Sermon
Naturally First
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message Podcast
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from St. Augustine, FL.
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Now enjoy this message. But this goes along with our
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message today because naturally, first look at First Corinthians
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chapter 15, verse 46. I love today.
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I love today so much. I love today #1 because no one's
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going to complain. It's cold.
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No one's going to be upset about the lights in your eyes.
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I see many people not having to wear sunglasses right now.
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And I'm not saying those are complaining people.
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Lights are an issue. I get that.
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I'm just saying we don't have that today.
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My point is, is it's not necessary.
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Again, it's not necessary that I have to put the scriptures up.
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It's not necessary. We have to put the word.
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It'd be nice to actually learn them so you can sing them
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yourself. I mean, we've turned into a
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karaoke generation. I can't even do worship unless I
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see the words. Come on, are you hearing me
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'cause it's not actually in your spirit.
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Amen. How you going to be able to take
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notes today? I mean, you should be.
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There's so much content. But in First Corinthians 1546 it
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says this. However, the spiritual is not
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first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
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Wow, I'm going to say that again.
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However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the
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spiritual. We have become a society that
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has disconnected from the natural and we think we're
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spiritual. Hallelujah.
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Now the context of this particular verse is about a
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resurrection. OK, but it is talking about a
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natural body and it says and let.
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If you want a spiritual body you're going to have to 1st sow
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a natural one because it says the first Adam was earthly, the
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last Adam was of heavenly and you're not going to get over
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into heavenly until you deal with the natural because God
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made man natural First Genesis chapter one verse 26 and 27
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says. Then God said let us make man in
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our image according to our likeness and let them rule Over
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the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the
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cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps
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on the earth. God created man in his own
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image, in the image of God he created them male and female, He
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created them well man came from the spirit but before man came
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to earth. Look what happens in Genesis 27,
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says Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground.
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What did he do? Formed man from the dust of the
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ground. What did He do?
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Formed man from something natural.
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Then once the natural was first, he breathed into that natural
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dust suit and he became the breath of life and the man
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became a living soul. Natural was first, then
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spiritual, because he had to create a natural body to carry
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the Spirit. Jesus Christ has to come in the
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form of a man, so he must put him in a natural suit.
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And that natural suit was woven in the womb.
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Now, before we were ever in our mother's womb, God knew us.
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He knew about us before the foundations of the world.
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So in the realm of the Spirit we exist, but we do not manifest
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till the natural shows up First, the natural will cause the
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spiritual to get into play. Are you hearing me?
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So with that being said, notice natural spiritual example.
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Now let me just say this, you can naturally do things and it
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not be spiritual to a degree. Now that I just said that it
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came out of my mouth. We may adjust that everything
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you're doing natural is impacting something spiritual.
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Let's say it that way. Everything you're doing natural
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is impacting a spiritual realm. Adam is made in the image of
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God, both male and female. Him, Adam and Eve.
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They were in the nature of God, like God, the DNA of God.
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They thought like God responded like God had dominion, like God
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on the earth. They were supposed to function
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this way. Or you hear what I'm saying.
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Within the confines of the natural realm by which they were
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to have dominion over which means.
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Then when they exercise the spiritual dominion they have
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through the natural, then it would manifest on the planet.
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It would be when it was released from the natural into the
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spirit. Are you hearing me?
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So then we have Adam and Eve in the garden with God.
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Perfect world, no sin. It's amazing this supernatural
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man contained within a natural body doing natural things.
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Look what it says in Genesis chapter 2, starting in verse 15
Genesis 2 chapter mention
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said. Then the Lord God took the man,
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put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
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That is a natural assignment. But that natural assignment will
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produce spiritual things, he then says.
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Then the Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of
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the garden you may eat what freely, but from the tree of the
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knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, For on the day
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that you eat from it you will surely die.
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So here's Adam, who was naturally, when naturally
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hungry, going to any tree other than the tree of life, and when
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they pick from it, eat from it, it still contains life.
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Their environment stays life. Their personal life stays life.
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Their connection with God stays life.
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God can walk in the cool of the day and spend time with them,
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and there's no hindrance, No Fear, no issue.
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It's oneness. It's amazing.
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Every time they pick from a tree, whatever tree, wherever
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except one, Life goes on in the garden, dominion goes on,
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spiritual authority goes on, power goes on.
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Their dominion goes on. Because every time they function
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naturally in the will of God, it releases the spiritual.
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But. A serpent comes in.
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Are you hearing me? And he says to the woman, has
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God not said that you can't eat from any tree, so that isn't it
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just one? And he says to her.
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You're not going to die. Now notice he needs to hear the
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word of the king, because in order to hear the word of the
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King, I must know truth in order to start a lie.
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But notice saying a lie doesn't change the spiritual just
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because he introduced a concept foreign to Adam's thinking.
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It doesn't change. The atmosphere doesn't change.
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It 'cause spiritual life is still in operation.
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But we understand if they're eating fruit it must mean they
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were hungry, 'cause you all know we're really not eating if we're
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not hungry. Now I understand sometimes we
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just eat because we're bored. But they didn't have a boredom
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problem. I'm at the house.
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I'm bored. Let me go grab something because
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I you know I need to. Right.
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That's a different issue we're going to talk about a little bit
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later today. OK, that wasn't their reason.
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They're like, oh, I'm bored. Let me go grab something.
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No, they were natural beings. They were supernatural spirits
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in a natural body. Are you hearing me?
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So as a result of that, they then hear, but it doesn't change
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the spirit realm. What changes the realm of the
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spirit? Natural first, the minute Eve
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takes the fruit, eats it according to Genesis 3/8 right
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and then or six hands it to her husband.
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Then he eats a natural bite. Oh y'all, don't want to hear
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this. Fine.
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A natural bite had a spiritual implication.
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So much so, it's still in the earth today.
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A natural bite has a spiritual implication.
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And now it's in the earth today. Still there, still there, still
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here, still in the earth. Because one man's transgression.
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What was his transgression? He disobeyed God.
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We could even say it this way. He disobeyed God in his heart
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before he ever ate it, but it wasn't till he actually ate it
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that the environment. No Eve eats and his eyes aren't
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different, nor hers. Are you hearing me?
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He's already considering eating because he's watching her.
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If he wasn't considering, he'd say don't eat that.
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You know what the king said? Who you talking to?
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My wife right now. You better get up out of here,
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'cause that's against the king. That's against our Kingdom.
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That is not what the king says. This is his.
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We don't touch this, we don't eat, We do not eat this.
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And if he would have stayed with that thought, but because it
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resonated in the inside, for him to but it did not come to the
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earth until he ate. And the.
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Minute. He sunk his teeth in, began to
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chew. I'm going to go as far as, say,
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a swallow, because it's pretty specific.
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You got to eat it. Then everything changed because
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of a natural action. We have disregarded our natural
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so much that we act like the spirits release beyond without
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our natural involvement. We have made the things of God
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so really demonic in response instead of how God intended.
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Well, it's naturally it's first because what I am a natural
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being natural. I'm in a natural realm, and the
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only way the spirit can be released is through my natural
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responses to the Spirit. I don't speak in tongues without
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my own tongue. And you'll never speak in
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tongues if you don't let your natural tongue voice what it's
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hearing on the inside. You're not born again until
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you're doing something in the natural.
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The natural brings for the IT is a layer of communication.
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OK, let me preface that because again, what if a person can't
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speak? However they communicate is
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their confession, and it is still an open confession that
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identifies their heart, what they are intending to do by
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faith. And that natural first opens up
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the Spirit. So a verse that we tend to
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overlook most of the time is First Thessalonians 523.
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It says Now may the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely.
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Entirely. Say entirely, say entirely.
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Look at your neighbor, say entirely, OK, not partially.
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If we don't watch out, we want a partial change.
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We just want to be changed in our spirit.
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But he wants an entire entirely be sanctified.
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Sanctification is to have an entire impact on you.
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Come on, y'all doing all right. Yeah, glory to God, he goes on
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and says this, he says. And may your spirit and soul and
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body be what preserve, complete without blame at the coming of
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Our Lord. How in the world can you keep
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your body complete when it's mortal?
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How is it that your body can be complete when you know you're
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getting a glorified 1? Now when it comes to the new
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birth, we know that our our spirit was dead without Christ.
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And when we confess Jesus as Lord, we became a new creature
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in Christ. The old passed away.
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Behold, all things become new in our Spirit.
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Inside what you can't see, the real you became in Christ a
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spirit alive to God. Who wants to hear God?
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Who wants to obey God? Because that's all it really it
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knows to do. It wants to stay connected to
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life, and it can hear the Holy Spirit that comes and lives on
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the inside of you. It bears witness with you that
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you are a child of God and it wants to release this on the
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inside. The problem is, there's two
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areas of you that are natural and that you've lived in those
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natural places. Because when Adam fell from
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dominion, not heaven, he resorted to living naturally
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only in the context that he could not go to the spirit of
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God, but he had to ignite. He's now limited to his Spirit's
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dead cut off from God, and he's limited to live only by what he
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sees and by what he sees. He'll respond that way based
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upon feeling, emotions, and the new nature that he is, which
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then his natural responses now usher in the spirit of death.
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This is why people cheat on their wives.
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This is why people fornicate. This is why people are in
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pornography. This is why people, you know,
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don't do right with their money. This is why people why 'cause
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they're connected to a dead spirit and they always model it
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in their natural that's why they gossip.
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That's why they lie. Nobody told you to lie, but you
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open your mouth. There is no such thing as gossip
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if you're not talking. But they're talking, so they're
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natural releases the spirit realm they're connected to.
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If Adam had never eaten the fruit, then we only would have
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been connected to the spirit of life, and our natural would have
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only released the life of the spirit.
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But now that we are actually raised in a society where we've
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all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, then we now
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are so connected to death. We speak of it, we feel from it,
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we respond by it. We we've lived by it.
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But God, being rich in his mercy, He died for us, gave us a
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new spirit to reconnect us with the spirit realm of the Kingdom.
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But in order for us to pull that realm in, we've got to get our
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natural side together 'cause our natural side is what short
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circuits are spiritual. This is why Paul said I can't
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even come and speak to you as spiritual people.
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Why 'cause your naturals in the way you're carnal.
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You're not allowing the spirit in you to be released through
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your natural you're arguing, you're fighting, you're
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comparing. You got jealousy that's not from
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your spirit. That's a part of your Nat.
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You got to repent, change your thinking.
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You got to renew your mind to the Kingdom.
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Guess who's in control of mind renewal?
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You are God does not open your head up, snatch your brain out,
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pop you another one in, and you're instantly thinking,
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right. You have to renew your mind.
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How do you do it? Through your body.
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How do you renew it? Through your body.
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You have to sit and look at the scripture.
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You have to then meditate on. You have to do.
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You have to put your body into subjection to so that your soul
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realm can get into a place to be renewed.
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But if your body controls you, then you'll never renew your
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mind. So This is why he says in First
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Thessalonians 523 that if you're going to have a spiritual
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impact, you're going to have to have your sanctification
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happening in your soul and body realm, 'cause I have seen the
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body has become the greatest prison of most people, 'cause
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they cannot control their body. They're stuck in prison.
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Now look what it says in Romans chapter 8.
Romans 8 chapter mention
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Hallelujah. I mean, do we want to change
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Saint Johns County and Saint Augustine?
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We want to continue to increase. Guess what?
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We're going to do some natural things like naturally build a
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bigger building, right? I mean, this is a test in
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putting your flesh down right now, and you're doing a great
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job. We can do this.
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I I've come to find out. This is why I've kept myself in
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certain places and I make myself do certain things.
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Why? Because I want to stay
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conditioned in certain environments.
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I've said this before, I would hate to get to a nation and
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there is an unreached people group on a mountain, and I
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couldn't get there because I wasn't physically conditioned
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enough to go, because I let myself go so bad that God
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couldn't even use me. I'm carrying a message that I
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can't even carry. Now look what it says in Romans
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812 through 14. It says.
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So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to
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live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the
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flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are
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putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live for all
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who are being what led by the Spirit of God.
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These are the sons of God. How do we know a person's LED.
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It shows up in their natural, their natural releases, the
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spirit in the earth. How do I know you're being
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spirit LED? Because it shows up in your
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natural it manifests, it comes to pass.
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It shows up based upon you obeying the word of the Lord.
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It is a pudding to death, the flesh or the deeds of the body.
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Meaning things stuck to a natural world only and
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responding through what we see only that's actually connected
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to a spirit realm called death. Are you hearing me?
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You're close, but I'm keeping my jacket on, Galatians 220 says
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this. I've been crucified with Christ.
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It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life
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that I live now. Are you hearing me?
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I live now in the flesh. I live how?
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By faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for
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me. So there's this thing that God
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wants us as Saints to do, and that is to live entirely
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sanctified in every part of our being.
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As we've said, we are spirit, we have a soul and we live in a
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body. Notice we're keeping them all.
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Now when I say keep them, we'll still keep a body to just be
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glorified. Our mind is being renewed daily.
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But you understand when you get out of this confines of sin,
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when that's stripped off and you get in your glorified body, your
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mind's really going to open up. I mean, we are not even open up
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our minds, not even functioning at the capacity that the first
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Adam functioned when he was first here.
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But again, listen, we won't even be limited to natural only,
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because we'll actually have a glorified body, something that
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Adam himself didn't even have. Are you hearing me?
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So with that being said, we still, because of the power of
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the Spirit, is able now to affect the other two parts of
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our being so that they stay in alignment with God's Word that
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now my mind doesn't control me, nor the abuses put upon it.
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My body doesn't control me, nor based upon the abuses put upon
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it or the self indulgences that have been put upon it.
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And if we want to release the spirit in everything we're
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doing, we need to entirely get it all together.
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Because I'm telling you, you are a walking billboard, You are a
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walking billboard. And people will determine the
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Kingdom first by looking at you naturally.
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If you naturally get aggravated, everything, meaning you
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demonstrate frustration, people be like, well, 'cause.
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It's different when you get around a person who exercises
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great patience, long-suffering, who knows how to hold their
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tongue. And you only hold your tongue
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because you make your body shut up, because your mind's like,
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say it, say it, say it, say it, say it, then hit him, hit him
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first, then say it. Right.
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David Mackey would say the old man would, because he knew what
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the old man was. Let's talk about that.
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Romans chapter 6, starting in verse four.
Romans 6 chapter mention
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He says. Therefore we have been buried
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with him through baptism and to death, so that as Christ was
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raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too
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might walk in newness of life. We might, we might what?
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Walk now to be born again. You are new born of God.
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Your spirit man cannot get any more like God.
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We just trying to release what you already are.
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But you're not going to release who you are until you get the
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other two areas under control, and now you're strong enough to
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do it. Not only you yourself in the
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spirit, your spirit man, but the Holy Spirit living in you will
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strengthen you to do it as well. Hallelujah.
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Are you hearing me? But we might walk in newness of
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life if we get the other two under control.
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For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His
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death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
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resurrection, Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with
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Him in order that our what body of sin might be done away with,
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so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.
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Notice that something doesn't say our spirit of sin, but our
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body of sin. The reason we were so proficient
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and sinning is because our natural dictated our decisions
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all the time. If it felt good, we did it.
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It was our natural responses alone because and it always
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produced the death. But that body of sin is dead,
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meaning you don't dictate how I respond.
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Now you're not. It's no longer left alone to
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your decision making. I have a spirit in me that's
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alive to God, and I got the Holy Spirit in me too.
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So you're now subject to something different.
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You don't control me anymore. You don't own me anymore, you
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don't tell me what. In fact, I'll decide if you go
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over there or not. And if you go over there, how
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you respond, I'll decide the real side.
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And then when I decide how to do it, it will release the Spirit
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in that situation, he said. For he who has died is free from
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sin, so you have no excuse. Well, you know I can't.
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Yes, you can. I can't help it.
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I just know. Yeah, you can.
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You're choosing to let the other two aspects of your existence to
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be unsanctified. You're choosing to live unruly.
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You're choosing to live against the nature you are.
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You're choosing to not release the spirit of life through your
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natural Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
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also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from
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the dead is never to die again. Death no longer is master over
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him, for the death he died he died to sin.
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He died to sin, not for sin to sin.
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Now he died so that our sin would not be accredited to our
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account. But notice that he died two sin
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once and for all. Why is that?
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Because no matter what sin comes after his death, he's paid that.
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Why? He's already taken care of that
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and sin no longer has a right over you should you become a
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child of God and let naturally first release the Spirit.
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He goes on and says this. He died to sin once and for all,
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but the life he lives he lives to God.
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Even so verse 11, consider yourself dead to sin.
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You have to consider this. Paul is writing.
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Paul knows righteousness. Paul is the master at writing
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the subject of righteousness. That you are the righteousness
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of God in Christ. Yet he tells the righteousness
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of God in Christ to consider to not sin.
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And that's what he's saying. Just 'cause you've been made
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righteous doesn't mean you can't go back to living in sin.
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Doesn't say that yes, you've been made righteous.
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Now let the righteousness manifest.
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But in order for it to manifest, you're going to have to get
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control of the other two realms, those natural realms.
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And once you subject those natural realms to what's going
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on in the spirit, then those natural realms will release the
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spirit. Come on, you're hearing me, he
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said. Even so, consider yourself to be
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dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ.
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I mean, the 1st 10 verses of this chapter is saying that
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you're dead to sin, dead to sin. If you've made Jesus the Lord of
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your life, you're dead to sin because of grace.
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Shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?
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May it never be? How can you live to sin when
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you're dead? If you're dead with Christ, then
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you're dead as well. He says all this, and then he
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said, now consider it. Which means you're going to have
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to change your thinking on how you respond to things of death
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or the spiritual side of death. And the only way you're going to
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do that is by getting control of the other two realms.
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Verse 12. Therefore, do not let sin.
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Do not let it. This is the person that's made
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righteous. Now that you've been made
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righteous, it says do not let sin reign in your mortal body so
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that you obey its lust. I mean you're born again,
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sanctified, redeemed, set apart unto God in the spirit.
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And he said don't let sin reign in your body.
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So if sin's reigning in your body, is it God's fault, whose
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fault is it? Because we're not controlling
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our natural we're not subjecting it entirely through
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sanctification. We're letting it tell us how
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we're going to do verse 13. And do not go on presenting the
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members of your body descend as an instrument of
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unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those alive
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from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
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to God. Wow, why is this important?
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You know what the spiritual life is embedded in the ability for
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you to control your natural realm, and most of us abandoned
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the natural realm, acting like we're spiritual.
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However, your spiritual side is not going to manifest until you
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control your natural, because it's through your natural that
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your true spiritual realm shows which ones having the rule or
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reign. Are you hearing me?
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Are you hearing what I'm saying? So unless you control that by
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your spirit and make those two areas, the soul and the body,
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submitted to your spirit, then it will still rule you even
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though you have a reigning spirit on the inside.
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Wow, she's beautiful. Wow.
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Had to come see the baby. I hadn't seen her yet.
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No cameras. I can do what I want to do
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today. So I am going to give you some
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practical thought processes. And these practical or more than
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practical, they are spiritually charged because the minute you
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can evaluate yourself in the realm of natural things, you're
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going to know where you are on spiritual things.
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I had some people come over from other churches, quite a few,
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actually. Quite a few other churches that
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have come over and have asked my staff, is it required to be in
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great shape to work? For the ministry, yeah.
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They required. Well, it's not a requirement,
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but I have learned that when I subject myself to certain, in
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essence there are certain things I do in to my body to tell it
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you don't own me. The Bible says this physical
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exercise profits what's it? Comparing it to spiritual
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things. But it's not never saying forget
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your physical exercise, it's a waste of your time.
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Doesn't say that. It's saying if I was comparing
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the effect of natural exercise to spiritual exercise, it's not
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even comparable. But I would tell you this, it's
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really on a matter of intensity. What do I mean?
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I mean, if you go, Wayne, where you at?
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Wayne, come here, Wayne. Go to the front.
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OK, go all the way to the front, Wayne, so everybody can see you.
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Wayne, how much weight have you lost?
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67 lbs. Now you think that you know this
-
is? Don't get offended, just go
-
ahead and drop your fence now. Wayne had some serious health
-
challenges. In the form of cancer that he
-
was dealing with the staff, we were praying with him, taking
-
time with him. You know what?
-
And God did some very supernatural things in his life.
-
But some things that happen in your body is a byproduct of just
-
your body, OK. And so we said, Wayne, you need
-
to exercise. So Pastor Marcy put him on his
-
exercise regiment. You know what it was?
-
This is it. This is where?
-
Where he lost 67 pounds. Are you ready for this?
-
Every day after work, he walked around the mall.
-
How many times? Seven times inside, four times
-
outside. Four times outside he did.
-
What's that about a mile? One mile after work.
-
That's all he did. Then he made some adjustments in
-
what he was ingesting. Obviously I'm saying £67 left
-
not because he went. And where people get it in their
-
mind that if you go work out, you got to look like Pastor
-
Mike. That is not the case.
-
Not everybody has to look like Pastor Mike.
-
Not everybody aspires to look like Pastor Mike.
-
Not everybody has to be. You just need to be your fit
-
'cause you have a fit and you can answer the question right
-
now. Are you at your fit?
-
Thank you. You can sit down, Wayne.
-
Thank you, Wayne. 'S now Wayne.
-
Wayne, as you're going, Were there days you did not want to
-
walk where there are multiple days?
-
Did you walk? Anyway, You know what Wayne did
-
that day? You don't control me, I control
-
you. Now, why is this so powerful?
-
Because if you can't control what you can see, then I'm
-
telling you right now, you have a hard time controlling what you
-
can't see. Coach Hurley, we condition those
-
boys naturally because it gives them longevity towards
-
championships. I'm fixing to read that thing.
-
That means they submit to Y'all's program.
-
Do they feel like it? Probably never.
-
Any day, right? I mean, we lied to the drill
-
Sergeant because the drill Sergeant made us lie.
-
He said come on in the cadence, make it hurt.
-
Drill Sergeant, make it hurt. Right.
-
We would say that we didn't really mean that we didn't want
-
it to hurt, you know, But we said it, you know, Are we done?
-
Give us another one, drill Sergeant.
-
Give us a nut like we want. We're dead.
-
I mean, we're already a muscle failure, man.
-
Our whole body's shaking like, please, can I just go get a
-
drink of water? Right.
-
But they were conditioning us for a fight bigger than us.
-
Because what happens? What you don't understand is
-
when you attack the body, you begin to actually strengthen the
-
mind. People think that mind renewal
-
or the sole realm is solely in the area of knowledge.
-
Meaning the minute you read the word, you know it, you're going
-
to do it. Most people do not do what they
-
know in their mind because they can't keep their body in
-
submission, can't do it, even though they know in their mind
-
not to respond that way because they've not conditioned, they've
-
not taken dominion in their natural realm.
-
Says no, you're not going to make me do that today.
-
And I'm going to beat you today. I'm going to beat you today.
-
You're going to do what I say. I can tell you every time.
-
I mean probably at least 25. Only 25% of the time has it been
-
like, I want to go. I love to go.
-
It was amazing. The rest was I heard don't go
-
you're tired you shouldn't. But every time, every time
-
except for 5% do I leave saying thank God I went.
-
The other 5% is not thank it. It is a thank God.
-
But it's more like this stinks cause I've been out.
-
Gosh, and that hurt. I wish I wouldn't have quit.
-
I wish I would have stayed consistent.
-
This is the thing about you becoming a spiritual force is
-
that you need to learn how to dominate your natural
-
consistently. Ministries are not popped up
-
overnight. They are consistent.
-
They pound, they go, they do the intangible, they do the
-
fundamentals. Championships are won because we
-
do the fundamentals, we do the fundamentals.
-
If you're failing in the fundamentals, we go back to it
-
because we're not trying to get you on the top ten highlight of
-
ESPN. We're just trying to get you to
-
do the fundamentals. Because if you'll stay
-
consistent and if you'll consistently tell your body no,
-
you're going to get up and pray. Today.
-
How many of you are like, I just need to get up earlier and pray,
-
and then you don't do it. Why?
-
Because your body says, And what do we do?
-
We justify. Well next time, well next time,
-
well next time. What I'm saying is the Bible's
-
very clear. If you want a spiritual impact,
-
you're going to have to dominate the natural first.
-
You're going to have to do that period.
-
Now at the end of the day, if everybody was in shape, your
-
shape, we're still not going to look the same.
-
We're all going to look different.
-
We're all going to be different. And it depends on what you're
-
training for. And we're all in a training.
-
Look what it says here in First Corinthians Chapter 9.
1 Corinthians 9 chapter mention
-
I'm going to go 24 through 27 and I'm going to read out the
-
passion it says. Isn't it obvious that all
-
runners on the racetrack keep? Long running to win, but only
-
one received the victor's prize. Yet each one of you must run the
-
race to be victorious. You're going to have to run.
-
You're not victorious just because you're born again.
-
A true athlete, which implies a false 1A faker, A wannabe, a
-
true athlete will be disciplined in every aspect, practicing
-
constant self-control in order to win a Laurel reef that
-
quickly Withers. But we run our race to win a
-
victor's crown that will last forever.
-
I mean, true athletes, they can't just go to the gym.
-
They got to watch what they're eating, their diet, their their
-
sleep, their who they hang out with.
-
I mean, how many athletes have gotten in trouble 'cause they
-
hung out with those who were boozing, running to the club.
-
Now they're paying child supporting the people they don't
-
even one night, you know, or they got in trouble, you know,
-
there was that one Gator that was a tight end.
-
I'm trying to think of his name. I've seen right now that, God,
-
what was his name? Hernandez.
-
I mean, what talent but couldn't control his mind got caught up
-
in killing somebody. So God is saying to us as
-
believers, you want to be spiritual?
-
Well then let me see your whole life, Get it together, 'cause
-
what we can't control, that we can see.
-
I'm telling you, you're going to have a hard time in the spirit
-
pop. Jesus literally says to Tim, to
-
Thomas Thomas you needed to see me right in order to believe
-
said bless those who without seeing can believe.
-
We have taken that to a context that we act like we don't need
-
anything naturally occurring yet.
-
But how do you see God now? The word manifests in someone
-
cause the word always becomes visible and the reality is I
-
believe what I hear, then I have to act on it.
-
Which means now I'm going to have to deal with the natural to
-
release what inside is being spoken.
-
I got to realize, man, I'm training.
-
There's a race to win. There's people's lives to touch,
-
to impact, to see overcome. People that can.
-
This is why people that already have a natural discipline when
-
they really make Jesus Lord can excel so well.
-
Why? Because they've they've already
-
conditioned themselves to be able to overcome.
-
I cannot tell you it was the will of God for me to go on the
-
army. I cannot tell you that.
-
I mean, really it was kind of out of frustration, you know,
-
angry at my mom. And it really, it was grief.
-
My dad died and I had gone to school for that year extremely
-
unfocused, you know, And you know, it was just a a process.
-
Long story short, I'm like, I'm, I'm done.
-
I'm going to go, I'll just join the army.
-
And my brother-in-law convinced me to go into the National Guard
-
because if I don't like it, it's only a weekend drill.
-
If I love it, I can go in full time.
-
I had options, right? So I took the advice, you know,
-
just to run. But I will tell you this, the
-
discipline was amazing for me because by by nature, prior to
-
that, in what I did, I was pretty gifted with not much
-
effort, especially in my mind in academics.
-
I was not the smartest person, but I was not dumb.
-
I would have been the smartest person if I would have actually
-
exercised it more in the realm of the natural.
-
I was already learning that because I did athletics and I
-
had won some championships and it required me to condition.
-
I was already learning how to keep my body down, especially
-
when I had to make weight for weightlifting and I was
-
overweight. All right, because I was too
-
fat. I was 125 and I need to be 1/23
-
and 1/4. So I was just this fat guy that
-
had to lose a pound and a half. See, fat's relative OK is what
-
I'm saying. I need to get down into the 123
-
LB class and 1:25 HE. Would say you're too fat.
-
They would. You're too heavy.
-
That's saying in a nice way, you're too fat.
-
To compete at this level, we have to go up a class.
-
OK, so I know what it means to run in trash bags, to sit on a
-
toilet, to release weight. I know what that means, Why I
-
had to condition myself. I had to put my body down.
-
But in order to be competitive, I actually had to put my body
-
down to be able to do weight, you know, And Coach James was
-
not a nice guy. He was not especially on the leg
-
press, because when we push the leg press with the little
-
plates, I'm talking about the universal type, he would say.
-
Now you got to touch it like an egg could be in there.
-
It's got to tap real easy and then come back up.
-
If I put an egg in there and you break it, then you know it don't
-
count. So you're like, OK, we're going
-
to do 10 reps, ready? Go 123334555.
-
I mean, I should have been done by now, but the clank, he makes
-
me keep doing it and your legs are shaking.
-
I mean, how do you get it quiet when your legs are shaking,
-
going down, right? But you submit yourself to the
-
natural to produce something else.
-
And the body of Christ has become very lethargic.
-
So I put myself in multiple environments, like what we're
-
doing to you today. It'll condition you.
-
Because right now Patricia and Eloise, who was 7-8 months
-
pregnant at the time we went to Nicaragua, it was three times
-
hotter than this right now. I mean, it was fiery furnace
-
stuff. What in hell yet?
-
But it was hotter. It was 7 times hotter than hot.
-
Are you hearing me? I mean, the women did not
-
perspire. They were sweating profusely,
-
Profusely. There was sweat everywhere.
-
They were sweating like crazy because it was hot.
-
But you know what? You conditioned yourself and
-
you're like, I remember when I did my first mission trip
-
overseas and I had to come back. It was horrible.
-
It wiped me out. It was the most horrible thing
-
in jet lag. I've never had jet lag since
-
because I said I'm going to eat different, I'm going to train
-
different, I am not going to come back and be wiped out here.
-
I am trying to make a spiritual impact, but I can't make it.
-
I can't come back home and jump right into it because my body's
-
all jacked up and we want to be spiritual at the expense of our
-
natural. I got.
-
I got ministers that are six years older than me fixing to be
-
60, and they're talking about transition in their ministry.
-
Why? Because they can't.
-
They don't have the physical stamina to keep going.
-
Why 'cause they disregarded the rest.
-
You know what? It showed up in their services.
-
Why 'cause they wouldn't take natural They wouldn't take
-
risks. To grow.
-
That means I'm going to have to naturally have more money.
-
I'm going to naturally have to build, I'm going to naturally
-
have to go through this process. I'm going to naturally have to
-
do that. But in order for the spirit to
-
show up in all those processes, I've got to start the process of
-
the natural first. I don't need to see the money to
-
have the money, but I got to start the process naturally.
-
Because if we stay understanding the goal that we've heard in the
-
Spirit and then begin to speak it out into the natural, the
-
naturals first and the Spirit will follow.
-
And we'll turn back and say, wow, look what God has done.
-
But he didn't do it because we weren't naturally connected to
-
the Spirit to release it into this realm.
-
Nor did we not submit to what was necessary when I look out
-
into this auditorium today. And I see.
-
All who showed up knowing there was no air condition.
-
I'm pretty excited. For those who didn't know it,
-
Surprise. Right.
-
Surprise, surprise. If we want to make a spiritual
-
impact in government, Anila just gave me a statistic of the
-
government officials that are representing us in Washington
-
compared to the population of the United States, they make up
-
.01%. Yep.
-
Which tells us the greatest influence is the local
-
government. And if the church really wanted
-
to make a difference in their community, then they would
-
naturally get in that sector of society to bring a spiritual
-
effect. What do we do?
-
Let's pray for our government. Now there's a natural side of
-
that 'cause it takes you naturally, praying spiritually,
-
But yet we think our government's going to change if
-
we never take a seat. Yet God needs you to naturally
-
run so that then your natural everyday sitting on the seat can
-
make a change. Because you can say you would
-
have wisdom to refute the stupidity and the the the things
-
that are in error are from the enemy, the dark sayings that are
-
only natural. As James says, they've become
-
demonic and evil. You would have a voice why
-
'cause you actually naturally ran.
-
And I'm telling you, in the next five years I should have a
-
county commissioner attending this church faithfully.
-
Seriously, aggravate church should have that kind of
-
influence. So someone needs to answer the
-
call in our school boards if we're going to touch the sectors
-
of society, we got to go there. Now the reason why family counts
-
is they're they're begging us to do another class this year.
-
But it create, it requires natural bodies to come and
-
submit to the weeks, to condition themselves, to put
-
down their TV and their own wants and desires, to be able to
-
invest in someone else, to change their lives.
-
We're not going to avoid this just by being spiritual.
-
In fact, we're not even spiritual unless we're naturally
-
motivated. We have to be able to say here I
-
am, Lord, send me. God did not do things in the
-
earth without a natural man or woman.
-
And but when they went naturally underneath his authority and
-
leadership, then he supernaturally showed up.
-
In fact, if you look at Mozi like Lord, here we are.
-
There's water. They're coming and going to try
-
to kill us. What do you want me to do?
-
He's like, why are you talking to me?
-
I've already anointed you. I gave you the staff.
-
You've been performing miracles with the thing lifted up, man.
-
So he naturally first and then spiritually, the water obeyed
-
and it parted, dried the ground and they walked through it.
-
Oh, we're believing. God, finance, There's NASA.
-
You got to naturally bring the money.
-
Minister and spirits are out there doing their part, but you
-
got to naturally go work. It says they had to go.
-
He's giving you the power to get wealth, not give it to you while
-
you lay on your couch and eat bonbons.
-
Man don't work. A man don't eat.
-
I don't care how much you praying in the spirit.
-
You've got to get your hands out there and do something.
-
Get connected. Get out there and in a pool, in
-
a harvest. So don't ever reduce yourself to
-
this. Oh, I'm spiritual and you have
-
no natural connection to what's going on.
-
Every one of us have a naturally first part to play, to be
-
spiritual, and the first place starts with us just getting
-
ourselves together every January.
-
Many of you have said this year I am, and the only reason you
-
didn't, it's because you let that part dominate you.
-
Hey, I'll be the first to raise my hand.
-
I've had many things in that I wanted to accomplish and the
-
only reason I didn't is because I didn't because the only thing
-
stopping it. Is me.
-
We all go here. The Bible says the Spirit and
-
the flesh battle daily. And when we say the spirit and
-
the flesh, we think the flesh of just thoughts and things.
-
No, it's you. I mean it's fleshly to let your
-
body tell you not to get up. Now do you think the Holy Ghost
-
can tell you you should rest and he will?
-
No, he will. I mean your body can only take
-
so much. Period.
-
So there's no issue with rest. In fact the ground God says we
-
going we going to cultivate this thing for 6th year like nothing
-
but the 7th year don't let it rest so that the the nutrients
-
the things and I got you back in the sixth year we going to have
-
so much that it carry through the 7th year, 8th year before
-
you start pulling the harvest off the 9th.
-
Year. Right.
-
So there will be a, but we're not even listening to the rest
-
of the Lord. All we're doing is listen to our
-
body every day. And let me tell you, it talks
-
louder when you eat a lot of sugar.
-
I will say that. Huh.
-
I mean, I've gone to some restaurants, man, Have you gone
-
there? You eat all the bread and the
-
cupcakes and all that stuff and then you leave and then a few
-
hours later you're like, I mean, you want to take a nap.
-
So what do you do? We go get a cup of coffee.
-
I mean, it's no different than a person taking drugs that are
-
uppers and then they're doing Downers.
-
Oh, y'all don't want to hear that.
-
That's fine. I'm not dumb enough.
-
I'm not so dumb that I don't realize what food has a part in
-
the play. Now, I can't tell you what to
-
eat. That's the Bible says that don't
-
tell people what they should and shouldn't eat.
-
You got to eat what's right for you.
-
But what I am saying is you know when things affect you and how
-
it affects you and you can say, you know what?
-
I'm not doing that anymore. Or you know what?
-
If I'm going to allow myself to have that, I'm not going to
-
allow myself to have it at the expense that it derails all that
-
I'm doing. And I'm telling you if you can't
-
do it in the natural. You're not doing it in the
-
spirit. It's not going to happen.
-
So you need to say what are. Some things I can naturally do
-
to Take Me Out of my comfort zone.
-
And I choose to do them so that I let my body and my mind know.
-
You take orders from the inside and then you'll condition that.
-
Do you know what in this room, right there in this room today
-
and I'm not being maybe maybe one today in this room
-
currently, but I do believe that they could as well all of you
-
could run a marathon. I'm not saying fast.
-
Maybe I'm not even saying in one day.
-
What I am saying is you could condition yourself because there
-
there's there are people that are 8090, a hundred years old
-
running and some of them didn't start till later.
-
They were not lifelong runners. You know what they decided to
-
do? I'm going to.
-
And then they began to submit to it.
-
You can write a book if you submit to it.
-
You can write a song if you submit to it.
-
You could read 15 other books this year.
-
If you submit to it, you tell yourself what to do.
-
Well, you know life. Life doesn't control you.
-
You control life. It should be your goal to find
-
something that's a little uncomfortable.
-
And say I'm going to do this because I'm telling you, when
-
you do it, it will impact your spiritual resolve.
-
That way, when the attack comes, you'll be like, well, no, I'm
-
not going to accept that word. And you'll actually do the fight
-
of faith. You'll stay consistent.
-
You'll stay with the word. You'll stay with your
-
confession. You won't pull down.
-
Why? Because you'll have something on
-
the on the outside that you've already proven I dominate.
-
So when he says prop exercise profits little, he's saying if
-
you would just figure out how little that is, it will make
-
huge spiritual implications. Because an hour workout, it
-
takes you an hour to get that results.
-
You can get stuff done in the spirit in extremely less time.
-
What takes decades to build in muscle you can do in moments in
-
the spirit in comparison. But both require the exercise.
-
Both do. Are you hearing me?
-
Let's pray, Father. We love you and we honor you.
-
Think we. We're at our limit?
-
We should be today, Father. They're natural things we have
-
to do to build this church. Revival's not coming just
-
because we say it is. Revival comes because we
-
naturally come together in prayer.
-
Revival comes to get comes because we naturally partner and
-
get in different sectors of society and release the Kingdom
-
of God. There are things that were done
-
through the natural that affected the Spirit.
-
For moves of God to come, the rain to come by the Spirit.
-
There are things that you have on a timetable and you're
-
wanting them to move, and they're always exceedingly,
-
abundantly beyond what we did in the natural.
-
But our natural released the overflow of the Spirit because
-
it's not first the Spirit, then the natural.
-
It's the natural first, then the Spirit.
-
That's why sometimes the service Lord, you speak to their hearts
-
and you say go down and worship me up front.
-
And when they yield to that response by naturally moving and
-
coming down, it has a spiritual effect in their life.
-
But if they sit in their seat, they do not get the spiritual
-
effect. That comes with the obedience of
-
moving in the natural, moving their natural in connection with
-
that word. If you tell us to dance, if you
-
tell us to shout, if you tell us to be quiet and we have to
-
control the natural, and when we respond to it correctly, it
-
increases the spirit, it releases it.
-
Just like when there's the call to salvation for someone to be
-
born again, it's not because Jesus hadn't already paid the
-
price. It's not because the blood
-
hasn't already been shed. It's not because from his
-
perspective, he's already forgiven you.
-
It's you naturally responding to his message, then believing in
-
your heart and confessing with your natural mouth.
-
Jesus Christ is Lord, and then you're born of God.
-
It's the same way when you get baptized in the Holy Ghost, you
-
hear from heaven. You know you want the power you
-
come to receive it, and sometimes it's administered
-
through the natural laying on of hands, just like healing can be
-
administered a spiritual power. That shows up.
-
Through a natural touch, for Jesus naturally took stripes
-
upon his back. For a spiritual healing plan, he
-
took on a natural beating. So we could have physical.
-
Healing to our natural body that came by the Spirit, the natural
-
first, then the Spirit Father. May we not disregard the power
-
that we possess when we subject our natural to what we're
-
hearing in our inner man and when we act on it in obedience.
-
That natural response to the Spirit in US will release a
-
spiritual power is how your Kingdom shows up in the earth.
-
Your Kingdom comes through our natural expression of what we've
-
heard. So, Father, whatever your head
-
bowed in, every eye closed, no one's looking around.
-
If you're here today and you've never made Jesus the Lord of
-
your life, you cannot be born again unless you respond.
-
Thank you so much for listening to this message.
-
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-
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