Sunday April 6, 2014
Pastor Fernando Ruata
intro
His wife Angie shared a
word with him that he wants her to share with the congregation.
It’s about the power of
encounters and visitations.
Angie Ruata
Divine visitations
Angie wants more of them.
After what He showed her
in His precious word, she wants more!
Genesis 3:8 Then the man
and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in
the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the
garden.
What does the sound of
God sound like?
What had God’s voice
produced up to this point?
Life, creation…
Plants sprout seeds, and
seeds bring forth plants, animals beget animals, etc.
Creating to perpetuate
who He is.
He asked Adam to join in
this process by naming the animals.
God wanted us to join the
creative process.
Adam even got to name his
wife.
They knew God.
In Genesis
4:2 Eve said “I’ve gotten a man child with the help of the Lord.”
She could say that
because she knew God intimately.
God wants us to be a part
of what He’s doing upon the earth.
God is creative.
When her kids were little
they would create art without fear.
Adam & Eve were also
once fearless.
Fear came in when satan
caused Adam & Eve to question what God said.
The enemy is constantly
challenging us.
In the garden of Eden Adam
and Eve had access to everything,
But the tree of knowledge
of good and evil.
Even the tree of life was
in the garden.
Genesis 3:22 And the Lord God said,
“The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be
allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and
live forever.”
We had become like God!
She doesn’t think God
wanted to deny us the tree of life.
God gives it to us in Revelation
2:7:
Whoever has ears, let
them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I
will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of
God.
It wasn’t the right time
then.
Remember the things we’ve
written down.
The promises…
Prophetic words spoken
over us…
Those financial blessings
we desperately need…
Someone is waiting on an inheritance
not yet released.
Today we’ll learn how to
apprehend that.
Let’s translate this
visitation from God.
Hagar gets pregnant and
is despised.
Hagar was in a situation
not of her own making.
Have you ever been in a
rough situation not of your own making and wanted to run away?
She was rejected and ran
away.
Verse 7: The angel of the
Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside
the road to Shur.
She was on the way to
Shur – Angie likes that.
Submit yourself to the
very harshness you just ran from.
Verses 8-11:
8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai,
where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress
Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her,
“Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel
added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous
to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord also said to
her:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,[a]
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,[a]
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
When she willingly
returns to Sarai she returns with a promise.
1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord
appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty[a]; walk before me faithfully and be
blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you
and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to
him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be
the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called
Abram[b]; your name will be Abraham,[c] for I have made you a father of many
nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations
of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my
covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants
after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants
after you.
God promises this not
only to Abraham but to his seed, to his children.
Because He’s a good God.
Verse 8:
The whole land of Canaan,
where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession
to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
What land have you been sojourning
in?
Hanging on to a promise
without fulfillment yet?
Verse 15:
God also said to Abraham, “As for
Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.
When you have a divine
visitation God changes your name.
He changes you; you will
never be the same
Verses 16-18:
16 I will bless her and will surely give
you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations;
kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and
said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah
bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God,
“If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
Abraham wanted Ishmael to
be the promised one
Verse 19-20
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife
Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.[d] I will establish my covenant with him as an
everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as
for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him
fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve
rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
I heard you.
I will bless him too.
Genesis 21:9
But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar
the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,
Ishmael starts mocking
Isaac.
Mamma Sarah sees it and
it’s over for her.
Verse 10-14:
10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of
that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the
inheritance with my son Isaac.”
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly
because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not
be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah
tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring[b] will be reckoned. 13 I will
make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
14 Early the next morning Abraham took
some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her
shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered
in the Desert of Beersheba.
Beersheba was one of the upper most tribes of Judah.
In the wilderness of
Beersheba God was there.
God wants our place of
wilderness to be a place of praise.
[We sang “How Great is
Our God”]
If you find yourself a
Hagar in the wilderness, wandering around the wilderness with a promise,
holding Ishmael –
There’s a song of praise
there.
Hagar’s heart was broken.
In verse 15 she left the
boy under a bush, there was no more water.
When the water in the skin was gone,
she put the boy under one of the bushes.
Lost her hope…
She sat just far enough
out of reach so she couldn’t hear the cry of her dying child.
Then she went off and sat down about
a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat
there, she[c] began to sob. [Verse 16]
She couldn’t take it.
It was just too painful.
She lifted up her voice
and wept.
She was crying, wining,
and dying.
[If that’s not a country
song…]
But God –
She has a dying promise.
She feels like she may as
well die herself.
When you have used up all
your resources and looked at God’s promise and it’s just not there.
Angie had so many
prophetic words.
She didn’t want to hear
anymore.
It hurt too much.
Waiting for my healing
for how long?
I don’t want to hear it
anymore.
A whole lot of hope has
been lost in here.
Read the first six words
of verse 17.
And God heard the lad
crying.
He heard the promise cry out.
He wasn’t listening to
the country song.
Maybe He would’ve heard a
song of praise.
But He heard the promise
cry out.
He heard the promise
because he was of the seed of Abraham and he had a covenant with God.
Do you have a covenant
with God?
Are you of God’s seed?
Pick up the promise and
embrace it again.
God heard the boy crying, and the
angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter,
Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
Vs 17 b
Fear factor shows up
again.
Are you dealing with a
fear factor today?
Recognize it for what it
is.
And the havoc it reeks in
our lives.
Verse 18:
Lift the boy up and take him by the
hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
God is saying reconnect
to those promises, prayers, and prophetic words.
Reconnect with Him.
His promises are yes and
amen.
They never die.
The grass withers, the
flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. [Isaiah
40:8]
Abraham was 75 when he heard
the promise.
Here he is 100 and received
the promise.
If it seems like we’re
too old God can still do it.
Because His promises
never die.
Have you laid down things
you prayed about?
Do you realize the
promise still cries out for fulfillment?
Do not let rejection and
fears derail you from the promises God has given you.
Verse 19-20:
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw
a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a
drink.
20 God was with the boy as he grew up.
He lived in the desert and became an archer.
Since when is there a
well of water in the wilderness?
We need to go back and
pick up our promises.
This is what the Lord
spoke to Angie’s heart.
Angie showed pictures of
her children’s hands.
Isaiah 44:5:
This one will say, ‘I am the Lord's,’
another will call on the name of Jacob,
and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord's,’
and name himself by the name of Israel.”
another will call on the name of Jacob,
and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord's,’
and name himself by the name of Israel.”
She wrote promises in the
palm of her children’s hands.
The well being of her
children will be great.
Isaiah 54:13
"All your sons will be taught of
the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great.
1 Timothy 1:16
But for that very reason I was shown
mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his
immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive
eternal life.
Vs 18
This command I entrust to you,
Timothy, my [d]son, in accordance with the prophecies
previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight,
She made it personal and
put her children’s names in the promises/verses.
Angie recommends the book:
My Children Are.
It’s in the bookstore.
Anything you were
standing on, pick it back up.
Naomi’s husband dies, her
2 sons marry.
Lived for 10 years, then
her sons die.
She decides she has
nothing and encourages daughter-in-laws to go back home.
| Ruth & Naomi |
Ruth chooses to follow
Naomi into the unknown.
No husband, no job, at poverty
level, no children, no family nearby.
But Ruth is a risk taker.
Something inside her
makes her go with Naomi.
Ruth 2:5 Boaz asked the
overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
Boaz notices her,
"Who is that?"
Tells her stay in my
field.
Ruth asks “Why have I
found favor that you should notice me, a foreigner?”
Boaz immediately gives
her protection, sustenance and a family atmosphere as a landowner.
Note to self: when in an
unknown place & your witness proceeds you, be assured God will take care of
you.
And He’ll send someone to
come along side you.
God often takes us into
the unfamiliar.
Know God will take care
of you, sustain you, and send somebody along side you to support you.
There have been times in
our lives God has purposely set aside a reserve for us.
He put out a reserve for
Ruth.
There have been a couple
of times that amazed the Ruatas.
Lord send the reserves.
Forgive us for not
believing how good You are.
Verse 19 Her mother-in-law asked her,
“Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took
notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law
about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I
worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
Where did you glean?
Where did you work?
Verse 22 Naomi said to Ruth her
daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women
who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
Naomi encouraged her to
stay there; she knew that wasn’t a typical day for a gleaner.
Ruth remained humble and
kept gleaning.
Her risk of leaving all
that she knew and going to Naomi produced a deliverance from poverty and made
her part of the lineage of Christ.
Orpah on the other hand
retracted and went back.
Have we stepped out or
retracted?
Look at how Gabriel
addresses Mary.
| Mary & Angel Gabriel |
Favored one.
The Lord is with you.
When you think about the
fact that God is with you and for you it inspires great confidence.
Verse 34
-35,
Verses 37-38
37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary
answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
How can this be since I
am a virgin?
We need to just accept
it.
We can’t reason out in
the natural some of the things God is doing in the natural.
We have to accept it.
Some things we’ll never
know until we get to the other side.
There’s a knowing in our
hearts because of our relationship with God.
Her own reasoning said
it’s impossible.
Have you had prophetic
words that can’t be reasoned in the natural?
Letting go of your
reasoning is sometimes the hardest part.
Letting go of Ishmael was
the hardest part.
God gave Abraham the
promise and blessed the one he let go of.
Look at what you’ve
written down in your journal, what you’ve carried in your heart or left under a
bush somewhere.
Go pick it up and embrace
it again.
Lift it up to God and let
Him do it.
Prayer team come forward.
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