Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message Podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. But this goes along with our
message today because naturally, first look at First Corinthians
chapter 15, verse 46. I love today.
I love today so much. I love today #1 because no one's
going to complain. It's cold.
No one's going to be upset about the lights in your eyes.
I see many people not having to wear sunglasses right now.
And I'm not saying those are complaining people.
Lights are an issue. I get that.
I'm just saying we don't have that today.
My point is, is it's not necessary.
Again, it's not necessary that I have to put the scriptures up.
It's not necessary. We have to put the word.
It'd be nice to actually learn them so you can sing them
yourself. I mean, we've turned into a
karaoke generation. I can't even do worship unless I
see the words. Come on, are you hearing me
'cause it's not actually in your spirit.
Amen. How you going to be able to take
notes today? I mean, you should be.
There's so much content. But in First Corinthians 1546 it
says this. However, the spiritual is not
first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
Wow, I'm going to say that again.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the
spiritual. We have become a society that
has disconnected from the natural and we think we're
spiritual. Hallelujah.
Now the context of this particular verse is about a
resurrection. OK, but it is talking about a
natural body and it says and let.
If you want a spiritual body you're going to have to 1st sow
a natural one because it says the first Adam was earthly, the
last Adam was of heavenly and you're not going to get over
into heavenly until you deal with the natural because God
made man natural First Genesis chapter one verse 26 and 27
says. Then God said let us make man in
our image according to our likeness and let them rule Over
the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the
cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth. God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he created them male and female, He
created them well man came from the spirit but before man came
to earth. Look what happens in Genesis 27,
says Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground.
What did he do? Formed man from the dust of the
ground. What did He do?
Formed man from something natural.
Then once the natural was first, he breathed into that natural
dust suit and he became the breath of life and the man
became a living soul. Natural was first, then
spiritual, because he had to create a natural body to carry
the Spirit. Jesus Christ has to come in the
form of a man, so he must put him in a natural suit.
And that natural suit was woven in the womb.
Now, before we were ever in our mother's womb, God knew us.
He knew about us before the foundations of the world.
So in the realm of the Spirit we exist, but we do not manifest
till the natural shows up First, the natural will cause the
spiritual to get into play. Are you hearing me?
So with that being said, notice natural spiritual example.
Now let me just say this, you can naturally do things and it
not be spiritual to a degree. Now that I just said that it
came out of my mouth. We may adjust that everything
you're doing natural is impacting something spiritual.
Let's say it that way. Everything you're doing natural
is impacting a spiritual realm. Adam is made in the image of
God, both male and female. Him, Adam and Eve.
They were in the nature of God, like God, the DNA of God.
They thought like God responded like God had dominion, like God
on the earth. They were supposed to function
this way. Or you hear what I'm saying.
Within the confines of the natural realm by which they were
to have dominion over which means.
Then when they exercise the spiritual dominion they have
through the natural, then it would manifest on the planet.
It would be when it was released from the natural into the
spirit. Are you hearing me?
So then we have Adam and Eve in the garden with God.
Perfect world, no sin. It's amazing this supernatural
man contained within a natural body doing natural things.
Look what it says in Genesis chapter 2, starting in verse 15
said. Then the Lord God took the man,
put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
That is a natural assignment. But that natural assignment will
produce spiritual things, he then says.
Then the Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of
the garden you may eat what freely, but from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, For on the day
that you eat from it you will surely die.
So here's Adam, who was naturally, when naturally
hungry, going to any tree other than the tree of life, and when
they pick from it, eat from it, it still contains life.
Their environment stays life. Their personal life stays life.
Their connection with God stays life.
God can walk in the cool of the day and spend time with them,
and there's no hindrance, No Fear, no issue.
It's oneness. It's amazing.
Every time they pick from a tree, whatever tree, wherever
except one, Life goes on in the garden, dominion goes on,
spiritual authority goes on, power goes on.
Their dominion goes on. Because every time they function
naturally in the will of God, it releases the spiritual.
But. A serpent comes in.
Are you hearing me? And he says to the woman, has
God not said that you can't eat from any tree, so that isn't it
just one? And he says to her.
You're not going to die. Now notice he needs to hear the
word of the king, because in order to hear the word of the
King, I must know truth in order to start a lie.
But notice saying a lie doesn't change the spiritual just
because he introduced a concept foreign to Adam's thinking.
It doesn't change. The atmosphere doesn't change.
It 'cause spiritual life is still in operation.
But we understand if they're eating fruit it must mean they
were hungry, 'cause you all know we're really not eating if we're
not hungry. Now I understand sometimes we
just eat because we're bored. But they didn't have a boredom
problem. I'm at the house.
I'm bored. Let me go grab something because
I you know I need to. Right.
That's a different issue we're going to talk about a little bit
later today. OK, that wasn't their reason.
They're like, oh, I'm bored. Let me go grab something.
No, they were natural beings. They were supernatural spirits
in a natural body. Are you hearing me?
So as a result of that, they then hear, but it doesn't change
the spirit realm. What changes the realm of the
spirit? Natural first, the minute Eve
takes the fruit, eats it according to Genesis 3/8 right
and then or six hands it to her husband.
Then he eats a natural bite. Oh y'all, don't want to hear
this. Fine.
A natural bite had a spiritual implication.
So much so, it's still in the earth today.
A natural bite has a spiritual implication.
And now it's in the earth today. Still there, still there, still
here, still in the earth. Because one man's transgression.
What was his transgression? He disobeyed God.
We could even say it this way. He disobeyed God in his heart
before he ever ate it, but it wasn't till he actually ate it
that the environment. No Eve eats and his eyes aren't
different, nor hers. Are you hearing me?
He's already considering eating because he's watching her.
If he wasn't considering, he'd say don't eat that.
You know what the king said? Who you talking to?
My wife right now. You better get up out of here,
'cause that's against the king. That's against our Kingdom.
That is not what the king says. This is his.
We don't touch this, we don't eat, We do not eat this.
And if he would have stayed with that thought, but because it
resonated in the inside, for him to but it did not come to the
earth until he ate. And the.
Minute. He sunk his teeth in, began to
chew. I'm going to go as far as, say,
a swallow, because it's pretty specific.
You got to eat it. Then everything changed because
of a natural action. We have disregarded our natural
so much that we act like the spirits release beyond without
our natural involvement. We have made the things of God
so really demonic in response instead of how God intended.
Well, it's naturally it's first because what I am a natural
being natural. I'm in a natural realm, and the
only way the spirit can be released is through my natural
responses to the Spirit. I don't speak in tongues without
my own tongue. And you'll never speak in
tongues if you don't let your natural tongue voice what it's
hearing on the inside. You're not born again until
you're doing something in the natural.
The natural brings for the IT is a layer of communication.
OK, let me preface that because again, what if a person can't
speak? However they communicate is
their confession, and it is still an open confession that
identifies their heart, what they are intending to do by
faith. And that natural first opens up
the Spirit. So a verse that we tend to
overlook most of the time is First Thessalonians 523.
It says Now may the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely.
Entirely. Say entirely, say entirely.
Look at your neighbor, say entirely, OK, not partially.
If we don't watch out, we want a partial change.
We just want to be changed in our spirit.
But he wants an entire entirely be sanctified.
Sanctification is to have an entire impact on you.
Come on, y'all doing all right. Yeah, glory to God, he goes on
and says this, he says. And may your spirit and soul and
body be what preserve, complete without blame at the coming of
Our Lord. How in the world can you keep
your body complete when it's mortal?
How is it that your body can be complete when you know you're
getting a glorified 1? Now when it comes to the new
birth, we know that our our spirit was dead without Christ.
And when we confess Jesus as Lord, we became a new creature
in Christ. The old passed away.
Behold, all things become new in our Spirit.
Inside what you can't see, the real you became in Christ a
spirit alive to God. Who wants to hear God?
Who wants to obey God? Because that's all it really it
knows to do. It wants to stay connected to
life, and it can hear the Holy Spirit that comes and lives on
the inside of you. It bears witness with you that
you are a child of God and it wants to release this on the
inside. The problem is, there's two
areas of you that are natural and that you've lived in those
natural places. Because when Adam fell from
dominion, not heaven, he resorted to living naturally
only in the context that he could not go to the spirit of
God, but he had to ignite. He's now limited to his Spirit's
dead cut off from God, and he's limited to live only by what he
sees and by what he sees. He'll respond that way based
upon feeling, emotions, and the new nature that he is, which
then his natural responses now usher in the spirit of death.
This is why people cheat on their wives.
This is why people fornicate. This is why people are in
pornography. This is why people, you know,
don't do right with their money. This is why people why 'cause
they're connected to a dead spirit and they always model it
in their natural that's why they gossip.
That's why they lie. Nobody told you to lie, but you
open your mouth. There is no such thing as gossip
if you're not talking. But they're talking, so they're
natural releases the spirit realm they're connected to.
If Adam had never eaten the fruit, then we only would have
been connected to the spirit of life, and our natural would have
only released the life of the spirit.
But now that we are actually raised in a society where we've
all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, then we now
are so connected to death. We speak of it, we feel from it,
we respond by it. We we've lived by it.
But God, being rich in his mercy, He died for us, gave us a
new spirit to reconnect us with the spirit realm of the Kingdom.
But in order for us to pull that realm in, we've got to get our
natural side together 'cause our natural side is what short
circuits are spiritual. This is why Paul said I can't
even come and speak to you as spiritual people.
Why 'cause your naturals in the way you're carnal.
You're not allowing the spirit in you to be released through
your natural you're arguing, you're fighting, you're
comparing. You got jealousy that's not from
your spirit. That's a part of your Nat.
You got to repent, change your thinking.
You got to renew your mind to the Kingdom.
Guess who's in control of mind renewal?
You are God does not open your head up, snatch your brain out,
pop you another one in, and you're instantly thinking,
right. You have to renew your mind.
How do you do it? Through your body.
How do you renew it? Through your body.
You have to sit and look at the scripture.
You have to then meditate on. You have to do.
You have to put your body into subjection to so that your soul
realm can get into a place to be renewed.
But if your body controls you, then you'll never renew your
mind. So This is why he says in First
Thessalonians 523 that if you're going to have a spiritual
impact, you're going to have to have your sanctification
happening in your soul and body realm, 'cause I have seen the
body has become the greatest prison of most people, 'cause
they cannot control their body. They're stuck in prison.
Now look what it says in Romans chapter 8.
Hallelujah. I mean, do we want to change
Saint Johns County and Saint Augustine?
We want to continue to increase. Guess what?
We're going to do some natural things like naturally build a
bigger building, right? I mean, this is a test in
putting your flesh down right now, and you're doing a great
job. We can do this.
I I've come to find out. This is why I've kept myself in
certain places and I make myself do certain things.
Why? Because I want to stay
conditioned in certain environments.
I've said this before, I would hate to get to a nation and
there is an unreached people group on a mountain, and I
couldn't get there because I wasn't physically conditioned
enough to go, because I let myself go so bad that God
couldn't even use me. I'm carrying a message that I
can't even carry. Now look what it says in Romans
812 through 14. It says.
So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to
live according to the flesh. For if you live 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 for all
who are being what led by the Spirit of God.
These are the sons of God. How do we know a person's LED.
It shows up in their natural, their natural releases, the
spirit in the earth. How do I know you're being
spirit LED? Because it shows up in your
natural it manifests, it comes to pass.
It shows up based upon you obeying the word of the Lord.
It is a pudding to death, the flesh or the deeds of the body.
Meaning things stuck to a natural world only and
responding through what we see only that's actually connected
to a spirit realm called death. Are you hearing me?
You're close, but I'm keeping my jacket on, Galatians 220 says
this. I've been crucified with Christ.
It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life
that I live now. Are you hearing me?
I live now in the flesh. I live how?
By faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for
me. So there's this thing that God
wants us as Saints to do, and that is to live entirely
sanctified in every part of our being.
As we've said, we are spirit, we have a soul and we live in a
body. Notice we're keeping them all.
Now when I say keep them, we'll still keep a body to just be
glorified. Our mind is being renewed daily.
But you understand when you get out of this confines of sin,
when that's stripped off and you get in your glorified body, your
mind's really going to open up. I mean, we are not even open up
our minds, not even functioning at the capacity that the first
Adam functioned when he was first here.
But again, listen, we won't even be limited to natural only,
because we'll actually have a glorified body, something that
Adam himself didn't even have. Are you hearing me?
So with that being said, we still, because of the power of
the Spirit, is able now to affect the other two parts of
our being so that they stay in alignment with God's Word that
now my mind doesn't control me, nor the abuses put upon it.
My body doesn't control me, nor based upon the abuses put upon
it or the self indulgences that have been put upon it.
And if we want to release the spirit in everything we're
doing, we need to entirely get it all together.
Because I'm telling you, you are a walking billboard, You are a
walking billboard. And people will determine the
Kingdom first by looking at you naturally.
If you naturally get aggravated, everything, meaning you
demonstrate frustration, people be like, well, 'cause.
It's different when you get around a person who exercises
great patience, long-suffering, who knows how to hold their
tongue. And you only hold your tongue
because you make your body shut up, because your mind's like,
say it, say it, say it, say it, say it, then hit him, hit him
first, then say it. Right.
David Mackey would say the old man would, because he knew what
the old man was. Let's talk about that.
Romans chapter 6, starting in verse four.
He says. Therefore we have been buried
with him through baptism and to death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too
might walk in newness of life. We might, we might what?
Walk now to be born again. You are new born of God.
Your spirit man cannot get any more like God.
We just trying to release what you already are.
But you're not going to release who you are until you get the
other two areas under control, and now you're strong enough to
do it. Not only you yourself in the
spirit, your spirit man, but the Holy Spirit living in you will
strengthen you to do it as well. Hallelujah.
Are you hearing me? But we might walk in newness of
life if we get the other two under control.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His
death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection, Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with
Him in order that our what body of sin might be done away with,
so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.
Notice that something doesn't say our spirit of sin, but our
body of sin. The reason we were so proficient
and sinning is because our natural dictated our decisions
all the time. If it felt good, we did it.
It was our natural responses alone because and it always
produced the death. But that body of sin is dead,
meaning you don't dictate how I respond.
Now you're not. It's no longer left alone to
your decision making. I have a spirit in me that's
alive to God, and I got the Holy Spirit in me too.
So you're now subject to something different.
You don't control me anymore. You don't own me anymore, you
don't tell me what. In fact, I'll decide if you go
over there or not. And if you go over there, how
you respond, I'll decide the real side.
And then when I decide how to do it, it will release the Spirit
in that situation, he said. For he who has died is free from
sin, so you have no excuse. Well, you know I can't.
Yes, you can. I can't help it.
I just know. Yeah, you can.
You're choosing to let the other two aspects of your existence to
be unsanctified. You're choosing to live unruly.
You're choosing to live against the nature you are.
You're choosing to not release the spirit of life through your
natural Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from
the dead is never to die again. Death no longer is master over
him, for the death he died he died to sin.
He died to sin, not for sin to sin.
Now he died so that our sin would not be accredited to our
account. But notice that he died two sin
once and for all. Why is that?
Because no matter what sin comes after his death, he's paid that.
Why? He's already taken care of that
and sin no longer has a right over you should you become a
child of God and let naturally first release the Spirit.
He goes on and says this. He died to sin once and for all,
but the life he lives he lives to God.
Even so verse 11, consider yourself dead to sin.
You have to consider this. Paul is writing.
Paul knows righteousness. Paul is the master at writing
the subject of righteousness. That you are the righteousness
of God in Christ. Yet he tells the righteousness
of God in Christ to consider to not sin.
And that's what he's saying. Just 'cause you've been made
righteous doesn't mean you can't go back to living in sin.
Doesn't say that yes, you've been made righteous.
Now let the righteousness manifest.
But in order for it to manifest, you're going to have to get
control of the other two realms, those natural realms.
And once you subject those natural realms to what's going
on in the spirit, then those natural realms will release the
spirit. Come on, you're hearing me, he
said. Even so, consider yourself to be
dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ.
I mean, the 1st 10 verses of this chapter is saying that
you're dead to sin, dead to sin. If you've made Jesus the Lord of
your life, you're dead to sin because of grace.
Shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?
May it never be? How can you live to sin when
you're dead? If you're dead with Christ, then
you're dead as well. He says all this, and then he
said, now consider it. Which means you're going to have
to change your thinking on how you respond to things of death
or the spiritual side of death. And the only way you're going to
do that is by getting control of the other two realms.
Verse 12. Therefore, do not let sin.
Do not let it. This is the person that's made
righteous. Now that you've been made
righteous, it says do not let sin reign in your mortal body so
that you obey its lust. I mean you're born again,
sanctified, redeemed, set apart unto God in the spirit.
And he said don't let sin reign in your body.
So if sin's reigning in your body, is it God's fault, whose
fault is it? Because we're not controlling
our natural we're not subjecting it entirely through
sanctification. We're letting it tell us how
we're going to do verse 13. And do not go on presenting the
members of your body descend as an instrument of
unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
to God. Wow, why is this important?
You know what the spiritual life is embedded in the ability for
you to control your natural realm, and most of us abandoned
the natural realm, acting like we're spiritual.
However, your spiritual side is not going to manifest until you
control your natural, because it's through your natural that
your true spiritual realm shows which ones having the rule or
reign. Are you hearing me?
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So unless you control that by
your spirit and make those two areas, the soul and the body,
submitted to your spirit, then it will still rule you even
though you have a reigning spirit on the inside.
Wow, she's beautiful. Wow.
Had to come see the baby. I hadn't seen her yet.
No cameras. I can do what I want to do
today. So I am going to give you some
practical thought processes. And these practical or more than
practical, they are spiritually charged because the minute you
can evaluate yourself in the realm of natural things, you're
going to know where you are on spiritual things.
I had some people come over from other churches, quite a few,
actually. Quite a few other churches that
have come over and have asked my staff, is it required to be in
great shape to work? For the ministry, yeah.
They required. Well, it's not a requirement,
but I have learned that when I subject myself to certain, in
essence there are certain things I do in to my body to tell it
you don't own me. The Bible says this physical
exercise profits what's it? Comparing it to spiritual
things. But it's not never saying forget
your physical exercise, it's a waste of your time.
Doesn't say that. It's saying if I was comparing
the effect of natural exercise to spiritual exercise, it's not
even comparable. But I would tell you this, it's
really on a matter of intensity. What do I mean?
I mean, if you go, Wayne, where you at?
Wayne, come here, Wayne. Go to the front.
OK, go all the way to the front, Wayne, so everybody can see you.
Wayne, how much weight have you lost?
67 lbs. Now you think that you know this
is? Don't get offended, just go
ahead and drop your fence now. Wayne had some serious health
challenges. In the form of cancer that he
was dealing with the staff, we were praying with him, taking
time with him. You know what?
And God did some very supernatural things in his life.
But some things that happen in your body is a byproduct of just
your body, OK. And so we said, Wayne, you need
to exercise. So Pastor Marcy put him on his
exercise regiment. You know what it was?
This is it. This is where?
Where he lost 67 pounds. Are you ready for this?
Every day after work, he walked around the mall.
How many times? Seven times inside, four times
outside. Four times outside he did.
What's that about a mile? One mile after work.
That's all he did. Then he made some adjustments in
what he was ingesting. Obviously I'm saying £67 left
not because he went. And where people get it in their
mind that if you go work out, you got to look like Pastor
Mike. That is not the case.
Not everybody has to look like Pastor Mike.
Not everybody aspires to look like Pastor Mike.
Not everybody has to be. You just need to be your fit
'cause you have a fit and you can answer the question right
now. Are you at your fit?
Thank you. You can sit down, Wayne.
Thank you, Wayne. 'S now Wayne.
Wayne, as you're going, Were there days you did not want to
walk where there are multiple days?
Did you walk? Anyway, You know what Wayne did
that day? You don't control me, I control
you. Now, why is this so powerful?
Because if you can't control what you can see, then I'm
telling you right now, you have a hard time controlling what you
can't see. Coach Hurley, we condition those
boys naturally because it gives them longevity towards
championships. I'm fixing to read that thing.
That means they submit to Y'all's program.
Do they feel like it? Probably never.
Any day, right? I mean, we lied to the drill
Sergeant because the drill Sergeant made us lie.
He said come on in the cadence, make it hurt.
Drill Sergeant, make it hurt. Right.
We would say that we didn't really mean that we didn't want
it to hurt, you know, But we said it, you know, Are we done?
Give us another one, drill Sergeant.
Give us a nut like we want. We're dead.
I mean, we're already a muscle failure, man.
Our whole body's shaking like, please, can I just go get a
drink of water? Right.
But they were conditioning us for a fight bigger than us.
Because what happens? What you don't understand is
when you attack the body, you begin to actually strengthen the
mind. People think that mind renewal
or the sole realm is solely in the area of knowledge.
Meaning the minute you read the word, you know it, you're going
to do it. Most people do not do what they
know in their mind because they can't keep their body in
submission, can't do it, even though they know in their mind
not to respond that way because they've not conditioned, they've
not taken dominion in their natural realm.
Says no, you're not going to make me do that today.
And I'm going to beat you today. I'm going to beat you today.
You're going to do what I say. I can tell you every time.
I mean probably at least 25. Only 25% of the time has it been
like, I want to go. I love to go.
It was amazing. The rest was I heard don't go
you're tired you shouldn't. But every time, every time
except for 5% do I leave saying thank God I went.
The other 5% is not thank it. It is a thank God.
But it's more like this stinks cause I've been out.
Gosh, and that hurt. I wish I wouldn't have quit.
I wish I would have stayed consistent.
This is the thing about you becoming a spiritual force is
that you need to learn how to dominate your natural
consistently. Ministries are not popped up
overnight. They are consistent.
They pound, they go, they do the intangible, they do the
fundamentals. Championships are won because we
do the fundamentals, we do the fundamentals.
If you're failing in the fundamentals, we go back to it
because we're not trying to get you on the top ten highlight of
ESPN. We're just trying to get you to
do the fundamentals. Because if you'll stay
consistent and if you'll consistently tell your body no,
you're going to get up and pray. Today.
How many of you are like, I just need to get up earlier and pray,
and then you don't do it. Why?
Because your body says, And what do we do?
We justify. Well next time, well next time,
well next time. What I'm saying is the Bible's
very clear. If you want a spiritual impact,
you're going to have to dominate the natural first.
You're going to have to do that period.
Now at the end of the day, if everybody was in shape, your
shape, we're still not going to look the same.
We're all going to look different.
We're all going to be different. And it depends on what you're
training for. And we're all in a training.
Look what it says here in First Corinthians Chapter 9.
I'm going to go 24 through 27 and I'm going to read out the
passion it says. Isn't it obvious that all
runners on the racetrack keep? Long running to win, but only
one received the victor's prize. Yet each one of you must run the
race to be victorious. You're going to have to run.
You're not victorious just because you're born again.
A true athlete, which implies a false 1A faker, A wannabe, a
true athlete will be disciplined in every aspect, practicing
constant self-control in order to win a Laurel reef that
quickly Withers. But we run our race to win a
victor's crown that will last forever.
I mean, true athletes, they can't just go to the gym.
They got to watch what they're eating, their diet, their their
sleep, their who they hang out with.
I mean, how many athletes have gotten in trouble 'cause they
hung out with those who were boozing, running to the club.
Now they're paying child supporting the people they don't
even one night, you know, or they got in trouble, you know,
there was that one Gator that was a tight end.
I'm trying to think of his name. I've seen right now that, God,
what was his name? Hernandez.
I mean, what talent but couldn't control his mind got caught up
in killing somebody. So God is saying to us as
believers, you want to be spiritual?
Well then let me see your whole life, Get it together, 'cause
what we can't control, that we can see.
I'm telling you, you're going to have a hard time in the spirit
pop. Jesus literally says to Tim, to
Thomas Thomas you needed to see me right in order to believe
said bless those who without seeing can believe.
We have taken that to a context that we act like we don't need
anything naturally occurring yet.
But how do you see God now? The word manifests in someone
cause the word always becomes visible and the reality is I
believe what I hear, then I have to act on it.
Which means now I'm going to have to deal with the natural to
release what inside is being spoken.
I got to realize, man, I'm training.
There's a race to win. There's people's lives to touch,
to impact, to see overcome. People that can.
This is why people that already have a natural discipline when
they really make Jesus Lord can excel so well.
Why? Because they've they've already
conditioned themselves to be able to overcome.
I cannot tell you it was the will of God for me to go on the
army. I cannot tell you that.
I mean, really it was kind of out of frustration, you know,
angry at my mom. And it really, it was grief.
My dad died and I had gone to school for that year extremely
unfocused, you know, And you know, it was just a a process.
Long story short, I'm like, I'm, I'm done.
I'm going to go, I'll just join the army.
And my brother-in-law convinced me to go into the National Guard
because if I don't like it, it's only a weekend drill.
If I love it, I can go in full time.
I had options, right? So I took the advice, you know,
just to run. But I will tell you this, the
discipline was amazing for me because by by nature, prior to
that, in what I did, I was pretty gifted with not much
effort, especially in my mind in academics.
I was not the smartest person, but I was not dumb.
I would have been the smartest person if I would have actually
exercised it more in the realm of the natural.
I was already learning that because I did athletics and I
had won some championships and it required me to condition.
I was already learning how to keep my body down, especially
when I had to make weight for weightlifting and I was
overweight. All right, because I was too
fat. I was 125 and I need to be 1/23
and 1/4. So I was just this fat guy that
had to lose a pound and a half. See, fat's relative OK is what
I'm saying. I need to get down into the 123
LB class and 1:25 HE. Would say you're too fat.
They would. You're too heavy.
That's saying in a nice way, you're too fat.
To compete at this level, we have to go up a class.
OK, so I know what it means to run in trash bags, to sit on a
toilet, to release weight. I know what that means, Why I
had to condition myself. I had to put my body down.
But in order to be competitive, I actually had to put my body
down to be able to do weight, you know, And Coach James was
not a nice guy. He was not especially on the leg
press, because when we push the leg press with the little
plates, I'm talking about the universal type, he would say.
Now you got to touch it like an egg could be in there.
It's got to tap real easy and then come back up.
If I put an egg in there and you break it, then you know it don't
count. So you're like, OK, we're going
to do 10 reps, ready? Go 123334555.
I mean, I should have been done by now, but the clank, he makes
me keep doing it and your legs are shaking.
I mean, how do you get it quiet when your legs are shaking,
going down, right? But you submit yourself to the
natural to produce something else.
And the body of Christ has become very lethargic.
So I put myself in multiple environments, like what we're
doing to you today. It'll condition you.
Because right now Patricia and Eloise, who was 7-8 months
pregnant at the time we went to Nicaragua, it was three times
hotter than this right now. I mean, it was fiery furnace
stuff. What in hell yet?
But it was hotter. It was 7 times hotter than hot.
Are you hearing me? I mean, the women did not
perspire. They were sweating profusely,
Profusely. There was sweat everywhere.
They were sweating like crazy because it was hot.
But you know what? You conditioned yourself and
you're like, I remember when I did my first mission trip
overseas and I had to come back. It was horrible.
It wiped me out. It was the most horrible thing
in jet lag. I've never had jet lag since
because I said I'm going to eat different, I'm going to train
different, I am not going to come back and be wiped out here.
I am trying to make a spiritual impact, but I can't make it.
I can't come back home and jump right into it because my body's
all jacked up and we want to be spiritual at the expense of our
natural. I got.
I got ministers that are six years older than me fixing to be
60, and they're talking about transition in their ministry.
Why? Because they can't.
They don't have the physical stamina to keep going.
Why 'cause they disregarded the rest.
You know what? It showed up in their services.
Why 'cause they wouldn't take natural They wouldn't take
risks. To grow.
That means I'm going to have to naturally have more money.
I'm going to naturally have to build, I'm going to naturally
have to go through this process. I'm going to naturally have to
do that. But in order for the spirit to
show up in all those processes, I've got to start the process of
the natural first. I don't need to see the money to
have the money, but I got to start the process naturally.
Because if we stay understanding the goal that we've heard in the
Spirit and then begin to speak it out into the natural, the
naturals first and the Spirit will follow.
And we'll turn back and say, wow, look what God has done.
But he didn't do it because we weren't naturally connected to
the Spirit to release it into this realm.
Nor did we not submit to what was necessary when I look out
into this auditorium today. And I see.
All who showed up knowing there was no air condition.
I'm pretty excited. For those who didn't know it,
Surprise. Right.
Surprise, surprise. If we want to make a spiritual
impact in government, Anila just gave me a statistic of the
government officials that are representing us in Washington
compared to the population of the United States, they make up
.01%. Yep.
Which tells us the greatest influence is the local
government. And if the church really wanted
to make a difference in their community, then they would
naturally get in that sector of society to bring a spiritual
effect. What do we do?
Let's pray for our government. Now there's a natural side of
that 'cause it takes you naturally, praying spiritually,
But yet we think our government's going to change if
we never take a seat. Yet God needs you to naturally
run so that then your natural everyday sitting on the seat can
make a change. Because you can say you would
have wisdom to refute the stupidity and the the the things
that are in error are from the enemy, the dark sayings that are
only natural. As James says, they've become
demonic and evil. You would have a voice why
'cause you actually naturally ran.
And I'm telling you, in the next five years I should have a
county commissioner attending this church faithfully.
Seriously, aggravate church should have that kind of
influence. So someone needs to answer the
call in our school boards if we're going to touch the sectors
of society, we got to go there. Now the reason why family counts
is they're they're begging us to do another class this year.
But it create, it requires natural bodies to come and
submit to the weeks, to condition themselves, to put
down their TV and their own wants and desires, to be able to
invest in someone else, to change their lives.
We're not going to avoid this just by being spiritual.
In fact, we're not even spiritual unless we're naturally
motivated. We have to be able to say here I
am, Lord, send me. God did not do things in the
earth without a natural man or woman.
And but when they went naturally underneath his authority and
leadership, then he supernaturally showed up.
In fact, if you look at Mozi like Lord, here we are.
There's water. They're coming and going to try
to kill us. What do you want me to do?
He's like, why are you talking to me?
I've already anointed you. I gave you the staff.
You've been performing miracles with the thing lifted up, man.
So he naturally first and then spiritually, the water obeyed
and it parted, dried the ground and they walked through it.
Oh, we're believing. God, finance, There's NASA.
You got to naturally bring the money.
Minister and spirits are out there doing their part, but you
got to naturally go work. It says they had to go.
He's giving you the power to get wealth, not give it to you while
you lay on your couch and eat bonbons.
Man don't work. A man don't eat.
I don't care how much you praying in the spirit.
You've got to get your hands out there and do something.
Get connected. Get out there and in a pool, in
a harvest. So don't ever reduce yourself to
this. Oh, I'm spiritual and you have
no natural connection to what's going on.
Every one of us have a naturally first part to play, to be
spiritual, and the first place starts with us just getting
ourselves together every January.
Many of you have said this year I am, and the only reason you
didn't, it's because you let that part dominate you.
Hey, I'll be the first to raise my hand.
I've had many things in that I wanted to accomplish and the
only reason I didn't is because I didn't because the only thing
stopping it. Is me.
We all go here. The Bible says the Spirit and
the flesh battle daily. And when we say the spirit and
the flesh, we think the flesh of just thoughts and things.
No, it's you. I mean it's fleshly to let your
body tell you not to get up. Now do you think the Holy Ghost
can tell you you should rest and he will?
No, he will. I mean your body can only take
so much. Period.
So there's no issue with rest. In fact the ground God says we
going we going to cultivate this thing for 6th year like nothing
but the 7th year don't let it rest so that the the nutrients
the things and I got you back in the sixth year we going to have
so much that it carry through the 7th year, 8th year before
you start pulling the harvest off the 9th.
Year. Right.
So there will be a, but we're not even listening to the rest
of the Lord. All we're doing is listen to our
body every day. And let me tell you, it talks
louder when you eat a lot of sugar.
I will say that. Huh.
I mean, I've gone to some restaurants, man, Have you gone
there? You eat all the bread and the
cupcakes and all that stuff and then you leave and then a few
hours later you're like, I mean, you want to take a nap.
So what do you do? We go get a cup of coffee.
I mean, it's no different than a person taking drugs that are
uppers and then they're doing Downers.
Oh, y'all don't want to hear that.
That's fine. I'm not dumb enough.
I'm not so dumb that I don't realize what food has a part in
the play. Now, I can't tell you what to
eat. That's the Bible says that don't
tell people what they should and shouldn't eat.
You got to eat what's right for you.
But what I am saying is you know when things affect you and how
it affects you and you can say, you know what?
I'm not doing that anymore. Or you know what?
If I'm going to allow myself to have that, I'm not going to
allow myself to have it at the expense that it derails all that
I'm doing. And I'm telling you if you can't
do it in the natural. You're not doing it in the
spirit. It's not going to happen.
So you need to say what are. Some things I can naturally do
to Take Me Out of my comfort zone.
And I choose to do them so that I let my body and my mind know.
You take orders from the inside and then you'll condition that.
Do you know what in this room, right there in this room today
and I'm not being maybe maybe one today in this room
currently, but I do believe that they could as well all of you
could run a marathon. I'm not saying fast.
Maybe I'm not even saying in one day.
What I am saying is you could condition yourself because there
there's there are people that are 8090, a hundred years old
running and some of them didn't start till later.
They were not lifelong runners. You know what they decided to
do? I'm going to.
And then they began to submit to it.
You can write a book if you submit to it.
You can write a song if you submit to it.
You could read 15 other books this year.
If you submit to it, you tell yourself what to do.
Well, you know life. Life doesn't control you.
You control life. It should be your goal to find
something that's a little uncomfortable.
And say I'm going to do this because I'm telling you, when
you do it, it will impact your spiritual resolve.
That way, when the attack comes, you'll be like, well, no, I'm
not going to accept that word. And you'll actually do the fight
of faith. You'll stay consistent.
You'll stay with the word. You'll stay with your
confession. You won't pull down.
Why? Because you'll have something on
the on the outside that you've already proven I dominate.
So when he says prop exercise profits little, he's saying if
you would just figure out how little that is, it will make
huge spiritual implications. Because an hour workout, it
takes you an hour to get that results.
You can get stuff done in the spirit in extremely less time.
What takes decades to build in muscle you can do in moments in
the spirit in comparison. But both require the exercise.
Both do. Are you hearing me?
Let's pray, Father. We love you and we honor you.
Think we. We're at our limit?
We should be today, Father. They're natural things we have
to do to build this church. Revival's not coming just
because we say it is. Revival comes because we
naturally come together in prayer.
Revival comes to get comes because we naturally partner and
get in different sectors of society and release the Kingdom
of God. There are things that were done
through the natural that affected the Spirit.
For moves of God to come, the rain to come by the Spirit.
There are things that you have on a timetable and you're
wanting them to move, and they're always exceedingly,
abundantly beyond what we did in the natural.
But our natural released the overflow of the Spirit because
it's not first the Spirit, then the natural.
It's the natural first, then the Spirit.
That's why sometimes the service Lord, you speak to their hearts
and you say go down and worship me up front.
And when they yield to that response by naturally moving and
coming down, it has a spiritual effect in their life.
But if they sit in their seat, they do not get the spiritual
effect. That comes with the obedience of
moving in the natural, moving their natural in connection with
that word. If you tell us to dance, if you
tell us to shout, if you tell us to be quiet and we have to
control the natural, and when we respond to it correctly, it
increases the spirit, it releases it.
Just like when there's the call to salvation for someone to be
born again, it's not because Jesus hadn't already paid the
price. It's not because the blood
hasn't already been shed. It's not because from his
perspective, he's already forgiven you.
It's you naturally responding to his message, then believing in
your heart and confessing with your natural mouth.
Jesus Christ is Lord, and then you're born of God.
It's the same way when you get baptized in the Holy Ghost, you
hear from heaven. You know you want the power you
come to receive it, and sometimes it's administered
through the natural laying on of hands, just like healing can be
administered a spiritual power. That shows up.
Through a natural touch, for Jesus naturally took stripes
upon his back. For a spiritual healing plan, he
took on a natural beating. So we could have physical.
Healing to our natural body that came by the Spirit, the natural
first, then the Spirit Father. May we not disregard the power
that we possess when we subject our natural to what we're
hearing in our inner man and when we act on it in obedience.
That natural response to the Spirit in US will release a
spiritual power is how your Kingdom shows up in the earth.
Your Kingdom comes through our natural expression of what we've
heard. So, Father, whatever your head
bowed in, every eye closed, no one's looking around.
If you're here today and you've never made Jesus the Lord of
your life, you cannot be born again unless you respond.
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