Prophetess Ashley Brown| Don't Quit In The Middle

What's going on, family? Welcome to the Reformation Memphis YouTube page. I'm Pastor Javon, the proud associate pastor here at Reformation Memphis. And listen, you are about to encounter a right now word with God from Prophetess Ashley Brown. You want to silence your phone, do away with all distractions, because God is about to speak to you. And I'll see you in a couple of minutes.

Let's look at Exodus chapter 15, verses number 22. Amen. Thank you, Prophet. I'm going to be reading from the New King James Version. I know we are preparing for convocation, so I want to be obedient to what the Lord has said. I feel like I'm at home, so I'm going to preach like I'm at home. Amen. Amen. Let's look at it. It says, "So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea. Then they went into the wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water."

I want to put an emphasis on Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea into the wilderness. I want to take a moment to give you a prophetic message on to this morning. I want you to look at your neighbor, prophesy to that neighbor and say, "Neighbor, come on and say it with a little soul. Say, 'Neighbor, don't quit in the middle.'" Now, if you didn't get a shout out of that neighbor.

I want you to look at the neighbor beside you and say, "I needed a word that would take me into my next level." Say, "Neighbor, don't quit while you're in the middle." Tell that neighbor, say, "Neighbor, this storm ain't going to kill you. This problem ain't going to kill you. The pain in your body ain't going to kill you. Your ministry, it won't kill you. This marriage, it won't kill you. I may be in the middle, but I'm going to make it out. I may be in the middle, but I'm on my way to promise." Shout one more time, "Don't die. Don't quit. Don't give up in the middle."

Everybody can handle the beginning, but can you handle the middle? Everybody can praise when you get to the other side, but can you praise Him in the middle? Can you worship Him in the middle? Can you be obedient in the middle? He's in the middle of something.

I just feel like there's about 50 people in the room that's in the middle of a rocky season. But the rock of your salvation came today that we may pull you out of rock bottom. It's not over for you. So the Bible is very clear. Run, baby. The Bible is very clear. I want you to walk with me. We're going to walk through this prophetic word, and then we're going to prophesy our way on into the next.

Moses was the leader. We're in between the tent of Tabernacle and them coming out of Egypt. Egypt was a representation of bondage. And everybody talks about the prophetic word that says where you going, but nobody teaches how do I process the middle. When you think about the wilderness, it represents an in-between. It represents I'm not where I was. I'm not in Egypt, but I'm not yet in the promised land. I'm not yet in the presence of God. And so in processing the middle, I want you to understand that the middle is God's will. The wilderness was God's will. And if I could park right there, I want you to hear me very clearly today. When you get in a wilderness, it is not God punishing you. The reason it's difficult to process a wilderness is because many people cannot decipher between, is God processing me or is God punishing me? And if you decide that God is punishing you when he's processing you, then you'll give up when you're almost to the finish line. We hadn't made it to Exodus 40 where they built the tabernacle. We're just coming through the Red Sea. They come out of Egypt, which is a sign of deliverance, which is a sign of leaving your old life and accepting salvation. They go through the Red Sea, which is a sign of baptism. They go through the water and they come out the water on the other side. And then here we are in a wilderness, which represents our sanctification. And believers shout about salvation, but we don't shout about sanctification. Everybody has a testimony about salvation, but we don't have many about sanctification. And if you are not sanctified before you get to the stage, if you are not sanctified before you get to the tabernacle, if you are not sanctified before you get the promotion, if you are not sanctified before you get the marriage, then what happens is the presence of God will kill you if you're not processed.

I'll sit up on the edge of y'all's seat. Come on, let me put you in a headlock real quick. The promotion is coming, but your character has to handle it. The next level is coming, but your emotion has to be able to handle it. Look at your neighbor and say, "God is not punishing you, he's processing you." I want you to remember this, and then I'm moving on. When you are in a season of processing, God pointing out in you what he does not like is not him saying he does not approve of you. Oftentimes when God is doing a thing in the lives of the believers, when he points out one thing, we give up as if we're doing nothing right. So, he starts pointing out to them, "You're in this wilderness. This is the testing place. This is the place of maturity. This is the between place." He tells them, "I'm processing you, and I'm taking you into the promised land. But before the promised land, I'm going to teach you how to dwell in my presence. I no longer want you coming to my presence as a form of vacation or emergency. I want to teach you how to dwell here."

So, as I look through at the scriptures, the first thing we see in Exodus 16 is that the Israelites began to struggle with their idea of provision. The Lord says, "I'm going to rain down manna from heaven. I'm going to make sure you have what you need. All I need you to do is handle my instructions carefully." He told them, "I'm going to give you manna, but there's going to be one day of the week I don't want you to keep it overnight. I want you to trust me that if I can rain down manna from heaven, you will eat on the day that you think you will not eat." And what did the Israelites do? They decided, "We going to take matters into our own hands." We going to keep the manna. And when they kept the manna overnight, it spoiled. Is there anybody in this room that says, "I know what it feels like to keep something out of season that God told me I couldn't have. I know what it feels like to hold on to something and that thing spoils in my hand." How many relationships are you in right now that have spoiled because you are in something that has already expired? He was giving them an opportunity to show him what they would do when they feared they wouldn't be provided for. God said, "I am your provider." For those of you who are in seasons where the money doesn't add up, he said, "Remember, I am your provider. I am the God that made a way for you when you didn't have a place to lay your head. I am the God that gave you that job. I am the God that got you through school." And for many believers, we worry about money so much. We worry about bills. We worry about if he will pay child support, if they're going to support me, if they're going to show up, will I get the promotion? But the Lord said, "I need you to get it deep in your soul. I am your provider. I'm a provider and my mercy is what comes to bring you out of debt." I see people right now in this room saying, "You don't know how much debt I am in." But I am a God that brings about debt cancellation.

So, he tested them. He tested how they would respond when they were in pain. For many times, you got to ask yourself, "Who am I when I'm in pain? What do I act like when I'm in pain?" He tested them. Are you the same person that you are in pain that you are when you're in your praise? What does pain drive you to do? Because the Bible says this. It says that counted all joy when you go through various trials. The word various indicates that you're going to have different kinds of trials. You're going to have trials in ministry. You're going to have trials in marriage. You're going to have trials in finances. You're going to have trials in relationship. It said, "Count it all joy when you go through various trials, knowing that it is a testing of your faith." Here is the thing, saints. Falling into trials is not sin. But if you don't count your joy correctly when you fall into a trial, your trial will cause you to fall into sin. So, the problem is not that we struggle with sin. We struggle learning how to handle our trials. Can you shout to the Lord, "Teach me how to handle pain?" I don't need you to teach me how to preach. Teach me how to handle betrayal. I don't need you to teach me how to worship. Teach me how to handle a stab in the back. Teach me how to handle pain, oh God. Because when we don't handle pain correctly, it drives us into the pit of sin.

Not only that, the Lord tested how they would handle power. You really don't know a person until they get power. Come on, talk to me, Reformation. You don't know a person until they get a position. You don't know a person until God gives them a little authority. As a matter of fact, you don't know yourself until you get power. You just wait until you get a microphone in your hand. You just wait until the spotlight is on you. This is when you will really know who you are. We get power and we switch up. Here's what I've learned about the church. We have learned how to handle serpents, but we hadn't learned how to handle sheep. And some of y'all are anointed until disciples hurt you. Come on. Don't stiff up. Some of y'all are anointed until you get into it with somebody that you serve with. Some of us love our church until it's time to handle the sheep correctly. You can't handle a wounded girl like you handle a witch. You can't handle Jasmine on the back row like you handle Jezebel. So, we know how to talk about Jezebel, but we cannot handle God's people. How are you going to handle the power of the next level?

The Bible says he continued to test their appetites. He continued to deal with their cravings. He continued to take things out of them that did not align. In Deuteronomy 8 and 2, the Bible tells us that he told them, "You shall remember the Lord your God, who led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you, to test you." And I want to know, this is God saying, "I want to know what's in your heart." Here is the thing, you cannot defeat what you have not diagnosed. And this is what changed my life. What changed my life is that I could tell what my fruit was, but I did not have the strength to dissect the fruit of what I was dealing with. Listen to me. If you don't hear anything else that I said today, sometimes what appears to be is not your actual issue. So, when we talk about lust, there are people who are jumping from bed to bed, but it has nothing to do with the spirit of lust. If you dissect that thing all the way down to the root, there are people that fall into relationships and bedrooms they have no business being in, not because they're bound by lust, but because rejection and loneliness has a way of speaking to you. And if you're trying to fight lust when you really should fight the feelings of loneliness, you'll keep falling because you're fighting the wrong devil.

Tell your neighbor, learn how to be by yourself. It's okay to be alone. You ain't got to get in another friendship. You ain't got to make another connection. Learn how to be by yourself. So, we run to the altar. I'm filled with lust. You're not filled with lust. You don't like to be by yourself. Dissect the root. Dissect the root. For many of us, we proclaim things about ourselves and the Lord said, "I'm trying to get to the root." The problem is not that you can't keep relationships. Your issue is that I fear abandonment. People have left me all of my life and even though I can see the good in you, I struggle because I don't want you to leave me. Is there anybody in this room that said, "Maybe my issue is not that I don't like people. I fear people leaving me."

God brings them here to look at the heart. What's really in my heart? What's really in my soul? Because out of the heart, the mouth will speak. Out of the heart will be a mirror of your choices and the Lord said, "Before I take you into convocation, before I take you into the next level, before I take you into my presence, I'm pruning you because I love you. I'm pruning you because there's some places I'm taking you and I don't want you to miss your harvest."

Tested them in humility. Because humility is becoming a lost art in the body of Christ. It's easy to be humble when you have nothing. It's easy to be humble when the card does not work the way that you want it to work. It's easy to be humble when you're sitting on the back row. But what happens to humility when you have the opportunity to promote yourself? What happens to our humility when we have the opportunity to do it our way? He said, "I brought them in the wilderness so that I could root pride out of them."

So then I started talking to God consistently about a common thing that you would see with them. They struggled to depend on him. Because if you're not careful, false doctrine will get up in your ear and tell you that the more you do, the more that God will give you. Some kind of way we started thinking in holiness that my holiness is what saved me. No, I live holy because I'm saved, but holiness did not save me. And so when you have a moment where holiness doesn't show up the way that you think it should, then you fall out with God because now you think you're not saved. This is what their problem was because he was transitioning them from slavery to sonship. And when you come out of that slavery mindset, when you come out of that mindset that I got to perform to be received by people, when you finally come out of that mindset and you receive the spirit of adoption, everybody get mad at you 'cause they benefited from when you were a slave. But when you start living like a son and you start holding your head up and you start singing with the glory of God and you start praising and running and shouting and you start being free and you start loving yourself, people who don't understand sonship would despise the fruit of where you are. When you finally figure out there was nothing I could do to deserve this deliverance. He brought me out of Egypt because he was good. He brought me out of Egypt because he loved me first. He brought me out of Egypt 'cause he wanted to use me. He did not bring me out because I saved myself.

Tell your neighbor, you can't forget. Come on, tell them, you can't forget. You can't forget. You in the middle of this, but you can't forget. Come on. Tap your other neighbor and tell them, wake up. You can't forget. You can't forget. Don't let the middle make you think that Egypt was easier. I feel like there's some people in the room that want to go back because you think living in Egypt was easier. I feel like there's some people in the room that you were struggling, you were teeter-tottering over the edge, but the Lord says, "I brought you out for my use, and you can't go back." Shout, "I can't go back." Come on, shout it until you get it in your soul. I can't go back. When your taste buds don't want to corroborate, I can't go back. Come on. See, if you've never come into a life of sobriety, you won't understand what we're talking about. When you can taste something in your mouth that you ain't had in a while. When you will say, "I thought I smelled something." But you've been delivered, and even though I smell it, even though I'm around it, even though I see it, I can't go back. My lineage depends on it.

There's some people coming to convocation, and they've been watching your lifestyle. They've been watching your yes. There's some people that's going to decide at the last minute, I'm finally coming to your church. And the enemy been after your witness. He been after your yes. He's been after your life. He's been after your obedience. But the Lord said the reason why is because there's a whole group of them coming behind you. So, he tested their allegiance.

When we talk about idolatry in the kingdom of God, sometimes we talk about it from one perspective. We talk about the spirit of idolatry in a way that I believe lets church people off the hook. Do I have a church? Sometimes I... I'm not on the top, but sometimes when we talk about idolatry and we start bringing up, you know, yoga and sage, I'm witty. Bring it up. Say that you think this is wrong. Say that whatever. But I think the issue is that what happened to ministry can be an idol. Some people don't know who they are without their collar. Some people don't know who they are without a microphone. So, we are attacking practices, but we're missing the gist of the problem. The problem is that you got to keep teaching idolatry to a flesh that wants to be in control, to a flesh that wants the spotlight. So, ministry can be an ideology. Marriage can be an idol. Relationships can be an idol. I hate, I'mma put myself out there 'cause I know y'all ain't never done it. Busyness, starting all those businesses and hustling because you made your first six figures and God can't get you to take a sabbath, baby, that's idolatry. That's... I remember when the Lord said, "Yeah, people getting saved, but you are idolatrous because I pulled you out of poverty. Now you work like you going broke. Now you start our businesses like you about to go broke. When did my blessings become an idol?"

So, it's no longer an idol when you no longer fear losing it. If you fear losing it, then it's an idol. Look at this. The Bible says, "Now when the people saw that Moses, this is Exodus 32:1, when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron. They gathered to the number two." I wish I had time to teach on toxic number twos, 'cause everybody think they can be close to the pastor, but baby, it's easy to love your pastor from afar. Many of you will get in that number two seat and be trying to make sons in the house. You'll become a toxic number two because the people didn't build the idol, Aaron did. He was the prophet. And then prophets get mad. They don't let me prophesy 'cause you build golden calves for the people. You get words in the parking lot so they'll like you. You tell every dream that you have. You go after God's people so that they will want to hear your voice over God's voice. Okay, I'm doing too much. The prophet built the golden calf for the people. And that's what these prophets are doing now. Come to my meeting. Come to my Bible study. How you don't believe in church, but you have a Bible study? You don't believe in gathering, but you have a services? Okay, I'm doing too much. Too much. Please. People hate church. I don't like church. I don't believe. And then they go start a movement at the coffee shop. Make it make sense. Okay. Aaron, the priest, built the golden calf. Okay? He listened to the people and he wanted to win the hearts of the people. So, he let the people convince him to get into idolatry. Idolatry being the act of giving worship, trust, love, devotion, and allegiance to anything that belongs to God alone. Creating a false image.

Now, here's the thing, and I'm done. Jesus. This generation loves the act and the emotion of deliverance. Y'all know what I'm talking about. I've never seen a generation like this. This generation will go to the altar, hike they back, throw up on the altar with no shame, but still won't throw your idols away. Will roll around on the floor and cop a cat and eat your vomit. I'm in the Bible. I'm not trying to be vulgar. We love what deliverance looks like. We don't like living out deliverance. Am I in the church? This generation lost. "Don't tell me what to do. I got it. I can do it on my own." And then when I'm struggling my sanctification, nobody helped me. Nobody called me. Nobody reached out. We got to pick a side. Do you want to be in community or do you not want to be in community? Do you want a pastor or do you not want a pastor? Okay. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Seriously, you will never know according to what I saw in the scripture in Exodus 32, Moses left. He went up the mountain and they described his leaving as a delay, meaning that they expected him to come back at a certain time and he did not. And when he did not come back, they changed their allegiance. Am I in the house? This is the time to show your allegiance. Where you serve, where you care. Can your pastor rest and you still be faithful? Can your pastor go up to the mountain and hear from God and you still sing the same and serve the same and show up the same and don't start no messing in the back and don't change nothing without permission and don't implement nothing that you want? Can you still be faithful?

So, so, so he delayed. They said, "You taking too long." And you would never know how deep idolatry runs, and I'm done. Y'all can come on in. You will never know how deep idolatry runs in your life until two things. Until you have to leave something or you have to leave somebody. Now, you got to take that and you got to know what to do with what I just said. You got to learn how to let people go. You got to learn how to let environments go. You got to learn how to let places go. And guess what? You got to learn how to let people go. That doesn't mean it got to be permanent, but God will test your allegiance by the way that you handle certain things in your life.

I want you to look at your neighbor. Give me some high praise. I want you to look at your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, come on, I need to hear you, Reformation." Look at your neighbor. This is a prophetic decree. Say, "Neighbor, let them go." Now, wait on that deliverance. Now, they didn't get it. Look at your other neighbor and say, "Neighbor, let them go. Let them go. Let go of what they did. Let go of what they said. Let go of how Egypt felt. Let go of what you did in Egypt. Let go of how you did it at your old church. Let go of the last season." Now, I want you to look at your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, say, 'Neighbor, let it go.'" Now, I don't know what your "it" is. I don't know what your "it" looks like. I don't know what your "it" has done to get in the way of your devotion, but let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Don't bring it up again. Don't talk about it. Don't have conversations. Let it... Let it go.

High five three people. And say, "I see you letting it go. I see you letting it ride. Let it ride. Let it roll off your back. Just let it ride. Everything ain't going to be perfect. Let it ride. Everything ain't falling apart. As a matter of fact, it's falling into place. Even though it feels like it's falling apart. When God shakes up a thing, it's because he's doing a new miracle. You're right in the middle of it. Grab your neighbor by the hand and pull that neighbor on the other side of this miracle."

We in the middle of this thing. We in the middle of the storm. We in the middle of the problem. We in the middle of the trouble. But I know a man that's right in the middle. I call him the middle man. He was crucified in the middle of two criminals. He was in the middle of the fire. He was in the middle of the boat. He was in the middle of the storm. Grab that neighbor and say, "Neighbor, don't quit in the middle. Don't stop in the middle. Don't give up right in the middle. You're on your way out. You're on your way up. You're on your way. You're on your way through." I serve a God that's in the middle. And when we come out of this wilderness, we're on our way up to the tabernacle. To the tabernacle. To the tent of meeting. To the morning glory.

Lift up your voice. Lift up your voice. Lift up your voice. Testing me, but I ain't in trouble. Processing me, but he ain't punishing me. Get out what you want to get out. Get out of me what you want to get out. Do with me what you will.

What a time we just had in the presence of the Lord. That word was, I don't know about you, but that word was for me, and I pray that you heard something from Prophetess Ashley Brown that can not only take you into tomorrow, but to carry you throughout the rest of the summer. I'm so grateful that we are in a house where we can hear the truth of God's word in its potency. And so, right now, I want to encourage you to get a seed together. The giving prompts are coming right here below the screen. I want you to get your seed together. We're sowing a seed of $30 this morning, and I want you to partner with us as we sow into the kingdom of God. And we're going to sow on this word. We're believing that this is good ground. Reformation Memphis is safe soil, and we're just adding seed into the safe soil because I believe that a harvest is coming for you right now. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you all next time.