Amen, a customary statement at the end of a prayer or during preaching to express our agreement with what is said and the hope that it will take place. But, AMEN is so much more than just a statement.
● AMEN is an attitude, a posture, a way of life.
● AMEN is a response that unlocks the abundance of Heaven.
● AMEN is our resounding YES to all that God says. It is also a resounding YES from God to his children.
AMEN is our emphatic agreement with all that God has said that He will do. So, what do you do when you don’t agree?
What do you do when you struggle to see any evidence of the presence of God in your life?
What do you do when your spending time in God’s word and praying but aren’t getting anything out of it? The void of silence from Heaven.
What do you do when you’ve been waiting for God to fulfill a promise to you for so long that you no longer believe that it will ever happen?
AMEN requires us to be honest with God.
Discouragement isn’t just the opposite of hope. It is the killer of it. One of the most poisonous elements about discouragement is that it makes you feel like you are all alone, that no one else is going through or has gone through the experience of feeling far from or separated from God. This belief keeps us from speaking out about our brokenness to others, especially God, because we harbor an incorrect belief that He has somehow betrayed us.
What you need to recognize is that what you are experiencing is not normal for the Kingdom, but it is not uncommon in our world. You are in good company and you need to be honest with your King about what you are going through. It doesn’t make you a complainer or ungrateful. It makes you someone that needs a savior!
● King David complained more than anyone else in all of scripture! And yet, God considered him a man after his own heart. (1 Sam 13:14)
○ Psalm 10:1, 13:1-4, 22:1-2, 60:1-3, 79:1-5
In every case of David complaining, it was quickly followed up by his bold declaration of God’s goodness and impending deliverance. Acknowledging our mis-alignment opens the path to become aligned. The obstacle that you believe is keeping you from God is in fact the way to God! This is part of the Enemy’s great deception!
Being honest with God will bring you to the point of verbalizing what you need from Him! If you don’t talk about it, you will be prevented from ever making a petition to God about it!
● Matthew 7:11b “...how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
● Mark 9:21-24 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, “If you can? All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe, help my unbelief.”
AMEN requires us to shift our point of view.
Part of our disadvantage is that we have a limited view of eternity. We were designed for eternity but only possess vision for the present. We know what we have experienced in the past, and we can see what is happening in the now, but we have zero visibility about what the next 10 minutes will bring, much less the next 10 years.
This is often referred to as the difference between short-term and long-term vision. But, the truth is that we don’t even have short-term vision. At best, we have now-term vision. The way to get beyond now-term vision is to recognize that, just like nature, there are different seasons in life.
● Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Just consider the life of a farmer. There is a season to till the ground and prepare the soil. Then there is a season of planting and sowing into the soil. Then the fields need watered, regularly. The fields need to be weeded to remove things that compete for the crops resources. Eventually, the fields need harvested, long days of working in the sun, picking and collecting the crop. All of which is hard toilsome work! Where is the feeling of being blessed in that process? And yet, what a wonderful sense of blessing when the crop has been brought in and the celebration takes place for having barns that are full!
Just because you are in the middle of weeding your fields doesn’t mean that the harvest isn’t coming.
Don’t confuse the moment for the mission! Your now-vision will only take in the circumstances of today and they can be extremely misleading when held in the light of the long-term mission. Jesus gave us the perfect example of how to accept the immediate in order to achieve the eternal.
● John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
“Right now” is not all that there is.
AMEN requires us to take action.
AMEN is a person, and his name is Jesus (Rev. 3:14). Jesus is also the person through whom all of creation was made! Our alignment with HIM allows us to access that creative authority and call forth life and hope when there is none visible. He is our means of fighting through the challenges of this life to all that He has for us.
● Matthew 26:42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
What was Jesus referring to when he said “if this cannot pass away”? The power of the enemy and the kingdom of this world. Jesus broke the power of the enemy and replaced it with the power and authority of the Kingdom of Heaven. We have access to that power!
That means that we need to sometimes do the opposite of what we feel and instead act out in defiance of our circumstances and experiences in favor of all the good that God has spoken over us and the blessings that He has for us.