I spoke this year at the 2009 Florida Special Touch Get away  during Prayer Time this year and here are the words that was on my power Point

SPECIAL TOUCH FLORIDA’S 2009 GET-A-WAY

Monday Evening

WELCOME TO FLORIDA’S 2009
SPECIAL TOUCH GET-A-WAY

The theme verse for this week is found in
Jeremiah 18:6
“O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.”
 
To better understand this verse we need to understand what was going on at this particular time. Israel, who is known as God’s chosen people were rebelling against the Lord and His Law. Although God had blessed
them abundantly they still refused to live as the Lord instructed them to and because of that choice
they were going through very difficult times.

Jer 18:1-2  “The word which came to Jeremiah
from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down
to the potter's house, and there I will cause
thee to hear my words.”

We are about to see a picture of what God was wanting to do with His people who He loved so much that He gave them chance after chance to get their lives right with Him. But instead of them honoring their relationship with God they rebelled against what the Lord wanted to do in their lives.

Because of Israel’s unwillingness to obey the Lord they found themselves being judge by God and even worse they had no desire to repent of their sins.
When we look back over Israel’s history we find that each time Israel sinned God would bring judgment against them. Then Israel would turn from their evil
ways and serve the Lord again. The Lord
would once again show them favor but it would not
be long before they would turn and sin again.
 How many times does God try to bring blessings into our lives but because there are times when our relationship with the Lord is not what it should be
we are not used for the purpose we were created for.

I can tell you from experience that there have been times that I thought I had missed out on what God had purposed me for and yes there were times that I had to repent, just as Israel did. But God was true to me and He brought me back to the potters house to remold me into His image and I am sure that many of you have felt at times that it was over and God had forgotten you. But the truth is that God loves you more then words can say and when our lives are broken we can go to the Potter’s house. But when we do go He doesn’t just mend us back together,
He starts from the beginning
and remolds us to what pleases Him.  

I would like to quote a verse from the song
“He didn’t throw the clay away”

“He is the Potter and I am just the clay, molded in His image He wants me to stay. But when I stumble and fall and my vessel brake. He just picks up the pieces,
He doesn’t throw the clay away”   

You see, God made each and every one of us for a purpose. If you are alive and breathing you are not a mistake. God does not make mistakes. You are put on this earth for an important reason. But in order to fulfill your purpose you must let God,
who is the potter, mold you into His image   

This week I want us to compare our lives to those  God was speaking to through Jeremiah. I want us to be able to come to the place where we can grow in God and to know that He has great plans for our lives. The Lord has great plans for each of our lives but many times we can’t receive from the Lord because we are not open to what He is trying to do in us. This is why we need to be Molded for His purpose and not what we want. 

In prayer this evening let us ask the Lord to open our hearts to what He wants to show us this week. Let us pray for the Lord to fill each one of us with His Holy Spirit. Let us pray also for those who do not know the Lord as their personal Savior,

that they may accept Him this week.

Let’s also pray for all of the staff and

care givers so we all can show the

Love of Jesus in every thing we say and do.

LET”S PRAY!

Tuesday Evening

Jeremiah 18:3-4

“Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he

made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter:

so he made it again another vessel, as seemed

good to the potter to make it.”

As children of God when we first come to Christ our priority is to grow in the Lord, becoming more like Him each and every day. We are like a new born baby in Christ. But we are also like a lump of clay, a lot of potential but nothing happens until the potter puts His

loving hands on us and molds us for

His purpose and for His glory.   

Next the potter will slap the clay down on the potter’s wheel and begins fitting it onto the metal wheel. Then the wheel begins moving faster and faster while the potter then begins to gently move the clay into the middle of the wheel to mold it into the object that pleases Him.

When God molds us sometimes the process is, well, sometimes it’s just difficult and we just have to hang on as our whole world is spinning around as He pulls us into the center of his will. If we become pliable in His hands, if we allow the Lord to do what must be done, we are changed, molded to what pleases Him.

Molded for Purpose.

But before the potter has finished his work on the clay there is so much more to be done. At this point the clay must be set aside to dry. The clay is probably now thinking to itself “I can be at peace now - the work is over.” But as soon as it is dry the Potter will put it back on the wheel and with a trimming tool He begins trimming the rough edges to make them smooth. We are a work in progress from day to day. When God sets us aside to dry, so to speak, we may feel a great relief, just like the clay. But if we have an intimate relationship

with the Lord we would know what is happening

and would want Him to keep working in us.

Although the clay edges are now smooth and the vessel looks nice, it is very fragile and can crumble into pieces. So to make it hard it needs to be put into a kiln and heated to over 1500 degrees. Now the clay is thinking “that the potter is just being cruel by making me go through the fire.”  But what the clay does not know is that the heat is designed to make it stronger. None of us like to go through the fire, but our Heavenly Father knows what we need .  We can trust Him. We can trust Him as He allows the heat of life to make us strong; to make us usable; to make an impact in other people lives.

The Pot is now hard but it has one problem, it will not hold any water so the Potter will paint it with a glaze to seal it. Then back into another fire it goes to harden the glaze but this time the fire will be hotter than the first time.

This time the heat will go up to 2700 degrees

About the time we think we are ready for what God has for us we then learn that there is another step. God not only wants us to be strong - He wants us to shine His Light and Love everyone we come in contact with. To be His witness.

In order to be effective in God’s purpose for our lives we need the Holy Spirit working in our lives.

Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit would touch

the hearts and minds of all of us tonight.

Wednesday Evening

Jeremiah 18: 5 and 6

 “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”

In Jeremiah’s lifetime he prophesied and witnessed the captivity of Israel and the Jewish people by the hand’s of the King of Babylon. Earlier in their history they became captives to the Kingdom of Egypt and their evil Pharaoh at that time. Life for them was very hard and then God gave them Moses to led His people out of captivity and they were once again free to live their lives with the Lord God Almighty.  God’s desire was to do a great work  in their lives during this time .

When they left Egypt they soon found out that their new freedom would not come without them trusting in God. But, instead of putting their trust in the Lord and letting Him do a great work in their lives, they began to complain and actually wanted to return back to Egypt where they had been in bondage.     

The Lord wanted to mold the people of Israel in such a way that they would live an example of a Holy life before all other nations – what a great purpose for being molded. But in order for this to be accomplished they would have to obey God and His commands which they failed to do, miserably. They ended up rebelling against God and a whole generation would be lost.

I have seen God turn situations around in my life but I had to be willing to let go and let God take control especially when it seemed like there was no hope. There are times when we are asking God for something and the answer does not come right away and we think God is not listening or either He is saying no. But sometimes the answer is “yes but not now” because we are not ready for what God has for us. We still have some rough edges that needs to be smoothed. We must let the Potter finish His work in us on the Potters wheel. I think a good illustration is that I have been desiring to be in full time ministry for a very long time but God had to mold me for His purpose and it did not come over night. He had to put me in the fire to get rid of some things in my life so that I might be more of an example that He could use for His purpose. I am so thankful that He loved me enough to put me in the fire so I can be more like Him.  

Let’s take our time tonight and lift our voices to the Lord as we pray for the needs of those here at the

Special Touch Florida Get Away.

Does anyone here have a prayer need?

Tonight let’s also join our hearts with the ministry of Special Touch in Wisconsin as they have been in prayer all day today for us. They did not have a normal working day as they had a concerted effort to be in prayer all day. Let’s pray for them and the overall vision of the ministry as the Lord reveals His purpose and His direction for the work.

Let’s pray.

Thursday Evening

On our last night together I want to share something from my heart with you.

God has a purpose and a calling for each one of us. No matter what we have been through God is still able to minister to people through our lives because of that purpose, because of that calling. I have often made this statement, “If God were to tell me: Benny, I will give you a choice. I will heal you and you will be able to walk and do anything you want to do

OR

you can remain as you are, BUT if you remain as you are I will be able to use you more effectively to win souls for My kingdom.” I would gladly say “let me remain as I am.”

Yes, I would love to walk but, I would rather be molded for God purpose in this life. Also when you walk in God’s purpose for your life people around you will know that you are God’s child and your testimony will shine bright to every one that you come in contact with.

I shall never forget how I made a great friend in South Georgia College name Jimmy Call and one day I asked him what made him take notice of me. He said that he had seen me reading the bible. I was in a wheelchair but what he noticed most of all was that I was reading a Bible. The reason I am telling you this today is to show you that we need to allow God to work in our lives and to mold us as He see’s fit, to fulfill His desire for our lives. Jimmy was a big help to me while I was in college and I will always remember how God used him to help me.

God’s love is so great that He wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven and sometimes that means that we have to give up some things that we don’t want to give up. It’s kind of like Abraham giving up Ishmael, his first son. Abraham loved Ishmael but, God told Abraham that Isaac, his second son, was the one that should be his heir and Abraham had to give up Ishmael. In other words, Ishmael was a product of the flesh, but Isaac was a product of the Spirit. This is the same problem each of us face, We want God in our lives, but we want to do things our way. We like to be molded in God’s image but we don’t want to be put in the fire to become more like Him. But it is in the fire where we see more clearly what God’s purpose is for our lives.