Possessing Our Destiny – Part 9 Lawson Perdue

I know.

I know.

That my father God loves me.

That my father God loves me

And he always takes care of me.

And he always takes care of me.

In grand style.

In grand style.

Amen. You see, the fact is God wants to bless you so much, hallelujah, that he makes you an advertisement of how he treats his kid. I mean, that don’t matter whether you’re driving a Toyota truck, or a Ford truck, or a Corvette. Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’re with us. We have a great program today where we’re going in the first half of the program and sharing about possessing our destiny through our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Then in the last half of the broadcast, we have a powerful testimony from a woman who has recently come to our church and how it’s ministered to her through the grace of God and the Holy Spirit. Blessings. You already got it. You already see it. You’re already convicted of the reality of something that you don’t see in the outward realm before it actually comes to pass. And a lot of people are talking about faith but they’re not really operating in it. There’s a difference in talking about faith and operating in it. So you have the exact same faith with Jesus, but if you turn it loose, it’ll take you places. Whoo, glory. Hey, I set out believing some things when I was a young man. And I’m believing some things today. In fact, I’m believing today for far more than I’ve ever believed God for in my entire life. I am believing God. Amen. Now, I get challenged now and again, but I gotta rearrange my brain and keep praying in the Holy Ghost and keep moving forward in what God has for me. Trust in the Lord, for verily, you will dwell in the land and be fed. “Delight.” Look at verse four. The second word, “trust,” number one. Two, “delight.” “Delight yourself also in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Did you know God works with your desire? Now, I’m not talking about the desire of your flesh. I’m not talking about the desire of the outward man. Ephesians 2:1-3, or verse four, talk about the outward man, his desire before you were saved. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the desire of your spiritual man. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding. You take pleasure in him. You delight yourself in the Lord. I love this verse in John 15:7. Two requirements to get every prayer answered. “If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you’ll ask whatever you want.” How many times Jesus come to people and they say, “Lord,” he say, “what do you want according to your faith?” Right? “What do you want?” “What do you want?” I’m not talking about your flesh, I’m talking about in your spirit. See, some people are afraid to sell out to God ’cause some people think, “Hey, if I sell out to God, I’m gonna have to go to some third world country.” And you know what? If you sell out to God and he takes you to a third world country to do something for him, you’re gonna be so excited about it. Hallelujah. Amen. Praise God. “Delight yourself in the Lord and he’ll give you the desire of your spirit man.” Hallelujah. He works with your desire. He works on… Delight yourself. Take pleasure in him. The Lord takes pleasure in you. Delight yourself. Now, look at the next word in verse three. “Commit your way unto the Lord. Trust him also, and he’ll bring it to pass.” Commit. Commit. Do you know what it means to be totally committed to God? Totally committed. I’m not talking about being half-hearted. I’m talking about completely committed to Jesus. See, Proverbs 16:3, I love this verse. It says, “Commit your way unto the Lord and your thoughts will be established.” Man, if you’ll sell out to God, you’ll begin to think the right thoughts. Commit your way. Your thoughts will be established. You know, when I was like 16, 17 years old, my grandparents came to me and they said, “We will give you this ranch. We’ll give you all the livestock. We’ll give you all the machinery. We’ll give you…” It was a big gift at that time. Well over a million dollars. “One condition, you have to run it.” I said, “Listen, I’m called to preach the gospel. I can’t commit to that because I don’t know what God’s gonna give to me.” Guess what? When I was 17 years old, I was totally committed to Jesus. Amen? A few years later, we left. We went to Bible school. Aaron was just a little boy. Praise God. We totally committed to Jesus. We started our first church. “God, where do you want us to go? What do you want us to do?” “Go here, do this.” We got confirmation. We did it. Right? And then, you know, before we came here, “God, wherever you want us to go, whatever you want us to do.” When we started here, listen, at first, it was very difficult. Very difficult. And I remember walking by one of these pet stores. And they had a job. You could work the graveyard shift carrying dog food for $9 an hour. And I said, “God, if I need to do that, I’ll do it.” You realize I wasn’t taking finances from this church. Now, the Carson Church supported me for three months for a certain amount, and then nine months for a little bit beyond that. But it was very difficult. And I thought, “You know what? If I have to do this, I’ll take a job carrying dog food, but my family is not gonna lack because I followed God.” Now, I never had to take a job carrying dog food. God completely took care of us. God completely, you know, provided for us. In fact, you need to say this with me. Say, I know.

I know.

That my father God loves me.

That my father God loves me.

And he always takes care of me.

Always takes care.

In grand style.

In grand style.

Now, say it again. I know that my father God loves me.

That my father God loves me.

And he always takes care of me.

And he always takes care of me.

In grand style.

In grand style.

Quit talking like a poor victim. It’s gonna be hard for you. In fact, you will never operate in the victory and the provision and the blessing that God has for you as long as you keep talking like a poor victim. So quit talking like a victim. Say it again with me.

I know.

I know.

That my father God loves me.

That my father God loves me.

And he always takes care of me.

And he always takes care of me.

In grand style.

In grand style. Amen. You see, the fact is God wants to bless you so much, hallelujah, that he makes you an advertisement of how he treats his kid. I mean, that don’t matter whether you’re driving a Toyota truck, or a Ford truck, or a Corvette, or a Lexus. Glory to God. I’m using an example from men’s fellowship. Hallelujah. That’s all right with Jesus. Praise God? Amen? You know, I had a friend one time and he was trying to start a church in Chicago. And he sent me a tape ’cause he is going on the radio, and he’s preaching about all those people and putting ’em down for driving a Lexus and Mercedes. I thought, “Man, you need a few of those folks in your church.” Man, if you’re gonna do anything in Chicago, it’s gonna cost you $10 million. I mean, it costs money. Hallelujah. So don’t put down what you need. Amen, glory to God. Change your brain and renew your mind and realize that God wants to bless you and help you. Hallelujah. But when you commit your way to the Lord, your thoughts will be established. God will begin to give you his thoughts. Whoo, and his thoughts are good. Amen, then he says this. Verse six, “And he will bring forth your righteousness as the light in your judgment as the noon day.” Then the fourth word I want you to see is right here in verse seven, rest. Everybody say rest.

Rest.

“Rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for him.” I like to say Pastor Lawson, ’cause this is a word for me. “Fret not yourself because of him who prosperous,” and he’s talking about wicked people. “In his way because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.” Some people are just wicked. Amen? And some of ’em born again, and they’re still wicked. Okay? I’m not talking about in the spirit. I’m telling they need to renew their mind. But rest in… Rest. Everybody say rest.

Rest. That’s a big word. You know, the hardest work you’ll ever do as a believer is rest. I preach a series on this one time and God told me, “Lawson, go on a vacation.” Hallelujah. “Go on a vacation. Chill out. Chill out, Pastor Lawson. Rest, relax. I got it.” Turn to this chapter, Hebrews 4:9-11. We’ll read these three verses. “There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest.” What’s that talking about? It’s talking about we who’ve entered into the finished works of Jesus, the rest of Jesus. Jesus said three beautiful words in John 19:30. He said, “It is finished.” Your forgiveness was finished. Your healing was finished. Your peace was finished. Your freedom was finished. Your provision was finished. “He that is entered into his works, he is also ceased from his own works.” It’s not through our own striving, it’s not through our own great wisdom or ability or our own strength. He has ceased from his own works as God did from us. His. “Let us labor,” verse 11, “therefore.” “The hardest work that you’ll ever do as a believer is to rest.” “Let us labor to enter into that rest. Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Desire. God works with your desire. I love those four words. Trust, delight, commit, and rest. But he also works with direction. Turn with me to Colossians chapter three. This is where Barbara took off. After this, I’m gonna start just before her. In verse 15. It says, “Let the peace of God rule in your heart to which you’re also called in one body, and be thankful.” Let the peace of God rule. Let the peace of God act as an umpire in your heart. Let the peace of God call the shots. I love Isaiah 26:3. “You will keep him in perfect peace because his mind, his state, his mind is fixed. His mind is focused on you.” If you’re losing your peace, you’ve taken your eyes off Jesus, and you’ve got your eyes on something else. You will keep him in complete peace whose mind is fixed on you because he trusts in you. I like to give this counsel. If you’re married, right, and your spouse is born again and you’re born again, especially if you’re both born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. If you have a question about a major decision, if you both have peace… Now, I’m not talking about twisting each other’s arm, getting the other one to agree with you. I’m talking about if you independently both really have peace on the inside of you, I believe over 90% of the time, when you make a decision and you both really have peace about it, did you know what? God’s in that. Let the peace of God rule. “Let the word of Christ,” look at the next verse in verse 16. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Let the word give you wisdom. Do what the word says.” Peter, my son, after he graduated from Princeton, they moved to Southern California where Peter started out managing like 280 stores. Burger King. Kendra was working with her legal company there. But Peter was at a large evangelical church and he was running a small group of young people. He said, “Daddy, it’s amazing how many people call themselves Christians, and number one, don’t know what the word says. But number two, they don’t do it. If the word says it, do it.” Now, I wanna leave you with one verse today before I stop, and I have prayed this verse and I have seen amazing things happen in my life. It’s from the Book of Job. Job 23:14 says this. It says, “For he performs the things that are appointed for me, and many such things are with him.” Everybody say, for he performs.

For he performs.

The things.

The things.

That are appointed for me.

That are appointed for me.

And many such things are with him. Do you know I took that scripture for a period of time? I prayed it probably every day for at least six months. And it’s amazing what I begin to see God accomplish and the direction that I receive from God during that time. So if you’ll take the scripture and pray it, I believe there’s power. Amen? And I believe it will help you get where God wants you to go and do what God wants you to do. Amen? The Bible says this in I Thessalonians 5:25. “Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.” Do you know if God’s called you to do something, he’s given you what it takes to get the job done? Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been watching today. We’ve been sharing on possessing our destiny. We have a lot more of this teaching available. It’s on our website, it’s free of charge. Downloadable audio, downloadable video. So go there to our website at CharisChristianCenter.com and take advantage of this and many other teachings. Blessings. Sometimes you think, “Well, now that I’m believing God, I’m not gonna have these difficulties, I’m not gonna have these problems.” He said immediately after, you know, the light turned on, when the word is sown in their heart, the enemy comes to steal the word. Satan is an enemy of the word. Remain bold in your confession of faith.

I had become a Christian and a believer in college. There was so much I didn’t know. So got plugged in, got some good foundation there and good understanding, but I wanted more. First church I got involved with was in California, which is where I grew up. I was there for probably 10 or 15 years. Very God-centered, not so much about Jesus. Just kind of fell away from that church when we had just a series of different ministers that came in that I just lost interest because it didn’t grab me. Suzanne and I do a lot of things together. We’re very close. So we were really… She was really the impetus for some change in my life I didn’t know I was looking. But, boy, when I found what I was looking for, it was really pretty clear that I was being led here.

Sherry and I were invited to a conference. And so we both went going to encourage our niece, ’cause our niece had asthma, and we were thinking this would be a great place to go maybe to see some healing. We were sitting back there, and all of a sudden, she says, “There’s somebody in the audience that has a kidney issue.” And I’m like, “Yeah, not me.” Keeps asking, so I obeyed. And I went down and she said, “Well, first we need to deal with your knee.” I’m like, “How does she know about my knee? She called me down from my kidney, and I had an injured knee, and she pointed to the exact knee.” She, you know, prays over me. I receive this kneecap. And then once I received a kidney, I flew back, like, six feet. I don’t know how far back, and a person caught me. And when I got up and went back, Sherry’s and I are going, “What just happened?” And we’ve never seen a healing before, and that was the beginning. Our niece told us about, she goes, “You’ve gotta be in a spirit-filled church.” She is in a spirit-filled church, and she knew. And I go, “Oh, it’s okay. I can continue going.” “I want you to start looking into other churches.” So she found Charis Christian Center. She is the one we can thank. And oh my goodness, we’re just so blessed that it was our niece. The first time we’d come to this church was spring of 2021, not that long ago. I mean, we’re really new. And so we got to meet Lawson there. We just were so blown away with what we saw. People being healed. A woman in a wheelchair stands up and starts walking-

And running.

She was in braces and we’re going…

“Whoa!”

This is new. We’ve seen this. It’s scriptural. We’ve just not seen this before. And so we were just so overwhelmed with joy and excitement in just being a part of this congregation. And I was just thinking, “Lord, is this where you want me?” And I just started seeking him and he said yes. So I began to pray, “Lord, I’d really love to meet other people.” That very Sunday I prayed that, there was a woman I used to teach with who was at that service. And we got talking, and God just started opening the door. And he also just prompted me to reach out. You know, don’t just wait for people to approach you. Start approaching other people and find out their story. And I would say, boy, it wasn’t very long after that prayer, we got into a community of being with some other women that we now do Bible study with, pray with. Oh my goodness, you can text them any time. And many of them come to Flourish and we gather there, but, yeah, it’s a wonderful body of believers.

One thing I really like about Flourish besides just the comradery and the different ages, at the end, we all at our table can take prayer requests and pray for each other, which we do, and share our stories, and then come back the next week and find out what happened. You know, it’s our kind of building those relationships with new people. Some of them are new people coming in, or they’re new to me. I’m pretty new myself. But I love that. To me, that community is really important.

Really important. For instance, I just had a brother-in-law who went into a coma and he had to be flown from Salida to Colorado Springs, and I asked this group of women to please gather around me and pray. My goodness, that prayer was answered in amazing way. This man who wasn’t even expected to come out of the coma, had no response for five days, and then these women all gathered with me and we prayed. Oh, we prayed in tongues for a little while, which is something I had never done before, and now do. Prayed in tongues first and seeking the Holy Spirit first, and seeking him and seeking the Lord to, you know, work through us, so we know how to pray. And these are all new things for me, you know? What I had been praying is, I had heard, and I think it was Lawson who had said this, sometimes to just imagine what it is you are praying for. So I imagined that this brother-in-law was gonna be like Lazarus walking out of the tomb. And he was gonna walk out and he was gonna have all his faculties, and we did this together. And then to come back and tell them, “Guess what, you guys, not only did he wake up, but the songs we sang over him, he woke up singing.” The doctors didn’t even expect him to come out. They were wanting to do an MRI and see if there was any brain activity because it had been so long. But he came out of this coma. And not only did he come out, but he sang “How Great Thou Art,” and he knew every single word. And he knew who we all were, my family. So that’s… Our family, I don’t think, has ever seen a miracle like this.

Every day, actually, I start my day in prayer and I ask Jesus to walk with me and show me today, “What are we doing today?” I feel like I have that partner. But the other thing that I have noticed is authority to call out sickness, to ask the enemy to leave. I mean, I just feel like I’m a daughter of the king now. I feel like I have authority. And I didn’t have that before. I would pray before, but I didn’t have that. I didn’t… Maybe it was that I feel like I have Jesus on my side, and that I can ask for things and I can praise him every day for all the gifts I’ve already received. I know where they’ve come from.

Hallelujah. If you wanna know who God is, you don’t have to look any farther than Jesus. Why do we know that it’s God’s will to heal? Because it says 14 times in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the book of Acts, that Jesus healed them all. They brought every sick person, they brought everyone with every kind of disease, and he healed them all. He healed them, everyone. He healed them of every kind of disease. Jesus came to put a face on God, and we know it’s God’s will to heal because Jesus represented-

The sermons are so rich. I’m taking notes rapidly. I have notebooks and notebooks filled with them because there’s so much scripture and there’s so much depth to what’s being taught here.

I’m really anxious and eager to learn more about the Bible. And I really like going to hear Aaron on Wednesdays. I love how he delves into scriptures and really wraps his mind around it. He really ponders it. He thinks about it. He doesn’t have all the answers. He’s always seeking the answers. In fact, we love all four pastors.

Each has a different kind of calling on their life, I feel. I’ve asked God, “I wanted more understanding,” and I’m getting that here. I’m being filled. I don’t leave going, “Huh, what was I supposed to get out of the message today?” I mean, it’s clear. And I appreciate that I’m around people who embrace it, and I love, like Sherry said, we have friends that are a little bit older than us that can speak truth into that and give us some guidance and I have all these mentors. It’s wonderful. I really appreciate that there’s a lot of growth, and it’s happening really fast. I feel like I’m on a fast track with the Lord. He’s like, “I gotta get you ready.” I don’t know if we’re getting ready for the end of time or what, but he’s got me on a real fast track, and a lot of change happening rapidly. So I’m very grateful to feel like I’m surrounded by all these cheerleaders and people that support us. And it’s… Yeah, really blessed.

To understand your destiny, you must first know your creator. In order to step into the good plans that God has for you, it is essential to have a relationship with Jesus. You’re not here by accident. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of “Possessing our Destiny,” a $20 value free of charge. You can download your copy today by going to CharisChristianCenter.com

Friends, I’m Pastor Lawson Perdue from Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And we are celebrating 23 years of the grace of God, the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God. At our anniversary service, my friend and mentor, Andrew Wommack, will be teaching here at the church. We’d love to have you at Charis Christian Center for our 23rd anniversary celebration. Blessings. Friend, I invite you to pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that he died for my sins and you raised him from the dead on the third day and made him Lord. And right now I surrender my life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Thanks for watching “Grace for Today.” This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000. Or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/Give. You can write us at P.O. Box 63733 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today.”