so i want to talk to you this evening about ascending the mountain of glory going to higher places in the presence of the holy spirit higher places in your walk with god now we understand that everything that god is resides in us we understand that all that god offers has been given to us by the holy spirit we understand that we don't need more of the holy spirit but rather we should learn to surrender more of ourselves to him so when i talk about ascending to higher places in the spirit i'm not just talking about receiving more of god because that's not possible you can't receive more than all of him i'm not talking about receiving more power that's not possible you can't receive more than all of the power of god which resides in you luke 1 35 refers to the power of the holy spirit as the power of the most high meaning it is the power of god that comes upon a life when the holy spirit comes to dwell and we know that according to romans chapter 8 verse 9 that those who are born again have the holy spirit the moment you are saved you have the holy spirit the moment you give your life to him he's yours you belong to him it's a covenant he comes to dwell in you in fullness in the fullness of his power in the fullness of his grace everything you need to pray everything you need to understand the word everything you need to worship john 4 24 they worship in spirit and truth everything you need to evangelize boldly everything you need to drive out demons everything you need to heal the sick everything you need to preach the gospel everything you need to have confidence in your salvation everything you need to receive instruction from the lord everything you need to understand the word all of it is in you the moment you gave your heart to jesus the moment you receive this free gift of salvation so i'm not talking about a tedious burdensome religious approach to trying to find these higher places i'm talking about greater levels of surrender i'm talking about allowing that which is in you to become manifested around you i'm talking about releasing that which god has deposited in you already now i know that the enemy can lie to us i know that the enemy can try to persuade you that perhaps you were the exception to god's grace that you were the exception to the receiving of the holy spirit at salvation the enemy will try to throw in your face your past mistakes your flaws the character traits that aren't quite polished yet and if we're not careful we can become convinced that we're lacking we can become convinced that we are without i want to talk to you instead about approaching this from faith so it begins in the spirit it begins in knowing who i am in him it begins in being firmly planted in my relationship with christ through the holy spirit by faith and by grace so when i talk of ascending that mountain i'm talking about the fact that your nature begins to disappear and god's nature begins to shine scripture declares enoch walked with god and he was not for god took him i told the lord lord i want to be a was not too he simply was not he ceased to be i'm talking about a fellowship a union in which your presence and his presence become indistinguishable from one another i'm talking about the ripping away of self and it is a tearing a shedding of the old mindsets a shedding of the old self a shedding of your former ways the higher up the mountain you go the less of you that goes with you i'm talking about a death to self i'm talking about truly being alive in christ no longer i live the scripture declares but christ lives in me this means that where i step my foot the christ steps his foot this means that when i go to lay my hand the christ in me goes to lay his hand as well my hands become extensions of his i become an expression of god's divine presence in the earth when i begin to allow him to strip away so i want to look at exodus chapter 24. before i go on reading i do want to reiterate again that when i talk about this i'm not talking about receiving more i'm not talking about coming to this from the place of frustration because the reality is that when you come to the place of frustration frustration is a great initiator a terrible sustainer frustration will move you to come into an encounter but if you're constantly living in frustration my question to you is why are you lacking why are you constantly finding yourself in these cycles i want to talk about how to break those through ascension so go to exodus chapter 24 and we're going to look at moses interaction with the lord exodus 24 i'm going to read beginning at verse number 12 and what i want to do is i want to go verse by verse now understand the context here is that moses was called to the top of the mountain god picked him out of all of the children of israel god picked him out to lead god marked him god sanctified him when he encountered the presence of the holy spirit in exodus chapter 3 and it was the presence of the holy spirit in exodus 3. when moses encountered the presence of the holy spirit notice that when he came into contact with that fire that it produced in him a desire to bring deliverance to a people whenever you come into contact with the presence of the holy spirit god's desires will become your desires and that fire transforms something in you so moses was called by god he was hand selected by the lord and god began to call him he gave him an invitation he gave him a royal invite to come to the top of the mountain and fellowship with him the mountain was a place to seclude with the spirit it represents alone time with god it represents removing all distractions and standing before him just you and him let's go to verse 12.
then the lord said to moses come up to me on the mountain stay there everyone say stay there and i will give you the tablets of stone on which i have inscribed the instructions and commands so you can teach the people so first and foremost we see that when god invites you to come with him on top of the mountain he commands us to stay there the issue is that many of us make contact with god but we don't abide in the manifested presence we don't abide in that time with him we touch and we go and we try to treat god like we treat everything else in our lives now please this is very dear to my heart let's not stand up and just get up in the middle of my message because these are things that are deep in the spirit things that god has deposited in my heart and me sharing this with you is me opening something that's very very very important to me so we must reverence the truth here so the holy spirit will invite us to the top and he calls us to abide there not to come and go and that's the issue with some of our mindsets regarding the presence of god we imagine that there is this coming and this going of the presence of the holy spirit but let me make this very clear the holy spirit does not come and go jesus said i will send you another he will be your advocate and he will never leave you that's what jesus said so when i go to this place of prayer i must understand that this is not a place that i visit this is a place where i abide and it's in the abiding that we find the true power when you go to the top of the mountain some of us we make the climb we find the presence and then we leave and i'm going to show you how that looks we come to the lord burden with mindsets burden with today's cares burden with responsibilities frustrations with ourselves things that we see in ourselves that we just wish we didn't struggle with and these are the things that can burden us when trying to ascend to the mountain of god he calls us to the top and as we move we're tethered to the world by the things that distract our heart and mind how many times have you gone to pray maybe 20 30 minutes go by and then you realize i didn't do much praying or you begin to try to commune with god and suddenly all of the things that were corrupt or sinful or shameful in your past begin to distract you go to philippians 4 6-7 i want to show you something philippians chapter 4 i'm going to read verses 6 and 7. there's a lot packed into these two verses philippians 4 6 and 7 says don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell god what you need and thank him for all he has done then you will experience god's peace which exceeds anything we can understand his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in christ jesus now first and foremost i want you to notice that the scripture says don't worry about anything instead pray about everything do you realize that worry is simply the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer worry is how your flesh prays and we worry because we think we're in control you know what worry is like it's like me when i'm driving or riding in someone's car as the passenger and they're not breaking fast enough for me and i start pressing my foot onto the floor even though there's no there's no break there [Music] that's what we're doing when we're worrying we're we're pressing on an imaginary break that we don't have we're tensing because we think that somehow we're going to solve it and we imagine that by obsessing about it long enough and hard enough that we're somehow going to solve it worry is a useless attempt at control worry is your flesh's counterfeit for prayer so what does the bible say say don't worry about anything now this is easier said than done like many of the things that we read in scripture but the scripture is quite literally telling us not to worry about anything now i don't know if i'm quite there yet i was sitting with the man of god who told me a story about how he was in a plane crash or so they thought they were going they thought the plane was going down there was some issues with the instruments and they woke this man up they said you have to wake up you have to wake up we're having trouble with the plane he wakes up frustrated with them he said why did you wake me up jesus slept through the storm i'm gonna sleep through this maybe one day i'll be there but don't worry about anything pray about every do you realize that that when you're worried your emotions become entangled in your prayer life worry chokes out the faith from your prayers so what does the bible say instead pray about everything now watch this tell god what you need and thank him for all he has done then then then then when then so this is a sequence of events stop worrying start praying tell god what you need now here's what's interesting to me the scripture declares that god delights in every detail of our lives yet yet we've been taught that when you pray for something you're demonstrating immaturity the prayer request is probably the most criticized form of prayer how many times have you heard quit asking god for things and just love him why is that it's because when we come from a religious mindset that religious mindset will cause you to forget that you're a child who belongs to god do you realize that the prayer request isn't just a distraction to prayer it's not some lesser form of prayer sure it's more basic but that doesn't mean it's least important i want to show you something here because this will change the way you pray and when we're talking about going up the mountain and talking about abiding you have to understand that in order to ascend the mountain you must disconnect from the flesh so how do you disconnect from this body i'm not talking about a physical death so please don't go putting these videos on youtube and just posting that section okay i'm not talking about physical death i'm talking about disconnecting from that person who worries taking off that shell of who you are so that you're free to be who you actually are in the spirit now how do you do this because it can become a struggle if we're if we're not careful and and in fact we become so desperate to encounter god that that desperation and that focus on the encounter those themselves become a distraction to actually encountering god all of these things start to cause worry but the bible tells us here to tell god what you need and thank him for what he's done this tells me that i can be thankful for what god has already done while also asking him for more it is not a sin for you to ask god for help in your finances it is not a sin for you to ask god for help with your school or your academic pursuits it's not a sin for you to request that god help you with the job or help you get a car or help you in your relationships or help you find a spouse or help you be a good parent it's not a sin to make your request known to god here's the problem because the bible gives us that sequence we come burdened i like to visualize the cares of this world like a giant backpack and i'm trying to walk up this mountain to meet with god that backpack will make that climb very very very difficult you can get there but it's going to take you a lot longer and so we start to ascend that mountain worries of the world relationship issues financial issues everything you could possibly imagine that would weigh down your mind it slows your progress now when i make a prayer request i'm taking off the backpack and handing it to god the prayer request is the removing of the cares of the world and placing them on his shoulders prayer request is powerful here's the issue we're filled with chaos we're full of worry i need this i need that and god wants to meet those needs we come to him we say lord i give these burdens to you then what happens the scripture says after you make your prayer request then says thank him for all he has done ask him for what you need and after you that do that then you will experience god's peace so now i give him my worry i give him my responsibilities i give him all of those things that are on my mind and when i hand those to him then he exchanges those things with his peace here's the problem we make the exchange take my burdens god i'll take your peace we go oh what a great prayer session thank you lord please hear me peace is not the conclusion of prayer it's the beginning you see when you receive peace it's because you took the backpack off you're starting your climb you take it off you give him your peace or you give him your burdens he gives you his peace the peace is not just to make you feel good the peace was given to you not just to have you stop worrying the peace was given to you so that your climb up the mountain is easier some of us forget to take the backpack off when we pray god can you hear me god are you there god are you angry with me imagining that god is folding his arms looking down at us when we approach the prayer room where were you all this week the scripture says that a thousand years is like a day to him i don't even want to know what one day is like to him time's irrelevant he's not he's not standing there scowling at you putting up with you we imagine that god is just putting up with us we some of us imagine like he's just right there just right about there ready to cut the ties of our salvation and one more mistake and all he's done no no no he's much more patient than we are sinful he's much more forgiving than we are stubborn and so so he he he sees you and he welcomes you and and he wants you to you see we think we think this oh lord i haven't seen you in days i don't even want to ask you for anything so what do we do we take religion's approach and we punish ourselves by keeping our backpack and oh lord i'm trying to find you up this mountain and we think that god's pleased with it when he's just saying hurry up put that down and get up here so when i enter that piece what does the scripture say says tell god what you need thank him for what he's done there's the prayer request and then there's faith lord here's what i need thank you lord because i know you're going to do it now let's climb this mountain when your mind is free from distraction when you're filled with his peace prayer is not a tedious difficult task when you're filled with his peace prayer is a flow this is why some of us have trouble praying because we imagine that when we go to pray we're going to have to work for the connection we imagine i have to make up for all this lost time and what we're doing is we're taking a religious mindset on and approaching to prayer but god wants to fill you with his peace and that peace becomes your starting point peace precedes revelation if my mind is so cluttered with my own thoughts and worries i'll never allow what the holy spirit is speaking in me to become revelation the scripture says thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee verse 13 so moses and his assistant joshua set out and moses climbed up the mountain of god i want to point out to you in fact that moses did climb now we imagine that prayer is just god doing what he does and while god is the one who initiates prayer god is the one who gives you the power to pray and god is the one who invites you in the first place you must do the praying i can't tell you how many times people have asked me brother david how do i start a prayer life i tell them just start the only way to begin praying is to begin you see the holy spirit will give you the desire it's your part to enact the discipline the holy spirit will give you the desire it's your part to enact the discipline he gives you spiritual desires and by the way if you desire to pray it was the holy spirit who gave you that desire in the first place therefore the desire to pray is itself an invitation to prayer so when he gives me that desire it means i'm being called when i want to pray it means i'm being called when i feel that sense to seek his face it means he's calling me because otherwise you would not have that desire so stop listening to the enemy who will tell you that god doesn't want to talk to you or that you shouldn't pray or that your past disqualifies you from becoming a person of prayer if there is even the smallest desire to pray and climb the mountain of god it means the holy spirit himself put it there but i must climb i must set the time i must make my schedule if you're too busy to pray you're too busy if you're too busy to pray you're too busy i can accomplish more in a prayer-filled day than i can in a prayerless week see sometimes we think that prayer is going to cost us more time when it's actually prayerlessness that costs us more time because then we go when we start making decisions without the guidance of the holy spirit and we have the tendency to mess things up don't tell me you don't have time for prayer when you're caught up on the latest netflix series don't tell me you don't have time for prayer when you took the latest buzzfeed quid of quiz on what type of bread you are do you realize and i know this is this this is this is something that's so often talked about especially in our generation and and and you hear so many people say it or social media taking up so much of your time social media taking and it's true but do you realize that that at some point you have to stop listening to just hearing that word and you have to actually start doing something about it so you've heard that you should have a prayer life what have you done if you have to wake up earlier wake up earlier if you have to stay up later stay up later whatever you have to do to rearrange your life around prayer do it and i promise you this that the one who prays walks with god and and here's the thing we we we so often miss these things i could see sometimes why god repented that he made man i can see why sometimes jesus was so frustrated people like what how long do i have to put up with you because i see so many flaws in me i see so many mindsets that need to be broken he calls us to prayer god and the problem is we're so distracted in our living and we've heard that before that's what's so crazy to me we've heard that and have done nothing about it god himself is inviting us to know him to know his mind to fellowship with him and all too often we ignore those those pleadings really their pleadings of the holy spirit we must climb we must set aside the time we must rearrange the day we must do everything we can to stubbornly cling to our prayer lives and sacrifice it for no one i'm married i have a daughter but my wife and my daughter do not come before the lord and if your marriage or your children or your anything else comes before the lord you're making a mistake because the only way i can be the husband my wife needs me to be is if i'm a man of prayer the only way i can be the father my daughter needs me to be is if i'm a man of prayer and we make our excuses and we go about our day exchanging the supernatural for the mundane exchanging the heavenly for the earthly spiritual for the secular and we do it every day but god is looking for people who are faithful to prayer verse 14 moses told the elders stay here and wait for us until we come back aaron and her are here with you if anyone has a dispute while i am gone consult with them i really sense strongly this word is for someone when you go to higher places not everyone can go with you i believe in divine connections yes but i think more importantly god will often give us divine disconnections this is a heavy word i know i know it's heavy because the holy spirit is making it heavy but there are people who will hold you back there are people who will waste your time and it's just the fact you say well well shouldn't we be like jesus shouldn't we talk to everyone who need jesus didn't you think jesus talks to everyone who wanted to talk to him no way in fact he would often retreat in fact there were times when he was leaving the town and they said lord there's still all these sorry got to go to my next assignment now i'm not talking about being cruel or at all neglecting those who need the gospel or who need help i'm simply talking about being intentional jesus comes first before all our loved ones and we must guard that time now there is a partnership in prayer the holy spirit gives that desire i respond to that desire with discipline i begin to dig that well i begin to seek his face this is what we all must do and something happens there in that partnership that i want to show you and it's found in verse 15.
