Spiritual Insight - Kingdom Discernment

Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast

from St. Augustine, FL.

Now enjoy this message. Turn over to 1st John chapter

four. First John chapter 4, we're

1 John 4 · chapter mention

going to talk about some spiritual insight.

Anybody wants some spiritual insight?

Wouldn't you love to have some spiritual insight?

I'm talking accurate spiritual insight, right?

Some spiritual insights. So we're going to deal with some

Kingdom discernment today. And 1st John chapter 4, starting

John 4 · chapter mention

in verse one, it says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but

test the spirits to see whether they are from God, OK?

And we've been dealing with some thought processes here because

again this year God spoke to us about the reigning spirit.

We have the Holy Ghost, He is the reigning spirit, but there

are other spirits, OK? And so John communicates this in

his first letter here concerning that when you're hearing things,

you need to test because everything talking to you isn't

necessarily from God. Just because you're born again

doesn't mean the devil cannot talk to you nor those that are

with him, which would be unclean spirits, right?

All kinds of different spirits that are in that area of his

influence, domain of darkness. So you have to test it, which

means think about that word test for a moment.

No one wants to take a test without having the information

to pass it, which tells us if you're not studying, you will

fail the test. OK, so when he says test the

Spirit, you need to be a studier of the word, rightly dividing

the word of truth so that you can pass the test to know that's

not from God. That's not a thought from God,

because the devil comes as an Angel in life.

The devil uses Scripture right and some a lot of babes in

Christ. OK carnal Christians are babes

in Christ. They're very susceptible to

other spirits when they lead with Scripture are terms that

are associated with God. Again, this is laughable, but

I'd always like to tell it when I was a youth pastor in Starke,

FL, actually, you know, we had a little praise and worship team

and we ministered to a bunch of teenagers and I had some

teenagers come in from school one day and and it was at

service and was like Pastor Earl, we want to do a new want

you to do a new praise and worship song, you know, and I

said, what's that? It's called heaven let your

light shine down. This was a secular song by

Active Soul. Well, bless their darling

hearts, they were, you know, babes and cries, but they heard

heaven and they were assuming we're talking about the same

place, right? We're not talking about the same

place at all. And we're not singing that song

in service. Okay, so with that being said,

there's a few secular groups that had references, you know,

to have a says just like, you know, I definitely wouldn't sing

Highway to Hell either, but there's a highway to hell.

Are you hearing me? But I'm not going to make it my

worship song. All right, we reference hell

today anyway, so we have to test the spirits and you know, the

spirits will come like light. But when you know Scripture,

then you can say not sure that's the Lord.

So the implication here is if when you find that they're not

from God, then you should disregard their messaging.

I said you should disregard their messaging.

Hallelujah in relationships, spirits talking about lustful

ones. OK, They'll come to a born again

believer and convince them to get in a relationship with an

unbeliever, that that you as a believer are going to change

their life. Yet the scripture says do not be

unequally yoked with unbelievers.

And that lustful spirit will convince them that the only way

they're going to get right is if you go ahead and marry them,

that you need to be around them full time and you're going to

take them to church. There's no guarantee.

In fact, Scripture lets us know. In fact, if you believe that

they can change, let them change first before you say I do.

But now that means you got to put down your feelings and your

emotions, right? And again, then what happens?

Believers say, well, how could it be wrong if it feels so

right? I think that's a country song,

actually. With that being said, you know,

but they live this way by their feelings by sight.

You're not testing the spirits correctly, OK.

And so we need to test the spirits Now.

Why is this important today? Because you say, well, I'm

mature, I hear. Listen, in the last of the last

days, there's going to be seducing spirits and doctrines

of demons. And it said some will fall away

from the faith. So there are believers that are

functioning and flowing with God.

And if by all rights have had seasons of maturity, because

just because you've had a season of maturity doesn't mean you

cannot slide, you can't fall out of maturity.

OK, it's like my natural body. I can't go back to pre

adolescence. That won't ever happen.

But in the spirit it can happen. I mean, you can go slap all the

way back to infancy because we know the Bible says on both Paul

and Peter writing says, listen, I can't I can't even talk to

you, a spiritual. I've got to go back because

you're acting like a baby, Amen. So never think you've arrived.

You can know whether you've reached maturity, but man, then

you've got to maintain maturity and maintaining maturity is a

serious business, serious business.

So we jump down to verse four says this.

You are from God, little children and have overcome them

because greater is he who is in you than he that's in the world.

Isn't that good news? So again, you have within you

the ability to test the spirits of whether or not they are from

God, because you have the reigning spirit not only on the

inside of you if you're born again, but if you believe God

for the endowment of power. He has come upon you and He's

resting on you, not coming upon you and leaving.

He is resting on you with His power because He has given you

the same anointing that Jesus had, and that's the anointing of

a king. Hallelujah.

You have the Spirit of the Lord upon you, which is the spirit of

his government, which is the the ability to hear from your king

and accurately move into the places we're going to talk about

today, which is Kingdom discernment.

All right, Kingdom discernment. I have learned through the

years, it is very important for me to never assume I know and

always keep myself in a position.

Lord, what am I hearing? I think one of the greatest

failures of a mature believer is to assume they net will never

get it wrong. And so they don't keep a

dependency on hearing accurately from God.

And we need to always keep a dependency on hearing accurately

from God. So Revelation chapter one, verse

4 through 6 says this John to the seven churches which are in

Asia, grace to you peace from him who is and who was and who

is to come. Is he coming?

I said, is he coming? The King's coming, and from the

seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ,

the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, the ruler of

the kings of the earth. Who are those kings?

Come on, who are those king? To him who loves us and released

us from our sins by his blood, and he made us to be a Kingdom,

say Kingdom priest to his God and Father.

To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

Amen. Notice there are 7 spirits

before his throne. Revelations 5-6 says yes.

And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures

and and the elder elders of the Lamb standing as if slain,

having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven

spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And we said this, that horns represented, they represented

rule and authority in, in Revelations, when you hear about

a horn, it's basically a Kingdom, a realm.

There's another type and shadow that they use concerning

government power. That's a mountain.

OK. And then when it says eyes, that

means and, and they use the term 7 because seven is the, is the

number of completion or fullness.

So Jesus Christ is the fullness of all government and the

fullness and authority and fullness of all insight or

wisdom or knowledge. OK.

And then he goes on and says the seven spirits of God.

So obviously we're taking time to break down the seven spirits

of God. But although it's not 7

individual spirits, it is one spirit which is the Holy Spirit,

but he contains within him seven spirits or there's attributes or

characteristics of him. We find these in Isaiah Chapter

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

11 verse two. It says the Spirit of the Lord

will rest on in him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the

spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the

fear of the Lord. Those are the seven spirits that

are before the Lord. So when we talk about the Holy

Spirit, he is the spirit of the Lord, of the Spirit of

government. So the Holy Spirit will only

talk to you about the Kingdom. That's his assignment.

He only says what he hears from the Son, and the Son is only

speaking on behalf of the Father because the Father, Son, and the

Holy Spirit are one and they're always in agreement.

They are never, never are they in disagreement.

In fact, Jesus's greatest moment of submission was not doing what

the Father said because he disagreed.

It was doing what the Father said because he was going to get

in agreement with his Father and put his flesh down and his way

down. OK, so there's a little term

that goes around, you know, when it comes to if you know you're

not really submitted. If you agree with someone, that

is a lie. That is a seducing spirit.

Because for you to believe that you're only submitted when you

do something, though you disagree with someone that is a

rebellious person doing something that is not God does

not have rebellious people. You can't have a rebellion at

heart and yet have an obedient action.

Oh, you're not listening to me. You cannot have a a rebellious

heart and an obedient action because now your action is in

rebellion too. Because he says they confess me

with their list, but their heart is far from me.

And here is the rich young ruler saying, look, what do I need to

do to get eternal life? And he says, just keep the

commandments. And he says, I've done it since

I was a child, right? Which means he did it, but he

did it based upon his heart, not based upon the actual lordship

of Jesus submitted to him. Because if he was truly

submitted to the one who spoke it, then when he said, sell

everything you have, give to the poor and come follow me.

And he said done. But instead he's like, no, I do

it on. I don't really agree with you,

but you hear this eternal life. So I'm going to do it anyway.

So Paul totally capitalizes on this concept in First

1 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

Corinthians Chapter 7. He says, I wanted to do right,

but I found whatever I was doing was still wrong.

He said, what a wretched man am I.

I mean, he said, he said, if you put me up against the Pharisees,

I was without blame. I was far beyond my

contemporaries. I had zeal.

I mean when it came to the law found blameless, yet he had a

rebellious heart and did righteous actions, meaning

obedient actions, but to God it was all rebellion.

So again, we pick up these human terms, pull them into the church

and at like now the greatest submission is when we disagree,

but do it anyway. No, Jesus showed the greatest

submission is father. If there any other way, because

I sure won't rebel from you, I would prefer not to go.

And really the only reason why Jesus asked that question is

because there was a ram in the thicket with Abraham.

When Abraham was called to get rid of his only son, God had a

ram in the thicket and he was saying, Father, have we come to

this point because I'm like Abraham?

He was willing to sacrifice him and said God must be able to

raise the dead. And could he?

Yes. Does he?

Yes. Was he going to do Isaac?

No, because he was always going to have a ram.

And what was God saying? It won't require a man to give

his son. I'm won't give mine.

But he tells him in the garden, son, there's not a ram.

You're it. But remember, I'll raise the

dead because he had been saying in three days I'm coming up, in

three days I'm coming up, in three days I'm coming up.

Hallelujah. So what Jesus did said, I'm

going to get fully persuaded because again, how can you have

faith in God and be in rebellion with God at the same time?

How can you say you're a doer of the word, but in your heart you

hate what you're doing? Well, I'll go to church, but I

don't like it. I'm just submitted to God.

Well, you're not submitted to God and you're in church, but

you're a rebellion in church. Come on, come on.

Right. No, the greatest submission is

when you are fully persuaded that God's way is the only way

and I get in alignment with and I believe it with all my heart.

There is no other way and I'm doing so.

I'm in full agreement. So when people say the greatest

submission is to not agree and still do it is seducing Spirit

Salah. The greatest submission is a

green changing your will for the will of the one who has the real

authority and saying I'm here to do it.

I fully submit to it and I'm in agreement with you.

Say I'm in agreement, say I'm in agreement, man, you better be in

agreement with God because the devil slick, he's slick,

especially when it comes to natural things.

Do you understand? The Bible says what good is it a

man to gain the whole world? You don't understand, the devil

has an economy. He has a pathway of promotion.

He always promotes the rebellious, which means if you

have a rebellious heart with a confession in your mouth and

then all of a sudden you get what you confess, God didn't

give it to you. The devil accommodated this fake

belief he's putting you in. I'm preaching better than you're

saying, but that's all right. Because here's the thing we're

going to learn today about this spirit of understanding man

Hallelujah. God knows, you know, you've

heard me say this before. When people say, well, the Lord

knows my heart. You bet He does.

And not one time have you out. Have you faked him out?

Not one time. Never have you faked him out.

Never have. You know, I heard one minister

say it this way. You can fake a praise, but you

can't fake an offering. You know that's not true.

You can fake an offering. You sure can.

Jesus is watching the money come in and the rich people gave out

of their surplus and was faking an offering.

And today's ministers would be applauding the wealthy and

taking no thought to the one with two pennies, 'cause her

heart demonstrated her offering, 'cause you can fake one.

You can drop $10,000 to someone to try to get into their sphere

of influence. Oh, you don't want to hear this,

but they'll say it. You can fake a praise, but you

can't fake an offering. Oh, yeah, you can.

You can fake it all the way into influence and manipulation.

Yeah, you sure can. This is why the Lord says judges

don't take a bribe. Back in the Old coven, what?

They were getting an offering from someone.

This is called special interest today.

Hallelujah. It's called special interest.

Special interest to get all kind of laws passed.

Amen. They're fat, man.

We know. We really appreciate you.

We want to sow into your campaign.

We vow. No, you don't.

You're faking an offering. You're looking for people.

Do it in the church. All right, I'll.

I'll deal with all of them. Amen.

Amen. Come on.

Thank you, Jesus. So today we're going to deal

with three of these spirits. Last time we dealt with the

spirit of the Lord. I'm going to deal with three

today and so I'm going to take them, you know, one, they say

that they're kind of in pairs. The last ones after the Spirit

of the Lord, that you have the spirit of wisdom and

understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and the fear

of the Lord. But I'm going to pull the fear

of the Lord by itself and then jump into the wisdom and

understanding. And This is why in Psalms 111

Psalms 111:10

verse 10, it says this. The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of wisdom, a good understanding.

Have all those who do His commandments, His praise endures

forever. So notice the beginning of

wisdom is the fear of the Lord. So the fear of the Lord is very

important. And when you were born again and

have the Spirit rest upon you, you've been given this spirit.

OK, we do have the Holy Spirit with measure, unlike Jesus

without measure. And when we all come together,

we have it all. But that doesn't mean you're not

having access to the seven characteristics of the Holy

Ghost upon your life. And you need to carry the fear

of the Lord, which tells me the Spirit of God has it.

So then you should yield to it and have it in your in your own

spirit. When I say your own spirit, I'm

talking about the spirit of man that's been created in Christ.

OK Proverbs 1533 says the fear of the Lord is the instruction

for wisdom. OK, and before honor Tom's

humility now let me explain humility real quick.

Humility is not what most churches are ministering on

humidity. All they're just so humble, you

know, not going to take credit for anything, you know let's

just give God, you know, I'm no good.

I don't deserve anything. I'm not.

Oh, I'm just so thank you know, there's a there's A and

arrogance and pride actually of those statements because a lot

of those people who do that aren't technically even in

faith. They're not even believing God.

You know, they're always just trying to make you think they're

not as self-righteous as a lot of times they are.

OK, because that's not the definition of humility.

The definition of humility is I submit my will to his will.

That is humility. To humble yourself before the

Lord is to not my will. Your will be done.

That's humility. And so we see here in this

passage that the fear of the Lord is the instruction for

wisdom, right? Well, if you receive

instruction. What are you doing?

Which is the wisdom gives you instruction.

What does that mean? Then you're going to yield or

humble yourself to function, believe, act that way, and guess

what? It will bring honor into your

life. I mean, Gay Gideon wasn't even

known as a human being other than his family, yet God's had

it, saw something in him and showed up and called him things

that he didn't even believe himself.

But what caused his name to rise among the ranks in his own

nation, where he was the the least family in the least tribe,

of which he himself was the least in his own family?

It's because he humbled himself. Whatever you say I'm going to

do, OK. And so when we do this, it's

important. So the fear of the Lord is the

instruction for wisdom. So we need to understand about

the fear of the Lord if we're going to understand the spirit

of wisdom and spirit of understanding.

So turn over to Isaiah 33 six. Isaiah 33 six says this, and he

will be the stability of your times.

Now this is talking about the king.

Again, Isaiah has a lot to say about King Jesus, right?

And so Isaiah's prophesying of, of the King's coming, and I

don't mean the last one specifically where he sets his

foot down and he does the millennial reign and they you,

you never take him out of the planet physically anymore.

I'm talking about when he comes, period.

Says he'll be the stability of your times, a wealth of

salvation, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is his

treasure. Now if Jesus treasures

something, should you treasure it?

Come on. If Jesus considers the fear of

the Lord where his values, what he finds valuable is, you know,

understand a treasure is something that we have

considered valuable. It's our treasure.

I mean, you know, again, there were treasure boxes, people with

high, it has great value. So what was Jesus's greatest

value? The fear of the Lord, the fear

of the Lord now the fear of the Lord is not God is going to kill

me the minute I do something wrong.

He just waiting for me to blow it.

That is not the fear of the Lord.

Okay, that's that's a seducing spirit, a doctrine of demons

trying to, you know, convinced and whole denominations have

changed this whole thing of how to live for God day in and day

out because they're so in fear are not the reverential fear,

but this fear that God's about to knock me down and pull me out

of salve. I could lose it at any time.

It's so so, you know, fragile this relationship that I have

with God, right. If I look at the wrong thing, Oh

my gosh, you know, I mean, it's that's not the fear of the Lord.

OK, it's not the fear of the Lord, but this is a treasure.

So by definition, a few scholars have said it this way.

The fear of the Lord is this is Jesus willful will willingly

kept himself in the in a place of submission, respect and honor

to God the Father. Now that's key.

Jesus willingly did this, not forced, not controlled by.

Jesus had a will and we see it clearly in Scripture.

In the garment he says Lord not my will, but your will be done.

And he said on multiple counts, I don't speak anything on my

initiative, but only what I've heard from the Father, which

means he could have spoke on his own thoughts, but he did not.

He yielded to the thoughts of his Father.

He was always in this place of submission, respect, and honor

to God the Father. That's what the fear of the Lord

are you in a place of submission, respect, and honor

to God the Father? If you are, then you're

functioning under the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord also means this.

It means reverential awe, which prompts to obedience, which

prompts to obedience. And in my own personal life, I

mean, I have been, I stay up underneath this.

I can't tell you how many times in conflict that at the end of

the day, I know what my flesh is saying, I know what I want to

say. I know how what's gone down, but

I just need to stay in a place of obedience, period.

I need to stay in the place of obedience.

So what does that look like? And most of the time, it's

crucify the flesh. Don't say that.

Don't respond that way. Don't come back that way.

Don't attack that way. Yeah.

And you know, the minute you yield that way, then the other

spirits are saying you're going to look like this, this, this.

And you know what? You look like that.

I get it. You look like it.

I understand, but the reverential fear, it prompts me

to obedience. I'm just going to have to do

what God says here. It's isn't about me.

It's not about because if God can't take care of my character,

if he can't take care of my reputation.

I mean, do you understand is all that's going on in the body of

Christ today, especially in the realm of of of infants, carnal

Christians, wolves. I mean, there's so many things

that attack Jesus Christ is still building his church and

there is a pure, I would say a pure bloodline of his church in

the planet still today. You understand, don't equate the

fact that things are happening that God is well with it.

He's just very merciful. He's very merciful and

long-suffering. But in the end, the purity of

everyone who followed is going to rise to the top.

It's just going to happen. I said it's just going to

happen. That's why Jesus, when he is at

the time of his greatest leadership, I mean, they're

beating him, pulling out his beard.

I mean, they put a crown of thorns.

They're saying stuff. He's not even talking, are

defending himself. They're railing against him and

he's like this. I mean, Herod, King Herod was

one of the worst, railed at him and Jesus was like, Jesus didn't

even give him the plan of salvation.

I don't even want to hear that, but that's fine.

Wouldn't even talk to him about how he could get right.

He was silent before the king the whole time.

Wow. Which means his fear of the Lord

prompted him not to. You know who I am now.

I'm going to tell you right now, if you find yourself having

these kinds of conversations, you need to stop and say, wait a

minute, I need to have the fear of the Lord.

That's why the Lord says vintage, says mine.

Thus saith the Lord. I will repay.

I'll repay. That's right.

I'll do it. I'd much rather have God defend

me than me defend me. Amen.

You know, and I may feel like I have a great defense, but you

understand when you're talking to the blind, I don't care how

great the defense is. All right, so the fear of the

Lord is also a fear of reverence, a care to please him

and aversion to A to offend him. Now that's a big deal because

you understand when you know Scripture, like I know a lot at

Anchor Faith Church knows, then you understand.

It's very important when you're underneath the spirit of the

fear of the Lord that you make sure your tone, your words, your

actions are not being offending him.

Now, how do you offend Him? By not doing what the Spirit is

telling you to do in the circumstance?

Because again, without faith, it's impossible to please Him.

He says you have a care to please Him, which means you have

a care to live by faith. And you cannot live by faith if

you're not first hearing His word, because faith comes by

hearing His Word. And if you're hearing His word,

then faith can come, but then you have to agree with it, be

submitted to it, be prompt to obey it.

OK, submit, yield to it. And as a result of that, then

you're not offending Him because you're doing it His way.

You're doing it his way. Hallelujah.

I've, I've been in multiple places.

And again, these are in multiple places throughout the world, OK,

where I've been talking in a particular situation, we have

the Holy Spirit. Everyone in the room is in

agreement. But when they leave the room,

not everybody follows the agreement of the Spirit.

At that point, I have to stay with what the Spirit said

because once I've done that, no matter what happens, I'm going

to stay with what the Spirit of the God of the Lord said.

Because if I'm doing that, then God will make His word come to

pass. But if I go to defense, if I go

against what he has declared for me to do after that meeting,

then you know what? I I run the risk of offending

the Lord, offending my father, and I do not want to do that.

Look what it says here in Proverbs 16 six.

It says, my loving kindness and truth.

Iniquity is atoned for and by the fear of the Lord. 1 Keeps

away from evil so #1 indicator If someone cannot seem to keep

themselves away from evil, they keep falling into it.

They're not yielding to the greater one on the inside of

them and who has come upon them and are exercising the fear of

the Lord, because the fear of the Lord will keep you away from

evil. That's powerful.

The fear of the Lord will keep you.

So again, another seducing spirit or doctrine of demon

that's in churches. I'm just a Sinner saved by

grace, you know, I mean, I sin just like you.

I mean, I sin every day. But I've asked God to save me.

His grace is upon me. That is not what God has said.

That is not from the Holy Spirit, because the fear of the

Lord will keep you, say keep it will keep you.

Grace has now empowered you to resist the temptation to sin so

that you now have risen above it and you're no longer subject or

yield to the law of sin and death.

Period. And if you find yourself

yielding to something you know is contrary to Scripture, you

need to say, Lord, teach me. Are you hearing me?

Teach me so that I can walk in the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs 2317 says, do not let your heart envy sinners.

You know how many believers are envious of those in the world?

And I wish I could do what they could do.

I wish I could. They're they're died, they're in

death. It's fake happiness.

It's not real joy or peace. Have you forgotten where you

came out of? He says.

But live in the fear of the Lord.

How often? Come on, how often, come on, how

often? So that means you cannot live in

the fear of the Lord from 10:30 AM to 12:30 or one whenever we

close today and that's it. You don't live in it in service,

You don't live in it only during you know, when you're around

people, right, all around other believers, you live it always.

It's always dictating your response.

Amen. So don't envy sinners shouldn't

envy them at all. And if anything, you should have

compassion for them, right? You're like, man, that's that's

just, this is tough. The life they're in, that's

horrible, man. And some of the the richest ones

that believers try to run after are the ones to be the most

pitied actually, because you said it's hard.

It's hard for a rich man who's put all this trust in his wealth

to get into the Kingdom. So when they got all those

yachts and they're flying and jet set now, you should be like,

oh Lord, I pray there be a way because I know for them it's

hard. But what do we do?

We want it. And we hear a spirit say, man,

get it. You'll be more effective for

God. Well, if that's your motivation

for getting it, you're already off because I'm pleasing to God

with what I already possess and as he adds to me, I'll just keep

doing what's already my character.

It doesn't show up after I get it.

Amen. Proverbs 22 four says this.

The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are what are

they? Riches, honor, life.

This is less hilarious. So when one scripture, you're

like, don't be envious because if you're envying them, you're

not functioning in the fear of the Lord.

But if you're functioning in the fear of the Lord, Rick, because

if I need you on their yacht to take you around the world, I can

get you there. Oh, you don't want to.

I mean, God is not limited. This was so amazing and being

able to navigate resources, even the unrighteous resource to the

righteous. So again, the reward of humbling

yourself or saying Lord, not my will, your will be done and the

fear of the Lord, I want to I respect you, I honor you.

In no way do I want to do anything that's displeasing to

you. I only want to please you and I

want to be always an obedient to your word.

Never do I want to offend you because some of our offense to

God is through our actions with others.

I mean, I'll never forget this and it was you know, I was just

a babe in Christ, man, honestly, I was a babe in Christ, OK, I

was a baby in Christ. I had not mature.

I had very little information and revelation concerning.

I knew I was born again. I was filled with the Holy

Ghost, but I had no context of what I had none, you know, and I

had been raised in a denomination church was was just

get people saved, you know, So again, the this, this spirit of

the world talked to the church about you need to be relevant to

the world. The world doesn't understand

you. So you need to be relevant.

You know, you need to act like it, you know, because if you act

like them, you know, then you can kind of break down the

walls. You can share because again, it

is Jesus in your heart or not. I mean, this is how they

function. Now, I'm gonna give you a case

in point, right? I'm telling myself.

I used to dip tobacco. My dad smoked.

I did not smoke, But the same nicotine that was around my dad

showed up at me in another form. OK.

And that's when I was in high school, started it.

And then after I got out of school, well, I had a friend of

mine that was not living for God at all.

I had married my wife. We had dedicated our lives to

God. We were still in the Baptist

Church. Yeah, we were still in the

Baptist Church. I wouldn't fill with the Holy

Ghost, actually. So scratch that.

All I am is born again. So I'm like real infant here,

OK. And so I wanted to make an

impression on my friend. You know, I was trying to open

up the course of the code. We used to drink and do all

kinds of stuff at one time. And again, I was born again at

9:00. So I'm not living for God.

I'm living to, you know, American gospel people, not the

Bible gospel. And he was merciful and

long-suffering with me, OK. But I had quit, you know,

dipping all together because again, our life was different.

Well, I started picking it up again because he did.

So I go down to seeing where he worked and, you know, he

offered. And instead of act like I'm more

holy than him, Oh sure, 'cause you know I'm not going to go to

hell, 'cause I take a dip. I know this.

However, my unwillingness to just do the right lifestyle,

period, I was offending God because he didn't send me down

there to make so that he can think we look alike because if

we look alike, why does he need a change?

And today's modern American Christianity, they'll go to the

clubs with them, they'll go to the bars with them.

They'll do everything. And then, you know, oh, we're

not showing them a different life.

And I, we've got people here that were Alcoholics.

They were bound to alcohol. And the last thing they need is

a preacher to come drink one with them because that's called

confusing. It's like, well, you know,

basically all we're saying is our God is able to save us from

a place called hell, which is his anyway.

The hell is not the devil's. The devil doesn't own hell.

God because sin existed, because the devil was cast out, there

was a lake of fire destined for him that became a by product of

God's Kingdom called a prison system.

So God's in control of that place.

God's in control of the lake of fire because once you're in

there is no parole God will seek.

There is no such thing as a lake of fire break, a prison break.

Now they made for all eternity try to figure out how they can

get out, but it will be only a failed attempt because God has

that thing on lockdown. Hallelujah.

We really should sing that song instead of hell lost another

one, we say God pardon another one and I am free, right?

Because at the end of the day, you deserve to be there and God

can pardon you. From yourself, glory to God.

OK, my point is, is that that is offensive to God because even in

my immaturity, I had already made decision.

I should stop this. I mean, I mean, it created other

sin where I I go home and my wife doesn't even know.

And we'll get to that one. I didn't think.

Now she was born again and filled with a Holy Ghost.

So she had access to things I wasn't even operating in at the

time. So she was merciful to me too.

Amen. Thank you Jesus, so again the

reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor

and life. Could it be that some of the

transfer of the wealth of the wicked is not coming to the

church quicker is because we really do not have the fear of

the Lord in our lives? How do you know a fear of the

Lord can manifest? Are you in church?

Every time the door opens I'm preaching because that is the

obedience of God's word. Do not forsake the assembling of

yourself together as is the habit of some and all the more

as you see the day drawing near you should this your number one

thought process is what can I do for his church that He's planted

me with? It's my number one priority and

everything else is just an outlay or a byproduct of this

existence. Period.

And we have confused ourselves again through wrong spirits.

Well, the pastor gets paid. That's his job.

This is not my job. There are criteria where the

Lord does say because of the assignment, you'll be able to

receive it from the the church itself.

But we all have a part to play and God's paying every one of

us, every one of us, every one of us, right?

But again, what's the Spirit say?

Well, that pastor not going to control me.

I don't control you anyway. I mean, that is the dumbest

thing should be the easiest thing for you to cast off.

Because if I was controlling you, I would come to your house,

I'd come to your house, I'd drag you out.

I'd have, I would be on your bank account.

I'd be on your bank account. I would be a joint account

holder. In fact, I might probably be

primary, and I will give you an allowance.

That way you then have what's leftover that you gave first to

the Lord. But again, to do that, your

heart's not in it. God doesn't do that.

He wants you to love Him with all your heart.

I'm not controlling you. I mean, if believers would just

stop and think, but there's a lot of spirits talking

religiously and the untrained and and the offended, let's put

it that way, receive it. All right, Let's go to the

Spirit of Wisdom. Spirit of Wisdom, y'all doing

all right, Amen. I don't want to stop.

I just want to drive on y'all, OK?

I mean, it's still young, but we have water baptism.

And I know that the Spirit of Wisdom, look what it says in

Proverbs 319, it says the Lord say the Lord by wisdom founded

the earth by understanding he established the heavens.

Can that's pretty amazing that Wisdom founded the earth.

I mean, we can. We still to this day have no

concept of all of the order and intricacies that are involved

with planet earth. Man is still dumbfounded by how

this thing does all that by wisdom, everything is in motion

and maintaining it's amazing. And by understanding the he

established the heavens. Look what it says in first

Corinthians 130. It says, but by his doing you

are in Christ who became to us wisdom from God and

righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

So Jesus is wisdom already. Now I'm going to give my plug

again because it's very important because again, in

American Christianity, we don't we don't think that knowing

Jesus other than I asked him to come into my heart and save me.

That's all we need to know. And that makes us, you know,

untouchable. All right, But it's in Christ by

because he is wisdom. If you are not in the word, then

you are not accessing wisdom. That's right, not wisdom that

comes from above because there is some things that happened

down in the earth that has knowledge about it.

But James, maybe we'll pick it up when I get over to knowledge

next week. It says it's it's earthly and

it's demonic. If you stay within the realm of

the natural and the spirit that does that you hear because

you're not connected to the Word, then all you know is

really demonic. But if you get over into the

word because in Christ, because he is wisdom, I said he is

wisdom. So you cannot even begin to

function with the Spirit of wisdom outside of the revelation

of of the Christ or His Word. Wisdom means this.

Wisdom consists in the choice of the best means to secure the

best ends. Wisdom consists in the choice of

the best means to secure the best ends.

You could say it this way. Wisdom is intellectual

clearness, Intellectual clearness, intellectual

clearness. Doctor Miles Monroe used to say

this. He said the greatest tragedy in

life is life without purpose, right?

He said the greatest challenge in life is knowing what to do,

and many believers do not have intellectual clearness.

The number one reason they don't is because they do not spend

time in the Word where wisdom is found.

First of all, it's opened up because of the fear of the Lord.

They don't even have the heart to just want to honor their

Father and be quick to obey Him and never to offend Him.

Which means the reason I'm in the Word is not so that I can

look smart. My motive is not so I look

smarter and more anointed than everyone else.

My motive, it comes from the fear of the Lord.

Father, I just want to know you. I just want to know you and I

want to be quick to obey you because your life, where am I

going to go? Your words are life.

The last thing I want to do is behave in a way that is

offensive to you or offends you. So show me your word.

Now when you go in there, guess what?

Wisdom begins to open up. Wisdom begins to open up.

And again, God knows your heart or the why you're doing what

you're doing. We're going to see that here in

a minute. So it's intellectual clearness.

It also means this. It means wisdom is the power of

discerning the nature of things through the appearance.

What I mean is there you're not discerning it based upon what

you see. You're discerning it beyond what

you see or, or you are. Yeah, you're discerning it

beyond what you see. You're able to to recognize us.

In essence, you can be in a situation, but yet you have

God's Word, and wisdom allows you to navigate in a way that's

contrary to what you see because you're already, you're through

it. In essence, this, it's this

salt. Yeah, though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death. I'm in what looks like death,

but it's just a shadow, and I'm going to walk through it there.

In fact, He is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path,

Right. So in essence, I see things, but

yet I go to Him, and wisdom now opens up, which allows me to go

through the appearance of what I am, what I see, so that we can

accomplish God's ultimate will. Are you hearing me well in

Ephesians 117? And God wants you to have this.

Look what it says here, that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father, glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom.

Wisdom. Now we'll be able to use this

again next week and the revelation of the knowledge of

Him concerning the spirit of knowledge.

But here God wants to give you a spirit of wisdom.

But again, the spirit of wisdom, it opens up because of the

spirit of the fear of the Lord. All right, so you got to make

sure your heart's right so that then you can have access to

wisdom that created the earth, founded the earth.

Amazing stuff. This is what's so amazing about

that statement. By wisdom He founded the earth,

which means anything you got going on in this planet wisdom,

which means if you get his, you can access it.

I mean, you start, things can happen.

It's amazing. Look what it says here in

Proverbs 3. How blessed are the man who

finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding for her

profit is better than silver and gold.

Thank you Jesus. And her her gain is better than

fine gold. She is more precious than jewel,

and nothing desire compares with her.

Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and

honor. Her ways are pleasant ways and

all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those

who take hold of her and happy are all who hold her.

Fast man, let's do the last one real quick and we'll close.

Psalms 119 verse 34 says Give me understanding that I may observe

Psalms 119:34

your law and keep it with all my heart.

The only reason why the church has moved into the sways of the

world and their writings and the way they craft things today is

because number one, they have no value for the word of the king.

And here the psalmist says look and the Psalms 119 is an amazing

Psalms, OK, He said give me understanding that I'm and why

do I want understanding? Not so that I'm smarter than

everyone, so that I can tell people what to do.

No, so that I may observe your law, which is His word.

The word law is not immediately associated with Moses, although

there is connections there. But again, even the law of Moses

was perfect and blameless. It's just that our nature could

not keep it, but Jesus did. He fulfilled it.

Are you hearing me? It is to keep His word and to

keep it with all my heart. So I want to keep His word with

all my heart. Psalms 119 One O 4 says this.

From your precepts, I get understanding, which means,

again, if you're not in the Word, you're not receiving God's

understanding or the spirit of understanding is not speaking to

you. You cannot have this outside of

a continual constant relationship with the reading of

the Word. I'm not talking about you

listening to YouTube preachers. I'm talking about you Again, let

me give you the case in point. You cannot grow watching someone

else eat, wow, that steak looks good.

It's good man. And you know what?

You're not getting nourished and there's so many believers that

are watching everyone else and you're not getting nursed

because you're really not trying to break it down to assimilate,

studying it for yourself, making it your own.

You're just Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

Well, you know, I'm going to restaurant go, wow, that steak

smells good. Wow, look how beautiful that is.

I smell that. Oh, that smells good.

I can get all the aroma of all the food and leave hungry and

then I just, I can come in five times a day.

I can see I can live in the restaurant and watch every meal

that goes to every table and die because I'm unwilling to put it

in my own mouth and chew on it. All right, so let's get to where

we're chewing. Well, we are.

I mean, I you understand, he says your precepts from your

precept. I get understanding.

Therefore I hate, say, hate every false way.

You understand? As a believer, it's OK to hate

some things. You know, man, there's a bunch

of, you know, they hate. Yeah.

Yeah, we do. And that's love.

Love hates. Love can hate.

No problem. There's no issue there.

God has no problem with that. He wants you to hate some

things, and he definitely wants you to hate evil, wants you to

hate it. He don't want you to rub

shoulders with it. He don't want you to caress it.

He don't want you to take it to bed with you.

He wants you to hate it. All right.

So the definition of this is moral insight, OK?

It means the power of discerning the differences of things in

their appearance. Man, we're going to get touched

on this a little bit more. Judgement resulting from wisdom

by which we distinguish things or decide on their character.

So if you're not pulling wisdom in, then you won't have the

right judgement of the situation.

And you know what is an epidemic in the church today?

People thinking they know about something without knowing it at

all. They have no understanding of

the situation. But buddy, they are walking

around judging it and talking to people.

Except for the one who actually has the information.

All right? It also means this idea of a

sharp sense of smell. I love this one and I'm going to

tell you this particular commentary's name.

His name is Trap. Don't know his name other than

that, that's all that was left by another commentary.

But this is how this person framed understanding.

It's amazing sharpness of judgment in smelling out a

hypocrite. His sharp nose easily discerns

and is offended with the stinking breath of the

hypocrites. Hypocrites rotten lungs through

his word, though his words be never so scented and perfumed

with shows of holiness. In essence you got bad breath

bro. This is why God knows your heart

because your breath stinks it has no holiness in it.

Oh man, this is so good and let me tell you, when you start

functioning on the spirit of understanding, man it take you

to the thing about functioning on the spirit of understanding

is that it's going to give you access to things.

And I'm talking about though again, this is not happening if

you're not functioning under the fear of the Lord walking in

wisdom. It gives you the position of

understanding. If you're a haphazard Christian

doing it, you know, kind of on your terms, then anything you

think you've perceived you are wrong.

This is a pure line. It's a pure line.

Matthew 2218 says it this way. But Jesus perceived their malice

and said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites?

Right. Which means Jesus had the

ability through the Spirit of understanding of their motives.

OK, Don't, don't make me regret. Regret ending on understanding,

OK, OK, All right, this isn't trying to bring everybody down,

but this is sobering, OK? The thing is, is that nobody in

the room, including me, is fooling God.

It's not happening. And I think that's the biggest

thing that motivates me in the fear of the Lord is because I

know I am not fooling him, I'm not fooling him.

Mark chapter 2, verse 8. Immediately Jesus aware in his

Mark 2:8

spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves.

He he said to them, why are you reasoning about these things in

your heart? He had the spirit of

understanding. So he's in a room again.

You know, we want unity and unity's powerful because when

the church is in unity, it's good for us.

It doesn't stop God. It's a lot of time.

Well, God can't do if we don't get unity.

God can move even if unity's not there.

He just needs one person in faith.

But it's better for us when we unify because we are actually

stronger and a better witness to the world because we kind of

hinder our witness when we're backbiters and we're not in

unity with one another, our unity to the word and unified

together. But God can function and still

perform where this unity is present.

And in this particular case, he's about, he's going to heal a

guy. He says your sins are forgiven

to when they rip the roof off and there's a group of Pharisees

with their rotten lungs that were reasoning who this is

blasphemy. Only God can forgive sin and he

says why are you reasoning in essence, he told them about

themselves yet in the corner they look like they the holy

bunch that they're more holy than anyone else in the room.

Hey man, so he calls them outlook at this Luke chapter 20

Luke 20:21–23

verses 21 to 23. They questioned him saying,

teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly and you are

not partial to any, but teach the way of God and truth.

Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

And he detected their trickery and said to them, So somebody

talking to you all nicey nice doesn't mean they're nicey nice.

This is the thing about the spirit of understanding, right?

Again, I have personally been in situations where someone has

come in, it's like, you know, your your word and you know, I

mean, I remember one particular place I went and say like, wow,

the anointing is in the room because I walked in the room.

I was at a house and I'm like, that's odd, right?

You know, my mind. I'm like, that's odd, but okay,

whatever. Well, it's because that person

had was out of a denominational church that didn't believe in

the baptism of the Holy Ghost or the gifts of the Spirit.

And they had discovered it and they were really excited and

wanted to talk with me because I was right.

Really, they were there to impress me.

You know, I didn't discern it initially, but I did discern

something necessarily right because it was a little over the

top. And who are the anointings here?

Right? OK, so apparently you discern

when I walk in the room. I had an anointing.

By the time we get done with the conversation, they said I was

preaching false doctrine, like, well, what am I?

Because you said something different when I walked in the

room, right? Well, it's because, again, they

didn't really believe in the baptism of Holy Spirit, whatever

is Speaking of tongues, only tongues through the gifts.

OK. And so when I started taking

them through Scripture, they wanted to take me through the

commentaries of their Bible. I said, I'm not.

You're believing this guy's interpretation of this.

Let's just stay with Scripture messing them up.

So at that point, I'm like, you know what?

Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the

grave? Yep.

Do you believe if you ask him to be Lord, you be saved?

Yep. Then let's just stay at that.

So do I. I'm not having this

conversation, right, because I've discerned that you do not

have actual ears to hear. Right?

OK, had another person come in and talk about the, the worship

and the message and all this that and the other then only to

tell me their self-proclaimed prophet.

And, you know, they're going to start telling me what I need to

tell the congregation. And they're so humble.

They're going to stay in the back so that nobody knows them

because they come in late anyway.

And they leave early because God forbid that they act, you know,

put on all this holiness that they are and they got to stay

disconnected so they can hear from God because God forbid they

get around you. I mean, Jesus was only the

greatest prophet, but yet he was around people all the time.

It seemed like being around people didn't corrupt his

ability to be able to discern. So again, those are not from the

Spirit of God. So the minute they taught, I

said, I'm not doing that. You're not the Holy Ghost for

me. Pastor Angie was in that

meeting. So they're like, well, you know

what? I'll just come to worship and

leave. I said, well, if you're not

staying for the word that you said that the ministering of the

world was great and rightly divided, there's really no

reason for you to come. And they're like, are you

telling me I can't come to church?

I didn't say that what I said. And I had to repeat because

apparently they were hard of hearing.

And then they said, well, the Lord's released me from here.

I said, you're right. Now that is the Spirit of God.

He has released you from here because He never sent you except

for you to learn what He has taught us and to get you out of

your deception. But you like the voices you hear

more than you do the voice of God.

And this is the problem when people start picking up

deceiving spirits as they like the voices.

All right, Luke Chapter 9, verse 4648.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

Got a couple more and then we'll move on.

He said an argument started among them as to which of them

might be the greatest. Jesus, knowing what they were

thinking in their heart, took a child and stood by his side and

said, whoever receives this child and my name receives me,

and whoever receives me, who sent me is the one who is least

among all of you. This is the one who is great.

So again, here's his own disciples having a challenge

about stuff and he has understanding.

He's discerned now it sounds good.

Who's going to be the greatest? Who's going to be?

But he's like, something ain't right.

With this conversation again, the Pharisees came to seem like,

oh, you're such a great teacher. We know you teach correctly.

You're just trying to trick me. You're just trying to get me to

say something so you can throw me.

I mean, you understand, I, I, I am probably you as well.

But I know I have had people come around only to try to get

me to mess up. Now, can I say this?

It is a really wrong place to be that when someone finds out

about you not doing right and you repent and get right, that

you all of a sudden take this thought.

You can't wait for the one that helped you to do wrong so you

can feel better about yourself. I say this every time in Vision

Partnership. I cannot tell you that people

won't talk about me. They talked about Jesus.

All I say is when they mention my name and things I'm doing and

I'm not there, would you please stop them and say, let's set a

meeting with Pastor Earl so he can be in the meeting to verify

what you're saying he did. Because I'll do it and have done

it because I hear stuff because I'm the pastor.

I hear some stuff by the Spirit. And those are the ones that I

don't try to address the quickest because they're the

most problematic. That's the Sarah moment.

She's laughing in the tent when Jesus says she's going to have a

baby next year. She comes out to give him some

food and he goes, why'd you laugh?

I didn't laugh. Now, if you were standing around

the tent as one of the helpers and Jesus said, no, you did

laugh. I didn't laugh.

Well, who you going to believe they could go in and say, Sarah,

I can't believe he called you a liar and said to you, I can't

believe that. Yeah, I mean, I I didn't laugh.

And then here she is selling a lie because we know Jesus is

right. Those are tough when you're

like, I know you're talking about me.

I know you're spreading rumors. No, I'm not.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, I do.

Those are hard. So, you know, I'm like, Lord,

you know, I'll do it if you tell me.

But I'd much rather have the smoking gun.

Well, smoking gun comes when they tell somebody else and then

someone tells me, and then I'm like, we'll set a meeting.

So and so said that you said. I mean, I've done this because,

again, the Bible says go to them in private.

Did this happen? No.

Well, I got the person who said it is right outside the door and

I'll bring them in right now because somebody is not honest.

Say Amen anyway, right. OK, discernment, Peter, discern

Simon the sorcerer. Man.

I want to pay some money to get that.

Your heart's not right, son. And he was like, and pray for me

that what you just said didn't happen because, again, he was a

babe in Christ. He just got born again.

He hadn't got rid of his sorcery ways completely in his mindset,

but his spirit man was born again.

Are you hearing me? We'll close with this one.

Luke Chapter 9, verses 51 to 55. Are you here?

Luke 9:51–55

Are you getting anything today? All right, I know we've gone

along, but hey, where else we going to go eat?

I mean, my wife had the record the other day.

I got to beat it again. I mean, that's how this works.

And Pastor Mike comes up and tries to beat mine.

Pastor Chase is probably going to try to beat us all because

he's younger. I'll be like, no, I'll come back

and get the title. I'm just kidding.

I mean, can we we can discern we you go to movies longer than

what I preach anyway. So, I mean, there's some that

I'm going to beat right now. OK.

When the days were approaching for his ascension, he was

determined to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messages on ahead

and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to

make arrangement for him, but they did not receive him because

he was traveling towards Jerusalem.

When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord,

do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and

consume them? Look what Jesus says.

But but he turned and what guys I really appreciate you love me

so much and I wish everybody that followed me had a heart

like you to want to defend me, care for me.

No, it's not what Jesus did. He rebuked them and said you do

not know what kind of spirit you are.

And this is James and John you, you ready for this.

There were three of the 12 that he spent more time with was on

the Mount of Transfiguration. And here's two of the three.

I mean they had access and yet they're still hearing the wrong

because here's the thing, the spirits only telling them

something that they know has occurred cause fire came down to

heaven with the prophet Elijah sure did.

And they were on the mountain when they saw him.

So just because you want to do a scripture that mean you're

hearing God in that this is really important.

So here's someone that's been around for a while, been

associated with Jesus in his inner circle, yet can get it

wrong. Are you hearing me?

So the spirit of understanding is really important because

here's the cool thing, because Jesus could discern those

situations, guess what? You have access to as well.

You do as well. And half the stuff going on in

the church would really not go on in the church.

If they had the fear of the Lord moved into the spirit of wisdom,

they would access the spirit of understanding.

And when someone started talking about someone and started doing

something, you'd be like, no, no, no, no, no.

Because typically what happens is a person comes to you and

just starts talking and then you give them the stiff arm,

spiritual stiff arm. I'm not listening to that.

So then they come back more crafty and they start to give

accolades about stuff or they start giving to you personally.

There's all kinds of ways to start working it if they're

going to have that kind of heart.

But you can discern every one of them, everyone.

This is why we are the least excused because we have access

to this kind of. I mean, you shouldn't be

delusional about ministers on YouTube.

Should be easy for you to say, yeah, I'm not going to listen

that that's not hooked up to the Spirit.

I am because I'm in the Word and they can't manipulate me.

At Anchor Faith Church, there's one thing you're going to get

here. It is a heavy diet of the Word.

It's going to happen because at the end of the day, I don't

control you. But God sure wants to lead you

and He definitely wants us to be in unity and brotherly love.

And that comes from knowing the Word and then wants us to be

very influential in our world. And that only comes from knowing

the will of the Father. Let me say it this way, God is

not a case law judge. He does not judge you based upon

your case. He has met the condition so that

everyone can take a pathway and it's all righteous, no

favoritism, none. He's paid the price and it's up

to you to follow his way. So you don't have a special case

with him. You have a corrected course by

him should you willfully want to follow.

Because he is just for all, for all.

Every tongue, every tribe, every nation, none or at a

disadvantage, and all are without excuse.

Thank you so much for listening to this message.

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