Should You Go To Counseling?

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

All right. We are in week 10 of our series

Weeds in My Garden, where we are discovering together the truth

about mental health and applying the scriptures, the word of God

to it so that we're not facing this alone.

And we are facing it. Mental health crisis is a

reality in our nation, across the globe for obvious reasons.

We live in a broken system, a broken society led by broken

people. And there's a lot of brokenness.

And so we feel that it's affecting us.

It changes our mentality and the way that we live, and we're

addressing it head on in this series.

Proverbs 99 says instruct the wise and they will be wiser

still. Teach the righteous and then

we'll add to the learning. So let's add to our learning.

Today somebody say yes and Amen. Today what we're talking about

is counseling. Everyone say counseling.

For so long counseling has been hush, hush.

If you're going to counseling, you don't tell anybody.

And if you do tell people, you're like, I'm going to

counseling. And if you're mad at somebody,

you say you need to go to counseling, right?

Anybody ever said that? Don't raise your hand, right?

And often when we think about counseling, at least back in the

day, since counseling is a pariah, we think of the people

that go to counseling as like the broken ones, the weird ones,

the messed up ones. I just say, if you need to go to

the doctor because of a broken arm, what's wrong with going to

the doctor because of a broken heart?

Right. Amen.

So I would say in the last 10 to 15 years, give or take, this is

a general sense. These aren't statistics that

more and more people are going to counseling and more and more

people are open about counseling.

In fact, it may be the same number of people going to

counseling as before, but now people are more readily willing

to talk about it. It's not a bad thing that you

had to go to counseling. In fact, you looked at as wise.

Wow. You had to strengthen the

courage and the wisdom to go seek a counselor.

Like, wow, look at you. So all that being said, I need

to ask the question, which may seem contrary to what I've just

said. Should I go to counseling?

And you may be looking at me and saying, yes, Tim, you need.

Yeah, but I'm not asking it about myself.

I'm asking it about. You should you go to.

Counseling, if even asking the question gives you shivers

because you think, well, absolutely, it's biblical that

we get counsel, so why would you even question it?

Or if you're a licensed mental health counselor in the room and

you're worried I'm going to dry up your bank account by

answering this question, then I just say hang on, let's reserve

judgment till the end, OK? OK.

Yeah, most of the questions I ask are never rhetorical, just

so you know, just so we have an agreement.

Let's pray, Father, we're in your house to hear from you.

This is a service about you, not about us.

We don't have a man centered. Theology.

We have a Jesus. Centered word, centered

theology. So be prominent, Let every

person's opinion die and let your truth live in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen.

So I talked at length with two licensed mental health

counselors who are a part of our body and not just like kind of

on the flies on the wall, hear some and not some.

These are heavily involved people in our church, people of

high respect, high regard. And I called them up and said,

listen, I want to pick your brain about this question that

we're trying to answer. Should I go to counseling?

And I listened to both of them and the vibe I got from both of

them in general, when we're thinking about typical Western

American counseling, typical, which means there are

exceptions, but typically most Western and American counseling

helps people, provides people with coping mechanisms more than

it provides people with actual healing.

Typically. One of them said when your soul

is wounded, counseling is like a tourniquet as opposed to the

surgery. I'm going to help you because

you're bleeding badly and we're going to deal with the bleeding,

but I'm not going to do the surgery that fixes while you're

bleeding. Another one said that it's like

demon band aids, but not demon eviction and demon eradication.

Whoa, let's say you have a problem with biting your nails.

Traditional counseling would say something like this.

Let's modify that behavior. Let's stop you biting your nails

when what is actually necessary is answering the question, why

are you biting your nails? Let's address the root of that.

So the question I'm really asking today is not should I or

should I not go to counseling? It is this does counseling

traditional American Western counseling.

Actually heal the root. Or does it not?

Heal the root. And so we asked this question.

The problem is found in Ephesians chapter 6, which don't

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

turn there. If you want to turn somewhere in

your Bible and get ready, it's Matthew chapter 12 is where you

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

need to be. So open your Bibles to Matthew

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. If you need a Bible, raise your

hand and our ushers will get their workout for the morning

and bring one to you. And you can keep that Bible.

It's our gift to you. Glad you have one.

We're coming. Keep those hands up.

They're coming up in the the mezzanine if you need one.

But if he's just chapter 6, Jesus is speaking through Paul

because Jesus is the word. And Paul writes down these

words, essentially expressing to us why we have any problem in

the world. He says you do not wrestle right

up here, Jim. We need two more.

Way up here, ushers. That he's literally running, so

he went to get more Bibles. Don't you love it when you run

out of Well, I don't love it when you run out of Bibles.

But when people anyways, you know what I'm saying?

Maybe you don't because neither do I Here comes more Bibles 1

here, one in the middle coming to you.

I'm just going to wait because Bibles matter Talk amongst

yourselves. One more in the middle.

Oh, here it's coming. It's like somebody passed down

the hot dog. All right, Ephesians chapter 6,

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

a very important scripture that frames a lot of what we're

experiencing in our life. Many of you heard it many times,

but let's pretend that we've never heard it.

And Jesus speaking through Paul says, listen, you're not

wrestling, you're not warring against, you're not having

problems with what's corporeal, the body, flesh and blood, what

is seen. You're wrestling against

something else. And then Paul listed for us, the

raps, the rulers, the authorities, the powers, the

spiritual forces of darkness, of wickedness.

These are what we are warring against, and therefore this is

the root of our mental health struggles.

At its very root, you're not wrestling against what's seen,

but that which is unseen. You follow me.

What's demonic? Ephesians chapter 4 says it this

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

way. Do not give the devil a

foothold. So there is permission here.

I can give the devil a foothold or I can say not so fast and not

give him a foothold. Not give the demonic, the

rulers, the authorities, the powers of spiritual forces, a

place in my life. 2 words that are going to matter today.

The first one is foothold. Everyone say foothold.

This is one of those English words that lacks the actual

meaning. It just sounds like a ledge.

Like OK, I have a grass now in your life.

But what it really means is opportunity or license authority

if you will, over a territory. Opportunity, license authority

over a territory. The Bible teaches us to guard

our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus these territories and what

we do as we got walk out to the front, instead of guarding our

heart and mind, we take down the no trespassing sign, we unlock

the door, we turn off the alarm and say demon rules,

authorities, powers first forces, darkness come on in.

Whether we do that intentionally or unintentionally.

And a lot of times we don't even do it to ourselves if we're

being honest candid, which is different than honesty.

If we're being candid. Sometimes somebody else has

trampled into our territory with words, with physical abuse, with

threats, you name it. And as they enter, they tear

down the no trespassing sign with them, and they give access

by wounding you to the enemy. Because you know what a wound

is. We have the skin, right?

And then we get wounded, and now there's access to what's inside

because of the wound on what is our barrier, our skin.

And so it is with our hearts, our souls, our minds.

There's a wound that happens either by our own sin, by the

sin of somebody else, a trauma, or just by the happenstance of

the world. You're driving an I4 and

suddenly you feel wounded and you want to use the Lord's name

in vain. And the demons are like, let's

get them right. This is how mental health

happens. It can happen from an event you

do somebody else's doing the world, and then there's a wound

and opening a foothold and opportunity.

And the enemy says, here I am, I'm coming in.

And then our bodies start responding to these traumas,

these triggers until your brain, if you were here last week, Dr.

W Beavis, neurologically, we can rewire our brains for good, but

in mental health crisis for bad, and it becomes this new pathway

that's cut into our mind. And then our body reacts to

that. So our hormones are like, we got

to do what we got to do to protect the body.

Here comes some cortisol, here comes some adrenaline.

All these things start mixing together.

Here goes the suppression of dopamine and serotonin, which

bring peace to the body. All these things start

happening. So frequently.

That this becomes our new normal and we, including myself, say

things like this is just the way it is, this is just who I am.

I'm stuck and I can't go back. That's the lie of the enemy.

That's the lie of the enemy. There you go.

That one was free. Now listen to where we're

heading today. Might be obvious by what I say,

but the general sense I got from both of the counselors I talked

to is that undoing the work of the enemy can only be done by

the work of the enemy defeater. So am I saying to stop going to

counseling? Is not counseling the healing

that we're looking for? Yes or no?

What's the answer, Ingram? I would say the answer to the

question of whether or not you should go to counseling is not

yes or no. I would say the answer to the

question should I go to counseling is it depends.

Look at your neighbor, Say it depends.

Now say on what? I'm glad you asked Matthew

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, Jesus speaking his own words.

He gives us the answer in verse 43.

He paints a word picture that is so wonderful, so clear, so easy

to understand that we don't need a seminary degree to figure out

what Jesus is saying here. When an impure demonic rules,

authorities, powers, spiritual forces, When an impure spirit

comes out of a person, it goes looking for a vacation.

It goes through every places seeking rest, but it does not

find it. Then it says I'll return to the

house that I left, and when it arrives it finds a house

unoccupied. Everyone say empty, swept clean

and put an order, but empty. Then it goes this demon and

takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself.

You thought I was bad. Here comes my friends, and they

go in and they live there in that house, and the final

condition of that person is worse than the first condition.

This is how it will be. And when you hear Jesus?

Say Will. Be it is a promise, This is how

it will be with this wicked generation.

This is how it is in our generation, in pure spirits, in

us. This is mental health crisis.

This is the wound opened, the opportunity, the license, the

authority to take over territory, giving the devil a

foothold. This is happening, Jesus says,

and he speaks of it matter of factly, like it's not

superstition, it's not a myth. It's almost like this demonic

activity is a no brainer to Jesus.

It's very clear. Here's the devil, He's found a

host who's given opportunity, whether by their own hand or by

the hand of somebody else, and now he's set up camp.

Jesus is saying like this happens all the time, which

should bring you a little bit of comfort and hope, meaning you're

not alone. There is something happening.

And now I have some hope because I understand biblically what is

happening. And there must also be some

biblical recompense, a remedy, some sort of help the demon.

He goes and takes his little vacation.

Then he's like, I'm going home. I'm going to return to the house

where I was. Charles Spurgeon says it this

way. The foul fiend, this demon calls

the man my house. And he goes on to say the demons

audacity is amazing. He did not build that house.

He did not buy that house. He has no right.

To that house. And yet here he is.

Yet here he is. Jesus, if you look up in verse

38, it's important to note the people he's addressing, who's

the audience? That always matters when you're

reading, right? Who, who's being spoken to?

In this case, it says the Pharisees and the teachers of

the law, meaning the religious elite, those in charge, those

who have should have it all right?

And Jesus is looking at them and saying, OK, you have your

temple, your house, and it is in order.

Everything's working like it should.

People are exchanging money, buying their animals, and people

bring the animals to the altar, sacrifice the priests, the

Levites sacrifice the animals. They put the blood where the

blood supposed to be. They're taking care of the

Candelabra, keeping the lights lit.

They're keeping the the bread, the showbread inside the holy

place, and they got the oil of anointing and the incense is

burning up to the Lord. And then there's the Ark of the

Covenant behind that. They're taking care of all of

it. It's beautiful.

It's in order. It's swept clean, and Jesus says

it's unoccupied because they are rejecting the Messiah.

That's what's happening here. They're like, give us a sign

that you're the Messiah. Shall it prove it to?

Us, and this is what Jesus is saying, an unoccupied house and

the enemy has come to live here, and now he's throwing a party

here. A demon can only inhabit someone

if he finds it empty, that is, without the indwelling.

Of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit.

If the house, if the person, if the host is put in order and

swept clean, the demon doesn't care if it's unoccupied.

I said a lot of if, then let me clean that up.

If you go to counseling and they help clean something up, which

often is what happened. And listen, I'll say it this

way. I got a degree in counseling

from the university. Of Florida.

Which is now, according to the Wall Street Journal, if you

never mind whatever you think about the Wall Street Journal,

they say the University of Florida is the number one

university, public or private in the entire nation.

And I'm only saying that to say there should be some credibility

then to a degree from that institution.

And I have this degree and I've been to counseling, right?

And I've researched with a couple of counselors over and

over in to prepare for today, and we get to this conclusion

that what counseling does is clean the house and put it in

order, but it leaves it devastatingly, dangerously

empty. One of the people I spoke to,

the counselor said counseling can be like healing somebody

with a cold but leaving their immune system a wreck.

So we've taken care of this problem, usually with coping

mechanisms, but we haven't healed and given you strength

and stability. So you probably are going to

fall again. And the next time you fall

you'll feel worse than the first because now you've tried to fix

it and it didn't fix. So now not only do I have a

problem, I have the second problem of an unfixable problem,

You picking up what I'm putting down.

Without the Holy Spirit, we end up with seven demons worse than

the first. So we need a new view on

counseling that involves. Greatly the work of the Holy

Spirit. Turns me a few.

Books over to the book. Of John and chapter 14, John

John 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14, Jesus again speaking.

He's speaking to his disciples, people who believe in him, and

he says, if you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the

Father, and the Father will give you another advocate.

Jesus is the first advocate, and there's another advocate coming

to help you and to be with you forever.

Jesus is going to leave so that the Holy Spirit can come and be

with the people forever. Verse 17 the Spirit of truth,

the world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor

knows him. But you know him for he lives

with you and note will be and when you see will be in Jesus

says that it means it's a promise.

Some of you are listening. It's a promise he will be in

you, this advocate. Praise be to God.

This word is the second word. We talked about foothold and now

here's. This word advocate, which has.

So much more meaning than just this word.

The Greek word underneath this is paraclesos.

We use the word or we don't use the word.

It's English, but nobody uses it.

It's Paraclete. When's the last time you're in

conversation and threw out the word paraclete?

I was talking to my Paraclete the other day.

Yeah. Para means from close beside,

and kaleo means able to make the call properly.

Then it's an advocate. Who makes the right judgment

speaks the right wisdom, because they are close enough to you and

to the situation to understand it.

This advocate, I want you to see the amplified version.

And if you never read the amplified version of the Bible,

it's basically reading the Bible with a thesaurus.

So you get a lot of synonyms to a word.

And we need synonyms for the word advocate.

And the Amplified Bible gives it to us.

John 1416. And I will ask the Father, and

He will give you another helper, comforter, advocate,

intercessor, counselor, strengthener.

He will give you a standby. To be with you forever, the

Paraclete Para close beside let's.

Consider this for a moment. Because it's going to help.

You in your mental health struggles, what it means when it

says close? Beside Jesus says he.

Lives with you and will be in you.

He's prophesying, promising the Spirit, and if you go on to read

the Bible a few weeks later. Jesus dies, buries resurrected

he. Ascends into heaven, and then

the disciples are gathered together in this one room in the

upper room, and on Pentecost, this holy day in the Jewish

tradition. The Spirit of God is.

Poured out of the church, and the Spirit comes down and dances

like flames on it, and dwells. The believers to be with.

Them. Forever in them.

That close. Fall of 2024, Christine and I

and Owen drove Audrey up to Liberty University.

Yep, I got there and was angry. I was mad at Liberty for

stealing my daughter. That's how I felt.

I'm like, I don't like you. I don't care how pretty you are

and your dining hall is the number one dining hall in.

The nation it's they have. Banners in their dining hall,

like like basketball championships.

Their dining hall has a banner number one dining hall in

America, anyway. In the morning.

It was a Wednesday. Owen.

He had driven up to help set up at Gordon.

He I'm sorry. Not a Gordon at liberty.

He drove the rest the way up to Boston to finish his last year

there. So he leaves in the morning.

We're standing in a parking lot and I can't speak when my kids

leave. I I'm weird.

I get for Klimt. I have sunglasses on.

My tears are going. I'm just walking around like

don't talk to me, right? I literally can't speak.

So I'm dealing with the pain of him leaving in the morning and I

know that afternoon I'm getting on a plane and leave my daughter

way up here in Virginia. And I'm like, I can't handle

this. So we're walking around the

campus, went to the bookstore and across the street from the

bookstore. Up in a little hill there.

Is like the I don't know if it's the original Chapel of Liberty,

but it's this old white church classic.

I'm like, let's go in there. So we.

Go in there together and we traipsing in and we just look

around and like look at all this and I noticed that the windows

are all flowers, stained glass. Windows like there's the Lily,

there's the Tulip. I don't can't remember what they

were, but over here in the front left corner right into the

altar. Are roses.

And Audrey's middle name. Is Rose.

I'm like. So we gather together up near

this stained glass window. We all put our hands on.

Like the thing, Whatever. We put our hands on the window

and we prayed and the tears flowed and like this is.

Where you're going to be and we bless you and care for her.

And I'm just crying and whatever, judge me later and I

said. This to her.

I said Audrey. Anytime you feel sad, lost, or

lonely. Anytime it feels scary.

Come stand right here in front of this window and remember Mom

and Dad, we had our hands. Right here.

And you can come and be like. Right.

Here and put your hand. Here again and I thought to

myself, I'm a smart dad. Until yesterday.

I was at a ceremony with one of our elders who's battling cancer

and he was blessing his children in case he's not healed.

Of his body he's healed spiritually, he's.

On fire. For the Lord His.

Spirit is so strong. And so he had a blessing

ceremony with his kids, and he laid his hands on his kids as

he's blessing them. And I thought to myself the same

thought I had with Audrey, like, hey, Austin and Adeline, you can

always remember that your dad's hand was right.

Here blessing you. And your dad's hand was right.

Here blessing you. Remember that?

And then I thought back to Audrey.

And I thought. What a silly.

Thing to tell her she has to come to this window and touch

where our hands have touched because I've held her hand I've

placed my hand on. Her head, I've placed my hand on

her tummy when she was not well and we prayed for her.

Like all she has to do is look at her hands and daddy's with

her. And I'm having this revelation

yesterday, watching this blessing ceremony.

And then I'm like. Y'all, I'm a little slow you

probably. Picked it up long ago.

I'm like. This is exactly the Holy Spirit.

I don't have to go. Anywhere to be with him because

he is already with me. Daddy's with me.

I just have to look at my. I don't know where to look

inside. He's here.

He's the Paraclete close beside the Bible says he's.

Closer than your own breath. I don't know if you're bored or

emotional. I can't tell.

Not only is that and by the way, when he indwells you, when he

fills. You up.

This is the message to the enemy.

The enemy's a. Taker.

He'll go wherever there's opportunity and when the Holy

Spirit fills you the sign. Goes up.

Occupied. No vacancy, No trespassing.

Because I'm indwelled with the Spirit of God.

Amen. Not only is he close beside, but

he's also this kaleo, the one who makes the call.

In the church, we call it an intercessor.

An intercessor is one who makes an.

Entreaty a plea on behalf of another.

I want to show. You 2 pieces of scripture.

That put this together. They're right in the same

chapter, Romans chapter 8. Don't turn there because I'm

Romans 8 · chapter mention

going quick, but it says verse 23.

Not only so, but we ourselves, the church.

This means you and I included to this day, we ourselves who have

the first fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait

eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our

bodies. In these bodies we're going to

have pains, mental health, physical health, relationship

stuff going on and it causes us to groan.

We have pain. Anyone ever groaned in this

world like you know what I'm talking about.

Yep, go down to verse 26. In the same way the Spirit helps

us in our weakness. Somebody say glory.

We do not know what we ought to pray for.

I don't know if you've ever been there.

God, I don't know what to pray anymore.

I'm all out of prayers. I don't know what to ask for.

I feel so stuck, so lost, so broken.

I don't have words. When we don't know what to pray

for, it says the Spirit himself intercedes for us.

How? Through wordless groans.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,

because the Spirit intercedes. For God's people.

In accordance with the will of God, meaning that God knows our

hearts better than we know our hearts.

So watch this when we groan over the pain of the world and we're

like the Spirit hears our groans, knows what that means,

and then intercedes to the Father with his own groans.

I don't know what they sound like.

It may be speaking in tongues, it may be our prayer language,

may be prophetic, and maybe, I don't know, you're groaning.

I need a vacation and the Spears of.

God, give him your abiding spirit.

Right. Or I need a doughnut, which is

really code for. I want escapism.

I need something to make me feel better.

So fill in the blank. It could be doughnut for one

person. It could be tequila, meth, porn,

groan, the spirit of God's like, let me intercede and give you

what you really need. God, can we give them what

satisfies groaning and groaning, They go together.

He intercedes because he's close enough to you to make the right

call. I know what you need and he

calls on heaven for it. And then when you take these two

together, the Paraclete, he's close beside and he's making the

call. It helps us understand why his

name is also then comforter. If there's one who is close to

you all the time and makes the right call, interceding for you

all the time, doesn't that bring you comfort?

This is not rhetorical. If there's one that is close to

you all the time, never leaving your side, and he's able to make

the right call, interceding for you to to God himself, does that

not bring you comfort? Yes, yes, and yes.

One of the counselors I talked to told me his own personal

story. This is a man in our church.

He's got kids of his own now. He's grown.

But I want you to try to imagine him as 7, just a little boy,

kind of defenseless, innocent, wonderfully, rambunctiously

pure. And he said in my home, my dad

was terrifying. I had the kind of dad you wanted

to escape. From and so he would his escape

look like this? And maybe it sounds familiar to

you, but I know this man. I'm picturing him as a little

boy. Just as fragile little kid his

escape. Was to run into his room.

Close the door. And then climb under his.

Bed and hide there shaking. Terrified Dad's going to come

in, say something, do something. And so he's hiding and he said

the most amazing thing would happen to me repeatedly.

With no one else. Under the bed, someone would hug

me. Warm, peaceful, assuring,

comforting, and. He said.

I didn't realize till I got. Older and found Jesus.

That my hugger. Was the Holy Spirit that whole

time Grasp me? Pulling me in.

Making me feel safe. Even though I wasn't.

Because of my. Father, I'm wondering today who

in here and who online is hiding under the bed.

And you need a hug from the Holy Spirit.

The message in a nutshell is this.

When you face mental trials, whether it's a tough situation

or an ongoing mental health struggle, this is the counsel

from the Word of God. Start with the Holy Spirit.

And then go from there. We often, and I have done this

myself, start with the, go from there and then eventually.

Hopefully get to the Holy Spirit.

But why not just start with the indwelling?

Of the Holy Spirit. And the.

Power of the Holy Spirit. And the peace of the Holy

Spirit, listen to me. You may also need a physical

person, a counselor, a human being to sit across.

From you because. Often another person can tell

you what you can't tell yourself can.

Help you see what you. Cannot see, can put in the words

what you can't put in the words, and help reframe things.

And not only that, they will give you tips and tricks that

they're different. They're better than tips and

tricks that will help. You.

To come off the ledge, you may be redlining and you can't even

function and they're going to. Help you to mitigate those.

Things, but I'll say this, should you go to counseling?

It depends. It depends on whether or not the

counselor is Holy Spirit filled and willing to lead the session

by the. Work of the Holy Spirit.

A counselor cannot. Heal you but a holy?

Spirit filled counselor who will guide you to the Holy Spirit

himself will give. You life healing that is

lasting, believe it. It's why here at Illuminate

Church we have something we call biblical encouragers.

They're not counselors. We're not legally even allowed

to call them counselors. They are highly trained men and

women. Full of the Spirit of God.

That our Dream Team volunteers as well as staff who will meet

with you knee to knee and guide you to.

The work of the Holy Spirit that's.

All they do, God, what's the Holy Spirit saying now?

What's the Holy Spirit showing you?

What does the Holy Spirit? Mean by that, what's Holy Spirit

doing? What's that's constantly leading

you to the? Work of the Holy Spirit.

That is in you and knows the fractures more than you know it

yourself and is interceding. For you as I've.

Told you before here, during my worst days of anxiety, I did go

to counseling. I needed help.

I was redlining, I was passing out due to anxiety.

I could barely function due to anxiety.

And my counselor was a Christian, but the counseling

wasn't. Does that make sense?

He's a Christian counselor, but the counseling wasn't Christian.

It was just normal Western Christian, normal Western

counseling. And So what we did was gave me

coping mechanisms, taught me how to breathe backwards.

When you breathe in, suck your belly, and when you breathe out,

push your belly out. What this does is it forces air

to your head and you're passing out because you got no oxygen up

there. You got no blood up there.

So this and not only that, it's going to take your mind off

whatever's triggering you as you're practicing and saying it

and it does. And not only that, I've told you

this before. It's kind of funny, but it's

true. He said, hey, just pretend like

the fear is attached to a balloon and let it float away.

And you know what I said? What if there's birds up there

and they pop the balloon? The fear is coming back.

I know it's coming back. He said, all right, we'll put it

on a boat and let it float away. I'm like, what if it's a lazy

river and it's just going to keep coming back?

Yeah, you've heard me say these things before.

If not, this is the first time. Whatever what my counselor

wanted me to do, and I've told you this.

Before as well is. Pretend like there was no lion

in the room seeking to devour me.

I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.

And what I went to counseling with hopes of is that the

counselor and I would kill the lion.

Instead we just pretended like the lion wasn't there.

But in my journey of healing. Yielded to the Holy Spirit, He

shut. The mouth and destroyed that

filthy lion. Now listen different lines, try

to come back occasionally and I have the choice to give him

opportunity to let him have territory or say none shall

pass. The Holy Spirit lives here.

He's abiding in me and I with him and he's put up the no

trespassing sign because this belongs to him.

He is the authority here and that and only that defeats the

lion in Jesus name. Let's put it this way, more than

counseling, we all need the counselor.

So here's how we're going to close today.

I want you to decide right now, whether you're home watching

online or here in the room, that you're going to obey the Holy

Spirit no matter what. In these next few moments,

you're not obeying me. Don't listen to me.

Listen to the. Holy Spirit.

And I need you to decide before I say anything else.

Like, Lord, if you speak, I'm doing all right.

So just make that decision in your mind before I say anything

else. I'm doing it.

Whatever you say, Lord, I'm in. I'm going to be bold.

I'm going to be courageous. If today you are here.

And you're empty. You're unoccupied.

There's a vacant, deep hole in your heart, and you want that

space filled. Then in just a moment, I'm going

to count to 3 and you're going to come forward.

Can I correct myself right in front of you all?

I want to do something else first.

Is that OK? What are you going to say?

No, just occurring to me that if you don't.

Have Jesus as your Savior. You have no access to the Holy

Spirit to fill you. And so First things first would

be for everyone who has not. Yet put their faith and trust in

Jesus to do that. Recognizing what the book of

Romans says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your

heart that. Jesus is Lord, you will be

saved. Saved.

From the penalty of sin and saved to the.

Everlasting love of the Father. And it happens by confession and

by faith. And so let's bow our heads and

pray this prayer together. Everyone in the room, everyone

online say these words. After me saying, Father, come a

lot of Father in the name of Jesus.

I recognize that I am a Sinner in need of a Savior.

And today I confess and I believe that Jesus is Lord, that

Jesus is my Savior. I receive you into my heart and

I ask you to live your life through mine.

All the days of my. Life if you've.

Prayed that prayer for the first time.

You've just become a believer in Jesus Christ, a part of the

forever family of faith, and we're going to celebrate that

with you. If that's you, then on the count

of three, if you prayed that prayer for the first time, raise

your hand nice and high and hold it there because I got something

I got to give you. On the count of three, if you

prayed that for the first time, 123, nice and high.

Come on, anyone in the house today, Go ahead, Don't be

ashamed. Put it out there.

Let's go. You two, way back in the back,

we see you. Any others?

Say up in the mezzanine, we're coming to you.

I see you. Hallelujah.

Any others? I don't have the best eyesight.

Is your hand up? You're.

No, you're just kind of dancing. Woo.

Praise the Lord. Second part, Did we miss anybody

back there? OK, people are pointing.

Got a point? Second part, If today you were

here and you are empty, and you desire the filling of the holy.

Spirit. I'm going to count to 3 and I

want you to join me down here. Let.

Me say it this way. If you're here today and you're

hiding under the bed and you need a hug.

From the Holy Spirit you already decided.

You were going to obey God before I asked, so I'm going to

count the three. And if that's you, you're going

to come forward and the church is going to.

Cheer you because this. Is not a bad thing.

You're not awkward or weird or broken.

You're human and you're responding.

To the Holy Spirit, what could be?

Better, if that's you, on the count of three.

Join me here 1. 23. Come on down.

We're waiting for you. Come on down from the mezzanine.

We'll wait. Somebody'd up there.

Maybe you're already coming. Come on.

We're waiting for you. We'll wait for you.

Here they come. They're coming.

Running. There's people coming down the

stairs. I don't know if they're leaving

or coming here, so I don't want. To.

Don't ever like leaving anybody behind and they're back.

Hey, would y'all turn this way? Can y'all come this way a

little? Bit.

Come on, this way. Come on around.

Glad you came. We're waiting for you.

Hey, I want you to know you've done a good thing.

Polly's standing for them. I think we should all stand for

them, right? So good, you did a good.

Thing you made a wise. Choice.

You obeyed the Spirit of God, which is.

Never wrong and I was. Praying for you this week.

And here's what I felt like the Lord put on my heart.

To share with you very. Simple words that'll make very

simple sense. He wants to return.

To you everything. That was stolen.

All of it. There's nothing that He won't

return to you. Think of what the Spirit of God

gives. He gives Lovejoy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and

self-control. If your love has been stolen,

he's giving it back. If your joy has been stolen,

your peace, your innocence, your faith.

If these have been stolen provisions been stolen from you,

the Lord is returning it. To you.

And he's doing it through. The work of Holy Spirit.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is given to any believer.

The moment you receive Jesus, you are given the gift of Holy

Spirit. The question is.

Have you put the holy? Spirit to work.

The Greek word lambado means to employ, to put, to use what's

already been given. And we say this is what it means

to receive the Holy Spirit, to lambano, to put to work what's

already been given. So the Holy Spirit has been

given to you by your confession of faith in Jesus.

Now we're going to ask for the infilling of that Spirit, which

means that all of you, every thought, every crevice, every

dry place. Will be filled up with spirit.

And put to work in your life. So if you bow your heads, close

your eyes all together, Lord in. Jesus name we speak.

The infilling of your spirit over every man and woman up here

today, that you would touch them from the top of their heads to

the bottom of their feet, from the depths of their soul.

There's no place that you are not touching, you are not

filling. And you're bringing with it all

the abundance of your Kingdom, your love and your joy and your

peace. You're restoring faith.

You're binding up the broken hearted.

You're setting the captives free and.

Father, because of the Holy Spirit, we say.

Devil, get your hands off of the sons and daughters, they belong

to the Spirit of God and not to the filthy liar in Jesus name,

Amen, Amen, Amen. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to 4:07

588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot Church.

Have a great week.