Our text for this message is Matt 26v 36-46. There are 3 significant moments that propelled Christ into his destiny and I believe they affect your destiny as well.
-The wilderness; a place of personal temptation
-The cross; is a place where carnality is destroyed
-The garden –; is a place where God begins to take us through a tight place.
If you have never been through a tight place then you can’t understand what makes a person say a prayer over and over again. Have you been in a situation where you pray and pray and pray again, then come back the next day ask God for the same thing, because He alone is the one that make a way in tight places. So if you know what it means to cry unto God from a tight place, this message is for you.
We have dreams and aspirations of how things should go in our lives; sometimes we think we know how it should play and end and even make plans towards them. We can spend thousands on having elaborate weddings because you think you know how the story should go but the truth is there is a long time between a wedding day and a 25th wedding anniversary, a lot of things can happen in between.
Part of our problem and agony is the uncertainty of how life will turn out, it causes insecurity that can keep you awake at 3am in the morning, that can make you walk out of something you actually enjoyed, insecurity that can cloud your judgment and distort your view on issues, insecurities that put you in tight places. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you are confronted with a problem and your just tired, you know you have overcome the problems in the past but this one has just come at a time when you are not filled with energy like you had a few years ago, not because you are old but because you are just tired.
Have you ever got tired in a tight place? A Palace where you are in between two levels but the ability to get to the next level in life is such a challenge and you’re not sure you have the push you need to have to get there. For some of us, we are secretly in a tight place because we struggle internally but still go around smiling, presenting a bubbling and all is well attitude like an auto pilot and yet surrounded by people who have no clue that you are in a tight place.
I believe that the garden of Gethsemane represents the process of mans will coming into alignments with Gods will. Like a clock where God is the hour hand at 12 o’clock and we are the minute hand who go through the process and finally coming into his will in alignment i.e. the two hands of the clock together at 12 O’clock.
In our text in Matthew above we see that Jesus, the son of God who knows the end from the beginning, who knows not just the process but the outcome when faced with the prospect of what was to come asked for the cup to pass, but after praying he said “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
Many times we wish God will adjust himself and will to meet our own will because we think we know better how our life should turn out and because we are in a tight place and wish for the cup to pass rather than staying in a place of prayer to align ourselves with God.
The truth is a tight place is our time to learn how to work with God because even though we know the beginning and we trust God for the end, He didn’t show us the middle. The bible says they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength but waiting can be great pressure because when a finite man waiting for an infinite God can cause you to worry. Jesus did not go to Gethsemane to find out how the story ends but to deal with the middle. Many of us have heard from God about a happy ending, our husband is coming, our wife is coming, the breakthrough is at hand etc. but how long shall I wait? How do I go through the process before the happy end comes?
Brethren, are you in your garden of Gethsemane. The name Gethsemane means a place of pressing, the place where olives are crushed and oil is secreted, the place where pressure mounts. This place is different from the wilderness because in the wilderness there is an enemy to fight with, it’s different from the cross because with a cross we have a physical problem we can see but in the garden there is nothing to see, just pressure. This can be a lonely time, Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane and when he came out his disciples were asleep because everybody is there and wants to know you in the time of your resurrection but when it comes to fellowship in your time of suffering it can be very lonely.
Many of us pray for an anointing but don’t realize you have to go through the garden experience. Some even ask for a double portion of someone’s anointing to be received in a flash without knowing it take a wilderness experience, a garden experience and a pressing to get such an anointing. Before you envy other person and want what others have, you may need to ask what it costs.
I am here to tell you, you have to pray through the process to get to the God of tight places. This is not a microwave, quick fix process. Paul had to keep praying for God to take the thorn out of him before he made contact with God and God said my grace is sufficient for you, you may still see the pressure all around you but my grace is sufficient for you. I have you covered, you don’t need what you think you need, you need God and his grace is more than enough Hallelujah! Whenever the pressures of life that has come at you say it loud, “Gods grace is sufficient to see me through”.
Sometimes a happy ending doesn’t mean you get everything you want. Sometimes a happy ending is walking with God till you come to a place that the pressure doesn’t bother you anymore. Brethren should realize that a fulfilled Christian life is not the one where everybody is a millionaire and everybody drives expensive cars and nobody ever gets sick and everybody’s child is a first class graduate. Some things in life may not work out right but God said MY GRACE..is sufficient. I want to tell you now, there is a grace for every Gethsemane you face, there is a grace for every pressure in your life, there is a grace for every tragedy in your life because God said my grace is enough!
You may not have a husband or wife to be with you, you may not have a child to call your own, you may be a widow/widower at a young age, you may not be as successful in business as you expected, you may have a spouse you had planned so many plans for who is now in a wheel chair but one thing you should know is that God has said *my grace is sufficient for thee*
It is not all bad news because the bible lets us know that after the Gethsemane experience and crucifixion, early Sunday morning, Jesus arose with all power in his hands. Death where is your sting? Grave where is your victory? I believe the victory was settled in Gethsemane. You shall make it through your garden experience and testify in victory in Jesus name. Amen!
Let Us Pray
Father I thank you for your goodness and grace. I thank you for your presence in my life, I thank you for your faithfulness and commitment to me even when I wasn’t faithful and I was tired you didn’t get tired. I thank you for being my God of tight places in Jesus name we pray.
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This message was curled from Bishop Jakes teaching HERE