Janice Sjostrand Fearless Conference 2019 Message

You're not alone, I tell you. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I want you to make sure he knows you're here. I want you to make sure he knows he's got your name. I want you to make sure your cry enters into his temple. Go ahead and cry out to him on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking dead.

You don't know the cost of this soil.

In my alabaster.

I am the alabaster box. And I'm going to open my heart to you tonight. And I'm going to worship him in front of you. And I hope the house is filled with the fragrance of my praise. I hope you catch a glimpse of what he means to me. How precious it is for me to be here with my precious friends, Ron and Hope Carpenter. Every time I see him again, I remind you myself why I love them. They touch my heart. They have for years. And then to be here with Ron's mom and Hope's mom and dad. These are people that I've been with over the years. And to see you still going, still loving the Lord. I recognize I'm in a young crowd. You may be seated. I'm thinking of all the songs I want to sing. Sing to you. Y el gusto es mio. Tambien que yo estoy aqui con mi otra familia de la sangre del nombre El poder de Jesu Cristo Gloria Dios soy parte de la Rosa Soy Latina Si demi corazon and I am also a blue SOA A blue eyed soul sister. I was raised on Andre Crouch and James Cleveland. Shirley Caesar. Right here in Southern California. Walter Hawkins and Love A Life center. And so a change No, I can't do it. Because you don't know it. You're too young.

Lord, he changed my life complete and now I sit I sit at his.

Feet.

To do what must be done.

I started it serving in that nine and now I'm 61 oh, some kind.

Of change A wonderful change Sing it with me. Has come over me A wonderful change has come by me Lord he changed my life complete and now I said.

I sit at his feet I'm so glad he changed me to do what must be done I'm gonna work and.

Work until he comes.

Everyone oh.

Has come over me has come.

I'm free.

Oh one definitely me.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah Hallelujah now don't make me sing another one. Sit down. To stand in my home state and to come back after a lifetime of experiences and stand in this sacred hour and moment and deliver this word to my people. It's so moving to me. The Bible says in Mark, 20th, the 12th chapter, the 30th verse, that I'm going to read the Bible, okay? So I just want you to stay with me. It's my textbook. It's my template for explaining my own life. And so In Mark the 12th chapter and the 30th verse, it says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. And then in first Thessalonians 5 and 23, Paul proclaims his wish for all of us. And it's just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. And he said this and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. That's W H O L L Y. That means completely and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, I recognize, having lived this many years, and I never dreamed that I'd see 61. I didn't think I'd see 16. I knew Jesus was coming. I've been married 42 years in November. I have two daughters. One is married, the other is single and living at home. Both of them are gainfully employed and in the ministry. And now I have two little granddaughters. I didn't see that in my future, but now this word has become so poignant to me because I've lived long enough to recognize that there are three parts of me in transition at any given time, and they overlap each other. Your whole spirit, soul and body. And I want you to notice that he qualifies the work of God. He says, the God of peace. We are not living in a peaceful time. The world is distressed and conflict abounds. And I have to be honest with you, my most of the conflicts that I have suffered have not been without. They've been within. There have been conflicts between my body, my soul and my spirit. And Paul recognized that God could do a work of sanctification in all three parts of me. And he said, I'm praying the that the God of peace will sanctify you completely, that all your parts will be declared holy unto the Lord and preserved blameless. Now I just want to zero in on one third of that Trinity. Spirit, soul and body. The spirit is going to go back to God that gave it when I draw my last breath. And my body's going to go back to the Earth from which it was created. But my soul is what's at stake. And there are three parts of my soul that leave me in conflict. My mind, my heart, and my will. Those are the three things that I have battled most of my life. Being pulled between thoughts and feelings and a will of my own. I've been ambushed by my own self numerous times. Have you ever been in a situation where you said, where did that come from? Did I just say that? Girl, what's the matter with you? And I'm conflicted, and it makes me a difficult person to live with. And I'm so glad my husband's not here to witness. But Mark said the Lord wants you to love him with all your parts. Your heart, your mind, and your strength. So the only way I can truly be fearless is to be challenged here and here and here. And I call the will your fortitude. That's your. That's the guts of who you are. It's just your strength. So there's a story in the Bible that speaks to this so well, I cannot do but to capitalize on it. And it's the story of a family that is being torn apart by conflict. And Jesus resolves the conflict. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Two sisters and one brother. And the first time we see them, in the book of Luke, the tenth chapter, the Bible says Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. So it sounds to me like she was the one who was paying the bills. I associate Martha with practicality because the Bible said she welcomed him and she was busy serving. You know, behind every one of these beautiful meetings, behind everything that you see is work, work. Nothing happens without it. Everything that is operated here is the function of somebody's service. We could not survive without the Marthas. Martha is the one who recognized that while everybody else was listening to Jesus, someone was going to get hungry. The problem is, the Bible says that while Martha was serving, she became cumbered with her service. So I think Martha was practical, pragmatic. I think she was the person who counted how many heads and counted how many loaves and fishes would be necessary to feed everybody. I think that she already scanned the crowd and determined that we'd need X number of this, that, and the other, and she was busy taking care of it. And then it just got too big and she got upset. You know, it's easy to ask Jesus into your house, say, come into my life, and then allow yourself to become distracted by serving him. How is that possible when we emphasize service? And it's necessary because every one of these chairs had to be placed, this carpet had to be vacuumed. When I look around and I see beautiful things, I'm looking at the work underneath it because that I recognize somebody put in a bunch of labor. And Martha was doing a service to the Lord, but the problem was it wasn't the appropriate time. There was something more important. But she was so overcome by her service that she missed an opportunity. And when she could have asked Jesus for anything under the sun, this was her request, driven by her distracted cumbered service.

Lord, why don't you tell my sister to get up and get in this kitchen and help me serve?

You know, when you are overworked, when you're in the presence of the Lord, and it ain't doing nothing for you because you're too busy doing something for him. And so Jesus did not address her tone. He did not address. He wasn't alarmed, afraid, upset, angry at her honesty. She just vented right all over him, The King of creation and holy is his name.

Why don't you tell my sister to get up and help me?

I know nobody here does that. It's Midwest, people. I'm in the Midwest now. And he turned around to her, and he did not address her conversation. He did not address her tone. He did not address the impropriety of what she did. He just simply said, martha, Martha, focus. You, Pam, are careful and troubled about many things. So in essence, what he was saying is the reason you are where you are right now is not because of the absence of Mary. You are full of care, anxiety. And then he said, but one thing is needful. So when I feel myself being overwhelmed by all the hats that I wear, and there's not a woman in this room that doesn't wear more than one, I have to remind myself that only one thing is needful. Mary was sitting still, mouth open, eyes focused, drinking every word, pulling to herself what she would need. The contrast between these two sisters is enormous. And I would like to say to you, it is the contrast between your thinking head and your feeling heart. Your head measures how much you have in your bank account, how tall you are, what you weigh, what you owe, what you don't, how much food you need to buy to set on the table. Your thinking mind is a gift from God. God did not say, I want only your heart. He wants to deal with our thoughts. And Paul said, I believe the God.

Of peace wants to get in your head.

And so there is Martha. And we don't read that she ever says another word after Jesus says, one thing is needful. And Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. I think she just went back and spread on some more mayonnaise and said, well, forget about it.

At that point, it would have been.

More appropriate for her to leave the kitchen and tell them if they want a sandwich, there's peanut butter and jelly over there in the pantry. Help yourself. I need to hear what he's going to say.

I'm going to tell you something. I've never gotten so big, so important or so necessary that I don't need.

To sit still and hear the word of the Lord.

And one time even said, stand still and see the salvation. I don't want to be so busy that I can't be bothered by listening to what Jesus has to say to me. It's the only thing that will get through to my mind.

He said, I want your head, Martha. I want your head now. This is what's amazing. In this conflict, we see one the worker and one the worshiper. And both things are necessary. I don't want you to leave here tonight thinking that service is not essential and it's a carnal part. I think God wants to penetrate your thinking mind and make it holy to him so he can use it for his use.

There are times we need to count. And you need to be able to be discerning and you need to be.

Able to be aware, and you need.

To know when to do what with your thinking mind. But the only way it's going to be usable with God is if he sanctifies it.

Otherwise, we realize that Martha, service, see, ceased to be worshiped because she was in conflict. And we cannot separate our service from our condition. Hear me now. It is a dangerous thing to serve God day after day when you have not been in his presence. I need Him a whole lot more than he needs me. She was so overly occupied and distracted. Now we jump to John, the 11th chapter and the first verse, and there's this lengthy story, and I'm just going to tell it to you, but I'm giving you the story so you can access it for your own personal edification. It begins like this. Now, a certain man was sick. This is the only time we've seen Lazarus. In this story, the first time Jesus came by the house, all we saw was Martha and Mary. He was not present. So here we have a family of three, and 1/3 of them is not even there. Sometimes, even though we may have a mind of service and a heart of worship, we are missing the strength of a will. I Like to think that Lazarus represents willpower. I know that women are strong. And this is not a discussion about gender differences and equality. This is a discussion about using the healing of a family to expose to you God's desire to heal and sanctify your mind and your heart and your will and to bring all three parts of you into harmony so you don't go home ripped apart by your thoughts and your feelings and whatever your will is doing right now. We see that Lazarus has not been present in the conversation at all. He's nowhere to be found in the house. He's not mitigating the conflict. He's not mediating. I don't know where he was, but he wasn't named. But the next time we see him, he's sick. You can say, well, I can do without my will. I can just go with my head and my heart. I'm going to tell you something. Your will is essential to carrying out thoughts and feelings. And without your will, you're gutted. You don't have any strength. And the Bible said that he was sick. A sick will. Diseased, inconsistent, unstable, untrustworthy, unfaithful, undedicated, uncommitted. If you have, and I have, a will like that, then we are pulled by whatever is the strongest force in our lives without any stability. I'm talking about why we lay awake some nights and can't sleep. I'm talking about being fearless. You see, God loved. And the Bible says in the fifth verse now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Jesus is not ashamed of my mind. He's not ashamed of my heart. And he's not ashamed of the condition of my will. If I love him, I can open.

The door and let him do a work in me. And I won't have to fake it till I make it. When he begins to change me, the transformation will speak for itself in my actions. You don't have to find out what I've been thinking. You can look at the way I've been walking. You don't have to wonder where I've been worshiping. You can listen to the way I've been talking. You can. You don't have to wonder what my will is because I have denied myself every day and taken up my cross. Because Jesus is sanctifying my thoughts and my heart and my will for his use. Lift your hands and let's praise the Lord right now. I'm telling you, God wants to make you fearless, but he doesn't want to do it because you dreamed a dream or had A vision. God wants to make you fearless because he got in your head and changed the way you think. He wants to get in your heart and change the way you feel. And he wants to get to the root of the matter. What is your will? Lift your hands right now.

Let's praise Him.

Hallelujah.

And Jesus heard the sisters.

The head and the heart got together.

And said, we in trouble.

I can see it.

Said Martha, Mary, I can see it. And they agreed, we got to go get Jesus.

They agreed. The head and the heart agreed. There's a third of me that's sick. I know I'm sick. I need help. And Jesus said, this sickness is not unto death. What do you mean it's not unto death? I know that sounds like la la la la la to me. I don't get it. I'm sick. I need God to show up.

First day goes by, he doesn't show up. Second day goes by, he doesn't show up.

Third day goes by, he doesn't show up. He's already dead. And he's in a tomb with a stone rolled away in front of it. And on the fourth day, Jesus gets up and says, time to go.

You know that song, he's never early, he's never late.

He's right on time. I suppose it depends on what your expectation is. If you intend to keep God in a box, then you're always going to be offended at what he does and doesn't do. But once you recognize that his goal is that the God of peace gets to your head, your heart, and your will, you'll say, I don't know when he's coming, but he's going to do something for me. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint.

But Mary and Martha didn't know this. And they said, well, Jesus, don't you know the Jews are going to be there and they're going to hurt you? He said, yeah, they 12 hours in a day, we're walking in the day, Lazarus is asleep. I go that I can wake him up. And one of them says, well, if he's sleeping, he's doing real good. And he turned around and said, he's dead. Now, I'm going to tell you, if you're going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, your will at some point is going to have to die. And it's an ugly thing.

You are going to fight. And you may want a position.

You may want a Car, a job.

I don't know what you want, but I'm going to tell you what. If you're going to be a disciple of this king, he has a dominion. He wants dominion in your head, dominion in your heart, and dominion in your will. And there's going to be a point when if you're going to follow him, you are going to have to die to what you want the most and say, like he did, oh, not my will, but thine be done.

I'm talking about internal conflict, California. I'm talking about when your head and your heart are fighting and you don't have any willpower. My mama says he's anybody's dog that will hunt him. I don't know if you know what that means. What it means is wherever I get what I want is where I go. That is not a submitted will. And Lazarus was behind a stone, in rigor mortis and stinking. It does not get any worse than that when you have lost your will, but you haven't lost your love for Jesus. But I'm going to tell you what happened here. Before it got good, it got bad. They were offended at him. Then Jesus said, I going to go see him. And he got there. And you know who met him first? The reasoning one. And this is what she said to him. If you had been here. This is a rational thought. It's cognitive. It's logical. It's A plus B equals C. If you had been here, he wouldn't have died. And so Jesus didn't slap her upside the head and say, shut up, woman. I am alpha and Omega. He reasoned with her, come, let us reason together.

Though your sins be like Scarlet. You know what I love about God? He's not afraid of my questions, my doubts. He's not afraid of my issues. He's not afraid of my thoughts. I hear him saying to me, come on, bring your. Come on, bring. What's bothering you, girl? What's wrong with you? Well, Jesus, I prayed a prayer and you didn't answer it. And Jesus, you know, if you'd have been here, XYZ wouldn't have happened. My God is so strong that he can take on my questions, my challenges. Why is he doing that? He's trying to sanctify my mind and make me fearless. Now she's scared. She thought she could trust him, but.

She'S not so sure. I counted on you, and you weren't here. If you'd have been here, he wouldn't have died. And Jesus turned around with this. He's going to live again. And she didn't shut up. I love her. I have Martha in my name somewhere. Girl just won't shut up. She said, I know he'll live in the first resurrection. It's like that's a thousand years from now. You ever felt that way? Jesus whipped around and said, I am the resurrection.

What?

He that believeth on me, though he.

Were dead, yet shall he live. Do you believe this? I'm going to tell you something, what it comes down to if you want to be fearless. Bring your nastiest thought to God. Bring your argument, prepare your brief, put down your bullet points. And then when he whips around and tells you the truth, listen to me. You cannot deny the truth, to accept the facts. When you get in front of Jesus, the facts are overcome by the truth. Fact, he was sick. Fact, he died. Fact, you weren't here. But I am the resurrection. That's bigger than your fact. Fact, that's bigger than your problem. That's bigger than your thought. That's bigger than the tomb. Do you believe it? I'm telling you right now, if you've ever doubted God, my question to you is, do you believe? Lift your hands and give a shout to the Lord. I am not fearless because I'm pretty. I'm not fearless because I sing. I'm not fearless because I'm awesome. I am fearless because he got in my head. And every argument I brought him, he answered and said, do you believe? I said, yes, I do. Hallelujah. I believe him. I believe him. I believe he's the resurrection and the life. I believe he's the alpha and the omega. I believe he's the beginning and the end. I believe he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. And when he said, you shall receive power after that, the Holy Ghost comes upon you. I believe it. Shout.

I believe this.

She shut up.

She shut up. She said, I believe you're the Christ, son of God that has come into the world. Mary, Jesus is asking for you. Now that'll take your breath away. But when you get up from a wrestling match with God and he answers every thought, somehow fear just runs out the door. You mean it's not over because my brother's behind a rock? Whoa, you mean after the mess ups and I got my feelings hurt?

Mary.

That'S one thing when your head gets straight, but you've got a heart. And he hurt that girl. He hurt her heart. She came weeping, she just fell down. Jesus, if you'd have been here, he wouldn't have died. I love him. He talks to my heart differently than he talks to my head. Blessed are them that mourn. They shall be comforted. He didn't give her a sermon on resurrection. He said, mary, take me to the place where you laid him. Come on, we're going to walk through the steps. You took your heartbreak. And the Bible said that when he got there, he already knew what he was going to do. But you see, little Mary wasn't reconciled, so he didn't rush it. She started weeping. And Jesus stood there and let the tears roll down his cheer. He cried with her. And he knew full well that in five minutes or less he was going to do something extraordinary. But she needed to be comforted. That was more important than the resurrection because he wasn't going to value one over the other. They all needed a God encounter. Martha needed to know that he was bigger than what she could expect. Mary needed to know that Jesus saw those tears trickling down her cheeks. This is why I love him. He cried with me when I opened my soul up to I bear his marks in my body. Not wounds, but scars where Jesus laid his hand on the hurt he healed a broken vessel. I'm going to follow him all the way. I'm not going anywhere. Blessed are them that mourn. He just slipped over. The Bible said, Jesus wept. And they said, look how much he loved them. And that's not why he was crying. He was moved. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was tempted in all points, like as we are yet without sin. Sin. He took a moment to heal a broken heart. I feel Jesus. And then he did something unthinkable. Roll away the stone. You see? Listen to me. I'm not talking to sinners. I'm not talking to unbelievers. You say, well, I've never been here before. Sweetheart, you had faith or you'd have never walked in the door. So don't delude yourself. Jesus brought you here because he wants. He wants to take the knife out of your hand. He wants you to stop cutting yourself mentally and emotionally and verbally. You're difficult to be with because you're conflicted. And it hurts when people don't understand that the reason why you are the way you are is because you are hurting. The healer is healed of all our diseases. The healer's here. If you're not careful, if you don't let Jesus go to where you buried your will, you are going to have a hard, callous place in your heart. And you'll only be two thirds of what you should be. Roll away the stone. And Martha. I love this girl. Lord, he stinks by now. Let's be practical. I know that this is a miracle moment. I've heard about stuff you do, but let's be real.

You start bringing up stuff like this.

And people are going to want to stand up and testify in church about what's been going on behind their tomb. And ain't nobody want to hear it. And he turned to her and said, did I not tell you? If you believed me, you would see the glory of God, Lazarus come forth.

And they stepped back. And out of that dark, cold, stinking.

Tomb came the one member of their.

Party that had not been present. Wrapped up and bound. I'm going to tell you something. God can resurrect your will, but he's going to need your head and your heart to unwrap it. You can have the will of God in your life bound up. He turned to Mary and Martha, said, agree on this. Loose him and let him go. I want the will of God in my life, but my mind's got to agree with my heart. Whatever you say, Lord. I'm in agreement. However you want to do it, I'm in agreement. I agree with you in my thoughts. I agree with you in my heart. That's why I'm fearless. Anybody that can take this rotten will of mine and take me through sickness and death and bring me back deserves my praise. What do I have to be afraid of? Lift your hands. Do you want to be fearless? God's putting you through a trial not.

To hear you scream and cry, but.

He'S putting you through it so that you will confront what you're most afraid of and hear him say, I got that. Yeah, but what about this? I got that. But what about this? I got that. So that you can do his will willingly.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. You don't know me and I don't know you. But I love you. Estoy aqui del poder de Jesu Cristo para proclamar. Salud. Sanidat. Allegria. Redencion. To all of you. Change me, Jesus. I don't know if y' all still do altar calls in this church, but where I come from, when you want more and you want to make a statement, and we always used to say, every head bowed and every eye closed to make it easy for folks not to feel like a spectacle. If you hear him calling you, I want you to come up to this front that little sheep. And I want to. Yo quiero cantar una cancion mas para mi sermanas latinas. And then I'm going to sing it in English. Don't you know he loves you, honey? He knows where you are and where you came from and where you're going home to. And he's passing by. He knows you by name. I just want you to wait on him. Now. For my English sisters.

I'll raise my hands all over the building.

It's an act of surrender.

Even though I'm not strong. I'll raise my hand. You could feel him.

Let the tears roll down your cheeks.

Even though everything. Things going wrong.

Come on, Martha. Come on, Mary. He loves you.

I'll raise my hand Even though I'm not strong.

You don't have to be strong. Your strength is here. He wants to change your mind.

I raise my hand. Even though everything's going wrong.

Here we go. Here's what happens. Hey.

When I raise my hand. Hands. I start to feel.

I can feel something.

The anointing that makes me sing. When I raise my hands, I start to feel.

I can feel something happening.

The fire.

I can feel it. I can feel it.

When I raise my hand, my burdens melt away. My burdens melt away. You give me strength for another day. All things are possible. All things are possible. When I raise my hand. When I raise my hands. I start to feel.

The anointing.

Yeah, the anointing that makes me sing. When I raise my hand, I start to feel. I can feel him in this place.

The fire. I feel the fire. Take me higher.

When I raise my hands, my burdens melt away. You give me strength.