SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele. Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith First. We have more resources available to help you build your faith and bring your world by the Word of God. From our website, lifeoffface.net, you can connect to our YouTube channel. Watch the live stream feed from our church services. Access books and downloads in our web store. And discover more about Life of Faith Church. Producing life city, state, nation, and world. Visit lifeoffaith.net today.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

So the core values of the believer, and uh there are seven of them in April of 2024 uh at uh uh Faith Life Church in Branson. I was there with Brother Jerry, and uh the Lord gave us, gave me these core values of the believer. Number one is put the word first place, secondly, is determined to walk by faith, thirdly is refuse to be critical, fourth is determined to be thankful, number five is determined to walk in love, number six is determined to be led by the Spirit through the inner man, and number seven is refuse to be double-minded. And we've said this a few times, but all of these require the walk of love. They all require the walk of love. And uh walking in love should not be hard or foreign to the believer. All right, because we've we've talked about this, we'll look at it a little more tonight. God is love, and the nature of God is what is on the inside of us, and so my nature at my my core level is love. My nature at my cellular level in my spirit, my cellular level in my spirit is the nature of God. All right? And so God is love. And so when you, the Bible says God is something, we know that that God, what he is, he will always be, and he always has been. So God has always been love. God is love, present tense. So if I am of God and I am according to the scriptures, then I'm love. All right, my nature is the nature of love. And uh in John 17, verse 14, Jesus, John 17, well, actually, John uh 16, 17, uh 15, 16, 17 are all Jesus praying for us and for the disciples. And he says in John 17, 14, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. Now, why? Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Now we'll read another verse in a moment, but notice, he said, they're not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So, out of Jesus' own mouth, he places us on the same level in the sense that they are not of this world, right? Primary preposition of, all right, denoting source or the channel of a thing, that the source of their life is not this world. Just as the source of my life is not this world. All right? And then he said in verse 16, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So twice Jesus says, even as I am not of the world. They're not of the world. All right. Now, when Jesus is talking about world, of course, he's not talking about the planet that we live on. He's talking about the system, he's talking about uh uh uh the people of this world, and he says, they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. Of, again, is that primary preposition denoting origin. So the origin of the believer is not the world. We are of God. Now, while that may sound elementary and simplistic, it covers so much ground. Because if that's not my origin, if my origin is of God, in my nature, all right, then doing the things of God, thinking the right way, acting the right way, is much easier than anyone thinks. Because I'm of God, that's my nature. Hallelujah. In 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. As we move on in this series, we'll get into those working points of love. Because I know a lot of times when we teach on love, you know, we go right to 1 Corinthians 13 and start with love is patient, love is kind. You know, love endures, love uh holds no uh record of a suffered wrong. We'll get there. But here's the thing: if you just go and you start talking about how something's supposed to work, and you don't explain to the people the reason it will work, how easy it is for it to work, every time you talk about love, people start thinking about how they can't do that. How they can't forgive. I have a hard time forgiving. It's because you have I in the wrong spot, and you're thinking about I the wrong way. You think I is this body, and I is not this body. I is my spirit. The Lord said to me, He said, never make the mistake of looking in the mirror and thinking that's the real you, because it's not. You'll I'll hear Christians say, Well, here's my problem. I just, I just, my problem is doughnuts. My problem is this, my problem is my temper. I just have a horrible temper. You have I in the wrong spot. I do not have a horrible temper. Because I am of the nature of God. Your flesh might have a horrible temper, and you're supposed to mortify the deeds of the flesh through the spirit, not the Holy Spirit, your spirit. By living in my reborn human spirit, I put to death the deeds of the flesh. Hallelujah. I'm getting ahead of myself. 1 Peter 1, verse 22. It says, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, or white hot or immensely. And he says, notice, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Being born again, not of corruptible, perishable seed. The amplified Bible says, You have been regenerated, born again, not from a mortal origin or a mortal seed or a mortal sperm, but from one that is immortal by the ever-living and lasting word of God. So the word seed means by implication, it means parentage, parentage or seed. So notice if we put that meaning in there, we are born again not of corruptible parentage. Now, everyone in here had a natural father who is corruptible, who is perishable. Amen. Peter just said, our parentage is not corruptible. It's not perishable. What does that mean? What I see sitting here is not the real you. The real you is on the inside of the carrying case that I see. That's me. Now understand when we talk this way, people immediately go to sin. Listen, you won't devalue yourself if you're seeing yourself as parented by God. How could anyone think of themselves as a failure if they really think God parented them? God begot them. But people do so often they look at their successes and their so-called failures and they judge who they are by that. By what they can see instead of what they can't see. Hallelujah. So he said, I was born again, not by perishable seed, not by a perishable parentage, but by unperishable parentage. The seed of the word of God. Amen. So our parentage is God. God is our father. We're the children of God. Say that out loud. Say, God is my father. I am a child of God. Amen. Now, when people say that, that can become just a religious term. Oh, yes, God is my father. But then they don't expect to act like God. Well, you can't act like God. I can too. Because I've been given the right. He said, He said in the New Testament, he said, be imitators of God as dear children. So the way dear children imitate their natural father, he says, that's what you're supposed to do is imitate your father. God is not my spiritual father in the sense of this religious terminology. God is my father. If I believe that I am spirit, then God's my father. Why? Because he said in the book of Hebrews, he said we had fathers according to the flesh that chastened us and we obeyed them. He said, How much more should we submit ourselves to the father of spirits and live? People have a hard time with things like walking in love because they see themselves as what they can see. And not who they are. Oh, hallelujah. Do you see that? We'll tell people this. We'll tell them, you know, when they get saved, and and uh maybe they came out of an addiction background, and we'll tell them, don't call yourself an alcoholic. You're not an alcoholic anymore, you're free. Well, why do we tell them that? We want them to see themselves different. But where we fail is it not in not explaining to them that the old man is dead and the new man is alive unto God through Christ Jesus. But where do I connect with God? At the parent child level, which is at my spirit. Amen. Hallelujah. So our parentage is imperishable because it's not connected to this world. Because Jesus said, I'm not of this world. Look at First Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And Paul by the Holy Spirit drops this in here in the middle of his this discourse. And verse 23, he says, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Now he uses the word W-H-O-L-L-Y, holy, completely. Alright? And then he gives us what makes up this completeness. And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we see, obviously, that man is three parts spirit, soul, and body. Spirit, as a believer, that's the real mean. Now, this is something that, especially in our circles, people will affirm and they will they will agree with, but then to live that way is totally different. I was telling a story one time, and I was learning these truths years ago, and uh my flesh was kicking against the prick, so to speak. Right? Like like Jesus told Paul. And I got a revelation. And I said this, I said this. I said, flesh, you better stop that, or you're not gonna get no coffee today. See, it came to me in revelation. That is not me wanting to do that. I'm not talking about sin. Just something carnal. That is not me wanting to do that. Remember what Paul said? He said, I buffet my body. I make my body my abject slave. I beat my body black and blue. Right? So Paul knew I'm not my body. I'm not my body. You are not what you see in the mirror. You are 100% of God in the real you. So I can walk in love, I can forgive, I can refuse to be offended, I can take whatever you want to talk about, the low road, I can refuse to hold things against people because I'm of God. I can do all things through Christ. Oh, hallelujah. So as a believer, that's the real me. 100% of God. Then he says, My soul, my mind, my will, my emotions, my thinking faculties, my emotions. All right? Mind, will, and emotions. And it's important to always point out how different the brain and the mind are. Two different things. The mind sends signals that the brain carries out through the body. All you have to do is look up in Webster's dictionary, brain and mind, and it'll tell you the difference. Jesus showed us the difference in the book of Luke when he talked about the rich man and Lazarus, and they both died. Rich man went to Abraham's bosom, or Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom, rich man went to hell, and the Bible says, in hell he lifted up his eyes, the rich man, and saw Abraham standing afar off, and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. Well, how did he know that was Abraham? His thinking faculties were still there. His mind was still intact. He could feel, he could talk, he could see, he could hear. What did he want? Have Lazarus come and dip his finger in water and cool my tongue. I'm tormented in these flames. So when a person passes away, they don't quit thinking. Their thinking faculties don't go anywhere. Their brain is no longer functioning, but their mind, their soul is functioning. Why? Because we're soical beings. We're spirits that have a soul. Amen. Then the body, the container of the spirit. My body gives me a right to be on the earth. My body gives me the right to operate in authority on the earth as a man, as a woman. Right? Your birth certificate is crucial to your authority. Why? Because you belong here. You're born on this earth. Dr. Lester Summerall was in uh Manila, Philippines in the late 1950s, early 1960s, and he was building a church over there. And he had gotten a uh a B-52 airplane hangar, and they had uh disu uh mantled it and were bringing it over piece by piece, and he was building a church. And he was up in his uh apartment one night with his family, and he was listening to the radio. And there was a uh 13-year-old girl named Clarita Villanueva that had been on the streets as a runaway, and uh the police picked her up and brought her to jail there in Manila, Philippines. And if you've ever been to Manila, it's just a beehive of activity. It's like New York City on steroids. It's crazy. All right. And and but uh so it's it's huge. They took her to the police department and they put her in jail. And long story short, I don't have time to get into all of it. All of a sudden, these bite marks begin to appear on her body, and she would just scream out in pain. He wrote a book and made a movie about it called Bitten by Devils. And in any event, he was sitting there and he he could hear the screams over the radio. And uh God said to him, He said, I want you to go and deliver her. And you know how Dr. Summerall was? He went, I don't have a deliverance ministry, get somebody else. And God said, I don't have anybody else. So he went, he made arrangements and went up there. Now watch, here's the point I want to get to. The first day he walked into that room where that girl was, it was it was a big procession. Uh doctors were there, government officials, the Catholic priests, all of them were there. And and all of them were walking. He was towards the end of the line, and they all walked by. She said nothing to them. This girl could not speak English. She said nothing to them. Dr. Sumerall walked up, she looked at him, and and and I won't say the word she used, but she looked at him and she said, You're Lester Sumerall, and you are an illegitimate son. And Dr. Sumerall looked at her and he said, I am not. My father's George Summerall, Panama City Beach, Florida. My mother's Betty Summerall. I was born on this date in this hospital. Right? What was he doing? I have a right to be here. I have authority over you. Right? You're gonna come out of her because I have authority over you. Do you see this? My body gives me a right to be on this earth and operate as a son of God. That's what Jesus did. When he came into the earth, he operated as the Son of God, the perfect Son of God. None of us are perfect. Not deity in the sense of Jesus, God like in our spirit. That's why Jesus operated consistently in his authority. The authority to lay hands on the sick and see him recover, the authority to cast out demons, the authority over the winds and the waves and the things in the earth. Why? Because he was operating out of what he was in his spirit. And he was our prototype. He was, the Bible says he was our forerunner. He showed us how to operate in authority. Jesus never made decisions based on what he was on the outside. He made decisions based on what he was on the inside. They would say he was the carpenter. They would say he's just the son of Mary and Joseph. And he would say, I'm the Son of God. Amen. Why? Because he knew who he was. And so whenever somebody starts giving more credence to who they are on the outside than who they are on the inside, that's when the failures come in. That's when the challenges come in. Because they're making decisions based on what they've done in the past, based on the failures they've had, instead of on who they are on the inside. Amen. Look at Romans chapter 7. So my body gives me the right to be on the earth and operate in authority, but it's not the real me. The reason many believers struggle is because they have. Have the flesh in a position it shouldn't be in. They're always talking about fighting the flesh. How strong the flesh is. Oh, the flesh, oh, the old flesh, the old the flesh, the flesh, the flesh. Well, according to scripture, and let's look at it here in Romans 7 and verse 25. Paul says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, notice, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Then the amplified Bible says, so then indeed I of myself, with the mind and heart, serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. The heart is the spirit. The spirit of man. If I choose to live out of my spirit, I will do those things that are pleasing to God. If I live out of my flesh, I'll serve the law of sin. Amen. Now Paul went on here and he said in Romans 8:1, he said, There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now, watch the law of sin and death. That law that Paul found earlier in Romans chapter 7, he said, When I want to do right, I find a law that evil is always present. That's the law of sin and death. I've been delivered from that. You've been delivered from that. We don't walk after the law of sin and death. We've been made free by the law of the Spirit of life. Where does the law of the spirit of life reside? In you. It's written on your heart. I am 100% free. The Bible says that we as believers are free men and women because Jerusalem, which is above, is our mother. That's where we came from. Do you see how people can think of themselves far too much in the temporal, in the carnal, in the flesh? You know, we we we talk about how wonderful how we're gonna be so surprised when we get to heaven. You're not gonna be surprised going back home. How is it gonna shock you when you're gonna be where you came from? You know, I'm a homebody. I mean, my my father was an evangelist and he loved to travel. That's my definition of nothing better to do. Why in the world would you want to travel when you can just stay at home and be comfortable? Now, if you like to travel, that's your business. I do travel because of the call of God on my life. But here's the point. Here's the point. When I leave Little Rock and I come back, I'm glad to be back, but I'm not surprised. That's the street I live on, that's the house I live in. This is home. When we get to heaven, you're not gonna be surprised. You're not gonna be wow, bowled over by the streets of gold and the gates of pearl. That's where you're from. Hallelujah. Many have a tough time walking in love because they're living out of their flesh. And because of this, they lead carnal, immature, defeated lives. And I and I and I and I can't, obviously, that's not what we can do. But I remember one time, this was years ago, I was 19, I guess, so all those years ago, 41, 42 years ago, and uh there was a minister that uh that we knew. And you know, if you talk to him, he would say he had been saved for, you know, over 40 years in the ministry for over 40 years. God saved him out of country music, and and he had been in the ministry. But here was the thing. He was constantly, uh, a period of time there, he was constantly falling, getting into affairs and getting into all of this kind of uh shady activity. And uh I was uh at that time I was dating his daughter. And uh so, you know, I was talking to her one night and I said, you know, I I understand, you know, uh forgiveness and these things. I said, but uh how is it that somebody that can say they've been saved all this time and living for the Lord get into all this mess like this all the time? Yeah, I just want to know. And I remember she goes, well, there's this thing called the flesh. And when she said it at 19, I'm like, that don't make sense. I mean, I don't have any power over the flesh. That's what they were saying. Well, the flesh, you know, the flesh shows up, and the flesh shows up, and and and you know, you just the flesh is not on the same level as your spirit, it carries my spirit around. Now, understand this. Romans 8, 12. Notice this. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you will die, but if you through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body, you will live. So, so notice, he says, we're not debtors to the flesh. We're debtors, but not to the flesh. We owe God everything. But we're not debtors to the flesh. We don't owe our flesh anything. And notice what he says: he says, to live after the flesh. If you live after the flesh, you'll die, but if you through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body, you will live. Hallelujah. Now, there's only one Greek word for spirit in the New Testament. It's the word pneuma. P-N-E-U-M-A, pneuma. And so you've got to determine from the context whether it's talking about the Holy Spirit or your spirit. Now, they they capitalize this word spirit in Romans in the King James Version, but when you read it in context, it's not necessarily talking about the Holy Spirit. It's talking about you living in your reborn human spirit. He says, if we live after the flesh, we will die. If you through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body, you will live. The Holy Spirit's not going to do anything about your flesh. You're going to do something about your flesh. Notice how I said that. You are going to do something about your flesh. Your reborn human spirit is going to do something about your flesh. It's going to gain the ascendancy. How does it gain the ascendancy? When I walk in the nature of God on the inside of me. Hallelujah. It's a choice that I have to make. Notice what he said. He said, if you live after the flesh, so I can. I can, as a person born of God, I can live after the flesh. It's my choice. It's my choice. Not the flesh's choice, my choice. See, I choose to live after the flesh. I. The flesh is not I. I is my spirit. I choose to live after the flesh. And what'll happen? I'll die. I'll get spiritually weak. If I'm giving all my attention to the flesh and doing what the flesh wants, I'll get spiritually weak. But he said, I can, through the spirit, through living after the spirit, mortify the deeds of the body. Oh, hallelujah. Mortify means to put to death, to destroy, to make extinct. How do we do this? Through the spirit, through living out of our spirit. You know, the flesh is always there. But it doesn't have to have a voice in our life. I've said this over and over again in these teachings. Brother Hagin would make the statement. He'd say, I've gone months and years at a time and not even known I had a body. Well, he wasn't just talking about pain and sickness. He was talking about living a life above the things of the flesh. This is important. Why? Because if I'm going to walk in love consistently, if I'm going to put the word first place, if I'm going to refuse to be critical, I refuse to be critical. The flesh wants to be critical, you have to refuse to be critical. The flesh wants to criticize. I will not criticize. You see that? I'm not just talking about me as a person. I'm talking about me on the inside. I will not criticize. I will not allow that. Right? He said we have to walk in love. We have to uh uh live. He said we have to be led by the Spirit through our inner man. So the Holy Spirit can can contacts me in my spirit and leads me and guides me through my spirit, not through my flesh. Why? The flesh is just a carrying case. You don't walk up and talk to your handbag. Where do you want to go today, handbag? It's a handbag. It carries stuff around. Right? That's the flesh. The flesh carries you around. Why is this so important? Because God placed you in that body so you could exercise the authority of God on this earth and make a difference. Amen. You know, there's a rash of teaching recently about how, you know, we really don't have authority and we really don't have the ability to do all these things. And uh, you know, we're really not more than a conquer more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. I can't do all things. God can do all things. Well, then they shouldn't have put it in the Bible that said we can. See, that understand, this is an attempt of the enemy to rob people from their ability to walk in their authority. We can do everything that God said we could do because he gave us that authority. Now, amen. So we owe the flesh nothing, we mortify the flesh, we make it extinct. How? By living out of our spirit. If you've been born again for any length of time, let me say this. If a person has been born again for any length of time and the flesh can still rule them, they need to learn that they're born of God. And that the flesh ruling you is not just sin. How do you think about yourself? There are people you know and I know, they don't think of themselves very well. The flesh is ruling them. When they start to do something, to get into a big endeavor, the flesh starts talking to them and they start believing, I'll probably fail. I'm just gonna do the same thing again. I always fail. Every time I start to do something, I fail. Well, what is that? That's the flesh. That's the flesh. Your spirits are saying, no, you can do all things through Christ Jesus that strengthens you. All things are possible to him that believes. Right? I've got to let the flesh talk me into failing. Hallelujah. And so very often when people talk about the flesh, they just talk about sin. It's anything that's trying to pull you away from the success that God wants you to have. Amen. Well, you know, I'm not I'm not just a very good father. Well, who told you that? Who said that to you? Well, you know, it's just how I feel. How you feel or how the flesh feels. Now I know that's foreign to us. I know that's a different concept to a lot of people. But if you're constantly saying that, well, here's my problem. My problem is my temper. Your problem? If you see you as a spirit, your spirit doesn't have a temper. So what do I have to do? I have to put to death that temper through the spirit that dwells in me. Now, I'm not one of these people who says, I didn't sin, my flesh sinned. That's not what I'm talking about. That's wrong. That's wrong doctrine. That's why 1 John 1 9 is in the Bible. If we sin, we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. Right? But here's what I want you to see. Whenever the flesh is trying to lord it over someone, it's not always in the case of just blatant sin. Well, you know, we're this is our life. We're stuck, we'll never do more than this, and that's the flesh. That's the flesh. Well, I'll never be a success. Wait, what that's the flesh. I and the flesh are two different people. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Different. Different. Amen. Paul said, I make my body my servant. And so when you're looking at yourself as parented by God, that God is your parentage, God is the origin of your life, it changes everything. Because that that means that this flesh is not just my unwilling servant. We should not have to fight the flesh every day to do things. I should not get up and fight fleshly thoughts for an hour every morning until I finally get some peace. The flesh should not have that much authority. Why? It's just a carrying case. Hallelujah. I'll put it this way. You know, years ago, obviously they don't have them anymore, but they, you know, we used to have cabooses on trains. Well, the whole purpose of the caboose was to switch the track. That was the whole purpose. They they they carried a switchman in the caboose, and they would slow down or stop, and he would jump out of the caboose and switch the track and jump back in, and they'd go on down to the next next place. Well, what they did was, of course, they they uh uh computerized everything and uh they begin to put a box on the back of the train, and so everything was computerized, and when they'd go by that switch, that would send a signal and it would just move it where it needed to be. So they didn't need a caboose anymore. Here's my point the caboose never led the train, it was always pulled along behind it. The engine led the train. The flesh is just the caboose, it's just along for the ride. Everything I'm gonna get done in the earth is through my spirit. Everything. Hallelujah. Am I helping you tonight? Now, uh, let me see. You know, people say, well, the flesh doesn't want to love, and that's exactly right. The flesh doesn't want to love. I do. I do want to love. I do want to walk in love. The flesh is all about self-preservation, getting what it wants, having its own way. But that's not how we are. When you live out of your spirit, your flesh is put in its proper place and deprived of any authority in your life. Because I'm living out of my spirit. Look at Galatians 5, 16. When you're living out of your spirit, there's never even any question about what God will do. Is God going to come through? There's no questioning the word because your spirit doesn't question the word. That's why Jesus said you remember the woman at the well? He said God seeks those to worship him, and they worship him in spirit and in truth. All the worship before that time was something that could be seen, something that could be felt, something that could be touched, an animal, a goat, a bull, something, something that could be seen and felt. They wanted to feel the presence of God. Amen. You might not, so you may not necessarily feel the presence of God sitting in your seat tonight, but nonetheless, you are full of the presence of God because He's in your spirit. So whether I feel it or not, the presence of God is within me. And so Jesus said, the day is coming when there's not going to be something you can see necessarily or feel or experience, but it's going to be spirit and truth. Hallelujah. And so when we're walking in the spirit, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16, a very familiar verse, but notice it says, This I say, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the spirit and you will not bring to completion the lust of the flesh, the strong desires of the flesh. Now notice this is important because he says, if you walk in the spirit, you will not. You just won't. So watch the answer to not walking in the flesh, not giving in to the lust of the flesh, the strong desires of the flesh. Walk in the spirit. And people say, yeah, walk in the Holy Spirit all day. Walk in your reborn human spirit all day long, every day. Make that your decision. Amen. Live out of your spirit. When you live out of your spirit, the flesh is put in its proper place. Hallelujah. The flesh will do what it's allowed to do, period. Whatever it's allowed to do. If you let the flesh worry, it'll keep you up all night. If you let the flesh get angry, it'll run away. Because here's the thing the Bible says the eyes of man are never full. What does that mean? The flesh is never satisfied. Amen. I told a guy one time that was doing some things he shouldn't be doing. And I said, look, man, if one's not too many, a thousand's not enough. That's just the way it is. If one lie is not too many, a thousand is not enough. So the whole concept is the flesh will do what it's allowed to do, and it will do it all the way. The flesh doesn't want you to just be concerned about something, it wants you worried to the point of exhaustion. Amen. The flesh doesn't want you just angry, it wants you destroying relationships. That's where it goes. It will not stop until it destroys something because it's never full. It's never enough. Amen. Do you see that? It'll do what it's allowed to do, period. The flesh is completely feelings-based. Whatever the feeling is. Well, I feel better. Well, now what does that mean? I feel better. If I'm looking at I as my spirit, my spirit never felt bad. I never felt bad. You see what I'm saying? So the flesh feels better when things are easier. But then when pressure comes on the flesh, that's when the flesh lashes out. That's when the flesh doesn't walk in love. That's when the flesh doesn't forgive. That's when the flesh beats itself up. God has never beat anybody up about anything. Your spirit has never beat you up about anything. Ever. The flesh. The flesh pushes people to do things and then condemns them for doing it. Amen. The flesh is completely feelings-based, the spirit is completely word of God based. What did the word say? I was I've been telling you about the the family that was in the accident, and uh and I was talking to some people about the situation, and they were telling me some different now, this was this was not family members, they were telling me some different things that were going on. And uh I tend to get adamant. Whether you know that or not, about things. And the Lord had said some things. Our prayer team had prayed about it, and the Lord had said some things to me and to others in praying about it. And one of the things he said was that the recovery would be quicker than anybody thought. And I was talking to somebody, and they said something, and I don't want to say it was totally disagreeable, but it was questioning some things. And I just looked at it and I said, But God said, This is what God said. And that's what we're going to go with. We're going to go with that. I don't care what my body can see. I'm going to go with what God said. Did you see this? So ever what you're believing God for, ever what you're standing in faith for, you're going not by what you can see. When we say we walk by faith and not by sight, faith is of the Spirit. Faith is of the Spirit man. Faith is a spiritual force brought by a spiritual product called the Word of God. And it comes into our spirit. It produces the force of faith. When I'm walking by faith, that means that I am walking by what my spirit sees and not what my physical eyes see. And so it always comes back to what did God say? That's what we stand on. The flesh is movable, the spirit is immovable. What God promised you is what God will do. The Bible says, has he said it, shall he not do it? It says, He that began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. He will do what he said he would do. It's the flesh that starts saying, is it gonna happen? And your spirit tries to voice its voice its opinion and say, of course it's gonna happen. Don't let the flesh out talk your spirit. Don't let what you feel talk louder than your spirit. Keep that flesh dumbed down. Keep that feeling, that voice of the flesh and of the body dumbed down. Keep it under the authority of the Word of God. Because everything God said to you is gonna happen. Everything God promised you is gonna happen. Your body will walk in total health, your finances will turn around, your children will be saved, your life will reach the pinnacle that God promised that it would reach. Why? Because God said it, and that's how it will be. This is what God said. And that's how you keep the flesh from trying to run the show. Amen. And I told the the the father, Brother Jeremy, I told him, standing in the hospital room with other people around. I looked at him, I said it loud enough for everybody to hear me. And I said, Don't you dare let anybody else put their words in your mouth. This is what God said, and that's what you stay with. Don't let anybody else put their words in your mouth. Because this is what God said. Hallelujah. You got time for one more verse? 1 John 5 and 18? And we'll have our hour of power in the books. I preached myself happy about 30 minutes ago. You know, we're people of the word. We're people that speak the word. We're people that declare the word. You know, everything is not going to change just because you're speaking the word. It's what's going to change it is when you believe what you're speaking. And you got to believe it from the spirit level, from the core of who you are. When if I make the statement it's impossible for God to fail, people will agree with that. But understand, it is impossible for God to fail. He cannot. I'll say that again by the Spirit. Everything you're believing for will come to pass. It will surely come to pass. You may be walking through some things, you may be facing some challenges, but understand, you just keep living out of your spirit, it's all going to turn around. Keep feeding on the word of God, it's all going to turn around. 1 John 5 18. We know that whatsoever, whosoever is born of God does not sin, but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one doesn't touch him. So whoever is born of God does not habitually, knowingly or deliberately keep on sinning. That's what that means. Amen. I uh I'll finish here. I was uh dealing one time years ago. This has been, oh my goodness, 25 years ago, 26 years ago. And there began to be some error that that came up in uh in the church. It surfaces about every eight, ten years. And uh it was error where deliverance was concerned. Now, deliverance is a Bible doctrine, and and we're supposed to set people free from demonic oppression. The Bible says that. I believe in that. But this error was that uh, you know, believers could be possessed by devils and not just oppressed in their body but in their spirit. And uh, of course I knew that wasn't true, but uh, you know, I'm kind of like kind of like you know, John Wayne in the Alamo where he said, you know, you don't want to go goring another guy's ox. So I just I was minding my own business. And uh a friend of mine called me, talked to me, Bill Wiggs, he's in heaven today. He's a church of God pastor, he's in heaven today. And uh he uh he called me and said, Philip, I I want you to to go with me to this meeting. These these guys that were in error about deliverance had asked him to come to this meeting. Well, when he called me and asked me to go, I knew why he wanted me to go. Because he wanted me to talk to him. And so uh I said, Well, I'll go. And and they they were we were on the radio at that time, and and they came on right after us, and so I mean, there was the potential for some damage, I mean, because you know, people sometimes they just keep listening to whatever is is on next. And uh I went to that meeting and I sat there, and uh, you know, a lot of these people were older than me, and I mean I have respect for my elders. I'm not, especially at that time, I was in my, my goodness, I was in my very early 30s at that time. And uh, in any event, they kept saying, Well, you know, this ministry has this ministry, and they believe this, and this one believes this, and this one believes this. And finally, I'd heard all that for probably the better part of an hour, and I stood up and uh I just opened my Bible, the man that was speaking, I just opened my Bible and I tossed it like that in front of him, big oak table, and I went like this. I said, Show me. Show me in the Bible. This is this is what we want. Show me in the Bible where what you're saying. Don't, don't, please don't tell me brother so-and-so said, and this said, and this path. Show me in the Bible. And they quoted the verse and they misquoted it. The the book of Psalms says, God has exalted his word above all of his name. They said, Well, you know, the Bible says God's exalted his name above all of his word. I said, No, that's not what the Bible says. It says he's exalted his word above all of his name. And I brought this scripture that I just read to you up. I said, How does this work? I said, You're saying believers can be demon-possessed and there's nothing they can do. What do you do with this verse that says, Whosoever is born of God does not sin and the wicked one cannot touch him. I said, What do you do with that verse? No answer. Folks, I'm telling you. If the wicked one has no sway over us, how in the world can the flesh just run the show? It cannot. It cannot. Everything that God has said to you will surely come to pass. Don't allow the flesh to lie to you and tell you it's not gonna happen, that you're not gonna get your miracle, that you're not gonna get your healing, that God's not gonna come through for you, that what you're believing for is not going to happen. Yes, it is. We don't want to just listen, we don't want to be just people that know the word on a superficial level. This is your life. Everything in this word is your life. Amen. This is your success right here. Glory to God. Father, thank you tonight for the presence of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for ministering to us from the Word of God. Thank you, Father, that you have said to us that everything that you have promised us will come to pass. Father, that's in our personal lives, that's in our families' lives in the name of Jesus, that is in our ministerial lives in Jesus' name. Father, we thank you and praise you for where we're going. We thank you that this location that we're in, Father, you said this was a stopover. This was a place to grow, this was a place to advance, this was a place to set things in order. And so, Father, we thank you. We thank you for where we're going. We thank you for where we've been. We thank you for where you are, where we are, but we thank you for where we are going. Now in the name of Jesus, I plead the blood over these families tonight. I plead the blood over every member present. I thank you, Father. I plead the blood over their families, I plead the blood over their children, I plead the blood over their jobs, I plead the blood over their marriages, Father. I plead the blood over their homes. I declare in their pathways life, and there is no debt, no death. Father, I thank you for blessing their finances. I declare over them that there is abundance and no lack. For their God does supply all of their need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Now, Father, we thank you for it. We praise you for it, and we thank you for the love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

unknown 54:45

Hallelujah.