2019： The Year of Faith and Favor — Carter Conlon

The Promise of Abundant Life in Christ

The title of my message this morning is 2019, the year of faith and favor. 2019, the year of faith and favor. John chapter 10, please, if you would, and also the book of Acts chapter nine. John chapter 10, and the next book to the right is the book of Acts chapter nine.

If you'd just put a marker there. And Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart. Lord, you have always spoken to this church. You've never left us in the dark. You've never left us in a place where we didn't hear from you.

You've given us direction over the years. You even warned us before 9 -11. God, thank you. You've been more faithful to us than we have been to you. I'm sure of that. But I thank you for mercy. I thank you for grace.

I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, God, with all my heart for the strength, Lord, that you give to everyone who touches this pulpit and to those whose hearts are open to hear the word of God.

Line by line, step by step, you've pushed back our enemies, oh God. Let our hearts burn for you now, this coming year. As the men on the road to Emmaus, if we're going in the wrong direction, turn us around, oh God, and head us to our own Jerusalem.

Father, I thank you for the touch of heaven. You've never failed me one time in this pulpit, not once, never. And Lord, I thank you, God. I pray as the psalmist prayed in Psalm 78. Now that I'm old and my hair is turning gray, oh God, don't take your hand from me until I've shown your power to this next generation.

Oh Lord, let it be, God. Let it be, Lord. Jesus Christ, that you raise up another generation, Lord, of young men and women who will get up and go into that place of promise and make a difference in our world today.

Oh God, call, anoint, ordain, set apart for yourself today, Lord, those whose hearts are open to hear your voice. And I thank you for it, in Jesus' name, amen. Praise God. And good morning to Luke this morning.

My grandson, Luke, he watches online and he yells at the screen because he doesn't know the difference between FaceTime and the internet. Good morning to you, Luke. God bless you this morning. John chapter 10, verse 10.

I want you to know that nobody is here by accident today. The Lord brought you here. The Lord brought you here. You may think that somebody beside you invited you, but God put it on their heart to invite you and then on your heart to come.

That's why you're here today. Let God speak to your heart. John chapter 10 and verse 10. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

Now, who can debate but that the thief is running almost unchecked. I'm talking about the devil himself and the powers of darkness under his hand are running almost unchecked in this generation, stealing, killing, and destroying.

Everything that the Bible talks about is God and good. And I thank God, though, that Christ speaks of us. Yes, the thief is stealing, he's killing, he's destroying. And some of you know that firsthand.

You say, pastor, you know exactly what my life's been like up to this point. I've had a lot stolen from me and a lot that should have lived died and a lot that should have been secure was taken away and destroyed.

But Jesus says to you, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. Now that's for you. That's not for somebody else. It's not just for those who've got a good track record.

It's not just for those who've done it all right. It's not for those who have memorized more scripture than anybody else. It's an open door. It's an open door for every heart, for every life, everyone who's hungry, whether you're on the right path right now or you're on the wrong path, the promise of Jesus to you is life and life more abundantly, not just eternal life.

That's a promise because of the cross. But God promises a full and inspired and exceedingly abundant, divinely led, purposeful, God-honoring, fruit-bearing life on this side of eternity. That's the promise of God for you.

For you. You know, thank God he didn't say in this verse, I've come that a few might have life more abundantly. No, you and me, all of us. He is the door. We go through that door and he says in the verses just before that, you go in and you come out and you find pastor.

In other words, every time you open the door of this book and you go in, you find something that gives you strength. You find something that gives you more life. You find another victory. You find the strength to go another mile.

You find the strength to keep on for another day. Now, 2 Timothy chapter three and verse five indicates that many, many people are called by the name of God in the last days will settle for an appearance of godliness without any power behind it.

An appearance, just a new clothes, big Bible, going to church, cleaning up the vocabulary a little bit, but it's all simply just appearance. The abundance that's promised is not behind it. The new life is not behind it.

The ability to reach into darkness and bring life and light is not there. Thank God the Lord's brought you here today. And he's brought me here today because I believe in my heart that you're not willing to settle for that kind of a life.

I believe that you're not willing to be a spectator in a divine arena, having been drafted in a sense to team God, holding the papers in your hands, but refusing to believe that you can actually get into the game.

Somehow, maybe afraid to get hurt, maybe afraid that you'll be embarrassed, maybe afraid that your abilities are not what they ought to be. But I want to remind you today, the abilities that God gives are not of you.

When you walk into the work of God, there is a divine enablement comes into your life. Something of God becomes yours that is not attainable by knowledge alone. It's not attainable by human effort. It's only attainable by the indwelling presence of Christ.

It's Paul who said in the book of Acts, in him, we live and move and have our being. Christ in you, Paul says, the hope of glory. Paul knew this life. He knew what he had been. Jesus warns in Matthew chapter 25 and verse eight, that in the season of Christ's return, which I believe we're in now, there will be a people who claim to belong to God, but have no divine ability in their life.

They've never been taken out of the natural and brought into the supernatural. They've never let the hand of God inside of them begin to animate them and move them and lead their thinking. They've never walked through that door.

Everything is in the natural. They've never been willing to go through the open door that God sets before them. That place and that purpose that he's ordained for their life, that they may be used to bring glory to his name.

They just simply won't go through that door. And there will be people in the last days that maybe theologically know that the bridegroom is coming because Matthew 25 seems to indicate they became aware of the nearness of his return, but they have no ability inside.

They can't see. They have no vision. They've got no oil inside and they have no voice. There were others that were saying, behold, the bridegroom, go out to see him. But you see, they couldn't see because the ability we need to see is God given.

It doesn't come from human effort. Their prayer is as it's always been. They turned to those who had oil and said, give us of your oil, because that had been always their prayer. Give us. They came to church, oh God, give us, give me, enhance my self-image, make me a bigger, better person.

And some of these things are necessary in the beginning, but there's a point where they failed to understand that the abundant life that Jesus promises is for two reasons. Firstly, to glorify God on the earth.

And secondly, to lead others to the knowledge of who he is. That's the reason for the abundant life. It's not to consume it upon myself. It's not so that I may sit back and say, look how good God has been to me.

Oh, that's part of it. But you and I are called to bring glory to his name on the earth. We're called to live in such a way and allow God to be something inside of us that our testimony becomes, I gotta tell you what Jesus did for me.

There's an inner knowledge. I could never do this for myself. And to lead others to the knowledge of who he is, leading others to the cross, leading them to that ability that God wants to give them that they too might become an expression of his kindness to this generation.

The Church as a Chosen People and Witness

Peter says in first Peter chapter two and verse nine, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

In other words, you are a people separated under God. You are a people who are given a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit, a new song, a new life, a new path, new abilities, new strengths. God does something so powerful in your life that all you can do is shout about it from the rooftops.

And people who see what God has done in you, just like the book of Acts chapter two, 3 ,000 coming home from the religious exercise in the temple, 3 ,000 very devoted people, but very dry, very empty after all of the things they were involved in in the temple.

Then they suddenly encounter 120 people who have a living relationship, a living presence of God inside of them. And when they saw and they heard what came from these people, suddenly all the religious exercise fell to the ground and they said, what must we do to be saved?

We are called of God. We are called of God. We are called of God. We are called of God to reclaim his praises because we've been called out of darkness and we now walk in his light. In Genesis 22, 18, God's promise to Abraham, which of course, through the Jewish people, subsequently through our Messiah, now to us, is that in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

This is the purpose of my life, is that God would take me and use me as a blessing to others. It has been my experience. I believe that's maybe why God brought me here in the first place. He sent David Wilkerson to warn of the coming judgment on the city and perhaps on the nation.

And he also told him that we were to gather a remnant as a church. In other words, gather a people who can still hear the voice of God. I believe this is why the Lord sent me here in some measure, because I have an experience with God.

I know what it's like to have nothing to bring to him. I know what it's like to be taken out of the natural and into the supernatural. I know what it's like to be taken on a journey for which I'm completely unqualified to travel, apart from his presence in my life.

I know what it's like to be delivered from the walls that bound me on every side. I know what it's like to be taken from one place and brought to another. So I'm not bringing you just a theory about a relationship with God, but a natural experience that has been mine.

The people of God of Abraham's generation, they were led out of captivity and brought right to the shores of divine promise. And that, of course, as many of God's people are like that today. We're all were captivated by something.

And when we came to Christ, it suddenly prison doors opened. Suddenly we're given new abilities, or at least we're aware that we have new abilities and we're brought to this incredible place of promise.

We start opening the word of God and we start seeing something in it that God has for us. But they refused to go in. Isn't that sad? They saw it, they saw the fruit of it, but they wouldn't go in. And not going in, the majority of them lived and died in a barren, fruitless place.

Resolving to Follow God’s Whole Plan

I don't know about you, but I said to my wife when I came to Christ, Pastor Teresa, I said, if this thing is real, I want the whole package, and if it isn't, I want none of it. There's a certain resolve has to come into your heart.

I'm not gonna go halfway with this. If this is God, this is God's word, this is God's kingdom. If heaven is real and it's eternal, if there really is a hell and people are going there who don't know Christ, if I am called to be a living witness of who Christ is to my generation, then I'm going all the way with this thing.

I'm not gonna settle for an appearance of godliness without power. I'm not gonna settle for just sitting in church week after week after week, living in a dry, barren, fruitless place. I'm not living there.

And there is a point, my brother and my sister, where that resolve's gotta get into your heart. I'm getting up, I'm getting out of this place, and God's gonna use my life for his glory. I'm gonna ask him for a spirit of love that casts the fear out of me.

I'm gonna start speaking his name. I'm gonna believe him for victory over these areas in my life that are the lion and the bear trying to stop me from what God's called me to do. I'm gonna get up and be the man, the woman, whatever your case is, that God has called me to be.

He has a plan for my life. I'm gonna find that plan. I'm gonna walk in that plan. And God's word says that Christ came to give me abundant life. I'm not gonna settle for mediocre life. When God says, I'm going to give you abundant life, and the beauty of Christ, I love this, is that he cleans up your mess, too, as well.

Cleans up your mistakes as a Christian. Picks you up, lifts your head, puts his glory on you. Praise God. I said to somebody this morning, you'll never know grace till you've failed. Grace is just a concept until you've failed.

But once you've failed, praise be to God, you'll be singing amazing grace like you've never sung it in your whole life. That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see.

The Church’s Calling to Enter the Place of Promise

You know, we in America, as a church age, have been largely marginalized. Largely, our voices have not been heard. Our influence has not overly been felt. It's tragic when you consider that the people of God are more and mightier than the people who are godless, who are now dictating the agenda for a nation.

Because many, many of God's people have stayed on the outside of that place of promise for them. That's really the reason why. We've gravitated to church, and you know, sadly, we've hoped that we get a high-profile preacher, and that'll bring the people in, or we've hoped that our new carpets will bring them in.

We've hoped that our choir will bring them in. We've hoped that a sign outside will bring them in. But it's you that's supposed to bring them in. It's the people of God. You are the voice of God. You are the representative of Christ.

Your life is supposed to be compelling. You remember Jesus told those, the parable of the master who created a feast, and then the final group he sent out to gather people to this wedding banquet, he said, go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in.

Compel them, compel them. Let your life be a compelling testimony. Let the passion of your voice indicate that you really believe what you're trying to tell them. Let the love in your heart compel them to come into the presence of God, and into the house of God.

And in this nation, we've abdicated, maybe for a generation, our duty, our ministry, our calling. But just like in Moses' day and Joshua's day, another generation arose that were willing to go in, no matter the personal cost.

Willing to go in, willing to be separated under God. Willing, willing. The scripture says, the people will be willing in the day of your power. In the day when you are willing to show yourself strong, you will find a willing people to say, God, I'll go with you.

And where you lead me, I'm going to follow you. In the beginning of God's favor starts with faith, and faith begins with a prayer. This is where I come to the book of Acts chapter nine. A man called Saul, on a journey.

Saul’s Encounter with Christ and the Prayer of Surrender

On a religious journey, might I add, as he saw it. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Suddenly, the presence of God was all around him. Suddenly, he felt something of God that he had never felt before.

None of his religion had ever given him this feeling. But he felt as if God had literally surrounded him and come to him. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Why are you standing up against what I want to do in your life? Why are you resisting the call? And he said, who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

In other words, Saul, I've been prodding you in a certain direction, and you've been pushing against it. I've been trying to move you to something through which the kingdom of God is going to be made known in a way deeper than you think it can be made known.

But you have been resisting it. How many of us does that speak to today? Where the Holy Spirit says, I've been prodding you, I've been prodding you, I've been whispering to you. It's that thing that you put on headphones so you don't have to listen to that voice any longer.

I've been speaking to your heart about something I want to do in and through your life. I've been speaking about something I want you to put away from your life, but you're resisting the things that I'm trying to do and the places I'm trying to take you.

So he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, arise, go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. This is where it all began in Paul's life or Saul's life.

Obviously, he now had a physical affliction. The Bible tells us he couldn't see because of the brightness of the light. He became blind for three days. When his prayer could have been, God, please give me back my sight.

He could have been self-focused, but being a determined man by nature, his prayer was the prayer that unlocked something of God that gave him words that we're still reading today and are guiding much of the testimony of Christ worldwide.

Lord, what do you want me to do? Now, he was doing a lot for God the way he saw it up to this point, but having an encounter with God, all of that now changes, and all of it becomes, Lord, what do you want me to do?

What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Do you even dare pray that prayer? Do you dare pray it this day before we go into 2019? Lord, what do you want me to do? Now, he didn't answer him right away.

He said, go into the city and you will be told what you must do. And so this is the word of the Lord to you today. If anybody here wants to pray that prayer, you go home. The Lord says, you'll be told.

I'll open it to you. I will speak very, very clearly to you. You will know what you need to do. There has to be a willingness in our hearts to, just as Paul, to have our journey changed. He was on a journey, and having an encounter with God, it changed the course of his life, to have his plans put away, and a new plan formulated by God coming to life in his heart, and to have his self-identity put away.

That's incredible. Imagine, everyone God meets, he changes their name. You ever notice that? Saul becomes Paul. Cephas becomes Peter. You look at all the people, and are you willing to have your identity changed?

You know, some of you, you just, you really think you're just a real mover and shaker, right? Maybe he wants to change that. Oh, you're going to shake eventually. Trust me, you're going to get old like me, and you're going to start shaking naturally.

But your self-identity, what you think you are, where you think you're going, what you think your life is going to amount to, what you think it's going to look like 10 years from now, an encounter with God changes all of that.

You know, some people think they're just going to make it big in the business world, but you're going to be a missionary. You're not going to be a businessman at all. The willingness to have all of these things interrupted and replaced with the divine purpose that God has for my life.

Faith in God’s Plan and the Year of Favor

Let 2019 be the year that you and I believe that God's plan is the best for our lives. That's where faith comes in. We simply believe, God, your plan is better than mine. Your ways are better than mine.

Your thoughts are higher than mine. This could be the beginning of something miraculous for you. 2019, the year that I gave up and gave it all to God. The year that I said, Lord, not my will, but thine be done.

The year that I surrendered my heart fully to the will and to the ways of God. The year that I believed that his plan is better than mine. And the year that I received the divine enablement to live an abundant life into which he has called me.

Faith says, God, your plan is better. Favor is God opening the heart and saying, here's everything you're going to need for what I've called you to do. What I've called you to be and where I've called you to go.

And I believe with all my heart, for many, most, and hopefully all that are here today, that 2019 will be the year of faith and favor for you. The year that we rise again as the body of Christ. The year that you bring so many people to the house of God that we can't contain it anywhere, any building on any block, in any part of any city.

The Church Rising in Supernatural Power

Year that we rise as a church. The year that we roll away the stone of whatever stone has been placed in front of us. The year that we hear the voice of God and are called out of inability and called out of just being paralyzed into the life that God has for us.

The year when we begin to believe, God, whatever you have for my life, that's what my life is going to be. I'm going to go inside of the boundaries of this place of promise, and I'm going to believe it.

And when the door opens, I'm going to walk through it. When I first got called to speak by the Lord, you know my story, right? I would run out of a room if people's attention focused on me. So paralyzed by fear, so feeling judged, so feeling like a failure, or like I was going to fail, that I didn't want to run the risk of it.

Yet God opened the door and started asking me to speak in certain places, little groups of people, 20, 15, 12, and I remember they'd be introducing me and I'd be dry heaving in the bathroom. But I went through the door.

You'll never know the power of God till you go through the door. You don't get the power before you get it when you walk through the door. You walk through the door. You'll be amazed what God will begin to do in your life.

You'll be amazed where he'll take you. You'll be amazed at the journey that he'll send you on. You'll be amazed at the boldness, the wisdom with which you speak, the giftings of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, you're just walking into your neighborhood.

You see a person you've known for a long time and God gives you a word for them, which breaks down all of the resistance and all the barriers. The next thing you know, you're crying and praying together.

You're leading them to Christ. You watch what God will do in your life. I firmly believe in my heart that 2019 is the year that church rises, the year the people of God come back to the fore, the year that we finally realize who we are again.

We are the people of God. We are the testimony of Christ in the earth. We are not just marginal players in somebody else's game. Each of us are called into the body of Christ. Each of us are gifted. Each of us are given a pathway.

Each of us are given abilities of God to do things we could never do in our own strength. The year of faith and favor. The year, like in Joshua's day, where another generation rose up and they said, okay, we're done with the wilderness.

Our parents may have chosen to live there, but we're not living there. We're going into that place that God has promised us. We're gonna find our inheritance in Christ. And if there are giants there, we don't care.

We're gonna fight them and we're gonna beat them and we're gonna win because that's who God says we are. I'm gonna face every giant that ever stands up against my life, my home, my family, or the testimony of God that he has determined to establish through me.

And by the grace of God, we will be the church. By the grace of God. We've known an anointing in here, folks. We've had 31 years of the presence of God here. Now we're gonna know the anointing out there.

By the grace of God, every home is gonna know the anointing of God. When you walk into your place of work, the presence of God will walk in with you. People around you will be suddenly convicted of their sin and they don't even know why.

Altar Call for Faith, Favor, and Divine Enablement

By the grace of almighty God, hallelujah. And so here's my altar call today. Let 2019 be the year in my life, oh God, where I believe and your favor starts coming into my life in a new way. In a deeper way than I've ever known it before.

Let this be my year. Lord Jesus Christ, if you're coming back soon, I don't wanna have standing there with an empty basket. God, let me bear fruit for your kingdom's sake. Let my life be a testimony of who you are.

If that's the cry of your heart, we're gonna stand up in just a moment. And here in the main sanctuary, the balcony and the annex in North Jersey, as well as all the people in our home fellowships, I challenge you to rise up and be the church.

I challenge you to rise up and be a supernatural church. I challenge you to rise up and believe God for what you can't do in your own strength. I challenge you to rise up and become the person you can't be in the natural.

Let him take over. Let him give your life purpose and meaning, abundance and a new song. And you watch what God will do. People are hungry. They're starving for truth now in this generation. And they're looking and longing for the church to arise.

Praise be to God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Just lift your hands just for a moment, just pray. Just pray. Ask the Lord to give you a fresh revelation of who he is, a fresh touch of heaven. Thank you, Lord God.

Thank you for hearing the prayers of your people, God. The cry of your church, Lord. God, so many lives depend on your church now. Give us the power, Lord. Rise us up, oh God, out of weakness and bring us back into strength again.

And Lord, we thank you, God, that you always respond to the sincere heart. You never turn away the hungry from you, Lord. I know my heart was hungry, God. And you've given me more than I could even wish or dream or think, as your word says that you do, Lord.

And so, God, I'm asking you for your people, for your church, Lord. I'm asking for this church, God, for a fresh baptism of your Holy Spirit. I'm asking you, God, for an empowerment of heaven. I'm asking you, Lord, for faith to explode in every heart, God.

There'll be an expectation of this coming year, Lord, that you will do something so far beyond us, so far beyond our own ability, so far beyond our expectations even. God, you will take us to a deeper place than we've ever known before, God.

There'll be a song of joy in our heart that can't be taken away by circumstance. God, there'll be victory in our homes. Lord, we'll have a testimony. We'll have compassion for our neighbors. Oh, God, you will do something in us, Lord, that only you can do.

A Fresh Baptism of the Holy Spirit for the Church

We are your vessels, oh God. We are your temple, Lord. God, give this temple back its song, Lord. Give this temple back its glory. Give this temple back its power. My God, my God, your temple in Solomon's day was only a foreshadow of the church and what the church should look like.

People's breath should be taken away when they see your people, Lord. So God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God. Thank you for the last 30 and a half years. Thank you for those years, but we're facing a new day.

We're facing a new challenge. We're facing a new generation. And Lord, we need your power more than we've ever needed it before. And they need your church to know your power. For the sake of the lost, for the sake of those who live in darkness, oh God.

Oh, Jesus, take us outside of ourselves, God. Our own consumption with our own thoughts and our own needs. And give us the power, Lord, to have your heart, God, for this generation. Give us a voice, Lord, when our own voices have become silent.

Oh, Jesus, Son of God. Son of God, visit this city, Lord. Visit New York City. Have mercy on this city, oh God. Have mercy, Lord, in all the boroughs in New York City and the surrounding areas, Lord, where so many people don't know what is just ahead of them.

They have no idea what eternity without God is going to be like. Oh, Jesus, help us. Help this city, Lord. Help us, God. We're not, we don't have a plan. You're the plan. There's no other plan but you, Lord.

Your presence, your redemption, your power. Oh, God. Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, oh, God. We thank you for all that you've done, but we recognize our need now. We recognize that you're the only one that can do this, oh, God.

And Father, we thank you, Lord. We thank you that you will not turn away our cry. You told us that everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks, it shall be open. God, these are your words.

These are not ours. These are yours. And you cannot lie. So, Lord, thank you that we're asking and we will receive. We're seeking and we shall find. We're knocking and it shall be open to us, oh, God.

Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for what you're gonna do. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God.

Thank you, God. Thank you, God. My God, my God. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for what you will do this year, Lord. This year, God. This year, Lord. This year. This year, God, what you will do.

Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. God, we lift ourselves up before you as leaders in this church, Lord, and we ask you for a fresh fire in all of our hearts, God.

A fresh touch of heaven, God, for those who lead your people, Lord. Oh, God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you, God, for everyone, everyone who walks through the doors of this church, Lord. Let the fire of God touch every heart, every life, every home, every circumstance, oh, God.

Oh, Jesus, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God. We love you, Lord. We love you, Jesus. We love you, Lord. We love you, God. Give us the grace that we need now. Give us the grace.

Oh, my God, give us the grace. Give us the grace, oh, Lord. Give us the grace to be there for the people whose expectations will be dashed one more time again this year, Lord. Give us the grace to be there for them, oh, God.

Oh, Lord. Oh, let not our mouths be closed any longer. Let not our hands be clenched any longer, oh, God. Oh, Jesus, Son of God, visit this vine, Lord. You planted this church, Lord. Visit this church, oh, God.

Give us a fresh touch of heaven, Lord. God, we thank you, Father. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you. We thank.

You, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Lord, we thank you for hearing this prayer today. Lord, I pray that, Lord, we would have the same anointing as Joshua and Caleb. Lord, when you spoke and you promised the promised land, oh, God, the other 10, oh, God, they only saw it as giant land, but the people of faith saw it as the promised land.

Joshua and Caleb’s Faith in the Promised Land

Lord, we know following you there is giants. We know, oh, God, what stands up against us as your people. We know, Lord, giants of distractions and giants of addictions and giants, Lord, of boredom and or sometimes a struggle, oh, God, to stay focused, Lord, sometimes a struggle to care, to pray.