we hear samson say oh
lord god remember me
oh lord god remember me i pray somebody
needs to get in their prayer closet and
just start saying god remember me
god remember when i used to be your
servant god remember when i used to
carry your joy
god remember when i used to feel
anointed god remember when i walked into
a room
and i knew who i was when i was in the
room god remember when the checks didn’t
define me
god remember when the banking hound
didn’t define me samson cries out to the
lord
god remember me i pray and strengthen me
i pray
just once he asked god for i don’t need
you to do it over and over again
if you could just provide your strength
just one time
if you would just provide your strength
just one time
cause i got one more devil to fight
samson’s hair is cut off
samson’s eyes have been plucked out but
he said god if you would remember me in
my weakness
if you would give me strength in the
place that i am weak
i understand what i didn’t understand
then
what samson didn’t understand before
this moment
is that he and god were not on the same
page about the enemy he had given him to
defeat
because samson was still flirting with
the enemy he was supposed to defeat
and sometimes your enemy has to capture
you
and sometimes your enemy has to change
the way you show up in the world
for you to finally get on the same page
with god
about what this enemy is samson is
showing up in this moment
differently than he showed up before
because now the philistines mean the
same thing to him
that they meant to god i hear god saying
that your breakthrough
that your ability to break away from
this thing is going to be connected to
you
hating it the way that i hate it i hear
god saying we got to have common enemies
when we have common enemies that’s how i
know we’re really in relationship
it ain’t nothing like having a friend
who understands that we don’t fool with
that person
i hear god saying that you need to get
on the same page with me
we don’t fool with that anymore we don’t
fool with regret
we don’t fool with shame that’s the
enemy to who i’ve called you to be
we don’t fool with shame that’s an enemy
to who i’ve called you to be
i hear god saying when you get on the
same page with me
about your enemy you’ll find the way to
navigate this captivity
and samson says you got to read it judge
16 28-30 he says
lord god remember me i pray strengthen
me i pray just this once oh god that i
may with one blow
taking vengeance on the philistines for
my two eyes
and samson he took hold
of the two middle pillars which
supported the temple and he braced
himself against them
i hear god saying that’s what’s going to
happen for some of us in 2021
that some of us came into this year
limping we came into this year unclear
but i hear god saying that i can still
use you limping
i can still use you grieving i can still
use you broken
i can still use you with your mind fuzzy
i hear god saying just let me show you
how to walk on this tightrope
let me show you how to navigate this
dark season let me show you how to
navigate the unknown
let me show you how to navigate this
business how to navigate
this marriage and he put his two hands
on those pillars
and he braced himself against them one
on his right hand
and one on his left
and he pushed he pushed those pillars
down
and in that moment he defeated more
philistines
than he had defeated in his entire
lifetime
but it was because he finally got on the
same page with god
about who his enemy is and who his enemy
is not
even in the middle of his weakness god
still
made a way for him to become who he was
supposed to be in god
and it didn’t look as powerful as it
looked before this wasn’t one of those
big beautiful bridges
it was a tight rope and god used it
anyway i want to pray with you
perhaps as we’ve been sharing this time
with each other
you’ve been feeling convicted maybe it’s
been confirmation
that it’s time for me to stop playing
it’s time for me to finally get to a
place
where i’m willing to undergo
the uncertainty the instability
the lack of confidence connected with
who i need to be in god
you see i’m going to get to that place
of confidence i may not get there
overnight i may not become that boss
overnight
i may not get there the way that i want
to as rapidly as i want to but it’s time
for me to first shed the skin of the old
so that i can walk into the new and i
hear god
saying it’s okay for the journey to be
scary
it’s okay for it to even feel like a
tight rope
but a tightrope can still serve as a
bridge
i want to pray with you i want to pray
for those of us
who have decided that i’m going to
navigate
this tightrope i’m going to do it for
my family i’m going to do it for my
community i’m going to do it for my god
i’m going to get on this tightrope and
yes sometimes i may lose my balance and
yes
sometimes it may be hard sometimes i may
have to pause sometimes i may have to
start over again but it is so
important to me that i finally get to
this destination
of who god has been hinting at me that i
could always become
god’s gonna give you strength just like
he gave samson in that moment
he’s going to give you peace he’s going
to show you how to navigate your
weaknesses
and how to master your strength god’s
already got a plan
he’s just waiting on you to begin
father i thank you that your word
will not return unto you void
that means that even as i was speaking
father that someone was saying that’s my
word that’s my word that’s my word
father it is my prayer that every person
who reached up and grabbed this word
that they would hold on to this word is
their truth and their confidence
and that this would be the word that
propels them to finally get started
god it is my prayer that we would start
moving even if we have to do it at a
slow pace
that we would begin moving in the
direction of who you have in mind
father where there is loneliness let
there be wholeness father where there is
brokenness let there be healing
father where there is pain let us have
restoration father where there is grief
let it become love and let us live in
the space of love
father it is my prayer that whatever is
necessary for us to become
that we would be willing to sacrifice
and surrender so that we may manifest
not our vision not our desires
but your peace your presence your power
father we want to be vessels
we want to be an extension of what
you’re doing in the earth
as unworthy as we are as broken as we
are
it is still our desire to serve what
you’re doing in the earth
and so father if we are the only way
that heaven can touch
earth give us room give us capacity and
give us wisdom to navigate that
tightrope
father forgive us for making choices
that we know
were leading us to a lesser version of
ourselves
we repent we change our way of thinking
we won’t flirt with our enemy or flirt
with our dangers anymore instead father
we will take the hard hard road of
saying goodbye
to what hurts us but feels good
and instead elect to be uncomfortable in
pursuit of your glory and your grace
father we have sinned we have fallen
short but we are still here so we repent
we ask that you would forgive us as we
come into alignment father
give us peace give us connection with
people on the same road
and allow us to continue to grow and
grow and grow
that we may become bridges because we
first
became tight ropes in jesus name i pray
amen family
i love you so much if this is your word
or you feel like someone else needs to
hear it make sure you share it
i believe together and in the context of
community that we’re going to not just
become bridges but we’re going to become
bridges that create bridges just like pt
has been telling us and so let’s
continue to be those bridges by sharing
this word
praying with one another you don’t know
it but you’re chatting with your family
you’re chatting with your next of kin
and together we’re going to look back
and say god not only where you were
providing you were building us up in the
process
i cannot wait to see you saturday sunday
thursday you know where to find us we’ll
be right here
you can count on the potter’s house 1la
in denver to be with you every step of
the way
you
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