This year our theme is the reigning church and you cannot
be a reigning church without the Spirit of God because it is only
the Spirit of God that causes you to reign.
And so this particular passive scripture will probably use
often, but I, you know, the Lord just reminded me of Matthew 15,
three. And so let me say this, we we
often said this back in the past and we may need to come back to
this particular occasion where Jesus said to religious people,
why do you forsake the commandment of God for the sake
of your tradition? And, you know, the more we begin
to uncover things concerning the Kingdom, those who love their
tradition of Jesus or the tradition they've been taught
concerning him will challenge those who are following the
Kingdom of God. And so you want to be of the one
that does not hold to traditional truths about things.
But really, what does the Bible say?
And it's important for us to go into the Scripture asking
questions. We're not questioning God.
We're saying, Lord, we want to know about you.
We're seeking you. We want to find you.
We want to know more about you. We want to discover you more.
That's what seeking does, is you discovering who he is.
And so in order for you to do that, sometimes you'll have to
abandon things you were taught at a young age or maybe you
heard in a particular denominator or from one that you
highly respected as a loved one that you by all rights believed
and know that they love God, but they are loving God based upon
what they know about God. There are some things I knew
about God and then later on found out, you know what that
aspect or what I thought about him.
That's not reality. It's not reality.
It was a statement made because we were ignorant and we didn't
know better. But now that I see it in the
scripture, I know better. And so I changed my thinking.
I changed my tradition of God or my religion of God, and I found
out who the King is, Amen. Who Jesus Christ is, is Lord.
But as we get closer to the day that we would be changed in the
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, because Jesus Christ is not
coming back for the lost. When he returns, He's coming
back for the church. And so he's coming back for the
church with all without spot or wrinkle to be found blameless
and all her glory. In fact, he's coming back for
the church in its maturity. Hallelujah.
He's coming back for the fruit of the earth, which really
represents the church, and so he's coming back for the church.
The next greatest move is when the church functions as a mature
person or mature man. When the church comes together
in unity and no one is is is competing with one another.
We are just complementing each other's gift.
We're loving each other's gift. We're excited about each other's
gift and we are in the fit God placed us not where we wanted
ourselves. Amen.
And man that God's coming back for that church.
But as we get closer to the greatest move of God, which is
the church mature in the planet. We also will have a counterfeit.
And so first Timothy 41 because the devil knows the power of the
church. This is why the devil has
attacked the church ever since Jesus ascended and the day of
Pentecost happened. He has attacked the church.
He has persecuted the church.
In fact, he had great religious people persecute the church.
One we knew his name was Saul of Tarsus and man.
He persecuted the church. He didn't go after the Roman
government. He didn't go after the Roman
king. He did not go after the he went
after the church. Those who confess that Jesus
Christ was the only way to the Father.
He persecuted it with Scripture. Now he did not rightly divide
it. He was in error concerning that.
But God corrected his theology. Aren't you glad Jesus had
correct your theology? And so in a moment on the road
to Damascus, his life has changed and he calls Jesus the
Lord of his life. And so the church has been
attacked relentlessly by the enemy because he does not want
the church to mature. The devil has experienced the
church in the former reign when the Spirit of God came.
And we have evidence of this church in Acts chapter 2-3 and
four where they came together, they had a commonality, they had
Commonwealth, they were all in one mind, 1 accord.
I mean, they were being added to daily.
And it absolutely scared the devil.
Why? Because all of a sudden there
were many people that were that confess Jesus says Lord have
became a new creature in Christ and they were doing the same
works that Jesus did and he knew man, if this takes off globally,
I'm finished. Jesus is no longer in the earth.
He has whipped and stripped the devil of his power.
Then he left that authority to the church and the devil is
afraid. This is why he will attack you
to keep you out of it, to keep you from connecting with it, to
get you from jumping to one place to another place.
You know, to say it's OK for you to just listen online or do come
and go as you please. It's all an attack to get us
away from unity and assembly so that we can mature together and
accomplish the plan and purpose of God before he returns.
The devil's afraid. So anytime you hear of words
and, and things of people trying to pull you and take you and
snatch you and keep you from showing up, you just need to
know that is not the voice of God.
That's the voice of the devil, Amen.
That's the voice of the devil. And so First Timothy 41 says but
it, but the Spirit says now this is capital S because this is the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit explicitly says,
which means he is saying this will occur and nothing can stop
it. He explicitly says that in the
latter times, that's when the church is to mature.
When the latter rain comes, some will fall away from the faith.
Why paying attention to deceitful spirits?
One translation says seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.
Because there are in the in the realm of the spirit, in the
realm of the spirit of darkness. And This is why our battles not
against flesh and blood. The minute the devil can get you
to attack an individual, then he has seduced you that it's your
job now to take someone down. Our battles not against flesh
and blood. It's principalities and powers.
There's a spirit behind that and so he will.
There are spirits involved with people who want to not rightly
divide the word of truth, and he will navigate them to develop
doctrines of demons, and doctrines of demons are easily
able to destroy. Just to let you know they're not
difficult. Do you understand?
You should never take this decision well.
How will I ever know what truth is?
Truth is not a what, it's a He. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
truth, and God is not intimidated with false doctrine
because He's giving you the spirit of truth.
And if you honestly love God and yield to the Spirit, then he'll
always navigate you into all truth.
He will always expose doctrines of devils, period.
It's not complicated at all. OK, not complicated, but there
are seducing spirits, and seducing spirits happen because
it preys on the flesh of man or man's carnality, and they will
seduce you because you already are yielding to that side
through what Paul called selfish ambition.
Those who have selfish ambition can be seduced, they can be
wooed, and they seduce you that you're going to do something
amazing for God only to take you down a road of destruction and
despair. So the Spirit says these things
will happen, people will fall away.
And we have an assignment in in the fivefold ministry to help
you navigate this. So we're going to learn how to
walk today. Say learn how to walk because
you have to learn how to walk. I'm going to say it this way.
Just because you're born doesn't mean you walk immediately.
But the capacity to walk is there if you are trained.
If you're trained. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Thaddeus, come here. That is our head usher.
Thaddeus, Can you can you get right here?
No. Yeah.
I need you to get on my side like you're a child.
I'm going to carry you. Ready.
All right, Come on. Give me.
Give me this. OK.
Now. Thaddeus.
If all I did was carry Thaddeus
around his whole life, could you see me going into the store
right now? We're going into Walmart.
You all right? Yeah.
This is my this is my son. I I adopted him.
Why don't you let him walk? Nah, man.
I mean, I love him too much to let him down.
I want to keep him right here by my side.
Right. I'm doing good, ain't I?
You're shocked right now. You're shocked.
Amen. Amen.
Now, oh, I feel really light right now.
I believe I could fly. But again, all of you parents
who had a child, you know that at some point you're here to
help them walk. My wife started our kids out
really early and she would do it with a little exercise where she
would let them grab her fingers. You know, she they grip her
little fingers and then she pull them up and they would end up
doing squats, baby squats. She's working those legs,
working them out. Why?
So they get strong to develop balance.
Because ultimately, I'm not carrying you the rest of my
life. But yeah, we have some parents
that want to keep their children on their hip, and the reason why
they're developing slower is because we are afraid they'll
fall. But the goal is not about
falling, it's about learning how to walk.
Falling sometimes happens when you learn how to walk, but
eventually you get stable and strong enough to walk.
And God wants us to walk. Amen.
First Corinthians chapter 3 verses one through 3 says it
this way. It says, and I, brethren, could
not speak to you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as
to infants in Christ. So if you're an infant, you're
not walking, you're not walking, you're being carried.
Let's go on. He said.
I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet
able to receive it. Indeed, even now you're not
able. Now why are they not able?
He says. For are you still fleshly?
For since there is here, it is jealousy and strife among you.
Are you not fleshly? And are you not walking like
mere men? So the walk therein is not a
walk of the Spirit, but a walk of the flesh, a walk of the
natural. Now if I went on and put this in
context, this will blow your mind.
The flesh therein is over an argument of who they like best
in the church. He identified jealousy and
strife because someone was saying, well, minister so and so
and minister such and such. Well, the minister, that's what
that helps us. And dinner.
They're better than your minister.
Apollos is better than Paul. Paul's way better than Apollos.
Oh, I love to hear Apollos minister.
He's so eloquent. Paul, he man, he doesn't speak
real good now Paul, man, he this guy, he's amazing.
Apollos had, he doesn't even understand the Kingdom like Paul
does. I mean, there's all kinds.
And they're bantering and having jealousy over who they're
listening to. Jealousy and strife, not over a
sinful thing. Paul identifies their infancy.
Well, I just can't listen to them.
I don't want to listen to them. I don't want to hear them such
and such. Now, here's the point.
There are so many voices out there today is that the church
has gotten into that. If we don't watch out.
I mean, you need to hear what you need to hear and not be
arguing with somebody else about what they're hearing.
False doctrine is a whole nother ball game.
But we're not talking about false doctrine because Apollos
and Paul were rightly divine, the word of truth.
The only thing we know different about Apollos and Paul is that
Apollos did not fully understand the Kingdom like Paul did.
Because later on Priscilla and Aquila in the book of Acts, they
brought Apollos to the side and showed him a more clear way
because he was preaching the baptism of repentance.
And so his insight of the things of God grew, of which Paul
himself acknowledged the ministry of Apollo.
So these are not 2 ministers that we're dealing with false
doctrine. So when you develop favors
favorites in the body of Christ of those who actually trained
the word correctly, your carnal that's immaturity.
Same in anyway. All right, you don't I I we say
these things so that you don't fall prey to this Amen.
We don't fall prey to this because a lot of times we will
put on a spiritual air as if we are following God.
Well, you know, I just feel like the Lord wanted me to.
Well, we need to talk about that.
And that's why we're ministering today on being led by the
spirit, because in the last days he tells us that there will be
these other spirits that are speaking so much so that it's it
will cause people to fall away. They'll fall away.
We'll say Pastor Earl, who are falling, who's falling away.
I'm not here to tell you that. I'm not here to name names.
I'm not here to do that. What I'm saying is some will and
we'll see evidence of what will cause people, and we'll see
evidence in a general sense of how we know whether a person is
walking by the Spirit or walking according to the flesh, period.
And then you based upon your interactions and conversation
with people is easy to identify them and it teaches you how to
pray, how do you navigate your life and how you make sure your
ear continues to give heed to the word of God in the spirit of
God that Pastor Marcy's ministering on on Wednesday
night. Amen.
So William McDowell, pastor down in here in where's he at
Orlando. I was looking for a clip today
because Pastor Marcy ministered to our worship team before
service and he had put out a clip just recently and I'm like,
wow, that is so good. He said, and I'm not quoting
him, but I'm giving you the gist.
He said that when he was dealing with worship leaders, he said
today we are at the greatest risk of Luciferian worship
because so many people want to be the next worship person.
They're all out on YouTube because now with YouTube, you
can write your song, get it and get popular, he said.
We are at the greatest risk today than ever before of, of,
of having the Luciferian spirit in our services.
And it's not because we're inviting Satan in, but the ones
that are desiring to be made known in the realm of worship.
And he's speaking from his platform.
He is a pastor, but he first was a worship minister.
I went to a particular conference that he held once,
and he spoke that when he went ministered at churches, he had
to stop singing. And the reason he stopped is
because when he would minister, he would get on the piano and he
would begin to come get what he had in the spirit.
Well, the crowd would be upset because they wouldn't play the
song that they've listened to on the album.
And they wanted him to just play that song.
They wanted him to perform it, but God didn't want him to go in
that direction. And he said I would leave
meetings and people would be mad at me, upset at me after
service. Tell me why didn't I?
And they didn't. They came for me to do a
concert. Now notice when they those
individual, when they come to that, they'll throw their hands
up and they'll sing like they're in the presence of God.
But yet the minute he didn't do it, what happened?
Well, it lets us know that this line between the spirits that
aren't of God and the Holy Spirit, there's a line there
that unless you're doing what's necessary, you're not going to
know which line you're on. Because just being born of God
doesn't make you proficient at being led by the Spirit.
Being born of God gives you absolute access immediately the
minute you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life to to be able
to hear the voice of God. Period.
But to say that you're well versed in following only the
Holy Spirit just because you're born again, the scripture does
not conclude that you must train yourself to be proficient at
only hearing the Holy Spirit. If you do not train yourself,
you will fail. You will fail and you will use
scripture and ministers as your reason of why you think you've
heard the Spirit right. All right, this is serious
business as we get into these lat as we are in these last of
the last days. First Peter 22 says this he says
like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so that we
so that by it you may grow in respects to salvation.
So God expects us to grow up spiritually in your spirit.
When you're born again, you're everything that you're ever
going to be. You don't.
It's in you in the spirit. But that does have to be
developed. Just like myself.
When I was born, I was born 7 lbs eleven oz.
I was, I think, 21 inches long. But everything in me at birth is
what I am today physically. The DNA was going to make me the
hife I am, my bone structure the way it is, my eye color the way
it is, my hair color the way it is, you know, my brain, all
those things. It was already in me at birth,
but it did not manifest till I matured.
The muscles that I have today were in me from birth.
But they are what they are because of training, not because
they just automatically happened.
Muscles don't develop without training, so people's physical
physique comes by training, not just because it's in your DNA.
You still have to train. Just like our mind, we have the
capacity in our mind, but if we do not train our mind, if we do
not study, if we do not subject ourselves to certain academic
things, we do not develop that. That's why we go to school,
That's why we physically exercise.
That's why what we eat is really important because it affects our
body. Are you hearing me?
But yet if we do the things right and do exercise, then we
have the best form of us. And what we couldn't do was save
ourselves. But Christ did that.
Amen. So once we're born again or a
babe in Christ infant, we are to grow up.
And you grow UPS. First, buy milk, meaning things
in the scripture. Not solid food, but milk.
Things that allow you to digest who you are in Christ and give
you the opportunity to grow in who you are in the Lord and
understanding of what He's saying.
Hebrews chapter 5, verses 11 through 14.
I'm sure my wife will speak on this on Wednesday night.
And although I kind of roamed around on Wednesday to being a
few other of our services. Did you mention this scripture
at all? No, OK, so she'll probably go
here. But concerning him, let's read
this. Concerning Him we have much to
say and it's hard to explain why since you have become dull of
hearing verse 12. For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach
you the elementary principles of the oracles of God and have come
to need milk and what not solid food.
Now this is a person who wants ate solid food.
But something has happened that has caused them now to go back
to milk, which means who formerly were was eating solid
food now no longer has the capacity to eat solid food.
They're back to milk. These are dangerous people
because this is the quickest form to Ferris to be in a
Pharisee right here when this happens, he said.
For everyone who partakes only a milk is not accustomed to the
word of righteousness for he is an he's an infant, but solid
food is for who? Now listen, everyone in this
room wants to be mature. Everyone in this room wants to
be mature. I mean, if I went down and said
you do you believe you're mature in Christ?
I'm going to tell you right now, probably 90% of you are going to
say yes. There's probably 10% that would
say, you know what? I realize I'm not.
And it would be even less for those who have been here and
trained and gone through 318 and Kingdom Institute and
discipleship classes and all kinds of stuff for them to say,
you know what? I'm an infant.
Again, it'd be hard for them to admit that, but it happens.
I said it happens, but solid food is for the mature who,
because of what practice or training, have had their senses
trained to discern good and evil.
This is really important because the devil always comes sounding
like it's good. He comes as an Angel of so evil
is always masked in good. I mean, the devil does not come
at you and say, I want you to commit adultery on your spouse.
I mean, most believers like, well, that we're not supposed to
do that. I want you to go rob this bank
right now. I mean, most of us will be like,
no, I mean, it's always different.
He masks it in light. Are you hearing me?
Mature people are able to discern this.
So the minute we see that there's an infant, you have to
say you have to develop yourself where you're like, I understand
what I'm an infant in. Allow me to become mature
because you can have areas of maturity in the word and infancy
in others. I'll give you a case in point
from Brother Hagen. He had this particular testimony
because he was sick. Kenneth E Hagin was sick and he
was supposed to die, but at 16 he was healed miraculously by
the Lord. So he knew it was God's will to
heal and he never wavered from healing.
He would stand firm anytime a symptom came on his body, he
would stay with the Word. He would confess that word and
healing would always manifest in his life.
And, and when it came to the subject of healing, he was very
mature. He would not let a thought come
to him and tell him he was going to die.
He wasn't going to make it. He would never entertain those.
He would always combat it with the word.
He was mature in his response. But when it came to prosperity,
the provision of God for his ministry, he was not.
And the Lord had to speak to him and he said, Son, the faith that
you have for healing is the same faith.
You need to be able to prosper with your ministry in what God's
called you to do. Now, faith's the important word
here. Faith is not a concept.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of God and
being firmly persuaded that that word will come to pass.
So what he's saying is you need to get in the Word.
You need to let the Word train you.
You need to subject yourself to the Word.
You need to always keep the Word in front of you because the
Spirit of God will reveal that word.
That way when you get in situations that seem like it's
not that way, you'll call those things that be not as though
they were, and you'll change those situations financially.
And then he developed himself where he became mature in the
realm of giving and receiving. So he admittedly say, when it
came to healing, I had it, but when it came to provision, did
not have it at all. We must be honest with ourselves
because you know what? The Holy Ghost is honest with
you, and he'll let you know you don't have this.
Quit telling yourself you're believing me.
You're not persuaded He's honest with you.
He's not going to leave you in delusion.
James tells us that a hearer of the Word who does not do the
Word deceives themselves. The Holy Spirit will let you
know you're not in the position you think you're in.
I remember when it came to the mall, everybody, we could get
them all, all this. We've raised the money to be
able to get in contract. But I knew in me, I, I'm not
like 100% here. And before I turn over $250,000,
I need to get there. I mean, I could say in front of
you, I've got it, I've got it. But if I knew I didn't have it,
then I know I don't have it and I'm not going to do that.
So it was a day that I went to go set up my camper because my
wife and I were going to camp and I wanted to go pray because
this decision was there. The weight of that decision was
there, and I needed to know I had heard from God.
And that's where the Lord, you know, in a particular place on
the beach, bunch of houses that cost millions of dollars to
build. He said, Son, do you see that
house? I said yes Lord, because I was
praying in the Spirit about this situation, about the mall.
He said, son, do you see that house?
Yes, Lord. He said, how much you think that
house costs? I said millions.
He said, you notice anything else about it?
And I said, yeah, it looks like it's a snowbirds home, meaning
they don't live there full time. This is a second home.
He said if man can have a second home that costs millions of
dollars, don't you believe I can get you a mall?
Well, the minute He said that to me, I knew then, because I knew
the Scriptures, that He shall supply all my knees according to
riches and glory. I knew the Scriptures that He
wanted me to prosper, that He wanted a place for His church to
assemble and land for His people.
I knew this. He wanted us to possess land.
I knew this. But that word solidified my firm
persuasion. And then I never came off Never.
I would not relinquish. I would ask him, are we still on
track? Is there something different
we're doing here that I'm unaware of?
But because the last thing I heard is we supposed to do this.
And you know what? Lo and behold, it came to pass.
But it comes to pass because we believe God at His Word so
mature people can discern good and evil.
Just because you've eaten solid food at one time doesn't mean
you'll always eat solid food unless you maintain training to
eat it. Maintain training to eat it.
Which tells me there can be a time you were very proficient at
following the Holy Spirit and then later on not.
Amen. Why will a person that was
eating solid food, how can they fall back into infancy?
The answer is found in the 11th verse.
He said concerning him. I have much to say, but it's
hard to explain. And this is concerning Jesus.
I can't talk much more about Him, I can't explain more about
Him. I can't give you more revelation
or illumination about Him and His Kingdom.
Because why you become dull of hearing?
It? Wasn't that the Word couldn't be
priest. Is that when it's priest, you do
not want to hear it? So Dole has some words
associated with it. First word is slow.
That means having qualities that hinder rapid progression and
action. I know there's time to
administer the word and and I know situations that are going
on in people's lives because I'm the pastor I oversee.
God lets me be aware either by the Spirit or through personal
contact and having conversations with individuals.
And I'm realize this word is the word they just need to act on,
yet they're not acting on it. Why 'cause they become dull and
they're hearing they're slow. What could be a rapid turn
around in their situation? It's not.
And it's not because the power of the word isn't there to do
it. It's because they're choosing to
spit out the solid. And now they've become an infant
and they'll start debating the Word of God and what the Spirit
is saying. And the other spirits will begin
to give you alternative thought processes because they are not
rapid action. The thing about David is David
was quick to repent. We need to be quick to repent.
What does the word say then? Rapidly.
I'm going to do not be slow to change our thinking to the word.
Another word associated with dole is sluggish.
It means slow to respond. Don't be slow to respond when
the Holy Spirit on the inside of you says, hey, let's get this
together, let's fix this. Cause anything He's telling you
to adjust, guess what? He's empowering you.
And yet we will debate with the Holy Spirit and tell him why we
can't. Almost like, why are you even
asking me to do that? Because don't you know about all
this other stuff I've heard? Well, those voices you're not
supposed to be listening to anyway.
Another word in here is indolent.
It means adverse to activity, effort, or movement.
It means habitually lazy. So they're dull of hearing me,
which means they are lazy. And they know to do that word
requires effort out of them. But they're not willing to do
the effort. Not willing to do it.
I've been in places where you're telling somebody what to do and
they don't want to do it. They know the effort.
I remember one particular case of someone that used to be at
church decades ago, OK, that has some physical challenges and God
healed them of a disease that typically takes people out and
they began to, you know, continue to move, but yet there
were hidden issues from their childhood and it would manifest
through symptoms again. And so, you know, got a call
from the spouse that things are going on with the this
particular loved 1. And so we brought the staff
there was we took the staff and, and, and stayed in the house for
24 hours, for 30 days straight in prayer.
And you know, when you see God, you'll find some things.
Pastor Angie got the word from the Lord of what the problem
was, went to the individual, said something and they're like,
you're right. You're going to have to forgive
them. I mean, you cannot walk in
unforgiveness. You cannot.
You can go on with your show of worship and throwing your hands
up and all that theatrics, but God knows whether you have
issues in your heart with somebody.
So, you know, it seemed as we were moving in the right
direction, the one they had an issue with, they came over to
the house, they began to talk with them, deal with that
situation and, and verbally and ask for forgiveness.
And that's, and we look like we're moving in the right
direction. And I remember Pastor Angie
said, now listen, God's going to give you a new heart.
You have to allow God to completely heal what was broken
in you because of this situation.
And the individual said these words, said these words to her.
She can test. I stand up so you can testify
with me. Said these words to her.
I don't think I can. It hurts too bad.
I it's too hard. I would rather die than deal
with it. The next day would not let the
staff in. Could not show up at the house.
2 weeks later was in the grave. Now was that God's will?
But it was someone who decided they would be dull of hearing
because they did not want to deal with their issue.
That God was openly ready to heal and treat.
That person would have been free like it never even happened.
Because this is the restoration of God.
He put you in a place as if it never happened.
Come on, say Amen. He puts you in a place as if it
never happens. So we have to be honest that we
want to mature because we need to be proficient at being led by
the Spirit of God. God expects us to be LED.
This is why He gives you the fivefold ministry, which is
Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 16 again.
And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as
advantages, some as passion and teachers.
That's why the devil attacks you from being in the church and
having the fivefold ministry be a part of your life on a face to
face basis. Online basis is not it.
It is a vitamin. It is supplement.
I'm not telling you you cannot learn things.
There are some reputable ministers I like and I've
listened to stuff that they've posted online, no problem.
But they are not the ones that are equipping me.
They are not equipping me because I do not have face to
face interaction and relationship with them for the
equipment of the Saints. This is why you have them for
the work of that's the training. This is what takes you from
infancy to maturity. How do we know this?
Let's go on and continue to read to the building up of the body
of Christ verse 13. Wow until we all attain to the
unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Here it is to a what? To a what, Which tells me this
If you are not actively connected to a local body
serving that vision. You will not arrive to maturity
now. You can put on a tradition all
you want to and say, oh I can, you cannot.
You're already being seduced to believe you can.
You cannot, you cannot. God knew how this worked.
That's right. These are his words, not mine,
to the measure of the statue which belongs to the fullness of
Christ. When you do this, look at verse
14. As a result you are no longer to
be children, tossed here and thereby waves and carried about
by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the
craftiness and deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth
and love. We are to grow up in all aspects
into Him who was the head, even Christ verse 16, from whom the
whole body being fitted and held together, fitted and held
together, not separated not I've arrived and I'm going on my own
because I'm too mature for them. All right.
By what every joint supplies according to the proper working
of each individual part causes the growth of the body and the
building up of the self and love.
You know how many believers are shipwrecked and moved to infancy
because they take this religious traditional thought?
Well, you know, it's the capital C church.
You know the church is global. It's the big church and I, I, I
serve the big church. You don't serve any church.
If you're not in a local church, you have no impact on the global
one. Now I'm been in the military and
the army is the big deal, but I'm not serving the big army
unless I serve my local unit. If I don't serve my local unit,
show up, do the training, do what's necessary, when they call
the whole army up, I'll be no good for it.
You don't bounce from one unit to the next unit to the next
unit to the next unit at your discretion.
Now you can get transferred to another one so that things can
happen. I understand that.
But you understand people in the military don't say, you know
what? I've been in the Army Now, you
know, I've done this Army for about 6 weeks.
I'm gonna jump over to the Air Force, you know, because we're
all the armed forces. It doesn't work like that.
Yeah, we at like, because we can just jump and jump in any church
we want to do whatever we want to whenever we want to.
You know what that is? A spirit of independence.
Come on, That is not in God's Kingdom.
It may be in the US, but it's not in the Kingdom of God.
If he's really Lord, you're like, where are you assigning
me? Where's my duty station?
Where am I supposed to learn and grow?
And I will not let another voice Take Me Out of it.
And for anyone to pull out and then never get planted into the
next, that's problematic. Think of that thought.
Your heavenly Father is going to pull you out of the very thing
that helps you mature and then lets you wander for a season.
And what do they say? Well, yeah, but I love the Lord.
We, we do our own Bible reading at the home.
And well, I'm glad you do, but you're not going to mature.
What you've done is you're digressing.
You're losing solid food capacity because you've grown
dull of hearing, because you do not want the fivefold ministry
in your life, because if God's really leading you by the
Spirit, why is He not taking you from one right into the next?
Hallelujah. OK, let's go on.
So in Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 5, praise the Lord,
we'll move with some urgency. Now for those who are according
to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but
those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit. So whether you are of the flesh
of the Spirit is not the Holy Spirit determines that, and it's
not even the Father that determines that.
You determine this, you determine this, He said.
For the mind set on the flesh is death.
The seducing spirit will tell you you can live according to
the flesh and not die. It's the same thing, he said in
the garden. You're not going to die.
You know you're not going to die if you give to your flesh.
It's OK every once in a while to give to your flesh.
It doesn't really matter for the mindset.
Now, you can make a mistake, that's one thing.
But a mindset is a person who practices, and you're always
looking for the opportunity to fulfill the flesh.
For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the
Spirit is life and peace. Because the mindset on the flesh
is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the
law of God, for it is not even able to do so.
And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Why can you not please God? Because you can't live by faith.
You're not even hearing the word of God.
You're dull of hearing, you're sluggish, you're lazy.
Now I'm not talking about you, I'm just saying a general thing.
Now that that person is, is sluggish, lazy, they, they are
not quick to action and change. They want to do what they want
to do, and as a result of that, they're going to find themselves
in death and definitely going to go back to infancy and eating
the milk of the Word. He said, however, you're not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed, if that's a conditional
statement, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not
belong to him. And that's obvious.
If you're not born of God, then the Holy Ghost doesn't live in
you. If Christ is in you though the
body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of
righteousness. Meaning you're not subject to
the flesh that you're in anymore.
You don't have to do it what it craves.
You can stay with the Spirit. But if the spirit of him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through his Spirit who dwelling. That just means even though your
body's decaying, He can keep you healthy so you can finish your
assignment. That doesn't mean He quickens
your mortal body so that you can do the things that the mortal
body likes outside of the Spirit, because that's deeds of
the flesh and that's where death shows up.
So then, brethren, you are not under obligation not to the
flesh to live according to the flesh.
Just because your flesh talks to you doesn't mean you should obey
it. You're not obligated.
He goes on to say, for if by for if you are living according to
the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are
putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Here it is verse 14 for all who are being led by the Spirit of
God. These are sons of God.
We in the church have traditionally accepted that if a
person confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior at some
juncture in their life, that slam dunk, they are born again.
Done. No problem and there's no
further evidence required. However, if someone has done
that, there will be evidence. You cannot truly have accepted
Christ as your Lord and Savior and it not change you on the
outside. That is a seducing spirit saying
just ask Jesus into your heart. Ask him forgive your sin, but
you can do whatever you want to do.
You understand there's the grace of God is going to allow you to
do this. You can go back to living like
you used to live doing what you used to do, and don't let nobody
tell you anything otherwise because no works got you in and
no works are going to keep you there because they take all that
out of context. You don't actually have to
change it all. All you have to do is just ask
Him to come in and you can live life like you want to.
You're good. That is a doctrine of the devil
because a person born of God will not fulfill the lusts of
the flesh. They're not wanting to do it.
They have no desire to do it. I mean, it's talking, but they
crucify the flesh. He goes on says, for you've not
received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but
you're receiving a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry
out, ABBA father, wow. And this amazing the spirit, the
spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are what
children of God. So we are children of God
because we are led by the Spirit of God, which tells us God
expects us to only follow the Holy Spirit's voice and another
one we're not supposed to follow.
But you will not be able to proficiently follow that voice
without continual training it doesn't have.
It's not automatic in the sense that you'll always get that
right. You immediately have access to
hear and your spirit does hear the Spirit of God the minute
you're born again. But in order for you to become
proficient at following that voice, you must train yourself
to be able to follow that voice. And if you are deluding or or as
one the scripture says, be sober minded.
There are many believers that have become intoxicated not from
the things of the world, but just from things being
associated with the Bible through people who are not
rightly dividing it. And you'll get intoxicated with
all types of doctrines. This is why Ephesians 4 says you
won't be carried away by them. I mean, Jesus knew there is
going to be all kinds of stuff out there.
There is a pathway to truth and it is straight and it is narrow.
I mean, He let it out plain is narrow, but unfortunately how
many find it because most become dull.
Amen. Luke chapter 4 verses one
through 2. It says it this way.
Jesus full of the Spirit returned from the Jordan and was
led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days being
tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those
days. And when he when they had ended,
he became what? Now?
The first temptation that Jesus faced with is to fulfill his
flesh. You're hungry, aren't you?
Yeah. I'm.
I'm hungry.
Well, if you are the Son of God, why don't you turn this rock
into bread? Because that'd be nothing for
someone that's a child of God to have that kind of authority.
Come on, prove it. Now, could Jesus have done that?
He sure could have. Which means he could have
wielded power to feed his flesh. Now I'll give you another
instant that we know this works. God told Moses speak to the
rock, but he hit it twice. The first time he hit, he said
hit, strike the rock and water come out.
It did that same anointing in power cause water to come out of
the rock when he hit it twice, but it satisfied A fleshly
impulse. And what did it cost Moses?
It killed his ability to take them into the Promised Land.
His purpose died because He sowed to the flesh using the
anointing. It's dangerous to use the
anointing to satisfy your flesh. Jesus could have, but He did
not. Jesus is a prime example of what
it means to move in maturity because he did not allow his
circumstance to dictate his response.
How did Jesus respond? It is written he cast down the
thought of the devil and to act on that thought that was given
to him by another spirit and he only listened to what the Holy
Spirit was telling him that was in line with the Word.
The Holy Spirit and the Word are always in alignment.
The Holy Spirit is not telling you something contrary to what
the written word has said. Now here's the thing.
We've said this before as counsel.
You know what you need to follow?
Peace. OK, I'm going to.
I'm going to help bring clarity to that statement.
The devil will offer you peace when you are in a turbulent
moment called a trial and tribulation that the Lord will
deliver you out of all your trouble.
The devil will give you a peace place.
It will seem peaceful. So you can't just follow peace
from a situation. You must follow a fruit.
And I know many people who've made decisions not because they
followed the fruit of peace, but they followed the situation of
peace. Come on.
That's good. Well, if I do this, I'm going to
be at peace. It's just more peaceful.
I'm in so much trouble. But if I could just get out, if
I could just go here, if I could just, I believe the you told me
to follow peace. No, you're following situational
peace. You're not following the fruit
of the spirit peace because the fruit of the spirit will take
you straight to the devil and you can have peace in the middle
of the fight. Isn't that awesome?
He'll put you right in the middle of a battle.
He'll take you straight to a storm and let you sleep in it.
Hallelujah. So peace is not your
surrounding, is something literally internal.
It's not looking for the place less chaotic, it's the place
inside where you're at. Perfect peace that I've heard
the Lord on this deal. And I don't care if this storm
rages, it will cease. I'm not moving off my mark.
Amen. So Jesus was led by the Spirit.
He did not succumb to the flesh, and He did this because He
stayed with the Word. Let's close with this passage of
Scripture in Galatians chapter 5.
Y'all doing all right? Amen.
Praise the Lord. Now what?
OK, but I say walk by the Spirit.
We'll learn how to walk. Walk by the Spirit, what will
happen? You will not carry out the
desires of the flesh. That's pretty simple.
And if you are have ears to hear, you can know real quick
that if you're ever in a response that's moving you in
the flesh, then you can say, you know what?
I'm not walking by the Spirit. Amen.
Come on, I need to walk by the Spirit here, because if I walk
by the Spirit, I'm not going to carry out the desires of the
flesh. 17 says this. For the flesh sets its desires
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for
these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do
the things that you please. Let me read this out of the New
Living Translation. It says it this way.
The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite
of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires
that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires.
These two forces are constantly fighting each other so that you
are not free to carry out your good intentions.
They're always fighting. This is why a person can grow to
maturity, proficiently hear the Spirit of God, but then have a
situation happen in their life or give heed to the wrong voice.
And because they're slow to deal with that voice, they can go
back to infancy. I'll give you some some great
statements that come from the enemy.
You know what? You've served a really long time
at that church. Yeah.
Come on. You should really let somebody
else do it. I mean, you know how much you've
sacrificed. Wow, You have so many rewards.
I mean, I think you should probably stop.
Let someone else don't always. Yet the Lord hasn't told you to
stop. Now, your body had talked to
you. Your age had tell you.
Yeah. And most people do it not
because God's telling them, but because they model their work
life with their church life. Well, I'm retiring from work.
I'm going to retire from serving in the church.
That's good. How do you retire from who you
are? I mean, how does my arm retire
from being on my body for 55 years?
You know, I've served you well. I think I'm going to retire.
I'm done being an arm. You know, I want you to take me
off, take me to an island and I just want to get dark on a
beach. That's what I desire.
I desire to tan. So take me there.
I'm done. I don't want you to.
I don't want to pick up another thing.
Does your arm do that? Aren't you glad it doesn't, that
you don't wake up one day? Like, where did it go?
That would be problem. But yet we treat the church like
we're not a body. The cool thing about the things
that the Spirit is that you get stronger in it year by year.
Though your outward may be decaying, your inward is getting
stronger and stronger. You're being renewed every day.
His mercies are new every morning.
You're being renewed continually in the Spirit.
And if you do what the Spirit's telling you, even with your
physical body all the way along, you'll get even further life
being strong physically to carry out what God's called you to do
Say Amen. Hallelujah.
So verse 18. But if you are led by the
Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident.
What are the deeds of the flesh? Immorality, impurity and
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions envying,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I
forewarned you just as I have forewarned you.
Those who, what, who, what? Such things will not going to
inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruits of the Spirit are
joy, Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ
have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the if we live by the Spirit, let us also, you
know how many believers are alive by the Spirit but aren't
walking by the Spirit. You can be alive by the Spirit
and yet not walk by the Spirit and not walk.
Hallelujah, Amen. And in these last days, when
there's so many voices, so many voices, so many voices out
there, you must become proficient.
You know, I'm surprised, to be honest with you, how well the
enemy has done to attack the fivefold ministry that God would
place an overseer in your life to help grow and develop you.
And yet when you go to make certain decisions in life,
you'll go to God, make those decisions, and then never have
any conversation with the pastor about it all.
A pastor, true pastor is never going to control your decision
making. In fact, I would let you make a
mistake. I would, I would tell you
though, I remember one particular couple years ago came
and honestly, we're going to leave the church.
And I'm like, I mean, they were telling me it's my last service.
I'm like, OK, and and this is how it's framed now.
You know, we've been praying and we believe the Lord wants us to
leave. Well, in my spirit, the Lord
didn't say leave. And I was like, OK, so when,
when are you leaving? Well, we're done.
It's our last service. I said, OK.
I said, wow, it's interesting in the world because you're a
leader, you have you're in leadership position, you're
overseeing things and you're going to leave right now.
Last service service is done and now you're telling me on your
way out yet in the natural people do a two week.
The world does this and you're going to tell you my heavenly
Father is going to create a hole in the ministry.
I said no. Now this is where it gets real
touchy. That's where it gets touchy
because God forbid I tell you, you heard the Holy Ghost wrong.
God forbid that. Now the reality is, can I hear
wrong? Yes, just like you can hear
wrong. But ultimately it's going to pan
out who's right and who heard right.
And when it's evident who heard right, the one who was wrong can
easily go to the other one and say, you know what?
You were right. I'm glad you stayed with the
Spirit. I was wrong because there's no
issue when you really have the heart of God.
But I said, no, I don't believe this is where you need to be.
It's not what God wants. Well, they ended up, you know,
going on now they they had some other issues and we were working
with them on that as well. So I knew in the spirit they're
just a one is 1 is avoiding and is pulling the other.
This is not good. Six months later, they were
divorced. So did God want them to leave?
Nope. No, but they told me they
prayed, they heard God, They're following peace.
No, someone had a motive, someone God was speaking to to
help train. You know, I've had people come
up to me throughout the years and say, you know, the Lord sent
me here, He's going to take me to the next level here.
Then when we try to get them to another level, they leave.
And then I get in trouble for it.
I mean, again, LG, stay, come here.
LGLG does personal fitness OK? I mean, that's like you going to
LG as a trainer, right? LG he's my trainer.
And I say OK, LG, you know, it's time for me to get some bigger
legs. I need to really have some
bigger legs. You know, yours look awesome.
Mine do not. And So what can we do about it
now? What am I doing?
I'm subjecting myself to him now.
Are you going to put me in pain? There you go.
Can we're honest. You don't grow muscles and it
feel good. It hurts, but it's OK.
And so when I'm doing that other wall squad, let's just pretend
you're making me do wall squats. This is my three thousandth 1
and I'm hurting so bad and and I come back and he goes, do one
more. I'm going, I'm done with you.
Don't tell me. Listen, you don't get to the
next place. You don't get to dictate to the
trainer how to be trained. It's his responsibility to see
your weakness and train you past it.
And what the Saints are doing is they're telling the pastors, the
apostles, the evangelists, the prophets and the teachers don't
be training me. I got the Holy Ghost.
OK? And when you're going into
ministry, guess what? There's training.
You got to subject yourself to it because we want to be fit
like LG. Thank you.
Right. We want to be strong.
Hallelujah. And then when you're quit again,
ushers, would you come so we can do communion in the last of the
last days? Man, the enemy's really good
again. Why is it dangerous for those
that get dull a hearing? Because they're armed with
scripture that now they use to keep themselves deceived in
their decision making. If the fruits of the spirit are
not functioning, you're not in the spirit.
If whatever situation you're in right now, Lovejoy, peace,
patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, long-suffering,
self-control, those things are not functioning and you're
aggravated, upset beside you're in the flesh over it.
And This is why a lot of times you want to be able to come to
those that God has given oversight into your life because
they aren't having to deal with your emotional scarring.
What they're able to do is say what does the word say?
And it's OK because I would tell LG this hurts, I hate this.
That's the worst exercise I have ever done in my life.
If it was up to me, I would never do that.
One of which he could say I understand, but you're not going
to have this leg if you don't. And when he modeling it?
No, let's let yourself be trained because we just want you
to walk. We just want you to walk full of
the Spirit and not be seduced in these last days.
Amen.