1) My friends, I will share with you publicly what I've been sharing with many of you privately.

2) The time for faith is not when you are getting your way, when everything is going well, when all your "prayers are answered."

3) That's the exact opposite of faith. https://twitter.com/AIIAmericanGirI/status/1349718984149659656

4) Paul tells us that faith is the evidence of things NOT SEEN. If you can see it, you don't need faith. You have the thing itself.

5) In Isaiah 55:8 God says flatly, "My thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways."

6) Listen up:

I HATE THAT VERSE.

7) Because it means that there are gonna be a lot of times God goes one way and I'm bent on going another, and darn it, He should "be going my way."

8) I have said repeatedly, "God put Donald Trump in office and only God can take him out." I believe that. My faith says that while I cannot see it ("things not seen"), God can see how this works out.

9) We have our most difficulty, not in believing, but in believing that . . .

9) contd . . . God is working things out in a way better than our genius brains can. That's irritating.

HOW DARE HE?

10) I found a good analogy when I walk my little dogs. From my vantage point, I can see when they are about to walk through glass, or get too close . . .

10) contd . . . to a cactus. But their noses tell them "it's so GOOD" to go this way.

11) Understanding faith, and what it requires, is extra difficult when "what is seen" looks really bad.

"It's never been this bad." (Always wrong. At some point, it's always been worse).

12) "Once DemoKKKrats are in control we'll never get it back." Maybe, maybe not. But maybe it won't matter. See, we don't know. That's the things that "are not seen."

13) I gave this TRUE example before but it bears repeating: three years ago our church had outgrown its facility

14) They were running 5 services a weekend, and the staff was getting worn out. (As a drummer, I can tell you it's hard enough playing five sets, but five sets stretched out in 48 hours--staying "up?" really hard.)

15) The pastor and church leadership decided we needed expansion & new buildings. The target was $20m. "We'll get a loan," right?

No.

Banks do not want to lend to churches because the buildings are too specialized. If you default, nearly impossible to sell.

16) Nevertheless, throughout 2019 & part of 2020, we were urged to pray for the loans. They never came through.

17) Sometime in late 2019 or early 2020, leadership decided, "We will build in parts, and build with cash." They needed $2m for the first building, had $1.5 . . .

17) contd . . . Then the China Virus hit. You know what happened to churches for the NEXT YEAR.

They virtually ceased to exist.

18) Suddenly God looked pretty smart. Instead of a $20m DEBT, which would have finished the church & sent it to bankruptcy, they had an . . .

18) contd . . . emergency cash bucket of $1.5m---still not enough to entirely get them through, but it gave them some reserve.

19) God used the refused loans to save the church from something only He saw coming.

20) So I don't know where things will go with President Trump.

21) I don't know what will happen with MAGA or the GOP, or, for that matter, the USA.

22) Personally I don't think God put his hand on America to create her then leave her to the jackals. I believe He still has a plan.

23) But the good news is, He is God, & you and I are not.