SPEAKER_00: Pick our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say this together.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: It's time for me to be replenished in the Word and in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I always want to stay full, full of your word, full of your Holy Spirit, and I'll give you all the praise for resulting victory in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at 1 John chapter 1 first, and we'll read there a couple of verses, and then you can find Romans chapter 8 and Proverbs 20.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a number of verses here I want to share with you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start with 1 John 1, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Then this is the message which you have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
SPEAKER_00: If we say that we have fellowship with him, that is with God, and walk in darkness, then we lie and do not the truth.
SPEAKER_00: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
SPEAKER_00: And then let's flip over to Romans chapter 8, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then in Proverbs 20, 27, it uh it says the spirit of a man is a candle of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It uh enlightens all the uh place of his of his belly, it enlightens all, it searches all the deepest part of his heart, which is talking about your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit is the lamp or candle of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, My spirit is a lamp.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, My spirit's a lamp.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we're talking tonight about walking in the light.
SPEAKER_00: Walking in the light.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we need the word and we need the spirit, both to be led by the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people just think, well, I'm gonna kind of cram for the final.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna kind of go through life without much of a word life, not much of a prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: And when they come up against things where they really need to hear from God, they start trying to trying to do like some people do that I've you know used to know people that wouldn't crack a book all during the semester, and then at the end of the finals, they'd try to cram for the final.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it never works, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You just you need to keep up all the way along.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you need to keep up uh your quininea, your fellowship with the Lord all the time in the word and in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And then that way, when there's guidance that he wants to give you, it's not that hard to find it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that hard to find to discern it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Bible says in Rome in Psalm 119, 105, the word, thy word is a lamp under our feet and a light under our path.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can walk in the light of the word and and stay pretty much in the will of God, at least the general will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Our spirits are lamps that are illuminated by the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Ghost is working in partnership with the illumination that comes, the illumination that comes with the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8.16, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we we uh we knew right away when we were saved, we knew, how did we know we were saved?
SPEAKER_00: The witness of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 5.10.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he who believes on Jesus hath the witness in himself.
SPEAKER_00: You see, so the witness is the main reason or the main way, I should say, that the Holy Spirit leads us.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to lead us.
SPEAKER_00: So, and then of course, verse 14, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: Then the converse is true.
SPEAKER_00: As many as are sons of God, they are led by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, I'm being led by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: So every believer is led.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a question of whether you're being led.
SPEAKER_00: You are led.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, are you following the leading?
SPEAKER_00: Are you identifying the leading of the Spirit and then following that?
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: So it's not on God's side to do something.
SPEAKER_00: He's already doing it.
SPEAKER_00: He does it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: He's leading you day by day.
SPEAKER_00: And on our side, we have to have a word life and a and a and a prayer life in order to really begin to uh identify that leading, and then of course it takes faith to follow that leading because it's not something we can we can encounter in our five senses.
SPEAKER_00: Are you are you following now?
SPEAKER_00: So uh it just follows then that the main way that God wants to lead us is by the witness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we all got saved.
SPEAKER_00: We got, I'm waving at Hannah, my my little my little Jill back there.
SPEAKER_00: She came to church on Wednesday night just to hear pastor.
SPEAKER_00: She'll probably re-preach this message to her mama tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: So um, so the main way that we know we're saved is a witness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It just follows in the main way he's going to lead us and guide us is by the witness of the Spirit, or I can say it, the knowing.
SPEAKER_00: You just have a knowing on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a audible voice, it's not a vision, it's not a dream.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes, you know, we stumble over the supernatural looking for the spectacular.
SPEAKER_00: And the witness is just as supernatural as a vision or a dream or a voice.
SPEAKER_00: I've had those.
SPEAKER_00: I've had voices, I've had the inward voice, I've had a voice that was loud, that it sounded like it came, that everybody heard it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I've had visions, I've had dreams, those are wonderful, but they're just very seldom in a lifetime of serving God.
SPEAKER_00: You just have very few of those, but the witness of the Spirit is what I'm talking about tonight, walking in the light.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we need to walk in the light, learn how to stay in the light.
SPEAKER_00: And that way we're gonna we're gonna be uh going along with God the way that He wants us to.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and we can walk in light of the Word.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the Word of God is the general will of God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you'll just take this word and read it every day and and and even meditate on it, it's even better to meditate.
SPEAKER_00: Many folks don't have time to even read it, much less meditate on it.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, if you'll do that, then uh God will be able to have his way with you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh instead, many times people uh learn uh to set fleeces.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: A fleece.
SPEAKER_00: And we call that uh what happened to Gideon there in the book of Judges.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Midianites had uh invaded Israel and taken them captive.
SPEAKER_00: They were backslid as a nation.
SPEAKER_00: They quit serving God.
SPEAKER_00: So God just quit, he lifted his hand off of them and they started walking in the curse.
SPEAKER_00: And the curse was illuminated, it's it's shown right there and illuminated in Deuteronomy 28.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you if, if, if, if you'll obey the word, then you know, all the blessings will come.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, all the curses will come.
SPEAKER_00: One of the curses is having foreign countries come into your nation.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we've had.
SPEAKER_00: We've been invaded because this country quit serving God like a as a country should.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been invaded.
SPEAKER_00: We've been invaded with illegal aliens, we've been invaded with with drugs, we've been invaded with COVID.
SPEAKER_00: All of those were attacks by foreign countries on our nation.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because God just lifted his hand.
SPEAKER_00: We said, we're coming up on the 25th anniversary of 9-11.
SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about 9-11, been seeing a few uh reminders of what are, you know, thinking about where where I was back there in 9-11, and that was kind of the beginning of the of this whole thing that we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's shocking to think.
SPEAKER_00: And every one of these, the guys that flew the planes into the World Trade Center were were should have been thrown out of the country.
SPEAKER_00: They were here illegally.
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't do a thing about it.
SPEAKER_00: Hadn't done one thing in 25 years about it.
SPEAKER_00: Until now, we're finally doing something about it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is my point?
SPEAKER_00: Well, my point is that we need to walk in the spirit and and and and and not be, you know, set fleeces like Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: So Gideon was chosen to be the deliverer of Israel because they were walking in the curse.
SPEAKER_00: And they cried out, and God had mercy on them.
SPEAKER_00: God's having mercy on America right now.
SPEAKER_00: And so God uh they they cried out, and so God raised up a young man called Gideon, and he he couldn't really believe it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't mean, you don't mean me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, surely you're not talking to me.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, an angel appeared to him and all that, and and you keep reading there, and finally he says, All right, okay, all right.
SPEAKER_00: If it's really you that's talking to me, if it's really you that wants me to deliver, you know, deliver the children of Israel, then what I'm I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna take this fleece.
SPEAKER_00: You know, fleece was just some wool off of a sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm gonna set this fleece down on the middle of the ground, and it's in the morning when I get up, it's gonna be wet with dew.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be sopping wet with dew, and the ground is gonna be dry.
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll know that it's really you that's talking to me.
SPEAKER_00: So he he set that fleece.
SPEAKER_00: Why did he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's spiritually dead.
SPEAKER_00: He's not born again.
SPEAKER_00: He's Jewish all right.
SPEAKER_00: He has a covenant with God all right, but he does not know God in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: He's not been born again because Jesus hadn't come yet to die on the cross for his sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so no nobody except the priest, the prophet, and the king had access to God.
SPEAKER_00: And only the only the three that I mentioned, they can have the anointing upon them.
SPEAKER_00: And so then when you wanted to know what God wanted to say, well, you went to the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He was the one that spoke for God, or the priest.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, so he said, All right, and so we got up the next morning, sure enough, he he took that fleece and he wrung it out, and and all the water fell into a bowl, he collected it into a bowl, and all the all the land was dry around the fleece.
SPEAKER_00: So God honored that.
SPEAKER_00: So he would know that it was God speaking to him.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Okay, don't be angry with me, but that's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: I need one more.
SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
SPEAKER_00: Let me do it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Let me set the fleece out dry and let the wet, the ground be wet in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so God didn't, you know, kill him.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't disqualify him, he was patient with him, and he granted that sign.
SPEAKER_00: And it's called setting a fleece.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, people do that even now, and that's why I'm teaching this, because that's not the way to hear from God, is to set a fleece.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, set a fleece?
SPEAKER_00: When you say, God, if you'll cause this to happen over here, then I'll know it's your will for me to do this over there.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's not the scriptural way to hear from God about your guidance.
SPEAKER_00: Your guide, your guidance all comes right here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about him doing something and then you doing something.
SPEAKER_00: That's a fleece.
SPEAKER_00: So I was reading about Brother Hagin, he gives a testimony back in 1941, that uh, you know, he was he was pastoring churches, and and uh he all of the churches that he pastored had a board of deacons, and they and all the churches elected the pastor, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know how, I don't know where they get that in the Bible, but anyway, that's what they did.
SPEAKER_00: That was how they they found a pastor, is they they would have you come and and uh kind of like interview by preaching.
SPEAKER_00: And if they liked your preaching, they'd have an election, and if you got the vote, well then you got to be the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: So there was this church that had an opening, and he he went and applied and preached there on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And on the way home, he just prayed this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Lord, now you know if they uh it was a good meeting and he was well received and it looked good.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, you know, Lord, if if it's really, if you want me to come to this church, and I'm just I just believe that if they vote for me 100%, I'll I'll just count it that it's your perfect will for us to come to this church and be the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, so they they voted 100%.
SPEAKER_00: And so Oretha and I went to that church, and uh, you know, it was the best parsonage we'd ever had, it was the most money we'd ever made.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was the best conditions, all the outward conditions were the best that he had ever had.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem was that he had no anointing to preach or teach.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was like he had zero.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's up there trying to preach and teach without any help from the helper.
SPEAKER_00: I can you imagine how miserable that was?
SPEAKER_00: It didn't take but one service for that to be evident.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He quit?
SPEAKER_00: No, he he he kept his word.
SPEAKER_00: He stayed there an entire year.
SPEAKER_00: And that was a miserable year, not only for him, but for the church.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the church can't really be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: When they've chosen the wrong man, that means the right man is not there.
SPEAKER_00: See, this voting business is just dumb, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, nobody voted me in and they can't vote me out.
SPEAKER_00: You can vote with your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Some people vote with their feet and leave, but I mean, you can't vote me out of here.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I didn't, you know, wasn't elected.
SPEAKER_00: So uh so he kept his word for a year.
SPEAKER_00: He swore by his own hurt and changed not.
SPEAKER_00: And then uh after that year, he left.
SPEAKER_00: And later on in his ministry, he came back by the witness, the witness that they needed a pastor again, and by the witness of the spirit, he got to go back to that place, and he got to correct a lot of things that had gotten sideways and things that he wasn't anointed to to share with them when he was there before.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God has a way of, you know, of just righting the wrongs, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: So uh no, we're not led by fleeces, we're led by the Spirit, by the witness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So one thing you need to know is not everything that you need to know in life is contained right here in the Word.
SPEAKER_00: This is the general will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Generally speaking, this tells you uh generally, you know, husbands how to treat your wives, wives how to treat your husbands, parents how to treat your children, children what to do about parents.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it has all the general things that you need to know to live uh in the Christian life, but not everything that you specifically need.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, it's not gonna tell you which man to marry, which woman to marry, it's not gonna tell you where to live, what job to take.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to find that specific will out through the witness and through following the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh follow the witness.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just give you a quick testimony about how this church started.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we uh I knew I was called into the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I ran it by Brother Osteen.
SPEAKER_00: I I I uh he had already told me that I was a pastor, that I'd have a church one of these days.
SPEAKER_00: And his idea was his phone would ring and somebody would need a pastor, and he'd recommend me, and I'd go to Dubuque, Iowa, or Tim Buck II, and go pastor a church someplace.
SPEAKER_00: I'd, you know, and I'd but then the Holy, I wasn't the Holy Ghost's idea.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Ghost had me, wanted me to start a church here.
SPEAKER_00: And I know him.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want me to have to start one from scratch.
SPEAKER_00: He just wanted me to get part of something that was already up and running.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, that's that's got its own difficulties, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen that happen, and that's not easy either.
SPEAKER_00: When you start to be the pastor of a church that you didn't start, because it's a whole different culture that may, and then you've got to be patient enough to get everybody kind of turning back to the way you want to do things as pastor, because the previous guy did them this way, and now you're there.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's there's something to be said about that kind of situation.
SPEAKER_00: It's not all that easy.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that was his heart, but that wasn't the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Ghost started dealing with me, and and so I I I about I guess you could call, I bounced it off of him.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say God's called me to leave the church.
SPEAKER_00: I just said this is what I'm considering.
SPEAKER_00: I never said God told me.
SPEAKER_00: I said, this is what I'm considering.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, but I'm not leaving without your 100% blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And he's and at first he did it, but I could tell he was kind of stunned when I talked to him about it because it was different than the way he was thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next day he said, Oh, John, I didn't sleep at all night last night.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh my God.
SPEAKER_00: He gave me the blessing that afternoon, but the next morning he took it away.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he said, He said, Look, you he said, it's yeah, you're a pastor, there's no question, but I think you're you're ahead of a game.
SPEAKER_00: You need to wait.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, you know, Pastor, I don't disagree.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Look, you're this is already September, October, November, November, Thanksgiving, December's holidays, January 1st.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bad time to start a church with all the holidays.
SPEAKER_00: You're better off waiting until after the first of the year.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Brother Osteen, I don't disagree with that, but I said, that's not the deal I made with God.
SPEAKER_00: I made a deal with God.
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, at my age and with my, you know, I'm I'm, you know, I've I'm not a spring chicken, and here I am going to go out here and start a church from scratch.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I said, God, the only way I'll do it is with an unconditional uh blessing from my pastor, and it sounds like I'm not getting that.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, you, yeah, you, he said, you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't think you I said, well, see, you've got a reservation, so that's my safety.
SPEAKER_00: That's my safety.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't have to do it then.
SPEAKER_00: If you tell me I should wait, there's my chance.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Brother Osteen, I'm just gonna kill it, kill it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stick a knife in it.
SPEAKER_00: It's dead right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna kill it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, no, that's not what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I know that, but that's what I have to do based on what I prayed and told God.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be willing to do.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I'm I've got kids of an age.
SPEAKER_00: I can't just go out here and start a church and it not be God.
SPEAKER_00: I'd seen plenty of guys go out and start churches and it didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them come limping back to town after four months or six months or a year and just all beat up and broke.
SPEAKER_00: I just didn't want to do it like that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I'm gonna start something, bro, those things are gonna be 100% behind it, or I'm not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what gave me my out, see.
SPEAKER_00: So that was in uh September.
SPEAKER_00: So October, we went on a missions trip and got back and had a glorious time and and uh and then uh so it was I got back and on December the 14th, uh the morning of the 14th of December, 1994, Brother Osteen called me at home and and he wanted to talk to me about a few things.
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the conversation, he said, Oh, by the way, he said, that church you want to start, he said, if you want to start it now or anytime in the future, you have my full and unreserved blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Unconditional blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And so from that point on, it's on go.
SPEAKER_00: So I had to call the people back that were willing to go.
SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd release them.
SPEAKER_00: I had three couples that said they wanted to be part of my church, and I after I stuck the knife in it in the thing and killed it dead, I released them and said, I don't know that we'll ever start the church.
SPEAKER_00: It's dead now.
SPEAKER_00: I can't commit to you.
SPEAKER_00: And two out of the three cried because they were really planning on, you know, being under my ministry.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I called them back, not knowing whether they'd be willing to come.
SPEAKER_00: They were all excited.
SPEAKER_00: They they hadn't gone anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh that was step number one to let them know and be praying and be saving your tithe.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you're you're you know, we're gonna need money.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: Gonna need money to do something.
SPEAKER_00: So uh on the 7th of uh January, right after the first of the year, 95, we had our first organizational meeting at three couples, and we added another three or four couples that heard about it.
SPEAKER_00: And they came, I think we had seven couples, 15, 14, 15 people at the first meeting where we talked about the church and what we were going to be believing for and what kind of church it'd be.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh by that time I had Glorious Way as the name, you know, and and so it was a good meeting.
SPEAKER_00: We had prayer, and uh then the next week on the 15th, the second meeting, we had about 30 people.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a couple days before my birthday, and somebody heard that it was my birthday on the 17th, so they had a birthday cake, and we had a little birthday party, and you know, it was a just or you know, again, it was just talking about the future.
SPEAKER_00: And I still hadn't found a building.
SPEAKER_00: I'd been looking for a building, I had found a building now, and here it is now.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's been three weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it'd been a month since Brother Osteen released me.
SPEAKER_00: So, in this a month later, and I don't have a building.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a name, I've got some people, no building.
SPEAKER_00: So, right after this second meeting, I'm talking about now walking in the light.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about walking by the witness of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about letting the Word of God illuminate your path and letting the Holy Ghost shine.
SPEAKER_00: So I had been looking for this particular building for some time.
SPEAKER_00: I'd go up and down 1960 and I just couldn't seem to find it.
SPEAKER_00: It was a building that uh at one time was a seafood restaurant, and then later on it was a barbecue restaurant, Big Ben's Barbecue.
SPEAKER_00: I'd actually used to go there and drink beer and eat barbecue in that building.
SPEAKER_00: And it was not a successful building because it's kind of off the road, and people would drive right by it and not see it.
SPEAKER_00: And the sign wasn't big enough for anybody to know it was there.
SPEAKER_00: So I was looking for that building.
SPEAKER_00: I was, I thought, you know, that building might be big enough.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and finally somebody called me and said, hey, there's a building in front of Champions Park.
SPEAKER_00: There's a building for lease right in front of Champions Park, and sure enough, it was the building.
SPEAKER_00: I drove in the circ the center and I recognized that was the building and had a broker sign on it.
SPEAKER_00: Call, you know, call this broker.
SPEAKER_00: So I called the guy and he met me there.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and he happened to be a deacon at Champion Forest Baptist, and I said, Oh, yeah, well, and and gave me his name.
SPEAKER_00: We met and I said, well, I said, my cousin was men's Sunday school uh head there for a long year.
SPEAKER_00: Did you ever know Donald Griner?
SPEAKER_00: Donald Reiner, yeah, I know Don.
SPEAKER_00: And so here he knew my first cousin, so it was kind of cool.
SPEAKER_00: And so we walked through the building and I had a witness.
SPEAKER_00: See, I had a witness when I walked through that door.
SPEAKER_00: I'd been looking for that building, but when I got in it, I had a witness with it.
SPEAKER_00: But it's$5,000 a month and a$5,000 damage deposit.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to take$5,000 deposit for HL and P to turn on the electricity.
SPEAKER_00: That's$15,000 that I didn't have, 15 cents.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm thinking, man, how do we?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, look, I this is, I just starting out, I don't have, I've got a couple of thousand that people have given and their tithes, but I don't have anything like what it's going to take.
SPEAKER_00: He said, make him an offer and it's graduated.
SPEAKER_00: He said, start low per month.
SPEAKER_00: Give him uh, make him wait on the damage.
SPEAKER_00: This is an old building.
SPEAKER_00: What damage are you gonna do to this old building?
SPEAKER_00: He said, make him wait on that until you get running.
SPEAKER_00: And then you sign an idea that you'll give, you know, a third of it or a fourth of it, you know, after a while, and then a little bit more until you get the whole damage deposit paid.
SPEAKER_00: And cut the damage, but don't make it give him$5,000.
SPEAKER_00: It's too much for this old building.
SPEAKER_00: It's old.
SPEAKER_00: I said, okay.
SPEAKER_00: He was acting like my broker, he's supposed to represent the landlord.
SPEAKER_00: But I had what favor?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll tell you, where God leads, he meets the needs.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say that out loud.
SPEAKER_00: Where God leads, he meets the needs.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's enough reason for you to follow the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you follow the Holy Ghost, I'm telling you, everything will work out.
SPEAKER_00: But when you do it your way, that it seldom does.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, we drew this contract up to give them a small amount each month for the first uh two, I think it was three months at one level, the next three months at a little bit higher level, and then the final six months, I had to make up what we didn't pay the first six months.
SPEAKER_00: So those those lease payments were higher.
SPEAKER_00: But by that time we had grown.
SPEAKER_00: And by the end of the year, he got his$60,000.
SPEAKER_00: All he's interested in is making sure that in one year he's got$60K for the lease.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we tailored.
SPEAKER_00: We tailored the damage deposit the same way, and I mean he signed it up, and we got the building, and we got the keys on the 28th of uh January, the day before our announced first service on the 29th.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we barely got in the building.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we had to have, we met uh uh some of our members, about 15 or 20 of them, met us at the at the and I opened the door and they went in there and they started vacuuming and cleaning, and the power company had just gotten there that morning and turned the power on.
SPEAKER_00: We fired the air conditioner up to make sure it worked, and thank God it worked, and the air conditioners, and uh, and so forth, and you know, and and so the rest is history.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me ask you, did the Holy Ghost tell me, you know, you're gonna be at FM 19 at 6827, FM 1960 West, 77066?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't have an address.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't have, I didn't I didn't have anything to go with.
SPEAKER_00: I that's not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: See, what was what I had to follow the general will of God, and then I got the specific will of God as I kept taking steps.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I think we ran an ad in the 1960 Sun and little ad that ran the week before, and uh I think that cost us a hundred bucks or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: And also by the time we opened, we had a few more tithes come in.
SPEAKER_00: So we had a bank account, four, five, six thousand dollars, so we weren't just breathing fumes.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so then that very first service, and then Brother Osteen prayed over Gladys and I with another couple starting another church in another part of town.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you imagine going to Lakewood and having two pastors that he's gonna send out?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I didn't even have my own service.
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, man, this is gonna be interesting.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, we had 103 people there at the very first service.
SPEAKER_00: January 29th, by the way, was a Super Bowl Sunday of 95.
SPEAKER_00: And so Sunday night, 6.30 service, devil said, Yeah, you're not gonna have anybody there, just be you and your family.
SPEAKER_00: You might as well just turn the lights out and go home.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm not doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if it's just my family.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna preach the word right here.
SPEAKER_00: We got a 6.30 service and we're gonna be here, devil.
SPEAKER_00: That's all there is to it.
SPEAKER_00: We had 60 some odd people there Sunday night on Super Bowl Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't care about Super Bowl, they came to church.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, lift your hands and receive the glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about walking in the light, as he is in the light.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So I have this little uh uh acronym, LED.
SPEAKER_00: You know, have anybody heard of LED lighting?
SPEAKER_00: It means light emitting diode.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, we we have some lighting up here up here, this LED, and at some point we'd love to replace all these all these fixtures in here with LEDs.
SPEAKER_00: They're the they're the most efficient and and they're not so hot.
SPEAKER_00: And uh but I've got this LED, I've used the LED, L E D, three things to to give you uh kind of uh uh some things to think about when you're gonna walk, when you're walking in the light.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, L, is look to the word.
SPEAKER_00: Look to the word.
SPEAKER_00: The word is nourishment for your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you hear from God?
SPEAKER_00: You hear from him in your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit is the candle of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You're uh the illumination of your spirit is the light.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you need light?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I use this example, but when we first moved into this building, uh, you know, I was here on a real sunshiny day.
SPEAKER_00: I think we moved in in May, so this was probably about June or July.
SPEAKER_00: That's when it's just brightest as it can be outside, cloudless sky is real bright.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was gonna come up here, uh, I forgot something in the pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: And so I came in here and I was gonna turn the light on and say, Oh, I can see.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, just right.
SPEAKER_00: You can see the light from the, you know, and I got about halfway down that aisle and I couldn't see it.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.
SPEAKER_00: It just the, it just, the light just got swallowed up, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And by the time I hit the front platform, I tripped and fell over the platform rather than hit my nose and everything else, all because I just didn't want to go ahead and flip the switch on.
SPEAKER_00: Let's flip the switch on.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get, let's God illuminate your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Uh give the word first place.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe if you're praying about something specifically and you need guidance about it, well, get to the word.
SPEAKER_00: Look to the word about that situation.
SPEAKER_00: If it's finances, start meditating and looking to the word where it talks about financing.
SPEAKER_00: Usually you're going to find out giving and receiving.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to find, be challenged to sow a seed.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be, you know, also it can just make you know that when you've sown a seed, you've got a harvest coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so forth.
SPEAKER_00: You start meditating on that, it'll give you courage, it'll give you strength, and you won't feel uh uh intimidated by maybe whatever it is, whether it's sickness and disease, it'll meditate on the healing scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the word first and about your situation.
SPEAKER_00: Because why?
SPEAKER_00: Because your word is a lamp under your feet and light under your path.
SPEAKER_00: You may not understand exactly what to do about this thing, but if you'll go to the word and even the word doesn't tell you specifically, but the word itself illuminates you, now you're ready to get the specifics.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you need the specifics?
SPEAKER_00: You need the specifics about exactly what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Do I quit my job and and look for a better one?
SPEAKER_00: Or do I do I start putting my resume out?
SPEAKER_00: Don't quit before you have another job.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of I've had people quit their jobs.
SPEAKER_00: All right, God told me to quit my job, He's going to give me another job.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you wait till you find the job before you quit the one you've got, dummy?
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I see, I don't exit.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the God I serve.
SPEAKER_00: God never told me to quit my job if I'm getting paid.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: You can always look for a job, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to quit first.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just all right.
SPEAKER_00: So L, look, look to the word.
SPEAKER_00: Number, and then the next one is E, edify your spirit by praying in other tongues.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 14 4.
SPEAKER_00: He that prays in an unknown tongue edifies himself.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, it means to build on a foundation, but actually, they didn't have batteries and electricity back in Bible days, but a more accurate idea of edify means to charge up.
SPEAKER_00: You literally, you charge your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You you get it in a position of strength.
SPEAKER_00: Edify does mean to strengthen.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you you've probably had a car where the battery starts to go out, you know, and then you try to start it, and you know, it won't turn on.
SPEAKER_00: Modern cars, you don't even get to that stage.
SPEAKER_00: It either works or it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's no warning now.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes you don't even know your battery's low until until it just won't even start at all.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's modern modern technology, but it regardless, your spirit needs to be charged.
SPEAKER_00: And the way to do that is to pray much in other tongues.
SPEAKER_00: There again, you've got a word life with L, and E, you've got a prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: We all need a prayer life if we're going to be successful in walking in the light.
SPEAKER_00: Jude verse 20 says, you know, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: There again, building up, strengthening, edifying, charging.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh it it charge your and brighten your lamp.
SPEAKER_00: You know, your spirit is your lamp.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You're charging your lamp, you're making your lamp be able to be illuminated properly.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I like to use this illustration, but when I was a kid, my dad he loved to fish.
SPEAKER_00: We'd go fishing, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways he liked to go fishing, he liked to go uh floundering.
SPEAKER_00: When floundering is, you know, you do that with wading through the water like at midnight, and a gig in one hand and a lantern in the other, and you're and you're looking for flounder that have bedded down on the on the bottom of the of the floor of the gulf.
SPEAKER_00: We'd be right on the usually in a bay, one of the bays, and uh and they and you can see their outline.
SPEAKER_00: And they're waiting for crab or they're waiting for shrimp to swim by, and they get up and and boy, they're good, they got them.
SPEAKER_00: And they're you know, they're flat, they're the weirdest looking things.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they they got eyes on one side of their body.
SPEAKER_00: It's weird.
SPEAKER_00: They're weird-looking, you know, God's creation.
SPEAKER_00: But they're they're flat and they're sitting there, and so you the deal is, and then you've got, so I got a gig, a two-pronged gig in this hand.
SPEAKER_00: One prong's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that that's not, I like a two-one, a two, a dual.
SPEAKER_00: And then the other side in the left hand, I'd have the lantern, and it's got a special handle that would angle the light to where it shines kind of out in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a Coleman lantern.
SPEAKER_00: You pump it up, you know, it's got the Coleman fuel, pump it up.
SPEAKER_00: And it's bright, man.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's got a reflector on the back side of it, so all the light is reflected in front of you so that when you're taking a step, you don't step on the fish.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be gone.
SPEAKER_00: So you want it out in front of you so you can see him ahead of time, then you can reach out there and gig him.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the other thing is if you've got a stingray, they get they bed down too.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to step on a stingray, well, you'll really have a lot of fun there.
SPEAKER_00: They pop you and you'll be wishing you hadn't gone fishing.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so we're walking along, and so when you gig that flounder, man, it it makes a bunch of rags.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it starts flopping and water starts splashing all over you, you know, and you've got to hold that gig down.
SPEAKER_00: So you've got to hold it down real tight real tight.
SPEAKER_00: It's just doing all this, you know, and the water's churning up and it's getting all over your lantern.
SPEAKER_00: It's getting all over the glass now, that salt water.
SPEAKER_00: And so then my dad would walk over to me and he I'd hand him the lantern, and then I'd take my left hand and just get when he starts quieting down, I'd slip it underneath the flounder and the bottom and get it right next to the gig and lift the whole thing up like this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't do that, you're gonna lose the flounder.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna flop right off the gig and you've lost him.
SPEAKER_00: So then you've got him, you know, against the gig, you know, and then my dad would put the stringer through his mouth, and man, now I've got a flounder on my stringer.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but I've got a dirty lantern.
SPEAKER_00: And the lantern, I mean, if you start, if you keep trying to use it after that, after a couple of those, I mean, it's just very diminished.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be bright enough for you to see the uh the flounder.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the water quality has got the water's got to be clear, you've got to have the right tide.
SPEAKER_00: There's a whole lot of things that go into successful floundering.
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, but you've got to have a clean lantern.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about, see, we've got to have, if you pray much in other tongues, it's kind of like polishing that lantern.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's like causing the light to be able to be illuminated where you can identify what it is God is showing you.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all getting anything out of this?
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So look to the word, edify your spirit, and then the last one is D.
SPEAKER_00: Do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at John 11.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture on the second one was Psalm 119, 105, which we already said, uh the words a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's see.
SPEAKER_00: So John 11.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus announced that he's going to go to Judea in verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: He said, let's go to Judea again.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 8, his disciples say unter, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?
SPEAKER_00: If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not.
SPEAKER_00: But if he's because he what?
SPEAKER_00: He sees the light of this world.
SPEAKER_00: But if a man walk in night, he stumbles because there is no light in him.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's no light in him.
SPEAKER_00: See, so if we're going to walk in the light, we've got to have the light in us.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a we've got to have a basis for that light in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have a have to shine that spirit up and get it strong to receive that guidance.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And then you've got to actually do what you know to do down in your knower.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he knew that he needed to go to Judea.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't look like the circumstances were going to be very good because the last time he was there, they were wanted to stone him.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding?
SPEAKER_00: You want to go back where they wanted to stone you?
SPEAKER_00: See, when the Holy Spirit is leading you, he leads you in in places and in ways sometimes that violate good sense and logic and and all of that, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But you've got to be able to actually do and obey the leading that you get.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I once Brother Osteen called me back and said, if at this time or at any time you want to start that church, you have my total blessing.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that at that moment a bank had foreclosed on the biggest house I had ever built in my building career.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and actually on January the 3rd, before my first organizational meeting, while I'm out looking for a church building, the bank, I mean, they they you know, they they foreclosed on that property and they they had the auction.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, what they do on the auction is they buy the property back because they're gonna make a fortune off of it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just a it's a rasmate.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever wins the auction.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever buys anything, it's all rigged, and the bank gets the thing back at a real low price, you know, way under the loan.
SPEAKER_00: Usually they'll come back to the builder, the lint, the person that had the construction loan, and they'll do a deficiency judgment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they did not file a deficiency judgment against me.
SPEAKER_00: They had a chance.
SPEAKER_00: They really they could have really, they could have, from what they bought it for and what and and what I owed on it, they could have probably had a deficiency judgment of close to a half a million dollars.
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't file it, they didn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because where God leads, he meets the needs.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God just made that disappear.
SPEAKER_00: The day I committed, the day that I stepped out and said, I'm gonna start this church, I mean, that disarmed the bank.
SPEAKER_00: It disarmed all of what they could do.
SPEAKER_00: They'd already taken, you know, they hadn't, don't make no mistake about it, they took collateral from me.
SPEAKER_00: They took a lot of collateral.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they took, you know, they took a lot of that.
SPEAKER_00: But other than that, that was all.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't, they didn't come back and try to get more.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all getting this now?
SPEAKER_00: So do what you know to do down in your north.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus did exactly.
SPEAKER_00: He did exactly what he was supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he had heard from his friends, Martha and Mary, that Lazarus was very sick, and he didn't go right then.
SPEAKER_00: He did not leave for Judea and go back to their house.
SPEAKER_00: He'd been there many times, they're dear friends.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't go on the need.
SPEAKER_00: He waited until he had light.
SPEAKER_00: He did not have light to go when they called him, so he didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally he says, Okay, let's go to Judea.
SPEAKER_00: You are you serious?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go to Judea.
SPEAKER_00: By the time he gets there, you know, Martha comes running out there.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he what was he doing?
SPEAKER_00: He was obeying the light, he was walking in the light.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he could raise him from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me now?
SPEAKER_00: He raised him from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: So God gives you enough light to take one step.
SPEAKER_00: See, I took a I took a step after Brother Osteen called me.
SPEAKER_00: I took a step to go looking for a building.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't find it.
SPEAKER_00: I took a step finding out about the electricity, what if I do find a building, what it's going to take to have an account with HL and P because I didn't have a commercial account with them.
SPEAKER_00: Back then it was Houston Lighting and Power.
SPEAKER_00: It's no longer with us anymore, but back then it was HLNP.
SPEAKER_00: And so on and on.
SPEAKER_00: I would take, everybody say, take steps.
SPEAKER_00: So take, you know, take another step with the light that you've got until you don't have peace.
SPEAKER_00: When you stop having peace is when you stop stepping.
SPEAKER_00: You wait.
SPEAKER_00: You wait, you don't go any further.
SPEAKER_00: I just think about Paul and Silas.
SPEAKER_00: They they were sent out on a second missionary journey.
SPEAKER_00: Him and Paul and Barnabas had a falling out, you know, remember, and and they split up, and so Barnabas took John Mark and went one direction, and and Paul uh chose Silas, and they started, uh they essayed to go to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_00: They, in other words, they made plans.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think we ought to go to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think about it?
SPEAKER_00: They made plans.
SPEAKER_00: They took, they started to take a step, and the Bible says uh that the spirit suffered them not.
SPEAKER_00: They lost peace when they started planning on going to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_00: And so they didn't go.
SPEAKER_00: They said, oh, okay, well, let's maybe we ought to go to Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Asia Minor's ripe.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good place to go.
SPEAKER_00: They were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to go to Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_00: What was that like, man?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they got a real big negative.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they lost all their peace instantly when they thought about that.
SPEAKER_00: So they said, Lord, well, what do we do now?
SPEAKER_00: And then that's when they when Paul had the dream, and spectacular guidance occurred after he obeyed the witness twice.
SPEAKER_00: And then he had the spectacular guidance where the Macedonian man said, Come over here and help us.
SPEAKER_00: And then they they went on their way and they did what the guidance indicated.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me?
SPEAKER_00: And of course, they needed to have that spectacular guidance.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because when they got to the other side, they were beaten with many stripes and thrown in the inner prison and their feet and ankle bones.
SPEAKER_00: were put in stocks.
SPEAKER_00: So if they hadn't had spectacular guidance, they might have been tempted to give up and to question.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing about when we start asking for visions and dreams, you're just asking for trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Because in my life, every time I've ever had any manner of supernatural, I've never asked for it by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't ever ask for that.
SPEAKER_00: I have the witness.
SPEAKER_00: I depend on the witness.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I need to make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes when I've had these spectacular things, that just means there's going to come some rough sled in the head and he's wanting to anchor me in his way so that I don't lose heart when I get into the middle of the mess.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me now?
SPEAKER_00: So you know God gives you enough light to take another step.
SPEAKER_00: Keep walking one step at a time.
SPEAKER_00: And if you lose your peace, stop and wait.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the surest way to be led by the Spirit is to operate on the on the witness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Again, what's the witness?
SPEAKER_00: It's just that knowing down on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: It's that peace.
SPEAKER_00: Or else it's like you you hesitation like you have a, you just can't pull the trigger.
SPEAKER_00: You just can't.
SPEAKER_00: There's a hesitation.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times learn that that's not just hesitation.
SPEAKER_00: That's this witness of the Spirit trying to pull you back from making a decision.
SPEAKER_00: I just we have one more testimony along these lines years ago I got a call from a real estate group that was handling the sales in a subdivision I was building in and we had no lots left in that subdivision.
SPEAKER_00: It was a bad time interest rates were getting high and it was just hard time in the home building business.
SPEAKER_00: And they called me and said hey you know we've got these five lots and they're they're almost an eight they're three quarters of an acre in a subdivision where I was building quarter acre was a big lot.
SPEAKER_00: So three quarters of an acre is huge.
SPEAKER_00: And at the time you know those lots that I was normally buying were anywhere from nine to twelve thousand dollars and these were five thousand dollars three quarters of an acre and uh and and and they sloped down to a creek and so there was nothing behind them.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a park because nothing could be built back there because at the very back of that that was the floodplain and nothing could be built back there.
SPEAKER_00: So you've got a private three quarter acre in the middle of a subdivision of pretty nice lot really beautiful trees everywhere and uh and so 5,000 and so I I wasn't inclined to say I just don't think I can I don't think I can do that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I prayed about it and prayed about it you know and I just didn't have peace.
SPEAKER_00: I kept hesitating.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and finally they called me and said John if you don't come down here we've got other builders that want these but we wanted to give you the first right of refusal because you're the first one we talked about and thought about we just think it'd be great.
SPEAKER_00: We we know we can sell these houses.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went and I went ahead and decided okay all right I don't have anything going on I see when a builder doesn't have anything going on that means there is no cash flow.
SPEAKER_00: There's no money coming in and you're not doing anything see and I've got a nut to crack I've got my own personal salary to pay and you know business to run and I'm not I don't have anything going on.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm you know and so I went in their office that day and I sat down at the desk and I remember my spirit just went like that.
SPEAKER_00: And I almost I felt it was almost like being nauseated but it wasn't that it was my spirit it was you know I think about Paul and Silas when they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word it was like the Holy Ghost was forbidding me forbidding me to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And they had all the paperwork and I mean I signed that paper I obligated myself to buy those lots and to start five houses at the worst time and then that's the what that's what sunk my ship I mean later on I built those five houses and couldn't pay the interest and and I had to move to Corpus.
SPEAKER_00: You know the rest of the story if you've heard me very many times but it all started on my inability to follow the light.
SPEAKER_00: I mean I had light and then I had darkness in front of me and instead of saying no I can't do this I can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: See my pride kicked in I didn't want to look like a fool in front of these people I I cared more about what they thought and at the at and when I signed that thing I had regret regret regret I I went through that whole thing with regret and uh knowing that I hadn't done the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: So don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just take one step at a time when you come to the stopping place stop right now don't do another thing don't care what anybody thinks don't care what the salesman says don't care what whoever says what and you just don't take another step till you know that you know that you know the witness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So let's walk in the light.
SPEAKER_00: Come on lift your hands and receive tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say I'm determined to walk in the light as he is in the light.
SPEAKER_00: You know there's no darkness in him at all.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God he just I mean when he floods you with light you've got all the light you need.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God amen amen amen