Priscilla Shirer speaks at the Propel Women’s Conference to discuss how we have become desensitized to our blessings. Listen as she teaches that due to this, we often do not even recognize God’s presence in our lives.
but you can read a verse a day to keep
the devil away until you are blue in the
face
but if you read the scriptures with a
hardened heart with your eyes
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of religious activity and never catch
sight of the lover of your soul
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it occurs to me that those of us who
live particularly in this part of the
world where we have been overwhelmingly
blessed by the presence and the power of
God Among Us we’re here in this country
you and I can go on a Saturday to a
Christian women event like this one or
we can go to a Christian bookstore when
we can pick up any Bible in any
translation in any language or we can
turn on Christian radio and listen to
gospel if you like that or contemporary
Christian music if you like that we have
options available to us could it be that
we have lived in this neighborhood of
blessing for so long that open the train
of God’s glory wants to fall in an
unusual way when he wants to show up in
power and in glory that we have become
so used to it that we don’t even
recognize his blessing anymore
that we’ve become so desensitized to
God’s presence Among Us that it doesn’t
cause us as it always should for us to
fall to our knees in adoration our arms
outstretched and worshiped that God
would visit us in this unique beautiful
way Lord help us to never be
desensitized to the train of your glory
and in the Old Testament or in the New
Testament rather in the Book of Luke
Luke’s gospel I love so much because
Luke writes about people who encounter
the train of God’s glory in the person
of Jesus Christ he gives a story after
Story encounter after Encounter of Jesus
meeting with people and transforming
their life he included a handful of
these stories so that you and I would be
not only reminded of their Encounter
With Jesus but recognize that they are
not exceptions to the rule they are
examples for us of the encounters that
we should also expect to have with Jesus
and listen this should be your goal not
just hearing about him but experiencing
him that should be your goal like your
appetite should be wet your heart should
Hunger for More Than Just a knowledge of
who Jesus is you ought to come to the
place I ought to come to the place in my
relationship with the Lord where more
than anything else we want to see him
with our own eyes we want to hear his
voice with our own ears that the same
God who divided the Red Sea in the Old
Testament the same God who raises
Lazarus from the dead in the New
Testament the same God that did those
things we don’t want to just celebrate
it in the lives of other people we want
to stand in line to have an encounter
with God like that ourselves
Luke writes about encounters because he
wants to wet our appetite to have an
encounter with Jesus Christ because
listen y’all we have wasted our time if
all we’ve done is come here on this
Saturday to applaud what Jesus did
yesterday I’m so glad about what my God
has done yesterday but I want to see him
today anybody interested I want to see
him in my own marriage and in my own
finances and raising my kids and on my
job and in my Ministry I want to see and
encounter the power of the almighty
Living God
that’s what today is about
it’s to make you hungry again it’s to
wet your appetite again it’s to not let
when the day ends something to end in
your life but really to launch you
forward to a brand new beginning and an
adventure with Jesus Christ so Luke
writes about encounters and he writes
during a time when the nation of Israel
is experiencing National depravity and
Decay they have been oppressed by
oppressors who have come in and stolen
from them much of what they valued they
are living in a in a place of Oppression
and a place of Destruction and Luke
writes to them during this time when
their nation is in trouble and I don’t
know if if you’ve noticed or not but our
nation is in trouble we are living
during a time of moral and social Decay
and decline like never before and listen
the more God is marginalized the more he
segmented to the periphery of society
the more he has completely ignored or
disregarded the more we will continue to
see an influx of chaos and an influx of
destruction in our nation
but Luke doesn’t just write to people
who have National trouble Luke is
writing to people that have individual
personal struggles they’ve been waiting
on a hero to show up they’ve been
waiting for the kingdom of God to be at
hand they’ve been waiting for the
Prophecies of all to come to Florissant
that there would be a messiah a savior
who would come and rescue them from all
that they’ve been experiencing
nationally but also the things that they
have been experiencing personally
so I know our nation is in trouble but I
didn’t really come to talk to you today
about what’s happening in the White
House I want to talk to you about what’s
happening in your house
underneath the roof of your home the
trouble that might be happening in your
marriage the thing that causes the tears
to fall down from your eyes in regards
to your kids or your finances or your
health or on your job or in your
ministry you like the children of Israel
like me been waiting on a hero somebody
who can come in and Speak Life to the
dead places and refresh the dry places
of our life Luke is writing for people
who need an encounter with a God Like
That
and I just want to tell any of you that
might be in a struggle personally
underneath the roof of your own house
and the landscape of your own house and
you’re in a struggle you’re in a time
like Luke writes to where man things are
just plain old flat out difficult I just
want to
suggest to you the possibility
that sometimes
sometimes your difficulties are less
about the Enemy being against you
and more about God wanting to show you
what it looks like when he’s for you
sometimes the stuff that you were facing
the stuff that I’m facing that are
difficult it’s less about the Enemy
being against you and sometimes it’s
just about God allowing a stage to be
set in your life to where when he shows
up you will never ever doubt again that
you’ve had an encounter with Jesus
so the children of Israel need an
encounter with a messiah
they need an encounter with Jesus Christ
and finally Jesus arrives on the scene
after 400 years of Silence between the
Old Testament and the New Testament
Jesus arrives on the scene after
centuries of waiting after prophecy
Desiring to be fulfilled Jesus shows up
on the scene their hope has finally be
been fulfilled but here’s the tragedy
when he comes he does not come as they
supposed he would he is not on the
throne he is not riding a white horse he
is not coming in power and Vengeance and
Authority that they had mirrored in
their oppressors that they had pictured
that their Messiah would come in no he
is born as a baby all of that deity and
authority and miraculous working power
that they longed for was packaged in the
skin of humanity and a small human at
that this is not what they wanted it’s
not what they recognized it wasn’t the
expectation they had built up in their
heads so when he came they did not
recognize him
when he showed up because he was not in
the package that they had pictured in
their minds
he didn’t come in the package they had
prayed for
he had come in a different way because
he did not meet their expectations when
he showed up they did not recognize him
in the passage that we read Jesus is
being brought into the temple he is
being carried by his mother Mary Joseph
is along for the ride as well they have
come with Jesus about 40 days old into
the temple they are in a religious
gathering where people have come to
perform their religious duties
and all the people who were gathered
that day are in the presence of the one
they prayed for and do not know him when
he comes
would you please notice that they’re not
just anywhere
they are in the temple
and still don’t recognize the presence
of God
I want to suggest to you that it is
possible to be at Propel and not see
Jesus
I want to tell you that it is possible
for you to be in your church every
single Sunday which I pray you are but
you can be in your church and not have
an encounter with Jesus
I want to tell you that I’m so glad many
of you are in Bible study stay in Bible
study but you can read a verse a day to
keep the devil away until you are blue
in the face
but if you read the scriptures with a
hardened heart with your eyes not open
you can be filling your days with the
duty of religious activity and never
catch sight of the lover of your soul
never have an encounter an experience
with Jesus all these people
we’re in the presence of Jesus Christ
and did not know him when he came
because oftentimes many times
when the Lord comes to minister to you
to speak into your life’s circumstances
he will come in a way that is not the
way you expect it