Grab Hold

Welcome to today's episode of the Reflective Spaces Ministry Podcast. I'm Tammy Toney-Butler, Author, Evangelist, and your Host. We all know who the host of this show is in every show that we do. We are guided and led by the Holy Spirit, and that's the way to be led in this hour as believers. We must be led by the Spirit of the Almighty God. Holy Spirit, come, have Your way in this time that we have together. May they see You and not me, hear You and not me. May they be enlightened and awakened by Your Word and be forever changed. May they be an unveiling, an unveiling so that they can see the Truth with spiritual ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see. May they have wisdom. May they have understanding and may they be forever changed. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray and declare all things. Amen. Well, the Lord put today's episode on me, and the title is Grab Hold. Grab Hold. Grab Hold. What are you grabbing onto, believing it will save you? Are you grabbing onto money, to fame, A person, relationship, career, yourself? Who or what are you putting your trust in? Are you trusting in the Deliverer? Are you putting first the Kingdom of God? What's holding you back from total surrender and obedience? We will explore this and more on today's episode of the Reflective Spaces Ministry Podcast. Let's begin shedding layers and healing together. Today, I want to talk to you and preach to you a little bit about the woman with the issue of blood, about the woman with the issue of blood. And I want to read to you the scripture now. And I'm going to be reading out of Luke eight, forty three to forty eight out of the Amplified Bible. And a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years and had spent all her money on physicians and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him, meaning Jesus, and touched the fringe of His outer robe. And immediately her bleeding stopped. Jesus said, who touched me? While they all were denying it, Peter and those who were with Him said, Master, the people are crowding and pushing against You. But Jesus said, someone did touch Me because I was aware that power to heal had gone out of Me. When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came up trembling and fell down before Him. She declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him and how she had been immediately healed. Not in an hour, not in a day, not in six months, but immediately healed. He said to her, daughter, your faith. Your personal trust and confidence in Me has made you well. Go in peace, untroubled, undisturbing. Undisturbed well-being is in quotes. So go in peace. So you're no longer tormented. You're no longer agonizing. You have peace. She knew, she knew if she grabbed hold of the hem of His garment, then she would be made whole. How many of you are refusing the hand that's reaching out to you, that's calling for you, asking you to grab hold, to believe, and to receive all that God has for you? How many of you are not willing to grab hold? To grab hold. Grab hold of the Savior's work done on Calvary. Grab hold. of the healing done on Calvary, on the cross, the execution stake. By His stripes, you were healed. It's past tense. It's already done. Jesus did the work on the cross already. He's reaching out for you. He's inviting you to accept the gift of salvation. But how many of you will do it? How many of you will grab hold of the Savior's hand and walk with the Savior? How many of you will walk with Him in relationship, fully surrendered and obedient to the call He's placed on your life? How many of you will grab hold of that hand? How many of you will grab hold? That's what He's asking you today, to stop, pause, pray, sit still, Wait on the Lord to answer your query, your question. Wait on the Lord to elevate you. Wait on the Lord to bring you out in His perfect timing. Wait on the Lord to be in a relationship that He has for you. Wait on the Lord wait on the Lord. Waiting means that we trust. When we're waiting on our father to come home from work as a little girl and you're waiting on daddy, you're just waiting, trusting that he's going to walk through that door and you're waiting with anticipation. He wants you to wait in complete trust and faith and he will answer you The time is drawing short. We have to make a decision now. Are we going to serve God or man? Are we going to serve God or man? Are we going to partner up with Baal, Baal worship, Baal worship? Are we gonna worship idols, people, things? Are we gonna grab hold of a bottle of wine? Are we gonna grab hold of a pack of cigarettes? Are we gonna grab hold of a new Mercedes? Are we gonna grab hold of a new boat? Are we gonna grab hold of a new car? Are we gonna grab hold of a new house? Are we gonna grab hold of a new boyfriend? Are we gonna grab hold of some other new material possession? Are we gonna grab hold of a new dress? Are we gonna seek comfort? Put our trusted faith in things seen or unseen. Are we going to go to the idols that man offers? More money, putting our faith in our stocks, our careers? Are we going to trust in God and put first the Kingdom of God? The Almighty God. There's only one God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of our precious Lord Jesus. Are we going to put first Him and the kingdom of God? And if we perish, we perish. But we're going to trust Him. We're going to praise Him in the hallway of affliction. We're going to praise Him in the valley. We're going to praise Him on the mountaintop. And we're not going to put anything else first. We're going to realize that everything we have comes from God. And without Him, we are nothing. And it all was because of Jesus' work on the cross. He died. He rose again. He was tortured, beaten, battered, bruised. His skin ripped open. He was disfigured. Truly spit on, ridiculed, mocked. All for us, for a sinner like me, who he set free and set on a pathway to set the others free. He took the shame, the guilt, the fear, the regret, the self-loathing, the heaviness of it all. He washed me clean. He forgave me of everything I'd done. And he helped me by way of his Holy Spirit to forgive myself. That was the hardest thing I had to do was forgive myself. Forgive myself for letting down people. Forgive myself for not being the mother I should have been. Forgive myself for not being the wife at times I should have been. Forgiving myself for putting men and other things and turning to sex and alcohol and sleeping pills instead of turning to my Savior who died so that I didn't have to carry any of that. It was through His work on the cross that we truly are set free, that we're healed, that we're redeemed, we're restored. But what are we grabbing hold of? The hem of His garment, like the woman with the issue of blood? Or the things that this world offers? What are we grabbing hold of? It's time for us to grab hold of the only true being that will never leave us nor forsake us. Our God, the only God. It's time to let go and let God. It's time to pursue the cross. It's time to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Time is running out. He's coming. And we have to make a decision. Are we gonna partner up with the kingdom of darkness? With satan? with the god of this world, the things of this world? Or are we gonna partner up with the Truth, with the Almighty God and His will for our lives? Are we gonna enter into complete surrender where we wake up every day and say, God, not my will, but Yours be done. What would You have me do today? What would You have me do today, God? How can I serve You today, God? But are we getting alone with Him? Are we in relationship? Are we asking Him? He's inviting us. He's inviting us. Salvation is a gift, but do we receive it? Do we accept what's offered? Do we grab hold of what's being given to us? Do we see it as the true gift that it is? A gift of peace, of joy, of love, of rest? What does first John four, nineteen tell us? We love because He first loved us. We love because He first loved us. It's all about love. Are we showing that love to others? Are we showing that love to ourselves? That's a big one. Do we believe that we are worthy to receive that kind of love? That we are worthy to receive the love of Jesus? And the answer is yes. We don't have to do anything to earn it. We don't have to have it all together. We can be a mess. We just have to believe on Jesus and call out to Jesus. Even in the middle of our mess, we just have to believe with our heart. We don't have to be clean. Jesus came for sinners, for those needing a physician, for those that needed to be healed. He didn't come for those that had it all together, that didn't believe they needed a Savior. He came for the lost, the broken, all of us that know that we need Him. I'm nothing without Him. He came for us. We don't have to have it all together to receive the gift of salvation. We just have to believe on Him and receive it. Believe on Him with our whole heart and have His Holy Spirit transform us. And the same way you believe on the Son, Jesus, fully God, fully man, the Son of God, that He rose again, you know, that He died on the cross, rose again, and He was born of the virgin Mary, that you truly believe in your heart that He's the Son of God. When you truly believe on that, then you're saved. And the same way you receive salvation, you receive the Holy Spirit and you believe that the Holy Spirit is in you, leading you, guiding you, strengthening you, bringing you into a fullness of wisdom and understanding, assisting you in prayer. If you don't know how to pray, you say, Holy Spirit, help me to pray. Help me to pray God's will over my life. Help me to pray. But remember to love yourself. And part of loving yourself is setting healthy boundaries, keeping your environment, those closest to you, surrounded, making sure that you're surrounded by those that pour into you, that increase your faith, that help you on your faith journey. that don't entice you to sin, that don't entice you to rebel against God, that don't entice you to go to a bar or sit among thieves or, you know, meaning going into these areas to where you know sin is so rampant. And that if you're in these areas and if you're in this environment, then you could be forced to do something that you shouldn't be doing. And you could be forced to compromise and you could get yourself into trouble. And sadly, we have to be careful of who we surround ourselves with because not everyone has our best intentions at heart. And I don't really know why I got off on this and I don't know who that message is for, but it's for somebody or I wouldn't have spoken about it. Don't be... afraid to set a healthy boundary and say i'm not going to go out with this person i'm not going to be surrounded by by that or or do that in this season of my own personal growth maybe after you grow uh you know and you mature and you're in a a more healthy place yourself then you can go into those areas and minister to those people and do those things um and then you won't worry about your faith being compromised because you've built yourself up on the Rock and you've put first the Kingdom of God and you've surrounded yourself um by His Word and and you've you've actually worn the Word you've put on the garment of Christ And when you put on the garment of Christ and when you wear Christ, then you can go into those areas, into those places of demonic influence. And you can bring the power of the Almighty God into that area with you. And you can break off strongholds. And you can break off the demonic influences in the region. But you first have to be strong enough and matured in the love, in the Lord. And you have to have a relationship with the Almighty God. You know, the spiritual realm, My people perish for lack of knowledge. You got to make sure that you have built yourself up so much in the faith and that you're strong in the spiritual realm. And that the demons tremble when you walk into a room like they did with Jesus. When you walk into a house of worship, when the demons that are in there, that they tremble because they know you. Because they know you. Like the sons of Sceva, maybe they don't know them, but they knew Paul and they knew Jesus. And they need to know you so that when you go into that region, when you go into that territory, they know that the almighty God is with you and the angel of the Lord encamps about you. And that is who you need to take into a room. But you need to be built up in the Spirit first. And you need to make sure when you are engaging and going into these areas that you have been equipped, that you have been elevated by God Almighty. Because if you do not... Put first God and have a relationship with God. And you go out there and try to preach in some of these areas that you have no spiritual backing to be in. Then you open yourself up for tremendous spiritual warfare. And that is not something that you want to have happen. So you need to make sure that you spent years in the secret place, that you have grown in the relationship with God, that He has called you to those areas. He has called you to those places that He goes before you. He is also your rear guard that He is with you that He is the one speaking through you that He is the one rising up and bringing down those demonic strongholds that you don't believe that you're doing it in your own strength you could only give God the credit Because it's only the Almighty God and the power of the Almighty God that's going to bring down those demonic influences. We have the victory. The victory is in Christ Jesus. But we need to make sure that we're wearing Christ, that Christ is in us, that Christ is working through us. We have to be so rooted in Christ. so deeply rooted in His Word we have to be in a relationship with Him and we have to know that we know that we know that He's our God and we have to trust and we have to obey and we have to surrender and we have to have the fire and the power of the almighty God in us and with us and working through us before we dare step into those demonic areas before we dare step into those places and try to bring down those strongholds and bring down the strongholds in that region But when you're ready and He's equipped you, then you go and you war for the Kingdom of God and you don't step back and you don't turn back. You go, you put your foot in the Red Sea and you know that He's with you and you know the angel's armies are with you and the angel of the Lord encamped about you. Then you go, you go and you fight and you bring down those strongholds. You speak to those areas. You speak to those raw wounds in your life and you say, be healed, be healed, be healed. You speak to those influences around you and you say not here. As for this house, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. As for this land, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. As for this territory, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. As for this city, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. As for this community, as for this world, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And you go bold for God. You go strong for God. But you've got to make sure that the fire of God is in you because He has chosen. He has elevated some. He has chosen and He has elevated those that have spent time with Him in the secret place that He has elevated in the spiritual realm to be able to have the power and authority to speak to those demonic influences and to bring down those Jericho walls. But you've got to be so rooted in Christ. You've got to have the fire and the power of God in you. And you've got to make sure that you're walking in there with heaven's armies before you dare step out and step into some of those places. Because my people perish for lack of knowledge. My people perish for lack of knowledge. And they need to understand that it is Me who's fighting the battle. But many of them don't even know Me. They don't even see Me. They don't even call out to Me. Are you calling out to God? Does He know you? Does He know you? Do the demons tremble when you walk into a room? Make sure in this season that you're drawing close to God, close to the Source, that you're staying in communion with Him. that you're staying in communion with God, that you're staying in communion with God, that He's growing you spiritually, that you're maturing from milk to meat, because as a body, as a remnant, we need it for what's coming, for what's coming, for what's coming. And that's the message that He has for you today. That's the message He has for you today. He wants you to grab hold. He's stretching out His arm. He's stretching out His hand. He's asking you to draw near Him. He's asking you to draw near. He's asking you and inviting you into a relationship. But will you do it? Will you grab hold? He's waiting. He's waiting. He's waiting. And that's today's episode of the Reflective Spaces Ministry Podcast. I'm Tammy Toney-Butler, Author, Evangelist, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, sinner who He set free, restored, and redeemed. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus.