By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read Luke 18:1-7
All people who are walking with the Lord, can do so, because the Truth is, we are all still on a journey of growing together. Amen?
I like how Paul said it, many years ago. We grow in our Grace, meaning that what Heaven has made available, one must grow into it. We’d all like to think when one gets saved then, right away, God just hands over the keys to all the Kingdom and a person could just come and go as one pleases and do what they want. Only thing is, God hasn’t worked it that way. A person must grow into it. One’s set of keys given to them, along with the permission to use them comes as they have received them. This is according to His revealed or revelation knowledge and wisdom they have found in His Word.
It is only when one learns and understands what it is He wants them to learn or needs for them to learn. It is in learning how the Kingdom of God, which resides inside a person, works, that they can begin to operate in that knowledge. It is the very key that opens the door for Him to operate in their own life.
“Most folks live beneath the privileges God has for them, simply because they have never endeavored to “get” this revelation they were needing.
Without this understanding, they might not ever have committed themselves to chase after the things of God. This seemed to let them understand that God has put some things back for each person. They are gifts, if a person will begin searching for them, that they do need and to begin searching for them. They are the gifts that each person has to dig for, knock for, seek for.
God is a Giver, and He just gives us everything. Understanding this can be what we are missing. Yes, it’s all paid for, free to a person, but one must do the “work of understanding” as He has asked of them.
That is the way this operates and so whenever people say things to me like, Pastor Tim, how is it your prayers get answered? Well, I can tell them my prayers get answered regularly and very often, because I spend a whole lot of time with the Lord. The more one gets to know Him, the more one can do and operate as He has intended.
I can also tell a person that laziness can cause the door to begin to close. Just because someone was there with the Lord then, doesn’t mean they’ll always “be there” with the Lord. A person must continue doing what got them there with the Lord to begin with. Someone could even spend 40 days fasting and 60 days praying, see miracles happen, and say, “Well, that’s good. I’ll just keep on working that.”
How many know a year later, things will start slowing down because what a person did then, may have sustained them a year ago. It’s like eating a big meal last week and saying today, I’m still getting nourishment from that meal I ate last week. It doesn’t work quite that way, does it?
This day I want to give each person their own key to the Kingdom. Hopefully, a few may say, telling me, “I already know it, but I want to hear what you are saying. And, if you do, then I’m going to believe there are some here who will benefit from what I’m sharing.
Let’s read this together, in Luke 18, verses 1-7 and in verse 8, He drops the real message.
In verse 2, “A judge feared not God, neither regarded he a man.”
“A widow in the city said, ‘Avenge me of my enemy.” He held back a while, because this widow troubled him, thinking within himself, “I’ll avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me.”
“Shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them. He will avenge them speedily.”
We can look at this. God is at work and in operation. We can also see a dichotomy here of a wicked judge and a faithful judge. We can see the one did it, not because he cared about the woman or individual. What Jesus said next is what we need to focus on. He said this, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” This evening?”
Continued…
