ENTER THE LITTLE BOAT

Moses was used by God to set His people free from Egypt.

This is an allegory for today.

Today, Jesus is setting the people of God free from the spiritual Egypt.

Those who understand the Grace of God and are able to enter it and posses it, are able to get out of the spiritual Egypt. 

What is the spiritual Egypt?

We find several revelations in the Bible about the spiritual Egypt.

The more we understand and know the Grace of God, the more we can see the spiritual Egypt in contrast to it.

Jesus reveals His Grace through the Word, His love, the Holy Spirit and through the fellowship with the brethren insofar we congregate.

The more we love God and His Kingdom, and the more we give up on everything, seeking the Kingdom of God in the first place, the more we receive the revelation and the knowledge of the Grace of God.

You can read about spiritual Egypt in Jeremiah 42, 43 and 44. Ezekiel 29, 30, 31, 32 and in some other parts of the Bible.

Spiritual Egypt is a satanic system sustained by men. Sustained by the fear of man.

It is a system that enslaves men and put them dependent on their own arms, arms of flesh like the Bible says.

It is the system where people get desperate after jobs.

It is the system where people exclude God because they are stuck in the mentality that they learned. The mentality that if they don't run after money, they won't have sustenance.

God used Moses to take the people out of Egypt and even today, the people of God do not trust and do not believe that God can sustain them.

God sent bread from heaven, water from the rock, guided them to the Promised Land with a column of fire during the night and a cloud during the day, but even so, some believers are not real believers.

"And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them."

Isaiah 19: 20

Now, why is the title of this message: "Enter the little boat?"

Jesus would get out of the land towards the sea in little boats with His disciples.

Land is dust. It is the carnal nature of men. It is also where the serpent creeps.

Water is Grace. It is the new abundant life that Jesus came to bring us.

Jesus would go out of the land towards the sea in little boats. This is a spiritual symbol for us today.

Notice that many would stay in the land. Only some chosen ones would enter with Jesus in the boat.

Everyone who believes and desire to follow Jesus at any cost is set free by Jesus from the spiritual Egypt.

Would you leave everything to follow Jesus? This doesn't need to be necessarily physically, but it can be internally.

Even though to get out of the spiritual Egypt it's necessary to leave certain things, yes.

To leave everything is to become available to God. It's to focus totally and completely on following Jesus. Making this your new "profession" or "job".

That's why the disciples left their jobs for Jesus.

When we make this decision, God becomes responsible and faithful to sustain us because we become His servants and we stop serving money.

"No one can serve two masters; for he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Matthew 6: 24

In some translations, it is written "money" in the place of "mammon". That's because, like I said, the spiritual Egypt is governed by satan.

"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."
John 6: 27

If you have the courage to enter the little boat where Jesus is, you will have access to His Grace in your financial area and you will see that everything you truly need He will give to you, even better than that.

What happens when we do that, making this decision, assuming this call, is that we become true servants of Christ, in a complete way. Which means that when you have less, it will be for a purpose and when you have more, it will be for a purpose also.

Jesus calls those who have the courage to trust Him completely, without fear and worries. Those who have faith. Those who love Him.

After some years depending on Him financially it is super easy to rest because He takes care of us better than we do.

I will tell you a little silly testimony that will give you a better vision of how God does...

I used to go to a store every week, once a week, and I would see two shorts that I liked a lot, but every time I saw those shorts I didn't have money to buy them. (Because of wasting with other things)

I always make a list of needs and desires from time to time when I'm wanting or needing things. 

Then, I had money on Tuesday and was looking at my list to see what I was going to choose from it to buy with that money. Then I decided to buy some beauty products. When I opened the door of my house to leave, a strong storm started to fall down. Then I gave up and left it for later. That storm lasted the whole day until late in the night.

On the next day, I decided to look at the list again to see if that was what I was going to buy. Then, when I saw the shorts that I wanted God said: That's it!".

So I saved the money because on the next day I was going to stop by next to that store one more time. (By "coincidence")

If it didn't rain I would have spent the money of the shorts with something else again, before the day I was going to stop by next to that store. (Because I go to that area where the store is, once a week)

When I enter the store on the next day, those shorts weren't there anymore. They were sold out. I felt discouraged and started looking at the whole store, all of the sudden I saw two shorts one thousand times prettier than those ones that I liked before!! But like, ONE THOUSAND TIMES really. A lot more like my style. And they just came in the store. I bought them. (If I had much more money I would have bought the less nice shorts and God wouldn't have disciplined me to wait because He knew the better ones would come to the store).

Then I understood all the mess of God.

See how He takes care? How He does? Because my sustenance comes from Him totally. 

Who is in the government of my finances is Him. 

There are some people who earn much more money than I do and don't have half of the prosperity that God gives to me.

"for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
Romans 14: 17

Besides that, God is not a person of waste.

When we accept this call, He does everything according to our momentaneous mission.

When I went to San Francisco, Ca, I received from God the money to do that. But it wasn't the same quantity that I've been receiving now. Because once we become servants, He sustains us according to our mission of the moment. (And the quantity we receive is full of purposes)

It is an adventure to follow Jesus. It is an adventure to sail in His boat.

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 

and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." 

Matthew 6: 24-34

So, I want to encourage you...

If you already been feeling Jesus calling you through the Word, but you feel fearful and incredulous, or you simply have no idea how this works, I want to encourage you - trust.

Accept the calling.

How many times did I disobey God and went to look for a job or study a subject that had nothing to do with His Purpose in my life and He rebuked me? Many times.

I had to stop courses in the middle and stop going to job interviews. (because God would tell me to stop).

I went after those things for lack of perseverance. And that lack of perseverance came from lack of patience. 

It was a time of rest. He warned me, but I disobeyed a few times.

My point here is to tell you that this process takes some time. Even the disciples didn't understand when Jesus told them to feed the crowd, because they had already forgotten that Jesus is powerful also in the sustenance area. (Luke 9: 12-17)

They had been called, left their jobs, were following Jesus, but they were still learning.

We take time to wake up in the sustenance area because the whole world is enslaved in the spiritual Egypt.

“And He said to me,
‘You are My servant, O Israel,
In whom I will be glorified.’
Isaiah 49: 3

Something that helps me a lot is to be part of the Full Communion Church here in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Because here I met Apostle Sergio Lopes and Bishop Vera Lopes, who understand this call in a spiritual way. They understand it because they also live this in their lives.

I've been part of the Assembly of God, Baptist Church, Snow Ball Church, and now Full Communion Church.

Apostle Rina from Snow Ball was also called this way. 
But in Full Communion Church, I had the confirmation of my spiritual understanding that I already had but wasn't sure if it was only in my head.

Here, I learned about this in a deeper way and I could also see the real proof that this walk of faith really works, because of the several testimonies that Apostle Sergio Lopes tells us in a very personal way. So I learned to rest and be prosperous because I lost the fear and the doubts.

Today I know more than ever that prosperity comes from God and not from money. This is something that only experimenting with the Holy Spirit we can understand.

The spiritual Egypt is not difficult to understand. If you understood the history of the release of the people from Egypt, you can understand this.

Some think that Egypt is the world or sin. This is wrong. 

Were the people of God in Egypt, sinners? No. They were the people of God. Anointed and separated.

The only thing that enslaved them was the area of the sustenance.

"For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."
Matthew 6: 31-32

Why did God add that phrase? "For all these things the Gentiles seek"?

Because it's only necessary to go after these things if you don't have God in life. That's what He's saying.

Whoever has Jesus already entered the Promised Land.

So why are you still enslaved? 

Because you simply didn't open your eyes yet. You simply didn't understand Grace.

You didn't enter the little boat yet because you belong to the multitude who hear parables due to the hardness of heart.

That multitude that stayed in the land and did not enter the boat with the chosen ones didn't understand almost anything that Jesus said. 

But because they were being fed and healed, and seeing His power, they were satisfied.

The ones who would enter the little boat had something different: The level of their love for God.

It is this love that softens our heart. And only a soft heart can absorb the deepest Words of Jesus and be healed of blindness.

It is not because everybody does something that you have to do it.

If everybody dates without commitment today, you don't have to do that instead of going for a serious relationship.
If everybody has sex before marriage, that's not why you have to do it too.

So it's not because everybody works for money that you have to work for money.

“Yet I am the Lord your God
Ever since the land of Egypt,
And you shall know no God but Me;
For there is no savior besides Me."
Hosea 13: 4

Don't be an unbelieving believer. Embrace the EVERYTHING of God.

"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

Romans 1: 17