[Music] [Music] [Music] in the book of Acts chapter 1. I was preaching last week and I gave thought to the relationship between being filled with the Holy Spirit and being demonpossessed. What is the difference between how the spirit of God operates within the life of the believer as opposed to what disembodied spirits want to do in the life of the sinner?
I contend and I will go to my grave believing this that you cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit and have a devil occupy you at the same time >> because filled is filled >> and if and if you're filled then I don't see that there's any room for anything else. Uh I've heard it debated and uh people argue uh that saints need to have devils removed. Well uh I would suggest that saints need to have uh devils removed but saints are covered through the guarding power of the Holy Spirit.
>> Uh again it gives a sense of strength to the individual who is empowered by the Holy Spirit. And that means that you have a connection to God that does not need anybody else to intercede. There is only one mediator between God and man and that is the man Christ Jesus.
So if you go with me to the book of Acts chapter 1 and about verse 6 says when they therefore were come together they asked of him saying Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power, but ye shall receive power. " After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, in all Samaria, in Judea rather, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. It's very interesting that the very last words that he spoke before, Mhm. Somebody's doing something shouldn't be doing uh on the way out.
Somebody's out there doing Father, whatever it is, fix it >> in Jesus name. Whoever is being threatened, let your blood cover them now in Jesus name. >> Amen.
It is interesting that I remember when my father uh passed and I was with him a day or two before, but I left and I came here uh from Syracuse that my sister Grace uh was with him when he when he transitioned. And of course the interesting thing was for all of us what did he say? What were his last words?
Uh we just wanted to know because last words become quite significant when you love somebody and they're taken away from you. What did he say last? She spoke about uh what he said to her and and all of that.
But what he did for me was he left a letter to give me after he was gone and he told the person that when I die, give Noel this letter. So I received last words from him indeed. And in fact, he asked me to preach a message that I haven't yet preached because I I got to figure out and I can't ask him because he's gone.
But uh I got to figure out how would I present what he wanted. I haven't figured it out yet. But it was important because it seemed as if he was talking to me from the grave.
And when you look at last words from an esqueological viewpoint, all of us hold and live by the last words. It is interesting then that uh Jesus's last words were to tell his disciples that you need to think differently than your thinking because I have something for you that is going to supersede anything that you could ever have. But you have to think differently than your thinking.
Uh, it's interesting because sometimes we don't know the questions to ask even when we're in the presence of the Lord. Can you imagine being pulled into uh the presence of the almighty God and you still don't know what to pray for? Uh yes, it's it's really it's it's a problem for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.
And because of that, I had a question the other day. The spirit has to make intercession for us because even in the presence of the Lord, we don't know what to ask for. It's an interesting dynamic that we can become so narcissistic.
We can be so selfish. We can want our ways to promote us and yet still we're in the presence of the Lord and we don't know what to ask him for. Now let's even make that more difficult.
Uh the disciples were with him for three years. I mean they were with him night and day. And the truth is if you study the gospels carefully, you will find that in many instances they ask some very pertinent questions and some questions that we needed to hear the answers to and of course the good questions throughout his ministry and they received answers which enhanced their spiritual growth.
But whenever we lose sight of the big picture and that is that God's will is the only significant will in our lives. Whenever we lose picture of his will for our lives, sometimes and listening to the latest kind of preaching and uh oh yeah, for the last 50 years, it seems as if we hire God and we run God around like uh we rub the Bible in the name of Jesus and the magic uh genie comes jumping out and we say to the genie, "Well, here's what we want and the way we are taught whenever it doesn't come to pass we feel as if we have been cheated. What we're asking God to do is to fulfill our wills but we never seem to ask him to fulfill his will in our lives.
So consequently because we have a proclivity uh yes a tendency in this particular text they had a traditional nationalistic tendency and they wanted to be superior to all the other nations and they're still struggling with that today and that is Lord when are you going to restore the kingdom but when you move from the will of God for your life to what you want God to do for you whether or not it suits him then we are going to ask a miss. There is no question in my mind even when you pray for your daily bread you do not say give me my daily bread but give us our daily bread. It's something about going to God that when you go to God, you have to ask what is his will for your life.
Uh three years under the greatest teacher the world has ever known and not only has ever known will ever know. And they still didn't know that Jesus was not primarily concerned with their personal superiority and their personal aggrandisement. He was not concerned about their personal politics and their social philosophies.
He was not concerned about their self-righteous promotions. He's only concerned about doing the will of him that sent him. Uh let me tell you something.
When you're in the will of God, the devil has no power over you. Oh yes. When you're in the will of God, it doesn't matter who does not like you, who hates you, but nobody can hinder when you're in the will of God.
Uh I I feel all right. All right. Uh uh I I I'm not scared about any enemy when I'm walking according to the will of God.
Uh, I've got a few people out there that already had me with a heart attack last week or a few people. I I told somebody called me all the way from across the world and I told him I said, "Now, uh, I don't know what the future holds. " Uh-huh.
But I ain't got one now. Uh, all I got now is a praise for the Lord and lift up his name. And uh when you when you're in the will of God, the only time I worry is when I'm walking outside of his will.
When I'm not doing what I should do, then of course I'm vulnerable to the enemy. Because what I've done is I've left the safe place to walk on territory that the enemy controls. And when you're walking where the enemy controls, you can look for trouble.
But when you're walking where the Lord would have you to walk and talking like the Lord would have you to talk and living like the Lord would have you to live, you can look the enemy in the face and say, "Get under my feet, devil. Uh, you have no place right here. " He committed them.
He committed them to the cohesiveness of building his father's spiritual kingdom with men and women who are committed completely to his will no matter what the cost of even life itself. This is why in his teaching he told them, "He who seeketh to save his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. " Uh, isn't it interesting that we just celebrated a woman who is 97 years old who moves around with the lucidity and flexibility of a 30-year-old, 97, and shout her way across the pull pit.
But what has she been doing with her life? The testimony of her life is you can find her on the street carrying a cross. She's witnessing and praying and reaching out to bless and touch the lives of everybody that comes close to her.
That ought to tell us something that somehow God gives sustenance and life. He said, "If you walk with him, he will bless you even into your old age. " I I feel like preaching here.
I think selfishness gets you killed quicker than anything else. Narcissistic, selfrandising, egomaniacal living gets you more trouble than anybody else. But God gives grace to the gracious, gives favor to the favorable.
He blesses those who bless others. Mercy to the merciful. I'm telling you, you we just got to give somebody high five.
It's early. It's early, but just touch your neighbor and say, "Rarrange things. " Uh-huh.
Re just rearrange things. You want to be blessed, bless somebody. You want to go up, take somebody up.
You want to have power, empower somebody. You want to be delivered, deliver somebody. Whatever it is you want for yourself, do it for somebody else.
And watch God turn the thing around. When we seek his sake, we die for his sake. And we'll find his life together.
self center instead of Christ center misses Christ's intention of spirituality and breeds division for those that is no common denominator. This is why he says my kingdom is not of this world. So the question I have to ask in studying this message and that is is my kingdom of this world because if my kingdom is of this world then I am a part of the problem.
The solution to any problem is when I am operating in his kingdom and he says my kingdom is not of this world. I want to get involved with the politics in America, but if I get involved with the politics of America, I'm going to leave the kingdom without my support. Every now and then, you got to shut your eyes to what's going on the outside, get close to God, and let God work it out.
I just believe that if enough of God's children will get on their knees and call on him to fix things, then he will do it according to his will. Uh let me put it another way. Uh before I get happy, I I want to put it another way.
I believe that in the times in which we live, if there is a shift from where we are right now, then God is giving us time to repent. If there is no shift, then God is saying, "You better be ready. " C.
Can I say that again? If there's a shift, God is saying, "I'm going to give people time to repent. " If there is no shift, then his people better be ready to get up out of here.
I believe it. I believe it. We are not living in the time that's before the end.
We are living in the end time. Uh-huh. Look at the shift.
Israel, Iran, Russia, and China. and check Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and you will see when you walk according to the will of God, nothing will happen to you suddenly because the Lord prepares his people. And if you study your word, uh-huh, and look into the things that he speaks of, you will get your house in order.
Get ready. Get ready. I wish Bishop Jake were here.
He can say it better than anybody. But get your house in order because no man knows the day nor the hour. So you got to be ready all the time.
That's why he says don't be a part of the problem. I go to prepare a place for you, not I come to prepare. So I need you to think Holy Ghost power.
I need you to think kingdom power. I need you to think church power because but ye shall receive power not for yourself but to do something for me and that is when you receive power you shall be witnesses unto me and you will receive inherent power. I want to talk to the children of God here who believe you got to lean on a preacher for your power.
I want to talk to some folks who believe they got to scroll through to find somebody who can cast out devils in their space. When you receive the power of the Holy Ghost, you receive the power to cast devils out all by yourself. You ain't got to pay an offering to cast a devil out when you have the Holy Ghost.
I wish I could preach this thing here. Uh give somebody a high five and say, "Neighbor, for the second time, what's wrong with my Holy Ghost? Uh why do I need your Holy Ghost when I have the Holy Ghost that I have received myself?
Why should I pay you to cast out a devil in my house when I'm filled with the power of the living God? I I need some church members to grow up. Sit down.
I I blow a fuse. It's critical to understand this that when I am walking according to his will, I will receive dunamos which is inherent power. Before I get happy, I want to say to you that you and I are in a position that the Old Testament saints didn't have.
What they didn't have was inherent power or that power that is inseparable from who you are. Many time you were filled with the Holy Spirit, the spirit now is inborn, which means he has taken a part of your life and is moving to control your will through controlling your mind. very different from the demonic spirits that operated in our lives before and that is the demonic spirit wants to reduce your mind.
That's why the demonic spirits like you to enjoy mind altering substances because the demonic spirit wants to control your mind. The Holy Spirit wants to enhance your mind and move in your mind to control your will so that your will is in harmony with the spirit of God. What the demon wants is he wants to eliminate your choices, eliminate your will and leave you addicted to something that satisfies the flesh.
That's why disembodied spirits are searching for a body to satisfy whatever is going on in them because that disembodied spirit cannot enjoy unless there's a body. It has a feeling without a body. Can I take it a little deeper?
You see, I believe hell is when the individual's spirit and soul is separated from God. This is why you need spiritual longing, spiritual desires. Because if you end up with fleshly desires when you get out of here and you have no body to fulfill it, hell is having desires that you can't fulfill.
But heaven is having desires that you can fulfill. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the Lord. I I feel like shouting here.
you. We got to we got to grow. We got to grow to the next level.
And that is if I'm broke, I have Jesus. If I'm rich, I have Jesus. It doesn't matter what I have if I don't have Jesus.
Because when this life is over, I have to live with him. Ah, I feel it here. I'm almost there.
I'm feeling good. The volume of Israel's relationship with God is replete with the activities of the Holy Spirit in Israel's history. The very creation is the beginning of the Spirit's work.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The spirit then moved. I've got news for you.
When the enemy comes up against you with a flood, expect the spirit to move. When the enemy is conspiring to bring you downh who don't care anything about your fulfilling your purpose, when people come in your life who try to kill your destiny, expect the spirit to move. When people come and bring darkness into your world and bring witchcraft and sorcery around you, when people are fooling with Ouija boards and trying to detect and trying to say what's going to happen in your life that's negative, expect the spirit to move.
Because wherever there's darkness, the spirit moves upon the darkness and tells the child of God, "Let there be light. " I feel like preaching here. Ain't nobody can confuse you when you're filled with the Holy Ghost.
Ain't nobody going to trick you if you follow the leading of the spirit because the spirit will lead and guide you into all truth. Liars don't live by the spirit. Uh I I feel like preaching.
Hypocrites don't live by the spirit. Uh uh-huh. People who want to deceive you aren't living by the spirit.
But I thank God I'm filled with the Holy Ghost. And sooner or later you will be exposed. [Applause] Oh yes.
And so then when you send your spirit, this is why when God spoke, the spirit acted. It was forming. It was shaping.
It was vitalizing. It was renewing and beautifying. Listen to the psalmist when he saw it.
He said, "When you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth. " In Exodus chapter 28, they were given special gifts by the Holy Ghost. In Exodus 31 and6, the craftsmen were skilled through the power of the Holy Spirit.
They recognized the Holy Spirit operating on men in crisis. In Judges 6:34:14 and 6, the Holy Spirit came upon men, gave them power, entered them temporarily in Isaiah, rested on them in Jude, stirred them, but the Holy Spirit was not in them. The Holy Spirit just used them to do what he wanted them to do.
The spirit achieved mighty deeds through these godchosen men to act upon. But there was no abiding presence. They didn't go to sleep with the Holy Spirit.
They only had the spirit to work on them. The presence of God was not abiding. He led by a pillar of cloud by day.
He led by a pillar of fire by night. Strong men were influenced by God's spirit. But there was no dunamis.
There was no midnight wake and shake. How many times have you been going through something and don't know how you're going to come out and in the middle of the night while you laid up worrying there was a shaking in the househ didn't come from the outside the shaking came from the inside. How many times have God consoled you in the middle of a situation that you couldn't understand?
And that's why he can declare you have peace which passes all understanding. Touch your neighbor for the third time. Say that's Holy Ghost peaceuh.
Uhhuh. That's Holy Ghost peace. That ain't husband peaceuh.
That ain't wife peaceuh. Uhhuh. That ain't children's peace.
That's Holy Ghost peaceuh. That peace that you have when everything's crazy around you. That peace that you have when your enemies rise up against you.
That peace that you have when your boss is trying to fire you. That peace that you have when the government is going crazy. I will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me.
And I've got news for you. The Holy Spirit only knows the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit only knows the blood of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit only knows and speaks of Christ that's in your life. Oh, they had flashes of power. But generally, God's people were crushed and formless like the prophets and the mighty men without the spirit.
They could not achieve God's mission in their world. They failed to achieve the land of Canaan. go led by manpower.
When they went into Canaan, they looked at the giants in the land. And they said, "We we're just grasshoppers in their sight. " That's because they didn't have the Holy Spirit indwelling.
I've got news for you. Ah, I remember years ago, I don't know if you're a historian as I am, but years ago when Kennedy was up against Cruchev when we were having the problem with Cuba when they put the missiles in Cuba and we had this cold war. Well, here's what Kennedy said.
No, here's what Cruchev said when his men said to him, "Well, Primeir Cruchev, America is a paper tiger. " And the response that Cruchev made to his men was, "Yes, they're a paper tiger with nuclear teeth. I got news for you.
I don't care what you look like on the outside. And you might look real frail on the outside. Uh you might be crying a lot on the outside.
Uh but I promise you after you strip my flesh, uh you'll run into something you don't want to deal with. That's the power of the Holy Ghost. I may be crying, but I'm still filled with the power of the Holy Ghost.
And after a while, I'll get down so low, but then it'll bring me back up with a mighty hand. Am I talking to somebody that's filled with the Holy Spirit? Give somebody a high five third time and say neighbor Holy Ghost power is right every time.
The Old Testament fellas, they were miserable failures. They were professional complainers. They were defeist thinkers.
They were constant doubters, selfish quitters and seasons frowners. No wonder the prophets looked to a better day when he looked through a new people. And I heard Moses declare, "Would that all God's people would prophesy?
" It is Zachariah that shouted, not by power, not by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And here comes Jesus. The word and the spirit and the blood agree in one.
If I'm looking at a spiritfilled person, I'm looking at somebody who's going to come out all right. I'm looking at a spiritualfilled person. I'm looking at somebody who has fulfilled the words of the Lord.
When Joel when he said in the last day sayeth the Lord I will pour out my spirit uh on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Uh your old men shall dream dreams.
I'm dreaming. Uh but your young men shall see visions. Uh are there any visions in the househ?
Are there any visions in the household for the fourth time and said neighborhood for my life? Devil thought he had me. Thought he'd destroy me.
Thought he'd walk on me. But every now and then the Lord shows me weeping may endure for a night, but joy is coming in the morning. Oh, young men.
Do I have any young men in here? Throw your hands up, young men. And I counter declare to you, uh, the vision is coming your way.
Cuz when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, there ain't no stopping you, when God begins to open your eyes and show you where he wants to take you. And you need to believe him. Because when Jesus came, he delivered the natural and inseparable quality of God.
Uh the word, the blood agreeing in one, the spirit who is the dynamic Christ. He said I've got to go. They said don't leave.
He said I got to go because if I don't go the Holy Ghost won't come because I've got to die so I can release the spirit. I don't want to be on the outside of you. I want to be on the inside.
I want you to walk with me. I want you to talk with me. I want you to preach with me.
I want you to shout with me. I want you to live with me. I want you to walk, talk, live, move.
I want the power that I have to be in you. I want the power. Give somebody high five.
I'm getting ready to close. And the last day I heard him when he said, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me. " You got to have the spirit.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Look at your neighbor. Say, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach, to heal, to deliver, to recover, to set at liberty even the broken heart, to release the captive.
Give sight to the blind. Set at liberty the bruised. Shake your neighbor.
Say, "Come up out of there. You got the Holy Ghost. Get up out of there.
It's time to change your world. It's time to change your household. It's Somebody holler.
I have the Holy Ghost. I'm ready. Think power.
Think deliverance. Think joy. Think strength.
Think lifting. Think vision. Think determination.
I'm filled with the power of power. This is a Holy Ghost fil church. Act like it.
Talk like it. Walk like it. Shout like it.
Pray like it. Preach like it. Deliver folk.
Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here.
Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music] and you shall receive power. Shall receive power, Holy Ghost. [Music] Holy Ghost.
[Music] Oh, come let us know. I know you adore somebody. God's calling you now.
Walk out. The Holy Spirit is still being poured out. The Holy Spirit is still being poured out.
And all you have to do is believe and trust. Come out of your seat and say, "Lord, fill me full of the Holy Spirit. " He promised it and he always keeps his promise.
And you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Come on, man. Come on, woman.
If you're online anywhere, there's a number on the screen. Call it right now. Somebody will touch your life.
Somebody will pray for you. And you don't have to be in their presence. God will fill you with his spirit right there, right where you are.
No matter in Africa, no matter Australia, no matter where you are. That's why Zom writers said, "Oh, come let >> let us adore him. Come let us adore him.
Oh come let us adore my I know it's a little high for your p but he alone is worthy. Lift your voice and sing. Oh, he is worthy.
Fill him for him. Can I put on it all? He is worthy.
He alone. He is worthy. Alone.
He alone. He is worthy. [Music] [Applause] >> Lord, we thank you for your word today for your presence in this house that you would be with us in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our shortcomings.
that you would be with us when you declared you never leave us, you never forsake us. We thank you today. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that you have placed in us.
And no matter how dim things look, we expect the victory. We expect we expect the shift. We expect to come out.
We expect to come out with praise and power. We expect to testify of your goodness and your power and your strength in all the earth. So show off your children.
Show off your brother, my brother and my sister. Show, show them off that men may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. Put my brother on a shelf.
Put my sister on a shelf and point to where you brought them from so that we might give you glory. And I speak it in Jesus name. Somebody give God a praise throughout this house.
This is the time. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hallelujah.
