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Part 9 of 12
Labor Pains
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You may think you came to a sanctuary today, but I want to welcome you to a spiritual delivery room. There are people here carrying something on the inside ready to give birth to it. You may not be carrying a baby, but I have a sneaky suspicion somebody in here is carrying a dream—a dream that God put on the inside of you. Are you ready to give birth to that business? That family? Greater favor? Freedom? Prosperity?
I declare every area in your life that's been dormant—we declare delivery now in the name of Jesus. I come against the spirit of miscarriages and abortion. God, we speak life over your spiritual womb that you will not continue to keep carrying what you put on the inside of you over time. I come against delay. We say thank you that breakthrough is happening in your family, your faith, your future. This is your season for breakthrough.
For some of you, you're not shouting yet because you're still focusing on the pressure you're feeling. Contractions are getting closer. You feel like you're being stretched. But be careful if you shout over the blessing but complain about the stretching. You cannot get the blessing without the stretching.
We often shout that Jesus got up on Easter Sunday, but we skip over the fact that they hung him high and lifted him up. You wouldn't even be saved and sane in the membrane if Jesus had not stretched for you. I dare you to give God a 30-second praise break for the stretching—that he's pulling favor out of you, pulling strength out of you, pulling wisdom out of you, pulling greatness out of you.
Maybe that's why he keeps surrounding you with people you don't like. He's stretching your emotional intelligence. In order to be used by God, you cannot only work with people you like. Look at Noah: he had to build the boat and deal with lions, tigers, bears, and snakes all on the same boat. Look at Joseph: yes, he was favored by God with a dream, but he also had to win while he was in prison. You don't have to be in perfect conditions to be used by God.
We have limited blessing to an American definition, not a biblical definition. According to the Bible, being blessed is about receiving supernatural favor from God. I wonder, do I have anybody in the room that's done as much as you can in your own power? God, if you don't do nothing else in this season, give me supernatural favor.
Yes, I don't have the best credit score, but I got supernatural favor. Yes, I'm applying for stuff I shouldn't be applying for because I got supernatural favor. Yes, I'm not qualified for the position, but I got supernatural favor. Yes, I may be young, expecting a scholarship, and they don't even know who I am, but God is going to put my name on the mind of the right person. Because everybody doesn't have to like you—just the right person.
With natural labor pain, it expands your womb to make room for life. But with spiritual labor pain, it expands your faith to make room for your destiny. What if you're living in a season that's too small for what God is trying to take you, but you don't have the faith to step out of your comfort zone?
Watch this: the enemy of God using you is not Satan. The enemy in this season is that God is like, "Yep, I got you right where I want you. I got you in this labor and delivery room, but you're not going to give birth to what's on the inside of you until you follow my one instruction: Push."
When they tell you to push, that means you're done carrying it. It's time to deliver it. I speak to the business inside of you: Push. I speak to the wisdom on the inside of you: Push. I speak to the financial freedom on the inside of you: Push.
You cannot become all that God has called you to be if you're not willing to push. Pray until something happens. Some of us are stuck where we are because you cannot become a big person with a small prayer life. You talk a big game, but does your prayer match the level of your conversation?
What if God sent me here today to reset your prayer life? When you began praying, you didn't reset your mindset. So you're praying on your level, not God's level. You're praying and asking God for certain things, and he's like, "You don't even need me for that."
When was the last time you prayed and asked God for something that scared the life out of you? When was the last prayer you prayed that if God didn't do it, it couldn't be done? What is the mountain in your life that you need God to move? What are the giants in your life that you need God to overcome?
For some of you, you've been in discomfort, but every storm has an expiration date. Yes, I'm enduring the pain right now, but this season won't last forever.
When the pain is productive, it may not feel good while it's working, but it's working for your good. Sometimes you need people to walk out of your life because you may have become too codependent on people. If they were still in your life, you would give the people the credit and not God. So God has to remove you from a circle and say, "I need to work in your life because I only get the glory out of this."
This is why we have to pray: prayer is not just a ritual. Prayer is also rebellion. It's rebellion against worry. Prayer is rebellion against limitation. Prayer is rebellion against the limits that the enemy tries to place on your life. Prayer is rebellion against the lie that what is will always be.
Every time you pray, you are declaring to the world that God's power is greater than my reality.
Prayer is a spiritual allergic reaction to average. When you begin to pray, you're saying, "I'm no longer settling for an average life, for average relationships, for average experience." Jesus said that he came that I may have life and have it more abundantly—not average, but abundance.
If there is not abundance in certain areas of your life, you may not have submitted that to Jesus. We're praying against average relationships. We're praying against average faith. But more importantly, we're praying against average mindsets, because the greatest fight you will ever face in your life is in your mind.
I have four kids. One of them is named Champion. When my wife was in labor with Champion, Champ tried to come out feet first. The doctor refused to let my son come out, even though he was close, because he said it would break the law—that's called a breach. So while my wife was in delivery, they kept flipping her over, turning her around. The turning that was happening on the outside started changing what was happening on the inside. He went from trying to come out feet first to coming out head first.
Your next breakthrough is when you come out head first. If you can get your mind out, you can get your life out. If you can get your mind out, you can get your marriage out.
Many of us are stuck not because of the enemy, but because of our inner enemy. You come to church and you hear the greatest sermon you ever heard in your life, but that sermon won't change your life if it gets stuck in your head and never makes it to your heart.
The enemy is not intimidated when you get saved. He's not intimidated when you get saved because he likes to have you saved and stuck at the same time. He's saying, "Yes, you can get saved, but I will only allow you to experience heaven once you die because your mind ain't ready for the kingdom on earth." But know this: the devil is not afraid of a shouting believer. He's not afraid of a believer with perfect attendance at church. The believer the enemy is afraid of is a believer with a made-up mind. When your mind is made up, you become a threat to the kingdom of darkness.
Don't complain about small results if you keep giving God small requests. We're complaining about what we may have, and God is like, "That's what you prayed for, ain't it?"
But watch this: Moses prayed to God and he parted the Red Sea. Elijah prayed to God and he closed heaven. Then he prayed again and he opened heaven. Jesus prayed to God and he raised Lazarus from the dead. If he could do it for Moses, if he could do it for Elijah, and if he did it for Jesus, I got a sneaky suspicion that he can do it for you too.
Jesus said this in Mark 11:24: "Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours."
What if God does not have a power problem, but we have a perception problem? We're praying prayers that we may not believe. Jesus is linking our ability to receive to our ability to believe. If you really believe it, once you ask for it, your prayer will become a thank you party. You don't have to wait until you get it to thank God.
I wonder, do I have some people that don't have to wait until the battle is over? You can shout right now and say, "God, I may not have the stuff, but I thank you in advance because I know it's already done. I know what the doctor said, but I thank you in advance that by your stripes, I'm already healed." Your child is already blessed. It's already done. Your house is already blessed. It's already done. You're already debt-free. It's already done.
Why is this important? Because faith is not convincing God to move. Faith is convincing yourself that he already has. When you pray, pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When you pray, you are given heaven permission to interrupt earthly affairs.
We meet a man in the text named Jabez. Everybody shouts about what he prayed, but they overlook his mother's pain. The text literally says his mother named him Jabez because "I bore him with pain." Normally people preach this and beat Jabez's mama up. Can you believe she named her baby pain? She allowed what she was going through to become a label over her child.
I don't want to demonize her. I don't want to idolize her. But can we humanize her for a moment? Have you ever been in so much pain that you said some stuff that you wish you could take back? She gives birth to this child. The doctor asks, "What's his name?" She's quiet. "Excuse me, ma'am, we need a name for the child." And she just yells back pain, grief, betrayal, rejection.
Who hurt you? Or what hurt you that made you say some stuff that you wish you could take back?
But I'm so glad I serve a God that redeems pain. Even though she called him pain, he became known for promise. Do I have anybody in the room that can say: you may call me one thing in a season, but if you hang around long enough, you'll watch God flip what the enemy meant for evil and God work it out for my good?
He comes from all of this pain. We don't know what the pain was. We don't know if it was physical pain or relational or emotional pain. In the Hebraic culture back in that day, fathers were responsible for naming their sons, but some kind of way she had to name the child. We don't know if he passed. We don't know if they broke up. We don't know what happened. We just know she's in pain.
And then the text blows my mind. Over 600 generations come and people are settling for being mediocre. They're settling for being average. And one name pops up and the text says: "And Jabez was more honorable than his brothers." I got to sit right there for a minute.
Most people skip to the prayer and try to pray what he prayed without trying to become the type of person he was when he prayed the prayer. Be careful when people want your results but don't want your recipe. They want to get what you got but don't want to do what you did to get what you have.
It says he was more honorable than his brothers. When you look up honorable, it literally means "to be heavy, burdensome, numerous, rich—to make weighty." And I said, "God, help me understand what made Jabez so different from everybody else in his bloodline."
The Holy Spirit whispered back to me: "I could trust him to carry heavy weight." Could it be you're trying to pray Jabez's prayer, but you can't handle the type of weight he had to carry while he prayed that prayer? Are y'all hearing this?
What if the reason God keeps adding weight to your life is because he's trying to approve you for more glory? You complain and say, "How is it I got the most responsibility? Y'all working me like the janitor, but y'all working me like the CEO, but paying me like the janitor. This don't make sense."
What if that's God saying, "I'm not using your work for you. I'm using the work to do something in you"? By the time I'm done working on you in this season, you're going to be able to run a Fortune 500 company in the next season. Stop complaining about some of the weight you're having to carry because maybe God wants to use your weight to take you to a whole another level.
I want to preach to somebody and tell you: win anyway. I know it's heavy, but win anyway. I know you're going through some heavy stuff, but win anyway. Look at your neighbor and say, "Win anyway." Cry yourself to sleep at night, but win anyway. Don't know what your next move is, but win anyway.
Jabez had to be a brother. Why do I say that? Because when I look at the text, Jabez did not say, "Dear Father God, please bless me." Jabez said, "Oh, that you would bless me indeed."
Sometimes you don't have the words to say and the "Oh" just comes out. People tried you. You sent the wrong email at work and you have a moment where you talk to God—"Oh Lord, if you don't do something it can't be done. Oh, that you would bless me indeed." In other words, it's the adjectives that matter. He didn't say, "I want any kind of blessing." He said, "Oh, that you would bless me indeed." Don't just give me any type of blessing.
Jabez had to be a brother. Why do I say that? Because when I look at the text, Jabez did not say, "Dear Father God, please bless me." Jabez said, "Oh, that you would bless me indeed." Sometimes you don't have the words to say and the "oh" just comes out. People tried you. You sent the wrong email at work and you have a moment where you talk to God—"Oh Lord, if you don't do something it can't be done. Oh, that you would bless me indeed."
In other words, it's the adjectives that matter. He didn't say, "I want any kind of blessing." He said, "Oh, that you would bless me indeed." Don't just give me any type of blessing. Give me a blessing so that when people look at it, they say, "That's a blessing indeed."
He prayed, "Bless me indeed." He said, "I'm tired of being surrounded by average and I know you have more inside of me than this." So God, I'm not praying this prayer out of pride. I'm praying this prayer for your glory. Bless me indeed. Give me supernatural favor. I may not have the degrees. I may not have the credit scores. I may not have the connections, but when you have supernatural favor, everybody's going to have to like you just the right person.
Then he took it to another level: Enlarge my territory. He said, when you bless me, don't allow me to stay stuck in this small circle. I'm feeling restricted. I'm feeling restrained. Enlarge my territory. In other words, increase my influence. I don't always want to be the best kept secret. God, I feel like we're living in a day and age where people need proof that a young boy who was born in pain connected to 600 generations of lack can be used by God and nobody get the credit but God. Enlarge my territory.
Thirdly, he said, Keep your hand on me. In other words, I don't want the stuff and lose you. He said, "Keep your hand on me." So even when people put their mouth on me, it don't affect me because your hand is on me. They can say whatever they want, but no weapon formed against me will be able to prosper. Do I have anybody in the room today that can praise God that he has his hands on you? That in moments where you lost your mind, he kept his hands on you? And in moments where you went your own way, he kept his hands on you?
He said, "Keep your hand on me." In other words, I can't do this without your presence. And I'm concerned that we're living in a generation that's settling for secular faith. What is that? We are prioritizing progress over his presence. And we think just because we're successful, God's hand is on us. And that's not true.
Moses struck a rock, water came out. He was successful at that. But God's hand wasn't on that. God looks at Moses and he says, "Because your people are so rebellious and stubborn, you can have the promised land, but you won't have me."
God brings people out of Egypt. That's bondage. But he does not take them immediately into Canaan. That's promise. Because you cannot have promise without process. Why is this important? Because unprocessed people become ungrateful people. This is why you're frustrated with some of the people you dated and some of your friends because you gave them too much too soon. And the more you gave them, the more ungrateful they became.
Here they are stuck in process for 40 years, which should have only taken about a week and a half. Because God, even though you're his child and he loves you, he's not going to give you everything you want. He's going to give you what you can manage. It's like, "I brought you out of Egypt, but it's taken me 40 years to get Egypt out of you. I got you out of that relationship, and you're about to waste another year detoxing that old relationship."
God looks at Moses and says, "Moses, I love you. I'm proud of you. Y'all can have the promised land, but you won't have me. You can have the house you want, the dream house, but I'm not in that. You can have your dream wedding. That's not my pick. That's yours. Yes, you can go get the job where you're making more money, but you're not going to have peace because I'm not going to be on that."
Moses' response broke my heart because I thought about how many times we didn't respond the same way. Moses looks back at God and says, "If I can't have you, I don't want this." Do I have somebody that's saying, "God, more than I want stuff, I want you. More than I want money, I want you. More than I want the promotion, I want you."
"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?"
He says, "Bless me indeed. Enlarge my territory. Keep your hand on me. Why? So that it may not harm me and cause me pain." In other words, he prayed a prayer that divinely reversed what he had been struggling with his whole life.
What have you allowed people to call you? Because he didn't pray just to receive a blessing. He prayed to birth a new season. You feel like you've been stuck in cycles. This is the season where you break through every cycle that has had you stuck. I break every soul tie. I break every stronghold. I break every word curse that's been spoken over your life that you don't have to stay stuck in delay.
What blessed me in verse 10 is that the text says, "And God granted what he requested." In other words, God answered his prayer. If you can't shout for Jabez, how you going to shout for yours?
I remember a season where I was praying this prayer and I wasn't getting any results. And I said, "God, I'm tired of seeing results in the Bible that I'm not seeing in my life. I'm tired of praying prayers, but I'm not seeing it manifest in my life like it did in the Bible." And the Holy Spirit gave me three reasons for unanswered prayers.
Many of us don't experience answered prayers because we don't ask. James 4:2 says, "You do not have because you do not ask God." And God is like, I'll do it if you get the faith to ask me.
Some of us, it's not that we don't ask. Could it be that we're desperate for the wrong thing? James 4:3 says, "When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives." God, search our heart. Forgive us for the times that we pray with the wrong motives because it's possible to pray for the right thing for the wrong reason. We don't want to live a life with unanswered prayers because we're the problem.
Lastly, double-mindedness. James 1:6 says, "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind." That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable. A problem is not the devil. It may be your double mind. Maybe this is why we have a mental health crisis in the body of Christ. We got saved but no one ever walked us to get free from double-mindedness.
Father, I pray that in this room we don't pursue the results of Jabez without the repentance. God, forgive us if we have prayed with the wrong motives or with a double mind. God, I come against prayerlessness. Thank you that you're giving us the faith to pray, not just like Jabez, but like your son Jesus instructs us to pray.
Thank you, God, for the person who may be battling grief, pain, sorrow, depression, anxiety, loss. Jabez is proof that in the midst of your deepest pain, you still answer prayers. So we will not allow pain to paralyze our prayer life. We will not leave out the same way we came in.
