God’s Blessing Carries Great Responsibility

I feel that God wants me to share freely in the Spirit, as a prophetic Word for you, and simply pour out the content of what God has placed in my heart; and it is a Word for the people of God.

And it develops two things: on the one hand, God’s provision, God’s blessing, the great supply God has provided for us, the abundance in which God has enabled us to dwell as His children, as members of our spiritual community. But on the other hand, there is also the responsibility that this entails and the weight it places upon us as beneficiaries of the Lord’s Grace.

And God gave me a Word in Ephesians chapter 1, which I actually shared when I was in Puerto Rico recently with a congregation there, precisely in connection with that year which was about to begin while I was there. It is found in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, and that Word says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us”—say: blessed—“with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

I love it when God speaks of His blessings in the past tense. It does not say there: the God who is going to bless us with every spiritual blessing, the God who may perhaps bless us; rather, it says that He “blessed us.” And God often speaks in the past tense; He speaks of things that He has placed within us, things that He has uttered since the foundation of the world, from before the foundation of the world, and these are things that are there, that are within us, that are in our very system and have already been declared by God.

And we walk pregnant with God’s blessing; we walk inseminated with a spiritual seed that is full of blessings. And when we enter the economy of the Kingdom of God, when we enter the ways of the Lord, when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, when we are touched and sealed as members of the Kingdom of God, we immediately enter into that inheritance, we enter into that blessing. God impregnates us with a Word of blessing, and from that moment on we have been blessed.

And many of us are princes and have great resources at our disposal, yet we live like beggars; we do not effectively dwell in that blessing. But we are already blessed; it is written within us.

And the Word is very clear. It says: “And He blessed us with every blessing,” and that “every blessing” means: name anything you please—360 degrees of blessing. All the nutrients you need for a victorious life are already within you. God has already injected them into you; they are there, waiting to be activated, waiting to be developed, waiting to be used—all the armor you need for a fruitful, victorious life, to walk on water, to have victory over sickness.

How beautiful it is when a sister like Carolina, with all her ailments, stands here with such grace and such beauty and pours out God’s blessing upon a people. She could be, as I said this morning, depressed and sad, asking, “Why me?” and licking her wounds; but she is a radiant woman, filled with the Spirit of God. She walks over her illnesses. Because we often believe that God’s blessing comes only when He makes the things that afflict us disappear, but do you know what? The Bible says: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors”—not outside these things.

Many times it is amid afflictions, struggles, marital problems, life’s challenges and various illnesses that we are more than conquerors. And sometimes God chooses to say: “No, you know what? Glorify Me through the way you live.” And sometimes it is in our sufferings that, by being faithful to the Lord and giving Him glory, He breathes in the burnt offering of our faith; and that too is a blessing, because victory does not consist only in being exempt from suffering, but in being victorious in the midst of suffering.

So, one way or another, God has blessed us with every blessing for any situation in life, but also to defeat giants, also to get out of tight spots, also to overcome difficult situations, also to have prosperous marriages and God-fearing, prosperous, blessed children, to have material abundance, to escape poverty, to walk over tribulations, over the waters, because the Lord wants us to be prosperous and blessed. I am not ashamed to proclaim a Gospel of blessing. The trouble is that we often oversimplify it and go only for the jam and butter, but we do not tell people that there are other things involved as well, right?

But yes, God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing—in the past tense, in the past—and God has blessed you and has blessed this congregation with every spiritual blessing. God tells us as a church that He has deposited great and powerful things upon this congregation. I have lived all these years feeding on a very beautiful little piece of promise that God has given me. Every now and then I tear off a little crumb and eat it, like popcorn from a bag, and I live pregnant with the blessing that God has declared over this people.

I remember that dream God gave me about the Lion of Judah and about the spiders that ruled this city and exercised influence, and the Lion of Judah sovereign over them, and my declaration that He is Lord, not the demons. And we received that calling and came here to Boston believing, and we have seen the Lord’s blessing. We arrived here literally without a penny, and God has blessed us and prospered us. We dwell in a beautiful place, and we give the Lord all the honor and all the glory because He is the One who has done it, not any one of us.

We had to believe God. I had to believe in a vision, and that vision is still unfolding. I have lived all these years believing in other things that God is going to bring forth, but I have always said to the Lord: “Father, may You be the One who raises people up, not man, not someone promoting himself and putting on antics and making people believe that he has more anointing than he actually has, but letting God be the One who raises him up and God be the One who brings him out from behind the sheep when He wishes, at His moment and in His time.”

Because when things grow in the Lord’s time and in the Lord’s way, no one can snatch them away. And many times God has to grind us down greatly and purify us, and work within us, and crucify us several times before He can place us in the inheritance He has given us; and we must have the patience to wait for Him to fulfill His purposes and to do what He has to do.

But God has blessings for this people, and I believe that we are very close to harvest time. I told the brothers and sisters on the 31st that this is a time of harvest opening up before us. But you know, as I have always told you about that harvest, I then understood why I spoke about consolidation last year: because God wanted us to begin healing from our debts and from many of the things we had. But I did not understand that consolidation also meant something that was missing—you have heard me say it before—something very important, which was that connection between this sanctuary and the original sanctuary. That had to be done because it was in the original plans; and there had been a serious obstacle there, which all the architects and engineers and everyone familiar with the legal world said meant it could not be built except in a very arduous way. But God parted the sea in an incredible way.

And that is why I have always told you that the greatest miracle God has performed in all this construction is that little tooth that is there, which we are building. Incidentally, it is closed off because I did not want it left like that on Wednesday when we have the service, and our brother Javier and the workers have been very kind. What we did was prepare this section ahead of time, and afterward they will continue working; they will keep working in the meantime. But that is why it looks so nice and neatly closed off there. It is not that we changed our minds and closed it up. It is there, I promise you, and many good things are happening in the construction, and you are going to see them before long.

But again: God is a God of systems. God does things well, and when He does them, He takes His time and makes them solid. He wanted that because without it there was no connection. That connection between the old and the new was necessary because that is the way He is, but it is because He has good things ahead of us and He wants to finish one thing in order to enter another phase.

But the blessings God has declared over this people are great and abundant, as is God’s calling. And I believe that this invitation to host the Governor’s inaugural service is part of that gradual fulfillment by the Lord. Little by little, God has been bringing us into those dimensions.

I remember when, a couple of years ago, God allowed me to be one of the speakers at the ceremony held after that terrible bombing here in Boston. President Obama and all those people were there, and the Lord has been gradually increasing the level of exposure and influence and visibility, because that is how He works. When He does things, He does them that way.

And He will continue, because this people has a calling from God, because God likes to take the weak and the poor and place them in positions of influence. That is what His heart is like, that humble, because it has to be that way; but He takes His time. Yet the genetics of that blessing are already within us. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and God wants us to be a prophetic people, a people of influence, a people of signs and wonders, a visible people, a benevolent people who exert a holy influence and tear down those principalities and powers that are ruling this city, in the Name of the Lord and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

And we have within us all the weapons we need. They are there, and they are going to begin to emerge. The wings will continue growing, and the glory of God will continue increasing until we see the full manifestation of everything God has placed within us. But the genetics are there, and they are in your life as well. That is what I want you to understand: God has made you strong.

I know that many of you are dealing with all kinds of things: marital problems, appetites that refuse to submit, financial situations, uncertainty about the future, desires for achievement and advancement that you have not yet seen fully realized, afflictions of various kinds, emotional situations that affect you, callings that you feel God has given you but whose fulfillment you have not yet seen, children whom you would like to see in the House of the Lord worshiping God and serving the Lord, but you have not yet seen that touch of the Spirit of God upon their lives, and you are distressed and wonder, “When will it happen?” God has already placed the Word within you; believe it in the Name of the Lord.

But you know, even though we have those genetics within us, many times there is a part that we have to do: the part of fanning into flame the gift of God that is within us.

An illustration occurred to me this morning to help us understand how it is possible to find oneself in a fragile situation while being filled with God’s potential within. I thought of a very personal example: our little granddaughter Daniela, whom you know was born extremely premature—25 weeks. She weighed one pound and three ounces and measured eleven inches. A little rabbit was bigger than she was on the day I went to visit her. But you know what? This week, a Psalm that I know intimately, that I know by heart, came to mind, and one of its verses says: “Your eyes saw my embryo, and in Your book were written all those things which were afterward formed, without one of them being missing.”

Do you know that when you are conceived in your mother’s womb, you already have all the details of your body and of your human configuration? Whether you are going to look like a very handsome movie star, or whether you are going to be homely, it is already in there; whether you are going to have blue eyes or black eyes, whether you are going to have hair or little hair, whether you are going to be very tall or not very tall. Sometimes even our temperament is included there, because biology and temperament have a great deal to do with each other. But everything is already written there, written in the genetic book. The genetic code is one of the most fascinating things in the universe; it is literally written.

That is why they call it a genetic code: it is writing. In fact, biologists have deciphered it and even express it in terms of letters to convey more or less how the different genetic components interact. God wrote it, and it appears in the Psalm; God had already designed it. Little Daniela, in her very fragile state—I was saying that, as never before in my life, and Meche, who is an occupational therapist and is very familiar with the whole neurological development of children and all these things, since she works with children—for her it has also been very instructive, because we have literally watched that little body develop gradually. We have watched her skin become denser and less transparent, her little belly grow because she is now drinking more milk and receiving more nutrients; we have watched her become a little bigger, a little heavier, her lungs acquire a greater capacity to breathe, and her size increase. It is incredible.

I had never been so aware of the development of the human body. I have anatomy books at home, and now I am reading them because I have prayed for everything; every day I pray for her brain, her palate, her vocal cords, her gallbladder, her intestines, her stomach, her hormone levels, the different chemicals in her brain, her white blood cells and red blood cells, her vocal cords, her pancreas, her esophagus, her ligaments, her bones, her calcium level—everything. I could go on and on here, and I pray for each of those things because the Lord weaves together the body of a human being.

And I have become aware of that, and I am going to learn more about anatomy because there is something very important in it. But the wonderful thing is that it is all written inside her; all that formation is already there, developing, and perhaps right now we see that the situation is tiny and fragile, but God has bestowed every spiritual blessing. God wants your family to prosper and be blessed, but you have to do as the Lord told Joshua: “I command you to be strong and courageous.”

There again you have another case in which God spoke in the past tense. When He said to Joshua, “I have given them all the land,” He said to Joshua as the representative of the entire people, “I have given you every place on which the sole of your foot treads.” He had not even left the wilderness yet; he had not yet entered the Promised Land, but God had already given him all the land. Then He said to him, “I command you to be strong and courageous. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from you, and walk according to My ways and all the things that are written in it.” But God had already given it to him.

Joshua entered the Promised Land with a deed in his hand by which God had granted him the land, and he could enter with that deed. Now, there were tribes there waiting to behead him, to cut off his head; they were going to defend their land, and the Hebrews had to fight to possess the land God gave them. That is why He said to him, “I command you to be strong and courageous. I will be with you wherever you go; no one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life,” because there were going to be people who would stand against him, but they were not going to defeat him. They were not going to defeat him because he had the deed in his hand.

And that is why the Hebrew people—the Israelites today, the Jews, as unfaithful as they are—and there are people who want to take a good part of their land away from them and want to destroy them, but God gave those people that deed, and He gave it to them irrevocably. Not even their own recklessness will be able to take it away from them, because God gave them the deed. When you hold the deed to something, 30 years may pass, and when you return, you say, “Look, here is the deed to my house. Get out of it, because this belongs to me.”

So God often blesses us and bestows every blessing on us. The problem is that we are often negligent and do not do our part, but it is already there. God wants you to enter the land victoriously this year and in the years to come, but you have to—you have to. Again, that is the other part of my meditation.

On the one hand, there is a God who blesses us with every spiritual blessing—a blessing so great, in fact, that we need a divine impartation of wisdom and knowledge in order to understand how great the blessing God has given us is. Read that chapter; then look at verse 17. Paul says that he prays for them to receive a spirit of wisdom and knowledge so that they may understand how great the blessing is that God has given this people: “enlightening the eyes of your understanding, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”

Can you receive that in your spirit right now and believe that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells within you, and that this Spirit gives you authority to walk with power in your life? I know it may have taken time, but do not let your hope that God has great purposes for your life fade.

Perhaps you have not yet received all the good, but believe and hold on, because the blessings God gives and declares often take a very long time to come to pass. He blessed Abraham with a son, and how many years did it take? He reached the age of 100, and the poor man said, “Well, I am much too dried up now; that son is not going to come.” He even got involved with the servant girl and had a troublesome son, Ishmael, who is still causing headaches out there, because Abraham grew impatient, because God is not in a hurry; He takes His time doing things. But Abraham and Sarah were already pregnant with a son from the moment God told them, “You are going to have a son, and you will be more numerous than the sand. If the sand of the earth can be counted, then your descendants will be able to be counted,” the Lord told Abraham. But it takes a long time; do not lose heart.

Here is the other part, where we have to make an effort. There is a blessing and a responsibility, and I want to talk to you about the responsibility that falls upon us as a church and that falls upon you as the head of your household, upon you as a leader and upon you as a believer. There is a responsibility connected with that great blessing, with that genetic impartation God has placed in your spirit and in your being, because that blessing is in the heavenly places; it is a spiritual blessing. As with Mary, the Holy Spirit came upon her and made her pregnant, and from that came something physical: the Son of God, perfect man and perfect God coexisting in a single being.

But when God blesses in the heavenly places, that comes down upon us and then manifests itself in real conditions and circumstances, and in life, but there is a part that we have to do.

I remember the words of the apostle Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy, chapter 1—I think verse 6—where he says, “I advise you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you.” It is God’s part to place the gift in us, and it is our part to stir up the gift, to fan the gift so that it catches fire. God places a glowing ember in you, and it is up to you to take a fan, a piece of cardboard, as we used to do with charcoal braziers. I do not know how many of you have used a charcoal brazier. You do not have to raise your hand; do not worry. I know we know. You know perfectly well what I mean; do not play dumb, all right? But the embers are there, and you have to fan them so that they come alive, right? In the same way, God’s ember is inside you, but you have to fan it; that is your part.

Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you. You have to perform works of righteousness; you have to get moving and begin to walk in the name of the Lord. If we had remained comfortable over there in Cambridge, in a building that cost us nothing, tucked away in a little neighborhood that was already far too small for us, and if we had been afraid of the giants of crime who were here in Boston at that time, twenty years ago, we would still be over there, tiny and dried up. But I said, “Lord, if You called us, I am going to run; we are going to move forward,” and we have seen His glory. The gift has spread and expanded.

That is why, once again, there is that connector. I was frightened when God placed the possibility of developing it in my hands, because I had already surrendered it. Like Abraham, I had already told Him, “No, that son is not going to be born.” Then God places it in my hands, but by now we are tired and burdened by all the expenses and all the responsibilities, and so I ask myself, “Lord, how can I come to this congregation and say that we still have to keep working and giving?” But that is my mind.

I have learned that I cannot allow myself to be guided by what my mind and reason tell me. I have to believe God. If something is from God, it comes to pass one way or another; God opens the way, and God provides. And so you get yourself into the mess because you know that God has spoken to you, and God proves Himself faithful time and again.

You have to begin walking in God’s gift and calling. If you have discerned that it is from God, then launch out, make an effort, take risks, believe the Lord, make yourself uncomfortable, do something that frightens you, and you will see that the Lord does not stop blessing you and that God provides. We have to be responsible before God, we have to take risks, and we have to believe the Lord.

Many of us do not receive the promises because we have not believed the Lord. God wrote something inside us, but we look at ourselves and see ourselves as tiny, like those spies, right? They said, “Oh yes, the land You promised us is good and beautiful, but there are giants there who want to cut off our heads, and they are all basketball players: they are 6'8" and 7'2", while we are puny little things.”

Joshua and Caleb said, “Look, if God is with us, we are going to eat them like bread, and we will spread a little butter and jam on them so that they taste even better.” Because when God gives, do not start thinking about your condition or about how great the obstacles are. Simply make sure that God spoke to you, and if God spoke to you, get to work, and He will take care of the rest. You will have a few scares, and perhaps you will have to change your pants, but you will make it through. Do not worry; the Lord will be with you, the Lord will bless you, and God will supply your needs. And it is so important, church, that you understand this.

And on Wednesday the 31st, Sister Vanessa shared a word. I believe all the words that were given were greatly blessed and very much on target, but she spoke about how God has given us a complex congregation and how we have to rise to the level of that congregation’s complexity. God has not made us a simple church, and glory to God for churches that are simple and small and not very complex, because there is room for everything in the Lord’s Kingdom; all the nutrients are needed. But God has given this church a great deal of responsibility and a very great and lofty calling.

And I have told you, brothers and sisters, that if you are involved in this church, if you have come to this church, you have to fasten your seat belt, you know? If you become upset and offended when money is requested for a construction project or to undertake something, this is not the place for you, because here everything that—as our sister was saying, you prophesied very well, Carolina; that convinces me, because you have no idea about the miracles that have to take place here every day to cover this congregation’s expenses and everything else. People think we are swimming in money. They see this large, beautiful building and all the properties, but they do not know that we always receive less from the Sunday offerings than we spend. You do not know all the anxiety one sometimes goes through, but I do not know how God makes things stretch; He multiplies the loaves and fishes in an incredible way.

But you know what? I have told the Lord, “We cannot go on performing great feats in public while sometimes living with financial shortages and deficiencies.” And there is a noise here. I do not know whether it is a little dwarf jumping around over here, but if someone can fix it, because I do not know what it is—some sound over there.

But brothers and sisters, there are so many things God has called us to do, to be and to do. He has equipped us and called us, and we have to rise to the level of that calling. God needs a people who will serve. For example, we did not ask to host the governor’s inaugural service here. One day, some people arrived and said, “Look, we want to see your building because this event is going to take place, and it has been recommended that it be held here.” They came in, saw how beautiful this place was, and said, “We would love to hold it here.” No one went over there and said, “Hey, here we are; come and hold the service here.” And do you know how much work that has required—the meetings and the major responsibilities that it entails, and everything else?

Because God has called this church to do certain things. You go through some scares and then say, “Lord, how did I get myself into this?” If you are part of this army, of this complex and demanding congregation, you have to rise to that level; you have to grow and serve the Lord. That is why, when I tell you, “Look, come on Wednesday”—if what you want to do on Wednesday is sit around licking your wounds, watch the latest soap opera that has come out and gossip with someone on the phone, then that invitation is going to make you feel bad, but it is needed right now.

You are part of an army; you are part of a calling; you are part of a congregation where something is always happening. Just when you think you can finally lie down and sleep, they tell you, “No, you still have a road ahead of you, and you need to keep moving forward. I need you to put your clothes back on and continue serving.” We have to serve, and we have to give, because this is a place that produces a great deal and does a great deal. All the ministries we have and all these things God has given us have a cost behind them. It is a large congregation; there are thousands of people who, in one way or another, consider this place their congregation, though they do not come every Sunday.

But when someone wants to get married in the city, or when they want us to bury a loved one, this is where they come, brothers and sisters; or when they want us to dedicate a baby or give them marriage counseling. Glory to God, it is a blessing, but the demand is very great—all the social services and all the things we do that are a testimony to this city. This is for the glory of the Lord. And if there is not a battle-hardened people behind all that, then what we have is a handful of people carrying the entire load themselves, while people think it is something bigger than it really is, when in fact there are only a few little giants there carrying it all—and that is not right. God wants the burden to be distributed, do you understand? You are a pillar, a column of this instrument that God has chosen.

And that is why people are needed who have vision, who have the hearts of warriors, do you understand? People who say, “Oh, is there a need? I am there. Let’s move forward.” I say, “Amen. What is needed?” They must be part of the solution, not part of those who complain: “No, it’s this, it’s that, too much is being asked.” No. You be part of the solution. Be a warrior, a servant of the Lord. God has allowed you to serve through this congregation, and that is why it needs people who serve, people who give, and people who prepare themselves through the Word.

Because when the Word enters your life, the Word impregnates you; the Word becomes something alive within you that drives you to do works. The Word cannot live within you without causing you to bear fruit, you know? That is why you should be like a sausage: put the Word into it and that sausage is going to taste really good. Put the Word inside you, and that Word is going to explode and do things. Study the Word of the Lord, read the Word, fill yourself with the principles of the Kingdom of God, live by the values of the Kingdom of God, and become a generator of solutions. Give to the Lord; serve the Lord.

Do not worry so much about how many hours you slept last night. Many times we sleep excessively, and that is why we are sleepy—because we sleep too much. Sleep less and you will have more vitality. Eat less and you will be stronger; serve more and you will have more rest; give more and you will have greater abundance, says the Lord. Give to others, and God will never tire of blessing you and giving to you, because the one who gives receives, says the Word of the Lord. That is the key to a fruitful and powerful life.

So you have to prepare yourself, know the Word of the Lord, and move in faith. There are times when one arrives—do not worry about that sound anymore; I have lived with it for half an hour already anyway, so it is all right. Brothers and sisters, there are times when one arrives at church and is indeed tired, but you know what? One arrives, God puts energy into you, and you forget your tiredness. Come to church on Wednesdays, as Carolina was saying; come on Sundays. Many people stay home. They look out the window, see four little snowflakes falling, and suddenly the sheet clings around them like a second skin. They say, “Oh, I’m not going this Sunday; I’ll go next Sunday.”

Is it raining next Sunday? “Oh, it’s raining; I’m not going.” The following Sunday they are a little sad: “Oh, I’m feeling a little depressed; I’ll go the next time,” and they come to church three or four times a year. Brother, sister: serve the Lord, live the life of faith, become impregnated with the spiritual atmosphere, present yourself in the House of God, bow your head before the Creator, pay your respects to the Lord, be disciplined in the way you serve God. Do not worry about, “How do I feel?”

Once you get to church, then ask yourself how you feel, and then say to Him, “Lord, renew me now.” The Bible says that whoever watches the weather too closely will not sow; look it up right now in Ecclesiastes. If you worry too much about the weather, or about whether conditions are good enough to serve or give to the Lord, you will never serve or give. Listen to the Word of God, obey, and you will see the world reconfigure itself in your favor. Live at that level, because that is what God’s calling is—that is what I am telling you.

God has great blessings for your life—great blessing, great endowment—but: “See, I command you to be strong and courageous.” God has a great calling and a great blessing for this church, great purposes. He has endowed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, but there is a condition for that to become a reality: we must serve, give, and prepare ourselves. And the other thing is to sanctify ourselves; we must sanctify ourselves. I say it to myself: we must surrender ourselves to the Lord so that God may purify and sanctify us, you know? If we do not sanctify ourselves...

And sanctifying oneself means many things, among them consecrating oneself. Consecrating myself means that my body and my mind are not available for anything other than serving the Lord; I am dedicated to the Lord. The Word of the Lord says: “If you bring out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth.” “Let them turn to you, but you must not turn to them,” says the Word of the Lord.

We must sanctify ourselves, brothers and sisters; we must stop playing games with God. God knows when a man or a woman sets their heart toward Him and decides, “You know what? I am going to walk according to the values of the Kingdom of God.” And there is much to fight against, brothers and sisters. I tell you from experience: to live in the will of God, there are many things that must be overcome, and we have not overcome them all. But I know what God is calling us to, and God is not going to use impure vessels or double-minded vessels.

I love those people who surrender themselves to the Lord, and you just know—it is as though you can hear the little stone drop. You, for example, Tulio, I tell you: I have seen the change in your life, and I hope you never fall from the height where you are right now. Ever since that Wednesday when we prayed for you and for your life, we have seen how you have surrendered yourself to seeking the Lord, and one can see it in your face. I love seeing those people when you know something happened: they were crucified. Now remain at that level; never decline from there, and God will use you greatly. But how beautiful it is to see a man or a woman when they surrender themselves.

Those folks over there—that is Francisco. I always forget your name, brother, the baseball player. It is Francisco, right? And his wife. Again, it is the same thing: when we see people whom God has somehow impacted—and I do not say this to praise him or anything; I say it so that he may have a healthy fear of God—do not come down from there. Because as time passes, what happens is that one gradually loses one’s edge; the intensity of that first love begins to fade, and one has to renew it gradually, day by day. Otherwise, forget it: one grows drowsy and falls asleep and loses the blessing.

When you feel that commitment and sanctification are declining in your life, it is time to devote yourself to prayer, fasting, reading the Word, and setting aside a day to be with God and recharge your batteries. We must always remain at the same height, and that is a day-by-day matter; it is like an athlete. If you stop running or exercising for three or four days, you are no good for anything. You have to keep doing it continually until you die. Be strong and courageous.

Lion of Judah, I will finish with this. I ask the musicians to come up here. God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing. He has blessed you on a personal level, on a family level—as a homemaker, mother, father, head of the household, servant of the Lord. Your finances, your health, your future life, your fatherhood—God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing.

Lion of Judah: God has blessed you with a calling; He has blessed you with influence; He has blessed you with spiritual gifts that you will see manifested. He has blessed you with a supernatural manifestation; He has blessed you with a prophetic presence in the city; He has blessed you with a benevolent influence to save lives, raise up fallen people, evangelize, behead giants, and bring down principalities and powers. He has placed authority in your hands; He has placed the key to the city in your hands. But take heed: the Lord commands you to be strong and courageous.

God does not want one highly developed group of people and another group of tadpoles merely crawling around there. God wants us to be on equal footing, all of us at the same height, and all of us developing to the same level; He wants us all to partake, to take hold of the Lord’s provision and blessing.

To finish, I will now read you a word from Luke chapter 12. The Word of the Lord says, after Christ told a parable in verses 35 through 40 about, “Blessed are those servants whom their master, when he comes, finds watching,” and it says, “Truly I tell you, he himself will gird himself, have them sit down at the table, and will himself come and serve them”—those servants who have been watching and have lived up to the calling of God.

But then there is an interesting part, and I am going to read it to you and cast it upon your spirit. In verse 41, Luke 12 says: “Then Peter said to Him”—right? Peter was always butting in and asking Him questions—“Are You telling this parable to us, or to everyone as well?” That is an interesting statement, because many people receive this Word and say, “Well, that Word is for others; it is not for me.” And they do this and put up an umbrella so that nothing falls on them: “This is not for us; that is not for those of us who are here.” “Is this for everyone, or only for us?” And the Lord said to them, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will put over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?”

“Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find doing so. Truly I tell you that he will put him over all his possessions. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘Oh, my master is delaying his coming’”—like many of us: “Yiye Ávila said that Christ was coming, and he died, and the Lord still has not come”—then we lose heart. We become professional evangelicals with an evangelical membership card, but we do not live like evangelicals.

“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unbelievers.”

The Lord says it to you and to me: that servant who knew his master’s will but did not prepare himself or act according to his will shall receive many lashes. Many of us are going through trials and difficulties, because trials come for many reasons, as you know. But many of us are not living in God’s blessing and provision because we are like this servant—we are negligent. The promises come, the prophecies come, and we are torn sacks: the Word falls into us, but we do not treasure it, take it seriously, or live it out, and that is why we receive so many lashes. It is like what First Corinthians chapter 11 says: many are sick and sleep because they do not discern the body of the Lord. God has not changed His way of operating, you know?

When you do not do your part, when God gives and gives and gives and you simply waste what God is giving you, the Lord scourges you; He disciplines you, because God disciplines those He loves. If you want to live in God’s provision, blessing, and promise, do your part. Give to the Lord, serve the Lord, receive. Do not be a torn sack; be good soil that receives God’s seed and bears abundant fruit.

Many of us are professional evangelicals. We come to church because we are not Catholics, so what else is left for us? I come to the evangelical church, but not because our hearts have been sealed by the fire of God. And God is tired—fed up with lukewarm people. Lukewarm people make the Lord nauseous. Stop being a lazy bum and serve the Lord; love Him with all your strength. Either go all in or get out; do not play games. If you are going to play, wager everything on the Lord. Surrender it all. Tell the Lord, “If I perish, I perish.”

“That servant who knew his master’s will and did not prepare himself shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it and did things deserving punishment shall be beaten with few lashes.” And I leave you with this: “For everyone to whom much has been given”—and God has given you much, and He has given this church much, and He has promised you much, and He has greatly blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and you receive good preaching, good teaching, good examples, and good provision—do not complain that you did not know or that you did not hear the warning and the Word of God. Do not complain; you have received.

“And from the one to whom much has been given, much will be demanded”—much will be demanded. Do not allow the Word of the Lord to fall upon you day after day only for that Word to run off like good seed and end up in the gutter. That is a terrible waste. Whoever wastes the life of God, God kills; that is why He killed Onan when he spilled the seed on the ground instead of giving life through it, because God detests the one who receives life and does not pass it on.

So if you are receiving the Word of the Lord, that Word either judges you or blesses you—one of the two. It either cuts off your head or impregnates you, but it is not neutral. The Word of God never fails to do what God commands it to do. Be good soil. Give, receive, serve, surrender to the Lord, care for His House, serve His House and His Kingdom. “Everyone to whom much has been given, from him much will be demanded; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be asked.”

Enter this year filled with the blessing and promise of God, but also with a sense of holy responsibility that God expects you and me to live up to the calling we have received. The apostle Paul says that we must conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel that has been entrusted to us. Conduct yourself like a servant of God; conduct yourself like a prince of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Bow your head and receive this solemn calling from God, who says to you: I have blessed you with every spiritual blessing, I have given you everything you need for the journey, I have impregnated you with My blessing, I have placed My genetic code within you, but see that I command you to be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or discouraged. I will be with you wherever you go, and never let this Word depart from your mouth; never cease to do the things I have commanded you. Be careful to act according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it either to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper in everything you undertake.

“Never shall this Book of the Law depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may act according to everything written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and everything will go well for you. See that I command you to be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or discouraged, for Jehovah your God will be with you wherever you go.”

When you live in the Word, then you will prosper in all your ways, and I declare that blessing of God over your life and that sacred responsibility, and I charge you to live up to the sublime calling you have received. Receive it in the Name of Jesus; say amen there in your inner being and become impregnated with that Word of God: Lord, I receive that Word with fear and trembling, and I treasure it within my being, and I ask You not to let me—not to let us—fall from that height. Father, we surrender that Word to You, who have entrusted it to us, Lord, and we bless You, God; we give You thanks, we praise Your Name, Lord. Thank You, Father; thank You, Lord; thank You, thank You, Lord Jesus.