 A college student wrote to her mom and dad and says it's now been three months since I left for college I am sorry for my thoughtfulness in having written not having written before I bring you up up to date But before you read on please you better sit down. Okay? I'm getting along pretty well now the skull fracture and the concussion I got when I jumped out of my apartment window when it caught fire after my arrival here It's pretty much healed I spent two weeks in a hospital and now I can see almost normally and Only get these sick headaches every once in a while Fortunately the fire and my jump were witnessed by Roger and attended at the gas station And he was the one that called the fire department He also visited me in the hospital and since I had nowhere to live He was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. He is a very fine man We are planning to get married. We haven't set the date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show His divorce is final now, and he shares the custody of only three of his children The reason for the delay in our marriage mom and dad is that Roger has a minor infection Which prevents us from passing our primarital blood tests, which are carelessly caught from him This will soon clear up with his Pal insulin injections, which I am taking daily now that I have brought you up to speed There was no fire. I don't have a concussion. I don't have a skull fracture. I was not in a hospital. I'm not pregnant I'm not engaged. I don't have a disease and I don't have a divorced man in my life However, I do have a D and art and F in biology See when you are a mother and you're reading through all of this and Then you find out that your child has an F or a C. You quickly treat F and the C with the sight of Relief why because things are put in perspective Perspective is a huge thing Our conception or our perception how we perceive things Many times change how we receive and how we respond to other people Even our Lord Jesus Christ came into an area where the Bible says he came to preach and heal people and Could not heal many people because people perceived him as a son of a carpenter instead of the Messiah His power was so great and limitless the Bible says that grace and Jesus's life was without measure Yet it was limited by the perception of people in Nazareth See God is God and He will always be God, but how you perceive God will limit what you receive from him How you perceive God will limit what you will get from him a Woman at the well couldn't get anything from Jesus as long as she was seeing him as a Jewish man But when Jesus threw a prophecy her way her eyes open and she says you must be a prophet and then she received the living water When we change our perception We immediately enlarge our capacity to receive When we change our perception we change our capacity to respond We change our reaction how you perceive things quickly Affect how you respond to situations see we don't see things the way they are we see things the way we are We see things through the filter of our history of our past our fears Expectations our family are bringing sometimes our current situation We see the same situation that everyone else can see as different and you see it differently Because we don't see things the way they are we always see them through the filter I heard the story actually this morning of a 23 year old Sarah Who went to grocery store and she got some groceries she got into the car She sat down in her car and she what she thought heard a loud noise like a gunshot in her head And so she quickly was was so scared that she went unconscious when she woke up from that She reached her hand to her back and realized that her brains are falling out So what she thought her blade brains falling out she quickly took both over hands Put them on the top of her skull to hold her brains from falling out She said that for one hour people were passing by and one gentleman noticed that this lady is sitting there Spooked with her hands on the top of her head. He called police the police came and says what's going on? Open the door. She says I cannot open the door because I got shot and my brains are falling out After a few minutes the police breaks through the window the back window they get in and they found out that actually what happened It wasn't it was the can of Pittsburgh biscuits that broke and The dough fell on the back of her head And so for the whole hour it was the dough on the top of her head that she was holding thinking it was her brains See it's interesting how perception can affect how you respond See when you perceive something you will be locked in fear thinking you got your brains falling out It was a dough It was not nobody shot you it was the can of biscuits that blew out and you suffered the shock and Sometimes that's exactly what happens when you perceive your family when you perceive your husband or your wife or your children when you see them constantly in a negative light You respond accordingly Even if it's not true and that response many times ruins the situation people who constantly live with the fear constantly live with the assumption people who live constantly with this View of their family view of their life their finances in a negative light they find more To confirm those assumptions and those fears scripture says he who seeks will find he who knocks It will be open to him a merchant went around looking for pearls. It's interesting He found a field of dirt But he found a pearl in the field of dirt if you would go like looking for dirt You will find dirt and not find the pearl you will always find what you're looking for if You're looking for you to fail you will find failure if you're looking for you to succeed You will find success if your mind is set like the Bible says in the revelation that a man on a horse came out to conquer He had his mind set to conquer and he conquered when you have your mind set on something else It will be as such and it's not gonna be because of God's will it's gonna be because your perception Quickly creates a response within you toward that situation a story that really helps me in this is Jacob when Jacob was He cheated his brother and he left and then he finally make Made good money. He finally broke through he comes back home and he has two wives He has big livestock. He has servants and he he had a problem with his brother He cheated his brother from the inheritance though. He never took the inheritance physical inheritance He took the spiritual inheritance and so he wants to send a message to his brother and tell him say I'm coming back home And by the way The inheritance I cheated you from I'm not interested in it. I got the money. Here's the pictures I got the livestock. I got the camels. I got the oxen keep the inheritance. I just want to have peace The servants didn't even reach his brother when they came back to Jacob and say hey your brother He's coming back at you with 400 soldiers Now 400 soldiers might not seem a lot for those of us who watch Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne But in those days 400 soldiers, that's what Abraham used to conquer kings. That's an army I mean, that's that's as big as it gets and Jacob he here has he just has Big family kids servants and that's it and Jacob the Bible says was terrified He was scared and instead of training up his family how to fight and how to defend themselves Jacob goes into the presence of God during the night and the Bible says he wrestles with God It's interesting because all his life he wrestled he wrestled with his brother He wrestled with Laban. He wrestled for his wife's he wrestled for his wages And now Jacob you would think that his relationship with God would be easy But now he has to wrestle with the relationship with God But this was the only wrestling that changed the rest of his life See sometimes we are waiting to have a perfect relationship with God and we think if I have a smooth Relationship with God only then God will bless me and if maybe you're like Jacob today You wrestle in everything in life nothing in your life comes easy for other people It looks like things just come so easy for you You got a fight fight you take one step forward two steps backwards and you come to God You come to church and you say even with God is so hard This is the only wrestling worth wrestling because this struggle this Wrestling changes everything else in our life. It changed for Jacob and I believe even this year is gonna change for you When Jacob is there wrestling with God wrestling with God wrestling with God God changes his perception first of Jacob God changes Jacob and next day when Jacob gets out to meet Esau the verse there says this Jacob looks at him and Esau doesn't shot this doesn't shoot Esau doesn't throw a spear Esau doesn't kill Esau Runs and hugs him and this is what Jacob says when I saw you I saw the face of God Before I met God You were my enemy when I met God God changed my perception. I no longer saw you through my fear and through my past mistakes I saw you as the face of God see when you see God you begin to see through the face of God at everything else Everything begins to look differently, and it's interesting Supernaturally God takes those circumstances and begins to change them in your favor Esau who came to kill was hugging Because in the presence of God Jacob's perception of Esau was changed God wants to change your perception my perception of people Who caused you pain? People who are out to get you People who are out to hurt you your family members who got the guns loaded Maybe who constantly when you come in bring this or that topic things are always stirred up And you're saying there's just no way this fight in my family It's been going on for Jacob. It's been 20 years Since this this tension in the family, but it was resolved not by Jacob doing anything different But by getting to the presence of God and saying God I am scared like hell of this my brother and God Changed something him me both of us and God says let me change you Jacob your perception of you and Let me show you my face When he sees the face of God he goes in he no longer sees the brother he cheated the Bible says he saw the face of God and his brother no longer hurt him. He hugged him We all want hugs in our family Their motto is no drugs just hugs We don't want hurts. We don't want fights. You don't want your father to call you with a negative name You don't want your children to disrespect you. You don't want your spouse to sleep in the other room You don't want your spouse to to to cheat to to do this harmful maybe habits like drinking and smoking We want to see changes in our family, but I want to tell you something today. You have to find a place in prayer Where you allow the Holy Spirit to do a deep work? Not just on the troubling part of your family, but on the troubling part of your mind about your family and Begins to bring a rip off the wrong images rip off the preconceived ideas already And that we see God so close that when we come out we see differently Then we saw before we walk different the Bible says Jacob he started to limp Something happens in a relationship with God something happens in prayer our perception Changes and it resolved as a result It begins to affect our spouse our children begins to affect our family I'm not here to tell you that if you Meet the presence of God immediately your family will be changed what I am saying they will be affected Something will be different in the atmosphere in the house Something will be different in a tone of your voice. There will be fearlessness There will be brave bravery inside of your attitude that will cause them to be disarmed and cause them to be nice Amen This would be the year where God wants to touch our family Let this be the year where God wants to bring our family together But it cannot happen without his presence Changing and affecting our perception can somebody say amen if you have your Bible. Let's open to first Samuel chapter 31 verse 13 first Samuel 31 and verse 13 Then they took their bones and buried them under Talamar Taram Tama risk tree under a tree at Jbash and fasted seven days and That's how the first Samuel the book of first Samuel comes to a conclusion And the next verse is the second Samuel which begins The new dynasty a new family a family of David How the first book of Samuel ends is Saul gets defeated and the Philistines not only they kill him But they want to mock the nation of Israel They took the corpse the dead body of Saul and they hanged it on the wall You know typically we hang things on the wall to remind us of how good our life is we hang Certificates we put family pictures if you have an award. Maybe you want to work Maybe you got you have a certain trophy and what we do is we we put them on the top in our wall So that when we walk we see and we get reminded That was a good year that reminds me of college that reminds me that I have a bachelor's degree That reminds me that you know I want that race or I want that competition and hear the enemy puts a king's body that is dead on the wall to remind them We won and the same time to send the message to Israel Your losers you lost But there were men they were farmers They woke up during the night Saul helped them before they marched they climb on that wall. They took that corpse down They buried that corpse and the scripture says and they fasted Seven days It's interesting and there and then at the end of that fast the Bible closes at chapter in Israel's history that wasn't a good chapter and Opens a new chapter in their history of the greatest king that took the throne the king David I believe God wants to Change our life But changing in a calendar It's fine we can Changing in the calendar doesn't change our life only God can change our life Amen Calendar doesn't change it the Creator changes life Amen What he chooses to change our life is prayer and fasting prayer and fasting doesn't change our life It repositions us for the change God has for us Just like if you go in the water fountain in the lobby and you come in and the water is there and What you do is you don't move the water fountain as you stand over there You take water fountain like this you lift it up and let the water come into your mouth No, you move your head you twist your body you reposition yourself so that the water fountain will not miss your mouth See prayer and fasting is not twisting and moving God. It's moving and twisting Vlad It's moving and twisting Larry. It's moving and twisting you and me so that we could be positioned in the way where God's grace is already flowing Can somebody say amen? Prayer and fasting and giving doesn't twist God it twists me and you and positions me for a new season That God wants to bring into my life Like Rick Warren said once he said church growth is like waves. It's like surfing every surfer knows Surfers do not produce waves. They only wait for the waves and they utilize the waves by jumping quickly when the waves are stirred up See God's change in your life. It's not something you can produce It's something you can position yourself by prayer and fasting that when it comes you quickly jump on it and not miss it and These men they prayed and they fasted and they positioned a nation for a change in the family Because from now on there was a bad family that ruled them and after the seven-day fast a new family emerged that took the throne The seven-day fast Can cause new family to emerge in your house? Because God repositions you Your position your perspective your perception of your family But something else happened here that I want to underline is King Saul's body The symbolized loss and defeat had to be brought down from the wall the corpse That the enemy lifted up as a reminder that Philistines are defeat that Philistines are victorious and Israel is defeated That corpse had to be brought down That corpse reminded Israel and everyone else of the bad history they had but when they took the corpse down God Eventually brought a new family that defeated the Philistines and brought great breakthrough to that nation Last year has been a very challenging year for many people For our church, we've had some prayers that were not answered We've had some battles. We've lost We've had some people we prayed for and we buried them Last year we fasted for certain needs and we didn't see them. Yes We've seen God's grace in many other areas. They were unprecedented The track was filled and people were healed who were color-blind from all their life people who who got hurt and And this stuff and when we had Bob Larsen came so many people got touched and shepherd Bushiri Just the fact to have these three men come to our church in one year in Pasco. That is nothing short, but supernatural What God did was incredible But at the same time see when you come back from those great events You go back and many times what the enemy does is he will not erect the Goliath you killed He will erect a soul. He killed The enemy is sneaky. He loves to exalt the corpses and Hang them on the wall of our memory on the wall of our mind and to tell you through that I won You lost So that the memory we will have for the future is the past Losses the past divorce the past maybe death in the family the past Sickness the past bankruptcy. He likes to lift the soul as they look at him now and During this prayer during this day and during this season I am not here to tell you this is gonna be the greatest year of your life I'm not gonna tell you that because I don't want you on 31st of December to hunt me down and say You said it I Had some people text me yesterday. You have one day to explain to me how you told me There was to be the greatest year of my life. I said Israel had also 40 years to explain to God While they were complaining whining and they died and wilderness instead of going to the promised land I'm like ain't my fault that you're living in sin. Anyway, that's besides the point. I Did not promise anybody 2016 will be the greatest year of your life It will be as great as you make it and as your relationship with God will make it period You can have the greatest prophet come on the earth and prophesy until he loses his voice But it's not gonna change anything and until you move a finger to begin to work with God to see changes in your life Can somebody say amen? But for the year to change for us to see the changes like we see in here is the last year for us as a church We had few defeats and some of these were defeats. They were so Deep and great that one that almost knocked me out for few weeks Completely and my faith was deeply deeply shaken Because the things I prayed for the things I believed for in that particular a situation things were not answered And I had to do what these men did and you have to learn to do that as well in your life You have to learn how to take down the corpse from the wall Take down divorce from the wall Take down abuse from the wall of your life You have to learn how to take down disappointment You have to learn how to take down rejection Betrayal and unfair treatment You have to also learn how to take mysteries mysteries means is the things you don't have answers for You have to learn to take them down. We're not talking about to desegrate them, but beautifully bury them and welcome Book two of chapter Samuel Welcome new family where David will come and defeat those Philistines once and for all if you let Saul's corpse on the wall to end the dynasty You have to understand at that point when they lifted Saul on the side David already had six hundred men ready to fight That means God while everything was being defeated God was cooking something up on the side But the Israel wasn't aware of that and that's why this man took down the corpse And this paved the way for the Holy Spirit to begin to raise up a new family in the nation of Israel I believe that if we've seen people who maybe died out of cancer That should not paint an image in our mind that people will not get healed of cancer Just because maybe your marriage fell apart and you tried your best to secure it That doesn't mean that your next marriage or whatever happens next is going to happen the same way Learn to deal with disappointments of your past. Otherwise, you'll cancel the appointments with your future because somebody say amen And we have to do that as a church You have to do that individually. You may say well, we we might not have had a lot of faith Even Jesus told his disciples when you're gonna go win the world You're gonna bring the best news to anybody could ever hear the best product free gift of salvation And he said to his disciples this when you do that, I want to teach you a trick You will get rejected Jesus We we offering a free gift. How could people reject this? Jesus says it's not if he's it's gonna happen. He says the question is not Whether you're gonna succeed always he says what are you gonna do afterwards and he teaches them a principle He said learn to shake off the dust. He said physically shake off the dust So that mentally you shake off the rejection and that you remember You're sent to win the world and because someone rejected you That doesn't mean that the next person will reject you If you will let this person to reject you and you will say I will no longer do it again He says you will get stuck But if you shake off the dust and go to the next person He said the next person will accept you and the next person is gonna bring glory to God If that happens with winning the lost that also happens with winning money That also happens with winning your family that also happens with winning battle with drugs That also happens with winning battle against cigarettes that also happens with winning battle against pornography That also happens if it happens with winning the lost, which is the greatest miracle It happens with smaller miracles too where sometimes you lose And you have to learn not to find an explanation. You have to learn to quickly And step into a new chapter of your life. Why because jesus said he didn't say find an answer He said find to get the dirt off of your shoes so you can step into something new Just because last year was very difficult for you financially You have to learn to step into a new season. You gotta remove the dirt from the old season You tell that to your children all the time when they run in the yard It with their shoes, you don't allow them to walk into a white carpet with their shoes from the yard Why because those are two different seasons and the shoes in the yard supposed to stay in the garage Not in the carpet of the living room What happened to you when you were 16? Leave that at 16. Don't drag it into 2017 What happened to you last year? Take that down put that down and allow the holy spirit to open something new In jesus name Is somebody say amen Receive that Receive that from the lord today from this from this word. Take the corpse if you don't take the corpse The bible says in new testament Where the corpse is another translation says where the dead body is vultures welcome when you allow Things from the past to be nurtured here You attract demons to attack your life Some people are driving out to vultures But still keeping the corpse You can have every pastor who comes in through hungry generation Take this spiritual rifle Shoot out those demons, but if after the service is over you are refusing to bury the corpse It's until next service the vultures will come again It's as important to drive away the vultures as it is to learn It's very heavy to bury The corpse to put it down and say you know what that part of my life was done That part of my life is painful as it was I leave that behind me. I look forward to the future I refuse to be like lot's wife whose feet were walking into the future But heart was trapped in the past and she was not people of salt She became a monument of salt a pillar of salt not moving anywhere stuck People who look back while trying to walk forward always become pillars instead of people Be a person who disconnects yourself from that Every new year we used to have a lot of new year services because it falls on Saturday night. We didn't do one this year And in my youthful years, I would bring a coffin. I brought a casket here So many times that uh that I became known for that. So I stopped doing that. What happens in our new years I would bring I would bring a coffin to the church We had a very young church and so we didn't have much funerals. The only funerals we had was artificials Is the ones that I would create for people It was a mental funeral that I had for them It was called the funeral of the year Where we would have people write down the bad things that happened during that year and Symbolically come and place it into the casket. We would close the casket Take the papers out of the casket go outside and burn that as a symbol of disconnecting ourselves with our past You have to do that not only every year you have to do that every time you hit a disappointment You have to learn to do a funeral a proper grieving a proper crying a proper Going through that closing that in putting and putting the thing over it and saying you know what my life has to move forward My life has to move on to the chapter two of samuel Can somebody say amen? You have to move forward in jesus mighty name as we approach right now a time That we're gonna pray for the family. I ask you for one thing is that we will Take an opportunity first of all for last year Any corpses that we have in our heart a corpse can be a sin That we harbor that we keep in our lives that we get rid of it right now Not not wait for the fast tomorrow But that we do it today that we allow all the sins that we have accumulated in our life that we are caring Maybe sins that yesterday in your new year's party you decided to finally You know do your last sin for 2016 and there's something Heatheness you're like i'll go to church next morning. So I have something to repent for god forgive you for your complacency and craziness But today is the day that we want to come first before god and ask him to forgive us And I want us to take that sin And throw it outside of our life Take that sin throw it outside of your marriage Maybe some of you have bottles or have some a weed in your house Maybe you have certain magazines that you they're not supposed to be a certain context They were so compromising certain certain material on our tv that we after we come home We said this is a new year. Yes, it doesn't change much, but it gives you a fresh start to throw that out in jesus