Are You Ready? (Rev. Donna Burrows)

Are You Ready Overview

In this powerful message from NTC Ministries, Rev. Donna Burrows delivers a Spirit-led call to examine the state of our faith in a world growing increasingly dark. Awakened early one morning with the question “Are you ready?”, she unpacks what it truly means to stand strong in persistent faith amid life’s daily and extraordinary challenges. Drawing from Hebrews 3, James 1, 1 Peter 1, Philippians 2, and Isaiah 54, Rev. Burrows identifies the primary obstacles that weaken faith: doubt, unbelief, fear, complaining, impatience, and forgetfulness. She traces the sobering pattern of the Israelites in the wilderness, who witnessed miracle after miracle yet allowed fear to harden their hearts and rob them of their Promised Land inheritance. Through vivid illustrations, including dirty water being displaced by clean water and the story of Mephibosheth paralyzed by misinformation about King David, she shows how wrong thinking and wrong words contaminate faith. The message closes with a resounding affirmation: every challenge is an opportunity to trust God, and persistent faith is the lifeline that connects us to everything He has prepared for those who believe.

Are You Ready Outline

• 00:00 – Opening and the Question That Started It All: Rev. Burrows shares how the Lord woke her with the question ‘Are you ready?’ and frames the message around making a conscious decision to stand strong in faith as the world grows darker.
• 05:30 – The Primary Obstacle: Doubt and Unbelief: She identifies doubt and unbelief as the main barriers believers must overcome, explaining that the devil sows these seeds subtly, often through first-person thoughts or through other people.
• 13:00 – Feeding and Exercising Your Faith Daily: Using the illustration of dirty water being displaced by clean water, Rev. Burrows teaches that faith must be consistently fed through the Word, prayer in the Spirit, and bold declaration to remain strong.
• 22:00 – A Sobering Warning from Hebrews 3: A close reading of Hebrews 3:7-19 draws the parallel between Israel’s hardened hearts in the wilderness and the danger believers face today when they repeatedly yield to fear and unbelief instead of trusting God.
• 31:00 – Fear Is the Enemy of Faith: Fear is exposed as a spirit, not merely an emotion, that paralyzes and prevents believers from receiving what God has prepared. The story of Mephibosheth illustrates how misinformation creates wrong beliefs that rob us of our inheritance.
• 40:00 – Complaining, Impatience, and Forgetfulness: Rev. Burrows identifies five warning signs of a hardening heart: fear, complaining, impatience, forgetfulness, and unthankfulness. She shows how the Israelites could have entered Canaan in eleven days but wandered forty years because of these patterns.
• 50:00 – The Power of Words and the Choice of Faith: Drawing from Psalm 56 and Philippians 2, she emphasizes that faith is a choice expressed through deliberate words of agreement with God’s Word, and that fear tolerated is faith contaminated.
• 57:30 – Standing Firm Until Jesus Returns: Closing with Hebrews 10:38 and the vision of Jesus finding persistent faith on the earth at His return, Rev. Burrows calls the congregation to make a declaration of faith and to shine as bright lights in a dark world.

Scripture References

Proverbs 19:12, Isaiah 54:9-10, Hebrews 11:6, Hebrews 3:7-15, Hebrews 3:19, Hosea 4:6, James 1:3-4, James 1:6-8, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Psalm 56:3-4, Psalm 105:1-2, Psalm 105:5, Philippians 2:14-15, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Hebrews 6:15, Hebrews 10:38

Key Takeaways

• Every challenge you face is an opportunity to trust God, and choosing to believe rather than fear is what releases His power into your situation.
• Faith must be fed daily through the Word of God and prayer in the Holy Spirit, or it will grow weak and become vulnerable to doubt and unbelief.
• Fear is a spirit, not an uncontrollable emotion, and Jesus made clear that letting fear take hold is a choice that can be refused.
• The same pattern that kept Israel wandering in the wilderness for forty years, fear, complaining, impatience, and forgetfulness, can keep believers from entering their own Promised Land.
• Unbelief is a thief that ties God’s hands, not because He lacks power, but because He will not override your will or His Word.
• Fear tolerated is faith contaminated, and the moment you detect it, repentance and bold declaration of God’s promises is the remedy.
• Jesus asked whether He would find persistent faith on the earth when He returns, and that question is a personal call to guard your heart and stand firm until He comes.

Are You Ready Notes

The Central Call to Persistent Faith

Rev. Burrows anchors the entire message in a question Jesus posed at the end of the parable of the widow and the unjust judge: when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? In the Amplified Classic translation, that becomes a question about persistence in faith. This is not a passive condition but an active, daily discipline. Just as a marathon runner cannot perform without training, a believer cannot stand in crisis without having built consistent, exercised faith over time. The message is a direct and urgent call to choose, every single day, to believe God above every circumstance.

Dirty Water and the Displacement Principle

One of the most memorable illustrations in this message involves a glass of clear water representing faith. As worldly influences enter, the water becomes cloudy and contaminated. The remedy is not despair but displacement: pouring in a large pitcher of clean water, representing the Word of God, until the dirty water is pushed out entirely. Rev. Burrows applies this directly to believers who have grown lax in feeding on Scripture, attending fellowship, or praying in the Spirit. The principle is simple and hopeful: no matter how contaminated your faith has become, the consistent intake of God’s Word will displace the doubt.

Mephibosheth and the Danger of Misinformation

The story of Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son who grew up lame in Lo-debar, a place whose name means ‘no word’ or ‘no thing,’ provides a striking picture of how wrong beliefs formed by misinformation rob people of their inheritance. For years, Mephibosheth likely feared King David because of the stories his nurse had told him. When David summoned him to restore his inheritance and invite him to eat at the royal table daily, Mephibosheth arrived in fear and prostration. Rev. Burrows draws the parallel clearly: our generous King Jesus wants to restore and bless, but fear built on lies will prevent us from receiving what is rightfully ours.

Five Warning Signs of a Hardening Heart

Rev. Burrows offers believers a practical diagnostic by identifying five warning signs that indicate a heart moving toward dangerous unbelief: fear, complaining, impatience, forgetfulness, and unthankfulness. These signs tend to work together, she warns. Once one takes hold, the others quickly follow. Complaining reveals that we are living by our senses rather than by faith and amounts to disagreeing with what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Impatience causes us to jump to conclusions and take matters into our own hands, as the Israelites did when they grew tired of waiting for Moses and turned to the golden calf. Keeping a journal of answered prayers is one practical antidote to forgetfulness and unthankfulness.

Repentance as the Immediate Response

A key pastoral insight in this message is the call to repent immediately upon detecting any of the five warning signs. Rev. Burrows reminds the congregation that whatever is not of faith is sin, which means tolerating fear is something to repent of, not merely manage. Repentance here means changing your thinking, refusing to tolerate the fear, reminding yourself of God’s love, rebuking the spirit of fear in Jesus’ name, and replacing doubtful words with faith-filled declarations aligned with Scripture. This rapid-response approach to spiritual hygiene is presented not as condemnation but as the loving, practical pathway back into rest and trust.

The Overcomer Is Already Inside You

Rev. Burrows closes with a vision of what happens when believers consistently submit to God in faith and resist the devil’s lies: the Overcomer who lives inside them becomes evident on the outside. In times of uncertainty, she argues, the world desperately needs to see stable, joyful, unshaken believers who shine as bright lights in a dark generation, exactly as Philippians 2:15 describes. This is not arrogance but the natural fruit of a faith built over time and tested by fire. The sermon ends as a declaration and a commissioning, urging every listener to be found in persistent faith when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

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