Desires & Fasting.

Excited to continue in our series today on the deeply formed life, where we have been looking at what does it look like for us as followers of Jesus to be formed into his likeness. And today we are talking about deeply formed desires. It's going to be a good Sunday. The desires, deeply formed desires. What does it look like for us to be people that take control over the desires of our hearts and are formed into the likeness of Jesus.

So we're going to be reading through Romans chapter eight. And I'm going to define what I mean by desires. We're going to get into that today. But the best place to start is in the word of God for our framework on what do we mean when we're talking about desires of the flesh.

Romans 8:1 says:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might fully be met in us, might fully be met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of the sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your Spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you.

Romans 8:1-11

Verse 12 says:

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful nature to live accordance to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons, and I'm going to add daughters in this translation, of God. For you do not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you receive the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 8:12-17

Let's pray today. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. Your word that is alive, your word that is active, your word that is speaking to us. We thank you that we don't have to wonder or question if you're speaking, for we can open your word. And as we just heard today, that you are speaking to us. And so God, I just pray, would you open up our ears to hear.

Would you in these moments help us to just set aside anything that may be a barrier, any walls that we have up, anything that might be keeping us from being open to hearing what you have to say. God, we surrender to what you want to do because we know that we need you. We want to live that resurrected life. And so would you come, would you speak, would you show us what that looks like today. We love you, Lord. We ask this in your name. Amen.

The desires of our flesh

So it's a long chunk of scripture, but a very important chunk of scripture. We're talking about what does it look like for us to put to death the desires of our flesh, the things that lead us to destruction, and what does it look like for us to walk in the life that Jesus intended us to walk in when we choose to follow him and recognizing that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is alive in us.

But there is this reality. We have desires. We are born into these human bodies. We are born into skin and bones and flesh, and there's things that we crave and we desire that are of the flesh. And so what do we do with that. And today, that's what we're going to talk about.

I wanted to play a video quickly for you of my sister-in-law's sister. She says, every time my body says that I have to eat chocolate, your body's telling you that you have to have chocolate. Every time it does. Can anyone relate to that today. Like every time. It's like every time my body just says I have to have chocolate. Or if you don't like chocolate, it's something else, right. But it's like I have to have it. I love that video so much. It's become a classic that we just refer to from time to time again. I'm just like my body just needs it. It needs it.

It also made me think of the candy test videos where parents set out a little bowl of candy and they tell kids, okay, I'm going to leave for two minutes. Now don't eat any. And then they film them to see the reactions. You see that and you're like, that's so foolish to just put the thing that you're not supposed to have right in front of you. And these poor kids, they're not choosing to do it. They're being tormented by their parents.

But how often do we do that to ourselves. We're like the very thing that we're like, I know I shouldn't go near. I know it's not good for me. But I'm just going to come like really close and really close to it.

Today, we're talking about desires. And our so what is this. You can change. You can change. We talk a lot about spiritual formation here at New Culture, the culture of Christ, his patterns, customs, beliefs, following him in that way because that is how we change. And our now what is get up and walk. You see, Jesus, all throughout scripture, and we read about it in Romans 8, we're reminded that Christ came and died to pay the price for our sins so that we can get up and walk with him in new life. Yet so many of us get stuck because we have this belief that we really can't change. That we're always going to be this way. So hear me from the beginning of this message today. That wherever you're at right now in this moment, you can change. And we have an invitation to walk in that new identity.

I want to define desires a little bit in the way that we're talking about it here in Romans because I think desires can have a lot of meaning for us, but this word is translated back to animal nature, a physical nature of men and women that's subject to suffering. So that leads to suffering. And it's something that leads to depravity and destruction. So that's how this word here, desires, is translated. So like, I know I played the video about chocolate, right. But it's more than that here. It's more than just like desiring chocolate or sweets or something like that. But it's things that lead to destruction, this animal nature.

So essentially, desires that we're talking about today are things that lead to sin and fulfilling our flesh, not just the spirit. You know, I shared this story, one of the stories that we see this kind of happen is in Genesis 13, in verses 12 through 13, there's a story of Abraham and Lot, and this is right after they're parting ways. So Lot is Abraham's nephew, and they're parting ways. And it says here in Scripture:

Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom. The men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

Genesis 13:12-13

Now, I find it so fascinating here that Lot pitched his tent, not in Sodom, but near Sodom. How often do we do that in our lives. Where we're like, well, I'm not going to like fully go into Sodom because I know it's wicked. People know it's wicked. What are they going to think of me if they see me in the city. If they see me doing the wicked things. I'm not going to go all the way but I'm going to pitch my tent. That means he pitched his tent. He stayed near the wickedness, near the things that were going to lead to destruction.

Today I wonder what are we pitching our tents near. What are the things that we're so close to but then we're putting in all these excuses of like, well it's not all the way. But in the end, it's not leading us closer to the likeness of Jesus.

Reframing the question

When it comes to questions and talking about desires of the flesh, I get asked often as a pastor, a lot of things of, Abbie, is fill in the blank a sin. Is this a sin. I really hate that question. And one example that I get a lot, right, is people will say like, is drinking alcohol a sin. And I hate that question. And it's not because I don't think that there's clear things in scripture that God has laid out to say like, this is sinful. This isn't good for you. But because I think we're asking the wrong question when we ask that.

Because when we're asking that thing, usually we're looking for like, how close can I get. Right, how close can I pitch my tent before I'm actually sinning and not living in the way that God wants me. But the better questions, and if you're taking notes today, I want you to think about this and write this down. The better question is not, is this a sin. But it's to ask, who am I becoming when I do this. Who am I becoming when I do this.

When I do fill in the blank, am I becoming like Jesus. Another good question or a better question is, in this moment, am I setting myself up for success. Am I setting myself up for success. And the third good question to ask is, when I'm doing fill in the blank, am I also living fully surrendered to Jesus in his way in this moment. Who am I becoming when I do this. Am I setting myself up for success, success being more like Jesus and becoming like him. And when I'm doing this, am I able to also still live fully surrendered to the Lord.

Are we setting ourselves up for success or are we pitching our tents near wickedness.

Identity and desires

Now, we all have these desires. Like, that's something that we just have. And I want to talk about two different ways that we can choose to live. And the first one is this. We can choose to say, and many of us, this is how we live today, is we say, I have these desires, and because of these desires, now I believe all of these things are okay. Like we justify it, right. We say, okay, this is the way I'm going to live. And then we act based on those beliefs, the things that we're believing to fulfill our desires, and now we start to identify that way. So all of a sudden, what started is just like, I have this desire to do these things. We've now started to justify all these beliefs and we act upon it. And then now we identify as I am this. This is who I am. My identity is based and founded in how I've acted. Of how people know me based on my actions that came from the beliefs that I justified that started with a desire that may or may not have been from the Lord.

But here's what I want you to hear. Is we have these desires and we look for ways to fulfill them because some of the desires start out as, I want to be happy. Like I want companionship. I want to experience intimacy. I want to experience acceptance. I just want to have fun and experience joy. And so we have these desires that might not be the worst, but then they become corrupt when our flesh starts to take over. And now all of a sudden we start acting out in ways to fulfill them that are never going to actually fulfill them the way that Jesus only can.

And we act on them. So we think, okay, it's just going to be one more drink or one more thing or one more lie. And we just keep going and going and going until all of a sudden we start to identify and it's I am blank. But here's what I want you to see is in Romans, Paul is reminding us that therefore, brothers and sisters, we have no obligation, but it's not to the sinful nature to live according to it. We have no obligation anymore. When we choose to say yes to follow Jesus, to live according to our sinful nature, but rather now we have a new identity.

And this is where things shift for us. We now identify as a child of God. We say, this is who I am. I am a child of God. I am made new. I am whole. I am complete. And so because of that, I am going to act like that. I'm going to act like a child of God. And I'm going to believe it. I'm going to have faith and confidence. I'm going to be someone who's kind and forgiving and compassionate and pursues justice and mercy. I'm going to be holy, set apart. I'm not going to live like other people around me because I am a child of God.

And here's what I want you to catch at the end. The desires may or may not change. The desires may or may not change. You see, there's things in our life that they may always be things that our flesh desire. But the difference is when we are not living as a child of God, then we identify based on our desires. But when we live in our identity as a child of God, we live as a child of God regardless of our desires. Regardless what we want in that moment. We live as a child of God all places, always, always. And there's things like this that are hard when you think your desires may or may not change.

And part of that comes back from that corruption of desires too, of what is it that you're really longing for when you're fulfilling it in a sinful way. What is it that you're really looking for to be fulfilled. And I want to go back into verse one here, where it says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I want to talk about that word condemnation for just a second. This comes from the Greek word katakrima. And this is when the word condemnation here is translated back to that word that means something closer to punishment following a sentence or in other words a penal servitude. And so it's a punishment that was following a sentence. So essentially that would be something of like if you were arrested today for something and then now you have to serve and you have to pay the price for your punishment. And so there's no condemnation means there's no reason for you to keep doing that. There's no reason for you to keep living as if you're captive when you have been set free. There's no reason. There's no condemnation.

So then, why is it that we still live this way. Why is it that more times than not, we're identifying based on our desires, and we're not living out of a place of our identity as a child of God. Why are we not living this way.

Healing and surrender

I make it a habit to go back throughout different journals in my life and if you don't keep even just a small prayer journal I highly encourage you to. Some years of my life I'm like super dramatic and it's like pages and pages of like wow, she cried a lot during those years. And other times I was like, oh she must have actually been doing something with her life because it's like you know once a week there's like two or three quick little entries. And trying to find like a healthy balance in my life.

But there was one journal entry that I read back, and I remember this time in my life so, so well. And it came up because my younger brother recently shared with me that he has really, like, traumatizing memories growing up sharing a wall with his sister who just cried all the time. I was like, I'm so sorry. He's like, yeah, I just remember, like, for years of your life, you were just crying. I was like, that's so sad that you had to hear that. I'm so sorry.

But I remember there was a time in my life where I was not well. I didn't like the way that I felt. I was unhappy. I was insecure. I was fearful of the future. I was lonely. I was longing for more. I was not living though at that time fully surrendered to Jesus. I was going to church. I would occasionally read my Bible. I was doing the things but yet there were also things in my life that would be like the textbook, don't do that. That's not pleasing to the Lord. Things that were happening that were separating me from God. And I got to the point where I knew that things had to change in my life.

But I wrote this in my journal. I said, Lord, I know that this is wrong. I know this isn't pleasing to you. But I want this more. Will you forgive me. I want this more.

Can I ask you today what are the things that if you're honest it's not changing and you're not seeing the breakthrough and the freedom and the healing and the deliverance that you want. Because if you're honest with yourself there's something else that you want more. See, the answer in that moment it really wasn't Jesus. I knew the Lord and I knew what was possible but I was so comfortable and familiar with the way that I was living, even though it wasn't pleasing to him, that I thought, well, it's better for me to stay here than to step out and surrender into the unknown.

What do you desire today. How are you fulfilling that. What do you want more. Is it healing. Is it freedom. Is it to really not be the same. Because the good news today is you can change. But with that comes an invitation. Jesus, he said, I already died on the cross. I paid the price for your sins. You are free. You are redeemed. You are restored. You are whole. Walk like it. Live like it. Take on that new identity. Get up and walk.

There's a story that really struck me this week as I was praying and preparing for this. And it's the story of the healing at the pool of Bethsaida and it found in John chapter 5 and I'm not going to read all of it today just for the sake of time but essentially in John chapter 5 what you see happens is there's this man that's there, and he's been there 38 years, 38 years by the pool. And the pool of Bethsaida, it was known that it was like the first person after they stirred the waters, the first person that would go in was going to be healed. But he was not in the water. He did not go in the water, and he's there 38 years.

It says in Scripture that Jesus was walking by, and he saw the man, and he said, do you want to get well. I love here, one, Jesus saw him. Jesus saw him sitting there. Jesus sees us sitting where we're sitting. He sees what you're walking through. He sees the things that you've been stuck in for years and years. He sees you, and he says, do you want to get well.

Now, without looking right at the Scripture, right, my guess would be that he'd be like, yes, absolutely. Like, put me in, dunk me now, like, let's go. But instead, the man starts listing all these excuses. He says, well, nobody will help me. He says, you know, I've been waiting to get in and on and on and on, right. And Jesus says, you are well. You have been made well. And the man is healed and he says, get up and walk. Get up and walk.

Jesus set us free from the desires of our flesh. But we have to choose, will we respond by getting up and walking in our new identity. This man had a choice. Was he going to walk in that healing. Was he going to walk in that freedom. Or was he going to stay stuck. Do you want to get well.

I think of the excuses that he gave and there's one commentator that he said this. He says in this man's particular case it would have been reasonable to wonder if he really wanted to be healed because at that point as a beggar, which we might see in our cultural context we might read into that and be like oh that would be the worst thing ever. But as a beggar in that eastern culture he would have made a really good living for himself by not finding a cure for his disease. So as bad as his current situation was, at least he was familiar with it. At least he was familiar with it.

Man, I've spent years of my life in unhealthy places and situations because I didn't want to walk away from what was familiar to me. And sometimes, if we're honest, we find ourselves in the place that I found myself in of saying, I want healing, I want freedom, but I want this more. I want comfort more. I want familiarity more.

So if you find yourself here today, again, you can change because your desires do not have the final word. Your desires do not have the final word. You too can be well. You have a new identity, and we can act out of our identity. We can believe our identity. We can believe that we are children of God. Romans says the mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. Peace.

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. If you feel stuck today, if you feel like you don't even have a desire to submit to the ways of Jesus and what God wants for your life, if you find yourself wanting to please God, but you just keep falling short, could it be that you need to put to death the desires of the flesh and get up and walk. Come to the healing pools and let Jesus cleanse you and restore you.

I love the word Bethsaida. That first word Beth we hear in Bethlehem and in its house, house of, and Bethsaida is house of grace or mercy. House of grace. How intentional of Jesus to meet this man in a place that he had been stuck, waiting for healing but doing nothing about it, that Jesus meets him with grace and says, get up and walk in your new identity.

In the same way that Jesus asked the man sitting by the pools of Bethsaida, I want to ask you today, do you want to be well. Do you want to be healed. Do you want to be set free. And are you willing to get up and walk. Because when you walk and start walking in the ways of Jesus, you are leaving other things behind. Are you willing to walk in one direction and in doing so, leave your old identity behind. So the question then becomes, what do you want more.

The freedom or the familiar. The promise or the pain. The new identity or the independence that in the end leads to isolation. What do you want more. Christ or the comfort of the addiction that you might be stuck in. The comfort of sitting in what you know. What do you want more today. Do you want to be well. Or is there something else.

And if we're honest, more times than not, the thing that's standing in between our present pain and the promised deliverance is our desires. Our lack of desires for God or our desire for something else more. And this is where Jesus enters the scene. And he says, ready or not, here I am at the pools of Bethsaida. I'm coming to the house of grace. I'm here to give you grace and to say you are well. Jesus saw the man sitting there and he sees you sitting today. And he's asking, do you want to be well. Get up and walk today. Healing is on the other side of us choosing to get up and walk. Walk in obedience to the way of Jesus. Walk in humility. Walk in complete surrender to the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Fasting as spiritual practice

Let's go back to Romans 8 once more. There is that emphasis how many times to walk in the spirit, to no longer rely on our own resources and to put off living in our God-given identity, but instead to take it on with confidence and to say Jesus died, was resurrected, and invites me to walk with him in new life. We can change. We can change.

Now, there's two different ways for us to think, again, about these desires of the flesh. The first is thinking about it as addictions or strongholds or sinful patterns that we just feel stuck in. But also it can be a way, and I think it's important for us to think about it. This is really just things that are not pleasing to God because anything that's not leading us to Jesus is leading us to a life of death and destruction. And so maybe you're sitting here and you're like, I don't have any like big sin issues going on right now. What are the desires of your heart, right. How do you spend your money. How do you spend your time. How are you centering your life. It's not a is this a sin. It's a who am I becoming when I do this. It's not is it a sin if I eat this food or if I give my body too much chocolate. But who am I becoming if I give in to every desire that I ever want.

And so this is why I want to talk about a practical way for us to continue to form ourselves in the way of Jesus, and that is through the practice of fasting. We talk a lot about spiritual formation and fasting here at church, and that's because so often we come into spaces like this, and God comes and he heals us, but we just stay seated, and we don't actually walk in our new identity. And so part of us establishing spiritual practices to center our lives around is to say we want to be committed as a church, as a people, to walking it out together.

And so I want to invite you guys that for the next 40 days, starting on Lent, Ash Wednesday until Easter, we're going to be doing a church-wide fast. And we're going to take this time as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus to starve our flesh and to feed our spirit. And that's really what fasting is all about. Fasting is about growing our hunger for God. And so practically, it's about removing something from your life.

And we always encourage you that if you are able to, and you don't have any dietary restrictions or health reasons to fast from food, at least once a week to do a day where you do not eat until dinnertime, or to even every day say, okay, for these weeks, I'm not going to eat lunch, or do something where you are physically starving your flesh to grow your hunger from God. So every time that you're hungry, you're reminded of your need for God and his presence.

But as we do that, as we remove things from our lives, we want to replace it and continue to fill our spirit. Because I always say, if we're just going hungry, like we're just going, that's just stupid. Like that's for nothing. Like don't just starve. That's pointless. We don't want to just a bunch of hangry people walking around here. So let's starve our flesh and feed our spirit so that we can grow our hunger for God together.

And so what we want to invite you guys to do is that Tuesdays we're going to not eat together until we gather in our community groups or New Culture College to continue to say hey let's do this together. Let's work on continuing to remind ourselves that our fleshly desires do not have the final say in our life, but that we can continue to submit them to God.

And where do we see fasting in Scripture. Jesus, right after his baptism in Luke chapter 4, the first thing that he does is he goes into the wilderness for 40 days to pray and to fast. Jesus himself was taking time to kill his fleshly desires. If Jesus, the son of God needed to, I know that I do. I know that I need set apart time to kill those desires so that I can continue to live and walk in the way of Jesus.

And so I want to encourage you guys to do that, to think about what can you be fasting, whether it's social media or whether it's some sort of entertainment, but then also to find a way to fast from food. And if you've never done this before, ask a friend. Invite community into this process with you as we set aside time to continue to grow our hunger for God.

I'm going to invite the worship team up as we get ready to close. I talked about this a couple weeks ago, but the scripture that's been just wrecking me is King David, where he says:

One thing I ask is I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 27:4

See, David did a lot of really corrupt things in his life. He fed his desires a lot. He was hungry for sex, for power, for all of this authority, the riches of the world, yet something flipped in him where he was able to say, like, Lord, I desire you and your presence more than anything else. Like, that shows us that someone that literally tasted it all. Tasted all the things that we think is going to fulfill us. Came back to this place of saying it's the presence of God. But that also reminds me today that we can change. We can change.

What does it look like for us to surrender our desires. To get up and walk. The man sat there for 38 years. 38 years. He waited and i wonder what would have happened if he would have walked in humility and asked for help. What would have happened. But he waited. Jesus says to him:

You are well. Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you. You are well. Now stop.

John 5:14

There's no condemnation. There's no reason for you to keep living in that way. Stop sinning. You're well. Get up. Walk. You're made new.

I want you to think about something today. What if, based on what Romans is talking to us about, about this resurrection power that's alive in us, what if that miracles weren't supposed to just be proof that God is real. But what if miracles were a present reality that we get to experience and live in and walk in. Are we walking in our new identity.

Today, as we close, there's two things that I want to just kind of, I think in a, maybe a pastoral way, talk about. We're talking about healing and deliverance, but in the context of from our fleshly desires and sin and things that like have us hung up, while also acknowledging that there is a need for physical healings in our body. And that's kind of a separate thing.

And so if you're here today and you're in that spot where maybe you're like, my body's been unwell, I think that kind of falls into when I'm talking about we live in the new identity of Christ and we act out of that place. Also holding this tension and sometimes this grief that not only our desires may or may not change. We may always have fleshly desires. But also sometimes physical things in our bodies on this side of eternity might not be healed. And that's a whole other thing. But I just want to acknowledge that as I'm talking about like get up and walk. And sometimes like, well, I'm trying, but like I'm still not healed from these physical things in my body. That's another tension that we hold of saying sometimes we don't understand how that happens. But we do know that one day in heaven, we will be fully healed and restored for all of eternity.

But today we're talking more about being healed and delivered and set free from our fleshly desires that lead to destruction. And there's two camps that I want to talk about. One is earlier when I talked about that maybe there's some of us here today that just like Lot, we've pitched our tents near Sodom. Maybe you're here and you can justify how what you're doing or the way that you're living isn't that bad. At least you're not like in Sodom. You haven't crossed over into the city lines. But you're near destruction. And you want the things that Sodom has to offer you more than you want to fully surrender to the way of Jesus.

And then the second part is I think that there's some of us here today that we're near, we've sat down near the pools of Bethsaida and we're waiting for Jesus to see us and we're making excuses and if we're honest, we're pretty comfortable. We've started to identify with this fill-in-the-blank addiction, stronghold, patterns in our lives. And the fear of change is keeping us today from the freedom that is found in Christ Jesus.

I've done both. I've pitched the tent near Sodom. I've waited too long to walk in the healing that Christ already gave. And so I stand here today wanting to encourage you and invite you to get up and walk. To know that change is possible. When we choose to get up and walk, new desires start to come. It says in Psalms 37:

If we delight ourselves in the Lord, he gives us the desires of our heart.

Psalm 37:4

Now that's not the like whatever we ask we get, right. But it's as we begin to spend time in the presence of the Lord, all of a sudden we don't want the things that we used to want anymore. And we start to become like Jesus and we want the things, right. We want what we sang about us, like, God, it's about your kingdom come. We want those desires more than we want the things that once kept us stuck. He gives us new desires. We're also recognizing that some of the desires may still be there. But we get to choose. Will we stay sitting or will we get up and walk. We believe that we're children of God and that we can walk and live differently.

And so I invite you to stand today and to just close your eyes and to just take a minute and to just invite the Lord to show you. Say, God, is there any way that I have pitched my tent near Sodom. Are there places that I've been walking close to that I've been asking the wrong question of, is this bad for me. Is this a sin. Rather than asking, is this making me more like Jesus. Holy Spirit, would you come. And I just invite you, would you ask the Holy Spirit in your own way. Would you say, come, show me. Holy Spirit, would you show us right now.

And the next is I just want to take a minute to remind you of your identity in Christ Jesus. That maybe you're here and you know you're like yeah I have been so close to the healing. I'm just sitting here. You have been set free and the same power that raised Christ from the dead is alive in you. There is no condemnation because you are in Christ Jesus.

When you surrender your life to him, you have a new identity. You will not only share in his sufferings as we are separated from him right here in the temporary, but you will share in his glory for all of eternity. You are a child of God. You can walk healed, walk free, walk restored.

And so God would you just begin to show us what that looks like for us to get up and walk today. Would you show us what it looks like to maybe take our tents and move them somewhere else. God I thank you today that our desires do not have the final say in our life. But that not only can we be made well but that you have made us well. You have made us whole. You have healed us.

And so if you're here today I just want to invite you to take a moment and to just begin to ask the Lord and to tell him like yes I want to live healed. Will your Holy Spirit come and empower me again. Will your Holy Spirit come and fill me in this moment. Will your Holy Spirit come and encourage me and strengthen me.