Submit, Resist, Draw Near & Repeat

Well, we have been going through the book of James, and we are nearing the end of James. Jay gave me my portion of Scripture, and I am only getting through a portion of it, which probably throws off his calendar just a little bit. So I don’t know if I will do the second part of what I’m supposed to talk about. Maybe I’ll do a midweek teaching online so that we keep on track. I don’t know.

I turned 44 this week. I’m proud of it. And thank you. On my birthday, Jay was like, “What do you want to do?” And I just kept saying, “I don’t want to be rushed.” I generally go everywhere like I’m driving — I’m always driving fast — but I’m kind of always just rushed. And I had someone who was actually encouraging me and giving me a birthday wish, and they said, “I feel like you’re always so busy, but the Lord is asking you to slow down.” And I didn’t tell them. I was like, well, actually, yes, that’s how He started this year: I’m not going to be rushed.

And so, as I was approaching the Scripture, I’m like, I’m not rushing through it. I’m going to just go at the pace, and I’m not going to force anything. And so we’re just going to slowly, methodically go through a few portions of Scripture, because there is enough that’s there.

A continuation, not a separation

But the book of James is all about what walking like Christ should look like. It should look like something. That’s really what it is when he’s talking about how we’re both hearers and doers, how faith without works is dead. He’s talking about how our life, if we’ve surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ, should look like something and look different than other people. How we speak, where we get our wisdom from, how we approach each other, how we approach God. That’s what James is all about. He’s saying, “Look, if you are a follower, your life should look like something.”

And last week when Pastor Jay was speaking — actually, in Scripture when you’re looking at it, it looks like that portion of Scripture is done. When Scripture was written, there weren’t chapters and verses the way that we have it divided in our Bibles. And so today’s piece of Scripture, it’s almost like — if you’ve ever been in a conversation with me, sometimes keeping on one track is just difficult enough, but sometimes I’m having a conversation in my mind, and then I’ll start up a conversation with someone thinking they know what I was talking about. But it was in my mind, and we actually never had the conversation. I just thought we had the conversation, and then I just pick up where we left off.

That’s kind of what this Scripture is. It’s literally picking up, and we’re continuing a conversation. So it basically would be like, “Okay, so I was saying.” That’s what this is. Jay was talking about pride and calling out to the Lord, positioning our heart, and now this part of Scripture is saying, okay, because of that, we’re going to continue on. It’s so important that we understand that this is a continuation and not a separation. We’re nearing the end of the book as we’re in chapter 4, where basically James is tying all of the things he’s been talking about together as we’re exiting out of Scripture.

So we’re going to go ahead and start in James 4:7. And you can read along. You don’t have to read out loud, because I can never read out loud when Jay is reading out loud. I’m always going too fast or too slow. So I’m reading out of the New King James. We’ll have Scripture up there if you don’t have your Bibles, or you can turn on your phones. It says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Wow, that’s kind of a lot. And we’re going to just break it down here in the first one, verse 7. It’s literally 13 words, but probably one of the most jam-packed places. As I was studying, as I was reading it — as I go through, I write myself notes and then I write my message out. That’s just the way that it goes. But these 13 words we could probably sit on for a very long time.

What it means to submit

So the word “therefore” literally means “as a result of everything I just said.” That’s what James is basically saying. We’ve just talked about pride. We’ve just talked about our posture. We’ve just talked about how God gives more grace, but God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Therefore, because of that, submit to God.

When you hear the word “submit,” I don’t know what comes to your mind. I don’t know if it has a negative connotation or a positive connotation. I know culturally that’s kind of a tricky word. We don’t want to submit to anybody. I know people who won’t have that be a part of their wedding vows. I watch a lot of old TV shows, old movies, things that I’ve seen before, and sometimes I’ll just sit there and watch how things have slowly been introduced into culture, right? They’ll say things just over and over like it’s not a big deal and make it casual, and now these are things that set our culture and tone.

I don’t remember what I was watching — I couldn’t even tell you — but last week I was watching something, and in the TV show, the husband said that the wife couldn’t do something, and she’s like, “You can’t tell me what to do.” And then they’re arguing about this whole idea, and it’s a subtle place of “I’m not going to submit to you,” right? They may not directly say it, but we start seeing how culture does not like the word “submit.” We don’t like to submit to authority. Submit is like a no-good word if we really think about it. And here we’re hearing, “Therefore, because of everything you’ve just heard, your first posture is actually to submit to God.”

The word “submit” means to stand under. It means to come in obedience or in subjection to something. And the cultural norm continues to have us posture ourselves like, I don’t want to submit to anything. I don’t want to do that. I want to do this. I don’t feel like doing this. I want to do that. And the problem is, when we’re looking at it in the context of Scripture, he’s saying, because of everything I just taught you, your first step is actually to submit to God.

Resisting God and submitting to the devil

The second place is that not only are you going to submit to God, but you will resist the devil, and he will flee. The word “resist” literally means to withstand, bravely resist, vigorously oppose, stand face to face against, and stand your ground.

Both of those postures are necessary in order for us to grow in our relationship with God. However, as I was contemplating, praying, and reading, I realized we oftentimes get them switched. We resist God, and we submit to the devil.

And let me tell you how we submit to the devil. Now, the devil isn’t coming out with horns and his pitchfork, right? That’s not what he looks like. That’s not how he presents himself in everyday life. He presents himself in everyday life in forms of independence. He presents himself in everyday life when I’m putting my preference above my husband’s preference, or above my children’s preference, or above the person that is really grinding my gears. He presents himself when all of a sudden my values, as I’m reading Scripture, seem to come contradictory to the Word of God.

See, in culture we have come to a place where we resist God and we submit to the devil. And the problem with that is we then live a life that is powerless, because we’ve just said yes to Jesus. We’ve said the prayer. We’ve gone to church. And then we put Him aside, and we forget about Him until we need something, of course, right? And again, I don’t need to go far. I just need to look in my own life. I have no one else in mind other than myself, of how often I can resist God and what He’s asking me to do, and not come into submission to Him. And I come into submission with the ways of this world, which then ultimately come into submission to the enemy, the devil.

See, we want to be free, whatever that might mean and look like for you. Some people genuinely want to be free from their bondages and things that are keeping them ensnared. Some people just want to be free to do whatever they want, right? I just want to live my life. I’m interested in going to heaven, because I do believe that there might be a heaven and hell, so I am interested in that. But I’m not really interested in my life being inconvenienced in that way.

But what we’re hearing here is that we need to actually submit our life to Christ. And when we begin to resist the devil, it’s going to look like something.

Comfortable in the uncomfortable

So I went back and forth about sharing this, because I’m not there yet, but I’ll share a little bit, because it’s been one of the most profound places that I’m currently growing in. I’m currently training for a half marathon. I should say that I have not worked out probably since the day that I bought the shoes. Well, I had shoes. I don’t generally work out. I don’t necessarily enjoy it. I don’t enjoy running, honestly. Half the time as I’m running, I’m like, why am I doing this? Who enjoys this? This is forever. Those are generally the thoughts that are in my mind.

But I was having a conversation with my kids, and I was saying to them, I’m really struggling with wanting to keep running. I’m not exhausted. I actually have been very impressed with my body and how it’s come along as I’ve done stuff. The problem I struggle with is my mind doesn’t want to do it. In fact, my mind tells me to stop. Literally, I’m doing good, doing good, doing good, and then for no reason — I’m not out of breath — I just stop, because my mind just doesn’t want to do it. But I’m trying to get somewhere. I have a goal. I’m trying to hit it.

And I have a guide that will come in and say their encouragement and have you focus or tune in on whatever. But every person that I’ve listened to in this last eight weeks talks about getting comfortable in the uncomfortable — that that’s where we grow, that that’s where we begin to find our stride. And I’m like, I don’t like this at all.

I should say I have really been working on my mind, because that’s what everyone says: it’s your mind. Someone else said, remember, your mind will want to quit before your body does. So I was on an eight-mile run, and I was like, okay, Suzie, your mind is going to want to quit. You can do this. And I just kept going and going and going.

So I say all that to say that we have come to a place where we’ve become very comfortable with not being uncomfortable. And the invitation — because everything is always an invitation — the invitation, or the temptation I should say, is to be independent from Christ and not submitted to His lordship and His authority. That’s the temptation.

Anytime we look at what it talks about with resisting the devil, his scheme is always to come against us and keep us in a place of independence, relying on ourselves, what we can solve, what we can do, how we can function. And the invitation is, will you live in surrender and submission under the authority of God? Because that’s what this is about. Living for this world will keep us from growing close to God.

If we’re not asking ourselves these questions, if we’re still struggling with things, I would ask you: how does your life look different because of God? How does it look different because you’re in lordship and relationship? And I do know that the majority of you in here know Jesus and have a relationship with Jesus. So how does your life look different because of that? Is it in submission to God?

That’s a hard question. As I was reading this, I’m just like, come on. I just want to live in the fun, exciting stuff. But how does our life look? Does it look like it’s submitted to God? How are you being tempted? What does resisting the devil look like in your life? Because we all have temptations. We all are facing things. This isn’t about condemnation, but rather it’s a reflection, for us to have a true reflection so we can know what we still need to lay before our Father.

Could you imagine if you went into the doctor? You’re going into the doctor because you have a problem, and they ask you all of these questions, and you’re like, “I’m fine. That’s good. Oh, no, I’m fine.” Well, then why are you there, right? No, we would say, “Well, I feel like maybe my energy is low,” and this and that, right? We would come with an accurate reflection of what’s going on in our bodies. Why would we not be doing so even more with our spirit and how our relationship looks?

And again, it’s not about condemnation, but rather it’s about an invitation, because the invitation is that we have new life in Christ. It says that all old things have passed away; behold, I am new. And when something is new — let me tell you, when I had a new car versus an old car, there were definite distinctions. When Jay got his nice car, there were definite distinctions between his car and my car. Why? Because it was very, very new. It wasn’t brand new; it was extremely new. So it smelled new. It looked new. All of the things were working, right? And in my car, there are certain things that aren’t working or things that are missing, right? There’s something between the new and the old.

How much more so, when we’ve given our lives in submission to Christ, should our life look different and be different, and we walk with a different boldness and confidence? Not because everything is perfect, but because we have new life in Christ. And when it’s submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ, things should look and be different. We should be walking with a different level of faith. We should be walking with a different level of joy. We should be walking with a different level of expectation, even in the midst of our circumstances not being great.

See, this is the good news. This is why in those 13 words, in the one verse, we understand and we have the opportunity to say: because I am submitted to Christ, because I am actively resisting the devil, he will flee. Therefore I get to walk differently in all of the circumstances that I’m walking in. But if I’m unwilling to be honest with myself about the things that I’m holding on to, I will stay stuck, and I will stay in submission to the enemy and the ways of this world. There’s no way around it.

And so many times we’re walking around as if we don’t have the ability to tap into the glory and the goodness of God. We just walk around as if we’re defeated. And Scripture tells me in one verse that if I submit to God and I resist the enemy, guess what? He will flee. Now, both of those things require something of me. Both of those things are not something where I’m just sitting and hoping it happens. Both of those things are actual actions.

Again, in verse 6, a little bit before, it says that He gives more grace. He gives more grace. He gives more grace. That’s His posture towards us: more. But it also says God will resist the proud. Oh, but He gives grace to the humble. He gives grace to the one who decides to be submitted to the authority and subjection of Jesus.

Recognizing the counterfeit

When we talk about resisting the devil, it’s resisting our bent towards sin. It’s bringing ourselves out of agreement with him and into agreement with the things of God’s Word — the things He says He’s done and the things He says He will do. Resisting the devil is about refuting the lies that he’s already speaking. As someone was saying earlier, the things that are operating in our mind are calling us to settle for the counterfeit.

See, what you have to understand is the enemy isn’t going to just be like, “Hey, I’m the enemy, and I’m here to tempt you today, so what are we going to do?” No, he’s going to make it seem like it’s no big deal. He’s a counterfeit. So everything he offers is going to be a counterfeit of what God really has and the truth of who God is. That’s why sometimes we don’t even recognize it’s the enemy, because it sounds almost too good to be true. It almost sounds so good that it must be true. See, when we’re refuting, when we’re resisting the devil, we’re actually bringing ourselves out of alignment with him, and we’re able to recognize that’s a counterfeit.

And I’m going to tell you, we are heading into a time — if you’ve not paid attention at all — where there’s a lot of counterfeit out there that sounds good that is not the truth. There’s a lot of counterfeit out there that’s calling us to come and focus inward that’s not from God. There are a lot of people who are even using Scripture as a counterfeit, I’m going to tell you. And it’s our responsibility to get into the Word, to know the Word, to be uncomfortable and ask, how does my life look different because I’m a follower of Jesus? How is my life being tempted by the enemy, and what am I doing? That is our responsibility.

We’re coming to a time right now where we need to understand who God is, and understand His voice, and that He’s speaking to each one of us, and that the Holy Spirit is our teacher. He’s not just a part of the Trinity that we forgot about, like, oh, the Holy Spirit. No, no, the Holy Spirit wants to guide us and comfort us and bring us teaching through our day. We’re coming into a time where we need to understand this. And when I say “understand,” I don’t mean knowing the whole Bible. That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s about reading our Bible and allowing the Word to transform our minds, to transform our lives. This is what resisting the devil looks like. And not resisting him looks like the opposite.

The armor of God

Ephesians chapter 6. This might be a familiar place, but Paul is writing about putting on the armor of God. I’m going to read it. It says, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” See, being strong in the Lord and the power of His might looks like something. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.”

Let me tell you, when we’re talking about resisting the devil, it is something that’s happening in the spirit realm. We need to understand in this time, as things continue to escalate politically, as things continue to escalate culturally, that we’re not fighting against each other. We’re not fighting against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities. We need to have the wisdom and the discernment to understand the difference — that when someone is coming against me, or someone has a different view, or whatever it might be, I can still look at them and say, you’re a child of God. I don’t need to be right. I don’t need to fall into this trap. What I need is the wisdom and understanding and discernment by the Holy Spirit to know how to engage in this, because I don’t wrestle. I don’t fight people. I don’t fight you. I get myself into position to posture myself in a place that’s submitted to God.

Because when we think about what it means to be submitted to God — I’m going to pause right there. Fast forward, rewind, whatever direction in the Bible. When we see Jesus arrested and they’re accusing Him of all of these things, He says nothing. He’s in the high courts for His life. And when He finally chose to say something, Jesus’ response was, “It is as you say.” Jesus wasn’t really into having to defend Himself, what He was doing, or who He was. He understood His assignment. He understood what was set before Him.

And my heart is that as people, we would understand our assignment and who we are. And that only comes through understanding the Word of God and what He has to say about us. When we begin to understand what He says about us, then what people say has less of a sting, because I don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. So what is the enemy trying to stir up here? What is he trying to get me angry about? What is he trying to get me riled up about? See, that’s the kind of wisdom and discernment we need so that we would be submitted to God. Because when we’re submitted to God, we know how to resist the devil.

But too many times — and I see it everywhere — we’re so busy trying to prove that God is right that we’ve missed it. We’re not in submission. We’re just in chaos. Everything around us is just in chaos, looking to bring you in. And He said, “No, no, no. First step is submit yourself back to Me. Posture yourself in a place of humility. Resist the devil, and he’ll flee.”

Verse 13 of Ephesians 6 says, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God.” When you were in kids’ church — or maybe you didn’t grow up in kids’ church — you would create this armor. You have this idea that every part of you is covered. And this is basically what it’s explaining: “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able” — not that God might be able. No, that you and I might be able — “to withstand in the evil day.” There’s an evil day that’s coming. We’ve got to also understand that there’s darkness. And He’s calling us, saying, “Put on the armor, because you’re going to need to be able to stand.” I am literally standing here. And He’s saying, “I want you to be able to stand. So in order for you to be able to stand, you need to understand what it means to have the armor. You need to understand what it means to live in submission and wield and do the things that I have already equipped you with.”

Verse 14: “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” I’m telling you, if you are fighting with people online, it is not the gospel of peace. Even if they’re wrong about it, the gospel brings peace. It brings calm and order. We’re not doing that online, people. We need to get with people. We need to have conversations. We need to bring people back to Scripture, not our opinions, not our thoughts. What does the gospel of peace say? See, this is all important because this is what it means to be submitted to God.

“Above all things, take the shield of faith with which you’re able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” Why am I needing a shield? And why are there darts coming at me? See, we forget. We just get in this place of life where we’re just living. We’re just doing. We’re just being. And we forget that all that’s happening are these darts that are coming so that we can stay hooked, so we can stay distracted. And He’s saying, “No, put up the shield.” And you’re going to need it. There’s a level of faith that you’re going to need, because what you see and what is happening is different than what I’m doing in the spirit realm.

He goes on to say, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” We need the Word of God. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” When we pray in our heavenly language, when we’re praying in the Spirit, we’re praying the perfect will of God. So He’s saying, “Hey, look, this is an active place of engagement. I want you praying. I need you to be watchful. I need you to be mindful.” “Be watchful to the end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

Being submitted and resisting the devil means we’re looking out for one another in our prayer and in our supplication. If there are people that you are not praying for, find someone. Cover them. Ask them the question. Have the uncomfortable conversation. Choose to be vulnerable when someone’s asking you something, because we’re in this together. We’re in this together. And we’re to do this with perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

Resisting the devil — we’re going to go back to James. Resisting the devil and the wiles of his way: he will flee from you. In every circumstance, the way we resist the devil is always through Christ. In every situation, the scheme is always to get us against each other in our own fleshly desires — to be reactive, to be right, to be comfortable. But as we just read, it is actually to pray for all of the saints and be active and uncomfortable and wrong and quiet. That’s what it means to be submitted to God.

Draw near to God

Now, here’s where the promise begins. Well, there was already a promise: the devil will flee if you resist him. But it’s going to take work. And sometimes it’s going to be over and over. And it’s like, I thought I dealt with this. No, we keep going. We keep going.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. He will — not He might. So why is Scripture telling us I need to draw near to Him? He feels distant from me. Have you ever felt distant from God? I’m going to tell you, it’s not because He moved. It’s because we moved.

And what I love about this Scripture, and what we’re coming from with James, is that we’re reading about our humanity, our sinfulness. And yet the invitation is, would you draw near to Me? Would you just come close? I’m not concerned with the things. Draw near to Me.

Like I said, oftentimes we put Him aside. Could you imagine if you’re married, or you have a best friend or a sibling or an important relationship, and you just didn’t ever really talk to them? You’re just like, “Oh, they’re there.” You would drift apart. No one did anything bad; you just didn’t have time for them, and you’d drift apart. How much more so with God? When we don’t give attention, the ability to drift apart is there. But His invitation is, would you draw near?

And there is a requirement — maybe that’s not the best word — because He’s still God and He’s still holy. As much as He’s real and desires to be present and near us, He’s still a holy God. And it does require us to come and position ourselves in a place of humility.

It says, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners.” At this point in time when Scripture was being written — we take a shower every day, every other day, every three days. I don’t know how often you shower, right? We wash our hands often throughout the day. But in those times, that wasn’t how things were. And so when you were to come and give an offering and present yourself, you actually had to wash yourself to make yourself clean.

But as I was studying this, what I wrote down was that even though they were literally making themselves physically clean, our hands have to do with what we do outwardly, right? When we give something to someone, when we offer something, our hands are one of the greatest extensions of who we are. And here James is saying, cleanse your hands. Cleanse yourself and your position from your actions first.

The second place, he says, is “purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Purifying our hearts means we’re bringing our inward into agreement and alignment with God’s promises and the things that He said — that we would have the faith to believe in His Word, and that we would go from wavering to steadfast. That’s how we purify our hearts.

Verse 9 says, “Lament and mourn and weep.” I thought that was kind of interesting. What he’s describing there is grieving. Lament, mourn, and weep. Verse 9: “Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” See, there is a place for us where it is appropriate to grieve how sin has brought us into separation from Jesus, and to acknowledge it, and that there is a weight of sin. Sin does weigh us down, believe it or not.

And he’s saying, acknowledge the sin in that place. And it’s not that we’re judging. We’re just saying, Lord, when we begin to understand the weight of what we’ve done and how much it brings separation, that we would posture ourselves in a place of grief. And we would bring to Him just surrender, acknowledging the places where we have separated, where we’ve walked double-minded, where we’ve walked on the fence. And we get to do that in His presence.

He will lift you up

It’s here where we begin to humble ourselves. “Humble” means to make one low, to not have arrogance, to be willing to be subjected and submitted to God so that we can find freedom. He doesn’t say, grieve and go do what you need to do and then come back to Me. No, He says, “Come with your mourning and your grief and your sorrow. Come, let’s work out those things together.”

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” False humility — maybe you’ve seen it before. Have you ever met someone who’s just like, “I’m really humble”? And you’re like, if you’re humble, you probably don’t need to say you’re humble. We can probably just notice that you’re humble, right? There is a level of false humility. False humility actually is pride. False humility kind of looks like, I’m not worthy. I don’t deserve this. I’m avoiding it because I’m a sinner. Those are all things that kind of sound nice. That’s all false humility.

Humility and being humble means, I need You, and I can’t do this without You. It’s not about what I can offer You. It’s about what You’ve done for me. So I’m going to come and posture myself before You. I need Your grace. I need Your mercy. And even more so, I need Your grace and mercy so I can extend it to others. That’s what humility begins to look like. And the promise is, He will lift you up.

This is what a humble and sincere heart leads to: not only does He draw near to us, He lifts us up. He doesn’t just say, “Okay, now go hide over here. Okay, I’m done. Thanks. Glad we got that taken care of.” No, no. His heart is always about lifting us up so we can encounter Him at a greater capacity.

Think about this promise and exchange that we find in James chapter 4, verses 1–10. Ultimately, He basically says, “Hey, I’m going to give you more grace so that you can submit yourself to Me, because My way is better than your way.” The other part is, resist the devil. Yes, it’s going to feel hard and impossible sometimes, or even worse, it’s going to feel like what the devil is offering, or what you’re giving up, seems like so much. But just remember, that’s a counterfeit. Resist the devil. He will flee.

Come out of agreement with the things and the lies and the ways you’ve been living and bound. There’s freedom in Me. And you find freedom when you draw near to Me with humility, with honesty, and holding nothing back.

That’s the invitation. He’s waiting for you and me to draw near to Him in humility and honesty. And He never turns away from that, but He always makes room for us. And not only does He make room for us, He says, “And I’ll lift you up. I’ll bring you out of that pit you find yourself in. I’ll lift you up and out of it.” The promise is always that when we humble ourselves and we make room for the Lord and we draw near to Him, He always draws near to us.

If you can stand, I’ll go ahead and pray over you and me.

Lord, we thank You so much for Your goodness. We thank You so much for Your mercy. Lord, we thank You that the invitation and the action is that we’re not just sitting passively, waiting till You return, but that there’s an activation that You have for us to be engaged in the life of being a Spirit-filled believer. That there is an invitation to draw near to You with humility, in our brokenness, in our places where we feel bound. And that in that place, Lord, You draw near to us, and You give us the freedom and the breakthrough, and You lift us up. You draw us out of the miry clay, and You set our feet upon a rock, because we are Yours.

Lord, we pray that there would be a greater revelation this week, that we would not walk in complacency, that we would not walk in mediocrity, that we would not walk in lukewarmness, that we would not walk in a place where we’re resisting You and just have our attention on the things of this world. But God, I pray that this week we would just hear You speak so sweetly of the promises that You have for us. That we would continue to awaken to who and what You say about us — that we are Your daughters, that we are Your sons, that we are in exchange with the greatest covenant, that You take our weaknesses and exchange them for Your strength.

God, I pray that we would walk in that boldness and confidence, that we would be people who would be awakened to Your Word, awakened to Your voice, and that we would see You move. Lord, I pray that we would look for You through our days. Lord, I pray we would have expectation that You would speak to us in our dreams, Lord. That we would not settle for coincidence or good things or luck, but that we would know that You’re actively working in our lives every day, Lord. That when we live in submission to You, You have great and mighty things for us. And simply, the great and mighty thing is to be able to approach Your throne room with boldness and humility and confidence that You love us, that You’ve saved us, that You have freed us.

Lord, I pray that there would be greater revelation of those things. Lord, I thank You for who You are. I thank You for the work that You’re doing in this place and in and through us. We love You, and we just thank You for Your faithfulness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.