Priscilla Shirer: A Place of Separation

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 I am so glad to be here to have an opportunity to share God's word with you. I flew over with my friend Nicole um who works in ministry with us and my husband Jerry and our three I was about to say our three boys. Our three giant boys uh that we have.

We are here all weekend long and we're glad to be here as a family to just serve you and to contribute in any way we can. And I'm so grateful that the Lord allows me to be a part of your evening and to do what I love to do and that is talk about the word of God.

Anybody love the word of God? I love the word of God because y'all it is spirit and it is life. My opinion as great as I think it is, it will not change your life. My ideas, as great as I they may I may think that they are, they will not change your life.

But the word of God, it's what's what really gets embedded deeply into our souls and changes us from the inside out. So, I am sitting on the edge of my seat tonight because I love a word from God. And that's what I came for. I mean, I'm glad y'all here.

I came to see y'all, too, but I didn't really come to see y'all. I came to see me some Jesus. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I was thinking about you as I um one of my boys was at church recently, one Sunday. We were all there together and my boys when they go to church, their godmother also goes to church with us.

She has been a friend of mine. She's 10 years older than me. So, she was like a mentor of mine when I was uh younger, really about 15 years older than me, a mentor when we were younger, but now we're just like really close friends. She's my boy's godmother.

And so at church on Sundays, she has this habit of stopping by the doughnut store on the way in to church and she will buy, you know, a dozen glazed donuts or kalachis or a little doughnut hole, something. And so whenever we say on Sunday morning, "Boys, it's time to go to church," they say, "All right, let's eat."

So I have I've had to retrain them. I'm trying to train them to get them to understand that actually church isn't a restaurant, that it's designed for something else. But the other day, my boys and I were at church. 12year-old Jackson, 10-year-old Jerry Jr., and then our little surprise one.

He's six now. But we still don't know how he got here. And we named him Jude. I named him Jude on purpose cuz that's as close as I could get to Revelation because it is over. So, I have Jackson, Jerry Jr., and Little Jude. And we're at church.

And Jude runs over to his godmother. She opens up that little white box, you know, that those those donuts come in and he grabs uh two of those little donuts and he takes those donuts in his hands and he's looking at these juicy, wonderful donuts that he cannot wait to dive into.

Now, his brothers have already run upstairs in the office um in the in the church building in the office. They were run they ran upstairs and they kind of were were not in the same vicinity as as the box of of donuts and with Jude and his godmother.

And so his godmother said to him, "Jude, I want you to take the box of donuts, 10 donuts. I want you to take the box of donuts so you and your brothers can enjoy all of these donuts." So Jude is looking at these two donuts in his hand, and he's realizing that in order to grab this box, he has got to let go of one of these donuts. and little six-year-old Jude ain't having it because it just doesn't compute to him that it will benefit him in any way to release his grasp on these two donuts that he has in his hands.

So, we're sitting there trying to explain to him while it really is to his benefit to go ahead and grab this whole box, to let go of the two so that he could have the more that was waiting for him. But but but it took him a while to be willing to let it go.

So I thought what I'd do is come and talk to you a little bit about releasing your grasp on some things. Help us Jesus. 
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 Because I'm thinking that some of the reason why we may not ever get to the more. That I may not ever experience the more that God has for me is not because it's not there.

It's simply because I won't release my grasp. And my hands are so full of what I want that there is no room left for what God has for me. And so the message for us tonight, yeah, it's a challenging one. But because it is the word of God, it is also at the same time going to be encouraging and it is going to stir us to want to follow him more fully to release what is necessary to be where we need to be and to become who God has called us to become.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you give us the privilege of hearing your voice through the scriptures. Lord, I cannot believe that you know me and you still call me your friend. I cannot believe that you would still choose to speak to me and to speak to us and allow us to hear your voice.

But tonight, I ask I ask for that, Lord. I ask that there would be not be one of us that would leave this room tonight without knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that we have been in the very presence of God. And so speak Lord because we are your daughters and we want to hear your voice in Jesus name.

Everybody agreed and said amen. My sister Crystal and I have this habit. We go on a little um we we participate in a run that takes place in the Dallas Fort Worth area every Thanksgiving. It's called the turkey trot. And there are about 20 to 30,000 people in the Dallas Fort Worth area that sign up for the turkey trot this year.

And so we sign up ourselves and our mom and the three of us will go out. There's an eight mile run. Some people will take the eight mile run. We take the three- mile run except we don't run. We walk and we just kind of waltz along and talk and you know say hi to people that are walking by and we just kind of enjoying the moment.

That's why we're there on that Thanksgiving morning before all of the busyiness of the day starts. And we've been doing that for several years now. I'm not exactly sure why this past year we missed the registration process for the Thanksgiving run, but it or the turkey trop, but it kind of just came and went and and before we knew it, it was Thanksgiving Day and we had not signed up.

And so my sister got real busy after Thanksgiving looking up some alternative options for us because it's kind of a treat for us to get to do that together. So she ended up searching around in Dallas Fort Worth and she came across a run that we did not know existed.

It's called the Jingle Bell Run. takes p place around Christmas time and it's in the evening, it's at night. We love it because it's dark outside and and um they serve hot chocolate and they've got a outdoor ice skating rink if you want to bring your kids for them to be a part of it.

They give everybody jingle bells that you can just kind of tie to your shoelaces on one of your tennis shoes and folks come out there and they've got a string of lights around their neck or they've got, you know, antlers on top of their head, reindeer antlers and everybody's just festive with the Christmas season and and and we normally do the the 5k run walk and enjoy ourselves.

And this particular run, it starts in a part of Dallas that is near downtown. It's called the design district. In the design district, there is a huge hotel called the Anatl, the Hilton Anatl Hotel. The run starts there, and it weaves in and out of the streets of the design district.

Now, you need to know I have lived in the Dallas Fort Worth area my entire life. And anybody who lives in or around that area, you take Highway 35 at some point or another because 35 is the freeway that goes from the south of Dallas north all the way through downtown Dallas and then well into the north of Dallas toward Oklahoma.

And so anybody who lives in that area travels 35. I have many, many days, many, many years. And I have always seen near downtown this huge billboard that says the design district. You cannot miss it. It is in big, huge, bold letters. I have known about the design district.

I've been told about it. I've been told that this is the place that if you're going to be redesigning your home or if you're going to be uh needing some specific artwork for a business of yours that this is the place you go because the artists are there and the designers, they are there and the photographers, they are there.

I have heard so much about it and I have seen it as I have driven by, sped by time and time and time again. But it was not until the jingle bell run when I was actually running through and winding through the streets of the design district that I actually was taken back by the beauty of those stores in there.

I mean, I met my sister and I I'm surprised we weren't arrested because we kept stopping and plastering ourselves against the windows of all of these different stores. We were marveling at the the artwork and the photography and the beautiful designs we saw in furniture. And we just kept stopping and marveling at everything we saw.

And I was amazed at all of these incredible details that I had never known about something that I had driven by so many times because it's amazing how you will only know the details of something when you go through it, not when you just quickly pass by it.

And y'all, many of us have spent our Christian lives popping into church on Sunday and popping into the Chica's meeting once a year or quarterly and popping into Bible study every now and then. And we've driven by and we've seen the billboard go. We have heard about this God and we've seen from afar what God might be capable of doing.

But he's calling you and I to not be people that see him from afar, but that know the details of his character, that have experienced him in our lives, that has heard his voice with our own ears, that that know what it's like not to just applaud the testimonies of other people, but to look in the mirror and see a woman who has a testimony of her own.

And I'm going to tell you that the only way you and I are going to know the details is if we go through something. It means he's going to stop you from that fast-paced Christian experience at some point. And he will allow you he will allow me to go through so that we can see him clearly as if never before.

When we look at some of the heroes of the scripture, some of the people, excuse me, that we most admire, we look at Moses and we want the experience of Moses standing at the brink of the Red Sea and stretching out that rod over that body of water and seeing the miracle of a lifetime as that water parted.

We want that. We want like Joshua to march triumphantly into the promised land and to see the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. We want like Jonah to have the kind of power that you can walk into a city and speak a simple fiveword message and cause people to turn their hearts to the one true God.

We want to have these unbelievably amazing experiences where like Gideon, we can go in with just 300 as the underdog but still walk out victoriously. We want the triumphs without having gone through what is necessary to bring you to that place. We want like Elijah to stand on Mount Carmel and to be able to call down fire from heaven.

But y'all, in order to get to Mount Carmel, you must have gone through something that gives you the credibility with God to be able to have a prayer that's going to work like that. And it's Elijah that I want to look at because Elijah most of the time when we think of this particular Old Testament prophet, we do think of him um in that particular setting on Mount Carmel with 450 prophets of Baal staring at him, daring him to be able to call down fire from heaven.

You know this story, don't you? his own countrymen, thousands of them probably, looking to see whether or not Elijah was going to have a prayer that that would work, that would call uh God to rain down fire from heaven, proving that he was indeed the one true God.

And we think of that story more than anything else. But y'all, Elijah's story did not start there. This brother went through something before he ever got to Mount Carmel. If you have your Bibles with you, if you actually still use a Bible with paper pages like I do.

If not, you can use your iPhone, your iPad, any manner of iness. Just flip on over to First Kings chapter 17. As you turn to First Kings chapter 17, excuse me. Let me just tell you uh what's happening in this book of the Bible. In fact, in first and second Kings really, it's these two books are full of tragedies.

They record one failure after another of kings of the children of Israel who refused to honor Yahweh. It's about a people who were increasingly antagonistic toward the things of God. It reveals a church basically God's people, the children of Israel that were divided. They had turned their backs against one another instead of standing united against the enemy.

It is basically an ancient mirror reflecting the church in America in the year 2015. That's what it is. And into this chaos, God commisss an individual to stand on his behalf and to carry his mantle. Thank you. And to call people out of that chaotic scenario back to himself.

And in the first few months that Elijah appears on the scene, I would expect that God would call him straight to Mount Carmel. I mean, that's what people need. They need the whole fire from heaven experience. They need a huge miracle. Elijah should have been called right to this position in the midst of all the action drawing people back to God.

But that is not the first assignment that Elijah had. Elijah goes to King Ahab and he pronounces a judgment against God's people according to the will of God. He says, "Listen, there's going to be a drought because you all have not followed God. Because you've turned your back on God.

Because no matter how much he's called you back to himself, you have continued to turn away from him. There is going to be a drought. The sky is going to be shut up for three long years. This was a devastating a devastating uh declaration on the people of Israel.

It was an agrarian society, which means if it did not rain, they didn't have food to eat. And not only did they not have food, but y'all food was oftentimes their their currency. They would barter their food, barter their harvest in order to obtain the things they needed to survive.

So without rain, not only were they not going to eat, but they wouldn't be able to have a sense of livelihood that they needed because they would not have the currency for exchange. This was a devastating assignment. But Elijah goes in in obedience to God. He pronounces this declaration of doom really over the children of Israel because of their disobedience.

And he is successful in doing that because it comes to pass. Three years are going to pass before uh there is one drop of rain from the sky. And in this day and age when a prophet's word came to fruition, that person was revered and honored. That prophet was of course sought to speak the word of God and be the presence of God and represent the power of God amongst the people.

So we're meeting Elijah in first kings chapter 17 having had a successful moment in ministry because this prophet prophecy is going to come to fruition. And so he is le we're he is in an environment where he is revered by people. He is respected in his position. He is comfortable.

He is cozy. He is settled amongst his people in the ch in the in uh Israel. Let's see what happens in his life starting in verse two first kings chapter 17. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, "Go away from here." Somebody say, "Go away from here."

Go away from here. And turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith. It's east of the Jordan. And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. So Elijah went, verse 5, he did according to the word of the Lord.

For he went, he lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of Jordan. Verse 6 says, "The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. And it came about after a while that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land."

Here is Elijah's first assignment, the very first thing that God is going to call him to do. The very first thing that God is going to ask of Elijah in order to make sure that Elijah has the character, the endurance, the stability built up so that when he is positioned on Mount Carmel later on, he will be able to stand in the midst of all of that and be able to have a prayer that was effective and fervent and was able to tap into the miracle working working power of his God.

He says to Elijah, God says to him, "Go away from here." He says, "Let go of your sense of security, safety, comfort, the applause you may be receiving from the people because you've done such a good job." He says, "I want you to break ties with where you want to be and come where I'm asking you to go."

He says, "What I'm what I'm asking you to do is I'm asking you to separate yourself from your comfort zones to pull away." That's the first assignment we say. But God, wait a minute. This is where all the action is. Don't I need to stay here? But God, this is where I feel that my gifts and my talents will be best used.

Don't you want to use me here? But God, I'm comfortable here with these people in this circle, in this environment, on this job, in this particular part of town. These are my habits, Lord. This is where I go. This is what I do. I'm settled in this place.

And sometimes the Holy Spirit will whisper to you in order to prepare you for Mount Carmel. He will say to you, "Come away from here." And one of the most difficult things for the women of God is to hear that whisper and say, "Okay." Sometimes, sometimes it's as simple as sitting in a movie theater and hearing the whisper, "Get out of here.

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 and making a decision in that moment. Will you be one of the only few in the row of girlfriends that came to see that movie that will make the determination that this movie is not for you? I got to get out of here. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is going to whisper to you while you're alone in your home watching that program, get away from here.

And the choice is whether or not you and I will separate ourselves unto the purposes of God. When he pulls us away, when he separates us to a place of solitude, when he calls us more personally and intimately and individually away from something or someone unto himself, won't you know that it's because he's trying to prepare you for Mount Carmel, my friend?

The endurance and the character and the faith that you're going to need for there, it starts here. When you hear the whisper from God, come away. separate yourself from that comfort zone, that habit, that lifestyle choice, that ambition, that dream that you've always had. And now reality is something different.

And he's asking you to stop fighting for what you always had planned and release it and come with me where I'm asking you to go. He wants to separate you. And in Elijah's case, he called him to a specific place. He called him to a brook called Cherith.

The original language of that word actually means cutting or separation. It is a noun. It is the place of separation. Some amazing things are going to happen in this man's life if he is willing and only if he is willing to go to the place of separation to cut himself off from the the places, the people, the circumstances that honestly he was most comfortable in, that felt best to him.

He had to be willing to yield to the separation. Cherith, a place, a noun. My boys are are uh homeschooled. A friend of mine and I and my sister as well. My sister and I are neighbors. She has five children, but her youngest three are the exact same ages as my three.

You would have thought we planned it. And they're all boys. So, we have six boys that just run back and forth from one house to the next. So, we homeschool the boys cuz we all travel a lot. So, we homeschool the boys and you know, they do lunch and recess at my house.

It's all I can handle. So, my little one, he's in just started first grade stuff now, but kindergarten. What I would do is I would write on uh 3x5 cards these words. I would write words. I'd write nouns, person, place, thing, just random things like man, rat, ham, mud.

And I would write nouns down on a bunch of 3x5 cards. Then on other 3x5 cards, I would write down verbs. I would write run or jump or walk, words he could understand or cut. I would write those words down. Eat. And I would mix all the 3x5 cards up trying to teach him that in order for there to be a complete sentence, you have to have, and I didn't call it a noun and a verb at that point.

I just said you have to have a who and you have to have a what. In order for it to be a complete sentence, you got to have both. A who and a what. Both of those things matter in order for the sentence to be complete. So, we put all of those cards in a Ziploc bag, shake them up, he dumps them out, sits on the kitchen floor.

His job is to create me a sentence. It's got to have a who and it's got to have a what. I'll come back after a few minutes and sometimes my sweet little one, he will be so proud because he's got all of these cards strung together. It looks like the longest, most impressive, incredible sentence that could possibly be constructed in the course of humanity.

And he gets to reading every single word for me. And I come alongside him and I'm reading every single word and it sounds so great except it's all who's and no whats. The dog, hat, man, mud, cat, baby. What are any of these who's doing? They have to do something.

In order for the thought to be complete, there has to be a who and a what. Some of us want the blessings that come in the place of separation without having gone through the process required to get to that particular place. We want the who without having gone through the what?

We don't want to do the difficult work of responding in obedience when God calls us to separate oursel. But we want all of the blessings that come in the place of separation without having separated from anything in our lives. Do you know that in the original language this word cherth has a root word?

It is derived from a root word. Hang with me because this is going to matter to us in a minute. This root word is karath. Somebody say karath. Karath. So this this body of water, this little stream called Cherith, that word that means separation, it is derived from karath.

That's where the word comes from. Karath is our verb. Karath means, listen to this, it means to cut off, to eliminate, to kill, to cut off a part of the body. I want you to think about how um aggressive and almost violent those terms sound. And then I want you to think about how in your life sometimes the things that God is asking you to separate yourself from, it's not that big a deal because you know that particular friendship you've only had for the past year.

And yeah, y'all y'all get along great, but you know, he's not asking you to separate yourself from a lifelong friend. So, it's going to be hard, but you can handle that one. The problem is when when it's that girlfriend that you really have had for a long long time and you sense that God is saying that he's taking you somewhere and that person's really not going to come along for the ride and he's asking will you be willing to cut off to eliminate and to you to do that it is literally going to feel like cutting off part of your body.

Sometimes the separations are easy, but sometimes, my friend, it feels like two strips of Velcro pulling one from the other. 
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 Sometimes sometimes God says he's not the one. And you know sometimes you could take and believe him. But sometimes you're three or four or six months or a year or three years into this thing and you hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit saying, "Go away from here.

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 Sometimes God says, you know, this is not the television program for you. And honestly, you can take that program or you can leave it because this is the first season and you know, you only two episodes in, so it don't matter. But sometimes, you know, it's the fourth season and you've been following this particular character for a long time and you like what she wears every single time she's on the screen.

You want to see the next outfit. You want to You want to know what we're how to wear the white hat? How they're going to wear the white 
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 hat? You have had a dream of what your life was going to look like. You've had a picture. It has looked a certain way in your mind.

And when you signed up to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you thought it was going to take you in this particular direction. It was going to be behind a white picket fence in this kind of neighborhood, participating in these kinds of activities. Your family was going to look like this.

And yet the Lord has allowed a series of circumstances in your life that are very clearly, very obviously causing you to to release your idea, your expectation of what life was going to be like and follow him. 
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 There is a very harsh reality to the separation process. It begins at Karath and it ends at the place of separation.

But it is in that place that you will experience so much of God like you never have before. But only those willing to go through will get to see God as more than a billboard on a highway of life. We'll get to see his character. We'll get to know that the God of the Bible is actually the same God today. and that the miracles that he had the power to pull off in the in the scriptures, y'all, those aren't exceptions to the rule.

Those were illustrations for us to let us know what an extraordinary God can do with ordinary women like us. So, our original word, our verb karath, one of the first times we see that in the scriptures is in Genesis 15. Y'all ready for a little Bible study? Y'all with me?

Y'all okay tonight? Okay, listen. Genesis 15. God has said to Abraham, "Go away from here." He has called him out of Remember his name was Abram. He called him out of he says, "I'm going to change your name to Abraham. I'm going to change the GPS coordinates on your destiny.

I'm going to send you to a land. I'm not even going to tell you what the land is. You just trust me. Look up in the sky. See all those stars? I'm going to create a vast group of descendants out of you that number the same as those stars.

Abraham said, "You got to be kidding me." He said, "God, how will I know that all of this is going to come to pass?" God does something incredible. He speaks to Abraham in a language that he knows Abraham is going to understand and get so that he'll know God is for real.

Back in Old Testament times, every agreement is sealed with a covenant. They had to make a covenant. One party with another or one nation with another nation. This is the way that they sealed a covenant. The shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, a covenant was not sealed, signed, and delivered.

And this is gruesome, but y'all hang with me. They would cut, they would sacrifice an animal. Then they would dismember the animal. Carath severing. They would set the pieces of the dismembered animal strategically on the ground. And both parties, one after the other, would walk among the severed pieces of the dismembered animal as a part of the ceremony of the sealing the agreement.

The reason why they would do that is because as they walked, they were making a statement. They were saying, "May my life be as the life of this animal. May the lives of those I love be as the life of this animal if I don't hold up my part of the bargain."

God knew that Abraham would understand the covenant, understand its seriousness. So he says in Genesis 15, you go get an animal. He says, you sacrifice that animal. Abraham does exactly that. He lays the pieces out. And normally both parties would walk among the pieces. But it says in Genesis 15, y'all, this is so good.

Listen. Abraham falls into a deep sleep. while he is asleep in one of the greatest theophanes of all time. A theophony is a God appearance in the Old Testament. In one of the greatest theophonies of the all of the Old Testament, God comes down and we see him, the God of the universe who doesn't need to make a deal with anybody.

He comes down and he moves within the pieces. Listen, while Abraham is asleep, this already points to Ephesians when Paul would say, "While we were dead in our trespasses and in our sins, Christ died for us. For by grace we have been saved through faith, not as of our works, we were asleep, y'all, while the God of the universe bore the full responsibility of the covenant that he made with us."

Okay. Abraham did the cutting. God did the moving. Abraham made the margin. And when he did, he made God gaps in his life so that God could come down and move among the pieces. Let me tell you. Are y'all listening? Listen. Let me tell you what will happen in our lives if we'll do the cutting.

If you'll create the margin, I'm saying if God is saying to you tonight, go away from that man, that boyfriend of yours. Go away from that pack of girlfriends. They're just not the click for you. Go away from that job, that other job. Yep. The one that makes less money, but that's the one that I'm calling you to.

You go away from where you are. Listen, your husband is saying, "Sweetie, I feel like God is calling us into ministry. I know I said I was going to be a doctor, but God is calling me to pastor this church. Come with me. Let's go where God is calling us.

Listen to what I'm saying to you. The Lord has set us up tonight. The reason why we're in this room, are you listening? What's your name? Melody. Melody, listen. The reason why we're in this room tonight, and the Lord would allow all of us to be in this setting, is because he wants you to know upfront, if you will release, if you will cut, if you will eliminate, if you will sever yourself from whatever God is asking you to sever yourself from, he's telling you right now, you will have created the margin in your life required for God himself to come down and move within the pieces in your life.

He's telling you and me that we're going to get to see God. Listen, I don't know about y'all. I want to I want to see God. I I want I love hearing about God. I love reading about God. I love experiencing God through the testimonies of other people.

But there has to come a time in all of our lives, where we're a little bit stirred up on the inside, where it's like a divine antagonist is stirring up in our soul where we can still celebrate others, but at the same time, we're thinking, "Wait a minute.

I want to see that God in my own life. I want to hear his voice with my ears. I want to experience the God of the Bible leap up off the pages." So this is not just ink on a page anymore. I want God to be alive to me.

Listen, if you pray that prayer like I do, God, I want to see you. This is the way he answers it. He says to you, "Okay, well, sever yourself from what I'm asking you to, and in that margin, I will descend and I will reveal myself to you in a way you have never ever experienced before.

Listen, I want to tell you just quickly that y'all it was at Cherith at this brook at this brook. The passage we read said that Elijah was sustained by this brook. Y'all, there's a drought in the land. Everybody else is trying to find water. People are losing their lives.

Folks are are thirsty and they they can't find water. They are scavenging for water and food. And while everybody else is trying to figure out how to quench their thirst and is doing everything they can to try to find illegitimate ways to quench their thirst because the heavens are shut up.

Elijah because he yielded to the separation is settled down by a brook of water while God himself sustains him. You know what's going to happen in the place of separation? You're going to be able to stop fighting and striving and trying desperately to sustain yourself. And you're going to know what it's like to do what Psalm 46:10 says.

Be still. Cease striving. Chill out. Relax. And see what it's like to have God be the brook that quenches your thirst. Amen. And and so important was this principle of sustaining. This was so the thing that God wanted Elijah to get. It was so important that God set him down at a watti.

A watti is a brook of water that is in between two uh precipaces of a mountain. It's almost like a mountain that has a sliver cut out right through the middle. And there's a small stream of water that runs right through this little uh crevice in the rocks.

So it is totally rocky ground. There is no soft soil. There is no uh fertilizing opportunity for there to be any harvest. Uh if someone were to plant seeds, there would be no way for it to grow there. Do you know what God was saying by setting him down at this wii?

He was saying to him, "Listen, just in case you brought some seeds with you from Israel, I'm going to make sure you are in a position where even if you try to sustain yourself, you're not going to be able to do it." And I'm going to do that on purpose because if you can keep planting your seeds and reaping your own harvest, you will never know what it's like to eat from my hand and drink from my 
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 cup.

So listen, some of you are in settings right now and you keep planting seeds. You keep planting seeds. You keep trying to reap your own harvest. You're trying to figure out why none of the resumes you're sending out are getting a response while none of the ministry or business you're trying to build is getting a response.

It's because he's got you in a watt rocky ground. No matter what seed you plant, it is not going to flourish. Why? Because if we can get our own harvest, we never know what it's like to be sustained by our God. And so if you're feeling a bit lonely right now, if you're feeling a bit separated and set apart and you're wondering why God has you here in this quiet still place, listen, he has separated you to show you what it's like when God is a friend to the lonely.

When he is a father to the fatherless. When he shows you how you can be hungry but be filled by God. When he shows you how you can have a peace that passes all understanding, even your understanding. You can't figure out how you're this peacefilled in the midst of the storm that's happening in your life.

That's the kind of testimony you and I have to have. If one day he calls us to Mount Carmel, we better have some character built in us at Cheriff, y'all. But that's not it. Listen, chapter 18 of First Kings. We don't even have time to go into all this stuff, y'all.

All right, listen. I'm almost done. I get excited about this. Can you tell? Listen. First Kings chapter 18, we find out that Ahab has been King Ahab has been searching to and fro, nation to nation. He wants Elijah's head on a platter. Elijah does not know this. He's sitting down at the brook chilling out, having a drink of water, enjoying himself.

All the while, there is a price on his head. So, at the place of separation, not only is he sustained by God, but he's shielded by God. And listen, he's shielded by God from something that he doesn't even know he needs shielding from. The reason why you and I need to surrender to Cherith is because there are some things you don't even know you need to be shielded from.

There are some relationships you can't see right now that 10 years from now they are going to be the worst decisions that you could ever make. And so God separates you to save you from disasters you do not even know are coming. Amen. There is a financial debacle you don't even know about that he's saving you from.

There is a a relational strain you can't see now that he is saving you from. There is something from your vantage point and my vantage point at this stage, in this season, at this age, we cannot detect. But God in his sovereignty and in his grace and in his mercy, he will allow us to be in a position where we are shielded and don't even know it.

Y'all, can I just tell y'all there are some things I look back on. Listen, I am so grateful for unanswered prayers that I don't know what to do. Y'all know what I'm talking about. If God had given me half the stuff I was begging him for when I was 20.

Where are the 20 year olds? 20-year-olds. Where are you? 19, 20. Listen, listen to your mama. Just do what your mama says. Gosh, I'm so grateful now when I look back that some of the things that I begged my God for, he said no to because in doing that, in causing me, commanding me, making me, separate myself from stuff I really wanted.

He was in essence shielding me, protecting me in ways I could never imagine. So if you choose not to yield to the separation, if you choose to stay connected to the people, the places, the habits, the choices, the dreams, the ambitions you've always had, you need to know you are putting yourself right smack dab in the face of danger.

The reason why he separates us is because he's guarding us at the same time. Y'all, I remember being in an airplane. I don't remember where we were going, but I remember it was one of the scariest times I ever had on an airplane because out of nowhere it was smooth sailing.

People were up going to the bathroom. Folks were getting drinks. Um people were, you know, hanging out, talking, whatever. Normal, smooth. I think I was getting some work done. And all of a sudden, that plane just dropped. I don't know how far it dropped. I I don't know.

But I remember bags went flying everywhere. People fell to the ground. It was just this this moment when you think 
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 Few seconds later, the U pilot came on. He said, "I want to tell you guys, I'm so sorry. I had to make a very, very quick decision. The control tower came on to let me know that um we were on the same flight path as another plane.

And if we did not immediately drop to a different altitude, obviously there was going to be a horrendous uh disaster. So I want to tell you guys I am sorry for the momentary discomfort. Listen, I want you to know after I found out the reason for the moment discomfort, you better believe that as all of us filed off that plane, we looked at that pilot and said, "Thank you.

Thank you because that momentary discomfort saved our lives. Oh, and thank God that the pilot was not leaning to his own understanding, but was listening to the control tower that had a different, more broad perspective and was able to see the whole picture. That is why the book of Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Listen, don't think you're so smart that you can lean to your own understanding.

You better acknowledge him in all your ways. He's the one who will make the path straight. He has a broader perspective, a different vantage point. He sees the end from the beginning, more than you can ever see with your own eyes. And so when there's going to be momentary discomfort, you say thank you because he's shielding you.

And then finally, I've talked so long. Listen, just one more thing because this is too good to 
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 miss. He sustains him with the brook that is a natural resource. Listen, God did not poof create the brook and then send Elijah to it. Brooke had always been there. Elijah just now knew about it because he yielded to the separation.

Can I just tell you there are some big, huge, amazing, fabulous, fantastic, unbelievable blessings that are already in your life. You just cannot see them. You have not experience the benefit of them because you won't. And when you do, you start going, "Oh, look at my husband. He's actually amazing.

Not my husband. I'm saying my husband's amazing every day. There are some there are some things sometimes God doesn't need to do a miracle. You just need to appreciate the miracles he's like already doing all the time. separating opens your eyes to see the brooks that are already around you.

Okay? But then he says, "I'm sending ravens bread and meat in the morning. Bread and meat in the evenings and every day, y'all, it seems like uh scholars say he was probably at this body of water for a year and a half. Every day for a year and a half.

Bread and meat in the morning, bread and meat in the evening. Ravens are the most restless of all bird species. Do you remember Noah sent one bird out from the ark? A dove. The dove returned. He sent the raven out. The raven is the one that never returned.

That's because ravens, their species, their innate sense is to never return to the same place twice. They are the most greedy of all animals. So greedy that of all bird species. so greedy that they will steal other meals from other birds in their vicinity. That's where we get the term ravenous.

When we are that hungry, it means it doesn't matter what kind of buffet it is. You just glad it's a buffet. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Listen, for me, I don't have to be hungry to eat. Eating is a hobby. Can I get somebody to say amen?

Okay. So, God picks, listen y'all, God picks the most unlikely, the most unreasonable, the most irrational bird species. If he would have sent a dove, maybe we could have explained it. If he would have picked a pigeon, maybe we could have explained it. But God said, "Let me figure out what is the most unlikely bird that I made in my creation, the one I know, nobody, when they're talking about this story in the year 2015, they still will not be able to explain away.

No scientist, no matter how brilliant they are, no no person that studies birds and their their habits, never will anybody ever be able to explain how a raven for more than a year came back to the same place at the same two times every day. Let me tell you the reason why he wants to separate you.

Because in the place of separation, not only does he sustain you, and not only does he shield you, but y'all, it's in that place that he will just plain old flat out surprise you. For he sets you up to be blown away at the unbelievable ways he is taking care of you and covering you and providing for you.

He wants to bring solutions into your lives that honestly you didn't even pray for because the best request you could come up with didn't even touch the fringe of possibility of what God had in mind for this particular circumstance. Listen, he wants to bring this kind of miracle into your life.

The Ephesians 3:20 variety. Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all you can ask. And if you can't ask it because your brain can't even come up with the right words to to verbalize it, that's okay. He says just think it and I can do past that.

That's what he does. The worst thing in the world is trying to throw somebody a surprise party and they won't get in the car and come with you for the Gosh, I just think that God is in the heavens going, "Oh, I got some surprises for you. I have some stuff up my sleeve for you.

You cannot imagine in regards to your finances and in regards to your marriage and in regards to your kids and in regards to your grandkids and your great grandkids that you don't yet know. I have some surprises built up for you. Some stuff that I fully intend to do for you just cuz you're my girl and I love you and I want to give you more.

He says, "I've got plans for you, but you got to get in the car and come to the party. And he says, "It's in that place of separation I'll surprise you if you let me. I'll blow you away at how good and amazing I am and can be in your life."

I have some friends um a couple, their daughter is my goddaughter and um they recently had a lot of transition in their life. Um, they worked at a church, both of them, a very successful church in Dallas, enjoyed pastoring there over adult ministries, I think. And but the husband felt God whisper about a year and a half ago.

Go away from here. It was going to mean a huge change for them. He prayed about it for a while, sought wise counsel about it. Um, my friend, his wife was kind of unsteady about the whole thing. These were her people. This was their church. This was where they not only worked but where they fellowship their kids had connections there in the youth group.

And this is where they've been. This was their community. But but he felt strongly that God was saying. So he obeyed and she did along with him. Very very very tough year. The Lord led them to a new job. It was in a at a nonprofit organization where they were helping people keep their housing. um when they had issues, financial issues, and headed toward flo foreclosure, enjoyed that job, they the Lord called them to actually start a new church plant with another couple.

And so they're at in the forming stages of this this little um church that's developing in the north side of Dallas. But he said to me the last time I was over there visiting, he said, "Priscilla, this has been the toughest year and a half of our life."

He said, "Because I can't afford to keep this house anymore." This was the house they built when they got married that their kids have been raised in. This is where they love being and they can't afford it anymore. He said, 'I know I've done what God has asked me to do, but this hurts.

He said, Priscil, I got to tell you something. The reason why you're here in this house today, why when you came to visit us, you still came to this house. He said, 'The reason why is because I called the realtor realtor and I asked her to get prepared to sell this house.

And um on the day she was coming to put out the sign that morning, I was literally in the kitchen with a small little toothbrush sort of thing cleaning out some of the corners because I knew she'd be coming by to check things out because she was going to be bringing people over.

And while I was down there on the kitchen floor on my knees, he said, "I hadn't really verbalized this much, but I said just between me and God, God, seriously, this is my house. This is my family. We have done what you've asked us to do, but this is so disappointing.

Anybody know how that feels?" So he prayed and he said, 'Lord, if there's any way you could help us keep this house, do it. It was the day that the realtor was coming to put up the sign. That afternoon, they had a soccer game in the neighborhood. Their kids play on the same little league team that some other people in the neighborhood play in.

They were out there with all their kids. There were neighbors all around because these neighbors um all their kids played in the same little league team. He had seen lots of these people before, but more not more than just waving at him and saying hello. Uh, one couple, one gentleman from one couple that lived a few houses down, came over during the soccer game, the same day he had been in the kitchen, the same day that the realtor was coming up, and he said, "Hey, I've noticed the realtor coming by every now and then.

Are you guys moving?" These two hadn't talked much ever really other than to say hello at the games. And and uh my friend explained to him that yeah, they were going to have to move out. They were going to find another place to live. this gentleman who is not a not a Christian.

Nice people, but not a Christian. He said, "You know what? My wife and I were talking the other day, just just talking. Um, you know, we we were thinking about buying another another house in our neighborhood." Um, they had their reasons. I can't remember what they were, but he said, "We're just thinking about buying another house in the neighborhood."

And you know what? If you guys are going to sell your house, you know, don't put the sign out cuz we'll buy it. We'll buy your house and we don't need it right now, but but while it's while it's available, we want to go ahead and purchase it, but we'll let you guys live there for the next two years or 
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 so.

Surprise. God shows up and does that. The kind of stuff that when someone tries to tell you it's a coincidence, you say, "Oh, oh, wait a minute. No, no, no, no, no, no, no." If I filled you in on the whole backstory leading up to here, you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a God and that he is good and that he works in our favor.

And so, my friends have been living rentree. in the house that God bought for them. Can I pray for you? I want to pray for anyone that right now is standing right on the edge of decision because you've heard the whisper of God say, "Come on, let's go."

And you're trying to decide whether or not you're going to obey. I want to ask God to give you a holy courage, a boldness that can only come supernaturally by God's spirit to allow you when you leave this place tonight to not spend one more day adhered to the thing he has asked you to separate yourself from.

And so if that's you, doesn't matter if it's a person, it doesn't matter if it's a job, it doesn't matter what expectation you had of life, whatever. It doesn't matter what it is. God is asking you to come away from something. I want you to just stand to your feet if you need specific prayer for boldness to yield to the separation.

Lord, here we are. Your daughter is standing and we're asking you, Lord, I am asking on their behalf, Lord, that you would make your presence known and real and felt to them. Cause them to be so aware of your presence that it gives them a courage they have not known before.

Help them to know that they are never ever alone. Even if they make this decision that might cause them to to to feel like they are, Lord, help us to to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are real. So God, I'm being bold and brave, and I'm asking you that seriously in these next few days, you would do something in every single life of every single woman who's standing that is so obviously you that they will never ever doubt again that you are with them, that you are for them, and that you will fight on their behalf.

And God, I'm going to pray that you would well up in their hearts a supernatural courage, one that they will not even understand. Lord, would you well up a holy boldness on the inside of them and allow them to not be comfortable even one more day staying connected to the thing you're asking them to disconnect from?

Will you make them uneasy about it? Lord, cause it not to feel good anymore. Lord, I pray that the taste for it will leave their mouth in Jesus name. I'm asking for supernatural release by your Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:1, it is for freedom that you have set us free.

So today, Lord, we will stand firm and never be subject again to a yoke of slavery in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.