SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's go over to John chapter 14 tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And uh as you're going, we have some uh announcements for you, of course, this Saturday at 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: Uh May 23rd, our Covenant Keepers Men's Meeting.
SPEAKER_01: Uh breakfast will be served uh for$12, and then of course we'll uh get into the word after that.
SPEAKER_01: Also, uh this Saturday, the graveside service for Sister Goodnight will be held uh 11 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: at the Walnut Grove Cemetery off of uh Walnut Grove, uh close to well, it says it's in Little Rock, but it's uh around Ferndale.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so that will be at 11 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a potluck dinner to follow at the Ferndale Community Center if you would like to attend that.
SPEAKER_01: Um Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The the um the June 3rd, uh Harry and Cheryl Salem will be here at night at 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: uh Wednesday, May 20th, uh June 23rd.
SPEAKER_01: June 3rd.
SPEAKER_01: Too many threes here.
SPEAKER_01: And uh they'll be here at uh 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: uh June 3rd.
SPEAKER_01: We're so grateful that they're gonna be able to be with us.
SPEAKER_01: And then June 14th is our Salvation Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, amen.
SPEAKER_01: We're believing uh for people to be saved that day, believing for uh people to bring the unsaved.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we start our uh Being a Person of Influence series begins this Sunday morning on the 24th of May, and uh God will help us, amen.
SPEAKER_01: And then October 7th, 8th, and 9th.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is something you can put down long term, uh, is our clothing, the Next Generation Conference.
SPEAKER_01: And uh that's Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, October 7th, 8th, and 9th.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Pastor Calwell will be ministering that Wednesday, Prophet Ford on Thursday, and then I'll finish it up on Friday evening.
SPEAKER_01: And uh so uh come and be a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the Lord's gonna use that to help us in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord said to us that in April of 2026 the door to more was open.
SPEAKER_01: And he said it had been cracked open, but that in April it would be flung wide open.
SPEAKER_01: And what we've discovered through teaching on this is that more is a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: All right, it's what God's done, yet more of it and at a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: You know, anything that you get from God that can what is the goal of the Christian life?
SPEAKER_01: The goal of the Christian life is maturity.
SPEAKER_01: And every year, every believer decides how much they're gonna mature.
SPEAKER_01: It's not up to me, it's not up to God, it's not, it's not up to the devil, it's up to me.
SPEAKER_01: Every year I mature to the level that I want to mature.
SPEAKER_01: All right, I enter more into the things of God than I want to more enter into the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: There are believers by the scores of thousands that every year the needle doesn't move on their walk with God.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't move.
SPEAKER_01: They don't grow, they don't expand, they don't, they don't take, they don't advance because they choose not to.
SPEAKER_01: They're comfortable in whatever area that they have, they're comfortable with their walk with the Holy Spirit, they're comfortable with their walk in the word, they're comfortable with their commitment to the things of God, and that's where they stay, and their life never changes.
SPEAKER_01: There are preachers every year.
SPEAKER_01: I know them.
SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of them.
SPEAKER_01: They net they never grow, they never mature, they they never grow into another area with God because they're comfortable, right?
SPEAKER_01: And they'll talk to you about how it used to be in the early days when they were younger and what they did.
SPEAKER_01: And I always sit back and think, well, what in the world happened?
SPEAKER_01: If you were doing all that then and making all that progress, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: See, this door to more is a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: In order to walk through the doors that are open, we have to cultivate on a higher level our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: All right, with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Every door is an opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: But every opportunity is not a door.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I need the leading of the Holy Spirit to show me the difference.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Because this might be an opportunity, but that doesn't mean it's a door.
SPEAKER_01: I have to depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit to let me know the difference.
SPEAKER_01: And when we talk about being led by the Holy Spirit, people in spirit-filled circles, we just, you know, it's kind of like, yeah, we have to be led.
SPEAKER_01: But how often are we led?
SPEAKER_01: How often every day are we consulting the Holy Guide on the inside of us for what we should be doing?
SPEAKER_01: How many of our decisions are really decided by him?
SPEAKER_01: Or how many of our decisions are decided by us, and then we kind of bring him on in on the game?
SPEAKER_01: I decided to do that because it looked like a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Lord bless what I decided to do.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: See, he's the guide, he's the leader, he's the communication arm of the Godhead.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one that hears from the Father and communicates to me.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said, we'll read it before long here tonight.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said, Look, I know it makes you sad that I'm going to be going.
SPEAKER_01: I can see the tears in your eyes, but listen to me, fellas.
SPEAKER_01: He said, It is expedient that I go away.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I don't go away, I can't send the guide back.
SPEAKER_01: I can't send the comforter back.
SPEAKER_01: And you need him more in you than you need me in your presence.
SPEAKER_01: It was so important to Jesus that he said, I have to go so I can send the comforter back.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: T.
SPEAKER_01: L.
SPEAKER_01: Lowry made this statement.
SPEAKER_01: He said, He said, uh, when you read through the scriptures, when you read through the the it's in the book of Job, it says, the Spirit of the Almighty has created me.
SPEAKER_01: Everything about my life, everything about my future.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will remind you of what you've heard, that he will tell you about things to come, that he'll help you where you presently are, but I have to spend time every day engaging with him.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 14, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, And I will pray, I will ask the Father, and He will give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 17, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot see because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he dwells with you in the presence in the form of Jesus and shall be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Now John 15 and 26, Jesus says, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he will testify of me.
SPEAKER_01: John 16, 13.
SPEAKER_01: How be it, when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth or all the truth, because he will not speak of himself, but whatever he will hear, that will he speak, and he will show you things to come.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice in all three of these verses, Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_01: He referred to him as the spirit of truth more than he referred to him as anything else, any other thing.
SPEAKER_01: In two of these three verses, he called him the comforter, which is the spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_01: So he referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth.
SPEAKER_01: There's only one the Spirit of Truth.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit reveals to us what is true.
SPEAKER_01: He teaches and guides us into what is true.
SPEAKER_01: He exposes what is false or wrong.
SPEAKER_01: That's a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: He reveals to us, and he reveals to us what is true, the direction that I need to go, the things that I need to do.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be pastoring almost 30 years, 28 years in December, and I've never had one thing that went on in my church that I didn't know about it before it happened.
SPEAKER_01: Not one thing.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: The spirit of truth lives on the inside of me.
SPEAKER_01: You got to engage him and consult him.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, notice that he will guide you into all the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're not going to take the time to teach from it tonight.
SPEAKER_01: But 1 John says this.
SPEAKER_01: It says there are many spirits in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And he says there's a spirit of Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: There's that spirit that's against the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, because you have the spirit of truth on the inside of you, you don't need anybody to teach you what's deception and what's not.
SPEAKER_01: You have the spirit of truth on the inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: It boggles my mind how people that are spirit-filled believers can get hung up in things that is clearly deception to anybody that's listening to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world can you think that's right?
SPEAKER_01: They're not listening to the spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: I say that's a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: Being spiritual is not speaking in tongues or giving a prophecy or preaching behind the pulpit.
SPEAKER_01: Being spiritual is listening to the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's being spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Say out loud, I listen and I do what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's human intellect and wisdom, then there's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Jeremiah says this.
SPEAKER_01: It says, it is not in the heart of man to direct his own way.
SPEAKER_01: Just not there.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know enough to form your own life.
SPEAKER_01: You're not wise enough to make your own decisions.
SPEAKER_01: You're just not.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to be consulting with the Spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is what we think we're going to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you think, or that's what the Holy Spirit said.
SPEAKER_01: Because I need to be consulting with him.
SPEAKER_01: What does the Holy Spirit want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: There are people stuck in dead-end jobs tonight because they didn't ask the Holy Spirit if they needed to take it.
SPEAKER_01: There are people that are running around the bush, so to speak, chasing their tail, chasing things, and they're doing that because the Holy Spirit wasn't consulted.
SPEAKER_01: If you will take time, see, the Holy Spirit and engaging him requires patience.
SPEAKER_01: This thing doesn't happen overnight.
SPEAKER_01: You don't just walk into everything God wants you to do overnight.
SPEAKER_01: If things don't seem to be moving in your life, get alone, get on your face with the Holy Spirit and ask him, why are things not moving?
SPEAKER_01: That's why the scripture says you need to go to God and rend your heart and not your garment.
SPEAKER_01: Quit focusing on all the natural things and go before God, go before the Son, go before the Holy Spirit, and wring your heart out before God and ask him, what do I need to be doing?
SPEAKER_01: And what will he do?
SPEAKER_01: He will show you that.
SPEAKER_01: I will be saved, I will be saved 51 years this year.
SPEAKER_01: And I still go to God and wring my heart out.
SPEAKER_01: What do I need to be doing?
SPEAKER_01: Because if I'm hitting a wall, the Holy Spirit didn't lead me to hit a wall.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: He's the spirit of truth, and he's leading me, and he's guiding me.
SPEAKER_01: Look at John 14, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And I will pray the Father, and he'll give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth that the world cannot receive, because it sees him, seeth him not, neither knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and shall be in you.
SPEAKER_01: Notice this I will not leave you comfortless.
SPEAKER_01: I will not leave you orphans.
SPEAKER_01: I will come to you.
SPEAKER_01: The weast Bible says, as for myself, I will ask the Father and another counselor of the same kind as I am.
SPEAKER_01: Will he give you in order that he might be with you forever?
SPEAKER_01: Another counselor of the same kind that I am.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think Jesus was a wise counselor?
SPEAKER_01: Would Jesus have been good counsel?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I think so.
SPEAKER_01: It says, another counselor just like he is.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And notice he says, I will not leave you comfortless.
SPEAKER_01: I will not leave you orphans.
SPEAKER_01: You know, orphans have no help.
SPEAKER_01: And a long time, especially when this was written, when Jesus said this, that would have been absolutely the truth.
SPEAKER_01: A child with no parents, the only thing they could have done was beg if somebody didn't bring them in.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I won't leave you orphans, but I'll send the comforter to you.
SPEAKER_01: I will come to you.
SPEAKER_01: So the comforter would do for them what Jesus had done while he was with them.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: I have that comforter inside tonight.
SPEAKER_01: You have that comforter on the inside tonight.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when you hear something, when you see something, when you're trying to make a decision, you've got to stop.
SPEAKER_01: Don't talk to everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: Talk to the one person you need to talk to.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what a lot of people do: they go get four or five other people's opinion and then they consult with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Holy Spirit's got to try to get through all those four or five other voices that they listened to in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit is a gentleman.
SPEAKER_01: He will not shout, he'll not push, he'll not jerk you around.
SPEAKER_01: He has to be engaged.
SPEAKER_01: And I have to engage him on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: It could be something as simple as, this is my plan, Holy Spirit, this is my plan.
SPEAKER_01: What should I do?
SPEAKER_01: Is this what I need to do?
SPEAKER_01: Is this the direction that I need to go?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I've told people for years.
SPEAKER_01: They'll say, Pastor, when are we going to change this?
SPEAKER_01: When are we going to do this?
SPEAKER_01: When the Holy Spirit says.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I'm doing it and I haven't changed it, it's because the Holy Spirit hasn't told me to change it.
SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't do anybody any good to get me to try to do something that the Holy Spirit has said not to do.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: See, I'm smart enough to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in my life is a result of my relationship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is a result of my relationship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Our marriage is a result of our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: God led me everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: God led us into that.
SPEAKER_01: You let the Holy Spirit choose your mate, and you'll be happy.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be living in hog heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever that is.
SPEAKER_01: John 14, 26.
SPEAKER_01: But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you.
SPEAKER_01: The Amplified brings out that sevenfold working of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the counselor, the helper, the intercessor, the advocate, the strengthener, and the standby, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name in my place to represent me and act on my behalf, he will teach you all things and cause you to recall, will remind you of, bring to your remembrance everything I have told you.
SPEAKER_01: So the Holy Spirit will, and here's the key, if allowed.
SPEAKER_01: If allowed, if allowed.
SPEAKER_01: If I let him, what will he do?
SPEAKER_01: He will teach me all things.
SPEAKER_01: And bring to my remembrance all that God has said to me.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's in the word, things that God has spoken to me, promises that he's made.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: But I have to allow it.
SPEAKER_01: I have to allow it.
SPEAKER_01: That's why all the busyness of the day.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm I'm I used to think I was just old-fashioned, but I don't think I'm old-fashioned.
SPEAKER_01: I just think I'm smart.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they they call they they talk about old man strength.
SPEAKER_01: I think there's just old man smarts.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not old, but you understand what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: They're putting in fiber in our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm shocked.
SPEAKER_01: I I go by and and here's what you see all the time.
SPEAKER_01: They don't even look up.
SPEAKER_01: You drive by, they don't even look up.
SPEAKER_01: There's the the Bible says there are many voices in the world, and it says none of them are without significance.
SPEAKER_01: You want to watch you want to know why so many people don't hear from the Holy Spirit consistently?
SPEAKER_01: Everything else has their attention.
SPEAKER_01: YouTube has their attention, Facebook has their attention, TikTok has their attention, Instagram has their attention, YouTube has their attention.
SPEAKER_01: You look at families in the restaurant, and all four or five of them are sitting there like this.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's not something that somebody's gonna go to hell for.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the issue: if I've got all this noise going on all the time, when does the Holy Spirit have license to speak to me?
SPEAKER_01: When am I quiet enough for the Holy Spirit to speak to me?
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, Pastor, I got I got kids.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you might have to stay up after they go to bed and listen to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You might have to get up an extra hour early and listen to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, that's hard.
SPEAKER_01: How bad do you want to hear from the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: How much do you want the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you and direct you?
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Michelle and I have spent not one day of our marriage without kids.
SPEAKER_01: Everywhere we went, we had at least three of them, and most of the time four of them, because our younger son would come and stay with us.
SPEAKER_01: All the time.
SPEAKER_01: We've never had a day without children, but yet we've never had a day that we use that as an excuse for not being able to do what God wanted us to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not an excuse.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a reason.
SPEAKER_01: I can work things around.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's what I want you to see.
SPEAKER_01: If he's allowed, he'll show me things, he'll teach me things, he'll bring things to my remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: You'd be surprised the impression it makes on God when you say, I'm willing to go without that hour of sleep, so I can get up and meet you and hear what you have to say.
SPEAKER_01: God, you'd be surprised how it impresses God when you're willing to turn some things off and say, I'm going to turn that off so I can listen to you.
SPEAKER_01: That ball game doesn't mean anything to me.
SPEAKER_01: I want to hear something from you.
SPEAKER_01: People will talk to me about how they can't, they're not hearing from God, but they'll sit and watch eight hours of football on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: You could have been listening to God, letting the Holy Spirit guide you.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean you can't watch a football game.
SPEAKER_01: The Chiefs are of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They're of God.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: I know that some of you are deceived, and you think other teams are of God, but you're deceived.
SPEAKER_01: Especially the plowboys.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that what they're called?
SPEAKER_01: They call the plowboys.
SPEAKER_01: Cowboys.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they are.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, that's not the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's flesh.
SPEAKER_01: That was my flesh.
SPEAKER_01: But if he's allowed, if he's allowed, if he's allowed, that's so important.
SPEAKER_01: If he's allowed, he'll lead me, he'll guide me.
SPEAKER_01: And what you don't want to do is get caught in this pattern of what we know about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is God.
SPEAKER_01: He's past finding out.
SPEAKER_01: You can never learn everything about him.
SPEAKER_01: If you lived for a million years and spent every hour of every day talking to him, you would never be able to learn everything there is to learn about him.
SPEAKER_01: He's unfathomable, he's unmatched, he's untouchable in that arena.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, even though I'm all of those things, if you'll make time for me, I'll come sit with you and I'll talk to you.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll teach you and I'll guide you and I'll direct you and I'll help you and I'll bring things to your remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: My God, I'll bring some things to your remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: I'll help you with this.
SPEAKER_01: But notice he has to be allowed to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes, sometimes I think we need to regain that awe that the God of earth and heaven will talk to me.
SPEAKER_01: That the Holy Spirit will communicate with me.
SPEAKER_01: That God will speak to the Holy Spirit and say, tell Philip to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that wonderful?
SPEAKER_01: John 16 and verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Am I helping you?
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm at this stage in my life when the Lord said to me a few years ago, we were still in the market, he said, you have more to say now than you've ever had to say in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Because you've reached this point.
SPEAKER_01: We've reached this point that we're mentoring people, that we're we're we're spiritual parents to people now.
SPEAKER_01: We've got churches under our guidance and under our covering.
SPEAKER_01: And and understand that what I say so often to those ministers that are coming up under us is that there's never there, listen, there's not going to be a substitute for fasting and praying and listening to the Holy Spirit.
unknown: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01: Not going to be any substitute for that.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what do we need to do here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: Let's ask the Holy Spirit, what do we need to do?
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: That's not something that we need to attribute to those that went on before.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever think about that?
SPEAKER_01: People talk about how the old saints prayed and how many answers they got.
SPEAKER_01: And they talk about it, but they don't do it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: If the old saints prayed and got answers, maybe we should pray that way.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: If we we we talk about these great men of, I hear people all the time talk about Wigglesworth.
SPEAKER_01: And I love Wigglesworth.
SPEAKER_01: I spent a couple hours on my trip back that I didn't need any speeding tickets paid for on my trip back Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Listening to audiobooks, his audiobooks.
SPEAKER_01: And people will talk about, you know, ever how many?
SPEAKER_01: 21 people raised from the dead or whatever, and they'll talk about Wigglesworth and they'll talk about these different things.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: they don't mention his relationship with the Holy Spirit, his relationship with the Word.
SPEAKER_01: They laugh about him telling Lester Summerall, don't bring that in my house.
SPEAKER_01: I don't let lies in my house.
SPEAKER_01: He meant that.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he lived his life.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: It was different for some.
SPEAKER_01: It was it was it was uh whatever, eccentric or whatever it was, but there was 21 people raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: One book I was reading, he said he went with a uh a pastor to a woman that had been diagnosed with cancer, and you know, in those days, cancers can be a death sentence today, but then it was really a death sentence.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't anything they could do.
SPEAKER_01: And he went and he said, I went in the room and he said, the the little daughter was there, and she was, the mom was crying, the daughter was crying, he said, My heart was breaking.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, While we were there, while we were praying for her, he said, she expired.
SPEAKER_01: She died.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I just picked her up and carried her over to the wardrobe and set her up against the wardrobe and said, Walk in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And she didn't move.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I said, walk in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And the woman opened her eyes and started walking.
SPEAKER_01: But she told this story.
SPEAKER_01: She said, When I died, I went to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I was just about to enter into the glory, and I heard somebody saying, Walk in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we know that was Wigglesworth.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's my thing.
SPEAKER_01: We hear those stories, and that should excite us.
SPEAKER_01: Man, isn't that wonderful?
SPEAKER_01: But he wouldn't let newspapers in his house.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't want to listen to anything but the word.
SPEAKER_01: Lester Summerall said he went to him.
SPEAKER_01: Wigglesworth had seen him preach at a conference, and he said, he went to him.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You need to come visit me.
SPEAKER_01: So he said, I went, and that was the time he said, Leave that outside, I don't let lies in my house.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I went in, and he said the first thing that he did was said, Kneel down right there.
SPEAKER_01: I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: And he prayed for him.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I was used to doing my own praying.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed for him.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, now let's read the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: And he said he sat and read a scripture, read, read, read a chapter of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I thought, this is weird.
SPEAKER_01: This is just weird.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said, now let's let's pray again.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, we prayed again.
SPEAKER_01: He said, then his daughter came and said, you know, dinner was ready.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, as they sat down at dinner, Wigglesworth said, Let's pray again.
SPEAKER_01: And they prayed again.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I was sitting there wondering, is the food gonna get cold?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, then he said, Let's read some more scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And they read more scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And then they ate, and he said, he ate and got and just walked out the door.
SPEAKER_01: And his daughter came and said, Father has retired.
SPEAKER_01: He said, He thanks you for coming, and you can come back tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: That was it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I walked out on the porch and thought, what a weird bird.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, But I got about halfway down the block and I thought, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Something's different.
SPEAKER_01: I'm different.
SPEAKER_01: Something happened to me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: People like Wigglesworth, they said, I can't function without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: In Catherine Kuhlman's meetings, you know, we talk about the presence of the Lord and the music that was that would go on.
SPEAKER_01: She would say this.
SPEAKER_01: She was known to say this.
SPEAKER_01: She would say, Please don't offend him because he's all that I have is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Catherine Kuhlman went through a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: Her husband did her wrong.
SPEAKER_01: She went through a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: The church turned their back on her.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't want anything to do with her.
SPEAKER_01: She started pastoring the church, and people started coming and they started slandering her, talking about her past and her failures.
SPEAKER_01: And that that church thankfully was godly.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, we see the results.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to still be our pastor.
SPEAKER_01: She said, It was in those moments of pain and betrayal that I cultivated a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I found out He would never let me down, that He would always lead me and guide me and direct me.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm trying to explain is this we should get excited over those things.
SPEAKER_01: We should, that should bless us when we read those things.
SPEAKER_01: But I've always been the kind of person, what brought that on?
SPEAKER_01: How did they walk in that?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be somebody that thunders from the pulpit about what we should be seeing.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know how is it that we can see it?
SPEAKER_01: If allowed, the Holy Spirit will do these things.
SPEAKER_01: If allowed, he'll help me.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh glory.
SPEAKER_01: So he said in John 16, 12, I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
SPEAKER_01: How be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.
SPEAKER_01: He'll not speak of himself.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The Weeks Bible says, I have yet many things to be saying to you, but you're not able to bear them now, as far as your understanding and receiving them is concerned.
SPEAKER_01: However, when that one comes, the Spirit of truth, he'll lead you into all the truth.
SPEAKER_01: He'll not speak of himself as a source, but as many things as he hears, he will speak, and the things that are coming, he will make known to you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever is cut, listen, don't worry about what's coming, he'll make it known to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you something by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about your building.
SPEAKER_01: He knows where it's at and he'll lead you to it.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he will.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: What's gonna be here and what's gonna be there?
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit will tell you.
SPEAKER_01: I I remember, and many, I don't, everybody in here wasn't alive when this happened, but you remember Y2K?
SPEAKER_01: And you know, everything that was gonna happen, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna roll over and everything's gonna blow up.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, we were we were, of course, we that was our first year pastor in a church.
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm responsible for people, not just my family.
SPEAKER_01: And I prayed about it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: And just right here, right here, right here, I heard the Holy Spirit say, it's not gonna be anything.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: I listen, I never preached one message on Y2K.
SPEAKER_01: I never brought it up.
SPEAKER_01: I just told people everything's gonna be alright.
SPEAKER_01: And it was alright.
SPEAKER_01: There was a group in Topeka, and they called themselves the Prophecy Club, and they were on various radio stations, and they were a group of prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And all these prophets were selling pallets of provisions and pallets of you know non-perishable things.
SPEAKER_01: I mean millions of dollars, millions of dollars, and nothing happened.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they got sued for everything they had.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they did, got sued for everything they had.
SPEAKER_01: Ministry went under off all the radio stations.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: They were supposed to be prophets, but they weren't listening to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If they were listening to the Holy Spirit, they wouldn't have been selling things for something that wasn't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit works best in the attitude of honesty.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be honest.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta listen, nonstop honesty between you and God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you go and you rend your heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you go and you wring your heart out.
SPEAKER_01: If things are not moving forward, I never go to God and say, what's wrong?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you not moving things forward?
SPEAKER_01: I say, God, what in me is stopping you from being able to move things forward.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not you, you're the way maker.
SPEAKER_01: You make a way in the desert, you make you make the crooked places straight, you bring the high places low.
SPEAKER_01: You're the one that does these things.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So the Holy Spirit will, number one, lead us into all truth, the truth in every situation.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, he will speak those things that he hears.
SPEAKER_01: That always blesses me to know that I have ears in the throne room.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, he will make known to us the things that are coming.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is the communication and guidance arm of the Godhead.
SPEAKER_01: That's how God guides us.
SPEAKER_01: That's how He communicates with us.
SPEAKER_01: How successful would our lives be with the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth and making known to us the things that are coming?
SPEAKER_01: I have to press more into that.
SPEAKER_01: I say I have to press more into that.
SPEAKER_01: This means that it's possible to never enter any situation blind.
SPEAKER_01: That's a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: See, the key to receiving from the Holy Spirit is to recognize that he's a quiet gentleman.
SPEAKER_01: And he will not engage us until we first position ourselves to hear his voice.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta position myself to hear his voice.
SPEAKER_01: You know, even when I'm counseling, when I'm counseling people, if they don't put themselves in a position to hear what I have to say, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: I've literally done this.
SPEAKER_01: I've sat down and people said, Well, this is, you know, I would say, Well, what do you want to talk about?
SPEAKER_01: And they would tell me, and I would say, well, okay, and I would maybe say something, give some counsel, and they'd look at me, shake their head, and go, I know.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately I stand up and go, We're done.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all have a good night.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what we're through?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_01: If you know, what I'm I'm wasting my time, because you know.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: How many people go in their prayer time and tell God everything they know?
SPEAKER_01: Make dem make right demand of God.
SPEAKER_01: But never ask God, what do I need to do?
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And then if they do ask God what they need to, Father, in the name of Jesus, I need to know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, I need to know which direction to take.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Father.
SPEAKER_01: Have a good day.
SPEAKER_01: And then they leave before he can tell them.
SPEAKER_01: See, he wants to engage us.
SPEAKER_01: I have to engage him.
SPEAKER_01: What do I need to do?
SPEAKER_01: Ask the guide.
SPEAKER_01: He's the tour guide.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when it says he will guide us into all truth, it that's what the idea is is carried there is that he's a tour guide.
SPEAKER_01: He's been where you need to go.
SPEAKER_01: He's been in the areas that you need to walk in, and he can tell you how to get there.
SPEAKER_01: He knows the shortcuts.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that you've been striving to try to get done, if you'll spend just an extra few minutes over the next week or two, the Holy Spirit can tell you how to get there, and you can be there before summer's out, and you've been trying to get there for years.
SPEAKER_01: But I gotta engage him.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when I sit down with somebody that has wisdom that I need, I do very little talking.
SPEAKER_01: Because I need their wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: When you engage the Holy Spirit, that's what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: You're you're you're talking to him, you're engaging him, and then you're being quiet.
SPEAKER_01: I want him to speak to me.
SPEAKER_01: Where do I need to go?
SPEAKER_01: Ask the guide.
SPEAKER_01: Should I take this opportunity?
SPEAKER_01: Ask the guide.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Never make the mistake of taking an opportunity based on how it looks on the outside.
SPEAKER_01: Based on the money, based on the position, based on where it is, based on who it is.
SPEAKER_01: I've had people tell me before, oh yeah, that person, that's a good Christian person.
SPEAKER_01: Boy, they'll do you right.
SPEAKER_01: Did me more wrong than anybody I ever knew.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But I went in there with this idea because of what somebody said, that they were just good Christian people.
SPEAKER_01: If I would have prayed in the Holy Spirit about it, the Holy Spirit would have said, Well, he's a Christian, but he's a crook.
SPEAKER_01: It's too bad there's Christian crooks, but amen.
SPEAKER_01: Say out loud, every opportunity that I see, I'll ask the Holy Spirit about it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at 2 Corinthians 13, 14.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of my favorite scriptures about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's a short one.
SPEAKER_01: It's the last verse of the last chapter of 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: He says three things the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
SPEAKER_01: That word communion is partnership.
SPEAKER_01: The Weast Bible says the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the partnership of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
SPEAKER_01: How does it feel to know the Holy Spirit your partner?
SPEAKER_01: What do partners do?
SPEAKER_01: They help make decisions.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: Say out loud, the Holy Spirit is my partner.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: See, we have to intentionally enter into this partnership with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Intentionally.
SPEAKER_01: We have to pursue friendship with the person of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's a higher standard.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there are people that know Jesus as their savior, uh, they know God as creator, uh, they they they know the Holy Spirit as the one that uh uh uh brought them to life.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But very few people, and and you might think that's not the case, but it is, very few people know God as their father, and Jesus as their elder brother, and the Holy Spirit as their partner.
SPEAKER_01: And they have what I call a misplaced reverence.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I uh uh to call my God daddy or to call God poppy, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that would be, you know, that's diminishing him.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: It does not diminish me as a father for my daughter to call me poppy, it makes my chest expand.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's endearing terms from her.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody else calls me that.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: Brother Eric's here.
SPEAKER_01: He and Denise went with me to Ecuador uh years ago, long before Christopher was born.
SPEAKER_01: And when we got back to the airport at KCI, Pastor Michelle was there with Liliana, and Liliana came running to me, and I picked her up and she said, Poppy! And Brother Eric took a picture and captured that moment.
SPEAKER_01: And I was smiling at her, and she was smiling at me, and when I looked at that, the Lord said, That's me and you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, That's how I feel about you.
SPEAKER_01: That's how God feels about you.
SPEAKER_01: When he sees you, his eyes light up.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: One translation says, run to him with your arms open wide, with a great big daddy God.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Holy Spirit is my partner.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what a partner?
SPEAKER_01: Partners are in it with you.
SPEAKER_01: And understand, he's not a silent partner, he's a vocal partner.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit will remain in our company whether we interact with him or not, because Jesus said he would remain with us forever.
SPEAKER_01: But understand this.
SPEAKER_01: If we do not engage him, he will generally remain silent.
SPEAKER_01: Even though he's there.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: I've had people say that to me before.
SPEAKER_01: Did you discuss this with so and so?
SPEAKER_01: I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: My wife said, Why?
SPEAKER_01: I said, They didn't ask.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't ask.
SPEAKER_01: If you want me to help you with a problem, what should you do?
SPEAKER_01: What's that?
SPEAKER_01: Ask.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you ask me?
SPEAKER_01: Because you believe I'm going to help you.
SPEAKER_01: But what do you have to do?
SPEAKER_01: Ask.
SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus say, John 14, John 16?
SPEAKER_01: He said four different times.
SPEAKER_01: He said, if you want something from the Father, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: And what did he say would happen?
SPEAKER_01: What if you ask the Holy Spirit for advice?
SPEAKER_01: What will he do?
SPEAKER_01: Give it to you.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, what in James?
SPEAKER_01: He'll give it to you and not upbraid you about it.
SPEAKER_01: He won't look at you and say, Well, dear God, you really don't know that.
SPEAKER_01: No, he'll just give it to you.
SPEAKER_01: Am I helping you?
SPEAKER_01: And we in turn will not enjoy the full expression of his presence in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I got one more scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I got time for a story.
SPEAKER_01: I I uh had a friend that pastored a church in uh Tampa, Florida.
SPEAKER_01: At one time it was the at one time it was the fastest growing church in America and the third largest church in America.
SPEAKER_01: Uh at that time only behind uh Tommy Barnett and one other church, I forget which one it was.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, I went there and this man, his his spiritual father was Dr.
SPEAKER_01: T.
SPEAKER_01: L.
SPEAKER_01: Lowry.
SPEAKER_01: Now, T.
SPEAKER_01: L.
SPEAKER_01: Lowry is in heaven today.
SPEAKER_01: He was the he was the international president of the Church of God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he pastored uh the uh uh Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_01: Church of God, large Church of God church, powerful man of God, used in the days of the voice of healing, it was only 19 then.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but he was ministering.
SPEAKER_01: And and I went early for that express purpose because he was going to be doing a leader's meeting before the main service.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh we got there at the leaders' meeting.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably 120 leaders, I guess, there.
SPEAKER_01: And uh anyway, uh we got there and we we were sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: I was sitting on the front row, Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Lowry was ministering in a room about this size.
SPEAKER_01: And uh his subject was the Holy Spirit in leadership.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit in leadership.
SPEAKER_01: I was looking at those notes again today.
SPEAKER_01: I still have those notes in my in my office.
SPEAKER_01: And uh here's what I want to get across to you.
SPEAKER_01: As I was listening to him, what kept running over and over in my mind is he knows the Holy Spirit in a way that I don't.
SPEAKER_01: Because I know I have the same Holy Spirit, I just don't know him like that.
SPEAKER_01: Because he was saying things about the Holy Spirit, and I thought I need to know him better.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to know him better, just start knowing him better.
SPEAKER_01: Go to him and tell him, I want to know you better.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that how if you if you wanted to know somebody better, a person, you just go to him and say, hey, do you have time for coffee?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do you have time to go get something to eat?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've known you for a while and I'd like to know you better.
SPEAKER_01: Now, man or a woman, we're not just talking about dating, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's a good idea for dating, too.
SPEAKER_01: That's free.
SPEAKER_01: That's all free advice.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to get I want to get to know you better.
SPEAKER_01: How how do you get to know their likes?
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I ask people all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what the Holy Spirit likes?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what he likes to do?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta go and ask him.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's things the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, there are things that he wants to do for all of us, but then there's things he wants to specifically do for each of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he likes to do.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Thessalonians 5, 19.
SPEAKER_01: It's a uh four-word verse.
SPEAKER_01: Quench not the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Weast Bible says, stop stifling and suppressing the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The idea here is to dampen, to smother, or suppress the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you grew up with a wood stove, if you have a fireplace, you have a damper on it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what does the damper do?
SPEAKER_01: You open the flue, you open the damper, and what happens?
SPEAKER_01: You get more air.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens?
SPEAKER_01: You get a bigger fire.
SPEAKER_01: You want to calm the fire down, well, you do.
SPEAKER_01: You shut the damper.
SPEAKER_01: What's it do?
SPEAKER_01: It dampens the what?
SPEAKER_01: Help me out.
SPEAKER_01: The fire.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: He says, notice, he says that you and I have the ability to dampen, smother, or suppress the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So the level that he's speaking to me and the level that he's moving in my life is the level that I have the spiritual damper open.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: My engagement with him increases his activity in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And the more you engage him, the more he moves in your life.
SPEAKER_01: My responsibility lies mainly in three areas.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, constantly be led by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The more you're led by the Holy Spirit, the more acclimated you become to his leading.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's one of those things I know that seems elementary.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, I talk to too many Christians that will tell you they're supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit, and they're no more being led by the Spirit than I'm a Martian.
SPEAKER_01: Even though they will tell you they know they need to be led by the Spirit, and they'll start the conversations off with, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't we know what to do?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're not listening to the Spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I've listened I've tried to strike that from my vocabulary.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: If I don't say anything other, I say I'm finding out what to do, I'm getting the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because now I'm your pastor, so I I talk to you different than I would talk to other people.
SPEAKER_01: We have to make this decision.
SPEAKER_01: If I have the divine guide on the inside of me, why am I not consulting him?
SPEAKER_01: Why am I not engaging him?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I not know what to do?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've asked.
SPEAKER_01: Well, go back and ask again.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, I haven't now I haven't heard from you about this.
SPEAKER_01: I need to know what to do here.
SPEAKER_01: If I've heard it and I didn't know I heard it, bring it back to me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Number two, engage him on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: Make the decision tonight that if it isn't anything but five minutes, you're going to engage the Holy Spirit every day.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Larnell Harris used to sing that song.
SPEAKER_01: I miss my time with you.
SPEAKER_01: Those moments together.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Said he came.
SPEAKER_01: The song says he came out and he said, There he was, just waiting in that old familiar place.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I walked by and he looked at me and said, I miss my time with you.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So every day we pray.
SPEAKER_01: We're in the word.
SPEAKER_01: But what we're always in danger of is that we're doing those things just because we know we're supposed to.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said that it was so important that the Holy Spirit get back into the earth for us.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm going to go and I'm going to tell the Father and I'm going to have him send him back.
SPEAKER_01: It was so important that Jesus told the disciples and the 120, he said, I don't want you to leave Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: See, we know the story in Acts chapter 2 about them being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in other tongues.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus said that was the promise of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: The person of the Holy Spirit coming was the promise of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: It was so important that he told the first church leaders don't even go do anything until you have a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And thirdly, refuse to suppress or stifle his voice in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Refuse to dampen it.
SPEAKER_01: Refuse to suppress it.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: If I stifle him, he'll just simply stop speaking.
SPEAKER_01: And let me close here.
SPEAKER_01: I've went five minutes over, which don't matter.
SPEAKER_01: I stopped early last time I was here.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: People talk about blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus said blaspheming the Holy Spirit was attributing the works of God to the, or the works of God to the devil.
SPEAKER_01: He said that was blasphemy of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: What a lot of people call blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: For instance, people will say, you know, the the service was going really good, and and you know, somebody made a ruckus, and you know the Holy Spirit lifted, they oh, they blasphemed the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, they didn't.
SPEAKER_01: What a lot of people call blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit not speaking.
SPEAKER_01: He quits speaking when you suppress him.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why when the Holy Spirit deals with somebody about something and deals with them and deals with them and deals with them and deals with them, if they don't take that into consideration and change that, the Holy Spirit will quit speaking.
SPEAKER_01: They will no longer feel conviction and they'll think, I'm okay.
SPEAKER_01: They're not okay.
SPEAKER_01: The guide's just not speaking no more because they're not listening.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when you come to church and your pastor preaches on things and speaks on things, don't discount that.
SPEAKER_01: That's the voice of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: When I get behind this pulpit and operate it under the anointing, I'm anything but a normal man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a man anointed by God to speak into your life.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This is important.
SPEAKER_01: And when a person stifles that and smothers that, then eventually that won't affect them anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And that's when people say, Well, that guy, you know, he blasphemed God and he doesn't have any care for the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: No, the Holy Spirit's just not speaking to him no more.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what God said about Ephraim in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Leave Ephraim alone.
SPEAKER_01: He loves his idols.
SPEAKER_01: He loves having things the way he's having them.
SPEAKER_01: I was on vacation in Nashville, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh that wasn't where I was going on vacation.
SPEAKER_01: We'd stopped to see Pastor Michelle's mom.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord woke me up about four o'clock in the morning and he showed me in the spirit, and I may have told you this before, but there was a lady that went to our church at the time and she had a lot of physical maladies.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I saw in the spirit, I saw her and a demon spirit, and it just looked like a big bat, a man-sized bat.
SPEAKER_01: Ugly, evil-looking thing.
SPEAKER_01: And her face and its face was just pressed together, and she was smiling.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said, This is why I can't help her.
SPEAKER_01: He said, She has buddied up to that.
SPEAKER_01: She likes that.
SPEAKER_01: She likes people to feel sorry for her.
SPEAKER_01: I can't speak to her because she likes people to feel sorry for her.
SPEAKER_01: So, what had happened?
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit had been stifled.
SPEAKER_01: There was no help for her.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything to give you but the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't listen to him, you can't be successful.
SPEAKER_01: And so every every time that I I stifle that, right?
SPEAKER_01: You know, there are people they get they get upset when you talk about church attendance.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he just don't understand everything I got going on.
SPEAKER_01: You just stifled the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say that the assembling of yourself together was important.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible said the assembly of yourself together was important.
SPEAKER_01: I realize that people are gonna miss church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I don't ever pick on anybody.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have time to sit and take the four or five or six hours that it takes me to prepare a sermon with just you in mind.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna spend six hours just to get James.
SPEAKER_01: And nobody else is gonna get anything.
SPEAKER_01: I and then James don't show up.
SPEAKER_01: Now what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: My get James sermon is ruined.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not gonna get James or nobody.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see this?
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Braselle and I used to go to church.
SPEAKER_01: We went to Elder Morton's church.
SPEAKER_01: And our our first our first year, year and a half of marriage, it was a challenge.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we we had both come out of bad relationships and we're trying to learn how to do things.
SPEAKER_01: And we were front row mafia.
SPEAKER_01: We'd be on the front row.
SPEAKER_01: Man, he would it seemed like every service he was preaching on marriage.
SPEAKER_01: And one service he'd be on the women, and the next service he'd be on the men.
SPEAKER_01: And when he was on the men, she'd be looking at me like, mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: And when he was on the women, right?
SPEAKER_01: And there were plenty of times that both of us went home mad.
SPEAKER_01: Not at each other, at him.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, I'm glad I'm glad about it because the Holy Spirit was fixing some things.
SPEAKER_01: And we refused to stifle the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you the nights we would look at each other and go, look, I don't understand everything that Pastor Morton said tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be that husband that he was talking about tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to do that, but he said I could be tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And she would do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody in here is perfect, but be willing to say, I may not know how to do this, sweetheart, I may not know how to be everything you need me to be, but I'm gonna go before the Lord and I'm gonna wring my heart out before him, and I'm gonna ask him to show me what I need to do, to be the man and the husband or the wife or the woman that I need to be.
SPEAKER_01: And as I ask him, the Holy Spirit will lead me and guide me into all truth, and I'll be the best husband you've ever seen in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to do it, but I promise you, I'll get along with God and I'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All you married guys in here, you want your wife to think that you're just all that and a bag of chips?
SPEAKER_01: Get before God.
SPEAKER_01: Go get on your face before God in the morning and ask God to show you how to be the husband you're supposed to be, how to be the father that you're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: That will do more for your marriage than a dozen roses, than chocolate, than going out to the cypress, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: You can you can do all of that and not be led.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies, you you want your husband to just dote on you and just think you're everything that he needs.
SPEAKER_01: You got to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: You got to be in God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: In God's presence, you become what God wants you to be.
SPEAKER_01: It's not counseling that's gonna fix your marriage, it's a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit can do more for you in an hour than I can do in six weeks of counseling.
SPEAKER_01: I have counseled people for six, seven weeks, and they still got a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: Because they they they have to choose to listen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Whew.
SPEAKER_01: Say, Pastor, that's passionate.
SPEAKER_01: I I am very passionate about that.
SPEAKER_01: I listen, I am this kind of man.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm not smart enough to do what God wants me to do.
SPEAKER_01: I know that.
SPEAKER_01: I know my own limitations.
SPEAKER_01: But I have come to a relationship with one who is unlimited, with one that has no limit of knowledge or understanding or revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And I love him.
SPEAKER_01: And my life is centered around hearing from him.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care if anything else gets done in the day, I must hear from him.
SPEAKER_01: I must hear from him.
SPEAKER_01: And then all that other stuff, it just don't matter.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time to be concerned about finances, I don't have time to be concerned about anything else.
SPEAKER_01: People say, What church growth plan do you have?
SPEAKER_01: Here's my church growth plan.
SPEAKER_01: Pray, hear from heaven, and do what heaven says.
SPEAKER_01: We're growing.
SPEAKER_01: It may be one person at a time or two people at a time.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know every Sunday morning in this church there's a newcomer?
SPEAKER_01: There has been a newcomer every Sunday morning for about a year.
SPEAKER_01: And they're seeing it on the seeing us on the TV broadcast, seeing us on YouTube.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: God told us that.
SPEAKER_01: He said this will be a place of advancement.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Holy Spirit said.
SPEAKER_01: So we're advancing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't look in the seats to determine if we're advancing.
SPEAKER_01: We're advancing because I'm at 11620 Rainwood Road because the Holy Spirit told me to be here.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm advancing.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't see it, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't see it, I don't know what to tell you.
SPEAKER_01: I know we are because the Holy Spirit said we would.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Say it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Just raise one hand to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Say, Father, in the name of Jesus, my desire, my heart cry is that I would know the God on a deeper level.
SPEAKER_01: I just right now, Father, right now, I wring my heart out.
SPEAKER_01: I say, anything that's on the table of my heart that you didn't place there, I don't want it.
SPEAKER_01: I remove it.
SPEAKER_01: I throw it away.
SPEAKER_01: I get rid of it.
SPEAKER_01: I want what you want.
SPEAKER_01: I want it the way you want it.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Now take a moment if you would.
SPEAKER_01: I know, I know we've run a little over tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Take a moment and just put your hand on the person next to you and just pray for them.
SPEAKER_01: If you're filled with the Holy Spirit with the uh speaking of other tongues, pray for them in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for him in tongues right now.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for him in tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Ramananana Masaya.
SPEAKER_01: Repretekeshekedebusa.
SPEAKER_01: Rimrande shekedide debusakarabasia.
SPEAKER_01: O nananamasiki di Bokuye.
SPEAKER_01: Morabakata paradarabasa karabasuye.
SPEAKER_01: Onamasegede de bosya.
SPEAKER_01: Inanene murriangrebresekedibusa barabasaya.
SPEAKER_01: Eshamaya tekeshina Mahaya.
SPEAKER_01: In a Makoku Redebe sekede beseke de Mahaya.
SPEAKER_01: Or Ryambrandabasaka.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Father, reveal to them, reveal to them.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, reveal those things to them.
SPEAKER_01: O Ryan Brandi Besecedi Bosya.
SPEAKER_01: Mor Ryan Brandebesekete Beseki did it.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what the Lord's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll we'll we'll try to close with this, but I need I do need to say this.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to start showing you steps.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you don't need anything but the next step.
SPEAKER_01: That's all you need.
SPEAKER_01: If I take the next step, I'm on my way.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to show you steps.
SPEAKER_01: And Brandon, I don't know what you're believing for.
SPEAKER_01: But I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll spend some extra time before the summer's over, you'll be well on your way there.
SPEAKER_01: And it has to do with your own.
SPEAKER_01: Has to do with your own place.
SPEAKER_01: Has to do with your own.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be in your own.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's all of it, but that's part of it.
SPEAKER_01: Just give him some extra time.
SPEAKER_01: By the end of the summer, you'll be well on your way.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be well on your way.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand up tonight.