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Elder Juanita Francis | The Brook Place
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I have been feasting in the book of Joshua, and the Lord kept bringing me back to the same scriptures. When the Holy Spirit brings you to a particular passage, you don't fight it. So we're going to go to Joshua chapters 3 and 6.
Let me read Joshua 3:5 with you: "And Joshua said unto the people, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."
Everything I'm sharing with you today is prophetic. This isn't a sermon or seminary lecture—this is what the Lord has been incubating in my personal time, speaking not just for this house but for this nation.
I heard the word "turning point" from the Lord, and I got excited. I didn't even have context or a scripture yet, but I knew I needed God to make a turning point in my season. I came to declare and prophesy to you: you have reached a turning point. Whatever direction you felt your life was going, God says you're moving in a completely different direction. This is your season of turning point.
A turning point is a decisive moment where the direction, condition, or trajectory of something begins to change. It doesn't necessarily mean changes happen immediately or instantly, but something is happening that is making you change direction.
One of the hardest challenges to explain is when you're caught between two seasons—when you know something has ended behind you and your promise is yet ahead, but you're stuck in the middle. One thing that troubles me is that sometimes a turning point can look like an obstacle.
We assume that when God wants to change our direction, it will be easy. We assume it will announce itself in a certain way. But we find in Joshua that this is not the case.
Moses just died. He led a nation for 40 years without seeing the promise—he never got there. Now Joshua comes to lead the next generation. What got me immediately was this: although the leadership died, the promise was still alive. We often look at people and situations as if that's the reality of manifestation in our life. But when you understand that God has given you a promise, it is not necessarily connected to any person.
If God wants to make something happen, He will use whatever it is, whoever it is, to make it happen. Some of you have believed that God is not going to do what He said because you've been looking at a specific person or location to give you God's promise. But what God is saying is: I will do it by myself. I don't need any help to make it happen. When I speak a word, it has to manifest.
Joshua teaches us that the promise of God can survive the ending of a season. Even if an ending happens, it's intentional.
The first thing God required them to do was simple: get up.
Joshua 3 says: "Joshua rose early in the morning and they removed themselves from Shittim and came to Jordan."
They recognized that a specific season had come to an end. To get to the next place, they had to get up and move. Some of us have been asking and praying, "God, I need you to open this door. When are you going to do this?" And we don't get up. We don't change position. Before God changes the water, you have to change your position. You have to get up. You have to move.
Before revelation comes, before a promise comes, before prophecy comes, it requires your participation. I'm really troubled by this generation—we are very lazy. We hear a prophecy and then expect it to happen without any effort. But here's the thing: oftentimes prophecy comes with conditions. It comes with instructions.
Let me be vulnerable with you. On my 30th birthday, Apostle Oscar and Pastor Triumph came and prophesied over me. I got amazing words and I was excited. Then six months later I got frustrated and said to the Lord, "You promised me this and this, and I don't understand where it is." God said, "Go watch that prophecy." When I listened to it, I realized there was a whole load of instructions I had missed. I was frustrated about what God hadn't done, not realizing I didn't follow the instructions that were supposed to produce the promise.
Could it be that you're not seeing fruit in your life because you haven't followed the instructions God has given you? Some of you are mad at God when God really should be mad at you. But what He's done is given you favor and grace to say, "Even though you didn't follow the instructions, go listen again and now do it."
We spend so much time asking God, "When are you going to do this?" But we don't realize we haven't changed our position. We're still in Shittim, the old season. Shittim wasn't a bad place, but the season had ended. We get comfortable in an old season. In the UK, we came out of pandemic and said, "This is what church looks like." But we're not seeing growth or fire burning because we're in Shittim. We should be in Jericho. We're staying in a season that God says He's done with, but because it's comfortable, we'd rather stay there than possess what God has for us.
When the Lord said He's given us this nation, He's given us the kingdom, but we're still happy just coming to church. We'd rather stay in the four walls of the church, but God has called us to grow, multiply, and go make disciples. But you won't see that if you want to stay comfortable.
Sometimes a turning point in your life means getting up and doing what God said to do.
They rose up from Shittim and came to the Jordan. But here's what troubled me: Joshua doesn't take them straight to Jericho. He waits until the Jordan is overflowing. The promise is already there, but he waits until the situation is at its worst to tell them to show up.
Because we look at turning points as easy things. We look at God doing a breakthrough as something easy. But sometimes God will put you in a place that looks impossible so He can show you how great He really is. Some of us would not know God if it was easy. When you get that blessing, you forget your prayer time. You stop coming to church. You forget the One you cried and prayed to. But sometimes God brings you in front of a Jordan to remind you how great He is.
The Bible says the Jordan overflowed its banks at the time of harvest. It was flooding. It was not shallow, not convenient, not ideal. And God says, "This is where I want you to be. Come to these riverbanks."
They could have discussed how to cross. They could have looked at what the water was saying. But God is the one that gives the instructions. We have to be careful that just because something is difficult doesn't mean God is not there. Every time you face a difficult situation, it doesn't mean His absence.
I've recognized that in the church we lack maturity when we face obstacles. We look at an obstacle and say He's not there. But what if God brought you to that place to reveal Himself?
When we face a hard situation, we say God is not in this, or I'm in the wrong place. But what if it is that God brought you to that place so He could show you how powerful He is?
Now here's where it gets powerful. The Bible says Joshua tells them something crucial: "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."
We are excited about the wonders, but we ain't excited about the sanctification.
If I say, "God's about to give you a car," everyone makes noise. But if I say, "You're about to lose your car," the celebration stops. But the reality is: we're not going to celebrate sanctification because we have taught ourselves that to consecrate ourselves is a bad thing.
We want the miracles, signs, and wonders, but we don't want to be in a prayer meeting. We want God to move and open doors, but we don't want to be challenged in our personal character. There are some of you that will never get to the place God has for you because you will never do the work.
What preachers won't tell you: to do what I'm doing, it costs you something. You don't get to a platform or a place doing absolutely nothing. God will crucify your flesh. It requires you to go hug people you know are talking about you. It requires you to love and bless someone you can't stand. Why? Because my character has to be pruned for where God is taking me.
God is saying: You cannot get wonders if you won't sanctify yourself.
Sanctification means I'm deciding to cleanse myself. I am making a decision to let God prune me. In other words, you cannot see the promise without sanctification.
God was saying, "You think it's about getting a promised land, but this is about consecration." God wants to change what is around you, but also what's within you. Joshua says: Sanctify yourself. That word means to set apart, to consecrate, to prepare for holy use.
Back in the tabernacle, they would anoint and sanctify everything. They would even anoint the drums. Because they understood that anything being used had to be sanctified. Some of you want God to use you, but you don't want to get sanctified. God says: I have to set you apart.
One of the hardest things I had to learn was the isolation that came with my assignment—the things you can't do that everyone else does. I'll give you an example. I was in school, and if you know a Francis family, they love to talk. I like to talk too, but everyone in my school knew who my dad was. I remember one time the whole class was messing up with a supply teacher. Everyone was talking, and I was making conversation. The lady never met me a day in her life said, "Winnie, stop talking because I'm going to tell your dad." I didn't even know who she was. I got really frustrated because the whole class was talking. But what God was showing me is: let them talk. You can't do what they're doing because the thing God is doing in your life requires you to be set apart.
It requires you to look different than everyone else. Some of you don't realize God is not picking on you. He's setting you apart for the promise. He's making sure they're going to get away with that sin, and I don't understand how they can do that and I can't. But God said: "Consecrate yourself. Make yourself holy. Sanctify yourself because what I'm about to do is the wonder."
You want to know why miracles flow through me? Because there's nothing to contain it. There's nothing to fight. There's a clear filter. What's happening in the church is we got so much mess in our life that God has no way of flowing through. There are so many directions and diversions. You know why we don't see a move of God? Because no one is clean in the church anymore. But if we sanctify ourselves, there shall be wonders. If we sanctify ourselves, there shall be miracles.
I recognize the move of God moves freely if we clean ourselves. There's nothing to fight with. He's saying, "Listen, where I'm taking you requires another level of intentionality. I need you to be holy." And he's not saying holiness purchases the wonders or the miracles, but he's saying, "Listen, this version of what is about to take place in your life, you can't be who you are right now."
We spend a lot of time asking God, "When are you going to do this?" But what if God put this question to you: When will your character be ready for the promise?
You're asking, "When are you going to increase me?" And God says, "When will your prayer discipline get ready for where you want to go?" You say, "Lord, I want you to enlarge my territory." And God is saying, "Are you sustained for the enlargement that you want God to do in your life?"
Because we pray things that we're not prepared for. I remember someone came up to Apostle and said, "Give me a double anointing of what's on your life." I said, "You're stupid. You're crazy." Because when you ask for a double portion, it means everything that person went through, you're about to go through it. And some people don't have what it takes to carry that anointing. You got to stop being jealous of people because you don't know what they did to get where they are. Some of you don't realize if you were to ever walk in those shoes, you would not make it.
I say to people all the time, "You don't want to be me." "Oh, I wish I could do what you do." Okay, are you ready to be molested at 13? Are you ready to be put in the newspaper and dogged out? Are you ready to go to court and because your parents are in court, you can't talk to them?
We want the anointing, but we don't want to pay the price. You know why yokes are destroyed? Because of the anointing. Because I paid the price. I put myself on the altar and died to my flesh. Many of us want the promise, but our personal life cannot sustain carrying it. Can you carry the burden of what you're praying for?
He said: "Sanctify yourselves. Remove the distraction. Deal with the compromise." And here's the one we don't like: Forgive.
They were there for 40 years in the wilderness. There was a generation that was told they could have the promised land straight away, but because of their idolatry and their worship, they stayed somewhere they should have only been for a few days—for 40 years. So there was a generation that rose up probably angry with another generation because they could have been somewhere else. And in the midst of that, He says, "Listen, I know you're mad, but forgive."
You ain't anointed until you can look at your enemy and love them.
One of the things I remember—and I asked his permission to share this—I was in a Super Sunday service. Someone I was connected to had really done me bad. And in the middle of the service, that person came to the altar for prayer. The Holy Spirit said, "Prophesy to them and give them the word of the Lord." And I said, "Absolutely not." I'm real about it. I stood there and said, "You're crazy. I don't care what you're saying. That person offended me. I'm not doing it." And I was livid. But what the Lord was saying is: You can't go to nations if your anger is in your heart. You can't talk and prophesy if you've got anger in your heart and you don't know how to forgive.
We want to be in a place where we say I'm justified to be angry. You're never justified to be angry. Do you know that you're here by the mercies of God? That God has a right to be angry with you, but yet still He loves. He said forgive 70 times 7. And many of us haven't even reached that yet. You barely forgive 10. The reality: God said to me, can you give up your right to be right?
I stood there angry. And God said, "Yeah, look at you. Look at the anger in your heart." I'm standing leading people to worship and didn't even know how angry I really was until I was faced with something I wasn't ready to forgive. And I remember the Lord began to speak: "You're going to withhold a word from someone? How would you like it if someone did that to you?" As I stood there, my heart began to soften and melt.
It's on stream because the whole world went back to watch it. They couldn't believe I gave the word. Sometimes you have to give something for the enemies to watch so they can really know that you live this walk for real. Because some of us are playing church, but when God really pricks your heart, there should be something that says: God, I repent.
My heart began to crumble. I called his name and I gave him the word of the Lord. And I prayed for him. I didn't know that this was the one thing he needed. And I began to cry as I gave the word because as I was giving the word, the Lord was healing my heart. My dad was standing there saying, "You can do it. I'm proud of you."
You need the right people in your corner that will help you into healing and into sanctification—not talk about what you did wrong, but say, "You're doing the right thing. Keep going." That's what's wrong in the church. We're ready to pull people down, but the Bible says, "You should encourage your brother lest you fall." Everyone was around me going, "You can do it. You can do it." My praise team, some of them who knew what was going on, was like, "Come on, you got it." I gave the word of the Lord.
As I came down to hug him, the Lord said, "Hug him." Now this is even harder. It's one thing to say something, but now I have to do something that represents a level of security and safety for me. Now I got to hug someone who's offended me, because it's not real until you really repent, until you really have love in your heart.
So I hugged him, and he began to break down and said, "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I'm really, really sorry." And before I could even think, the words came out: "I forgive you." And that's what God is saying: can you forgive?
Sanctification isn't just, "I went to prayer and fasting." No. Did you forgive your mom? Did you forgive your dad that left you? He says, "Forgive." And then here's the other one: Repent. The hardest part of that whole story wasn't just to forgive him—it was to apologize even though I felt like I did nothing. See, that's the Christ that we don't talk about. Just in case there was something I did wrong, I'm also sorry.
I had to also say sorry to him. In other words: I want you to get your appetite under control. I want to make sure that you're not in a place where you walk around like you have the right to behave the way that you do. Sanctify yourself.
Because tomorrow when you get up the next day, if you sanctify yourself, by Monday morning, God says this will be your week of wonders.
If you would sanctify yourself, this week will be a week of wonders. What does that mean? You have reached your turning point. Everything that has held you up, God says I'm about to do it.
Then He says something very interesting: "Now I need you to follow the presence. Follow the ark of the covenant."
Stop going to all these events and not following the presence of God. Some of you are so full of nonsense because you go everywhere. I can say it because I've been to all of the events there is to go to. I'm not coming against people's events. I'm saying to you: make sure that when you buy your ticket and you turn off to those places that they have the presence of God. Otherwise, you're wasting your time.
He said: "Follow the presence. Watch this because you've never been this way before."
The problem we have is everyone thinks they know what they're doing. Can I be honest? What I'm struggling with is how many incredible powerful apostles and prophets who got saved recently don't know how to follow anybody. Even as a prophet, I still follow someone. I'm not following myself. I am submitting to a pastor. My challenge is everyone wants to be important but has no impact. Everyone wants to have a title. But my thing is: where's the presence?
Follow the presence of God. Let me even say what He would tell you: Don't follow Dr. Oscar or Pastor Triumph. Follow the presence of God because guess who they follow? The presence of God.
He said: "You've never been this way before. I'm going to help you. As smart as you are, as intelligent as you are, you have never been here before. ChatGPT can't help you. AI cannot help you." "Well, what shall I do?"
And this is a problem. We're so messed up because now we don't consult God. We consult ChatGPT. A machine. Follow the presence of God.
I don't know what I'm doing. People say to me all the time, "I don't know if what I'm called to do." Go to the presence of God. "Is that it?" Yes. "What do you mean is that it?" If I want to find out who created a painting, I go to the person who painted it. But we as the creation always bypass God the Creator. We will pray to the universe over the one who created the universe. Now we want to manifest. We want to go to the one who manifests all things. But we don't go to God, the Creator.
God is saying: "Hey, you've never been this way before. So when I don't know what I'm doing, I'm going to the One who does."
And let me help you: it's okay to not know what you're doing.
Some of you are on social media following people thinking that they know what they're doing. Can I tell you the secret? They don't know what they're doing. You're like, "Oh, my life is not going anywhere." And they're posting, and you have no clue that they don't know what they're doing. You're at home going, "God, look at what they're doing. Look at what so-and-so is posting. My life's going nowhere." And they're at home going, "Well, my life's going nowhere." And the whole church is a mess because we're following each other, looking at everyone's pages, stressing each other out when all you got to do is get in the presence of God.
He says: "You don't know this territory. You've never been to Jericho. You've been in the wilderness. So you got to follow the presence." He says the priests are going to go first. They're going to carry the presence of God. They must stay. And then they're going to stand firm.
Can I talk to the leaders? How many leaders in Brook Place? Wave your hand at me.
Can I tell you a real truth? You will go first, but you will not possess first. You will go first, but you will not possess first. The Bible says the leadership went first. Priests went first. They had to put their foot in the water. They had to get nervous and think, "God, we hope this water's going to back up." And the Bible says they had to stand even as the waters were rushing around them so that everyone crossed to the other side.
Can I help you, leaders? When you're praying for a miracle and it hasn't happened for you yet, you know what? I don't want to talk the truth. You lay hands saying, "God, I believe that You're going to heal them of cancer," but your cancer ain't gone yet. God, I pray that they get the car and you're still taking the bus. And they're driving past you in the car that you prayed for. See, you don't want to have an honest conversation. When I got to pray you through and I'm waiting for the good that I prayed for that you might manifest in your life and He ain't done it for me yet.
Because real leadership is sacrifice. He said: "Listen, stand firm." They had no clue what was going to happen, but they had to stand until everyone crossed over.
Can I help you, leaders? Sometimes you're going to watch everyone get their breakthrough except you. And the question is: can you still stand with God when you don't get it?
One of the hardest seasons of my life was watching people get their breakthrough and God ain't done it for me yet. Praying and crying people through and God ain't done it in my life. Preaching, believing, laying hands, and going home and saying, "God, what about me?" And the question is: is your faith strong enough even when He doesn't do it?
He said: "Stand firm." He doesn't say stand shaky. He says, "Stand firm." What does that mean? You need to start knowing that God is going to bring you through even when he doesn't.
Can I be real sober for a second? Real leadership isn't a title. Leadership is saying if I never cross over, they did.
I know we ain't going to clap for that one. I know it's a hard pill to swallow. But let me tell you the truth before you get there and find out, because some of us our faith failed because no one told us the truth. That you will have the hardest position of everyone. That your faith and your theology will be tested. That you will support people.
We had seven funerals this month alone. I don't look like it, do I? One of my childhood best friends that I grew up in the church, her dad died suddenly. And I had to listen to her tell me "I thought my dad was coming home." And also be grieving myself, but put my grief aside to be there for her. And then in the back of my mind say, "God, why would you allow that?" To listen to her tell me, "Oh, my dad should be here to walk me down the aisle." I'm angry with God and trying to reconcile with her while still saying in myself, "God, what happened?" That's leadership.
Because it's not all highs. And some of us, you don't know your theology is real until you get tested. I had to learn the sovereignty of God to understand He's not afraid of my questions, but it doesn't remove Him from who He is. That even when He does things that I don't like, He's still God. That even when He doesn't move the way I expect, He's still God.
The Bible says they went first. And the Bible says they said to follow the presence. And then they said to do something very interesting. He told them to take stones from where they were crossing so that the next generation, the children, could know of their God.
Can I tell you what we got wrong in the church? We glorify our trauma and not our testimony. We will carry our trauma over carrying our testimony. Because now struggling sells. If someone messes up, we promote them. And we glorify the struggle instead of showing people that they can get out.
God spoke to me. He said to me: "Honey, stop carrying your trauma. Carry the testimony."
He says: There are people that need to know that your God exists. There are people that need to know that God can bring you through. So I don't talk about being molested from a place of trauma. I talk about it from the place that I know God provides, because there are people that have gone through what I've gone through that should have died.
One of the real things that my counselor said to me, she said: "With all that you went through, I know God is real." Somebody wasn't even saved. My therapist said to me, "I know God is real." I said, "Um, aren't you an atheist?" She said, "Listening to you and the progress you're making, it doesn't make sense. All my psychology doesn't line up with where you should be." And I had to say, "That's God." Because you're absolutely right. I should be a head case. But when God is in the mix, it doesn't matter what psychology is writing. God can supersede psychology.
And let an atheist who should not believe in nothing in my therapy session give her life to Christ. See, you're not making an impact until your trauma becomes a testament.
He said: "Carry the stones so that people could know who your God is."
I want to know: Is there anyone that knows that God has kept them through something? I dare you take 30 seconds and bless the name of your Lord. Come and show someone that you know you should have died. You should have made it by your testimony.
God has brought you to a turning point. He has brought you to a place where He doesn't want you to carry your trauma. You cannot get to Jericho if you don't house the testimony of who God is. Some of us have forgotten what God has already brought us through. We've made our obstacle too big—bigger than our God. We're looking at our obstacle as if it's something brand new. And God is saying, "Listen, you may not have been this way before, but you've got a testimony."
Because if God can bring you through what you've already gone through, He can bring you through this.
Listen to what the Bible says about what happened: God brought them through in such a way that the Canaanites, the Hittites, started to hear about what God had done in their life to the point they shut the whole city down. Your enemies are about to hear about how good your God is. You're about to cross over in this season. You ain't going to stay the same place. But God has brought you to a turning point. He has brought you to another direction.
This is the prophetic word: You've carried your trauma too long. People have left, yes. Things have gone wrong that we didn't expect, yes. But God says: Now will you remember who I am? Will you leave your trauma at the altar and pick up the stone of your testimony? That your children, your nieces, your nephews can know who your God is.
Some of you, your children, your nieces, nephews won't come to church because they don't hear your testimony. They hear your trauma. At home we complain. We don't tell them how good God is. When you really start to declare the goodness of God, you can't help but join in.
There are many of you carrying trauma instead of your testimony. And God wants to bring you into your Jericho, your new season, your turning point. But you can't go any further because you're still carrying the evidence.
You know what the Israelites' biggest problem was? They left Egypt but Egypt hadn't left them. Some of you want the promise but it's still inside of you. The past—your mom telling you that you will never make it, your dad saying you were a waste of space. Whatever your trauma is, leave it here at the altar.
I'm not going to call you out by name, but every one of you knows if you're carrying that trauma. Come. Lay at His feet. Sanctify yourself. He wants to bring you into a place of promise but you will never see the promises of God if you don't deal with your trauma. If you don't deal with your pain.
Deal with it today. Because what God wants to do with Brook Place, He can't take you there while you're carrying the old. You're going to get the building. It's going to happen. But we have to get rid of the old, the weight, the way we do things. When He takes you into that new place, it won't look how it looks now. We got to get rid of the dead weight. We got to get rid of the trauma.
Even if you're standing, you don't have to stand. If you want to kneel, kneel where you are. Make an altar wherever you are. Give it to God. This isn't about me laying hands on you right now. It's about giving God your trauma, your honest situation.
And if you are in a place where you have your testimony, this is the people that you serve and you do life with. They can't go to the promise unless they get rid of it. So you know what you have to do, priests? Stretch your hands. Bear the weight. Pray them through.
Your promise depends on it. Pray them through.
We're not watching. We're praying. We're not watching. We're praying. Give him your situation. Give him your trauma. Some of you never even talked about it, but give him your trauma today. Because when you leave, you're leaving with a testimony.
Lay it at the altar. Just take a moment. Be real. Give it to Him. Because He's bringing you to a turning point, but you can't go where He wants to take you because you're living with the guilt. You're living with the pain. You're living with that trauma. But leave it with Him. Today, leave it with Him. Give it to Him.
Cry out to Him. He's the only One that can remove it. Hold on. Hold on.
Some of you are thinking about trauma like I shared it—something like what I went through. But there's some of you that have trauma of disappointment. I heard the Lord say: Some of you are not experiencing the God you need to because you don't even expect Him to move anymore. You're numb. If you're numb in this room, come. Lay the disappointment at His feet. The things that you believed Him for that didn't happen the way you expected.
Some of you think it's got to be something fancy, but some of you it's been something simple. But it still traumatized you because anytime someone gives you a word, you don't even believe it. The enemy has come to steal and take away your expectation. But in the name of Jesus, it will not work. Come on, give it to him now. Give him that disappointment.
It's okay to cry. It's a safe place. Give it to Him, but don't leave here the same way you came.
