← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
What You Have, Freely Give
00:19:19
This episode centers on the theme of freely giving what God has already given you. Drawing from Acts 3, it reflects on Peter and John healing a man who had been lame from birth, emphasizing that Peter did not offer money but instead gave what he had: faith, discernment, and the authority of Jesus’ name. The episode argues that believers do not need to wait for a special feeling of anointing before acting; instead, they should notice what the Father is doing, obey in the moment, and trust the Holy Spirit to supply what is needed. The second half expands that idea through a testimony about Lorinda, a breast cancer survivor who received encouragement in her hardest season and later began offering that same encouragement to others. The message is that healing, comfort, and spiritual gifts are meant to flow outward through our lives into the lives of others. The episode closes with prayer, worship, and a call to become attentive prayer partners who move with compassion, faith, and obedi...
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Good morning Sower Nation. Today is Sunday, July 5th in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm Dan Wilt and this is your wake up call. Wake up sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Let's pray our prayer of consecration together as we begin today's meeting with Jesus. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Well, it's a beautiful Sunday. We have a story to walk in today that is the great story of God and your life and mine is part of the plot line, woven in like a beautiful thread in the tapestry of all that God has always been doing and will continue to do. And Jesus is here and he's in you. He's with you. He's in me. He's with me. And we have the opportunity to grow and to be mentored, taught, instructed by the Holy Spirit. Today Christ in us has made us apprentices. And instead of just watching our master from the outside in, he actually lives within us. And as Paul said, it's no longer I who live, it's Christ living through me. That's the dream. That's the goal as we continue all all the things everyday ministry in the power of the Spirit. So today's entry is titled what you have freely give. And our passage is from Acts 3, 1, 10 Hear the word of the Lord. One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. And when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, look at us. So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold, I do not have, but what I do have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple. Gate called Beautiful. There it is again. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Consider this. This is from one of our Holy Spirit stories. Laurenda went through one of the most challenging experiences any woman can face. A battle with breast cancer. In her most difficult moments in the hospital, the Lord sent a night nurse who was also a breast cancer survivor, who prayed with her one evening and another woman who gave her a book of encouragement and a crocheted cross. God's presence and peace displaced fear in her heart. She remembered, pray God, if I'm going to go through this, then make it count. She claimed Romans 8:28 as a promise and held on to Jesus, knowing that God wastes nothing that happens to us. The hymn great is thy faithfulness became a daily source of strength to her. Many years later, Larinda now meets with and prays for other breast cancer patients. When she looks at her scar, she remembers that is a battle wound. You are a warrior because you are my daughter. You are a princess. You are a warrior princess. The encouragement Lorinda freely received, she freely gives. I love that story, and the link to it is in the book itself. Peter and John are on their way to the temple. It's time for a prayer meeting, and they are committed. But a funny thing happens on the way to the prayer meeting, and Luke wants to make sure it gets written down. The man who is lame from birth is being carried as he must have been for many years. And I ask, parentheses, who did the carrying? What kind of love did they have for him? They carried him to the gate called Beautiful, which is repeated twice in the story. And it's just such a great match. What a priceless setting for the scene to follow. He must have, in that moment, from the text, avoided their eyes, perhaps in expectation of rejection or because of habitual shame over his condition. Remember, making a mistake is, I make mistakes. Shame is I am a mistake. And that might have been part of this story. Back then, it was believed that your hidden sins or those of your parents would find you out and God's judgment would manifest as some horrible condition. And that, friends, is why good theology matters. Can you imagine living under that unwarranted stigma? And that is why some religious leaders assumed and taught that sin had put the man in this unthinkable situation. Peter asked the man to look them in the eyes, as if to say, you have been seen. Now see us. You have been seen. Now see us. Peter has no money, but looking at the man, he tells him, in the name of Jesus, to get up and walk. What a scene at the gate called beautiful. A man is healed of a lifelong disability. There is walking and jumping and praising God. I like to believe there was also skipping, spinning and potentially prancing. And maybe others joined in. You may not have money to give today, but you are always rich. Overflowing with the gifts of the Spirit for those in need. Peter said, what I do have, I give you. Peter owned the gifts that God had given. He walked in confidence that he had them. He wasn't waiting for a moment of power. For the hour. Peter was dialed into the reality that spiritual gifts are ready and available for a moment of discerned obedience. Let me say that again. Peter was dialed in to the reality that spiritual gifts are ready and available for a moment of discerned obedience. What are you doing, Father? How can I join you in it? And when Peter discerned the moment, the gifts were provided for the moment. And this is where the idea of anointing breaks down, as I've talked about before, and the idea of obedience wins. We are anointed, filled with the Holy Spirit. We live in this. What the invitation is, is the Father is doing something. We perceive it and we say, yes, I'll obey. And it's at that convers, divergent moment of obedience and the gift and the charisms of God, the gifts of the Spirit for that moment that beautiful things happen. We're not waiting to be empowered because we are empowered saints. We are looking for the moments of obedience. We discern it, we move toward it. That's when things happen. Then it is truly about Jesus and what the Spirit has done, not about us and our amazing anointings or gifts or the things we put on our business cards and websites so quickly. Peter wasn't waiting for a special sense of God's presence. He was acting on what he knew to be true. And I believe he was noting that the Father was doing something in that moment. We don't need to feel anointed with a special dispensation from God to pray for someone. We discern and we obey. And then at a point of risk, God meets us and the person with his surprises. We are quick to pray for people. We don't need always to have a great sense of what's happening. But there are moments when there's something specific the Lord's doing and we get to partner with Him. Like Lorinda, often we are sent to pray for those out of the healing and care that we ourselves have received. We become a testimony that stirs their faith as we minister to the person in Jesus name. Amen. So this is an echo or an ongoing resonance and ripple effect of some of the stories and ideas and themes that we've been sharing together over the last few days. Often the ways that God has healed us are ways that he wants to heal others through us. Our testimony stirs the waters of faith. People believing for a moment in things. They hope for a deep conviction of things they can't see and not just for the healing, but they begin to believe in the one who does the healing. And that frees them to enter into whatever transformative experience that God wants to give them. We talked about the book Follow the Healer and the different ways that God heals and restores. It opens hearts through your testimony that they could experience a touch from the Lord who loves them and sees them and knows them. Okay, let's pray our prayer together for today. Lord Jesus, I believe that the gifts you have given are not just for special moments or, excuse me, are not just for the special moments, but for all the time use to heal others, to love others, to meet others in your name. Give me the faith to take you at your word and to walk in the gifts of the Spirit. Today, in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Amen. And here are your journal prompts. Where in your life have you been waiting to be specially anointed when God is simply inviting you to obey? And the second question is there an area of healing you've experienced that makes you a testimony and a perfect prayer partner for someone facing a similar situation? So let me just say something about that prompt. So over the years I have gone through healing in some significant areas of my life. Major healing from issues with depression and anxiety, physical healing as I've shared in my voice and my vocal cords, healing in different ways, my back through medical professionals and God, speeding up what I think could have been a long and difficult healing process for me. There's so many different things that have happened along the way. I've also experienced healing, as Steve Seamans says, through just long resilience, growth, deepening in my trust in Jesus over a long period of time. And it's healed my heart in very particular areas over time to go through long seasons of suffering. And I still deal with some things all along the way, even related to the depression or anxiety or related to issues with my back or whatever that might be. But all along the way I'm living in expectation and I'm noticing people around me who struggle with the same things. And so as discerned with the Holy Spirit. There are a few people that I've said, hey, I'm going to be your prayer partner through this, just so you know. I'm going to be talking to the Lord about you daily, in some cases, weekly, in other cases, for a long period of time until we see breakthrough here. And I've said that to people after I've prayed for them. I've said, go and be encouraged in the Lord. Keep putting your faith in him. Hold on to his promises for you. But know this, this is just the beginning of me praying for you. I'm willing to pray for you anytime you'd like prayer. And I'll through the year ahead or the two years or the 10 years, whatever it means, I'm going to in the background, just running like a radio in the background in my prayer time for you. And that's a pretty powerful gift to give someone. And the spirit enables us to do it when the Spirit is behind it. So our activation for today, today there will be an opportunity for you. I believe it. I believe it. To see someone and have them see you and then for you to move toward them in humble, gentle, compassionate, discerning obedience. The Father will be right there with you as you do. And expect gifts to be provided insights. It might be a word of knowledge. It might be a gift of intercession or even a gift of compassion for someone. It might be that God wants to bring a healing in that moment. It might be that God wants to give you a word of wisdom about the circumstance. Expect the gifts to be provided as you obey his voice and join the Father in delivering his peace and presence to the person in front of you. All right. Let's join our hearts together in singing. And today we have sung Great Is Thy Faithfulness, which I noted in the beginning. Consider this. I actually have felt led to a worship song and hymn that anchors in Philippians 2, verses 9 to 11. And it's he is Lord and it's hymn number 268 in our great Redeemer's praise. So how great is thy faithfulness in your heart through today. But I'd like to lead us in singing he is Lord together. So let's turn our hearts to Jesus in worship on this beautiful Sunday. And let's thank him for all he's doing in us and all he is doing through you, through me in his world that he loves.
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He is Lord he is Lord he is risen from the dead and he is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Let's sing it again.
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He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and he is Lord. And every knee shall bow, every tongue. Yes, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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And my knee shall bow and my
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knee shall bow and my tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Amen. I don't know about you, I think it's probably true. I love to worship and I love for us to worship together. It is the strength of the saints. God puts a song in our hearts for our own lives, for our day and for our time. He gives us songs in the morning, he gives us songs in the night. I'd encourage you let this song stir in you. Worship with it as you move through today. Maybe great is thy faithfulness will also come to mind. Just sing those songs as they come to you. They are gifts from the Holy Spirit to you today. And as we enter into this week, so we have just a few more days together. I'm looking forward to those to kind of tying a bow on all the things everyday ministry in the power of the spirit. And I'm looking to forward, forward to seeing you tomorrow. So let's get our seeds together. I'll see you on the field for the awakening. I'm Dan.