Learning to Walk - Kingdom Spirit

This year our theme is the reigning church and you cannot

be a reigning church without the Spirit of God because it is only

the Spirit of God that causes you to reign.

And so this particular passive scripture will probably use

often, but I, you know, the Lord just reminded me of Matthew 15,

three. And so let me say this, we we

often said this back in the past and we may need to come back to

this particular occasion where Jesus said to religious people,

why do you forsake the commandment of God for the sake

of your tradition? And, you know, the more we begin

to uncover things concerning the Kingdom, those who love their

tradition of Jesus or the tradition they've been taught

concerning him will challenge those who are following the

Kingdom of God. And so you want to be of the one

that does not hold to traditional truths about things.

But really, what does the Bible say?

And it's important for us to go into the Scripture asking

questions. We're not questioning God.

We're saying, Lord, we want to know about you.

We're seeking you. We want to find you.

We want to know more about you. We want to discover you more.

That's what seeking does, is you discovering who he is.

And so in order for you to do that, sometimes you'll have to

abandon things you were taught at a young age or maybe you

heard in a particular denominator or from one that you

highly respected as a loved one that you by all rights believed

and know that they love God, but they are loving God based upon

what they know about God. There are some things I knew

about God and then later on found out, you know what that

aspect or what I thought about him.

That's not reality. It's not reality.

It was a statement made because we were ignorant and we didn't

know better. But now that I see it in the

scripture, I know better. And so I changed my thinking.

I changed my tradition of God or my religion of God, and I found

out who the King is, Amen. Who Jesus Christ is, is Lord.

But as we get closer to the day that we would be changed in the

moment, in the twinkling of an eye, because Jesus Christ is not

coming back for the lost. When he returns, He's coming

back for the church. And so he's coming back for the

church with all without spot or wrinkle to be found blameless

and all her glory. In fact, he's coming back for

the church in its maturity. Hallelujah.

He's coming back for the fruit of the earth, which really

represents the church, and so he's coming back for the church.

The next greatest move is when the church functions as a mature

person or mature man. When the church comes together

in unity and no one is is is competing with one another.

We are just complementing each other's gift.

We're loving each other's gift. We're excited about each other's

gift and we are in the fit God placed us not where we wanted

ourselves. Amen.

And man that God's coming back for that church.

But as we get closer to the greatest move of God, which is

the church mature in the planet. We also will have a counterfeit.

And so first Timothy 41 because the devil knows the power of the

church. This is why the devil has

attacked the church ever since Jesus ascended and the day of

Pentecost happened. He has attacked the church.

He has attacked the church. He has persecuted the church.

In fact, he had great religious people persecute the church.

One we knew his name was Saul of Tarsus and man.

He persecuted the church. He didn't go after the Roman

government. He didn't go after the Roman

king. He did not go after the he went

after the church. Those who confess that Jesus

Christ was the only way to the Father.

He persecuted it with Scripture. Now he did not rightly divide

it. He was in error concerning that.

But God corrected his theology. Aren't you glad Jesus had

correct your theology? And so in a moment on the road

to Damascus, his life has changed and he calls Jesus the

Lord of his life. And so the church has been

attacked relentlessly by the enemy because he does not want

the church to mature. The devil has experienced the

church in the former reign when the Spirit of God came.

And we have evidence of this church in Acts chapter 2-3 and

Acts 2 · chapter mention

four where they came together, they had a commonality, they had

Commonwealth, they were all in one mind, 1 accord.

I mean, they were being added to daily.

And it absolutely scared the devil.

Why? Because all of a sudden there

were many people that were that confess Jesus says Lord have

became a new creature in Christ and they were doing the same

works that Jesus did and he knew man, if this takes off globally,

I'm finished. Jesus is no longer in the earth.

He has whipped and stripped the devil of his power.

Then he left that authority to the church and the devil is

afraid. This is why he will attack you

to keep you out of it, to keep you from connecting with it, to

get you from jumping to one place to another place.

You know, to say it's OK for you to just listen online or do come

and go as you please. It's all an attack to get us

away from unity and assembly so that we can mature together and

accomplish the plan and purpose of God before he returns.

The devil's afraid. So anytime you hear of words

and, and things of people trying to pull you and take you and

snatch you and keep you from showing up, you just need to

know that is not the voice of God.

That's the voice of the devil, Amen.

That's the voice of the devil. And so First Timothy 41 says but

it, but the Spirit says now this is capital S because this is the

Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit explicitly says,

which means he is saying this will occur and nothing can stop

it. He explicitly says that in the

latter times, that's when the church is to mature.

When the latter rain comes, some will fall away from the faith.

Why paying attention to deceitful spirits?

One translation says seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.

Because there are in the in the realm of the spirit, in the

realm of the spirit of darkness. And This is why our battles not

against flesh and blood. The minute the devil can get you

to attack an individual, then he has seduced you that it's your

job now to take someone down. Our battles not against flesh

and blood. It's principalities and powers.

There's a spirit behind that and so he will.

There are spirits involved with people who want to not rightly

divide the word of truth, and he will navigate them to develop

doctrines of demons, and doctrines of demons are easily

able to destroy. Just to let you know they're not

difficult. Do you understand?

You should never take this decision well.

How will I ever know what truth is?

Truth is not a what, it's a He. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of

truth, and God is not intimidated with false doctrine

because He's giving you the spirit of truth.

And if you honestly love God and yield to the Spirit, then he'll

always navigate you into all truth.

He will always expose doctrines of devils, period.

It's not complicated at all. OK, not complicated, but there

are seducing spirits, and seducing spirits happen because

it preys on the flesh of man or man's carnality, and they will

seduce you because you already are yielding to that side

through what Paul called selfish ambition.

Those who have selfish ambition can be seduced, they can be

wooed, and they seduce you that you're going to do something

amazing for God only to take you down a road of destruction and

despair. So the Spirit says these things

will happen, people will fall away.

And we have an assignment in in the fivefold ministry to help

you navigate this. So we're going to learn how to

walk today. Say learn how to walk because

you have to learn how to walk. I'm going to say it this way.

Just because you're born doesn't mean you walk immediately.

But the capacity to walk is there if you are trained.

If you're trained. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

Thaddeus, come here. That is our head usher.

Thaddeus, Can you can you get right here?

No. Yeah.

I need you to get on my side like you're a child.

I'm going to carry you. Ready.

All right, Come on. Give me.

Give me this. OK.

Now. Thaddeus.

Thaddeus. If all I did was carry Thaddeus

around his whole life, could you see me going into the store

right now? We're going into Walmart.

You all right? Yeah.

This is my this is my son. I I adopted him.

Why don't you let him walk? Nah, man.

I mean, I love him too much to let him down.

I want to keep him right here by my side.

Right. I'm doing good, ain't I?

You're shocked right now. You're shocked.

Amen. Amen.

Now, oh, I feel really light right now.

I believe I could fly. But again, all of you parents

who had a child, you know that at some point you're here to

help them walk. My wife started our kids out

really early and she would do it with a little exercise where she

would let them grab her fingers. You know, she they grip her

little fingers and then she pull them up and they would end up

doing squats, baby squats. She's working those legs,

working them out. Why?

So they get strong to develop balance.

Because ultimately, I'm not carrying you the rest of my

life. But yeah, we have some parents

that want to keep their children on their hip, and the reason why

they're developing slower is because we are afraid they'll

fall. But the goal is not about

falling, it's about learning how to walk.

Falling sometimes happens when you learn how to walk, but

eventually you get stable and strong enough to walk.

And God wants us to walk. Amen.

First Corinthians chapter 3 verses one through 3 says it

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

this way. It says, and I, brethren, could

not speak to you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as

to infants in Christ. So if you're an infant, you're

not walking, you're not walking, you're being carried.

Let's go on. He said.

I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet

able to receive it. Indeed, even now you're not

able. Now why are they not able?

He says. For are you still fleshly?

For since there is here, it is jealousy and strife among you.

Are you not fleshly? And are you not walking like

mere men? So the walk therein is not a

walk of the Spirit, but a walk of the flesh, a walk of the

natural. Now if I went on and put this in

context, this will blow your mind.

The flesh therein is over an argument of who they like best

in the church. He identified jealousy and

strife because someone was saying, well, minister so and so

and minister such and such. Well, the minister, that's what

that helps us. And dinner.

They're better than your minister.

Apollos is better than Paul. Paul's way better than Apollos.

Oh, I love to hear Apollos minister.

He's so eloquent. Paul, he man, he doesn't speak

real good now Paul, man, he this guy, he's amazing.

Apollos had, he doesn't even understand the Kingdom like Paul

does. I mean, there's all kinds.

And they're bantering and having jealousy over who they're

listening to. Jealousy and strife, not over a

sinful thing. Paul identifies their infancy.

Well, I just can't listen to them.

I don't want to listen to them. I don't want to hear them such

and such. Now, here's the point.

There are so many voices out there today is that the church

has gotten into that. If we don't watch out.

I mean, you need to hear what you need to hear and not be

arguing with somebody else about what they're hearing.

False doctrine is a whole nother ball game.

But we're not talking about false doctrine because Apollos

and Paul were rightly divine, the word of truth.

The only thing we know different about Apollos and Paul is that

Apollos did not fully understand the Kingdom like Paul did.

Because later on Priscilla and Aquila in the book of Acts, they

brought Apollos to the side and showed him a more clear way

because he was preaching the baptism of repentance.

And so his insight of the things of God grew, of which Paul

himself acknowledged the ministry of Apollo.

So these are not 2 ministers that we're dealing with false

doctrine. So when you develop favors

favorites in the body of Christ of those who actually trained

the word correctly, your carnal that's immaturity.

Same in anyway. All right, you don't I I we say

these things so that you don't fall prey to this Amen.

We don't fall prey to this because a lot of times we will

put on a spiritual air as if we are following God.

Well, you know, I just feel like the Lord wanted me to.

Well, we need to talk about that.

And that's why we're ministering today on being led by the

spirit, because in the last days he tells us that there will be

these other spirits that are speaking so much so that it's it

will cause people to fall away. They'll fall away.

We'll say Pastor Earl, who are falling, who's falling away.

I'm not here to tell you that. I'm not here to name names.

I'm not here to do that. What I'm saying is some will and

we'll see evidence of what will cause people, and we'll see

evidence in a general sense of how we know whether a person is

walking by the Spirit or walking according to the flesh, period.

And then you based upon your interactions and conversation

with people is easy to identify them and it teaches you how to

pray, how do you navigate your life and how you make sure your

ear continues to give heed to the word of God in the spirit of

God that Pastor Marcy's ministering on on Wednesday

night. Amen.

So William McDowell, pastor down in here in where's he at

Orlando. I was looking for a clip today

because Pastor Marcy ministered to our worship team before

service and he had put out a clip just recently and I'm like,

wow, that is so good. He said, and I'm not quoting

him, but I'm giving you the gist.

He said that when he was dealing with worship leaders, he said

today we are at the greatest risk of Luciferian worship

because so many people want to be the next worship person.

They're all out on YouTube because now with YouTube, you

can write your song, get it and get popular, he said.

We are at the greatest risk today than ever before of, of,

of having the Luciferian spirit in our services.

And it's not because we're inviting Satan in, but the ones

that are desiring to be made known in the realm of worship.

And he's speaking from his platform.

He is a pastor, but he first was a worship minister.

I went to a particular conference that he held once,

and he spoke that when he went ministered at churches, he had

to stop singing. And the reason he stopped is

because when he would minister, he would get on the piano and he

would begin to come get what he had in the spirit.

Well, the crowd would be upset because they wouldn't play the

song that they've listened to on the album.

And they wanted him to just play that song.

They wanted him to perform it, but God didn't want him to go in

that direction. And he said I would leave

meetings and people would be mad at me, upset at me after

service. Tell me why didn't I?

And they didn't. They came for me to do a

concert. Now notice when they those

individual, when they come to that, they'll throw their hands

up and they'll sing like they're in the presence of God.

But yet the minute he didn't do it, what happened?

Well, it lets us know that this line between the spirits that

aren't of God and the Holy Spirit, there's a line there

that unless you're doing what's necessary, you're not going to

know which line you're on. Because just being born of God

doesn't make you proficient at being led by the Spirit.

Being born of God gives you absolute access immediately the

minute you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life to to be able

to hear the voice of God. Period.

But to say that you're well versed in following only the

Holy Spirit just because you're born again, the scripture does

not conclude that you must train yourself to be proficient at

only hearing the Holy Spirit. If you do not train yourself,

you will fail. You will fail and you will use

scripture and ministers as your reason of why you think you've

heard the Spirit right. All right, this is serious

business as we get into these lat as we are in these last of

the last days. First Peter 22 says this he says

like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so that we

so that by it you may grow in respects to salvation.

So God expects us to grow up spiritually in your spirit.

When you're born again, you're everything that you're ever

going to be. You don't.

It's in you in the spirit. But that does have to be

developed. Just like myself.

When I was born, I was born 7 lbs eleven oz.

I was, I think, 21 inches long. But everything in me at birth is

what I am today physically. The DNA was going to make me the

hife I am, my bone structure the way it is, my eye color the way

it is, my hair color the way it is, you know, my brain, all

those things. It was already in me at birth,

but it did not manifest till I matured.

The muscles that I have today were in me from birth.

But they are what they are because of training, not because

they just automatically happened.

Muscles don't develop without training, so people's physical

physique comes by training, not just because it's in your DNA.

You still have to train. Just like our mind, we have the

capacity in our mind, but if we do not train our mind, if we do

not study, if we do not subject ourselves to certain academic

things, we do not develop that. That's why we go to school,

That's why we physically exercise.

That's why what we eat is really important because it affects our

body. Are you hearing me?

But yet if we do the things right and do exercise, then we

have the best form of us. And what we couldn't do was save

ourselves. But Christ did that.

Amen. So once we're born again or a

babe in Christ infant, we are to grow up.

And you grow UPS. First, buy milk, meaning things

in the scripture. Not solid food, but milk.

Things that allow you to digest who you are in Christ and give

you the opportunity to grow in who you are in the Lord and

understanding of what He's saying.

Hebrews chapter 5, verses 11 through 14.

Hebrews 5:11–14

I'm sure my wife will speak on this on Wednesday night.

And although I kind of roamed around on Wednesday to being a

few other of our services. Did you mention this scripture

at all? No, OK, so she'll probably go

here. But concerning him, let's read

this. Concerning Him we have much to

say and it's hard to explain why since you have become dull of

hearing verse 12. For though by this time you

ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach

you the elementary principles of the oracles of God and have come

to need milk and what not solid food.

Now this is a person who wants ate solid food.

But something has happened that has caused them now to go back

to milk, which means who formerly were was eating solid

food now no longer has the capacity to eat solid food.

They're back to milk. These are dangerous people

because this is the quickest form to Ferris to be in a

Pharisee right here when this happens, he said.

For everyone who partakes only a milk is not accustomed to the

word of righteousness for he is an he's an infant, but solid

food is for who? Now listen, everyone in this

room wants to be mature. Everyone in this room wants to

be mature. I mean, if I went down and said

you do you believe you're mature in Christ?

I'm going to tell you right now, probably 90% of you are going to

say yes. There's probably 10% that would

say, you know what? I realize I'm not.

And it would be even less for those who have been here and

trained and gone through 318 and Kingdom Institute and

discipleship classes and all kinds of stuff for them to say,

you know what? I'm an infant.

Again, it'd be hard for them to admit that, but it happens.

I said it happens, but solid food is for the mature who,

because of what practice or training, have had their senses

trained to discern good and evil.

This is really important because the devil always comes sounding

like it's good. He comes as an Angel of so evil

is always masked in good. I mean, the devil does not come

at you and say, I want you to commit adultery on your spouse.

I mean, most believers like, well, that we're not supposed to

do that. I want you to go rob this bank

right now. I mean, most of us will be like,

no, I mean, it's always different.

He masks it in light. Are you hearing me?

Mature people are able to discern this.

So the minute we see that there's an infant, you have to

say you have to develop yourself where you're like, I understand

what I'm an infant in. Allow me to become mature

because you can have areas of maturity in the word and infancy

in others. I'll give you a case in point

from Brother Hagen. He had this particular testimony

because he was sick. Kenneth E Hagin was sick and he

was supposed to die, but at 16 he was healed miraculously by

the Lord. So he knew it was God's will to

heal and he never wavered from healing.

He would stand firm anytime a symptom came on his body, he

would stay with the Word. He would confess that word and

healing would always manifest in his life.

And, and when it came to the subject of healing, he was very

mature. He would not let a thought come

to him and tell him he was going to die.

He wasn't going to make it. He would never entertain those.

He would always combat it with the word.

He was mature in his response. But when it came to prosperity,

the provision of God for his ministry, he was not.

And the Lord had to speak to him and he said, Son, the faith that

you have for healing is the same faith.

You need to be able to prosper with your ministry in what God's

called you to do. Now, faith's the important word

here. Faith is not a concept.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of God and

being firmly persuaded that that word will come to pass.

So what he's saying is you need to get in the Word.

You need to let the Word train you.

You need to subject yourself to the Word.

You need to always keep the Word in front of you because the

Spirit of God will reveal that word.

That way when you get in situations that seem like it's

not that way, you'll call those things that be not as though

they were, and you'll change those situations financially.

And then he developed himself where he became mature in the

realm of giving and receiving. So he admittedly say, when it

came to healing, I had it, but when it came to provision, did

not have it at all. We must be honest with ourselves

because you know what? The Holy Ghost is honest with

you, and he'll let you know you don't have this.

Quit telling yourself you're believing me.

You're not persuaded He's honest with you.

He's not going to leave you in delusion.

James tells us that a hearer of the Word who does not do the

Word deceives themselves. The Holy Spirit will let you

know you're not in the position you think you're in.

I remember when it came to the mall, everybody, we could get

them all, all this. We've raised the money to be

able to get in contract. But I knew in me, I, I'm not

like 100% here. And before I turn over $250,000,

I need to get there. I mean, I could say in front of

you, I've got it, I've got it. But if I knew I didn't have it,

then I know I don't have it and I'm not going to do that.

So it was a day that I went to go set up my camper because my

wife and I were going to camp and I wanted to go pray because

this decision was there. The weight of that decision was

there, and I needed to know I had heard from God.

And that's where the Lord, you know, in a particular place on

the beach, bunch of houses that cost millions of dollars to

build. He said, Son, do you see that

house? I said yes Lord, because I was

praying in the Spirit about this situation, about the mall.

He said, son, do you see that house?

Yes, Lord. He said, how much you think that

house costs? I said millions.

He said, you notice anything else about it?

And I said, yeah, it looks like it's a snowbirds home, meaning

they don't live there full time. This is a second home.

He said if man can have a second home that costs millions of

dollars, don't you believe I can get you a mall?

Well, the minute He said that to me, I knew then, because I knew

the Scriptures, that He shall supply all my knees according to

riches and glory. I knew the Scriptures that He

wanted me to prosper, that He wanted a place for His church to

assemble and land for His people.

I knew this. He wanted us to possess land.

I knew this. But that word solidified my firm

persuasion. And then I never came off Never.

I would not relinquish. I would ask him, are we still on

track? Is there something different

we're doing here that I'm unaware of?

But because the last thing I heard is we supposed to do this.

And you know what? Lo and behold, it came to pass.

But it comes to pass because we believe God at His Word so

mature people can discern good and evil.

Just because you've eaten solid food at one time doesn't mean

you'll always eat solid food unless you maintain training to

eat it. Maintain training to eat it.

Which tells me there can be a time you were very proficient at

following the Holy Spirit and then later on not.

Amen. Why will a person that was

eating solid food, how can they fall back into infancy?

The answer is found in the 11th verse.

He said concerning him. I have much to say, but it's

hard to explain. And this is concerning Jesus.

I can't talk much more about Him, I can't explain more about

Him. I can't give you more revelation

or illumination about Him and His Kingdom.

Because why you become dull of hearing?

It? Wasn't that the Word couldn't be

priest. Is that when it's priest, you do

not want to hear it? So Dole has some words

associated with it. First word is slow.

That means having qualities that hinder rapid progression and

action. I know there's time to

administer the word and and I know situations that are going

on in people's lives because I'm the pastor I oversee.

God lets me be aware either by the Spirit or through personal

contact and having conversations with individuals.

And I'm realize this word is the word they just need to act on,

yet they're not acting on it. Why 'cause they become dull and

they're hearing they're slow. What could be a rapid turn

around in their situation? It's not.

And it's not because the power of the word isn't there to do

it. It's because they're choosing to

spit out the solid. And now they've become an infant

and they'll start debating the Word of God and what the Spirit

is saying. And the other spirits will begin

to give you alternative thought processes because they are not

rapid action. The thing about David is David

was quick to repent. We need to be quick to repent.

What does the word say then? Rapidly.

I'm going to do not be slow to change our thinking to the word.

Another word associated with dole is sluggish.

It means slow to respond. Don't be slow to respond when

the Holy Spirit on the inside of you says, hey, let's get this

together, let's fix this. Cause anything He's telling you

to adjust, guess what? He's empowering you.

And yet we will debate with the Holy Spirit and tell him why we

can't. Almost like, why are you even

asking me to do that? Because don't you know about all

this other stuff I've heard? Well, those voices you're not

supposed to be listening to anyway.

Another word in here is indolent.

It means adverse to activity, effort, or movement.

It means habitually lazy. So they're dull of hearing me,

which means they are lazy. And they know to do that word

requires effort out of them. But they're not willing to do

the effort. Not willing to do it.

I've been in places where you're telling somebody what to do and

they don't want to do it. They know the effort.

I remember one particular case of someone that used to be at

church decades ago, OK, that has some physical challenges and God

healed them of a disease that typically takes people out and

they began to, you know, continue to move, but yet there

were hidden issues from their childhood and it would manifest

through symptoms again. And so, you know, got a call

from the spouse that things are going on with the this

particular loved 1. And so we brought the staff

there was we took the staff and, and, and stayed in the house for

24 hours, for 30 days straight in prayer.

And you know, when you see God, you'll find some things.

Pastor Angie got the word from the Lord of what the problem

was, went to the individual, said something and they're like,

you're right. You're going to have to forgive

them. I mean, you cannot walk in

unforgiveness. You cannot.

You can go on with your show of worship and throwing your hands

up and all that theatrics, but God knows whether you have

issues in your heart with somebody.

So, you know, it seemed as we were moving in the right

direction, the one they had an issue with, they came over to

the house, they began to talk with them, deal with that

situation and, and verbally and ask for forgiveness.

And that's, and we look like we're moving in the right

direction. And I remember Pastor Angie

said, now listen, God's going to give you a new heart.

You have to allow God to completely heal what was broken

in you because of this situation.

And the individual said these words, said these words to her.

She can test. I stand up so you can testify

with me. Said these words to her.

I don't think I can. It hurts too bad.

I it's too hard. I would rather die than deal

with it. The next day would not let the

staff in. Could not show up at the house.

2 weeks later was in the grave. Now was that God's will?

But it was someone who decided they would be dull of hearing

because they did not want to deal with their issue.

That God was openly ready to heal and treat.

That person would have been free like it never even happened.

Because this is the restoration of God.

He put you in a place as if it never happened.

Come on, say Amen. He puts you in a place as if it

never happens. So we have to be honest that we

want to mature because we need to be proficient at being led by

the Spirit of God. God expects us to be LED.

This is why He gives you the fivefold ministry, which is

Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 16 again.

Ephesians 4:11–16

And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as

advantages, some as passion and teachers.

That's why the devil attacks you from being in the church and

having the fivefold ministry be a part of your life on a face to

face basis. Online basis is not it.

It is a vitamin. It is supplement.

I'm not telling you you cannot learn things.

There are some reputable ministers I like and I've

listened to stuff that they've posted online, no problem.

But they are not the ones that are equipping me.

They are not equipping me because I do not have face to

face interaction and relationship with them for the

equipment of the Saints. This is why you have them for

the work of that's the training. This is what takes you from

infancy to maturity. How do we know this?

Let's go on and continue to read to the building up of the body

of Christ verse 13. Wow until we all attain to the

unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God.

Here it is to a what? To a what, Which tells me this

If you are not actively connected to a local body

serving that vision. You will not arrive to maturity

now. You can put on a tradition all

you want to and say, oh I can, you cannot.

You're already being seduced to believe you can.

You cannot, you cannot. God knew how this worked.

That's right. These are his words, not mine,

to the measure of the statue which belongs to the fullness of

Christ. When you do this, look at verse

14. As a result you are no longer to

be children, tossed here and thereby waves and carried about

by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the

craftiness and deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth

and love. We are to grow up in all aspects

into Him who was the head, even Christ verse 16, from whom the

whole body being fitted and held together, fitted and held

together, not separated not I've arrived and I'm going on my own

because I'm too mature for them. All right.

By what every joint supplies according to the proper working

of each individual part causes the growth of the body and the

building up of the self and love.

You know how many believers are shipwrecked and moved to infancy

because they take this religious traditional thought?

Well, you know, it's the capital C church.

You know the church is global. It's the big church and I, I, I

serve the big church. You don't serve any church.

If you're not in a local church, you have no impact on the global

one. Now I'm been in the military and

the army is the big deal, but I'm not serving the big army

unless I serve my local unit. If I don't serve my local unit,

show up, do the training, do what's necessary, when they call

the whole army up, I'll be no good for it.

You don't bounce from one unit to the next unit to the next

unit to the next unit at your discretion.

Now you can get transferred to another one so that things can

happen. I understand that.

But you understand people in the military don't say, you know

what? I've been in the Army Now, you

know, I've done this Army for about 6 weeks.

I'm gonna jump over to the Air Force, you know, because we're

all the armed forces. It doesn't work like that.

Yeah, we at like, because we can just jump and jump in any church

we want to do whatever we want to whenever we want to.

You know what that is? A spirit of independence.

Come on, That is not in God's Kingdom.

It may be in the US, but it's not in the Kingdom of God.

If he's really Lord, you're like, where are you assigning

me? Where's my duty station?

Where am I supposed to learn and grow?

And I will not let another voice Take Me Out of it.

And for anyone to pull out and then never get planted into the

next, that's problematic. Think of that thought.

Your heavenly Father is going to pull you out of the very thing

that helps you mature and then lets you wander for a season.

And what do they say? Well, yeah, but I love the Lord.

We, we do our own Bible reading at the home.

And well, I'm glad you do, but you're not going to mature.

What you've done is you're digressing.

You're losing solid food capacity because you've grown

dull of hearing, because you do not want the fivefold ministry

in your life, because if God's really leading you by the

Spirit, why is He not taking you from one right into the next?

Hallelujah. OK, let's go on.

So in Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 5, praise the Lord,

Romans 8 · chapter mention

we'll move with some urgency. Now for those who are according

to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but

those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the

Spirit. So whether you are of the flesh

of the Spirit is not the Holy Spirit determines that, and it's

not even the Father that determines that.

You determine this, you determine this, He said.

For the mind set on the flesh is death.

The seducing spirit will tell you you can live according to

the flesh and not die. It's the same thing, he said in

the garden. You're not going to die.

You know you're not going to die if you give to your flesh.

It's OK every once in a while to give to your flesh.

It doesn't really matter for the mindset.

Now, you can make a mistake, that's one thing.

But a mindset is a person who practices, and you're always

looking for the opportunity to fulfill the flesh.

For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the

Spirit is life and peace. Because the mindset on the flesh

is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the

law of God, for it is not even able to do so.

And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Why can you not please God? Because you can't live by faith.

You're not even hearing the word of God.

You're dull of hearing, you're sluggish, you're lazy.

Now I'm not talking about you, I'm just saying a general thing.

Now that that person is, is sluggish, lazy, they, they are

not quick to action and change. They want to do what they want

to do, and as a result of that, they're going to find themselves

in death and definitely going to go back to infancy and eating

the milk of the Word. He said, however, you're not in

the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed, if that's a conditional

statement, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not

belong to him. And that's obvious.

If you're not born of God, then the Holy Ghost doesn't live in

you. If Christ is in you though the

body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of

righteousness. Meaning you're not subject to

the flesh that you're in anymore.

You don't have to do it what it craves.

You can stay with the Spirit. But if the spirit of him who

raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised

Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies

through his Spirit who dwelling. That just means even though your

body's decaying, He can keep you healthy so you can finish your

assignment. That doesn't mean He quickens

your mortal body so that you can do the things that the mortal

body likes outside of the Spirit, because that's deeds of

the flesh and that's where death shows up.

So then, brethren, you are not under obligation not to the

flesh to live according to the flesh.

Just because your flesh talks to you doesn't mean you should obey

it. You're not obligated.

He goes on to say, for if by for if you are living according to

the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are

putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Here it is verse 14 for all who are being led by the Spirit of

God. These are sons of God.

We in the church have traditionally accepted that if a

person confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior at some

juncture in their life, that slam dunk, they are born again.

Done. No problem and there's no

further evidence required. However, if someone has done

that, there will be evidence. You cannot truly have accepted

Christ as your Lord and Savior and it not change you on the

outside. That is a seducing spirit saying

just ask Jesus into your heart. Ask him forgive your sin, but

you can do whatever you want to do.

You understand there's the grace of God is going to allow you to

do this. You can go back to living like

you used to live doing what you used to do, and don't let nobody

tell you anything otherwise because no works got you in and

no works are going to keep you there because they take all that

out of context. You don't actually have to

change it all. All you have to do is just ask

Him to come in and you can live life like you want to.

You're good. That is a doctrine of the devil

because a person born of God will not fulfill the lusts of

the flesh. They're not wanting to do it.

They have no desire to do it. I mean, it's talking, but they

crucify the flesh. He goes on says, for you've not

received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but

you're receiving a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry

out, ABBA father, wow. And this amazing the spirit, the

spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are what

children of God. So we are children of God

because we are led by the Spirit of God, which tells us God

expects us to only follow the Holy Spirit's voice and another

one we're not supposed to follow.

But you will not be able to proficiently follow that voice

without continual training it doesn't have.

It's not automatic in the sense that you'll always get that

right. You immediately have access to

hear and your spirit does hear the Spirit of God the minute

you're born again. But in order for you to become

proficient at following that voice, you must train yourself

to be able to follow that voice. And if you are deluding or or as

one the scripture says, be sober minded.

There are many believers that have become intoxicated not from

the things of the world, but just from things being

associated with the Bible through people who are not

rightly dividing it. And you'll get intoxicated with

all types of doctrines. This is why Ephesians 4 says you

won't be carried away by them. I mean, Jesus knew there is

going to be all kinds of stuff out there.

There is a pathway to truth and it is straight and it is narrow.

I mean, He let it out plain is narrow, but unfortunately how

many find it because most become dull.

Amen. Luke chapter 4 verses one

Luke 4 · chapter mention

through 2. It says it this way.

Jesus full of the Spirit returned from the Jordan and was

led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days being

tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those

days. And when he when they had ended,

he became what? Now?

The first temptation that Jesus faced with is to fulfill his

flesh. You're hungry, aren't you?

Yeah. I'm.

I'm. I'm hungry.

Well, if you are the Son of God, why don't you turn this rock

into bread? Because that'd be nothing for

someone that's a child of God to have that kind of authority.

Come on, prove it. Now, could Jesus have done that?

He sure could have. Which means he could have

wielded power to feed his flesh. Now I'll give you another

instant that we know this works. God told Moses speak to the

rock, but he hit it twice. The first time he hit, he said

hit, strike the rock and water come out.

It did that same anointing in power cause water to come out of

the rock when he hit it twice, but it satisfied A fleshly

impulse. And what did it cost Moses?

It killed his ability to take them into the Promised Land.

His purpose died because He sowed to the flesh using the

anointing. It's dangerous to use the

anointing to satisfy your flesh. Jesus could have, but He did

not. Jesus is a prime example of what

it means to move in maturity because he did not allow his

circumstance to dictate his response.

How did Jesus respond? It is written he cast down the

thought of the devil and to act on that thought that was given

to him by another spirit and he only listened to what the Holy

Spirit was telling him that was in line with the Word.

The Holy Spirit and the Word are always in alignment.

The Holy Spirit is not telling you something contrary to what

the written word has said. Now here's the thing.

We've said this before as counsel.

You know what you need to follow?

Peace. OK, I'm going to.

I'm going to help bring clarity to that statement.

The devil will offer you peace when you are in a turbulent

moment called a trial and tribulation that the Lord will

deliver you out of all your trouble.

The devil will give you a peace place.

It will seem peaceful. So you can't just follow peace

from a situation. You must follow a fruit.

And I know many people who've made decisions not because they

followed the fruit of peace, but they followed the situation of

peace. Come on.

That's good. Well, if I do this, I'm going to

be at peace. It's just more peaceful.

I'm in so much trouble. But if I could just get out, if

I could just go here, if I could just, I believe the you told me

to follow peace. No, you're following situational

peace. You're not following the fruit

of the spirit peace because the fruit of the spirit will take

you straight to the devil and you can have peace in the middle

of the fight. Isn't that awesome?

He'll put you right in the middle of a battle.

He'll take you straight to a storm and let you sleep in it.

Hallelujah. So peace is not your

surrounding, is something literally internal.

It's not looking for the place less chaotic, it's the place

inside where you're at. Perfect peace that I've heard

the Lord on this deal. And I don't care if this storm

rages, it will cease. I'm not moving off my mark.

Amen. So Jesus was led by the Spirit.

He did not succumb to the flesh, and He did this because He

stayed with the Word. Let's close with this passage of

Scripture in Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Y'all doing all right? Amen.

Praise the Lord. Now what?

OK, but I say walk by the Spirit.

We'll learn how to walk. Walk by the Spirit, what will

happen? You will not carry out the

desires of the flesh. That's pretty simple.

And if you are have ears to hear, you can know real quick

that if you're ever in a response that's moving you in

the flesh, then you can say, you know what?

I'm not walking by the Spirit. Amen.

Come on, I need to walk by the Spirit here, because if I walk

by the Spirit, I'm not going to carry out the desires of the

flesh. 17 says this. For the flesh sets its desires

against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for

these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do

the things that you please. Let me read this out of the New

Living Translation. It says it this way.

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite

of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires

that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires.

These two forces are constantly fighting each other so that you

are not free to carry out your good intentions.

They're always fighting. This is why a person can grow to

maturity, proficiently hear the Spirit of God, but then have a

situation happen in their life or give heed to the wrong voice.

And because they're slow to deal with that voice, they can go

back to infancy. I'll give you some some great

statements that come from the enemy.

You know what? You've served a really long time

at that church. Yeah.

Come on. You should really let somebody

else do it. I mean, you know how much you've

sacrificed. Wow, You have so many rewards.

I mean, I think you should probably stop.

Let someone else don't always. Yet the Lord hasn't told you to

stop. Now, your body had talked to

you. Your age had tell you.

Yeah. And most people do it not

because God's telling them, but because they model their work

life with their church life. Well, I'm retiring from work.

I'm going to retire from serving in the church.

That's good. How do you retire from who you

are? I mean, how does my arm retire

from being on my body for 55 years?

You know, I've served you well. I think I'm going to retire.

I'm done being an arm. You know, I want you to take me

off, take me to an island and I just want to get dark on a

beach. That's what I desire.

I desire to tan. So take me there.

I'm done. I don't want you to.

I don't want to pick up another thing.

Does your arm do that? Aren't you glad it doesn't, that

you don't wake up one day? Like, where did it go?

That would be problem. But yet we treat the church like

we're not a body. The cool thing about the things

that the Spirit is that you get stronger in it year by year.

Though your outward may be decaying, your inward is getting

stronger and stronger. You're being renewed every day.

His mercies are new every morning.

You're being renewed continually in the Spirit.

And if you do what the Spirit's telling you, even with your

physical body all the way along, you'll get even further life

being strong physically to carry out what God's called you to do

Say Amen. Hallelujah.

So verse 18. But if you are led by the

Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident.

What are the deeds of the flesh? Immorality, impurity and

sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,

outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions envying,

drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I

forewarned you just as I have forewarned you.

Those who, what, who, what? Such things will not going to

inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruits of the Spirit are

joy, Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ

have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the if we live by the Spirit, let us also, you

know how many believers are alive by the Spirit but aren't

walking by the Spirit. You can be alive by the Spirit

and yet not walk by the Spirit and not walk.

Hallelujah, Amen. And in these last days, when

there's so many voices, so many voices, so many voices out

there, you must become proficient.

You know, I'm surprised, to be honest with you, how well the

enemy has done to attack the fivefold ministry that God would

place an overseer in your life to help grow and develop you.

And yet when you go to make certain decisions in life,

you'll go to God, make those decisions, and then never have

any conversation with the pastor about it all.

A pastor, true pastor is never going to control your decision

making. In fact, I would let you make a

mistake. I would, I would tell you

though, I remember one particular couple years ago came

and honestly, we're going to leave the church.

And I'm like, I mean, they were telling me it's my last service.

I'm like, OK, and and this is how it's framed now.

You know, we've been praying and we believe the Lord wants us to

leave. Well, in my spirit, the Lord

didn't say leave. And I was like, OK, so when,

when are you leaving? Well, we're done.

It's our last service. I said, OK.

I said, wow, it's interesting in the world because you're a

leader, you have you're in leadership position, you're

overseeing things and you're going to leave right now.

Last service service is done and now you're telling me on your

way out yet in the natural people do a two week.

The world does this and you're going to tell you my heavenly

Father is going to create a hole in the ministry.

I said no. Now this is where it gets real

touchy. That's where it gets touchy

because God forbid I tell you, you heard the Holy Ghost wrong.

God forbid that. Now the reality is, can I hear

wrong? Yes, just like you can hear

wrong. But ultimately it's going to pan

out who's right and who heard right.

And when it's evident who heard right, the one who was wrong can

easily go to the other one and say, you know what?

You were right. I'm glad you stayed with the

Spirit. I was wrong because there's no

issue when you really have the heart of God.

But I said, no, I don't believe this is where you need to be.

It's not what God wants. Well, they ended up, you know,

going on now they they had some other issues and we were working

with them on that as well. So I knew in the spirit they're

just a one is 1 is avoiding and is pulling the other.

This is not good. Six months later, they were

divorced. So did God want them to leave?

Nope. No, but they told me they

prayed, they heard God, They're following peace.

No, someone had a motive, someone God was speaking to to

help train. You know, I've had people come

up to me throughout the years and say, you know, the Lord sent

me here, He's going to take me to the next level here.

Then when we try to get them to another level, they leave.

And then I get in trouble for it.

I mean, again, LG, stay, come here.

LGLG does personal fitness OK? I mean, that's like you going to

LG as a trainer, right? LG he's my trainer.

And I say OK, LG, you know, it's time for me to get some bigger

legs. I need to really have some

bigger legs. You know, yours look awesome.

Mine do not. And So what can we do about it

now? What am I doing?

I'm subjecting myself to him now.

Are you going to put me in pain? There you go.

Can we're honest. You don't grow muscles and it

feel good. It hurts, but it's OK.

And so when I'm doing that other wall squad, let's just pretend

you're making me do wall squats. This is my three thousandth 1

and I'm hurting so bad and and I come back and he goes, do one

more. I'm going, I'm done with you.

Don't tell me. Listen, you don't get to the

next place. You don't get to dictate to the

trainer how to be trained. It's his responsibility to see

your weakness and train you past it.

And what the Saints are doing is they're telling the pastors, the

apostles, the evangelists, the prophets and the teachers don't

be training me. I got the Holy Ghost.

OK? And when you're going into

ministry, guess what? There's training.

You got to subject yourself to it because we want to be fit

like LG. Thank you.

Right. We want to be strong.

Hallelujah. And then when you're quit again,

ushers, would you come so we can do communion in the last of the

last days? Man, the enemy's really good

again. Why is it dangerous for those

that get dull a hearing? Because they're armed with

scripture that now they use to keep themselves deceived in

their decision making. If the fruits of the spirit are

not functioning, you're not in the spirit.

If whatever situation you're in right now, Lovejoy, peace,

patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, long-suffering,

self-control, those things are not functioning and you're

aggravated, upset beside you're in the flesh over it.

And This is why a lot of times you want to be able to come to

those that God has given oversight into your life because

they aren't having to deal with your emotional scarring.

What they're able to do is say what does the word say?

And it's OK because I would tell LG this hurts, I hate this.

That's the worst exercise I have ever done in my life.

If it was up to me, I would never do that.

One of which he could say I understand, but you're not going

to have this leg if you don't. And when he modeling it?

No, let's let yourself be trained because we just want you

to walk. We just want you to walk full of

the Spirit and not be seduced in these last days.

Amen.