[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Departing from a prepared message for 9,600 women attending her Living Proof seminar in Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 1-2, popular author and speaker Beth Moore said God gave her a new word for them at the last minute.
“I had something planned, but God spoke a clear word over me to do something different,” Moore told women in the last of three seminar sessions, held at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium and sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Nashville conference was Moore’s ninth and final Living Proof seminar for the year. In 2000, about 55,000 women heard her speak in Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado, Arkansas and Tennessee.
The author of six Bible studies and four books, Moore said she believes the fact she was given a new message “means God is so anxious to move in a unique way in your midst. It’s not as if I would just pitch out notes I had prepared for 10,000 people if God had not given me a new message. But the Lord said the strangest thing to me this morning.”
Moore said God asked her to pray over and dedicate 12 “very specific categories” of people. After Moore prayed with each group, she asked them to repeat the phrase, “I willingly receive” the blessing from God.
The groups included:
— Active mothers. “The most important thing you can do for your children, even if they are grown, is to give your heart entirely over to the Lord. Our children are looking for authenticity, not perfection.”
[2]— Single moms. This group included “anybody raising young ‘uns in a household by yourself — whether divorced or widowed,” Moore said.
Moore told single moms to ask God for “a double portion of whatever you need. At no point are you asking too much of God. You can do this; you can do this,” she assured them.
— Single adults. “The Word of God says ‘for now.’ Until he tells you differently, he is your husband and he wants you to be a chaste and pure bride before him.”
— People serving in the music field. “You belong to God. Do not take on the practices of the nation around you,” Moore said in warning them not to let their egos get the best of them.
Moore said musicians and people who have to be “up front” have the very difficult task of trying to contain their egos. “You have been called into one of the most critical roles in the entire body of Christ. You have been called to lead in worship, to adore him.
“Before God, your heart must be pure. Music is created by God and for God.”
— People going through “a real valley of tears,” a time of sadness. “During the most difficult times, even if you are literally crawling your way through life right now, you must keep believing in God’s Word,” she counseled.
“You stay in God’s Word even if you can’t really concentrate. Open up his Word, receive his Word, believe his Word. You just keep sowing that seed and watering it with your tears. If you are willing to believe what the Word has to say, you will come out of this season, and you will reap with joy.”
— People who are living dead; the walking dead. “You are people who have had something so devastating happen in your life. Some kind of death came to you; it could be the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, a vocation or a dream. Somewhere along the way, you have just shut down.”
Moore asked this group to identify with Christ who died and was resurrected. “God has promised a resurrected life for you. He can be released to live through you in ways you have never dreamed and never experienced.”
— People who are seeking a specific direction in life. “This is someone with a decision to make, someone at crossroads in their life, someone who needs something so specific from God. You need a word from him.”
Using Psalm 119:105 as her text, Moore prayed for this group to “have a supernatural capacity to understand what you are to do.”
— Anyone with a stronghold who needs to be set free. Moore explained that before a person can be free of any kind of stronghold on their lives, such as addictions or compulsions, they must let go of any pride regarding the issue.
“We cannot even move on to step two if we cannot humble ourselves about our strongholds.”
She said strongholds could be anything from being insecure to “being caught up in a season of adultery.”
To people with significant strongholds in their lives, Moore said, “You have got to be in the Word of God. There is no deliverance without the Word of God. You have got to have a relationship with God. You have divine power through Jesus to demolish your strongholds.”
— Anyone who is ill and who is desiring God heal them. “I do not believe in a prosperity gospel. I don’t think just because you have enough faith, you will be healthy or wealthy,” Moore said. “But what I can tell you is that God will glorify the son in your life. And if [being ill] is the choice he makes for you, it will be glory to you.”
But God can also heal if it is in his will, Moore said.
“And it is necessary we give him the opportunity to do that. God’s Word says he still heals, and we want to take him up on that benefit,” she said before praying for those who are ill to be healed if the healing was within God’s will.
— People who need deliverance from unforgiveness. “Girlfriends, this is a hard one.”
Moore said God finally made her realize that forgiving someone for what they have done does not mean the act was acceptable. “We just keep hanging back on forgiveness because we think if we forgive, it will make it all right, and it ain’t all right.”
But not forgiving is like a disease, she said. “Unforgiveness is spiritual cancer, and it turns into bitterness. Everyone surrounding us is affected by it.
“We are to be kind and compassionate; we are to forgive others as Christ forgave us. God is calling on you to be a person of grace. It doesn’t have anything to do with them deserving it, because we didn’t deserve it either,” Moore said.
“Because I have been graced, I will grace others. It does not mean they are off the hook. Vengeance is God’s. Give that thing to God.”
— People who are servants of God or in any area of leadership in the church. “God is up to here with ego in the church; he is totally up to here,” Moore said as she waved her hand over her head.
“We need to become servants before him. God is looking for servants. If you want the blessing over you, you have to humble yourself to receive it. Please forgive us, God, for the things we have done to get attention and approval.”
Moore’s latest study, “Jesus the One and Only,” was released in December 2000. The 11-week study is based on the Gospel of Luke and is accompanied by the teaching video she taped in Israel in March.
Moore is scheduled to conduct 13 women’s seminars in 2001. The conferences will be held in Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Nebraska, California, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Indiana and Wyoming. For more information, visit LifeWay’s website at: http://www.lifeway.com/discipleplus/bmsched.htm; e-mail [email protected]; or call Faith Whatley at (615) 251-2793.
For information on some of Moore’s other works, visit www.lifewaystores.com.
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