Toure Roberts - Carpe Diem

I wish I had some radical people whose faith was so strong that you would receive it instantly; if I didn’t say one more thing, you would walk out of here saying, «I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. Come on, I got it, I got it! Oh God, I feel the Holy Ghost. I feel those holy ghosts in His house today. Lord, help me get through this.» The moment that Joshua was standing in was an interesting moment, not unlike the moments we find ourselves in. It’s that sudden instant when the moment we have been hearing about, praying about, and waiting for actually shows up. That’s an interesting moment for a believer because one of the things I’ve learned about walking with God and having faith is that sometimes, particularly when you’ve been waiting for something a long time, you still have faith, but you don’t possess what I call manifestation faith. You have faith to have more faith; you have faith to hold on. I feel the Lord. You have faith to hold on, but you don’t have faith to enter. So, God has given you a word, and you’ve been holding on to that word, right? Your faith allows you not to fall over, give up, or quit, right? It’s faith to just hold on. And watch this: it’s faith for faith. But when you’re in a season, when you’re in a moment of manifestation, when the promise of God is due, it is right—the vision is for an appointed time. When the appointed time shows up, there is oftentimes a renewal of faith or a greater dimension of faith that will take you beyond faith for faith, and faith to enter in. Are you tracking with me? That’s why when you enter into these big moments where God is getting ready to do something, a lot of times, as excited as you are, you’re also intimidated. Can I talk to some real people right now? You’re excited on one hand, but you can be intimidated, and sometimes you’re even suspicious because you’ve been waiting. Let me tell you something; delay is a tricky thing. I know we talk about delay not denying. I know we have all these cute little phrases but a long, drawn-out delay can mess you up. You won’t say it because you’re too spiritual to admit it, but a longer delay, right? You’ll have resigned, watch this, to the posture of «one day it might come.» Come on, let me talk to some real favor in God’s house today, please. And God knows this, so Joshua finds himself in this moment. You know how I know Joshua was probably feeling like this? Because why would God feel the need to establish him? This had already been discussed when Moses was alive. As God approaches Joshua and begins to talk to him, be careful in those moments of manifestation when all these thoughts come; you start suspecting the blessing, and everybody begins to feel suspicious about the blessing. I feel it. God sends the person; He sends the help, but you’re looking at them sideways. You prayed for this, and then it shows up, but because it took too long to appear, you have discounted it, disqualified it. You think, «Oh,» and any little thing… I’m saying this for somebody. Any little thing that is wrong with it, you’ll be like, «See?» He didn’t promise you perfection; He promised you a blessing with little things. And all these thoughts are designed to watch this, to distract you from the critical reality—watch this—that you have been amply prepared for the moment you’re standing in. One of the things I’ve learned about God is that He is the master of preparation, and that is both a blessing and a frustration at the same time. He is a master at preparation because He knows the end from the beginning. He has a keen understanding of what it takes to make something happen. He knows who you need to be in order for it to happen for you and how the world needs to be set up for you. Some of you have an anointing that the world isn’t even ready for, and you’re wondering why it hasn’t happened. There are some things that God has to orchestrate in the universe to prepare the world for you. Sometimes it’s that you need to be prepared; other times, He has to prepare what’s around you. I feel the Holy Ghost, and you’re like, «God, I’m ready! I’m ready!» And sometimes you are, but what’s around you isn’t. What do you do when you’re ready, but it doesn’t happen? You trust God. You trust that God is the master. Oh God, He is the master of preparation. I looked up that word prepare, and it comes from the Latin word «praeparare.» I probably messed that up, but the point is going to be effective; trust me. It’s comprised of two words: before and to make ready. You put those two together, and we understand how God works—God makes ready before. Oh God, He gets you ready. So all these distractions, all these distractions are ultimately designed, when you step into a moment, to keep you from the fact that you have been amply prepared. And that’s sometimes where the frustration comes in. There’s… I guess I didn’t mention the frustration part. The frustration part is that God…