There was a wedding ring in the offering bag.
Do you know that story?
Years ago, back before we started television, I was a guest speaker in Albania. The Lord had told me to share the principles of His Kingdom with the nations, so there I was in Albania.
Now, Albania is a very poor nation, so I had absolutely no plans to take an offering while I was there. I was the guy that gave the money, not the one who accepted money. But God spoke to me that evening and told me to take an offering so the people would have an opportunity to respond to what they had been taught.
So, I was obedient; I took the offering, and the Spirit of God fell in that place and there was an anointing there like I had never seen before.
Later, when the leader emptied the offering bag, there in the pile was a wedding ring.
It was a powerful message from the Lord. He clearly told me that the ring represented the covenant that I was to teach people about.
He said, Let this ring be a remembrance to you Gary.
Now, I wish I could tell you that getting that ring and that word from God “sealed the deal” for my faith—that I never, ever, ever struggled again with staying in faith. But I can't.
See, Drenda and I are walking this faith journey out just like you are.
We’re in this together. We face the same kinds of situations you do.And sometimes those situations take more courage than faith.
When we first started television in 2005, we were only on once per week. Our bills were doable. Of course, television bills only get higher every year, especially if you make the switch from weekly broadcasts to daily broadcasts, which we did.
That basically meant that our television bill more than doubled overnight.
We got about six months into doing daily television and things weren’t going as well as I had hoped; in fact, the situation was downright difficult and not getting any better.
That’s when I stepped out of faith.
I just couldn’t see a way out of the difficulties. I had let the situation fog my mind.
When you step out of faith and get a foggy mind, you stop taking territory and start looking for ways to take a step back.That’s what I did.
I let the situation fog my mind. My perspective was off. I even started to think, Maybe we should just go back to weekly television.
The fog of fear and unbelief was distorting my perspective. Much like the captain of a ship can’t get his bearings in the fog, I had lost my reference point.
I knew what God had said, but I had let the voice of the situation become louder than His voice.Is that you? Have you let a situation in your life fog your mind?Have you let the voice of a situation become louder than the voice of God?
Because that’s exactly what the enemy wants. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy (1 Peter 5:8), and he starts by distorting things to get you in a fog.
He wants you to stop taking territory. He wants to stop you; he wants your mind foggy and your perspective to be off so you can’t be effective.
It’s time to snap out of it!
You can move forward in the face of fear.Don’t just sit on the sidelines wondering what’s going to happen.
Don’t let the enemy get on your case or put you in fear—
YOU PUT FEAR IN HIM!_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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