Listen to me. If it left your life, it's not necessary for what's next.
If it left your life, it's not necessary for what's next. This is going to be
a deep surgical word for somebody. And you're going to go, Yeah, but what about.
No, no, no, no, no. If it left your life, remember, Elijah
was crying out in anguish when Elijah was taken up from him. This is a lot of scripture
I'm giving you, but I'm just flowing in the Holy Spirit right now, trusting that God is
going to apply the part that you need. When Elijah was taken up by chariots and fire,
Elijah was left holding only his mantle and wondering what, what next?
And even the prophets around and went to go look for Elijah. They're like, Let's go
get him back. But he's not coming back. But he doesn't have to because God's doing a new thing
and for everything that left your life, whether it was abandonment or whether it was just tragedy,
I declare that the Holy Spirit is going to fill all of those gaps,
that the Holy Spirit is going to give the oil of joy.
He's going to give the balm of healing,
Holy Spirit. Even right now, I prophesy songs of joy from Barren wombs.
I prophesy over every family prodigal returning because you're so stuck on the time that you
lost. But God's going to give you something back that's greater. Even with the relationships where
you've wasted time, The Holy Spirit said, I want to restore the years that the locusts have eaten.
Our God is a God of restoration, and Elijah is now doing ministry without his mentor,
and the Kings are trying to go to war without water and God steps into desperate situations.
I want you to know that God, the God we serve, the God who sent His son to die for us, the God who
turned Friday's disappointment into Sunday's empty tomb.
And then, 50 days later on the day of Pentecost, sent his spirit
to a battered, broken people who wondered, Jesus has left us what next? Think about that.
Think are torn. They were without the physical presence of Jesus. But Jesus
says something crazy. He said, If I leave, I'll send something greater. I'll send the Spirit.
God never allows something to be taken away without replacing it with something greater.
Even though we'll never, ever, ever get back that thing.
Are you open to a great thing that God will do in its place? Because Elijah is standing there
and he's like, But now verse 15, Bring me a musician. One version says Harpist,
but now bring me a musician. Now this next phrase is very key. Lean in is as verse 15 part be.
Then it happened when the musician played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. Wait a minute. Was
the hand of the Lord gone before then? Now it's a steady hand, but the hand of the Lord came upon
him in a special way. In a special season, the hand of the Lord is coming upon you right now.
When the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah,
the musician started to play. Imagine this. The moment that the musician put his hand on the harp,
the Lord put his hand on Elijah. God said, When you put your hand on it, I'll put my hand on it.
That's what the Lord is saying when you put your hand on it, God will put His hand on it.
And think about this musician man. He was called upon suddenly, wasn't he? There was
not time. They're dying of thirst. I need a musician. He didn't have time to practice.
And it. It's everything that he had practiced his life up until this point that made him ready
when he was called upon for this moment of revelation. I feel God on that.
For somebody like everything that you're practicing right now, some of you are working
in counseling and it feels like, Man, I still am not getting any further along. Oh, you are.
It's going to come suddenly, but you've got to stay steady
until it comes suddenly, a steady hand is ready to receive a sudden blessing.
That's why the musician was called, because he was appointed for this.
They would appoint musicians for the prophets that were ready, and they're practicing their
scales and they're practicing one of the scales. I thought this was kind of interesting. One of
the scales in music is the pentatonic scale. Pinta is four, five, Pentecost is 50 days,
and so it's a five note scale. Well, I've thought about that, how he probably practices painting
pentatonic pentatonic scales and, you know, Pentecostal power comes to prepare people.
Well, put it in the chat. Then a gospel power comes to prepared people. They
were in one accord and they were sitting and it came suddenly Acts two verse two
suddenly came a sound. A sudden sound came to eight sitting people. And I'm so glad you invested
in this word today because you're sitting under this word today. You're getting ready
for what God is going to do suddenly, and behind every sudden, blessing is a steady hand.
Because what Elijah prophesying, the musician starts playing.
And I mean, this is not something you can just like hear with your mind. You've got to picture
this with your senses. The hand of the Lord comes on. Elijah Everybody's waiting to
see what God will do. They don't know yet. They don't know how, they don't know when.
And the hand of the Lord came on verse 16 and he said, thus says, The Lord, there it is.
And He Elijah said, thus says, the Lord, okay, I'm gonna give you one more principle before
we really preach here. Stop saying what you see and start saying what God says.
Stop saying, My kids are so annoying. Stop saying this is so frustrating.
Like you can process it fine, vent for a minute and then say what God says.
But you know what? Everybody has their own gift and God has given this person
a gift and I'm going to receive their gift. That's what God says.
Stop saying the bones. Bones are very dry. That's what you see is they kill and start saying
the word of the Lord says, Breath come from the four winds. That's what Pentecost is about.
That's what faith is about. And he said, thus says the Lord and said Thus says the Lord and
hears the word of the Lord, make this valley full of ditches. What? That's dumb. We're in
a desert drought. The seven March, the seven day march they did to get there through eat them the
wilderness of eat them. It is dry, it is salty, It butts up against the Dead Sea and it is dry.
And you want us to dig ditches in a dry place? Yes, because watch this. You don't
know how God's going to do it, but he does. And you'll know when you need to.
You don't know when it's going to come. You don't know which time you're going to be picking up your
kid from school and they're going to open up and you're going to get to talk to them.
You don't know what time you're going to show up and God's going to give you somebody who shares
a little thing that goes like, Oh, that changes my business. Oh, that's going to be the thing.
I mean, you don't know when the introduction is going to happen. That's going to contain
your solution. But God does it will flow when it's supposed to, you know, when you need to.
It flows when it's supposed to. And until it does get busy digging,
make this valley full of ditches. Say it out loud. I'm going to dig. Say it. I'm
going to dig. So if you're looking for me, you will find me with the shovel in
my hand. I wish I had a prop. I didn't plan to preach this, but God planned for me too.
I wish I had a shovel. What could I use? I got to have an instrument.
We use the scissors. We don't have a shovel. But we got some. We got some
scissors. I'm going to take that as kind of awkward. I'll put them down. You can
imagine it. I got this shovel. No, I don't have the solution yet, but I got a shovel.
No, I don't have the funding yet. But I got faith.
No, I don't have the best friend that I always wanted yet. But I got the Holy Spirit.
No, I don't have the companionship that I want yet in my life. But you know what I've got? I
got a few people I can call today and encourage. No, I don't have the seven year strategy yet.
No, I don't know what college I'm going to. No,
I don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up. And I'm 53, but I'm digging because I'm
growing again. I'm going forward again. I'm moving in it, flowing in it, trusting in it.
I trust God in this. So I'm digging right now for something that I can't see yet.
Why? Because I have a word from God. Verse 17 four thus says The Lord. Now here it
comes. This is the crux of the message. Please get this. You shall not see wind,
nor shall you see rain. Yet that valley. Now you've got to point at
something in your life. When you read this verse, you've got to point at it.
You've got a point by faith. I went rafting one time and the rafting guide was telling us, Hey,
when we get out here on the river, we're not going to give you a lot of, like,
commands and stuff and say, Don't hit that rock. Don't hit that rock. Because if we talk about
what we don't want you to hit, you won't hear us over the rapids and you probably hit the rock.
So we're going to point positive. Say that point positive. So I'm going to tell you to right to
left. I'm going to tell you where to paddle and what to paddle toward and do what I say,
not what you see. That's what God is saying. When you're in a season of transition like this,
you got to do what he says, not what you see, not what you feel,
not what you think, not what they say, not what some report says, not what the market says.
You've got to do what God says. For that says the Lord. You shall not see wind,
nor shall you see rain. Well, if I'm not going to see winter rain,
why am I going to dig a ditch? You'll know when you need to.
I didn't know why I started teaching this today. I do. Because God wanted me to give it to you.
I didn't know why God wanted me to go to North Greenville College. Now I do. He wanted me to
meet Holly so we could be here ministering to you, celebrating 21 years of marriage. You don't have
to know why. You just got to dig. You'll know. I have to know why. You just got to be in your seat.
Touch somebody. Say be in your seat. Aren't you glad you didn't skip church today?
Aren't you glad you didn't click over to some dumb YouTube video about seven things that
are destroying your gut health? And you got in here to get this spiritual work.
Get this spiritual word for this, says the Lord. One word from God can release water.
One word from God can bring you out of a wilderness. For that,
says the Lord. You shall not say wind, nor shall you see rain. Yet that valley,
that low place, that depression shall be filled. I don't have to see it. I don't
have to know how. I don't have to have it happen when I feel it should happen.
None of that. I don't need any of that. All I need to do is dig,
dig, dig, dig, dig. What I mean by dig, I mean, listen. I mean decide inside.
God, decide the inside God, okay? God knows I'm deciding inside that God is with me right now.
I'm not looking for proof around me. You shall not see one.
You shall not see. Right? I decide. Inside God is with me. That's what I mean by dig.
And then you do instructions. Given you do instructions given. So if you don't know this,
but you do know that you do that you point to the valley and you dig for this is a
lord you should see. Not when he rang his valley should be thought how you know when you need to.
And he said that the consequence of this will be great so that you, your cattle and
your animals may drink. And this is verse 18 a simple matter. Let's simplify. Sometimes you
get overwhelmed because you try to do God's job and it's complicated. But what he said,
this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord. Well, it's anything but simple to you.
How am I going to get this to turn out, turn around and sustain it?
And how in the world am I going to crawl through this? How in the world
am I going to make this one right? How in the world am I going to explain this
is a simple thing to God. See, when you break it down into steps, it gets simple and God will
always give you one step to take and he will give you the power of his spirit for the next step.
And you won't see wind. You won't see rain. But I breathe you in Holy Spirit and your
strength comes suddenly. It's a simple thing. Bring yourself back right now to this moment
and breathe in the Holy Spirit and watch what happens. His strength comes suddenly and his peace
fills us completely. Because when the spirit comes, he comes with gifts.
What gifts? It comes with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control. Galatians 522 and 23. That's the fruit of the spirit.
It's a simple thing for God is complicated to us. It is not sensible to us. We don't know how
to pray, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. And the Holy Spirit is here right now.
And listen to what He'll do. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.
God is going to give the enemy into your hand. Your hand If your hand is steady,
God's hand is steady. He's doing it. He's already doing it. We're not praying,
asking God to start doing something. He's already doing it. He's been doing this bigger than you.
It's not even about you. He wants to give you this victory. Is your hand steady to receive it?
Are you digging a ditch for it? Are you just looking around you?
He wants to give it into your hand. Everybody say a steady hand for a sudden blessing.