Date: November 8, 2018 ()

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Today we are going to talk about running to God in times of need. We all have our own personal walk with Jesus. He has come at a time that we were able to receive him. We did gladly and began this great long walk with him. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is. You know that song, The Longer I Serve Him the Sweeter He Grows? It is the truth, is it not? You see people that have served God a long, long time and now they are old. You see this sweetness in them. It comes from knowing Jesus. My grandmother was like that. She got so sweet. Can you remember playing tin can telephone?

You got cans that vegetables had come in, punched a hole in them, tied a string and you hooked these tin cans to the string. You could talk to each other like on the telephone. I can remember being a little girl and playing out on the summer nights with tin can telephone. We would call my grandmother on the tin can. And I can remember saying, “Granny, this is the Holy Spirit calling you.” My sweet little grandmother would pick up her little tin can and she would say, “Hello, Holy Spirit.” Oh, I just thought that was the funniest thing. And I remember it. I can remember another thing about my grandmother. She used to rock me and sing: “What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus, oh precious is that flow that washes me white as snow.” I remember that. You are setting a legacy for your children as you go through life. All of life has lots of hardships, does not it? And what do you do when you get in your times of need? Do you go into a deep depression? Do you withdraw from everybody? Do you become angry? Or do you run to God in your times of need?

I have had people criticize me and say, “Betty, you just talk about God too much. It is like He is a crutch.” I heard a pastor say one time, He is not my crutch He is my iron lung. I cannot breathe without Him. And that is the truth. Sometimes people will not understand your walk with God if they are not doing it. It does not make sense. It seems like foolishness to them. But how much do you need God? Can you say, “Lord, I cannot make it in the world without You. I do not know how people do it that do not have You.” That is how I feel.

Have people disappointed you so much that you want to get away from everybody and you do not want help from anybody? Do you feel despair? Have you ever tried to live without God? Have you ever tried to go through a hard situation without God and seen, not going to work. Is it a sign of weakness to run to God in times of need, or is it a sign of strength, spiritual strength? We are a three part being, you know that, do not you? We have emotions, a mind, a will. We have a physical body and we have a spirit man. And your spirit man has to be so strong that when you get in a time of need the first thing you do is cry out to Jesus, “God, help me. God, I do not know what I am going to do. God, You have got to tell me what to do. Lord, just be with me, just be with me. Let me know you are with me.”

(Look at this picture of this man running to God.) You know, grown men can run to God and it is definitely not a sign of weakness. In fact, Jesus said, “A meek man is highly prized in the kingdom of God. They inherit the earth.” What in the world is a meek man? A meek man is not a weak man. Meekness could be described like if at one time you were a high-spirited stallion, living out, nobody to tame you, nobody could control you. Then God came into your life. You connected with God in such a way that he was the king of your life. He was the boss of your life and made the decisions of what you did. That is what meekness is. It is a great strength to be under the hand of the Lord and to run to the Lord for your wisdom. From the very beginning God planned that we would run to him. Even with Adam and Eve, He said, “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Come to me.” God has all knowledge. He does not want you to have knowledge of evil. There are people in the world that will try to give you knowledge of evil. If you are a young boy or girl watching this show, I want to tell you something. There will be bigger kids who will try to get you to do things that cause you to run to evil. Let me tell you right now, you will greatly regret it. Do not do it. Just run to God. If you are at school and somebody is trying to get you to partake in something, if it is on the weekend and someone is trying to get you to watch something or do something; run to God. In your mind say, “God help me. God get me out of here, help me.” And he will.

The Bible says there is no temptation taking you that is not common to man. God will make a way to escape that you might be able to bare it. In this time of need, God will show you that way of escape. It might have made you what it is. God has said I am going to supply all that you need. Everything you need. In fact, he says, you know, if the lilies of the field are clothed in all their beauty and the birds have their food, do not you think I will take care of you. Have you ever thought of how rich God has to be to feed all the birds? I mean, you think about the richest man in the world. Can he feed the birds for one single day? No, and God has fed them for years and years and years. God has whatever it is that you need. He is ready and has it planned. He already has how he is going to do it. He has a timing. He is just saying coming to me and I will take care of you. I will make it all work out. So all means all; financial, spiritual, mental, physical and emotional needs. Nothing is too big or too small for God.

What do you pray about? Everything. Anything. You say, “Well, Betty, do you pray about little bitty things like parking places, enough money to go to the grocery store to get what you really need, for God to supply your food and for God to protect you.” Yes. Here is your guideline: if it is important to you, it is important to God. You may think that God has bigger problems to solve and you should not bother Him. America is the biggest mess you could ever imagine. He has big problems. Well, he is a big, big God. He has time for everybody. He has time for you. In fact, the more you run to God with your need, the more real He becomes to you. The greater testimony you have.

What makes people believe in God? What would make a Muslim believe that Jesus is the only son of God? When he sees what Jesus has done for someone. When he sees the love and the care that Jesus has done for someone; it opens his eyes. It opens her eyes. God loves you so much that if you were the only person who ever lived on earth, he would have created the world for you. He would have created music for you, the birds for you and the animals for you. You are that special. You are made in the image of God. He wants this kind of relationship with you. He wants you to run to him. Look at this verse in Philippians 4:19, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.” There is Jesus right there in the middle of it all again, is it not? God meeting all your needs.

When I was growing up, there was a lot of illness in my family; mental illness and a lot of financial disaster. My father lost his whole business due to a disease that occurred with the chickens he was raising. Life could get very, very hard for our family. When I was in high school my mother had to go away for about six weeks. I had to run the house as well as study and be active in school. How did I get through that? It was very hard. I memorized Phillipians 4:13. I would walk around when life got so hard and say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” There is something about saying the Word of God over your problem that strengthens you. Without even realizing it, every time I said that verse I was running to God, every single time. An amazing thing happened. God made me very strong in that situation. Instead of coming out of it a weak person, I came out very strong, because I quoted that verse over and over, along with Phillipians 4:19. My God will meet all my needs according to His riches, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Part of learning to wait for God teaches you patience. Have you ever heard someone say do not ever pray for patience because you will go through the stuff to get it. Well, did you want patience or not? If that is how you get it, that is how you get it. Every character quality you want in your life lies on the other side of some kind of discipline in your life, every one of them. God does not drop patience down like candy. You have to do things, go through things that require you to wait and trust. So you have to wait. What happens when you do not? What happens when you do not really run to God in a time of need? Is there somebody in the Bible like that? Yes, there is; Saul. Saul lost his kingdom because he did not run to God. Saul was one of those people who halfway believed in God, halfway followed God and halfway followed the world. It was like he had one foot in the world and one foot with God. He married women that did not love God or serve God. So he had a lot of things in his life that instead of strengthening him, pulled him away from God. There is nothing like a good woman saying to a man, “Honey, trust God. God is going to do this. Pray. Lean on him. He is going to take you through this.”

Saul did not follow God and he got the kingdom ripped out of his life. Instead of running to God, he took matters in his own hands and did what he wanted to do. He did not wait on God. The prophet Samuel said to him, “What have you done?” “Oh, well, I just didn’t wait. I thought you weren’t going to show up. I thought God wasn’t going to give me the answer. I did this and I did that.” He said, “God has taken the kingdom away from you today and given it to another.” Running to God is actually a fear issue you are dealing with. What do I mean by that? God does not want you coping with fear. He does not want you managing fear. People will teach you how to do that. It may not be a bad technique, but really, God wants you rid of fear. Completely rid. In America life is so easy for some people. There are other people in America that it is extremely hard. If you are in another country, do not think that your life would be so easy if you were just in America. No, there are people that have it so hard, you would not even believe it. But we do not have what is going on in the rest of the world. Where people are just not only living in ‘how am I going to feed my family, how am I going to find work’, they have government leaders making horrible decisions that affect their lives in life-threatening ways. How would you like to live in that, you people that live in America? No, we do not want to live in that. And yet, you have Christian brothers and sisters that need your prayers because they are living in it. They live with fear night and day. It is a horrible thing. And you know what God has available for them? He can tell someone like you to pray for them. You can pray for people you do not know. When I first started walking with the Lord and learning how to really pray, one day I felt like the Lord said to me, “Pray for a woman in Oklahoma.” I got on my knees, I said, “Lord, I do not know what this means, I do not know who this is or what her needs are, but right now, I lift up this woman in Oklahoma.” See, God can do that for you. When you run to him, He can talk to another person that you would never know, never see. He can tell them to pray for this person.

God says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of fear. It is a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.” That is what God has given us; power over our fear and power over our enemies. He has given us love. Love is one of the greatest weapons in the world. You wonder how that can be and think you need a cannon instead. No, you need love. Love conquers all. God has given us a sound mind. You may say, “Lord, my thoughts are racing. I cannot get my mind to calm down. I cannot sleep, I cannot eat.” God says, “I haven’t given you a spirit of fear. I have given you a sound mind.” Do you hear what that says? There is an actual spirit that is fear. God says in Luke, “Behold, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy.” So as a believer, you can say, “You spirit of fear, get out of my house, get out of my life and get away from me. I rebuke you. Get away from me. God has given me power over you. God has given me power in this situation. God has given me love, and God has given me a sound mind. I will sleep. I will eat. I will know what to do because God is my refuge, and I run to Him.”

Why do you need to fight fear? Why is it so important? It is because fear is a spiritual connector to the enemy. Faith is a spiritual connector to God. That is why you have to stay out of fear. I do not care how hard you have to fight it. You have to stay out of it. In my life it is not like I do it one time and it is over. No, it is not like that. It may be an all-out battle. Every thirty minutes I am back at God’s feet saying, “Lord, help me. I am here again. I am running to you again. I am going to fight this thing until it goes away.” Because the Bible specifically says in James, “Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil and he will flee.” It does not say how fast that will happen. Remember it says, first, submit yourself to God. That is what I am talking about. Be a man, be a woman who can run to God and say, “Lord, I do not know how this is going to work out, but I am trusting You and I submit myself to You.” Then you will know how to resist the devil.

He will tell you. And he has to flee. So, if the devil wants to steal from you, if he wants to mess with you, he is going to start dropping fear thoughts into your head. When does he do that? In my life it can happen at night when I am really tired. I can think negative thoughts. It can happen when something unexpected just pops into my life. Fear can hit me, fear can grip me. That is the devil trying to connect with me. You have to say, “No. God, stop that cold. No.” Do you have to grow in that sometimes? Yes, you do. Especially if you have grown up in a fear environment where your family was fear based. You were taught to be afraid of the weather, losing your job, not having enough money, be afraid of this and be afraid of that. For people that have been raised in that kind of environment, you just have to take a real stand against this and fight it until it is out of your life. And then later, if it tries to come back again, do not think, “I guess that didn’t work or I am weak.” No. You say, “Devil, I do not care how many times you try to come back I am standing against you in the name of the Lord. God is my refuge. I am not going to take this fear.”

What is he trying to tell you? It might be that you are going to die. You have this sickness and you are going to die. You have this sin and you will never be rid of it. He will do anything he can to take you away from God and try to get you to run in fear. But, does he always attack weak people? No, no. He attacks people who are very strong in faith. Why? He has to try to stop you. If you are a leader or minister suffering with fear and anxiety, he is going to try to get you. Because then the congregation is unprotected. So, do not listen to that. He looks for your weak area.

Recently I had a man from Africa staying with me. He said to me, “Betty, God’s getting ready to take you to a new level. And when you get there, there will be a new devil there. New levels; new devils. That devil needs to say, “This is not the same Betty that we used to deal with. This is a different Betty.’” He said, “Betty, you need to spend a lot of time alone with God, strengthening yourself right now in this time of rest. Be ready so that when you go to that new level, that new devil goes oh no, here she comes and stronger than ever, because you have run to God.” It made a big impression on me because just two days later I caught on fire and my clothing was burning. My body was burning and I could not get my clothing off. I was so scared and I cried out to Jesus. I prayed in the spirit and then I said, “Jesus, help me, help me, Jesus.” You need to be like that, that the first place you run is to Jesus. He helped me out of that situation. Fear started trying to come to me. I will be honest and tell you what the thought was that hit me. If I could be in my own house doing nothing wrong and nearly die, what is going to happen to me if I go around the world and get in dangerous places, go into dangerous countries or I do things for God? What is going to happen to me? Now, do you see that fear thought kept coming to me and coming to me? I went to God, ran to God. I said, “Lord, this is what I am fearing. God, I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Were you taking care of me? Will you take care of me in other countries?” The Lord spoke to me and said, “Where was I in it?” He named, in my mind, five or six different ways He was there for me. God never promises to take you out and that you will never have any bad things happen to you; that there will be no pain or discomfort. No, He says instead the complete opposite, “In this world, you will have tribulation, but cheer up, I have overcome the world.” He showed me how to overcome that fear. He made me think, “If God was with me then, and He obviously was because I could be dead, then He will be with me no matter where I go.” What else did I think? He says, “I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.” Okay, I do not have to worry then. Anywhere I go, any kind of trouble I get in, all I have to do is say, “Lord, I know You are here because You told me you would never leave me. I know this is going to work out okay because You told me I will never forsake you.” What do you think that new demon thought when he encountered the new Betty? I hope he went, “Oh, trouble, here comes trouble. Oh, she trusts God more than she ever trusted God. She has been through a fire and she trusts God. Let’s get out of here.” I hope that happened.

There is another fear that is going to come against every person on the face of the earth. God says it, He warns you ahead of time. God can warn you ahead of time when you are getting ready to go through something that is going to be very fearful. He will begin to warn you. You can tell, and you can get prepared. Sometimes it hits you out of the blue, like that fire. But sometimes God warns you ahead of time. Has He warned us of an end-time fear that is going to hit the face of the world, everybody? Absolutely, He has. He told us two thousand years ago it was going to happen. Well, what is it? Luke 21:25-26 says, “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” What is God’s answer? Turn and look in your Bible at Isaiah 51:12-13, “Yes, I, even I, am the one who comforts you, so why are you afraid of mere humans who will wither like the grass and disappear. Do not forget your Lord your creator you have, the one who stretches out the sky like a canopy.” Will you remain in constant dread of human oppressors? Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies? Isaiah 54:14 is a good verse to memorize, “In righteousness you will be established, tyranny will be far from you.” You have nothing to fear. It will not come near you, and if anyone does, it will not be my doing. Whatever attacks you will have to surrender to you. Run to God.

QUIET TIME QUESTIONS

1. What do you do when you are in times of need?
2. What is a guideline you can use to know what to pray for?
3. How does God want you to deal with fear?
4. What is the spiritual connection to the enemy and what is the spiritual connection to God?
5. What are the steps to take when running to God with our problems?
6. How can you use Scripture in your times of need?

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