In this video, Reverend Catania talks about wisdom and getting answers from God. Everybody has a bad day and goes through bad times. We have the family of faith to turn to. Everybody wants comfort and peace. God gave us way to handle stress. We have a church to help us. God will sustain us. We cast burden on him. We don't try it alone.
We are blessed to be in this administration. We are compassed with songs of deliverance. It is a lie that you are alone, it's the devil's lie. Your stand means something and people will see that and be inspired to serve God as well. We just move on.
We respond to life in a positive way and keep moving forward. We let God direct us. Being agitated is not believing God. We calm down and to get our answer. We don't do this alone. Get excited. How is God getting you out of this one?
We need patience. If faith is never used, it will never grow. You will get the promise if you are patient. You will be in a better position to help people if you come through the storm. Don't take the pie out of the oven too soon by being anxious. If you need to know, ask God. It's a promise and It requires patience.
Patience means nothing wavering. The devil will challenge your faith. When you claim the promise, you are challenged. Resist by humbling yourself. No humility, no resistance. Look at the cross, not at your life. We all fall short. No condemnation. Stand and stay put on the word. Stay put to your confession.
The seed you planted will start growing. Don't retract your confession. Keep your mouth shut and quote the word. It is written. Don't be double minded, just resist the devil. God is faithful to you. He is stuck with you. Meanwhile you bear up under pressure. The sun will come up tomorrow.
1032 Roll Away Transcription
Everybody has a bad day. I talked to a guy, one time. He called me up and he said "I am having a bad life." I said "That's not a good thing, but if you are going to live in this world, that's what you're going to go through." I feel sorry for people who don't have the truth of God's Word. You can come to the church and be refreshed by the brothers and sisters. You can come and be loved and be held and be prayed for.
No wonder so many people turn to drugs and alcohol and stupid things in life. They want some comfort. They want some peace. But see, God knew many many years ago that this life was not going to be easy. And he gave us a way to handle the things that come up in this life. And one of the things that he gave us was the church. That's why it says in Hebrews that that we should not forsake ourselves, the assembling of ourselves together; because we need one another.
Psalm 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
God will never suffer the righteous to be moved; to be plucked out. Sometimes we bend and sometimes we get contorted, but we never get uprooted. See, but we have to cast the burden upon the Lord. Why? Because you don't want to carry life's burdens. Because I got news for you. Even the great Sampson himself was subdued by life's burdens, right?
Sure he was. He carried gates and he beat up people and did all kinds of remarkable things. But when it came to his relationship and the burden that that relationship brought into his life: it took him out. Why? Because he tried to carry it by himself. and he compromised.
We want to cast our burden upon the Lord. It doesn't matter if you're three days old in the Lord, or 300 days old in the in the Lord. It doesn't change. Don't try and go through this life yourself.
Psalm 32:6-7 6For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
7Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
Do you have any idea how blessed you are to live in this administration? God is still able be found! Where you can go to God; you can pray to God and he's able to be found. "Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve be from trouble; thou shalt compass me about songs of deliverance." Just like we heard this morning: the way, the truth, and the life. See? And when that phrase is used in the Bible. The article "the" is in the Greek text, and what that indicates is that there's no other way; that there's only one way. There is only one truth, and one life: that's Jesus Christ. That's way that's constructed in the Greek.
Psalm 37:23-25 23The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
24Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
25I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
In Psalm 37, see, you are never lost. That is a lie that the devil wants you to believe. You are never helpless. That is another lie that the devil wants you to believe. You are never at the end of your rope. That is also another lie that the devil wants you to believe. Jesus Christ came and he sacrificed his life on the cross of Calvary to get rid of those lies. But the devil still telling you those lies.
Your steps are ordered by the Lord; and he will continue to order your steps as long as you continue to seek him while he may be found. Don't seek the devil. Don't seek the circumstances. Don't seek the situation because that would just going to bring you down. Remember that God orders your steps.
The Lord upholdeth you with his hand. It's like being in quicksand. If you start squirming
around because you want to get out of it, what happens? You sink. You go down deeper, right? Until somebody comes along with a stick or with their hand. And they see the bubbles. "Hello", and they put their hand down there and move around. They move around and feel another hand and then what do they do? Pull you up. That's God, see?
And that's what we do when we try to figure it out. When we tried we got all the answers. You know what? It's the law of reversed effort. We just go down deeper and deeper and deeper. Though he fall he will not utterly be cast down: for the Lord upholdeth us with his hand.
I have been young and now I'm old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread. You know, that's what happens. You go through life. You do the best you can and sometimes things don't work out the way you think they should work out. See? So, what do you do? You just keep moving on.
And it's not that I have a cushy life. It's not that I was born wealthy, nor was I raised with a silver spoon, and never had anything to overcome. I was the one who found my son dead in his bed and had to tell my wife, see? But I am the one also, who teaches you what I must adhere to and what I must do.
And so, what did I do? What did my wife do? What did our family do? We steal our minds on the Word of God. We take comfort in that he was born again. We will see him perfectly, perfectly healed and whole the next time we see him. And we then continue to move forward with the truth. Because the great tragedy was not death. The great tragedy would've been to take us out.
That wasn't going to happen, see? Because if it did, you all wouldn't be sitting here. That's a greater tragedy. You have to see your life beyond just you, do you understand? You have to understand that your stand, your love, your commitment to God means something; and that people will see that. And that hopefully people will take that into their lives, and get on board, and start to help, and start to have a commitment to themselves and to God to do his Word.
To be able to take a tragic event such as that and turn it around and present it to people to give them hope; to show that it can be done; to show that, yes, we are not the Brady Bunch family. Things do happen. And they just go on. And we're just normal, just like you: and you can go on too, if you choose to stay your mind on God's word. And stop listening to the lies that the devil is telling you.
Jesus Christ saw Lazarus. He knew Lazarus was dead. Shoot. He said he was four days dead. So did his sister, right? Mary was it or Martha, one of them two. He knew it. When the apostle said, "He doeth well if he sleepeth." But then Jesus said plainly, "Lazarus is dead." He knew he was dead, But how did Jesus Christ choose to respond? In a positive way. That day he got to raise, or afterwards he got to raise Lazarus from the dead.
But when Jesus heard that John the Baptist was dead, he was sad. That was his cousin. What did he do? He kept moving on. Then the apostles heard that Judas was dead, what did they do? They were saddened but they kept moving on. You see? You must move on. You've got to continue to go forward.
Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Just let God show you where to go; but you got to use the word. The word will lighten your path. The word will show you where to go.
Isaiah 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
God will show you. He'll talk to you. But you see, the way the devil works is he gets you all agitated. He gets you all confused. And when you're agitated and you're confused, you can't hear God's voice. You see? And that's the state that he wants you in. You can't hear that still, quiet voice. That's why the Bible says you've got to let God keep you in peace; while you stay your mind on him.
Because when you don't have peace in your life, you're agitated. And the great cargoes of life come in over peaceful seas to quiet shores. No boat docks when there's a hurricane. You know what they do? They stay out and weather the storm and they wait till the waters calm down before they come in.
Are you looking for an answer to things in your life? You might need to just stay out in the deep a little bit and hold on and let things calm down. And then when things calm down, you'll get your answer. Everybody goes through trials and tribulations, but we have each other. The Bible says iron sharpeneth iron. So shall a friend sharpen the countenance of his friend. Don't try and do this alone.
You weren't meant to do this alone. If you weren't meant to do this alone, and you're trying to do this alone; the long and short of it is you are sinning. Why? Because Jesus Christ gave us a body. Jesus Christ gave us brothers and sisters to encourage to help us.
James 1:2-7 2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
Why be joyful? That's what the Scripture says. See, because his mindset was this. He's not happy that he's in the temptation, he's happy to see what God's going to do to get him out of it. Because nobody wants to hit themselves in the head with a hammer. They want to get the bump gone. How is God going to fix this?
The trying of your faith worketh patience. See, if your faith is never used, it's never going to grow; and you're never going to learn that sometimes you need to just stay still; be quiet; and let God answer your prayer. And if that doesn't happen in a day, or two days; do you know what you need? Patience. You have need of patience after that you have heard the Word of God, that you may receive the promise.
Sometimes that promise doesn't come right away. But I am here to tell you that I have experienced this over and over in life. And I'm here to tell you that every time that I was confronted with something that seemed like it was ohh, "the end of the road": I've applied these Scriptures and I have come through them. And I have become much stronger: and I have become acquainted with grief, hardship, and sorrow. And it has put me in a better position to help people.
It's like a recovering drug addict or a recovering alcoholic; someone who has recovered; someone who has been straight for years and years and years. And who says, "Look at what God has done for me." Same thing with life.
Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Let patience have her perfect work. Do you know what that means? Don't take the pie out of the oven too soon, right? Then it's not cooked and doesn't taste good. But if the recipe says 50 minutes, leave it in for 50 minutes. Don't take it out in ten, right? That's where patience comes in.
If any man lack wisdom, let him ask God, that giveth to all men liberally, and he upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. Do you know that's a promise to you? If you are in need of wisdom, the Bible promises that you can ask God. And not only that, the Bible says that God gives to how many men? All men. He's no respecter of persons.
See, he doesn't care about your ethnic background. He doesn't care about your academic education. If you ask God, he will give the PhD just as he will give the fourth-grade graduate wisdom. All you need to do is ask. And it says he will give how? liberally. He's not going to give you a drop: and he will give evenly, he will give liberally.
"Ask in faith, nothing wavering. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord." There's your patience: nothing wavering.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
We are to hold fast to our confession to receive the promise. Don't waver hold fast to it. See, you ask God "Let that that man ask in faith, nothing wavering." Now this is what's going to happen. You're going to be in a place one day where you're going to need wisdom, and you're going to have a talk with the father; and you're going to ask the father your question in faith and the next voice you're going to hear in your ear is the devil.
Do you know what he's going to say to you? He's going to say "Are you out of your mind? This situation's been this way for 30 years. What makes you think that God hears you? What makes you think that God's going to listen. What makes you think that you deserve this? Or, don't you remember how you lived? You think you're so righteous that you have the right to enter into the throne room of God and just ask?"
"Yes." That's what you have to say the Bible says. Don't invite the devil in your living room and give him a piece of cheesecake, right? No. It says what? "Resist the devil and he'll (what?) flee." Know what the verse before that says? "Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God." See, first you've got to humble yourself. No humble, no resistance. You try to resist the devil without humbling yourself and you're going get your teeth kicked down your throat. Humble yourself first, and then resist the devil. and he'll what? Flee.
He'll go. He will flee. The devil has never stayed in my life, in my home, in my circumstances ever, after I resisted him. Now, he hung around. He might have moved downstairs. Then he might have moved to the garage and finally got out, okay. But he has never stayed. You've got to resist him. Resist him because this is the promise of God. Resist the devil and he'll what? Flee. It doesn't say how long you've got resist him.
I don't know. How long as he dug into your life? How deep is he rooted? How long have you been going around witnessing for the devil? Do you know what it is to witness for the devil? It's to say what he wants you to say; how bad things are. How you can't get out of things. How you're a failure. How you amount to nothing. Look at your life. Don't look at your life.
Do me a favor. Do you want to get upset? Look at your life. Go look at the cross. Okay, look at Jesus. Don't look at your life. You're in bad shape. Look at your life in the future and what's in store, if you want to look at your life. We all fall short. We all miss the mark. But the Bible said there's no condemnation to us because were born again of God's spirit.
Jesus saved us from that. So you know what? Just pick up your shorts, brush your hair, and continue to walk on. That's how you do it. It's the only way to do it; or you will just quit. See, and that's not very good because if you pick up your shorts, and brush your hair, and walk on, I promise you - like I tell this to everybody that's in a bad situation. The sun will shine again.
I found myself telling myself that over and over again. I'd had to tell myself "the sun will shine again." And you know what? It did. Sometimes I'm so happy I've got to punch myself, because the sun shines again. And my wife, I've got to put a rope on her. She bounces around so happy sometimes, I am afraid she's going to fly away. But we had our boops and bops, right?
Bops is what the puppy gets. He got bopped on the head. Everybody gets bopped. Did you ever see a kid? They bop themselves. What happened? I bopped myself. Don't bop yourself. Kids bop themselves. Here we are grown adults and we're still bopping ourselves; saying we're bad; we're no good; we're failures. Go stop bopping yourself.
What happened? I got bopped on the head. Who did that? I did. Don't do that. Don't bop yourself. Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Hey, as soon as you ask, the devil's going to come in and tell you something different. Then you know what you've got to do? You do what every other Christian in the world had to do. Stand, say "no" right back. Do whatever you've got to do and stay put on the Word.
James 1:6-7 6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
"For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." That's it. He just wants to get you to doubt. he wants you to loosen up on that confession that you're supposed to hold onto; that you just made. Because you just planted that seed, and that seed's going to grow, because it's a law. And he knows that, so he's got to disrupt that seed. He got to uproot that seed because he knows that the gestation period of the seed isn't very long. Then it's going to start growing. Once it pops its little head through the ground. Guess what? It's going to grow and it's going to manifest in that promise and then he's gone. That's what happens.
"For let not that man think that he will receive anything of the Lord." You know why? Because he shoots himself in the foot. Because he retracts his confession by a negative confession. That's why it says "let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." Make up your mind and make your confession.
Now, you're going to get tempted. Do yourself a favor keep your stupid mouth shut. And don't start saying dumb things that the devil wants you to say. Just quote the Word. Back off! Listen. When Jesus Christ was tempted. This is the Lord now, right? What did he say? "It is written." Backed him down, right? Good advice. If it worked for him, Do you think might work for you? Sure, but who's got to speak the Word? You do. And before you speak the Word, you know what? You've got to think the word. And before you think the word, you know what? You've got to be in the Word. You've got to be in the Word.
James 1:6-8 6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
"A double minded man is unstable in (how many of his ways?) All." That goes to praying. That applies to believing. that applies to petitioning God. That's the context here, right? Asking God. So if you're going to be double minded: it's like this. Who digs a hole, puts a seed in it, covers it up, waters it, and goes to bed. Then comes out the next morning, digs a hole, takes the seed out, then looks at it. Are you ever going to grow plant if you do that? No. There is a word in the medical profession for people who do that: it's "cuckoo".
Nobody does that. If you what to plant a seed, what do you do? You plant it. You water it. And then what? You go away. You keep watering it. If you see the bird or you see the gopher digging a hole trying to get your seed, what do you do? You're after the gopher with a brick, right? "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." If you're going to say something, say it and then stick to it.
1 Peter 5:7-9 7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
There you go. Don't do it yourself! "Casting all your care upon him because he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Well, you just casted your care upon the Lord. Okay now this is what happened. The devil goes around and he looks for the string attached to that care. Why? Because sometimes you want to pull that care back, and if there's a string attached to that care, it's not cast upon him with faith.
And once the devil sees that string, do you know what that devil will do? He will go and he'll grab it. And he'll roar; and then people get afraid. And then that care that you just casted is not there any more. Doubt, worry, fear, unbelief destroys that faith. You don't have that confidence anymore. You don't have that conviction anymore. He's a "roaring lion that walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
And once again, what is the answer? "Whom resist. " That's as simple as it is. Sorry, it's not complicated. What you do again? "Resist in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." You not the only one. The same stuff's going on in China; It's going on in Germany. it's going on in England, and Peru.
1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Was there one special temptation that Jesus didn't accomplish? No. "There had NO temptation, Amen. "No temptation taken you but such as is common to man." Believe it or not. You are not in a special situation. Somewhere in the world at some period of time this has happened before, "But.." And I love that but, because "but" sets in contrast that which proceeds to that which follows. "God is faithful." And that's a lot of times what it boils down to.
We don't think that God can take care of our problem. We don't think God is faithful. We think God's whatever; but no, he's faithful. And you know who else is he faithful? He's faithful to you. We heard in manifestations this morning that he's stuck with you and you're stuck with him. That's faithful, right? "He will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able;"
It doesn't say he will never allow you to be tempted so you don't have a bad day, week, month or year. It says, "he will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able." You know the sad thing is this. Sometimes when you're going through something the answer is a week away or a month away. The devil never wants you to get to week or to that month. That's the way the devil works.
God will not "suffer you to be tempted above which you are able." So, in the meantime, you grit your teeth and you bear it. You bear up under pressure. Did the apostle Paul bear up under pressure? Did all the apostles bear up under pressure? Did they get thrown in jail? Did they get beat up? Did they get mocked? Did they get spit on? Did Stephen get killed?
You go read chapter 7 of the book of Acts and you'll see that Stephen gave an accurate history of the nation of Israel in their escape from Egypt all the way up; and you know what they did? Once he presented them the word? They killed him. That's a fine, how do you do. "But with the temptation also will make a way to escape, that you may be able to escape. You may get through to the next day. And the next day will come.
Remember that song? "There Has To Be A Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure? There'll be a morning after. You know it's hard sometimes, and you have an opportunity Sometimes we have physical things we have to deal with as we get older. Or we get mental things that the deal with as we get older. And that's us; and then you go throw couple kids into the mix: you'll want to go nuts? And then you got a dog or a cat.
We watched America's funniest animal videos last night, right? This is the truth, I swear. One of the segments was "10 Ways You Know That Your Cat Wants to Kill You". And they showed these psycho cats, demons from hell, and they took 10 separate clips that people send in: people that actually live with these creatures. The one cat wouldn't let the guy out of the bathroom. And he's being very diplomatic, he's saying and he goes like this and the cat goes "grrr"; then he backs him into the bathroom again. He tries to get up, and it's just a little hallway and he says "If you don't let me out of the bathroom, I can't get into the rest of the house." And the cats going "grrr". The one cat was on the table. He was on the chair. There is a knife on the table. So they are dubbing over the cat saying "give me the knife, give me the knife". And the cat's reaching for the knife.
Listen. "There hath no temptation taken you" even if you have a cat, "but such as common to man: that God" I'm getting devil eyes from the back row from a cat lover. "But God with the temptation will make a way for you to bear it so you can escape." See? But what you have to do is you have to seek the Lord. You have to cast your burden upon him knowing that he cares for you. You have to realize that God is faithful and that you have to realize that you are stuck with him and he is stuck with you.
1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
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