Day 5 dealing with trials
Well, hopefully we are streaming. But I don't know. Last night we didn't seem to have a lot of people that were tuned in. But tonight I'm going to wait just a moment to see if we can get some folks to tune in and maybe you guys can begin to type in some comments. I'm here to be able to answer questions as well.
As I see your comments coming across the screen, I'd love to acknowledge you. Last night we didn't have very many people that tuned into the live broadcast. But since last night it has had over 500 views. So it's gone out there to quite a few people and we're really grateful for that. But if you're watching right now and you'd like to type in a little comment, let me know you're there.
That would be great. I would see your name coming across the screen and would feel a lot better if I knew some of you guys were actually watching. Anyway, tonight it's an important message. I won't keep you too long, but it's the fifth installment really. It's number five of the six things that I've been sharing with you that God taught me in the midst of my struggle and my family's struggle.
Going back about 10 years when Cindy was in the hospital with H1N1 double pneumonia. And of course, many of you by now know the story. By the way, if you want to watch a complete video of that story, if you go to our website, which is otm.co. O T M for standing for on target ministries dot C O not dot com. If you go to there and go to on target Institute drop down box, you'll see an area for videos.
If you look up the video armed ready for battle, that is a video that was done in one of the largest churches in Las Vegas. Not long after Cindy got out of the hospital, they'd been praying for her and we had the opportunity to speak there to their services. And she was actually privileged to be in the audience. The ending of that service was pretty emotional. They did not know she was there.
And so when I introduced all of them to their miracle girl who they'd been praying for, the place just kind of erupted. And it was just it was a really, really special time. I'd encourage you to look that up if you want to see the entire message. But tonight, the fifth thing that God dealt with me about, I think, is extremely important. And let me tell you why.
Because if you remember when I started this series, I talked about the word God gave me back in 2008. And it said, My people are not prepared. Last night, I told you that I had an article I'd be happy to send you. If you just email me at Vince at otm dot C O. I'll send you the full article about that word.
But I got from that over the years as I've been unpacking what I believe God is saying to all of us who call ourselves followers of Christ, that truly we are not really prepared for tough stuff to come against us. And I think what's happening right now with the coronavirus and what we're seeing in a lot of different places, the level of fear and anxiety that's happening even amongst believers is in my view is just not right. I think if we're followers of Christ and we're deeply rooted in him, and that is where the problem is, guys, we're not as deeply rooted in him as we need to be. So if we were, we'd have no fear when it comes to these kind of trials that are hitting us. But here's the important thing.
My people are not prepared. I believe what God is wanting to do in each and every one of our lives is to prepare us for the battles yet to come. I opened up this whole series with that verse in Kings that talked about how God allowed battles to happen to the nation of Israel because he wanted to toughen them up for the battles yet to come. And I believe in the midst of our struggles, God wants to use that opportunity to teach us something. But when Cindy was going through this crisis, I didn't think that way, man.
All I thought about was praying for Cindy and doing everything I could to help her to stay close to God, to pray, to get more people praying, to help that situation and to bring healing. That's all I could think about. Well, on this particular occasion, as I was driving to the hospital, and I've told you, God, before, I believe God lived in the backseat of my avalanche back in those days. As I was driving to the hospital, in this particular instance, I really felt God saying to me the following. He said, Vince, please pray that you do not miss the lesson I am trying to teach you in the midst of this struggle.
Now, I knew that had to be him again because I wasn't thinking that way. I wasn't thinking about me at all. I was thinking about Cindy. And what he was saying to me was, OK, you need to pray for your wife. But Vince, also, in addition to that, please pray that you don't miss what I'm trying to teach you.
There's a verse, and I haven't seen this verse before, but when I was doing some research, I found Psalm 4-1. In the New King James, it says this, thou hast enlarged me. You have enlarged me when I was in distress. Wow. So out of my distress, God enlarges us.
OK? And that's the way God works. But again, my focus wasn't trying to think about how I was going to be enlarged. My focus was just praying that somehow, some way, my wife would make it through this thing. You know, in James, it says to consider it pure joy when you're facing various trials.
Usually when I teach on that verse, I'm very quick to say, yeah, right. But it doesn't say, listen, it doesn't say consider it pure joy once you've been through the trial and can look back and see what it produced. It says in the midst of it. Is that hard? You bet it's hard.
But I don't know about you. My hero is the Apostle Paul. I would love to be more like the Apostle Paul. You talk about a man who had trials. I mean, everything in life was thrown at this guy.
I mean, he was stoned and he was bloodied and bludgeoned. And I mean, he was hated. And I mean, can you imagine all of the different things that hit this man? And here's my attitude or here's the attitude I'd like to have, I should say. Here's the attitude I think Paul had as a result of all of this.
If I'm the Apostle Paul, let me demonstrate Paul. When it came to trials and struggles in life, this is the way I picture Paul. Watch this. Bring it on. Well, I'm not sure.
I'm quite that far along yet. But that's what I want to be. I want to be able to say, Lord, whatever comes my way, I'm going to do it. Whatever comes my way, I know you've got my back. But in this particular case, I knew what the Lord was saying to me.
He wanted to teach me something. And so I went on a treasure hunt. I started to pray. The very next day I said, Lord, I want to know what you want to teach me. In the midst of my pain, in the midst of all the things that I'm going through, please, Lord, teach me.
What are the one or two nuggets that you're intending for me to grasp in the midst of this situation? Well, here's what happened. The next night, this was actually the next night, I got another phone call from the hospital saying things were even worse. In fact, they told me that Cindy had developed blood clots in her lungs and they were preventing air from getting into her lower chamber and were threatening to suffocate her to death. In fact, they were pretty sure she wouldn't make it through the night, but they had one emergency procedure they wanted to try.
And they encouraged me to get to the hospital as quickly as I could. So I got in my car and the whole hour drive to the hospital, I was praying. I got there and I went up to the ICU unit where she was. She was in a coma. She'd been in a coma for about a week.
And when I got to the room, there was a specialist there, a woman doctor and about three assistants. They had rolled in a television screen or a monitor on a cart and they they closed the curtain. They didn't have time to take her to the emergency operating room. They were doing the procedure in ICU and I had no clue what they were up to. So I'm standing there and they allowed me to stay for this procedure.
They said, Mr. D'Acchioli, just stand over here. And what we're going to do is we're going to we're going to go into your wife's lungs. And they had a wire that went into her trach. And the wire had a little miniature camera on the end and a little a little clamp so that they could go in and look around, find the blood clots, grab them and take them back out.
I've never seen anything like this. It was absolutely amazing. I don't remember the doctor's name, but I affectionately refer to her now as Dr. Grabber. Well, Dr.
Grabber went in and I'm I'm sitting there standing there hyperventilating because I I don't know if she's going to live or die. She could die right then and there. They're not saying anything to me about how they're doing. They're just going in. They went in and you could see it on the screen.
They would they would find a blood clot. And of course, they're very microscopic, but on the screen they look huge. So they would grab the blood clot and I could see they clamp it and they start to pull it out. And as they're pulling it out on this particular occasion, one little tiny chunk broke off and the other assistants in the room went, oh, man, we almost had that one. You know, they were upset.
And so she would go in again and she was persistent. She'd go in again. And then finally she grabbed one and a great big chunk would come out and all the all the attendants would go, wow, did you see that one? I mean, they were really excited. OK, so they kept going in and coming out and going.
They went into her thirty one times, thirty one times. And I'm again, I have no idea what the outcome is going to be. After the thirty first time, Dr. Grabber pulls down her mask. She has a big smile on her face and she says she's clear and all the attendants applauded.
And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, man, this is unbelievable. I mean, I was sweating. I was hyperventilating, but she was clear. So everything got settled in. She was still out.
She I left and I went back home to get some sleep. And on my way back home in the car, this is probably one of the most profound times that I've ever experienced. The Lord really speaking to me. And this is what he said. He said, Vince, you've got a lot of clots.
You've got a lot of clots. I said, excuse me. He said, you heard me, Vince. You got a lot of clots. Oh, they're not they're not physical clots.
OK, but on the very same way that those physical clots were getting in the way of air entering your wipes lower chamber and threatening her very life, your spiritual clots are getting the way of the wind of my spirit blowing through your life in the way I fully intent. Now, guys, listen to me. There's not a person right now watching this video or in the sound of my voice that you don't know exactly what I just said. Not only that, you know exactly what your clots are. You know the things that are in your life that are preventing God from getting through and working powerfully through you.
Well, I get this picture. And by the way, I knew exactly what God was saying to me. I know the weaknesses of my life. I know the plots God wants to get out. In fact, I got this picture when I was driving home of God up in heaven kind of reaching down into Vince D'Acchioli's life like that like that clamp going in, you know, and he's reaching down and all the angels in heaven are standing around watching this, you know, and they got this big monitor monitor up there and they're all tuned in watching God reach into Vince D'Acchioli.
He grabs a little chunk of this of this problem that he has. I don't know what it is. It could be. I don't know what it is for you. It could be pornography, alcohol, drugs, anger.
It could be any number of things. But God's reaching down in there and he's trying to pull it out. Okay. And he's reaching down and Vince D'Acchioli's life and he grabs one of those big ones, you know, and all of a sudden he's pulling in a little chunk breaks off and all the angels go, oh, man, we always had that one. And then all of a sudden he goes down there and he grabs a big chunk and a whole chunk comes out.
The angels go, wow, did you see that? I'm not sure that's the way it happens. But but but you get the picture. Dear ones, please hear me. This is not a time for us to be playing games.
We have got to be serious about the condition of our heart and the condition of our life so that God can blow through us in the way he fully intended. And please hear me. There is a relationship between obedience and power. God. Oswald Chambers has a great quote.
He says, Sometimes God won't reveal more truth about himself until you've obeyed what you already know. And I believe that's a true statement, that the more we obey, the more we allow God to get the crud out of our life, the more we sense his presence, the more we sense his power flowing through my life. Guys, I get the opportunity to speak and minister in a lot of different places. I have to be honest with you. When I know I'm right with God, there's a whole different feeling of God's power and God's anointing working through my life.
And I'm at the age now to where that's all I want. I don't want anything less than that. I want the fullness of God. But the requirement is you've got to get the clocks out. You've got to allow God to show you your lesson in the midst of this trial.
So here's my encouragement to you as we kind of close. I don't know what you're going through right now, but my sense is, again, many of you might be fearful. You're struggling through this whole thing. You've got some anxiety. My encouragement to you is to pray, Lord, this is tough.
What I'm going through right now is tough, but please don't let me miss what it is you're trying to teach me in the midst of this circumstance. And I promise you, if you do that and you begin looking for it, God will show you exactly what he wants you to deal with. But here's the here's the good reason. Here's here's the good news. God's doing it because he loves you.
He's crazy about you. And he wants to use you. Listen, in the battle yet to come, he is preparing you guys. And you can either lean into that and let him have his way or you can dig in your heels and get scared and go the other direction. Please don't do that.
Lean into God. Let him show you your lesson. Figure out what that nugget is that he wants to teach you in the midst of this and then work on it. Ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to come in and work on it, whatever it is he's trying to encourage you to do. And I promise you, you will sense his presence and you begin to catch a vision for the way God wants to use you in the future that will blow you away.
Let me pray for you. Lord, thank you so much for those that are tuned in tonight. I pray, Lord, that in the midst of this struggle right now, in the midst of whatever people might be going through right now, Lord, that they be open, that they have an open heart to hear your voice and to hear the things that you are encouraging them to deal with. In their own lives by way of preparing them for the battles yet to come. Lord, I can only imagine what your body would be like if all of us were so tuned to you that we could easily shed all of these things that encumber us and prevent the wind of your spirit from blowing through our lives.
I can only imagine how quickly your kingdom would be advanced here on planet Earth. So Lord, I thank you in advance for what you're going to do and what you're going to show my friends. And I ask your blessing upon them tonight. Take away any fear or anxiety and give them a supernatural sense of your peace. And I pray it in Jesus precious name.
And all God's kids said, Amen. Well, guys, tomorrow night, I'm looking forward to talking to you about the sixth area. And then I'll either do it tomorrow night or I might take one more night before I share what I call the secret to life. Some of you have asked, where is this broadcast coming from? For those of you and I know some of you are watching this from New Zealand, Australia, different parts of the world.
We're actually coming to you from my home office in Colorado Springs, Colorado, because many of you know, I've been kind of sequestered here because my wife is even though she's been healed, she still is a high risk physically. Because of scar tissue on her lungs. So I have the privilege of coming to you from my office. And I know some of you are watching right now. In fact, I see my daughter, Kimberly, Kim D'Acchioli is she's my oldest daughter.
She, by the way, is my favorite oldest daughter. I just thought I should let her know that because she's watching right now. But anyway, so we've got people watching from all over. I thank you so much for tuning in. I'm really looking forward to talking to you guys tomorrow night.
So in the meantime, God bless you. Have a great night.