Consuming Fire Part 2

We need to connect with the vision God has given from the beginning.

 Summary

God is looking for a people who will bring transformation through the gospel to the world.  God has implanted a prophetic vision in Lifesprings Church and is calling us to seek Him so that we are the generation that He uses to fulfill His plan.  We  need to connect with God in a greater measure and humble ourselves before Him and seek Him until His purposes become manifested in our lives and community.  Bishop Ron passionately pleads with believers to press in to God so that He may be glorified in our lives and in our generation.

Outline

1. Connecting to the vision.
   1. We need to connect with our past if we are going to know where we are going.
   2. David Wilkerson prophesied to Buddy Hicks about planting the church.
   3. Two prophets came and both gave the exact same prophesy concerning the church.
2. Hebrews 11:1 – Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen – this is how the elders obtained a testimony.
   1. Truths seen in the Spirit are a bridge to our hearts and minds and produces great faith.
   2. In scriptures there is both little and great faith.
   3. A forerunner has great faith and sets things on fire.
   4. Little faith will sustain you, but it will not set things on fire.
3. Matthew 15:22 – A Canaanite woman had great faith and her daughter was delivered from an evil spirit – she overcame all obstacles to get to Jesus and requests He heal her daughter.
   1. She had been listening and heard about what Jesus was doing – the rumors about Jesus.
   2. Hearing comes before faith.
   3. Her decision was to lose her daughter or to lose her life.
   4. Vision and revelation will never come until we have an ear to listen in the Spirit.
   5. Sometimes Jesus will offend you to see where your faith is – because He wants to push the potential out of your heart.
   6. Parents use everything in their arsenal when they see their children living below their potential.
   7. God sees our potential and does not want us to live below it.
   8. When you are challenged with something, your response is what counts.
4. Matthew 8 – Jesus marveled at the Centurion’s faith
   1. Our responses and attitudes can cause the Godhead to marvel.
5. Both the Canaanite and the Roman Centurion were both hated by the Jews…it took a lot of faith for them to even go to Jesus.
   1. Faith crosses boundaries, ethnicities, economics, it is something that penetrates the economy of heaven.
   2. When the Canaanite woman went back to her people, she would have told people about Jesus and have been persecuted for it.
   3. The Roman Centurion had heard the rumors and seen the testimonies. Even at the risk of losing his reputation with his soldiers, he knelt before Jesus.
   4. The disciples never heard Jesus tell them they had great faith, yet these outsiders had.
6. If we are going to set this world on fire for God, we need to have great faith.
   1. If we are going to do great things, there is going to have to be a radical change in our hearts.
7. Habakkuk 2:1 – Make the vision plain so people can run with it.
   1. You cannot go to the house of God without a pure motive.
   2. Habakkuk wanted to hear from God and be corrected – he did not want to be an impediment to what God wanted to in his life and in the world.
   3. We need to see our need for God and be hungry for righteousness.
   4. We need God to speak to us and correct us.
   5. Then God spoke to Habakkuk about the vision.
   6. Transformation takes place at the citadel.
   7. We are called not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed.
8. After Bishop was saved, Bishop Ron was at a men’s meeting.
   1. Bishop Ron got offended by the scripture that was going around.
   2. Before the cross, negativity ruled Bishop Ron’s life.
   3. He got up and spoke foolishly.
   4. If you want to get set free, you need practical solutions…we are getting to it.
   5. There was a young man who had just returned to the Lord.
   6. His father had been ministering to him to come out of a lifestyle that was decadent.
   7. He finally got his son to come back to the Lord.
   8. Big mouth Bishop caused a stumbling block to him and caused him to go back into the world.
   9. Bishop Ron wept and wept about it.
9. We need to become broken over our sin.
   1. We need to have humility and break out of our insecurities.
   2. Bishop went to Pr. Buddy broken and ashamed.
   3. Insecurities always come out of a negative attitude.
   4. He was told to be accountable to other men in the church so that he would have a support team.
   5. He was encouraged to go back to each of the men and apologize for what you said and did.
10. For us to get connected to God in a greater measure and to get the vision we need to get over some of the unhealthy patterns in our life.
    1. We need to humble ourselves before God so we can get the vision.
11. Genesis 11:30 – Abraham was looking for the real God, so God calls him out.
    1. God is calling people out so they can see something beyond their present situation.
    2. You need to be called out by hunger in our heart to hear from Him.
    3. We need to want God to speak to us and to correct us.
    4. God shows Abram the stars… as Abraham was looking at the stars, God was speaking to his heart.
    5. When God begins speaking to you, transformation is not far behind.
    6. That vision given to Abraham is part of our heritage, we are part of its lineage.
    7. After Abraham died, the Philistines filled up the wells he dug and they renamed them…they ware contending against the vision spoken to Abraham.
       1. Water brings life – it was to end the life of the dream.
       2. Isaac dug up the wells of Abraham.
    8. Sometimes the portals of our life have been plugged up, and we need to dig them up again so life can come out.
    9. The first year, Isaac received a hundred fold blessing.
12. If you have an insecurity, it clogs up your hearing and you misinterpret what God is saying.
    1. There was a passion in Bishop to not do anything that would cause reproach to God among unbelievers or believers.
    2. Daniel 1:8 – Daniel committed to not defile himself.
    3. Nothing happens until we dedicate ourselves completely.
    4. They made their stand for God.
13. Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and wants the interpretation without telling the dream.
    1. Daniel asks for time, because Nebuchadnezzar commanded all to die.
    2. Daniel was even saving those that hated him.
    3. He got his three friends – the first recorded youth prayer meeting in history.
    4. His motive primarily was to save the people and bring people to God.
    5. The three fasted and prayed and Daniel got the interpretation of the dream.
    6. Revelation and faith are not contradictory.
       1. The humanists needed a revelation from the king to manipulate the data.
       2. Daniel need to reason to know how to steward the revelation.
14. Definition of Great faith – using all of your faculties to steward what God has given you.
15. This church has been designated by prophetic voices to be a forerunner to make God’s name known to the nations.
    1. You just need a broken and humble heart.
    2. We are a placeholder, God is waiting to see what decision we are going to make.
    3. Life reproduces, death never produces.
    4. We are called to light a fire in the world, and we will if we only believe.