Sound the Alarm 3

In His Presence....

...There is fulness of joy and that joy becomes strength. That statement is powerful and I really wanted to share it with whoever was willing to listen. Joy isn't the same thing as happiness. Happiness is ephemeral, fleeting. One sentence can take it away but joy is everlasting. That is not to say once you are joyful nothing bad will ever get in your way. It isn't to say that everything will be rainbows, candy and roses. It is to say that when you have joy, although you get knocked on your butt, you can stand up and still be as confident as you were before.

Unlike my other posts, this one is not about the words of Todd White. It is instead about George Sotolongo, who drops hard truth in a short amount of time.

I mentioned it a bit in my previous post, but God will gladly satisfy His people. James 1:5 says that God gives liberally, without restraint and we do not have to fear punishment for asking. However, we must be truly hungry for God and then He will satisfy you. Why? I'm glad you asked. Because when you're full of God you won't take the desserts the devil offers. His children must be hungry for His presence. When we are hungry we will be delivered. Note: deliverance is temporary but freedom is eternal. I just want to point out that people get delivered all of the time. They get healed from ailments and go on living the life they did before. They are freed from stress or other bonds and keep it moving just like those that never came back to Jesus after their healing. When someone has been freed it means that they are no longer a slave to those mindsets, actions and any other craziness they once experienced. Freedom means never returning to it again. And how do we become free? By eating a full helping of truth. (That was free, I won't even charge you for it) And for that truth to be filling we have to be righteous. Guess what? Without a relationship with Him you can't be righteous.

George preached out of James 12:12-13. This scripture points out that mercy triumphs judgement, which is cause for a praise break in and of itself. Mercy will always beat judgement and judgement is harsher for those who show no mercy for others. 

There is so much more I want to say, I love talking about Christ with my peers. I love talking about relationship but I am running out of space. I'll try and break down some of what George said as best as I can and if you guys have questions for me, leave a comment. So George spoke on how important it is for us to be able to approach Him. That makes sense because you can't have a relationship with someone you are to afraid to talk to. But in order to approach Him we have to know His character. We have to know how wonderful and gracious He is but also how He is a jealous God. But there is something that is amazing about the God we serve.

Mercy Alone Can Set Us Free

To obtain mercy we just have to come boldly to the throne. I know it can be hard to be bold it is what I struggled with until last year actually but if you ask God for heavenly boldness and truly mean it, He'll give it to you. Many Christians, no matter the age need help and encouragement to be more bold and willing to step out on faith for Christ's sake. Anyway, mercy is a powerful force but it is not the same thing as grace. Grace is giving a person something they do not deserve. Mercy is withholding something we do deserve because He loves us just that much! Isn't that amazing? When he brought it up I immediately thought of Mercy Said No by CeCe Winans. The power of mercy enables us to walk righteously. It makes us want to live better just because we are sick and tired of the close calls and near disasters. Mercy upholds the truth but softens the blow so that we can and will approach the I AM.

People feel condemnation over their past sins but all condemnation is is a lack of the recognition of God's mercy. When we truly understand God's mercy we don't have to feel condemned. Mercy takes judgement from us. Self-hatred is a lack of revelation of God's mercy, love and truth, it is a lack of knowing who you are. And as I have said many times before, we have to be secure in our identities. Luckily, George pointed out that no one can ever exhaust or extinguish the mercy of God. That is no excuse to purposefully sin, though! Mercy takes judgement from us, we do not need to be performance driven Christians thinking that if we just do enough good we'll land a nice mansion in heaven. I am not what I do and you are not what you do. It all goes back to identity. We have to break the mentality of a performance driven life. We don't have to put on a show for God to love and be proud of us. Isn't that amazing? We have mercy!

There was a lot more that went on at the conference but if you want to know about it, then I guess you'll have to go next year.