Spirit Stream #62 - No More Fear

In Spirit Stream #62, Nick Griemsmann shares his testimony of overcoming fear—from childhood healing and desperate prayers, through substance abuse, party lifestyle, fear of death, different religions, and a cult—to finding hope and freedom in Christ. Discover how Jesus conquered death for us, and now in Him we can live an overcoming life and be free from all sorts of fears. God's perfect love casts out all fear.

If you're battling fear, this stream delivers hope and breakthrough through Jesus' finished work. God is faithful to you!

🙏 Watch until the end for prayer and ministry.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Welcome & Little Timmy
2:30 - Opening Prayer & Holy Ghost Atmosphere
5:45 - My Journey: Searching for Jesus
7:00 - Childhood Healing Miracle (Heel Spur)
8:45 - Drugs, Partying & Conviction in Mexico
10:45 - Fear of Death & Bondage
12:00 - Exploring World Religions & Islam
15:00 - Cult Experience & Performance Christianity
18:00 - Grace vs Striving: Heart Transformation
22:00 - Freedom Through Jesus' Finished Work
28:00 - Closing Prayer & Ministry
(Full stream continues with teaching, encouragement & Q&A)

If this blessed you, drop a 🔥 or “Amen” in the comments! Like, subscribe, and turn on notifications for new Spirit Streams.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Hey everybody, Nick Grimsman here, live. Holy Ghost Television Spirit Stream 62. And Little Timmy hasn't been on in a while, so I wanted to put him on the screen for everybody to see him real quick. His hair is kind of long right now, and it's I kind of kind of grown out as a little mop top. Little mop top. Yeah. My little shelter dog. Have you ever seen him? His name's Little Timmy. And he's a Malty Pooh. So he's a Maltese and a mini poodle. And he's about two years old now. I got him when he's about a little, probably a year, maybe. He was chasing cars out in West Phoenix when the dog catcher found him. And then I rescued him. What's going on right there? Oh, that's just your oh, I thought it was like dirt on you or something. No, no, dirt on him. Is there dirt on you? No, you're just a little pretty boy. So this is my little dog, little Timmy. So he wanted to say hi tonight. There he is. All right. Well, we'll start with prayer and we'll see where the Lord takes us for Spirit Stream. Uh, where are we at? Spirit Stream 62 tonight. How's everybody doing tonight? Thank you for joining. Holyghosts.tv. You can check it out. I can throw that on the screen. Let's see here. Captions. Uh, yeah, right here. Holy Ghost Television. Spirit stream uh 62. You can watch all the spirit streams on there. And yeah, I'm excited. I'm gonna see if this is okay. It is on Facebook because it's not coming up uh the way it usually does. Okay, just checking some stuff out. Please comment, let me know where you're listening from, watching from. Let me move this down a little bit. And I just ordered, we just ordered a new camera, so maybe we'll have a little bit better uh feed here with the camera. Um, it's all you know, we're all uh we're all just starting out here, so we're just seeing where the Lord takes these uh live streams with Holy Ghost television, and who knows where the Lord can take it. You know, you don't want to um despise the days of small beginnings, and sometimes small beginnings um seem like they take a while, or God has you redo stuff that you you've done before in the past, and it's just a different experience. Remember, God's always training you, he's always trying to get you uh to be more like Jesus. So the whole point of Christianity isn't to get you comfortable and to get you successful, it's to get you to basically allow Jesus Christ to live his life through you. Amen. So let's start with prayer. Okay, I just want to make sure everybody's getting the uh the broadcasts. I'm not really sure. I don't know what's going on here. I think we're on TikTok. We're definitely on TikTok. I know that. So, Lord, I thank you, Father God, for your presence. I thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of each believer. I thank you, Lord, that the Holy Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies, gives life to our flesh. Thank you, Lord, that your word transforms us. I pray tonight that somebody out there watching this would have hope that they would grab a hold of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would grab a hold of hope. I thank you, Lord, for the times that I felt hopeless, but you're always there for me. Thank you, Lord, for drawing the right people to listen to this that are gonna get uh something from this live stream tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for showing me what you want me to talk about. Amen. Amen. How's everybody doing? All right, quiet night. What day is it? Wednesday? All right, sounds good. I might be in one of those, what do they call blocked algorithms where they block you from having people watch you? It's very interesting. I've noticed that. I'm like, I wonder if they've shot, I think it's called shadow banning. I always wondered that. So I look at some of my posts, I'm like, gosh, one person saw this post. It's very interesting. I'm not gonna worry about it. I'm gonna keep preaching the gospel, and the Lord is gonna do the rest. Amen. I'm not gonna worry about it. Father God, thank you for giving me what you want me to speak tonight. Lord, I appreciate that fact that you always show up and you always help the people that watch these streams. I thank you for the gospel. And, you know, tonight I want to talk about uh my journey of trying to find Jesus. I thought it was I was trying to find Jesus, but in reality, Jesus found me. You know, when you're when you grow up in like uh I grew up in a secular environment. So I grew up like with uh just like a normal American household. So we would call ourselves Christian because we did all the holidays. I think I went to Catholic Church once or twice. My mom always told me Jesus loved me, but other than that, I didn't know anything else. I remember my mom one one time telling me, I said, What is this? What is this? Uh is this uh what is this book, uh the Holy Bible on the bookshelf? Because, oh, that's a mystery, nobody really understands the whole thing. That's what she told me. I was young, I was really young, so she's probably just trying to get me not to try to read it when I was so young. I don't know what I don't know, I don't understand. Anyway, uh, I love my mom. Anyway, I uh I always had felt like a curiosity towards Jesus, towards God. And growing up, um, I would pray. I didn't really know how to pray. I didn't know uh, you know, I just you know, dear God, I'd say things like that. I remember when I was 12 years old, um I had a pain in my I think it was a heel spur or like a pain in my my Keeley's tendon, like in my heel, and I used to play football. And I remember coming home from practice and I'd be crying. My mom and she took me to all these doctors trying to help me with this heel spur. And I used to have to wear this brace at night, uh, and it hurt really bad. And I didn't know if I was gonna be able to play that year because my heel hurts so bad. And my mom got some flyer on her car or something, and she told me to call this number and leave your prayer requests, and God will heal you. I was like, or God might heal you, it's worth a try. I said, All right. So I was 12 years old. I remember I called that line. I think it was like a nun or somebody answered and said, We will put you on the prayer request, son. And then I hung up, I said, Thank you very much. Next day I woke up, my heel was completely healed. My heel was completely healed. I never had pain again in my heel. The Lord healed me when I was 12 years old and I had simple faith. I didn't know anything about the Bible, I didn't know anything about church, I didn't know anything about the you know doctrines or anything. I just put my name on a prayer request, but it was a seed, and so that got me more into thinking about God. And I, you know, I used to do a lot of uh drugs when I was young, drink a lot, and I was the type of guy that I would start smoking marijuana or doing drinking a lot or something. I'd start talking about God and the universe. And you know, when people are like that, they you know, that's uh, you know, that's probably their conscience. You know, for me, it was like my conscience telling me like there's more to life than this, you know, there there's God is out there, but I could not find anybody to share the gospel with me. And you remember, this is this is a different generation, right? This is before like everybody's on the internet, and this is you know just basically TVs and basic internet. Um, but I never really had anybody share the gospel with me until um until I got a track, you know, one of those Jesus tracks. I used to find him once in a while, but I remember the one that really planted seed in me. I was going to Mexico to go party with my friends in college, and this gentleman was standing handing out Baptist Bible tracks, like, You're gonna burn in hell. That's all it said, you're gonna burn in hell. That's all I got from it. Anyway, um, it just really convicted me. And I was, you know, I went down to Mexico to party, and the whole time I was sitting there drinking margaritas and thinking about judgment day and how I wasn't right with God and how I needed to get saved. You know, I didn't get saved that moment. That guy handed me the track, not thinking anything of it. You know, so you hand tracks to people, you say a word to them. You never know how God's gonna use it. And for me, I, you know, that kind of started this journey of trying, not started, but it added to the journey of salvation. You know, you didn't find God. God knew exactly where you're at. He has certain people to water, he has certain people to plant in your life. And that person, thank you for that person, God. I don't know who that guy was. He was just there to give me that track. If I looked at the track now, I'd probably say a lot of the the stuff it was saying in there was pretty brutal, but maybe I need to hear that at the time. I don't know, you know, because you can, hey Chono, good to see you over in the Philippines. Hi, and so uh Chona, I'm sorry, and uh and so I had this uh I had this uh you know this conscience always kind of in the back of my mind. Am I ready for judgment day? And I remember I used to go to sleep at night and I would think about dying, and I I get this, I'd feel like I'm gonna see blackness, you know, like a fear of death. The Bible says that the devil keeps us in bond, keeps people in bondage by the fear of death. Okay, so I think it's in first John somewhere, you can Google it. But see, so the fear of death keeps people in bondage, keeps people in chains. And the amazing thing about the Lord is that he abolished death. Did you know that? That Jesus abolished death, so you don't have to be afraid of death anymore. And so when I was uh you know afraid of death, I thought, well, I have to get right with God, I have to figure out how to be saved. And so what did I do? Like everybody else, we'll go to library, we'll go to different churches or uh study religion. So I went to, you know, I went to world religions, I learned about Hinduism, I learned about Roman Catholicism, I learned about uh Islam, I learned about uh you know, all the denominations. I it was world religions, I was learning all this different stuff, and it was really interesting because uh none of what I was see, none of what I was reading about made any sense to me. Like, why if there's one God, why is there all these different religions? You know, and they you know, people try to say, well, they all lead to one or whatever, but I was like, this just doesn't make sense to me. And then I thought, well, Judaism was, you know, the first uh type of religion, let's say, uh, at least in my knowledge at the time, I thought, you know, Judaism and then Christianity and then Islam. So I was like, oh, well, I'll be uh Muslim because that's the last of the, you know, that's the last of the religions. And that's what a lot of people think. They go, well, Islam is, you know, after Christ and, you know, and he speaks for God now. And so they go to Islam. And I chose Islam at the time where I was choosing, I was in the process of I was gonna go grow up, grow my beard out, I was gonna go to the local mosque. I was gonna choose it because I liked the uh clothing, you know, they are traditional clothing, uh, the clothing they had, and made them look holy. Uh, the eating stuff made them look holy, you know. You can't eat this, can't you? They prayed five or three times a day, made them look holy. So a lot of outward holiness, okay. And so I thought in my mind, well, that's got to be the one that's closest to God because they have so much outward holiness, outward holiness, they do all these things, and you'll notice uh religion uh uh is outwardly, okay. So if you think of all the world religions, they're all outwardly or things you do. It's very interesting. Think about it. Every religion is about what you do yin and yang, karma, all these things are about the person trying to be perfect before God, or trying to attain perfection, or trying to attain eternal life, or please God by their behavior, by what they eat, don't eat, what they wear, what they celebrate. Okay. It's but Christianity is completely backwards. As you know, Jesus was perfect, and Jesus is a righteousness. So he makes those who believe in him righteous without having to wear certain clothing, follow certain rules and regulations, uh, eat, don't eat, pray three times a day, all those things. He makes people righteous here in their heart, right? In their heart, it's a heart transformation, and then they live out righteousness through that, through the gift of righteousness. So it's completely backwards. So when you're uh when you are ministering or trying to talk with people that are uh a different religion, uh Jehovah's Witness, for example, or LDS, or you know, different uh they call them sex, S-E-C-T-S, sex of Christianity. I was in a cult when I was younger. They believed that they were the one true church. And the cult that I was in believed that the person who ran it was one of the two witnesses, the final witnesses in the Bible in the book of Revelation. Book of Revelation. And and you know, they believed that they never sinned. They believed that they were perfectly sinless 24-7. And if they ever ate pork or if they ever um accidentally said a bad word or looked at somebody lustfully, then they lost their salvation and they were gonna burn in hell for eternity. And so I was uh abused in a cult through work, like through believing I could be perfect enough. So back to my story. The way I think that this was thrown into my life was was that uh during my college years, I started trying to perfect, not perfect myself, but I was trying to get right with God in doing um in not doing things. So I tried to quit drinking for a month. I thought, well, I I want to get baptized in water, but I have to be perfect first. I have to stop smoking cigarettes, I have to let go of the joints, you know, smoking weed. I gotta stop drinking, and then I can go follow Jesus. And my my thought process of a Christian was somebody that wore a name badge and knocked on your door, like LDS or Jehovah's Witness person, how they knock on the door. Let me tell you about our church, right? And so that was in the in just a secular mindset in the world system. That's what I thought Christians were. I thought I was gonna stop bartending and stop uh partying and stop all this stuff, and then I was gonna get baptized in water, then I was gonna put on a tie and I was gonna knock on doors, and that's what I thought my life was gonna be. That's what I thought serving God was. And so I tried really, really hard to um to perfect myself, to try to be sinless enough to be baptized. Okay, I remember going to uh a church where they preach that you have to repent of sin and then you have to get water baptized, right? And the way I, in my mind, the way it sounds good, right? But in my mind, repent of sin meant sinlessness, and so it kept me from serving or giving my life to Christ because I thought I had to be sinless to get baptized in water. See, but I was in the flesh, I didn't have a heart transformation yet. How could I repent of sin? Does that make sense? How do I stop sinning if I'm addicted to drugs or I'm addicted to alcohol or I'm addicted to cigarettes? So when we tell somebody stop sinning, and they're in the flesh, what's happening there? Condemnation, the chains get stronger. And then eventually God used that to bring me to grace. So it works for the good. It can work for the good. Amen. So the gospel is that we are all sinners and we've all fallen short of the glory of God. Every single person has fallen short of the glory of God. One sin, one transgression, one rebellious act, one lie, you're done. The holiness of God is that holy. Okay, and you were born in sin. And so you grew up in uh sinful flesh, which inherently wants to go sin. So you're hopeless. So the real gospel is that you are hopeless, you are completely hopeless, and you can do as many good works as you want, or you can try to stop sinning all you want, but you are completely hopeless in the fact that you deserve the lake of fire, you're separated from God because of your human nature, and then what you've done while agreeing with your human nature, basically, rebellion from God. So you were an enemy of God. So everybody's an enemy of God. And then what does God do? He sends his only begotten son to fulfill the law of Moses, the prophets, and live a sinlessly perfect life and die uh a criminal's death, but he wasn't a criminal, he was sinless, perfect, not one sin. As the Lamb of God, he was crucified for us, bled for us, and then he was buried for three days and resurrected from the dead. He resurrected himself from the dead, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. Those that have been called by God, chosen by God, and worked with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit worked with us to bring us to a revelation that Jesus Christ is Lord. And you can't be saved unless your heart, you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe with your whole heart that God raised him from the dead. You can't force somebody to repent of sin who hasn't had a heart transformation. Okay? Does that make sense? You can't be sinlessly perfect without some heart, you have to have a heart transformation. And even then, it's a whole process of sanctification and transformation of life and character and everything. Okay, so it's by grace through faith we're saved, not by work. So you're not saved because I wasn't saved because I was gonna quit smoking. It was a good idea, it was a good idea to want to live better. That's good. But the goodness of God leads men to repentance. So when somebody has that heart transformation, they experience the goodness of God and their heart transforms, and you no longer have a stony heart. See, you want to teach people the truth in love that your heart is stony, okay, before Christ. Your spirit is dead, separated from God before Christ. Now you're alive in the spirit. Okay, so you're now alive. You have the Holy Spirit, you're alive in Christ. No death does not reign over you anymore. Jesus, like like I said before, Jesus abolished death. So now you have Christ in you, the hope of glory, and you were gifted the ability to even have salvation. You were gifted the ability to see the gospel. You can hear people hear the gospel all the time, but do you see it in your heart? See? And then your heart transforms, and that's what they call born again. And so throughout the New Testament, the uh the epistles, Hebrews, all these different uh the apostles. Apostles, they're all teaching what they're teaching you to keep moving forward in faith. Why? Because there was people like me. There were people like me who were trying to perfect myself in the flesh. I was trying to be a better person to follow Jesus. And I needed to what? I needed to find grace. I needed to surrender my life to Jesus. I need to keep going forward and seeking God. And so there's tons of people in church like this. There's tons of people that have been baptized in water, and they might not have ever had a heart transformation. And they're in your church. Well, what do you do with those people? You encourage them with the truth, the gospel. Continue to seek God, continue to give them the word, and hopefully their heart transforms eventually. Some people are slower than others. I don't know how it works, right? But if they're in your sphere of influence, you want to encourage them, oops, to continue to keep moving forward in faith, right? You want to keep encouraging them to keep moving forward in faith and believe the word. Because if you know, if I was back in the day, I was trying to, I gave up basically. I was giving up because I thought I could never be perfect. I could never repent of sins. And so I would never get baptized. So there's people out there that in their heart they want to get baptized, they want to give their life to Jesus, but they haven't repented of smoking or repented of drinking uh, you know, a bunch, or repented of that lie they told her, whatever it is. Because in their mind, it's twisted. The term repentance is twisted, where they have to be sinless to follow Jesus. See, repent, goodness of God leads men to repentance. The word of God mixed with faith, well, you will have a heart transformation and you will experience a goodness of God which will lead you to think different in a turnaround way. Like you think differently. So you're going this way, your heart's transformed. You were a fornicator before, you were a drunkard before, you were a murderer before, you've been touched by the goodness of God because why? You've you've changed your mind, you've repented towards God, you unbelief, belief in Jesus Christ. And when you believe in Jesus Christ, you experience the goodness of God, and then the goodness of God leads you to repent, which is mind transformation, and then you start making a U-turn and your life starts changing. Hey, Dylan, good to see you. So your life starts changing, your thinking starts changing. Why? Because you have the Holy Spirit in you. So the Holy Spirit in you is who changes you. But we think it's us that changed. It was me that repented of my sins. It was me that quit smoking. It was me that did a bunch of deliverance and now I'm free. No, I have to agree, I had to agree with the word of God and believe truth, but it was all a gift from the Holy Spirit in me. See, God's always working on you. So if you're stuck tonight, believe the gospel that Jesus came for sinners in whom I am chief. That's what Paul said. Why? Because he used to kill Christians. He was a chief sinner. And he still had character issues he knew about. He wasn't saying I'm still, you know, I'm still a sinner, a chief of sinner, I sin all the time, a horrible person. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. No. He knew that in himself he was the chief of sinners. If you start resting on your own self, your flesh will flare up and you'll start doing sins. Your flesh will start flaring up when you're resting yourself. So if you meet somebody that struggles with a bunch of sin, most likely they're they're trying to rest on themselves for salvation. They're trying to rest on themselves for blessing, they're trying to rest on themselves for healing, they're trying to rest on themselves to be free from sin. Okay. So it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. It's really simple. And then when somebody truly sees with their heart the goodness of God in the person of Jesus Christ, it will lead them to a heartfelt repentance of sin. Okay. When you experience the goodness of God and you see the beauty of the cross, and you know your life isn't right, and you know you're not living the way the Holy Spirit desires for your life. When you know that, you get touched by God, and then God, and then God can lead you into repentance, which is mind, heart change, transformation, turnaround. It's a turnaround. Some things take longer than others, you know. There was things I I used to do, and I'd I, you know, it was sin, and I'd confess it, and but then I started, you know, and then other things, um, you know, I would I would realize I was actually hurting others, and that that really, you know, when God starts showing me that when I do something dumb, I could be hurting somebody else. You know, I used to be, oh, I sin, but then now I see it differently that I don't want to hurt anybody. I don't want to hurt other people. See, that comes from a place of love and maturity. It's more, you know, you start maturing and realizing that when you're when you're doing lying to people, or if you're getting drunk with people, leading them into sin, whatever it is, yelling at people, treating them bad, unforgiveness, hating people, whatever it is, you're actually hurting people. And you don't want to hurt people in Christ. You don't want you don't want that on your conscience. So if you are somebody today that you know, you just think you're you're yelling at somebody, your kids or your neighbor or your secretary at work, whatever, and you're just yelling at them, you're like, Oh, sorry, Lord, I shouldn't have done that. Well, kind of think about it in a term of love, you know, are you loving those people by doing that to them? And then, you know, God can show you that you're not walking in love in those areas, and his goodness will lead you to repentance. Like, you don't really have to, I don't have to give you a list of do's and don'ts because you, if you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth, and he will show you when you're not being loving to your spouse, to your kids, to your family members. He can show you. The the problem is that there's a just a lack of surrender. And so that's uh we we want control of everything, right? So there's a lack of surrender in finances, there's a lack of surrender with your uh relationships, with your desires, uh, with your life. You think your life belongs to your yourself. Remember, those that love their life, right, will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it. So a lot of people they get, you know, they follow, they want to follow Jesus, but they don't realize that you have to surrender. There's a surrendering there, you have to pick up your cross, you have to follow the Lord, and there's a surrendering there, and you might not get all the stuff you ever wanted, you might not get that white picket fence with the you know, the the three cars and the kids and the boat. You might never get that, you know. People say, Oh, God has a good plan for your life. Absolutely, I totally agree with you 100%. But Peter, you know, the story, you know, they they say that Peter and all the apostles, pretty much except John, they all were martyred. Okay, so if you're in North Korea, if you're preaching somebody that lives in North Korea and you tell them God has a good plan for your life, and they're they're hiding their Bible in their backyard, they can't even tell their spouse that they're Christian or their kids because they'll turn them in and then they'll go to a prison camp or get beheaded or whatever they do there. But God does have a good plan for your life. How does that work? Because knowing God is life, see, so break it down even further. Knowing the Father is eternal life, knowing God is everything. So God does have a good plan for your life to know him. That that you might end up being martyred, right? You like Peter or Matthew or some of these saints, they were martyred for their faith. You you might have to go through horrible things, persecution. You know, they burned Christians at the stake in Rome. The Romans used to burn them, right? In ISIS, they used to put them in cages and set them on fire and stuff, right? In Syria or wherever that was at, in ISIS. So just kind of rethink your complaints sometimes, right? I don't know why I'm going this route, but you guys sometimes got to rethink your complaints to God. Oh Lord, I didn't get a I didn't get a uh brand new car, I had to get a used car. Oh, you must not love me. You know, stuff like that. Rethink it. I've been to places in the world that like people are they don't have anything, they have no health care. They have wooden wooden wheelchairs. Kids are dying of diseases because they don't have vaccines, you know, for like polio and things. And you know, you can get into the vaccine thing with me, but hey, you know, have you ever seen a child with polio with no medical care being pushed around a wooden wheelchair? You know, so I mean, we can debate that all we want, but that you know, there's a lot of you know, the world is a war zone, it's a war zone. The whole the Bible says that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one, it lay it lies under the sway of the wicked one. So, you know, you're watching the news and seeing all stuff on social media. Who's the sway? What it's under a sway of the wicked one, the prince of the power of the air. So, going back to my own testimony when I was uh trying to find God, or I thought I was trying to find God, but God found me. I was so confused. There's so many people that are so confused out there with doctrines, they're confused on what truth is, they're confused on their identity, they're confused on you know all sorts of things. I minister to people that have been to, you know, uh tons of deliverance ministries, tons of inner healing ministries, tons of churches, tons of counseling, tons of holistic healing, and they're still dealing with things, people are confused out there. Get back to the simplicity of the gospel that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, and by faith in Jesus of Nazareth, all things are possible. Like, really, just go back to the basics. If you're one of those people that have read like a thousand books and you know all about healing and you know all about the revivals of old and you know all about everything, but you just have a hard time receiving from God. Maybe you just know so much too much. Knowledge puffs up, so knowledge gives you arrogance, uh you know, like arrogant narcissist or whatever, you know, um pride, it puffs you up to where you think you know everything. Tell everybody everything. But love edifies. Remember Paul when he went to the I think it was in Corinthians, he said, you know, I I uh you know, I didn't know anything among you except Jesus Christ and crucified. So we came in there with humility, preaching the just the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the kingdom, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Have you just got too wise in your brain? You've read too many books of how to prosper, you've read too many books about healing, you've read too many books, and books are good. I have books. I'm talking to the people that have done everything they they they don't know what to do because they're you're out there. I know you you might be watching this right now. I've done everything, I don't know what to do. That's perfect. Get right on your knees at the foot of the cross and just surrender it to Jesus and ask for his grace. I used to struggle with different sins, like bondage, you know. Like I used to be just really addicted to looking at things on the internet, you know, that stuff on the internet. Okay, I used to look at that stuff and I felt horrible about myself. Horrible. Here I was trying to serve God and struggle with pornography. What how's that work, Lord? Why do I feel why am I in bondage? And so I believed I had a mindset that I was in bondage, that I liked to look at ungodly images on the computer. Me. See, it was a false identity. You it's a false identity, it lies to you in your mind, in your emotions, and then you accept it for part of you, and then it does sin through you. That's why I believe Paul said in Romans 7, if you're sinning, it's not you sinning, it's not me sinning, it's sin that dwells in me. He's not scapegoating sin because you had to make an agreement with it somewhere. He's explaining how to differentiate between your true nature and your old nature that's connected to your soul, trying to manifest. It's like a zombie, right? You know, the zombies in the movies. It's like imagine that like your your old nature is trying to rise up, rise you up again, rise up again, but it's not you, you're alive in Christ, so you're no longer uh addicted to looking at things on the computer, and on top of all that is condemnation. Remember, Jesus said, Whoever believes in me, they will, they are not condemned, they pass from death to life. So you actually pass from death to life, but the devil doesn't want you to believe that, and so he's gonna he's gonna make you go to a a men's group to talk about the how hard it is to be a man because you're visual, and I mean I've heard it all. You're visual, and you you know you just like to look at women all the time, you just can't get rid of it. You're just a man, that's how men are, no, that's how a man of the world may be, but a righteous man that has the Holy Ghost is transforming day to day, going from glory to glory, and you may struggle with a stronghold. You know, like with me, I was introduced to pornography as a young boy, and so that thing gets dug in, and then I made an idol out of women growing up. I'm just being transparent because somebody needs to hear it, right? So please share this broadcast if you're listening to it, you're watching, share it. Because there's tons of people struggling. I was in a I was at the gym why I tell a story a lot, but I was at the gym one time, and there's these three three men probably in their mid-20s, early 30s, and they're all talking about this group that they're going to at church, it's like freedom busters or freedom for this or whatever. I don't know, freedom busters, devil busters, or I don't know, something like that, right? And so sorry, I love the Lord. Okay, so they're all talking about what they learned in the class or whatever, and it was like a group. I overheard them. I started talking to them, they're going to overcoming lust uh classes at their church, which is good. Hey, go to the class, learn. But I explained to them how you can't take identity in your sinful behaviors. You don't want to take identity in that stronghold, you don't want to take identity in your old nature because it just strengthens it. That's all you're gonna get is strengthening it. So if you're struggling, first thing to do is disagree that it's you because if you're doing something you don't want to do, it's not really you, it's that sin that is in your flesh connected to your soul. It's like connected to your soul somehow. I don't know how it works, but like I just think like the soul is your mind, your emotions, and you have your flesh. I could be wrong, so you know, don't take me as you know, like a perfect scholar. I'm just trying to help somebody. Like you have your flesh that's been crucified with Christ, and then you have your soul that was programmed by your flesh when you were alive in the in the flesh, right? Your mind, your emotions, and then this thing fights to resurrect your flesh again. So your flesh has been crucified with Christ with his lusts and his passions. So you don't have that uh that that your that nature to want to go do that stuff anymore as you believe the truth, it's still there, but your mind, your emotions can shut it down. So, like your mind, your emotions can tell you, oh, you like to look at pornography all the time, and then your flesh resurrects and you go look at pornography in a way, right? Or you can get tempted in that area, your mind, your motions, and say, Nope, that's not who I am anymore. I'm a daughter, son of God, whatever. I'm a son of God, not interested, I'm righteous, and that thing will start losing its power. Submit to God, resist the devil, disagree with him, just start disagreeing, those little disagreements. You get tempted, there's no condemnation. Okay, oh, tempted, wow, okay, not interested today, because it always leads me to feeling bad about myself, it always leads me to feel tormented. So I'm gonna make a choice because I have control of my emotions, I have control of my mind, because I'm a son of God, I've been born again, and I have the Holy Ghost, and I can do all things through Christ. And the whole thing is for you not to aim for sinless perfection. That's not the aim of this. The aim of it is to be transformed, is surrender and allow the Holy Ghost to live through you, is to transform into the image of the Son of God. You don't do that by your own self-will, you do that by surrendering at the foot of the cross. You continue to surrender your emotions and your mind to the Lord and renew your mind, be transformed, and then you can be free. I mean, you are free, but you start walking the freedom you always dreamed of. I never dreamed, like literally, I never dreamed that I could be free from looking at ungodly images on the computer. When I was struggling really bad, like you might be there right now. You might be somebody that is struggling with something that feels like it's deep in you. Like it's, I mean, I remember feeling it. It was like inside my heart. I felt like it was inside my heart, my chest, my my flesh, my mind, my eyes, everything was just there. And anytime I got tempted, I would just go immediately, immediately there. And it was a big stronghold. And you might be dealing with that. You might be dealing with uh an addiction of uh a different addiction, drugs or alcoholism or something. And it feels like it's you, and it's like an identity issue. You might feel like you're you're attracted to uh different different types of people or whatever. You might feel like you're you got weird stuff going on inside. What if I told you if you have the Holy Spirit, you died, and now you're risen a newness of life. It's Christ that lives in you now. So you have to start reckoning yourself dead to sin. You're dead, you died, and so when you see it like that, you start disconnecting from the identity of sin. You can start disconnecting from that addiction, and then what you do is you just ask the Lord for grace. So I didn't really start getting free from things until I realized God will deliver me from it. It's that easy. I always thought I had to fight really hard. I thought I had to fight to be free from everything, and you can get freedom from fighting, you can, but to be truly free, you have to have the sun set you free, right? Who the sun is set free is free indeed. And so I could fight and fight, but I always kind of hit a roadblock because I was fighting for perfection. And so I would I would go maybe a couple months, get some freedom, and then I'd just fail again and I'd hate myself. Can't believe I did that. Oh my gosh, you've done it, I'm sure. I can't believe I did that. Oh, I can't believe I said that. Oh, I can't believe I'm still addicted to this. Hey, Jonathan, good to see you, John O from Christchurch. Praise God. Yeah, so uh anyway, I don't even know what I was talking about. I was talking about uh addiction, being free, yeah. So you are you are free, and some of you aren't freer in different areas because lack of surrender. I'm telling you, surrender is is you know, and all it is is just giving that part of your soul to the Holy Ghost. So if you think of yourself, it's kind of weird, I just see this, but think of yourself like a bunch of um, a bunch of uh, oh, that's a good way. So think of yourself as like a big uh bushel of wheat. So think of your soul as a big bushel of wheat, and that's all the junk, or that's all the stuff you you desire, you feel like you crave, you want in life, all these things. And each one, as you surrender, it kind of just you it starts dwindling down, dwindling down until eventually you only have like a couple left. You have the little small bushel of different things. And so a lot of people they they give up, like let's say half the bushel and they're serving God and they're happy. But some of you, you know you're called to greater things, you know you're God has spoken to you about things, and and you know you're supposed to surrender more to Him. How do you get the rest of that stuff out? How do you surrender more of those pieces of wheat, let's say, those desires? I used to think I had to beat myself up, all the dark in my soul. I had to just cast it out and fight it all day long. Surrendering, being honest. You might have a heart's desire that's been inside you since you were a kid, and you might be surrendering your life, you know, more of your soul to the Lord, and a piece of a piece of something else might come out. You know, you might get to a place where you, you know, I surrender that to you, I surrender my health to you, I surrender my car to you, you know, Lord. I that piece in my emotions that holds on to, you know, whatever, uh, you know, worrying about my spouse or whatever it is, there's a piece in there, goes away, and then all of a sudden, that part of you that had that desire as a kid, God heals, and that desire is gone, and then you find out that the desire was built on lies. Okay, praise God. No problem, Jonathan. Love you, man. I'm glad you're watching. Okay, yeah. So he's uh it says, I'm in the process of surrendering thoughts, yeah, that you don't want. I get it, I get it. So those thoughts are can be just disagreed with. So submit to God, resist the devil, he flees. Just disagree with them. They're not you if they're not coming from the mind of Christ, and they're not good, lovely, pure, holy, kind, that's not really you in Christ. And you can disagree with them and not condemn yourself for dealing with thoughts. Amen. And you don't want to focus too much on it because then you start empowering the enemy. Because what he does, he starts giving you a bunch of thoughts, so you just keep quoting scriptures at him and yelling at him instead of ignore, not interested. You'll find when you just it's kind of like it's kind of like a fish hook, right? So, you know, a fish gets hooked by the hook, you know, the bait. Okay, so this thing, these thoughts will come at your come at you like a trying to bait you, right? Trying to bait you, bait you, bait you. And the fish, if it just ignores the the fish hooks out here, right? Just keeps ignoring it, the fish hooks out here. But when we start interacting with the fish hook, it could grab our lip or grab the fish's lip and get you. See, so you don't want to pay attention to the devil, like literally just ignore them, disagree with them, disagree with them. You just start disagreeing. Like, I'm not interested in negativity. Sorry, I don't have time, and you'll find it gets weaker and weaker because you're not paying attention. You're not paying attention, and you know, a lot of people that deal with thought processes and things, Jonathan. Sometimes you just need to put on headphones and listen to the Bible, listen to worship music, and just you have the authority of your own mind. You have the authority in Christ, and you're not gonna listen to the devil anymore. You're done. You know, I'm gonna put on headphones anytime you talk to me. Not interested. I'm just like not interested, so I just don't deal with it anymore. I used to hear mega voices, guys. I used to literally have real schizophrenia 20, I think 20 now, 20 years ago, I was healed. Okay, praise God for that. I had to learn, and there wasn't, you know, I didn't have internet teachings that teach me. I never heard anybody overcoming voices or anything. I like had to, yeah, I went through deliverance, I did all that stuff, I did self-deliverance, I did all that stuff, and I slowly started being delivered, slowly started overcoming things, and then I hit a wall because I was still very uh self-focused, law-based, self-righteous, you know. It wasn't until I just gave up, literally just gave up and said, Lord, I can't do it anymore on my own. You know, you're struggling with finances, you're struggling with your life, everything's an emotion. You just can't, Lord. I just I just give up. You purchased me with your blood, you purchased me with your Holy Spirit. Here's my life. Full surrender, Lord. There it is. Teach me how to resist the devil, teach me how to overcome in this situation. Encourage me today, Lord. Lord, I pray for great encouragement for people watching this tonight. I I pray they have so much encouragement, and I'm just supposed to put little Timmy up here again. I don't know why. I don't think some of you weren't in when I saw when I showed you earlier, so I wanted to. Little Timmy's here again, my little baby. He's my little, I call him my little teen because he acts like a teenager. He doesn't listen to me all the time. Do you? Do you, little baby? Oh, he's really tired. His got his little long hair right here. Let's get some joy in here. There, Tim, you gotta look that way, though. Here you go. Look that way. Say hi. You're not interested because you're a teenager. Nah, he's only two. My little baby. All right, so anyway. Uh he was a rescue dog. Okay, I know I've said that before, but just for the people who just got in. Okay. Anyway, so you can walk in toll freedom in Christ, and you have to realize that it's just a process, it's a process, and you're never done with it. You're sanctified, but then there's a lifelong process of sanctification. You're you're transformed, you're clean forever, and then there's a process of cleaning and transformation. Does that make sense? Praise God. Praise God. And so I didn't know any of this when I first got uh introduced to Christianity. Um, when I was looking for God, I would like I said before, I was going to be Muslim. And then I remember before I went to the the mosque, I was growing up my beard, and I remember going on like they used to have chat rooms. I'm sure they probably do. They probably have uh uh still have chat rooms. I don't know, but anyway, I AOL chat room. I go into the religious ones, talk to Jewish people, talk to Hindus, talk to Christians, talk to Mormons, I talked to everybody, Muslims, and the one thing that really bugged me was that nobody had correct doctrine. Everybody was so, well, it's this reason, it's that reason, it's this. I felt like even in even in Islam and Judaism and Christianity, everybody had like the teacher that they listened to, and that's why they got this belief system or whatever. And I just saw it, I saw it as so confusing. I remember crying out to God. I just didn't know anything. I was like, well, okay, well, I was I remember sitting at the computer, I was so confused, and I'm just like, God, what is the truth? I said it like that. But it was a heartfelt from a sinner just wanting to know the truth. And this is before I was born again. I was gonna be Muslim. I said, God, what is the truth? And I was I was answered uh probably like I don't know how long afterwards. I I remember opening the Bible or reading the Bible somewhere, scripture. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father except through me. And when I heard that, I was like, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. That's it. It's Jesus, it's Jesus. And it rang in my heart, and then I remember being at a party, and we were doing a bunch of nose candy, right? And I was high, and I remember telling everybody at the party, Jesus is the truth, Jesus is Lord. Can you believe it? Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And here I am, not even born again yet. I'm saying this to everybody, and they're like, This guy's crazy. I remember going partying with my friends, going different places, telling people, talking to waitresses and all sorts of stuff about Jesus. And somewhere I got that revelation, and then I was still in the party scene, and then eventually somebody had me pray and I confessed Jesus as Lord, and I felt in my heart that I was a new creation. And then I got sucked into a cult. I always thought I got saved because I stopped doing the big sins. I always thought I was saved because I repented of sin. But what that did, that belief system, I was resting on myself, and what that did was make me very sin-focused and self-righteous and condemned all the time because I based my salvation on if I sinned or not, or if I made, I shouldn't say sin, but like made a mistake. You know, like or sin, you know, I can say sin. I just, you know, I don't want it to, I'm not trying to make light of sinning. But I want you to understand that in Christ, your sins are forgiven. And when you realize your sins are forgiven and God does not count your sins against you anymore, you can live out of your new nature. I was living in the flesh as a Christian. That's why I was struggling so hard. So I'd get tempted to look at things on the computer and it would flare up. And if I looked at the thing on the computer, then I lost my salvation in my mind. And so, what did that do? That put me under the law. And what did Apostle Paul talk about was that um when the law is good, holy, and just, but when he read that you shall not covet, do not covet, what did that do to him? It made every form of covetousness manifest in this flesh. And so when you're basing your righteousness or your eternal life on you, sin will manifest more. You're giving power to sin. Your eternal life and your righteousness is on Christ, and it's the Holy Spirit that delivers you from sinful behavior. When you realize you are weak in yourself, that's when you're strong. When you realize God even uses your weaknesses to help you somehow, you'll start seeing his goodness. You know, I'm not gonna go into all my past junk I've done and I've screwed up a lot, I've done rebellion, I've done all sorts of stuff. I'm totally transparent. You know, I I want to let you, I want to give hope to those that are struggling because I was once somebody very uh who really wanted to serve God, but was very sensitive to every little thing I was thinking or doing, and all that, and then on top of it, I thought I could lose my salvation if I had a bad thought or God was mad at me if I did this, if I went one mile an hour on the freeway, then I was gonna burn in hell. You know, I was very sin focused. Everything was about sinful behaviors, everything was about, oh, I dare say it right there, did I think this? Did I listen to this? And I was tortured by self-righteousness. I was tortured by it, and believe it or not, the law is designed to get you to that place so that you will find grace. So if you are being tormented and you are kind of similar to where I was at, and you feel like you've been resting on yourself for a long time, and you became self-righteous, and now you're dealing with torment or whatever it is, it's the law being used to bring you to grace. So the law can be used to bring somebody grace. Remember, Judaism is to bring people to Christ. Everything in Judaism in the old covenant was to bring people to the Messiah.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

Okay.

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The Ten Commandments, everything, those to to if you try to follow those in yourself, it will lead you to failure, and then you can look up to grace.

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Okay.

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I'm not perfect, nobody's perfect, right? But I'll tell you, I walk in more peace now than I did two years ago, three years ago, last year. I walk in more love than I did five years ago, four years ago, two years ago, one year ago. I sin less than I did last year at this time, probably, or whatever. You know what I mean? Like you just your failures are less and less because you've grown in grace. You you can treat people better when you've grown in grace. You can love people, forgive people that betray you easier as you realize that your life belongs to Christ, and it's not even you anymore. You you die with you died. Your life is hidden in Christ Jesus in God, you're a joint heir with Christ, you're born again, you're sealed with Christ Jesus in the high in the heavenly realms. Doesn't matter if people betray you, steal from you. You know, you talk to people that they get all mad that somebody stole from them or whatever. Whatever. Let it go. God knows somebody stole from you, but you're you're you're angry and mad still. Who cares? You know what happened to me one time? I was riding a bike. I had this bike I really liked going bike rides, and I put it in my my garage, and I think I I left the door open, the garage door open for an hour or two. Somebody took it. I noticed right before I went to my prayer meeting, I was like, somebody took my my bike, and it was upsetting. And I was praying about it on the way to my prayer meeting, it was years ago, 15 years ago, whatever. And I remember sitting down, I had this chair I'd sit in, and I said, Lord, I just bless the person who stole my bike. I hope they really like it. And uh thank you for the Bible says you'd give me sevenfold in return, or something. That's what I said, right? Something like that. Thank you, Lord. If a thief is caught, he has to repay sevenfold. I said, Thank you, Lord. Thank you. That one day I'll get my bike back somehow. And I it was disconnected from my soul. I let it go. Wasn't angry, wasn't mad. Ah, young lady walked in that used to come to my prayer meetings, my friend. She's like, So weird. Do you do you need a bicycle? I said, What? She goes, Yeah, the Lord has been talking to me like a couple days ago. He's telling me that you needed a bicycle. Or I don't know, ask you about a bicycle. So I'm like, Well, that's so weird. So I went over to her house. Sure enough, she had a men's bike, it was perfect condition. It was like probably over a thousand dollars at the time. It's like perfect condition, it was blue, it was beautiful. She's like, Yeah, I never use it. You want it? I'm like, cool. And she tuned it up and everything because she she knew she the Lord told her like months ago she was gonna give it to somebody. It's all perfect. And the side of it, it was called like a Jubilee bike or something. I don't know, like a designer bike. It's probably a thousand bucks or something. My bike was like a Walmart bike back then. God upgraded me like sevenfold, pretty much. But you see, it was even before, though. So he was preparing her before to gift me the bike. So God already knew that kid was gonna come, or whoever stole it was gonna come to my my garage. So, like things don't take God by surprise. That's like when people text me or email me uh emergency prayers, emergency prayers. There's an emergency prayer. I'm kind of like, okay, well, I'll pray for you, but like I'm not really into the emergency prayers. Why? Why aren't I into it? Because I once had my bike stolen, and the lady that was blessed with a new bike, the Lord told her, like a month before to get her bike ready, she didn't give it to somebody, and then a couple days before was even talking about giving it to me or asking me about it. Before it even happened. So you're sending out emergency prayers. God already knew the emergency was gonna happen. So you need to rest in trusting that you're seated with Christ, that God already knows what's gonna happen tomorrow. You don't, you could have an emergency prayer tomorrow, emergency situation. Guess who's already in tomorrow? Your Heavenly Father. I was on an airplane years ago coming back from Pakistan. I was in the UAE, Abu Dhabi, flying out of Abu Dhabi. I was in one of those big Emirati jets. I've talked about this before, but I want to share with you if you haven't heard it. And middle of the night, or everybody's sleeping, all of a sudden I look up and it's like the you know, you see the computer, it shows you you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or whatever. Okay, coming from the Middle East. All of a sudden, beep, beep, beep, oxygen, put on your oxygen mask, cabin depressurizing. Beep, beep, beep, put on your oxygen mask or cabinet pressurizing, put on your oxygen mask, an alarm. Okay, you're 10,000 feet up or whatever, however, high they fly. So I had I had an opportunity there to freak out and text or call for emergency prayers, and to be all fearful and scary. I'm not trying to downplay emergency prayers, guys. I'm just you know, I'm just kind of using an example. You can do emergency prayer if it's not out of fear, right? Fear is you don't want to pray out of fear, you want to pray out of trust. So the so all of a sudden I have a real emergency. The cabin in my 747 or whatever jet this is from Abu Dhabi is gonna go down or whatever in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The oxygen sensors are going off. So instead of being afraid, what did I do? I trusted God. First, I kind of got upset. I said, Lord, you just have me survive Pakistan up in these remote villages. Now you're gonna have me go down an airplane. It doesn't make sense. I said, Your will be done, and I reminded myself to be absent from the bodies, to be present from the Lord. I tightened my seatbelt, I put on my shoes because I have my socks on. I don't know if you're supposed to do it in airplanes, but I did because it was a long haul, you know, like a 10-hour flight or whatever. Put on my shoes real quick, like slipped them on, tighten the seatbelt, looked up. I was looking for the mast to come down, and I said, uh, I said, Lord, I guess if we're going down in the middle of the ocean, it's gonna work out for my good. All of a sudden, beep, this is your captain speaking. We're so sorry, that was just a malfunction of a sensor. Everything's fine. We really apologize. Enjoy the flight. Okay, so I had an emergency prayer situation. I trust the Lord, and God got me through it. I could have freaked out, started screaming prayers to God, crying for all the angels to come because the airplane might go down or the oxygen might leave the plane, or I have to wear a mask, or whatever's going on. No, I trusted the Lord. So I want you to begin, if you haven't been, start trusting the Lord at a new level. Just go to another level and ask the Lord if there's something that you need to surrender that is not blocking you, but is preventing you to go to the next, not preventing, yeah, preventing kind of like he's trying to get you to the next step in your walk with him, but you're holding on to something, and a lot of times it's connected to control. A lot of times it's control, like going in an airplane and and being at the mercy of the pilot and having this alarm go off and thinking about dying in an airplane crash, all stuff. You know, I had no control. I had to release control from my emotions, from my soul. So a lot of people they hold on to control, they want to control their own life, they want to control their own uh everything, they want to control everything, their finances, they want to control everything, and it's usually based in fear, right? So fear is really, you know, I you know, I used to struggle with fear a lot, and I, you know, I still deal with different things, but God has taken me through different circumstances, like the airplane thing, to deal with fear, you know. So I went through that. Now I get on an airplane. I was in, I was going to um Argentina, I was in Patagonia. I was going on a cruise to Antarctica, actually. You can see it on Instagram if you want to see it, but I went on a cruise to Antarctica, I got blessed with a cruise. That was like one of my heart's desires. Anyway, I'm going into Antarctica, but I'm going in Argentina. I got to fly over Patagonia with like the snow and everything over the mountains. Like, and you have to land this little island at the edge of uh in Patagonia, this island, and you go over these mountains, and you're literally like I felt like I was probably 500 feet up over the mountains. We were just flying right over them in this small jet, and the jet starts shaking apart, like it feels like it's shaking apart, and everybody on there is like freaking out. And I got my camera and I'm videotaping the mountains, and I'm laughing. And I look around and say, Don't worry, we're not going down, it's all good. I'm laughing, and everybody's freaking out on the jet because I've been through different things, I can trust the Lord, and I know that if that jet hit the mountain and we all died and perished, I'd be with the Lord because Jesus abolished death. Let's look that up real quick and then uh we'll finish the broadcast for tonight. Um I'm gonna look this up real quick. Uh okay, it's 2 Timothy 2.1. Let's look this up and I'll share that. Uh where are we at? Yeah, 2 Timothy 2, I believe. Alright, so let's go here. I'll share my screen. How do I do that? Sorry, guys. Hi, Santiago. Good to see you on Facebook. Alright, guys, we're in 1 Timothy 2-1. Okay, do I say 2nd one? I don't know what's going on. 1 Timothy 2-1. Okay. Wait, no, 2 Timothy. Is it oh it's 2 Timothy. I'm sorry. I'm in the wrong, I'm in the wrong uh chapter book. Um 2 Timothy. Yeah, guys, just remember I'm not a Bible scholar. I don't claim to be. Just trying to help somebody. What am I doing? I'm I'm tripping out here, guys. I'm sorry. Here we go. Okay. I'm really not doing well here with the Bible app. All right, here we go. This is really great, guys. Okay. Um Timothy 1, 10. Let's read this in context. So let's go back to uh let's just go back to the beginning, right? And then we'll go to that. Okay, so Paul Apostle Jesus Christ by the will of God in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, New Living Translation. I like to do different translations, guys. Okay. Uh this letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus. That's kind of good. I like that. Okay, so Paul was sent what to tell everybody how wicked you were and how God hates everybody. No, he was sent out to tell people what the promise of life that's in Christ Jesus. So you're sent, just like Paul, right? We're sent to tell people there's a promise of eternal life, not to condemn everybody. Jesus came in the world, what not to condemn the world, but to save it. So God wants to save people. So it's kind of like as an evangelist, I'm just searching for people. Um, I'm really just searching for people that God is uh has already ordained for salvation. It actually says in the book of Acts, we can read that later. Okay, all right. To Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Okay, I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience. So he's thanking God that he serves him just like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, right? Now he serves them with a clear conscience, night and day, remembering you in prayers, recalling your tears. I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. So they loved each other as brothers, they really cared about each other. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I feel God's love on that. Isn't that beautiful? Timothy really loved Paul. Isn't that cool? Greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears that I may be filled with joy. These people, you know, they received a lot of persecution, and they were, you know, um sometimes looked at as outcasts of their communities and stuff. I'm not sure about Timothy, but I know Paul was, right? I'm sure Timothy was persecuted as well. I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lewis, or Lois, however you pronounce that. Grandmother Lois. Okay, so his grandmother, Timothy's grandmother, had faith, and his mother had faith. And he says, and I am persuaded now lives in you also. So his grandmother and his mother, sounds like Paul led his grandmother and his mother to Christ. Maybe it wasn't Paul who did, but sounds like it may be right. I remember your genuine faith. See, that's the key there, guys. Genuine faith. Okay, not brain faith. The devil believes the demons believe in God and tremble, right? In the book of James, the demons even believe, so you can have mind belief, it's about genuine faith. Walking in the light is walking with genuine faith, genuine heart. Do you have a genuine heart? You really want to know God, right? Amen. Okay. I am reminded of your sincere faith, the faith that dwelt first in your grandmother. Okay, so let's go on. Uh, second uh second Timothy 1:6. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Okay, Berean Literal Bible, because of this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. King James, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. What is he talking about? The gift of God, the Holy Ghost gift, gift of the Holy Ghost, gifts of the Holy Ghost. Maybe it was a prophet, prophecy gift, gift of tongues, probably the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Stir up the gift, stir up tongues, stir up your prayer language. Okay, for the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. King James, for God has not given us the spirit of fear. That's for you. Somebody out there listening this needs to hear this. For God has not given us the spirit of fear. If you fear, that is not from your new nature. You have to understand that that fear is not from your new nature, so therefore it can be disagreed with, just like I disagreed with it on the airplane in the story I just said, but of power. So you what you have a spirit of what power. Okay, you have power to overcome, you have power to care for people, you have power, Holy Ghost power living in you to transform you. You have power over the devil, you don't be afraid of demons. You know how many people are so paranoid of demons? Give me a break. Jesus defeated the devil, made a show of him openly. He has delivered us from every curse. We are delivered from the power of Satan. Okay, so God has not given us a spirit of fear or what? But a spirit of power has given us a spirit of power, and a spirit of what? Love. Okay, so don't say you can't love people, you're believing a lie. It's hard to love people. No, it's not. You have a spirit of power and love, it's right there in the Bible. Okay, stop lying to yourself. You can love the unlovable, doesn't mean you have to be manipulated by them. Put up boundaries. I do all the time. I love people. You know how many people want all my time? I gotta put up boundaries. You you know, you minister to people, and sometimes they latch on to you, and they want to spend all the time with you, and you're like, I'm sorry, I gotta put up boundaries. I love you from a distance right now, but I care about you, but I can't give you all my time. All the I can't, I'm sorry. Okay, so it's okay to make boundaries, it's okay to dislike somebody's personality, but you need to love them as a human, as a member of the body of Christ. Okay, but of power, okay, and love. You have a spirit of power and love. Say it with me. I have a spirit of power and love, and of a sound mind. Okay, other translations, it's self-control. Let's look it up in the original Greek. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, which is cowardice. Okay, so fear, cowardice, timity, but of power, dunamous power, force, miraculous power, transformation, power, the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost, love, affection, or benevolence. Okay, um, and self-control. So a lot of times we use that strong's four nine nine five. Um, it can be they use it for let me look it over here, Strong's uh KGV says sound mind, NASB says discipline. Um Strong's exhaustive concordance says it means sound mind or discipline, self-control, sound mind. So, in the sense, if you think of it like uh self-control in the sense of having a sound mind. So you're not like a crazy person that needs to steal all the time, or a crazy person that is uh, you know, doing dumb stuff, saying a bunch of dumb stuff because you have a sound mind, because you have self-discipline, self-control. Okay, so say it with me. I have a power, I have a I have a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of self-discipline, of self-control, of a sound mind. That's what you have. So when you say you don't have self-control, what are you confessing? A lie or the truth? You're confessing a demonic lie. Maybe you struggle with having self-control because you're learning who you are in Christ. That's possible, right? There may be areas of your life God's teaching you how to operate with self-control, like eating, right? Or keeping your mouth shut when somebody upsets you. So there's things that God can um train you on and teach you how to have self-control, but you need to start believing that you have power, love, and self-discipline. Okay, you have power, love, and self-discipline. Second Timothy 1:8. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. So, what is he telling you? So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. That's for the body of Christ, that's for each one of us. Never, ever be ashamed to tell others about Jesus Christ the Lord. Okay, you don't have a spirit of timidity, fear. You can you don't have to be ashamed ever. You're not supposed to be ashamed to share the gospel, to share the good news of Jesus Christ. And don't be ashamed of me either. Don't be ashamed of Paul, right? He was saying, Don't be ashamed of me who's in prison for him. With strength, God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the good news. Rather, a new new King James, uh new living, new international version. Rather, join me within suffering for the gospel by the power of God. King James, be thou, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Let's look that up. What's he saying? Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or me as prisoner. Instead, join me in suffering, suffer with me, he's saying, for the gospel, suffer hardship together with me by the power of God. Interesting, huh? Imagine Paul telling you, hey, don't be ashamed of the gospel. Come suffer with me for the gospel, come suffer with me through the power of God. Let's do it. It's wild, huh? It's wild. Way different than the Western gospel, huh? Or the West Western people want it here. Come suffer with me for the gospel. Come suffer with me. Let's do it. Let's suffer for the gospel by the power of God. Let's do it. No, brother. I'm good. I'm gonna stay in my Sunday school and you know, my my bake-offs. I'm good. No, this is truth right here. Come suffer for the gospel by the power of God. Let's go, King James, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. Okay, so you are what called with a holy calling to be set apart, not according to our works. Okay, so you were called with a holy calling, not because I was called, not because I was trying to quit smoking to get saved. I was not called by God because my ability to quit sinning in myself. No, I was not called by my good works or bad works. I was called, why to his own purpose and grace? But according to his own, does King James 2 Timothy 1 9, but according to his own purpose and grace, okay? So why were you called a holy calling? Why were you called because you're a great person? Because you you got such, you know, you're just so anointed, you're so great. No, and you did a bunch of good stuff in your life, and you know, your family's great, and you got all you know, you're blessed. No, you were called to live a set-apart life, a holy calling, not according to anything you did, nothing that you did or didn't do, it's according to what his own purpose and grace, granted, which was given to us, granted us in Christ Jesus before when the world began. In New American Standard, it says, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity before time began, guys. So rethink how you believe you were saved and you were called and you were set apart by God, not according to your behavior or your ability to quit sinning, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us before time began. Before this world, however old it is, some people believe it's a billion years old or whatever, some people believe it's 6,000 years old. Okay, some people believe it was it was made 6,000 years ago, but it was made to look old. I don't know. That's none of my business. What my business is, is right here. He has saved us and called us, not according to our behavior or anything good or bad we did, but according to his own purpose and grace. Remember, in I think it's in Romans, he talks about Paul talks about the Bible says that if it's according to works, it's no longer grace, and if it's according to grace, it's no longer works. So it's either one or the other. It can't be both. So it was grace, total grace, and you were giving it to them. You were given, you were blessed with it, you were given to it in Christ Jesus in eternal times before the ages began, before time began, before all eternity, before the world began. That's absolutely good news. Do you see how secure you are in Christ? Do you sorry I'm going so long tonight? I'm just, do you see how beautiful God is? That He chose you before time began, according to His purpose and grace, not according to you. Get you out of this thing. It's about Christ Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. God Almighty. It's about him, not us. We're like grains of sand to him. How big and grandiose God is. Stop thinking that you're keeping yourself saved. You are, it's everything's about you and what you're doing and not. It's about God's grace for you. Surrender to his goodness tonight. Surrender to Father God's love, his kindness, his mercy that he shows you, not by your works, but by Christ Jesus before you were even born. It's so incredible, guys. It is incredible. The Holy Spirit is working on the inside of you for something wonderful. And the things you're going through right now, you will look back and be like, wow, I'm glad I went through them because it taught me more about who I am in Christ and the nature of God and the character of God. And God, you are so amazing and huge and big and powerful. And I'm so happy that I have a spirit of power, love, and sound mind and self-discipline. Thank you. I don't have to believe lies anymore and listen to voices in my head or thought processes that are stupid. I'm going to believe the truth now. I have been set apart for God's glory, not because I'm a nice guy, not because I stopped sinning. No, because Christ never sinned on my behalf and that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That's why I'm a son of God. I didn't choose to be a son of God, just like you didn't choose to be born on earth. Think about it, guys. You think you did, in a way you did, but you actually really didn't, because right here it says the one having saved us and having called us with the Holy. Calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, having been given to us, given to us in Christ Jesus when at salvation, no, before eternal times, before time began. It was already given to you. See, that's how good the gospel. This is how this is good news, guys. This is why you can be bold about Jesus of Nazareth. That's why you can talk freely about Christ. You don't have to be afraid. Because God called you to a holy calling before you're even made. Like He's fantastic. Get excited. So, according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, and then look what it says. But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who what did he do? Who has destroyed death and has brought life and what immortality to light through the gospel? That is incredible. Life and immortality. Do you realize that before you were born, you were chosen to be immortal forever in Christ? Look what it says. Is that what it's saying? Maybe I'm taking it out of context. I don't know. I'm just reading the Bible. This is I've just read 1 Timothy, not done yet. But I mean, if I'm not read if this isn't in context, please let me know. Okay? Let me know because I'm just trying to put it in context here. He's encouraging Timothy to suffer with him for the gospel's sake, not to be ashamed, that he should not be ashamed of the gospel, that God has given him a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind, not a spirit of fear. And then he starts telling him how great God is and how he was chosen by God for a holy calling, set apart calling before time began. And he has been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. So it was revealed through Jesus Christ, the appearing of Christ, Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the good news. That's the NLT. This is amazing, guys. I am excited. But has not here, New King James, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has been revealed, God has been revealed, who has abolished death. Guys, he's abolished. Let's look what that word actually means in the Greek, so we can all be on the same page. And now he has revealed this grace to make clear through the appearing, the manifestation, the glorious display of our Savior, our deliverer, Christ Jesus, who has abolished. Okay. Strongs 273. Let's look it up. Cease, deliver, destroy, do away with. To be rendered entirely useless. Abolish, cease, cumber to do away. Basically, guys, it's gone.

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Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:13

Christ has abolished death for us. Okay. You don't have to be afraid anymore. Tonight, or whoever wherever you're at, you can now choose not to be afraid of death anymore. Because you have been saved and chosen by God. Not because you're a good person, or you could stop sinning and then get baptized. No. Because Jesus chose you to draw you by the Spirit to become his. And you had that transformation of your heart through the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus as Lord and to be born again. And then he led you to go be water baptized. Amen. Because if you're born again in the Spirit, you'll want to be water baptized because that's a commandment. Why? To make a public declaration of your faith, as well as for you to always remember what happened. You were buried with him in baptism. You risen to newness of life. Your conscience is clean towards God. And if you struggle in your conscience, well, the Bible says that if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So you can confess your sins and you can forsake them with God's help. You know? And if you're struggling, it's not really you. It's that stronghold, it's that part of you that wants to go do that stuff. You have to disconnect from it, just start disagreeing, and then you ask God for grace to let it go. And you'll find that you'll overcome it by his grace. He's not mad at you. I mean, literally, he destroyed death for you, and now we get to be immortal.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:58

And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the good news. This see, it's the good news. Okay, I'm gonna stop there. Think about that. He is an apostle, a herald of what? The good news. See, this is the good news. We you need to start sharing the good news with people. And if they're not interested, then plant the seeds and move on. Don't waste your time if people aren't interested. Okay, pray for them in your private time and stuff, but don't panic about it or anything. There is a time where somebody might say something to me, and I didn't listen to them. Okay, but those seeds were planted, those seeds were watered. Eventually, what? God does the increase. So you've prayed for your friend, you've gave them scriptures. Okay. You don't have to freak out they're gonna burn in hell. You've done what you felt like you're supposed to do. Now you go on to the next person, your next friend. Pray for them, give them a scripture, whatever. You don't have to freak out about your kids, you don't have to freak out about your spouse, to freak out about everything. Just like the bicycle I talked about. God already knew that my bicycle is gonna be stolen. And he worked it out for my good. He already had the bicycle for me, a new one, better one. So he already knows about your kids, the problems with your relatives, he already knows everything about your job. What are you worried about? The economy, all wars, all this. Oh my gosh, you have immortality living in your body. Immortality, guys. When we resurrect from the dead and we meet Jesus, we're gonna be like him, immortal forever, forever and ever and ever. Death no longer has a sting. We are totally, we're gonna be completely immortal for eternity. That's what you should encourage yourself with instead of looking for blessings on this earth, you know? Instead of, you know, oh, how can I be blessed in this earth? And all you're always looking at all these blessings that are what about eternal blessings? You know, a lot of people are like, oh, you know, give and you're gonna get a hundredfold return, God's gonna bless you with a new car, all that stuff. Great, that's wonderful. What if you give expecting nothing in return? Isn't that what God Jesus said? Give expecting nothing in return. What if you give out of love, expecting nothing in return? I should just start, like I said, I should just start the kingdom investment club. There you go. Just start, you know, invest in the kingdom. You're promised nothing in return here on earth. Zero zilch. Way different than what everybody else is telling you. But isn't that the truth, though? Jesus said to not store up treasure on this earth, but be store up for your things in heaven, and that's where your heart will be. You're gonna have an immortality someday, like when you meet Jesus. Immortality. And you know, you give and you do things now, and you're like you want temporal blessings. What? You know what I mean? I mean, God blesses you because you're in Christ. I'm investing in the kingdom. My whole life is the kingdom. So one day I can meet Jesus and He can say, Well done, good and faithful servant, here's your rewards, here that one time you gave, that one time you did that, nobody saw. When's the last time you gave anonymously? You know, or you want your tax receipt. You know what I mean? I mean, that's another problem with that. I'm just saying, when's the last time people gave anonymously? You just went to the bank and took out money and went to your church, put cash in there, or gave gave have somebody else give money to somebody for you? You know, right? So change your mind a little bit, be eternally focused, not just not here all the time. Oh, God's gonna bless me because I gave here, gave there. No, God's already blessed you in Christ Jesus. You give here and give there because you want to be a blessing to others. And Paul he wrote, if you give, you know, if you give sparingly, you'll reap spirit. If you give bountifully, which actually, if you read it bountifully, is give as a blessing to others, wanting to be a blessing, like blessingly, giving blessingly. So if you want to, if you really like the key to really wanting to be blessed, you want to be blessed. First, you gotta realize you're already blessed because you have eternal life. But in reality, giving out of wanting to bless others is uh how it actually all works. It's not according to amounts or tithing or anything, it's about your heart posture with your giving. That's really what it's about. If you go to your church, you want to be a blessing to them, then Paul said then you'll reap blessings. It doesn't say you'll get it right now, you might get blessings in eternity. Somebody might buy a house someday, and it was all connected to when you had that heart to bless somebody. That single mother, you bought her groceries at Walmart, you saw her struggling, you wanted to bless them. I'm really surprised there's not more of that in the body of Christ, or I don't hear about it a lot. You know, like there's probably people in your church that can't afford their light bill right now, or a single mother that needs food or clothes for their kids in your in your local church. Maybe ask the pastor, you know, hey pastor, just wonder if there's a single mother I could I could bless. Does somebody need a car? I can buy them a car. There's there's a lot of Christians that have a lot of money that just sits in a bank account. You know, maybe you go to your pastor, hey pastor, I want to buy a car for a single mom. I'm not telling you to do it, but you know, these are some ideas. Look at the idea of blessing people. That's your life, blessing people. But we've been taught everything's ours, right? Everything's we get. If you give money, you're gonna get a lot of money. And then now we're just self-focused. That's false doctrine, guys. It's self-focused. The kingdom is expanding, blessing, love, joy, asking nothing in return. That's that's kingdom investment club, guys, investors club. I should call it that. You know, and then one day we'll all wake up in eternity, and God will be like, here you go, here's your here, here's your rewards, here's your rewards, here's your rewards. You didn't want anything back, you didn't you didn't tithe your church because your pastor was hard on you for not tithing. You gave out of your heart, here you go, here you go, right? It's it's just very interesting how you know we get, you know, we we think of you know, I don't know, we kind of make it all about ourselves. And the gospel is the good news to give to others. Amen. Amen. Hopefully, this blessed you. I'm gonna pray for people now. Father, I kind of talked a lot uh tonight. Hopefully, somebody's blessed. Lord, I I pray that uh whatever words were spoken from your spirit, they would stick in the hearts and minds of individuals and transform them. Anything from my uh my soul or my flesh or anything would just fall to the ground. Lord, I I bless every single person out there. I pray, Lord, that um the people watching this, listening to this would feel your love, your compassion, your grace, that they would learn, surrender, just relaxing in the finished work of Jesus Christ, relaxing in that they are forgiven for eternity, relaxing in the good news, that they somehow were chosen by grace, not by works, to receive immortality someday. I thank you, Lord, for saving faith that we have been born again. And anybody out there that needs the Holy Spirit in their heart, maybe they've never been saved, Lord. I pray for them now that they would confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in their heart that God raised them from the dead and they shall be saved. I pray for those who have not been baptized in water yet. Lord, show them that it's time, Lord, it's time. Maybe they've been holding back because maybe they're struggling with something or something, you know, whatever it could be, Lord. Lord, I pray that those people would uh find a church and a pastor to baptize them, Lord, in water. And I pray, Lord, for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, anybody that needs to receive the baptism, the Holy Spirit, that it would just go forth. And Lord, I pray for deliverance, Lord, from for from infirmity. I pray uh for somebody watching this that's been dealing with infirmity for a long time, Lord. I pray for that person that they would receive healing. Because you love them, Lord, and you died for them. Thank you, Lord. By his wounds we were healed. Jesus is Lord. I proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus is Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you for doing signs, wonders, and miracles as the gospel is preached. I thank you, Lord. Amen. We trust you. All right, now I'm feeling the presence of God. You know, a little joyful. Anybody have any questions or concerns? Uh, please send me uh email. You can send your hate email to the father's friends.org. I'm joking. Praise God. Well, thank you for watching tonight, guys. Thank you for listening and watching. Um, thank you for your support of the ministry. God bless you. We want to help you grow as close as you can to the Lord Jesus, as well as grow in your identity as a son or daughter of the Most High God. We have books and resources at our website as well. You can go to our online store, you can get my book, Defeating Mental Illness. I have it in uh uh English, Spanish, Hmong language, Ukrainian, and French, okay, currently. And then we also have Becoming God's Friend, which is my autobiography. I have it in English and Spanish for you, as well as an e-book and audiobook, and 30 Days to Believing Right, which is a devotional, which will help, uh, I believe will help you with your identity in Christ Jesus and believe correctly about who you are. Okay, because God really loves you, He cares about you. Uh, so check out our website, thefathersfriends.org. If you feel led to become a monthly partner, you can do that at the website. Or if you just like to give a generous one time offering, you can do that too. We're a nonprofit and we care about people. We're trying to expand the ministry, help people, help more people, grow closer to the Lord. Thank you so much for your support. We love you. Have a great day.