Cain and the Prodigal

Episode: Cain and the Prodigal
Subtitle: A Rebellious Spirit
Speaker: Pastor Gloria Weary

In this powerful episode of the Born Again Podcast, Pastor Gloria Weary examines “Cain and the Prodigal: A Rebellious Spirit.”

Through the biblical accounts of Cain and the Prodigal Son, discover how rebellion can begin in the heart and lead us away from the will of God. Cain allowed anger, jealousy, and sin to rule his response to God’s correction, while the Prodigal Son chose to leave his father and pursue life on his own terms.

But their stories reveal two very different responses. The Prodigal Son eventually came to himself, humbled himself, repented, and returned home to his father—where he discovered mercy, restoration, and love waiting for him.

This message challenges us to examine our own hearts, recognize rebellion, humble ourselves before God, and return to the Father.

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Hello, and welcome to the Born Again Podcast, where we believe in the truth and that the truth comes from the Word of God. Thanks for tuning in. We pray that you will receive all that God has for you.

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Father Lord God, we welcome you. We thank you, sweet Holy Spirit, for your presence in this place. Thank you, Lord God, for the pure praise that has gone before this word today. Thank you, Jesus, because your word establishes that the praise always goes out before the battle. And God, we glorify you today, Jesus, for setting our hearts up, Lord God, to do what you have called and commissioned and commanded us to do, Lord God, in this season. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for shaking us. Thank you for awakening us, Lord. Thank you for having your way in us, oh God. In the mighty name of Jesus. And Lord God, as I stand here today, God, I want to say thank you. I thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to be a vessel. Lord God, that you would use today, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for opening up the windows of heaven and pouring down the word of life that we need in the church, Lord God, in these days. Thank you, Father, for making me first aware, Lord God, of how the enemy is trying to move across the earth, Lord God, and how you are calling your church to arise and to shine. Lord God, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon us like we heard today. The glory of the Lord has risen upon us. And Father, I decree and declare that the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach and to bring good tidings to the meek. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Hallelujah. To proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, O God, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. In Jesus' name, take control of these lips of clay, oh God, and have your ways in the mighty name of Jesus and faith, amen, for the word of God. Hallelujah. I've been saved uh well, what 30 years now? To God be all the glory, and never in my 20-something years of preaching has the Lord uh had me to come uh from the book of Genesis talking about Cain and Abel. But the Lord said it's time, amen. He said it's time, and never has the Lord had me to preach about the prodigal son, but today is the day amen. And and and God is going to get the glory out of this word because everything that he's already said and and and shown me has already begun to take place in this house today, in this house of God, amen, among these members of his body. And we truly are members of God's body, amen. We are members of God's body, and God gives to each of us a part that we are to bring into the church and into the kingdom of God because he wants to be glorified. Not one person, Pastor Lisa, can do it all. Amen. He doesn't give all of us every perspective at the same time, amen. Sometimes God may give it to me this way and it lines up with the word of God, and other times he may give it to another pastor, preacher another way, but it still lines up with the word of God, amen. Uh, and so God has different perspectives because he's a multifaceted God. Amen. I can't stand up here and give you every perspective, hallelujah, that God is releasing in this house today because I am limited by this humanness of myself. Amen. Not one person can do that, amen. So, what we are designed to do is to stand to get before God and to seek his face and to bring the part that God has for us to bring. Amen. So I'm requesting of you today that even if God has given you a perspective that lines up with the word of God, that you just for a few minutes get in line with what God is saying today, amen, because there's some people that need this deliverance that God is about to bring. Hallelujah. I stand here in faith today, amen. I stand here in complete, total faith, amen, about what God is about to do in this place, amen. His spirit is resting upon us, his spirit is active in this place, amen. And we are a people in need of the God of the universe, amen. So I'm gonna ask we don't be distracted today, doing whatever we normally do on our phones and playing with the babies and all that stuff, amen. Um, not to bring condemnation, but just to say we all need God. Amen. We all need God, and I thank God for the confirmation that has already gone forth. Pastor Lisa, you could have kept on praying, uh preaching because you were preaching my message, parts of it, amen. And uh I thank God for what he's doing. The name of our message today is Cain and the Prodigal. Cain and the prodigal. We're coming from starting with Genesis chapter 4, starting at verse 1 in the King James Version, amen. If you are in this place and you have a Bible, I'm going to ask you to open it up. Hallelujah, or read from the screen the word of God. I say that because a lot of times our young people come without their swords in their hands, amen. And uh, we need the word of God, amen. And we need it active because there's a spirit operating in the earth, hallelujah, that is in full force fighting against every human being, but especially our young people, amen. And today I'm on assignment to call him out, and today you're on assignment to pray and believe with me, hallelujah, and to release faith for that spirit to be cast out, amen, in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. The King James Version says, and Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Cain, his name comes from the Hebrew word Cain, meaning gotten or acquired, amen. Another variation is Cainiti-ish, meaning gotten man. Eve said, I have obtained or acquired a man, a baby boy, a son from the Lord, and with the help of the Lord. Hallelujah. Every human being that is born, whether male or female, hallelujah, came from the Lord. Amen. So don't allow the enemy to tell you lies that you came from another source, that you came from monkeys uh uh generating and and maturing over time, amen. Don't let the enemy tell you that you did not come from God, amen. Every human being was born of God, even before we were put in our mother's womb, hallelujah. God already knew us, hallelujah. He had already had relationship with us, and then he chose the parent, the mother, whom he would place you in, hallelujah, and then he allowed you, me, to be born, amen. What a what a gift, what a mighty gift that the Lord would give life, amen. He's the only one who can, amen. It says in verse 2, and she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground, and in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Hallelujah. And verse 4 says, and Abel, he also brought of the finest, somebody say finest, firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. I don't know about you, but that fat, hallelujah, is the good part. That's the part, hallelujah, that we like to soak up on the meat, amen. You go to the gristle of the bone to get the fat, hallelujah, the good part, amen, hallelujah. And it says, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain, verse 5, and to his offering, am I squeaking out there? Am I is it irritating? Oh, is it just up here? Hallelujah, amen. They said it's good, hallelujah. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. Amen. Why did God have not respect for Cain? Amen. Three reasons that scholars have proposed is one that Cain did not offer his best, he did not bring his best to God. Another thing they propose is that Cain brought a bloodless offering, not doing it the way God said, as if he did not need redemption. And three, Cain did not offer it in faith. Amen. Another thing that God said to me is that Cain offered unto God out of his personality, he was a tiller of the ground, so he brought something that was comfortable rather than bringing that that God called him to bring out of obedience. Amen. Children will oftentimes try to force their underdeveloped personalities on their parents and on their teachers rather than obey. Somebody shout, obey what you say. Amen. And it goes on to say, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. The Amplifier says it like this Cain became extremely angry, indignant, and he looked annoyed and hostile. Amen. So when your children tell you, I don't have an attitude, hallelujah. How many of you know that you know them better than they know themselves? Hallelujah. God knew Cain better than Cain knew himself. I don't have a mean look on my face. Oh, yes, you do. I didn't slam that door. Yes, you did. Hallelujah. I didn't stomach out the ring. Yes, you did. I didn't mean yes, you did. Hallelujah. God called him to obey. Saints of God, this is called rebellion. That's the spirit that God is saying that we the church have kind of just been walking by and not doing the right thing about. Hallelujah. I had a dream, and in this dream I had two dreams that confirmed this word today. One of the dreams, just to summarize it, one of the dreams there was a snake that was lavender with a silver head, and it had been laying in my yard for two weeks. And I had been walking by all this God showed me in the dream. I had been walking by it in the dream, just walking by it. And then my husband, a snake with a two-head, a black snake, had came from across the street, and Ray killed it instantly. Instantly. And then there was this lavender snake. Hallelujah. Lavender in the Bible signifies worship to God, right, Pastor? Amen. And that silver signifies the authority of God. Amen. There are other things that it means, but that's one of them. And I kept walking by this snake. And then when Ray killed the two-headed snake, I said, Oh, I wonder, I've been thinking that's a snake right there, too. And I said, But I've been walking by this been there about two weeks. It looked like a cable tie that you put on a vehicle when you're trying to hold stuff down, those ratchet straps. It just laid flat. You know what I'm saying? And so I said, Yes, I wonder if that's one. Soon as I said it, as soon as I identified it, it began to crawl off. Amen. And when it began to crawl off, I said, get him, Ray. Ray already had the shovel in his hand. I had some other family members that was there, and they were intrigued because they had never seen a snake actually in person crawling on the ground. And so we were all just following Ray. And I said, get him, get him with the shovel. And Ray had the shovel up like this, and the snake, Ray was waiting for the snake to crawl by him or to get ahead of him so that he could put the shovel on his neck and crush his head. But as soon as Ray started to do that, the snake stood up like a man. He was as tall as Ray. And God says that spirit of rebellion has gotten as tall, hallelujah, as mankind. And so he stood up and he began to wrestle with Ray. Ray and him was wrestling. And and look, I don't know if Ray didn't have on a shirt or what, but they was tied up, and I don't even know how the snake was doing that. But he was tied up, but he still looked like a snake. And then some of the other family members were standing around, and one of the family members was standing there, it was a male, and he didn't have a shirt on, and he was just standing there, we just talking. But then the snake, standing up still, began to make accusations against the brother, against the family member. Amen. That's what he does in the church. He makes accusations, amen. He started to tell you your brother ain't this, and he's talking about you, and he thinks this about you, and he keeps you tied up with those things. So then Ray lost focus, stopped fighting with the snake, and turned around, and him and the brother tied up. They tied up and they began to fight. And I'm standing there and I said, Ray, Ray, he's gonna bite you in the back. He's gonna bite you in the back. And then Ray, he stopped him and the guy, and the snake took off. And when he took off, he was going fast. And he went downtown and he was on a building, and he was riding that building like this, and he was crawling, and then he came out one part and went in the other part. Then all of a sudden, the snake went inside the window, and then I saw the silhouette of a man walking up the stairs, a spirit, a spirit of false worship, hallelujah, a spirit of deceit, hallelujah, because he had all the right colors to be ignored, amen. He had all the right colors, hallelujah, sitting right under my nose, hallelujah, yet not being exposed. And God said today that it's time to expose the spirit of rebellion, that spirit of false worship, amen, that is happening not only in London, not only in this house, but in every church across America. Amen. And all over the world, amen. It happens at times here, there, hallelujah. And Satan believes that he has gotten an edge on the church. I heard on the radio just the other day, I don't listen to much, especially when I have to preach. I don't listen to no preachers, I don't listen to, I just try to be before the Lord, but every now and then God will bring something to me and he'll confirm what he's saying. And this man was on the radio and he said that there was a church that did communion with rainbow-colored bread. Sacrilegious. We honor homosexuals. God loves everybody, and He does. But to take the communion bread and to make it rainbow color as if to make your point or your statement, you're playing with fire. Hallelujah. Okay, so God confirmed that this spirit of rebellion, this false worship, hallelujah, has creeped in, and it's time for us to do something about it. Hallelujah. And the Lord said unto Cain, I may have read that already, why art thou wroth? And why has thy countenance failed? I read that verse 7. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. The amplifier says, if you do well, believing me, this is God talking, and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to me, will you not be accepted? This signifies to me that God had already told Cain what type of offering to bring. Amen. Cain was not confused about what God was asking him. Hallelujah. We are not confused about what God is requiring from us. Amen. Hallelujah. Last week, Anne said, God spoke to her and said, Get low. Amen. The Holy Spirit, Pastor Lisa said today, is here. He speaks to us. Amen. We are in Christ and He lets us know exactly what He wants if we will attune our ears to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying. We cannot be fighting against one another, we cannot be opposing one another. Hallelujah. We have to hear God. Amen. Will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, but ignore my instructions. Sin crouches at your door. Its desire is for you to overpower you. But you, you church, you individuals, you mamas, you daddi, you children, you must master it. Amen. Nobody can do it for you. God's not going to do it for you. He's already given us the fruit of the spirit. He expects us to use self control against it. Amen. Take responsibility for our own actions. Amen. And tell that rebellious spirit to go. And so, like in a parent way, the way we would say this is if you had just done what I told you to do, if you had just done what I taught you to do, you would not be setting yourself up to be disciplined or corrected. Amen. And now you're mad at me. Because I had to correct you about something you already knew to do. Amen? That's called rebellion. And then he said, We'll say, now you're angry? You putting yourself in a position to let greater sin come in. Every parent that tries to discipline and correct their child is trying to save them from something that wants to destroy them. God does the same for us. When correction comes across the pulpit, God does the same for us. Amen. He's trying to keep us from something. And when we do, when we disobey and don't repent, then we are in rebellion. We're in rebellion, saints. We're in rebellion. And we'll tell them you better get a handle on that against that rebellious spirit, or it's going to lead you down the wrong road. Scholars say that it was customary to bring a blood offering to God. Amen. The blood offering was a way of saying to God, I need you, God. I cannot save myself. But the spirit of rebellion tells you just the opposite. It tells you you don't need God. There are ways better than God. That's rebellion. I would offer to the human being that it is important that we watch our behaviors and our words. We've been hearing that for about the last two years. Watch our confession. Confess, confess, watch what we say. So I ask this question what offering are we bringing to the Lord? Cain gave to God what was common to him. We want to stay in our comfort, comfort zone so much. A lot of times human beings don't like change. Amen. We'll say, Well, God, that ain't what I usually do. This is what I've always done. Cain was being lazy. I asked, What am I withholding from God? And why? I will have to give an account not only for what I do, but for what I do not do. Amen. Remember, God does not accept sacrifices offered to idols. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. God does not accept our blatant disobedience. Like Saul, we can think we are doing God a favor, knowing we are really just trying to satisfy ourselves. And he will say to us, obedience is better than sacrifice. The sacrifice I want from you is obedience. God wants obedience. Amen. Children, your parents want obedience. Amen. If you cannot respect the authority in the earth that God appointed for you, you're not going to respect God. This is practice. And guess what? You don't get to get out of it by saying, I don't believe in God. Because you may say that today, but you will. You will. Don't let that spirit of rebellion lie to you. There was a reason that God says in his word and gives us the indication that when Jesus was 12 years old, Jesus went into the temples. Amen. And so that's kind of what we've been hearing in Christendom as the age of accountability, right? Because by the time a child turns 12 years old, they should have had enough instructions to now know how to do certain things, most things, on their own. They should know how to how to make decisions, hallelujah, that are good for them. Amen. They'll still need guidance, but by that age, hallelujah, you should know enough of what your parents have taught you between right and wrong to where you can make a moral decision, hallelujah, about what you do. And the enemy is tricky and he's crafty, and he'll say through our medical world that by the time a child turns 13, they're dealing with 12, 13, they're dealing with puberty. Rebellion hides behind that word. I'm only acting out because my hormones are all over the place and I don't know what to do. I don't know why I feel this way. That's a spirit of rebellion who has gotten us, especially in America, to agree, hallelujah, so that we can give an excuse and a justification for it. Hallelujah. And he don't stop there. I'm not just talking to the kids, hallelujah. How about menopause? Hallelujah. How about that time of the month? Hallelujah. How about menopause, men? Y'all go through it too. Hallelujah. Where you feel like you're justified, hallelujah, to disobeying the word of God. Amen. There are no excuses. God said, I gave you the fruit of the spirit. If you will utilize what I gave you, it doesn't matter what season of your life you are in. If you were utilize the tools, like Pastor Ray said, the resources that God has given us, we would not give in and give ourselves a way out or an excuse. Amen. God is calling us out of our comfort zones. We can keep sitting on God if we want to. Amen. But there's no good that's gonna come of that because you're gonna have to give an account for what you do not do. Amen. You're gonna have to give an account. It says seeing crouches. To crouch means to stoop, to bend one's knees, and pull the limbs close to the body. Often to make yourself smaller, to prepare to jump. Like a cat. They get down low and they watch their prey. And then they pounce on it at just the right time. Amen. That's what rebellion does. Sin unrepented seeks to jump at every opportunity to produce more sin. For example, a person, here it is, watching porn can end up watching a child porn. And a child watching a child porn can end up touching a child. That's what sin does. That's what they do, Pastor. That's why it's running rampant, rapid in the word. I mean, any sin. But sexual sin, that's a big one for that spirit of rebellion. That's a big one. Verse 8 says, and Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. Angry, unrepentant, irresponsible Cain now wants to go off into a field to talk to his brother. That's human nature a lot of times. We wait till we're mad. We wait till we're frustrated. We wait till we got a whole list of things against this person. And then we want to go off and we want to talk to this person so that we can what? Murder with our mouths. Hallelujah. His brother Abel was younger than him, and possibly not as strong because Cain was a tiller of the ground. Now I'm thinking that maybe why the men didn't have his shirt on in the dream. Oh they they they they was buff. Amen. They were buff. And that type of work has a way of putting muscle on you. It puts masculinity on you. Amen. So Cain possibly dominating his brother in several ways rose up against him and murdered him. Manipulation. Amen. I just heard that. Manipulation. Children try to manipulate their parents. You don't have to be bigger in stature. Amen. To use that spirit of rebellion. To be used by that spirit. Amen. But mama, but daddy, can I? Y'all don't never hear me. Y'all don't never see me. Manipulation. And then you got all this psychologist telling you that what you're saying is true, that you deserve a voice. You deserve a right. Hallelujah. To speak your mind. Even though your mind is undeveloped. Even though you don't even understand the foolishness that's on the inside of you. Amen. And parents, it's our job to train it. And it's our job to drive it out. Amen. He says in verse 9, and the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? And he said, I know not. What spirit is that? A lying spirit. He knew. Am I my brother's keeper? Smart mouthed. He lied to God and had the audacity to get smart with God. Verse 10 says, And he said, What hast thou done? Talking about God. The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Your brother's blood is crying out. I heard a preacher say this. He said, If the blood of one man came, cried out from the ground and got God's attention. Y'all heard that? How much more does 68 million aborted babies, blood, innocent blood, cry out from the ground to God? And if God took vengeance for one man able, do we not think that God will take vengeance on America for all the blood that's been shed? Hallelujah. Now, if you've repented, praise God. If you did it and you repented, glory to God. God does not hold you accountable for your sin, for your mistake. Hallelujah. But if you are unrepentant, then today's your day. Hallelujah. To get it right with God. Hallelujah. But let me tell you what rebellion does. Rebellion, that spirit, it doesn't tell you to repent. That spirit tells you start a rally. Get support. Get backup. Get somebody else to agree with you in your wrong. Justify it. Do research. Find reasons why your body is your body. Hallelujah. Why you get to decide what you do with your body. Hallelujah. That's what the spirit of rebellion will do. Hallelujah. But the truth of God says that every life belongs to me. You don't have the right, hallelujah, to kill it. Hallelujah. And he says in the church, every member in the church in the body of Christ belongs to me. You don't get to murder it with your tongue. Touch not my anointing. Do my prophet no harm. Keep your mouth off of my people. If you don't know, don't say. Hallelujah. If there's a place in the Bible where the word of God says that even when Michael came, the angel, the archangel Michael, when he came, he didn't even put his mouth on Satan. Hallelujah. He didn't even speak against the angels. Hallelujah. Because he understood, hallelujah, the authority that angels carry. Hallelujah. We have to understand the anointing that's on my sister, the anointing that's on my brother. Hallelujah. And I gotta stop speaking against Hallelujah. Something that may not line up with my preference or my perspective. Just because God is saying this to me doesn't mean you're wrong to say God is saying that to you. God said, I'm tearing that down today, too. Because the enemy has been using it. And it's an opposition spirit, and it's a spirit of confusion. And we believe because Pastor Reginald might say this and it goes this way and it lines up with the word, and Pastor Gloria came back and say this. It sounds different than what he said, but it lines up with the word that now we're opposing one another. That's not what's happening. That's not what's happening. Hallelujah. God said there are many members. Many members. Every joint supplies this part. Hallelujah. It's your duty to obey what he said to you. Just like it's my duty to obey what he says to me. Hallelujah. Now I can't be speaking it in error. But I gotta say what he says. And I've got to make sure that it lines up with his word. And even if it's not the vein God has me in, I dare not speak against the vein he has him in. Amen. Just ask for understanding. Ask to agree. Esteem them higher than yourself. Ask God, God, what was he saying? What was he trying to say? From what perspective was he coming? Amen. You can't bring it all in one in one shot. Amen. Which is why he put other peoples in the body in Bible studies to say, okay, you just said this. Okay, but what about this part two? Not against it, but what about this too? Amen. We said in the captive free. Praise the Lord. God is. Hallelujah. And it says in verse 11, did I do that one yet? Verse 11, somebody said yes, somebody said no. Amen. And I'm gonna read it. And it says, and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. So now God is beginning to deal with Cain's disobedience. God says, Now you're cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy blood, thy brother's blood. When you till it is the ground, verse 12, it shall not henceforth yield unto you her strength. So let's bring it this into us. You, when you are rebellious, when you fight against God, let me say it like this, you're gonna lose. You will have to work very hard at everything you do. Your false sense of success will cost you greatly. By the time you get to the place of enjoying the fruit, you will be washed up, and you will be worn out, and you will have no peace. It goes on to say, you will be a fugitive and a vagabond. Shalt thou be in the earth? The amplified says, You shall be a fugitive and a vagabond, roaming aimlessly. Y'all remember that? Those of you who didn't give your life to Jesus when you were very young, do you remember roaming the earth aimless? No peace. Had stuff, yet no peace, no rest, living in sin, being used up, no peace on the earth in perpetual exile, without a home, a degraded outcast. Now, who likes to hear that? Who likes to hear that? But when you don't give your life to Jesus, you are degraded. You're living a degraded life, you're living beneath the means of what God has for you. I did it for years. I didn't give my life to Jesus to the age of twenty-six, almost twenty-seven years old. Degraded, substandard life. Washed up, no peace. This sounds like, where am I at? Verse 13. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment, my punishment. Now he wants to cry out to God, is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from the face, thy face, which is your presence, shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. And it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me. This sounds like the end times. People will want the presence of God after making themselves a vagabond, making themselves a vagabond and a fugitive in the earth. They will want to be saved, but when they have murdered, Cain wanted it all without repentance. He still never repented. Repentance is the only way to be saved. Repent and give our lives to Jesus and be saved. Otherwise, we're vagabonds just roaming around with no home. The word says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Draw nigh to him while he is near. Amen. There's coming a time where it won't be as accessible or easy to give your life to Jesus as it is right now. There's coming a time, church, where it won't be as easy. To repent of things we do day to day. Grace is here now. Grace is here now. Use it now. Use it now, Gloria. As He gives us warning, we are to turn around. Verse 15 says, And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, God always, always has mercy. Vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark, somebody say, mark, upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Let's talk about that mark. This mark means that Cain was characteristically marked. He was known to be the man to not kill. God said, Don't touch him. Oh, that's Pastor Gloria's child. Oh, his daddy run that church over there. Marked. Another meaningful mark is a sign for preservation. God put a mark on Cain, and that mark preserved and protected him. You can find reference of that in Ezekiel chapter nine, verse four through six. A mark was placed on him. Because of the way God set it up, this mark, y'all, had limitations. To be marked is not to be saved. God says, your whole household shall be saved. Amen. Yet God says that if you do not individually, personally repent and confess that Jesus is the Lord of your life, then you will spend eternity in hell. God puts a mark on you. He gives you the opportunity. God didn't tell Cain you won't be killed. He just said, whoever, if anyone does kill you, that they're going to get sevenfold vengeance on them. I believe God also said to me that it was a limited, it was limited to only work in the earth. But not in eternity. That mark was not for eternity. Seek the Lord while he may be found. It had a time stamp on it. It did not preserve Cain for heaven. Cain was left in this state of rebellion and disobedience while he wandered the earth. Can y'all wake Jalen up for me, please? Until he died. Amen. Cain was left in this state of rebellion and disobedience while he wandered the earth until he died. He was kept alive, but had no rest. No place to really call home. He was in a state of bitterness and isolation and unrest with no peace. Somebody say bitterness. Temporary safety is an eternal kingdom. Oh, I'm sorry, let me say it like this. Temporary safety in an eternal kingdom is what Cain had. Whatever state you die in, whether you're in his presence, God's presence, or out of God's presence, you remain for all eternity. That's why this spirit of rebellion is so dangerous. We'll get into it a little bit more, but that spirit is so dangerous because it lies to you. It tells you that hell is not real. It tells you that you'll never die, that people don't die. Amen. Amen. That you won't live forever in whatever state you're in. Verse 16 says, And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. The word rebellion, prayer warriors just begin to pray, or rebellious, comes from the Aramaic word Marod, meaning rebellious, and mirod, meaning rebellion. Hebrew definitions of the word means to make bitter. Rebellion makes us bitter, or cause to be bitter or unpleasant. People operating in a spirit of rebellion or unpleasant to be around. Other words like provoke, disobedient, against, defiant, or grievously are a characteristic of this word. Do y'all know that in the DSM, which is the diagnostic statistical manual for therapists and psychologists, there is a mental disorder that is called oppositional, defiant disorder. What does that sound like? A spirit of rebellion. But we find a way to justify the rebellion. We find a way to justify why little Johnny is not doing anything you see. Why he's not minding you, why he's talking back to you. He's oppositional. His brain just works a certain way. I can attest that it does. Because of that spirit. Another Hebrew word is Sarah, meaning apostasy, meaning continuous rebellion. You can see that in Deuteronomy 21, 18 through 21. And renunciation, here's the big one. This is what the spirit of rebellion does. It brings people to a renunciation of religious beliefs. That's what the enemy is really after. He's not gonna stop with you just being disobedient and defiant. He's trying to get you to a place where you will obey him, and then eventually you will denounce or you will re-renounce religious beliefs. That's what he's after. When a person is rebellious or has a rebellious spirit, they make themselves an outcast. Oh, they don't really want to be around nobody. Oh, I'm different than everybody. And sets themselves up for maltreatment. The mark on Cain was not only known as a mark to protect him from murder, but imagine he had to also be known as the son who killed his younger brother. Imagine that. Imagine the ridicule, the shame, and the condemnation that came along with that. Only Jesus can take that kind of good away. The enemy knows it. And because God created you, you know it. Jude, verse 11 says, Woe unto them, for they have gone the defiant way of Cain. And for profit, they have run headlong into the era of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of mutinous Korah. What is the tendency of a rebellious person? To get others to rebel also. Children rebel against their parents, and if their parents give in to it, then parents are now rebelling against the word of God. To start a riot, that's a tendency. Or a movement to get others in sync with you in your rebellious state. This is exactly what who did Satan. He did this when he got kicked out of heaven. He convinced a third of the angels, now called unclean spirits. Unclean spirits. Unclean spirits. Unclean spirits. When we rebel against God, unclean spirits are influencing or possessing. There is nothing new under the sun. I thought about, as I was preparing his word, I thought about, I think it had to be over two years ago, Pastor Reginald has said that God showed him that there's a spirit of revelry that was on the rise. Revelie is a wild, uncontrolled, partying behavior marked by moral laxity. Derived from Greek, the Greek word comos, meaning in modern language as carousing, orgies, or debauchery. Scriptures like Galatians 5, 19, 21, if you want to reference it, 1 Peter 4, 3, Romans 13, 13, urge us to use self-control against it. Whatever the enemy is pulling on us to do, and we know that it defies the word of God. We gotta pray and ask God to help us. Help me, Lord, give me, help me with self-control. Amen. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected thee from being king. The rebellious spirit opens a person up to sins. This is what we're dealing with. This is what's really in operation in your home when you have a rebellious spirit in your house, regardless of who it comes through. And God wants to give attention to each and every one of us, especially young people, that this is what's in operation in you. When you allow yourself to talk back to the authority in your life, there's a rebellious spirit in operation in you. It's not just you being a bad kid, there is a spirit operating in you. It opens you up to sins like necromancy and the summonsing of the dead. Familiar spirits. I had a dream this week where I was sitting with a friend of mine who had deceased years ago. And it wasn't until yesterday she kept saying, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. And that dream, it baffled me. And I kept going about, I was at this buffet, I was putting food on my plate. I stopped and ministered to some people. And then I said, Oh God, are you are you telling me that death is close for me? God spoke to me yesterday. God said that was a familiar spirit. And then I dreamed about Malcolm Jamal Warner, the guy from what's the what's the show? The Bill the Cosby show. Like a day after that. God said, familiar spirits. He was showing me that I was on target with his word. This is what the spirit of rebellion does. It opens you up to all of that. This is where demons who are acquainted with the dead imitate and impersonate the dead person. So that spirit in my dream was like, Come on, let's go, let's go. I'm ready to go. I ain't trying to go nowhere. The Lord using me. Hallelujah. It ain't my time yet. Amen. This is an attempt to prove to the already open vessel due to their own rebellion. And I said, Lord, thank you for showing me I had that food on my plate. But no more. No more. Overeating, gluttony. No more for me. No more for me. It's rebellion. It's rebellion. Due to their own rebellion. That there is no death or judgment to come. That's what the enemy does. He wants you to believe that there is no judgment coming. But judgment comes. Judgment comes. Thank God we have Jesus. Who says, Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. This lie literally comes from the pits of hell. Satan's desire is and has always been to enlarge his territory. Rebelling against the word of God and defying the commands of God is a filthy and polluted act. It's a foul spirit that stinks in the nostrils of God. What are we not doing that God is said to do? God gives a warning. Abel's blood cried out for vengeance. Well, how many of you glad that Jesus' blood cries out for mercy? Jesus took on him on He took vengeance on Himself for me, for you. Rebellion has given you a life of bitterness. But Jesus drank the bitter sour wine on the cross. So you don't have to. Just repent. Jesus was degraded, mocked, lied on, assaulted, so you don't have to be. We don't have to continue in the wrong way. Hallelujah. In Luke 15, I'm gonna just summarize a little bit about the prodigal son. Because there was a difference between him and Cain. Amen. There was a difference in how they dealt with their rebellion and their sin. It says, Jesus said, a certain man had two sons. The younger of them inappropriately said to his father, Give me the share of the property that falls to me. So he asked for something that he knew customarily he was not supposed to ask for. He asked to go somewhere or to do something that he had already been taught you're not supposed to do. That's what we do with our children. No, you're not supposed to go in there and eat all the food out of the refrigerator. No, you're not supposed to go and slip around and take money out of the pocketbook. No, you're not supposed to take those car keys and go do something I told you not to do. Amen. So he inappropriately asked his father for his inheritance. And Deuteronomy 21, 15 through 17 shows us why that was inappropriate. You can read that on your own. But here's the part where the father had to take accountability. This father did, it says, the father gave me the share of the property that falls to me. So he, the father, divided the estate between them. This father did what was not honorable in Jewish tradition. The oldest son is supposed to get his inheritance first. Oftentimes, parents give to the kids what they're asking for. I don't want to go to church to please the child, to appease the child. I don't want to go to bed at this time. I don't want to turn the TV off. I just want to play my video games. I don't want to take a bath. I just want to do what I want to do. And parents oftentimes will give in to that. Parents, we give ourselves excuses. I'm tired of dealing with it. Well, they're just gonna do what they want to do anyway. Well, guess what, parent? You're walking in disobedience when you do that. When you allow your children to have another comforter in their lives, yet you will not push for them to bring their Bibles to church. And you will not push for them to put the video game down and read their word. When you will not make them say amen at grace, then you are allowing them to operate in a rebellious spirit that is designed to kill them. They don't have to like it, they don't have to agree with it, but as for me and my house, we will serve the law. When you're out on your own, you can do what you want to. But as long as you're in my house, you're gonna follow by my rules, amen. As long as you're in my house, you're going to obey what the word of God says, but I as your parent, hallelujah, am gonna pray for an anointing to whoop your butt. Hallelujah. That's what I'm gonna do. Amen. Because that's what God calls us to do. Amen. That's what He called us to do. I'm going to discipline you. But that's not what today's parents do. Today's parents say, well, they done got too old for me to whoop them. Where is that in the word? Now I understand if they're trying to fight back against you, you're gonna end up hurting them, so you can't whoop them once they get too big, too tall. But I tell you what you can do. You can seek the Lord about how to discipline and how to correct. And then if you want to be like God for real, if they just become so unruly and disobedient, hallelujah, you can do hallelujah, like God did with Cain. You can put them out. Oh, that don't sound right, does it? Oh yeah, yeah, that don't sound good, does it? That don't sound right. No, we ain't supposed to put them out. I'm not saying put them out and leave them out. Maybe they just need to sleep in the garage for a couple of days. Maybe they need to have to provide their own food for a few days. You give them canned goods to eat. Three times a day. So you still abiding by the law. And you feed them. Amen. Maybe you need to take the belt to them. Maybe you need to take that video game out of their hand and take everything from them. You don't just give in to that rebellious spirit. You don't allow them to ask you something that is inappropriate. And because you and your human self are tired of dealing with it, you just let it rise. The word of God says in 2 Corinthians 10, it says having an authority, willingness to bring into obedience after your own obedience has been fulfilled. A lot of times we don't want to bring our children into obedience because there is disobedience operating in me. A lot of times I don't want to discipline my children because they've seen me too many times do the wrong thing. Amen. But I'm saying God gave children parents for a reason. He didn't put a child in the earth and leave them to themselves. Amen. He gave them parents because we one are in Christ, those of us who are in Christ, and two, you've had enough life experiences to say, if I don't take that away from you now, I'm allowing that spirit to be set up in you. And I can attest that that spirit means you no good. How can I attest that? Because I was dealing with the same spirit. Hallelujah. Because of rebellion, hallelujah. We end up in places like prison that we're not supposed to be, hallelujah, because of rebellion. You end up dead at 17, 18 years old. Why? Because of a spirit of rebellion. Hallelujah. How do parents pay into that? Or we give them a car at 16. That's what we do in America. Well, guess what? What if they ain't ready? What if all they've been to you is rebellious? You gonna put keys in their hands? Because you don't have time to drive them to that soccer practice when they ain't gonna be no soccer star anyway. It's not a part of their part of their calling anyway. But you need convenience. We need convenience. So we put the tablets in their hand at one and two years old. Bring your own self under obedience. Bring your own life under obedience. Fathers, you stop watching porn and releasing that spirit in your house. Mothers, you stop being disrespectful to their fathers in front of them and then asking them to be respectful. Bring your own self under obedience. That's the only way we're gonna get this spirit under control. The church got to be the church, and the church got to be an obedient church. Hallelujah. We gotta obey. We gotta obey. And the word of God tells us that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. And he says, What it what brings it out? The rod of correction drives it out. But we say, Oh, I ain't gonna whoop mine. All my mama did was whoop me. Well, that's why you say it today. That's part of the reason you're saying today. You didn't understand it at the time. But that's why you say it today. Hallelujah. Because if it was not for that woman, them wombings, I'd still be a liar. I'd still be fighting. Hallelujah! But obedience. Bring your own self under obedience. You wake up, you start praying. You stop sleeping when you're supposed to be on your knees. Parents give to their kids to appease them. We don't want to correct them when they're wrong. But that's our responsibility. That's our responsibility. And guess what, parents? If you are tired, go to the right place for help. Go to the right place for help. Stop giving yourself excuses as to why you don't have to parent your child. You prayed for them, you wanted them, you got them. Now do the right thing with them. Amen. And that's not to condemn anybody. If you need some help, you got brothers and sisters in the faith, just ask for some help, but stop giving yourself the excuse. I don't take them to church because I'm tired, because there's a spirit that is desiring to kill your children, and you want to sit out here and keep them out of church, knowing at home you ain't putting much of the word in them anyway. At least you can do is get them in church where somebody can help you. It's a spirit of rebellion. And that's the position the church has been in for a long time when it comes to raising up young people. A lot of times people got grown kids living up in their house, and they laying up in the bed while you packing up and going to church. The devil lives alive. Amen. If you're gonna live here, then you're going to church. And you can be faking it. You can be fake, I don't care, that's not my business. That's not my business. You can be faking it. Well, I don't know why you make me go. I don't believe in God anyway. That's between you and God. But what He told me to do, He told me to take you where I go, hallelujah, and to put you under where the word of God is being preached. And he said that he sent his word out and it don't return to him void. Hallelujah. The word is getting in. You can think you're blocking it out all you want to, but that God who created you is on the inside of you, and I know he's pulling on you. That's why you go around and try to listen to your wrong music, that's why you try to walk in and out the sanctuary 15 times in a service. I'm talking, hallelujah, to that spirit of rebellion. And I call you out today. You manifest yourself today. In the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus, you take your hands off Jesus in Jesus' name, and that's the level church that we got to get to. That's the authority church. We gotta begin to stand in. Hallelujah. Sitting up here making excuses, knowing your child ain't doing right, knowing you ain't doing right, and making excuses for it. You killing your child. Setting them up. Setting them up. Where what they call success will dry them up. God said, No more excuses. It says in verse 14, now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country. I highlight that because we don't know when the famine is coming. You don't know when the famine will hit. You don't know what will happen in the future. But this that God is giving us today is to preserve and protect and keep you. Hallelujah. At a time you need it the most. Hallelujah. It says in verse 15, so he went and forced himself on one of the citizens of that country. That's what the prodigal, that's what the boy did. He went and forced himself. And that's what a lot of our young people are doing. They having to sleep on other people's couches, eating other people's food, because the parent has had to kick them out of the house at 16, 17 years old. So you're forcing yourself on somebody when you could have just stayed home, Cain could have just stayed home and lived the good life. He had everything laid out for him. Could have stayed home. But this is the life he chose. And it says in verse 17, but when he finally came to his sister, Jesus, he said, How many of my father's hired men have more than enough food while I am dying here of hunger? Every person in the world has to come to that place. Well, you say enough of this. Y'all heard my testimony. It felt like I had everything in the natural. In the army, best shape of my life, 26 years old, on the car, owned a house, living with a man I wasn't married to. But I was hungry. Something was missing. I was empty. My life was in shambles if I ever just sat alone by myself. I had no peace. On the outside, it looked real good. How many young people in that day owned a house at 26, 25 years old? Not in the people, not in my circle. So on the outside, you look real good. Oh, you making an army money. People thought it was a lot, it wasn't. And I was dying. On the inside. He says, I would get up and go to my father. And I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. Children, you're gonna thank your parents one day. You're gonna thank them one day that they kept the word of God before you. Because then you'll know where to turn. You'll know who to call on. So we say we see that the prodigal he had humility. He was repentant of what he had done. Where Cain was not. So it says in verse 20 that he got up and came to his father. But while he was a still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. This is what Jesus does for each and every person who will repent. This is what he does for us when we just turn and we recognize I need to go back home. I need to go home. I need to go where I am wanted, where I'm taken care of. I need to repent. He doesn't hold your sin against you. He didn't hold my sin against me. Look what I would have missed out on. If I had stayed in the world, look what I would have missed out on. God has blessed me, He's enlarged my territory, He gave me a husband who loves the Lord, a man after God's own heart. He gave me children, three of them, three daughters, but one he birthed through my womb, who loves the Lord, hallelujah. He gave me two grandsons, hallelujah. Grandsons who are of great stature, grandsons who loves the Lord, even when they deny it, even when they deny it, I know the truth. I see the fight and I see the struggle. And you parents, you see it too. You see how hard your children fight to stay in the world. My mama saw it in me. She said, I never wanted that life for you. I never wanted you to be out there lost, and she fought for me. And we gotta keep fighting for our children. We gotta keep praying for them. We gotta educate them on what's in operation in them. It says in verse 22, but the father said to his servants, quickly bring out the best robe. Somebody said, best robe for the guest of honor and put it on him and give him a ring, hallelujah, for his hand and sandals for his feet, and bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let us invite everyone, let us feast and celebrate. Where Cain was required to bring a sacrifice to the father. When we repent, the father turns around and brings the sacrifice to his children. Hallelujah! This this father said, My son was dead, he was as good as dead. He was as good as dead. But because he's turned and come back home, he is now alive. The best robe, he said, put the best robe on him and treat him like the guest of honor. He said, put the coat on him as a symbol of eternal protection. Coats were oftentimes decorated, depicting royalty and wealth. The best for the guest of honor. Why take a mark, saints of God, children? Why take a mark of limitations when you can have a robe of eternal righteousness? Sandals, shoes could signify subjection. Under my authority with me, God says, We get to come under the same authority that Jesus was given by God. Or transfer, it also means transfer or transfer of property. Jesus said, All authority has been given unto me. This authority, these shoes, these sandals, I put upon you. You can use this same authority. I give it to you. It's an honored authority to get to submit to others in Christ. Because Jesus did it. Figuratively, Jesus gave us the shoes off of his feet. Sandals. The Father said, put the sandals on him. Bring him back under my authority. But see, kids today, they look at authority as a bad thing. Ain't nobody fixing to tell me what to do. Authority is not a bad thing. Because I get to transfer the authority that I have onto you. I have authority to drive. I get to teach you to drive. I have authority to say no to things because I'm grown. I get to transfer that teaching, that authority onto you. Authority is not a bad thing. But the spirit of rebellion has taught you that it is. You think you know you better than your parent knows you. But you don't. You don't, you're you're not old enough yet. Your brain is not developed yet. Until about the age of 23, 24, your brain is not even fully developed, especially in young men. Hallelujah. You don't even know what you like. You think you do? You know parts of it. Ephesians refers to the gospel shoes of peace. Peace was offered and given to the repentant son. The father transferred his peace onto him. Before Christ, I didn't have peace. After Christ, I live in peace. The signet ring served as a personal signature of its owner. The father was saying, I receive you as my son. The son has said, I don't even deserve to be your son. But then the father, Jesus, said, I receive you. And if you'll just turn, if you'll just repent, I put my identification on you. I put my seal on you. You never have to go through this again. Because I am welcoming you to stay here with me. You are mine. That's what Jesus wants to say. To each and every human. And I am yours. You know, Jesus loves us. He loves each and every one of us. Because he is love. That means he loves you with everything he has. And everything that he is and everything that he owns. He wants to give to us. He wants to give it to you. He doesn't want us settling for degraded lives, for unproductive lives. He doesn't want that for you. He wants the best for you and me. And it's only when you come to your senses and you make a decision that I need Jesus. I really tell you, be honest with yourself. You already know you're miserable. You already know it. Every every person. Insane know that they're miserable, which is why they try to go mad in the wrong thing. But listen to their voice, there's only inside of you to come to Jesus. And I would say to each and every parent or every adult in the kingdom of God. You can't just offer God anything. You can't bring a half surrender to God and think that you're going to get the result that He has for you. He has great promises, great gifts for each and every one of us. And all he wants from us is that we do it his way. And we have to ask God, first of all, God, where am I in my walk and relationship with you? Where am I? Because many of us have allowed access to the wrong spirit. And the enemy's so crafty, he does it a little later too. He'll get you to disobey God right here. And then next time he asks for more. Why is that? Because we're not fully surrendered. We give in to the world's way. And we use phrases like the world and say it's hard to raise kids in these times. Well, we have the greatest source, the greatest resource, one on the inside of us, and in the word of God. We don't have to give in to the world's ways. So we got to ask God, where am I? What am I offering to you? And then we gotta ask God, what is it that I am allowing in that one or two, three, four that you gave me that needs to be cut off? And on top of asking that, we gotta ask God, why did I allow it? What is it that I was trying to fulfill? What is it that I was trying to not do? The greatest assignment that any adult can be given, I think, is parenting. You get to multiply. That doesn't mean it's gonna always be easy because we're dealing with flesh, your own and theirs. However, we have a duty and responsibility to do it the way the word says. Now let me clarify something. When I said when your children are unruly, stubborn, and disobedient and defiant and won't do what you say, and I said, put them out. I meant it. I meant it, but let me tell you what God means by that. What he means by that is that you sometimes have to take serious action to save your children. And sometimes they may have to sleep on the back porch a few days. You're not throwing them away. I didn't say throw them away. You may have to have them go to grandmama's for just a minute, few days, knowing they're in safety, but she they ain't going up in grandmama's house to disrespect her either. So what we'll do is you put them up, but you've also got to take responsibility as to why that child is the way they are. What did you allow in their formative years when they was three, four, five years old arguing back with you? Did you allow it then? If you did, repent, you did, and then get back on track. I don't think any parents put the wrong things in place as far as their child when you're trying to help them. So why do we waver on those things? Why do we waver? So the spirit in operation is a spirit of rebellion, and it has grown to the place of false worship, a spirit of manipulation. Thinking if I can put God's name on it, that makes it right. But it doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:35

Thanks for listening. We pray you receive the life-changing truth from the Word of God. We'd love to hear from you. For contact information, visit our website at www.lawtonwoneness.org. That's www.l-a-w-t-o-n oneess.org. Join us next Thursday. Same time, same place. God bless.