“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” —Proverbs 18:29
Transform Your Life by Using Scripture to Guide Your Goals
Are you struggling to understand God’s purpose for your life? Have you taken the time, precious friend, to sit down and write in your prayer journal? Have you actually taken the time to sit down and read your prayer journal? Do you even have a prayer journal?
Do you feel like your life is missing something? I strongly suggest that you get a journal because you need to write down your thoughts. It will help you grow, and it will help you become grounded, precious friend. It will truly help you to be grounded. One of my dearest mentors shared that when they went through a huge tragedy, they wrote everything down in their journal. As they wrote down their feelings, it helped them become grounded.
So, I encourage you, precious friend, to buy a journal. Get yourself a good journal—something that inspires you. You can visit a bookstore or simply get a notebook, but make sure it’s something that resonates with you. Get yourself a pen that you love to write with and start writing down your thoughts. Write down what’s going through your mind, because it helps so much when you put it on paper. And God’s Word tells us to write the vision and make it plain.
Write your goals down so that you can be successful, because successful people get things in order. And in order to get your life in order, you need to journal.
You need to write down your goals, your vision, your innermost thoughts, and you need to pray over them. Hallelujah! Yes, we’ve got to activate and motivate each other—that’s what it’s all about.
As you write the vision and make it plain on paper, and as you write your goals down, pray over them. Then, as you complete your goals, check them off. Once you’ve finished a goal, reward yourself with something meaningful—something you haven’t done for a long time. Perhaps a special trip or another gift that holds deep significance for you, precious friend.
So, I encourage you tonight to get a journal, write the vision, write your goals, and pray over them. Remember, the apostolic prayer can also be called a birthing prayer. You birth things through prayer, hallelujah.
Remember Apostle Paul’s words: “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).
Ignite Revival Through Intercessory Prayer
There are dimensions in the ministry of the church that will not come forth until intercessors pray in the power of this apostolic birthing of the church and revival. You see, we have to pray in revival—we pray it in. Those under this anointing will be so inflamed with a passion for justice that the Lord will lead them into extended periods of fasting and prayer. Hallelujah!
I encourage everyone reading this today to begin fasting for the ministry, for each other, and for revival because we want to see you transformed. We want to see souls saved. We want to see you moving forward in your life, understanding that you, in fact, matter. That’s why I started Joy Today Ministries, precious friend.
It’s because there are so many people out there who do not realize their worth. They just don’t think that they’re worth anything. They don’t think they deserve to be happy. They feel they have to stay in depression. I know, as a young child, I battled depression because I was separated from my mother at a young age, and I didn’t understand what happened to her. Depression tried to take hold of me, and I didn’t know what it was.
But I was so graciously blessed with a wonderful father, aunts, and uncles who cared enough to take me to church. My dad took me to church and taught me about Jesus—how to worship, how to worship through it all. So, if you’re on here tonight and you struggle with depression, maybe you’ve been through a lot of tragedies and you’re just not sure how to get through them.
Maybe something has happened in a relationship, maybe you’ve suddenly become sick, maybe you’ve lost a job, or maybe you just feel inadequate to do anything. Maybe you’re having trouble functioning because you’re battling depression and anxiety.
Well, I want to say tonight that you’re going to leave this message changed because God is doing a new thing in your life. He wants you to be transformed, transformed by the renewing of your mind. Hallelujah!
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). Yes, we are walking in favor, and God wants you to walk in favor too. He wants you to clear out all the clutter in your mind. Stop the double-mindedness. Quit thinking that you’re not good enough to share your testimony. Quit thinking you’re not good enough to do what God has called you to do, precious friend.
Because when Jesus died on that cross, He bore all of that. He took all the sin, all the pain, all the worry, and all the anxiety. He took all that away so that you could be free from it. And tonight, He wants to set you free. He brought me here tonight to break that bondage off of your life. I curse the spirit of anxiety. I curse the spirit of depression. I curse the spirit of suicide, in the name of Jesus Christ.
I curse the spirit of addiction. I command addiction to bow to the name of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Many cities will be brought to deep repentance. In some cases, not only will abortion be outlawed, but even the cause of abortions. I curse the spirit of abortion. That child is a soul from the moment it is conceived in its mother’s womb. Hallelujah.
Prayer Warriors Rise Up
Hebrews 11:6 says, “God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Are you diligently seeking Him, precious friend? Are you reading your Bible as often as you can to find out who you are in Christ? You see, you can’t really know who you are in Christ, until you really dig into the Word of God and study it—from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, all the way through to Revelation.
Apostolic intercession also assumes a posture of spiritual responsibility to support and protect what is newly born and vulnerable. It does not judge the standards of the prayer group but prays for increase and maturity. We want, I want, maturity in your Christian walk. I want you to go higher tonight, higher into the Holy of Holies. Hallelujah!
Thank you, Lord. As you grow in your Christian walk and as your ministry grows, there will be those upon whose prayer shoulders God places the burdens for cities. Has God placed a burden on your heart for cities? God has brought me here to tell you that you’re an intercessor, and you’re to intercede and pray for your city and for each other.
They will not, and cannot, sleep without praying for their communities. Is that you? They assume a place of responsibility for the condition of the region. They will see a direct correlation between personal prayer and the retreat of the enemy from their cities. One may question such an office; however, it is not unlike the ministry Martin Luther carried in Germany. He said, “If I miss prayer one day, I feel it.” Is that you, precious friend?
That’s me. If I miss my time with Papa in the morning, in His Word, and worshiping Him, my whole day is off. My Papa is jealous over me the way He’s jealous over you. He longs to fellowship with you. He longs to fellowship with you. The beautiful Holy Spirit loves to fellowship with you, precious friend. Beautiful Holy Spirit come flood the atmosphere—Holy Spirit, you are so welcome here.
Precious Holy Spirit, take the reins of this teaching, Papa God. I thank You for opening the floodgates of heaven and releasing Your words in and through me to Your beautiful family out there. I thank You, Papa God, for opening their hearts and spiritual eyes to receive Your rhema word from heaven, that You’re releasing now in and through me to Your beautiful family—to equip them, to train them, to help them go forward in their Christian Walk.
Dear one that’s why the Lord brought me here tonight—to make sure you know that your life matters, that your voice matters. Hallelujah! The Lord is raising up ministers who are spiritually responsible for their churches and their cities. They will not let a day pass without intercession. When they are in battle, they discern the wider range of assault. This is simply a dimension of the apostolic anointing, and I release that apostolic anointing upon you tonight in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Prayer warriors, rise up! Worshipers, rise up! Intercessors, rise up in the name of Jesus Christ. This is simply a dimension of the apostolic anointing—the gift of spiritual responsibility in prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, it is our desire to see Your house built. Yet we acknowledge that heaven is Your throne and earth is Your footstool. No house we build is worthy or capable of receiving You.
Nevertheless, you have promised to build with humble, contrite people who tremble when You speak. Lord, help us maintain freedom and grace. Help us yield to Your ability to make us a dwelling place of prayer. Papa God, help us. Help us, Lord, to make us a dwelling place of prayer.
By Your grace, we take responsibility for our churches, our cities, and our families in the blessed and holy name of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. It’s an honor to pray. It’s an honor to be about Papa’s business. Isn’t it amazing to be a part of the family of God?
The Word Is God
So, I have a very quick but important question to ask you, amazing people of God out there, my precious friends: If you were to die this very second, do you know without a shadow of a doubt that you would go to heaven? If you can say yes to that, then I say that is totally amazing. But if you’re questioning, if you’re tormented, if you’re not sleeping, if you’re having trouble, then that means there’s a stronghold in your soul that needs to bow to the name of Jesus.
You need to truly let Jesus 100% into your heart and ask Him to take full control of your life, precious friend. And guess what? Your prophet, God brought me here because He cares. He cares that much about you, and I care about your spirituality. You see, hell is real—it’s a lake of fire. If you continue to live in sin, you’re going to end up there.
Papa doesn’t want you going to hell. He wants you to get it right. He wants you to fully surrender. Well, tonight is your night. Paul said, as a wise master builder, “I laid a foundation” (1 Corinthians 3:10). The eternal foundation of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. We rest and build upon Him.
It is wisdom to build the Lord’s house with only Jesus in mind, for He must be the central figure of every effort. Jesus must be the center of it all. Jesus must be the center of your life, precious friend. He must abide as the living source of all our virtue. Hallelujah!
Jesus said, “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone” (Luke 20:17). It is important to understand that we cannot separate what Jesus says from who Jesus is. Christ and His Word are one. To the degree that we fail to teach what Jesus taught, we are actually rejecting Him as Lord and redefining the dimensions of the cornerstone of the church.
Listen to how the Lord associates Himself with His teachings. He said, “He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day” (John 12:48). He warned, “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory” (Luke 9:26). He exposes our hypocrisy, saying, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Christ and His Word are inseparable. Jesus was not a man who became the Word but is the eternal Word who became a man. His very nature is the Word of God, and to reject or ignore what He says is to reject or ignore who He is.
Spiritual Maturity in Christ
This is so important for you tonight. We cannot build the house of the Lord if we do not honor and build upon the full spectrum of Christ’s teachings. Unless we are teaching our converts all that He commanded, we are not making disciples (Matthew 28:20). We, in our church society, will always be trapped in spiritual infancy and religion.
Therefore, let us honestly ask ourselves this evening: In the building plan of our churches and ministries, how much of an emphasis are we placing on the words of Jesus Christ? Is there a process in which new converts can become disciples of Christ?
If yours is like many congregations, there is probably little focus given to the systematic study and application of Christ’s teachings. You see, if Jesus is truly the designer and builder of the house and your ministry, then we must come to Him for the architectural plans. The building code of the kingdom must be obedience to the words of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. When the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house, yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.
Is your home founded upon the rock? Is your life founded upon the rock? Is your marriage founded upon the rock? Is your ministry founded upon the rock? Tonight’s your night (Matthew 7:24-25). Beloved, there is a storm coming. Even now, the sky has darkened, and the first drops are falling. If we will endure, we must be built upon the rock.
Please hear me. You cannot build your house in a storm. It is through the Spirit and words of Christ that the house of the Lord is built. This is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Multitudes of Christians today know what Jesus did, yet remain stunted in their spiritual growth. Why? Without realizing it, we made the teachings of Paul the cornerstone of the church. The apostles’ emphasis centered upon salvation, which faithfully brought us to Jesus Christ.
You cannot get to heaven without a relationship with Jesus. Your foundation must be on the Word of God, and you must have a true relationship with Jesus. Tonight, precious friend, I want to ask you once again, has anyone ever told you that Jesus loves you and has a great plan for your life?
If you said no to that, or if you’re unsure, simply pray this prayer aloud with your whole heart and your lips right now: “Dear Lord Jesus, come into my heart, wash me, and cleanse me. I acknowledge, Father, that You sent Your only Son, Jesus, to the cross to die for my sins. Wash me, cleanse me, and fill me afresh and anew with the beautiful Holy Spirit.”
If you said that prayer, welcome to the family of God. That is the greatest decision you could ever make. As a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I tell you: run to God and not from God. Get yourself a Bible, get into a good, Holy Ghost-filled church, and ask the Lord to release unto you good, anointed, Holy Ghost-filled churches, mentors, and pastors. Go forward in your walk, don’t look back.
If you said that prayer, you are not your past. It’s covered under the blood of Jesus. You get your Bible, you dig in, you pray, you worship, and you get yourself lined up with good mentors. Hallelujah!
Jesus alone said He was the way, the truth, and the life. Only His words and Spirit are capable of restructuring our souls. Only Jesus can reconstruct you; nobody else can. Through conformity to His nature, the Father Himself can make His abode in us (see John 14:23).
It is this refashioning of our inner man that, upon maturity, establishes us corporately as the house of the Lord. Hallelujah! We are not amplifying that the rest of the Bible is less anointed or pertinent. It is simply that if the cornerstone is not in place, the whole building tends to tilt toward the way we happen to lean.
If your home’s not in order, if you’re not in order, if your marriage isn’t in order, if your business isn’t in order, if your ministry isn’t in order—if it’s not built on the solid foundation of God—then it’s tilted. Tonight, the Lord wants to realign you and get you back in, hit the reset button, and get you back into alignment with Father God. Hallelujah!
Jesus is the Cornerstone of our Lives
If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he has conceded in understanding nothing (1 Timothy 6:3-4). When we seek to build upon a foundation other than Jesus, the results are everything but Jesus. It’s like building your house on sinking sand, that song we sang as little children. Remember, if you build your house on sinking sand, it falls.
If we focus on our doctrinal novelty seeking to be just different enough to attract more people than the church down the street, we have missed the entire purpose of both the gospel and the ministry of Christ. Paul based his teaching on sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look at what John taught: “Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward” (2 John 8-9).
The priority of this hour is for the church to abide in the teachings and spirit of the Lord Jesus. From this foundation, precious friend, the house of the Lord will be built. We have had our pet doctrines and our own particular emphasis. We have been like Peter speaking to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration: “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You wish, I will make three tabernacles” (Matthew 17:4).
We are so ready to offer a plan to God instead of simply hearing and obeying Jesus. Instead of simply sitting down and opening the Bible, reading it aloud, and studying it to show ourselves approved, in His love, He is interpreting our programs with the same word with which He interpreted Peter: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5). Jesus, He’s the greatest teacher you could ever have, the beautiful Holy Ghost.
Dear Lord, forgive me for following winds of doctrine instead of picking up my cross and following You, instead of picking up my Bible and following You. Help me now to return with my whole heart to Your words, Lord. I desire to abide in You. I recommit my life to You right now, this very second, and I pray that You alone would be the focal point of all Your people, in Jesus’ name. Can I get an amen? Hallelujah!
Get up out of that grave, dry bones, rise up! Papa God needs each and every one of you to take your place in the body of God. You’re all part of the army, and your voice matters. Papa God needs you to take your place. He needs you to stand tall, whether you’re an intercessor, a worshiper, a teacher, a pastor, an evangelist, or whatever role you are called for, for the glory of God.
Our children need godly men and women to come forth and help teach them the Bible and show them the way, so that they’re not on drugs and alcohol and having premarital sex at the age of 12. It’s unhealthy, and it’s unscriptural to be defeated. Papa God is calling you forth, mom and dad, and leaders, come forth to help equip the children.
Key Takeaways
Let us come together in unity and on one accord. We are the people that God has called forth to teach and equip each other. God needs you, teacher. God needs you, mentor. God needs you, husband and wife. God needs you, pastor. God needs you, evangelist. Rise up in the name of Jesus Christ! Get up out of that grave! Take your sword, stand tall for Jesus, and He will stand tall for you.
Our children are perishing from a lack of knowledge and a lack of godly example. It’s time to break off the bondage. It’s time to get the Bibles out. It’s time to sit down with your family, open the Bible, and read it aloud to your precious children. Pray over them, worship with them, decree and prophesy over them.
The time is now. Your children need you; your friends need you; your neighbors need you. Rise up, rise up, Body of Christ, rise up, army. Papa needs you to help release the word, teach people, and equip them to be better individuals. Hallelujah! I pray you’ve been blessed. I pray you have been transformed.
I pray that the Father releases a heaven-like atmosphere to each and every one of you. I pray your life is transformed. I pray that you open your spiritual eyes and your heart, and receive these words with love and no condemnation. For God is so good. He’s a miracle-working God. He’s a good, good Father, and He loves you. He longs to be your best friend. Will you please let Jesus 100% into your heart tonight? Hallelujah.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. We’ve had so many testimonies coming in. United, in one accord, worship and war is what we need. One need not be a Bible scholar to recognize that the Jews had to be uncompromisingly united in their worship of God. Worship ushers in the anointing. When worshipers come together, it releases the miraculous and prophecy in and through the pastors. Hallelujah! So God bless each and every one of you.
Related Texts: Numbers 12:13; Isaiah 53:12; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; Jeremiah 7:16; Ephesians 6:18; Matthew 5:44; James 5:16; Romans 8:26; Romans 10:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; and Hebrews 7:25.
