Keion Henderson - From Pain to Permission

The Lord told me to tell you He’s getting ready to move you from pain to permission. I don’t know who this word is for, but the thing that you thought was too hard, God says in this next season, I’m about to give you permission. Watch this: to do even the things that you doubt about yourself. My goal today is to erase all of the doubt from your head and help you know that come hell or high water, you’re going to accomplish exactly what God has put in your spirit to accomplish. If you believe it, say, «I believe it! I believe it!» Give your neighbor a high five before you sit down and tell them you’re moving from pain to permission.

So often in life, you will find yourself placed in painful positions you didn’t even ask for. Raise your hand if you’ve ever gone through something and then looked up and said, «Why me? Why now?» Let 's just have a conversation-not only «Why me? Why now?"-but you start asking yourself questions like, «What did I do? Why me?» And if you 're petty, you’ll be like, " I know some people who deserve this .» But nobody is born expecting to have cancer. No mother ever gives birth to a child only to have to bury them. Nobody ever gets in their car intending to get hit by a drunk driver. You just sometimes end up going through things that are a part of the plan, and you don’t even know where they came from. You ate healthy and still got sick. You treated people right and still got misused.

Have you ever given somebody everything you had, and when you needed just a little bit in return, they acted like it was a bother for them to be there for you? Somehow, they forgot that if it wasn’t for you… Holla at your boy! If I’m talking to you, it’s just a difficult position in life. And this is not just for those of us who live in 2024; this happens throughout history and is written in the Bible. Job did not ask for all ten of his children to be killed. He did not ask for all of his cattle to be destroyed. He did not ask to go from being the richest man in the East to having nothing. But without that, he never would have received double for his trouble. So sometimes the cost of gain is loss.

When you ask God for more, you have to understand, as I told you last week, that you cannot be filled for the second time until you’ve been emptied for the first time. Now, Paul never asked to be walking up the road to Damascus to kill Christians and suddenly be blinded and thrown to the ground, usurped by the Lord. The Lord stopped speaking to him and said, «Paul, I know what your plans are, but I have a different design for your life.»

You see, what you have to understand is that what you’re going through right now is the design of your life. Your life has been designed by God. His ways are not your ways, and His thoughts are not your thoughts. So God has a plan that’s above anything you could ever ask or think. He knows that you’ve got to be vexed, cry, go through pain, be picked on, and be prodded. But He also knows this: that weeping only endures for a night; joy comes in the morning. I know for sure that when you come out of this fire, you will come out as pure gold. You will come out like the Hebrew boys, not even smelling like smoke.

In fact, do me a favor and tell your neighbor, «I do not look like what I’ve been through.» If you had known what I’ve been through, you probably would move away from me because anyone who has been through what I’ve been through is liable to just pop off at any moment. But somehow, the peace of God-talk to me, somebody-the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

Oh, you don’t know! Job didn’t know. Isaac had no idea that when his father was taking him up that mountain, he was supposed to be the sacrifice. He had no idea because if he had known, he would not have gone. I can just stop right there and preach. See, if God had told you the pain you were going to have to endure, you would have set that one out. You would have said, «God, I’m going to stay home; I’m not going to go through that.» If He had told you ahead of time how many times you were going to cry, you would have stayed at home. If He had told you how much depression, stress, and frustration were coming your way… and He put you in a position to win.

He didn’t tell you, «I’m going to let them say everything about you, but I’m not going to let you say anything about them.» Does anybody have that thing in your spirit where you just want to get even?