Stop Going to War Unarmed | 03/22/2026

Generations Church, y'all look good.

Y'all look real good.

I was actually fishing for that.

I need some encouragement in the house.

Yeah.

If you're a guest, welcome.

I pray that you'll encounter the presence of the living God here.

God is God doesn't like shallow relationship.

Have you ever had someone you've been in a relationship with, a friend or something that felt shallow?

God doesn't do that.

And I think what we do is that we can be raised in environments where church is treated as just like, you know, we just go to church and we do we relate we raise our hands and we do these religious practices, and that's that's about you know about as deep as our relationship with God goes.

That's shallow.

You know he doesn't like that.

He talks about that.

He's like, you're the way your relationship with me is very shallow.

I don't like it.

You even like you try to offer sacrifices.

I don't want it.

That's that's it's fake.

He says, I want the real thing.

He's like, I want to know what love is.

And I want you to show me.

I want to feel what love is.

I threw out my voice doing prayer.

Now it's got that 80s raspy, you know.

Pastor Pete saying, son, this is where the wisdom of the older generation comes in.

He's saying, cut it out.

Sometimes we need that, right?

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus.

It is so good to have you here at Generation's Church today.

Listen, today is Miss Janet Sellers' birthday.

Miss Janet.

Beautiful woman of God, spiritual mother, but she's also a killer admin person.

She's our administrator here at the church getting things done.

And let me go ahead and sing you happy birthday.

Happy baby birthday to Miss Janet.

Happy, happy purpose to Miss Janet.

She's getting things dung.

Yeah, be dung.

Happy birthday, Miss Janet.

Love you.

She's a her and her husband Rod are huge blessings to the church.

Love you very much.

Grateful for you.

And you know, hey, if someone would take her out to nice lunch today, you know, go and offer her.

Take her somewhere nice, okay?

Where do you want to go?

She's got plans.

What?

Okay.

So there's another thing that we're gonna do.

Crank it up, Josh.

DJ.

Yeah, one of us.

People signed up to be new members, then they're going to join our church too.

They got the Holy Spirit flowing fire within them.

Kicking the devil all over the place.

Singing woman woman up.

We got some new members that just join the church.

I'ma call up your name.

When I call up your name, you can stand up.

If you're shy, just wave your hand or something.

Whatever.

Here we go.

We have Thomas and Betty Bryant.

Michael and Angelica Johnson.

Matthew and Angela Me.

Greg and Leslie Rainwater.

I like that last name Rainwater, by the way.

That's cool.

Jordan Jared Sealbinder.

There is it.

Hey, there we go.

Alright, where are we going?

Uh Ricky and Jessica Thompson.

Justin and Hammy Vaughn.

Josh and Hannah Ville.

Brendan and Amber Walker.

One of us.

One of us.

One of us.

Thank you, Jesus.

What's up?

We're so excited to have you joining the family.

It's a big deal.

I'm very excited about that and what God is going to do in and through your life, okay?

God has a calling and a purpose for every single one of us.

God cares about location, destination.

Do you know that?

Look at the Old Testament.

Like he says, Abraham, I'm sending you somewhere new.

You know, he cares, like he knows he wants you to be established somewhere.

He doesn't he doesn't he doesn't crave us to be wanderers.

You know there's a demonic spirit, I'll call it like a vagabond spirit.

Is that right, Tina, Rick?

She's like, I don't know.

I saw it on Wikipedia.

But there's a thing to get people wandering.

I want you to all hear this.

This is real.

It keeps them wandering.

You're never settled somewhere.

And some and so you've got this calling, you've got a gift, and you're meant to play a part in the body.

The local church is a big deal, and God is just more and more re-establishing the importance of the local church.

You know, and so I'm very excited for you to be here.

Not not because of just, you know, there's more people in seats.

I want to see you step into your calling.

I want to see you attached to family to really get to know people, but I also want to see you, you know, set free, healed, delivered, and running forward from glory to glory to glory.

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

All right.

Thank you, DJ Joshua.

You know Joshua is like Yeshua.

It comes it's derived from that.

I think, isn't the name Jesus derived from that?

Joshua Yeshua.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

It's a good name.

It's not as good as David, but it's close.

Lord, I thank.

Don't bite the hand that controls the volume.

Lesson learned.

Thank you, my friend.

That was so good.

I love laughing.

You know God's full of joy.

Do you know children like went out like wanted to come to Jesus?

Children don't go after grumpy people.

They got like this, they ramped.

Jesus was fun.

And his house is meant to be fun.

It's meant to be free.

It's not meant to be uptight.

Even what Catherine was hitting, when you're hitting this thing about the blood, God wants you to realize how set free you actually are.

You were dead in sin one day, and now you're alive and set free, fully clean.

That's a faith thing to see that.

I struggle to sometimes just carry it with me still, like, oh, I just haven't paid my penance.

That's not how that's not how God works.

But there's so much joy when the revelation of his cleansing blood, when we have a revelation of that.

Go ahead, David.

Thank you, Jesus.

Lord, I ask for your help this morning, and I thank you for what you're going to do.

I thank you for your presence that's here.

I thank you for every person here, Lord.

I ask that you would help me, Father, and I just pray over every ear to be open to hear the voice of your spirit, the spirit that brings truth, every eye to see, Father, the true Son of God, the light of the world, not the one that comes to deceive, but I pray that we would see you in your ways, Father, today, Lord.

I ask for clarity, God, if there's any areas that have been keeping us held up, Lord, to move forward in your spirit and power, Lord.

I pray that you would remove those hindrances, Father.

And I just rebuke every spirit right now that would try to steal, rob, or destroy what you want to do today, to try to bring distraction, even on slumber, even just even just distractions and thought.

It's like one day, once at one moment you're focused, the next moment you're thinking about something and you miss what God's trying to do.

I rebuke you right now.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're going to be talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now we are a charismatic church and and God is restoring and reviving the charismata.

I think the closer we get to the last days, I mean, we're in the last days, but we've always been in the last days.

We're in the last of the last days, but I don't know when the actual last day will be.

Does that make sense?

No one knows, but we're closer.

But the world is getting pretty awful.

It's getting, it's the enemy is like, you know, sometimes the enemy tries to hide.

They're not really hiding anymore.

They're very and as as things get darker, the church is going to shine brighter.

As things get darker, things that used to work that were just, you know, not real are not, people are not going to have that anymore.

We even see Generation Z, Generation Alpha.

They're kind of done with, you know, the kind of church that we made years ago.

They want the real thing.

They don't care about, you know, the huge production, the lights, they don't care about the performance.

They just want, like, hey, if you say God's a God of power, I want to experience the power.

Okay?

If you say God's a God of love, I want to see you loving, okay?

Signs and wonders, miracles.

We're continuing for revival.

Okay?

But with this, there is some confusion with the charismata.

And unfortunately, I think that a lot of people who are charismatic, deep down, there's a little bit of an insecurity about it.

Not everybody, but there can be an insecurity about it because we're kind of unsure about it.

This has been the agenda of the religious spirit.

I know I use this term a lot, but it's very real, especially in the South.

I want you to understand this region is heavily influenced.

The majority of it is part of denominations that do not believe in the charismata, the workings of the Holy Spirit.

They don't practice it.

And also what they what they teach and preach and what they display is that we're being irresponsible in our Christianity.

We're being vulnerable, we're gullible, we're twisting scripture, we're irresponsible, we're creating spaces where people get hurt, we're full of emotional hype, and it makes the charismatic feel insecure.

I want you to understand something.

What they're teaching is a complete lie.

It's unbiblical and it's very obvious in the Word of God.

There's things that's very complicated right now that were never meant to be complicated.

The reason that they become complicated is because it's complicated for us to receive it as it is.

Have you ever done this?

I do this when I study the Word of God and prepare for messages.

I try to put myself in a place of what if I was reading this for the first time and I had no outside influences in my understanding of the word.

I just do that.

You know what I'm talking about?

What if I'm just reading this myself?

What would I what would this tell me?

I don't have other preachers and other books and other doctrines and other influences trying to say, well, this is what this really means.

Let me just read it.

What does it say?

I think a lot of things are very obvious.

And all of a sudden we made them complicated because we don't like it.

We don't understand it.

There's lots of things we weren't meant to understand.

That's the point.

But what we try to do is we try to control God and make him yield to our understanding.

Lord, I'm not gonna do this or practice this until I understand it.

But yet his word says his ways are higher than our ways.

Do you all understand that?

Do you know God set this up that we actually are not gonna understand everything?

Do you know how God, I well, I'm not gonna do it until I have evidence for it.

Do you know faith is the thing that we don't have evidence for?

So this is my point, is that I want us to be confident in our charismatic.

Can I say it that way?

I want us to be confident that we're very we're more biblical.

We're not oh prophecy.

I hear people on the this is so annoying to me.

I hear people on social media, they're doing this ranch, they sound so biblical and theological.

Oh, it's so dangerous.

The prophetic, you need to be careful.

I'm like, no, you're dangerous.

Your theology is dangerous.

You're a dangerous Christian.

You need to be quiet and study the word.

You understand God is judging you right now because you're trying to define his ways and his church.

That's not your place.

Your place is to get in the word and say, What does this say?

When the Lamb of God, Son of God, says, When you go in my and you can you fulfill my commission, you know what you're gonna do?

You're gonna cast out demons.

That's not a suggestion.

When Peter gets up there and says, you know what, in the last days, the days we live in, that the church is going to prophesy, sons and daughters.

That's not a suggestion.

That's not a what do you feel about that?

They get in the upper room, there's tons of fire.

That's not a suggestion for you to contemplate when Peter says, pray in tongues because it strengthens you in the Lord.

That's not a suggestion, that's a command.

Do you know how arrogant and prideful it is to get up there with your little biblical reasoning and completely contradict what the word of God says?

I'm not playing around.

We're coming to break ground in this region so people can be set free.

We're a charismatic church, we're proud of it.

Because that's what the Bible teaches.

If you don't like that, you're not one of us.

To the point they wanted to kill him.

Can you imagine offending someone to the point they want to kill you?

Do you know who Jesus was the most intense with?

It wasn't the crazy sinners.

He was compassionate for them, with them.

You know who he was intense with?

The religious leaders.

There's no place for him.

He told them how it was.

I've I've watched this thing.

It's an intimidating spirit.

It's a controlling spirit.

Religion will try to control kill what it can't control.

You understand this?

It'll be your best friend as long as you do what it wants.

It'll be your best friend as long as you do what it wants.

I'm sure if Jesus would have gone through all the schools and everything and just followed their systems and just, you know, did everything and behaved the way they wanted him, they would have never killed him.

He didn't come to that.

He came into the temple and turned over tables.

Lord, I thank you that you're purifying your church.

I thank you, God, that you're bringing signs signs and wonders to confirm your kingdom, Father.

We are here that you that a harvest can be can come for you, Jesus.

That you can have a harvest, Father, a legitimate harvest, Father, not bringing people into religious systems and all of a sudden make more dead people.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, God.

And Lord, I pray for every single person here, Lord, that that is called according to your purposes, that's gifted with the Spirit of God, Lord.

I pray that they'd have a revelation of how real this is.

Thank you, Lord.

Let them have a revelation of how that you're called, you're gifted.

It has nothing to do with how talented you are, what your position in life is, what your job is, how good you look, how good you can speak.

That has nothing to do with it.

You are called according to his purposes.

You're anointed, you're gifted.

Every single one of you.

In the name of Jesus.

Thank you, Father.

We're gonna talk about being filled.

This is complicated.

I'm gonna be honest, it's complicated.

A little bit complicated.

Let me go ahead and read you something.

When did I pick the right notes here?

I think I did.

We get this thing of the Holy Spirit, okay?

It's talked about a lot more in the in the New Testament than it's the old, but we do see stuff in the Old Testament where the Spirit of God would come on someone.

Okay?

There are some differences in the Old Testament.

I know for a lot of you this is you know preaching in the choir.

Y'all y'all already know this, but we're gonna do a just a quick reminder of things, a review.

Um, in the Old Testament, God's spirit was in the Holy of Holies, the you know, behind the curtain.

But God is everywhere.

I want you to catch this.

There's an element you have to understand, God is everywhere.

So, what was the point of his presence?

This was the manifest presence, the relational presence between God and his people.

Okay?

But he was still everywhere.

It wasn't like you know, God was in this little thing, you know, hey, what's going on out there?

High priest had to come and give him a report.

And his spirit would come on people, but his spirit, we the people didn't have access to his spirit.

His spirit would come on appointed people at given times and circumstances to give them the ability to do something for him.

Okay, do you think little David with a slain, you know, a slain in rocks could kill a big giant trained in warfare?

It was the spirit of God guiding his hand.

You think Samson could just beat all those people the way he did?

It was the spirit of God giving him strength.

The spirit realm actually can manifest itself in the physical realm, causing the physical to have abilities beyond what it normally has.

That's why you see the man, he's filled with a legion of demons.

He's the he's breaking chains.

People cannot restrain him.

He has supernatural strength.

This is real.

And so then we have the New Testament come and we have Jesus, and we see something interesting in Jesus, and this baffles me.

Jesus comes as a human.

Philippians, I think it's Philippians, it says that he was, he left his high place and became a slave.

This is what's interesting, is that I believe what Jesus did here is that yes, he is fully God and fully man, but I believe what God does is he willingly, he willingly constricts his abilities and powers contained within flesh.

Not just to fulfill what he's supposed to fulfill, but to give us a demonstration of what he's looking for in the life of humanity following him.

And the idea is we see Jesus, he he goes and gets water baptized.

He didn't need to be water baptized, that was for repentance of sin, but yet he gets water baptized, and then it says that the Spirit of God descends like a dove.

Okay?

And comes upon Jesus.

And this is what's interesting.

Right after this, Jesus says he's filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's weird, right?

He's God wasn't he already filled with himself?

That's a little confusing, right?

We can be honest here today, all right?

That's confusing.

But he's filled.

I believe that God is trying to show us.

Listen, this is I'm I'm painting a picture for how this is gonna be for you.

The Holy Spirit comes upon him.

He's filled, he's led into the wilderness.

He's tempted in the wilderness, he gets out of the wilderness, and being filled, what does he start doing?

Signs and wonders.

Okay?

And he tells his disciples, this Holy Spirit, this Holy Spirit that I have, this is gonna be for you.

It's not, he says, You're gonna do greater things than I did.

That's crazy.

I'm giving you my Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's a big deal to God because it's part of the Trinity.

It is God.

So let me read this.

We have this thought about what is the Holy Spirit's place in my life?

We use this stuff all the time.

Well, I have the Holy Spirit.

Do I not have the Holy Spirit?

We can be honest today.

I've struggled with this.

Well, do I have the Spirit or not?

Why do I have to be filled again?

Has anyone ever asked these questions before?

I have.

What'd you say?

We leak.

We leak?

Wiki links?

I'm very confused right now.

Oh, we leak.

Oh, we leak out.

Got you.

That's true.

That was way more complicated than it needed to be, and that was my fault.

That was my fault.

I'm so sorry.

We have these questions, and we use these, we use these terms a lot, and maybe we wonder in the back of our minds what does this actually mean?

Do I have the Spirit of God?

Am I filled with God?

Is the Spirit on me?

Is the Spirit out?

You know, what is this?

What does this look like?

Let me go ahead and I'm going to give us a little timeline from the point of an unbeliever in the New Testament to the point of a in a fully equipped, walking in power believer.

Okay?

This is very this part is very simple.

Is that you have an unbeliever and you have the Holy Spirit.

Now Jesus says this is the spirit of truth.

He's going to lead you into truth.

Okay?

But it also says the Holy Spirit's role is to convict the world of sin, God's righteousness and coming judgment.

Now catch this.

Convict the world, when they use the world like this, is talking about those set apart from God, those that are not connected to God, not the sons and daughters of God, is talking about the ones disconnected.

Okay?

God so loved the world that he sent his son so that the world could become his.

Y'all following?

It comes to convict the world of its sin.

Think about this.

The Holy Spirit comes when you're an unbeliever and to tell you, hey, you've got issues, there's stuff wrong.

With you.

It's and what it does is it's saying, Hey, you're a sinner, you're not connected to God, and He's coming to judge the world.

And if you don't get this fixed, then you're gonna be judged.

Think about that.

And right in between that, your problem and coming judgment is the righteousness of God, the Savior, saying, This is your Savior.

The Holy Spirit is the one that causes us to receive the Savior.

I think it's even in Corinthians, he says that no one can confess that Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Spirit.

So the very initial beginning, the working of the Holy Spirit in our life from the place we're an unbeliever, is that He causes us to get saved.

Amen?

But that's a choice we make, but he just points out the need for it.

And we choose it.

And it's interesting because what this does is we use this term baptism.

A baptism could be an immersion into something.

And it's in the Holy Spirit baptizes us into Jesus.

Are y'all catching this?

The Holy Spirit's first job, the first thing that we encounter with this is he baptizes us into Jesus, where we're saved.

And this is where we're gonna start off because this is where the first thing that happens, our first encounter with the Spirit of God is getting saved.

But then something profound happens.

I'm gonna read it, okay?

In Ephesians 1.13, it says, And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth.

The good news that God saves you.

A lot of times when he would say you heard the truth, it's not just, oh, I heard it, it's I accepted it.

When the Bible says that, it means it's not as they it says they heard the word, it means they received and believed it, they applied it.

And it says, When you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit.

Did y'all catch that?

I'm gonna read it again.

And when you believed, so every single one of us, I'm gonna assume we're Christians.

I know for you know for some that's a step of faith, but we're just gonna assume that today.

When you believed, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit.

David, what are you saying?

Every single person that has gotten saved has the Holy Spirit.

If you're saved, you don't have to question, well, do I have it or not?

Okay?

You have the Holy Spirit.

Why?

Because it identifies you as one of his, it seals you, it marks you.

Y'all heard that term mark of the beast?

It's people that are marked, they're they're sealed for Satan.

Okay?

They're not God's, but the Holy Spirit is our seal.

When God looks at us, he sees the Holy Spirit.

That's one of mine.

That's that's one of the first purposes of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life.

Catching this?

Okay.

We're gonna untangle some of the cobwebs.

And then it says, whom he promised long ago, the Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance.

So here's the other thing.

We have the Holy Spirit, so God can say, hey, is that mine?

Some of you parents, you have your kids in nursery.

What do you have?

Like a tag?

Yeah.

That's the marker.

Hey, that's my kid.

You don't go grab someone else's kid.

Hey, which kid's not crying at all?

That one.

That's my kid.

Bad joke.

But then what it does is it provides an assurance inside of us that God is going to fulfill his promise, that we are going to receive eternal life.

Do you all catching this?

That's the first part for a believer's life.

Every single, even if you're part of a denomination that doesn't believe in the workings and the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you still have the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 3 2, you receive the Spirit because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

Bible, you receive the Spirit.

Okay?

So maybe you don't speak in tongues, no shining eyes, and all that stuff.

You still have the Spirit because you're sealed.

Your son and daughter.

Let me go ahead and read this.

Romans 8:15 through 16.

Romans 8:15–16

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Now we call him Abba Father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

Check this out.

We don't make an exchange.

It's all of a sudden like, okay, God, here's my spirit, I'll have your spirit.

No, it's both.

It joins with our spirit.

And then John 6 27.

This is so cool.

Jesus says this.

He says, Don't be so concerned about perishable things like food.

Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man, Son of Man can give you.

For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.

Catch this.

This is Jesus talking.

He's telling, imagine this.

He's talking to his disciples.

He said, Don't worry about this stuff.

You can have eternal life because I've been given a seal of approval.

If you go back a little bit, when Jesus is baptized, what happens?

The Spirit descends upon him and God approves of him.

This is my son who brings me great joy.

The spirit comes on him, seals him.

This is my son.

We get saved, his Holy Spirit comes on us and seals us, and now we call him Abba Father.

It's beautiful.

It's beautiful.

That's a one-time event.

When you get saved, the Spirit comes on you and seals you.

You're not going to get resealed.

Okay.

When we experience salvation, we can get discouraged when we don't feel something physically, emotionally, physically.

We sometimes we expect, I have to feel something.

God is spirit.

We're talking about things of the spirit.

The spirit can manifest itself itself physically, but it does not have to.

And when we don't experience a physical reaction, that does not mean that it's not real and not taking place and not profound.

When you receive the Holy Spirit salvation, maybe you didn't feel a thing.

You look the same, you still got issues, still got struggles, but all of a sudden something profound happened in the spirit realm.

You were sealed, okay?

People get really discouraged and they'll leave the charismata because they don't feel something.

That's not how this works.

Okay.

This is something really interesting in John 20.

Okay, Jesus has died.

He came back from the dead, he's with his disciples.

This is gonna get you.

This is Jesus.

Again, he said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.

Then listen, this is what happens.

This is before Pentecost, by the way.

He says, Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Come on.

That's good.

Did y'all get that?

This is before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in tongues.

He goes, receive the Holy Spirit.

Ooh.

Did y'all know that was in there?

Oh, okay.

Bunch of know-it-alls.

It's the first time I read the book of John this week.

Just kidding.

This is profound.

The disciples receive the Holy Spirit before the power, the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit falls upon them.

Every single one of you, no matter what you believe about it, have that Holy Spirit.

That breath of life.

Now we go into this thing of filled.

Is there a difference?

Yes, absolutely.

Is it clear in the Bible?

Yes, absolutely.

Don't let anyone tell you different.

I want us to take a step back and think about this practically from asking the question of why.

Everyone say why.

Why is a question of like, what's the purpose of this?

Why do this?

Put yourself in God's position, okay?

And think about why is he doing this?

When he sends his son, why?

To save us.

He wants to be in a relationship with us.

That's an easy answer, okay?

But why send his Holy Spirit?

Why can't we just believe in God?

Then the Holy Spirit seals us and that's it.

Why all of a sudden this next step of being filled?

Y'all following?

This question right here is going to set you free when it comes to your relationship with God and understanding of his Holy Spirit.

If you ask this question, why are you doing this?

Because God has an agenda and a mission.

And it doesn't end the moment you get saved.

It's not like, all right, finally got another one.

Okay, move on.

When you get saved, you step into a calling to be commissioned.

The disciples, he breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.

But then the Holy Spirit comes upon them in power to do something.

Not just to feel good, it's not the fuzzies, it's not just so you can get some tears going and just feel amazing.

There's more to this story.

He sends the Holy Spirit to accomplish something.

When the Holy Spirit fell on people in the Old Testament, it was to accomplish something.

In Acts 2, 4, it says everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues, speaking in other languages.

Everyone in the room was filled.

There's like over a hundred something people in this upper room.

There's a big upper room.

Everyone was filled.

It's interesting the chain of events in this verse.

It actually says the house, the room was filled first.

I don't understand all that spiritually, but I know when we come together, there's something we're in a room.

It's like, Lord, come and fill the room.

We pray in the atmosphere.

We come and when you come for pre-service prayer, we're contending in the room.

Lord, come and fill the room.

There's another place in Acts.

It said the place where they were at shook and they were filled.

The room was filled with the glory of God, and then they were filled, and they saw tons of fire.

Before they spoke in tongues, they saw it.

I don't even know what that looks like.

Jesus, thank you that you're filling the room with your spirit.

Thank you, Father.

Hmm.

It says they're filled.

Is there a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled?

Yes, because the disciples have already received it.

But now they're filled with it.

This is a very, this could be a very typical thing to be confused about when we use the word filled.

Understand, we're dealing with different languages, but we're also dealing with trying to describe something spiritual.

Sometimes there's spiritual things that we just don't have the words to describe it.

Paul goes and sees a vision of heaven.

He goes, I already have words to describe what I've heard, what I've seen.

Not even permitted to say it.

His ways are higher than our ways.

But we use this word filled.

But this is not talking about physical spatial filling, like a cup you fill with water.

It has nothing to do with that.

It's talking about influence.

Wow, wow.

It's talking about influence.

If I take a sponge, it's the same word, okay, used in Matthew where they soak a sponge with vinegar to give Jesus something to drink.

But it's not talking about that.

It's talking about the inner life.

But think about this.

If I'm a sponge and I'm placing vinegar, I soak up the vinegar.

So if you all of a sudden, if I take the sponge and I put it to my mouth, what am I going to taste?

Vinegar.

Because I'm filled.

If our life is filled with the Holy Spirit, what are people going to experience around us?

The Holy Spirit.

That's it.

The fruits of the Spirit.

Are y'all catching this?

This is influence.

When I say I need to be filled, it's saying, Am I giving God access and influence into my life on a daily basis?

Janna Austin over here, mighty woman of God, came and broke it down on Wednesday.

She was hitting this.

We weren't even, we were in coordinating.

She says, I believe we need to talk about being filled.

She didn't know I was going to be preaching about this today.

And she said, we need to make take time to make sure that we're allowing God to fill us on a daily basis.

Because every time this word filled is used, it's not talking about a one-time event.

It's talking about an ongoing event.

Be filled.

Continue to be filled.

What's it saying?

Continue to make room to have God, to let God have access into your life.

To let God, the Holy Spirit, influence you.

And when He influences your inner man, you know what happens?

Your motivations change, your desires change, your thought life changes.

What you say changes, and then what you do changes.

Be filled.

You can have a God encounter.

You can receive the Holy Spirit and never be filled.

God's not steering the ship.

You're steering the ship.

Maybe the demonic realm is steering the ship because you haven't given room to be filled.

Jesus told the disciples, he says, go and wait.

They obeyed, so they were filled.

What if they hadn't have waited?

What if they hadn't have been praying?

Would they have been filled?

I don't know, but maybe not.

We make room to be filled.

And we choose to do that.

God doesn't force us to do that.

Do you know the character of God is to set the captives free?

The character of the enemy is to bind them.

To control them.

It's very opposite.

God's not never going to control you like that.

He's never going to force you to be filled.

He set you free so you can choose it.

Because in the midst of freedom of choice, that's the only place that true love can exist.

I didn't force my wife to marry me.

Her dad did.

I gave him like five oxen and a new Windows computer.

That's all he needed.

And a crystals coupon.

We I can't let him preach anytime soon because he's totally gonna slaughter me.

He comes up here to the open mic during worship.

I'm like, don't give it to him.

Hear me on this.

People don't step into the charismata.

They don't pray in tongues.

They don't try to prophesy because they're waiting for God to force them.

I'm waiting to be compelled into it.

That's never gonna happen because that's not his nature.

He wants you to step out in faith.

Lord, just push me.

Like take over my language and my mouth.

No, that's that's not how it works.

So people go their whole life never doing this stuff, not realizing how simple it is.

Step out in faith and trust that what you're doing, even though you don't understand it, is real.

That's the point.

I believe it's real because I read it.

I trust that even though I'm not feeling anything physically, that God is working.

And even though all the people and the religious people online making a mockery of it, they're gonna have to stand before the Lord's one day.

But I'm gonna keep going, walking in the power of the Spirit, being filled day after day, and not limiting God, not trying to define the church, but letting God define the church because he's the king, right?

They were filled.

When you get filled with the Holy Spirit, you're filled with power.

And when you're filled with power, you're able to do things that you're not able to do on your own.

You're able to overcome sin that you've been struggling with year after year after year after year.

I can't break this, but then the Holy Spirit gets you, and all of a sudden you're breaking it.

You're breaking those addictions.

All of a sudden your thought life is pure, all of a sudden your actions are pure, and then all of a sudden you're praying for people who's in a wheelchair and they're getting out of wheelchairs because the spirit of power has come upon you.

Lord, fill me up.

Not just so I can feel the bubblies in a church service, but when I'm outside of the church service, I can pray over the sick and they're gonna get healed, and I can cast out demons and they're gonna leave.

Lord, I want your power so your kingdom can be confirmed.

I don't want this mansy pansy, just let me go once a week for an hour and lift my hands and listen to a word and take a couple notes, and that's it.

That is so boring.

That's not the life of Christ, that's not the ministry of Jesus.

Be filled.

As soon as they were free, this is Acts 4.

Acts is really cool because you see what actually happens.

There's a thought, this is what tricks most people.

People teach and they sound very biblical, and they say this was only meant for the first generation.

Y'all y'all probably heard this.

Um, that was only for the apostles to start the church.

I'm like, why would they start something that does not continue?

It's so stupid.

I just spit everywhere.

Be baptized.

Front row.

They getting filled.

It's really stupid.

It's so backwards.

Like you're really twisting scripture to believe that.

I want you to know that.

You're very dangerous.

You're a very dangerous Christian pushing this stuff.

Okay?

The the charismatic movement, by the way, is the one that's actually causing the most Christians to happen in the world.

Okay?

The one that's stalling and actually producing disciples is all these ones limiting the Holy Spirit.

Just is just facts.

Facts don't care about your feelings.

Okay?

There's a huge harvest out there.

We need the power of God moving.

Yes, we need to preach the power of God.

Yes, we need Bible study, but we need displays of power too.

And Acts that says the displays of power, the signs and wonders confirm the kingdom.

The Pharisees were getting mad.

You know why they were mad?

They were jealous of Jesus.

He would go and heal someone, and multitudes would surround them.

You know what?

When you see signs and wonders, people start paying attention.

We need it.

We need it.

People come in, and you're not, you don't, it's not gonna be an encouraging word.

It's not gonna be therapy.

You need deliverance, you need demons to be cast out of your life.

You're in bondage, and you need the power of God to cleanse you and set you free.

You can go to therapy.

I see all these people, I'm sitting there, I'm looking in their eyes, I'm like, they've got demons, and they're like, I'm going to see a counselor.

I'm like, you've been seeing a counselor for five years, and you're worse than you were before.

That's a joke.

You're modern psychology mumbo jumbo.

You need the power of God to move in your life and set you free.

And the church has put that aside because they're embarrassed.

Oh, I don't want anybody throwing up on my carpet.

And what if someone's manifesting the service?

And what if guests think it's funny and I'm they're gonna leave the church, and then I won't have enough tithe and offering.

I'm like, you need to.

I'm not gonna say that.

Woo! I about got into the flesh.

Oh my gosh.

But I'm filled with the spirit and he stopped me.

Catherine's over there like.

Please, Lord, restrain him.

I love you so much, my beautiful wife.

Acts 4.

As soon as they were free, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said.

You know what they were doing?

The leaders, priests, and elders were threatening them.

Listen, when the religious spirit's not gonna try to just debate you, it's gonna try to kill you, it's gonna try to defame you, it's gonna try to cancel you, it's gonna try to steal you.

Listen, they're threatening them.

When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God.

This is not just a threat to Peter, it's a threat to the church.

We live in a time where things are getting real.

When revival's revival's already starting here.

It's starting here.

We're having signs and wonders, we're having miracles, people's lives are they're getting restored, families are getting restored, marriages are experienced from revival, make no mistake.

But the temperature is gonna keep on rising.

When it does, make no mistake, there's gonna be some hate.

You know how you have no idea how much hate my wife and I have gone through just in the last few years of just obeying the Lord.

Woof from people we never thought they would act like that.

But the threats are real, and they'll get more real.

You start dealing with demons, casting demons out, all of a sudden they're like, we gotta stop generations church, they're making us look bad.

When they heard when they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God.

Oh sovereign Lord, creator, listen, this is what how they respond.

Oh, what are we gonna do?

They go to prayer.

Oh sovereign Lord, creator of heaven and earth, the seeing everything in them.

You spoke long ago about the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying, Why were the nations so angry?

Why did they waste their time with futile plans?

I believe that a lot of the church in America has been wasting their time with futile plans.

The kings of the earth prepared for battle, the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against the Messiah.

In fact, this has happened here in this very city.

For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate, the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.

But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.

Verse 29, listen to this.

And now, O Lord, hear their threats.

This is the place I'm at.

You hear their threats.

And give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.

Stretch out your hand with healing power.

Yes, thank you, Lord.

Stretch out your hand with healing power.

That's a legal prayer.

We're praying it every day.

Lord, we we don't just want the mushy gooshies.

We want the power of God, healing, signs and wonders.

People coming in with cancer, leaving with no cancer.

People coming in with broke bones, leaving with no broke bones.

People with impossible doctor's reports, leaving completely healed, people coming in blind, able to see, people coming in deaf, they're able to hear, not having to pay for one surgery.

Healing power.

May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your the name of your holy servant Jesus.

I hear people say, it's very deceptive, especially to young Christians, because people sound biblical.

I've dealt with these guys.

I can't stand it.

I'm like, you are so prideful and you're so blind to your ignorance.

I don't want to be irresponsible, blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, listen, the power of God's a wildfire.

The first outpouring converted 3,000 in one day.

I just want to be responsible.

I'm like, nah.

How about this?

How about you die so he can live?

Does that sound responsible?

No.

It's not.

Were disciples thinking about number one when they were living their lives?

Was Peter thinking about himself when he died upside down on a cross?

No.

That's not responsible.

Lord, I will die for you.

Lord, I here is my life.

I'm going to live for you.

And I don't care what man thinks.

That's the most responsible thing you can do with your life.

I'm not going to limit your word.

I'm not going to limit your power.

I'm not going to make up my own theology to put me to allow me to continue to be comforted day after day after day.

I'm just living in my comfort zone.

Oh, I just understand everything in my life.

God is reviving the church, and we have to be filled with his spirit because it's his spirit that is power.

Not us, not our skills and abilities.

You can take the most person who's not a talented at all.

There's nothing special about them.

You put the Spirit of God on them, there's nothing that can stop them.

We need to be filled.

And if you believe that, oh, this is not a big deal for your life, you are deceived.

You need your mind cleansed.

You need truth, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to come to your doorstep and teach you some stuff about the risen King Jesus and what his agenda is.

The reason the Holy Spirit fills us is because there's a mission of God that needs to be done.

There's a mission that needs to be accomplished in your life to transform you into the image of Jesus, to heal you, to set you free.

That's a working of the Holy Spirit.

But then also, the Lord wants to have a mission to do through you that you cannot do on your own.

There's a calling on your life.

Maybe some of you are not aware of it because you never listen.

God's calling your phone and you always hit decline, decline, decline because you're so busy, so distracted, so stubborn, so comfortable in your sin and your fleshly living that you're not answering the call.

You have no idea.

You've been a Christian 20 years and you don't even know how to hear the Holy Spirit because you're so blocked off from him.

You need to be filled.

And you have the choice.

Will I be filled today?

Will I make room for the Holy Spirit?

Am I gonna make room for my selfish desires?

Am I just gonna fill my time with social media?

And then all of a sudden I feel bad about it.

So what I do is I create doctrine to comfort me in my rebellion.

Be filled.

Paul told Timothy, fan into flame the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

That's your responsibility.

Fan it into flame.

Get into your prayer closet.

Say, Lord, I need your help.

I ask that you would fill me, God.

What is it you want to do with my life?

How about try that on for a change?

What is it you want to do with my life?

When's the last time you told God that maybe some of you are so afraid of what it would cost you?

Maybe, like the Johnsons, who they said, Lord, what do you want to do with our life?

I want you to uproot yourself, and I'm not even gonna give you a game plan and I'm not gonna give you jobs to go to or anything like that.

I just want you to move from Texas and take your whole family of like 20 kids and just come here because there's a revival happening noon, and I want you there.

I commend that.

And you get these religious people, well, that's not really responsible living.

Shut up! Lifeless, powerless, mumbo jumbo, monkey looking, whatever.

I'm over it.

I am over it.

There is there's people going to hell.

You want to get a lot of there's people that die and they experience hell and then they're brought back to life.

It's a crazy how much it changed and it affects them.

And we are so blinded to what matters.

We are so blinded to what really matters in life, and just chasing all these futile things, these futile plans.

Listen, we need to be filled with his spirit because his spirit is gonna lead us into what truth is.

The rich man comes, and listen, I'm sure everyone around the rich man thought he was just so amazing.

His life is just so put together.

He comes to Jesus, he goes, Jesus, I just want to have eternal life.

Jesus knows how to deal with our stuff.

He says, Alright, sell everything you own and give it to the poor.

Oh, that's just that's not in my tenure plan.

That's how a lot of us think.

You know the Bible says don't make any plans unless without saying that if God wills it.

Some of you have your whole life plan and you're not inviting God in at all to speak into your life.

And you wonder why your life is spiritually dead.

You wonder why you don't have power.

You don't wonder, you wonder why you don't have the joy of the Lord.

You know what?

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

Maybe if you follow the Holy Spirit, a fruit of your life would be the joy of the Lord.

You're always depressed because you never make room for him.

And all you do is you scroll on social media, all you women with your anxiety problems.

Why don't you get off social media and get into the word in prayer?

And see if you still have anxiety.

I'm gonna hear someone and I'm gonna offend some people.

I don't care.

Speaking in tongues is not a suggestion for you.

It's not a suggestion.

Pastors don't like talking about tongues because it's just like this taboo topic.

Oh, I just don't want to offend people.

I don't want to make them feel uncomfortable.

Tongues is very weird.

I listen to myself praying in tongues, and I'm like, this is so weird.

One time I was driving, I was in the zone praying in tongues.

I was praying in tongues like 30 minutes, and all of a sudden I started to sound Asian.

I've never done that before.

I was like, one tongue tang punk.

I'm like, whoa.

Where did that come from?

It's weird.

Everyone says it's weird.

Duh.

That's the point.

When when it first happens, there's people around and they think they're drunk.

Because it's weird.

We're not meant to understand tongues, y'all.

And no one, many people don't pray in tongues because they're waiting to understand it.

I don't understand it.

You're never going to.

And if you have to understand it, you're saying, God, I need you to come down to my level and I need you to do things my way.

But God's saying, my ways are not your ways.

Come up to my high places.

Tongues is not a suggestion.

You want to know why?

Because it's intended for you to strengthen you.

Do you know why Paul, after he says, you know what, you're fighting against spiritual enemies, enemies you cannot see.

You're you listen, you're dealing with strong things.

Listen, the man who had a legion of demons was very strong.

Make no mistake, the spirit realm is real.

Make no mistake, the spirit realm can keep you bound, keep your children bound, keep your husband bound, keep your parents bound.

You need to put on the armor of God.

But do you know what Paul says after that?

Do you know what he says after putting on the armor of God?

He says, pray in tongues at all times.

The most theologically sound man that probably ever lived, except for Jesus Christ, says this.

I pray in tongues more than anybody.

People don't do it.

I don't want to be doctrinally inaccurate.

I'm like, you're very doctrinally inaccurate.

We need tongues because it's for us.

And God's not going to force you to pray in tongues.

Everyone go like this.

Go blah, blah, blah.

You just made a sound.

You had control to do that.

This is when you pray in tongues.

I'm going to say it.

It's very easy.

You start making sounds and you trust and believe God, you're steering the ship.

I have no idea.

You're steering the ship.

That's how easy it is to pray in tongues.

Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit.

You're faithful when I ask.

You're a father that gives good gifts to his children.

When I ask for this, you're going to listen and fill me with your spirit.

And then you open your mouth and you make sounds and trust that it's real.

That's literally how simple it is.

I don't understand that.

You're never going to understand that.

Step out in faith and open your mouth.

And all of a sudden put on and take on this weapon of warfare.

It's going to strengthen you.

There's times you need to be strengthened.

When we're wrestling against spiritual enemies, we get tired.

That's why we have people pray in the spirit in our church services because we come in weak and tired, and all of a sudden you're like, your spirit man is being strengthened.

Paul's saying, when you're doing this, you're praying directly to God.

And as you pray directly to God, your spirit man is being edified.

Maybe you're not physically experiencing anything.

You were not intended to.

Our physical experiences does not prove the validity of the spirit.

Did you catch that?

I didn't feel anything spiritually because that must mean it's not real.

Do you understand the spirit realm is not dependent upon the physical realm?

The physical realm came from the spiritual realm.

This is temporary.

The spiritual realm is eternal.

It's the greater of the two.

You need your tongue language.

You need to be praying in tongues.

You know what they did when they first the outpouring of the Holy Spirit came?

Do you know what happened?

The people mocked.

The people mocked it.

We've been uh rebuking a mocking spirit almost every Sunday.

A mocking spirit is going to make you feel insecure about praying in tongues.

Why would the demons do that?

Because they don't want you strengthened.

Because you're fighting against them.

You want to hear how silly the logic is of this?

We're going into warfare, we're going into a battle against real enemies, and you have a big gun at your disposal to take with you, and you decide, I'm not gonna take it.

That's what this is like.

I don't need that.

Because someone convinced you that this was just for first century Christians.

Do you know what Peter says?

Right after this happens in Acts 2, he says, This is for your children, this is for the next generation and all the generations to come.

Do you know he literally says that?

All who are far off talking about time.

Literally, Acts 2, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Peter literally says, This is until Jesus comes back.

And we we need to repent because we've been gullible listening to these false teachers, these false doctrines, these doctrines of demons.

You need your palate cleansed.

Well, David, we love them.

Of course we love them.

Of course we love them.

I'm not talking about them.

I'm not talking about the sons and daughters of God that, hey, they've got some doctrinal error.

I'm talking about the doctrinal error.

What does Satan come as?

The angel of light.

And a lot of people have been deceived by the false light to cut off the power.

Some of you are trying to just convince and beg your kids to come home.

You need to be praying over them and let the power of God convict them.

You're praying over stubborn spouses.

Get in your prayer closet.

Understand you're talking to the King of Kings, the creator of heaven and earth, and say, Lord, hear my cry and go to my son right now and redeem him in the name of Jesus.

Convict him in his very being.

Give him dreams that wake him up in the night, Lord, and bring him home.

Lord, hear the cries.

My spouse is being stubborn.

My spouse is doing this.

Hear my cry, Lord.

I'm putting my case in your hands.

Peter says, Cast your cares upon the Lord.

But we carry our cares and we wonder why day in and day out we're so heavy.

Cast your cares on the Lord, for he cares about you, and he's going to take care of you.

And he's all powerful.

He can break the most stubborn of hearts.

Pharaoh did not want to give up the Jews.

Did you know that?

He did not want to give them up.

God broke him down.

Nebuchadnezzar was so prideful, conquering the world.

God broke him down, humbled him, making him act like a beast.

The most powerful nations are tools in God's hands to accomplish this will.

We're dealing with the King of Kings, the creator of the universe.

Understand.

He says, listen, I want you to pray in languages that you don't know.

Trust me, it's good.

We do it.

Shaka the raba daddy, that rabah shaka all day long.

Stand up.

In the name of Jesus.

I speak to every demonic religious spirit.

Ones we've grown up in, ones that our generations have made ties with and contracts with, and we're bringing those contracts in the light.

We plead the blood of Jesus over these spiritual demonic things that have held the minds, the strongholds of your church for too long.

I rebuke you and I speak the authority of Christ and say that this religious mindset, this limiting of power that's kept you praying in tongues, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.

We cast you out in the name of Jesus.

Altar team, come up here.

Start praying in your tongue language now if you have a tongue language.

If you want to get your spiritual language on and you don't have it, today's the day to get it.

David, you're pressuring me.

Yes, I am.

You're going into battle with one leg tied.

You're missing something that you need in your life, and it's not a suggestion.

If you don't have your heavenly language, come up here.

You're gonna be filled with the Spirit of God this morning.

Come on, suka draba de diya.

Now's not the time for fear.

Now's not the time for fear of man.

Udraba shikio tarama ka draba dediya andaba shaka.

David, I want to be filled.

I want to be refilled.

If you're here today and you want to be refilled, you're saying my gas tank, my spiritual gas tank's empty.

Come up here.