Taking the fountain - part 2

The theme, we continue with the same main theme, taking from the source, but the theme is more specific that we are going to share now in the afternoon, it is entitled "Taking from the source to flourish." We are all called to flourish but before going into the subject I want to thank my daughter-in-law, María, come over there, my daughter-in-law that I took a look at, I introduce her at the beginning, María is the wife of my eldest son Mario Alejandro, the baby who He is in his arms, he is my first grandchild, so as a grandmother I have, I am proud of that first grandchild, that very special experience. It is a way to flourish. The generations and seeing the things that God does in our children, and Mary is one more daughter, is a blessing. I want to thank her, thanks to my sister, Miriam, who is hosting us in her house very kindly, very kindly.

And now we go to the word of the Lord. And I invite you to accompany me to Isaiah, Chapter 35, and we will initially be reading verses 1 and 2. Isaiah 35:1 and 2 in the Old Testament, the book of the Prophet Isaiah, says as follows:

“…The desert and the solitude will rejoice, the wilderness will rejoice, rejoice and flourish like the rose, it will bloom profusely and it will also rejoice and sing with joy the glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of Jehovah and the beauty of God our Father…”

We thank you for your word and we thank you for what you are going to continue speaking to us this afternoon, and again we tell you that we take captive every thought to obedience to Christ Jesus, in such a way that your word does in us that for which which you send your purpose is fulfilled in our lives. We give you thanks at this hour because your Lord makes us understand that we must drink from your source, that we must drink from your living water to flourish. Thank you Lord in Jesus name amen.

These verses of the biblical text that I have just read are an eschatological vision, an eschatological word that is brought by the prophet Isaiah about the restoration of Israel and this biblical passage suggests to us an image of an atmosphere of joy, right? An atmosphere of joy, of times to flourish when we are living in the United States, I don't know, in my country Puerto Rico because the matter of seasons of the year is not seen, right? It is not noticeable. We have a tropical climate, but when we move to Boston you definitely notice the change of seasons. And when spring comes it's such a beautiful time, right? As soon as you see the flowers start to come out, one is already happy, and the cold seems to want to go away, right? Here in Boston the cold lasts a long time, even in spring. But a change is already announced, it is announced that something is coming, it is announced that there is joy, that there is color on the earth, that it is necessary to flourish.

That is the meaning of this biblical passage. God is giving a promise in the context of restoration through the prophet of restoration to Isaiah and he expresses and tells him that Lebanon will flourish, that Carmel, that Sharon, all these areas, all these regions are beautiful areas, they are areas beautiful, they are areas known for their beauty, how they bloom, and how they bloom profusely, but it is interesting that he is saying here that the desert is the one that has to flourish in this way. These areas are known for their beauty, for their trees, for their flowers, but what the prophetic word that the prophet is bringing to Israel is that the desert, and what is the desert? An arid place, a place where the type of flowers that grow in these other places do not grow, a place where there is dryness. The desert represents just hearing the word desert represents something that is unpleasant, right? Nobody wants to go to that place. The prophet is saying that Israel, which is in the desert, has to flourish and he compares it to that flourishing as Lebanon flourishes, as Carmel flourishes, as Sharon flourishes.

So, based on that biblical passage, we can declare the following today: God's plan for us is that we take from his source of living water to flourish, that we take from his source to flourish, and there is a sowing process, a process to follow in order to be able to to flourish. God wants and expects us to be productive. God expects us to be productive, not everything is receive and receive, we receive from the source but also give. And God wants us to flourish, but we have to follow certain processes and if we think about the natural process of sowing, we can say that, for example, we have to prepare the ground, right? After preparing the land, it is necessary to plant, fertilize, water, allow it to sunbathe, care for what is planted. There is also a waiting time, right? So that what was sown produces.

So you have to plan each step in that process of being able to flourish. If we apply it to spiritual life, we can say that growth and flourishing do not happen randomly just like that, growth and flourishing, what God has already planted, the seed that God has planted in us must be cultivated and there is We have to take care of it, just as the land can naturally produce and we have to take care of it however we want, we also have to take care of our land and our process in order to flourish.

For example, if I understand that I need to improve my prayer life, that God demands more of me, because it is good for my life, because that is where I draw from the source, then I have to plan, I have to plan to enter into a process and determine what I am going to do to improve my prayer life, I am going to continue with, a while ago in the morning we talked, he gave an example of what prevents us from taking from the source, I said, sometimes laziness, I am going to continue with the vagrancy that followed before, if I want to improve my prayer life, if I want to drink from the source, vagrancy aside. Television if you have to leave, it's not that we don't watch television, we have nothing against good programs, but if good programs still have to be left, they are also left. If you have to go to bed later, or get up earlier, well, that's done too. But we have to establish a work plan to be able to flourish in each area of our life that we identify as needing improvement.

If I need to improve the relations between the sisters in the church, those problems do not occur here, worth the clarification, then I have to establish a way of how to approach my sister, intentionally propose the deal, the friendship, the care, with the sister with which perhaps I have had some inconvenience. In other words, for us to flourish in any area of life, I have just given two examples, we have to be intentional, we have to determine to enter into processes and do something to achieve flourishing.

God, for example, can announce to us or let us know that he wants to use us in x area in the church, for example, in teaching. God wants to use us, oh, how good, the Lord calls me to teach, as soon as Pastor Miranda, or the pastors heard that word, soon they will be able to teach me somewhere, in some class. God wants to use you in teaching, instead of going to the pastor to ask for an opportunity, go to the pastor and say, where can I learn, where can I prepare myself, and after I prepare myself, here I am, available for God to use me. .

We want to flourish, we want to be productive but we want to avoid certain processes, just as nature itself has its own process in order to flourish, we too, in the spiritual sense, in order to be productive and flourish, have to enter into a process.

For example, we talked about preparing the ground, we could say, but I have experienced so many negative things, in the morning I talked about when the ground is hard, right? There are times when we have lived negative experiences in life and sometimes when there are experiences that crush us in the same area, it has not happened to you, and in the same area, and again, and again, God is working. It hurts, of course it hurts, sometimes the heart wants to, the ground of the heart wants to harden because it is in the same, in the same, and in the same and it seems that one does not get ahead in that area, but God is telling us , that land must be worked. This land must be watered so that it can be productive. We must take from the source even despite what we have experienced, in the future it is time to leave the past, it is time to determine to move forward in order to flourish.

The text we read said it will flourish, it said the wasteland will flourish, it said the desert and when we talk about wasteland it refers to an area of land with little life or the equivalent of desert. In other words, the prophetic word is using two different terms to say the same truth. And I have said on many occasions that in Hebrew thought, we are talking about the Old Testament, written in Hebrew, in Hebrew thought repetition implies or indicates emphasis. In other words, God is emphasizing that the desert, that the arid terrain has to flourish. God is emphasizing this when the prophet then says, the wilderness, which also implies dry ground, is to flourish. God is emphasizing that the word that proceeds from his mouth will be fulfilled and that Israel will certainly be restored. God is emphasizing to us today that we are to flourish. God is telling us that as long as we are willing to work on the areas that need to be worked on, by entering into the processes that need to be entered into, he commits to us to make us flourish.

Barren ground will flourish. Now, notice, that type of change of loneliness, of desert, what will happen? Loneliness, now comes joy. From the desert comes blooming and blossoming like the rose. In other words, when God inspires the prophet, God knows what he is talking about and God knows the images that he wants to use through his prophet to speak to his people, and today God tells us, I want you to flourish, my daughter, but I don't want to. that you bloom like a simple flower, I want you to bloom like a delicate flower, like the rose. I want you to flourish like a beautiful flower, do not consider yourself, and I already had these thoughts, I did not agree on anything with Meche, God does not want us to consider ourselves little, we are daughters of God, God considers us his flowers, God considers us his treasures and God wants us to be productive, to flourish. God makes the changes while we are about to change, he helps us in that process.

And the verse said that he will be given the glory of Lebanon, the glory of Carmel, the glory of Sharon. In Lebanon there are tall and beautiful trees, in Lebanon there is an exquisite smell produced by those very trees. Sharon is a large area of plain that is filled with flowers. In Palestine the coastal plains at the moment flourish profusely as the biblical text says and it becomes a beautiful area, but beautiful. Those areas are famous for it.

Imagine if when I lived here in Boston and the flowers were planted, the flowers were always in spring time or they come out, if they are already planted, but only when all that planting of flowers comes for spring, one notices the change. I enjoyed it, I feel beautiful. In Texas, for example, we have what are called blue bonets, which are little lilac flowers. Texas is famous for those flowers, the lilita chiquita flowers and when you go through the highway you see on both sides, when spring arrives, for example, the day before you passed and there was nothing, but for now the day passes Sunday to go to church and both are full of little purple or lilac flowers on both sides, full, covered, covered profusely.

The desert will bloom and bloom profusely. You and I will flourish and flourish abundantly and in the Lord because the Lord hopes and desires and will help us to flourish. God wants to do it with us. If you do it with nature, you can do it with us.

Some time ago I told you in one of the sermons that I came to do, about a young girl in Costa Rica who had a stomach ache, I didn't know, God led me to pray for her, the Lord heals her, God relieves her, etc., etc., two years after I returned to Costa Rica, that young woman comes, she was very skinny, she has a bacterium in her stomach, I didn't know it, but God heals her, two years later a young woman comes to me that I didn't I recognize her, and she says to me, do you know who I am? I am that young woman that you prayed for me. I didn't recognize her. The desert flourished. She was healed. And he seemed like another person, even physically. She was flourishing in terms of physical healing and she flourished spiritually, emotionally when she was healed, when she was restored in all areas of her life, because she was determined to be able to flourish, she was determined to seek the Lord, God's mercy extended to her life And I didn't even recognize her physically when she approached me to tell me that now she was testifying and talking about the things that God had done in her life. The desert will flourish even what seems impossible or difficult God makes it possible.

What do we have to do in that process to flourish? Allow our grain of wheat to die. That is a well-known passage, we are not going to look for it, but you have to die to flourish. If the grain does not sow, says the Scripture, it does not die and then it does not flourish. And that dying often represents denying ourselves. It represents sometimes leaving what we like, it represents, as I said in the morning, sometimes leaving that in my own way, that in my way, that in what I think is best. It represents determining your Lord, do in me whatever your will and how you want to do it. The grain of wheat has to die.

Jesus declared whoever wants to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. You have to deny yourself. We have to deny ourselves, that does not contradict the truth of the treasure and how precious we are in God. But God expects that even we who are precious in God, the roses of the Lord, deny ourselves so that his glory may be manifested and we can flourish and be a blessing and we can proclaim with our lives and with what we are the glory of the Lord .

Allowing our grain of wheat to die also has to do with forgiving ourselves. I like to mention this almost always in women's activities because sometimes God has forgiven us things from the past and one is there remembering and remembering and remembering and it is time to leave the past behind. So to me, I would say like the Apostle Paul, I never tire of repeating these truths. It is time to leave the past, God has already forgiven us, let's walk forward, let's walk towards blossoming, leave the desert behind because God has new things for us.

You also have to forgive other people because if we keep things from the past in our hearts we will not be able to flourish. It means then that denying ourselves, allowing the grain of wheat to die has to do with things like this. I have just given some examples but we have to put our selves aside and let the Lord reign in our lives.

What else do we have to do to flourish? We have to give in the natural process, irrigate, fertilize, provide maintenance, how can we irrigate and fertilize? Indeed it is the theme of today, taking from the source, we have to provide the appropriate conditions for our growth, for our flourishing. That's why the emphasis this morning was, we are taking from the fountain, God calls us to take. If we are still drinking God wants us to drink more, we have to fertilize our spirituality.

The plant does not grow like this by itself. Some wild plants that grow alone, but if the land becomes arid, if there is no rain, even the wild ones also die. So we have to fertilize our land in the Lord, we have to irrigate it, we have to drink from the source, we have to maintain it, we have to work within ourselves, on our emotions. As I was speaking this morning, in those negative feelings that put up with us, that put up with the progress that God has for us. Water is essential for life. Without water I also said this morning, what happens to nature, nature is dying, there is no food, the animals too, famine is coming. God declared in Hosea to his people, they have to look for him, I will be to Israel as dew and then he tells him, he will flourish like a lily. And it will spread its roots like Lebanon.

God is declaring through the prophet Hosea that his people will receive dew because he, Jehovah, his God, is the dew for Israel, and God tells us today, I, Jehovah your God, am dew for you, Mary. I, Jehovah, your God, am dew for you Lourdes. I, Jehovah, your God, am dew to you, my daughter. It is from me that you receive the water, it is from me that you receive good, it is from me that you receive the blessing and you will blossom like the lily, you will blossom like the rose, you will extend your roots like Lebanon, You will certainly flourish and that verse also says its branches will spread. Remember the other passage that says, widen the site of your cabin because there is more room to widen, God wants our branches to be extended in our flourishing. God wants our plant not to stay in a small plant. God wishes that as God's plants, as God's sowings, we have branches that spread and that are a blessing to our family, to our children, to our grandchildren that I am now in that stage, to our brothers and sisters in the church, in the different ministries, to co-workers, in evangelism. God wants our branch to extend, and he says, and its glory will be like that of the olive tree and it will perfume like Lebanon.

The olive tree is essential in Israel, the olive tree is one of the basic products of agricultural production. It is used for many things and it says here that Israel will have a glory like that of the olive tree. The olive tree is almost indispensable, let's say like this, the olive tree represents blessing in Scripture, and God tells us by applying this biblical principle and word that is given to Israel in Hosea applying it to us, God wants to give you His glory, God wants may his glory manifest when you are blooming. God wants you to have a glory like that of the olive tree, which is an essential product, an essential product for the Lord, an indispensable product to bless, although no one is indispensable, but indispensable compared to the olive tree, to bless other lives, a product also that will perfume like Lebanon.

I was saying a while ago that in Lebanon there are delicious smells, and we have to perfume, fragrant smells have to come out of our lives. When we bloom the flowers that give perfume, when they bloom what comes out, the flower comes out, it looks beautiful, but that smell is also exquisite, right?

Not long ago my eldest son and his wife gave me a perfume different from the one I have and since they know that I'm going for the line of flowers, they brought me one of a kind, I don't remember the type of flower, but as soon as I opened it I loved it, it smelled like flowers. The perfume reaches others, not only the power that perfume comes out of us is a blessing of God's treatment in our life, but we bless others and when you walk in your Christian life, those who pass by you, where you you pass, oh, how delicious the sister smells, oh how delicious that person of that sister, because what a blessing the life of God that she has in her.

God wants us to be productive, God wants us to flourish, to extend our branches, for the glory of God to be manifested through our lives, for us to perfume other lives. That passage also says, they will return and sit under his shade, they will be quickened like wheat and they will flourish like the vine. And they will flourish like the vine.

Israel is promised that it will flourish like the vine. But the vine has to stay attached to the branch. Another passage of Scripture in the Gospel according to Saint John, Jesus is the branch, right? Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, backwards, and we have to remain attached to the Lord in order to flourish, in order to be productive. We have to take from the source, we have to be close to the source.

Psalm 1, a well-known passage, now I invite you to look it up, Psalm 1, he says, is talking about that man who remains upright in the eyes of God, who is not contaminated by mocking people, etc., etc., the first verses, but it is a person who meditates on the word of God, on the commandments, day and night, and verse 3 says:

"... that person who does that will be like a tree planted next to streams of water that bears its fruit in its season and its leaf does not fall, and everything he does will prosper...."

When we stay attached to the source, what is going to happen in our lives? We will bear our fruit in due time. Everything we do in the name of the Lord will prosper and be blessed by the Lord and we will manifest the glory of God in our lives. What else does God do? Our leaf, if we continue to drink from the water from the fountain, if we remain stuck there, our leaf does not fall, but sometimes we can live the Christian life like trees whose leaves are drying up and I can give an example of that in my house. I'm not good with plants, although I'm talking about the planting process. The plants inside my house are artificial, I have to confess. Actually, I go out a lot, I travel a lot, I'm very busy so my plants die. I tried, failed so I don't have natural plants. But then outside in the patio, the person who does the patio, well I have the basics, I would also like to have flowers, I love flowers, but what I have is more than shrubs and the basics.

But when we bought the house, well they always have, a little tree in the center of the patio, in the front, and unfortunately since I have not been, there I have failed in that aspect, I have not been good at taking care of the plants, all the trees in the neighborhood, they are beautiful and leafy, and our little tree is dry at the moment, all the leaves fall off, well, there is a time when they fall and the dry stick remains, but there are months when all the others are flourishing, the same type of tree, ours has two or three leaves and the few it does have are falling off. Because? Because I haven't taken care of giving him water, so this negative example of something that happens to me helps us to understand what the other opposite truth means. When we really receive from the source of God our leaf does not fall, because our tree does not dry up but in the Lord we are alive, we are flourishing.

You have to be attached to the source, you also have to fertilize, you have to fertilize the land. And the land of our heart, of our life is fertilized in different ways. I cannot always leave out the word of God. When I am going to talk about compost, about growth, the word of God is basic. Prayer, fasting, gathering together, all those principles that you take in discipleship classes when we come to the Lord, all those principles should never be let go of our hands. The word of God is key, fasting, prayer, closeness to God in all those principles that sometimes, oh, no, but that was me when I was recently converted. Those are the ones that keep us glued to the source, the bases of Scripture and of the Christian life do not change. The biblical bases do not change. The bases for what it is to be a fruitful, productive life in the Lord have not changed. Times change, the Gospel and the way of presenting the Gospel sometimes change, but we cannot change the biblical truth of the principles of the word of God, we have to fertilize our ground.

Scripture also tells us that God is our sun. And the plants need to receive sun. Plants need not only fertilizer, but also the sun and God is our sun, from him we receive water, from him we receive the light that sustains us, from him we receive strength. It is interesting that you mentioned a little while ago that in this biblical passage it is said that the glory of Lebanon will be given to him. I have already spoken about the part that is up to us, although I have also spoken about the part that God does, but I also want to emphasize that if on the one hand we are responsible for doing our part to flourish, this biblical passage says, the glory it will be given to you from Lebanon. After you and I are responsible for doing everything we have to do attached to the source, and for taking care of all this process in order to flourish, we have to rest in the fact that it is the glory of the Lord given by his grace.

A little while ago a thought was in the projection that said, his grace is enough. We are responsible for doing everything that God expects of us to do, but after we are responsible, let us rest because it is not by the grace of God, although we have to continue doing, it is not because of what I earn for what I do, this It is not for an exchange with the Lord, this is I am responsible, God demands responsibility from me but by his grace he makes me flourish.

I have learned from the Lord practically recently converted and through the years that I have to be responsible, of course, but my dependence is not because I was responsible, for my abilities, for what I studied, for the degree that I They gave, look, I can have whatever degree it is, and if I don't prepare myself, and if I'm not responsible before God, searching in prayer and doing what I have to do to be able to bring you this message, nothing comes out of here today, word hollow and vain But no matter what tool I have, I am responsible for those tools but I depend on the Lord, here is everything I did, it is in your hands, so that your Lord, by your grace and your favor, will make it flourish.

We also find in the Scripture, I am going to speak very briefly about this because I had a preaching of this precisely in this church, that in Ezekiel 47, you do not have to look for it, there is an eschatological vision of a river that comes out of the altar of God and is described that river and it is said that some water flows from the altar and those waters are spreading and the prophet Ezekiel is showing him that flow of that river, there comes a time when the man, man or angel, that he is showing that river that it flows into the altar, he tells him, he enters a certain place in the river and the water reaches his ankles, then his knees, then his loins and then he reaches a point where it covers him and he has to swim. And the image that is presented there is the image of the prophetic restoration, of the restoration of Israel, and what it speaks of is the presence of God flowing, the river of God flows from the presence of God, these rivers of living water come out, those rivers of currents of blessing and everything that reaches that river in that eschatological vision in Ezekiel, makes it flourish. It describes that eschatological vision that on the banks of the river there are many fruit trees with a variety of fruit, it describes that eschatological vision that not only that, but that the river reaches the Dead Sea, a sea where there are no fish, no life, and even those waters are healed and then there are many fish, there are many fishermen in a sea where there were no fish to catch, because the blessing of the river of God came and brought life where there were none.

The desert will flourish, the wasteland will flourish, the dead place, the dead area of our life that many times we have tried to improve, to try to deal with it, if we set out and do our part God will make it flourish, even the desert, even what is dead can have an abundance of blessing from God if we are willing to flourish.

Also in the process of flowering there is a waiting time, there is a waiting time. Each plant needs a particular time, some flower faster than others, right? But the important thing is that if we are diligent in the process to flourish, in God's time for our life, because we are different plants in the Lord, different types of flowers, different types of seeds, but in God's time for your life you certainly have to flourish. You must certainly flourish.

There are some flowers that come out every year, right? There are others when the crops come out, when you plant them and then the next year they don't come out because you have to plant again. Regardless of what type of plant you and I are, I guarantee you, my sisters, that if we keep drinking from the fountain God is determined to send his blessing, God is determined to send his favor upon our lives and we will certainly flourish.

Now, there is a saying that says the one who hopes despairs. And within the process of flourishing, as there is a waiting time according to the plant that you and I are, we also have to learn to be patient in the Lord. Diligent doing what we have to do, but patiently, waiting for our time to come. Scripture tells us that the sower sows and then waits for the harvest of what he sowed to arrive. There is a waiting time and we cannot despair in that waiting time. There are times when God answers us very quickly and an area of our life like everything flourishes quickly. There are times when I have been before the Lord working in some areas and I see the results, or the answer to a request, for example, after a week, two weeks, two or three months, and I have also had situations before God, I've been waiting for 18 and 20 years. But still I continue to flourish in the Lord.

Because I place that situation, and I know that in a moment, it will also flourish, but while that flourishing arrives in that area, that God's time to work with that area, I have to continue flourishing in the other areas, because God's blessing has not ceased, but if I stop to just keep looking, oh, in this area God has not answered, then I overlook all the blessings that God is doing in the other areas of my life, then frustration comes. Apparently then I consider that God is not helping me to flourish, that in my life I am not flourishing, but although that area is still on hold, it is certainly flourishing, God is blessing you in other areas of your life.

Let us not be deceived by ourselves or by the enemy into thinking that even though we are waiting, that because we are waiting, God is not blessing us. We will certainly flourish even when we have long lead times.

Sometimes also while waiting, in that sense of despair we end up running the risk of going or looking for places that God does not want us to look for. For example, when Israel left Egypt, they arrived at a place, Marah, and there they found bitter waters, in Exodus this is proven. So what did Israel do? Instead of saying, Lord, save us, provide us in another place, we should not drink this water, but we know that you have to provide, instead of saying that, they complained against Moses and Moses has to cry out to Jehovah in favor of the people and then to ask, and God then tells him, take this tree, throw it over the waters, the waters sweetened and then the waters could be drunk and were no longer bitter. But unfortunately the people complained. God had to do what he did, Moses goes before God and God resolves it before the people's complaint. But the Scripture tells us there God tested them.

And you know what? Later in Elín God already had provision, he had 12 sources of water and 70 palm trees for his people. And sometimes we are in Mara, and the water is bitter, and we identify it as bitter. So we start complaining to fight against God, right? But then, what God is waiting for is that if he is testing us with that bitter water that arrived on our walk, on our route, ok, here is the water, well, we are going to pass it by the side and I continue on my little path because they are further ahead the 12 fountains and the palm trees that let me see that the blessing is waiting for me in the trajectory and in the plan of God that God had for Israel, that God has for my life.

Mara's bitter water will appear on the road. That we know. On this path of flowering, bitter water will appear. On the one hand we have the living water of the Lord from which we have to be drinking, but there are also going to be pools of bitter water and God has to test us to see what we are going to do in the midst of that water that is presented to us, what let's do? Will we try to take from it, will we start complaining against God? No, as I was saying, turn around, skirt the water and keep walking because God's blessing is ahead. Let us not complain against the Lord in this process of blossoming.

On the other hand, we can also say another example from the Scriptures that when we are in waiting time, sometimes the waters can seem to us that they are not stable. Jeremiah experienced this feeling when, because he was proclaiming the prophetic word of the people, he was persecuted to the point that he was finally killed, but he was persecuted to the point of death many times, and at one point after being accountable to God for communicate the word to the people and to other nations, is anguished. The prophet is distressed and asks the Lord, will you be to me like waters that are not stable? A water that is not stable is a water that you cannot swim, it is a water that does not give you security to get into it, and the prophet feels so, so burdened by the situation that being responsible before God and they have come persecutions and we have also experienced at times, that persecutions have come even for serving the Lord. And the prophet came a moment when he felt desperate and declared and asked the Lord, will you be for me like waters that are not stable?

And I repeat to you, the waters that are not stable there is no security. But God wants us to learn and identify that regardless of the circumstances that may come into our lives, such as what happened to Jeremiah still for serving the Lord, regardless of the circumstances, we should not think that God is water that is not stable for us. In it there are sources of living water, it is not stagnant water, it is not turbulent water, it is not current that wants to harm us. God has a blessing, God has good for us. Let's not confuse within God's processes the difficult things that come into our life and think what the enemy wants us to think, that God is not stable for me. God is stable even though the earth is being turned. God is stable despite the fact that circumstances make me shudder. God remains stable and firm for me, he gives me assurance that I will certainly flourish.

In Jeremiah also God promises restoration to Israel and tells them that he will make them walk beside streams of water. A prophet who feels that way, to that same prophet, God continues to give a word for Israel and declares that he will make his people walk beside streams of water. Jeremiah while communicating the prophetic word must have understood, oh, Lord, forgive me because a little while ago I told you that you are to me like waters that are not stable and what you say to your people is that your Lord is for us and that you You are going to make people walk by streams of water, which implies flowing waters, rushing waters, living waters.

I used to say the saying that he who waits despairs and there are times when we certainly despair. But God tells us to guard our hearts, guard our hearts so that it doesn't get contaminated, so that it doesn't get damaged during that time of waiting. Let us guard our hearts if we have already forgiven in an area but the situation is still present even though we have already made the determination to forgive, God tells us, guard your heart, guard your Manasseh, guard your Manasseh and God made you forgive, God already made you forget the past circumstances although there is still something hanging around, guard your heart, guard your Manasseh, and God made you forget, as he told Joseph, Manasseh was the name that Joseph gave to one of his sons. Joseph was a biblical character who suffered a lot, who was sold by his brothers, but finally he became the right hand of Pharaoh and when he has this son he names him Manasseh, which means God made me forget, he made him forget, because God did. blessed, prospered him in the midst of difficult situation.

And God tells us today, in the midst of whatever circumstances, keep your Manasseh. If you already declared, not this, God made me forget, this has already happened, guard your heart, let us not go back on what God has already done, on what we have already declared within ourselves. Guard your heart because once God told me, if your heart is damaged, I cannot use you. Keep your Manasseh, daughter of God, because if your heart is damaged, God cannot use you. Then the perfume will not come out, then the beautiful rose that will be a blessing to others will no longer bloom as God expects. Save your Manasseh.

While waiting too, what do we have to do? Isaiah 35, verse 3, the next verse to the last ones we read says:

“..strengthen the weary hands, affirm the feeble knees….”

You have to strengthen what is tired. In this Christian walk there are many times when we have had extraordinary experiences but despite those extraordinary experiences we also get tired, also as discouragement and discouragement wants to come. I have heard from many servants of God that even after having glorious, extraordinary experiences of God's tremendous move in their ministry, then comes a time of anguish, of fear, of questioning, of all these kinds of things that they want to obscure. what God has done. And God tells us that we have to strengthen when we experience that our hands get tired, when we experience that our knees are already there... we have to strengthen them. The knees are giving way, they must be strengthened. They must be strengthened in the Lord in order to flourish and achieve what God has for us.

We must also encourage others, not only strengthen ourselves, but the following verse says:

“… say to those with a faint heart, strive, do not fear. Behold, your God comes with retribution with payment, God himself will come and save you...."

Not only do we have to process what is ours, but God wants us to flourish, God wants us to strengthen our knees and our hands in that time of waiting and flourishing, but also to encourage those with a weak heart. So this blossoming has to do with me, with my purpose, what God has with me, but also what God has with other people through my life. God hopes that in this time of waiting, redundancy is worth it, we can still strengthen others.

Do you remember that I told you that in Palestine, especially in the plains, the flowers bloom profusely at the moment, it is full of gladiolas, irises, daffodils, lilies, and these areas become beautiful when one least expects it, like the blue bonets of Texas. . There is a saying that, in the darkest moment of the night comes the dawn.

If we are diligent in this process to flourish when we least expect it, we will certainly flourish. And when we flourish, people see the life of God in us. People see the beauty of that rose, nobody sometimes understands, people will not understand the processes we have gone through, the processes we have gone through perhaps suffering, pain, waiting, questions, etc., etc., People don't see that, but people see the glory of God in us because we have allowed God to work in our lives.

So even if the time to bloom seems to take time, let's not despair. Isaiah 35, verse 2, the last part said:

“…. They will see the glory of Jehovah….”

Certainly God is ensuring that it will happen, they will see the beauty of our God. The Scriptures tell us, Jehovah will fulfill his purpose in me. So in the process of flowering there is waiting time, let's not despair because certainly God is faithful to fulfill what he has declared with his mouth.

Also in the process of flowering we have to look to the future believing and declaring, believing and declaring. I was saying a while ago that the sower, after he sows, does not sit down and say, oh, I sowed but nothing is going to happen. No, the sower does his work because he waits for the harvest to come, he waits for the fruit to come, so we have to believe that indeed the fruit of God will be abundant in our lives.

In Isaiah, they do not have to look for it, Chapter 27:6 God says, days will come when Jacob will take root, blossom and sprout Israel. And the face of the world will be filled with fruit…”

Days will come when you and I will put down roots or we are already putting down roots, days will come when you and I will flourish, when we will sprout and the world will know and the world will see that our life is full of fruit and we will be a blessing. God expects Israel to be restored, God expects Israel to flourish, God expects you and I to flourish profusely because God believes in you.

God believes in you. Sometimes we do not believe in ourselves, and that is why God has to be repeating words and expressions like these, but God believes in you that you will certainly flourish, therefore, we have to look to the future believing and also declaring . In other words, opening our lips to declare what God has said about us.

Why do we open our lips? To lament, to complain, for oh Lord, and this and the other, and the other and the other. We open our lips to say thank you Lord, because even though this circumstance exists, I know that you are with me, I know that I am going to get ahead. What comes out of our lips? Do positive words come out that declare God's truth? I am not speaking vain positivism, but positive words based on the word of God, on the principles of God that declare the blessings of what God has declared. It is already his word to us or complaints that do not produce anything come from our lips. We have to believe and declare God's blessing and goodness to us.

Negative statements do not lead us to flourish. If what I declare, I'm good for nothing, I'm good for nothing. If I declare it, oh, nothing is going to happen to me, yes to the others but not to me, I assure you, nothing is going to happen to you. But if what I declare is, God has purposes with me, Jehovah will fulfill his purpose in me, I am a beautiful rose, I am going to bloom profusely, I am already blooming, God is going to use me. I am God's treasure, I am important to God, I am God's instrument, certainly what I declare with my lips is what I am believing in my heart and God will fulfill his purpose in me.

Believe and declare even if any of you are going through a desert, still, believe and declare just as God declared to Israel that she would certainly flourish because he is your source in the desert.

I mentioned José a while ago, right? When I talked about Manasseh and I want to mention another Bible verse, you don't have to look it up but it is in Genesis 49:22, when Jacob is declaring a blessing on his sons, he is about to die and he is declaring the patriarchal blessing on his sons and I want to mention specifically what he says about José. Within the general context of that passage, of that Chapter, when he talks about Joseph, he mentions that Joseph went through in some very specific words, I am generalizing it, because of bitterness but that he was strengthened, he even mentions the difficulties that Joseph went through but when declares the patriarchal word of blessing from the father to the son, declares the following:

“… Joseph is a fruitful branch, Hallelujah! Fruitful branch next to a fountain whose branches extend over the wall..."

He certainly speaks within the context that Joseph went through difficult situations, his father knew about the situations his son went through, but when he declares the word of blessing, does he declare that it is a fruitful branch because it is next to stones? No, no, it is a fruitful branch because it is close to the source. And then, because its branches are next to the fountain, what do they do? They extend. Fruitful branch you are, fruitful branch we are. If we stick to the source. The word of blessing, the word of blossoming is over our lives if we stick to the source.

Remember that he spoke of the branch and the vine, you have to be attached to the Lord to be able to flourish even when the grape plant has to be pruned and it goes through difficult situations, it is pruned to flourish, but you have to be attached to the branch. It is one thing to prune and another thing to cut. Pruning makes it produce more but if we allow ourselves to be cut for x reason, for negligence, for whatever, then we are not going to flourish. We have to allow ourselves to be pruned by God to bear fruit, to bear fruit and fruit in abundance.

Also in the process of flourishing, you have to learn to turn the valley of tears into a source, you have to act, you have to do something. Psalm 84, verses 5 to 7 say as follows:

“… blessed is the man who has his strength in you, in whose heart are your ways, going through the valley of tears, what do they do? Do they stand there crying? No, not really, says the biblical text, they change the source, the negative turns it into a positive.

When the rain fills the ponds and then what will happen? They will go from power to power, they will see God in Zion. Sinking into the valley of tears, although as I said, there are processes in which we have to cry and God doesn't bother us crying, but staying there, staying in tears, in depression does not lead us to anything, it does not lead us to live from power to power, does not lead us to bear fruit, does not lead us to flourish. We have to learn to change the valley of tears into what? In blessing. We have to learn to change the valley of tears into a fountain.

The Scriptures tell us in Romans, Chapter 8 that God causes all things to work for the good of those who love the Lord and what the biblical text says is that God does. Some versions simply say all things work well for those who love the Lord. It seems like the truth, we know that God, but things, but what the biblical text says is God does. In other words, God sees to it that everything works for the good, therefore we are called to learn to change the valley of tears into a source of blessing, even negative things, turning them into positive things.

There is another saying that says that if what they give me are lemons, what do we have to do with lemons? They are sour, we add them and which one ………… for those of us who cannot take a lot of sugar, we add sugar and make a lemonade and drink it, but if we keep contemplating the lemons, we do nothing with them. So we are called to turn the valley of tears into what, into a source, into a blessing from God.

The Scripture also tells us in Song of Songs Chapter 2, why here the winter has passed, the rain has moved, it has gone, the flowers have been shown on the earth, the time of the song has come and in our country the song has been heard. voice of the turtledove

This Biblical passage in Song of Songs that describes the beautiful relationship between a man and a woman, but in these verses in particular he is talking, within the description of that relationship, how it has come to be in that loving relationship as winter has passed, and it has The rain has come, it's gone, and then what has come? The turtledove is already heard, spring has arrived. And as I was saying at the beginning, we can clearly differentiate the seasons here. Winter is leaving, the rain is gone from your life. Winter is leaving and it is time for us to understand that God's spring has already arrived in our lives, that the voice of the turtledove is already being heard, that God is certainly making our lives productive and flourishing.

In Haggai, Chapter 2, verse 9, notice what this verse says: "... the foundation is not yet in the barn, listen to that, neither the fig vine, nor the pomegranate, nor the olive tree has flourished yet, that is, they are in the process, they have not yet flourished, the foundation is not yet in the barn, more from this day I will bless you..."

We are still in the process, the Lord says to some of us, to others he says, now look, you are there, already blooming, the flower is already coming out. Others still have to wait a little longer, but from this day the Lord tells us today, from this day I will bless you. No matter the stage in your life, God's timing for your life as the beautiful plant of God that you are, no matter God's timing to flourish, the process at the moment you are now, God tells you today, maybe not yet you have blossomed, perhaps the bud has not yet come out but I tell you, from this day on I bless you my daughter.

Only taking from the source to almost conclude can we say that only taking from the source is that we can flourish, that when we flourish we are blessed, we live lives fulfilled in God, we can bless others, people close to us, non-believers, others rejoice In seeing the work, the glory of God in us, we are productive in our lives and to bless others, we can say that when we flourish the Kingdom of God also extends through us. We give glory to God in our flourishing that when we flourish we live victorious and full lives in the Lord, therefore, sisters, God's call is to take the actions that we have to take, the determinations that we have to take, not to stay lying down , taking from the source, doing what we have to do, having the positive attitudes necessary to achieve being fulfilled and flourishing women in God.

And I repeat for the closing, the sisters of adoration can pass, the verse of Haggai that I love, let's listen to it again:

"... the foundation is not yet in the barn, neither the vine nor the fig tree, nor the pomegranate nor the olive tree has flourished even more since this day I will bless you..."

Keep taking from the source because your time to blossom has come. Stand up please. We adore you God, oh we adore you, Lord. Oh we adore you Jehovah of hosts. Thank my Lord.

Oh thank you Lord because in you there is blessing. Thank you Lord, because you have a good word for our lives. Thank you Lord, because you have a good word for our hearts, for our soul, for our spirit, for our houses, our homes, our husbands, our children, our family, Lord, our relatives, oh God, you have a good word for us, sir. You have a word of blessing, you have a word of fruitfulness, you have a word of prosperity in the biblical sense, you have a word of blessing and good for us today, thank you Lord.

Let us lift our hearts to God. Or let us continue with our hearts lifted up to the Lord and say, Lord, here I am. I'm blossoming, or let's say, I'm about to blossom, or let's tell him, I'm willing to blossom, I'm willing to do whatever needs to be done but I want to blossom, Lord, I receive your word today, I receive your word that says to me from this day, I bless you. I receive your blessing today.

Receive what God has for you. Blessed are you God. Blessed are you, Lord. Raise your hands to the sky. Raise your hands to the sky. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Wherever you are, receive God's blessing for your life. Wherever you are, receive what God has for you. Enjoy his presence, enjoy his blessing, God wants you to be productive, that you can take this word today when you leave here, put it to work, and be productive in the Lord, it will flourish profusely.

Declare it with your lips, I am blooming profusely. Declare this. Tell it to the Lord, thank you Lord because I am flourishing profusely. Thank you Lord, because of this day you have blessed me, you bless me today. Thank you Lord, because I declare a word of good over my life, not a word of evil. Thank you Lord that I declare positive things about my life, not negative things. Thank you, Lord, because I declare that rivers of yours flow in my life from within me, may your blessing flow in me, oh God. Thank you Lord, Hallelujah! We adore you God.

Oh we adore you Behold, my rain of blessing is on your people. Rain of blessing is upon you, people, says the Lord. My rain of blessing is upon you, people, the Lord dictates to you. I pour out my blessing on you. The Lord is declaring that he pours out his blessing on you, people. And it has abundant rain, it has abundant rain. It has a rain of blessings, it has a rain that refreshes. Receive what God has for you. Receive what God has for you. Thank my Lord.

Sermon by Awilda Gonzalez-Tejera recorded June 6, 2009 at León de Judá Congregation

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